20 Historical Facts That Are Just Plain False
Shoutout to AskReddit for proving my high school history teacher wrong.
1.
The Boston Tea party didn’t have some grand celebration, a lot of the colonists were confused and it’s recorded as one of Boston’s most quiet nights. -_britishpeople76
2.
That Hitler was a raging, shouting maniac in person. I think we want to believe that he would be that way because the idea that someone who was polite and low-key could be so evil is really disturbing.
According to his personal secretary and many people who knew him, Hitler rarely showed anger and was subdued but friendly in private. -nautius_maximus1
3.
That George Washington had wooden teeth. He had false teeth, yes. But they were made of ivory. He never had wooden teeth. -randomthoughtsofnaps
4.
One from America would be that the famous Johnny Appleseed, out of the goodness of his heart, walked across much of the USA (and even a bit into Canada) planting apple orchards to provide the locals with healthy apples. In reality, he was an eccentric who had financial means and was a shrewd businessman. Yes, he did, in fact, walk around barefoot with a cooking pot on his head -- that much is true.
Johnny Appleseed (known as John Chapman to his mother) was planting orchards in areas he believed people would soon move as westward expansion grew across the Midwestern US. But the apples he planted were crap; they were used to make cider and only to make cider. They were sour and not edible. -Fresh-Hedgehog1895
5.
The image of Roman gladiators fighting to the death. While there were many exhibition fights in the arenas where the goal was death, these were not gladiator contests. Prisoners, and the condemned, were thrown out to fight to the death, but not real gladiators. Training a gladiator was an expensive, and lengthy, investment and having them die constantly would be bad for business. -Sorripto
7.
The Lady who sued McDonalds didn't do so frivolously. She received third degree burns from how hot that coffee was, and needed a skin graft. It was quickly found that that location was keeping the coffee well above the temperature you can legally serve a hot drink in a cup at.
The fact that most people think this suit was over the temperature of the coffee, and not the debilitating burns that woman received, is one of the PR worlds greatest triumphs. You are not immune to propaganda. -P41nB0i
8.
Ned Kelly's last words being 'Such is Life.' That was made up by the reporter. So many Aussies have it tattooed or have big stickers on their 4x4s . But I guess 'Oh Well' doesn’t have the same ring to it. -MrBinkie
9.
Ninjas dressed in all black to stay stealthy in the night or something like that. Ninjas dressed like normal people to blend in, the all black look stemmed from Japanese theatre to make it more obvious to the audience who the ninjas were. -Darth_Fatass
10.
That the Spanish Armada was destroyed. They did lose 44 ships.... out of 137..... And the British also didn't beat them off with a small force. Their navy was actually significantly larger with 197 ships since they were joined by the Dutch Republic.
A decisive defeat? Yes. A small English force overcoming and obliterating the might of the entire Spanish and Portuguese navy? No. -saudadeusurper
11.
No one in the town of Salem was actually "burnt at the stake" during the witch trials. Most of them were hanged (muhahah) with one being crushed under rocks. -Blood-Letting-Goose
12.
“Under God” was not in the original version of the Pledge of Allegiance.. The Pledge was written in 1892. It wasn’t until 1954 that President Eisenhower added “under God” in response to fear of communism during WW2.
Also - when first implemented, during the pledge people raised their right arm forward so the hand was level with their eyes (directed at the flag) however this was changed during WW2 because it resembled the Nazi salute. The procedure was changed to place the right hand over the heart. -blueSnowfkake
13.
Paul Revere did not run around Massachusetts shouting "The British are coming" because if he did everyone would look at him like he'd lost his mind. ALMOST EVERYONE IN THE COLONIES WAS BRITISH! -Kind-Detective1774
14.
General public not being aware that classical Greece and Rome had colored paints all over those statues, much less colored dyes in their clothes. -Fortyplusfour
15.
That people used swords and axes all the time. Spears. Its spears, most of human history has been spears. Vikings used spears, samurai and knights used spears. Hell, bayonets exist because people felt you always need a spear, even with a rifle in your hand.
William Blake said, "When the stars threw down their spears, / and watered heaven with their tears..." Which is stupid. No one throws down their spear. Spears are great for poking people to death. -Training-Fact-3887
16.
Einstein never failed math, the rumor started from Ripley’s Believe It Or Not and Einstein actually responded to them saying “I never failed in mathematics. Before I was 15 I had mastered differential and integral calculus.” He wasn’t very good at the non-science related classes though and did fail French. -Think-Huckleberry965
17.
The Trojan Horse wasn't real. Historians are all pretty much unanimous on this. -the-ender-enby
18.
A stegosaurus fighting a t rex. They lived millions of years apart . Stegosaurus 144 lived million years ago T rex 65 million years ago. Insane difference. Still almost most every dinosaur related media places them together. -NLSecondguess
19.
A lot of people think the whole "women and children first" was a standard belief in the past but, as even I've learned recently, what happening during the Titanic and Birkenhead were anomalies. It's not maritime law or common practice. -jazz_star_93
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