26 "Facts" We Were Taught As Truth In School That Turned Out to Be Complete Nonsense

A few days ago, in the AskReddit community, the user u/vn66 asked netizens a question: "What historical 'fact' did you learn in school, that later turned out to be completely wrong or misrepresented?" Today, the thread has over 7.1K upvotes and around 5.6K comments with a lively discussion.

It is interesting that not all of the facts listed here actually relate to history—but, nevertheless, the selection looks incredibly interesting. Some of these "facts" are a clear result of teachers neglecting their work, some are typical distortions of history in different eras, and some are just the result of an evolutionary change in scientific views.

Well, some of the facts listed here are just beautiful stories about famous people, which were invented simply to "decorate" their historical appearance. For example, the famous story of George Washington and the cherry tree, which actually only appeared in 1806—and, more importantly, only in the fifth edition of Mason Weems' book "Life of Washington."

Weems later admitted himself that, being a Federalist and a fan of order and self-discipline, he desperately wanted to present the first US President as a true role model for young people. Well, he actually succeeded. Moreover, even Abraham Lincoln later said that he read Weems' book in his youth and was really fascinated by it.

Some "facts" are simply the result of clever manipulation. For example, the myth about the incredible health benefits of carrots for eyesight (oh, how I hate this myth—my grandma also sincerely believed in it, and forever discouraged me from loving carrots...). In fact, at the very beginning of World War II, the British invented radar and, thus, significantly improved the issue of finding German bombers during the Battle of Britain.

But, so the Germans couldn't find and destroy the radar stations that made it easy to find their planes even at night, the British command resorted to cunning. Numerous "studies" have appeared in scientific journals indicating the benefits of carrots for pilots' eyesight—so the British pilots allegedly owed their amazing accuracy not to radar, but to the orange vegetable.

Well, the Battle of Britain is long gone, radars are now available in almost every country, and the myth of the healing properties of carrots has proven to be incredibly tenacious...

"It used to be harder for school teachers, on the one hand, and easier on the other. Harder because it was not so easy to get information outside the curriculum. Easier because students couldn't verify the teacher's words by simply Googling them—and it was possible, well, to 'crush them with authority,'" says Vladimir Nemertsalov, a school principal and teacher, whom Bored Panda asked for a comment.

"So, in fact, it's often not worth blaming the teacher—especially if the fact they told you was from the era before the widespread use of the Internet. Today, if a teacher persists in some scientific misconception, it most likely doesn't speak in their favor at all. It rather indicates their unprofessionalism."

However, history is still a science that changes very often. Perhaps today, if the White House really does declassify materials about the death of President Kennedy, as announced, some chapters from our history textbooks will also turn out to be completely wrong. We'll see... In the meantime, we'd be really glad if you also shared similar 'historical facts' from your own life experience in the comments under this post.