history is like science in many ways it seems to explain the truth but must be open to new
information sometimes what we think we know isn't true at all and that's okay the result is that
we all get to be blown away when we discover that we've learned everything's wrong and be
delighted or maybe horrified by the truth it's not a perfect system but it's just what we have
number 10. slaves as immigrant workers there are a lot of hot button issues in america that will
set people off typically these are rooted in political beliefs and for better or worse they
reflect how history is taught to children some would argue that such opinions should
never color how history is taught we need to learn the truth whether we like what it has to say or
not and others will just make up stories and hope no one notices for some years now the history of
racism and slavery has been perceived in a more and more inflammatory light just look at the news
about critical race theory and you can see it's dividing people all across the spectrum back in
2015 publishers mcgraw-hill ran afoul of this when they chose some remarkably inappropriate words
to describe slaves in america rather than simply using that term slaves the book labeled a caption
and described them as immigrant workers that's a prime example of using very sanitary language to
give a wrong idea about something that happens it would be like saying a stabbing victim was
liberated of some of their excess body fluids it would be bad to do so in a book that was being
read by educated adults but in one meant to teach children history it's even more
egregious the publisher agreed that the caption was not appropriate and agreed to alter future
versions of the text to reflect that slaves were forced into both migration and work 9.
henry morgan's libel suit history is technically happening every moment of every day though we
often think about it as the distant past the fact is anything becomes a part of history the moment
it occurs and that has in the past allowed for some unique revisions to history in real time like
when henry morgan sued a publisher for libel once called a pirate king henry morgan was definitely
a privateer and even the eponymous captain from captain morgan's rum his exploits became
the stuff of legends thanks to a book written by alexander excumelior a former shipmate who
essentially wrote a tell-all book about his time at sea with morgan based on the book's
story morgan was a scoundrel and a monster the story accused him of murder rape and more this
was basically the template for everything we know about pirates in modern times and as it happens
it was all false morgan was still alive when an english translation of the book was published
and he sued the publishers for libel it was their first ever libel case in british history
and morgan won future editions of the book were changed to remove the sensationalized
and unproven accounts of morgan's nefarious deeds the publishers apologized and he was awarded some
money number 8. supreme court creek nation ruling many years ago a good portion of oklahoma was
recognized as muskogee creek native land thanks to various treaties and sales that land was parceled
off and sold until the muskogee population retained very little of their original land
that was until 2020 when the supreme court ruled that congress never disestablished the boundaries
of their territory and that meant that about half of oklahoma is still considered native land
the ruling is a jurisdictional one which means that the muskogee creek nation doesn't own the
land it's not as though we're kicking anybody out of tulsa but it does mean that it's under native
jurisdiction and that governs how laws apply to the native population crimes involving natives
in that area are now federal matters or tribal matters and not state matters this impact any
future crimes committed on the land and likely all past crimes as well the land is now recognized as
muskogee land and the history books will reflect that it never technically left their control
7. viking horns there's not a whole lot of viking history taught in schools in north america these
days though we'll get to more on that in just a little bit but when vikings are covered they're
often shown to kids in illustrated form complete with horned helmets and big bushy beards that was
the standard idea of a viking for years and it's still pervasive in pop culture today after many
years the truth is finally painfully creeping into history classes around the globe vikings did not
have horns on their helmets it's a small detail but it's also an oddly important one since it
has shaped several generations views of an entire culture it would be like someone in another land
learning that you and everyone you love wears top hats all the time because history books are often
slow to update there have even been occasions when history teachers have been forced to teach kids
about vikings using these erroneous depictions and incorporating into the lessons why the images are
wrong number six richard iii was not a hunchback thanks to william shakespeare most of the world
knows king richard iii is a hunchback but it was not just shakespeare's fiction painted him in this
light that was just how it got widespread numerous writers in the years after the end of richard's
reign described him in extremely unfavorable terms the man was known as crook back richard
that description came from a school master after richard's death who also suggested he should have
been buried in a ditch like a dog thomas moore and other writers exacerbated this image when
shakespeare got a hold of the man his reputation was utterly destroyed shakespeare's richard is a
vile man and because he's based on the real man history and fiction became inextricably
linked it seems like there would never be any definitive way to know the truth since the man
himself died in 1485. ironically there are those who believed the stories were just slanderous lies
richard was known to have been an active man and could never have had such a condition
but then we found his body in 2012 richard's remains were discovered under a parking lot
analysis showed it was unlikely he had a limp or a deformed arm or as shakespeare suggested a
hunchback and rather than a hunchback he appeared to have been afflicted with scoliosis it only
took several centuries but the truth can now be taught number five the discovery of north america
we mentioned earlier the viking history is one of those things that isn't taught very thoroughly at
least not in north america these days it's getting a little more traction thanks to revisions that
we've had to make in the history of north america itself namely that christopher columbus was not
the first european to reach the continent evidence shows that vikings made it to north america nearly
500 years before columbus's journey they set up camp in newfoundland canada in the year 1021
according to an analysis of wood found at the settlement it's only been in recent years that
history books have finally begun to acknowledge the presence of vikings in north america the story
is often a short one as we don't have nearly as much information about their time here compared
to columbus which is why so much of that story remains prevalent in the teachings number four
columbus and the flat earth speaking of columbus one of the most famous stories about him and his
historic voyage was entirely fabricated many years later despite everyone knowing about it
columbus did not believe the world was flat no one did in 1492. however the story was spread
in much the same way richard iii's hunchback story was spread a popular writer made it up
and altered history columbus was looking for a passage to asia so it stands to reason that he
had to know the world was round or well what the heck was he doing his problem was assuming there
was nothing else in between europe and asia the man just underestimated the size of the planet
washington urban the man behind the legend of sleepy hollow was the one who retold the tale
of columbus's journey and thought that he could add some dramatic flair to it it was over 300
years after columbus sailed when irving decided to add the detail that he was seeking to prove the
roundness of the world in his biography it made columbus a more heroic figure standing up to the
ignorance of the day by risking in their minds his very life by sailing towards certain doom
because it was part of a famous biography by a renowned author it became fact in the minds of
most and only in the last few decades of history books begun to revise the notion that columbus
or anyone of his era thought the world was flat when the greeks are determined that it was round
centuries earlier number three dinosaurs were not cold-blooded the history of dinosaurs has changed
many times as fossil records have been updated but one of the most curious revisions to our
understanding comes from what we know about the biology of dinosaurs as a whole once upon a time
people who discovered dinosaur bones thought they'd found the remains of a species of giants
it was only after finding complete skeletons that they realized these were not humans but animals
and they were big and they looked like lizards so we decided they were lizards one of the most
significant facts about lizards is that they're cold-blooded that means they are ectothermic
and rely on the environment to help regulate their body temperature this is in contrast to
mammals which are endothermic or warm-blooded and which can regulate their temperature internally
the problem with this label for dinosaurs is that it's not true evidence began to emerge that many
had feathers and evolved into modern birds and were probably warm-blooded but then that turned
out not to be true either after some extensive research it now seems that dinosaurs were not
cold or warm blooded there was something in the middle dinosaurs were mesotherms that puts them
on the same playing field as things like mako sharks and some turtles they can elevate their
own body temperature by way of metabolic heat production but they also can't maintain their body
temperature number two the truth of thanksgiving there's a scene in 1993's adams family values when
wednesday adams is forced to participate in a thanksgiving play and she goes off script
detailing the atrocities of the pilgrims against the native population it's a funny scene and it's
also far more accurate than most tales of the first thanksgiving for years schools published
the idea of thanksgiving being a warm and friendly melding of cultures native americans introduced
the pilgrims to things like turkey and corn and a big feast only in recent years has this notion
been revised to settle on the ugly uncomfortable truth some of the origin of thanksgiving can be
traced back to 1637 when hundreds of members of the pacqua tribe were slaughtered on mass
and a feast was held afterwards other histories referenced the wabano people who were supposedly
the first tribe to celebrate thanksgiving but what much of this ignores is that history didn't start
in north america when europeans arrived the native people have been having feasts for centuries and
the pilgrims were not even the first settlers that they met the real truth of thanksgiving is hidden
among dozens of misconceptions myths and outright lies details were ignored and cherry-picked to the
point that you'd be hard-pressed to point to the definitive origin of thanksgiving in one place one
time that said at least now there's some attention being paid in history class to the nuances of
what was going on beyond a friendly turkey dinner 1. the brontosaurus for a lot of kids their lover
dinosaurs was encapsulated by a handful of the giant creatures the triceratops with its three
horns was very cool the tyrannosaurus rex was powerful and exciting and of course the
velociraptor made famous by jurassic park was the epitome of nature's ability to be terrifying and
for a long time we had the brontosaurus as well a brontosaurus was a behemoth over 15 tons and over
70 feet long it was a whale that walked on land unrivaled in size and power until that is they
told us it wasn't real for years it was a name given to the giant fossils that had been uncovered
but in 1903 someone noticed that the brontosaurus and the apatosaurus were not just similar
dinosaurs they were the same the difference only existed because one skeleton was incomplete once
they knew what they were dealing with researchers realized that they were not separate species
at all the problem was the name and idea was ingrained at that point fred flintstone was still
eating brontosaurus burgers decades later on the flintstones and it took many years for the name to
finally be stricken from books to be replaced by the apatosaurus fast forward to 2015 and
they brought the prontosaurus back new research suggested that it was not as a mistake to separate
brontosaurus and apatosaurus and that they were actually two different animals after many years
it was a real thing again and books changed once more to accommodate its reclassification as a real
dinosaur some paleontologists are still on the fence and don't believe it's its own
thing but after all these many millions of years we can afford to be patient and wait it out
so i really hope you found this video interesting if you did please do hit
that thumbs up button below don't forget to subscribe and as always thank you for watching