Humans just love a good tale of revenge. There is so much inherent drama, wrongs being righted, betrayal and catharsis. So it stands to reason that throughout human history, there have been many cases of people taking matters into their own hands to resolve their differences.

Someone asked “What was the biggest "[screw] you" in history?” and netizens shared their best examples. So get comfortable as you read through, if you happen to have a nemesis, perhaps take some notes, upvote the best ones and be sure to add your own thoughts and favorites in the comments below.

#1

Olga of Kiev. Some jerks called the Drevlians killed her husband and tried to have her marry their Prince. She fooled them into sending their most important men to prepare for the wedding and trapped them in a building and burned them alive. When they tried to apologize she requested pigeons from the citizens and *rigged the birds with sulfur bags*. The birds flew back to their original homes and when they roosted it burned down all of their houses. The official bad b***h of the year 890. She's also a saint.

Image credits: Earlyecho

#2

Ferruccio Lamborghini was a rich man owning his company that built tractors, he talked to Ferrari about the imperfections of his car and how to improve them and they basically laughed at a young tractor mechanic trying to tell them about sport cars, so he decided to start making luxury sport cars to compete with Ferrari and thus, the rivalry was born. So i'd say the middle finger of this guy to Ferrari was pretty noticeable.

Image credits: ES_Legman

#3

Mother Nature's big FU to the Chinese in response to the Great Sparrow Campaign. The campaign encouraged the Chinese to kill sparrows by the truckload because supposedly they were eating seeds from planted crops. Well, the campaign was such a success that plant eating insects that the sparrows also ate were able to thrive and totally ruin crops which lead to famine.

Image credits: famous_unicorn

#4

Not the biggest, but:
Molotov said he wasn't bombing Finland, he was bringing them food. In actuality, he was bombing them. Finns got cheeky and called the bombs "Molotov Bread Baskets." Finns made the Molotov Cocktail as "a drink to go with the bread."

A Molotov Cocktail is p much flammable "poor man's grenade" meant to set someone on fire rather than just flat out kill them.

It might not be a huge f**k you, but it's one of my favorite historical facts.

Image credits: yenetruok

#5

Queen Gorgo of Sparta when asked why only Spartan women were equal to their men:

"Because only Spartan women give birth to men.".

Image credits: iMakeItSeemWeird

#6

George Bernard Shaw: I am enclosing two tickets to the first night of my new play; bring a friend—if you have one.

Winston Churchill: Cannot possibly attend first night; will attend second—if there is one.

Image credits: bullettbailey

#7

The Rats of Tobruk.

An Australian garrison in Tobruk during WWII that became infamous during an 8 month siege against an armored German/Italian Afrika corps.

The tactics of the soldiers surprised the Germans in that usually when the lines are pieced by armored forces the enemy retreats. Not so the Tobruk Garrison, who instead advanced and attacked the infantry running behind the tanks while letting the armored division over-extend itself without support.

>" I cannot understand you Australians. In Poland , France and Belgium once the tanks got through the soldiers took it for granted they were beaten. But you are like demons. The tanks break through and your infantry keeps fighting."

Eventually they got a Nazi war propaganda specialist to broadcast radio messages in Radio Berlin in an attempt to lower morale and deride the defenders, calling the soldiers in Tobruk 'cornered rats' because of their tactics in using tunnel networks to flank and steal supplies, and their supply ships 'floating scrap iron'.

But rather than be demoralized the Australian's started calling themselves Rats and their supply ships 'the scrap iron flotilla'. Because in typical Australian dry humor they figured it is more insulting to the Germans to be beaten back by a bunch of rats. They gave themselves unofficial rat medals with metal from a scrapped German bomber shot down with stolen German guns.

I like to think it was a long 8 months of Australians and their allies holding a giant middle finger to the Axis.

Image credits: Thagyr

#8

When Julius Cesar was kidnapped by pirates and his men paid 50 talents as a ransom.
He went back home , took his time to raise a fleet and go after his kidnappers. He crucified them and got his 50 talents back.

Image credits: anon

#9

Henry VIII created his own church when the Catholics told him no for divorce.

Image credits: jamesmichael34

#10

Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck. Famous German general from World War I.

From his Wikipedia article:
Later, when Hitler offered him the ambassadorship to the Court of St James's in 1935, he "declined with frigid hauteur."; the suggestion for the nomination as ambassador to the Court of St James had come from retired Colonel Richard Meinertzhagen during a visit to Berlin. During the 1960s, Charles Miller asked the nephew of a Schutztruppe officer, "I understand that von Lettow told Hitler to go f**k himself." The nephew responded, "That's right, except that I don't think he put it that politely."

Very few people lived through telling Hitler that. But he was a decorated, historic officer. He survived, taking no part in the 2nd World War.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_von_Lettow-Vorbeck.

Image credits: x31b

#11

Roman Emperor Caligula, reportedly had a favorite saying (Oderint dum metuant), which roughly translates to:

"Let them hate me, so long as they fear me.".

Image credits: Electric_Evil

#12

The invasion of Belgium during WW1 comes to mind.


Basically, the Germans were on a strict timeline and needed to move their massive army through Belgium in order to flank the French defenses along their own border. In order for this to be successful, they were counting on the Belgians kind of just stepping aside and letting them use their roads and rails and bridges and such. After all, the Germans could destroy Belgium in a war with relative ease, but they didn't have time for that. The Germans asked the Belgians not to sabotage any of the infrastructure so they could pass through and leave them alone.
In response, the Belgians gave a resounding "f**k you". They blew up the bridges and the tunnels and the rails, and they gave a fantastic resistance against the Germans at a series of forts along their border with Germany. They really f****d s**t up.

Image credits: Amedais

#13

The Greeks saying a huge resounding "No" to Mussolini's ultimatum to allow the axis forces to enter the Greek territory in 1940.It forces admiration,it takes a special kind of badass to say the equivalent of "f**k you " to Hitler's minions at that time of history.

Image credits: Glacienda

#14

The Mongols were essentially the Borg of the middle ages. They would show up at your city gates with a massive, stinking army of hardened killers and demand that you surrender, be integrated into the Mongol empire and pay tribute. If you didn't do this immediately, they would simply kill every person in the city, relentlessly and brutally. The Mongols actually had quotas for how many people each member of the army was responsible for killing. It's believed that the Mongol Conquests were responsible for the death of over 5% of the world's population. If you did join the Mongol empire, they were actually pretty tolerant as far as the Middle Ages go.

Image credits: hiro11

#15

Singapore getting kicked out of Malaysia in 1965, making it the only state in the world ever to gain its independence involuntarily.
There is a video of Singaporean prime minister Lee Kuan Yew crying on TV right afterwards: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jj6iKXMIiOg

The reason Singapore got kicked out, was that then governor, and ethnic Chinese, Lee Kuan Yew did not agree with the racially discriminating policies put in place by the mostly Malay government. These policies grant Malays significantly more rights than any other of the many ethnicities that live in Malaysia, in an apartheid like manner.

Of course, we know that it went very well for Singapore from then onwards, but back in the day virtually everyone thought that this decision would be the country's death penalty. I mean, it really wasn't much more than a Malaria infested swamp in 1965...

The even bigger "f**k you" is that history in Malaysian school books has been rewritten to say that a mutual understanding had been reached and that Singapore left voluntarily. What's more, historical facts have been "amended" gradually, in order to justify the special rights that ethnic Malays get.

While I am not a Malaysian myself, I have lived in the area for several years now and it griefs me to still see ethnic Chinese and Indians in Malaysia who are forced to keep quiet over political and personal issues, in order to avoid serious consequences.

Image credits: RhinoVanHorn

#16

America taking over a huge chunk of Mexico and then naming one of that states New Mexico.

Image credits: delerpian

#17

Hannibal crossing the Alps. Rome was not expecting a Carthaginian army to come from that direction especially with elephants. So I guess it's also the biggest "SURPRISE M**********R" of history as well. Bringing elephants didn't help much in terms of military might, but it did show Rome that Carthage could deploy it's most intimidating weapons wherever they damn well pleased.

Image credits: Ovaryunderpass

#18

After years of his fathers torment, Joseph Stalin's son tried to kill himself in Stalin's house. When Stalin's wife informed him of his son's attempted suicide by gun, Stalin's comment, loud enough for his son to hear, was "He can't even shoot straight!!"

Afterwards his son, who was lieutenant in the red army, got captured by the German army in 1941 and when they tried to trade his release for a field marshall of their own. Stalin responded "I won't trade a marshall for a lieutenant.".

Image credits: illegallad

#19

After 100 years of fighting the Carthaginians for dominance of the Mediterranean, the Romans finally conquered Carthage and then evacuated and enslaved the entire population, burned the city to the ground, and plowed over the fields with salt to ensure that no civilization would ever arise there ever again.

Image credits: munderwood27

#20

At some point in history during the rivalry of France and Britain, the French wanted a faster route to Asia through water so they agreed to make a canal with Egypt. Egypt owning 51% and they 49%. Well the British caught wind of this and sent their navy over to Egypt and poked fun at how the king was living. That his clothes were commoners wear and that his palace was a dump. So the king then bought all sorts of luxurious things in order to live like a king. That then caused Egypt to go bankrupt. Then the British said "You know, we can give you some money if you just sell us that canal of yours." The king agreed.

TLDR: French build canal w/ Egypt. British want canal. British put Egypt in debt. British buy canal.

#21

Sultan of the Khwarezmia empire was sent a letter from Genghis Khan . The sultan said screw that, killed all of the members of the envoy crew, around 400.

Genghis Khan flew off the handle. Rallied the troops, stormed the mid-east with 100,000 troops, and raped the Sultan's entire empire.

Image credits: jwil191

#22

The Germans signing an armistice with France during World War Two. Not only did they single handily beat the French AND British armies, they forced the French to surrender in the same train car that the Germans surrendered World War One in.

Image credits: the-Hurtman

#23

The Battle of Angincourt - How is this not here already? During the 100 years war, captured English longbowmen would have the first two fingers of their draw hand maimed or cut off by the French to ensure that they wouldn't be a threat again. So it goes, that before the battle, in a statement of solidarity and defiance, the English longbowmen raised their hands in salute to display the first two fingers of their draw hand.

The size of the battle, the number of soldiers, even the salute isn't the important part. What is, is that this gave us the finger salute, so it has to be, should be, the biggest "f**k you" in history that continues to live on today.

#24

When Arminius led Varus into the trap at Teutoberg forest in 9 A.D. and defeated three roman legions.

#25

During the French Revolution, Camille Desmoulins was a journalist who would write news about the revolution. He was also a political activist. He was best friends with Maximilien Robespierre during their. childhood and they continued to be friends in the revolution.

Until! Robespierre and the CPS were orchestrating the terror, killing anyone who opposed the revolution, even if it was a minor doubt in it. Desmoulins, a journalist does, wrote a humorous news comic series criticising the terror. Robespierre didn't like this. He let the first two issues slide, but upon the third issue he was tired of the series and tried to censor it. He told Desmoulins to burn the issue before it was published. Desmoulins refused and quoted a line back at Robespierre about anti-censorship, a line which came from Robespierre's idol. Robespierre immediately sent his former best friend to the guillotine.

That's not all, though. He also sent Desmoulins' wife Lucille to the guillotine too for absolutely no reason. Upon discovering this, Camille had a mental and physical breakdown just before being put into the cart to the guillotine. He fought his hardest to escape his fate and save his wife and also probably slaughter Robespierre. Regardless, he failed and was executed. Eight days later, his wife followed him.

Lucille's mother even wrote a letter to Robespierre pleading him to save his daughter. It went unanswered.

Thankfully for the people of France, Robespierre was overthrown and killed a little less than four months later.

#26

Arlington National Cemetery sits on what used to be Robert E Lee's estate.

Image credits: anon

#27

During the Siege of Tobruk, the Australian soldiers would listen to German propaganda they would pick up on their radios, especially someone they named Lord Haw Haw.

At the start of the siege, he called them to surrender because they were "caught like rats in a trap" and living in the ground, so the Aussies started calling themselves the Rats of Tobruk. As well, the ships that were supplying Tobruk were old at the time and were described as "piles of scrap iron" so were named the Scrap Iron Flotilla.

The Aussies also pretty much said f**k you to the whole being in a siege thing. They would often have games of cricket going that would only stop during air raids, but keep going during shell fire. They would also go out of the perimeter and sneak into German and Italian camps and steal their artillery and other weapons and would use it against them, becoming known as the "bush artillery"

The Aussies and Brits then went on to deal the Germans with their first defeat on land and by holding Tobruk, allowed Montgomery to stockpile the tanks and weaponry required for the Battle of El Alamein.

#28

I am too young to see this live, but when Reagan was inaugurated, they did a split screen with the hostages in Iran being freed almost immediately after. It was the biggest f**k you to Carter ever. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/October_Surprise_conspiracy_theory

"One of the leading national issues during that year was the release of 52 Americans being held hostage in Iran since November 4, 1979.[1] Reagan won the election. On the day of his inauguration—in fact, 20 minutes after he concluded his inaugural address—the Islamic Republic of Iran announced the release of the hostages".

Image credits: thatsnogood

#29

Andrew Jackson

He spent his presidency (1829-1837) getting rid of the previous private central bank, The Second Bank of the United States, which he deemed "A den of vipers", only to have another reappear in 1913 and put his face on its $20 Federal Reserve Note as a poetic "f**k you".

I read this yesterday. Courtesy of /u/leeseer.

Image credits: Twiggy199

#30

I recently listened to a podcast about the Franco Prussian War. The French declared war on Prussia and lost. The Prussians then made their way to Paris and occupied the city for however long. They were underestimated and in victory, took Alsace-Lorraine.

Image credits: oSHlT

#31

In 1347 the port city of Kaffa in the Crimea was under siege by the Mongols. The Mongols were forced to end the siege when their forces were depleted by the Bubonic plague. Before withdrawing the commander, Jani Beg, ordered the corpses catapulted over the city walls. The plague spread westward across Europe eventually killing 30 to 60 percent of the population.

#32

The USSR exploding the Tsar Bomba, which had a blast yield of 57 Megatons. It sent the message of "Screw you" to the West, during some of the most heated years of the Cold War.

#33

Sometime during the second anglo war (basically Spain and britain vs the dutch)
The brits decided to block the Dutch's trade routes to Scandinavia.


The dutch responded by letting Willem de ruijter command a fleet to sail upriver towards London to f**k everything up. Which was easy due to all the brits being at sea. They also stole the head of the royal navy's flagship.


When the queen of England visits the Netherlands, she still demands the head is taken out of the museum it resides in, because she deems it disrespectful.

#34

Winston Churchill, in the face of what appeared to be utter and inescapable defeat only briefly delayed through the largest evacuation in military history.

*Even though large tracts of Europe and many old and famous States have fallen or may fall into the grip of the Gestapo and all the odious apparatus of Nazi rule, we shall not flag or fail. We shall go on to the end. We shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our island, whatever the cost may be.*

*We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender, and if, which I do not for a moment believe, this island or a large part of it were subjugated and starving, then our Empire beyond the seas, armed and guarded by the British Fleet, would carry on the struggle, until, in God's good time, the New World, with all its power and might, steps forth to the rescue and the liberation of the old.*

edit: [Here is the audio of his parliamentary address](http://audio.theguardian.tv/sys-audio/Guardian/audio/2007/04/20/Churchill.mp3) Above quote starts at 10:30.

EDIT: TLDR; "F**k you Nazis, we'll sacrifice EVERYTHING to beat you -- our lives, our country, our empire, and even if we fail our valour will inspire future civilizations to rise up and defeat your descendants.".

#35

During the American Revolution, the French came to the aid of the Americans against the British. If that's not the biggest European "f**k you" after almost a thousand years of war, I don't know what else is. "Hey, we're losing a colony and we have to fight back. Wait, whose that sailing after us?".

Image credits: anon

#36

Anthony McAuliffe was the United States Army general who was the acting division commander of the 101st Airborne Division troops defending Bastogne, Belgium, during World War II's Battle of the Bulge, famous for his single-word reply of "Nuts!" in response to a German surrender ultimatum.

Image credits: manifesto88

#37

The reply of the Cossacks, though it is most likely legend. Below is the original response and reply.

Sultan Mehmed IV to the Zaporozhian Cossacks:

As the Sultan; son of Muhammad; brother of the sun and moon; grandson and viceroy of God; ruler of the kingdoms of Macedonia, Babylon, Jerusalem, Upper and Lower Egypt; emperor of emperors; sovereign of sovereigns; extraordinary knight, never defeated; steadfast guardian of the tomb of Jesus Christ; trustee chosen by God Himself; the hope and comfort of Muslims; confounder and great defender of Christians - I command you, the Zaporogian Cossacks, to submit to me voluntarily and without any resistance, and to desist from troubling me with your attacks.

--Turkish Sultan Mehmed IV

Zaporozhian Cossacks to the Turkish Sultan:

O sultan, Turkish devil and damned devil's kith and kin, secretary to Lucifer himself. What the devil kind of knight are thou, that canst not slay a hedgehog with your naked a**e? The devil shits, and your army eats. Thou shallt not, thou son of a whore, make subjects of Christian sons; we have no fear of your army, by land and by sea we will battle with thee, f**k thy mother.

Thou Babylonian scullion, Macedonian wheelwright, brewer of Jerusalem, goat-f****r of Alexandria, swineherd of Greater and Lesser Egypt, pig of Armenia, Podolian thief, catamite of Tartary, hangman of Kamyanets, and fool of all the world and underworld, an idiot before God, grandson of the Serpent, and the crick in our d**k. Pig's snout, mare's a**e, slaughterhouse cur, unchristened brow, screw thine own mother!

So the Zaporozhians declare, you lowlife. You won't even be herding pigs for the Christians. Now we'll conclude, for we don't know the date and don't own a calendar; the moon's in the sky, the year with the Lord, the day's the same over here as it is over there; for this kiss our a**e!

- Koshovyi otaman Ivan Sirko, with the whole Zaporozhian Host.

#38

When Australians declared war on rampaging emus and slaughtered thousands of them in trench warfare style.

Image credits: anon

#39

Well after oliver cromwell died, as he was a lord protector and not a king his title could not just pass to his son when he died. So his title was passed to his son when he died. Luckily richard cromwell was not half the man his little sister was and was told where to go and where he could shove what fairly quickly. Then Charlie 2 comes back from the mainland, and oliver cromwells remains are dug up, put on trial, found guilty of treason was hanged by the neck until he was dead again.

#40

The Bay of Pigs invasion. Shortly after Fidel Castro and his gang took over Cuba they started being buddy buddy with other communist countries. The US didn't like that so the CIA planned an invasion of Cuba to take over and impose their own leader (like they do to many countries unfortunately). There might have been some other bad blood from Cuba basically taking back all their businesses from rich Americans and making them state owned, not sure on that. Also, despite Cuba being friends with Russia and China, they had no intention of attacking the US or anything. They just wanted their country back from a dictator that basically sold all their s**t to rich white people (and rich Cubans too).

So Fidel and his crew get wind of this invasion and make preparations. When the CIA lands it's a massacre, they lose big time and head home with their tail between their legs. The US was so butt-hurt by this they imposed the embargo that is just starting to be lifted. At least that's how I remember it from the Che Guevara biography.

#41

So - France basically won the American Revolution against Britain. The best selling APUSH book puts it this way:

To say that America, with some French aid, defeated Britain is like saying, "Daddy and I killed the bear."

So - we had promised France that we would not betray their friendship by making a separate peace with England. BUT! England was so eager to undermine the territorial ambitions of France in North America after France had so deviously denied them 13 of their own North American colonies that England offered the new US all the land from the sea to the Mississippi. We took it, and in doing so, helped our enemy (England) screw over our most important ally (France).

You'd think the Philippines would have seen it coming when we did it to them later.

#42

By 1853 Japan had been extremely isolated for almost 200 years. US President Millard Fillmore wants to trade with Japan, so he tell's his favorite seaman, Commodore Matthew C. Perry, to sail to Japan and act like a giant dbag in the harbor until Japan wants to establish relations. (The diplomatic equivalent of a 1 am "Heyyy r u up?" text)

Japan opens up and starts getting involved on the world stage, blah blah blah, WWII happens.

Almost 100 years later, at the signing of the peace treaty between the US and Japan, guess what particular American flag we decided to have on the USS Missouri? The one Commodore Matthew Perry flew on his ship when he sailed into Japan's harbors.

#43

President Reagan firing every air traffic controller in the country when they went on strike.

Image credits: Scrappy_Larue

#44

The 2016 U.S Presidental election.

Image credits: eseka0cho

#45

Not the biggest but still a great "F**k you" was delivered by Eli Whitney, the inventor of the cotton gin. His invention was copied all over the South and 20 years of lawsuits all failed in the Southern courts. He wound up broke. The new south became incredibly wealthy from his invention. That new "empire" felt itself put-upon by the North and decided to become an independent "empire". Eli Whitney then went and invented inter-changable parts for weapons with assembly lines and allowed the North to quickly arm hundreds of thousands of men with which to crush that would-be empire. He created and crushed an empire.

#46

Republicans refusing to hold a hearing for President Obama's supreme court nominee with nearly a year left in his term.

#47

Growing up in America being told to go get a college degree to get a good job only to find out that most companies won't hire someone with just a college degree in there field, instead they hire foreign people with "advanced degrees" (you know, the guys with 3+ master degrees or the guys who just skipped their master and just went for a phd) for cheaper who have the same or less knowledge due to stronger coursework, higher price and more stringent entry requirements in the US.

#48

Edwin Armstrong, built a better mousetrap with FM radio, when AM radio was the best there was. He was driven to suicide by fights over patents, royalties, and lobbying disputes with the FCC. Despite decades of hard work, and inventing a useful (now widely used) technology: "He died believing he was a failure, and that FM radio would never become accepted." His widowed wife won a lawsuit after his death. The moral of the story: hard work, determination, and persistence, doesn't always pay off.
https://www.damninteresting.com/the-tragic-birth-of-fm-radio/.

#49

Alexander Hamilton constantly argued and said s**t without considering the consequences. Eventually, he wrote such scathing pieces about Aaron Burr that he cost Burr the Presidency.

Burr. Was. PISSED.

He challenged Hamilton to a duel, and they agreed to meet, but Alexander said he'd waste his shot, as a good Christian.

One thing you need to understand is how Aaron Burr did everything *perfectly*, and most of all **by the book**. He was a methodical and model citizen, as well as Vice-President (though that was pretty much a nothing job, essentially ceremonial.)

Alexander was the opposite. Whereas Burr was a rich kid whose father was the Dean of Princeton College (named something else at the time, I believe Queens College), Hamilton was a poor immigrant that argued with established names like Jefferson vehemently. Hamilton didn't give a fuuuck.


So when they were set to duel, Burr goes for the kill, shooting Hamilton in the belly, which killed him within a day (Alexander had wasted his shot).


BUT, Alexander had another trick. He had previously written, in secret, about the duel he had to attend with Burr, and how he was going to shoot straight up in the air, (stealing from Drunk History here), "He damned Burr for life, essentially saying how he was a good Christian... and if he's killed then Burr is the a*****e. And so, in the end, Hamilton wins, and he's the one we sing songs about 200 years later."

EDIT: Burr was more of a d******d previously than I thought. Huh.

#50

Not the biggest, but by far my favorite as an American: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Axe_murder_incident

TL;DR In the Joint Security Area of the DMZ of the Korean Peninsula, U.S. Army officers had been tasked with cutting down a poplar tree in the JSA that partially blocked the view of United Nations (U.N.) observers. Two officers were assaulted and killed by the North Koreans. Three days later, American and South Korean forces launched Operation Paul Bunyan, an operation that cut down the tree with a show of force to intimidate North Korea into backing down, which it did. This show of force included hundreds of security forces, armed bridge charges, armed missiles, helicopters, B-52s, F-4s, F-5s, F-86s, F-111s, an aircraft carrier, and nuclear-capable bombers. Several South Koreans on guard also strapped claymores to their chests. Years later, a US general in charge of the area carved a swagger stick out of wood from the felled tree.

#51

Attila the Hun (or was if Ghentis Khan?) sent a caravan to another empire, they killed them by pouring silver in their eyes. So he finished up his current campaign, and said, "remember when you killed that caravan guys? Now u gonna die." Then he directed the entire empire into killing those poor people and dirverted a river through the capital of the empire.