# Good stories that aren't true **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [February 20, 2012, 2:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-stories-that-arent-true/613418 "2012-02-20T14:18:56Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Llama\_Llogophile](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/49beb7/32.png) [@Llama\_Llogophile](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Llama_Llogophile)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2012, 7:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-stories-that-arent-true/613418/21 "2012-02-20T19:09:03Z")
Ugh, lately I seem to be spending a lot of time posting Snopes links to Facebook because a lot of the urban legends are coming around again as “facts”. Had to send this one twice recently: [NASA did NOT spend billions of dollars developing a space pen while the Russians just used pencils](http://www.snopes.com/business/genius/spacepen.asp) ---
**Author:** ![bup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6bbea6/32.png) [@bup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bup)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2012, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-stories-that-arent-true/613418/22 "2012-02-20T19:29:34Z")
A personal pet peeve of mine - Ben Franklin did not want the turkey to be the bird of the United States of America. ---
**Author:** ![AnalogSignal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/analogsignal/32/1085_2.png) [@AnalogSignal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AnalogSignal)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2012, 7:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-stories-that-arent-true/613418/23 "2012-02-20T19:35:49Z")
Someone told me this urban legend in the 70s. It was hard to validate claims like this back then: “Japan renamed a town ‘Usa’ so that it could legitimately stamp its exports ‘Made in USA.’” Snopes shows its False: [Was a Town in Japan Renamed 'Usa' So Its Products Could Be Labeled 'Made in USA'? | Snopes.com](http://www.snopes.com/business/genius/usa.asp) ---
**Author:** ![Mithras](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f04885/32.png) [@Mithras](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mithras)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2012, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-stories-that-arent-true/613418/24 "2012-02-20T20:07:32Z")
Philipppides didn’t run the 25ish miles from Marathon to Athens and expire immediately after announcing the Greek victory. He’s actually supposed to have run 150 miles from Athens to Sparta in less than two days and then run back to Athens to inform the Athenians that the Spartans would not be providing troops in time to help them at the battle. Following the Athenian victory, their entire army had to travel from Marathon to Athens the same day to potentially battle part of the Persian force that was sailing from Marathon to Athens. I think the race would be a bit harder if the runners had to travel 6 times the distance or were weighed down with bronze armor and weapons. ---
**Author:** ![Alan\_Smithee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/2acd7d/32.png) [@Alan\_Smithee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alan_Smithee)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2012, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-stories-that-arent-true/613418/25 "2012-02-20T20:23:48Z")
> [@Mithras](#): > > Philipppides didn’t run the 25ish miles from Marathon to Athens and expire immediately after announcing the Greek victory. > > He’s actually supposed to have run 150 miles from Athens to Sparta in less than two days and then run back to Athens to inform the Athenians that the Spartans would not be providing troops in time to help them at the battle. Following the Athenian victory, their entire army had to travel from Marathon to Athens the same day to potentially battle part of the Persian force that was sailing from Marathon to Athens. I think the race would be a bit harder if the runners had to travel 6 times the distance or were weighed down with bronze armor and weapons. [Jerry Seinfeld]If only he’d delivered the news to the town of Sprint, which was just 100 yards away, he might have lived.[/jerry seinfeld] ---
**Author:** ![tellyworth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/977dab/32.png) [@tellyworth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tellyworth)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2012, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-stories-that-arent-true/613418/26 "2012-02-20T20:31:29Z")
Similarly, McDonalds doesn’t buy from a company named “100% Beef” so they can use 80% sawdust or whatever. They really do use 100% beef. ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2012, 8:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-stories-that-arent-true/613418/27 "2012-02-20T20:37:01Z")
The Internet was _not_ originally designed to survive nuclear war. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2012, 8:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-stories-that-arent-true/613418/28 "2012-02-20T20:55:32Z")
> [@](#): > > The Internet was not originally designed to survive nuclear war. Well, it was designed to survive extensive equipment outages, and nuclear war is certainly one plausible source of such (along with a variety of natural disasters, etc.). ---
**Author:** ![PSXer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/48db29/32.png) [@PSXer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PSXer)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2012, 9:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-stories-that-arent-true/613418/29 "2012-02-20T21:17:30Z")
The first few hundred years of Roman history ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2012, 9:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-stories-that-arent-true/613418/30 "2012-02-20T21:46:02Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Well, it was designed to survive extensive equipment outages, and nuclear war is certainly one plausible source of such (along with a variety of natural disasters, etc.). It was designed to be robust in the face of equipment failure rates we’d now consider excessive, because the equipment of the early Arpanet period generally wasn’t as reliable as what we have now. However, the “Communications in the event of nuclear war” project _did_ exist, and it _wasn’t_ anything that turned into the Internet; it was a RAND Corporation design based on hardened voice lines. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2012, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-stories-that-arent-true/613418/31 "2012-02-20T22:04:42Z")
> [@Jasper\_Kent](#): > > “Dr. Livingstone, I presume.” News to me. Wikipedia observes that: > [@](#): > > Henry Morton Stanley, who had been sent to find him by the New York Herald newspaper in 1869, found Livingstone in the town of Ujiji on the shores of Lake Tanganyika on 27 October 1871,[17] greeting him with the now famous words “Dr. Livingstone, I presume?” to which he responded “Yes, and I feel thankful that I am here to welcome you.” These famous words may have been a fabrication, as Stanley later tore out the pages of this encounter in his diary.[18] Even Livingstone’s account of this encounter does not mention these words. However, the phrase appears in a New York Herald editorial dated 10 August 1872, and the Encyclopædia Britannica and the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography both quote it without questioning its veracity. The words are famous because of their tongue-in-cheek humorous nature: Dr. Livingstone was the only white person for hundreds of miles. > **[David Livingstone](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Livingstone)** > > David Livingstone FRGS FRS (/ˈlɪvɪŋstən/; 19 March 1813 – 1 May 1873) was a Scottish physician, Congregationalist, pioneer Christian missionary with the London Missionary Society, and an explorer in Africa. Livingstone was married to Mary Moffat Livingstone, from the prominent 18th-century Moffat missionary family. Livingstone came to have a mythic status as a Protestant missionary martyr, working-class "rags-to-riches" inspirational story, scientific investigator and explorer, imperial re Li... This casts doubt on the story, but by no means disproves it. ---
**Author:** ![buddha\_david](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ee7513/32.png) [@buddha\_david](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/buddha_david)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2012, 10:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-stories-that-arent-true/613418/32 "2012-02-20T22:30:12Z")
In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth… Alice Cooper/Ozzy Osbourne/Marilyn Manson threw live puppies into the audience and declared the show would not continue until they were killed. [“Good luck, Mr. Gorsky!”](http://www.snopes.com/quotes/mrgorsky.asp) ---
**Author:** ![BrotherCadfael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@BrotherCadfael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrotherCadfael)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2012, 10:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-stories-that-arent-true/613418/33 "2012-02-20T22:43:00Z")
> [@Jasper\_Kent](#): > > “Dr. Livingstone, I presume.” The answer to the instruction: “Please state your title and full name, Dr. Presume.” ---
**Author:** ![bizerta](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/3be4f8/32.png) [@bizerta](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bizerta)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2012, 10:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-stories-that-arent-true/613418/34 "2012-02-20T22:45:33Z")
Mama Cass did not choke to death. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2012, 10:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-stories-that-arent-true/613418/35 "2012-02-20T22:57:33Z")
Theodore Roosevelt did not lead the charge up San Juan Hill in Cuba. He in fact was part of the assault on Kettle Hill, a secondary objective. He did lead a small group to support the Buffalo Soldiers who had already taken the hill (and received almost no recognition for it), but was immediately called back to defend the Spanish counterattack on Kettle. He managed to get his photo taken at the top of San Juan Hill along with the Rough Riders outfit. To his credit, Roosevelt initially gave credit to the black soldiers, but the press and his campaign staff insisted that he was the hero of the battle, and eventually he accepted it as truth. He was awarded a posthumous MOH for this action by George Bush II, while the officer who led the charge and was killed during it received zip point shit. ---
**Author:** ![Spoke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2012, 11:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-stories-that-arent-true/613418/36 "2012-02-20T23:20:18Z")
The Mayflower Compact was not the seminal moment for democracy in England’s American colonies. (In fact, the Virginia colonists had elected their first [House of Burgesses](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_of_Burgesses) in 1619, more than a year before the Mayflower left England.) ---
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2012, 1:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-stories-that-arent-true/613418/37 "2012-02-21T01:04:30Z")
The attorney who defended Harvey Milk’s assassin did not argue that the assassin was made criminally insane by consuming twinkies. He argued that when a person who was normally deeply concerned with healthy eating and fitness changes his habits greatly, that change in behavior can be an indication of mental illness. Cites: [Myth of the 'Twinkie defense' / The verdict in the Dan White case wasn't based on his ingestion of junk food](http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2003/11/23/INGRE343501.DTL) [The Twinkie Defense: Debunking the Myths and Misinformation | Snopes.com](http://www.snopes.com/legal/twinkie.asp) ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2012, 1:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-stories-that-arent-true/613418/38 "2012-02-21T01:19:27Z")
> [@Spoke](#): > > The Mayflower Compact was not the seminal moment for democracy in England’s American colonies. > > (In fact, the Virginia colonists had elected their first [House of Burgesses](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_of_Burgesses) in 1619, more than a year before the Mayflower left England.) There was one important precedent set by the Mayflower Compact - the signers were acting on their own. They had not been authorized to set up a local government by England. The Virginia House of Burgesses was authorized by the Virginia Company, which was itself authorized to run the colony of Virginia. So the Virginians were essentially given their local government by England. The Plymouth colonists formed a government on their own authority, even though they recognized English supremacy over that government. ---
**Author:** ![thelabdude](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/dc4da7/32.png) [@thelabdude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelabdude)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2012, 1:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-stories-that-arent-true/613418/39 "2012-02-21T01:31:17Z")
Good work, keep them coming. ---
**Author:** ![Saint\_Cad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saint_cad/32/18907_2.png) [@Saint\_Cad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Cad)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2012, 2:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-stories-that-arent-true/613418/40 "2012-02-21T02:08:06Z")
Al Gore did not win an Oscar. It was Davis Guggenheim that won for _An Inconvienent Truth_. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-stories-that-arent-true/613418.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/good-stories-that-arent-true/613418.md?page=3)