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Comment by inglor_cz | Hacker News Reader

When I registered on Reddit, I chose a username DefenestrationPraha, because I thought at that time that no one in the Anglosphere would be aware of those obscure pastimes of our ancestors.

Little did I know that defenestrations of Prague are one of the few things Czech that the Internet really cares about.

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That's very funny. It's like the time that I was in a pub in Cambridge and the gentleman* next to me said, "Y'know, the US and the UK, they go way back. The US used to be a colony of the UK actually." and I laughed, like, "Yes, and we built our entire national identity off of ending our relationship." He was dumbfounded. He was surprised that I even knew details about it. Which makes me laugh just typing this because of how thoroughly ingrained that information is to many Americans.

*Who, to be fair, had actually been educated at the "other place". (I joke as someone who did not go to college.)

However, not many seem to remember New York being a Dutch colony. It's where we get the names Harlem and Brooklyn from among others.

On that note you can probably guess why its called the Russian river up in Northern California.

Not to mention the Roosevelt family.

Yankee also

It's the most famous piece of European history for US students.

Keep that in mind when working on brand promotion for your startup. Eccentric behavior with a mysterious name gets attention.

Well, as long as we strictly scope "European history" to everything between the fall of Rome and World War I. :)

Before is ancient history. After is current events.

The rest of us are just envious that your ancestors got to do what our ancestors were surely dreaming of. ~

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