6 History “Facts” That Aren’t Actually True
Those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it, but what about those who think they’re learning history but are actually reading myths? A number of well-known historical anecdotes are either exaggerated or completely false, making the task of discerning fact from fiction all the more difficult. From apocrypha to popular misconceptions, here are six historical “facts” that aren’t true.
Myth: People Were Burned at the Stake During the Salem Witch Trials
Though 20 different people were indeed convicted of witchcraft during the infamous Salem hearings of 1692 to 1693, none of them were burned at the stake. Nineteen of them — 14 women and five men — were hanged, five died in jail, and one man was pressed to death with stones after refusing to enter a plea. The confusion stems from the fact that those found guilty of witchcraft in Europe (where it was treated as heresy) were burned at the stake. “Burning was supposedly a way to purify the convict, and also as a threat to uncover conspiracies,” according to The Salem Witchcraft Trials: A Legal History author Peter Hoffer. Hanging them, meanwhile, was punitive.
Myth: Cleopatra Was Egyptian
Though she ruled over Egypt as its last pharaoh and was born in the ancient kingdom, Cleopatra wasn’t ethnically Egyptian. As part of the Ptolemaic dynasty, she was actually a Macedonian Greek believed to have descended from one of Alexander the Great’s generals. Her name came from the ancient Greek Kleopátra (Κλεοπάτρα), meaning “honor of the father” or “glory of her father.” She was, however, the first of her line to learn the Egyptian language and is known to have made other efforts to embrace her subjects’ customs.
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Myth: Marie Antoinette Said “Let Them Eat Cake”
It’s gone down in history as one of the most out-of-touch quotes of all time — one that emblematized the last queen of France’s disregard for her own people. There’s just one problem: Marie Antoinette never said it. The actual words in question, “qu’ils mangent de la brioche,” come from Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s autobiographical book Confessions, in which he wrote: “At length I remembered the last resort of a great princess who, when told that the peasants had no bread, replied: ‘Then let them eat brioches.’”
That passage was written in 1765, at which time Marie Antoinette was still a child and had yet to step foot in the country she helped rule from 1774 until the French monarchy was abolished in 1792, a year before her execution. After accidentally stepping on the executioner’s foot, she spoke her last words, which were considerably more polite than the quote so often attributed to her: “Pardon me, sir, I did not do it on purpose.”
Myth: Napoleon Was Short
Despite having a certain complex named after him, Napoleon Bonaparte was of average height for his time. Part of the confusion stems from the nickname “Le Petit Caporal,” which makes him sound “little” but was actually a term of endearment among his troops. There’s also the fact that inches were measured differently in 19th-century France than they are today. The former was equivalent to 2.71 centimeters, whereas the current measurement is 2.35 centimeters, which explains why he was only considered 5 feet, 2 inches tall when he died. Most estimates put him closer to 5 feet, 6 inches or 5 feet, 7 inches — not exactly a towering figure, but average or slightly above average by 18th-century standards.
Myth: The Library of Alexandria Burned Down in a Fire
Few symbols of knowledge loom as large in the collective imagination as the ancient Library of Alexandria, whose supposed burning has long been recognized as a monumental loss civilization has never fully recovered from. And while it’s true that the famed institution eventually ceased to exist, it wasn’t destroyed in a single conflagration that took much of the world’s ancient wisdom with it. What actually occurred is less dramatic but, in its own way, just as tragic: Both the collection and its influence slowly dwindled over the course of several centuries until whatever was left to burn represented a tiny fraction of the hundreds of thousands of papyrus scrolls once stored there.
No one is sure exactly what happened to the library — which was in fact part of a larger institution devoted to the Muses (goddesses who inspired all arts and knowledge in ancient Greece) known as the Mouseion — though everyone from Julius Caesar to Theophilus I of Alexandria has been blamed for its destruction. The library may be no more, but its legacy persists.
Myth: Albert Einstein Failed Math
Though it’s often cited as evidence of his humble beginnings, Einstein didn’t actually fail math. “I never failed in mathematics,” Einstein said in 1935 when presented with a Ripley's Believe It or Not! headline claiming he had. “Before I was 15 I had mastered differential and integral calculus.” The anecdote is often retold to inspire the rest of us not to let early setbacks deter us from chasing our dreams and reaching our full potential — a worthy sentiment to be sure, just not one supported by the evidence in this case.
