Skip to content
Search AI Powered

Latest Stories

People Break Down Which Historical Events Were Horrible But Ultimately Necessary

People Break Down Which Historical Events Were Horrible But Ultimately Necessary
white wooden fence on green grass field during daytime
Photo by Mathis Jrdl on Unsplash

As we enter the third year of the global pandemic, with cases continuing to ebb and flow, it's hard not to look back on whether or not this could have been avoided, and what the world might be like today had Covid-19 not spread throughout the world.

With that in mind, one also can't help but wonder whether or not there will, in fact, be some good to come out of this.

Many people have pointed out how people will likely be more diligent with their hygiene, companies might re-examine the possibilities of working from home and disability, not to mention how much we value our friends and loved ones, after not being able to see them and hug them for months on end.

Begging the question, was the global pandemic one of the many necessary evils endured by the human race?

Redditor Appropriate-Cut8001 was curious to learn what horrific historical events people felt were, at the end of the day, necessary for multiple reasons, leading them to ask:

"What’s an event in history that everyone agrees was horrible but also agrees it was necessary?"


The Tylenol Murders

"The Tylenol murders."

"That sucks to say because 7, I believe without looking it up, people died."

"It caused the safety seals to be placed on every bottle containing any type of pill you can go pick up over the counter."

"Who knows how many of those seals have prevented another tragedy."- thegardensofbabylon

The Glen Cinema Disaster

"The Glen Cinema Disaster."

"Without it we would be locking fire doors on kid's movies."- pinkpringlesupremacy

The Titanic

"The sinking of the Titanic sure got people serious about ship safety and probably saved a lot of lives, especially since this was right before WWI."- Dictator4Hire

"This is a horrific thing for me to say, I have a degree in archeology with a concentration in maritime archeology, but Titanic sinking saved countless lives in future sinkings."- LadySigyn

"Sinking of the Titanic."

"Led to major changes about lifeboat capacity, as in everyone gets a spot, a dedicated iceberg watch and 24hr manned radios for starters."- jollyralph

The Plague

"The plague ironically gave poor workers the opportunity to get better wages and a few more rights than in the past where they were basically slaves to the rich."

"I don't know a lot about that time period so I don't know the details, but I always thought that was kind of a neat thing to come out of a horrific situation."- walkinghomeat3am

The Triangle Shirtwaist Fire

"The triangle shirtwaist fire, for the amount of time I spent learning about this in school I think it’s pretty important."

"Kinda set off the alarm for how badly people were being treated."- 6245stampycat

Extinction

"I guess whatever wiped out the dinosaurs since it made room for even bigger a**holes."- A-dog-named-Trouble

The World Wars

" Germany loosing both world wars."

"I am german and I truly believe we wouldn't be a such a modern democracy with a relatively young code of laws if it wasn't for the damn WW."

"It is good to have a state set back to 0 sometimes."

"Some laws and some phrases in a constitution just don't belong into the 21st century."

"Also, I like the current state of national pride here."

"Yeah, Germany is a great country and I feel home here, but we don't celebrate our past and are very careful when celebrating our achievement."

"I think this might be a good thing because I travelled many countries where national pride shut down legitimate criticism of history or politics."

"No matter how much you want to believe your country is the best."

"They all suck one way or the other."

"It is important to remember these dark times and learn from them."- datbarricade

"World War 2."

"Germany didn't deserve the way it was treated after World War 1, and I personally believe World War 2 changed how the countries handle reparations after large-scale wars."- P_Solaris

The origin of the breathalyzer

"1966."

"A drunk driver ran over a class of 10 boys and their teacher."

"One boy of the class survived because he was home sick."

"One day before the funeral, the Belgian government enforced the breathalyzer."- akisomething

Sampoong Department Store Collapse.

"Sampoong Department Store collapse."

"There was a research that only 2% of buildings in South Korea were safe."- Willy0126

Russia's Invasion

"This is more of a funny event/fact, but it belongs to this as well."

"When Napoleon Bonaparte with his army were invading Russia, they absolutely destroyed Russian first line on Russian borders and little in them."

"The rest of the army started fleeing back into the inland heading to Moscow."

"Napoleon chased them."

"During this chasing the winter started and Napoleon’s army was running out of food and resources, so Napoleon said that, they will raid Moscow, loot it and continue to the Russian inland."

"But, general of Russian army has invented an idea to raid Moscow first, steal everything from their own very important city and when Napoleon arrived there, it was empty, so they remained in the middle of hostile land, without food, water, something to warm or anything similar to that."

"And that’s how the great Napoleon was defeated."- VostiiiiikCZ

Pre- testing medicines

"The issues with thalidomide cause everyone except for America could see the danger of unregulated and lack of testing in medication."- ConnorMcJesusGoat

Vipeholms Experiments

"Probably the vipeholms experiments."

"Absolutely horrible but lead to some major breakthroughs in dentistry."- MjauDuuude

Radium Girls

"The whole Radium Girls tragedy."- EnoughtoLiveBy

Slavery

"Hear me out because this starts off very rough."

"But slavery was a key factor in terms of music."

"By no means am I saying it was right."

"And I’m well aware that its pretty f*ckd up to say."

"But without it, modern music would be nothing without it."

"Slaves would sing melancholic songs which turned into blues, those blues notes inspired jazz and rock."

"Which inspired a new approach to the 70s-80s synth music."

"Which inspired 90s hip-hop."

"You get the point."- Individual-Brief-345

All of Them.

"Pretty much everything on Fascinating Horror’s channel."

"All horrific disasters that led to devastation, but ultimately resulted in better laws and regulations, preventing even worse disasters in the future."- Dragoncat99

It is important to remember that tragedies have a way of bringing people together, and possibly look at life with a brand new, far more optimistic outlook.

Even if one can't help but wish it didn't come at such a painful cost.

More from Trending/best-of-reddit

Lauren Boebert; Hillary Clinton
Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images; Alex Wong/Getty Images

Lauren Boebert Dragged For Leaking Photo Of Hillary Clinton's Closed Door Epstein Deposition To MAGA YouTuber

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's deposition in the Epstein case had to be paused yesterday after Colorado Republican Representative Lauren Boebert secretly snapped a photo of her and sent it to right-wing podcaster Benny Johnson—who then immediately posted it online.

Clinton, who along with her husband, former President Bill Clinton, had insisted on testifying publicly regarding matters tied to the late financier, pedophile, and sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein, faced hours of questioning in a closed-door deposition after Republican Chair of the House Oversight Committee refused to make their depositions public.

Keep ReadingShow less
Kathy Hochul; Kash Patel
John Lamparski/Getty Images for Concordia Annual Summit; Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul Trolls Kash Patel With Epic Zing Over 'Heated Rivalry' Airbnb Listing

MAGA Republican President Donald Trump's FBI Director, Kash Patel, is facing backlash over his taxpayer-funded locker room booze fest at the Milano Cortina Winter Olympics in Italy.

Patel flew to Italy on a taxpayer-funded FBI plane despite having repeatedly criticized his predecessors for such excursions throughout 2023 and 2024. But an FBI spokesperson claimed it was not a personal trip because Patel met with Italian law enforcement and the U.S. ambassador to Italy during his visit.

Keep ReadingShow less
Screenshots from @theunobsolete's TikTok video
@theunobsolete/TikTok

Woman Speaks Out In Viral TikTok After Company Expects Her To Train 25-Year-Old They Promoted Over Her

No workplace is perfect, but there are certain, inexcusable things that a workplace simply cannot do, like withholding opportunities from an employee because of their age or sex.

TikToker @theunobsolete felt that she was passed over for a promotion due to her age and salary requirements, despite being qualified, while a fresh-out-of-grad-school candidate with no experience was given the role instead.

Keep ReadingShow less
Screenshots from @laysuperstar's TikTok video
@laysuperstar/TikTok

Guy Waiting For Luggage At Baggage Claim Mortified After His Undergarments Start Coming Out One At A Time

We've all heard the advice to "travel light," but packing only one sock for a flight might be taking it a bit far.

But in all actuality, TikToker @laysuperstar's brother, Hugh, did not only pack a singular sock for his trip, even if that's what the airport baggage claim would like you to believe.

Keep ReadingShow less
Gani Catan (in red) performs CPR on a seagull during an Istanbul First Amateur League playoff match after the bird was struck by a ball mid-game.
@straitstimes/TikTok

Turkish Soccer Player Performs CPR On Seagull Mid-Match After It's Struck By A Ball—And It Survived

In a playoff match full of high stakes, one player ended up fighting for a very different kind of win—one that came with feathers.

Let’s start at the beginning. As reported by The Guardian, in the 22nd minute of the Istanbul First Amateur League playoff final between Istanbul Yurdum Spor and Mevlanakapi Guzelhisar in Zeytinburnu, goalkeeper Muhammed Uyanik scooped up the ball with the league title hanging in the balance.

Keep ReadingShow less