Smithsonian Channel TV Episodes

In 1900, Galveston, Texas was rocked by a hurricane that killed more people than all other storms to strike the U.S. for the next century combined. Anywhere from 6,000-12,000 were killed in a deadl...

The year is 9 A.D., and Rome is attempting to add Germania to its mighty empire, but they're up against two powerful forces, a well-trained army of barbarians and a cyclonic storm of unfathomable f...

In the middle of the 6th century, the greatest volcanic catastrophe in human history rocked Central America and set off a lethal chain of events, from climate change to famine to the Bubonic plague...

On November 1, 1755, the predominantly Catholic city of Lisbon, Portugal was walloped by a catastrophe of biblical proportions on one of its most religious holidays. A combination of earthquake, ts...

The story of the U.S. Marine's V-22 Osprey is one of transformation. It can convert from helicopter to plane, and back again. But what led to its invention? And how did it survive more than two dec...

Beneath the waters off the North Carolina coast, lost for over 300 years, lays the wreckage of a ship. Experts believe it once belonged to the bloodthirsty pirate Blackbeard, but not everyone is co...

Highly maneuverable, heavily armed, and devastatingly powerful, the U.S. Army's AH-64 Apache is one of the most trusted and lethal weapons in the sky. Called "Black Death" by her foes, she's cast a...

Before it landed in a museum in Vienna, the Spear of Destiny had a long and fascinating history..at least according to legend. Claims that it pierced Jesus, was carried into battle by Charlemagne, ...

Meet the undisputed king of winged fighters, the F-15 Eagle. For decades, it's been the U.S. Air Force's weapon of choice when there's any real chance of air-to-air combat, with an undefeated recor...

"Raiders of the Lost Ark" made it famous, but the story of the Ark of the Covenant goes back many centuries. According to the Bible, it was built by the Israelites at God's command 3,000 years ago,...

Queen Nefertiti was the most powerful woman in ancient Egypt, but few today would know anything about her if it weren't for the discovery of her statue in the Amarna Desert in 1912. Since then, she...

The Great Pyramid at Giza is the last of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World still in existence. It's as tall as a 50-story building, has stood for 4,500 years, and for centuries, has been a puz...

Hip Hop has evolved from a musical genre into one of the most influential movements of the 21st Century, affecting the way people dress, speak, and even think. Follow the journey from its birth in ...

The history of music's greatest invention and the world's most popular musical instrument. From the early days of the Model U and Frying Pan to the guitar wars of Fender and Gibson, experience the ...

Folkways Records founder Moses Asch turned the music business model on its head. He avoided hit makers and catered to unknown musicians. He dug into vanishing traditions around the world to harness...

Once every decade in a small Colombian village, musicians engage in a fierce battle for the title of the Accordion King. Travel down to Colombia, and go behind the scenes of the Vallenato Kings Fes...

Their mission was to destroy two cities in Japan, and that is what they did. Fifty years after the atomic bomb missions over Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan, surviving crewmen of the Enola Gay and Bo...

Artist. Activist. Philosopher. Philanthropist. Visionary. Over the last 25 years, Peter Gabriel has evolved from a gifted musician into a forward-looking ideologist and pacifist. Join him in this e...

The stone giants of Easter Island are some of the most recognizable statues on Earth, and some of the least understood. How were hundreds of these enormous figures built, and why? And what prompted...

The History of our past presidents through portraits, caricatures and photos, produced by the artists of their day. Go behind the scenes and into the minds of artists as they capture, commemorate, ...

Enter the unpredictable ER environment behind the scenes of our nation's largest zoos. Every day brings new and baffling challenges, forcing vets into the roles of surgeons, dentists, caregivers, a...

Photographer Chris Rainier has spent the last two decades documenting tattoo culture. His journeys have taken him through jungles, cities, deserts, and into the lairs of New Guinea hill tribes and ...

There may be no place on Earth as beautiful or as romantic as Paris, France. But the City of Light was once a city of unspeakable filth and decay. Rotting garbage and carcasses filled the streets. ...

8000 years ago in the Atacama Desert of northern Chile many tiny children, babies and even fetuses were painstakingly mummified after death by their people - the Chinchorro. These are the oldest kn...

We're celebrating the one-hundred-year anniversary of the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History, home of fine art, dinosaurs, the Hope Diamond, and over one hundred million specimens. Se...

In 1969, Apollo 11 astronauts and a Russian robot rover raced each other to reach the moon first. More than 40 years later, the debate of man vs. machine rages on: Which is better equipped to handl...

Three World War II veterans from "The Greatest Generation" are invited to participate in an "Honor Flight" to the National World War II Memorial in Washington, D.C. The celebration culminates in a ...

Forgotten hero Bill Genaust, who captured on film the historic Iwo Jima flag-raising, is remembered by his Photo Unit commander, his last living relative, and visceral footage of two of the fierces...

Going from 0 to 150 mph in 3 seconds, withstanding 3 Gs of force and taking off from what's often called "the most dangerous place on the planet" is just everyday life for an aircraft carrier pilot...

Is the Big Apple rotten to the core with trash? Discover the complete history of trash in Manhattan, from the first Dutchman who filled its marshes to the freegans who empty its trashcans. Over the...

Take a tour of some of America's most prominent and magnificent monuments in the heart of our nation's history. Washington D.C. is a city of monuments; monuments that honor our heroes, celebrate ou...

Get stoked for a high-flying, adrenaline-fueled adventure. Explore the underground movement that's helping Native American youth throughout the U.S. soar above life's challenges, one half-pipe at a...

Every graveyard tells a story, but few can talk to the living like Arlington National Cemetery. Visit the final home of war heroes from the Revolutionary War to 9/11 to the current struggle in Iraq...

Learn about the Smithsonian Photography Initiative's program Click!, which examines the many ways photography allows us to see, experience, and interact with the world as well as deepen our underst...

Trace the origins of kamikaze battle, and relive two days of horror in 1945, when the Japanese launched "Operation Heaven" against the allied fleet in the Pacific. This award-winning documentary de...

Twenty decapitated skeletons have been unearthed during the recent dig of a Roman cemetery near York in the UK. Some show signs of a violent death. Others were dispatched more cleanly. Were they ex...

Excavations of an abandoned cemetery in Griswold, Connecticut, uncover a grave dating from the 1800s in which the bones had been re-arranged in the pattern of the 'skull and cross bones'. On the ou...

Starting a museum is, to say the least, a monumental task. Join us for the first glimpses of Smithsonian's newest museum, the National Museum of African American History and Culture, slated to open...

With nearly 28,000 patients representing almost 2,000 species, the vets of Chicago's Lincoln Park Zoo and Brookfield Zoo never know what animal ailments await them and each day brings new challenge...

The 1960s were a turbulent decade full of civil unrest and political backlash. The Apollo Moon landing galvanized most of our polarized nation, but to some, the Vietnam War and Watergate scandal cr...

From the eerie swampy bog lands of Northern Europe have emerged a series of sinister mummified human bodies dating from about 2000 years ago. The evidence suggests they all share the dark secret of...

Nearly two hundred perfectly preserved mummies have been found in a church crypt in the Hungarian town of Vac. One in particular could be the key to curing Tuberculosis and is now stored in the Nat...

Cairo is one of the biggest cities on the planet, and getting bigger by the day. In 50 years, the population has grown fivefold to 18 million. Each day the city accumulates about 25,000 tons of tra...

The people who help run the world's most famous home are anonymous to the public, but the presidents know their names. From the devoted doormen to the butlers, plumbers, chefs, housekeepers, engine...

Discover the hidden symbolism of the Landsdowne, a familiar full-length portrait of George Washington that hangs in the National Gallery. Examine Gilbert Stuart's unforgettable portrait, which capt...

In 1979 Jan Scruggs had an idea to build a memorial honoring the 2.7 million Americans who served in the nation's longest and most controversial war. Highly controversial upon inception, today the ...

Join curators from the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum and a former shuttle astronaut as they discuss memorable moments from the last fifty years in Space. Relive the triumphs and tragedies, and w...

With a population of 8.3 million producing 12,000 tons of trash a day, collecting all that garbage is one challenge, finding a home for it is another.

This story takes place in Maine, but it's a tale that occurs throughout America as summer gives way to the first chill of fall. Two rival high schools from rival towns settle their differences on t...

Inside the tactical planning of one of the first long-distance air raids launched by U.S air forces in 1945, as huge fleets of B-29 bombers escorted by P-51 Mustangs executed an intensive firebombi...