History Main / SecretHistory

** One example of this trope is found in [[http://www.scp-wiki.net/scp-5586 SCP-5586]] ('Somnambular Shenanigans'), where it is revealed that the Apollo 17 mission to the Moon in 1972 was interrupted by the arrival of a sleepwalking human, who tried to gain access to the Lunar Roving Vehicle, and then dropped his pants, mooning the planet Earth. Naturally, NASA communications staff (and the astronauts themselves) were given amnestics to remove all memory of the incident.Â

* ''Film/TheEternals'': The title characters have been living on Earth since 7000 BC and took on various {{God Guise}}s while hunting and killing Deviants (inspiring at minimum the Sumerian, Babylonian, Greek, and probably Aztec pantheons), but operate under an AlienNonInterferenceClause forbidding them from involving themselves in humanity's own wars (including {{Alien Invasion}}s such as the war with Thanos). Additionally, their last major intervention took place during the sack of Tenochtitlán; they've been inactive long enough that [[LegendFadesToMyth their legends are now chalked up to mythology]].Â

* ''Series/TheBlackAdder'' shows an AlternateHistory of the UsefulNotes/WarsOfTheRoses where [[UsefulNotes/TheHouseOfPlantagenet the Yorkists]] actually ''won'' the Battle of Bosworth Field, but [[UsefulNotes/RichardIII King Richard III York]] was mistakenly killed by his grand-nephew Prince Edmund "the Black Adder" shortly afterwards and Richard IV, historically the younger of the Princes in the Tower, was crowned his successor (no word on what happened to his older brother, the historical Edward V). The OpeningNarration of the first episode states that [[UsefulNotes/TheHouseOfTudor King Henry VII Tudor]], who historically won at Bosworth Field, rewrote the history books to ruin Richard III's reputation and erase Richard IV's entire reign after gaining the throne.Â

* ''Manga/BusoRenkin'': When first introduced to alchemy at the beginning of the series, [[StockShonenHero Kazuki]] looks it up in an encyclopedia, discovering a description similar to that of the real world mentioning that its main goals were the PhilosophersStone and transmutation of base metals into gold. [[ActionGirlfriend Tokiko]] explains that this is only what the public know about the subject as the [[OurHomunculiAreDifferent homunculi]] and the {{magitek}} weapons known as buso renkin were kept secret.Â

* ''Film/TheEternals'': The title characters have been living on Earth since 7000 BC and took on various {{God Guise}}s while hunting and killing Deviants (inspiring at minimum the Sumerian, Babylonian, Greek, and probably Aztec pantheons), but operate under an AlienNonInterferenceClause forbidding them from involving themselves in humanity's own wars (including {{Alien Invasion}}s such as the war with Thanos). Additionally, their last major intervention took place during the sack of Tenochtitlán; they've been inactive long enough that [[LegendFadesToMyth their legends are now chalked up to mythology]].Â

* ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings'' and all of Tolkien's other works, are supposedly this. Tolkien, referring to the Valar, said they were beings "whom in later ages Men called Gods": the men he was referring to were those from the ancient civilizations that we know of from history. In particular perhaps, the Norse. He also liked to playfully slip actual words into his elvish languages. Like how conveniently Exilic Quenya changed the letter thule, to sule: so that the name Thauron, became Sauron. Which is Greek for lizard. He also had Common Telerin börn, become "beorn" in the Nandorin dialect, evidently entering the Mannish tongues as well. ''Beorn'' involves a play on words: Norse ''bjǫrn'' means 'bear', while the corresponding Old English word ''beorn'' means 'man, warrior', so he gave this name to a werebear. This wasn't confined to Elvish either. Tolkien inserted the word "Avalon" into Adúnaic, the language of the men of Númenor: though the root of the word was borrowed from Quenya Elvish. If you look at the complete map of Middle Earth (found in the Silmarillion), the landmasses are also seemingly very familiar, although evidently plate tectonics have been at work. He even provides an explanation for why the world is now round. Of course, Tolkien was fully aware that all of this was mythology and explicitly stated that it was. He never intended for a reader to take this SecretHistory he'd made up very seriously.Â

* ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'': In the closing scene of "[[Recap/StarTrekS2E26AssignmentEarth Assignment: Earth]]", Kirk mentions that the ''Enterprise'' historical records describe a "never generally revealed" detonation of a nuclear weapon platform 104 miles above the earth, matching the events of the episode.Â
* ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'': "[[Recap/StarTrekVoyagerS3E22DistantOrigin Distant Origin]]" attempts to explain away the lack of archaeological evidence of the [[{{Ultraterrestrials}} Voth]] civilization on Earth by saying they evolved on an eighth continent which was destroyed after they left. (Cue the FridgeLogic of how they managed to invent spacecraft before ''boats'', never mind the ArtisticLicenseGeology.)Â

* The RPG ''Colonial Gothic'' involves the players waging the secret WeirdHistoricalWar battles of UsefulNotes/TheAmericanRevolution.Â

* ''TabletopGame/{{Pathfinder}}'': The ''Reign of Winter'' campaign path makes use of this trope throughout certain parts of the campaign but most notably in its fifth book, [[spoiler: ''Rasputin Must Die!'' Unbeknownst to recorded history, {{Rasputin|TheMadMonk}} is the estranged son of the witch Baba Yaga (yes, ''that'' Litterature/BabaYaga). His death in 1916 was faked, and the reason for his persistence during that assassination is that his soul is stitched to his body. The party is tasked with stopping him and finding the trapped Baba Yaga. Furthermore, a good part of the adventure takes place in a fortress built with magical devices based on the notes of UsefulNotes/NikolaTesla. His death in this adventure allows events outside of the Secret History to be resolved as normal.]]Â

* In the ''Franchise/AssassinsCreed'' series, the Templars, a cabal that was founded in AncientEgypt, have effectively controlled all of history. Although almost every important figure in history was a Templar (or a member of the rival Assassins), the Templars ensure that the history books never reveal any evidence of the ongoing SecretWar.Â

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* ''WesternAnimation/TheFairlyOddParents'' explains that, after a child outgrows or otherwise loses their fairy god parents, their memory of ever having them, along with anything they wished for, would be erased out of existence. This, along with witnesses having their memories wiped and children being required to keep their fairies a secret, means that the series could take place in our universe, with everyone just forgetting that fairies exist after every encounter with them. Â

* ''Series/TheBlackAdder'' shows an AlternateHistory of the UsefulNotes/WarsOfTheRoses where [[UsefulNotes/TheHouseOfPlantagenet the Yorkists]] actually ''won'' the Battle of Bosworth Field, but King Richard III York was mistakenly killed by his grand-nephew Prince Edmund "the Black Adder" shortly afterwards and Richard IV, one of the historical Princes in the Tower, was crowned his successor. The OpeningNarration of the first episode states that [[UsefulNotes/TheHouseOfTudor King Henry VII Tudor]], who historically won at Bosworth Field, rewrote the history books to ruin Richard III's reputation and erase Richard IV's entire reign after gaining the throne.Â

* ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'': In the closing scene of "[[Recap/StarTrekS2E26AssignmentEarth Assignment: Earth]]", Kirk mentions that the ''Enterprise'' historical records mention a "never generally revealed" detonation of a nuclear weapon platform 104 miles above the earth, matching the events of the episode.Â

* Wiki/SCPFoundation: The often horrifying nature of [=SCPs=] (both their effects on people and the circumstances of their retrieval) is usually treated with {{Mind Wipe}}s by the Foundation. However, one story posits that if amnesics sound like a convenient plot device to allow the Foundation to continue its work unhindered, it's because they are: the so-called memory wipes actually consist of a doctor {{Mind Rap|e}}ing people into fearing to tell about what they saw. Due to the LooseCanon nature of the SCP 'verse, whether this is true or not is up to the reader: given the level of tech exhibited in some cases, the Foundation could likely selectively remove memories.Â

* ''Manga/{{Ooku}}'' ultimately leans towards this trope by claiming the secret history of Japan and the Tokugawa Shogunate -- namely, [[{{Gendercide}} that a virulent strain of endemic Smallpox reduced Japan's men to less than 20% of the total population]] and [[{{Matriarchy}} caused women to rule the nation under male names for over 200 years]] -- was violently suppressed by the UsefulNotes/MeijiRestoration in order to hide the 'shame' of female rule. Â

* This is the premise of Franchise/MenInBlack: Aliens are living among us on modern-day Earth, and have been for decades, but it's all kept very quiet by the titular Men In Black.Â

** One example of this trope is found in [[http://www.scp-wiki.net/scp-5586 SCP-5586 ('Somnambular Shenanigans'), where it is revealed that the Apollo 17 mission to the Moon in 1972 was interrupted by the arrival of a sleepwalking human, who tried to gain access to the Lunar Roving Vehicle, and then dropped his pants, mooning the planet Earth. Naturally, NASA communications staff (and the astronauts themselves) were given amnestics to remove all memory of the incident.Â

So, nothing can happen in the present which would make the six o'clock news. If you want aliens to show up, they can't land on the White House lawn and ask to talk to the press corps; they have to do it in secret. If you want to have super advanced AppliedPhlebotinum, it has to be a top government (or industrial) secret, and can't be something you'd pick up at the local department store. If you want to have an ExtraordinarilyEmpoweredGirl, she needs to be sworn to keep her identity a secret.Â
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* ''Webcomic/TheInexplicableAdventuresOfBob:'' The world is full of all manner of weirdness, but most of it is hiding from humanity, or we're too dense to notice it, or some of both. [[BigfootSasquatchAndYeti Bigfeet]] exist, but live in caves, and ride [[{{Unicorn}} unicorns]] to hide their tracks (because bigfeet leave big tracks, but unicorns don't leave tracks). The [[StockNessMonster Loch Ness Monster]] is huge, but she's also functionally immortal, and has eons of experience hiding from anyone who might pester her. [[OurDragonsAreDifferent Dragons]] have been real for millions of years, but their bones are hollow and fossilize very poorly, and most of them left Earth for another planet ages ago anyway to avoid an otherwise inevitable race war with primitive humanity. [[AlienTropes Aliens]] exist, but mostly leave us alone and [[AlienNonInterferenceClause actively hide from us]] because Earth is a ''nature preserve'' and humans are considered part of the wildlife. The iridium layer marking the end of dinosaurs in the geological record [[PhlebotinumKilledTheDinosaurs isn't from an asteroid,]] but from an "iridium bomb" detonated by the above-mentioned dragons when the above-mentioned aliens botched their FirstContact. Our solar system has a ninth planet — the one the dragons went to live on, in fact — but they use advanced tech to actively hide the entire planet from our telescopes for the above mentioned reasons.Â
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* ''Webcomic/TheInexplicableAdventuresOfBob:'' The world is full of all manner of weirdness, but most of it is hiding from humanity, or we're too dense to notice it, or some of both. [[BigfootSasquatchAndYeti Bigfeet]] exist, but live in caves, and ride [[{{Unicorn}} unicorns]] to hide their tracks (because bigfeet leave big tracks, but unicorns don't leave tracks). The [[StockNessMonster Loch Ness Monster]] is huge, but she's also functionally immortal, and has eons of experience hiding from anyone who might pester her. [[OurDragonsAreDifferent Dragons]] have been real for millions of years, but their bones are hollow and fossilize very poorly, and most of them left Earth for another planet ages ago anyway to avoid an otherwise inevitable race war with primitive humanity. Aliens exist, but mostly leave us alone and [[AlienNonInterferenceClause actively hide from us]] because Earth is a ''nature preserve'' and humans are considered part of the wildlife. The iridium layer marking the end of dinosaurs in the geological record [[PhlebotinumKilledTheDinosaurs isn't from an asteroid,]] but from an "iridium bomb" detonated by the above-mentioned dragons when the above-mentioned aliens botched their FirstContact. Our solar system has a ninth planet — the one the dragons went to live on, in fact — but they use advanced tech to actively hide the entire planet from our telescopes for the above mentioned reasons.Â
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If your show is set in TheFuture, you get a lot more leeway, but you have to be careful when you talk about history. This tends to go [[TheGreatPoliticsMessUp horribly, horribly wrong]] when a show runs for a very long time and is rerun years later.Â
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According to this school of thought, if you want to do ScienceFiction in the present day without pushing the ResetButton, you ''must'' maintain "plausible deniability": it must be [[WillingSuspensionOfDisbelief possible for the audience to believe]] that the events depicted "really did" happen, and they just didn't hear about it.Â
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* In the ''Franchise/AssassinsCreed'' series, the Templars, an AncientConspiracy, have effectively controlled all of history. Although almost every important figure in history was a Templar (or a member of the rival Assassins), the Templar ensure that the history books never reveal any evidence of the ongoing SecretWar.Â