Claude Shannon coined the word bit and fathered Information Theory. But very few know his name, despite his huge influence on our daily lives.
This is a long winded way of saying, written history is probably half right at best.
Ten years ago I watched a pay-per-view boxing match. At the end, the fighter said "I'm not the greatest but I'll fight the greatest".
2 minutes later the local news misquoted him as saying "I am the greatest".