March 1956. Great Britain is getting ready for the visit of Nikita Khrushchev leader of the country which was by that time practically closed for the West. Right on the eve of this event, TU-104 the Russian jet air liner landed in London. Three days later two more beauties of the same kind flew in. It was a sensation! The British Comet did not fly. The American jet firstlings were still under construction. And there you are three Russian aircraft at a time! The Queen confessed that every time upon hearing the unusual turbines rumble, she got out to the balcony to see the Russian wonder It all started half a century before the events described above.

The end of December 1968 was foul. Low clouds stood over the testing aerodrome of Zhukovsky. Phone calls kept coming from the Ministry: The aircraft must take off before the New Year! It was no accident. It was not just another new aircraft. It was supposed to be the debut of the supersonic passenger airliner TU-144 The Anglo-French Concord was getting ready for its first flight at the same time It was important to overrun competitors. Prestige of the Soviet state was at stake. On December 31, the last day of the year, TU-144 took off It was that aircraft, which entered the history as the first in the world supersonic passenger airliner. Civil aviation was in transition to a new quality level...

By early 1863, Union soldiers with the Army of the Potomac had not been paid for 6 months and supplies were thin. Some 200 men were deserting every day and by January one-quarter of the men were AWOL. Gen. Ambrose Burnside, the new Union commander, wanted to take Fredericksburg but delays in getting the pontoon boats to cross the Rappahannock river allowed Lee to amass 75,000 men. The Union army was blown away and 9,000 men were killed. Elsewhere, the Confederate army was matching this success and a Union flotilla was captured. Lincoln called for more troops and in February, pushed a conscription bill through Congress. Both conscription and the freeing of the slaves were not universally popular and anti-war sentiment was growing. Jefferson Davis had his own problems however. His need to centralize authority did not sit well those who supported States rights. The economy began to collapse with high inflation and resulting protests. By the end of the year, 40% of the Confederate army was absent with or without leave. Lincoln replaced Burnside with General Hooker whose main force met Lee at Chancellorsville. The Union army suffered another massive defeat with the loss of 17,000 men. The Confederate army however lost 13,000 men killed or wounded including Gen. Stonewall Jackson who lost an arm and died of pneumonia. While Grant laid siege to Vicksburg, Lee invaded the north once again.

By 1864, Union forces had the upper hand, though the end of war was not yet in sight. President Lincoln named U.S. Grant overall commander of the Union army, 533,000 strong and the largest army in the world. He was made him a three star Lieutenant General, a rank last held by George Washington. He brought a different approach than his predecessors choosing to aggressively pursue Lee s army realizing that to do so would likely see them take control of Richmond. Success was not assured and did not come quickly. Their first encounter went to Lee but Grant used a flanking maneuver to push Lee s army ever closer to Richmond. The confederate side suffered a major blow with the death of J.E.B. Stuart, perhaps Lee s most trusted General. At Cold Harbor, Grant suffered a terrible defeat, losing thousands of men. He subsequently bypassed Richmond and went further south to Petersburg and dug in, leading to a long siege. Grant ordered Gen. Sherman to push toward and eventually attack Atlanta. Time was running out for Lincoln who was facing reelection and would likely lose if Union forces did not soon have a major victory.

By the summer of 1864, the Union push had been stopped. At Petersburg, Union troops had been entrenched in an intricate network trenches for two months. The key to victory lay in Sherman capturing Atlanta and on July 22, the battle began and by September, Confederate Gen. Hood abandoned the city. In Virginia, Gen. Sheridan was laying waste to the Shenandoah Valley. For Lincoln, he faced an election in the midst of a civil war, something unknown at the time. Lincoln seemed unelectable and the Democrats were running the ousted Gen McClellan as their candidate. The Democrats had as their platform the immediate cessation of all hostilities. The election became a referendum on the war itself. By November, Lincoln and his running mate won a resounding victory with 55% of the popular vote. In the South, discouragement set in with the realization that they could not win the war.

By the beginning of 1865, the Confederacy was coming to an end. Atlanta had been overrun and Sherman was marching to the sea. Lincoln approved Sherman s plan against the advice of those around him. Sherman set fire to Atlanta, burning anything that could be of use to the opposition. With 62,000 men, he set off toward Savannah. While Sherman went south, the bulk of the Confederate army outside Virginia was destroyed at the battle of Franklin, Tenn. and by early January, Sherman turned northward into the Carolinas. In Virginia meanwhile, Lee s army was under-equipped and underfed. He called on the legislature to arm slaves promising them freedom after the war ended. They complied. On March 4, 1865, Lincoln was inaugurated for his second term. Grant s army was firmly entrenched outside Petersburg for some 9 months. Lee s army was dwindling with an ever increasing number of deserters and when the battle eventually came, it was only a matter of time until the Union won. Richmond was evacuated and on April 3, Lincoln and his son visited the conquered city. By April 9, Lee was surrounded and outnumbered 5 to 1 and he surrendered. Living in Washington, the actor John Wilkes Booth was a supporter of the Confederacy and a white supremacist. His original plan to kidnap Lincoln failed but by the time the war ended, he had devised a new plan.

The North celebrated Lee s surrender and the end of the war. On April 14, Good Friday, John Wilkes Booth learned that President Lincoln, General Grant and others were to attend a play at the Ford theater. The Grants decided not to attend and left Washington for Philadelphia. Booth shot the President in the back of the head, and Lincoln died the next day at 7:22 a.m. The news flashed across the country via the telegraph and celebration turned to sorrow. Scattered fighting continued into May but on May 23, a victory parade was held in Washington. By July, eight of Booth s co-conspirators were found guilty and four of were hanged. Those who survived the war returned home and resumed their lives. Sherman was frequently sought as a political candidate bur flatly refused to serve in any capacity. Sheridan remained in the army and was active in the Indian wars that followed. In the South, Jefferson Davis was vilified as the true villain of the war and spent two years in custody, but was never convicted and released. Robert E. Lee maintained a low profile, becoming a college president. U.S. Grant served two terms as President of the United States but his time in office was marred by scandal and corruption.

In Civil War: Secret Missions, history buffs and first person action fans will get the chance to assume the role of Union and Confederate soldiers fighting behind enemy lines in famous Civil War battles. The player s goal is to disrupt the armies of both the North and South by any means necessary, including stopping enemy supply lines, stealing ironclad ships and sabotaging enemy strongholds. Engage in some of the Civil War s most famous battles, such as The Great Train Raid of 1861 and The Fall of Vicksburg as you utilize classic weapons of the era, including the pepperbox revolver and the coffee mill gun. All missions are based on the actions of famous partisans, scouts and rangers - fight as a member of Mosby s Rangers, Sheridan s Scouts and Grant s Secret Service and receive your mission commands from famous generals like Robert E. Lee, Stonewall Jackson, and Ulysses Grant.

Riots, Protests, and Popular Uprisings, Fanaticism and Terrorism, Public Education, Catalan Autonomist Movement, Autonomy, Industrializing and Industrialization, the Right Wing and Rightists, the Left Wing and Leftists, Nationalism and National Unity, Anarchists and Anarchism, Anarcho-Syndicalism, Revolutionary Syndicalism, Casas Viejas, Parliamentary System and Electoral Politics, Women s Suffrage, the General Strike, Overthrow of the State, the Asturias Uprising, the Popular Front, Land Seizures, Carlism and the Carlist Movement, the Spanish Foreign Legion, the Dictatorship of the Proletariat, Assassinations and Political Extremism.

The story of the Spanish Anarchists of 1936, who succeeded in overthrowing the state, creating a free and mutual society, and engaging in the largest land collectivization project in human history. Also covers the downfall of the stateless society due to compromises, negotiations, and cooperation with the Soviet Union.

The story of the Spanish Anarchists of 1936, who succeeded in overthrowing the state, creating a free and mutual society, and engaging in the largest land collectivization project in human history. Also covers the downfall of the stateless society due to compromises, negotiations, and cooperation with the Soviet Union.

The story of the Spanish Anarchists of 1936, who succeeded in overthrowing the state, creating a free and mutual society, and engaging in the largest land collectivization project in human history. Also covers the downfall of the stateless society due to compromises, negotiations, and cooperation with the Soviet Union.

The story of the Spanish Anarchists of 1936, who succeeded in overthrowing the state, creating a free and mutual society, and engaging in the largest land collectivization project in human history. Also covers the downfall of the stateless society due to compromises, negotiations, and cooperation with the Soviet Union.

The story of the Spanish Anarchists of 1936, who succeeded in overthrowing the state, creating a free and mutual society, and engaging in the largest land collectivization project in human history. Also covers the downfall of the stateless society due to compromises, negotiations, and cooperation with the Soviet Union.

In this episode, mysterious airplane engine parts lead Eduardo Pagan to a heroic story on a forbidden Hawaiian island. Then, Elyse Luray tries to match metal shavings to the right Civil War cannon and Wes Cowan connects a rodeo saddle to a star who changed Hollywood movie-making.

In 1954, Shelby Foote was a young novelist with a contract to write a short history of the Civil War. It soon became clear, however, that he had undertaken a long-term project. Twenty years later Foote finally completed his massive and essential trilogy on the War Between the States. His three books are prose masterpieces with lively characterizations and gripping action. Although Foote never sacrifices the truth of what happened to his penchant for artistry, his skills as a novelist serve him well. Reading all three of these books will take some time, but they are worth the investment--especially if you, like Foote, have a touch of sympathy for the South s lost cause.

Genre: Video training