Strange Mass Events Documented
The City That Couldn't Stop Dancing: Strasbourg, 1518
In July 1518 one woman began to dance in a Strasbourg street. Within a month hundreds had joined her — and the city's official cure was to hire musicians. Five centuries later, no one can say what really happened.
Strange Mass Events Documented
The Laughter That Closed the Schools: Tanganyika, 1962
It began with three schoolgirls giggling in class. Within months, an unstoppable wave of laughing, crying and fainting had shut down schools across an entire region — and doctors could find nothing wrong.
Strange Mass Events Documented
The Sleep That Lasted Decades: The Forgotten Plague of 1917
A century ago an epidemic put its victims to sleep, then locked the survivors inside frozen bodies for years. Doctors never found what caused it.
Strange Mass Events Disputed
The Mad Gasser of Mattoon: The Phantom Who Poisoned a Town — or Didn't
In September 1944, an Illinois town armed itself against a prowler spraying sweet-smelling gas through bedroom windows. Police never found him — because he may never have existed.
Strange Mass Events Documented
The Sweating Sickness: The Tudor Plague That Killed in Hours and Then Vanished
Five times it swept through England, striking down the young and the strong before the day was out. Then, after 1551, it disappeared for good, and no one has ever proven what it was.
Ad