21 Historical Misconceptions You Probably Believe

‘There’s no evidence that William Howard Taft actually got stuck in the White House bathtub’
21 Historical Misconceptions You Probably Believe

We like to think that history is written in stone. Sometimes, it literally is. Other times, though, we don’t have nearly as undeniable proof that things happened the way textbooks or professors say they did. Especially if a bit of historical trivia is particularly interesting or spicy, it’s likely to get repeated, with the “might have” and “possibly” gradually stripped away until everyone considers it common knowledge. 

Reddit historians have weighed in on historical “facts” that aren’t anywhere near confirmed, if not outright debunked. Read on to see if you’ve been parroting any falsehoods about the past.

rabbiskittles . 2y ago Not a historian, but, after seeing Braveheart, | looked into the disgusting prima nocta thing. It seems there is no solid evidence any ruler in history instituted prima nocta, but lots of groups accused their enemies of doing it back and forth throughout history.
rebelkitty 2y ago People believe that Homer was an actual living person who composed the entire Odyssey. There's no historical proof of his existence. It's entirely possible he's either a composite of many different storytellers or a mythical figure himself (the blind bard).
ItsADeparture . 2y ago That the texts in the Library of Alexandria held some sacred knowledge that are lost forever and would change the way we look at the world if we knew what's inside. But, we DO know what was inside. 80%-90% of the Library of Alexandria was copied and spread throughout Africa and the Middle East by the time it had burned down.
Peyyton07 . 2y ago King Tut is only relevant because his tomb is the only one that was not extensively robbed.
Lizzy_Of_Galtar . 2y ago Caesars last words were not Et tu Brute. That line was created by William Shakespeare. Caesars actual last words are not known but it is speculated they were Why this is violence. After senator Tullius Cimber grabbed his toga down just as the assassination was beginning. Though even those words must be taken with a grain of salt.
ascootertridingataco . 2y ago There was way more Greek warriors than than just the 300 Spartans during the battle of Thermopylae.
2y ago Rasputin was not the lover of the Russian Queen, he simply knew how to treat hemophilia, which Prince Alexei suffered from, and was thus given direct access to the Royal Family. The royal court hated that this strange looking religious weirdo with no nobility had such massive influence over the Royal Family, so a rumor that he was secretly banging the Tsarina was spread as an attempt to get the Tsar to remove him from court.
KavyenMoore . 2y ago Edited 2y ago Couple about the Titanic: People saying it was unsinkable was a reflection of shipbuilding at the time. People would have described any modern ocean liner that way, and there was nothing particularly special or unique about the Titanic (in terms of safety).
TraditionalCherry 2y ago I think many people don't understand that the history taught in schools is sort of a middle ground that historians found during vehment discussions. In particular when it comes to poorly documented events historians tend to present them in a reasonable narrative by biding points that make for a nice story. In reality much of that was very random and didn't make any sense. Later, historians label something e.g. renaissance by inventing the word that is supposed to explain those random events. One thing that struck me... was that the fall of the Western Roman Empire was
Content_Pool_1391 . 2y ago Marie Antoinette saying Let them eat cake. Has this ever been proven that she said this???
AuContraireRodders 2y ago People believe Caligula was insane and did all kinds of weird shit. But aside from a few executions(which were few compared to the average emperor), absolutely none of it was proven. What WAS known was that he absolutely despised the Roman senate, which is why he said he would make his horse consul of Rome, as he held his horse in higher regard than any senator. As such, after his death he was subjected the biggest smear campaign in history and now everyone thinks he was some kind of madman.
devi133 . 2y ago That Viking helmets had huge horns. Not a thing, just looks cool in movies.
a_realnobody 2y ago Catherine the Great did not die trying to... copulate with a horse. She had a stroke and died in bed. There was no horse involved. She orchestrated a coup against her husband and he wound up dead under suspicious circumstances, so people spread a lot of nasty rumors about her. Her son hated her, so he probably wasn't interested in quelling the rumors. Не was a dick who reversed everything Catherine did, was obsessed with the military, and hated the French so much he banned French fashion. Nobody liked him and he was eventually assassinated.
random-bot-2 . 2y ago The Salem witch trials being strictly about witch hunting. In reality it had a political component, as well as your typical historical misogyny. There were some wealthy/powerful women in Salem and some of the men didn't like that
AVBforPrez 2y ago I'm not a historian, per se, although I read a lot about ancient civ/history. Just found out today that Virgin Mary might just be the accidental mistranslation of a word hundreds of years after the original writings. And that's if you even take scripture seriously to start. Apparently in a translation from one language to another, the word for young and nubile was swapped for a word meaning virgin and the entire Virgin Mary arc started as a result. If true, it's wild.
in-a-microbus E 2y ago That one infamous German dictator (I'm not sure were allowed to say his name) burned down the Reichstag building, so he could institute martial law. It's possible that he did, even probable, that the schizophrenic who got blamed could have been a patsy, but it's also reasonable that a lone schizophrenic started a fire and infamous dictator decided never let a crisis go to waste
2y ago There's no such thing as the dark ages, nor is there a gap in sciences and tech because of Christianity. In fact, it's almost an offensive statement. Muslims and Byzantines carried on sciences and not even in a small way. When you think dark ages, you're thinking of the post Western Roman era, and Western Europe. Muslims and Byzantines carried all the knowledge and scientific advancements, with emphasis on the Arab-Muims. The father of early modern medicine Avicenna, was an Arab- Muslim. Omar Khayyam did more than just write poetry, he also greatly advanced mathematics. Ibn Khaldun
UtahUtopia 2y ago The Germans did a way better job defending the Normandy invasion that I was led to believe. Yes, the Americans suffered massive casualties at Omaha beach. Yes, the allies gained access to invade Germany and eventually won the war from the landing at Normandy. But... | always thought it was an eventuality because of size and might of ally invasion. This is just not true. The Germans weren't far from repelling the Normandy landing.
bookwing812 . 2y ago There's no evidence that William Howard Taft actually got stuck in the White House bathtub.
VikingTeddy 2y ago TI;dr: The blitzkrieg on meth is a myth The whole meth fueled invasion is a myth which just won't die. The Germans didn't use any more stimulants than everybody else was doing. The whole unfortunate myth can be traced to the book 'Blitzed - Drugs in the third reich' by Norman Ohler.
Unfair_Explanation53 . 2y ago Sun Tzu It's still under debate whether there was such a person or who he really was. Because there was no any official record about him until about four hundred years later the Han dynasty historian Sima Qian shortly mentioned about Sun Tzu and his deeds in his book titled Shiji (The Records of the Grand Historian).

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