Dark Origins Of Fairy Tales

The origin of fairy tales dates back thousands of years. The history of fairy tales or fairy stories have fantasy creatures and talking animals. Enchantments and far-fetched events are also usually part of the plot. Unlike legends and folklore tales, they seldom contain any references to religion, actual places, persons or events. The term "once upon a time" is used rather than an actual reference to a date. Early oral fairy tales and folklore were for adults as much as for children. The early written fairy tales of the literary type definitely contained strictly adult material. In many instances, they were quite gruesome. They became more children's fairy tales in the 19th and 20th centuries.

There are two theories that have attempted to explain the common elements in the text of the different fairytales found spread over many continents. One theory is that a tale comes from a single source and spreads from culture to culture over time. A good example of this is the story of Aladdin, his flying carpet, magic lamp, and the genie. Disney made an animated movie of the tale and a live action film was made more recently. We all associate the story and the characters with the mideast/Arab world. In reality, the original tale came from China. The other theory is that these tales reference common human experience from many cultures and over time evolved into tales of similar human experiences. The first written fairy tales were from ancient Egypt and occurred around 1300 BC. It is amazing to find very similar stories/plots occurring in the folklore from different countries at different times and in totally different cultures.

Many of our most pervasive stories can be found in the tales of the Brothers Grimm and even earlier and have changed a great deal along the way. All the blindings, sexual misconduct, and death has been mostly scrubbed away in the last century or so. None of the stories with people getting nailed into barrels and thrown down hills or into ponds have really made it into the mainstream. Take a look at a few terrifying, gruesome, often bizarre early versions of ubiquitous fairy tales. Warning—the original versions of these fairy tales contain grisly details.

Sleeping Beauty:

In one of the very earliest versions of this classic story published in 1634, the princess does not prick her finger on a spindle, instead getting a sliver of flax stuck under her fingernail. She falls down, apparently dead, but her father cannot face the idea of losing her, so he lays her body on a bed in one of his estates. Later, a king out hunting in the woods finds her, and since he can't wake her up, rapes her while she's unconscious, then heads home to his own country. Some time after that, still unconscious, she gives birth to two children, and one of them accidentally sucks the splinter out of her finger, so she wakes up. The king who raped her is already married, but he burns his wife alive so he and the princess can be together. To keep everything "morally sound," the wife tries to kill and eat the babies first. Definitely not the type of story to tell children at bedtime.

Little Red Riding Hood

The Brothers Grimm actually made this story a lot nicer than it was when they originally got their hands on it. In the original version from 1697, there is no intrepid huntsman. Little Red simply strips naked, gets in bed, and then dies, eaten up by the big bad wolf. In another even darker version, she eats her own grandmother first. In the Chinese version of the story, it is a tiger instead of a wolf that is the villain and eats the girl.

Rumpelstiltskin

This story is pretty simple. The miller's daughter is trapped and forced to spin straw into gold or be killed. A little man appears to her, and spins it for her, but says that he will take her child in payment unless she can guess his name. In the Grimm fairy tale, when she finally figures out Rumpelstiltskin's name, he yells, "The Devil told you that! The Devil told you that!" He stamps his right foot so hard that he drives it into the ground right up to his waist. Then he takes hold of his left foot with both hands and tears himself in two. Again, certainly not acceptable fare for children, whether bedtime or not.

Cinderella

In the Grimm story, not only do the stepsisters cut off parts of their feet in order to fit into the glass slippers where the blood pooling in their shoes gives them away, but at the end, they have their eyes pecked out by doves, just for good measure.

Snow White

In the original 1812 Grimm Brothers version, the evil Queen is Snow White's actual mother rather than her stepmother, which makes the story more terrifying. The Disney version also left out the fact that the Queen sends the huntsman out to bring back Snow White's liver and lungs, which she then means to eat. In the Grimm version, she's not in a deep sleep when the prince finds her—she's dead. The prince, being an enthusiastic participant in necrophilia, is taking her dead body to his castle when his servant trips, jostles the coffin, and dislodges the poison apple from her throat. And once again, the Grimms gave the story a gruesome consequence for the villain. When the queen shows up at Snow White's wedding, she's forced to step into iron shoes that had been cooking in the fire, and then dances until she falls down dead.

Hansel and Gretel

The version of the story we know is already pretty gruesome—the evil stepmother abandons the children to die in the forest, they happen upon a cannibalistic witch's cottage who fattens them up so she can eat them. They outwit then kill the witch and escape. The Grimm version is basically the same, but an early French version, called The Lost Children, has an even more gruesome ending.

Rapunzel

Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let down your hair. In the Grimm version, she does just that for a prince on numerous occasions and winds up pregnant. She innocently mentions to her jailer witch that her clothes feel too tight. The witch doesn't want any competition so she chops off Rapunzel's hair and magically transports her far away, where she lives as a beggar with no money, no home, and after a few months, two hungry mouths to feed. As for the prince, the witch lures him up and then pushes him from the window. Some thorn bushes break his fall, but also poke out his eyes. But, surprisingly, there is a happy ending.

Goldilocks and the Three Bears

In this tale's earliest known incarnation, there was no Goldilocks—only the three bears and a fox named Scrapefoot, who enters the three bears' palace, sleeps in their beds and messes around with their salmon of knowledge. In the end, she either gets thrown out of the window or eaten, depending on who's telling the tale. Interestingly, it has been suggested that the use of the word vixen to mean female fox is how we got to Goldilocks, by means of a crafty old woman in the intervening story incarnations. 

Weird Origins Of 12 Beloved Nursery Rhymes

Nursery rhymes and fairy tales, thought of as children's fare—yet many have dark and disturbing origins.  This week's blog talks about nursery rhymes. Next week's blog will shine a light of reality on fairy tales.

You have to admit that there's something a little strange about a group of toddlers chanting a nonsensical nursery rhyme. But if you stop and examine the lyrics of these iconic ballads, you'll notice the songs barely conceal their wicked origins.

Behind most nursery rhymes lurks hundreds of years of history that we routinely ignore. But the veil of light-hearted fun has been lifted revealing their dark origins.

1. Mary, Mary Quite Contrary: Vivid images of a sweet little gardener pruning rose bushes leap to mind. However, the Mary in question was far more sinister than a flower enthusiast. Mary I of England, otherwise known as Bloody Mary, was given the gruesome nickname due to her ruthless persecution of Protestants. In the rhyme, the cockleshells and silver bells refer to instruments of torture. Not so kid friendly!

2. Three Blind Mice: Queen Mary was so bloodthirsty she inspired several nursery rhymes chronicling her behavior. The knife-wielding farmer's wife mentioned in the story? Yep—it's Queen Mary I again.

3. Here We Go Round The Mulberry Bush: Kids on the playground skipping in circles and singing the familiar tune don't realize it was created by the female inmates of England's Wakefield Prison. Doing laps around the mulberry bush was the daily exercise routine for prisoners. In fact, the bush in question still exists on the grounds of Wakefield.

4. Pop Goes The Weasel: If you grew up in the U.S., this rhyme was lumped together with Mulberry Bush which makes sense as they use the same musical tune. In England, children were familiar with different lyrics… "Half a pound of tuppenny rice, half a pound of treacle; That's the way the money goes," were the weekly groceries paid for by pawning off Dad's suit, or "Pop! goes the weasel."

5. Rub-A-Dub-Dub: As far as bath-time songs go, it's a safer bet to teach your kids Ernie's "Rubber Duckie" tune from Sesame Street. The nursery rhyme Rub-A-Dub-Dub is the opposite of squeaky clean. In the 18th century, embarrassed butchers, bakers, and candlestick makers had to endure the shame of their indiscreet recreational behaviors being revealed such as visiting peep shows and bathhouses and being immortalized in song. No one is quite sure how it ended up as a nursery rhyme.

6. Goosey Goosey Gander: Running through the lyrics you'll discover that the song describes a moral enforcer who busts into women's rooms and tosses their unmarried, and therefore sinful, partners down the staircase. This one doesn't bother pretending to be kid friendly. But it still has a more layered meaning. Back in the 16th century when Goosey Gander emerged, the Protestants offered rewards for Catholic Priest's heads. Apparently, the rhyme details the popular execution method reserved for the clergyman.

7. Rock-A-Bye Baby: Believe it or not, the gentle lullaby stems from the scandalous family drama surrounding King James II's first son. Rumor had it the King and his second wife, Mary of Modena, arranged to take in someone else's baby and presented him as their male heir.

8. Jack and Jill: This one is definitely not about a pair of clumsy siblings. Jack falling down, and subsequently breaking his crown, was the twisted spin on France's King Louis XVI's death by guillotine. Jill, now known to be King Louis XVI's wife Marie Antoinette, went the same way as her husband. The nursery rhyme paints her grim guillotine ending as "tumbling down after."

9. Baa Baa Black Sheep: This baaad boy sheep was presenting his "yeah, you know I've got wool" face. But even with a hefty coat like the one wrapped around this fluffy guy, somebody is going home wool-less. "None for the Little Boy that cries in the lane," seems like a harsh snub for that poor child. That's exactly what the originators intended since the rhyme was a commentary on the high wool taxes in medieval England.

10. Georgie Porgie: The crude rhyme poked fun at the weight of George IV of England, who apparently had a habit of stepping outside of his marriage. Georgie notoriously fathered many illegitimate children and recognized a second wife, ignoring the public perception.

11. London Bridge Is Falling Down: Over the years, there hasn't been a definitive explanation of this bizarre yet cheery song of structural collapse. However, in 1844, a travel writer named Samuel Laing spotted a big clue while translating a Norwegian text. Tracing through the Norse text he found a verse about Viking King Olaf II leading a brutal attack on the famous bridge in the years 1009 or 1014. However, this was never confirmed.

12. Humpty Dumpty: If you take a quick look at the lyrics, you'll notice there's not even one example of identifying Humpty as an egg-like creature. Nevertheless, everyone is sure he's an egg. However, there's more to the story. Humpty Dumpty represents two different subjects: one human, one weapon. The man: King Richard III, nicknamed The Hunchback King. The device: a trusty English Civil War cannon.

Check back next week for a look at the origins of Fairy Tales.

PRESIDENTIAL SUPERSTITIONS

I think everyone has some superstition that they relate to, even if it's nothing more than saying "knock on wood" or making it a point to not walk under a ladder just in case. And then there's that moment's pause when they realize it's Friday the 13th.

The office of President of the United States does not make the occupant immune to adhering to the call of a superstition. I recently came across a list of some of the U.S. Presidents and their superstitious beliefs.

George Washington

On his deathbed in 1799, George Washington expressed his fear of being buried alive. He insisted his body be untouched for two days after his death. Common during the 18th century, this fear came due to the dead being buried very quickly as bodies weren't embalmed.

William Henry Harrison

The Curse of Tippecanoe, also known as the 20-year curse, is attributed to Harrison—elected in 1840 and died in 1841 after serving only 31 days as president. A dispute between President Harrison and Tecumseh, a Shawnee Indian leader, is said to be the reason presidents who were elected or re-elected in years ending in zero died in office—Lincoln, Garfield, McKinley, Harding, Franklin Roosevelt, and Kennedy. Reagan, elected in 1980, survived an assassination attempt which seems to have broken the curse.

Abraham Lincoln

Abraham Lincoln claimed to have visions of the future and accurately predicted his own death. He dreamed he saw his dead body and a soldier told him he had been assassinated. He also saw two versions of himself in a mirror which he interpreted to mean he would be elected to a second term but would not survive it.

Ulysses S. Grant

President Grant had an unusual superstition that probably served him well as president. Grant is quoted as saying, "Everyone has his superstitions. One of mine has always been when I started to go anywhere, or to do anything, never to turn back or to stop until the thing intended was accomplished."

William McKinley

President McKinley always wore a red carnation on his lapel. He gave away his lucky carnation if he thought someone needed luck and would replace it with a new carnation. He gave away his good luck charm at the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, New York. During the event, Leon Czolgosz shot McKinley who died on September 14, 1901.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt

President Franklin Roosevelt feared the number 13—an affliction called triskaidekaphobia—and avoided traveling on Fridays and the 13th day of each month. President Herbert Hoover also had the same affliction.

Harry S. Truman

Upon becoming president, Harry Truman put a horseshoe over the door to his office in the White House. He also installed a horseshoe pit on the White House lawn. Horseshoes are a symbol of good luck and typically hung over the entrance to a home.

Gerald Ford

President Ford believed the election would be won by whichever candidate's wife won the Family Circle baking contest. His wife, Betty Ford, won the contest with her double chocolate chip cookie recipe. Although her husband eventually became president, it wasn't until after Richard Nixon resigned. Rosalyn Carter, Nancy Reagan, Barbara Bush, Hillary Clinton, and Laura Bush all won the contest and their husbands were elected president.

Ronald Reagan

Nancy Reagan hired astrologer Joan Quigley to plan her husband's schedule following an assassination attempt on Ronald Reagan. Quigley guided the agenda concerning the president's cancer surgery as well as diplomacy issues and Cold War meetings. When the press revealed Nancy's involvement in astrology, she quickly downplayed it.

James Earl Carter

In 1969, Jimmy Carter saw a red and green orb. He was convinced he saw a UFO and filed a report with the International UFO Bureau in Oklahoma. A decade later, while serving as president, he claimed to see a vicious rabbit on a solo fishing trip but his staff brushed it off.

George W. Bush

As a young boy, George W. Bush supposedly saw ghosts coming out of the walls near the Lincoln Bedroom at the White House. He described the White House as "creepy." During his presidency, the White House's website detailed the historic White House ghosts.

Barack Obama

In 2008 Obama said, "We realized that we had played basketball before Iowa and before South Carolina. We didn't play basketball before New Hampshire and Nevada. And so now, we've made a clear rule that on Election Day I have to play basketball."

Donald J. Trump

Donald Trump has been known to throw salt over his left shoulder after a meal and has described himself as a "very superstitious person." The superstition itself originated from the believe that the devil lurked behind you. The salt supposedly distracted the devil from causing harm.

April Fool's Day

Monday, April 1, 2024—April Fool's Day or All Fool's Day as it is also known.  A date that has been celebrated for centuries.  But what in the world could possibly be the origins of a day dedicated to pranks and practical jokes?

The exact origins remain a bit of a mystery. The most widely accepted theory says it dates back to 1582 when France switched from the Julian calendar where the new year began on April 1 to the Gregorian calendar where the new year began on January 1 as called for in 1563 by the Council of Trent.  People who didn't get the word that the start of the year had moved or refused to accept the change and continued to celebrate it during the last week of March through April 1 became the object of jokes and hoaxes.  Paper fish would be placed on their backs and they were referred to as poisson d'avri which means April fish.  It symbolized a young, easily caught fish and a gullible person.  These people were considered fools and had practical jokes played on them.

Historians have linked April Fool's Day to ancient festivals such as Hilaria, which was celebrated in Rome at the end of March and involved people dressing up in disguises.  There's also speculation that April Fool's Day was tied to the vernal equinox in the Northern Hemisphere, a time when Mother Nature fooled people with changing and unpredictable weather (which has certainly been the reality this year).

On April 1, 1700, English pranksters began popularizing the annual tradition of April Fool's Day by playing practical jokes on each other.  The celebration spread throughout Britain during the eighteenth century.  In Scotland it became a two day event in which people were sent on phony errands and had fake tails or kick me signs pinned to their rear ends.

All Fool's Day is practiced in many parts of the world with the playing of practical jokes and sending people on fool's errands.  In modern times, people have gone to great lengths to stage elaborate pranks.  Here's the top ten hoaxes from a list of the best one hundred pranks of all time as judged by notoriety, creativity, and number of people duped.

1)  The Swiss Spaghetti Harvest (1957):  The respected BBC news show Panorama announced that thanks to a very mild winter and the virtual elimination of the dreaded spaghetti weevil, Swiss farmers were enjoying a bumper spaghetti crop.

2)  Sidd Finch (1985):  Sports Illustrated published a story about a new rookie pitcher who planned to play for the Mets.  His name was Sidd Finch, and he could reportedly throw a baseball at 168 mph with pinpoint accuracy.  But Sidd Finch had never played the game before.  He mastered the art of the pitch in a Tibetan monastery.  This legendary player was the creation of the article's author, George Plimpton.

3)  Instant Color TV (1962):  At the time there was only one television channel in Sweden, and it broadcast in black and white.  The station's technical expert, Kjell Stensson, appeared on the news to announce that, thanks to a new technology, viewers could convert their existing sets to display color reception.  All they had to do was pull a nylon stocking over their television screen.

4)  The Taco Liberty Bell (1996):  The Taco Bell Corporation announced it had purchased the Liberty Bell and was renaming it the Taco Liberty Bell.  Outraged citizens called the National Historic Park in Philadelphia to express their anger.

5)  San Serriffe (1977):  British newspaper The Guardian published a special seven-page supplement devoted to San Serriffe, a small republic consisting of semi-colon shaped islands located in the Indian Ocean.  It described the geography and culture of this obscure nation.  Its two main islands were named Upper Caisse and Lower Caisse.  Its leader was General Pica.  Only a few readers noticed that everything about the islands was named after printer's terminology.

6)  Nixon for President (1992):  National Public Radio's Talk of the Nation program announced that Richard Nixon, in a surprise move, was running for President again.  His campaign slogan was, "I didn't do anything wrong, and I won't do it again."  Listeners flooded the show with calls expressing shock and outrage.  Nixon's voice was impersonated by comedian Rich Little.

7)  Alabama Changes the Value of Pi (1998):  The April 1998 issue of the New Mexicans for Science and Reason newsletter contained an article claiming that the Alabama state legislature had voted to change the value of the mathematical constant pi from 3.14159 to the Biblical value of 3.0.  The article soon made its way onto the internet, then rapidly spread around the world.  The Alabama legislature began receiving hundreds of calls from people protesting the legislation.  The original article was intended as a parody of legislative attempts to circumscribe the teaching of evolution and had been written by a physicist.

8)  The Left-Handed Whopper (1998):  Burger King published a full page ad in USA Today announcing the introduction on their menu of a Left-Handed Whopper for the 32 million left-handed Americans.  The ingredients were the same as the original Whopper, but the ad claimed all the condiments were rotated 180 degrees for the benefit of their left-handed customers.  Thousands of customers requested the new sandwich. (This one gives a whole new meaning to the word gullible.)

9)  Hotheaded Naked Ice Borers (1995):  Discover Magazine reported that a highly respected wildlife biologist found a new species in Antarctica—the hotheaded naked ice borer.  The creatures had bony plates on their heads.  When fed by numerous blood vessels, they could become burning hot thus allowing the animals to bore through ice at high speeds.  They used this ability to hunt penguins, melting the ice beneath the penguins and causing them to sink downwards where the hotheads consumed them.  It was theorized that the hotheads might have been responsible for the mysterious disappearance of noted Antarctic explorer Philippe Poisson in 1837.  To the hotheads, the explorer looked like a penguin.

10)  Planetary Alignment Decreases Gravity (1976):  British astronomer Patrick Moore announced on BBC Radio 2 that at 9:47AM a once-in-a-lifetime astronomical event was going to occur and listeners could experience it in their own homes.  Pluto would pass behind Jupiter, temporarily causing a gravitational alignment that would counteract and lessen the Earth's own gravity.  Moore told his listeners that if they jumped in the air at the exact moment the planetary alignment occurred they would experience a strange floating sensation.  When 9:47AM arrived, BBC2 began to receive hundreds of phone calls from listeners claiming to have felt the sensation.  One woman reported she and her eleven friends had floated around the room.

I made an attempt to find any major April Fool's pranks that occurred closer to current times and came up with only a couple of lack-luster attempts but nothing significant or wide-spread. Perhaps the world has become so derisive and contentious that practical jokes can no longer compete with reality.

Why Americans drive on the right and the UK drives on the left

The United States started as a collection of former British colonies. We speak the same language (more or less).

Yet, for some reason, we drive on opposite sides of the road.

And the United Kingdom isn’t the only country to do it the other way. It turns out that about 30% of the world’s countries mandate left-side driving and the other 70% stay to the right. How it got that way is a twisted tale.

In Europe, Napoleon played a central role in this. In the US, Henry Ford often gets the credit but that’s actually wrong. It goes much further back than Ford. Not only does traffic on the right pre-date cars, it pre-dates the establishment of the United States as an independent nation.

The history of this in the US goes to Conestoga, Pennsylvania, where the Conestoga wagon was key to this whole story. These big wagons, more commonly referred to as covered wagons in movies and on television, had tall, arched cloth roofs and became icons of America’s westward expansion as they carried the belongings of pioneers from the east out to the frontier. Back in the early 1700s, western Pennsylvania was the distant frontier.

Conestoga wagons were developed by local carpenters and blacksmiths to carry goods, including farm produce and items bartered from Native Americans, to markets in Philadelphia which, at the time was one of the biggest cities in the colonies. The wagon driver could ride one of the horses or sit on a lazy board that slid out of the side of the wagon. But when more active control was needed, he walked alongside the horses, pulling levers and ropes.

Most people are right-handed. For just that reason, Conestoga wagons had the controls on the left side, close to the wagon driver’s right hand. That meant the driver was toward the middle of the road and the wagon to the right.

Eventually, there was so much trade and traffic between Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, and Philadelphia that America’s first major highway was created. The Philadelphia and Lancaster Turnpike Road opened in 1795. Among the rules written into its charter, according to the book Ways of the World by M.G. Lay, was that all traffic had to stay to the right – just like the Conestoga wagons did.

In 1804, New York became the first state to dictate traffic stay to the right on all roads and highways.

Some people credit Henry Ford with standardizing US traffic on the right side of the road because, in 1908, Ford Motor Co. put the steering wheel on the left side of its hugely popular Model T automobile. Ford was actually just responding to driving habits that had been largely established long before.

Most of the rest of Europe, excluding Britain, drives on the right like Americans do. The French revolutionary government under Maximilien Robespierre – best known for leading the late 18th-century Reign of Terror in which thousands were guillotined – dictated that everyone should drive on the right.

The left side of the road, by long cultural tradition, was reserved for carriages and those on horseback. In other words, the wealthier classes. Pedestrians, i.e. poorer folks, kept to the right. Forcing everyone to the same side of the road, besides being good for traffic, did away with these snobby class distinctions.

The upper classes went along with this. In the days following the French Revolution, being seen as aristocratic was not only unfashionable, it was rather dangerous. The French policy is said to have been spread by Napoleon Bonaparte as his armies marched through Europe.

There was one nation neither subject to or an ally of Napoleon. That country was Sweden. Sweden drove on the left, then on one uneventful day in 1967 drivers were suddenly switched to the right. Needless to say, it caused some major traffic snarls until people got used to it.

Britain, literally, went the other way from France. It is speculated that it had to do with the different types of conveyance used. There were fewer industrial-sized wagons in Britain, and more small carriages and individual horse riders. Horse riders preferred to stay to the left to keep their right hands toward oncoming traffic for greetings and, if needed, having their sword hand free for fighting.

When traveling to countries where they drive on the opposite side of the street than you're accustomed to, AAA’s head of driver training recommends that drivers take extra steps to concentrate when driving on the other side of the road. For one thing, keep the radio off.

“I think it’s fine to talk to yourself, while you’re driving over there. That kind of forces you to be focusing on driving,” AAA said. “Okay, tight left or far right. Check for traffic from the right rather than the left. Whatever it is, whatever works.”

At Avis Budget Group, which rents lots of cars to Americans driving in the UK, rental agents make sure to remind customers about driving on the left. They take other steps, too. “In addition, all of our vehicles throughout the UK have drive on the left stickers and in major locations we hand out drive on the left wristbands, which we advise our customers to always wear on the left wrist as a reminder of which side of the road to drive,” Avis Budget said in a statement.

One thing I found particularly interesting the first time I was in London was the pedestrian instructions. In areas with high tourist foot traffic, they have literally painted instructions on the street pavement at pedestrian crossings telling those on foot to look to the right for oncoming traffic rather than to the left as we do in the US. I can only assume this is the result of way too many pedestrians stepping off the curb in front of on-coming cars.

In Canada, the central provinces, Ontario, and Québec have always driven on the right side of the road. British Columbia, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Prince Edward Island all drove on the left side. In the early 1920s, they changed from left side driving to the right side of the road. 

Historical Events That Never Happened pt 3of3

This is the final week of my 3-part blog presenting some of the misinformation about historical events through the ages.

27.  The First Thanksgiving

Contrary to popular belief, the name “Thanksgiving” wasn’t coined during colonial times but later in 1863, with Abraham Lincoln hoping to inspire people to be more thankful. Furthermore, while Thanksgiving is often associated with a meal involving turkey, there isn’t any evidence that turkey was a staple dish, but instead were animals such as geese, swan, and venison.

There wasn’t any cranberry sauce or potatoes, either. Potatoes weren’t consumed in Massachusetts at the time, and nobody had yet discovered how to boil cranberries with sugar.

28.  Ferdinand Magellan Was The First Person To Sail Around The World

Ferdinand Magellan is credited in the history books as being the first person to circumnavigate the globe. Yet, that isn’t entirely true, although he did come close. In 1519, Magellan set out to complete this task to lead his crew across the Atlantic, through South America, and over the Pacific Ocean.

Unfortunately, for Magellan, he was killed in the Philippines by a group of natives. So, when his ship returned to Spain in 1522, completing the circumnavigation, he wasn’t alive to complete the journey. Incredibly, only 18 of the crew of 260 made it back, so it was these men that were first to accomplish this daunting task.

29.  Albert Einstein Failed Math As A Child

As it turns out, the story of Albert Einstein failing math as a young student is nothing more than a lesson that just because you’re not good at something at first doesn’t mean you won’t ever be. Nevertheless, according to the Washington Post, the rumors that he was a lousy student in his youth have been blown out of proportion over the years.

Supposedly, he was incredibly intelligent for his age. Yet, he did fail one thing in his youth, which was the entrance exam to Zurich Polytechnic, which he supposedly failed because of the French portion, a language he hardly studied.

30.  The Wild West Was A Rough And Tough Place

Throughout history and even pop culture, the U.S. Wild West is depicted as a rough place where no one really wants to live. It was portrayed as being filled with outlaws, gunslingers, and lots of saloons, Clint Eastwood, John Wayne, and many other actors had a knack for making the west look very dangerous. However, that’s not actually the case.

As it turns out, the Wild West in the 1800s was a very peaceful area, with residents more interested in their cattle and mining rather than dueling with someone who looks at them wrong. While death and murder were inevitable, only 0.1 percent of people in the Wild West were killed per year.

31.  Medieval Games Were Dangerous

One way to bring knights together in medieval Europe was through war games. While these games were thought to be dangerous and sometimes deadly, that wasn’t necessarily true. Games are thought to have included competitions such as sword fighting and even jousting. In reality, they were nothing more than family-friendly sporting events.

Some of the popular games included horseshoes, bowling, and even tennis, nothing that would hurt one of the participants. City and village authorities were even known to shut down an event if they thought it was too dangerous for the men involved.

32.  Betty Crocker Is A Real Person And Makes Delicious Desserts

Betty Crocker and desserts go hand in hand, especially when you’re baking, and her name is right there on the box. It feels as though she is helping you along with the ingredients. The only issue is, history never told us that Betty Crocker isn’t a real person.

Created by Marjorie Husted for a Washburn Crosby Company campaign, the name was chosen because it sounded wholesome and, for lack of a better term, grandmotherly. Of course, from there, Betty became an icon, appearing in various mediums across pop culture. Apparently, the exposure doesn’t make her a real person!

33.  Everything About The Trojan War

From stories to pop culture, there is a lot on the Trojan War. But one aspect of the event tends to slip people’s minds—it is based on Greek mythology and not historical fact. From generation to generation, the stories surrounding the war were verbally passed down and embellished to the point of turning into fiction.

Historians agree that due to the verbal communication, the Trojan War, as we know it today, is pretty much the ramblings of people who wanted to tell a good story. From the infamous Trojan Horse to the 1,186 ships that entered Troy, most of the rich details are ground in fiction. However, that does not negate the facts that the ruins of Troy were discovered and excavated as an archeological dig proving that Troy was a real place.

34.  The Brontosaurus Was A Living Dinosaur

Since the Flintstones had a pet Brontosaurus, it means they’re real, right? Wrong! Well, sort of. The first discovery of Brontosaurus bones made by paleontologist O.C. Marsh wound up being an error. During a time known as “The Bone Wars,” Marsh wanted to gain the upper hand on his competition, Edward Drinker Cope.

In doing so, Marsh wound up misidentifying a bone, saying that it was from a Brontosaurus, a creature that hadn’t been discovered yet. In reality, the bone was from an Apatosaurus. Thankfully, in 2015, researchers decided that there was enough evidence to warrant a separate classification of dinosaur, the Brontosaurus, and Apatosaurus.

35.  The Use Of Iron Maidens

In medieval times, there were various instruments used for torture. One of these devices was the Iron Maiden, an iron chamber designed in the shape of a woman with spikes on the inside of its hinged doors. While museums seem to think the chamber was commonplace in medieval times, that’s not necessarily true.

Even though the Iron Maiden is supposedly a medieval tool, the first mention of it isn’t until1790, when German philosopher Johann Philipp Siebenkees noted it in one of his journals. And even though he said a criminal was put inside one of the torture chambers 200 years earlier, historians haven't found any proof of this and believe his tale is a bit fabricated.

36.  George Washington Had Wooden Teeth

In grade school, many books and lessons revolve around George Washington including the alleged facts such as his wooden teeth. It’s a widely known fact in the United States! While the former president did have dental issues for most of his life, none of Washington’s dentures were made of wood.

Various materials were used to mold Washington’s teeth, including various types of metal and even animal bone, but his “orthodontist” never used wood for a mold. There is a pair of Washington’s dentures still available for public viewing at George Washington’s Mount Vernon. These, in particular, are made of human, cow, donkey, and horse teeth—but no wood.

37.  Chastity Belts For Wives And Daughters

In Medieval Europe, one device that husbands and fathers used on their wives and daughters to protect them was something called a chastity belt. These devices were to stop any unwanted advances, as they were pretty much metal undergarments that couldn’t be opened without a key. It sounds like a bad joke, right? Well, that’s actually what a chastity belt was.

In the 16th century Europe, chastity belts were nothing more than a cheap laugh for people. On the few in their possession, the British Museum has said, “[they] were made in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries as curiosities for the prurient, or as jokes for the tasteless.”

38.  King Arthur Won Against An Invasion Of Anglo-Saxons

There are many books, myths, and even television shows and movies illustrating the bravery of King Arthur and his knights of the round table. History has told us that the man known as Arthur was the beloved king of Camelot, heroically defeating an advance of Anglo-Saxons during the 5th or 6th century.

While the battle has been written about in books, historians believe the inclusion wasn't added until 100 years later. That means the story of King Arthur is wildly embellished, with many historians believing the King of Camelot never existed, since his name isn’t mentioned in ancient texts between A.D. 400 and A.D. 800.

39.  Dr. Seuss Said The Quote “Those Who Mind Don’t Matter, And Those Who Matter Don’t Mind”

Children’s book author and exceptional linguist Dr. Seuss is credited with many rhymes and lyrical phrases. One that he's often credited with is, “Those who mind don’t matter, and those who matter don’t mind.” And while the phrase sounds like something out of All The Places You’ll Go, Dr. Suess didn’t write it.

The quote was actually said by someone else entirely, American financier Bernard Baruch. He was discussing the importance of authenticity while facing down public scrutiny. The concept is certainly not something that is outwardly said in any of the Dr. Seuss books we’ve come across.

Historical Events that never happened pt 2of3

 

This week is part 2 of my 3-part series about some of the inaccuracies of history that have been perpetuated over the years as facts, things we learned in school that didn't happen that way.

14.  Mama Cass Sandwich

Best known as one of the lead singers of The Mamas & the Papas. Following the band’s breakup, Cass Elliot went on to release five solo albums as well as appear on a number of television programs. Cass passed away on July 29, 1974, at the age of 33.

There were countless rumors circulating about the cause of her death. These ranged from a substance overdose, that she was assassinated by the FBI, and so on. However, one of the most popular theories is that she died from choking on a ham sandwich. In reality, she had died from a heart attack related to her intense weight fluctuations over the years.

15.  Thomas Edison Invented The Light Bulb

While most people believe Thomas Edison invented the light bulb, it turns out he had more help than most people know. Edison may have invented the first motion picture camera and tinfoil phonograph, but he did not outright invent the light bulb.

British chemist Joseph Swan was the one to actually create the first light bulb, but it burned out too quickly. Edison solved the problem by coming up with the idea to replace the carbonized paper filament with a thinner filament, which Swan then used to create the first light bulb viable enough to be put into daily use.

16.  300 Spartans Fought Back The Persian Army

One of the most classic legends of Ancient Greece is about the Spartan leader Leonidas and his 300 soldiers who fought the much larger Persian forces at the Battle of Thermopylae in 480 BC.

Nevertheless, the story that the Spartans only had 300 men is a bit of an embellishment, when they actually had around 4,000 other soldiers from the surrounding Greek city-states. On top of that, it’s also assumed there were at least 1,500 men who stayed to fight in the last stand, not the mere 300 that legend proclaimed.

17.  Bankers Jumping From Buildings After The 1929 Stock Market Crash

On October 24, 1929, the United States stock market crashed in the event that would go on to be called Black Thursday. This was the beginning of the Great Depression, and it was believed after the crash had been announced that stockbrokers on Wall Street began taking their own lives by jumping from the buildings.

However, this wasn’t the case. No one took his own life by jumping off a building. In fact, suicide rates didn’t increase at all.

18.  Betsy Ross Sewed The First American Flag

While it’s rumored that Betsy Ross was the first person to sew the American flag, this is likely no more than a myth. Although there’s no doubt that Ross sewed a few flags in her days, the claim that she sewed the very first one came from her grandson, who decided to tell the exaggeration to the Historical Society of Pennsylvania almost 100 years later.

However, there is zero evidence that Ross sewed the first flag during the Revolutionary War, as there’s no mention of her in newspaper reports, historical letters, or any kind of writing. It’s also possible Ross’ grandson only made this claim to popularize his family name.

19.  George Washington And The Cherry Tree

The story of George Washington and the cherry tree says that Washington received a hatchet from his father when he was a boy. He then proceeded to chop down a cherry tree, and when his father asked him what happened, he said something along the lines of “I cannot tell a lie.”

This story never happened but was made up in 1806 by author Mason Locke Weems, who wrote a book about Washington that showed the first president of the United States was a man of virtue. An interesting side note shows that Washington, the man of could not tell a lie, was the creator of our first spy ring (The Culper Spy Ring) coming into existence during the Revolutionary War, at a time when the future United States was still a British colony.

20.  The Forbidden Fruit In The Bible Was An Apple

Most people have either read or heard about the story of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, in which they are banished for eating the Forbidden Fruit, the one thing they weren’t allowed to touch.

Interestingly, in popular culture, the fruit is almost always shown as being an apple. However, early rabbis would argue that the fruit was most likely a fig. This is because the Bible mentions the two sewing together clothes with fig leaves. And, the myth that the forbidden fruit was an apple is further admonished by the fact that the Garden of Eden was the wrong climate for growing apples.

22.  Ben Franklin Wanted The Turkey To Be The National Bird

There’s a story that Benjamin Franklin wanted the turkey to be the national bird of the United States rather than the bald eagle. Actually, he didn’t have any reservations about the bald eagle being the national bird, as he explains in a letter to his daughter.

He simply mentioned that the eagle looked like a turkey on the seal. In the letter to his daughter, he would also write that the bald eagle had bad morals as evidenced by the fact they stole from other birds and the turkey is vain, although this is most likely just a joke. But a more pertinent observation noted that the turkey was native to North America and the eagle also lived in Europe.

23.  Ulysses S. Grant Wouldn’t Accept Robert E. Lee’s Sword When He Surrendered

One of the most well-known stories of the Civil War is when Robert E. Lee surrendered to Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Courthouse, Virginia, on April 9, 1865. The tale goes that when Lee surrendered to Grant, the Union general refused to accept Lee’s sword of surrender.

Grant claimed in 1885 that the story had been embellished. It was not a snub or rebuke. He regarded Lee with the utmost respect. He was just happy the war was over and they had won.

24.  The Existence Of Saint Christopher

Saint Christopher is the patron saint of travelers, athletes, mariners, ferrymen, and more. He is an incredibly popular saint with many believers wearing the Saint Christopher talisman. However, the saint may have never even existed.

According to the LA Times, many scholars have believed for some time that he wasn’t real. And even if he was, it’s likely that all the stories about him are nothing more than myths. It’s also possible that he may have been just another regular person to be murdered for being a Christian.

25.  How The British Defeated The Spanish Armada

While the Spanish Armada was defeated by the British Empire in 1588, they didn’t succeed using clever tactics and an overwhelming amount of firepower. In reality, it came down to them having favorable conditions.

Out of the 129 ships in the Spanish Armada, the British only destroyed six of them. They could have defeated more, but they didn’t have enough gunpowder. However, they were lucky because 50 other British ships showed up just in time. Bad weather, including fast currents, created issues for the Spanish attributing to their defeat.

26.  The Casualties At The Alamo

While many people might have an idea of what happened at the Alamo, it was basically misinformation acquired from movies. For the most part, the movies were not intended to be historically correct documentaries. Their purpose was to present an exciting story to entertain their audience. Many of the supposed facts were exaggerated. Some stories claim that only a handful of people survived when it was more like at least 20.

Furthermore, it wasn’t just women and children either. Some of the fighting men were spared as well. The notion that 600 Mexicans died during the battle is also untrue as it was more like 60. A man named William Zuber made up most of these stories, which is ironic because he wasn’t even there.

Next week is part 3 of my 3-part blog series about Historical Events That Never Happened.