April 26

All Over the Board

Exploding Toads

Today marks the ninth anniversary of the great exploding toad mystery. Health officials in Hamburg Germany were perplexed and in a bit of a panic after about one thousand toads each showered an area of around a square yard with toad innards. The mess was, as you can imagine, terrible, a potential health hazard and a rather unique mystery.

It was finally figured out that crows were to blame. The local birds had developed an insatiable hankering for toad's livers, which they were able to pluck out before the toad realized it was being attacked. As soon as it did, it puffed up as a natural defense, but since it doesn't have a diaphragm or ribs to hold everything else in, the toad popped like a balloon stuck with a pin.

Ptombstone Pterodactyls?

On the 26th of April, 1890, the Tombstone Epitaph ran this headline: Found on the Desert. Strange Winged Monster Discovered and Killed on the Huachuca Desert. 

The article told the story of two ranchers who ran across what, from the description, could only be described as a pterodactyl. Of course once they were over their amazement, their first thought was to kill it. Having accomplished their goal with a few well aimed shots, they measured it as about ninety-two feet long and, wing tip to wing tip, about 160 feet across. The article ends with pieces being sent to undisclosed experts back east. 

This was the only account to see print. Without meaning to brand the story a hoax, I nevertheless wish to point out that newspapers of the time would often make up incredible stories anytime circulation flagged.

The Ball in the Mall

On this date in 1991, security cameras filmed a glowing white orb the size of a tennis ball as it toured Birchwood Shopping Centre in England. After climbing walls and circling waste bins, it disappeared over a tree.

And that's about it for April 26.