24 entries
Geography
Countries that didn't exist when you graduated, capitals that moved, and oceans that got official names.
Changes here run from 1989 to 2025.
- Updated10
- Renamed8
- Replaced4
- Refined1
- Disproved1
- RenamedNot in textbooks yet
The body of water south of the US is the Gulf of Mexico
Changed in2025TaughtThe large body of water bordered by the United States, Mexico, and Cuba is the Gulf of Mexico, a name it has held on maps for over four centuries.
NowIn 2025, a US executive order renamed it the 'Gulf of America' for federal use, and the US Geographic Names Information System updated the name on 10 February 2025. The change is binding only inside the US government, Mexico and most of the world still call it the Gulf of Mexico, and there is no international authority that can settle it.
- Updated
Mount Everest's height is fixed
Changed in2024TaughtMount Everest is a certain fixed height. It rose when India collided with Asia millions of years ago, and now it just stands there as the world's tallest mountain.
NowA 2024 study found Everest is actively growing, rising up to about 2 millimetres a year, and is 15 to 50 metres taller than it 'should' be because a river gorge 75 km away is eroding away rock and letting the crust below rebound upward. The mountain is being pushed up by the loss of land nearby.
- Updated
Every continent has been fully mapped
Changed in2023TaughtThe age of exploration is over. Every continent has been surveyed, charted, and mapped; there are no blank spaces left on the map of Earth's landmasses.
NowIn 2023, Zealandia became the first continent in the world to have its full geology mapped, and it only counts as a continent at all because of work completed after 2017. Almost 95 percent of its five million square kilometres sits underwater, which is exactly why it took until 2023 to chart.
- Renamed
The country is spelled Turkey
Changed in2022TaughtTurkey, capital Ankara, straddling Europe and Asia.
NowIn June 2022 the UN accepted the government's request to register the country's name in all languages as Türkiye, the Turkish spelling.
- Updated
There are five billion people on Earth
Changed in2022TaughtThe world population is about 5 billion and growing at a frightening exponential rate.
NowThe UN marked the 8 billionth person on 15 November 2022. Growth is also no longer exponential: the global fertility rate has roughly halved since 1970 and the population is projected to peak around 10.3 billion in the 2080s.
- Updated
The Earth has four oceans
Changed in2021TaughtPacific, Atlantic, Indian, and Arctic. Four oceans.
NowFive. The Southern Ocean around Antarctica was proposed by the International Hydrographic Organization in 2000 and formally recognized by National Geographic on World Oceans Day in 2021.
- Updated
Mount Everest is 29,028 feet high
Changed in2020TaughtEverest is 29,028 feet, or 8,848 meters. Memorize the number.
NowChina and Nepal jointly announced a new official height of 8,848.86 m, about 29,031.7 feet, in December 2020, after separate surveys and years of disagreement.
- Renamed
The country is called Holland
Changed in2020TaughtHolland and the Netherlands are two names for the same country, used interchangeably. The tulips, the windmills, the football team in orange, all of it is Holland.
NowFrom January 2020 the Dutch government officially dropped 'Holland' as a promotional name for the country and uses only 'the Netherlands'. Holland is really just two of the country's twelve provinces, North and South Holland, and the government retired the nickname to represent the whole nation.
- Renamed
Macedonia
Changed in2019TaughtMacedonia, a small country north of Greece, formerly part of Yugoslavia.
NowIt became the Republic of North Macedonia in February 2019 under the Prespa Agreement with Greece, ending a naming dispute that had run for 27 years.
- Renamed
Swaziland
Changed in2018TaughtSwaziland is a small landlocked kingdom in southern Africa.
NowKing Mswati III renamed it the Kingdom of Eswatini in April 2018, on the fiftieth anniversary of independence from Britain.
- Refined
There are seven continents
Changed in2017TaughtSeven continents: Africa, Antarctica, Asia, Australia, Europe, North America, South America.
NowA 2017 paper argued that Zealandia, a 4.9-million-square-kilometer landmass 94% submerged around New Zealand, meets every geological test for a continent. It has since been fully mapped, though it is not in most school curricula.
- Updated
The Aral Sea is the fourth largest lake in the world
Changed in2014TaughtThe Aral Sea in Central Asia is the world's fourth largest lake.
NowIt has lost about 90% of its volume. The eastern basin dried up completely for the first time in modern history in 2014. Ships sit on sand dozens of kilometers from any water.
- Updated
Sudan is Africa's largest country
Changed in2011TaughtSudan is the largest country in Africa by land area.
NowSouth Sudan became independent on 9 July 2011, taking about a quarter of Sudan's territory. Algeria is now Africa's largest country, and South Sudan is the world's newest widely recognized state.
- Replaced
Yugoslavia is a country
Changed in2008TaughtYugoslavia is a single federal country on the Balkan peninsula, capital Belgrade.
NowIt broke apart across two decades of conflict into seven states: Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Montenegro, North Macedonia, and Kosovo, the last of which declared independence in 2008 and is not universally recognized.
- Disproved
The Great Wall of China is visible from space
Changed in2003TaughtThe Great Wall of China is the only human-made structure visible from space, or from the Moon.
NowIt is not visible from the Moon, and it is extremely difficult to see from low Earth orbit with the naked eye. China's first astronaut looked for it in 2003 and reported that he could not see it.
- Updated
East Timor is part of Indonesia
Changed in2002TaughtThe eastern half of the island of Timor is an Indonesian province.
NowTimor-Leste became fully independent on 20 May 2002, the first new sovereign state of the twenty-first century, after a UN-supervised transition.
- Renamed
Bombay, Calcutta, and Madras
Changed in2001TaughtIndia's great cities are Bombay, Calcutta, Madras, and Bangalore.
NowBombay became Mumbai in 1995, Madras became Chennai in 1996, Calcutta became Kolkata in 2001, and Bangalore became Bengaluru in 2014.
- Updated
Hong Kong is a British colony
Changed in1999TaughtHong Kong is a British territory, and Macau is Portuguese.
NowBritain handed Hong Kong to China on 1 July 1997, and Portugal handed over Macau on 20 December 1999. Both are now Special Administrative Regions of China.
- Renamed
Zaire
Changed in1997TaughtZaire is the large country in central Africa, capital Kinshasa.
NowIt reverted to the Democratic Republic of the Congo in 1997 when Mobutu Sese Seko was overthrown. It is not the same country as the neighboring Republic of the Congo.
- Replaced
Czechoslovakia is a country
Changed in1993TaughtCzechoslovakia sits in central Europe with its capital at Prague.
NowIt split peacefully into the Czech Republic and Slovakia on 1 January 1993, in what is called the Velvet Divorce. In 2016 the Czech Republic adopted Czechia as its official short name.
- Updated
Ethiopia has a coastline
Changed in1993TaughtEthiopia sits on the Red Sea, with ports at Massawa and Assab.
NowEritrea became independent on 24 May 1993, taking the entire coastline with it. Ethiopia is now landlocked, and with over 130 million people it is the most populous landlocked country in the world.
- Replaced
The Soviet Union is one country
Changed in1991TaughtThe USSR is the largest country on Earth, a single red mass covering a sixth of the land surface, stretching from Poland to the Pacific.
NowThe Soviet Union dissolved on 26 December 1991 into fifteen independent countries: Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, and ten others.
- Replaced
There are two Germanys
Changed in1990TaughtEast Germany and West Germany are separate countries, divided by the Iron Curtain, with Berlin split by a wall.
NowGermany reunified on 3 October 1990. There is one Germany, and its capital is Berlin. The wall came down in November 1989.
- Renamed
The country is called Burma
Changed in1989TaughtBurma, capital Rangoon, in Southeast Asia.
NowThe ruling military junta renamed it Myanmar in 1989, with Rangoon becoming Yangon. The capital then moved again in 2005 to a purpose-built city called Naypyidaw.