History Myths
Popular history myths and misquotes, checked against the evidence.
Napoleon's Height: Feet, Inches and a Propaganda War
Napoleon's famous "five feet two" was measured in French units. See what the records say, how to convert them, and how British cartoons shrank him.
Read · 6 min read →History MythsViking Horned Helmets: What Archaeology Actually Shows
The surviving Viking helmets have no horns. The famous horned helmets from Denmark are Bronze Age ritual objects made some 1,500 years or more before the Viking Age.
Read · 6 min read →History MythsThe Flat Earth Myth: What Medieval People Really Believed
Educated medieval Europeans knew the Earth was round. Here is the evidence, the rare exceptions, and how 19th-century writers spread the flat-Earth story.
Read · 6 min read →History Myths'Let Them Eat Cake': Did Marie Antoinette Really Say It?
The famous line appears in Rousseau's Confessions, written when Marie Antoinette was a child in Vienna and credited only to an unnamed "great princess."
Read · 5 min read →History MythsThe Great Wall From Space: What Astronauts Actually See
NASA says the Great Wall isn't visible from the Moon and is hard or impossible to see from orbit by eye. Here's why, and what cameras and radar can catch.
Read · 6 min read →History MythsGeorge Washington's Teeth: Why the Wooden Dentures Story Is Wrong
Washington's dentures used ivory, metals, and human and animal teeth, never wood. Mount Vernon's records explain the myth and a harder history behind it.
Read · 5 min read →