Skip to main content

15 history things I want you to know (more serious version)

These are meant to be more serious ways to correct misconceptions or gaps in knowledge. 

  1. Women played key roles in the Mongol Empire under Chinggis Khan and the rulers after
  2. There were tens of millions if not more than 100 million people in the Americas pre-contact
  3. Claudette Colvin refused to give up her seat on the bus to a white woman 9 months before Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat.
  4. For a while, "American literature" was in large part composed of captivity narratives
  5. Given that 65 countries and territories have gained independence from Britain, that means that every ~6 days a country or territory could be celebrating its independence from Britain
  6. One possible etymology of the racist term "redskin" is that the US government used to pay for the skins of indigenous people (they'd be red because they'd be bloody)
  7. The Emancipation Proclamation freed enslaved people only in the Confederacy
  8. Everything about the boarding school system for Indigenous Americans and Canadians. For instance, the last ones closed in the late 20th century (it's confusing to figure out exactly when though because some were taken over)
  9. "Cleopatra lived closer in time to the building of the first Pizza Hut than to the building of the pyramids." While this may not seem as important as other facts listed here, I think it goes to the misconception of Ancient Egypt (and perhaps other ancient cultures) as a stagnant civilization
  10. "The Navajo Suffered From Nuclear Testing"
  11. One major reason the Salem witch trials of 1692-3 are historically significant is that they ignited debate over spectral evidence (which generally wasn't allowed)
  12. The American Indian Movement (AIM) conducted many protests since its founding in 1968
  13. Iceland's "Althing is one of the oldest national parliaments in the world"
  14. Wounded Knee was a massacre, not a battle
  15. Folktales, legends, etc. often have some truth to them. For instance, it was said that the moai of Easter Island "walked" and now it seems that the moai were put in place by moving them in a way that resembles walking

(Prompt by me)

"English: "Tumanba Khan, His Wife, and His Nine Sons", Folio from a Chingiznama (Book of Genghis Khan)." Credit line: Purchase, Francis M. Weld Gift, 1948. 


Comments

Popular posts from this blog

15 facts I learned from a random Wikipedia article

Original prompt: click on "Random Wikipedia Article" and write about whatever comes up (you can try 3 times and pick your favorite). For the record, I got Alejandro Estivill , Fencing at the 2011 Pan American Games – Women's épée , and Benjamin F. Jonas . I chose Benjamin F. Jonas because it was the longest of the three entries and it had a photo. He was born in Kentucky, moved to Illinois as a kid, and went to college and spent the rest of his life in Louisiana Jonas's father was a merchant and lawyer His father knew Lincoln (like they were real buds) Despite this, Jonas sided with the confederacy Not only did he side with the confederacy, but he joined the Confederate army and rose to the rank of major He went to University of Louisiana (now Tulane) Jonas was Jewish (I didn't know there were Jewish senators who served the Confederacy) He was the second Jewish U.S. Senator from Louisiana and the third Jewish Senator overall Jonas was the first Ashkenazi Jewish US...

Origin story or first issue of a superhero whose super power is geometry

Arya sat in history class and was bored. She longed to get to geometry, where things made more sense. She liked geometry so much that she had joined the math team to be able to do it more. Okay, there was also the extra time with her friends who loved math as much as she did, but some of the appeal was just the math itself. Finally the bell rang and Arya had four minutes to get to her geometry class. She passed right by the chemistry class next door where her least favorite teacher was conducting experiments. He needed to be more careful, thought Arya. The teacher had once exploded a glass beaker and not on purpose. Arya took her seat and excitedly pulled out her notebook. It was her favorite color: hot pink. She assigned her notebook and folder colors in ways that felt right to her. And since geometry was her favorite subject, she made her notebook and folder for it her favorite color. As the teacher started to go over the most common mistakes from the last quiz, Arya could've swo...

Color palette

Original prompt: "Google "color palette," pick one, and write something inspired by it." I actually Googled "color palette public domain" to be sure I could use it and found the image on this post. I used the "floral" section for my inspiraiton. The soft sunlight somehow didn't dim the shine of the fireflies. Such it was in the fae realm. Fern loved this time of day in the faewild where it wasn't quite day, but it was far from night. Fern frolicked alone in the glade as she was want to do. It didn't matter to her that her laughter carried itself alone on the breeze; she was content. She wasn't sure how long she'd been alone as she watched the suns begin to set, but it was pleasant in its own way. But then, she heard a noise. It wasn't the noise of leaves on the wind or twigs snapping from some comforting creature. It was the noise of someone approaching with grim determination. Fern wasn't sure how to ready herself to ...