8 Pop Culture Legends That Are Actually True (4 of 5)

Children really were shamed through dunce caps

You’ve probably seen cartoons or Victorian era illustrations of people wearing dunce caps. From the mid-1800s and well into the 20th century, teachers in the UK and US would make young troublemakers and slow learners sit on a stool in the corner of a classroom and wear the cone of shame. It was meant to correct their behavior, although in hindsight it was a pretty cruel thing to do to kids who were just being kids.

Rosetta Stone isn’t just a language-learning program

The first thing that comes to mind when you hear the words “Rosetta Stone” is probably “I wouldn’t have been able to learn how to properly order a croissant at a Paris cafe without them!” But the inspiration for the language-learning company’s name is a large, black, basalt slab discovered by French soldiers in Egypt in 1799. The real Rosetta Stone contained the same passage written in ancient Greek and two forms of ancient Egyptian. Once linguists were able to figure out what the Greek text meant, it unlocked the ability to solve the puzzle that is Egyptian hieroglyphics.