Days That Shook the World

Episode 1

The Cost of Betrayal: The Defection of Burgess & MacLean/The Execution of the Rosenbergs

The Cost of Betrayal examines two cases of Espionage in the Cold War era of the 1950's. The first half follows the events that surrounded Guy Burgess while the second half examines The last day of Ethel and Julius Rosenberg's life in Sing Sing Prison as they wait to be executed for espionage.

Episode 2

Rule of the Gun: The O.K. Corral/Saint Valentine's Day Massacre

Thu, Oct 27, 2005 8 mins

Episode 3

Fact or Fiction: The War of the Worlds and the Hitler Diaries

Can we trust historical documents to be genuine - and how do we know that a dramatic news report is actually just an unusually skillfully acted play? About Orson Welles radio play "War of the Worlds"(1938) which led to panic around the US as people tried to escape the invading Martians that the program warned of. And the sensational publication in the German newspaper Stern in 1983 of what were claimed to be Hitler's handwritten diaries.

Episode 4

The War to End All Wars

59 mins

Late on the 7th November 1918 a German civilian delegation crossed the front lines into French territory - their aim: to bring the war to an end. In the cars a delegation headed by Matthias Erzberger. They are on their way to meet French Marshal Foch - commander in chief of all the allied armies. The parties meet in a railway car in a clearing in the forest at Compiegne. the Germans think they have come to negotiate - the allies have other ideas. Meanwhile on the front lines, men continue to die.

Episode 5

Let Freedom Ring: The Boston Tea Party/The Independence of India

Thu, Nov 17, 2005 61 mins

Episode 6

Battle for the Holy City

60 mins

Episode 7

The Battle of Midway

60 mins

Following the embarrassment caused by the Doolittle Raid on Tokyo, the Japanese devised a climactic battle over the island of Midway intended to finish U.S. naval power in the Pacific. On June 4th 1942 three aircraft carriers of the United States and and four of Japan fought a battle that changed the course of World War II.

Episode 8

The Road to Revolution: The Execution of Ceaucescu/The Iranian Revolution

Recap/reenactments of events surrounding the 1979 Iranian revolution in which the Shah of Iran was deposed and the 1989 Romanian Revolution in which Nicolae Ceausescu, the president of Romania and his wife Elena were deposed, tried, and executed.

Episode 10

Reach for the Stars: Trials of Galileo/Yuri Gagarin's Flight