# Obscure historical events made famous by works of art **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** movies\ **Created:** [September 25, 2025, 4:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obscure-historical-events-made-famous-by-works-of-art/1023373 "2025-09-25T04:44:22Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![APB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8e8cbc/32.png) [@APB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/APB)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2025, 8:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obscure-historical-events-made-famous-by-works-of-art/1023373/41 "2025-09-25T20:06:31Z")
> [@MrAtoz](#): > > I can recall being astonished the first time I learned that the Three Musketeers (all four of them) were based on real people. Although, apart from d’Artagnan, Dumas basically just used the names and invented everything else. But continuing the Musketeers theme, although it was already well known, the mystery of the Man in the Iron Mask is now almost entirely remembered via Dumas. One odd case might be the battles of Cascini and Anghiari, as they get remembered only because of two works of art that were either never finished or no longer exist. But the preparatory sketches, the copies by other artists and the story of the rivalry between Michelangelo and Leonardo mean that the battles themselves are still remembered. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2025, 8:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obscure-historical-events-made-famous-by-works-of-art/1023373/42 "2025-09-25T20:37:26Z")
Speaking of mutinies, most people wouldn’t remember the Caine mutiny in WWII, if it weren’t for the 1954 movie which immortalized Captain Queeg’s obsession with frozen strawberries. ---
**Author:** ![griffin1977](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/977dab/32.png) [@griffin1977](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/griffin1977)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2025, 8:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obscure-historical-events-made-famous-by-works-of-art/1023373/43 "2025-09-25T20:50:34Z")
> [@Gatopescado](#): > > Oh! The Humanity! Yeah that’s a different set of historical events that would have disappeared into obscurity but for the groundbreaking media coverage of them at the time. See also the sinking of the Titanic and the arrest and trial of OJ Simpson ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2025, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obscure-historical-events-made-famous-by-works-of-art/1023373/44 "2025-09-25T21:00:50Z")
The Battle of Hastings was just one inn a series of battles between the English and Normans that lasted for years. It would be little remembered except for the Bayeux Tapestry that featured an appearance by what would eventually be called Halley’s Comet. ---
**Author:** ![FlikTheBlue](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fliktheblue/32/10972_2.png) [@FlikTheBlue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FlikTheBlue)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2025, 9:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obscure-historical-events-made-famous-by-works-of-art/1023373/45 "2025-09-25T21:13:49Z")
The Yellow Turban Rebellion and subsequent civil war in late 2nd / early 3rd century China. I don’t know about how well known the event is in today’s China, but in the west it’s mostly known because of the _Romance of the Three Kingdoms_ series of video games. The same goes for the civil war in 16th century Japan that led up to the founding of the Tokugawa shogunate, made famous by the _Nobunaga’s Ambition_ video games. ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2025, 9:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obscure-historical-events-made-famous-by-works-of-art/1023373/46 "2025-09-25T21:46:11Z")
> [@Miller](#): > > Speaking of mutinies, most people wouldn’t remember the Caine mutiny in WWII, if it weren’t for the 1954 movie which immortalized Captain Queeg’s obsession with frozen strawberries. ??? What Caine mutiny during WWII? ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2025, 9:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obscure-historical-events-made-famous-by-works-of-art/1023373/47 "2025-09-25T21:50:29Z")
> [@MrAtoz](#): > > I can recall being astonished the first time I learned that the Three Musketeers (all four of them) were based on real people. So is Cyrano de Bergerac ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2025, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obscure-historical-events-made-famous-by-works-of-art/1023373/48 "2025-09-25T21:51:30Z")
Well, shit, turns out the movie was only partially based on a real event (the USS Hull), but was mostly fiction. Never mind! ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2025, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obscure-historical-events-made-famous-by-works-of-art/1023373/49 "2025-09-25T21:53:56Z")
> [@Kent\_Clark](#): > > The Battle of Hastings was just one inn a series of battles between the English and Normans that lasted for years. It would be little remembered except for the Bayeux Tapestry that featured an appearance by what would eventually be called Halley’s Comet. I think the death of Harold Godwinson would have guaranteed its importance, tapestry or no tapestry. Without him, the English didn’t stand much of a chance. ---
**Author:** ![Frodo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/frodo/32/302_2.png) [@Frodo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frodo)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2025, 9:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obscure-historical-events-made-famous-by-works-of-art/1023373/50 "2025-09-25T21:55:49Z")
Yeah this makes no sense, Hastings resulted in a dynastic change and a profound cultural change in Great Britain, we would be writing in a very different language otherwise. ---
**Author:** ![vbob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/vbob/32/4439_2.png) [@vbob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vbob)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2025, 10:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obscure-historical-events-made-famous-by-works-of-art/1023373/51 "2025-09-25T22:28:25Z")
Paintings and poetry often ARE a form of journalism, and by their creation render their topics less obscure. Not to mention that journalism and historical writing in general are art forms. It’s up to us to attend the right openings and slams, as well as award literary honors to excellent reporting. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2025, 11:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obscure-historical-events-made-famous-by-works-of-art/1023373/52 "2025-09-25T23:07:32Z")
The sinking of the _Titanic_ was just another shipwreck until Hollywood made a movie in the 50s and Walter Lord wrote _A Night to Remember._ ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2025, 11:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obscure-historical-events-made-famous-by-works-of-art/1023373/53 "2025-09-25T23:20:46Z")
Am I being wooshed? The survivors were making bank off that story for 40 years before that book was written. ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2025, 11:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obscure-historical-events-made-famous-by-works-of-art/1023373/54 "2025-09-25T23:43:47Z")
> [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](#): > > Am I being wooshed? I sure hope so. There were over a hundred (!) songs written about it within the first year. The first film was made in 1912 starring one of the survivors. Hitler’s Germany (!!) made a large budget film in the middle of frikken WWI about the disaster. (As an aside, it was a good film. Just not a good film about the real Titanic.) ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2025, 1:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obscure-historical-events-made-famous-by-works-of-art/1023373/55 "2025-09-26T01:32:10Z")
Look it up. By 1920, mentions of it had dropped precipitously. The number of references to “Titanic” in 1926 was about the same as before it sunk. There was a movie about it in 1953 with some impact, but the big push was Walter Lord’s _A Night to Remember,_ which interviewed the survivors and was a massive success, leading to a successful movie. Lord was considered a bit of an oddity for obsessing over it. But during the 30s and 40s, only historians thought about it. Without Lord, it would have been forgotten. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2025, 3:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obscure-historical-events-made-famous-by-works-of-art/1023373/56 "2025-09-26T03:00:08Z")
> [@Miller](#): > > Speaking of mutinies, most people wouldn’t remember the Caine mutiny in WWII, if it weren’t for the 1954 movie which immortalized Captain Queeg’s obsession with frozen strawberries. Was I whooshed here? The Caine mutiny was not a historical event. eta: ninja’d ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2025, 3:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obscure-historical-events-made-famous-by-works-of-art/1023373/57 "2025-09-26T03:12:38Z")
> [@griffin1977](#): > > I’m not sure about that. Wasn’t it the first major bombing of an urban center by massed bombers ? That’s a pretty important milestone in human conflict. So i think it would be well known even if was dwarfed by later WW2 bombing raids. Guernica was not a city. It was a town with a population of seven thousand people in 1937 (although the day of the bombing was a local market day so there was around ten thousand people there that day). Guernica was a valid military target. There were Republican troops and military supplies in the town and the Nationalist army was planning an advance through the area. It wasn’t just a case of killing a bunch of civilians to terrorize the population. The casualties were under three hundred people. The Republican forces claimed there were over sixteen hundred deaths and this figure was accepted as a fact for several decades. But historians have looked at the evidence and the lower death toll is now generally accepted. ---
**Author:** ![JohnGalt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johngalt/32/184_2.png) [@JohnGalt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnGalt)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2025, 3:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obscure-historical-events-made-famous-by-works-of-art/1023373/58 "2025-09-26T03:35:04Z")
The Battle of New Orleans wasn’t very big or very influential, and would easily forgotten if it wasn’t for Johnny Horton’s little ditty from the 1959. (I also wonder who remembers that song today.) ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2025, 4:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obscure-historical-events-made-famous-by-works-of-art/1023373/59 "2025-09-26T04:20:20Z")
The Battle of New Orleans was the subject of a major motion picture (_The Buccaneer_ with Yul Brenner and Charlton Heston) a year before Horton’s record came out. ---
**Author:** ![scabpicker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scabpicker/32/8268_2.png) [@scabpicker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scabpicker)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2025, 12:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obscure-historical-events-made-famous-by-works-of-art/1023373/60 "2025-09-26T12:26:52Z")
> [@JohnGalt](#): > > The Battle of New Orleans wasn’t very big or very influential, and would easily forgotten if it wasn’t for Johnny Horton’s little ditty from the 1959. (I also wonder who remembers that song today.) Heheh, I was thinking about that song and _Sink the Bismarck_ just the other day. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obscure-historical-events-made-famous-by-works-of-art/1023373.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obscure-historical-events-made-famous-by-works-of-art/1023373.md?page=4)