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President Biden has signed legislation making Juneteenth, when enslaved people in Texas were told of their freedom in 1865, a federal holiday. It will be commemorated for the first time Friday.

"Amazing Grace" has become a pop, folk and gospel standard since Englishman John Newton, a slave trader-turned-abolitionist, wrote the words in the 1700s. NPR's Liane Hansen talks with Steve Turner about his new book and the song's remarkable history.

In Lincoln, Neb., organizers of a Juneteenth festival celebrated the holiday with a combination of history and modern steampunk.

The strange, yet beautiful harp guitar is typically a six-stringed instrument with any number of bass strings "floating" on its side. Exotic instrument collector Gregg Miner catalogs the history of the harp guitar on his Web site and it is gaining curious interest.

In his new book, The Gun, Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter C.J. Chivers traces the history of AK-47. The weapon's availability, ease of use and durability, Chivers says, have allowed insurgents to fight the most powerful nations on earth.

In her illustrated book for middle-grade readers, How They Croaked, Georgia Bragg chronicles the disgusting and bloody deaths of 19 famous figures, from Beethoven (who exploded with pus) to George Washington, who bled to death.

The Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Fla., has a rich, complex history and was destined to be a "Winter White House" long before Donald Trump came along.

The honorary lecture series is deemed the highest honor the federal government gives for intellectual achievement in the humanities.

The creative minds behind Buena Vista Social Club have guided an effort by Cuban and African musicians to create a new album, AfroCubism. Deep history underlies the musical interplay on the record, as well as a surprising number of similarities.

Polygamist Warren Jeffs is in jail in Utah awaiting a hearing on charges that he arranged plural marriages of underage girls to much older men. Jeffs is confined in a county jail at Purgatory Flats.