Did Shah Jahan cut off the hands of the Taj Mahal’s builders? No 17th-century record says so
Tavernier saw 20,000 men build the Agra tomb over 22 years. The Taj's own supervisors and architect went on to build Delhi's Red Fort from 1639.
Myths
George Washington Carver did not invent peanut butter, and his own Tuskegee recipe mentions ‘manufacturers’
A Montreal pharmacist patented peanut paste in 1884 and John Harvey Kellogg patented “nut-butter” in 1897. Carver’s 1916 bulletin came decades later.
Did Hitler snub Jesse Owens in Berlin? Owens said the snub that hurt came from Roosevelt
Hitler stopped congratulating medalists after the first day of the 1936 Games, and in October Owens told a Kansas City rally the president never sent a telegram.
George Washington’s teeth were never wood; a 1784 ledger records cash paid to enslaved people for 9 teeth
Mount Vernon's account books show £6 2s paid in May 1784 for nine teeth from unnamed enslaved people, entered 'on account' of a French dentist; the surviving dentures hold ivory, metal and human teeth.