Myths and misconceptions

History isn’t always right: 10 popular historical inaccuracies!

Image: Mr Cup / Fabien Barral

Let’s face it: history is not an exact science. There’s a reason people regularly say that "history is written by the victors": there are more than a few inaccuracies bound to be included in history books around the world. What’s interesting, though, is that sometimes these mistaken pieces of history gain so much popularity that they become indisputable facts. We all know that Napoleon was short (except he wasn’t) or that Roman gladiator fights were bloody matches to the death (except they weren’t). With that in mind, we’ve selected 10 of the most famous historical inaccuracies, hoping to shed some light on these popular myths. Enjoy!

Image: Chen Te

We’ll begin with one of the most popular historical myths out there. If you had to describe Napoleon Bonaparte, what are the first three things that come to mind? Perhaps his iconic bicorne hat, or his white war horse, Marengo, forever immortalized in Napoleon’s portrait crossing the Alps. That said, you probably thought of another aspect of this French emperor that we all know too well: his height. Napoleon’s short stature is heavily ingrained in pop culture, with countless shows and movies referencing his height as an explanation for his bad temper. However, standing at 5 feet 6 inches, Napoleon was by no means short. Most historians believe this stereotype stemmed from British cartoons depicting him as a short man dressed in an oversized military uniform.

Image: hao qin

Some historical figures are so ingrained in pop culture that we tend to imagine them in a very distinct way. For example, all pirates have an eyepatch and a parrot perched on their shoulders. In a similar vein, most Vikings depicted in cartoons and TV shows sport majestic beards and horned helmets. However, you might be surprised to learn that horned helmets became associated with Vikings during the 1800s after Richard Wagner included them in his Norse operas. In fact, most historians agree that, while Vikings did regularly use helmets, they weren’t horned.

Image: Maks Key

It must be nice for your last name to become synonymous with intelligence—Albert Einstein is truly a testament to this. Whether sarcastic or not, whenever someone is called "an Einstein," they are referring to their intelligence. In this sense, there’s a popular myth that states that, despite his genius, Albert Einstein did terribly at school and was not, by any means, the exceptional student you would expect. However, this is completely false. Einstein was a remarkable pupil, as his Swiss public records prove.

Image: Chait Goli

Let’s picture a hypothetical gladiator fight: two sturdy and brave warriors in a fight to the death, with a stoic and unmoving Caesar deciding with a thumb gesture which gladiator will live to fight another day. This image has been endlessly portrayed in movies and TV shows since the invention of the medium, but you might be surprised to learn that actual gladiator fights were a bit different. For starters, considering how expensive gladiators were to train and feed, it stands to reason that most gladiatorial fights didn’t end in death. In fact, most matches finished when first blood was drawn.

Image: Leon Ephraïm

If you were lucky enough to visit Berlin, you might be familiar with one of the metropolis’ most famous sweet treats: the Berliner, a type of pastry that resembles a jam doughnut. Also known as Krapfen, there’s a popular myth surrounding this pastry that involves President Kennedy. In 1963, our 35th president visited West Berlin and proudly uttered the phrase "Ich bin ein Berliner" at the end of his speech. According to many, the use of the adjective ein changed Kennedy’s intended meaning of "I am from Berlin" to "I am a doughnut," much to the audience’s delight. However, this is not true: the president’s use of the phrase was correct, and the gathered crowd understood it as such.

Image: Kai Gradert

Thomas Edison’s contributions to the world are numerous and outstanding, so don’t take this entry as an attempt to discredit his genius. Among his many groundbreaking inventions are the phonograph and the motion-picture camera, but we do have to strike one from the record: despite popular belief, Edison did not, in fact, invent the lightbulb, since the first electric light was created by English scientist Humphry Davy in 1800. However, Edison did reinvent these unreliable and expensive lights into the first commercially viable light bulb, which helped extend the wonders of electricity around the world.

Image: Ben Noble

It stands to reason that George Washington, arguably the most important figure in American history, would be the subject of a number of popular myths and stories. We’ll focus on just one in this article for brevity's sake, but it is one of the most famous: a common story states that "The Father of our Country" used a set of wooden dentures throughout his life. Although this is false (Washington’s false teeth were mostly composed of metals and animal teeth), interestingly, these wooden dentures were widely accepted by historians until the 20th century.

Image: Louis Hansel

Arguably, the apple that fell on Isaac Newton’s head that fateful day might be the most important piece of fruit in human history. After all, this apple was the final inspiration that this iconic physicist needed to develop his law of universal gravitation. However, not to diminish the impact of this exemplary fruit, there’s a bit of misinformation that needs to be clarified: while Newton was indeed inspired after watching an apple fall from a tree, it most certainly didn’t fall atop his head.

Image: Brigitte Tohm

When it comes to bakeries, the good people of France are second to none. From their lovely baguettes to their heavenly pain au chocolat, you know you’ll have a tasty treat whenever you take a bite of a French pastry. In that sense, it might come as a surprise to learn that the croissant, one of France’s most impressive pastries, was actually invented in Austria. Known as a kipferl or kifli, this pastry is involved in a myth of its own: Some historians believe that its peculiar shape was created to celebrate an Austrian victory over the Ottoman Turks.

Image: Ryan Song

We’ll end this article by clearing the name of one of mankind’s most beloved animal friends. There’s no denying that cows do a lot for us, from the milk we drink to the beef we eat. In that sense, let’s repay their service by clearing up a common misconception regarding the fateful Chicago fire of 1871: No, this disaster wasn’t started by a cow. According to a popular tale, the fire was ignited by a cow being milked by her owner, Ms. O’Leary. For some reason, the clumsy cow kicked over a lantern, which supposedly grew into the biggest disaster that the city of Chicago had seen up to that day. However, there’s simply no evidence to support that this was the cause of the tragedy, and the cow (and her owner) were officially exonerated by the city in 1997.

BELIEVE IT OR NOT

Stranger Than Fiction: 10 Unbelievable Events That Actually Happened

Image: Diana van Ormondt

They say truth is stranger than fiction, and some of these historical events are living proof of this old adage.

Brace yourself for a rollercoaster ride through history, where the strange and unexpected take center stage in the theater of reality. From absurd battles to mysterious weather phenomena, these 10 astonishing tales will leave you thinking long and hard about the complexities of human history.

Image: Sharon Co Images

Wars are typically waged between nations, but in 1932, Australia faced an unusual adversary: emus. After large numbers of these flightless birds invaded crucial farmland within Western Australia’s Wheatbelt, the government decided to intervene by sending soldiers armed with machine guns to reduce the emu population in the area. However, most attempts were ineffective at most, killing very few birds and costing thousands of dollars in supplies and ammunition.

As soon as the first shot was fired, the seemingly tame emu dispersed way beyond the range of the machine guns, and apparently switched to guerrilla tactics of sorts, avoiding all further military ambushes and frontal attacks while still feasting on the farmer’s crops. The government’s futile attempts were ridiculed and physical barrier methods to manage wildlife were preferred from then on. Sadly, they give no medals for having endured the Great Emu War.

Image: Hannah Skelly

In 1518, the town of Strasbourg, France, was gripped by a strange and inexplicable phenomenon - people suddenly began dancing uncontrollably in the streets. The dancing madness persisted for weeks, with some of the affected succumbing to exhaustion or even death. The authorities at the time did not know how to react, and some people even joined the dancers voluntarily, as they feared it was a punishment from Saint Vitus (and presumably wanted to stay on the safe side).

After many efforts to fight the strange epidemic, the dancing eventually subsided and people in the town could resume their normal lives. While theories range from mass hysteria to hallucinogenic substances and neurological disorders like Sydenham's chorea, the event remains a historical enigma that challenges our understanding of the human mind and collective behavior.

Image: Nima Sarram

In 1908, a massive explosion flattened over 80 million trees in the remote Tunguska region of Siberia. The cause? A mysterious airburst, likely caused by the explosion of a meteoroid or comet in Earth's atmosphere. It is now estimated that the event had an explosive energy of 3 to 5 megatons, equivalent to over a thousand Hiroshima bombs. The resulting shockwave broke windows, and knocked people down hundreds of miles away, reaching an equivalent of an earthquake of 5.0 on the Richter scale in some areas.

A bright glow was observed in night skies in Asia and Europe for days after the event due to high-altitude ice particles that formed as a result of the explosion. For all its magnitude, the explosion left no visible crater and minimal debris beside the devastated forest. The Tunguska Event serves as a stark reminder of the potential cosmic threats that lurk in the darkness of space.

Image: British Library

Miscommunication can often lead to chaos, but rarely on the scale witnessed in the Battle of Karánsebes in 1788. The Austrian army, at the time facing the Ottoman Empire, descended into total anarchy when two different scouting parties mistook one another for the enemy, fired on each other, and raised the alarm.

Making matters worse, the Austrian army was made of men of different nationalities who more often than not could not understand each other. All attempts to end confusion and the ensuing friendly fire on the part of the Austrian emperor himself were in vain, and after a while - deeply demoralized - he was forced to give the order of retreat. When the Ottoman army arrived two days later, they found an empty battlefield and were able to take the city of Karánsebes without any resistance.

Image: Aswathy N

In 1807, eight years before Waterloo, Napoleon Bonaparte had a humiliating defeat at the hands of a strange opponent - a horde of rabbits. During the celebrations that followed the Treaties of Tilsit - which effectively ended the war between the French and Imperial Russia - Napoleon’s chief of staff Alexandre Berthier had the idea of organizing a rabbit hunt to entertain its guests.

So far, nothing out of the ordinary for the time, but when the rabbits were simultaneously freed along the edges of a grassy field, instead of scattering as expected, all these fluffy beasts began running toward their amused hunters. But the fits of laughter didn’t last long, as the now-hunted hunters realized that there was nothing they could do to stop the relentless animals as they swarmed their positions and had no other choice than to flee. Some accounts state that Berthier had gathered around 3000 rabbits, so not even mighty Napoleon was a match for this unexpected army.

Apparently, the chief of staff's mistake was buying tame rabbits from local farmers, accustomed to being fed by humans, instead of trapping wild hares for the hunt. If we learned anything from the Great Emu War, the lesson is clear: never underestimate animals!

Image: Mitsuo Komoriya

In the aftermath of the eruption of Mount Tambora in Indonesia - the largest in at least 1,300 years - 1816 became known as the "Year Without a Summer." The volcanic ash floating in the atmosphere led to climate abnormalities worldwide, resulting in crop failures and widespread famine in the most affected areas.

In Europe and North America temperatures plummeted, and most crops suffered irreparable damage due to the persistent frost. In the United States, a "dry fog" was observed in the eastern regions, dimming sunlight so much that sunspots were visible to the naked eye. Also, the high level of volcanic particles present in the atmosphere caused strange optical effects in the following years, such as strong red hues during sunsets, which can be observed in many paintings produced at the time.

Image: Tiana Attride

It seems that wars against unusual adversaries are a fashionable trend in human history because the Roman Emperor Caligula declared war in the year 40 AD on no one other than the god Neptune himself, king of the raging seas.

Known for his eccentricity, Caligula allegedly ordered his legionnaires to "attack" the sea with swords and spears, after which he declared victory against the powerful god and told the men to gather seashells as trophies of war. One can only imagine that the soldiers had a fun -albeit puzzling- day.

Image: Tim Mossholder

In the late 1980s, Pepsi briefly possessed the sixth-largest navy in the world. In exchange for commercializing Pepsi products in the Soviet Union, the company received 17 submarines, a cruiser, a frigate, and a destroyer.

However, the fleet was composed of obsolete and unseaworthy vessels that were destined to be turned into scrap almost immediately. The payment was made in the only resources the USSR could gather easily at the time, and it provided a way to establish profitable international relations - and open up to the world.

Image: Garry T

The American Civil War started and concluded with a curious connection to Wilmer McLean, an American wholesale grocer from Virginia. The conflict's first major battle, the First Battle of Bull Run, took place in McLean's farm in 1861. A cannonball fell directly through the kitchen fireplace of the McLean’s house, which was being used as headquarters for the Confederate Army, destroying the dinner that was being prepared by the stationed officers - something that was noted not without humor by the Brigadier General P. G. T. Beauregard.

The McLean family moved to Appomattox, Virginia trying to escape the war, but just four years later, General Robert E. Lee surrendered to General Ulysses S. Grant in McLean's parlor, marking the conclusion of the Civil War. Unintentionally, McLean was a prime witness of one of America’s most defining conflicts. Later, he said of this: "The war began in my front yard and ended in my front parlor."

Image: Snowscat

Genghis Khan's vast empire and brutal military campaigns had an unexpected impact on the Earth's climate. A recent study suggests that the Mongol invasions in the 13th century led to a significant reduction in global carbon dioxide levels, as large areas of cultivated land returned to forests.

This had the unintentional effect of scrubbing as much as 700 million tonnes of carbon from the atmosphere, roughly equivalent to the global annual consumption of gasoline today. This drastic ecological shift highlights the effect that land use, and particularly deforestation can have on our planet at a large scale.