20 Facts About Historical Scandals That Rocked the World

During the 2006 Duke rape scandal, 88 professors at Duke put out a newspaper advertisement condemning the alleged rapists and Duke's culture of white male privilege before the trial had begun. The accused players were found not guilty and the 88 professors never apologized.

In 1972, there was a minor political scandal in Washington State when an assistant to then Governor Dan Evans posed as a college student to follow around his opponent during the campaign and report information back to the Governor. This assistant was Ted Bundy, the serial killer.

A Chinese food scandal resulted in some pork glowing blue in the darkness. The meat was soon dubbed “avatar-meat.” The Health Department experts said that the pork was contaminated with phosphorescent bacteria and that it was still safe to consume after cooking.

The 2008 Chinese milk scandal caused mistrust in local suppliers. It is estimated that up to 80% to 90% of infant formula along with other food materials and components were being adulterated with melamine which was purchased in Australia and destined for China.

The 1970's children’s book “Masquerade” held a real-life treasure hunt for an 18-carat golden rabbit that ended when somebody cheated to find it. The “winner” sought knowledge of the whereabouts of the golden hare from an ex-girlfriend of the author and illustrator of the book.

The Denver Police Department (DPD) caused the largest police scandal in US history in the 1960s. Nearly 50 members of DPD were part of a robbery racket, stealing from dozens of businesses they were assigned to protect. It was not discovered until a safe fell out of a police cruiser.

In 1976, a scandal arose in Sweden when author Astrid Lindgren's marginal tax rate had risen to 102%. This coined the term “Pomperipossa effect”, from a story she published in Expressen on 3 March 1976, entitled “Pomperipossa in Monismania”, attacking the government and its taxation policies. She nevertheless supported the Social Democratic Party responsible for the tax rate her whole life.

The “False positives” scandal were a series of murders in Columbia committed by members of the military, who lured mentally impaired civilians to remote parts of the country with offers of work, killed them and presented them to authorities as guerrillas killed in battle, in order to receive promotions and other bonuses.

Mark Whitacre was the corporate whistleblower who exposed the lysine price-fixing scandal in the 1990s. Wherever he traveled, the FBI arranged to have the same green lamp with a bugging device set up in every hotel room where he stayed and met with fellow executives. Whitacre noted that if there had been any female executives at these meetings, they probably would have spotted the same lamp, but none of the male executives ever seemed to notice.

There was a scandal in China in 2004 when a soy sauce manufacturer was discovered to be using human hair in the production of the sauce.