The following list of "Curious Errors of History" is taken from Conklin's "Vest Pocket Argument Settler":
William Tell was a myth.
Coriolanus never allowed his mother to intercede for Rome.
Blondel, the harper, did not discover the prison in which Richard I was confined.
Nero was not a monster; he did not kill his mother nor fiddle over burning Rome.
Alfred never allowed the cakes to burn, nor ventured into the Danish camp disguised as a minstrel.
Fair Rosamond was not poisoned by Queen Eleanor, but died in the odor of sanctity in the convent of Godstow.
The Duke of Wellington, at Waterloo, never uttered the famous words, "Up, Guards, and at them!"
Charles Kingsley gave up his chair of modern history at Oxford because he said he considered history "largely a lie."
Chemists have proved that vinegar will not dissolve pearls nor cleave rocks, in spite of the fabled exploits of Cleopatra and Hannibal.