21 Historical Figures Everybody Gets Wrong
All your history teachers lied to you.
![21 Historical Figures Everybody Gets Wrong](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/pictofact/2/2/6/604226.jpg?v=2)
If you haven't figured it out by now, pretty much everything you've ever learned has been a bold faced lie. Why? We couldn't tell you, but we can correct you so you'll look like a smart person again.
So allow us to fix some misconceptions you likely have about some very famous figures.
![Everyone honors St. Patrick by wearing green. But St. Patrick's official color is blue. The earliest depictions of St. Patrick show him clothed entire](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/pictofact/6/5/0/603650.jpg?v=2)
![21 Historical Figures Everybody Gets Wrong](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/pictofact/6/3/4/603634.jpg?v=2)
![Picture Isaac Newton, and you see a guy with an apple falling on his head. That never happened. Newton never mentioned anything about an apple, and in](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/pictofact/6/4/7/603647.jpg?v=2)
![Wild Bill Hickok is a legend of the American Old West. But Bill wasn't short for William. Wild Bill's legend parallels those of Wyatt Earp and Billy](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/pictofact/6/4/9/603649.jpg?v=2)
![Rita Hayworth was the top pinup girl of the 1940s. She underwent a painful ethnic makeover. Rita was born Margarita Carmen Cansino. She was raised in](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/pictofact/6/4/8/603648.jpg?v=2)
![The name Plato is synonomous with reason. But it actually means broad. Plato is the most famous student of Socrates, and his name has come to stand](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/pictofact/6/4/5/603645.jpg?v=2)
![Abraham Lincoln was soft-spoken and dignified. And he was also a ridiculous badass. Lincoln was known to haul crates of stones weighing over 1,000 pou](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/pictofact/6/4/3/603643.jpg?v=2)
![Leo Fender is a legend who perfected the electric guitar. But he couldn't play, and didn't like rock'n'roll. Despite the fact that his entire business](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/pictofact/6/4/1/603641.jpg?v=2)
![John Wayne is Hollywood's most famous cowboy. But he absolutely hated riding horseback. Wayne had learned to ride when he was young, so by the time he](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/pictofact/6/4/0/603640.jpg?v=2)
![Remember the heroic story of Pocahontas? That never happened, and that wasn't her name. Her true name was Matoaka, although she commonly went by Amonu](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/pictofact/6/4/6/603646.jpg?v=2)
![John Lennon was a gentle, peace-loving hippie. But he was also abusive to women and his kid. John admitted in a Playboy interview that when he was you](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/pictofact/6/4/2/603642.jpg?v=2)
![Jimmy Carter is known as a president and humanitarian. But he's also laughed in the face of nuclear fallout. When President Carter was a Navy Lieutena](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/pictofact/6/3/9/603639.jpg?v=2)
![Iron Eyes Cody was the tortured face of Native American sadness. But he was Sicilian. Children of the '70s and'8Os probably remember the series of PSA](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/pictofact/6/3/8/603638.jpg?v=2)
![Che Guevara is seen as a revolutionary hero. He was actually kind of a racist. Che sauntered into Africa after the assassination of Congolese independ](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/pictofact/6/3/7/603637.jpg?v=2)
![Elvis Presley was the ultimate '50s ladies' man. But Elvis was more into teens and pajama parties. Elvis sure loved the ladies, but he had one very sp](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/pictofact/6/3/6/603636.jpg?v=2)
![Mrs. O'Leary is remembered for causing the Great Chicago Fire. FN But she was innocent. And SO was her cow. Despite all the campfire songs to the cont](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/pictofact/6/3/2/603632.jpg?v=2)
![People love the story that Einstein flunked math. Unsurprisingly, it isn't true. The idea that Albert Einstein did badly in school is thought to have](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/pictofact/6/3/5/603635.jpg?v=2)
![Remember the story of George Washington chopping the cherry tree? It's completely made up. According to the story, when Washington was six years old h](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/pictofact/6/3/1/603631.jpg?v=2)
![One of history's worst-kept secrets: J. Edgar Hoover was a transvestite. Which is unfortunate, because it isn't true. FBI Director John Edgar Hoover's](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/pictofact/6/3/0/603630.jpg?v=2)
![Napoleon is always depicted as being short. He was actually slightly above average height. Historians agree that Napoleon Bonaparte was almost 5'7, w](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/pictofact/6/4/4/603644.jpg?v=2)
![The movie Caligula was insanely perverted. a tus IThave Lants But Caligula himself wasn't unusually sexual. Most of Caligula's horrendous reputation c](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/pictofact/6/3/3/603633.jpg?v=2)