Some of the most famous and strange events in history.
10. Louis Le Prince
Photograph of Louis Le Prince, the inventor of the motion picture. Circa 1885.
Photograph of Louis Le Prince, the inventor of the motion picture. Circa 1885.
Considered by many to be the true father of cinema, Louis Le Prince was a French inventor who created the first motion picture camera and projection system. In 1888, he used his invention to make the nearly 2-second Roundhay Garden Scene, considered the world's first motion picture. In September 1890, Le Prince boarded a train to Paris to meet his family for a trip to the United States to demonstrate his camera. But when the train arrived in Paris, Le Prince was nowhere to be found, along with his luggage and camera equipment. But it has also been suggested that Le Prince, known for his secrecy and paranoia about his work, was actually killed by parties who wanted to steal the secrets of his invention. The most frequently cited suspect is none other than the famous inventor Thomas Edison, now credited as the inventor of the motion picture camera, and his company would file a very similar motion picture patent in the years following Le Prince's disappearance.
9. Flight 19
One of the strangest disappearances in aviation history is that of Navy Flight 19, a crew of five torpedo bombers that disappeared during a training mission near Florida in late 1945. No wreckage or debris from the flight was found, and another plane carrying 13 aircraft was found. Exploding planes are missing during the search for the missing squadron. The Navy investigated the incident and released a 500-page report that concluded the pilots may have become disoriented and mistakenly went out to sea before running out of fuel and crashing into the ocean. But a general lack of evidence led to the disappearance eventually being listed as "cause unknown", with one member of the inquiry saying the planes were "flying to Mars". A very strange theory put forward by a series of magazine articles suggested that supernatural elements were responsible for the disappearance, citing strange radio transmissions reported by pilots: “We're entering white water, nothing seems right.
8. Ambrose Bierce
Famous American writer and social critic Ambrose Bierce is best known for The Devil's Dictionary, as well as numerous short stories about ghosts and the American Civil War. He rose to fame as a writer for The San Francisco Examiner, where his cynical opinions and merciless sarcasm earned him the nickname "Bitter Bears." In 1913, 71-year-old Biers, a Civil War veteran, decided to tour the battlefields of the South. He eventually crossed into Mexico and spent some time as an observer in Pancho Villa's army during the Mexican Revolution, before disappearing near the Mexican state of Chihuahua in late 1913 or early 1914. Villa's men fearing that Bierce will reveal secrets to the enemy. Still others have argued that Bierce's disappearance was a calculated suicide. An oft-quoted passage from one of his last letters reads: “Farewell—if you hear me standing and raging against the stone wall of Mexico, know that I think this life is a very good way to leave. Beats old age, illness or falling down the basement stairs. To be a Gringo in Mexico - oh, that's euthanasia!"
7. Percy Fawcett
Summary Colonel Percy Harrison Fawcett. Colonel Percy Harrison Fawcett in 1911.
Summary Colonel Percy Harrison Fawcett. Colonel Percy Harrison Fawcett in 1911.
Adventurer and supposed inspiration for the Indiana Jones character, Percy Fawcett was a British archaeologist who rose to fame in the early 1900s with a series of mapping expeditions into the jungles of South America. In 1925, Fawcett returned to Brazil with his son Jack as part of an ambitious expedition to discover a supposed lost city deep in the jungle. On May 25, 1925, Fawcett sent a telephone message to his wife, announcing that he, Jack, and a young man named Raleigh Rimmell were heading into uncharted territory in search of a mythical city they called "Z." This was the last anyone would hear from the group. The most likely explanation for the disappearance is that local Indian tribes known for their hostility killed the men, but no evidence of foul play has been found. Other theories claim that Fawcett survived and suffered from amnesia, and there is even a legend that he lived as the chief of a tribe of cannibalistic Indians. Despite the instructions Fawcett issued before the expedition, a series of disastrous search parties were launched over the years, resulting in at least 100 deaths.
6. D.B. Cooper
One of the most ruthless criminals in American history, Dan "D.B." Cooper was the nickname of the unidentified person who hijacked a Boeing 727 commercial airliner in 1971. After the plane landed at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, the man demanded and received four parachutes and 200,000 in unmarked bills, then released the passengers and ordered the plane and its four crew members to take off again and head to Reno, Nevada. Shortly after takeoff, Cooper descended the rear stairs and parachuted out of the plane. Although it is suspected to have landed somewhere near Vancouver, Washington, it was never seen again, and no body or parachute remains have been found. What followed was one of the largest manhunts in American history, and although there are more than 1,000 suspects in the case, Cooper's true identity and whereabouts remain a mystery.
5. Mary Celeste
The prototypical "rock ship," the Mary Celeste, was a merchant ship that was found abandoned and drifting in the Atlantic Ocean in 1872. All 7 crew members of the ship, Captain Benjamin Briggs and his wife and daughter, were nowhere to be found. The ship's cargo and several valuables were also untouched, apparently ruling out the possibility of piracy. But what could have happened? A number of theories have been put forward, from mutiny to alien abduction, but the most likely scenario is that a freak storm or earthquake caused the ship to take on a small amount of water, leading to panic and an unnecessary evacuation. Those adrift in a single life raft are suspected to have perished at sea.
4. Joseph Force Crater
Although it is relatively unknown today, the disappearance of Joseph Force Crater in 1930 became a national obsession, so much so that the phrase "cratering" became synonymous with disappearance. Crater, a prominent judge in New York City, mysteriously disappeared on the night of August 6, 1930. The investigation found that Crater's safe and thousands of dollars had been emptied from his bank account, but no concrete evidence was found that Crater planned his disappearance.
3. The Lost Colony
Painting by Englishman John White. Sir Walter Raleghi's 1590 expedition to Roanoke Island to find the lost colony found "Croatian" carved on wood. It may refer to the island of Croatia or to the people.
Painting by Englishman John White. Sir Walter Raleghi's 1590 expedition to Roanoke Island to find the lost colony found "Croatian" carved on wood. It may refer to the island of Croatia or to the people. In 1587, a group of 114 people settled on the island in an attempt to establish a permanent colony in the New World, but a period of violent growth and fear of local Indian tribes led the group to send their leader, John White, back to England. for help. Upon his return in 1590, he found the settlement dismantled and all 114 colonists disappeared, along with Virginia Dare, the first English child born in the colonies. The only sign they left behind was the word "Croatian", the name of a nearby island, carved into a tree. Some claim that the colonists were killed by Indians and the settlements were razed to the ground, while others blame starvation or raids by Spanish marauders. But the most popular theory is that the colonists assimilated into the local Indian tribe. Reports from later settlers that some of the tribes they encountered spoke some English helped substantiate these claims, and a project is now underway to try to prove the theory using DNA evidence.
2. Amelia Earhart
In 1937, along with navigator Fred Noonan, he set off on what would become his greatest achievement: a round-the-world flight. Near the end of her 29,000-mile journey, Earhart encountered bad weather in the South Pacific and was unable to find a small island where she could refuel. On July 2, all contact with her plane was lost, and Earhart and Noonan were never seen again. The ensuing search was the largest in maritime history to that point, covering more than 250,000 miles of ocean, but no remains of Earhart's Lockheed Electra were found. The most plausible explanation is that the plane ran out of gas and sank into the ocean, but another popular theory is that Earhart and Noonan crashed on an uninhabited island and died as a result. Yet another theory says that the duo crash-landed on a Japanese-held island, where they were captured and eventually executed.
1. Jimmy Hoffa
Despite years of speculation and countless investigations, Jimmy Hoffa's disappearance remains the mother of all missing person stories. A strong labor organizer, Hoffa was president of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters for many years and was known for his mob connections. On July 30, 1975, he was supposed to meet two mob connections at a restaurant in Michigan, but disappeared before the meeting could take place. Because of Hoffa's business connections and proven ties to crime families, investigators have little doubt that he was murdered, but the big mystery is what was in his body. A number of gruesome possibilities were considered, including that Hoffa's body was mixed with concrete used to build the New York Giants football stadium, buried under a swimming pool in Michigan, and crushed in a car compactor. but all these theories have been proven unfounded. Hoffa was pronounced dead in 1982, but his case remains open, and new information about the possible location of his remains emerges every few years.
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