After last year's scaled-down festivities, large crowds have descended on New Orleans to celebrate the Carnival season and its culmination, Fat Tuesday.

It took more than 200 years for Congress to select a female speaker of the House. The U.S. trails behind 79 other countries when it comes to including women in legislatures. See a photo gallery of female political pioneers that came before U.S. Rep. Nancy Pelosi.

View an interactive presentation with photo galleries and audio clips from President Gerald R. Ford's most famous speeches, including his explanation of the pardon of Richard Nixon.

In the shadows of terrorism and war, a new threat is emerging that few Americans have pondered. Exotic animals captured in the wild are streaming across the U.S. border by the millions with little or no screening for diseases, leaving people increasingly vulnerable to a virulent outbreak that could rival a terrorist attack. View the audio slideshows.

Learn more about Anne Frank, whose famous diary recounted the life in hiding of a Jewish teenager and her family during World War II, as information from the archives at Bad Arolsen, Germany, recalls her story.