history

I thought Elgin's marbles we're pre-historic marbles, as in the sort you
play with. It wasn't until I walked around the display hall in the British
Museum, past all these really boring statues, turned round to my husband
(yes I was an adult before I figured it out) and said "so where are they
then? I can't see any marbles!", that I found out the truth (after he'd
finished laughing at me).

Lindsey

I was convinced that lois and clark from the superman comics use to be real people, lewis and clark explorers of the US.

Rachel R. AZ.

All the way up to even eigth grade, I used to believe that the 2nd ammendment of the constituiton was "the right to BARE arms", the right to wear tank tops and other sleeveless clothing!

Tara

my older sister always wanted to be a teacher, and at 4, i was an easy target. she did teach me to read and do simple math, but when she tried to teach me about history i got confused somehow -- i think it must have been the louisiana purchase bit. at any rate, i ended up believing that any time we wanted a new state, we sent money over to the english. then they took a huge knife and cut off a big chunk of land and stuck an american flag in it and sailed it across the ocean. when it got here, we stuck it onto the rest of the country. the state shapes were usually all ragged because it was really hard to cut all the way through.

sine nomine

In 1973, two years before I was born, our local church was destroyed in an arson attack. I knew that Oliver Cromwell had been responsible for the destruction of a number of castles and manor houses, so I thought he had started the 1973 fire at our church.

Alan

When I first saw a Yin-Yang symbol, I thought it was something new and modern used only by surfers in their surfboards. I was a bit surprised to learn it was an old symbol from an ancient religion of Asia!

Scandia

I thought the Golden Horn was an actual horn (like the musical instrument) owned by the Ottoman Sultans or something

Alberto Richardson

I once asked my dad what "Soviet Union" is; he replied that it was a horrible country where you couldn't say anything, because you'd be taken to jail immediately.

For a long time, I have been shocked by such an evil country where you had to be silent all the time.

Anon

When I was about 10 years old John Lennon was assassinated. I did not know who John Lennon was (though I did know of the rock band, the Beatles). In school we had recently learned about the Russian communist dictator Vladimir Lenin, and that's who I thought had died. I wondered why everyone was so sad about such a bad man dying, and thought maybe he had changed his ways, or maybe he wasn't as bad as the teacher thought. I also thought it was weird that he hadn't died yet. I would have thought he'd died years and years ago.

Anon

When I was litle, my aunt used to pull me around in a wagon and say "hail Cleopatra!". When I was in Kindergarden this one kid's mom dressed as leopatra and our teacher said "Look everyone it's Cleopatra". Not knowing who she was but being familier with her name from the "Hail Cleopatra" thing, I assumed she was a one-name celebrity like Madonna. I felt Honored that such a big celecrity would visit MY kindergarden class.

Kat

I used to think that a long time ago humans and animals could talk to each other.
Then the animals began to loose their ability to talk as the humans began to invent more complex technology.

Queen Chrysalis

My mom's maiden name is Duncan, and in school we learned about Duncan I, a Scottish king. So for a long time I went around telling people that my great great great...(I would count out ten "greats" on my fingers) grandfather was a king.

Anon

I used to believe that o dinosaurs lived in England, or the Americas, or anywhere else for that matter. I thought they all lived on some humongous island in the middle of the Atlantic that dissapeared along with them. I blame Jurassic Park.

Xornia

One of my favorite movies(when I was very small as well as now) was and is Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure, where two guys who are about to fail history class are given a time machine and kidnap historical figures to help them pass their class. When I first saw it, I had heard of a lot of the people they kidnap, like Lincoln, Beethoven and Billy the Kid. I'd never heard of other people like Socrates. They keep pronouncing his name "Sew-crates," in the movie, and for the longest time, I went around mispronouncing his name, because I didn't have the common sense to never believe that Bill and Ted know how to say something correctly.

...It's all Greek to me.

As a child, whenever I heard someone speak of Wyatt Earp, I thought they were saying "Wide Earp". So I thought this Earp guy must have been at least rather fat, and that was why he was called "Wide".

Veronica

I used to think that J.F. Kennedy had been assasinated by having his head chopped off. I guess I got this idea from the half dollar only showing his head.

A Confused Person

In first grade, we would come to school in our costumes for Halloween, and one girl told me she was going to be a pilgrim. I thought she was going to be a giant pill-looking thing with a mean face.

Literally Six.

King Henry VIII was named “the eighth” by his dad because the first seven didn’t listen!

Mojo

I used to think humans had always been advanced, had airplanes, cars, and modern appliances, and "The good old days" was a conspiracy to make you feel bad about taking it all for granted. I believed ancient civilizations and cavemen were make-believe

Anon

I used to belive Adolf Hitler was called "Adult Hitler". I asked my mother "Why do people alway cough when they Hitlers first name. Until i was 10 i relized Adolf was his name and not Adult. :S

Oh Dear . .