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32 Illuminating Bits of Trivia That’ll Make You See History in a Whole New Light

These would’ve made history class a lot more interesting!

32 Illuminating Bits of Trivia That’ll Make You See History in a Whole New Light

December 15, 2023

Wait a minute! You’re telling us that our high school history textbooks didn’t accurately cover thousands of years of recorded history? We’re a little ticked off that we didn’t get the whole story, but our spines are glad we didn’t have to lug a mammoth history book to class every day. These facts are fun enough that we’d gladly toss them in our knapsacks.

32

For most of American history, the majority of the country's immigrants have been German. Between 1870 and 2000, 7 million of the immigrants to the United States were from Germany. Mexico was in second place with 6 million. GRACKED.COM — Source

31

Gandhi

Mahatma Gandhi's famous passive resistance campaigns had massive support from Chinese people. 1 in 9 protestors in the first non-violent movement, starting in 1906, were Chinese and more Chinese people than Indian people were in prison when his second ended in 1911. CRACKED.COM — Source

30

CRACKED.COM Spartan women owned about 40% of the lands in Sparta. This is due to their inheritance system which allowed the father to divide his property among his children - both son and daughter. — Source

29

During the Civil War, generals were 50% more likely to die in battle than privates. Unlike modern warfare, generals back then had to lead by example - by being the first person to charge into battle. CRACKED.COM — Source

28

A plague that killed 25% of the population probably dealt the killing blow to the Roman Empire. The plague appeared in 542 A.D., and whittled down the Empire's tax base and pool of new soldiers. CRACKED.COM — Source

27

Madame Tussaud

Madame Tussaud made death masks of the heads of her guillotined friends The wax figure modeler and royalist was assigned the morbid task. NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM — Source

26

President Hoover briefly had a possum as a pet at the White House. Some toymakers tried and failed to market Billy the Possum toys. NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM — Source

25

Abraham Lincoln

Abraham Lincoln turned down the opportunity to populate the country with elephants. King Somdetch Phra Paramendr Maha Mongkut offered to send elephants for breeding. NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM — Source

24

Harriet Tubman was the first American woman to lead a military assault. The Combahee Ferry Raid freed more than 700 slaves. NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM — Source

23

There's no evidence Betsy Ross made the flag. The story originated with Ross's grandson William Canby's account. NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM — Source

22

Both Martin Luther King Jr. and Mohandas Gandhi attempted suicide as children. The famed leaders both suffered through severe bouts of depression later in life as well. NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM — Source

21

Maya Angelou was the first Black streetcar conductor in San Francisco She was only sixteen when she staged a sit-in for weeks until she was allowed to apply for the job. NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM — Source

20

JFK refused to let Sammy Davis Jr. perform at his inauguration because of Davis' interracial marriage Davis had campaigned for John F. Kennedy, but Kennedy was upset that Davis had married a white actress. NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM — Source

19

The colossal Olmec stone heads found mostly in modern-day Mexico have helmets. They're possibly victorious leaders dressed for war, but the first sport - the Mesoamerican ball game - was invented around the same time. Is this the 12th-century equivalent of baseball cards? CRACKED — Source

18

The Antikythera mechanism, discovered in a shipwreck dating from around 100 ВСЕ, is incredible - a hand-cranked series of gears that predicts the movement of the planets. It was 1,500 years before anyone else developed anything comparable. CRACKED — Source

17

The Indus Valley Civilization existed across the Indian subcontinent from 3300 to 1300 ВСЕ. There's plenty of evidence of incredible things they accomplished - advanced architecture, road systems and plumbing - but none that they ever fought wars. CRACKED — Source

16

Göbekli Тере in Turkey dates from about 9500 ВСЕ, making it one of the earliest known human settlements. However, nobody can work out what it was for - a prehistoric temple, a shrine to the dead or, just, somewhere people lived. CRACKED — Source

15

Nomadic people on the Nabta Playa (in modern-day Egypt) were ahead of the game in astronomical terms - around 5000 ВСЕ they built what certainly seems like a star map from stones. Almost nothing else is known of them. Eerie! CRACKED — Source

14

CROATOAN Roanoke Colony, founded in 1585, was intended to be America's first English settlement, but was abandoned by 1590. The word CROATOAN was carved into the fence surrounding it, suggesting their destination (Croatoan Island), but nothing was ever found. CRACKED — Source

13

The first man-made item to travel in space was a Nazi war missile Nazi Wernher von Braun was responsible for both the deadly V-2 rocket and NASA's Saturn V, which took Apollo 11 to the moon. CRACKED.COM — Source

12

Testing nuclear bombs in the U.S. has killed over 10,000 Americans The U.S. government had 1,000 nuclear tests in Nevada, with another 67 in the Marshall Islands. The tests caused cancer, resulting in a very low estimate of the fatalities being in the thousands. CRACKED.COM — Source

11

Jewish Resistance Fighters During World War II

Jewish resistance fighters fought against Nazi persecution From rescue missions to underground railroads to launching attacks even within camps, many Jewish people risked their lives to save others. CRACKED.COM — Source

10

Japanese Internment Camps

Japanese internment camp residents lost $400 million in property Around 120,000 people with Japanese ancestry were ripped from their homes and imprisoned. Congress only provided $38 million in reparations and then $20,000 to surviving individuals 40 years later. CRACKED.COM — Source

9

World War II Codebreakers

In the US, 70% of codebreakers were women . 11,000 women were in the Army and Navy as codebreakers. In 1944, they intercepted 30,000 water-transport messages a month, enabling the Navy to sink almost every transport ship to the South Pacific. CRACKED.COM — Source

8

No Black person was given a Medal of Honor for WWII until 1997 Vernon Baker was the only living recepient of the seven Black people who were awarded the Medal of Honor for their service in WWII decades later. CRACKED.COM — Source

7

At Mao and Stalin's first meeting, the USSR stole Mao's poop. On Stalin's personal orders, the sewage pipes in the house where the two met were rerouted to special storage boxes. The thinking was that an analysis of the chemicals in his poop would reveal secrets about Mao's psychology. (Did it work? Nobody knows.) CRACKED.COM — Source

6

During the French Revolution, they caught Louis XVI because GNAT his face was on money. IBRE 17 NES s ASSIGNATS DES FRANCOIS NAT par le décr vvil 1790, sanctionné LOUISXVL.ROT B CU While running to the countryside, Louis and Marie Antoinette (both disguised) were stopped by a postmaster who thought he recognized Marie. Once he compared the guy with her to a 50-franc note, he was sure. Pretty soon, they were arrested, then beheaded. CRACKED COM — Source

5

The Manhattan Project

On the Manhattan Project, safety standards basically didn't exist. In a key experiment, the plutonium was contained by one technician holding a screwdriver. But the screwdriver slipped, and the plutonium killed the technician. This happened twice. CRACKED.COM — Source

4

A WWII submarine had a reindeer onboard for six weeks. The British sub HMS Trident carried Pollyanna the reindeer, a personal gift from a Soviet admiral, back to England. She ate so much food (plus some navigation charts) that she got too big to walk out, and had to be lifted out with a winch (a sailor with a broom helped). CRACKED.COM — Source

3

The team searching for the Challenger's wreckage found cocaine worth millions. Experts spent nine weeks scanning 420 square miles of ocean with sonar. They found ordinary trash, a refrigerator, half of a torpedo, eight shipwrecks, and more. Oh, and a duffel bag with 25 kilos of cocaine (that came from who knows where), worth about $13 million. CRACKED.COM — Source

2

The first man returning from space was met by potato farmers. In 1961, Yuri Gagarin parachuted from his space capsule down to the village of Saratov, and walked up (in his orange spacesuit) to a woman farming potatoes with her granddaughter. They freaked out the moment they saw him, then he calmly told them who he was. CRACKED.COM — Source

1

The Civil War

The U.S. was still paying a Civil War pension in 2016. Irene Triplett in 2016 The sum was $73.13 per month, paid to one Irene Triplett (b. 1929), the daughter of a soldier who fought on both sides of the Civil War. When she was born, her father Mose was a spry 83. CRACKED.COM — Source

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