I can't believe I'd never heard of...

I’m reasonably well read on various topics concerning history, and was thus very surprised while listening to the excellent BBC A History of the World in 100 Objects podcast to learn about The Crown of Thorns, which is a Christian relic believed by the faithful to be the very crown that Jesus wore during the crucifixion, and is now kept (what’s left of it) in Notre Dame in Paris.

Now, obviously it’s not surprising that there are things that people think are relics… I mean, we’ve all heard of various “pieces of the true cross”. But this thing is at least one level more plausible than that, in that it’s history is pretty clearly traceable back to around the year 400 AD. It spent a long time in Constantinople, back when that was a leading city of Christendom, being the capital of the Byzantine empire. Then it was sold (through Venice) to medieval France for a sum of money so enormous that it was basically 50% of the entire federal budget of France for that year. It’s been in France ever since, but for a while the King would take individual thorns out of it and give them away as the supreme possible gift (including the one that ended up in a fancy reliquary in the British Museum, and hence the podcast).

So for a long time, this was basically the most valuable item in the entire world, and I’d never heard of it until now, which I find surprising.

(Although it does raise an interesting question… what happened to it during the Nazi occupation? And why was Indiana Jones not involved?)
So what are some things that you learned about only recently, but are surprised you hadn’t known about longer?

Well, obviously I’d heard of the Crown of Thorns, but I had no idea anyone had ever actually claimed to have THE ACTUAL Crown of Thorns. I just figured Christendom had sort-of collectively agreed that it was lost. I had no idea until this thread that anyone ever actually thought it still exists.

That Kiefer and Donald Sutherland are related.

No, I’m not kidding. It just never occurred to me.

Being into NYC theatre and an avid follower of events of 9/11, I had to read that Broadway actor Max Von Essen and NYC Head Fire Commissioner Thomas von Essen were son-and-father.

I mean, how common is the surname “von Essen”?

The exact location of China on a map. I always assumed I knew where it was – I love globes and atlases, and it’s one of the larger countries, but when I had to highlight it on a map, I realized that much of what I had always thought was China is actually Russia, and that China is much smaller and further south.

Likewise, until a few weeks ago I’ve never heard of the Delmarva penninsula. Nice place! I’d like to visit there again when the weather doesn’t suck.

Until a couple of weeks ago, I had never heard of Joe Paterno, Jerry Sandusky, or the word Nittany. Seems like I’m the only one.

Me neither.

We spent all of 7th grade history class on WWII, and I’ve read a bunch about the war since, so I still can’t believe that it’s only been until the last couple of years I’ve heard about either the bombing of Dresden or Unit 731.

Screw sinks. In all my time of hanging things up, and helping my dad do projects around the house, etc., I’ve never heard of screw sinks. How is this possible?? But now I know why my curtains didn’t stay up.

I’d heard of the nittany lions, but couldn’t have told you it meant penn state. Never heard of the coaches either.

I just want to chime in and say - being of a certain age, and considering myself fairly well informed - I would dearly love to again have the experience of “I can’t believe I’d never heard of…”

I fear it will never happen in my lifetime…:frowning:

I think I was in my early 20s, about 20 years ago that is, when I came across news of the Chestnut Blight.

It was really weird how shocked I was. Chestnuts had been extremely numerous in the area right where I grew up. They grew to be huge trees. They were economically important trees. And they were all gone. Almost every single one. And it had never come up, not once in all my schooling and reading and gamboling about in forests. The devastation was almost complete long before I was born, but it was still in living memory. I can’t believe I never heard about it.

I miss them.

So wait: every last chestnut tree in the US was killed? And there are no chestnut trees here now? Or have they been re-planted in significant numbers?

I’d never heard of this either.

I wouldn’t put much faith (no pun intended) on the authenticity of that relic. 400 years a long time for there to be a gap in the history.

It was just the American Chestnut. There are other varieties that have better resistance, and there are still some American Chestnuts left producing seeds. I imagine a resistant form will be developed in time.

I have a “Sweetheart” tree, a hybrid American Chestnut growing in my yard. here is a fact sheet on chestnut growing with sources for chestnut trees in the US.

I’m astonished at the number of people that have never heard of the Iran-Contra affair.

In my 20s, I read about the Spanish Flu for the first time. I was astonished that such a devastating and frightening illness had never been covered in my history classes.

Emile Zola’s J’accuse.