My first list was accused of being too American-centric. So here are 10 more corrections to misconceptions that non-Listverse people may have but this time you’ll need your passport handy to read it.
The Error: The former Soviet Union celebrated the October Revolution in October.
Although the Bolsheviks took control over October 25-26, 1917, this was under the Old Style (Julian) calendar. One of the first things the Communists did was to modernize their calendar to the Gregorian Calendar – thereby pushing the day ahead 13 days (into November). This was a major holiday in the Soviet Union, mostly because with the official ban on religion the biggest holidays were civil holidays such as May Day and the October Revolution.
The Error: The British king George I of Hanover used English or German when speaking with his cabinet.
I don’t know that this is so much a misconception as “it’s obvious” that a British monarch would speak English. Those who know history and realize George I was a German prince who spoke no English may then think that “it’s obvious” he and his advisors spoke German. The reality is that since his cabinet did not speak German, the lingua franca in the meetings was French.
The Error: The Titanic was the first ship known to use the distress code “SOS”?
Although British ships preferred the traditional distress call “CQD”, most of the other European countries used the International Conference on Wireless Communication at Sea standard set in 1908 of “SOS”. The French ship Niagara is known to have used “SOS” well before the Titanic did. Incidently, in CQD, the CQ was a general call on a telegraph line with the D standing for Distress. In James Cameron’s “Titanic”, he did get it right that the radio operator tried both CQD and SOS after the new distress call was suggested to him.
The Error: John Kennedy was the first to say “Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country.”
Yes, the misconception is American but the backstory is international. American politicians are renowned for plagiarizing their best lines from foreign sources. For example, Abraham Lincoln took the phrase “a government of the people, by the people and for the people” from the preface of John Wycliff’s 1384 edition of the Bible and current Vice-President Joe Biden cribbed a few speeches while in the Senate from Labour Party MP Neil Kinnock. This quote thought by many Americans to be pure Kennedy was actually from Lebanese writer Khalil Gibran in an article advocating his Lebanese brethren to rebel against the occupying Ottoman Turks.
The Error: Alexander Fleming invented the antibiotic “penicillin”.
Many will disagree with this since it is more a question of semantics than a misconception. Although Alexander Fleming DISCOVERED that the mold Penicillium notatum has antibacterial properties, he was not a chemist and growing and culturing the mold was difficult for him. Howard Florey with the assistance of Ernst Chain was able to purify the penicillin and put it in a form for use in humans, thereby INVENTING penicillin as a true antibiotic.
The Error: Watson and Crick discovered DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid).
Again, people on Listverse will say “everyone knows that” but many people learn the simplified version that James Watson and Francis Crick discovered DNA, probably because they won the Nobel Prize for their discovery of the double-helix structure of DNA. The true discoverer was Friedrich Miescher was analyzing pus cell nuclei in 1868 when he discovered nuclein. He was able to analyze this further and discovered an acid component which he called deoxyribonucleic acid. Scientists Avery, MacLeod, and McCarty were the first to show a link between DNA and heredity in 1943 and Rosalind Franklin did the first X-ray diffraction pattern study of DNA. What Watson & Crick did was to develop a model of DNA that accounted for all of the previous research discoveries.
The Error: Mouton-Rothschild is a top-grade Chateau claret.
The five growths (classes) of red Bordeaux were determined in 1855. Four were considered First Class Lafite-Rothschild, Latour, Margaux, Haut-Brion. Mouton-Rothschild did not like being place in second class so their motto is “Premier ne puis. Second ne daigne. Mouton suis.” (First I cannot be. Second I do not deign to be. I am Mouton.) All I know is I certainly would not turn down a glass of it.
The Error: The fax machine was invented after the telephone.
Scottish inventor Alexander Bain had invented the electric clock back in 1841. In 1843 he used his work on electric clock to patent a device that could be synchronized with a twin over telegraph lines, which according to some stories he did so he could transmit a picture of a new-born calf (if true it would need to be a daguerreotype which seems very unlikely for just a cow). Frederick Bakewell patented a better fax machine in 1848, two years before Bain updated his and in 1861 an Italian Giovanni Caselli invented the first high quality fax. All of this was done before both Alexander Bell and Elisha Gray independently filed for the telephone patent on 14 February 1876.
The Error: Albert Einstein was a poor student.
The myth that Einstein was a poor student started when an American researcher mistranslated some of Einstein’s report cards by not taking into account the grading system at the time. While Einstein was in school, students were given grades 1 to 6, 1 being the best. This was reversed (1 was worst) the year after Einstein graduated. Further research has uncovered a letter from Albert’s mother to his aunt complimenting his grades, but I guess the image of Einstein going from failing school to being a top physicist is too good to be changed because of the truth.
The Error: Pandas eat only bamboo.
The reason that pandas eat so much bamboo is that it doesn’t run away. They are omnivores that have adapted to a primarily bamboo diet but they will eat anything they can catch like small animals and carrion. The problem is that they are so slow from the fact that bamboo doesn’t provide a lot of energy that it is hard to catch anything else – a vicious cycle. There are a couple of great articles by National Geographic about the pandas from the 1980’s
The Error: The United States is the only country that measures things by feet, gallons, pounds, and degrees Fahrenheit.
To demonstrate how out-of-date the U.S. is from basically everyone else in the world, it is pointed out by scientists and metricians that we still use the archaic English system. It may be true, but we are not the only ones. Liberia uses the same system which is not a surprise considering that the country was started by former American slaves who named their capital after American president James Monroe and it was only recently that Liberia’s president was not a descendent of the original American emigrants. And there is a third country that uses the system – Myanmar (pictured above). As a former British colony, they of course adopted the English system. After gaining their independence, the country changed its name from Burma but not how it measured things.
Good list. And not too american.
Needs more cowbell.
great list. loved the bit about talking in french by the British monarch. also didnt know the fact about Alexander Fleming and HIS penicillin. great list.
Good job Jeffy, here comes the “winless war” and “America Sucks” flamewar.
@Otter (4): Somebody had to do it…
good work, but you crumbled under the pressure!! more NFL posts leading up to the weekend please. something basic, im English
Interesting list – didn’t know about Einstein. I’d heard that a panda is a bear and has the digestive system of a bear and because it’s diet is largely bamboo, they have to spend most of the day eating.
@Jeffy (5): Very true. I agree with your post and I am American. Just a little tired of the America sucks crap in the comments.
Does anyone wait for a new post to be posted, and after reading it, take their sleeping pill and go to bed? Because that is my routine every single night.
Anyway, very interesting list. I was just just watching Rachel Maddow and she was talking about Butterstick being returned to China, so the number one gave me an extra “aww!”
Good list! A note on the whole “too American” thing, though. Who cares? People just want something to complain about. I don’t care if a list is America centric or not (I don’t live in America, btw) so long as its interesting, and I am sure most people that read these lists don’t care either. The ones that do are just whining.
Very good List! Liked the bonus fact very much which shows the idiocy of Americans !WOW!
Kick ass list.
OMG tooo not American is so retarded list DURRRRRR
Too INTERNATIONALISTIC!!!!!
haha, nice.
R.I.P. Winston (don’t know – 05.02.2010)
God-forbid his spirit shows up we will need be needing multiracial poltergiests to ward him off.
Too French ,British,German, Russian, Australia & Scotland also Chinese (damn) & The *****ing American ! So Unbiased !
Great Work Saint Cad!
“When the legend becomes fact, print the legend.”
-Maxwell Scott, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valence
Einstein was actually poor student in primary school. He threatened a teacher with a chair and got expelled… Einstein was bad-ass. He also WASN’T Jewish.
Good list
So basically, if we took pandas off the bamboo diet and fed ‘em burgers, we could turn them into swift, viscious killing machines – nice!
@Iain (20): He was Jewish retard! Most Great minds belong to Jewish community ! Some people even after reading the lists remain ignorant or do they even care to read!
@FreeMason (21): He believed in an entity which could be described as a God. He was brought up in a Jewish home and sympathized with the Jewish plight. Doesn’t mean he too was Jewish.
After reading your last two lasts, the only thing I’ve learned is that you have a very loose definition of ‘fascinating’.
I’ve always wondered why the US. uses gallons, feet, fahrenheit when the rest of the world uses the greek measuring liter, centimeter and degree celsius.
The metric system isn’t Greek. The Celsius scale is Swedish, everything else is French/British.
Oh my goodness, why is this list not ‘American based’? Pah! You just lost your major audience
Hahahahaha ‘Too American’ ‘Too American’ Indeed! May those comments be buried in peace 
The Giant Panda spends 16 hours a day foraging and eating. When not eating,it spends most of its time sleeping and resting. Add to it being an international celebrity. drool. Oh, how I wish I was a Panda.
And no, the error is not “Pandas eat only bamboo”
The error is “Pandas are herbivores”.
Anatomically the Panda is not a herbivore but a carnivore with a simple stomach adapted for digesting meat.
They have a predilection for meat, if they CAN get it. But they don’t and its not just because they are slow, its mainly because in evolution, the animals have become so fettered by bamboo that their fate is inextricably linked to it. Teeth of fossil pandas from three million years ago are similar to those of today’s animals, showing that the pact between pandas and bamboo has existed probably as long as pandas have been pandas.
Ehmm… on number 3. Telephone was invented by italian scientist Antonio Meucci in 1871 (as USA Congress admitted in 2002. And we also still have one of Caselli’s “fax” in Turin (another was lost in 1966, during Florence’s floods) and a copy in Rome.
a)”American researcher mistranslated some of Einstein’s report cards “.
b)why the US. uses gallons, feet, fahrenheit when the rest of the world doesn’t?
Because Americans are *****ing Retarded!
Bull***** an italian scientist invented the telephone.
Anyway cool list and who cares if other lists are too American,it’s nice to learn something about another country.
err i live in the uk and i know that we still measure in feet, pounds and gallons
I agree we measue length in feet/ miles but I've only ever seen grams/ liters.
As a point of interest, the front of the old Australian $50 note had a portrait of Sir Howard Florey.
He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physiology and Medicine in 1945. Between 1960 and 1965 he was the President of the Royal Society, a position also held at one time by Sir Isaac Newton. He was also a founder of the Australian National University.
@FreeMason (21): you sound a bit rasist and@Vixsta (19): he was jewish. He didnt believe in a jewish type of god but he was jewish.
@BravehisTickle (25): tell me now! Isnt this list more interesting than the previous one? A huge yes pops into my tiny little head.
@El the erf (16): winston died to me when he said :”too chinese”. Why would someone spoil such a beautiful thing like “too american”.
Unless and until you don’t spread this info in the print media, the world will think otherwise..waiting for listverse book#2
What’s with all the America bashing on LV? It’s like most non-Americans hate the place and its people. Unless you’re from North Korea or another country that is against America, you are in an allied country. I live in Australia and if we decided to start hating America we would basically be taken over for all our land, diamonds, oil etc.
People need to understand that America is one of the most well established modern countries. They have pioneered many things we now take for granted, some good and some bad. So it makes sense that such a powerful and populated country would hold a lot of records, have a hand in many sayings and facts etc etc.
And to say Americans are “*****ing retarded” is a bit of an ignorant statement. Entirely subjective, twisted logic like that is just immature. It only takes a small amount of intelligence to objectively see that America is a smart and well organised country (except for Bush). Most of the modern world is modelled from things that originated in America, or at least developed into their current form there.
So think before you speak *****. Those hating America would be furious if someone said the same about their own country. It’s simply racist. How would I be seen if I went around calling Afghanis “dune coons”? I would sound pretty racist and would likely be seen as a monster. But somehow it is now accepted practice to say Americans are retarded *****stains.
Leave the ***** alone. Read the lists, stop reading ones you don’t like and stop *****ing and moaning. The site is here for free, so if they want to post 1000 baseball lists then who cares, no loss.
By the way, keep an eye out for a list I submitted called Top 10 Supercentenarians (Oldest People in the World). It contains several Americans.
@Moey (24): The metric system isn’t Greek. More French than anything else.
Oh no, there is another Chris here. I knew I should have been more creative with a user name. From now on I will use Palmarium (Latin for outstanding and an old business name of mine).
Hmmmmm. How exciting.
@Chris (34): The main point is..not to pay any attention or make an issue of it, else people forget what the list is all about and start their mudslinging.
Bonus – It’s called the Imperial System, not the English System.
And it doesn’t really do any favours to explain that it’s also used by Liberia and Myanmar (Burma). Seriously, folks. Get with the times. Go Metric.
Oh, and number 9 isn’t really all that surprising, since for a long time French was the language of royalty in England
Your first list had more pizazz to it. This one seems to be lacking spirit. I’m glad it was written, but it’s….blah.
The only one I didn’t know was the one about the fax machine. Otherwise, interesting (mostly) list.
Huge error in number 6, about Alexander Fleming et al.
Penicillin was actually well known for hundreds of years before either of those two men were born – and ‘discovered’ by the West 40 years before Fleming.
A French army doctor by the name of Ernest Duchesne was working in the Middle East in 1879, and noticed that Arab stable boys would keep their saddles in damp rooms. They told him this was to encourage mould to grow on them to ease saddle sores on the horses.
Duchesne decided to investigate, and prepared some solution of the mould and injected it into some ill guinea pigs – they all survived. He prepared a dissertation, meticulously documented his trials and sent it to the Institute Pasteur back in France. Alas, as he was only 23 and an unknown army doctor, they didn’t even acknowledge its receipt.
He died in 1912 of tuberculosis, ironically one of the diseases his discovery could have treated.
He was finally posthumously honoured in 1949, five full years after Fleming won the Nobel Prize.
This is list too European!!
What the hell is that pink thing in the photo for #4? It’s disturbing.
Cool list. Some of them are things I’ve read before, but neat none the less.
Also, getting tired of the america-bashing. Not because it’s against america, but simply because it’s asinine and repetitive. You don’t like seeing so many lists that’re american-centric, start writing your own that aren’t. This is a submission based site, so start submitting your own from your own perspective.
I can remember a time here at LV when reading the comments to a list were just as educational as the list itself.
Lots of interesting trivia and firsthand stories shared as they came to mind from reading the list info.
Nowadays the comments area reads like a “poor me, I didn’t get what I wanted from Santa, so I’m just gonna throw poo like a rabid ape” shopping list.
What has happened folks?…we’re all better than this, aren’t we?
Too many trolls, its… TROLLISTIC!
@deeeziner (43): I agree. *shudder*
Oh, did you know that Queen Victoria was actually bad at English?
@Vixsta (19): Eistein IS Jewish, duh. When he heard that the Nazis were wrecking Jewish shops, Eistein was worried about his fellow Jews. Yes, he MAY not worshipped the Jewish religion even though he believed in God, but it felt like he was part of a “tribe”. Don’t believe me that people who live by the Jewish religion are Jews? Ask Sarah Silverman. She’s an atheist yet she admits that she is still a Jew, just like Einstein.
This list, too European! Lol! Seriously, very good. Thank you Sanit Cad.
not american enough ! lol
Good lists in general. Keep up the good work. Not sure what is meant by too American and dont care. If you tried to make one Canadian it wouldnt make “10″ and no one would read it. Including us!
And Karl 47-using Sarah Silverman to prove a point about Einstein? Must be a retarded American!
Excellent list. This is more like it.
Wow. A list that absolutely no one will care about, ever.
Saint Cad: This list and the previous are both interesting and well-written.
But a word of advice: once you decide your critics are right and begin to cater to their whims you’ll soon discover they’re simply nit-pickers who hate themselves and therefore lash out at anything that doesn’t suit their needs. Now they think they own you. Well, ***** them. And not the good kind of *****, either.
Keep writing your lists for your own enjoyment and educated, like-minded people will appreciate your efforts. Let the whiners come up with their own lame lists. To date, not a one of the crybabies has bothered.
Thanks again for 2 fascinating lists.
What would it take to make USA to go finally metric?
Also I don’t understand why even in England they went metric long ago, it is still widely tolerated to use funny measurement units.
The error: an “error” and a “misconception” are NOT the same.
Two interesting lists from Saint Cad…although I do prefer the format you have used in this list better. The first one was a tad confusing.
Wanted to mention regarding item #9–Wasn’t there a period in Europe’s history when it was entirely chic for all members of high society to speak French? As I recall, this accounted for the heavy French influence on the Russian empire.
I know I have made a couple of comments in this list already, but I thought it best to practice what I preach.
Oh and great comment @get a clue (53):
As far as I can see whoever reads or enjoys this lists is because we need or want to learn a little bit more, that kind of more that can lead us to the top in a get-together with our old school friends, and these facts really don’t matter where did they came from or if there weren’t to English, or to European or to American, the fact is that must to of us don’t understand that we’re living in the world, we are here in Listverse to feel that connection to the facts that we really didn’t know, and I apologize myself for being such a jerk yesterday posting that “it was to American”, the real fact here is that I’m to jerk even to express myself telling “hey JFrater come on lets do it a little bit less uncle Sam’s way. a little bit USA”, but as I read my own comment i saw it, the must stupid fact about being a Human being is that we can not adapt our selfs to anything, in fact we are the only specie in the world that can not adapt to anything we always try to make it our own ways, to make it work as we want not as it is. That the people of the USA came from British colonies, no wait those weren’t the Canadian people, o no those came from French people, yeah yeah, because those Mexicans came from Spanish people, and the other were just slaves; COME ON LISTVERSE PEOPLE WE ARE THE ONLY ONES THAT FOOL OUR SELFS IN BEING TO AMERICAN OR TO AUSTRALIAN OR TO HUMAN, WE ARE PEOPLE AND THATS ENOUGH OMFG, ALL THE SCIENTIST MAKE SOMETHING FOR THE PEOPLE EVERY DISCOVERY IS FOR THE PEOPLE, IT DOESN’T MATTER WHO LANDED FIRST ON THE MOON, WE ALL DID WE ARE HUMANS, SO THE NEXT TIME THAT YOU BELIEVE THAT THIS IS WAY TO JAPANESE OR TO AMERICAN OR TO BRAZILIAN, CHECK THE AGENCIES OF POPULATION CONTROL IN YOUR OWN COUNTRIES AND TELL ME HOW MANY ARE REALLY WITH ALL THE BACK GROUNDS ARE REALLY FROM THAT PIECE OF LAND
Ok sorry JF keep doing good because you are amazing everyone that keep this site working Thanks a lot
Americans aren’t stupid, idiotic, or retarded because we don’t use metric… that is just the way we have always measured things, and we don’t do well with major change. So, please excuse me while I go drink a gallon of iced tea.
Didn’t they have a movement in the ’70s to have us convert to the metric system? Anyone remember that and know why it didn’t “take”? I remember having a helluva time learning both systems. For some reason I had an easier time learning ours.
the pic on #4.. is that a pierced Vagina?!!!