The phenomenon was caused by severe drought coupled with decades of extensive farming without crop rotation, fallow fields, cover crops or other techniques to prevent wind erosion. Deep plowing of the virgin topsoil of the Great Plains had displaced the natural deep-rooted grasses that normally kept the soil in place and trapped moisture even during periods of drought and high winds.

Call it artistic license, playing fast and loose with the facts, or whatever, but the bottom line is that a filmmaker would much rather make an exciting box office hit that is a historical mess than a boring but accurate portrayal of facts.   And, honestly, if you asked most audience members, they’d probably say they feel the same way.  Who wants to pay their good hard earned money to get bored to death — isn’t that what free television documentaries are for?

The following are either myths that have emerged from factually incorrect movies or ‘historical” films that have had their facts tweaked in the name of art.

The Pyramids Were Built By Slaves

You’ve seen this scene in numerous movies:  half-dead slaves toiling under the vicious whips of Egyptian overseers as they struggle to build the enormous pyramids.  As common as this scene is in movies and in television shows about this time period, historians no longer believe that the pyramids were built by slaves.  Evidence uncovered near the pyramids, instead, show that the gi-normous structures were actually built by paid Egyptian laborers.

A number of Biblical movies also depict these slaves as being Jews or Israelites, but most historians today agree that this is highly unlikely as the pyramids were completed centuries before the Israelites were enslaved and brought to Egypt.

Myths Arising Out Of Braveheart

The Oscar-winning film “Braveheart” immortalized William Wallace, but while doing so, it managed to bungle a number of facts about the 13^th Century Scottish hero.  For one thing, most historians believe that Wallace did not grow up impoverished, as depicted in the film, but that he was actually the son of a land-owning aristocrat.

This 1995 film would also have you believe that the Scots were wearing kilts at the time of this movie.   Yes, it’s visually more exciting than regular old duds, but it’s also wrong.  Kilts didn’t actually become part of the Scottish male wardrobe until the 17^th century.

And, strangely, this film has Wallace seducing and impregnating Edward the Second’s wife Isabella, which would have made him a child molester in real life, as she was just nine years old when this relationship supposedly occurred.

Native Americans were unprovoked killing machines.

The good old westerns that the studios used to pump out on a regular basis were infamous for depicting Native Americans as being bloodthirsty savages who attacked innocent settlers for no apparent reason.  The truth, however, is much more complicated.

Although it is true that some Native American tribes did engage in the killing of innocent pioneers and homesteaders, the settlers and American soldiers were also guilty of massacring large numbers of Native Americans, as well.  Sometimes, entire villages, including men, women and children would be slaughtered.  Even the Indian ponies were not spared.  In one account, after wiping out a village, the soldiers then shot the Native American’s 800 ponies.

The Native Americans were also fighting to stay on their own lands.  Most had been ordered to live on reservations and were resisting the efforts to be rounded up and taken from the homelands they had lived on for generations.  It’s hard to blame them for getting a little ornery about the whole thing.

In recent years, Hollywood has been trying to fix the damage done by all of those “bad Injun” westerns by creating such Native American-friendly films as “Dances with the Wolves.”    Of course, it’s probably going to take years of these types of movies to wipe out the image of the bloodthirsty savage created by all those old westerns.

Alamo Myths

Films about this famous battle, such as John Wayne’s “The Alamo,” have taught us that Davy Crockett went down fighting and that everybody in the old mission was killed during the 13-day-long siege by the Mexicans.  These films also depicted the men as sacrificial lambs who believed that their deaths were inevitable and unavoidable.

In addition, some of these movies have also inferred that the long siege played a key role in the liberation of Texas because it allowed Sam Houston to raise an army that would eventually defeat the Mexicans.

Unfortunately, most of these “facts” are more myth than reality.  For instance, the men defending the Alamo were not nobly suicidal.  Though obviously valiant in their stand, they were actually fighting with the belief that reinforcements were on the way to help them defend the old mission.

It also is false that there were no survivals.   Although most of the Texans defending the Alamo on March 6, 1836 were killed, approximately 20 people did survive the siege, including women, children and a slave belonging to William B. Travis.  In addition, historians believe that because six of the men, including Davy Crockett, were found dead outside of the fort that they probably survived the siege and were executed afterwards by General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna.

As for Sam Houston, he wasn’t rounding up troops, because he was actually serving as a delegate at a constitutional convention at the time the Alamo fell.

In addition, there is one more fact that most of these films have managed to gloss over – the Alamo was not strictly a white Texan versus Mexican fight.  A third group, the Tejanos, who were Mexicans that lived in Texas, was also fighting alongside Davy Crockett and the others on that March day.  So “Remember the Alamo,” but try to remember the facts about it correctly next time.

U-571 And The Enigma Cypher Machine

Hollywood typically creates movies with its American audiences primarily in mind, which is understandable, but can lead to some gross historical inaccuracies.  For instance, the 2000 movie “U-571,” is about a group of disguised American Navy crew members who, in 1942, board a German U-boat in order to capture its Enigma cipher machine.  These machines were important because they were used by the Nazis to encrypt their secret messages.

The biggest problem with this film – and there are a number of issues — is that the allies had already captured an Enigma machine in 1940 and that they, in fact, had several by the time this movie was supposed to have occurred.  Not only that, but the German Enigmas had actually been deciphered seven months before the United States even entered into World War II.  Kinda makes the entire film sort of pointless, doesn’t it?

Cleopatra Killed Herself With An Asp

As her world crumbled around her, Cleopatra, the last pharaoh of Egypt, chose to end her life by allowing a poisonous asp to bite her.  This scene has been depicted countless times, not only in the movies – such as Elizabeth Taylor’s $44-million-dollar big-budget mess — but also in paintings, novels and plays.  However, most historians today agree that it is highly unlikely that a snake was responsible for Cleopatra’s death.

For one thing, Octavian, who would later become known as Gaius Julius Caesar Augustus, had suspected Cleopatra would commit suicide and had ordered that she be watched closely after he had captured her.  Legend has it that the asp killed not only Cleopatra, but also her two handmaidens, as well.  Snake experts have said it would be extremely difficult for one snake to kill three people in the short amount of time that Cleopatra had been left unattended.

The deadly asp was also allegedly smuggled to Cleopatra in a fig basket, but it is hard to imagine that the guards could have missed spotting a snake large enough to kill three people.

So how did Cleopatra kill herself then?  Historians today believe that Cleopatra probably ingested some type of poison, especially since she reportedly died painlessly and quietly.  A snake bite would have been extremely painful and would have also left a disfiguring wound.

Mayans predicted the world would end in 2012.

Okay, so according to several films, the Mayans predicted the world would end in 2012.  However, if you happen to be reading this and it is 2013 or after, then we guess all bets are off.

But, folks, just to set the record straight, most historians don’t believe that the Mayans actually predicted the world would end in 2012.  Although there is still some disagreement as to exactly what the Mayans meant in their glyphs, most researchers believe that the 400-year-long Mayan calendar just ended at this point, and that the calendar cycle was supposed to then reset back to the beginning.  Picture a car odometer.  Once it hits 100,000, it just starts at the beginning again.

Spartacus

Spartacus was a gladiator and the leader of a large slave rebellion against the Romans back in 73 BC.  Although, he has been depicted in a number of television shows and movies, the most famous version has to be 1960’s “Spartacus,” which starred Kirk Douglas and his famous chin dimple.  Not surprisingly, this classic took a few liberties with the actual facts.

For instance, the real Spartacus, who was a Thracian, was not born into slavery as depicted in the movie.  Instead, he was a former soldier who had served with the Roman army, but then had deserted.  Upon his capture, he was made a slave and was sent to gladiatorial school in Capua.

In 73 BC, both in the movie and in real life, Spartacus escapes and is able to raise an army of runaway slaves.  The slave revolt is successful at first , causing much alarm among the Romans, but eventually, Spartacus and his men would be crushed in a battle by general Marcus Licinius Crassus and his forces.

Although the film shows Spartacus being captured by the Romans after this battle and having to kill his friend in a gladiator fight, before being crucified to death, the real Spartacus is believed to have died in that final engagement.  It is true, however, that many of his followers who were captured in the final battle were crucified.

Pocahontas

Of course, the tale of Indian princess Pocahontas made for a great Disney film, but if you believe that John Smith and Pocahontas had an actual romance, then we’ve got a great flying carpet to sell you – oh, wait wrong Disney movie.   In reality, Pocahontas was a very young girl of possibly 10 or 11 when she supposedly stopped her father from executing Smith.   In addition, there are some historians who don’t believe that this incident ever occurred or that if it did, Smith greatly exaggerated the danger he was in.  This doubt stems from the fact that Smith didn’t mention the incident to anyone until years after it supposedly occurred.

Pocahontas did eventually marry an Englishman named John, but his last name was Rolfe.  The two ended up moving to England, where Pocahontas would die at approximately 21 years of age.

 Krakatoa East of Java

This 1969 movie was blessed with a catchy title that stuck in people’s minds.  Too bad it was factually incorrect.  The destructive volcano Krakatoa that the movie was named after was actually located west of Java.  You pretty much can’t screw things up worse than making a huge mistake in your movie’s title.

To make matters worse, the B52s decided to use the title of this movie as a line in one of their songs, “Hot Lava.”  So now we’ve got more than one generation of folks who believe that Krakatoa – which should actually be spelled Krakatau – is located on the wrong side of Java.  Of course, this does make for a good Jeopardy or other contest question because, of course, most people would get it wrong.

By the way, in later reissues of this movie, it was called simply “Volcano.”  That solved that problem.

The raid took place after Churchill gave the go ahead following pressure from firstly the Russians, who urged the Allies to relieve the pressure on them by opening a second front in north-western Europe, and secondly from Rear Admiral Louis Mountbatten, who also wanted to give his troops practical experience of a beach landing.

At 4:50am the raid began, with some 6,086 mostly-Canadian men taking part. The initial assault involved attacking the main coastal batteries, including Varengeville, Pourville, Puys and Berneval. These initial attacks were designed to distract the German’s from the “main” operation – and were conducted by Number 4 Commando, the South Saskatchewan Regiment and the Queen’s Own Cameron Highlanders of Canada, the Royal Regiment of Canada and Number 3 commando respectively.

The plan relied heavily on the element of surprise, but this didn’t really work because they had been spotted earlier at 03.48, with some exchanges of fire. Despite this, Number 4 Commando managed to storm the Varengeville battery – and it was to prove one of the only successful parts of the whole mission. When the Royal Regiment of Canada later attacked Puys, just 60 out of 543 men survived.

At around 5:15am the main assault began, with troops attacking the town and port of Dieppe – and this was when the main catastrophic events began to unfold.

The attack was led by the Essex Scottish Regiment and Royal Hamilton Light Infantry and was supposed to be supported by the 14th Canadian Armoured Regiment. They however turned up late, leaving the two infantry regiments to attack without any support. This left them exposed to heavy machine gun fire from emplacements dug into a nearby cliff and meant that that they were unable to overcome the seawall and other major obstacles.

When the Canadian tanks did arrive, only 29 actually made it to the beach – and because the tracks of the tanks were not able to cope with the shingle beaches, they soon began to come off, leaving 12 of them stranded and exposed to enemy fire, with many losses. Furthermore, two of the tanks sunk, leaving only 15 of them to get across the seawall and on towards the town. But because of many obstacles on the way, they were to never make it that far and were forced to return to the beach. All of the crews that landed were killed or captured by the enemy. They were effectively sitting ducks just waiting to be slaughtered.

If this wasn’t bad enough, another fatal error was made. Canadian Major General Roberts was unable to see what was happening on the beach due to the smoke screen that had been set to aid the mission. Because of this, he decided to send in the two reserve units, the Fusiliers Mont-Royal and the Royal Marines, and this only added to the chaos. After the Fusiliers made their entrance they immediately came under heavy machine gun fire and became pinned down under the cliffs. The Royal Marines were thus sent in to support – but because this was not the original intention they had to be re-briefed and were told to transfer onto landing craft.

Total and utter chaos ensued on the run in and most of the landing craft were destroyed by enemy fire. At 11am the order to abort the mission was given – but by then it was too late.

The Dieppe Raid was a clear lesson on how not to do it – and it greatly affected the planning and operation of the later Normandy Landings some two years later. But that would be little consolation to the 3,623 men who died that day – and it was one of the harshest and most costly lessons of the whole Second World War.

This is the horrifying truth of what happened during the so-called ‘dirty war’ in Argentina, where it is alleged that around 200 of these ‘death flights’ took place between 1977 and 1978.

The Dirty War was a period of state terrorism in Argentina from 1976 until 1983. Victims of the violence included several thousand left-wing activists and militants, including trade unionists, students, journalists, Marxists, Peronist guerrillas and alleged sympathizers. Some 10,000 of the disappeared were guerrillas of the Montoneros (MPM), and the People’s Revolutionary Army (ERP). Estimates for the number of people who were killed or “disappeared” range from 9,089 to over 30,000; the National Commission on the Disappearance of Persons estimates that around 13,000 disappeared. However, these figures must be considered inadequate as declassified documents and internal reporting by Argentine military intelligence itself confirm at least 22,000 killed or “disappeared” between late-1975 (several months prior to the March 1976 coup) and mid-July 1978, which is incomplete as it excludes killings and “disappearances” that occurred after July of 1978

In total, hundreds of people are thought to have died on ‘Death Flights’, most of them being political activists and militants.

The shocking revelations of what happened were uncovered by Adolfo Scilingo, who was convicted in Spain in 2005 for crimes against humanity.

Speaking in an interview in 1996, Scilingo said “They were played lively music and made to dance for joy, because they were going to be transferred to the south… After that, they were told they had to be vaccinated due to the transfer, and they were injected with Pentothal. And shortly after, they became really drowsy, and from there we loaded them onto trucks and headed off for the airfield.”

Scilingo is just one of several people who have been detained in relation to being involved in the crimes. In September 2009, Juan Alberto Poch was arrested whilst at the controls of a holiday jet at Valencia Airport. In May 2011, three former policemen called Enrique Jose De Saint Georges, Mario Daniel Arru and Alejandro Domingo D’Agostino were arrested after being accused of forming the crew of a death flight in 1977 in which two members of the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo rights group were killed.

In total, the official tally of people killed during the dirty war stands at around 13,000 people, but many believe that the actual figure is probably closer to 30,000.

From July 1940 coastal shipping convoys and shipping centres, such as Portsmouth, were the main targets; one month later the Luftwaffe shifted its attacks to RAF airfields and infrastructure. As the battle progressed the Luftwaffe also targeted aircraft factories and ground infrastructure. Eventually the Luftwaffe resorted to attacking areas of political significance and using terror bombing tactics.

And out of interest,

Heights:
Harrison Ford 6’1″
David Prowse 6’6″ or 6’7″
Peter Mayhew 6’9″
Carrie Fisher 5’1″
Mark Hammil 5’7″
Kenny Baker 3’8″
Anthony Daniels (C3PO) 5’8″

Following the only partially successful coup, Spain was left militarily and politically divided. From that moment onwards, general Francisco Franco began a protracted war of attrition against the established government for the control of the country. The rebel forces received the support of Nazi Germany and the Kingdom of Italy, as well as neighbouring Portugal, while the Soviet Union and Mexico intervened in support of the Republican government or loyalist side.

8)  THE MOST EXPENSIVE BOOK 

We like birds.  We also like books.  However, we still find it a little crazy that a first edition of John James Audubon’s “Birds of America” sold in 2010 for $11.5 million at Sotheby’s in London.  Admittedly, the book is rare, only 200 copies were printed between 1827 and 1838, and it is huge, about three-and-a-half feet tall by four feet wide when open.  Yes, the pages are hand colored and this book is comprised of four volumes, but we still think that is a lot of money for a book.  So who spent all this moolah on what is now the most expensive printed book ever purchased at auction?   The winner was Michael Tollemache, who is a fine arts dealer in London.

7)  ILLUSTRATED FOLIO FROM THE SHAHNAMEH

Well, at least Michael Tollemache got a whole book for his $11.5 million.  In 2011, an anonymous buyer paid $12.2 million for one illustrated page of a 16^th-century Persian manuscript, the Shahnameh, which is also known as the Book of Kings.  The gorgeous folio, which was auctioned by Sotheby’s in London, was created in watercolors, ink and gold for the Shah Tahmasp of Persia.   The complete “Book of Kings” took over 20 years to complete, was illustrated by the country’s finest artists of that time, and told the story of the Persian national epic.  The $12.2 million single page is now the most expensive Islamic work of art to be sold at auction.

6)  EMERALD AND DIAMOND TIARA

So if you’re going to blow a lot of money on something, it seems to us that spending it on a pretty little emerald and diamond tiara just kind of makes sense.  You know, you can wear it out to all of those swanky occasions and say pretentious things like, “This old thing?  I just picked it up for a mere $12.76 million.  Do you think it matches these Laboutins?”

Of course, we don’t know if the actual buyer of the emerald and diamond tiara ever actually wears it out or even the name of the person who purchased this beauty from Sotheby’s Geneva location in May of 2011.  All we know is that the buyer placed the winning bid for what is now the world’s most expensive tiara through a telephone call to Sotheby’s North American location.

The dazzling tiara, which was created for Princess Katharina Henckel von Donnersmarck around 1900, may have been designed by famed jewelers Chaumet.  The stunner features 11 large, pear-shaped Colombian emeralds that may have once belonged to Empress Eugenie, wife of Napoleon III, as well as lots of sparkling diamonds.

 5)  ROMAN STATUE ARTEMIS AND THE STAG

The super rich don’t have to go to museums and mingle with the commoners to enjoy rare Roman antiquities.  For a few million – or $28.6 million, to be exact – they can buy their own fabulous statues and display them in their mansions.

In June 2007, a private collector purchased Artemis and the Stag, a beautiful bronze piece, through Sotheby’s for a record setting $28.6 million, making it the most expensive Roman sculpture to ever sell at auction.  The 2000-year-old sculpture is deemed by many in the know as being of the quality you would typically only find in the Louvre or the British Museum.

4)  THE CODEX LEICESTER

Sure, spending $30.8 million on a manuscript may seem a tad excessive.  But that amount of money probably didn’t even make a dent in the wallet of the guy who purchased the Codex Leicester in 1994.  You may have heard of him.  Bill Gates.  Of Microsoft fame.  Yeah, we’re pretty certain auction house, Christie’s of London, didn’t have to run a credit check on this guy when he purchased the Codex Leicester.

So what exactly is the Codex  Leicester? Besides now being the most expensive manuscript ever sold at auction, it is also a 76-page, 16^th-century, scientific notebook that was written by Leonardo da Vinci.  The Codex Leicester is also very interesting because Leonardo used mirror writing, which meant he wrote from right to left and backwards, to jot down the entries in this manuscript.  Some people believe he may have done this to prevent others from reading or copying his ideas.

 3) 18TH CENTURY BADMINTON CABINET

It’s probably because we’re unwashed heathens, but we can’t really think of a reason why we’d ever want to spend any money on a badminton cabinet, let alone $36 million.  But obviously Prince Hans-Adam II, Liechtenstein’s head of state, thought that he desperately needed this when he purchased it at a 2004 Christie’s London auction.

The Badminton Cabinet became the most expensive piece of furniture ever sold at auction, although experts consider it more a piece of art than a furnishing.   The ornate 18^th century ebony chest, which is inlaid with beautiful stones, was created by the famed Grand Ducal workshops in Florence for Henry Somerset, the third duke of Beaufort.

2) THE GUENNOL LIONESS

This tiny $57 million artifact from Mesopotamia proves once again that size doesn’t matter.  Measuring only 3.25 inches tall, the Guennol Lioness is a limestone figure that is believed to have been carved over 5,000 years ago and is the most expensive sculpture ever sold at auction.

The pint-sized lioness sold in 2007 through Sotheby’s in New York to an English buyer who wanted to remain anonymous.   Before its sale, the Guennol Lioness had been on loan to the Brooklyn Museum of Arts for 60 years by its owner, Alastair Bradley Martin.

1) THE PINNER MING DYNASTY VASE

This Pinner Qing Dynasty vase MAY be the most expensive Chinese antiquity ever sold – that is if the buyer actually ever pays up.  As of February 2012, no money had been collected for the vase, which had originally sold at auction through the Bainbridge auction house in November of 2010 for $69.5 million ($85.9 million after premiums and taxes).

There are many questions surrounding this particular vase.  The owners, a brother and a sister claim they found the 16-inch Qing Dynasty vase while cleaning out the home of their deceased sister, who lived in Pinner, England.  Experts who have examined it believe that the vase, which bears an imperial seal, dates to between 1735 and 1796.  Some people, however, question the authenticity of the vase.  Others believe that it could have been looted from China during the Second Opium War, which occurred between 1856 and 1860.

The winning bidder is believed to be one of the richest men in China, Wang Jianlin.  Although, it is not clear why he hasn’t paid, there is speculation that he is balking at the 20 percent fee that the Bainbridge auction house added to the final price.