TV shows constantly make stuff up that doesn’t reflect reality, so when we see something in a show that doesn’t seem real, we naturally assume that it was made up. But sometimes it turns out that the show was actually referencing something or some event from the real world that was real, just not that commonly known, or at least not known to you.

For example, many people first found out about the Tulsa race massacre from the Watchmen TV series, and at first assumed it was an invention of the show. It was a huge indictment on the American education system that such a horrific event was so obscure until then.

So what other things that seemed like they were made up did you later find out were actually real?