hans lippshey invented the telescope, but was not awarded a patent. instead, the dutch government released a report sharing his work, which galileo copied and received the credit for.

at the time that he was killed, 'general' custer was actually just a lieutenant colonel.

pocahontas was forced to convert to christianity and go by the name of rebecca. she died at the age of 21.

molly pitcher, a heroine of the revolutionary war, was a fictional character not even invented until 1875.

a rock was discovered in 12th century sweden that appeared to have runes carved onto it. for 700 years, scholars attempted to translate its apparently obscure dialect, until it was determined that the 'runes' were actually just naturally occurring cracks in the rock.

octave chanute designed the wright brother's aircraft, and provided financial support to them. they had a falling out because the wright brothers wanted to commercialize the design, and chanute felt that it should be freely shared.

100 years before rosa parks, elizabeth jennings graham was forcibly removed from a streetcar in new york. she sued, and her suit led to the desegregation of new york city public transportation. her lawyer was chester a. arthur.

the american flag was designed by francis hopkinson. congressional journals explicitly name him as the creator of the first american flag. betsy ross's family claimed that she did it many years after the fact.

the electric light was invented by heinrich goebel, who unsuccessfully tried to sell the idea to thomas edison. when goebel died, edison bought the patent from goebel's widow for a fraction of its value.

hans lippershy invented the telescope in 1608, but was denied a patent. instead, the dutch government published his patent application, which galileo read and copied, increasing the magnification. a year later, galileo received a patent and has been known ever since as the 'inventor' of the telescope.

the 1st woman in space was valentina tereshkova - not sally ride. tereshkova orbited the earth in 1963 in the vostok 6. she also clocked more time in space than all of the american astronauts combined.

mickey mouse was created and animated by ub iwerks. walt disney provided the voice.

during the time of the wild west - roughly 40 years - there were only 8 bank robberies in the entire country.

the incas did not think that spanish explorers were gods. they had already had contact with people from several different parts of the world, with differing complexions, long before europeans arrived.

samurai principally used bows and arrows, not swords. but sword fights make for better - or at least more profitable - movies.

when the stock market crashed in 1929, only 2 people jumped out of wall street windows.

not a single legitimate record exists of christians being fed to lions in the roman coliseum. the coliseum was built after christianity had already been accepted by the romans. the whole lion thing was made up by fiction writers who created a popular series called 'the martyr acts'.

ninjas didn't wear black. instead, they dressed as farmers to blend in. if they planned as assassination to take place at night, they worse dark blue.

athletes in the early greek olympics were paid fortunes to appear in public. there was no such thing as an 'amateur athlete'. you either farmed or competed for prizes.

the roman empire was only the 19th largest empire in history. the largest was the 1st persion empire, which contained 44% of the world's population.