Program Category: History

The story of Minor Keith and the construction of the Costa Rican Atlantic Railway in the 19th Century. A seemingly small infrastructure project, laying one hundred miles of track cost the lives of over 4000 men, took nearly 20 years to complete and bankrupted a nation. It resulted in the formation of the United Fruit Company, the largest agricultural enterprise in the world, and the most controversial US company ever to operate in Latin America. UFCO and Minor Keith are still considered the embodiment of US Imperialism by those in Central America, South America and the Caribbean.

Toyland takes you inside the high stakes world of the 23 billion dollar toy industry, where fun and fortune awaits those who know how to get inside the mind of a child.

Meet the people behind the biggest playthings in history as we follow the ups and downs of game designer, Tim Walsh as he tries to takes his own invention to market

From paper to prototype, we follow Walsh along his winding road to Toy Fair, the largest trade show for toys in the western hemisphere, with frustrating pitches to Hasbro, Spin Master, and others along the way.

Will his toy light up the imagination of kids everywhere or never see the light of day?

The series follows the evolution of Mao Zedong’s rise to power, and in turn, how he created a new China. In 1972, Chairman Mao Zedong was not entirely joking when he asked Tanaka Kakuei, the visiting Japanese Prime Minister, whether he should thank him for the invasion – because it had changed the destiny of China.

The Real Hobbit examines one of the greatest controversies in science today: just what did scientists really find when they uncovered the tiny, human-like skeleton of a strange creature on the Indonesian island of Flores in 2003? Since the discovery was made public a bitter dispute has split the world of anthropology. Are the bones a previously unknown and bizarre primitive species of human? The Hobbit discovery forces us to rethink some of the most fundamental questions of human origins. How could the Hobbits have survived for so long and until so recently? Who were its ancestors? Is it possible that human origins are to be found in Asia, not Africa?

They were known in history as brutal savages, fearless slave raiders and above all – pirates. Hailing from the Sulu Sea region in the Southern regions of the Philippines, the Ilanun, Balangingi Samal & Taosug tribes raided and plundered settlements in the Philippines, Borneo, Java, the Straits of Malacca and all over South East Asia in the search for human cargo to feed the growing demands of the slave trade in the 16th to 19th century.

The 1950’s was an idealistic time in American History, filled with hope, opportunity, and wonder. It was also, “The Atomic Age” where new technology promised to both save humanity as well as put it in jeopardy. All of these factors gave birth to one of the most prolific genres in film history, 1950’s Science Fiction Cinema.

In February of 1950 the world’s largest bomber took off on a secret Cold War mission from Alaska. Inside the belly of the B-36 is a Mk.IV nuclear bomb and its 13 pound plutonium core. The route would take aircraft “075” along the BC coastline until it reached Washington State and headed inland. During the mission engine fires forced the crew of seventeen to abandon the massive bomber over the BC coast. Despite the largest search and rescue operation in Air Force history five of the crewmen, along with the bomber and its nuclear weapon are presumed lost in the depths of the Pacific Ocean.

The Last Confession of Alexander Pearce follows the final days of Irish convict Alexander Pearce’s life as he awaits execution. The year is 1824 and the British penal colony of Van Diemen’s Land is little more than a living hell. Chained to a wall in the darkness of a cell under Hobart Gaol, Pearce is visited by Father Conolly, the parish priest of the fledgling colony and a fellow Irishman.

The story of the Forgotten Battle in the Forgotten War: how a small band of Australians, Canadians and New Zealanders in Korea gave up their Anzac Day barbecue to stop the Seoul-bound Chinese Army in its tracks.

The Battle of Kapyong became the turning point of China’s Fifth Offensive in the Spring of 1951. The aim of the offensive was to finally drive the foreign troops out of South Korea and into the sea. What happened instead, changed the history of the Korean War.