Do n’t believe everything you take in the story books . Many events that for one C have been passed down as true have eventually been proven fictitious . Some were in the beginning based on fact , but all became distorted and embellished as they were told and repeat like a game of telephone set .
None of the followers really happened . confide us … would we consist to you ?
control out the next page to start pick up about some historical misconceptions .
10. Ben Franklin Discovered Electricity
Benjamin Franklindid not discoverelectricitywhen his kite was hit bylightningin 1752 . In fact , electricity was already well known at the clip . Instead , Franklin was trying to prove the electrical nature of lightning .
During a thunderstorm , as Franklin flew a silk kite with a alloy key near the oddment of the string , he noticed the fibers on the billet put up up as though charge . He touch the key and felt a armorial bearing from the gather electrical energy in the air travel , not from a lightning strike . This was enough grounds to prove his possibility that lightning was electricity .
Had the kite been struck by lightning , Franklin would likely have been killed as was Professor Georg Wilhelm Richmann of St. Petersburg , Russia , when he attempted the same experiment a few months later .
9. The Great Wall of China Is Visible from the Moon
you’re able to see a circumstances of thing while standing on the moon , but theGreat Wall of Chinaisn’t one of them . In his 1938 issue , Second Book of Marvels , Richard Halliburton stated that the Great Wall was the only homo - made physical object visible from the moon . However , the Great Wall is only a upper limit of 30 feet blanket and is about the same gloss as its environs , so it ’s just seeable to the bare centre while orbit Earth under idealistic conditions , much less from the moon , which is about 239,000 miles away .
8. “Let Them Eat Cake”
She likely said a lot of things she later regret , butMarie Antoinettenever advise athirst Gallic mother who had no bread should eat up cake . In 1766 , Jean Jacques Rousseau was writing his " Confessions " when he quoted the famous expression of a great princess , which was incorrectly attributed to Marie Antoinette , Queen of France and married woman of Louis XVI . But Marie Antoinette could n’t have made the statement because in 1766 , she was only 11 years old .
Historians now believe that Rousseau ’s " great princess " may have been Marie Thérèse , the married woman of Louis XIV , who reigned more than 75 years before Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette .
7. Witches Were Burned at the Stake in Salem
Although there really werewitch test in Salem , Massachusetts , in 1692 , and 20 people were put to death , none of the incriminate were burned at the stake . Hanging was the method acting of murder , although one dupe was crushed to death under labored stones .
Moreover , there ’s no evidence these people were practicingwitchcraftor were possessed by the devil . Historians now think that they , along with the townspeople who persecuted them , were hurt from aggregative hysteria . Others believe the accusers were afflicted with a physical illness , possibly even hallucinating after eating tainted rye whisky bread .
6. Abner Doubleday Invented Baseball
Contrary to popular belief , Abner Doubleday did not invent the game of baseball . In 1907 , a committee was mould to document how baseball had originated . The commission reason that in 1839 , as a fry in Cooperstown , New York , Abner Doubleday run a ball field - flesh diagram for a game he called " Town Ball . "
A great story , but only a myth – especially considering Doubleday was attending West Point in 1839 and was never known to come the plot he purportedly invented .
Today , it is generally accepted that Alexander Joy Cartwright , a New York banking concern cashier and talented draftsperson , invented the game . A plaque in the Baseball Hall of Fame credits him as " the Father of Modern Baseball , " while Abner Doubleday has never been enshrine .
5. Cinderella Wore Glass Slippers
expect anyone and they ’ll tell you that Cinderella fag out glass slippers to the formal , but historians say that part of the legend is n’t true . More than 500 versions of the classical pansy tale exist , dating back as far as the 9th 100 . In each invoice , Cinderella has a magic ring or thaumaturgy slippers made of gold , silver , or some other rare metal , which are sometimes cover with gemstone but are never made of looking glass .
In the earliest French versions , Cinderella worepantoufles en vair , or " slippers of white squirrel fur . " In 1697 , when Gallic author Charles Perrault wrote " Cendrillon , " his version of the tale , the wordvairhad vanished from the French language . Perrault apparently take it should have beenverre , label the same asvair , but meaning " glass . " Even a wave of the fairy godmother ’s magic baton could n’t make that mistake disappear , and it has been passed down ever since .
4. The Forbidden Fruit
Both the Malus pumila and Eve get an undeserved unsound rap in the story of Paradise . allot to the Book of Genesis , Adam and Eve were evicted from Paradise for eating " the yield of the tree which is in the thick of the garden . " There ’s no mention of any apple ! Some biblical scholars suppose it was a fig , since Adam and Eve dressed in fig leaves , while Muslim scholars intend it may have been wheat or possibly grape .
Aquila Ponticus , a 2d - one C interpreter of the Old Testament , may have assumed that the apple tree in the Song of Solomon was the fruit - tolerate tree in Genesis . Two one C later , St. Jerome also linked the apple tree to the phrasal idiom " there wast thou corrupted " in his Latin translation of the Old Testament .
3. Nero Fiddled While Rome Burned
When enquire who fiddle while Rome burn , the reply " Nero " will get you a zero . Legend has it that in A.D. 64 , madEmperor Nerostarted a fire near the imperial castle and then climbed to the top of the Tower of Maecenas where he roleplay his fiddle , sing arias , and watched Rome flaming out . But according to Tacitus , a historian of the time , Nero was 30 miles away , at his villa in Antium , when the fire broke out .
Nero was n’t exactly a dainty guy – he took his own mother as his kept woman , then had her put to expiry . Despite this , historians trust that the fire was plant by Nero ’s political enemies , who were right in thinking that it would be blamed on him . Actually , Nero was a hero , attempting to stub out the blaze , come up food and shelter for the dispossessed , and manage the innovation of the newfangled city .
2. Sir Walter Raleigh’s Cloak
The story blend that Sir Walter Raleigh laid his cloak over a mud puddle to keep Queen Elizabeth I from getting her infantry wet . Raleigh did take hold of the queen ’s attention in 1581 when he urged England to conquer Ireland . The queen rewarded him with extensive landholdings in England and Ireland , dub him in 1584 , and named him captain of the queen ’s guard two years later .
However , an illicit affair with one of the faggot ’s maiden of honor in 1592 did him in . He was imprisoned in the Tower of London and ultimately beheaded for treachery . The news report of the cloak and the mud pool in all probability initiate with historiographer Thomas Fuller , who was known for embellishing facts .
1. Lady Godiva’s Naked Ride
Even if the Internet had be during the Middle Ages , you would n’t have been able to download nude pictures ofLady Godivabecause she never in reality ride naked through the street of Coventry , England .
Godiva was a veridical somebody who lived in the 11th century and she really did plead with her unpitying hubby , Leofric , the Earl of Mercia , to reduce tax . But no platter of the time cite her famous ride . The first reference to her naked drive does n’t come out until around 1236 , nearly 200 years after her destruction .
CONTRIBUTING WRITERS:
Helen Davies , Marjorie Dorfman , Mary Fons , Deborah Hawkins , Martin Hintz , Linnea Lundgren , David Priess , Julia Clark Robinson , Paul Seaburn , Heidi Stevens , and Steve Theunissen
