i am speaking to you tonight at a serious moment in our history. the cabinet is convening and the leaders are meeting with the president. the state department and army and navy officials have in with the president all afternoon. the japanese ambassador was talking to the president at the very time japan's airships were bombing our citizens in hawaii and the philippines and sinking one of our transports. by tomorrow morning, the members of congress will have a full report and be ready for action. >> eleanor roosevelt is the longest serving first lady, for an unprecedented 12 years. wasthe while, her husband physically limited by the affects of polio. her legacy continues today. she is discussed as a possible face of the $10 bill.

eleanor roosevelt, at 8:00 eastern, on the original series "first lady's." the public and private lives of the first ladies. from martha washington michelle obama. on american history tv on c-span3. >> all weekend long, american history tv is joining our history to showcase the of cincinnati, ohio. to learn more about the cities website. visit our we continue with a look at the history of cincinnati.

>> this is the cincinnati observatory center, situated in the center of the city six miles east of downtown. we call it the birthplace of american astronomy. essentially what we call the carl sagan of the day. he was the popularizer of astronomy of that time. first terminal of .ignificance he was a west point graduate. teaching40's, he was at the cincinnati college. town, thea group in society for the promotion of useful college -- knowledge.

the population, 50,000, maybe the fourth-largest city in the country. he started in the lecture hall's they moved it to a chapel. at the end of the lecture, they said, why can't the citizens do something that john quincy attempted to do before? the first national observatory. before he was president, he was the first minister or today we would say ambassador alexander the czar of russia who had the largest telescope. he taught john quincy astronomy and john quincy had a passion for astronomy the rest of his life. he would record that in his diary. in europe, there were over 30 professional observatories in russia and europe combined. ofamerica, we had nothing

these types of telescopes. he wanted america to step up in science. he was the promoter of that. the state's rights movement was strong and they did not want to give power to the federal government for what he would call his lighthouses in the sky. they mocked him for calling them those. eventually, they built the naval observatory. depot to be called a instead of the observatory. in the bill that authorized the funding, it's tequila did the astronomers should not do astronomy, only calibrate chronometers for the naval ships. inauguraly at his address in 1825 challenged congress. the observatory was founded in 1842. by the time they got the

telescope from europe, it was 1845 before it went online in mt. adams in cincinnati. original concept of building the observatory, it would be a private statistic for the members who paid $25 to become members. laborer.too high for a months salary for a laborer. by the time the telescope members of the00 society existed at $25 in member. that was impressive, what private citizens were willing to do to fund this. tory was founded in 1842. mitchell was also responsible for designing and building the observatory. he selected this hill east of downtown. ex-presidentthen

john quincy adams to town. he was then serving in the house of representatives, 76 years old. eagerly accepted the invitation. he said, i am on my way. he took him two weeks. he used a railroad to go to lake area. -- eire. a stagecoach from columbus to cincinnati. in 1843 for the laying of the cornerstone. all he was delighted, he had two-hour speech prepared permit at the end of the lecture, they said thank you for coming to town. it toaid we will rename mt. adams. one significant thing about that was that was the last half public speech he gave.

-- that was the last public speech he gave. we are in the main observatory. this is where the original telescope that mitchell acquired was put, from the 1870's until 1904. in 1904, they got a newer, bigger, better telescope. at that time, there was not electricity at the site so they would hire a teenager to assist them. have three jobs. the first, coming over and opening the shutters. you pull on a rope and pulley, if process like this. the shutter slides to the open position so you can see the night sky. the second job of the teenager had was to add energy to the telescope to make it work. it was a mechanical system. it works like a grandfather clock.

the handsergy to make of the clock move. apply that to the telescope. a 400 poundo be block of steel. the teenager would have to crank up the weight. you grab this handle right here and turn the weight. off the ground. gravity is taking over, dropping the weight slowly. but it issee it falling. that is convicted in energy. that is -- that is kinetic energy. you can see the governor spinning at the top, governing the speed of the telescope. gears, therough gears are turning slowly but they are moving. torque is transferred to the long column. then the big 32 inch key

returns. the main axle of the telescope turns. axisis parallel to earth's of rotation. eventually, the energy turns the the telescope moves at a rapid rate of one revolution per day the opposite direction the earth is rotating. the lens of point the telescope, it will stay on and track that object as long as the 400 weight is falling and providing energy. once it hits the bottom, everything stops. the current mission of the observatory is a nonprofit organization, education. we bring schoolchildren income of 25 thousand visitors last year. we also do public education. we open it up on thursday or friday night for public viewing. we are extending that to more

weekends. we are trying to excite the public to the thrills of looking through objects in the telescope. the most rewarding aspect is to over and over again, wow. that is an amazing word for it time they look at saturn or the moon, they are amazed. in pictures,n it but never in real time with their eyes. it is awesome. throughout the weekend, american history tv is featuring cincinnati ohio. the staff traveled there to learn about the rich history. learn more about cincinnati and other stops on our to work at c-span.org. americanatching history tv on c-span3. american history tv was live from the camp sumter prison in

andersonville, georgia. coming on next, all of our programming from earlier including your calls with our the chiefc leonard, of interpretation for the historic site. and the university of this program is about three hours. >> good afternoon. you are watching american history tv on c-span, and you are looking at the andersonville prison. it was in operation during the final year of the american civil war. we take you live to the andersonville national historic site and cemetery in andersonville, georgia for the next three hours, taking your phone calls and the commemorative funeral for the 13,000 prisoners of war who died here in 1864 and 1865. joining us from the andersonville national cemetery, adjacent to the cemetery location is eric leonard, the chief of the historical site.