Atlantis Online
March 28, 2024, 05:00:20 am
Welcome, Guest. Please login or register.

Login with username, password and session length
News: ARE Search For Atlantis 2007 Results
http://mysterious-america.net/bermudatriangle0.html
 
  Home Help Arcade Gallery Links Staff List Calendar Login Register  

Historical facts that just aren't true

Pages: [1]   Go Down
  Print  
Author Topic: Historical facts that just aren't true  (Read 1738 times)
0 Members and 10 Guests are viewing this topic.
Trina Demario
Superhero Member
******
Posts: 3854



« on: October 25, 2015, 08:57:53 pm »

Leif Erikson Day and historical facts that just aren't true

By Lisa Respers France, CNN




Updated 1513 GMT (2213 HKT) October 9, 2015
Pop culture representations like the History Channel's "Vikings" have helped keep stories about the group alive.
Pop culture representations like the History Channel's "Vikings" have helped keep stories about the group alive.
Story highlights

    Leif Erikson Day is October 9
    The story of the Vikings is filled with legends

(CNN)Friday is Leif Erickson Day, but don't go grabbing that horned hat to wear just yet.

The day celebrates the 11th-century Norse explorer who is credited with sailing to New Foundland and settling Vinland hundreds of years before Christopher Columbus ventured forth.

But his story -- and that of the Vikings -- is rife with misinformation. For one, there is no evidence that they wore the now famous headgear with the horns. Nor were all Scandinavians and Norse people pirating and plundering coasts of Europe in the 8th to 10th centuries.

Films and TV shows like the History Channel's "Vikings" have helped the fierce legend of the group live on. In honor of Leif Erickson Day here are some other examples of history that many people get wrong:

Marie Antoinette's infamous phrase

It makes for great stuff of legend, but according to acclaimed historian and author Antonia Fraser the Queen of France and Navarre did not say "Let them eat cake" when told that peasants were starving and had no bread. It is believed that Marie-Therese, wife of Louis XIV, actually said it a century earlier.

George Washington's teeth and truth-telling

Yes, the first president of the United States had some serious dental issues. And while he had dentures, it's not true that his fake teeth were made out of wood. According to MountVernon.org he had false teeth made of multiple materials including ivory, gold, and lead.

He also never chopped down a cherry tree as a child and said "I cannot tell a lie" when confronted.

Little Napoleon

Despite the pejorative "Napoleon complex" to which his name is connected, Napoleon Bonaparte was not a particularly short man for his age. He is said to have been 5 feet 6 inches tall, greater than the average height for a man of his time and place -- about 5 feet 5 inches.

It is believed that that story got started thanks to British propaganda looking to cut the French leader down to size.

The British weren't coming

Actually, British soldiers were already around and hiding in the Massachusetts countryside when American patriot Paul Revere took his now famous midnight ride on April 18, 1775, during the American Revolution.

The History Channel points out that Revere would not have yelled "The British are coming" to warn townspeople as those living in the states then still considered themselves British even as they fought for their independence. Rather he probably said the "regulars" were on their way.

Newton's apple

The story that a young Isaac Newton crafted his theory of gravity while sitting under a tree that dropped an apple on his head, is a popular one.

It's also not true.

In 2010, The Royal Society in London made available a digital version of the original manuscript which documented how the British mathematician and physicist devised his now famous theory after witnessing an apple falling from a tree in his mother's garden in Lincolnshire. But while Newton used his head to come up with the idea, it does not appear that he got beaned.


http://edition.cnn.com/2015/10/09/living/leif-erikson-day-history-feat/index.html

Report Spam   Logged

Share on Facebook Share on Twitter



Pages: [1]   Go Up
  Print  
 
Jump to:  

Powered by EzPortal
Bookmark this site! | Upgrade This Forum
SMF For Free - Create your own Forum
Powered by SMF | SMF © 2016, Simple Machines
Privacy Policy