Vanessa Williams Unlocks Her Ancestry With A Rare Civil War Photo | Who Do You Think You Are?

In late 1643, the fate of the English Civil War hung in the balance. With King Charles I on the defensive, both the Royalists (Cavaliers) and Parliamentarians (Roundheads) scrambled for foreign allies to deliver a decisive blow. While Charles sought recruits in Catholic Ireland, Parliament struck a game-changing alliance: The Solemn League and Covenant with Scotland. In January 1644, Alexander Leslie, Earl of Leven, led an army of 20,000 Scottish Covenanters across the border. What followed was a brutal northern campaign that culminated on July 2, 1644, at the Battle of Marston Moor - the largest and bloodiest battle ever fought on English soil. Watch this documentary to explore how religious division, political brinkmanship, Oliver Cromwell's Ironsides, and the desperate march of Prince Rupert collided to crush the Royalist hold on the North and set King Charles I on the path to inevitable defeat. 💚 Join the Absolute History club to get access to exclusive member benefits! 📺 You can now become a History Hit member right here on the original video platform! Join for access to a new exclusive

Afro-Caribbean sailor Lionel Romney survived eleven months in a concentration camp. His story illustrates how Black people were systematically persecuted under the Nazi regime. Lionel Romney was born in Santo Domingo in 1912 and raised on Sint Maarten. As a young man, he signed on to a cargo ship to see the world. But his longing for freedom turned into a tragic odyssey. Caught up in the turmoil of World War II, his ship came under fire and sunk. The crew survived. But Lionel was taken prisoner by the Italians. After years in various camps, he was eventually deported to the Mauthausen concentration camp. He survived there for eleven months, before American troops liberated the camp. Decades after the war, Lionel Romney entrusted his memories to his daughter, Mary. Her journey from the Caribbean through Italy to Austria forms the framework of the film, which shines a light on a chapter of European history that has been suppressed to this day: the reality of life for Black people under National Socialism. This reality was marked by colonial continuities, racism, forced

The Chinese Chairman Mao Zedong once declared the death of 300 million of his own people would be a price worth paying. Supreme Leader of China for almost 3 decades, his merciless policies made him one of the most ruthless tyrants of the 20th Century. A communist leader obsessed by power and violence; a sadist intoxicated by others’ pain; and a dictator convinced that politics had to be violent. He presided over the deaths of more people than Hitler and Stalin combined. Those who dared oppose him paid the price in the most cruel way imaginable. China’s needless deaths were so great in number, the total may never be known. This is the story of a sadistic autocrat addicted to brutality, from his communist roots, through his reign of cruelty and revenge, to a position of authority so great, his personality cult remains to this day. -- Welcome to the official Get.factual the original video platform channel! 🌍 We are a documentary streaming channel covering history, science, technology, and nature. Explore worlds distant, forgotten, and unknown; from the depths of

Throughout the course of history, there have been many viciously cruel dictators, but few as deranged as Muammar Gaddafi, the man President Reagan dubs The Mad Dog of the Middle East. For over 40 years the Libyan despot terrifies, tortures and tricks the world with one horrific act after another. This is the story of Colonel Gaddafi, the Middle East’s longest serving dictator from his roots as an idealistic young revolutionary in 1969, to becoming one of the world’s most deadly terrorists. Mixing dramatic reconstruction with archive and testimony, this film shows how his quest to be taken seriously as an international statesman drives him to commit increasingly insane atrocities at home and abroad. It explains how he ends up an international pariah and reveals how his delusions of grandeur will lead to his downfall in 2011. -- Welcome to the official Get.factual the original video platform channel! 🌍 We are a documentary streaming channel covering history, science, technology, and nature. Explore worlds distant, forgotten, and unknown; from the depths of ocean trenches to the far reaches of the cosmos.

From Britain's first jet fighter and the revolutionary Harrier to the AK-47, Jeep and terrifying V2 rocket, this episode charts the relentless pursuit of speed and agility in modern warfare. As weapons become faster and more mobile, the story ultimately leads to the Cold War's most chilling development — nuclear missiles capable of striking almost instantly.

Europe celebrates the end of World War II, but peace proves fragile. As Truman succeeds Roosevelt and Churchill fights to preserve democracy in Eastern Europe, Stalin moves to consolidate Soviet control behind the Red Army. The Potsdam Conference reveals deep divisions between the wartime Allies, while the successful test of the atomic bomb transforms global politics. This episode explores how victory over Nazi Germany gave way to a new struggle for power that would define the second half of the twentieth century.