History Atlas

How The Past Is Known

History Atlas

Disputed Statements

Claims this atlas currently marks as unsettled or as tested and found false. A debated fact is one scholars hold competing positions on; a debunked one has been checked against the record and found not to hold. Both are kept in view rather than quietly smoothed over, with the reasoning that put each one where it stands.

148 statements.

Louis V of France, Birth Year966

Louis V of France, Historical Figures

Standing

Concerns Birth Year

Currently States 966

The Wikipedia infobox gives the birth year as either 966 or 967; 966 is recorded here as the earlier of the two candidate years.

Source Wikipedia: Louis V of France

Mali Empire, End Year1670

Mali Empire, Civilizations

Standing

Concerns End Year

Currently States 1670

Mali's central authority had effectively collapsed well before this date; smaller successor polities using the Mali name persisted into the later seventeenth century, so historians differ on when to date its true end.

Source The Cambridge Medieval History

Mansa Musa, Birth Year1280

Mansa Musa, Historical Figures

Standing

Concerns Birth Year

Currently States 1280

No contemporary record gives a birth date; circa 1280 is the range commonly cited by modern historians from his approximate age during the 1324 pilgrimage.

Source The Cambridge Medieval History

Mansa Musa, Death Year1337

Mansa Musa, Historical Figures

Standing

Concerns Death Year

Currently States 1337

Arabic sources disagree on the exact year of his death, with proposals ranging from 1332 to 1337.

Source The Cambridge Medieval History

Moctezuma II, Birth Year1466

Moctezuma II, Historical Figures

Standing

Concerns Birth Year

Currently States 1466

The lead section gives circa 1466 while the infobox gives circa 1471; the lead's year is recorded here as the more specific of the two.

Source Wikipedia: Moctezuma II

Muhammad, Birth Year570

Muhammad, Historical Figures

Standing

Concerns Birth Year

Currently States 570

Islamic tradition places his birth in the Year of the Elephant, conventionally correlated to 570 CE, but the precise year is not fixed by a contemporary record and historians' estimates range across a few years either side.

Source The Cambridge Medieval History

Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, Birth Year1881

Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, Historical Figures

Standing

Concerns Birth Year

Currently States 1881

Wikipedia gives the birth year as c. 1881; no birth record survives and the exact date is conventionally celebrated as 19 May.

Source Wikipedia: Mustafa Kemal Ataturk

Pachacuti, RoleSapa Inca of the Inca Empire; the traditional reign span cited most often is 1438 to 1471 (following the historian John Howland Rowe), though other reconstructions of Inca chronology place it as early as 1400-1448 or as late as 1420-1477.

Pachacuti, Historical Figures

Standing

Concerns Role

Currently States Sapa Inca of the Inca Empire; the traditional reign span cited most often is 1438 to 1471 (following the historian John Howland Rowe), though other reconstructions of Inca chronology place it as early as 1400-1448 or as late as 1420-1477.

Sources give at least five competing reign chronologies for Pachacuti; Rowe's 1438-1471 is the one most commonly cited in general references.

Source Wikipedia: Pachacuti

Pachacuti, Birth Year1403

Pachacuti, Historical Figures

Standing

Concerns Birth Year

Currently States 1403

Del Busto dates his birth to 1403; other reconstructions (Lane) place it around 1418.

Source Wikipedia: Pachacuti

Pachacuti, Death Year1471

Pachacuti, Historical Figures

Standing

Concerns Death Year

Currently States 1471

Rowe chronology, used for the reign span already on this entity, dates his death to 1471; Means places it as early as 1448.

Source Wikipedia: Pachacuti

Prehistory, Start Year-3300000

Prehistory, Eras

Standing

Concerns Start Year

Currently States -3300000

Conventionally dated to the earliest known stone tools, the Lomekwian industry at Lomekwi, Kenya. Some historians instead begin prehistory with the appearance of the genus Homo around 2.5 million years ago, or with anatomically modern humans around 300,000 years ago. There is no single agreed starting point, only a shared sense that prehistory has no fixed beginning.

Source Encyclopaedia Britannica

Prehistory, End Year-3200

Prehistory, Eras

Standing

Concerns End Year

Currently States -3200

Conventionally marked by the earliest Sumerian cuneiform writing in Mesopotamia, around 3200 BCE. Because writing was invented independently at different times in different regions, in Egypt around 3100 BCE, in China around 1200 BCE, and in Mesoamerica later still, prehistory does not end everywhere at once. The boundary is regional, not global.

Source Encyclopaedia Britannica

Ramesses II, Birth Year-1303

Ramesses II, Historical Figures

Standing

Concerns Birth Year

Currently States -1303

Egyptian New Kingdom chronology is reconstructed from king lists and astronomical references rather than a continuous calendar; regnal dates are conventionally cited to within a decade.

Source The Cambridge Ancient History

Ramesses II, Death Year-1213

Ramesses II, Historical Figures

Standing

Concerns Death Year

Currently States -1213

See birth-year note on New Kingdom chronology.

Source The Cambridge Ancient History

Samuel Bronfman, Birth Year1889

Samuel Bronfman, Historical Figures

Standing

Concerns Birth Year

Currently States 1889

Scholarly sources (biographer Michael Marrus, The Canadian Encyclopedia) give February 27, 1889, born near Soroki, Bessarabia, then in the Russian Empire, now Moldova. Bronfman himself publicly claimed to have been born in Brandon, Manitoba, in 1891; Marrus concluded this was likely a personal fiction and that he was probably born in Russia shortly before the family emigrated. The Russia and 1889 reading is used here as the better-supported one.

Source Wikipedia

Samuel Bronfman, BirthplaceSoroki or Otaci, Bessarabia, Russian Empire (now Moldova)

Samuel Bronfman, Historical Figures

Standing

Concerns Birthplace

Currently States Soroki or Otaci, Bessarabia, Russian Empire (now Moldova)

Sources split between the neighboring Bessarabian towns of Soroki and Otaci (Soroca uyezd, Russian Empire, both now in Moldova); family tradition holds he was born aboard the ship carrying the family to Canada. His own public claim of Brandon, Manitoba is judged a likely personal fiction by biographer Michael Marrus.

Source Wikipedia

Scipio Africanus, Birth Year-236

Scipio Africanus, Historical Figures

Standing

Concerns Birth Year

Currently States -236

Wikipedia gives 236 or 235 BC as the two candidate birth years; 236 BC is recorded here.

Source Wikipedia: Scipio Africanus

Sitting Bull, Birth Year1837

Sitting Bull, Historical Figures

Standing

Concerns Birth Year

Currently States 1837

Wikipedia's infobox gives his birth as circa 1831-37, no single year settled; this uses the latest year in that range, matching the atlas's convention for a stated range (Vlad the Impaler in wave 3).

Source Sitting Bull (Wikipedia)

Society of Jesus, Dissolved1773

Society of Jesus, Organizations

Standing

Concerns Dissolved

Currently States 1773

Pope Clement XIV suppressed the Society of Jesus in 1773 under sustained pressure from Bourbon monarchies; the order continued underground in Prussia and Russia, where Catherine the Great declined to promulgate the suppression brief, and the Church formally lifted the suppression and restored the order in full in 1814. The atlas records 1773 as the year of formal papal suppression while noting the order was never fully extinguished and has operated continuously since 1814.

Source Wikipedia

Sumer, Start Year-4500

Sumer, Civilizations

Standing

Concerns Start Year

Currently States -4500

The date for Sumer's earliest urban settlements, particularly Uruk, is debated. Some scholars place the beginnings of Sumerian urban culture as early as 4500 BCE, others closer to 3800 BCE.

Source The Cambridge Ancient History