- 5/25/2025
From nuclear disasters to global pandemics, history has given us plenty of reasons to be afraid. Join us as we examine the most chilling events that have shaped our modern world. These moments changed everything, leaving lasting impacts on society and reminding us how quickly life can change.
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00:00Todd and his family are preparing for the downside of Y2K, should it come to pass.
00:05Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're looking at moments from the mid-20th century and beyond that made the world stand still.
00:13We will not prematurely or unnecessarily risk the course of worldwide nuclear war.
00:20Chernobyl disaster.
00:22Good evening, here's what's happening tonight. The Soviets are saying little, but what is known is cause for concern.
00:26A nuclear accident has occurred at a Soviet atomic plant in the Ukraine.
00:31It is believed serious, but details of damage, injuries, or casualties are few so far.
00:36Eyewitness News reporter Liz Gonzalez has more on this accident, what is thought to be the first such accident the Soviets have ever made public.
00:43The explosion of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant's No. 4 reactor remains, 40 years after it happened,
00:50the most devastating nuclear disaster of all time, as well as the costliest of any kind.
00:54Brought on by an ill-advised reactor cooling test, at least 30 deaths have been attributed to the events at Chernobyl,
01:02whether directly or by acute radiation sickness after the fact.
01:05The Soviets may have been fairly quick to acknowledge the accident because evidence,
01:09in the form of mild nuclear radiation, had already reached beyond the Soviet borders to Scandinavia.
01:15We begin with ABC's Dean Reynolds.
01:17The first word that something was seriously wrong came from this power plant in eastern Sweden,
01:24where workers coming on the job registered abnormally high levels of radiation on their bodies.
01:29Beyond its tragic significance, which led to the abandonment of the town of Pripyat,
01:33the disaster led to widespread distrust of the Soviet government, amid backlash for its efforts to cover it up.
01:39Chernobyl still looms large in the public imagination for the destruction it wrought,
01:43and as a reminder of the fearsome power of nuclear energy.
01:46Well, it was just four hours ago when Soviet viewers were watching their evening news bulletin,
01:52and the announcer revealed that the accident had taken place.
01:55The official news agency TASS later added that aid was being given to those affected.
02:01The accident was at Chernobyl, a town of around 50,000 people.
02:06Malaysia Airlines Flight 370.
02:07Breaking news tonight, a Malaysia Airlines flight with 239 people on board, including four Americans, has gone missing.
02:16At this hour, a desperate search is underway for MH Flight 370,
02:21which departed Kuala Lumpur at 12.41 a.m. local time and was due to land in Beijing at 6.30 a.m.
02:2938 minutes after takeoff from Kuala Lumpur International Airport,
02:33The crew of this 777-200ER made what they didn't yet know would be their final transmission to the outside world.
02:41Flight 370 never arrived at its destination in Beijing,
02:44and the scariest part is that literally no one knows for sure where it ended up.
02:48CBS News' Tony Aiello is here with the latest developments. Tony.
02:51Mary, the United States and 12 other countries are aiding in this search,
02:55with 57 ships and 48 aircraft scouring Southeast Asia for any sign of the missing plane.
03:01CBS News has learned the disappearance of Flight MH370 increasingly looks like a deliberate act.
03:09Described as the greatest aviation mystery of all time,
03:12the disappearance of Flight 370 is not only terrifying as a result of the unanswered questions it raises,
03:18but also heartbreaking for the families of those who were never seen again.
03:22Even more chilling, no one is even quite sure as to why it happened.
03:26Two switches were pulled in that cockpit.
03:28And you say were pulled. That suggests deliberate.
03:31Deliberate.
03:32What kind of deliberate acts?
03:34Well, maybe it was a hijacking.
03:36Paris attacks.
03:37The French president has declared a state of emergency and has sealed the country's borders.
03:42But, Leicester, we're hearing reports of shooters moving through that concert hall
03:45where the hostages were apparently taking, killing people one by one.
03:50People are taking to social media to say, someone, please help us.
03:54In 2015, France as a nation had maintained a heightened focus on security
03:58after a series of coordinated terrorist attacks on the Ile de France administrative region in January.
04:03However, they were woefully underprepared for what was next to come.
04:07My dear compatriots, at the moment that I speak to you,
04:10terrorist attacks of an unprecedented level are happening in the Paris area.
04:14There are dozens dead.
04:15There are many injured.
04:17It's a horror.
04:18We have, at my command, mobilized all possible forces
04:21so that we can neutralize the terrorist threat
04:23and secure all the areas that could be affected.
04:25On Friday, November 13th, three separate groups of militants
04:29associated with the Brussels Islamic State terror cell carried out a series of attacks.
04:34One such attack, which took place at an Eagles of Death metal concert at the Bataclan,
04:39received massive international media coverage.
04:41That was for the fact that it resulted in the most casualties of any of the three attacks, with 90 deaths.
04:47Altogether, 130 people were killed and 416 injured.
04:51What you can't see behind me is a hospital where many of the injured would have been taken last night.
04:56And people have actually been lining up there for hours,
04:59some of them as long as four hours, to donate blood.
05:02It's one way, they've said, that helps them feel like they can keep the fear at bay.
05:05They want to feel like they are doing something to help.
05:08Many people say that they feel helpless and afraid.
05:11Great recession.
05:12The signs were everywhere, but now it's official we are in a recession.
05:16The research group that makes that determination made it today
05:18and said the recession actually started a year ago.
05:21But the question now, when will it end?
05:24Wall Street is clearly worried the Dow plunged nearly 680 points today, or 7.7%.
05:30While some countries around the world were spared the worst of it,
05:33the late 2000s economic crisis wreaked significant havoc on nations thought to be untouchable,
05:39ostensibly the result of the bursting of the United States housing bubble
05:42and the devaluation of mortgage-backed securities.
05:45The Great Recession was described as the biggest financial nightmare since the Great Depression nearly 100 years earlier.
05:51Although the crisis was brought to a close in 2009,
05:54its ripple effects, including unemployment, health, and politics, can still be felt today.
05:59These ripples remind us of the volatility and relative instability of the systems and institutions we trust implicitly.
06:07Folks over 55 have not recovered from the recession.
06:10In fact, their unemployment rate has doubled since 2007.
06:13Half the folks at or near retirement age think they won't have enough money to retire.
06:18Half of seniors experiencing money trouble have put off medical or dental care or stopped taking their medications.
06:25Rwandan Genocide
06:26May 7.
06:28The massacres that have claimed up to 200,000 lives in Rwanda
06:31did not begin as a spontaneous outpouring of tribal rage,
06:34but rather as a systematic campaign of killing directed by political leaders and backed by the military.
06:40Over the course of just three months, from April to July of 1994,
06:45a coalition of extremist Hutu militia groups in the East African nation of Rwanda
06:50killed as many as an estimated 800,000 Tutsis.
06:54This was in addition to 10,000 members of the Tua peoples,
06:58and up to 500,000 Tutsi women were sexually assaulted by Hutu militants.
07:03June 10th, the commander of the small United Nations detachment in Rwanda
07:07conceded today that his efforts to broker a ceasefire in the civil war there have shown no signs of success.
07:13He predicted more fighting and more massacres.
07:16This was the Canadian general, Romeo Dallaire,
07:19who was deeply affected by his inability to stop this crisis going on.
07:23The most infamous moment of the larger Rwandan civil war,
07:26which began in 1990 before ending in July 1994.
07:30The deadly chaos was spurred on by the assassination of Rwandan president Juvenal Haberiarimana.
07:36The genocide didn't end, per se.
07:38While the mass killings ceased,
07:40the conflict instead morphed into the First Congo War in 1996.
07:44There was, I think, just a collective willingness back in the United States
07:48and in all the world capitals to put your heads in the sand.
07:50I mean, this was only six months after we had lost a huge number of army rangers
07:55during the Black Hawk Down incident in Somalia.
07:58And I think there was no appetite in Washington at that time
08:00to engage ourselves in another African tribal war.
08:03Russian invasion of Ukraine.
08:05It was after the U.S. warned all day of a full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine
08:09that it was imminent.
08:10Vladimir Putin has just addressed the Russian people moments ago,
08:14announcing what Putin called the start of a military special operation,
08:18in his words, to demilitarize Ukraine.
08:21That Russia would bring in troops, he told Ukrainian troops,
08:25to lay down arms and go home.
08:27To be totally clear, it's worth noting that 2022 didn't mark the beginning
08:31of Russia's attempt to annex neighboring Ukraine.
08:34That began in 2014, kicking off an ongoing war effort.
08:38Having said that, 2022 marked a significant escalation in the conflict.
08:43Yeah, the distinct sound of explosions on the horizon here in Kiev,
08:47we've heard at least four, what appear to be strikes,
08:50lighting up the night sky just in the last, really, 10 minutes or so.
08:55As you say, it looks like the darkest day has come to pass
08:59following this speech by Vladimir Putin.
09:01On February 24th, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced
09:05the beginning of a special military operation,
09:07which was largely interpreted by the international community
09:10as a euphemism for an all-out invasion.
09:13Amidst hundreds of thousands of civilian and military deaths,
09:16the Russia-Ukraine war has stoked global fears
09:18of what could happen if Putin achieves his goals.
09:21So the two major goals for Vladimir Putin is one to kind of keep Ukraine
09:36close to Russia, and number two is to keep Ukraine away from the West.
09:40The year 2000 problem.
09:42When it comes to ringing in the millennium, home is where the party is,
09:46despite predictions a year ago that most revelers would celebrate big and travel far.
09:51Fears of the Y2K bug are keeping many people grounded,
09:54and most say they'll settle for being close to home with family and friends.
09:58The computer chip is ruling the evening, absolutely.
10:01Looking back, it's easy to dismiss fears of the so-called Y2K panic
10:05as nothing more than the ravings of a few fear-mongering conspiracy theorists.
10:10However, it should be pointed out that there was a very real potential for disaster
10:13looking ahead to the year 2000.
10:15The federal government spent eight and a half billion dollars,
10:18they estimate about 100 billion dollars, Peter,
10:21spent by private industry in this country.
10:23So if people say, well, was this a hoax?
10:26Was this a hype?
10:28No, probably we're going to find out there was a real problem there,
10:31but they got it fixed.
10:32The public was warned that inadequately prepared computers
10:36could lead to massive system failures,
10:38leading to some especially fearful believers' full-on apocalyptic prep.
10:42Any potential crisis was immediately prevented
10:45by the tireless work of programmers and engineers worldwide,
10:49which resulted in the laissez-faire attitude about Y2K that we often hear about today.
10:53No major problems to report, not only in the United States,
10:57but in fact throughout the world.
10:59Sam had talked earlier about countries that got started late
11:03dealing with the Y2K problems.
11:05There were concerns about the air traffic control systems in those countries,
11:09but there have been no problems reported at airports, with airlines,
11:13or in any of those systems,
11:15and they're just hoping that good news holds.
11:18COVID-19 pandemic.
11:19Good evening. As the pandemic of coronavirus claims more lives around the world,
11:24the people of the United Kingdom are now being advised to make drastic changes
11:28to their day-to-day existence.
11:30Prime Minister Boris Johnson rejected criticism that his government
11:33had been slow to respond to the scale of this crisis.
11:37Regardless of whether you thought COVID was a legitimate global health emergency
11:40or a deep state conspiracy to control the population,
11:44it's inarguable that it was a frightening, uncertain, and deeply challenging time.
11:48Even if you weren't personally affected by the coronavirus itself,
11:51you were undoubtedly hit by one of its side effects.
11:54Yossi Sheffi is one of the world's leading supply chain experts
11:57and heads the department at MIT.
11:59He predicted years ago in a book that a pandemic would grind the world's supply chain to a halt
12:05and even called for ventilators to be manufactured in the thousands
12:08to fend off a virus like COVID-19.
12:11And now we are seeing how consumer and pharmaceutical products
12:15will take a while to make a comeback in the U.S.
12:18Those included the disruption of the global economy,
12:20supply chain shortages, and a moratorium on in-person encounters.
12:25Most of the fears stem from the confusion around the virus,
12:27as well as the heavy volume of social media disinformation about it.
12:31The World Health Organization still considers COVID to be an active pandemic,
12:35and it's likely that we'll be feeling its effects for years,
12:38possibly even generations to come.
12:39The pandemic was associated with a rise in hospitalizations for mental health issues
12:44such as anxiety, self-harm, and eating disorders across Canada.
12:49That's according to a study conducted by Montreal researchers
12:52as a part of a larger project called POPCORN
12:56that looked into direct and indirect impacts of the pandemic.
12:59Cuban Missile Crisis
13:01Perhaps the most notorious nuclear close call of all time,
13:19the Cuban Missile Crisis was not only the closest to the Cold War ever came to full-on conflict,
13:24but an embarrassing misfire for the Soviet Union.
13:27In October 1962, the administration of American President John F. Kennedy
13:32deployed nuclear missiles in Italy and Turkey,
13:35and the Soviets responded by deploying missiles in Cuba, hence the name.
13:39I have directed the armed forces to prepare for any eventualities,
13:44and I trust that in the interest of both the Cuban people
13:47and the Soviet technicians at the sites,
13:51the hazards to all concerned of continuing this threat will be recognized.
13:55The conflict de-escalated following President Kennedy's naval blockade around Cuba,
14:00which was followed by an agreement with Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev.
14:04The agreement stipulated that the Soviet Union would dismantle its Cuban missiles
14:08in exchange for assurance that the U.S. would not try to invade Cuba again.
14:12There was intense debate among his advisers, the president and his advisers,
14:18how best to respond, but everybody agreed that those missiles could not be tolerated.
14:23The Soviet missile bases in Cuba are being dismantled.
14:27Their missiles and related equipment are being created,
14:30and the fixed installations at these sites are being destroyed.
14:34Before we continue, be sure to subscribe to our channel
14:37and ring the bell to get notified about our latest videos.
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14:44If you're on your phone, make sure you go into settings and switch on your notifications.
14:47The events of September 11th, 2001.
14:53We don't think we need to get into the specifics of what remains the deadliest terror attack
14:58in not only American history, but the entire world's.
15:01With nearly 3,000 dead and as many as 25,000 wounded,
15:059-11 was an unmitigated disaster that changed history in an instant.
15:09Al-Qaeda terrorists, under the command of militant leader Osama bin Laden,
15:13took down the World Trade Center.
15:14Additional attacks on the same day failed to do the same amount of damage.
15:19The attacks in New York City forever changed the way that the United States
15:22looked at national security and spurred President George W. Bush's Iraq War.
15:27Which moment in our video shocked you the most?
15:30Are there any we missed?
15:31Be sure to let us know in the comments below.
15:33It shall be the policy of this nation to regard any nuclear missile
15:37launched from Cuba against any nation in the Western Hemisphere
15:41as an attack by the Soviet Union on the United States,
15:46requiring a full retaliatory response upon the Soviet Union.
15:51That would be a benefit from the fact that we can continue to 1200T to,
15:55that was aやㅋ that Jesus was públiced.
16:00You'll be satisfied with us,
16:02you'll be satisfied with us,
16:04but we're fortunate to be able to meet the local power get aprendized由 and
16:06after they mark the bottom of our history of Pork Yunus� for French War.
16:08Amen.
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