Who knows what the mistake is on the California flag?

Question

The flag of California is the result of a mistake that happened during their revolution. 10 points to the first person who can tell me what the mistake was (I love this:-)

HINT: It wasn't supposed to have a bear on it!

Holy crap! Whutnow - You win!!!

Now I'm embarrassed, I fell for it! I read that article on snopes, which I trust as a reliable source of factual information. I was ready to enlighten everyone with the story of the pear :-P

Kudos to you! Glad you pointed that out, because I really took everything on that section as true (though the one about Mr. Ed being a zebra did boggle my mind a bit - he didn't look like a zebra's body structure at all!!).

You showed me :-) Lesson learned.

Answer 1

If you mean it should have a pear instead of a bear on it, thats actually a very common urban legend started by the writers of snopes.com. From wikipedia:

"The Urban Legends Reference Pages (snopes.com) include a section entitled The Repository of Lost Legends, containing false discussions of made-up legends (for example, that the bear in the design of the Flag of California is the result of a handwritten note being misread and that it was meant to be a pear). The aim of the stories in the section is to caution readers against using appeals to authority, and encourage the checking of references for claims that seem unreasonable; the initials of "The Repository of Lost Legends" spells out TROLL. Ironically, within another of the Urban Legends Reference Pages, there are two records of entities who have fallen for the trap, one being the TV show Mostly True Stories: Urban Legends Revealed, and another on a trivia board game called Urban Myth"


So the answer is: there is no mistake :)

Answer 2

This Site Might Help You.

RE:
Who knows what the mistake is on the California flag?
The flag of California is the result of a mistake that happened during their revolution. 10 points to the first person who can tell me what the mistake was (I love this:-)

HINT: It wasn't supposed to have a bear on it!

Answer 3

It WAS supposed to be a bear, although some mistook it at the time for something else.


The Bear Flag was first raised on June 14, 1846, at Sonoma by a group of American settlers revolting against the rule of Mexico. The original flag was painted by William Todd.

Pioneer John Bidwell recorded many of the events surrounding the "Bear Flag Revolt" and about the raising of the Bear Flag he wrote,

"Another man left at Sonoma was William L. Todd who painted, on a piece of brown cotton, a yard and a half or so in length, with old red or brown paint that he happened to find, what he intended to be a representation of a grizzly bear. This was raised to the top of the staff, some seventy feet from the ground. Native Californians looking up at it were heard to say ‘Coche[sic],’ the common name among them for pig or shoat."

Unfortunately, the original Bear Flag, held by the Society of California Pioneers perished in the Great Earthquake and Fire of 1906.

The current California State Flag, adopted by the state legislature in 1911, is based on the original Bear Flag raised by pioneering Americans over Sonoma in 1846. The star was taken from the lone star of Texas. The Bear was representative of the numerous Grizzly Bears in the state and the words "California Republic" testify to the feisty American pioneers who settled in the territory.

Today the identity of the animal depicted on the flag is not likely to be mistaken for a "coche."

Answer 4

It would be better for any type of protesters to wave the flag of the United States and use ENGLISH if they wish to gain sympathy. Using a foreign flag and a foreign language will be counter-productive for ANY cause.

Answer 5

a bear on the flag

Answer 6

News to me about the flag and there being a revolution...

Answer 7

the bear