Massacres have marked some of the darkest chapters in human history, leaving behind scars that resonate through time. From well-known tragedies to lesser-acknowledged horrors, these events reveal the brutal realities of violence and conflict. In this article, we explore 50 chilling facts about history’s darkest massacres, shedding light on the lives lost and the impact these atrocities have had on the world.
1 The Wounded Knee Massacre (1890)
In 1890, the U.S. Army awarded 20 Medals of Honor, its highest and most prestigious military decoration, to soldiers for their actions during the Wounded Knee Massacre. On December 29, U.S. troops attacked and killed as many as 300 unarmed Lakota men, women, and children after the Sioux Indians peacefully surrendered while their land was being stolen.
2. Between 1975 and 1979, the Khmer Rouge massacred Cambodians of Chinese descent under the pretext that they “used to exploit the Cambodian people.” Despite these atrocities, the Chinese government did not protest and even provided at least 90% of Cambodia’s foreign aid during this period.
3. In 1915, during World War I, the Ottoman Empire rounded up and slaughtered over 1.5 million Armenians living within its territory. This atrocity, which occurred between 1915 and 1917, served as the basis for coining the term “genocide.”
4. In April 1942, during World War II, Japanese forces forced American and Filipino soldiers to march 96.6 km (60 miles) from Mariveles to San Fernando in the Philippines with little to no food or water while subjecting them to physical abuse. This brutal event, known as the “Bataan Death March,” followed the surrender of approximately 76,000 Allied troops after the Battle of Bataan.
5. On April 13, 1919, the British Imperial Army opened fire without warning on a peaceful gathering at Jallianwala Bagh in Amritsar (India), where people were protesting the colonial government’s inhumanities. Known as the Amritsar Incident, this massacre led to the deaths of thousands of unarmed men, women, and children.
6 The Cephalonia Massacre (1943)
In September 1943, during the Cephalonia massacre in World War II, German forces executed most of the surrendered Italian officers. They then forced 20 Italian sailors to carry the bodies out to sea on rafts, which they subsequently blew up with the sailors still on them.
7. In 1944, the Nazi forces massacred 642 people, including 247 children, in the French village of Oradour-sur-Glane. Unlike other Nazi massacre sites that were rebuilt or turned into monuments, the charred remains of this village remain untouched to this day.
8. In 1099, after the Crusaders captured Jerusalem during the First Crusade, they massacred both the Jewish and Muslim populations, including women and children. The slaughter was so extensive that Crusaders were reportedly wading through blood up to their ankles.
9. In 1970, during a peace rally of approximately 2,000 students protesting the Vietnam War at Kent State University in Ohio, National Guard soldiers opened fire on unarmed individuals. In just 13 seconds, the soldiers fired 67 rounds, resulting in the deaths of four students and the wounding of nine others, including one who suffered permanent paralysis. Some of the victims were not even involved in the rally. This tragic event became known as the Kent State Massacre.
10. In 1937, during the Italian occupation of Ethiopia, two men attempted to assassinate the Viceroy. In retaliation, the Italian army and civilians went on a killing spree. They burned down houses and killed an estimated 20% of Addis Ababa’s ethnic population, including Ethiopians sympathetic to their rule. To this day, Italy downplays this massacre.
11 The Great British Pet Massacre (1939)
In 1939, during the early days of World War II, Londoners voluntarily killed over 400,000 of their cats and dogs within a single month. This was done in preparation for the war with Nazi Germany to ease the strain on resources and due to fears of air raids.
12. In 1928, during a strike by banana workers employed by the United Fruit Company (now Chiquita) in Colombia, the U.S. government threatened military intervention if Colombia didn’t end the unrest. In response, the Colombian army opened fire on unarmed protesters, killing between 800 and 3,000 men, women, and children.
13. The famous “Red Wedding” episode of Game of Thrones was based on two historical Scottish events: the Black Dinner of 1440, when the Earl of Douglas and his brother were executed after being invited to dinner, and the Massacre of Glencoe in 1692, when 38 members of the MacDonald clan were killed by soldiers they had housed as guests.
14. In 1937, Dominican dictator Rafael Trujillo ordered the massacre of 20,000 to 35,000 Haitian migrants near the Dominican-Haitian border. Dominican soldiers identified Haitians by asking them to pronounce the word “perejil” (parsley) in Spanish, as Haitians often mispronounced it. Most victims were killed with machetes or bayonets to obscure military involvement.
15. In 215 A.D., Roman Emperor Caracalla ordered the massacre of prominent citizens in Alexandria, Egypt. This was in retaliation for a satire mocking his rise to power. Thousands were killed, and the city was plundered.
16 The Rape of Nanking (1937)
During the Rape of Nanking in 1937, two Japanese officers, Toshiaki Mukai and Tsuyoshi Noda, held a contest to be the first to kill 100 people with a sword. They tied thousands of civilians, wounded soldiers, the old and feeble, and refugees together and pushed them into a river. Then, they threw kerosene-soaked straw into the river, causing them all to burn to death. The death toll reached over 300,000. Both officers were later executed for war crimes.
17. In 1950, during the Korean War, South Korean forces executed 60,000 to 200,000 civilians accused of communist sympathies. The South Korean forces killed many of the victims, who had no connection to communism, in an effort to eliminate perceived threats.
18. On September 11, 1857, in Utah Territory, the Mormon militia and their Native American allies attacked a wagon train of emigrants traveling to California. They massacred 120 men, women, and children. Only 17 children under the age of seven were spared. The Mormons looted the victims’ belongings and sold them locally at auctions for profit.
19. In 1864, the Third Colorado Cavalry, under Colonel John Chivington, attacked a Cheyenne and Arapaho village at Sand Creek in southeastern Colorado. Despite the villagers waving white surrender flags, the soldiers killed hundreds, mainly women and children. They mutilated the victims’ bodies, taking trophies such as scalps and genitalia.
20. In 1221, the Mongols destroyed the city of Merv, located in present-day Turkmenistan. Once the largest city in the world, it was obliterated, and an estimated 700,000 to 1 million inhabitants were massacred.
15 Most Controversial & Costly Blunders in History
21 The Sampit Conflict (2001)
In 2001, during the Sampit Conflict, indigenous Dayak tribes in Indonesia reverted to headhunting practices, massacring and beheading hundreds of Madurese migrants in the city of Sampit. There were an estimated 500-1,000 deaths and 100-700 beheadings.
22. The Columbine massacre of 1999 was initially planned as a bombing. Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold planted bombs in their school, intending to kill hundreds of people, but the devices failed. They resorted to a shooting spree, killing 13 people and injuring 24 before taking their own lives.
23. In July 1837, the Ngatik Massacre took place on the atoll of Sapwuahfik in Micronesia for tortoise shells. Captain C. H. Hart and the crew of the trading cutter Lampton from Sydney, Australia, massacred almost the entire male population-about 50 Sapwuahfik men-while raiding the island for tortoiseshell. This massacre left a lasting cultural and linguistic impact on the region. Hart had hoped to raid what he believed was a large stash of tortoiseshell on the island.
24. On Election Day in 1920, the Ocoee Massacre occurred in Florida when an African American man attempted to vote. This triggered violent retaliation from white residents, leading to the deaths of 50-60 African Americans and the destruction of their homes and businesses.
25. During the Katyn Massacre of 1940, a Soviet NKVD executioner personally killed 7,000 Polish officers over 28 days. Working 10-hour shifts, he averaged one execution every three minutes. His actions accounted for nearly one-third of the estimated 22,000 victims of this atrocity.
RE: Fact #47 (The Stockholm Bloodbath (1520)) – “Your Majesty, we didn’t exactly mean *this* when we asked for satisfaction.”
“Yeah, well, I’m pretty satisfied.”
RE: Fact #14 (The Parsley Massacre (1937)) – Crazy, tragic stuff happened in Haiti: Between October 2nd and 8th, 1937, somewhere between 12,136 and 35,000 people were killed. FDR tried to get compensation, and they eventually paid $30 per victim, but survivors only got about two cents – the rest vanished thanks to the crooked Haitian government.
RE: Fact #22 (The Columbine Massacre (1999)) – One of their moms is giving TED Talks, playing the victim, saying she had no idea her son was like that.
RE: Fact #45 (Operation Meetinghouse (1945)) – Not many people get that we were totally prepared to wipe out their cities to avoid a ground war—nukes or no nukes. People were also screaming for nukes back during the Korean and Vietnam Wars; total destruction was the only way they saw to win. Seems like countries have forgotten how pointless invading and occupying other countries is these days.
RE: Fact #8 (The Jerusalem Massacre by the Crusaders (1099)) – Brutal stuff was pretty common in ancient and medieval wars, especially after a city fell. But the Jerusalem massacre might’ve been even worse.
Wow!
It wasn’t just random killing; they aimed to wipe out “pagan” beliefs and make it a totally Christian city.
Someone tried.
Wikipedia’s wrong about this. It had religious aspects, but it was mainly a strategic move.
The main sources say that three days after the siege ended, the leaders ordered all the hostages killed.
Why? A huge Egyptian army was on its way.
If they’d stayed, they would’ve been in big trouble. The city was damaged, they were low on supplies, and the locals could have easily helped the Egyptians. Their only chance was to attack the Egyptians.
They couldn’t leave troops behind to guard the city against a revolt, so they got rid of anyone who might cause trouble.
Brutal, definitely. Ruthless, absolutely. Did religion play a part? Sure.
Was it about getting rid of “infidels?” No, scholars don’t think so anymore.
I found this in Albert of Aachen’s *History of the Journey to Jerusalem*: “After they heard this advice, on the third day after the victory judgement was pronounced by the leaders and everyone seized weapons and surged forth for a wretched massacre of all the crowd of gentiles which was still left, bringing out some from fetters and beheading them, slaughtering others who were found throughout the city streets and districts, whom they had previously spared for the sake of money or human pity.”
This passage is important because it shows a few things:
* The killings weren’t just a random outburst. You can’t stay angry like that for three days straight.
* The leaders planned and decided to do it.
* Jews and Muslims had been spared earlier, for various reasons.
So why kill everyone? A big army was coming, and if the crusaders stayed in Jerusalem, they would have been wiped out. The city was wrecked, supplies were running low, and the local people would have helped the Egyptians. They couldn’t leave troops behind to defend the city while they marched away.
Bottom line? They cleared out potential rebels, then marched to the Battle of Ascalon.
Seriously, thanks for this! I always appreciate a fair take on history. The original post felt kinda trollish, though.
Wish I could upvote you more than once!
RE: Fact #5 (The Jallianwala Bagh Massacre (1919)) – I went there as a kid. It’s a small courtyard, walled in on three sides, with a tiny alleyway for getting in and out. The story goes that British soldiers blocked the alley, told everyone to leave, then just opened fire – the exit was right behind them. What really sticks with you are all the bullet holes in the walls and the well. It’s a deep well, you can’t even see the bottom. There’s a painted line about seven feet down, showing how high the bodies were piled when people jumped in to get away.
Whoa, that’s totally messed up.
Bodies were everywhere in the streets—people who’d jumped the walls but were already hurt bad, others dragged along by people trying to help, and kids and women… it was awful.
RE: Fact #19 (The Sand Creek Massacre (1864)) – I’ll never understand how anyone could do that to another living thing.
My ancestors were wiped out in a horrific attempt at genocide in 1864. Men, women, and children were murdered in southwest. They were starved and treated terribly in a prison camp far from their homes. Women traded sex for scraps of food to feed their kids—some were just raped. By 1868, we were allowed back, but only after the army burned everything to make us give up. They gave us a reservation and threatened to kill anyone who left. We survived. We’re still here. We’re still fighting.
RE: Fact #46 (Roman Losses in the Second Punic War (218-201 BC)) – Even after losing big at Cannae, they built a whole new army and actually won the war! People always talk about Roman discipline and how they adapted, but honestly, a huge reason was just their stubborn refusal to quit.
The Romans changed their approach. They picked Quintus Fabius Maximus Verrucosus to lead, and his plan was super simple: avoid fighting Hannibal. Hannibal was in enemy territory, short on supplies, and his army was mostly Spanish mercenaries. His goal was to make Rome look bad to its allies in Italy, hoping to turn them against Rome. If he couldn’t keep winning big battles, he couldn’t keep his army going.
Hannibal probably couldn’t attack Rome itself, so Rome just had to hang tight until he was worn out and had to go home. Fabius kept his armies near Rome but never let Hannibal get a good shot at them. He even burned everything in Hannibal’s path to keep him from getting food. Eventually, Hannibal’s mercenaries bailed because they couldn’t steal anything.
The wild part is they were already doing this *before* Cannae, but the senate fired Fabius because he wasn’t winning any battles. His replacement did exactly what Hannibal wanted—fought him—and got 50,000 Roman soldiers killed.
Rome kept losing until they finally won. That’s pretty typical for them, actually.
RE: Fact #2 (The Khmer Rouge Genocide of Chinese Cambodians (1975-1979)) – So now they’ve got Cambodia.
RE: Fact #3 (The Armenian Genocide (1915-1917)) – Crazy, right? Both world wars included genocide.
Both groups, Armenians and Jews, got unfairly blamed and accused of secretly working against their countries.
Fifth column? It’s basically a group of people secretly working against a bigger group. Looked it up myself, so figured I’d share.
RE: Fact #16 (The Rape of Nanking (1937)) – I can’t believe some historians actually try to deny the Rape of Nanking happened. It’s crazy.
RE: Fact #2 (The Khmer Rouge Genocide of Chinese Cambodians (1975-1979)) – Vietnam had to step in to finally stop the Khmer Rouge. They managed to defeat Pol Pot and get things back on track between the end of the Vietnam War and a later Chinese invasion, before having to fight off another attack.
Vietnam’s done really well, all things considered. And don’t forget, they beat back the Mongols too!
After Vietnam freed Cambodia, China’s army invaded northern Vietnam. They didn’t get far, though—just like the Mongols, they pulled back and claimed victory.
RE: Fact #47 (The Stockholm Bloodbath (1520)) – Archbishop Gustav Trolle wanted money for the wrecked Almarestäket fortress, and he wondered if Sten Sture the Younger and his crew were heretics. Using church law as his excuse, about 100 people were killed soon after, even though they’d been promised they’d be okay.
Religion and executions? Go figure.
Seriously, the Pope flipped out, and Gustav had to say sorry. This is way more about politics than religion; they’d have found *some* excuse, even if he hadn’t been accused of heresy. But still, he misused his power—screw Trolle.
Religion was just a smokescreen. He wasn’t actually worried about getting rid of heretics; it was all about politics.
RE: Fact #29 (Tulsa Race Massacre (1921)) – Less than a century ago, white folks were bombing Black cities from planes. So, it’s no wonder there’s still tension between the races in America, right? People are still alive who heard this firsthand from those who lived through it.
That kind of stuff really sticks with people, you know? It takes a long time to heal from something like that.
And let’s not forget, up until the 70s, Black people had to use separate bathrooms and were treated terribly in their own country.
It bugs me when I see people on factrepublic saying Black people should just “get over it.” Like, it’s not that simple! Things take time.
Cédric, I appreciate your compassion. Looking back at the history of the WORLD, I see entirely too much hatred, greed and senseless bloodshed. I’m way too old to be just learning of most of it recently. I’m born and raised in Oklahoma and have lived in Tulsa since my discharge from the military. Oklahoma History was a REQUIRED subject in highschool, yet the Tulsa Race Massacre was not in our books. In fact, I had lived here quite a while before I learned of it. And they’re still trying to like…kick it under the rug. So much senseless violence..
RE: Fact #8 (The Jerusalem Massacre by the Crusaders (1099)) – Everyone, men, women, and kids!
RE: Fact #49 (The Black War (1820s-1832)) – That sounds like genocide.
RE: Fact #47 (The Stockholm Bloodbath (1520)) – They call him Kristian Tyrann in Sweden, but a lot of Swedes wrongly think his Danish name is Christian den Gode. Actually, in Denmark, he’s just Christian II—no fancy title.
RE: Fact #39 (The Massacre of Kalavryta (1943)) – Lots of examples from across Europe show the “clean Wehrmacht” idea is just a myth. It wasn’t only the SS who committed crimes; plenty of ordinary Germans did terrible things too.
RE: Fact #20 (The Mongol Destruction of Merv (1221)) – Merv was a huge Silk Road city, maybe even the world’s biggest in the 1100s and 1200s. It wasn’t just about trade; it had a really cool arts and science scene. Then the Mongols showed up in 1221, and, well, things went really badly. It was never the same afterwards. Now, it’s just ruins, with archaeologists digging around.
Tolui, Genghis Khan’s son, laid siege to Merv for a week in April 1221. The city’s defenders fought back hard, even counterattacking, but eventually the Mongols broke through. There’s a big difference between a week-long fight and just opening the gates.
Mongols were pretty chill with cities that surrendered right away. But mess with them, even a little, and everyone—people *and* animals—was toast. That’s how they kept everyone scared.
Yeah, it was brutal. The Mongols were notorious for wiping everyone out if you fought back—who’d do that when they were clearly superior in every way?
Honestly, keeping the gates closed probably wouldn’t have changed anything. The Mongols would’ve surrounded the place, and then slaughtered everyone—either after breaking through or when the city gave up from starvation.
It totally would have. The cities that surrendered early usually made it. Merv held out for a week, and that’s why everyone died.
RE: Fact #7 (The Oradour-sur-Glane Massacre (1944)) – Just a few people survived, and tons of folks lost family. Women and children were trapped in the church and burned, while the men were taken to different spots, shot, and then the buildings were torched. My grandma grew up nearby – it’s super rural – and they saw the smoke but didn’t find out what happened until the next day.
I’m stoked this post got so much attention. Let’s make sure the victims of Oradour and the other destroyed villages are never forgotten. Never again.
That church description is seriously creepy; it’s like something straight out of the Rwandan Genocide. Gives me the chills.
This happened all across Belarus and Ukraine. Watch the Russian film, *Come and See*. They’d round everyone up in the village church, burn it down, and gun down anyone who ran. Seriously brutal stuff. Don’t forget this when you see them waving Nazi flags. Like the Holocaust wasn’t bad enough already.
The Nazis probably got the idea of burning churches full of people from the Turks, their old pals. They’d trap Armenians, Assyrians, and Greeks inside during mass and set the whole place on fire. The Turks also used trains to round up huge groups of people and ship them off to the Deir ez Zor desert, where hundreds of thousands had to walk to their deaths. The Nazis did the same thing.
RE: Fact #21 (The Sampit Conflict (2001)) – Crazy, low-res videos from the Sampit conflict were all over the Indonesian internet back in the early 2000s. Lots of live streams from that time even showed decapitated heads in the background, like they were just part of the scenery. It’s all gone now, unless you’re really into that sort of thing and want to hunt for it.
Best Gore and Liveleak are history, so a lot of those videos are gone too.
RE: Fact #13 (The Historical Inspiration for the Red Wedding) – The Battle of Blackwater was like the fall of Constantinople, with the whole chain-across-the-bay thing.
Were boom chains uncommon?
So it’s Istanbul, not Constantinople anymore. Why’d they change it? That’s none of our business, it’s up to the Turks.
Even old New York used to be New Amsterdam.
RE: Fact #45 (Operation Meetinghouse (1945)) – I heard Gen Curtis LeMay say that if the Allies lost, they’d have been tried for war crimes.
During WWII, we went after enemy soldiers – anyone, really. But we weren’t always picky about who we targeted. Both sides did terrible things. One time, our squadron got orders to attack a huge area in Germany – anything that moved was fair game. The goal? To scare the German people. Nobody asked us if this would actually work, or if it might just make them even angrier. We weren’t asked how we felt about it either. It was awful, but we all went ahead and did it. Refusing wasn’t an option. I remember thinking, “If we’re going to do stuff like this, we better be on the winning side.” That’s how I still feel about it.
RE: Fact #26 (The My Lai Massacre (1968)) – “We were just doing what we were told.”
A really unsettling thing from those military trials was that if a soldier was too dumb to realize an order was illegal, they couldn’t be held responsible for following it. That defense, which wouldn’t fly with the Nazis at Nuremberg, actually worked for most of the My Lai guys.
RE: Fact #9 (The Kent State Massacre (1970)) – Big thanks to Ken Burns’ Vietnam War documentary—it really lays out what was happening in America and Vietnam back then.
It’s a really great film that reflects modern times – it’s crazy how little things have changed! I’ve always wondered why some conservatives hate on protests for better rights. For the first time, a war and civil rights abuses were shown on mainstream TV, and people were mad at the protesters? It’s wild. Definitely watch it.
RE: Fact #7 (The Oradour-sur-Glane Massacre (1944)) – It was a total bloodbath. Women and children were trapped in the church, while the village was completely ransacked. The men were herded into barns, mowed down with machine guns, and then the barns were set on fire. Only six men got away, and one of those was later shot. A total of 190 men died.
Then, they went to the church, tossed in a firebomb, and mowed down the women and children trying to escape. 247 women and 205 kids were killed. The only survivor was Marguerite Rouffanche; she escaped and hid, but even then she and a few others were shot at. Six others, just biking through, were also killed.
RE: Fact #15 (Caracalla’s Massacre of Alexandria (AD 215)) – Whoa, hold on! Calling me a tyrant? That’s going way too far. I’m not going to stand for that.
People think you’re kind of a meanie.
I’d like to beat them up and eat their bones.
We don’t really know that much about a lot of Roman emperors, because the info we have comes from a few sources that might be unreliable. Was Caracalla a total jerk? Maybe, maybe not. Were the ancient historians just spreading rumors? Maybe, maybe not. Could be both. It’s the same deal with Caligula. The main source is Suetonius, who most historians now think was basically a gossip columnist. So, did Caligula really do all the wild stuff he’s famous for? We just don’t know.
RE: Fact #28 (Ugandan Doomsday Cult Massacre (2000)) – The cult leaders just went and killed over 900 of them.
Instead of refunds, they decided to give out the stuff they’d promised, but to a much smaller group of the people who’d complained first.
It’s like EA, but for end-of-the-world cults.
RE: Fact #10 (The Addis Ababa Massacre (1937)) – After the war, Hailie Selassie gave Italian soldiers and civilians a pass and told them to stay in Ethiopia—and there’s still an Italian community in Addis Ababa today! Some Italians were taken prisoner and sent to British Kenya, and some of them stayed there after the war, too. Their grandkids and great-grandkids are still living there.
I’m surprised so many Italians would stay in Ethiopia, given how many are prejudiced against other races. TIL.
I work with this Bengali woman, and she grew up in Italy. She said her family got treated really badly because of where they’re from.
RE: Fact #36 (The Cambodian Massacres (1975-1979)) – People who wore glasses were seen as smart, so a lot of them were killed too.
RE: Fact #37 (The Equatorial Guinea Christmas Eve Massacre (1975)) – Crazy, right? They got rid of him four years later, and his daughter’s still around, living in North Korea, believe it or not.
RE: Fact #17 (The Bodo League Massacre (1950)) – It’s a lot like what went down in Taiwan during the White Terror – after the KMT lost the civil war and took over the island. A brutal crackdown, with 18,000 people massacred and another 4,000 executed later.
RE: Fact #43 (Neanderthal Cannibalism (42,000 Years Ago)) – Man, reading that made me feel sorry for that Neanderthal family. It hit me that I was feeling sympathy for people who lived 42,000 years ago! They probably never dreamed anyone would care about them all this time later. And that got me thinking…even though I feel like a tiny speck in the grand scheme of things, maybe someone way down the line will know about me and connect with me as a person.
That’s just wild to me.
That’s kinda freaky, right? Imagine people 42,000 years from now watching internet porn from 2014. Maybe it’ll be a whole category, like “Nearly Prehistoric Porn.” Someone in 44014 could be getting off to the exact same stuff you did. And they’ll be all, “Whoa, I just felt lust for a woman who lived 42,000 years ago!”
Seriously, forget the porn – the classic movie collection is going to be insane! And a lot of them will be crystal-clear HD, no worries about them getting messed up.
You’re a strange dude, huh?
I’d way rather be forgotten than remembered for a gruesome death.
RE: Fact #35 (The Eunuch Massacre (1892)) – I’d have just given up, pretty much.
They wanted to see your testicles; they were checking if you’d been castrated.
RE: Fact #13 (The Historical Inspiration for the Red Wedding) – Try not to annoy the Scots.
RE: Fact #11 (The Great British Pet Massacre (1939)) – This is really heartbreaking.
It totally felt like mass panic. People were terrified and desperate to do something big to deal with the looming, unavoidable war.
RE: Fact #25 (The Katyn Massacre (1940)) – Stalin personally chose him to be the chief executioner. Creepy, right? Think about what kind of person that makes you.
Stalin was totally right. He probably got a kick out of it.
RE: Fact #12 (The Banana Massacre (1928)) – A century of loneliness
That was my first thought.
RE: Fact #21 (The Sampit Conflict (2001)) – Check out “In The Time Of Madness” for the full story—it’s crazy! The author says the Madurese really pushed them to the limit. And the Dayaks have a history of stopping hardline Muslims from getting a foothold in Kalimantan.
Indonesia was pretty much lawless between 1998 and 2004, with lots of different groups popping up trying to bring back the old aristocratic rulers as local bosses.
RE: Fact #34 (The Colfax Massacre (1873)) – I’m always surprised to learn that Republican and Democrat beliefs used to be the total opposite of what they are now.
RE: Fact #26 (The My Lai Massacre (1968)) – A friend of mine helped clean up after the fact, and it still bothers him. He hardly ever talks about it, only mentioning it once—during a search and rescue after a tornado that killed a bunch of people.
Terrible thing happened.
RE: Fact #29 (Tulsa Race Massacre (1921)) – After the massacre, people who stayed in Tulsa rebuilt a lot of the area within five years, even though some powerful white people tried to stop them.
RE: Fact #24 (The Ocoee Massacre (1920)) – Growing up near Ocoee, I really appreciate you finding and sharing this. That article was rough, but I have such warm memories of Ocoee in the 90s. Maybe this explains some things…
RE: Fact #48 (The California Genocide (1848-1870)) – Before anyone starts with the “get over it” nonsense, you’re missing the whole point. This is about remembering. We should at least remember what happened. And a real patriot knows their country’s history, good and bad, and works to make things right.
RE: Fact #35 (The Eunuch Massacre (1892)) – He wasn’t just some Han official; he was the top dog of the brand-new Imperial Guard and the empress’s brother.
The eunuchs tricked him into the palace with a fake letter from his sister. He walked right in and they chopped him up.
Then, these idiots figured throwing his head over the palace wall at his officers would scare them.
Seriously, this one event kicked off the Three Kingdoms War—a near century-long bloodbath that slashed China’s population from 56.5 million to 16 million. It took 400 years for the country to bounce back.
Calling him “Beloved Commander” is a bit much. Even Yuan Shao, He Jin’s closest buddy, was probably just using him to get ahead.
What was the reason the eunuchs offed him?
RE: Fact #25 (The Katyn Massacre (1940)) – One by one, getting really close. That’s gotta mess you up eventually.
There’s a point where your brain just hits its limit and the whole thing becomes automatic. After that, you can only take so much in before you zone out.
RE: Fact #10 (The Addis Ababa Massacre (1937)) – I lived in Ethiopia, but I only learned about that whole Addis Ababa Massacre thing from a book, “The Addis Ababa Massacre.”
This is awful. Being Italian, I’m shocked I never learned about this massacre. Our history lessons really need to cover Italian colonialism better.
What monsters.
RE: Fact #18 (The Mountain Meadows Massacre (1857)) – But hey, they were all stone-cold sober during the whole thing—that’s the key detail, I think.
RE: Fact #24 (The Ocoee Massacre (1920)) – What’s truly terrifying isn’t just the massacre itself, but how those in the community immediately blamed Perry for it, saying he caused it by challenging their messed-up ways.
RE: Fact #43 (Neanderthal Cannibalism (42,000 Years Ago)) – Let’s talk about three things: Just because bones are found in the same layer doesn’t mean they’re a family. It just means they ended up there around the same time. That doesn’t mean they were all put there at once, or even buried on purpose. One article suggests a cave collapse dropped remains and tools in together. So, the bones might have been spread out before, but the collapse put them in the same layer. Even though they arrived at the same time, that doesn’t mean they were buried together initially. Lots of bones show damage from predators; animals can do that to bodies. Think of the Taung Child – eagle talons on its skull! A factrepublic post overstated a study on their family ties. Only 25% showed genes from modern humans; maybe that’s hybridization, but we need more info, like testing for contamination. Same DNA doesn’t equal family. Neanderthals weren’t genetically diverse, so this might be a small group burying their dead in those caves over many years. The Sidron Neanderthals are related to ones found in Vindija Cave, some 35,000 years old. They didn’t have a huge population.
RE: Fact #32 (The Sack of Magdeburg (1631)) – Things would’ve been way different if Gustav Adolphus hadn’t bought the farm in that dumb cavalry charge.
RE: Fact #30 (The Zong Massacre (1781)) – Belle, the movie, showed the Zong massacre. It’s about Dido Elizabeth Belle, whose granddad was a top judge. His decision on that whole “insurance” thing really helped kickstart the end of slavery in Britain. A gorgeous painting shows Dido and her cousin Elizabeth.
RE: Fact #4 (The Bataan Death March (1942)) – Between walking 96.6km and 60 miles, I’d rather walk 60 miles. Who’d pick the bigger number?
RE: Fact #48 (The California Genocide (1848-1870)) – A.L. Kroeber got famous writing about the last Yahi, who called himself “Ishi,” meaning “man” in Yahi. Ishi couldn’t give Kroeber his real name—Yahi tradition said only other Yahi could introduce them to outsiders. When asked, Ishi would say he had no name because no one was around to give him one. Kroeber’s daughter was Ursula Le Guin, who wrote the Earthsea books.
When asked, he’d just say he didn’t have a name, ’cause nobody named him. That’s terrible.
I grew up near a Chumash community, learning all about their history. Then, as I got older and moved away, I saw things differently. It was a real eye-opener how much misinformation there was.
RE: Fact #9 (The Kent State Massacre (1970)) – Several guardsmen got charged, but everyone was cleared or the charges were dropped. Two people who died weren’t even protesting—Sandy Schuyer and Bill Schroeder were just walking through the parking lot on their way to class. Schroeder was even in ROTC.
A few days later, three Black students were shot at Jackson State. That started what we called the Days of Rage.
RE: Fact #49 (The Black War (1820s-1832)) – The Black War, a brutal fight between British settlers and Aboriginal Tasmanians from the mid-1820s to 1832, was basically a guerrilla war on both sides. It cost the lives of over 200 colonists and between 600 and 900 Aboriginal people – almost wiping out Tasmania’s Indigenous population. This near-total destruction, and the many massacres, has historians arguing whether it was genocide.
Things got really violent in the late 1820s, so Lieutenant-Governor George Arthur declared martial law – basically letting people kill Aboriginal people without facing legal consequences. Then, in late 1830, he launched a huge six-week military attack called the Black Line. 2200 soldiers and civilians formed a massive line stretching for hundreds of kilometers to force Aboriginal people off the settled land and onto the Tasman Peninsula, where they were meant to stay forever.
It sounds like they wanted to wipe them all out. Isn’t that genocide?
RE: Fact #11 (The Great British Pet Massacre (1939)) – They’d lived through World War I, so they really knew war was hell.
RE: Fact #31 (The Battle of Changping (260 BC)) – So, where did they get a million soldiers in 260 BC? And how on earth did they feed them all for two whole years?
RE: Fact #27 (The St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre (1572)) – Percentage-wise, it makes sense if there were far fewer Christians back then.
RE: Fact #4 (The Bataan Death March (1942)) – The Turks did that to Armenian women and children during the Armenian genocide, too.
Americans did that to Native Americans.
RE: Fact #23 (The Ngatik Massacre (1837)) – Just read the fact, and honestly, I learned zip today. What’s the deal with guys and tortoiseshells? Is it tortoise *guys*? And how’s that even related to language?
Come on, guys, let’s write better facts! Yeah, I could’ve clicked the factrepublic source, but I prefer to complain instead.
Me too, haha. “Ngatik massacre: island men wiped out, then repopulated by invaders—big cultural shift!” would have been a better title.
RE: Fact #20 (The Mongol Destruction of Merv (1221)) – The Mongols’ impact was so huge, the world would be totally different without them.
I read somewhere that they wiped out 10% of humanity.
It’s crazy to think that so many people died, it actually led to millions and millions of acres of farmland returning to nature and cooled the planet down. That was the first human-caused climate change event, and all they had were horses and bows – unbelievable!
If humans messed things up to begin with, it couldn’t have been the very first problem. Deforestation to create farmland was the original issue.
RE: Fact #17 (The Bodo League Massacre (1950)) – Crazy how big things can slip under the radar, huh? Makes you think about all the stuff we probably *never* hear about.
RE: Fact #22 (The Columbine Massacre (1999)) – It stopped us from hearing that whole “good guy with a bomb” nonsense.
RE: Fact #4 (The Bataan Death March (1942)) – I remember seeing that super famous photo of the Bataan Death March in all my old history textbooks.
Huh, I always figured everyone learned about the Bataan Death March in history class. I heard about it tons of times.
RE: Fact #6 (The Cephalonia Massacre (1943)) – The more I learn about Nazis, the more they seem like jerks.
RE: Fact #46 (Roman Losses in the Second Punic War (218-201 BC)) – Cannae was a brutal battle. Hannibal basically won it right away; once he’d surrounded the Romans, it was all over. His troops just systematically wiped out the Roman army. The Romans in the middle were trapped for hours, listening to their buddies die, waiting for their turn. Soldiers even killed themselves rather than face Hannibal’s men. Around 50,000 Roman soldiers died, while Hannibal only lost 6,000.
It nearly shattered Rome. Everyone was freaked out, totally clueless what to do. They consulted oracles, made tons of sacrifices – the whole nine yards. They even banned mourning for more than a month because almost everyone knew someone who’d been killed.
Then they lowered the age for soldiers and said, “Screw it, let’s build another army!”
Before Cannae, everyone thought you couldn’t surround a bigger army. Hannibal basically said, “screw that,” and did it.
RE: Fact #14 (The Parsley Massacre (1937)) – That’s a really sad example of how a little thing like a word or phrase can show who belongs to what group.
RE: Fact #33 (The 2006 China Dog Massacre) – They really don’t care about animals, and they’re becoming the most powerful country. Doesn’t look good for the future, huh?
RE: Fact #10 (The Addis Ababa Massacre (1937)) – Italy still brushes the massacre under the rug.
That’s a common thing with old empires.
Germany didn’t admit to the Namibian genocide until 2004, and finally paid some reparations in 2021. A lot of ethnic Germans in Namibia just think people should move on.
RE: Fact #23 (The Ngatik Massacre (1837)) – Those widows probably didn’t mind those “weddings” one bit.
RE: Fact #22 (The Columbine Massacre (1999)) – They had guns for a reason—to use them, not just in case the bombs failed.
Likely to kill people running away.
RE: Fact #41 (The Red Terror (1918)) – Yeah, going from an absolute monarchy to anything else is usually a bloodbath, and the Russian civil war was brutal even by those standards.
RE: Fact #35 (The Eunuch Massacre (1892)) – Huh, why the big shave focus? Shouldn’t they be paying attention to their privates?
RE: Fact #19 (The Sand Creek Massacre (1864)) – Check out the second one; it’s a letter from Captain Silas Soule about what happened. He was killed for testifying against Colonel John Chivington in federal court.
RE: Fact #33 (The 2006 China Dog Massacre) – It wasn’t the central Chinese government, it was the Yunan local government that made that call. The whole thing was awful, and got slammed by animal rights groups and the news. Thinking the central government ordered it is as wrong as saying the feds legalized weed just because some states did.
RE: Fact #1 (The Wounded Knee Massacre (1890)) – That was a common problem back then; most of those awards got taken away later.
The problem is, for ages the Medal of Honor was the *only* medal. So, a bunch of early MoHs would be lower medals today. Think 1523 in the Civil War, compared to just 471 in WWII.
RE: Fact #9 (The Kent State Massacre (1970)) – The day after the shootings, a Gallup Poll found most people (58%) blamed the students, a smaller number (11%) blamed the National Guard, and the rest weren’t sure.
I was a teenager in Ohio when the Kent State thing went down. There’d been big anti-war protests for days, and students even took over a building right before the shooting. My dad thought those kids got what they deserved. And about those old Gallup polls – remember, 18-year-olds couldn’t vote back in ’70. Nobody cared what we younger folks thought, making it easier for them to do what they did.
Seems like a lot of Americans these days.
Twenty-four students faced criminal charges, but the grand jury let the guardsmen off.
The courts sided with the guards, saying they were right to break up the crowd. First Amendment rights weren’t protected that day.
It’s mainly the sergeant’s fault, I think. Stories vary, but a lot of people believe he never actually ordered anyone to fire. He shot first, and then 28 other guardsmen followed suit. One trigger-happy sergeant started it all – shooting our own people. Credit to the guardsmen who didn’t fire; things could have been way worse if everyone had started shooting.
Makes you wonder what would have happened with a calmer, more disciplined sergeant in charge.
RE: Fact #5 (The Jallianwala Bagh Massacre (1919)) – Saw that Gandhi movie in fifth grade. Really hit me hard.
RE: Fact #11 (The Great British Pet Massacre (1939)) – Britain didn’t get rid of rationing until 1954, nine years after the war! Can you believe it? People only got one egg a week in 1940.
That book, *84 Charing Cross Road*, really showed me this. It threw me for a loop when I first read it, being an American.
That movie was awesome, so real and bittersweet—a real punch to the gut as you get older. You connect with people, time flies, and then bam—it’s over. Years go by without seeing each other. It’s so important to make an effort for the people you care about. Seriously, make time for those you really care about, even if life is crazy busy. A few months turn into years, then decades, and suddenly it’s 20 years later, and you haven’t seen them…then the next time you see them is at their funeral. Stay in touch—make the effort!
The movie’s really good, and it sticks pretty close to the book.
RE: Fact #30 (The Zong Massacre (1781)) – Insurance fraud, huh?
RE: Fact #46 (Roman Losses in the Second Punic War (218-201 BC)) – The Romans brought in a whole new religion to keep everyone happy about the war, which wasn’t very popular.
RE: Fact #38 (The Ludlow Massacre (1914)) – Hey, governments and big companies will always try to keep things the same, right? This just proves we’re basically cogs in their machine.
RE: Fact #5 (The Jallianwala Bagh Massacre (1919)) – Reginald Dyer, the guy who ordered the massacre, later said he probably could’ve scattered the crowd without shooting, but they would’ve just returned and mocked him, making him look silly.
RE: Fact #50 (The Rwandan Genocide (1994)) – Radio DJs warned people to be extra careful not to hurt pregnant women. That massacre was awful, even now, reading about it is still shocking.
It’s awful how the UN messed up handling those Hutu refugees in Zaire. That led to millions more deaths—5.4 million between 1996 and 2008—and it barely got any news coverage, even though the Second Congo War was the deadliest since World War II.
The Thousand Hills Radio crew were the only media people convicted of crimes against humanity since Julius Streicher back in ’46.
RE: Fact #7 (The Oradour-sur-Glane Massacre (1944)) – Went there last year. Creepy place, totally untouched since the massacre. Seeing those graves after walking around the village was heartbreaking.
Been there. Total crickets.
RE: Fact #28 (Ugandan Doomsday Cult Massacre (2000)) – This Kickstarter totally sucks.