Over the years, we've learned many things about history, primarily in school. But how much of what we learned is actually true and how much is exaggeration, embellishment, or actual untruths that have come down through the years and changed along the way?
This is part 1 of a 3-part blog series showing those inaccuracies in our knowledge of history.
1. Paul Revere’s Midnight Ride
The tale of Paul Revere riding through the Massachusetts
countryside warning American colonists that the British were coming has its
origins from an 1860 poem (85 years after the actual event) by Henry Wadsworth
Longfellow. His poem wasn’t a historical piece on Paul Revere. It was actually
a topical warning about America breaking apart shortly before the Civil War. According
to historians, Wadsworth simplified the actual events of the night of April 18,
1775, in rhyming form.
In truth, Paul Revere didn’t receive the lantern signals—he sent them. He wasn’t a solo rider, he started out with William Dawes and along the way met up with Samuel Prescott, another member of their group. It has been suggested (as a moment of humor) that he chose Paul Revere as the object of his poem because more words rhymed with Revere. Prescott was the only one to actually reach Concord. Revere was captured and Dawes managed to escape. And Revere didn’t ride around shouting that the British were coming. He went to the homes of members of their group to quietly warn them. If he had been shouting in the streets while riding through town, the many local residents who were British loyalists would have captured him and turned him over to the British troops.
2. Rats Weren’t The Main Culprit Of The Black Death
Although it's a commonly accepted theory, recent studies
have shown that rats, along with the mites and fleas they carried, may not have
been the only thing to blame for the devastating plague that killed almost
one-third of Europe’s population in the 14th century. At the University of
Oslo, scientists conducted an experiment to determine the potential sources for the pandemic.
They discovered the parasites carrying the disease more likely came from humans rather than rats. Their model demonstrates that the disease spread by human fleas and lice matched the death rates for the Black Death more so than their model regarding parasite-carrying rats.
3. Christopher Columbus Discovered America
Most children in the United States are taught that “in 1492
Columbus sailed the ocean blue” crossing the Atlantic Ocean with his ships the Niña,
the Pinta, and the Santa Maria with hopes of reaching Asia and
proving a quicker ocean route to Japan and China than the long slow over land
route. He, as most of the rest of the world's population, weren't aware of the
huge land mass separating two huge oceans between Europe and Asia.
However, Columbus certainly wasn’t the first person to “discover” America. People had been sailing east across the Pacific Ocean for many years prior to Columbus' first voyage west across the Atlantic Ocean. People and animals had been crossing what was then the Bering land bridge before geologic time turned it into the Bering Straight. He wasn’t even the first European to land in the Western Hemisphere. He made several trips across the Atlantic but only made it to the Caribbean islands and never actually stepped foot on the North American continent. In fact, the Viking Leif Erikson is believed to have landed and established a settlement in North America (what is now Canada) almost 500 years before Columbus first attempt to sail west in search of an ocean route to Japan and China.
4. Ben Franklin Discovered Electricity
The story of Ben Franklin attaching a key to a kite during a
lightning storm and declaring that he had discovered electricity wasn’t exactly
what it seems. Franklin didn’t discover electricity. Scientists were well aware
of electricity before Franklin’s 1752 kite and key experiment.
What Franklin actually set out to do was prove that lightning was electricity. In fact, he may not have even flown the kite himself. In 1752, Franklin wrote in the Pennsylvania Gazette that he performed the experiment, but never specified that it was him flying the kite. There has been speculation that his son had flown the kite.
5. Martin Luther Nailing His “95 Theses” To The Church Door
The iconic story of Martin Luther nailing his list of issues
with the Catholic Church to the doors of a church is commonly regarded as the
spark that fueled the flame for the Protestant Revolution and creating the
Protestant branch of Christianity. While Luther’s 95 Theses were real, it
didn’t exactly play out like that.
There is no historical evidence that proves Luther actually nailed his list to the doors of a church, a story that didn’t surface until nearly thirty years after the fact. However, what is known is that Luther mailed his “95 Theses” to the archbishop and never intended to start an issue with the church, considering he was a devoted Catholic.
6. Nero “Fiddled” While Rome Burned
Although the first-century Roman emperor isn’t entirely
innocent of the devastating fires that engulfed Rome, he certainly wasn’t doing
anything about it. To Start, Nero wasn’t even in the city when the fires began.
He was in Antium, approximately thirty miles outside of the city. Although he
may have considered himself an artist, the expression that Nero was literally
playing the fiddle while Rome burned is completely false.
There were no fiddles in Rome at the time, and he certainly wasn’t playing an instrument while watching the city burn. The phrase “fiddled” while Rome burned is an expression regarding a leader that does little during a time of crisis.
7. Isaac Newton And The Apple
The tall tale of mathematician Isaac Newton coming up with
the concept of gravity after an apple fell on his head is an exaggeration of
what happened. The story of the apple didn’t come about until it was published
in a biography of Newton written by his friend William Stukeley in 1752.
The text reads, “the notion of gravitation came into his mind…occasion’d by the fall of an apple, as he sat in a contemplative mood.” Historians believe that Newton may have seen an apple fall from a tree, but it’s unlikely that it fell on his head.
8. Witch Burnings At The Salem Witch Trials
Although the Salem Witch trials are often synonymous with
“witch burnings,” that isn’t the case. Not a single person accused of being a
witch in 17th century Salem, Massachusetts, ever met their fate by burning at
the stake.
Of the 20 accused Salem witches, 19 of them were hanged while the final one, the only man, was crushed by rocks. The idea that witches were to be burned most likely comes from a witch hysteria that took place in Europe between the 15th and 18th centuries. In England, suspected witches were hanged with that method also being used in the Colonies. In France, they were burned alive at the stake.
9. “Let Them Eat Cake”
Although it makes a good story, the French queen Marie
Antoinette remarking “let them eat cake,” regarding her impoverished subjects
never happened. Accounts of royals suggesting that the poor eat delicacies they
can’t afford dates long before Marie Antoinette’s rule.
The quote “Qu’ils mangent de la brioche” or “let them eat cake” first appeared in a 1767 autobiographical account by philosopher Jean-Jacques Rosseau. He attributes the quote to a “great princess,” when Antoinette was only just a young girl at the time, so it was most likely not her.
10. Van Gogh Never Cut Off His Ear
Many people know Vincent Van Gogh as the tortured artist who
cut off his ear and sent it to his lover. While this is partially true, what
happened is that he only severed the bottom part of his ear lobe. He suffered
from severe depression at the time.
Some historians believe that cutting off part of his ear was the result of a dispute with fellow artist Paul Gaugin or his brother’s engagement. No matter what pushed him to do it, he certainly didn’t cut off his entire ear. Yet another theory says his ear was cut off by someone else during a fight.
11. Lady Godiva’s Naked Ride
The story goes that Lady Godiva, the wife of Leofric, the
lord of Coventry, England, had sympathy for her husband’s subjects that were
being ruthlessly taxed. So, Leofric proclaimed that he would lower taxes if his
wife rode naked through the town.
However, the real story is based on a real woman named Godifu, who was the wife of Leofric, who led an unremarkable life other than being married to an important man. It’s believed the legend came about as a way to explain the generous historical acts on the part of Leofric.
12. Romulus Founding Rome
When it comes to the naming of Rome, most people would
assume this came from a man named Romulus along with his twin brother Remus.
Legend says both Romulus and Remus were raised by a wolf that nursed them as
babies and that their father was the god, Mars.
Nevertheless, regarding the existence of Romulus and Remus, historian Theodore Mommsen told The New York Times that the legend was “out of the question.” It simply was impossible that either of these two boys existed during the time, and they definitely weren’t raised by wolves.
13. Beware The Ides Of March
William Shakespeare’s play Julius Caesar gives a
decent example of what the final moments in Caesar’s life might have been, and
there were a lot of dramatics involved.
For instance, some of the most classic lines associated with Caesar were never actually spoken such as “Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears,” “let slip the dogs of war,” and of course, “Et Tu, Brute?” Yet, it’s unlikely that any such words were muttered during the chaos that was his assassination.
Next week, check back here for part 2 of my 3-part blog series of Historical Events That Never Happened.
