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Once 250 years ago, people traveled as fast as a horse could run or a ship could sail.

News took weeks to cross oceans, only candlelight pushed back the darkness.

Then gradually, or suddenly, everything changed.

Steam and later diesel engines powered factories, locomotives, ocean liners.

Automobiles replaced carriages.

Electricity illuminated the night.

Medicines and vaccines extended lives as telephones, computers, and the Internet connected the world.

Human beings finally left Earth's atmosphere and rocketed to the moon.

Through all that time, with so much change, a nation born in the age of sail was growing.

Back in 1776, few would have wagered that 13 rebellious colonies would somehow grow into a continental power that could dominate world affairs.

But the United States was always more than a risky bet.

It was an idea, an experiment in self-government, hatched on the eastern edge of a very rich continent.

250 years on, empires have risen and fallen. Human rights have made clawing progress around the

globe. And still, the American experiment has endured and evolved, encompassing so much of what makes

this nation what it is.

Don Wildman here, and this is American History Head.

And today, in the spirit of America's 250th anniversary, the semi-Quincennial, we've

polled a few of our past guests, all esteemed voices, asking this, please tell us

one of your most inspiring, uplifting, meaningful moments of America's founding era.

...