President Abraham Lincoln delivered the Gettysburg Address on Nov. 19, 1863.
Source: Library of Congress
Year: 2009
Real Jobs, Fake Districts?
The Obama administration’s Recovery.gov Web site is supposed to compile data on actual, real-life jobs filled by companies and states that have received real money from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (a.k.a. the stimulus). But the site claims that jobs exist in congressional districts that don’t.
This is a site, by the way, that says it "allows for the reporting of potential fraud, waste, and abuse."
ABC News reported the discrepancies Nov. 16, pointing out that 39 jobs were supposedly created in imaginary districts in Iowa,
What’s Wrong With This Picture?
We’ve received a number of queries about a photograph purporting to show President Obama at Arlington National Cemetery on Veterans Day, listening to the national anthem without his hand over his heart.
Anyone who saw news coverage of Obama on Veterans Day might have smelled a rat right away: He didn’t wear a red tie that day, as he does in the picture, but a blue one, and he wore a winter coat over his suit.
November 18, 2009
At noon on Nov. 18, 1883, the U.S. Naval Observatory changed its telegraphic signals to correspond to the four standard time zones that were created in the continental U.S. The railroads were responsible for prompting the introduction of time zones.
Source: Library of Congress
FactCheck Mailbag, Week of Nov. 10-Nov. 16
This week, readers sent us comments on the federal health plan, our Just The Facts! vidcast and the H1N1 vaccine.
In the FactCheck Mailbag we feature some of the e-mail we receive. Readers can send comments to editor@factcheck.org. Letters may be edited for length.
Health Care and the Economy
Would the House-passed health care bill make a tough economy worse and wipe out more jobs, as claimed in a TV ad from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce? Or would it help small business and encourage economic growth, as claimed in an ad sponsored by a big labor union …
November 17, 2009
California’s American Indian and Alaska Native population, the highest of any state, was 738,978, as of July 1, 2008. Oklahoma’s population, 406,492, was the second highest.
Source: Census Bureau
November 16, 2009
As of July 1, 2008, 4.9 million American Indians and Alaska Natives were living in the U.S. That’s 1.6 percent of the total population.
Source: Census Bureau
November 15, 2009
In 1990, President George H.W. Bush was the first president to designate November as "National American Indian Heritage Month."
Source: Census Bureau
November 14, 2009
The poppy was known as the flower that grew over the graves of soldiers in the Napoleonic Wars. After World War I, the poppy sprouted in France and Belgium in lime-rich soil due to rubble.
Source: Veterans Affairs Canada