50 Chilling Facts About History’s Darkest Massacres

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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)

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)

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.


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11 The Great British Pet Massacre (1939)

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.


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16 The Rape of Nanking (1937)

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.


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21 The Sampit Conflict (2001)

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.


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1 COMMENT

  1. 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.”

    1
  2. 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.

    7
  3. 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.

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  4. 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.

    4
  5. 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.

    3
    • 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.

      1
  6. 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.

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  7. RE: Fact #19 (The Sand Creek Massacre (1864)) – I’ll never understand how anyone could do that to another living thing.

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    • 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.

      1
  8. 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.

    2
    • 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.

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  9. 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.

    2
  10. 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.

    2
  11. 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.

    8
  12. 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.

    3
  13. 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.

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  14. 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.

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  15. 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.

    2
    • 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.

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  16. 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.

    5
  17. 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.

    0
  18. 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.

    0
  19. 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.

    5
    • 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.

      1
  20. 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.

    3
  21. 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.

    6
  22. 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.

    3
  23. 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.

    2
  24. 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.

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  25. RE: Fact #36 (The Cambodian Massacres (1975-1979)) – People who wore glasses were seen as smart, so a lot of them were killed too.

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  26. 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.

    1
  27. 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.

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  28. 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.

    0

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