3. Benjamin Franklin, the bald eagle, and the turkey
This one is a myth which carries at least a modicum of fact. The story goes that Franklin proposed the native wild turkey, a bird which was prevalent throughout the new nation, rather than the bald eagle as the symbol to appear on the Great Seal of the United States. He did not. He did, however, in a letter to his daughter, compare the wild turkey favorably to the bald eagle, demonstrating dissatisfaction with the predatory habits of the latter. Franklin also noted in his letter that even a small sparrow could chase off a bald eagle, and expressed the belief that the honest turkey was more of an example of the desired American character.
Many myths exist about Franklin, some of them deliberately formed to besmirch his character during his lifetime. He was said to have fathered several children while serving as Minister Plenipotentiary to France during the Revolutionary War, though he was already well into his seventies and plagued with gout. He did not discover electricity, as is often claimed, rather he discovered that lightning was a form of electrical discharge. His experiment with kite and key during a thunderstorm was real, he proposed the idea which was conducted in France by Thomas-Francois Dalibard in 1752. Whether Franklin also conducted the experiment is uncertain, his description of the procedure contains no reference to him performing the test.