diff --git a/parser/xml/test/unit/test_sanitizer.js b/parser/xml/test/unit/test_sanitizer.js
index fdcc58aa23fc..fa3eea648417 100644
--- a/parser/xml/test/unit/test_sanitizer.js
+++ b/parser/xml/test/unit/test_sanitizer.js
@@ -1,8 +1,24 @@
+// We load HTML documents, which try to track link state, which requires
+// the history service, which requires a profile.
+do_get_profile();
+
 function run_test() {
   // vectors by the html5security project (https://code.google.com/p/html5security/ & Creative Commons 3.0 BY), see CC-BY-LICENSE for the full license
   load("results.js"); // gives us a `vectors' array
   /* import-globals-from ./results.js */
 
+  // xpcshell tests are weird. They fake shutdown after the test finishes. This upsets this test
+  // because it will try to create the history service to check for visited state on the links
+  // we're parsing.
+  // Creating the history service midway through shutdown breaks.
+  // We can't catch this in the history component because we're not *actually* shutting down,
+  // and so the app startup's service's `shuttingDown` bool is false, even though normally that
+  // is set to true *before* profile-change-teardown notifications are fired.
+  // To work around this, just force the history service to be created earlier:
+
+  let {PlacesUtils} = ChromeUtils.import("resource://gre/modules/PlacesUtils.jsm");
+  Assert.ok(PlacesUtils.history.databaseStatus <= 1, "ensure places database is successfully initialized.");
+
   var ParserUtils =  Cc["@mozilla.org/parserutils;1"].getService(Ci.nsIParserUtils);
   var sanitizeFlags = ParserUtils.SanitizerCidEmbedsOnly | ParserUtils.SanitizerDropForms | ParserUtils.SanitizerDropNonCSSPresentation;
   // flags according to
diff --git a/toolkit/components/places/History.cpp b/toolkit/components/places/History.cpp
index 0ee9b4c2c21d..85fdacc98403 100644
--- a/toolkit/components/places/History.cpp
+++ b/toolkit/components/places/History.cpp
@@ -1445,6 +1445,16 @@ History::History()
       mObservers(VISIT_OBSERVERS_INITIAL_CACHE_LENGTH),
       mRecentlyVisitedURIs(RECENTLY_VISITED_URIS_SIZE) {
   NS_ASSERTION(!gService, "Ruh-roh!  This service has already been created!");
+  if (XRE_IsParentProcess()) {
+    nsCOMPtr<nsIProperties> dirsvc = services::GetDirectoryService();
+    bool haveProfile = false;
+    MOZ_RELEASE_ASSERT(
+        dirsvc &&
+            NS_SUCCEEDED(
+                dirsvc->Has(NS_APP_USER_PROFILE_50_DIR, &haveProfile)) &&
+            haveProfile,
+        "Can't construct history service if there is no profile.");
+  }
   gService = this;
 
   nsCOMPtr<nsIObserverService> os = services::GetObserverService();