- 3 months ago
From atrocities that shocked humanity to betrayals of public trust, history is marked by moments that ignited global fury. Join us as we examine the events that triggered universal outrage, from genocides and massacres to disasters and cover-ups that changed the course of history forever. Which historical moment of injustice affected you most deeply?
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00:00Men were flying into a greater updraft of radiation than the earth had ever known.
00:04And I knew that it might all be for nothing.
00:07Welcome to WatchMojo, where we'll be counting down our picks for the 20 historical moments
00:12that triggered the most global outrage.
00:14Six million people fell victim to this murderous madness.
00:19Number 20, the stock market crash.
00:22The 1920s were dubbed the Roaring Twenties, but the 30s were called the Great Depression.
00:26It began in 1929 due to myriad complicated factors,
00:30but the biggest sign of what was to come was the Wall Street crash.
00:34For months, unemployment had been rising.
00:37Automobile sales and department store revenues had fallen off sharply.
00:41In October 1929, stock prices began to steeply decline after almost a decade of constant increase.
00:47This led to Black Thursday on October 24th,
00:50where almost 13 million shares of stock were traded, a record at the time.
00:54Stock prices plummeted sickeningly across the board,
00:58spurring the rush of sell orders from terrified speculators.
01:01It was followed by a global economic depression, causing major unemployment,
01:05which helped lead to the rise of extreme ideologies.
01:08The poor economic conditions outraged the population,
01:11making them more open to the ideas spread by figures like Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini.
01:16It would take a decade and a half for the American economy to fully recover.
01:21Number 19, the death of George Floyd.
01:23In 2020, George Floyd was murdered by a police officer,
01:26who choked him to death in the street.
01:28It was one of many examples of police abusing their power,
01:31targeting innocent people who weren't white.
01:34It was followed up by global protests supporting the Black Lives Matter movement,
01:37calling for an end to such injustices.
01:39Murder! Black Lives Matter!
01:42Say his name!
01:43George Floyd!
01:44Say his name!
01:46George Floyd!
01:47The officer responsible was later found guilty of murder,
01:50and sentenced to 22 and a half years in prison.
01:53Chauvin showed no emotion as the judge told him his fate.
01:56Years later, the racial injustice issue is still debated,
01:59with many believing positive changes are yet to be made.
02:02On the other side, people have begun spreading extremely racist misinformation
02:06that Floyd was killed by narcotics,
02:08an incredibly harmful and prejudiced idea.
02:11I think it's extremely important for people, you know, to not forget.
02:14Number 18, 9-11.
02:16We believe that a plane has crashed into the World Trade Center.
02:20On September 11, 2001, members of Al-Qaeda hijacked four commercial airliners
02:25and tried to fly them into American monuments.
02:28Passengers prevented one plane from hitting its target,
02:30causing it to crash into Pennsylvania field.
02:33Another hit the Pentagon,
02:34and the other two flew directly into the World Trade Center.
02:36It was one of the most despicable attacks in global history,
02:40causing 2,977 deaths and injuring many more.
02:44The scope of this disaster is impossible to comprehend.
02:48The entire world stood still after the news struck.
02:50America retaliated by going to war with Afghanistan
02:53in an effort to overthrow Al-Qaeda.
02:55This led to even more deaths
02:57and roughly 20 years of American troops in Afghanistan.
03:00Thousands of lives were suddenly ended by evil,
03:04despicable acts of terror.
03:05Number 17, Catholic Church Abuse Scandal.
03:08In the 80s and 90s,
03:10there were numerous public investigations
03:11into claims of abuse perpetrated by the Catholic Church.
03:14It turned out that, for decades,
03:16many clergy and related figures
03:18had been mistreating children and covering it up.
03:21The bishop was warned about causes of behavior,
03:24but kept moving him around.
03:25It took a while before action was taken,
03:27leading to Sinead O'Connor famously ripping up
03:29a photo of the Pope on Saturday Night Live.
03:31Fight the real enemy!
03:36A study from 2021 found that over 200,000 children
03:40were mistreated by the Church in France,
03:42dating back to 1950.
03:44The problem remains a long way from being solved,
03:46with the UN criticizing the Vatican in 2021
03:49for its inadequate response.
03:51This poor handling caused approximately one-third of Catholics
03:54to stop attending Mass.
03:55Files that could have documented the terrible deeds
03:59and named those responsible
04:01were destroyed or not even created.
04:05Number 16, the Arab Spring.
04:07In 2010, a wave of pro-democratic uprisings
04:10swept across North Africa and the Middle East.
04:13It quite quickly got ugly.
04:15It kicked off in Tunisia
04:17in opposition to government corruption.
04:19It then spread east
04:20to countries like Egypt and Syria.
04:22Many governments responded harshly,
04:24hampering the movement's momentum.
04:26It led to the start of the Syrian civil war in 2011,
04:29which wouldn't depose the Baathist regime
04:31until December 2024.
04:33The way it was going in 2011,
04:35stories didn't really come to an end.
04:38They were just another one started.
04:40Libya also deposed its leader, Gaddafi, in 2011,
04:43and ISIS rose to power in Iraq.
04:45It's considered one of the most important series of events
04:47in the 21st century so far,
04:49and its effects are still felt.
04:50But actually, it went on to get massively, massively worse.
04:55Number 15, Russian invasion of Ukraine.
04:58Since 2022, Russia has been aggressively
05:00trying to invade its neighbor, Ukraine.
05:03It's been met with global condemnation,
05:05with numerous nations retaliating
05:06with economic sanctions on Russia.
05:08As of 2025, peace is still far on the horizon,
05:11with Putin making massive demands for Ukraine.
05:14The country is struggling to get America on its side,
05:16with President Donald Trump siding more
05:18with his friend Putin than with Ukraine.
05:20This means peace talks have largely been viewed
05:22as one-sided,
05:23and so have been met with public outrage.
05:25If Ukraine agreed,
05:27it'd leave itself especially weak,
05:28and would have no chance of defending itself
05:30if Russia invaded again in the future.
05:33Number 14, Palestine and Israel.
05:35After World War II,
05:37Britain decided to partition Palestine,
05:39leading to the creation of the State of Israel.
05:41A civil war erupted,
05:43and since then,
05:44Palestine has been perceived by many
05:46as the victim of Israeli colonization.
05:48After over 70 years of constant conflict,
05:50Israel has begun what the United Nations
05:52has called a genocide.
05:54It was a response to the horrific October 7th attacks,
05:57but many would argue that using that
05:58as a primary motivator ignores the decades of conflict
06:01that preceded it.
06:03Since 2023,
06:04Israel has killed tens of thousands of Palestinians,
06:07many of them children.
06:08Israel began blocking aid to Gaza,
06:10and with little international response beyond protests,
06:13many worry they'll succeed in their genocide,
06:16while millions watch horrified.
06:18Number 13, Chernobyl Disaster Cover-Up.
06:21In 1986,
06:22Chernobyl became the location
06:23of the most expensive disaster in human history.
06:26It was caused by the toxic Soviet leadership,
06:28which forced untrained staff to run tests
06:31that led to its explosion.
06:32The chain of disaster is now complete.
06:37While the disaster led to outrage,
06:39the Soviet cover-up made things far worse.
06:42The main reason the West found out about it
06:44was because the radiation leaked into Sweden.
06:47The Soviets responded
06:48by saying not to worry about this radiation situation.
06:51The radiation cloud contaminated millions of square kilometers.
06:54Many locals didn't even realize
06:56they were being exposed to high levels of radiation.
06:58The Swedish situation eventually led the West
07:00to learn about the disaster's true extent,
07:03resulting in global condemnation
07:04for the Soviets' poor handling.
07:06Just as Valery Legasov had maintained,
07:09some secrets can bring only catastrophe.
07:13Number 12, Tiananmen Square Massacre.
07:15After Mao Zedong died in 1976,
07:18Deng Xiaoping managed to take control of China,
07:20then began to reform the country significantly.
07:23This led to the adoption of socialism
07:25with Chinese characteristics,
07:27which made the country more capitalistic.
07:29During the 80s,
07:30the New Enlightenment movement began,
07:32which sought democracy in China.
07:34They turned Tiananmen Square,
07:36the country's symbol of sovereignty,
07:37into a hub of dissent and protest.
07:40This led to the Tiananmen Square protests in 1989,
07:43which led to Deng's regime ordering the military
07:45to end the protests,
07:47causing a massacre of protesters.
07:49What the public doesn't know
07:50is that hundreds of thousands of soldiers
07:52are assembled on the outskirts of Beijing.
07:55The harsh response led to international outrage,
07:57and the incident has since become heavily censored in China.
08:00Now, China is a global superpower
08:02under the rule of Xi Jinping,
08:05but it's unlikely that it will become
08:06a Western-style democracy within our lifetimes.
08:09Vigils are held every year in Hong Kong,
08:11attended by tens of thousands.
08:13But people are still seeking the truth,
08:16and the effort to hold those accountable
08:17for the bloody crackdown continues.
08:20Number 11, Srebrenica Massacre.
08:22The Bosnian War was a brutal conflict in the Balkans
08:25that lasted from 1992 until 1995.
08:28In 1995, the Bosnian Serb army
08:31perpetrated Europe's first legally recognized genocide
08:34since the Holocaust.
08:35After capturing the town of Srebrenica,
08:38the soldiers went about murdering
08:39over 8,000 Bosnian Muslims.
08:41Within hours, these men were slaughtered.
08:44It was the idea of Commander Rako Mjaldic,
08:47who kept it going for 10 days straight.
08:49Now, he is serving a life sentence for war crimes in The Hague.
08:53Over 30 years later,
08:54mass graves are still being discovered in the area.
08:57Serbia has apologized since,
08:59but has drawn criticism for not admitting it was a genocide.
09:02While Serbia has apologized for what it said was a crime,
09:05it denies that the killings were a systematic attempt
09:08to eradicate a people.
09:10In other words, a genocide.
09:12Number 10, Sharpeville Massacre.
09:15Between 1948 and the 90s,
09:17South Africa enforced apartheid,
09:19a system of institutionalized racial segregation.
09:22This meant the country's relatively small white population
09:25was the country's ruling class.
09:29Millions were forced into racially segregated neighborhoods.
09:33In 1960, the Pan-African Congress
09:35peacefully protested this regime
09:37in the town of Sharpeville.
09:39In response, the police started gunning down the protesters.
09:42At least 69 people were killed,
09:48with 180 injured.
09:49It's considered one of the most horrific human rights abuses
09:52of the 20th century.
09:53It motivated protests and strikes all across South Africa,
09:57and received international condemnation.
09:59Number 9, Rwandan Genocide.
10:05The Rwandan Civil War was fueled by intense hatred
10:08between the Hutu and Tutsi ethnic groups.
10:11It began in 1990,
10:12and after four years of bloodshed,
10:14things reached their most violent.
10:16Over a roughly 100-day period,
10:18between 500,000 and 800,000 Tutsi
10:21were slaughtered by Hutu militias.
10:22Words are unable to describe the despicable violence
10:31that took place during this period.
10:33Unfortunately, the rest of the world failed to step in,
10:36and curb the brutality.
10:37Neighbors killed neighbors,
10:39and some husbands even killed their Tutsi wives,
10:42saying they would be killed if they refused.
10:45The genocide ended when the war did,
10:47with the predominantly Tutsi group,
10:49the Rwandan Patriotic Front,
10:51emerging victorious.
10:52That didn't mean peace for Rwanda.
10:54Unfortunately, the war was followed
10:56by an immense refugee crisis,
10:58and two more Congo wars,
10:59also called the First and Second Hutu Genocides.
11:03It is now illegal to talk about ethnicity in Rwanda.
11:07The government says this is to prevent more bloodshed,
11:10but some say it also prevents true reconciliation.
11:14Number 8, The French Revolution.
11:16One man would rise to inspire the nation,
11:19to cast aside a reluctant king and a hated queen.
11:23In 1972, Chinese statesman Zhou Enlai was asked about the influence of the French Revolution,
11:29and responded that it's too early to say.
11:32While he misinterpreted the question, which was about a 1968 protest,
11:36it's often spread as the misinterpreted meaning still holds.
11:39To many, the French Revolution was the most important event in human history,
11:43which sent ripples through society that are still felt today.
11:46It was the revolution that upset things the most.
11:49I mean, again, when you consider that it got rid of the Catholic Church,
11:51it got rid of Christianity, it got rid of the nobility,
11:53it got rid of the king, it got rid of all these things.
11:55It began with the Estates General of 1789,
11:58then led to the execution of the monarchy in 1793.
12:02This outraged the monarchs of Europe,
12:04and led to 10 years of revolutionary wars,
12:07followed by 12 years of the Napoleonic Wars.
12:09The death of King Louis XVI marks a turning point,
12:13a pivotal moment when the radical revolutionaries claim victory,
12:17and the French Republic is born in blood.
12:20Number 7, Pearl Harbor Attack.
12:22America was initially a neutral country in World War II,
12:25which remained the case until 1941,
12:27when Japan launched a surprise attack on Pearl Harbor.
12:30I saw the first plane with that circle on it.
12:34It sunk in.
12:35I said, oh my god, we're at war.
12:37Imperial Japan had beaten Russia decades earlier,
12:40gaining a major strategic advantage through surprise attacks.
12:43Japan wanted to dominate the Pacific in the 40s,
12:45but didn't have enough resources for a lengthy war.
12:48So, they launched a surprise attack on Pearl Harbor,
12:51hoping it would cripple America's fleet.
12:53The United States of America
12:55was suddenly and deliberately attacked
12:58by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan.
13:04It failed in this respect,
13:06and America responded with way more motivation than they'd expected.
13:09The fascist powers believed they could easily destroy America,
13:12as their nations were more racially pure.
13:14Thankfully, they were completely wrong,
13:16and the Allies emerged victorious in 1945.
13:19The attack forced the United States into the greatest war in history
13:23with its uncounted and uncountable death, debt, and misery.
13:27Number 6. Assassination of Franz Ferdinand
13:30This is their target.
13:32Archduke Franz Ferdinand,
13:34heir to the throne of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
13:37By 1914, tensions in Europe had reached a boiling point.
13:41After the Industrial Revolution,
13:43Europe's imperial powers became eager to see whose nation was the strongest.
13:47The trigger that sparked the war
13:48was the assassination of the Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand in 1914.
13:53He was shot by a Bosnian Serb,
13:55Gervilo Princip.
13:56Come jam.
14:02Austria-Hungary then issued an ultimatum to Serbia.
14:05At the time, Europe had a complex web of alliances,
14:08so Austria-Hungary declaring war on Serbia
14:11led to a domino effect of European powers declaring war on one another,
14:15until eventually, almost the entire continent was involved.
14:18Thus, World War I began,
14:20and it wouldn't end until 1918.
14:21Exactly one month after the shooting,
14:24the Austro-Hungarian Empire,
14:25with the support of their ally Germany,
14:27declared war on Serbia.
14:29Number 5.
14:30The Partition of India
14:31A lot of issues in the world have their roots in the British Empire drawing lines on a map.
14:36In a mere five weeks,
14:37the Boundary Committee drew a border,
14:39dividing three provinces under direct British rule,
14:42Bengal,
14:43Punjab,
14:44and Assam.
14:44After World War II,
14:46Britain decolonized India,
14:47turning it into two separate nations.
14:49They decided the boundaries of these nations,
14:52based on religious majorities.
14:54This led them to separate India and Pakistan,
14:56which caused the displacement of somewhere between 12 and 20 million people.
15:00In a period of two years,
15:02millions of Hindus and Sikhs living in Pakistan left for India,
15:06while Muslims living in India fled villages where their families had lived for centuries.
15:10Hundreds of thousands died in the ordeal,
15:13and there are still tensions between India and Pakistan today.
15:16For instance,
15:17the two nations have both laid claim to the Kashmir region,
15:20and it's still a heated topic over 70 years later.
15:23That referendum still hasn't happened as of 2020,
15:27and India and Pakistan have been warring over Kashmir since 1947.
15:31Number 4.
15:32The Holodomor
15:33During the time that Joseph Stalin was the Soviet Union's brutal dictator,
15:37his regime was responsible for a man-made Ukrainian famine.
15:40When farmers failed to meet those quotas,
15:43Stalin's men swept their farms to confiscate all the grain they could find.
15:48It lasted from 1932 to 1933,
15:51and caused the deaths of between 3.5 and 5 million Ukrainians.
15:54It's unclear whether it was intentional or not,
15:57which is a highly debated topic even today.
15:59Stalin's oppressive collection policy created a famine
16:02that started spreading in grain-producing regions across the Soviet Union.
16:06If it were intentional,
16:07this would mean it was a genocide,
16:10a stance that Ukrainian government has taken since 2006.
16:13Much like Chernobyl,
16:14the Soviets opted to try keeping it secret.
16:16They failed in this regard,
16:18thanks to the work of a handful of journalists.
16:20Throughout the crisis,
16:21he outright denied that a famine ever took place.
16:25Number 3.
16:25The Nanjing Massacre
16:27Little known to the world at the time,
16:29a massacre similar to the one in Vola
16:31had already occurred on the other side of the world,
16:34in Nanjing, China.
16:35Western powers found Imperial Japan
16:37behaved professionally during World War I,
16:40but by the outset of World War II,
16:41the country had become extremely nationalistic.
16:44They believed Japanese people
16:45were racially superior to Chinese people,
16:48which led them to commit horrific atrocities
16:50in the invasion of China.
16:51The Nanjing Massacre was the most infamous,
16:53when their army spent six straight weeks
16:55turning Nanjing into hell on earth.
16:57The city offered nowhere to run or hide.
17:01Even the remote Zijin hills
17:03at the edge of the city were not safe.
17:06Estimates claim
17:07at least 200,000 people were killed,
17:09but many more were abused and injured.
17:12The event was so despicable
17:13that it still halts Sino-Japanese relations today,
17:16with Japanese officials still refusing
17:18to acknowledge the extent to which
17:19they were the aggressor.
17:21And yet there are some
17:21who say that this massacre never took place.
17:24Number 2.
17:24Hitler invades Poland.
17:26German troops cross the Polish border,
17:28and with that act of aggression,
17:30they bring to an end
17:30the last hope of peace for Europe.
17:32Between 1935 and 1939,
17:35the British government used the policy of appeasement
17:37to deal with the fascist powers
17:39Italy and Germany.
17:40This meant Adolf Hitler broke
17:42the Treaty of Versailles multiple times,
17:44as in when Germany annexed the Sudetenland.
17:47This allowed them to grow significantly in power,
17:49but the policy got thrown out the window
17:51the moment Hitler and Stalin invaded Poland.
17:53France and Britain gave Germany
17:55an ultimatum to withdraw her troops,
17:57but Hitler simply ignored them,
17:59and his tanks roared across the Polish countryside.
18:01It was at that point,
18:03Britain realized that Nazi Germany
18:04was dead set on war,
18:06and if they didn't retaliate with force,
18:08all of Europe might have fallen to fascism.
18:10Their intensely effective blitzkrieg strategies
18:13meant Poland fell in 35 days,
18:15and by 1942,
18:17most of Europe was under their thumb.
18:18He realized that Britain
18:20would be Hitler's next target,
18:22and began to prepare.
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18:39Number one,
18:40the Allies Learn of the Holocaust.
18:42The Holocaust was one of the most
18:44disgusting acts of violence
18:45in the entirety of history.
18:47Six million Jewish people
18:49were massacred,
18:50roughly two-third of all Jewish Europeans.
18:53During World War II,
18:55Nazi Germany invaded and conquered
18:56much of Europe,
18:58which gave Hitler the chance
18:59to impose his racist plans
19:01on European Jews.
19:03It began in 1941,
19:04and came to an end
19:05when the war did in 1945.
19:07Germany tried hard to keep it secret,
19:09but failed in this regard.
19:11It became widely known in 1945,
19:13but rumors of the horrors
19:14first reached the Allies in 1942.
19:17Deaths of millions
19:18were caused by starvation and disease.
19:21They knew Hitler was persecuting
19:22followers of Judaism,
19:23but it was only when
19:24the concentration camps were liberated
19:26that we understood the severity.
19:28Maidonic,
19:29captured by the Soviets in 1944,
19:31became the first camp
19:32whose terrors were published.
19:34I need to take a deep breath.
19:36The brutality and cold-bloodedness,
19:38the extent of the crimes committed here,
19:40is unbelievable.
19:42Were there any particularly
19:43monumental moments we failed to mention?
19:45Let us know in the comments section.
19:53Let us know in the comments section.
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