From Pirates of the Caribbean to Treasure Island (and Treasure Planet, and The Secret of Treasure Island, and Muppet Treasure Island…) the silver screen has taught us a lot about pirates. But these movies have taken a lot of creative license with their pirate lore, and the screenwriters haven’t been able to resist making up a thing or two. Here are ten things that you think you know about pirates, but have been tweaked, altered, or are straight-up lies by Hollywood.

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10 Pirates were Criminals

A pirate is anyone who uses the sea to commit theft. This term encompasses a whole host of sea-based activity, from the coastal raiding or the Vikings and the boat hijacking of the Somali pirates. But most people think of the Caribbean raiders that operated between 1650 and 1720, a time period known as the Golden Age of Piracy. Disney’s Pirates of the Caribbean movies take place at the end of this period.

But there was also a form of legal piracy. Anyone who owned a ship (or the ability to get a loan for one) could apply to the government for a Letter of Marque. This was essentially a piracy license. At the time, Spain was shipping large amounts of gold and silver through the Caribbean on gallon ships. France and Britain were extremely jealous of all that treasure, so they were happy to write licenses for anyone who wanted to try to steal it—provided that a percent of the loot went to the government.

Historians believe that the Golden Age of Piracy came to an end because Spain stopped shipping treasure through the Caribbean, causing France and Britain to stop writing Letters of Marque and instead round up all the illegal pirates who were annoying their colonies.^[1]

9 Pirates Are Noble Anti-Heroes

Pirates were not a fan of violence, so Jack Sparrow’s reluctance to face his opponents has historical credence. Ships and good crew weren’t cheap, so it was in the pirate’s best interest not to damage either. Their goal was to convince the other ship to surrender without bloodshed. The best way to do this, though, was by being so terrifying horrible and violent when they did go to battle that no one would ever try to fight them again.

To convince people to hand over their riches, pirates would turn to Game of Thrones level torture. There are accounts of people being strung up by their arms, beaten with cutlasses, fingers cut off one by one, and placing burning matches into the victim’s eyelids.

The branding worked. Pirates were considered so terrifying that many ships offered to surrender to avoid even the possibility of violence. Although pirates are shown as fearsome in today’s media, they don’t quite reach the level of terrifying they displayed in real life.^[2]

8 Pirates said “Argh” and “Shiver me Timbers”

Pirates did not have a distinct way of talking. They were ordinary sailors, often coming from jobs on merchant ships or other sailing vessels. If they created their own way of talking, it would be a significant tip-off to pirate hunters and anyone willing to turn them in.

Expressions associated with pirates, such as “argh!” and “matey,” are were the result of later dramatization. Lionel Barrymore added an “arrrgh” to his lines while starring as Billy Bones in the 1934 version of Treasure Island. English actor Robert Newton enjoyed the exclamation and used it while starring as Long John Silver in the highly popular 1950 version of Treasure Island. Newton was given free rein to lean into his native West Country accent, which he took to his later roles as Blackbeard in Blackbeard the Pirate and a reprisal of Long John Silver. His way of speaking worked its way into the public pirate consciousness, adding the words to their lexicon.

This fictional pirate-speak is so popular, two friends in Oregon designated September 19th as International Talk Like a Pirate Day. The date was chosen because it was the birthday of a creator’s ex-wife.^[3]

7 Pirates Buried Their Treasure

Real-life pirates had no reason to bury their treasure. Loot taken from enemy ships was almost immediately divided up and distributed among the crew according to rank. The loot might consist of gold and silver, but it might also include fabric, cocoa, and spices. Once a pirate had their part of the fortune, they quickly spent it. Pirates saw no need for a savings account and a 401k. It was a dangerous, potentially criminal job, so there was no time like the present to spend.

There are a few notable exceptions. The English pirate Sir Francis Drake buried several tons of gold and silver along the Panamanian coast to hide it from the Spanish, but he and crew retrieved it soon after. Captain Kidd also buried a treasure on Long Island while on the run from the British crown, but was unable to return to it because he had been arrested. It was soon dug up and used against him at trial. Rumors that he buried treasure in other locations continue to motivate treasure hunters to this day.

Similarly, pirates did not make treasure maps. It would be highly inconvenient to have pieces of paper that would allow anyone to dig it their life savings. This myth was popularized by movie adaptions of Treasure Island, along with the idea that “X marks the spot.”^[4]

6 Pirates Gave “The Black Spot”

The Black Spot was invented by Robert Louis Stevenson for his novel Treasure Island. In the book, a piece of paper with a blackened spot is given to a pirate to signify a verdict of guilt. If received, the pirate would be given their justice—which could be anything from the removal of leadership to death.

In Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest the Black Spot is a boil that marks those who owe servitude to Davy Jones. As punishment, the Kraken hunts down those who bear the mark. A similar concept of the Black Spot used in a pirate-themed episode of Doctor Who.

Despite its popularity in fiction, pirates did not use a Black Spot. If they wanted to depose a leader, they deposed them. Warning someone that you’re going to kill them only gives them a chance to escape. There was no need for pirates to have the kinds of drawn-out suspense that add color to a fictional story like Treasure Island.^[5]

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5 Pirates Walked the Plank

The first writer to make their characters walk the plank was Daniel Defoe, of Robinson Crusoe fame. His 1724 book A General History of Pirates features the pirates throwing a latter off the side of the deck and telling their captives that they were free to go, provided they were willing to swim.

From there, walking the plank has been included in Treasure Island, Peter Pan, Monty Python, Pirates of the Caribbean, and even Star Wars: Return of the Jedi. However, there is no historical proof that pirates made their victims walk the plank. They were, however, fond of equally terrible punishments such as flogging, marooning, and straight-up murder. If they felt like drowning someone, they threw them over the side without any theatrics.

The earliest historical mention of walking the plank comes from not from a pirate, but the testimony of a surgeon’s mate before the House of Commons. He described the officers of a slave ship discussing whether or not to make the slaves walk the plank in order to save on food.^[6]

4 Pirates Wore Eyepatches

There is almost no historical evidence that pirates wore eyepatches. The only pirate recorded as wearing one was the famous Rahmah ibn Jabir al-Jalahimah, who wore one after losing an eye in battle. He gained notoriety as one of the most fearsome pirates in the Persian Gulf.

There is a theory that pirates wore eyepatches not to cover a missing eye, but to keep one eye dark-adapted and ready for battle below decks. Since it takes the human eye about 25 minutes to adapt from bright sunlight to total darkness, having one eye dark adapted would provide a considerable advantage when trying to fight off dark-adapted opponents below the deck of a ship. Mythbusters gave the theory a “plausible” rating.

This theory, however, seems to have originated in the 1930s when the United States was exploring it as a potential military tactic. A 1939 Navy handbook says, “Dark adaption in one eye is independent of dark adaption of the other. Advantage may be taken of this fact by placing a patch over one eye.” A 1934 text calls this “a pirate’s patch.”^[7]

3 Pirates Flew “The Jolly Roger”

The “Jolly Roger” with its black background and skull and crossbones is universally recognized as the pirate flag. This version was flown by “Black Sam” Bellamy, Edward England, and Edward “Blackbeard” Teach. But pirates had no centralized authority, so each ship could develop their own spin on the Jolly Roger.

Some crews decided that the skull and crossbones were too minimalist and opted to include an entire skeleton. Others wanted to include an hourglass, intended to remind a victim that they were running out of time. Figures stabbing a heart were also used. Walter Kennedy couldn’t decide what symbols to use, so he included a skull and crossbones with a naked man holding a sword and an hourglass.

Pirates did not raise their flags until they were as close as possible to their target ship. This would hopefully give the ship just enough time to panic and decide to surrender. This way, the pirates got a ship full of treasure and for no work—besides raising their pirate flag.^[8]

2 Pirate Ships Were Enormous

The standard-issue image of a pirate ship is a large, three-masted galleon with rows upon rows of cannons. Although these were popular with the royal navy, pirates were not a fan. Galleons were large and sunk deep below the waterline, which is inconvenient for a band of criminals who might need to make a quick getaway. Pirates preferred small single-masted sloops that could get in, get out, and hide in shallow waters if necessary.

The reason small sloops didn’t make it into the public consciousness is that they are hard to film. Large ships are more visually impressive, especially if the pirates are meant to be intimidating. It is also easier to pack all of the necessary camera equipment onto a larger vessel rather than squeezing it onto a small one. Plus, it gives the actors more room to play with, so why not get the biggest pirate ship possible?^[9]

1 Pirates Were White

The modern Pirates of the Caribbean movies made an effort to correct this misconception, but the fact still holds that throughout pirate movie history, almost all pirates were portrayed as white. Adaptations of Treasure Island and Peter Pan were not interested in historical accuracy when they were casting roles.

This was not the case. Pirates regularly raided slave ships in search of treasure, and would often offer the slaves their freedom in exchange for joining the pirate crew. On some pirate ships, over a quarter of the crew were freed slaves. Pirate ships were also one of the few places where black Americans could obtain positions of power. Captain Kidd had a black quartermaster, and Blackbeard famously had a largely black crew.

As pirates were first and foremost sailors, they were a mix of different nationalities and backgrounds. Pirate ships were a rare opportunity for people of different races and cultures to mix and share in the loot.^[10]

10 Dark Secrets That Expose The Truth About Hollywood

China isn’t usually the country that comes to mind when we think of “environmental responsibility”. This is, after all, a country that loses 1.6 million lives each year to the toxins in its air.

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Still, no country better understands the dangers of pollution than China – and that’s having an effect. While other countries have been slacking in their commitment to the world’s climate pacts, China’s actually been stepping up – and is on track to becoming the world leader in combating climate change.

It’s the last thing anyone ever expected. China has become our last, best hope for the environment.

How in the world did this happen?

10 The Chinese People Demand It

In 2008, the US Embassy in Beijing installed a little air-quality monitor on the top of their building and had it send out automated tweets reporting the daily level of air pollution. They weren’t out to be subversive, but they accidentally revealed a major issue.

The levels the embassy reported were much, much higher than the ones the Chinese government were reporting, and they made something painfully clear – the government wasn’t telling the truth.

Soon, Chinese citizens started tuning in to the embassy’s report instead of the government’s. The government tried to censor it, announcing that its “readings were illegal”, but the embassy went on tweeting anyway.

The people started getting worried. They complained about the “state secret” of environment pollution levels. Normally, complaining would have been dangerous, but the government’s a bit more forgiving when it comes to the environment, and so the complaints rage on.

Pretty soon, the government had to start giving out the real numbers. They had to change their approach due to the population – because the people wanted it. 90% of the country was willing to sacrifice economics for the environment, and the government had to follow suit.^[1]

9 China Is Calling For Bigger Emissions Cuts Than The UN

In 2011, China stood before the UN and declared that every major economy – including themselves – should be legally forced to curb greenhouse gas emissions after 2020. They proposed introducing consequences to countries that didn’t meet their targets and volunteered to sign up first, saying, “We accept a legally binding agreement.”

The world was confused. This was, after all, China, the pollution center of the world. Most of the world’s leaders just wanted to figure out what China was up to. As it turns out, though, China has actually followed through with its commitment. They have plans on lowering their reliance on coal over the next few years and have committed to making carbon dioxide emissions peak by 2030, with levels only going down after that.

And it’s working. Based on their progress so far, experts actually believe they’re going to do better than promised. There are people asking if China’s emissions have already peaked, 14 years ahead of schedule.^[2]

8 China Probably Isn’t The Worst Polluter

We usually think of China as the world’s biggest polluter – but people are starting to shift blame onto the US instead. And they might not be wrong.

Technically, China releases the most greenhouse gases per year, but from a historical perspective, they’re far from the worst. Between 1850 and 2011, the United States was the source 27% of all carbon dioxide emissions, while China only caused 11%.

Even today, the United States might actually be creating more pollution that China. China produces 8.5 billion tons of greenhouse gases annually, but that’s just because their economy relies on industry. 20% of those gases come from factories producing things for the United States.

American companies pay for these factories, but they put them in China instead of the US to keep their costs down. Still, the pollution is actually coming from American activities and interests. If we shift the responsibility for that pollution back to America, the United States’ annual 6.9 billion tons of greenhouse gases gets a lot higher – and it becomes a bigger number than China’s.^[3]

7 Reforestation Initiatives

One of the reasons the climate’s going up so quickly is because we’ve lost so much of the rainforest. You’ve probably already heard that the rainforest absorbs a massive amount of carbon dioxide, and that without it we’ve lost a major natural defense. You might not have heard, though, that China’s pretty much made up for it.

Ever since 1981, every Chinese student over the age of 11 has been required to plant at least one tree each year to encourage their role in taking care of the environment. It’s made a difference. In 2008 alone, China increased its forestage by 4.77 million hectares.

The biggest impact, though, is from the Great Green Wall they are planting in the Gobi desert. China is planning on covering a 4,500km area of desert with 100 billion trees.

The impact will be incredible. Already, the Great Green Wall has offset 81% of the loss in above-ground biomass carbon lost to tropical rainforest deforestation since 2003 – and they aren’t even done planting yet.^[4]

6 Car-Free Cities

Cars are one of the biggest sources of air pollution in the world. Currently, the vehicles on Chinese roads are responsible for nearly a third of the toxins in the air – but they’re doing something about it.

China is currently working on a plan to take 5 million aging vehicles off of the road as part of a larger commitment to cut emissions by 17%. In exchange, more and more people are going with electric cars. In fact, sales of Tesla’s electric cars tripled in the last year.

The most interesting idea, though, is the Great City, China’s plan to create a town that doesn’t have a single car. The city will be able to house 80,000 and will be surrounded by a buffer green spaces that make up 60% of the area. It will take 20 minutes to walk across the city on foot, and people will have to use public transit to enter and exit the town.^[5]

5 Animal Rights Activism

China doesn’t exactly have the world’s best track record for animal rights, but it’s starting to get a better. They’ve made some major changes in how they harvest shark fins, and what’s interesting, for an autocratic country, is how it happened.

NBA All-Star Yao Ming launched a massive campaign to stop shark fin consumption in China. Before he’d started, the public was unaware of where their food was coming from. Shark fin soup, in China, is marketed as “fish wing soup”. Because of its name, in 2006, 75% of the people didn’t even know it came from sharks, let alone that crippled sharks were being tossed back in the water to die after their fins were harvested

That changed because of Yao Ming’s campaign. By 2013, 91% of the population of China supported a nationwide shark fin ban – showing that the people are really willing to fight for animal rights as long as they understand it.^[6]

4 China Bans Every Pollutant

China hasn’t banned shark fin soup yet – but they’ve banned an awful lot else. China can get away with limiting people’s freedoms in a way that democratic countries can’t, and they’re taking advantage of it in the war on pollution.

They are the largest country in the world to ban plastic bags, and, because of it, Chinese supermarkets have reduced bag use by 66%.

That’s just the start, though. They’ve also set limits on fireworks – which sounds like a silly idea, but actually makes a lot of sense. Fireworks create a lot more pollution than we realize. In an experiment, scientists lit off 3 fireworks in a 30-cubic-meter room and pollution went up to 40X the safe level. In China, where New Years means fireworks are being lit on every corner, it adds up a serious effect.

Anything and everything that adds to air pollution is being cut out of Chinese life. Smoking was banned in Beijing because of its contribution to air pollution. In some places, China even banned bacon for putting too many toxins in the air.^[7]

3 Carbon Trading

China has been looking into ways to stop just regulating and forcing people to stop polluting and start trying to find ways to make going green economically worthwhile. One of those is their new carbon market, which is going to be the biggest of its kind in the world.

Next year, China will open a cap-and-trade program to lower emissions from their most environmentally dangerous industries. The plan puts a cap on the six industrial sectors that create the most pollution. They aren’t allowed to go over their limits, but if they stay under, the can sell their extra permission to other industries.

They’re going to share power outside of the country, as well. China is currently working on setting up a super grid with India, South Korea and Japan that will let them share excess power with their neighbors, reducing energy waste and their impact on their environment.^[8]

2 They Are Sacrificing Their GDP To Help The Environment

China is committed to their new image. They have admitted that, in the past, “China’s GDP growth has sacrificed its environment,” but their plan has changed – and now they’ve pledged to put the environment first.

The country has set aside $6.6 trillion to meet their greenhouse gas reduction goals. They’re planning on going even further, too – they’re committed to regularly checking their progress and increasing their goals whenever possible.

When America started talking about dropping out of the Paris Agreement, China didn’t change their plans. Instead, they are filling the gap by putting $3.1 billion into helping other developing countries’ climate programs.

It’s a strange role reversal. Today, China is criticizing America for not doing enough to protect the environment. “If they resist this trend,” one Chinese politician warned, “I don’t think they’ll win the support of their people, and their country’s economic and social progress will also be affected.”^[9]

1 Soft Power

China’s doing all this for a reason – it’s for their own gain.

China has become a bastion of progressive environmental ideals because it’s in their best interest. They’re trying to win over the world through soft power, or, in other words, by expand their political influence. They’re fighting for a green future because it lets them take the moral higher ground in UN meetings on other issues.

That’s not an opinion – that’s a quote. China’s senior climate talks negotiator, Zou Ji, has directly said, “taking action against climate change will improve China’s international image and allow it to occupy the moral high ground.”

Winning the moral high ground on the environment, Zou Ji said, will “spill over into other areas of global governance and increase China’s global standing, power and leadership.”

So, China’s doing this for crass, political reasons – not out of the goodness of their hearts. But in a weird way, it actually might be our best hope. China’s the one country we can count on to hold up their promises – because it’s worth their while.^[10]

It should be no surprise that someone in history has been caught in a lie. Most people lie everyday: “I’ll be there in five.” “I read the terms and conditions.” “You do look good in those jeans.” Any of those sound familiar?

But when you tell a little white lie, you don’t expect it to alter the course of human history. However, that’s exactly what happened in the following ten cases.

10 Magic Tricks Kept Algeria A French Colony

In 1856, Algeria was on the verge of rebellion. The local holy men, referred to as marabouts, had convinced the locals that they had magical powers. Obviously, the Algerian public was willing to hear out anything a sorcerer said. The French were already wary of the influence these men held. When the marabouts announced that Algeria should rebel against its colonizers, France was furious. To quell any talks of armed resurrection, the French had to convince the populace that the marabouts were fraudsters. Napoleon III dispatched France’s greatest magician and the father of modern magic, Jean Eugene Robert-Houdin, to Algeria to pose as a more powerful sorcerer.

Robert-Houdin’s tricks were very basic, like pulling a cannonball out of a hat, but the Algerians were still amazed. With electromagnets, he turned a light box heavy at the flick of a switch. The marabouts looked like fools when they failed to lift the box. Robert-Houdin turned off the magnet and picked it up no problem. Robert-Houdin also sent small electrical jolts to the handles as he told them that he was sapping their strength from them. When an angry local challenged him to a duel, Robert-Houdin accepted. The next morning, he “caught” the bullet in his teeth. This trick proved he was the best wizard in the country, and the marabouts were discredited.^[1] Algeria would not achieve independence for more than a century.

9 An Iconic Rock Band Formed By Posing As Another Band

In 1968, the British band the Zombies had a huge top ten hit in the United States with “Time of the Season.” To capitalize on their success, the Zombies toured the US under the guidance of Delta Promotions. The concerts were so lucrative that for a period in 1968, Delta had two bands touring as the Zombies. The problem was that neither of these bands were the real Zombies. The original British Zombies had already broken up and had no idea the song was big in the US. No one told them about Delta or the way they lied.

To get money off a nonexistent band, Delta, led by Bill Kehoe, gave two groups the rights to all of the Zombies’ songs. One of them was stationed in Michigan, and the other was in Texas. The lie was so ridiculous that for the Texas band, the record label only hired four members to masquerade as a rock quintet. To keep the illusion up, Delta told their fans that the organist was in jail. Another reason Bill Kehoe gave for the missing member was that the lead singer Colin Blunstone, who is still alive, was killed. Ultimately, Chris White, afraid that these fake Zombies would ruin the reputation of his real band, brought the band back from the dead to release a few more singles.

The real musical legacy of this scheme is what became of the Texas Zombies.^[2] Two of the musicians hired to pretend to be the Zombies were Frank Beard and Dusty Hill. With the skills and friendship they gained as fake Zombies, they formed the other famous band that starts with a “Z”: ZZ Top.

8 A Fraudulent Letter Made Jesus White

Despite being born in the Middle East, almost every painting and general depiction of Jesus looks less like Chaim Topol and more like Ted Neeley. The reason you picture the Lamb of God with a face as a white as snow is one letter written centuries after Jesus had died.

The modern descriptions of Jesus are modeled on a letter allegedly written by Publius Lentulus, the governor of Jerusalem who served before Pontius Pilate. It was printed in “The Introduction to the works of St. Anselm” during the 15th century. The letter describes Jesus as “a man in stature . . . having hair of the hue of unripe hazelnut, almost down to his ears . . . with a face without wrinkle or any blemish, which a moderate color makes beautiful.”^[3] This version of Jesus served as the model for Renaissance artists’ paintings, which then became the template for Western depictions.

The letter, however, has so many stupid mistakes that it’s amazing anybody believed it. First, it does not appear in any of St. Anselm’s writings. Second, there is no such position as the governor of Jerusalem. Thirdly, Publius Lentulus did not exist. Fourthly, it uses language not yet invented at the time it was supposedly written. Despite the glaring errors, this portrayal of Jesus has become the standard model we all know.

7 The Exorcist Was Funded By A Television Prank

Even more than four decades after its release, The Exorcist is still the one of the most influential horror movies and books of all time. The movie is so disturbing that it has forever changed the way people look at pea soup. For something so synonymous with fear and dread, the origin of the story is not scary but silly.

In 1961, the novel’s eventual author, William Peter Blatty, was only a toiling writer unsure what he wanted to do it for a living.^[4] One assignment he was working on was an article called “I was an Arab Prince.” The premise was this hilarious bit where Blatty would crash Hollywood parties and dress up as a Saudi royal named “Prince Xeer.” Xeer would tell crazy stories about his life in the Middle East. In hindsight, this isn’t that funny, but it killed at the time.

His schtick was so well-received that Groucho Marx invited Blatty to come on his hit show You Bet Your Life dressed as the Saudi prince. Blatty won the show and its $5,000 prize. When asked what he was going to do with the money, he said, “It’s gonna finance me to finish the next book.”

The next day, Blatty quit his job as publicity director at the University of Southern California to become a full-time writer. That career would give us such classics as A Shot in the Dark, Ninth Configuration, and his most prized possession, The Exorcist.

6 A Fake Nazi Scientist Brought Down Juan Peron

In 1949, one of Argentina’s most beloved presidents, Juan Peron, wanted his country to become the next nuclear power. To accomplish this, he hired Dr. Ronald W. Richter. Richter seemed like the best choice. He claimed to have been a high-ranking Nazi scientist and one of the world’s foremost experts in nuclear energy. In reality, he was just an Austrian who had only worked for six months as an explosions technician.

Despite that less-than-impressive resume, Richter kept up the charade for a year. Peron, wondering where his money was going, asked Richter if he had any breakthroughs. Richter boasted that he had not only solved fission, but he had accomplished the impossible: harnessed fusion. Even though this would have been a major scientific breakthrough, Richter asked Peron to keep the details secret. Instead, Peron bragged to the world in March 1951.

The scientific community was more than skeptical. To prove he wasn’t lying, Richter had a display of his fusion explosion. Really, all he did was set off a fake explosion of TNT. This didn’t convince anybody. Actual Nazi scientists, like Werner Heisenberg, then came forward and said they had never heard of Richter, which triggered an investigation. It was revealed that Richter hadn’t achieved anything. All he really did was cost Argentina millions.^[5] The military arrested Richter. After Richter blatantly lied to the people and cost the country a lot of money over a fake nuke program, the military ultimately overthrew Peron.

5 Country Music Was Built On An Empire Of Fake Goat Testicle Surgeries

John Brinkley is probably the most influential doctor in music since Dre. His career started in the 1920s as one of the greatest quacks in medical history. After watching two particularly excitable goats, Brinkley came up with the idea that goat testicles could be grafted into the scrotums of sterile men to improve fertility. From his small practice in Kansas, Brinkley advertised his pseudoscientific treatment on radio station KFKB in 1923.

After that, Brinkley’s surgeries were in high demand. Some of the most prominent Americans of the time, including Woodrow Wilson, Huey Long, and Rudolph Valentino, were said to have gone under Brinkley’s knife. Finding Brinkley’s practice unscientific, the American Medical Association tried to shut him down. The FCC revoked his broadcast license, so he moved his operations to Mexico.

To advertise from Mexico into the United States, Brinkley built the most powerful tower in the world. On the new radio channel, XER, he hawked his surgeries for hours at a time. These speeches are now considered the forerunners of the modern infomercial. In between advertisements for goat implants, he played entertainment. Brinkley was the first person to broadcast country music across the nation.^[6] His station has the distinction of being the first one to play soon-to-be country legends the Carter Family.

Brinkley’s station is credited with popularizing the genre outside of its regional limits. Moving country out of Appalachia to Texas created the country western sound that would dominate the genre from there on. When he died decades later, his seat at the radio station was replaced by Wolfman Jack, who spread rock and roll like Brinkley before him.

4 Michelangelo Started Off As An Art Forger

In 1492, Michelangelo was only a struggling young artist. To make ends meet, he traveled around Italy looking for new patrons. People kept ignoring Michelangelo’s genius to buy old classical statues instead. Michelangelo hatched a plan: If people wanted to buy ancient Roman sculptures, he would just forge ancient Roman sculptures.

One of these forgeries was Sleeping Cupid. To pass it off as a newly discovered antiquity, he sculpted it, buried it in dirt, and roughed it up. Initially, the muddied-up sculpture successfully conned the man who bought it, Cardinal Riario. Michelangelo could have gotten away with it, but he was a better artist than forger. When returning to Cardinal Riario’s house, he accidentally let it slip that he was the sculptor.

Riaro was mad that he had been swindled, but he was more impressed that Michelangelo could successfully replicate the works of the masters. He became Michelangelo’s new patron.^[7] With this new finical backing and fresh reputation, he made two of his most famous works, Bacchus and Pieta. From there, his career only blossomed into one of history’s greats.

3 The April Fool’s Prank That Launched Spiritualism

Spiritualism was one of the most popular belief systems in the late 1800s. Many people still believe in the main ideas, like the ability to communicate with spirits through possessions, mediums, or Ouija boards. Their faith hasn’t wavered, even though the people who got it going admitted to being frauds.

In 1848, Maggie Fox and her little sister Katy wanted to scare their mother. They would tap on the walls and tell her the house was haunted. Keeping their hands above the table, they bunched their toes and knocked on the floor. To convince her there was a ghost walking around the house, the girls tied strings to apples and then dropped them on the stairs.^[8]

On March 31, Maggie and Katy upped the ante by telling their mom they were going to talk to the ghost. This was supposed to be their last trick and reveal it was all an April Fools’ prank. The mother was amazed how much the ghost knew about her and her daughters’ lives. It’s much less impressive knowing that it was really the daughters answering the questions about themselves.

The mother ran next door and asked their neighbor to come over to ask the ghost some questions. Afraid they were going to get in trouble if they admitted it was a hoax, the sisters just kept it going. Over the next weeks, more and more neighbors came to the house, each asking similar questions. Within the year, similar supposed mediums were seen across the country.

2 The Romantic Movement Was Launched By A Hoax

In the 1800s, Romanticism was the new philosophy of wanting to return to past. One of the founders of the movement, James Macpherson, really looked to the past when he discovered a series of poems by the third-century poet Ossian. The poems tell of the exploits of the legendary Gaelic myth of Fingal.

Due to unusual structure of the verses, the poems became insanely popular, something that doesn’t happen that much anymore. Thomas Jefferson loved the poems so much that he learned Gaelic just to understand the originals. Napoleon found them so inspiring that he brought them along with him into battle. He was so moved by the poems that he commissioned paintings of scenes in them. That was hardly the extent of the epic’s artistic legacy. Writers as varied as Diderot, Klopstock, Goethe, Byron, Coleridge, Wordsworth, Walter Scott, and Yeats all cite Ossian’s poems as inspiring them to write. Even composers like Felix Mendelssohn, Le Sueur, and Franz Schubert said these poems motivated them.

The poems may have jump-started the modern world, but it was all a hoax.^[9] There were suspicions of poems’ origin from the beginning because of anachronisms in the text. Also, Ossian didn’t exist. Macpherson just made up the poems as he went along. If he couldn’t think of anything else, he stole lines from earlier poems. To bury his tracks, he wrote the stories in English, then translated them into Gaelic, and then back into English.

1 Johannes Gutenberg Was A Failed Con Man

During the Middle Ages, pilgrims would flock to see religious artifacts across Europe. For the most part, the authenticity of these items was already fraudulent. Pilgrims had to travel for hundreds of miles just to see some random body part and return home knowing they would never see it again. If they wanted to preserve these precious moments, the faithful had mirrors on their heads to capture the holiness at their shrines. The image’s reflection would bounce off the mirror and land in a box. The box then contained all of the relic’s divinity.

Whether this really works depends on your faith, but two people who thought this was junk science were Johannes Gutenberg and his partner Andreas Dritzehn. Instead of being moved by the good word, they were more motivated by chance to make a good fortune. They moved to Aachen to set up shop for their get-rich-quick scheme selling mirrors because the city houses a lot of relics.

Unfortunately for Gutenberg and Dritzehn, the pope banned Aachen pilgrimages in 1439. Earlier that year, a strain of the plague broke out, and all travel to the region was prohibited. Thus, none of Gutenberg’s mirrors were sold. With no more money, Gutenberg returned to his home in Mainz.

Gutenberg had convinced his investors that his scheme was guaranteed to turn a quick profit. Now bankrupt, he had to find a way to repay his debts.^[10] He went into the wine industry. He would later refashion a wine press to make the first printing press, a very important invention. There is a direct line from that failed con 500 years ago to the article you’re reading right now.

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