Benjamin Franklin's fake newspapers targeted the British

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Benjamin Franklin actively created fake newspaper issues containing forged letters to manipulate public opinion during the American Revolution. He fabricated gruesome tales of enemy atrocities, successfully using early political misinformation to turn European sentiment against the British crown.

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Benjamin Franklin's fake newspapers targeted the British — STACKY / History

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Benjamin Franklin's fake newspapers targeted the British

A bigger world.One discoveryat a time.

Keep exploring

Phrase history is written by the victors misses a darker truth: it is also written by their public relations teams.

In 1914, a British newspaper told readers German troops boiled corpses into soap.

During World War II, entire neighborhoods taught children to fold foil because adults said it would help build planes.

In 1791, a Parisian playwright named Olympe de Gouges published the ‘Declaration of the Rights of Woman.’ It mirrored the grand declaration of French revolutionaries—changing…

In the Roman Republic, politicians slipped their faces onto coins and flooded the markets.

In 19th-century Vienna, the first recorded automatic door was powered by a steam mechanism crafted for a royal greenhouse.

A bigger world.
One discovery
at a time.