50 years ago (April 17, 1961), the CIA launched one of its famously botched operations. On that day, 1,500 CIA-trained Cuban exiles stormed the beaches of southern Cuba, beginning an invasion meant to topple Fidel Castro and his Soviet-aligned government.

In his online bio, Penn State lecturer Phillip McReynolds confesses his “unhealthy fascination with movies.”  McReynolds channels that obsession to healthy effect in his documentary “American Philosopher.

A few years ago, we posted this 1978 interview with Timothy Leary, in which the charismatic LSD champion, prisoner, and future Ron Paul supporter speaks passionately about the benefits of taking acid.

It was one week ago that a powerful 9.0 magnitude earthquake struck off the coast of northern Japan. The tsunami that followed, with waves reaching as high as ten meters, swept as far as ten miles inward.

We have two quick primers for you. First, this CNN video breaks down the problems afflicting the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant in Japan. Give the video three minutes of your time, and you will get a fairly comprehensive overview of what’s going wrong.

Ahead of Time, a new documentary, tells the remarkable true story of Ruth Gruber. Born in Brooklyn in 1911, Gruber became the youngest person in the world (let alone woman) to earn a Ph.D degree; she did so at the age of 20 from the University of Cologne, where she majored in German Philosophy, Modern English Literature, and Art History.

On the day of the historic “March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom” (August 28, 1963), known today as The Great March on Washington (watch it on YouTube in three parts), CBS aired a 30-minute roundtable discussion featuring James Baldwin, Marlon Brando, Harry Belafonte, Charlton Heston, Joseph L.

The Travel Film Archive lets you “see the world the way it was.” Featuring dozens of videos shot between 1900 and 1970, these short travelogues take you across the globe, to farflung places that many Americans considered “exotic” at the time.

A beautiful black-and-white typographic animation of Lincoln’s iconic speech.

In May of 1961, a 42-year-old Mandela gave his first-ever interview to ITN reporter Brian Widlake, who meets Mandela in his secret hideout.