From radio broadcasts about alien invasions to global health crises, history is filled with moments of widespread fear. Join us as we examine the events that sent humanity into a collective panic! Our countdown includes the Y2K scare, Chernobyl disaster, COVID-19 pandemic, and more! Which historical moment of panic do you remember most vividly?
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00:00Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're looking at historical moments that caused widespread
00:12fear and panic.
00:14My last day at work was March 31st, so I haven't worked since then and I don't have any insurance.
00:20Orson Welles' War of the Worlds.
00:22I still meet people all over the place, everywhere in the world, who've had experiences, bitter
00:30or otherwise, as a result of our little experiment in broadcasting.
00:35This infamous example of mass hysteria might be slightly exaggerated, but it's too classic
00:39to exclude.
00:41The Halloween radio broadcast of the Mercury Theatre on the Air featured an adaptation
00:46of H.G. Wells' science fiction novel, The War of the Worlds, narrated by Orson Welles.
00:52The story was adapted in a news broadcast style, giving the impression to some listeners
00:57that Martian aliens were actually invading Earth.
01:00I swallowed the whole thing as it came over the air, like a new national emergency or
01:06something.
01:07With global tensions rising in the lead up to World War II, it's understandable that
01:10some anxious listeners, having missed the introductory disclaimer of the program's
01:15fictional content, would panic and call the radio station and local police en masse.
01:20The following day brought newspaper coverage of the incident, but it's up to you whether
01:24you believe the anecdotal stories they reported.
01:27For the next several hours, newspapers, radio stations, and police precincts from coast
01:33to coast would be swamped with calls.
01:35Well, I can't help that, ma'am.
01:37We just don't know anything about it.
01:38Y2K.
01:39I'm going to go and get my gas tank filled for my outdoor barbecue, so you can be assured
01:47nothing's going to go wrong because I'm ready.
01:49To those too young to remember the turn of the millennium, Y2K might refer to a vintage-inspired
01:55clothing trend.
01:56But to those of us a little older, it's a reminder of an uncertain time that had many
02:00in a panic.
02:01Why?
02:02Because computers represented years using only the last two digits, leaving many to
02:07fear mass computer errors if 00 was interpreted as 1900 instead of 2000.
02:14It's a serious problem.
02:15We're taking it very seriously, and we're doing everything that we feel is appropriate
02:19and prudent to be Y2K ready.
02:23Fearing the glitch might affect infrastructure in a disastrous way, many spent their New
02:27Year's Eve stocking up on emergency supplies and hunkering down at home.
02:31This fear was thankfully unfounded, as only a few minor errors actually occurred, like
02:37a $7,000 late fee for a video rental that showed as 100 years overdue.
02:43Look at that.
02:45Everyone out there ready to party, and I was just sitting here worrying about the hangover.
02:51Yellow fever.
02:52Yellow fever was horrible.
02:54The patient is spraying black vomit across the room.
02:59They're in agony.
03:00They're screaming.
03:01Considered one of the most dangerous diseases of the 18th and 19th centuries, yellow fever
03:06swept through the Americas, Africa, and Europe throughout several epidemic periods.
03:11Notably deadly outbreaks included Shrevenport, Louisiana in 1873, when 1,200 people lost
03:18their lives over 80 days.
03:19And an 1878 outbreak in the Mississippi River Valley that killed 20,000.
03:25Philadelphians were used to epidemic disease outbreak.
03:28Diphtheria, cholera, smallpox, measles.
03:32But this case was different.
03:34It hit Philadelphians with a force that they hadn't seen before.
03:38Understandably, an outbreak of yellow fever was enough to make any community panic, but
03:42the panic was magnified by the uncertainty surrounding the disease.
03:46Without an understanding of how the disease was spread, it seemed impossible to slow infections.
03:51Thankfully, further research had led to a greater knowledge of the disease, and a vaccine
03:56was developed in the 1930s that is still in use today.
03:59In the face of this yellow fever epidemic, he's trying out new ideas and really attempting
04:05to take a scientific approach with knowledge that he'd acquired in Europe.
04:10Indian Ocean tsunami.
04:11Homes were torn apart.
04:13Huts and shacks reduced to nothing more than floating debris.
04:16Cars, boats, and even buses were picked up and tossed around like children's toys.
04:22When a 9.2 magnitude undersea earthquake struck the Indian Ocean, no one could have prevented
04:28the devastation that would follow.
04:29The earthquake caused a massive tsunami with waves as high as 100 feet, striking the shores
04:34of 14 countries, killing over 200,000 people.
04:37The tragedy was especially devastating due to the lack of tsunami warning systems in place.
04:431,300 had died on this small island in a matter of minutes.
04:47The destruction I witnessed in Indonesia was on an almost unimaginable scale.
04:52The victims were caught completely by surprise, though some populations recognized the signs
04:57of an imminent tsunami and evacuated safely.
05:00Far too many had to experience the terrifying sight described by some witnesses as a black
05:05giant and a wall of water.
05:08Henry!
05:09Henry, the boys!
05:11Lucas!
05:12Lucas!
05:16Chernobyl.
05:17We have to keep water flowing into the core.
05:19We need electricians, mechanics, we need bodies.
05:23How many times do I have to say it?
05:25In 1986, a disastrous explosion at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in the Soviet Union released
05:31harmful radioactive material into the atmosphere that spread across much of Europe.
05:36Within hours, individuals in nearby cities began to fall ill, but it wasn't until the
05:41radiation set off alarms hundreds of miles away in Sweden that the USSR admitted that
05:46the accident had occurred.
05:48Although experts say radiation levels in Sweden are not harmful and in fact are falling, many
05:53people are not convinced.
05:54I'm concerned, yes.
05:56I'm worried about what's going to happen if the wind turns around back more to Sweden.
06:01The scale of the disaster and the delayed announcement caused the millions of affected
06:06people across Europe to worry about the potential risks to public health and the environment.
06:10The disaster was speculated to cause widespread deaths and birth defects, but thankfully,
06:16the impact on public health, while still significant, was much smaller than anticipated.
06:21The control rods in those channels can move no further.
06:25The graphite tips are fixed in position, endlessly accelerating the reaction.
06:30Chernobyl reactor 4 is now a nuclear bomb.
06:35The AIDS epidemic.
06:36It was back in April that the Greater New York Blood Program began testing all donated
06:40blood with a special screening test for the AIDS virus.
06:44The tests cannot determine if someone has the disease, but they can tell if they've
06:48been exposed to it.
06:49In the early 1980s, an illness began spreading in the United States, but was first noticed
06:54in LGBTQ communities.
06:56AIDS, a life-threatening condition caused by HIV, killed millions of people in the 1980s
07:02and 1990s, when the epidemic was at its height.
07:04With gay men being the population most devastatingly affected, public fears and panic surrounding
07:09the illness triggered widespread stigmatization, isolation, and marginalization of LGBTQ populations.
07:16And if something's out there that can help me and save my life, I think I should be eligible
07:19for it, no matter what the dollar costs.
07:22Though today there are advanced treatments for HIV, and we have a better public understanding
07:26of the illness, the epidemic at its height was a time of tragic loss for the LGBTQ community
07:32that increased homophobic incidents and severely hampered civil rights efforts.
07:36In 1995, a combo therapy known as the AIDS cocktail was ushered in, followed by even
07:42better medications, offering hope, but there was no cure for the stigma COVID-19 pandemic.
07:49In influenza, we talk about droplet transmission.
07:52One droplet may be about 10,000, 50,000 copies.
07:56In COVID-19, you have billions of copies inside the same droplet.
08:01One hundred years after another viral pandemic brought the world to a halt, we got a new
08:06one.
08:07The COVID-19 pandemic, beginning in early 2020, triggered lockdowns that kept most of
08:12us confined to our homes and glued to our screens.
08:15Uncertainty about the disease early in the pandemic resulted in misinformation that spread
08:20rapidly across social media, with some promoting dangerous and harmful quote-unquote advice
08:26to millions.
08:27Meanwhile, the USA records more than 200,000 infections in one day.
08:34Never in recent history has such hope been pinned on a vaccine.
08:39As the pandemic dragged on, we knew more but grew increasingly tired of quarantines, resulting
08:44in further pushback and outrage from the public against government restrictions.
08:49We're still evaluating all the ways COVID has affected our lives, but the pandemic's
08:53wide reach ensured no individual was left untouched by the global pandemic.
08:59We love going around telling other people what to do.
09:01We like to say, look at us.
09:03This is the society, right?
09:04This is peak civilization.
09:05We're wearing garbage bags as PPE.
09:09That's embarrassing.
09:10The Black Death.
09:11At that point, none of them knew they were suffering from the most devastating disease
09:15in history, bubonic plague.
09:19The Black Death, also known as the bubonic plague, caused tens of millions of deaths
09:24and may have killed half the population of Europe at the time.
09:28Very little was known at the time about the disease's origins and methods of transmission,
09:32but poor hygiene practices ensured the plague's broad disastrous effects.
09:37700 years ago, fleas and rats were everywhere.
09:40They were part of daily life, and no one connected them to the disease.
09:44So no attempt was made to stop them.
09:47Scholars at the time say that the disease was caused by the alignment of planets, or
09:52sent by God to punish non-believers and reward the faithful.
09:56The fear and uncertainty surrounding the Black Death caused many to seriously reckon with
10:00their spiritual beliefs, which some scholars say helped trigger the Renaissance in Italy.
10:06Few escape with the death of but one or two.
10:11Never did so many husbands and wives die together.
10:15Never did so many parents carry their children with them to the grave.
10:20Cuban Missile Crisis
10:21A quarantine prevents any more missiles from reaching Cuba, but it doesn't remove the
10:25missiles already there.
10:27It gives the Soviets a chance to pull back without a war.
10:30When Soviet missiles aimed at the United States were discovered in Cuba, what followed was
10:35the most tension-filled, near-disastrous 13 days in American history.
10:39Maps demonstrating the missile's range showed nearly all of the United States in the affected
10:44zone, causing fear and panic in the American public that a Soviet attack was imminent.
10:48They don't tell you the truth!
10:50They tell you to put your hands behind your neck and they keep building bombs!
10:55Tense negotiations between the United States and the Soviet Union resulted in a compromise
11:00that satisfied both parties and removed the offending weapons, inspiring a breath of relief
11:05in the American people.
11:06Though it nearly escalated into a full-scale nuclear war, the negotiations of the Cuban
11:11Missile Crisis led to more effective communications between the White House and the Kremlin in
11:16order to prevent a similar crisis from occurring in the future.
11:19Khrushchev knew that he was losing control of events in Cuba.
11:23He was also told that Kennedy was under severe pressure from the military to act.
11:28If another U.S. plane were shot down, it might trigger a clash neither wanted.
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11:49September 11th.
11:50Whether it takes four, six, ten hours to get home tonight, no one here was really complaining
11:57or counting the hours.
11:59They were instead counting their blessings.
12:02In 2001, the world watched in horror as the United States experienced the most deadly
12:07terrorist attack in history.
12:08Four planes hijacked by members of the terrorist group al-Qaeda crashed into both World Trade
12:13Center towers, the Pentagon and a field in Pennsylvania, resulting in thousands of lives
12:18lost.
12:19More than 19,000 human remains have been collected.
12:22Families have the option of being notified once at the end or being told every time a
12:29DNA match is made.
12:30The attacks were broadcast live around the world to millions of shocked viewers, promoting
12:35fears of subsequent attacks across the United States and the world.
12:39Since the devastating attacks, there's been a lasting heightened sense of fear surrounding
12:44terrorism in the United States.
12:45The shock of the incident and impact on the public ensured this event will not be forgotten
12:50in the eyes of the American people.
12:52Thousands of people in here, Patty.
12:55Where the hell are they?
12:56It's understandable that incidents like these would inspire strong reactions.
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13:02Share your thoughts in the comments.
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