Until someone invents a time travel machine, much of history will remain a mystery to us. But, if we don’t know it all, there are still tons of crazy rumors that make us curious as to what happened after that.
The sensation of rumors makes historical stories all the more fascinating and that’s why we don’t have to believe everything we’re told. The Bright Side page has revealed a few outstanding events in the past that were thought to be real but were actually just “slashed” to make them more attractive.
An island full of ice is called green, and a green island is called ice.
Rumor: The Vikings deliberately swapped Iceland’s name with that of Greenland to “trick” other peoples to come to the ice-covered Greenland. This helped them keep Iceland out of sight of the invaders.
Fact: Iceland is the name of the daughter of a Vikings in Sweden. The girl drowned on her way to Iceland. And Greenland has such a name because of the explorer Erik Thorvaldsson or Erik the Red, this man was banished from Iceland. He then sailed to Greenland and built his new empire there. He named it Greenland with the aim of attracting more migrants to this ice island.
Legend of the famous wooden horse of Troy.
Rumor: After 10 years of besieging Troy, the Greeks still have not been able to capture the city. They built a giant wooden horse and put the army inside, then pretended to abandon the horse and retreat. The Trojans considered the horse a trophy, so they dragged it into their city. At midnight, the soldiers inside the horse escaped and opened the city gates, the Greeks entered and swept the city.
Fact: Archaeological evidence shows that Troy was burned and the wooden horse is actually just a legend appearing in the epic of the Odyssey.
The story of the cow that caused the Great Chicago Fire was actually made up.
The Rumor: The Great Chicago Fire lasted from Sunday, October 8, 1871 to the morning of Tuesday, October 10, 1871. This fire event killed 300 people, destroying all of them in about 3 hours. 3 square miles of the city of Chicago, Illinois, USA and left more than 100,000 people homeless. It was speculated that the cause of the fire was a cow that knocked over a lantern while a woman named Catherine O’Leary was milking it.
Fact: Catherine O’Leary testified that she did not milk her cows during that time, when the fire broke out she was asleep. Later, a few reporters admitted they made up the story about the cow.
Spartan warriors outnumbered 300.
Rumor: 300 Spartan warriors entrenched in Thermopylae against the invasion of the Persian army for 3 days.
Fact: Not only were 300 Spartan warriors defending the city, they were also supported by at least 4000 men from the allied army. Despite having a better chance of victory, the Greeks eventually fell to the mighty Persian army.
Many people went bankrupt after that event.
The Rumor: The Wall Street Stock Market Crash of 1929 caused a wave of mass suicides among investors as they lost a lot of money.
Fact: October 29, 1929, historically known as Black Tuesday – the day Wall Street investors traded about 16 million shares, and million lost in That led to a market crash. This event marked the beginning of the Great Depression. However, this incident did not cause mass suicide, even when the market indexes in October and November hit the lowest lows of 1929. The person behind this rumor seems to be British Prime Minister Winston Churchill. He witnessed German chemist Dr. Otto Matthies fall from the 16th floor of the hotel. But this happened before Wall Street crashed so it has nothing to do with it.
It’s not like an apple fell on Newton’s head.
Rumor: Isaac Newton invented the theory of universal gravitation after being hit on the head by an apple while reading a book.
Fact: The apple did help Newton a bit, but not as rumored. After Newton left Cambridge, he returned home and continued his research on the subject he was pursuing at university. He suggested that gravity has an effect on distance. When he watched the apple fall in his mother’s garden, he had an idea and spent the next several years coming up with the final recipe.
Famous animator Walt Disney and Mickey Mouse.
Rumor: After the world’s most famous animator Walt Disney died, his body was frozen until humans discovered a method that could revive his life.
Fact: Walt Disney’s daughter has confirmed that he was cremated, not frozen.
Painting depicting Emperor Nero playing the lute while Rome caught fire.
Rumor: Emperor of Rome Nero burned Rome down and was still playing the violin while Rome was engulfed in flames.
Fact: Although scientists have yet to find the true cause, most historians believe Nero did not cause the Great Fire of Rome. He was not in the city at the time, and when he heard that Rome was on fire, Nero opened his gardens to provide shelter for the civilians who had lost their homes due to the fire.
There are still some who believe that Nero himself burned Rome because he didn’t like it and wanted to build a new one. And we probably won’t know what really happened, but one thing is for sure Nero didn’t play the violin because it hadn’t been invented at the time.
The radio program also scared many people.
Rumor: “War of the Worlds” was an American radio show, made into a movie in 1938 and broadcast for Halloween. It is described so realistically that many people have actually panicked and believe that aliens are invading us.
Fact: Since another popular show aired around the same time, “War of the Worlds” has seen a drop in viewership. And there was no invasion from space either, and it wasn’t long before CBS said that what was broadcast was fiction.
The love story is just a product of the imagination created by the filmmakers.
Rumor: A beautiful love arose between the Indian girl Pocahontas and the British colonial soldier John Smith.
Fact: At the time Pocahontas, whose real name is Matoaka, met John Smith, she was only 11 years old and John was 27 years old at the time. There’s no love story, but they did meet when John Smith was arrested. They spent that time teaching each other each other’s languages.
There is no such thing!
Rumor: Albert Einstein, the genius scientist who received the Nobel Prize in Physics, failed math in school.
Fact: Einstein was very good at math and by the age of 15 he had mastered differential and integral calculus. This rumor comes from the score he received while studying in Switzerland, he received a score of 1 and on a scale of 1 to 6, 1 is the highest score. However, not long after that, this rating system was changed and the score of 6 became the highest score while the records still recorded Einstein with a score of 1. It was because of this that led to the Einstein story being rejected. failed math.