31 Largely Unknown But Devastating Historical Events

‘The Tenerife airport disaster in 1977’
31 Largely Unknown But Devastating Historical Events
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Would it probably be good for the population to know about all of history’s atrocities? Sure. Unfortunately, thanks to the depths of our own depravity, learning about every horrible thing that’s happened simply takes too much time. So, some disasters get left on the back burner.

Thankfully, Redditors are here to flesh out our full knowledge of the worst bits of history. In an AskReddit thread, they collected some of the most devastating events from the past that, for whatever reason, don’t often make the syllabus. 

Read on to further lose faith in humanity’s inherent goodness!

captfaramir 4y ago Obligatory Not a historian but I'm in college studying history. The Year of Living Dangerously in Indonesia in 1965-66 saw absolute chaos and still has a marked effect on their society. It is possibly one of the largest mass killings of the last century and I had heard nothing about it ever, living in the West. It's hard to say how many people actually died, but estimates range from 100k to 300k, and even on up to 500k or a million dead.
HeyWaitHUHWhat 4y ago The Victoria hall disaster. All because kids were being kids in a death trap: The disaster started when about 1,000 children in the audience of a variety show were told they could get free toys. Kids began pouring down the aisles to get the toys, blocking the exits and piling on top of one another. In the end, 183 of them were crushed to death.
Dyne4R 4y ago The Carrington Event In 1859, solar flares hit the earth causing an aurora borealis effect to be seen all over the world. It lasted for several days, during which time it was reportedly bright enough to read by at midnight. Telegraph operators reported receiving shocks and burns from the devices, and in some cases removed the batteries powering the telegraphs, as signals were being disrupted by the geomagnetic storm. After removing the batteries, the telegraphs still operated, in some cases better than they had when powered. It wasn't particularly devastating at the time, but it's estimated that
-theRedPanda- 4y ago G Edited 4y ago The Andijan Massacre of 2005 in Uzbekistan. It is largest mass shooting in Asia since Tianmen Square, with over one thousand killed and even more wounded. The Uzbek government forcefully silenced reform protests by firing into the crowd and then kicked out 90% of westerners in the country when the US gov and UN tried to investigate. Terrible loss of life that rarely gets remembered because the Uzbek government tried so hard to cover it up.
TrentonTallywacker . 4y ago . Edited 4y ago This is fairly recent (started in 1998 and ended in 2003) but The Second Congo War. It's the deadliest conflict since WW2 with about 5.4 million deaths a vast majority of them due to malnutrition and disease
SenorBeef . 4y ago Baghdad used to be one of the biggest and most vibrant cities in the world in the 1200s. Until the Mongols came. Baghdad did not recover its year 1200 population until the 1980s.
Total_Dick_Move . 4y ago I'm always amazed that people know so little about Pol Pot and Cambodia. His regime killed 25% of its population. Let that sink in - one in four. If you were educated, you were first killed.
Ludendorff 4y ago The Johnstown Flood of 1889. The deadliest civil engineering disaster on US soil, it killed 2209 people. After a dam collapsed it swept up rail cars, passengers, trees, an entire town of 10,000, then swirled it around and ejected the debris downriver into a bridge where it all caught fire. Destruction beyond belief, and all so that some rich steel magnates up the mountain didn't maintain the dam they used to keep their fishing reservoir.
. 4y ago Cambodian Genocide. They killed so many kids that the life expectancy was 18
LiteracylzGrate 4y ago The year 536 marked the beginning of a very bad time_period. Basically several natural disasters and social upheaval obso-fucking-lutely devastated multiple societies. It's thought that a volcanic eruption blocked out enough sun to cause crop failures across Europe and as far as China. While this was happening terrible plagues were also afflicting the Middle East. Economies everywhere fell to ruin and stagnation in the years that followed because several other eruptions later made things worse.
oswan 4y ago Taiping Heavenly Kingdom of Hong Xiuquan. Put simply, it was an upsurp Kingdom in 1850's China that directly and indirectly led to the deaths of millions (maybe ten million+) of people through massacre and famine. Hong Xiuquan believed he was the younger brother of Jesus Christ and pursuaded enough people to follow along and start a civil war. Check out Gods Chinese Son by Jonathan Spence.
pepperjones926 4y ago Edited 4y ago I'd talked about this on a similar prompt a month or so ago, but I think people should know about this event, so I'm copying and pasting it again here. The New London School Explosion. On the afternoon of March 18, 1937, the shop teacher at the school in New London, TX turned on an electric sander. Unbeknownst to him, there was a massive natural gas leak under the school. The sander sparked, which ignited the gas and caused a massive explosion that killed almost 300 students and teachers. It was absolutely horrific. The
etoiles-du-nord 4y ago Edited 4y ago One thing that doesn't get talked about was more of a phenomenon or major problem than event, and that was how many people died in theater fires due to poor design, combustible materials, few fire exits, and panic. One of the worst was the Iroquois Theater in Chicago (1903), which is both the deadliest theater fire and the deadliest single-building fire in US history where patrons died after sparks from an arc light set a curtain on fire, then a chain reaction started, exacerbated by failures of the things in place that were supposed
Useful-Craft2754 4y ago | was fascinated with the story of the Osage Indians in the United States! The book killers of the flower moon is an excellent book detailing what happened. Basically they got sent to Oklahoma and found huge oil reserves on their land. They were rich and hired white people as servants which didn't go over well. People tried to marry in to get part of the riches. There were tons of murders and the investigation led to the creation of the FBI in the United States.
TheMidnightScorpion 4y ago Edited 4y ago PRODUCT VINCIT Galveston, Texas was once considered to be one of the most important commercial ports in the United States and was referred to by several fantastical names such as the Queen City of the Gulf and the Wallstreet of the West. All that changed when it suffered a near-direct hit from a devastating Category 4 Hurricane in 1900, the deadliest natural disaster in American history. Pretty much the entire city was destroyed by a storm surge and anywhere from 8,000 to 12,000 people died. Galveston was rebuilt but it never truly regained its
pm me in ur comfies a 4y ago The bronze age collapse. Arguably more devastating than the fall of the west roman empire. So much knowledge lost. Truly one of histories great mysteries. I recommend reading up on it. It's really interesting.
MissSara101 4y ago Edited 4y ago In 535, humans went through hell. Many reported a strange color in the skies, not just in Europe... A dense, dry fog was also reported in Asia and the Middle East. Even the regions, now known as the Americas, weren't spared... e.g. drought in Peru. Temperatures were rather low in some places... it snowed either in the summertime. One survivor, a Roman politician named Cassiodorus, explained about the bluish sun and no shadows being cast, even in the noon. It has been hypothesized that Iceland holds the reason for the events between the years
notthesedays 4y ago We talk a lot about Columbine and Sandy Hook, but few people nowadays remember the 1927 bombing of the school in Bath, Michigan, or the explosion of a school in New London, Texas in 1937 that in addition to killing almost 300 people, launched the career of a cub reporter named Walter Cronkite. The Bath Massacre was mostly done with dynamite, wired into the school by a disgruntled janitor who also killed his wife and some of his livestock, and the New London disaster is why natural gas, which is odorless, has an unpleasant-smelling gas added to
SteveRalph . 4y ago Edited 4y ago Ten Tragic Days during the Mexican Revolution. US ambassador Henry Lane Wilson conspired with the nephew of the former Mexican president and Mexican army general in the US embassy in Mexico City to assassinate the newly elected president of Mexico. Absolutely wild and tragic assassination that shook Mexico in 1913.
landergoose 4y ago Pakistan's Genocide of Bengalis (now Bangladesh) in 1971. Estimation of people killed 200k to 3 million Bengalis, and about 200k to 400k Bengali women were raped. Pakistan still denies the genocide, and hardly anyone talks about it.
Yeeterskewter . 4y ago The Tenerife airport disaster in 1977. I just learned about it yesterday-almost 600 people were killed in the worst airplane disaster in history. It's crazy, what happened.
PsychologicalStill14 9 4y ago Also not a historian, but learning about the Beslan school siege in Russia was heartbreaking. As kids were settling down for the first day of the class, the school was attacked by Chechen terrorists. | think over 300 people, half of whom were kids, died over the course of three days.
suitcasedreaming 4y ago The Sand Creek Massacre. US Troops slaughtered an unprotected village, which was flying the white flag of surrender at the time and full of women and children, murdering at least 150, possibly many more of them, almost unspeakably brutally. The victims were Southern Cheyenne who had already ceded their territory in compliance with the US government and had relocated to Sand Creek under US military orders. At the time of the attack, the encampment was flying both the American Flag and the White Flag of surrender.
Wooden_Muffin_9880 4y ago Edited 4y ago Vietnamese boat people. Absolutely crazy and literally can't believe this happened. And nobody fucking ever talks about it. Think about this, it's the Vietnam war, and you are Vietnamese and obviously want nothing to do with it. Many saw their only way out was by sea, due to tensions with neighboring countries. So hordes of people tried to escape the country in little boats. Now here's the kicker, it's estimated that up to 400,000 of them drowned. Most of the women got raped by pirates as well. Everything got stolen. People got sick and
CrustyTowel 4y ago The Khodynka tragedy. Was supposed to be a celebration of the crowning of Nicholas II as emperor. Around 500,000 people gathered in a field where they would receive free food. Rumors spread that there wouldn't be enough food for everyone leading to a panic and everyone rushing the field. 1,389 people were trampled to death. Nicholas II responded by going to a party that night.
willflameboy 4y ago Edited 4y ago The Paddle Steamer PS General Slocum, that caught fire and sank in the East River in 1904. More than a thousand German Americans died in the accident, and it was considered the NYC's biggest disaster until 9/11. Up until that point, the city had had a thriving German community, but that single event almost completely destroyed an entire Lutheran church congregation, comprised of many of the city's most influential citizens. Maybe not an event 'no one talks about', as it's been lamented many times, but certainly a tragic date of historic note.
. 4y ago Bronze Age Collapse is the biggest one, Treblinka gets overshadowed by Auswitchz a lot, and the actual detailed description of the devastation of the American Indian Wars
GrypsTwo . 4y ago With 2k+ comments I don't think anyone will see it, but the genocide in East Timor by the Indonesian army. Numbers comparable to the Khmers, but it received zero press attention. Kissinger is known to have turned a blind eye on the ethnic/religious killings со get closer to the Indonesians during the Cold War due to its strategic placement.
Vic_Hedges 4y ago The disease outbreaks that hit the Americas with the arrival of the Europeans. You hear about a 90% death rate and it sounds made up, but whatever the actual number was, entire civilizations were literally wiped out. Cultures that had existed for thousands of years are just gone, with barely a record left. You have stories of people coming across whole villages of corpses. These people died never even having seen the Europeans, never knowing what was killing them and their loved ones and totally helpless to do anything about it.
daphne_dysarte 4y ago Edited 4y ago Leprosy colonies of Hawaii. People who were diagnosed with leprosy were forcibly banished to Kalaupapa to live out the rest of their lives - they were dug graves, had to stand in them, while their families and friends basically had a living funeral for them where they had the dirt thrown on them; they were then pronounced dead to the world and no longer part of the community. This continued through 1969 even after Hawaii officially became a state.
billyandteddy 4y ago The Sixties Scoop. In Canada, from the late 1950s to 1980s, the government removed indigenous children from their homes and families and placed them up for adoption or in foster care. Most remained in Canada but some were sent to the US or western Europe. The majority were placed with white middle class families. A number of them experienced abuse. This even furthered the loss of their culture.

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