40 Historical Events That Are So Interesting People Read And Look Up Everything They Can About Them

The end of the Soviet Union.

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.

Titanic.

I always come back to the Zodiac k***er.

The Vietnam War for me. My dad was there. He’s told me things, but watching these documentaries is just mind blowing to me.

The lobotomy as a medical procedure.

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.

The Nanking event. It's just so inhumane and atrocious I can't stop thinking about those poor innocent people.

Pre-history. When early modern humans encountered Neanderthals.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

MH 370.

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.

World War 2.