We would wish a word with our fifth - grade teachers . How is it that so many supposedly educated adults still believe thatBenjamin Franklindiscovered electrical energy when his kite was chance on by lightning , and that Columbus discovered America while trying to examine that the humankind was round ? It ca n’t be because we ’re ignorant , or gullible , or both . Better to pick the fifth - grade teachers . For pity , Mr. Donnelly . For shame .
If you experience — for a fact ! — that Napoleon was the shortest emperor ever , and that Einstein absolutely give way math as a kidskin , then boy do we have some disappointing news for you . The real truth is that few of us have our facts straight when it comes to story . Keep read to find out how wrong you ’ve been , then go out and make your friends feel just as dumb ! Our first false fact involves a darling report fromAmerican chronicle .
10: Ben Franklin Discovered Electricity Flying a Kite
American statesman and Renaissance man Benjamin Franklin was a determined trouble - solver . Among his manyinventionswere rudimentary " swim fins " — glove - like stamp pad tire out on the hand to increase fastness . And then there are his famous bifocals , a simple solvent to carrying around two pair of glasses [ source : PBS ] .
But one thing that he in spades did n’t find waselectricity . Electricity was a known phenomenon in Franklin ’s Clarence Shepard Day Jr. , although not whole understood . Franklin believed that galvanising flow was a " fluid " that go from one organic structure to another and that lightning was simply a more dramatic form of electrostatic electricity [ source : Avril ] .
Did Franklin actually prove his theories byflying a kite in a electric storm ? No one is certain . We know that he published his groundbreaking diagrams for a lightning perch in May 1752 , a month before his alleged kite risky venture [ source : Avril ] . The main source for the kite story is Franklin ’s friend , scientist Joseph Priestley , who wrote about it 15 years later on [ author : USHistory.org ] .
From there , the tarradiddle take on its own life , show in painting and sealed in American lore . In no edition of the story , however , was Franklin ’s kite actually hit by lightning . That would have resulted in wimp - fried Franklin [ source : MythBusters ] . Instead , when a storm approached , Franklin noticed the hair on the kite string standing up , indicating the presence of electrical energy in the air . When he allude the key tied to the string , it expel a courteous spark , sealing the deal [ seed : USHistory.org ] .
9: Van Gogh Cut Off His Ear in a Fit of Madness
Part of the allurement of Vincent van Gogh ’s invaluable impressionist painting is the wide accepted belief that the 19th - century artist was bleak rant bananas . Exhibit A : In a fit of folly , he cut back off his leftover ear with a razor steel and gifted the bloody auditive pipe organ to a local Gallic prostitute . Need proof ? How about thefamous van Gogh self - portraitwith a bandaged ear ?
But in 2009 , a distich of German art historians fall apart the madman myth in a ledger titled " Pact of Silence , " which exact that van Gogh ’s stuffy friend and rivalPaul Gauguinsliced off van Gogh ’s ear lobe with a fencing tuck [ source : Kucharz ] . The book swear that Gauguin and van Gogh had a violent falling out in 1888 , resulting in the ear - chop incident . Both valet vow to keep the matter tranquil , although Gauguin invented the woman of the street report to make van Gogh look even crazier .
Van Gogh undeniably suffer from periodic fit and in the end took his own life in a abstruse bout of imprint , but was he certified ? An American microbiologist diagnose van Gogh a century after his end with Acute Intermittent Porphyria , which is a metabolic disorder , not a neurological disease [ source : Browning ] .
8: Richard III Was an Evil Hunchback
In William Shakespeare ’s classic dramatic play " Richard III , " the bard conjured up one of the juiciest villains this side of the Joker . Not only was Shakespeare’sRichard IIIa murderous usurper of the English stool — he smothered his two young nephew next in contrast for chronological sequence — but he was also a hunchback .
Shakespeare ’s fictional take on the substantial - life king was borrow hard from quasi - historic history publish by theTudors , the rival dynasty that steal back the stool and toss off off Richard III in 1485 at the Battle of Bosworth [ source : Richard III Society ] . During his brief 26 month on the throne , Richard III rise a adequate to and just leader , but his subjects never really develop over the whole " double small fry homicide " thing and his reputation was varnish as a stupendous jerk [ source : Jones ] .
But was he really a hunchback ? After years of searching for Richard III ’s suffer remains near the historical site of the Battle of Bosworth , his fully intact skeleton was miraculously name under a parking lot in 2012 [ germ : Richard III Society ] . Richard III ’s spine was unmistakably curved , but further examination revealed that the cause was a speculative example of scoliosis , rather thankyphosis , the aesculapian term for having a crookback [ source : University of Leicester ] .
7: Columbus Was Trying to Prove Earth was Round
As we all know , everyone in 15th - century Europe reckon the world was flavorless except for one brave and brilliant Italian - born explorer with the inexplicably English name ofChristopher Columbus . And as usual , we are all completely wrong .
Not only was around Earth an accept factin Columbus ' day , but the ancient Greeks were figure the size of the spherical Earth back in the 3rd century B.C.E. [ source : Stern ] . Even better , every ancient sailor who navigate outside of his own tub tub knew that the constellations rose in the sky as you sailed south . And then there ’s the whole lunar occultation phenomenon that exhibit Earth ’s unmistakably slew phantasma .
Columbus was n’t strain to prove Earth was round when he set sail in 1492 . He was trying to prove thatsailing due westwas the quickest way to get to the Far East and the wanted spice interface of India . Not only were his calculations incredibly improper , but he and his crew would have certainly die if they had not accidentally bumped into a cluster of Caribbean islands that Columbus believed to be coastal India . In fact , in all his voyages to the New World , he continued to think he had shoot on some part of Asia [ source : Royal Museums Greenwich ] .
One more Columbus factoid : Although Columbus did in short set foot in Panama on his fourth westward expedition , he never landed anywhere on the North American mainland [ source : Royal Museums Greenwich ] .
6: Napoleon Was Super-short
Most of us experience next to nothing about the French superior general and " emperor moth for life"Napoleon Bonaparte — a human race whose military accomplishment andpolitical ambitionmade him one of the most sinewy and feared figures of the late 18th and early nineteenth one C — other than the fact that he was onepetitedude . Even today , we say that an cover short guy has a " Napoleon complex . "
For years , the account Quran listed Napoleon ’s prescribed height as 5 feet , 2 in ( 1.6 meters ) , indisputably in " shorty " territory . But that ’s because they mistakenly believed that a French " foot " was the same as an English foot .
When the measure are properly converted , Napoleon stretches to a good 5 groundwork , 7 inches ( 1.7 meter ) . That ’s not going to get him anNBAcontract , but it ’s 2 in ( 5 centimeters ) taller than former French President Nicolas Sarkozy and nearly a head above Russian Prime Minister Dmitri Medvedev [ source : BBC News ] . Somehow , " Medvedev complex " is n’t as attention-getting .
5: Lincoln Fought the Civil War to End Slavery
What caused the Civil War ? This is one of the prickly questions in American history . But one matter is for indisputable : Abraham Lincolndid not announce war on the Confederate province to end the practice of slavery [ seed : Loewen ] . He declared warfare because the Confederate land were attempting to break away and he wanted to save a incorporate USA .
Why did the Confederate states need to break away from the Union ? Well , slavery for one thing . hold back … did n’t we just say theCivil Warwasn’t about slavery ? No , we said that Lincoln did n’t contend the Civil War to cease slavery . The South was sick of federal laws that restricted the movement of its hard worker in the North [ source : Lichtman ] . The decision to secede from the Union was to free itself of federal preventative in the slave trade .
countenance ’s let Lincoln himself explain his motivation for going to war , as written in a varsity letter to the New York Tribune in 1862 [ root : Loewen ] :
4: Vikings Wore Horned Helmets
With most historical falsehoods , it ’s toilsome to pinpoint who just started the whole misinterpreted great deal . But this one has a clear perpetrator : Professor Carl Emil Doepler , the costume designer for the very first production of Richard Wagner ’s epicoperacycle " Der Ring de Nibelungen " in 1876 [ source : The Economist ] . Thousands of stagings of " The Ring " cycle worldwide have made horns the de facto Viking helmet .
So what did realVikinghelmets search like ? Truth is , we ’re not too certain . Viking cadaver have been dug up acrossScandinavia , but archaeologists have found only one helmet , a rounded iron cap with a nose safety , but nary a horn in heap . ( It does n’t seem too virtual to have a helmet with horn , since they could get tangled in tree branches ) . Doepler may have pack his inhalation from pre - Viking cultures in Northern Europe that used helmets with horns or antler in religious rites [ source : History.com ] . Or you canblame Elmer Fudd .
3: Einstein Failed Math as a Student
This is a Hellenic brainchild story for every tiddler who ever vex a C- on a third - grade multiplication examination . " You experience who also shinny with numbers , Johnny ? Albert Einstein ! " Sure , and Michael Jordan was alsocut from his high schoolhouse basketball team . Wrong and wronger .
Yes , Albert Einsteinwas a late bloomer — he was obtuse to talk and socially awkward — and he did n’t get the salutary grades in school . He even flunked the entrance exam to the Zurich polytechnic school [ source : History.com ] . But that ’s not because he could n’t do math . He transcend the math department , but failed the botany , zoological science and lyric requirements . By all accounts , fiddling Al was an ingenious problem - problem solver who was simply bored to expiry by most subjects other than math .
The generator of the " Einstein flunked math " myth is not clear . However , when picture the allegation in a 1935 " Ripley ’s Believe It or Not " tower , Einstein replied , " I never flunk inmathematics . Before I was 15 I had mastered differential and integral infinitesimal calculus " [ source : Isaacson ] .
2: Thomas Crapper Invented the Flush Toilet
Come on , this one HAS to be true ! Even if it ’s not , ca n’t we all just harmonize to continue saying thatThomas Crapperinvented the flush throne ? This little pseudo - fact has been get 4th - graders giddy for centuries . While we ’re at it , let ’s start the rumor that the ice lolly was invented by a Swiss woman named Ivana Lix , and the man who invented tar for sealing driveways was the Belgian Prince Philip de Cracken .
Yes , Thomas Crapper was a 19th - century plumber and manufacturing business whose brand of " water closets " — put on far-flung popularity in his aboriginal England . But no , Mr. Crapper did not contrive the life - altering point that often bear his name . Flushtoiletswere already installed in finer family by the time young Crapper originate his plumber apprenticeship as a child in the 1840s . And sadly for irony - buff , the wordcrappeis a 13th - century news for waste , so it was likely in use of goods and services for toilette - concern matters before Mr. Crapper fuck off into the occupation [ informant : Lienhard ] .
The on-key artificer of theflush toiletwas likely Sir John Harington , a sixteenth - century English poet , translating program , scallywag and occasional inventor who installed one of his cunning " loos " for Queen Elizabeth at her nation palace in Surrey [ reservoir : Encyclopaedia Britannica ] . If you ever enquire why toilets are called " johns , " wonder no more [ source : Levitz ] .
1: Newton Discovered Gravity When an Apple Fell on His Head
Sir Isaac Newtonis arguably the most influential and insanely original mathematician and physicist of all time . ( Somewhere , he and Einstein are arm wrestling for the title . ) It turns out that the inventor of tartar and the fundamental laws of movement was also an inventive storyteller .
In 1666 , the University of Cambridge was shut down due to a little affair called the pestis , soNewtontook a break from his studies and returned to his childhood home in Lincolnshire . Newton ’s first biographer , William Stukeley , related that in 1726 when the two of them were having a spot of teatime under the shade of an apple Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree , Newton reminiscedthat it was in a alike billet 60 year earlier that " the whimsy of gravitation came into his brain . "
That ’s a bushel load of judgement - blowing insight from oneapple , but that ’s the tale that Newton secern and retold over the course of his liveliness to supporter and fellow . As with most good stories ( and in force storytellers ) , the tale grow more colourful with each retelling , but never did it say anything about an apple literally plunking Newton on the headland . For all know , it could have been a Al-Jama’a al-Islamiyyah al-Muqatilah bi-Libya .
Lots More Information
I ’m not going to stymie myself by acknowledge how many of these false facts I believed to be true before research this article , but I ’ll give you a hint : it bulge with an " n " and rime with " fine . " In my defense , a few of these falsehoods still have their defenders , like the parameter over the true movement of the Civil War , or the controversy over van Gogh ’s capitulum . The upside of feeling tragically obtuse , of course of study , is the power to bend around and play like an obnoxious know - it - all to friends and family . Just ask my married woman and child !
