26Unknown Woman of Seine
The ‘Woman of Seine’ was an unknown woman whose body was pulled out of the Seine River in Paris in the 1880s. A post-mortem pathologist at the morgue was so taken by her beauty that he made a plaster cast death mask of her face. She was estimated to be 16 years old and she quickly became famous for her smile. It was compared to Mona Lisa and girls all over the world, most notably in France and Germany, copied her look. Her death mask is now used as the face of the CPR mannequin and it is the most kissed face on earth. The true details surrounding her death have been debated for years and her identity still remains unclear.
27. The Arizona Gazette published a front-page article on April 5, 1909, that ran several pages entitled “Explorations in Grand Canyon: Remarkable finds indicate ancient people migrated from Orient.” The article mentioned that an expedition financed by the Smithsonian Institute discovered tablets bearing hieroglyphics, copper weapons, and tools, statues of Egyptian deities, and mummies. Smithsonian denied all knowledge of the discovery, and several expeditions searching for the cavern have come up empty. Was it just a hoax? Supporters claim that the restricted areas in the Canyon are evidence of the cover-up.
28. In a remote village in Georgia in Russia, a 6.5 feet tall wild woman was caught from the mountains in the 1850s. She had red hair all over her body and was very muscular. She was named ‘Zana’ and she spent several years in a cage. Eventually, she was let out. She roamed the village but always came back. She was trained in simple chores and never wore clothes. Her strength was legendary, and she did not seem to be affected by the frigid winter air. She enjoyed grapes and also had a weakness for wines, often drinking so heavily she would sleep for hours. This is likely how she became the mother of many children to different fathers. Her first two children died when she tried to wash them in the freezing river. The villagers then started to take her children away from her and raised them as their own. She died in 1890. When her grandchildren were researched by a professor, one of her grandsons, had jaws so powerful he could lift a chair with a man sitting in it. Their DNA test shockingly showed that Zana’s ethnic background was ‘100% sub-Saharan African’.
29. Archaeologists in London were excavating the graveyard of St. Pancras Old Church in 2003, in preparation for the construction of a rail terminal. It was the site of mass graves holding the bodies of 44,000 people, who were victims of a number of epidemics during the 19th century. When scientists opened up one particular coffin, they found the remains of eight people and a sizeable beast, which turned out to be a walrus. No one knows how it got to London or why it was buried there.
30. In 2000, Pope John Paul II himself had to carry out an impromptu exorcism on a 19-year-old girl after she began “screaming insults in a cavernous voice” during an audience with Pope in the Vatican City. Pope and Father Gabriele Amorth (Vatican’s official exorcist) sat with the girl for half an hour and despite their best efforts, she remained possessed. She muttered “not even the head of the church can send me away” as the Pope walked off, defeated.
Latest FactRepublic Video:
15 Most Controversial & Costly Blunders in History
31The Unknown Man
In 2013, a man in Toronto was arrested for committing over $400,000 in fraud. He claimed to be ‘Herman Emmanuel Fankem’, a French national living in Montreal. When the Canadian authorities contacted the French, it was found his passport was fake and they had no record of him. Further investigations uncovered other instances of him appearing in nearly 11 countries over the years under several more aliases. Being completely uncooperative, he refuses to answer any questions about his identity or past. Unable to identify him, the Canadian government can’t deport him, leaving him in limbo in a max security prison. He was scheduled to testify publicly in 2019 before the Immigration and Refugee Board, but at the last minute, the hearing was made private with no media or public allowed. Under Canadian law, any of these hearings are to take place in public unless under extraordinary circumstances. Still to this day, he refuses to reveal his true identity.
32. In 1876, a controversial archaeologist and conman named Heinrich Schliemann wanted to uncover the true location of the legendary city of Troy and began the excavation of Mycenae, an archaeological site in Greece. Here he believed he would uncover the graves of the great Mycenaean kings. He found six graves containing 19 bodies all of whom were surrounded by treasures: medallions, goblets, ivory-pommeled swords, rings, and the so-called “Cup of Nester.” In the 5th grave, he found a golden mask, which he instantly claimed was the mask of the legendary king Agamemnon. His findings were quickly dismissed as fake and forgery. Modern research though revealed the mask to be authentic and predating Trojan War by 300-400 years and some estimates put it at approximately 2500 B.C. So, for whom was this incredible mask made?
33. The original vampire legends originated from a dead man named Arnold Paole in Serbia, way before Vlad the Impaler became the archetype for vampires. In 1726, Arnold Paole died in the village of Meduegna in Serbia. After his death when people started seeing his undead body, officials called for the help of two Austrian military doctors, Glaser and Flückinger. The investigation and report produced by them confirmed the existence of vampires. The report said that Arnold’s dead body was responsible for the deaths of four people. When his corpse was dug up it was “quite complete and undecayed, with fresh blood from his eyes, nose, mouth, and ears.” They staked his heart and burned his body. Five years later, the deaths of 17 people were attributed to Paole and vampirism.
34. Jacqueline Priestman is a British woman from Manchester who became notable for the way electronics behaved around her. Her ordeal started in 1980 after her husband died following an argument they had. She cursed him saying “I hope you break your neck!” That's exactly how he died. Sometime later light bulbs in her house started exploding when she was around. Her vacuum cleaner kept burning out. Other electrical appliances went haywire around her and some appliance stores even banned her. When a visiting professor examined her, he found her to suffer from an extreme build-up of static electricity (10 times the normal). He recommended a special diet and walking around the house holding onions to discharge electricity. Her symptoms slowly diminished, however when her daughter was born in 1985, she too started exhibiting symptoms of High Voltage Syndrome. The exact reason behind her strange symptoms still remains unsolved.
35. Sumer was an ancient civilization founded in the Mesopotamia region of the Fertile Crescent situated between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. A Sumerian priest named Berossus recorded how an amphibian, named Oannes, emerged from the Persian Gulf and taught the Sumerians numbers, medicine, astronomy, politics, ethics and law, encompassing all the necessities for civilized existence. He said that before his intervention, the Sumerians ‘lived like beasts in the field, with no order or rule.’
