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Marie Antoinette Never Ordered the Cake
Marie Antoinette was born in Vienna on Nov. 2, 1755. Her 271st birthday is a tidy moment to retire the line that still follows her everywhere.
Marie Antoinette
Born: Nov. 2, 1755
Place: Vienna, Austria
Explore: Château de Versailles biography
The cake quote appears in Rousseau’s Confessions as advice from an unnamed “great princess” to eat brioche when bread was scarce. Marie Antoinette was still a child when Rousseau wrote the passage. History gave her the line anyway, proving that gossip has always traveled better than corrections.
