Festivals—a hectic schedule of your favorite bands playing live, a pilgrimage into the great outdoors, a chance to meet like-minded new friends, and a lifetime of memories. At least, that’s what promoters would have you believe. So what happens when these expectations are not a reality and the event is plunged into chaos?

SEE ALSO: 10 Frozen Timepieces That Marked Death And Disaster

These following disasters have left furious ticket holders demanding their money back and event organizers red-faced. What was supposed to be the time of their lives became a weekend of hell.

10 Fyre Festival
2017

Anyone who has had access to the Internet in the past couple of years would have heard about the disaster that was Fyre Festival. Located in the Bahamas, it was billed as the most luxurious festival in the world and promoted by the most elite models around the globe.

After paying between $1,200 and $100,000 each, ticket holders were promised flights from Miami, luxury accommodation on yachts, kayaking on the crystal clear waters, and performances from Major Lazer and Blink-182.

When attendees landed on the island, they soon found all they were promised was not coming to them. The accommodations were recycled refugee tents, the food was prepackaged sandwiches instead of gourmet meals, and no medical or event staff was on hand. There was also no cell phone or Internet service and no running water. The festival became the subject of a Netflix documentary, Fyre: The Greatest Party That Never Happened.

Organizer Billy McFarland, then 26, pleaded guilty to fraud and was sentenced to six years behind bars.^[1]

9 Woodstock
1999

To see headliners like Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, The Grateful Dead, and Joe Cocker, half a million people attended the Woodstock festival in 1969. Fast-forward 30 years, and it was a completely different scene as organizers tried to emulate the hippie era. Woodstock ’99, which took place in Rome, New York, was attended by 220,000 people and went wrong from the very beginning.

Organizers had failed to advise attendees to bring enough water, and the dehydrated crowds were met with a $4 charge for a single bottle. The Baltimore Sun reported, “More than 700 had been treated for heat exhaustion and dehydration.”

Crowd control was also a serious issue. Volunteer security was recruited from New York City. But as things became hostile, they ditched their posts and left the police dangerously outnumbered.

Then there was the problem with overcrowding as many were using fake passes to get through the gates. The Syracuse Post-Standard reported, “Security guards said they were confiscating fake passes at the rate of 50 an hour at just one gate.” Far from “peace, love, and happiness,” that was the final Woodstock event.^[2]

8 TomorrowWorld
2015

In 2015, international music festival TomorrowWorld in Chattahoochee Hills, Georgia, devolved into near-riots. Heavy rain turned the fields into a sinking mud pit, and organizers decided to limit transport services back to the surrounding areas which left thousands stranded.

Festivalgoers had two choices: either hike for about 8 kilometers (5 mi) or pay for an Uber that charged a surge price of five times the normal rate. Instead, many decided to sleep on the side of the road. They were not supplied with any food or water.

One attendee told Vice News that he managed to leave the event by sneaking onto a shuttle bus for event staff. He recalled, “By the time we flagged down that bus, we were up to over $100 pooled together to try to buy our way out. The rich and the lucky rode, the poor walked, and the poor and tired stopped wherever they could find open ground.”^[3]

The Belgium-founded festival will always be remembered for this post-apocalyptic atmosphere.

7 Bloc Festival
2012

To call Bloc Festival in 2012 “chaotic” might be an understatement. One of the largest electronic dance music festivals in the UK was shut down due to serious safety fears with overcrowding.

Police were sent to help safely evacuate the attendees at the Royal Victoria Docks venue. Many people still stood in the same queue they had been in for hours as they waited to get in. Disgruntled ticket holders had paid upward of $100 each to watch acts like Snoop Dogg and Orbital perform.

Bloc then began trending on Twitter for all the wrong reasons. People posted photos of attendees stuck behind crowd control barriers and held back by a huge police presence.

One tweet read, “Bloc is um a disaster right now. We’re in the middle of a car crash.” Another tweeted, “Scary, and very nearly led to injuries; all we were told was ‘move back’—where to exactly?”^[4]

After 2016, the founders shut down the annual festival and focused on building their own “super club” instead.

6 Glastonbury
1990 And 2005

It’s a wonder that organizers would allow the Glastonbury festival to descend into chaos after two decades of hosting it. But that’s exactly what happened in 1990. That year, the crowds should have remembered the event for headliners Sinead O’Connor and The Cure, but the risk of “near-asphyxiation” made the headlines instead.^[5]

More than 75,000 people were in attendance at the famous Pyramid Stage, causing a huge crush in the crowd. Bands even had to stop their sets as helicopters landed nearby to tend to the injured.

In 2005, people were at risk again. This time, it was due to 1.2 meters (4 ft) of water flooding the camping sites and performance area. Even the Acoustic Stage wasn’t safe as it was struck by lightning.

The flooding disaster led organizers to eventually fork out millions on a new drainage system before they returned two years later. Despite these bad experiences, Glastonbury is still considered one of the greatest music festivals in the world.

5 Isle Of Wight
2012

In 2011, the Isle of Wight festival promised an epic lineup featuring Tom Petty, Pearl Jam, Bruce Springsteen, Biffy Clyro, and more. Then came the heavy rain, which forced 600 people to sleep in their cars overnight as boats transporting them to the island could not dock due to the severe weather. Others were left gridlocked in traffic for more than 15 hours. Police even opened a local football club for people to take shelter through the night.

The following day, organizers told attendees that they should ditch their cars if they wanted a chance to make it to the festival. Speaking of the experience, one festivalgoer told Sky News, “We’ve gone through some highs and some lows, it’s been 14 hours, and we’re sleep-deprived. Fortunately, we’ve took a lot of food with us, but there were people there that had no food.”^[6]

She added, “There were people with kids, people with dogs, so we tried to remain in high spirits, but it’s been a long slog.”

4 Bestival
2008

Turning up to a festival, you can always expect some mud. But no one at Bestival in 2008 could have predicted how severe the conditions would become. The weather was so bad that year as thunder, lightning, rain, and gale-force winds ripped through the camping grounds.

Many had their tents submerged in the mud. The less fortunate had their camps completely blown away with their belongings. Even the main stages for the performances began to sink into the ground.

Despite the ongoing battle with a furious Mother Nature, Bestival attendees were looking forward to seeing headliner Amy Winehouse perform. That didn’t quite go as planned, either.

Arriving onstage 40 minutes late, Winehouse—who was battling drug and alcohol addiction at the time—staggered around the stage, swilled her drink, and cut the set short by performing for only 30 minutes. The soul singer was met with boos from the crowd.^[7]

Sadly in 2011, she died at age 27 due to alcohol poisoning.

3 Electric Daisy Carnival
2010

During the 1990s, Electric Daisy Carnival (EDC) attracted many festivalgoers thanks to the rise in popular electronic dance music. The event began as a warehouse party held in Austin, San Bernardino, New York City, Los Angeles, and Puerto Rico.

Attendees depended on handouts, which would announce the exact location of the raves until it blew up into something much bigger. Word had leaked out that EDC was the hottest party in town. Unfortunately, that also attracted a lot of minors.

In 2010, the event at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum was overwhelmed by the number of attendees under 18 years old. Heavy drugs were in use among the minors, and tragically, a 15-year-old girl died during the event.

Los Angeles forced EDC out of the area. The organizers stated, “Without an executed contract in place at this time, it has become impossible to guarantee to all of the fans and talent that EDC can be produced at this venue this year.” The event eventually found a new home in Las Vegas, and they hit a record attendance of 700,000 people in 2014.^[8]

2 Sled Island
2013

Sled Island festival in Calgary, Canada, has recovered well from its disastrous attempt in 2013. Acts including The Jesus and Mary Chain, Explosions in the Sky, Divine Fits, and Mac DeMarco were scheduled to appear alongside more than 250 other bands over the four-day weekend in June. That was until severe weather shut down the entire event.

On the second day of the festival, director Maud Salvi received mandatory evacuation orders due to rising floodwaters. The permits for the festival had been revoked, and the event organizers posted on their website: “In light of the current emergency situation, and in line with our commitment to the safety of festivalgoers, all remaining Sled Island festival events are canceled.”

Sled Island festival lost a fortune due to the cancellation. Ticket holders were offered refunds, which amounted to around $200,000. The festival came back the following year, proving that previous severe flooding wasn’t going to dampen their mood.^[9]

1 Powder Ridge Rock Festival
1970

Powder Ridge Rock Festival has become known as “the greatest rock concert that never happened.” Following the success of Woodstock, promoters were hoping to be the next big rock festival that people would flock to in the thousands. In 1970, more than 50,000 people were expected to arrive at Powder Ridge Rock Festival in Middlefield, Connecticut, to see rock royalty Fleetwood Mac and Janis Joplin.

Then, just one month before, the town of Middlefield rejected the application for the festival as local residents took legal action. In a time before the Internet, word did not get back to all attendees that the festival was canceled and 30,000 individuals showed up anyway.^[10]

There was no food, no music, and no water supply. But there were a lot of drug dealers. Doctors volunteered their services to help with the “drug crisis” that took place over the next few days as heavy hallucinogens were being used. By the end of the weekend and many bad drug trips later, the attendees eventually left Powder Ridge.

Cheish Merryweather is the founder of Crime Viral. A true crime and oddities fanatic. Twitter: @thecheish.

As human beings, we love to feel superior and that we are one of the good guys. Throw in a dose of helplessness at the state of the world today, add social media into the mix – and you have a recipe for disaster.

SEE ALSO: 10 Decisions With Bizarrely Unexpected Consequences

Virtue signalling is a term that has evolved to describe empty gestures with no real commitment—think throwaway comments designed to generate “likes” and to appear virtuous.

Celebrities have been called out for hypocrisy when their moral posturing has turned out to be of little substance. Members of the public have also tripped up when trying to change the world. Perhaps the point to remember is – it’s OK to care, just do your research.

10 Rough Justice

In January 2019, the Spice Girls were back in the news when their eagerly awaited comeback tour was sold out in minutes. They announced they were to join forces with the charity Comic Relief to front a campaign called “Gender Justice”. The group designed an exclusive T-shirt bearing the words “IWannaBeASpiceGirl” with “Gender Justice” emblazoned across the back. The T-shirt went on sale for £19.40, (approx. US $25) with £11.40 (approx. US $14.65) being donated to the charity Comic Relief. In turn, the charity promised to use the funds to help “champion equality for women”.

The Guardian newspaper decided to trace the origins of the T-shirt and uncovered a story distinctly lacking in equality and justice.

They discovered that the garment had been produced in a factory in Bangladesh. There, the mostly female workforce toiled for up to 16 hours a day in stifling heat and inhuman conditions. They earned less than the local living wage. Workers told the reporters how they suffered daily abuse and threats if they failed to meet production quotas, even being called “daughters of prostitutes” by the managers. Many suffered neck and back injuries after spending hours bent over sewing machines.

A spokesperson for the Spice Girls said it was “heart-breaking to hear about the treatment that these women receive.” They had believed that the online retailer who sold the clothing was ethical. The group offered a full refund to anyone who had bought the tainted T-shirt.^[1]

9 Out of Order

In April 2018, two black men arrived at a Starbucks in Philadelphia to wait for a friend. Trouble brewed when one asked to use the restroom and a worker refused, saying that they were for paying customers only. After an argument, the manager called police and the men were handcuffed and arrested for “trespass”. They were later released without charge. A video of the incident was posted online, and crowds of people began to protest outside the store. Stuck in a PR nightmare, Starbucks announced that they were to close all 8000 stores for half a day to hold staff training classes on racial bias.

Chairman Howard Schultz then declared that its toilets would be open to all – no purchase necessary. The toilets became very popular and staff soon reported finding alcohol, drugs, dirty needles, blood and condoms in the cubicles. Some had to take anti-viral drugs after handling used needles.

Although the policy still stands, customers are finding many stores’ toilets are locked, barred or “Under Maintenance” as baristas take back control.^[2]

8They Suck

In an attempt to become eco-friendlier, McDonald’s announced that they were to phase out single use plastic straws in all its UK restaurants. By 2019, they had introduced new sustainably sourced paper straws and 1.8 million a day were issued. Customers soon began to complain that the straws dissolved in drinks. McDonald’s claimed that the new straws were designed to hold liquid for one hour. An online petition was launched to bring back the plastic straws and gained 50,000 signatures. Some enterprising customers tracked down the old plastic straws and began to sell them online. Others shared their trick of using a plastic cup lid as a scoop for their shakes.

It then emerged that the new paper straws were too thick to be recycled – and staff were being instructed to throw them out with the trash. The old plastic straws had been fully recyclable.^[3]

7 Turned Off

Stacey Dooley is a British TV presenter and a documentary maker. In 2019, she travelled to Africa to make a film for the charity “Comic Relief”. It was to be used as part of their TV fundraiser, an event where viewers pledge donations to the charity after seeing the work they do. Dooley was filmed at a village in Uganda meeting the locals and later shared a photo of herself hugging a young boy. British politician David Lammy shared his thoughts on Twitter stating:

“The world does not need any more white saviours.”

He wrote that the photo “perpetuates tired and unhelpful stereotypes.”

Stacey described his comments as “farcical”. The row opened up a media debate about race.

Comic Relief announced that they were to stop celebrity visits to third world countries when an aid charity described it as “poverty tourism”.

After the TV show aired, it raised £63m in donations. This was £8m less than the previous campaign in 2017, and the lowest amount of cash raised for more than a decade.^[4]

6 Painful Protest

A duck farm in Petaluma, CA caught the attention of an animal rights group called Direct Action Everywhere. They believed the animals were being kept in cruelty before being slaughtered. The group organized an early morning raid and demonstration to expose conditions on the Reichardt Duck Farm. Busloads of protestors pulled into the farm at 6am and set free hundreds of ducks. But this wasn’t far enough for some of the protestors.

Thomas Chiang and others broke into an area which housed the slaughter line – a metal conveyor belt where the ducks would dangle by the neck and be moved along to their death. Chiang decided to attach himself to the highly dangerous machine and even fixed a U-lock around his neck – just like one of the doomed ducks. A few minutes into his protest and unable to escape, the processing line unexpectedly began to move forward. An unknown person had pressed the start button. Chiang was dragged forwards by his neck and repeatedly smashed into a metal pole as the lock began to choke him. Chiang was minutes away from death and losing consciousness when the machine was suddenly turned off. He made a full recovery in hospital.

Reichardt Farm told the police that it was an accident, and the machine operator had no idea that there were people chained to the machine at the time.^[5]

5 Green Party

Every year, tech giant Google host a conference to discuss global issues. They invite experts, business leaders and A-listers to debate and share ideas in a private setting. In 2019, the 7th Annual Google Camp was held in Palermo, Sicily and the theme was climate change.

Google hired out the luxury Verdura Resort. Hotel staff were asked to sign non-disclosure agreements and all social media was banned. The tiny airport in Palermo was told to prepare for the arrival of 114 private jets carrying VIP guests from around the world.

Conference guests included Prince Harry, Leonardo di Caprio, Bradley Cooper and Katy Perry. Super yachts began to arrive, including producer David Geffen’s $400m vessel named Rising Sun.

Entertainment was courtesy of Coldplay, who performed with an extravagant light show at the Valley of Temples in Agrigento, an ancient Greek site which costs $100k to hire.

Guests were whisked around the island by Maserati and SUV. Prince Harry reportedly gave a heartfelt speech about global warming, pacing on stage barefoot.

Observers began to calculate the environmental cost of the climate change conference.

Each of the 114 first class flights from LA to Palermo generated 12.3 tonnes of CO2 per guest. If Prince Harry flew on a private jet from London, this would have used 1.3 tonnes of CO2. An environmental group called Trees For The Future estimate that 190 trees should be planted to off-set this journey alone.

The total cost of the 3-day jaunt is estimated at $20 million.^[6]

4 Hot Air

Extinction Rebellion is an international network which uses direct action to bring about ecological changes. The group get their message across by using civil disobedience, often causing major disruption to cities. One of their demands is that the UK government reduce carbon emissions to net zero by 2025, so London is often the place where many of their mass demonstrations take place.

In April 2019, they set up camp near Oxford Street in central London and brought traffic to a standstill for more than 11 days. The non-violent group spent their time dancing and practising yoga in the occupied streets until a guest speaker arrived. Oscar winning actress Emma Thompson climbed aboard a pink boat with “Tell the Truth” painted on the side and spoke to the crowds through a loudspeaker. Thompson later said she “absolutely wanted to be arrested on my 60th birthday.”

However, Thompson’s good deed was ridiculed when a photograph emerged, taken the day before. She was pictured at Heathrow airport—after flying in from LA to attend the protest.

It is estimated that a single 5,456-mile flight from LA to Heathrow can create a three-tonne carbon footprint.

As a Greenpeace supporter, Thompson had once helped to buy land near Heathrow in order to stop a third runway being built.

A spokesperson for Extinction Rebellion said:

“…it seems counter-productive in the short term, but we are looking at the bigger picture.”^[7]

3 Car Crash

In October 2019, Extinction Rebellion were again protesting in London. This time, they were occupying Trafalgar Square along with a hearse containing a coffin which read “Our future”.

Actor Benedict Cumberbatch was photographed as he visited the activists and spent around two hours sitting and talking with them.

However, after his meeting it emerged that he is the brand ambassador for MG cars in India and the face of MG India’s Hector SUV range. He stars in an Indian commercial for MG cars, where he is seen whizzing around in an MG GS with a 1.5 turbocharged petrol engine. The commercial was filmed in Trafalgar Square, the place that he had met with the protestors who hope to reduce carbon emissions.

Over one million people in India died from air pollution in 2017.^[8]

2 In Plane Sight

Passengers on a flight from Heathrow to Istanbul watched as a man in handcuffs was escorted onto the plane by four security guards. Soon, a crowd gathered around the prisoner who was shouting for help. People power sprang into action, as the passengers began to film the episode and attempted to question the man and his security team. The prisoner managed to call out that he was being taken away from his family and the outraged passengers staged a protest, chanting:

“Take him off the plane!”

Under pressure, the security guards reluctantly led the prisoner off the flight as the triumphant crowd cheered and clapped. The prisoner called out to thank the group as he was taken away.

What they didn’t know, was that the prisoner was a convicted rapist and his captors were employed by the Government to escort him back to Somalia, his country of birth. Yaqub Ahmed, 29, was jailed in 2007 and upon release the Home Office ordered his immediate deportation.

After the plane revolt, he was taken to an Immigration Centre and later released on bail. He has since been taken back into custody and will be deported, this time by a direct charter flight.^[9]

1 Do Not Disturb

North Sentinel is a tiny island in the Indian region of the Bay of Bengal. The islanders have lived in total isolation for 30,000 years and they are one of the last uncontacted tribes left in the world today. All trespassers are met with violence.

American John Allen Chau, aged 27, was a Christian missionary and adventurer who dreamed of traveling to the island. This is a trip deemed so dangerous that all travel to North Sentinel is illegal under Indian law.

An indigenous rights group, Survival International also believe that by contacting the tribe, outsiders risk passing on harmful pathogens and causing a deadly epidemic of flu. This could potentially wipe out the entire population of 50 to 100 people.

Undeterred, Chau paid local fishermen to take him to the island. They only agreed to take him at night and to stay at a safe distance. In 2006, the islanders had killed fishermen who had sailed too close, leaving their bodies on bamboo stakes.

Chau waited for morning then paddled a kayak to the island. He called out:

“My name is John, I love you and Jesus loves you.”

Chau sang worship songs as an arrow hit the Bible he was holding. He hastily left the beach.

The following day he travelled back to the island. The watching fishermen said they saw the tribe drag John’s lifeless body along the beach, before burying him in the sand.

Indian authorities confirmed they were not planning to retrieve his body. A local anthropologist said:

“We have decided not to disturb the Sentinelese”.^[10]

About The Author: I am a true crime enthusiast and lover of words. Always looking at the darker side of the news to make new lists with.

Most battles are only one of many that help to decide the fate of kingdoms and empires. On occasion, however, there is a battle so epic that its outcome can lead to the complete destruction of civilizations, a decline from which they never recover, or their handing over to a greater force. Here are ten ancient battles that ended empires, destroyed armies, and changed history.

10 The Battle Of Muye
1046 BC

The Battle of Muye was fought between the tribes of Zhou against the Shang Dynasty for control over China. The Zhou army consisted of 50,000 skilled soldiers, while the much stronger Shang forces exceeded 530,000, with an additional 170,000 armed slaves. The Shang slaves defected to the Zhou, which greatly demoralized the remaining soldiers, many of whom also defected. The ensuing battle was fierce, and the Shang forces were easily defeated by the better-trained Zhou.

When the battle was over, the Shang Dynasty was destroyed, and the Zhou Dynasty was established. King Di Xin of the Shang Dynasty immolated himself following the defeat, leaving China open for rule by the Zhou. The Zhou Dynasty holds the distinction of being the longest-reigning dynasty in Chinese history.

9 Sicilian Expedition
415–413 BC

As the Peloponnesian War was being fought in Greece, Athens sent an expedition to Syracuse, the most powerful state on the island of Sicily. The expedition began as a light force of 20 ships before being boosted into a naval armada of more than 200 ships with over 10,000 troops. By the time the armada reached Syracuse, the city was already supported by Sparta. The entire fleet and its troops were either killed or surrendered to the Sicilians, resulting in a massive blow to Athenian manpower and morale.

The defeat was so widespread that it became the turning point in the war. It is considered to be the most devastating single loss of any similar expedition in history, and Athens never fully recovered, ensuring Sparta’s victory by the end of the conflict in 404 BC.

8 The Battle Of Changping
262–260 BC

The Battle of Changping was one of the bloodiest battles of China’s Warring States Period. It was fought between the states of Qin and Zhao. The Qin army had a numeric advantage over the Zhao, with the Qin’s force totaling 550,000 men versus Zhao’s 450,000. Nearly all of the Zhao army was killed in the aftermath of the fighting. Approximately 50,000 Zhao were killed in the battle, and an estimated 400,000 were captured and buried alive.

Zhao was unable to recover from the defeat, which only bolstered Qin’s standing among the remaining states, which could not mount a large enough alliance to challenge the Qin. The Warring States period continued for three decades, but the continuous expansion of Qin made the issue of their dominance a certainty. By 221 BC, Qin had successfully unified China.

7 The Battle Of Julu
207 BC

The Battle of Julu was fought between the rebel forces of the insurgent state of Chu and the Qin Dynasty. The rebels amassed a force of between 50,000 to 60,000 men to fight against a Qin army of 200,000. The Chu were commanded by Xiang Yu, who sent his men across the Yellow River with only three days of supplies and no means of procuring more without successfully defeating and pillaging the enemy. What followed were nine bloody engagements that resulted in more than 100,000 Qin deaths.

The crippling defeat forced the Qin commander, General She Jian, to throw himself into a fire rather than surrender. The Chu destroyed the remaining Qin army, leaving 200,000 men as prisoners of war. Not wanting to test their loyalty or the limits of his resources, Xiang Yu had all of the captured Qin soldiers buried alive.

6 The Battle Of Zama
202 BC

The Battle of Zama marked the end of the Second Punic War and resulted in the defeat of Hannibal. Under the command of Scipio, the Romans devised a plan to defeat Hannibal’s war elephants.

Roman skirmishers blew their horns and beat their drums, frightening several of the elephants, which turned and rampaged against the Carthaginian troops. The remaining elephants ran harmlessly through the columns and were easily dispatched. The battle intensified as each line clashed until the Roman cavalry was able to encircle the Carthaginian infantry and win the battle.

Hannibal escaped, though his losses were severe: 20,000 dead and 20,000 more captured. The loss was so devastating to Carthage that they were never able to challenge Rome again.

5 The Battle Of Mobei
119 BC

The Battle of Mobei (or the Battle of the Northern Desert) was a hard-fought military campaign led by the Han Dynasty against the Xiongnu, a nomadic tribe. The Xiongnu were barbarians to the Han, who had maintained a contentious relationship over the years due to the security of their northern borders. Xiongnu strength had increased following the fall of Qin and the Chinese Civil War, but the Han launched an offensive to challenge their strength.

A force of 300,000 men and 140,000 horses attacked a much smaller Xiongu force of 100,000 soldiers and 80,000 horses. The victory was decisive for the Han, but they suffered the loss of most of their horses, which took a toll on their economy.

The Xiongnu suffered a much greater loss and were never able to recover from their defeat. Within a few years, the Xiongnu would be nothing more than a small group of clans.

4 The Siege Of Alesia
52 BC

By September 52 BC, the forces of Julius Caesar were facing a confederation of Gallic tribes commanded by Vercingetorix. In the final engagement between Rome and Gaul, Caesar conducted one of the most tactful sieges in history. With a force of 12 legions (approximately 60,000 men) and 120,000 Gaul allied-auxiliaries, Caesar besieged a Gallic force nearly four times the size of his.

The battle itself is considered to be one of Caesar’s greatest military achievements due to his use of a circumvallation around Alesia. He ordered the construction of numerous, heavily fortified forts to encircle and blockade the city so that he could “starve out” the Gallic forces. His investment paid off, as the Gauls failed to break the Roman defenses despite numerous attempts, further weakening themselves. By the end of the battle, Vercingetorix was surrendered to Caesar. The Siege of Alesia ended Gallic independence from Rome and won a substantial victory for Caesar.

3 The Battle Of Philippi
42 BC

Caesar’s conquest of Gaul created a political crisis in Rome, which lead to civil war. He was soon assassinated by members of the Roman Senate, which sparked a second civil war declared by the Second Triumvirate of Mark Antony and Octavian. The forces of Brutus and Cassius fought their final battle against the Triumvirate at Philippi in 42 BC.

The battle was split into two fronts, which saw Antony face Cassius and Octavian against Brutus. Antony made short work of Cassius and defeated much of his army. Cassius committed suicide on the false report that Brutus’ forces were likewise destroyed, even as those men were forcing their way into Octavian’s legions’ camps. Antony joined Octavian, and the two overwhelmed Brutus, who committed suicide in defeat.

With the last remnants of the old Republic destroyed, the Triumvirate took control of Rome, which soon became a new empire under Caesar Augustus (Octavian).

2 The Battle Of Teutoburg Forest
AD 9

If the Roman Republic and Empire were known for anything, it was their rapid and continuous expansion throughout Europe and Asia. It took mighty armies of unregulated barbarian tribes to put much of this expansion to a final halt in AD 9, after the Battle of Teutoburg Forest. The battle was the result of an ambush made by an alliance of Germanic tribes, who attacked and completely destroyed three Roman legions and their auxiliaries.

The blow was devastating to Roman morale, and despite several successful incursions in the following years, Rome never again attempted to defeat the Germanic tribes north of the Rhine. The Battle of Teutoburg Forest is remembered as one of the worst defeats in Roman history as well as a turning point in their military strategy of northward expansion.

1 The Battle Of Edessa
AD 260

Roman and Persian forces clashed in a devastating defeat for the Romans at the Battle of Edessa in AD 260. Under the command of Emperor Valerian, the Roman Army of 70,000 men attacked the Sassanid forces under the command of Shapur I, king of the kings. The entirety of the Roman army was defeated and captured, including Emperor Valerian—the first time such an event had occurred in Roman history.

Rome never fully recovered from their defeat at Edessa, which had long-lasting impacts on the political climate of the empire. The defeat was one in a long series of crises that afflicted Rome during the third century, which ultimately led to the creation of the Western Roman Empire in 285. Eventually, the Western Roman Empire fell, and Rome continued weakly into the fifth century after the Eastern Roman Empire (aka theByzantine Empire) rose to power in 330.

According to the National Missing and Unidentified Persons database (NamUS), more than 600,000 people go missing every year in the United States alone. While the vast majority of missing persons cases are resolved quickly, such is not always the case. Sadly, the families left behind are filled with heartbreak and uncertainty and forced to endure an emotional rollercoaster as they desperately await any news or updates. Unfortunately, that also does not does not necessarily mean that families will find their loved ones alive and well.

In the instance that a loved one is found deceased, the outcome still may not bring much closure, especially when circumstances seem to defy any sort of rational logic. In some cases, the tragic fate of those who have vanished seems to elude authorities.

This list tells the stories of ten tragic incidents of missing persons where the search for truth proved much stranger than fiction. From tales of weird statues, confined spaces, and sea creatures, the cases of these vanished souls led investigators to eerie, unbelievable, and heartbreaking discoveries. Here are ten tragic missing persons cases that ended in unlikely places.

Related: 10 Missing Persons Cases Solved by YouTube Divers

10 Decorative Dinosaur Statue

On May 22, 2021, an unnamed father and son noticed a smell coming from a paper mache Stegosaurus statue in Santa Coloma de Gramenet, a suburb of Barcelona, Spain. When the father looked through a crack in the dinosaur’s leg, he saw a body and contacted authorities.

Three fire brigade teams were called to the scene to help cut into the statue and remove the body. It is believed that the 39-year-old man—who was not identified—was trying to retrieve a cell phone, which he dropped inside the statue. He entered the statue head first but became trapped in the statue’s leg, unable to get out.

The man was a Spanish national whose family hadn’t heard from him for several days. Sadly, he had been reported missing just a few hours before his body was discovered. The decorative statue, used to advertise an old cinema, has since been removed from outside the city’s Cubic Building.^[1]

9 Behind Cooler in Closed Supermarket

On November 28, 2009, 25-year-old Larry Ely Murillo-Moncada became upset and ran out of his Council Bluffs, Iowa, home during a snowstorm. Despite the cold weather, Murillo-Moncada left wearing only blue jeans and a blue long-sleeved shirt, but no shoes, socks, or coat. The man’s mother, Ana Moncada, and a friend went searching for Murillo-Moncada but found no sign of him. Ana reported her son missing on November 29, 2009.

Before his disappearance, on November 27, 2009, Murillo-Moncada had returned home from work at the No Frills Supermarket and seemed disoriented, so Ana took him to see a doctor. Murillo-Moncada was prescribed an antidepressant for anxiety, but his parents believed the medication he was taking caused his irrational behavior. She said, “He was hearing voices that said ‘eat sugar.’ He felt his heart was beating too hard and thought if he ate sugar, his heart would not beat so hard.”

Sadly, it would be nearly ten years before Murillo-Moncada would be found.

On January 24, 2019, a contracting firm was removing shelving and coolers from the No Frills Supermarket, which had closed in 2016, when they discovered a body behind a cooler. They then contacted the police. The clothing on the body matched what Murillo-Moncada was wearing when he disappeared, and his parents’ DNA was later used to confirm his identity.

Investigators believe that after Murillo-Moncada ran away, he went into the storage area in the supermarket and climbed on top of one of the coolers. Former employees of the supermarket stated it was common for workers to be on top of the coolers since the space was used for storing goods. Employees would even sit on the cooling units when they wanted to take an “unofficial break.”

Unfortunately, after scaling the 12-foot (3.6-meter) cooler, it is believed that Murillo-Moncada fell into an approximately 18-inch (45-cm) gap between the cooler and the wall, leaving him trapped. Additionally, the noise from the coolers’ compressors would have muffled any sounds. An autopsy found no signs of trauma, and Murillo-Moncada’s death was deemed accidental.^[2]

8 Inside a School Shark

Just before midnight on February 18, 2023, 32-year-old Diego Barría was riding his ATV home in the Patagonian province of Chubut, Argentina. However, Barría stopped to greet some fishing friends and texted his partner, Virginia Brugger, to let her know he would be home later than expected. Unfortunately, Barría never returned home and was not responding to text messages or phone calls. On February 20, 2023, his family reported him missing.

As agents began to search the area on February 20, 2023, they discovered Barría’s damaged all-terrain vehicle, along with his cracked helmet, on a beach near Rocas Colorados. Sadly, there was still no sign of Barría. (Link 12)

On February 26, 2023, two fishermen went to the coastguard to report that they had caught three school sharks—also known as tope or soupfin sharks—near the beach where Barría’s ATV was located. Sadly, “when they were cleaning them, they found human remains in one of them.” Barría’s family identified him based on a tattoo visible in the fishermen’s findings.

Officials stated they would continue to investigate what happened to Barría. However, given that there had been a strong tidal surge the weekend Barría disappeared, police suspect that Barría had an accident in which he collided with a rock while driving his ATV, and then his body was washed out to sea.^[3]

7 Hotel Pool Pipe

Jose Daniela Jaico Ahumada rented a room at the Doubletree by Hilton Houston Brookhollow Hotel in Houston, Texas, so that her family could enjoy a day of swimming, an activity that her daughter—eight-year-old Aliyah Jaico—loved. Unfortunately, what should have been a day of fun turned into a missing persons case with an even more tragic ending.

On March 23, 2024, Aliyah was enjoying the “lazy river style” pool of the hotel with her family. Ahumada stepped away for a brief moment, and just before 5 pm, Aliyah “disappeared in a split second” in the lazy river. Ahumada frantically searched for Aliyah for approximately one hour, even asking hotel staff to look at the CCTV footage. However, Ahumada claimed that the hotel management “denied her request and explained that police would have to be present to view the video surveillance.” Around 5:45 pm, Ahumada then contacted police to report Aliyah missing.

Once police arrived, investigators reviewed security video showing Aliyah had gone underwater but never resurfaced. The search crew drained the pool, and Texas EquuSearch was called in to inspect the pool’s pipes. At 11:30 pm, Aliyah’s body was found 20 feet (6 meters) inside the piping, and it took crews approximately 13 hours to recover her body. Aliyah was pronounced dead at the scene as a result of drowning and mechanical asphyxia.

An inspection by the City of Houston’s Health Department revealed that the “Operator failed to obtain a pre-opening inspection prior to placing the pool in operation after a remodel.” While it was not certain when the remodel occurred, the new piping appeared to be malfunctioning, and rather than pushing water out, it was pulling water in. The pool was also not in compliance with federal laws meant to protect drain entrapment and child drowning, along with multiple other violations.

Ahumada has since filed a lawsuit against Doubletree’s parent company, Hilton, and the local operator of the hotel, Unique Crowne Hospitality, for $1 million.^[4]

6 Laundry Cart

On January 18, 2023, 21-year-old Rosa Chacon left her home in Little Village—a neighborhood in Chicago, Illinois—and got into an Uber. Chacon left without her coat or ID, and the only thing she said to her mother was, “I’ll be back, Mom. I got the Uber ride there and the Uber ride back.” However, Chacon never returned home.

Chacon was reported missing, and on January 23, 2023, the Chicago Police Department issued a missing person bulletin to the media. Chacon’s mother stated that Uber refused to give her any information about who ordered the ride for Chacon or her destination. She also claimed that authorities did little to assist in their search, so after months of searching on their own and handing out flyers, Chacon’s family hired a private investigator.

Sadly, around 10:45 am on March 15, 2023, Chacon’s body was found in a laundry cart, just 2 miles (3.2 km) from her home. Unfortunately, the medical examiner’s office has been unable to determine the cause of Chacon’s death. To date, the case remains unsolved.^[5]

5 Department Store Bathroom

Sixty-three-year-old Bessie Durham of Columbia, South Carolina, worked for KBS, a company contracted to clean the Columbiana Mall. Durham clocked in for work at 7 am on the morning of September 15, 2022, and went into a family bathroom of the Belk department store in the mall. However, Durham never clocked out from work that day.

After not hearing from Durham for four days, her family reported her missing. Columbia Police called the store in hopes of locating Durham, but sadly, on September 19, 2022, Durham’s body was found by store employees locked inside the bathroom she went in to clean. An autopsy later revealed that Durham died from a cardiac event.

On September 19, 2023, one year after Durham’s tragic death, her family filed a lawsuit against the Belk chain for negligence, as well as the contractor Durham worked for. Durham’s family questioned why none of the store employees thought it suspicious that Durham’s cleaning cart remained outside the restroom for four days, given that the store was open for regular hours the entire time. They also claimed that a store policy—which was enacted earlier in 2022 due to a mall shooter—required that the restroom door be locked, which “further exacerbated the problem.”^[6]

4 Community College Ventilation System

On October 25, 2023, 36-year-old Jason Anthony Thompson of Clinton Township, Michigan, told his family and his girlfriend that he was running from the police. In an attempt to evade arrest, he was hiding on the roof of a building at Macomb Community College. Unfortunately, the text messages from Thompson to his family stopped, and on November 1, 2023, he was reported missing.

On November 7, 2023, Sterling Heights police asked the Macomb College police to check the performing arts center’s roof to see if anyone had entered the ventilation system, but there was no evidence of access or anyone on the roof. Sterling Heights police reached out to college police again on November 17, 2023, asking them to review video footage of the area around the facility. Unfortunately, that area had no camera coverage.

It wasn’t until November 26, 2023, over a month after Thompson’s disappearance, that police were called to look for “the source of a foul odor” coming from part of the campus building. Hours later, it was determined that the odor was coming from a mechanical room not available for public access. Using X-ray equipment and a small camera, the Michigan State Police Bomb Squad was able to determine that there was an inverted body in the vent, which was later confirmed to be Thompson.

It is believed that after entering from the roof, Thompson traveled through the ductwork, essentially burrowing deeper into the HVAC system. However, as he came to a downward vertical duct, he entered head first and became stuck in a narrowed section. Thompson’s cause of death was deemed to be accidental asphyxia/entrapment/environmental suffocation.

Although Thompson was indeed a fugitive and had five warrants for his arrest, authorities later stated there was no evidence he was being actively pursued.^[7]

3 Truck Bed Toolbox

Forty-nine-year-old Jannell Martensen of Spokane, Washington, struggled with drug addiction and had been in an on-and-off relationship with 37-year-old Colton Russell. Sadly, the relationship was riddled with violence. In one particular incident in 2021, Russell drove Martensen to a rural area, severely beat her, and simply left her there. Thankfully, a stranger found Martensen and took her home.

In June 2023, the couple called it quits. Martensen moved in with a friend, and Russell found a new girlfriend—23-year-old Kiara Morgan-Weiland. Despite the tumultuous relationship and Russell’s seemingly moving on, Martensen didn’t stay away from Russell.

On November 18, 2023, Martensen left to go camping with Russell and Morgan-Weiland. In the early morning hours of November 19, 2023, Martensen texted her cousin, Alisha Galbreath, and several other friends with messages such as “Please come get me I’m scared to death” and “I’m afraid he’s going to kill me please.” Unfortunately, because Martensen had made similar calls in the past but then refused to leave Russell, no one went to get her.

When Martensen failed to show up for Thanksgiving with her children and grandchildren and stopped answering her phone, Gilbreath reported her missing. In the following days, Martensen’s friends questioned Russell regarding her disappearance, but he frequently changed his story, claiming to have last seen her with several different people. Russell and Morgan-Weiland became suspects in Martensen’s disappearance, but before either Russell or Morgan-Weiland could be questioned, they were found dead on December 8, 2023.

On December 9, 2023, authorities searched Russell’s house and found blood splatter on the living room walls, a bloody sponge in the garbage, and large sections of carpet that had possible traces of blood. Detectives also discovered that Morgan-Weiland had been performing searches on YouTube, which included “serial killer couples” and “how to dispose of dead bodies.”

On December 14, 2023, detectives seized Russell’s truck and a truck bed toolbox, which had been abandoned on a residential property because it allegedly broke down. Sadly, Martensen’s body was discovered inside of the toolbox. Her cause of death was later revealed to be due to blunt force injuries.

On December 16, 2023, the couple’s friend, Brandon Kenny, admitted to shooting Russell and stabbing Morgan-Weiland 51 times. Kenny stated that Russell admitted to “accidentally killing” Martensen but then put a gun in Kelly’s mouth and told him he “had to move her body” or he would be killed too.

Kenny claimed he “needed to kill” Morgan-Weiland because “she was the only other person who knew anything about the situation.” Kenny has been charged with two counts of first-degree murder.^[8]

2 Asian Restaurant

Twenty-nine-year-old Mingming Chen and her husband, 34-year-old Liang Zhao, had a daughter named Ashley Zhao. However, rather than raising the child together, Zhao’s mother cared for Ashley until she turned four so he could focus on his business—Ang’s Asian Cuisine in North Canton, Ohio. Unfortunately, after the couple began caring for Ashley, Chen became frustrated with how disobedient her daughter had become.

On January 9, 2017, Chen became angry with five-year-old Ashley after she had an accident, striking her on the head several times. Zhao tried to revive Ashley, but instead of calling for help, the couple drove to their restaurant and hid Ashley in a salt container in the restaurant’s freezer.

Twelve hours later, Zhao called the police and claimed that Ashley was missing. Chen and Zhao told police that they last saw Ashley sleeping in a makeshift bed near the restaurant’s back door, leading investigators to believe the little girl had wandered off. After a frantic daylong search, Ashley was found in the family’s restaurant on January 10, 2017.

On January 11, 2017, Chen was charged with first-degree murder and felonious assault. Zhao was charged with complicity to commit murder and complicity to commit felonious assault. In January 2018, Chen was sentenced to 22 years in prison after pleading guilty to involuntary manslaughter and other charges through a plea agreement. Chen, who was in the U.S. illegally, will also be deported to China after serving her sentence. Zhao was sentenced to 12 years for obstructing justice and corpse abuse.^[9]

1 Convention Center Walls

On the evening of August 22, 2020, 40-year-old Joseph Edward Mejica disappeared in Oakland, California. He was later reported missing by his mother, the last person believed to see him alive. Mejica was homeless at the time of his disappearance and was “known to frequent unsheltered encampments.” His family also offered a $5,000 reward for any information about his location.

Unfortunately, Mejica was not found until March 9, 2022, when a construction worker was tearing out a wall inside the Henry J. Kaiser Convention Center, which had been closed since 2005. While investigators were not able to immediately identify Mejica, the coroner matched a serial number on a tubular implant in Mejica’s leg to records at Highland Hospital, where he’d had surgery nearly two decades prior. From there, officials were able to confirm his DNA.

His mother said that “Mejica would often try to steal copper wiring from construction sites for money.” Therefore, authorities believe that Mejica may have fallen from the roof area above, and over time, his body slipped toward the bottom of the cavity space. His death was believed to be accidental.^[10]

We talk about slavery almost as if it was something that only happened in the United States. Slavery is treated as a distinctly American legacy and American shame—but that couldn’t possibly be farther from the truth.

Nearly every country in the world participated in the slave trade, and a lot of them took in far more slaves than the United States. Of the 12.5 million African slaves sent to the New World, only 388,000—or about three percent—of them ended up in the US.^[1]

We’ve all heard about Abraham Lincoln, the Civil War, and the Emancipation Proclamation, but that wasn’t the end of slavery around the world. Slaves were still battling for their freedom, and, outside their own countries, their stories have been almost completely ignored.

10 Britain Spent Most Of Its Budget Paying Off Slaveowners

When the British Empire abolished slavery in 1833, their biggest concern was the slaveowners. A growing abolitionist movement in the empire had pushed them to do the humane thing and let their slaves go free, but they were still terrified about how all their slaveowners would react—so they paid them off.

The British government spent £20 million reimbursing slavers for the “loss of their slaves.” That was a huge amount of money—it was 40 percent of their treasury’s annual income, and the country had to go £15 million in debt to pay for it.^[2] They didn’t finish paying off that debt until 2015, meaning that, in a sense, British taxes were going toward paying off slaveowners for 182 years.

The slaves didn’t see a penny of that £20 million. They weren’t given any resources or land to compensate them for working without pay or any guidance on how to make a better life for themselves. And so, when slavery ended, most ended up staying on the same plantations they’d been at their whole lives, working for wages so low that life wasn’t much better than before.

9 Canada Abolished Slavery To Save A Single Woman

The end of slavery in the British Empire didn’t change much in Canada. They’d already abolished slavery 40 years earlier, in 1793, all as a part of one man’s efforts to save a single woman named Chloe Cooley.

Chloe Cooley was an African slave whose owner intended to sell her in the US. While a crowd of people watched, he tied her up, threw her into a boat, and sailed her across Lake Erie. Cooley did everything she could to resist, screaming for her life and trying to escape, but it was all to no avail.

Two men in the crowd, though, reported what they’d seen to Lieutenant Governor John Graves Simcoe, and he made it his personal goal to save Cooley. He tried to bring her owner to court, but the case was thrown out.^[3] She was the owner’s property, and, by law, he could do anything he wanted to her.

So Simcoe changed the law. He campaigned to get slavery abolished in Canada and pulled it off in record time. Less than four months after Cooley was sold, slavery was illegal.

Simcoe, though, never managed to save Cooley. The new law only banned the purchase of new slaves—slaveowners were still allowed to keep the ones they had. No one knows for sure what happened to Cooley, but there’s every reason to believe she died in the United States, working on a plantation slave gang.

8 Brazil Kept Slavery Alive Longer Than Any Country In The Americas

We don’t often talk about the Brazilian slave trade, but it was bigger than any other in North or South America. As we’ve said, only three percent of the African slaves went to the United States—but 32 percent (four million) of them went to Brazil.

Slavery stayed legal in Brazil for longer than any other country in the Americas, too. It was so strong that, after the US Civil War, Confederate slaveowners who were unwilling to give up owning people moved to Brazil to keep the slave trade alive.

In the end, though, the British Empire pressured them into giving them up. It wasn’t until Brazilians fought alongside their African slaves in the Paraguayan War that they started to see them as human beings.^[4]

In the end, the slaveowners came around to abolition before the government did. They started freeing their own slaves before the state forced them to do it. When slavery was finally abolished in 1888, most of the slaves had already been set free.

7 A Slave Revolt In Haiti Actually Worked

In Haiti, the slaves won their freedom by force. It was the oldest slave colony in America. There had been slaves there since Columbus first landed in 1492, and by 1789, there were nearly 500,000 slaves, outnumbering the white population by more than ten to one.^[5]

When the Haitian slaves heard about the French Revolution, it sparked an idea. From their point of view, it sounded like the white slaves of France had killed their masters and taken possession of the land. They wanted to throw a revolution of their own.

Haitian slaves started wearing red, white, and blue ribbons as tributes to the French Revolution and as a subtle sign that they were getting ready to launch one of their own. And, in October 1790, it started. At first, it was just 350 slaves fighting for their freedom in Saint Dominique, but it soon evolved into a full-on rebellion across the entire country.

It took 14 years for them to win their freedom. The French Army was called in, and the ragtag, revolting slaves had to take on one of the greatest military forces in the world. In the end, though, the French Army was wreaked with disease. They gave up, went home, and let the slave rebellion win.

The very concepts of skin color were abolished. Under the constitution, no matter the color of one’s skin, all Haitians were to “be known only by the generic appellation of Blacks.”

6 The First Black President Of Mexico Abolished Slavery

It probably won’t come as much as a surprise that slavery in Mexico didn’t last much longer after its first black president.

His name was Vicente Ramon Guerrero Saldana (often shortened to Vicente Guerrero), and he was the son of an African Mexican and a Mestizo. To his Mexican comrades, though, his mixed heritage just made him black—in fact, his nickname was “El Negro.”

Guerrero entered office on April 1, 1829, and got rid of slavery before the year was over.^[6] Slavery in Mexico officially ended on September 16, 1829—much to the chagrin of the Americans living there.

Texas, at the time, was full of American slaveholders who weren’t too happy about Guerrero’s new law. The end of slavery in Mexico would eventually lead to Texas declaring independence and would even get Guerrero killed. A revolt rose up against him nearly immediately. Guerrero was dead before two years had passed.

But his law survived. Even though Guerrero died, slavery never came back to Mexico.

5 Britain Forced Zanzibar To Abolish Slavery In Under An Hour

In the late 19th century, Zanzibar was the center of the global slave trade. Thousands of slaves passed through their slave market each year, and the British wanted to put an end to it.^[7]

They tried to do it peacefully. They tried to put economic pressure on Zanzibar to get them to stop the slave trade, but all Zanzibar would give them were a few platitudes and empty gestures. The slave trade was vital to their economy, and they weren’t going to give it up unless someone made them.

So, in 1896, a British fleet set itself up outside of the Sultan’s palace and just bombarded it senseless with everything they had. After 38 to 45 minutes of destruction, the Sultan surrendered, and slavery in Zanzibar came to an end.

It was the shortest war in history. Over 500 people died on the Zanzibar side. On the British side, only one person was wounded. The rest didn’t even stub a toe.

4 It Took Two Wars To End The Barbary White Slave Trade

Africans weren’t the only people being kidnapped and sold into slavery. Between the 16th and 19th centuries, hundreds of thousands of Europeans were captured by Barbary pirates and sold as slaves in North Africa and the Ottoman Empire.

The Barbary pirates would raid the coasts of Europe and capture anyone they could get their hands on. Then they would drag them off to Algiers, where they would be sold as slaves.

The Ottoman Empire refused to stop until the United States and Europe forced them. The US had to go to war with the Barbary states twice (in 1801 and 1815) before they left them alone, while the British, Dutch, and French fought with Algiers off and on for nearly 100 years before the Ottoman Empire, in 1890, finally signed an agreement to stop taking white slaves.^[8]

3 Cuba Ignored Spain’s Orders To Abolish Slavery For 75 Years

Officially, slavery was abolished in every Spanish colony in 1811, but Cuba didn’t exactly listen. The slave trade was too profitable there to stop. They deliberately ignored the Spanish order and kept on selling slaves for another 75 years.

It created problems. In 1812, when the slaves in Cuba realized they weren’t going free, a man named Jose Aponte led them in a revolt to try to get them the freedom they’d been denied.^[9] Even in the face of open revolt, though, Cuba kept the slave trade going. They killed Aponte and put his head on display to let every slave know what would happen to them if they questioned the Cuban slave trade.

The slaves didn’t get their freedom until after Cuba and Spain went to war. Cuba went to war with Spain in 1868 but had lost by 1878, and Spain rode the high of their victory to finally actually force Cuba to let their slaves go. Even then, though, the process was so gradual that the shackles didn’t come off until 1886, a whole lifetime after they’d been promised their freedom.

2 Australian Slave Traders Drowned Slaves Rather Than Give Them Freedom

Technically, Australia was a nation of slaves to begin with. The convicts who first populated Australia were sent to work as unpaid slaves on a chain gang, and they were treated so horribly that one of the British officers who went to Australia said, “The slave traffic is merciful compared with what I have seen.”

In time, the white slaves of Australia were replaced with Aboriginal slaves, who were forced to work on sugar plantations. They were all supposed to be freed in 1833, when the British Empire abolished slavery, but the Australians ignored it. They relabeled their slaves “indentured servants” and kept using them for the better part of a century.

It took until 1901—68 years after slavery had been abolished—before the British Empire finally forced Australia to set their slaves free. Some of the slave traders, though, were so determined not to do it that they threw their slaves overboard, letting them drown rather than giving them their freedom.^[10]

1 Mauritania Still Has Slavery

Not every country has abolished slavery. In Mauritania, it is estimated that 43,000 people are still living in slavery.^[11]

The lighter-skinned Berber people of Mauritania are the slaveowners, while the darker-skinned people called the “Black Moors” are the slaves. The Berbers have full control over the Black Moors’ lives, including the right to give their slaves away. In fact, it’s considered a tradition there to give a slave as a wedding gift.

Technically, slavery was legally abolished in Mauritania in 1981, but the slave trade still lives on to this day. The government started to crack down more after a 2012 report by the United Nations put them in the international spotlight, but according to the Global Slavery Index, it was little more than a show to appease the UN. They arrested their first slaveowner immediately around when the UN report came out and very publicly sentenced him to six months in jail—but they stopped pursuing cases when the world stopped paying attention.

To this day, Mauritania remains one of the last great strongholds of slavery in the world.

How hard can it be to build a colonial empire? You jump on a boat, make friends with the natives (then butcher them into compliance), build a few houses, plant a few seeds, add water, and bingo! You have your very own USA, complete with Disneyland, Apple, and McDonald’s.

As easy as it seems, it turns out that many DIY colonial ambitions fell foul along the way, either from conflict, disease, financial infeasibility, or perhaps even otherworldly powers. What follows are 10 examples of colonial enterprises that ended in failure.

10 Little Venice (Klein-Venedig)
1528–1546

Indebted to the Welsers, a prominent German banking family from the early to mid-16th century, Spain granted colonial rights to a German enterprise to establish a colony in what is today Venezuela.

Bent on finding the lost city of El Dorado, German colonists, with the help of some African slaves, faced tropical disease, surprisingly angry natives (turns out native people don’t like being poked and prodded by sunbed-hogging Europeans), and a particularly incensed conquistador who sought to establish Spanish dominance over the region with a sword to the back of the neck of those pesky German adventurers.^[1]

With the death of Spain’s Charles V (who had granted the Germans the colony) and Spain’s own ambitions in the region, Little Venice became no more. In the end, it turns out that the Germans were after the wrong color of gold. A few centuries later, El Dorado was discovered, but it was underground in the form of oil.

9 Sagallo
1889

What do you do if all your European friends carve up the continent of Africa and don’t give you a piece of the pie?

Well, for one Russian adventurer, Nikolai Ivanovitch Achinov, you just turn up, whack a flag in the ground, and wait for that sweet, sweet empire money to roll in. That is, of course, if you didn’t just rock up on the nascent territory of French Djibouti and you lacked any support from your own government.

When the French authorities discovered the location of Russian Sagallo, they welcomed their neighbors with some good old-fashioned gunboat diplomacy. Killing not only a few Russian settlers, but any Russian ambition on the continent.^[2]

8 Dutch Formosa
1624–1662

Known today as Taiwan, this turbulent little island has enjoyed its fair share of imperial ping-pong (with Taiwan being the ball). Aside from the contemporary controversy between Taiwan and mainland China and while many remember it as part of the former Empire of Japan, few remember little old Dutch Formosa.

In a bid to bring peace and harmony to the then-native Formosans (just kidding, to exploit trade with China and Japan and drive a wedge between Spanish and Portuguese ambitions in Asia), the Dutch East India Company slowly but surely brought much of the southern half of the island into the Dutch sphere of influence.

Economic growth on the island didn’t stop uprising after uprising, from the natives to the Han immigrants brought over by the Dutch. Ultimately, however, it was the Dutch attempt to curry favor with the rising Qing dynasty in China that saw it fall foul of a superior (albeit declining) Ming dynasty that put an end to Dutch colonial ambitions on the island.^[3]

7 Darien Scheme
1698–1700

Up to this point, we’ve checked in with some of the heavy hitters of the colonial game. Now for an underdog (and in the end, a complete failure)—Scotland! Scotland doesn’t seem like the likeliest candidate for imperial glory, and sadly for Scotland, it wasn’t a candidate for long.

The scheme—hoping to turn Scotland into nascent trading power—involved establishing a colony in what is now Panama to ship, over land, goods from the Pacific to the Caribbean, and vice versa. The Scots, however, faced all the usual hardships of establishing a colony—supply issues, disease, and rival pressures.

Ultimately, the whole affair was a disaster!

England refused to support the Scots for fear of angering the Spanish, who were dominant in the region. The first attempt to establish a colony resulted in the deaths of most involved and the abandonment of what had been built. The second attempt was put to an end by a Spanish force of arms.

In the end, the Scottish people were left humiliated, economically weak from the endeavor, and prime for the taking by their English neighbors.^[4]

6 Santo Tomas
1843–1854

Just because Scotland was an unlikely candidate for colonial success doesn’t necessarily mean size matters. In the colonial era, it was very much the nail you were hitting rather than the size of the hammer, if you get what I’m saying. Take Belgium, for example. You could lose Belgium in its Congolese possession many times over! But that’s not to say that Belgium’s success in one endeavor was indicative of its success in all.^[5]

Santo Tomas was a Belgian colony in Guatemala that was authorized this time by the local government after a failed British endeavor. However, disease took its toll on the inhabitants and made the colony financially ruinous, leading to the Belgian abandonment of the enterprise.

Don’t feel too bad. Belgium’s later track record in the Congo proves that just because you’re a small country doesn’t mean you can’t slaughter the natives like the big boys.

5 Nicobar Islands
1778–1783

While some states might surprise you in their colonial success, others may amaze you with their colonial failures. It is easy to see on first glance how many may be shocked that the mighty Austro-Hungarian Empire had few to no colonial possessions, but on a deeper exploration, it is boringly unsurprising.

A lack of a mighty fleet, prime real estate for conflict in Europe, and what appears to be either unrivaled insight or a fool’s hope of turning a barren rock into a mighty trading post ultimately led to the complete failure of Austria’s Indian Ocean dream. Low supplies, disease, and a complete lack of enthusiasm on the side of the Austrian government led to the colony’s abandonment in 1783.^[6]

4 Tobago
1639–1690

Courland, a small vassal state of what was then Poland-Lithuania, was another example of the little country which could-n’t! From 1639 to 1690, this small but wealthy state attempted to realize its imperial ambition by establishing a colony on the island of Tobago in the Caribbean.

However, like much of the Americas at this time, little Courland was sneaking in the back door of Spain, which was eventually hoodwinked after thwarting a number of attempts. Courland established the foundation of the mighty imperial colonial Empire of Courland.

However, the empire was thwarted by angry locals and the fledgling colony was swiftly abandoned . . . until the empire struck back! But then the empire was again defeated, but this time by the Dutch. They had also begun colonizing Tobago and would eventually conquer the Courlanders.^[7]

Until, of course, the empire struck back once more! But this time, the Spanish forced them off.

By this point, Courland’s nascent dreams of world domination were beginning to mirror George Lucas’s CGI Jabba. (Why, George? WHY?!) Several more fruitless attempts at establishing a colony on Tobago eventually led to George Lucas getting the message and just selling Star Wars to Disney and letting someone else have a go at ruining the franchise . . .  I mean, led to Courland finally throwing in the towel on its fun in the sun.

3 River Plate
1806–1807

While not really a colony but an attempt to create one, the British invasion of the River Plate in what would become Argentina is a notable attempt by the largest empire ever to exist to try and establish a notable presence in the South American continent.

Coming quite late to the colonial game in South America, Britain had hoped to take advantage of a pre-occupied Spain (which had its navy smashed at Trafalgar in 1805) and finally create a notable presence on the continent. However, rather than angry natives and disease to grind any hope of establishing a colony to dust, the British were met with a large local militia with nascent dreams of independence and no desire to bend the knee to yet another largely absent European Crown.

While making initial inroads against the locals, the invading British force found itself overwhelmed by the irregular force, taking heavy casualties and met with stern refusal to accept a cease-fire. The British eventually surrendered. But in their wake, they left a burning desire for independence from a Spain that had long since passed its prime.^[8]

2 Fort Ross
1812–1842

Long before San Francisco was known for its exorbitant house prices and its tendency to lean so far to the left that the Statue of Liberty has to hold on to the side of the East Coast as if it was going down like the Titanic, Mother Russia once enjoyed a little slice of California not too far from the city.

Far from any other Russian holdings, Fort Ross was established to provide food to Russian Alaska and to take advantage of what was perceived to be rich hunting grounds for sea otters. However, trade deals between Russia and Britain and an all-too-late-realized free-for-all on sea otters in the region turned Fort Ross into an economic black hole.

The colony was eventually sold by the Russians, just like Alaska would be. And just like Alaska, the new tenants would later find considerable wealth where those unlucky Russians found ruin.^[9]

1 Roanoke
1585–1590

No list on colonial failures would be complete without this conspiracy-filled, cautionary tale of colonial intrigue.

The Roanoke story is well-known. An English colony was found abandoned with only the word “CROATOAN” left behind. Historians are divided on whether the colony was massacred by the natives, whether disease led to its abandonment, or even whether the settlers assimilated into the local population.

Regardless, the story of the Roanoke colony is a good illustration of the true risks involved with abandoning life in one’s mother country and going all in on the hope of establishing a new life in an exotic, faraway land. Looking back, it’s easy to fall for such a romantic thought, but the reality for those involved must have felt more desperate and uncertain than exciting and assured.^[10]

John is a pursuer of all things interesting and meaningful.

Sometimes, nature has had enough of us killing ourselves and has just intervened. Throughout history, armies and navies have met in combat, only to find themselves battling storms and hurricanes instead.

Nature may separate the warring parties, forcing one or both to retreat. At other times, it delivers the decisive blow, causing a crushing defeat to one army or navy and favoring the other. Or it just prevents the larger force from decimating the smaller or less advantaged one.

10 Typhoons Thwarted Mongol Attempt To Invade Japan

In 1274, a Mongol fleet of 500–900 vessels carrying 30,000–40,000 soldiers left China to attack and capture Japan. The ships anchored at Hakata Bay, Japan, anticipating an invasion, until they were destroyed by a typhoon. One-third of the fleet sank. About 13,000 soldiers drowned, forcing the survivors to retreat to China.

The undeterred Mongols returned in 1281 with 4,400 ships and 140,000 soldiers. This was far more than Japan’s 40,000 samurai and soldiers. The weather fought on Japan’s side again when another typhoon destroyed the invading fleet right before they attacked on August 15.

Half the Mongols died, and almost all the ships were destroyed. Only a few returned to China. The samurai also hunted and killed survivors. The Japanese were so impressed with the 1281 typhoon that they formed the word kamikaze (“divine wind”) to refer to a typhoon. They believed that the typhoons were sent by the gods.^[1]

9 An Island Claimed By India And Bangladesh Slid Underwater

New Moore Island was a small, uninhabited piece of land tucked between India and Bangladesh. It was just 3.5 kilometers (2 mi) long, 3 kilometers (1.9 mi) wide, and barely 2 meters (7 ft) out of the water. The island was first discovered in 1974. However, some experts said back then that it had been around for 50 years.

India and Bangladesh both claimed the island after its discovery. In 1981, India even sent some ships and personnel from its Border Security Force to hoist a flag on the island. Things started to change in 1987 when satellite images showed that the island was slowly submerging. By 2010, it was gone.^[2]

8 A Storm Ended France’s Invasion Of Ireland

1796 was a turbulent year for British and French relations. Britain was funding some disgruntled aristocrats and rebels against the French crown. At the same time, Britain was subsidizing several allied nations in a war against France.

This prompted the French to plot revenge. Instead of invading Britain directly, France teamed with the Irish patriots who were fighting for independence from Britain. The idea was to help the Irish patriots defeat Britain. Once done, Ireland would have turned into a French ally and kept Britain at bay.

On December 15, 1796, a French force of 15,000 soldiers left France on several ships. Midway, the fleet ran into trouble after they were split by a terrible storm. Some made it to Bantry Bay, where the fleet had planned to rendezvous before the invasion. However, the attack was stalled because several ships—including the Fraternite which carried General Hoche, the commander of the operation—were still missing.

The fleet left a few days later over concerns that the weather was getting worse and the British might attack. General Hoche finally arrived with his ship. But he was informed that the French fleet had already arrived and then departed. He, too, left for France, ending the invasion.

Interestingly, an attempt by the Batavian Republic to invade Britain the following year was also thwarted by bad weather. The assault was suspended after a storm stopped the fleet from leaving port.^[3]

7 The Russian Winter Of 1709 Ended Sweden’s Era As A Superpower

If military strategists were asked for one piece of advice about invading Russia, it would be to avoid an invasion right before winter. Otherwise, you had better get out before winter sets in. Several military commanders like Adolf Hitler and Napoleon Bonaparte found out the hard way after they were defeated by the harsh Russian winter.

Nobody remembers a third country that tried this—Sweden. In 1708, 40,000 Swedish soldiers invaded Russia as part of the Great Northern War of 1700–1721. At the time, the smaller but more professional Swedish army was famous for defeating larger opponents in battle. Facing defeat, the Russians fled deep into Russia and burned their villages.

This is called scorched earth, a tactic used by Russia to ensure that the enemy cannot live on whatever is left behind. At the same time, some Russian units ambushed Swedish resupply units, leaving the Swedes with insufficient supplies. The Great Frost of 1709 soon set in. It was the coldest winter in Europe in 500 years.

Lacking basic supplies, the Swedish troops froze to death. Approximately 2,000 died in one night, and half were dead by the time winter was over. The demoralized survivors attempted to destroy Russia as summer set in, but they were no match for Russia’s 80,000 soldiers. Ultimately, only 543 Swedish soldiers survived.^[4]

6 A Disastrous Storm Destroyed The Spanish Armada Attempting To Invade Britain

In 1588, King Philip II of Spain decided that he had had enough of the protestant Queen Elizabeth and decided to replace her with a Roman Catholic. So he ordered 130 ships to sail to Flanders to pick up 30,000 troops for the invasion.

The British got wind of the operation and intercepted the Spaniards just off the coast of Plymouth. Both navies engaged in several battles that all ended in a stalemate. The Spaniards were finally defeated when a storm threw their ships off course from Flanders and far into the ocean.

With the threat of diseases and low supplies, the Spaniards decided to abandon the war and return to Spain. The storm continued to batter the armada as it retreated, causing several ships to either sink or smash into the shore. Only 60 of the 130 ships returned to Spain, and 15,000 sailors were killed.^[5]

5 Dust Storms Ended US Attempt To Free Hostages In Iran

On November 4, 1979, Iranian students invaded the US Embassy in Tehran, taking 52 diplomats and embassy workers hostage. President Jimmy Carter later ordered a military operation to free the hostages. The US had no central special operations command at the time, so different units of the military were brought together for the invasion.

The operation was doomed from the start because the units never trained together. Problems began when the C-130 transport planes and RH-53D helicopters ran into sandstorms while flying to a rendezvouz point code-named “Desert One.” The planes flew through the storm. But the helicopters couldn’t, forcing them to return to base.

Six of eight helicopters later returned to Desert One, but one was damaged on landing. The operation was scrapped because five helicopters were not enough to achieve its objectives. All units were ordered back to base.

Unfortunately, a sandstorm obstructed the view of a C-130 plane taking off from Desert One. The plane slammed into a helicopter flying overhead, sending both crashing to the ground. Eight crewmen were killed. The remaining troops, helicopters, and planes hastily retreated.

The failure of the operation forced a change in US military doctrine. Individual arms of the military formed commands to coordinate special operations. The Department of Defense also created the United States Special Operations Command (USSOCOM) to coordinate operations among all US military special forces.^[6]

4 Low Clouds, Rainfall, And Thunder Stopped Hitler From Destroying The Allies At Dunkirk

Allied troops stationed in France were no match for Nazi Germany during the 1940 invasion of France. The Allies fled to the port of Dunkirk after a series of defeats. The Germans could have moved in and decimated the Allies, but Hitler ordered them not to.

This gave the Allies enough time to begin a hasty retreat from Dunkirk on May 26. The next day, Field Marshal Walter von Brauchitsch convinced Hitler to resume the assault. But the Allies had assembled stronger defenses by the time the German tanks arrived, so Hitler ordered the tanks to stop and attack elsewhere. By June 4, over 338,000 British, French, and Belgian troops had fled Dunkirk for Britain.

The reason why Hitler stopped his army from decimating the Allies remains unclear. Some believe that Hitler expected the British to surrender. Others think that Reichsmarschall Hermann Goring, the commander of the Luftwaffe (Nazi Germany’s air force), had assured Hitler that the Luftwaffe could destroy the Allies without the army.

If the latter is true, then the Germans could not attack the Allies because low clouds, rainfall, and thunder stopped the Luftwaffe from conducting air strikes against Allied targets. The Luftwaffe attacked for two and a half days when the skies were clear, but it was not enough to make a difference.^[7]

3 A Storm Decimated The French Fleet In The Battle Of Trafalgar

On October 21, 1805, the British Navy found itself in combat against the unified navies of Spain and France. The French and Spaniards were defeated in battle but continued fighting until a hurricane came along and decimated the remains of their fleet.

The French ship Fougueux was the first casualty of the hurricane. Captured in battle, it was being towed by the British ship Phoebe when the stormy seas caused the rope to snap. The ship slammed into some rocks, killing the French and British sailors on board. The French Redoutable was lost under similar circumstances the next day.

Several other French ships seized by the British were also at risk of sinking. French sailors on the Algesiras rebelled against their British captors. The British surrendered to these rebels because they did not want the Algesiras to sink.

Several French ships led by Captain Cosmao-Jerjulien tried fighting back but were limited by the fog and the storm. The British also had a hard time controlling their ships and the French ships under their command.

On October 24, the stormy seas forced British Admiral Collingwood to order the abandonment and destruction of all captured ships. Fourteen of the captured French and Spanish ships were destroyed.^[8]

2 A French Cavalry Captured A Dutch Fleet

January 23, 1795, was one of the weirdest days in the history of warfare. A cavalry captured several warships. That should not even be possible because cavalries use horses and fight on land while navies use ships and fight on water.

The ships were captured in the Battle of Texel during the French Revolutionary Wars. A storm had caused a Dutch fleet to anchor in the strait of Marsdiep right next to Texel Island, Netherlands. The Dutch waited for the storm to pass, but they could not leave because the water around the shore was frozen.

The French heard of the fleet’s problem and sent a cavalry. The Dutch saw the French and considered destroying their ships to prevent capture. However, they dumped the idea when they heard that the French revolutionaries had won the war. The Dutch surrendered on the condition that the French allow them to remain on their ships.^[9]

However, reports indicate that the Dutch fleet was not a sitting duck and could have fought back. The Dutch had larger guns and numbers—14 ships in all. The French also needed ladders to climb onto the ships, but they did not have any.

1 An Unpredictable Storm Forced The Union To Abandon The First Battle Of Fort Fisher

The First Battle of Fort Fisher was fought on December 23–27, 1864, when Union troops under the command of Major General Benjamin Butler and Rear Admiral David D. Porter tried to capture Fort Fisher from the Confederates.

At the time, all Confederate ports except Wilmington, North Carolina, were under Union control. The port at Wilmington was protected by Fort Fisher. The assault was delayed when heavy storms prevented the fleet from sailing. The Union ships finally set sail on December 14 and reached Fort Fisher on the December 19.

General Butler and his men soon retreated over concerns of an approaching storm. Admiral Porter launched an attack when the storm subsided on December 23. General Butler and his men returned that evening but did not attack the fort over concerns that the Confederates were prepared.

General Butler finally ordered a retreat when he heard another storm was brewing and Confederate Major General Robert Hoke’s unit was coming to defend the fort. However, the storm did not protect the Confederates for long. A week later, it was captured by a Union force led by Major General Alfred H. Terry.^[10]

Some people will try to dismiss their poor behavior by insisting whatever they did was just a joke. True or not, the idea is that if something’s a joke you can’t take it seriously because who would ever take a joke seriously? That’s the whole point of a joke. As it happens, some jokes do get taken seriously and have some serious repercussions as well. 

10. A Stegosaurus’ Tail Spikes Were Named Thanks to a Far Side Joke

Dinosaurs have long fascinated people and movies like Jurassic Park made them all the more interesting to everyday people. There’s an entire NBA franchise named after a dinosaur arguably because Jurassic Park made raptors famous. And while interest was high, it didn’t mean everyone knew everything there was to know about dinosaurs. For instance, what do you call the end of a stegosaurus’s tail?

The distinctive spikes that we’re pretty sure served as a defensive weapon on the dino’s tail never actually had a name, scientifically speaking. But in 1982, cartoonist Gary Larson published a Far Side comic in which a caveman is teaching a group of cavemen dinosaur anatomy and labels the tail a Thagomizer, in honor of the late Thag Simmons. The joke, of course, is that a caveman named Thag got a little too close to the tail and met his end.

Fast forward to 1993 and a paleontology conference in which a paleontologist is discussing a newly found fossil of the tail, and evidence that it was used as a weapon and then grew new bone later. The scientist in question, lacking a proper name but remembering the cartoon, called it a Thagomizer in front of his peers. 

The name spread from there and is now in published, scientific works as the generally accepted name of a stegosaurus tail.

9. The FBI Wasted Two Years Investigating a Joke

Part of the work done by the FBI includes investigating cults and hate groups. In 2005, they opened a file on a group called God Hates Goths that they’d discovered on the internet. Based on their research, God Hates Goths was a religious extremist group with ties to the hateful Westboro Baptist Church.

Writings found on the internet from the group called for violence against those who defied God, but especially people who were part of the goth subculture. As their investigation continued, the FBI came to believe the group may have committed several acts of arson as well as poisoning mentally handicapped children. But their investigation was hard to manage because finding witnesses was proving impossible. 

For two years the FBI kept hitting roadblocks in trying to find any concrete evidence of the crimes committed by the hate group. Then, two years after the investigation started, someone actually read the God Hates Goths website which included a disclaimer that the entire site was a joke. The FBI then shut down their investigation.

8. Babe Ruth’s Nickname Started as a Joke

Babe Ruth played baseball over 100 years ago and to this day remains one of the most famous players in the game. Born George Herman Ruth, his nickname didn’t come around until 1914 when he caught the attention of Jack Dunn, the owner of the minor league Baltimore Orioles team. 

Ruth was only 19 when Dunn wanted to sign him to the team, but that was still considered underage at the time, which meant he needed a legal guardian’s permission. In order to skirt the rules a little, Dunn actually became Ruth’s legal guardian and thus gave himself permission to sign the young man.

The arrangement was vaguely shady, but it also caused people to make the joke that Ruth was “Dunn’s babe.” The name stuck and spread and thus the legend of Babe Ruth was born. 

7. A Canadian Company Started Selling Canned Air as a Joke

Once upon a time people thought bottled water was a silly idea but now over 350 billion liters are sold every year. Some people still think it’s silly when tap water in most parts of the world is fine, but it’s unlikely bottled water is ever going away.

Two Canadians took the idea of a product no one needs to have packaged one step further when they started selling Canadian fresh air as a joke. They ended up getting $122 US dollars for a bag of it on eBay and so they sold another and that’s when inspiration struck. 

The two began a business selling canned air to China. Places like Beijing are known for their terrible air quality and so, in 2015, the pair were selling hundreds of bottles of air on the Chinese market for between $10 and $20 a piece. Back then they had cleared a shipment of 500 bottles and were moving towards selling 700 more. Small potatoes, relatively speaking.

By 2019, the company was making over $300,000 per year. They were getting most of their sales online and in shops in South Korea. They source their air from different locations in Canada and each bottle has a mask included and enough air for 160 breaths.

6. Newman’s Own Salad Dressing Began As a Joke

One of the most recognizable salad dressing brands in any supermarket is Newman’s Own, named for Hollywood legend Paul Newman. By 2021 the company had made over $200 million selling salad dressing making it an unequivocal success. Remarkably, Newman was inspired to start the company based on a joke between himself and a friend.

According to writer A. E. Hotchner, who was Newman’s neighbor, he’d gone to visit his friend one evening in 1980 just before Christmas. He found Newman in the garage with all the ingredients to make a massive batch of salad dressing but no way to stir it. He ended up using a paddle for a canoe and the two of them filled a bunch of wine bottles with the homemade dressing that Newman planned to give away to friend’s as Christmas presents. 

Newman had never really intended to get into the business, it was just something for fun that one night. But the dressing must have been good, because within two years the men founded Newman’s Own.

5. Frosted Light Bulbs Were a Prank Assignment From GE Until Someone Made One

Sometimes when you start work at a new company, the established employees will haze you a little by giving you an awful job to do as a joke. Marvin Pipkin had to endure this when he started work at GE back in 1919. At the time it was an established joke that new employees were assigned the task of producing a frosted glass bulb. The joke was that the company had been trying for years to make a reliable frosted glass light bulb but had never created one that wouldn’t fall apart. They were so brittle they’d even break during installation.

When Pipkin came on board as an engineer, the older employees played their usual prank. Pipkin took it seriously and ended up solving the puzzle of frosting a bulb while allowing it to stay strong thanks to a phone call interrupting him and causing him to spill some acid out of the bulb. What had eluded engineers for years was solved by Pipkin in a few weeks.

4. Comedian Hamish Blake Won a Bodybuilding Competition Despite Not Being a Bodybuilder

Every so often someone decides to do something as a joke because they have no business doing it. Often this involves trying to perform a task they don’t have the skill to perform, just to see how it’ll play out. That’s how comedian Hamish Blake ended up in a New York State bodybuilding competition.

Blake was by no means a bodybuilder, and not even in good shape, really. But he entered the 2011 competition and, because of his size, he was actually the only competitor in the heavyweight weight class. And while that makes for a good joke it also put the competition judges in a bind. Blake was not competing against anyone which meant, by default, he was the best contender. So he ended up winning the competition.

3. Wristwatches Were Considered Silly When They First Appeared

Fashion fads come and go and some are much more regrettable than others. You rarely see Hammer pants or men in jumpsuits anymore. But there is one fad that caught on so well most people have no idea it was ever a fad at all – wristwatches.

Once upon a time your watch was on a chain and you kept it in your pocket. This changed during WWI when soldiers found that having a watch on their wrist was a lot easier to deal with. 

In 1916, the New York Times noted that “bracelets with clocks in them” were something of a joke and it was a curious European trend. The actual quote was “silly ass fad.”

Soldiers in the war needed ready access to the time for precision communication and movements and the only way they could manage this was with a wristwatch. Civilians were quick to appreciate the convenience of a wristwatch as well and the joke fad from Europe soon became the standard around the world. 

2. The Habeas Corpus Act Allegedly Passed Based on a Joke

Habeas Corpus protects against unlawful imprisonment. It’s one of the basic rights laid out in the Constitution. It’s part of the foundation of law in many nations, not just the US. But how the act came to be written has long been alleged to be partially based on a joke.

Now, keep in mind, there’s not a lot of evidence this is true, but it’s also one of those “this can’t be true, can it?” situations where there isn’t a lot of detail refuting it either. But it does make for a good and often repeated story.

According to legend, when the act was signed into English law in 1679, it barely passed the vote. In fact, so the story goes, because it was so close that the assembled lords joked that one of the votes in favor, which came from a man they considered quite fat, should be counted as 10, and so it was. This allowed the bill to pass by four or five votes. 

The story probably doesn’t hold up too well under scrutiny but has been accepted as fact in many circles.

1. Susanna Salter Was Nominated for Mayor as a Joke 

There’s a popular term on the internet that’s abbreviated “FAFO” with the latter two letters meaning “find out.” You can Google the first two if you’re unfamiliar. But the gist of this little acronym is that sometime, if you push too far, you’ll end up regretting it. That happened in 1887 in Kansas.

Women had just attained the right to vote that year and so, in the town of Argonia, a group of women came together as part of a temperance movement with the goal of prohibiting alcohol. Now that they had voting rights they felt they could make a difference. Among those women was Susanna Salter.

One evening the women were looking to choose a candidate who they could get behind but several men, who were anti-prohibition, attended the meeting. They mocked the women and then secretly held their own meeting later.

They made up ballots and put Salter’s name on them to run for mayor. The women had never considered fielding a female candidate; they were looking to support men who shared their values. But these men, looking to insult Salter and her group, added her name to ballots they printed as a joke with the expectation anyone seeing a woman running for mayor would think she was a complete fool. Back then you could print up ballots because elections were pretty disorganized and no one really cared.

The plan backfired horribly when the joke candidate ended up getting massive support from the community, winning the election with 60% of the vote. She became the first female mayor in America.

It’s not very easy to get through life without a job. Unless you’ve lucked into independent wealth because of family money or tripping over a giant gold nugget at some point, you need to work. The lucky amongst us can get jobs we enjoy that allow us to pay the bills and feel good about what we do. Most people just work to survive, though.

Once you get a job, keeping the job is a whole different ball game. According to one study, 40% of people will be fired from a job in their lifetime. There can be almost endless reasons for losing your job, but some are far more unpredictable than others. 

10. BJ Tyler’s NBA Career was Killed By an Ice Pack

For the lucky few people in the world who are talented enough to be professional athletes, the sky seems to be the limit. If you’re a good enough basketball player, you can make millions of dollars on a contract, plus millions more in sponsorships. You can play for a decade in the NBA and be rich beyond your wildest dreams for the rest of your life if you’re responsible with the money. But the “ifs” in those sentences carry a lot of weight.

BJ Tyler had signed a $6 million contract with the Toronto Raptors. From the outside, it looked like he would have become a pretty big star in the game, and his future was laid out on a clear path before him. But then, as with too many athletes, an injury sidelined him and made him retire from the game completely. What’s weird about this is how it happened.

Tyler wasn’t hurt on the court, or even off the court. He had a minor problem with his ankle one day and put an ice pack on it to reduce swelling. And then he fell asleep. With the ice left untended on his ankle, it caused permanent nerve damage which ruined his ability to play basketball. He could no longer move with any speed, and his career was over. 

9. Howard the Duck Ruined the Career of More Than One Person

Long before the MCU was a thing, Marvel was trying its hand at movies for lesser-known properties.  Captain America, Nick Fury, Dr. Strange, The Punisher, and more all had movies before Robert Downey Jr. ever donned the mantle of Iron Man. And the most infamous film of all was 1986’s Howard the Duck.

The movie is most well-known today for being a giant cinematic failure. It was about an anthropomorphic duck from outer space who has a kind of sexy scene with Leah Thompson, the mom from Back to the Future. It was pretty weird all around. Most audiences hated it, but a few people still love it to this day.

It was such a big bomb that the studio never recovered. In fact, it’s one of the few movies that you can point to which has been blamed for ruining the careers of at least three different people. 

Thompson once mentioned she felt the movie was such a big bomb that it mostly tanked her career. Director Willard Huyck never made another movie again after its failure.  Frank Price, the president of Universal Pictures, resigned within a month with speculation being that the poor box office of Howard the Duck was the primary cause. 

8. Director John McTiernan Wiretapped Coworkers

The 1990 movie Die Hard has stood the test of time as one of the great action movies. People still love it to this day, and if you go online around Christmas every single year people will debate whether it qualifies as a Christmas movie. 

Director John McTiernan seemed like he would have been poised to continued the upward trajectory of his career which began taking off with Predator and continued on with other hits like The Hunt for Red October and Die Hard with a Vengeance.

Unfortunately, make Tiernan derailed his own career when he decided he should illegally wiretap some of his co-producers after the 2002 dud Rollerball. McTiernan ended up going to jail thanks to the scandal, which included him lying to the FBI about it. The act ruined his Hollywood career and you can imagine few in the business would trust him again after that.

7. A Model From a Plastic Surgery Meme Says It Ruined Her Life

Meme culture has been big on the internet for years, but did you ever stop to think about the people behind the memes? Sometimes a website will track down the “star” of a member and make a cute story out of it. Sometimes it’s not so cute. That’s what happened with Heidi Yeh, the model featured in a plastic surgery meme.  

Yeh originally signed on to make an ad for a Taiwanese plastic surgery clinic. The ad features her, a man, and three kids. The idea behind the ad was that the mother and father looked a little different from the children because of plastic surgery. The text of the ad was “The only thing you’ll ever have to worry about is how to explain it to the kids.”

The ad was not supposed to extend beyond the local area being served by the clinic. However, once it got online, someone turned it into a meme and it spread around the world. It started traveling with a story that it was real, and Yeh was getting a divorce because her husband saw their ugly kids and decided she had defrauded him by not disclosing that she’d had surgery.

Because everyone believed the story was real, she lost modeling jobs. Companies thought not only had she had plastic surgery, but that she was this horrible person who had lied to her husband.

6. Colonel Sanders Ended His Law Career By Fighting in Court

Despite dying in 1980, most people around the world still know the face of Colonel Sanders thanks to his restaurant Kentucky Fried Chicken. During his lifetime, the colonel was what polite people would describe as a colorful character. For instance, he once shot a man for painting over one of his advertisements. 

For a time, Colonel Sanders worked as a lawyer. It’s hard to say if he was any good, but word is he once got into a fight in a courtroom with his own client. There were no serious legal repercussions for the colonel, but it put an end to his law career and allowed him to focus on chicken, so maybe it was all for the best.

5. Larry Bird Ended His Career by Building a Driveway for His Mom

In the 1980s, Larry Bird was one of the biggest names in basketball and is still often considered among the top 10 to ever play the game. He was a 12-time all-star; he won a gold for the US Olympic team, and he was making millions of dollars. It’s been said he had earned as much as $80 million and when he left the game in 1992, he left $24 million on the table.

It’s not that his career had come to a natural end; instead, Bird injured himself and had to retire from the game. His back injury is one of the worst in basketball history because he was in his prime at the time it happened.

Arguably the biggest tragedy is how the injury happened. He had opted to help build his mother a driveway at her house back in 1985. He was shoveling gravel outside and threw his back out. It bothered him for years and was constantly locking up. Even surgery couldn’t fix it. It got so bad he had to bow out of the game when he arguably should have had many years to go. 

4. Jean-Claude Van Damme Turned Down a 3-Movie, $12 million Deal

The 1980s and the 1990s were a golden age for action movies. Stars like Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sylvester Stallone, Bruce Willis, and Jean-Claude Van Damme were huge. But nothing lasts forever, and action stars often age out of their roles as time goes on. That’s not to say that Schwarzenegger and Stallone aren’t still making action movies today, they’re just not as intense as they used to be.

Jean-Claude Van Damme, on the other hand, could have probably had a much bigger career than he did. However, Van Damme was a man who bought into his own hype more than other people did. There had been rumors for years that he was very good at sabotaging his own career, and thought he was bigger than he was. The man confirmed as much himself.

After the commercial success of his movie Timecop in 1994, he was offered a three picture, $12 million deal. Instead of taking it, he demanded more money. He wanted $20 million “like Jim Carrey.”  The studio hung up on him and he was blacklisted, tanking his career and relegating him to “direct to video” releases.

3. Allan Carr Produced the 1989 Oscars Then Never Worked in Hollywood Again

Every year the Academy Awards puts on the annual Oscar broadcast and, more often than not, the next day people complain about what they didn’t like about it. But the Oscars are going to be hard pressed to ever outdo the 1989 opening that was so bad it ended the career producer Allan Carr.

The opening segment featured an unknown actress portraying Snow White doing a musical number with Rob Lowe, who is not a singer. The show had no host, just these random performances that made little sense, were bloated with random stars, and were awkward and cringe-inducing to watch.

No one bothered to ask Disney for permission to use Snow White, so they sued for copyright infringement. The broadcast is still considered the worst in the show’s history and ensured subsequent shows never went without a host for another 30 years. 

2. Justine Sacco Was Fired Over a Tweet

Remember Justine Sacco? She was one of the first people to fall victim to what was later labelled “cancel culture.” Which is to say that Sacco said something online that exploded and ruined her life offline as well.

In 2013, Sacco was flying to South Africa and before she boarded the plane she tweets “Going to Africa. Hope I don’t get AIDS. Just kidding. I’m white.” She did not know the storm that created during her time in the air. It went viral, was seen by thousands, and soon after she was fired from her job as a communications director. 

For a time she was the villain of the internet, and the tweet effectively ruined her life. If you’re hoping for a silver lining for this sort of thing it’s worth noting that Sacco eventually got another job and, within a few years, was hired back by the same company for an even more high profile job. So getting cancelled is more of a temporary thing for some folks. 

1. Composer Robert Schumann Ruined His Potential as a Pianist with a Homemade Invention

If you want to make a living as a pianist you have to keep your hands safe. Robert Schumann really wanted to be all he could be when he tickled those ivories. He invented a device that would help strengthen his hands and allow him to play piano even better. Except the exact opposite thing happened.

Schumann is widely known these days as a composer rather than a pianist. Also, for the fact he spent his final years in an asylum. But the reason he failed as a pianist was his invention. Using a cigar box and wire, the device was meant to allow him to rest his hands while he played, allowing them to get stronger. He caused permanent damage to two fingers, however, and couldn’t play at all.

Workplace accidents are a common occurrence. There are many dangerous jobs, which tend to have higher salaries to make up for the risk. Policemen, firefighters, bodyguards, and stuntmen are only a few examples of life-threatening professions.

However, purposely avoiding dangerous professions is far from a safety guarantee. Anyone can end up in the wrong place at the wrong time. And even the most risk-free jobs can occasionally lead to fatal workplace accidents.

SEE ALSO: 10 People Who Are Famous For Being Hilariously Terrible At Their Jobs

10 Janitor

In 2018, a man working for Bee-Clean Building Maintenance was found dead in Edmonton, Canada. Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) was notified that the 50-year-old janitor had died at the Workers Compensation Board of Alberta building.

OHS investigated the cause of death. Rob Scott, executive vice president of Bee-Clean Building Maintenance, stated “We are deeply saddened by what happened and our thoughts, prayers, and support are with the deceased worker’s family at this difficult time. We are working closely with the regulatory authorities to determine the cause of what appears at this time, to be a tragic accident.”^[1]

The investigation later revealed that the man died after getting hit by an overhead garage door. Edmonton police noted that the man’s death is considered non-criminal.

9 Tobacco Farmer

Farming is not an easy job, but it is a fairly safe one. As long as farmers are careful around tractors and watch out for snakes, other threats are few. Unfortunately, not every source of danger can be foreseen and accounted for.

In February 2019, Zimbabwe, three tobacco farmers did not expect to be in harm’s way. They were grading tobacco in a grass-thatched shed when lightning struck and killed the trio. Police quickly confirmed the deaths as a tragic accident.

A few minutes after the thunderstorm began, 44-year-old John Gede was working nearby when he saw the shed on fire. He screamed for help, but it was too late to save the farmers. The 22-year-old Jameson, 21-year-old Mungate, and 16-year-old Onward Gede had instantly burnt to death from the lightning.^[2]

8 Hotel Helper

On the third of January 2019, a boy in India had a fatal accident only two days after turning 13-years-old. He died six months after beginning work as a helper at a hotel. The boy was employed to wash utensils and do various housekeeping tasks.

While the government claims to be working on eradicating child labor, it is still common across India. The job seemed to be safe enough for a child, but the boy did not take proper care around a freight elevator used for moving food and other goods between hotel floors.

Staff members rushed to the kitchen area when they heard a loud crash. They found blood and remains sprayed across the walls. The boy’s body was stuck and his head had been crushed between the grill and the elevator. Police believe that the boy might have been looking down into the elevator shaft.

A federal inspection report was lodged against the hotel owner and manager for culpable homicide not amounting to murder, and sections 75 and 79 of the Juvenile Justice Act, for cruelty to a child and exploitation, respectively.^[3]

7 Actor

Good actors can make it seem like their life is on the line at all times. But except for Jackie Chan and a few other actors who do their own stunts, acting is a fairly risk-free job. Especially nowadays, when most of the dangerous scenes are created with special effects.

However, one dangerous tool is still commonly used in film production to this day—the prop gun. Producers who strive for realism prefer to use real firearms with blank ammo over replicas. While the idea seems flawless on paper, human error can quickly turn the prop into a deadly threat.

There have been a surprising number of deaths caused by prop guns throughout history but the most famous example might be the death of Bruce Lee’s son, Brandon Lee.

Brandon signed on to play a role in “The Crow”, where his character is a murdered rock musician who comes back from the dead to take revenge. Near the end of production, Lee was performing his death scene when a bullet fired from the prop gun pierced his abdomen and ended up near his spine.

Reportedly, because it was a routine scene, and the movie was nearly finished, Carolco Studios had preemptively decided that the services of their firearms consultant were no longer required. The regular stage crew handled the prop gun instead.

The firearms consultant later concluded that a portion of a dummy bullet from a previous scene had become dislodged from its casing and remained in the cylinder. The gun fired, and the actor fell to the ground. Nobody realized that Brandon was really injured until blood oozed from his right side.

Lee was taken to a hospital but the surgeons could not repair the damage. He died on March 31, 1993. An investigation determined that his death was an accident. After shooting additional scenes to complete the film, “The Crow” was released one year later.^[4]

6 Roller Coaster Operator

People often think roller coasters are dangerous. And they are absolutely correct. That is why roller coaster operators stay at a safe distance while handing out tickets, providing safety instructions, and starting and stopping the ride.

Additional duties, such as roller coaster maintenance, are typically taken care of before the attraction becomes operational. But Doug McKay, a co-owner of Paradise Amusements, climbed onto the platform of Super Loop 2 to lubricate a portion of the ride’s track while in use in 2003, Idaho.

A double-ended passenger cart—which rides on a single vertical loop like a roller coaster—struck McKay and carried him over nine meters (30 ft) into the air before dropping him. According to a medical examiner, the initial impact likely caused fatal head trauma on its own.

After falling, McKay struck on the ride several times before landing on a metal fence. Carnival workers and a number of children on the ride were traumatized. Many were spattered with blood. About 30 children who witnessed McKay’s death were rounded up and questioned by the police for an hour until the case was ruled as an accident.^[5]

5 Tennis Linesman

Tennis linesmen are paid to carefully watch tennis games and call out whether a ball has fallen inside or outside the lines of the court. Many people already sit in a chair and watch professionals play tennis for free, so this job may sound like a dream come true for fans of the sport. However, even this seemingly safe job has led to a fatal accident.

In 1983 at the United States Open, tennis linesman Dick Wertheim was hit in the groin with a tennis ball served by Stefan Edberg of Sweden. He fell from his folding chair and hit his head on the ground, which rendered him unconscious.

Wertheim was taken to a hospital and put on a respiratory system but never regained consciousness and passed away five days later. He became the first person ever killed by a tennis ball in a tennis match.

Wertheim’s family sued the United States Tennis Association (USTA) for $2.25 million, accusing them of negligence in providing adequate safety precautions. The complete investigation revealed that the tennis ball strike was not the real cause of Wertheim’s death but USTA was still found 25% responsible and asked to give $165,000 jury award.^[6]

4 Chef

While chefs might risk getting a cut or a burn, their lives are rarely at stake. But one chef in southern China was in more danger than he thought. Peng Fan was preparing a rare delicacy—a special dish made from the Indochinese spitting cobra. As he tried to discard the cobra’s head, which had been severed 20 minutes prior, the cobra bit his hand.

Indochinese spitting cobra victims asphyxiate after their respiratory system is paralyzed by the neurotoxic venom. The only thing that could save the chef’s life was the anti-venom available in a hospital. By the time medical assistance arrived, he was already dead.

According to snake expert Yang Hong-Chang, all reptiles can function for up to an hour after losing body parts or even their entire body. “It is perfectly possible that the head remained alive and bit Peng’s hand,” said the expert. “By the time a snake has lost its head, it’s effectively dead as basic body functions have ceased, but there is still some reflexive action.”

The snake was being made into a snake soup, which is highly sought after in high-end restaurants. And the snake’s skin is used to make expensive designer goods. The Chinese, who have been consuming snakes for centuries, believe that the more poisonous the delicacy, the more it benefits the body.^[7]

3 Shepherd

Although watching over sheep is not the only duty of a shepherd, it is the most commonly associated responsibility. Safety is rarely a concern because wild animals and humans are more interested in the sheep instead. And it is one of the few jobs where falling asleep is almost expected. After all, shepherds spend a lot of time counting sheep.

In 2001, shepherd Mokhtar Adam Fadl was taking a nap beside his flock in the desert near Sidi Barrani, northwest Egypt. It was just another ordinary day at work until it took an unexpected turn, landing Mokhtar a spot in the history books for one of the most unusual deaths ever recorded. He was shot by a sheep.

Mokhtar had fallen asleep without properly securing his rifle. One of the sheep kicked his gun, accidentally firing a shot that landed in the 20-year-old Bedouin’s chest. The police confiscated the unlicensed, locally made gun.^[8]

2 Lawyer

Clement Vallandigham was a former congressman, working as a lawyer on what he thought would be the greatest case of his life. He represented Thomas McGehean in what was believed to be a murder case in 1871, Ohio.

A man named Thomas Myers was playing cards in his room above a bar when five thugs burst in and a brawl broke out. As Myers got up, rushing to pull his pistol from his pocket, a muffled shot was heard. He pulled out the gun, fired a few shots and collapsed dead.

It was unclear what really happened in all the confusion but witnesses kept bringing up McGehean’s name—everyone knew there was bad blood between the two. So the judge and juries believed that McGehean was to blame for the murder.

Meanwhile, Vallandigham believed that Myers had actually shot himself by accident. He went out and conducted an experiment to establish the levels of residue left by a point-blank range shot. By the time Vallandigham was done, three live rounds remained in his pistol.

When the lawyer returned to his hotel room, he was handed a package with Myers’s gun for examination. He lay down both pistols side by side. As Vallandigham explained his theory to a visitor, he performed a demonstration.

The lawyer took a pistol which he believed to be empty and enacted the event as it may have happened. The pistol snagged on his clothing and unintentionally fired a bullet into his belly. Surgeons could not locate the projectile and Vallandigham died the next day.

The lawyer’s death served as proof for his theory and McGehean was acquitted. Reportedly, another man killed himself in the exact same way shortly after by trying to demonstrate how Vallandigham had died.^[9]

1 Gardener

In 2014, UK, Nathan Greenaway was rushed to a hospital. Despite frantic analysis of his blood, doctors could not figure out what was wrong with the 33-year-old. Nathan died five days later from multiple organ failure.

Before his death, Nathan worked as a gardener on the £4m estate of Christopher Ogilvie Thompson. The link between his job and his death was only found when Nathan’s father carried out hours of tireless research to find out what happened.

North Hampshire coroner Andrew Bradley concluded that the gardener most likely brushed up against a flower from the Aconitum genus. The genus contains more than 250 flower species, most of which are extremely poisonous.

Commonly known as aconite, Monkshood, Devil’s Hamlet, and Wolfsbane—Aconitum flowers can lead to poisoning through ingestion or handling without gloves. The poisoning causes dizziness, vomiting, and diarrhea. In severe cases, these symptoms are followed by palpitations, paralysis of the heart and airways, and death.

The attractive purple plant has claimed many human lives, including Canadian actor Andre Noble, who died after accidentally ingesting the plant in a camping trip in 2004. And Brit Lakhvir Singh dubbed the “Curry Killer”, poisoned her lover with a curry dish laced with Indian aconite in 2009.^[10]