So, you think you know history? What if I told you that Vikings never wore horned helmets? That Napoleon wasn’t actually short? And that your teacher’s story about George Washington having wooden teeth was a total lie?
For centuries, we’ve been fed a version of history that’s often more fiction than fact. These are stories passed down through generations, repeated in textbooks, and cemented in our minds as truth. But today, we’re pulling back the curtain. We are about to expose 25 of the biggest, most shocking historical myths that have been masquerading as reality. Get ready, because what you’re about to hear will change how you see the past forever.
25. Napoleon Was Short. Let’s kick things off with a big one… or maybe, a not-so-small one. The image of Napoleon Bonaparte as a tiny, angry man is so widespread it even has its own psychological term: the “Napoleon complex.”
But here’s the truth: Napoleon was about 5 feet 6 or 7 inches tall. This was actually average, or even a bit above average, for a Frenchman in the early 19th century. So where did the myth come from? It was a brilliant piece of wartime propaganda by the British, who wanted to mock and diminish their greatest rival. They were helped by some confusion between old French and British units of measurement, but make no mistake, this was a deliberate campaign to cut the Emperor down to size—figuratively and literally.
24. Marie Antoinette Said, “Let Them Eat Cake”. This phrase has become the ultimate symbol of a clueless, callous aristocracy, completely detached from the suffering of the people. The story goes that when Queen Marie Antoinette heard the peasants had no bread, she flippantly suggested they eat cake instead. It’s a great line, but she never said it.
The phrase actually shows up in the writings of the philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau, written when Marie Antoinette was just a child. It was attributed to an unnamed “great princess” and was likely pinned on the unpopular queen years later by revolutionaries to stir up public anger and justify the guillotine.
23. Medieval People Believed the Earth Was Flat. This is one of the most stubborn myths out there. The idea that Christopher Columbus was a lone genius trying to convince a world of flat-Earthers that the planet was round is completely made up.
In reality, educated people in the Middle Ages, and even the ancient Greeks, knew the Earth was a sphere. Greek mathematicians like Pythagoras had it figured out as early as the 6th century BC. The myth was mostly popularized in the 19th century by writers who wanted to paint the medieval period as a “dark age” of ignorance to make their own era seem more enlightened. Columbus wasn’t arguing against a flat-Earth theory; he was just arguing that the Earth’s circumference was smaller than most experts believed, meaning he could reach Asia by sailing west. He was wrong about that, too.
22. Vikings Wore Horned Helmets. Picture a Viking. You’re probably imagining a big, bearded warrior with a horned helmet, right? It’s an iconic image, but it’s pure fantasy.
There is zero archaeological evidence that Vikings wore horned helmets into battle. Think about it—such a design would have been incredibly impractical, easily getting caught by an opponent’s weapon. The popular image was created in the 19th century, most famously by costume designer Carl Emil Doepler for an 1876 production of Wagner’s opera “Der Ring des Nibelungen.” The look was so striking it just… stuck, turning a piece of costume design into what we think of as historical fact.
21. George Washington Had Wooden Teeth. Poor George Washington. He was a revolutionary general and the first President, but he also had terrible dental problems his whole adult life. But the one thing everyone “knows” about his teeth? It’s wrong.
They were not made of wood. Washington’s dentures were state-of-the-art for his time, crafted from a mix of materials including human teeth (likely purchased from his own slaves), cow and horse teeth, and hippopotamus ivory, all set in a lead or gold base. The “wooden teeth” myth probably comes from the fact that the ivory dentures would have gotten stained and cracked over time, giving them a grained, wood-like look.
20. Cleopatra Was Egyptian. Cleopatra VII, the last pharaoh of Egypt, is one of the most famous rulers in history. But ethnically, she wasn’t Egyptian.
Cleopatra was of Macedonian-Greek descent, a member of the Ptolemaic dynasty that had ruled Egypt since the death of Alexander the Great centuries earlier. In fact, she was the first member of her family in 300 years to even bother learning the Egyptian language. While her father’s side of the family is well-documented, her mother’s identity is less clear. Still, it’s highly likely she was also of Greek origin, as the Ptolemies often married within the family to consolidate power.
19. Jewish Slaves Built the Pyramids. The epic story of Hebrew slaves toiling under the whips of pharaohs to build the great pyramids is a powerful one, immortalized in movies and religious texts. But it’s not historically accurate.
Archaeological discoveries, including entire villages built for the pyramid workers, show that the great tombs were constructed by paid Egyptian laborers. These were skilled craftsmen and builders who were well-fed, housed, and even received medical care. Plus, the timeline is all wrong; the great pyramids at Giza were built more than a thousand years before the Israelites are thought to have even been in Egypt.
18. The Trojan Horse Was a Real Thing. The story of the Trojan War and the sneaky trick of the giant wooden horse is a cornerstone of Western literature, thanks to Homer’s Iliad and Virgil’s Aeneid. It’s a fantastic tale of Greek soldiers hiding inside a massive wooden offering to infiltrate the city of Troy.
The problem? There’s no archaeological evidence that a giant, literal wooden horse ever existed. Many historians now believe the story is probably a poetic metaphor. It could represent a new type of siege engine that breached Troy’s walls, or maybe an earthquake that toppled them—which the ancient Greeks would have attributed to the earth-shaking god Poseidon, whose symbol was a horse.
17. Greek and Roman Statues Were Pure White. When we walk through a museum, we see rows of pristine, white marble statues from ancient Greece and Rome. They’ve come to define the classical aesthetic of elegance and purity. But the ancients would have found them shockingly bland. In reality, these statues were originally painted in a riot of bright, and sometimes garish, colors. Using advanced imaging techniques, scientists have been able to find microscopic paint flecks and recreate the original color schemes. The pure white look we associate with antiquity is simply what happens when centuries of weather and time wear all the paint away.
16. Gladiators Always Fought to the Death. The movie version of gladiators in the Roman Colosseum is one of brutal, no-holds-barred combat where every fight ends with a “thumbs down” and a sword to the throat. This is a dramatic exaggeration.
Gladiator contests were definitely violent, but they weren’t always a fight to the death. Gladiators were expensive assets—they were highly trained, sponsored athletes. It just made bad business sense for their owners to have them killed off needlessly. Most fights were governed by referees and strict rules. While deaths did happen, many matches ended when one gladiator was wounded or surrendered. The loser was often spared to fight another day.
15. Christopher Columbus Discovered America. This is probably one of the first “facts” every American kid learns in school, and it’s wrong on so many levels. First off, you can’t “discover” a place that’s already home to millions of people. Indigenous peoples had thriving civilizations in the Americas for thousands of years before Columbus showed up.
Second, Columbus wasn’t even the first European to reach the continent. The Norse explorer Leif Erikson and his Viking crew landed in what is now Canada around 1000 AD, nearly 500 years before Columbus set sail. Columbus himself never even set foot on the North American mainland; his voyages were to the Caribbean islands, which he mistakenly believed were part of Asia until the day he died.
14. The Emancipation Proclamation Freed All Slaves. Abraham Lincoln’s 1863 Emancipation Proclamation is celebrated as the document that ended slavery in the United States. While its symbolic power is huge, its immediate, practical effect was limited.
The proclamation was a strategic military order. It declared slaves free only in the Confederate states that were still in active rebellion against the Union. It did not apply to the slave-holding border states that had stayed loyal to the Union (like Delaware, Kentucky, Maryland, and Missouri), or to the parts of the Confederacy already under Union control. Slavery wasn’t fully abolished nationwide until the 13th Amendment to the Constitution was ratified in December 1865.
13. The Salem Witch Trials Burned Witches at the Stake. The Salem Witch Trials of 1692 are a dark and fascinating chapter in American history. The image that comes to mind is of accused witches being burned at the stake. But this method of execution wasn’t used in Salem, or anywhere else in the American colonies.
In colonial Massachusetts, the legal punishment for witchcraft was hanging. Nineteen of the accused were executed by hanging on Gallows Hill. Burning at the stake was more common for heresy and witchcraft in Europe, but it never became the practice in America.
12. Benjamin Franklin Discovered Electricity. Benjamin Franklin was a brilliant inventor, writer, and statesman, but he did not “discover” electricity. The basic principles of static electricity had been known for centuries.
Franklin’s famous kite-flying experiment during a thunderstorm was designed to prove something very specific: that lightning was a form of electrical discharge. By drawing a charge from the storm clouds down the wet kite string to a key, he showed the connection between lightning and electricity. It was an incredibly dangerous experiment that would have almost certainly killed him if the kite had actually been struck by lightning.
11. The Great Chicago Fire Was Started by Mrs. O’Leary’s Cow. The story is a classic: on the night of October 8, 1871, a cow belonging to a Mrs. Catherine O’Leary kicked over a lantern in her barn, sparking a fire that would destroy Chicago. It’s a simple, memorable tale that blames a clumsy animal.
The only problem? It was completely made up. A journalist named Michael Ahern later admitted he invented the cow angle to make his story more colorful. The real cause of the Great Chicago Fire has never been determined. Mrs. O’Leary and her poor cow were officially exonerated by the Chicago City Council in 1997, but the myth is still more famous than the truth.
10. Mussolini Made the Trains Run on Time. This phrase is often used as a grudging admission that, for all his faults, the Italian dictator Benito Mussolini brought efficiency to the country. This is a classic piece of fascist propaganda.
While Italy’s railway service did see some improvement in the 1920s, much of that work had started before Mussolini and his party ever seized power. The “trains on time” narrative was heavily promoted by the regime to create an image of order and progress under fascist rule. In reality, the improvements were exaggerated, and the claim became a powerful myth that helped whitewash the brutality of his dictatorship.
9. The Titanic Was Advertised as “Unsinkable”. The sinking of the RMS Titanic is made even more tragic by the hubris of calling it “unsinkable.” But that claim was never a central part of its advertising.
The White Star Line promoted the ship’s massive size and incredible luxury. While its safety features were mentioned, it was usually with the more cautious phrase “practically unsinkable.” The idea of it being absolutely “unsinkable” was largely created by the media and the public after the disaster. It amplified the tragedy and irony of the event, turning a marketing boast into a fatal prophecy.
8. The Spanish Flu Originated in Spain. The 1918 influenza pandemic was one of the deadliest in human history, killing an estimated 50 million people worldwide. It became known as the “Spanish Flu,” but this is a total misnomer.
The flu did not start in Spain. Spain was a neutral country during World War I, so its press was free to report on the pandemic’s devastating effects without wartime censorship. Meanwhile, the Allied and Central Powers suppressed news of the flu to avoid hurting morale. Because Spain was one of the only countries reporting it openly, the pandemic became unfairly associated with them. The true origin is still debated, with theories pointing to Kansas, France, or China.
7. Wall Street Bankers Jumped to Their Deaths After the 1929 Crash. The stock market crash of 1929 is synonymous with the image of ruined bankers leaping from skyscraper windows. This dramatic picture of mass suicide, however, is a myth.
While the financial crisis did lead to a tragic increase in suicides among those who had lost everything, the sensational tales of stockbrokers jumping to their deaths were a massive exaggeration. The image was a product of dark humor and media embellishment at the time. It created a powerful—though inaccurate—symbol for the despair that kicked off the Great Depression.
6. Great Britain “Stood Alone” Against the Nazis. Winston Churchill’s speeches about Britain standing alone against Hitler in 1940 are some of the most powerful in the English language. But the idea that the island nation faced the Nazi war machine completely by itself is misleading.
While Britain was the last major European power left fighting Germany after the fall of France, it was far from alone. It was the center of a vast global empire. Millions of soldiers from across the Commonwealth—from Canada, Australia, India, New Zealand, South Africa, and more—fought alongside the British. The contributions of these nations, along with support from occupied countries and later the United States and the Soviet Union, were absolutely crucial to the eventual Allied victory.
5. The Library of Alexandria Was Destroyed in a Single Event. The destruction of the Library of Alexandria is often lamented as one of the greatest intellectual tragedies in history—a single, catastrophic fire that wiped out the ancient world’s knowledge. The truth is more complicated and, sadly, less dramatic.
The library didn’t disappear in one epic blaze. Instead, it suffered a slow, gradual decline over several centuries. It was damaged by multiple events, including a fire set during Julius Caesar’s civil war in 48 BC, budget cuts from different rulers, and destructive riots in later centuries. There was no single moment of destruction, but rather a long, sad decay into irrelevance.
4. The Aztecs Believed Cortés Was a God. The story of the Spanish conquest of Mexico is often simplified to this: the Aztec Emperor Montezuma believed the conquistador Hernán Cortés was the returning feathered serpent god, Quetzalcoatl, and simply handed over his empire.
This narrative is largely a post-conquest invention, written by the Spanish to justify their conquest and paint the Aztecs as superstitious and naive. Contemporary Aztec sources don’t support the idea that Cortés was mistaken for a god. The Aztec resistance was fierce, and their defeat was the result of a complex mix of factors, including superior Spanish weaponry, alliances with rival native groups, and—most devastatingly—the introduction of European diseases like smallpox.
3. Castles Poured Boiling Oil on Attackers. It’s a staple of every medieval movie siege: defenders on the castle walls pouring cauldrons of boiling oil on the unlucky soldiers below. While it makes for a dramatic scene, it was an incredibly rare tactic.
Oil, especially in the amounts needed for defense, was extremely expensive in the Middle Ages. Defenders were far more likely to use things that were cheap and easy to find, like boiling water, hot sand (which could get inside armor), or quicklime.
2. The Taj Mahal’s Builders Were Mutilated. One of the darkest legends about one of the world’s most beautiful buildings is the story that the Mughal emperor Shah Jahan had the hands of the architects and artisans cut off after the Taj Mahal was completed to ensure they could never create such a masterpiece again. It’s a gruesome and compelling tale, but there is absolutely no historical evidence to support it. This story is a modern myth, one of many that has sprung up around the iconic mausoleum.
1. Ferdinand Magellan Was the First to Circumnavigate the Globe. Ferdinand Magellan gets the credit for leading the first expedition to sail all the way around the world. It was a monumental achievement in exploration. But Magellan himself didn’t actually complete the journey.
He organized and led the Spanish expedition for most of the way, but he was killed in a battle in the Philippines in 1521. The voyage was completed by the Basque navigator Juan Sebastián Elcano, who took command of the last remaining ship, the Victoria, and guided its handful of survivors back to Spain in 1522—three years after they had left. Elcano was the first to actually make it all the way around, but Magellan usually gets all the credit.
So, how many of these “facts” did you believe were true? History is so much more complex and fascinating than the simple stories we’re often told.
If we’ve shattered your historical reality, let us know in the comments below which one of these myths shocked you the most. And if you enjoyed debunking the past with us, make sure to hit that like button, subscribe to the channel, and ring the notification bell so you don’t miss our next journey into the truth behind the history you thought you knew.
