50 Fun Facts About History Channel

A 1997 Salon piece on the History Channel's war-heavy schedule was headlined as all which dictator, all the time?

Hitler filled so much airtime that the channel was showing up to 40 hours of World War II programming a week, sometimes 12 hours in a single day.

In which US city do the Harrison family run the 24-hour shop at the centre of History's Pawn Stars?

Las Vegas is where the family's shop opened in 1989, less than two miles from the Strip. Television fame has since turned the store into a tourist site in its own right.

Which animals do Troy Landry and fellow Louisiana hunters pursue for a living on History's Swamp People?

Alligators are hunted under a tag system. Each hunter is issued a set number of tags, and the season is over for them the moment they run out.

Which History series sent Mike Wolfe and Frank Fritz through strangers' barns and garages in search of antiques?

American Pickers launched in 2010 from Antique Archaeology, the business Wolfe runs in LeClaire, Iowa. He has been picking since the age of four and has a soft spot for old motorcycles.

Which History series made Giorgio Tsoukalos and his hair an internet meme?

Ancient Aliens draws on the ideas of author Erich von Däniken, and Tsoukalos has appeared in every episode. He is also one of the show's producers.

Which Star Trek actor was the host when History's mystery series The UnXplained began in 2019?

William Shatner is also an executive producer of the series, which History ordered in March 2019 with an initial run of just six episodes.

A 2017 History special claimed a photo showed which lost aviator alive, until a blogger found it in a 1935 book?

Amelia Earhart and navigator Fred Noonan vanished in 1937, so a picture printed two years earlier could not show them after the crash. History cancelled its repeat showings.

Which film star won an Emmy playing feuding patriarch Devil Anse Hatfield in History's miniseries Hatfields & McCoys?

Kevin Costner also supplied music for the series with his own band. The first part drew 13.9 million viewers, the largest audience any History programme had ever had.

Which animated comedy mocked the History Channel in a 2011 Thanksgiving episode featuring visitors from space?

South Park called the episode A History Channel Thanksgiving, in which the boys watch a documentary claiming extraterrestrials attended the 1621 feast. Trey Parker wrote and directed it.

Which British motoring show got a History remake hosted by Tanner Foust, Adam Ferrara and Rutledge Wood?

Top Gear ran on History from 2010 to 2016, teaming racing driver Foust with comedian Ferrara and racing analyst Wood. Discovery had shot its own American pilot back in 2005.

Which nickname does Austin Russell, a childhood friend of Corey Harrison, go by on History's Pawn Stars?

Chumlee is the butt of the shop's jokes about his competence, but fame paid off: he and Corey could each command $1,000 a night for nightclub appearances.

Which History series, launched in 2007, spent several seasons with drivers on Alaska's remote Dalton Highway?

Ice Road Truckers grew out of a one-off History episode from 2000, based on a book by Edith Iglauer. The channel then hired Thom Beers, the producer behind Deadliest Catch, to build a series.

Which History competition pits four bladesmiths against each other over three rounds for a $10,000 prize?

Forged in Fire sends its two finalists back to their own forges with a few days to recreate a historic weapon. The judges then put both weapons through a series of tests before naming a champion.

History's drama Vikings follows which legendary Norse farmer as raids on England carry him to a Scandinavian throne?

Ragnar Lothbrok comes from 13th-century sagas. His village in the show, Kattegat, is fictional and shares its name with the sea between Denmark and Sweden.

Which landmark 1977 miniseries about Kunta Kinte and his descendants did History remake in 2016?

Roots returned with Malachi Kirby as Kunta Kinte, a Mandinka man shipped from The Gambia to colonial Virginia. Both versions adapt Alex Haley's 1976 novel.

Which comic-book legend hosted a History series that sent a contortionist to find people with superhuman abilities?

Stan Lee put his name on the show, Stan Lee's Superhumans, which ran from 2010 to 2014. His globe-trotting scout, Daniel Browning Smith, was billed as the most flexible man in the world.

Tim Allen and Richard Karn reunited on History's More Power in 2022, decades after co-starring in which 1990s sitcom?

Home Improvement ran on ABC from 1991 to 1999, with Allen as Tim Taylor and Karn as his sidekick Al Borland. By the final season Allen was paid $1.25 million an episode.

Which Oscar-winning actor hosted a 2021 History series recreating real prison breakouts from Alcatraz and other jails?

Morgan Freeman had played a convict himself, as Red in The Shawshank Redemption. Each episode traced one inmate's plan, the escape route and the manhunt that followed.

Which colour did the History Channel's logo keep for its letter H through rebrands in 2008, 2015 and 2021?

Gold has marked the H since the network launched in 1995. Each of those three makeovers reshaped the logo and left the colour alone.

The company that launched the History Channel on New Year's Day 1995 was named after which older network?

A&E Television Networks had been planning a history channel since 1993, when it bought the Lou Reda Productions documentary library to help fill the schedule.

Which former Marine drill instructor turned film actor answered viewers' military questions on History's Mail Call?

R. Lee Ermey trained recruits in San Diego in the 1960s before playing Gunnery Sergeant Hartman in Full Metal Jacket. He later fronted a second History series, Lock n' Load.

Which Happy Days star fronted Hazardous History, a 2025 History series named partly after its host?

Henry Winkler became a star as Fonzie on the sitcom, which ran from 1974 to 1984, after a small part in The Mary Tyler Moore Show.

Which Pawn Stars spin-off follows Danny Koker and his crew as they restore classic automobiles and motorcycles?

Counting Cars is set at Count's Kustoms, the workshop owned by Koker, who is known as the Count. He first appeared on Pawn Stars as an expert called in to value vehicles.

History's drama Knightfall, which added Mark Hamill in its second season, depicts the downfall of which medieval order?

The Knights Templar were crushed by King Philip IV of France, who moved against the order on 13 October 1307. Hamill played Talus, a veteran who trains the initiates.

History's military drama Six takes its title from an elite team within which branch of American special forces?

Navy SEALs in the unit nicknamed SEAL Team Six officially serve in the Naval Special Warfare Development Group, or DEVGRU. History cancelled the drama after two seasons.

Which US president appeared on screen to introduce History's documentary series America: The Story of Us?

Barack Obama was in office when the 12-part series began in April 2010. Liev Schreiber narrated the American broadcast, while Danny Webb voiced the international version.

In History's The Curse of Oak Island, the Lagina brothers hunt for treasure off the coast of which Canadian province?

Nova Scotia has drawn treasure hunters to the island for more than 200 years. Rick Lagina is a retired postal worker, and the brothers grew up in Kingsford, Michigan.

History's drama Vikings is set in Scandinavia and England, yet most of it was filmed in which country?

Ireland hosted nearly all of the shoot, on location in County Wicklow and at Ashford Studios, though later seasons added scenes shot in Iceland and Morocco. The series was an Irish-Canadian co-production.

Which History series made stars of Eustace Conway and trapper Tom Oar as they lived off the land?

Mountain Men introduced Conway on Turtle Island, his land in the Blue Ridge, which he had to fight to keep when it was threatened by a lien. Oar is a former rodeo cowboy.

Which technology and engineering series arrived with History in 1995 and became the channel's longest-running programme?

Modern Marvels had already aired since 1993 under another title, Time Machine, before moving across. Each episode explains the history and making of a group of related items.

Which 2008 History special, later a series, imagined cities decaying once humans had suddenly vanished?

Life After People drew 5.4 million viewers, at the time the biggest audience the History Channel had ever had. A new season arrived in 2025 after a 15-year break.

Colby Donaldson, host of History's shooting contest Top Shot, first found fame as runner-up on which reality show?

Survivor fans knew him from the edition filmed in the Australian Outback. Top Shot's own winner collected a $100,000 grand prize once every rival shooter had been eliminated.

Which London-born reality TV producer made History's 2013 miniseries The Bible with his wife, actress Roma Downey?

Mark Burnett is the producer behind The Apprentice, Shark Tank and The Voice. The ten-hour drama became the top new cable series of 2013, and repeat airings took its audience past 100 million.

Which 2011 miniseries about a political dynasty did History drop before broadcast, leaving ReelzChannel to air it?

The Kennedys was dropped in January 2011, when History said it did not suit the network. It had been made as the first scripted series for Canada's History Television.

Which eight-part History docudrama told the stories of tycoons including Vanderbilt, Rockefeller, Carnegie and Ford?

The Men Who Built America used actors to play each magnate, with separate performers for the younger and older Carnegie. Some overseas markets put The Innovators at the front of the title.

History's The Secret of Skinwalker Ranch investigates UFO reports and strange events on a property in which US state?

Utah's Uintah County holds the ranch of about 512 acres, which businessman Robert Bigelow bought for $200,000 in 1996. British viewers know the show as The Curse of Skinwalker Ranch.

History's survival series Alone has repeatedly left contestants to fend for themselves in which remote part of Canada?

Vancouver Island hosted several seasons before the show moved on to Patagonia, Mongolia and the Arctic. Contestants film themselves and can quit at any time by tapping out.

Which valuable wild plant do the rival diggers of History's reality series Appalachian Outlaws hunt in the forests?

Ginseng harvesters working the forests around the Appalachians were the show's whole subject. The series, which ran for two seasons from 2014, was partially scripted.

Which 1980s action star with a doctorate in Italian Renaissance art history hosted History's Engineering an Empire?

Peter Weller, the man inside the RoboCop suit, earned his PhD at UCLA and fronted the series from 2005 to 2007.

Which Oscar-winning actor earned an Emmy nomination as the title escape artist in History's 2014 miniseries Houdini?

Adrien Brody was 29 when The Pianist made him the youngest winner of the Best Actor Oscar. The two-part Houdini was written by Nicholas Meyer and directed by Uli Edel.

Which stand-up comedian sampled odd jobs, hobbies and lifestyles across the country in History's Only in America?

Larry the Cable Guy, born Daniel Whitney, made three seasons of the travel show between 2011 and 2013. He had found fame as a member of the Blue Collar Comedy Tour.

History's Hatfields & McCoys is set in Appalachia, but the Carpathians of which European country stood in for it?

Romania hosted the shoot just outside the city of Brașov. The real feud played out far away, along the border between West Virginia and Kentucky.

Before creating History's Vikings, Michael Hirst was head writer of which Showtime royal drama from 2007 to 2010?

The Tudors made Hirst a specialist in royal intrigue, as did his screenplays for the film Elizabeth and its sequel, so Norse raiders were a change of scene. Vikings was History's first scripted drama series.

Which bestselling thriller novelist led a team investigating secret codes and conspiracies in History's Decoded?

Brad Meltzer also writes superhero comics and won an Eisner Award for Justice League of America. The show, which began in December 2010, later inspired his book History Decoded.

Which Egyptian archaeologist and former antiquities minister starred in History's 2010 reality series Chasing Mummies?

Zahi Hawass was trailed through his digs by young archaeology fellows and a camera crew. The series lasted a single summer, from July to September 2010.

Which Iowa senator became known for a running feud with the History Channel over its lack of history programming?

Chuck Grassley has accused the network for years of showing little actual history. He reserved particular disdain for Ax Men and Pawn Stars.

Which lifestyle channel replaced History's sister network H2, formerly History International, in 2016?

Viceland was programmed by Vice Media, in which History's parent company had bought a 10% stake in 2014. H2 signed off at 6 a.m. on 29 February 2016.

History's drama Project Blue Book cast Aidan Gillen as which real astronomer who studied UFO reports for the Air Force?

J. Allen Hynek joined the real investigation as a sceptical astrophysics professor and ended up a ufologist. The drama ran for two seasons of ten episodes each.

Which actor took over as host of History's Wild West Tech from his half-brother Keith after its first season?

David Carradine, star of the 1970s series Kung Fu, hosted from the second season on. He delivered his commentary from the streets of an unnamed frontier town.

History's animated documentary series Battle 360 followed which American aircraft carrier through World War II?

USS Enterprise veterans, from sailors to pilots and Marines, were interviewed for every episode alongside the computer animation. The opener drew 1.8 million viewers in February 2008.