[Workers examine the remnants of an 18th century ship found 20 or 30 feet below Ground Zero during construction. The ship is 30 feet long and believed to be from the mid-1700s.] (Pic Getty)

Or, was Alexander Graham Bell just a palm-greasing charlatan? When PBS's History Detectives are on the case, the horse eats no cucumber salad.

Former FBI director J. Edgar Hoover's personal stash of pictures, letters, and office furniture will be housed in the future National Law Enforcement Museum in Washington, DC. A cop museum… cool. But will they have a taser section? [NYT]

The Texas textbook whitewashers were right about Thomas Jefferson: The Library of Congress has discovered that Jefferson originally wrote "subjects" instead of "citizens" in an early draft of the Declaration of Independence. Was the "Man of the People" a phony?

Newly de-classified documents show that British ballerina Margot Fonteyn led a plot to overthrow Panama's government in the 1950s. She was not as good at intrigue as she was at dancing: She accidentally threw some documents into the ocean. [AP]

How the U.S. Government Killed the Safest Car Ever Built [Jalopnik]

Pope Benedict may have ignored warnings about pedophiles and doddered while Rome perved, but he's nowhere near the worst pope ever. Here, via history writer Tony Perrottet, we round up the Vatican's greatest villains – syphilis, hookers and all.

Forty years ago today, National Guard troops opened fire on protesting students at Kent State University, killing four and wounding nine. Let us remember them every time we walk away unharmed after taking over a food court.

From President Barack Obama to Donald Trump and General Colin Powell, the History Channel's, America the Story of Us, offered an A-list perspective on the formation of the United States.

Here is another hot bit of Manhattan media gossip for you influentials: this is my last day at Gawker. To say it's been an amazing experience would be a ridiculous understatement.

In 1789 George Washington borrowed books about international relations and the British House of Commons from a Manhattan library. He never returned them. If he returned them now, he'd owe an "inflation-adjusted $300,000 late fee." [NYDN]

The Library of Congress announced it has digitally archived all of Twitter, and is hopeful the cache will produce insights "none of us now can even possibly conceive." Or care to conceive, even.

There are indeed two sides to "the Confederacy debate"—the side that committed treason in order to protect the institution of slavery, and the side of America. Next on CNN: Pearl Harbor—did we have it coming?

Republican Virginia Governor who won election by posing as a reasonable moderate declares "Confederate History Month." Every reasonable person in the nation offended. Your American Spectator headline: "Leftist Race Baiting in Virginia."

In a 1961 address to the National Association of Broadcasters, then FCC Chairman Newton N. Minow famously described TV as a "vast wasteland." Well, it's also a graveyard, filled to the brim with the bloated carcasses of dead networks.

Nasty Man Rudy Giuliani is endorsing Marco Rubio for Senate in Florida. Though it's more of a petty, pointed non-endorsement of Florida Governor Charlie Crist. Giuliani just hates that guy.

Dan Quayle takes to the editorial page of (surprise!) the Washington Post to tell Republicans to embrace Teabaggers. He has some important historical lessons for his fellow Republicans, about these grassroots movements.

Texas Rep. Louie Gohmert would like to repeal the 17th Amendment. That is the one that allows for the direct election of Senators.

"Television is going to be big, or it isn't going to be at all." The crack staff at Popular Science said this in 1944, and beyond the seeming obviousness of its either/or scenario, there's a lot to think about here.

If you're looking for a good newspaper job, kids, try arguing for the most ethically indefensible thing you can possibly think of using faulty logic, blatant falsehoods, and flagrant omissions. It worked for Bush speechwriter and torture-lover Marc Thiessen!