Do you think everything in life repeats itself? But this is not so. As an example, we can cite several events that occurred only once in the history. Believe me, they are truly unique and interesting.
In the world there is a lot of interesting and unusual things, but if some events recur periodically, then history knows several situations that until now happened only once. Let's find out about the most vivid and memorable stories.
1. Victory over black smallpox
In the years of the storming of the epidemic of smallpox, 2 million people died every year, and who survived remained disfigured. Scientists have been working on a cure for this terrible disease for more than 10 years. According to the information available, the last case of smallpox was recorded in 1978, and the following year it was officially announced that the disease had been eradicated. Blackpox is the only disease that we managed to cope with once and for all.
2. Epidemic of laughter
Surprisingly, in 1962 a mass hysteria was recorded, which occurred in Tanganyika (now Tanzania). An unusual epidemic began on January 30, when three students of the Christian school began to laugh uncontrollably. This was picked up by the rest of the pupils, teachers and other personnel, which caused the school to close for a while. Hysteria spread to other territories, so, the epidemic took more than 1 thousand people and lasted for 18 months. It would be better to laugh instead of the flu epidemic every year. By the way, scientists believe that hysteria was provoked by strict training conditions, and the children got rid of stress through laughter.
3. Destructive Hurricane
On the North Atlantic, storms and hurricanes are regularly recorded. Statistics show that on average, the inhabitants of these territories experience 12 storms and 6 hurricanes every year. Since 1974, storms began to appear in the South Atlantic, but this was extremely rare. In 2004, along the coast of Brazil, Hurricane Katarina swept through, which caused significant destruction. It is believed that this is the only hurricane recorded in the territory of the southern Atlantic.
4. The Departure of the Shelf
A mystical and inexplicable phenomenon occurred in August 1915 in Turkey. The British Norfolk Regiment took part in military operations and made an offensive to the village of Anafart. According to eyewitnesses, soldiers were surrounded by a cloud of thick fog, which from the outside looked like a loaf of bread. Interestingly, its shape did not change even because of gusts of wind. After the cloud dissipated, 267 regiment disappeared, and no one else saw them. When Turkey was defeated three years later, Britain demanded the return of the prisoners of this regiment, but the losing party stated that they did not fight with these soldiers, especially since they did not take them prisoner. Where people have disappeared, remains a mystery.
5. Exploration of the planets
It is common to consider Uranus and Neptune as ice planets. Scientists first sent the spacecraft Voyager 2 to their study in 1977. Uranus was reached in 1986, and Neptune - in three years. Thanks to research, it was possible to establish that the atmosphere of Uranus includes 85% of hydrogen and 15% of helium, and at a distance of 800 km under the clouds there is a boiling ocean. As for Neptune, the spacecraft managed to fix active geysers located on its satellites. At the moment, this is the only large-scale study of ice giants, because scientists have priority in the planet, on which, in their opinion, people can live.
6. Cured of AIDS
Scientists have been working for many years to create a medicine that could defeat AIDS, which kills a large number of people around the world. History knows only one person who was able to overcome this ailment, the American Timothy Ray Brown, he is also called the "Berlin patient". In 2007, a man underwent leukemia treatment, and he was transported with blood stem cells. Doctors say that the donor had a rare genetic mutation that provides resistance to the HIV virus, and it was transmitted to Ray. Three years later he came to take tests, and the virus was no longer in his blood.
7. Destructive beer wave
This situation seems to be taken from the fable about the mouse, which fell into a cistern with beer, and it occurred in London at the beginning of the XIX century. In the local brewery in October 1814, an accident occurred, which resulted in the explosion of a tank with beer, which provoked a chain reaction in other tanks. All this ended with a wave of 1.5 million liters of beer rushing through the street. She demolished everything in her path, destroyed buildings and caused the death of nine people, one of whom died as a result of alcohol poisoning. At that time, the incident was recognized as a natural disaster.
8. Successful aviation crime
There are many cases when the attackers tried to capture the aircraft, but only once in the history of the case it turned out to be successful. In 1917, Dan Cooper boarded a Boeing 727 and handed the flight attendant a note where he said that there was a bomb in his portfolio and put forward demands: four parachutes and $ 200,000. The theorrorist freed the people, got everything he requested, and ordered the pilot words take off. As a result, Cooper jumped with money over the mountains, and no one has ever seen him again.
9. The Carrington event
A unique phenomenon occurred in 1859 on September 1. Astronomer Richard Carrington observed flashes on the Sun that caused a serious geomagnetic storm that day. As a result, telegraph networks were denied in Europe and North America, and people around the world could observe the northern lights, which were very bright.
10. The killer lake
One of the most dangerous lakes is located in the crater of a volcano in Cameroon, and it is called "Nyos". In 1986, on August 21, the reservoir caused death of people, as a huge amount of carbon dioxide was released, which spread to 27 km in the form of fog. As a result, 1.7 thousand people died and many animals died. Scientists have proposed two reasons: the gas accumulated at the bottom of the lake or the action of underwater volcanoes. Since that time, works on degassing have been regularly carried out, that is, scientists artificially provoke gas outflows to avoid such a catastrophe.
11. Devil's tracks
An inexplicable phenomenon, which is of a mystical nature, occurred on the night of 7 to 8 February in 1855 in Devon. On the snow, people discovered strange traces left by hoofs, and assumed that Satan himself had passed here. Surprised that the tracks were the same size and were at a distance of 20-40 cm from each other. They were not only on the ground, but also the roofs of houses, walls and near the entrances to the sewers. People unanimously asserted that they saw no one and heard no noise. Scientists did not have time to check the origin of these tracks, as the snow melted quickly.
12. Dried Niagara Falls
A beautiful complex of waterfalls provoked erosion, which could cause serious consequences. To stop this process, in 1969 the government of America and Canada first attempted to increase the outflow of water, but this did not work. As a result, a new artificial bed was created, along which Niagara was allowed to enter. Due to the fact that the waterfall has dried up, the workers were able to create a dam and to strengthen the slopes. At that time, the dried up Niagara Falls became almost the main attraction, because people wanted to see this unique event with their own eyes.
13. The cavalry that seized the ships
This, of course, sounds strange, but a story is known when the cavalry with infantry captured a fleet that includes 14 ships with 850 guns and several merchant ships. It happened in the winter of 1795 near Amsterdam, where the Dutch fleet was anchored. Because of the severe frosts, the sea was covered with ice, and the ships were trapped. Thanks to nature's help, the French troops were able to reach the ships and capture them.
14. Change in blood type
A resident of Australia, 9-year-old Demi-Lee Brennaya is the only example when a person has changed blood type. The girl was transplanted to the liver from a man and a few months later the doctors found that she had a Rh factor that was negative before, but became positive. Scientists say that this was made possible by the fact that the liver contained stem cells that replaced the stem cells of the girl's bone marrow. A similar process was due to the reduced immunity of Demi.
15. Lead Masks
In 1966 on August 20, near the hill Vinten near the Brazilian town of Niteroy, two dead men were found. They were dressed in business suits, waterproof raincoats, and on their faces were iron masks. On the body, there were no traces, and next to it was a bottle of water, a handkerchief and a note with instructions for action, but it was incomprehensible. The autopsy did not allow us to determine why the men died. Relatives told that they were fond of spiritualism and wanted to establish a connection with extraterrestrial worlds. Those who died before said that they plan to determine if there are other worlds or not.
16. The Iron Mask
Under this name is hidden a mysterious prisoner, of whom wrote the work of Voltaire. It described the theory that a prisoner was a twin brother to the king, so he was forced to wear a mask. In fact, the information that it was iron is a myth, because it was made of velvet. There is another version, according to which, under the mask in prison was the real King Peter I, and instead of him an impostor ruled in Russia.