Our world is full of mysterious objects, places, and organisms. With new developments in science and technology, we have been able to solve most of these enigmas. Yet, there are still some events which leave the best minds of the world dumbfounded. We may discredit them as tricks of our mind or dubious cases, but we can’t simply ignore their occurrence. In this article, we have brought ten such mysterious unexplained events recorded in history.

1 The Ninth Legion of the Imperial Roman army consisting of over 5,000 Roman soldiers were stationed in Great Britain in 120 CE but were never mentioned again in historical records and simply disappeared from history. No one knows exactly when it was formed or lost.

Legio IX Hispana, also known as the Spanish Ninth Legion, was a legion of the Imperial Roman army.  The origin of the legion is uncertain as there is no specific date mentioned in historical records about its formation. The earliest reference of this legion might be when it participated in the siege of Asculum during the Social War in 90 BCE. Julius Caesar inherited this legion along others when he became governor of Cisalpine, Gaul in 58 BCE.

In 43 BCE, the IX legion was stationed in Britain following a Roman invasion. According to historian Theodor Mommsen, the legion was wiped out in action in northern Britain soon after 108 CE, perhaps during a rising of northern tribes against Roman rule. But this theory fell out when successive inscriptions of IX Hispana were found at the site of the legionary base at Nijmegen, Netherlands, suggesting the Ninth may have been based there from CE 120. But some scholars believe that the Nijmegen evidence refers to a detachment of IX Hispana, not the whole legion. It is still a mystery as to how the IX legion came to its end.(source)

2 In 1967 a huge flying object seen over the harbor in Nova Scotia where it hovered for a while and then “crashed” into the water. The object was never identified even though two local residents reported a floating object in the waters of Shag Harbor.

On the night of October 4, 1967, at about 11:20 p.m., at least eleven people saw a low-flying, lit object heading towards Shag Harbor, a tiny fishing village in the Canadian province of Nova Scotia. Multiple witnesses reported hearing a whistling sound “like a bomb,” then a “whoosh,” and finally a loud bang indicating that something had crashed into the waters of the Harbor. The initial report was made by local resident Laurie Wickens and four of his friends. Driving through Shag Harbor, on Highway 3, they spotted a large object descending into the waters off the harbor.

Assuming an aircraft had crashed, Wickens contacted the RCMP detachment in Barrington Passage. Within 15 minutes, ten RCMP officers arrived at the scene. But before any attempt at rescue could be made, the object started to sink and disappeared from view. Within half an hour of the crash, local fishing boats went out for a rescue mission but could find no survivors, bodies or debris. The next day it was determined that no aircraft were missing. When the Royal Canadian Air Force was informed of the crash, they labeled it as a “UFO Report.”(source)

3 On 30 July 1915, after the U-28 sunk the British steamer Iberian, an explosion occurred in which, along with the debris, a creature resembling a gigantic crocodile was seen, which quickly disappeared from sight.

SM U-28 was a Type U 27 U-boat that served in the First World War. It was commissioned into the Imperial German Navy on 26 June 1914, with Freiherr Georg-Günther von Forstner in command. On 30 July 1915, Freiherr von Forstner reported a mysterious event after the U-28 sunk the British steamer Iberian. According to the commander: “The wreckage remained beneath the water for approximately twenty-five seconds, at a depth that was clearly impossible to assess, when suddenly there was a violent explosion which shot pieces of debris — among them a gigantic aquatic animal — out of the water to a height of approximately 80 feet.”

This creature was witnessed by the commander, the chief engineer, the navigator, and the helmsman. The commander reported that he couldn’t identify the creature, but he said that it resembled a crocodile. It was about 60 feet long, with four limbs resembling large webbed feet, a long, pointed tail, and a head which also tapered to a point. No photograph of the creature was taken as the animal sank out of sight after ten or fifteen seconds.(1,2)

4 A small crater lake in Africa killed 1,700 villagers and 3,500 livestock overnight when it suddenly released 300,000 tons of carbon dioxide suffocating everything within 16 miles. Scientists still don’t know what triggered the event.

On 21 August 1986, Lake Nyos in northwestern Cameroon suddenly erupted producing about 100,000–300,000 tons of carbon dioxide. Soon, a large cloud of carbon dioxide formed, rose at nearly 100 kilometers per hour, and spilled over the northern lip of the lake. It descended down two valleys, displacing all the air and suffocating people and livestock within 25 kilometers of the lake. This disaster killed 1,746 people and 3,500 livestock.

Even now, the reason of this catastrophic out-gassing has not been discovered. According to geologists, the reason might have been a landslide, a small volcanic eruption on the bed of the lake, or a small earthquake. Despite all the theories, no real reason had been found up to now.(source)

5 In 1561, a mass sighting of a celestial phenomenon was reported over Nuremberg, Germany. It was said that there was a great space battle and even a crash landing outside the town.

Around dawn on April 14, 1561, residents of Nuremberg saw a strange event in the sky. According to witnesses, there were hundreds of spheres, cylinders, and other oddly-shaped objects that moved erratically overhead. People described it as an aerial battle. It was followed by the appearance of a large, black, triangular object and then a large crash outside of the city.

A broadsheet news article was printed later that month, describing the event. According to the news article, at first there appeared in the middle of the sun two blood-red, semi-circular arcs. Many globe-like structures and few rod-like structures also appeared. They started to fight among themselves for an hour. After that, they began falling down on earth “as if they all burned.” The phenomenon has been interpreted by some modern UFO enthusiasts as an aerial battle, possibly of extraterrestrial origin. Most skeptics have dismissed the phenomenon claiming it to be a “sun dog.”(source)

6 The Hollinwell incident is an unexplained event in July 1980, when around 300 children suffered fainting attacks, nausea, and other symptoms at the Hollinwell Showground in England. The exact cause has never been determined.

On Sunday 13 July 1980, the annual Hollinwell how was organized at Hollinwell Showground near Kirkby-in-Ashfield. As a part of the event, a Junior Brass and Marching Band competition was organized. Around 500 children from 11 marching bands were in attendance. Some even came after traveling 65 kilometers. As a result, many children were tired and nervous about performing. The show was scheduled to begin at 9 a.m.

At around 10:30 a.m., children of the bands began to collapse without any apparent reason. Fainting seemed to be contagious and according to one eyewitness children began “falling down like nine pins.” Soon, the numbers of ailing children reached the hundreds. They began suffering from vomiting, sore eyes and throats, and dizziness. The estimated number of victims was around 300, including children, adults, and babies. Two hundred and fifty-nine people were taken to four nearby hospitals. Initial investigations by the Ashfield District Council looked into a variety of possible causes, including contaminated water supplies, food poisoning, radio waves, and crop spraying of the nearby fields. However, the exact cause of the widespread illnesses is still disputed.(source)

7 In 1994, Oakville, WA experienced a rainstorm in which gelatinous blobs fell onto a farm. The blobs were examined and found to contain human white blood cells, but they did not contain nuclei, which is something human white cells do have.

On August 7, 1994, during a rainstorm, blobs of a translucent gelatinous substance fell at the farmhouse of Sunny Barclift in Oakville, WA. Each blob was about half the size of a grain of rice. Shortly afterward, Barclift’s mother Dotty Hearn suffered from dizziness and nausea and was rushed to the hospital. Barclift and one of his friend too began suffering from bouts of fatigue and nausea after handling the blobs. Even Barclift’s kitten died after contact with the blobs. Later it was reported that the maladies of Barclift’s mother may have been due to an inner ear condition and not due to the blobs.

In order to identify the blobs, Barclift contacted his mother’s doctor, Dr. David Litle. Dr. Litle ran some tests at the hospital and reported that the blobs contained human white blood cells. When the blobs were examined by Washington State Department of Ecology’s hazardous materials spill response unit, they found that the blobs contained cells that lacked nuclei. But human white blood cells contain nuclei, so they were not a byproduct of a human body. Many theories have been presented to explain the appearance of the blobs, but none of them have proved to be correct.(source)

8 Since August 20, 2007, about 20 detached human feet have been discovered on the coasts of the Salish Sea. Surprisingly, no other body parts have turned up.

On August 20, 2007, a girl from Washington was visiting Jedediah Island in British Columbia, Canada. She found a size 12 Adidas shoe along the shore and picked it up. After opening the sock she found a man’s right foot in it. Upon examination, it was revealed that the kind of white-and-blue-mesh running shoe was produced in 2003 and distributed mainly in India. The foot was identified as those of a missing man suffering from depression.

Since then, a number of detached human feet have been discovered on the coasts of the Salish Sea in British Columbia, Canada, and Washington, USA. As of February 2012, only five feet of four people have been identified. The series of discoveries has been called “almost beyond explanation,” as no other body parts washed ashore along the coast.(source)

9 In 1977, SETI researchers detected an unusual radio signal lasting 72 seconds that came from a vacant area in constellation Sagittarius. Astronomers have looked for the same signal but it was never detected again.

In 1973, Ohio State University assigned the now-defunct “Big Ear” telescope to the scientific search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI). On August 15, 1977, the telescope received a strong narrowband radio signal which lasted for the full 72-second window. The signal appeared to come from the constellation Sagittarius.

The anomaly in the signal was detected a few days later by astronomer Jerry R. Ehman while he was reviewing the recorded data. Ehman spotted a series of values of signal intensity and frequency that left him and his colleagues astonished. He was so impressed by the result that he circled the alphanumeric sequence, “6EQUJ5,” on the computer printout and wrote the comment: “Wow!” on its side, leading to the event’s widely used name.

Despite several subsequent attempts by Ehman and others, the signal has not been detected since 1977. Many hypotheses have been presented as to the origin of the signal, including natural and man-made sources, although none of them adequately explains the result. So, it is still believed that the “Wow!” signal may have been an alien radio transmission.(source)

10 In 1917 near Fátima, Portugal, a crowd of people gathered and watched the skies as a multicolored Sun appeared to”dance” without being blinded from their eyes’ direct focus on it.

In the spring of 1917, three Catholic shepherd children living near Fatima, Portugal, reported apparitions of an Angel and a prophecy. According to the prophecy, prayer would lead to an end to the Great War, and on October 13th of that year, the Lady (Angel) would reveal her identity and perform a miracle “so that all may believe.” The news of the prophecy quickly spread and many pilgrims started visiting the area.

On 13 October 1917, a large crowd had gathered near Fátima, Portugal. According to many witnesses, after a period of rain, the dark clouds broke and the sun appeared as an opaque, spinning, disc in the sky. It was said to be significantly duller than normal and was casting multicolored lights across the landscape, the people, and the surrounding clouds. The sun was then reported to have careened towards the earth before zig-zagging back to its normal position. Not all witnesses reported seeing the sun “dance.” Some people only saw the radiant colors, and others, including some believers, saw nothing at all. The only known picture of the sun taken during the event doesn’t show anything unusual.

The claim of the “Miracle of the Sun” has received many criticisms from theologians, scientists, and skeptics. Some believe that it is a product of psychological factors such as the power of suggestion. While according to others, it may have been a combination of optical effects and some meteorological phenomena. The reality of the event is still a mystery.(source)