List of massacres
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Massacre has a number of meanings, but most commonly refers to individual events of deliberate and direct mass killing, especially of noncombatant civilians or other innocents that would qualify as war crimes or atrocities. Massacres in this sense do not typically apply to combatants, except figuratively, although the deliberate mass killings of prisoners of war are often considered massacres.
At the same time, the term massacre is used more widely to refer to individual, civil, or military mass killings on smaller scales, but having distinct political significance in shaping subsequent events, such as the Boston Massacre. Individual or small group acts of murder may also be described as massacres for sensationalist or sentimental reasons, as in the case of some school shootings. Additionally, the word massacre is often used for political or propaganda purposes, and the choice of whether to label an event a massacre may become a sensitive one; see, for example, the Kent State Massacre.
Below is a list of incidents that either meet the criteria of resulting in large numbers of deliberate and direct civilian deaths in a single event, or that are commonly labelled as massacres, though they may not be on the same scale. Generally, the list includes individual events only, but where such an event includes too many individual massacres to list seperately (e.g. The Holocaust, Great Purge), the wider event may be listed as well as some of the more prominent individual massacres. Note that the figure for deaths is usually an estimate, and is frequently contested. See the individual article on each massacre for more information. Also see democide for a listing of large-scale massacres by governments over longer periods of time.
Massacres in which 10,000 or more civilians were intentionally killed are listed in bold.
| Date | Name | Deaths | Location | Comments | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 334 BCE | Destruction of Thebes | ~6,000-8,000 | Greece | Alexander the Great slaughters the population of the city when it revolts. Between 334-324 BCE, Alexander will massacre at least a quarter million city dwellers at Sindimana, Gaza, and other locations. | |
| 150 BCE | Lustanian Massacres | ~8,000 | now Spain | Roman troops under Galba massacre Lusitani citizens after convincing them to surrender. | |
| 71 BCE | Slave Revolt | ~6,000 | Roman Republic | Surrendering slaves are crucified along the Via Appia. | |
| 1 | Massacre of the Innocents | ? | Bethlehem | A biblical event in which Herod the Great orders male children killed, the historicity of this massacre is uncertain. | |
| 532 | Nika riots | ~30,000 | Byzantine Empire | After a sports rivalry turns to full-scale revolution, Justinian I locks the rioters in the Hippodrome and has them killed. | |
| 782 | Killing of non-Christian Saxons | 4,500 | Verdun | by Charlemagne | |
| November 13, 1002 | St. Brice's Day Massacre | ~Unknown | England | Danes ordered slaughtered by Ethelred II of England, unclear how many actually were. | |
| 1096 | German Crusade, 1096 | ~10,000 | Along the Rhine River | "People's Crusade" prior to the First Crusade killed thousands of Jews along the Rhine; see also Emich of Leiningen | |
| 1098 | First Crusade | ~100,000 | Antioch | Almost all Muslim inhabitants slaughtered after the fall of the city to the Crusaders. 12,000 Christians are killed two centuries later when the city is retaken by Muslims. | |
| 1099 | First Crusade | ~70,000 | Jerusalem | Almost all Muslim and Jewish inhabitants slaughtered after the fall of the city to the Crusaders. | |
| March 16, 1190 | Clifford's Tower | ~150 | York, England | Mob attacks Jewish residents; many commit suicide | |
| August 20, 1191 | Massacre of the Saracens | 2750 | Akko | Richard the Lionheart slaughters the civilian population of Akko. | |
| July 25, 1209 | Albigensian Crusade | 20,000-100,000 | Beziers, France | Crusades slaughter the Cathars, other civilian slaughters occur in Tolouse and St. Nazair. | |
| June 1220 | Samarkand Massacre | ~75,000 | Samarkand, Khwarezm (present day Iran and Iraq) | During Mongols under Genghis Khan sieged to the capitol city of Khwarezm and, after the Turkish garrison surrendered the city, drove out the remaining population slaughtering over 75,000 men, women, and children. | |
| June 1221 | Herat Massacre | 1,600,000 | Herat | Ghengis Khan destroys the city and massacres the population. | |
| 1282 | Sicilian Vespers | thousands | Italy | French citizens of Sicily killed as part of a revolt. | |
| 1358 | Jacquerie Revolts | 8,000 | Meaux | Peasants massacred after revolt put down. | |
| 1384 | Black Death Scapegoats | 6,000-16,000 | Germany | Jews blamed for the Black Death, up to 12,000 killed in Mainz, 4,000 in Strasbourg. | |
| 1398 | Masscre of Delhi | 100,000 | Delhi | Timur Lenk massacres prisoners, total deaths from his conquests will exceed 20 million | |
| October 25, 1415 | Agincourt | ~5,000 | Agincourt, France | One of the major atrocities committed during the Hundred Years War: Henry V, in order to raise enough soldiers guarding the French Nobles, orders the deaths of 5,000 prisoners of war during the Battle of Agincourt after receiving reports of French forces breaking though the English rear defenses and attacking its supply lines. | |
| 1570 | Novgorod Massacre | 10,000-100,000 | Novgorod Republic | Ivan the Terrible slaughters the population of Novgorod. | |
| August 24, 1572 | St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre | 70,000 | France | A wave of Catholic mob violence against the Huguenots | |
| September 20, 1565 | Fort Caroline | ~Unknown | Fort Caroline, Florida [US] | Spanish forces under naval officer Pedro Menendez de Aviles attack and destroy Fort Caroline killing most of the settlers. Renaming the settlement San Mateo the Spanish would use the fort as one of many bases in which Menendez would search for a water passage through Florida. | |
| September 12, 1571 | Enryakuji set fire | ~3,000 | Enryakuji , Japan | ||
| March 22, 1622 | Jamestown | ~347 | Jamestown, Virginia [United States] | Led by Opechancanough, brother of Powhatan, local tribes attack the Virginia Colony destroying virtualy all the settlements save the heavily fortified Jamestown. | |
| May 10, 1631 | Sack of Magdeburg | 20,000 | Magdeburg | ||
| October 23 onwards, 1641 | Ulster 1641 | 4,000 | Ulster, Ireland | English Protestant Planters killed by dispossed Irish Catholics | |
| 1648-1649 | Chmielnicki Uprising | 100,000 | Poland | Jews and Polish nobles killed by Cossacks under Bohdan Chmielnicki | |
| September 11 1649 | Fall of Drogheda | 4,000 | Ireland | Surrendering Garrison and civilians massacred by troops of Oliver Cromwell | |
| February 13, 1692 | Massacre of Glencoe | 78 | Scotland | ||
| September 22, 1711 | Tuscarora | ~Unknown | North Carolina [US] | The Tuscarora kill an unknown number of settlers along the Chowan and Roanoke Rivers in northeastern North Carolina as well as abandoning the settlement of New Bern beginning the Tuscarora War lasting from 1711-1713. | |
| April 1715 | Yamassee | ~Unknown | South Carolina [US] | With Spanish support the Yamassee kill several hundred South Carolina settlers. This act would begin a violent conflict between South Carolina colonists, allied with the Cherokee, defeating the Yamassee northwest of Port Royal, South Carolina almost a year later in January 1716. | |
| 1755 | Deportation of the Acadians in New France | New France | |||
| 1763 | Distribution of blankets exposed to smallpox to American Indians | unknown | Fort Pitt | During Pontiac's Rebellion, in which many white noncombatants (perhaps hundreds) were killed by Native American warriors, British General Jeffrey Amherst wrote a letter suggesting this tactic to stop the assault, but it is uncertain anyone died as a result. | |
| 1768 | Koliwszczyzna | ? | massacre of Poles and Jews in Human, Ukraine | ||
| March 5, 1770 | Boston Massacre | 5 | British colony, now US state of Massachusetts | In the early days of the American Revolution, British soldiers open fire upon a hostile crowd. | |
| July 3, 1778 | Wyoming Valley Massacre | ~Unknown | Pennsylvania | Occurred during the American Revolutionary War; labeled a massacre but most deaths were in battle. | |
| 11 November 1778 | Cherry Valley Massacre | 33 | eastern New York | During the American Revolutionary War, Iroquois warriors raid a village, killing and scalping civilians, including women and children. | |
| May 29, 1780 | Waxhaw Massacre | ~113 plus 100+ mortally wounded | Buford, South Carolina - the Waxhaws | British Col. Banastre Tarleton killed some Americans as they attempted to surrender; many of the deaths were in battle. | |
| March 8, 1782 | Gnadenhutten massacre | 96 | Gnadenhutten, Ohio | During the American Revolutionary War, Pennsylvania militia execute Christian Lenape non-combatants, mostly women and children. | |
| 1794 | Raze of Praga | 20,000 | Praga, Warsaw, Poland | Praga, the eastern borough of Warsaw looted and burnt by Russian forces under Aleksandr Suvorov | |
| 29th May, 1798 | Gibbet Rath Massacre | 350 | Kildare, Ireland | British troops massacre surrendering rebels during rebellion of 1798 | |
| April 6-9, 1812 | Badajoz | ~Unknown | Badajoz, Spain | After a four week siege British soldiers under the Duke of Wellington siezed the Spanish city of Badajoz, a fortress on the Spanish-Portuguese border, from French control. After the battle however British soldiers began looting the city for three days before Wellington could regain control. This was one of the most serious breakdowns of control over British military forces during the Napoleonic Wars. | |
| August 15, 1812 | Fort Dearborn Massacre | ~46 | Fort Dearborn (present day Chicago), Illinois | Receiving a guarantee of safe passage from British and American Indian allies to evacuate Fort Dearborn, under orders from American General William Hull, the US troop column of 54 soldiers, 12 milita, 9 women, and 18 children, while escorted by Indian guides, joined in an attack by larger Indian force while on route to Detriot with over half of the column killed and the remainder captured several of which were ransomed to Detroit. | |
| January, 1813 | River Raisin Massacre | 30–60 | Monroe, Michigan | prisoners scalped during the War of 1812 | |
| August 16, 1819 | Peterloo massacre | 11 | United Kingdom | ||
| August 2, 1832 | Bad Axe River | ~Unknown | Bad Axe River, Wisconsin [US] | Illinois militia under the command of General Henry Atkinson attack a Sauk camp at the mouth of Bad Axe River where many Sauk women and children are killed in the fighting. Shortly after the Winnebago would abandon Black Hawk forcing him and the Sauk to surrender several weeks later ending the Black Hawk War. | |
| 1836 | Goliad massacre | 342 | Goliad, Texas | Mexican army executes American prisoners of war | |
| February 16, 1838 | Weenen Massacre | ~300 | South Africa | Zulus massacre Voortrekker men, women, and children | |
| 1838 | Myall Creek Massacre | 40 | Australia | Aboriginal people were murdered by white stockmen taking revenge for lost cattle. | |
| November 29, 1847 | Whitman massacre | ? | near Walla Walla, Washington | Medical mission established by Marcus Whitman attacked by the Cayuse | |
| 1848 | Rabacja | ? | Galicia | massacre of Polish nobles by peasants | |
| October 26, 1853 | Gunnison Massacre | ? | Utah territory | Exploration party of John Gunnison killed by Pahvant Utes | |
| May 24–25, 1856 | Pottawatomie Massacre | 5 | Franklin County, Kansas | Radical abolitionist John Brown murders pro-slavery men with swords in "Bleeding Kansas" | |
| June 27-July 15, 1857 | Cawnpore | ~200 | Cawnpore, India | During the Sepoy Rebellion the British garrison at Cawnpore agreed to abandon the post under the agreement they would be granted a safe escort by Nana Sahib. However as they left the city the men were immediately massacred and 200 women and children were held in the Bibi-Ghar (House of the Women) where they were killed on July 15, 1857. When the British recaptured Cawnpore they reportedly forced each Sepoy prisoner to lick one square foot of the bloodstained floor where the massacres took place before being hanged. | |
| September 11, 1857 | Mountain Meadows Massacre | 120 | Utah, United States | Mormon militia and Paiutes kill an entire wagon train of Arkansas farming families. | |
| August 21, 1863 | Lawrence Massacre | ~150 | Lawrence, Kansas | Confederate raiders under William Quantrill loot and burn the town killing over 150 men. | |
| April 12, 1864 | Fort Pillow | ~354 | Fort Pillow, Tennessee | After Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest demand of the surrender of Union Fort Pillow was refused Forrest's forces assaulted the fort defenses in a particularly violent battle until a white flag was flown by the Union defenders. However Confederate forces continued firing upon the surrendering soldiers killing or wounding over 354 of the 580 men. | |
| November 29, 1864 | Sand Creek Massacre | ~150 | Colorado Territory | United States cavalry troops kill Cheyenne and Arapaho peoples in an undefended Native American village. | |
| March 10, 1873 | Canby Massacre | ~4 | Four of seven Americans as part of a peace delegation led by General E. R. S. Canby, under the pretext of peace negotiations, are killed by Modoc leader Captain Jack during the Modoc War. | ||
| April 13, 1873 | Colfax Massacre | 100 | Colfax, Louisiana | ||
| June 1, 1873 | Cypress Hills Massacre | 16–23 | Cypress Hills, Saskatchewan, Canada | 16-22 Nakoda (Assiniboine) killed by American wolfers. 1 American was killed. | |
| May 4, 1886 | Haymarket Riot | 12 | Chicago | Bomb tossed amongst police and striking workers | |
| December 29, 1890 | Wounded Knee Massacre | 153–300 | Wounded Knee, South Dakota | Last confrontation of US troops and the Great Sioux Nation | |
| September 10,1897 | Lattimer Massacre | 19 | Hazleton, Pennsylvania | Luzerne County Sheriff's posse fires on strikers at the request of mining companies | |
| 1894 | First Armenian Massacre | 100,000-300,000 | Ottoman Empire | ||
| 1903 | Kishinev pogrom | 45 | (Chisinau) - Moldova | ||
| April 20, 1914 | Ludlow Massacre | 20 | Ludlow, Colorado | Suppression of a strike by twelve thousand Colorado coal miners. | |
| 1915 | Second Armenian Massacre | 0.2–1.8 million | Anatolia | Deportation of ethnic Armenians by the Young Turks. | |
| July 17, 1918 | Romanov massacre | ~10 | Yekaterinburg, Russia | Bolshevik execution of Nicholas II and the Russian royal household | |
| April 13, 1919 | Jallianwala Bagh Massacre | ~379-400 | India | British troops led by Brigadier General Reginald Dyer fired 1650 rounds of ammunitions into a crowd of 20,000 people gathered in a garden with its sole exit blocked to prevent people from escaping. | |
| 1922 | Smyrna | 2,000-100,000 | Greece | Burning of Smyrna by Turkish troops | |
| September 1–8, 1923 | Kanto massacre | ~2,711–6,415 | Kanto region, Japan | Korean and Okinawan immigrants blamed for looting and arson | |
| November 21, 1927 | Columbine Mine Massacre | at least 6 | Serene, Colorado | 500 striking coal miners, some with their families, were attacked with machine guns by a detachment of state police dressed in civilian clothes | |
| February 14, 1929 | St. Valentine's Day Massacre | 7 | Chicago | Bugs Moran's gang is murdered by Al Capone's men | |
| 1929 | First Hebron massacre | ~67 | Palestine | Arab mob massacred and "pogromed" at least 67 Jews and wiped out the old Jewish settlement in Hebron | |
| May 14, 1931 | Ådalen 31 | 5 | Sweden | Swedish military forces open fire against labor demonstrators, killing 5 people | |
| early 1932 | La Matanza | ~30,000 | El Salvador | Massacre of mostly indigenous people, committed by the military government after having crushed a peasants' rebellion | |
| 1937-1938 | Great Purge | 681,692 | Soviet Union | Stalinist purges aimed at perceived dissidents, over 1.3 million will eventually be killed. | |
| 1937 | Nanjing Massacre | 200,000 | China | by Imperial Japanese Soldiers, also called Rape of Nanking | |
| February 19-21, 1937 | Addis Ababa | 3,000 | Ethiopia | by Italian soldiers | |
| 1938 | Kristallnacht | 36–200 | Germany | also called Pogromnacht | |
| September 1939 | Bromberg Bloody Sunday | up to 8000 | Bydgoszcz, Poland | Killing of between 358 and 5,000 ethnic Germans during the Polish Defence War of 1939 and subsequent massacre of ~3,000 Polish civilians as a reprisal. | |
| December 27, 1939 | Wawer | 107 | Poland | 120 men caught in a łapanka shot as a reprisal for death of two German soldiers, 13 of them survived the massacre under the pile of bodies. | |
| December 1939 - July 1940 | Palmiry | ~2000 | Poland | Gestapo murder systematically members of Polish intelligentsia, sportsmen, politicians and common people. | |
| 1940 | Katyn Massacre | 25,700 | Soviet Union | Russian massacre of Polish intelligentsia, POW reserve officers | |
| 1941-1945 | The Holocaust | 5.6 to 5.9 million | Europe | Systematic destruction of European Jewry by Nazi Germany and its collaborators, including the mass deportation of Jews, Gypsies, and homosexuals to Concentration Camps. Some individual incidents of massacres are noted in this table, but camps such as Auschwitz and Treblinka accounted for the bulk of the slaughter. | |
| April 1, 1941 | Fāntāna Albă massacre | ~1000 | Soviet Union | Russian massacre of Romanian civilians in Northern Bukovina | |
| June 28, 1941 | Bialystock | 2,200 | Poland | In one of the first massacres of Jews, the German reserve Police Battalion 309 gathered the Jews of Bialystock into the central synagogue and set it on fire, shooting people who tried to flee. | |
| July 3-4, 1941 | Massacre of Lwów professors | 45 | Lwów, Poland | Part of the AB Action, forty-five university professors are executed by an Einsatzkommado unit following the German capture of the city on June 30. | |
| July 10, 1941 | Massacre in Jedwabne | 380–1600 | Poland | Jewish residents of Jedwabane are marched into the center of the city where there are beaten, tortured, and killed by their Polish neighbors, although some Poles argue that German police or troops were involved. | |
| September 29–30, 1941 | Babi Yar massacre | 33,771 | Ukraine | The Jewish population of Kiev was systematically marched out in small groups to a ditch at Babi Yar and machine-gunned. | |
| July 1941- August 1944 | Ponary | ~100,000 | Lithuania | Jews of Vilna marched to Ponary and shot. 30,000 were killed in 1941 alone. | |
| October 12 and October 13 1941 | Dnepropetrovsk | 12,000 | Ukraine | Einsatzkommando 6 massacres most of the remaining Jews of the town, marching them to a ravine where they were killed. | |
| October 20 and October 21 1941 | Kragujevac | 4,000 | Serbia | Reprisal killings by German forces after the death of 10 soldiers at the hands of partisans. | |
| October 22 and October 23 1941 | Odessa | 36,000 | Ukraine | Mass shootings of the Jews of Odessa. | |
| October 28 1941 | Ninth Fort | 9,000 | Latvia | Jews of Kovno who were not able to work, including women and children, were marched to the Ninth Fort and shot. Over 40,000 Jews will eventually be killed there. | |
| November 30-December 8 1941 | Rumbula | 25,000 | Latvia | Jews of Riga are transported to the forest and shot. | |
| December 30 1941 | Simferopol | 10,000 | Crimea | Mass killings of Jews, after this massacre, many Jews are transported to death camps and gassed, rather than being shot on site. | |
| February - March 1942 | Sook Ching Massacre | 5000-100,000 (Singapore only) | Malaya & Singapore | Japanese troops execute ethnic Chinese Malayans and Singaporeans suspected of being hostile | |
| April 1942 | Bataan Death March | 5,650 | Philippines | American and Philipine POWs are marched to prison camps and killed if they fall behind. | |
| June 10, 1942 | Lidice | ~172 | Lidice, Czechoslovakia | After Czech agents, with British assistance, assassinate Nazi Protector of Bohemia-Morovia, and former Deputy Chief of the Gestapo, Reinhard Heydrich the small Czechoslovakian town of Lidice is surrounded by the German SS and all men and teenagers over 16 are rounded up and shot. The remaining women and children are sent to concentration camps and the village is destroyed. | |
| October 29 1942 | Pinsk | 16,000 | Belorussia | Mass executions of Jews | |
| February 1943 | Massacres of Poles in Volhynia | ~100,000 | Ukraine | ||
| July, 1943 | Canicatti slaughter | 12 | Sicily | US Troops kill unarmed civilians at a soap factory. | |
| July 14, 1943 | Biscari Massacre | 76 | Sicily | US Troops kill German and Italian POWs. | |
| September 9, 1943 | Foiba | 15,000-30,000 | Istria and Dalmatia in Italy | Communist troops under Tito's command kill Italian citizens until 1947 | |
| December 16, 1943 | Kalavryta | 696 | Greece | The male residents of the town are slaughtered by German troops in revenge for partisan activities. | |
| February, 1944 | Manila Massacre | 100,000 | Philippines | Retreating Japanese troops slaughter at least 100,000 Filipino civilians. Manila is razed, making it the 2nd most devastated city in WWII after Warsaw. | |
| January 28-29, 1944 | Koniuchy Massacre | 36-50 | Poland | Civilians of Koniuchy murdered by 120 members of Soviet partisan groups, including the Lithuanian Brigade | |
| April 2, 1944 | Ascq massacre | ~86 | France | After two railway cars are derailed, presumably by the French Underground, soldiers of the 12th SS Panzer Division under the command of SS Obersturmführer Walter Hauck murder 86 men in the surrounding area of the Ascq railway station. | |
| June 9, 1944 | Tulle Murders | ~99 | France | In response to French Underground activity the 2nd SS Panzer Division, upon finding mutilated remains of 64 garrison soldiers of the 95th Security Regiment, 99 men are hanged and the remaining population of Tulle sent to work labor camps in Germany. Of the 149 townspeople only 48 survived the war. | |
| June 10, 1944 | Oradour-sur-Glane Massacre | 642 | France | Responding to recent French Underground activity in which two German soldiers were killed, 120 SS soldiers of the 2nd SS Panzer Division, commanded by SS Sturmbannführer Adolf Diekmann, execute 642 men, women, and children of the town of Oradour. | |
| August 1944 | Wola Massacre | up to 50,000 | Warsaw | German troops slaughter most of civilians in the borough of Wola during the early stage of the Warsaw Uprising | |
| September 30, 1944 | Putten Atrocity | 39 | Netherlands | General Heinz Helmuth von Wuhlisch orders the execution of 39 Dutch civilians and the village burned after an attack by the Dutch resistance results in the capture of a German soldier despite the later release of the hostage. The remaining men in the village are sent to labor camps and out of 589 only 49 survive the end of the war. | |
| October 24, 1944 | Amsterdam Reprisal | 29 | Netherlands | 29 Dutch civilians are executed as well as several buildings set on fire after the assassination of S.D. officer Herbert Oelschagel by the Dutch resistance the previous day. | |
| December 17, 1944 | Malmédy massacre | 80 | Belgium | Massacre of American POWs | |
| January-July, 1945 | Sandakan Death March | 2,431 | Malaysia | Captured Australian POWs are forced to march great distances, combined with torture and forced labor. | |
| January 1, 1945 | Chenogne massacre | 60 | Belgium | In reprisal for the Malmedy massacre sixty German soldiers are executed by a unit of the US 11th Armored Division outside the town of Chenogne. | |
| April 29, 1945 | Dachau Massacre | 560 | Germany | Soldiers of the US 157th Division kill 560 German POWs remaining in the recently liberated Dachau concentration camp. | |
| May 3, 1945 | SS Cap Arcona sinking | 8,000 | Germany | RAF sunk the SS Cap Arcona, the Thielbek, and the Deutschland full of concentration camp Neuengamme's POWs. | |
| May 8, 1945 | Setif Massacre | 150 pied-noirs 1,500–45,000 Algerians | Algeria | ||
| May, 1945 | Bleiburg massacre | 55,000-300,000 | Yugoslavia | Partisans retaliate against Ustashe and their supporters | |
| July 31, 1945 | Usti Massacre | ~80 | Czechoslovakia | Czech soldiers lynch ethnic Germans | |
| August 6, 1945 | Hiroshima | 100,000 | Japan | The United States drops the atomic bomb "Little Boy" on the city of Hiroshima, Japan | |
| August 9, 1945 | Nagasaki | 60,000 | Japan | The United States drops the atomic bomb "Fat Man" on the city of Nagasaki, Japan | |
| 1948 | Hadassah medical convoy massacre | ~77 | Palestine | ||
| 1948 | Deir Yassin massacre | 107 | Palestine | ||
| 1948 | Arab al-Mawasi massacre | 14 | Palestine | ||
| April 31948 | Jeju Massacre | 30,000 | Korea | ||
| September 27 1950 | Taejon Massacre | 7,000 | Korea | ||
| 1950 | Capture of Seoul | ~100,000 | Korea | Civillians executed after the communist capture of Seoul | |
| July 26-29, 1950 | Nogun-ri massacre | 121–? | Korea | ||
| 1953 | Qibya massacre | ~50 | West Bank | ||
| 1956 | Kafr Qasim massacre | 49 | Israel | ||
| March 21, 1960 | Sharpeville Massacre | 69 killed, 180+ injured | South Africa | Police opened fire on a crowd of black protesters | |
| October 17, 1961 | Paris Massacre of 1961 | 32-200[1] (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/world/monitoring/media_reports/1604970.stm) | Paris, France | Killing of Algerian demonstrators | |
| June 1-3 1962, 1962 | Novocherkassk Massacre | 24 killed, 39 injured | Novocherkassk, Soviet Union | police opened fire on a crowd of protesters against inflation | |
| 1965-1966 | September 30th massacre and aftermath | 500,000-1 million | Indonesia | Suharto massacres communists and dissidents in rural areas | |
| 1968 | Tlatelolco massacre | 200–300 | Mexico | Mexican soldiers open fire on student demonstrators. | |
| 1968 | My Lai massacre | 347–504 | Vietnam | US-American troops kill inhabitants of Vietnamese village suspected of harbouring Viet Cong troops | |
| February 8, 1968 | Orangeburg Massacre | 3 | South Carolina State University, USA | ||
| 1969 | Killevanamani Massacre | ~35 | Tamil Nadu, India | more than 35 farm labor and their families, mostly women and children, were burnt alive by upper caste landlords | |
| January, 1969 | Massacre at Hue | ~2500 | Hue, Vietnam | Massacre by the North Vietnamese | |
| June 10, 1971 | Corpus Christi Massacre | ~25 | Mexico City | Special forces open fire on student demonstrators | |
| May 4, 1970 | Kent State massacre | 4 | Kent State University, Ohio, USA | ||
| March 25, 1971 | Bangladesh Liberation War | ~3 million | Bangladesh | Mass executions by Pakistan Army. During the War, over a period of just under nine months (267 days), 3 million Bangladeshis were killed by Pakistan Army. On average, 11,235 people were killed each day. Around 200,000 women aged between 8 years and 60 years were raped. | |
| January 30, 1972 | Bloody Sunday | 14 | Derry, Northern Ireland | ||
| September 5, 1972 | Munich Massacre | 12 | Munich, Germany | Palestinian terrorists kidnap and kill Israeli athletes at the Olympic Games | |
| May 17, 1974 | Dublin and Monaghan Bombings | 33 | Dublin and Monaghan, Ireland. | largest number of casualties in any incident in The Troubles in Ireland. | |
| November 18, 1978 | Jonestown massacre | 5+913 | Jonestown, Guyana | People's Temple cult attacks Rep. Leo Ryan and delegation; after 5 killed in shootout, Jim Jones leads mass suicide | |
| November 3, 1979 | Greensboro massacre | 5 | Greensboro, North Carolina | Ku Klux Klansmen and American Nazis opened fire on an anti-Klan demonstration. | |
| May 1980 | Gwangju Massacre | 191–250–2000 | Gwangju, South Korea | Government troops attack protesting students and civilians of Gwangju | |
| December 11, 1981 | El Mozote massacre | ~900 | El Salvador | Government troops torture and kill the residents of El Mozote. | |
| February 2, 1982 | Hama Massacre | ~20,000 | Syria | Syrian government troops attack rebel town of Hama, poison gas was used in some areas. | |
| September, 1982 | Sabra and Shatila massacre | 300–3,000 | Beirut, Lebanon | ||
| 1984 | Sikh Massacre | ~2733–4000 | Delhi, India | Sectarian violence following the assassination of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi by her Sikh bodyguards | |
| August 8, 1987 | Hoddle Street Massacre | 7 | Melbourne, Victoria, Australia | ||
| August 19, 1987 | Hungerford massacre | 17 | Hungerford, Berkshire, England, United Kingdom | ||
| December 8, 1987 | Queen Street Massacre | 8 | Melbourne, Victoria, Australia | ||
| March 16, 1988 | Halabja poison gas attack | 3,000-5,000 | Iraq | Gas attack on Kurdish town by Saddam Hussein | |
| December 6, 1989 | École Polytechnique Massacre | 15 | Université de Montréal, Montreal, Quebec, Canada | also called Montreal Massacre | |
| June, 1989 | Tiananmen Massacre | up to 2,600 | Beijing, China | Chinese PLA troops open fire on unarmed students and civilians gathered in Beijing | |
| November 13, 1990 | Aramoana massacre | 13 | Aramoana, New Zealand | Psychotic gunman, David Gray, opens fire on residents in a peaceful coastal settlement. | |
| August 17, 1991 | Strathfield massacre | 7 | Sydney, Australia | Gunman opens fire randomly in a shopping cnetre | |
| November 12, 1991 | Dili Massacre | 271 | Dili, East Timor | Timorese protesting Indonesian rule are killed by Indonesian soldiers. | |
| July 23, 1995 | Candelaria Church Massacre | ~8 | Rio de Janero, Brazil | Police retaliate against street children at orphanage, leading to worldwide criticism. | |
| February 25, 1994 | Second Hebron Massacre | 29 | Hebron, West Bank | Israeli extremist Baruch Goldstein opens fire on a group of Palestinian Muslims praying at the Cave of the Patriarchs site. | |
| July 11, 1995 | Srebrenica Massacre | ~8000 | Bosnia and Herzegovina | Considered the largest massacre in Europe since World War II | |
| 1994 | Rwandan Massacre | 937,000 | Rwanda | Hutus massacre Tutsis for 3 months | |
| March 13, 1996 | Dunblane massacre | 18 | Dunblane, Scotland, United Kingdom | Murders at a primary school in Scotland. | |
| April 18, 1996 | Qana Massacre | 102 | Qana, South of Lebanon | ||
| April 29, 1996 | Port Arthur Massacre | 35 | Tasmania, Australia | Martin Bryant kills 35 people in the tourist town of Port Arthur | |
| 1997 | Sanaa massacre | 8 | Yemen | School massacre in Yemen | |
| April 3, 1997 | Thalit massacre | 52 | Thalit, Algeria | ||
| April 22, 1997 | Haouch Khemisti massacre | 93 | Haouch Mokhfi Khemisti, Algeria | ||
| June 16, 1997 | Dairat Labguer massacre | ~50 | Dairat Labguer, Algeria | ||
| August 20, 1997 | Souhane massacre | 64 | Souhane, Algeria | ||
| August 28, 1997 | Rais massacre | ~200 | Rais, Algeria | ||
| September 22, 1997 | Bentalha massacre | >200 | Bentalha, Algeria | ||
| December 22, 1997 | Acteal massacre | 45 | Acteal, Mexico | Allegedly government-linked paramilitaries attack a prayer meeting professing support for the goals of EZLN rebels | |
| December 30, 1997 | Wilaya of Relizane massacres of 30 December 1997 | 412 | 4 villages near Souk El Had, Algeria | ||
| January, 1998 | Wandhama Massacre | 24 | Wandhama, India | 24 Kashmiri Pandits are brutually murdered by Pakistan-backed militants . | |
| January 10, 1998 | Sidi Hamed massacre | 103 | Sidi Hamed, Algeria | ||
| March 24, 1998 | Jonesboro massacre | 5 | Arkansas, United States | Two middle school students attack their school | |
| December 9, 1998 | Tadjena massacre | 42 | Algeria | ||
| April 20, 1999 | Columbine High School massacre | 15 | Littleton, Colorado, United States | Two teenage students, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, executed a planned shooting rampage killing 12 other students and a teacher before committing suicide. It is considered to be the worst school shooting in U.S. history. | |
| January 9–11, 2001 | Yakaolang massacre | ~300 | Yakaolang, Afghanistan | Taliban executes civilian members of the Shia Sadat and Hazara clans | |
| June 1, 2001 | Nepalese royal family massacre | 8 | Katmandu, Nepal | Prince Dipendra shoots his immediate family and himself at a royal dinner | |
| June 8, 2001 | Osaka School Massacre | 8 | Ikeda, Osaka prefecture, Japan | ||
| September 11, 2001 | September 11, 2001 attacks | ~3,000 | New York, Washington DC, Pennsylvania (United States) | Al-Qaida hijacks 4 U.S. commercial airliners for use in a suicide bombing attack on major American targets. Two planes struck the twin towers at the World Trade Center in New York, causing the majority of the deaths; one plane hit the Pentagon; one plane was downed in a Pennsylvania field by its passengers (all of whom were killed.) | |
| September 27, 2001 | Zug massacre | 14 | Zug, Switzerland | Friedrich Leibacher (44) entered the Zug parliament and opened fire, killing three members of the cantonal government and 11 parliamentarians before turning the gun on himself. | |
| December, 2001 | Dasht-i-Leili massacre | 250–3000 | Afghanistan | Taliban prisoners were shot and/or suffocated to death in metal truck containers while being transferred between prisons by Northern Alliance soldiers during the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan. | |
| February 2002 | 2002 Gujarat violence | ~800–2000 | Gujarat state, India | Sectarian violence following a train fire in Godhra | |
| March 28, 2002 | Passover massacre | 30 | Netanya, Israel | ||
| April 26, 2002 | Erfurt massacre | 17 | Erfurt, Thuringia, Germany | ||
| May 2, 2002 | Bojaya Massacre | 117 | Bojayį, Colombia | Terrorist organization FARC throw an explosive into a church full of people | |
| October 4, 2003 | Maxim restaurant massacre | 21 | |||
| March 2, 2004 | Ashoura Massacre | ~170 | Karbala, Baghdad, (Iraq) | ||
| March 11, 2004 | 11 March 2004 Madrid attacks | 191 | Madrid, (Spain) | Islamic terrorists apparently linked to Al-Qaida plant several bombs aboard four commuter trains in Madrid | |
| May 2, 2004 | Yelwa massacre | ~630 | Nigeria | Muslim nomads killed by Christians in ongoing violence in Nigeria. | |
| May 19, 2004 | Mukaradeeb | 42 | Iraq | Bombing of a wedding party; described by US forces as a mistake provoked by its celebratory gunfire | |
| September 3, 2004 | Beslan school hostage crisis | 331 | Beslan, North Ossetia, Russia | ||
| March 21, 2005 | Red Lake High School Massacre | 10 | Red Lake, Minnesota, United States |
| Contents |
See also
Related Concepts
Other Lists of Massacres
- Holocaust
- Indian massacre
- List of Algerian massacres of the 1990s
- List of massacres committed during the 1948 Arab-Israeli war
- Porajmos
External References
- Matthew White's listing of 20th century wars and battles (http://users.erols.com/mwhite28/battles.htm) serves as a key reference for this article. See also his listing of attrocities before the 20th century (http://users.erols.com/mwhite28/warstat0.htm)
- Also see Matthew White's commentary on the accuracy of this Wikipedia entry (http://users.erols.com/mwhite28/wikiwoo.htm#Massacres)
- Gerald Duncan's list of WWII atrocities (http://members.iinet.net.au/~gduncan/index.html)
- PBS Timeline of Nazi Abuses (http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/holocaust/timeline.html)
- Encarta Encylopedia article on "Genocide" (http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761554053/Genocide.html)fr:Liste des massacres
Categories: Massacres | Lists | Riots | War crimes | Murder

