LLC A&E Television Networks

1932 was marked by Franklin Delano Roosevelt's election and Amelia Earhart's historic flight across the Atlantic. Year by Year also looks at Al Capone's sentence to jail.

Their names were linked to the two most powerful men during the Civil War. Their lives were both controversial and often times misunderstood, yet never before in American history were there two first ladies. This is the story of Mary Todd Lincoln, wife of the President of the United States, and Varina Davis, wife of the President of the Confederate States of America. Although they were two women from rival governments, they led parallel lives, struggling...

The Stagecoach and Pony Express provided a link between the Western frontiersman and the eastern homes they left behind. With people, money, and mail able to travel to and from even the most remote boom towns, the U.S. was able to grow faster. The stagecoach provided a rollicking adventure that included threats of Indian attacks, potential stage robberies, and opportunities to see nature close-up. This is the story of the drivers and express riders...

Popular myth has a tendency to focus on what the men of the West were, leaving the impression that women were just their servants. No doubt when the first wagon trains left some women were reluctant to leave their comfortable homes for the almost certain hardships of the trail, but undoubtedly the same was true for some men. The reality was it didn't take long for Western fever to infect everyone with the same lust for adventure and freedom.

This history of the American West is a study in contrast: great triumphs side by side with terrible tragedies. In the 1830s the Mormons formed a uniquely American religious group and against all odds the carved a prosperous kingdom out of the most inhospitable wilderness. In the midst of this shining heritage hides a dark secret, the Mountain Meadows Massacre, one of the bloodiest incidents in the history of the frontier.

If a single word describes the modern Christian soldier it is duty. In the Civil War duty came to bear heavily on many soldiers fighting for the North and South. Throughout the long terrible conflict no single man was called to greater duty nor suffered more the tug of human struggles than Robert E. Lee. This is the story of the man who fought hard for his beliefs and eventually surrendered to Ulysses S. Grant, ending the American Civil War.

This A&E Special unveils the secrets behind the failed attempt by U.S.-backed Cuban exiles to invade the Communist stronghold and overthrow Fidel Castro's revolutionary government in April, 1961.The Bay of Pigs invasion marked the first foreign policy defeat for the new Kennedy administration and the first time a CIA covert operation had been exposed to public scrutiny.

Medieval castles are imposing structures that were built to withstand assaults. Devoted to defense, these designs found the balance between form and function. Modern Marvels explores the construction and purpose of these massive, multipurpose piles of stone.

Cheyenne Indians were perhaps the greatest warrior nation of the 19th Century. Split apart by both the fur traders' desire for buffalo hide and the white settlers' westward expansion along the Oregon Trail, the life of the Cheyenne quickly turned into a perpetual fight for survival.

This is the story of Quanah Parker, the son of a Comanche chief and a white captive, who was the last Comanche leader to surrender his tribe to the white man. He went on to become a cattle rancher, court judge, and peacetime chief.