The most-read TIME History stories in 2023

Featuring new ideas about Custer's Last Stand and JFK's assassination |

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By Olivia B. Waxman Staff Writer As 2023 wraps up, we're looking back at the most popular history-related stories on TIME.com this year. Topping the charts is reporter Armani Syed’s article “Was Cleopatra Black? A New Netflix Series Is Reviving an Old Controversy,” which explained the state of debates about Cleopatra’s racial identity, pegged to the Netflix docudrama Queen Cleopatra. In fact, we saw a lot of interest in new perspectives on historical events in 2023, like Custer’s Last Stand and JFK’s assassination. And the Made by History essay on the history of Hamas drew many readers looking for context on the Israel-Hamas war. Happy New Year, and we look forward to bringing you more stories from Made by History and TIME staffers in 2024. Here’s the history that made news this year:

HISTORY ON TIME.COM Was Cleopatra Black? A New Netflix Series Is Reviving an Old Controversy By Armani Syed A new Netflix show depicting Cleopatra as Black is stirring controversy. Read More » Why We’ve Gotten ‘Custer’s Last Stand’ Wrong for Nearly 150 Years By Olivia B. Waxman Why we've gotten 'Custer's Last Stand' wrong for 150 years. Read More » What We Know and Still Don't Know About JFK's Assassination By Olivia B. Waxman Sixty years after President John F. Kennedy was assassinated, unanswered questions continue to fuel conspiracy theories. Read More » When Did Slavery Really End in the U.S.? The Complicated History of Juneteenth By Olivia B. Waxman Juneteenth marks the day in 1865 when enslaved men and women in Texas found out they were free. But liberation didn't arrive in one day. Read More » Prince Harry's Bitter Feud With His Older Brother William Has Centuries of History By Olivia B. Waxman "Today, we might not see royal brothers meeting on the field of battle, winner taking all, but instead we find them conducting their warfare via that rather more insidious weapon—the media," says author Alexander Larman. Read More » Documents Reveal Catholic Church's Actions in the Holocaust By Olivia B. Waxman "This was one of the great mysteries, one of the last few critically important Holocaust related collections in the world that was not yet open." Read More » What I Remember From Anne Frank's Last Birthday Party By Hannah Pick-Goslar Hannah Pick-Goslar describes attending her childhood friend's 13th birthday party in Amsterdam. Read More » What the World Can Learn From the History of Hamas By Ibrahim Al-Marashi / Made by History The more militant Hamas emerged when Israel was focused on fighting the Palestine Liberation Organization in the 1980s. Read More » Why America Still Doesn’t Have Fast Trains By David Alff / Made by History For 70 years, the U.S. has failed to achieve faster trains—because it refuses to do what it takes to make them work. Read More » The Longest Strike in U.S. History By Olivia B. Waxman The Kohler strike lasted for 11 years from 1954 to 1965, and has a legacy still being felt today. Read More »

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