18 Historical Events That Barely Anyone Knows About, But Should’ve Been Taught In History Class

I know we all love learning history, but sometimes, the classroom can’t cover everything. So when I saw this article on the popular History subreddit on Reddit, where user Wildcat190 asked: “What is a very interesting but often unknown historical event/period?” I wanted to see what people had to say. Here are some of their funniest answers:

1. “The Korean War of 1871. This was a punitive war in which the United States invaded Korea after a failed attempt to open diplomatic relations and the Koreans attacked American ships. It was a decisive military victory for the United States but failed to open trade with Korea. It was the first time the Medal of Honor was awarded in a foreign conflict. The United States recently returned a captured Korean battle flag that had been on display at the U.S. Naval Academy for more than a century (although some members of Congress wanted to trade it for U.S. Navy ships Pueblo).”

—u/trelisk

2. “I think ‘Bleeding Kansas,’ about pre-Civil War America, would be hilarious if it wasn’t so depressing. I mean, John Brown finds people who might be connected to slave traders and kills them with a machete.”

Fotosearch/Getty Images, Bettmann/Getty Images

-u/dicma

“One interesting aspect of this period that is still evident today is the Jayhawk (the mascot of the University of Kansas). The Jayhawk was the name of a Free State sect during the Frontier Wars that crossed into Missouri and pillaged, burned and killed countless people.

Although the origin of the term “jayhawk” is unclear, it has been reinterpreted as a combination of a blue jay and an eagle. If you didn’t know, blue jays are known for robbing other birds’ nests, and hawks are obviously birds of prey, swooping in for a quick, devastating attack. These two aspects reflect the behavior of the Jay Traders during the Frontier Wars. “

—u/deleted

RELATED: Only True Disney Fans Can Name These Movies with Just 3 Tips

3. “On the same day as the Great Chicago Fire of 1871, four other fires broke out. The Michigan towns of Holland, Manistee, and Port Huron were burned, as were Peshtigo, Wisconsin, and a dozen nearby hamlets. About 300 people died in the Chicago Fire, and 1,200 to 2,500 in the Peshtigo Fire People died. The fire was so intense that it actually jumped several miles across Green Bay and burned into the Thumb of Wisconsin, which remains the deadliest event caused by a fire in the United States.”

—u/jdb229

“I’m a little surprised to see mentions of my little hometown on Reddit. I always feel sad because our only reputation is burning down. You make it sound a lot more interesting than the people at the Fire Museum.”

—u/deleted

—u/Aaronf989

5. “The Norman Kingdom of Sicily, 1130-1194. There was the simple excitement of Norsemen dominating southern Europe (the Norsemen also ruled the British region of Normandy, Russia, and conducted large trading expeditions as far as China). But there was also science, knowledge, and classical liberal arts. King Roger II had a multi-ethnic court. He patronized poets and scientists, and was highly religiously tolerant.”

“During this period, Sicily was an important site for the transmission of ancient Greek knowledge back to Europe from the Byzantines and Arabs.

But this is more than simply copying the ancients. Roger II commissioned and championed new works, such as the Tabula Rogeriana by Muhammad al-Idrisi, the leading geographical work of the time. Sicily was also home to the Medical School of Salerno, probably the best medical school in Europe at the time. “

—u/modeller

6. “The Banana War is very interesting. It’s a little-known part of American history. Guys like Chesty Puller and Herman Hanneken fought here before they became famous.”

—u/deleted

“Agreed! The Banana Wars are rarely taught because they did not advance U.S. foreign policy. Rather, they advanced the business interests of the United Fruit Company.”

—u/deleted

7. “To put it simply, I would say the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-05. It was almost the first war in modern times between an Asian power and a European power. It heralded a wave of anti-European aggression around the world, from the Ottoman Empire, Egypt, Persia, India, Ethiopia, Indonesia. People regarded Japan as the hero of the era and brought Japan to great power status.”

RELATED: 10 historical lies we were told when the truth was so juicy

“Everyone from Mustafa Kemal (Atatürk) to Nehru welcomed this victory. I’m surprised this isn’t taught more in schools, especially as it led to the 1905 Russian Revolution and the Bloody Sunday massacre in St. Petersburg. Teddy Roosevelt also won the Nobel Peace Prize for brokering the Treaty of Portsmouth peace treaty.”

Helton Deutsch/Getty Images, Heritage Images/Getty Images

—u/deleted

8. “The Holodomor. This was a man-made famine caused by the Soviet Union in Ukraine in 1932-1933. The result was 5 to 10 million deaths.”

—u/GoNavy_09

“What’s more interesting is that, as far as I know, there is currently no consensus in the Ukrainian government as to whether this is a genocide. I went there with my school not long ago and wrote a paper on Russia’s relations with Ukraine. In history classes, teachers from the eastern part of the country are more likely to deny genocide, while teachers from the western part of Ukraine are likely to agree that it is a genocide. Or at least, that’s my impression.

Ukrainians, Russians, please correct me if I’m wrong! “

—u/FrejDexter

9. “The Utah War – a military confrontation between the federal government and the Mormons, with the greatest casualties being the murder of 140 Arkansans en route to California by the Mormons.”

Mpi/Getty Images, Heritage Images/Getty Images

—u/copacetzombie

10. “Most people are unaware of the unethical human radiation experiments in the United States, which began primarily during World War II and continued into the Cold War. Most of the patients were homeless people, women, children, disabled people, and military personnel, and the experiments were conducted without their knowledge. There is a great book about this called ” Plutonium Archives. Clinton released all the classified documents, but around the same time as the Whitewater scandal, which, among other things, attracted little attention. “

—u/deleted

RELATED: People Are Sharing the Weirdest, Weirdest, and Most Fascinating Historical Events That 100% Read Like a Time Traveler That Changed History

—u/hairy1ime

12. “I would like to submit this: King Philip’s War was fought between Native Americans and English colonists in 1675-78. This war had the highest casualty rate of any American war and was a key turning point in relations between colonists and native peoples, just a generation after the First Thanksgiving. Super fascinating time, especially if you like colonial America…”

—u/deadheadmon

13. “The Tulsa Race Riots are a hidden part of Oklahoma history and American history.”

—u/ms_g_unit_smith

—u/Frohard

15. “Philippine-American War. After the Spanish-American War, the United States acquired the Philippines. The independent Philippine government fought a war to secure the country’s independence. Atrocities were committed on both sides, and the war had a horrific death toll, but most Americans have never heard of it.”

—u/hmditters

RELATED: ‘Rich white people in the Bay Area are so entitled’: People are sharing the most spoiled behavior they’ve ever seen

16. “In the 1830s, the South was nearly divided by the Tariff Act. Thirty years before, the United States nearly broke out into a Civil War, only to be stopped because three men (Henry Clay, John Calhoun, and Daniel Webster) were able to bring people together and reach a compromise on the issue. When the Civil War did break out in 1861, all three were either dead or seriously ill. There’s a lot to be learned from that history, namely compromise in politics, but it often seems to be overlooked.”

Stock Photo Montage/Getty Images, Library of Congress/Getty Images

-u/clock

17. “Not a global event, but I had never heard of Juneteenth before moving to Texas. Texans were celebrating the end of slavery that day when news reached Texas — two and a half years after the Emancipation Proclamation. Since there were few federal soldiers in Texas at the time, no one was there to enforce the end of slavery, so from a federal perspective, the slaves had no idea they had been freed. That blew my mind.”

—u/iamcrazynuts

18. “The Franklin Expedition. Think of the Donner Party meeting Gilligan’s Island. In the 1840s, an ill-fated British expedition sought the Northwest Passage (a route to Asia without detouring around Africa). When a ship full of people runs aground in the ice of northern Canada, the ship is totaled and begins a six-year, unimaginable psychotic existential nightmare that involves everything from tuberculosis to lead poisoning to cannibalism. “

Sepia Times/Getty Images, Dea Photo Library/Getty Images

“When the first few crew members died, there were enough left to dig graves. The bodies had been preserved in sub-zero ice for 150 years, so well preserved it was like stepping back in time.

For six years, they all died one by one, desperately trying to move south in search of civilization…frost-stricken, starved, and insane. “

—u/bpoag

So, what do you think? If you feel inspired to share a historical fact of your own that you think should be more widely known, please feel free to tell me all about it in the comments. Alternatively, if you would like to write but wish to remain anonymous, you can use the anonymous form below! Who knows—your opinion might appear in a future BuzzFeed article.

Please note: Some comments have been edited for length and/or clarity.

You May Like: 32 Unique Products

You Might Like: 34 Ways to Help Improve Your Body Function That Are Totally Normal and Totally Annoying

ALSO REWIND: It’s kind of sad that the average person can’t score better than 27% on this dead-easy old trivia quiz

Read it on BuzzFeed.com