Posted 0 minutes agoSubscribe to BuzzFeed Daily NewsletterCaret DownHere Are 17 Very, Very, Very Common Historical Facts That We All Assumed Were True, But Are Actually Just MythsTextbooks, movies, and pop culture got a lot of this wrong, so I am here to set the record straight.by Brian GalindoBuzzFeed StaffFacebookPinterestLink 1. You've probably heard that Victorians invented the vibrator to treat women for "hysteria," right? Yeah... that's not really true. Vibrators were a hand-cranked massage device that doctors used to treat a number of issues, including hysteria, but they were likely only used on the back and neck, and they were used on both men and women. Also, despite what we often assume, Victorians weren't totally clueless about female sexuality, so they weren't secretly handing out orgasms under the guise of medicine. This is mostly a modern myth, as the whole vibrator story really took off thanks to a 1999 book and later a movie that ran with the idea! Science & Society Picture Librar / SSPL via Getty Images 2. Similarly, the idea that all Victorians were buttoned-up prudes isn't true. Sure, they had strict social rules and didn't exactly lead with their feelings, but behind closed doors, they were just as curious and passionate as people are today. There was actually a ton of interest in sex, desire, and the human body, and you could buy things like sex toys and erotic books. Smith Collection/Gado / Getty Images 3. Michelangelo's David has always been a work of art; however, it wasn't always housed in a museum. From 1504 (the year it was completed) to 1873, the statue was outdoors, in front of the Palazzo Vecchio in Florence, Italy. It was moved indoors to the Galleria dell'Accademia to help protect it from deteriorating. A copy of David was placed in its original outdoor location in 1910 and is still there today. Franco Origlia / Getty Images 4. It turns out rats might not be the real villains behind the bubonic plague (the one that wiped out somewhere between 25 and 50 million people in Europe during the 14th century). It was believed that the disease was transmitted by fleas that lived on rats, which then spread the plague to humans. But newer research suggests the story is a bit different. Studies now point to human fleas and lice (the kind living in people's hair and clothing) as the more likely culprits. In other words, it wasn't just rats skittering through the streets spreading the disease; it was people unknowingly passing it to each other through their own bodies and belongings. The study also points out this makes more sense, too: the way the plague spread so quickly from person to person doesn't quite match how a rat-based outbreak would behave. Apic / Getty Images 5. Paul Revere never said, "The British are coming!" to warn the American colonists. First off, he didn't ride alone. Revere was part of a network of riders that included William Dawes and Samuel Prescott, who also helped spread the warning. Secondly, yelling, "The British are coming!" wouldn't have made much sense, since most colonists at the time still considered themselves British. He likely said something more specific, like, "The regulars are out" or "The troops are marching." Ed Vebell / Getty Images 6. Napoleon and his troops did not shoot off the Sphinx's nose with cannonballs. In fact, sketches of the Sphinx without a nose existed long before Napoleon ever set foot in Egypt. Most historians believe the nose was deliberately chiseled off sometime in the 14th century by a Sufi Muslim, who saw the Sphinx as a symbol of idolatry and wanted to destroy it. DEA / G. DAGLI ORTI / De Agostini via Getty Images 7. You may have heard the story that when people saw the 1896 short film L'Arrivée d'un train en gare de La Ciotat, or Arrival of a Train at La Ciotat - which shows a train pulling into a station - they panicked and ran out of the theater, thinking the train was coming straight at them. Well, it's more than likely not true. Most film historians think the tale is exaggerated or completely made up, possibly added later to hype up how "new and shocking" cinema was at the time. Additionally, given that it was in black and white and had no sound, people knew what they were looking at. Wissenheim / Via youtube.com 8. Albert Einstein never flunked math as a kid. In reality, Einstein was actually very good at math from a young age. By the time he was 12, he was teaching himself algebra and geometry, and he was working through college-level material by his early teens. Bettmann / Bettmann Archive / Getty Images 9. There is a misconception that medieval food was bland and boring. On the contrary, people in the Middle Ages actually used a ton of spices in their cooking. Spices like cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, pepper, saffron, and ginger were incredibly popular, especially among the wealthy. In fact, spices were so prized that they were often more expensive than meat, and some were even used like currency. And for those who couldn't