Name: 10 People Who Will Only Be Remembered For ONE Horrible Thing
Uploaded: 2026-01-16T16:53:45.000Z
Duration: 13 min 44 s
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Booth had a very intense personal hatred for Abraham Lincoln.

Relative clauses (Restrictive vs. nonrestrictive)

And we're looking at people who went down in history for one unforgettably horrible thing they did.

Soon, everything Nero had done as emperor seemed to finally come to a head.

During the reign of Tsar Nicholas ii, Grigori Rasputin, a Russian mystic, rose to prominence, all thanks to to his perceived ability to heal the Emperor's son, Alexei.

Alexei's health improved, cementing the royal family's belief that Rasputin had magical healing powers and guaranteeing his privileged place on the royal court.

Today we know that the doctors had prescribed aspirin, a drug that worsens hemophilia.

That supposed power gained him deep trust, enormous influence and plenty of enemies.

While some viewed him as a holy man, others saw him as a manipulator.

Surrounded by rumors of drunken orgies, bribery and political interference.

Things reached a breaking point during World War I, when Nicholas II left domestic affairs in the hands of his wife Alexandra, who relied heavily on Rasputin.

As Russia's economy crumbled, public hatred fell on him.

By the end of World War I, they were convinced the only way to maintain order was to eliminate this sham of a holy man.

In 1916, Rasputin was brutally assassinated and the Romanov dynasty collapsed shortly after.

Today, history still remembers him as the scandalous mystic tied to the Empire's downfall.

Political rebel, martyr, or freedom fighter?

However you frame him, Guy Fawkes will always be remembered for one thing.

In 1605, he was caught guarding barrels of gunpowder beneath the House of Lords in London, part of a conspiracy to assassinate King James I and Parliament.

Although it's lunatic, the plot is actually viable.

It's the Big Bang theory of destruction, in which you take out your enemy and then work out what happens next.

Fawkes was a devout Catholic who had fought with Spanish forces against Protestant states.

By the time he joined the Gunpowder Plot, he.

In fact, he was part of a group determined to restore Catholic leadership in England through violent means under the very noses of the Protestant state.

This powder keg would sit until Parliament reconvened.

Unfortunately, their mission failed when an anonymous letter exposed the plot.

Fox was arrested, tortured and executed for treason.

November 5th marks the failed plot and its most infamous conspirator.

Remember, remember the 5th of November, the gunpowder treason and plot.

In 1912, the magnificent Titanic set sail, unaware of the disaster awaiting it in the Atlantic.

Leading the voyage was Captain Edward Smith, a veteran mariner whose name is now forever linked to the tragedy.

A year earlier, Smith had been involved in a major mishap while commanding the RMS Olympic.

Despite that, he was chosen to captain the Titanic.

And that streak of bad luck seemed to follow him.

You got to be the captain of a ship such as the Titanic, not simply by being the best navigator or sea captain, but

Though high speeds were standard practice back then, when the luxurious ship sank, many blamed Smith, who critics argued that the ship had been traveling too fast, while others claimed that Smith had ignored warnings about icebergs.

Sadly, the mariner didn't survive to defend himself, leaving him remembered as the captain of the 20th century's most iconic ocean liner, Herostratus.

To gain everlasting fame, Herostratus dared to burn down the Temple of Artemis, one of the seven wonders of the ancient world.

Made almost entirely of marble, this Ephesus temple was known for its massive size and stunning artwork.

But in 356 BCE, on the same day Alexander the Great was born, Herostratus, an obscure figure, chose to destroy it.

And yes, if you're wondering how do you burn down a stone temple?

The answer is that there are wooden structural elements.

Because of course, as you know, stone is, is very strong under compression, but weak under tension.

He was arrested immediately and tortured to death.

To stop his name from living on, authorities issued damnatio memori banning his name from ever being spoken or recorded.

They cleared the site and rebuilt the shrine, making it even larger and more magnificent than the temple that had been destroyed.

Ironically, ancient historians documented the story anyway, ensuring his plan succeeded centuries beyond his lifetime.

Today, little is known about Herostratus except that he destroyed beauty to feed his ego.

In fact, we have the term herostratic fame, which is used by pedantic people like me who give discourses on the structural features of stone to mean the kind of fame you get for being famous for having done something wicked in order to become famous.

When you hear the word McCarthyism, what comes to mind is fear replacing fact and power gone wrong.

The explosive charges trigger public hearings in the Senate.

Live TV coverage provides millions of Americans with their first sustained look at the crusading Senator and his bare knuckle methods.

Remembered as one of the consequential figures in American politics, he weaponized paranoia and destroyed lives.

In the early 1950s, during the Cold War panic, Senator McCarthy claimed he had a list of communists infiltrating the US military, government and media.

Apparently, the President and I now agree on the necessity of getting rid of Communists.

We apparently disagree only on how we should handle those who have been protecting Communists.

Accusations shifted, names changed and careers were destroyed based on suspicion alone.

Not entirely, since there were indeed spies.

But McCarthy's methods were reckless and often unconstitutional.

His downfall came during the 1954 Army McCarthy hearings, where his tactics were exposed.

Six months later, the Senate officially censures him.

In 1957, he died, disgraced and largely abandoned.

You've probably heard the name Typhoid Mary, a label for anyone who spreads disease or misfortune.

It belonged to Mary Mallon, an Irish immigrant cook in early 20th century New York.

He she's believed to have infected between 51 and 122 people with three confirmed deaths.

We don't know when she originally got typhoid fever, but she was definitely a carrier.

Mallon looked healthy even as the wealthy families she served fell ill.

Public health investigator George Soper eventually identified her as an asymptomatic carrier, something almost unheard of at the time.

Still, Mallon refused to stop cooking, denied responsibility, leading to her forced quarantine in 1907.

After her release, she secretly returned to work, sparking new outbreaks.

Mallon didn't have a way to make a decent living doing anything else, though.

So when the city lost touch with her, she went right back to the kitchen.

Arrested again, she lived the rest of her life quarantined at North Brother island, passing away in 1938 at age 69.

Health experts still debate the ethics of how their profession treated Mary Mallon.

But there's no doubting the long shadow she continues to cast as Typhoid Mary.

Before the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, Lee Harvey Oswald was largely unknown.

A former U.S. marine, he had a history of drifting through life.

He shoots on a rifle range 212, which means he qualifies for the second highest position in the Marine Corps, that of a sharpshooter.

He was court martialed twice, briefly jailed and eventually discharged from active duty.

At one point, he even defected to the Soviet Union.

When he came to us and began to ask for asylum here so insistently, the first reaction was to refuse and not to give him permission to stay in the Soviet Union, let alone to give him political asylum.

Then came November 22, 1963, which changed the way he'd be Viewed forever.

On Wednesday evening, two days before the assassination, one of the boarders at the rooming house recalls Oswald intently watching a TV night news story about President Kennedy's visit to Dallas.

On that fateful day, as Kennedy's motorcade passed through Dallas, Oswald fired from the Texas School Book Depository, killing Kennedy and injuring Texas Governor John Connally.

Shortly after, he shot and murdered a Dallas police officer while fleeing.