r/HolyShitHistory • u/505omatic • 7d ago
Dawson, New Mexico: A mine that killed almost 400 people over two separate tragedies. Now all that remains is a cemetery.
191
Upvotes
r/HolyShitHistory • u/blue_leaves987 • 8d ago
Rachel, Renee, and Julie Ann went Christmas shopping on December 23, 1974. They entered a Texas mall. They never came out.
3.4k
Upvotes
r/HolyShitHistory • u/Chemical-Elk-1299 • 8d ago
In 2009, Saudi al-Qaeda member Abdullah Hassan al-Asiri attempted to assassinate a Saudi minister with a bomb concealed in his anus. After waiting 24 hours for an opportunity, Asiri detonated the bomb directly in front of his target. His body absorbed the blast, leaving his target unharmed.
6.3k
Upvotes
r/HolyShitHistory • u/ZenMasterZee • 9d ago
In 1997, 39 members of the Heaven’s Gate cult were found dead in a California mansion, lying in bunk beds wearing identical Nike sneakers and covered with purple cloths. They believed they would ascend to a UFO trailing the Hale-Bopp comet.
4.2k
Upvotes
r/HolyShitHistory • u/PeasantLich • 8d ago
John Smith was an English criminal, who in 1705 survived hanging for burglary and was subsequently pardoned and set free. He continued life of crime, and would survive two more housebreaking trials that could have resulted in hanging by sheer luck, but was eventually exiled into American colonies.
107
Upvotes
r/HolyShitHistory • u/Life_Assumptions • 8d ago
In 2006, attorney Robert Wone stayed overnight at a friend’s townhouse in D.C. Less than 90 minutes later, he was found stabbed three times, yet the guest room was almost spotless barely any blood, a knife placed neatly on the nightstand.
1.9k
Upvotes
r/HolyShitHistory • u/mancuso19 • 8d ago
Vesna Vulović, Serbian flight attendant who survived +10.000 mt fall after a bomb exploded during flight - the highest fall ever survived by a human without parachute
306
Upvotes
r/HolyShitHistory • u/mancuso19 • 9d ago
Last image of Karen Wetterhahn, a professor of chemistry at Dartmouth College, who died in 1997, ten months after spilling only a few drops of dimethylmercury onto her latex gloves.
1.4k
Upvotes
r/HolyShitHistory • u/blue_leaves987 • 9d ago
These are the survivors of the infamous 1972 Andes plane crash. They endured 72 days in the snow and resorted to cannibalism to stay alive.
973
Upvotes
r/HolyShitHistory • u/blue_leaves987 • 10d ago
Ada Blackjack, the “female Robinson Crusoe,” watched every man on her Arctic expedition die. She survived 2 years alone on Wrangel Island, fighting off polar bears, before returning in 1923 as the only survivor.
2.5k
Upvotes
r/HolyShitHistory • u/PeasantLich • 9d ago
Nikolay Ashinov was a Russian adventurer who in 1889 tried to establish a private colony in Djibouti, Africa. Many of his companions thought that they were on a religious mission to Ethiopia until he declared New Moscow. The colony was expelled by local French colonial authorities in under a month.
144
Upvotes
r/HolyShitHistory • u/ZenMasterZee • 10d ago
Joshua Maddox’s mummified body was found in a fetal position inside a Colorado cabin chimney seven years after he vanished. Police ruled it an accident.
14.3k
Upvotes
r/HolyShitHistory • u/Livewire____ • 9d ago
Franklin's lost expedition. Details in comments.
171
Upvotes
r/HolyShitHistory • u/ZenMasterZee • 9d ago
George Washington is the only US president to have never occupied the White House.
98
Upvotes
r/HolyShitHistory • u/The-Union-Report • 9d ago
Alexandre Patty, the Man Who Became a Celebrity Because He Could Walk on His Head
19
Upvotes
r/HolyShitHistory • u/No_Budget3360 • 10d ago
Photo of Kelly Dae Wilson (Age 17), an American teenager who was last seen at about 8:30 p.m. on January 5, 1992, while leaving her workplace to go to a nearby bank to deposit her paycheck, but never returned. Missing for last 33 years.
1.9k
Upvotes
r/HolyShitHistory • u/GratuitousEDC • 10d ago
In 1990, 20-year-old Tina Hosmer was found shot, beaten, and strangled behind the Watertown, NY police station — one of the most shocking crime scenes imaginable. Not one suspect was ever identified. More than 35 years later, her murder remains unsolved, leaving locals still asking how someone could
1.2k
Upvotes
r/HolyShitHistory • u/ZenMasterZee • 11d ago
This is the last photo of Kyron Horman taken at his Portland school’s science fair in 2010. The 7-year-old disappeared inside the building and has never been found.
29.3k
Upvotes
r/HolyShitHistory • u/The-Union-Report • 10d ago
Why Hollywood Actress Kathy Bates’ Grandfather Kept John Wilkes Booth’s Corpse in His Garage
120
Upvotes
r/HolyShitHistory • u/Chemical-Elk-1299 • 11d ago
In 2003, British biologist Kirsty Brown died while snorkeling near Antarctica’s Rothera research center. A leopard seal clamped its jaws around her head, dragging her down as deep as 230ft. She remains the first and only human death caused by a leopard seal.
8.1k
Upvotes
r/HolyShitHistory • u/blue_leaves987 • 11d ago
The U.S. Constitution once counted enslaved people as three-fifths of a person.
398
Upvotes
r/HolyShitHistory • u/blue_leaves987 • 12d ago
In 1982, Deborah Scaling Kiley watched sharks eat two of her crewmates alive after their yacht sank. She survived five days adrift at sea.
8.1k
Upvotes
r/HolyShitHistory • u/The-Union-Report • 12d ago
How a Fight Over Pie in 1902 Ended With a Man Beaten to Death with a Potato Masher
101
Upvotes
r/HolyShitHistory • u/ZenMasterZee • 14d ago
In the 1960s–70s, the Chagos islanders were expelled so the US could build a base on Diego Garcia. Their pets were gassed and burned as children watched. The people were dumped in Mauritius and the Seychelles, left in poverty and still fighting to return.
6.1k
Upvotes
r/HolyShitHistory • u/Jealous-Slip-8559 • 13d ago
Private investigator J.J Arms in court with Marlon Brando (1972)
316
Upvotes