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History Enthusiasts Are Sharing History Facts That Many People Would Find Shocking (50 Facts) Sharpshooter Annie Oakley had a stage act where she would shoot a cigarette out of someone's mouth. While she was touring Europe, Kaiser Wilhelm Il of Germany surprised everyone on a whim and insisted on holding the cigarette.

Ever the professional, Oakley shot the cigarette without harming the Kaiser.

Several years later WWI is underway and the US goes to war against Germany.

Oakley wrote a letter to Kaiser Wilhelm asking if she could have another try at that shot.

He didn't reply.

doublestitch , wikipedia.or Report

Final score:

235points

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Nathaniel He/Him Cis-Het 6 months ago

Go Annie!

87points

History Enthusiasts Are Sharing History Facts That Many People Would Find Shocking (50 Facts) The world’s first programmer was Ada Lovelace in the 1840s. She was the daughter of the poet Lord Byron.

Two programming languages were named after her.

ChronoLegion2 , wikipedia.or Report

Final score:

213points

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Ariom Dahl 6 months ago

Applause for Ada! :)

66points

Bored Panda got in touch with archaeologist and historian Ari Akkermans and he was kind enough to share some of his thoughts. Firstly, we wanted to know what he thought many people got wrong about history. “I guess the most common misconception about the past, which can be seen especially in the way people approach archaeology and antiquity, the past isn't something that happened in a time completely separate from the present; a lot of the past is still in the present: Think of environmental pollution that happens hundreds of years ago, mass graves from the Neolithic, Roman temples or bomb shelters from World War I.”

“They all refer to events that happened a long time ago, but that survive not only as a memory, but in physical form too. Some things from the past of course have disappeared, but the entanglement between peoples, landscapes and things is so strong, that we are still living with a lot of the past, think about the wheel or agriculture. Another common misconception of course is that the past was better, and as Virginia Woolf notes, the past is always beautiful because it has time to expand.”

America-centric: The first person to attend an integrated school only qualified for full Social Security benefits two years ago.

People think about the legacy of Jim Crow and American racism as if it were the relic of a bygone era. It’s not. The people who were throwing rotten fruit and rocks at Ruby Bridges- the younger ones- are still alive. Many of them are still running the country. The older ones died recently and absolutely passed on their values to their children, who are probably even younger than Ruby.

American racism is not “my ancestors”. It’s “my grandma”.

FoucaultsPudendum Report

Final score:

212points

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Rosecrucian Roeth 6 months ago

American Racism is still very much in vogue..........................

92points

BuckChickman2 , Library of Congress Report

History Enthusiasts Are Sharing History Facts That Many People Would Find Shocking (50 Facts) 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.".

Final score:

193points

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geezeronthehill 6 months ago

Glad she was competent.

51points

History Enthusiasts Are Sharing History Facts That Many People Would Find Shocking (50 Facts) When the colosseum was used for fighting they used to line the stage with sand to soak up the blood. The Latin name for sand is harena, which means "sand" or "sandy space"...so that's why we call modern concert/show spaces arenas.

nmkelly6 , David Libeert Report

Final score:

182points

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Board Pan, duh. 6 months ago

Whoa. I did not know this! So interesting 🤔

53points

“Our childhood memories are probably not realistic, and because of the temporal distance, they contain a lot of projection. But that's also not to say the past was worse... So in fact it was neither worse nor better. We also tend to speak about earlier times using adjectives such as primitive or medieval, but those were very complex worlds that cannot be dismissed so easily. At the same time, for all our 'civilization', we're living through some of the most violent and unequal times in recent history.”

“To affirm that the past was neither better nor worse doesn't mean to cancel progress, which does exist, but never in linear form. It's difficult to get a timeline of human civilization because civilization isn't a stable concept. What might have been considered civilized in the 19th century, for example, colonization, isn't today. We tend to use certain markers to define the beginnings of civilization, especially architectural ones, because we're used to thinking of civilization in terms of monumentality, but this is a bias inherited from the classical heritage of Europe.”

History Enthusiasts Are Sharing History Facts That Many People Would Find Shocking (50 Facts) The Second Congo War, also known as Africa's World War was the deadliest conflict since World War 2 with over 5 million people killed.

Most people have never heard of it despite it ending in 2003.

SuvenPan , L. Werchick / USAID Report

Final score:

176points

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Donkeywheel 6 months ago (edited)

« Most people have never heard of it despite it ending in 2003 » *in the USA. Where most people wouldn’t even be able to pinpoint the location of Congo (BC, RC, DRC, then or now) anyway. This war was intensively covered in world news everywhere else.

30points

History Enthusiasts Are Sharing History Facts That Many People Would Find Shocking (50 Facts) When the SS Britannia went down in the South Atlantic, a raft of survivors managed to get away. According to the men on the raft, there was one more survivor on the raft with them. But he was unfortunately pulled under by a **Giant Squid** which then returned and attacked their Lieutenant named Cox, who they managed to save before scaring the beast away. Their claims were called out as preposterous and made up when they returned home...until Lieutenant Cox got sick of being accused of such and went to see a local marine biologist at a college. The biologist validated Cox's claims as he had scars 1-1/4 inches in size, which definitely belonged to a 23-feet long squid. It is believed that this story is the only known substantiated report of death by Giant Squid.

killingjoke96 , rivage Report

Final score:

172points

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Dragons Exist 6 months ago (edited)

Bruh BP you fúcking censored Cóx. It's a literal name. You also made me have to give it an accent to get around the censor

244points

The United States, under the guise of providing free healthcare, intentionally left Syphilis untreated in African Americans in order to study the effects.

This was done without their consent, and they were discouraged from going to any other doctors.

Now people will be like "Oh of course they experimented on slaves!'

No, this started under FDR in 1932, and went on until 1972.

AlphaTangoFoxtrt Report

Final score:

158points

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Manana Man 6 months ago

The Tuskegee Experiment

14points

“There are some civilizations that did not leave grand monuments, but whose achievements are perhaps equally important or even more, than those of the Near East, for example the way indigenous people arrived in Australia from the Pacific during the Ice Age, long before navigation was invented. Another point of departure for civilization has been traditionally agriculture, and therefore sedentary life,” he shared with Bored Panda.

#10

History Enthusiasts Are Sharing History Facts That Many People Would Find Shocking (50 Facts) Some Greenland sharks have been alive since before the U.S. became a country.

No-uh19 , wikipedia.org Report

Final score:

156points

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_physically_insane_(he/him) 6 months ago

Over 500 years iirc

46points

#11

Potatoes are native to Peru, not Ireland.
Tomatoes are native to Mexico, not Italy.
Macadamia nuts are native to Australia, not Hawai'i.
Pineapples are native to Brazil, not Hawai'i.
Beef cattle are native to India, not Texas or Argentina.
Coffee beans are native to Yemen, not South America.
Kiwi fruit is native to China, not New Zealand.
Vanilla is native to Mexico, not Madagascar.
Oranges are native to China, not California or Florida.

Lebe_Lache_Liebe Report

Final score:

151points

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Chewie Baron 6 months ago

Coffee beans first came from Ethiopia, not Yemen.

98points

#12

History Enthusiasts Are Sharing History Facts That Many People Would Find Shocking (50 Facts) 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.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unethical_human_experimentation_in_the_United_States#Human_radiation_experiments

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_radiation_experiments

When they finally admitted it, the report was released at the same time of the OJ verdict to bury the story.

afCeG6HVB0IJ , wikipedia.org Report

Final score:

141points

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Board Pan, duh. 6 months ago

Disgusting

93points

“But there were so many other possibilities, Paleolithic peoples lived in so many different arrangements, in many different political and cultural systems. The modern world is far narrower, and frankly we seem to be stuck in a system that isn't working very well for most people, so to speak of modernity as the peak of civilization is perhaps foolish.”

#13

A lot of things women take for granted are fairly recent developments. Stuff like being able to have a credit card in your name. Buying a car or a house without a male cosigner. And it used to be extremely bad to be a divorced woman. I'm not talking about the 40s. I'm talking about the 70s-80s.

Women weren't allowed to get credit cards or open bank accounts until 1974.

Women got the vote in 1920.

A lot of these vary by state. I'm sure there were states where women bought houses before 74 or had bank accounts. But it wasn't a nationally protected thing until 74.

Heck the house I grew up in was bought in 74 by my mom. Coincidence?

Calaveras-Metal Report

Final score:

128points

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John Dilligaf 6 months ago

My Grandmother marched in support of the 19th Amendment . One of my earliest memories (early 1970s) is my Mom pitching an absolute fit and storming out of a bank because they demanded that a male relative co-sign for her to open a checking and savings account. She was divorced and in her 30s. She later told me, she was go*damed if she was going to ask her dad (my grandfather) to sign. She went to three banks before one would open an account for her.

99points

#14

Jimmy Carter has been alive for 40% of US history.

DumbassTexan Report

Final score:

124points

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Ray Ceeya (RayCeeYa) 6 months ago

He was still volunteering at Habitat for Humanity in his 90s. Dude was 94 and still building houses. He's backed off since he into into hospice care but I wouldn't be surprised if he still shows up at jobsites with peanut butter sandwiches for the workers. God bless that peanut farmer.

101points

#15

History Enthusiasts Are Sharing History Facts That Many People Would Find Shocking (50 Facts) Picasso, Bruce Lee and JRR Tolkien all died the same year.

lordpanda , Pixabay Report

Final score:

122points

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Thomas Grant 6 months ago

A bad year for 3 seperate forms of art.

91points

“I would like to think a good bar for measuring civilization as a timeline I guess would be the beginning of art, or rather, the beginning of abstraction, when the human brain cortex was developed enough to process symbols. This moment took place during the Ice Age, between 100,000 and 12,000 years ago. All the great prehistoric art we have in museums comes from this period.” You can find more of his work on Instagram or his various sites.

#16

History Enthusiasts Are Sharing History Facts That Many People Would Find Shocking (50 Facts) The year 536 was deemed the worst year to be alive. Volcanic eruptions caused prolonged dark sky for up to 18 months. This then caused a mini ice age, crop failures and plague over the next 10 years killing millions

Also the name Tiffany has been in use since the 1600s.

little-bird89 , Seatizen.co Report

Final score:

121points

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two-sided llama 6 months ago

You know guys I feel if we all come together we can beat that record.

80points

#17

History Enthusiasts Are Sharing History Facts That Many People Would Find Shocking (50 Facts) Britain executed men as cowards during WWI if they had “shell shock” which is what we call PTSD today if they could not or would not fight as a result .

ChrisShapedObject , Pixabay Report

Final score:

117points

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Katrina Nixon 6 months ago

This is brutal.

83points

#18

Columbus's contemporaries didn't criticise he because they thought he would sail off the edge of a flat earth; their criticism was that he was significantly underestimating the *size* of the earth's globe - and they were quite right, he was.

TheDocJ Report

Final score:

117points

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Stephanie Did It 6 months ago

The myth of a flat earth wasn't nearly as predominant in ancient times as it is claimed to be. The Biblical prophet Isaiah mentioned "the circle of the earth" not as a revelation, but as a known fact around 740 BCE (Isaiah 40:22). People have known the planets are round spheres for a long, long time.

84points

#19

History Enthusiasts Are Sharing History Facts That Many People Would Find Shocking (50 Facts) Sharks are older than the rings on Saturn.

mightytonto , Gerald Schömbs Report

Final score:

111points

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Thomas Grant 6 months ago

Sharks are awesome. Absolute beasts, but awesome all the same.

48points

#20

Earth will never have (abundant) coal again. Coal exists because trees/plants evolved lignin but fungi did not evolve the ability to decompose lignin until millions of years later. Wood was just piling up all over the place for millenia, sometimes catching fire, sometimes getting buried & turning into coal.

DaWarthawg Report

Final score:

107points

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Tabitha 6 months ago

People don’t realize that fossil fuels, minerals, etc are finite resources we have been extracting and burning—-and therefore, greatly depleting—-for centuries now. We will run out and it won’t be long before we do. So we should be switching to infinite energy sources, such as solar and wind. Problem is we have coal and oil companies wielding way too much power and squelching any research that proves their limitations, instead of embracing it and evolving into solar and wind energy companies. They will end up the same as the carriage makers and livery stables that didn’t retool to manufacture car bodies and convert to parking garages with the rise of the automobile—-and they know it. Only they’re not willing to give up the billions of dollars they’re making right now to spend a good chunk of it for that retooling. They will be as extinct as the dinosaurs who contributed to the raw materials they pump out of the earth.

82points

#21

History Enthusiasts Are Sharing History Facts That Many People Would Find Shocking (50 Facts) Many people know about the Suffragettes who won the vote for some UK women in 1918. Many people don't know that prior to 1918 men did not have universal suffrage. 1918 is also the date which non landowning men got the vote. Prior to that the vote had been only for wealthy landowning lords, just 5% of the population. Over a period of the preceding 80 years concessions were slowly made to allow more men, and then some women to vote.

this-guy- , Edmond Dantès Report

Final score:

105points

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Jill Rhodry 6 months ago

Perfect example of how feminism also helps men.

100points

#22

History Enthusiasts Are Sharing History Facts That Many People Would Find Shocking (50 Facts) We are closer to the time of the T-Rex than the T-Rex is to the time of the Stegosaurus.

pumper911 , Margin_call_matthew Report

Final score:

103points

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Minecraft_Chicken (He/Chicken) 6 months ago

Cleopatra was closer to the iPhone then the great pyramids.

70points

#23

History Enthusiasts Are Sharing History Facts That Many People Would Find Shocking (50 Facts) That in 2006 the earth was hit by a gamma ray burst from a distant supernova that stripped away about 6% of our top atmosphere (its fine now). If it had been bigger it would've wiped everything on earth out (and by bigger I mean if it was 20-25%).

TrickyShare242 , Pixabay Report

Final score:

103points

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Bec 6 months ago

Warning shot?

77points

#24

History Enthusiasts Are Sharing History Facts That Many People Would Find Shocking (50 Facts) It took about 4 times longer to get from copper swords to steel swords, than it took from steel swords to atomic bombs.

HerpinDerpNerd12 , Pixabay Report

Final score:

101points

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james stevenson 6 months ago

over 2000 years from chariots to carts. less than 200 years from carts to supersonic jets

64points

#25

History Enthusiasts Are Sharing History Facts That Many People Would Find Shocking (50 Facts) Europeans are able to tolerate lactose better than most ethnic groups because our ancestors kept drinking milk even tough it would make them s**t their pants. Just too good to let a bit of shotgun s**t ruin it.

IceClimbers_Main , Pixabay Report

Final score:

98points

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Thomas Grant 6 months ago

And we would do it again.

71points

#26

The first telephones didn't ring. Owners had no way of knowing if there'd be someone on the other end when they picked it up. It took a year or two to create the noise alert.

globaldu Report

Final score:

92points

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John Nelson 6 months ago

"Dear sir, we are writing to inform you that on the afternoon of Friday hence, we shall endeavor to speak to you via telephone to express our concern concerning your buggy's extended warranty."

34points

#27

Your ancestors did not eat purer food and the preservatives we have now are a thousand times more preferable to what went on before the food safety reforms of the mid 1900s to 1910s. Even in the so-called more pastoral times had no sense of germ theory. Your food - say, a loaf of bread - would be coughed on, sweated on, possibly stomped on or chewed up at some points (esp in bread baking, they'd stomp it down), throw chalk and other adulterants like metal powders in it, and bake it in a dirty oven with unwashed hands, and placed in open fly-ridden air for display and sale.

Also, olives are only mushy and rubbery now because freshly canned olives gave so many people deathly food poisoning in the mid-50s, that they now cook 'em in the can like tuna or shredded chicken to avoid another disaster.

TwoFingersWhiskey Report

Final score:

90points

POST

ADZ 6 months ago

I was always love idiots on paleo diets: "try my paleo cheese cake" C*** you need a brain not a diet.

58points

Dutch Swimmer Goes Viral For Super Revealing Trunks During 2024 Olympics: “Is This Legal?”

See Also on Bored Panda

Thrill-Seeking Diver Jumps Down Extreme Waterslide, Ignoring The Strict Ban For Women

#28

History Enthusiasts Are Sharing History Facts That Many People Would Find Shocking (50 Facts) People used to get their feet X-rayed at the shoe store to check their shoe fit.

swinging_on_peoria , KnockKnock-Nevermind Report

Final score:

89points

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geezeronthehill 6 months ago

I did that. But then, I'm old.

25points

#29

History Enthusiasts Are Sharing History Facts That Many People Would Find Shocking (50 Facts) Within a single person's lifetime, we went from all transportation being by horses, ships, and trains, to landing a man on the moon.

perishingtardis , Pixabay Report

Final score:

89points

POST

Zaach 6 months ago

Covered wagons to space in my great g-ma's life (she lived to 102)

63points

#30

Did you know that during the 17th century, wealthy Europeans would consume parts of mummies for medicinal purposes? Yeah, they actually believed that mummy powder could cure everything from headaches to stomach ulcers. Imagine reaching for a jar of ground mummy remains instead of aspirin!

Sinusfish Report

Final score:

86points

POST

Dread Pirate Roberts 6 months ago (edited)

So technically, back then, rich Europeans were cannibals 😳

25points

#31

History Enthusiasts Are Sharing History Facts That Many People Would Find Shocking (50 Facts) Hitting children in school was still legal when I was there and I'm only 43.

scumbernauld , Arthur Krijgsman Report

Final score:

81points

POST

Kat 6 months ago

I was hit when I was in high school, 15 years old, I'm the same age as OP

24points

#32

History Enthusiasts Are Sharing History Facts That Many People Would Find Shocking (50 Facts) Approximately 8% of Canadians were enlisted in the Canadian Expeditionary Force during World War I.

That isn't 8% of eligible Canadians, or 8% of Canadian men; that's 8% of the entire population of Canada. If a similar proportion enlisted in the United States today, there would be 26 million people serving in the US Armed Forces.

RaspberryBirdCat , wikipedia.org Report

Final score:

76points

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Delta Dawn 6 months ago

That’s 10x the current size (relative to population) of the US armed forces

20points

Woman Put A Water Fountain With A Camera In Her Yard, Here Are 24 Photos Of Regular Visitors (New Pics)

See Also on Bored Panda

“Ma’am I Live Here”: Woman Refuses To Back Out Of Driveway, Learns A Lesson The Hard Way

#33

History Enthusiasts Are Sharing History Facts That Many People Would Find Shocking (50 Facts) Napoleon was actually 5 foot 7 inches not 5'2.

x_Turtle1980_x , wikipedia.org Report

Final score:

76points

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geezeronthehill 6 months ago

British disinformation to make him seem less legit. Folks subconsciously want taller leaders.

53points

Extreme-Insurance877 , Andrea Piacquadio Report

#34

History Enthusiasts Are Sharing History Facts That Many People Would Find Shocking (50 Facts) The tram was invented by a Mr. Train

King George III was personally *against* the Stamp Act, and in NY a statue was erected of him in thanks for his role in appealing it

Nelson Mandela was listed as a terrorist threat (and remained on the terrorist watch-list) in the USA up until 2008.

Final score:

75points

POST

geezeronthehill 6 months ago

If there was any symmetry to the universe, the train would have been invented by Mrs. Tram.

38points

#35

History Enthusiasts Are Sharing History Facts That Many People Would Find Shocking (50 Facts) A military plane carrying two nuclear warheads broke apart and crashed in North Carolina. The state would have gotten nuked if it weren't for a single safety switch preventing detonation. These nukes were bigger than the ones we used in Japan.

Read up on the 1961 Goldsboro B-52 crash.

mvw2 , Pixabay Report

Final score:

69points

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Justin Tyme 6 months ago

Is that a newborn B-52 in the photo?

32points

#36

The fact that sturgeons survived the fall of the meteorite that destroyed the dinosaurs, and have not evolved in any way since then.

ACE1020spawn Report

Final score:

67points

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Vix Spiderthrust 6 months ago

Bollocks. It is literally impossible for them not to have evolved since then. Their *body type* might not have changed, but their immune systems, in a constant war with ever-evolving microbial life, will be bang up to date.

35points

50 Of The Most Incredible Shots That Were Submitted To The Comedy Wildlife Photography Awards

See Also on Bored Panda

French Diver’s “Jewels” In Tight Swimming Trunks Become Talk Of The Town At Olympics

#37

The last use of the guillotine in France and the release of the first*Star Wars* movie occurred in the same year - 1977.

WJMorris3 Report

Final score:

66points

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Thomas Grant 6 months ago

Fun Fact: They were not related in any way.

66points

#38

The unfair taxation the US revolted against was actually very fair and only a fraction of what British in other colonies were paying.

ArmadaOnion Report

Final score:

66points

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Shane S 6 months ago

It was the taxes but also the lack of representation in government.

85points

Jess Smith 6 months ago (edited)

It was: 1) that we had a free press that could distribute information, 2) we weren't being allowed to steal (even more) Native land. That latter bit is often forgotten, but here's a quote from the Declaration of Independence: "He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions." And very few people could've voted! The women (50 percent) couldn't, nor could male slaves (about 9 percent of the population). I can't find data on landowners, so *I SUBBED IN AN EASIER NUMBER, THIS IS VERY ROUGH AND QUITE POSSIBLY WRONG* I tried using the 1900 landowning percentage - slightly above forty-five percent. By this estimate, about 19 percent of the population could vote. Data source: census.gov/data/tables/time-series/dec/coh-owner.html. *TL;DR* It's a bit weird to fight for 'representation' or whatever while denying over half of your population the vote. So either they were shameless hypocrites, or they had other motives...neither of which is a very flattering portrait. (edit: I just realized you could use editing to get around post limits, which is nice!)

11points

Becca not Becky 6 months ago

Also a lot of laws and governing policies like the Writs of Assistance and Townsend Act.

4points

calvin and hobbes 6 months ago

taxation without representation

4points

Manana Man 6 months ago

Seems to me I remember the phrase 'No taxation without representation."

1point

Cj Churchall-McKenzie 3 months ago

yet porto rico is treated like that by the USA now.

0points

Lex T. (Fiendish) 5 months ago

This. It was being taxed specifically without being represented in government. Not *just*that they were being taxed.

0points

Rosecrucian Roeth 6 months ago

Ah yes, the infamous Boston Tea Party. Oddly enough, ever since, the city of Boston has been steeped in history............................

13points

Kate 6 months ago

*groan*

6points

ThisIsTheRealBruno 6 months ago (edited)

FFS, read the Declaration of Independence. 90% of it is a list of the grievances. But even on the matter of taxes: It wasn't the size of the taxation, it was what was taxed. The Stamp tax was meant to put the independent press out of business. Basically, the taxes were meant to stifle dissent The forced involvement in the 7 Years' War meant colonists died for a war they didn't want, which also put an emnity between the colonists and many American Indian nations which had not existed previously (the emnity that is, not the American Indians), so the taxes' justification (making the colonists pay for their theater of the war) was particularly obnoxious. Tone deaf? Yeah, The colonies had a third the population of Britain at the time, so they were basically ruled as a foreign-occupied dictatorship by lords who didn't know or give a f**k what was going on. And this was after they had been pretty much left to their own devices since the bankruptcies of the corporate charters 130 years earlier.

7points

Surenu 6 months ago

Rule number one of complaining about taxes, everyone pays less than you no matter what

4points

Suzy McDaniel 6 months ago

This was written by a Brit. :P

3points

Charles Kormos 6 months ago

Yes, a bunch of old, rich, white guys who didn't want to pay their taxes created the USA. Today, same.

2points

Andrew Read 6 months ago

It was about snouts to the trough.

2points

Still DG 6 months ago

Right, but we still didn't have universal healthcare.

1point

Travelling Stranger 6 months ago

they rebelled because they had no representation in british parliament and their motto was "no taxation without representation", which is what they considered unfair, not just the rates

1point

Riley Quinn 6 months ago

Not a valid argument. Just because Britain treated their other colonies unfairly was no reason for Americans to accept it.

1point

Delta Dawn 6 months ago

Hurrah for colonialism!! …. wait

1point

Cydney Golden 5 months ago

Yeah, but taxation without representation.

0points

Rich Black 5 months ago

We objected to taxation without representation, not taxes in general. You should object to inaccurate history books.

0points

Morngaur of Gorgoroth 6 months ago

We didn't revolt against higher taxes. We complained and wrote letters to Parliament about higher taxes. We revolted because the British placed the entire colony of Massachusetts under martial law, suspended all civil liberties there, and launched a military assault designed to disarm the populace in the area around Boston. The other 12 colonies wisely figured, "if it can happen there, it could happen here."

0points

Michael Largey 6 months ago

Colonialism is by definition unfair. That was what the revolt was about.

0points

Event horizon 6 months ago (edited)

So then did all the colonizing white Europeans and their descendants then get on ships and go back to England, returning the North American colonies to the indigenous peoples whose land had been occupied by the colonizers?

2points

jennifer brinkman 6 months ago

Ancestors of our govt today that won't pay taxes because they are rich!

0points

axle f 6 months ago

...yeah, but we're all exceptional n'all.... hadn't you heard?

0points

Trisec Tebeakesse 6 months ago

A local historian (Massachusetts) has stated that if the King actually gave us what we wanted, which was representatives in parliament, the revolution probably wouldn't have happened. It was never about the taxes. It was all about representation.

-2points

Michael Largey 6 months ago

Others disagree. Any colonial members in a British Parliament would be too few in number to affect anything. The thirteen colonies would still be ruled by the English members of Parliament.

-2points

#39

History Enthusiasts Are Sharing History Facts That Many People Would Find Shocking (50 Facts) We put man on the moon before wheels on suitcases.

Knowledge_Regret , Oleksandr P Report

Final score:

65points

POST

Justin Tyme 6 months ago

But we still haven't put wheels on astronauts or suitcases on the moon.

92points

#40

The British pet massacre. In 1939, about 400,000 cats and dogs were killed in order to prepare for World War II food shortages. This was approximately 1/4 of the pets in England.

Kevin_Uxbridge Report

Final score:

61points

POST

Katrina Nixon 6 months ago

Whaaaat???

40points

#41

The United States government intentionally poisoned 10,000 people by spiking the alcohol they drank during prohibition.

alcohall183 Report

Final score:

60points

POST

Ray Ceeya (RayCeeYa) 6 months ago

Just to clarify, alcohol was still needed for medical and industrial purposes. To prevent people from drinking this alcohol it was "denatured". The alcohol we drink is ethanol. It denatured by mixing it with methanol and isopropyl alcohol to make it toxic. Those alcohols have very similar properties to ethanol and are extremely hard to seperate. People tried anyway. Prohibition really was one of the dumbest things the USA has ever done and that's a very long list.

59points

Woman Moves Out Of Parents' Home After They Asked Her To Give Her Space To Brother, They Freak Out

See Also on Bored Panda

Mom Leaves $250k Inheritance To Son, Throws A Fit When Daughter Stops Looking After Her

#42

History Enthusiasts Are Sharing History Facts That Many People Would Find Shocking (50 Facts) George Washington’s dentures were not wooden, but were crafted from various materials, animal teeth, and the teeth of enslaved people.

viscousrobot46 , Karolina Grabowska Report

Final score:

59points

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Justin Tyme 6 months ago

A set of his dentures are on display at the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn Michigan.

20points

#43

Constantinople, and thus, the Roman Empire, fell in 1453.

There is a 16th Century Spanish explorer named Juan de Fuca who is credited with exploring the strait that borders Vancouver Island, Canada, and Washington, USA (now called Juan de Fuca Strait).

Juan de Fuca is a Hispanicization of the Greek name Ioannis Phokas. His grandfather fled Constantinople and his family eventually ended up Spain.

This means an actual descendent of the Roman Empire was exploring North America.

magistercaesar Report

Final score:

56points

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Hmmm hmmmm 6 months ago

Now it's Istanbul not Constantinople

60points

letterstosnapdragon Report

#44

The third most deadly war in history (after the 2 world wars) was in China from 1850 to 1864. It was started by a cult leader who believed he was the younger brother of Jesus. He and his followers sought to overthrow the Emperor and set up a quasi-Christian theocracy. In the end the rebellion left 10% of China's population dead.

Edit: And of course fun fact- the leader of the Imperial forces was General Tso who later got a chicken dish named after him.

Final score:

54points

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Spidercat 6 months ago

A previous post suggests the Congo war that ended in 2003 as the third deadliest war....never trust anything you read on the Internet people. Just look at the pretty pictures and wait for the climate war... Gonna be lit.

59points

Woman Refuses To Chip In For Babysitting Because She Doesn’t Even Have Kids, Asks If She’s A Jerk

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#45

Romans knew lead was poisonous. They still used it a lot.

Nixeris Report

Final score:

53points

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Kate 6 months ago

So lead in Rome was like nicotine now? Yeah, I can see it.

31points

Striking_Computer834 Report

#46

There is no such date as September 3, 1752. Because of the conversion from the Julian calendar to the Gregorian calendar in England and its colonies, September 2, 1752 was followed by September 14, 1752.

There was also no such thing as any date between January 1, 1751, and March 24, 1751. Prior to 1751, the first day of the new year was March 25. Parliament changed that to January 1. As a part of that transition, March 24, 1750 was followed by March 25, 1751, but December 31, 1751 was followed by January 1, 1752.

Final score:

49points

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Delta Dawn 6 months ago

But we can’t manage to get rid of daylight savings time because it would be too complicated

97points

#47

History Enthusiasts Are Sharing History Facts That Many People Would Find Shocking (50 Facts) During World War II, the United States military developed a plan to use bats as bombs. The idea was to attach small incendiary devices to bats and release them over Japanese cities at night. The bats would then roost in buildings, and when the devices detonated, they would start fires, causing chaos and destruction. While the project, known as "Project X-Ray," never saw combat, it's a bizarre example of the lengths to which military strategists were willing to go during the war.

xastronix , Clément Falize Report

Final score:

47points

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Dragons Exist 6 months ago

Honestly less weird than the CIA trying (and failing) to kill Castro by putting a pretty shell on the beach with a bomb for him to pick up

47points

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#48

History Enthusiasts Are Sharing History Facts That Many People Would Find Shocking (50 Facts) There was only one monogamous emperor in Chinese history, the Hongzhi emperor of the Ming Dynasty. He apparently invented the toothbrush to impress his wife.

I think when most people think harem they think of a couple of hundred women, but ancient Chinese harems could get *crazy.* There was one emperor in the Tang dynasty who had like 40,000 concubines. A lot of lower ranking concubines never had sex with their emperor and never even saw him. I heard that Wu Zetian (only female emperor) had like 5,000 male lovers and it drove the traditional nobleman insane but I can't find any sources for that lol.

TumblrIsTheBest , Castorly Stock Report

Final score:

44points

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Thomas Grant 6 months ago

40,000 is a teeny bit excessive. Assuming that he lived to be 80 that would be roughly 10-11 concubines a week from the moment of birth. I dont even think i talk to that many people some weeks...

18points

#49

History Enthusiasts Are Sharing History Facts That Many People Would Find Shocking (50 Facts) Siaka Stevens was technically both the shortest and longest serving leader of Sierra Leone.

He was an opposition leader that won an extremely close election, and the ruling party that had been ruling the country since independence didn’t want to lose their power, so they planned to arrest him just before he could take the oath of office, but things didn’t go exactly to plan and he ended up being removed from office a little while after taking the oath of office, meaning he was technically president for a little less than an hour before being removed from office.

However, there was a counter coup a few months later and Siaka Stevens was brought back into power. During his time in office, Stevens became increasingly authoritarian and eventually established a one party state, ruling the country for 17 years.

partyonpartypeople , prabook.com Report

Final score:

40points

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TotallyNOTAFox 6 months ago (edited)

So basically the standard way governments work in most of Africa

24points

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#50

Door knobs were invented in 1848. .

I_might_be_weasel Report

Final score:

36points

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Melissa Harris 6 months ago (edited)

There have been handles, latches and pulls on doors since...doors. It's the round, turning k**b that has an integrated lock that was an improvement on previous designs. Edit: apparently I have to use doorknob as a single word to not offend the elderly British AI

27points