Does a photo show damage to the deck of the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier? No, that's not true: There is no evidence that the American ship was damaged during Operation Epic Fury against Iran. The image actually shows repair crews in 1967 working to fix the damaged deck of the USS Forrestal after a deadly fire in the Gulf…
Does a viral clip prove that Iran sank the American aircraft carrier "Abraham Lincoln" involved in the military operation in the region? No, that's not true: The U.S. military denied the rumors twice. No credible media organizations reported the purported news and there were no higher quality versions of the clip or different angles available. The claim appeared in a…
Does a video show the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln burning in the Red Sea after being hit by Iranian missiles in 2026? No, that's not true: The video first appeared online on June 23, 2025, in a post making a similar false claim during the 12-day war between Iran and Israel happening at that time. It appears to have…
Did Antifa hang a Jeffrey Epstein banner next to Donald Trump's banner on the Department of Agriculture building in Washington? No, that's not true: Epstein's image was added with digital manipulation of a real photo of the front of the Agriculture Department headquarters next to the National Mall. The account that first shared the image said in another post that…
Was American racism engraved in its coins, with Abraham Lincoln's penny being copper because he freed the slaves and the other coins showing presidents facing the opposite direction as Lincoln, as a protest against him? No, that's not true: Lincoln was the first American president to be put on a coin in the country's history. The penny had previously been…
Did Abraham Lincoln, the 16th president of the U.S., advise the public on how to predict the future by suggesting that they should create it, instead? No, that's not true: The quote is not authentic, the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library confirmed to Lead Stories. The claim reappeared in a post published on Facebook on March 9, 2023. Its caption said:…
Did the driver for John F. Kennedy, Secret Service Agent William Greer, turn around and shoot the former president when JFK was assassinated in Dallas in November 1963? No, that's not true: A video posted on social media that makes this claim provides no supporting evidence beyond its grainy images. There also is no proof elsewhere that Greer played a…
Were there eight presidents of the United States before George Washington and did several Black presidents serve before Barack Obama was elected in 2008? No, that's not true: Washington was the first elected American president. There is a lack of historical evidence; plus, examples of genealogical research and, more recently, DNA testing that show no president prior to Obama was…
Did Americans keep "100%" of their earnings up until 1913? Not exactly: While the 16th Amendment, which taxed individual income, was ratified in 1913, some higher-earning Americans paid income taxes between 1862 and 1872 to pay off the cost of the Civil War to the U.S. government. A tax expert with whom Lead Stories spoke listed additional pre-1913 taxes that…
Is a post saying "Harriet Tubman is not a real person" accurate? No, that's not true: Multiple historians told Lead Stories this claim is false. One of them, the author of "Harriet Tubman: The Road to Freedom," wrote, "I can suggest that the notion that Harriet Tubman was not a real person, but a manufactured piece of fiction is categorically…
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