It wasn’t all bad

A World War II American P-38 fighter plane has been discovered off the coast of Wales, right where swimmers have frolicked for decades. The aircraft, which crashed in shallow water during a gunnery practice mission on Sept. 27, 1942, had been covered by tons of sand. But recent erosion of the Irish Sea beach revealed the plane, which is believed to be the oldest P-38 in existence. Several aviation museums have already expressed interest in displaying it. “It’s sort of like Brigadoon,” said Ric Gillespie of the International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery, “the mythical Scottish village that appears and disappears.”

Photographs of Abraham Lincoln are extremely rare—only about 130 are known to exist. But now, historians have tentatively identified two more, thanks to the efforts of an amateur history buff. John Richter, 51, of Hanover, Pa., was examining thousands of photos of Gettysburg, digitized in 2000 by the Library of Congress, when he spotted a tall man, in a stovepipe hat, saluting Union troops. Experts say the man appears to be Lincoln, just prior to the delivery of his historic address. “When I saw it for the first time, my jaw dropped,” said Bob Zeller, president of the Center for Civil War Photography. There is only one other photo of Lincoln in Gettysburg.

Bill Inman, a 48-year-old rancher from Lebanon, Ore., was tired of turning on the news and hearing only about crime, poverty, and war. So on June 2, he mounted his horse, Blackie, and set off across America in search of some good news. Averaging 20 to 25 miles a day, Inman is collecting the life stories of honest, hardworking Americans, with the intention of assembling them in a book and documentary. So far he’s made it about halfway across the country. “There is nothing like riding across the nation to learn about the people of this country,” he said. “I really believe in it.”

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