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New York Underground

Aired February 17, 1997

In March 1888, a ferocious blizzard ground the city to a halt. Mountains of snow twenty feet high filled the streets, horse-drawn streetcars and omnibuses lay abandoned, the entire city was paralyzed. The snow left no doubt that New York needed an underground rail system and in 1894, after years of political obstacles, a plan was approved. Construction began in 1900.

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Big Dream Small Screen

Aired February 10, 1997

In 1921, a 14-year-old boy working in a potato field in Idaho had a vision of sending pictures in waves over the air, like sound waves for radio.

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The Telephone

Aired February 3, 1997

The telephone was first introduced at the Centennial Exposition in 1876 and was an instant success. Although first rented only to "persons of good breeding" and seen as an expensive luxury for doctors and businessmen, the telephone soon transformed American life. Trees gave way to telephone poles as operators known as "hello girls" began to connect a sprawling continent.

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Andrew Carnegie: The Richest Man in the World

Aired January 20, 1997

Andrew Carnegie built a fortune in telegraphy, railroads, and steel. And then began, systematically, to give it all away.

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TR

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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The Wright Stuff

Aired February 12, 1996 | 60 min

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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