- yesterday
History's greatest mysteries continue to baffle us today. Join us as we explore enigmatic events that shaped our world forever! From ancient civilizations that vanished without explanation to unsolved murders that captivated generations, these puzzling occurrences left lasting impacts on humanity. Which historical mystery would you most like to see solved?
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00The WOW signal, as it's now called, is considered to be one of the best potential
00:04radio communications from an alien life form.
00:07Welcome to WatchMojo, where we'll be discussing major historical events that we still struggle
00:13to fully understand.
00:15I do not think that the Late Bronze Age collapse would have occurred if it were not for the
00:23Sea Peoples being in the mix.
00:27Number 10. Who was Jack the Ripper?
00:30Jack the Ripper might just be history's most famous killer.
00:33Traditionally, the story says he murdered five women in Whitechapel between 1888 and 1891.
00:39He strikes on the spur of the moment.
00:42There are some elements which involve planning, like avoiding the blood spatter.
00:48They've since fascinated the globe with their mystery.
00:50It was arguably the first true crime legend, leading to over a century of investigation.
00:56Some historians, such as Hallie Rubenhold, have recently started to focus on his victims
01:01rather than the killer.
01:02Surprisingly, his victims have barely been studied.
01:05Instead, everyone focuses on the killer, which some argue is dehumanizing, turning the murders
01:10into a form of entertainment.
01:11Five sordid East End murders became an international phenomenon, and the unknown miscreant responsible
01:17for those murders was elevated to the realm of legend.
01:20After decades of search, it's unlikely we'll ever find his identity, but people will always
01:25be interested in trying regardless.
01:27How much truth is there in the stories?
01:33The definitive mythological legendary king is easily Arthur, King of the Britons.
01:38According to legend, in the 5th and 6th centuries, he led the post-Roman Britons in a war against
01:43the invading Anglo-Saxons.
01:45As time went on, his name became increasingly legendary, to the point where no one knows if
01:50he existed.
01:51For the whole of the period 400-600, in the British Isles, we have two or three people
01:59whose writing we have fragments of.
02:01All the sources we have of him come from centuries later, with most of the myths originating in
02:06the High Middle Ages.
02:07This has majorly obscured fact from fiction, to the point where there's no consensus whether
02:12he existed or not.
02:14There's a handful of figures who could have been him, but we'll never truly know.
02:18Over the centuries, the stories of King Arthur's Britain have filled the gap in our Dark Ages
02:24history, but no physical evidence for him has ever been found.
02:29Number eight, who killed JFK?
02:31As we said, the top is down.
02:33They are not using the public, so it'll be an open limousine parade.
02:37In 1963, U.S. President John F. Kennedy was shot dead in Dallas, Texas.
02:42President Kennedy and Governor John Connolly have been cut down by assassins' bullets in
02:46downtown Dallas.
02:47Shortly after, Lee Harvey Oswald shot a policeman, J.D. Tippett, which got him arrested and made
02:53him a primary suspect for the assassination.
02:55You killed the president?
02:57No, I've not been charged with that.
02:58In fact, nobody has said that to me yet.
03:00Two days later, Oswald suffered the same fate as Kennedy, getting shot on live television
03:05by Jack Ruby.
03:07This spurred tons of conspiracy theories about whether Oswald was responsible.
03:11No investigations have found a likely culprit, with conspiracy theories pointing the finger
03:16at a whole bunch of people.
03:18These include the CIA, the Mafia, the KGB, and even Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson.
03:24Number seven, disappearance of Amelia Earhart.
03:27She was one of the most famous people in the world.
03:30People hung on her every word and followed her activities.
03:33In 1937, Earhart embarked on a journey of epic proportions, trying to become the first woman
03:39to fly around the world.
03:41Unfortunately, she wasn't successful.
03:43Earhart and her navigator, Fred Noonan, went missing in the Pacific Ocean near Howland Island.
03:48They know from the signal strength that she is coming, but they can't see her, and she
03:54can't find the island.
03:58It was a headline story for quite a while, and then gradually it died down.
04:03It's commonly believed that they ran out of fuel, causing her to crash into the sea.
04:08Because her aircraft was never recovered, there have been huge conspiracy theories about
04:12where she went.
04:13Some are fairly reasonable, hypothesizing that they accidentally drifted south.
04:17Others say Imperial Japan captured her, or instead, crabs ate her.
04:22The most controversial was that she succeeded, but changed her identity afterwards.
04:28Number six, the Kurukshetra War.
04:30One of the most important works in Indian literature is the Mahabharata.
04:35It was compiled in the 3rd to 4th centuries BC, telling the tale of the Kurukshetra War.
04:41It was an epic war of succession in a poem that's 1.8 million words long,
04:46making it the longest poem in history.
04:48As a whole, the Mahabharata is about 10 times the length of Homer's Iliad and Odyssey put together.
04:55Thousands of years later, and we're still uncertain if it's based on a real war or not.
04:59The text treats it like it were a real conflict, confusing historians immensely.
05:04Some think it was an exaggerated war inspired by a singular battle.
05:08Others think it's a complete myth, making it one of the earliest historical epics.
05:13Much like the Trojan War from the Iliad, the Kurukshetra War may have actually been a historical event.
05:19But through time, it has been embellished to the current form, which is now considered a legendary narrative.
05:24Number five, the Mayan Collapse.
05:26One of the greatest civilizations the world has ever seen still holds mysteries for archaeologists.
05:33Civilizations often mysteriously collapse in history.
05:36One of the most interesting is the classic Maya Collapse.
05:39The ancient Mesoamerican civilization blossomed for centuries, first rising in 2000 BC, and finally ending due to Spanish conquests in 1697.
05:50At its peak in 500 CE, great stone cities covered the Yucatan Peninsula.
05:56In the 9th century AD, there was a huge collapse, resulting in abandoned cities and huge civil wars.
06:03Like all historical events, it was probably due to a complex string of events with no singular cause.
06:09Unfortunately, we barely understand those surrounding events.
06:13Within 50 to 100 years, entire cities became abandoned, a phenomenon historians are still scratching their heads about.
06:20The Maya people themselves aren't gone.
06:23Their descendants live on in the Yucatan, even today.
06:27But it's thought that at the height of the collapse, the ancient Maya abandoned their cities and dispersed into the rainforest,
06:36reorganizing into smaller, self-sufficient villages.
06:40Number four, the Wow Signal.
06:42The Wow Signal, as it's now called, is considered to be one of the best potential radio communications from an alien life form.
06:50The search for aliens is one of the most inspiring fields of physics.
06:54For centuries, humans have looked up at the stars and wondered if we're alone.
06:58One indication that we might not be was the Wow Signal.
07:01In 1977, Ohio State University detected an anomalous signal coming from Sagittarius.
07:08It lasted 72 seconds, impressing astronomer Jerry R. Eman, who wrote Wow on the printout.
07:15Science still hasn't found a natural explanation, leaving people to wonder if the signal was sent by aliens.
07:21The Roswell Incident is the more legendary alien incident in pop culture,
07:26yet it's taken far less seriously by science than the Wow Signal.
07:30That doesn't mean it wasn't E.T. necessarily.
07:33It could be that they just sent us one signal and then went away.
07:35Number three, Alexander the Great's Death.
07:38Alexander was a man who had a mission, and he knew that mission entailed risk.
07:43One of history's first ever conqueror generals was Alexander the Great, king of Macedon from 336 to 323 B.C.
07:51At the peak of his career, his empire stretched from Macedonia to India.
07:55Along the way, he founded a plethora of cities, most named Alexandria.
08:01When he was 32 years old, Alexander died under mysterious circumstances.
08:06It was largely unexpected, causing his empire to shatter and collapse.
08:10The leading theory is that he was poisoned by his enemies, which was fairly common among Macedonian nobility.
08:15Additionally, we don't have any clue where his tomb is.
08:25We know he was buried in Memphis, then moves to Alexandria, but no one can find the exact site.
08:32Number two, the Bronze Age Collapse.
08:35From North Africa to Mesopotamia to the Mediterranean, civilization flourished.
08:42In the 12th century B.C., society at the time experienced an almost apocalyptic collapse.
08:48Most nations at the time, such as Mycenaean Greece and the Hittite Empire, collapsed.
08:53Why this happened is a complicated question, with no agreed-upon answer.
08:57Climate change was likely a huge factor, alongside huge migratory invasions from factions like the Sea Peoples.
09:03The latter's influence is still up for debate, with some historians arguing their role is exaggerated.
09:08Evidence comes from the fact that all sources on the Sea Peoples are Egyptian, implying bias.
09:14I do not think that the Late Bronze Age Collapse would have occurred if it were not for the Sea Peoples being in the mix.
09:24Recent studies show a pandemic could have played a role, akin to the plague epidemics of the Middle Ages.
09:30It's uncertain if we'll ever truly know, given how long ago it was.
09:34Before we continue, be sure to subscribe to our channel and ring the bell to get notified about our latest videos.
09:40You have the option to be notified for occasional videos, or all of them.
09:44If you're on your phone, make sure you go into settings and switch on your notifications.
09:50Number one, the life of Jesus.
09:52During all this time, there is but one story in the Gospels.
09:57It describes Jesus as a precocious 12-year-old, discussing the Hebrew Bible with rabbis in Jerusalem.
10:04The Bible is one of the most influential books in history, with the New Testament including a variety of stories about the life of Jesus.
10:12A lot of people accept them as truth, but from a historical perspective, their reliability is questionable.
10:17All documents were written decades after his death, by people scholars believe never knew Jesus.
10:24This has led the historical Jesus to be shrouded in mystery.
10:28There are said to be records originally written in India, in the ancient Pali language,
10:33and later translated into Tibetan dealing with the life of an extraordinary saint, known to the Buddhists as Isa.
10:41The life story of Saint Isa closely resembles the life of Jesus Christ.
10:46For example, we don't even know when exactly he was born.
10:50Ultimately, we'll probably never unveil the truth.
10:53Jesus only became a major figure after his death, meaning we're unlikely to ever discover a contemporary source.
11:00Which historical mystery would you like to see finally solved?
11:03Let us know in the comments below.
11:05The Maya's great temples, their palaces, their cities, were left for the rainforest.
11:15Let us know in the comments below.
11:16Let us know in the comments below.
11:17Let us know in the comments below.
11:18Let us know in the comments below.
11:19Let us know in the comments below.
11:20Let us know in the comments below.
11:21Let us know in the comments below.
11:22Let us know in the comments below.
11:23Let us know in the comments below.
11:24Let us know in the comments below.
11:25Let us know in the comments below.
11:26Let us know in the comments below.
11:27Let us know in the comments below.
11:28Let us know in the comments below.
11:29Let us know in the comments below.
11:30Let us know in the comments below.
11:31Let us know in the comments below.
11:32Let us know in the comments below.
11:33Let us know in the comments below.
11:34Let us know in the comments below.
11:35Let us know in the comments below.
11:36Let us know in the comments below.
Recommended
10:41
|
Up next
1:59:36
27:41
20:22
1:15:24
32:32
14:04
1:03:17
11:08
11:58
13:00
44:19