This energyTHEN! from 1943 documents construction of the Big Inch Pipeline, which helped move oil from Texas to where the U.S. military needed it during World War II.

This 1980 Department of Energy film on wind power acknowledges some of the problems with wind power, but describes how the government was working to solve them.

A 1955 film highlights the nation's efforts to harness nuclear energy for electricity.

Engineers were studying the energy potential of geysers in California as far back as the 1950s.

The UK takes wind power from a wartime innovation to a post-war power source.

A look at how scientists harnessed the power of the sun in 1958.

1942 film predicts energy boom in Canada's oil sands.

Russia began to use natural gas for home fuel in the years after World War II.

More than 50 years ago, U.S. officials were concerned about rising electricity demand.

The first solar house designed for a northern climate.

In this energyTHEN, a 1947 documentary on how coal was a driving force in the Industrial Revolution, playing a huge role in building America.

Actor Gregory Peck narrates a 1979 film on efficiency from the Alliance to save Energy.

The first American-made tank was a hybrid.

A film clip from 1969 shows what was then the world's most modern offshore drilling rig.

Israelis had high hopes for their oil industry after the country's first gusher in 1955.

A look at a World War II-era electric car.

A look at China's drive to develop its own energy resources in the 1960s.

The nation's first nuclear plant goes online.

The world's first solar-powered car.

Energy Then looks back at the live of Thomas Edison, whose work with electricity still shapes our lives.

The all electric kitchen was touted as the "modern" way to cook in the 1950s.

We bring you the fanfare surrounding the opening of the nation's first commercial-scale nuclear power plant in the 1950s, and how one family found this new form of power appetizing.

The nation's only nuclear accident to date, in 1979, spawned anti-nuclear sentiment and halted construction of new plants.

Some scientists were concerned about carbon emissions and global warming in the 1950s.