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Aired October 6, 1996

Author, soldier, scientist, outdoorsman and caring father, he was the youngest man to become president. Part of the award-winning Presidents collection.

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On August 8, 1908, at a racetrack outside Paris, Wilbur Wright executed what was, for him, a routine flight: a smooth take-off banking into a couple of tight circles, ending in a perfect landing. The flight took less than two minutes, but it left spectators awestruck.

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The Battle Over Citizen Kane

Aired January 29, 1996

It was a clash of the titans. William Randolph Hearst, the lord and ruler of San Simeon. And Orson Welles, the ambitious young man with a golden touch, who set out to dethrone him. It was a fight from which neither man ever fully recovered.

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The Orphan Trains

Aired November 27, 1995

The story of this ambitious and finally controversial effort to rescue poor and homeless children begins in the 1850s, when thousands of children roamed the streets of New York in search of money, food and shelter—prey to disease and crime.

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Edison's Miracle of Light

Aired October 23, 1995 | 53 min

"The Wizard of Menlo Park," Inventor Thomas Edison, built the first practical light bulb and revolutionized the world.

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Murder of the Century

Aired October 16, 1995

In 1906, the murder of Stanford White, New York architect and man-about-town, by Harry Thaw, heir to a Pittsburgh railroad fortune, was reported "to the ends of the civilized globe"; much of the focus, however, was on Evelyn Nesbit, the beautiful showgirl in the center of the love triangle. It was a sensational murder story that had everything: money, power, class, love, rage, lust and revenge.

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Battle of the Bulge

Aired November 9, 1994

It was the biggest and bloodiest single battle American soldiers ever fought — one in which nearly 80,000 Americans were killed, maimed, or captured. Packed with extraordinary newsreel and Army footage, Battle of the Bulge captures the action on the battle's frontlines and the strategy behind the scenes.

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FDR

Aired May 12, 2008 | 4 hrs 2 min

Engendering both admiration and scorn, FDR exerted unflinching leadership during the most tumultuous period in U.S. history since the Civil War and was the most vital figure in the nation during his 13 years in the White House.

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D-Day

Aired May 25, 1994

Not since 1688 had an invading army crossed the English Channel, but now it was happening — Operation Overlord, D-Day, the all-out attack on Hitler's fortress Europe. D-Day was the turning point. It was day one of the final drive to complete Allied victory.

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American Experience | America and the Holocaust

Aired April 6, 1994

Complex social and political factors shaped America's response to the Holocaust, from "Kristallnacht" in 1938 through the liberation of the death camps in 1945. For a short time, the US had an opportunity to open its doors, but instead erected a "paper wall," a bureaucratic maze that prevented all but a few Jewish refugees from entering the country. It was not until 1944, that a small band of Treasury Department employees forced the government to respond.

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Malcolm X: Make it Plain

Aired January 26, 1994

If any man expressed the anger, struggle and insistence of black people for freedom in the sixties, it was Malcolm X. In Omaha, he was Malcolm Little; later he became "Detroit Red," a small time street hustler. From prison emerged another Malcolm, the fiery, eloquent spokesman for the Nation of Islam. After a trip to Mecca, there was a last transformation — a new willingness to accept white allies. Who killed him and why has never been fully explained.

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The Hurricane of '38

Aired November 17, 1993

Before radar had been invented a devastating hurricane hit America, surprising residents of the East Coast and killing more than 600 people.

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