Smithsonian Channel Documentaries

During the Vietnam War, US Air Force pilots who flew 100 combat missions could go home. The tension built relentlessly as they survived each sortie. This is the story of the survivors and the fallen.

Notorious Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar's regime ended in a hail of bullets. Somewhat bizarelly, he left behind a private zoo with African hippos. They escaped and are multiplying, wreaking havoc in Colombia.

The Battle of Little Bighorn lasted nearly 24 hours on June 25, 1876, but the stage had been set decades earlier as settlers, prospectors, and business people began encroaching on Native Americans' sacred land. From the Lakota Sioux facing broken treaties to the attacks that ultimately led up to Bighorn, follow these events unfold. Then, see how this pivotal moment in history marked the beginning of the end of freedom on the Great Plains, the birth of an American cliche, and an ongoing fight for identity against the tyranny of progress.

Filmed in the largest contiguous wetland in the world, this area of the Pantanal contains numerous jaguars who hunt caiman and capybara and are up to twice the weight of jaguars elsewhere.

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

Even 2,000 years after his death, General Hannibal's battle strategies are still studied today. But of all his military feats, perhaps his greatest was leading his massive Carthaginian army of men and three-dozen elephants across the Alps and into the heartland of Rome in 218 B.C. Until now, the route they took has been a matter of dispute, but thanks to modern-day technology, geomorphologist Bill Mahaney and microbiologist Chris Allen believe they've accurately traced this ancient journey.

Fifteen miles south of Cairo lies the site of a royal graveyard...and an ancient crime scene. When archaeologists discovered a 4,000-year-old burial chamber there, still sealed with a 10-ton capstone, they hoped to uncover a preserved body and perhaps even treasure.

Mexico is home to over 20,000 species - about 12 per cent of the planet's life-forms, the fifth most biodiverse country in the world. With unprecedented access to its most spectacular wildlife events, this documentary uncovers the spectacular natural history through the animals that migrate there, featuring gray whales, olive ridley turtles, American flamingos and monarch butterflies.

For years, wildlife filmmaker Casey Anderson has tracked mountain lions by his home in Montana, but always from a distance. That all changes when he's invited by a Chilean filmmaker to join a film crew in Chile's Torres del Paine National Park, home to what may be the densest population of pumas on Earth. Follow his once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to get an up-close look at these normally reclusive creatures. See how, in this protected environment known as the Puma Triangle, these big cats behave in ways unlike anywhere else on the planet.

More than 200 years ago, a scientist named Alexander von Humboldt embarked on a perilous five-year journey through the Venezuelan jungles and Andean Mountains of South America. At the time, it was believed that the world was less than 6,000 years old. Humboldt's groundbreaking observations and theories would not only inspire Charles Darwin, but change our understanding of nature--and the role humans plays in it--forever. Follow historian and best-selling author Andrea Wulf as she recounts his footsteps and discoveries.

During the rainy season in Africa, a herd of buffalo can create thousands of pounds of waste in a day, which would be an environmental disaster if not for the dung beetle. These extraordinary insects depend on waste to survive. They eat it, attract mates with it, and raise families in it. Although dung beetles are critical to the ecosystem, they don't have it easy. Every day, they must avoid being trampled, evade predators like bullfrogs, honey badgers, and rock monitor lizards, and rival dung beetle families desperate for the same fecal prize.

For six years, Hitler had an iron grip on Europe. At its peak, Nazi Germany controlled more territory than the Roman Empire, but in 1945, the Third Reich found itself headed for a chaotic collapse. Through rarely seen color footage and firsthand accounts, we document the end of World War II in Europe. From the Battle of the Bulge to the crossing of the Rhine to the Soviet's epic blitz into German territory, this is a comprehensive account of the Nazi's final 100 days.

Reveals the challenges, tensions and sometimes life-affirming moments among the residents. Scenes of handling stress and developing coping mechanisms turn to surprising moments of affirmation and joy. From the first moments of lockdown to the relief several weeks later, viewers will witness the journey to life after lockdown as they begin to regain a semblance of normality and reunite with loved ones.

On June 6, 1944, British, American and Canadian troops landed on the beaches of Normandy as part of largest amphibious assault in military history: D-Day. Lesser known is the role played by the elite squadron of British bombers known as the Dambusters, whose elaborate diversion convinced German high command that the assault was happening somewhere else. Relive the legacy of this legendary bomber outfit, thanks to recently declassified material, rare and restored footage, as well as modern-day interviews with the surviving members.

The Battle of the Falklands, between a Royal Navy task force and five German cruisers, was one of the most dramatic and bloodiest sea conflicts of World War I. When the smoke cleared, four of the German ships had sunk, including the flagship and pride of the German fleet, the SMS Scharnhorst. For decades, none of the downed vessels were ever found. Now, more than 100 years later, maritime archaeologist Mensun Bound and his team are searching for the ships and the secrets they hold. It's a race against time and the raging South Atlantic Ocean.

Oceanic whitetips are best known as the shark responsible for the carnage that followed the 1945 sinking of the USS Indianapolis. Today, humans have all but wiped them out and the survivors struggle to find enough to eat. But in an astounding feat of adaptation, this fearsome predator appears to have completely overhauled its hunting strategies and teamed up with another species to find food. Follow a team of brave researchers as they dive unprotected into the realm of this fearsome predator to gather never-before-seen footage.

Ascension Island, a remote Mid-Atlantic outpost famous for its big game fishing, is under siege. Tiger sharks, hammerheads, even great whites, lured here every year by the bountiful reefs, are displaying aggressive behavior, culminating in the island's first shark attacks in its history. Join us as we dive into the mystery behind the altered behavior of these hungry predators, and explore whether efforts to bring this delicate ecosystem back into balance is a case of too little, too late.

On May 9, 1836, Charles Darwin sailed past the island of Madagascar, on his way to the Galapagos islands. If he'd decided to stop, he would have been astonished by the natural wonders on offer--from the predatory cat-like fossa to the eerie and majestic lemurs, of which there are over 100 individual species. Today, the mysteries of Madagascar continue to unfold before our eyes, with more than 600 new species of wildlife discovered there in just the past 20 years. Step into a world of dazzling biodiversity, unlike any other.

Roughly 20 miles off the coast of west Africa, sits a volcanic relic now completely blanketed in equatorial rainforest: the island of Bioko. It's home to some very rare species, including the drill -- one of the most endangered primates in the world. Join us on a jungle expedition as we uncover the secret life of these reclusive primates and track down the seasonal migration of the goby -- a plucky fish battling its way upriver past strong currents, deadly predators, and even a 100-foot waterfall, to reach the spawning grounds of its youth.

Iceland is an island on fire, with 30 active volcanoes generating a third of the world's land-based lava. Across the small country, steam hisses, water erupts, and magma spews. But there is one force powerful enough to challenge Iceland's fiery heart: ice. Join us on a spectacular tour over a land of spellbinding contrasts, where fierce volcanoes and powerful glaciers coexist, and new ground is borne every day from deep inside the Earth's blazing core. It's a unique view of a one-of-a-kind world and you have a first-class seat.

Today, it seems incredible that just a century ago, American women had no voice in democracy. Just as remarkable is that it took over 70 years of campaigns, marches, hunger strikes, and arrests to pass the constitutional amendment guaranteeing them the right to vote. Witness the decades-long fight for suffrage by heroic women who fought to claim their rights as citizens, told through rarely seen footage, expert opinions, and dozens of historic objects from the Smithsonian Institution. The legacy of their quest continues to shape our democracy.

What would happen if all of the world’s volcanoes erupted on a single day? Today, some 40 volcanoes are currently erupting, and more than a thousand sleeping giants could awake anytime. We join scientists around the globe as they deploy the latest technology to understand and predict volcanic behavior.

The Tibetan Plateau is known as `the roof of the world'. Its terrain and weather are unforgiving. As this documentary reveals, outsiders seldom see this area of Qinghai - inhabited by Tibetan wolves, blue sheep, and snow leopards.

America’s northern border with Canada encompasses a remarkable range of habitats and weather extremes, from desert to tundra, grassland to rainforest, ocean to lake. They are home to epic migrations and a diversity of wildlife, where, for much of the route, nature’s inhabitants are only constrained by the challenges of the terrain and the changing seasons. But as we follow a year in the northern borderlands, we discover that even in the absence of a physical border, the political boundary poses many problems for wild residents.

James Meredith was a civil rights hero unlike any other. He took on the University of Mississippi and the state's governor to desegregate the school, a fight that triggered the largest mobilization of federal troops on U.S. soil since the Civil War. He began a one-man "Walk Against Fear" to encourage Black Mississippians to register to vote, which became a national event after he was shot. Despite his monumental achievements, few people know who he is. Now, this icon, who forged his own path for change, shares his story, in his own words.

Air Force One is a marvel of military engineering. For more than half a century, the presidential fleet of armed jumbo jets has served as a flying fortress for America's commanders-in-chief, carrying them in victory, in shame, and even death. Join us as we take an unprecedented look at the world's most famous aircraft: how it was born, how it has developed over the decades, and the role it has played in historic events, from the death of Kennedy to the 9/11 attacks to a morale-building, surprise Thanksgiving visit to Iraq, and more.

On October 14, 1947, Captain Chuck Yeager accomplished what many thought was impossible: he broke the sound barrier and in doing so, changed aviation history forever. Behind this remarkable achievement was a dedicated team of rocket scientists and engineers, and one incredible plane, a Bell X-1 named "Glamorous Glennis." This is the story of the plane and the people who dared to travel faster than the speed of sound, pushing flight science forward and proving that no matter the barrier, humanity can find a way to break through.

It typically takes 10 years for a new vaccine to go through animal and human trials to test whether it's safe and effective, and then bring it to market. COVID-19 afforded no such luxury--it was spreading and killing at an unprecedented rate. The response: a collaborative effort by the global scientific community, where pharma companies banded together to take on a common foe. Filmed as the pandemic unfolded, we track the first stages of the fight, told by the virologists, modelers, immunologists, and other scientists who led the charge.

The Blitz--Germany's incessant, aerial onslaught on London and surrounding cities--was designed to eliminate the English motherland. Instead, it served as a defining moment for Britain and a turning point for America's attitude about the war. This is the definitive story of the Nazi's unprecedented all-out assault on a nation's cities and morale, composed almost entirely of rarely seen archival footage and told through discovered civilian diary entries, military leaders' speeches, and war correspondents' dramatic accounts.

In the central mountains of the Tibetan Plateau lies a secret valley that's hidden from the outside world. It is home to more snow leopards than anywhere else on the planet, including a devoted mother trying to raise her two young cubs and an aging leopard king trying to retain his crown.