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Think you know everything about the land of the free? Think again! Join us as we explore surprising truths about America that even lifelong citizens might not know. From shocking government decisions to constitutional surprises, these facts reveal a nation more complex and contradictory than most history classes teach.
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00:00In a 2003 popular science article listing the worst jobs in science,
00:05metric system advocate came in at number 11.
00:08Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're counting down our picks for the things you might not have
00:12known about the United States, even if you've lived there your whole life.
00:15Voting is what's on everybody's mind this month, but what if that right was essentially taken away?
00:22Number 10. The U.S. purchased Alaska for just $7.2 million.
00:25It was Russians who first settled in Alaska in 1784, and just like the rest of the Americas,
00:31their conquest brought massacres and disease to the natives.
00:35As a colony of Russia, it was known as Russian America from 1799 to 1867,
00:40until ironically, the Crimean War in Ukraine forced Russia to sell Alaska to the United States
00:45for a little more than $7 million to help offset Russians' growing debt.
00:50In 1867, the United States bought Alaska from Russia for $7.2 million,
00:54roughly two cents per acre. At the time, critics mocked it as Seward's folly,
00:59believing Secretary of State William H. Seward had wasted money on an icebox.
01:03There was a lot of question whether or not Alaska would be able to economically support itself,
01:07and it wouldn't be an economic burden on the United States.
01:11There was a lot of argument about whether or not this was a good purchase,
01:14whether or not it was a wise move at that particular time, only a few years after the end of the Civil War.
01:21But the discovery of gold in 1896 and later oil of Prudhoe Bay in 1968
01:26made the purchase one of the most lucrative real estate deals in history.
01:29Today, Alaska provides critical natural resources, military strategic value,
01:33and nearly 20% of America's landmass.
01:36It's a reminder that the nation's growth wasn't always driven by immediate profit,
01:40but by calculated risk and geopolitical vision.
01:42Even so, many Americans forget that their largest state was once a controversial gamble.
01:46Russia's own domestic situation was becoming more complicated.
01:50Russia had, of course, lost the Crimean War.
01:53So that, combined with the remoteness of Alaska,
01:57these kinds of things all contributed to an awareness on the part of some of the advisors
02:01to the Tsar Alexander II that perhaps it might be a good idea to go ahead and get rid of this faraway colony.
02:08Number nine.
02:09The U.S. has more coastline than you probably think.
02:11Millions of Americans live on a coast,
02:13but a new report says sea levels could rise as much as a foot within 30 years.
02:19That means coastal cities could flood even on sunny days.
02:22Most people picture America as a continental nation with a few coastal states,
02:26but the reality is far broader.
02:27When you include Alaska, Hawaii, and U.S. territories like Puerto Rico and Guam,
02:31the United States boasts nearly 95,000 miles of coastline,
02:35more than almost any country on Earth.
02:37That expanse touches three major oceans and two continents,
02:40linking the U.S. to Arctic, Atlantic, and Pacific currents and the global shipping routes.
02:44The Jersey coast back in the 50s would have coastal flooding with a high tide
02:48maybe once every one to two years.
02:50Now it's several times a year.
02:52But also, since 2000, two days of flooding in Miami, Charleston, or even New York City,
02:57and now it's 10 days.
02:58The before and after pictures are astonishing.
03:01If you look at around, you know, the Lady Liberty here, Ellis Island.
03:04America's coastline isn't just beaches and boardwalks.
03:07It's a strategic economic and ecological lifeline often overlooked in national narratives
03:12that focus on the heartland.
03:14The coastal realities of flooding, erosion, and climate risk show that the U.S.
03:18is as much a maritime nation as it is a continental one.
03:21Scientists now predict that sea levels surrounding the U.S.
03:23will rise an additional 10 to 12 inches by 2050.
03:27That's a century's worth of sea level rise in less than 30 years, according to NOAA.
03:31The rising sea levels will intensify storm surges, high tides, coastal erosion, and wetland loss.
03:37Number 8.
03:38The Constitution Doesn't Guarantee the Right to Vote
03:40Do you have the constitutional right to vote for president?
03:43Yes, I do.
03:43As an American citizen, yes, I do.
03:45Yes.
03:46Yes.
03:47Absolutely.
03:48Contrary to popular belief, the U.S. Constitution never explicitly guarantees citizens the right to vote.
03:54Instead, it bars specific forms of discrimination.
03:56Race, 15th Amendment, sex, 19th, failure to pay a poll tax, 24th,
04:01and age over 18, 26th.
04:03That means states control most voting rules, including registration deadlines, ID laws, and districting.
04:08The right to vote is really determined on a state-by-state level.
04:12But what the Constitution does say in the 15th Amendment
04:15is that you can't take away the right to vote on the basis of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.
04:22Supreme Court cases like Bush v. Gore and Shelby County v. Holder illustrate how fragile those protections can be.
04:29It's a stark contrast to other democracies that enshrine voting as a fundamental right.
04:33The U.S. system relies on norms and patchwork protections,
04:36not a single constitutional guarantee, to sustain its democracy.
04:40Every state in their Constitution has its own protections for the right to vote,
04:45but those were written in very general ways,
04:47and how much they're enforced and how much protection they give for voters
04:50depends upon the way that the state courts have interpreted the Constitution.
04:54Number 7. The U.S. government once poisoned alcohol
04:58The going rate for a bottle of illicit alcoholic beverage
05:00had jumped some two or three hundred percent over the pre-Prohibition costs,
05:04a pretty good markup for the enterprising liquor salesman,
05:07sometimes known by the rather uncomplimentary label of bootlegger.
05:10During Prohibition, the federal government took an extreme step to stop bootleggers.
05:14It ordered industrial alcohol suppliers to add deadly chemicals like methanol and benzene.
05:19When criminals stole and redistilled that alcohol for consumption, thousands died.
05:23Historians estimate that by 1933, the program had killed at least 10,000 people.
05:28It was an extraordinary moment when moral policy crossed into public health disaster,
05:32a dark footnote rarely taught in American history classes.
05:35December 25th, 1926.
05:38A man runs into a New York City emergency room,
05:41crying that Santa Claus is chasing him with a baseball bat.
05:45And he shortly thereafter dies, and you have 65 other deaths in the same day.
05:51The episode demonstrates how the pursuit of virtue can spiral into state-sanctioned harm,
05:56revealing the paradox of Prohibition.
05:57To save Americans from themselves, the government literally made its own citizens drinks toxic.
06:02Charles Norris, the medical examiner of New York City,
06:06determined that all 65 of them were due to additives in industrial alcohol
06:12that had been required by the federal government.
06:14Among the additives is methyl alcohol.
06:18More than unpleasant, it's a poison.
06:22Number 6.
06:22The U.S. tax rate was once over 90% for the richest Americans.
06:26I know taxes are high, and I know they're burdensome.
06:30But we ought to keep this thing in proper perspective.
06:34The world has some great problems before it today.
06:38The United States has great responsibilities in helping to meet those problems.
06:42In the 1950s and early 1960s, the top marginal federal income tax rate was as high as 91%.
06:48That figure sounds impossible today, yet the era coincided with rapid economic growth
06:53and a rising middle class.
06:55Crucially, few actually paid that rate.
06:57Deductions and loopholes softened the impact.
06:59But the structure signaled a post-war consensus
07:01that the wealthiest should carry the largest burden for nation-building.
07:04If we want to keep the country on a sound financial basis and hold down inflation,
07:11we must pay this money as we go.
07:14One of the benefits of using the pay-as-you-go approach
07:17is that it results in a tighter check on expenditure.
07:21Highways, universities, and scientific research were funded under those rates.
07:25It's a stark contrast to the modern tax philosophy linking lower rates to growth.
07:29In truth, America's most prosperous decade was also its most progressive tax era.
07:34It is difficult to overstate how much the whole future of the world
07:38depends upon the financial condition of the United States government.
07:42We must keep it solvent.
07:45We've got to keep it sound.
07:48We've got to be sure that the government's financial affairs are well managed.
07:52Number five.
07:53There's still a place where the U.S. and Russia are only 2.4 miles apart.
07:57At the closest point on Alaska's coast, Russia and the U.S. are just miles apart.
08:01That geography lesson so famously summed up by former Governor Sarah Palin
08:05when she ran for the White House in 2008.
08:08They're our next-door neighbors, and you can actually see Russia from land here in Alaska.
08:14The island on the left is Russia.
08:15The one on the right is the United States.
08:17They're just two and a half miles apart.
08:18At the narrowest point of the Bering Strait, two tiny islands,
08:22Little Diomede, Alaska, USA, and Big Diomede, Chukokta, Russia,
08:26sit just 2.4 miles or 3.8 kilometers apart.
08:29Separated by the international date line, they're nearly a full day apart in time.
08:33Standing on Little Diomede, you can literally see tomorrow across the water.
08:37During the Cold War, this sliver of sea was nicknamed the Ice Curtain,
08:41symbolizing how close the rival superpowers truly were.
08:43The ideological battleground was in Europe,
08:46a line drawn over what would become the Iron Curtain.
08:49In the Arctic, the Soviet-American border would remain open until May 29, 1948,
08:59when the Soviets ordered the border closed.
09:02The U.S. responded soon after, shutting down the American side.
09:05Even today, only a frozen strait divides them.
09:08No border fence, just tundra and tide.
09:10The islands underscore geography's irony.
09:12Two nations that shaped global politics for a century remain within eyesight of each other,
09:16proving that separation is often more political than physical.
09:20Galagragan is a Yupik elder living in Savunga, St. Lawrence Island.
09:23A few years before the border was closed, at the age of 24,
09:27she went along on what was to be the last visit to Siberia by the natives of St. Lawrence.
09:32I miss them. I am still missing them. Good times.
09:37No. 4. The U.S. has more museums than Starbucks and McDonald's combined.
09:41The American wing at the Met is at the very center of the understanding of this museum,
09:47of the understanding of the genesis of this great institution,
09:50and also for the understanding of how American art and how American culture came into being,
09:57and it allows you to appreciate American art at its best and American history at its most complex.
10:03There are roughly 35,000 museums across the United States,
10:07outnumbering Starbucks and McDonald's locations combined.
10:09They range from the Smithsonian to tiny local history centers in rural towns.
10:14While fast food may dominate public space,
10:16the museum network reveals how much Americans value storytelling and preservation.
10:20The Smithsonian Museum of Natural History has over 147 million specimens,
10:26the largest collection in the world.
10:30Everything from giant dinosaur bones,
10:33to delicate butterflies,
10:34to pickled animals,
10:36like this stonefish.
10:37The most venomous in the world.
10:40Whoops.
10:40These institutions record scientific breakthroughs,
10:43social struggles,
10:44and regional heritage that might otherwise fade from memory.
10:47The statistic reframes America not just as a consumer nation,
10:50but as one deeply interested in collecting and curating its own past,
10:54however messy that past may be.
10:56I was completely drawn and taken in by the story.
11:01In the past,
11:01we weren't asking all the right questions.
11:05We weren't looking for depictions of enslaved people
11:09in a more naturalistic way,
11:11as an actual portrait of a person,
11:14because we didn't think they existed.
11:16I had never seen one.
11:18Number three.
11:19Millions of U.S. citizens can't vote for president.
11:21Puerto Rico is a U.S. territory,
11:23and its residents are American citizens.
11:26In the spring,
11:26they voted in the primaries,
11:28but the Constitution explains
11:29only the Electoral College,
11:31which only has delegates from states and D.C.,
11:33can vote for president.
11:35Roughly 4 million Americans living in U.S. territories,
11:38including Puerto Rico, Guam,
11:39the U.S. Virgin Islands,
11:41and American Samoa,
11:42are citizens who cannot vote for president.
11:44They can serve in the military,
11:46pay certain federal taxes,
11:47and are governed by U.S. law,
11:49but have no representation in the Electoral College.
11:52Even their congressional delegates
11:53cannot vote on final bills.
11:55It's a modern contradiction.
11:56Millions of citizens without a national voice.
11:58Social Security, Medicare,
12:00they pay into that system.
12:01Absolutely.
12:02They are American citizens.
12:03Yes.
12:04And yet,
12:04because your mother decided to move back,
12:06once you're on the island,
12:07you are unable to vote.
12:08And not only that,
12:10they lack a representative vote in the Congress.
12:12That's true.
12:12They don't have a senator.
12:14And that's a big problem.
12:15For a country that champions democracy worldwide,
12:18these territories remain constitutional gray zones.
12:20Their ongoing push for representation
12:22raises a hard question.
12:24What does citizenship truly mean
12:25in a federal system
12:26that leaves some Americans on the sidelines?
12:28Puerto Rico is a U.S. commonwealth
12:30because it was won in the Spanish-American War, right?
12:32So it's wild that a lot of these laws
12:34haven't caught up to date.
12:35And there are a bunch of things going on,
12:36you know what I mean?
12:37Very backward import taxes,
12:39through the Jones Act in particular,
12:41which some people speculate
12:42increases the cost of imported goods
12:43like 15 to 20%.
12:44So there is an added cost to being a commonwealth.
12:47Number two,
12:48the United States has no official language.
12:50President Trump says,
12:51for the first time in our country's history,
12:53English will be the official language.
12:56The executive order will allow government agencies
12:58and organizations that receive federal funding
13:01to choose whether they will offer services
13:03in other languages.
13:05Despite common belief
13:06and a 2025 executive order
13:08passed by President Donald Trump,
13:10the United States has no federally declared
13:12official language.
13:12English is the most widely spoken,
13:14but no law requires it.
13:16Multiple attempts to pass an English-only act
13:18have failed,
13:19and the Constitution is silent on the issue.
13:21Some states, like Hawaii and New Mexico,
13:23even recognize multiple languages officially.
13:25This linguistic pluralism reflects
13:27the nation's immigrant origins
13:28and its contradiction,
13:29a country that celebrates diversity
13:31while periodically fearing it.
13:33So while most federal documents
13:34use English by custom,
13:36America's laws don't require it,
13:38a fitting paradox for a nation built on plurality.
13:40But members of San Jose's Vietnamese-American community
13:43say allowing federal agencies
13:45to only use English will punish immigrants.
13:48I spoke with Philip Nguyen as he was traveling.
13:51I think it places unfair burden
13:53or expectation on many of these immigrants,
13:55refugees to assimilate
13:57into quote-unquote
13:58what is like the right American culture.
14:00Before we continue,
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14:14Number one.
14:17The U.S. is one of only three countries
14:19that don't use the metric system.
14:21Take 10 America to learn the metric way.
14:24It's a simple system based on 10s
14:26that you can start today.
14:28Efficient, more accurate, more universal too.
14:31It's good for our economy, our country, and for you.
14:35Only three countries on Earth,
14:37the United States, Liberia, and Myanmar,
14:40still haven't fully adopted the metric system.
14:42The U.S. first legalized metric in 1866,
14:45then reinforced it
14:46with the Metric Conversion Act of 1975
14:48and the Omnibus Trade and Competitiveness Act of 1988,
14:52which declared metric
14:53the nation's preferred system of weights and measures.
14:56Americans, content with the old way of measuring,
14:58were opposed to a conversion.
15:00Diametrically opposed, you might say.
15:03Too damn confusing
15:04for somebody who's been brought up
15:05on the English system.
15:06The U.S. metric board was abolished in 1982,
15:09and metric use was largely confined
15:12to the world of science, erratically so.
15:15Yet despite scientific and military reliance on it,
15:18everyday America clings to miles, pounds, and Fahrenheit.
15:21Industry has largely gone metric, culture has not.
15:24Americans measure the world in their own terms,
15:26a small but enduring symbol of independence
15:28and resistance to conformity.
15:30In a global sense,
15:31the yardstick isn't just a tool,
15:33it's a statement.
15:33Weights and measures, sir?
15:36Yes.
15:37Yes, I dream of that one day.
15:40Our proud nation
15:41will measure weights and pounds,
15:44and that 2,000 pounds shall be called a ton.
15:48And what would 1,000 pounds be called, sir?
15:51Nothing.
15:52Which all-American fact shocked you the most?
15:54Are there any we missed?
15:55Be sure to let us know in the comments below.
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