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15 Fascinating History Sites That Make the Past Come Alive

These interactive educational websites and tools prove that the re-telling of historical events can be entertaining and fun.

It is difficult to make sense of time, isn't it? Then let's reflect on how impossible it is to do the same with 5000 years of recorded human history. Right now, even the birth of the internet seems ages ago. The Sumerians captured history in their own way, and we in the digital age are doing it with these fascinating history websites that combine interactivity with storytelling to bring our past alive.

If you didn't like history in school, you can make up for those poor grades by enjoying the fifteen sites below. As they prove – history was never dull. We just thought it to be so.

1.  Histography

Sounds, animations, and visuals. What else do you need to "relive" history? Histography gives you all three on an interactive timeline that spans across 14 billion years of history , from the Big Bang to 2015. The historical information comes from Wikipedia, and the timeline self-updates as new events are recorded. Move the mouse across the timeline to speed through history. Focus on one historical event to know more about it. Or, use the categories on the left bar to dive into related events.

The timeline helps you understand the cascading impact of related events on the world.

2.  Histagrams

There shouldn't be anything remarkable about a site that combines Instagram and history. Except, there is. A lot of the photos will sum up the value of the site for you. Historical events and photos are presented with tongue-in-cheek comments and they just might make you relive the moments that shaped our world. It's almost as if event makers from the past shared the snaps themselves.

3.  A History of The World

The BBC takes a different approach to explore history. A History of the World in 100 Objects is their tagline, and it works. The objects are spread across the ages from 2 billion years ago to 2010. Many more museums across the UK have added more objects from their own collections. Go from a Woolly Mammoth's tooth to a Honda Civic from 1979.

Also, listen to the excellent series of podcasts that retell humanity's history through the objects we have made.

The page is archived and is no longer updated, but the information stored still makes it a fun history website to visit.

4. HistoryExtra

If the last website is an educational archive, then this one keeps up with the times past and present. HistoryExtra is the official website for BBC History Magazine and BBC History Revealed.

The site also produces a history podcast, but the most interesting section could be the Historical Q&A section that takes a question and gets to the bottom of it with historical fact-finding.

For instance, learn if Churchill and Hitler ever meet? And if you think you know all the answers, then try out the Historical Quizzes section.

5. Museo Gallileo

Enter the virtual portals of The Museo Galileo in Florence, Italy. The virtual museum has more than 1,000 objects on permanent exhibition. In-depth descriptions of all objects, a detailed glossary index, and biographies of inventors and artists form the backbone of the exhibits. The site is made up of several multimedia exhibits displayed on their own individual sites.

But the best part is the virtual exhibit of more complex objects like Galileo's telescope and his compass or Leonardo da Vinci's works. The exhibits are organized by themes and reconstruct the historical contexts behind the inventions.

The recommended route is to go through the virtual museum room by room as you would do in the real world.

Show me "everything." This simple concept explains the function of this educational site from the UK . The creators know that browsing through all museum galleries and archives can take a few lifetimes. The site is a shortcut through the historical bylanes and the dusty corners with games, videos, stories, and homework help. Sort through the collections by topic or tag and find out where they are being displayed.

Show Me is an educational tool for teachers and students, but there's a lot to discover for any adult interested in history. The short descriptions can spark more searches, or you can directly visit the exhibitions if they are nearby for a family day out.

7. History Explorer

The Smithsonian is the largest museum complex in the world. It may be the cradle of American history but many of the exhibits can be connected to the rest of the world. The History Explorer is an interactive exhibit curated from the 3 million items in the Museum's collections.

It is meant for use by K-12 teachers and students, afterschool program providers, families, and anyone interested in lifelong learning. Use the filtering tools on the right side of the screen to narrow your results by grade, resource type, or historical era.

Learn about American history by investigating the artifacts and the stories behind them. You can take a virtual look at the Gunboat Philadelphia, a warship sunk in Lake Champlain in 1776. Or direct an interactive movie of your own with images from an online image database.

8. Mission US

Mission US is an interactive exploration of US history for middle and high school classrooms. The four interactive games are designed to immerse the players in rich, historical settings. You have to make everyday choices to understand how ordinary people experienced the past. One of the objectives of the site is to help relive the past and develop historical empathy.

For example: In the "City of Immigrants," you learn how to survive in New York's Lower East Side as Lena, a young Jewish immigrant from Russia. Lena works long hours in a factory for little money in order to bring her parents to America. She gets caught up in the growing labor movement in the early part of the 20 th Century.

9. History of Vaccines

It's as good a time (or bad) as any to educate ourselves on the role vaccines play in public health. This educational resource takes you through the history of immunizations and how they have ensured life for a large section of our population.

The Coronavirus informative articles and the Coronavirus Timeline are timely reads too.

10. A History of The Second World War in 100 Objects

Just like the Show.Me, this Dutch site presents the best collections from 25 war and resistance museum s across the Netherlands. It is a short behind the scenes look at objects of historical value that also became symbols of The Second World War . Click on the thumbnails or use the dropdown index.

One of the more interesting items on display is a foldable motorcycle that was airdropped during the Battle of Arnhem.

11. Royal Constellations

Royal marriages were strategic imperatives and an exercise to preserve their bloodlines. Someone rarely married a commoner. Use this interactive historical website to discover the vast royal family tree as each marriage between kingdoms led to entangled relationships.

The visual doesn't go very far into the past but offers enough connections to help you understand how all ten of today's European hereditary royal leaders can be connected to each other through their ancestors.

12. Smarthistory

Smarthistory wants to make public art accessible to everyone. The site showcases public art history with thousands of free videos and essays written by scholars who are art historians, archaeologists, and museum curators.

Use the search box or the Histories of Art pulldown menu at the top of every page to explore the resources on the site. You can also cite the resources in an essay or paper as the site is an open educational resource.

13. David Rumsey Map Collection

The American map collector is among the well-known map collectors and cartographers in the world. His 63,000-strong historical map collection is perhaps the largest resource available on the web for the public. Here you can find rare maps from the 16th through the 21st Century of America, North America, South America, Europe, Asia, Africa, Pacific, and the world. Many more are being added every day as the total collection is 150,000 strong.

Maps are convenient places to merge the ancient with the modern. Use the LUNA Browser to view multiple maps from different time periods. Create your own collections for studying history, art, genealogy, explorations, and your own family history.

14. Epic History TV

YouTube is the television you wished you had in school back in the day. The Epic History TV channel on YouTube is just one of the places to catch up on the history of our fascinating past.

The trailer above will tell you all about the effort that goes into the production. Start with any video and follow the stories told in one single video or in a series.

15. Stuff You Missed in History Class

Tracy and Holly forgive you for hating history in school. Thanks to their podcasts, you can redeem yourself easily. These history podcasts are easy to listen to and explore in-depth the stories that make up some of the most interesting parts of history.

The site is part of the How Stuff Works network.

Is History Fascinating for You?

Time is a rollercoaster. History gives us a firmer footing. We not only learn about what has shaped our present but also get to understand how certain actions can impact our future. This in turn shapes our worldview. So, don't let history turn you off. Try these history-related apps too and see for yourself that history can be fun.

The most comprehensive and authoritative history site on the Internet.

10 Pivotal Events in the Life of Buffalo Bill

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History Spot - Articles, Facts, & More

History Spot is a history website that covers the basics of history. We provide free history articles, facts, and fun activities! These resources are perfect for students, adults, or anyone else looking to improve their knowledge! At History Spot, also known as HistorySpot, we update our site weekly to always provide the most up-to-date content.

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History Spot launched in January of 2023, featuring over 1o0 activities and 10 articles. We have continued to work on and upgrade our site as much as possible! If you see something that is not working with our website, fill out this form. We check every response to make sure everything is always working! If you have an idea for History Spot, fill out this form , and we will try our best to add your idea. If you want to learn some more about History Spot, check out our about us page!

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What Solar Eclipse-Gazing Has Looked Like for the Past 2 Centuries

Millions of people on Monday will continue the tradition of experiencing and capturing solar eclipses, a pursuit that has spawned a lot of unusual gear.

• Share full article

By Sarah Eckinger

• April 8, 2024

For centuries, people have been clamoring to glimpse solar eclipses. From astronomers with custom-built photographic equipment to groups huddled together with special glasses, this spectacle has captivated the human imagination.

Creating a Permanent Record

In 1860, Warren de la Rue captured what many sources describe as the first photograph of a total solar eclipse . He took it in Rivabellosa, Spain, with an instrument known as the Kew Photoheliograph . This combination of a telescope and camera was specifically built to photograph the sun.

Forty years later, Nevil Maskelyne, a magician and an astronomy enthusiast, filmed a total solar eclipse in North Carolina. The footage was lost, however, and only released in 2019 after it was rediscovered in the Royal Astronomical Society’s archives.

Telescopic Vision

For scientists and astronomers, eclipses provide an opportunity not only to view the moon’s umbra and gaze at the sun’s corona, but also to make observations that further their studies. Many observatories, or friendly neighbors with a telescope, also make their instruments available to the public during eclipses.

Fredrik Hjalmar Johansen, Fridtjof Nansen and Sigurd Scott Hansen observing a solar eclipse while on a polar expedition in 1894 .

Women from Wellesley College in Massachusetts and their professor tested out equipment ahead of their eclipse trip (to “catch old Sol in the act,” as the original New York Times article phrased it) to New London, Conn., in 1922.

A group from Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania traveled to Yerbaniz, Mexico, in 1923, with telescopes and a 65-foot camera to observe the sun’s corona .

Dr. J.J. Nassau, director of the Warner and Swasey Observatory at Case School of Applied Science in Cleveland, prepared to head to Douglas Hill, Maine, to study an eclipse in 1932. An entire freight car was required to transport the institution’s equipment.

Visitors viewed a solar eclipse at an observatory in Berlin in the mid-1930s.

A family set up two telescopes in Bar Harbor, Maine, in 1963. The two children placed stones on the base to help steady them.

An astronomer examined equipment for an eclipse in a desert in Mauritania in June 1973. We credit the hot climate for his choice in outfit.

Indirect Light

If you see people on Monday sprinting to your local park clutching pieces of paper, or with a cardboard box of their head, they are probably planning to reflect or project images of the solar eclipse onto a surface.

Cynthia Goulakos demonstrated a safe way to view a solar eclipse , with two pieces of cardboard to create a reflection of the shadowed sun, in Lowell, Mass., in 1970.

Another popular option is to create a pinhole camera. This woman did so in Central Park in 1963 by using a paper cup with a small hole in the bottom and a twin-lens reflex camera.

Amateur astronomers viewed a partial eclipse, projected from a telescope onto a screen, from atop the Empire State Building in 1967 .

Back in Central Park, in 1970, Irving Schwartz and his wife reflected an eclipse onto a piece of paper by holding binoculars on the edge of a garbage basket.

Children in Denver in 1979 used cardboard viewing boxes and pieces of paper with small pinholes to view projections of a partial eclipse.

A crowd gathered around a basin of water dyed with dark ink, waiting for the reflection of a solar eclipse to appear, in Hanoi, Vietnam, in 1995.

Staring at the Sun (or, How Not to Burn Your Retinas)

Eclipse-gazers have used different methods to protect their eyes throughout the years, some safer than others .

In 1927, women gathered at a window in a building in London to watch a total eclipse through smoked glass. This was popularized in France in the 1700s , but fell out of favor when physicians began writing papers on children whose vision was damaged.

Another trend was to use a strip of exposed photographic film, as seen below in Sydney, Australia, in 1948 and in Turkana, Kenya, in 1963. This method, which was even suggested by The Times in 1979 , has since been declared unsafe.

Solar eclipse glasses are a popular and safe way to view the event ( if you use models compliant with international safety standards ). Over the years there have been various styles, including these large hand-held options found in West Palm Beach, Fla., in 1979.

Parents and children watched a partial eclipse through their eclipse glasses in Tokyo in 1981.

Slimmer, more colorful options were used in Nabusimake, Colombia, in 1998.

In France in 1999.

And in Iran and England in 1999.

And the best way to see the eclipse? With family and friends at a watch party, like this one in Isalo National Park in Madagascar in 2001.

Earthquakes happen all over the US, here's why they're different in the East

A 4.8 magnitude earthquake hit New Jersey and affected nearby states on Friday morning, leaving people on the East Coast and the ground trembling.

The quake was reported around 10:23 a.m. about 5 miles north of Whitehouse Station, New Jersey, according to the United States Geological Survey (USGS). The quake's epicenter was around 45 miles from New York City, causing New Yorkers to feel furniture and floors shake.

People from Norfolk, Virginia to Maine reported feeling the quake. Areas in Connecticut, Pennsylvania and Massachusetts all experienced the ground ripple.

An earthquake on the East Coast does not happen often, unlike on the West Coast where California annually "gets two or three earthquakes large enough to cause moderate damage to structures (magnitude 5.5 and higher)," the California Department of Conservation said.

Why the East Coast should still worry about earthquakes

Earthquakes are less frequent in the eastern part of the U.S. when compared to the West Coast, but they have occurred in every state east of the Mississippi River, according to the USGS. Some quakes were large enough to cause damage in nearly all eastern states, said the government agency that studies the country's landscape, natural resources and natural hazards.

"Since colonial times people in the New York - Philadelphia - Wilmington urban corridor have felt small earthquakes and suffered damage from infrequent larger ones," according to the USGS. "Moderately damaging earthquakes strike somewhere in the urban corridor roughly twice a century, and smaller earthquakes are felt roughly every 2-3 years."

'The surgeon sort of froze': Man getting vasectomy during earthquake Friday recounts experience

While not a common occurrence, earthquakes on the East Coast usually cause "higher-frequency shaking (fast back-and-forth motion) compared to similar events in the West," the USGS said.

Faster shaking normally makes shorter structures more susceptible to damage, while slower shaking typically affects taller structures, according to the agency.

"Many of the older structures in the East, such as buildings and bridges built before the 1970s, were not designed to endure earthquakes and therefore may not fare well," the USGS said.

The East Coast is progressing in retrofitting older buildings and constructing modern buildings that abide by newer design standards, according to the USGS. On the West Coast, older structures are more frequently retrofitted, and new structures are regularly "designed to withstand strong shaking," the agency said.

Why are there more earthquakes on the West Coast?

The western U.S. experiences more earthquakes because it "lies along the boundaries of major tectonic plates that make up the Earth's crust — the North American Plate and the ocean plates to the West," the USGS said.

"These plates are moving against each other, breaking up the crust along many faults like the San Andreas Fault," according to the agency. "Faults in the East are less active and lie entirely within the North American Plate."

Scientists have a harder time assessing earthquakes' frequency and magnitudes on the East Coast due to the geology of the eastern U.S. and the "relatively sparse history of earthquakes to study," the USGS said.

"Eastern earthquakes are more of a mystery because they do not take place at a plate boundary where most other earthquakes originate," the agency continued. "Scientists do not fully understand the state of stress within tectonic plates, and they are studying how stresses accumulate and evolve and how earthquakes are triggered."

Active faults harder to identify on the East Coast, USGS says

Another challenge scientists encounter is locating the active faults on the East Coast.

"Most faults have not had major earthquakes or movement in the past few million years, and the faults that are active may only have earthquakes every few thousand or tens of thousands of years," according to the USGS. "Any evidence of past earthquakes on the land’s surface in the eastern U.S. is often obscured by vegetation or is more subdued because of erosion."

The West Coast is the opposite because it has more active faults and several areas with sparse vegetation, so earthquakes can leave clear markings that help scientists determine history, size and effects, the government agency said.

How much does fracking affect earthquakes in the US?

North American fracking operations aren't known for causing high-magnitude earthquakes, and the ones that occur "have generally been small," the American Institute of Physics news service said.

The rise in quakes in the central U.S. is primarily due to the disposal of waste fluids, a byproduct of oil production, the USGS said.

"Wastewater disposal wells typically operate for longer durations and inject much more fluid than is injected during the hydraulic fracturing process, making them more likely to induce earthquakes," according to the government agency.

The biggest earthquake induced by fracking in the U.S. had a 4.0 magnitude and hit Texas in 2018, the USGS said.

Friday's earthquake was the strongest in NJ since 1783. A look back at quake history

2-minute read.

The April 5, 2024 earthquake was a once-in-a-lifetime event .

The magnitude 4.8 earthquake near Tewksbury was the most significant to impact North Jersey since 1884, when an Aug. 10 earthquake somewhere near Jamaica Bay toppled chimneys and moved houses off their foundations as far as Rahway.

Other than that quake, there were only three earthquakes in modern history that caused damage in the state: 1737 (New York City), 1783 (west of New York City) and 1927 (New Jersey coast near Asbury Park), according to New Jersey Office of Emergency Management records. However, as with Friday's quake, objects falling from shelves and building damage such as chimney collapse were thought to be the extent of the impact. New Jersey has yet to record a fatality due to an earthquake, according to state records.

The Dec. 19, 1737 earthquake is believed by modern experts to have been a 5.2 magnitude quake. Charted as taking place in the greater New York City area, some accounts say its epicenter was near Weehawken. State records show it threw down chimneys. Chimneys were also hurled down during the Nov. 29, 1783 quake. Estimated at a 5.3 magnitude that originated in modern-day Rockaway Township, according to state records, it was felt from Pennsylvania to New England.

The Aug. 10, 1884 quake, estimated at a 5.2 magnitude was the last the state has seen of its significance and was felt from Virginia to Maine, according to state records. Though, there have been other large quakes felt in the state, including an 1886 quake near Charleston, South Carolina, state records show.

NJ earthquake: Ground shaking in New Jersey sends residents to social media. How communities felt the earthquake

Friday's quake was pinpointed to a spot roughly two miles from Tewksbury, according to the federal government's Earthquake Hazards Program. The location is along the Ramapo Fault System, where most of New Jersey's earthquakes are concentrated. Stretching from Pennsylvania through New Jersey and into New York, this fault system is the longest in the Northeast. It also makes the region the most seismically active area east of the Mississippi River.

The Ramapo Fault makes earthquakes most likely to occur in the northern parts of New Jersey. Still, North Jersey earthquakes, like all inter-plate quakes, are rare. Most earthquakes globally occur where the Earth’s tectonic plates meet. Less than 10% of earthquakes occur within plate interiors, according to records kept by the U.S. Geological Survey's Earthquakes Hazard Program.

Most of the quakes in New Jersey are also small in magnitude. The largest this century before Friday was a 3.5 magnitude quake north of Milford, while most fall under a 2.0, state records show.

Those with a magnitude of 2.5 or less are usually not felt, according to an assessment from Michigan Tech University. Those from 2.5 to 5.4 are often felt but only cause minor damage. From 5.5 to 6.0, slight damage to buildings and other structures could be expected, according to the assessment.

Since the end of 2020, New Jersey has had few earthquakes epicentered within state borders. They include a 2.4 magnitude quake near Tuckerton in June 2021, a 2.3 near Morris Plains on Aug. 30, 2022, a 1.7 near Lake Telemark the same day and a 2.3 near Harvey Cedars on Sept. 9, 2022.

• International

Total solar eclipse 2024

By Ashley Strickland , Elise Hammond , Maureen Chowdhury , Antoinette Radford, Eric Zerkel and Aditi Sangal , CNN

In pictures: Watching the solar eclipse across North America

From CNN Digital’s Photo Team

Click here for more spectacular photos from today's eclipse.

Why eclipses create a "beautiful coincidence" on Earth

From CNN's Ashley Strickland

Americans are a little spoiled when it comes to eclipses. After all, we just experienced one that the majority of the country got to see, and it comes on the heels of the "Great American Eclipse" that tracked from Oregon to South Carolina in 2017.

But that doesn't often happen. And it won't again until the 2040s.

On average, an eclipse occurs in the same place every 375 years, said Dr. John Mulchaey, Carnegie Institution for Science’s deputy for science and the director and Crawford H. Greenewalt Chair of the Carnegie Observatories.

And we’re living at the right time to truly enjoy the sight of a total eclipse on Earth, he said.

While eclipses occur throughout the solar system, none are exactly like the ones experienced in our world.

The moon is about 400 times smaller than the sun, but the moon is also about 400 times closer to Earth than the sun is, creating a “beautiful coincidence” that results in eclipses when the three celestial bodies align, Mulchaey said.

This alignment is called syzygy, or when three objects line up in space.

In the distant past, the moon was much closer to Earth, which means totality likely didn’t appear as it does now. And within another 60 million years or so, the moon will be so far away that it will never cover the sun, making this a rare moment in time, Mulchaey said.

The long history of myths and folklore inspired by eclipses

From CNN's Ashley Strickland and Terry Ward

Eclipses have long inspired terror and awe as ancient cultures sought ways to explain the celestial phenomenon .

“I find the mythology and folklore of eclipses fascinating,” said Mark Littman, a journalism professor at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville and coauthor of “ Totality: The Great North American Eclipse of 2024 .”

“To see how people long ago and people today reacted to a total eclipse of the Sun, a sight so unexpected, so dramatic, so surprising in appearance, and so unnatural even though it is utterly natural.”

Ancient records of eclipses date back to 772 BC, when the Chinese marked them on animal bones, and 750 BC, when Babylonians recorded eclipses in their cuneiform writing on clay tablets, Littmann said. Both cultures "realized there was a rhythm to eclipses," which meant they could be calculated and predicted in the future.

Despite the ability to predict eclipses, the cause of the eclipse remained unknown, so myths and folklore filled the knowledge gap.

"The mythology of eclipses most often involves a beast that tries to eat the sun for lunch. For the Chinese, that beast was a dragon or a dog. For Scandinavians, it was a wolf," Littmann said.

Those in northern South America thought the sun and moon fought one another, trying to shut off each other's light, he said.

Transylvanian folklore suggested that the sun looked down on Earth, saw the corruption of humans, and turned away in disgust.

And the Fon people of western Africa thought the male sun ruled the day, while the female moon ruled the night.

"They love each other, but they are so busy traversing the sky and providing light that they seldom get together," Littmann said. "Yet when they do, they modestly turn off the light."

Eclipses provide unique opportunities for NASA scientists to learn more about the future of the sun

From CNN's Elise Hammond

NASA scientists took full advantage of Monday’s eclipse to collect data and study the Earth, moon and sun in different ways, the agency’s deputy administrator said. One area of specific interest is the sun’s corona , or outer atmosphere.

“This is a very elusive region and it can be viewed during a solar eclipse in a very special way,” Pam Melroy said during a news conference at the end of March .

She said understanding the corona is “key to understanding fundamental questions about how heat and energy are transferred out into the solar wind,” which contributes to how solar wind and flares impacts Earth.

“Things are happening with the corona (that) we don’t fully understand and the eclipse gives us a unique opportunity to collect data that may give insights into the future of our star,” Melroy said.

And this is an especially good year to study the corona, she said. The sun is approaching  solar maximum — the peak of activity — later this year, and scientists are eager to capture this moment through a variety of observations that can only occur during eclipses. During solar maximum, the sun’s magnetic poles flip and then the sun will grow quiet again during a solar minimum.

“The chance that we are going to see something amazing is very high,” Melroy said.

Former NASA astronaut says she hopes eclipse sparks sense of connectedness with the universe

A former NASA astronaut said she hopes Monday’s total solar eclipse inspires a connection between everyone who witnessed it and the universe.

“We’re all part of this universe – and the universe was showing us some of its secrets at that point in time,” Mae Jemison told CNN.

While viewing totality in Bloomington, Indiana, the former astronaut said she was thinking about other times she experienced eclipses. 

When she saw a partial eclipse as a child in Chicago, Jemison said she was trying to make sense of what was happening.

But then thinking about her time as an astronaut, “it reinforced the feeling that when I look up, when I look away from the Earth when I was in space, it again connects me with this world, with this universe – and know that I have a responsibility.”

Jemison said science is about building on knowledge for the next generation, and the eclipse was an opportunity to do just that. Scientists used Monday’s eclipse to gather data to better understand the sun but Jemison said she hopes there is also learning at a personal level.

“I hope what people discover is themselves and their connectedness to the rest of the universe,” she said.

Eclipse Explained: Is there anywhere that saw totality in both 2017 and 2024? 

Yes! There is an area where both 2017 and 2024 paths of totality intersect. According to a map from NASA , that area includes parts of Missouri, southern Illinois and western Kentucky.

One of the places in that intersection, Carbondale, Illinois, experienced the longest period of totality in 2017 at 2 minutes, 42 seconds, according to NASA. 

Seeing the eclipse again more than 20 years later

From CNN's Christina Zdanowicz

Juan M. Soto Peña and his wife experienced the joy of a total solar eclipse alongside their daughter, Luciana, in Tucson, Arizona.

The couple saw a partial solar eclipse together on December 25, 2000, in the state of Sonora in Mexico, he said.

Worried about eye damage? Here are the signs you should visit an optometrist after the eclipse

Maybe your eclipse glasses were fake. Perhaps you forgot to slip them back on as the first bit of sunlight reappeared after totality. Or you noticed your child, friend or family member looking up at the sun without putting on their glasses.

Symptoms of eye damage after improperly viewing the eclipse without proper protection can take hours or days to manifest. They include loss of central vision, altered color vision or distorted vision .

And if you notice any symptoms or experience eye discomfort, make an appointment immediately using the American Optometric Association's doctor locator , said Ronald Benner, an optometrist and president of the American Optometric Association.

“For most people, it’s an alteration of color vision,” Benner said. “The next morning, colors just don’t look right, or it may be bleached out it or just kind of hazy all the time. For others, it may be that they actually have holes in their vision.”

If the damage occurs in the center of someone’s vision, it can affect the ability to read or recognize faces, Benner said.

Here's what the eclipse looked like from the International Space Station

From CNN's Taylor Nicioli

From space, crew members at the International Space Station saw a different perspective of the celestial event — the moon’s shadow cast onto Earth.

The orbiting laboratory "soared into the moon’s shadow" and NASA Flight Engineers Matthew Dominick and Jeanette Epps got a chance to capture it following their “workday filled with cargo transfers, spacesuit maintenance, and microgravity research,” according to a statement from NASA . The astronauts took pictures and videos of the shadow of the moon as seen from their position about 260 miles above southeastern Canada. 

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'Heavy' history: ULA launches final Delta rocket after 64 years (video, photos)

Today's Delta IV Heavy launch closed out the rocket program after 389 flights.

After six decades of launches, the liftoff of the last-ever Delta rocket on Tuesday (April 9) brought with it a change in the way the U.S. sends satellites, interplanetary probes and spacecraft into Earth orbit. United Launch Alliance (ULA) ignited its last Delta IV Heavy rocket to launch NROL-70, a classified payload for the U.S. National Reconnaissance Office (NRO). The powerful booster departed Space Launch Complex-37 (SLC-37) at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida at 12:53 p.m. EDT (1653 GMT), literally setting itself on fire for the 16th and final time.

"It is a bittersweet moment for us," said Tory Bruno, chief executive officer of United Launch Alliance , in a call with reporters on March 26. "It is such an amazing piece of technology — 23 stories tall, hall a million gallons of propellant, two and a quarter million pounds of thrust and the most metal of all rockets, setting itself on fire before it goes to space." That spectacle, which was unique to the Delta IV in its heaviest configuration, was the result of hydrogen building up in the flame trench and then rising up alongside the rocket after it was used to cool down the three RS-68A engines to cryogenic temperatures. When the engines fired, the hydrogen ignited and flames lapped at the orange insulation covering the core stage and its two side-mounted boosters. "It's why we had nicely toasted marshmallow boosters and the very dramatic effect of a self-immolating rocket before up she goes," said Bruno. The two boosters were jettisoned about four minutes into the flight, followed by the core, or first stage, separating one minute and 45 seconds later. A single RL10C-2-1 engine on the Delta cryogenic second stage then took over, propelling the NROL-70 payload into space. Due to national security concerns, coverage of the launch ceased following fairing jettison at about 6 minutes and 40 seconds into the flight.

Related:  Facts about ULA's Delta IV Heavy rocket

ULA is retiring the Delta IV, and eventually its other legacy rocket, the Atlas V , in favor of its newly introduced Vulcan, which flew a near-perfect first mission in January. The Vulcan was developed to replace both long-flying rockets in all of their configurations. "This is a great mission to think about that transition , because national security space missions is our core and the unique set of missions there require a high-energy launch vehicle. We designed Vulcan specifically for that," said Bruno.

In addition to being the 16th Delta IV Heavy , Tuesday's launch was also the 45th liftoff of a Delta IV, the 35th Delta IV to fly from Florida and the 389th Delta launch of any kind since 1960 (of which 294 were sent skyward from Cape Canaveral). Half of the Delta IV Heavy launches were devoted to sending NRO payloads into orbit. The rocket and its less powerful configurations were also used in support of NASA, NOAA (the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration), U.S. Air Force and commercial payloads. The first Delta launch on May 13, 1960, attempted to put the world's first passive communications satellite experiment into space, but was unsuccessful due to the Delta's attitude control thrusters failing to fire. (The Delta initially flew as the second stage atop a Thor ballistic missile, hence the vehicle was called the Thor-Delta.)

Related: Meet the Delta Rocket Family of the United Launch Alliance

Three months later, the Thor-Delta deployed Echo IA into orbit, leading to the first successful satellite transmission and first two-way communications between two points on Earth by way of space. That success was then followed by the launch of the second weather satellite and Telstar-1 , the latter making possible the first live transatlantic television feed. Next came Delta B, a derivative of the Thor-Delta, whose flights included the July 1963 launch of Syncom-2, the first satellite in a geosynchronous orbit . Delta C, which was introduced four months after the Syncom-2 launch, primarily carried NASA research satellites into orbit. The Delta D, which added three solid rocket motors to the Delta C configuration, deployed the the first geostationary communications satellite in 1964 and the first commercial communication satellite, Intelsat I, a year later.

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Related: A history of rockets Delta E launched a series of NASA Pioneer probes that measured interplanetary phenomena from widely separated points in space. Delta G (F was not built), which was a Delta E without its third stage, began the launch of a series of NASA satellites that carried biological specimens for study. Delta J launched only once, K was not built and L introduced an elongated version of the Thor first stage. Delta M and Delta N closed out the alphabetical designations while being used to send more communications satellites to Earth orbit. The numerical series that followed included the Delta 900, which sent NASA's first LandSat meteorological satellite into space in 1972; Delta 2310, which put Spain's first satellite into orbit to study the ionosphere; and Delta 2914, which launched the first NOAA Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES). Delta 3000 introduced the payload assist module (PAM) to reach higher orbits. A 3000-series rocket was NASA's first launch after the space shuttle Challenger tragedy in 1986, but it too was ill-fated, and was destroyed before it could deploy the GOES satellite it was carrying. Only three 4000- and one 5000-series rockets launched, but they led the way to the Delta II, which flew in Lite and Heavy configurations.

The Delta II entered service in 1989 with the launch of the first operational Global Positioning System ( GPS ) satellite. In total, the Delta II lifted off 155 times over the course of nearly 30 years, of which all but two flights were successful. One-third of the launches were dedicated to NASA payloads, including sending eight robotic landers and rovers to Mars ; a pair of twin probes to the moon; the first mission to orbit the planet Mercury ; the first mission to orbit and land on an asteroid; and the first spacecraft to return a sample from a comet. The Delta II also deployed the Spitzer Space Telescope and Kepler planet-hunting observatory before launching for the last time in 2018 with NASA's ICESat-2 Earth observation satellite. Delta III flew only three times. Two launches failed and the last carried a dummy payload. The Delta IV was developed for the U.S. Air Force's Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle (EELV) program. Originally flown by Boeing before the aerospace company partnered with Lockheed Martin to establish ULA, the Delta IV and Delta IV Heavy became the primary rocket supporting U.S. military payloads. The Delta IV Heavy was also used to launch NASA's Orion spacecraft on its first uncrewed Exploration Flight Test (EFT-1) in 2014 and sent the Parker Solar Probe on its way to "touch" the sun in 2018.

Delta on display

Through each of its versions and configurations, the Delta family of rockets advanced and grew more capable. To lift heavier payloads and send them farther into space, the venerable launch vehicle gained larger tanks, added strap-on solid rocket boosters, adopted improved engines and employed more powerful upper stages. The Delta IV Heavy that launched to close out the program on Tuesday stood 235 feet (72 meters) tall, more than 2.5 times the height of the original Thor-Delta. At liftoff, the Delta IV Heavy generated 2.1 million pounds (9,341 kiloNewtons) of thrust, a significant increase over the 150,000 pounds (667 kiloNewtons) in 1960. "It just has a storied legacy, and it has done great things for our nation. We are very proud to have been a part of that," said Bruno. "And even though Vulcan is the future, personally I am sad to see it go."

— Delta IV Heavy rocket launches US spy satellite on penultimate mission (video)

— Facts about United Launch Alliance

—  Delta IV Heavy rocket launches US spy satellite to orbit

Despite its long history, only a few Delta rockets are preserved by museums and rocket parks today. The Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in Florida displays a Thor-Delta and Delta II in its Rocket Garden . Another Thor-Delta can be seen at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. The static fire unit for what became the Delta IV common booster core was delivered to the Air Force Space and Missile Museum (today, the Cape Canaveral Space Force Museum) in 2007 and was placed on outdoor display. "We don't have an extra Delta IV Heavy to put in a museum," said Bruno. "So [this last rocket] absolutely had a special feel to it."

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Robert Pearlman is a space historian, journalist and the founder and editor of collectSPACE.com , an online publication and community devoted to space history with a particular focus on how and where space exploration intersects with pop culture. Pearlman is also a contributing writer for Space.com and co-author of "Space Stations: The Art, Science, and Reality of Working in Space” published by Smithsonian Books in 2018. He previously developed online content for the National Space Society and Apollo 11 moonwalker Buzz Aldrin, helped establish the space tourism company Space Adventures and currently serves on the History Committee of the American Astronautical Society, the advisory committee for The Mars Generation and leadership board of For All Moonkind. In 2009, he was inducted into the U.S. Space Camp Hall of Fame in Huntsville, Alabama. In 2021, he was honored by the American Astronautical Society with the Ordway Award for Sustained Excellence in Spaceflight History.

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NCAA.com | April 8, 2024

Uconn beats purdue to win the 2024 national championship.

UConn is the 2024 NCAA tournament champion after beating Purdue, 75-60 . Here is the final look at 2024 March Madness, which started with Selection Sunday on March 17. 

You can get a printable 2024 NCAA bracket here .

Here is the game-by-game rundown for the 2024 men's tournament. Click or tap on each game to be taken to the final stats.

2024 NCAA tournament schedule, scores, highlights

Monday, April 8 (National championship game)

• (1) UConn 75 , (1) Purdue 60

Tuesday, March 19 (First Four in Dayton, Ohio)

• (16) Wagner 71 , (16) Howard 68
• (10) Colorado State 67 , (10) Virginia 42

Wednesday, March 20 (First Four in Dayton, Ohio)

• (16) Grambling 88 , (16) Montana State 81
• (10) Colorado 60 , (10) Boise State 53

Thursday, March 21 (Round of 64)

• (9) Michigan State 66 , (8) Mississippi State 51
• (11) Duquesne 71 , (6) BYU 67
• (3) Creighton 77 , (14) Akron 60
• (2) Arizona 85 , (15) Long Beach State 65
• (1) North Carolina 90 , (16) Wagner 61
• (3) Illinois 85 , (14) Morehead State 69
• (11) Oregon 87 , (6) South Carolina 73
• (7) Dayton 63 , (10) Nevada 60
• (7) Texas 56 , (10) Colorado State 44
• (14) Oakland 80 , (3) Kentucky 76
• (5) Gonzaga 86 , (12) McNeese 65
• (2) Iowa State 82 , (15) South Dakota State 65
• (2) Tennessee 83 ,   (15) Saint Peter's 49
• (7) Washington State 66 , (10) Drake 61
• ( 11) NC State 80 , (6) Texas Tech 67
• (4) Kansas 93 , (13) Samford 89

Friday, March 22 (Round of 64)

• (3) Baylor 92 ,   (14) Colgate 67
• (9) Northwestern 77 , (8) Florida Atlantic 65  (OT)
• (5) San Diego State 69 , (12) UAB 65
• (2) Marquette 87 ,   (15) Western Kentucky 69
• (1) UConn 91 , (16) Stetson 52
• (6) Clemson 77 , (11) New Mexico 56
• (10) Colorado 102 , (7) Florida 100   
• (13) Yale 78 , (4) Auburn 76 
• (9) Texas A&M 98 , (8) Nebraska 83
• (4) Duke 64 , (13) Vermont 47
• (1) Purdue 78 , (16) Grambling 50
• (4) Alabama 109 , (13) College of Charleston 96
• (1) Houston 86 , (16) Longwood 46
• (12) James Madison 72 , (5) Wisconsin 61
• (8) Utah State 88 , (9) TCU 72 
• (12) Grand Canyon 77 , (5) Saint Mary's 66

Saturday, March 23 (Round of 32)

• (2) Arizona 78,  (7) Dayton 68
• (5) Gonzaga 89 , (4) Kansas 68
• (1) North Carolina 85 , (9) Michigan State 69
• (2) Iowa State 67 , (7) Washington State 56
• (11) NC State 79 , (14) Oakland 73
• (2) Tennessee 62 , (7) Texas 58
• (3) Illinois 89 , (11) Duquesne 63 
• (3) Creighton 86 , (11) Oregon 73 (2OT)

Sunday, March 24 (Round of 32)

• (2) Marquette 81,  (10) Colorado 77
• (1) Purdue 106,  (8) Utah State 67
• (4) Duke 93 , (12) James Madison 55 
• (6) Clemson 72 , (3) Baylor 64
• (4) Alabama 72 , (12) Grand Canyon 61
• (1) UConn 75 , (9) Northwestern 58
• (1) Houston 100 , (9) Texas A&M 95 (OT)
• (5) San Diego State 85 , (13) Yale 57 

Thursday, March 28 (Sweet 16)

• (6) Clemson 77 , (2) Arizona 72
• (1) UConn 82 , (5) San Diego State 52
• (4) Alabama 89 , (1) North Carolina 87
• (3) Illinois 72 , (2) Iowa State 69

Friday, March 29 (Sweet 16)

• (11) NC State 66 , (2) Marquette 58
• (1) Purdue 80 , (5) Gonzaga 68
• (4) Duke 54 , (1) Houston 51
• (2) Tennessee 82 , (3) Creighton 75

Saturday, March 30 (Elite Eight)

• (1) UConn 77 , (3) Illinois 52
• (4) Alabama 89 , (6) Clemson 82

Sunday, March 31 (Elite Eight)

• (1) Purdue 72 , (2) Tennessee 66
• (11) NC State 76 , (4) Duke 64

Saturday, April 6 (Final Four)

• (1) Purdue 63 , (11) NC State 50
• (1) UConn 86 , (4) Alabama 72

• Selection Sunday: 6 p.m. ET Sunday, March 17 on CBS
• First Four: March 19-20
• First round: March 21-22
• Second round: March 23-24 
• Sweet 16: March 28-29 
• Elite Eight: March 30-31 
• Final Four: Saturday, April 6 at State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Arizona.
• NCAA championship game: Monday, April 8 at State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Arizona.

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