Myth - Debunk It

Did Magellan really circumnavigate the globe? The Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan is often credited as being the first person to have circumnavigated the globe, but the reality of his journey is a bit more complicated. First off, he didn't set out to circle the globe, but rather to find a safer way for Spanish merchants to fabled Spice Islands. Magellan's expedition is the first one to accomplish circumnavigation, but poor Ferdinand didn't make it home, since he was killed by natives in the Philippines in 1521, about halfway home. But since Ferdinand was the captain and leader of the expedition, he gets the credit. So if Magellan wasn’t the first human to circumnavigate the globe, who was? This is slightly up for debate. The honor may go to Magellan’s personal slave, Enrique of Malacca, though it isn’t quite clear whether he made the last 1000 or so miles necessary to actually officially complete the trip, or if he did, when he did it. T...

Did Queen Marie utter the words, “Let them eat cake”? “Let them eat cake” is the most famous quote attributed to Marie-Antoinette, the queen of France during the French Revolution. Upon being informed that the citizens of France had no bread to eat, Marie Antoinette, Queen-consort of Louis XVI of France, exclaimed "let them eat cake", or "Qu'ils mangent de la brioche". This cemented her position as a airheaded woman who didn't care for the common people of France, and is why she was executed in the French Revolution, which was fueled by this same remark. But did Marie-Antoinette really say those infuriating words? Not according to historians. Lady Antonia Fraser, author of a biography of the French queen, believes the quote would have been highly uncharacteristic of Marie-Antoinette, an intelligent woman who donated generously to charitable causes. That aside, what’s even more convincing is the fact that the “Let them eat cake” st...

Did the Vikings wear horned helmets? We’ve seen many movies and pictures of large men who wore helmets with horns on them, conquering and pillaging nearby lands. These helmets must be real, right? Wrong. Horned helmets were worn by many people around the world, but not by the Vikings. To date, there is no evidence that any Viking warrior wore a horned helmet. In depictions dating from the Viking age—between the eighth and 11th centuries—warriors appear either bareheaded or clad in simple helmets likely made of either iron or leather. The popular image of the strapping Viking in a horned helmet dates back to the 1800s, when Scandinavian artists like Sweden’s Gustav Malmström included the headgear in their portrayals of the raiders. Sure, the helmets could help intimidate enemies and maybe even poke out a few eyes, but they would have been even more likely to get entangled in a tree branch or embedded in a shield. They were practically impractical in close...

Was Napoleon really that short? Napoleon Bonaparte was a French military and political leader who is well known for two things, being a master tactician and being shorter than average. The so called “Napoleon Complex” is a theorized condition occurring in people of short stature and is characterized by over-aggressive social behavior due to this stature. But Napoleon wasn’t short at all. He is listed as 5 feet 2 inches according to French units. This is the equivalent of 5 feet 6.5 inches in modern measurement units. This might still be considered short but this was higher than the average height of a Frenchman at that time period. This myth perpetuated also due his habit of surrounding himself with tall bodyguard due to which he appeared shorter. He was also named ‘le petit caporal’, meaning little corporal. Debunked! References: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Napoleon https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Napoleon_complex http://www.todayifoundout.com/ind...