Posted on 05/30/2008 12:06:37 PM PDT by yankeedame
By Daily Mail Reporter
Last updated at 1:29 AM on 30th May 2008
For decades, visitors to HMS Victory have stood solemnly by a plaque in gold lettering announcing the exact spot on the orlop deck where Nelson met his end.
But this week it was revealed he didn't actually die there after all - it was 25 feet to the fore that he passed away - and the ship's curator Peter Goodwin admitted: 'History is not always what it appears to be.' So what other historical 'facts' are wrong? Here, we uncover a surprising number.
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Contrary to popular belief the
Emperor Napoleon I of France, never said,
'Not tonight, Josephine'
The phrase first appeared in a play about Napoleon that was not written until 1835, 14 years after Napoleon's death, and the audience roared with laughter because the Bonapartes' marriage was notoriously lusty.
Nor was Napoleon particularly small, despite his nickname, Le Petit Corporal ('The Little Corporal'). He was in fact 5ft 7in, which was fairly tall for the average European male of the early 19th century.
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It is also quite untrue that so-called 'witches' were burned at the stake after the notorious witch trials in Salem, Massachusetts, in 1692.
Of the 150 men and women arrested, 31 were tried and 20 were executed, all by hanging except one who was crushed to death by a door that had heavy stones placed upon it.
Of course they were all terrible ways for innocent people to die, but the burning of witches was not standard practice, as it had been for people convicted of heresy in earlier times.
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The story about Sir Isaac Newton discovering gravity when an apple fell on his head as he was sitting under an apple tree is an invention.
Decades after Newton's death in 1727, the French philosopher Voltaire put it in a book, claiming that Newton's niece, Catherine Conduitt, believed it to be true.
If it had been, Newton would probably have made some kind of reference to it during his lifetime.
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Jean-Jacques Rousseau, wrote about Marie Antoinette who had ignorantly joked about the starving people of Paris but she was only 11 Volitaire's fellow Enlightenment philosopher, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, wrote about a princess who had ignorantly joked about the starving people of Paris, telling a courtier: 'Let them eat cake.'
That was in 1766, when Marie Antoinette was only 11 years old. Yet 20 years later, the story got around that it had been she who had made this remark, which went some way to creating the atmosphere of hatred that led to her execution in 1793.
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Three of the things that everyone knows about the Elizabethan sailor-adventurer Sir Walter Raleigh was that he was responsible for bringing both potatoes and tobacco to England, and that he laid his gorgeous, bejeweled cloak in the mud for Queen Elizabeth I to step on and save her feet from getting dirty.
Yet all three are fictional. Potatoes had been brought to England (from Italy) the year before Raleigh popularized them in 1586 and the Frenchman, Jean Nicot (after whom nicotine is named) introduced tobacco a full 26 years before Raleigh had his first smoke.
The story of the Queen and Raleigh's cloak emerged in 1584 without foundation, but became so connected with him that when he made up his coat of arms, he included a cloak in them, and pretended it was true.
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And it wasn't in fact Captain James Cook who discovered Australia when he sailed into Sydney in 1770, because years earlier the Dutchmen Abel Tasman (who gave his name to Tasmania) and Dirk Hartog, and an English pirate, William Dampier, had already got there.
A travel poster for Australia, showing Captain Cook landing
in 1770 but it had actually been discovered by a Dutchman
There were plenty of places Cook did discover on his great travels in the 1770s, but he can't claim the whole continent of Australia, and nor was he strictly speaking a captain, holding the rank of lieutenant when he sailed there for the first time.
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Nero could never have ' fiddled while Rome burned'. For all the movies that we see of the lunatic Emperor playing his violin maniacally as Rome burned around him in 64BC, caring nothing for his subjects as they died in the Great Fire that he himself had started, there is not a grain of truth in the story.
Fiddles weren't invented for another millennium, and Nero was 35 miles outside the city at Antium when the fire broke out.
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Although the Americans love their Fourth of July celebrations, with fireworks and parties, the signing of the Declaration did not actually take place then, but on July 2, 1776.
The 4th was merely the day that the document itself went to the printers. Nor did America legally become independent until much later, after the American War of Independence ended on September 3, 1783, with what was called the Definitive Treaty of Peace.
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America's greatest inventor,Thomas Edison,came up with the ideas for many great and world- changing things, but the electric lightbulb was not in fact one of them.
Thomas Edison and the electric lightbulb which he invented
ich is one from a box of 23 bulbs that were found in an attic
used in his 1890 patent court case
That was invented by the Englishman Sir Humphry Davy who thought up the concept of a carbon filament arc light.
What Edison, or at least his many engineers, managed to do was discover a better filament that would glow for long enough for the light to be worthwhile. Edison did however, take out over a thousand patents in his lifetime, for inventions connected with telegraphy, megaphones, gramaphones, the kinetoscope, and metallurgy.
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Godiva riding through the streets naked sadly
not ring true
Although everyone loves the tale of the Tenth century Anglo-Saxon noblewoman Lady Godiva, who was supposed to have ridden naked through Coventry to pressure her husband Leofric into treating his tenants better, very little about it actually rings true.
Leofric was famously generous, endowing a Benedictine monastery in Coventry in 1043 under no apparent compulsion from Godiva, clothed or naked.
Some have claimed that the story originates from a custom in which penitents were forced to make a public procession in only their shift, a sleeveless white garment considered underwear, or that Lady Godiva's nakedness refers to her riding through the streets stripped of her jewellery, the trademark of her upper-class rank.
But neither of these accounts accord with the plain fact of her husband Leofric's legendary generosity.
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The great Dutch artist Vincent Van Gogh did not actually cut off his own ear, as the most powerful legend in the history of art states - or at least not much of it.
The popular myth about Van
Gogh is exactly that - it was in
fact Paul Gauguin who cut off a
portion of his left lobe
In fact, after a great quarrel with fellow post-impressionist painter Paul Gauguin in 1890, Van Gogh cut off a portion of his left lobe. He did later commit suicide, however, taking two days to die from a gunshot wound.
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George Washington was not the first of America's 43 presidents. During the American War of Independence, the Continental Congress sitting in Pennsylvania chose Peyton Randolph as their first President.
He then appointed General Washington as commander of the Revolutionary army, called the Continental Army.
In 1781, John Hancock became president, and Washington wrote to him addressing the letter to 'The President of the United States'. Washington only became the first popularly elected President of the United States.
The story is also told that George Washington as a young boy chopped down a cherry tree, but such was his honesty that when asked by his father who had done it, said: 'Father, I cannot lie: it was me'. He was then beaten soundly. This too, is a complete fabrication.
So I guess this means it is also a myth that the cheer “Hooray for our side” did NOT originate when Lady Godiva rode side-saddle down the streets of Coventry?
I’m afraid so. And Cap’n Crunch was only a Lieutenant.
Not quite accurate.
In 1766 Marie Antoinette was a virtually unknown Austrian princess - she was the eleventh of eleven sisters. Most people would have assumed that she would have been married off to an Austrian or Hungarian nobleman.
But two of her older sisters died and one was permanently crippled in a 1767 smallpox epidemic, when she was twelve.
When she was thirteen she was the only healthy unbetrothed daughter left and was promised to the French Dauphin. She did not actually arrive in France until she was fourteen.
During 1766 I believe Voltaire was living in Berlin - far from the Viennese court where the as yet unimportant-to-Frenchmen Maria Antonia (Marie Antoinette) was living. There is no proof of any kind that the princess he was referring to was her, or that she at that time had any knowledge at all of French current events.
there is not a grain of truth in the story. Fiddles weren't invented for another millennium, and Nero was 35 miles outside the city at Antium when the fire broke out
The word "fiddle" was used by Elizabethan translators of Cassius Dio and Tacitus to translate the word lyra or lyre. Like the fiddle it was a stringed instrument played with a utensil - so that was the logical choice of word in an English langauge which was at that time much more fluid than it is today.
Only one source places Nero at Antium. Others place him at estates not far from the city.
In any case, the fire burned for at least five days - more than enough time for an imperial courier to notify him of what was going on.
A couple of contemporary sources attest that while the fire was raging he was acting in a play and playing the lyre in safety and luxury.
The 4th was merely the day that the document itself went to the printers.
False. The 4th was the day that the changes suggested to the document by the Congress were made and officially adopted. It was sent to the printer that day, but its final draft was approved - hence the fact that it is dated July 4th and not July 2nd.
Thank you for the informative post. As I recall - perhaps it was Jefferson? - that said something like “This day (July 2) will be remembered with fireworks and parades as a day.....” And as I recall, they were waiting on a couple of more guys to review it and sign it?
However, it is true that Trix are for kids.
I thought up the idea of the electric car, but I alas never actually made it work.
The story is also told that George Washington as a young boy chopped down a cherry tree, but such was his honesty that when asked by his father who had done it, said: 'Father, I cannot lie: it was me'. He was then beaten soundly. This too, is a complete fabrication.
When was the time machine invented that sent the historian back in time to confirm this was just a fabrication?
I just straightened out my granddaughter on the GW cherry tree bit. The true story: He killed his mother’s favorite colt “horsing around” with the guys. He may have told the truth to mom....but I’ll bet he didn’t get praise for the truth and got a severe punishment.
John Adams correctly predicted the holiday, but was off on the date. July 2 was when the congress voted to declare independence and it was that date he thought would be commemorated.
July 4 was when the official language of the Declaration was approved, but the act was taken 2 days earlier.
I believe this was Miles Corey who when asked if he was ready to confess replied, "more weight"
So, even then the academics (with the help of the media, no doubt) have made untrue story about their government... Not unlike today...
It's long been considered as such. See, e.g., this discussion.
Oh I know many people consider it bunk but no one really knows.
The story first showed up in 1800 or so ... after Washington had died. For a man as lionized in his lifetime as Washington was, I think the story would have been told much earlier, were it authentic. Chances are that Pastor Weems made it up.
In 20 years Francis Scott Key will not have actually been held prisoner but was a songwriter trying to sell his wares.
Le Petit Corporal wasn't Napoleon but one of his body parts: “one inch long and resembling a grape”.
re: Nero
That tale always struck me as strange anyway, b/c in those days there wasn’t exactly a serious fire-fighting capability. What exactly was Nero supposed to do that people were not already doing on their own? (either fleeing for their lives or trying to rescue some possessions if they saw a way to do so)
But Al Gore really did invent the internet didn’t he?
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