Lyrics What Do You Know About History

Did you lot ever read Lies My Instructor Told Me by James Loewen? If not, you should. It'due south a book full of fascinating insights into the sides of history nosotros're never immune to see, a warts-and-all look at the flaws that make history interesting. With Loewen in heed, I concocted a listing of 20 things most Americans don't know near history. (I imagine many people in general don't know these things, equally a 2008 poll showed that two-thirds of British teens thought King Arthur was real; another one-half idea Richard the Lionheart was fictional.) Some of these facts are Loewen-isms, others are well-documented elsewhere.

History is something that's best shared with others, debated and incessantly discussed. What we think nosotros empathize today nosotros frequently discover out know nothing about tomorrow. That'south what gives history power. It's live.

i. Thanksgiving wasn't originally intended to exist a holiday celebrating multi-cultural togetherness, the ritual observance of overconsumption and James Bond marathons. The original proposal was to requite thanks…to the Constitution. George Washington's original proclamation in 1789 asked for a day of "prayer to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many point favors of Almighty God especially by affording them an opportunity peaceably to found a form of authorities for their safety and happiness." To paraphrase a line from Gigli, "Gobble gobble, information technology'southward government time."

2. Dr. Martin Luther Rex Jr.'s real first and center name weren't Martin Luther. His first name, like his father'south, was Michael. The Michael Kings inverse their called names after a trip to Nazi Federal republic of germany, although both of them lived and died nether the legal name of Michael King. Jr. almost wasn't even a doctor. Years after his death, Boston University ended that King plagiarized much of his doctoral dissertation only felt that "no idea should be given to the revocation of Dr. Rex'due south doctoral degree" because of his passing. There was just no indicate anymore to taking the md championship manner. Besides, he did some pretty awesome stuff to balance it out.

3. When Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on the omnibus, it wasn't her first altercation with that bus commuter. Parks had been ejected by the same driver 12 years earlier for refusing to lath in the back of the bus later she had already paid up front end. Meaning that Parks was a career badass.

4. Although Jamestown is often credited as the offset British colony, it was only the first as far as the British were concerned. The Spanish beat them by a cool one-half century, setting up St. Augustine in Florida in 1565. Reports are that neither camp even counted equally the commencement overseas vistors to settle in N America. Information technology'due south well-known that the Vikings settled in Newfoundland (hence the name) around the yr 1001 CE, merely less and so that Africans had been making boat trips to the "New World" prior to Columbus' voyage. Native Americans too landed in the Netherlands (so Holland) around 60 BCE., beating the Vikings by a millenium. Swallow that, Scandinavia.

4.5. Side fact: Vikings never wore horned helmets. That idea like came out of the myth-making of the 16th and 17th century Europeans, who viewed the vikings equally warrior crusaders with wings and horns on their heads.

5. We call back of muddy politicking as a relatively new trend, simply our negative campaign ads tin can't beat the ones of the past. An attack ad on FDR claimed, "If he became convinced tomorrow that coming out for cannibalism would go him the votes he and so sorely needs, he would begin fattening a missionary in the White backyard come Wednesday." When fighting Lincoln, opponents went after his looks: "We know Old Abe does not look very handsome, but if all the ugly men in the US vote for him, he will surely exist elected." Merely my favorite, ever, was written well-nigh Grover Cleveland. Information technology goes, "We do not believe the American people volition knowingly elect to the Presidency a coarse debauchee who would bring his harlots with him to Washington." Fucking harlots, man.

half dozen. Woodrow Wilson was a huge fan of the movie Birth of a Nation , as he went to school with Thomas Dixon, who wrote the play the movie is based on. When the notoriously racist motion-picture show debuted, Wilson is reported to have said, "Information technology is like writing history with lightning. And my only regret is that it is all and then terribly true." Although many defenders of Wilson's racist tendencies have tried to say the quote was misattributed and Dixon made up the quote to endorse the pic, Wilson held a private screening of it at the White House, making information technology the first film ever shown there. Scholars claim that Wilson himself loved "darky" jokes and felt that segregation was a "rational, scientific policy," placing many noted segregationists in his cabinet.

7. Nosotros all know that old-school Coca-Cola put cocaine in their drinks, but did y'all know Bayer coined "heroin" as a thing and produced opium products, encouraging you to apply these "medical breakthroughs" on children? They also invented mustard gas. Information technology was a simpler time. You might wonder then, with the backing of corporate America backside drugs, what got united states of america anti-drug legislation. Racism. In 1878, San Francisco saw the beginning anti-drug laws pass as a way to stop people from frequenting opium dens. City officials claimed, "Many women and young girls, besides as young men of respectable family, were being induced to visit the Chinese opium-smoking dens, where they were ruined morally and otherwise." If you've seen Reefer Madness, this logic will make much more sense to yous contextually.

eight. Although her merits to fame was as the subject of The Miracle Worker, Helen Keller had a 2nd career: as a socialist activist and organizer. Keller advocated for rights of the differently abled, women's suffrage and nativity control and was a noted pacifist. The radical thinker was also an opponent of Woodrow Wilson (who was confronting universal suffrage) and supported Socialist candidate Eugene Five. Debs in his presidential runs. Because of her impairments, the media universally discredited her organizing piece of work. A Brooklyn publication wrote that Keller'due south socialist "mistakes sprung out of the manifest limitations of her development."

ix. Napoleon is a short homo's idol, a sign that perseverance tin can overcome even a picayune obstacle like being a wee man. However, Napoleon wasn't short — at least past the standards of his day. M. Bonaparte stood ane.58 meters tall (or a little over five feet), well within the average of the compatriots of his era. Instead of suffering from a lack of height, Napoleon reportedly was stricken with far worse: hemorrhoids. Some scholars even suggest that a terrible flair up of butt pain cost Napoleon the Battle of Waterloo.

10. We're all pretty enlightened that Disney and simple school lied to u.s.a. about that whole Pocahontas thing, but how much? Well, she was twelve when Smith and his compatriots first embarked on their cyclone New World adventure. Meaning there was no tasteful, PG romance with John Smith (aka cartoon Mel Gibson), she probably didn't pigment any of the colors of his wind and she didn't salvage his life. She did, however, run abroad to Europe with John Rolfe, but the romance there was also dubious. The devout Rolfe reportedly fretted over "marrying a heathen" and their spousal relationship was as much about sustaining peace in the colony as it was his affection for her. Pocahontas' thoughts on the arrangement are unknown; although she was often treated with respect and admiration in London, she was just every bit ofttimes a marvel and an object of derision. Many referred to her every bit "The Virginian Woman." She died in 1617 while attempting to come up back to the New World with Rolfe.

11. Edison was a brilliant man who aid invent many things (similar the phonograph, the mimeograph, the carbon microphone and moving pictures) only the lite bulb is technically not his to claim. Edison developed the technology concurrently with Joseph Swan, a Briton who worked independently of Edison, although each knew the other was developing the applied science. Although Edison is credited with inventing it, Swan holds the authorship for the bulb.

12. When you're a child who isn't doing well in school (especially math) Einstein is often held up as an instance. "Einstein was a terrible pupil," your parents remind you, "and look at everything he achieved!" Unfortunately, that's not true. Einstein was a highly gifted and achieved student. Nosotros misinterpret Einstein receiving 4s in school as a sign of poor functioning (akin to a "D") only those were actually high marks of the era. Einstein not only aced math but his parents bought advanced textbooks for him, every bit he frequently kvetched that formal education was "holding him dorsum."

thirteen. It's widely believed that Vincent Van Gogh cut off his ear to win the heart of a adult female, only that'due south not the example. A later story posited that Van Gogh lobbed it off after a particularly nasty fight with his friend, the painter Gauguin, and then handed it off to a prostitute in a brothel before returning habitation that evening to catch some shut eye. Normal 24-hour interval for Van Gogh. Only a recent theory claims a dissimilar (and more plausible) reason that he wasn't a righty talker: Gauguin, a skilled swordfighter, probable cut it off in a duel. I similar this better, simply because it makes him seem less crazy. The man shot himself in the chest and slowly died, penniless and believing himself to be forgotten. He's been through enough.

xiv. We are told that witches were "burned at the stake" during the Salem Witch Trials — because "burning witches" has a nice ring to it, eh? It also makes me a trivial hungry for carnitas. But anyway, nobody really got burned. During the notorious witch hunt, nineteen accused practicioners of the dark arts were hung and one accused was crushed to death with stones.

Poll: Burned or crushed to death, which is worse? Discuss in the comments.

15. Many people believe that Abraham Lincoln might accept been our first gay president — because of those much ballyhooed pillow talks with Joshua Speed, who Lincoln shared a bed with for many years. But unfortunately, such was a common practice of the era and doesn't necessarily testify chicane. However, nosotros did accept a queen in the White House elsewhere: ane Ms. James Buchanan, our but Bachelor president. Buchanan's sexuality was much whispered about on the hill, every bit was his closeness with William Rufus King. Andrew Jackson gave the two of them the nickname of "Miss Nancy and Aunt Fancy" and others called Rex "Mrs. James Buchanan." A common euphemism for their human relationship was to label them "Siamese Twins," the sotto voce proper noun for aforementioned-gender couples of the era.

16. Testify also indicates that we may have had our offset bisexual or lesbian get-go lady. FDR was a well-documented philanderer (even Hyde Park on Hudson, the recent biopic on him, isn't shy about information technology) and his marriage to Eleanor Roosevelt may have been a marriage of convenience. Mrs. Roosevelt's messages to her longtime best friend, Lorena Hickok, indicate a human relationship that went beyond traditional female bonding. Their correspondences were shockingly intimate; Roosevelt frequently wrote lines like, "Never are you out of my middle" and "I wish I could lie downwards beside you tonight & accept you in my arms." Hickok and Roosevelt's family unit burned the messages after Eleanor'south death, but Mrs. Roosevelt's close friend Gore Vidal (himself bisexual) long affirmed the messages' truth until his death last twelvemonth.

17. The Civil War was a little more complicated than you were taught. Although nosotros're told the Northward and Due south fought over the issue of slavery, the reasons are too far more mundane. The rebel South was seen equally an insurrectionary state and a potential competing power that needed to exist stopped. In truth, many Northerners fighting didn't give a damn nearly slavery and the Southerners enlisted were as well poor to actually beget slaves. The Emancipation Announcement was, in function, a way to convince any blacks who might be fighting for the South to join the other team. Lincoln himself once commented, "If I could salvage the Union without freeing any slave I would exercise it, and if I could salvage it by freeing all the slaves I would exercise information technology; and if I could relieve it by freeing some and leaving others alone I would as well do that." By "freeing" the slaves, Lincoln hoped to cut off the South'due south resources and preserve the union.

18. Too, Earth War II is tricky, from a moral standpoint. We like to believe that in 1940s, Americans were these armed crusaders fighting for the rights of all, but the Depression also led to a rise of anti-Semitism in the U.S., but like in Europe. Disney cartoons from the era are fraught with anti-Semitic caricatures, and right-fly leaders accused FDR of allowing his administration to be run by Jews. Henry Ford even printed the "Protocols of the Elders of Zion," a notorious anti-Semitic screed detailing a Jewish plan for world domination, in his corporate newsletter. Polls in 1938 showed that around sixty% of Americans at the time deemed Jews "greedy and dishonest," and past 1945 (aka the end of the war), Americans believed Jews had "too much power" in the The states.

nineteen. There'due south more than. Believe information technology or not, the revered Rockerfeller Foundation funded many of the German programs for eugenics, like the i that employed Josef Mengele before he constitute himself at Auschwitz. Many in the U.s.a. supported the forced sterilization of the differently abled, mentally sick and criminals and anyone they deemed sterilizable. These folks included being "depressed," "deviant" or "sexually wayward," which often included homosexuals. (Recall: Homosexuality was classified every bit a affliction until 1973.) Indiana passed the first forced Sterilization Bill in 1907 — followed closely by California, and so the forced sterilization capital of America. The Oregon Board of Social Protection (originally the "Oregon Lath of Eugenics") performed the last always forced sterilization in the U.Due south. In 1981. That was a scant 30 years ago.

20.The Korean State of war (also chosen the "Forgotten War") never actually ended. The U.S. and Democratic people's republic of korea agreed to a end-burn on July 27, 1953 until the 2 sides could reach a "final peaceful settlement." This settlement never happened and an actual peace treaty never signed. As you can surmise, we're fighting many of the aforementioned battles today.

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Lyrics What Do You Know About History

Source: https://thoughtcatalog.com/nico-lang/2013/05/20-things-most-americans-dont-know-about-history/

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