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.

Newspaper reporter Bob Woodward's meetings with a secret informant named "Deep Throat" lead to the resignation of President Richard M. Nixon.

German immigrant Adolphus Busch survives a deadly standoff during the Civil War and goes on to produce one of the most American products of all time.

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.