America: Facts vs. Fiction

- Season 2

(2014)

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.