More Fascinating Facts ... But Are They True?

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Is it true that only two people signed the Declaration of Independence on July 4? They were John Hancock and Charles Thomson, right? What about reports that most of the rest signed on August 2, but the last signature wasn't added until 5 years later?

According to the historians at the National Archives, on July 2, 1776, twelve of the thirteen colonies approved a draft resolution for independence with New York finally agreeing on July 9. The draft was "Signed by Order and in Behalf of the Congress, John Hancock, President. Attest. Charles Thomson, Secretary."

However, that draft version isn’t the famous one you’ve seen. On July 19th, Congress ordered that the Declaration be "fairly engrossed on parchment” under a headline of “The unanimous declaration of the thirteen United States of America." That one was to be signed by every member of Congress, however, it took quite a while to get everybody’s signature for the printing and Pennsylvania’s Thomas McKean was the last person to sign. As a result, his signature doesn’t appear on some early copies.

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You may have read widespread reports that the average number of people airborne over the U.S. in any given hour: 61,000.

What a fun statistic. But as far as we can tell, the airline industry has never compiled any data to prove or disprove this popularly circulated statistic.

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The first novel ever written on a typewriter was Tom Sawyer. Oh, really?

There’s no way to prove or disprove this claim. However, Samuel Clemens, who wrote as “Mark Twain,” mentioned in his memoirs that he used one of those new-fangled contraptions, a typewriter, to write Tom Sawyer. No other author made any earlier mention of using a typewriter. But perhaps Washington Irving, Lousia May Alcott and Edgar Allen Poe just forgot to mention it.

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The majority of solitaire players haven’t used real cards in years. That’s a fun speculation, but it does make sense. Consider your own experience.

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The percentage of Africa that is wilderness: 28%. The percentage of North America that is wilderness: 38%.

Of course, this much-repeated "fact" depends upon what you call “wilderness.” Do only areas with no human occupants count? If so, North America wins because so much of the continent is frozen tundra, something Africa lacks entirely.

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The San Francisco cable cars are the only mobile National Monuments.

Not true. They were declared a National Landmark – which is significantly different than National Monuments, which are administered by the National Park Service. Incidentally, the U.S.S. Constitution, “Old Ironsides,” which is quite mobile and still puts out to sea from time to time, is a National Landmark, too, as is the U.S.S. Constellation.

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What do bulletproof vests, fire escapes, windshield wipers and laser printers have in common? Is it true they were all invented by women?

Contrary to a popularly circulating "fascinating facts" email, women were not solely responsible. The first commercially available bulletproof vest was patented by a man, Casimir Zeglen, in the late 1800's. However, a woman, Stephanie Kwolek, who was a chemist at DuPont Laboratories, invented Kevlar, which is used in most modern bullet proof vests today.

The laser printer was invented by Gary Starkweather of Xerox in 1969. However, the invention of fire escapes is credited to Anna Connelly in 1887 and Mary Anderson gets the credit for windshield wipers in 1903.