It's highly believed that it is important to learn history as a means to improve our future.
What is often overlooked is that what is taught in history class is going to be very different depending on where you went to school.
And this isn't just internationally, even different regions of the United states will likely have very different lessons on American history.
This frequently results in our learning fascinating, heartbreaking and horrifying historical facts which our middle or high school history teachers neglected to teach us.
Redditor Acherontia_atropos91 was curious to learn things people either wished they had learned, or believe they should have learned, in their school history class, leading them to ask:
What isn’t taught in history class but should be?
The Irish Troubles
"The troubles."
"Too many people in America do not understand why a wall straight through Ireland would be a BAD idea."
"I’m referring to the Brexit referendum and possible outcomes."
"If people were wondering why we were talking about walls through Ireland in the first place."- CLCVS.
Forgotten elements of World War II
"What the Japanese did to the Chinese during WW2."
"Unit 731."- CaptainMcBoogerJew.
"Japan gets off easy for their war crimes in WW2."
"They killed an estimated 16mil Chinese civilians and another 8mil soldiers"
"Also, Pol Pot."
"Didn't know who he was until I was like 25."
"Worst dictator all time (in terms of percentage of population he decimated)".
The truth about the American Revolution
"That the American Revolution was part of a wider cold war type of conflict with France."
"The American Revolution was basically the UK's equivalent of the US version of Vietnam."- vinsant7.
The Dark side of Swedish history.
"As a Swede, I'd like to know more of all the horrible sh*t my country has done throughout history."
"It's a damn shame we're trying to hide our history."
"For example, Swedes killed a metric sh*t ton of all Polish people when we were at our strongest."
"That's the kinda sh*t we don't get to learn."- mogwandayy.
Colonization
"Basically what Belgium did to the Congo."
"A lot of people are telling me that they are taught about this actually."
"I'm glad to hear it because I wasn't taught about this in the USA during my public school days (1995-2008)."- EconArch.
The truth about "heroes".
"While teaching about historical Heroes they should also tell students about the unspeakable things some of them did."
"Many famous figures throughout history who are pillars of morality actually did many terrible things." - User Deleted
Intolerance for Mental Illness
"The dark history of mental illness treatments."
"I think it's worth learning about."- 7dayexcerpt.
Slavic Mythology
"Slavic mythology in Slavic countries."
"Don't get me wrong, I love both Greek & Roman mythology and as a person from the Balkans both of those cultures are part of my country's history and had great influence over not only my region but the entirety of the continent & the western world but I wouldn't mind knowing more about Slavic mythology as well."- ShorsShezzarine.
The truth about the CIA
"How the CIA was made and all the shady things they did over the years."- ALargeChip.
There is a lot about the history of our world, not to mention our own country which shouldn't be ignored.
And it's from learning from our mistakes that we really improve our future.
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So apparently we are in the endemic phase of this nonsense.
We have light at the end of the tunnel.
So what now?
Where do we go from here?
Normal seems like an outdated word.
How do we get back to normal though?
Is it even possible?
What are reaching back to?
Life pre-Covid.
Those were the days.
If only we could bring them back.
Redditor hetravelingsong wanted to discuss our new normal in this hopeful "endemic" phase. So they asked:
"What’s something random you miss about pre-COVID times?"
I miss people being sane. Though that maybe election cycle issues not COVID. We'll never know.
I thought I was Alone...
"Being able to grocery shop after 11 pm."
Reading_Rainboner
"Hell yes. I miss the days where the Walmart across the street was open 24 hours."
Small_Tax_9432
let's just go...
"I miss spontaneity... everything now seems to have a barrier of difficulty."
iidosee
"I live very close to Disneyland so I have an annual pass. My friends and I would just go there after work and hang out and grab a bite to eat."
"Now, we have to reserve a day to go. And most of the time, the days are at 'full' capacity so we couldn't even reserve. I don't want to schedule to hang out at Disneyland for a couple hours for July. So yeah, I definitely miss the 'lets go eat at Disneyland tonight?' texts."
mymymissmai
Not til 24-25
"Functioning global supply chains. Ah, the product you want has got microchips in it? 9 month wait."
richard-king
"Minimum, I'd been saying for a while now that I wouldn't expect a true return to normalcy in terms of electronics prices till 2024-2025. Although Crypto crashing through the floor really took some of the pressure off graphics cards which I really appreciate."
statiiic
WTF?!?!
"How affordable everything was!"
Disastrous_Hour_6776
"Yep. Today I was bagging up my things at the grocery store and I heard the cashier say to the lady behind me 'thats $78.12.' She had -- 2 boxes of Kellogg's corn flakes, a carton of 12 eggs, milk, strawberries, raspberries, blue berries, a small cheese cake, English muffins, coffee, and a small whole frozen chicken that could maybe feed 3 people if the meat portioning was small."
SnowyInuk
Sushi
"My favorite sushi place. It was good quality, close by, kid-friendly, and not too expensive."
InannasPocket
All of this... it was a simpler time.
NASTY
"As a retail worker, just how f**king NASTY some people have gotten."
DmitriPetrov*itch
"They applauded you for being an essential worker but won’t vote for policies that’ll raise minimum wage while insisting a wage cap for heavily paid employees."
sketchysketchist
CHANGES your DNA...
"Some of the people closest to me became very bitter and petty over the last 2 years. So many people have the 'crazy eyes' now."
__--__7
"So true and holidays with the family is like who has the biggest tinfoil hat building contest. How many jumps does your brain have to go through to think that the Covid vaccine CHANGES your DNA into the patented DNA so that the government now controls your body."
"So like vaccinated people now have a singular DNA set. I feel like I still have a chunk of my brain just broken off due to that comment alone. I was also told by same family member that I could never donate blood again due to the vaccine. I guess it is so my patented DNA doesn't affect people?? FYI my vaccinated butt just donated today fine and multiple other times after the vaccine."
tyreka13
Homeward Bound
"House prices."
adrianinked
"I'm resigned to never thinking I have a chance on owning property where I live. I'm 30 and just can't imagine it anymore. And I don't want to live anywhere else so, whatever."
Osdab2daf
"That didn’t happen because of the pandemic. That was already happening regardless."
CH11DW
Oh Mickey
"All Day Breakfast at McDonalds."
hutch2522
"It was honestly hell to do, and not very popular. ITs margins aren't anywhere dinner and lunch specials. ON top of that, the temperatures are such that They require its own grill, meaning that if you have 2 grills in shop, you are down 50% of lunch capacity."
Freyas_Follower
Way back when...
"Hanging out with friends. And I mean waaaaaay before Covid. Like 2006 back when I had some friends."
LoocsinatasYT
I miss the old days. Maybe we'll get back there.
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What do you believe?
Is there a GOD in the sky?
Is he guiding us and helping us?
Life is really hard. Why is that is a big entity is up there loving us?
Atheists have taken a lot of heat for what feels like shunning GOD.
What if they've been right all along?
Maybe let's take a listen and see what they really think.
Redditor __Jacob______ wanted to hear from the people who don't really believe all that "God" stuff. They asked:
"Atheists, what do you believe in?"
I'm waffling between G-O-D and nothing. So please give me some education.
911
"We need to look out for each other because help isn't coming."
cknipe
Peace Out
"More than 2 decades ago, a priest was giving a sermon in my church and he said 'our faith requires you to believe without question. Why call it faith if you have to ask questions?' I haven't returned to church. Not until my wedding day but you know what I mean."
asiangontear
Delusion
"When I was young I used to think that after death you would have access to a PC that you could see absolutely anything about your life. Stats, any question you had no matter how obscure, replays of moments, perspectives of others in relation to you. No matter what you wanted to know, if it was relatable to you, you could see it. I know it's silly, but as time goes on I just want it to be real, and I don't think I'd have any issue allowing myself to fall into that delusion."
eggwardpenisglands
I think nothing happens...
"Realistically, I think nothing happens. We literally experience nothing after death. Same thing that we experience before birth. We don't exist, so it's nothing. I think the tenant that we should follow while living is to try to be happy and healthy while minimizing the damage we do to each other."
"What I would LIKE to happen after death is whatever you believe in, exists. I think Christians should get to go to heaven if they truly believe in it, Hindus and Buddhists get reincarnated, and everyone else also gets to experience what they believe they will experience."
"'I would still experience Nothing. Maybe it's one of those things where at the moment of death their brain makes them experience what feels like an infinitely long moment in time where they experience their afterlife. I just think it would be neat for everybody."
Better_Meat_
Shrug
"Best advice I received from a dear senior on their way out. 'You win some, you lose some' shrug. Nothing divine, life is that simple and wonderful, accept it and move on."
Tune_Kindly
It all sounds pretty simple. Why are people so up in arms about Atheists?
Whatever
"I believe in a universe that doesn't care, and people that do."
imCIK
Cool with Empty
"Nothing. [Serious]."
rumblingtummy29
"I feel this way about death. When I was 5, my grandfather died and my cousin simple said, he is dead, that means you are gone forever. Everything ends up dying, even plants and animals. I'm now in my 40's and still have this simplistic view of life and death. People think I'm ambivalent to life and death but it's just what it is."
thepigfish82
puppet-masters...
"I think a lot of religious people struggle with the fact that we are all just swirling units of chaos. There is no grand plan or great orchestrator. I think that’s why people who are prone to religion are also susceptible to things like Q anon and the Cabal and all that. They REALLY want to believe that there is some almighty puppet-master who determines all of humanity’s fate."
Lngtmelrker
“we’re living in a society!”
"Just be a kind and empathetic person not because you’re worried about some cosmic justice, but because it’s the right thing to do. If there is some being that created us there’s no way they actually care about believing in it or adhering to some rules from over 2000 years ago."
"Also a big thing for me is that I find the idea that you need religion or the Bible in order to have morals and ethics pretty dumb. It’s pretty f**king clear that most evangelicals have neither. But my main thing is being a good person simply because, as George Costanza once said we’re living in a society!' If you’re only a good person in order to make it to heaven you probably aren’t actually a good and moral person."
conservative_genius
That's All
"You're born. You live. You die. That's it. After you die you cease to exist, the same as before you were born."
serefina
Believe what you want. We're all here together. So let's focus there.
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The list of what irritates me is endless.
I mean... breathing too loud or dust can set me off.
I'm a bit unstable, yes.
But I'm not alone.
So let's discuss.
Redditor Aburntbagel6 wanted to hear about all the times many of us just couldn't control our disdain. They asked:
"What never fails to piss you off?"
I feel like this article can go on forever. Let's get some highlights.
Wasted Time
"Meetings that could and should have been an email."
Sirena609
Lotto People
"Getting stuck behind people playing the lottery at a corner store."
thenuggetlover
"I also used to work in a gas station and you’re SO right. I f**king hated the lottery people. Especially since my store had a small staff and there was usually only one of us working at a time, which meant that I couldn’t get any of my other work done as long as they were there."
"And you’re right, it’s also pretty sad to watch. I had one lady who used to come in every day and spent hundreds and HUNDREDS of dollars on scratch tickets. One day, she won $200 after spending probably around $600 and she was so excited and saying she can 'finally pay her bills.'"
i-am-your-god-now
Aware...
"No situational awareness. Job, home, shopping, driving. Think for one minute and go about. OBSERVE!!"
Dizzy-Foundation8122
"My mom is one of those people who leave the shopping cart in the middle of the damn aisle and proceed to walk twenty feet away. After correcting her a million times to no effect I just walk away now so people don’t know I’m with her."
OutrageousEvent
Shut Up!
"Endless barking in the middle of the night, I love animals but that sh*t I can't stand."
Acceptable-Lemon2924
"Endless barking in general drives me up a wall. One of my friends dogs was barking almost an entire gaming session the other day. I wanted to reach through the computer and smack him for letting it go on."
bangersnmash13
Kindness
"People being mean to service workers, especially if the workers are very young."'
scaryboilednoodles
All of these things. I hate them all.
Admit It
"People who never accept fault when they mess something up. Like, why blame a million people when it was clearly you who did it???"
Quirky-Area-8978
From Above
"My upstairs neighbors."
lutzow89
"I had terrible neighbors at my previous apartment. It was a one person studio for students, but her boyfriend was clearly living with her illegally and he was loud."
"One night we knocked n the door at 3 AM because of the loud music and an unknown girl opened the door. I just thought they were having a little party. But the next door I saw the girl living there come home with a suitcase after having been away for the weekend... Her BF was cheating on her in her own apartment."
Th3_Accountant
Move Away
"People who sit directly next to me at the airport, movie theater, any other place where you can choose a seat when there is PLENTY of other seating."
BacardiPardy33
"I can’t YES this enough and the ones who can’t park for crap so they park so close you can’t open doors on one side of the car or the ones who park directly behind when you pulled through so the door won’t open to load groceries."
BacardiPardy33
It's Over
"People who try to restart old drama. Like I'm done with you, just leave me alone."
Tired_Potatos
"Yep, half the reason I've basically quit playing one of my favorite online video games. People keep bringing old crap up or sh*tting on on someone who used to be our friend. I got tired of it so I just ejected the game out of me."
CaucasianHumus
AHHHHH!!!
"People walking too slow in front of me with no way to get around them. It’s even worse if it’s a couple or group taking up the whole sidewalk. HAVE SOME SPATIAL AWARENESS FOR THE LOVE OF GOD!!"
_-v0x-_
Life in general pisses me off. I'm easy.
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History Buffs Share The Best Stories Not Found In Textbooks
History as taught by textbooks SUCKS. But think about it, you're fully aware that awesome and hilarious stuff is happening every day. That's nothing new. History is full of characters that, if they existed today, would have the biggest Twitter following and at least 3 reality shows.
Take La Mapin, for example. She was a cross-dressing, sword-fighting, opera singer who killed at least ten men in duels and snuck into convents to hook up with the nuns. Yeah, we'd have read the HELL out of the French Revolution chapter in our history textbooks if it included that info!
One Reddit user asked:
History buffs of Reddit, what is one of the most fascinating stories you've learned that no one seems to talk about and can't be found in textbooks?
We grabbed some of our favorite responses - and now we're kind of mad, honestly. We spent years thinking history was boring! Turns out nope, it's not. Our textbooks just didn't want us knowing how scandalously awesome our ancestors could be.
The Samurai Who Bombed Oregon
During World War II, the Japanese outfitted special planes (some were designed to be launched from submarines) with enough range to reach the west coast of the United States. The goal was to use incendiary bombs to start wildfires in the forests of the pacific northwest. One pilot, Nobuo Fujita, successfully dropped his bombs over the forest near Brookings, Oregon. Fortunately, a storm the night before had dampened the forest, and the fire started by Fujita's bomb was quickly controlled by the Forest Service.
Eighteen years later, in 1962, Fujita returned to Brookings. He brought with him his family's heirloom, a katana ("samurai sword") that was over 400 years old. Fujita apologized to the townspeople for his actions during the war, and revealed that if the townspeople demanded it, he would ceremoniously kill himself (commit seppuku) with the sword to make reparations for his actions.
The townspeople would have none of it. Fujita was made an honorary citizen of the town and returned to visit it several times during his life, including one trip to plant trees in the forest he had bombed decades before. After his death in 1997, his daughter returned to Brookings and scattered some of his ashes there. The Fujita family katana is on display in Brookings, after being given to the town by Fujita as a token of friendship.
- MightyCaseyStruckOut
Anal Bleeding - For Fashion
I've told this story before, but it never fails to amuse me. Strap in, boys and girls: it's time to learn about that time in pre-Revolutionary France where bleeding from your butt was a fashion statement.
In early 1685, King Louis XIV of France developed a fistula: a small channel near his anus, resulting in great pain. Fistulas, much like the Wu Tang Clan, ain't nothin' to f--- with. Eventually the pain got so bad that he couldn't ride a horse, sit for long periods (which is kind of important when you're a king) or even make a bowel movement without regretting it immensely. The normal remedies were applied; enemas and poultices from morning until night, with zero effect. Louis decided, 'You know what? Let's go down the surgical route.'
Unfortunately for Louis, at the time there was no surgical route. He hired a surgeon barber named Charles-François Felix and asked him to fix him. Not entirely stupid -- and not willing to risk f---ing up a novel surgery on the king of France -- Felix requested six months to practice, which he did on prisoners. Live prisoners. Live, healthy prisoners -- sometimes as many as four a day, in an era where antiseptics and anaesthetics didn't exist. The success rates were about as you'd imagine -- although at least some of the prisoners survived -- and eventually Felix felt confident enough to perform the surgery on the king.
And it worked! Within three months, the king was riding his horse like nothing had happened, and Felix was the talk of the town. People were desperate to emulate the king so badly that people who were entirely healthy would pay Felix to perform the surgery on them, and those less willing to suffer (or at least, less willing to pay) would fake having the surgery, wearing bandages known as le royale to mimic the king and pretend that they too were cool and with it... even though 'with it' meant suffering from a painful condition of the butthole.
- Portarossa
Laughable Lion
Imgur
Not really fascinating, but funny, is the lion of Gripsholm castle. As a part of some diplomatic back and forths, Fredrik the first of Sweden received a lion from the ruler of Algeria. By the time it got to Sweden, it was a skin and some bones, kinda. It was now up to the royal taxidermist to make sure the lion was restored to its former glory. During the 1730's however, not a great deal of swedes had ever actually seen a lion. The only real thing he had to go on, was the coinage which showed lions in profile. The result?
Yeah. Silver lining, though. This thing is still a major tourist attraction for the castle.
-Rattplats
This Surgery That Killed Three People At Once
Robert Liston 1794-1847
A surgeon. In fact, he was described as "the fastest knife in the West End" and could amputate a leg in 2.5 minutes (the faster the surgery, the more likely the recovery) - though during this particular amputation he went so quickly he also removed his patient's testicles.
However, he also amputer a man's leg (in less than 2.5 minutes), who would later die of gangrene. In his haste, he accidentally cut off his assistant's fingers, who would later die from gangrene, and (apparently) cut through the coat tails of a surgical spectator, who was so scared he died of fright.
This becoming the only surgery with a 300% mortality rate.
- AvidReader182
Like Paul Revere, But Better
SYBIL LUDINGTON.
She was, essentially (perhaps oversimplifying) the female, teenage Paul Revere. At only 16 years old, she rode through New York in 1777 to alert local militia, just like Paul Revere's famous ride. BUT, this young woman rode more than TWICE the distance of Paul Revere's ride, while being significantly younger (she rode about 40 miles at only 16, in the middle of the night).
She also saved her father from being captured by Royalists, she lit candles surrounding her house and gathered her siblings to march around the house and give the illusion that troops were guarding the residence. The antagonists fled.
She is so, so under appreciated in the long term of history.
- StrawberrySwisherz
-
The Lost Russian Library
When Ivan III of Russia married Zoe/Sophia Palaiologina, niece of Dragases Palaiologos or Constantine XI, her uncle gifted them a library along with many other treasures. This library somehow survived the Burning of Moscow in 1493 and continued to be passed down to her son, Vasili III, and then on to her grandson, Ivan IV.
During Ivan IV's reign of terror (the second half of his reign), he feared the library was too precious a treasure and worried it would be stolen. So he and a few men took the collection out of Moscow (what was most likely a 1-3 day horse ride) and buried the books (possibly in a vault???) To ensure the location of the library would never get out, he had the men killed.
Ivan IV died before the location of the library was ever revealed.
We have no idea what could have been in this library or if the contents have even survived. Though some historians have speculated that Plato's Hermocrates (the final dialogue pertaining to Atlantis) could have been part of the collection, there's no proof that this is true.
- Dahngrest
Texaco Accidentally Sucked Up The Ocean
The Lake Peigneur Disaster.
Until 1980, Lake Peigneur was a small-ish freshwater lake with a maximum depth of about 10-15ft, located in southern Louisiana. Locals mostly used it for trout fishing, and it also had a canal running 10 miles from the lake southward to the Gulf of Mexico. The main industry of the area was a massive salt mine that stood below the ground, partially underneath the lake itself. Thing is, huge natural salt deposits like this often coincide with oil reserves, so it wasn't out of the ordinary when oil companies came searching.
In November of 1980, Texaco had set up a rig in the lake and was doing some exploratory drilling, hoping to make bank. Little did they know that one of their triangulation coordinates was slightly off, and so they had incorrectly guessed the location of the salt mine below their feet. Their drill bit punched into the roof of the salt deposit about 400 feet earlier than expected, and water began to drain slowly into the salt.
And what happens when salt meets water?
It dissolves.
As the water dissolved more and more salt, it made more and more room for water to be sucked down, which in turn dissolved more salt and made more room, setting off a massive chain reaction. The oil rig on the surface keeled to the side and collapsed, its workers barely escaping before the water pressure became too much to swim through. The remnants of the rig were sucked into the bottom of the lake in what had turned from a tiny hole to a whirlpool, the force of the water shearing away soil and making a bigger hole as it went.
The salt mine at the time was fully staffed with workers 1500ft below the ground, who were going about their daily shifts in the mine without any knowledge of the events taking place above them, until they saw water dripping through the roof of the tunnels. Thanks to well-rehearsed evacuation plans, none of them died before the mine was flooded, but water is just about the worst thing you can see in a salt mine.
The whirlpool on the surface, having eaten the rig, began to suck down the entire contents of the lake itself, including 11 barges, various small boats, and yes, the poor trout. The whirlpool grew into a maelstrom, its pressure increasing and in turn building more pressure by creating a bigger and bigger hole, eroding more and more of the salt mine. As it pulled down the entire lake, the water began to shear away at the shores, creating landslides and tearing trees out by the roots. Many of Jefferson Island's 100-year-old pecan trees were lost to the maelstrom, along with several local homes that sat on the shore of the lake and were ripped out by the foundation. The local botanical gardens was destroyed entirely as the soil underneath it was eroded in the span of only a few hours.
Compressed air inside the mine finally exploded out through the mine shafts, quickly followed by a 400-foot geyser erupting from the mine's entrance.
Not only did Lake Peigneur drain entirely into the mine, dragging 64 acres of destroyed land with it, but the pressure was so great that it also reversed the direction of the Delcambre Canal. The ocean water from the Gulf of Mexico was sucked northward through the canal to fill the Peigneur basin, temporarily creating the largest waterfall in Louisiana.
The chaos didn't end until the pressure equalized about a week later. When things had finally calmed down, the lake had changed drastically. Its maximum depth was now about 200feet, as opposed to its previous 10. Its shoreline had expanded, chimneys sticking straight out of the water where houses had once been. Nine out of the eleven barges claimed by the maelstrom floated back to the surface, although two remain somewhere in the ground below. The botanical gardens were gone, and many of the local trees. The salt mine was temporarily shut down, and although it did reopen it was finally closed permanently in 1986. Texaco had to pay $32 million to the salt company, and a further $13 million to the gardens. Miraculously, the only casualties of the disaster were the trout.
The most important difference, however, is that today Lake Peigneur is now a saltwater lake with ocean species, ten miles away from the ocean itself.
All caused by some bad numbers and a fourteen-inch drill bit.
-SwingGirlAtHeart
This Honorable Escort
The Brown-Stigler Incident occurred during World War II. A B-17 bomber was heavily damaged during a bombing run on Bremen. Several of its crew were killed or injured, two engines were out, a section of the tail was blown away, and the radio was disabled. The bomber lost altitude but was saved by the Captain - whose name was literally Charlie Brown. The bomber flow over an airfield and was spotted by a German fighter ace named Franz Stigler.
Stigler took off caught up to the bomber, had it in his sites, than realized that the tail gunner was not firing. At this point he noticed how damaged the B-17 was and took the advice of his former CO to never shoot a man in a parachute. He decided that the bomber was no longer combat capable and was in distress (like a man in a parachute). So he pulled to the side of the B-17 and signaled for Brown to land at the airfield, when he Brown continued to fly, Stigler tried to get him to fly to Sweden, once again Brown continued on.
That's when Stigler realized that Brown was going to try to return to England. Stigler, technically the enemy, then pulled to the bomber's wing and escorted it to the English Channel were he gave Brown a salute a returned to Germany. To make a long story short, after the war Brown found Stigler and the two became close friends until their deaths.
- ChristopherParent
Thank You, Gander
It's a bit more recent but I love the story of Gander. After 9/11 all the planes were grounded. Almost 7,000 people, which was about 66% of the local population , were forced to land in this tiny town of Gander, Newfoundland. The whole town worked together to make sure all the passengers would have everything they needed.
The local ice rink was filled with frozen food that people donated. You couldn't find a closed door in town for stranded people to take a shower or just talk.
Once the grounding of planes was lifted those passengers pooled their money together and created a scholarship for the people of Gander to use. This is one of the greatest acts of kindness that I can view in history. To this day a Gander is one of the only places outside the United States where they have a piece of the World Trade Center.
-FireDog1235
The Curse On Stalin
In the 1300s, the greater part of Central Asia was ruled by Tamerlane, a brilliant leader who took after one of his ancestors, Genghis Khan, in ruthlessness, brutality, and skill. Unlike Genghis Khan, Tamerlane was Muslim, and an important part of his particular cultural beliefs (blending Islam, steppe cultures, and countless other influences) was that one's grave should not be disturbed after death. Being the big shot he was, his grave was magnificent and its location well known, but Tamerlane famously said: "let no one disturb my grave, for if you do, a fate worse than me will fall upon you." So no one disturbed the tomb. Till Stalin. He let some Soviet archaeologists open it up and examine Tamerlane's body. The locals warned them about the curse that would go into effect after three days, but the scientists went ahead with the excavation— on June 19, 1941.
On June 22, 1941, Hiltler invaded the USSR.
Whether or not you believe in curses, Stalin was apparently spooked enough that, after devastating loss after devastating loss, he ordered the remains be returned (with full ceremony) and the tomb resealed. Very shortly afterwards, the Soviets won the Battle of Stalingrad and turned the tide of Nazi invasion.
- MaggieMC2012
H/T: Reddit