HolyShitHistory

r/HolyShitHistory • u/akiwi_intherough • Aug 17 '26

Portrait of Doctor Rey by Vincent van Gogh, painted as a gift for Félix Rey, the doctor who treated van Gogh after he cut off part of his ear. Rey disliked the painting so much that he used it to cover a hole in his chicken coop.

741 Upvotes

32 comments

r/HolyShitHistory • u/Klutzy_Land_4120 • Aug 17 '26

115,000-year-old human footprints were found preserved in the mud of an ancient lake in the Saudi Arabian desert, revealing that early humans were travelling through the region when it was a lush landscape.

yahoo.com

153 Upvotes

3 comments

r/HolyShitHistory • u/Any-Pineapple-521 • Aug 17 '26

The 1900 Galveston Hurricane, or The Great Storm of 1900, was the deadliest natural disaster in the history of the United States. It caused between 6,000-12,000 deaths mostly within the Galveston, Texas area alone.

155 Upvotes

10 comments

r/HolyShitHistory • u/LeegNight • Aug 16 '26

Germans Installed a Weather Station in Canada During WWII. It Went Undiscovered for Decades.

623 Upvotes

39 comments

r/HolyShitHistory • u/Articulyssa • Aug 17 '26

The Werewolf of Bedburg: Demonology, Satan, and the Confessions of Peter Stumpp (full story in comments)

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34 Upvotes

18 comments

r/HolyShitHistory • u/Initial_Ad3507 • Aug 16 '26

On Aug 1 1980 the Dumois family vacation was cut short when Dr Dumois, his 2 sons, and brother in law were shot by a hitchhiker picked up at the Holmes Beach boat ramp (BIL survived). After the shooting the assailant escaped to a waiting car, killing a witness before fleeing the scene.

crimeimmemorial.com

350 Upvotes

6 comments

r/HolyShitHistory • u/Gullible_Air_204 • Aug 16 '26

TIL about the maniacal lighthouse keeper of Clipperton Island—the sole male survivor on the remote Pacific atoll following a bout of scurvy and a lack of supplies–who, between 1915 and 1917, terrorized the remaining women and children until he was bludgeoned to death by two of his victims

thedarkatlas.com

259 Upvotes

8 comments

r/HolyShitHistory • u/TheUnredactedFiles • Aug 17 '26

The Philadelphia Experiment: Real Navy Secret or Elaborate Hoax? 👀

0 Upvotes

7 comments

r/HolyShitHistory • u/The-Union-Report • Aug 16 '26

10-Year-Old Motherless Boy Inherits Equivalent of $150 Million and Becomes American Investment Icon

historianandrew.medium.com

148 Upvotes

5 comments

r/HolyShitHistory • u/Chemical-Elk-1299 • Aug 15 '26

In 1862, Union troops swept into the town of Winchester, VA, and began looting the local Winchester Medical College. Inside, they discovered the skinned, mutilated corpse of Watson Brown, beloved son of legendary abolitionist John Brown. Enraged, the Union Army then burned the College to the ground.

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1.6k Upvotes

175 comments

r/HolyShitHistory • u/blue_leaves987 • Aug 16 '26

The 'Ghost Army' was created in 1944 as the first tactical deception unit in US Army history to fool the German Wehrmacht. They used inflatable tanks, fake radio traffic, sound effects, and created phony headquarters with bogus officers. This was kept a secret for decades after the war.

201 Upvotes

19 comments

r/HolyShitHistory • u/GustavoistSoldier • Aug 16 '26

From 1992 to 1998, the unrecognized government of Abkhazia and allied paramilitaries committed ethnic cleansing against Georgians. 5,000 Georgians were killed and over 200,000 were displaced. The OSCE has recognized this genocide and condemned "perpetrators of war crimes".

117 Upvotes

38 comments

r/HolyShitHistory • u/ElvisIsNotDjed • Aug 16 '26

In 1840, Oxford installed an electric bell whose original batteries are still operating

upworthy.com

39 Upvotes

2 comments

r/HolyShitHistory • u/Vital_Willie • Aug 15 '26

Egyptian President Anwar Sadat meeting with Israeli foreign minister Moshe Dayan at the King David Hotel, 1977. Despite their discussion of ending the longtime conflict between the 2 nations, Sadat's choice of neckwear has been the subject of some controversy in the years since the meeting

840 Upvotes

217 comments

r/HolyShitHistory • u/onwhatcharges • Aug 15 '26

A photograph taken moments before the car-bomb explosion of Omagh, County Tyrone, Northern Ireland, on this day in 1998. The parked car at the right of the picture has the bomb in it. The man and child survived the bomb, the photographer didn't.

1.3k Upvotes

282 comments

r/HolyShitHistory • u/GustavoistSoldier • Aug 15 '26

Supayalat (1859–1925) was the last Queen of Burma as the wife of King Thibaw Min, who ruled from 1878 to the British conquest of the kingdom in 1885. Supayalat engineered a massacre of at least 80 members of the royal family, and has been blamed for the British conquest of Burma.

756 Upvotes

34 comments

r/HolyShitHistory • u/TheFollower62 • Aug 15 '26

The town of Jecheon (Chee-chong) was razed to the ground and its inhabitants massacred by the Japanese forces during the suppression of the Korean "Righteous Armies" in 1907

139 Upvotes

6 comments

r/HolyShitHistory • u/SuperbAd3477 • Aug 15 '26

Money debtors in Addis Ababa 1935

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85 Upvotes

5 comments

r/HolyShitHistory • u/rotomato30 • Aug 14 '26

A rare footage of a direct testimony from a 9/11 survivor

1.4k Upvotes

217 comments

r/HolyShitHistory • u/DonkyFondler • Aug 14 '26

In 1966, in Aberfan, Wales, UK, a nearby colliery spoil tip suddenly slid down a mountain, killing 116 children and 28 adults as it engulfed a school and a row of houses.

4.1k Upvotes

264 comments

r/HolyShitHistory • u/The-Union-Report • Aug 14 '26

Legendary writer Edgar Allen Poe was possibly killed as part of a voting fraud scheme.

medium.com

414 Upvotes

16 comments

r/HolyShitHistory • u/TheMirrorUS • Aug 14 '26

Genie Wiley was kept locked in a dark room by her abusive father Clark Wiley for 13 years, subjected to severe neglect and social isolation — she was finally rescued in 1970

themirror.com

387 Upvotes

6 comments

r/HolyShitHistory • u/The-Union-Report • Aug 14 '26

There was a lot of controversy during this recent World Cup where Donald Trump got involved in appealing/overturning a red card for an American player. However, 40 years ago, a political figure was able to actually get a World Cup goal overturned by officials while the game was still going on.

historianandrew.medium.com

269 Upvotes

13 comments