# Historical myths DEBUNKED! **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [August 19, 2025, 2:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/historical-myths-debunked/1022251 "2025-08-19T02:56:14Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 7
**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2025, 10:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/historical-myths-debunked/1022251/121 "2025-08-22T22:08:35Z")
“Napoleon Bonaparte I was short.” According to historical records, he was 5’2, which does sound short – except the the French at that time used the “_ponce_” instead of the imperial inch. The _ponce_ was around 2mm longer than the inch, so in a more familiar English measure, he was closer to 5’6. That is still a tiny bit below average today, but not in early 18th century France. It seems that he is described as short because the ranks and rabble yearn to follow a big man, while Napoleon was just average. Perhaps his personality just exuded shortness. ---
**Author:** ![Kropotkin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kropotkin/32/18045_2.png) [@Kropotkin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kropotkin)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2025, 10:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/historical-myths-debunked/1022251/122 "2025-08-22T22:54:06Z")
Was it a reference to the wooden-shoed (sabots) peasants who were untrained and clumsy when brought into factories as scabs? And did Luddites wear clogs, as is implied? ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2025, 11:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/historical-myths-debunked/1022251/123 "2025-08-22T23:01:52Z")
> [@JohnT](#): > > Yes, but… again, citing Solomon… he never used it himself. > > ETA: There is a citation that he used it _once._ > > I’m not really interested in thrashing this one out, so consider that claim withdrawn. With reservations. That’s what you get for introducing a new historical myth in a thread about them. ---
**Author:** ![HeyHomie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/heyhomie/32/207_2.png) [@HeyHomie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HeyHomie)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2025, 11:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/historical-myths-debunked/1022251/124 "2025-08-22T23:04:39Z")
Nor did Betsy Ross sew the first American Flag. ---
**Author:** ![Steve\_MB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steve_mb/32/5339_2.png) [@Steve\_MB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steve_MB)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2025, 11:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/historical-myths-debunked/1022251/125 "2025-08-22T23:18:41Z")
> [@eschereal](#): > > It seems that he is described as short because the ranks and rabble yearn to follow a big man, while Napoleon was just average. Perhaps his personality just exuded shortness. By some accounts, he was often surrounded by elite troops who tended to be bigger than average, making him look shorter by contrast. ---
**Author:** ![TreacherousCretin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/treacherouscretin/32/476_2.png) [@TreacherousCretin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TreacherousCretin)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2025, 11:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/historical-myths-debunked/1022251/126 "2025-08-22T23:26:47Z")
> [@Yllaria](#): > > I remember Disneyland’s Circle Vision 360 attraction. The film went down Lombard Street and did a few other tippy things. You felt it in your stomach and grabbed the railings. Even plain old movies can do the trick. 1968, Balboa Theater downtown San Diego, I saw **Bullitt** for the first time on the big screen. I’ve never forgotten watching that car chase, the entire audience going “whoah!!” and squirming in their seats. ---
**Author:** ![markn\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f9ae1b/32.png) [@markn\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/markn_1)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2025, 11:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/historical-myths-debunked/1022251/127 "2025-08-22T23:32:15Z")
Motion sickness is caused by a mismatch between what your eyes are seeing and what forces the vestibular system in your inner ear is experiencing. Often that happens when your vestibular system is experiencing motion but your eyes are not seeing motion, like when you’re riding in a car and reading. But the opposite can also cause it, when your eyes are seeing motion but you’re not feeling any forces. Many people, including myself, experience this strongly when using some apps in a VR system. I don’t think I’ve ever experienced it while watching an ordinary movie but I can certainly believe that it can happen. ---
**Author:** ![TreacherousCretin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/treacherouscretin/32/476_2.png) [@TreacherousCretin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TreacherousCretin)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2025, 11:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/historical-myths-debunked/1022251/128 "2025-08-22T23:32:27Z")
> [@robby](#): > > I subsequently read the Bryson book around 2005 or so and remember being annoyed enough at perpetuating this myth after it was known to be false that I added a hand-written note in the margin of my copy. Bryson’s book is notoriously riddled with errors like this. I still enjoy his books immensely regardless but it’s worth noting. ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2025, 11:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/historical-myths-debunked/1022251/129 "2025-08-22T23:39:06Z")
> [@Kropotkin](#): > > Was it a reference to the wooden-shoed (sabots) peasants who were untrained and clumsy when brought into factories as scabs? The word is unconnected to the Luddites. First attested 1907, long after. Saboteur originally meant clumsy clog wearing person that causes damage through incompetence. Not restricted to scab workers, as far as I know. > [@Kropotkin](#): > > And did Luddites wear clogs, as is implied? I don’t know. Possibly they did. Sabots were work shoes used for foot protection in factories. ---
**Author:** ![Kropotkin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kropotkin/32/18045_2.png) [@Kropotkin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kropotkin)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2025, 12:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/historical-myths-debunked/1022251/130 "2025-08-23T00:23:15Z")
I have read it was used in France to describe peasant scabs in the early 20th century but can’t find a reliable cite ---
**Author:** ![Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/q.q.switcheroo/32/5713_2.png) [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.Q.Switcheroo)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2025, 12:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/historical-myths-debunked/1022251/131 "2025-08-23T00:31:46Z")
And Washington didn’t have wooden teeth. [https://www.mountvernon.org/library/digitalhistory/digital-encyclopedia/article/wooden-teeth-myth](https://www.mountvernon.org/library/digitalhistory/digital-encyclopedia/article/wooden-teeth-myth) ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2025, 2:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/historical-myths-debunked/1022251/132 "2025-08-23T02:31:25Z")
> [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](#): > > And Washington didn’t have wooden teeth. Then what did he do with all that cherry wood? ---
**Author:** ![Saint\_Cad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saint_cad/32/18907_2.png) [@Saint\_Cad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Cad)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2025, 2:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/historical-myths-debunked/1022251/133 "2025-08-23T02:44:59Z")
> [@bump](#): > > The Boston Tea Party wasn’t in response to a tax _increase_, but rather a tax cut. The thinking was that by reducing the tax on tea, people would drink more, and it would undercut the principle of “No Taxation without Representation”. Actually, due to lowering the tax on British tea, those that smuggled Dutch tea into America thought it would cut into their profits so they led the Boston Tea Party. ---
**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2025, 2:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/historical-myths-debunked/1022251/134 "2025-08-23T02:51:09Z")
> [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](#): > > Then what did he do with all that cherry wood? He used it to build a boat for getting across that one river. ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2025, 3:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/historical-myths-debunked/1022251/135 "2025-08-23T03:09:56Z")
Basically they didn’t approve of the East India Company’s monopoly on tea, and viewed the tax cut on the tea as a way to enhance the EIC’s monopoly and cut into the colonists’ profits from Dutch tea. We’re both right, I suspect. The thing that was more interesting to me was that I had always heard about it in history class as some sort of commando raid, but it was a multiple hour, 100+ person affair involving the cargoes of three ships. That’s a whole lot more overt than I had been led to believe. ---
**Author:** ![Tibby](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tibby/32/17030_2.png) [@Tibby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tibby)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2025, 3:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/historical-myths-debunked/1022251/136 "2025-08-23T03:33:41Z")
Caesar’s last words weren’t “Et tu, Brute?” (that’s Shakespeare). Ancient sources say he likely spoke Greek: Kaì sú, téknon (“You too, child”). Viking helmets had no horns. That image came from a 19th-century opera costume, not archaeology. ---
**Author:** ![Moriarty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/moriarty/32/49_2.png) [@Moriarty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moriarty)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2025, 2:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/historical-myths-debunked/1022251/137 "2025-08-23T14:59:13Z")
> [@Tibby](#): > > Viking helmets had no horns. That image came from a 19th-century opera costume, not archaeology. Similarly, ninjas didn’t use to dress in all black. That trope comes from Kabuki theatre. In stage productions, stage hands (called karuko) would dress all in black so as to not be noticeable while they manipulated the stage. Having ninjas dress in black served the purpose of making them appear out of nowhere. Real ninjas would be expected to dress like a typical farm worker or peasant, so as to blend in with regular people. … And another, which I’ve posted before. Ty Cobb wasn’t a horrible racist. His reputation was besmirched by a man named Al Stump, who wrote a defamatory biography of Cobb right around the time he died. Cobb was an irascible man, and I wouldn’t want to cross him. But in the 1950s he said he has no problem with black players playing baseball. > [@](#): > > We have zero evidence to suggest that Cobb was a racist. He was a Southerner, born in Georgia in 1886, and it has become easy to equate that upbringing to a racist bent. But Cobb’s great-grandfather preached against slavery. His father was an advocate for the public education of black Americans. And Cobb himself was a vocal supporter of integration in baseball when asked about Jackie Robinson in 1952. > “The Negro should be accepted wholeheartedly, and not grudgingly,” he said. “The Negro has the right to play professional baseball and whose [sic] to say he has not?” > **[Author says Cobb's reputation built on tales](https://www.mlb.com/amp/news/ty-cobb-history-built-on-inaccuracies-c178601094.html)** > > CLEVELAND -- The building that housed one of Ty Cobb's most famous fights is gone. The old Euclid Hotel was razed long ago. In its place stands a glass-and-granite high-rise, gleaming in the spring sun.Were we to believe the legend, then right here,... Cobb also named Willie Mays as a player he’d pay to watch play. > [@](#): > > He is quoted as saying that Willie Mays was the only modern-day player he’d pay to see and that Roy Campanella was the ballplayer that reminded him most of himself. > **[Who Was Ty Cobb? The History We Know That’s Wrong](https://imprimis.hillsdale.edu/who-was-ty-cobb-the-history-we-know-thats-wrong/)** > > Ty Cobb was one of the greatest baseball players of all time and king of the so-called Deadball Era. But for all that, most Americans think of him first as an awful person. (Cobb, a Georgia native, also grew very rich from smart investments, especially in Coca Cola) ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2025, 4:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/historical-myths-debunked/1022251/138 "2025-08-23T16:02:30Z")
> [@eschereal](#): > > > [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](#): > > > > Then what did he do with all that cherry wood? > > He used it to build a boat for getting across that one river. Hey, a dollar was serious money back in those days. You throw one across a river, you’re going to want to go and get it back. ---
**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2025, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/historical-myths-debunked/1022251/139 "2025-08-23T16:27:34Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > Hey, a dollar was serious money back in those days. You throw one across a river, you’re going to want to go and get it back. See, the dollar was a ruse meant to create a kefuffle in the Hessian camp. Imagine the Hessian sentry, “_Hey, look, I found a silver dollar!_” and all the other soldiers gather around gawking at it, allowing the US Army to just surround them. Washington was a military genius. ---
**Author:** ![Civil\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/d78d45/32.png) [@Civil\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Civil_Guy)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2025, 5:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/historical-myths-debunked/1022251/140 "2025-08-23T17:10:13Z")
I recall attending a talk that argued that Washington’s military genius lay in pulling off some excellent retreats. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/historical-myths-debunked/1022251.md?page=6) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/historical-myths-debunked/1022251.md?page=8)