After the 9/11 attacks, Pat Tillman gave up a lucrative football career to join the U.S. Army. But in 2004, he was tragically killed by the Taliban — or so his family and the American public were led to believe.

Several weeks later, the real story finally came out: Tillman had been killed by friendly fire, not the Taliban. As if that weren’t bad enough, the circumstances surrounding his death were highly suspicious.

https://allthatsinteresting.com/pat-tillman-death

credits: https://allthatsinteresting.com/podcast-credits

Learn more about June’s Journey, the hidden-object mystery game available now free for iOS and Android.

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John Wilkes Booth hailed from America’s most celebrated theatrical dynasty. At the height of his powers, his father, Junius, ranked as the greatest Shakespearean in the country, and John’s older brothers, Junius and Edwin, also achieved fame. After an unpromising professional debut, John lived up to the family name, rising to stardom. With the outbreak of the American Civil War, however, he eventually left acting and plotted a conspiracy to aid the Confederacy by treasonous means.

The Art of Crime is a history podcast about the unlikely collisions between true crime and the arts, listen more here:

https://www.artofcrimepodcast.com/post/a-family-affair-john-wilkes-booth-pt-i-s2e8

credits: https://allthatsinteresting.com/podcast-credits

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It’s the end of August 2023 and we’ve handpicked a few of our favorite history stories from this month. Today, we’ll be talking about…

The discovery of a medieval handheld sundial in Germany…

…yet another vampire grave uncovered in Poland…

…the surprise discovery of a Roman ship by Siberian coal miners…

…why historians now believe that Hirota people in Japan intentionally deformed their skulls centuries ago…

…how conservation work on an Irish castle revealed a secret room…

As well as a number of historic anniversaries, including the shocking death of President Warren G. Harding, the deadly eruption of Krakatoa, and much more.

https://allthatsinteresting.com/krakatoa-eruption

credits: https://allthatsinteresting.com/podcast-credits

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On June 21, 1947, Harold Dahl and his son Charles were gathering logs near the eastern shore of Maury Island, Washington in Puget Sound when Harold suddenly saw something strange in the sky above him. What looked like six, donut-shaped objects were suddenly hovering roughly half a mile above his boat, but before Dahl could even attempt to understand what he was looking at, a barrage of metal debris rained down on him. 

The men were flabbergasted by what they had just witnessed, but the story was just getting started, and what happened next may remain the most chilling part of the story. The next day, Harold Dahl claimed that he was visited by a mysterious man in a black suit who was able to describe his experience in eerily accurate detail. The man then told him, “What I have said is proof to you that I know a great deal more about this experience of yours than you will want to believe.”

But just who are the Men in Black? While the 1997 Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones film might paint the Men in Black as “galaxy defenders” who stop extraterrestrial threats against Earth, those who claim to have encountered the Men in Black in real life describe them in a much more disturbing way. 

https://allthatsinteresting.com/real-men-in-black

credits: https://allthatsinteresting.com/podcast-credits

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In September 1994, the small rural town of Ruwa, Zimbabwe was forever changed. For several days, people across the region reported seeing mysterious lights in the sky at night, kicking off rumors and speculation about UFO activity in the area. But while these sightings could have been attributed to any number of things, they were just precursors to one of the strangest episodes in recent history. 

https://allthatsinteresting.com/ariel-school-phenomenon

credits: https://allthatsinteresting.com/podcast-credits

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On March 8, 1994, residents living along the shore of Lake Michigan witnessed one of the most widespread UFO sightings in history. Bright, multi-colored orbs appeared over the water and could be seen as far south as the Indiana state line, dancing erratically across the night sky.

To this day, the 1994 Lake Michigan UFO Incident remains unexplained. And it's not the first time that something strange and inexplicable has happened over the Great Lakes.

https://allthatsinteresting.com/1994-lake-michigan-ufo-incident

credits: https://allthatsinteresting.com/podcast-credits

Head to http://factormeals.com/historyuncovered50 and use code HISTORYUNCOVERED50 to get 50% off Factor, America’s #1 Ready-To-Eat Meal Kit.

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One steamy summer night in August 1955, 11 terrified people suddenly flooded into the police station in Hopkinsville, Kentucky. They immediately began blabbering frantically about something that had happened on their farm in the nearby town of Kelly. "We need help,” one man cried to the alarmed yet confused policemen who were working the night shift. “We’ve been fighting them for nearly four hours.”

And when the man said "them," he meant aliens — little men who had allegedly landed on their farmhouse in the dead of night, terrifying the group with their glowing eyes, silvery skin, and utter indifference to the bullets that the group began firing at them. And though the police who soon descended on the farm found no evidence of aliens, they did find plenty of shell casings and bullet holes, confirming that the people at the Kelly farmhouse had been convinced that something was lurking in the darkness nearby.

Ever since that night, the so-called Kelly-Hopkinsville encounter has held a crucial place in UFO lore, both because the purported alien invasion was witnessed by so many people — people who told eerily similar stories and steadfastly stood by them — and because it helped establish the very idea of "little green men." Steven Spielberg has even cited the Kelly-Hopkinsville encounter as an inspiration for both Close Encounters of the Third Kind and E.T.

https://allthatsinteresting.com/kelly-hopkinsville-encounter

credits: https://allthatsinteresting.com/podcast-credits

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It’s the end of July 2023 and we’ve handpicked a few of our favorite history stories from this month. Today, we’ll be talking about…

A vase purchased at a thrift store for just $3.30 that turned out to be from Meiji-era artist Namikawa Yasuyuki…

An 18,000-year-old shelter that could be the oldest human settlement in North America…

The remains of a U.S. soldier from World War II that were finally identified after 80 years…

A Norwegian family who found Bronze Age rock paintings while out on a hike…

And another Norwegian family who uncovered an ancient Viking burial site in their own backyard, as well as a number of historical anniversaries including the beginning of the Battle of Gettysburg, the Boise Bombing Raid, and the tenth anniversary of the Marriage Act in the United Kingdom.

https://allthatsinteresting.com/namikawa-yasuyuki-vase

credits: https://allthatsinteresting.com/podcast-credits

Head to http://factormeals.com/historyuncovered50 and use code HISTORYUNCOVERED50 to get 50% off Factor, America’s #1 Ready-To-Eat Meal Kit.

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On November 9, 1970, the carcass of an eight-ton, 45-foot-long sperm whale washed up on the beach near the small town of Florence, Oregon. For the next several days, the whale sat undisturbed on the shore while its rotting flesh sent a putrid cloud into the air. As local KATU news anchor Paul Linnman said at the time, the Oregon State Highway Department “not only had a whale of a problem on its hands — it had a stinking whale of a problem.”

In all, 20 cases of dynamite were used to blow up the whale. Those in attendance watched in awe as the explosion went off and the whale erupted in a blubbery blast – then, the crowd’s fascination immediately turned to horror as massive chunks of flesh started raining down upon them.

In the words of newscaster Paul Linnman, “The blast blasted blubber beyond all believable bounds.”

https://allthatsinteresting.com/exploding-whale

credits: https://allthatsinteresting.com/podcast-credits

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Marathons today follow a simple formula. There's a starting line and a finish line, a crowd of excited and apprehensive racers, and a clear course to follow. But the 1904 Olympic Marathon took some unexpected turns, in more ways than one. 

From the moment the starting gun went off a few minutes after three pm on August 30, the race got even wilder. Preceded by horses meant to clear the road, and followed by cars to monitor the race, the runners were instantly choked by swirling, dry dust. This, the heat of the Missouri day, and the lack of water stations along the route made the run a hellish challenge for the 32 runners, just 14 of whom would end up finishing the race.

In the end, the course of the 1904 Olympic Marathon would be dubbed, by an observer, “the most difficult a human being was ever asked to run over.” In the days that followed, there was even some serious talk of striking the marathon from the Olympic games for good, as it was referred to as a "man-killing" event.

This is the story of perhaps the strangest sporting event in modern history.

https://allthatsinteresting.com/1904-olympic-marathon

credits: https://allthatsinteresting.com/podcast-credits

History Uncovered is part of the Airwave Media network: www.airwavemedia.com

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