Unsolved History: 17 Shocking & Unforgettable Mysteries

There are so many mysteries in this wonderful world of ours. Some are awesome and yet some are flat out terrifying. Why did people make the Moai statues on Easter Island? Who carved out thousands of miles of lines in the middle of a desert making beautiful images that could only be seen from the sky? Others make us ask some basic questions: Who could kill 9 hikers in the most brutal fashion and never be caught? Come see some of the most amazing stories of unsolved history.

The Dyatlov Incident

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The Dyatlov Pass incident is one that is now legendary among climbers. It is a story of nine Russian skiers who all died under mysterious circumstances on the night of February 2, 1959. The incident was so traumatizing and made such big news that the actual mountain pass where the incident occurred is now named after the group’s leader, Igor Dyatlov.

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The story is a mystery because there are no witnesses or people who say what happened, but investigators determined that the skiers were so scared that they tore through their tent from the inside out and started running from something or someone while barefoot during heavy winter storm. The bodies of the all the skiers were found in light clothing over half a mile away from their base camp. Whatever chased them did so for a long distance. Found in three separate groups, the skiers were all found dead, but not from exposure or an animal attack.

On skier had brought a camera along on the trip and a photo from the it revealed a mysterious figure in between some trees. In a journal that was recovered from the destroyed tent, they had written an entry that said “We now know that snow-people are real.” That line gave investigators chills.

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When the bodies were found, it was discovered how brutally the victims died: Two victims had fractured skulls and two broken ribs as if beaten to death. Two others had their tongues removed and their eyeballs gouged from their skulls. Some others were found to have frozen to death in a crouching position while they were hiding from the obvious attackers.Reports from Russian authorities described the scene with these chilling words: “An unknown, compelling force had caused the deaths.”

After the incident, all access to the area was off-limit for hikers for three years. What happened and who killed the skiers has never been solved.

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The Vanishing Village of Anjikuni

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In 1932, a Canadian fur trapper went to a village near Anjikuni Lake in Canada. He knew this establishment well, as he would often go there to trade his fur and replenish his supplies. On this trip he arrived at the encampment and realized something was wrong. He found it completely empty and silent even though there were signs that people were just at the camp. He found a fire was left burning, with a stew cooking over it. He saw doors open and food out waiting to be prepared, it was as though the hundreds of people who lived there had simply disappeared and never returned.

D.B. Cooper

On a cold night in the Pacific Northwest in 1971, a man jumped out of a plane and into the annals of history, making one of the most notorious mysteries of all time. The man only known as “D.B. Cooper” had hijacked a Boeing plane on the day before Thanksgiving, 1971. He had stolen over $200,000 and his plan was to hijack the plane and parachute out with the cash. Sound crazy? Well after he jumped, the man was never seen again and the mystery of D.B. Cooper remained until 1980 when a child found some money buried in a sandbar. That evidence is the only thing to be found and the whereabouts of D.B. Cooper still remains a mystery.

The Black Dahlia Murder

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The Black Dahlia mystery is one of the most shocking murders to never have been solved.The morning of January 15, 1947 was a beautiful cold, clear morning in Los Angeles until a horrified woman and her daughter discovered the nude body of Elizabeth Short. Not only was she murdered but Short was found in two pieces in a vacant lot on the westside of Los Angeles. Betty Bersinger was the woman who discovered the grisly scene around 10:00 am and at first thought it was perhaps a mannequin. Thats when she got closer and discovered the shocking truth.

Short’s mutilated body was severed in half and apparently was washed by the killer. Short’s face had slash marks from her mouth to her ears, creating what hitmen call the “Glasgow smile.” Short was covered in knife wounds and there where entire portions of flesh cut away. The details of how the body was found are so bizarre and insane that the police determined this was no random dumping of a body but believed that the corpse had been purposely “posed”, with her hands over her head, her elbows bent at right angles, and her legs spread apart.

The murder took place nearly 70 years ago and to this day remains one of the largest unsolved murders to ever take place in Los Angeles California.

The Zodiac Killer

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If this one sounds like something out of a movie, it’s because it has inspired movies and other killers for decades. From the late 1960s -70s, the Bay Area of northern California was gripped in fear by a serial killer called the “Zodiac.” In that five year span, the Zodiac murdered seven people and sent cryptic letters to the media telling them details about the murders and how they could never catch him. In the letters, the killer sent four cryptograms, they were so hard to decipher that to this day, only one of the cryptograms has ever been solved. Although many theories, books and articles exist about the suspected killer, nobody has ever been identified or arrested as the true Zodiac Killer.

Amelia Earhart

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It has been seven decades since Earhart disappeared, leaving the world wondering what happened to the famous pilot. Many theories have emerged, some provide scientific evidence while others are just best guesses, but what’s sure is that nobody really knows what happened to Amelia. Some believe that Earhart was some kind of secret agent that was working for the government. Others suggest that the plane crashed after she set a course to spy on Japanese-occupied islands. Yet another ridiculous guess is that Earhart returned safely to the US and changed her name and lived out her life in obscurity. The reality is most likely the obvious: Earhart crashed her plane into the Pacific and died. The search for Earhart was at the time, one of the largest and most costly recovery missions ever executed.

The Lost Colony of Roanoke

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In 1584, a man named Sir Walter Raleigh founded a colony in the small area of Roanoke in what is now known as North Carolina. In 1587, John White, an artist and friend of Raleigh who had accompanied the previous expeditions to Roanoke, was ordered to Roanoke to check on the well-being of the original settlers who had remained isolated for three years. When they arrived on July 22, 1587, they only found a skeleton and one single word scribed onto a tree that read “Croatoan.” Nobody has ever figured out what the word meant or what happened to people of Roanoke.

The Voynich Manuscript

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This bizarre tale tells of an illustrated codex discovered dating back to the early 15th century that is written in a language that no one has been able to decipher. Since its discovery by a Polish book dealer for whom it is named, Wilfrid Voynich in 1912, nobody has been able to figure out its meaning or who wrote it.

Rongorongo

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Easter Island is one of the most remote places on earth. When people “discovered” this island with its wild statues and barren landscape, they were amazed and confused as to what the monoliths mean. They also discovered this stone with a system of glyphs that were found in the late 19th century. While experts have tried to decipher what they mean, no one knows when or why they were written.  Some estimates in their age range from the 1200s to possibly the 1600s. While this mystery is amazing, It still pales in comparison to Easter Island’s biggest mystery: The Moai.

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The Nazca Lines

 My personal favorite mystery is who made the Nazca Lines? These incredible images were made sometime around in 500 B.C. and they were etched onto the dry, lifeless moonscape of Peru’s southern deserts. There they lie: one of the world’s great unsolved mysteries- the Nazca Lines. There are more than 15,000 geometric and animal-like images that have been discovered on the desert floor. Remember, this is a barren, unlivable land were talking about, the work and time spent making these are hard to imagine. The biggest question is why would you spend so much time and energy on something that you could never see unless you were up in the air? Many believe they were made for the gods and there are many who believe that gods are actually UFO’s and aliens. What do you believe?

The WOW Signal

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A man named Jerry Ehman was tasked with the job of finding signs of life on other planets. One night in the fall of 1977, Ehman checked over the results of the latest data and found something astonishing. Ehman detected a signal from the depths of space that lasted 72 seconds. Not only did it not come from our own planet, it didn’t come from our own solar system. It’s called the “Wow!” Signal because Ehman wrote “Wow!” on the printout after seeing it for the first time it. Even though this was a huge discovery, the signal was never detected again and was relegated to an anomaly.

The Shroud of Turin

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The Shroud of Turin is believed by many catholics and Christians to be the actual burial cloth of Jesus Christ. While many claim the fabric is a fake, tests have shown his visage in dirt, grime, and blood. So who would go to these lengths to make such a fake? The shroud was supposedly taken from Judea around 33 AD where it was moved to Constantinople, Athens and finally resting in a small town in France. Its existence wasn’t officially recorded until the 14th century. So that gave people 1400 years to come up with the story and idea to make something to get more people to believe in Jesus. Enter science: Carbon-14 dating was first administered to the cloth in the 1980s to hopefully settle the question of its authenticity. Over the decades it has been tested many times and at the end of the day, there is nothing to say it is or isn’t real. So what do you think?

JonBenet Ramsey

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In a case that shocked America and the world, a six-year-old beauty queen was found bludgeoned and strangled in the basement of her home on Christmas Day in 1996. Immediately, her parents were the main suspects until finally being exonerated in 2008. Throughout the event stories of the crazy mother came to light and painted her as a person who was controlling and cruel to her daughter. While being found innocent, no killer has ever been pursued and nobody has ever been arrested for the crime.

The Phoenix Lights

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An event called “The Phoenix Lights” occurred one evening in March, 1997. Strange lights danced in the skies above the town being witnessed by thousand of people at the same time. People called into the news stations in town and documented the event on video but nobody ever came forward with a viable explanation. The Air Force denied responsibility for the lights and to this day it remains on of the best documented UFO events in American history.

Flight 19

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The Bermuda triangle is an area off the east coast of the US from the Florida, Puerto Rico and Bermuda. Hundreds of missing ships and planes have been reported over the years but nothing as wild as flight 19. Flight 19 was a group of five Avenger torpedo bombers that disappeared over the Bermuda Triangle on December 5, 1945 during a training flight from Fort Lauderdale, Florida. All 14 airmen were lost. Navy investigators never could determine the cause of the loss of the planes and crew, but said the planes were most likely ditched in rough seas after running out of fuel.

The Esperanza Stone

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This unique stone was discovered during an expedition in the Yaqui valley. Its longest axis is eight feet and on the eastern face of the rock is the deep-cut inscription. The symbols on the stone include a volute and a swastika. The legend goes that stone had fallen down out of heaven but it’s unknown who made the symbols or what they mean.

Helicopter Petroglyphs

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Can you believe that thousands of years ago someone carved a petroglyph of a helicopter in Egypt? This find has lead many people to believe that aliens not only visited the ancient Egyptians, but that they are responsible for the pyramids and huge leaps in knowledge and math equations that were gifted to humans from the gods.