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5 of the most famous disappearances to ever happen in history

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Amelia Earheart
Famous Disappearances: Pictured, Amelia Earheart.
Amelia Earheart
Famous Disappearances: Pictured, Amelia Earheart.

Most famous disappearances to ever happen in history: How mysteries and the unexplained continue to haunt, inspire and influence popular culture. 

Stories of misfortune and mystery have intrigued humankind for years. Something inside us has us constantly searching for the truths of the world.

That’s why we get so held up with unexplainable events, in search of the answers. We’re not hardwired to accept things that cannot be explained, incidents where logic cannot be found and reason goes out the window.

From scary stories and urban legends to absolutely fascinating and spine-tingling stories of unexplained disappearances.

We share 5 of the most famous disappearances to ever happen in history. Bone-chilling mysteries at its finest.

Amelia Earheart

Amelia Earheart is one of history’s most famous aviation icons. She was born in 1897, and she rose to fame as a trailblazer in female aviation, she was, after all, the first female pilot to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean.

The circumstances around her mysterious disappearance were as a result of her goal to circumnavigate the globe in 1937. June 1st was to be a day remembered for years and years to come.

Amelia and her navigator Fred Noonan, set out from California, eastbound on a twin-engine Lockheed Electra plane. They made it to New Guinea less than a month later, with only 7,000 miles to go before they made it back to Oakland once again. Their trip itinerary had them scheduled to stop at Howland Island for a refuel, but this never happened. They never showed up.

There were, and have been, numerous attempts to locate where the plane might have done down. One of the most expensive air and sea search and rescue missions ever in American history procured no sign of the plane or Fred and Amelia.

Earhart was officially declared dead on January 5, 1939, two years after the incident happened.

But what was the truth behind this famous disappearance?

Theories say that they simply ran out of fuel and crashed the plane, other says that Earheart was a secret agent and was taken prisoner by Japanese forces.

Did you know that Amelia’s plane transmitted radio signals for a week after the reported crash? The manufacturer of the plane was reported as saying that this would simply have not been possible if the plane had been crash-landed in the sea, so it begs the question: did Amela successfully land the plane on land? And transmit her radio signals from there?

Famous Disappearances
Famous Disappearances: The Mary Celeste

The Mary Celeste

The Mary Celeste is arguably one of the most famous ships of all time, but not because of the reasons that you may think.

In the winter of 1872, Captain Benjamin Briggs set sail from New York Harbor on the Mary Celeste. He was accompanied by his wife, Sarah and his daughter Sophia and a crew of seven.

The Mary Celeste was sailing for Genoa, Italy. Alas, they would never reach their destination.

On December 4, less than a month later, a crew member aboard the merchant ship Dei Gratia spotted a ship in his spyglass, one with torn sails and sailing out of control. The captain of the Dei Gratia identified the vessel as The Mary Celeste.

Upon his instruction, the crew boarded eerily quiet Mary Celeste and found nobody. All cargo was accounted for and present, even the sewing machine in the captain’s cabin. The only things missing? The lifeboat and all the people onboard.

There are many theories as to what might have happened: perhaps they were kidnapped by pirates or washed away in a freak storm.

Whatever happened, we cannot but see the image of an eery, mist-swallowed sailing ship floating aimlessly through the ocean. A ghost ship.

Famous Disappearances
Famous Disappearances: What happened to the lost colony of Roanoke Island?

Roanoke Island 

Roanoke Island is one of the oldest, strangest mysteries in America. During the 16th century, more than 100 people of Roanoke Colony mysteriously vanished, or seemingly so. Under the leadership of Englishman John White, the colony was established, but due to relations with the Native Americans, the situation worsened and John was forced to return to England to get more reinforcements and supplies.

When he returned three years later, he found no sign of friends or family or any of the other colonists. The only clues that he found? The letters “CRO” and the word “Croatoan” carved into a tree and a fence post.

While instructions had been left in the case that the colonists had to move, there was no sign of a cross, which was to be left in the instance of an emergency. A mess of broken belongings and items was found.

After his discoveries, he had thought that the settlers went to live with the friendlier Croatoan tribe, but he could not get to where they stayed, to ever validate his theory.

In our modern age, some people believe that the colonists dissolved into local tribes, but there’s no evidence to support this claim. Some archaeologists found 16th-century European artifacts buried on the island that the Croatoan tribe lived on, now known as Hatteras Island, but this is not enough proof to assume that the colonists actually moved there.

There are other claims that another Native American tribe can take claim for this famous disappearance, by saying that Chief Powhatan is said to have told the leader of the Jamestown Colony that he slaughtered all the colonists. Another theory says that the colonists used one of the small boats left behind to attempt to return home.

The pure lack of evidence for all the theories makes us believe that the vanishings of Roanoke Island will forever remain a mystery, and the secrets of this colony will remain hidden.

Famous Disappearances
Famous Disappearances: The Mystery Of The Bennington Triangle Vanishings

The Bennington Triangle 

The famous disappearances of the Bennington Triangle may not be as well-known as the Bermuda Triangle, but they’re just as creepy and mysterious.

Some people say that a serial killer is responsible, some people blame paranormal forces. Whatever it is, nothing has been able to fully explain the mysterious and famous disappearances from Vermont’s Bennington Triangle, here’s what happened.

In 1945

Middie Rivers went missing. He was serving as a mountain guide in the area on November 12, 1945, but while he was guiding his group back to camp, he got a little way ahead and was never seen again. A police and volunteer search never turned up any clues as to the fate of Middie.

In 1946

Paula Welden vanished without a trace, she was a college student who had simply decided to go hiking in the same area that Middie went missing. Alas, she was never to be seen again.

In 1949

Three Hunters are reported to have gone missing in later 1949 around the same area.

Again, in 1949

James Tedford got on a bus in St. Albans, the bus departed, and when it arrived, James was no longer on it.

In 1950

On October 12, 8-year-old Paul Jepson went missing. They had a canine unit assist in the search this time, his scent disappeared around a nearby highway.

Again, in 1950

On 28 October, Frieda Lander disappeared while hiking with her cousin. She decided to head back to camp to change after getting her clothes wet, and, you guessed it! She never returned. A huge search was undertaken by the police, volunteers, firemen, and military sought the woman, but nothing turned up. Although, the following May, her body turned up in a field that had previously been searched numerous times.

Famous Disappearances in Bennington 

The intrigue around these disappearances remains, the unexplained events have been theorized to be paranormal forces at work, UFO abductions, there’ve even been reporting sightings of Bigfoot in the area.

Whatever the reason behind these famous disappearances, there’s no evidence to put these missing persons to rest.

Famous Disappearances
Famous Disappearances: D.B Cooper.

D.B Cooper 

In 1971, a man saying he was Dan Cooper (but later mistakenly reported by the media as D.B. Cooper) boarded his Northwest Airlines flight in Portland. Flight #305 was bound for Seattle.

D.B Cooper was dressed like a businessman, a dark suit with a black tie. While the plain was in flight, he revealed his briefcase housing a bomb and his intentions to hijack the plane to his flight attendant.

When the flight landed in Seatle, his demand was for $200,000, four parachutes and food for the flight crew. All this, and he would release the passengers.

When his demands were met, the flight took off from Seattle along with the marked bills and headed south. 45 minutes into the flight, D.B Cooper sent the flight attendant to the cockpit while wearing his parachute. He tied the bank bag of money to his person, lowered the stairs and somewhere just north of Portland he jumped into the dark night.

Sounds all normal, just a case in point airway hijack? No.

When the plane landed, the stairs down, they found the remaining parachutes and on his seat, D.B. Cooper’s a black tie.

Airforces were dispatched close behind the hijacked aircraft, the military soon joined into the search and little over 1,000 troops searched the area where D.B. Cooper was suspected to have landed.

No sign of D.B. Cooper was ever discovered.

But, in 1980, nine years later, a young boy was digging for leisure and he uncovered three bundles of money, just a few inches below the surface. Buried there was $5,800, this money matched the serial numbers to the money supplied to D.B Cooper.

There have been so many attempts to uncover the truth and find D.B. Cooper. Where did he go? Did he just disappear into the night?

Famous Disappearances and Feelings of Awe

Reading stories of famous disappearances, serious scandals, mysterious and explained true accounts of people, places and things that just vanished into thin air.

You can’t help but be left with feelings of awe and disbelief, but where there is a lack of evidence, how could we ever really be sure of what happened? Who is to blame?

Enough with the mystery, visit us again for more interesting articles on how to live your best life and more.

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