Futility Closet

Journalist Nancy Wake became an intrepid secret agent in wartime France.

In the 1810s Mary Anning begin to unearth strange creatures near her English seaside town.

A selection of curiosities and questions from Greg's research database.

In the 1970s, David Rosenhan showed that healthy people could be diagnosed as mentally ill.

The world's largest art heist remains unsolved.

Play along as we untangle five strange-sounding situations using yes-or-no questions.

In 1921 a schooner was discovered aground off Cape Hatteras. There was no one aboard.

In 1932 four gangsters set out to kill their friend and failed five times in a row.

In 1975 a woman set out alone to lead four camels across the deserts of western Australia.

After Pearl Harbor was attacked, one American seaplane had to circle the world to get home.

A surprising case of classical music plagiarism.

For 13 years white geologist Clarence King maintained a second identity as a black man in New York.

Brothers Homer and Langley Collyer filled their Harlem townhouse with 140 tons of junk.

Diver William Walker spent five years in flooded pits under Winchester Cathedral to restore the building's foundations.

In 1958, two pilots managed to stay aloft in a small plane for two months continuously.