Eve ate an apple
The apple is a healthy fruit, although it is infamous as a forbidden fruit since Eve plucked it in the Garden of Eden from the Tree of Knowledge and deprived us - her descendants - of heavenly life. However, the attentive reader should have noticed that nowhere in the Bible was the fruit called an apple. It could have been an apple, of course. To the same extent as mango or apricot or any other fruit. But only the apple received the stamp.
An apple fell on Newton's head
And again apples - it was this unfortunate fruit that managed to fall on the head of Sir Isaac Newton and inspire him to invent the law of gravitation … Nice fairy tale, but most likely it is just a fairy tale. It was first recounted publicly by Voltaire in his essay on Newton. The only person who said this before Voltaire was published was Newton's sister, Catherine Conduit.
Walt Disney drew Mickey Mouse
It is believed that the most famous cartoon character - Mickey Mouse - was drawn by Walt Disney himself. But this is not the case. Mickey was drawn by Disney's # 1 animator Ub Iwerks, who was renowned for his incredibly fast drawing. The first Mickey movie (it took 700 drawings a day) was made in just two weeks. But later, when sound cartoons appeared, Disney rehabilitated himself - it was in his voice that Mickey Mouse began to speak.
Promotional video:
Marie Antoinette said: Let them eat the cakes
In 1766, Jean Jacques Rousseau wrote about an event that allegedly happened 25 years earlier. When Marie Antoinette learned that people in the French countryside did not have enough bread, she offered them cakes. The problem is that in those years Maria was 11 years old, and she still lived in her homeland in Austria. Most likely, these words were spread by revolutionary propagandists to show how far from each other the people and those who govern them.
The Great Train Robbery was the first feature film
The film was made in 1903, but it was not the first feature film. Its duration is only 10 minutes. The first feature film was the 100-minute Australian film "The Story of the Kelly Gang", filmed 3 years later. A lot of films like "The Great Train Robbery" were made in the late 1890s.
Van Gogh cut off his ear
The half-beggarly great artist Van Gogh (who sold only one canvas in his entire life), shortly before committing suicide in a quarrel with his friend Gauguin, who was more successful in selling his works, cut off his ear - a piece of his left lobe. It hurts, but not as bad as it sounds.
Witches burned in Salem
In Salem, Massachusetts, in 1692, 150 people were arrested during the witch trials, 31 people were sentenced, 20 of them were fatal. Of these 31 people, not all were women, 6 of them were men. At the same time, they were not burned at the stake - the witches are not afraid, they were first stoned, then the bodies were hung on a rope.
Napoleon was short
Many are sure that Napoleon's exorbitant ambitions are a kind of compensation for his small stature. In fact, the Little Corporal was 5 feet 7 inches (168 cm) tall - taller than the average Frenchman in those years. So why was it called that? This nickname was a tease for his minor military rank. Napoleon became emperor, but the nickname remained the same.
King John the Landless signed the Magna Carta
Magna Carta limited the power of the King of England and laid the foundation for democracy. Pictures from those times show how reluctant King John signs the Charter in a meadow near Windsor in 1215. This is funny because John Lackland was most likely illiterate - look in the archives for the four original original Charter - all are stamped. No signatures.
Walter Reilly brought potatoes and tobacco to England
Sir Walter Reilly is an explorer, ladies' man and one of the most mysterious and mythological figures in English history. In modern portraits, he is painted as an exceptionally handsome man, although no real portraits of him have been found. He was considered a ladies' man and allegedly liked the English Queen Elizabeth I. Is it true that he threw his cloak into a puddle so that the queen could cross it? Not true. It is true that he did not return from a trip to America with the first potatoes and tobacco in English history. Although it is said that Reilly introduced the potato in 1586, the first potato crop was actually harvested in Spain in 1585, after which it quickly spread throughout Europe and even crossed the English Channel. In 1560, tobacco was brought to France by Jean Nicot (nicotine got its name from his surname). So smokers all over the world are wrong to accuse Sir Walter Reilly of spreading a bad habit.
Magellan made a trip around the world
Everyone knows two things about Magellan: that he traveled around the world, and that during this trip he was killed in the Philippines. One excludes the other. In fact, Magellan passed exactly half the way: the journey was completed by Juan Sebastian Elcano, his deputy.
Emperor Nero played the violin while Rome burned by him
This story is known to everyone: 64 BC. Rome is on fire and Nero is playing the violin. But this is impossible. First, the violin was invented 1,600 years later. But even if there was a violin, Nero could play it only at a distance of 30 miles from burning Rome, since during the fire he was not in the Eternal City, but in his villa in the suburbs.
Captain Cook discovered Australia
Of course, Australians don't even want to think so. Long before 1770, the Dutch Abel Tasman and Dirk Hartog, and the English pirate William Dampier, also visited this place. And also this continent was discovered 50,000 years ago by its indigenous inhabitants - the Australians. The only reason Cook can be called the "discoverer" of Australia, and even then in quotation marks, is for the discovery of new lands, which later became the reason for the arrival of white settlers here.
Shakespeare wrote the story of Hamlet himself
William Shakespeare is known as the greatest playwright in human history. However, most of his plays were not his own creations - rather, creative adaptations of stories, stories and traditions. The play "The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark", according to historians, was based on the ancient Scandinavian tradition.
America gained independence on July 4, 1776
This is not true. Yes, America's Founding Fathers signed the Declaration of Independence on this day. But the war for this independence went on for another 7 years, and only on September 3, 1783 a peace treaty was finally signed between America and the English king George III.
Edison invented the light bulb
1,093 patents: Edison is a great inventor. But most of his inventions were made by unknown employees in his laboratory. And besides, four decades before Edison was born, electric light was discovered by a certain Davey Humphrey. His lamp could only burn for 12 hours straight, and Edison only had to find a suitable filament material so that the lamp could burn constantly. Yes, an achievement, but not a discovery.
Columbus proved that the earth is round
Judging by the book by the American author Irving Washington, it was so. Everyone thought the Earth was flat, but Columbus convinced everyone otherwise. In fact, from the 4th century BC. nobody thought that the Earth looks like a flat pancake. Columbus, however, could not prove that the Earth was round, since he himself did not believe in it! He believed that the Earth was pear-shaped. He has never been to America, and only got to the Bahamas, which are exactly pear-shaped.
Gandhi liberated India
He is the most famous leader of the Indian independence movement. He called on the country to renounce violence. He was 16 years old (in 1885) when the Indian National Congress was formed. But, even without Gandhi's participation, India would have achieved independence by other, more effective methods than non-resistance to violence, and, perhaps, even earlier, if it had followed the path indicated by Netahi Chandra Bose.
Jesus was born on December 25
December 25 - Christmas. But there is no evidence in the Bible or anywhere else that Jesus was born on this particular day. But why was December 25 made Jesus' birthday? Maybe because on this day the Greeks celebrated the day of the god Mitros, born of a virgin, and at the same time it was the Day of the Shepherd?
George Washington was the first president of the United States
Everyone knows that George Washington was the first of 43 US presidents. But no! The first was Peyton Randolph, who had been chosen by the revolutionary Congress. His first step in high office was the creation of the Continental Army to defend against British troops and the appointment of the commander-in-chief … General Washington! Replaced Randolph in 1781 by John Hanson, who sent a congratulatory letter to George Washington after his victory in the Battle of Yorktown and signed "I, John Hancock, President of America." And Washington became the first popularly elected president of the United States - but the fifteenth in a row.