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40 Historical Events That Are So Interesting People Read And Look Up Everything They Can About Them
History is a fascinating subject. The history of us humans spans over 300,000 years, and it's been marked by victories, tragedies, and all other kinds of drama.
But history happens all over the world, and some events capture the interest of history buffs more than others. Recently, enthusiasts shared their fixations after one netizen asked: "What is the one event in history you're obsessed with and can't stop researching?"
The answers ranged from events in 16th century England to the present decade. So, if you're prone to going the rabbit hole of history, be warned: the entries in this thread might cause an involuntary obsession.
This post may include affiliate links.
#1
The persecution and extermination of native Americans, and the annexation of their lands by the US government. Probably the most shameful chapter of US history and most people don't even know about it.
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#2
The Bronze Age Collapse.
Around 1200 BC, every sophisticated culture around the Mediterrean fell apart. The Greeks, the Hittites, the Phoenicians, the Egyptians, everyone. They were either completely wiped out or decimated to the point where it would take centuries to recover.
No one knows exactly what happened, but there are vague references to "sea people" and famines and droughts. The Iliad and the Exodus may both be a twisted race memory of this event.
Pferdchen 1 month ago
1177: The Year Civilization Ended has a compelling explanation for the collapse. It's kind of crazy imagining that Israel, Judea, Judaism, Christianity and Islam might never have developed if not for the climate change / drought associated with the collapse. Then, if you stop and think about it, much of the Bible is essentially about climate change - the flood, Abraham leaving Ur, why the Canaanites were in Goshen, the Exodus, etc., etc. It has been many decades since I've read the Bible but lately I've been thinking it would be an interesting read with this (for me) new perspective.
#3
The last Russian royal family— Nicholas, Alexandra, Olga, Tatiana, Maria, Anastasia and Alexis. From incredible privilege to violent extinction, they were a loving but tragic family overtaken by extraordinary circumstances. There are so many family photos, written accounts (including their own letters) and official portraits to view, you really get a sense of them as people. I started reading about them in the 80s, long before their remains were found. It was one of the biggest historical mysteries back then. I always wonder why Nicholas didn’t at least get the girls out while there was still a chance.
XenoMurph 1 month ago
The signs were that they were going to be able to go into exile. He probably thought his family were safer with him. He was an arrogant man, and thought his life was of value to the revolutionaries. The revolutionaries were not a single entity, so there was confusion, and the deaths were not decided until it was already too late to escape.
It's nice to learn something new about history. If not for your own amusement and interest, then to learn more about certain events and perhaps even debunk widely-believed stories. After all, being be able to wag your finger at other people and say: "Um, actually..." can be pretty satisfying.
For example, did you know that Marie Antoinette never said, "Let them eat cake"? This one fun historical fact might've gotten lost in translation. What she actually said was "Qu'ils mangent de la brioche," which translates to "Let them eat brioche."
While we may not think brioche to be that bougee nowadays, back in those days, it was considered to be a luxury food as it contained butter and eggs.
#4
The Chernobyl Explosion.
AlterEdward:
Yeah, I find this so fascinating. It's got a bit of everything - corruption, technology, tragedy, heroism, conspiracy. And the concept of radiation as an invisible, silent k****r is so creepy. There are so many echoes of paranormal and mythological threats - to people that don't know any better, radiation poisoning sure does look like a curse, or a dieties wrath.
#5
Might be a little too recent but January 6th and the massive parade of fraud and incompetence that lead to it and followed it.
I have no idea why it’s not a bigger deal to the average American. Also I can’t help but wonder what would have happened or where we’d be if one Democrat failed to evacuate.
Johnnynatfan 1 month ago
Its not a big deal to a lot of Americans because Republicans have spent the past 4 years rewriting history and unfortunately it has worked on part of the population. Now some a*****e Republican wants to make Jan 6th a holiday. They are a f*****g joke.
What's more, no one might've said, "Let them eat cake" at all. This anecdote appears in Jean-Jacques Rousseau's Confessions, and Marie Antoinette was still a child when the book came out. Rousseau recounts that "a great princess" uttered the phrase, but historians don't know who that was exactly.
Some speculate that revolutionaries, whom Rousseau greatly inspired, picked up this quote and falsely attributed it to Marie Antoinette. Yet contemporary researchers disagree, as there was never any actual evidence in newspapers, pamphlets, or any other revolutionary-published materials.
#7
As an ExMormon, Mormonism. I can’t believe how incorrect I was about what I claimed to believe for three decades.
#8
Krakatoa eruption.. absolutely huge. One of the loudest sounds ever heard, massive Tsunamis, ash filled the sky around the world for years causing red sunsets and darkness. Global temperatures dropped.
#9
The disappearance of the Roanoake colony.
Delaneybuffett:
I just watched some history clips on YouTube saying they have solved what happened to the colony. I want to read up to see if what they say is true. They said the colony basically split up, part combined with a local Indian tribe on Croatoan island ( which is now known as Hatteras. Other members went inland. Supposedly they have found pottery and skeletal remains to confirm these theories. Again, not saying it’s 100% solved just interesting and something I want to read more on
When we think of Salem, the burning of witches probably comes to mind, right? However, during the infamous Salem Witch Trials in 1692, no people were actually burned at the stake. That only happened in Europe during the medieval ages. In Salem, they didn't burn the witches at the stake, but hanged them instead.
#10
The story of the Uruguayan rugby team that crashed in the Andes and was stuck there for 2 months. The details are mind boggling.
#11
Marburg virus originating from Kitum Cave in Kenya. 90% mortality rate virus you can just get from visiting a cave. Scary and intriguing.
Florian Vient 1 month ago
Eugene Johnson, a civilian virus hunter working for the United States Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID), organized an expedition to Kitum Cave in 1988. The U.S.-Kenyan mission consisted of 35 members and also employed sentinel animals, guinea pigs and monkeys, placed in the cave to reveal the possible presence of the virus; some cages were placed directly under the bat colony. The expedition was a failure: none of the blood or biological tissue samples collected showed the presence of the virus; the samples also did not react to the Marburg virus antibody test; the sentinel animals, stationed in the cave, remained healthy. A search for a possible reservoir continued until 2007, when it was proven that a bat was naturally carrying the virus.
#12
Did some research on the history of snowmen after I learned that the earliest recorded piece regarding snowmen was from 1380, and I absolutely LOVE that it's something that has continued and evolved with time. It's such a cool little piece of history that you don't think too much about, but has brought so much joy to people for hundreds of years.
Befor the 1950s, snowmen were more often on the elaborate side, created by artists as art for art's sake, but also used for things like protesting (like the miracle of 1511). The man who sculpted Abraham Lincoln's tomb created a stunning snow and ice statue in 1857 that became very famous. Art supplies have always been very difficult for many people to acquire through history and artists used whatever they could to create their art, and snow was something that was easily accessible for many, so it was its own special medium for awesome sculptures that people had access to, regardless of income or status. It wasn't until the 1940s that snowmen became an activity that children took part in, and we have Ruth Herman's book Snowy The Traveling Snowman to thank for what the western world now recognizes as a snowman.
Snow sculptures obviously didn't last and people often put so much work and time into them regardless, and I feel like that is such a wonderful and human thing. The urge to create something special, even if it won't last long.
Yet the hangings were just as horrible as the myth. Dr. John Howard Smith, a history professor at Texas A&M University-Commerce, goes into more detail: "The hangings didn't go as you see in films either – with a platform and a trap door."
"They turned victims off a ladder, so they slowly strangled to death. They didn't break their necks and have 'lights out' like it happened in later hangings," the professor explained.
#13
The Christmas Truce in WW1. There is something so beautiful about it. Ignore what happened the next day.
#14
Joan of Arc, and in general these young saint girls from the middle ages who claimed they talked to god. But Joan especially. Her story is beyond belief and we know so much because much of the documentation remained.
This f*****g 17 year old peasant girl went to see Charles VII, dauphin of France, to tell him that God sent her and that alone seems like a big deal but isn't (plenty of girls claimed to be inspired by God then); the big deal is she told him God sent her not to bless him, but to lead his army to break the siege of Orleans and then drive him to be crowned King of France.
This is not fiction or exaggeration, is precisely what happened (and through no small risk or pain for herself, cause when at home she insisted with her parents that she needed to go join the army, her father assumed she would end up a camp prostitute, and to avoid the shame, he considered drowning her).
Now imagine a 17 year old girl today going to Volodymir Zelensky and telling him "hey buddy, God says you need to make me commander in chief of your troops; I'll take care of the rest". That's what happened.
Except it was 1429 and back then this s**t was taken seriously. Charles VII was no idiot, he thought: "maybe this girl is just nuts". Here's the issue though, that would never cross our mind today, but it absolutely did in 1429: "What if she's not nuts?"
So what do we do? We test her. So Charles sends her to be examined by priests and general wise men. Who conclude three things: 1. Joan is not crazy. 2. Joan is a good catholic and 3. Joan is virgin (and that's a big deal)
"F**k it", says Charles, he gives armor, a weapon, a horse, a banner. And an army. It's still unclear how this 17 year old girl who barely ate was going around in platemail, but she was. And the b***h rides to Orleans, breaks the siege as promised, but not before sending to the english the most f*****g badass letter of warning ever which I encourage you to read but says (and I paraphrase, but not by much): "King of England, pull back your troops and leave, because I am a war leader and I am sent by God; and as long as your troops leave I will show mercy, but if they do not I will wipe the f**k out of them wherever I see them".
And all of this is the LEAST known part of her story since her trial by the I*********n is the most well known. Trial in which they have a hard time accusing her of anything because despite an i*********n tribunal entirely bent on burning her at stake (on orders from the english and with the tacit approval of the french who betrayed her), for whatever reason this peasant girl who we cannot tell for sure if she can even read is able to avoid all the rhetorical traps in which they try to lure her. She handles herself so well in looking like a good catholic that the only way they manage to condemn her is because she dresses like a man (immoral and heretic, for the time).
Even so, the way the i*********n work is not that they just condemn you and burn you; you always have the possibility to admit your guilt, recant and be freed (as long as you don't commit the same sin you recanted, in that case you go straight in the fire).
Joan is shown the pyre as a threat, and she decides to recant. She asks and receives forgiveness and should be freed, as long as she stops wearing men's clothes.
So what happens? We don't know. She is found dressed like a man in her cell again. A theory is she is threatened by the guards of r**e and she feels safer dressed like that; she should be, after all, prisoner of the church and guarded by priests but she is (against i*********n rules) in military custody. Maybe they just left her men's clothes and she naively wore them. Whatever the case, they get her and she burns. It's said that in later years, as her legend endured and grew, her executioner went desperate that he'd go to hell for having k**led a holy woman.
#15
Tudors, specifically Anne Boleyn and other Tudor women.
Auntriarch 1 month ago
I'm going on an Anne Boleyn trip this month! Really looking forward to it
But what are your recent history obsessions, Pandas? Don't hesitate to share them with us in the comments and potentially inspire other Pandas to find their new fixations! And, if you're looking for more interesting facts about history, check out our previous post here, here, and here!
#16
Hiroshima. I visited there a few weeks ago and as an American, it feels odd going to a place like that. The Peace Park Memorial is beautiful and heartbreaking all at once.
#17
The Dance Epidemic. What was thaaat?!
FawkMyLyfe420:
The dancing plague of 1518, or dance epidemic of 1518 was apparently a case of dancing mania that occurred in Strasbourg, Alsace [now modern-day France] in the Holy Roman Empire from July 1518 to September 1518. Apparently somewhere between 50 and 400 people took to dancing for weeks. There's too many theories behind what happened and the most popular one is a stress-induced mass hysteria... Other theories include ergot and there's a lot of controversy about how many deaths there actually were.
#19
The Maya and other Meso or South American cultures. Always new and interesting things being discovered. The event I used to be obsessed with was the "disappearance" of the Maya... except they didn't disappear and there are millions of Maya alive today, big misconception.
I really like the work of Ed Barnhart after seeing a few of his series on The Great Courses.
Wired Tech Support
He also has a fun Podcast called ArchaeoED.
Rachel Pelz 1 month ago
Archeology using pictures from the air is so very amazing. Like, uh, some more huge overgrown pyramids nobody had noticed before.
#20
The 2008 recession. Everything about that era explains , LIKE A MAP, how we got to this point in US history. I am obsessed with it.
#22
Anything involving the CIA overthrowing some s**t that was absolutely not their business. Banana Republics especially are just crazy to me. That whole section of history was not that long ago and was absolutely skipped over in my history classes at least. To me, it highlights the danger of letting big business get too powerful and turning capitalism into dictatorship.
Rachel Pelz 1 month ago
Lumumba. Never learnt about him at school. Maybe not just CIA, but that take on democracy. Nobody will ever know what might have become of DR Congo with all its natural ressources.
#23
Titanic.
RomanceRadish 1 month ago
I'm horrified when I see kids' bouncy inflatable slides shaped like a sinking Titanic. It was a tragedy, not a topic for playtime!
#25
The Vietnam War for me. My dad was there. He’s told me things, but watching these documentaries is just mind blowing to me.
#26
The lobotomy as a medical procedure.
#27
It's not a single event so much as the entire reign of one king, but Edward II of England is absolutely fascinating. If your only knowledge of him is the wimp in *Braveheart* (not remotely historically accurate), then please do look up the real guy. He butted heads a lot with his father (Edward I, a.k.a. Longshanks--not quite the psycho *Braveheart* depicted, but tyrannical toward his conquests like the Welsh... though the English friggin *loved* that dude), though they were both martially talented, and was... for all intents and purposes, extremely modern for medieval royalty. For one thing, he floated the idea of actually granting Scotland independence (pre-Battle of Bannockburn), just to see what they'd do with it. He was also as close as a medieval Englishman could get to being openly bisexual, which caused its own problems among the [Lords Ordainers](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ordinances_of_1311) (lead by his own cousin Thomas, 2nd Earl Lancaster, because the Plantagenets were one effed-up family).
Edward, Queen Isabella, and Piers Gaveston (depicted in *Braveheart* as the guy Longshanks tossed out a window--absolutely did not happen) actually seemed to have a nice little polycule going before the Lords Ordainers destroyed it--which caused a schism, since there were several who were *very opposed* to executing Gaveston on trumped up charged. This cleared the way for Hugh Despenser the Younger to become the new favorite, and Hugh... well, I'm pretty sure he's actually who George R.R. Martin based Littlefinger on (he was greatly inspired by *The Accursed Kings* book series, which ends with Edward II's "problems" spilling over into France). Hugh ices out Queen Isabella, and this leads to a brutal civil war.
And who ends up on top in the end? Why, the chief Lord Ordainer's little brother who kept his nose relatively clean until he couldn't afford to stay out of London B.S. anymore, and who had a disability (*torticollis*). In the Middle Ages.
It's a crime that this hasn't been a movie or TV show yet.
Huddo's sister 1 month ago
I'm currently reading Unruly by David Mitchell and although I'm not a big fan of the way it's written, there is a lot of interesting information in it, including about Edward II.
#28
The Nanking event. It's just so inhumane and atrocious I can't stop thinking about those poor innocent people.
#29
Pre-history. When early modern humans encountered Neanderthals.
Ace 1 month ago (edited)
Interactions (and matings - based on DNA evidence) between them took place a number of times over a period of two hundred thousand years or so, then they co-existed in some places for thousands of years. Neanderthals live on, with most of us sharing up to 10% of our genome with them.
#30
The Challenger disaster. I was three months old when the first Space Shuttle went up in April of '81. I was 5 when Challenger and its crew were destroyed due to gross negligence.
Every time I find out something new, or someone makes a new video/documentary, I'm always interested in case there's something else I didn't know. Nothing can change it or change my mind about what happened and why it happened, but I just have to collect as much info as possible.
Always listen to the engineers, not the bureaucrats.
Liz Rutherford 4 weeks ago
The engineers begged NASA to delay the launch. NASA said "nah" and seven people lost their lives.
#31
The North American chestnut blight :( the old growth forests in the north eastern part of what is now the u.s were surreal. Those ecosystems were what fairytales are made of. We can hardly imagine the world it would have been then, knowing what it is now… I think about it almost every day, it’s not healthy, lol. so much lost to the insatiable greed of colonial expansion, the chestnut trees not even the worst of it.
#32
For me, it's Italian organized crime in America from the formation of the five families and the commission by Lucky Luciano until the mob was gutted by RICO in the late 1980s and early 1990s. I'm just fascinated by the power these guys had at the turn of the century. Obviously, this isn't a particular event, but I can't get enough.
#33
The administration of Saddam Hussein in Iraq. Epic s**t show. Of all the psychopathic 20th-century dictators, Saddam didn't have nearly the highest body count, but I think he was the most sadistic. His sons were just as evil.
#34
Khamar Daban incident. A group of hikers basically start bleeding from the eyes, clawing at their throat then turn feral and drop dead. Only one survived, reason range from everything to it was a lie/exaggerated to they came across a military testing location for nerve gas.
Basically reads like 28 days later but irl.
Ace 1 month ago
OK, so this one got me down the Rabbit-Hole as well. The survivor was the group leader, the others her 'students'. It's alleged that their deaths may have been due to her negligence. Post mortem showed they died from hypothermia (one from a heart attack) and there's not been any evidence found to support the 'bleeding from the eyes' claim.
#35
American Slavery
I've been in a YouTube wormhole for months learning about the slave ships, how they were sold, their daily lives, diets, living quarters, a***e, breeding, t*****e etc.
It's just so profoundly wrong, I find it hard to believe it went on for so long. All for cotton, sugar and tobacco.
#36
CANNAE…
The time and effort required to slaughter 50,000 men in one day….one at a time…without bombs or bullets or arrows Is unbelievable. The raw calories burned, the feeling of complete satisfaction Hannibal would have felt, the despair and chaos in Rome when news broke.
Eight hours of slaughter, unending. Soldiers would have had to stop for water breaks during. Leaving the front line to towel off and slurp water, then going back to the circle to continue stabbing, slashing and bludgeoning.
Just imagining the cost and resources required for 30,000+ Roman breastplates and swords and gear and helmets is incredible.
Hundreds of Millions of dollars lost, an entire city’s fighting population gone. A literal day of mourning was held because there was NO one in the city that wasn’t effected In one way or another.
And yet Somehow , Rome endured.
#37
The dark ages. I know this has been debunked but that era still feels so eerie and dark to me. It comes right after the fall of the Roman empire and before modern history.
#39
The Mexican Revolution. Every few months it comes back into my head and I try to go digging for it. There just isn’t enough good english-language material on it and my Spanish suck to bad to try to translate with any confidence.
Billo66 1 month ago
What I find most interesting is that American author Ambrose Bierce just up and went to Mexico to join Pancho Villa. Just for kicks. His last letter said if we was stood against the wall and shot to rags he thinks that's a fine way to go, but he was leaving tomorrow for parts unknown. Then he vanished or whatever..
#40
World War 2.
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William Teach 1 month ago
The New Madrid Seismic Zone earthquakes of 1811-1812. The fault produced earthquakes in the magnitude of 7-8. The Mississippi River ran backwards. Bells rang in Chicago. Windows broke in NYC. It was felt in Canada and Boston. And they typically happen every 160-200 years, so, we are due for another round of massive earthquakes, which spread damage further because the land is more compressed east of the Mississippi.
CatD 3 weeks ago
Trump's president, time for another disaster. I mean, other than him.
Load More Replies...
T'Mar of Vulcan 3 weeks ago
I want to know more about the life of Shaka. As played by Henry Cele in the 1980s mini-series, he was a brilliant tactical leader who went off the rails after Nandi (his mother died). Other accounts (by white people as the Zulus didn't have a writing system yet) say he was a total nutcase who killed all his children (so as not to have anyone do to him what he had done to his father, Senzanghakhona - I've probably spelt that wrong) and killed cattle herds when in mourning. Reality is probably somewhere in between. The Ndebele people from Zimbabwe are descended from people who came from KZN (KwaZulu Natal) but went north to get away from Shaka. (Also, Henry Cele was *fine* and still seems to be the dominant image of Shaka that people have in their heads. The statue of Shaka at Camden (?) is of Henry Cele.
William Teach 1 month ago
The New Madrid Seismic Zone earthquakes of 1811-1812. The fault produced earthquakes in the magnitude of 7-8. The Mississippi River ran backwards. Bells rang in Chicago. Windows broke in NYC. It was felt in Canada and Boston. And they typically happen every 160-200 years, so, we are due for another round of massive earthquakes, which spread damage further because the land is more compressed east of the Mississippi.
CatD 3 weeks ago
Trump's president, time for another disaster. I mean, other than him.
Load More Replies... T'Mar of Vulcan 3 weeks ago
I want to know more about the life of Shaka. As played by Henry Cele in the 1980s mini-series, he was a brilliant tactical leader who went off the rails after Nandi (his mother died). Other accounts (by white people as the Zulus didn't have a writing system yet) say he was a total nutcase who killed all his children (so as not to have anyone do to him what he had done to his father, Senzanghakhona - I've probably spelt that wrong) and killed cattle herds when in mourning. Reality is probably somewhere in between. The Ndebele people from Zimbabwe are descended from people who came from KZN (KwaZulu Natal) but went north to get away from Shaka. (Also, Henry Cele was *fine* and still seems to be the dominant image of Shaka that people have in their heads. The statue of Shaka at Camden (?) is of Henry Cele.
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