Unforeseen Events: 17 Times Things Took a Surprising Turn

1Henry Tandey

Henry Tandey

During World War 1, a British soldier named Henry Tandey showed mercy to a wounded German infantryman, who later turned out to be Adolf Hitler.


2John Leonard Orr

John Leonard Orr

Los Angeles was hit with a devastating and deadly series of intentionally set fires in the 1980s and 90s. They finally arrested the arsonist named John Leonard Orr, who turned out to be The Arson Inspector (also Fire Captain), who was charged with investigating the fires.


3Grated parmesan cheese

Grated parmesan cheese

In 1969, an Italian man was charged with selling a product described as "grated Parmesan cheese". It later turned out to be grated umbrella handles.


4Prawo Jazdy

Prawo Jazdy

In 2009, Irish Police went on the search for 'Prawo Jazdy', a serial driving offender wanted for 50 offenses for driving infractions. He not only gave police a different address each time, he also gave them a different alias. It turned out 'Prawo Jazdy' was Polish for 'driving license' and officers had taken this down during traffic stops instead of actual names.


5Lake Disappointment

Lake Disappointment

There is a lake in Australia named lake disappointment. It is named such because explorer Frank Hann followed several freshwater rivers in the area and expected to find a large freshwater lake, but instead, it turned out to be a salt lake.


6Donald Rusk Currey

Donald Rusk Currey

In 1964, a student researcher named Donald Rusk Currey cut down a tree for a research project. Unbeknownst to the student, the tree turned out to be the oldest living independent organism on the face of the earth at that time, a 5,000-year-old bristlecone tree.


71983 West Bank fainting epidemic

1983 West Bank fainting epidemic

In 1983, dozens of women and teenage girls started fainting in Palestine, creating a health crisis and accusations from both Israel and the Arab League of a chemical weapon attack. Turned out it was all a product of mass hysteria.


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8Grim Reaper

Grim Reaper

In 1961, 3 residents of an old people’s home in England died of heart attacks when they saw the grim reaper at their window, who turned out to be another resident of the home in a disguise.


9Ronald Reagan

Ronald Reagan

In 1981, President Ronald Reagan accused Russia of using chemical weapons against rural farmers in Laos after yellow droplets fell from the sky and splattered the landscape, followed by dying plants, animals, stomach problems in humans. The USA started ramping up production of chemical weapons in retaliation. All this happened because of false lab results. The yellow droplets turned out to be naturally occurring bee excrement falling from the sky.


10Fake moon rock

Fake moon rock

The supposed moon rock from the Apollo mission that was given to the former prime minister of the Netherlands in 1969, it turned out to be just petrified wood.

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