War aside, what’s an example of innocent lives being sacrificed for some sort of greater good that got omitted from official history?

>> War aside, what’s an example of innocent lives being sacrificed for some sort of greater good that got omitted from official history?

Example 1: Vaccines

This is an interesting example because the winners and losers seem to be proportionately spread across almost all of society (except anti-Vaxxers who benefit from herd immunity but don't sacrifice with the minute risk of vaccines). See also: https://www.hrsa.gov/vaccine-compensation/index.html

Example 2: War on Crime / Safety

Another example would be the war on crime. Liberties and lives are sacrificed in the name of safety for others. Unfortunately, the liberty/lives sacrificed fall disproportionately into one group, and those protected fall disproportionately into a different group group. If you look at the 2nd order effects (impoverishment, single-parent households, effects on education and future) lots more lives are lost, again in a subset of society.

This is of course highly controversial, but deaths in revolutions or shortly after that led to eventually much better living conditions might be considered, depending on your political views, to be such a case.

Cars. Cars kill hundreds of thousands people each year. But we accept it, for the greater good of modern civilization.

That's not an example of putting this kind of decision power in the hands of one person. It is a complicated history that likely started with almost no fatalities, and steadily increased as speeds increased, with no clear point where a line was drawn.

Not omitted, but the deaths and/or illnesses resulting from drug trials are almost never widely publicized. Conversely, any improvement brought by a new drug will be drummed up everywhere (and for just reason).