Two Truths and a Lie

Every week, our Week in Rap Shout Out Contest gives students an opportunity to win a shout out for their school in the next Week in Rap. For this week’s contest, we challenged you to show off your trivia knowledge and submit three historical “facts”—two true and one false. See if you can spot the lies in our top entries!

Our winner this week is Yorkville High School in Yorkville, IL. Here we’re sharing a selection of the entries from the winning school as well as two runners-up. Can you tell the difference between the true facts and the made-up ones? Truth can be stranger than fiction.

1. A) When the Chicago Cubs last won the World Series, the Ottoman Empire was still standing.
   B) Jimmy Piersall celebrated his 100th home run by running the bases backwards.
   C) The Chicago Cubs played the first inning of the 1908 World Series shoeless, mocking Shoeless Joe Jackson.

   — Luke, Yorkville High School

2. A) The Emancipation Proclamation outlawed slavery.
   B) The Emancipation Proclamation was issued multiple times.
   C) The Emancipation Proclamation allowed slaves to fight in both the army and the navy.

   — Kaila, Yorkville High School

3. A) As a gift, President Calvin Coolidge was given a mechanical horse and he rode it for exercise.
   B) President Coolidge was also known as “Chatty Cal”.
   C) Coolidge owned lion cubs, a pygmy hippo and a black bear while in office.

   — Michaela, Yorkville High School

4. A) Napoleon Bonaparte was an excellent chess player. He would frequently stop at Schönbrunn to defeat and humiliate the automate.
   B) He wrote a romance novel about a relationship he had.
   C) He would frequently dress in poor, tattered clothing and go into the streets of Paris to ask people about himself just to see how popular he was.

   — Maureen, Yorkville High School

5. A) Thomas Edison purposely electrocuted an elephant.
   B) Thomas Edison built his own science lab when he was 16.
   C) Thomas Edison had a mysterious tattoo on his arm.

   — Sierra, Warren Middle School in Warren, NJ

6. A) George Washington was known as an energetic and excellent dancer.
   B) His grandson reported that George Washington once threw a piece of slate across the 250 feet wide river, Rappahanock.
   C) Because George Washington had dental problems, he wore wooden dentures.

   — River Heights Intermediate School in Eastvale, CA

Answer Key:
The lies are… 1. C, 2. A, 3. B, 4. A, 5. B—He actually built his own science lab when he was 10! 6. C is the lie! George Washington wore multiple sets of dentures composed of a variety of materials- including ivory, gold, and lead. Wood was never used in Washington’s dentures nor was it commonly employed by dentists in his era.

Thank you to everyone who submitted all of the awesome historical trivia this week! This Friday’s Week In Rap Shout-Out Contest will run for two weeks. Enter for a chance to win a shout out on May 23.