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History has a way of sticking around, teaching us how far we've come and illustrating how human nature has both changed and managed to stay the same all at once. However, sometimes embellishments and downright inaccurate events get passed down along with history, masked as factual episodes. From who built the Egyptian pyramids to what ninjas actually wore, history is filled with misconceptions and inaccurate assumptions.
Have you mistaken any myths for historical facts? Browse the gallery and find out.
The last Queen of France never said "let them eat cake" after hearing that the starving French peasants had no bread.
The French philospher included the quote in his autobiography, 'Confessions,' though he attributes it to an unspecified "great princess."
Contrary to the popular myth, the 18th-century Empress of Russia did not die from having sex with an animal, most commonly told to be a horse.
The truth is that Catherine suffered a stroke and died quietly in her bed a day later on November 17, 1796.
Ninjas didn't just wear black. In fact, they rarely ever wore black.
A ninja was basically a mercenary or a spy in feudal Japan. The ninja was hired to carry out a myriad of functions, including espionage, sabotage, infiltration, assassination, and guerrilla warfare. And thus, they often wore plainclothes in order to hide in plain sight.
The American abolitionist helped kick off the Civil War when he led a raid on the federal armory at Harpers Ferry in modern-day West Virginia. However, he was not the wild-eyed, wild-haired fanatic that many have pegged him as.
Because Brown advocated armed insurrection as the only way to overthrow slavery in the US, many have labeled him a terrorist, while many others argue that he was insane. However, as historian Paul Finkelman states, Brown "is a bad tactician, a bad strategist, he's a bad planner, he's not a very good general—but he's not crazy."
Franklin didn't actually propose that the turkey be the national bird of the United States over the bald eagle.
He did, however, expound on the merits of each bird in a letter to his daughter, in which he seems to favor the turkey: "[the Bald Eagle] is a Bird of bad moral Character" while "the Turkey is in Comparison a much more respectable Bird."
Did Hitler really get beat by the Russian weather? Well, history tends to be a bit more complex than that.
While the freezing temperature and muddy terrain didn't help, Hitler's defeat was a result of a series of tactical mistakes that Stalin's troops took full advantage of.
Sir Walter Raleigh did not lay his cloak over a mud puddle to keep Queen Elizabeth I from getting her feet wet.
He was made captain in her guard two years after he urged her to conquer Ireland. But he fell from grace after having an affair with one of her maids of honor. The cloak story was probably the doing of historian Thomas Fuller, who was known for embellishing facts.
The Great Wall isn't the only man-made structure seen from the moon.
In fact, being only 30 feet wide (around 9 m) and a similar color to its surroundings, the Wall is barely seen from the moon.
The native peoples of the Americas were not all hunter and gatherers by the time Europeans arrived.
Though some were, the majority had already developed into agricultural societies.
Evidence suggests that the pyramids were the work of slaves.
Tombs discovered nearby the famous pyramids are believed to have belonged to the people who worked on the construction of the pyramids, suggesting that they weren't slaves after all.
Medieval folks didn't die by the age of 30.
The average person lived to be about 64, which is not that different from today. The numbers of the time were heavily skewed by the high infant mortality rates.
Those living in the Middle Ages most certainly did not use chastity belts.
There is no evidence to show that the infamous clothing item existed before the 15th century, during the Renaissance.
The silversmith and early industrialist did not shout "the British are coming!" at the onset of the American Revolution.
The term "American" wasn't popularized until after the revolution, as most American colonists still thought of themselves as British.
The first President of the United States did not chop down his father's cherry tree when he was six years old and then refuse to lie about it. The story has been used to highlight the value of honesty for centuries.
The legend was put forth by biographer Mason Locke Weems, who was ready to supply the demand of Americans eager to learn more about the Revolutionary War hero.
There is no evidence to support that Lady Godiva rode naked through Coventry to protest her husband's ruthless taxes.
Though she did plead with her husband Leofric, Earl of Mercia, to reduce taxes, it is unclear how the legend of the infamous horse ride came about.
The American Civil War General most likely didn't invent baseball in Cooperstown, New York.
Most modern baseball historians consider the claim to be false, but the myth nevertheless led to the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum's being located in Cooperstown.
Those accused of witchcraft were not burned at the stake as a result of the Salem Witch Trials.
Of the 20 people who were executed, 19 were hanged at the gallows, while another, an 81-year-old man, was pressed to death with heavy stones.
The polymath Founding Father of the United States did not discover electricity.
Electricity had been well-known at the time. Franklin was simply testing the electrical nature of lightning with his kite experiment.
The 1871 fire was not started by Mrs. O'Leary's cow kicking over a lamp.
The rumor started after local reporter Michael Ahern published a claim that the fire had started when a cow kicked over a lantern while it was being milked. Ahern later admitted he made up the story.
Napoleon Bonaparte was not particularly short.
He was approximately 5 ft 7 in (about 1,70 m), which was average at the time. The confusion likely arose as his height was listed at 5 ft 2 in, but there were differences between the French and British systems.
Did Emperor Nero really play the fiddle as Rome burned? No, he didn't.
In fact, the fiddle most likely hadn't even been invented until centuries later. But there is some support for the theory that Nero leveled the city on purpose.
Christopher Columbus did not prove the Earth was round.
Educated Europeans had known that the Earth was round since the time of Aristotle.
Galileo Galilei was not the first to theorize that the Earth revolved around the sun, and not other way around.
The notion was actually first put forth by Aristarchus of Samos in the third century BCE. The theory didn't gain traction until Nicolaus Copernicus's model in the 16th century.
What do the horns on the helmets of Vikings mean? Nothing, as they didn't wear them.
As the History channel puts it, "archaeologists have yet to uncover a Viking-era helmet embellished with horns." The popular image of the strapping Viking only came about in the 1800s, when Scandinavian artists popularized them through their fictitious portrayal of the raiders.
Contrary to popular belief, Alexander the Great did not have the largest contiguous empire in history.
The title goes to the Mongol Empire of the 13th and 14th centuries, which spanned from Central Asia to China, the Middle East, Korea, and Eastern Europe up to near Vienna, Austria. Alexander the Great's was the largest of the ancient world, however.
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History has a way of sticking around, teaching us how far we've come and illustrating how human nature has both changed and managed to stay the same all at once. However, sometimes embellishments and downright inaccurate events get passed down along with history, masked as factual episodes. From who built the Egyptian pyramids to what ninjas actually wore, history is filled with misconceptions and inaccurate assumptions.
Have you mistaken any myths for historical facts? Browse the gallery and find out.