For many Americans, the journey of the Mayflower symbolizes the birth of their nation. To this day, the Pilgrim Fathers are a glorified symbol of American virtue. In search of autonomy and with the desire to preserve their cultural identity, a group of English Puritans left their Dutch refuge in 1620 to set off for the New World. That voyage is not just a tale of a religious community bravely going their own way; the events of those days would have a major impact on the course of modern history. The rules and regulations of the Mayflower Compact that the Pilgrim Fathers, religious sectarians, abided by, became the secular prototype for the constitution of the United States of America; a social contract that would serve as an example for many other national constitutions during the European age of civil society and thereafter.
In 1913 Congress created the Federal Reserve to bring financial stability to the nation after a number of banking panics, with a mix of regional banks and a central bank board. Congressmen Robert L. Owen and Carter Glass helped pass the Federal Reserve Act with the help of compromises led by President Woodrow Wilson. The Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City was begun in 1914, led by Jo Zach Miller, Jr., along with local bankers such as William T. Kemper. With the bank rapidly growing, about 1920 a new 21 story building was built at 9th and Grand that at one time held the offices of the Bureau of Investigation and President Harry S. Truman.
The artistic temperament and interest of ancient Chinese have been embodied in their clothing with the use of silk and embroidery. The ancient Chinese clothing had not only deeply influenced traditional dress of Japan and Korea, but also prevailed in the fashion world today. This documentary portrays variety of styles, and reveals the development of Chinese clothing in the past dynasties and their inspirations to our present time.
September 3, 1777. The first significant engagement of the British campaign to capture Philadelphia, then the capital of the United States. British General Howe, along with Earl Charles Cornwallis and Baron Wilhelm Knyphausen smash into American Brigadier-General William Maxwell s light corps. This battle led to the British victory at Brandywine a few days later, and the final capture of Philadelphia. This is the largest fight in Delaware during the Revolution, and some say, the first time the American Stars-and-Stripes were flown on the battlefield.
A complete story of the original painting by Paul Philippoteaux, its conservation from 2003 to 2008, and the subject of the masterpiece: Pickett's charge on July 3rd, 1863.
Details the successful launch and execution of the Marshall Plan - America's expansive commitment to re-build Europe at the end of the war. Walter Cronkite traces the complex and changing relationship between the United States and England and explores the dramatic shifts of the Cold War from the end of the war up to the present.
In addition to touring eight national park service battlefields as they are today, the program gives a full account of the famous events that took place in each, describing in detail the history of the Civil War in Virginia.
This video takes you on a tour of of Philadelphia's Independence National Historical Park and recounts the dramatic events that led to the Declaration of Independence and the US. Constitution's establishment. In John Huston's Independence film, Ben Franklin comes to life and brings forth noted figures such as Thomas Jefferson and more to tell the story of historic events that took place in Philadelphia from 1774 to 1790.
Drummers Call: America's Fife and Drum Tradition is a documentary resonating the rich history of military field music. Learn about the honored place of fifing and drumming in the U.S. Army today and discover why corps from around the country descend upon Deep River, Connecticut each year.
Elmyr de Hory was called "The Myth of our Century" when he was revealed as a master forger in 1968. Born in 1905, he made an estimated 1000 fake paintings, primarily in the style of the post-impressionists before he died - or disappeared - in 1976. In addition to faking paintings, Elmyr de Hory often faked his own identity, and traveled easily throughout Europe's high society.
Born into a Bavarian bourgeois family, Heinrich Himmler became the driving force behind the indescribable crimes that made the Nazi regime so unique in modern history.
This feature-length film tells the story of the passion between Marie de l’Incarnation, a mid-seventeenth-century nun and God, her "divine spouse." Fusing documentary and acting by Marie Tifo, whom we follow as she rehearses for this demanding role, the film paints an astonishing portrait of this mystic who abandoned her son and left France to build a convent in Canada, where she became the first female writer in New France.