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10 biggest cases of revenge in human history

Posted by / November 22, 2010

The concept of revenge is as old as history. Almost since the dawn of the written word, humans have had the desire to exact vengeance on others who have wronged us.

The Code of Hammurabi, the code of law from the sixth king of Babylon, was implemented about 1760 B.C., making it the oldest recorded set of laws in human history. The code is rooted firmly in the belief in an eye for an eye; in fact, that’s almost exactly how the concept was phrased.

What follows, in no particular order, are some examples of people where someone’s dorsal striata kicked into overdrive, leading to some of the biggest cases of revenge in human history.

  • Alan Ralsky: In a bid for revenge for all of the spam e-mail they’d received through his business, naysayers signed Ralsky’s address up for junk mail. At the peak of the scheme, Ralsky’s home received hundreds of pounds of junk mail each day.
  • Dave Carroll: When baggage handlers on a United Airlines flight were heavily tossing folk-pop group Sons of Maxwell guitars onto the plane they broke a $3,500 guitar. The guitar’s owner, guitarist Dave Carroll, decided that he would exact revenge by recording a series of songs, which came to be called the “United Breaks Guitars” trilogy.
  • James Annesley: One can only wish that James Annesley’s story ends much more happily, but, alas, it concludes instead with his early death.

Full list at HowStuffWorks.com.

Total aggregation of HowStuffWorks.com.

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