Official announcements and happiness!
It's Indigenous Peoples' Day! Also Columbus Day. Let's get historical!
I'm currently just down the road from Vermont, a small state in the US that recently changed over from celebrating Columbus day to celebrating Indigenous Peoples' Day. This news led me to spend much of my morning researching the history and controversies involving Columbus Day in the US. Very interesting stuff!
Which made me think that today would be a good day to highlight history communities here on Imzy. So here we go!
/History
A solid catch-all history community.
"A place for discussions about history. Feel free to submit interesting articles, tell us about this cool book you just read, or start a discussion about who everyone's favorite figure of minor French nobility is!"
Am I supposed to have a favorte figure of French nobility? I feel like such a slacker now for not having one!
/Cartography
So you never get lost on your way to China!
"This is a community for people who love maps of every subject, whether they be of our own world today, historical maps of our world in the past, alternate history maps of our world had it taken a different course, or fantasy maps of worlds completely different from our own. Maps give us a guide to the world around us and, sometimes, the world in our heads, so we are always happy to look at a map to see the world a little differently. Whatever the subject, maps are our thing and we welcome you to participate and share some of your own favorite maps with us!"
/Books_History
Those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it. If you don't want to be doomed, you should totally check out the Books on History community. Or else! Doooooom!
"We all know our history textbooks didn't cover everything. For those who enjoy reading, books about historical figures, events, and time periods are great ways to expand on those gaps. Here we'll discuss, recommend, and fangirl (yes, you can fangirl over history, I promise) books about our favourite history topics."
/Womens_History
This looks like a cozy little community that could use more members!
"A place for folks to share information about interesting and influential historical women from around the world!"
/Presidential_History
"A place for people interested in the history of the presidency and politics in the United States. For discussion of books we've read, places we've been, people we admire and....don't."
Okay, that's all the ones I have. Do you have any history related communities that you really like, or want to see more active, that I might have missed?
Edit: omg I forgot it's also Canadian Thanksgiving! I can't believe I forgot that, sorry Canadian friends! Happy thanksgiving!









Other noteworthy observances for October 10th:
Fun fact: Ohio's first capital was Chillicothe, a name for a division of Native Americans who lived there. They then changed it to Columbus, a name for a guy who "discovered" a new world centuries after others had discovered it and killed many native peoples. How ironic.
Oh god, I was raised in that fucking cult where we celebrated this genocidal rapist! It’s a holiday straight out of Game of Thrones.
Today offers a test of character. Either one has a sense of ethics, or a sense of
patriotismnationalism. To think for yourself, or have your thinking done for you.(source) Too many indigenous people died for my country. At the hands of the entitled European refugees & immigrants.
Seriously, though. Columbus was so bad that even his contemporaries were appalled. Why anyone created a holiday to celebrate this asshole who never even set foot in the US is beyond me.
And we still teach kids this myth about how everyone else thought the world was flat when Columbus made his voyage. That's not true at all. Everybody knew it was round, but Columbus thought it was smaller than it actually is. The only reason he and his crew didn't die of thirst out on the open ocean was because there happened to be another land mass in-between Europe and Asia.
Great post! Thanks very much!
Awesome! I totally missed /books_history until now, so thanks for the list!
...I didn't even know it was Columbus Day. Thanks for reminding me not to bother checking the mailbox XD