Each entry on this list of common misconceptions is worded as a correction; the misconceptions themselves are implied rather than stated. These entries are concise summaries; the main subject articles can be consulted for more detail.

• ThePyramids of Egypt were not constructed withslave labor. Archaeological evidence shows that the laborers were a combination of skilled workers and poor farmers working in the off-season with the participants paid in high-quality food and tax exemptions.^[1][2] The idea that slaves were used originated withHerodotus, and the idea that they wereIsraelites arose centuries after the pyramids were constructed.^[3][2]
• Galleys in ancient times were not commonly operated by chained slaves or prisoners, as depicted in films such asBen Hur, but by paid laborers or soldiers, with slaves used only in times of crisis, in some cases even gaining freedom after the crisis was averted.Ptolemaic Egypt was a possible exception.^[4][5] Other types of vessels, such as Roman merchant vessels, were manned by slaves, sometimes even with slaves as ship's master.^[6]
• Tutankhamun's tomb is not inscribed with acurse on those who disturb it. This was a media invention of 20th-century tabloid journalists.^[7]
• TheMinoan civilization was not destroyed by theeruption of Thera and was not the inspiration forPlato's parable ofAtlantis.^[8]

  

• The ancient Greeks did not use the word "idiot" (Ancient Greek:ἰδιώτης,romanized: idiṓtēs) to disparage people who did not take part in civic life. Anἰδιώτης was simply a private citizen as opposed to a government official. The word also meant any sort of non-expert or layman,^[9] then later someone uneducated or ignorant, and much later to mean stupid or mentally deficient.^[10]

• The so-calledRoman salute, in which the arm is fully extended forwards or diagonally with palm down and fingers touching, was not used in ancient Rome. The gesture was first associated with ancient Rome in the 1784 paintingThe Oath of the Horatii by the French artistJacques-Louis David, which inspired later salutes, most notably theNazi salute.^[11]

• Wealthy Ancient Romans did not use rooms calledvomitoria to purge food during meals so they could continue eating^[12] and vomiting was not a regular part ofRoman dining customs.^[13] Avomitorium is a passageway out of a stadium allowing quick exit at the end of an event.^[12] Both "vomit" and "vomitorium" derive from aLatin term meaning "to spew forth".
• Scipio Aemilianus did notsow salt over the city ofCarthage after defeating it in theThird Punic War.^[14]
• Julius Caesar was not born viacaesarean section. Such a procedure would have been fatal to the mother at the time, and Caesar's mother was still alive when he was 45 years old.^[15][16]
• There is no proof that Julius Caesar ever said "Et tu, Brute?" ("You too, Brutus?") duringhis assassination.^[17] Instead, theprevailing theories are that he remained silent, or that his last words were "καὶ σύ, τέκνον?" ("You too, child?"). The popular misconception comes from the playJulius Caesar byWilliam Shakespeare.^[18]

• TheMiddle Ages were not "a time of ignorance, barbarism and superstition"; the Church did not place religious authority over personal experience and rational activity; and the term "Dark Ages" is rejected by modern historians.^[19]
• While modernlife expectancies are much higher than those in the Middle Ages and earlier,^[20][21] adults in the Middle Ages did not die in their 30s on average. That was the life expectancyat birth, which was skewed by high infant and adolescent mortality. The life expectancy among adults was much higher;^[22] a 21-year-old man in medieval England, for example, could expect to live to the age of 64.^[23][22]
• In the tale ofKing Canute and the tide, the king did not command the tide to reverse in a fit of delusional arrogance. According to the story, his intent was to prove a point that no man is all-powerful, and that all people must bend to forces beyond their control, such as the tides.^[24]
• There is no evidence thatiron maidens were used for torture, or even yet invented, in the Middle Ages. Instead they were pieced together in the 18th century from several artifacts found in museums, arsenals and the like to create spectacular objects intended for commercial exhibition.^[25]
• Spiral staircases in castles were not designed in a clockwise direction to hinder right-handed attackers.^[26][27] While clockwise spiral staircases are more common in castles than anti-clockwise, they were even more common in medieval structures without a military role, such as religious buildings.^[28]
• Theplate armor of European soldiers did not stop soldiers from moving around or necessitate a crane to get them into a saddle. They needed to be able to fight on foot in case they could not ride their horse and could mount and dismount without help.^[29] However, armor used in tournaments in the late Middle Ages was significantly heavier than that used in warfare.^[30]
• Whetherchastity belts, devices designed to prevent women and men from having sexual intercourse, were invented in medieval times is disputed by modern historians. Most existing chastity belts are now thought to be deliberate fakes from the 19th century.^[31]

• Medieval European scholarsdid not believe the Earth was flat. Scholars have known the Earth is spherical since at least the sixth century BCE.^[32]
• Medieval cartographers did not regularly write "here be dragons" on their maps. The only maps from this era that have the phrase inscribed on them are theHunt-Lenox Globe and theOstrich Egg Globe, next to a coast in Southeast Asia for both of them. Maps in this period did occasionally have illustrations of mythical or real animals.^[33]
• Christopher Columbus' efforts to obtain support forhis voyages were not hampered by belief in a flat Earth, but by valid worries that the East Indies were farther than he realized.^[34] In fact, Columbus grossly underestimated the Earth's circumference because of two calculation errors.^[35] The myth that Columbus proved the Earth was round was propagated by authors likeWashington Irving inA History of the Life and Voyages of Christopher Columbus.^[32]
• Columbus was not the first European to visit the Americas:^[36]Leif Erikson, and possibly other Vikings before him, exploredVinland, an area of coastal North America. Ruins atL'Anse aux Meadows prove that at least one Norse settlement was built in Newfoundland, confirming a story in theSaga of Erik the Red.

• There is no evidence that Viking warriors worehorns on their helmets; this would have been impractical in battle.^[37][38]
• Vikings did notdrink out of the skulls of vanquished enemies. This was based on a mistranslation of theskaldic poetic use ofór bjúgviðum hausa (branches of skulls) to refer todrinking horns.^[39]
• Vikings did notname Iceland "Iceland" as a ploy to discourage oversettlement. According to theSagas of Icelanders,Hrafna-Flóki Vilgerðarson saw icebergs on the island when he traveled there, and named the island after them.^[40] Popular legend holds that Greenland was named in the hopes of attracting settlers.^[41]

• TheMexica people of theAztec Empire did not mistakeHernán Cortés and his landing party for gods during Cortés'conquest of the empire. This notion came fromFrancisco López de Gómara, who never went to Mexico and concocted the myth while working for the retired Cortés in Spain years after the conquest.^[42]
• The elite of theDutch Golden Age wore black clothes primarily as a status symbol rather than out ofPuritan self-restraint. The clothes attracted status from the difficulty of the dyeing process and the cost of elaborate embellishments.^[43][44]
• Shah Jahan, the IndianMughal Emperor who commissioned theTaj Mahal, did not cut off the hands of the rumored 40,000 workers or lead designers so as to not allow the construction of another monument more beautiful than the Taj Mahal. This is an urban myth that goes back to the 1960s.^[45][46][47]
• The story thatIsaac Newton was inspired to research the nature of gravity when anapple fell on his head is almost certainly apocryphal. All Newton himself ever said was that the idea came to him as he sat "in a contemplative mood" and "was occasioned by the fall of an apple".^[48]

• Marie Antoinette did not say "let them eat cake" when she heard that the French peasantry were starving due to a shortage of bread. The phrase was first published inRousseau'sConfessions, written when Marie Antoinette was only nine years old and not attributed to her, just to "a great princess". It was first attributed to her in 1843.^[49]

• The early settlers (commonly known asPilgrims) of thePlymouth Colony in North America usually did not wear all black, and theircapotains (hats) did not include buckles. Instead, their fashion was based on that of the late Elizabethan era.^[50] The traditional image was formed in the 19th century when buckles were a kind of emblem of quaintness.^[51] (ThePuritans, who settled in the adjacentMassachusetts Bay Colony shortly after the Pilgrims arrived in Plymouth,did frequently wear all black.)^[52]
• People accused of witchcraft were not burned at the stake during theSalem witch trials. Of the accused, nineteen people convicted of witchcraft were executed by hanging, at least five died in prison, andone man was pressed to death by stones while trying to extract a confession from him.^[53]
• George Washington did not havewooden teeth. His dentures were made of lead, gold, hippopotamus ivory, the teeth of various animals, including horse and donkey teeth,^[54][55] and human teeth, possibly bought from slaves or poor people.^[56][57] Because ivory teeth quickly became stained, they may have had the appearance of wood to observers.^[55]

• George Washington did not say "I cannot tell a lie" when being caught cutting down his father's cherry tree. Both the phrase and the tree were a fabricated anecdote created by one of Washington's biographers,Mason Locke Weems, to portray him as exceptionally honest.^[58]
• The signing of theUnited States Declaration of Independence did not occur on July 4, 1776. After theSecond Continental Congress voted to declare independence on July 2, the final language of the document was approved on July 4, and it was printed and distributed on July 4–5.^[59] However, the actual signing occurred on August 2, 1776.^[60]
• Benjamin Franklin did not propose that thewild turkey be used as the symbol for the United States instead of the bald eagle. While he did serve on a commission that tried to design a seal after the Declaration of Independence, his proposal was an image of Moses. His objections to the eagle as a national symbol and preference for the turkey were stated in a 1784 letter to his daughter in response to theSociety of the Cincinnati's use of the former; he never expressed that sentiment publicly.^[61]
• There was never a bill to make German theofficial language of the United States that was defeated by one vote in the House of Representatives, nor has one been proposed at the state level. In 1794, a petition from a group of German immigrants was put aside on a procedural vote of 42 to 41, that would have had the government publish some laws in German. This was the basis of theMuhlenberg legend, named after the Speaker of the House at the time,Frederick Muhlenberg, who was of German descent and abstained from this vote.^[62]

• Napoleon Bonaparte was not especially short for a Frenchman of his time. He was the height of an average French male in 1800, but short for an aristocrat or officer.^[63] After his death in 1821, the French emperor's height was recorded as 5 feet 2 inches inFrench feet, which in English measurements is 5 feet 7 inches (1.70 m).^[64][65]
• The nose of theGreat Sphinx of Giza was not shot off by Napoleon's troops during theFrench campaign in Egypt (1798–1801); it has been missing since at least the 10th century.^[66]
• Cinco de Mayo is notMexico's Independence Day, but the celebration of the Mexican Army's victory over the French in theBattle of Puebla on 5 May 1862. Mexico's Declaration of Independence from Spain in 1810 is celebrated on 16 September.^[67]
• Victorian-era doctors did not invent thevibrator to cure female "hysteria" by triggering orgasm.^[68]

• Albert Einstein did not fail mathematics classes in school. Einstein remarked, "I never failed in mathematics.... Before I was fifteen I had mastered differential and integral calculus."^[69] Einstein did, however, fail his first entrance exam into theSwiss Federal Polytechnic School (ETH) in 1895, when he was two years younger than his fellow students, but scored exceedingly well in the mathematics and science sections, and then passed on his second attempt.^[70] The misconception likely stems from different grading systems in Switzerland and Germany, where a 6 is the best grade in Switzerland, but the worst grade in Germany.^[71]
• Alfred Nobel did not omit mathematics in theNobel Prize due to a rivalry with mathematicianGösta Mittag-Leffler, as there is little evidence the two ever met, nor was it because Nobel's spouse had an affair with a mathematician, as Nobel was never married. The more likely explanation is that Nobel believed mathematics was too theoretical to benefit humankind, as well as his personal lack of interest in the field.^[72] (See also:Nobel Prize controversies)
• Gavrilo Princip was not eating a sandwich just before heassassinated Archduke Franz Ferdinand. This myth likely originated from the 2001 novelTwelve Fingers, which presents a fictionalized version of the events of the assassination that includes the sandwich.^[73]
• Grigori Rasputin was not assassinated by being fed cyanide-laced cakes andwine, shot multiple times, and then thrown into theLittle Nevka river when he survived the former two. A contemporary autopsy reported that he was just killed with gunshots. A sensationalized account from the memoirs of co-conspiratorPrinceFelix Yusupov is the only source of this story.^[74][75][76]
• The Italian dictatorBenito Mussolini did not "make the trains run on time". Much of the repair work had been performed before he and theFascist Party came to power in 1922. Moreover, the Italian railways' supposed adherence to timetables was more propaganda than reality.^[77]
• There is no evidence ofPolish cavalry mounting a brave but futile charge against German tanks using lances and sabers during the Germaninvasion of Poland in 1939. This story may have originated from German propaganda efforts following thecharge at Krojanty.^[78]
• During theoccupation of Denmark by the Nazis during World War II, KingChristian X of Denmark did not thwart Nazi attempts to identify Jews by wearing ayellow star himself. Jews in Denmark were never forced to wear theStar of David. TheDanish resistance didhelp most Jews flee the country before the end of the war.^[79]
• Not allskinheads arewhite supremacists; many skinheadsidentify as left-wing or apolitical, and many oppose racism, such as theSkinheads Against Racial Prejudice. Originating from the 1960s British working class, many of its initial adherents wereblack andWest Indian; it became associated with white supremacy in the 1970s as a result of far-right groups like theNational Front recruiting from the subculture for grassroot support.^{[80][81][82][83]}

• Betsy Ross did not design or make the first official U.S. flag, despite it being widely known as theBetsy Ross flag. The claim was first made by her grandson a century later.^[84]

• Abraham Lincoln did not write hisGettysburg Address speech on the back of an envelope on his train ride to Gettysburg. The speech was substantially complete before Lincoln left Washington for Gettysburg.^[85][86]
• TheEmancipation Proclamation did not free all slaves in the United States; the Proclamation applied in the ten states that were still inrebellion in 1863, and thus did not cover the nearly five hundred thousand slaves in the slaveholdingborder states that had not seceded.^[87][88][89] (See also:Abolition of slavery timeline)
• Likewise, theJune 19, 1865 order celebrated annually as "Juneteenth" only appliedin Texas, not the United States at large.The Thirteenth Amendment, ratified and proclaimed in December 1865, was the article that banned slavery nationwide except as punishment for a crime.^[87][88]
• TheAlaska Purchase was generally viewed as positive or neutral in the United States, both among the public and the press. The opponents of the purchase who characterized it as "Seward's Folly", alluding toWilliam H. Seward, the Secretary of State who negotiated it, represented a minority opinion at the time.^[90][91]
• Cowboy hats were not initially popular in theWestern American frontier, withderby or bowler hats being the typical headgear of choice.^[92] Heavy marketing of theStetson "Boss of the Plains" model in the years following theAmerican Civil War was the primary driving force behind the cowboy hat's popularity, with its characteristic dented top not becoming standard until near the end of the 19th century.^[93]
• TheGreat Chicago Fire of 1871 was not caused byMrs. O'Leary's cow kicking over a lantern. A newspaper reporter later admitted to having invented the story to make colorful copy.^[94]
• There is no evidence thatFrederic Remington, on assignment to Cuba in 1897, telegraphedWilliam Randolph Hearst: "There will be no war. I wish to return," nor that Hearst responded: "Please remain. You furnish the pictures, and I'll furnish the war". The anecdote was originally included in a book byJames Creelman and probably never happened.^[95]
• The electrocution ofTopsy the Elephant was not an anti-alternating current demonstration organized byThomas A. Edison during thewar of the currents. Edison was never atLuna Park, and the electrocution of Topsy took place ten years after the war of currents.^[96] This myth may stem from the fact thatthe recording of the event was produced by theEdison film company.
• Mary Mallon, known as "Typhoid Mary", testified at her 1909 trial that she did not believe she was contagious while anasymptomatic carrier of thebacteriaSalmonella typhi.^[97] She later infected many others, while using fake names and evading health authorities.
• Immigrants' last names were not Americanized (voluntarily, mistakenly, or otherwise) upon arrival atEllis Island. Officials there kept no records other than checking ship manifests created at the point of origin, and there was simply no paperwork that would have let them recast surnames, let alone any law. At the time in New York, anyone could change the spelling of their name simply by using that new spelling.^[98] These names are often referred to as an "Ellis Island Special".
• Prohibition did not make drinking alcohol illegal in the United States. TheEighteenth Amendment and the subsequentVolstead Act prohibited the production, sale, and transport of "intoxicating liquors" within the United States, but their possession and consumption were never outlawed.^[99]
• Distraught stockbrokers did notjump to their deaths in large numbers after theWall Street Crash of 1929. Although extensively reported by the news media, the phenomenon was limited in number and the overall suicide rate following the 1929 crash did not increase.^[100]
• There was no widespread outbreak of panic across the United States in response toOrson Welles' 1938radio adaptation ofH.G. Wells'The War of the Worlds. Only a very small share of the radio audience was listening to it, but newspapers, beingeager to discredit radio as a competitor for advertising, played up isolated reports of incidents and increased emergency calls. Both Welles and CBS, which had initially reacted apologetically, later came to realize that the myth benefited them and actively embraced it in later years.^[101]
• American pilotKenneth Arnold did not coin the termflying saucer; he did not use that phrase when describing his1947 UFO sighting atMount Rainier,Washington.The East Oregonian, the first newspaper to report on the incident, merely quoted him as saying the objects "flew like a saucer" and were "flat like a pie pan".^{[102][103][104][105]}
• U.S. SenatorGeorge Smathers never gave aspeech to a less-educated audience describing his opponent,Claude Pepper, as an "extrovert" whose sister was a "thespian", in the apparent hope they would confuse them with similar-sounding words like "pervert" and "lesbian". Smathers offered US$10,000 to anyone who could prove he had made the speech; it was never claimed.^[106]
• Dwight D. Eisenhower did not order the construction of theInterstate Highway System for the sole purpose of evacuating cities in the event of nuclear warfare. While military motivations were present, the primary motivations were civilian.^[107][108]
• Rosa Parks was not sitting in the front ("white") section of the bus during the event that made her famous and incited theMontgomery bus boycott. Rather, she was sitting in the front of the back ("colored") section of the bus, where African Americans were expected to sit, and rejected an order from the driver to vacate her seat in favor of a white passenger when the "white" section of the bus had become full.^[109]
• The African-American intellectual and activistW. E. B. Du Bois did not renounce his U.S. citizenship while living in Ghana shortly beforehis death.^[110][111] In early 1963, his membership in theCommunist Party and support for the Soviet Union led theU.S. State Department to refuse to renew hispassport while he was already in Ghana. After leaving the embassy, he stated his intention to renounce his citizenship in protest, but while he took Ghanaian citizenship, he never actually renounced his American citizenship.^[112][110]
• US PresidentJohn F. Kennedy's words "Ich bin ein Berliner" are standard German for "I am a Berliner (citizen of Berlin)."^[113] It is not true that by using the indefinite articleein, he changed the meaning of the sentence from the intended "I am a citizen of Berlin" to "I am aBerliner", a Berliner being a type of German pastry, similar to ajelly doughnut, amusing Germans.^[114] Furthermore, the pastry, whichis known by many names in Germany, was not then – nor is it now – commonly called "Berliner" in the Berlin area.^[115]
• WhenKitty Genovese was murdered outside her apartment in 1964, there were not 38 neighbors standing idly by and watching who failed to call the police until after she was dead, as was initially reported^[116] to widespread public outrage that persisted for years and evenbecame the basis of a theory in social psychology. In fact, witnesses only heard brief portions of the attack and did not realize what was occurring, and only six or seven actually saw anything. One witness, who had called the police, said when interviewed by officers at the scene, "I didn't want to get involved",^[117] an attitude later attributed to all the neighbors.^[118]

• While it was praised by one architectural magazine before it was built as "the best high apartment of the year", thePruitt–Igoehousing project in St. Louis, Missouri never won any awards for its design.^[119] The architectural firm that designed the buildings did win an award for an earlier St. Louis project, which may have been confused with Pruitt–Igoe.^[120]
• There is little contemporary documentary evidence for the notion that US Vietnam veterans werespat upon by anti-war protesters upon return to the United States. This belief was detailed in some biographical accounts and was later popularized by films such asRambo.^{[121][122][123]}
• Womendid not burn their bras outside the Miss America contest in 1969 as a protest in support of women's liberation. They did symbolically throw bras in a trash can, along with other articles seen as emblematic of women's position in American society such as mops, make-up, and high-heeled shoes. The myth of bra burning came when a journalist hypothetically suggested that women may do so in the future, as men of the eraburned their draft cards.^[124]
• The American space program in the 1960s never had a wide base ofpublic support and did not unify the United States. Belief that theApollo program was worth the time and money invested peaked at 51% for a few months after the1969 Apollo 11 moon landing, and otherwise had fluctuated between 35–45% support.^{[125][126][127]}
• Despite popularizing the phrase "drinking the Kool-Aid",^[128] Kool-Aid was not used for thepotassium cyanide-fruit punch mix ingested as part of theJonestown massacre.^[129] A similar product,Flavor-Aid, was used.^[130][131]

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