Top 20 Mysterious Events That Can't Be Explained
#20: The Hector Cloud
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The Northern Territory of Australia experiences a very bizarre phenomenon every year between September and March. Around 3:00 every afternoon, a huge thundercloud forms near the Tiwi Islands. The cloud has been named Hector by the locals, or more colloquially, Hector the Convector. This cloud was once used by pilots and sailors, and it’s now the subject of intense meteorological study. We understand that it’s caused by sea breezes interacting with the topography of the islands, but much about the cloud is still unknown. Perhaps future research will unveil more details about ol’ Hector the Convector.
#19: The Somerton Man
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We return to Australia for the Somerton Man. This remains one of Australia’s weirdest mysteries, and it’s tantalized both its native country and the world for decades. On December 1, 1948, the body of a man was found on Adelaide’s Somerton Park beach. In one of his pockets was a scrap of paper reading “tamám shud,” which is Persian for “is over.” The page was torn from a book, and investigators found a coded message and a phone number on its back cover. The message has never been cracked, and the man has not been officially identified. A revelatory DNA test and many sound theories have been put forward, but nothing has been confirmed, and many questions remain unanswered.
#18: The Kentucky Meat Shower
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This sounds disgusting, and trust us, it is. Around 11:00 am on March 3, 1876, small pieces of gristly meat began raining over Bath County, Kentucky. Some people believed that it was divine intervention. Other people actually tasted it to see what kind of meat it was. Samples of the meat were sent to the Newark Scientific Association, which concluded that it was lung tissue. The people who didn’t blame God attributed the event to vultures, who are prone to vomit their food when escaping from predators. It’s likely that a kettle of vultures got spooked, took flight, and puked partially chewed meat all over the county. But no one really knows for sure.
#17: The Flannan Isles Lighthouse Mystery
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Found off the west coast of Scotland is the Flannan Isles Lighthouse, which saw a very creepy disappearance in December of 1900. A passing steamer called Archtor noticed that the light wasn’t on, and they reported this to the Northern Lighthouse Board. A relief vessel went to the island and found the three lighthouse keepers missing. They also saw extensive damage indicating that a strong storm had passed through the area. The initial investigation revealed that the men had been swept off the island by a giant swell. This has remained the primary explanation, but the case is still being extensively researched and different theories are continuously put forward.
#16: The Body of Xin Zhui
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In 1968, diggers were working in the Chinese city of Changsha when they stumbled upon the tomb of Xin Zhui. She was a noblewoman who died in either 169 or 168 BCE. What makes this find so startling is the remarkable condition of Xin Zhui’s mummy. Her muscles, skin, hair, and organs were very well preserved, and she even had a small amount of blood still inside her veins. Experts believe that the deep underground setting and coffin type ensured the preservation of the body, but some questions still remain. For example, they don’t know why this particular body was so well preserved when not many others have been found under similar circumstances.
#15: The Pollock Sisters
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If there’s one convincing case of reincarnation, it’s the Pollock sisters. The Pollocks were walking to church when they were struck by a car and killed in May of 1957. Their parents moved on, and Florence Pollock gave birth to identical twin girls seventeen months later. The parents immediately noticed similarities to their deceased daughters, like identical scars and birthmarks. The girls also shared eerily similar personality traits and interests. And despite moving away from the area at nine months old, they both knew their way around when they returned for a visit four years later. Some see this as a genuine case of reincarnation. Others believe that it’s mere coincidence inflated by grieving parents desperate to make connections. What about you?
#14: The Disappearance of Amelia Earhart
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There’s a very good chance that Amelia Earhart crashed into the ocean. However, no one can make a definitive claim, as nothing has been proven either way. Earhart was an incredibly famous pilot in her day, being the first female to cross the Atlantic and writing numerous books. Earhart was attempting to fly around the globe in 1937 when she disappeared near Howland Island in the Pacific Ocean. Most people believe that she simply ran out of fuel and crashed, but no evidence of her plane has ever been found. Another popular theory suggests that Earhart crashed near or landed on Gardner Island in Kiribati, but again, there’s no hard evidence to suggest this. For now, all we have is speculation.
#13: Circleville Letters
In 1977, residents of Circleville, Ohio began receiving threatening and harassing anonymous letters. The letters had very distinctive handwriting, and contained accusations of embezzlement, affairs, and even murders. Ron Gillispie died under mysterious circumstances after receiving a phone call and announcing that he was going to confront the writer. His wife was nearly killed by a gun in a booby trap attached to a sign. It turned out that Paul Freshour, Ron’s brother-in-law, bought the gun, and his handwriting was deemed to match the letters. Yet, during his time in prison, people in town continued receiving them - even while Freshour was in solitary confinement. If Freshour was the writer, he wasn’t working alone. We’re “writing this off,” as an unsolved mystery.
#12: Havana Syndrome
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Since 2016, U.S. officials and military personnel have been experiencing strange symptoms. These include pain, ringing in the ears, as well as difficulty with cognitive processes. Named for the location it was initially reported, the embassy in Havana, Cuba, Havana syndrome has since been reported at US bases and embassies in various countries. While some of those suffering from it have existing head injuries that could explain the symptoms, not all of them do. Proposed explanations have included a psychogenic illness, the sound of crickets, or even a microwave weapon. While the CIA has concluded that most cases were probably not caused by a foreign power, two dozen cases remain unexplained. Accidental or targeted, Havana syndrome is yet to be fully understood.
#11: Max Headroom Hijackings
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On November 22nd in 1987, the broadcast of two Chicago TV stations was interrupted. Both interruptions featured an unidentified man dressed as the British A.I. character, Max Headroom. The masked man disparaged the local station he was interrupting, made several pop culture references, and got spanked with a flyswatter. The heavily distorted audio, rotating background, and masked man gave the hijackings an eerie, almost David Lynchian feel. The hijackers couldn’t be identified, nor did they come forward after the statute of limitations on their crime expired. These broadcasts seem destined to remain as mystifying as their contents.
#10: Salish Sea Feet
Since 2007, residents of Washington, USA and British Columbia, Canada, have found some rather morbid jetsam washed up on their beaches – detached human feet. Most of them were found still inside shoes. Foul play has been ruled out, as most of the identified victims were involved in accidents or took their own lives. It’s been speculated that the feet detached as the bodies decayed, and that the air pockets and buoyant foam in sneakers floated them to the surface. But it still seems extremely odd that there have been so many, and all around the same area.
#9: The Hum
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This is kind of like the Havana Syndrome, only far more widespread and involving people not related to the American government. Reports of a general humming or rumbling noise have been made all across the world, including Windsor, Ontario and Taos, New Mexico, both of which have their own specially-named hums. While this sounds enormously irritating, help has been rare to non-existent. No one knows what’s causing the humming, with different areas reporting their own possible causes. For example, the Windsor Hum reportedly ended in 2020 when the blast furnaces of a local plant were deactivated. Others have blamed the likes of tinnitus, animals, and jet streams.
#8: The Dancing Plague
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The medieval period was a scary time, full of misery and poverty. These issues may have led to the dancing plague. The curious mania affected Europe throughout much of this period, spanning from the 14th to 17th centuries. People would take to the streets and dance until they hurt themselves or collapsed from exhaustion. Sometimes good-intentioned musicians would accompany the dancers, believing that their sounds would cure the affliction. It was the best that anyone could do, because no one knew how to treat it. Even to this day, the incident is poorly understood. Some attribute it to the general stress of living in medieval Europe, others to ergot poisoning and religious cults.
#7: Gloria Ramirez’s Death
While suffering from cervical cancer, Gloria Ramirez was admitted to an emergency room in California in 1994. While treating her, the medical personnel noticed odd symptoms, including a greasy polish to her skin, a strange odor from her mouth, and oddly shaped particles in her blood. Then, several of the people in the room began passing out. Overall, twenty-three people were affected by these strange symptoms, and Ramirez passed away, with the initial diagnosis being from kidney failure. The most common suggestion for Ramirez’s apparent “toxicity” was that she was taking dimethyl sulfoxide, a home pain treatment, which combined with several of the treatments turned into an acidic substance. Another suggestion is exposure to methylamine. But no one knows for sure.
#6: Tromp Family Breakdown
No, Tromp! With an “O!” In 2016, Mark and Jacoba Tromp took their three adult children on an impromptu road trip hundreds of miles north, leaving their house unlocked. Mark seemed convinced that people were out to get them and forbade phones. Their son Mitchell brought one anyway, but it was later thrown out the car window. He left, not understanding his parents’ paranoia. Later, the daughters left too, stealing a car before splitting up. One, Riana, was found in a catatonic state. Ultimately, all returned safely, but no explanation has been given specifically for what happened. Whether it was shared psychosis, or someone was out to get the Tromps, the case has fascinated the world ever since.
#5: Oakville Blobs
In 1994, Oakville, Washington experienced perhaps the strangest weather phenomenon of the last few decades – it rained blobs. Strange goo fell from the sky over a period of several weeks, blanketing the town in ooze. What’s even more bizarre is that the residents experienced a widespread illness that lasted for several weeks too. So what could this goo have been? Was it evaporated bits of jellyfish that reformed in a cloud? Or maybe waste from an airplane? The most troubling theory is that the event was a military experiment on U.S. soil. There are a whole mess of theories about this messy, and weird weather.
#4: The “Wow!” Signal
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Despite some very extensive and incredibly expensive efforts, we have found no hard evidence of extraterrestrial life - at least not public evidence. But we do have the “Wow!” signal. It was August 15, 1977, and a telescope at Ohio State University picked up a very bizarre radio wave. The telescope recorded the signal for a solid seventy-two seconds. A few days later, astronomer Jerry Ehman was studying the data when he stumbled across the signal. He circled the series of letters and numbers in red ink and wrote a very enthusiastic “Wow!” beside it. “Wow” is right. To this day, no one knows what caused the signal, and despite significant effort, it has never been found again.
#3: D. B. Cooper
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The story of D. B. Cooper has captured our collective imaginations for decades. On November 24, 1971, a man largely known as “D. B. Cooper” hijacked an airplane for the modern equivalent of $1.3 million. The plane landed in Seattle and Cooper allowed the passengers to disembark. He then ordered that the empty aircraft be flown to Mexico City. But shortly after takeoff, Cooper opened the door and jumped out with his parachute. And with that, he disappeared from both the plane and history. Neither the man nor the money have ever been found, but a small portion was discovered on the Columbia River in 1980. It’s likely that Cooper died in the jump, but we just don’t know for sure.
#2: Disappearance of Malaysian Airlines Flight 370
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On March 8th, 2014, Malaysian Airlines Flight 370 vanished while flying from Malaysia to China. After a loss of communications and its disappearance from civilian radar, Flight 370 reappeared on military radar, having deviated from its planned flight path. The disappearance has fascinated the public for years and led to several expensive searches. It seemed impossible for an entire airplane to just go missing in an age where everything can be seen by satellites. Although a few pieces have washed ashore, the bulk of the aircraft and the reason for its deviation remain unclear. Speculations have run the gamut from a hijacking, to it being shot down, to some kind of equipment failure.
#1: Dyatlov Pass Incident
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In 1959, nine Russian hikers were found dead in the Ural Mountains. All were severely injured, several were undressed, and they had cut their way out of their tent from the inside. Some were burned, and others slightly radioactive. Most seemed to have died of hypothermia or their injuries. The case has baffled the public and authorities for over half a century. Theories include an avalanche, an animal attack, or military involvement. The most plausible theory involves the group camping against a heavy snowbank, which collapsed, leading them to assume an avalanche and freezing after they escaped the tent. But, unless there really was outside involvement, only the victims know the truth.
