List of Battles and Other Violent Events By Death Toll - Human Sacrifice and Mass Suicide

Human Sacrifice and Mass Suicide

This section lists notable individual episodes of mass suicide or human sacrifice. For tolls arising from the systematic practice of suicide or sacrifice, see Human sacrifice and ritual suicide.

Low
Estimate		 High
Estimate		 Type Event Group Location Date
80,000 80,400 Mass suicide Battle of Okinawa Japanese civilians Japan 1945
8,000 8,000 Mass suicide Battle of Saipan Japanese civilians Mariana Islands 1944
3,000 80,400 Mass human sacrifice re-consecration of the Great Pyramid of Tenochtitlan Aztecs Templo Mayor, Tenochtitlan 1487
960 960 Mass suicide Siege of Masada Jewish zealots Judea 73
913 913 Mass suicide, murder Jonestown massacre Peoples Temple Guyana 1978
300 1000 Mass suicide Movement for the Restoration of the Ten Commandments of God Uganda 2000, March
53 53 Mass suicide Order of the Solar Temple Switzerland, Canada 1994
39 39 Mass suicide Heaven's Gate California 1997
16 16 Mass suicide Order of the Solar Temple France 1995, December 23

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    “Mathematics alone make us feel the limits of our intelligence. For we can always suppose in the case of an experiment that it is inexplicable because we don’t happen to have all the data. In mathematics we have all the data ... and yet we don’t understand. We always come back to the contemplation of our human wretchedness. What force is in relation to our will, the impenetrable opacity of mathematics is in relation to our intelligence.”
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    —Antonin Artaud (1896–1948)