Top 10 Historical Events Everyone Gets WRONG

WatchMojo

We've used gen AI for entertainment purposes to bring these stories back to life!   History isn't always what you remember from school! Join us as we debunk persistent myths about famous historical events that continue to be misunderstood. From Columbus's voyage to Orson Welles's alien invasion broadcast, we're setting the record straight on what really happened.

Transcript

00:00Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're counting down our picks for the top 10

00:10common myths and misconceptions surrounding famous historical events.

00:14I give you the last Roman of Death!

00:22Number 10. Orson Welles' The War of the Worlds.

00:25We are deeply shocked and deeply regretful about the results of last night's broadcast.

00:33The Halloween episode of the Mercury Theatre on the Air caused quite the stir in 1938.

00:38Its retelling of The War of the Worlds in news broadcast form caused many people to believe

00:43an actual alien invasion was happening… or at least, that was the story that was told

00:48in the newspapers the next day.

00:50In actuality, the broadcast was listened to by relatively few listeners, and even fewer

00:55actually believed it was a real news segment.

00:58Newspapers were quick to jump on the story, though, and some used it as an opportunity

01:02to discredit their advertising competitors in radio.

01:05We would have been surprised if… and hurt, as anybody would, if they'd been told that

01:12a presentation was less effective than life.

01:15Number 9. Ben Franklin's Kite Experiment.

01:19One of the great myths of America's revolutionary period comes from founding father and scientist,

01:24Ben Franklin.

01:25Many of us believe that Ben Franklin discovered electricity by flying a kite that was struck

01:30by lightning in a storm.

01:32It is true that Franklin conducted an experiment to learn more about electricity using a key

01:36tied to a kite in a lightning storm.

01:38However, electricity was a known phenomenon by then.

01:42Franklin was merely trying to understand more about how it worked.

01:46Also, the kite was never struck by lightning, or else he likely would have been killed by the

01:50strike.

01:51Number 8. The Building of the Great Pyramids.

01:54The last remaining ancient wonder of the world has captured the attention of people worldwide

01:59for centuries.

02:00Ancient Greeks first hypothesized that the pyramids were built by slaves, which many still believe

02:05to this day.

02:06However, more recent archaeological finds suggest the pyramids were built by paid workers, often

02:12farmers working in their off-season.

02:14There is evidence that they were paid fairly, housed, and fed well.

02:18For a structure so impressive, many assume it could only have been built with exploited

02:23labor.

02:24It is impressive that the opposite is true.

02:26Number 7.

02:27Van Gogh's Ear.

02:29Art enthusiasts know the infamous story of Vincent van Gogh, a brilliant but slightly mad artist

02:34who cut off his own ear and presented it to a woman in a brothel.

02:38This was the officially accepted story for years.

02:41But in 2009, historians Hans Kaufmann and Rita Wildegens presented evidence that suggested

02:47that story is not accurate.

02:49The original story is based on the account of fellow artist and friend of Van Gogh, Paul

02:54Gauguin, who was living with Van Gogh at the time.

02:57However, Kaufmann and Wildegens assert that Gauguin, a skilled fencer, actually cut off

03:02Van Gogh's ear himself during a heated scrap between the two men.

03:06Allegedly, Gauguin's guilt and Van Gogh's shame led the artists to hide the true story

03:11of this violent incident.

03:13Number 6.

03:14The Salem Witch Trials.

03:16A unique period in American history, to say the least.

03:20This example of mass hysteria has often been exaggerated to benefit Halloween tales and

03:25Hollywood films.

03:26For one thing, those convicted of witchcraft were not burned at the stake.

03:30They might have been in medieval Europe, but in early modern Salem, they were most often

03:34hanged.

03:35Float tests were another European practice that were never used in Salem.

03:39Finally, this period was not just caused by extreme religious beliefs.

03:43Other crucial factors included political unrest, war trauma, and land disputes between prominent

03:48families of Salem.

03:50Number 5.

03:51The Emancipation Proclamation.

03:53I do order and declare that all persons held as slaves within said designated states

03:59and parts of states are henceforward and forever shall be free.

04:07Issued by President Abraham Lincoln in 1863, the Emancipation Proclamation was a significant

04:12moment in the Civil War, but it did not end slavery in the United States.

04:16The Proclamation only applied to Confederate-controlled areas, meaning any slaves in northern controlled states would remain enslaved.

04:24Essentially, the Proclamation was intended to inspire a greater push into rebel territory,

04:29with the added motivation of freeing the enslaved with each advance.

04:34The Proclamation also permitted black men to fight for the Union, so newly freed slaves

04:38could help free others.

04:39It wasn't until the 13th Amendment was passed in 1864 that slavery was finally abolished

04:45throughout the entire United States.

04:47Number 4.

04:48The Mohammad Mossadegh Myth.

04:50The 1953 Iranian coup d'etat was led by British and American forces to protect Western

04:57oil interests in Iran, and resulted in the overthrow of Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadegh.

05:02This caused significant backlash because of the blatant abuse of power from the two governments.

05:07But there have been some misconceptions about this event.

05:10Most notable is the often-repeated myth that the coup saw the US and UK governments overthrowing

05:16a democratically elected leader.

05:18In actuality, Mossadegh was appointed by parliament, not elected by the people, and there is reason

05:24to believe he manipulated the parliamentary elections that preceded his appointment.

05:29Number 3.

05:30Anastasia Romanov's Death.

05:33After the Romanov family were brutally murdered by Bolsheviks in 1918, rumors that the young

05:38Duchess Anastasia had escaped and survived were rampant throughout the 20th century.

05:43Many women claimed to be the lost Duchess, and the myth even inspired the popular animated

05:47movie Anastasia in 1997.

05:51In reality, there was no evidence that any of the Romanovs had survived.

05:55Her brutal sight was discovered in 1991, sparking a resurgence in Anastasia's survival myth

06:01after it was revealed that two bodies were missing, including Anastasia's.

06:05Sadly, the final two bodies were discovered in 2007, a final confirmation of the young

06:11Duchess's early demise.

06:13Number 2.

06:14Isaac Newton's Discovery of Gravity.

06:17As the story goes, mathematician and physicist Sir Isaac Newton was sitting beneath a tree when

06:22an apple fell from the tree and hit him on the head.

06:25The jolt to his head inspired Newton to formulate his law of universal gravitation.

06:30While this makes for an exciting origin story for a major breakthrough in the field of physics,

06:35there is no evidence to prove that the apple hit Newton at all.

06:39This version of the story appears to be an exaggerated retelling of Newton's own account,

06:44in which he simply watched an apple fall to the ground, safe from fruit-related harm.

06:49Still, the popular story persists, and several clones of the original tree from Newton's

06:55garden can be found around the world.

06:58Before we unveil our top pick, here are a few honorable mentions.

07:03Rosa Parks' protest.

07:05She was told to give her seat to a white person, but was not in the whites-only section.

07:16Marie Antoinette's famous quote, she never said let them eat cake.

07:28The destruction of the library at Alexandria.

07:31Disuse and multiple fires destroyed the library, not one great fire.

07:42The Jonestown Massacre.

07:43It wasn't Kool-Aid.

07:45It was Flavor-Aid.

07:55The Betsy Ross flag.

07:57She was a flag maker, but she didn't come up with her eponymous design.

08:12You have the option to be notified for occasional videos, or all of them.

08:16If you're on your phone, make sure you go into settings and switch on your notifications.

08:23Number 1.

08:24Christopher Columbus and the Flat Earth.

08:27You might have been mistakenly taught in school that Columbus's attempts to reach

08:30the East Indies by sailing west around the world was ridiculed as no one believed the

08:35earth was round.

08:37This story comes from Washington Irving's biography of Columbus, which took some creative liberties

08:42when it came to historical accuracy.

08:44In reality, members of the council tasked with approving Columbus's proposals knew the

08:49earth was not flat.

08:51They objected to Columbus's questionable calculations of how large our world actually was.

08:56The Spanish scholars correctly assessed that Columbus's journey would take much longer

09:00than he expected, given the actual distance he intended to cover.

09:04His stumbling upon the Americas was completely unexpected, and a significantly lucky break.

09:10Were you surprised by any of these historical myths?

09:13Let us know in the comments.

09:15And in conclusion, may I please remind you that it does not say RSVP on the Statue of Liberty.

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