Produced for WGBH and the BBC in 1992, this 5-hour history of computers is watchable online. It covers the birth of computing in Babbage’s difference engine, all the way through the growth of artificial intelligence and global networks.
On December 15, 2001, Italy’s Leaning Tower of Pisa reopened its doors to tourists after a team of experts spent 11 years and $27 million to keep it from tilting so much it might fall over.
The local documentary ‘Style Wars‘ originally aired on Thirteen way back in 1983. But in the 25 years since, it has a huge cult following amongst graffiti/tagging obsessives and hip-hop aficionados.
The best-selling author and historian Niall Ferguson shows how finance is the foundation of human progress in his latest book, “The Ascent of Money,” on which a new PBS program of the same title is based (airing in January). Watch interview. (Originally aired: 12/10/2008).
Imagine watching Schindler’s List and knowing the sadistic Nazi camp commandant played by Ralph Fiennes was your father. ‘Inheritance’ is the story of Monika Hertwig, the daughter of mass murderer Amon Goeth. You can watch the film online on P.O.V. until January 4th. The film runs 90 minutes.
Denis Belliveau and Francis O’Donnell took a wild idea – retrace Marco Polo’s entire 25,000-mile, land-and-sea route from Venice to China and back – and spent two incredible years of their lives filming the trip. Watch full documentary.
This four-hour documentary tells the epic story of the rise of Christianity, exploring the life and death of Jesus, and the men and women whose belief, conviction, and martyrdom created Christianity. The film covers how Judaism and Roman cultures shaped Jesus’ life, to the growth of the Christian religion from 100 to 300 A.D. Watch. (Originally aired: 4/6/1998)
The first Nobel Prizes are awarded in Stockholm, Sweden, in the fields of chemistry, physics, medicine, literature and peace, on the 5th anniversary of Alfred Nobel’s death, December 10, 1901. Nobel, who was a Swedish chemist and the inventor of dynamite, created a fund for the prizes in his will.
Experts also appraise an original print of the map that revolutionized our understanding of the American landscape — the Lewis and Clark report of 1814, in Hour 3 of Antiques Roadshow, in Portland, Oregon. Watch all appraisals from this episode. (Originally aired: 05/2/2005).
On December 8, 1980, singer John Lennon was killed outside his New York apartment building, on Manhattan’s Upper West Side, opposite Central Park.
