Short answers, pulled from the story.
Charles Taze Russell founded the movement in 1870 when he formed a Bible study group in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He co-founded Zion's Watch Tower Tract Society in 1881 and incorporated it as a nonprofit in 1884. After Russell's death on the 31st of October 1916, Joseph Franklin Rutherford took over and in 1931 formally adopted the name Jehovah's witnesses.
Jehovah's Witnesses refuse blood transfusions based on their interpretation of Acts 15:28-29 and other scriptures, viewing transfusion as a violation of God's law. This prohibition has existed since 1945, and since 1961 accepting a blood transfusion without subsequent repentance has been grounds for expulsion. On the 20th of March 2026, the policy was revised to allow members to store their own blood for personal medical procedures.
Watch Tower Society publications from 1966 onward built anticipation that Jesus' thousand-year reign might begin in 1975, and then-president Frederick Franz told a 1975 convention the great tribulation could begin by year's end. Many members quit their jobs to preach more fervently. When the prediction failed, ordinary members were blamed rather than the Governing Body acknowledging responsibility, and membership declined significantly for several years afterward.
Of approximately 20,000 Jehovah's Witnesses in Nazi Germany in 1933, about 10,000 were imprisoned and 2,000 were sent to concentration camps, where they were identified by purple triangles. As many as 1,200 died, including 250 who were executed. They could have escaped persecution by signing a document renouncing their faith, but very few did so.
Members who are expelled or formally leave the denomination are shunned, meaning other members are expected to cut off social contact with them. Shunned individuals may experience suicidal ideation and significant mental distress, and some seek reinstatement to maintain contact with family and friends. In 2024, Norway removed state funding from the denomination because it concluded that shunning, particularly of children, constitutes psychological violence.
The 2015 Australian Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse found that the Jehovah's Witness organization had identified 1,006 alleged perpetrators of child sexual abuse since 1950 with no evidence that any had been reported to police. The Commission also found that the Watch Tower Society's legal department routinely gave elders incorrect information about legal obligations to report crimes in Australia. In 2021, Jehovah's Witnesses in Australia agreed to join the national redress scheme for sexual assault survivors to retain their charitable status.