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So you've run across a trope or story element that seems [[The Oldest Ones in the Book|unspeakably old]]. It simply drips with antiquity and grandeur, so you assume that it must have been around since the first caveman. But then you research it a little more, and discover... that it was invented by a [[Los Angeles]] advertising executive in 1989?
Congratulations: You've learned that some things are [[Newer Than They Think]]
It may also tie into [[Our Monsters Are Different]], as many "standard rules" seem like they should come from folklore and legends, but really come from more recent media. The development of [[Tabletop Games|fantasy RPGs]] has been a major mover in both tropes, as RPG creators have freely raided, adapted and bastardized from folklore and literature in order to fill their manuals, scenario books and bestiaries.
Some [[
Compare [[Lost in Imitation]] (well-known elements of a story are a lot more recent than the story itself), [[The Newest Ones in the Book]]. Convincingly well-done [[Retraux]] is a common factor in this trope.
Contrast [[Older Than They Think]].
{{examples}}▼
▲{{examples}}
== Animals ==
* Camels weren't introduced to [[Ancient Egypt]] until fairly late in the New Kingdom, and then only as a source of milk, meat, and hair, not as beasts of burden or riding animals.
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* That rabbit that is found everywhere in Europe and a pest in Australia was originally an endemism of the Iberian Peninsula. The Romans, who introduced it in other places for hunting purposes, didn't even have a specific word for "rabbit", using terms like "Small Hare" or "Digging Hare" instead. The first domestic rabbits appeared only in the Middle Ages.
* Rats were not always living in nearly every part of the world, and were not always [[You Dirty Rat|looked down upon]]. The most familiar species, the [[Non-Indicative Name|Norway rat]], [[Misplaced Wildlife|came from northern China]] into Europe near the end of the Black death. It was the Indochinese black rat that came first, in the 1st century.
== Dress and Costume ==
* The classic "suit of armor"
* The obligation for Sikhs to wear a turban (''dastar'') only dates from 1699. (Sikhism itself was founded c. 1500)
** The strict regulations on headgear and facial hair in the US military that essentially barred Sikhs from service were only imposed in the 1980s. Before that, many Sikh males volunteered for or were drafted into the military.
*** The regulations were not, however, intended to exclude Sikhs or other ethnic/religious groups from military service. It turns out, in a world where biological or chemical warfare attacks are a possibility, that facial hair makes it very difficult to obtain an efficient seal on gas masks.
* The tradition of the "white" wedding dress originated in 1840, when [[
** In Sweden the traditional color for a wedding dress was black. That didn't change until the 1920s.
** White was the primary color of wedding gowns in the early 1800s, although probably owing to the fact that evening gowns of that era were also primarily white. Silver was sometimes used, especially after the wedding of Princess Caroline of Wales in 1816.
*** In fact a younger woman's best clothes, if she were comfortably off, would almost always be white in this period, and probably made of fine cotton.
* [[Pretty in Mink|Mink was colored only brown (and possibly black)]] until the mid 20th century, when breeding brought out mutation colors, like white and silver. If you see a woman wearing white mink in fiction before the late '40s, either the costumer [[Did Not Do the Research]], or they didn't have the time or budget to find ermine, which is what would have been worn.
* [[Pink Means Feminine|Pink]] and blue weren't always considered to be [[Pink Girl, Blue Boy|"girl" and "boy" colors]]
* The clans of Scotland all being identified with a particular tartan is an idea that only stems back to the beginning of the 19th century; and originated in ''Victorian England'', not Scotland. It's use in Scotland is an example of back-adoption.
** For that matter, Scotsmen didn't wear kilts until the 16th century, well after the time of ''[[Braveheart]]''.
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*** Even as the tartan patterns were developed, most people who wore them couldn't afford to keep them pristine, and the dies were usually rather unstable and faded badly. You didn't look at the specific colors to work out what it was, you looked at the width and pattern of the stripes, and the relative brightness and color values secondarily.
** The modern association of kilts exclusively with Scotland also make them [[Older Than They Think]].
** Or rather, kilts standing for the ''whole'' of Scotland is Newer than they Think. Before the battle of Culloden, 'Highland Dress' was associated with, yes,
*** Even the "resurrection" of Highland culture did not originate in Scotland; but rather as a fad in Victorian England, as part of a larger obsession with the idealized image of the "[[Noble Savage]]" (which the Highland Scots epitomized in their view).
* The first black belts for Judo were awarded in the 1880s. The colored belt system of rank found in most modern martial arts was founded during the 20th century. This was due to a large number of injuries that was occurring during sparring. [[Color
* The ''gi'' uniform and its variants which are associated with martial arts was not created until the early 20th century for use in Judo.
* Panties as we know them were only invented a bit over a century ago.
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* The bikini. Although the two-piece bathing suit has been around since the late 1940s, for several decades it was regarded mainly as [[Fetish Fuel]] (since it is, after all, really nothing more than a bra and panties to be worn in the water) and was almost never sported by women who wished to be taken seriously, especially if they were athletes. (Surprisingly, it wasn't even until the 1990s that the bikini became standard in the Miss America pageant, and even then there was controversy over its inclusion.) Only within our own generation has the bikini become so ubiquitous than an [[Action Girl]] can wear one without fear of any but the horniest males leering at her.
* The zipper was invented by Gideon Sundback in December 1913. This means Victorian men could never have had their flies ''down'' but only ''open'', since they only could have buttons before then. The fly itself is a modern development too: it was only introduced in Europe by the Turks in the 18th century, and for decades it was considered immoral in the West because it allowed men to have intercourse without undressing, and thus was considered to encourage rape.
== Food and Drink ==
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** Likewise, the "ploughman's lunch", supposedly the traditional midday meal of the hardy rustic English labourer, was invented in 1960 by the Milk Marketing Board in order to sell cheese.
** Recipes for traditional British puddings involving sugar or its byproducts (treacle, molasses) are likely no older than the 18th century, when imports from the West Indies made it available to those other than the very wealthy.
* Similarly, ''okonomiyaki'', a crepe-like Japanese fast/comfort food, is often incorrectly thought by Western anime fans to be an example of "classic" Japanese cuisine dating back centuries. In fact, it was invented in Hiroshima in the months after the atomic bomb, made up of a combination of local ingredients and relief supplies brought in by the occupying Allies thrown together and cooked quickly to provide a cheap, filling meal. Even today, the "definitive" commercially-created okonomiyaki sauce includes ingredients ''so'' alien to Japanese cuisine (like dates) that Otafuku, the manufacturer, has had to create a museum display to explain what they are to the average Japanese.
* Lager was first made during the 1800s, and didn't displace ale as the most common beer style until the 20th century. (India pale ale has a similar history.)▼
* General Tso's Chicken was invented in the 1970s by a New York-based chef named Peng Chang-kuei. Even better, the recipe everyone knows as General Tso's Chicken is actually a later ''modification'' of Peng's original made by other chefs over the next five or ten years.
▲* Lager was first made during the 1800s, and didn't displace ale as the most common beer style until the 20th century. (India pale ale has a similar history.) This is primarily because the variety of yeast used to create lager is the result of an accidental mutation, and simply didn't ''exist'' before then.
* The reputation of crappy American beer is a very recent one. Until World War 1 U.S. beer was typically very good, not surprising considering most major brewers were of German or Dutch origins. Wartime grain rationing and the Prohibition movement resulted in the Wartime Prohibition Act, limiting beverage alcohol to no more than 2.75% alcohol content. After WWI ended and Prohibition began, many brewers went out of business. Those that survived could only produce "near beer", with an alcohol content capped at one-half of one percent. Franklin Roosevelt signed an amendment to the Volstead Act legalizing 3.2% beer, which became the common American beer strength. And then World War 2 came around, and rationing of grains caused many breweries to switch to half rice formulas which remained after the war.
** Budweiser only became the "King of Beers" in the late 1950s, when a prolonged strike at the major Milwaukee breweries (including Pabst and Schlitz) enabled St. Louis-based Anheuser-Busch to gain crucial market share, which it has held ever since. Budweiser itself originated as a Prohibition-era "near beer".
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** Gummi worms, however, are very recent, having only been invented in 1981.
* Many fruits and vegetables have only existed in their modern forms for a few centuries.
** The banana as we know it today was first grown in 1836; earlier bananas were tougher and starchier (essentially plantains), full of [[wikipedia:File:Inside a wild-type banana.jpg|seeds]] and unappetizing when eaten raw. The "Cavendish" banana, which comprises most bananas eaten in North America today (elsewhere, they're called "tourist bananas"), only dates to the 1950s, when the then-prevalent Gros Michel banana became nearly extinct due to Panama disease, and may give way to "Goldfinger" bananas in the near future if the same blight ends up devastating Cavendish crops, as
** The modern-day strawberry was cross-bred in the early 18th century from varieties that would be unrecognizable to grocery shoppers today.
** Carrots were white, pink, red, purple, and yellow historically; orange carrots were deliberately bred in the Netherlands only in the 17th century, as orange is the Dutch national color (like red, white, and blue for America and France).
* Chocolate chip cookies were not invented until
** Speaking of chocolate, solid chocolate was formulated in 1847
▲** Speaking of chocolate, solid chocolate was formulated in 1847, before that it was only available as a drink.
* Chicken Tikka Masala, widely thought of as the quintessential Indian dish and often assumed to be traditional, was invented in a curry restaurant somewhere in Britain around 1970. It was specifically tailored to English tastes, being milder and creamier than most other food from the Indian subcontinent.
* Fortune cookies, far from being a Chinese tradition, are based loosely on Japanese omikuji senbei (rice crackers with fortunes inside), and are thought to have been introduced at the San Francisco Exposition's Japanese Tea Garden (which still sells them today) around 1890.
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* Tiramisu, a very popular Italian dessert, was first made around 1982, although some place it around the 1960s-70s. Still, it's a lot newer than most people think.
** Some traditions put it as far older than that, though, with some claiming it was created during the founding of Siena, or when Cosmo III visited.
* While it is true that whale meat has been consumed in Japan for centuries, it was generally regarded as a low-class, minority food, the preserve of coastal peasants. It only became prevalent across the country during [[WWII]], when the government were forced to turn to whaling as a general food supply. And it was only much later, after many years of post-war shortages, that the people acquired a taste for it and made it popular.
** However, whale meat is expensive and not sold as much, hence it's not really popular as a food in Japan anymore.
*
* Mongolian
* The Greek dishes [[Hollywood Cuisine|most widely known to tourists]] (e.g. Mousaka, Tzatziki and Souvlaki) are actually not exactly traditionally
* Although wines have been produced in the Champagne region of France since Roman times, the sparkling version only became popular in the 1700s, due to British influence. The bubbles were initially considered a wine fault (due to the lower temperatures relative to the Burgundy region, where their styles of grapes and production methods came from). Dom Perignon (yes, he's a real person) spent most of his life actually trying to get rid of the famous bubbles.
* Similarly, while wine has been cultivated in the upper Ebro basin in Spain since Roman times the production and exportation industry of the infamous Rioja wine brand as we know it was developed by French planters fleeing a plague that decimated the vineyards of Bourdeaux in the mid-19th century. The bulk of Spanish wine production had always been further to the south, in places like Jerez, Valdepeñas or Malaga.
* [[wikipedia:Banoffee pie|Banoffee pie]], an English dessert, wasn't invented until 1972.
* Vana Tallinn (Estonian for "Old Tallinn") is a liqueur that is frequently believed to be a traditional or even ancient Estonian product - but it has only been produced since the 1960's.
* A great deal of traditional East European food is based on potatoes
== Literature ==
* [[Inner Monologue|Stream-of-consciousness]] in writing was first used in 1888 in Edouard Dujardin's ''Les Lauriers sont coupes'' (although ''[[Anna Karenina]]'' (
▲* [[Inner Monologue|Stream-of-consciousness]] in writing was first used in 1888 in Edouard Dujardin's ''Les Lauriers sont coupes'' (although ''[[Anna Karenina]]'' (1873-77) contains some proto-examples).
* The [[An Aesop|Aesops]] in [[Aesop's Fables]] were not made explicit and clear when the stories were first written, let alone when they were first told.
* The prose poem ''Desiderata'' has been widely attributed to being [http://www.fleurdelis.com/desidera.htm found in an old church and dated 1692], but was actually written by Max Ehrmann in 1927. The 20th-century English it's written in kind of gives it away.
**
* Lower-case letters were first developed in the 8th century, as a kind of shorthand used by bureaucrats who worked for Charlemagne. Documents and literary works older than this were written IN ALLCAPS ONLY.
** He created what we now know as minuscules, but ancient Latin had two different cursive forms prior to that, which the same intended effect.
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** Most are much newer than even the 19th century. "White Christmas" was written in 1940. "Do You Hear What I Hear?" was written in 1962. "The Christmas Song (Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire)" was written in 1944 by [[Misattributed Song|Mel Torme]]. "The Little Drummer Boy" was written in 1941 and first recorded in 1957. "Ring, Christmas Bells" was written in 1947 (based on the Ukrainian "Carol of the Bells", which itself only dates from 1916). "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" was created in 1939 as part of a marketing campaign for Montgomery Ward, and was first recorded in song ten years later by Gene Autry.
** [http://xkcd.com/988/ This XKCD] provides the timeline of many "traditional" Christmas songs.
* Also, secular Western music itself. Most music passed off as "medieval" is much younger. Some of the oldest tunes we know about can't be dated earlier than the 12th or 13th centuries; even [[Child Ballad
** The verse/chorus structure of modern musical lyrics is also a relative latecomer; it developed in Moorish Spain.
* Irish "traditional" song about the Potato Famine "The Fields of Athenry" seems ancient, but was only written in the 1970s by Pete St. John.
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* The song "New York, New York" popularized by [[Frank Sinatra]] (the one that starts "Start spreadin' the news ...") was written for the 1977 [[Martin Scorsese]] musical ''New York, New York''; since the film was based in the Tin Pan Alley era, the song [[Retraux|sounded like a tune from that era]]. Sinatra recorded his version in 1979.
* "Who Do You Think You are Kidding, Mister Hitler" was not composed during the War, but was written especially for the 1960s/70s TV Series ''Dad's Army'' by wartime entertainers Flanagan and Allen, who provided most of the incidental music for the series.
* The Hokey Pokey, a.k.a. the Hokey Cokey, sounds like something that dates back at least a
* "Since I Don't Have You" sounds like it could be a classic Depression-era Tin Pan Alley ballad, and many people assume that it is, but it was written by the members of The Skyliners, who recorded the original hit version in 1958.
* Bluegrass music is a prime example of this trope. Although it has roots in traditional Southern string band music, it only developed as a separate genre in the 1940s. To put it another way, bluegrass is only about a decade older than rock and roll. Many bluegrass standards are even younger than that. "Rocky Top" was written in 1967!
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* "Tomorrow Belongs to Me" from ''[[Cabaret]]'' has been mistaken for an actual (presumably translated) Nazi anthem, even by [[Misaimed Fandom|white power music groups]], but it was written specifically for the musical.
* "Highland Cathedral", which you'd be forgiven for thinking was a traditional Scottish song, was written in the 80s by two German musicians for a Highland games held in Germany.
** Ditto "Flower of Scotland". Passed down amongst patriotic Scots over the centuries?
* Despite its current popularity in folk music, widespread use of the [[wikipedia:
* Ever wonder why you don't see people sing "Happy Birthday" in TV or movies that often? It's because until 2016 [[Happy Birthday to You|it
* The hymn "The Old Rugged Cross" was written in 1912.
* And "How Great Thou Art" was written in 1953. (It's set to an old Swedish melody, though.)
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** Likewise, you'd be excused from thinking the Silversun Pickups were a '90s alt-rock band thanks to their similar style, but they only formed in 2002, releasing their first album in 2006 and seeing "Lazy Eye" chart in 2007.
* Lots of people are shocked to learn that "Long Black Veil" isn't a traditional ballad, but was written in 1959 by country songwriters Marijohn Wilkin and Danny Dill. Dill himself called it "an instant folk song."
== Mythology and Folklore ==
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*** Indeed, if one were to do a vampire movie with scrupulously historical Dark Ages vampires, modern viewers would probably wonder why it keeps calling these zombies "vampires"...
*** Actually the whole concept of 'clasification' is relatively new as it appeared in late XVII century. Folk decriptions of a vampire could differ wildly between villages not to mention between regions or countries.
**** Something like Richard Matheson's ''[[I Am Legend]]''? (The book, not the movie.) That book, despite being about vampires, is cited as being the inspiration for ''[[Night of the Living Dead]]''
* Many "traditional" werewolf tropes date back to the Hollywood era and no earlier.
** Serious books on traditional European werewolf lore have sometimes included the famous line "Even a man who is good in heart, and says his prayers by night, can become a wolf when the wolfbane blooms, and the autumn moon is bright." This was created from whole cloth for the movie ''The [[Wolf Man]]''.
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** St. Nicholas himself was a pre-Schism Byzantine priest, so probably would indeed have worn red. The similarity between his costume and modern-day Santa's probably begins and ends there though.
*** Corresponding to that, depictions of Santa were frequently thin and tall until Thomas Nast's cartoon.
*** According to [[The Other Wiki]], in Britain (or England at any rate) prior to the 20th century, Santa traditionally wore
*** The Ghost represents Father Christmas (Spirit of Christmas), not Saint Nicholas/Santa Claus (gift-giver). Father Christmas and Santa have sort of merged since Dickens' time.
** St Nicholas' association with Christmas (his original Saint's Day is early in December; he was a patron saint of children, among other things, and some cultures marked the day with various rituals for the kids, usually involving gifts or sweets) seems to have started with New Yorker Clement Moore's poem that starts '' 'Twas the night before Christmas, and all through the house...'', published in 1820. The resurrecting/corrupting of his Dutch name to 'Santa Claus' seems to have followed almost immediately as his popularity rocketed, probably fueled by people's new disposable income and a huge change in attitudes to children since the 1780s (in that they were treated as what we now think of as children until puberty, rather than as tiny, stupid adults as soon as they passed the baby stage.) The name 'Santa Claus' and the association with children (rather than Father Christmas' (sometimes Sir Christimas) original function as a Bacchus-like spirit of partying) was invented in America and imported to England in the late 19th century. (They're now completely melded, however.)
* While [[Paul Bunyan]] ''did'' originate in stories told among lumberjacks, Babe the Blue Ox was the invention of the Red River Lumber Company, who used stories about Paul and Babe in their advertisements in the early 20th century.
* If most people were asked to describe a genie, they'd describe an immortal being that lived in a lamp or bottle and granted three wishes. You'd be hard-pressed to find a genie fitting this description in The [[Arabian Nights]]. While some were trapped in ''jars,'' most were free to do as they wished. Aladdin's lamp only ''summoned'' the
** Interestingly, two of the most famous "Arabian Nights stories"
** It may even be easy to kill a genie since one of the genies in [[Arabian Nights]] claims his son was killed from being hit in the head with a date pit that a merchant was throwing away casually (although it's possible that the genie was lying just so he'd have an excuse to kill the merchant).
** Genies also did not have the ability to instantly grant any wish. Rather, they had to complete the wish using
** Plus, genie (djinni) is the plural form of the term. For a single such being, it's "djinn" if it's a male or "djinnyah" if it's a female. D&D books often use plural forms in this fashion, though in the case of djinni, this usage is rather older.
** Something very similar has happened to witches in the 20th century, writers making them omnipotent goddesses.
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*** The "archaeological evidence" were not helmets as one thought, the horns were found separate and actually were intended for ''drinking''.
* The hippogriff is not a traditional mythological beast the way the somewhat similar griffin is. The word hippogriff first appeared in Ludovico Ariosto's poem ''Orlando Furioso'' (written in 1516). Because griffins were believed to prey on horses, the offspring of a horse and griffin was intended as representation of something impossibly unlikely.
* The modern concept of the psychic dates back to at least Nostradamus, right? Um, no, actually; the word "psychic" and the study of the phenomenon is a late-19th century invention. In fact, associating psychic activity with science is itself a modern
* Tiamat wasn't a dragon in the original Babylonian mythology; while she apparently did give ''birth'' to dragons and sea serpents (among other creatures), her description in a surviving version of the Babylonian creation myth is rather vague (it states that Tiamat represents "the salty water"), and many alleged depictions of her are under contention. This also manages to simultaneously be [[Older Than They Think]], as most people who realize this blame it on ''[[Dungeons and Dragons]]'', when it's a misconception with much older roots, and crops up in sources that are very obviously not influenced by the ''Dungeons And Dragons'' version.
** References to Tiamat being a dragon that predate ''[[Dungeons and Dragons]]'' can be found in ''Myths of Babylonia and Assyria'' (1915), ''Evolution of the Dragon'' (1919), and ''Records of the Past, 2nd series'' (1888). Note that these are all non-fiction books.
* Bahamut wasn't a dragon in the original mythology. It wasn't even anything ''close''
** In 4E, it is written, "of course, in these more enlightened times, we know Bahamut is not really a dragon," and that 'Platinum Dragon' is merely an honorific title. They don't say what Bahamut, in fact, ''is.''
*** And of course since Bahamut has been depicted as a dragon since the first Final Fantasy game, the association is probably not going away anytime soon.
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* The concept of Queen Mab being the queen of the fairies and the associated legends involving her originated with [[Shakespeare]] creating her for a speech in ''[[Romeo and Juliet]]'', she has no direct equivalent in Celtic mythology or any ancient European traditions.
** Isn't she? Check out Medb, a powerful queen and goddess-like figure in the Cattle Raid of Cooley. http://www.godchecker.com/pantheon/celtic-mythology.php?deity=MEDB
* [[Our Liches Are Different|Liches]]
** Clark Ashton Smith was the first to use the word lich to designate an undead sorceror in [http://www.eldritchdark.com/writings/short-stories/199/the-stairs-in-the-crypt/ "The Stairs in the Crypt"]. And Gary Gygax said he was inspired by the short story "The Sword of the Sorcerer" by Gardner Fox (1976) when he created the monster in 1977.
** "Wight" was probably taken from Tolkien's barrow-wights. The word itself was just another word for body, alive or dead. (Byron's Childe Harold is described as being a "shameless wight" precisely because he is [[The Casanova|too much of a living body]].)
*** It also meant any immaterial creature (demon, spirit, soul, ghost etc.)
* Most depictions of ''Frankenstein'' have little to do with [[Mary Shelley]]'s original work. In the original book there is no Igor, castle, or angry peasants storming the place. In fact Dr. Frankenstein realizes right after making his monster what a horrible mistake he made (in fact, that's rather the problem). The monster himself, in contrast to most depictions, is quite articulate and of remarkable agility. The story most people think of originates from the 1931 film of the same name.
** Likewise, the monster was ''never'' referred to as Frankenstein in the novel, even though people have started doing so in recent years. Frankenstein was his ''creator''. Also, in the book, the monster isn't mindless killing machine. He displays many human traits, and can even be viewed as sympathetic in some parts, although he certainly does some pretty terrible things as the plot progresses.<ref>
** And he wasn't green with a flat head and neck bolts. He looked more like the version in [[Young Frankenstein]] than anything.
*** In the original book he looks a great deal more like he does in Thomas Edison's original short from 1910 or so.
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* The word "[[The Fundamentalist|fundamentalism]]," as a byword for religious fanaticism, dates only to 1920. You wouldn't know this from how frequently it's applied to people living before this era.
* The stories of a beautiful woman luring boatmen to their doom at Lorelai on the Rhine river, while widely accepted to be ancient folklore, was actually first created by German author Clemens Brentano in 1801.
* Although the Golem has been an element of Jewish folklore for multiple centuries, one of the most famous elements of the story, that of the Golem rescuing Jews from a blood libel in 16th century Prague, was [https://web.archive.org/web/20130621192043/http://www.traditiononline.org/news/originals/Volume%2036/No.%201/The%20Adventure%20of%20the.pdf more or less created] in a 1909 novel by a Rabbi Yudl Rosenberg. Rosenberg basically did a [[Literary Agent Hypothesis]] in which he claimed he was editing a much older work found in a (nonexistent) library and skillfully mixed in actual sources/traditions with elements of his own invention. While the novel is little known today, it was really influential and pretty much all subsequent tellings of the Golem legend contain facets original to Rosenberg.
** The Golem being
* The idea of a [[Princess Classic|saintly and innocent princess]] in fairy tales was largely the result of 19th century writers trying to make everything nice for the children. Older fairy tales would have their heroines be at least a bit more active.
* It's traditional for [[Robin Hood]]'s Merry Men to include a Saracene or Moorish member, right? Actually, this character type was first used in ''[[Robin of Sherwood]]'' in 1984.
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*** Allen-a-Dale? No older than the Victorian era.
*** Friar Tuck? Introduced in Tudor times.
*** Maid Marian? Actually, we have older tales of her than of him, but she wasn't associated with Robin Hood until Tudor times. May Day festivities often had plays, and at the point they would feature either her or Robin
*** Little John has been around since the oldest known Robin Hood story (:Robin Hood And The Monk," from 1450 - in it, he beats Robin at ''archery'', and robin [[Jerkass|physically attacks him]]), but first used a quarter staff in the 18th century.
*** Read that last entry again. Once, Robin was John's inferior as an archer, but trounced him with his fists.
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== Proverbs and Superstitions ==
* "The greatest thing since sliced bread" implies that sliced bread is an old, old concept. Pre-sliced loaves have been around only since 1928: [https://web.archive.org/web/20111120034733/http://blog.modernmechanix.com/2008/03/07/slicing-bread-by-machinery/ See the astounding announcement] from ''Modern Mechanics''!
** [[The Simpsons (animation)|Abe Simpson]] recalls, in his childhood, his father talking about America as if it was the greatest thing since sliced bread, adding that "Sliced bread had been invented the previous winter." Given that article's publishing date and Abe's record in [[World War Two]], the comment was probably much more accurate than the [[Gag Series|writers intended]].
** The phrase itself came about as soon as the 1930s; when it was originally used, it meant the "greatest new thing in a series of wondrous new technological developments". It would be like saying how something is the "greatest thing since the iPod" or "greatest thing since HDTV" today. The fact that the phrase stuck around longer than its cultural context is just one of those happenstances of history.
*** [[George Carlin|"So...this is it, huh, folks? Sliced bread?? The fucking PYRAMIDS!! The Leaning Tower of Pi--even a LAVA LAMP!! What's the big deal?! You take a loaf of bread. You take a knife. And you SLICE the motherfucker! And get on with your life!"]]
* The myth that England will not fall until the ravens leave the Tower of London came from the 1800s at the latest, since the earliest reference to ravens being there at all isn't until 1885. It didn't become popular until WWII (when, apparently, the ravens did leave).
** Prior to the ravens, the king's fate was supposedly linked with the lions kept at the menagerie at the
** There is also the idea that Gibraltar will stay British while there are Barbary macaques there. In reality nobody gave a damn about the monkeys until [[WW 2]] (to the point nobody knows for sure *when* did the first monkey arrive there to begin with), when the population had coincidentally dwindled to 7 and was about to die off, requiring the introduction of several new animals from North Africa. [[Hilarious in Hindsight|Nowadays, the Barbary macaque is near extinct in North Africa but a pest in the Rock]]. Maybe it's time to return the favor.
* The idea that Friday the 13th is an unlucky day is an invention of the 19th century, although the separate ideas that Friday and the number 13 were unlucky are older than that.
** According to a special about them on the History channel, when the Knights Templar in France were rounded up as heretics on Friday, October 13, 1307, the infamous superstition began as a result.
** In many Spanish-speaking countries, the superstition is actually ''Tuesday'' the 13th, with the popular explanation that Tuesday (martes) is named after the Roman god of war, violence and bloodshed. The Jason movies are sometimes retitled accordingly (until the recent reboot, that is).
*** The same is true for Greece, with the popular explanation being that Constantinople (modern day Instanbul) fell on a Tuesday (
* "The Curse of the Bambino", referring to the 1920 trade of Babe Ruth from the Boston Red Sox to the New York Yankees having a detrimental effect to the former team, was first referenced in 1990.
* Robert F. Kennedy attributed the curse (which is one [[Fridge Logic|if you think about it]]) "May you live in interesting times" to the ancient Chinese. There is no record of such a saying in China.
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** English doesn't really have a proper term for a pub, either; "pub" is short for "public house". (And historically, the term was used to mean "inn" or possibly "guesthouse." The term Shakespeare used for "a place where you go and buy drinks" was "tavern," which isn't used nowadays except as a cutesy element in the names of places like "Tavern on the Green.")
* Some TV shows set in the mid-20th century (like ''[[Quantum Leap]]'') have had a problem recognizing that the World Trade Center towers were only built in the 1970s.
* The Campanile in St. Mark's Square in Venice dates from 1912. The city fathers didn't have much choice in the
** Older paintings do show the original Campanile to be identical to the present reconstruction, though. So at least fictional depictions of the pre-20th century square are correct about the campanile.
* [[Viva Las Vegas|Las Vegas]] was founded in 1905. It didn't have legal gambling before 1931, and didn't become a major resort until after [[World War II]].
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** Most likely San Diego, which is currently California's #2 and as the oldest European settlement in California (1769) is [[Older Than They Think]].
* Neither Germany nor Italy were unified nations until the 1870s. Before then, they consisted of various smaller countries that happened to share a common language, but were often different culturally, and would often war against each other. "Germany" and "Italy" where used in the same way as "Arabia" is sometimes used to refer to the Arab region today. You'd say something like "The recent events in Bavaria will have a huge impact on the rest of the Germanies. Prussia and Austria will likely get involved" etc.
** This was, however, slightly stronger for Italy (despite the modern united Italy pre-dating the modern united Germany by enough years to make it the 1860s), what with Germany having spent several centuries ostensibly united into a Holy Roman Empire ''of the German Nation'', and, even before that, the Kingdom of Germany as one of the constituent kingdoms of the Holy Roman Empire; Italy was another constituent kingdom, but is easier to make a counterpoint to the counterpoint to the two nations being
* The construction of Neuschwanstein Castle began in 1869. To be fair, the [[Theme Park Version|medieval appearance]] was ''[[Retraux|very]]'' [[Retraux|intentional]].
* Both popular culture and [[Popular History]] often lead present-day Americans to believe that the idea of families living in the suburbs took off rapidly after World War II, with all white Americans suburbanized by about 1960. In fact, suburbanization proceeded at different speeds depending on the location. Downtown Detroit, for example, remained largely white well into the 1960s. In fact, the majority of whites didn't even make it to the suburbs until the late 1980s!
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== Technology ==
* [[Clean Pretty Reliable|CPR]] and mouth-to-mouth have only been around in any recognizable form since the late 1940s, and didn't become standard medical techniques for another decade. (Witness an episode of ''[[Quantum Leap]]'' where a crowd stands dumbfounded as Sam performs mouth-to-mouth on a nearly drowned boy, circa 1954. In ''[[Back to The Future]] Part II'', Marty tells a crowd in 1955 that he knows CPR and gets the reply "What's CPR?". An episode of ''Eureka'' has Alison perform CPR in 1945 on a wounded soldier while everyone around her assumes she is kissing him.) Contrast the actually made-in-[[The Sixties]] [[Star Trek: The Original Series]]' [[Mighty Whitey]] [https://web.archive.org/web/20100722013249/http://www.televisionwithoutpity.com/show/enterprise/star_trek_the_original_series_8.php?page=4 episode], which features whatever-they-did-before-CPR.
** Similarly, the Heimlich maneuver was first described circa 1974. It was likewise used anachronistically by Sam in an episode of ''[[Quantum Leap]]'', on [[Historical In-Joke|Dr. Heimlich himself]].
* The first practical chastity belt wasn't invented until the late 1500s. And they were [http://www.occasionalhell.com/infdevice/detail.php?recordID=Chastity%20Belt never very common] even then.
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* The first Ferrari road car was built in 1947, when Enzo Ferrari was nearly fifty and the motor car was over fifty.
** Similarly the first Lamborghini arrived in 1962. Mazda cars also date from the early 'sixties. And lets not forget the Lexus brand was launched in 1989.
* Television is both this and [[Older Than They Think]]
** Baird cottoned on pretty quickly afterwards though, and managed to get colour television working in 1944, which had 600 line definition and triple-interlacing, more than 3 decades ahead of its actual implementation.
* The naval battleship that we're all familiar with (armoured steel hull and deck, gun turrets with heavy guns) first appeared in 1906 with the launch of the HMS Dreadnought (although vessels like the 1899 Royal Sovereign class had all three features, just less well done). The term "battleship" came into use about ten years before that.
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** Not only that, but the writer of the original pledge ''was'' a socialist named Francis Bellamy, and despite being a Baptist minister he wrote a version without "under God."
** The tradition of placing one's hand over the heart while reciting the pledge came about during World War II. The original standard practice was to hold your hand over your heart only for the line "I pledge allegiance," and then to point at the flag with four fingers, arm outstretched, palm down, for the remainder of the pledge. Crop out the flag in a picture of one of your political adversaries showing his patriotism, and you've got a front page picture that looks very much like Charles Lindbergh doing a Nazi salute (This actually happened).
*** The hand gesture in question is called the Roman Salute, because it is assumed to have originated in the ancient Roman Republic (however, the earliest recorded use of it is from the ''18th century,'' so this may qualify as Newer Than They Think in itself). Either way, it was around as a generic gesture of respect a long time before the
**** Its [[Older Than They Think|associations]] with saluting may come from the fact it's used as a gesture of blessing in the Catholic Church (and possibly the Orthodox Church, too). And they probably did get it from Rome (by way of Byzantium, in the second case)?we know the Romans used the gesture, just not how.
* "Flying saucer" wasn't coined as a term until 1947, when an Air Force pilot named Kenneth Arnold spotted a formation of UFO's and coined the term in an interview. Interestingly, the term was used to describe the objects' ''movement'' - "[like a] saucer skipping over water" - rather than shape (he described the shape as crescent-like). That's right, the image of the circular flying saucer is really a result of [[Memetic Mutation]].
** Ironically, "UFO" has come to mean "flying saucer", but in its original USAF coinage [[Exactly What It Says on the Tin|means precisely what it says]]
*** Exploited by [[Bastard Operator From Hell]] — one of numerous strange clauses in his (and PFY) contract is "[http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/07/14/bofh_2006_episode_23/ extortionate penalty payment for remaining at work after a UFO sighting in the vicinity of the building]".
* The words "schadenfreude" and "[[Angst]]" have only become part of the English lexicon
* The affirmative "OK" dates to the early 19th century, and [[wikipedia:Okay|is of uncertain etymology.]]
** And the variant "A-OK" was popularized by a NASA public affairs officer during the Mercury program.
* The term "Ivy League" wasn't used until the 1930s; its origin is uncertain. It initially
* The greeting "hello" is an Americanism, dating to 1840. It did not become popular until the invention of the telephone.
** "Hullo", on the other hand, is derived from German "hallo" and has been around in English much, much longer. Not that anyone really says it anymore. Or, if anyone ''was'' to say it, they'd be accused of "mispronouncing" the
*** Although in some colloquial British dialects, it's still prounounced as "hullo", with only the spelling changing.
** It only really began to be used as a greeting when the phone was invented. Before that, it was more commonly an expression of mild surprise. (as "Hey!" still is)
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* While Russia's rulers have been sending people for exile or punishment in Siberia for centuries, the term ''gulag'' began as the acronymized name of the office that organised Stalin's labour camps ('''G'''lavnoye '''U'''pravlyeniye Ispravityel'no-Trudovih '''Lag'''yeryey i koloniy = The Chief Administration of Corrective Labor Camps and Colonies). This was established in 1930.
* Pyrokinesis is a term basically invented by [[Stephen King]] in ''Firestarter''. The concept itself is very old, however. Ironically, since the proper terms for various psychokinetic powers don't always appear in dictionaries, some people [[Did Not Do the Research|think they've invented the term]], also making it [[Older Than They Think]].
* Acronyms (new words formed from the initials of a phrase, such as radar or laser) are probably no older than World War 1 -- certainly there has never been any confirmed instance of an acronym older than this. This is not helped by the fact that "acronym" is often [[Non-Indicative Name|abused]] as a synonym of "initialism", or that some so-called "acronyms" (such as the Greek for "fish" being composed of the initials of the Greek for "Jesus Christ, Son of God, Saviour") are actually acrostics (the phrase was devised so that its initials formed an already-existing word). Indeed, "radar" is a double
* The term "Home Counties" to describe the English counties around [[London]] (Buckinghamshire, Essex, Hertfordshire, Berkshire, Middlesex, Kent, Surrey, Sussex) wasn't used until the late 19th century. It probably derives from the Home Circuit of the itinerant Assize Court.
* You definitely seen this one circulating around the webs:
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Children no longer mind their parents,
every man wants to write a book,
and it is evident that the end of the world is fast approaching.}}
:Then comes the line that this saying is from an Assyrian tablet dated 2,800 BC. Guess what? [[wikipedia:Assyria|Assyria hadn't even existed at that time!]] The earliest mention of this saying is from '''1924''' book by an American priest ([http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?view{{=}}image;size{{=}}100;id{{=}}mdp.39015001674079;page{{=}}root;seq{{=}}94;num{{=}}76 proof link]). And most probably he just made the whole thing up.
** Well, some sources claim the source an Egyptian writing. The [https://web.archive.org/web/20131030032045/http://www.reshafim.org.il/ad/egypt/texts/ipuwer.htm source], however, while speaking of corruption, doesn't quite match.
* The word "halitosis" was in fact made up by the manufacturers of Listerine mouthwash in 1921 so that they could have a disease responsible for bad breath which their disinfectant formula
** Not only the word, but practically the very ''concept''. While people obviously always understood the idea of funny-smelling breath, it wasn't seen as a big deal until Listerine came along and invented an all-new social paranoia. A similar example of evil genius was pulled off by the
*** And they tried it again with
** Similarly, a Gilette campaign invented the idea that women should have hairless legs and armpits.
* The term "Byzantine Empire" was actually popularised in the nineteenth century and was only first used in 1557, a full century after Constantinople had been conquered by the Ottomans. In its time it was known as the "Empire of the Greeks" to outsiders, and went under a number of names to its inhabitants (including "Roman Empire", "Empire of the Romans", and "Romania").
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* The practice of referring to the lost skyscrapers of the World Trade Center as the "North Tower" and "South Tower" only became commonplace in the immediate aftermath of 9/11. While they stood, the Twin Towers were generally known as Tower 1 and Tower 2.
* Here's a Newer-Than-They-Think [[Catch Phrase]]. A common [[Memetic Mutation]] regarding [[Statler and Waldorf]] is their trademark laugh, rendered as "dohohohohohoh". If you watch footage of Statler and Waldorf under their original performers, the laugh was a very different "heheheheheh". The laugh we're familiar with first surfaced in ''[[The Muppet Christmas Carol]]'' in 1992, after Jim Henson and Richard Hunt had died.
== Games ==
* [[Mahjong]] (a.k.a. Mah-Jong, Mahjongg etc.) is commonly supposed to be centuries if not millennia old, and even to have been invented by <s>[[Confucius]]</s> Kongzi, but no evidence of it predating the 1880s can be found. The solitaire game [[Shanghai (video game)|Shanghai]] (often [[Non-Indicative Name|miscalled]] "Mahjong" (eg. "Mahjong Titans" in [[Microsoft Windows]] Vista and later) because it's played with the same tiles), which likewise has spurious antiquity claimed for it, was invented by Activision in the
* While earlier variants appeared in France as early as the late 19th century, the first example of the game now known as Sudoku was [[wikipedia:Sudoku#History|invented in Indiana in 1979]].▼
▲* [[Mahjong]] (a.k.a. Mah-Jong, Mahjongg etc.) is commonly supposed to be centuries if not millennia old, and even to have been invented by <s>[[Confucius]]</s> Kongzi, but no evidence of it predating the 1880s can be found. The solitaire game [[Shanghai (video game)|Shanghai]] (often [[Non-Indicative Name|miscalled]] "Mahjong" (eg. "Mahjong Titans" in [[Microsoft Windows]] Vista and later) because it's played with the same tiles), which likewise has spurious antiquity claimed for it, was invented by Activision in the 1970s.
▲* While earlier variants appeared in France as early as the late 19th century, the first example of the game now known as Sudoku was [[wikipedia:Sudoku#History|invented in Indiana in 1979]].
== Other ==
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*** The aforementioned [[Take That]] is, more specifically, referring to the Confederate motto, ''[[Pretentious Latin Motto|Deo Vindice]]'' ("God is our vindicator/champion", or more loosely, "God is on our side.")
** However, "In God is our trust," is a line in verse 4 of the Star Spangled Banner, dating back to the War of 1812.
* The idea that houses built on [[Indian Burial Ground
** Well, the Navajo have always thought building where someone died or was buried is a bad idea, and before contact the only burial grounds they ''could'' build on would be Indian ones...
* The standard [[Pirate]] accent dates back to the 1950 movie ''[[Treasure Island]]'', when Robert Newton used his natural Cornish accent to play Long John Silver. The association of English rural accents with seafaring arguably goes back to Lord Nelson, whose contemporaries noted his heavy Norfolk accent, and Cornwall has been known for producing large quantities of pirates since the [[Middle Ages]], but ''Treasure Island'' brought the accent into pop culture, as well as popularising the phrase "ARRRRHHHH!". For reference, "Arrrh" was the southern English equivalent of the Northern "Aye" until universal education started.
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* The "tradition" of the diamond engagement ring is sometimes thought to have been the result of a 1940s de Beers ad campaign, but this is not the case. The tradition actually began decades earlier, in the immediate post-World War I era; an expensive ring was intended as insurance that the man actually meant to marry the woman, and wasn't proposing just to get sex ([[Serious Business]] at a time when single women had literally no access to birth control and unmarried mothers were thought of as worse than street whores). De Beers merely piggybacked onto a trend that was almost universal by the time their first ads ran. They did however create the idea that an engagement ring should cost two months' salary.
** As well, most of the ideas surrounding the ring were at the very least played up and at the worst invented whole-cloth by De Beers' advertisers over the succeeding decades. See the idea that the size of the rock matters, the idea that selling or trading in an old engagement ring is bad luck, etc. Most [[Egregious]] is De Beers completely making up the "rule of thumb" that a ring should cost the man two months' salary (in an effort to make it impossible to have one standard-sized ring that was "good enough").
*** Not to mention the idea that you should be buried with your diamond jewelry, in order to destroy the second hand diamond market and prop up the artificial scarcity. [
*** Before that time a common engagement
*** De Beers' real achievement was "a diamond is forever". This advertising campaign effectively destroyed (OK, vastly reduced) the supply of second-hand diamonds, which helped them keep their prices high.
** Wedding bands have existed for centuries, but of course weren't as common back when the masses could barely afford shoes and food, never mind gold rings. Rather than being symbols of eternal blah-blah-blah, they also symbolised exchange of wealth in return for marriage. One English account gives "with this ring I thee wed" followed by the words 'This gold and silver I give thee', at which point the groom was supposed to hand a leather purse filled with gold and silver coins to the bride. The unromantic Germans record the phrase "I give you this ring as a sign of the marriage which has been promised between us, provided your father gives with you a marriage portion of 1,000 Reichsthalers." In the 1920s, only 15% of marriages were two-ring affairs, men's wedding bands being slow to catch on.
** In Russia, since the 15th century, iron wedding bands were often used for one of the sides. And in Judaism (Orthodox, at least), a rabbi will not agree to oversee a wedding with a gemmed band
** Historically simple rings (i.e. wedding bands) in the early middle ages and were given as a symbol to seal an engagement among Germanic peoples. The bride accepted the ring to signify that she had been properly 'bought' and engaged.
* Some sociologists claim that the theory of evolution was used to justify the slave trade; in reality, Darwin published ''On the Origin of Species'' in 1859, ''after'' most of the western world had already abandoned slavery. (The concept of biological evolution actually dates back to the 18th century, but it wasn't until ''On the Origin of Species'' was published that a scientifically plausible model of evolution was presented.) This argument is made even sillier by the fact that Darwin himself was strongly abolitionist, as noted in his autobiography, having many aggressive arguments with the captain of the ''Beagle'' over his support of slavery.
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** They're probably thinking of the Polygenesis theory. (Which Darwin ''also'' opposed)
** Similarly, people have attempted to blame "Darwinism" for Communism, despite the fact that ''The Communist Manifesto'' was published in 1848, eleven years before Darwin went public. Darwin has also been blamed for eugenics (including the Nazis') despite notions of "pure/tainted/inferior" or "royal/aristocratic/common" bloodlines and the associated "selective breeding" for humans being nearly as old as animal husbandry, which is thousands of years old, not to mention that Darwin himself declared the whole idea of eugenics to be "evil" and damaging to "the noblest part of our nature" in his book ''The Descent of Man''.
*** That being said, Darwin had a number of [[Poisonous Friend
* The [[Burn the Witch|European "witchcraze"]] took place in the early-modern period, particularly during the Reformation, not (as it is so commonly assumed), during the Dark Ages (although there were occasional witch trials during that time).
** The witchcraft was not considered criminal offense in the state-wide law until the early 16th century and during actual medieval times witch trials occurred rarely (witchcraft itself was not an offense but harm dome by 'magical' means definitely was) and usually were nothing more than simple lynches.
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** As one newspaper article pointed out, this is something of a historical reversal, given the association of Red with the political left.
** Political commentators these days exploit different connotations that suit the new colour scheme: red with "redneck" and "red-blooded male" stereotypes of conservatives and their supporters.
** This association causes some confusion with correspondents in Commonwealth countries, where "Tory blue" is the conservative colour.
*
** The "Kraut Western" ''[[Winnetou]] I'' (1963) was followed by ''Winnetou II'' (1964) and ''Winnetou III'' (1965), but all three movies were based on Karl May [[Winnetou|novels of the same names]].
* The name of the film of the play ''[[The Madness of George III]]'' was changed to ''[[The Madness of King George]]'', so that an international audience could have some idea that it's a [[Gorgeous Period Dress]] movie. The star, Nigel Hawthorne, liked to joke that it was changed so [[Eagle Land|Americans wouldn't think it was a sequel]].
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** As for the Spanish Inquisition itself, it is said to have sentenced to death some two thousands of people. Rather a small amount, considering its reputation and several centuries of activity.
** The Inquisition generally was actually closer to modern standards of jurisprudence than most civil courts of the time, having rules of evidence, an appeals process, and codified restrictions on the type and severity of punishments that could be imposed.
** The severity of the Spanish Inquisition was greatly exaggerated by Protestant
**
* Similarly, the concept of racial discrimination did not really exist before the Age of Exploration, and it did not become ubiquitous in European society until the late 18th century. Before then, the major injustice was classism, not racism, so non-European royalty were treated with respect.
** Or rather, racial discrimination ''in Europe'' is newer than they think. Racial discrimination in Africa and Asia is a lot older.
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*** W became a separate letter of the Swedish alphabet in 2006.
* While its constituent schools were founded between 1636 and 1865, the [[Ivy League]] was not formally constituted until 1945; in fact, the description of certain schools as "ivy colleges" dates back only to the 1930s.
* Although tumbleweed is seen as emblematic of the [[Wild West]], it's actually a Eurasian plant (genus ''Salsola'') and wasn't recorded in the U.S. until
* The [[Rainbow Motif|"seven colours of the rainbow"]] as we know them derive from Isaac Newton's experiments in optics in the 1670s, where he first observed the spectrum of sunlight split by a prism. Finding that his numerological theories worked better with a seven colour spectrum, he convinced himself that the area between blue and purple was an entirely separate colour, which he named [[wikipedia:Indigo|"indigo"]] after the blue dye.
** Actually, because indigo is so indistinguishable from blue and purple, it is possible that Newton's "blue" referred to cyan and his "indigo" referred to our blue, which would make more sense. It would also make indigo not being perceived as a real color
** Colours in the rainbow are arbitrary - red-yellow wasn't recognized as "orange" until the 1500s (which is why people with orange hair are called "redheads"), and the Japanese put the colour "kimidori" between yellow and green.
* The AD dating system was not devised until AD 532, and not widely used until the 9th century AD. Before that, Christians often dated from the supposed date of the Creation (5492 BC), the supposed birth of Abraham (2016 BC), and many other epochs.
** If they dated years that way at all: many just used terms like "the 18th year in the reign of King Whatshisface". (This convention was used in dating British legislation until quite late in the reign of [[Queen Victoria]].)
*** In some regions of Europe historians continued to use AUC or other Roman chronologies <ref>For example, the "Spanish Era" in the Iberian Peninsula, which began in 38 BC when the region was declared pacified by Augustus</ref> well into the 14th and even 15th centuries. It's ironic that this practice died precisely during [[The Renaissance]].
*** It is also sometimes stated the Ancient Greeks counted the years by the Olympic Games. In reality, this system was only used since the 4th Century BC, and then only by historians. Any official documents used years ''named'' after officials, with each state, naturally, having its own calendar.
*** Fun fact: The earliest event which we can date with any certainty is the Battle of Halys (May 28, 585 BC), which was called off due to a solar eclipse (which is how we know it was on May
* The name "Oscar," although dating back to an ancient Irish name meaning "friend of deer", was almost unknown until <s> [[Napoleon Bonaparte]]'s grandson</s> Charles XIV's son became King Oscar I of Sweden in 1844.
** There also was an Old English Oscar, usually interpreted as equivalent to the German name Ansgar - both meaning "god-spear" - and part of a whole group of Germanic names beginning "Os-", notably Osmond, Oswald, and Oswin. Saint Ansgar or Oscar (801-865), first archbishop of Hamburg and Bremen, was known as the "apostle of the North". The name Oscar was popularized in the late 18th century by James MacPherson's literary forgery ''Ossian'', which was where Frenche General Bernadotte, later King Charles XIV of Sweden, got the idea to name his son Oscar.
* The popularized act of kissing the ring of a Mafia Don does not seem to have any basis in reality prior to 1972 movie [[The Godfather]]. It is said that it was barely practiced in real life even after that, except amongst posers. Kissing a bishop's ring or the Pope's Fisherman's Ring
* In the musical ''[[The Music Man]]'', Harold Hill refers to "Captain Billy's Whiz Bang", which was a joke magazine that didn't exist until World War I. However, the show is set in 1912.
* Many younger ''[[Doctor Who]]'' fans are surprised to discover that the ''Doctor Who'' [[Christmas Episode]] is only a 21st-century revival phenomenon. (There was one before in 1965, but at that time British TV didn't usually do "event" television at Christmas and broadcast whatever shows were normally scheduled with a Christmassy twist.)
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* The ''Titanic'' was not called "unsinkable" until after it sank, when the description employed [[Sarcasm Mode]].
* Children were not exactly encouraged to "read, read, read" until sometime after the advent of television. Of course, before the television (or even the radio) was invented, reading was the primary source of entertainment. Parents generally viewed "excessive reading" to be a much bigger issue then "not reading enough". While "excessive reading" is still a concern for some parents today, it takes a backseat to the issues of "too much television" or "too much video games".
* The attitude of crying as being "shameful" or "a sign of weakness" actually only became common within the past few centuries. Before that, grieving openly was actually quite
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