Misconceptions

in Misconceptions

Fallacious yet widespread and documented beliefs courtesy of Wikipedia.
According to various polls, between 20 to 24% of Americans incorrectly believe that Barack Obama is a Muslim. The White House describes Obama as a "devout Christian" who prays every day.

in Misconceptions

Fallacious yet widespread and documented beliefs courtesy of Wikipedia.
In ancient Rome, Romans did not build rooms called vomitoria in which to purge themselves after a meal. Vomitoria were the entranceways through which crowds entered and exited a stadium.

in Misconceptions

Fallacious yet widespread and documented beliefs courtesy of Wikipedia.
There is no evidence that Vikings wore horns on their helmets.

in Misconceptions

Fallacious yet widespread and documented beliefs courtesy of Wikipedia.
There is no evidence that iron maidens were invented in the Middle Ages or even used for torture, despite being shown so in some media, but instead were pieced together in the 18th century from several artifacts found in museums in order to create spectacular objects intended for (commercial) exhibition.

in Misconceptions

Fallacious yet widespread and documented beliefs courtesy of Wikipedia.
Christopher Columbus's efforts to obtain support for his voyages were not hampered by a European belief in a flat Earth. Sailors and navigators of the time knew that the Earth was spherical, but (correctly) disagreed with Columbus's estimate of the distance to India, which was approximately 1/6th of the actual distance. If the Americas did not exist, and had Columbus continued to India, he would have run out of supplies before reaching it at the rate he was traveling. Without the ability to determine longitude at sea, he could not have corrected his error.[clarification needed] This problem remained unsolved until the 18th century, when the lunar distance method emerged in parallel with efforts by inventor John Harrison to create the first marine chronometers. The intellectual class had known that the Earth was spherical since the works of the Greek philosophers Plato and Aristotle. Eratosthenes made a very good estimate of the Earth's diameter in the third century BC. (See also: Myth of the Flat Earth)

in Misconceptions

Fallacious yet widespread and documented beliefs courtesy of Wikipedia.
Contrary to the popular image of the Pilgrim Fathers, the early settlers of the Plymouth Colony in present-day Plymouth, Massachusetts did not dress in black, wear buckles, or wear black steeple hats. According to Plimoth Plantation historian James W. Baker, this image was formed in the 19th century when buckles were a kind of emblem of quaintness. This is also the reason illustrators gave Santa Claus buckles.

in Misconceptions

Fallacious yet widespread and documented beliefs courtesy of Wikipedia.
Marie Antoinette did not actually use the phrase "let them eat cake" when she heard that the French peasantry was starving due to a dearth of bread. The phrase was first published in Rousseau's Confessions when Marie was only 10 years old and most scholars believe that Rousseau coined it himself, or that it was said by Maria-Theresa, the wife of Louis XIV. Even Rousseau (or Maria-Theresa) did not use the exact words but actually "Qu'ils mangent de la brioche" ("Let them eat brioche [a rich type of bread]"). Marie Antoinette was a very unpopular ruler and many people therefore attribute the phrase "let them eat cake" to her, in keeping with her reputation as being hard-hearted and disconnected from her subjects.

in Misconceptions

Fallacious yet widespread and documented beliefs courtesy of Wikipedia.
George Washington did not have wooden teeth. According to a study of Washington's four known dentures by a forensic anthropologist from the University of Pittsburgh (in collaboration with the National Museum of Dentistry, itself associated with the Smithsonian Museum), the dentures were made of gold, hippopotamus ivory, lead, and human and animal teeth (including horse and donkey teeth).