1421: The Year China Discovered America?

2 p.m., Sunday, July 27th

This introduces the controversial theory of British author Gavin Menzies, who has devoted nine years to proving that Zheng He and his Ming fleet of more than 100 ships reached America before Columbus. The program retraces the armada's journey to far-flung outposts throughout China, Southeast Asia, Arabia, India and Africa. Dramatic reconstructions using computer graphics bring to life the Ming fleet's scale.

NATURE Oceans In Glass

8 p.m., Sunday, July 27th

The Monterey Bay Aquarium is recognized as one of the most significant and spectacular aquariums in the world because of its realistic presentations. Instead of exhibiting collections of animals, the Aquarium presents entire habitats, virtual slices of ocean that include 30,000 animals and plants.

MASTERPIECE MYSTERY! Foyle's War, Series V: All Clear

9 p.m., Sunday, July 27th

Victory is at hand for the British, and Hastings is preparing itself for victory celebrations. But the mood darkens when a prominent American committee member is murdered. In his quest to solve his final case, Foyle must dig into one of the dirtiest secrets of the war and reveal truths the Allies would rather keep hidden.

HISTORY DETECTIVES

9 p.m., Monday, July 28th

Hindenburg Artifact - A Hoboken, New Jersey, man has a palm-sized, army-green metal box that looks like an instrument panel. Might this instrument have been recovered from the crash site of the Hindenburg in Lakehurst, New Jersey? Host Elyse Luray travels to Atlanta and the New Jersey landing site of the ill-fated zeppelin to determine if the instrument panel is in fact from the horrifying crash.

Bonus Army Stamp - A collector in Hawaii has a postage-sized stamp with an illustration of a World War I "doughboy" solider and the words "PAY THE BONUS." Host Wes Cowan heads to Hyde Park, New York, and Washington, DC, to reveal the stamp's connection to the veterans' struggle.

Dempsey Fight Bell - July 4, 1919, marks the day America found its true calling in a national obsession. Icon Jack Dempsey became the world's first boxing superstar, and he did it with the clang of a bell. Now, a contributor in Reno, Nevada, wants to know: Is the bell he's toasted many a night on the wall of his favorite bar the one that was ringside at Dempsey's legendary world heavyweight championship match?

CHASING CHURCHILL
In Search Of My Grandfather - The Other Country

10 p.m., Monday, July 28th

Churchill fell in love with the United States of America, the land of his mother's birth, during his first visit there in 1894. It was an unlikely match, but it endured, culminating in the special relationship between him and President Roosevelt, which was the bedrock of Allied victory during the Second World War. Sandys travels extensively throughout the United States and to Egypt, which seemed to lure Churchill to the banks of the Nile at crucial moments in his life.

NOVA Car Of The Future

8 p.m., Tuesday, July 29th

How will the car of the future be powered? Will it run on hydrogen, batteries, ethanol or some as-yet undiscovered technology? Find out as NOVA takes a look at the latest and greatest in the automotive industry. Tom and Ray Magliozzi of NPR's "Car Talk" fame take viewers on a roller-coaster ride into the world of cars - examining new technologies and ideas about America's most common form of transportation.

CONQUISTADORS All The World Is Human

9 p.m., Tuesday, July 29th

This is the tale of four survivors shipwrecked on the shores of Texas and in particular that of Alvar Cabeza de Vaca, who wrote it all down many years later.  Living among the Indians of the Gulf Coast for five years, Cabeza de Vaca finally rejoins the three others. Together they embark on an epic walk across America to the Pacific coast, reappearing in Mexico eight years after they were lost.

WIDE ANGLE Lord's Children

10 p.m., Tuesday, July 29th

The region of Northern Uganda has been ravaged by one of Africa's longest civil wars. For over 20 years, as many 25,000 children have been kidnapped by Uganda's anti-government rebel group, the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), and forced to serve as child soldiers and sex slaves. Lord's Children follows three former LRA soldiers who escaped from the bush and have since taken refuge in a rehabilitation center.

JEAN-MICHEL COUSTEAU: Ocean Adventures
The Gray Whale Obstacle Course

8 p.m., Wednesday, July 30th

Jean-Michel Cousteau and his team of young divers and scientists follow the annual migration of these traveling giants from Baja to the Arctic to investigate clues to a sudden decrease of population among the gray whale and to examine the less visible and more ominous obstacles these unique whales face in their struggle to survive.

NOVA ScienceNow

9 p.m., Wednesday, July 30th

"Phoenix (Mars Mission)" -- NOVA scienceNOW follows the upcoming NASA mission to send a lander to Mars. The lander is set to dig for water at the planet's poles in an attempt to understand the mysterious red planet's potential or past ability to support life.

"Mammoth Mystery" -- NOVA scienceNOW is on the trail of an extraordinary paleontological cold case. Forty years ago, a young paleontologist unearthed the fossilized remains of two mammoths, their tusks entwined in a fatal battle. Was it accidental death or violent murder?

"Judah Folkman Tribute" -- With the recent passing of famed "cancer warrior" Judah Folkman, NOVA scienceNOW takes a look back at the great man's accomplishments and where his groundbreaking angiogenesis work is leading the medical field today. Long ignored and even initially rejected, angiogenesis is now widely accepted as the process by which tumors prompt the growth of blood vessels to help with their survival.

CARRIER Rites Of Passage

10 p.m., Wednesday, July 30th

As the Nimitz crosses the equator, the entire ship takes part in the Crossing the Line Ceremony, an ancient maritime ritual. In the middle of flight operations, a storm arises in the South Indian Ocean. The deck pitches violently, turning the already dangerous task of landing on the carrier into a nail-biting, heart-pounding drama.

A CEMETERY SPECIAL

10 p.m., Thursday, July 31st

Producer Rick Sebak and his team take viewers on a tour of just a few American cemeteries that are full of sculpture, history, trees and flowers, granite monuments, interesting stories and fascinating people, some of them alive and many dead. See cemeteries from Key West to Fairbanks, from Barre, Vermont, to Colma, California.