7 Widely Believed Historical “Facts” That Never Happened
The story of gravity discovery and the way the black death was spread
--
Researching historical events shows that some of the historical “facts” are either downplayed, exaggerated, or just didn’t happen at all. Here’s a list of seven historical facts that probably also you, just like me, thought happened, but indeed they never did!
1. Christopher Columbus was the first to discover America
Many students learn about the discovery of America by Columbus and even Google’s first search results regard the Italian explorer Christopher Columbus to be the discoverer of America in 1492.
As the Washington Post points out, Columbus didn’t “discover” America: besides the fact that there were already people living there, indeed he wasn’t even the first European to visit the Western Hemisphere, either.
Leif Erikson — an explorer from Iceland — is believed to have landed and made a settlement in North America 500 years before Columbus’ visit to America. Besides that, Columbus never set foot on the soil of the North American mainland, but only on various Caribbean islands.
2. Rats didn’t actually spread the Black Death
Have you ever thought that maybe we shouldn’t blame rats for the plague that killed 75 to 200 million people in Eurasia through 14th to 19th century?
Although it’s a widely accepted theory, recent studies have revealed something new! Rats were not the only factor in spreading the Black Death. At the University of Oslo, scientists in 2014 conducted research that assessed the potential transmission sources for the pandemic.
They concluded the parasites that spread the disease were more likely to have come from humans than rats and were spread from human to human. Their research indicated that the disease spread by human fleas and lice matched the death rates for the Black Death more so than their model regarding parasite-carrying rats.
So maybe it’s time to apologize for all the blame on rats for all these years!
3. Sir Isaac Newton and the apple
The story about having discovering gravity and having an epiphany by the falling apple is true. What’s not true though, it’s that the apple didn’t fall on Newton’s head.
As History relates, in 1665 a plague forced Cambridge University’s students and faculty members, including Isaac Newton, to leave the place. He went to his childhood home and while walking around he saw an apple fall from a tree and drop to the ground. This made him think about why all the objects fall down rather than to the side or up, and this lead to the discovery of gravity.
The famous story of the falling apple on Newton was first mentioned in his biography in 1792 by a friend, William Stukeley:
“The notion of gravitation came into his mind…. occasion’d by the fall of an apple, as he sat in a contemplative mood.”
4. Vincent Van Gogh didn’t mutilate his ear
Vincent Van Gogh is popular for 2 things:
- His great paintings;
- Cutting off his hear.
It’s true that he actually cut his ear but in fact, he only cut a part of his ear lobe and not the whole ear! But why?
Some historians believe that he was emotionally disturbed after a troubled friendship with Paul Gaugin, who was also a painter. Paul Gaugin cut Van Gogh’s ear. Here’s how that happened according to the Guardian’s correspondent, Angelique Chrisafis:
“Van Gogh and Gauguin’s troubled friendship was legendary. In 1888, Van Gogh persuaded him to come to Arles in the south of France to live with him in the Yellow House he had set up as studio of the south”
“They spent the autumn painting together before things soured. Just before Christmas, they fell out. Van Gogh, seized by an attack of a metabolic disease became aggressive and was apparently crushed when Gauguin said he was leaving for good.”
“two German art historians, who have spent 10 years reviewing the police investigations, witness accounts and the artists’ letters, argue that Gauguin, a fencing ace, most likely sliced off the ear with his sword during a fight, and the two artists agreed to hush up the truth”
“While curators at the Van Gogh museum in Amsterdam stand by the theory of self-mutilation, Kaufmann argues that Van Gogh dropped hints in letters to his brother, Theo, once commenting : “Luckily Gauguin … is not yet armed with machine guns and other dangerous war weapons.”— The Guardian
Other historians claim that Van Gogh cut off his ear lobe as an act of rage after hearing about his brother’s marriage who was actually supporting him financially.
5. Romulus founding Rome
Who founded Rome?
School children might say it was Romulus, after whom Rome was named. The story of Romulus killing his twin brother Remus and that they were raised by a wolf who nursed them as babies is quite popular. Their father was the god Mars, and Romulus himself became the god Quirinus after he disappeared in a magical whirlwind to save him from the murderous jealousy of Roman senators.
How far into these paragraphs did you get before you realized that maybe — just maybe — Romulus and Remus were not actually real?
As Theodor Mommsen told the New York Times, the legendary account of Rome’s foundation in 753 B.C. is “out of the question.” Romulus was almost certainly a legendary figure, whose name was likely a back-formation from the name Rome, not vice versa. —Source: Grunge and NYT
6. The Trojan War
There is a lot of details about the Trojan War. However, the story and its details are based on fiction. First of all, as the story was passed down verbally, and that’s how the story started to change while different pieces of information were added or forgotten. The story of the Trojan Horse and the 1,186 ships that entered Troy is fiction.
No need to mention that the original story was based on Greek mythology and the movie Troy has made some people think about the war as a real historical event. The story in its original form is based on the poem Iliad.
According to History, “the completion of the “Iliad” dates to about 750 B.C. It becgan within the oral tradition, and were first transcribed decades or centuries after their composition. Many of the most familiar episodes of the war, from the abduction of Helen to the Trojan Horse and the sack of Troy, come from the so-called “Epic Cycle” of narratives assembled in the sixth century B.C. from older oral traditions.”
7. Martin Luther and the dramatical nailing of 95 Theses to a church door
The revolutionary monk Martin Luther is well-known as the catalyst for the Protestant Reformation in history. While he had a major impact on people’s perceptions of the Catholic Church, the story about posting theses on the church door is untrue.
First of all the story became popular in 1547, which was 30 years after the incident of nailing theses to a door church. What is certain is that Martin Luther only mailed his 95 theses to the archbishop and that he never actually intended to start a revolution within the church.
Luther researcher Erwin Iserloh says that this story was written by an individual who probably never witnesses such a thing. He most likely delivered a letter with the theses attached.
However, even if he would have attached his mails at the church noticeboard which is also likely, that was actually the norm! Pasting mails at the noticeboard of a church was like a formal publication. But the story of nailing theses has been around because the image of a man nailing his complaints to the door of a church is so striking that it won’t likely be replaced by a man mailing or pasting a letter.
References
Hufthammer, A. K., & Walløe, L. (2013). Rats cannot have been intermediate hosts for Yersinia pestis during medieval plague epidemics in Northern Europe. Journal of Archaeological Science, 40(4), 1752–1759.
Fara, P. (1999). Catch a falling apple: Isaac Newton and myths of genius. Endeavour, 23(4), 167–170.
Hughes, J. R. (2005). A reappraisal of the possible seizures of Vincent van Gogh. Epilepsy & behavior, 6(4), 504–510.
Geist, S. (1993). Van Gogh’s ear again. And again. Source: Notes in the History of Art, 13(1), 11–14.
Wiseman, T. P. (1995). Remus: a Roman myth. Cambridge University Press.
Marshall, P. (2017). 1517: Martin Luther and the Invention of the Reformation. Oxford University Press.
Merkle, S. (1999). Dictys and Dares on the Trojan War. Latin fiction: the Latin novel in context, 155.
Little, B. (2015). Why Do We Celebrate Columbus Day and Not Leif Erikson Day?. National Geographic.
More reads by me
History:
