Lionsgate

Its roots go back to the Ancient Egyptians, whose iron weapons helped maintain an empire that lasted three millennia. But in the 1850s, Englishmen Henry Bessemer invented a process that turned iron into steel, and the world was changed forever. MODERN MARVELS shows how this invention laid the groundwork for the industrial revolution, transforming the world, and, especially, America. The new metal and the new nation were a perfect fit, and America was reborn with a backbone of steel. It became...

Long before President Kennedy commissioned the Navy Seals in 1962, the Navy Combat Demolition Units were running demolition, such as on D-Day when the NCDU took over 50% casualties, and the Underwater Demolition Teams were clearing beaches. We'll recountthe stories of honor, valor, and commitment of these backbones of the Navy Seals.

With the ironic motto, Peace is our Profession, the Strategic Air Command was in charge of U.S. nuclear forces from 1946 to 1992. SAC was the ultimate Cold War military machine, at its height controlling thousands of nuclear weapons, planes, and missiles,and boasting over a quarter million personnel. We travel to the Strategic Air and Space Museum, located 20 miles from SAC's old headquarters in Nebraska, and walk through the cavernous bomb bay of SAC's workhorse, the B-52 Bomber.

Metal constitutes the very essence of the modern world; the cadence of our progress sounds in the measured ring of the blacksmith's hammer. From soaring skyscrapers and sturdy bridges to jet planes and rockets, metals play a key role. Our journey begins before the Bronze Age and takes us into the shiny future when new metal structures--engineered at a molecular level to be stronger, lighter, and cheaper--shape human progress, as they have since man first thrust copper into a fire and forged a...

For most of a century, their tragic fate was unclear, shrouded by a government obsessed with secrecy. With the collapse of the Soviet Union, the final chapter of one of the most fascinating dynasties in history is finally revealed. Join authors Mark Steinberg (The Fall of the Romanovs) and Peter Kurth (The Tsar: The Lost World of Nicholas and Alexandra) for a riveting look at the end of an era. Go deep into the Soviet archives to see the historic documents that led to the discovery of the...

Examine the motivations behind the bloody uprising and discover why Chinese peasants were willing to take up arms to drive foreigners out of the country.

From water and grain...to mash...still...vat...barrel and bottle--the distilling of alcoholic spirits is a big business and near-sacred religion. Its acolytes eye the color, swirl the glass, inhale the bouquet, sip, then ponder their ambrosia. What's yourpleasure? Bourbon, Scotch, Rum, Gin, Vodka, or Tequila? We trace the history of distilling from the one-man/one-still tradition to the Voldstead Act of 1920 that devastated American distilleries to the mega-sales and high-volume distillery of...

The first bombing airplanes and widespread use of chemical weapons...earliest tanks...submarines. When Industrial-Age technology and war first mixed on a large scale, the end result was ruthlessly efficient destruction. World War One epitomized the dark underbelly of the Industrial Revolution. We see how technological achievements that streamlined 19th-century production, improved transportation, and expanded science were used to efficiently decimate a generation of soldiers in the early 20th...

Route 66, encompassing eight states from Illinois to California and 2,400 miles, represented an American myth--that something better lay over the rainbow. Today, one can trace its remnant along byways, bridges, and abandoned roadside attractions. Route 66began in the early 20th century when a confluence of technologies--automotive, steel construction, and concrete paving--merged with population explosion, westward migration, and prosperity after WWI. The federal government responded with...

This is the story of the fiercest gun battle in U.S. police history. On February 28, 1997, a high stakes bank robbery went awry and devolved into an urban firefight that became one of the most violent shootouts in law enforcement history. With TV camerascapturing the action from above, two paramilitary-style gunmen take over a bank using terrorist technology. Donning full body armor and automatic weapons, they charge out of a Bank of America branch in North Hollywood, California, and with...

The target of a daring assassination plot by members of his military, Hitler nearly died at Wolf's Lair, his main wartime headquarters. It was one of 15 known attempts on his life. This is the story of those diverse individuals who tried to alter history's course, and of a top secret British plot to kill the most hated man on earth.

The names are designed to inspire terror in the faint of heart: The Beast, Raptor, Steel Phantom, Colossus, Cyclone and Demon Drop. In amusement parks and boardwalks all over the world, the roller coaster is king. Beginning as far back as the turn of thecentury, roller coasters' designers have competed to build them faster, taller, steeper. They've flipped riders upside down, made them weightless, and applied more g-forces to their bodies than pilots experience in a fighter jet. As technology...