December 4, 2014 It’s happening in train stations in New York and Philadelphia. It’s happening on the sidewalks in San Francisco, and it’s happening on college campuses across the country.

Hundreds of people are laying motionless on the ground, pretending to be dead. They are staging die-ins, a form of protests during which participants simulate death in areas with high foot traffic, to grab the attention of passersby.

This week, die-in participants are protesting a grand jury’s decision not to indict Daniel Pantaleo, a white Staten Island police officer who placed Eric Garner, an unarmed black man, in a choke hold that killed him, all on camera. Last week, they were protesting a similar decision in the case of Michael Brown, an unarmed black teenager shot and killed by Darren Wilson, a white police officer in Ferguson, Mo.

It’s not surprising that photos of these die-ins have been shared widely across social media. The images of the unmoving bodies strewn on the floor are haunting. It’s difficult to look away, and it’s difficult not to snap a photo to show someone else. Die-ins are meant to trigger feelings of grief and shock, emotions that people—and, most often, the people of the Internet—tend to want to experience alongside others when it comes to disturbing national news.

Die-ins have been used to protest American-fought wars and foreign conflicts like those in Gaza, and by anti-abortion and gun-control activists. On Sept. 15, 2007, hundreds of people sprawled out on a walkway in front of the Capitol to protest the Iraq War, 189 of whom were arrested by police.

Political protests — both violent, peaceful and downright strange — have a rich past, with varied degrees of success in accomplishing what they originally set out to do.

The following historically significant political protests include a decisive event in the Civil Rights movement, two history-changing moments that occurred within one year and the medieval defiance of one man:

The Protestant Reformation

The reformation began with the quietest and most orderly single protest in this list — the nailing to the door of a German church a treatise on the abuses of Catholicism by Martin Luther, in 1517. However, the movement that followed would ultimately spill blood and tear empires apart.

The Storming of the Bastille

This one act of July 14, 1789, has come to symbolize the entire French Revolution and indeed was a major catalyst to the 10-year-long rebellion against the crown. On that day, a throng of Parisians descended on the Bastille (long a symbol of royal authority and excess), beheaded its governor and overtook the prison.

Gandhi’s Salt March

Another protest against British taxation sent Mahatma Gandhi on a 23-day, 240-mile journey to the coast of India to collect his own salt, which was illegal under crown laws. More than 60,000 people, including Gandhi himself, were incarcerated for participating in the salt march, but it ultimately turned the tide of world sympathy towards Indian, rather than British, interests.

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The Boston Tea Party

Despite its quaint-sounding name, the 1773 “tea party” was in fact a bitter reaction to harsh new British taxation acts. Over the course of three hours on Dec. 16, more than 100 colonists secretly boarded three British ships arriving in harbor and dumped 45 tons of tea into the water. The unorthodox protest was a key precursor to the American Revolution.
South Africa’s National Day of Protest

Nelson Mandela’s ANC party organized this anti-apartheid work stoppage in 1950, in retaliation for a new bill effectively allowing the government to investigate any political party or organization. On June 26, hundreds of thousands of South Africans participated in the “Stay at Home,” a tactic that was used several times in the next decade. June 26 was celebrated as National Freedom Day in South Africa until 1994.

March on Washington

Martin Luther King’s historic “I Have a Dream” speech was delivered during this August 1963 rally to promote racial equality in the United States. More than 200,000 demonstrators gathered peacefully at the Lincoln Memorial in D.C., and the event is credited with pressuring President John F. Kennedy to draw up firm civil rights legislation.
Tiananmen Square

A mass of at least 1 million people, mostly students seeking democratic reform, had peacefully occupied Beijing’s Tiananmen Square for seven weeks when the Chinese military unexpectedly rolled in tanks to clear them out. Numbers are imprecise, but it is estimated that at least several hundred protesters were killed in the city, drawing harsh criticism from the international community.
Berlin Wall Protests

The concrete division that had separated East and West Berlin for 28 years came down just two months after public protests occurred throughout Germany. Pressure to take down the wall had been growing in 1989 and the demonstrations were the final straw for the East German government, which finally opened the gates on Nov. 9.

The Orange Revolution

In late 2004, hundreds of thousands of people flooded Kiev’s main square to protest the results of the Ukrainian presidential election. Demonstrations continued for 12 days through sleet and snow until a revote was called, reversing the results and putting the opposition candidate (whose party colors are orange) in office instead.