History News Network

innovation

Originally published 06/23/2015
Smithsonian to open 1st wing on innovation, business history

A wide range of innovations from Eli Whitney’s cotton gin and Thomas Edison’s light bulb to the early Google servers and Apple’s iPhone have been brought together to tell a broad story of American business history for the first time at the Smithsonian Institution.

Originally published 10/14/2013
60 Minutes profiles Vietnam Schindlers List hero

John Riordan reunites with his friend Tuan from Saigon. Tuan explains why he didn't leave with Riordan and what happened to him after he stayed.

Originally published 10/13/2013
NYT hosts conversation about new movie, 12 Years a Slave

Amid comic book epics, bromantic comedies and sequels of sequels, films about America’s tortured racial history have recently emerged as a surprisingly lucrative Hollywood staple.

Originally published 10/12/2013
False claim: Debt ceiling never used for leverage in history

In 1973, when Richard Nixon was president, Democrats in the Senate sought to attach a campaign finance reform bill to the debt ceiling.

Originally published 03/25/2013
John J. Geoghegan: A Brief History of Book Vending Machines

John J. Geoghegan reports on unusual inventions that fail in the marketplace despite their innovative nature. His non-fiction book, Operation Storm: Japan's Top Secret Sumbarines and Its Plan to Change the Course of World Whttp://hnn.us/node/add/hnnar II, about underwater aircraft carriers designed to attack New York City and Washington, DC, as a follow up to Pearl Harbor was published in March 2013. You can visit him at http://www.operationstormbook.com/ There are lots of reasons why a white elephant technology doesn't catch on. Sometimes the technology is ahead of its time. In other cases, no amount of time can make a misguided technology useful or attractive.Then there's vending machines that sell books.