The BEST episodes of History Channel Documentaries season 2009

#1 - The Art of War

Season 2009 - Episode 274 - Aired 5/9/2009

#2 - Sun Tzu: The Art of War

Season 2009 - Episode 10 - Aired 5/9/2009

Documentary detailing the philosophy of Sun Tzu; A Chinese general who wrote the fundamental principles of war. This program analyzes wars in recent history and explains how Sun Tzu's philosophy is still relevant today.

#3 - The Bible Unearthed

Season 2009 - Episode 25 - Aired 3/26/2009

Considering the Bible is one of the most analysed books in all of literature, that it raises contentious debate is nothing new. What is new, however; are the assertions of Finkelstein and Silberman, including that the patriarchs Abraham, Isaac and Jacob never existed; and that the Exodus and the conquest of Canaan - the 'Promised Land' - never actually happened. While many scholars dispute the assertions of Finkelstein and Silberman, what is certain is that the debate these assertions have raised casts a shadow of doubt over what has been regarded as history by so many; in particular affecting the history of Israel as a nation.

#4 - Moonshot

Season 2009 - Episode 284 - Aired 7/20/2009

The story leading up to the July 20, 1969, Apollo 11 moon landing launch.

#5 - The Art of War

Season 2009 - Episode 26 - Aired 5/9/2009

Documentary on the main principles of Sun Tsu "Art of War" illustrated with examples from the second world war, the Vietnam war and the American civil war.

#6 - The Tragedy of the Montevideo Maru

Season 2009 - Episode 27 - Aired 11/11/2009

Before Kokoda, before the bombing of Darwin, Australia came under attack from the full might of the Japanese Empire - Rabaul, 1942. In the ensuing carnage of aerial bombardments and an armada not seen in Australian waters before, a small garrison of Australian soldiers, forgotten by many , made a courageous stand against an insurmountable force. Some men would escape, some would be shipped to Japan, but most - 1053 in total - would perish in Australia's greatest maritime disaster, The Tragedy of the Montevideo Maru.

#7 - The Battle Against Rome: A Province Too Far

Season 2009 - Episode 28 - Aired 5/23/2009

The first part deals with the search for Arminius identity. Coming from a simple village of the Cherusci settlement and the dense forests of Germania, the Romans kidnap him under a treaty made in their civilization. They educate him and train him into a soldier. He proved himself in the suppression of a revolt against the Romans in Pannonia, and finally returns to the side of the Roman governor Varus, thereby returning to his homeland.

#8 - The Battle Against Rome: The Battle

Season 2009 - Episode 29 - Aired 5/30/2009

Part two is all about the legendary battle in the Teutoburg Forest. Arminius knows that the disciplined Romans are superior to the Germanic warriors. Therefore, he wants to exploit the trust of Varus' and to lead the Romans into the rugged forests of Germania, where they would attack. They almost see through his trickery: Segestes, the old clan leader of Cherusci and ally of Rome tries to warn Varus. But the thought that a man raised and educated in Rom such as Arminius could switch sides was unimaginable. Varus gives no credence to the accusations, orders the march, and leads his legions into ruin.

#9 - Extreme Marksmen

Season 2009 - Episode 35 - Aired 1/19/2009

In this sequel to Sharp Shooters discover people who perform seemingly impossible shooting feats with all kinds of firearms. Watch world-class shooters perform amazing shots as well as reenact shots made famous in history. Stories will include the toughest shot in Old West shooting exhibitions (the mirror shot) as well as modern-day Army snipers who hit targets a mile away. Super high-speed cameras will capture a bullet in the air and travel with its trajectory to the target and animation will dissect the technology of the gun, the ammunition, and the technique.

#10 - First Apocalypse

Season 2009 - Episode 36 - Aired 1/7/2009

FIRST APOCALYPSE looks at how we can learn from the dinosaur's fall from grace and how much our own fate may be intertwined with theirs. Are we doomed to follow in the dinosaurs footsteps or can we face down extinction? Perhaps this fear is why we are so fascinated by the demise of a species that lived millions of years ago. If something so large that ruled the earth for so long can be wiped out in a matter of centuries, what does that say about our ultimate survival? The world we live in may already be in the throws of its own mass extinction... a new apocalypse.

#11 - Alaska: Most Extreme

Season 2009 - Episode 37 - Aired 4/16/2009

A compilation of dangerous situations documented in Alaska. Included: an avalanche cuts power to the city of Juneau; police respond to a moose sighting in Anchorage; a hovercraft delivers mail and supplies to a remote village.

#12 - Buthan: Birth Of A Democracy

Season 2009 - Episode 47 - Aired 11/4/2009

Terra incognita for centuries, Bhutan is now going to become a parliamentary democracy. BHUTAN: BIRTH OF A DEMOCRACY offers background information about this transformation and provides an insight into this nearly unknown society and its beliefs. Filmed over two years, the filmmaker had exclusive access to people and politicians. Bhutan has opened up (a little) and what we hear about it continues to provoke the imagination: a Kingdom with a development policy that is focused on national happiness rather than national product; an economy based on sustainable development; an approach to conservation which designates a third of the country’s area as national parks; and, on top of it all, a King who abdicates in favor of his young son and abandons his prerogatives to establish a parliamentary democracy. Through characters drawn from different elements of Bhutanese society, the film sketches a portrait of this world in transition, this country which has so long chosen to be closed to the world and whose king has provided it with the motto: "Gross national happiness is more important than gross national product."

#13 - Fight For Oil

Season 2009 - Episode 48 - Aired 1/1/2009

Chronicles the 100 year period since the discovery of oil. Profiles the rise and fall of British rule in the region, the Soviet's 'power politics,' imperialism and other issues which have dominated the demand for control of the world's oil supply from its discovery through today. The three-part series profiles how oil was first cultivated and the social and political impacts not only for the Middle East, but the rest of the world, too.

#14 - Henry Kissinger

Season 2009 - Episode 49 - Aired 1/2/2009

Born in Germany in 1923, Henry Kissinger escaped the Nazi regime to become a powerful and controversial U.S. statesman. He first rose to prominence as a Harvard University professor and advisor to Presidents John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon. As national security advisor (1969-75) and secretary of state (1973-77) to Nixon and Gerald Ford, he negotiated arms treaties with the Soviet Union and earned a Nobel Prize for ending U.S. involvement in North Vietnam. After leaving the cabinet, he chaired the National Bipartisan Commission on Central America and served on the Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board.

#15 - Hitler's Forgers

Season 2009 - Episode 50 - Aired 2/3/2009

A glimpse on how Hitler recruted Jew technicians in order to make the most unknown frauds in WWII

#16 - Sicily's Mummies

Season 2009 - Episode 51 - Aired 12/17/2009

Scattered across the island of Sicily, beneath picturesque churches, are thousands of mummified bodies. And most mysterious of all is one of the last to be enshrined: shes known as the sleeping beauty Rosalia Lombardo a child barely two years old when she died nearly a century ago, somehow her corpse remains flawlessly preserved. Now, for the first time, a scientific team of mummy hunters is on the case, unearthing hundreds of Sicilys miraculous dead, exploring how this baffling culture of mummification could operate within the Catholic Church itself, and finally, revealing the secret formula behind Rosalias perfect preservation.

#17 - The Miracle Of Leipzig

Season 2009 - Episode 52 - Aired 9/24/2009

Leipzig in the autumn of 1989: thousands of East Germans take to the streets. They are demanding more freedom, civil rights, democracy! The people are rising up in protest against a state which suppresses its own citizens, incites people to spy on each other and keeps them under constant surveillance. Within just a few weeks, what began as prayers for peace in St Nicholas' church in Leipzig in September 1989 developed into the immensely powerful Monday demonstrations, calling for more freedom, reforms and free elections in the German Democratic Republic. That autumn history is written on the streets of Leipzig. It is the story of party officials prepared to resort to violence and of people who overcome their fears. It is the story of nameless individuals whose courage changed the world and marked the beginning of the end of the East German state - and of the entire Eastern Block. It is the story of the "Miracle of Leipzig".

#18 - Operation GLADIO: NATOs Secret Armies

Season 2009 - Episode 65 - Aired 7/1/2009

They were to 'stay behind' if the Red Army overran Western Europe. Operating from secret hideouts behind enemy lines, they were to organise armed national resistance against the occupying Soviet forces. Recruited and trained by the CIA and MI-6 and coordinated by NATO, Europe's secret army was the most ambitious covert operation to defend democracy since the Second World War. But over time the top-secret stay-behind network set up by Britain and the United States in almost 20 European countries became involved in just the opposite: fixing elections, political assassinations, coups against democratically elected governments, and in what can only be described as acts of terrorism, which cost the lives of hundreds of Europeans. The story of Europe's stay-behind network with names like GLADIO in Italy or SDRA8 in Belgium is one of the most powerfully hidden secrets of recent American and European history. NATO'S SECRET ARMIES examines three major terror attacks: The Brabant massacres in Belgium, The Oktoberfest bombing in Germany and the Piazza Fontana killings in Italy. Through the testimony of former Gladio terrorists, ex-CIA agents, diplomats, prosecutors and police investigators the film pieces together the disturbing trail of influence behind each of the attacks and considers whether hundreds may have died at the hands of state sponsored terrorism. More chillingly, it asks whether the strategy of tension might still be in use today.

#19 - Sex in the Ancient World: Pompeii

Season 2009 - Episode 275 - Aired 8/3/2009

The oldest known brothel in the world is discovered in Pompeii. A startling system is revealed that includes widespread prostitution and sexual slavery. Experts piece together the elaborate system and show how the sex trade helped reinforce class and power in Ancient Rome.

#20 - The Real Wolfman

Season 2009 - Episode 276 - Aired 10/28/2009

In the mid 1700s, a mysterious beast viciously attacked and killed 102 villagers in the French village of Gevaudan. The victims, mostly women and children, were mauled and decapitated, their naked bodies all bearing the bite marks of a non-human creature. The killings mark the largest number of alleged werewolf attacks in history and are the basis of the Hollywood Wolfman legend. Venture deep into the mythology and folklore of werewolves with renowned cryptozoologist Ken Gerhardt and veteran criminal profiler George Deuchar as they investigate this reviled creature that brutally kills when the moon is full. In their investigation, they uncover intriguing paranormal transformations, diseases that make men look and act like animals, strange but true stories of children raised by wolves and, eventually, the dark side of human nature in the horrific truth behind the Gevaudan werewolf attacks

#21 - More Extreme Marksmen

Season 2009 - Episode 279 - Aired 1/25/2009

They are the most extreme marksmen in the world. They fire rifles, draw pistols, and shoot arrows. Now, MORE EXTREME MARKSMEN reveals that they can also use their skills to throw knives, crack whips, and even drive tanks. In this high-powered program, HISTORY™ puts the skills of some of the world's most renowned professional shooters to the test. Whether it's getting them up on a horse, or giving them shoulder-mounted weapons, or placing them in a complex obstacle course, watch as these sharpshooters are pushed to the limit of their abilities. As the participants prepare for each challenge, explore the history behind the test and then return to the range to find out if they've succeeded or failed at the task at hand. From an archery expert who can hit a target while holding the bow with his feet to shooters who attempt to hit a fly off a whiskey bottle to some of the most dangerous axe and knife throwing stunts ever seen, this feature-length special is a mesmerizing and jaw-dropping exhibition of extreme marksmanship.

#22 - Keep the Cold War Cold

Season 2009 - Episode 282 - Aired 7/4/2009

From 1947 to 1990, the Military Liaison Missions of France, UK and the US to the Soviet High Command in Germany, were positioned behind the Iron Curtain, in order to be able to closely observe Warsaw Pact Forces stationed in East Germany. How was it possible for adversaries to be so close for so long? How did each side feel about it? Rich in eyewitness accounts illustrated and supported by extraordinary documents shot films, photos and audio and video recordings never seen in public before that is the story this film aims to shed light on.

#23 - Predator X

Season 2009 - Episode 283 - Aired 3/29/2009

Deep in the Polar Arctic, the discovery has been made of a completely new species - a giant sea monster with the head of a T-Rex, a fifty-foot-long body the shape of a giant whale and huge flippers - making it the largest and fastest prehistoric sea creature ever to terrorize the oceans. Up until now the very existence of this creature during the Jurassic period has been completely unknown to science

#24 - Holy Grail in America

Season 2009 - Episode 9 - Aired 9/20/2009

In 1898, a Minnesota farmer clearing trees from his field uproots a large stone covered with mysterious runes. Now known as the Kensington Rune Stone, it details a journey of land acquisition and murder--in the year 1362. Thought by some to be a hoax, new evidence suggests it could be real, and a clue that the Knights Templar discovered America 100 years before Columbus, perhaps bringing with them history's greatest treasure...The Holy Grail. See how symbols on the Rune Stone match Templar ruins all over Europe. History tells us the Templar were massacred on Friday the 13th, but that a Templar fleet allegedly containing treasure was last seen off Scotland in the late 1300s. Stones with similar markings as the Rune stone have been found on islands across the Atlantic Ocean, as well as in Massachusetts, and Rhode Island. Is it possible the Templar were leaving clues to an incredible journey to the New World?

#25 - Mysteries Of The Bermuda Triangle

Season 2009 - Episode 244 - Aired 4/4/2009

Since the 15th century, the Bermuda Triangle has mysteriously vanished an untold number of ships, planes and lives with three more known incidents in 2004. Using today's scientific knowledge and investigative techniques, we study the riddle of the Bermuda Triangle. Through computer graphics, highly stylized recreations, and underwater cameras, we will dramatically visualize the accidents as well as investigate the possible causes and explanations. On-camera interviews with both skeptics and believers will help lay out the facts and opinions of the cases. Can the latest science available today finally lay to rest the mysteries of the Triangle?