Explore the scientific mystery of human genesis through a close investigation of 13 fossils found in October 2000. The bones are the oldest hominid remains ever discovered — so old that they come from the time when the divergence of man and ape is thought to have occurred — and could be the blueprint for the first generation of the species that ultimately evolved into modern humans

In 1665, a British tailor opened a flea-infested shipment of fabric from London. In a matter of days, the tailor and much of the village were suffering the telltale signs of bubonic plague, the disease that wiped out a third of the European population. 350 years later, an American geneticist is delving into the reasons why some managed to survive the Black Death while others were not so lucky.

In the aftermath of the Titanic, Canadian rescue ships recovered 328 bodies and buried dozens in unmarked graves. Today, scientific breakthroughs may help 3 families of missing passengers learn the true fate of their relatives.

In 64 AD, Rome was the most magnificent city in the world. Then, in the early hours of July 19, fire broke out in the cook shops and cafés lining the Circus Maximus. Centuries later, questions linger. Was the fire an accident, or was it arson? Is Tacitus a reliable witness? Nero blamed the catastrophe on the Christians — is there any truth to his accusation?

In March of 1912, a team of seasoned Antarctic explorers perished on their way back from the South Pole. Was it possible the explorers were blind-sided by conditions they could never have anticipated?

In the spring of 1943, Allied forces to begin preparations for a top secret Allied raid. Each aircraft carried a top-secret weapon -- a newly-invented bouncing bomb -- designed to shatter Germany's major dams.

(Archaeology) The myth of the Amazons, a tribe of bloodthirsty blond women thundering across arid battlefields to the horror of their male foes, has lingered for centuries. Their exploits seized the imagination of the Greek scribes Homer, Hippocrates, and Herodotus. But proof of their existence had always been lacking. Now, a 2,500-year-old mystery may have been solved, cracked by an American scientist whose ten-year odyssey led her tens of thousands of miles in pursuit of the truth. After unearthing evidence of a culture of ancient warrior women in the Russian steppes, Dr. Jeannine Davis-Kimball followed a trail of artifacts to a remote village in Western Mongolia, where her quest for a living link to a long-imagined tribe ended with a startling discovery. There, among the black-eyed Mongols, Davis-Kimball found a blond child, a 9-year-old girl named Meiramgul. Through DNA testing, Davis-Kimball finds that the DNA sequences of the warrior women and those from the girl of Mongolia are identical.

More than five centuries ago, Michelangelo Buonarroti was the darling of the Catholic Church. The Papacy commissioned him to create many of its most important pieces, including the frescoes of the Sistine Chapel. He spent his life glorifying the Church, etching Catholic ideals into masterpieces that defined religion for the masses. Yet when he died, his body was secretly shepherded off to Florence, and the Church was denied the opportunity to honor him with a grand funeral in Rome. Historians have long wondered about the mysterious circumstances surrounding his death, but now, art historian Antonio Forcellino believes he has pieced together evidence of a deep rift between the Church and the esteemed artist. The cause: Michelangelo’s belief in Protestant ideals, and his involvement with a clandestine fellowship trying to put an end to the decadence and corruption of the Clergy and reform the Church from within.

A tribe in Borneo protects a shot-down U.S. bomber crew from Japanese occupiers during World War II. The local missionaries, who converted the tribe to Christianity, were executed by the Japanese invaders, who had forced out Dutch and British colonialists, while massacring Borneo natives. A surviving missionary from Indonesia, employed by the Japanese military as an area administrator, outwits Japanese forces by hiding the U.S. airmen deep in a jungle canyon. The local Dayak people risk their lives, and force the occupiers to abandon their hunt for the airmen, using blowpipes and machetes against the Japanese army search parties.

Accounts of the survivors of the indiscriminate terrorist massacres in Mumbai by Islamic Extremests in November 2008 and how the news media aided the terrorist by giving away the hiding places of the soon to be victims.

During World War 2, Japan developed a super-submarine capable of launching bomber aircraft as a strategic weapon to carry the conflict to the United States mainland. But in the rapidly changing Pacific Theater, one intended mission after another becomes obsolete before the submarines can be deployed

Find out why Churchill chose to sink the French fleet.

The Battle of Stalingrad, the deadliest single battle ever seen, has been lauded as a shining example of Stalin's military genius, and altered the course of World War II permanently. The battle established the Soviet Union as a superpower to be reckoned with in the long Cold War that lay ahead. More than a half-century later, with newly uncovered evidence the full impact of this horrific battle is revealed.

On April 20, 1925, Colonel Percy Fawcett, his elder son Jack Fawcett and Jack’s lifelong friend, Raleigh Rimmell, departed from Cuiabá, the capital city of the Brazilian state of Mato Grosso, to find “Z” — Col. Fawcett’s name for what he believed to be an ancient city lost in the uncharted jungles of Brazil. The search for the mysterious Lost City of Z would be the great explorer’s last expedition. All three men would vanish without a trace. Eighty-six years later, Secrets of the Dead has mounted a modern day quest with explorer Niall McCann to find the truth behind the disappearance of famed adventurer Col. Percy Fawcett and his party in Lost in the Amazon

The life-sized terracotta warriors of China are known throughout the world. This clay army of 8,000 including infantry, archers, generals and cavalry was discovered by archaeologists in 1974 after farmers digging a well near the Chinese city of Xian unearthed pieces of clay sculpted in human form. An amazing archaeological find, the terracotta warriors date back more than two thousand years. But what was the purpose of this army of clay soldiers? Who ordered its construction? How were they created? Secrets of the Dead investigates the story behind China’s Terracotta Warriors and documents their return to former glory for the first time.

Beginning in the 1950s, American and Soviet scientists embarked on a perilous race to see who could build and detonate the world’s largest bomb. The results exceeded all expectations about how big a bomb could be built. Initially, the Americans led the way, but then left the field clear for the Soviet Union to break all records. Secrets of the Dead chronicles how the bomb-makers on both sides were working blind as they pushed science into unknown territory to build The World’s Biggest Bomb. As we approach the 50th anniversary of the detonation of the most powerful bomb ever constructed.

An officer aboard a Soviet submarine refuses to fire a nuclear torpedo during the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962.

German POWs reveal inner thoughts about the Third Reich, including military secrets that helped the Allies win World War II.

Forensic and scientific analysis help determine how 57 Irish immigrants died less than two months after arriving in Pennsylvania to work on the railroad.

Scientists say some of the 49,000 year-old Neanderthal bones discovered in El Sidrón, Spain, bear signs of cannibalism.

New scientific research provides insights into how King Tutankhamen was buried, why his tomb remained intact and how he died.

Bones of the Buddha is a 2013 television documentary produced by Icon Films and commissioned by WNET/THIRTEEN and ARTE France for the National Geographic Channels. It concerns a controversial Buddhist reliquary from the Piprahwa Stupa in Uttar Pradesh, India. It was released in May, 2013, and was broadcast in July 2013 in the US on PBS as part of the Secrets of the Dead series.

Scientists test the bones of England's fierce King Richard III.

For many, President Lyndon B. Johnson is chiefly remembered for escalating the United States military involvement in Vietnam. But his legacy is much more than his role in the Vietnam War. In fact, Johnson engineered the passing of two of the most important laws Congress ever approved: the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

An investigation to discover if Leonardo da Vinci came up with all of his credited ideas and inventions, or were they borrowed from ancient scholars and scientists?