US President Donald Trump has blamed a teleprompter going “kaput” for a glaring anachronism in his Independence Day speech.
He told crowds on 4 July the Continental Army “took over the airports” during the American Revolutionary War in the 1770s.
Observers quickly pointed out there was no air travel in 18th Century America.
Explaining away the slip-up on Friday, Mr Trump also said it was hard to read the teleprompter in the rain.
During his “Salute to America” speech at the Lincoln Memorial on Thursday, he was talking about the year 1775 when he said: “Our army manned the air, it rammed the ramparts, it took over the airports, it did everything it had to do.”
Critics pointed out the rebels could not have seized airports more than a century before the first powered flight – credited to the Wright brothers in 1903 – took off.
In the same sentence, Mr Trump also appeared to date a battle at Fort McHenry to the American Revolution, when it unfolded decades later during the War of 1812.
Twitter users had some fun with the garble, using the hashtag #RevolutionaryWarAirports.
Outside the White House on Friday, Mr Trump said: “I guess the rain knocked out the teleprompter.
“I knew the speech very well so I was able to do it without a teleprompter but the teleprompter did go out and it was actually hard to…
