whether history is written by the victors toned down for classrooms or simplified to make a
good story many of the world's most indelible moments have bent or straight up broken the truth
stay with us for the 10 fibs your history teachers have told you for years
on the mount rushmore of the most famous short figures in history alongside mugsy bogues danny
devito and charlie chaplin is french military commander napoleon bonaparte who seized control
over most of europe in less than 10 years his small stature and hot temper inspired the
term napoleon complex the belief that short men compensate for their height through aggression
in english the phrase napoleon complex directly translates to i just bought a truck with really
big wheels and a really big engine turns out though that napoleon was tall enough for his ride
across the continent measuring in at around five foot five just a shade shorter than the national
average at the time which was five six the legend of napoleon being small originated from british
cartoonist james gilray one of his caricatures depicts a tiny napoleon and boots that are way
too big for him tearing out his hair and rage surrounded by furniture that's as big as he is
gilray continued to depict him as a little child throwing a temper tantrum
and the cartoons became so popular and influential that even napoleon reportedly said that gilray
did more than owes the amis of europe to bring me down not a small accomplishment
ponce de leon was the first third and seventh governor of puerto rico talk about an overachiever
according to popular legend he set sail from puerto rico searching for the fountain of youth
but he was instead actually the first european to discover something even crazier
florida stories of vitality restoring waters were known on both sides of the atlantic long before
ponce de leon and the legend of his searching for them was not attached to him until after
his death in reality he was commissioned by the king of spain to do what all other explorers were
looking for at the time search for new land to govern and on which to spread christianity
so while he did not discover or set out to find the fountain of youth at least ponce
will live on in our hearts forever as the man who gave florida its name and its reputation
as the hub for the most insane news stories in the country was discovered in the 1990s
our national story about the end of slavery has quite an asterisk next to it
abraham lincoln's emancipation proclamation on january 1 1863 was really just the beginning
the freedom lincoln promised applied only to the rebellious states and depended entirely
upon the union's military victory which came years later it wasn't until june 19 1865
months after robert e lee's surrender that union armies arrived in galveston texas to inform the
enslaved african americans there that the civil war was over and they were free even still their
freedom was not guaranteed until december 6 1865 when the 13th amendment was ratified
legally abolishing slavery in the united states except as punishment for a crime today we honor
june 19th or juneteenth as an annual holiday commemorating the true end of slavery in the u.s
in a rare case of reality being somewhat less gruesome than the accepted folklore the burning
of witches was not an american story the salem witch trials of 1692 were sparked by a group
of girls consumed by alarming fits their bodies seizing and letting out spine chilling screams
back then a doctor diagnosed them as victims of black magic
rumors swirled and allegations of witchcraft spread like wildfire it's typically believed that
these witches were burned at the stake but that is not true by the end of the crazed witch trials
20 people were executed in much more traditional ways like hanging and one man who was pressed to
death similar to applesauce which is why witches and apples are associated with each other that
last part isn't true except someone really did get pressed to death yikes the practice of burning
witches at the stake stemmed from the witch trials in europe between the 15th and 18th centuries
medieval law codes punished witchcraft by fire believing that burning the bodies would protect
against postmortem sorcery a particularly brutal practice that never emigrated to the new world
stories of american invention are often cast as flash is a brilliant genius
but as drake says took 10 years to be an overnight celebrity for example we learned at our grade
school science fairs that thomas edison invented the light bulb in 1879 but in fact people had been
making light bulbs since 1761. other inventors had even patented various versions of light bulbs
edison however was the one who devised the best way to make home lighting practical and affordable
like when you suggest getting brunch but someone else suggests a different
restaurant and takes all the credit for making the plan beyond his technology
though edison's greatest invention may have been the modern process of research and development
assembling a team of scientists and engineers at his invention factory in new jersey
this model has since driven large-scale innovation at corporations governments and
universities around the world thomas edison inventor of the light bulb and teamwork
for americans july 4th represents freedom fireworks and backyard barbecues but you
should actually be lighting your sparklers on july 2nd which is america's real birthday the vote for
independence actually happened on july 2nd 1776 not july 4th on june 7th the continental congress
met in philadelphia where delegate richard henry lee introduced a motion calling for the colony's
independence congress postponed the vote because it was the first summer friday of the season and
they wanted to beat the traffic however five men were appointed including thomas jefferson
john adams and benjamin franklin to draft a justification for cutting ties with
britain on july 2nd the continental congress reconvened and voted in favor of independence
in an almost unanimous vote that day john adams wrote to his wife abigail that july 2nd would
forever be celebrated as the great anniversary festival technically congress formally adopted
the declaration of independence on july 4th but john adams was so adamant that july 2nd
was the correct date he rejected invitations to attend 4th of july events in protest
speaking of holidays who doesn't love thanksgiving turkey stuffing pie your little cousin trying
alcohol for the first time but turns out pretty much everything we learned about thanksgiving is
you guessed it wrong we're taught that the pilgrims and the native americans came
together to share a beautiful feast in 1621 marking the beginning of a great friendship
well not so much there's no evidence that a benevolent relationship existed between the
pilgrims and the native americans if anything the pilgrim's strict religion would have made
them believe that the indigenous population were under demonic influence which just kills the
appetite and as part of their puritan culture it's more likely they would have fasted in celebration
rather than feast it an elaborate but effective way to avoid eating that one ants terrible cooking
thanksgiving wasn't even officially declared a national holiday until 1863 after a writer
sent a letter to abraham lincoln pleading with him to make it an official holiday for the sake
of unifying the nation in our history books we're taught that squanto helped the pilgrims and taught
them how to plant maize but what's left out is the fact that before that he was captured by the
english in 1614 sold into slavery and returned to new england in 1619 to find his entire tribe
had been killed from smallpox all before he even made contact with the pilgrims in 1621
driving around north carolina you may notice that signs and license plates boast that the state was
first in flight or the birthplace of aviation contrary to the seemingly common knowledge that
the wright brothers were first to fly an airplane in 1903 there is major controversy over there and
north carolina's claim if you ask someone in brazil who the first in flight was they'll
tell you about alberto santos dumant who piloted a dirigible but bless me around the eiffel tower
and on october 23 1906 alberto flew his biplane for about 200 feet at a height of around 15 feet
in front three weeks later he set the first world record recognized by the federation
aeronautique international for flying 726 feet in his aircraft critics of the wright brothers
claim that santos dumont was the first powered flight because his aircraft took off unassisted
while the right flyer had to be launched off a rail and was assisted by strong winds others
argue that gustav whitehead a german immigrant in connecticut beat out the wright brothers by flying
one and a half miles 150 feet over bridgeport more than two years before the wright brothers
a lack of documentation and only two eyewitnesses made the claim difficult to believe but after a
snapshot of whitehead in flight was found in 2013 connecticut passed a bill declaring their state
first in flight we know to victor go the spoils and it also seems to the loudest goes the credit
next up we're dropping in on one of the most iconic legends of every science textbook
isaac newton sitting under a tree getting bonked on the head by an apple and somehow
coming up with the law of gravity it appears an apple was involved but there's no evidence that
the fruit actually landed on his head while at home on break from cambridge university
newton witnessed an apple fall from a tree why did it drop straight to the ground he wondered
why not go sideways or even upwards also was that tobacco i just smoked this prompted him
to develop his law of universal gravitation fun fact newton's famous apple tree is still
growing at woolsthorpe manor you might want to keep your eyes peeled for any falling objects
if you learned about european history in school congrats on making it to college at some point in
that class you would have learned about the french revolution and marie antoinette's famous quote
let them eat cake for two centuries the quote has been attributed to queen marie as her response for
learning that her subjects were starving and couldn't even afford bread it represented her
frivolous disregard for the starving peasants and her poor understanding of their plight
but the phrase first appeared in a book by french philosopher jean-jacques rousseau in 1767
eight years before ms antoinette became queen historians believe he was referencing marie
therese a spanish princess at the time of the book's publishing in addition the french phrase
literally translates to let them eat brioche not cake brioche aka the bun mcdonald's uses for
their fancy burger which cost three dollars extra unfortunately for marie whether she said it or not
the french revolutionaries believed she felt that way about them ultimately leading to her execution
by way of beheading in 1793 moral of the story less carbs more veggies and lean proteins people
so what have we learned or really unlearned
that there is more than one story to every moment in history and it's not as simple as a
true or false unless the question is is history complicated because then the answer is true
you