The RMS Queen Mary is the last survivor of the golden age of ocean liners. She was bigger and faster than any ship ever built before. Her presence was a symbol of new hope and a better future during the Great Depression and through the darkest days of World War II. Decades after her maiden transatlantic voyage, we celebrate the amazing story of this queen of the seas, told through rarely seen footage and interviews with some of the many millions of people whose lives she touched and changed forever.
After the devastating attacks of 9/11, New York City needed to rebuild itself, emotionally, spiritually, and physically. The site where the Twin Towers once stood was now a gaping pit, and the entire world watched to see what, if anything, could fill the void. Witness the story of One World Trade Center, one of the most significant, and dangerous, construction jobs ever launched. From brazen designs and heated debates to dangerous tasks at dizzying heights, we detail every step of this towering, poignant achievement.
Every graveyard tells a story, but few can talk to the living like Arlington National Cemetery. Visit the final home of war heroes from the Revolutionary War to 9/11 to the current struggle in Iraq. The American flag flies at half-staff more often than not as more than twenty-seven burials take place daily. Each section of the cemetery reflects a time in history, and each stone signifies a hero.
From the desk on which Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence to Dorothy's ruby slippers, the National Museum of American History houses many of America's greatest treasures and icons. Learn the stories of how they came to be a part of the museum's collection, and meet the people who have restored some of these treasures.
Before he wrote the book that revolutionized the way people understood evolution, a young Charles Darwin found himself, by chance, on a strange sea voyage. This is the story of the HMS Beagle, which traveled from Great Britain to survey South America's coastline, but also became part of its Captain Fitzroy's flawed social experiment. It's a tale of bold exploration, tragic miscalculation, the death of a civilization, and the birth of Darwinism.
Few creatures have revealed as many biological secrets about the workings of life on Earth as the backyard lizard known as the anole. Join biologists Neil Losin and Nate Dappen on their yearlong examination of this humble but fascinating creature and its remarkable powers of adaptation. It's a whirlwind journey that takes us from Caribbean rainforests to high-tech labs to the city of Miami, leading to incredible discoveries about the laws of the lizard.
Over the course of nearly half a billion years, which deadly predator ranks as the biggest and baddest? Join us as we travel through time and across the world to present this terrifying top ten ranking. We uncover new evidence, put theories to the test, and feature icons like the Tyrannosaurus rex and the saber-toothed cat, plus lesser-known beasts like the terror bird and the giant lizard Megalania.
Rattlesnakes are unique to the Americas, with at least 32 recognized species living in a multitude of habitats. Though they are icons of the Southwest, rattlers are often persecuted as venomous villains. A handful of states still hold annual roundups to collect and kill as many snakes as possible. But the serpents do have an ally: rattlesnake rescuer Jules Sylvester, who has made it his mission to save as many as he can. Join him on a road trip through the Wild West as he busts myths and rescues a few rattlers along the way.
Yellowstone National Park is home to a vast array of landscapes and a huge diversity of animals, united in a fascinating ecosystem, one that is currently in severe trouble. The area once contained over 19,000 elk, but its numbers have plummeted by 80% in the last two decades. The mysterious decline has sparked many questions, and researchers are in a race to provide answers. Join them as they investigate a series of theories and suspects, from wolves to bears to trees to trout, in an attempt to solve this alarming puzzle.
The island of Barro Colorado in the Panama Canal is full of mysteries, some involving the wide diversity of wildlife, and some involving the island itself. Every year, hundreds of scientists and students come here to uncover the rainforest's secrets, but this year is very different. The island is running dry and no one knows why. Follow several research teams as they observe, experiment, and conduct research in this pristine habitat, and most pressing of all, try to find out what happened to the rain and when it will come again.
This extremely visual docudrama follows Humboldt’s extraordinary path. Travelling in Humboldt’s footsteps is historian Andrea Wulf, whose book on Humboldt became a worldwide bestseller. For good reason, since Humboldt’s ideas on the planet’s fragile web of life are as important today as they were 220 years ago.
JoJo's D.R.E.A.M. Tour has all been building to her homecoming show in Omaha, Nebraska! This special is packed full of live concert performances, surprises, heart, and all the magic of D.R.E.A.M. The Tour!
Relatively few people know that along with authoring the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson also compiled his own text, drawn carefully from passages extracted out of the New Testament, that he titled "The Life and Morals of Jesus of Nazareth." The book, which focused on the ethical teachings of Jesus, was a private undertaking for Jefferson and never made public in his lifetime. Now, experts at the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History are meticulously conserving this fragile volume, page by brittle page. Along the way, they discover subtle hidden clues to Jefferson himself.
In February 1945, Associated Press photographer Joe Rosenthal captured the image of five U.S. Marines and one U.S. Navy Corpsman hoisting the American flag atop a mountain in Iwo Jima.
Puggles, Schnoodles, Labradoodles-they're not newfangled snack treats, they're actually newfangled dogs. Join us as we chronicle the never-ending search for the perfect canine and look at the world of hybrid, purebred, and rescue dogs.
On the stage of a destroyed theater, we saw a play in which Elizabeth, Mercedes and Crisalida, three black women at different stages of life, relive everything they suffered from the interpretation of their own conflicts in the form of inner monologues.
Going from 0 to 150 mph in three seconds, withstanding three Gs of force, and taking off from what's often called "the most dangerous place on the planet" are just parts of everyday life for an aircraft carrier pilot-and it's no different for the crew aboard the USS Enterprise. After being stationed in the Middle East for a year, these pilots have seen heavy action in Afghanistan and Iraq. Now, finally, they're returning home. With amazing personal stories and real-time footage from missions, this is an exciting insider's peek at life onboard a wartime aircraft carrier.
Over billions of years, planet Earth has become home to an amazing interdependent ecosystem, containing a dizzying variety of animals and plants. But how did life here begin? And does it exist anywhere outside of our solar system? We uncover the secrets of our world by tracking the evolution of the cosmos itself, from the Big Bang onwards. Follow scientists responsible for some of the major breakthroughs in understanding the origins of life and witness how their discoveries are fundamentally changing the way we perceive the universe.
Marking the 20th anniversary of the death of Princess Diana in a car crash in Paris in August 1997, this documentary reveals how Diana learned to manipulate and control the photographers who pursued her ever since she started seeing the heir to the British throne, Prince Charles, in the early '80s. Contributions from tabloid editors, royal photographers, Diana's friends, and former Press Attaché and her royal bodyguard.