origins of the saudi arabia oil industry. sunday at 6:00 p.m. eastern on american artifacts, reprieve the votes for women exhibit at the ciceronian -- smithsonian's national portrait gallery. >> she started her own business as a wall street banker. sexadvocated for free love, outside of marriage. sophia:30 p.m. eastern, rosenfeld discusses her book " democracy in truth." >> no one person, no institution, no sector, king, priest, national research body could get to call all the shots. >> explore our nations passed on american history tv on c-span3. up, our look at rapid city continues as we here at the

first manned flight into the stratosphere. two army captains sailed off of the south dakota planes to a record-breaking 72,000 feet. >> queer ey -- we are lucky in rapid city. we have interesting history that goes beyond the history of the area. we are talking about the strataball and the stratosphere flight and sending man up above the stratosphere. essentially rapid city area is the home of the first spaceflight. what the national geographic and u.s. army airport did with state decided to work together to make this happen. they wanted to find a natural shape to rest the balloon and the gondola and. they were looking for a bold area, not only to spread out the balloon on the ground but also the natural bowl shape protect

the gondola for the first couple of thousand feet as it goes up. they scoured all of north america for a place. they had a couple of different decisions they could have made, places they could have chosen. they chose rapid city because of how kind the people were and because of how welcoming we are. the perfect shape of the bowl was nice, too, but it did come down to the people of the area. that was the reasoning behind choosing. the first attempt was 1934. there were three men on the first flight. captain orval anderson, major ner, and captain albert stevens. they got into the gondola and would have been hit about 60,000 feet. they think the friction between the metal and the canvas of the balloon ignited the hydrogen inside the balloon. the balloon failed. it busted up completely.

they fell into a freefall. they started exiting the gondola. they had parachutes. the first man got out fine. the second man got stuck in the gondola itself. the first man -- we don't who was first and he was second and he was third. the first man got out. he had to kick the second man out of the gondola to get in free. who we know was actually last. he got out of the gondola at about 500 feet above the ground. the second flight happened in 1935. the national geographic and u.s. army air corps did change how the balloon was created. what they did was they actually used helium instead of hydrogen. not allowed the balloon to n ignite which is fabulous for the people in the gondola.

two men came back, orval anderson and albert stevens. they did both come back for the second flight. hit 72,300 995 feet. they took measurements about the stratosphere and cosmic radiation and anything they could possibly measure, they attempted to well up in the gondola. they took an image of the curvature of the earth, which had never been done. they were recognized for their efforts. given medals by fdr and it was an all around success. what makes it better for rapid city is it happened in the black hills. it was here. it was local. it was just a great community involved piece of history. our cities tour staff recently traveled to rapid city, south dakota, to learn about its

rich history. to watch more video from rapid city and other stops on the tour, c-span.org visit/citiesto ur. you are watching american history tv, all weekend, every weekend on c-span3. the albert the pay center for history at villanova university, a conversation from a series on revisionist history. exploring what the term means means and how it influences our understanding of the past. historians focus on early america and address topics ranging from the 1619 arrival of enslaved africans to nottingham's colonial perspectives and revolutionary war soldier experiences. >> on behalf of villanova university, the college of arts and sciences, i am delighted to welcome you to the first