TOP 9 popular historical misconceptions

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

Every day we hear a lot of facts and interesting stories, but we do not always check the information received. As a result, some people believe that an apple fell on Newton's head, Magellan traveled around the world, and Jesus was born on December 25th.

It's time to dispel historical myths and figure out where the truth really is.

1. The light bulb is the work of Thomas Edison

During his lifetime, the American was called the "Wizard of Menlo Park", because in his laboratory he created more than 1000 household inventions. Among them: a phonograph, a telegraph, a telephone membrane, a kinetoscope, and a nickel-iron battery. But as for the light bulb, then Edison was not the first.

Similar inventions were presented 50 years before Thomas, but scientists were never able to ensure that the metal threads burned for a long time. The next attempt was made 10 years later. Then the metal was replaced by platinum, but such products were very expensive.

Then it took another 40 years of developing the concept of a working incandescent lamp, until Thomas Edison summarized all the experience of scientists. The greatest merit of the inventor is not in the creation of a light bulb, but in the development of a practical electric lighting system with a durable filament.

2. Jesus' birthday - December 25

It is incorrect to consider Christmas as the birthday of Jesus Christ. The fact is that in the Bible there is no mention of the date of the birth of the Son of God, and even more so it does not say that it happened in winter.

Presumably, the first Christians chose December 25 because this day coincided with the holidays of the winter solstice. And the Orthodox even celebrate Christmas on January 7 in a new style.

3. An apple fell on Newton's head

Have you heard the famous scientific tale about how Isaac Newton discovered the law of universal gravitation? In fact, everything happened a little differently. The student years of the young physicist fell on the plague epidemic that raged in England. Cambridge was quarantined, so Newton was homeschooled for a year.

One autumn day, a young man went out to work in the garden, but he was distracted by apples, which were constantly falling from the trees. Then the young man wondered why they only fell down, but not to the side. As a result, thinking about apples led physics to the greatest discovery.

4. Magellan made the first circumnavigation of the world

It would be more correct to say that it was not Fernand Magellan himself who managed to go around the globe and prove that the planet is round, but his expedition. The navigator never returned home, as he was mortally wounded in the Philippine Islands when he tried to convert the natives to Christianity.

Magellan found the largest and most interesting part of the journey. He swam across the Atlantic, discovered the sea route under South America, which was later called the Strait of Magellan, and crossed the Pacific Ocean. However, the Filipinos proved to be an insurmountable barrier for the navigator and his crew.

Of the 270 crew members, only 18 people were able to return to Spain. The captain of the dilapidated ship Victoria was Juan Sebastian Elcano. In fact, it was he and the rest of the survivors who should be considered the first navigators to circumnavigate the world.

5. Apple invented the iPod

Mobile video platform burst.com has filed a lawsuit against Apple, accusing the company of stealing patented technology for iPod and iTunes. The apple corporation did not admit its fault and decided to prove that the iPod had been invented long before the platform appeared.

Kane Kramer, an English inventor who presented drawings of a music player made in the 80s, was invited to the court. Apple has stated that he is the prototype of the iPod. Of course, all this was just a ploy to not admit that burst.com was right and not pay compensation. However, a little-known UK inventor suddenly became the creator of the iPod.

6. Signal code belongs to Morse code

Samuel Morse invented the electric telegraph, and Alfred Weil improved it a few years later. The device could transmit long and short signals, but how to apply it in life was still to be understood. Morse proposed to encode numbers into sound signals. Weil took this idea and set about developing a cipher for the entire alphabet.

The inventor thoroughly studied the frequency of the use of English letters and assigned combinations to them. The tip of the telegraph lever marked points or dashes, the length of which depended on the duration of the current. As a result, Veil decided to designate the most popular letters with a short cipher, and the rare ones with a long one. For example, the most common was the letter "e", the code of which represented only one point.

7. Washington - the first president of the United States

George Washington is actually the first official president of the United States to be elected by the people in the 1789 election. However, after the collapse of the Confederation and before the signing of the US Constitution, power was "unofficial" and changed quite often.

Many historians agree that John Hanson, the leader of the American revolutionaries, can be considered the first president of the United States. It was he who was proclaimed at a meeting in 1781 as the first "President of the United States to meet in Congress." And George Washington at that time was the commander-in-chief of the US Army.

8. In the Garden of Eden, Eve ate an apple

It is not known for certain what kind of fruit grew on the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, but the Scriptures do not say anything about apples. With the same probability it could be a pear, apricot or orange.

The apple was only suggested by hints at the location of the Garden of Eden. The Bible mentions that it is located in the region of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, that is, in Mesopotamia. In ancient times, these lands were famous for their fertility and rich orchards, where cherries, plums, apples, pears, apricots, and pomegranates grew. So Eve could eat any of these fruits.

9. Marie Antoinette suggested eating cakes instead of bread

The French queen and the wife of Louis XVI are credited with the famous phrase said in the direction of the peasants:

"If they don't have bread, let them eat cakes!"

The dictum began to symbolize the detachment of the rulers from the problems of the people and was very popular during the French Revolution. However, in fact, the quote belongs to Jean-Jacques Rousseau, who wrote it in his work "Confession". There the phrase was uttered by a young French princess, and the novel itself was published long before the arrival of Marie Antoinette in France.