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I haven't exactly been keeping track, but far too many authors are desperately grabbing at historical events and people to bolster their stories.

Off the top of my head:

Neverworld by Neil Gaiman. Whatever his magical race(s) in the book, the famous people of history belonged to them. So Einstein, Joan of Arc, Isaac Newton, etc. were all whatever those were...vampires or whatever. I could be wrong. I haven't read that book in a decade at least. And famous disasters in history like the Great Fire of London are attributed to their doings.

Percy Jackson and the Olympians by Rick Riordan
In this series, the Greek gods are real, and the famous people of history were their demigod children. Einstein, Joan of Arc, etc. And famous disasters in history like the Great Fire of London are attributed to their doings.

The Alchemyst by Michael Scott (a penname btw, Michael Scott is another magician's name)
The first of a trilogy and given away for free to Gaia members via download. I'm reading it now and The Elder Race, a race of supernatural beings who predate humanity, and apparently were created while humans are descendants of apes, lol, are the gods of myth and are, or inspired, the famous people in history, such as Einstein, Joan of Arc, etc. And famous disasters in history like the Great Fire of London are attributed to their doings.

Oh COME ON!!! Must every author appropriate history in a feeble attempt to make his own characters seem big and huge and important? I don't even include the blasphemous Dan Brown who wanted to tell some fairy stories about Jesus and get rich besides.

There are very compelling stories that restrict their focus to drama within a town or family. The manga/anime Fruits Basket deals with the tragedy of one noble family. The drama extends as far as the high school. It's not worldshaking and they barely travel away from town through the course of the story. But I couldn't look away until the end.

Batman, although it's gone through many mutations, focuses on the city of Gotham (a sobriquet of NYC). The drama, if properly handled, stays right within those borders. It deals with the darkness of human hearts and doesn't need to weave in the rainforest or aliens or anything else. The drama is right there between hero, villains, society and darkness. One can make the argument that in order to keep fresh, they had to put Batman in space, take him through time, have him fail to prevent the Great Fire of London, etc., but those are bagatelles associated with the burden of having to tell the same story once a month for 60+ years. We love Batman for, within, and because of his struggles in Gotham. He's not saving the world. He's cleaning up the streets.

The stories of Lucia and Miss Mapp are all about this narrow focus - the main character, Lucia, is a determined lady with aspirations to climb her way to the top. A lot of drama occurs in Lucia's town and the town she moves to, Miss Mapp's. Drama as in "Let's start some drama." The reader and author are not consumed by the sturm und drang, but the characters are. It is of vast importance to Lucia whether she gets to be leader of her social circle or not. It is of vast importance to Lucia's friends what happens to her, for by her word they rise or fall in social status. This is, of course, a comedy series.

My conclusion: Grandiose earth-shattering sagas, unless they are Norse, do not fly well. Restrict the scope of storytelling to the drama of a family, a high school, a town, and you have a much better story.

By the way, I caused most of the events in history, including the Great Fire of London. Left the kettle on the fire too long. Sorry.

I've read the entire Alchemyst series (waiting for the next book to come out, anyway) and I finished the Percy Jackson series. Honestly, I sort of like it. There are really only a few options for setting:
1. A completely different world, ie, Eragon, Lord of the Rings, etc.
2. An identical world- realistic fiction.
3. A similar world- where almost everything is the same with a few changes. This is where those books you ranted on fit. To blend in their fictional attributes to the world, authors mix them into the timeline so that it doesn't seem like elves or pixies or greek gods came about yesterday afternoon.