Led by physicist Robert Noyce, Fairchild Semiconductor began as a start-up company whose radical innovations would help make the United States a leader in both space exploration and the personal…

A broadcast that struck fear into an already anxious nation, Orson Welles’ War of the Worlds radio broadcast was the most famous alien invasion that never happened.

An absorbing life story of a farm boy who rose from obscurity to become the most influential American innovator of the 20th century, Henry Ford offers an incisive look at…

See how the activities of the five principals intersect and affect the anti-slavery movement.

Examine the forces leading to war and to the ratification of the Thirteenth Amendment.

Featuring the men and women who lived and worked at Grand Coulee in the wake of the Great Depression and the Native people whose lives were changed alongside historians and…

A profile of Gen. George Armstrong Custer (1839-76), nicknamed “the boy general” for his Civil War exploits, who died with many other members of the 7th Cavalry while battling the…

The story behind a courageous band of civil rights activists called Freedom Riders who in 1961 challenged segregation in the American South.

In 1969, homosexuality was illegal in almost every state… but that was about to change. The Stonewall riots marked a major turning point in the modern gay civil rights movement….

It was the deadliest workplace accident in New York City’s history. A dropped match on the 8th floor of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory sparked a fire that killed over a…

The little-known story of the American effort to relieve starvation in the new Soviet Russia in 1921, The Great Famine is a documentary about the worst natural disaster in Europe…

In 1881, 25 men led by Adolphus Greely set sail from Newfoundland to Lady Franklin Bay in the high Arctic, where they planned to collect a wealth of scientific data…

What drove a company of American soldiers — ordinary young men from around the country — to commit the worst atrocity in American military history? American Experience focuses on the…

Dolley Madison lived through the two wars that established the U.S., was friends with the first 12 Presidents, and watched America evolve from a struggling young republic to the first…

Wyatt Earp has been portrayed in countless movies and television shows by some of Hollywood’s greatest actors, including Henry Fonda, Jimmy Stewart, and more recently, Kevin Costner, but these popular…

On the night of February 27, 1973, fifty-four cars rolled, horns blaring, into a small hamlet on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. Within hours, some 200 Oglala Lakota and American…

The Cherokee would call it Nu-No-Du-Na-Tlo-Hi-Lu, “The Trail Where They Cried.” On May 26, 1838, federal troops forced thousands of Cherokee from their homes in the Southeastern United States, driving…

In February of 1909, the indomitable Chiricahua Apache medicine man Geronimo lay on his deathbed. He summoned his nephew to his side, whispering, “I should never have surrendered. I should…

On April 14, 1865, Abraham Lincoln was assassinated at Ford’s Theatre in Washington, D.C. Over the next twelve days, as a fractured nation mourned, the largest manhunt ever attempted closed…

The story of the polio crusade pays tribute to a time when Americans banded together to conquer a terrible disease. The medical breakthrough saved countless lives and had a pervasive…

An examination of the athletic career and humanitarian interests of the acknowledged baseball star of the late 60s and earliest 70s.

Few Americans then or now accept that a lone, inconsequential gunman could bring down a president and alter history. In that breach, a culture of conspiracy has arisen that points…

A profile of the aristocratic founding father, his efforts to bring federal economic reforms to the fledgling country, and how his aloof personality led to opposition and tragedy.

A story of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints – its beginnings in 1830, the migration of its persecuted members, and its role and influence in the modern…

A profile of Alexander Hamilton, the nation’s first treasury secretary and a leading force in the post-Revolutionary War push for a Constitution and strong central government. Included: his role in…

A profile of Joseph Goebbels (1897-45), who helped launch Hitler’s rise to power. Kenneth Branagh provides voice-over readings of Goebbels’ personal diaries. Included: footage from German archives tracing Goebbels’ life;…

A striking profile of the outlaw (1847-82) is told through reenactments, comments from historians and archival photographs. The hour traces James’ life from age 16 to his death at 34…

A gripping study of the groundbreaking prosecution, which began Nov. 20, 1945, as Nazi Germany’s leaders were held accountable for war crimes, infamously blamed on “following orders.” Profiled are Hermann…

The story of the gambling mecca is told via news clips and reminiscences. Part 1 of 2

News clips and reminiscences tell the story of the gambling mecca, from a dusty railroad town to a leading tourist attraction. Part 2 of 2

“Two Days in October” recalls two 1967 events — a Vietcong ambush and a violent antiwar demonstration at the University of Wisconsin — that together marked a turning point in…

A shy, if driven man, Robert Kennedy “wasn’t built for the spotlight, he was built for the wings,” says journalist Jack Newfield. While John Kennedy was alive, that’s where Bobby…

“Reconstruction” concludes by following whites and blacks in Georgia, South Carolina and Louisiana between 1867 and 1877. It begins with the granting of widespread voting rights for blacks in the…

Recalling the construction of the Golden Gate Bridge, a “graceful leap over an unprecedented space,” as narrator David Ogden Stiers calls it. The Golden Gate presented its engineers with a…

“Reconstruction: The Second Civil War,” a two-part report, follows political leaders and ordinary Americans alike as it chronicles one of the most contentious periods in American history. “An old social…

“Seabiscuit” recalls the squat and ugly racehorse that riveted the nation in the late 1930s. Interviewees include author Laura Hillenbrand (“Seabiscuit: An American Legend”), who charts the Cinderella story of…

Charting the race between the Union Pacific and Central Pacific to construct a transcontinental railroad to link the U.S. It ended May 10, 1869, in Promontory Point, Utah. The construction…

An evocative two-part profile of Jimmy Carter explores how his career has been shaped by what former speechwriter Hendrik Hertzberg calls his “moral ideology.” Produced by Adriana Bosch (“American Experience”…

“Hostage,” the conclusion of a two-part Jimmy Carter biography, covers his presidency and post-presidency. Human rights were to be “a basic tenet of our foreign policy,” Carter declared in 1977,…