Albert Einstein failed mathematics in school.

In fact, he actually excelled at mathematics throughout his schooling and even considered becoming a mathematician for a time. This rumor actually started while he was still alive and even showed up in a particular issue of Ripley’s Believe It Or Not. Einstein was shown the article in Ripley’s, which had the title “Greatest living mathematician failed in mathematics.” Beyond the fact that this failure never happened, the other incorrect bit in that article was that Einstein was not a mathematician. Einstein reportedly found the article humorous and remarked: ““I never failed in mathematics… Before I was fifteen I had mastered differential and integral calculus.” (15 was the age in Germany that most qualified students would start to learn calculus.) Einstein did however fail his first entrance exam into the Swiss Federal Polytechnic School (ETH) in 1895, when he was two years younger than his fellow students but scored exceedingly well in the mathematics and science sections, then passed on his second attempt. The primary reason he failed his first entrance exam was that the test was in French, a language that Einstein did struggle in school to master. One possible origin for the misconception is that the school where Einstein attended changed their grading system half way through his time there. When he started a "1" grade was the best a student could achieve and a "6" grade was the worst. by the time he graduated, the school had reversed their system, where a "1" grade was the worst and a "6" grade was the best. Academics who later researched Einstein's life erroneously concluded that Einstein must have been a very poor student to earn a multiple of "6" grades in his subjects. He did earn a "3" in French.

Napoleon was short

Napoleon was 5'7", average height for a Frenchman of the time. The confusion came from the difference between the British inch and the French 'pouce', which was longer, and made the British think Napoleon was only around 5'3", a misconception which British propaganda was happy to propagate. Napoleon was famously egotistical, so anything that cast him in an unflattering light would have most likely have bothered him.

Thomas Edison was poorly educated

While it is true that Edison had little formal education, it is a misconception that he was poorly educated. After being dissatisfied with the quality of education provided to her son, Thomas Edison's mother home schooled him for most of his childhood. According to Edison biographer Matthew Josephson “Thus,” Josephson noted, “his mother had accomplished that which all truly great teachers do for their pupils, she brought him to the stage of learning things for himself, learning that which most amused and interested him, and she encouraged him to go on in that path. It was the very best thing she could have done for this singular boy.” As Edison himself put it: “My mother was the making of me. She understood me; she let me follow my bent.”

The Declaration of Independence was signed on July 4th 1776.

July 4th was the day the Declaration was ratified, i.e. officially approved. It would take more time for all the delegates to sign it, once they had read through the whole document. Some took as long August 1776 to sign it, others never signed it at all.

George Washington had wooden teeth

Washington did not have wooden teeth. He did have dentures due to the poor dental hygiene he practiced in the many years of going to war. His dentures were made of gold, hippopotamus ivory, lead, animal teeth (including horse and donkey teeth), and probably human teeth purchased from slaves

George Washington chopped down a cherry and could not lie about it.

Actually the whole story is a lie, invented by one of Washington’s first biographers, Mason Locke Weems. Weems was attempting to give young American readers a hero that they could all admire for his natural virtues. Washington’s own story wasn’t romantic enough, so the truth was enhanced a bit.

Abraham Lincoln was a simple country lawyer.

Despite the speeches he gave on the campaign circuit, Lincoln was a corporate attorney. In the 1850s he ably (and profitably) represented the Illinois Central Railroad and the Rock Island Bridge Co. - the company that built the first railroad bridge over the Mississippi River - and earned a solid reputation as one of his home state's top appeals lawyers. Lincoln's legal papers testify to a diverse and profitable practice. Had he not been "aroused," as he put it, to speak out in 1854 against the pro-slavery Kansas-Nebraska Act before seeking a Senate seat, he likely would have remained a full-time lawyer and earned fame and fortune at the bar.

Adolf Hitler is history’s most ruthless dictator.

Hitler is certainly on the top 10 list of ruthless world leaders. Being the leader of the Nazis – the German political party that was responsible for the deaths of over 17 million people including 6 million Jews and helping to lead the entire world into World War II did make him ruthless. But the top spot has to go to Chinese dictator Mao Zedong. In his first five years as the Communist leader of China, his government killed about 4 to 6 million by indiscriminately sentencing them to death. Additionally, his policies also starved about 20 million and on top of that he had numerous enemies of the state executed.

Cinco De Mayo is Mexico’s independence day

Cinco de Mayo is not Mexico's Independence Day, but the celebration of the Mexican Army's victory over the French in the Battle of Puebla on May 5, 1862. Mexico's Declaration of Independence from Spain in 1810 is celebrated on September 16. It should be noted that Cinco de Mayo is not really celebrated in Mexico, while Mexico did win the battle, they eventually lost the war to the French.

Christopher Columbus proved that the Earth was round.

Educated Europeans at the time knew that the Earth was spherical, in fact it had been known since at least since the time of Aristotle. The reason Columbus had a hard time getting support for his voyage was because scholars at the time disagreed with his estimate of the distance to India. Columbus believed the size of the Earth was much smaller. Ferdinand Magellan conclusively proved the Earth is round with his voyages around it (Magellan himself died along the way, but his ships made it.)

Most men in the colonial era wore wigs

The fashion of men wearing wigs went back to Louis XIV of France and Charles I of England. Both were a bit vain and wanted to make a statement of their power. Of course, other people emulated the kings fashion choices. The fashion of wigs and powdered hair was also adopted in the American colonies but only about 5% of the population wore them. Wigs were expensive and were mainly worn by lawyers, statesmen and women of the gentry class. Most, but not all of the founding fathers tended to be from the wealthier section of colonial society. Wigs were ill-suited for blue collar jobs. And most people couldn't afford a wig even if they wanted one. Those who could afford the powder would powder their hair to attend more formal occasions. By the time Thomas Jefferson was president the wig fashion had gone out of fashion,

The Salem witch trials lead to people being burned at the stake.

The Salem witch trials of 1692 led to the arrests of 150 men and women, of whom 31 were tried and 20 were sentenced to death. While 20 people were executed, none of them were burned at the stake. Nineteen of the victims were hanged, while one was crushed to death under heavy stones, in a method known as peine forte et dure. For witch burnings, you need to go to Europe, specifically Switzerland.

Henry Ford invented the automobile

The first known inventor of the automobile was German inventor Karl Benz who built the Benz Patent-Motorwagen in 1886. Ford didn't even invent the concept of the assembly line, that idea had been around Europe and the United States for decades. Ford did however develop the “moving assembly line”, where the parts of the automobile would move down the line, instead of the workers having to haul them from one work area to the next. His manufacturing process helped drop the cost of his automobiles into the price range of average Americans.

Giving children sugar makes them hyper

While some experts do stand by this common belief, other professors claim that the majority of scientific research has concluded that sugar does not cause hyperactivity in youngsters. What makes children hyper is the social interaction with other children, frequently associated with the consumption of sugar – birthday parties, holidays etc. . .

Lightning never strikes the same place twice.

“Lightning never strikes the same place twice” is a common idiom used say that something bad happened once, but it can’t happen again. Unfortunately, it has nothing to do with actual lightning strikes. Lightning is a huge electrostatic discharge searching for a way down, and it isn't particularly interested in whether or not it has been hit before. Taller objects, such as trees and skyscrapers, are usually choice targets because there is a shorter distance between that and the origin of the lightning. The tallest tree in a forest can get struck several times until the storm passes. In fact, lightning strikes the Empire State Building around 100 times per year.

Hair and fingernails continue growing after death.

In order for fingernails and hair to grow after someone is dead, the person would need to still be eating and digesting nutrients and performing cellular processes. Of course, that would interfere with the whole “being dead” thing. So there’s no way the body is producing more keratin in order to make hair and fingernails. However, skin and hair can appear to grow post-mortem. As the dead skin begins to dry out, they retract and pull away from the hair shafts and nail beds. The hair and fingernails are not affected by the lack of moisture and do not shrink, which can make it seem as if they had grown. This also makes clean-shaven men appear to have grown stubble.

German Chocolate Cake is from Germany

The familiar chocolate cake with the coconut frosting is a popular dessert in the United States, but don’t try to get it in Germany, they don’t make it there. German Chocolate Cake derives its name from a 1957 recipe printed in a Dallas newspaper. The recipe maker used dark chocolate from the German’s Chocolate company and named the recipe after the main ingredient. If you’re in Germany try ordering the Schwartz Wald Kirsch Kuchen (Black Forest Cherry Cake), that’s authentic in southern Germany.

Fortune Cookies are from China

Nope, they were actually invented by the Japanese, made initial popular in restaurants in San Francisco (although L.A. claims this fact as well) Chinese restaurants took up the practice of serving fortune cookies around WWII.

Sushi is raw fish

Raw fish is probably the most popular variety but there are several other types, you can even get BBQ chicken or beef sushi. To be even more accurate sushi is actually the “rice-vinegar” whereas sashimi is the raw fish. Usually sashimi is used as a topping but so is nori (dried seaweed) and various other vegetables.