A recent post by our very own BL1Y reminded me of a thread I've been meaning to do for a while. Over the years, many of the great questions of history have been answered. For others, while we may not have an exact answer, we have some satisfying plausible hypotheses. Every few years, one of the great longstanding mysteries gets revealed, and a number of History Channel specials have to be shelved. For example, we today know the identities of Deep Throat, BTK, and the Unabomber. Thanks to genetic testing, we know that Tsar Nicolas' family, including the Grand Duchess Anastasia, did not escape. However, there are still many mysteries left unsolved. Some may never be solved. I just hope to live long enough to find out who is "so vain." FOCUS: Which unsolved historical mystery bothers you the most? Which one would you most like the solution to?
I'd like to know what the life of Socrates was like, on a day to day basis, and really what life in general was like in antiquity. What was the food like? How did people spend their time? Just how much did the women wax? Did old people back then complain about kids just like they do now? Did the kids listen to music their parents didn't approve of? And, I will be very disappointed if we never learn the identity of the Lincoln Park bed intruder.
I'd like to know who really wrote Shakespeare's plays. We know so little about Shakespeare himself, and there seems to be a lot of evidence to suggest that the Earl of Oxford was the true author. Unfortunately, we'll probably never know if it was Shakespeare, Oxford, Francis Bacon, Christopher Marlowe, or maybe a time traveler from the 23rd century. I also would like to see the following crimes solved: http://www.cracked.com/article_18459_the-5-creepiest-unsolved-crimes-nobody-can-explain.html
Not sure if this counts or not, but I've always been fascinated by how much knowledge ancient civilizations had. They say most of this knowledge was recorded and preserved in the Library of Alexandria. Which oh so conveniently was burned down by Julius Caesar. Way to go dick wad. Anyways, I think it would have been fascinating to have all of that lost history and knowledge restored to humanity.
Also along the same lines is the loss of the House of Wisdom (Bait al-Hikma) in Baghdad during the Mongol invasion in 1258. The river Tigris is supposed to have run black with ink for six months due to the enormous amount of books flung into the river.
How did my beloved Mad magazine drop the ball in the computer age when the far less superior Cracked turned around and became so great online? As far as historical mysteries, those lines in South America that turn out to be huge pictures when viewed from the air would be nice to know. Did they have some sort of lighter than air contraption? Aliens help out? Just able to use simple mathematics to produce something on that scale?
How did the Egyptian pyramids get built? Who was the Zodiac killer? How much wood could a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck was high on crystal meth?
The Crucifixion. Yes, I know, there's supposedly an answer, but I'd like to see if it really happened that way. Or if it happened at all. I'm curious like that. I'd also like to see what really happened to DB Cooper.
I'm not sure if this counts as a "mystery" so much as probably just a bunch of conspiracy theorists throwing shit at the fan, but I'd like to know once and for all everything that happened with the JFK shooting. I remember in high school we were headed to a cross-country meet and the bus drove over that bridge in Dallas, overlooking the grassy knoll, the street where he was shot, and the building he was shot from. It was beyond creepy. Alt. Focus: I don't give a shit what happened to Amelia Earhart. Was she spying for the US government and captured by the Japanese? Did she manage to escape the crash and find herself on an island? Did she come back to the US under a different name? Who fucking cares! We have planes that can circle the globe now without stopping. Fuck all the scientists with Amelia fetishes.
Anti-Focus - Jack the Ripper I fancy myself an amateur Ripperologist and would hate it if through some manner of DNA evidence or CSI actually uncovered his identity.
I like rock star deaths. Although they are not on the scale of pyramids or the death of Jesus, there are two in particular that fascinate me. One is the death of Kurt Cobain. There is evidence to suggest that he was murdered and several books have been written about why Courtney Love would have wanted him dead and how it was carried out. However, there is also evidence to suggest that he did in fact kill himself. I also want to know what happened to Brian Jones, an original member of the rolling stones who was found dead in his pool. Was it the gardner/yard guy or was it Mick and Keith? There are several theories on this one as well.
I've always been curious about the Lost Colony of Roanoke. I know there have been a lot of different studies to figure out what happened, but nothing has really come up. On a side note, they found out what happened to Amelia Earhart, she crashed on an island and died.
A lot of the theories suggest that the colony was assimilated into local indian tribes. I wish I could cite the source, but there's primary sources commenting on white/half-white members of indian tribes discovered later in that area.
Did George Mallory reach the top of Mt. Everest in 1924, more than three decades before Sir Edmund Hillary was credited with the first ascent? Mallory and his partner died on the mountain, but did they top out first? There are many theories arguing for and against Mallory summitting, though most people these days agree he didn't. It's a mystery, however, that will almost certainly never be solved. More: <a class="postlink" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Mount_Everest_Expedition_1924" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Mo ... ition_1924</a>