365 days of impossible occurrences, fantastic treasures, and incredible true tales will amaze, confound, and remind us just how mysterious this world really is. A magical daily read.
Almanac of the Infamous, the Incredible and the Ignored has it’s own website devoted to paranormal activity, unsolved mysteries and unexplained phenomenon.
Sample illustrations are from the artists ‘sketchbook’. Illustrations in the book the same but without the color. To look inside the book go here.
Check out some sample topics below.
MEN IN BLACK
Some UFO witnesses have been scared into keeping quiet about their experiences by oppressive figures known as the ‘Men in Black’. Those who have encountered these sinister individuals report that they generally travel in groups of two or three, wear dark suits and hats, and drive old but pristine black cars.
The founder of the International Flying Saucer Bureau, Albert Bender, claimed he was visited by three Men in Black after he announced a theory to explain UFOs. They told him to keep silent or face ‘dire consequences’.
SKYFALLS
On May 5, 1786, the last day of a drought that had lasted since the previous November, “A great quantity” of black eggs fell on Port-au-Prince, Haiti. They hatched the next day, and some of these strange animals from the sky were preserved in a flask of water. The creatures shed their skin several times and resembled tadpoles.
In Moreau de St-Mery’s Description de St DomingueI (1796) there is an account of what may be one of the few showers of frog-spawn on record. It fell during a drought over the whole of San Domingo (now Haiti and the Dominican Republic) on May 5 1786. De St-Mery wrote: “There fell, during a strong east wind, in several parts of the city of Port au Prince… a great quantity of black eggs, which hatched the following day…They shed their skins several times and resembled tadpoles.”
CROP CIRCLES
On July 7, 1996, the crop circle mystery took a leap into the impossible when a stunning and elegant design was created in 45 minutes, on a Sunday afternoon, in full view of the busy highway by Stonehenge. A pilot flying over the sunny Wiltshire, U.K. countryside around 5:00 pm noticed nothing unusual in the wheat field. A Stonehenge security guard and a farm worker also confirmed the absence of any pattern. Forty-five minutes later, the pilot returned and the massive fractal had appeared. Traffic was at a standstill as drivers stopped to observe the newly formed symbol.
UFOs
The Gorman ‘dogfight’ as it is called, which for 27 minutes involved Lt. George F. Gorman of the North Dakota Air National Guard and a UFO over Fargo, North Dakota, on the night of October 1, 1948, is one of the early classics of the genre.
Gorman, who had been on a cross-country flight with his squadron, had decided to stay up after the other planes had landed and log some more night-flying time. At about 9PM he was preparing to land when the control tower informed him of another craft – a Piper cub – in the vicinity. Gorman could see this plane clearly below him, but then what appeared to be the taillight of another plane flashed by him on the right.
THE MOST MYSTERIOUS MANUSCRIPT IN THE WORLD
On August 19, 1666, the rector of Prague University sent a letter and a manuscript to one of his former students, the Jesuit scholar Athanasius Kircher. The manuscript became forgotten about in the monastery library in Frascati, Italy for 250 years. It was obtained by Wilfred Voynich in 1912 and went on to be dubbed “The Most Mysterious Manuscript in the World.”
Christened the ‘Voynich,’ the 6” x 9” parchment codex appears to be a straightforward book. It is, however, over 200 pages written in a code or unknown language that has never been deciphered, and is elaborately illustrated with coloured drawings of unknown plants and the sun, moon and stars. Depictions of tiny naked women frolick over the pages.
LUMINOUS PHENOMENA
The first indication of anything unusual was the appearance of white caps on the sea here and there, which made me think that the wind had freshened, but I could feel that this was not so. Then flashing beams appeared over the water, which made the Officer on watch think that the fishing boats were using powerful flashlights. These beams of light became more intense and appeared absolutely parallel, about 8 feet wide, and could be seen coming from right ahead at about ½ second intervals.