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“Joaquin Phoenix Escaped A Dangerous Cult”: 50 Inspirational ‘Forgotten Stories’ You Need To Read
She was banned from attending class because of the color of her skin. She never gave up and at 51, became her university's first black graduate. They were denied bank loans simply because they were female, so they each scraped together $1,000 and opened America's first women-only bank. He slept alone on the streets of London as a young boy, and went on to turn his deepest humiliation into laughter that healed the world.
These are just some of the people you probably didn't read about in a history textbook. The stories that might even have been forgotten if they weren't immortalized in an inspiring corner of the internet dedicated to unearthing untold tales, hidden mysteries, and magical moments from past. The Facebook page Forgotten Stories is a treasure trove of uplifting and inspiring content. Ordinary people doing extraordinary things, against the odds. And we are all here for it!
Bored Panda has put together the best posts from the page in the name of keeping legacies alive and shining bright. Sit back, enjoy and don't forget to upvote your favorites.
This post may include affiliate links.
#1
It's crazy to think there was a time in history when it was quite normal to be denied basic human rights purely because of the color of your skin. Education, for example, is not a privilege, it's a right.
In 1928, a Texas-born teacher named Clara-Belle Drisdale enrolled at New Mexico College of Agriculture and Mechanical Arts (NMC-AMA), with the aim of furthering her education.
As a child, she'd attended a one-room schoolhouse and later, earned a scholarship for Prairie View State Normal and Industrial College where she graduated valedictorian in 1905. Drisdale went on to teach in segregated schools in Texas and also took summer classes at the University of Chicago. Learning was nothing new to this bright woman.
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Yet Drisdale faced numerous barriers after moving to New Mexico with her husband and children in the mid-1920s. NMC-AMA was an all-White institution back then. But a determined Drisdale enrolled anyway. Her professors refused to allow her into the lectures because she was Black, and the student was forced to take notes in the hallway.
Against all odds, she pushed through and earned a bachelor’s degree in English in 1937 at the age of 51. But what should have been a celebration was marred by more discrimination. According to the Texas State Historical Association, the university prevented her from walking with her class during the graduation ceremony.
"Many of her White classmates boycotted the ceremony because the university awarded a diploma to a Black person," adds that site.
Today, her story is an inspiration to others to never give up - no matter what life throws at you...
#4
#6
Forrest Hobbs 1 day ago (edited)
This reminds me that the current president of the USA recently dismissed a woman journalist's question by saying 'Shut up, Piggy'. Here in the UK, our very own Tr*mp wannabe Nigel Farage has been trying out the same tactic against women journalists. There are far, far worse things in the world, but why aren't more people calling out that sort of bvllshit more loudly? 🤷
#7
Cat Palmer 1 day ago
There are friendly relations between the two people to this day (link below). The English, contrary to popular belief didn't do nothing: they in fact actively made the situation worse by blocking aid because it might make the Irish people 'dependent' on the people who had stolen their country. My people have many things to be ashamed of, and this is right up there with the worst of them.
#9
Nathaniel He/Him Cis-Het 1 day ago
Not all heroes wear capes. Also, it should not have been needed. Universal healthcare.
#10
Serena Myers 1 day ago
It has been said before, but bees are very intelligent little creatures. They can 'recognise' a human face, apparently perceiving us as very large and ugly flowers.
#11
Spencer's slave no longer 1 day ago
Lt. Ellen Ainsworth lost her life during the Battle of Anzio and was posthumously awarded the Silver Star. She is buried in the Sicily-Rome American Cemetery and Memorial, Nettuno, Italy.
#18
Nathaniel He/Him Cis-Het 1 day ago
Beatrix Potter was an avid mushroom fan. She recorded many species of fungi and wrote a lot on the topic.
#19
Roberta Surprenant 1 day ago
Her name is Minnie Riperton, may hace heard of her daughter - Maya Rudolph (SNL)
#20
Shoshanna 1 day ago (edited)
I'm not from the US, but I was living and working as a bartender at age 17 in New York when it happened (times were different then and more laissez-faire). So although I do have some controversial thoughts on 9/11 (not conspiracies, just that this happens around the world everyday (not always to this extent), and we forget or have to not think about that all the time because it is constant. Also, the US has spent a couple of hundred years attacking other countries, so sometimes you get what you give). On the other hand, I think about it often, have watched almost every documentary about it, including the one about the two men mentioned above. I haven't forgotten any story, and never will. It's always the civilians who are hurt and k****d. If you are going to k**l, why can't you just k**l some leaders, CEOs, oligarchs, etc?! Tactics of course, but.
#25
Forrest Hobbs 1 day ago
This is down to new findings in archaelogy. When 19th century archaeologists opened the Birka grave, they assumed the skeleton was that of a lightly built young man. They were wrong. Link follows.
#28
Tea Drinker 1 day ago
There were many women moviemakers in the early days. Then men decided it was unfeminine and only they should be behind the camera.
#31
Isabel Sanford won a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series in 1981 for her iconic role as Louise "Weezy" Jefferson on The Jeffersons.
T'Mar of Vulcan 1 day ago
Fun fact: "The Jeffersons" was on in South Africa in the '80s, dubbed into Zulu. My Zulu is limited to greetings and common words, but let me tell you, I used to watch it just for the occasional white person who would appear, speaking in perfect Zulu! It was so surreal, but check YouTube. It's also a reality now!
#32
Dee Hampton 1 day ago
A senior gentleman, who used to live in my neighbourhood, was a boy soldier at the liberation of Auchwitz. He commented on the silence. He saw what he thought was a stream of ghosts, drifting towards them.
#33
Doris Eaton Travis (1904–2010), a renowned American dancer and actress who was the last surviving "Ziegfeld Girl" from the famous Ziegfeld Follies Broadway revues.
Bartlet for world domination 1 day ago
Eight decades later she was 94. Her final bow was two weeks before she d1ied at 106.
#34
Forrest Hobbs 1 day ago
Not that simple. 'In 1868, Vansittart was awarded a patent (British Patent no 2877), for an improvement on her father's work – what she called the Lowe-Vansittart propeller' - 'Henrietta improved the design with curved rather than straight blades for greater efficiency' - 'For her work on ship propulsion, Vansittart won many awards, was mentioned by name in various newspapers, such as The Times and her invention took her to several exhibitions all over the world' - '[her] obituary also claims that Vansittart was the first woman to write and read a scientific paper, illustrated with diagrams and drawings of her own, before a scientific institution'. Link follows.
#38
Tea Drinker 1 day ago
If only our VA still had free rides. They lost the contract and funding so now only certain vets can get a ride.
#41
Cary Fowler is known as the "father" of Svalbard Global Seed Vault.
Forrest Hobbs 1 day ago
Oh dear. No, he didn't build it. He lobbied for the Nordic Gene Bank, established in Svalbard in 1984, to go global in reach - basically, expanding an already existing project. This American did in fact have an awful lot to do with establishing the global version of the seed bank, but you know what? A lot of others were equally involved, Norway funded it, and Fowler didn't personally build any of it.
#45
Cheryl May 1 day ago
These are very nicely poetic AI descriptions of historical events, but it SURE WOULD BE NICE if they bothered to include actual INFORMATION about those events.
#46
Consuelo Velázquez wrote the famous bolero song "Bésame Mucho" in 1940.
#47
Chuck Feeney, the co-founder of Duty Free Shoppers who became a renowned philanthropist.
#49
Forrest Hobbs 1 day ago
He didn't vanish - he just lived privately. The band wrote 'Shine on your crazy diamond' as a tribute to him.
#52
Forrest Hobbs 1 day ago (edited)
It's certainly true that the allegations of performance enhancing drvg use levelled against her were never proven. It's really quite remarkable that she managed to enhance her performance to such an extent in such a short time (her 1987 performance was good but not great), setting records in 1988 that remain unbroken after all these decades. Link follows.
#57
YakFactory 1 day ago
The priest who collected over 3,000 Armenian folk songs and was active until 1915 was Komitas Vardapet (also known as Gomidas Vartabed). ANU Humanities Research Centre ANU Humanities Research Centre +2 Born Soghomon Soghomonian in 1869, he was a renowned Armenian composer, ethnomusicologist, and priest (ordained in 1895) who is considered the founder of modern Armenian national music. Wikipedia
#60
Ace 1 day ago (edited)
Thalidomide, the d**g in question, was not seeking approval as a sleeping pill, but an anti-emetic, Heavily prescribed in parts of Europe for pregnant women to alleviate morning sickness symptoms, it lead to thousands of deaths and birth deformities over the course of the next two years. It was subsequently used to treat leprosy and is still in use today in some cancer treatments. The case formed the bedrock on which modern clinical trials are based to avoid anything similar happening again. (The FDA official was Frances Oldham Kelsey, look her up).
#62
YakFactory 1 day ago
In 1942, in the Ukraine countryside, Pavel Gerasimchik and his family dug a secret, cramped, and unventilated space deep under the hay in their barn. The bunker served as a hiding place for over 18 months for Isaak, his wife Polina, and their daughter Lara.
#64
YakFactory 1 day ago
In 1883 Mother Marianne Cope (later St. Marianne of Molokaʻi) and six other Franciscan Sisters of Syracuse, New York, arrived in Hawaii to care for people suffering from leprosy (Hansen's disease).
#66
YakFactory 1 day ago
Tom Longboat (Cogwagee), an Onondaga runner from the Six Nations Reserve in Ontario, Canada, won the 1907 Boston Marathon with a record-breaking time of 2:24:24.
#71
Matthew Currie 1 day ago
In keeping with the odd tendency of this thread to leave names out, I note that the person in question was Edwin Armstrong.
#72
Spencer's slave no longer 1 day ago (edited)
She was not known for any revolutionary dance, she was purely a dancer. Lucia was institutionalised with schizophrenia in the mid 1930s and passed in 1982.
#73
#74
Spencer's slave no longer 1 day ago
So much BS in this one. He was one of 9 men sent from USS Pilsbury to board U505, after it was seen circling on the surface off Cape Blanco, French West Africa. Aware that German submariners were probably laying charges to scuttle and sink her, the US sailors blew the hatch and gained access. USS Guadalcanal arrived during the operation and assisted with the evacuation. While the Germans were being taken aboard the Pillsbury, Davis stayed aboard the 505, directing the salvage operation, which resulted in U505 being taken under tow to Bermuda. U505 is on display at the Griffin Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago, where she has been since 1954.
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Lee Gilliland 1 day ago
It would be nice, Robyn, if you could go back in and tell us these people 's names!
Loudawg76 1 day ago
This is the most infuriating list! So many inaccuracies about the facts, missing context for many and the missing names!!!
kikinlivi 1 day ago
These inflammatory lists are always inaccurate, or at best deceptive, but this had the added vice of being massively incomplete. Cudo's to the commentators for taking up the slack.
Load More Replies...
Liliana Spiro 1 day ago
Thank you so much to the kind folks who took the time in providing all that crucial info 🌞
laneydorris 18 hours ago
I am making a good salary from home $4580-$5240/week , which is amazing under a year ago I was jobless in a horrible economy. I thank God every day I was blessed with these instructions and now its my duty to pay it forward and share it with Everyone, Here is I started_______ LIVEJOB1.COM
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Jerome Lenovo 1 day ago
how many republikkkans in this list ? ...... (yeah, rage maga lurker, rage)
Nikki Sevven 1 day ago
Robyn, you need to learn to include relevant information in your listicles. Half of these don't include the person's name, and most of them omit circumstances that actually tell the story. Stop with the AI slop, please.
Highwaytozen 1 day ago
This list pissed me off so bad. What lazy, sloppy work. Robin, how and why are you working as a writer when you can't even be arsed to do some actual writing??
The_Nicest_Misanthrope 1 day ago
Half of these entries didn't have context, or even names. Some had outright wrong facts. Do better, BP.
Panda McPandaface 1 day ago
Should have been fascinating, instead it is so badly written and researched that it borders on being a waste of time. Not a good job Robyn.
Lee Gilliland 1 day ago
It would be nice, Robyn, if you could go back in and tell us these people 's names!
Loudawg76 1 day ago
This is the most infuriating list! So many inaccuracies about the facts, missing context for many and the missing names!!!
kikinlivi 1 day ago
These inflammatory lists are always inaccurate, or at best deceptive, but this had the added vice of being massively incomplete. Cudo's to the commentators for taking up the slack.
Load More Replies... Liliana Spiro 1 day ago
Thank you so much to the kind folks who took the time in providing all that crucial info 🌞
laneydorris 18 hours ago
I am making a good salary from home $4580-$5240/week , which is amazing under a year ago I was jobless in a horrible economy. I thank God every day I was blessed with these instructions and now its my duty to pay it forward and share it with Everyone, Here is I started_______ LIVEJOB1.COM
Load More Replies... Jerome Lenovo 1 day ago
how many republikkkans in this list ? ...... (yeah, rage maga lurker, rage)
Nikki Sevven 1 day ago
Robyn, you need to learn to include relevant information in your listicles. Half of these don't include the person's name, and most of them omit circumstances that actually tell the story. Stop with the AI slop, please.
Highwaytozen 1 day ago
This list pissed me off so bad. What lazy, sloppy work. Robin, how and why are you working as a writer when you can't even be arsed to do some actual writing??
The_Nicest_Misanthrope 1 day ago
Half of these entries didn't have context, or even names. Some had outright wrong facts. Do better, BP.
Panda McPandaface 1 day ago
Should have been fascinating, instead it is so badly written and researched that it borders on being a waste of time. Not a good job Robyn.
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