After John Hinckley Jr. fired six shots at President Ronald Reagan outside the Washington Hilton on March 30, 1981, the president quipped, “I forgot to duck.”

Almost every witness agreed President Lincoln never said a word after John Wilkes Booth shot him on April 15, 1865, but, six decades after the event, one self-proclaimed witness claimed the president asked him a question.

In the 1930s, Jacob Soles of Pennsylvania, told local reporters he was one of the soldiers who carried the injured president from Ford’s Theatre to his deathbed across the street at Petersen House. He claimed Lincoln whispered, “Where are they taking me?”