26 Side By Side Comparisons That Fix Our Image Of History

Winston Churchill's famous speech was recorded nine years after he originally gave it.
26 Side By Side Comparisons That Fix Our Image Of History

Through Hollywood, jingoism, school, word of mouth, and bad use of Google, we like to think we have this whole history thing down pat. Of course, anyone who takes a second look at that list will realize that in fact, no, we don't know shit about history at all.

Add in school, bullies, talk radio, every manner of television and the internet and uncles who spend too much time on Facebook, and we quickly realized how much crap we've been fed. Like all kinds of stuff we take as gospel - we're talking about Winston Churchill speeches, Martin Luther nailing stuff to doors, everything about Pocahontas ever written, the Salem Witch Trials and so much more. Come along as we grab our surly uncle by the ear and set him straight. He'll undoubtedly come along willingly. If you have such an uncle, well…

Lucky for you, debunking historical myths is a Cracked specialty.

JUNE 1940. WE WILL FIGHT THEM ON THIE BEACHES.. BUT IN REALITY. CHUROHILL'S SPBBOH WAS THBORAMOUS GAVRNIN PARLIAMRNT AUDIO? AND NBHTHRR BROADOAST NOR

Now that's a show

Myth: In most depections in pop culture, gladiators are male. Reality: There were female gladiators too. Some of them appear to have been wealthy upper-class women voluntarily bound to the arena in search of thrills and notoriety. Eventually Roman society became less tolerant of noble women fighting and banned their recruitment and participation. And yes, they fought topless.
Those They surrendered without a fight cowardy and let the Nazis French! overrun their country! In actuality, France fought bitterly against the Nazi
ldeal W2-Wehrmacht Actual WW2 Wehrmacht GRACKEDlcO
In 1517, Martin Luther defiantly nailed his 95 Theses to a church's door in Wittenberg. Except that he didn't. That particular story didn't start roll

Especially bad if you're ticklish

In most pop culture depictions of medieval writing, people are shown using decorous feathery quills. Now imagine writing with this fluffy thing. Would the stroke of feather against your hand be a hindrance, or at least an annoyance? The people in the Middle Ages thought so too, and that's why the actual quill used was more like this.

Busted Myths!

Myth 'Vomitorium' is a designated place for ancient Romans to vomit everything they'd feasted on to stay in shape or to make room to eat more. Reality
The modern, romanticized version CRACKED of Pocahontas looks something like American an elegant Native Princess... .But this is what the typical Powha
Gaius Julius, I'm the heir to great as you my and are the Emperor powerful uncle.Iwill now you shall be called use his name on my title! Julius Caesar
RACKEDCOM THE WAY WE PICTURE IT8 Richard III was an evil hunchback who walked with a limp. HOWEVER8 Shakespeare's portrait was exaggerated. The king h
To the left is what most of Us recognize as a portrait of Napoleon, leading his troops across the Alps on horseback. This was painted by Jacques-Louis
CRACKEDCON BUT LATER MAN'S THERE IS NO MERCY FOR FREEDOM WAS 4 SLAVE OF THE STATE!G TAKEN AWAY FOR TO WORK-- AND LET THESE THE '6000 OF PYRAMIDS BE A

Busted Myths!

Myth During the Salem witch trials, anyone convicted of being a witch was burned at the stake. Reality of the 20 accused of witchcraft in Salem, none

The Polish Charging German Tanks

Myth Reality The Polish were trying to The Polish tried to charge disperse German infantries at German tanks during between those German tanks. the ba
CRACKEDCON 300 Spartans (perhaps somewhat more covered than this) defended the pass of the Thermopylac against the advancing Persian army, There were
CRACKEDCON Cleopatra was Queeno Egypt. but she wasnt EgyPianbndantofthe Ptolemaicfamily. the Macedoniand Greekswho ruled Egypt during the Hellenistic

Alexandria Library

CRACKED COM MYTH The contents of the Alexandria Library were destroyed when invaders sacked and burned the city REALITY BUDGE Although fires and riots
The signing of the Magna Carta by King John was one of the biggest landmarks in the history of human rights, as immortalized in this 1864 painting dep
The common understanding is that But whenever America went to during WWll, suddenly, women war the women picked up the showed that they could do the w
People have an image of Romans always walking around wearing togas. In reality they were cumbersome, and heavy and not very popular. The average Roman
26 Side By Side Comparisons That Fix Our Image Of History
Slaves in ancient Rome weren't necessarily physical labourers or gladiators. There also were teachers, doctors and accountants.
You probably think most women in the 18th century were housewives, whose primary concern was putting jam between two slices of bread. And this is what
We may picture agriculture in the But the steam tractor came 1800s as quaint and low tech, a into use in the mid 1800s farmer has his horses alone in
When posing for a photo, Victorians weren't always prim and poper... CRACKED.COM They can be silly too
WHILE MANY PRISONERS WERE FREED FROM THE CONCENTRATION CAMPS AFTER THE SECOND WORLD WAR, WHAT THE HISTORY BOOKS RARELY MENTION IS THAT NOT alL OF THEM

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