Smithsonian Channel Documentaries

US Airways Flight 1549 is about two minutes into its journey from LaGuardia Airport to Charlotte, North Carolina in 2009 when bird strikes to both engines cripple the plane. What results is an emergency landing on the Hudson River that astonishes the world and shines a light on a growing problem affecting our increasingly busy skies. Follow a team of forensic ornithologists and discover the remarkable research being conducted to solve the bird strike problem.

Forget what you think you know about pigs. These remarkable animals have talents we're only beginning to understand. See how pigs have conquered nearly every habitat on Earth, thanks to their remarkable senses, intelligence, and adaptability. From the islands of Indonesia to the beaches of the Bahamas to the frozen tundra of Siberia, meet eight-inch pygmy hogs, cheetah-avoiding warthogs, domesticated pigs with super senses, and more.

Looks aren’t everything. Despite its appearance, the naked mole rat should be envied. It lives to a very old age, never gets sick, and is practically impervious to pain. Scientists want to know why. In the quest to combat age-related illness – and even ageing itself – researchers around the world are searching for the Methuselah gene in this remarkable rodent to find cures for humans.

In the 1930s, a black postal carrier from Harlem named Victor Green published a book that was part travel guide and part survival guide. It was called The Negro Motorist Green Book, and it helped African-Americans navigate safe passage across America well into the 1960s. Explore some of the segregated nation's safe havens and notorious "sundown towns" and witness stories of struggle and indignity as well as opportunity and triumph.

On the evening of June 23, 2016, Prime Minister David Cameron and his inner circle gathered at 10 Downing Street to witness a turning point in British history. Nearly 52% of the people of the U.K. voted to leave the European Union. This is the inside account of Brexit, from the British conservatives demanding a referendum to the team of European presidents and prime ministers scrambling to prevent the E.U. from being torn apart.

A boat overcrowded with men, women, and children fleeing Africa sinks near Italy, killing over 800 people in April 2015. The tragedy is the flashpoint of a long-running problem. The number of migrants and asylum seekers coming to European shores had been growing, and the figures were about to skyrocket, fueled by the civil war in Syria. This is the inside story of Europe's migration explosion and its impact across the globe.

Part 1: Slave to Star Before Flavius Scorpus became a superstar charioteer in ancient Rome's most popular sport, he was a young slave who dreamed of freedom. Explore the early years of Scorpus' life to see how he escaped his circumstances to become history's most talented and successful charioteer. We rebuild and test the chariots he rode, investigate how the races really worked, and then hit the track for a white-knuckled look at the violent and hugely competitive races.

Part 2: Circus Maximus Chariot racer Flavius Scorpus has won hundreds of races while watching his friends and rivals die on the track. Now, the stakes, and the risks, are about to escalate as the charioteer performs on the greatest racetrack in the Roman Empire: Circus Maximus. Follow Scorpus as he out-muscles vicious competition, earns a fortune, and becomes a hero to hundreds of thousands of adoring fans. Recent excavations and exhilarating recreations bring the races, and the era, vividly back to life.

The jungles of the sacred city of Polonnaruwa in Sri Lanka are home to 33 identified troops of toque macaques and one man. This is the extraordinary story of Dr. Wolfgang Dittus, a scientist from the Smithsonian Institution who, over decades, has tracked and documented the lives of thousands of monkeys, revealing a complex society that is in many ways like our own. His journey is captured through his own words, footage he's taken over the course of 50 years, and his interactions with the scrappy, cheeky monkeys he's dedicated his life to.

An astonishing range of wildlife is attracted to the Pantanal's Rebel Lake - including 600-pound tapirs, jaguars, graceful spoonbills and hundreds of caimans.

On the morning of June 6, 1944, thousands of ships reached the French coast of Normandy as part of an Allied operation to take back France from the Germans. For the next 85 days, U.S., British, and Canadian soldiers engaged in conflicts of unimaginable violence, conquering and liberating the region's cities, but at the cost of hundreds of thousands of lives. From the D-Day invasion to the final Nazi surrender in Argentan, this is the definitive story of the three-month Battle of Normandy as it's never been seen before.

Caroline Sturdy Colls, a world leader in the forensic investigation of Nazi crime scenes, is chasing clues to an unsolved case: a concentration camp that existed on the British island of Alderney. Witnesses and survivors claimed that thousands died there, but only 389 bodies have ever been found. Under heavy restrictions imposed by the local government, which may not want its buried secrets revealed, Colls must uncover the truth using revolutionary techniques and technologies

The dropping of "Fat Man" and "Little Boy" on Japan marked the end of World War II and the dawn of the Atomic Age. The race against the Soviet Union to build a bigger, better bomb was on. The U.S. put their new nukes to the test on a desolate stretch of desert just 65 miles away from Las Vegas, and people traveled from all over the country to witness the detonations. This is the story of the nation's grand atomic experiment and the bizarre atomic subculture that spawned beauty queens, new hairdos, and radioactive superheroes.

The Day We Walked on the Moon is the inside story of the first moon landing, told from the unique, first-hand perspective of the astronauts and other key figures on the Apollo 11 Mission and those left behind—watching, waiting, and witnessing what remains, 50 years later, one of humanity’s greatest achievements. Watched live by 600 million people around the world, NASA officials reveal how close the Apollo 11 came to failure while family members recall nervously listening to the radio feed, wondering if their loved ones would make it home. The film also explores the importance of the first Moon Mission to America in an era dominated by an unpopular war and nuclear rivalry with Russia.

This one-hour documentary examines the deadly African rock python by showing a 13-foot, 70-pound female snake’s daily life in a sub-tropical valley in South Africa.

An intimate and classic journey through Chile with magical moments of nature, from a cougar mother playing tenderly with her cubs to the rare desert flowering, where different animals take advantage of the opportunity the flowers give them.

Some of them move. Others make noise. One weighs in at 700 pounds. Collectively, they represent the future of contemporary craft. Go behind the scenes of the "40 under 40: Craft Futures" exhibition, featuring traditional and non-traditional works of decorative art created by the top 40 American craft artists under the age of 40. Observe this wildly creative and diverse exhibition, assembled for the 40th anniversary of the Smithsonian American Art Museum's Renwick Gallery, and witness the challenges and rewards of bringing together 40 unique artists at the top of their craft.

In 2018, two volcanoes unleashed terror on their communities, but in very different ways. Fuego, the Volcano of Fire in Guatemala, sent boiling clouds of gas, ash, and rock down the volcano's slopes and into villages, killing hundreds. In Hawaii, Kilauea spewed out over four billion cubic feet of lava, razing estates, destroying roads, and changing the landscape. Using the latest scientific evidence, we explore what made the eruptions unique, why they were so hard to predict, and whether or not these two catastrophes were somehow connected.

Few places on Earth remain largely untouched and uninhabited by humans, but such spots exist in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. Welcome to the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, a vast chain of volcanic mountains that have surfaced as tiny, isolated islands thousands of miles from any mainland. These worlds serve as both playgrounds and sanctuaries, where some species struggle and others thrive. Discover the secrets of these little-known oases as we explore eight islands, from the Arctic to the Antarctic.

A race is on to save Gabon's Moukalaba-Doudou National Park and the silverback gorillas that call it home. This area was once protected by a thriving oil industry, but now the logging industry is poised to move in. Ecotourism could be the only way to prevent the trees from coming down, but a team of conservationists needs to make the gorillas tolerant of humans first. Follow them as they get up-close with the gorillas, study their moves, and journey to war-torn Central African Republic to learn the secrets of successful gorilla habituation.

Discover how Earth evolved from a ball of fire to a ball of ice to a blue-green planet teeming with life.

Using clues from space, see how humans have evolved over the course of 300,000 years.

Before he wrote the book that revolutionized the way people understood evolution, a young Charles Darwin found himself, by chance, on a strange sea voyage. This is the story of the HMS Beagle, which traveled from Great Britain to survey South America's coastline, but also became part of its Captain Fitzroy's flawed social experiment. It's a tale of bold exploration, tragic miscalculation, the death of a civilization, and the birth of Darwinism.

In January 1942, the U.S. military created a new bomber command, the Eighth Air Force, and sent a small contingent of men overseas to loosen the Nazis' grip on Europe. The command's star player was the B-17, a fast, heavily armed aircraft that changed the course of World War II. Witness them take on the mighty German Luftwaffe over enemy skies. Discover the story of how one B-17--the Memphis Belle--and its crew lifted the spirits of a nation and became a symbol of American prowess in defense of freedom.

It's June 1942 and the world's fate is about to be decided by a handful of pilots and their untested aircraft. Experience an inside look at the Battle of Midway, captured through rarely seen battle footage and firsthand accounts from its hero dive-bombing pilot, "Dusty" Kleiss. This is an hour-by-hour recount of one of the most pivotal conflicts of the 20th century. Take a closer look at how this desperately needed victory came about through the design of U.S. airplanes, the skill of the pilots, the element of surprise, and a stroke of luck.