History is a fascinating subject. The history of humans spans over 300,000 years and has been marked by victories, tragedies, and all kinds of drama.
But history happens all over the world, and some events interest history buffs more than others. Recently, enthusiasts shared their fixations after one netizen asked: "What is the one event in history you're obsessed with and can't stop researching?"
The answers ranged from events in 16th century England to the present decade. So, if you're prone to going down the rabbit hole of history, be warned: the entries in this thread might cause an involuntary obsession.
#1 History’s Darkest Secret
The persecution and extermination of native Americans, and the annexation of their lands by the US government. Probably the most shameful chapter of US history and most people don't even know about it.
47points
#2 When Ancient Civilization Hits the Delete Button
The Bronze Age Collapse.
Around 1200 BC, every sophisticated culture around the Mediterrean fell apart. The Greeks, the Hittites, the Phoenicians, the Egyptians, everyone. They were either completely wiped out or decimated to the point where it would take centuries to recover.
No one knows exactly what happened, but there are vague references to "sea people" and famines and droughts. The Iliad and the Exodus may both be a twisted race memory of this event.
Around 1200 BC, every sophisticated culture around the Mediterrean fell apart. The Greeks, the Hittites, the Phoenicians, the Egyptians, everyone. They were either completely wiped out or decimated to the point where it would take centuries to recover.
No one knows exactly what happened, but there are vague references to "sea people" and famines and droughts. The Iliad and the Exodus may both be a twisted race memory of this event.
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32points
#3 When History Feels Like a Family Drama
The last Russian royal family— Nicholas, Alexandra, Olga, Tatiana, Maria, Anastasia and Alexis. From incredible privilege to violent extinction, they were a loving but tragic family overtaken by extraordinary circumstances. There are so many family photos, written accounts (including their own letters) and official portraits to view, you really get a sense of them as people. I started reading about them in the 80s, long before their remains were found. It was one of the biggest historical mysteries back then. I always wonder why Nicholas didn’t at least get the girls out while there was still a chance.
30points
It's nice to learn something new about history. If not for your own amusement and interest, then to learn more about certain events and perhaps even debunk widely-believed stories. After all, being be able to wag your finger at other people and say: "Um, actually..." can be pretty satisfying.
For example, did you know that Marie Antoinette never said, "Let them eat cake"? This one fun historical fact might've gotten lost in translation. What she actually said was "Qu'ils mangent de la brioche," which translates to "Let them eat brioche."
While we may not think brioche to be that bougee nowadays, back in those days, it was considered to be a luxury food as it contained butter and eggs.
#4 When Invisible Danger Feels Like a Curse
The Chernobyl Explosion.
AlterEdward:
Yeah, I find this so fascinating. It's got a bit of everything - corruption, technology, tragedy, heroism, conspiracy. And the concept of radiation as an invisible, silent k****r is so creepy. There are so many echoes of paranormal and mythological threats - to people that don't know any better, radiation poisoning sure does look like a curse, or a dieties wrath.
AlterEdward:
Yeah, I find this so fascinating. It's got a bit of everything - corruption, technology, tragedy, heroism, conspiracy. And the concept of radiation as an invisible, silent k****r is so creepy. There are so many echoes of paranormal and mythological threats - to people that don't know any better, radiation poisoning sure does look like a curse, or a dieties wrath.
28points
#5 Still Waiting for the Wake-Up Call
Might be a little too recent but January 6th and the massive parade of fraud and incompetence that lead to it and followed it.
I have no idea why it’s not a bigger deal to the average American. Also I can’t help but wonder what would have happened or where we’d be if one Democrat failed to evacuate.
I have no idea why it’s not a bigger deal to the average American. Also I can’t help but wonder what would have happened or where we’d be if one Democrat failed to evacuate.
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27points
#6 When Time Froze, Drama Didn’t
Pompeii.
27points
What's more, no one might've said, "Let them eat cake" at all. This anecdote appears in Jean-Jacques Rousseau's Confessions, and Marie Antoinette was still a child when the book came out. Rousseau recounts that "a great princess" uttered the phrase, but historians don't know who that was exactly.
Some speculate that revolutionaries, whom Rousseau greatly inspired, picked up this quote and falsely attributed it to Marie Antoinette. Yet contemporary researchers disagree, as there was never any actual evidence in newspapers, pamphlets, or any other revolutionary-published materials.
#7 Wait, I Thought That Was True Too
As an ExMormon, Mormonism. I can’t believe how incorrect I was about what I claimed to believe for three decades.
27points
#8 Wait, That Was Nature’s Mic Drop?
Krakatoa eruption.. absolutely huge. One of the loudest sounds ever heard, massive Tsunamis, ash filled the sky around the world for years causing red sunsets and darkness. Global temperatures dropped.
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24points
#9 Wait, the Lost Colony Wasn’t So Lost After All?
The disappearance of the Roanoake colony.
Delaneybuffett:
I just watched some history clips on YouTube saying they have solved what happened to the colony. I want to read up to see if what they say is true. They said the colony basically split up, part combined with a local Indian tribe on Croatoan island ( which is now known as Hatteras. Other members went inland. Supposedly they have found pottery and skeletal remains to confirm these theories. Again, not saying it’s 100% solved just interesting and something I want to read more on
Delaneybuffett:
I just watched some history clips on YouTube saying they have solved what happened to the colony. I want to read up to see if what they say is true. They said the colony basically split up, part combined with a local Indian tribe on Croatoan island ( which is now known as Hatteras. Other members went inland. Supposedly they have found pottery and skeletal remains to confirm these theories. Again, not saying it’s 100% solved just interesting and something I want to read more on
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22points
When we think of Salem, the burning of witches probably comes to mind, right? However, during the infamous Salem Witch Trials in 1692, no people were actually burned at the stake. That only happened in Europe during the medieval ages. In Salem, they didn't burn the witches at the stake, but hanged them instead.
#10 Survived by sheer stubbornness
The story of the Uruguayan rugby team that crashed in the Andes and was stuck there for 2 months. The details are mind boggling.
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21points
#11 Not Your Average Nature Hike
Marburg virus originating from Kitum Cave in Kenya. 90% mortality rate virus you can just get from visiting a cave. Scary and intriguing.
21points
#12 Art You Can Melt For
Did some research on the history of snowmen after I learned that the earliest recorded piece regarding snowmen was from 1380, and I absolutely LOVE that it's something that has continued and evolved with time. It's such a cool little piece of history that you don't think too much about, but has brought so much joy to people for hundreds of years.
Befor the 1950s, snowmen were more often on the elaborate side, created by artists as art for art's sake, but also used for things like protesting (like the miracle of 1511). The man who sculpted Abraham Lincoln's tomb created a stunning snow and ice statue in 1857 that became very famous. Art supplies have always been very difficult for many people to acquire through history and artists used whatever they could to create their art, and snow was something that was easily accessible for many, so it was its own special medium for awesome sculptures that people had access to, regardless of income or status. It wasn't until the 1940s that snowmen became an activity that children took part in, and we have Ruth Herman's book Snowy The Traveling Snowman to thank for what the western world now recognizes as a snowman.
Snow sculptures obviously didn't last and people often put so much work and time into them regardless, and I feel like that is such a wonderful and human thing. The urge to create something special, even if it won't last long.
Befor the 1950s, snowmen were more often on the elaborate side, created by artists as art for art's sake, but also used for things like protesting (like the miracle of 1511). The man who sculpted Abraham Lincoln's tomb created a stunning snow and ice statue in 1857 that became very famous. Art supplies have always been very difficult for many people to acquire through history and artists used whatever they could to create their art, and snow was something that was easily accessible for many, so it was its own special medium for awesome sculptures that people had access to, regardless of income or status. It wasn't until the 1940s that snowmen became an activity that children took part in, and we have Ruth Herman's book Snowy The Traveling Snowman to thank for what the western world now recognizes as a snowman.
Snow sculptures obviously didn't last and people often put so much work and time into them regardless, and I feel like that is such a wonderful and human thing. The urge to create something special, even if it won't last long.
21points
Yet the hangings were just as horrible as the myth. Dr. John Howard Smith, a history professor at Texas A&M University-Commerce, goes into more detail: "The hangings didn't go as you see in films either – with a platform and a trap door."
"They turned victims off a ladder, so they slowly strangled to death. They didn't break their necks and have 'lights out' like it happened in later hangings," the professor explained.
#13 Peace, if only for a moment
The Christmas Truce in WW1. There is something so beautiful about it. Ignore what happened the next day.
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20points
#14 “No Cap, She Was a Total Boss”
Joan of Arc, and in general these young saint girls from the middle ages who claimed they talked to god. But Joan especially. Her story is beyond belief and we know so much because much of the documentation remained.
This f*****g 17 year old peasant girl went to see Charles VII, dauphin of France, to tell him that God sent her and that alone seems like a big deal but isn't (plenty of girls claimed to be inspired by God then); the big deal is she told him God sent her not to bless him, but to lead his army to break the siege of Orleans and then drive him to be crowned King of France.
This is not fiction or exaggeration, is precisely what happened (and through no small risk or pain for herself, cause when at home she insisted with her parents that she needed to go join the army, her father assumed she would end up a camp prostitute, and to avoid the shame, he considered drowning her).
Now imagine a 17 year old girl today going to Volodymir Zelensky and telling him "hey buddy, God says you need to make me commander in chief of your troops; I'll take care of the rest". That's what happened.
Except it was 1429 and back then this s**t was taken seriously. Charles VII was no idiot, he thought: "maybe this girl is just nuts". Here's the issue though, that would never cross our mind today, but it absolutely did in 1429: "What if she's not nuts?"
So what do we do? We test her. So Charles sends her to be examined by priests and general wise men. Who conclude three things: 1. Joan is not crazy. 2. Joan is a good catholic and 3. Joan is virgin (and that's a big deal)
"F**k it", says Charles, he gives armor, a weapon, a horse, a banner. And an army. It's still unclear how this 17 year old girl who barely ate was going around in platemail, but she was. And the b***h rides to Orleans, breaks the siege as promised, but not before sending to the english the most f*****g badass letter of warning ever which I encourage you to read but says (and I paraphrase, but not by much): "King of England, pull back your troops and leave, because I am a war leader and I am sent by God; and as long as your troops leave I will show mercy, but if they do not I will wipe the f**k out of them wherever I see them".
And all of this is the LEAST known part of her story since her trial by the I*********n is the most well known. Trial in which they have a hard time accusing her of anything because despite an i*********n tribunal entirely bent on burning her at stake (on orders from the english and with the tacit approval of the french who betrayed her), for whatever reason this peasant girl who we cannot tell for sure if she can even read is able to avoid all the rhetorical traps in which they try to lure her. She handles herself so well in looking like a good catholic that the only way they manage to condemn her is because she dresses like a man (immoral and heretic, for the time).
Even so, the way the i*********n work is not that they just condemn you and burn you; you always have the possibility to admit your guilt, recant and be freed (as long as you don't commit the same sin you recanted, in that case you go straight in the fire).
Joan is shown the pyre as a threat, and she decides to recant. She asks and receives forgiveness and should be freed, as long as she stops wearing men's clothes.
So what happens? We don't know. She is found dressed like a man in her cell again. A theory is she is threatened by the guards of r**e and she feels safer dressed like that; she should be, after all, prisoner of the church and guarded by priests but she is (against i*********n rules) in military custody. Maybe they just left her men's clothes and she naively wore them. Whatever the case, they get her and she burns. It's said that in later years, as her legend endured and grew, her executioner went desperate that he'd go to hell for having k**led a holy woman.
This f*****g 17 year old peasant girl went to see Charles VII, dauphin of France, to tell him that God sent her and that alone seems like a big deal but isn't (plenty of girls claimed to be inspired by God then); the big deal is she told him God sent her not to bless him, but to lead his army to break the siege of Orleans and then drive him to be crowned King of France.
This is not fiction or exaggeration, is precisely what happened (and through no small risk or pain for herself, cause when at home she insisted with her parents that she needed to go join the army, her father assumed she would end up a camp prostitute, and to avoid the shame, he considered drowning her).
Now imagine a 17 year old girl today going to Volodymir Zelensky and telling him "hey buddy, God says you need to make me commander in chief of your troops; I'll take care of the rest". That's what happened.
Except it was 1429 and back then this s**t was taken seriously. Charles VII was no idiot, he thought: "maybe this girl is just nuts". Here's the issue though, that would never cross our mind today, but it absolutely did in 1429: "What if she's not nuts?"
So what do we do? We test her. So Charles sends her to be examined by priests and general wise men. Who conclude three things: 1. Joan is not crazy. 2. Joan is a good catholic and 3. Joan is virgin (and that's a big deal)
"F**k it", says Charles, he gives armor, a weapon, a horse, a banner. And an army. It's still unclear how this 17 year old girl who barely ate was going around in platemail, but she was. And the b***h rides to Orleans, breaks the siege as promised, but not before sending to the english the most f*****g badass letter of warning ever which I encourage you to read but says (and I paraphrase, but not by much): "King of England, pull back your troops and leave, because I am a war leader and I am sent by God; and as long as your troops leave I will show mercy, but if they do not I will wipe the f**k out of them wherever I see them".
And all of this is the LEAST known part of her story since her trial by the I*********n is the most well known. Trial in which they have a hard time accusing her of anything because despite an i*********n tribunal entirely bent on burning her at stake (on orders from the english and with the tacit approval of the french who betrayed her), for whatever reason this peasant girl who we cannot tell for sure if she can even read is able to avoid all the rhetorical traps in which they try to lure her. She handles herself so well in looking like a good catholic that the only way they manage to condemn her is because she dresses like a man (immoral and heretic, for the time).
Even so, the way the i*********n work is not that they just condemn you and burn you; you always have the possibility to admit your guilt, recant and be freed (as long as you don't commit the same sin you recanted, in that case you go straight in the fire).
Joan is shown the pyre as a threat, and she decides to recant. She asks and receives forgiveness and should be freed, as long as she stops wearing men's clothes.
So what happens? We don't know. She is found dressed like a man in her cell again. A theory is she is threatened by the guards of r**e and she feels safer dressed like that; she should be, after all, prisoner of the church and guarded by priests but she is (against i*********n rules) in military custody. Maybe they just left her men's clothes and she naively wore them. Whatever the case, they get her and she burns. It's said that in later years, as her legend endured and grew, her executioner went desperate that he'd go to hell for having k**led a holy woman.
19points
#15 Royal Drama Queens Unfiltered
Tudors, specifically Anne Boleyn and other Tudor women.
19points
#16 When History Hits Different
Hiroshima. I visited there a few weeks ago and as an American, it feels odd going to a place like that. The Peace Park Memorial is beautiful and heartbreaking all at once.
19points
#17 When Dancing Was Actually Contagious
The Dance Epidemic. What was thaaat?!
FawkMyLyfe420:
The dancing plague of 1518, or dance epidemic of 1518 was apparently a case of dancing mania that occurred in Strasbourg, Alsace [now modern-day France] in the Holy Roman Empire from July 1518 to September 1518. Apparently somewhere between 50 and 400 people took to dancing for weeks. There's too many theories behind what happened and the most popular one is a stress-induced mass hysteria... Other theories include ergot and there's a lot of controversy about how many deaths there actually were.
FawkMyLyfe420:
The dancing plague of 1518, or dance epidemic of 1518 was apparently a case of dancing mania that occurred in Strasbourg, Alsace [now modern-day France] in the Holy Roman Empire from July 1518 to September 1518. Apparently somewhere between 50 and 400 people took to dancing for weeks. There's too many theories behind what happened and the most popular one is a stress-induced mass hysteria... Other theories include ergot and there's a lot of controversy about how many deaths there actually were.
19points
#18 When History Decides to Ghost You
Black Death or Bubonic Plague.
19points
#19 Guess Who Didn’t Really Disappear?
The Maya and other Meso or South American cultures. Always new and interesting things being discovered. The event I used to be obsessed with was the "disappearance" of the Maya... except they didn't disappear and there are millions of Maya alive today, big misconception.
I really like the work of Ed Barnhart after seeing a few of his series on The Great Courses.
Wired Tech Support
He also has a fun Podcast called ArchaeoED.
I really like the work of Ed Barnhart after seeing a few of his series on The Great Courses.
Wired Tech Support
He also has a fun Podcast called ArchaeoED.
19points
#20 Recession Lessons No One Talks About
The 2008 recession. Everything about that era explains , LIKE A MAP, how we got to this point in US history. I am obsessed with it.
18points