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Lost in the Grand Canyon

Aired April 5, 1999

In the summer of 1869 a one-armed Civil War veteran, John Wesley Powell, led an epic journey down the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon. It was the last important exploration within the continental United States. Powell wrote a literary classic about his trip, explored the region for another ten years, studied Native American cultures, and used his position as director of the U.S. Geological Survey to argue against the over development of the West.

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Meltdown at Three Mile Island

Aired February 22, 1999

At 4:00 AM on March 28, 1979, a reactor at the Three Mile Island nuclear power facility near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania suddenly overheated, releasing radioactive gases.

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Rescue at Sea

Aired February 15, 1999

On January 23, 1909, two ships -- one carrying Italian immigrants to New York City, the other, American tourists to Europe -- collided in dense fog off Nantucket Island. In a moment, more than 1,500 lives became dependent on a new technology, wireless telegraphy, and on Jack Binns, a twenty-six-year-old wireless operator on board one of the ships.

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Alone on the Ice

Aired February 8, 1999 | 53 min

Admiral Richard E. Byrd became an American hero for his daring expeditions to the North and South Pole.

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Hoover Dam

Aired January 18, 1999

During the Great Depression, Americans built the Hoover Dam, overcoming technical challenges to erect one of the greatest engineering works in history.

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Race for the Superbomb

Aired January 11, 1999

At the dawn of the Cold War, the United States initiated a top secret program in New Mexico to build a weapon even more powerful than the atomic bomb dropped on Japan. This program aired in January, 1999.

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America 1900

Aired November 18, 1998

America 1900 presents a comprehensive picture of what life was like in the United States at the turn of the century.

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Riding the Rails

Aired May 23, 2013

At the height of the Great Depression, more than a quarter million teenagers were living on the road in America, many criss-crossing the country by illegally hopping freight trains. This film tells the story of ten of these teenage hobos — from the reasons they left home to what they experienced — all within the context of depression-era America.

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Surviving the Dust Bowl

Aired August 31, 2022 | 53 min

The story of the farmers who came to the Southern Plains of Texas, Oklahoma and Kansas dreaming of prosperity, and lived through ten years of drought, dust, disease and death.

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Surviving the Dust Bowl (español)

Aired August 31, 2022 | 53 min

La historia de los granjeros que vinieron a las Llanuras del Sur de Texas, Oklahoma y Kansas soñando con tener prosperidad y terminaron viviendo diez años de sequía, polvo, enfermedad y muerte.

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Reagan

Aired October 3, 2024 | 3 hrs 46 min

A passionate ideologue who preached a simple gospel of lower taxes, less government, and anti-communism, Ronald Reagan left the White House one of the most popular presidents of the 20th century — and one of the most controversial.

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Reagan (español)

Aired October 3, 2024 | 3 hrs 46 min

Una mirada a la vida de Reagan a través del testimonio de familiares, amigos, historiadores y biógrafos, Reagan fue producida con un acceso sin precedentes a la familia Reagan, incluyendo a Nancy Reagan y tres de los cuatro hijos de Reagan, el biógrafo Edmund Morris, miembros del círculo político íntimo de Reagan, su "Gabinete de California", y sus homólogos en el escenario mundial, incluyendo a la exprimera ministra británica Margaret Thatcher y al líder soviético Mijaíl Gorbachov.

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