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America: Facts vs. Fiction

History as we generally know it is full of holes or half-truths, and a mother lode of juicy details have been lost, distorted, covered up or simply ignored along the way. Former Naval officer and actor Jamie Kaler is on a mission to set the record straight on the most familiar and beloved stories from our nation's and military's past, filling in the blanks, debunking the occasional myth, and exploring why we sometimes get our own history, well, slightly wrong

Genre: Documentary,

Actor:

Creator:

Country: United States of America,

Type: tv

Season: 5

Episode: N/A

Duration: 22 minutes

Release: 2013-07-10

Rating: 5.2

1"Flying Machines"

2013-07-10

Flying devices have been created to take us all around the world and even into space. On America's Facts Vs. Fictions, learn how Apollo 11 only made it home thanks to a pen and that Air Force One is a code name and not the actual name of the plane.

2"Founding Fathers"

2013-07-10

We think we know the true story of the birth of the United States but there is a whole other story. In this episode of America's Facts Vs. Fiction, we learn who else rode with Paul Revere and that George Washington wasn't really our first President.

3"Pilgrims and Witches"

2013-07-17

The roots of America can be traced to the first settlers that came there. In this episode of America's Facts Vs. Fictions, learn that the Pilgrim "Thanksgiving" was about fasting and the only "witchcraft" in Salem was done by a group of young girls.

4"Trick or Treat"

2013-07-24

We don't always know the truth behind what scares us. On the next episode of America's Facts Vs. Fictions, learn that our Halloween's origins aren't all that ancient and that Edgar Allan Poe is not the madman that others have made him out to be.

5"The Inventors"

2013-07-31

We don't always know the truth behind the inventors that create the devices we use every day. On America's Facts Vs. Fictions, learn that Thomas Edison didn't actually invent the light bulb and Benjamin Franklin never "discovered" electricity.

6"Presidential Conspiracies"

2013-08-07

With our greatest Presidents, we have to differentiate between the man and the legend. On the next episode of America's Facts Vs. Fiction learn FDR may have never had polio and Abraham Lincoln and JFK don't have all that much in common.

7"The New World"

2013-08-14

There is more to the explorers who discovered America than we have been told. On the next episode of America's Facts Vs. Fiction learn Christopher Columbus never stepped foot in North America and Hernán Cortés didn't defeat the Aztecs by himself.

8"Roadside Stories"

2013-08-21

A whole other story is behind the roads and bridges that cross the United States. On this episode of America's Facts Vs. Fictions learn a woman was the driving force behind completing the Brooklyn Bridge and Route 66 wasn't built from scratch.

1"Fool's Gold"

2014-10-07

The real facts behind America's biggest economic boom and biggest bust will shock you. On this episode of America: Facts vs. Fiction, discover a treasure of nuggets about the California gold rush and the Stock Market Crash of 1929.

2"Last Man Standing"

2014-10-07

The true stories of the Alamo and Custer's Last Stand are very different from the way we remember them. Find out how Davy Crockett really died - and why General Custer might have been court-martialed if he hadn't attacked the Indians that outnumbered him.

3"Lost at Sea"

2014-10-14

Myths cloud the real facts of history on the high seas. Find out what pirates really did with their treasure instead of burying it - and discover the truth behind the seemingly baffling disappearances in the Bermuda Triangle.

4"Booze and Bullets"

2014-10-21

Our memories of the roaring twenties and lawless thirties are more myth than truth. Learn the shocking realities about prohibition and that rogue's gallery of gangsters including John Dillinger and Bonnie and Clyde.

5"Patton and Grant"

2014-10-28

The truth about America's greatest generals is obscured by myth. Learn that George Patton's nickname "Blood and Guts" doesn't mean what you might think and that Ulysses S. Grant's reputation as a drunk and a butcher is undeserved.

6"Red, White and True?"

2014-11-04

Myths and misconceptions surround our most revered patriotic symbols. Learn how the Statue of Liberty was originally intended to stand in Egypt, how the American Flag wasn't designed by Betsy Ross, and that Mount Rushmore is actually uncompleted.

7"Wartime Rosies"

2014-11-18

The truth about women during World War II goes way beyond Rosie the Riveter. In this episode, our stories range from the woman who broke Japan's secret code to the Hollywood sex goddess who invented a remote-controlled torpedo.

8"Masters of Illusion"

2014-11-25

Much of what we know about America's showmen is myth, not truth. Discover how Harry Houdini didn't die escaping from his famous torture cell - and how P.T. Barnum doubled his profits by manufacturing doubt about the authenticity of his own exhibits.

9"Seeing Isn't Believing"

2014-12-02

On this episode, we look further into some of the most iconic photos and footage from the Civil War, Great Depression, and World War 2. By looking beyond the celluloid and the flash bulbs we find a story as interesting as the moments themselves.

10"What Happens in Vegas..."

2014-12-09

Myths obscure the truth about Las Vegas. In this episode of America: Facts vs. Fiction, learn that gambling wasn't the first enterprise to pour billions into Nevada's economy - and that Hoover Dam's concrete hasn't finished hardening.

11"Conquering the Sky"

2014-12-23

The stories of pioneering aviators are often not the truth but flights of fancy. In this episode of America: Facts vs. Fiction, we expose the myths about the Wright brothers' invention of the airplane and America's favorite missing person, Amelia Earhart.

12"Engineering the Impossible"

2014-12-30

The truth about great feats of engineering can be clouded by myth. Discover that the Panama Canal doesn't run east and west, but north and south. And that the Transcontinental Railroad wasn't completed at Utah's Promontory Point.

1"Ike and MacArthur"

2015-10-06

The truth about America's greatest generals is obscured by myth. West Point cadet Dwight Eisenhower used an alias to hide a secret and Douglas MacArthur deserved a court-martial, not a medal, for his actions in the Philippines in World War II.

2"Worlds of Amusement"

2015-10-06

Amusement parks and world's fairs are examined. Included: the history of roller-coasters and how world's fairs recalled as family-friendly endeavors actually featured nudity.

3"Welcome to the Big Apple"

2015-10-13

Myths obscure the facts about two Manhattan landmarks - the Empire State Building and Grand Central. Discover why a penny tossed from the top of the skyscraper won't kill anyone, and the real story of Grand Central's "secret" train platform.

4"The Princess and the Pathfinders"

2015-10-20

Myths obscure the truth about Pocahontas and America's renowned explorers, Lewis and Clark. We remember Pocahontas and John Smith as lovers - but she actually married another John. And Lewis and Clark's exploits were forgotten for a century.

5"Kings of the Sky"

2015-10-27

Charles Lindburg myths and John Glenn fictions

6"Top Secret Vaults"

2015-11-03

Myths surround America's most secret vaults. The interior of Fort Knox looks nothing like it does in the movie "Goldfinger" and the $250 billion of gold in the Federal Reserve Bank of New York is protected by low-tech technology built in 1924.

7"Not So Close Encounters"

2015-11-17

Did an alien spaceship crash in Roswell, New Mexico in 1947? Are scientists reverse-engineering extraterrestrial technology in the Nevada desert's Area 51? Conspiracy theorists have no doubts. But the facts tell a very different story.

8"Roads to Freedom"

2015-11-24

Myths obscure the truth about the Underground Railroad and the Women's Suffrage Movement. Black leaders, not white, dominated the system that brought hundreds of slaves to freedom. And women's fight for the vote was more violent than we remember.

9"D.C. Decoding"

2015-12-01

Myths surround the landmarks of Washington, D.C. Few realize that the remains of the original White House are buried under a baseball diamond in Virginia - or that thousands of people have literally jumped over the top of the Washington Monument.

10"Final Voyages"

2015-12-08

Myths cloud the facts of the Titanic and Hindenburg disasters. Few know that the Titanic nearly hit another obstacle days before it struck the iceberg - or that the radio broadcast of the Hindenburg's destruction is distorted by a technical flaw.

11"The Rock and the Bridge"

2015-12-15

Myths obscure the real facts about two San Francisco landmarks: Alcatraz and the Golden Gate Bridge. If Alcatraz was so harsh, why did inmates ask to be transferred there? And why did the Navy want to paint the bridge a garish yellow and black?

12"Unwrapping the Holidays"

2015-12-22

Myths and misconceptions surround our celebrations of Christmas and New Year's Eve. Learn how the Santa we cherish is actually the product of three New Yorkers and how the Times Square Ball drop is based on a bygone system of standardizing time.

1"Presidential Special"

2016-04-15

2"Epic Interventions"

2016-04-16

3"Discovering America"

2016-04-23

4"The Great Escape"

2016-04-30

The "facts" of the Battle of the Alamo and the Battle of Little Big Horn vs. the "fiction".

5"Tales of Sea and Sky"

2016-05-07

6"Engineering America"

2016-05-14

7"Saluting the Truth"

2016-05-21

Profiles of U.S. generals, including George Patton and Ulysses S. Grant. Also: a look back at the Roaring '20s and the lawlessness of the 1930s.

8"Striking It Rich"

2016-05-28

9"Bonus Round: Defending the Truth"

2016-06-04

True tales of women at war, including those that worked at manufacturing jobs, as WASPS, as computers, code breakers and spies and the 500 who died as a result of enemy action. Fact and fiction in historical photographs.

1"World War 2"

2017-01-21

The war waged by America's greatest generation is obscured by myth. Few remember that an American admiral played a pivotal role in showing Japan how to attack Pearl Harbor or that the German army was not the mechanized wonder it's reputed to be.

2"Smoking, Drinking and Gambling"

2017-01-21

Myths obscure the real facts about our favorite vices: smoking, drinking and gambling. You won't believe which nation had the first anti-smoking campaign, what those three X's on a jug of moonshine mean, or where our first slot machines appeared.

3"Liberty, Leprechauns and Lounging"

2017-01-28

Myths taint our knowledge of the 4th of July, St. Patrick's Day, and our favorite mini-holiday, the weekend. We should celebrate Independence Day on July 2nd, St. Patrick wasn't Irish, and the idea of a fun weekend is a recent creation.

4"The Real West"

2017-01-28

Much of what we know about the old west is myth, not fact, drawn from movies and TV. Gunfights never started with a quick draw, cowboys weren't all white, and Native Americans feared enemies more menacing than settlers and soldiers.

5"Secret Societies"

2017-02-04

Much of what we know about America's secret societies is myth, not truth. The Freemasons have no evil agenda, the Mafia took root not in New York, but the South, and Harvard's Skull and Bones does not control a sinister shadow government.

6"Space: The Final Frontier"

2017-02-04

Myths eclipse the real facts about NASA's dramatic rescue of three astronauts aboard the crippled Apollo 13 spacecraft; and Hollywood movies have a hit-and-miss track record of depicting the realties of interstellar exploration.

7"The Atomic Age"

2017-02-11

The real facts of the nuclear age are clouded by myth. Manhattan played a major role in the Manhattan Project; there were closer calls to World War III than the Cuban Missile Crisis; America's nuclear security hinges on a football and a biscuit.

8"American Villains"

2017-02-11

Myths litter the stories of America's most infamous bad guys. Al Capone was a philanthropist as well as a hood; Benedict Arnold was a hero as well as a traitor, Jesse James was no wild west Robin Hood; and we've got Billy the Kid's nickname wrong.

9"Famous Feuds"

2017-02-18

Myths distort the stories of two of America's most renowned rivalries. Before their fateful duel, Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr were law partners; and the conflict between the Hatfields and McCoys didn't end in the backwoods, but a courtroom.

10"The Civil War"

2017-03-04

Myths cloud the real facts of America's Civil War. The North's biggest city tried to secede; the Union didn't go to war to end slavery; most deaths weren't caused by battle wounds, and Grant and Lee didn't end the conflict; two other generals did.

11"Bad Medicine"

2017-03-11

America's medical history is infected with myths. George Washington's doctors may have inadvertently killed him; Abraham Lincoln used a toxic remedy that warped his mind; and heroin was once a best-selling cough suppressant.

12"Moments That Changed History"

2017-03-18

Myths and misconceptions surround four pivotal historic moments: the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962, the Battle of Thermopylae in 480 B.C., the Boston Tea Party in 1773, and the Battle of Waterloo in 1815.

13"Bonus Round: Fire in the Sky"

2017-01-28

On this special edition of America: Facts vs. Fiction, we explore the myths behind extraterrestrial spacecraft and we learn the truth of two pioneering flights.