1,001 Facts That Will Scare the S#*t Out of You: The Ultimate Bathroom Reader (117 page)

891

FACT :
From their home on the island of Crete, the Minoans once dominated the commerce and culture of the eastern Mediterranean. But in 1500 B.C.,
their advanced civilization came to a catastrophic end
: temples and palaces fell into ruin, viaducts crumbled, and residents died or mysteriously disappeared.
Maybe the
Flying Dutchman
was vacationing in the Mediterranean and they saw him.

Frank Joseph, The Destruction of Atlantis: Compelling Evidence of the Sudden Fall of the Legendary Civilization (Inner Traditions/Bear & Company, 2004).

892

FACT :
In 1918, the U.S. Navy collier
Cyclops vanished in the Bermuda Triangle
shortly after departing Barbados for the United States. Neither the ship nor her crew of 309 sailors was ever seen again. In an official statement, the U.S. government called the
Cyclops
disappearance “one of the most baffling mysteries in the annals of the Navy,” as there were no reported German submarines in the area at that time.
No reported submarines. Isn’t that sort of the idea of submarines?

“Seven Disappearances In the Bermuda Triangle,”
HowStuffWorks.com
,
www.science.howstuffworks.com
.

893

FACT :
In 1587, 120 English men and women settled on Roanoke Island off the coast of Virginia, but when the colony’s governor traveled back to England for more financial and material resources for the foundering settlement and returned three years later,
the entire colony had vanished
.
That fast, huh? I think a glacier could disappear in three years.

“Top Ten Famous Disappearances,”
Time.com
,
www.time.com
.

894

FACT :
Dinosaurs evolved slowly on Earth over millions of years, surviving two distinct periods of mass extinction before dying out completely. The cause of their
final, ultimate extinction is still unknown
.
I think I’ve got it figured out. The Roanoke Island colonists, tired of waiting for their governor, hitched a ride on the
Mary Celeste
, then dinosaurs ate both the colonists and the crew of the
Mary Celeste
and stole their boat so they could sail to Crete and eat the Minoans, too. Then on their way back, the dinosaurs were hijacked by the Jersey Devil and the Chupacabra, who made them sail the ship around the Cape of Good Hope, where they all saw the
Flying Dutchman
and vanished forever.

“Mass Extinctions and The Evolution Of Dinosaurs,” Science Daily, September 30, 2008,
www.sciencedaily.com
.

Bonnie Sachatello-Sawyer and Don and Liza Charlesworth, “Why Did All Dinosaurs Become Extinct?” in Dinosaurs: The Very Latest Information and Hands-On Activities From the Museum of the Rockies, Liza Charlesworth and Bonnie Sachatello-Sawyer (Scholastic Professional, 1996).

895

FACT :
Italian ten-year old Benedetto Supino made headlines in the 1980s for his apparent ability
to set objects on fire
just by looking at them.
This became a problem when a teenaged Ben started checking out girls’ asses.

Worlds Most Incredible Stories (Barnes & Noble Publishing).

896

FACT :
In the mid-nineteenth century, hunters in the Ochamchir region of Abkhazan captured
a feral hair-covered woman
with ape-like features who is believed to be a survivor of the Neanderthal race.
The woman, named Zana by scientists who studied her, was tamed, shaved, and taught how to speak before moving to America and becoming a celebrity. Now she goes by a different name: Kim Kardashian.

Colin Wilson and Damon Wilson, The Mammoth Encyclopedia of the Unsolved (Carroll &Graf, 2000).

897

FACT :
In 1971, a man who called himself Dan “D.B.” Cooper hijacked a plane, then parachuted out of it somewhere just north of Portland, Oregon,
clutching a bag filled with $200,000 in stolen cash
.

He was never seen again.
Maybe he parachuted right into the Mount St. Helens volcano. Talk about bad luck.

“D.B. Cooper Redux,” Federal Bureau Of Investigation, December 31, 2007,
www.fbi.gov
.

898