People Break Down Which Historical Facts They Don't Teach You In School

A lot of us will look back on History and Social Studies classes and cringe, if for no other reason than how much information we had to memorize to pass the tests.

Despite all that we had to memorize, there were so many interesting facts that never made it into the classroom.

Interested and taking notes, Redditor Turbulent_Archer_727 asked:

"What's one historical fact that they won't teach you in school?"

A Surprising Reveal

"The Great Wall of China wasn’t built all at once it’s a patchwork of different walls from different dynasties."

- emokitten_xoxo

"And only a small bit of it is the big stone wall with towers and walkways you see in all the photos and movies. Most of it's eroded mud brick that's barely recognizable as a wall anymore."

- TheMightyGoatMan

The Disappearance Of The American Chestnut

"It's really obscure but American Chestnut trees were all over the east coast of the US up until around 1900. Then they all got infected with a fungus, and now they're critically endangered."

- Thomas_Chinchilla

"Nearly four billion of them died between 1903 and 1953. They were one-fourth of the forest from Maine to Georgia. They were a significant part of the Appalachian economy, and their loss helped worsen the depression. The fight to restore the chestnut is actually a pretty incredible story. Check out the American Chestnut Foundation."

- WhiskersinStrudel

Non-Evacuations

"When the United States detonated the first hydrogen bomb, Castle Bravo, on Enewatak Atoll in the Marshall Islands in 1958, it was many times more powerful than calculated. The residents of Enewatak and Bikini Atolls had previously been forcibly relocated to Rongelap Atoll. Rongelap was downwind from the Castle Bravo radiation cloud."

"The US did not evacuate them for two days, and allowed them to return only a week later, even though the radiation levels were highly unsafe as we understand now. From 1958 to 1984, the US repeatedly refused to evacuate the Rongelap residents even as the birth defects and cancer rates continued. It was finally Greenpeace in 1984 who assisted in moving many of them to Mejatto island in Kwajalein atoll."

"If you go to Mejatto today, the signs on the church and school still say Rongelap. There is evidence that this refusal to evacuate was a calculated decision to study the long-term effects of radiation exposure in humans."

- douglas_creek

The St. George's Banner

"A lot of people are taught that England's flag (White background, red cross) comes from St. George's banner."

"But it's often left out that George actually got his banner during his veneration as a warrior-saint by the Templars in the Crusades. A lot of the Templar banners were based on the flags of The Knights of The Round Table from Arthurian Legend."

"So George actually got his banner from Sir Galahad, The Knight who found the Holy Grail, according to the legend."

- killingjoke96

No Printing Costs

"Back in the 19th century, small opposition newspapers in the Netherlands were called "Lilliputters" (= "midgets") because of their small size, which was a way to avoid having to pay for the newspaper stamp."

"The best example of this are the papers published by the fanatical republican Eillert Meeter, who received imprisonment for lèse-majeste, before being invited to meet king William II in person, who offered him an allowance if he ceased publicising."

"Meeter later went back to publishing anyway, but admitted in his writings that he found the king a kind and friendly person; he was just opposed to having a king."

"Okay, you simply do not learn this in school because it is obscure and relatively unimportant. But still."

- Lvcivs2311

A Devoted People

"Baden during the German Revolution of 1918. While all other crowned heads in Germany were deposed, revolutionaries in Baden took their time with it as the king was extremely popular."

"Children would run to him during his daily walks because he would always give them candies, he donated to charity, refused to censor the press in his kingdom against Prussia's wishes, and people in the street addressed him not with 'Your Majesty' but with 'Herr König, Mister King.'"

"Then when they came to his palace and told him he was now deposed, they apologized for deposing him and told him that it was because of the system and not because of him. They then recommended he should run for president of Baden in the next election and that they would all vote for him."

- Predator_Hicks

...Gasp!

"Let's just say, George Washington's teeth weren't made of wood."

- 89Hopper

"All of the above at different times, he had many sets of dentures. Horse teeth, goat teeth, brass, lead, gold, ivory, teeth from slaves, metal fasteners, wire, etc. But he paid the slaves for their teeth so that's something."

- Impressive-Dig-3892

Monetary Distribution

"That modern money came into existence by people storing their gold in banks and getting notes as proof that their gold was there."

"Banks found out they could write more notes of gold than there was actual gold being stored there."

- AdrenochromeFolklore

Remember Both Of Them

"Rosa Parks wasn't the first:"

"Ida B. Wells, a pioneering African American journalist and civil rights activist. In 1884, Wells was traveling by train when she was ordered to give up her seat in the first-class ladies' car and move to the smoking car, which was already crowded. When she refused, the conductor and two men forcibly removed her from the car."

"Wells took legal action against the railroad company and initially won her case in the local circuit court, receiving a $500 award. However, the railroad company appealed, and in 1887, the Tennessee Supreme Court reversed the lower court's ruling, concluding that her persistence was not in good faith to obtain a comfortable seat for the short ride. Wells was ordered to pay court costs."

"This incident was a catalyst for Wells' lifelong commitment to civil rights and social justice. She became a prominent journalist, co-owning and writing for the Memphis Free Speech and Headlight newspaper, where she reported on racial segregation and inequality. Throughout her career, Wells documented and fought against the lynching of African Americans, becoming one of the most influential leaders in the early civil rights movement."

"Ida B. Wells' courageous stand against racial discrimination on public transportation predated Rosa Parks' more widely known protest by several decades, highlighting the long history of resistance to segregation in the United States."

- Datasrc1

The Wild, Wild West

"About one-third of the working cowboys in the Old West were Black men."

- rimshot101

"Black men and Mexicans probably made up fully half their population."

- Lypreila

"Most 'cowboy slang' is just woefully butchered Spanish."

"Buckaroo: vaquéro, cowboy."

"Hoosgow: juzgado, the judge."

"Ten-gallon hat: un sombrero tan gallan, a very handsome hat."

- bonos_bovine_muse

Define "Dark Ages"

"I didn’t know much about the Byzantine Empire and the Islamic Golden Age until I was in college. I really feel like a lot of history classes seem to gloss over the so-called Dark Ages."

- WhaleSharkLove

"100 percent! Also, the history of N. Africa and the Middle East before that. We learn a lot about Greece and Romans, but nothing about the civilizations and kingdoms flourishing there."

- Alternative_Fun_5733

Erasing History One Line At A Time

"Texas and MacMillan Books removed important Native American history like ‘Trail of Tears’ from their textbooks."

- vigilantesd

"My mother worked in textbook publishing for decades. The Texas and Florida textbook markets are among the largest in the country. The number of changes necessary to meet those states standards are huge. Not only are major points in history simply left out but whole eras that may be 'offensive' are glossed over or the terminology softened. They are drastically different than many other states' textbooks. This is nothing new. It has been happening since at least the 70s."

- AnyNameAvailable

Federal Construction

"Federal highways were purposely built through affluent black neighborhoods. Looking at you, Oklahoma."

- Downtown31415

"Fun fact: the movie Who Framed Roger Rabbit is based on this. The entire plot of bulldozing Toontown to build a freeway was exactly based on this."

"Other aspects of the movie were also direct allegories to racism, such as the Ink and Paink Club being 'Toon revue, strictly humans only.'"

- Amazing_Excuse_3860

A Basic Human Right To Clean Water

"When we learned about prohibition, it was presented as kind of this silly historical mistake. It was years later when I learned that in the 19th Century, people were drunk basically all the time in part because very few people had access to clean drinking water and would drink booze instead which was often cleaner/safer to drink."

"So a big part of the anti-booze movement was providing safe drinking water, and we owe a lot of our drinking water infrastructure (like available public drinking fountains) to teetotalers."

- seanofkelley

History is long and complicated with dozens of possible events happening at a time, so it stands to reason that some historical events would always be included in the school textbooks while others might be forgotten over time.

But it's troubling to see how consistently this impacts minorities and just how many battles we might not really know anything about.