Massacres are individual acts of
mass killing of civilians or noncombatants, almost always characterised as having distinct
political significance in shaping subsequent events.
Below is a list of incidents that are commonly referred to as massacres, though other incidents may also qualify yet not be called massacres.
- Massacre of the Innocents - Bethlehem, Palestine, ca. 1 AD (according to the Gospel of Matthew)
- ca. 130 children supposedly killed by The Pied Piper of Hamelin - Germany, 1284 (legend, not clear what really happened)
- Massacre of Glencoe - Scotland, February 13, 1692
- Boston Massacre - British North American Colonies, currently US, March 5, 1770
- Peterloo massacre - United Kingdom, August 16, 1819
- Kishinev (currently Chisinau) - Moldova, 1903
- Nanjing Massacre, also called Rape of Nanking - China, 1937
- Katyn Massacre - Poland, (1939?)
- Deir Yassin massacre - Palestine, (1948)
- Massacre in Yedwabne - Poland, 1941
- Babi Yar massacre - Ukraine, September 29 and September 30, 1941
- Massacre in Koniuchy - Poland, 1944
- Malmedy massacre - Belgium, December 17, 1944
- Qibya massacre - West Bank, 1953
- Tlatelolco massacre, Mexico, 1968
- My Lai massacre - Vietnam, 1968
- Kent State massacre - Kent State University, Ohio, USA May 4, 1970
- Sabra and Shatila massacre - Beirut, Lebanon, September, 1982
- Hungerford massacre[?] - Hungerford[?], Berkshire, England, UK, August 19, 1987
- École Polytechnique Massacre (also called Montreal Massacre) - University of Montreal in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, December 6, 1989
- Tiananmen Massacre - Beijing, China, 1989
- Dunblane massacre - Stirling region, Scotland, UK, March 13, 1996
- Port Arthur massacre - Tasmania, Australia, April 29, 1996
- Sanaa massacre - Yemen 1997
- Jonesboro massacre - Arkansas, United States, 1998
- Tajdena massacre - Algeria, 1998
- Columbine High School massacre - Littleton, Colorado, United States, 1999
- Erfurt massacre - Erfurt, Thuringia, Germany, April 26, 2002