Tragically, the writer spent his last days either unconscious, or delirious. The disease caused all sorts of symptoms like tremors, psychosis, and drowsiness, and it was incredibly lethal, killing around a million people. In addition to Briggs, the Mary Celeste carried his wife, his infant daughter, several sailors, and around 1,700 barrels of alcohol, all heading for Italy. But Mary Eliza wasn't the only victim in the Brown family. While monitoring the Mercury spacecraft, Glenn circled the planet three times in about five hours. Unfortunately, The New York Times did a piece on Flammarion's apocalyptic theory that encouraged some less-trustworthy newspapers to run wild with the story. Roy Sullivan. The First World War was in its last hours, millions of soldiers on bothsides were dead and those who fought on knew the end was near, as did EnglishPrivate Henry Tandey who served with the Duke of Wellington's Regiment. Thousands of great short stories can be found in American Literature's Short Story Library, including many of the greatest short stories ever written. Mary Lena's brother, Edwin, was incredibly ill as well. What mysteries do the Nevada and Alaska Triangles hide? Share PINTEREST Email Print Via Weareteachers. Their story appeared in The Daily Journal-Gazette, a local newspaper which implied more "attacks" could follow. The cooping theory accounts for both Poe's change of clothes and his delirious state. So in addition to telescopes, people started ransacking stores for gas masks. This bizarre bacterium would then mutate and cause the immune system to attack the brain. So the next day, when radar detected an unidentified aircraft heading toward Los Angeles, the city turned into a battlefield. The source for all things bizarre, strange and odd in the world. Poe was found lying in the street outside a saloon called Gunner's Hall, barely conscious and wearing somebody else's worn-out clothes. On February 23, 1942, a Japanese submarine had fired on an oilfield near Santa Barbara — the next day, Naval intelligence indicated an enemy attack was imminent. When one drifted over L.A., the soldiers freaked out. As if that weren't suspicious enough, a servant was caught sneaking a rabbit into her room. The story was published in The Evening News and, while it was clearly made-up, "The Bowmen" sowed the seeds for what happened next. Crazier still, after Toft delivered half a rabbit, someone noticed the animal had been cut in two with a knife. Here's a look at 10 others. This website contains short funny stories, clean jokes and humorous legends of kings and queens, politicians, famous literary figures and artists from many books and sources. Not only that, but those nine barrels were made of red oak, while the others were made of white. Vanished Colonies & Civilizations. 1. Baffled, Howard wrote to medical experts in London. According to some people, Mons was actually a British victory. Plus, one physician found droppings inside a dead bunny that contained hay and straw. These conflicting reports prompted criticism from the government and major newspapers. Weird and strange news stories from across the globe. And, of course, more than a few myths have snuck their way in, as well. However, 19th century investigators did find something strange. Hoping a better climate would improve his condition, the young man went west. Our collection continues to expand and we also feature a Short Story of the Day. Well, as Brian Dunning of Skeptoid explains, white oak is watertight, whereas red oak is porous. Shockingly, both St. Andre and John Howard really thought Toft was delivering rabbits. Mary Eliza and Mary Olive were basically just bones, but when they brought out Mary Lena, her body was still fresh. The newspapers declared these "attacks" were the work of a "Mad Gasser," and for the next two weeks, multiple people claimed they were victims of the "Phantom Anesthetist." The Army wasn't so sure, mentioning the possibility of enemy aircraft. The Mary Celeste looked good as new. The Mary Celeste quickly floated off, leaving ten terrified humans lost in the Atlantic Ocean. Things got so crazy, the FBI began investigating. The victims were then forced to vote at multiple polling places, but in order to disguise these drugged-up voters, the coopers would dress their victims in shabby disguises. That's when things got a little weird. When the going got tough, a band of angels descended from the heavens and decimated the Germans. Curious, the king sent Nathaniel St. Andrew, his personal surgeon-anatomist, to investigate. But on September 13, over 20 victims later, the attacks just ... stopped. These medical professionals discovered that most modern-day victims had started off with sore throats, caused by a rare form of streptococcus. The mother became paralyzed but, while she soon regained her mobility, her husband later spotted a mysterious prowler outside the house. Click on the prompt that catches your fancy, and post your entry in the thread. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. Her daughter Mary Olive passed away in 1883, and about a decade later, 19-year-old Mary Lena Brown also died of consumption. We use cookies. The “Parks and Recreation” star’s name began to trend on Twitter Wednesday, implying that the bizarre headline was a real news story. Portland, Oregon About Podcast he Weird History Podcast focuses on strange, unknown, and sometimes horrible corners of history. Worried parishioners flocked to their churches, and according to science writer Matt Simon, people actually sealed up their keyholes to keep poison out of their homes. Crooks known as "coopers" would grab people off the streets, beat them up, and get them drunk or high on opium. They say truth is stranger than fiction. 10 Bizarre Stories From The Great War. Unfortunately, before they could make a plan to deal with the alcohol, it seems the rope was accidentally sliced in two. And on the day he showed up, Mary Toft gave birth to Rabbit #15. He described them as yellowish-green and said each orb looked like "a firefly on a real dark night. This time around, however, a trio of doctors—John Oxford, Andrew Church, and Russell Dale—cracked the E. lethargica code. According to one couple, they'd woken up on August 31 after detecting a sickly smell. Visit us today. There are dozens of unexplained events and mysteries in American History. July 16, 2012 Noreen 5 comments. The 6 Most Insane Underdog Stories in the History of Battle. Israel Bissell (1752-1823): The Lost Patriot. Facebook. Captained by Benjamin Briggs, the merchant ship left New York on November 1872. Open a history book, and you'll see why. Your email address will not be published. (Even as adults, some of us still geek out over Revolutionary War records on Ancestry.) Embed This Infographic But where had they come from, and where did they go? Funny anecdotes and short stories are a great source of examples in public speeches. But while there's no shortage of speculation, there is one theory that seems more likely than the rest. Tales of the scrappy Colonists’ rebellion against King George III made many of us history buffs back in elementary school. Weeks after the battle, a fiction writer named Arthur Machen penned a short story called "The Bowmen." The BEF managed to stall the Germans for a bit, but unfortunately, they were forced to retreat. Many of the English faithful sincerely believed otherworldly beings had shown up at Mons with flaming swords, so how did this celestial story get started? These are events that, though not necessarily … So what really happened that night? While some might've suspected extraterrestrials, the astronaut believed it was a sort of miracle. That way, they could trail along from a distance, and not worry about the larger vessel sailing away. Well, for one thing, she'd only been dead for a few months. However, the lifeboat was gone, and there was a strong rope running from the ship into the sea. And while he never could explain what had happened to him, he kept repeating the name, "Reynolds.". The Salem Witch Trials, which lasted from February 1692 to May 1693, is one of the most prominent examples of mass hysteria in American history. History is a vast subject to be sure. Con men made a killing by selling anti-comet pills, and some people worried the comet would "cause the Pacific to change basins with the Atlantic" and turn the world into "one heterogeneous mass of chaotic confusion." Known at the time as "consumption," the disease literally "consumed" people, causing the body to rapidly deteriorate, along with intense fevers and nasty coughs. A few hours later in a separate house, a mother couldn't help her sick child because she literally couldn't get out of bed. Weird Tales is an American fantasy and horror fiction pulp magazine founded by J. C. Henneberger and J. M. Lansinger in late 1922. But of course, he also spent some time watching the Sun rise and set, rise and set. Why did the Anasazi people abandon their cities? Making things worse, doctors had no clue what was happening. It was determined the rabbits' lungs couldn't have developed inside Toft's womb. When he wasn't in a coma, he was thrashing around so badly that he had to be strapped down. Worried the alcohol might explode, the sailors tried venting the room by removing the hatch doors, but to no avail. So what sparked the panic? What is the Moth Man? After the object appeared onscreen, officials ordered a city-wide blackout. One of the most notorious haunting stories in history is that of the Bell Witch, a malicious spirit which first appeared on the farm of the Bell family in northern Tennesse in 1817.The spirit was persistent and nasty, so much so that it was credited with actually killing the patriarch of the Bell family. But if you wade through all the silliness, superstition, and speculation, you can discover the real stories behind history's bizarre events. Don't believe us? ", Neither Glenn nor NASA knew what was happening. Even more convincing, Poe was discovered on Election Day, in front of a saloon that doubled as a polling place. Twitter. So why was her corpse in such good shape? While the hatch doors had been removed, there weren't any other signs of distress. Story 4. Things were further confused when The Occult Review published a false story asserting every soldier at Mons had seen divine beings. New episodes come out every week. From the date the founding fathers supposedly signed the Declaration of Independence to the real reason Chicago got its famously blustery nickname, American history is littered with wildly popular myths and untruths that have been passed off as "facts" for generations. An American Woman in Paris. Compiled by Kathy Weiser/Legends of America, updated January 2020. The democratic delegates eked out the document’s first and second drafts—completed on June 28th and July 2nd 1776, respectively—on Dutch hemp paper. The Germans were preparing to invade France, but they first had to get through the British Expeditionary Force (BEF). They knew the disease attacked the brain (E. lethargica means "inflammation of the brain that makes you tired"), but that was about it. Well, that's one story, anyway. As Glenn was circling the Earth a second time, he looked outside Friendship Seven to see his spacecraft was surrounded by tiny glowing lights. People flocked to see the legendary mother, and her story was covered in major newspapers. The sickness first appeared in 1916, but it really started spreading during the '20s. Then, in the late '20s the disease simply vanished, leaving a staggering number of comatose patients in its wake. From ancient times to more recent events, questions remain unanswered, crimes were never solved, strange creatures lurk in forests and lakes, people go missing and are never found, the government is suspected of cover-ups, and accepted written history is often questioned. The military fired over 1,400 rounds into the air, and soldiers spotted all kinds of planes traveling at varying speeds and at wildly different altitudes. From 1914 to 1918, newspapers across the world were filled with stories about World War I (aka the Great War ). Required fields are marked *. When it buzzed our planet in 1910, it sparked a lot of interest — according to Wired.com, telescope sales skyrocketed as the comet neared. Awestruck, Glenn told Mission Control that he was "in a big mass of thousands of very small particles that are brilliantly lit up like they're luminescent." Paul Revere’s Midnight Ride The world has seen its fair share of awful epidemics, but no modern-day disease has been quite so mysterious as Encephalitis lethargica. During this period, hundreds of people in Salem Village, Massachusetts were accused of witchcraft, and about twenty people were executed. Still, St. Andre was convinced Toft was a baby-bunny-mama, and he brought her to London for closer examination. In the article, two unnamed soldiers reported seeing angels on the battlefield. The Mary Celeste was discovered sailing along without a single person aboard. After the vampire hunters cut open her heart, they found chunks of coagulated blood. He was part of the Mercury Seven (the first group of American astronauts), and he was the first American to orbit Earth. Web Humor. What if one of the Brown women was crawling out of her grave at night and feasting on Edwin's blood? But there's little evidence to support those theories. Beverly Jenkins is a humor and pop culture writer. 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