JFK: "I'm a Jelly Doughnut"
Legend has it that John F Kennedy stood beside the Berlin Wall in 1963 and declared to the German crowd "Ich bin ein Berliner" and referred to himself not as a "citizen of Berlin" but as a "jelly doughnut".
In fact Kennedy was speaking in a figurative sense as he wasn't literally from Berlin so his use of the indefinite article 'ein' (which normally would be omitted when speaking of your residence) was in fact correct.
However the story has been perpetuated by German cartoonists, the BBC, the Guardian, The New York Times and many more and so now legend it has that JFK was practically laughed off stage when he told everyone he was a jelly doughnut.
Redbud says
I can vouch that jamesurbanville is a world class spoofer, check above for all the proof you'll ever need.
iskandhar says
Lived in New York and heard the rumors back in the sixties. Was not that hard to believe as I had grown up in New Orleans and on the corner close to my home small alligators used to emerge from the storm drain on a regular basis.
So while it may not be true in New York, let me assure you that in New Orleans in the '40's and '50's alligators inhabited the storm/sewer systems.
Gozoborn says
How's this for a great myth. It is rumoured that Einstein married his cousin, who according to legend, was well endowed, and thus the theory of relative titty.
RCbeastly says
Amazing how many people will simply believe what they are told on the internet or in emails. They have the internet , and the truth is so easy to find, but hey don't even try to look for it.
RCbeastly says
The proof would be in the photos taken from orbing spacecraft. I haven't seen any yet.
RCbeastly says
Coke myth was disproved by Mythbusters. Fact is, I have been drinking Coke for 40+ years and my teeth are fine.
jamesbanville says
I can vouch for the fact that Einstein was rubbish at maths when he was at school. His maths teacher was my great grandfather and he passed on Einstein's maths work to his son and then he passed it on to my father. My father placed the books in a safe deposit box in New York but died without giving anyone the information required to have the box opened. The legal battle goes on.
puterwiz says
Urban Legend .....Daddy-Longlegs are one of the most poisonous spiders, but their fangs are too short to bite humans.
Bobski154 says
No rats in Alberta and province is 4x size of UK!
richdix says
The lighthouse and U.S. ship myth started out as a U.S. Coast Guard vs Navy joke. Some Canadian used the plot as another "Yankee basher".
nonsense_amigo says
You would have thought that somehow the archives are used to prove that these stories aren't true. Instead, each time there's a one-sentence conclusion, like 'sadly, it's not true' or 'unfortunately, it never happened'. I agree that it's credulous to believe whatever you find online, but this article asks you to do exactly the same. To believe that 'it's not true' without citing any reference or source to prove it. 'The U.S. Navy debunked that story' —it's not hard to see why the U.S. Navy would wish to debunk it (and I'm not saying it didn't happen —it may or may not have), but maybe you should let us know when, where and how? Whoever wrote this, seems to have known little more than the rest of us. I suggest that you use these great archives to do some proper research, if you're going to write an article about truth and fiction.
jerolara says
Another urban myth I know is that lightning never strikes the same place twice, but its now proven false because lightning can indeed strike the same place more than once.
ina production says
As a matter of fact, President Kennedy did observe the Berlin wall from the Brandenburg gate and Checkpoint Charlie, but he delivered his 'Berliner' speech from the Shöneberg City Hall, a few kilometres away.