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30 Historical Mysteries That Still Haven’t Been Solved And Folks In This Online Group Think They Are Lost Cases
The world is full of wonders and mysteries. How much do we not know from what happened in the past? Most definitely more than we do know. Being a historian or actually any scientist means you have to interpret the evidence you collect in your investigation. It might be that they’re right or that their interpretation is off, or that they can’t even come up with an interpretation.
There are so many unsolved murder cases, gaps in history books or just weird occurrences that don’t have an explanation. And it might very well be that we will not find one. We gathered some of the biggest mysteries people on Reddit think will remain secrets forever from a thread started by Apart-Scale who asked “What historical mystery is unlikely to ever be solved?”
Do you have hope that these secrets might be revealed? Let us know in the comments and if you know of any other mysteries in mind that don’t let you sleep at night, we would really like to hear them.
More info: Reddit
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#1
The Library of Alexandria was one of the largest and most significant libraries of the ancient world. It was part of the research institute at Alexandria in Egypt called Mouseion. Until the Library of Alexandria, most other libraries were regional and the one in Egypt aimed to be universal, having knowledge from all over the world.
Various sources estimate different numbers of books in the library. The number ranges from 200k to 700k but we will probably never know how big the library’s collection was, nor what treasures and knowledge it contained as it was destroyed and we know about it just from written records as there are no archeological remains of it.
Historians suggest that the library had rhetoric, law, epic, tragedy, comedy, lyric poetry, history, medicine, mathematics, and natural science books that could have told us so much about how people saw the world then, but it all perished such a long time ago that it is unlikely any developments would happen now.
Luther von Wolfen 3 years ago (edited)
It's possible that there were writings that only existed in the Library of Alexandria, but most information contained there would have appeared in other places. The historical loss is immeasurable, but it's very unlikely that any knowledge disapeared from the world.
El muerto 3 years ago
there is a fact that is overlook, yes the library was the gem of its' time, but it wasn't the only one. it's understood that by the time the library had for the last time destroyed, it was at a portion of what it was, and much of it found its way to other libraries, and was kept safe. much of that was kept later in the hands of the Islamic kalifat and from there it make its way to Europe in renaissance...is a bit propaganda that everything was lost, to sell the idea of the modern western world redescover it in the renaissance...of course a lot of literature was lost and will never be recover, but the history is not as simple as we lead to believe
J.L. Martin 3 years ago
Please don't remind me of this fact. I get melancholy every time. So much knowledge, lost!!
Shane S 3 years ago
I read somewhere that all books had multiple copies even back then. So there wasn’t much lost at Alexandria because copies of the burned books existed elsewhere.
Kira Okah 3 years ago
That is written into Roman law, so yes. The library didn't burn down, but the books lost in the port storehouse fire would have had copies elsewhere yes.
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Bunzilla 3 years ago
Every time I think about the multiple times that the Library of Alexandria (and its storehouses) was burnt down... it pains me. Truly pains me. They had history 'books'. HISTORY. From those ancient times. Can you imagine what we've lost? We're a species with amnesia, we don't really know much of what happened in our very ancient past, we can mostly only guess. And even making very educated guesses from evidence that we find, it still will never tell us the full story. (And of course, I'm aware that there are other cultures around the world, many of their stories also being lost in various and often tragic ways, but still. The beginnings of human civilization seem to have been around the Black Sea area)
bonnyatlast 3 years ago
It was not the only library to be destroyed. In college we studied about a large estate that had a massive library near Pompeii. It was covered deep with ash. However the scrolls were intact incapsulated, but burnt to a crisp. At the time the technology had caught up with it where text could be pulled from burnt scrolls. I never heard of the results of the work on them..
Kira Okah 3 years ago
You're speaking of the Villa of Papyri, also known as the Library of Herculaneum. It is the only ancient library that we still have in its entirety due to its burial by Vesuvius, which is amazing. Just as with Alexandria, Herclaneum's library would have had texts sent across the Empire and likely held copies of texts from Alexandria. We do still have copies of classical texts, but these readings woud be undistorted by those copying as some people do. The knowledge isn't lost, it's around in some form or another.
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Sharon Meyer 3 years ago
Unfortunate choice of illustration for the library of Alexandria, which contained only scrolls, not books like those shown here.
RELATED:
#2
In 1971 a man who called himself Dan Cooper and later was better known as D. B. Cooper bought a plane ticket flying from Portland to Seattle. Witnesses say he ordered a bourbon and soda and looked like an average businessman in his 40s, wearing a black suit and with a black attaché case in his hand.
But he was no ordinary businessman. In that little black suitcase, he had a bomb and he let the crew know that he was going to detonate it unless he was given $200,000, 4 parachutes and a fuel truck standing by in Seattle to refuel the aircraft upon arrival. The passengers actually weren’t aware of what was going on and were told there would be a delay because of technical difficulties.
When the plane landed, the passengers were let out and D. B. Cooper was given his money. Then he and a couple of members of the crew boarded the refueled aircraft again. After taking off, Cooper collected his things and jumped out of the plane.
To this day the FBI couldn’t find out who that man was and many people don’t believe that D. B. Cooper survived as traces of the ransom money were found along the banks of the Columbia River in 1980.
Mermaid Elle-Jaye 3 years ago
After all the effort he went through, it’s a funny thought 😆
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Radek Suski 3 years ago
He is most likely death. The weather conditions were pretty bad as he jumped. Experts say that no experienced parachuter would jump in that condition
Grumble O'Pug 3 years ago
Why the downvote? Ppl don’t get the dense forests of the area he jumped.
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Mark Karol-Chik 3 years ago
I am writing a fictional short story about DB showing up at a local bar for 70's trivia night.
S. 3 years ago
Please do send a link if you'd like when you're done! I'd love to read it :)
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Thomas Sweda 3 years ago
At what altitude did he jump ? It could have been -50 F up there, and very little Oxygen. Could have died before he hit the ground from freezing or lack of air to breath.
Bunzilla 3 years ago
I heard some very interesting theories on who it could have been on a show I watched a while back, can't remember which one. One said that he was a government agent who'd been tasked with showing how deficient airport / airplane security was at the time, which was why he dumped the money. Honestly the theory I think makes the most sense given the evidence. Another said that he was someone who worked with airplanes, because he was very familiar with that particular plane he was on.
Bacony Cakes 3 years ago
He's Tommy Wiseau. Think about it, Cooper disappeared with a large sum of money, Wiseau appeared with a large sum of money. Both have strange ways of speaking ("Negotiable American currency", "You are tearing me apart, Lisa!"), and also have unconfirmed ages.
Krásnoočko Zelené 3 years ago
I love this theory too! But it sadly doesn't add up time-wise. Tommy Wiseau was around 16 in 1971. :(
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Leo Domitrix 3 years ago
Oddly, I liked what "Expedition Unknown" theorized ---- he didn't really jump when they think, but jumped somewhere without the killer forests (desert), and walked away.
#3
The way Edgar Allen Poe met his end is extremely suspicious. The writer was noticed wandering the streets in Baltimore, Maryland seemingly delirious and in great distress. He was taken to the hospital and after a few days, he died.
His friend Joseph E. Snodgrass came to visit Poe and he couldn’t recognize the writer. He was disheveled, wearing ill-fitting clothes, which the friend believed not to be his own. Poe was not able to explain what happened to him as he remained in the delirious state for the remainder of his stay at the hospital. Before his death, he repeatedly called out the name "Reynolds" but nobody had a clue what that meant.
What is also mysterious is that there are no records about the cause of Poe’s death. Theories suggest that his blood sugar was too low or maybe the delirium was a result of a failed attempt of suicide by drugs. Snodgrass believed that alcohol was the poison that killed his friend.
Some theorists think he was a victim of a crime. Gangs would force random people to vote for certain politicians they worked for. And made them do it several times. They often would get the victim drunk by force to make them comply.
Unfortunately, no detective was as smart as Poe’s literature characters and could solve this mystery, at least not yet.
Helderder 3 years ago
Syfilis was known to drive people crazy as well. Was also common in that era.
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Anna Solan 3 years ago
Didn't know this, but it's much more interesting than alcohol poisoning!
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Seabeast 3 years ago
He doesn't look very healthy and was known to be a heavy drinker. His end was probably from quite ordinary poor health. Delerium is common to late stage alcoholics as their brains start to fail.
Leo Domitrix 3 years ago
Thank you! This is the most logical reason for his death, IMO. He wasn't too sane without the alcohol, let's face it.
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Brandy Grote 3 years ago
Never heard this! The only story that made it "out West" was that he died in the street, drunk. Not that he went to a hospital or said anything. Just found dead...
Tobias the Tiger 3 years ago
It was only this year in American Literature class when I heard anything else at all about his death - up until then, "he was found dead" was about the only thing I heard.
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#4
The Amber Room was not just a room but a piece of art. It had amber walls backed with gold leaf and mirrors, with gemstones and carvings. It was more than 55 square meters (590 square feet) in size and contained over 6 tons (13,000 pounds) of amber.
When Germany invaded Russia during the Second World War, they disassembled the room and transported it to Königsberg (current Kaliningrad). Later the city was bombed and since the war, nobody has seen the Amber Room, which is still being searched for to this day.
In the photo you can see the autochrome made in 1917 by Andrei Andreyevich Zeest of the original Amber Room in Tsarskoye Selo, Catherine Palace. The monument in the middle is dedicated to Friedrich the Great, King of Prussia.
F. H. 3 years ago
Some small bits of it reappeared now and then, making it very likely that it was destroyed and soldiers took pieces from it as souvenirs.
Wyn Williams 3 years ago
None of it has ever been found as souvenirs or anything else
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Katinka Min 3 years ago
It most likely burned in the bombing - it is amber, after all. There is a decent replica, nowadays.
Ilsa Laszlo 3 years ago
Some people believe, that Naziz put it into a train and hid it in the Polish mountains (there are still not available, bombarded tunnels cross the mountains, including the biggest underground city-like complex Riese) in the Lower Silesia area. Many treasure hunters and mystery lovers try to find it since the war.
Leo Domitrix 3 years ago
It was broken down. Amber and gold equal money. It's probably been jewelry for eighty years.
#5
Attila was a constant threat to the Western and Eastern Roman Empires. Attila was winning territories and was not that far from taking over the known world in the 5th century. He invaded Italy in 452 and was headed towards Rome.
The then emperor thought that this matter could be negotiated and sent Gennadius Avienus, one of the consuls of 450, Memmius Aemilius Trygetius, the former urban prefect, and Leo I, the pope to talk this sacking matter over.
There are no records of what the negotiators said to Attila, but they definitely did something right as the ruler of the Huns withdrew and the credit for that was given to the Pope. Even if there is a possibility that Leo I documented the conversation and the manuscripts hide in the Vatican archives, they are not open to the public.
Mermaid Elle-Jaye 3 years ago
Pretty much what I thought too 😂 best comment ever
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Two_rolling_black_eyes 3 years ago
Three years later, the Vandals invaded and sacked Rome. Its where we get the word vandalized. Damaged but didn't completely destroy. Per the same types of stories around Attila, Leo supposedly talked them into taking a ton of stuff and people but limited their permanent damage to a single burned church. BTW - Vandals had a good reason and the invasion was a rescue. Their king had a treaty to marry his daughter to the Roman emperor's son. The kids (5 years old) were still too young so the daughter moved to Rome to grow up before the official ceremony. The Emperor's brother killed him, married his widow, and made the 11 year old daughter of the Vandal king marry his own son. The widow contacted the Vandal king who came to town and escorted the widow, her daughter, and his own daughter to Constantinople. He then went back to Iberia and was a badass.
ThEboRedEsTpANdA 3 years ago
I have a feeling it was "I know you cheated on your wife an I will tell her if you don't go away"
#6
One of Australia’s most mysterious unsolved cases is the Tamám Shud case, also known as the Mystery of the Somerton Man. He was found on 1 December 1948 on the Somerton Park beach. He has never been identified and his cause of death also was uncertain as there were no obvious injuries. He had blood in his stomach, which indicates a presence of poison, but tests didn’t show anything.
What makes the case even creepier is that in the man’s pocket investigators found a piece of paper that read “Tamám Shud” which in Persian means “it is finished.” These are the words from the final page of a 12th century poetry book Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyám.
The book from which the paper was ripped out was found and it had two phone numbers and a code that hasn’t been cracked since. That leads some people to believe the man was a spy who knew too much and needed to be eliminated. Others suggest that it was a suicide because of a broken heart.
While the case is strange and nothing makes sense, there is a slight chance of finding out the identity of the man as in May last year, the Somerton Man’s body was exhumed to put its DNA into the database.
Joel Blue 3 years ago
There was a nurse who they brought in to identify the body - she seemed to recognize him. But stated she didn’t know him. (Hers was one of the numbers.) She also had previously owned the same book. Her daughter sought the exhumation, because there are certain traits she has in common with the unknown man - like attached earlobes - which she could not have inherited from her mother or the man she thought was her father. (She has already confirmed, the man she originally thought to be her father was not.) She also recalls her mother talking to people in Russian. The unknown man is thought to be a Russian spy.
Mandy Delaforce (PC Girl) 3 years ago
Not correct. The eshumation was requested by a crackpot in Adelaide who is fixated on the man and believes there is a conspiracy. Source - I worked for a company that had to investigate his outlandish claims.
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Vicky Z 3 years ago
I like the fact that the two possible explanations are either he being a spy or being hurt and disappointed by love!🙄
DumYum 3 years ago
A spy with a broken heart. Possible plot: He was ordered to kill his spy girlfriend who worked for the other side.
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The book was found on the front seat of a parked unlocked car next to the beach. The owner was very confused finding it.
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Amy Fisher 2 years ago
Based on the available evidence and analysis, the most likely scenario is that the Tamam Shud case involves espionage or intelligence work, considering the presence of coded messages and the secretive nature of the investigation. However, without further information, it is difficult to determine the exact nature of the crime.
Stephanie Lukis 2 years ago
This was actually solved recently. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-62314555
#7
The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum houses some significant examples from ancient Rome, Medieval Europe, Renaissance Italy, Asia, the Islamic world, and 19th-century France and America. You can find works of Titian, Rembrandt, Michelangelo, Raphael, Botticelli, Manet and Degas.
In 1990, the museum was robbed. This theft is actually considered to be the biggest one in art history. Two thieves came in pretending to be police officers and managed to take 13 paintings worth half a billion dollars.
Among the works was one of Johannes Vermeer’s works The Concert (c. 1664), and Rembrandt’s only known seascape The Storm On The Sea Of Galilee (1633). The paintings never resurfaced and the Vermeer one is actually considered to be the most valuable unrecovered painting at over $200 million.
Nicholas Kraemer 3 years ago
Probably in a Swiss high security vault... Probably with the knowledge of Swiss officials
Gabby M 3 years ago
Snorts ... LOL. But do you own a "Devil on the Toilet"?
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LynzCatastrophe 3 years ago
I can't ever wrap my mind around modern art thieves. You may go through effort to acquire the paintings but you aren't it's legal owner, because of the high value and recognition of the art you also can't sell it or even display it. So what's the point? I can only hope they haven't been destroyed.
Gabby M 3 years ago
I believe the point sometimes is JUST to own, it. Posses a work of art & know you are sole admirer. Thee there is the usual power thing, Narcissist, psycho, rich guy thing too!
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#8
On Christmas Eve in 1945, a house in which The Sodder family lived was engulfed by a huge fire. The family was celebrating and the two parents with their nine out of ten children were in the residency when the tragedy took place. The fire started in the middle of the night while the family was asleep. When the parents realized what was happening, they took four of their children out and escaped. They were calling for the rest of the children, but nobody answered and they couldn’t go up the stairs to check on them because the staircase was already in flames.
The fire department arrived just the day after as the was a shortage of firefighters due to war. They claimed that no bodies were found in the ashes and some say that they lied to calm down the parents. Chief F.J. Morris believed the fire was hot enough to burn the bodies completely.
There was no investigation done, so the official reason for the fire was said to be because of faulty wiring. After the family had time to think, they didn’t believe it was true. Also, their telephone lines were cut, the trucks had been tampered with and it seemed that someone had tried to make it as hard as possible for the family to get help. What is more, the mom didn’t believe Chief F. J. Morris because other things like kitchen appliances were still recognizable, so how could the bodies have not survived the fire?
There are a lot of discrepancies in the case and that leads people to believe that the fire was not an accident and that the missing children were kidnapped.
EveWasTaken 3 years ago
It was most likely the insurance guy. He came over to the family to sell them some insurance. But when he found out that they were against Mussolini, he reportedly said while storming off, that they will be sorry that their house will burn down and their children will die....sooo....
ForgotMyPWSendHelp 3 years ago
Don't know why this was down voted when it's the main theory. George Sodder was a vocal anti-fascist who angered a few people by speaking out against Mussolini.
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Kayla J 3 years ago
I agree with the NPR theory they did a few yrs ago: Most likely died in the fire, the house continued to smolder all night and wasn't sifted through long enough or with people who may have known what to look for at that point. But if you found out something different one day, it wouldn't be shocking either. Either way, always felt awful for the parents and esp the son John who did not want to talk about it since I can only imagine the survivor's guilt he probably had.
Kira Okah 3 years ago
The addition that I have heard to this case is there might be a mafia connection too, and the main believed culprits are the Sicilian Mafia. The father of the family was very outspoken against the fascist government in Italy and so it has been speculated to be revenge for that.
Kisses4Katie 3 years ago
The family’s ladder was also not in its usual spot, keeping the father from climbing to the upper windows
Leo Domitrix 3 years ago
Fayetteville WV had a large Italian population, so being anti-Mussolini could be construed a certain way among some people, but the fire seems to have originated around a fuse box. The fact it was declared safe doesn't mean it *was* safe. People die in homes/buildings that passed inspection. That said, a ladder missing ---- frozen water barrel in December ---- a phone line not working when ti's right by a fuse box ---- My bet is there wasn't enough of the kids to identify by 1945 standards. It's easier to believe they're alive, kidnapped and sold, than turned to clinkers that you already bulldozed over within a week ----- and the parents did that part. the whole thing is a charlie-foxtrot
Seabeast 3 years ago
The simplest explanation is likely the right one. The fire was hot enough to consume the bodies completely.
Grumble O'Pug 3 years ago
Usually their isn’t enough fuel in a home to sustain the heat needed to completely burn a corpse to ashes.
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Amy Fisher 2 years ago
Based on the available evidence and analysis, the most likely scenario is that the Sodder children perished in the fire, and their remains were not discovered due to exceptional circumstances such as the intensity of the fire or the structural collapse. However, the lack of conclusive evidence prevents a definitive conclusion.
pat hayes 3 years ago
excuse me but, this whole story and the supposed solutions sound totally bizarre!! nothing wtitten here even makes sense...? west va. + mussolini?? ( giant eye roll)....
Leo Domitrix 3 years ago
There's a large Italian-descent immigrant population in West Virginia. You're welcome.
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The identity of Jack The Ripper is a topic up for speculation even a century and half later. He was a serial killer active in London in the late 19th century and at the time he was called the Whitechapel Murderer and Leather Apron in the press.
As the identity of the killer is unknown and because the crime rate was high, it is hard to tell which victims belonged to the same person, but there are 5 who are attributed to Jack the Ripper.
Most of the reports done by the police were destroyed during World War II, but from what remains, we are able to learn that more than 2,000 people were interviewed, "upwards of 300" people were investigated, and 80 people were detained; however, there was no conclusion to who the killer was.
Otter 3 years ago
This will never be solved, there be no new significant evidence at this late date, and the existing evidence has bee hashed to death with nobody agreeing on the conclusion. The likeliest true identity is that of some totally ordinary schmuck that nobody paid any attention to, least of all historians. It wasn't a doctor or surgeon, any decent butcher could have done what Jack did to his victims, or any hunter who'd ever gutted a deer or someone who'd helped dress the family pig back on the farm. Any man who'd come to Whitechapel from the country could have been Jack.
ᴠᴀ̈ɪɴᴏ 3 years ago
You're right! Jack was one of the most anonymous and threatening serial killers of history! I'm pretty sure his identity will never be found for many many years to come...!
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Synsepalum 3 years ago
Who cares who the Ripper was? Learn about his victims. There is a great book called The Five: The Untold Lives of the Women Killed by Jack the Ripper. It's an amazing book by historian Helen Rubenhold. Only one of the Rippers' victims was a sex worker, the rest were homeless women sleeping rough. It's more a book about the lives of destitute women in Whitechapel and the abject misogyny that put them in the path of a killer. Can also be found in podcast form under the name Bad Women. I can't recommend both enough.
Leo Domitrix 3 years ago
I love that book! Our fascination with killers leads us so far from the victims. :-(
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Seán Baron 3 years ago
Ignore Patricia Cornwell who researched it and came up with the artist Walter Sickert as the killer.
Diana Johnson 3 years ago (edited)
I recommend the Alan Moore/Eddie Campbell graphic novel,"From Hell ",a masterpiece of intricacy based on Stephen Knight's ,"Jack The Ripper:The Final Solution",which explores the theory of the culprit being Sir William Withey Gull, Queen Victoria's Physician-In-Ordinary. No comparison to the subsequent rubbish movie,which was an insult to the book and has none of its depth or complexity.
KatHat 3 years ago
I highly recommend the podcast Bad Women, which looks at the murder victims in detail and casts quite a different light on the whole Ripper story.
Amy Fisher 2 years ago
Jack the Ripper may have been a local individual with detailed knowledge of the Whitechapel area, enabling him to navigate the streets and escape undetected.
Amy Fisher 2 years ago
The killer may have had a personal connection to the victims or harbored a strong resentment towards women in general.
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Lord Rimuru 2 years ago
H. H. Holmes did the same thing as him and the only cases were during the time Holmes was in England
#10
The Vatican Library has a lot of secrecy surrounding it as it is not open to the general public. The most interesting part of the Library is the Vatican Apostolic Archive. It was separated from the Vatican Library in the 17th century and it contains letters written by the popes, letters received by popes, and all acts promulgated by the Holy See.
The oldest document is a loose parchment page from 809 CE. It indicates a donation to a church in Venice. The Archive has the 1521 papal bull of excommunication of Martin Luther and it also holds the letter from Henry VIII asking a divorce from his wife. The decision to reject the request led the King of England to create his own church where divorce is accepted.
What makes the Archives so mysterious is that they have over 1,200 years of historical documents. So infinite numbers of pages in various languages neatly put on shelves that go on for kilometers. But only academic researchers are allowed to enter and that’s a few thousand people in a year, so it is safe to assume that there is so much material that nobody has ever even tried to read.
Bunzilla 3 years ago
The problem is that you're ONLY allowed to ask to study documents that you already know exist and are listed by a catalogue number. You can't ask for things you THINK should be there, or things you're interested in finding new information about. And honestly, that really bothers me. Yes, absolutely, restrict access to the original documents and protect them, but make their _information_ available to all. What happens if there's some kind of disaster, like a fire, flood, earthquake, etc? What happens if the documents simply crumble into dust? They're lost forever then. I know there's a lot, but still. That's a lot of information, a lot of history that belongs to the world.
Jon S. 3 years ago
That's the way most archives work. Although granted, most let members of the public request documents, but then most are not in such high demand.
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May 3 years ago
This isn't an unsolved mystery, or something we'll never get the answer to. Academics get access, and they are probably the only ones who care about most of the stuff that's in there
ForgotMyPWSendHelp 3 years ago (edited)
I worked in a rare books library when I was in college, and there is SO MUCH more interesting stuff in them than you can imagine. I once just randomly happened upon a book owned by Tycho Brahe that had his signature and what I presumed were his notes and his little drawings in the margins, and that's just the tip of the iceburg. It was a wonderful and fascinating place to work.
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Nathan Pogorzala 3 years ago
I could only imagine what is in there. Most of it would probably be considered blasphemy to today's churches.
s. vitkovitsky 3 years ago
Also containsthe biggest 'historical' porn colle tion in the world.
Thaddeus Thompson 3 years ago
Don't they have a collection of all of the penises that were removed from all of the statues?
LynzCatastrophe 3 years ago
And now curious me must change careers. What can I say, I like to read, I like old stuff and I like to learn.
#11
Anne Frank was hiding from the Nazis with the help of Miep Gies. The girl and her family lived secretly in an attic apartment that is now known as the Secret Annex for 2 years until they were found by the Gestapo and sent to concentration camps.
Apparently they were anonymously tipped, but the identity of the person was never confirmed. There are several suspects, but historians don’t rule out that the Nazis found the hiding spot by accident as well. This secret might be already buried with the people who knew anything.
Alan Gale 3 years ago
The Diary is the saddest thing I have ever read, full of hopes & dreams, but I know how it ends
Jon S. 3 years ago
Same. That crushing sense of optimism as she got as she hears the British are coming, then....Yeah that got me in the feels.
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Donkey boi 3 years ago
Personally I think someone looked at the house and realised that the internal dimensions didn't make sense, meaning there had to be a hidden area. It's how they found priest holes in England & Ireland.
Jette Wang Wahnon 3 years ago
What is so sad is that the two sisters died just a very few months before the war ended...
Henry Russell 3 years ago
they has been theroies including a cleaning lady who was worried that they would kill his husband because he was helping them
Agnes Jekyll 3 years ago
I came across a book a few years ago, but I cannot remember the title or the author. However, they identified the person as a neighbour, who collected a reward for turning the family in. I believe there's also a book (memoir?) by Anne's childhood friend.
Thomas Turnbull 3 years ago
It was in a recent news article that they found the informer was Arnold van den Bergh. Anne Frank betrayal suspect identified after 77 years https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-60024228
Lovin' Life 3 years ago
Everytime I hear her name, it saddens my heart. What this sweet, poor child had to go through is heartbreaking.
Lyone Fein 3 years ago
This is a question in tens of thousands of cases of Jews who were hiding, yet were somehow discovered and later killed by the Nazis.
#12
The Voynich manuscript is an illustrated codex from the early 15th century that nobody can decipher because it doesn’t correspond with any known writing system. The illustrations show various herbs, diagrams suggestive of astronomy or astrology, as well as apparent recipes and pictures of naked women.
Both the illustrations and the text are confusing, but that hasn't stopped researchers from having hypotheses about what is the purpose of the manuscript. Overall the manuscript resembles something similar to a medicine book, but it might well be a hoax.
Donkey boi 3 years ago
There is something like 10-15 people that claim to have deciphered it, each one using a different method and each one with a different result. Personally I think it is the result of a mental illness, I've seen similar types of behaviour with schizophrenia patients, although admittedly not to this kind of level.
Aahzmandus Pervect 3 years ago
There's nothing definite on Voynich manuscript yet, for all of you claiming otherwise.
Maisey Myles 3 years ago
Maybe it's about PMS and menopause which is why no man could understand it
Mermaid Elle-Jaye 3 years ago
I always kind of interpreted this case as being like the early 2000’s fad of dragonology and fairyology books, humans love fantasy in every era and culture.
Marie 3 years ago
Same here. It looks like someone(s) had fun creating a book that could come from a fantasy world. Not quite a hoax.
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#13
The Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary was a maximum security prison in the US until 1963. It was not only known for being impossible to escape due to security and the prison being on an island, but for the cruel and inhumane conditions that led people to insanity.
That is why people still took their chances and tried to escape anyway. Most of them were caught, shot or drowned but Frank Morris, John Anglin, and his brother Clarence Anglin actually disappeared. However, it is unclear if their mission was successful as they were not found during the intensive search immediately after noticing their cell was empty or any time later when the search expanded globally.
M O'Connell 3 years ago
It would be safe to assume that they quietly began new lives in a non-extradition country.
Ray Martin 3 years ago
It would be safer to assume they drowned trying to reach the mainland.
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Billie Ford 3 years ago
I saw somewhere once that at the funeral of the brothers mother there were two female attendees who stood off from the rest of the visitors and were long suspected that they were really men dressed in drag and assumed to be the brothers
Aria Whitaker 3 years ago
The podcast "Criminal" has an excellent episode on them...this was a tidbit that they brought up as well. Guess we may never know....
Load More Replies... Otter 3 years ago (edited)
Are those the guys that supposedly built the raft out of raincoats?
Brian Bennett 3 years ago
I frankly hope they made it but could never have revealed it to anyone!
Grumble O'Pug 3 years ago
PBS Nova did a reenactment and with the strong (STRONG) currents and really non-seaworthy boat, it’s likely they perished. Worth watching.
Mary Rose Kent 3 years ago
The San Francisco Bay is very, very cold and sometimes there are sharks
Gabby M 3 years ago
There are ways to protect a body in freezing water temps., even back then. IDK what "jobs" if any they held while in prison (kitchen for argument sake) but grease or lard could protect the body, fast current, swim WITH the current, and you land where you land. Just pondering here.
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Jude Corrigan 3 years ago
If anyone is interested, Mythbusters did an episode about this subject and proved that it was possible....
Mickie Shea 3 years ago
In 63 it was still easy to disappear and start again. Not so much, today.
#14
Genghis Khan is considered to be the founder of Mongol Empire and was its first emperor. He conquered so much land that it was the biggest contiguous empire the world has ever seen, expanding even after his death. It actually covered more than 16% of the earth's landmass and 25 percent of the world's population live within its borders.
The emperor died during the fall of Yinchuan, which is now a part of China. The reasons of his death are unclear as well as the place he was buried in. Researchers think it might be somewhere in the vicinity of the Mongol sacred mountain of Burkhan Khaldun in current northeastern Mongolia. According to the legend, this was exactly what Genghis Khan wanted: to be buried without signs and be brought back to Mongolia.
Kim Shannon 3 years ago
I don't want to take stuff, I just want to LOOK at stuff
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adiiantryx 3 years ago
genghis khan had so many children that more than 16 million men have Genghis Khan's DNA today. he probably singlehandedly contributed to a significant amount of the 25%
Brandy Grote 3 years ago
A typical Mongol burial. Only his sons knew, and they hid the signs well.
Donkey boi 3 years ago
Genghis and his original tribe (before he united them), like many other Mongol tribes, performed 'Sky burials'. The body is laid to rest on the top of a mountain to be consumed by scavengers & return to nature. I think that they did this with Genghis, and I think they started the legend of the unknown burial site to create a final mystery to surround his already great story. I don't think there is a burial site at all.
Kira Okah 3 years ago (edited)
Prior to the rule of Altan Khan and his conversion to Buddhism 400 years after Genghis Khan's death, Mongolians didn't traditionally practice Sky Burial. Neither Genghis Khan's tribe nor religion held Sky Burial as a belief. It is most likely that he was buried by the mountain close to his birthplace, which is very common with Tengeriistic and Shamanistic burials in the area and time.
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Tom Susala 3 years ago
His name was changed to Gerry Cohen and he's working for William Morris.
#15
You might have heard about the Man In The Iron Mask from fiction literature or movies but they are actually based on real-life events. He was a prisoner who was arrested in 1669 or 1670 and was known for wearing a veil during the whole 34 years he was imprisoned so nobody has seen his face.
He actually didn’t wear an iron mask. It was a black velvet cloth, but Voltaire made it more dramatic. He was also the one that proposed the popular theory that the man was the older, illegitimate brother of Louis XIV.
The basis for this guess is that the prison where the Man In The Iron Mask was held was used for men who were an embarrassment to the state. Also, no other prisoners hid their faces and this particular one had "two musketeers at his side to kill him if he removed his mask" as King Louis's sister-in-law, Elizabeth Charlotte, wrote in a letter to her aunt.
F. H. 3 years ago
You are free to look for him in the catacombs of Paris. Really, that's where his bones ended up.
Jules 3 years ago
Mmm, be interesting to test the DNA of it were still possible
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Luis Hernandez Dauajare 3 years ago (edited)
There is a story about him to have been King Louis XIV's real father. King Louis XIII's life with Anne of Austria was almost none-existant, and the Queen had had four still born babies before the heir. There was a possibility of Cardinal Richelieu convincing her to have a child with a Borbon-blooded noble (there were many at that time, bastards of the Duke of Navarre). According to this theory, the nobleman was given a hefty sum of money and quietly exiled, but he returned after Richelieu, the Queen and Louis XIII were dead, possibly in order to gain some benefits from his son who was now King. However, apparently the likeness was such that Louis XIV ordered him imprisoned for life. This would explain why the nobleman was not secretly assassinated, as Louis XIV would have certainly done with a political rival (even a brother). The prisoner was always treated well and with a certain respect, but the musketeer guards were also ordered to kill him of he spoke to them of anythinh else than his daily needs.
Ray Martin 3 years ago
His name was Tony Stark, I thought everyone knew that after the press conference.
Seabeast 3 years ago (edited)
The "older illegitimate brother" scenario doesn't make sense, as children born out of wedlock could not inherit the title anyway. Most monarchs had scores of children with mistresses that were given other sorts of titles. It was just a known and accepted thing at the time that a king was free to fool around but a queen was not.
Amy Fisher 2 years ago
The Man in the Iron Mask may have been a person of noble birth or a member of the royal family, held captive to prevent them from claiming their rightful inheritance or to conceal a scandalous secret.
Amy Fisher 2 years ago
Or The prisoner could have been a political rival or threat to the ruling monarch or government, necessitating their concealment and isolation.
Load More Replies... Hannah Edwards 3 years ago
An article the other day said it was a velvet mask. Much less intimidating.
#16
The Ark of The Covenant was a chest made of pure gold that contained the tablets with the Ten Commandments. According to the Book of Exodus, God himself instructed Moses to build it during his 40-day stay upon Mount Sinai.
The Ark is mentioned in the Bible several times and that it was kept safe in Solomon’s temple until the Babylonians attacked Jerusalem and destroyed the temple in 587 BC. Since then there are no records in the Books of Kings and Chronicles of where the Ark went.
There are mentions that it might have been hidden before the Babylonians arrived and there is the Church of Our Lady Mary of Zion which claims they have it, but nothing is confirmed.
Kookamunga 3 years ago (edited)
Hell-o! This archaeologist named Indiana Jones found this in the 1940s and it's stored in a warehouse somewhere. Solved! (edited spelling)
Bacony Cakes 3 years ago
Is it the same warehouse that has the Aérotrain?
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F. H. 3 years ago
It was surely not made of pure gold if the measures are anything to go with. The amout of gold would have been impossible to get at that time and you wouldn't have been able to transport it at all. Maybe it was gilded wood - then it's most likely just gone.
Dave P 3 years ago
The bible never says pure gold. It says a wood box inlaid with gold that completely covered the outside and inside with a solid gold lid.
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El muerto 3 years ago
the question is, is the bible a good enough historical record to imply that it survive or that it's a real historical object? most theories are either base in the bible (bias) or hear say (stories)...that it could exist, maybe, but that it survive the destruction of the temple is doubtful at best
Dave P 3 years ago
During the period of the 10th-7th Centuries BCE the Egyptians, Phoenicians, Assyrians, Hittites, and even Babylonians document this item as existing. Egyptians claimed to have even seen it. Documentation from the Reign of Necho II of Egypt describes an item matching the Ark when they sacked Jerusalem to remove King Jehoahaz and replace him his younger brother Jehoiakim and made Judah a vassal state. They sacked Jerusalem, but not the Temple which they described in great detail, but left alone.
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Luther von Wolfen 3 years ago
There is a monastery in Ethiopia where they claim to have the Ark. They won't let anybody see it though.
Two_rolling_black_eyes 3 years ago
There is exactly 1 monk who is appointed for life who is allowed to go into the room of the Ark. That monk is never allowed to leave the antechamber or that room. The monk chooses their successor who moves in when the original one dies. If he dies with no successor, the monks hold an election to choose one. The monks are supposedly direct descendants of Aaron (first priest w/ the ark when Moses had it built). The ark was sent to what is now Ethiopia with their first king. He was given it by his parents, King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba. Supposedly Solomon sent it out of Israel for protection because God told him his punishment for allowing idolatry in the temple was he would be the last king of a united Israel. Upon Solomon's death, Judea became a separate kingdom from the rest of the country.
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Dave P 3 years ago
The claims of the CoOLRoZ in Ethiopia first came around 1000 years ago for political reasons (and conflicts with ancient accounts). However Jewish sources, later copied into the Talmud and other writings (the originals we do not have anymore) said that during the Babylonian Siege a group of priests moved it into a secret underground vault under the temple mount and sealed it up. But all those who knew were dead when the second Temple was build, so they did not have it anymore. So there is possibly a underground chamber under the Temple Mount where the Ark is stored. BTW the Ark is mentioned in ancient Egyptian, Assyrian, and Phonecian writings, so we know it was a legit item.
Olga Dremina 3 years ago
Yeah? That's where they got it from? That's how mythology in neighbouring countries developed?
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KMill 3 years ago
It’s guarded by monks who take vows of celibacy, like their fathers and grandfathers.
v 3 years ago
If it was solid gold it was probably long ago melted down. That is if the story can be believed to be true.
Bexxxxx 3 years ago
I thought God was supposed to be humble and didn’t give a crap about gold and fancy things, and just wanted his people to do good guy stuff? Or is that just one sect of Christianity? 🤔
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In 1483, King of England Edward IV died and at that time, only two of his sons were still alive. Usually that meant that the eldest son would take the throne, but Edward V of England and Richard of Shrewsbury, Duke of York, 12 and 9 years old respectively, were lodged in the Tower of London by their father’s brother who then became Richard III.
There are no records about the fate of the children and it is widely believed that they were murdered. Maybe by Richard III, maybe by their maternal uncle, the Duke of Buckingham, or brother-in-law King Henry VII or anyone else, it’s up for speculation. Some are more optimistic and say they might have escaped. Whatever the case might be, they’re definitely dead by now and it would be nearly impossible to know what happened more than half of a millennia ago.
Ben Moss 3 years ago (edited)
They found Richard III after over 500 years later so don’t give up on the princes yet! (Also Richard totally had them killed he was guilty as f**k)
Otter 3 years ago
Richard flat-out stole the crown from young Edward, but that isn't proof that he had the boy killed. It's also possible that some Tudor supporter did it, because that would both make Richard look like a murderer as well as a usurper... and leave Henry Tudor as the sole Lancaster claimant to the throne. Henry was nothing, as long as the boys were alive.
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Jro308 3 years ago
Two small human skeletons were found at the Tower of London in 1674, but there is no conclusive evidence that these were the princes, despite a perfunctory examination in 1933 concluding that the remains were those of children roughly the same ages. Two more bodies that may have been the princes were found in 1789 at Saint George's Chapel, Windsor Castle. Forensic scientists have been unable to gain royal permission to conduct DNA and other forensic analysis on either set of remains in order to make a proper identification.
Gin Marie 3 years ago
One set of bones were identified as girls, the other two were either too young or too old.
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Leii 3 years ago
Both princes (and their siblings) had been declared illegitimate before Richard became king (due to Edward's earlier plight troth). This is how Richard was able to become king while the princes were still alive. Being illegitimate, they weren't in any way an obstacle to Richard being king and he gained nothing from their deaths. Henry Tudor (VII) however, benefitted the most from their deaths. He married their older sister after the Battle of Bosworth and, to cement his very weak claim to the throne, ruled that she was once again a legitimate child of Edward IV. Doing so meant her brothers (the princes) were also legitimate and were the rightful heirs to the throne... or would have been if they were alive.
Gin Marie 3 years ago (edited)
What a bunch of gullible people. 1. The boys were not the only figures between Richard and the throne. Edward appointed Richard their guardian and protector. 2. Richard adored his older brother. The kids were family to him but to Henry, they were an obstacle, yet strangely he didn't accuse anybody of killing them till twenty years later, when his whole claim to the throne rested on RIII being a regicide. Yet RIII was the younger brother of a king, while Henry Tudor was the great-grandson of an illegitimate son of a younger son of a king. Supposedly, Henry KNEW that the boys were murdered because the killer confessed at the time of the alleged murders. What did Henry do? He handsomely rewarded him. 3. Upon hearing of his brother's death, Richard had a mass said for him, then swore his fealty to his nephew, and began making arrangements for his nephew's coronation. 4. Edward was discovered to been "contracted" to another woman before Elizabeth Woodville. At that time, that was taken as seriously as marriage. That might have rendered all of the Edward-Elizabeth offspring illegitimate, but they were still family to RII. 5. Elizabeth came to Xmas celebrations at Richard's invitation. Would she attend a party after he supposedly murdered her sons? Again, the boys were not the only relatives between Richard and the throne, so why murder only two? 6. The Bill attainting Richard's claim to the throne made no mention of the one thing that justified Henry's murder of an annointed king. Henry's claim was very weak, yet no one accused Richard of murder AT THE TIME. That's crucial, because some historians claim the country was awash with gossip and anger. 7. You'd expect a murderer intent on stealing the throne to rush to London to seize the throne. Richard took his time, and he and his men-at-arms were in deep morning. 8. Henry did not accuse RIII of murder till 20 years later, by which point all the other claimants to the throne had been exiled, executed, or had simply vanished. Yet his claim to the throne depended on the murder of the young king and his brother. 9. People use Thomas More as a source, yet he was five years old when RIII died. 10. Supposedly Sir James Tyrrell was the confessed killer. He had been loyal Yorkist under Edward, but under Henry he was gifted with an ambassadorship, a constabulary position, and titels. All outside of Engkand, though. What's weird is that Tyrrell supposedly confessed in 1502 and in 1503 "without trial and in great haste" Henry executed him. By that time all the other Yorkist claimants were dead or married away or shut up in convents. Even RIII's illegitimate son, to whom Henry offered safety, then executed on a trumped-up charge. Yet supposedly Tyrrell confessed in 1485. Did Henry arrest him? Did he try him, investigate, anything? No, he rewarded the guy. Then he executes him in 1503 and only after that does the supposed confession come out. 10. RIII was sent north to York to subdue an uprising, yet he never indulged in some of the horrible measures that were common at the time. When York found out about RIII's murder, they made note in the city's records, knowing surely that Henry would see it and punish them. "This day was our good King Richard piteously slain and murdered to the great heaviness of this city."
Potato 3 years ago
Source? It's just that you call people "gullible" for following a theory, and yet this is a theory.
Load More Replies... Grumble O'Pug 3 years ago
Next to the “Tomorrow” speech in MacBeth, perhaps some of the saddest lines ever written: Stay, yet look back with me unto the Tower. Pity, you ancient stones, those tender babes Whom envy hath immured within your walls! Rough cradle for such little pretty ones! Rude ragged nurse, old sullen playfellow For tender princes, use my babies well! So foolish sorrow bids your stones farewell.
Gin Marie 3 years ago
Shakespeare, remember, wrote for Elizabeth----the granddaughter of Henry VII, and then James I----the descendent of Duncan, I think?
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Brooke Weber 3 years ago
Most people agree they were either murdered in secret or left to die in the Tower
Elizabeth Molloy 3 years ago
Their (supposed) bones were found under a staircase and are inside a giant blue & white jar in St Paul's Cathedral. This was not mentioned AT ALL in a recent documentary I saw on UK TV.
Gin Marie 3 years ago (edited)
That's because they were not the princes. If there was a chance, there'd be a tomb or something.
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#18
The Bronze Age is a historical period that lasted from about 3300 BCE to 1200 BCE. It is called that because people discovered that they could combine metals and create bronze. It was a rich period with various civilizations, like the Egyptians or the Babylonians, thriving and evolving their culture with the new tools they could build.
However, for no apparent reason, in a span of a few decades, the culture collapsed and that is when the new historic period called The Dark Ages began. Historians guess that it can be explained by all the disasters that can happen happening at the same time, like drought, famine, roving marauders and others. Because the civilizations were so dependent on each other, they also collapsed together.
There are theories about Sea Peoples who are said to have attacked major cities by burning them down, but not all historians believe they actually existed, although there is a relief on the walls of Ramses III’s temple at Medinet Habu that shows a sea battle.
ForgotMyPWSendHelp 3 years ago (edited)
I don't understand why this person would mention the Sea Peoples without mentioning the prevailing theory that a drought, volcanic eruption, or climate event was at the center of the collapse... which is also the theory for why the Sea Peoples were driven from wherever they originated and started attacking other civilizations in the first place.
Mickie Shea 3 years ago
Gonna agree on this one. Oft times writers seem to leave out pertinent info for their own
Load More Replies... El muerto 3 years ago (edited)
clarifying..dark ages refers in this case to a period when there is no much historical record, thus consider to be in the dark. this refer to time between 1200bc and 800bc. when most mayor Civilisations of the time went down and mark the end of the Bronze age in Mediterranean and middle east...not to be confuse with the European Dark ages that start with the fall of Rome late 5th century AD to 9th century AD...
Joanna Werman 3 years ago
Wow. I just received a great education. Thanks for all the new to me information folks
Kenny Kulbiski 3 years ago
I thought the dark ages referred to the time after the fall of Rome which was much later.
ultravioletmaglite 3 years ago
Nop, dark ages is also a period before classic greece
Load More Replies... Ben Moss 3 years ago
Not a lot is known about what caused it, but we’re learning more all the time. Isn’t the collapse the reason the rural Canaanites stoped being shepherds and started settlements and invented monotheism? There’s a lot of interest in this era and I bet we’ll get a good picture of what caused the collapse someday
Angelar 3 years ago
There is no evidence that it was the Canaanites who "invented" monotheism. Monotheism is a relatively modern concept. The ancient people didn't think of themselves as "polytheists" or "monotheists". Today we define these religious movements under the term "monolatry", a concept which didn't deny the existence of other gods, but just demanded that people stop worshipping them. Yahwism evolved as a monolatry - even early Christians didn't explicitly declare other gods nonexistent, but they began referring to them as demons. The earliest form of this movement was the revolutionary idea of Pharaoh Akhenaten (r. 1353-1336 BCE), the first out-standing expression of monotheism/monolatry - seven hundred years before Isaiah of the Bible.
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Patrick Reolon 3 years ago
Interesting fact, I didn't know about this dark ages. From what I was told very soon after the collapse of the egyptian empire, the greek empire arose, which then collapsed to give place to the roman empire which then collapsed to produced a by far darker age (at least for europe). Nevertheless: One very simple theory on cultural decayment is called: decadence. Cultures arise and build up a structure. As the structure is firm, dynasties are put in place, and one of two things happen: over the time, not all members of the dynasty are really intelligent, some come there by blood relations or worse: so their leadership fails which produces a lack of trust and furthermore a kind of revolution which crashes the system down. Second option is that the system built is more similar to the greek one, where everyone gets more education, power, etc until the point comes, where the existing system is outdated and no alternative can be found, which leads to a collapse too.
Patrick Reolon 3 years ago (edited)
a last third way of decadence is the roman empire under Nero: the "we are the best" attitude brings out the worst of the people. People begin to have too much commodities and their cultural values begin to decay: what once made the empire strong is long forgotten in time, people begin to endull themselves in hedonism and forget about virtues. So these three ways are completely intrinsic ways how big empires can go into the ground very quickly without any external factor. But fact is that if there's no new empire to fill the void, anarchy and superstitions begin to reign, thus leading to a dark age. All of that underlies a litttle bit to the chaos theory stating that long periods of order need some disorder to impulse new ways where to direct evolution, and sometimes evolution is reached by involution.
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ThEboRedEsTpANdA 3 years ago
I saw a play with a bronze age girl who made friends with a sea people girl shortly before their attack, and because of their friendship, the girl was the only one in her community to survive the attack and... became a sea person I think?
LynzCatastrophe 3 years ago
You do realize that it sounds like history is repeating itself now.
Potato 3 years ago
Who are the Sea People now? What are they burning down?
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#19
The genius German physicist Albert Einstein passed away in Princeton Hospital, New Jersey on 18 April 1955. He died because of internal bleeding caused by the rupture of an abdominal aortic aneurysm.
Einstein knew he was going to die as he refused treatment because he didn’t believe in prolonging life artificially. And he probably had time to think about what would be the last thing he would like to say.
Coincidentally, there was a nurse at the time of Einstein’s death and she actually heard him mutter something, but she didn’t know what exactly it was as she couldn’t understand German. Maybe Einstein revealed an incredibly important realization or he just said goodbye to the world in his native language: the world has to deal with never finding it out.
F. H. 3 years ago
If it is of any solace to the world: He most likely said one of the things people about to pass away most often say. He probably asked for a glass of water or said that he wasn't feeling well. Even when you are prepared to die, the exact moment catches you by suprise and you usually don't have anything prepared you might say. Recorded last words are, if at all, the last words of the person that people found worthy to record.
H Edwards 3 years ago
I was the only person allowed to be with my mother when she died, because of covid restrictions. I have control over what her 'last words' were, and I have told everyone that the last words I heard her say were 'I love you'. It's not the truth, but that's what everyone else thinks, and it's nicer than the truth.
Load More Replies... Brandy Grote 3 years ago
My gran's last words were "I'm dying!" I hate that my matriarchal line is this psychic.
Brian Bennett 3 years ago
Does everyone think he going to spout some other mathematical equation! Probably wasn't fully conscious if he was bleeding to death!
#20
Most scientists agree on how our universe started. They think that an extremely hot and dense point just started to expand and is expanding to this day. They call it the Big Bang Theory. But what was before that?
We truly don’t know and there could be as many theories as there are people. It could have been something that our minds can’t even grasp. And even if we do find out what the universe was before the Big Bang, then it raises the question what was before that? Where did the thing that came before the Big Bang start? Maybe it’s even better if we don’t know.
Kay blue 3 years ago
Whenever I try to think about things like this it always makes my head hurt.
smugdruggler 3 years ago
This. To ask what was happening in the "time" before space-time existed seems like the wrong sort of question.
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digitalin 3 years ago
It's hard to envision a "time" when time itself is a product of the physical universe. So if there was no "time", does "before" have any meaning?
Artsy Bookworm 3 years ago
It's all connected with the concept of time. Time as we know it may not have existed "before". Which means that the Big Bang might have been the begining of time. There might not have been a before. But if there was there is a very small chance of us finding out what it was
LynzCatastrophe 3 years ago
It's enough to give you anxiety. You can't comprehend that there hasn't always been something there, that there's always been some sort of existence. It's hard to comprehend that at one point there was actually nothing. How? I just gave myself an existential crisis now....
NamiKoa 3 years ago
I feel the same way - I can’t wrap my mind around the notion of „nothing", just like I can’t really grasp "infinity". I keep thinking there must have been something … anything, because where would the whole Big Bang have originated? How can something of any magnitude happen without any prompting whatsoever? I can make my peace with the thought that there was some trigger or state entirely beyond our comprehension, but "nothing" just doesn’t work in my head.
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Bob D. Lin Quint 3 years ago
Why all these people getting stuck on 'time'? The question is simple, the first thing to ever exist, how did it come into existence?
#21
Sumer is the earliest known civilization that was located in the historical region of southern Mesopotamia (current Iraq). Sumerians were the first to use a written language, they invented a number system, the first wheeled vehicles, sun-dried bricks, and irrigation for farming.
But historians are not completely sure where they came from. They had an isolated language, meaning it was not related to other surrounding languages, so that makes it difficult to trace their journey. So they suggest that Sumerians might have come from North Africa, while according to some other data, they might have originated in the Caucasus. There are even more theories and that just shows how mysterious the origins of the people who created the first human civilization are.
Nathan Pogorzala 3 years ago
All current humans are based off of a 200 family diaspora some 70,000 years ago. Who knows what was or has been in regards to other treks out of Africa and where they went.
Load More Replies... Jon S. 3 years ago
Trouble is, where they first settled down is now under the sea. It is likely they were natives of the Persian Gulf. A recent DNA study I was reading claimed there was a high incidence of ancient African DNA in the population in that region, which is not shared by the rest of the middle eastern populations. I don't know enough about archaeogenetics to form a solid opinion, but my money would be on the Sumerians being a relic population of people who crossed out of Africa, through southern Arabia and into the Persian gulf.
Zoltán Ulviczki 3 years ago
Yes, they were probably the original inhabitants of the Persion Gulf, and after the last Ice Age, the rising water chased them up the rivers of Mesopotamia, and settled down after the rising stopped 5000 BC.
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Bob Belcher 3 years ago
Aliens. We're all aliens from Mars and the step pyramids are old spaceships lol
Leo Domitrix 3 years ago
First *known* human civilization. Had to say it. Also, why does it matter where they came from? Maybe they were a lot of people from a lot of places, refugees who wound up in the same place?
Dharma Pala 3 years ago
Pangea was millions of years before humans existed
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#22
The Earth contains infinite secrets and humans are not yet able to explain them all. One of them is the Great Unconformity. It's a gap in the rock record between 100 million and 1 billion years long. This phenomenon occurs all around the world in different places with different variations in layers and scientists can’t explain what happened.
Rocks look like a cake with layers getting older as you go down. And the change of age is gradual, but when it’s more than 100 million years, it can’t be explained by just simple erosion, though researchers can’t think of anything more logical.
Alexej Dvorak 3 years ago
Sooo, Miss.. *looks at file* .. Miss Earth. How do you explain this 900 million year gap on your resumé?
May 3 years ago
There's a 900 million years between the lowest and highest estimate. How sure are they that there even is a gap?
Two_rolling_black_eyes 3 years ago (edited)
The gap has a range that big because the ages of the rocks above vs below it are different ages at different sites. These could be local instead of global phenomena so you can't definitively say it was 1 event worldwide. The big two which started this theory is the Grand Canyon in the US and Siccar Point in Scotland. The Grand Canyon is the exciting one - it has two of these breaks between 3 types of rocks where there are gaps in the ages.
Load More Replies... Bob Stuart 3 years ago
Does that not match the date of Snowball Earth, with everything scrubbed by glaciers?
Thomas brennan 3 years ago
Yes thats the leading candidate - uncomformities occur all over the place for different time periods and can be explained by continental break ups and glaciers. The great unconformity is notable because it's the most widespread, but it also isn't total. The "missing layers" do exist in places. Snowball Earth is a pretty solid explanation for it.
Load More Replies... Olga Dremina 3 years ago
Something happened that make rocks look "older" for carbon analysis? Nuclear reaction or smth? Not a scientist myself, and there are two ways: 1) they already suggested this (and probably proved wrong); 2) it's too irrational and silly in first place) Still curious!
#23
Jerry Ehman was volunteering as an astronomer in the Big Ear Radio Observatory as a part of NASA’s project to search the sky for radio signals from intelligent life in space. Part of his work included going through printouts of data.
On August 17, 1977 he noticed an unusual sequence of numbers and letters: 6EQUJ5. Jerry Ehman quickly realized that this could have been something huge, so he took a note on the paper expressing his surprise with one word “Wow!” which became the name of the signal.
It was a strong signal, but it didn’t reappear and scientists were confused as to the origin of it. Nothing similar has ever been detected to this day and maybe it was just a glitch in the technology or someone actually wanted to contact us from outer space.
Miss Cris 3 years ago
Aliens phoned but as they didn't get any answer they thought there's nobody here.
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Mangelo Il Fumatori 3 years ago
Translation: "We have been trying to contact you about your vehicle's extended warranty."
Vetus Vespertilio 3 years ago
If there are aliens in other galaxies, they’ve painted a sign on the back side of Pluto that says “Danger! No Admittance Beyond This Point! Public Washrooms Available in Andromeda Galaxy”
Donkey boi 3 years ago
This theory was discredited as the comets were not in the area at the time, nor are they able to emit that kind of signal strongly enough.
Load More Replies... Tom Susala 3 years ago
The transmission was hacked by Charles Goren and it's a part of that day's "Bridge" column
Caffeinated Hedgehog 3 years ago
Translation: "Be quiet and stop reaching out! It might hear you..."
#24
In 1987 on a Sunday night, people in Chicago were watching the news on WGN-TV when the broadcast was interrupted by a person wearing a Max Headroom mask and sunglasses. The same thing happened with another TV channel, WTTW, that was broadcasting an episode of Doctor Who.
The man didn’t say anything comprehensible and when he was done, the screen came back to the news and to the Doctor Who episode. The technicians who were working at that time were trying to take back control, but they couldn’t. They were also unable to trace where the signal was coming from because nobody competent to do that was working that night.
For that time, it was a difficult stunt to perform, but nobody claimed responsibility and the investigation didn’t lead anywhere. Who was this man and what message did he want to send? Maybe it was just trolling? It’s no easier to speculate now than it was then.
F. H. 3 years ago
I really wonder why this is still a mystery. You'd think that's something people would tell someone at some point in time. And today that usually ends up on the web.
M O'Connell 3 years ago
Both stations transmitters were (and still are) located in the Willis [Sears] Tower, so its likely that whoever hijacked the signal did so somewhere along the direct tie lines between the respective studios and their transmitters. That is a LOT of places. And as everything was NTSC analog video at the time it could have been as simple as someone with a camcorder and the right cabling messing about in a patch bay somewhere in the facility.
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#25
Two years into his presidency, Richard Nixon realized the reason his predecessor, Lyndon Johnson, had installed a system to record his meetings and telephone calls. It was because this was the only way to have proof of what was being talked about in the White House, so he reinstalled the recording system that he'd initially wanted removed.
All the conversations that happened between 1971 and 1973 in the Oval Room and the Cabinet Room were recorded. There are 3,500 hours of record, including the references to Watergate.
But 18.5 minutes from the 200 minutes concerning the scandal were missing. It includes a conversation between Nixon and H. R. Haldeman, three days after the Watergate break in. The President himself said he didn’t recall what was discussed in that moment, so it might be that all the evidence is gone.
Firkin Dirkin 3 years ago
And about a thousand "expletives deleted" making Nixon and his cronies just another bunch of low crooks who stole America and he fought a bitter legal battle to prevent their release. Sound familiar?
Bacony Cakes 3 years ago
You see, "Surfing Bird" by The Trashmen started playing at that time and they had to mute the audio for copyright reasons.
Dave P 3 years ago
He also found out that Johnson used the CIA to spy on Goldwaters 64 and his 68 campaigns, and he hired the now retired CIA agent who did it, to spy for him on his opponents. It has now been proven that the CIA operated illegally in the US including bugging all of Goldwaters phones in 1964 for Johnsons.
Brian Bennett 3 years ago
Maybe they should have kept taping could have solve a lot of todays questions!
Lord Rimuru 2 years ago
Kissinger probably has it and it's what is going to be released 5 years after he dies.
#26
The original Irish Crown Jewels were made for the Sovereign and Grand Master of the Order of St Patrick and King Of Great Britain and of Ireland George III. In 1831, they were replaced by new ones presented by William IV.
The last time the regalia were worn by Lord Lieutenant, The 7th Earl of Aberdeen, was on 15 March 1907, and after that they were put in the safe. The safe was opened on 11 June when Sir Arthur Vicars wanted to show the jewels to a visitor. Then, four days before the visit of King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra to the Irish International Exhibition, on July 6, the jewels were no longer in their usual place.
The investigation was long and Scotland Yard even offered rewards for information. The author of Sherlock Holmes, Arthur Conan Doyle, offered his help. The police went as far as taking leads from psychics, but nothing gave results. Most probably they will never be found as often stolen jewelry is sold broken into pieces.
May 3 years ago
I just realized that I know nothing about Irish Royalty. They must have had kings once, right?
Timmy Pillinger 3 years ago
Yes and no. Hundreds of people were to be Kings in Ireland, some claimed to be high Kings of the whole Island, most famously Brian Boru. Invaders, Norse, Norman, English and Scottish set themselves up as Kings of some or all the Island too. During the middle ages English Kings often claimed to be Lords of Ireland, but could only make it a reality when they were competent and Scottish and French Kings weren't. In the Early modern period Ireland became a model of colonial Empire, which is where these jeweks come in: they are for visiting Kings or Queens of Great Britain and Ireland.
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ChickyChicky 3 years ago
Wow, that brooch on the lower right looks exactly like the one my Irish grandma had in her jewelry box! :D :D :D
#27
The oldest evidence of written language dates back to 6,000 years ago, but what about the spoken language? Surely, it was spoken a lot earlier than that. Scientists estimate that it might have started forming roughly 150,000 years ago, of course, in the most primitive form as the vocal tract which would permit the modern range of speech sounds formed about 100,000 years ago.
Scientists believe that there is one proto-language that all other languages formed from and that it was born because of the need of means of communication. But it doesn’t seem that some kind of clear evidence will show up that will definitely answer the question of how languages came to be and evolved.
Ozacoter 3 years ago
I am very co fused about this one. Most paleontologists agree in that neanderthals and probably denisovans also were capable of language. Our ancestor species probably was also capable of it. So it is much older than 150k years
Angelar 3 years ago
You are right of course. The shape of hominid vocal tracts may have not permitted the modern range of speech sounds, but that doesn't mean that language necessarily began then. Earlier hominids could have had a sort of language that used a more restricted range of consonants and vowels. Some researchers even propose that language began as sign language, then (gradually or suddenly) switched to the vocal modality.
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Marie 3 years ago
No, scientists (well, linguists) as a whole don't believe there was one proto-language... The common proto-language that gave birth to all languages ever spoken is an idea that was largely developed by Merritt Ruhlen, who pretty much took the idea and then tried as hard as possible to find proof. AKA the total opposite of what a scientist should do.
Penny Kemper 3 years ago
Probably just like a baby learning... they made sound and slowly those sound became words.... probably over several generations
Just saying 3 years ago
Depends if language developed before or after we spread out. It is not inconceivable that the process that leads to language in one area is replicated independently in another area. The Middle East (Proto Indo-European) vs China for example.
Lyone Fein 3 years ago
Why this notion of one proto language? Different language systems are radically different from one another. There is South Asia, East Asia, Caucasus Region, Latin Romance, so many African systems, Australian Aboriginal, all the different American Indigenous regions......... these all have different grammatic structures, different ways of viewing the world, very different vocalizations. They are clearly not derived from one another.
Mickie Shea 3 years ago
For there to be one prototype that all other languages derive makes no sense as each set of peoples would have developed their own mix of sounds to make communicable speech. Ozacoter, earlier mentions Neanderthals and the Denisovans, who have also contributed our DNA ancestry and cause of that, our languaging. Quick answers are not always the right ones
Viola Yarrow 3 years ago
I think that there was once this scientist who left two babies and there deaf and dumb mothers on a deserted island to learn what language the children would naturally come up with
#28
The Indus script or the Harappan script is what scientists think to be a text made of symbols produced by the Indus Valley Civilization that flourished from about 2600 BC to 1900 BC.
The symbols depict human and animal motifs but they haven’t been deciphered. Linguists can’t even agree on what kind of language it is and it doesn’t seem to have connections with other languages that were used in the surrounding areas. There are about 400 symbols, so at least they agree that they don’t represent phonograms and instead syllables.
The script could possibly tell us more about the Indus Valley Civilization as we have the least information about it among the biggest ancient civilizations and most probably not being able to read the script is one of the main reasons why.
Bunzilla 3 years ago
It probably is. It's interesting that it seems to be counted in rows of four. 14 of something.
Load More Replies... Lyone Fein 3 years ago (edited)
It is overly simplistic to say that the IVC script has not been deciphered. There are many more than 400 symbols. As of 2015, 500 of the symbols had been deciphered, as is described here: Harappa.com/content/cracking-indus-script. If you do a Google search of "deciphering indus valley script" you will come up with numerous scholarly articles that describe breakthroughs, including the recognition that the language reads from right to left, and that the ancient South Indian peoples carried this language throughout the ancient trading world all around the shores of the Indian Ocean.
Luis Hernandez Dauajare 3 years ago
Harappan language. It is actually a big deal in India now, as if deciphered it would change the concept the government have been imposing about the origins of India and the basis of Indian nationalism....
Dennis Stanley 3 years ago
"We...have... been... trying... to... reach... you ... about... your... cars... extended... warranty"
Anonymous Female 3 years ago
Wouldn't it be amusing....if it was just someone bored waiting for an animal to come by, making random scratching in rocks. Like when you are bored at work (on hold or something) and doodle on your desk calendar....
#29
Sven Olof Joachim Palme was a Swedish politician and statesman who served as Prime Minister of Sweden from 1969 to 1976 and 1982 to 1986 until he was assassinated. He was an easy target as he walked around without a bodyguard. He was walking from a cinema with his wife just as a regular civilian and was attacked by a person with a gun. Palme was fatally shot in the back at close range and his wife was injured but survived.
It is hard to believe that the attack was not political, but it is also hard to explain how the killer knew where the Prime Minister was as the visit to the cinema was a spontaneous decision. Police haven’t found any spying devices in his house, or either of the spouses' workplaces.
Three years after the murder, a drug user and alcoholic, Christer Pettersson, was arrested and convicted but later released, so the case still remains unsolved.
F. H. 3 years ago (edited)
This is just one of a series of terrorism in Europe that can most likely attributed to extreme right wing networks. All of those cases were badly investigated and blamed on single perpetrators. Another one would be the Oktoberfest bombing in 1980. The police even found an extra severed hand that didn't match any of the victims, but still went for the theory of a single, mentally unstable terrorist. Today even the police confesses that this was probably a mistake, but all the evidence has allready been destroyed. I think you can draw a direct line from there to groups like the NSU.
Not A Panda 3 years ago
European police's pet theory/suspect is always the "lone wolf mentally unstable person". It's getting to the point that it's laughable.
Load More Replies... Rikke Visby Wickberg 3 years ago (edited)
They do not have proof, but only circumstantial evidence. More than 134 people have declared themselves guilty in the 34 years since the murder, and the police work gas been called scandalous. I don't think anyone anymore has a clue as to what is true or false. https://www.information.dk/indland/2020/06/afslutningen-paa-palme-sagen-enden-paa-34-aars-skandaloest-politiarbejde
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Skye Mayhem 3 years ago
Thomas Pettersson's book Den osannolika mördaren paints a very convincing picture of Skandiamannen as the murderer. The official investigation's conclusion is that he did it, but it cannot be proven. Thus they closed the investigation.
Concept-Peter Roosdorp 3 years ago
They have had a "new" suspect since Pettersson. Scandia man, who was a suspect in the beginning as well. But there is no definiate proof and the suspect is dead.
#30
Harold Holt was Australia’s 17th Prime Minister from 1966 to 1967. He was not very fond of the idea of having bodyguards, but when a window in his office was shattered by a sniper and the leader of the opposition was almost assassinated, he agreed on having one. But only for when he was working.
The Prime Minister was known to be an outdoorsman, and he especially liked the ocean. Others pointed out that his hobby was quite dangerous and his doctor suggested to avoid over-exerting himself, but Harold Holt was not listening to anyone.
But it proved to be fatal after all. During a swim at Cheviot Beach near Portsea, Victoria, the Prime Minister was engulfed by water and just disappeared. Helicopters, watercraft, police divers, and two naval diving teams were searching for his body. Eventually 340 people joined the biggest search in Australian history but no body was found.
Most likely Holt overestimated himself as witnesses remember a large swell and visible currents and eddies. However, there are theories that this could have been a suicide or that he faked his own death to be with a lover. We may never know.
zak 3 years ago
This doesn't seem like a mystery to me. Sounds like he drowned in a rip current and got eaten by the creatures of the deep. 🤔
Gelato Cat 3 years ago
I have been to the beach he disappeared from multiple times, 20 metre cliffs and a plateau of rock the waves crash over just down the beach, it is highly likely he got sucked under the rocks and trapped (which accounts for his missing body). And despite stereotypes Victoria is one of the states in Australia with mild to moderate creatures (opposed to Queensland where u wouldn't wanna risk swimming in a damn)
Load More Replies... Otter 3 years ago
Bill Bryson discussed this in his highly entertaining book about traveling over Australia. The likeliest explanation is a natural death, the man went for a swim in a place where the sea enters a bay through a very narrow inlet. If that's anything like San Franisco Bay, that means huge tidal forces and dangerous currents, and unwise swimmers carried out to deep water where the sharks live.
lenka 3 years ago
And we now have a cultural reference "to do the harold holt' which means to leave promptly.
RiverStyxJix 3 years ago
They've also named a suburb in Canberra after him!
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Elle Malkamäki 3 years ago
Fun fact, we legit named a pool after him! Harold Holt swim centre in Melbourne.
Tonk Terrier 3 years ago
It's only a mystery because of his position. The beach was well known as a very dangerous place to swim.
Brian Bennett 3 years ago
He just done drowned - but deliberate or accidental - that is the question!
Amy Fisher 2 years ago
1. Accidental drowning: Holt may have encountered difficulties while swimming, succumbing to strong currents or exhaustion.
Amy Fisher 2 years ago
2. Suicide: Although there is no apparent motive, the possibility of Holt intentionally taking his own life cannot be entirely ruled out.
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Explore more of these tags
What do you think ?
J Rob 3 years ago
In 1998 I lost a sock in the dryer and to this day it has remained missing. Some say it will never be seen again...
Kookamunga 3 years ago (edited)
The ones that torment me are old crime cases: Black Dahlia/Elizabeth Short, The Keddie Cabin Murders, Dyatlov Pass, the Zodiac, Philly's Boy in the Box, the Lonergan scuba dive disappearing couple....and where the hell is Jimmy Hoffa? (edited spelling)
Rose the Cook 3 years ago
The missing Beaumont children, three Australian siblings who disappeared from Glenelg Beach near Adelaide, South Australia, on 26 January 1966.
Octavia Hansen 3 years ago
Shame you didn't mention the Kennedy Assassination in Dallas, TX. The most photographed assassination in history and no one knows who did it! It used to be that everyone asked everyone where they were that morning . . . one of my friends always replies "The 5th floor of the Schoolbook Depository." (Police investigation always stop on the 6th floor . . .)
Leo Domitrix 3 years ago
I married a true-crime buff. Frankly, I think people get too involved in theories that tie up any and all loose ends. You follow evidence, but you can't assume *every single bit of evidence* has a "place". Sometimes, that weird mark is just a weird mark. Happens in medicine, too. get hung up on the rash, miss the cancer sort of thing.
Aahzmandus Pervect 3 years ago
For anyone interested in this sort of stories and mysteries, I highly recommend one great podcast, Death By Monsters.
J Rob 3 years ago
In 1998 I lost a sock in the dryer and to this day it has remained missing. Some say it will never be seen again...
Kookamunga 3 years ago (edited)
The ones that torment me are old crime cases: Black Dahlia/Elizabeth Short, The Keddie Cabin Murders, Dyatlov Pass, the Zodiac, Philly's Boy in the Box, the Lonergan scuba dive disappearing couple....and where the hell is Jimmy Hoffa? (edited spelling)
Rose the Cook 3 years ago
The missing Beaumont children, three Australian siblings who disappeared from Glenelg Beach near Adelaide, South Australia, on 26 January 1966.
Octavia Hansen 3 years ago
Shame you didn't mention the Kennedy Assassination in Dallas, TX. The most photographed assassination in history and no one knows who did it! It used to be that everyone asked everyone where they were that morning . . . one of my friends always replies "The 5th floor of the Schoolbook Depository." (Police investigation always stop on the 6th floor . . .)
Leo Domitrix 3 years ago
I married a true-crime buff. Frankly, I think people get too involved in theories that tie up any and all loose ends. You follow evidence, but you can't assume *every single bit of evidence* has a "place". Sometimes, that weird mark is just a weird mark. Happens in medicine, too. get hung up on the rash, miss the cancer sort of thing.
Aahzmandus Pervect 3 years ago
For anyone interested in this sort of stories and mysteries, I highly recommend one great podcast, Death By Monsters.
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