The Season 2 premiere features organic chemist Percy Julian; civil rights pioneer Claudette Colvin; and boxer Joe Louis.

Sculptor Fréderic-Auguste Bartholdi designs the Statue of Liberty; Sybil Ludington takes her midnight ride during the American Revolution; Nellie Bly goes undercover in an asylum on Blackwell's Island.

Disc jockey Alan Freed plays rock and roll for the first time; Kris Kristofferson gets his big break with some help from Johnny Cash; music producer Sylvia Robinson assembles the Sugarhill Gang.

Abraham Lincoln tries to stay alive on the way to his inauguration; Francis Scott Key pens "The Star-Spangled Banner"; Edgar Allan Poe clashes with Rufus Griswold.

Charles Sumner is beaten on the Senate floor; Judge J. Waties Waring advocates for civil rights; a slave named Robert Smalls commandeers a Confederate ship and sails it to his freedom.

Orson Welles' "Citizen Kane" angers publisher William Randolph Hearst; animator Ub Iwerks helps Walt Disney create Mickey Mouse; Nancy Reagan urges her husband to get into politics.

British explorer James Cook socializes with the natives in Hawaii; future senator Daniel Inouye fights in World War II; surfer Eddie Aikau earns a reputation for riding big waves.

Baron von Steuben helps train the Continental Army during the American Revolution; John Adams and Thomas Jefferson campaign for president; Benedict Arnold switches sides to fight against George Washington's army.

Jim Thorpe is named the 20th century's greatest athlete; Babe Didrikson battles sexism in sports; pitcher Jim Abbott reaches the major leagues even though he only has one hand.

A White House marriage in 1886 makes Frances Cleveland the youngest First Lady in U.S. history; Edith Wilson assumes new duties after Woodrow Wilson's stroke; Dolley Madison saves important artifacts from certain destruction.