
False: 10 of the 15 deadliest days in American history occurred in the past two weeks
This table, in various forms, is widely shared on social media. Can you spot the errors? Most are surprisingly incapable of noticing the problems here.
It leaves out the Spanish Flu pandemic. A staggering 195,000 people died just in October of 1918 which is an average of almost 6,300 per day.
It leaves out June 6, 1944 when 4,144 Americans died on a beach in France.
It lies about Gettysburg – 7,863 troops died. The 3,155 is only counting the Union troops. In fact, many battles in the US Civil War killed thousands of soldiers in each battle. In fact, 5 other battles each killed more than 3,155.
The Galveston hurricane killed 6,000 to 12,000 with 8,000 being the commonly used estimate.