45 Hilarious Memes That Are Based On Accurate Events That Might Satisfy Your Inner Historian
I graduated high school before Instagram was created, and maybe that’s a good thing. Otherwise, I could've spent entire classes scrolling through accounts like The Historical Meme, laughing at the ineffectiveness of the Maginot Line instead of reading about it in my textbooks. Luckily, today I can indulge in this at 3 AM, so it doesn’t interfere with my life—yay! I invite you to join me, preferably at a more reasonable hour, to revisit what you've learned about our past (or discover it for the first time) in a refreshingly unconventional way.
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To learn more about history, we contacted Howard Dorre, writer and co-host of the presidential history blog and podcast Plodding Through The Presidents, which he creates with his wife.
"History can offer the average person a better understanding of their world, through real-life stories of conflict and triumph," Howard told Bored Panda.
Indeed, these memes can ignite your curiosity, and that spark can continue to burn even after you're done scrolling through the list. Don't worry—you can continue your studies elsewhere.
Some things, however, may offer the most value for your time and effort, depending on your interests and background, and provide valuable context that will help you get the bigger picture.
"For Americans, I think it's important to understand the Revolutionary period and the formation of our Constitutional government, the history of slavery in the United States and the events leading up to the Civil War, the Reconstruction period, and the gains for African Americans that were erased with Jim Crow, the fight against fascism during World War II, and the Civil Rights era in the 1960s," Howard Dorre said.
"Together these periods tell the story of America's promise of equality and freedom in a way that makes it clear that we're not on some automatic steady path toward a better world."
This is the Treaty of Windsor, which creates a code of mutual protection between the two nations, and is the oldest military alliance in the world. It was born out of a similar treaty signed between France and Castile. The French wanted access to Castile's large naval fleet in their never ending wars with England, and the Castilians were interested in expanding their growing kingdom into Lusitania and the Islamic Caliphates. Basically, the Treaty of Windsor was born out of mutual fear of a common enemy. It was not actually the first or last treaty between the two nations, but the guarantees in the treaty helped solidify Portuguese independence, and established a long history of mutual defense, that still holds today. This included England's assistance to Portugal during the Napoleonic Wars, and the joint Anglo-Portuguese army that drove the French out of the Iberian Peninsula.
England also helped remove Napoleon from Spanish and Portuguese lands after they French invaded in the early 1800s. Reference "The Peninsula Wars"
You can choose from a variety of sources to deepen your understanding of history!
In the fall of 2020, a US survey of 1,816 people revealed that the top three were all in video format:
- Documentary film/TV — 69%;
- Fictional film/TV — 66%;
- TV news — 62%.
Interestingly, more traditional sources, such as museums (35%), nonfiction books (32%), and lectures (12%) filled out the middle to lower ranks of this hierarchy.
I recently saw someone doing this on the lake where I live. He was on a paddleboard holding what looked like bat wings. It was a windy day, so he was getting some good air I guess. :)
Some much-welcome news is that the public sees clear value in studying history, even relative to other fields.
Rather than asking whether respondents thought learning history was important—a costless choice—the researchers asked instead how essential history education is, relative to such fields as engineering and business. The results were encouraging: 84 percent of respondents felt history was just as valuable as the professional programs.
Tea drinking came to England in 1650, but because it was expensive, didn't become the most popular drink in England until the early 19th century. It took oolong time.
Everyone: "Tanks can't cross the Ardennes!" - Heinz Guderian: "Halt mal kurz mein Bier"
"When ze rockets go up, vho cares vhere zey come down...That's not mein department!"
In terms of total air power, the US Navy is second in power to the US Air Force. 3rd is Russia, with the US Army and the US Marine Corp rounding out the top 5.
Istanbul not Constantinople, yeah it's Istanbul not Byzantium
Are you applying for a position that involves two lanterns, a horse and a loud voice?
Hawaii was unified in 1795 but it was independent for 800 years or so before that. By culture, language and customs, Hawaii was a country long before European maps designated it as such. If we applied the same metrics to Hawaii as contemporary European "countries" , Hawaii was a country a lot longer than. 103 years.
Wyoming and Utah always look like two rectangles that overlapped and Wyoming won the overlapping corner
You forgot South Africa. The 50 000 white women and children that died under terrible conditions in concentration camps. And the 100 000's more African natives that also died in similar camps that no record was kept off, except for the skeletons in the mass Graves....
This happens frequently to very flat countries with no natural geographical borders.
Yeah what about France? We literally have a friendship bracelet with France, they have the Eiffel tower and they gave us the Statue of Liberty
The Portuguese end-ran the Ottoman Empire by methodically discovering the route around Africa into the Indian Ocean. The Spanish tried to one-up them by heading west around the globe instead. They didn't appreciate how far it was at the time or know that there was a whole other continent in the way.
See, that's the problem, you must have gotten confused, that's not your bae, that's the Byzantine empire circa 1250...
The running joke about the Holy Roman Empire is it was not an empire, nor Roman, nor Holy.
Why bother commenting on any of these BP posts these days? Ever since they started collapsing the comments again (did this a couple of years ago with the exact same results) they're useless. I click on the notification that someone has commented on my comment and the page just loads like normal. Doesn't move to my comment, doesn't show me anyone else's comments, what's the point? Nowhere else to post this, just sharing my frustration. And now they want me to pay them? Will Premium include the ability to SEE MY COMMENTS AGAIN?! Maybe then we'll talk.
This! And the increased amount of ads that just won't go away.
Load More Replies...This is an entertaining thread so long as you stay out of the comments. Otherwise you get sucked into the cultural blame game
Agreed! This is all [insert nation with differing philosophy than mine here]'s fault!
Load More Replies...Why bother commenting on any of these BP posts these days? Ever since they started collapsing the comments again (did this a couple of years ago with the exact same results) they're useless. I click on the notification that someone has commented on my comment and the page just loads like normal. Doesn't move to my comment, doesn't show me anyone else's comments, what's the point? Nowhere else to post this, just sharing my frustration. And now they want me to pay them? Will Premium include the ability to SEE MY COMMENTS AGAIN?! Maybe then we'll talk.
This! And the increased amount of ads that just won't go away.
Load More Replies...This is an entertaining thread so long as you stay out of the comments. Otherwise you get sucked into the cultural blame game
Agreed! This is all [insert nation with differing philosophy than mine here]'s fault!
Load More Replies...
