David Mikkelson
David Mikkelson founded the site now known as snopes.com back in 1994 as a creative outgrowth of his wide-ranging interests in a variety of subjects (particularly folklore) and his professional expertise in the computer industry. Handling everything from researching and writing articles about urban legends to managing the site’s technical infrastructure, David saw snopes.com (which antedated the development of automated search engines) quickly become the go-to place for Internet users to query about anything questionable they encountered online, establishing it as the oldest and best known online fact-checking outlet operating today. David’s educational background includes a B.S. in Computer Science from the University of Texas (San Antonio) and about a zillion course hours of post-graduate classes at California State University Northridge taken with no particular degree program in mind. His previous employment encompassed stints with the News-Chronicle (newspaper), Teledyne Electronics, USPS, JPL, Digital Equipment Corporation, Rocketdyne, and Health Net (HMO).
Written by: David Mikkelson
July 1, 1999
Did an early experiment in subliminal advertising at a movie theater increase sales of popcorn a ...
Written by: David Mikkelson
June 22, 1999 (Updated: April 1, 2013)
The dihydrogen monoxide hoax shows that even the most innocuous of substances can be made to sou ...
Written by: David Mikkelson
June 15, 1999
Did United Artists mistitle the ELO album 'No Answer' due to a missed phone message?
Written by: David Mikkelson
June 13, 1999
Did Mussolini make the trains run on time?
Written by: David Mikkelson
June 11, 1999
Numerous 'coincidences' between the Lincoln and Kennedy assassinations are not really so amazing.
Written by: David Mikkelson
June 10, 1999
Decades-old scarelore warns that a common shampoo ingredient 'will cause people to have cancer.'
Written by: David Mikkelson
May 30, 1999 (Updated: Sept. 29, 2022)
In 1967, the Byrds recorded one of the finest records of that landmark year: The Notorious Byrd ...
Written by: David Mikkelson
May 30, 1999
A student answers a one-word philosophy exam that asks 'Why?' by simply responding 'Why not?'
Written by: David Mikkelson
May 21, 1999
A girl finds her mother has vanished from their hotel room without a trace.
Written by: David Mikkelson
May 9, 1999
Did the actor who played TV's Superman kill himself by trying to fly like his character?
Written by: Barbara Mikkelson David Mikkelson
May 8, 1999
The story of a woman who killed her husband over a misplayed bridge hand.
Written by: David Mikkelson
April 24, 1999
The nursery rhyme ‘Sing a Song of Sixpence’ originated as a coded message used to recruit crew m ...
Written by: David Mikkelson
April 24, 1999 (Updated: Sept. 22, 2022)
Many answers have been offered to this classic trivia question, but the correct one is rather ob ...
Written by: David Mikkelson
April 11, 1999
Was 'Leave It to Beaver' star Jerry Mathers killed in Vietnam?
Written by: David Mikkelson
April 10, 1999
Old broadcast legend holds that the wife of a famous golfer blurted out on the air that she kiss ...
Written by: David Mikkelson
April 10, 1999
Bathrooms were once commonly nixed from TV shows before they aired.
Written by: David Mikkelson
April 6, 1999
Are gang members putting a mixture of LSD and strychnine on pay phone buttons?
Written by: David Mikkelson
April 5, 1999
Did Coca-Cola translate its name into a Chinese phrase meaning 'bite the wax tadpole'?
Written by: David Mikkelson
April 4, 1999
Student who steals copy of examination is caught by a quick-witted instructor.
Written by: David Mikkelson
April 2, 1999
Classic business legend holds that the Chevrolet Nova sold poorly in Spanish-speaking countries ...
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