On Sunday, July 13, 1980, around 500 children from 11 marching bands gathered at the Hollinwell Showground near Kirkby-in-Ashfield, Nottinghamshire, for a Junior Brass and Marching Band competition. At about… Read the rest of the article: In 1980, 300 children collapsed at a marching band competition and no one knows why

The Turnspit Dog was a short-legged, long-bodied breed kept in English kitchens to run inside a wooden wheel connected to a roasting spit. First mentioned in 1576 as "Turnespete," the… Read the rest of the article: The turnspit dog was bred to run on a wheel and roast meat, then went extinct

Theodore Hook is a historical figure whose eccentricity defined his period. He became known for the Berners Street Hoax of 1810—an undertaking considered arguably the greatest practical joke in history.… Read the rest of the article: In 1810, a prankster sent 4,000 letters to flood one London address with chimney sweeps, coffins, and the Lord Mayor

Violet Jessop was born in Argentina in 1887, the eldest of nine children. She survived tuberculosis as a child, contrary to doctors' predictions. At 21, she became a stewardess for… Read the rest of the article: Violet Jessop survived the Titanic, the Britannic, and a collision on the Olympic

Quantum suicide is a thought experiment that takes Schrödinger's cat and puts you inside the box. The setup: a device kills you based on a quantum measurement with a 50/50… Read the rest of the article: The thought experiment that says you can't die (from your own perspective)

Robert Wadlow of Alton, Illinois, was born on February 22, 1918, at a typical 8 pounds 5 ounces. By age eight, he was taller than his father. By his 1936… Read the rest of the article: Robert Wadlow stood 8 feet 11 inches tall and refused to be a sideshow act

On January 13, 532 AD, fans of Constantinople's chariot racing factions — the Blues and the Greens — stopped fighting each other and turned on Emperor Justinian I. The Nika… Read the rest of the article: In 532 AD, a chariot racing riot nearly toppled the Byzantine Empire

On October 3, 1955, the motor vessel Joyita left Apia, Western Samoa, bound for the Tokelau Islands with 25 people aboard — 16 crew and 9 passengers, including a government… Read the rest of the article: A ship found drifting in the Pacific was still afloat but all 25 passengers had vanished

On August 16, 1942, the Navy blimp L-8 lifted off from Treasure Island, San Francisco, on a routine antisubmarine patrol with Lieutenant Ernest DeWitt Cody, 27, and Ensign Charles Adams,… Read the rest of the article: A Navy blimp landed in San Francisco with its engines running and its crew gone

In 1832, a 14-year-old crew member named Otokichi left Japan on a rice transport ship bound for Edo. A storm blew the vessel off course, and it drifted across the… Read the rest of the article: A 14-year-old Japanese sailor drifted across the Pacific for 14 months and could never go home

The Lost Cosmonauts theory alleges that the Soviet Union launched humans into space before Yuri Gagarin's 1961 flight — and that the cosmonauts onboard died. The strongest piece of supposed… Read the rest of the article: Two Italian brothers claimed to have recorded dying Soviet cosmonauts that Moscow erased from history

In September 1944, nine American pilots were shot down during bombing raids on Chichijima, the largest island in the Bonin chain. Eight were captured. The ninth, who evaded capture, was… Read the rest of the article: Japanese officers cannibalized four American POWs on a Pacific island in 1944

The John Frum movement arose on the island of Tanna in Vanuatu no later than the late 1930s. Followers believe John Frum — often depicted as an American serviceman —… Read the rest of the article: A cargo cult in Vanuatu has been waiting for an American named John Frum since the 1930s

Emojli launched on August 29, 2014 — a social media app that restricted usernames and messages to emoji only. No letters, no numbers, no punctuation. YouTubers Tom Scott and Matt… Read the rest of the article: Emojli was a social network where the only language allowed was emoji

The Feast of the Ass was a medieval Christian celebration held on January 14, honoring the donkey that carried the Holy Family into Egypt. A girl and a child riding… Read the rest of the article: At a medieval church festival, the priest brayed like a donkey and the congregation brayed back

John Malcolm Thorpe Fleming Churchill — nicknamed "Fighting Jack" and "Mad Jack" — fought through the entire Second World War armed with a Scottish broadsword, a longbow, and a set… Read the rest of the article: The WWII commando who fought with a broadsword, longbow, and bagpipes

Residents of the Longfellow neighborhood in Minneapolis have been reporting loud, unexplained explosions for several decades. The booms mostly occur on summer nights and have been described as "house-shakingly loud"… Read the rest of the article: Minneapolis has been hearing unexplained booms for decades and nobody can figure out why

In April 1977 the Japanese trawler Zuiyō Maru, fishing east of Christchurch, New Zealand, pulled up a decomposing carcass about 10 meters long. The Zuiyo-maru carcass had "a 1.5-m-long neck,… Read the rest of the article: A 1977 trawler hauled up a carcass that Japan took for a sea monster

Cicada 3301 is the name of "three sets of puzzles posted under the name '3301' online between 2012 and 2014." The first appeared on 4chan on January 4, 2012, and… Read the rest of the article: An anonymous group posted internet puzzles to recruit code-breakers, then vanished

The Yuba County Five were five young men from Yuba County, California, "each with mild intellectual disabilities or psychiatric conditions," who went missing after a college basketball game on February… Read the rest of the article: Five men left a basketball game in 1978 and drove into a mystery