History Channel Modern Marvels: The World's Fastest (2005)

They were trying to do what no one had ever done before, to surpass a barrier that many experts had felt was impenetrable not long before. The test pilots who made history recall one of the great challenges of aviation, risking their lives BREAKING THE SOUND BARRIER.

Part of The History Channel's Modern Marvels series, The Manhattan Project documents how scientists were brought together by the American government in order to create what at that time was the most devastating weapon in history - the atomic bomb. The United States wanted to build an atomic explosive to counter the threat posed by the German nuclear development program.

In 1877, for the first time, voices, music, the barking of dogs–and all sorts of other sounds could be recorded, played back, and preserved for posterity. All through the marvel of the phonograph. Surprisingly the man who created the phonograph, Thomas Alva Edison, had no theoretical background in acoustics, and only a few months of formal schooling. And ironically, he was half deaf.

This book explores commentaries on an influential text of pre-Copernican astronomy in Europe. It features essays that take a close look at key intellectuals and how they engaged with the main ideas of this qualitative introduction to geocentric cosmology.

In the centuries since the gun was invented, hundreds of innovators, engineers and inventors have brought their vision together to create what has become one of the most perfectly produced items ever made. This TALES OF THE GUN COLLECTORS SET chronicles the long history of firearm design and construction from the first, primitive weapons to today's computer-controlled, high-tech factories.

Changes the way we think about the distant past. While we entertain visions of a simpler, unsophisticated time, the truth is much more complicated and fascinating than we imagine. This fresh, eye-opening series – filmed on location where historical events actually happened and using brilliant, lifelike computer animation – applies the latest scholarship to reconsider common beliefs about ancient times. Reconstructions of ancient machines and hands-on demonstrations bring ancient times to life.

Here is the ultimate synchronisation of details and events which signalled the last six months of the greatest conflict the world has ever known. It involved over 100 countries, it killed 50 million people and absorbed six years of struggle and bloodshed for the peoples of half the globe.

After Columbus came conquest. From all corners of the world, explorers reached the shores of the New World to reap untold riches, seek new routes to the Far East, and gain the most elusive glory of all - a place in history. A sweeping saga of bravery, cruelty and pure folly, these are the stories of adventurers who stopped at nothing to conquer an unknown land and its people.

Arguably the world's most famous work of art, millions of people visit it every year. Until now however nobody has been able to explain exactly what the Sistine Chapel's ceiling is actually trying to tell us. Though important and timely the film (airing as it does to celebrate the 500th birthday of the work) it is also the product of the detective work and obsessive scholarship by art critic Waldemar Januszczak which spans the last 30 years. During this time he has been trying to unlock the secrets of Sistine Chapel's complex pictorial codes and sumptuous iconography.