40 "Everyday History Facts" They Probably Didn’t Teach You In School, As Shared By This Instagram Account

But why is it important to study history in the first place? Dr. Tony Joel, an Associate Professor of History at Deakin University, wrote that this subject is a multifaceted discipline that can increase our cultural awareness: “By studying history, you’ll gain a range of transferable skills, from informed citizenship and critical thinking, to research and general awareness.”

History is one of the “traditional” disciplines in the humanities. While it may look like the popularity of this study field is decreasing, Joel said that it’s still a subject that many students enjoy: “It seems that, even if they’re enrolled in engineering, nursing, science, law, commerce or something else, many students love to dabble in a little bit of history as part of their course.”

According to him, it’s a common error to think that studying the past simply involves remembering the who, what, and when. These types of questions are just the start of it: “Historians are far more interested in exploring the how and why questions—that is, interpreting events to better understand how they unfolded and why they occurred.”

Joel mentioned the oft-quoted aphorism by philosopher George Santayana: “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it”. It’s important to interpret the general facts surrounding different historical events in order to develop a better understanding of our world today.

“And if we heed Santayana’s warning, then remembering history—and learning important lessons from it—should help us to avoid previous mistakes and prevent previous misdeeds from happening again,” the professor explained. 

Finding out the little details or little anecdotes about our past is not only fun but also helps us re-think the knowledge surrounding a certain historical event. In fact, whether it’s learning new things about history, psychology, or gathering random information floating around the internet, people certainly benefit from learning facts.

Previously, we reached out to Daniel T. Willingham, a professor of psychology at the University of Virginia and author of Outsmart Your Brain, to talk about why humans are so drawn to acquiring new information. “What’s odd about facts is that the content matters less to whether or not you’d like to learn about it than you’d think,” he said.

“Curiosity seems to be an innate drive we share with many other species that prompts us to learn about our environment, which obviously helps individuals to survive,” the professor explained. “We are not curious about everything—we are curious when we think a little exploration will lead to a lot of learning.”

Yet, some people believe that taking the time and energy to learn interesting facts is a waste of time. The professor disagrees, saying that factual knowledge is a really important driver of reading comprehension and other high-level thinking skills, like problem-solving.

“Think about how much easier it is to read a passage if you’re familiar with the general topic—I don’t care how ‘skilled’ a reader you are, if (like most Americans) you’re unfamiliar with the game of cricket, you will not be able to make sense of a newspaper account of the game,” Willingham mentioned. However, “a ten-year cricket fan in India or another cricket-mad country would have no problem.”

Some people blame the web for overloading our brains with tons of information, others say that we don’t actually need to learn facts since they’re just a few Google searches away. However, we are the ones putting those little details into context. Later on, we can connect the dots and come up with new answers and clever ideas.