The 29 Saddest Pictures in The World

Collected by itvnews

Humans are best creations; they are most intelligent in all existing species on the earth. With this intelligence they ruled the world and destroyed it too. Here are the 29 pictures which tell our sad past.

9/11 Attack:

The 9/11 Attack

In the morning September 11, 2001, two hijacked passenger jets crashed into the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York City. This was no accident, but rather a series of attacks done by suicide bombers engaged with the Al-Qaeda terrorist group.

The attacks killed all the passengers on board the hijacked planes, and took away 2,974 innocent lives at the World Trade Center. More than 90 countries lost citizens in the attack, and the stock market was closed for a week.

Abu Ghraib:

abu ghraib

Beginning in 2004, accounts of physical, psychological, and sexual abuse, including torture, rape, sodomy, and homicide of prisoners held in the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq (also known as Baghdad Correctional Facility) came to public attention. These acts were committed by personnel of the 372nd Military Police Company of the United States Army together with additional US governmental agencies.

An Afghan Refugee Child Hides From a Dust Storm:

An Afghan refugee child hides from a dust storm

Bhopal India – Methyl Isocyanate Spill:

Bhopal India

More than 40 tons of methyl isocyanate spilled from a Union Carbide-owned pesticide factory in Bhopal, India, in 1984, killing more than 20,000 people in the world’s worst chemical disaster.

After the spill, these skulls were researched, presumably for the specific effects the gas had on the brain, at the nearby Hamidia Hospital. The chemical injured not only the people who inhaled it, but also nearby animals (at least 2,000 of them) and trees, whose leaves went yellow and fell off within days.

Twenty-five years later, with people still claiming injury from the disaster yet little corrective action having been taken, the government of India has called for a study into the long-term effects of the spill.

Biafra:

biafra

When the Igbos of eastern Nigeria declared themselves independent in 1967, Nigeria blockaded their fledgling country-Biafra. In three years of war, more than one million people died, mainly of hunger. In famine, children who lack protein often get the disease kwashiorkor, which causes their muscles to waste away and their bellies to protrude.

Boston Fire:

boston fire

On July 22, 1975, Stanley J. Forman was working in the newsroom of the Boston Herald American newspaper when a police scanner picked up an emergency: “Fire on Marlborough Street!” Forman rushed to the scene, where multiple fire crews were battling an intense blaze. There was a distress call for a ladder team to the rear of the building to help a stranded woman and child. Forman followed.

Buchenwald Camp:

Buchenwald camp

In 1937, the Nazis constructed Buchenwald concentration camp, near Weimar, Germany. Placed over the camp’s main entrance gate, was the slogan Jedem das Seine (literally “to each his own”, but figuratively “everyone gets what he deserves”). The Nazis used Buchenwald until the camp’s liberation in 1945. From 1945 to 1950, the Soviet Union used the occupied camp as an NKVD special camp for Nazis and other Germans. On 6 January 1950, the Soviets handed over Buchenwald to the East German Ministry of Internal Affairs.

The SS left behind accounts of the number of prisoners and people coming to and leaving the camp, categorizing those leaving them by release, transfer, or death. These accounts are one of the sources of estimates for the number of deaths in Buchenwald. According to SS documents, 33,462 died in Buchenwald. These documents were not, however, necessarily accurate: Among those executed before 1944 many were listed as “transferred to the Gestapo”. Furthermore, from 1941 forward Soviet POWs were executed in mass killings. Arriving prisoners selected for execution were not entered into the camp register and therefore were not among the 33,462 dead listed in SS documents.

Burial Of an Unknown Child:

burial of an unknown child

Burial of an unknown child. This picture shows the world’s worst industrial disaster, caused by the US multinational chemical company, Union Carbide.

Burning Monk:

burning monk

As a protest to the This Monk slow and unreliable reforms in Vietnam, the Buddhist monks have resorted to immolation, such as this Mahayana Buddhist monk, He burned himself alive across the outskirts of Saigon, mainly because of the harshness done by the South Vietnam government to his fellow Buddhist monks.

He was re-cremated after he burned himself; his heart meanwhile remained in one piece, and because of this he was regarded as a Bodhisattva by the other Buddhist monks and followers. His act of self-immolation increased the pressure on the Di?m administration to implement their reform laws in South Vietnam.

Bushmeat:

Bushmeat

Animals from primates to snakes are valuable commodities in the thriving, albeit illegal, worldwide trade of bushmeat, defined as wildlife killed either by commercial or subsistence hunters. With one million tons of bushmeat taken from African forests every year, the already endangered gorilla population-a primary victim of the trade-is in dire straits.

This photo shows a gorilla family in southeast Cameroon (minus the alpha male silverback, who managed to get away) that had been slaughtered in their nests by a bushmeat hunter early one morning.

Execution Of a Viet Cong Guerrilla:

execution of a viet cong guerrilla

This picture was shot by Eddie Adams who won the Pulitzer prize with it. The picture shows Nguyen Ngoc Loan, South Vietnam’s national police chief executing a prisoner who was said to be a Viet Cong captain. Once again the public opinion was turned against the war.

Hector Pieterson:

Hector Pieterson

Hector Pieterson an icon of 1976 Soweto uprising in apartheid South Africa. Dying Hector being carried by a fellow student. He was killed at the age of 12 when the police opened fire on protesting students. For years, June 16 stood as a symbol of resistance to the brutality of the apartheid government. Today, it is known as National Youth Day – a day on which South Africans honour young people and bring attention to their needs.

Last Jew Of Vinnitsa:

last jew of vinnitsa

Picture from an Einsatzgruppen soldier’s personal album, labelled on the back as “Last Jew of Vinnitsa, it shows a member of Einsatzgruppe D is just about to shoot a Jewish man kneeling before a filled mass grave in Vinnitsa, Ukraine, in 1941. All 28,000 Jews from Vinnitsa and its surrounding areas were massacred at the time.

Lynching Of Young Blacks:

lynching of young blacks

This is a famous picture, taken in 1930, showing the young black men accused of raping a Caucasian woman and killing her boyfriend, hanged by a mob of 10,000 white men. The mob took them by force from the county jail house. Another black man was left behind and ended up being saved from lynching. Even if lynching photos were designed to boost white supremacy, the tortured bodies and grotesquely happy crowds ended up revolting many.

Nagasaki Hiroshima Masroon Clouds:

nagasaki hiroshima masroon clouds

This is the picture of the “mushroom cloud” showing the enormous quantity of energy. The first atomic bomb was released on August 6 in Hiroshima (Japan) and killed about 80,000 people. On August 9 another bomb was released above Nagasaki. The effects of the second bomb were even more devastating – 150,000 people were killed or injured. But the powerful wind, the extremely high temperature and radiation caused enormous long term damage.

Napalm Girl:

napalm girl

The photo shows Phan Thi Kim Phรบc (a Vietnamese-Canadian) at about age nine running naked on the street after being severely burned on her back by a South Vietnamese napalm attack.

Nile Perch in Lake:

Nile Perch in Lake

One of the 100 most invasive species in the world the Nile perch was introduced to East Africa’s Lake Victoria in the 1950s, and has wreaked environmental havoc ever since. It’s illegal to possess or sell in some parts of the world, and is thought to have caused the extinction or endangering of hundreds of native species in Lake Victoria.

After the fish eliminated much of the algae-eating population, the lake became choked with algae. The perch has also increased local demand for firewood, because their higher fat content drives people to smoke them rather than dry them. Adult perch can grow to weigh more than 440 pounds, and are fierce predators that feed on insects, crustaceans, and other fish-even those of its own species.

Pictured here are dead Nile perch on a butcher table waiting for transport to local markets.

Nilgunyalcin Child Vulture:

nilgunyalcin child vulture

Sudanese child being stalked by a vulture nearby. It is quite obvious that the child was starving to death, while the vulture was patiently waiting for the toddler to die so he can have a good meal.

Nobody knows what happened to the child, who crawled his way to a United Nations food camp. Photographer Kevin Carter won a Pulitzer Prize for this shocking picture, but he eventually committed suicide three months after he took the shot.

Palestine Father Saving Son:

palestine father saving son

Images from the video footage of 12-year-old Muhammad al-Durrah being shot dead in the Gaza Strip. The scene was filmed by a France 2 cameraman.

Palestinian Refugees:

palestinian refugees

World Press Photo of the Year: 1976 Franรงoise Demulder, France, Gamma. Beirut, Lebanon, January 1976. Palestinian refugees in the district La Quarantaine. About the image She was the first woman to win the World Press Photo, and did so on the 20th anniversary of the award. Demulder stated at the time that she hated war, but felt compelled to document how it’s always the innocent who suffer, while the powerful get richer and richer.

Palm Oil Deforestation:

Palm Oil Deforestation

Indonesia is home to the world’s third largest tropical forest, but it’s disappearing quickly. Though often illegal, the forests are cut down both for a booming pulp and paper industry as well as to clear land for oil palm plantations, which supply diverse industries from biofuel to soap to cosmetics.

Because of deforestation, Indonesia is also the world’s third largest greenhouse gas contributor, behind only the U.S. and China; after the forest is cut down, the carbon normally sequestered in the peatland soil is no longer shielded from being released into the atmosphere.

Pollution and Power Lines:

Pollution and Power Lines

China’s economy has exploded in recent years; so has its pollution problem, leaving no aspect of the country’s environment unaffected. Solid waste often lacks proper disposal, waterways have been polluted, and the air quality has plummeted, largely due to the coal-fired power plants that serve as the country’s primary source of energy.

Environmental degradation has gotten so bad that the Chinese government, which doesn’t easily take-or allow-criticism, has admitted that birth defects in the country have increased as a direct result of it, particularly in coal-producing regions like the north, where this picture was taken.

Second Largest Oil Spill Ever:

Second Largest Oil Spill Ever

The Ixtoc I exploratory well suffered a blowout on June 3, 1979, in Mexico’s Bay of Campeche, 600 miles south of Texas. The well was not brought under control until the next year, by which time 140 million gallons had spilled into the bay. The only larger spill occurred during the 1991 Gulf War, when Iraq dumped-deliberately-up to 462 million gallons of oil into the Persian Gulf.

Segregated water Fountains:

segregated water fountains

A segregated water fountain with a vastly larger and more desirable fountain for whites, and a small fountain for minorities.

Sludge Kingston Tennessee:

Sludge Kingston Tennessee

More than 1 billion gallons of toxic sludge were released into a Tennessee community when a dam collapsed last December, causing a massive coal-ash spill at the Kingston Fossil Plant, a coal-burning power plant owned by the Tennessee Valley Authority.

Coal ash is known to contain dangerous elements including arsenic, lead, and selenium, yet the TVA refused at first to issue any health warnings about contamination from the spill. The agency, which weeks later admitted prior leak problems at the plant, also refused initially to declare as uninhabitable the houses in the area, like the one pictured here, that were physically relocated by all the sludge.

Starving Boy:

starving boy

World Press Photo of the Year: 1980 Mike Wells, United Kingdom. Karamoja district, Uganda, April 1980. Starving boy and a missionary. About the image Wells felt indignant that the same publication that sat on his picture for five months without publishing it, while people were dying, entered it into a competition. He was embarrassed to win as he never entered the competition himself, and was against winning prizes with pictures of people starving to death.

The American Bison:

The American Bison

A product of U.S. Army-sanctioned mass slaughter of American bison in the 1800s, these bison skulls are waiting to be ground for fertilizer, most likely in the American midwest. The slaughter was so “effective” that the population of bison in the U.S. is estimated to have dropped from around 60 million in 1800 to as few as 750 in 1890.

Tsunami Dead Bodies:

tsunami dead bodies

The Boxing Day Tsunami that struck Thailand in 2004 caused approximately 350,000 deaths and many more injuries.

View of Floods:

view of floods

An aerial view of floods caused by Tropical Storm Hanna is seen in Gonaives, Haiti on September 3, 2008. Haiti’s civil protection office said 37 of the 90 Hanna-related deaths had occurred in the port city of Gonaives.

-Prashant Vikram Singh (Reasearch India Organization)

74 thoughts on “The 29 Saddest Pictures in The World

    1. Amanj

      there are no pictures of Halabja town which attacked by chemical weapon in 1988 by Saddam Hussein, and Anfal process in 1988 also by Saddam Hussein(former president of Iraq)

  1. Bob

    There’s a lot of context missing from those descriptions and some are inaccurate – like the one with the Palestinian father. This list is very badly put together, with some that make sense and others that seem entirely random – they’re sad, but there are so many other sad events that were photographed and left out that forgetting them seems even sadder.

    This is just plain dumb.

  2. Mary Beth

    What;s “dumb” is downplaying tragedies like these. Is there a pecking order for tragedies? The shame is that there IS so much more, not that these are “out of context”.

  3. michael

    I thought is tapered off a bit at the end. As much as I agree that some the environmental disaters are terrible, the pictures themselves weren’t that sad… Better pictures need to be shown of these.

    Also, the IDF DID kill that Palestinian father and his boy. Nothing wrong with the fact checking here.

  4. Cynthia

    The IDF DID NOT kill the Palestinian boy or his father. It was all staged by the Palestinians with the help of Agence France Presse. There was a huge trial in France in 2007 proving that it was all staged. Click here and scroll down to Nov. 14, 2007. Time for you to do some fact checking, Michael.

    1. Henry

      You sack of Jew-Shit. Israelis have been systematically killing Palestinians for 60 years, stealing their land, selling human organs, bombing hospitals and schools. You are the most vile person on here to minimize and lie about the death of that little boy.

      I hope you are punished you sick and evil excuse for a person.

      1. Patrick

        Wow, That was a little over the top wasn’t it? In fact she is correct that that sequence of photos was staged. I am not certain about who killed who but the consensus among experts is that he has killed by Palestinian fire. A simple google search for the kid’s name, Mohammed Al Dura, will help you get rid of your ignorance. I am also guessing that you are not unbiased yourself and don’t really care what the truth of the matter is anyway.

      2. Jon

        How tough you are when it’s all anonymous and you can sit at your keyboard and spew your vile rhetoric safe in the knowledge that no-one can take you to task over it!! How I’d love to have 30 minutes alone with you and a baseball bat, you bigoted, racist piece of slime. I would fuck you up so badly that no-one, not even your 11 toed, crack whore mother would recognise you.

  5. Kristen Reed

    Not gunna lie…

    This really makes me want to stop reading your web-site and recommending it to my friends….

    Who else thinks this should be taken down or at least archived far away?

  6. William Kerns

    I was so moved by these photos, and was happy to be able to read the names of the photographers who were in the horrifying position of capturing segments of history. I must admit I also expected to see the photo of the girl crying over a friend who was shot down at Kent State.

  7. Mel C

    The pictures about natural disasters are sad, to be true, but not caused by humans like the introduction says. Either way, sometimes we all need to be jolted back into reality, even if it’s through a reminder of the awful things that we do to each other and to our environment. Not the greatest thing to read first thing in the morning, but food for thought nevertheless.

  8. Joey Frisco

    Very moving… whether some of the photos and descriptions are completely accurate isn’t exceptionally important… A week ago the article featured a satirical note with a dime bag of weed attached (which was hilarious). If you want accuracy, go to an independent news site; if you want to be entertained, come here.

    I love this site, although this week has been a bit below their normal standards of awesome.

    -J

  9. danoi

    Fuck. This is very moving

    I love the humor of this site, but as Mel said, a reality check is important every so often.

  10. val

    this is just some of it . a little taste of what us as humans can do to one another ….let me remind u people that we will wipe our self out nothing else

  11. Bob

    These pictures belie boredom and privilege on the part of someone (probably a relatively well-off American) who has nothing better to do than to concoct a purported “greatest hits list” premised on (1) arbitrarily ranking “very very bad things that happened”, and (2) providing inaccurate and white-washed historical contexts.

    These pictures are not “moving”. They do not move anyone to do anything except feel sorry and self-righteous at their own ability to feel sympathy for the unfortunates of the world.

  12. dane

    tsunami one doesnt look like thailand. maybe sri lanka or something. look at skin colour i mean, it doesnt look like thais. and most ppl died in thailand’s tsunami were western tourists.

  13. GMO1986

    Note: Karamoja is a REGION in Uganda (North-East, consiting of Districts: Nakapiripirit, Kotido, Moroto, Kaabong, Katakwi, Amura), not a District itself.

  14. Ted

    Most of the comments miss the point of the posting. It’s not just sad what we do to each other. It’s that we let it go on…

  15. R Singh

    I belive the manslaughter of 3000 innocent Sikhs in Delhi in 1984 (burned alive within 48 hrs) and Musilms killed in Gujrat should also be there.

  16. Cynthia G.13

    I doubt that it [the palestinian father getting killed] was staged what kid would say, ” Yeah, I’ll pretent that my dad got killed! Sounds like fun!” and second of all don’t you think that sometime during the fight some kids didn’t see there parents die to save them! I don’t know about you but my parents would! And if that one was staged the point is the same even though humans say that they are the only creatures with a concious we still murder and a do lot of damage that makes us seem like we really don’t have one at all…and sadly that’s the truth.

  17. Cynthia G.13

    But the thing I thought was so sad was the two black guys getting murdered because they thought that they were the ones that “raped that girl”. I saw a T.V. show that when mordern day scientist opened the case and found that it wasn’t them. I bet the police back then didn’t even arrest anyone that helped kill them… a life is a life no matter what.

  18. Omar

    Cynthia:
    You know, what really disgusts me is how all Zionists and pro-Zionists always try to lie, deny, and/or ignore about how they massacred (and still massacre) the Palestinians. I mean, who would have known that after the holocaust and everything the Jews were subjected to that they would do it to the Palestinians a few decades later? I am sure you have seen the faces of the little children who were massacred in the last war on Gaza; and honestly, it makes you and the lying likes of you all the more disgusting.

    1. kiw

      Ow I didnt know that “Palestinians” exist. And I’m sure they dont. And Jews/Zionists, or whatever you like to call the people you hate, didnt massacre the arabs. They are protecting their people from idiots who blow the shit out of themselves.

  19. Liaste

    While these pictures might not have the most accurate description accompanying them, they’re still pictures of things that have happened and things that are still happening and as such deserve respect. All of you calling up names, facts, correcting and bitching, you’re the saddest part of this article. You cannot wrap your little minds around the sheer horridness of it all so you have to nitpick to make yourselves feel better about your lack of comprehension, and compassion. Too many of us get all caught up in our own little world and how things happen that are just shitty and really shouldn’t be happening to us of all people. Saddening as it is to say, humanity as a whole probably needs a swift kick to the ass instead of a mere wake-up call.

  20. Fuck-Isreal

    waw always about the Us ..the first SAD pic is the 9/11 ..and yes the IDF did kill the poor father and his son ..stop pliiz

    1. kiw

      IDIOT. THE IDF DIDNT KILL THAT MAN AND HIS CHILD. ITS PROPAGANDA. And you know who proved it ? GERMANS. waw, so many ignorant and brainless comments of empty-headed people.

  21. Jessie

    The falling man is not in there? From the 911 attack there were people who were forced to jump. Where was he?

    These pictures present a raw beauty in the world, but also a horrific pain.

  22. Contact

    Seeing as the Muhammad al-Durrah photograph has been proven to have been faked… I don't think it should be included in this article.

  23. Jomy

    The pics of the Palestine father saving son made my eyes sore and my chest hurt. (Still have tears rolling from my eyes whilst typing.) The Ultimate parents sacrifice… I know because I’m a parent.

  24. Ali

    Jesus Christ (p.b.u.h) and Mohammad (p.b.u.h) the messengers of peace ,justice,and brotherhood.

  25. kiw

    First of all, I just wanna say.. That picture of the 12 year old palestinian boy with his father —> FAKE !! Germans have found that it was all played by palestinian so that the world would see that Israeli’s are monsters, which is not true.. at all. But of course, people believe everything without thinking twice. dumb dumb dumb. This never happened, and I want to add something : the IDF is the most smartest, and humanitarian army ever.

  26. ALEX

    oh that baby with the vulture…. just FEED THE POOR BABY! DO SOMETHING! just hold him, just hold the poor little baby dying. fed him, save him!

  27. Rekha

    My only question is….whether pictures are fake or not…why were the heartless photographers taking pictures of “about to die” kids instead of helping them…reeks of lack of basic humanity….

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