There are some historical myths that just don’t seem to die, probably because they’re so memorable, but they’re completely false.
Henry Ford invented the assembly line
It’s true that Henry Ford helped improve the assembly line. It’s not true that he invented it. Factories were already breaking jobs into smaller repeated tasks before Ford started building Model Ts. Meatpacking plants did it, so did mills and breweries.
The difference with Ford’s factories is that the workers stayed in place while the automobile moved past them. Each person had to handle one part of the job, that’s it. Ford didn’t even make the system alone, Charles Sorensen and William Klann helped. Ford made it famous and faster.
Hitler invented Germany’s autobahn
A lot of people connect Adolf Hitler’s name with the autobahn and assume he created it. He didn’t. No, Germany had already been planning motorways, or autobahns, while the previous government was in power. The first one opened in 1932, before Hitler became chancellor.
All the Nazis did with the autobahn was to expand the network and essentially make it into a huge publicity project. Yes, Hitler posed at construction sites and made speeches. Cameras took pictures of him to push the propaganda that he helped create them.Â
Samurai fought almost entirely with katanas
You probably imagine one thing when you try to picture a samurai. It’s a guy in all black, waving a katana around. Yet that’s just not true because on actual battlefields, samurai used bows and spears.Â
They used polearms, and later on, they even used guns. It’s not like the katana wasn’t important or anything, it did matter to them, obviously. But it was more like a sidearm and status symbol than the only weapon they were using.
The Maya civilization mysteriously vanished
Forget what you’ve heard about the Maya. Their civilization didn’t simply disappear one day, nor was their end anything all that mysterious. In fact, we know about most of what happened, and it started when many southern lowland cities declined between the 700s and 900s.
They were dealing with all sorts of issues. Drought, warfare, crop pressure, and political breakdown were just some of them. Other Maya centers did carry on, particularly in the north, and millions of Maya people still live across Mexico and Central American countries.
Dr. Joseph-Ignace Guillotin invented the guillotine
The thing with Dr. Joseph-Ignace Guillotin is that he had the name, but he didn’t invent the machine. He argued in 1789 for a quicker and more equal method of executing people. He wanted nobles and commoners to face the same process, yet he didn’t make the device itself.
That came from work by surgeon Antoine Louis and instrument maker Tobias Schmidt. Truth is, similar falling-blade machines had existed earlier elsewhere in Europe, so it wasn’t entirely new. Guillotin wasn’t even executed by it, he died naturally in 1814.
Irish immigrants were enslaved in America just like Africans
It’s a fact. Many Irish people were transported and exploited in America. Yes, some of them were trapped in harsh labor contracts in the colonies and the Caribbean, with very little choice at all. But it’s just not true that their indentured servitude was the same as African slavery.Â
For starters, indentured servants usually had an end date, while enslaved Africans were treated as property for life. Their children could inherit that status. Both systems were cruel, sure, but they weren’t the same kind of system, and that’s important to remember.
Benjamin Franklin wanted the turkey to be the national symbol
There’s a bit of truth to this one. Benjamin Franklin did indeed say that the turkey was a more respectable bird than the bald eagle, yet he never wanted it to replace the iconic bird. He just wrote about liking the turkey in a private 1784 letter to his daughter.
It’s not like he was trying to submit a proposal to change the actual bird, far from it. Congress had already approved the eagle to be used on the Great Seal. Really, Franklin was just being a little witty and opinionated, that’s all.
American Civil War surgeons amputated limbs without anesthesia
There’s no denying that Civil War surgery was awful. But it was awful in reality, there’s no need to add any made-up details about surgeons amputating limbs without anesthesia. They did amputate thousands of limbs quickly and under grim conditions.
They usually had anesthesia, however, such as ether and chloroform. Data from the National Museum of Civil War Medicine actually suggests that anesthesia was used in more than 95 percent of Civil War operations. There were exceptions, of course, but they were rare.
Indigenous peoples avoided Yellowstone
There’s a myth about Yellowstone National Park that just won’t die. Namely, that Native American people were too afraid to go there because of the geysers. It’s just not true. Native groups moved through the area and hunted there.
Archaeologists have actually found tools and signs that Native communities traded materials across the region. Even some tribal histories connect several nations directly to the land, so the idea they were too afraid is false.
NASA spent millions inventing a space pen
One of the stories that social media loves is the one that says NASA burned through millions making a pen to go to space. The Soviet cosmonauts used pencils. Except, no, that’s not true, Paul Fisher actually paid to develop the pressurized Fisher pen himself.Â
NASA tested it and bought 400 in 1967 for $2.95 each. Both space programs had already tried using pencils before, but the issue was that bits of graphite could snap off and float around. Wood also isn’t great inside a spacecraft. The Soviets bought Fisher pens later on, anyway.
Sources: Please see here for a complete listing of all sources that were consulted in the preparation of this article.
15 marriage laws from history that ruined women’s lives
Besides teaching you a few history lessons, these 15 marriage laws from around the world will show you how a woman’s life was broken piece by piece in the name of marriage.
