History's Mysteries

Exploring the Salem Witch Trials, which took place in 17th-century Massachusetts. The hour looks at recorded accounts of accusation, imprisonment, trial and execution.

The rumors have persisted for over fifty years. They have all the trappings of fiction, yet there are those who persist on believing that the U.S. Navy actually rendered a warship invisible and teleported it to and from the Philadelphia Naval Yards in a top-secret project. The True Story of the Philadelphia Experiment chronicles the origins and spread of this tallest of all sailor’s tall tales, revealing how research into anti-submarine technology likely provided the catalyst for the accounts and documenting stages in the story’s development in the pages of pulp fiction.

This program is part of the popular series from the History Channel that investigates some of civilization's unsolved mysteries and controversies. This episode investigates the black chapter in world religious history known as the Inquisition. In search of truth, it told lies; preaching redemption, it brought torture and death. Recently opened archives of the Catholic Church are used to present new evidence about the church hierarchy's abuse of power. The documentary introduces the viewer to some of the Inquisition's most notorious characters, including Grand InquisitorTomas Torquemad, who was responsible for the death of thousands of people branded as heretics and witches. Galileo and the Knights Templar were among their number. Art work, journals, reenactments, and scholarly commentary tell the true story of the Inquisition.

Immortalized by Sir Walter Scott, the romantic figure of Rob Roy MacGregor looms large in Scottish history. but who was the real Rob Roy? Regarded by many as a hero, others say he was little more than a cattle rustler, blackmailer and coward! The third son of a clan chieftain, he embarked on a outlaw's life after the Duke of Montrose seized his lands in 1712. We examine his daring escapes, belief in his clan's code of honor, and questions surrounding the true loyalties of Scotland's most famous rogue.

Lizzie Andrew Borden took an ax, and gave her mother 40 whacks; when she saw what she had done, she gave her father 41. Most of us know the grisly rhyme, but not the whole story.

A trip through the bizarre world of midgets, giants, tattooed ladies, and other human curiosities as we trace the colorful history of a distinctly American form of entertainment-the circus sideshow.

History's Mysteries looks the the life of the mysterious monk Grigori Rasputin who is widely regarded as one of Russian history's most enigmatic figures.