Secrets of the Dead - Season 19

It was the find of the century: a proof copy of Sidereus Nuncius (also known as the Starry Messenger), one of the most important books in the history of science. Unlike other known copies that had engraved images of the phases of the moon, this copy included watercolor paintings seemingly by author Galileo Galilei, one of the greatest scientific minds of all time. A discovery that set the rare book market abuzz, the proof copy, if genuine, would be worth millions.

Published in 1610, Sidereus Nuncius set in motion a scientific revolution. The first published scientific work based on observations made through a telescope, Galileo's work challenged the belief that the Earth was the center of the universe. Five hundred and fifty copies of the book were originally printed, and roughly 150 of those editions are known to exist today.

In 2005, when a seemingly original copy with the astronomer's signature and watercolor paintings hit the market, Sidereus Nuncius caused a worldwide sensation 400 years after its publication. In 2012, however, this discovery was proven to be a fake and rocked the book market to its core.

In Secrets of the Dead: Galileo's Moon, join a team of experts as they uncover the truth behind the alleged proof copy of the revolutionary Sidereus Nuncius, featuring historian Nick Wilding, whose suspicions and dogged research exposed the fraud.

In April 1944, Jewish prisoners Rudolf Vrba and Alfred Wetzler miraculously escaped from Auschwitz concentration camp. They fled through Nazi-occupied Poland to find refuge in Žilina, Slovakia, where they connected with the Jewish Underground. Once safe, they recounted what they left behind. Their harrowing testimony revealed the true horror of the Holocaust to the outside world, describing in forensic detail the gas chambers and the full extent of the Nazi extermination program.

While millions of troops fought on both fronts and battled for supremacy in the air during World War II, Nazi forces continued to deport Jews to the concentration camp. As Vrba and Wetzler's account made its way to Allies, the idea of bombing the camp was discussed at the highest levels of government. Prime Minister Winston Churchill, Allied Air Commanders, the American War Refugee Board, and the Jewish Agency were presented with one of the greatest moral questions of the 20th century: Should we bomb Auschwitz and risk killing Jewish prisoners in the camp to stop future atrocities? Join historians, survivors, and experts as they consider this most significant moral dilemma. 

How did the Notre Dame cathedral emerge over the centuries as one of the world's most celebrated and beloved buildings? Secrets of the Dead: Building Notre Dame takes viewers on a major historical and scientific investigation into the construction of Notre Dame de Paris, which began in the 12th century and was completed several hundred years later. Standing alongside the builders of yesterday and today, uncover the vast architectural, technical, human, financial, and political challenges experienced throughout the cathedral's turbulent history. 

In 1878, archaeologist Hjalmar Stolpe first uncovered a grave containing a large number of weapons and the skeletal remains of what seemed to be a great Viking warrior. For a century, people assumed the body was male until the 1970s when Berit Vilkans, a young researcher, observed the bones had female characteristics. In 2017, a team of Swedish geneticists proved through a DNA study that the great warrior wasn't a man but a woman. Join this team of archaeologists as they examine the DNA results and complete a field investigation of one of the most significant Viking graves ever found. They uncover the truth about the only archaeological discovery of a female Viking warrior and battle strategist known to date, rewriting our understanding of Viking society.

The sinking of the RMS Titanic on April 15, 1912, is one of the deadliest peacetime maritime disasters in history. Mainstream retellings of the tragedy often overlook that the "unsinkable" Titanic was not alone when it sank. A mystery ship was spotted within view of the sinking ship. Instead of sailing closer to aid the drowning passengers, the mystery ship seemingly ignored a fusillade of rockets and signals and sailed away. American and British inquiries accused the SS Californian and its captain, Stanley Lord, of abandoning the Titanic. Decades later, the discovery of Titanic's wreck exonerated Lord and the Californian's role in the disaster, re-opening accounts that implicate another ship.

Join a team of investigators as they search for the identity of the mystery ship and her captain that turned away from the Titanic in its darkest hour, abandoning thousands of lives to the icy waters and their untimely demise.

It is widely believed that notorious Bronx-based gangster and bootlegger Dutch Schultz buried a fortune estimated to be worth more than $50 million somewhere in New York's Catskill Mountains before his death in 1935. Schultz was gunned down and died without revealing where the treasure was buried, spawning a mystery that has endured for nearly a century. Now, 85 years later, three groups of treasure hunters, armed with modern technology and decades worth of intensive research, race to uncover new leads in hopes of finding Schultz's missing treasure. Join them as they follow the trail of this unsolved mystery toward the discovery of a lifetime.