Faces...and facts...fleshed out from the grave. Unprecedented technology brings to life extraordinary mirror images and powerful last impressions of history's most powerful men. Every line, every wrinkle, every expression tells a story. Forensic-science and anthropology experts have identified that history's most relevant figures left behind highly-detailed casts of their faces, created at their moment of death, to preserve their souls and physical memory for eternity. Using advanced facial-reconstruction techniques and 3-D imprint detailing, these death masks render an exact replica of every feature, and an intimate look at how their characteristics affected their lives. Includes startling new insights into the persistent mysteries surrounding these historic icons like Julius Caesar, Abraham Lincoln, Napoleon and George Washington, and just may reveal some secrets these men preferred to conceal.

It sprung up overnight in August, 1961--a makeshift blockade separating repressive, Soviet-controlled East Berlin from the Allied-run democracy to the west. Soon the barrier encircled all of West Berlin, sealing its two million citizens off from the rest of the world. As escape attempts escalated, deadlier obstacles were added. Eventually, a 97-mile barrier, virtually impenetrable, snaked along the border between East and West Berlin. And 28 years later, it came down as unexpectedly as it went up. Observe the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall (November 9, 2009) with a dramatic look at how a line of railway cars and barbed wire evolved into the massively fortified fortress that came to symbolize the Cold War. Computer-generated imagery, re-enactments, archival footage, and expert commentary provide political and historical context while helping to illustrate how construction progressed over time--and how it was suddenly demolished by civilians in 1989.

Informational programming.

Informational programming.

Informational programming.

Informational programming.

Informational programming.

Informational programming.

Napoleon Bonaparte led one of history's most calamitous campaigns when he invaded Russia in 1812 with some 500,000 men--less than 50,000 returned to France. Defeated by the merciless Russian winter, we highlight the Grand Army's retreat from Moscow as recorded by a survivor of the hellish journey home. In 1941, Adolf Hitler proved no student of history for the fate suffered by his armies during his Russian campaign was virtually identical to that which befell Napoleon. Prepared for a swift summer campaign, Germany soon faced an enemy as deadly as the Red Army. We describe the effects of the winter on these disastrous campaigns, and eerie similarities and coincidences. Archive film and firsthand accounts of veterans of 1941 provide a harrowing record of men battling against undefeatable elements.

"When the moon hits your eye like a big pizza pie, that's amore." And nothing sums up the American relationship with pizza better than that word. Americans eat approximately 350 slices per second--about 100 acres of pizza a day! At last count, there were close to 70,000 pizzerias in the US working tirelessly to satisfy that $11-billion a year craving with a seemingly endless variety. Pizza's American journey has taken it full circle--from small Italian-American communities, through the cutthroat competition of global chains, to the mass-produced world of frozen pizza, and back to distinctive, personal pies. But all the while, pizza has managed to retain its original identity--its versatility and strong heritage have given it a staying power like no other. Despite fierce passions and regional preferences, there's room for everybody at the pizza table.

Take a history lesson filled with surprising facts, figures and stories from five American states. In California, see how the discovery of gold at Sutter's Mill, in 1848 started the largest migration in US history, and then learn how scientists are currently trying to predict the next big earthquake. Next it's off to North Carolina's tobacco fields and the mystery of Roanoke--the lost colony. Wichita, Kansas is the "Aviation Capital of America" and Wyatt Earp put Dodge City on the map. New Hampshire is the state where the first act of open rebellion in America's Revolutionary War took place and the first presidential primary each election season is held. Finally, learn about The Battle of Blair Mountain, West Virginia, where in 1921, over 10,000 unionizing coal miners faced off with state and federal troops in what was one of the largest armed uprisings in America since the Civil War.

Another history lesson filled with surprising facts, figures and stories from five American states. Texas hit the jackpot in 1901 with the discovery of oil at Spindletop Well in Beaumont. Puritans came to Massachusetts to escape religious persecution, but their own zeal to convert Native Americans led to one of the bloodiest wars in US history. Arkansas, 1957--nine African American high school students attempted to enroll at Little Rock's Central High School and made Civil Rights history. During the Iowa Caucuses farmers rub elbows with would-be presidents. Finally, Delaware patriot Caesar Rodney rode into history in 1776 when he raced 80 miles on horseback to break the deadlocked vote for American independence.

Travel back to the origins of New York City at New Amsterdam, the 16th century Dutch merchant colony. Discover how French Acadians fled Canada in 1873 to settle in Louisiana, developing the "Cajun" subculture. The Oregon Trail opened in 1843, bringing half a million settlers to the west. Visit Los Alamos Laboratories in New Mexico's remote high desert, the birthplace of the atomic bomb, and where today research continues to advance science. Finally, learn how two friends from Vermont opened an ice cream shop in 1977 and would go on to become America's most famous entrepreneurs.

Crossing the icy Delaware River on Christmas night, 1776, allowed George Washington to surprise the British at Trenton, a critical American victory in the Revolutionary War. One of the world's most recognizable natural landmarks, the Grand Canyon, defies the imaginations of the five million people who visit there annually. Pioneer Daniel Boone blazed the Wilderness Trail through Kentucky in 1775 and tamed the wild frontier. The opening of "The Unassigned Lands" in Oklahoma resulted in 50,000 settlers racing across the prairie to grab a stake and claim ownership of a homestead. The discovery of oil in Prudhoe Bay, Alaska, in 1975 called for an ingenious feat of engineering to transport fuel across 800 miles of icy wilderness.

Ground Hog Day in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania, dates back to 1886 and an ancient European holiday called Candlemass Day. Garrison Keeler and his A Prairie Home Companion radio program export a comic, down-home image of Minnesota to a weekly worldwide audience of over four million listeners. Hawaii is the only state that was once a kingdom and had its throne toppled in 1893 by a handful of meddling foreigners with the aid of the U.S. Navy. Following the world's first submarine attack in 1864, the Confederate sub The Hunley sank mysteriously in Charleston Harbor, but was discovered and raised 131 years later. Montana has long been the world's best source for dinosaur fossils and a recent discovery is shedding new light.

Hurricanes, lightening and alligator-filled swamps made Florida an unwelcome candidate for statehood, yet it continues to draw more and more people annually. In 1900, Indianapolis, not Detroit, was the center of the auto industry, and endurance tests there resulted in the establishment of the Indy 500 in 1911. On May 18, 1980, America's most economically destructive volcanic erupts at Mt. St. Helens and rocks Washington State. Escaping religious persecution, Brigham Young leads twelve thousand Mormons on an exodus into the Utah desert in search of paradise. Roger Williams fled Massachusetts in the 16th century and founded a colony of religious tolerance in Rhode Island.

The Cahokia civilization thrived in the region known today as Illinois, from 700 to 1400 AD, but when the culture mysteriously disappeared, it left behind pyramids that rivaled those of ancient Egypt. Changing with the times, Connecticut's shipbuilders shifted from sails to steam to diesel power, culminating in the construction of the first nuclear submarine. The 1859 discovery of the Comstock Lode, world's largest silver deposit, prompted the Federal government to offer statehood to Nevada, a region it had previously written off as worthless desert. Work chants, gospel and traditional folk music were combined in the Mississippi Delta to create an original American art form--the Blues. The first frontiersmen to report the wonders of Yellowstone, Wyoming, were thought to be either crazy or lying.

Virginia was not only the home of the first permanent British colony; it was the birthplace of eight presidents of the United States. "The Gravity Grand Prix" has been an annual event in Akron, Ohio, since the 1930s and today draws 500 young entrants from around the nation. The discovery of gold, then lead, copper, zinc and silver, has made Idaho one of the richest mineral producing states in the nation. Poor hill farmers in Winston County rarely owned slaves and when Alabama seceded from the Union in 1861, Winston County tried to secede from Alabama. Teddy Roosevelt, America's first conservation president, learned valuable lessons about preserving nature while on his North Dakota ranch.

Michigan's logging industry helped build fortunes, but over-harvesting also threatened the environment. Davy Crocket, the coonskin-capped congressman from Tennessee, became more legend than reality thanks to 19th century political campaigns. Originally disdained as a food fit only for servants, lobsters are now a delicacy fueling Maine's fishing industries. Riverboat traffic and trailheads to Santa Fe and Oregon made Missouri the "Gateway to the West." The discovery of gold in the Black Hills in 1874 created a rush of prospectors who displaced Indians from sacred land that they'd been promised for eternity.

Stone Mountain, Georgia, a monument to three heroes of the Confederacy, dwarfs Mt. Rushmore. The Denver Mint in Colorado, which produces the most coins in the world, started out during Colorado's gold and silver boom of the 1860s as a private bank. Wisconsin's Great Lakes are littered with sunken ships, but the cold, fresh waters keep aging vessels intact. One hundred, sixty acres of free land made available by The Homestead Act of 1862 drew settlers to Nebraska's plains. Maryland soil helped found the District of Columbia, but the District's Federal status denies it any state's rights of its own.

Assault from the air didn't begin with the era of the airplane. Take a look back at early methods of airborne attack. The kite bomb was a medieval siege weapon that dropped bombs from a kite over cities. We'll build one and test it with startling new insights and success. Ancient bouncing bombs that actually skipped across water--the forerunners of the famous Dam Buster projectiles--terrorized shipping in Turkey in 1453. Learn the secrets of ancient China's whistling arrows--used by commanders to direct the flow of a battle. Investigate the world's earliest rocket-powered explosive missile from the ancient battlefields of China. Finally, in one of the most dramatic tests ever conducted, we'll build the earliest known successful parachute and drops a skydiver from 6,000 feet.

In this episode, Rick refurbishes a gas pump with a bird's nest inside, Corey takes a quiz after misidentifying a Faberge crystal glass--if he loses, he works graveyard, if he wins he gets $2500,--and Rick buys some bayonets.

The Pawn Stars are used to paying big money for celebrity John Hancocks but will they know how to price one from the actual John Hancock? Then the guys have an opportunity to buy an allegedly authentic Indiana Jones whip--but it all boils down to two words: Harrison Ford. And finally, will the purchase of a hot item by one of his underlings land Corey in hot water.

A young man wants to trade a 1750 Blunderbuss gun for an engagement ring. Will Rick exchange vows and buy the gun or will he get cold feet and run? Then, the Pawn Stars get an opportunity to purchase an ejection seat allegedly from a World War II fighter jet, but is this deal destined to crash and burn? And later, a guy looking to make rent money wants to pawn his original 1966 Schwinn Stingray bike which has Rick remembering the good old days. Will his trip down memory lane include laying out the dough?

An 1861 Civil War saber finds its way into the shop--but if it's real, why was the blade never sharpened? Then Rick and the owner of a Chuck Berry autographed Fender guitar find themselves on different pages when it comes to bartering over this item. Finally, the Pawn Stars appraise a "1916 National Cash Register." It looks real, but will they pull out the money from their 2009 cash register?

Rick buys an old, Mafia favorite the 1962 Lincoln Continental with "suicide doors," but as the repair bills add up, so does the tension between him and the old man. Then, a guy brings in a billfold from 1857 that he found while cleaning out his garage. The best part? It's stuffed with Confederate money. Finally the Pawn Stars get a chance to buy a rare 1942 Gibson L7 guitar that was once played at a birthday party for Al Capone. But, is the seller in tune with what it's really worth?

Rick considers buying an 18th Century cannon that could be worth up to $40,000. But, before he makes an offer, he'll need to verify that it's the real deal by test firing it first. Then, a local woodworker needs cash to keep his business afloat and looks to pawn his 1.5 ton table saw. The Pawn Stars might lose the deal if they can't figure out a way to move it back to the pawn shop. Finally, a guy trying to sell his replica Roman armor strikes out with Corey but gets a second chance as Chumlee tries to negotiate what could be his first and last deal at the shop.

This young Roman emperor had a fearsome reputation as a sadist, a murderer...and a raving lunatic.