5 Shocking Historical Events

5 Shocking Historical Events

Five shocking historical events include the Holocaust, the Holodomor famine in Ukraine, the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, World War I, and World War II. These events collectively represent the extreme violence, suffering, and devastation that humanity has experienced. 

History

1-The Dancing Plague of 1518 (Strasbourg, Alsace)

n July 1518, a woman named Frau Troffea began dancing uncontrollably in the streets of Strasbourg. Within days, dozens joined her, and by the end of the month, hundreds were dancing without stopping—some until they collapsed from exhaustion, heart attacks, or strokes. Historical records from city chronicles report up to 15 deaths per day at the peak. Authorities, believing it was caused by “hot blood,” encouraged more dancing by building a stage and hiring musicians, which only worsened the mania. The event lasted about a month before fading. Modern theories suggest ergot poisoning (a hallucinogenic fungus on rye) or mass psychogenic illness triggered by famine and disease.

The Dancing Plague of 1518 was an outbreak of dancing mania that occurred in Strasbourg, Alsace, in the Holy Roman Empire (modern-day France), lasting from mid-July to September. The event began when a woman named Frau Troffea began dancing uncontrollably in the street. Within days, dozens of people joined her, with the number growing to around 400 at its peak. Many of the dancers appeared to be in a trance, unable to stop until they collapsed from exhaustion. 

July 14, 1518: A woman, reportedly Frau Troffea, started dancing in the street outside her home. Despite attempts by her husband to make her stop, she continued for days.

Late July: Over 30 people had joined the dancing, which showed no signs of stopping.

August: The number of afflicted people swelled to hundreds. Accounts from the time describe a frantic and frenzied scene, with some dancers crying out in pain. Some chronicles suggest that many dancers died from exhaustion, heart attacks, or strokes.

Initial authorities’ response: Believing the dancers were suffering from a medical condition caused by “hot blood,” the Strasbourg city council, advised by physicians, ordered that more dancing would help them recover. They set up stages and hired musicians to encourage the dancing, but this only made the situation worse.

Later authorities’ response: Realizing their initial approach had failed, officials banned public dancing and music. The most severely affected dancers were sent to a shrine dedicated to St. Vitus in Saverne, as it was widely believed that St. Vitus had cursed the dancers.

September: The plague began to subside after the dancers were taken to the shrine and religious rituals were performed. 

2-The Great Emu War (Australia)

After World War I, Australian veterans were given farmland in Western Australia, but in 1932, around 20,000 emus migrated into the region during breeding season, devastating wheat crops. The government deployed soldiers armed with Lewis machine guns to cull the birds. Over several weeks, the military fired thousands of rounds but killed only a few hundred emus—the birds scattered in small groups, outmaneuvered the troops, and proved remarkably resilient. Official reports admitted failure, with one commander noting the emus’ superior tactics. The “war” ended in defeat for the humans, and farmers resorted to bounties and fences

The Great Emu War of 1932 was a bizarre and largely unsuccessful military operation in Western Australia, in which the Australian Army was deployed to combat a large population of emus that were destroying farmland. The “war,” which lasted about a month, is largely remembered as a failure for the Australian military, with the resilient emus effectively winning the conflict. 

• Post-WWI Settlement: Following World War I, the Australian government settled many returning soldiers on farms in the Western Australian wheat belt.
• Economic Hardship: These farmers were already struggling due to the Great Depression and plummeting wheat prices.
• Emu Migration: Around 20,000 emus, a large, flightless native bird, migrated to the area in search of food and water due to their natural breeding season and local drought conditions.
• Crop Destruction: The emus began to wreak havoc on the wheat crops, trampling and eating the valuable grain and destroying fences. Desperate, the farmers requested military aid from the government. 

The military operation officially ended by December 10, 1932. Major Meredith claimed a final tally of 986 “definite kills,” with 9,860 rounds of ammunition used, a ratio of exactly 10 rounds per kill, which was highly dubious. 

The “war” was deemed an utter failure for the military, and the emus were seen as the victors. The government ultimately found more success through an alternative approach: implementing a bounty system for farmers to shoot the birds themselves and erecting vermin-proof fences. 

3-The Cadaver Synod of 897 (Rome)

In January 897, Pope Stephen VI ordered the exhumation of his predecessor, Pope Formosus, who had died nine months earlier. Formosus’s corpse was dressed in papal vestments, propped on a throne, and put on trial for perjury and illegal ascension to the papacy.

A deacon was appointed to speak for the rotting body, which was found “guilty.” The corpse was stripped, three fingers of its right hand (used for blessings) were cut off, and it was thrown into the Tiber River.

This macabre event, known as the Synodus Horrenda, reflected intense political factionalism in the crumbling Carolingian Empire. Soon after, Stephen VI was deposed and strangled, and Formosus was later rehabilitated.

The Cadaver Synod (or “Cadaver Trial,” Latin: Synodus Horrenda) of 897 was one of the most bizarre and macabre events in papal history, in which the corpse of a deceased pope, Formosus, was exhumed and put on trial by his successor, Pope Stephen VI, in Rome.

The event was a reflection of the intense and violent political factionalism that characterized the papacy in the late 9th century. 
Date and Location: The trial took place in January 897, in the Basilica of St. John Lateran in Rome.

The Accused: The body of Pope Formosus, who had died about nine months earlier in April 896, was exhumed from its tomb.

The Procedure: The rotting corpse was dressed in full papal vestments and propped up on a throne for the duration of the trial. Pope Stephen VI acted as the prosecutor, screaming accusations at the silent body. A young deacon was forced to stand by the corpse and speak on its behalf as a defense lawyer, though it was a rigged show trial. 

4-The Kingdom of Tavolara’s Micronation Claim (1836–present, Sardinia)

Kingdom of Tavolara is a micronation claim on the island of Tavolara, located off the northeast coast of Sardinia, Italy. It began in 1836 when Giuseppe Bertoleoni, the island’s sole inhabitant, was allegedly recognized as its king by Charles Albert, the reigning King of Sardinia.

The Bertoleoni family has continued the royal claim to the present day, though the “kingdom” was never officially recognized by the Kingdom of Italy. 

Later developments and decline

• Royal Photo for Queen Victoria: In 1900, at the request of Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom, a British naval vessel visited Tavolara to photograph King Carlo I Bertoleoni and his family. The photograph, with the caption “The Royal Family of Tavolara, in the Gulf of Terranova, the smallest kingdom in the world,” is said to be displayed in Buckingham Palace.
• Annexation by Italy: After the formation of the Kingdom of Italy in 1861, the Italian government paid the Bertoleoni family for land to build a lighthouse on the island. In 1934, after the death of the regent Mariangela, Tavolara was formally, though not officially, incorporated into Italy.
• Establishment of NATO Base: A NATO military base was installed on the island in 1962, further solidifying Italian authority and displacing most of the island’s population. 

Current status

• Modern-day Claimants: Today, the claim to the Tavolara throne continues to be passed down through the Bertoleoni family. The current claimant, “King” Tonino Bertoleoni, runs a beachside restaurant on the island named “Da Tonino”.
• Tourist Attraction: The island is now part of the Tavolara and Punta Coda Cavallo Marine Protected Area and is a popular destination for tourists, who are often charmed by the story of the “smallest kingdom in the world”.
• Not a Sovereign State: The Kingdom of Tavolara is not recognized by any other sovereign state but is managed by the Italian municipality of Olbia. 

In 1836, Giuseppe Bertoleoni, a shepherd, declared himself king of the tiny uninhabited island of Tavolara after King Charles Albert of Sardinia allegedly granted him sovereignty during a hunting trip (to avoid taxing the island’s wild goats). The Bertoleoni family ruled as a “kingdom” for generations, issuing stamps, coins, and even death certificates

. A photograph from 1903 shows King Carlo I with the Italian navy. Though never internationally recognized, the “kingdom” persisted; today, the family still runs restaurants on the island and claims the title. It’s one of the world’s smallest and longest-lasting self-declared monarchies.

5-The Tunguska Event (Siberia, Russia)

The Tunguska Event of 1908 was a massive, mysterious airburst explosion that occurred over the remote East Siberian taiga, near the Podkamennaya Tunguska River, on June 30, 1908. It is the largest impact event on Earth in recorded history, yet it left no impact crater. The event is now widely attributed to the atmospheric explosion of a small asteroid or comet fragment. 

The Event and its Effects

• Date and Time: June 30, 1908, around 7:17 a.m. local time.
• Location: Sparsely populated central Siberia, Russian Empire.
• Eyewitness Accounts: Local Evenki natives and Russian settlers witnessed a brilliant, sun-like fireball streaking across the sky,
• followed by an immense flash and a shock wave that knocked people off their feet and broke windows hundreds of kilometers away. The intense heat was described by one witness as making his shirt feel like it was on fire.
• Devastation: The blast flattened an estimated 80 million trees over an area of approximately 2,150 square kilometers (830 square miles) in a distinct radial pattern,
•  but left the trees at the hypocenter stripped of their branches and standing upright.
• Global Impact: The explosion registered on seismic stations across Eurasia and produced air waves detected as far away as Washington D.C. and Jakarta.
• For several days afterward, night skies across Asia and Europe were abnormally bright, a phenomenon possibly caused by dust and ice particles dispersed high into the atmosphere.
• Casualties: Due to the extreme remoteness of the region, there were no confirmed human fatalities, though some sources suggest up to three people may have died,
• and local reindeer herds were devastated. 

Scientific Explanations

The primary mystery of the Tunguska event was the absence of a crater or large meteorite fragments, leading to various theories over the decades, including science fiction ideas about alien spacecraft or antimatter. 

The scientific consensus today is that the explosion was caused by an “airburst” event:

• Asteroid or Comet: Scientists believe a stony asteroid (estimated to be 50-80 meters in diameter) or a comet fragment entered the Earth’s atmosphere at a high speed.
• Mid-Air Explosion: Instead of hitting the ground, the object exploded at an altitude of 5 to 10 kilometers (3 to 6 miles) due to intense atmospheric pressure and heat.
• Massive Energy Release: The explosion released energy equivalent to approximately 10–30 megatons of TNT, which is hundreds to a thousand times more powerful than the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima.
• No Crater: Because the object disintegrated completely in the atmosphere, all of its material vaporized or scattered as microscopic dust, leaving no impact crater on the ground. 

The Tunguska Event serves as a stark reminder of the potential threats posed by near-Earth objects and has spurred modern efforts in planetary defense to track and catalog such objects. 

On June 30, 1908, a massive explosion flattened 2,000 square kilometers of remote Siberian forest—equivalent to 10–15 megatons of TNT, or 1,000 times the Hiroshima bomb.

Eyewitnesses 60 km away were knocked off their feet; seismic stations in Europe recorded the shock. No crater or meteorite fragments were found, leading to the conclusion it was an airburst from a comet or asteroid fragment exploding 5–10 km above ground.

The blast’s energy was felt across Eurasia, and nights glowed for days due to dust in the atmosphere. Soviet expeditions in the 1920s confirmed the devastation but no impact site, making it the largest recorded impact event in history—yet it occurred over an unpopulated area, sparing human l