/r/TheGrittyPast
A collection of the most gritty, dramatic, and awe-inspiring moments from history.
Welcome to The Gritty Past!
Here, we post the most sobering, tragic, heroic - and often violent - accounts from history. History of any culture and era is welcome here.
Ultimately, the purpose of TheGrittyPast is to humble and inspire, but we encourage any academic discussion that may be the result of a submission. We heavily encourage other fans of history to post their own content - the more the better!
For similar content, consider the following:
/r/jessicamshannon
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Amazing
Disturbing
Heroic
Moving
Sobering
Tragic
Violent
Rules
Rule 1: All submitted content must be historical.
Submissions should always be historical - be they anecdotal, recordings, or published accounts. By our definition of history, we insist that content refer to events taking place 20 years ago or more. If you are confused as to whether or not your submission would qualify, feel free to contact the mods and we will be happy to weigh in on the issue.
Rule 2: Submissions must be verifiable.
Either link directly to a reliable source that supports every claim in your submission, or cite your sources in the text post. Citations do not necessarily have to follow a specific format, but they should include a title for the source-material, author, page, and year published, when available. If your content is another type of media (video/audio, etc), please leave a comment below your submission that explains it or lists any source material available.
Rule 3: Don't break Reddit's rules.
Violations of the global user agreement will not be tolerated.
Rule 4: Be civil.
Spamming, personal attacks upon, or harassment of a user will not be tolerated.
Rule 5: Factually inaccurate content may be removed.
Factually inaccurate submissions & comments are subject to removal. The user will be notified of this in the event of a submission/comment removal, and is encouraged to resubmit with any necessary corrections.
Rule 6: No pseudo-history or holocaust denial.
The merits of these things are best discussed elsewhere and are inappropriate material for the sub. This is not the place to "wake up the sheeple."
Rule 7: No politics or soap-boxing will be tolerated.
Submissions & comments that are overtly political will be removed; political topics are only acceptable if discussed in a historical context. Comments should discuss a historical topic, not advocate an agenda. This is entirely at the moderators' discretion.
Rule 8: Please post one or more submission highlights if posting links to articles or videos.
If submitting a link, we ask that you provide, in the comments, one or more particularly appropriate lines or passages that showcase the tragic or moving aspects of the event.
If submitting a video link, we ask that you provide selected, transcribed passages in the same manner. Timestamps to said material are required for video links that are more than 3 minutes in length (and encouraged in general).
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/r/TheGrittyPast
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The dead body of a Nazi after the firebombing of Dresden. Taken months after the bombing in February 1945.
02:54 UTC
Soviet soldiers publicly sexually harass a German woman in Leipzig after winning World War 2. 1945.
02:53 UTC
Whipping post with two African American men in Delaware. Circa 1889.
02:41 UTC
Charred corpse of Jesse Washington, 17, after lynching. Waco, Texas. May 15, 1916. Convicted of murdering and raping a white woman. Chained by his neck, dragged and paraded through town, then held down and castrated. Over 10,000 spectators, including city officials and police, gathered to watch.
02:21 UTC
Private Phillip Hattle of the Union Army was admitted into hospital treatment on June 6th, 1865. He died on June 25th, 1865, caused by ill treatment while a prisoner of war in the hands of the Confederates.
02:10 UTC
"Preparing to eat the mummy" - Kwakiutl man(?) crouched, cradling mummy bound in fetal position. Circa 1911.
14:10 UTC
Two shrunken heads. A New Guinea cannibal girl's skull killed by a 12 yr. old boy to permit marriage; and smallest shrunken warrior's head in U.S. - head hunter of Amazon Peru. Circa 1934.
01:43 UTC
The bones of tenants whose burial rental was not renewed. Santa Cruz Cemetery, Manila, Philippines. Circa 1899.
01:38 UTC
KKK on casket: Interior of Morton Funeral Home, Columbia, Tennessee, showing vandalism of race riots, including "KKK" written across lid of coffin.
22:41 UTC
A Confederate soldier lies dead in the trenches of Fort Mahone, Petersburg, Virginia. April 3rd, 1865.
22:13 UTC
Sketch of the corpse of Reverend James Hackman who was executed for the murder of Martha Ray, singer and mistress of John Montagu, 4th Earl of Sandwich. He became enamored with her. He suspected she had a new lover, fetched two pistols, shot Martha, tried to shoot himself, failed. Sentenced, hanged.
08:33 UTC
Susan Smith, a girl of 17, was pregnant with an unwanted child. Unable to abort the pregnancy, she murdered the baby shortly after it was born, "cut its throat ear to ear as soon as it was born." Her crime was discovered when a neighbor saw her attempting to burn the baby's corpse in a fireplace.
06:38 UTC
US military personnel stack coffins containing the remains of the victims of the Jonestown tragedy. November 20, 1978.
06:54 UTC
"Fragmented Human Skeleton Left by the Atomic Bomb in Nagasaki, Japan" October 1945.
03:08 UTC
Killer of two American flyers, former Nazi official Franz Strasser receives last rites from German Catholic priest Karl Morgenschweis. The German waits for the sentence to be executed at the Landsberg Punishment Prison, Landsberg, Germany. German civilians will hang him." December 10th, 1945.
16:00 UTC
A World War 1 veteran who underwent early reconstructive facial surgery adorned with an artificial face. Many such examples from this time period. Circa 1918.
14:53 UTC
"A 12-year-old Burmese boy beaten by the Japanese with shovels and rifle butts, suffers from bayonet wounds. He was buried alive in a shallow grave but crawled out. He was found by a patrol of the 1st Royal Scots Fusiliers." January 14th, 1945.
01:25 UTC
Photo taken at the instant bullets from a French firing squad hit a Frenchman who collaborated with the Germans. This execution took place in Rennes, France. November 21, 1944.
17:19 UTC
"Scene of General Custer's last stand, looking in the direction of the ford and the Indian village." A pile of bones on the Little Big Horn battlefield is all that remains, circa 1877.
16:50 UTC
"Dachau Atrocity Camp. Stacked like cordwood, naked bodies of inmates of the infamous Dachau Concentration Camp awaiting cremation when 7th U.S. Army troops liberated the camp. A pool of blood gathers on the floor." 1945.
04:13 UTC
Jewish Man in German Prison Camp, June 28th, 1941.
02:26 UTC
St. Jean cemetery in St. Quentin destroyed by English shell fire. April 1917.
14:57 UTC
"Remains of a Boche" - Skeleton of a German soldier on the ground surrounded by debris, fully clothed. "Boche" is a derogatory trench slang term used by the French (and sometimes borrowed by the British) to refer to Germans. Western Front of World War 1, 1918.
03:26 UTC
The Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial in France located in Colleville-sur-Mer, established on June 8, 1944 contains the graves of 9,389 soldiers; including 45 pairs of brothers, a father and his son, an uncle and his nephew, 2 pairs of cousins, 3 generals, 4 chaplains, 4 civilians, & 4 women.
23:37 UTC