
I fact checked the #POTUS’s statement about the Continental Army taking over the airports during the #RevolutionaryWar and here’s what I found out:
FACT: There’s no documentation that any British aircraft were able to take off from Colonial territory during the Revolutionary War. I know this is hard to believe so I checked it twice and it’s true.
FACT: There were very few airports in 1776. Therefore, seizing them would not require a lot of troops. This is just common sense.
FACT: The Continental Army enjoyed air superiority during the entire war. I couldn’t find this specifically stated in any history books, but it can be deduced from the facts above.
FACT: There is no record of any causalities from seizing the airports. This means that seizing the airports was one of the few or only bloodless battle of the war. Of course, records of causalities were sketchy at best.
FACT: It’s no coincidence that the symbol of the United States is a bird.
Possible FACT: Concerning the Continental Army “manning the air” ...There’s some speculation that Ben Franklin proposed developing an air corps using large kites. It was abandoned after lighting struck the first prototype.
Possible FACT: There’s some speculation that Henry Wadsworth Longfellow originally wrote in his poem, Paul Revere's Ride" (1860), that there were three courses of action the British might take toward the Colonials and the signal would be lanterns hung in the Old North Church (North Boston) tower: one if by sea, two if by land, and three if by air. However, because of the high cost of printing which charged by the letter, he deleted the third option and other words to cut costs.
Based on my discovery of these facts, we should stop this pointless criticizing of the POTUS’s speech. #RevolutionaryWarAirportStories