History and big mistakes

Centuries have passed and when the history of losing the rope connects to its roots, facts can be distorted, lost or eliminated. And sometimes, even the most cautious historians can lose sight of the truth.

Some legends are anecdotes that merely add color to a famous character. For example, we've heard all George Washington have wooden teeth. In fact it's not like that even if you wear dentures.

However, some other myths focus on drawing the story of a historical figure so far away from reality. For example, Isaac Newton did not detect gravity after being hit by an apple in the head. However, because Newton often uses apples as a tool to explain gravity, we have a story about the birth of the law of gravitational attraction. Let Discovery magazine review some big myths about world history.

Marco Polo went to Asia

According to a group of Italian archaeologists, the famous explorer Marco Polo has never been to Asia. Instead, the stories of Marco Polo's trip to Asia are just a matter of weaving from the merchants he met in the Black Sea.

An article in the Daily Mail even emphasized that Marco Polo, the famous explorer for a legendary journey into Asia, is actually just a "bluff" because he seems to have set up himself. stories about my accomplishments.

Napoleon is a dwarf

If the "low-birth weight" form , many people will feel comforted when others consider the stature of Napoleon (Bonaparte) - the legendary general and emperor of France, who is believed to have a muscle. small but offset by ambition and talent more than people. However, the problem here is that Napoleon is not low. In fact, he was only recorded as a 57 cm height according to an old French metering system, but when converted to the modern standard, it must be 1m68 - the height cannot be attributed to dwarfism. for a man of his generation.

Benjamin Franklin discovered electricity

Benjamin Franklin deserves to be honored with many titles. He is one of the founders of the United States of America, a key figure of the enlightenment period, a diplomat and more. However, there was an often mistaken achievement for Franklin that he discovered electricity. Although a talented scientist conducted experiments on electricity, Franklin was not the first to describe or detect the properties of electricity and magnetism.

The first description of magnetism dates back almost 2,600 years, when the Greek philosopher and mathematician Thales of Miletus observed that iron was sucked into a magnet but attributed the phenomenon to the needle. kind with soul. The first attempts to explain this attraction with scientific bases appeared hundreds of years later. William Gilbert, an English scientist who lived in the 16th century and was praised by Galileo, gave some basic principles of electricity and magnetism, including the fact that Earth itself produced a magnetic field. .

Albert Einstein was an early mathematician

We are often illusory, that Albert Einstein - a pioneer in the field of modern physics, the father of relativity and one of the greatest minds of all time, learned math at a young age. . In fact it is not. According to Einstein's own admission, he once considered becoming a mathematician instead of wanting to be a physics expert. So where does the myth come from?

Dr. Karl S. Kruszelnicki, a famous scientific commentator on Australian radio and television, said it could simply come from a scoring system when Einstein was still in school. By the time Einstein was still in the school chair, the system rated students on a scale of 1 to 6, with 1 being the highest and 6 being the lowest. Not long after Einstein left school, this grading system was reversed with 6 being the highest score a student could win. Therefore, anyone who looks at Einstein's transcript after this change may have the impression that he is a poor student under a more modern grading system.

The Giza pyramids built by slaves

Is it true that slave labor created the famous Giza pyramids? Although it is a common record of the birth of tombs for this ancient Egyptian royal family, the burial place of pyramid builders reveals that they are paid workers and be respected for their work. Herodotus, an ancient Greek historian, mistakenly believed that slaves built pyramids and this legend continued to be amplified in fictional books and movies of the future.

Queen Cleopatra committed suicide by biting poisonous snakes

After the death of his lover Marc Antony and the inevitable defeat of the Romans led by Octavian Caesar, Egyptian queen Cleopatra committed suicide by allowing a poisonous snake to bite her. This is a widely accepted record of Cleopatra's final moments, but the actual story can be much more complicated.

In fact, according to the author of "Cleopatra: The Last Queen of Egypt" , a snake bite is a risky suicide method with a high probability of failure. In addition, the smuggling of snake through Octavian, who ordered the guards to warn Cleopatra to commit suicide, would be difficult. Furthermore, no snake has ever been found.

These events undoubtedly increased drama for the death of the Egyptian Queen. However, according to a German historian, who asked the help of a poison specialist in his research, a glass of poisonous wine most likely caused Cleopatra to die.

Cassius Dio, a Roman historian who lived after Cleopatra for 200 years, described her death as peaceful and painless. With symptoms of a snake bite including vomiting and respiratory failure, a glass of poison seems to be more appropriate for this detail.

Mozart and Salieri are "archenemy"

For a long time, many people still believed that Antonio Salieri and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart were such foes of hatred for each other that the Italian composer was keen to kill Austrian musical prodigies. However, in reality there is little evidence that the relationship between these two talented artists is particularly acute. Although Mozart publicly attacked Salieri, the records from their time seemed to indicate that Salieri supported Mozart's work.

The rumor that Salieri poisoned Mozart could stem from the Italian composer himself. Long after Mozart died, Salieri - then old - had "accused himself of Mozart poisoning" in 1823. Giuseppe Carpani, a friend of Salieri, hired a doctor to investigate the incident and Salieri was finally unjustified.

Even so, misunderstanding remains forever. Born in 1830, only five years after Salieri's death, the opera opera "Mozart and Salieri" revived fiction and fiction about how a jealous Salieri attempted to destroy a talented Mozart like how. Later portraits of the relationship between the two composers continue to be inspired by the opera and the legend of confrontation never disappears.

The nude lady Godiva fights heavy duty

Lady Godiva is an English aristocrat in the 11th century and her name is mentioned forever for a reason: According to legend, she has traveled throughout her husband's territories in Coventry, England in a state of nude to protest against the collection of heavy taxes. However, medieval historians agreed with each other that such a trip could never have happened. The legend only appeared about 200 years after the death of Godifu - a noble woman believed to be Lady Godiva's prototype. Still, the myth of how Godiva was born and why her name is tied to history is still a secret.