where there is quite enough to divide people that we should cherish the emotions that unite us all. >> jacqueline kennedy's 1000 days as first lady were defined youngitical spouse, mother, fashion icon, and advocate for the arts. as television came of age it was ultimately the tragic images of presidentennedys -- kennedy's assassination and funeral that cemented her in the public's mind. first ladies, influence and damage. examining the public and private life of the women who fill the position of first lady and their influence on the presidency. from martha washington to michelle obama. onday at 8:00 p.m. eastern american history tv on c-span3. [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2015] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] touringyear c-span is

cities across the country exploring american history. next a look at our recent visit to santa rosa, california. you are watching american history tv. all weekend, every weekend on c-span3. >> i think visitors find most interesting that they have been exposed to burbank's red without ever knowing there was a person behind it. sometimes people take for granted how we have acquired things. >> we are at the luther burbank home and gardens. he was able to introduce or create over 800 varieties of fruits, trees, nuts and flowers. some he imported from different

countries and was the first to introduce in the u.s. one of the first words he ever heard was california. he had two brothers who came out for the gold rush. when he got old enough he decided he wanted to focus on --athing new plants newhing -- breeding plants. this is where he ended up after wandering around for a year. we have about an acre and a half here. he had more than five acres. here we have burbank's original home, a house he built in the 1880's. the home is set up as a house museum. it includes furnishing and memorabilia his widow left the city of santa rosa.

he was self-taught horticulturist. generally he announced himself with his work. mr. burbank produced a catalog called new creations in fruit and flowers. he said keep this catalog because the contents will become standards of excellence. in doing so he had announced he created new plans. ts. it was a controversial idea at the time. mr. burbank thought of himself as an inventor. he tried to create new plants by using his wits. he was able to produce things no one had ever seen before.

across between a plum and an apricot. a spineless cap -- spineless cactus. , which had aisy bigger brighter flour. one of the most important plums economically and california. it is used as a pollinator plum. >> we are looking at trees that are almond rootstocks. this tree has been grafted with an apricot, peach, and nectarine, a plum. we call it our fruit salad of tree. crafting is when you take one is when you take one tree with rootstocks and you put another variety on top of it. a lot of times people do that to get trees to fruit sooner, or if the top of the tree had some

sort of disease susceptibility. he started doing this because somebody wanted 20,000 trees. everybody said it couldn't be done. luther got 20,000 almond pits and then grafted prudence on top -- prunes on top of them and was able to deliver 19,500 of them. that got him the nickname the plant wizard. >> now we are in the greenhouse. they built this greenhouse in 1885 so he could grow plants year round and do plants experiments. he had his belt to his specifications, including using a mortar mix between the bricks that his father recommended. he was smart because this

greenhouse survived the 1906 earthquake. that is of course according to mr. burbank. he wrote that in the letter to officials of the carnegie institute, because they wanted to make sure his experience were -- experiments were continuing, because he was getting a $10,000 per year grant to write up his work for the benefit of mankind. luther burbank has been here since the 1880's -- luther burbank's safe has been here since the 1880's. this is where he kept his most prized possessions, his seeds. he kept cash here so he could pay his workers each day and ensure they worked very hard for him for cash. he called his products horticultural novelties. it was important to him that they were new and the first, so he wanted to be the first to bring them to market. if someone else took his seeds and was able to introduce them worst he wouldn't have that claim. his plants were unable to be

patented during his lifetime, so he had a worry they weren't truly his, he couldn't claim them if someone else took the seeds. >> this is burbank's spineless cactus. we have seven different varieties. he create -- he collected cactus from all over the world. his main goal was to make it a forage caught -- forage crop for cattle in desert regions. it was considered one of his failures. they would eat it too rapidly. he would rub them on his face. at the end of the day he would use a razor to shave off the stickiness that gets stuck to his face. they can be quite irritating. now we have --

>> now we have moved into the carriage house. we use it as a museum and a gift shop. >> when you come here you will see different exhibits in our museum. generally we have this large picture on display, which is a picture of the day thomas edison and henry ford came to visit lisa burbank. ford wanted to come because they want to see these great things burbank had. they shared a similar strategies in doing their work. mr. ford was inventive and creative. they walked among the gardens together. mr. burbank showed him his own methods of mass production. henry ford was around his mass -- renowned for his mass production line. burbank's version was to bring thousands of plants so he could

find the few that had mutations and the use those mutations to develop new plans for his work. he was -- it was the meeting of three geniuses. mr. burbank and mr. edison shared similar methods. they were more of trial and error. the men were contemporary and similar in age. although mr. edison was able to have a company, he and burbank were both inventors and their own way. ford and edison were impressed with mr. burbank and credited this visit with helping to inspire them to create the horticultural preserve that they created in florida. they created their own experiment garden to try to develop the first type of rubber

that could be produced in the u.s. to produce tires for ford cars and also to produce rubber that can be used to insulate the batteries but edison was developing. edison worked for many years. he was unsuccessful and said he had no idea how burbank came up with even one plant successfully. he said it was the hardest thing he had ever done. >> this is quinoa. during world war ii luther burbank was responsible for spearheading one of the responsible -- one of the original concepts for the victory garden, people could grow in their own yard without commercial agriculture. quinoa was one of the ones he tried to introduce as a cereal grain. eet family and b comes from south america.

the flower you see has the seed in them that people use for eating. he was responsible for this variety, called really and rainbow. we save seeds from this every year to grow again. -- we also share seeds with our local seed association. you get a lot of seed production per flower head. it only takes two or three of these to make a good size meal. >> mr. burbank thought of himself as an inventor with plants but at the time patents were not available for plants, people thought plants were created by nature or god, not by people. people don't bat an eye. those things in the market place that took years to develop. one of the grandparents of the pluat is the kumquat.

in some cases it can take 30, 40, 50 years to develop a plant that we would eat in a moment but don't really appreciate the history of. coming here really gives you a sense of that history. it also gives you a sense of community in santa rosa and burbank as a person, who helped to promote not just plant breeding and improved plants, but an emphasis on the teaching of science in school. and teaching of evolution. >> find out where c-span's city tour is going next online at itiestour./c you are watching american history all weekend on c-span3. >> this monday on c-span's new series, landmark cases.

scott was enslaved to an army surgeon. he was assigned to duties in several three -- free state during which scott married. when the doctor died mr. scott tried to buy his family's freedom from the widow but she refused and he soon. follow the case of scott versus sanford in c-span's new theories, landmark cases. historic supreme court decisions. at our special guest christopher bracy and martha jones. they will explore the historic supreme court ruling by revealing the life and times of the people who were the plaintiffs, lawyers, and justices in these landmark cases. live monday at 9:00 p.m. eastern. and be sure to join the conversation as we will take your calls, e-mails, facebook,, and tweets during the program. on c-span, c-span3, and c-span radio. and for background on each case

while you watch, order your copy of the companion book. it is available for $8.95 plus shipping at c-span.or g/landmarkcases. >> each week american history america bringsel you archival films that help provide context to today's issues. ♪ since 1979 the soviet union, in violation of every convention , protecting the rights of a sovereign nation, has tried to impose its will on the people of afghanistan. it's like the death and destruction brought by the soviets, the afghan struggle for freedom continues.

michael berry, a representative of the international federation for human rights has spent almost 10 years in afghanistan. >> apparently the soviets felt that simply bringing in their tanks was sufficient to terrorize the population into submission. seeing that this was not the case they launched a total war attack. there was helicopter fire, parachute troops who went into houses and shot everybody in them. expected the population try to run away or die on the spot. monitor"tian science correspondent christian cheer on day has written extensively about the refugee camps. i visited numerous camps along the pakistan afghan border. there are now an estimated 2.5 million refugees inside pakistan and they are still coming over. inside for 3, 4,

5, 10 weeks. justified toare bring their families, because there has been a of bombing going on in villages and in some parts they just cannot survive. the farm has been survived. their food storage has been survived. -- their food storage has been destroyed. they tried to take in the crop just before harvest time, what are these people going to live on? they have to leave the country. >> the world simply could not stand by and permit the soviet union to commit this act of aggression with impunity. 50 nations petitioned the united nations to condemn the ussr and to demand the immediate withdrawal of all soviet troops from afghanistan. since the soviet invasion, the few afghan doctors serving the rural population has fled. health care those who have stayed behind is maintained by

volunteer medical teams, mostly french. of medicines sans frontier, spoke about what he has witnessed. this hospital is located away from the neighboring village. as you can see, there are fields and trees. this was destroyed on purpose and the trees were not even touched. the helicopters only went after the hospital. witnessed a second bombing, which is quite awful. it happened at the beginning of november. the bombing was specifically aimed at our hospital on the day we planned to leave. the hospital was completely destroyed. the walls torn down. nothing left behind. >> it is clear to everybody all over the world that the afghan love theire others,

freedom. they live free and they die free. they preserve the freedom of afghanistan with the price of their own blood, just as their fathers did and their sons will do. i am sure that the afghan people will regain their freedoms and be a free nation was again. -- one -- >> it is a soviet tradition -- an afghan tradition to fight. shows that the soviets are not bringing progress. the argument is, we are coming to free these people from feudalism. but what does this mean? can one come to free a people with combat helicopters? with tanks? with canon's? by bombing villages, killing children, killing the innocent? theykind of liberation are bringing to afghanistan?

american history tv is featuring c-span's original series, "first ladies, influence and image" at 8:00 p.m. eastern time throughout the rest of the year. c-span produces the series in cooperation with the washington historical association. we tell the stories of america's 45 first ladies. maybe eisenhower ♪ >> today, it is our pleasure to entertain for the first time, our first lady, at this her belated birthday party. >> ♪ to mamie many happy returns.