American Experience

We asked people from across the country to send videos of themselves reciting the Gettysburg Address 150 years after Abraham Lincoln delivered the historic speech.

Kennedy is inaugurated President in 1961; "Ask not what your country can do for you..." JFK gives the first live televised press conference by a President.

This new biopic on JFK provides a fresh look at an enigmatic man who has become one of the nation's most beloved and most mourned leaders. Premiering on American Experience PBS November 11 & 12 at 9/8c.

On a starless night in August 1943, a Japanese destroyer split Kennedy's PT-109 boat in half. The crew had been left for dead, but the future president felt it was his duty to get his men to safety -- and he was going to spare no effort to do so.

Kennedy felt buildup of a military arsenal wasn't enough to show the United States would not cower to communism. So he decided to make a stand in a place few Americans at the time had ever heard of: Vietnam.

Politics unnerved Jackie Kennedy so she found respite in curating a new culture of elegance in the White House. She set out to honor writers and performers, creating what her dress designer dubbed a "Versailles in Washington."

Over the course of 13 days in October 1962, President Kennedy avoided war with the Soviet Union through a willingness to proceed with caution -- and a gamble that Premier Nikita Khrushchev was just as horrified at the prospect of nuclear obliteration as Kennedy was. The negotiation would come to be known as the Cuban Missile Crisis and would be one of Kennedy's most lasting legacies.

Before that moment, beyond the glamour, behind the charm lies the true story of JFK. Now, see his life as never before in a stunning new portrait from American Experience. Premiering on PBS November 11 & 12 at 9/8c.

By the time he came of age, John Fitzgerald Kennedy inhabited a world of special exemption: the family estate in suburban New York, the summer compound in Hyannis Port, the winter retreat in Palm Beach. The story of his family's heroic multi-generational rise from the want of Irish famine might well have been a misty old folktale. The past was not the point in the Kennedy household.

This biography provides a fresh look at an enigmatic man who has become one of the nation's most beloved and most mourned leaders. Scheduled for broadcast on the 50th anniversary of President John F. Kennedy's assassination, the film re-evaluates JFK's strengths and weaknesses and provides new insights into his private life. Premieres November 11 & 12, 2013 at 9/8c. Check your local listings.

Take a fresh look at an enigmatic man who remains one of the nation’s most beloved and mourned leaders.

Kennedy's personal aides knew about his extramarital activities, as did much of the press.

As soon as he took office, Kennedy became increasingly worried about turning the Cold War into a hot one, resulting in nuclear catastrophe. Nikita Khrushchev continued to aid in the spread of communism around the world and Kennedy wanted to show the American public he would not be bullied by the Soviet premier.

Raising more than a million dollars for the project, Jackie Kennedy set out to restore the White House and make it a center of art and culture. She debuted her project in a television special called "A Tour of the White House with Mrs. John F. Kennedy." When the show producer showed John Kennedy clips of the film, he looked on in adoration.

Kennedy believed his first diplomatic meeting with Nikita Khrushchev would be a lesson in compromise. But when it was clear the Soviet premier was unwilling to negotiate over Berlin and more than willing to talk casually about nuclear weapons, Kennedy told him "it's going to be a very cold winter." Kennedy left uneasy.

With little interest in his day-to-day duties as a congressman, 29-year-old Kennedy had some growing up to do before he was ready for the most powerful position in the world.

A broadcast that struck fear into an already anxious nation, Orson Welles' War of the Worlds radio broadcast was the most famous alien invasion that never happened.

Actors, antique radios, and the greatest prank of all times. Go behind the scenes with the producers of War of the Worlds on filming the letters sent to Orson Welles and CBS Radio after the 1938 broadcast.

At one point during Orson Welles' "War of the Worlds" broadcast, CBS network executives ordered an identifying station break to tell listeners that it was only a play. By that time, however, there was no stopping Orson Welles.

The War of the Worlds has become the one most legendary radio broadcasts in history. Twenty-three year old Orson Welles directed the famous radio drama on October 30, 1938, the night before Halloween referred to as "Mischief Night." Throughout the program, which would come to be known as "The Panic Broadcast," ten actors and a 27 piece orchestra eagerly awaited his direction.