May 12th, 1960, Frank Sinatra’s Welcome Home special, ABC television. Elvis Presley was performing in front of millions of viewers, sharing the stage with one of his idols. It should have been a triumphant moment. Instead, halfway through his second song, Elvis felt his chest tighten. His hands started shaking. Sweat poured down his face….
December 21st, 1945. The phone call came to Dwight Eisenhower’s office in Washington. George Patton was dead. For 3 years, Eisenhower had walked a tight rope, publicly disciplining his most effective general while privately depending on him to win battles no one else could win. He defended Patton to politicians, apologized for him to allies,…
April 1967, New Bethl Baptist Church, Detroit. Artha Franklin had just given an interview where a reporter asked her about Elvis Presley’s gospel music. Artha, always honest and respectful, had said something that would soon reach Elvis’s ears. Elvis is a wonderful entertainer, and I respect his talent. But real gospel, the gospel that comes…
Berlin, April 22, 1945. The Furer bunker, 50 ft underground. Soviet shells rain on the surface. Adolf Hitler sits across from his remaining generals. The maps show a Germany that exists only on paper. His hands tremble. His face is gray. For 4 years, he commanded the most powerful military machine ever built, conquered most…
January 14th, 1973. One stage, one satellite, and one man about to do the impossible. From Honolulu to London, from Tokyo to [music] Toronto, over 1 and a half billion people watched live, making it the [music] most viewed solo concert in history. For 90 minutes, the entire planet was connected by a single [music]…
April 8th, 1943. 27,000 ft above Kong, France. The oxygen mask couldn’t hide Oberloitant Ralph Hermachin’s smirk as he watched the unggainainely silhouettes climbing laboriously toward his formation through the crystal clearar canopy of his Fauler Wolf 190 A5. The veteran ace of Yagkashvada, 26, studied the American fighters making their combat debut over occupied…
In early June 1940 Britain and France are in peril. German panzers close on Paris, while hundreds of thousands of Allied troops scramble to evacuate. On June 10, Italy invades southern France, and although the attack fails, it expands the war: the Mediterranean theatre now stretches from the Horn of Africa to…
Late 1944, as weary Allied troops edge ever closer to the German border, they can all but taste the end of the war. But before victory is theirs, the Americans will fight the single longest battle on German soil. It’s one of the largest, bloodiest battles of World War II. Yet, it’s virtually unknown. It…
It’s June 4, 1942, at 6:16 in the morning, and high above the Pacific, 72 Japanese bombers and their fighter escorts mercilessly blast through the defending American aircraft and barrel on towards their target. It’s an idyllic atoll, home to an important American air and naval base. The air raid sirens howl across the island….
What would you do if you were surrounded by dozens of enemy soldiers? Your rifle empty, your pistol jammed, and the closest help was more than 15 miles away through jungle so thick that sunlight never touched the ground. Would you pray? Would you surrender? Would you close your eyes and wait for the end?…
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