History.

“The tooth fairy collects baby teeth placed under a pillow.”

The statement matches a widely documented folklore tradition: children put baby teeth under a pillow, and the Tooth Fairy is said to collect them. The evidence does not support a literal real-world being performing the act, and the custom is culturally specific rather than universal. As a description of the tradition, it is accurate.

“Neil Armstrong said "That's one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind" on the moon.”

Armstrong did utter the famous moon-landing line on the lunar surface, but the exact wording is not fully settled. The historical audio clearly supports the quote in substance, yet the word "a" in "for a man" is not clearly audible in the original transmission and remains disputed. Quoting that exact version as definitive is slightly overstated.

“The origin of the quote "Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar" is unknown.”

The available evidence indicates that no definitive origin for this quote has been established. It does not appear in Freud’s known writings or documented conversations, and the best sourcing treats it as apocryphal or uncertain. However, the phrase’s later circulation and misattribution to Freud can be partly traced, so “origin” is somewhat broader than the evidence strictly proves.

“Virginia Woolf wrote the statement "You cannot find peace by avoiding life.”

The statement is not supported as a Virginia Woolf quotation. Authoritative attribution checks say the line does not appear in her novels, essays, letters, or diaries, and trace it instead to David Hare’s screenplay for the 2002 film The Hours. Websites that credit Woolf generally provide no primary citation.

“Michael Cunningham wrote "You cannot find peace by avoiding life" in "The Hours".”

The claim is not supported by the best available evidence. Reliable checks of the novel do not verify that line in Michael Cunningham’s book, while multiple sources trace it to the 2002 film adaptation of The Hours, often as “You cannot find peace by avoiding life, Leonard.” Popular quote sites appear to be repeating a misattribution rather than documenting a passage from the novel.

“Einstein flunked math in school.”

The claim is not supported by the historical record. Einstein’s documented school results show very strong performance in mathematics, including top marks in algebra and geometry. The persistent myth appears to come from confusion about a failed entrance exam in other subjects and from later retellings, not from evidence that he flunked math in school.

“Rousseau attributed the statement "Let them eat cake" to a princess, possibly Maria Theresa of Spain.”

Rousseau did associate the line with a princess, but he did not name one. The “possibly Maria Theresa of Spain” part comes from later speculation by other writers, not from Rousseau’s text. That distinction matters because the claim makes it sound as though Rousseau himself pointed to Maria Theresa, which the evidence does not support.

“The United States Central Intelligence Agency supported the expansion of Protestant Christianity in Latin America as a strategy to reduce the influence of liberation theology.”

The evidence supports a narrower anti-communist story, not the claim as stated. Reliable sources show U.S. officials and covert operations sometimes worked through religious networks in Latin America, and scholars argue evangelical growth was politically useful against liberation theology. But the record provided does not clearly prove that the CIA itself ran or explicitly directed a region-wide strategy to expand Protestant Christianity for that purpose.

“The United States and its coalition partners invaded Iraq in 2003.”

The historical record supports this claim. In March 2003, the United States launched the invasion of Iraq with allied partners, most notably the United Kingdom and Australia, and other states also contributed. Disputes about how broad or meaningful the "coalition" was do not change the basic fact that the invasion was U.S.-led but not purely unilateral.

“The Immigration Act of 1924 (Johnson–Reed Act) limited annual immigration for each nationality to 2% of the foreign-born population of that nationality living in the United States as recorded in the 1890 census.”

The evidence shows the claim accurately describes the quota formula established by the Immigration Act of 1924. The law set each nationality’s annual immigration quota at 2% of that nationality’s foreign-born population in the United States as counted in the 1890 census. Later changes to the quota system do not negate this description of the Act’s original formula.

“Under Japan's National Eugenics Law of 1940, sterilization decisions were often made by medical professionals and government officials rather than by the individuals themselves.”

The claim overstates how the 1940 law operated in practice. Japan’s National Eugenics Law did place doctors and prefectural bodies at the center of review and authorization, and it allowed compulsory sterilization on paper. But the best legislative and academic sources indicate that the compulsory provision was not actually implemented and that recorded surgeries under the 1940 law proceeded through consent-based channels, so officials were not often making the decision instead of the individual.

“Japan's eugenics policies in the early 20th century were influenced by eugenics policies in Europe and the United States.”

Historical evidence shows Japanese eugenics policy was shaped in part by European and U.S. precedents. Japanese Diet research and scholarly studies specifically link policy development and the 1940 National Eugenic Law to American sterilization laws and European, especially German, eugenic models. The main caveat is that Japan adapted these ideas to its own political and social goals rather than simply copying them.

“During the 1930s and 1940s, the Japanese government linked eugenics to nationalism by arguing that Japan's national strength depended on the biological quality of its citizens.”

The historical record supports the core point. Japanese officials and lawmakers in the late 1930s and 1940s explicitly connected eugenic ideas to national power, arguing that the population's hereditary and physical quality affected the nation's strength. The wording is somewhat broad, though, because wartime nationalism also drew on other themes besides biology.

“The wreck of the RMS Titanic was discovered by Robert Ballard in 1985.”

The core historical claim is accurate: the Titanic wreck was found in 1985, and Robert Ballard is correctly credited as one of the discoverers. Authoritative accounts show the search was a joint French-American expedition, with Jean-Louis Michel also sharing discovery credit. The statement is therefore accurate but simplified.

“Israel initiated the first major military attacks of the Yom Kippur War on October 6, 1973, by attacking Egypt and Syria.”

The historical record shows that Egypt and Syria, not Israel, launched the opening major attacks of the Yom Kippur War on October 6, 1973. Multiple independent sources describe a coordinated surprise assault across the Suez Canal and Golan Heights, with Israel initially caught off guard and responding afterward. The claim is not supported by the evidence because it reverses the war’s basic chronology.

“Historians widely characterize the Korean War (1950–1953) as a Cold War conflict linked to the United States policy of containment of communism.”

The historical literature and major reference sources broadly support this characterization. Mainstream historians commonly present the Korean War as an early Cold War conflict and an important test or application of U.S. containment policy. Some revisionist scholarship stresses Korean civil-war and nationalist causes, but that qualifies the framing rather than overturning its widespread use.

“The Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and the United Kingdom Foreign Office directly instructed the England national football team to perform the Nazi salute in Berlin on May 14, 1938.”

British diplomatic pressure played a real role in the 1938 Nazi salute, but the evidence does not support the claim that the Prime Minister and Foreign Office directly instructed the England team. Historical accounts attribute the immediate order to the British ambassador and football officials, acting within a wider appeasement policy. The claim turns a documented diplomatic arrangement into an unsupported personal directive from the Prime Minister.

“A conflict between Tarentum and the Roman Republic caused the war between the Roman Republic and Pyrrhus of Epirus.”

The evidence shows the immediate trigger was Rome’s conflict with Tarentum. After naval and diplomatic clashes, Tarentum asked Pyrrhus of Epirus for help, and his intervention turned that local dispute into the Pyrrhic War. Pyrrhus’s personal ambitions may have influenced his decision, but they do not displace Tarentum–Rome hostilities as the precipitating cause.

“The Cuban Revolution was driven primarily by Cuban nationalist and anti-imperialist traditions rather than by communism.”

The evidence indicates the revolution’s main mobilizing force in the 1950s was nationalist and anti-imperialist rather than openly communist. The July 26 Movement was not initially an orthodox communist project, and Cuba’s formal Marxist-Leninist identity was declared after power was secured. The claim is somewhat overstated because Marxist ideas were already present around Castro and became central soon after victory.

“Hristo Smirnenski was a communist.”

The claim is well-supported by multiple biographical and literary sources that identify Hristo Smirnenski as a member of communist organizations, including the Bulgarian Communist Party from 1921. The main caveat is that the label simplifies a political evolution and later cultural framing, but it does not overturn the basic historical fact of his communist affiliation.