There is nothing more frustrating, fascinating, or humanizing than happenings that no one can completely explain. Mysteries such as these truly spark our imaginations, making us wonder about the past, the future, and even if they're nothing more than misunderstandings or miscommunications. Either way, these eight short stories have stumped society and at the very least will leave you with cold chills.
1. Bimini Road.
Sometimes called the "Atlantis Road," the Bimini Road is a rock formation off of the North Bimini Island in the Bahamas. It's a very popular tourist attraction due to the mystery surrounding it. An American psychic in the 1930s named Edgar Cayce claimed that he had spoken to someone who had lived in the famous Lost City of Atlantis in a past life. He predicted that portions of the temples would become visible near Bimini in '68 or '69. A private pilot then reported seeing a strange parallel structure in shallow water, which has still not been scientifically or historically explained to this day. Many believe that this structure is either walls from Atlantis or a road leading to the lost city.
2. The "Wow!" Signal.
In 1977, Jerry Ehman, a volunteer for SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) was scanning deep space radio waves from the Big Ear radio telescope at Ohio State University. Suddenly, his measurements began to spike. The sound was loud and lasted the entire 72 seconds; Ehman was able to record it. It also appeared to be transmitted from the constellation Sagittarius near a star called Tau Sagittarii, 120 light-years away. Ehman wrote the word "Wow!" on the original printout of the signal, giving the signal its name. No explanation was ever given, and the sound was never heard again.
3. The Time Traveling Hipster.
Although most "time travel" photos are obvious fakes, this one is much harder to explain. This photo of the reopening ceremony of the South Forks Bridge was released by the Virtual Museum Canada. It gained massive popularity because of the man in the crowd who seems to be out of place. He appears to be wearing a printed t-shirt, wrap around goggles and some suggest a digital camera around his neck. Many people believe this photo is evidence of future time travel.
4. Margaret Foos.
At age 15, Margaret Foos had a gift for "blind reading"—reading books through touch alone. Her father believed he had discovered a way to teach blind people to "see" through their skin in a form of extrasensory perception. He took his daughter to the Veterans Administration Center in Washington, DC, where she was subject to many tests by psychiatrists. While wearing an approved blind fold, Margaret used her hands to read sections of the Bible, identify objects and colors, trace lines and play checkers. Her father left the room occasionally and did not appear to be giving her signals. In the end, no doctors were able to explain how she passed the tests.
5. Oakville Blobs.
On Aug. 7, 1994, in Oakville, Wash. at 3 a.m. it began to rain a strange, jelly-like substance in a 20-mile area. Over a period of three weeks, the unusual "rain" fell a total of six times. Immediately after, residents of Oakville became mysteriously and violently ill, their symptoms described as difficulty breathing, extreme vertigo, blurred vision and an increasing sense of nausea. Many animals also became weak and died. Tests from many different departments discovered that the blobs contained human white blood cells, bacteria from a human digestive system, and most surprisingly, eukaryotic cells. These are complex, nucleus-containing cells and mean the substance is or had been alive. The most popular theory is that Oakville was the site of a military experiment, but no explanation has ever been confirmed.
6. Hitler's Stolen Wealth.
One of history's greatest unsolved mysteries is the whereabouts of an estimated $4 billion worth of looted gold bars, jewelry and foreign currency that disappeared from the vaults of the German Reichsbank after WWII. Many groups all over the world are still searching for the treasure, but the most popular belief is that Hitler himself buried it in a secret location somewhere in Deutschneudorf, Germany. Others think the treasure is lying at the bottom of Lake Toplitz in Austria, while others suggest that it’s stashed in banks around the world.
7. USS Cyclops.
The infamous Bermuda Triangle has been the location of many ship and plane disappearances, although most have been scientifically explained. One that has stumped scientists, though, is the disappearance of the USS Cyclops, the Proteus-class collier of the US Navy. The Cyclops was returning from Rio de Janeiro and made a brief stop at the island of Barbados. It then departed for Baltimore on the 4th of March, 1918 and was never seen again. The crew and all 306 passengers vanished, and no trace of them or the ship has ever been found. It remains the single largest non-combat loss of life in U.S. Naval history.
8. Russian Radio Station UVB-76.
Prior to 1992, UVB-76 only broadcasted a series of beeps. Since then, it has been emitting a monotonous, grinding buzz sound that occasionally has the pitch and amplitude of the sound change. Even more rarely, though, the broadcast will be interrupted by a male voice reciting lists of numbers, names, and spelling out words in Russian. The phenomenon has been nicknamed “The Buzzer,” and theories of its purpose range from Russian military communications to studying the ionosphere. The Buzzer has never been verified by the Russian government or broadcast officials, and it continues to broadcast today.
It's exciting, and sometimes frightening, to think about what secrets and pasts stories such as these have hidden. Although rarely heard of, unexplainable events take place more frequently than we realize, it's up to us to decide what is believable, what is obviously faked and what will simply never have an answer.
