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.
Comments