How We Got Here

Rocket scientist Wernher Von Braun's involvement in the race for outer space.

Henry Ford's inspiration and how it affects World War II.

After gold has been discovered in California, a prospector named George Hearst goes west to seek it; William Randolph Hearst takes over a second rate newspaper.

Samuel Colt's mass production of the revolver changes the face of war and helps transform America into an industrial powerhouse.

Tailor Jacob Davis, who invented the copper rivet for use in clothing, joins forces with businessman Levi Strauss to make blue jeans a popular American item.

Painter Samuel Morse devotes the second half of his life to the perfection of the electromagnetic telegraph system.

Nurse Clara Barton attends to wounded soldiers at the Battle of Antietam in 1862 and later founds the American Red Cross.

If future news reporter Bob Woodward doesn't meet the man we'll eventually come to know as "Deep Throat," an imperial presidency will never be brought to its knees. Mark Felt's story is now a key part of US history.

America has plunged into Civil War, and if German immigrant Adolphus Busch dies in a deadly standoff, one of the most familiar American products of all time will never exist.

Pennsylvania Railroad telegraph operator Andrew Carnegie makes a crucial decision that puts him on a path to change the world.

Young bookkeeper John D. Rockefeller gambles on the budding oil industry in the 1860s and soon amasses a fortune in the billions.

Young Milwaukee mechanics William Harley and Arthur Davidson put an engine inside a bicycle frame and revolutionize the motorcycle business.