a historian on the battle of spotsylvania courthouse, pitting the armies of ulysses s grant against robert e. lee. >> they fought for a couple of days. they came to a stalemate. grant moved left and south. they had bidden spotsylvania for a couple of days. a stalemate, then reports of federals moving left and south. what do you think that puts in lee's mind? , duke university professor talking about america's cold war immigration policy. >> defining refugees as fundamentally not just political refugees but anti-communist who are our allies, prototypical american, as they fight communist oppression abroad. we have an obligation to let them in because they are anti-communist. at four: 30, former

republican senators from kansas in the 1970's-19 90's talk about their years in congress. i wasn bob was leader and under, we were in the senate for 18-years together. bob was the leader for six years. >> 10. >> no, when i was -- >> sorry. i thought i was leader even after i left. >> isil you work with your committee chairman. you pointed out. i think that is what we need. at 6:30 on road to the white house rewind, the 1984 presidential debates between president reagan and vice president walter mondale. >> we were warned five days before the explosives were on their way. the terrorists have won each time. the president told the

terrorists he would retaliate. he didn't. we will not simply kill people to say, look, we got even. we want to know when we retaliate we retaliate with those responsible for the terrorist acts. there are such that our own capital in washington has been bombed twice >>. with a complete schedule go to c-span.org. comedian richard pryor was born in. illinois in 1940. he grew up in the warehouse district and was raised in his grandmother's brothel. he earned fame on stage in television and film and died at the age of 65. one decade later, a statue was erected in his honor. illinois toward continues with a visit to the

usda research center credited with mass-producing penicillin. was in the height of world war ii. cut needed something to down on bacterial deaths. peoria had the answer. centera research mass-produced penicillin. had been aleming surgeon during world war i. he saw firsthand how much people were dying needlessly from infection. wentthe war was over, he , where hey's

dedicated his life in the search for a to b onyx -- the search for antibiotics. he had to go out for a weekend in the countryside. i don't know if this is true or not. he left early on friday afternoon. he did not finish washing the dishes. he came back on monday. he started going through the dishes one by one. he noticed there was a growth on one of the plates. were lysing around the colony of penicillin. they found it interesting. he isolated the fungus and tested it more. there was quite a bit of excitement. this was the first time antibiotics have been discovered. a very famous natural products

theist from london took up next step, the isolation of penicillin. there is a mold called penicillium that makes penicillin, the chemical that saves lives. he worked on it for three years. to make a long story short, at the end he said "nope, can't be done. penicillin goes poof every time you start to get it purified." in 1942 he said it was impossible. in 1932, he said it was impossible. in 1938 he took up the search again. he had been researching

antibiotics, looking for a compound that would stop bacterial infections. he had gotten zero, zilch. someone in the lab said, why don't we try this mold idea from alexander fleming? amazingly, it only took a couple of months before they purified the penicillin. at this point, they needed to know is penicillin was effective. they tested it in mice and rats. they doped the mice. half were treated with penicillin. half were not treated. eight hours later, they started dropping, the untreated mice. they started dropping. the next day, all of the -- all ofpenicillin

the untreated mice had died. all of the treated mice had survived. penicillin to take to the next level. he co-opted a doctor who would try therapy with penicillin. a policeman in london had gotten a scratch on his face. it had become infected. he was hospitalized. they performed surgery to try to cut out the infected area. he just kept getting worse. finally, when he was on his -- sorry,48-hours eight-hours to live, they said ok. bring on the penicillin. they did. they brought it in and started

in fusing him. within four to five hours he was awake. the therapy went on for almost three days. out of thewere world's supply of penicillin. guy relapsed and died. the problem with penicillin was it took so many people so much time to create a therapeutic dose. in the lab, it took six people three weeks to make one dose. penicillin is really cool, but not much use. there were very smart people in the lab. they said, dosage is based on body weight. why are we wasting penicillin on grown-ups when we could wasted

on children. on children. they chose 4 children that were sick. waited until they were ready to die. brought in the penicillin and killed them -- this time there was enough there. -- and cured them. this time there is enough there. this was big news. this was in the height of world war ii. the germans were bombing every night. london was a mess. england.l of southern there was no way that he and his crew could make the penicillin. decided it was not possible, he got a grant from the rockefeller foundation to take his invention to america,

talk to pharmaceutical companies there, and try to get interest in developing it. he went to the national research council in washington, d.c. they sent a telegraph to peoria saying "could you set up this experiment for these guys to work on this problem." the next morning, the telegraph came back that said " you bet." the reason for sending the project to peoria was we had a brand-new facility that hadn't started. it was not interfering with ongoing work. we had the best minds in the world for looking at nutrition. also, very good people for looking at different variants of fungus. that is why they came to peoria.

they got on the train. a few days later they arrived in peoria. with themht the mold in their pockets. testsrst thing done, was to see what the mold liked and didn't like. in four months they increase productivity 100 times. going from one unit per mil, which was what was originally gotten, and then by changing the media they grew 100 units per mil. this was astounding. becauserch went on, making it was good. per unit per

therapeutic dosage. that was a big amount of money at the time. so, they went on in a search. they looked at everything they could. from theed at fruit local markets. frombrought back around the world where the military air carriers were flying. enough, they hit pay dirt. the doctor in charge of the search wrote in his notebook 1943 a august of housewife brought in a moldy cantaloupe.

it was immediately 25 times the baseline. mutants.ed it was 100 times the baseline. they got really excited and sent wisconsin,ersity of where it was mutated by uv and xray mutation. they got a mold out making 1000 times the original amount of penicillin. so, the united states government knew there would be penicillin. they argued eloquently for the harm a cervical company to gear up. get ready to produce. up in the war heated

1944, the production strain of penicillin was released to them. ofween january and june 1944, they were making millions of dosages per month. so there was a stockpile of 20 million. it was a miracle. the finding of penicillin, the commercialization, had a deep impact. all of the people here were superstars all of a sudden. this was before they had superstars. flory, chain, alexander fleming won the nobel prize. it was legend. it was a huge finding. this saved so many lives away from the battlefield.

it is tremendous. rs, thement decided a agricultural research service, should not the and competition with industry. so, poof. they pulled the plug on us. redirected us. collection of fungi world-renowned that started the search for a better penicillin. >> this weekend, featuring the history of peoria-illinois. learn more about peoria and other stops on the cities tour at c-span.org/citiestour.

americanatching history tv, all weekend, every weekend, on c-span 3. presidential, the candidates turn from politics to memorialthe out smith dinner to raise money for catholic charities at new york's historic waldorf-astoria hotel. >> i've traveled the banquet circuit for many years. i never understood the logistics of dinners like this and how the absence of one individual could cause three of us to not have seats. >> like to see you here tonight. he said many times in his campaign you want to give america back to the little guys. batman. president, i am -- i am that man. was my great-grandfather

favorite kind of governor. presidentthat ran for and lost. >> al, you are right. a campaign can require wardrobe changes. lou genes in the morning, suits for lunch entrees are, sport coat for dinner. it is nice to where would we wear around the house. >> watch the out smith memorial foundation dinner with hillary clinton and donald trump thursday night on c-span and c-span.org. listen and 9:00 pm eastern with the c-span radio app. next on american history tv, a panel of scholars discusses the history of evangelicals and politics from the early 19th century to present day. topics include christian leader henrrd