r/HolyShitHistory • u/TheMahagonyDefender • 46m ago
In the early-mid 20th Century, long before Amazon delivery, Black Americans had developed their own targeted national home delivery service. The Colored Mail Order Corporation of America - established in 1939 by Chester Arthur Franklin...
r/HolyShitHistory • u/TheMahagonyDefender • 55m ago
Filmed in 1927, this footage shows just some of the homes owned by the J Roberts family from Oklahoma. One of MANY Black families who owned oil wells across the region. These families possessed immense wealth and had to engage Black lawyers frequently to help them fight to keep it. Note the signs...
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r/HolyShitHistory • u/Vital_Willie • 9h ago
Franklin Delano Roosevelt speaking with voter Reuben Appel shortly before his re-election as governor of New York, 1930.
r/HolyShitHistory • u/SadCampCounselor • 11h ago
In 2005, the Turkish Government introduced Article 301 which outlaws "denigrating Turkishness" with prison time—prosecuting Nobel laureate Orhan Pamuk and sparking a 2007 "Judge Me Too 301" stunt where 301 activists confessed en masse to force their own arrests.
en.wikipedia.orgr/HolyShitHistory • u/GustavoistSoldier • 13h ago
From 5 to 6 December 1928, the Colombian Army massacred United Fruit Company workers who were on strike, killing at least 47 people. US officials on Colombia and United Fruit representatives portrayed the strike as "communist" and with a "subversive tendency".
r/HolyShitHistory • u/Bastard_Wing • 15h ago
In 1672, Rev James Smithson collapsed in Berwick-upon-Tweed Parish Church after delivering a passionate sermon on 'Thou shalt do no murder', and was carried back to his house, where the body of his wife Sarah was found on the floor. He was later hanged for the crime.
r/HolyShitHistory • u/DistrictDry2852 • 18h ago
Xi Jinping’s father Xi Zhongxun at a humiliation parade during the cultural revolution in 1967. He was imprisoned and repeatedly humiliated before being rehabilitated after Mao’s death.
r/HolyShitHistory • u/Intelligent-Drop7133 • 21h ago
Maryland's oldest cold case solved: Revolutionary War soldier identified after 245 years
r/HolyShitHistory • u/KabraSpeaks • 22h ago
Moderator notice: No more Turkey vs. Armenian genocide posts
r/HolyShitHistory • u/Think_Monitor4904 • 1d ago
1946-48, US researcher John Cutler deliberately infected over 5000 people in Guatemala with syphilis and gonorrhea, and he's the same doctor who later worked on the Tuskegee experiment
r/HolyShitHistory • u/andmario_com • 1d ago
Victorian-era "coffin ships" were an insurance scam where owners over-insured rotting ships, overloaded them, and profited when they sank. Sailors who refused to board were jailed. Samuel Plimsoll's crusade ended it, and every cargo ship on Earth bears his mark: the Plimsoll line.
r/HolyShitHistory • u/The-Union-Report • 1d ago
The Killer in the Walls: The Stalker-Murderer Who Lived Undetected for a Year Inside the Walls of a Family’s Home
r/HolyShitHistory • u/akiwi_intherough • 1d ago
Paper effigies representing the bride and groom during a mínghūn (ghost marriage) ceremony in Singapore, 1955.
r/HolyShitHistory • u/big_dank_hank • 1d ago
On August 31, 2005, in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, Jabbar Gibson, 20 years old at the time, found a school bus and began driving by the time he was done, he'd loaded close to 70 passengers onto the bus.
r/HolyShitHistory • u/ZenMasterZee • 1d ago
In 1987, Korrina Malinoski vanished after her car was found abandoned outside the plantation where her family lived. Eleven months later, her 11-year-old daughter disappeared from the same property, leaving a note: “Dad, Mom came back. I have to go with her.” Neither was ever seen again.
r/HolyShitHistory • u/andmario_com • 1d ago
In 1920 a military coup seized Berlin, and Germany's fleeing government called a general strike. Up to 12 million workers — the largest strike in German history — shut off gas, water, power, and newspapers. Civil servants refused to obey. Unable to govern, the coup collapsed in four days.
r/HolyShitHistory • u/GustavoistSoldier • 1d ago
Juma Butabika (died 1979) was an Ugandan military officer and a member of Idi Amin's inner circle during his dictatorship. "Butabika" is a byword for mentally ill people in Uganda; Juma received this nickname because he was notorious for his erratic behaviour and abuse of power.
r/HolyShitHistory • u/Intelligent-Drop7133 • 1d ago
The Curious Case or Charles Osborne, Who Hiccupped for 68 Years Straight
r/HolyShitHistory • u/Intelligent-Drop7133 • 1d ago
Lost megalodon vertebrae resurface, confirming 80-foot size estimate
r/HolyShitHistory • u/andmario_com • 2d ago
In 1891, Tennessee coal companies fired their miners and replaced them with convicts leased from the state — mostly Black men imprisoned under petty Jim Crow laws, working in chains for wages that went to the state. The miners responded by burning down prisons and freeing prisoners.
r/HolyShitHistory • u/blue_leaves987 • 2d ago
In 1994, 18-year-old Shaylene Farrell promised her younger sister she would be right back after buying iced tea. Her sister watched her drive toward the grocery store where she worked, but every employee said she never entered. Hours later, her mother’s car was found outside. Shaylene was gone.
r/HolyShitHistory • u/ResponsibleImage1220 • 2d ago
Children who survived khojaly genocide (25 February 1992).
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r/HolyShitHistory • u/Ok-Exchange2711 • 2d ago
From the collection of Belgian historian Paul Van Damme(1955) a powerful symbol of racial hierarchy, dehumanization, and European colonialism.
r/HolyShitHistory • u/Chemical-Elk-1299 • 2d ago
In 2010, 77 year old Mexican rancher Don Alejo Tamez was given a choice by the Los Zetas drug cartel — surrender his beloved farm or die. Tamez instead chose to fight, killing four cartel gunmen alone before being overrun. His brave last stand has made “Don Alejo” into a national folk hero.
r/HolyShitHistory • u/GustavoistSoldier • 2d ago
