Don't believe everything you read in the history books. Many events that for centuries have been passed down as true have eventually been proven false. Some were originally based on fact, but all became twisted and embellished as they were told and retold like a game of telephone. None of the following really happened. Trust us . . . would we lie to you?

Scholars agree that Eve did not eat an apple in the Garden of Eden.
Scholars agree that Eve
did not eat an apple
in the Garden of Eden --
it was more likely
a fig or grapes.

1. Lady Godiva's Naked Ride

Even if the Internet had existed during the Middle Ages, you wouldn't have been able
to download nude pictures of Lady Godiva
because she never actually rode naked through the streets of Coventry, England.

Godiva was a real person who lived in the 11th century and she really did plead with her ruthless husband, Leofric, the Earl of Mercia, to reduce taxes. But no records of the time mention her famous ride. The first reference to her naked ride doesn't appear until around 1236, nearly 200 years after her death.

2. Sir Walter Raleigh's Cloak

The story goes that Sir Walter Raleigh laid his cloak over a mud puddle to keep Queen Elizabeth I from getting her feet wet. Raleigh did catch the queen's attention in 1581 when he urged England to conquer Ireland. The queen rewarded him with extensive landholdings in England and Ireland, knighted him in 1584, and named him captain of the queen's guard two years later.

However, an illicit affair with one of the queen's maids of honor in 1592 did him in. He was imprisoned in the Tower of London and ultimately beheaded for treachery. The story of the cloak and the mud puddle probably originated with historian Thomas Fuller, who was known for embellishing facts.

Check out the next page for more historical misconceptions.

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