The Loch Ness monster and 4 more of the most successful hoaxes in history

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

There are many white spots in the history of mankind, or vice versa, events that still cannot be explained by official science. Therefore, in pursuit of sensations, enterprising businessmen often go for the falsification of historical relics and masterpieces of art. And sometimes they turn out to be so high-quality and successful that they continue to believe in their authenticity even after being exposed.

Personal diaries of Adolf Hitler

With the worldwide fame of the Fuhrer of the Third Reich, there are many white spots in his history, the most popular of which is whether he really shot himself in a bunker at the end of April 1945. However, the already studied pages of the biography of the person who unleashed the Second World War can become the foundation for building the falsification of an entire period of his life, several years long.

This story took place in 1983, when a real sensation was published in the rather well-known and authoritative German magazine "Stern" - excerpts from the supposedly personal diaries of Adolf Hitler from 1942-1945, which were accidentally found and fell into the hands of journalists. Moreover, to get the "artifact", the publication had to spend a fair amount of money: according to Novate.ru, the "diaries" were bought by the magazine for almost ten million marks.

The investigation of historians led to another, already more ambitious sensation: it quickly became clear that "Hitler's personal notes" were a hoax. Moreover, its author was an artist who for many years has been creating copies of paintings by various authors, including the work of the Fuhrer himself.

Interesting fact: there is another version about the authorship of this incredible hoax. According to this theory, the real customers for the forgery of "diaries" could be none other than former supporters of Hitler in the party, who thus wanted to whitewash the image of their long-deceased leader.

Microsoft's purchase of the Catholic Church

It would seem that, despite all the delights of technological progress, it will not be possible to "make friends" between religion and digital technologies. However, in 1994 there was an incident that managed to unite technocracy and Catholicism in a huge scandal.

And it was like this: in the already mentioned 1994, a press release from Microsoft allegedly appeared on the network, in which it was announced … the purchase by the computer giant of the Catholic Church. The report said the firm was in talks, in particular, to acquire copyrights for the Bible. They even quoted "the words of Bill Gates": "The combined resources of Microsoft and the Catholic Church will allow us to make religion easier and more fun for a wider range of people."

The story with the "press release" received such widespread publicity that the founder of the digital giant even had to give an official refutation. By the way, the name of the author who came up with such an unusual hoax is still unknown. It should be added that this story was the first internet hoax.

"Pompeian paintings" by Casanova

It seems that professional historians, who are the main source of exposing hoaxes, cannot be their victims. However, it seems that almost everything in the world is possible. After all, once “on the hook” of a historical forgery was caught not just a scientist, but “the father of modern archeology”, and was turned around by none other than the brother of the famous adventurer Casanova.

Once the historian and archaeologist Johann Winckelmann wrote the work "Ancient Monuments" and was looking for an illustrator for it. Ultimately, it was an artist who was the brother of the famous Giacomo Casanova. It was he who presented the historian with "unique artifacts" - three paintings that hung on the walls of the volcano destroyed by the eruption of Pompeii. On two of them were painted dancers, on the third was the image of the god Jupiter. Casanova accompanied the paintings with an incredible story that one officer secretly removed "masterpieces" from the excavation site of the deceased city.

Professional historian Winckelmann not only believed the artist's legends, but also described them in his publications. The truth about the “paintings from Pompeii” turned out to be trivial: two of the three canvases were written by Casanova himself, another one with Jupiter was made by Raphael Menges. Today, researchers are inclined to believe that the purpose of the hoax was only Casanova's desire to play a trick on a gullible scientist.

"Spanish" poetess Cherubina de Gabriac

Since the beginning of the 20th century, the popularity of the poetic movement of the Silver Age began to gain momentum. And when the poems of the mysterious Spanish beauty-Catholic were published in the Petersburg magazine, the entire literary Russia was delighted with her style. However, in reality, the stranger turned out to be a simple teacher of a female gymnasium, who did not have a beautiful appearance, but wrote beautiful poetry.

This story began with the publication in the Apollo magazine of poems by an unknown Spanish poetess Cherubina de Gabriac, who writes in Russian. Many intellectuals of St. Petersburg fell in love with the mysterious stranger in absentia. Of particular interest was the fragmentary information about herself that she gave to the Apollo editors by phone.

The "mystery" of this woman was revealed just a few months later. Using the phone number from which Cherubina de Gabriac called, it was possible to find out that the real author of the poems was not a Spanish beauty, but a Russian - Elizaveta Dmitrieva, a female gymnasium teacher, who, moreover, did not have an attractive appearance and was limping. With this she "broke the heart" of a considerable number of admirers of the work of the mysterious poetess.

Interesting fact:to stir up interest in her "alter-ego", Dmitrieva, having an education in history and literature, wrote devastating reviews of the poems of Cherubina de Gabriac.

Photo of the Loch Ness Monster

Of course, it is difficult to imagine a list of the most successful and grandiose hoaxes without a story about the image of a "real" sea monster. We are talking about the famous photograph, which allegedly captured Nessie - the legendary monster from Loch Ness.

This famous story began in 1934, when the popular British edition "Daily Mail" published the first "snapshot" of the monster "Nessie" - the legendary sea monster that allegedly lives in Loch Ness. The image was taken by the surgeon Colonel Wilson. Interest in the mythical lake creature has been shown for a long time, but such convincing evidence of its existence has not yet been found. Nessie's story captured the minds of millions of admirers of the unknown around the world. Scientists also joined in the search for the monster.

The truth was revealed only sixty years later - in 1994 it was finally proved that the "surgeon's picture", which allegedly captured the Loch Ness monster, is a pure hoax. Moreover, for the first time, almost twenty years ago, the direct manufacturers of the forgery, Wilson's accomplices, spoke about this, but then they did not take their words at face value, continuing to believe in the honesty of a British doctor with an impeccable reputation.