August 24th, 79 A.D. was a day like any other day in the ancient roman town of Herculaneum, citizens met in the town square, discussed a little Italian politics, talked business over lavish lunches. Herculaneum was a booming sea side town at the height of the Roman Empire, trade was good and the future looked bright little did this towns residences know that the clock was ticking, their beautiful
Adventurer and journalist Simon Reeve heads to Cuba to find a communist country in the middle of a capitalist revolution. Two years ago Cuba announced the most sweeping and radical economic reforms the country has seen in decades. From ending state rationing to cutting one million public-sector jobs, one of the last communist bastions in the world has begun rolling back the state on an unprecedent
The journey begins as FRONTLINE correspondent Forrest Sawyer takes viewers to a secret location: the Treasury’s debt auction room, where the U.S. government sells securities backed by the “full faith and credit of the United States.” On this day, the government is auctioning $67 billion of Treasury securities. The money borrowed will be used to fund services and programs that the government cannot
Throughout his career, Houdini (born Erik Weisz; March 24, 1874 – October 31, 1926) performed three variations on a “Buried Alive” stunt/escape. The first was near Santa Ana, California in 1917, and it almost cost Houdini his life. Houdini was buried, without a casket, in a pit of earth six feet deep.He became exhausted and panicky trying to dig his way to the surface and called for help. When
Earth a 4.5 billion year old planet which is still very much evolving and as continents shift and clash due to tectonic plate movement volcanos erupt and glaciers grow and recede, the Earths crust is carved in numerous and fascinating ways, leaving a trail of geological mysteries behind.In this film we explore the Mariana Trench, it is the deepest place on Earth, its sheer walls cut 7 miles
They were the brutes of Ice Age Europe, although a branch of our human family tree they were still viewed upon as a dead end. Deep in our prehistoric past they were called Neanderthals. They carved out a marginal existence hunting by brute force with only simple stone tools, they were considered primitive with no language, art or the higher level thinking of an advanced species such as o
World War I in Color is a documentary made with the cooperation of the Imperial War Museum, designed to make the Great War come alive for a 21st-century audience. The events of 1914-18 are authoritatively narrated by Kenneth Branagh, who presents the military and political overview, while interviews with historians add different perspectives. The human cost is conveyed by moving interviews with th
Terry Jones (of Monty Python’s Flying Circus) goes on a humor-filled journey to recount the amazing tale behind the world’s simplest number.Using computer graphics, “One” is brought to life, in all his various guises. One’s story reveals how celebrated civilizations in history were achieved, where our modern numbers came from and how the invention of zero changed the world forever; and saved us
Speed Limits: Richard Hammond explores the extraordinary wonders of the world of detail hidden in the blink of an eye. The human eye takes about fifty milliseconds to blink. But it takes our brain around a hundred and fifty milliseconds to process what we see. We’re not aware of this time lag going on, but in those few milliseconds, there are extraordinary things happening that completely pass us