Alex Buscemi
Some moments in history make headlines, stir up conversations, and then seem to fade away as if they never happened.
Reddit users are digging up these strange events—the kind that had everyone talking for a second before they got swept under the rug.
From peculiar political scandals to once-buzzed-about ecological disasters, this collection highlights stories that felt like big deals but have since slipped out of the spotlight.
Keep going for stories that will either sound familiar or make you say, “Wait, that really happened?”
1.
The Panama Papers that exposed the list of elite who were hoarding vast amounts of wealth in offshore bank accounts. Conveniently forgotten about entirely.
2.
The Clinton administration funded nationwide fiber optic cable. The cable companies took the money, then disappeared it in all their late 90’s corporate consolidations. Paid for fiber optic cable, did not get it.
3.
Over 800 tons of dead sealife including dolphins, washed up in Tampa Bay due to a fertilizer plant spill – never heard about this disaster again.
4.
There was a huge scandal involving the UK foster care system. Social workers were getting paid more for each child they placed in foster care. This resulted in 100s/1000s of children being placed into foster care that didn’t need to be. To this day there has been no uproar or anything about it.
5.
Several nuclear weapons the US DOD straight up lost.
6.
The Universal Music fire of 2008. The fire on June 1, 2008, destroyed anywhere from 120,000 to 175,000 master recordings.
7.
The protests in Hong Kong seemed to vanish like they never happened when COVID started up.
8.
The US government admitted it couldn’t account for 2.3 trillion dollars of the budget on 9/10/01. The world forgot about it the next day.
9.
The Malaysia airlines flight disappearing… Still creeps me out.
10.
If it’s anything like the world devastating Spanish flu then I think COVID will soon be denied and forgotten except by health experts.
11.
The Australian wildfires that were all the news just prior to COVID.
12.
Those few months in 2016 when people started dressing like clowns and terrorizing people.
13.
I can’t be the only one who feels the Vegas shooting was massively swept under the rug considering its magnitude. Was in the news for a few weeks then was never really spoken about again. We have never been told an actual motive for it and I just feel like there’s so much more investigating that can and should be done.
14.
Astroworld, why is no one talking about this anymore? The Kardashians used all kinds of slightly smaller ‘scandals’ to try and cover the fact that they were involved with it.
15.
The story of the Darien Scheme is remarkably unknown given its consequences. This was a Scottish attempt in the 1690s to set up a colony in the Panama region that failed disastrously and caused financial ruin to many investors in Scotland, ultimately contributing to Scotland agreeing to form a union with England in 1707.
16.
The Great Smog of London in the 1950s. Killed up to 12,000 and injured thousands more. A mysterious pea soup fog mixed with coal smog that covered the city for days. In the fog there was a crime wave where criminals were hidden by the fog and police couldn’t operate.
17.
The Philippine-American War. Started in 1899 when the Philippine Republic objected to the treaty ceding the Philippines to the United States. Officially ended in 1902 but small resistance groups continued to fight for several years, resulting in approximately 200,000 Filipino deaths.
18.
The early history of Yamato Japan. This state had an official record of its history, but the record was burned in a great fire in the 6th/7th century. It was recreated afterward, but the recreation seems to have suited contemporary politics rather than aligning with the archaeological record.
19.
The Battle of Tours. If Charles Martel lost, Christendom would have been destroyed by the Umayyad Caliphate, drastically altering history as we know it.
20.
Caesar’s conquest of Gaul. While a well-known event, almost everything about it comes from Caesar’s diary or politically motivated sources. Details of his accounts often seem exaggerated or questionable.
21.
The SS Eastland tragedy in 1915. Happened in the Chicago River. Boat topples over and kills 844 people.
22.
The Bronze Age Collapse. All the Bronze Age civilizations crashed into barbarism for a few hundred years.
23.
The Battle of Long Tan. 105 Australian and 3 New Zealand soldiers held back an entire NVA battalion for three and a half hours. Estimated that the Vietnamese battalion was up to 2,500 men strong.
24.
The US invasion of Grenada.
25.
Snoop Dogg changing his name to Snoop Lion for about a month.
26.
That Miami mall incident with the aliens, like what was that about.
27.
Creation of the Federal Reserve Bank in America. Maybe not forgotten but definitely not remembered.
28.
Boston Marathon Bomber. Never hear anything about him.
29.
The War of the Roses.
30.
Thailand Tsunami of 2004. Horrific, but never spoken about now.
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