General knowledge · 12 questions

History's Great Myths

Familiar stories. Less familiar evidence. Time to call history's bluff. Twelve questions, with a few convincing wrong turns along the way.

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Question 1 of 12

What fits George Washington's documented dentures?

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1. What fits George Washington's documented dentures?
- A. Entirely oak
- B. Only porcelain
- C. Materials including metals and human teeth, not wood (answer)
- D. Rubber plates and glass teeth
Documented dentures used several materials. The wooden-teeth story is unsupported.
2. Which statement about Columbus's voyages is accurate?
- A. He never landed on the present-day US mainland (answer)
- B. He landed in Florida in 1492
- C. He founded Jamestown
- D. He crossed the Pacific to California
His voyages reached Caribbean islands and parts of Central and South America, not the present-day US mainland.
3. What does the Met say about knights needing cranes to mount horses?
- A. Applied to all cavalry
- B. Required by tournament law
- C. Applied only in France
- D. It is a misconception (answer)
Functional armour allowed movement; the crane story misrepresents how armoured horsemen mounted.
4. How did the Liberty Bell's wide visible gap develop in 1846?
- A. Cannonball impact
- B. Workers widened a narrow crack during repair (answer)
- C. Ringing for independence in 1776
- D. Cut for wartime scrap
The wide gap was part of a repair attempt, not a break while announcing independence.
5. What was the scope of the final 1863 Emancipation Proclamation?
- A. Designated areas in rebellion, with exceptions (answer)
- B. Every US state immediately
- C. Only Washington, DC
- D. The whole Americas
It targeted designated rebellious territory and did not itself abolish slavery everywhere in the United States.
6. What best corrects the story of nationwide panic from the 1938 War of the Worlds broadcast?
- A. Nobody was frightened
- B. It never happened
- C. The scale of panic was exaggerated (answer)
- D. Government ordered national evacuation
Some listeners were alarmed, but scholarship challenges the story of nationwide hysteria.
7. What is King Arthur's Round Table near Eamont Bridge?
- A. Roman amphitheatre
- B. Neolithic henge (answer)
- C. Anglo-Saxon hall
- D. Medieval jousting arena
The earthwork is prehistoric. Its later Arthurian name does not prove a connection to a historical Arthur.
8. Which pirate is documented burying treasure on Gardiner's Island in 1699?
- A. Edward Teach
- B. Bartholomew Roberts
- C. Henry Morgan
- D. William Kidd (answer)
Kidd is a documented exception. Pirates generally spent captured wealth rather than routinely burying it.
9. What is the safest conclusion about the spiked-cabinet iron maiden as a medieval device?
- A. Reliable evidence of medieval use is lacking (answer)
- B. Every castle had one
- C. Magna Carta prescribed it
- D. Medieval armies routinely carried one
Its medieval reputation rests on later stories and exhibits, not reliable evidence of routine medieval use.
10. Which claim about armour wearers is correct?
- A. Only kings wore it
- B. Every wearer was a knight
- C. Non-knightly soldiers also wore it (answer)
- D. A helmet automatically conferred knighthood
Armour was equipment, not proof of rank. Infantry and other non-knightly soldiers wore it.
11. What best describes pirate maps with X-marked buried treasure?
- A. Standard rule in pirate articles
- B. Literary convention, not documented routine (answer)
- C. Royal Navy requirement
- D. Medieval monastic practice
Adventure fiction such as Treasure Island helped establish the convention, not evidence of normal pirate procedure.
12. Was Paul Revere the only rider warning of British troop movements in April 1775?
- A. Yes, all the way to Concord alone
- B. Yes, but only by daylight
- C. No, George Washington rode beside him
- D. No, William Dawes and Samuel Prescott also rode (answer)
Dawes took another route and Prescott joined them. Revere was not the sole warning rider.

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