14 Historical 'Facts' That Are Completely False

Business Insider ^ | 11/19/2013 | CHRISTINA STERBENZ

[Freestate316]

Ahhh, missed your comment! That is a classic.

[apillar]

FDR’s “New Deal” socialist programs didn’t get us out of the great depression, in fact most honest economists say they actually prolonged and deepened the depression, which finally ended due to the massive industrial buildup of WW II...

[Claud]

* Before Columbus, everyone already knew the world was round

[ChildOfThe60s]

When anyone talks about the “simpler” times, I have this for them for them: modern dentistry (and anesthetics!!)

[ChildOfThe60s]

"The world simply could not believe the pyramids were build without oppression and forced labor, but out of loyalty to the pharaohs."

Just because the Jews didn't build them, I find it very difficult to believe it was done voluntarily.

[machogirl]

Sarah Palin did NOT say, “I can see Russia from my house”.

[hamboy]

FDR did not get us out of the Great Depression!

[mrsmith]

“according to the History Channel” is in this article three times LOL!

Fun anyway.

[untwist]

The New Deal did not end the Great Depression.

[dfwgator]

3. Vikings didn't wear horned-helmets.

WRONG!

[DManA]

which finally ended due to the massive industrial buildup of WW II...

That is a BIG myth. WWII did NOT end the depression. Everything that was build during the war was destroyed by the war.

[Fiji Hill]

Jewish slaves didn't build the pyramids.

That brings to mind a children's song from my youth:

Pharaoh built a pyramid reaching to the sky.
Needed lots of slaves he did to make it stand up high
Pity those poor Israelites,
Working days and toiling nights.
Let my people go.

[Billthedrill]

Recent archaeological finds actually show that Egyptians built the pyramids themselves.

Yep, a sort of couvée, required labor of free (depending on your definition) civilians, usually done under religious auspices. At least that's the current cover story.

But it was aliens.

Paul Revere never yelled, "The British are coming!" ...Paul Revere needed to keep his knowledge of the Brits' arrival on the down-low. British troops had already camped out across the Massachusetts countryside...

Well, sort of - they were patrolling and in fact, one of their patrols captured Revere, took his horse, and let him go on foot. Those were largely troops that had been there for awhile and had achieved a modus vivendi with the fractious Colonials. What changed was that the new ones in town didn't recognize this arrangement and ended up firing live ammunition at Parker and his men at Lexington Green, to the latter's astonishment. What Revere was yelling - and of course he was yelling, he was utilizing the alerting mechanism that had been in use during the French and Indian Wars - was "the Regulars are coming!" The new kids in town were taking the thing to another level. Revere had boasted to his captors that they'd raise 500 men before the British reached Concord. By the time it was over it was more like 2500.

[Fiji Hill]

Cleopatra wasn't Egyptian. Cleopatra belonged to the Ptolemaic dynasty, a family of Greek origin that ruled Egypt after Alexander the Great.

In his book The Life and Times of Cleopatra, Queen of Egypt (Garden City, NY: Garden City, 1924), Arthur Weigall wrote that Cleopatra was the only member of the Ptolemaic dynasty to learn the Egyptian language spoken by most of her subjects.

[Jet Jaguar]

Nice!

[raccoonradio]

Exactly, that came from Saturday Night Live etc.

And people think Cary Grant used to say “Jud-y, Jud-y, Jud-y”. Actually actor/impressionist Larry Storch was in the middle of imitating Grant in a club and someone told him Judy Garland walked in, and he started to say that in Grant’s voice.
Thus the mistaken idea that it was a Grant saying.

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20090214170331AAjwcKz

>>Legend has it that Storch was in the middle of a Grant impersonation when Judy Garland walked in. Apparently, this is how he addressed the star. Even though the line was never said in any of Grant’s movies, Storch’s impression inexplicably stuck and was often used by other impressionists.

[Fiji Hill]

• Senator Joe McCarthy (R-Wis.) was not a member of the House Committee on Un-American Activities

• McCarthy never investigated Hollywood

• In 1968, Richard never claimed to have a secret plan to bring about peace in Vietnam

• Sarah Palin never said that Africa was the name of a country

• The Roman emperor Nero didn't fiddle while Rome burned

• "Spare the rod and spoil the child" is not a Bible quote.

• The story of the Dutch boy who saved his community by sticking his finger in a leaking dike is fiction.

• Richard Nixon's birthplace was never moved to the Nixon Presidential library--it has always been on that site.

[DManA]

Blücher is not German for glue.

[Dysart]

2. Cleopatra wasn't Egyptian. Cleopatra belonged to the Ptolemaic dynasty, a family of Greek origin that ruled Egypt after Alexander the Great. Her family actually refused to speak Egyptian, and she was the first to learn the language.

Over the years I have been personally assured more than once by black acquaintances that Celopatra was "African-American." Not kidding.

[tanknetter]

* Paul Revere never yelled, “The British are coming!”

This one made an appearance a week ago on an episode of "Sleepy Hollow" (think X-files, but with the supernatural not aliens and Ichabod Crane, back from a 240 year dirt nap instead of Fox Mulder).

Crane was in a museum and completely flipped out at a tour guide about the stories (including "The British are coming") the guide was telling people about Revere.

The series actually has a pretty Conservative spin on a lot of things. Crane being incredibly offended at a 10% tax on food and wondering why people hadn't taken up arms over it yet ... it's probably the best-written show on network tv right now.