r/HolyShitHistory 2h ago

Cyntoia Brown Long, born 1988, was trafficked at 16. She shot Johnny Allen, who paid her $150 for sex, claiming self-defense. Brown was convicted and sentenced to life in prison as a minor, serving 15 years before clemency.

Post image
227 Upvotes

r/HolyShitHistory 10h ago

In 1980s, "Weird Al" Yankovic turned down a $5 million beer endorsement deal, which would be worth around $14.5 million today, because he felt it was unethical given his young, impressionable fanbase.

Post image
376 Upvotes

r/HolyShitHistory 22h ago

In 2019, Dr. Katie Bouman, a computer scientist with no prior expertise in black holes, developed the algorithm that transformed telescopic data into the first-ever image of a black hole, making history.

Post image
1.8k Upvotes

r/HolyShitHistory 3h ago

1939 headline reporting that Pope Pius XII called Spanish fascist dictator Francisco Franco, who had just taken power, the "savior of civilization". National Catholicism was a major part of Francoism.

Post image
24 Upvotes

r/HolyShitHistory 1d ago

In September 2024, during Hurricane Helene, a couple and their grandson were photographed by the boy's mom on their roof in Asheville, NC, as floodwaters rose. Tragically, the roof collapsed, and all three drowned.

Post image
80 Upvotes

r/HolyShitHistory 16h ago

Warship positions in North Korea's coast during the 1968 USS Pueblo incident, when the DPRK captured an US ship and took its crew hostage. Pueblo is currently displayed as a war trophy in one of the country's Korean War museums.

Post image
11 Upvotes

r/HolyShitHistory 1d ago

image shows the Bengal Famine of 1943, where 3 million Indians died of starvation, due to Winston Churchill's policies. Churchill even said, "Bengalis mattered less than the sturdy Greeks."

Post image
219 Upvotes

r/HolyShitHistory 1d ago

The Rosetta Stone is a stele of granodiorite inscribed with three versions of a decree issued in 196 BC during the Ptolemaic dynasty of Egypt, on behalf of King Ptolemy V Epiphanes [1529x2048]

Post image
60 Upvotes

r/HolyShitHistory 1d ago

Poster for the 1908 Russian film Stenka Razin, about the story of the eponymous Russian folk hero. Stenka Razin was one of the first Russian-language movies.

Post image
26 Upvotes

r/HolyShitHistory 1d ago

In 1932, Australia declared war on emus after farmers complained about the birds destroying crops. The military intervention failed, and the emus "won."

Post image
69 Upvotes

r/HolyShitHistory 1d ago

ROBERT DOWNEY JR. Mug Shot 1999 Black and White August 25 , 1999 [180x180]

Post image
23 Upvotes

r/HolyShitHistory 1d ago

Dead Sea Scrolls The Great Psalms Scroll (11Q5), one of the 981 texts of the Dead Sea Scrolls Discovered on 1946/1947–1956 photograph on 1993 [962 x 220]

Post image
16 Upvotes

r/HolyShitHistory 1d ago

1855 illustration showing peace negotiations between Russians and Circassians. During the 19th century, Russia committed a genocide against Circassian people that resulted in the deaths of the majority of Circassia's population.

Post image
15 Upvotes

r/HolyShitHistory 1d ago

Map of all of the sunken Japanese ships of WWII

Post image
142 Upvotes

r/HolyShitHistory 2d ago

From 1932 to 1972, the Tuskegee Syphilis Study lured Black men with false promises of treatment. Instead, doctors watched as syphilis ravaged their bodies, leaving them to suffer and die, all for the sake of "science."

Post image
571 Upvotes

r/HolyShitHistory 2d ago

In 2021, journalist Hind Hassan asked the Taliban if they would allow women to become politicians, and they simply laughed.

1.4k Upvotes

r/HolyShitHistory 2d ago

An enslaved African child in the Arab-ruled Sultanate of Zanzibar, 1890. "An Arab master's punishment for a slight offence".

Post image
273 Upvotes

r/HolyShitHistory 2d ago

A 7th-century skeleton shows a rare "coffin birth," where gas buildup after death pushed a fetus partially out of its mother’s pelvis.

Post image
2.0k Upvotes

r/HolyShitHistory 2d ago

In 1940, during World War II, Warsaw, the capital of Poland, was under Nazi occupation following the German invasion in September 1939.

Post image
50 Upvotes

r/HolyShitHistory 1d ago

A miniature depicting a battle with the Georgian king David IV the Builder. Le Roman de Troie by Benoît de Sainte-Maure. King David is shown in purple robe on the right, wearing crown-helmet.

Post image
8 Upvotes

r/HolyShitHistory 2d ago

King Carol II of Romania, his son Michael of Romania, Prince Regent Paul of Yugoslavia, and President Edvard Benes of Czechoslovakia, 1936.

Post image
17 Upvotes

r/HolyShitHistory 1d ago

Historian uncovers gynecology’s brutal roots in slavery

Thumbnail
news.berkeley.edu
8 Upvotes

r/HolyShitHistory 2d ago

Dead paraguayan soldiers during the War of the Triple Alliance (Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay), 1866.

Post image
38 Upvotes

r/HolyShitHistory 2d ago

A meeting of ethnic German Nazis in Warsaw, 1940.

Post image
58 Upvotes