Most interesting thing you learned about US history

George Washington was a red coat. He couldn’t get promoted so he switched sides. Posting stuff about recent or current presidents might get this thread locked up.

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I’m interested in the Civil War like the 600,000 plus dead but only a third of that from battle and the rest of disease and other wartime complications.

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I got an A in history in college in 1993 but now I’m drawing a blank.

I remember something like the Aztecs or Mayans had a vast, advanced civilization with an advanced society when the Spaniards arrived. The Spaniards back then were basically a bunch of psychotic, homicidal, racist people and after initially getting in the good graces of whatever that Indian tribe was.

Because the Indians thought Cortez was a god because since a thousand years before, the ancient Mayans seers had prophetsized that a white-skinned bearded god would visit them one day and be their leader. So the Spaniards gained the Indians trust and then rewarded them by annihilating the Indians to get their gold.

This is very confusing and convoluted but this was basically based on facts.

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I learned abraham Lincoln was actually from west Philadelphia born and raised… on the play ground is where he spent most if his days. But then he got in one little fight and his mom scared and sent him to live with his aunt. And thats where lincoln became the prince of Belair. Later of course he would kill the nazis and become king of france…

Nick i couldnt beat your cool facts so this happend…

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Are you being funny, @flameoftherhine or have you blown your mind?

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I never enjoyed studying history because the textbooks were favoring the country they were published in. One couldn’t depend on it being an accurate account.

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John Adams was my fav pres.

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Tj miller said in his routine that america was built on cannabis (hemp) and slavery.

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That would be a joke. Its mostly the fresh prince of belairs theme song… the bit about lincoln killing the nazis came from a ww2 vet who indeed had lost his mind. He shared that little nugget of history with me at walmart…

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I learned that the US & Japanese leaderships had totally different trains of thought before the first and second atomic bombs were dropped on Hiroshima & Nagasaki. The US gave warnings to Japan to surrender before dropping the bomb. Japan perceived the US warning as a sign of weakness in the US or a turn of the tide that would benefit Japan. In the end, the bombs were dropped and many Japanese were killed.

Ever since then, no nation has ever used nuclear weapons on a populated city to this day.

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That’s pretty fresh, @flameoftherhine.

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I was amazed that a culture was raised from nothing.

Often, the trick to history is actually “unlearning” stuff.

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Milton s hershey who founded hershey chocolate company out of hershey pensylvania . Started of making caramel candy. Sold his business to make milk chocolate.Made chocolate bars for the government during time of war. Because of this he was able to mass produce and send chocolate all over the world.

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I learned that people were expected to work twelve hour days six days a week for much of the nineteenth century in America.

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The rationalization for dropping the bomb was that at that point in the war, that a ground invasion of Japan was seen as the only way to end the war. The rationalization was that a ground invasion would have caused more deaths on both sides than a nuclear bomb would. And an invasion might have prolonged the war for another year or two. This was the rationalization of the U.S. on dropping the bomb.

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Dropping the bomb was a quicker way for the US to end the war with Japan after defeating Nazi Germany in Europe. I think there were a few nuclear bomb test trials before actually using the bomb on Japan.

In any case the allies won and so called “world peace” lasted for a short while until the allies turned on themselves namely the US & USSR. This rivalry lead to what is now known as the cold war.

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The conversation about dropping nuclear bombs is over. I will leave this open for now, if we can get off that topic.

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One interesting thing I learned about the history of my own hometown is that it has a dirty, racist history from the not so distant past, the 1950’s. There was lynching going on.