History SmallReferencePools / RealLife

* UsefulNotes/{{Thailand}}: Formerly Siam. UsefulNotes/{{Bangkok}}, best known for sex tourism and "[[Music//Chess1984 One Night in Bangkok]]". And maybe ''Theatre/TheKingAndI''.

*** Alaska: Anchorage, permafrost and

* UsefulNotes/{{Saudi Arabia}}: The only place that exists is UsefulNotes/{{Mecca}}. Even its capital UsefulNotes/{{Riyadh}} is far more obscure in comparison.
* UsefulNotes/{{Serbia}}: Sarajevo, even though it's now part of UsefulNotes/{{Bosnia|AndHerzegovina}}. Best known for the mid '90s siege and "[[Music/TransSiberianOrchestra Christmas Eve Sarajevo 12/24]]". Also known is Srebrenica, for the July 1995 massacre.

* UsefulNotes/{{Tanzania}}: Best known for Zanzibar, which is where Music/FreddieMercury [[Music/{{Queen}} is from]]. Kilimanjaro, Africa's highest (and apparently only) mountain is here too, but most people will place it in Kenya instead.

*** Some other English locations that may get a reference: Dover (for its White Cliffs), Stonehenge, Oxford and Cambridge (if we need [[UsefulNotes/{{Oxbridge}} a university]]), Liverpool (well known thanks to Music/TheBeatles), Manchester (for the football teams), Birmingham (birthplace of many British HeavyMetal bands), Southampton (known for harboring ''[[UsefulNotes/RMSTitanic Titanic]]''), Yorkshire (for Yorkshire pudding and the Yorkshire terrier), Wimbledon (for [[UsefulNotes/{{Wimbledon}} the tennis]]) and Greenwich (for the meridian).
** UsefulNotes/{{Scotland}} is colorful enough to be referenced, but only because of UsefulNotes/{{Glasgow}}, Edinburgh and [[StockNessMonster Loch Ness, for the monster.]]. Still they should be glad, because Wales does not exist for foreigners unless they're fans of either ''Literature/BrotherCadfael'', rugby union, or ''Series/WelcomeToWrexham''.

*** UsefulNotes/{{Georgia|USA}}: ''[[Music/RayCharles Georgia on My Mind]]''. Home of UsefulNotes/{{Atlanta}}.

*** Kansas: May bring up associations with the song ''Kansas City'', the black-and-white scenes in ''Film/TheWizardOfOz'' and as the residence of [[Franchise/{{Superman}} Clark Kent]].
*** Kentucky: Fort Knox and home of UsefulNotes/KentuckyFriedChicken. [[UsefulNotes/AbrahamLincoln Abe Lincoln]] was born here.

*** UsefulNotes/{{Tennessee}}: Music/ElvisPresley fans know it for Graceland, blues fans for Memphis, country fans for UsefulNotes/{{Nashville}}.

** UsefulNotes/GeorgeWashington: Has golden/wooden teeth (which he had neither), chopped down a cherry tree (which he never did), couldn't tell a lie (yeah, right), father of the USA. On the quarter and $1.

** UsefulNotes/ThomasJefferson: Did a lot of important stuff that most people don't remember. On the nickel.

** UsefulNotes/DwightDEisenhower: "Ike", former WWII general who got the nation through the height of the Cold War and the burgeoning Civil Rights Movement. Created highways.
** UsefulNotes/JohnFKennedy: Went to bed with Creator/MarilynMonroe, claimed to be a Berliner (not a jelly donut), had a missile crisis in Cuba and was shot while riding in a car by someone [[WhoShotJFK we still haven't identified properly]].

** Nancy Reagan: Wanted everyone to ''just say no'', consulted fortune tellers

** Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna

** European Communist dictators: UsefulNotes/VladimirLenin, UsefulNotes/JosephStalin (considered more dictatorial than any other Russian head of state during the UsefulNotes/ColdWar), Nixolae Ceauceșcu (Romania), Enver Hoxha (Albania), UsefulNotes/JosipBrozTito and UsefulNotes/SlobodanMilosevic (Yugoslavia), Walter Ubricht and Erick Honecker (East Germany), and Alexander Lukashenko (Belarus).

** [[UsefulNotes/JuliusCaesar Caesar]], UsefulNotes/{{Augustus}}, UsefulNotes/{{Nero}}, UsefulNotes/{{Caligula}} and [[Series/IClaudius Claudius]]. Constantine the Great is known to Christians for making Christianity the state religion[[note]]He, uh, didn't actually do that -- but it ''is'' what he's known for...[[/note]]. UsefulNotes/{{Hadrian}} is known for Hadrian's Wall. Marcus Aurelius, Caracalla, Elagabalus, Commodus, and Tiberius also regularly pop up in lists of daft Roman Emperors.

** "England" has only had four sovereigns: UsefulNotes/HenryVIII, UsefulNotes/ElizabethI, UsefulNotes/QueenVictoria, and UsefulNotes/ElizabethII. The English themselves also know of four others — UsefulNotes/WilliamTheConqueror, Henry II, UsefulNotes/AlfredTheGreat, and the current one (UsefulNotes/CharlesIII). Americans know King George III. For obvious reasons. Scots probably know of Edward Longshanks as well. Cultivated people will also know UsefulNotes/RichardIII from Shakespeare's play ''Theatre/RichardIII''. King James is best known for his Bible, otherwise he's only known in Scotland.

* UsefulNotes/MarieCurie is usually [[TheSmurfettePrinciple the only woman scientist that gets mentioned in media]] (though Rosalind Franklin pops up from time to time). Discovered radioactivity (no) and the element radium (yes -- and polonium too, but that's much less well known). She is known for being a woman and for getting killed by her research. ''Webcomic/{{xkcd}}'' [[http://xkcd.com/896/ lampshaded this]].

** Although the asteroid belt as a whole is well known, the only specific asteroids that exist are the ones on a collision course with Earth. The one exception is usually Ceres (despite now being a dwarf planet), because it's the largest asteroid and -- as it will ''always'', and proudly, be pointed out -- it's "as big as Texas." Trojan asteroids (i.e. ones located outside the actual asteroid belt and instead co-orbiting with one of the planets) will rarely be mentioned.

* The only cities in UsefulNotes/{{China}} are UsefulNotes/{{Shanghai}}, UsefulNotes/{{Beijing}}, and Hong Kong (which is not even technically part of China, but rather a "special administrative region" covered under the "one country, two systems" principle). This is interesting since China is ''the most populated country in the world''. Chongqing, Guangzhou (Canton), and Shenzhen are almost completely unheard of despite having populations of over ''10 million'', which by comparison is bigger than [[BigApplesauce New York City]]'s by millions. Macau, the other "special administrative region", may get a mention, but even then most works assume that do acknowledge it assume it's an island filled with casinos and nothing else.

* UsefulNotes/TheMiddleEast consists of Israel, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and any country that the US is currently at war with. Everywhere ends in -stan. (In actuality, the suffix ''-stan'' comes from the Indo-Iranian languages, and is mostly used in Central and South Asia.)

* If your characters visit Europe, they will only go to England, France, Spain, Italy, Germany, Sweden, Greece, the Netherlands and/or Austria. And they will always visit the capital cities, but then suddenly deviate into other countrysides typical for that country as if they are only a few miles away from the capital. The only exception is Italy, because besides Rome, you can also visit Venice, Tuscany, Milan, Pisa and the Isle of Sicily.
* When you visit Paris [[EiffelTowerEffect the Eiffel Tower HAS to be present]] somewhere in the background! And the Arc de Triomphe. If your characters visit other landmarks it will be the Louvre and only to see ''Art/TheMonaLisa''.

* There is no Oceania, except on the rare occasion that Australia exists. New Zealand doesn't exist at all. (However, if it does, it's known only for producing Rachel Hunter, Creator/PeterJackson, Creator/RussellCrowe, and Music/{{Lorde}}.)

* UsefulNotes/{{Iceland}} is a frozen rock with lots of Eskimos and one Music/{{Bjork}} somewhere near the North Pole. And now, also that darn flight-impeding volcano that no one can spell, [[TheUnpronounceable much less pronounce]]. If you're lucky, Reykjavík will get a mention.

* The only cities in UsefulNotes/{{China}} are UsefulNotes/{{Shanghai}}, UsefulNotes/{{Beijing}}, and Hong Kong. This is interesting since China is ''the most populated country in the world''. Chongqing, Guangzhou (Canton), and Shenzhen are almost completely unheard of despite having populations of over ''10 million'', which by comparison is bigger than [[BigApplesauce New York City]]'s by millions.

* UsefulNotes/TheMiddleEast consists of Israel plus any country that the US is currently at war with. Everywhere ends in -stan. (In actuality, the suffix ''-stan'' comes from the Indo-Iranian languages, and is mostly used in Central and South Asia.)

* South America consists solely of Brazil, where they speak Spanish, and Generic BananaRepublic Dictatorships led by either a Nazi sympathizer, drug lord, or corrupt military commander.

* Haiti is the only French-speaking area outside of France itself and maybe Quebec. Martinique, Guadeloupe, Saint Martin, and Saint Barthélemy do not exist. And Haiti's history only goes back 50 years, despite it being independent for over 200.

* UsefulNotes/{{Morocco}}: Fez and Casablanca, the latter only known as [[Film/Casablanca a movie]].

* British readers, on the other hand may be limited to

* Cult leaders? It will always be the corrupt frauds and/or the ones who committed a major crime that pop up. UsefulNotes/CharlesManson, UsefulNotes/JimJones (for ordering his followers to drink a cyanide cocktail), Bhagwan (for owning several Rolls-Royces while his followers were living in poverty), the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi (from his association with Music/TheBeatles and allegations that he might have sexually harassed some of his followers) and Sun Myung Moon (because of his mass weddings).

** Many countries seem to have their own outlaw who managed to get a HistoricalHeroUpgrade for being some kind of Myth/RobinHood character (even if that is more myth than fact). The USA has UsefulNotes/JesseJames, Australia has UsefulNotes/NedKelly, Italy Fra Diavolo, India Phoolan Devi, aka ''Bandit Queen'', Brazil UsefulNotes/{{Lampiao}} and The UK Dick Turpin.

* The only Japanese-Americans are Creator/GeorgeTakei and Kristi Yamaguchi, and ''maybe'' Creator/PatMorita.
* The only Korean-American is Creator/MargaretCho.

* All big fashion designers before Calvin Klein (the only American most people can think of) have been French (UsefulNotes/CocoChanel, Christian Dior, Yves Saint-Laurent) or Italian (Valentino, Giorgio Armani, the Versaces). Occasionally Mexican designer Oscar de la Renta will get a mention -- though often simply to be humorously confused with Mexican-American lightweight boxer Oscar de la Hoya.

* There are no distinct countries in eastern Europe (or central Europe, because it's part of eastern Europe) except for Western Russia and maybe Poland. All non-Western Europeans are either Slavs or Greeks; there are no Estonians, Balts, Magyars, Romanian Latins, Albanians, or Turks. Averted for basketball fans, who are very aware of the presence of multiple Slavic nationalities, as well as Lithuanians, Latvians, and Turks (and more) in the NBA.

** AncientRome: The only time when UsefulNotes/TheRomanRepublic will be depicted is near the end, when it evolved into UsefulNotes/TheRomanEmpire. The rise and murder of UsefulNotes/JuliusCaesar is usually the focus. The story may continue until the defeat and death of UsefulNotes/MarkAntony and UsefulNotes/CleopatraVII, followed by UsefulNotes/{{Augustus}} taking power. The fashions and politics depicted will be from this period no matter what century it is.[[note]]Creator/RidleyScott's ''Film/{{Gladiator}}'' is one of the best-known examples of this. The senators scheming to restore republican government are also anachronistic — it's about as realistic as portraying scheming 20th-century British parliamentarians trying to restore the House of Stuart.[[/note]]. The only other historical events that are interesting are the Pompeïi volcano disaster, the Great Fire of Rome, the [[GladiatorRevolt slave revolt]] of Spartacus, Hannibal crossing the Alps and the eventual invasion of the city by barbarians. The empire is far more interesting for most people, because it allows scenes of grotesque decadent and immoral behaviour and the opportunity to show [[UsefulNotes/TheGloryThatWasRome Rome in all of its magnificent glory]]. Naturally all action is concentrated in Rome, except perhaps to show some people battling in Gaul or Carthage. Still, Roman life will only take place in or nearby aquaducts, temples, columns, amphitheaters, bath houses, the Senate, the Imperial Palace and [[BreadAndCircuses an arena]], preferably the Colosseum, where [[GladiatorGames gladiators and large animals will kill one another for blood thirsty spectators]]. Romans will all wear togas and be a [[ColorCodedPatrician patrician]], senator, [[TheCaligula emperor]], gladiator, legionary, centurion or [[MadeASlave a slave]]. Most people think every Roman spoke Latin, while upperclass people in Rome spoke Ancient Greek. Expect the following historical domain characters to make a cameo or be namedropped: UsefulNotes/JuliusCaesar, UsefulNotes/{{Pompey|TheGreat}}, UsefulNotesMarkAntony, UsefulNotes/{{Augustus}}, UsefulNotes/{{Caligula}}, UsefulNotes/{{Nero}}, UsefulNotes/{{Trajan}}, UsefulNotes/{{Hadrian}}, Caracalla, Elagabalus, Constantine, Marcus Aurelius, Hannibal, Spartacus, Creator/{{Cicero}}, Creator/{{Virgil}}, Messalina, Agrippina, Creator/{{Juvenal}}, Creator/{{Plautus}}, Sallust, Tacitus and Creator/{{Ovid}}.

* The only Italian-Americans are gangsters or actors who have played gangsters. Plus Music/FrankSinatra, Music/DeanMartin, [=Joe DiMaggio=], and Creator/DannyDeVito. In 2024, another famous Italian-American doesn't even have an Italian name, namely Caitlin Clark.[[note]]Her mother's maiden name is the very Italian Nizzi.[[/note]]

** Stories about artists will preferably be set in Paris and revolve around impressionist, expressionist, or realist painters who are misunderstood by everybody: Creator/VincentVanGogh, Creator/HenriDeToulouseLautrec, Paul Gauguin, Paul Cézanne, Pierre-August Renoir, Paul Signac, [[Art/ASundayAfternoonOnTheIslandOfLaGrandeJatte Georges Seurat]], [[Art/LeDejeunerSurLHerbe Édouard Manet]], Gustave Courbet, Auguste Rodin... They will drink absinthe and visit brothels, while prostitutes [[Music/TheCanCanSong dance the Can-Can]] in the Moulin Rouge. Naturally we also see the {{Eiffel Tower|Effect}}. Cameo appearances or references to Creator/VictorHugo, Creator/AlexandreDumas, Creator/HonoreDeBalzac, Paul Verlaine, Arthur Rimbaud, Creator/EmileZola, and Music/ErikSatie are not uncommon either.

** The60s: A revolutionary time, where all kinds of minorities (youngsters, college students, blacks, women, gays, colonial countries,...) demand equal rights, freedom of speech and the end of old-fashioned, conformist and repressive values. TheGenerationGap between adults and youngsters becomes more prominent. All teenagers are left-wing [[NewAgeRetroHippie hippies]] who wear flowers in their hair, drive around in a HippieVan and want to travel to California or Katmandu to join a {{Commune}}. Or if they are black they will wear an afro and listen to Creator/{{Motown}}. They will all support the UsefulNotes/CivilRightsMovement and protest against UsefulNotes/TheVietnamWar. The men are either a ScooterRidingMod, a snappin' {{Beatnik}} or a [[LoveFreak peace loving']], long bearded hippie wearing CoolShades playing guitar. That is if they aren't sent off under {{Conscription}} to Vietnam to die in a pointless war against the Vietcong. (Veterans who come back maimed, drug-addicted or with PTSD or mental illness is seen in The70s.) All women are a GranolaGirl who may wear a BeehiveHairdo and a Mini Skirt or a long "granny" skirt and peasant blouse. Since the anticonception pill has made its entry and hallucinogenic drugs like LSD and marihuana reach the mainstream everybody will engage in SexDrugsAndRockAndRoll. Expect many hippies to be TheStoner or EruditeStoner searching for a HigherUnderstandingThroughDrugs. The music is usually the most celebrated part of this era, with great {{Rock}}, SurfRock, FolkMusic, {{Pop}}, PsychedelicRock, {{Soul}}, {{Funk}} being made by bands like Music/TheBeatles, Music/{{The Rolling Stones|Band}}, Music/TheWho, Music/TheBeachBoys, Music/BobDylan, Music/JamesBrown, Music/JanisJoplin, Music/JimiHendrix, Music/TheGratefulDead and Music/TheDoors as the most iconic examples. Expect a reference to the ''Film/{{Woodstock}}'' festival too. UndergroundComics, SpaghettiWestern, SpyDrama, UsefulNotes/FrenchNewWave and Pop Art are the prime artistic movements. Central Asian culture is very popular, with Music/RaviShankar and the Hare Krishna movement as prime examples. Mankind brings the first man (UsefulNotes/YuriGagarin) and woman (Valentina Tereshkova) in space and the first one on the moon: UsefulNotes/NeilArmstrong. UsefulNotes/MuhammadAli becomes boxing's world heavyweight champion. Also namedrop some slogans like: "Make Love Not War", "Black Power!", "Ban the Bomb", "Don't Trust Anyone Over 30", "Flower Power" and "Turn on, Tune In and Drop Out". In fact, most people forget the less fun things going on, like the building of the UsefulNotes/BerlinWall, the UsefulNotes/CubanMissileCrisis, the assassinations of UsefulNotes/JohnFKennedy, UsefulNotes/MalcolmX, UsefulNotes/MartinLutherKingJr, UsefulNotes/CheGuevara and UsefulNotes/RobertFKennedy, UsefulNotes/TheVietnamWar, UsefulNotes/MaoZedong's "Cultural" Revolution, the Soviet Union oppressing the Prague Spring, Greece becoming a Fascist dictatorship for five years, Libya putting UsefulNotes/MuammarGaddafi in charge for more than 40 years, many young people getting brainwashed in religious cults with the UsefulNotes/CharlesManson murders as a prime example, endless race riots in the US, UsefulNotes/TheTroubles in Ireland, and many colonies in Africa finally becoming independent, only to fall into civil war or dictatorships afterward. The 60s ended at the Altamont rock concert where a black man was killed by the Hells Angels while (or because) the Music/{{The Rolling Stones|Band}} played "Sympathy for the Devil".[[note]]Speaking of said killing, the victim had rushed the stage with a gun while the Stones were playing "Under My Thumb". The killing was ruled to be self-defense.[[/note]]

* Culturally, Plains Indians are the most iconic Native Americans from the lower 48, so if Indians show up, expect to see feather bonnets, hairpipe breastplates, teepees, horseback marksmanship... and, for some reason, [[TipisAndTotemPoles totem poles]], which are Pacific Northwestern in origin. "Indian" words, by contrast, are more often drawn from more easterly languages that Europeans encountered earlier and generalized to all Native Americans. For instance, a shoe will be called a "moccasin," from the Algonquian languages, even if referring to a Lakota ''hampa'' or a Navajo ''kélchí''.

* Rural Africans are all Masai or Zulu. Or from Papua New Guinea.

* All Arabs are Muslim -- and, to a lesser extent, vice versa. In fact, there are many Christian Arabs -- mostly in Lebanon, Syria, Egypt, Israel, and Palestine. Similarly, there are a great variety of Muslim peoples (Albanians being European, Iranians sharing much of their linguistic and racial heritage with both Europeans and Asian Indians, Turks ultimately from East Asia, and Indonesians mostly of Malayo-Polynesian stock),[[note]]the majority of Muslims in fact come from Indonesia, Pakistan and India; less than 20% of the world's Muslims live in Middle Eastern or North-African countries.[[/note]] but a Muslim character in popular fiction will always be rendered an Arab or a quasi-Arab unless his/her being of a different nationality is pertinent to the plot.

* All Hispanics speak Spanish as their mother tongue and only Spanish (when it is not broken English littered with GratuitousSpanish[[note]]which most of the time will be slang from Southern California/Northwestern Mexico[[/note]], that is).[[note]]Many Hispanics really speak English and Spanish fluently and switch back and forth with no accent in either.[[/note]] The men are squat, brown, and have black hair and moustaches. The women are curvy, leggy and slutty -- except for the ones who are fat and have really gross facial and body hair. Also, there are no Hispanics north of Los Angeles and Miami, except maybe in New York City. And they are all very lazy or very hard-working.

* Everyone in Latin America has a Spanish surname -- even in countries like Argentina, Chile, and Brazil where non-Spanish/Portuguese surnames are just as common on account of German, Irish, Italian, British, and Japanese immigration. Don't expect Indigenous people in Latin America to have Indigenous surnames and speak an Indigenous language, unless they are from an uncontacted tribe.

* Everyone in Australia is of British or Irish heritage, and will most likely be blond. The few that aren't are Aborigines.

* Christianity is divided into exactly two denominations, Catholicism and Protestantism. Protestantism is a single entity with no further subgroups like Calvinism or Lutheranism. Mormons are not found outside of Utah (with the exception of UsefulNotes/MittRomney, who now represents Utah in the US Senate). There is no such thing as the Orthodox Church.

* UsefulNotes/{{Canada}} is UsefulNotes/{{Toronto}} and UsefulNotes/{{Quebec}}. UsefulNotes/{{Montreal}}, for those old enough to remember the 1976 Olympic Games. UsefulNotes/{{Vancouver}} and some other city in [[UsefulNotes/CanadianProvincesAndTerritories Ontario]], if you're lucky. Winnipeg because it sounds funny ([[Wrestling/ChrisJericho I'm from Winnipeg, you idiot!]])
* UsefulNotes/TheCaribbean will only be resorts and locals who are always stoned Rastafarians. The women will be dakr-skinned hotties. If you're lucky, it will be a crime-infested slum full of illegal drugs and gangs. The only country portrayed will be Jamaica, or maybe the Bahamas.

* UsefulNotes/{{Croatia}}: Likely to be brought up because of Nikola Tesla. Soccer fans know it for the 2018 World Cup final.

* UsefulNotes/{{France}}: UsefulNotes/{{Paris}}, just for the [[EiffelTowerEffect Eiffel Tower]], Arc de Triomphe, and the Louvre, of course. You might get a reference to the Moulin Rouge, Sacré-Coeur, Montmartre, Champs-Élysées, Pont Neuf, the Sorbonne, Place Concorde, Versailles, Place Vendôme, Père Lachaise and the Notre Dame in there too.

* UsefulNotes/{{India}}: Bombay (almost never UsefulNotes/{{Mumbai}}), Calcutta (almost never Kolkata), Delhi (old and new), Bangalore and Bengal (known for the tigers). Nobody knows Agra, but they will recognize the Taj Mahal there. One irony is that UsefulNotes/{{Bollywood}} movies have the same SmallReferencePools to their own culture. [[UsefulNotes/MahatmaGandhi Gandhi]] will always be the first person mentioned.
* UsefulNotes/{{Indonesia}}: Java, most famous for the ''Java Man'', Javan coffee, Javascript and tea. Bali is best known for its gamelan music. And the volcanic island Krakatoa is remembered for its 19th century volcanic eruption. Notable in that neither of these cities are its capital (that would be Jakarta until August 17, 2024, when the capital moves to Nusantara).

* UsefulNotes/{{Japan}}: UsefulNotes/{{Tokyo}} and Osaka. Hiroshima and Nagasaki are infamous for being the first [[UsefulNotes/AtomicBombingsOfHiroshimaAndNagasaki atomic bomb targets]], Kyoto for the Kyoto Protocol of 1997.

* UsefulNotes/{{Jordan}}: Best known for the historical city Petra, but then you are already far more cultivated than most people. Otherwise best known for sharing its name with a common first name.

* UsefulNotes/{{Poland}}: Warsaw and Gdańsk/Danzig. A few people might recall that Frederic Chopin and Madame Curie were from there.

* UsefulNotes/{{Portugal}}: UsefulNotes/{{Lisbon}} and Porto, but only for the ''porto'' wine. If you're Catholic you'll think of Fatima (the famous visions didn't even happen there but outside a nearby village).

* UsefulNotes/{{Serbia}}: Sarajevo, even though it's now part of Bosnia. Best known for the mid '90s siege and "[[Music/TransSiberianOrchestra Christmas Eve Sarajevo 12/24]]". Also known is Srebrenica, for the July 1995 massacre.

* UsefulNotes/{{South Africa}}: Johannesburg, Robbeneiland (for imprisoning Nelson Mandela) and Soweto (for the 1976 government massacre). If any of the three capitals are mentioned, it'll likely be Cape Town.

* UsefulNotes/{{Spain}}: UsefulNotes/{{Madrid}}, Barcelona (with the Sagrada Familia as its only recognizable monument) and Seville, the latter best known for ''Theatre/TheBarberOfSeville''. The Basque county is known for E.T.A. terrorism. Maybe Malaga only because of Picasso. [[TorosYFlamenco All of them look like a little Andalusian beach resort]], when not one in [[{{Spexico}} Mexico]] or [[LatinLand Puerto Rico]].

* UsefulNotes/{{Switzerland}}: The only Swiss cities that exist in the public consciousness are Zürich, Geneva, and possibly Davos. The first is best known as a financial giant. The second is famous for being the birthplace of [[UsefulNotes/{{Christianity}} Calvinism]] and the center of the World Health Organization and World Council of Churches, among other institutions. The Geneva Conventions were also signed here, concerning the treatment of wartime non-combatants and prisoners of war. Usually one of these two cities is thought to be the capital, instead of Bern. Davos receives significant media attention when the World Economic Forum holds its annual meetings there. All other Swiss locations exist purely as ski resorts.

*** UsefulNotes/{{California}}: UsefulNotes/LosAngeles (Hollywood), UsefulNotes/SanFrancisco (Alcatraz, the Golden Gate Bridge) and Ride/{{Disneyland}}. If you're lucky, you'll have heard of the Silicon Valley region, known as the technology capital of the world where tech giants Apple, Google, and Facebook are headquartered, but do not expect anyone to acknowledge that San Jose (the most populous city in Northern California, even more so than SF) exists, let alone [[MemeticMutation know the way to it]].[[note]]This might be a [[CursedWithAwesome blessing in disguise]] for San Joseans, since it means less crowds of tourists in all their favorite places.[[/note]]

*** UsefulNotes/NewMexico: Either confused with Mexico or known for Roswell, where UFO's never landed. UsefulNotes/{{Albuquerque}}, best known for WesternAnimation/BugsBunny, ''Series/BreakingBad'', and Music/WeirdAlYankovic, is there.

* Greek-Americans? Well, there's Creator/MariaMenounos, George Stephanopoulos... basically, a lot of "oses."

* The only Puerto Ricans are Music/JenniferLopez and Music/RickyMartin. Although the "Despacito" guys (Music/LuisFonsi and Music/DaddyYankee) have gotten recognition lately, as has Music/BadBunny.

* All big fashion designers before Calvin Klein (the only American most people can think of) have been French (UsefulNotes/CocoChanel, Christian Dior, Yves Saint-Laurent) or Italian (Valentino, Giorgio Armani, the Versaces). Occasionally Mexican designer Oscar de la Renta will get a mention -- though often simply to be humorously confused with lightweight boxer Oscar de la Hoya.

** Heidi Klum

* If you ever see a man wearing a hat and he isn't a cowboy or into sports, chances are it will be a fedora (which is, admittedly, TruthInTelevision); trilbies, homburgs, and porkpies are unknown. Bowlers, or derby hats, are sometimes mistaken for top hats. The only hats women ever wear are "fancy" hats (pillboxes, berets, etc.).

* All teenage girls in The80s wore leggings (and legwarmers), oversized T-shirts, and bands or scrunchies in their [[EightiesHair (flamboyantly teased)]] hair. In bright neon and/or pastel colors. (The scrunchies, not the hair. Come to think of it, the hair, too.) All businesswomen wore suits with gigantic shoulder pads. (Again, see PopularHistory.)
* Whenever [[PrettyInMink a fur coat is mentioned by type]], the majority of them are mink. Others are mentioned, but not quite as often, and usually just to highlight whether the fur is less expensive (such as rabbit) or more expensive (hello, chinchilla and sable) than mink. [[PantheraAwesome Leopard]] furs are worn only by Franchise/{{Tarzan}}, Jane, [[WesternAnimation/TheFlintstones the Flintstones]], hookers, and porn stars.
** This is so common that when Joe Namath infamously wore a coyote fur coat to the 2014 Super Bowl, several news outlets called it a "mink coat" -- even though coyote fur looks nothing like mink.

** [[Series/{{Mash}} The Korean War is precisely the same thing as the Vietnam War.]] Koreans will be portrayed as living in straw huts, and they certainly don't have three major cities—UsefulNotes/{{Seoul}} exists, but it looks like the poor parts of Shanghai. Pyongyang is only whichever Kim dictator's weird little palace/bunker. Busan is ''purely apocryphal''. Incheon? What's that?
** The Southeast Asian archipelago only really exists in Western media whenever tourist vacation spots are discussed -- Bali in particular -- or someone wants to make a point about crippling poverty. This is despite the fact that UsefulNotes/{{Indonesia}} is the fourth most populous country in the world (after the US, India, and China).

* In the Western imagination, only four states exist in India: Maharashtra (Bollywood musicals), West Bengal (Mother Teresa and crowded, dirty slums), Punjab (bearded men in blue turbans)[[note]] these are the Sikhs [[/note]], and Madhya Pradesh (heavily forested region where ''Literature/TheJungleBook'' takes place). Kashmir will be known only to diehard Music/LedZeppelin fans, or if the news you're listening to covers the latest Indo-Pakistani conflict over it.

* When you visit Paris [[EiffelTowerEffect the Eiffel Tower HAS to be present]] somewhere in the background! And Arc de Triomphe. If your characters visit other landmarks it will be the Louvre and only to see ''Art/TheMonaLisa''.

* There are no distinct countries in eastern Europe (or central Europe, because it's part of eastern Europe) except for Western Russia and maybe Poland. All non-Western Europeans are either Slavs or Greeks; there are no Estonians, Balts, Magyars, Romanian Latins, Albanians, or Turks.
* Africa is Egypt, South Africa, and a [[{{Bulungi}} Generic Tinpot Dictatorship]] headed by a corrupt, violent [[MajoredInWesternHypocrisy Oxford University graduate]]. If you want a [[DarkestAfrica jungle setting]], there are Congo and Cameroon, and maybe the island of Bioko (or Fernando Pó, in older works, unless [[HehHehYouSaidX it's misspelled "Fernando Poo", as it commonly is, and therefore gets laughed at]]). For savannas, there Tanzania, Kenya, and if you are lucky, Botswana.

* The only place in UsefulNotes/{{Indonesia}} are Bali (home of dancing girls in [[PimpedOutDress Pimped Out Oriental Dresses]]) and Java (home of tigers, prehistoric humans, and -- apparently -- coffee).

* In the [[EagleLand United States]], you can travel from Chicago to Disneyland or Philadelphia to the Grand Canyon in about three hours. The Midwest? What's that?
* The only cities in UsefulNotes/{{China}} are Shanghai, Beijing, and Hong Kong. This is interesting since China is ''the most populated country in the world''. Chongqing, Guangzhou (Canton), and Shenzhen are almost completely unheard of despite having populations of over ''10 million'', which by comparison is bigger than [[BigApplesauce New York City]]'s by millions.

* The only places in Japan are [[TokyoIsTheCenterOfTheUniverse Tokyo]], Kyoto, Osaka, Mount Fuji, Hiroshima, and Nagasaki (the latter two due to a [[UsefulNotes/AtomicBombingsOfHiroshimaAndNagasaki little historical event you might have heard of]]).
* California is the third largest state in the U.S., the second largest in the continental U.S., and has the highest population of all. Yet, the only places in California are UsefulNotes/LosAngeles and UsefulNotes/SanFrancisco according to fiction, ''maybe'' [[Series/TheOC Orange County]] or [[Series/DrakeAndJosh San]] [[Film/TopGun Diego]] if the writer's trying to be different. Also, California is either populated entirely by TheBeautifulElite (which is entirely white) or black and latino GangBangers. The middle class that makes up the vast majority of the state is rarely mentioned. The farms of the Central Valley [[note]]source of 40% of the food America takes for granted[[/note]] and the entirety of Northern California do not exist.

* Every country will put extra focus on its own national history. The West has a very eurocentric view of its historical past and will often just quickly glance over civilizations in America, Africa, Asia and Oceania, unless they happen to be of interest to their own national history.

*** Media in Hong Kong (being a previous British colony and not as affected by the Communist Party) are more likely to be concerned with the Ming and Qing Dynasties, but are otherwise exclusively focused on other settings directly concerned with Hong Kong (or in some cases, Shanghai) within the past 200 years. The History curriculum is divided into four main time periods, that being pre-colonization, the colonial period after the Treaty of Nanking (1842-1941), the Japanese occupation during WWII (and related events such as the Second Sino-Japanese War and the reconstruction period for the rest of the 1940s), and the "modern" Hong Kong divided by the decade (1950s-1997) up until the Handover to mainland China, which marks the beginning of another time period.
** The United Kingdom will put its focus on Boadicea's defense against the Romans, Hadrian's Wall, the Picts, the Celts, the Anglo-Saxons, King Canute, UsefulNotes/AlfredTheGreat, UsefulNotes/WilliamTheConqueror and the Battle of Hastings, Wat Tyler, UsefulNotes/KingJohnOfEngland signing the Magna Charta, UsefulNotes/TheHundredYearsWar, UsefulNotes/WarsOfTheRoses, UsefulNotes/HenryVIII, UsefulNotes/ElizabethI, The Gun Powder Plot, UsefulNotes/EnglishCivilWar, the beheading of UsefulNotes/CharlesI, UsefulNotes/OliverCromwell becoming Lord Protector, UsefulNotes/CharlesII, the Great Fire of 1666, Admiral UsefulNotes/HoratioNelson at the Battle of Trafalgar, UsefulNotes/TheDukeOfWellington at the Battle of Waterloo, UsefulNotes/QueenVictoria and UsefulNotes/VictorianBritain (which only consists of industrialisation and exploitation of child workers), the British army during UsefulNotes/WorldWarI and UsefulNotes/WorldWarII (the Blitz, Battle of Britain in particular), UsefulNotes/WinstonChurchill, and UsefulNotes/ElizabethII. If the history of the rest of the British Isles is ever mentioned then it will probably consist of Scotland during William Wallace's invasion and not much else if you're from outside the Isles. However Irish and Northern Irish history gets expanded somewhat- but even then only to English occupation, the Easter Rising (if you're lucky) and UsefulNotes/TheTroubles.
** The entire history of Japan consists of the feudal period (especially the [[UsefulNotes/SengokuPeriod Sengoku Jidai]] and the Tokugawa Shogunate) and the UsefulNotes/MeijiRestoration, despite the fact that this doesn't leave the latter with much to restore. If UsefulNotes/WorldWarII is depicted in a Japanese work, it will only be to show the suffering of good ordinary people, probably in the countryside, and will be strangely divorced from all actual context. There is enormous focus on the UsefulNotes/AtomicBombingsOfHiroshimaAndNagasaki. People or organisations that committed crimes against humanity, such as Unit 731, didn't and don't exist. Invasions of continental Asia didn't happen either.

* UsefulNotes/{{Canadian history}} is settlers, the Confederation (by extension Sir John A. [=MacDonald=].), UsefulNotes/WorldWarI, TheGreatDepression, UsefulNotes/WorldWarII and UsefulNotes/PierreTrudeau. Maybe a vague mention of some stuff specific to the province where children go to school. For examples, Manitobans know something called "the Riel rebellion" happened, but not much else (including the fact that there were actually ''two'' such rebellions). At some point Canadians burned down the White House. And Laura Secord might have been involved? She's female!
* Spain was ruled in succession by the [[UsefulNotes/MoorishSpain Moors]], the [[UsefulNotes/TheSpanishInquisition Inquisition]] and [[UsefulNotes/TheFrancoRegime Franco]]. (UsefulNotes/FranciscoFranco died way back in 1975, before most of today's generation were ''born'', so it's high time we came up with something after him.) There was also a [[UsefulNotes/SpanishCivilWar civil war]] at some point that must have lasted a hundred years or so, given that it is the only event of note in Spain's 20th century -- though oddly, only the small town of Guernica received any bombs from the air in that war, and the only people involved were Franco himself, Creator/GeorgeOrwell and maybe Creator/ErnestHemingway (was it just a long bar brawl?).

** The dinosaur age will always be depicted as one general era, instead of a succession of different time periods. As such, expect all dinosaurs to be shown together despite the fact that some have never co-existed with one another. The 'Tyrannosaurus rex'' is the most important dinosaur everybody remembers and will recognize by name. It will be seen attacking a herbivore dinosaur at one point, for dramatic effect, preferably a ''Brontosaurus'', ''Diplodocus'', ''Stegosaurus'', ''Parasaurolophus'', and/or a ''Triceratops'' because those are the only ones the general public will be familiar with. Thanks to the success of ''Film/JurassicPark'' the [[RaptorAttack velociraptors have also gained some infamy]]. The air will be inhabited with pterosaurs and the seas and rivers with plesiosaurs and mosasaurs. The landscape is usually a large open field with a lot of volcanoes, so it's easier to see how huge these beasts are. The climate will always be warm and tropical, due to the endless population of reptiles. Also expect many people to assume that [[PrehistoricMonster all dinosaurs are huge carnivorous beasts]]. Ah, yes, and at one point a [[TheCretaceousIsAlwaysDoomed giant asteroid will destroy everything, so time travelers need to leave fast]].
** Right after the Age of Dinosaurs is the Age of Mammals, but much of that will be ignored until we get to the dawn of man. There will be much greater focus later in the Ice Age since that is the time of [[MammothsMeanIceAge mammoths]] and saber-toothed cats.

** The cavemen period will typically either show ape-like humans or Neanderthals, because AllCavemenWereNeanderthals. They will be hunting or fighting [[UsefulNotes/StockDinosaursNonDinosaurs mammoths, saber-toothed cats or giant bears]]: that is if people are smart enough to remember that [[AnachronismStew men and dinosaurs never coexisted with one another]]. All cavemen wll typically be white, male, thickbrowed, retarded, have a lot of hair and women are NubileSavage characters. Expect men to to knock people about with clubs and drag women around by their hair. Everybody happens to wear enough fur to cover up their genital parts, so that we as modern viewers won't be distracted or offended. If men aren't hunting they will be sitting around in a cave or at least nearby it. They only have three memorable activities: 1) making cave paintings 2) discovering how to make fire by hitting two rocks together 3) InventingTheWheel. A typical stone age landscape is nothing but mountains, rocks, caves and large open fields.

** Ancient Middle East: Usually a hodge podge of different civilizations: Sumeria, Akkad, Assyria, Mesopotamia, Persia, Hittites... The only point of reference is that writing, agriculture, irrigation and laws were invented during this very vague time period. Expect people like Hammurabi, Assurbanipal II, Nebukadnezzar, UsefulNotes/CyrusTheGreat to have a cameo or be namedropped. All people wear beards and ride in chariots. The city of Jericho and the Hanging Gardens of Babylon are the only locations remembered. The only interesting [[Myth/MesopotamianMythology mythology]] is ''Literature/TheEpicOfGilgamesh''.

** AncientRome: The only time when UsefulNotes/TheRomanRepublic will be depicted is near the end, when it evolved into UsefulNotes/TheRomanEmpire. The rise and murder of UsefulNotes/JuliusCaesar is usually the focus. The story may continue until the defeat and death of UsefulNotes/MarkAntony and UsefulNotes/CleopatraVII and UsefulNotes/{{Augustus}} taking power. The fashions and politics depicted will be from this period no matter what century it is.[[note]]Creator/RidleyScott's ''Film/{{Gladiator}}'' is one of the best-known examples of this. The senators scheming to restore republican government are also anachronistic -- it's about as realistic as portraying scheming 20th-century British parliamentarians trying to restore the House of Stuart.[[/note]]. The only other historical events that are interesting are the Pompeïi volcano disaster, the Great Fire of Rome, the [[GladiatorRevolt slave revolt]] of Spartacus, Hannibal crossing the Alps and the eventual invasion of the city by barbarians. The empire is far more interesting for most people, because it allows scenes of grotesque decadent and immoral behaviour and the opportunity to show [[UsefulNotes/TheGloryThatWasRome Rome in all of its magnificent glory]]. Naturally all action is concentrated in Rome, except perhaps to show some people battling in Gaul or Carthage. Still, Roman life will only take place in or nearby aquaducts, temples, columns, amphitheaters, bath houses, the Senate, the Imperial Palace and [[BreadAndCircuses an arena]], preferably the Colosseum, where [[GladiatorGames gladiators and large animals will kill one another for blood thirsty spectators]]. Romans will all wear togas and be a [[ColorCodedPatrician patrician]], senator, [[TheCaligula emperor]], gladiator, legionary, centurion or [[MadeASlave a slave]]. Most people think every Roman spoke Latin, while upperclass people in Rome spoke Ancient Greek. Expect the following historical domain characters to make a cameo or be namedropped: UsefulNotes/JuliusCaesar, Pompey, Marc Anthony, UsefulNotes/{{Augustus}}, UsefulNotes/{{Caligula}}, UsefulNotes/{{Nero}}, Trajan, Hadrian, Caracalla, Elagabalus, Constantine, Marcus Aurelius, Hannibal, Spartacus, Creator/{{Cicero}}, Creator/{{Virgil}}, Messalina, Agrippina, Creator/{{Juvenal}}, Creator/{{Plautus}}, Sallust, Tacitus and Creator/{{Ovid}}.

** TheLateMiddleAges (1400 - 1500): The Middle Ages as we know it from a lot of paintings from this era. Economy is at its highest, architecture is Romanic and people wear a lot of fancy clothing. Royals and noblemen engage [[FeudingFamilies in murderous feuds among the noble clans]] and the CorruptChurch is starting to really get overboard in persecuting [[BurnTheWitch witches and heretics]] by introducing UsefulNotes/TheSpanishInquisition. In England, the UsefulNotes/WarsOfTheRoses is the most important event during this era, though globally UsefulNotes/TheHundredYearsWar (1337-1453), UsefulNotes/TheFallOfConstantinople and UsefulNotes/ChristopherColumbus discovering America in 1492 are the only things worth remembering. Expect a cameo or a namedrop of UsefulNotes/JoanOfArc, Creator/DanteAlighieri, Creator/HieronymusBosch, UsefulNotes/ThomasMore, Desiderius Erasmus, UsefulNotes/VladTheImpaler, UsefulNotes/EleanorofAquitaine and UsefulNotes/ChristopherColumbus.
* UsefulNotes/TheRenaissance (late 1450s - 1650): Any reference to this time period will always be set in Italy, despite the tendency to have Renaissance fairs be set in England and be more close to Middle Ages imagery. The Renaissance will only consist of references made to ''Art/TheMonaLisa'', the ''Art/TheLastSupper'', the Art/SistineChapel, the Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore in Florence, and Creator/MichelangeloBuonarroti's ''Art/{{David}}''. Cameo appearances by Creator/LeonardoDaVinci, Creator/MichelangeloBuonarroti, Cesare and Lucrezia Borgia, Creator/NiccoloMachiavelli, Petrarch, Giacomo Savaranola, Creator/GiovanniBoccaccio, Creator/SandroBotticelli, Creator/RaphaelSanzio, Donatello, UsefulNotes/PopeAlexanderVI,... are mandatory. In Britain, this is the Shakespearean age, so expect Creator/WilliamShakespeare, UsefulNotes/HenryVIII, UsefulNotes/ElizabethI and UsefulNotes/MaryTudor, UsefulNotes/MaryQueenOfScots, UsefulNotes/AnneBoleyn, UsefulNotes/SirFrancisDrake, Sir Walter Raleigh,... to be namedropped or have a cameo. Spain and Portugal engage in the age of WoodenShipsAndIronMen, but to most people, this is just UsefulNotes/HernanCortez and UsefulNotes/FranciscoPizarro and other conquistadores massacring Aztecs and Incas in some {{Mayincatec}} empire. But the most important event is Martin Luther establishing Protestantism and the Reformation and the Counter-Reformation happening as a result. A close second is UsefulNotes/JohannesGutenberg inventing the printing device. In terms of War we have the Thirty Years' War and the Eighty Years' War to reference. This is also the most prominent era to reference Charles V and Philip II of Spain, UsefulNotes/IvanTheTerrible, Creator/PieterBruegelTheElder, Albrecht Dürer, Titian, William the Silent/William of Orange, UsefulNotes/{{Nostradamus}}, Creator/RembrandtVanRijn, Creator/JohannesVermeer, Creator/PeterPaulRubens, Caravaggio, Antonie van Leeuwenhoek, UsefulNotes/GalileoGalilei, ... In terms of fashion: everybody wears a ruff [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruff_%28clothing%29]].
* UsefulNotes/TheEnlightenment (1600-1800), TheCavalierYears or The Baroque era: The time period where absolutism reigned, but people starting getting [[UsefulNotes/TheScientificMethod more faith in science and logic]] rather than religion and divine royals. This led to a number of scientific discoveries, inventions and more humane ways of thought that would prove beneficial to mankind, including those which led to the Industrial Revolution. Yet to the general public this is mostly the era of powdered wigs, BaroqueMusic, [[UsefulNotes/TheGoldenAgeOfPiracy pirates]], [[TheHighwayman highway robbers]], [[TheDandy dandy's]] and [[{{Swashbuckler}} swashbucklers]]. To the English the only noteworthy events are the Gun Powder Plot, UsefulNotes/EnglishCivilWar and the Great Fire in London. To the French this is the era of Versailles, UsefulNotes/LouisXIV and the eventual UsefulNotes/TheFrenchRevolution. American history focuses on the arrival of the puritans on the ''Mayflower'' and UsefulNotes/TheAmericanRevolution, with UsefulNotes/GeorgeWashington, UsefulNotes/ThomasJefferson, Creator/BenjaminFranklin and UsefulNotes/MarquisDeLaFayette as points of reference. Important people to have a cameo or be namedropped in this time period are UsefulNotes/JamesVIAndI, UsefulNotes/GuyFawkes, UsefulNotes/LouisXIV, Creator/{{Moliere}}, UsefulNotes/FrederickTheGreat, UsefulNotes/PeterTheGreat, UsefulNotes/CatherineTheGreat, UsefulNotes/MariaTheresa, UsefulNotes/IsaacNewton, Music/JohannSebastianBach, Music/WolfgangAmadeusMozart, Music/AntonioVivaldi, Music/GeorgeFredericHandel, Creator/{{Voltaire}}, James Watt, Creator/JonathanSwift, Creator/GiacomoCasanova, Creator/JeanJacquesRousseau, Creator/ThomasPaine,...

** UsefulNotes/VictorianBritain and VictorianLondon (1837-1901): The rest of the 19th century is dominated by the British Empire, united under the long living UsefulNotes/QueenVictoria. The very prudent morals of this decade and the taboo of sex and nudity are still typecast as "Victorian". A more romanticized image of Victorian London will be based on the novels of Creator/CharlesDickens, Creator/JaneAusten, Creator/CharlotteBronte, Creator/EmilyBronte and Creator/ArthurConanDoyle, often set in [[AFoggyDayInLondonTown the foggy streets]]. Expect references or cameo's by UsefulNotes/QueenVictoria, UsefulNotes/JackTheRipper and ''Literature/SherlockHolmes''.

** Stories about artists will preferably be set in Paris and revolve around impressionist, expressionist, or realist painters who are misunderstood by everybody: Creator/VincentVanGogh, Creator/HenriDeToulouseLautrec, Paul Gauguin, Paul Cézanne, Pierre-August Renoir, Paul Signac, [[Art/ASundayAfternoonOnTheIslandOfLaGrandeJatte Georges Seurat]], [[Art/LeDejeunerSurLHerbe Édouard Manet]], Gustave Courbet, Auguste Rodin... They will drink absinthe and visit brothels, while prostitutes [[Music/TheCanCanSong dance the Can-Can]] in the Moulin Rouge. Naturally we also see the {{Eiffel Tower|Effect}}. Cameo appearances or references to Creator/VictorHugo, Creator/AlexandreDumas, Creator/HonoreDeBalzac, Paul Verlaine, Arthur Rimbaud, Émile Zola, Music/ErikSatie are not uncommon either.

** GreatDetective novel: The late 19th century and early 20th century are the best place for detective stories, such as ''Literature/SherlockHolmes'', ''Literature/MissMarple'', ''Literature/HerculePoirot'', ''Literature/Maigret'',...

** TheEdwardianEra (1901-1914) Ties in with TheGay90s (1890s) as a nostalgic period just before the horrors of UsefulNotes/WorldWarI would break out. People will go to the movie theater, read newspaper comics, join the boy scouts, listen to early phonograph records and watch people fly through the sky in early aeroplanes or zeppelins. Important people who'll have a cameo or be referenced in this era are Creator/HarryHoudini, UsefulNotes/TheWrightBrothers, UsefulNotes/TheodoreRoosevelt, Creator/GeorgeBernardShaw, Creator/PabloPicasso, Isadora Duncan, Anna Pavlova, Henry Ford, Helen Keller, Edward VII, Emmeline Pankhurst, Enrico Caruso, UsefulNotes/SigmundFreud, Albert Schweitzer, Sun Yat-sen, Emiliano Zapata, Pancho Villa, Roald Amundsen, Robert Falcon Scott and UsefulNotes/AlbertEinstein. The only real tragedy is the sinking of the UsefulNotes/RMSTitanic.
** UsefulNotes/WorldWarI (1914-1918): People getting shot in the trenches, while the whole pointlessness of the war is frequently addressed by soldiers, but not as much by their superiors. Tanks and mustard gas are the most prominent weapons used, ''not'' artillery or Machine guns. Expect references to Gavrilo Princip, [[UsefulNotes/FranzFerdinandOfAustria Archduke Franz Ferdinand]], Kaiser UsefulNotes/WilhelmII of Germany, general Paul von Hindenburg, Marshal Ferdinand Foch, Henri Pétain, George V, Lord Kitchener, UsefulNotes/DavidLloydGeorge, UsefulNotes/MataHari, the Red Baron, Douglas Haig and UsefulNotes/TELawrence "of Arabia". At the home front women work in factories. In Ireland the other noteworthy event is the Easter Rising. In the field of art UsefulNotes/{{Dada}} is the most important artistic event and Creator/MarcelProust and Creator/FranzKafka the most important authors.

** TheRoaring20s and GenteelInterbellumSetting: A happy, carefree time where people sing and dance to {{Jazz}} while smoking and drinking in shady nightclubs. In the USA alcohol is banned during this time period, so when people do consume liquor it's usually illegal. All women are [[TheFlapper flappers]] with a TwentiesBobHaircut. Other pastimes are the cinema, Broadway theatre or radio plays. The only negative aspect about these years are [[DamnItFeelsGoodToBeAGangster gangsters and mobsters rubbing people out]] in the USA and UsefulNotes/{{Fascism}} rising in Italy. Important people to have a cameo are UsefulNotes/AlCapone, Eliot Ness, Creator/AlJolson, Charles Lindbergh, Creator/BabeRuth, UsefulNotes/BenitoMussolini, Kemal Atatürk, Music/LouisArmstrong, Music/CabCalloway, Music/BessieSmith, Music/DukeEllington, Music/GeorgeGershwin, Music/CountBasie, Benny Goodman, UsefulNotes/ChiangKaiShek, UsefulNotes/MahatmaGandhi,...

** The60s: A revolutionary time, where all kinds of minorities (youngsters, college students, blacks, women, gays, colonial countries,...) demand equal rights, freedom of speech and the end of old-fashioned, conformist and repressive values. TheGenerationGap between adults and youngsters becomes more prominent. All teenagers are left-wing [[NewAgeRetroHippie hippies]] who wear flowers in their hair, drive around in a HippieVan and want to travel to California or Katmandu to join a {{Commune}}. Or if they are black they will wear an afro and listen to Creator/{{Motown}}. They will all support the UsefulNotes/CivilRightsMovement and protest against UsefulNotes/TheVietnamWar. The men are either a ScooterRidingMod, a snappin' {{Beatnik}} or a [[LoveFreak peace loving']], long bearded hippie wearing CoolShades playing guitar. That is if they aren't sent off under {{Conscription}} to Vietnam to die in a pointless war against the Vietcong. (Veterans who come back maimed, drug-addicted or with PTSD or mental illness is seen in The70s.) All women are a GranolaGirl who may wear a BeehiveHairdo and a Mini Skirt or a long "granny" skirt and peasant blouse. Since the anticonception pill has made its entry and hallucinogenic drugs like LSD and marihuana reach the mainstream everybody will engage in SexDrugsAndRockAndRoll. Expect many hippies to be TheStoner or EruditeStoner searching for a HigherUnderstandingThroughDrugs. The music is usually the most celebrated part of this era, with great {{Rock}}, SurfRock, FolkMusic, {{Pop}}, PsychedelicRock, {{Soul}}, {{Funk}} being made by bands like Music/TheBeatles, Music/{{The Rolling Stones|Band}}, Music/TheWho, Music/TheBeachBoys, Music/BobDylan, Music/JamesBrown, Music/JanisJoplin, Music/JimiHendrix, Music/TheGratefulDead and Music/TheDoors as the most iconic examples. Expect a reference to the ''Film/{{Woodstock}}'' festival too. UndergroundComics, SpaghettiWestern, SpyDrama, UsefulNotes/FrenchNewWave and Pop Art are the prime artistic movements. Central Asian culture is very popular, with Music/RaviShankar and the Hare Krishna movement as prime examples. Mankind brings the first man (UsefulNotes/YuriGagarin) and woman (Valentina Tereshkova) in space and the first one on the moon: UsefulNotes/NeilArmstrong. UsefulNotes/MuhammadAli becomes world champion boxing. Also namedrop some slogans like: "Make Love Not War", "Black Power!", "Ban the Bomb", "Don't Trust Anyone Over 30", "Flower Power" and "Turn on, Tune In and Drop Out". In fact, most people forget the less fun things going on, like the building of the UsefulNotes/BerlinWall, the UsefulNotes/CubanMissileCrisis, the assassinations of UsefulNotes/JohnFKennedy, UsefulNotes/MalcolmX, UsefulNotes/MartinLutherKingJr, UsefulNotes/CheGuevara and UsefulNotes/RobertFKennedy, UsefulNotes/TheVietnamWar, UsefulNotes/MaoZedong's "Cultural" Revolution, the Soviet Union oppressing the Prague Spring, Greece becoming a Fascist dictatorship for five years, Libya putting UsefulNotes/MuammarGaddafi in charge for more than 40 years, many young people getting brainwashed in religious cults with the UsefulNotes/CharlesManson murders as a prime example, endless race riots in the US, UsefulNotes/TheTroubles in Ireland, and many colonies in Africa finally becoming independent, only to fall into civil war or dictatorships afterward. The 60s ended at the Altamont rock concert where a black man was killed by the Hells Angels while (or because) the Music/{{The Rolling Stones|Band}} played "Sympathy for the Devil" (they were actually playing "Under My Thumb" at the time of the killing, which followed the victim pulling out a gun).

** The80s: Fondly remembered for CNN, Creator/{{MTV}}, SynthPop, Music/MichaelJackson, Music/{{Madonna}}, Live-Aid, {{Hiphop}}, GothRock, HouseMusic, arcade video games, VideoGame/PacMan, Creator/{{Nintendo}}, the walkman, the marriage of [[UsefulNotes/CharlesIII Prince Charles]] and UsefulNotes/{{Diana|PrincessOfWales}}, blockbuster action films starring Creator/SylvesterStallone and Creator/ArnoldSchwarzenegger, Lech Walesa, UsefulNotes/MikhailGorbachev's reforms, the fall of the Iron Curtain and UsefulNotes/BerlinWall. All young people engage in breakdancing, skateboarding, and weary EightiesHair or are a ValleyGirl. People feel less nostalgic towards the AIDS epidemic, the crack cocaine craze, the assassination of Music/JohnLennon, Roberto Calvi and Olof Palme, the Falklands War, the Challenger explosion, the Irangate affair, the USA backing the overthrow of the socialist government in Nicaragua, the Iran-Iraq War, the USSR-Afghan war, the UsefulNotes/{{Chernobyl}} nuclear disaster, economic recession and unemployment under [[UsefulNotes/RonaldReagan Reaganomics]] and [[UsefulNotes/MargaretThatcher Thatcherism]], big-money televangelism and subsequent scandals, the rise of the far-right in many Western countries, US and USSR tensions resulting in fear for nuclear missile escalation, Creator/SalmanRushdie being put under a fatwa, the Latin American debt crisis…
** The90s: Seen as a more innocent, carefree time when the Cold War was finally over, the Soviet Union dissolved; Germany reunited and a freed UsefulNotes/NelsonMandela got elected as the first black president of South Africa. Young people enjoy more sophisticated 2-D and 3-D video games, {{Grunge}}, BritPop, GangstaRap, {{Techno}}, piercings, the dinosaur rage of ''Film/JurassicPark'', Creator/QuentinTarantino movies, adult animated shows like ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'', ''WesternAnimation/BeavisAndButtHead'' and ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark''. The Internet and cell phones became huge and introduced a whole new area of pop culture, headed by Microsoft and Apple. The arrival of the first cloned sheep and Viagra brought hope for scientific development. UsefulNotes/MichaelJordan headed the Dream Team to universal success and made basketball popular worldwide. Also of note: the Monica Lewinsky scandal, the UsefulNotes/{{Rodney King|AndTheLosAngelesRiots}} scandal, the Creator/OJSimpson scandal, UsefulNotes/{{Columbine}}, the Oklahoma City bombing, the deaths of Music/FreddieMercury, Music/KurtCobain, [[Music/TupacShakur Tupac]] and [[Music/TheNotoriousBIG Biggie]], and Princess UsefulNotes/{{Diana|PrincessOfWales}}. Usually forgotten is UsefulNotes/TheGulfWar, [[UsefulNotes/TheYugoslavWars the war in ex-Yugoslavia]], UsefulNotes/SlobodanMilosevic, Ratko Mladić, Radovan Karadžić, Arkan, Srebrenica, the war in Somalia, the genocide in Rwanda, Joseph Kony, Silvio Berlusconi getting elected as president and not getting out of Italian politics ever since, the deaths of Ayrton Senna, Yitzhak Rabin, and Wrestling/OwenHart, the Asian and Russian financial crises…
* The 21st century: The major sociological evolution is that most people from the 2000s onwards are able to afford Internet and thus play online games and engage in social networks and web forums. Many listen and watch music and movies for free online. Many Apple gadgets like the iPod, iPad, touch screens, and cell phones with cameras are extremely popular. Politically this is the era of UsefulNotes/TheWarOnTerror, with the 9/11 terrorist attacks in New York City as the turning point. For most of the 2000s UsefulNotes/OsamaBinLaden, Guantanamo Bay, Al Qaeda and UsefulNotes/SaddamHussein dominate the news. In the 2010s ISIS and Boko Haram are the most prominent new threat. Far-right parties get more votes in elections. The Arab Spring in 2011 has many North African and Middle Eastern countries revolting against their dictators and ousting them out of power. Literature/HarryPotter is everywhere. UsefulNotes/TheEuropeanUnion gets its own currency: the euro. Spy scandals in both the US government as well as social networks frequently make headlines. The wedding of Princess Kate and Prince William is the most-watched social event. The deaths of Creator/HeathLedger, Music/MichaelJackson, Music/AmyWinehouse, Creator/SteveJobs, Creator/PaulWalker, Creator/RobinWilliams, and Music/{{Prince}} are the most prominent celebrity tragedies.

*** Except for Lawrence of Arabia, but it's rarely mentioned that this was part of UsefulNotes/WorldWarI.

** It lasted three days, in 1863, and the entire war started and finished near Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. Also, all Confederate soldiers wore gray uniforms.[[note]]The Confederates' economy was entirely incapable of providing a standard uniform for their troops[[/note]]

** The only naval battle during the war was between the ''Monitor'' and the ''Merrimac'' (which never had its name changed to CSS ''Virginia'' when she came into Confederate hands).

* Western accounts of [[UsefulNotes/RedOctober The Russian Revolution]] tend to ignore or downplay the 1918-1921 Civil War.
* UsefulNotes/TheVietnamWar and UsefulNotes/TheKoreanWar are the only wars that happened in their respective countries. Never mind the fact that they had other conflicts with certain nations with major consequences in the long run. If one considers Ho Chi Minh (or his followers, after he died in 1969) to have been the main actor in the Vietnam War, then that war lasted for ''more than thirty years'' (first against the Japanese, then against the French, and ''then'' against the Americans).

* It's ironic that "fascist" is synonymous with "racist" since Mussolini's movement didn't have an explicitly racist ideology. Mussolini didn't even believe in Hitler's ethnic cleansing since the Italian dictator felt that non-European peoples should be conquered and "converted" to European culture (which made his ideas little different from 19th century imperialists); it was Hitler who introduced the ideas of racist ideology, ethnic cleansing/extermination, and enslavement. Franco's fascist government (particularly the diplomatic service) didn't share the Nazi's racial ideologies, though Franco himself didn't mind them too much either. Franco was ok with serving them, such as by cataloging the Jews in Spain on Hitler's orders, but on the other hand, he was fine with his government's resources being used to [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spain_in_World_War_II#Jews_and_other_refugees protect or evacuate Jews]] in Nazi-occupied countries (much to the chagrin of the Nazis) as well. In the end, tens of thousands of Jews escaped Nazi Europe through Spain.

** UsefulNotes/JamesKPolk: President who fought the Mexican-American war and got Texas.

** UsefulNotes/ChesterAArthur: Replaced Garfield, most elegant-dressed president.

** UsefulNotes/WilliamHowardTaft: He was the heaviest President of all time, and so fat he got [[UrbanLegends stuck in the White House bathtub]].

** UsefulNotes/HarryTruman: Bombed Japan. Defeated Dewey.

** UsefulNotes/JohnFKennedy: Went to bed with Creator/MarilynMonroe, claimed to be a Berliner (not a jelly donut), had a missile crisis on Cuba and was shot while driving in a car by someone we still haven't identified properly.

** UsefulNotes/RichardNixon: Made V-signs with his hands, was not a crook, and got caught for burglary in the Watergate hotel, but was pardoned and now [[WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}} lives on as a head in a jar in the year 3000.]]

** the Sandinistas

** European Fascist dictators: UsefulNotes/BenitoMussolini and UsefulNotes/FranciscoFranco. If you're lucky, you'll get [[UsefulNotes/AntonioDeOliveiraSalazar Antonio Salazar]] (Portugal), Ante Pavelic (Croatia), Ioannis Metaxas and Georgios Papadopoulos (Greece), Ion Antonescu (Romania), Jozef Tizo (Slovakia), Ferenc Szalasi (Hungary), and Vidkun [[TheQuisling Quisling]] (Norway)

** African dictators: UsefulNotes/IdiAmin, King Leopold (who was the Belgian King) and Seko Seko Mobutu (Congo), Jomo Kenyatta (Kenya), Robert Mugabe (Zimbabwe), Ahmed Sekou Toure (Guinea), Hastings Banda (Malawi), Kenneth Kaunda (Zambia), Gnassingbe Eyadema (Togo), Teodoro Obiang (Equatorial Guinea), Jean-Bedel Bokassa (Central African Republic), Haile Selassie and Mengistu Haile Mariam (Ethiopia), Paul Biya (Cameroon), Paul Kagame (Rwanda), ...

** UsefulNotes/RamsesII: Hooray, Ramses the Great is known as well... though outside of history circles, mainly just as "The Pharaoh from the Exodus." (And the Pharaoh from ''{{Film/The Ten Commandments|1956}}''.) Even though the Pharaoh in Exodus isn't named and there are ''three'' Pharaohs in ''The Ten Commandments''.

** [[UsefulNotes/JuliusCaesar Caesar]], UsefulNotes/{{Augustus}}, UsefulNotes/{{Nero}}, UsefulNotes/{{Caligula}} and [[Series/IClaudius Claudius]]. Constantine the Great is known to Christians for making Christianity the state religion[[note]]He, uh, didn't actually do that -- but it ''is'' what he's known for...[[/note]]. Hadrian is known for Hadrian's Wall. Marcus Aurelius, Caracalla, Elagabalus, Commodus, and Tiberius also regularly pop up in lists of daft Roman Emperors.

* Russian tsars? UsefulNotes/IvanTheTerrible, UsefulNotes/PeterTheGreat, UsefulNotes/CatherineTheGreat, and UsefulNotes/NicholasII.

* Spanish monarchs? [[UsefulNotes/TheCatholicMonarchs Ferdinand and Isabella]], and Philip II.

* Persian kings? Cyrus the Great.

* Chinese emperors? Qin Shi Huang. Maybe a Puyi or Wu Zetian if you're especially lucky.
* Princess Creator/{{Grace|Kelly}} (in works from before her death in 1982)

* Asked to name a periodical for scientists, the average American will name ''National Geographic'' (which isn't one) or maybe ''Scientific American'' (which is, if you're feeling generous). Asked to name a scientific ''journal'', they '''might''' come up with ''JAMA''[[note]]in full, ''JAMA: The Journal of the American Medical Associaiton''[[/note]] or, if they were science geeks in school, ''Nature''.

* UsefulNotes/{{Norway}}: UsefulNotes/{{Oslo}} gets media attention every year for the annual Nobel Prizes, but that's it.

* UsefulNotes/{{Sweden}}: Stockholm. Pop culture references are likely to be about Swedish fish, Swedish meatballs, Music/{{Abba}} and IKEA.
* UsefulNotes/{{Switzerland}}: The only Swiss cities that exist in the public consciousness are Zürich and Geneva. The former is best known as a financial giant. The latter city is famous for being the birthplace of [[UsefulNotes/Christianity Calvinism]] and the center of the World Health Organization and World Council of Churches, among other institutions. The Geneva Conventions were also signed here, concerning the treatment of wartime non-combatants and prisoners of war. Usually one of these two cities is thought to be the capital, instead of Bern. All other Swiss locations exist purely as ski resorts.

* UsefulNotes/{{Ukraine}}: Before the Russian invasion in 2022, it was only world famous for a place nobody dares to go: UsefulNotes/{{Chernobyl}}.

* UsefulNotes/TheUnitedStates is to many foreigners a toss between UsefulNotes/NewYorkCity (because it is treated as ''EverytownAmerica'' in movies and TV shows and instantly recognizable thanks to the Statue of Liberty, skyscrapers, Central Park, Broadway, the Empire State Building, the World Trade Center (pre-2001), the American Museum of Natural History, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Wall Street, the New York Stock Exchange, Times Square, the UN Headquarters and Brooklyn Bridge), UsefulNotes/WashingtonDC (home of TheWhiteHouse, Capitol, Pentagon and Lincoln Monument), Hollywood and a large Southwest area which can be described as ''Cowboy Country'' and is usually labeled to be in Texas, yeehaw!

*** Alabama: The songs ''Oh Susannah'' and ''Sweet Home Alabama''.

*** UsefulNotes/{{Georgia|USA}}: ''[[Music/RayCharles Georgia On My Mind]]''. Home of UsefulNotes/{{Atlanta}}.

*** UsefulNotes/{{Massachusetts}}: Known for Plymouth Rock, where the Mayflower landed in 1620, and Boston, where there was a Tea Party which led to the American War of Independence. Inside the USA it's also known for the Salem witch hunts.
*** UsefulNotes/{{Michigan}}: Detroit, the motor city, and Flint, the city with a water problem.

* Assassins? Some historical ones whose infamy lives on are Brutus, Charlotte Corday, UsefulNotes/JohnWilkesBooth, Gavrilo Princip, Lee Harvey Oswald and Mark David Chapman.

** Conquistadores: UsefulNotes/HernanCortez (usually spelled ''Cortez'') and UsefulNotes/FranciscoPizarro are the most famous ones, with a tendency to see Pizarro as the worst one —''if'' the author is not under the belief that "Cortez" was the only conquistador ever.

* Cult leaders? It will always be the corrupt frauds and/or the ones who committed a major crime that pop up. UsefulNotes/CharlesManson, UsefulNotes/JimJones (for ordering his followers to drink a cyanide cocktail), Bhagwan (for owning several Rolls Royces while his followers were living in poverty), the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi (from his association with Music/TheBeatles and allegations that he might have sexually harassed some of his followers) and Sun Myung Moon (because of his mass weddings).

* Serial killers? The only true famous one is UsefulNotes/CharlesManson. UsefulNotes/TedBundy, John Wayne Gacy, Jeffrey Dahmer, Peter Sutcliffe, Myra Hindley, and Ted Kaczynski (aka the Unabomber) are also fairly well known. To know Ed Gein, David Berkowitz, Andrei Chikatilo, and/or Richard Ramirez you have to have a bit more interest in the subject, but they too may apply as the most iconic ones. If you need a European one the most famous choices will be UsefulNotes/JackTheRipper and/or Henri-Désire Landru, the ''real Literature/{{Bluebeard}}''. More ancient serial killers are UsefulNotes/VladTheImpaler, Gilles de Rais and Elisabeth Bathory.

* The only Italian-Americans are gangsters or actors who have played gangsters. Plus Music/FrankSinatra, Music/DeanMartin, [=Joe DiMaggio=], and Creator/DannyDeVito.

* UsefulNotes/TheRenaissance (late 1450s - 1650): Any reference to this time period will always be set in Italy, despite the tendency to have Renaissance fairs be set in England and be more close to Middle Ages imagery. The Renaissance will only consist of references made to ''Art/TheMonaLisa'', the ''Art/TheLastSupper'', the Art/SistineChapel, the Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore in Florence, and Creator/MichelangeloBuonarroti's ''Art/{{David}}''. Cameo appearances by Creator/LeonardoDaVinci, Creator/MichelangeloBuonarroti, Cesare and Lucrezia Borgia, Creator/NiccoloMachiavelli, Petrarch, Giacomo Savaranola, Creator/GiovanniBoccaccio, Creator/SandroBotticelli, Creator/RaphaelSanzio, Donatello, UsefulNotes/PopeAlexanderVI,... are mandatory. In Britain, this is the Shakespearean age, so expect Creator/WilliamShakespeare, UsefulNotes/HenryVIII, UsefulNotes/ElizabethI and UsefulNotes/MaryTudor, UsefulNotes/MaryQueenOfScots, UsefulNotes/AnneBoleyn, UsefulNotes/SirFrancisDrake, Sir Walter Raleigh,... to be namedropped or have a cameo. Spain and Portugal engage in the age of WoodenShipsAndIronMen, but to most people, this is just UsefulNotes/HernanCortez and UsefulNotes/FranciscoPizarro and other conquistadores massacring Aztecs and Incas in some {{Mayincatec}} empire. But the most important event is Martin Luther establishing Protestantism and the Reformation and the Counter-Reformation happening as a result. A close second is UsefulNotes/JohannesGutenberg inventing the printing device. In terms of War we have the Thirty Years' War and the Eighty Year's War to reference. This is also the most prominent era to reference Charles V and Philippe II of Spain, Ivan the Terrible, Creator/PieterBruegelTheElder, Albrecht Dürer, Titian, William the Silent/William of Orange, UsefulNotes/{{Nostradamus}}, Creator/RembrandtVanRijn, Creator/JohannesVermeer, Creator/PeterPaulRubens, Caravaggio, Antonie van Leeuwenhoek, UsefulNotes/GalileoGalilei, ... In terms of fashion: everybody wears a ruff [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruff_%28clothing%29]].
* UsefulNotes/TheEnlightenment (1600-1800), TheCavalierYears or The Baroque era: The time period where absolutism reigned, but people starting getting [[UsefulNotes/TheScientificMethod more faith in science and logic]] rather than religion and divine royals. This led to a number of scientific discoveries, inventions and more humane ways of thought that would prove beneficial to mankind, including those which led to the Industrial Revolution. Yet to the general public this is mostly the era of powdered wigs, BaroqueMusic, [[UsefulNotes/TheGoldenAgeOfPiracy pirates]], [[TheHighwayman highway robbers]], [[TheDandy dandy's]] and [[{{Swashbuckler}} swashbucklers]]. To the English the only noteworthy events are the Gun Powder Plot, UsefulNotes/EnglishCivilWar and the Great Fire in London. To the French this is the era of Versailles, UsefulNotes/LouisXIV and the eventual UsefulNotes/TheFrenchRevolution. American history focuses on the arrival of the puritans on the Mayflower and UsefulNotes/TheAmericanRevolution, with UsefulNotes/GeorgeWashington, UsefulNotes/ThomasJefferson, Creator/BenjaminFranklin and UsefulNotes/MarquisDeLaFayette as points of reference. Important people to have a cameo or be namedropped in this time period are UsefulNotes/JamesI, UsefulNotes/GuyFawkes, UsefulNotes/LouisXIV, Creator/{{Moliere}}, UsefulNotes/FrederickTheGreat, UsefulNotes/PeterTheGreat, UsefulNotes/CatherineTheGreat, UsefulNotes/MariaTheresa, UsefulNotes/IsaacNewton, Music/JohannSebastianBach, Music/WolfgangAmadeusMozart, Music/AntonioVivaldi, Music/GeorgeFredericHandel, Creator/{{Voltaire}}, James Watt, Creator/JonathanSwift, Creator/GiacomoCasanova, Creator/JeanJacquesRousseau, Creator/ThomasPaine,...

** TheWildWest: Arguably one of the most popular eras for romanticizing is the era of the cowboys, with all TheWestern clichés you can imagine: BarBrawl, GoldFever, TheSheriff, ShowdownAtHighNoon, BountyHunter, TheGunslinger, TarAndFeathers, WantedPoster,... pioneers riding in stagecoaches under attack of outlaws or Native Americans,... Will typically be depicted as a mythical era with hardly any reference to historically true events, except perhaps the Goldrush of 1848, UsefulNotes/TheAmericanCivilWar and/or the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral. Expect some sugarcoating over the fact that slavery of black people was still in effect and that the wars against Native Americans for their country were going on until the 1890s. Important people to make cameos or be namedropped are UsefulNotes/BillyTheKid, UsefulNotes/JesseJames, Calamity Jane, Wyatt Earp, Doc Holliday, Creator/BuffaloBill, Creator/MarkTwain, the Hatfield and [=McCoy=] feud (which didn't even take place in the West, but rather in UsefulNotes/{{Appalachia}}), Roy Bean, Wild Bill Hickok, Geronimo, Sitting Bull, Crazy Horse, Harriet Beecher Stowe, UsefulNotes/HarrietTubman, John Brown, UsefulNotes/FrederickDouglass, Belle Starr, UsefulNotes/DavyCrockett,...

** UsefulNotes/WorldWarI (1914-1918): People getting shot in the trenches, while the whole pointlessness of the war is frequently addressed by soldiers, but not as much by their superiors. Tanks and mustard gas are the most prominent weapons used, ''not'' artillery or Machine guns. Expect references to Gavrilo Princip, [[UsefulNotes/FranzFerdinandOfAustria Archduke Franz Ferdinand]], Kaiser UsefulNotes/WilhelmII of Germany, general Paul von Hindenburg, Marshal Ferdinand Foch, Henri Pétain, George V, Lord Kitchener, UsefulNotes/DavidLloydGeorge, UsefulNotes/MataHari, the Red Baron, Douglas Haig and T.E. Lawrence "of Arabia". At the home front women work in factories. In Ireland the other noteworthy event is the Easter Rising. In the field of art UsefulNotes/{{Dada}} is the most important artistic event and Creator/MarcelProust and Creator/FranzKafka the most important authors.

** GayParee: The 1920s and 1930s are the most interesting hotspot for cultural and intellectual people: Creator/PabloPicasso, Music/IgorStravinsky, UsefulNotes/CocoChanel, Creator/JosephineBaker, Creator/JamesJoyce, Gertrude Stein, Creator/JeanCocteau, Creator/SalvadorDali, Creator/FScottFitzgerald, Creator/MauriceChevalier, Le Corbusier, Margot Fonteyn, Music/DjangoReinhardt, Creator/ErnestHemingway, Creator/JeanPaulSartre and Simone De Beauvoir,... can all be spotted here.

** TheGreatDepression: People worldwide look for jobs, but can't find any. In Germany this is particular bad because it will lead many to vote for UsefulNotes/AdolfHitler. In the USA this time period is particularly associated with poor people in TheDeepSouth, bank robbers and gangsters like Bonnie & Clyde, Ma Barker, UsefulNotes/JohnDillinger, Babyface Nelson and Pretty Boy Floyd and the F.B.I. led by J. Edgar Hoover trying to track them down. Still the era is subject to some romanticism, as many great {{jazz}}, {{blues}}, {{bluegrass}}, {{country|Music}}, and {{folk|Music}} tunes were recorded during this era. Expect references be made to artists like Music/RobertJohnson, Gene Krupa, Music/WoodyGuthrie, Music/GlennMiller and Music/BillieHoliday, for instance.

** The60s: A revolutionary time, where all kinds of minorities (youngsters, college students, blacks, women, gays, colonial countries,...) demand equal rights, freedom of speech and the end of old-fashioned, conformist and repressive values. TheGenerationGap between adults and youngsters becomes more prominent. All teenagers are left-wing [[NewAgeRetroHippie hippies]] who wear flowers in their hair, drive around in a HippieVan and want to travel to California or Katmandu to join a {{Commune}}. Or if they are black they will wear an afro and listen to Creator/{{Motown}}. They will all support the UsefulNotes/CivilRightsMovement and protest against UsefulNotes/TheVietnamWar. The men are either a ScooterRidingMod, a snappin' {{Beatnik}} or a [[LoveFreak peace loving']], long bearded hippie wearing CoolShades playing guitar. That is if they aren't sent off under {{Conscription}} to Vietnam to die in a pointless war against the Vietcong. (Veterans who come back maimed, drug-addicted or with PTSD or mental illness is seen in The70s.) All women are a GranolaGirl who may wear a BeehiveHairdo and a Mini Skirt or a long "granny" skirt and peasant blouse. Since the anticonception pill has made its entry and hallucinogenic drugs like LSD and marihuana reach the mainstream everybody will engage in SexDrugsAndRockAndRoll. Expect many hippies to be TheStoner or EruditeStoner searching for a HigherUnderstandingThroughDrugs. The music is usually the most celebrated part of this era, with great {{Rock}}, SurfRock, FolkMusic, {{Pop}}, PsychedelicRock, {{Soul}}, {{Funk}} being made by bands like Music/TheBeatles, Music/{{The Rolling Stones|Band}}, Music/TheWho, Music/TheBeachBoys, Music/BobDylan, Music/JamesBrown, Music/JanisJoplin, Music/JimiHendrix, Music/TheGratefulDead and Music/TheDoors as the most iconic examples. Expect a reference to the ''Film/{{Woodstock}}'' festival too. UndergroundComics, SpaghettiWestern, SpyDrama, UsefulNotes/FrenchNewWave and Pop Art are the prime artistic movements. Central Asian culture is very popular, with Music/RaviShankar and the Hare Krishna movement as prime examples. Mankind brings the first man (UsefulNotes/YuriGagarin) and woman (Valentina Tereshkova) in space and the first one on the moon: Neil Armstrong. UsefulNotes/MuhammadAli becomes world champion boxing. Also namedrop some slogans like: "Make Love Not War", "Black Power!", "Ban The Bomb", "Don't Trust Anyone Over 30", "Flower Power" and "Turn on, Tune In and Drop Out". In fact, most people forget the less fun things going on, like the building of the UsefulNotes/BerlinWall, the UsefulNotes/CubanMissileCrisis, the assassinations of UsefulNotes/JohnFKennedy, UsefulNotes/MalcolmX, Martin Luther King Jr., UsefulNotes/CheGuevara and Robert Kennedy, UsefulNotes/TheVietnamWar, UsefulNotes/MaoZedong's "Cultural" Revolution, the Soviet Union oppressing the Prague Spring, Greece becoming a Fascist dictatorship for five years, Libya putting UsefulNotes/MuammarGaddafi in charge for more than 42 years, many young people getting brainwashed in religious cults with the UsefulNotes/CharlesManson murders as a prime example, endless race riots in the US, UsefulNotes/TheTroubles in Ireland, and many colonies in Africa finally becoming independent, only to fall into civil war or dictatorships afterward. The 60s ended at the Altamont rock concert where a black man was murdered by the Hell's Angels while (or because) the Music/{{The Rolling Stones|Band}} played "Sympathy for the Devil".

** The80s: Fondly remembered for CNN, Creator/{{MTV}}, SynthPop, Music/MichaelJackson, Music/{{Madonna}}, Live-Aid, {{Hiphop}}, GothRock, HouseMusic, arcade video games, VideoGame/PacMan, Creator/{{Nintendo}}, the walkman, the marriage of [[UsefulNotes/CharlesIII Prince Charles]] and UsefulNotes/{{Diana|PrincessOfWales}}, blockbuster action films starring Creator/SylvesterStallone and Creator/ArnoldSchwarzenegger, Lech Walesa, UsefulNotes/MikhailGorbachev's reforms, the fall of the Iron Curtain and UsefulNotes/BerlinWall. All young people engage in breakdancing, skateboarding, and weary EightiesHair or are a ValleyGirl. People feel less nostalgic towards the AIDS epidemic, the crack cocaine craze, the assassination of Music/JohnLennon, Roberto Calvi and Olof Palme, the Falklands War, the Challenger explosion, the Irangate affair, the USA backing the overthrow of the socialist government in Nicaragua, the Iran-Iraq War, the USSR-Afghan war, the Chernobyl nuclear disaster, economic recession and unemployment under [[UsefulNotes/RonaldReagan Reaganomics]] and [[UsefulNotes/MargaretThatcher Thatcherism]], big-money televangelism and subsequent scandals, the rise of the far-right in many Western countries, US and USSR tensions resulting in fear for nuclear missile escalation, Creator/SalmanRushdie being put under a fatwa, the Latin American debt crisis…

** There's a very short list of events and people which make the cut. The invasions of Poland and France, Battle of Britain, (as of very recently) Battle of Stalingrad, Pearl Harbor, D-Day, UsefulNotes/TheHolocaust, Hitler's suicide and UsefulNotes/AtomicBombingsOfHiroshimaAndNagasaki. Key people in this event are UsefulNotes/AdolfHitler, Joseph Goebbels, UsefulNotes/HermannGoring, UsefulNotes/HeinrichHimmler, Erich von Manstein, UsefulNotes/ErwinRommel, UsefulNotes/BenitoMussolini, Hirohito, UsefulNotes/HidekiTojo, UsefulNotes/IsorokuYamamoto, UsefulNotes/WinstonChurchill, UsefulNotes/JosefStalin, Georgy Zhukov (maybe), UsefulNotes/FranklinDRoosevelt, UsefulNotes/CharlesDeGaulle, Henri Pétain (maybe), UsefulNotes/GeorgeSPatton, UsefulNotes/DwightDEisenhower, UsefulNotes/BernardLawMontgomery, Chester Nimitz and UsefulNotes/DouglasMacArthur. Some war victims and resistance heroes like Anne Frank, Sophie Scholl, Raoul Wallenberg, Janusz Korczak, UsefulNotes/SimoHayha... may get a mention too, but mostly in their countries of origin. Expect the French, Polish and other continental resistance movements not to get a mention elsewhere.
** In American shows and movies [[AmericaWonWorldWarII all of the Allies are Americans]] and the Axis consists of either [[ThoseWackyNazis mindless umlaut-sputtering Nazis]] or sadistic Japanese killers. Definitely no Italians, Hungarians, Romanians, Bulgarians, or Yugoslavs. And 'the Russians' ([[DirtyCommunists don't call them 'the Soviets', you'll only encourage them]]) and the British? Yeah, well, they were there and hold on until the Americans came to help them and take over, while they both apparently just laid back on their backs. Nothing much happened anyway until Japan attacked [[UsefulNotes/WorldWarII Pearl Harbor]]. The Allies fought some naval battles with the Japanese and then after [[Film/TheLongestDay D-day]] everything just seems to have resolved itself though there were some bumps in the road like the Battle of the Bulge and the [[NukeEm atom bomb on Hiroshima]] (never mind Nagasaki).

** When the Pacific Theater does get portrayed, the entirety of it was apparently Pearl Harbor, sometimes Midway, something about a flag on Iwo Jima, and the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Leyte Gulf, the largest sea battle in history, apparently never happened. And it is a fight solely between Japanese and Americans. The Chinese, Indochinese, Indonesians, Philipinos, and Australians weren't there and did nothing. Unless it's an Australian production, in which case it was just the USA and Australia.

** Even among Civil War buffs, knowledge of the war often remains restricted to Virginia and a few specific Western battles like Shiloh and Atlanta. Other campaigns -- Grant's Siege of Vicksburg, Union landings along the Carolina coast, the capture of New Orleans and subsequent campaigns in Louisiana, constant fighting in border states like Missouri and Kansas, the entire naval war -- are generally ignored. And anything west of the Rio Grande? ''Totally'' ignored. Only the hardest of hardcore buffs know about the Battle of Glorieta Pass in New Mexico Territory, or can tell you what the political scene was like in California at the time (pro-Union around San Francisco, pro-Confederate everywhere to the south).

* It's ironic that "fascist" is synonymous with "racist" since Mussolini's movement didn't have an explicitly racist ideology. Mussolini didn't even believe in Hitler's ethnic cleansing since the Italian dictator felt that non-European peoples should be conquered and "converted" to European culture (which made his ideas little different from 19th century imperialists); it was Hitler who introduced the ideas of racist ideology, ethnic cleansing/extermination, and enslavement. Franco's fascist government (particularly the diplomatic service) didn't share the Nazi's racial ideologies, though Franco himself didn't mind them too much either. Franco was ok with serving them, such as by cataloging the Jews in Spain on Hitler's orders, but on the other hand, he was fine with his government's resources being used to [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spain_in_World_War_II#Jews_and_other_refugees to protect or evacuate Jews]] in Nazi-occupied countries (much to the chagrin of the Nazis) as well. In the end, tens of thousands of Jews escaped Nazi Europe through Spain.

* There's a widespread misconception that capitalism is a conservative economic principle, when in fact it always was -- and still is -- ''liberal''. (Admittedly, the current habit of automatically associating liberalism with leftism and/or socialism, which is especially a U.S. thing, has done a great deal to confuse the issue.) More than that, capitalism (at least if it's ''free-market'' capitalism) can be said to be subversive and even countercultural, as economist Thomas Frank discusses in his book ''The Conquest of Cool''.

* Creator/{{Socrates}} drank hemlock and died. Also he knew that he knew nothing. He definitely didn't come up with the Socratian method (known in some circles under the bizarre name "sea-lioning").

** UsefulNotes/BarackObama: First black American president. Getting universal healthcare (dubbed as "Obamacare") and getting rid of Bin Laden, all the while getting constantly obstructed by Republicans.

** There are over 40 presidents to date, but which ones will be mentioned in pop culture? At the very least, Washington, Lincoln, the current one, and the previous three or four at any moment in time. Jefferson,[[note]]Though with him, it's mainly his actions during the American Revolution -- long ''before'' he became president -- that get talked about. That and, uh, the Sally Hemings matter.[[/note]] the Roosevelts, Kennedy, Nixon, and Reagan are also likely to come up. If you need more, you'll likely get Adams, Madison, Jackson, Grant, Wilson, and everyone from Truman on. The others... not really.

** "England" has only had four sovereigns: UsefulNotes/HenryVIII, UsefulNotes/ElizabethI, UsefulNotes/QueenVictoria, and UsefulNotes/ElizabethII. The English themselves also know of four others -- UsefulNotes/WilliamTheConqueror, Henry II, UsefulNotes/AlfredTheGreat, and the current one (UsefulNotes/CharlesIII). Americans know King George III. For obvious reasons. Scots probably know of Edward Longshanks as well. Cultivated people will also know UsefulNotes/RichardIII from Shakespeare's play ''Theatre/RichardIII''. King James is best known for his Bible, otherwise he's only known in Scotland.

** "England" has also had at most six Prime Ministers: UsefulNotes/BenjaminDisraeli (and many people only associate him with ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy''), UsefulNotes/WinstonChurchill, UsefulNotes/NevilleChamberlain (only to emphasize how much better Churchill was), UsefulNotes/MargaretThatcher, UsefulNotes/TonyBlair, and [[UsefulNotes/RishiSunak whoever is currently in office]].

** For Westerners, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini was the Iranian boogeyman during his day. Most of us rarely think about any of his successors (Ebrahim Raisi as of this writing).
* Australian Prime Ministers? Harold Holt and whoever is currently in office (The Current PM is Anthony Albanese) and Mabe John Howard, Robert Menzies and John Curtin.

* Asked to name a periodical for scientists, the average American will name ''National Geographic'' (which isn't one) or maybe ''Scientific American'' (which is, if you're feeling generous). Asked to name a scientific ''journal'', they '''might''' come up with the ''AMA Journal'' or, if they were science geeks in school, ''Nature''.

* J. Robert Oppenheimer "invented" the nuclear bomb, when this is not being attributed to Einstein instead.

* To most people, the only modern phones are those by Apple and Samsung. If you're lucky, you might know someone who has an Android phone by Motorola, or Google's Nexus line of Android phones. If you're even luckier, you might know someone who owns a Windows Phone but isn't a Microsoft employee.
* Ride-hailing apps? Uber. And sometimes, Lyft.

* UsefulNotes/NeilDegrasseTyson (is singlehandedly responsible for [[PlutoIsExpendable Pluto being demoted from planet status]])

* Serial killers? The only true famous one is UsefulNotes/CharlesManson. Ted Bundy, John Wayne Gacy, Jeffrey Dahmer, Peter Sutcliffe, Myra Hindley and the Unabomber are also fairly well known. To know Ed Gein, David Berkowitz, Andrei Chikatilo, and/or Richard Ramirez you have to have a bit more interest in the subject, but they too may apply as the most iconic ones. If you need a European one the most famous choices will be UsefulNotes/JackTheRipper and/or Henri-Désire Landru, the ''real Literature/{{Bluebeard}}''. More ancient serial killers are UsefulNotes/VladTheImpaler, Gilles de Rais and Elisabeth Bathory.

* Terrorists? UsefulNotes/OsamaBinLaden. All terrorists in fiction belong to Al-Qaeda, ISIS, Hamas, or Hezbollah -- or the IRA, in those rare instances when [[WesternTerrorists the terrorist characters are]] ''[[WesternTerrorists not]]'' [[WesternTerrorists Middle Eastern]], but seldom the UVF or UDA. You'll never hear about the Tamil Tigers or Aum Shinrikyo -- unless, of course, you're watching a movie or TV program [[CreatorProvincialism actually made in the country where such a group operates]].

* War criminals? Include any Nazi, but the most famous ones aside from Hitler are those who escaped from being prosecuted and were given a mass mediatized trial later, like Adolf Eichmann and Klaus Barbie. For decades Martin Bormann and Dr. Mengele were the most famous ones at large, but since they have died they are no longer mentioned (at least Bormann, as Mengele is still mentioned as the "Evil Nazi Doctor").
** War criminals from other wars aren't mentioned that often. The Serbian War has Slobodan Milosevic, Ratko Mladic and Radovan Karadzic, but that's it. The most famous war criminal at large today is perhaps Joseph Kony, a Ugandan mercenary known for his army of child soldiers.

* A horrific [[UsefulNotes/{{Tornadoes}} tornado]] in an urban area? If any specific tornado does get mentioned, it's probably either Moore, Oklahoma ([[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1999_Bridge_Creek-Moore_tornado 1999]] or [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2013_Moore_tornado 2013]]), [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011_Tuscaloosa-Birmingham_tornado Tuscaloosa, Alabama]] (usually barely mentioning any of the 359 ''other'' tornadoes from that outbreak), or [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011_Joplin_tornado Joplin, Missouri]]. In older works, [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1974_Super_Outbreak#Xenia,_Ohio Xenia, Ohio]], again glossing over the numerous other violent tornadoes from the same day. In [[UsefulNotes/{{Canada}} Canadian]] works, [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edmonton_tornado Edmonton, Alberta]].

* Clowns? Bozo the Clown, Grock, Emmett Kelly, Karandash, Lou Jacobs, Otto Griebling, Oleg Popov, Albert Grimaldi. Fictional clowns will be [[CommediaDellArte Pierrot, Pulcinella]], Theatre/{{Pagliacci}}, Literature/{{Scaramouche}}, WesternAnimation/KokoTheClown, [[UsefulNotes/McDonalds Ronald McDonald ]] and [[WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons Krusty the Clown]]. Or, if you need a [[MonsterClown scary clown]]: real life serial killer John Wayne Gacy comes to mind, as does the fictional killer clown Pennywise from ''Literature/{{It}}''. The Joker from ''Franchise/{{Batman}}'' might also count.

* Jesters? No real life jester has managed to become famous to the general public. However, there are a few fictional ones that will be namedropped: Literature/TillEulenspiegel, [[Theatre/{{Hamlet}} Yorrick]], Theatre/{{Rigoletto}} and the Joker in card games.

* Greek-Americans? Well, there's Creator/MariaMenounos, George Stephanopoulos...basically, a lot of "oses."
* The only Armenian-Americans are Dr. Jack Kevorkian and the Kardashians ([[ElSpanishO and their names all end with -ian, right? The regular native Armenian form is -yan]]) and maybe the guys from Music/SystemOfADown.

* The only Puerto Ricans are Music/JenniferLopez and Music/RickyMartin. Although the "Despacito" guys (Music/LuisFonsi and Music/DaddyYankee) have gotten recognition lately.

* Haiti is the only French-speaking area outside of France itself and maybe Quebec. Martinique, Guadeloupe, Saint Martin, and Saint Barthelemy do not exist. And Haiti's history only goes back 50 years, despite it being independent for over 200.

* In the Western imagination, only four states exist in India: Maharashtra (Bollywood musicals), Bengal (Mother Teresa and crowded, dirty slums), Punjab (bearded men in blue turbans)[[note]] these are the Sikhs [[/note]], and Madhya Pradesh (heavily forested region where ''Literature/TheJungleBook'' takes place). Kashmir will be known only to diehard Music/LedZeppelin fans, or if the news you're listening to covers the latest Indo-Pakistani conflict over it.

* UsefulNotes/{{Iceland}} is a frozen rock with lots of Eskimos and one Music/{{Bjork}} somewhere near the North Pole. And now, also that darn flight-impeding volcano that no one can spell, [[TheUnpronounceable much less pronounce]]. If you're lucky, Reykjavik will get a mention.

* The only places in Japan are [[TokyoIsTheCenterOfTheUniverse Tokyo]], Kyoto, Osaka, Mount Fuji, Hiroshima, and Nagasaki (the latter two due to a [[UsefulNotes/WorldWarII little historical event you might have heard of]]).

** The USA has its own chronology, with the discovery of America by UsefulNotes/ChristopherColumbus, the landing of the Mayflower, the Salem Witch Trials, UsefulNotes/TheAmericanRevolution, UsefulNotes/GeorgeWashington, UsefulNotes/ThomasJefferson, UsefulNotes/TheAmericanCivilWar, UsefulNotes/AbrahamLincoln, TheWildWest, UsefulNotes/TheodoreRoosevelt, TheRoaring20s/Prohibition, TheGreatDepression, UsefulNotes/FranklinDRoosevelt, UsefulNotes/WorldWarII and UsefulNotes/ColdWar as the key historical events. Among non-Native Americans, the formation of the Iroquois League is about the only event from pre-Columbian America that gets talked about.

** The United Kingdom will put its focus on Boadicea's defense against the Romans, Hadrian's Wall, the Picts, the Celts, the Anglo-Saxons, King Canute, UsefulNotes/AlfredTheGreat, UsefulNotes/WilliamTheConqueror and the Battle of Hastings, Wat Tyler, UsefulNotes/KingJohnOfEngland signing the Magna Charta, UsefulNotes/TheHundredYearsWar, UsefulNotes/WarsOfTheRoses, UsefulNotes/HenryVIII, UsefulNotes/ElizabethI, The Gun Powder Plot, UsefulNotes/EnglishCivilWar, the beheading of UsefulNotes/CharlesI, UsefulNotes/OliverCromwell becoming Lord Protector, UsefulNotes/CharlesII, the Great Fire of 1666, Admiral Horatio Nelson at the Battle of Trafalgar, UsefulNotes/TheDukeOfWellington at the Battle of Waterloo, UsefulNotes/QueenVictoria and UsefulNotes/VictorianBritain (which only consists of industrialisation and exploitation of child workers), the British army during UsefulNotes/WorldWarI and UsefulNotes/WorldWarII (the Blitz, Battle of Britain in particular) and UsefulNotes/WinstonChurchill. If the history of the rest of the British Isles is ever mentioned then it will probably consist of Scotland during William Wallace's invasion and not much else if you're from outside the Isles. However Irish and Northern Irish history gets expanded somewhat- but even then only to English occupation, the Easter Rising (if you're lucky) and UsefulNotes/TheTroubles.

* Canadian history is settlers, the Confederation (by extension Sir John A. [=MacDonald=].), UsefulNotes/WorldWarI, TheGreatDepression, UsefulNotes/WorldWarII and Pierre Elliot Trudeau. Maybe a vague mention of some stuff specific to the province where children go to school. For examples, Manitobans know something called "the Riel rebellion" happened, but not much else (including the fact that there were actually ''two'' such rebellions). At some point Canadians burned down the White House. And Laura Secord might have been involved? She's female!

** AncientEgypt and UsefulNotes/AncientEgyptianHistory: Usually a ThemeParkVersion of a civilization that lasted for more than a thousand years, with [[PyramidPower pyramids]], [[Art/TheSphinx sphinxes]], obelisques, tombs, [[{{Mummy}} mummies]], the Nile and people writing hieroglyphs and [[WalkLikeAnEgyptian walking like an Egyptian]] everywhere. Most people's idea of AncientEgypt is the New Kingdom time period (18th-20th Dynasties, 1550-1069 BC), but the only events that are usually depicted are UsefulNotes/RamsesII and his confrontation with Moses, UsefulNotes/CleopatraVII and her romance with UsefulNotes/JuliusCaesar and people busy building pyramids. Expect UsefulNotes/RamsesII, UsefulNotes/{{Tutankhamun}}, UsefulNotes/CleopatraVII, Echnaton/Aton, Hatshepsut and Nefertite to either have a cameo or be namedropped. The only [[Myth/EgyptianMythology Egyptian gods]] most people know are Anubis, Osiris, Isis, Horus and Ra. All people have long black hair and walk around in nothing but a white dress.

** AncientRome: The only time when UsefulNotes/TheRomanRepublic will be depicted is near the end, when it evolved into UsefulNotes/TheRomanEmpire. The rise and murder of UsefulNotes/JuliusCaesar is usually the focus. The story may continue until the defeat and death of Mark Anthony and UsefulNotes/CleopatraVII and UsefulNotes/{{Augustus}} taking power. The fashions and politics depicted will be from this period no matter what century it is.[[note]]Creator/RidleyScott's ''Film/{{Gladiator}}'' is one of the best-known examples of this. The senators scheming to restore republican government are also anachronistic -- it's about as realistic as portraying scheming 20th-century British parliamentarians trying to restore the House of Stuart.[[/note]]. The only other historical events that are interesting are the Pompeïi volcano disaster, the Great Fire of Rome, the [[GladiatorRevolt slave revolt]] of Spartacus, Hannibal crossing the Alps and the eventual invasion of the city by barbarians. The empire is far more interesting for most people, because it allows scenes of grotesque decadent and immoral behaviour and the opportunity to show [[UsefulNotes/TheGloryThatWasRome Rome in all of its magnificent glory]]. Naturally all action is concentrated in Rome, except perhaps to show some people battling in Gaul or Carthage. Still, Roman life will only take place in or nearby aquaducts, temples, columns, amphitheaters, bath houses, the Senate, the Imperial Palace and [[BreadAndCircuses an arena]], preferably the Colosseum, where [[GladiatorGames gladiators and large animals will kill one another for blood thirsty spectators]]. Romans will all wear togas and be a [[ColorCodedPatrician patrician]], senator, [[TheCaligula emperor]], gladiator, legionary, centurion or [[MadeASlave a slave]]. Most people think every Roman spoke Latin, while upperclass people in Rome spoke Ancient Greek. Expect the following historical domain characters to make a cameo or be namedropped: UsefulNotes/JuliusCaesar, Pompey, Marc Anthony, UsefulNotes/{{Augustus}}, UsefulNotes/{{Caligula}}, UsefulNotes/{{Nero}}, Trajan, Hadrian, Caracalla, Elagabalus, Constantine, Marcus Aurelius, Hannibal, Spartacus, Creator/{{Cicero}}, Creator/{{Virgil}}, Messalina, Agrippina, Creator/{{Juvenal}}, Creator/{{Plautus}}, Sallust, Tacitus and Creator/{{Ovid}}.

** In fact, war and pillaging seem to be the only notable activities going on in this time period, whether it be Goths, Visigoths, Ostrogoths, Franks, Huns, Magyars, Musulmen, Saxons, Norsemen, Vikings, Vandals,... everybody is moving from country to country to invade one another. As a result most important people in this time period are all conquerors: UsefulNotes/AttilaTheHun, Charles Martel, Clovis, Charlemagne, Canute, UsefulNotes/AlfredTheGreat,... This is also the ideal time period for epic tales and sagas, including ''Literature/{{Beowulf}}'', Myth/ArthurianLegend, ''Literature/{{Nibelungenlied}}'', ''Literature/OrlandoFurioso'', ''Literature/TheSongOfRoland'', all Literature/TheIcelandicSagas,...

** TheHighMiddleAges (1066- 1400): The era most people think of when the Middle Ages are brought up: [[KnightInShiningArmor knights]] and squires fighting to [[SaveThePrincess save princesses]] while people live in castles and listen to minstrels and troubadours singing songs. People will engage in ChivalricRomance, CourtlyLove and tournaments, or storm castles with long ladders while the people inside pour boiling oil over the invaders.Everybody speaks in YeOldeButcheredEnglish. Also the era of less heroic events, such as UsefulNotes/TheCrusades where Saracens and UsefulNotes/TheKnightsTemplar kill one another in name of their gods. Or people being [[BurnTheWitch burned as witches or for being heretics]], even though these became more prominent from the 16th century on. And the awful TheBlackDeath which killed off millions of people, not only due to the illness itself but also because witches and Jews were blamed for it and put on the stake. Historical domain characters that will have a cameo or be namedropped are UsefulNotes/WilliamTheConqueror, Saladin, UsefulNotes/GenghisKhan, Kublai Khan, UsefulNotes/RichardTheLionHeart, UsefulNotes/KingJohnOfEngland, UsefulNotes/RobertTheBruce, Creator/GeoffreyChaucer, UsefulNotes/ThomasBecket, ... Any medieval legend or FairyTale is usually set during this time era like Myth/RobinHood.
** TheLateMiddleAges (1400 - 1500): The Middle Ages as we know it from a lot of paintings from this era. Economy is at its highest, architecture is Romanic and people wear a lot of fancy clothing. Royals and noblemen engage [[FeudingFamilies in murderous feuds among the noble clans]] and the CorruptChurch is starting to really get overboard in persecuting [[BurnTheWitch witches and heretics]] by introducing UsefulNotes/TheSpanishInquisition. In England, the UsefulNotes/WarsOfTheRoses is the most important event during this era, though globally UsefulNotes/TheHundredYearsWar (1337-1453), UsefulNotes/TheFallOfConstantinople and UsefulNotes/ChristopherColumbus discovering America in 1492 are the only things worth remembering. Expect a cameo or a namedrop of UsefulNotes/JoanOfArc, Dante Alighieri, Creator/HieronymusBosch, UsefulNotes/ThomasMore, Desiderius Erasmus, UsefulNotes/VladTheImpaler, UsefulNotes/EleanorofAquitaine and UsefulNotes/ChristopherColumbus.
* UsefulNotes/TheRenaissance (late 1450s - 1650): Any reference to this time period will always be set in Italy, despite the tendency to have Renaissance fairs be set in England and be more close to Middle Ages imagery. The Renaissance will only consist of references made to ''Art/TheMonaLisa'', the ''Art/TheLastSupper'', the Art/SistineChapel, the Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore in Florence, and Creator/MichelangeloBuonarroti's ''Art/{{David}}''. Cameo appearances by Creator/LeonardoDaVinci, Creator/MichelangeloBuonarroti, Cesare and Lucrezia Borgia, Creator/NiccoloMachiavelli, Petrarch, Giacomo Savaranola, Creator/GiovanniBoccaccio, Creator/SandroBotticelli, Creator/RaphaelSanzio, Donatello, UsefulNotes/PopeAlexanderVI,... are mandatory. In Britain, this is the Shakespearean age, so expect Creator/WilliamShakespeare, UsefulNotes/HenryVIII, UsefulNotes/ElizabethI and UsefulNotes/MaryTudor, UsefulNotes/MaryQueenOfScots, UsefulNotes/AnneBoleyn, UsefulNotes/SirFrancisDrake, Sir Walter Raleigh,... to be namedropped or have a cameo. Spain and Portugal engage in the age of WoodenShipsAndIronMen, but to most people, this is just UsefulNotes/HernanCortez and Francisco Pizzarro and other conquistadores massacring Aztecs and Incas in some {{Mayincatec}} empire. But the most important event is Martin Luther establishing Protestantism and the Reformation and the Contra-Reformation happening as a result. A close second is UsefulNotes/JohannesGutenberg inventing the printing device. In terms of War we have the Thirty Years' War and the Eighty Year's War to reference. This is also the most prominent era to reference Charles V and Philippe II of Spain, Ivan the Terrible, Creator/PieterBruegelTheElder, Albrecht Dürer, Titian, William the Silent/William of Orange, UsefulNotes/{{Nostradamus}}, Creator/RembrandtVanRijn, Creator/JohannesVermeer, Creator/PeterPaulRubens, Caravaggio, Antoni Van Leeuwenhoek, Galileo Galilei, ... In terms of fashion: everybody wears a ruff [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruff_%28clothing%29]].
* UsefulNotes/TheEnlightenment (1600-1800), TheCavalierYears or The Baroque era: The time period where absolutism reigned, but people starting getting [[UsefulNotes/TheScientificMethod more faith in science and logic]] rather than religion and divine royals. This led to a number of scientific discoveries, inventions and more humane ways of thought that would prove beneficial to mankind, including those which led to the Industrial Revolution. Yet to the general public this is mostly the era of powdered wigs, BaroqueMusic, [[UsefulNotes/TheGoldenAgeOfPiracy pirates]], [[TheHighwayman highway robbers]], [[TheDandy dandy's]] and [[{{Swashbuckler}} swashbucklers]]. To the English the only noteworthy events are the Gun Powder Plot, UsefulNotes/EnglishCivilWar and the Great Fire in London. To the French this is the era of Versailles, UsefulNotes/LouisXIV and the eventual UsefulNotes/TheFrenchRevolution. American history focuses on the arrival of the puritans on the Mayflower and UsefulNotes/TheAmericanRevolution, with UsefulNotes/GeorgeWashington, UsefulNotes/ThomasJefferson, Creator/BenjaminFranklin and UsefulNotes/MarquisDeLaFayette as points of reference. Important people to have a cameo or be namedropped in this time period are UsefulNotes/JamesI, Guy Fawkes, UsefulNotes/LouisXIV, Creator/{{Moliere}}, UsefulNotes/FrederickTheGreat, UsefulNotes/PeterTheGreat, UsefulNotes/CatherineTheGreat, UsefulNotes/MariaTheresa, UsefulNotes/IsaacNewton, Music/JohannSebastianBach, Music/WolfgangAmadeusMozart, Music/AntonioVivaldi, Music/GeorgeFredericHandel, Creator/{{Voltaire}}, James Watt, Creator/JonathanSwift, Creator/GiacomoCasanova, Creator/JeanJacquesRousseau, Creator/ThomasPaine,...

* UsefulNotes/TheNapoleonicWars: The first two decades of the 19th century are completely dominated by UsefulNotes/NapoleonBonaparte and will be marked only by his victory in Austerlitz, being crowned as emperor, his failed invasion of Russia and the Battle of Waterloo. The British will focus a lot on Admiral Horatio Nelson and UsefulNotes/TheDukeOfWellington. In Russian stories shout-outs to Creator/LeoTolstoy, Creator/AlexanderPushkin and Creator/FyodorDostoevsky are not unusual either.

** Stories about artists will preferably be set in Paris and revolve around impressionist, expressionist, or realist painters who are misunderstood by everybody: Creator/VincentVanGogh, Creator/HenriDeToulouseLautrec, Paul Gauguin, Paul Cézanne, Pierre-August Renoir, Paul Signac, [[Art/ASundayAfternoonOnTheIslandOfLaGrandeJatte Georges Seurat]], [[Art/LeDejeunerSurLHerbe Édouard Manet]], Gustave Courbet, Auguste Rodin... They will drink absinthe and visit brothels, while prostitutes [[Music/TheCanCanSong dance the Can-Can]] in the Moulin Rouge. Naturally we also see the [[EiffelTowerEffect Eiffel Tower]]. Cameo appearances or references to Creator/VictorHugo, Creator/AlexandreDumas, Creator/HonoreDeBalzac, Paul Verlaine, Arthur Rimbaud, Emile Zola, Music/ErikSatie are not uncommon either.
** TheWildWest: Arguably one of the most popular eras for romanticizing is the era of the cowboys, with all TheWestern clichés you can imagine: BarBrawl, GoldFever, TheSheriff, ShowdownAtHighNoon, BountyHunter, TheGunslinger, TarAndFeathers, WantedPoster,... pioneers riding in stagecoaches under attack of outlaws or Native Americans,... Will typically be depicted as a mythical era with hardly any reference to historically true events, except perhaps the Goldrush of 1848, UsefulNotes/TheAmericanCivilWar and/or the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral. Expect some sugarcoating over the fact that slavery of black people was still in effect and that the wars against Native Americans for their country were going on until the 1890s. Important people to make cameo's or be namedropped are UsefulNotes/BillyTheKid, UsefulNotes/JesseJames, Calamity Jane, Wyatt Earp, Doc Holliday, Creator/BuffaloBill, Creator/MarkTwain, the Hatfield and [=McCoy=] feud, Roy Bean, Wild Bill Hickok, Geronimo, Sitting Bull, Crazy Horse, Harriet Beecher Stowe, UsefulNotes/HarrietTubman, John Brown, UsefulNotes/FrederickDouglass, Belle Starr, UsefulNotes/DavyCrockett,...
** UsefulNotes/TheAmericanCivilWar: In US history this is the most important event of the 19th century to the point that all dramas will typically be set during this war. Naturally UsefulNotes/AbrahamLincoln and his eventual assassination are a major plot point. Other points of reference are UsefulNotes/UlyssesSGrant and Robert Lee.

** The 19th century will be usually romanticized by men walking around in high hats and women in [[GorgeousPeriodDress crinolines]] with a ParasolOfPrettiness. People will take a ride in horse carriages, watch a ''magic lantern'' show and visit an {{Opera}}, Circus or a {{Vaudeville}} show too. Expect references be made to many of the new inventions taking place throughout this century, such as photography, the telephone, electric light, pedaled bicycles, the train and, near the 1890s, the car. Sport events become more prominent, like baseball, cycling, soccer, rugby, cricket and the modern Olympic Games. You will also see the contrast between upper class aristocrats and their servants. Especially the 1890s are a popular target, see TheGay90s, also characterized as "La Belle Époque".

** TheEdwardianEra (1901-1914) Ties in with TheGay90s (1890s) as a nostalgic period just before the horrors of UsefulNotes/WorldWarI would break out. People will go to the movie theater, read newspaper comics, join the boy scouts, listen to early phonograph records and watch people fly through the sky in early aeroplanes or zeppelins. Important people who'll have a cameo or be referenced in this era are Creator/HarryHoudini, UsefulNotes/TheWrightBrothers, UsefulNotes/TheodoreRoosevelt, Creator/GeorgeBernardShaw, Creator/PabloPicasso, Isadora Duncan, Anna Pavlova, Henry Ford, Helen Keller, Edward VII, Emmeline Pankhurst, Enrico Caruso, UsefulNotes/SigmundFreud, Albert Schweitzer, Sun Yat-Sen, Emiliano Zapata, Pancho Villa, Roald Amundsen, Robert Falcon Scott and UsefulNotes/AlbertEinstein. The only real tragedy is the sinking of the UsefulNotes/RMSTitanic.
** UsefulNotes/WorldWarI (1914-1918): People getting shot in the trenches, while the whole pointlessness of the war is frequently addressed by soldiers, but not as much by their superiors. Tanks and mustard gas are the most prominent weapons used, ''not'' artillery or Machine guns. Expect references to Gavrilo Princip, Arch Duke Franz Ferdinand, Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany, general Paul von Hindenburg, Marshal Ferdinand Foch, Henri Pétain, George V, Lord Kitchener, UsefulNotes/DavidLloydGeorge, UsefulNotes/MataHari, the Red Baron, Douglas Haig and T.E. Lawrence "of Arabia". At the home front women work in factories. In Ireland the other noteworthy event is the Easter Rising. In the field of art UsefulNotes/{{Dada}} is the most important artistic event and Creator/MarcelProust and Creator/FranzKafka the most important authors.
** UsefulNotes/RedOctober: Another event of world importance, where the usual cameo's will be made by UsefulNotes/RasputinTheMadMonk, UsefulNotes/VladimirLenin, UsefulNotes/LeonTrotsky, Czar Nicolas II, princess Anastasia and UsefulNotes/JosefStalin.

** TheGreatDepression: People worldwide look for jobs, but can't find any. In Germany this is particular bad because it will lead many to vote for UsefulNotes/AdolfHitler. In the USA this time period is particularly associated with poor people in TheDeepSouth, bank robbers and gangsters like Bonnie & Clyde, Ma Barker, John Dillinger, Babyface Nelson and Pretty Boyd Floyd and the F.B.I. led by J. Edgar Hoover trying to track them down. Still the era is subject to some romanticism, as many great {{Jazz}}, {{Blues}}, {{Bluegrass}}, CountryMusic, FolkMusic tunes were recorded during this era. Expect references be made to artists like Music/RobertJohnson, Gene Krupa, Music/WoodyGuthrie, Music/GlennMiller and Music/BillieHoliday, for instance.

** The 1930s are a quiet time for Great Britain, with only Edward VIII's abdication and George VI succession as important events. And, of course, UsefulNotes/NevilleChamberlain's failed attempt to sign peace with Hitler.
** The40s pop culture is characterized by Creator/HumphreyBogart, Creator/BettyGrable, Creator/BobHope, Creator/AbbottAndCostello, Creator/AlfredHitchcock, Music/DeanMartin, Creator/JerryLewis, bebop jazz, Music/FrankSinatra, Vera Lynn, Music/EdithPiaf, neo-realistic Italian movies and UsefulNotes/TheGoldenAgeOfAnimation cartoons of ''WesternAnimation/{{Pinocchio}}, WesternAnimation/{{Fantasia}}, WesternAnimation/{{Dumbo}}, WesternAnimation/{{Bambi}}, WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes, WesternAnimation/TomAndJerry, WesternAnimation/{{Droopy}}'' and ''WesternAnimation/WoodyWoodpecker''.
** After 1945 the major events are the Iron Curtain, the Neurenberg Trials, the independence of India, Israël becoming its own state, UsefulNotes/HarryTruman establishing the Truman doctrine, the Soviet Union launching its own atomic bomb, the arrival of the UN and NATO, South Africa establishing apartheid and UsefulNotes/{{Mao Zedong}} turning China into a Communist state. In the USA anti-communist witch hunts under command of UsefulNotes/JosephMcCarthy take a turn for the worse, with many people being blacklisted. Important post war people are UsefulNotes/DavidBenGurion, Konrad Adenauer, UsefulNotes/HarryTruman, UsefulNotes/JosipBrozTito, UsefulNotes/JosefStalin, Werner von Braun and UsefulNotes/MaoZedong.

** The50s: A happy carefree time, at least that is the view that many sitcoms and movies have given us. All adult men are a Standard50sFather who wears slippers, fedoras and smokes a pipe. All adult women are [[StepfordSmiler smiling]] apron-clad {{housewi|fe}}ves. Their children will be girls in poodle skirts, playing with hula hoops or early Barbie dolls or cute freckle faced boys with slingshots in their pockets and read comic books on the sly. Or, if they are teenagers, they will be teddy boys, GreaserDelinquents, a BadassBiker or a {{Beatnik}} reading Magazine/{{Playboy}} on the sly. They drive a CoolCar with {{RetroRocket}}s to eat at UsefulNotes/McDonalds or watch a [[BMovie monster B-movie]] at a DriveInTheater. But, most importantly, they will listen to RockAndRoll, {{Doowop}}, RAndB or {{Rockabilly}} on a transistor radio or a jukebox, especially Music/BillHaleyAndHisComets, Music/ElvisPresley, Music/ChuckBerry, Music/LittleRichard, Music/JerryLeeLewis, and Music/BuddyHolly. Jonas Salk developing the polio vaccine, UsefulNotes/TheSpaceRace and the launch of the first Sputnik are the most important scientific breakthroughs. Other happy events are Edmund Hillary being the first man on top of the Mount Everest, Elizabeth II being crowned, the opening of [[Ride/DisneyThemeParks Disneyland]], the establishment of UsefulNotes/TheEuropeanUnion and the marriage between Prince Rainier III of Monaco and Creator/GraceKelly. Creator/TheBeatGeneration, early television shows like ''Series/ILoveLucy'', ''Series/{{Bonanza}}'' and ''Series/TheTwilightZone1959'', free jazz and abstract expressionism are the cultural highlights. Creator/BettiePage, Creator/MarlonBrando, Creator/JamesDean, Creator/BrigitteBardot, Creator/JayneMansfield, Creator/SophiaLoren, Music/ElvisPresley, Creator/MarilynMonroe and ''Magazine/{{Playboy}}'' lead the sexual revolution. In popular culture there will be far less focus on the [[RedScare anti-communist witch hunts]] , UsefulNotes/TheKoreanWar, the fear of the bomb, the first nuclear power plants being built, the Soviet oppression of the Hungarian Uprising, UsefulNotes/FidelCastro turning Cuba into a Communist state and the rise of the Afro-American civil rights movement under Rosa Parks and UsefulNotes/MartinLutherKingJr

** The70s: Men wear polyester leisure suits with flaring trouser cuffs and huge ties while sporting [[SeventiesHair heavily sprayed and manicured hair, sideburns included]]. Women wear feathered, Creator/FarrahFawcett hair above their slinky dresses with [[VaporWear no bras]] underneath. Black people sport a huge, poofy afro as a TakeThat to past straightening practices. A great time for cult TV shows, [[ExploitationFilm exploitation movies]], Martial Arts movies, {{Blaxploitation}}, {{Erotic Film}} and Hollywood blockbusters. Young people are into GlamRock, {{Funk}}, {{Reggae}}, PunkRock, {{Disco}}, NewWaveMusic and/or HeavyMetal. Video games, video recorders, and skateboards are starting to get in vogue. People seem less keen to remember the Watergate affair, UsefulNotes/RichardNixon's abdication, the economic recession, the oil crisis, UsefulNotes/TheVietnamWar, terrorist bombings, [[SerialKiller serial killers]], kidnappings and plane hijackings becoming more prominent, the assassination of Aldo Moro in 1978, UsefulNotes/IdiAmin, UsefulNotes/AugustoPinochet, UsefulNotes/SaddamHussein, and ayatollah Khomeini turning their countries into dictatorships and the death of Music/ElvisPresley. This is also the decade when most people become aware of human pollution destroying the environment.
** The80s: Fondly remembered for CNN, Creator/{{MTV}}, SynthPop, Music/MichaelJackson, Music/{{Madonna}}, Live-Aid, {{Hiphop}}, GothRock, HouseMusic, arcade video games, VideoGame/PacMan, Creator/{{Nintendo}}, the walkman, the marriage of Prince Charles and Diana, blockbuster action films starring Creator/SylvesterStallone and Creator/ArnoldSchwarzenegger, Lech Walesa, UsefulNotes/MikhailGorbachev's reforms, the fall of the Iron Curtain and UsefulNotes/BerlinWall. All young people engage in breakdancing, skateboarding, and weary EightiesHair or are a ValleyGirl. People feel less nostalgic towards the AIDS epidemic, the crack cocaine craze, the assassination of Music/JohnLennon, Roberto Calvi and Olof Palme, the Falklands War, the Challenger explosion, the Irangate affair, the USA backing the overthrow of the socialist government in Nicaragua, the Iran-Iraq War, the USSR-Afghan war, the Chernobyl nuclear disaster, economic recession and unemployment under [[UsefulNotes/RonaldReagan Reaganomics]] and [[UsefulNotes/MargaretThatcher Thatcherism]], big-money televangelism and subsequent scandals, the rise of the far-right in many Western countries, US and USSR tensions resulting in fear for nuclear missile escalation, Creator/SalmanRushdie being put under a fatwa, the Latin American debt crisis…
** The90s: Seen as a more innocent, carefree time when the Cold War was finally over, the Soviet Union dissolved; Germany reunited and a freed Nelson Mandela got elected as the first black president of South Africa. Young people enjoy more sophisticated 2-D and 3-D video games, {{Grunge}}, BritPop, GangstaRap, {{Techno}}, piercings, the dinosaur rage of ''Film/JurassicPark'', Creator/QuentinTarantino movies, adult animated shows like ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'', ''WesternAnimation/BeavisAndButtHead'' and ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark''. The Internet and cell phones became huge and introduced a whole new area of pop culture, headed by Microsoft and Apple. The arrival of the first cloned sheep and Viagra brought hope for scientific development. UsefulNotes/MichaelJordan headed the Dream Team to universal success and made basketball popular worldwide. Also of note: the Monica Lewinsky scandal, the Rodney King scandal, the Creator/OJSimpson scandal, Columbine, the Oklahoma City bombing, the deaths of Music/FreddieMercury, Music/KurtCobain, [[Music/TupacShakur Tupac]] and [[Music/TheNotoriousBIG Biggie]], and Princess Diana. Usually forgotten is UsefulNotes/TheGulfWar, the war in ex-Yugoslavia, Slobodan Milosevic, Ratko Mladic, Radovan Karadzic, Srebrenica, the war in Somalia, the genocide in Rwanda, Joseph Kony, Silvio Berlusconi getting elected as president and not getting out of Italian politics ever since, the deaths of Aryton Senna, Yitzhak Rabin, and Wrestling/OwenHart, the Asian and Russian financial crises…

** World War I has a very short list of characters. Archduke Ferdinand, Gavrilo Prinzip, Nicholas II, Wilhelm II, George IV, Alfred von Schlieffen, Helmuth von Moltke the Younger, Erich von Falkenhayn, Paul von Hindenburg, Erich Ludendorff, Georg Bruchmüller, Franz Conrad von Hötzendorf,Joseph Joffre, Philippe Pétain, Aleksei Brusilov, Alexander Kerensky, Vladimir Ilyanovich Lenin, Sir Douglas Haig, Sir Arthur Currie, Sir John Monash, Lawrence of Arabia, and Mustafa Kemal Atatürk. That's it.
** There were no War Crimes in World War I except The Armenian Genocide. None. No gratuitous killing of [=POWs=], no ethnic cleansing in places like Russian-occupied Galicia and Podolia, no deportations of populations like in Alsace (by the French), and no stripping places like Russian Poland and Ukraine of food to feed the German homeland with near-disastrous consequences. Nope.

** There's a very short list of events and people which make the cut. The invasions of Poland and France, Battle of Britain, (as of very recently) Battle of Stalingrad, Pearl Harbor, D-Day, UsefulNotes/TheHolocaust, Hitler's suicide and UsefulNotes/AtomicBombingsOfHiroshimaAndNagasaki. Key people in this event are UsefulNotes/AdolfHitler, Joseph Goebbels, Hermann Göring, Heinrich Himmler, Erich von Manstein, UsefulNotes/ErwinRommel, UsefulNotes/BenitoMussolini, Hirohito, UsefulNotes/HidekiTojo, Isoroku Yamamoto, UsefulNotes/WinstonChurchill, UsefulNotes/JosefStalin, Zhukov (maybe), UsefulNotes/FranklinDRoosevelt, UsefulNotes/CharlesDeGaulle, Henri Pétain (maybe), UsefulNotes/GeorgeSPatton, UsefulNotes/DwightDEisenhower, UsefulNotes/BernardLawMontgomery, Chester Nimitz and UsefulNotes/DouglasMacArthur. Some war victims and resistance heroes like Anne Frank, Sophie Scholl, Raoul Wallenberg, Janusz Korczak... may get a mention too, but mostly in their countries of origin. Expect the French, Polish and other continental resistance movements not to get a mention elsewhere.

** There were concentration camps, as presented for example in ''Film/SchindlersList''. UsefulNotes/TheHolocaust only took place in the camps, and the only death camp was Auschwitz. Which is always mentioned without its second name, Birkenau. Any and all Holocaust survivors/victims are Jewish. Not Soviet, Polish, Slavic, homosexual, Gypsy, handicapped, or communist: they were all Jewish. Or maybe those other guys were in there for some reason, but probably not a lot. Also need a BigBad working in a Nazi concentration camp? Dr. Josef Mengele. Who else?
** German military commanders? Erwin Rommel, Erich von Manstein, aaaand Heinz Guderian. That's all three of them alright. The latter two of which [[SarcasmMode totally didn't deserve]] those silly 'war crimes' accusation things they got at Nuremberg, by the way.

*** The only land battle of the entire war which didn't happen in Europe was El Alamein. Shanghai, all five battles of Changsha, and the Burman stuff? Didn't happen.

** Other battles that might get mentioned are Bull Run (and always the ''first'' battle there, and only because some picnickers foolishly came along to watch the show), Antietam (because it almost looks like and sounds like [[UsefulNotes/TheVietnamWar "Vietnam", which is just cool]]), and Appomattox (because that's where General Lee surrendered -- and don't be surprised if people mispronounce it so that it rhymes with "tomahawks", when [[PretentiousPronunciation it's actually "appa-matticks"]]).
** The only naval battle during the war was between the Monitor and the Merrimac (which never had its name changed to ''CSS Virginia'' when it came into Confederate hands).

* All Capitalism (a Marxist term) is based on crony-ism and obsessed with money, even though UsefulNotes/AdamSmith pointed out in ''The Wealth of Nations'' that wealth is goods and services, not gold or silver. It is also industrial, even though America was a wholly agrarian nation at the founding.

* All Vice Presidents will be "recent" ones; think the ones in the last 50 years or so: UsefulNotes/SpiroAgnew, UsefulNotes/NelsonRockefeller, UsefulNotes/WalterMondale, UsefulNotes/DanQuayle, UsefulNotes/AlGore, UsefulNotes/DickCheney, UsefulNotes/MikePence, and UsefulNotes/KamalaHarris. The only other ones worth noting are the ones who later became presidents (Adams, Jefferson, Van Buren, Tyler, Fillmore, Andrew Johnson, Arthur, Teddy Roosevelt, Coolidge, Truman, Nixon, LBJ, Ford, Bush Sr., and UsefulNotes/JoeBiden). The only other notable ones are famous for something unrelated to their vice presidency (Aaron Burr for killing Alexander Hamilton in a duel, George Clinton sharing his name with a funk musician, Elbridge Gerry for being the namesake for "Gerrymandering", John C. Calhoun for his pro-slavery activism, George Dallas for being the namesake of the Texas city, John C. Breckenridge for running against Lincoln for president, UsefulNotes/AdlaiStevensonI for being the grandfather of Eisenhower's Democratic opponent in 1952 and 1956 UsefulNotes/AdlaiStevensonII, Charles W. Fairbanks for being the namesake of the Alaska city, UsefulNotes/HubertHumphrey for being the namesake for the Metrodome and Nixon's opponent in 1968). Some people are able to work out that LBJ must have been Vice President at some point if he became President when JFK was shot; however, that logic doesn't extend to Lincoln; after Lincoln was shot you'd think there just wasn't a President.

** Benedict Arnold

** Jefferson Davis (assuming that Confederates are considered "un-American")
** Kaiser Wilhelm II

** Joseph [=McCarthy=] and the House Un-American Activities Committee (assuming that demagogues are considered "un-American")

** [[UsefulNotes/NorthKorea Kim Il-sung, Kim Jong-il, and Kim Jong-un]]

** European Fascist dictators: UsefulNotes/BenitoMussolini and UsefulNotes/FranciscoFranco. If you're lucky, you'll get Antonio Salazar (Portugal), Ante Pavelic (Croatia), Ioannis Metaxas and Georgios Papadopoulos (Greece), Ion Antonescu (Romania), Jozef Tizo (Slovakia), Ferenc Szalasi (Hungary), and Vidkun [[TheQuisling Quisling]] (Norway)
** Latin-American Fascist dictators: UsefulNotes/AugustoPinochet (Chile), Alfredo Stroessner (Paraguay), Juan Péron, Jorge Rafaela Videla (Argentina), Papa Doc and Baby Doc Duvalier (Haiti), Manuel Noriega (Panama), UsefulNotes/FulgencioBatista (Cuba), Rafael Trujillo (the Dominican Republic), Alberto Fujimori (Peru), and the Somoza dynasty in Nicaragua.

*** Other Asian dictators: Hirohito and Hideki Tojo (Japan), Ferdinand Marcos (The Philippines), Sukarno and Suharto (Indonesia), Islam Karimov (Uzbekistan), Saparmurat Niyazov and Gurbanguly Berdimuhammedow (Turkmenistan), .
** European Communist dictators: UsefulNotes/VladimirLenin, UsefulNotes/JosephStalin (considered more dictatorial than any other Russian head of state during the UsefulNotes/ColdWar), Nikolae Ceaucescu (Romania), Enver Hoxha (Albania), Josip Broz Tito and Slobodan Milosevic (Yugoslavia), Walter Ubricht and Erick Honecker (East Germany), and Alexander Lukashenko (Belarus).
** Latin-American Communist dictators: UsefulNotes/FidelCastro and his brother Raul are the most famous. Also of note are Hugo Chavez and Nicolas Maduro of Venezuela. To a lesser degree Daniel Ortega of Nicaragua.
** African dictators: UsefulNotes/IdiAmin, King Leopold (who was the Belgian King) and Seko Seko Mobutu (Congo), Jomo Kenyatta (Kenya), Robert Mugabe (Zimbabwe), Ahmed Sekou Toure (Guinea), Hastings Banda (Malawi), Kenneth Kaunda (Zambia), Gnassingbe Eyadema (Togo), Teodoro Obiang (Equatorial Guinea), Jean-Bedel Bokassa (Central-African Republic), Haile Selassie and Mengitsu Haile Mariam (Ethiopia), Paul Biya (Cameroon), Paul Kagame (Rwanda), ...
** Arabian/North African/Middle Eastern dictators: The Three Pashas (Ottoman Empire), Ataturk and Erdogan (Turkey), UsefulNotes/MuammarGaddafi, UsefulNotes/SaddamHussein, Shah Muhammed Reza Pahlevi of Iran, Ayatollah Khomeini, Ali Khamenei, Ilham Aliyev (Azerbaijan), Hafez and Bashar al-Assad (Syria), Hosni Mubarak (Egypt), Omar al-Bashir (Sudan),...

** "England" has only had four sovereigns: UsefulNotes/HenryVIII, UsefulNotes/ElizabethI, UsefulNotes/QueenVictoria, and UsefulNotes/ElizabethII. The English themselves also know of three others -- UsefulNotes/WilliamTheConqueror, Henry II, and UsefulNotes/AlfredTheGreat. Americans know King George III. For obvious reasons. Scots probably know of Edward Longshanks as well. Cultivated people will also know UsefulNotes/RichardIII from Shakespeare's play ''Theatre/RichardIII''. King James is best known for his Bible, otherwise he's only known in Scotland.
*** Also UsefulNotes/{{Richard The Lion Heart}} (Richard I), if only for his nickname; his brother, bad King John, only for Robin Hood and the Magna Carta; and Myth/KingArthur, who may not have existed, and may not have been a king even if he did (and most definitely wasn't English).
*** The Irish know about [[UsefulNotes/OliverCromwell Oliver Cromwell]], but only for what he did when he went to visit them.
** "England" has also had at most six Prime Ministers: UsefulNotes/BenjaminDisraeli (and many people only associate him with ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy''), UsefulNotes/WinstonChurchill, UsefulNotes/NevilleChamberlain (only to emphasize how much better Churchill was), UsefulNotes/MargaretThatcher, UsefulNotes/TonyBlair, and whoever is currently in office.

** Princess Diana. And only because of her tragic death. In The90s she was well-known abroad for her messy falling-out with and eventual divorce from Prince Charles. Of course, [[NeverSpeakIllOfTheDead the mockery mostly ceased with her death]]. Charles is still fair game though.

* Grand Duchess Anastasia (who will be called a "princess")
* German monarchs? Kaiser Wilhelm II. Apparently there was never a Wilhelm I.
** Chancellors? Otto Von Bismarck and Adolf Hitler. ''Maybe'' Paul Von Hindenburg will get a mention, and more recently Angela Merkel.

* Russian tsars? Ivan the Terrible, Catherine the Great, and Nicholas II.

* Spanish monarchs? Ferdinand and Isabella and Philip II.

** Darius III, but only as the enemy of Alexander the Great.

** For Westerners, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini was the Iranian boogeyman during his day. Most of us rarely think about his successor (Ali Khamenei as of this writing).
* Australian Prime Ministers? Harold Holt and Whoever is currently in office (The Current PM is Anthony Albanese) and Mabe John Howard, Robert Menzies and John Curtin.

* The only [[UsefulNotes/BritishUnis British universities]] are [[UsefulNotes/{{Oxbridge}} Oxford, Cambridge]] and the London School Of Economics.
* The only Catholic university? Notre Dame -- and just for football.

* American Catholics are either Irish, Italian, or Hispanic. Forget about the American Catholics of French, Polish, German, Dutch, Portuguese, and other heritages. African-American Catholics don't exist either, nor do African-American Jews (even if this group includes such famous figures as Sammy Davis, Lenny Kravitz and Jackie Wilson).
* All Southerners are devout Baptists or evangelicals. Don't mention the traditionally Catholic Southern populations like the Cajuns and Louisiana Creoles -- if religion in Louisiana is a topic of interest, it'll be HollywoodVoodoo.

* All Pennsylvania Dutch are Amish. The Fancy Dutch (who are typically Lutheran, and are the origins of many "quintessential" Dutch elements such as hex signs) and Mennonites do not exist. If Mennonites are mentioned at all, they'll either be treated as synonymous with Amish or maybe as rivals with no discernible differences. Conversely, all Amish are from Pennsylvania. There are no Amish in other states or nations.
* Christianity is divided into exactly two denominations, Catholicism and Protestantism. Protestantism is a single entity with no further subgroups like Calvinism or Lutheranism. Mormons are not found outside of Utah (with the exception of Mitt Romney). There is no such thing as the Orthodox Church.

* In southern India, civil engineering is synonymous with one name -- Sir M Visveswaraiah, who built the famous KRS dam on the Kaveri River in Mysore.

* UsefulNotes/{{Afghanistan}}: Kandahar, which was occupied by American troops in 2001 made at least one city in the country more noticeable in popular culture. Also the capital Kabul. After the slew of terror attacks and the tumultuous US military withdrawal of 2020-21, its notoriety has been ingrained in the memories of the global audience for decades, and no doubt will it stay that way for decades to come.

* UsefulNotes/{{Australia}}: Sydney, where the Opera House and Sydney Harbour Bridge will be brought in view. Canberra, the actual capital, might get a mention, just like Perth, Queensland, Brisbane, Melbourne and Adelaide. Uluru (Ayers Rock), however, will always be referenced.
* UsefulNotes/{{Austria}}: Best known for Vienna, city of the Waltz, coffee, the Wiener oboe and Vienna sausages. The only other locations worth namedropping are the Vienna Woods (''Wienerwald''), Tyrol (known for Tyrolean hats, music and Tyrolean sex comedies), Braunau (for Hitler) the Alps and Salzburg, home of ''Film/TheSoundOfMusic'' and birth place of Music/WolfgangAmadeusMozart. And if Tyrol and Carinthia are ever portrayed, it's because of the [[YodelLand Alps, where everybody yodels and wears lederhosen.]] Bonus points if they mention the Grossglockner.
* UsefulNotes/{{Belgium}}: If it's mentioned at all it will be because the NATO head quarters are located in Brussels, a city where the Atomium and Manneken Pis can be seen and nothing else. Antwerp and Bruges may get mentioned, but that's really pushing it. History buffs know it solely for Waterloo (defeat of UsefulNotes/NapoleonBonaparte), Ypres (UsefulNotes/WorldWarI) and the Ardennes (UsefulNotes/WorldWarII). Culinary experts know it for Belgian waffles, Belgian fries, Belgian chocolate and Brussels sprouts.
* UsefulNotes/{{Brazil}}: UsefulNotes/RioDeJaneiro, bringing in view Christ the Redeemer Statue, the Carnival and Copacabana Beach. The favelas are another notorious location in Rio, but the government wants you to forget and ignore this problem. Rio is still more famous than the capital city, Brasilia or largest city Sao Paulo. Every other square meter of the country is either wild rainforest or newly-decimated landscape that ''used'' to be rainforest.

* UsefulNotes/{{China}} is fortunate enough to have ''three'' cities, Beijing, UsefulNotes/{{Shanghai}}, and UsefulNotes/HongKong (the latter being a territory and not a city), a great wall, and [[BannedInChina a penchant for censorship]].

* UsefulNotes/CzechRepublic: Prague and the region Bohemia, best known for ''Theatre/LaBoheme'', ''The Bohemian Girl'', Music/{{Queen}}'s "Bohemian Rhapsody", Music/TheDandyWarhols' "Bohemian Like You", the word ''bohémien'', Bohemian crystal and art glass. Also famous for Antonin Dvorak and Franz Kafka. Sigmund Freud and Gregor Mendel were born here but considered themselves Austrian. There's also WebVideo/MishovySilenosti, but he was more of a OneHitWonder (outside of the Music/SiIvaGunner community anyway).

* UsefulNotes/TheFalklandIslands: Known for the Falkland War in 1982.

* UsefulNotes/{{France}}: UsefulNotes/{{Paris}}, just for the [[EiffelTowerEffect Eiffel Tower]], Arc de Triomphe, and the Louvre, of course. You might get a reference to the Moulin Rouge, Sacré-Coeur, Montmartre, Champs Elysées, Pont Neuf, the Sorbonne, Place Concorde, Versailles, Place Vendôme, Père Lachaise and the Notre Dame in there too.
** The rest of France will usually be the Provence, though Bretagne (to show some cliffs), Reims (for the cathedral), Bordeaux (for the wine), Bayeux (for the [[Art/TheBayeuxTapestry tapestry]]), the Mont Saint-Michel, Arles (because of Creator/VincentVanGogh), Dijon (for the mustard), Cannes (for the Film Festival), Avignon (because of the song ''Sur Le Pont d'Avignon''), Le Mans (for the race ''24 Hours Of Le Mans''), Roland Garros (for the tennis tournament), Rouen (made famous by UsefulNotes/JoanOfArc), Alsace (for the sauerkraut and sausages and Strasbourg's cathedral) Marseille and Nice could get a small reference if you're lucky. If you're Catholic or know anything about Catholicism, you'll know a bit about ''[[Film/TheSongOfBernadette Lourdes]]'' where they have holy water that magically cures people.[[note]]It's ordinary water taken from a sacred spring.[[/note]]
* UsefulNotes/{{Germany}}: UsefulNotes/{{Berlin}}, but it only exists as a location in spy thrillers and because of a [[UsefulNotes/BerlinWall wall that is no longer there]]. The only other memorable location is the Brandenburger Tor and the Berlin cabaret. Other German cities that foreigners might remember are UsefulNotes/{{Munich}} (only during {{Oktoberfest}}. It may ring a bell to sport fans, because during the 1972 UsefulNotes/OlympicGames, a bunch of Israeli competitors were murdered.), Hamburg (birth place of the hamburger), Frankfurt (Frankfurter sausages), Cologne (for its perfume), Bremen (''Literature/TheBremenTownMusicians'') may also receive a mention. In fairy tales only, the Black Forest will make an appearance.
* UsefulNotes/{{Greece}}: Athens, to have a view of the Parthenon and Acropolis. Several Greek locations also thank their fame due to their association with Ancient Greek society: Sparta, Delphi, Lesbos (for lesbians), Crete, Mount Olympus, Rhodes, Thessaloniki, Corinthe, Epidaurus, ...

* UsefulNotes/{{Haiti}}: Port-au-Prince and the 2010 Earthquake. And anything involving HollywoodVoodoo. There is no similar religion practiced anywhere else. Ifa, Santería and Candomblé don't exist.

* UsefulNotes/{{Iceland}}: Reykjavik. The only other reference to Iceland will be to the Iceland/Greenland joke or Music/{{Bjork}}.

* UsefulNotes/{{India}}: Bombay (almost never Mumbai), Calcutta (almost never Kolkata), Delhi (old and new), Bangalore and Bengal (known for the tigers). Nobody knows Agra, but they will recognize the Taj Mahal there. One irony is that UsefulNotes/{{Bollywood}} movies have the same SmallReferencePools to their own culture. Gandhi will always be the first person mentioned.
* UsefulNotes/{{Indonesia}}: Java, most famous for the ''Java Man'', Javan coffee, Javascript and tea. Bali is best known for its gamelan music. And the volcanic island Krakatoa is remembered for its 19th century volcanic eruption. Notable in that neither of these cities are its capital (that would be Jakarta).
* UsefulNotes/{{Iran}}: Tehran, remembered for the 1979-1981 American embassy hostage crisis. Also infamous for the Iran-Contra affair, Ayatollah Khomeini, and the nuclear weapons programs.
* UsefulNotes/{{Iraq}}: Baghdad, the capital, best known for the Saddam regime. Another infamous location is the Abu Ghraib prison.
* UsefulNotes/{{Ireland}}: Dublin, only Dublin. Limerick might get a mention because of ''limericks'' and Tipperary because of the song ''It's A Long Way To Tipperary''.
* UsefulNotes/{{Israel}} and UsefulNotes/{{Palestine}} (often thrown together as one country by foreigners): Most locations Israel (and Palestine) are known for are in essence temples or holy sites, like Bethlehem, Mount Zion, Masada, Al-Asqa Mosque, The Lions' Gate, King David's Tomb, the Armenian Quarter, The Wailing Wall, The Church of the Holy Sepulchre, The Damascus Gate, and the Dome of the Rock. Only the West Bank and Gaza Strip are more famous now as conflict zones than for their historical merit. The only location that exists without a strong holy or violent association attached to it is the Dead Sea, which is actually a lake, by the way. It's famous for its high salt level which makes people able to float on it without being able to sink. And even this location is actually not just Israelian or Palestinian, but also bordering Jordan.
* UsefulNotes/{{Italy}}: The only existing cities are UsefulNotes/{{Rome}} (for The Pope, Colosseum and the Trevi fontain), UsefulNotes/{{Venice}} (boat rides with a gondolas), Naples (for pizza), Milan (for fashion), and -- if the need arise -- Florence (for the Renaissance). Pisa only exists because of the Leaning Tower and Pompeii because of the volcano disaster during the Roman era. Sicily will bring up associations with the Mafia. Non-Italians only know Genoa (the capital of the province of Liguria) for being the birthplace of UsefulNotes/ChristopherColumbus. Cultivated people know Verona as the setting of ''Theatre/RomeoAndJuliet''.
* UsefulNotes/{{Jamaica}}: The plus side is that together with Cuba it's probably the only Caribbean island most people can name. The down side is that nobody knows any city or location there, save perhaps for Kingston if they have heard it mention in some reggae song. It's known mostly for {{reggae}} and Music/BobMarley than anything else -- although sports fan will be aware of Usain Bolt.
* UsefulNotes/{{Japan}}: UsefulNotes/{{Tokyo}} and Osaka. Hiroshima and Nagasaki are infamous for being the first atomic bomb targets, Kyoto for the Kyoto Protocol of 1997.

* UsefulNotes/{{Lebanon}}: Only known for Beirut, where people are either kidnapped or blown up.
* UsefulNotes/{{Libya}}: Tripoli. Benghazi only exists for the 2011 uprising and U.S. Embassy attacks in 2012. Muammar Gaddafi is the only Libyan likely to be mentioned.
* UsefulNotes/{{Mexico}}: Mexico City is the only place that exists in fiction. Acapulco might get a mention and Tijuana, but more as a WretchedHive, where whorehouses, cheap tequila and donkeys are the main attractions. Chihuahua might be referenced too, only for the tiny dogs. More recently, Ciudad Juárez has been mentioned, but only as a place where [[{{Gangsterland}} the rule of law has collapsed]].
* UsefulNotes/{{Monaco}}: Monte Carlo, only for its luxury casino.

* UsefulNotes/{{Morocco}}: Fez and Casablanca, the latter only known as a movie.

* UsefulNotes/{{Norway}}: Oslo gets media attention every year for the annual Nobel Prizes, but that's it.

* UsefulNotes/{{Peru}}: Cuzco and Macchu Pichu.
* UsefulNotes/{{Philippines}}: Manila.
* UsefulNotes/{{Poland}}: Warsaw and Gdansk/Danzig. A few people might recall that Frederic Chopin and Madame Curie were from there.
* [[UsefulNotes/Oceania Polynesia]]: Some isles you might have heard from: Papua New Guinea, Fiji, Tonga, French Polynesia, Samoa, Tahiti, the Solomon Isles, the Cook Isles and the Easter Island. Apart from the Easter Island, best known for its huge Moai statues, most people wouldn't be able to name one specifically unique thing about these isles.
* UsefulNotes/{{Portugal}}: Lisbon and Porto, but only for the ''porto'' wine. If you're Catholic you'll think of Fatima (the famous visions didn't even happen there but outside a nearby village).
* UsefulNotes/{{Romania}}: One province is known by everyone who ever heard of ''Literature/{{Dracula}}'': Transylvania. The only other reference will be to Ceaucescu. Bucharest is also brought up to be confused with [[UsefulNotes/{{Hungary}} Budapest]]
* UsefulNotes/{{Russia}}: The capital UsefulNotes/{{Moscow}}, best known for the Kremlin (which if mentioned will almost inevitably be accompanied by a shot of ''Saint Basil's Cathedral'' instead) and nothing but snowy landscapes. St. Petersburg, Vladivostok (as the city all the way in the east), Volgograd might get mentioned too, but far more infamous is Siberia, which lives on in the public imagination as a mysterious place where people are [[TheGulag sent to work in slave labor]]. Some older people may mention Leningrad and Stalingrad, unaware that these cities are now called St. Petersburg and Volgograd. Olympics buffs will remember Sochi, but only as a place with ice rinks and ski jumps. Other cities ad regions mentioned will often be part of an independent Baltic republic now.
* UsefulNotes/{{Saudi Arabia}}: The only place that exists is Mecca. Even its capital Riyadh is far more obscure in comparison.

* UsefulNotes/{{Spain}}: Madrid, Barcelona (with the Sagrada Familia as its only recognizable monument) and Seville, the latter best known for ''Theatre/TheBarberOfSeville''. The Basque county is known for E.T.A. terrorism. Maybe Malaga only because of Picasso. [[TorosYFlamenco All of them look like a little Andalusian beach resort]], when not one in [[{{Spexico}} Mexico]] or [[LatinLand Puerto Rico]].

* UsefulNotes/{{Thailand}}: Formerly Siam. UsefulNotes/{{Bangkok}}, best known for sex tourism and "One Night in Bangkok". And maybe ''Theatre/TheKingAndI''.
* UsefulNotes/{{Tibet}}: TheShangriLa, the Himalaya Mountains, the Dalai Lama and Mount Everest.

* UsefulNotes/{{Ukraine}}: Before the Russian invasion in 2022, it was only world famous for a place nobody dares to go: Chernobyl.

*** Some other English locations that may get a reference: Dover (for its White Cliffs), Stonehenge, Oxford and Cambridge (if we need a university), Liverpool (well known thanks to Music/TheBeatles), Manchester (for the football teams), Birmingham (birthplace of many British HeavyMetal bands), Southampton (known for harboring Titanic), Yorkshire (for Yorkshire pudding and the Yorkshire terrier), Wimbledon (for the tennis) and Greenwich (for the meridian).
** UsefulNotes/{{Scotland}} is colorful enough to be referenced, but only because of Glasgow, Edinburgh and [[StockNessMonster Loch Ness, for the monster.]]. Still they should be glad, because Wales does not exist for foreigners unless they're fans of either ''Literature/BrotherCadfael'' or rugby union.
** UsefulNotes/NorthernIreland is unfortunately only remembered for being a ground for terrorist bombings and violent confrontations between people of different political or religious ideologies, most notably in Belfast, Ulster and/or Londonderry.

*** UsefulNotes/{{California}}: UsefulNotes/LosAngeles (Hollywood), UsefulNotes/SanFrancisco (Alcatraz, the Golden Gate Bridge) and Disneyland. If you're lucky, you'll have heard of the Silicon Valley region, known as the technology capital of the world where tech giants Apple, Google, and Facebook are headquartered, but do not expect anyone to acknowledge that San Jose (the most populous city in Northern California, even moreso than SF) exists, let alone [[MemeticMutation know the way to it]].[[note]]This might be a [[CursedWithAwesome blessing in disguise]] for San Joseans, since it means less crowds of tourists in all their favorite places.[[/note]]
*** Colorado: Home of Denver (the mile-high city), UsefulNotes/{{Columbine}} and Aurora (which gave us two deadly shootings), and Colorado Springs (for the air force academy)

*** UsefulNotes/{{Florida}}: Disney World, Miami, Cape Canaveral, the Everglades, the MTV Spring Breaks, and men who get on the news, usually named "Florida Man".
*** UsefulNotes/{{Georgia|USA}}: ''[[Music/RayCharles Georgia On My Mind]]''. Home of Atlanta.

*** Indiana: Location of the Indianapolis 500 race.

*** Kentucky: Fort Knox and home of UsefulNotes/KentuckyFriedChicken. Abe Lincoln was born here.

*** Massachusetts: Known for Plymouth Rock, where the Mayflower landed in 1620, and Boston, where there was a Tea Party which led to the American War of Independence. Inside the USA it's also known for the Salem witch hunts.

*** Missouri: Bookworms know it as the setting of many Creator/MarkTwain novels. Home of St. Louis and (the larger) Kansas City. Ferguson has now become a household name due to the 2014 racial riots.
*** Nevada: Not every foreigner may know about Nevada, but they have all heard of Las Vegas, aka ''gamblers' paradise''.

*** New Mexico: Either confused with Mexico or known for Roswell, where UFO's never landed. Albuquerque, best known for WesternAnimation/BugsBunny, ''Series/BreakingBad'', and Music/WeirdAlYankovic, is there.
*** South Dakota: Again foreigners might not know the state, but they will recognize Mount Rushmore.
*** UsefulNotes/{{Tennessee}}: Music/ElvisPresley fans know it for Graceland, blues fans for Memphis, country fans for Nashville.
*** UsefulNotes/{{Texas}}: [[EverythingIsBigInTexas Super-sized everything]], cowboys, [[UsefulNotes/DFWMetroplex Dallas]], Houston (we have a problem), UsefulNotes/{{NASA}}, and [[RememberTheAlamo the Alamo]].
*** UsefulNotes/{{Utah}}: Salt Lake City, best known for being Mormon country.

** UsefulNotes/JesseJames [[MyFriendsAndZoidberg (his brother Frank lucky to even get mentioned)]]

** John Dillinger
** Ted Bundy

* Assassins? Some historical ones whose infamy lives on are Brutus, Charlotte Corday, John Wilkes Booth, Gavrilo Princip, Lee Harvey Oswald and Mark David Chapman.
* Bankrobbers? Often 1920s and 1930s examples will be namedropped, like John Dillinger, Bonnie & Clyde, Ma Barker, Pretty Boy Floyd and Baby Face Nelson. If you need a British one look no further than Ronnie Biggs, accomplice in the Great Train Robbery, who managed to escape and remain a free man for decades.

** Conquistadores: Hernán Cortés (usually spelled ''Cortez'') and Francisco Pizarro are the most famous ones, with a tendency to see Pizarro as the worst one -- ''if'' the author is not under the belief that "Cortez" was the only conquistador ever.

* Cult leaders? It will always be the corrupt frauds and/or the ones who committed a major crime that pop up. UsefulNotes/CharlesManson, Jim Jones (for ordering his followers to drink a cyanide cocktail), Bhagwan (for owning several Rolls Royces while his followers were living in poverty), the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi (from his association with Music/TheBeatles and allegations that he might have sexually harassed some of his followers) and Sun Myung Moon (because of his mass weddings).

* Kidnappers? Bruno Hauptmann (for kidnapping the Lindbergh baby, though it's certain now that he didn't do it), Ted Bundy, Marc Dutroux, Jozef Fritzl, John Wayne Gacy, Fred & Rose West.

* Presidential assassins? Everyone's heard of John Wilkes Booth and Lee Harvey Oswald. Far fewer people know of Charles Guiteau or Leon Czolgosz, let alone the ones who failed to hit their marks (except maybe John Hinckley).

** The only horse breeds out there are American Quarter Horses, Appaloosas, Arabians, and Clydesdales. "Draft horse", "Mustang", "Brumby", and "color breeds" (such the palomino and pinto) may be cited as breeds, but they're actually generalized terms. The only type of pony is a Shetland.

* All Arabs are Muslim - and, to a lesser extent, vice versa. In fact, there are many Christian Arabs - mostly in Lebanon, Syria, Egypt, Israel, and Palestine. Similarly, there are a great variety of Muslim peoples (Albanians being European, Iranians sharing much of their linguistic and racial heritage with both Europeans and Asian Indians, Turks ultimately from East Asia, and Indonesians mostly of Malayo-Polynesian stock),[[note]]the majority of Muslims in fact come from Indonesia, Pakistan and India; less than 20% of the world's Muslims live in Middle Eastern or North-African countries.[[/note]] but a Muslim character in popular fiction will always be rendered an Arab or a quasi-Arab unless his/her being of a different nationality is pertinent to the plot.
* All Indians are Hindu. Not Muslim, not Christian, not Sikh, not Buddhist, not Jain or any of the other religions present in India. They're just funny people celebrating gods with many arms. And they will often wear turbans, even though most Hindus do not wear turbans. Sikhs wear turbans, but Americans think Sikhs are Muslims. Oh yeah, and they're all vegetarians.
* All Muslims are Sunni or Shia, if they aren't just one big unified mass, that is. There is no such thing as Ibadi.

* All Hispanics speak Spanish as their mother tongue and only Spanish (when it is not broken English littered with GratuitousSpanish[[note]]which most of the time will be slang from Southern California/Northwestern Mexico[[/note]], that is).[[note]]Many Hispanics really speak English and Spanish fluently and switch back and forth with no accent in either.[[/note]] The men are squat, brown, and have black hair and moustaches. The women are curvy, leggy and slutty - except for the ones who are fat and have really gross facial and body hair. Also, there are no Hispanics north of Los Angeles and Miami, except maybe in New York City. And they are all very lazy or very hard-working.

* Everyone in Latin America has a Spanish surname - even in countries like Argentina, Chile, and Brazil where non-Spanish/Portuguese surnames are just as common on account of German, Irish, Italian, British, and Japanese immigration. Don't expect Indigenous people in Latin America to have Indigenous surnames and speak an Indigenous language, unless they are from an uncontacted tribe.

* In southern India, civil engineering is synonymous with one name - Sir M Visveswaraiah, who built the famous KRS dam on the Kaveri River in Mysore.

* UsefulNotes/{{Italy}}: The only existing cities are UsefulNotes/{{Rome}} (for The Pope, Colosseum and the Trevi fontain), UsefulNotes/{{Venice}} (boat rides with a gondolas), Naples (for pizza), Milan (for fashion), and - if the need arise - Florence (for the Renaissance). Pisa only exists because of the Leaning Tower and Pompeii because of the volcano disaster during the Roman era. Sicily will bring up associations with the Mafia. Non-Italians only know Genoa (the capital of the province of Liguria) for being the birthplace of UsefulNotes/ChristopherColumbus. Cultivated people know Verona as the setting of ''Theatre/RomeoAndJuliet''.
* UsefulNotes/{{Jamaica}}: The plus side is that together with Cuba it's probably the only Caribbean island most people can name. The down side is that nobody knows any city or location there, save perhaps for Kingston if they have heard it mention in some reggae song. It's known mostly for {{reggae}} and Music/BobMarley than anything else - although sports fan will be aware of Usain Bolt.

** Conquistadores: Hernán Cortés (usually spelled ''Cortez'') and Francisco Pizarro are the most famous ones, with a tendency to see Pizarro as the worst one - ''if'' the author is not under the belief that "Cortez" was the only conquistador ever.

* Terrorists? UsefulNotes/OsamaBinLaden. All terrorists in fiction belong to Al-Qaeda, ISIS, Hamas, or Hezbollah - or the IRA, in those rare instances when [[WesternTerrorists the terrorist characters are]] ''[[WesternTerrorists not]]'' [[WesternTerrorists Middle Eastern]], but seldom the UVF or UDA. You'll never hear about the Tamil Tigers or Aum Shinrikyo - unless, of course, you're watching a movie or TV program [[CreatorProvincialism actually made in the country where such a group operates]].

* All big fashion designers before Calvin Klein (the only American most people can think of) have been French (UsefulNotes/CocoChanel, Christian Dior, Yves Saint-Laurent) or Italian (Valentino, Giorgio Armani, the Versaces). Occasionally Mexican designer Oscar de la Renta will get a mention - though often simply to be humorously confused with lightweight boxer Oscar de la Hoya.

** This is so common that when Joe Namath infamously wore a coyote fur coat to the 2014 Super Bowl, several news outlets called it a "mink coat" - even though coyote fur looks nothing like mink.

* The only place in UsefulNotes/{{Indonesia}} are Bali (home of dancing girls in [[PimpedOutDress Pimped Out Oriental Dresses]]) and Java (home of tigers, prehistoric humans, and - apparently - coffee).

** AncientRome: The only time when UsefulNotes/TheRomanRepublic will be depicted is near the end, when it evolved into UsefulNotes/TheRomanEmpire. The rise and murder of UsefulNotes/JuliusCaesar is usually the focus. The story may continue until the defeat and death of Mark Anthony and UsefulNotes/CleopatraVII and UsefulNotes/{{Augustus}} taking power. The fashions and politics depicted will be from this period no matter what century it is.[[note]]Creator/RidleyScott's ''Film/{{Gladiator}}'' is one of the best-known examples of this. The senators scheming to restore republican government are also anachronistic - it's about as realistic as portraying scheming 20th century British parliamentarians trying to restore the House of Stuart.[[/note]]. The only other historical events that are interesting are the Pompeïi volcano disaster, the Great Fire of Rome, the [[GladiatorRevolt slave revolt]] of Spartacus, Hannibal crossing the Alps and the eventual invasion of the city by barbarians. The empire is far more interesting for most people, because it allows scenes of grotesque decadent and immoral behaviour and the opportunity to show [[UsefulNotes/TheGloryThatWasRome Rome in all of its magnificent glory]]. Naturally all action is concentrated in Rome, except perhaps to show some people battling in Gaul or Carthage. Still, Roman life will only take place in or nearby aquaducts, temples, columns, amphitheaters, bath houses, the Senate, the Imperial Palace and [[BreadAndCircuses an arena]], preferably the Colosseum, where [[GladiatorGames gladiators and large animals will kill one another for blood thirsty spectators]]. Romans will all wear togas and be a [[ColorCodedPatrician patrician]], senator, [[TheCaligula emperor]], gladiator, legionary, centurion or [[MadeASlave a slave]]. Most people think every Roman spoke Latin, while upperclass people in Rome spoke Ancient Greek. Expect the following historical domain characters to make a cameo or be namedropped: UsefulNotes/JuliusCaesar, Pompey, Marc Anthony, UsefulNotes/{{Augustus}}, UsefulNotes/{{Caligula}}, UsefulNotes/{{Nero}}, Trajan, Hadrian, Caracalla, Elagabalus, Constantine, Marcus Aurelius, Hannibal, Spartacus, Creator/{{Cicero}}, Creator/{{Virgil}}, Messalina, Agrippina, Creator/{{Juvenal}}, Creator/{{Plautus}}, Sallust, Tacitus and Creator/{{Ovid}}.

** Other battles that might get mentioned are Bull Run (and always the ''first'' battle there, and only because some picnickers foolishly came along to watch the show), Antietam (because it almost looks like and sounds like [[UsefulNotes/TheVietnamWar "Vietnam", which is just cool]]), and Appomattox (because that's where General Lee surrendered - and don't be surprised if people mispronounce it so that it rhymes with "tomahawks", when [[PretentiousPronunciation it's actually "appa-matticks"]]).

** Even among Civil War buffs, knowledge of the war often remains restricted to Virginia and a few specific Western battles like Shiloh and Atlanta. Other campaigns - Grant's Siege of Vicksburg, Union landings along the Carolina coast, the capture of New Orleans and subsequent campaigns in Louisiana, constant fighting in border states like Missouri and Kansas, the entire naval war - are generally ignored. And anything west of the Rio Grande? ''Totally'' ignored. Only the hardest of hardcore buffs know about the Battle of Glorieta Pass in New Mexico Territory, or can tell you what the political scene was like in California at the time (pro-Union around San Francisco, pro-Confederate everywhere to the south).

* There's a widespread misconception that capitalism is a conservative economic principle, when in fact it always was - and still is - ''liberal''. (Admittedly, the current habit of automatically associating liberalism with leftism and/or socialism, which is especially a U.S. thing, has done a great deal to confuse the issue.) More than that, capitalism (at least if it's ''free-market'' capitalism) can be said to be subversive and even countercultural, as economist Thomas Frank discusses in his book ''The Conquest of Cool''.

* UsefulNotes/MarieCurie is usually [[TheSmurfettePrinciple the only woman scientist that gets mentioned in media]] (though Rosalind Franklin pops up from time to time). Discovered radioactivity (no) and the element radium (yes - and polonium too, but that's much less well known). She is known for being a woman and for getting killed by her research. ''Webcomic/{{xkcd}}'' [[http://xkcd.com/896/ lampshaded this]].

** UsefulNotes/{{Mars}} is nicknamed the Red Planet due to the most easily identifiable fact about it - [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin it's red]]. It's also generally assumed to be the most hospitable planet in the solar system other than Earth, and so is one of the most common (if not ''the'' most common) subject of stories about extraterrestrial life and colonization. Also helping is the fact that its day length is only slightly longer than Earth's, making Earthlings particularly well acclimated in this regard.

** Although the asteroid belt as a whole is well known, the only specific asteroids that exist are the ones on a collision course with Earth. The one exception is usually Ceres (despite now being a dwarf planet), because it's the largest asteroid and - as it will ''always'', and proudly, be pointed out - it's "as big as Texas." Trojan asteroids (i.e. ones located outside the actual asteroid belt and instead co-orbiting with one of the planets) will rarely be mentioned.

** Since 2006, Pluto has been primarily known for its demotion from planet to dwarf planet,[[note]]in actuality, Pluto is not alone in this regard - the first few asteroids suffered the same fate in the 19th century, and of them, only Ceres even got the consolation prize of later being repromoted to dwarf planet status once that term was established[[/note]] and the [[PlutoIsExpendable resulting jokes]] about its newfound second-class status.

* The only Catholic university? Notre Dame - and just for football.

* All men between the ages of 20 and 50 in TheSeventies wore bell-bottomed trousers and had [[SeventiesHair outrageously long sideburns]]. When they got dressed up, their suits were always in fruity pastel colors (blue, especially) or had a wild plaid or paisley pattern. (See also PopularHistory.)
* All teenage girls in TheEighties wore leggings (and legwarmers), oversized T-shirts, and bands or scrunchies in their [[EightiesHair (flamboyantly teased)]] hair. In bright neon and/or pastel colors. (The scrunchies, not the hair. Come to think of it, the hair, too.) All businesswomen wore suits with gigantic shoulder pads. (Again, see PopularHistory.)

** The USA has its own chronology, with the discovery of America by UsefulNotes/ChristopherColumbus, the landing of the Mayflower, the Salem Witch Trials, UsefulNotes/TheAmericanRevolution, UsefulNotes/GeorgeWashington, UsefulNotes/ThomasJefferson, UsefulNotes/TheAmericanCivilWar, UsefulNotes/AbrahamLincoln, TheWildWest, UsefulNotes/TheodoreRoosevelt, TheRoaringTwenties/Prohibition, TheGreatDepression, UsefulNotes/FranklinDRoosevelt, UsefulNotes/WorldWarII and UsefulNotes/ColdWar as the key historical events. Among non-Native Americans, the formation of the Iroquois League is about the only event from pre-Columbian America that gets talked about.

* Everyone living between the fall of Rome (late 400s A.D.) and TheSixties will have a stereotypically repressed Victorian view of the world. Though with young women in the fifties, it will always just be a [[SeeminglyWholesomeFiftiesGirl facade]].
* Every single human society before TheSixties was at least as sexist as Victorian times. Women were never allowed to do anything of economic worth. And racism in its present form has existed in every historical era everywhere (except in nonwhite countries; there everything was cool).

** The 19th century will be usually romanticized by men walking around in high hats and women in [[GorgeousPeriodDress crinolines]] with a ParasolOfPrettiness. People will take a ride in horse carriages, watch a ''magic lantern'' show and visit an {{Opera}}, Circus or a {{Vaudeville}} show too. Expect references be made to many of the new inventions taking place throughout this century, such as photography, the telephone, electric light, pedaled bicycles, the train and, near the 1890s, the car. Sport events become more prominent, like baseball, cycling, soccer, rugby, cricket and the modern Olympic Games. You will also see the contrast between upper class aristocrats and their servants. Especially the 1890s are a popular target, see TheGayNineties, also characterized as "La Belle Époque".

** TheEdwardianEra (1901-1914) Ties in with TheGayNineties (1890s) as a nostalgic period just before the horrors of UsefulNotes/WorldWarI would break out. People will go to the movie theater, read newspaper comics, join the boy scouts, listen to early phonograph records and watch people fly through the sky in early aeroplanes or zeppelins. Important people who'll have a cameo or be referenced in this era are Creator/HarryHoudini, UsefulNotes/TheWrightBrothers, UsefulNotes/TheodoreRoosevelt, Creator/GeorgeBernardShaw, Creator/PabloPicasso, Isadora Duncan, Anna Pavlova, Henry Ford, Helen Keller, Edward VII, Emmeline Pankhurst, Enrico Caruso, UsefulNotes/SigmundFreud, Albert Schweitzer, Sun Yat-Sen, Emiliano Zapata, Pancho Villa, Roald Amundsen, Robert Falcon Scott and UsefulNotes/AlbertEinstein. The only real tragedy is the sinking of the UsefulNotes/RMSTitanic.

** TheRoaringTwenties and GenteelInterbellumSetting: A happy, carefree time where people sing and dance to {{Jazz}} while smoking and drinking in shady nightclubs. In the USA alcohol is banned during this time period, so when people do consume liquor it's usually illegal. All women are [[TheFlapper flappers]] with a TwentiesBobHaircut. Other pastimes are the cinema, Broadway theatre or radio plays. The only negative aspect about these years are [[DamnItFeelsGoodToBeAGangster gangsters and mobsters rubbing people out]] in the USA and UsefulNotes/{{Fascism}} rising in Italy. Important people to have a cameo are UsefulNotes/AlCapone, Eliot Ness, Creator/AlJolson, Charles Lindbergh, Creator/BabeRuth, UsefulNotes/BenitoMussolini, Kemal Atatürk, Music/LouisArmstrong, Music/CabCalloway, Music/BessieSmith, Music/DukeEllington, Music/GeorgeGershwin, Music/CountBasie, Benny Goodman, UsefulNotes/ChiangKaiShek, UsefulNotes/MahatmaGandhi,...

** TheForties pop culture is characterized by Creator/HumphreyBogart, Creator/BettyGrable, Creator/BobHope, Creator/AbbottAndCostello, Creator/AlfredHitchcock, Music/DeanMartin, Creator/JerryLewis, bebop jazz, Music/FrankSinatra, Vera Lynn, Music/EdithPiaf, neo-realistic Italian movies and UsefulNotes/TheGoldenAgeOfAnimation cartoons of ''WesternAnimation/{{Pinocchio}}, WesternAnimation/{{Fantasia}}, WesternAnimation/{{Dumbo}}, WesternAnimation/{{Bambi}}, WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes, WesternAnimation/TomAndJerry, WesternAnimation/{{Droopy}}'' and ''WesternAnimation/WoodyWoodpecker''.

** TheFifties: A happy carefree time, at least that is the view that many sitcoms and movies have given us. All adult men are a StandardFiftiesFather who wears slippers, fedoras and smokes a pipe. All adult women are [[StepfordSmiler smiling]] apron-clad {{housewi|fe}}ves. Their children will be girls in poodle skirts, playing with hula hoops or early Barbie dolls or cute freckle faced boys with slingshots in their pockets and read comic books on the sly. Or, if they are teenagers, they will be teddy boys, GreaserDelinquents, a BadassBiker or a {{Beatnik}} reading Magazine/{{Playboy}} on the sly. They drive a CoolCar with {{RetroRocket}}s to eat at UsefulNotes/McDonalds or watch a [[BMovie monster B-movie]] at a DriveInTheater. But, most importantly, they will listen to RockAndRoll, {{Doowop}}, RAndB or {{Rockabilly}} on a transistor radio or a jukebox, especially Music/BillHaleyAndHisComets, Music/ElvisPresley, Music/ChuckBerry, Music/LittleRichard, Music/JerryLeeLewis, and Music/BuddyHolly. Jonas Salk developing the polio vaccine, UsefulNotes/TheSpaceRace and the launch of the first Sputnik are the most important scientific breakthroughs. Other happy events are Edmund Hillary being the first man on top of the Mount Everest, Elizabeth II being crowned, the opening of [[Ride/DisneyThemeParks Disneyland]], the establishment of UsefulNotes/TheEuropeanUnion and the marriage between Prince Rainier III of Monaco and Creator/GraceKelly. Creator/TheBeatGeneration, early television shows like ''Series/ILoveLucy'', ''Series/{{Bonanza}}'' and ''Series/TheTwilightZone1959'', free jazz and abstract expressionism are the cultural highlights. Creator/BettiePage, Creator/MarlonBrando, Creator/JamesDean, Creator/BrigitteBardot, Creator/JayneMansfield, Creator/SophiaLoren, Music/ElvisPresley, Creator/MarilynMonroe and ''Magazine/{{Playboy}}'' lead the sexual revolution. In popular culture there will be far less focus on the [[RedScare anti-communist witch hunts]] , UsefulNotes/TheKoreanWar, the fear of the bomb, the first nuclear power plants being built, the Soviet oppression of the Hungarian Uprising, UsefulNotes/FidelCastro turning Cuba into a Communist state and the rise of the Afro-American civil rights movement under Rosa Parks and UsefulNotes/MartinLutherKingJr
** TheSixties: A revolutionary time, where all kinds of minorities (youngsters, college students, blacks, women, gays, colonial countries,...) demand equal rights, freedom of speech and the end of old-fashioned, conformist and repressive values. TheGenerationGap between adults and youngsters becomes more prominent. All teenagers are left-wing [[NewAgeRetroHippie hippies]] who wear flowers in their hair, drive around in a HippieVan and want to travel to California or Katmandu to join a {{Commune}}. Or if they are black they will wear an afro and listen to Creator/{{Motown}}. They will all support the UsefulNotes/CivilRightsMovement and protest against UsefulNotes/TheVietnamWar. The men are either a ScooterRidingMod, a snappin' {{Beatnik}} or a [[LoveFreak peace loving']], long bearded hippie wearing CoolShades playing guitar. That is if they aren't sent off under {{Conscription}} to Vietnam to die in a pointless war against the Vietcong. (Veterans who come back maimed, drug-addicted or with PTSD or mental illness is seen in TheSeventies.) All women are a GranolaGirl who may wear a BeehiveHairdo and a Mini Skirt or a long "granny" skirt and peasant blouse. Since the anticonception pill has made its entry and hallucinogenic drugs like LSD and marihuana reach the mainstream everybody will engage in SexDrugsAndRockAndRoll. Expect many hippies to be TheStoner or EruditeStoner searching for a HigherUnderstandingThroughDrugs. The music is usually the most celebrated part of this era, with great {{Rock}}, SurfRock, FolkMusic, {{Pop}}, PsychedelicRock, {{Soul}}, {{Funk}} being made by bands like Music/TheBeatles, Music/{{The Rolling Stones|Band}}, Music/TheWho, Music/TheBeachBoys, Music/BobDylan, Music/JamesBrown, Music/JanisJoplin, Music/JimiHendrix, Music/TheGratefulDead and Music/TheDoors as the most iconic examples. Expect a reference to the ''Film/{{Woodstock}}'' festival too. UndergroundComics, SpaghettiWestern, SpyDrama, UsefulNotes/FrenchNewWave and Pop Art are the prime artistic movements. Central Asian culture is very popular, with Music/RaviShankar and the Hare Krishna movement as prime examples. Mankind brings the first man (UsefulNotes/YuriGagarin) and woman (Valentina Tereshkova) in space and the first one on the moon: Neil Armstrong. UsefulNotes/MuhammadAli becomes world champion boxing. Also namedrop some slogans like: "Make Love Not War", "Black Power!", "Ban The Bomb", "Don't Trust Anyone Over 30", "Flower Power" and "Turn on, Tune In and Drop Out". In fact, most people forget the less fun things going on, like the building of the UsefulNotes/BerlinWall, the UsefulNotes/CubanMissileCrisis, the assassinations of UsefulNotes/JohnFKennedy, UsefulNotes/MalcolmX, Martin Luther King Jr., UsefulNotes/CheGuevara and Robert Kennedy, UsefulNotes/TheVietnamWar, UsefulNotes/MaoZedong's "Cultural" Revolution, the Soviet Union oppressing the Prague Spring, Greece becoming a Fascist dictatorship for five years, Libya putting UsefulNotes/MuammarGaddafi in charge for more than 42 years, many young people getting brainwashed in religious cults with the UsefulNotes/CharlesManson murders as a prime example, endless race riots in the US, UsefulNotes/TheTroubles in Ireland, and many colonies in Africa finally becoming independent, only to fall into civil war or dictatorships afterward. The 60s ended at the Altamont rock concert where a black man was murdered by the Hell's Angels while (or because) the Music/{{The Rolling Stones|Band}} played "Sympathy for the Devil".
** TheSeventies: Men wear polyester leisure suits with flaring trouser cuffs and huge ties while sporting [[SeventiesHair heavily sprayed and manicured hair, sideburns included]]. Women wear feathered, Creator/FarrahFawcett hair above their slinky dresses with [[VaporWear no bras]] underneath. Black people sport a huge, poofy afro as a TakeThat to past straightening practices. A great time for cult TV shows, [[ExploitationFilm exploitation movies]], Martial Arts movies, {{Blaxploitation}}, {{Erotic Film}} and Hollywood blockbusters. Young people are into GlamRock, {{Funk}}, {{Reggae}}, PunkRock, {{Disco}}, NewWaveMusic and/or HeavyMetal. Video games, video recorders, and skateboards are starting to get in vogue. People seem less keen to remember the Watergate affair, UsefulNotes/RichardNixon's abdication, the economic recession, the oil crisis, UsefulNotes/TheVietnamWar, terrorist bombings, [[SerialKiller serial killers]], kidnappings and plane hijackings becoming more prominent, the assassination of Aldo Moro in 1978, UsefulNotes/IdiAmin, UsefulNotes/AugustoPinochet, UsefulNotes/SaddamHussein, and ayatollah Khomeini turning their countries into dictatorships and the death of Music/ElvisPresley. This is also the decade when most people become aware of human pollution destroying the environment.
** TheEighties: Fondly remembered for CNN, Creator/{{MTV}}, SynthPop, Music/MichaelJackson, Music/{{Madonna}}, Live-Aid, {{Hiphop}}, GothRock, HouseMusic, arcade video games, VideoGame/PacMan, Creator/{{Nintendo}}, the walkman, the marriage of Prince Charles and Diana, blockbuster action films starring Creator/SylvesterStallone and Creator/ArnoldSchwarzenegger, Lech Walesa, UsefulNotes/MikhailGorbachev's reforms, the fall of the Iron Curtain and UsefulNotes/BerlinWall. All young people engage in breakdancing, skateboarding, and weary EightiesHair or are a ValleyGirl. People feel less nostalgic towards the AIDS epidemic, the crack cocaine craze, the assassination of Music/JohnLennon, Roberto Calvi and Olof Palme, the Falklands War, the Challenger explosion, the Irangate affair, the USA backing the overthrow of the socialist government in Nicaragua, the Iran-Iraq War, the USSR-Afghan war, the Chernobyl nuclear disaster, economic recession and unemployment under [[UsefulNotes/RonaldReagan Reaganomics]] and [[UsefulNotes/MargaretThatcher Thatcherism]], big-money televangelism and subsequent scandals, the rise of the far-right in many Western countries, US and USSR tensions resulting in fear for nuclear missile escalation, Creator/SalmanRushdie being put under a fatwa, the Latin American debt crisis…
** TheNineties: Seen as a more innocent, carefree time when the Cold War was finally over, the Soviet Union dissolved; Germany reunited and a freed Nelson Mandela got elected as the first black president of South Africa. Young people enjoy more sophisticated 2-D and 3-D video games, {{Grunge}}, BritPop, GangstaRap, {{Techno}}, piercings, the dinosaur rage of ''Film/JurassicPark'', Creator/QuentinTarantino movies, adult animated shows like ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'', ''WesternAnimation/BeavisAndButtHead'' and ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark''. The Internet and cell phones became huge and introduced a whole new area of pop culture, headed by Microsoft and Apple. The arrival of the first cloned sheep and Viagra brought hope for scientific development. UsefulNotes/MichaelJordan headed the Dream Team to universal success and made basketball popular worldwide. Also of note: the Monica Lewinsky scandal, the Rodney King scandal, the Creator/OJSimpson scandal, Columbine, the Oklahoma City bombing, the deaths of Music/FreddieMercury, Music/KurtCobain, [[Music/TupacShakur Tupac]] and [[Music/TheNotoriousBIG Biggie]], and Princess Diana. Usually forgotten is UsefulNotes/TheGulfWar, the war in ex-Yugoslavia, Slobodan Milosevic, Ratko Mladic, Radovan Karadzic, Srebrenica, the war in Somalia, the genocide in Rwanda, Joseph Kony, Silvio Berlusconi getting elected as president and not getting out of Italian politics ever since, the deaths of Aryton Senna, Yitzhak Rabin, and Wrestling/OwenHart, the Asian and Russian financial crises…

** Princess Diana. And only because of her tragic death. In TheNineties she was well-known abroad for her messy falling-out with and eventual divorce from Prince Charles. Of course, [[NeverSpeakIllOfTheDead the mockery mostly ceased with her death]]. Charles is still fair game though.

** TheRoaringTwenties and GenteelInterbellumSetting: A happy, carefree time where people sing and dance to {{Jazz}} while smoking and drinking in shady nightclubs. In the USA alcohol is banned during this time period, so when people do consume liquor it's usually illegal. All women are [[TheFlapper flappers]] with a TwentiesBobHaircut. Other pastimes are the cinema, Broadway theatre or radio plays. The only negative aspect about these years are [[DamnItFeelsGoodToBeAGangster gangsters and mobsters rubbing people out]] in the USA and UsefulNotes/{{Fascism}} rising in Italy. Important people to have a cameo are UsefulNotes/AlCapone, Eliot Ness, Creator/AlJolson, Charles Lindbergh, Creator/BabeRuth, UsefulNotes/BenitoMussolini, Kemal Atatürk, Music/LouisArmstrong, Music/CabCalloway, Music/BessieSmith, Music/DukeEllington, Music/GeorgeGershwin, Count Basie, Benny Goodman, UsefulNotes/ChiangKaiShek, UsefulNotes/MahatmaGandhi,...

** TheRoaringTwenties and GenteelInterbellumSetting: A happy, carefree time where people sing and dance to {{Jazz}} while smoking and drinking in shady nightclubs. In the USA alcohol is banned during this time period, so when people do consume liquor it's usually illegal. All women are [[TheFlapper flappers]] with a TwentiesBobHaircut. Other pastimes are the cinema, Broadway theatre or radio plays. The only negative aspect about these years are [[DamnItFeelsGoodToBeAGangster gangsters and mobsters rubbing people out]] in the USA and UsefulNotes/{{Fascism}} rising in Italy. Important people to have a cameo are UsefulNotes/AlCapone, Eliot Ness, Creator/AlJolson, Charles Lindbergh, Creator/BabeRuth, UsefulNotes/BenitoMussolini, Kemal Atatürk, Music/LouisArmstrong, Music/CabCalloway, Bessie Smith, Music/DukeEllington, Music/GeorgeGershwin, Count Basie, Benny Goodman, UsefulNotes/ChiangKaiShek, UsefulNotes/MahatmaGandhi,...

* On that note, all non-religious people are full-blown atheists. There are no agnostics, deists, spiritual but not religious, or people who just don't really care.

* UsefulNotes/CzechRepublic: Prague and the region Bohemia, best known for ''Theatre/LaBoheme'', ''The Bohemian Girl'', Music/{{Queen}}'s "Bohemian Rhapsody", Music/TheDandyWarhols' "Bohemian Like You", the word ''bohémien'', Bohemian crystal and art glass. Also famous for Antonin Dvorak and Franz Kafka. Sigmund Freud and Gregor Mendel were born here but considered themselves Austrian. There's also [[https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnQizU4YTNNujxzVxezoKjw Misha]] (not [[Creator/MishaCollins the angel one]]), but he was more of a OneHitWonder[[note]]He sung an obnoxious EarWorm about ''VideoGame/PokemonGo'' , and then {{troll}}ed {{Caustic Critic}}s by stringing them along with similar songs for a while, but the latter part tends to be forgotten.[[/note]] except maybe to the Music/SiIvaGunner community.

* UsefulNotes/CzechRepublic: Prague and the region Bohemia, best known for ''Theatre/LaBoheme'', ''The Bohemian Girl'', Music/{{Queen}}'s "Bohemian Rhapsody", Music/TheDandyWarhols' "Bohemian Like You", the word ''bohémien'', Bohemian crystal and art glass. Also famous for Antonin Dvorak and Franz Kafka. Sigmund Freud and Gregor Mendel were born here but considered themselves Austrian. And maybe Misha (not [[Creator/MishaCollins the angel one]]), but only to those who spend too much time on the Internet as well as the Music/SiIvaGunner community.

* Speaking of South Asia, it only consists of two countries: India and Pakistan, who hate each other's guts. India is by far the more likely of the two to be referenced, and the term South Asia is often seen to be synonymous with India. In the tourism world, the Maldives is well-known, but few people know that it's in South Asia, and those accustomed to seeing photos of women in their bikinis posing in Maldivian overwater villas may be surprised upon learning that it is actually a fairly conservative Muslim country (though the resorts are free of religious laws). Bangladesh, Bhutan, Nepal, and Sri Lanka do not exist, despite Nepal being partially home to Mount Everest and Bangladesh being the 8th most populous country in the world, with more people than Russia.

* Speaking of South Asia, it only consists of two countries: India and Pakistan, who hate each other's guts. India is by far the more likely of the two to be referenced, and the term South Asia is often seen to be synonymous with India. Bhutan, Nepal and Bangladash do not exist, despite Nepal being partially home to Mount Everest and Bangladesh being the 8th most populous country in the world, with more people than Russia

** England: Will take most attention away from Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales; however, BritainIsOnlyLondon and London only Big Ben, Houses of Parliament, Buckingham Palace, Trafalgar Square, the Tower, Tower Bridge, Madame Tussauds, London Underground, Royal Albert Hall and Harrods. Though in general Big Ben seems to be the only thing needed to imply you're in London.