Top 10 Historical Events School Doesn't Teach You About

These historical events deserve more attention! For this list, we’ll be looking at famous and important moments in the world’s history that educators either touched upon briefly or completely ignored, leaving us to discover them on the internet. Our countdown of major historical events that school didn't teach you includes The Mao Massacre (1966-76), The Stonewall Riots (1969), The Trail of Tears (1830-40), and more! What other events did schools fail to teach us about? Let us know below!

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[WatchMojo]

What other events did schools fail to teach us about? Let us know below!

[mackpines]

This is why I absolutely love history.
You discover forgotten events like these.
You’ll always learn something new.

[jamalvargas]

Like Hank Hill Said "You Can't Count On School for everything" no words were ever truer

[MarquisDeSacks]

I went to public school and we learned about most of these things. I credit our remarkably resilient teachers for that!

[susanrobinson]

I am a firm believer that everyone should at least be aware of these horrific historical events, warts and all, so that we can learn from our past mistakes and how to deal with events like this in the future…because if we do not learn from the past, we are doomed to repeat it.

Thanks for the list.

[emiebex]

Thank you Watchmojo for keeping these Historical Events in the spotlight. These Injustices should never be forgotten. 🙇🏿‍♂️🙇🏿‍♀️

[esteemedmortal]

I think it’s a silver lining of the growth of the internet and podcasts that people can learn so much more about history. Even a great teacher can only cover so much ground, but having these other sources means you can hear more varied voices and perspectives.

Even then, there were still several things on this list that I hadn’t heard of.

[THANATOS-PRIME]

I’m a Native American (Apache to be exact).

Lots of injustices that have happened to us are hardly ever mentioned.

[michaelswick]

As a history teacher we do learn about the Indian Removal Act and Trail of Tears. I teach about the Massacre at Wounded Knee and have been there. Don’t forget about Seneca Village in NYC and the Walking Purchase by the Penn family after William died.
We do a whole section on slavery and race relations in the US and the world.
We talk about Mao and Doc and the background of the hostage crisis in Iran in my geography class as well.

[vulgartech]

The Zoot Suit Riots were an ugly event in U.S. history but they never get discussed in school.

[silverwindfox]

I' m a teacher myself and there's a lot of stuff we're told to gloss over and not cover. Hell i didn't learn about some of these until i went to college and even then it was just an abridged version.

Its like that old saying History is recorded by the winners. They never really tell us what happened to losers 😞.

[debbieellett]

I remember my Father telling me about the trail of tears. Even as a young girl, I felt a deep sorrow for the Native Peoples. It was my father who often told me the school books were wrong.

[Katpiratefan]

Middle-Eastern conflicts have always been complicated even learning about them today, so not sure how schools would have taught them. I briefly learned about the Trail of Tears in elementary school, but not about what started it or how many died.
Stone Wall and Colvin I learned from Drunk History of all places.
Wall Street Attack, Bacon's Rebellion, Armenian Genocide, and Tulsa was never brought up in school. I learned more about Tears and Tulsa recently in my Humanities classes in College and found them both incredibly upsetting. Those were the angriest 4 months of my life.

[tamarmorehead]

You forgot to mention during the Tulsa Race Riots they actually had airplanes that bombed the poor town. There are actually people who recalled hearing and seeing them.

[whitneyshaw]

Growing up in Tulsa, I still didn’t learn about the Tulsa Race Massacre until I was in my 20s!

[Steffonkentavian]

The opportunity to mention Marsha P Johnson, during the Stonewall segment, was terribly missed!

[tonyscrilla]

Definitely need a part 2 because they never really taught about the Moors.. What happened in the Republic of the Congo .. The riots around the US during the draft of the Civil War etc...

[VIGLounge]

Similarly to the Trail of Tears, growing up in Canada Catholic School System did not teach the treatment of Indigenous persons via the 60s Scoop and Resident Schools. I did learn about these extensively in my post secondary (College) education though.

[matthewkincanon]

Other events involving Indigenous people we weren't taught about in school:

The Long Walk of the Navajo
The Osage Nation Murders
The Occupation of Alcatraz
Trail of Broken Treaties
Wounded Knee Occupation

[jyb]

I’m a history teacher at a high school in Alabama (where us teachers have our hands tied, quite frankly). I am ALWAYS skeptical when I hear people says “we didn’t learn that in history!” for some events. A lot of these, and other similar events, are covered. Unfortunately, many high school-aged students just aren’t interested in history or don’t yet have the maturity to apply themselves.