My favourite is the story that there was mass panic over a radio broadcast of War of the Worlds where everyone thought a real alien invasion was happening. I heard this story as a kid and really thought this was a cruel prank played by the radio station.
In reality, they made it clear at the beginning of the broadcast, and twice during, that it was fictional. Not that many people were listening and most of the people who were, were aware it wasn’t real. A few idiots freaked out and it somehow turned into a story of mass panic. It was propaganda by newspapers to discredit radio.


The Confederacy didn’t actually fight for the states’ right to continue slavery.
They fought against the states’ right to abolish it, even if a state wanted to.
The distinction is subtle, but they actually wanted more power for the federal government to tell states what to do.
In this case, to tell them they aren’t allowed to ban slavery.
They fought for their states’ rights to dictate what other states were or were not allowed to do. Something that’s closely mirrored with similar debates today.