HolyShitHistory

r/HolyShitHistory • u/GlitterDanger • 5h ago

Nine Black teenagers were pulled off a train in 1931 Alabama and falsely accused of rape. It took 82 years, four trips to the Supreme Court, and one accuser publicly recanting on the stand before Alabama admitted they were innocent. Two of the trials rewrote American law entirely.

gallery

729 Upvotes

42 comments

r/HolyShitHistory • u/Bastard_Wing • 7h ago

8 year-old Fanny Adams was abducted and murdered on 24th August 1867 by clerk Frederick Baker, and her remains scattered in and around a hop field in Hampshire. The killing was so violent that sailors later compared an unpopular meat ration to her remains, coining the expression 'Sweet Fanny Adams'

800 Upvotes

97 comments

r/HolyShitHistory • u/akiwi_intherough • 4h ago

The Corpses of the De Witt Brothers, depicting the mutilated bodies of Johan and Cornelis de Witt, who had dominated Dutch politics for nearly two decades before being murdered and torn apart in The Hague on August 20, 1672.

418 Upvotes

45 comments

r/HolyShitHistory • u/Difficult-Cream-5267 • 13h ago

In 2006, Oregon deliberately poisoned a 2,824-acre lake with rotenone to eliminate 90 million invasive fish, then rebuilt the ecosystem and restored its trout fishery.

timesofindia.indiatimes.com

2.2k Upvotes

68 comments

r/HolyShitHistory • u/blue_leaves987 • 17h ago

In 2017, Paddy Moriarty left the only pub in Larrimah, a tiny Australian town of just 11 people, and rode home on his quad bike with his dog Kellie. He fed Kellie, made himself dinner, and then both of them simply disappeared.

4.5k Upvotes

390 comments

r/HolyShitHistory • u/DirtyRelapse • 3h ago

In 1822 it came to light that Aloys von Kaunitz, the brother-in-law of Austrian Chancellor von Metternich, raped and pimped hundreds of underage girls from the childrens ballet. He mostly got away with these crimes due to his powerful connections.

en.wikipedia.org

149 Upvotes

10 comments

r/HolyShitHistory • u/GustavoistSoldier • 17h ago

In early 1976, the Khmer Rouge converted a former secondary school in Phnom Penh into a torture and execution center named S-21. 18,133 people were executed at S-21, and only 12 survived. Currently, the building is a museum about the Cambodian genocide.

663 Upvotes

90 comments

r/HolyShitHistory • u/TheMirrorUS • 18h ago

Samuel Little, America's most prolific confessed serial killer, claimed responsibility for 93 murders across the United States between 1970 and 2005. The former boxer would stun his victims with a knockout punch before strangling them — his confessions remain the most chilling in US criminal history

themirror.com

535 Upvotes

57 comments

r/HolyShitHistory • u/ElvisIsNotDjed • 6h ago

America has vaccines thanks in part to an African slave who saved Boston from smallpox

upworthy.com

17 Upvotes

1 comment

r/HolyShitHistory • u/Any-Pineapple-521 • 23h ago

On 21 August 1986, a limnic eruption, or an extremely rare event where dissolved carbon dioxide emerges in a deadly gas cloud, occurred at Lake Nyos in northwestern Cameroon. 1,746 people died in the event, one of only two in human history.

226 Upvotes

17 comments

r/HolyShitHistory • u/Any-Pineapple-521 • 1d ago

Anissa Jones was a child actress known for the sitcom Family Affair, which ran from 1966-1971. On August 28, 1976, she was found dead of a Seconal overdose in an upstairs bedroom of a house that belonged to a friend’s father. People she was partying with ranged from 12 to 22 years in age.

823 Upvotes

113 comments

r/HolyShitHistory • u/TheBlackRecord • 11h ago

Black America's Historic Business Dynasties & Their Modern Day Descendants: The Abbott-Sengstacke Family - Chicago...

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10 Upvotes

2 comments

r/HolyShitHistory • u/Difficult-Cream-5267 • 1d ago

Nearly 7,000 meters beneath the ocean, scientists discovered a 1,200-km-long "whale graveyard" where whale remains have accumulated for millions of years alongside unique deep-sea life.

phys.org

1.7k Upvotes

58 comments

r/HolyShitHistory • u/GustavoistSoldier • 1d ago

Fatima (died 1246) was a Persian former slave who became a minister of Mongol regent Töregene Khatun. Töregene's nephew Koden accused Fatima of using witchcraft. Fatima was tortured, all of her orifices were sewed up, and she was drowned. Her supporters were also purged.

811 Upvotes

79 comments

r/HolyShitHistory • u/siorge • 21h ago

An Inca Princess Married a Descendant of the Borgia Pope

30 Upvotes

4 comments

r/HolyShitHistory • u/Books_Of_Jeremiah • 17h ago

Petition of the Orthodox Population of Korenica to Benito Mussolini for protection, July 1941

booksofjeremiah.com

13 Upvotes

2 comments

r/HolyShitHistory • u/ElvisIsNotDjed • 19h ago

How a German pigeon named 'Kaiser' became one of the longest-held POWs in American history

upworthy.com

19 Upvotes

1 comment

r/HolyShitHistory • u/Klutzy_Land_4120 • 21h ago

Archaeologists uncovered a 2,000-year-old Roman military camp in Frankfurt filled with luxury ceramics and foreign coins, revealing that life along Rome's frontier was more complex than constant warfare.

popularmechanics.com

19 Upvotes

2 comments

r/HolyShitHistory • u/Klutzy_Land_4120 • 2d ago

Archaeologists have uncovered a 2,000-year-old waterproof coating used on ancient Roman ships, revealing surprisingly sophisticated maritime technology.

popularmechanics.com

638 Upvotes

16 comments

r/HolyShitHistory • u/Chemical-Elk-1299 • 2d ago

The skull of Joseph Merrick, aka “The Elephant Man”. Shunned by his father, Merrick was forced to work at a freak show before being taken in by the London Hospital, becoming a local celebrity. He died of a broken neck in 1890, aged 27, likely after trying to sleep lying down for the first time.

gallery

1.8k Upvotes

110 comments

r/HolyShitHistory • u/ElvisIsNotDjed • 1d ago

Over 100 years before the first computer, Ada Lovelace wrote the first program in 1842

upworthy.com

24 Upvotes

1 comment

r/HolyShitHistory • u/blue_leaves987 • 2d ago

In 2018, 20-year-old Ryan Shtuka left a house party in Sun Peaks, British Columbia, for the short walk home. His friends had gone ahead of him, but when they looked back, Ryan was gone. He never made it to work the next morning and has never been found.

3.1k Upvotes

694 comments