History Subject Guide

Episode 1 of the television mini-series, based on the book by Lawrence Hill. "Abducted from her village in West Africa, eleven-year-old Aminata Diallo is forced into a slave coffle and must endure a horrific ocean crossing. She is brought to a South Carolina plantation where she makes herself useful by using midwifery skills learned at her mother's side, all the while keeping the attentions of her jealous slave master, Robinson Appleby, at bay. Soon after Aminata reencounters Chekura, a fellow slave from West Africa, they are married in a clandestine ceremony. When their first baby is brutally abducted and sold by Appleby she vows to return one day to her homeland."--cbc.ca.

The discovery of a rare mass grave with the bones of nearly 60 people outside Luxor sends archaeologists on a quest to find out who the remains belong to, why they were buried the way they were, and what was happening in ancient Egypt that would have led to a mass burial. Could the collapse of the empire's Old Kingdom provide any clues? Following the long reign of Pepi II, a series of weak kings ruled ineffectively. Without a strong central government, local leaders asserted themselves, fracturing the country's power base. And as the climate shifted all over the world, the country was then hit by a decades-long drought that caused a great famine and economic failure. Were the bodies found in the grave victims of the famine, civil war, or something else?

No understanding of the past is complete without an understanding of the legal battles that have shaped it. In The Great Trials of World History and the Lessons They Teach Us, Professor Douglas O. Linder takes you back in time to revisit history’s most famous (and infamous) trials, including the Salem Witch Trials, the Scopes “Monkey” Trial, the Nuremburg Trials, and the Trial of O. J. Simpson.

Did you know that 1% of the white noise you see on your television is actually background radiation from The Big Bang? This CGI-driven special will tell the 14 billion year history of our world in two hours. It's an epic story that will give surprising connections to our daily lives. From the formation of the earth and the emergence of life, to the advance of man and the growth of civilization, it's a rapid-fire view of our unforgettable story.

Disc 1. 1433, The great voyages of Admiral Zheng He ; 1453, The fall of Constantinople ; 1455, Gutenberg's print revolution ; 1492, The Columbian exchange ; 1600, The British East India Company ; 1648, The treaty of Westphalia -- Disc 2. 1676, Van Leeuwenhoek's microscope ; 1751, Diderot's enlightenment encyclopedia ; 1787, The American experiment ; 1789, The French Revolution ; 1838, The British Slavery Abolition Act ; 1839, The opium war in China -- Disc 3. 1859, Darwin and the origin of species ; 1869, Binding continents ; 1893, First women voters in New Zealand ; 1896, The invention of motion pictures ; 1903, Kitty Hawk and powered flight ; 1904, The Russo-Japanese war -- Disc 4. 1928, The discovery of penicillin ; 1942, The dawn of the atom ; 1969, Walking on the moon ; 1972, China enters the world balance ; 1989, The fall of the Berlin wall ; 2004, The rise of social media.