"Just in time for the 60th anniversary of the blaze that changed American fire laws, The School's on Fire! follows the path of the December 1958 fire that killed 92 kids and 3 teachers at Our Lady of the Angels School in Chicago. Recounted in a fast-paced, blow-by-blow and classroom-by-classroom narrative, the tragedy is made accessible to kids by focusing on the survivors' stories of courage, quick thinking, and luck. Informed by interviews with...

"It's been a long, crazy trip around the world. Now the duo is back in their beloved forest, and Bird wants to throw a party! But Squirrel isn't in the mood to celebrate. His house needs a good cleaning, the river has been dammed up by a pesky beaver, and the forest animals are jittery about a growing menace. Will the dam dry out the forest? Will the mysterious new danger ruin the party? Will Bird finally convince Squirrel to let go and just have...

"The enthralling story of the Great Chicago Fire and the power struggle over the city's reconstruction in the wake of the tragedy In October of 1871, Chicagoans knew they were due for the "big one"--a massive, uncontrollable fire that would decimate the city. There hadn't been a meaningful rain since July, and several big blazes had nearly outstripped the fire department's scant resources. On October 8, when Kate Leary's barn caught fire, so began...

This film investigates slavery in Canada through the story of Marie-Josèphe Angélique, a Black slave accused of burning Montreal in 1734. After an epic trial, this untamable slave is tortured and sentenced to death. But was she really guilty of this crime or was she the victim of a bigger conspiracy? Why this voluntary amnesia about this unknown page of Canadian history? A fascinating 52 minute documentary that powerfully mixes interviews with historians...

"In this addition to the What Was? series, kids will experience what it was like to be in San Francisco in 1906 when the ground buckled in a major, catastrophic earthquake. One early April morning in 1906, the people of San Francisco were jolted awake by a mammoth earthquake--one that registered 7.8 on the Richter Scale. Not only was there major damage from the quake itself but broken gas lines sparked a fire that ravaged the city for days. More than...

In 1944 in Hartford, Connecticut, twelve-year-old Audrey dreams of being an aerialist like her heroes, the Flying Wallendas, and so she is excited to go to Ringling Brothers circus with her six-year-old twin sisters; but at the show a fire breaks out, and as the crowd starts to panic Audrey struggles to reach her sisters--she gets Patty out, but Charlotte, afraid of heights, refuses to jump from the higher seats, and disappears as the big top comes...

July 6, 1944. Whether by nature or by man, some disasters changed history and were a day to be remembered. Evelyn Benson's husband perished in the Bataan Death March but not her faith. The World War II Gold Star widow is taken in by her brother and soothed by the love of his wife and children. Evelyn refuses to cower to grief. She may not understand God's mysterious ways, but she has never questioned Him -- until the circus fire. The Ringling Brothers...

Emmi, a German immigrant, is living in Chicago when the Great Fire breaks out on October 8, 1871, and, separated from her father, she finds herself with her neighbors, Cara and Seamus, braving the smoke and flames trying to escape the danger of the burning city, and searching for all their parents.

Tells the story of the fatal fire that killed 148 workers at the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory in New York City on March 25, 1911. Learn about the years of unrest in America's most profitable manufacturing industry leading up to the fire, including the spontaneous walkout in the same factory two years earlier. Reveals how this walkout of these 20,000 garment workers initiated the largest women's strike in U.S. history as the workers took to the streets...