Mr Insanity
TNPer
Common Misconceptions in History:
(I got all my informations and reference from Wikipedia. I also place the sources what Wikipedia give me to provide evidences.)- Vomitorium wasn’t a special room for purging food during meals, was the entranceway through which crowds entered and exited a stadium. So vomiting wasn’t a regular part of Roman dining customs.
?(Source: Fass, Patrick (1994). Around the Roman Table: https://books.google.co.uk/books?id...iting "there is no reason to believe"&f=false. University of Chicago Press. PP. 66-67, and McKeown, J.C. (2010). A Cabinet of Roman Curiosities: Strange Tales and Surprising Facts from the World’s Greatest Empire: https://books.google.co.uk/books?id...#v=onepage&q=vomitorium misconception&f=false Oxford University Press. PP. 153-154.)
- Two ancient Roman historians recount that in the year 52 AD, a large group of criminals condemned to fight each other to the death in a large staged naval battle on an artificial lake greeted Emperor Claudius that way; he may possibly have pardoned them as a result. That is the only recorded use of the phrase in ancient Rome. So Roman gladiators did not ritually say “Ave Imperator, Morituri Te Salutant” (Latin) (In English = “Hail Emperor, We who are about to die salute you” before combat.)
?(Source: Leon, H.J. (1939). “Morituri Te Salutamus”: http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Journals/TAPA/70/Morituri_Te_Salutamus*.html. Transactions of the American Philological Association 70: 45-50. Retrieved December 3, 2014. “With minor variations of details this rite is described in numerous works dealing with Roman antiquities, so that it has become one of the best known and most often cited of Roman customs.”)
- A common misconception alleged that Caliph Umar ordered the destruction based on the reasoning “If those books are in agreement with Quran, we have no need of them; and if these are opposed to the Quran, destroy them” (Or its variation). This story did not appear in writing until hundreds of years after the alleged incident (Most famously in the work of Bar Hebraeus in the 13th century) and contemporary accounts of the Arab invasion do not include any account of the library’s destruction. Modern consensus suggests the library had likely already been destroyed centuries before this incident. (It is instead believed that the Library of Caesarea, a key repository of Christian literature, was the library destroyed near this time.). So the Library of Alexandria was not destroyed by the Muslim Army during the Muslim conquest of Egypt and Libya in 641.
?(Source: Lewis, Bernard (2008). What Happened to the Ancient Library of Alexandria?: https://books.google.co.uk/books?id...ei=wUg6UaOcFajy0wHNmYDIBw#v=onepage&q&f=false. Brill Academic Pub, P. 213. The Vanished Library: http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/1990/sep/27/the-vanished-library-2/, Bernard Lewis, in a letter to the New York Review of Books. Archived April 5, 2014 at the Wayback Machine. F.L. Cross and Elizabeth A. Livingstone, “Pamphilus, St,” in the Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church (3rd ED. Rev.; Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press, 2005), 1221. “The large library [30,000 Vols in A.D. 530 {O’Connor 1980:161}] survived at Caesarea until destroyed by the Arabs in the 7th Cent.”)
- Earlier low life expectancies were very strongly influenced by high infant mortality, and the life expectancy of people who lived to adulthood was much higher. A 21-year-old man in medieval England, for example, could by one estimate expect to live to the age of 64. So it is true that life expectancy in the Middle Ages and early was low; however, one should no infer that people usually died around the age of 30.
?(Source: Laden, Greg (May 1, 2011). “Falsehood: “If this was the Stone Age, I’d be dead by now” – Greg Laden’s Blog”: http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/2011/05/01/falsehood-if-this-was-the-ston/. Science blogs.com. Archived from the original on 2014-03-30. Retrieved December 23, 2012. “ “Expectations of Life” by H.O. Lancaster as per”: https://apps.business.ualberta.ca/rfield/lifeexpectancy.htm. Archived from the original on 2012-09-04.)
- The image of Vikings wearing horned helmets stems from the scenography of an 1876 production of the Der Ring Des Nibelungen (German) (In English= The Ring of the Nibelung) opera cycle by Richard Wagner. So there is no evidence that Vikings wore horns on their helmets.
?(Source: Kahn, Charles (2005). World History: Societies of the Past: https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=gEXCIH4tek8C&hl=en. Portage and Main Press. P. 9. Retrieved March 18, 2011. Frank, F. (2000). The Invention of the Viking Horned Helmet: http://www.scribd.com/doc/51267328/Frank-Invention-of-Horned-Helmet. International Scandinavian and Medieval Sturdies in Memory of Gred Wolfgang Weber. Archived from the original on 2014-04013.)
- King Canute did not command the tide to reverse in a fit of delusional arrogance. His intent that day, if the incident even happened, was most likely to prove a point to members of his privy council that no man is all-powerful, and we all must bend to forces beyond our control, such as the tides.
?(Source: “Is King Canute misunderstood?”: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-13524677. BBC. May 26, 2011. Archived from the original on 2014-03-20.)
- Iron maidens were pieced together in the 18th century from several artefacts found in museums in order to create spectacular objects intended for (commercial) exhibition. So there is no evidence that iron maidens were invented in the middle ages or even used for torture.
?(Source: Schild, Wolfgang (2000). Die Eiseme Jungfrau. Dichtung Und Wahrheit (Schriftenreihe Des Mittelalterlichen Kriminalmuseums Rothenburg O. D. Tauber Nr. 3). Rothenburg Ob Der Tauber.)
- The plate armour of European soldiers did not stop soldiers from moving around or necessitate a crane to get them into a saddle. They would as a matter of course fight on foot and could mount and dismount without help. In fact, soldiers equipped with plate armour were more mobile than those with mail amour (Chain amour), as mail was heavier and required stiff padding beneath due to its pliable nature. It is true that armour used in tournaments in the late Middle Ages was significantly heavier than that used in warfare, which may have contributed to this misconception.
? (Source: Breiding Dirk. “Department of Arms and Armor, The Metropolitan Museum of Art”: http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/aams/hd_aams.htm#weight_b. Metmuseum.org. Archived from the original on 2014-04-26. Retrieved February 23, 2012. “Cranes hoisting armored knights”: http://madeofwynn.net/2012/10/08/medieval-anachronisms-part-3-cranes-hoisting-armored-knights/. Archived from the original on 2013-10-29.)
- Modern historians dispute the popular misconception that the chastity belt, a device designed to prevent women from having sexual intercourse, was invented in medieval times. Most existing chastity belts are now thought to be deliberate fake or anti-masturbator devices from the 19th and 20th centuries. The latter were made due to the widespread belief that masturbation could lead to insanity, and were mostly bought by parents for their teenage children.
?(Source: Keyser, Linda Migl (2008). “The Medieval Chastity Belt Unbuckled”. In Harris, Stephen J.; Grigsby, Bryon L. Misconceptions about the middle Ages. Routledge.)
- From the time of the ancient Greek philosophers Plato and Aristotle, belief in a spherical Earth remained almost universal among European intellectuals. As a result, Christopher Columbus’s efforts to obtain support for his voyages were hampered not by belief in a flat Earth but by valid worries that the East Indies were farther than he realized. If the Americas had not existed, he would surely have run out of supplies before reaching Asia. So Medieval Europeans did not believe Earth was flat.
?(Source: Louise M. Bishop (2010). “The Myth of the Flat Earth”: https://books.google.co.uk/books?id...h&pg=PT149&hl=en#v=snippet&q=boorstin&f=false. In Stephen Harris; Bryon L. Grigsby. Misconceptions about the middle Ages. Routledge. Retrieved 26 January 2014.)
- Columbus never reached any land that now forms part of the mainland United States of America; most of the landings Columbus made on his four voyages, including the initial October 12, 1492 landing (The anniversary of which forms the basis of Columbus Day), were on Caribbean islands which today are independent countries. Columbus was also not the first European to visit the Americas: at least one explorer, Leif Ericson, preceded him by reaching what is believed to be the island now known as Newfoundland, part of modern Canada, though he never made it to the mainland.
?(Source: Eviater Zerubavel (2003). Terra Cognita: The mental discovery of America: https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=YkLCiKN0x4UC&pg=PA90&hl=en#v=onepage&q&f=false. Transaction Publishers. PP 90-91. Sale, Kirkpatrick (1991). The Conquest of Paradise: Christopher Columbus and the Columbian Legacy. PP. 204-209.)
- There is a legend that Marco Polo imported pasta from China which originated with the Macaroni Journal, published by an association of food industries with the goal of promoting the use of pasta in the United States of America. Marco Polo describes a food similar to “lagana” in his Travels, but he uses a term with which he was already familiar. Durum wheat, and thus pasta as it is known today, was introduced by Arabs from Libya, during their conquest of Sicily in the late 7th century, according to the newsletter of the National Macaroni Manufacturers Association, thus predating Marco Polo’s travels to China by about six centuries.
?(Source: “National Pasta Association”: http://web.archive.org/web/20120320211605/http://www.ilovepasta.org:80/faqs.html. Archived from the original on 2012-03-20. Article FAQs section “Who “Invented” pasta?”; “The story that it was Marco Polo who imported noodles to Italy and thereby gave birth to the country’s pasta culture is most pervasive myth in the history of Italian food.” (Dickie 2008, P. 48). S. Serventi, F. Sabban La Pasta. Storia E Cultura Di Un Cibo Universale, VII. Economica Laterza 2004. Serventi, Silvano; Françoise Sabban (2002). Pasta: The Story of a Universal Food. Trans. Antony Shugaar. New York: Columbia University Press. P. 10.)
- Contrary to the popular image of the Pilgrim Fathers, the early settlers of the Plymouth Colony did not wear all black, and their capotains (hat) were shorter and rounder then the widely depicted tall hat with a buckle on it. Instead, their fashion was based on that of the late Elizabethan era: doublets, jerkins and ruffs. Both men and women wore the same style of shoes, stockings, capes, coats and hats in a range of colours including reds, yellows, purples and greens. According to Plimoth Plantation historian James W. Baker, the traditional image was formed in the 19th century when buckles were a kind of emblem of quaintness.
?(Source: “Plymouth Colony Clothing”: http://web.ccsd.k12.wy.us/techcurr/social studies/05/0101pilcloth.html. Web.CCSD.K12.WY.US. Archived from the original on 2013-10-22. Retrieved February 9, 2012. Schenone, Laura. A Thousand Years Over A Hot Stove: A History Of American Women Told Through Food, Recipes, And Remembrances. New York: W. W. Norton and Company, 2004: 118. Wilson, Susan. Literary Trail of Greater Boston. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 200: 23.)
- The accused at the Salem witch trials were not burned at the stake; about 15 died in prison, 19 were hanged and one was pressed to death.
?(Source: Rosenthal, Bernard. Salem Story: Reading the Witch Trials of 1692: https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=YNYyMV_huGAC&pg=PA209&hl=en#v=onepage&q&f=false, P. 209 (Cambridge University Press 1995). Adams, Gretchen. The Specter of Salem: Remembering the Witch Trials in Nineteenth-Century America: https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=wMIF3EFgnRsC&pg=PR22&hl=en#v=onepage&q&f=false, P. XXII (ReadHowYouWant.com, 2010).)
- Marie Antoinette did not say “let them eat cake” when she heard that the French peasantry were starving due to a shortage of bread. The phrase was first published in Rousseau’s Confessions when Marie was only nine years old and most scholars believe that Rousseau coined it himself, or that it was said by Maria-Theresa, the wife of Louis XIV. Even Rousseau (or Maria-Theresa) did not use the exact words but actually Qu’ils mangent de la brioche, “Let them eat brioche” (A rich type of bread). Marie Antoinette was an unpopular ruler, therefore, people attribute the phrase “let them eat cake” to her, in keeping with her reputation as being hard-hearted and disconnected from her subjects.
(Source: Keener, Candace. “HowStuffWorks “Let Them Eat Cake” “: http://history.howstuffworks.com/historical-figures/top-5-marie-antoinette-scandals1.htm. History.howstuffworks.com. Archived from the original on 2012-09-04. Retrieved June 23, 2010.)
- George Washington dentures were made of gold, hippopotamus ivory, lead, animal teeth (Including horse and donkey teeth), and probably human teeth from slaves. So George Washington did not have wooden teeth.
?(Source: “Washington’s False Teeth Not Wooden”: http://www.nbcnews.com/id/6875436/. MSNBC. January 27, 2005. Archived from the original on 2011-08-23. Retrieved August 29, 2009. Thompson, Mary V. “The Private Life of George Washington’s Slaves”: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/jefferson/video/lives.html. Retrieved 16 June 2014.)
- The signing of The United States of America Declaration of Independence did not occur on July 4, 1776. The final language of the document was approved by the Second Continental Congress on that date and it was printed and distributed on July 4 and 5, but the actual signing occurred on August 2, 1776.
?(Source: “Declaration of Independence – A History”: http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/charters/declaration_history.html. Archives. Gov. U.S. National Archives and Records Administration. Archived from the original on 2010-01-17. Retrieved April 4, 2011. Crabtree, Steve (July 6, 1999). “New Poll Gauges Americans’ General Knowledge Levels”: http://www.gallup.com/poll/3742/new-poll-gauges-americans-general-knowledge-levels.aspx. Gallup News Service. Archived from the original on 2014-03-27. Retrieved January 13, 2011. “Fifth-five percent say it commemorates the signing of the Declaration of Independence (This is a common misconception, and close to being accurate; July 4th is actually the date in 1776 when the Continental Congress approved the Declaration, which was officially signed on August 2nd.) Another 32% give a more general answer, saying that July 4th celebrates Independence Day.”)
- Benjamin Franklin di not proposed that the wild turkey be used as the symbol for the United States of America instead of the bald eagle. While he did serve on a commission that tried to design a seal after the Declaration of Independence, his proposal was an image of Moses. His objections to the eagle as a national symbol and preference for the turkey were stated in a 1784 letter to his daughter in response to the Society of the Cincinnati’s use of the former; he never expressed that sentiment publicly.
? (Source: Lund, Nicholas (November 21, 2013). “Did Benjamin Franklin Really Say the National Symbol Should Be the Turkey?”: http://www.slate.com/articles/healt...hy_he_hated_the_bald_eagle_for_the_great.html. Slate. Archived from the original on 2014-04-27. Retrieved November 22, 2013. McMillan, Joseph (May 18, 2007). “The Arms of the United States: Benjamin Franklin and the Turkey”: http://www.americanheraldry.org/pages/index.php?n=MMM.Turkey. American Heraldry Society. Archived from the original on 2014-04-27. Retrieved November 24, 2013.)
- There was never a bill to make German the official language of the United States of America that was defeated by one vote in the House of Representatives, nor has one been prosed at the state level. In 1794, a petition from a group of German immigrants was put aside on a procedural vote of 42 to 41 that would have had the government publish some laws in German. This was the basis of the Muhlenberg legend, named after the Speaker of the House at the time, Frederick Muhlenberg, a speaker of German descent who abstained from this vote.
?(Source: Sick, Bastian (2004). Der Dativ Ist Dem Genetiv Sein Tod. Kieperheuer and Witsch. Willi Paul Adams: The German Americans. Chapter 7: German or English: http://maxkade.iupui.edu/adams/chap7.html Archived June 24, 2010 at the Wayback Machine. The German Vote: http://www.snopes.com/language/apocryph/german.asp, Snopes.com, July 9, 2007.)
- .....
- Napoleon Bonaparte was not short. He was actually slightly taller than the average Frenchman of his time. After his death in 1821, the French emperor’s height was recorded as 5 feet 2 inches in French feet, which is 5 feet 7 inches (1.69 m). Some believe that he was nicknamed Le Petit Caporal (French) (In English= The Little Corporal) as a term of affection. Napoléon was often accompanied by his imperial guard, who were selected for their height – some suggest that this could have contributed to a perception that he was relatively short.
?(Source: Evans, Rod L. (2010). Sorry, Wrong Answer: Trivia Questions That Even Know-It-Alls Get wrong: https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=Q7CkHF7xTuYC&pg=PT116&hl=en#v=onepage&q&f=false. Penguin Books. “Forget Napoleon – Height Rules”: http://www.cbsnews.com/news/forget-napoleon-height-rules/. CBS News. February 11, 2009. Retrieved December 31, 2011. “Fondation Napoléon”: http://www.napoleon.org/en/essential_napoleon/faq/index.asp#ancre54. Napoleon.org. Archived from the original on 2014-04-17. Retrieved August 29, 2009. “La Taille De Napoléon”: http://www.napoleon.org/fr/salle_lecture/articles/files/Taillenapo_RIN_89_oct1963_2006.asp (In French). Archived from the original on 2009-09-12. Retrieved July 22, 2010. Wilde, Robert. “Was Napoleon Bonaparte Short?”: http://europeanhistory.about.com/od/bonapartenapoleon/a/napoleonheight.htm. European History. About.com. Archived from the original on 2014-02-13. Retrieved April 5, 2011. “Napoleon’s Imperial Guard”: http://napoleonistyka.atspace.com/IMPERIAL_GUARD_infantry_1.htm. Archived from the original on 2014-04-27.)
- Cinco de Mayo is not Mexico’s Independence Day, but the celebration of the Mexican Army’s victory over the French in the Battle of Puebla on May 5, 1862. Mexico’s Independence from Spain is celebrated on September 16.
? (Source: Lovgren, Stefan (May 5, 2006). “Cinco de Mayo, From Mexican Fiesta to Popular U.S. Holiday”: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2006/05/0505_060505_cinco_de_mayo.html. National Geographic News. Archived from the original on 2007-07-09. Lauren Effron (May 5, 2010). “Cinco de Mayo: NOT Mexico’s Independence Day”: http://news.discovery.com/history/cinco-de-mayo-not-mexico-independence-day-france-spain-120504.htm. Discovery Channel. Archived from the original on 2012-03-21. Retrieved May 5, 2011.)
- The Great Chicago Fire of 1871 was not caused by Mrs. O’Leary’s cow kicking over a lantern. A newspaper reporter invented the story to make colourful copy.
?(Source: “The O’Leary legend”: http://web.archive.org/web/20110110110402/http://www.chicagohistory.org/fire/oleary/essay-2.html. Chicago History Museum. Archived from the original on January 11, 2011. Retrieved March 18, 2007.)
- The claim that Frederick Remington, on assignment to Cuba, telegraphed William Randolph Hearst that “….. There will be no war. I wish to return” and that Hearst responded, “Please remain. You furnish the pictures, and I’ll furnish the war” is unsubstantiated. Although this claim is included in a book by James Creelman, there is no evidence that the telegraph exchange ever happened, and substantial evidence that it did not.
?(Source: Campbell, W. Joseph (2010). Getting it wrong: ten of the greatest misreported stories in American Journalism. Berkeley: University of California Pres. PP. 9-25. Campbell, W. Joseph (2003). Yellow Journalism: Puncturing the Myths, Defining the Legacies: https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=TflDlgzRtSYC&pg=PA72&hl=en#v=onepage&q&f=false. Praeger. P. 72.)
- The popular image of Santa Claus was not created by The Coca-Cola Company as an advertising gimmick; by the time Coca-Cola began using Santa Claus’s image in the 1930s, Santa Claus had already taken his modern form in popular culture, having already seen extensive use in other companies’ advertisement and other mass media.
? (Source: “The Claus That Refreshes”: http://www.snopes.com/holidays/christmas/santa/cocacola.asp. Archived from the original on 2009-12-22. Snopes.com. Retrieved January 7, 2008:
- ?The white Rock Collectors Association, “Did White Rock or the Coca-Cola Company create the modern Santa Claus Advertisement?”: http://www.whiterocking.org/santa.html#article. Archived from the original on 2009-12-22, “whiterocking.org, and 2001. Retrieved January 19, 2007.
- ?White Rock Beverages, “”Coca-Cola’s Santa Claus: Not The Real Thing!”: http://www.bevnet.com/news/2006/12-18-2006-white_rock_coke_santa_claus.asp Archived from the original on 2009-12-22, “BevNET.com, December 18, 2006.
- ?White Rock Beverages, “”Coca-Cola’s Santa Claus: Not The Real Thing!”: http://www.bevnet.com/news/2006/12-18-2006-white_rock_coke_santa_claus.asp Archived from the original on 2009-12-22, “BevNET.com, December 18, 2006. Retrieved January 19, 2007.
- ?Santa Claus on the 1902 cover of Puck magazine: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Santa1902PuckCover.jpg, Santa Claus on the 1904 cover of Puck magazine: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Santa1904PuckCover.jpg and Santa Claus on the 1905 cover of Puck Magazine: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Santa1905PuckCover.jpg.)
- Italian dictator Benito Mussolini did not “make the trains run on time”. Much of the repair work had been performed before Mussolini and the Fascists came to power in 1922. Accounts from the era also suggest that the Italian railways, legendary adherence to timetables was more propaganda than reality.
?(Source: Cathcart, Brian (April 3, 1994). “Rear Window: Making Italy Work: Did Mussolini really get the trains running on time”: http://www.independent.co.uk/voices...y-get-the-trains-running-on-time-1367688.html. The Independent (London). Archived from the original on 2012-01-24. Retrieved 2010-09-03.)
- There was no widespread outbreak of panic across The United States of America in response to Orson Welles’ 1938 radio adaptation of H.G. Wells’ The War of the Worlds. Only a very small share of the radio audience. Was even listening to it, and isolated reports of scattered incidents and increased call volume to emergency services were played up the next day by newspapers, eager to discredit radio as a competitor for advertising. Both Welles and CBS, which had initially reacted apologetically, later came to realize that the myth benefited them and actively embraced it in their late years.
? (Source: Pooley, Jefferson: Socolow, Michael (October 28, 2013). “The Myth of the War of the Worlds Panic”: http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/...ic_myth_the_infamous_radio_broadcast_did.html. Slate. Archived from the original on 2014-05-09. Retrieved November 24, 2013. Campbell, W. Joseph. (2010). getting it wrong: ten of the greatest misreported stories in American Journalism: https://books.google.co.uk/books?id...Sw2YDwDA#v=onepage&q=getting it wrong&f=false. Berkeley: University of California Press. PP. 26-44.)
- During the occupation of Denmark by the Nazis during World War II, King Christian X of Denmark did not thwart Nazi attempts to identify Jews by wearing a yellow star himself. Jews in Denmark were never forced to wear the Star of David. The Danish resistance did help most Jews flee the country before the end of the war.
? (Source: Vilhjálmur Örn Vilhjálmsson. “The King and the Star – Myths created during the Occupation of Denmark”: http://www.diis.dk/graphics/CVer/Pe...Genocide/Publikationer/holocaust_DK_kap_5.pdf (PDF). Danish institute for international studies. Retrieved April 5, 2011:
- ? “Some Essential Definitions and Myths Associated with the Holocaust”: http://www.chgs.umn.edu/histories/myths.html. Centre for Holocaust and Genocide Studies – University of Minnesota. Retrieved April 5, 2011.
- ? “King Christian and the Star of David”: http://www.natmus.dk/sw81068.asp. The National Museum of Denmark. Retrieved April 6, 2011.)
- Albert Einstein did not fail mathematics in school. Upon seeing a column making this claim, Einstein said “I never failed in mathematics…. Before I was fifteen I had mastered differential and integral calculus.” Einstein did however fail the entrance exam into the Swiss Federal Polytechnic School on his first attempt in 1895, although he was two years younger than his fellow students at the time and scored exceedingly well in the mathematics and science sections.
? (Source: Isaacson, Walter (5 April 2007). “Making the Grade”: http://content.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1936731_1936743_1936758,00.html. Time. Archived from the original on 2014-03-29. Retrieved 31 December 2013. Jones, Andrew Zimmerman. “Physics Myth Month – Einstein Failed Mathematics?”: http://physics.about.com/b/2007/09/19/physics-myth-month-einstein-failed-mathematics.htm. Archived from the original on 2014-04-12. Retrieved May 4, 2011. Kruszelnicki, Karl. “Einstein Failed School”: http://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2004/06/23/1115185.htm?site=science/greatmomentsinscience. Archived from the original on 2014-04-27. Retrieved July 12, 2012.)
- Actor Ronald Reagan was never seriously considered for the role of Rick Blaine in the 1942 film classic Casablanca, eventually played by Humphrey Bogart. This belief came from an early studio press release announcing the film’s production that used his name to generate interest in the film. But by the time it had come out, Warner Bros. knew that Reagan was unavailable for any roles in the foreseeable future since he was no longer able to defer his entry into military service. Studio records show that producer Hal B. Wallis had always wanted Bogart for the part.
? (Source: Harmetz, Aljean (1992). Round Up the Usual Suspects: The Making of Casablanca – Bogart, Bergman, and World War II. Hyperion. P. 72. Sklar, Robert (1992). City Boys: Cagney, Bogart, Garfield. New Jersey: Princeton University Press. P. 135. Mikkelson, Barbara and David P. (August 17, 2007.) “The Blaine Truth”: http://www.snopes.com/movies/films/reaganincasablanca.asp. Snopes.com. Retrieved March 25, 2012.)
- U.S. Senator George Smathers never gave a speech to a rural audience describing his opponent, Claude Pepper, as an “extrovert” whose sister was a “thespian”, in the apparent hope they would confuse them with similar-sounding words like “pervert” and “lesbian”. Time, which is sometimes cited as the source, described the story of the purported speech as a “yarn” at the time, and no Florida newspaper reported such a speech during the campaign. The leading reporter who covered Smathers said he always gave the same boilerplate speech. Smathers had offered US$10,000.00 to anyone who could prove he had made the speech; it was never claimed.
? (Source: “FLORIDA: Anything Goes”: http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,805369,00.html. Time. April 17, 1950. Archived from the original on 2013-06-24. Retrieved May 3, 2010. Nohlgren, Stephen (November 29, 2003). “A born winner, if not a native Floridian”: http://www.sptimes.com/2003/11/29/State/A_born_winner__if_not.shtml. St. Petersburg Times. Archived from the original on 2012-10-05. Retrieved October 8, 2011.)
- John F. Kennedy’s words “Ich bin ein Berliner” are standard German for “I am a Berliner.” An urban legend has it that due to his use of the indefinite article ein, Berliner is translated as jelly doughnut, and that the population of Berlin was amused by the supposed mistake. The word Berliner is not commonly used in Berlin to refer to the Berliner Pfannkuchen; they are usually called ein Pfannkuchen.
? (Source: Daum, Andreas W. (2007). Kennedy in Berlin: https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=IrK1TG34vw8C&lpg=PP1&pg=PT148&hl=en#v=onepage&q&f=false. Cambridge University Press. PP. 148-149. “Gebrauch des unbestimmten Artikels (German, “Use of the indefinite article”)”: http://www.canoo.net/services/OnlineGrammar/Wort/Artikel/Gebrauch/ArtIndef.html. Canoo Engineering AG. Archived from the original on 2014-03-28. Retrieved July 5, 2010. “German Myth 6: JFK a Jelly Doughnut? Berlin Speech 1963”: http://german.about.com/library/blgermyth06.htm. German Misnomers, Myths and Mistakes. About.com. Archived from the original on 2014-02-09. Retrieved April 5, 2011.)
- African American intellectual and activist W.E.B. Du Bois did not renounce his U.S. citizenship while living in Ghana shortly before his death, as is often claimed. In early 1963, due to his membership in the Communist party and support for the Soviet Union, the U.S. State Department did not renew his passport while he was already in Ghana overseeing the creating of the Encyclopaedia Africana. After leaving the embassy, he stated his intention to renounce his citizenship in protest. But while he took Ghanaian citizenship, he never went through the process of renouncing his American citizenship, and may not even have intended to.
?(Source: Bass, Amy (2009). Those about Him Remained Silent: The Battle over W.E.B. Du Bois: https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=wn7B_04lNJkC&pg=PA155&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q&f=false. University of Minnesota Press. P. 155. “Renouncing citizenship is usually all about the Benjamins, say experts”: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/201...p-is-usually-all-about-benjamins-say-experts/. Fox News. May 11, 2012. Retrieved May 18, 2015. “Celebrities Who Renounced Their Citizenship”: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/01/celebrities-who-renounced-citizenship_n_2602099.html. Huffington Post. February 1, 2012. Retrieved May 18, 2015. Aberjhani, Sandra L. West (2003. Encyclopaedia of the Harlem Renaissance: https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=XP48QWTmjyUC&pg=PA89&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q&f=false. Infobase Publishing. P. 89. Lewis, David (2009). W.E.B. Du Bois: A Biography: https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=BU4vH95YySgC&pg=PA841&redir_esc=y. MacMillan. P. 841.)
- When bartender Kitty Genovese was murdered outside her Queens apartment in 1964, 37 neighbours did not stand idly by watch, not calling the police until after she was dead, as The New York Times initially reported to widespread public outrage that persisted for years. Later reporting established that the police report the Times had initially relied on was inaccurate, that Genovese had been attacked twice in different locations, and while the many witnesses heard the attack they only head brief portions and did not realize what was occurring, with only six or seven actually reporting seeing anything. Some called police; one who didn’t said “I didn’t want to get involved”, an attitude which later came too attributed to all the residents who saw or heard part of the attack.
? (Source: Gansberg, Martin (March 27, 1964). “37 Who Saw Murder Didn’t Call the Police”: http://www.37themovie.com/images/about/NYTimes_KittyGenoveseArticle.pdf (PDF). New York Times. Rasenberger, Jim (October 2006). “Nightmare on Austin Street”: http://www.americanheritage.com/content/nightmare-austin-street. American Heritage. Retrieved May 18, 2015.)
- The Rolling Stones were not performing “Sympathy for the Devil” at the 1969 Altamont Free Concert when Meredith Hunter was stabbed to death by a member of the local Hells Angels chapter that was serving as security. While the incident that culminated in Hunters’ death began while the band was performing the song, prompting a brief interruption before the stones finished it, it concluded several songs later as the band was performing “Under My Thumb”. The misconception arose from mistaken reporting in Rolling Stone.
?(Source: Cruickshank, Douglas. “Sympathy for the Devil”: http://www.salon.com/2002/01/14/sympathy/. Salon.com. Archived from the original on 2011-09-29. Retrieved June 25, 2006. Zentgraf, Nico. “The Complete Works of the Rolling Stones 1962-2008”: http://www.nzentgraf.de/books/tcw/works1.htm. Archived from the original on 2012-03-27. Retrieved February 23, 2008. Burks, John (February 7, 1970). “Rock and Roll’s Worst Day”: http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news. Rolling Stone. Archived from the original on 2009-04-22. Retrieved September 13, 2008.)
- While it was praised by one architectural magazine prior to its construction as “the best high apartment of the year”, the Pruitt-Igoe housing project in St. Louis, Missouri, considered to epitomize the failures of urban renewal in American cities after it was demolished in the early 1970s, never won any awards for its design. The architectural firm that designed the buildings did win an award for an earlier St. Louis project, which may have been confused with Pruitt-Igoe.
? (Source: Cendón, Sara Fernández (February 3, 2012). “Pruitt-Igoe 40 years later”: http://www.aia.org/practicing/AIAB092656. American Institute of Architects. Retrieved December 31, 2014. “For example, Pruitt-Igoe is often cited as an AIA-award recipient, but the project never won any architectural awards.” Bristol, Katharine (May 1991). “The Pruitt-Igoe Myth”: http://www.pruitt-igoe.com/temp/1991-bristol-pruitt-igoemyth.pdf (PDF). Journal of Architectural Education (Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture) 44 (3): 168. “Though it commonly accorded the epithet ‘award-winning,’” Pruitt-Igoe never won any kind of architectural prize. An earlier St. Louis housing project by the same team of architects, the John Cochran Garden Apartments, did win two architectural awards. At some point this prize seems to have incorrectly attributed to Pruitt-Igore.”)
- Although popularly known as the “red telephone”, the Moscow-Washington hotline was never a telephone line, nor were red phones used. The first implementation of the hotline used teletype equipment, which was replaced by facsimile (fax) machines in 1988. Since 2008, the hotline has been a secure computer link over which the two countries exchange emails. Moreover, the hotline links the Kremlin to the Pentagon, not the White House.
? (Source: Paul E. Richardson, “The hot line (is a Hollywood myth)”, in: Russian Life, September/October issue 2009, PP. 50-59. Clavin, Tom (June 18, 2013). “There Never Was Such a Thing as a Red Phone in the White House”: http://www.smithsonianmag.com/ist/?...ng-as-a-red-phone-in-the-white-house-1129598/. Smithsonian. Retrieved September 21, 2014.)
- .....
- From Romanoffia: Abraham Lincoln was actually a racist and white supremacist even by the standards of his day. All you have to read are the very words he said:
“And inasmuch as they cannot so live, while they do remain together there must be the position of superior and inferior, and I as much as any other man am in favor of having the superior position assigned to the white race.”
“I have no purpose, directly or indirectly, to interfere with the institution of slavery in the states where it exists. I believe I have no lawful right to do so, and I have no inclination to do so.”
“I have never had the least apprehension that I or my friends would marry negroes if there was no law to keep them from it, but as Judge Douglas and his friends seem to be in great apprehension that they might, if there were no law to keep them from it, I give him the most solemn pledge that I will to the very last stand by the law of this State, which forbids the marrying of white people with negroes.”
“There is a natural disgust in the minds of nearly all white people to the idea of indiscriminate amalgamation of the white and black races … A separation of the races is the only perfect preventive of amalgamation, but as an immediate separation is impossible, the next best thing is to keep them apart where they are not already together. If white and black people never get together in Kansas, they will never mix blood in Kansas…”
“…I will say in addition to this that there is a physical difference between the white and black races which I believe will forever forbid the two races living together on terms of social and political equality.”
“You and we are different races. We have between us a broader difference than exists between almost any other two races. Whether it is right or wrong I need not discuss, but this physical difference is a great disadvantage to us both, as I think your race suffers very greatly, many of them, by living among us, while ours suffers from your presence. In a word, we suffer on each side. If this is admitted, it affords a reason at least why we should be separated.”
“Our republican system was meant for a homogeneous people. As long as blacks continue to live with the whites they constitute a threat to the national life. Family life may also collapse and the increase of mixed breed bastards may some day challenge the supremacy of the white man.”
(Source: Not the Greater Emancipator: 10 Racist Quotes Abraham Lincoln Said About Black People (atlantablackstar.com): http://atlantablackstar.com/2015/05...sts-quotes-abraham-lincoln-said-black-people/ .
- .....
(Please tell me if I make any mistake in my english and grammar, because I have a learning difficult which affect my english and grammar.)
