And we continue with our American stories.

Our next story comes to us from a man who's simply known as the history guy.

His videos are watched by hundreds of thousands of

people of all ages on YouTube. The History Guy is also heard here at Our American Stories.

In July of 1945, a U.S. B-25 Mitchell got lost in heavy fog over Manhattan. Here's the history guy remembering the B-25 Empire

State Building crack. The summer of 1945 represented hope for a war-weary nation. Germany had

surrendered in May. In the Pacific, General Douglas

MacArthur announced that the Philippines had been liberated, and in New Mexico, the United States

tested the bomb that would finally put an end to the war. There was plenty of reason in July

1945 for New Yorkers to look forward to a period peace.

But their peace was shattered with a spectacular accident involving a United States Army Air Force

plane and the tallest building in the world.

The morning of Saturday, July 18, 1945, a United States Army Air Force's V-25 Mitchell was flying from Bedford Army Airfield in Massachusetts to New Jersey's Newark Airport.

At the controls of the plane was Lieutenant Colonel William F. Smith Jr.

The 27-year-old Smith was an experienced pilot, a veteran of more than 30 missions and a thousand combat hours flying B-17 bombers over Europe during the war.

The B-25 was a twin-engine bomber, smaller than the B-17s that Smith had flown over Europe.

This plane, using call-signed 0-577 and nicknamed Old John Feather Merchant, had been converted to fly VIPs. Smith had

paddled the plane from Sioux Falls Army Air Base in South Dakota and was scheduled to pick up

his commanding officer in Newark before continuing back to Sioux Falls. He was accompanied

by 30-year-old Army Air Force Staff Sergeant Christopher Demetrovich and 19-year-old Navy

machinist mate Albert Perna, who was

hitching a ride from Massachusetts to see his family in Brooklyn. As the plane approached New York City,

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