Scientist Percy Julian overcomes racial barriers, Claudette Colvin refuses to give up her bus seat months before Rosa Parks's famous protest, and Joe Louis fights German boxer Max Schmeling.

The U.S. reluctantly accepts the Statue of Liberty, Sybil Ludington goes on an epic ride to warn of a British attack, and journalist Nellie Bly infiltrates a corrupt mental institution.

Orson Welles's Citizen Kane (1941) upsets William Randolph Hearst: animator Ub Iwerks helps Walt Disney create Mickey Mouse: Nancy Reagan convinces her husband Ronald Reagan to enter politics.

James Cook "discovers" Hawaii and parties with the natives, Japanese-American Daniel Inouye fights heroically in World War II, and Eddie Aikau becomes one of the world's greatest big wave surfers.

Baron von Steuben helps train the Continental Army, John Adams and Thomas Jefferson campaign against each other for president, and Benedict Arnold betrays George Washington's army.