History in Five

On May 29, 1917, John F. Kennedy was born and he would later serve his country in the Navy, local politics, as a U.S. Senator, and, ultimately, President of the United States.

On this day - May 31, 1889 - a dam in the mountains above Johnstown, Pennsylvania, bursts and floods the entire valley below, claiming more than 2,000 lives. THE JOHNSTOWN FLOOD was the first book by two-time Pulitzer Prize winner David McCullough.

On this day - May 10, 1869 - the final spike is hammered to link the Union Pacific and Central Pacific railways in Promontory, Utah. The full history of the transcontinental railroad in Stephen Ambrose's NOTHING LIKE IT IN THE WORLD.

On April 4, 1968, civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr., is shot and killed in Memphis, Tennessee.

David McCullough discusses how his three books - THE GREAT BRIDGE, THE PATH BETWEEN THE SEAS and THE WRIGHT BROTHERS- represent an unofficial trilogy about American ingenuity, engineering, and spirit.

One of the great geniuses of history who forever changed our understanding of the world, Albert Einstein was born on March 14, 1879 in southern Germany. Learn more in Walter Isaacson's definitive biography EINSTEIN: HIS LIFE AND UNIVERSE.

On March 5, 1770, British soldiers open fire into a mob of angry colonists, killing five of them and moving the colonies closer to war with the Crown. Learn more about this fateful day in THE FEVER OF 1721 by Stephen Coss.

David McCullough discusses how visiting the sweltering, bug-infested jungles of Panama helped him write his prize-winning book THE PATH BETWEEN THE SEAS about the Panama Canal.

Historian and author David McCullough discusses the building of the Brooklyn Bridge, the subject of his epic book THE GREAT BRIDGE.

John Avlon, author of WASHINGTON'S FAREWELL, and editor-in-chief of The Daily Beast, discusses the first president's momentous and prescient farewell address to the nation.