This is your chance to ask documentarian Ken Burns about his career, his documentaries, and plans for the future. PBS Engage will ask Ken Burns 5 questions from the ones …
On September 24, 1789, the Judiciary Act is passed by Congress and signed by President George Washington, establishing the first Supreme Court of the United States. President Washington nominated John Jay as chief justice, and 5 associate justices. Watch video from the 2007 PBS series, The Supreme Court.
History Detectives meets with U.S. Army archivists and historians to find out if a recording for a soldier musical called “Hi Yank” was connected to the American war effort. Could the disk be a piece of forgotten history? Listen to the full recording of the Hi Yank soldier musical. (Originally aired: Season 6, Episode 10).
When brothers Armando and Carlos Peña set off to carry their mother’s ashes to south Texas, their road trip turns into a quest for answers about their family’s strangely veiled past. The entire documentary, originally aired 9/16 on Thirteen, is watchable online through 9/23.
Nicknamed ‘Otzi’, the mummy of a person who lived during Europe’s Copper Age was discovered by hikers in the South Tyrolean Alps in Italy in 1991. He was killed around 3300 B.C., and his discovery gave an unprecedented view into what life was like in that era.
In 1985, one of the greatest treasure discoveries was made off the Florida Keys, when the wreck of the Spanish ship Atocha was found. History Detectives translates 300-year-old documents from the archives of the Spanish treasury in Seville to crack a unique code of communication among ship captains of that era. Watch. (Originally aired: Season 5, Episode 4).
The NewsHour special, Debating our Destiny II, that aired in September on Thirteen, is now watchable online. This special (part I aired in 2000) looks at the critical role that the debates have played in the election process for the last 48 years. Watch now.
The domain google.com was registered on September 15, 1997. Originally the company used a Stanford website with the domain google.stanford.edu. Google, Inc. was formally incorporated on Sept. 7, 1998, at a friend’s garage in Menlo Park, CA. See some interviews about Google as the company turns 10….
On this day in 1945, Mike the chicken, sent to the chopping block, lost his head and lived, and became a celebrity instead of dinner. Mike is immortalized as part of the Emmy award-winning film ‘The Natural History of the Chicken’, which originally aired on PBS in 2002. You can now watch the entire film online.
In 1973, local Thirteen program The 51st State aired this video ode to the World Trade Center in honor of its grand opening. It’s abstract and a little strange; stranger still today. Read more about The 51st State and this segment.
