We humans have been around for hundreds of thousands of years, so naturally, certain things have slipped through the cracks of our collective memory, exposing us to a distorted understanding of our past. Hopefully, this list will remedy some of that damage. We at Bored Panda searched the internet and collected the interesting, strange, and downright frightening events that people believe are forgotten way too often. Continue scrolling to check them out and upvote the ones you also think need to be remembered. After all, those who don't know history are doomed to repeat it.
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Elon Musk didn't found PayPal or Tesla and has made no significant intellectual contribution to any field of programming or engineering.
I know it's recent history but still, not enough people want to talk about it.
There was a huge fight about African Americans using the public pool in Mr. Roger's actual neighborhood so he made a episode on his show where he and a African American guest were sharing a kiddy pool and talking about being nice to people even if they look or sound different. He taught a whole generation that racism isn't fair or right.
The African American man wrote a book about his life. He explains that he was gay and terrified people would find out because of discrimination. Mr. Roger's figured it out and was very excepting and kind. It really made a different in the man's life to meet someone who loved him for who he was.
That doing laundry was hard, dull work. Very little glamour, not hugely interesting, it was smelly and the women that did it were often unfairly depicted as whores because it was some of the best money they could make.
Thank god for washing machines now.
I have a distinct memory of when I was younger, I was really interested in great inventions and inventors and such.
I asked my grandmother what she thought was the most important invention of her life, of the twentieth century, expecting her to answer something like the airplane, or the car, or the moonlanding or the television.
She said it was the washing machine, which I thought was really stupid as a child. The television is so much cooler than a stupid household item like a washing machine!
Now that I'm an adult I realize the washing machine saved hours and hours of labour for 50% of the population. My grandmother was a farmer. She had 11 children.
Probably the washing machine has done more for the emancipation of women than universal suffrage and the last 25 years of feminist writing combined.
During the Irish Potato Famine in 1847, the Choctaw Nation in the United States, despite their own struggles, raised money to send aid to the starving Irish. Although the amount was small by today's standards, this act of solidarity was profoundly impactful. In response, during the COVID-19 pandemic, many Irish people returned the favor by donating money to help the Navajo Nation in the U.S., who were struggling with the virus. A statue in County Cork, Ireland, commemorates the Choctaw's generosity, symbolizing the lasting bond of empathy between the two communities.
The ancient Greeks, inventors of democracy, would elect their officials to one year terms. Each officials' finances were audited at the beginning and end of their term. If they were found guilty of corruption, they could face severe punishments, including fines or exile, though e*******n was not a common outcome for most officials.
Richard Nixon conspired with Saigon to win the 1968 presidential election. He interfered with the Johnson administration’s attempt at a peace treaty. This was literal treason and I feel that very few people know about it. The NYT wrote a piece about it in 2017.
The Candy Bomber. After World War II, when Berlin was divided, the US and UK airlifted supplies into West Berlin to counter the Soviet blockade. One pilot, Gail Halvorsen, started dropping candy to children, tying small parachutes to the sweets. To let them know it was his plane, he would "wiggle" the wings before the drop. This act of kindness grew into "Operation Little Vittles," inspiring other pilots to join in. The campaign became a symbol of American goodwill and helped shift public perception of aid efforts in post-war Europe.
The US secretly injecting people (typically poor / minorities, including children and pregnant women) with plutonium and other radioactive materials, and then studying them for decades. When they finally admitted it, the report was released at the same time of the OJ verdict to bury the story.
The 'Spanish Flu' actually likely got its start in Kansas, USA.
It's only called the Spanish Flu because most countries involved in WWI had a near-universal propaganda machine that only allowed good news to be published. Spain, which was neutral during the war, had one of the only 'free presses' in the world. They then were the only ones reporting on the massive deaths caused by the flu, leading the rest of the world to believe that they were the source or the most affected. In fact, the death rate was near-universal and destroyed some entire cities/communities in the US and Canada, specifically those of Inuit and First Nations communities.
Humans developed agriculture around 12000 years ago. By storing grain, huge numbers of rodents flourished. Cats showed up to eat the rodents, and humans learned that if they took care of the cats, the cats would control the rodents. Therefore, it was the invention of agriculture that led to the domestication of the house cat.
Norway Knighted a Penguin. His plaque officially states he's the Colonel-in-Chief of their King's Guard.
The Great Stink of London in 1858.
One summer the heat dried up the River Thames (where all the human waste went) and an unbearable smell pervaded throughout the entire city. All Parliament representatives were eventually coerced out of their homes outside of London to convene and solve the issue. Much to the citizens’ glee, Parliament was held in their building on the bank of the River Thames, resulting in one of the fastest Parliament decisions ever made to reform the London sewer system.
In 2006, while the Ivory Coast was in the midst of a civil war, the opposing sides agreed to a ceasefire so that they could all watch the World Cup. The break in fighting paved the way for a peace agreement a year later.
Woodrow Wilson was mentally and emotionally incapacitated by a massive stroke in October 1919, and his wife and doctors essentially ran the country until Harding took office in 1921. Some historians refer to Edith Wilson as "the first female president."
The 2nd Congo War. This was the deadliest conflict since World War 2 with over 5 million people killed. Most people have never heard of it despite it ending less than 20 years ago.
No political interrest from neither the US, Russia or China, so nobody gave a fck
On February 11, 1985, the Soviet space station Salyut 7 lost contact with mission control, leaving it adrift and unpowered. A daring rescue mission was launched, led by cosmonauts Vladimir Dzhanibekov and Viktor Savinykh. After docking with the station, they discovered all systems were shut down and the interior was freezing cold. Wearing fur-lined winter clothing, they restored power and repaired the station, successfully bringing it back online. This remains one of the most remarkable space rescues in history.
Many people know about the Suffragettes who won the vote for some UK women in 1918. However, many people don’t realize that before 1918, not all men had the right to vote either. While voting had been gradually expanded over the previous 80 years, it was still restricted by property ownership and wealth. The 1918 Representation of the People Act granted the vote to all men over 21, as well as women over 30 who met property qualifications. This was a significant step toward universal suffrage in the UK, though full equal voting rights for men and women were only achieved in 1928.
In Australia, women were allowed to vote in some states/colonies earlier than the federal ruling, and they could stand for parliament before being allowed to actually vote. Aboriginal people couldn't vote until the late 1960s (federally).
Cleopatra wasn’t just a political mastermind—she was also a linguistic prodigy, speaking nine languages, including Egyptian, making her the first ruler of her Greek family to do so. But here’s the truly overlooked bit of history: when Julius Caesar was trapped in Alexandria, Cleopatra didn’t just wait around for help. In a bold move, she had herself smuggled into his presence wrapped in a carpet (or some versions say a sack). Her servant, fluent in Latin, got them past the Roman guards, and when the carpet was unrolled, Cleopatra emerged, cleverly catching Caesar by surprise. This dramatic entrance wasn’t just about a queen’s charm; it was a calculated risk that helped secure her future—and it worked. Despite not having bathed in days, she managed to win over Caesar with her sharp intellect and undeniable presence. It’s a moment that shows just how far Cleopatra was willing to go to maintain power and influence in a male-dominated world.
While educated people, including ancient Greeks, knew the Earth was round by at least the 5th century BCE, the idea of a flat Earth was never widely held in medieval Europe. Throughout the Middle Ages, most scholars and educated figures understood that the Earth was spherical. The notion that medieval Europeans believed in a flat Earth is a misconception largely created in the 19th century.
During Argentina’s military dictatorship in the 1970s and 80s, approximately 30,000 people were forcibly disappeared by the government. These individuals, mostly political dissidents, were taken from their homes, tortured, and often thrown out of planes into the Atlantic Ocean after being drugged. This horrific practice was part of what became known as the "Dirty War".
Among the victims were pregnant women, who were allowed to give birth before being killed. Their babies were forcibly taken and given to military families for adoption, with the truth of their origins kept hidden. For decades, these children were unaware of their true identities, and many are still learning the truth today.
The Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo, a group of mothers whose children were among the disappeared, began holding regular protests in the Plaza de Mayo in Buenos Aires to demand justice and answers. Their efforts played a key role in exposing the atrocities of the dictatorship, and they still continue to meet, advocating for human rights and for the return of lost identities.
That Tibet under the Dalai Lamas was a pretty brutal theocracy with a medieval criminal code. They still punished theft by chopping off hands. Also in the 1930s, they made two attempts to expand south into Chinese territory, though granted Great Britain was financially involved. Note none of this excuses the Chinese invasion, but there is a tendency to see Tibet through rose coloured glasses these days.
Key word? Theocracy. Just what many "Christians' want today, forgetting it never ends well.
In 1847, Robert Liston performed an amputation in 25 seconds, operating so quickly that he accidentally amputated his assistant's fingers as well. Both patient and assistant later died of sepsis, and a spectator reportedly died of shock, resulting in the only known surgical procedure with a 300% mortality rate.
The escape from Antarctica by the members of the Antarctic expedition led by Ernest Shackleton. The stuff they went through was unbelievable. Their boat, the Endurance was crushed by ice floes. They were stranded on the floes for over a year in temperatures well below freezing. They then took to three boats around 22 feet in length across the antarctic ocean looking for land. There were about 10 men in each boat. They missed reaching land by just a few miles at times. Two thirds of them got stranded on Elephant Island surrounded by ice while one of the boats went out in search of rescue. That boat made it through the Drake Passage, one of the deadliest places in the ocean. All but three of them got stranded with little food and water while the three men who left became the first people the cross South Georgia on foot. They found civilization. Rescued the men who came through the Drake Passage. Waited months until they could rescue those on Elephant Island. Every single person who came on the initial voyage survived with the worst lasting consequence being a single foot amputation.
I saw one of the boats, in the museum in Christchurch in New Zealand, it was tiny, I wouldn't have wanted to cross a lake in it, never mind the Antarctic ocean
Fidel Castro loved dairy products so much that he built a massive ice cream parlor, Coppelia, which still operates in Havana. He also oversaw an ambitious breeding program to create a heat-resistant, high-yield dairy cow. One such cow, Ubre Blanca ("White Udder"), became famous for breaking global milk production records and was treated as a national symbol of Cuba's agricultural progress.
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 s*********n 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 s*********n in the United States.
There was a Japanese soldier named Hiro Onoda who never realized ww2 was over until 1974. He was sent to a small island in the Philippines to spy on the American forces. He evaded capture and remained in the jungle to carry out his mission for the next 30 years. His former superior had to come out of retirement to convince him the war was over.
In my country, we have people who refuse to accept they lost the Civil War.
The Bengal Famine of 1943, which resulted in the deaths of around 2-3 million people, is often linked to Churchill’s government due to wartime policies that worsened the crisis. While there’s no definitive proof that Churchill intentionally caused the famine, his administration’s actions—such as diverting food supplies and failing to send adequate aid—are widely criticized for exacerbating the disaster. The tragedy was largely overshadowed by the global events of WWII, and its impact on India and Churchill’s role in it has been the subject of ongoing debate among historians.
That is what happens when a population is colonized or subjugated - it becomes second priority. Things may look good when there is normalcy, but once pressure is felt by the whole, ignoring welfare of those subjugated within will look something normal and just. That is why sovereignty of identities is important. Identity on any and all basis. Atleast they can negotiate or fight for negotiation.
The katana, the famous sword of the Japanese Samurai, was never an important military weapon. Samurai went into battle armed with bows or polearms, swords were just backup weapons. The katana didn't become prominent until the Edo period, when the country was unified under one ruler and warfare between Samurai had ceased. The katana was primarily a status symbol, valued because only members of the Samurai class were allowed to carry them.
The way of the sword was one of the accepted Zen arts for the enlightened Samurai, along with archery, poetry, calligraphy, and Ichiban (flower arranging). There are others but these are the ones where I proved I have no Samurai blood at all.
In the early 1900s, the Tennessee Children’s Home Society was an illegal orphanage that kidnapped babies from poor households and sold them.