Infoplease Editors' Blog

I recently came across a web site that claimed, in a list of "Interesting Real Facts,"

• If a statue of a person in the park on a horse has both front legs in the air, the person died in battle
• If the horse has one front leg in the air, the person died as a result of wounds received in battle
• If the horse has all four legs on the ground, the person died of natural causes.

Here's a photo of a George Washington statue in the Boston Public Garden:

Here's an account of George Washington's Death. He did not die of battle wounds.

Consulting your favorite search engine will show that this claim is repeated on many sites, so many that I was not able to decide which may have been first to make the claim. Of course, once you reflect on it, it's not that easy to imagine a global board of statue governance enforcing the above laws. How much of what we read and accept as true is as easily debunked?