People have been sharing the historical facts they weren’t taught in school – 17 pieces of the past that might have passed you by
If you don’t learn from history, you’re doomed to repeat it. Which might explain the way the world is currently going…
But are people entirely to blame if the history they were taught at school left out huge important chunks? To combat these blindspots, Reddit user Turbulent_Archer_727 turned to the collective wisdom of r/AskReddit and posed this question…
What’s one historical fact that they won’t teach you in school?
Grab your exercise books, because it’s time to catch up on the history lessons that schools didn’t provide – some of it’s NSFW, and we can’t vouch for its accuracy.
1.
‘The poetry written by Chinese Warlord, Zhang Zongchang.
“You tell me to do this. He tells me to do that. You’re all bastards. Go fuck your mother”’
-ImProbablyNotAShark
2.
‘John Adams and Thomas Jefferson stole a piece of William Shakespeare’s chair on vacation because Abigail was a Shakespeare fan.’
-misterbuilder
3.
‘Went to a British school in Asia. They glossed over the Opium Wars.’
-aronnyc
4.
‘The Dutch ate their prime minister. As in an angry mob lynched him and actually consumed his flesh.’
-windduffyisking
5.
‘During WW2, the German Wehrmacht used the methamphetamine stimulant Pervitin to allow soldiers to march and fight for days. Today the drug is known as Crystal Meth.’
-dbblx
6.
‘Back in the 19th century, small opposition newspapers in the Netherlands were called “Lilliputters” (“small people”) because of their small size, which was a way to avoid having to pay for the newspaper stamp.
Okay, you simply do not learn this in school because it is obscure and relatively unimportant. But still.’
-Lvcivs2311
7.
‘Let’s just say, George Washington’s teeth weren’t made of wood.’
-89Hopper
8.
‘I was 28 when I learned about the Tulsa massacre.’
-seekingthething
9.
‘Fun, true fact:
In 1518, the city of Strasbourg (then part of the Holy Roman Empire) experienced a bizarre “dancing plague,” where dozens of people danced uncontrollably for days, some reportedly dancing to death. Historians believe it might have been caused by mass hysteria, ergot poisoning (a hallucinogenic fungus on rye), or even a psychological response to stress.’
-BadOld1066