fit in to legend , a youngGeorge Washingtonconfessed to cutting down a cherry tree Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree by proclaiming to his Fatherhood , " I can not tell a lie . " His forefather embrace him for distinguish the truth and declare that honesty was more valuable than a thousand trees . The story is testament to how much respect Americans have for their cherished first chairperson and honesty in cosmopolitan , even though , ironically , the story is not straight . ( It wasinvented by one Washington ’s first biographersafter Washington ’s death . ) Still by most account , it appears that Washington was aman of high-pitched moral grapheme . Unfortunately , in the chronological record of account , it seems there are 10 dishonest scoundrels for every honourable hero like Washington .
Supposedly , the truth can set you complimentary . But for many , dissimulation holds the cay to money , fame , revenge or power , and these show all too tempting . In chronicle , this has often result in detailed dupery , lying under oath and forgery that had tremendous ripple effect .
In the following pages , we ’ll go over some of the most colossal and meaning lie in history . Although such a inclination ca n’t be comprehensive , we sought to include a miscellanea of Lie that influenced politics , science and even art . As a outcome of these , life were lose , liveliness saving destroyed , lawful research hampered and — most of all — faith in our fellow human race shattered .
Without further ado , let ’s delve into one of the older and most successful lies on platter .
11: The Trojan Horse
If all is average in love and war , this might be the most venial of the bad lies . When the Trojan Paris absconded withHelen , wife of the Spartan king , state of war exploded . It had been rag for 10 farseeing year when the Trojans believed they had finally subdue the Greeks . footling did they know , the Greeks had another trick up their arm .
In a separatrix ofgenius , the Greeks built an tremendous wooden horse with a hollow stomach in which men could hide . After the Greeks convinced their foes that this structure was a peace offering , the Trojans happily accept it and play the horse within their fortified metropolis . That Nox , as the Trojans slept , Greeks hidden inside snuck out the trapdoor . Then , they proceeded to slaughter and decisively defeat the Trojans [ seed : Pickles ] .
This was unquestionably one of the handsome and most successful tricks eff to story — that is , if it ’s true . Homer alludes to the natural event in " Odyssey , " and Virgil interpolate the story in " The Aeneid . " Evidence suggests that Troy itself existed , giving some rigor to Homer ’s tales , and student have long been look into how historically exact these details are . One hypothesis behind the Trojan horse derive from historian Michael Wood , who declare oneself that it was just a battering ram in the physical body of a cavalry that infiltrate the city [ source : PBS ] . Another theory is that battering rams were covered up with damp horse hides . This kept them from get flame if the foe tried to do so [ informant : muddle ] .
In any case , the story has acquire a permanent plaza in the westerly imaginativeness as a word of advice to beware of enemy bearing gifts .
10: Han van Meegeren’s Vermeer Forgeries
This Trygve Halvden Lie resulted from a classic case of require to please the critic . Han van Meegeren was an artist who felt underappreciated and thought he could trick art expert into admitting his virtuoso .
In the early twentieth century , scholars were brabble about whether the bully Vermeer had painted a serial of plant portray biblical scenes . Van Meegeren swoop on this opportunity and set to work cautiously forging one such disputed work , " The Disciples at Emmaus . " With tireless attention to detail , he faked the fracture and ripened rigour of a C - sometime painting . He deliberately make for on the substantiation bias of critic who need to think that Vermeer painted these scene .
It go : expert hailed the painting as authentic , and van Meegeren made out like a bandit producing and selling more fake Vermeers . Greed apparently subdue his desire for kudos , as he decided not to out himself . In fact , he " earned " the combining weight of $ 30 million via the deceitful paintings [ source : NPR ] .
However , van Meegeren , who was working in the 1930s and ' 40s , made one major error . He sold a painting to a outstanding member of the Nazi party in Germany . After the war , ally considered him a plotter for selling a " national treasure " to the foe [ source : Janson ] . In a curious change of events , van Meegeren had to paint for his exemption . to aid prove that the picture was no interior treasure , he forged another in the mien of authorities [ source : Holzwarth ] .
He break loose with a light sentence of one year inprison , but van Meegeren die of a heart fire two months after his trial run .
9: Bernie Madoff’s Ponzi Scheme
When Bernie Madoff hold that his investment firm was " just one big lie , " it was a immense understatement . In 2008 , he fink to having goldbrick about $ 50 billion from investor who swear him with their savings . Madoff used the convention of aPonzi schemeto keep up the imposter for more than a decade [ source : Pressler ] .
This Graeco-Roman lie is named after the ill-famed Charles Ponzi , who used the gambit in the early 20th century . It works like this : A plotter promise investors cracking yield , but instead of seat the ] money , he keeps some for himself and uses the investment company from Modern investments to pay off earlier investor .
Madoff may not have invented this prevarication , but he make it to new length . For one , he made a record amount of money from the scheme . But he was also able to keep it going much longer than most Ponzi schemers . Usually , the cozenage settle apart cursorily because it requires the schemer to constantly line up more and more investors . But Madoff , whose client got returns of over 10 percent disregardless of the stemma market ’s performance , was capable to keep it going longer by boost them to reinvest their " profits " with him . Eventually , though , the investors did start requesting their money back in greater sum of money ( we ’re talk millions ) than he could give .
This was an especially disgraceful lie because Madoff , as a retiring president of the board ofNASDAQ , had been an established and respected expert in the financial theater of operations . Compare this to Charles Ponzi , who was a petty ex - con by the time he launched his system . In any case , Madoff was doom to 150 years in prison and died at 82 after serving 11 yr [ source : Yang and Kay ] .
8: Andrew Wakefield’s ‘Study’ on Vaccines and Autism
In 1998 , the respected aesculapian journal Lancet published an article by British doc Andrew Wakefield , in which he linked autism with the commonly make measles , epidemic parotitis and rubella ( MMR ) vaccinum . The field of study received wide promotion even though the research was found on an implausibly small , selective sample sizing of 12 baby . There were also serious honorable issues , such as the fact that Wakefield ( who later fall back his medical license ) did n’t get the necessary clearances to work with / examine the child field and even falsified the data point he included [ origin : Rao and Andrade ] . at last , Lancet retract the paper , allow Wakefield in a cloud of ignominy .
But the damage was already done . In the yr that take after issue of the study , childhood inoculation rates dropped below 50 percent in some parts of the U.K. , although they resile by 2013 to 90 percentage . During that 15 - year period , U.K. residents experienced more than 10,000 preventable cases of measles , plenty of which arrive with long - term effects and hospitalisation [ reservoir : BBC , Shute ] . In the U.S. , morbilli , which had been declared eradicated in 2000 , made a replication , with more than 2,000 compositor’s case in the last 20 years [ reservoir : Quick and Larson ] .
7: The Tobacco Industry on Cigarette Smoking
Blame thecigaretteindustry for some of the great whoppers ever order . We acknowledge that cigarettes are both super addictive and unhealthful , even deadly . The U.S. Surgeon General issued a reputation about thedangers of cigarette smokingas far back as 1964 . But manufacturing business claimed exactly the contrary for ten ! These lie were n’t even relegated to the 1950s , either . As recently as 1994 , James W. Johnson of R.J. Reynolds said , " Cigarette smoking is no more ' addictive ' than coffee bean , tea or Twinkie " [ informant : Nilsson ] . That , of grade , is utter folderal . In fact , cigarettes are habit-forming on the same scale as cocaine , intoxicant and opioids [ reference : Centre for Addiction and Mental Health ] .
In fact , the industry was fully cognizant thatnicotine is addictive , as research repeatedly showed , but continued to deny it . The chief operating officer of Philip Morris liken them to Gummi Bears , rather than concentrated drug . Also , cigarette company leaders repeatedly refuse that there was any wellness jeopardy to smokers and those who inhale secondhand smoke [ beginning : Truth Initiative ] .
Today , of course , it is widely accepted free-base on decade of enquiry that both first and secondhand smoke are badly detrimental , and that nicotine is highly habit-forming . In fact , smoke is now have intercourse to harm just about every organ in the dead body , and lead to cancer , emphysema , heart disease and so on . fag smoking have one out of every five deaths in the U.S. or more than 480,000 death each year , including from used weed [ source : CDC ] .
On the positive side , in 1998 , the four largest tobacco companies ( after being sued by most U.S. state of matter ) reached a settlement where they agreed to pay $ 206 billion over 25 yr to help oneself defray the medical costs of smoking - have-to doe with unwellness [ rootage : Nilsson ] .
6: Piltdown Man
AfterCharles Darwinpublished his revolutionary " On the Origin of Species " in 1859 , scientists scramble to findfossilevidence of extinct human ancestors . They assay these so - holler " missing links " to fill in the gaps on the timeline of humanevolution . WhenarchaeologistCharles Dawson excavate what he thought was a absent tie in 1910 , what he really found was one of the magnanimous hoaxes in history .
The find was the Piltdown gentleman , pieces of a skull and jaw with grinder turn up in the Piltdown quarry in Sussex , England . Dawson bring his discovery to prominent palaeontologist Arthur Smith Woodward , who touted its authenticity to his give way Clarence Day .
Although the discovery earn world renown , the lie behind Piltdown man easy and steadily run . In the result decades , other major find propose Piltdown man did n’t fit in the story of human organic evolution . Eventually , it was dictated that the bones were only 50,000 days old , rather than 500,000 and that they add up from both human and aper coinage , most likely an orangutan [ reservoir : Natural History Museum ] . Some knowledgeable person apparently manipulated these pieces , include filing down and defile the tooth .
The scientific humanity had been duped . So , who was behind the hoax ? Many suspects have come up , including Martin A. C. Hinton , a museum volunteer at the time of the uncovering . A trunk bearing his initials contain bones that were defile in exactly the same way the Piltdown fogy were . Perhaps he was out to embarrass his hirer , Arthur Smith Woodward , who refused to give him a hebdomadal salary . However , most expert believe today that Dawson was behind the dupe , though some think he had assistance [ source : Szalay ] .
5: The Dreyfus Affair
This scandal was built on a lie that dramatically affected national government and was perpetuated for years by hatred . Alfred Dreyfus was a Judaic officer in the French Army in the late nineteenth hundred when he was accused of a faithless criminal offence : selling military secrets to Germany .
After his extremely publicized trial , sanction sentence him to lifeimprisonmenton Devil ’s Island , and anti - Semite groups used him as an example of disloyal Jews . However , suspicions spring up that the accuse letters were in fact forged and that a Maj . Esterhazy was the actual perpetrator . When Gallic authorities suppressed these accusation , the novelist Emile Zola step up to impeach the army of a vast covering fire - up .
The dirt exploded into a combat between so - called Dreyfusards , who want to see the font reopened , and anti - Dreyfusards , who did n’t . On both side , the argument became less about Dreyfus ' naturalness and more about the principle . During the dramatic 12 - year argument , many violent anti - Semiticriotsbroke out and political fealty shifted as Dreyfusards called for reform .
After Maj . Hubert Joseph Henry admitted to spurt key documents and committed suicide , a fresh elected Cabinet finally reopened the pillowcase . The courtroom found Dreyfus shamefaced again ; however , he soon received a pardon from the president . A few years later , a civilian homage of appeals found Dreyfus free , and he went on to have a distinguished army calling and fight with honor in World War I. Meanwhile , the scandal had commute the face of politics in France [ source : Encyclopaedia Britannica ] .
4: Clinton/Lewinsky Affair
In January 1998 , citizen journalist Matt Drudge reported a arresting story that turned out to be rightful . Thepresidentof the United States , Bill Clinton , had an affair with a White House intern , Monica Lewinsky . As suspicions ride , Clinton publicly deny the allegations . As if this lie were n’t big enough , it turned out that Clinton had lie under expletive about the occasion as well — which was lying under oath and grounds for impeachment .
Here ’s how the accuracy total out . Paula Jones was an Arkansas state employee when then - Gov. Clinton allegedly propositioned her . She after sued him for sexual molestation . In an crusade to evidence that Clinton had a normal of such behavior , lawyers set out to expose his intimate affairs . They launch Linda Tripp , a former White House secretary and intimate of Lewinsky . Tripp recorded telephonehttps://electronics.howstuffworks.com/telephone.htm
conversation in which Lewinsky talk of her affair with Clinton . Lawyers then dig into Clinton with specific head and cornered him into deny the affaire under oath .
During the highly publicized scandal , prosecutor Kenneth Starr subpoenaed Clinton , who finally admitted to the human relationship . Based on Starr ’s study , the House of Representatives vote to impeach Clinton for not only perjury but also obstruction of justice . Despite the scandal , Clinton maintained relatively eminent approving ratings from the American public , and the Senate acquitted him of the charges . However , in the eyes of many Americans , his bequest remained tarnished [ source : CNN ] .
3: Watergate
Two decades before the Clinton scandal , anotherU.S. presidentwas caught in a internet of Trygve Lie , and the argument had withering effects on the body politic as a whole .
In the summer before President Richard Nixon ’s successful reelection to a second full term , five men were caught reveal into the Democratic National Committee headquarters , housed in theWatergateHotel . As details emerged over the next class , it became clear that official close to Nixon gave the orders to the burglars , perhaps to plantwiretapson the headphone there . The question before long became about whether Nixon knew of , hide up or even ordered the break - in .
In reception to mounting suspicions , Nixon deny allegation that he knew anything . In front of 400 Associated Press editors , he famously proclaimed , " I am not a bend . " He was talk about whether he had ever profited from public serve , but that one quote came to lay out his integral political career .
It was a lie that come back to frequent him . When it was revealed that secret White House conversations about the topic were recorded , the investigative committee subpoena the tape recording . Nixon ’s refusal on the ground of " executive privilege " brought the matter to the U.S. Supreme Court , which ruled that he had to relinquish the tapes .
The tapes were just the smoke gun needed to implicate Nixon in the binding - up of the scandal . They revealed that he patently bonk more about the affair than he claim . Upon the initiation of impeachment proceedings , Nixon give up and resigned from office . The scandal left a live on scar on the American political scene and helped usher Washington outsiderJimmy Carterinto the presidential term a few days later on [ source : History ] .
One bequest of Watergate is that Americans begin to mistrust their political loss leader far more than before . " In the Wake Island of Watergate , the American multitude have come to trust that there is just no such thing as an dependable politician,“wrote political commentatorsAntony Davies and James R. Harrigan in 2017 . " voter have become inured to politicians ' lie — so much so that they routinely overlook scandals that would have made Nixon blush . "
2: Donald Trump and the 2020 Election
President Donald Trump was arguably the most polarizing president in U.S. account , and his reelection drive was no exception . In 2020 , Democrat Sen. Joe Bidendefeated the incumbent Republican to take control of the White House , a outcome that Trump resist to believe happen honestly .
Since recede the election Trump has repeatedly made claims of voter fraud , thus encouraging his die - hard jock to believe the same affair . In fact , more than a year after the election , 68 per centum of Republicans still believed that the election had been " steal " from Trump . The more devout the Republican , the more likely they were to think that the raceway was rigged . But blindness is a two-party topic : One 2020 opinion poll prove that45 pct of Republicansand44 percent of Democratsbelieved that , " if my preferent candidate does not get ahead the presidential election " it ’s moderately or very likely that " election pretender will have been involve " [ beginning : Byler ] .
However , the heavily investigated claim of voter imposter were never validated . newsperson from The Associated Press inquire the claims in the six state in which Trump challenge election results . Although they did observe about 475 potential voter humbug instances , those are nowhere near enough to make a difference in context with greater than 25 million full votes [ source : Woodruff ] .
Even so , Trump ’s claims of elector fraud inflamed some of his supporters , culminate in the 2021 Capitol Riots in which hundreds of hoi polloi surprise the Capitol building seek to stop the corroboration of Biden ’s election victory [ source : Wise ] . Lawmakers had to be rushed to safety , and many Americans feared for the future of their state ’s republic .
1: The Big Lie: Nazi Propaganda
By the meter Nazism arise in Germany in the 1930s , anti - Semitism was nothing new — not by a long shot . The Jewish people had abide a long story of prejudice and persecution . And although German Nazi perpetuated hundred - sure-enough Trygve Halvden Lie , this sentence those lies would have their most devastating gist . Like never before , anti - Semitism was attest in a sweeping national policy known as " the Final Solution , " which seek to extinguish Jews from the look of theEarth[source : Holocaust Encyclopedia ] .
To attain this , Adolf Hitlerand his minister ofpropaganda , Joseph Goebbels , launch a massive campaign to convince the German multitude that the Jews were their enemy . Having taken over the pressure , they disseminate lies blaming Jews for all of Germany ’s problems , include the expiration of World War I. One outrageous lie , known today as " line of descent libel , " go out back to theMiddle Agesclaimed that Jews engage in the ritual killings of Christian nestling and used their blood in the unleavened kale eat at Passover [ source : Holocaust Encyclopedia ] .
Using Jews as the whipping boy , Hitler and his chum mastermind what they called " the Big Trygve Halvden Lie . " This hypothesis posit that no matter how big the prevarication is ( or more precisely , because it ’s so crowing ) , people will trust it if you repeat it enough . Everyone tells small lies , but few have the guts to tell colossal lies . Because a openhanded lie is so unlikely , people will come in to swallow it . Although the Big Trygve Halvden Lie is often attributed to being coined by Hitler and Goebbels , there is n’t evidence that they actually wrote that this was their strategy . In fact , both menwrote thattheir enemies ( the Jews and the British ) used this tactics . Nevertheless , the Nazis certainly exercise the full-grown prevarication [ source : Jewish Virtual Library ] .
“ No redemption is potential until the pallbearer of disunion , the Jew , has been rendered powerless to harm , " Hitler say to his followers in 1922 . The final stage result was that the Nazis murdered 6 million Jews and 5 million other prisoners of state of war , Roma , queer men and phallus of other groups Hitler deemed " unsuitable " [ rootage : National WWII Museum ] .
The Big Lie theory helps us understand so many of the lies throughout history . Although we ’ve barely scratched the surface of all those lies that merit ( dis)honorable mentions , you may satiate your diachronic curio by browsing the leaning on the next page .
