The BEST episodes of History Channel Documentaries season 2012
Every episode of History Channel Documentaries season 2012, ranked from best to worst by thousands of votes from fans of the show. The best episodes of History Channel Documentaries season 2012!
The History Channel is a satellite and cable TV channel, devoted mainly to historical events and persons. Programming covers a wide array of periods and topics, while similar topics are often organized into themed weeks or daily marathons. Subjects include military history, medieval history, the 19th, 20th, and 21st centuries, modern engineering, and historical biographies.
#1 - Lost Magic Decoded
Season 2012 - Episode 8 - Aired 10/18/2012
Master illusionist Steve Cohen tracks down, decodes, and resurrects some of the most thrilling and terrifying magic effects ever witnessed. Magic has a secret history, and it takes an insider like Cohen to gain access to the ancient incantations, secret sorcery, and mysterious contraptions that have shocked audiences for centuries. Can their secrets somehow be rediscovered? And can they thrill and shock today's audiences like they once did? Explore the mysteries of how these legendary effects were influenced by their times, and even how the illusions themselves changed the course of history. Steve Cohen discovers that there is much more to magic than meets the eye, and he becomes drawn closer and closer to taking the same sometimes death-defying risks that conjurors have been taking for the sake of an illusion since magic began, over a thousand years ago.
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#2 - Nazi Titanic
Season 2012 - Episode 4 - Aired 4/14/2012
In one of World War II’s most bizarre episodes, the Nazi propaganda machine attempted to produce an epic film recreating Titanic’s demise. This special brings you the little-known story of the Third Reich’s would-be blockbuster.
Watch Now:Amazon#3 - Jesse James Blacksmith
Season 2012 - Episode 43 - Aired 9/1/2012
Jesse James returns in Jesse James Blacksmith on HISTORY to tackle the only discipline he hasn't yet mastered - how to forge metal. Jesse travels to Israel, where 73-year-old world- renowned blacksmith Uri Hofi has agreed to mentor him.
#4 - America's Book of Secrets: The Monuments
Season 2012 - Episode 42 - Aired 1/1/2012
In America, behind the public facade of nine of our most famed institutions and landmark structures, there is another world that is hidden from view. The special pierces the veil of secrecy which conceals forbidden histories and fascinating insider information from the public.
#5 - The Definitive Guide To The Mob
Season 2012 - Episode 39 - Aired 7/31/2012
What is life really like in the American mafia? How do you get in, get made and make money? And what happens when you get in too deep? THE DEFINITIVE GUIDE TO THE MOB answers all of these questions and more by turning to the ultimate authority: former Colombo family captain Michael Franzese. Michael grew up in this world, following in the footsteps of his father, Colombo family underboss Sonny Franzese, and he earned more money for the organization than anyone since Al Capone. Michael also did what no made man has ever done before or since: he publicly quit La Cosa Nostra -- without going into witness protection -- and lived to tell the tale. This fast- paced, two-hour special takes viewers on a step-by-step journey through the world's most famous criminal organization as lived by one of its most notorious members. You'll find out exactly how the mob works -- and wonder how Michael Franzese is still alive.
#6 - Titanic: 100 Years in 3D
Season 2012 - Episode 38 - Aired 8/14/2012
The 100th Anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic...a new look in 3-D
#7 - Curse of the Axe
Season 2012 - Episode 36 - Aired 7/9/2012
Curse of the Axe tells the story of a recent archaeological discovery that will fundamentally change viewers' understanding of North American life before the arrival of the Europeans. A team of world-renowned archaeologists has unearthed the largest and most complex Huron First Nations village ever found. The village, which they dub 'Mantle', contains 90 longhouses surrounded by a high, defensive three-row wooden wall, or "palisade" that required the Hurons to cut down 60,000 trees - using only stone axes! Beyond the walls the Huron cultivated 80 square kilometers of cornfields (larger than present-day Metropolitan Toronto) - enough to feed its thousands of inhabitants. But the revelations – and the mysteries - do not end with the village itself. Compounding the mystery of this remarkable discovery is a second, shocking discovery. During the excavation, a mysterious metal object is found, buried with great care and respect. It is made of iron – a material totally alien to the Huron. The object is believed to be some kind of blade, perhaps once part of an axe. But the stunning discovery raised more questions than it answered. How did a piece of European iron get to Mantle almost 100 years before the arrival of the first Europeans in this part of the world? Where did it come from? And why did the people of Mantle bury it?
#8 - Going Medieval
Season 2012 - Episode 35 - Aired 2/20/2012
Diving deep into the life and times of the Middle Ages, historian and weapons expert Mike Loades hosts the two-hour H2 special, Going Medieval, delivering fun-filled facts such as how to keep a knight's armor shiny using sand, vinegar and urine. Loades battles the myths vs. the realities of work and home during this extraordinary time.
#9 - How the Earth Made Man
Season 2012 - Episode 34 - Aired 10/11/2012
Quirks of the human body and mind are examined in search of clues to the origin of mankind.
#10 - A Trip Inside Portugal's Freemasonry
Season 2012 - Episode 33 - Aired 12/31/2012
This is a report regarding history and influence of freemasonry in Portugal's since it's foundation until nowadays
#11 - Nostradamus Effect, Secrets Of The Seven Seals
Season 2012 - Episode 32 - Aired 7/10/2012
The Book of Revelation, the most terrifying and controversial book of the Bible, was written by an exiled prophet almost two thousand years ago. The final chapters of the New Testament describe mankind's violent end of days - a seven-year period of unparalleled death and destruction. Jesus breaks seven seals that unleash three waves of devastation - natural and man-made, from the sky and from deep within the earth. The Antichrist will rise. Pestilence, famine, war, and natural disasters will purge humanity before Jesus returns for the final battle between good and evil. But who is the Antichrist? Who will survive God's wrath? And when will this apocalypse happen?
#12 - Queen Elizabeth's Lost Guns
Season 2012 - Episode 31 - Aired 6/15/2012
A mile off the coast of the channel island of Alderney lies a shipwreck that could rewrite English naval history. Presenter Saul David joins a team of divers and experts as they attempt to find and raise the ship's four-hundred-year-old cannons. By recasting and firing them, they hope to demonstrate how Elizabeth I became the mother of British naval dominance.
#13 - The Teacher Who Defied Hitler
Season 2012 - Episode 30 - Aired 1/15/2012
1934. Berlin. The Nazi party is on the rise, and so are violent acts against Jews. Anti-Semitism has become a state doctrine and racism has replaced education, profoundly affecting the most vulnerable members of the Jewish community: the children. But one woman dared to stand up to hatred and to Adolf Hitler's totalitarian regime. Witness the story of Leonore Goldschmidt, a fired teacher who found a loophole in Nazi law and opened the Goldschmidt School, a sanctuary for hundreds of Jewish youths, an oasis in the heart of hell.
#14 - The Celtic Legacy
Season 2012 - Episode 29 - Aired 1/15/2012
“The Celtic Legacy”, deals with the Celtic culture in Galicia, in Northern Spain.
#15 - The Glencoe Massacre
Season 2012 - Episode 28 - Aired 3/28/2012
Examining one of the most emotive yet misunderstood events in Scottish history. Despite popular belief, the massacre of Glencoe was not a typical clash between two highland clans.
#16 - 101 Inventions that Changed the World
Season 2012 - Episode 27 - Aired 12/1/2012
It starts with a spark, but some ideas catch fire and in the process change the world. Necessity is the mother of invention — from darkness, man found light (the candle) and from even the farthest distances we can still find each other (the telephone). But some inventions have transformed our lives far beyond our homes (the steam engine), our planet (the telescope), and our wildest dreams (the Internet). This countdown highlights how human ingenuity comes in all shapes and sizes. Some were born from the humblest means (the hammer) while others push the limits of what was ever believed possible (the airplane). But regardless of the ratio of inspiration to perspiration, each invention to make the cut was destined to change our lives forever.
#17 - Hitler's Island Madness
Season 2012 - Episode 26 - Aired 11/12/2012
As soon as Hitler's forces occupied the Channel Islands he ordered a series of fortifications to defend the only British territory he ever conquered. The problem was he never stopped, pouring men, concrete and weapons into the Islands until his officers began to refer to his "inselwahn" his island madness and the Channel Islands had become the most fortified place - on earth. By 1944 the Channel Islands had taken in over 8% of the concrete destined for the Atlantic Wall and had more guns than 600 miles of Normandy Coast. Of the German commanders only Rommel understood the implications for the invasion they all knew was coming.
#18 - Dieppe Uncovered
Season 2012 - Episode 24 - Aired 8/19/2012
On August 19, 1942 the Allies launched their first amphibious attack on mainland Europe at the small French port of Dieppe. At dawn, five thousand troops stormed the rocky beaches, but in the end, it was a disastrous failure with thousands of soldiers killed and taken prisoner. Dieppe Uncovered brings the events of the day to life, reenacting key moments of the raid and revealing a fact previously ignored by history books. The leader of the top secret 30th Assault Unit behind the raids was none other than Sir Ian Fleming. Could the man who created James Bond have been behind one of the blackest days of World War II?
#19 - The Nazi Gospels
Season 2012 - Episode 21 - Aired 12/30/2012
The Nazi Gospels explores the roots of Nazi ideology, and how the Third Reich used twisted versions of history and religion to bolster its power and help drive Germany towards war and genocide. The story begins in 19th Century occult societies, where what will become the central tenet of Nazism is developed: belief in an ancient Aryan Master Race, born to rule lesser races, especially the ‘subhuman’ Jews. In the aftermath of Germany’s defeat in World War I this racist ideology passes into the Nazi party, being fostered by Heinrich Himmler, leader of the Nazi’s elite troopers, the SS. Himmler dreams of a Germany turned away from Christian doctrines of love and peace, and establishes spooky Wewelsburg Castle as an SS Pagan Vatican, designing pagan rituals for his men to take part in. He establishes an Ancient History Department for the SS which conducts bizarre and ambitious archaeological quests… to Tibet, supposed homeland of ancient Aryans, and to southern France in search of the Holy Grail. These eccentric efforts may seem a sideshow next to Adolf Hitler’s dream of conquering a thousand-year empire for Germany. But the film shows how the Nazi belief in the Aryan Master Race characterised World War II as a war between the Aryan Germans and the ‘lesser races’, for example the Russian Slavs and especially the Jews… a belief which reached its most terrible consequence in the Holocaust. The same SS men caught up in these bizarre, cult-like obsessions of ancient Aryans with magical powers, of Pagan Gods and the Holy Grail, were also those who directed genocide. Illustrated with unnerving drama and readings of original Nazi texts, as well as little-seen archive, The Nazi Gospels shows how racist myth-making and false history was used to underpin the greatest crime in history.
#20 - Banned from The Bible - Secrets of The Apostles
Season 2012 - Episode 20 - Aired 9/4/2012
Travel back to the blistering sands of the Holy Land, into the onion-domed chapels of Eastern Orthodox churches and onto the pages of the Koran. Unearth the trail of chapters that were left out of the ultimate version of the Scriptures. Included in the Koran is "The Life of Adam and Eve," a detailed account of the creation story written before Jesus was born. The incestuous account of "The Book of Jubilees" was included in the Orthodox Old Testament and the Dead Sea Scrolls. "The Book of Enoch," an ancient bestseller, relates the story of the man said in Genesis to have walked with God and been assumed directly into heaven. This fascinating collection offers a fresh perspective on the figures at the foundation of faith.
#21 - WW II From Space
Season 2012 - Episode 19 - Aired 12/7/2012
U.K. indie production banner October Films has made a two hour special detailing the story of America's war from the vantage point of space for History. Using a variety of VFX techniques, World War II from Space will present major moments from the war including Pearl Harbor, D-Day and Hiroshima in ways they have never been seen before. In doing so, it brings all the visual conventions and imagery of modern war reporting to WWII. The program makers aim to give viewers a fresh interpretation of the war.
#22 - Caligula: 1400 Days of Terror
Season 2012 - Episode 17 - Aired 10/9/2012
They say he was insane. The stories of his cruelty and depravity are countless. He was one of the most feared and powerful men of the ancient world. He was Caligula, Emperor of Rome. He killed on a whim and it was said that to be in his presence was playing with your life. But almost everything known about Caligula comes from only two original sources, and they both had reasons to twist the truth. Now using the latest archaeological evidence, including identifying the possible location of his tomb, this special reveals the true story of the Emperor they called the Viper of Rome: Caligula.
#23 - Countdown To Apocalypse
Season 2012 - Episode 16 - Aired 11/30/2012
By now we've all heard the prophecies about December 21, 2012. Whether it comes from the Mayan calendar or the wrath of Revelations, several cultures and traditions believe the world will end on that date. As the time approaches, H2 introduces the origins and traditions behind the impending end of the world From purchasing underground shelters and securing "bug-out" rooms, to preaching the message of God's divine fury many people all over the world are preparing themselves for the end. Each episode will take you through the history of the prophecies, and people's plans of protection and redemption. Modern scientists will also dissect the potential apocalyptic threats to see if there’s any fact behind these premonitions. As ancient prophecy and modern science collide, Countdown to Apocalypse begs the question, "are you prepared?"
#24 - How Playboy Changed the World
Season 2012 - Episode 15 - Aired 10/2/2012
A look at how Playboy magazine has influenced cultures and social conventions around the world.
#25 - America's Greatest Feud: The History of the Hatfields & McCoys
Season 2012 - Episode 14 - Aired 6/2/2012
The famous American feud as told by historians, scholars and descendants.