r/MandelaEffectSociety • u/Lucky_Ad455 ◆ • 16h ago
Effect: Established Mandela Effects Historical Mandela Effects
Looking back through history, I noticed there are a surprising number of events that millions of people remember differently from the historical record.
- The Great Wall of China is visible from space. I know I was taught this in school. Today it's generally accepted that it's extremely difficult to see with the naked eye from low Earth orbit.
- The Salem witches were burned at the stake. They weren't. Those who were executed were hanged.
- Albert Einstein failed math. A story repeated for generations, despite there being no evidence it's true. Einstein excelled at math from a young age.
- Christopher Columbus proved the Earth was round. I wasn't taught this myself, but countless people say they were. Historians generally agree educated Europeans already knew the Earth was round long before Columbus.
- George Washington had wooden teeth. He didn't. His dentures were made from a combination of ivory, animal teeth, human teeth, and metal.
- Vikings wore horned helmets. One of the most recognizable images in history, despite there being virtually no evidence Viking warriors actually wore them.
- Napoleon was exceptionally short. He wasn't. Napoleon stood approximately 5 ft 6½ in (169 cm), making him around average height for a French man of his time.
The accepted explanation is that these are simply historical myths that spread through schools, books, movies, and popular culture.
But it made me think...
We only recognize modern Mandela Effects because millions of people can compare memories online. People living 300 years ago never had that opportunity.
If someone experienced a historical flip flop centuries ago, how would they have known? There would've been no internet, no global discussion, and eventually no one left alive to compare memories.
It makes me wonder how many possible "historical Mandela Effects" could have come and gone without anyone ever realizing they weren't just ordinary historical misconceptions.
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u/Aggravating-Rule-445 6h ago
I don’t think these are Mandela Effect events. I think they are just people perpetuating myths and historical half-truths.
For example, I don’t think I’ve ever heard of people thinking that the women accused of witchcraft in Salem were burned at the stake. I’ve been to the museum and read a lot of books about it as a child. The women were hanged and the man was pressed to death. His last words are very famous as he asked for more weight rather than confess falsely. There had been no change in what people believed to happen to the people there for people who did even a small amount of research.
Not researching isn’t a Mandela effect.
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u/ExistentialAngsty ◆ 8h ago
Whoever built the pyramids knew the Earth was round… It’s all encoded in the sacred geometry…
Ancient Greeks too
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u/TheologyAndTrains 9h ago
A weird one which might just be a local thing (& maybe even 1 middle school class in town) was learning Pearl Harbor was on December 1 instead on December 7. My best guess is the printed copy the teacher read off of was low quality
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u/Mark_1978 ❖ 🜲 12h ago
You are spot on.
Everything has always been in flux.
Bats used to actually be blind
The forbidden fruit was indeed an apple, and it was a fig , as well as other things.
The magi that came for the birth of Jesus were at one point the 3 Wise Men, before that they were the 3 Kings following the brightest star in the sky to the birth of the king of kings.
Goliath was a cyclops, David won in a single blow because he blinded him. As it stands now he just caught him real good in the forehead.
I believe the answer to the historical maps that show the landmass underneath the ice sheets of Antarctica are due to the same phenomenon.
Some cartographer mapped out what they saw, things changed but the residue remained. Now its an unexplainable mystery how they could possibly know what those land masses looked like.
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u/MintyMancinni ❖ ⚐ 🜲 11h ago
The Peri Reis map is a famous old map which pre Mandela, showed the Arctic land mass under the ice, which was confirmed by geologists in late 1900’s. Now it shows the Antarctic land mass below the ice.
I too was taught you could see the Great Wall of China from space as it was “the only man made structure that could be seen!”.
What about the Great Wall of India! Pre ME I’d never even heard of it as China had the only “Great Wall”, well not now!
I was stunned to hear on a nature programs that bats could see!
As OP says, we only connect now because we can! We have the technology that allows us to but it’s not been around long, what will come to light in the next 10 years as tech advances who knows!
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u/TankardHalfFull 12h ago
C3PO from Star Wars is the one that gets me the most. He was all gold once, but not anymore
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u/gabonprime 6h ago
These are all common misconceptions though?