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 shootings.
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 separately (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. Furthermore, the distinction between genocide and massacres may be difficult and controversial, this categorization musn't be seen as definitive nor authoritative. Please see relevant articles for further information.
Massacres in which 10,000 or more civilians were intentionally killed are listed in
| Date | Name | Deaths | Location | Comments
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| 334 BC | Destruction of Thebes | ~6,000-8,000 | Greece | Alexander the Great slaughters the population of the city when it revolts. Between 334-324 BC, Alexander will massacre at least a quarter million city dwellers at Sindimana, Gaza, and other locations.
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| 260 BC | Battle of Changping | 400,000 | now Jincheng,Shanxi | Army of State of Qin defeated State of Zhao and killed about 400,000 Zhao warriors. This battle was a decisive victory for the unification by Qin.
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| 150 BC | Lusitanian Massacres | ~8,000 | now Spain | Roman troops under Galba massacre Lusitani citizens after convincing them to surrender.
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| 71 BC | The Spartacus Slave Revolt | ~6,000 | Roman Republic | Surrendering slaves are crucified along the Via Appia.
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| 1 | Massacre of the Innocents | ? | Bethlehem | A biblical event in which Herod the Great orders the execution of all young male children in the city. The historicity of this massacre is uncertain.
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| 532 | Nika riots | ~30,000 | Byzantine Empire | After a sports rivalry turns to full-scale revolution, Emperor Justinian I locks the rioters in the Hippodrome and has them killed.
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650||Iraq Masacres||10,000||Iraq||Arabs conquer Iraq, and kill 10,000 Iraqi Christian, All other convert, pay high taxes, or flee to the mountins of Iraq. >
| 782 | Verden's bloody trial | 4,500 | Verden | Killing of non-Christian Saxons by Charlemagne, though the actual scale of the massacre is open to question.
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| November 13, 1002 | St. Brice's Day massacre | ~Unknown | England | Danes ordered slaughtered by Ethelred II of England, unclear how many actually were.
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| 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 Emicho
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| 1098 | First Crusade | ~20,000 | 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.
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| 1099 | First Crusade | ~70,000 | Jerusalem | Almost all Muslim and Jewish inhabitants slaughtered after the fall of the city to the Crusaders.
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| March 16, 1190 | Clifford's Tower | ~150 | York, England | Mob attacks Jewish residents; many commit suicide.
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| August 20, 1191 | Siege of Acre | 2750 | Akko | Richard the Lionheart slaughters Muslim prisoners taken during the siege.
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| July 25, 1209 | Albigensian Crusade | 20,000-100,000 | Beziers, France | Crusaders slaughter the Cathars, other civilian slaughters occur in Tolouse and St. Nazair.
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| June 1220 | Samarkand Massacre | ~75,000 | Samarkand, Khwarezm (present day Iran and Iraq) | The Mongols under Genghis Khan laid siege to the capital city of Khwarezm and, after the Turkish garrison surrendered the city, drove out the remaining population slaughtering over 75,000 men, women, and children.
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| June 1221 | Herat massacre | 600,000 | Herat | Genghis Khan destroys the city and massacres the population.
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| May 12 1268 | Siege of Antioch | 40,000 | AntiochSyria | Baibars destroys the city and massacres the population.
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| 1282 | Sicilian Vespers | thousands | Italy | French citizens of Sicily killed as part of a revolt.
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| 1289 | Siege of Tripoli | ~10,000 | Palestine | Muslim conquest of crusader state. Whole population killed.
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| May 18 1291 | Siege of Tyre | 10,000 | Tyre Palestine | Baybars destroys the city and massacres the population.
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| 1358 | Jacquerie Revolts | 8,000 | Meaux, France | Peasants massacred after revolt put down.
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| 1348 | 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.
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| 1398 | Massacre of Delhi | 100,000 | Delhi | Timur Lenk massacres prisoners, total deaths from his conquests will exceed 20 million.
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| October 25, 1415 | Agincourt | ~5,000 | Agincourt, France | 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.
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| 1480 | Sack of Otranto | 12,000 | Otranto,Italy | sack of Otranto by the Turks, in which 12,000 men are said to have perished
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To be in this section, the primary motive for the massacre must have been ethnic or religious hatred.
| Date | Name | Deaths | Location | Comments
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| September 12, 1571 | Enryakuji set fire | ~3,000 | Enryakuji , Japan |
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| August 24, 1572 | St. Bartholomew's Day massacre | 70,000 | France | A wave of Catholic mob violence against the Huguenots.
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| March 22, 1622 | Jamestown | ~347 | Jamestown, Virginia States | Led by Opechancanough, brother of Powhatan, local Native American tribes attack the Virginia Colony destroying virtualy all the settlements save the heavily fortified Jamestown.
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| October 23 onwards, 1641 | Ulster 1641 | 4,000 | Ulster, Ireland | English Protestant Planters killed by dispossed Irish Catholics.
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| 1648-1649 | Khmelnytsky Uprising | tens of thousands | Poland | Jews, Polish nobles, and Uniates killed by a Cossack and peasant uprising under Bohdan Khmelnytsky.
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| September 22, 1711 | Tuscarora | ~Unknown | North Carolina * | The Tuscarora tribe killed 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.
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| April 1715 | Yamassee | ~Unknown | South Carolina * | 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.
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| 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.
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| 1768 | Koliwszczyzna | ? | | Massacre of Poles and Jews in Human, Ukraine.
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| February 16, 1838 | Weenen massacre | ~300 | South Africa | Zulus massacre Voortrekker men, women, and children.
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| 1838 | Myall Creek massacre | 28 | Australia | Aboriginal people were murdered by white stockmen taking revenge for lost cattle.
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| 1838 | Haun's Mill Massacre | 17 | Missouri | Seventeen Mormon men and boys killed by 200-250 militia.
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| November 29, 1847 | Whitman massacre | ? | near Walla Walla, Washington | Medical mission established by Marcus Whitman attacked by the Cayuse.
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| 1848 | Rabacja | ? | Galicia | Massacre of Polish nobles by peasants.
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| April 23, 1852 | Bridge Gulch massacre | ~150-300 | California, near Hayfork, Trinity Co. | Posse from Weaverville kill Wintu people in an undefended Native American village.
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| October 26, 1853 | Gunnison massacre | ? | Utah territory | Exploration party of John Gunnison killed by Pahvant Utes.
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| September 11, 1857 | Mountain Meadows massacre | 120 | Utah, United States | Mormon militia kill an entire wagon train of Arkansas farming families; 120 persons men, women, and children.
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| November 29, 1864 | Sand Creek massacre | ~150 | Colorado Territory | United States cavalry troops kill Cheyenne and Arapaho peoples in an undefended Native American village.
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| June 1, 1873 | Cypress Hills massacre | 16–23 | Cypress Hills, Saskatchewan, Canada | 16-22 Nakoda (Assiniboine) killed by American wolfers. 1 American was killed.
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| 1890 | Beothuk Indian massacres | ? to extinction | Newfoundland, now Canada |
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| 1903 | Kishinev pogrom | 45 | (Chişinău) - Moldova |
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| January 1923 | Rosewood, Florida | ~17 | Rosewood, Florida, United States | Black people were killed by white mobs. Their village was also burnt down.
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| September 1–8, 1923 | Kanto massacre | ~2,711–6,415 | Kanto region, Japan | Korean and Okinawan immigrants blamed for looting and arson.
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| 1929 | First Hebron massacre | ~67 | Palestine | Arab mob massacred and "pogromed" at least 67 Jews and wiped out the old Jewish settlement in Hebron.
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| January 1932 | La Matanza | ~30,000 | El Salvador | Massacre of mostly indigenous people, committed by the military government after having crushed a peasants' rebellion.
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| 1938 | Kristallnacht | 36–200 | Germany | also called Pogromnacht
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| 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.
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| June 271944 - March 1945 | Chamerian massacre | ~2000 | Greece | During German occupation, Greek royalist militias battle pro Communist Muslims in northern villages of Epirus, known by Albanians as Chameria. Over 25,000 flee to Albania.
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| July 31, 1945 | Usti massacre | ~80 | Czechoslovakia | Czech soldiers lynch ethnic Germans.
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| July 5, 1962 | Oran massacre | ~2000–3500 | Algeria | Muslims lynch European and Jew civilians.
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| 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.
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| November 1-3, 1984 | Sikh Massacre; also known as Anti-Sikh riots and Black November | ~2733–4000 | Delhi, India | Three days of Sectarian violence following the assassination of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi by her Sikh bodyguards. Local government officials widely believed to be responsible for organizing mobs to massacre Sikhs.
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| December 28, 2000 | Titanic Express massacre | 21 | Mageyo, Burundi | Burundian Hutu-extremists, believed to be members of Palipehutu-FNL, ambush a civilian bus close to the Burundian capital Bujumbura. Hutu passengers are released unharmed. Tutsis and foreigners are shot dead.
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| January 9–11, 2001 | Yakaolang massacre | ~300 | Yakaolang, Afghanistan | Taliban executes civilian members of the Shia Sadat and Hazara clans.
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| February 2002 | 2002 Gujarat violence | ~800–2000 | Gujarat state, India | Sectarian violence following a train fire in Godhra.
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| September 9, 2002 | Itaba massacre | 173-267 | Itaba, Burundi | The Burundian army massacres between 173 and 267 Hutu villagers, allegedly in reprisal for rebel attacks.
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| May 2, 2004 | Yelwa massacre | ~630 | Nigeria | Muslim nomads killed by Christians in ongoing violence in Nigeria.
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| August 13, 2004 | Gatumba massacre | 152 | Burundi | Members of the Hutu-extremist group Palipehutu-FNL attack a refugee camp in western Burundi, shooting, hacking and burning to death 152 Congolese Tutsis.
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| July 12, 2005 | Turbi village massacre Kenya | ~73 | Turbi, (Kenya) | Hundreds of armed men said to be from the Borana clan, surrounded Turbi primary school and nearby houses and opened fire as children were making their way to school. Turbi is a Gabra clan village.
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| June 16, 2005 | Muhuta Church massacre | 6 | Rural Bujumbura, Burundi |
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| Date | Name | Deaths | Location | Comments
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| Massacre of Berwick | 30,000 | Berwick, Scotland (now in England) | After the invasion of Scotland by English forces under the command of Edward I of England, around 30,000 people died in the massacre by his forces of the then Scottish town].1296.htm
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| November 8, 1520 | Stockholm Bloodbath | ~100 | Stockholm, Sweden | After the invasion of Sweden by Danish forces under the command of Christian II of Denmark, around 100 people (mostly nobility and clergy) were decapitated.
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| September 20, 1565 | Fort Caroline | ~Unknown | Fort Caroline, Florida * | 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.
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| May 10, 1631 | Sack of Magdeburg | 20,000 | Magdeburg |
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| 1644 * | Fall of Aberdeen | 118 | Scotland | Unarmed civilians were killed by the Royalist army.
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| 1644 href="http://articles.gourt.com/en/Massacre of Bolton# Royalists">Fall of Bolton | 1500 | England | Unarmed civilians, and soldiers were killed by the Royalist army. [http://www.lonympics.co.uk/Cromwell.htm
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| September 11 1649 | Fall of Drogheda | <1000 | Ireland | Unarmed civilians were killed by the New Model Army commanded by Oliver Cromwell.*
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| July 3, 1778 | Wyoming Valley massacre | ~Unknown | Pennsylvania | Occurred during the American Revolutionary War; labeled a massacre but most deaths were in battle.
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| 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.
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| May 29, 1780 | Waxhaw massacre | ~113 plus 100+ mortally wounded | Buford, South Carolina - the Waxhaws | British Col. Banastre Tarleton is alleged to have killed some Americans as they attempted surrender; many of the deaths were in battle.
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| March 8, 1782 | Gnadenhutten massacre | 96 | Gnadenhutten, Ohio | During the American Revolutionary War, Pennsylvania militia execute Christian Lenape non-combatants, mostly women and children.
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| 29th May, 1798 | Gibbet Rath massacre | 350 | Kildare, Ireland | British troops massacre surrendering rebels during rebellion of 1798.
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| April 6-9, 1812 | Badajoz | ~Unknown | Badajoz, Spain | After a four week siege British soldiers under the Duke of Wellington seized 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.
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| 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.
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| January, 1813 | River Raisin massacre | 30–60 | Monroe, Michigan | Prisoners scalped during the War of 1812.
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| August 2, 1832 | Bad Axe River | ~Unknown | Bad Axe River, Wisconsin * | 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.
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| 1836 | Goliad massacre | 342 | Goliad, Texas | Mexican army executes Texan prisoners of war.
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| September 12 1847 | San Patricios | 50 | Chapultepec, Mexico | United States Army executes Irish prisoners of war who defended Mexico.
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| 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.
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| August 21, 1863 | Lawrence Massacre | ~150 | Lawrence, Kansas | Confederate raiders under William Quantrill loot and burn the town killing over 150 men and boys.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| December 29, 1890 | Wounded Knee massacre | 153–300 | Wounded Knee, South Dakota | Last confrontation of US troops and the Great Sioux Nation
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| 1901 | Samar campaign | | Samar,Philippines | During the Philippine-American War, while the Philippines were a colonial possession of the USA, Filipinos armed with machetes kill all American soldiers from the garrison of the port of Balangiga on the island of Samar (see Balangiga massacre).
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| February 19-21, 1937 | Addis Ababa | 3,000 | Ethiopia | by Italian soldiers
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| 13 December 1937 - February 1938 | Nanjing Massacre (Rape of Nanking) | 200,000-300,000 | China | After the Chinese Nationalist army fled Nanking, the Japanese entered the city virtually resistance free. According the various sources, 200,000-300,000 Chinese civilians were killed, with the most common figure being 300,000, although historical revisionists deny it to have ever happened, or cite hugely deflated figures. The time period of the massacre is not clearly defined, though the period of unruly carnage lasted well into 6 weeks after, until early February 1938.
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| April 27, 1937 | Bombing of Guernica | est. 1,650 | Spain | Bombers of the Condor Legion attack the Basque city of Guernica during the Spanish Civil War, killing 1,650 men, women and children.
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| 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.
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| December 1939 - July 1940 | Palmiry massacre | ~2000 | Poland | Gestapo murder systematically members of Polish intelligentsia, sportsmen, politicians and common people.
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| 1940 | Katyn massacre | 25,700 | Poland | Massacre of Polish intelligentsia, POWs and reserve officers by the Soviets.
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| 9 September, 1940 | Treznea massacre | ~93 | Treznea, N. Transylvania, Hungary | Hungarian army massacred Romanian and Jewish civilians.
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| 14 September, 1940 | Ip massacre | ~100 | Ip, N. Transylvania, Hungary | Hungarian massacre of Romanian civilians in Northern Transylvania.
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| November 14, 1940 | Bombing of Coventry | 568 | Britain | Luftwaffe bombers attack the city of Coventry and destroy half of it. Since then the word Coventry became synonymum of Aerial Bombing.
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| April 1, 1941 | Fantana Alba massacre | ~200 | Soviet Union | Soviet massacre of Romanian civilians in Northern Bukovina.
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| April, 1941 | Bombing of Belgrade in World War II | 17,000 | Yugoslavia | Germans bomb Belgrade, killing 17,000 people. Belgrade was bombed again in 1944, this time by the Allies.
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| April 15, 1941 | Belfast Blitz | 1,000 | Northern Ireland | 200 German bombers attack Belfast and destroy half of the city. 1,000 die and 100,000 are left homeless.
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| June, 1941 | Rainiai massacre | 79 | Soviet Union | Soviet soldiers and NKVD tortures to death 78-79 Lithuanian civilians (former public servants, rich people, Boy scouts, non-communists).
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| February - March 1942 | Sook Ching massacre | ~50,000-100,000 (Singapore only) | Malaya & Singapore | Japanese troops execute ethnic Chinese Malayans and Singaporeans suspected of being hostile.
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| 22 March, 1943 | Khatyn massacre | 100+ | Belarus | The entire village in Belarus is burnt with all its inhabitants by the German Nazis and their Ukrainian collaborators; one of hundreds Belarusian and Russian villages to share the similar fate.
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| April 1942 | Bataan Death March | 5,650 | Philippines | American and Philippine POWs are marched to prison camps and killed if they fall behind.
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| February 1943 | Massacres of Poles in Volhynia | ~100,000 | Ukraine | By Ukrainian nationalists
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| June 10, 1942 | Lidice | 172 this day | 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 village Lidice (in Czech lands) 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.
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| July, 1943 | Canicatti slaughter | 12 | Sicily | US Troops kill unarmed civilians at a soap factory.
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| July 14, 1943 | Biscari massacre | 76 | Sicily | US Troops massacre German and Italian POWs.
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| July 27, 1943 | Bombing of Hamburg in World War II | 35,000 | Germany | 730 British bombers dropp 9,000 tons of bombs on Hamburg. The bombing created a firestorm which destroyed much of the city. Between 35,000 and 45,000 civilians died and 1 million were left homeless.
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| September 9, 1943 | Foiba massacre | 5,000-10,000 | Istria and Dalmatia in Italy | Communist troops under Tito's command purge Italian fascists and colloborators until 1947.
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| December 16, 1943 | Kalavryta massacre | 696 | Greece | The male residents of the town are slaughtered by German troops in revenge for partisan activities.
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| 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.
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| January 29, 1944 | Koniuchy massacre | 38-300 | Poland | Civilians of Koniuchy murdered by 120-150 members of Soviet partisan groups.
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| 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.
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| May, 1944 | Kakolyri (of Kyme) massacre | 30 | Greece | 24 male residents of the village are slaughtered by German troops, as suspects of helping partisan activities. The partisans killed one soldier who was guarding a bridge. 6 male residents of the nearby villages are slaughtered too.
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| June 7, 1944 | Abbey Ardenne | ~100+ | France | Canadian POW's who were captured during the battle were marched out into a garden and interrogated before being shot by members of the 12th SS Panzer Division.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| June 10, 1944 | Distomo massacre | est. 228-600 | Greece | More than 200 residents of the village of Distomo are massacred by the Germans. The exact number of the victims remain unknown.
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| July 14, 1944 | San Polo di Arezzo Massacre | 48 | Italy | After attacking Italian partisans and civilians who held some German prisoners at Molin dei Falchi, the German soldiers took revenge. They gathered all the men of the nearby village of San Polo, brutally beat and tortured them, and took them to a nearby field. They were made to dig three pit graves and were then thrown in still alive. The partisans were placed in the pits with their heads above ground and with explosive charges attached to their bodies. They were then blown apart. The Germans did not allow anyone to bury the dead. (For details see Eugenio Calo).
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| August, 1944 | Wola massacre | up to 50,000 | Warsaw, Poland | German troops systematically slaughter most of civilians in the borough of Wola during the early stage of the Warsaw Uprising.
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| September 15, 1944 | Meligala massacre | 800-1,500 | Greece | ELAS communist fighters attack the village of Meligala and massacre 1,500 men, women and children. Their bodies were thrown into a large well, known as the "Pigada of Meligala". Many of the victims were collaborators of the Germans (see Greek Civil War).
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| 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.
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| October 15, 1944 | Bombing of Braunschweig in World War II | ~600 | Germany | RAF bombers bomb the medieval city of Braunschweig, killing 600 people. 90% of the city is destroyed and 23,000 people are left homeless.
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| 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.
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| December 17, 1944 | Malmédy massacre | 80 | Belgium | Massacre of American POWs.
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| January-July, 1945 | Sandakan Death March | 2,431 | Malaysia | Captured Australian POWs are forced to march great distances, combined with torture and forced labor.
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| 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.
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| March 17, 1945 | Bombing of Kobe in World War II | 8,840 | Japan | American B-29 bombers attack the city of Kobe. 8,840 civilians die and 650,000 are left homeless.
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| April 29, 1945 | Dachau massacre | 560 | Germany | Soldiers of the US 157th Regiment kill 560 German and Waffen-SS POWs remaining in the recently liberated Dachau concentration camp.
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| May, 1945 | Bleiburg massacre | 55,000-300,000 | Yugoslavia | Partisans retaliate against Ustashe, Domobrans, and many Croat civilians.
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| May 3, 1945 | SS Cap Arcona sinking | <1,000 | Germany | Nazis kill survivors making it ashore following the sinking of the ships SS Cap Arcona, the Thielbek, and the Deutschland full of concentration camp Neuengamme's POWs.
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| May 8, 1945 | Setif Massacre | 150 pied-noirs
1,500–45,000 Algerians | Algeria |
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| August, 1945 | Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki | est. 600,000 | Japan | The cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki are razed by the American Atomic bombings. Hundrends of thousands die during and after the bombings from radiation.
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| February, 1945 | Bombing of Dresden in World War II | 25,000-400,000 | Germany | The city of Dresden is bombed and razed to the ground by American and British bombers. It is considered one of the most repellent Allied war crimes. Exact figures are unknown but estimates range between 25,000-400,000 civilians dead and 24,000 buildings destroyed.
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| February 28, 1947 | 228 Incident | 10,000-30,000 | Taiwan | Kuomintang government (Chinese) massacred Taiwanese civilians after uprising.
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| 1948 | Hadassah medical convoy massacre | ~77 | Palestine |
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| 1948 | Deir Yassin massacre | 107 | Palestine |
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| 1950 | Capture of Seoul | ~100,000 | Korea | Civillians executed after the communist capture of Seoul.
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| 1953 | Qibya massacre | ~50 | West Bank |
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| 1956 | Kafr Qasim massacre | 49 | Israel |
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| February, 1968 | Massacre at Hue | ~2500 | Hue, South Vietnam | North Vietnamese Army and National Front for the Liberation of Vietnam executed civilians in the city of Huế.
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| March 16, 1968 | My Lai massacre | 347–504 | South Vietnam | US-American troops kill inhabitants of Vietnamese village suspected of harbouring Viet Cong troops ages between 1 and 81, mostly women and children.
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| December 14, 1971 | 1971 East Pakistan Intellectuals massacre | ~100 | East Pakistan | Pakistan Army and local collaborators kill large number of doctors, engineers, educators, journalists, and other intellectuals during the flag end of the Bangladesh War of 1971.
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| January 20, 1976 | Damour massacre | ~330 | Damour, Lebanon | Islamist Palestinian militants raid the Lebanese Christian town of Damour during the 1975-1990 Lebanese Civil War.
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| September, 1982 | Sabra and Shatila massacre | 800–3,000 | Beirut, Lebanon | Lebanese Christian Militia massacres Palestinian Refugees following Israeli invasion of Beirut.
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| February 26, 1992 | Hocali massacre | 613 | Karabag, Azerbaijan | Right after the Armenian invasion of the region, mostly children and women 613 people killed.
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| February 5, 1994 | First Markale massacre | 68 | Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina | Bosnian Serb army shells crowded civilian marketplace in downtown Sarajevo.
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| August 28, 1995 | Second Markale massacre | 37 | Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina | Bosnian Serb army shells crowded civilian marketplace in downtown Sarajevo.
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| April 18, 1996 | Qana massacre | 102 | Qana, South of Lebanon |
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| 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.
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| Date | Name | Deaths | Location | Comments
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| 1570 | Novgorod massacre | 10,000-100,000 | Novgorod Republic | Ivan the Terrible slaughters the population of Novgorod.
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| February 13, 1692 | Massacre of Glencoe | 78 | Scotland |
| The order was signed by King William II
| March 5, 1770 | Boston massacre | 5 | British colony, now US state of Massachusetts | Pre- American Revolution, British soldiers open fire upon a hostile crowd. The soldiers were later acquitted by an all American colonist jury.
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| August 16, 1819 | Peterloo massacre | 11 | Manchester, England |
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| July 17, 1918 | Romanov massacre | ~10 | Yekaterinburg, Russia | Bolshevik execution of Nicholas II and the Russian royal household.
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| March 1-April, 1919 | March 1st Movement | 7509 | Korea | Japanese troops and police opened fire on Korean protestors marching peacefully on the street calling for the independence of Korea and investigation on the sudden death of Emperor Gojong.
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| April 13, 1919 | Amritsar massacre | ~>379 | 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.
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| June 1-June 2, 1921 | Tulsa Race Riot | 39+ | Tulsa, Oklahoma, USA | White mobs invaded and burned the segregated black Greenwood district. The governor declared martial law, black people were rounded up by the National Guard and put into the internment camps. Whites in airplanes shot at black refugees and dropped explosives onto them.
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| April 23, 1930 | Qissa Khwani bazaar massacre | ~200 | Peshawar | British troops fire on non-violent protesters in Peshawar in there hundreds.
| October 20, 1944 | Gorla Massacre | ~232 | Childrens | Allied bombing in milan hit a primary school and killed hundreds of childrens.
|
| July 28, 1932 | Bonus March | 4-5 | Washington, D.C., U.S. | General Douglas MacArthur, under order of President Hoover, sent in federal cavalry troops with rifles and tear gas to evict the Bonus Marchers and destroyed their camps. Dwight D. Eisenhower and George Patton were also ordered to take part in the operation. Hundreds of veterans were injured, several were killed, including William Hushka and Eric Carlson, a wife of a veteran miscarried, and other such casualties were inflicted.
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| March 21, 1960 | Sharpeville massacre | 69 killed, 180+ injured | South Africa | Police opened fire on a crowd of black protesters.
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| April 31948 | Jeju massacre | 30,000 | Korea |
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| 1948 | Babra Sharif massacre | ~100 | Pakistan |
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| September 27 1950 | Taejon massacre | 7,000 | Korea |
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| 1954-1962 | Algerian massacre | >500,000 | Algeria | Killing of Algerian civilians by French Army and the FLN during the Algerian War of Independence.
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| October 17, 1961 | Paris Massacre of 1961 | 32-200* | Paris, France | Killing of Algerian demonstrators
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| June 1-3 1962, 1962 | Novocherkassk massacre | 24 killed, 39 injured | Novocherkassk, Soviet Union | police opened fire on a crowd of protesters against inflation
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| December 28, 1962 | Palma Sola massacre | "thousands" * | Dominican Republic | Dominican military destroy the town of Palma Sola, the base of the (mostly Afro-Dominican) political and religious dissident movement known as the Liboristas
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| 1965-1966 | September 30th massacre and aftermath | 500,000-1 million | Indonesia | Suharto massacres communists and dissidents in rural areas
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| February 8, 1968 | Orangeburg massacre | 3 | South Carolina State University, USA
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| October 2, 1968 | Tlatelolco massacre | 200–300 | Mexico | Mexican soldiers open fire on student demonstrators.
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| May 4, 1970 | Kent State massacre | 4 | Kent State University, Ohio, USA
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| 1971 | Massacre of Bangladesh | ~250,000 | Bangladesh | Pakistani Army killed ~250,000 Bangladeshis.
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| June 10, 1971 | Corpus Christi massacre | ~25 | Mexico City | Special forces open fire on student demonstrators.
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| January 30, 1972 | Bloody Sunday | 14 | Derry, Northern Ireland | Shooting of 28 unarmed Irish Catholic Civilians, 14 of whom died, by Paratroop Regiment of the British Army following a protest march at the introduction of internment without trial.
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| March, 1976-1983 | Argentina's Dirty War/ La Guerra Sucia | up to 30,000 | Argentina | Jorge Rafael Videla's military government tortured and killed dissident citizens, journalists, and professors as part of a wider continental plan of state terrorism called Operation Condor supported by the U.S. State Department, led by Henry Kissinger under Richard Nixon's presidency.
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| May 18, 1980 | Gwangju massacre | 191–250–2000 | Gwangju, South Korea | Government troops attack protesting students and civilians of Gwangju.
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| December 11, 1981 | El Mozote massacre | ~900 | El Salvador | Government troops torture and kill the residents of El Mozote.
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| February 2, 1982 | Hama massacre | 5000-20,000 | Syria | Syrian government troops attack rebel town of Hama, poison gas was used in some areas.
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| 1983, 1989 | The Gukurahundi | ~25,000 | Zimbabwe | Genocide, and supression of dissident tribal areas by Robert Mugabe's Zimbabwean Fifth Brigade.
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| March 16, 1988 | Halabja poison gas attack | 3,000-5,000 | Iraq | Gas attack on Kurdish town by Saddam Hussein.
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| June, 1989 | Tiananmen massacre | up to 2,600 | Beijing, China | Chinese PLA troops open fire on students and civilians gathered in Beijing.
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| January 13, 1991 | Vilnius massacre | 13 | Vilnius, Lithuania | Soviet military troops attacked Lithuanian independence supporters.
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| July 31, 1991 | Medininkai massacre | 7 | Medininkai, Lithuania | Soviet military troops attacked Lithuanian customs building.
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| November 12, 1991 | Dili massacre | 271 | Dili, East Timor | Timorese protesting Indonesian rule are killed by Indonesian soldiers.
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| July 13, 1994 | 13 de Marzo | 41 | Cuba | refugees drown after confrontation with Cuban Navy.
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| July 23, 1995 | Candelaria Church Massacre | ~8 | Rio de Janeiro, Brazil | Police retaliate against street children at orphanage, leading to worldwide criticism.
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| December 22, 1997 | Acteal massacre | 45 | Acteal, Mexico | Allegedly government-linked paramilitaries attack a prayer meeting professing support for the goals of EZLN rebels.
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| Date | Name | Deaths | Location | Comments
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| May 24–25, 1856 | Pottawatomie massacre | 5 | Franklin County, Kansas | Radical abolitionist John Brown murders pro-slavery men with swords in "Bleeding Kansas"
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| April 13, 1873 | Colfax massacre | 100 | Colfax, Louisiana |
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| May 30, 1972 | Lod Airport Massacre | 26 | Ben-Gurion Airport, Israel | Japanese terrorists open fire at civilians in the Ben-Gurion Airport near Lod, Israel. 26 are killed and 78 more injured.
|
| July 21, 1972 | Bloody Friday | 9 | Belfast, Northern Ireland | Explosion of 22 bombs in 90 minutes by Provisional Irish Republican Army in and around central Belfast in an attempt to bring normal life in the City to an end. The bombings killed seven civilians, two British soldiers and seriously injured 130 other people.
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| September 5, 1972 | Munich Massacre | 12 | Munich, Germany | Palestinian terrorists kidnap and kill Israeli athletes at the Olympic Games.
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| May 17, 1974 | Dublin and Monaghan Bombings | 33 | Dublin and Monaghan, Ireland. | Three bombs planted in the Irish Republic by the Ulster Volunteer Force. Worst number of casualties in any single day of The Troubles.
|
| November 21, 1974 | Birmingham Pub Bombings | 21 | Birmingham, England | The Provisional IRA explode two bombs in busy public houses killing 21 civilians, more than half of whom were under the age of 25. Until the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 in 1988, this was Britain's worst act of mass murder.
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| November 3, 1979 | Greensboro massacre | 5 | Greensboro, North Carolina | Ku Klux Klansmen and American Nazis opened fire on an anti-Klan demonstration.
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| April 22, 1995 | Atiak massacre | 170 – 220 | Gulu District, Uganda | Civilians killed by the Lord's Resistance Army.
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| November 8, 1987 | Remembrance Day massacre | 11 | Enniskillen, Northern Ireland | The Provisional IRA explodes a bomb targeted at a civilian war commemoration ceremony in the centre of Enniskillen, Northern Ireland.
|
| October 23, 1993 | Shankill Road Bombing | 9 | Belfast, Northern Ireland | The Provisional IRA massacres eight civilians and one of its own terrorists by exploding a bomb in a fish shop on the Shankill Road on a busy Saturday afternoon. The massacre sparks a series of reprisals by Loyalist terrorists.
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| 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.
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| July 13 to 14, 1996 | Acholpii massacre | ~100 | Pader District, Uganda | Sudanese refugees in a refugee settlement killed by Lord's Resistance Army .
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| January 7 to 12, 1997 | Lokung/Palabek massacre | ~412 | Kitgum District, Uganda | Civilians bludgeoned or hacked to death by the Lord's Resistance Army.
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| April 3, 1997 | Thalit massacre | 52 | Thalit, Algeria |
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| 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 |
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| December 30, 1997 | Wilaya of Relizane massacres of 30 December 1997 | 412 | 4 villages near Souk El Had, Algeria
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| January, 1998 | Wandhama massacre | 24 | Wandhama, India | 24 Kashmiri Pandits are brutually murdered by Pakistani militants .
|
| January 10, 1998 | Sidi Hamed massacre | 103 | Sidi Hamed, Algeria |
|
| August 15, 1998 | Omagh Bombing | 29 (or 31) | Omagh, Northern Ireland | Irish republicans opposed to the Northern Ireland Peace Process explode a car bomb following an inaccurate warning which lead to people being guided towards the bomb rather than away from it. This was the biggest massacre in any single incident in Northern Ireland related to The Troubles. (The number of dead is sometimes stated as 31 as one of those murdered was a woman pregnant with twins).
|
| December 9, 1998 | Tadjena massacre | 42 | Algeria |
|
| September 11, 2001 | September 11, 2001 attacks | ~3,000 | New York, Virginia, Pennsylvania (United States) | Al-Qaeda 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 hit the Pentagon; and another plane was downed in a Pennsylvania field by its hijackers when passengers rushed the cockpit.
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| May 2, 2002 | Bojaya massacre | 117 | Bojayá, Colombia | Terrorist organization FARC throw an explosive into a church full of people
|
| March 28, 2002 | Passover massacre | 30 | Netanya, Israel | Arab suicide bomber kills civillians.
|
| October 12, 2002 | 2002 Bali Bombing | 202 | Bali,Indonesia | The 2002 Bali Bombing occurred in the town of Kuta on the Indonesian island of Bali, killing 202 people and injuring a further 209.
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| February 21, 2004 | Barlonyo massacre | >200 | Barlonyo, Lira District, Uganda | Civilians at an IDP camp are murdered by the Lord's Resistance Army.
|
| October 1, 2005 | 2005 Bali Bombings | 23 | Bali,Indonesia | Bombs exploded at two sites in Jimbaran and Kuta, both in south Bali. Twenty-three people were killed, including three bombers.
|
| October 4, 2003 | Maxim restaurant massacre | 21 | Haifa, Israel
|
| March 2, 2004 | Ashoura massacre | ~170 | Karbala, Baghdad, (Iraq) |
|
| March 11, 2004 | 11 March 2004 Madrid train bombings | 191 | Madrid, (Spain) | Islamic terrorists apparently linked to Al-Qaida plant several bombs aboard four commuter trains in Madrid
|
| September 3, 2004 | Beslan school hostage crisis | 331 | Beslan, North Ossetia, Russia | Chechen Islamic Terrorists hold children and teachers hostage, terrorists begin killing hostages leading to botched rescue attempt.
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| July 7, 2005 | 7 July 2005 London bombings | 55 | London | Series of four suicide bomb explosions strike London's public transport system during the morning rush hour.
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| July 9, 2006 | Hay al Jihad massacre | 40 | Baghdad, Iraq | Shia militants executed Sunni civilians.
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| Date | Name | Deaths | Location | Comments
|
| February 14, 1929 | St. Valentine's Day massacre | 7 | Chicago, Illinois | Members of Bugs Moran's gang are murdered by Al Capone's men
|
| August 1, 1966 | University of Texas Tower Shooting | 16+2 | Austin, Texas | Charles Whitman goes on a shooting rampage atop the University of Texas at Austin's observation tower, killing 15 people and injuring 30. Whitman himself was also killed. Two additional deaths in later years are also attributed to this shooting.
|
| November 18, 1978 | Jonestown massacre | 5+913 | Jonestown, Guyana | Peoples Temple cult attacks Rep. Leo Ryan and delegation; after 5 killed in shootout, Jim Jones leads mass suicide
|
| February 18, 1983 | Wah Mee massacre | 13 | Seattle, Washington | Fourteen shot, 13 killed at a gambling club in Seattle's International District
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| July 18, 1984 | McDonald's massacre | 13 | San Diego, California | Twenty-one killed, 19 injured in a shooting rampage at a McDonalds
|
| August 20, 1986 | Edmond Postal massacre | 14+1 | Edmond, Oklahoma | Postman Patrick Sherrill shot and killed fellow employees in the Post Office before committing suicide, bringing the total to 15 dead. Between 1986 and 1997, more than 40 people were killed in more than 20 separate incidents involving the United States Postal Service.
|
| August 8, 1987 | Hoddle Street massacre | 7 | Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
|
| August 19, 1987 | Hungerford massacre | 17 | Hungerford, Berkshire, England | A loner named Michael Robert Ryan went on the rampage in a small rural town in England, shooting people at random with an array of firearms.
|
| December 8, 1987 | Queen Street massacre | 8 | Melbourne, Victoria, Australia |
|
| February 16, 1988 | ESL massacre | 7 | Sunnyvale, California | Richard Farley, former employee of Electromagnetic Systems Labs (ESL), returned to ESL with guns and explosives and killed seven people and injured three others, including Laura Black, a woman he had been stalking for over 3 years.
|
| December 6, 1989 | École Polytechnique massacre | 14+1 | Université de Montréal, Montreal, Quebec, Canada | Violent misogynist Marc Lépine shoots 14 women an engineering school, shouting "I hate feminists", before killing himself.
|
| November 13, 1990 | Aramoana massacre | 13 | Aramoana, New Zealand | Psychotic gunman, David Gray, opens fire on residents in a peaceful coastal settlement.
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| August 17, 1991 | Strathfield massacre | 7 | Sydney, Australia | Wade Frankum opens fire on random people in a shopping mall, and then takes his own life.
|
| July 1, 1993 | 101 California Street shootings | 8 | San Francisco, California | Gunman uses three handguns to kill 8 people and injure 6 before turning a gun on himself.
|
| March 13, 1996 | Dunblane massacre | 18 | Dunblane, Scotland | Murders at a primary school in Scotland.
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| April 28, 1996 | Port Arthur massacre | 35 | Tasmania, Australia | Martin Bryant kills 35 people in the tourist town of Port Arthur
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| 1997 | Sanaa massacre | 8 | Yemen | School massacre in Yemen
|
| March 24, 1998 | Jonesboro massacre | 5 | Arkansas, United States | Two middle school students attack their school
|
| April 20, 1999 | Columbine High School massacre | 13+2 | Jefferson County, Colorado, United States | Two teenage students, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, execute 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.
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| June 1, 2001 | Nepalese royal family massacre | 8 | Katmandu, Nepal | Prince Dipendra shoots his immediate family and himself at a royal dinner
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| June 8, 2001 | Osaka school massacre | 8 | Ikeda, Osaka prefecture, Japan |
|
| September 27, 2001 | Zug massacre | 14 | Zug, Switzerland | Friedrich Leibacher entered the Zug parliament and opened fire, killing three members of the cantonal government and 11 parliamentarians before turning the gun on himself.
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| April 26, 2002 | Erfurt massacre | 17 | Erfurt, Thuringia, Germany | Robert Steinhäuser, expelled student, enters his former high school and opens fire on teachers, killing 13 teachers, 2 students and even a police officer before finally turning the gun on himself.
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| March 21, 2005 | Red Lake High School massacre | 10 | Red Lake, Minnesota, United States | Jeff Weise kills 9 people on the Red Lake Chippewa Indian reservation.
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| January 30, 2006 | Goleta Postal massacre | 6+1+1 | Goleta, California, United States | Female former postal worker
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| March 25, 2006 | Capitol Hill massacre | 6+1 | Seattle, Washington, United States | Aaron Kyle Huff entered a house party in Seattle's Capitol Hill neighborhood and opened fire, shooting eight, and killing six. When confronted by police, Huff killed himself.
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"List of massacres"