On August 6, 1945, the Enola Gay, a U.S. B-29 bomber, drops the first atomic bomb used on people over the Japanese city of Hiroshima. Between the blast and the extended fallout, the disaster killed over 140,000 people. U.S. President Harry S. Truman made the decision to use the bomb rather than invade Japan to [...]
A Civil War enthusiast owns an antique photograph that depicts about 20 older white men in full dress uniform, standing shoulder-to-shoulder with two black men. History Detectives investigates the first national social group to challenge the color barrier.
Aug. 4, 1944: the Nazi Gestapo captures 15-year-old Anne Frank, after 2 years of hiding with her family in an Amsterdam warehouse. In the small space she wrote her diary, arguably the most famous account of the Holocaust. Frank died in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp two months before it was liberated. Read more about Nazis [...]
Running up to the 2008 Beijing Olympics (August 8-24), Thirteen will be airing a number of documentaries about contemporary China, and a few about the Olympics. Some of them are also watchable online. See the listings and links here.
Cosimo was the first real power patriarch of the Medici; his patronage allowed the Brunelleschi dome to be completed (1436) and supported many Renaissance artists. Watch the PBS series on the Medici, now streaming online.
British novelist J.K. Rowling turns 43 today. She was born on July 31, 1965, in Chipping Sodbury, near Bristol, England. Rowling is best known as the creator of the Harry Potter book series, which have gained worldwide attention and sold nearly 400 million copies. She is listed as the second-richest woman in entertainment (behind Oprah [...]
NBR is seeking to identify the Top 30 Innovations since the show premiered in 1979 — and is looking for audience submissions/nominations. Contribute here…NBR will be reviewing nominations until 9/15/2008.
Can a 29-year-old political nobody with no prior political experience win a Missouri House Primary over an incumbent? Filmed during the 2004 election season, this documentary originally aired on Independent Lens in 2007. Watch online or read more about the film.
History Detectives determines if a palm-sized, army-green metal box was indeed snatched from the burning wreckage of the Hindenburg in Lakehurst, New Jersey. Watch video. Originally aired July 28, 2008.
Following its ratification by the necessary 3/4 of U.S. states, the 14th amendment was officially adopted into the U.S. Constitution on July 28, 1868, extending citizenship and all its privileges to African-Americans. Go deeper in the race timeline, and see how American ideas about race have changed significantly over time in the series “Race- The [...]
