For years, Hillary Clinton was going around claiming that she was named after the first person to reach the summit of Mt. Everest, Sir Edmund Hillary. This has been reported as ?fact? as late as a week ago in the New York Times. It didn?t take long for somebody to notice that the numbers didn?t add up, and that was years ago. After being reminded of the lie, yet again, Hillary has recanted the claim via a sweet story of family history with this explanation:
For more than a decade, Sen. Clinton?s informal biography repeated the story, and it was recounted in former President Bill Clinton?s 2004 autobiography, ?My Life.?
The problem with the tale, however, is one of timing. Sir Edmund and his Sherpa guide, Tenzing Norgay, became known to the world only in 1953, after becoming the first men to reach Everest?s summit. Sen. Clinton was born in 1947.