Original subtitles

The 20th century

was a time of incredible change,

(yells in German)

unspeakable horrors,

and amazing leaps of scientific discovery.

It was a century marked by events

that united and divided us.

From great feats to great wars,

(bombs boom)

with advancements and setbacks

that showed us the power of many,

the power of one.

I have a dream.

A century of revolutions,

evolutions, and retributions.

He's been shot.

A century made by conflicts and crimes,

inventions and entertainment,

politics, protests,

discoveries, and disasters.

Oh, the humanity.

We will count down the 101 events

of the 20th century.

Their stories form the tapestry of our history

and shape the world in which we live.

(dramatic music) In this episode.

It entirely changed the way that Hollywood went about

making money from merchandising.

People were searching for precedence.

Where had there ever been mass suicides

comparable to this?

So it just shows you how one determined person

with a powerful idea can change the world.

(poignant music)

An ink drawing of a cartoon mouse in 1928

was the first spark in an idea

that would create a wonderland

delighting millions of children and adults

throughout the latter half of the 20th century.

Illustrator Walt Disney and animator Ub Iwerks

created Steamboat Willie,

the first all-sound cartoon, in 1928.

Its star was originally called Mortimer Mouse,

but Walt's wife and fellow ink artist Lillian

thought Mickey sounded better.

Mickey was soon followed by Donald Duck,

Minnie Mouse, and Goofy,

all becoming beloved characters in their own right.

The name of Walt Disney,

through his cartoon characters,

has meant family entertainment for young and old alike.

Walt was always challenging himself,

never resting on his laurels.

When his motion picture and television programs

became successful, he felt the desire to branch out.

The earliest kind of documentation

that we see of Disney kind of planning

for an amusement part was around about 1948,

and he really didn't like the kinds of theme parks

that were available to families at that time.

He felt they were kind of dirty and grimy,

and he said that they weren't a very kind of nice

atmosphere for family outings,

and he came up with this kind of new idea.

Now we want you to share with us

our latest and greatest dream.

That's it, right here, Disneyland.

In it, he imagined flying elephants

and giant teacups, a fairytale castle, rockets,

and a scenic railway.

On the 17th of July 1955,

Walt's biggest venture opened to the public, Disneyland.

Many thought the park was doomed to failure.

Opening week for Disneyland was actually

a bit of a disaster. (laughs)

They had all sorts of problems.

There were a lot of forged tickets, so it was overcrowded.

It was particularly embarrassing for the Disney Company

because a lot of the opening week for Disneyland

was broadcast live on television.

After a slightly bumpy start,

it was a huge success,

sparking an entire new industry, theme parks.

By the end of the 20th century,

hundreds of millions had visited Disneyland.

What Disneyland stands for, I suppose,

the Disneyland that Walt built in Anaheim, California,

is very much a kind of utopian version of America.

The golden west is delightfully

commemorated today in the old-time streets of Disneyland.

Why I think it endures and why people go there

is to be part of that dream world.

The happiest place on Earth

was followed by Disney World in Florida in 1971,

Tokyo Disney in 1983,

(fireworks boom) and Paris Euro Disney in 1992.

Walt said that Disneyland would never be completed

as long as there was imagination left in the world,

the state of becoming a template for new ideas

and attractions continually added.

(fireworks boom) (crowd cheers)

The promise he had made at the park's opening in 1955

had come true.

To all who come to this happy place, welcome.

Here age relives fond memories of the past,

and here youth may savor the challenge

and promise of the future.

(percussive music)

In 1936, the military leadership of Spain

staged a coup against the republic's coalition government.

It failed, but the army kept fighting

(cannons boom) setting off a war

that created ripples beyond Spain's borders.

Spain had only been a democratic republic for five years

when civil war broke out.

History labels the military and the right wing

as the Nationalists,

and the forces backing the legitimate government

as the Republicans.

Neither side seems to have

a distinctive uniform, but these are government men.

The decisive military force

that joined the fighting was the Army of Africa

in the Spanish colony of Morocco.

It was led by Francisco Franco.

And Franco's arrival in power

was a brilliantly orchestrated exercise in manipulation.

He arranged that certain generals would support him,

that they managed to push others to the side

and so forth.

And by a sudden announcement, Franco was proclaimed leader.

General Franco has arrived

on very special business, and it a dictator-like trip

that the new head of the state reviews his guard of honor.

Very quickly, each side took their strongholds.

The Republicans took Catalonia

and its capitol, Barcelona, among other cities.

They had limited help from the Soviet Union.

By contrast, the Nationalists received material

and personnel from Germany and Italy.

Although the Nationalist forces were better supplied,

they held back on the attack.

Franco's approach to the war was patient and reserved.

But at the same time, Franco had another agenda,

and that was by making it a slow war,

he was able to suppress all opposition.

It was during this particular period

that the Nationalists, who might have been in a minority

in areas with great Republican sympathies

were able to crush, if necessary kill,

any of their opponents.

The war was slow to progress,

each side holding on to their areas.

Some 60 miles divide the facists

from the Spanish capitol,

where in the Grazalema mountain range government troops

and militiamen grimly defend the strong fights.

But the popular front was hopelessly divided.

Its factions fought each other on the streets of Madrid,

making it easy for the Nationalists

to finally take the city without much of a fight

on April 1, 1939. (bombs boom)

World War II followed closely on the heels of

the Spanish Civil War's end,

and it was time to Spain to pay its debts,

even if it would hurt her people.

Franco knew that the end of the Spanish Civil War,

that Spain was completely exhausted

and above all, economically crushed.

He owed Hitler a huge amount.

As a result, all Spanish exports were all virtually

being given to Germany to pay for Germany's contribution

both in arms and in military contributions.

The Nationalist victory of 1939

destroyed the Republican side of politics,

which was slow to recover even after Franco's death in 1975.

The ruin of the flourishing town

of 75,000 inhabitants shows the cost of revolution.

The 1930s saw a war of ideals in Spain.

National secrecy replaced remembrance

and restricted the tale to the version of the victors.

The shadow of the civil war would lie over Spain

for generations to come.

(planes rumble)

(ominous music)

In 1986, a catastrophic accident

in a Ukrainian nuclear power station

created a radioactive cloud that spread across Europe

and turned the area into one of the 20th century's

most infamous ghost towns.

The world's first nuclear power plant

was put into operation in Obninsk, near Moscow, in 1954.

The experimental water-cooled plant

was built to produce atomic energy

that could be harnessed for electricity generation

and transport needs.

The Soviet Union, which included Ukraine in those days,

had a very pro-nuclear power policy.

There was a degree of hubris, I think.

This was supposed to be the top technology

in the top technological country in the world,

according to Soviet propaganda.

And, as a result, they pursued a design

that had been rejected by every other country in the world.

Despite protests around the world,

the nuclear industry grew rapidly in Europe

and Russia during the 1970s and 80s.

That changed after an accident

at Russia's Chernobyl plant in April 1986.

On the evening of the 26th of April,

the plant's safety systems were turned off

during a late-night test.

So power went from about 6% of normal operating

to about 480 times normal operating

within about three seconds.

There was a huge hydrogen explosion.

The pile cap, a 2,000-ton metal cap

over the top of the reactor was flipped up into the air

like a coin, and the reactor core was exposed,

so a very large amount of material could escape.

The accident would have a devastating effect.

In terms of the radioactive fallout,

there were about 30 deaths on site.

About another 250 people suffered from radiation sickness.

The longer-term effects were the thyroid cancers

in the area because of radioactive iodine in the plume

which was taken up in the thyroids of local people.

Vast tracts of Ukrainian farmland

lie contaminated, and the effect on Chernobyl's community

will be felt for generations.

Fires from the explosion

created updrafts of radioactive material

which traveled across the European continent

for more than a week.

Yet Soviet authorities failed to notify

any other governments of the incident.

Soviet officials have blamed the catastrophe

on human negligence.

It was only when nuclear particles

were detected in Sweden that the outside world

became aware of the disaster.

The Soviets tell the world

what really happened at the Chernobyl nuclear reactor

disaster in April, and the Scandinavians are only now

beginning to realize the whole cost to wildlife

in northern Europe.

Then there had been attempts to cover up the accident

once it had occurred, even from the Soviet High Command.

I suspect that it was a significant issue

in the breakup and then collapse of the Communist system.

As a result of the accident,

global confidence in nuclear power plummeted.

The nuclear power industry went into deep recession

in the 1990s.

For decades after the accident,

Chernobyl's reactor has sat in its concrete sarcophagus,

a reminder of the potential cost of nuclear power.

There is agreement, however,

on both sides of the nuclear argument post-Chernobyl:

It must never happen again.

(dramatic music)

1936 brought upheaval

to the British royal family.

With the death of King George V,

his unwilling eldest son would have to ascend the throne.

Prince Edward's personal life would lead to a crisis

neither Parliament, nor the British people,

knew how to handle.

(gentle music)

In the sad bereavement which we all feel

so deeply at the death of our late beloved king,

what consolation it is to know

that a son worthy of his father has succeeded to the throne.

Edward wasn't ready to be king

when the moment came.

He was popular with the public and with the ladies.

As Prince of Wales, Edward VIII was

one of the celebrity figures of

really the western world.

He thoroughly enjoyed partying,

he thoroughly enjoyed being photographed,

and as part of that he become somebody

who everybody wanted to meet.

Edward met Mrs. Wallis Simpson

at one of these parties, and they would continue

to meet again and again as she, too,

enjoyed the extravagant lifestyle.

She attracted him by being informal, American,

not apparently over-awed by his status;

and as a result, she caught his interest,

and the rest is history.

As their relationship developed, concern grew.

It was not just that she had to be titled.

As the head of the Church of England,

the King was not allowed to marry someone

who had been divorced.

Mrs. Simpson had been divorced twice.

The King holds that marriage is his own

private affair, and he's strong-willed and determined.

Mrs. Simpson was not accepted

by the royal family, or the country's Parliament,

or the public who could not understand

their King's infatuation.

You have a picture where Edward VIII

is actually increasingly isolated,

increasingly backed into a corner where,

in many ways, he feels there is no option

but to stick to his word.

If Wallis Simpson was a non-negotiable factor in his life,

then the only thing that he could negotiate

was the terms on which he would go.

In the gloom of a dull December afternoon,

Mr. Baldwin leaves Downing Street

to tell Parliament the fateful news of the King's decision.

After 10 months, Edward VIII

abdicated the throne to marry his sweetheart.

His reign, the shortest for 380 years,

ended on December 11, 1936 with his now-famous

broadcast to the British people.

I have found it impossible

to carry the heavy burden of responsibility

and to discharge my duties as King

as I would wish to,

without the help and support of the woman I love.

On Edward's abdication,

his younger brother Albert was crowned George VI,

and he gave his brother the title of the Duke of Windsor.

But Wallis did not become a royal duchess,

nor was she allowed to attend royal ceremonies.

The Windsors lived abroad, away from the royal family.

Edward's abdication was their first voluntary abdication

in the history of the British monarchy,

and it shocked the British people.

What Edward VIII choice of wife showed is

that no member of the royal family

could ignore public opinion when it comes

to choosing a consort; that they will be scrutinized,

they will be commented on, positively and negatively.

(thoughtful music)

The early years of the space race

were characterized by competition between Russia

and the United States.

As this competition gave way to cooperation,

humankind would achieve a remarkable feat.

If it is our destiny to explore, which I believe it is,

then the International Space Station is the next step.

Zarya, the first piece of a new

International Space Station, was launched in 1988.

It was a Russian module, and its purpose was

simply to get things started.

It wasn't a habitable part of the station.

It contained some of the essential systems

for the eventual station, including things like navigation

and communications, but it wasn't pressurized,

it wasn't a habitable space for a human being in orbit.

As the initial piece, Zarya set the orbit

for the following pieces of the Space Station.

It was connected to the first node, called Unity,

on the sixth of December, 1988.

Later, two more nodes named Harmony and Tranquility,

completed the Space Station.

I think the Russian space technology is very good,

and people here know how to design things

to meet a requirement,

and the station will be flyable for 15 years.

On the second of November 2000,

the first inhabitants of the structure arrived.

Yuri Gidzenko, Sergei Krikalev, and William Shepherd

were the first to live on the station.

Mission, I'd like to give a big thanks

to all the people on the ground, and

to Russia and the United States

and all the partner countries that have worked long and hard

to make this possible.

The station is equipped for long periods

of human habitation.

There's a privacy door on the bathroom,

obviously, to make sure that everybody can have

their own moments alone.

The project is a collaboration

between 16 countries, involving scientific laboratories

from Japan, Europe, and the U.S.

They're able to work on problems

from the unique perspective of space.

The Space Station is used for quite an incredible

range of research.

It's basically a scientific platform, and so

there are many experiments in biology, in microgravity.

There are experiments in astronomy,

there are experiments in communications.

Since it was first manned,

the Space Station has produced numerous innovations

in medicine, improving space travel technology,

and water sanitation.

The Expedition 19 crew,

inaugurating the use of the water recovery system

to produce recycled purified water.

The Space Station is unique

in allowing public input into research programs,

conducting experiments suggested from all over the Earth.

International Space Station is all about cooperation,

and it's demonstrated, despite all of the tensions

in the world, all of the conflicts and arguments,

it's been possible to construct together

the most amazing piece of technology,

and in the process I think mankind has become better.

(poignant music)

For hundreds of years,

mankind was not aware of the damage they cause

to their environment.

It is technology advanced in the 20th century.

Some scientists began to become aware of

the negative effects, and they would try

to inform the rest of the world.

Scientist and novelist Rachel Carson

had been trying to tell the world about

the harmful effects of the miracle chemical

dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane, known as DDT.

When she published her book Silent Spring in 1962,

she finally caught the world's attention.

In the United States, prior to Silent Spring,

the dominant attitude was one of

technological mastery over nature.

Nature was there as a set of resources

for the exploitation by man.

So Silent Spring and Rachel Carson really

were a fundamental shock to the system.

DDT had come into use

during the Second World War.

It was used for fighting disease-carrying mosquitoes

in order to aide the advance of American forces,

saving countless lives from malaria.

Everyone had to be dusted with DDT powder

before they could cross the bridge into the city.

However, its longterm effects were not known.

Scientists noted the detrimental effect

that could already be seen in birds' eggs.

The shells were thinner,

which reduced survival of the young.

Carson's book drew attention to the plight of the birds

and all living things.

And I think it appealed to a sense in many people

that they hadn't articulated or really

brought to the conscious mind that yeah,

the birds have gone, what is this?

This is a tragic thing to do, we love birds,

we love nature, but we're destroying it.

Silent Spring was as poetic

as it was scientific, and Carson's words

reached her readers, connecting the danger to themselves

and to their environment.

Yet another menace lies in the crop dusting

which is so much a part of American farming.

The perils of DDT, for example,

are now well enough known for the U.S. Secretary of Health

to call for its complete elimination.

The book was initially received very well,

until the makers and distributors of DDT

started to fight back.

The chemical industries themselves attacked Rachel Carson

as a hysterical woman, despite the fact

that she was exceptionally well-qualified.

Despite the debate,

after the book's publication there have been

significant advances in environmental policy.

By 1972, the domestic sale of DDT was banned.

And we've discontinued all use of DDT.

But the compound was still

being sold to other countries,

and at the close of the 20th century

it was still being made in China and India.

Rachel Carson's book may not have had

the effect she was looking for,

but it set the stage for those to come.

Because Silent Spring named the beast, as it were,

it was in many respects the seed that was planted

that grew into the modern environment movement

in the United States.

So it just shows you how one determined person

with a powerful idea, expressed eloquently,

can change the world.

(percussive music)

In the 1970s, one religious cult

gained a following with the promise of a brighter future,

but their story would ultimately end in tragedy.

In the 1970s there was a proliferation

of what were then called new religious movements,

sects, cults, because there seemed to be

a general disenchantment with religion

and a searching for meaning elsewhere.

Some found new meaning in the Peoples Temple.

Its young preacher, Jim Jones, assisted in

attracting hundreds of people over the 70s.

Just a warm fellowship and acceptance of all people.

And of course, people bought into that religion

to such an extent that they are prepared

to follow him all the way to South America.

In 1977, Jones escaped the bad press

that was coming out about him,

taking 1,000 people with him from the United States

to the small South American country of Guyana.

The cult continued into '78, its conditions worsening.

Where before he had ruled with love and understanding,

he began to say that people don't understand love,

we've got to rule with fear.

Drugs made Jones increasingly paranoid,

and few people were allowed to leave the compound.

In November 1978, Congressman Leo Ryan

visited the compound and pierced Jones' charade.

However, when Ryan tried to take members

back to America with him, he was attacked,

escaping to the airport where Jones' lieutenant

shot and killed him and four others

trying to board the plane.

I hit the deck, I lie face down,

and next thing I heard they're walking towards us,

one of the men, and next thing I know

the guy came close and blew his brain off.

Jones panicked and convinced his congregation

that the U.S. government would kill them

for the involvement in the crime.

At some point he

decided the time was for the whole cult

to disappear by their own hand.

He gathered them and gave them all a drink,

a concoction that contained cyanide, the lethal dose.

Some of them, we understand, drank it voluntarily.

The ones that didn't drink it voluntarily

were at gunpoint, and were forced to swallow.

It's believed each lived about five minutes.

Children made up one-third of

the 900-plus victims of Jones' paranoia.

Their bodies were found laid in lines

around the center of the compound,

Jones' body slumped in a throne at the front

with a bullet wound in his head.

People were searching for precedence.

Where had there ever been mass suicides comparable to this?

And they didn't readily spring to mind.

Jonestown had become a utopian idea,

but its power-hungry leader brought the dysfunctional cult

to a disastrous end.

Its members had believed Jones' word and trusted his vision,

following the crazed minister into a mass suicide

that shocked the world.

(metal music)

Women's fashions come and go with the seasons,

but throughout most of the 20th century

when hemlines went up, they made headlines.

As more women began entering the workforce,

the world came to the realization

that long skirts were simply not practical.

Time was when the big designers

ordained a fashion line as firm as the rock of Gibraltar.

The height of a skirt was as firmly fixed

in the public mind as all the other major events

in the British way of life.

Hemlines started to get higher,

and didn't stop until they reached

the highest heights of the miniskirt, introduced in 1964.

The early 60s were still older women were

in control of dress at that stage.

There was a number of things happening,

there were a lot of subcultures and they were all

rebelling against the previous generation.

The woman who introduced the miniskirt

to London was Mary Quant.

She put the quant in quantity,

and she put quality into ready-to-wear fashion.

It is Mary Quant that takes off with it.

She was trying to resist the previous generation

and trying to shock people.

She was not the first to make

this fashion suggestion.

French designer Andre Courreges' short skirt

had met with shocked silence at his 1964

spring-summer fashion show.

However, Quant was in a better position

to capitalize on the miniskirt with clever marketing

and her shop's location in swinging London.

Take 15 girls, all wearing miniskirts,

and invite them to break a world record

held by a college group in America.

The scandalous length was a statement

from the young who were determined

to have their say in the '60s.

I think it's giving women confidence,

and it shows the rise of women's position in society,

going from World War II where they work in the factories,

they were sent back home and here was outrageous clothing,

you could reassert yourself,

and that's why I think it's so important

as a social statement.

That same year, the miniskirt enjoyed

controversy amongst the Melbourne Cup's conservative crowd.

Model Jean Shrimpton arrived late,

without stockings, gloves, or a hat,

and a short dress which made headlines.

Shrimpton may have been out of place in 1965,

but Ascot of 1966 followed her example,

raising the stakes by at least another inch.

This year's Ascot eye opener

wasn't the girl in the trouser suit,

it was the follow-up to Jean Shrimpton's

dramatic appearance at the races in Australia.

It was the invasion of this hallowed shrine

of the establishment by the highline hemline.

Always responding to the politics of the day,

in the 1970s hemlines dropped again.

With feminism and protests against the Vietnam War,

the young women of the world

wore longer skirts against exploitation.

With that move, the miniskirt fell out of fashion,

but it kept coming back over the second half of the century.

I believe it was one of the first democratic dresses

for the 20th century.

In fact, democratic for women's clothing

because so many more women could have access

to this clothing, they could make it themselves,

it was accessible to far more people.

It was rebranded with leather

and denim for punks.

Then later it became sportswear in the cheerleader's

rah-rah pleated miniskirt.

Through its many iterations over the 20th century,

the miniskirt remained a symbol of freedom and liberation.

(dramatic music)

(cannon booms)

By the end of World War II, Europe lay in ruins.

The United States, determined to prevent

the cycle of revenge and reparation

that had followed the First World War,

hatched an ambitious recovery plan.

The shattered wreckage of conquered Germany

is a graphic symbol of the desperate need

of reconstruction in post-war Europe.

By the end of the Second World War,

destruction was rife across Europe.

From the United States' point of view,

Europe was in rather bad shape,

at the same time as which the Soviet Union

had manifested itself as unremittingly hostile.

And there was real fears that it would trample

over western Europe, so

how do you make Europe strong enough

to be able to stand in some sort

against the Soviet Union?

First of all was the need to build

some sort of political and economic barrier

against the Soviet Union.

On the fifth of June 1947,

U.S. Secretary of State George C. Marshall

outlined an ambitious economic program.

It featured a U.S.-sponsored program

to rehabilitate the economies of 17 European nations.

In order to meet this emergency,

I recommend that you give immediate and urgent consideration

to a bill authorizing the appropriation of sufficient funds

to provide the supplies necessary to permit

the people of these countries to continue to eat,

to work, and to survive the winter.

The idea was that Britain, for example,

would need 300 pounds worth of coal,

so coal would be provided,

not that they would be given money.

Marshall approached the U.S. Congress

in 1948 with the idea.

Seeking a commitment of billions of dollars,

he was adamant, this was in the USA's interest

as much as Europe's.

The United States, after the Second World War,

was in such a productive mode, not only in steel mills

but also on farms, that the fear was

if they couldn't sell these goods

it would go into a massive depression.

So they needed to build up Europe to be rich enough

to be able to buy American goods.

After strong debate, the U.S. Congress

passed the Economic Corporation Act in April 1948,

approving over $12 billion to rebuild western Europe.

President Truman signs the bill

that puts the Marshall aid plan into operation,

aid for free nations to remain free.

Russia, and its eastern communist

satellite states, were invited to participate.

However, the Soviets were suspicious of

American economic imperialism.

The Americans said we want to know

what your economies are like.

In other words, permission to crawl all over your economies

and say what you need, and the Soviets weren't having this,

and they forced all of their satellites

also to turn down Marshall aid.

When the program rolled out in April 1948,

the priority was for food and fuel.

Rapidly, in the period that followed,

European chemical, engineering, and steel industries grew.

Over its four years, the Marshall plan was a success.

Employment rose, and life began to be

more than just surviving day-by-day.

This is the hour to rededicate ourselves

as we face the challenge of the years ahead.

(crowd applauds)

The Marshall plan had set the continent

on the path towards a unified Europe.

Besides a reputation as a great generous gesture

by the United States, that ought to be done again,

Europe is the major outcome.

The United States forced Europe,

as a price for Marshall aid, to unify.

And without this American pressure,

without American midwifing this united Europe,

I don't believe it would exist today

and certainly not in the way it does.

(triumphant music)

With the United States economy booming

in the 1920s, two captains of the automotive industry,

Walter Chrysler and John Jacob Raskob with General Motors,

pitted wits and wealth in their efforts to scrape the sky.

(upbeat music)

As the second decade of the 20th century

drew to a close, the race was on in New York

to erect the world's tallest building.

At the time that they were being built,

there was a kind of intense race to build

a 1,000-foot skyscraper, that was kind of

the be all and end all in terms of towers

in Manhattan at the time, and if you could build

the tallest building in Manhattan, well,

you've built the tallest building in the world.

Chrysler was the first to break ground

in September 1928.

Undeterred, Raskob began construction in March 1930.

The Empire State Building was being built at one rate,

I think, 14 floors every 10 days, really, really fast,

just kind of flying up.

Already she's higher than

any other building in the world,

and when she's finished she'll be 102 stories.

They managed to do it by thinking of the whole place

as a production line.

Workers knew exactly when it was coming up, what time,

so it was very efficiently planned.

At the end of May 1930,

the Chrysler Building opened on Lexington Avenue,

towering 282 meters high.

Raskob pushed on, and with 3,400 workers

putting in more than seven million man hours,

work was completed in just one year and 45 days.

Raskob took New York's nickname, the Empire State,

for his ambitious project.

New York Governor Smith's grandchildren

officially cut the ribbon on the building

on the first of May 1931.

We are about to officially open the Empire State Building,

the largest and most beautiful office building in the world.

With the city in the grip of the Great Depression

at the time of its opening,

the world's largest office building stood

mostly empty for some time.

Some locals derided it as the Empty State Building.

It wasn't until the 1950s

that the building became profitable,

and it was sold in 1951 for $34 million.

The tallest of New York structures

and the tallest in the world is the amazing

Empire State Building.

It has seven miles of elevator shafts

and 73 elevators which travel so fast

that a passenger entering one at the street floor

may reach the 80th floor exactly one minute later.

By the end of 1980 its business success

saw it given its own zip code, 10118.

Few icons have become so inextricably linked

with the building as the great King Kong

and actress Faye Wray, when the giant ape scaled it

in the 1933 hit film.

You almost know it before you've even gone there

because it's in so many films, you know?

You can't think of King Kong, Sleepless in Seattle,

there are so many others that will actually

reference the Empire State Building as kind of

to say you're in New York.

Most tourists come here for their first stop.

You see the shape of the building and you know

where you are, you know what it is.

Named one of the seven greatest

engineering achievements in America's history,

the Empire State Building has been at New York's very heart,

a beacon celebrating the 20th century in its very fiber.

(dramatic music)

At the start of the 20th century,

the British empire was one of the strongest powers

in the world.

Nothing so dramatically illustrated its fall from power

as a political disaster in 1956.

The Suez Canal is 160 kilometers long,

and it connects Egypt to the Red Sea.

It's the shortest route between Europe

and India and Australia.

Strategically important to Britain

in both world wars, and to the passage of oil

to western Europe, the British maintained a vast

military garrison of 80,000 soldiers in the Suez.

All honor to every Britain

now playing a part in keeping the canal open.

Egyptians resented the lingering

colonial influence, with Britain and France

remaining the largest shareholders of the Suez Canal.

Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser

reached an agreement with Britain.

British troops would withdraw from Egypt by June 1956,

and Egypt would respect freedom of navigation

through the canal.

As the last British troops withdrew

from the Suez zone in 1956,

relations between British Prime Minister Anthony Eden

and Nasser were increasingly hostile.

When Eden withdrew his commitment to supply military arms

to Nasser, he responded by nationalizing the Suez Canal

and closing the Straits of Tehran to Israeli ships.

Now Egypt's President Nasser

has made his grand, for recklessly and illegally

taking over the canal 12 years ahead of

the agreed date to end the concession.

This was a violation of the Suez Agreement

that Eden had personally negotiated.

He tried to persuade the British public

of the need for war.

True, it runs through Egypt, but it is not vital to Egypt

as it is to many other countries in all parts of the world.

We cannot agree that an act of plunder

which threatens the livelihood of many nations

shall be allowed to succeed.

France and Israel were also alarmed

at Nasser's decision.

At a secret meeting between the three countries,

they planned a coordinated attack

to seize back the canal zone.

Britain was determined to regain control of the canal,

and the French were concerned about the canal

because they didn't want Nasser's Arab nationalism

to influence their colony in Algeria.

Israeli forces moved first

on the 29th of October,

invading and taking the Sinai Peninsula in seven days.

Two days later, Britain and France began

an aerial bombing campaign.

The tripartite operation was a military success,

but a political disaster.

Russia threatened to use every force necessary

to stop the violence against the Egyptians,

which caused the British to back down

and accept a cease fire.

The Americans, in particular, got very upset.

The United States was not consulted in any way

about any phase of these actions,

nor were we informed of them in advance.

In the face of intense international

pressure, the invading forces withdrew

just eight days after the invasion had begun.

The canal was closed to traffic for five months,

with Britain having limited access to fuel and oil,

leading to petrol rationing.

I think it destroyed English prestige in the Middle East

and the career of Anthony Eden.

After that, his prospects diminished.

It was considered the last draw of the line

and the end of the colonial rule in Egypt.

Well I think we're in a very serious predicament

over there, I fear I think we've done wrong.

Egypt was granted ownership

and sovereignty of the Suez Canal by the United Nations.

Nasser's standing in the region was now stronger.

Anthony Eden resigned from public life,

and for Britain the action was a failure

that dealt a lasting blow to its world standing.

(triumphant music)

In the 1970s, the makers of independent films

dreamed small, took their creations to individual cinemas

and crossed their fingers.

But in May 1977, a film was released

that provoked a reimagining of the entire film industry.

Star Wars: A New Hope opened in cinemas

on the Wednesday prior to the Memorial Day weekend

in the United States, in a mere 32 cinemas.

The movie by second-time director George Lucas

was not expected to have further success.

Expectations were basically nonexistent.

20th Century Fox basically were in disaster mitigation mode,

they thought that it wasn't going to be successful,

that they'd lost a lot of money, it had gone over budget.

Although the $11 million project

was not popular amongst producers,

it played very differently with the public.

The attendance at Star Wars

has been almost astronomic, queues are still forming.

The movie played for over a year,

reaching 1,750 theaters.

Its success was helped in part by its clever marketing.

Lucas made a clever move.

He opted to keep the marketing rights,

shopping them around until they were bought

for $100,000 by Kenner,

and a lucrative partnership was born.

The merchandising of the film

earned more than its box office,

and started a marketing revolution.

The company that he engaged to sell Star Wars figurines

were literally selling empty boxes with the promise

that they would be filled,

because they couldn't manufacture toys fast enough.

Within four years, 40 million Star Wars toys

had been sold, and new toys continue to be made,

keeping public imagination active between films.

It entirely changed the way that Hollywood

went about making money from ancillary products

from merchandising, from tie-ins,

which was not the case before Star Wars,

it's probably one of the film's biggest legacies.

Sequels followed, then prequels and TV series,

and success that continued into the 21st century.

The unexpected response to Star Wars

has turned a film into a franchise

which would trigger the transformation of the film industry,

standardizing and integrating marketing

beyond the reach of an individual movie.

Star Wars is such a broad-based fantasy,

there really is something for everyone.

So you know, I fully expect that kids as well as collectors

are gonna continue to be as enthusiastic about Star Wars

as they have been in the past.

Star Wars' popularity has grown

considerably since that first weekend,

appealing to the new generation

as much as it did to their parents.

And you know, it's something you pass down to your kids.

My parents saw it as their first date,

so you know, it was ingrained in my childhood.

I think Star Wars endures because it has

such an appeal for everybody.

There's a real basis in previously successful

works of cinema, from Kurosawa to John Ford westerns

to science fiction films and World War II films.

It pulls you in, and it offers such a wide range of viewers

something to grab onto.

George Lucas built an empire

out of his stories, impacting on everything they touched

from movies, to toys, to music, to books, to games;

embedding a distant galaxy in the imagination

of its audience, and animating the ancient

mythic narrative of the hero's quest in a universal story

that is still loved across the world today.

(electronic music)

(dramatic music)

It had been almost 20 years since the Great War,

and Germany's leader Adolf Hitler was ready

to present his country's new order of strength

and prestige to the world.

(crowd cheers)

The Third Reich was determined that the 1936 event

would be the biggest games yet.

And this is not a shot of

aerial piracy of Wembley, but a birds eye view of

the dress rehearsal at Berlin's Olympic Stadium

where the games are to be held.

The 1936 Berlin Olympics were better organized

and a more grandiose spectacle

than what had come before, and this is partly

because the Nazi regime was very good at spectacle,

they were very good at organizing things.

Germany was determined to show itself

in its best light, with a performance

that would set the standard

for every succeeding sporting event.

They also brought in new innovations.

They invented the torch relay,

the lighting of the torch in Olympia, Greece;

and the sort of fictitious linking of ancient

and modern Olympics.

A luxurious display was initiated,

treating visiting countries to the best of everything

Germany had to offer.

Members of Great Britain's Olympic team

arrive in Berlin, where a warm welcome is extended them.

In the background, they hid their secrets.

Before the visitors arrived,

all media with anti-Jewish sentiments was toned down.

They even allowed two Jews to represent Germany

on the German Olympic team.

So there was a sense that they were trying to conceal

the depth of the antisemitic discrimination

and the discrimination against other groups,

and to present themselves instead as a peaceful country.

Visiting countries were uneasy,

and several considered boycotting the event

for an alternate venue in Spain.

But by the opening ceremony,

there were 49 countries participating.

Though Germany won the most medals over the two weeks,

African-American Jesse Owens embarrassed the host country,

winning four gold medals and making a mockery of

Hitler's belief in superior Arian genes.

The stadium was packed with spectators

for most of the events, and Hitler took the opportunity

to display the discipline of the country's youth.

In between events, they amassed on the infield

to perform the kinds of physical improvement

that was mandatory in Germany.

Given that there was a very tight linking

in those days between the physical fitness

of a population and military preparedness,

Germany's success in the games should have been a signal

that Germany was militarily prepared.

The need for able-bodied men in Germany

to be in perfect physical condition is emphasized

constantly by the government.

The Olympiad was filmed,

and viewing rooms were set up around the city.

Hitler wanted his triumph to be known

throughout Germany and all over the world,

and he made sure the news traveled.

They see the charming incident of

the presentation of a bouquet to the fuhrer

by a little girl.

For the most part, they were praised and

brought new legitimacy to the Nazi regime.

This had been a chance for the world

to speak against the human rights issues

playing out in Germany, but instead the Nazi regime

was legitimized by the attending countries' participation.

It's been taken to be a classic lesson in

why you should not give the Olympic games

to a dictatorship, because what the Olympic games can do

is offer legitimacy, strength, and domestic support;

essentially give a dictatorship greater strength,

greater ability to survive.

And it's been used now continuously since 1936

as a lesson in why the Olympic games really

should be awarded only to democracies

that respect human rights.

(energetic music)