Atrocity propaganda

Attachments

1095 In a sermon at Clermont during the Crusades, Urban II justified the war against Islam by claiming that the enemy "had ravaged the churches of God in the Eastern provinces, circumcised Christian men, violated women, and carried out the most unspeakable torture before killing them."[16] Urban II's sermon succeeded in mobilizing popular enthusiasm in support of the People's Crusade.
1095-1272 The Crusades
1184-Today Inquisition
1756 Black Hole of Calcutta
1782 In 1782, Benjamin Franklin wrote and published an article purporting to reveal a letter between a British agent and the governor of Canada, listing atrocities supposedly perpetrated by Native American allies of Britain against colonists, including detailed accounts of the scalping of women and children. The account was a fabrication, published in the expectation that it would be reprinted by British newspapers and therefore sway British public opinion in favor of peace with the United States.[20]
1915 Sinking of the RMS Lusitania
1933 Reichstag Fire
1964 Gulf of Tonkin incident
Blood libel
Pope Urban II
Yellow journalism