History has a way of making the impossible seem real, even though the evidence supporting these ‘events’ never actually existed.
The 38 silent witnesses
Kitty Genovese herself was a 28-year-old who was murdered in Queens, New York, on March 13, 1964. That fact alone was terrible enough. But then the story spread that 38 neighbors had watched the attack and didn’t help. It became an example of something known as the ‘bystander effect,’ where people are less likely to help someone when there are others around.
Except, that’s not what happened. It was something that TIME claimed, but later researchers found no evidence in court records or other documents that 38 people had witnessed the killing. The attack occurred in different places, for one. Only a few people actually heard something, and one of them did call the police.
Horses against German armor
There’s a popular image of Polish soldiers galloping straight at German tanks during World War II, with sabers drawn. It’s meant to show off just how hopeless Poland’s defense was in 1939. But it never happened. The real fight took place near Krojanty on September 1, and it involved Polish cavalry charging German infantry.
As it turns out, the Polish soldiers did manage to push the Germans back, at least initially. Armored vehicles later arrived and opened fire on the horsemen. The Polish cavalry units also carried rifles and machine guns, as well as anti-tank weapons. The idea of them charging on horseback alone just isn’t true.
The disappearing destroyer
In October 1943, the USS Eldridge, a Navy ship, was part of something known as the Philadelphia Experiment, which involved scientists trying to make the boat disappear. It worked. The ship vanished from Philadelphia and then teleported hundreds of miles away to Norfolk, Virginia, although there was a problem.
Some of the sailors allegedly became fused with the ship. The truth is, it’s a complete lie. There are no Navy records of the ship being in Philadelphia at that time, as it was actually in New York City until late 1943. It was a real ship, yes, but there’s no evidence experiments like this ever took place. The supposed paranormal incident never happened.
The cosmonauts who vanished
Yuri Gagarin was the first human to go into Earth’s orbit on April 12, 1961. But there have been claims for years that other Soviet cosmonauts actually went up before him and died. People point to the Soviet Union’s track record of keeping embarrassing and deadly accidents secret. In 1961, cosmonaut trainee Valentin Bondarenko died, but the event was kept under wraps.
Yet there is zero evidence for any secret orbital missions that resulted in dead crews. Soviet space records became more accessible, but there’s no proof of anyone going into orbit before Gagarin. He was the first one who went up there.
The handshake that wasn’t refused
Let’s get one thing straight, Adolf Hitler really was a monster. Nobody is denying that. But there’s one false story that people keep repeating, and it involves the 1936 Olympics in Berlin. Black athlete Jesse Owens won four gold medals during the competition. Hitler supposedly refused to shake Owens’ hand, as he was angry that a non-Aryan had won.
Hitler had begun causing trouble on the very first day of the competition by personally congratulating selected winners. Olympic officials told him, however, that he either had to greet every medalist or quit it altogether. Hitler chose to stop. Owens wasn’t even competing at the time when the issue came up, so the famous heated moment between them never happened.
The blackout babies
It’s a fact that New York went dark on November 9, 1965, due to a blackout. The thing is, a story has developed that there was a baby boom nine months later because, well, couples were bored on that night without electricity. But the facts don’t support this idea.
Demographer J. Richard Udry checked the actual New York City birth figures and published his findings in 1970. He found there wasn’t a significant baby boom connected to the outage, nor were there any signs that huge numbers of people ‘relieved’ their boredom. The story has still stuck around, though.
The faceoff at sea
The 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis was easily one of the most tense moments in human history, as humanity came way too close to all-out nuclear war. On October 24, American ships faced Soviet vessels at the Cuban quarantine line. Everyone was on the edge of their seat, waiting to see who would move first, and one story claims that each side waited to see who would blink first.
But that’s not quite right. It was an intense moment for sure, yet the Soviet ships had already begun turning back on October 23. U.S. officials only realized what was happening later on. By that time, Soviet ships were roughly 500 miles from the line, so there was no single showdown between the U.S. and the USSR.
The massacre with no victims
You’ll find a monument near Almo, Idaho, that claims 295 pioneers were killed in an 1861 Native American attack. Only five people escaped the massacre. With such a large number of deaths, you’d expect there to be names and newspaper reports on the event, as well as military records. You’d expect grieving families, too.
There’s none of that. No, historians have found accounts showing there were smaller attacks around the City of Rocks in 1860 and 1862. There’s no proof of a 300-person slaughter in 1861, and in fact, that year seems to have been pretty quiet for the area. The massacre itself never happened.
The bell on July Fourth
Most people grew up hearing stories about how the Liberty Bell was rung the moment independence was declared. It’s a nice story, yet it didn’t actually happen. For starters, Congress voted for independence on July 2, 1776, and then approved the Declaration’s wording on July 4. Philadelphia didn’t receive a public reading until July 8.
It would’ve been impossible for the Bell to have rung on July 4. Bells were rung around the city on July 8, and it’s possible that the Liberty Bell may have been rung on July 8. But there’s no way it rang on the day people claim it did.
Sources: Please see here for a complete listing of all sources that were consulted in the preparation of this article.
13 peculiar and obscure facts from history
Forget about all those famous battles and presidents because it turns out that history is a lot weirder and more interesting, too.
