While best known for his award-winning work as an actor, first on stage, then television, and eventually film, it is Gary Sinise’s service off-camera that is now earning him the respect of many in uniform, prompted by what he describes as his own turning point — the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.

ON THIS DAY IN AMERICAN HISTORY On March 5, 1963, the Hula-Hoop is patented. First marketed in 1958, the plastic ring that users swiveled around their hips, became a major American fad, selling an estimated 25 million in the first four months it was available. The idea for the Hula-Hoop came after its creators saw Australian kids swiveling a wooden hoop during gym classes. The plastic version, which derives its name from the Hawaiian dance of the same name, was demonstrated on playgrounds in Southern California, launching an intense but short-lived fad.

VIDEO: There is a select group of videographers that enters some of America’s more dangerous neighborhoods to document and tell the stories of the people who live there. These are gangland neighborhoods in places like Chicago, Los Angeles, even Forth Worth, Texas. Shawn Cotton is one of these documentarians.

As Uganda’s population increases, many young people are having trouble finding jobs that pay well. A government directive to introduce the teaching of Mandarin Chinese in schools may lead to better employment opportunities.

VIDEO: They’re called smokejumpers and, as you may guess from the name, they have very dangerous work. Their job is to parachute into the spot where a wildfire has started and put it out with the help of only a Pulaski tool and a handsaw. They know how to survive in the wilderness and save nature from fire.

Hundreds of Islamic State fighters and family members fled the northeastern Syrian village of Baghuz, taking advantage of a pause in ferocious fighting with the U.S.-backed forces that have surrounded the last patch of the terror group’s self-declared caliphate.