Facts about History
Galileo drew the design for the first ball point pen.
However, the pen was not created for many years after Galileo. |
Thomas Edison did not invent the light bulb, he bought the rights to it.
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Ring Around the Rosie is not actually a morbid song about the plague.
The first line apparently refers to the ring shaped welts from the bubonic plague. Posies are flowers people carried in their pockets to cover up the smell of death. A-choo is like a sneeze, the last symptom before the victims die. Falling down is dying. |
Sir Isaac Newton did not get hit on the head by an apple and came up with gravity, he just saw one fall.
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Pocahontas was a real 12 year old girl that may have saved Captain John Smith.
The true story is lost in history, but there are some accounts of Pocahontas. |
Frankenstein is not the name of the monster, but of the doctor who created it.
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Mark Twain is not really Mark Twain, but Samuel Clements. Mark Twain was his pseudonym.
Pseudonyms are used by authors to make their names more exciting and attention grabbing. |
George Elliot is actually Marry Anne Evans. George Elliot is her pen name.
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The Hundred Years war lasted 116 years, not 100.
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Neil Armstrong actually said “One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind” when he took his first step on the moon.
He was supposed to say, 'One small step for A man, one giant leap for mankind'. Man and mankind are synonyms. |
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In 1873, a British engineer figured out a pattern in the roulette machines and earned over $300,000.
The casino attempted to throw him off by switching the roulette machines. The engineer lost a lot of money before figuring out what happened. |
All US presidents wore glasses, however, some refused to wear them in public.
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The divorce rate in the US has actually fallen to its lowest point since 1970.
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The man who composed 'White Christmas' was Jewish.
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Genghis Khan was a goat-herd named Temujn before he became an emperor.
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The 'y' in 'Ye olde...' is supposed to be read as a 'th' sound.
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Teddy Roosevelt died from a tooth infection.
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It was not neccessarily an apple that Adam and Eve ate in the Garden of Eden, but maybe a pomegranite, grape, fig, or citrus.
When the bible was being translated into English the fruit was identified as an apple, however it is not mentioned in the bible. |
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Genghis Khan was of noble descent, despite being a goat-herd when he was younger.
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Catherine the Great of Russia died in her bed of illness.
There are many myths about this, like she died on the toilet. |
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Pilgrims never lived in log cabins.
The log cabin was first introduced to America in the late 17th century. The pilgrims lived in houses made from sawed lumber. |
There is no concrete evidence that Neil Armstrong did not go to the moon.
All the 'proofs' that show otherwise have been rejected for many reasons. |
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Modern teenagers have less problems involving sex, drugs, and alcohol than teenagers 20 years ago.
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Thanksgiving was not invented by the pilgrims.
It was first celebrated in Texas at least 2 decades before the pilgrims. |
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George Washington did not have fake wooden teeth.
He had fake teeth, but they were made of cow's teeth, human teeth, and ivory in a lead base. They were badly fit and distorted his mouth. |
Dinosaurs could have been warm blooded.
Scientists are unable to tell if dinosaurs were cold or warm blooded. |
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Cristopher Columbus was not ridiculed for believing the earth was round, but for inacurate calculations.
In his time everybody knew the earth was a sphere, but thought it would be too far to travel to the Indies by going east. |
