31 Eye Movements Cannot Reveal Lies
In 2012, psychology professor Richard Wiseman and researchers in the United Kingdom and Canada debunked the myth that people look left or right when lying. They first videotaped volunteers who either lied or told the truth about hiding a cell phone, but both groups looked in each direction equally often. The researchers then studied press conferences featuring people who appealed for information about missing relatives, some of whom were later convicted of murdering those relatives. Once again, the liars displayed no distinctive eye movements.
32 Hamelin Records Preserve Missing Children
The Pied Piper of Hamelin remains a legend, but medieval records from Hamelin, Germany, preserve the memory of children who reportedly vanished in 1284. A stained-glass window created around 1300 apparently commemorated the event, while a 1384 town record declared, “It is 100 years since our children left.” Later accounts placed the number at 130 children and described a colorfully dressed piper leading them away. However, rats did not enter the story until around 1559, and historians still do not know what the original event represented.
33 Halloween Candy Killer Was Father
Stories about strangers killing children with tampered Halloween candy remain an urban myth, with no substantiated case of a child dying or suffering serious injury from a contaminated treat collected while trick-or-treating. In Pasadena, Texas, in 1974, an 8-year-old boy named Timothy O’Bryan died after eating cyanide-laced candy given to him by his father, who had taken out a life insurance policy on him. A court convicted and executed the father for murder, exposing the death as a family killing rather than a random Halloween poisoning.
34 Van Gogh Gave Maid Ear
Contrary to legend, Dutch painter Vincent van Gogh did not give his severed ear to a favorite prostitute but reportedly handed it to an 18-year-old brothel maid named Gabrielle Berlatier. Researcher Bernadette Murphy identified Berlatier as the mysterious “Rachel” who received the ear in Arles, France, in 1888. Earlier that year, a dog had mauled Berlatier, forcing her to undergo painful treatment and receive the newly developed rabies vaccine at the Institut Pasteur in Paris. The costly treatment may explain why the farmer’s daughter took cleaning work at the brothel, although her exact relationship with Van Gogh remains unknown.
35 Frogs Escape Slowly Heated Water
Healthy frogs will try to escape water as it becomes dangerously hot, contrary to the famous boiling frog myth. In 1869, German physiologist Friedrich Goltz helped inspire the tale when he found that a frog with its brain removed remained in slowly heated water, while an intact frog tried to escape at 25 degrees Celsius. Other 19th-century experiments produced conflicting results because researchers used different heating rates. Modern biologists conclude that a healthy frog with an escape route will become increasingly active and eventually jump out.
36 KGB Created American HIV Conspiracy
The widespread myth that the US government created HIV began as a KGB disinformation campaign during the 1980s, commonly called Operation INFEKTION but documented in Stasi archives as Operation DENVER. In July 1983, an anonymous letter published by the pro-Soviet Indian newspaper Patriot claimed that American scientists had engineered AIDS as a biological weapon at Fort Detrick, Maryland. Soviet and East German intelligence promoted the allegation through newspapers, radio, television, and supposedly scientific reports, spreading it across more than 80 countries in over 30 languages. In 1992, Russian Foreign Intelligence Service director Yevgeny Primakov admitted that the KGB had planted the US-government story.
37 Barefoot Driving Remains Completely Legal
Driving barefoot is legal in all 50 US states, despite the widespread urban legend that motorists must wear shoes. No state law specifically requires footwear.
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38 Yellowstone Eruption Is Not Overdue
Yellowstone’s supposedly overdue eruption is a myth because volcanoes do not follow fixed schedules. Seismic studies show that its two stacked magma reservoirs contain just 5 to 15 percent molten material, far below the roughly 50 percent needed for magma to mobilize toward the surface. Yellowstone currently has neither enough eruptible magma nor sufficient pressure for an eruption. If that changed, scientists would expect decades or even centuries of increased earthquakes, ground deformation, and altered heat and gas emissions, providing years of warning.
39 Feminist Bra Burning Never Happened
The image of feminists burning bras throughout the 1960s and 1970s was largely a media myth that critics used to mock and discredit women’s liberation. At the 1968 Miss America protest in Atlantic City, more than 200 women discarded girdles, curlers, and other beauty products into a “freedom trash can.” Police and the mayor prohibited fires on the wooden boardwalk, so the protesters burned nothing. After protest organizer Robin Morgan mentioned “symbolic bra-burning” to a New York Times reporter, news coverage and movement critics turned the phrase into an enduring stereotype.
40 Nazi Army Depended On Horses
During World War II, Nazi Germany cultivated the myth of a fully mechanized army by emphasizing tanks and aircraft, which looked more efficient and threatening than horses. Propaganda footage minimized horse-drawn transport, while later memoirs and films helped preserve the illusion. In reality, horses pulled two-thirds of the German Army’s vehicles and supplied 80 percent of its motive power. More than 1 million horses remained in service near the war’s end, hauling guns, equipment, and supplies.
RE: Fact #9 (Ellis Island Never Changed Names) – Many people chose to change their names. Even well into the 20th century, famous people would often switch to stage names to fit in better. Plenty of Jewish performers did this, like Stanley Lieber becoming Stan Lee, or Chaim Witz changing to Gene Simmons.