Amazing Historical Facts you won't believe are real

Human alarm clocks

Before alarm clocks, people would pay "knocker uppers" to wake them up. They would do so by using long poles and knocking on people's windows.

Captain Morgan Actually Existed

Yes, face of the well-loved rum brand was a totally real guy. He was a Welsh privateer who fought alongside the English against the Spanish in the Caribbean in the 1660s and 1670s. His first name was Henry and was knighted by King Charles II of England. His exact birth date is unknown, but it was sometime around 1635. He died in Jamaica in 1688, apparently very rich.

Sacrilegious forks

Back in 11th-century Italy, forks were actually considered sacrilegious. But why were forks offensive to God? Well, God created humans with fingers, which they used to eat, so they wouldn't need such a tool, right?

Cleopatra Was Not Egyptian

Despite what you may believe, the last queen of Egypt wasn't born in Egypt. As best as Historians can tell, Cleopatra VII (that's her formal name) was Greek. She was a descendant of Alexander the Great's Macedonian general Ptolemy.

'Mary Had a Little Lamb' is based on a true story

The real person was called Mary Sawyer, and indeed she took a little lamb to school in 1816. A young man named John Roulstone witnessed Mary sneaking the lamb into school and wrote a poem about it. He then gave it to Mary.

Ketchup Was Sold in the 1830s as Medicine

Forget Ibuprofen. In the 1830s, when it came to popular medicine, ketchup was all the rage. In 1834, it was sold as a cure for indigestion by an Ohio physician named John Cook. It wasn't popularized as a condiment until the late 19th century. The more you know.

Thomas Edison Didn't Invent the Light Bulb

While Edison did have an astonishing 1,093 patents, the majority of these were not of his own invention. He stole most of them. While he did land the patent for the light bulb in 1880, the real inventor was actually Warren de la Rue, a British astronomer and chemist, who actually created the very first light bulb forty years before Edison.

Woolly mammoths were still around when the pyramids were built

We often associate these animals with the Ice Age, but the last ones died as late as 1650 BCE. Which means that they were still around when the Egyptians were building the pyramids. Presumably, when the last mammoth died ,the Great Pyramid of Giza had already existed for a millennium.

Walt Disney Didn't Draw Mickey Mouse

While Walt Disney did have the idea of Mickey Mouse and also provided the voice, the imagery was created by the animator Ub Iwerks; he came up with all the iconic features. You won't look at the adorable mouse the same again.