April 6

Spider Rain

On April 6 2007, a rain of spiders occurred in Salta Province in the north of Argentina. Christian Oneto Gaona was on vacation with a few friends when they decided to hike into the San Bernardo Mountains. Late that afternoon they hit a patch of ground covered by four-inch spiders of various colors. Even stranger, the group soon realized that spiders were falling on them, even though there was nothing overhead but blue sky. Quickly grabbing his camera, Christian managed to get shots of the falling spiders.

Meanwhile, more recently in Brazil Erick Reis captured a similar phenomenon on video. He was shooting an engagement party for some friends in Santo Antonio da Platina when he noticed the spiders and got this footage:

This also occurred in the late afternoon. The explanation was that strong winds can disturb the web building activities of the social species Anelosimus eximius, lifting them off trees and buildings and carrying them skyward to fall on the unexpected. It seems reasonable, but in the case of Christian Gaona the spiders were four inches. Anelosimus eximius is only about the size of a pencil eraser. And there were no buildings or trees nearby.

Also on this date:

in 1966, the Clayton Incident also known as the Westall UFO. At 11:00 am, more than 200 students and teachers of Westall High School in Melbourne, Australia, witnessed a UFO descend into a nearby field only to ascend again, taking off to the northwest. Below is the Australian documentary about it.

April 5

A Bad Day To Be In The Triangle

The 185 foot radio-equipped freighter Sandra sailed from Savannah on this day in 1950 for Puerto Cabello, Venezuela with a cargo of 340 tons of DDT. She was due April 13 but never arrived, vanishing without a trace. While technically an unsolved mystery, it is known that there were storms which approached hurricane force blanketing the area through which she travelled. It may seem odd that no SOS was sent, since she had radio, but there are a myriad of problems that could have arisen. Batteries go dead,  connections fail, operators get injured, etc. Each ship, especially back then, was only as safe as it's owner's wallet allowed.

On April 5, 1961 the yacht Callista III vanished while sailing from Norfolk to the Bahamas, and that's all the information I can find.

A B-25 Mitchell in it's wartime garb, via Wikipedia

Then, on April 5, 1966 (1956 is sometimes mistakenly quoted) a B-25 Mitchell bomber, converted to carry cargo disappeared south-east of Tongue-of-the-Ocean, during a flight from Ft. Lauderdale to Aruba. No distress call was heard and three men (and a cargo of frozen chicken) most likely wound up on the bottom.

And in 1971 it was the turn of the freighter Elizabeth, carrying a cargo of paper. On April 5 she radioed her position in the Windward Passage, between Haiti and Cuba. It was the last sign of the Elizabeth.

Also on this date:

Mount Tambora erupts in 1815, a major factor in 'the year without a summer'.

April 4

Putting The Corpse On Trial

Pope Formosus, via Saints.SQPN.com

Pope Formosus died on this date in 896. For most of us that would have been an end to our earthly problems. Not so for Formosus.

Poor Formosus didn't have an easy time of it even when he was alive. He was accused of opposing Emperor Louis II, deserting his diocese, and despoiling the cloisters in Rome, among other things. He was condemned to be excommunicated in 872, and this was all before he became Pope. After he ascended the Papal throne things got worse.

Formosus became embroiled in clerical, as well as secular, politics. He was asked to intervene in Constantinople when the Patriarch Photius was ejected. Then he got involved in a fight over the French throne, taking the side of Charles the Simple over Odo, Count of Paris. Deeply distrustful of the Holy Roman Emperor Guy III of Spoleto, Formosus talked Arnulf of Corinthia into invading Italy to overthrow him. Formosus later crowned Arnulf as Emperor.

The Cadaver Synod, via Wikipedia

After Formosus died Agiltrude (Guy's wife) convinced Pope Stephen VI (the next Pope save one after Formosus) to call for the Cadaver Synod. They disinterred Formosus, dressed his remains in papal robes and put him on trial. He was found unworthy of the Pontificate and all his acts and the orders he conferred were declared invalid. For obvious reasons, he didn't mount much of a defense.

As punishment his vestments were ripped off, the three fingers he used for consecrations were amputated, and his body discarded in the Tiber, from which it was rescued by a monk. After Stephen died Formosus was reinterred in St. Peters Basilica, but then Pope Sergius III re-approved the verdict against Formosus, with the result that the corpse was again exhumed, put on trial, found guilty and this time beheaded, though there is some doubt as to the participation of Sergius himself. Sergius' decision has been disregarded by the church, since it had more to do with politics than with piety.

It just goes to show, your problems, sometimes, are never over.

Also on this date:

An article has appeared in today's (April 4, 2014) Daily Mail, about a British university lecturer who has claimed to have photographed fairies in the Rossendale Valley, Lancashire.

John Hyatt, who is director of the Manchester Institue for Research and Innovation in Art and Design insists his photographs are genuine. I think they look like insects. Go here to see the photos, and see what you think.

April 3

Into Thin Air: Ludwig Leichhardt

Ludwig Leichhardt, via Wikipedia

One of the occupational hazards of early explorers was to vanish without trace, or nearly so. It happened to Percy Fawcett. It happened to John Franklin. And it happened to Ludwig Leichhardt. In most cases, we have a good idea of what occurred. Not so much with Leichhardt.

Ludwig Leichhardt was a Prussian scientist and early explorer of the Australian interior. He was well regarded as Australia's most daring naturalist after two expeditions into uncharted territory, one of which was over 4800 km (3000 miles) on foot and horseback.

No stranger, then, to hardship, Leichhardt did not hesitate in planning his most ambitious expedition yet- a crossing of the continent from east to west, more or less through the center. It was intended to take two to three years, through territory completely unknown to Europeans.

He set out from the Condamine river in March of 1848 with four other Europeans, two Aboriginal guides, seven horses, twenty mules and fifty bullocks, eventually arriving at McPherson's Station, Coogon, on the Darling Downs. He was last seen on April 3 as his expedition moved inland. Any evidence of what happened next is extremely sketchy. Through the years several trees carved with an 'L' (a known habit of Leichhardt's) were located, and around 1900 a tiny brass plate engraved 'Ludwig Leichhardt 1848' was found by an Aboriginal stockman. When found, the plate was attached to a partially burnt shotgun set in a boab tree marked with an 'L'.

The Leichhardt brass plate via National Museum Australia

This discovery was located near Sturt Creek around two-thirds of the way across the continent from the Condamine river. Aside from indicating that he made it that far, it also shows Leichhardt was following a more northerly route in his attempted crossing, rather than cutting straight through the desert interior. There the trail ends.

There are plenty of theories- the party was murdered, they became lost and died of thirst and exposure in the desert, they drowned assaying a river crossing, Leichhardt lived out his life as the prisoner of a remote Aboriginal tribe. All pure speculation, so far. Where did Ludwig Leicchardt wind up and how did he finish? Nobody knows.

April 2

Why do UFOs like April 2?

No, there isn't a punch-line. There always seems to be activity on April 2. Like the video below of an unidentified aerial glow over New Orleans in 2012.

Ufo, ball lightning, or something else entirely? The original poster of this video has stated that "This video has been confirmed to be real. But it's no UFO, it's a rare weather phenomenon." Unfortunately, that is all they tell us. How was the reality of the video confirmed? What identifies this as ball lightning?

In 2013 it was "Massive UFO Lights Up East Coast! April 2"

Then there's this photo from The British Earth and Aerial Mysteries Society for the same date:

And of course, the Balwyn, Australia UFO of April 2, 1966 via UFO Evidence:

The well tended site (it looks like a lot of work) UFO Sightings Daily mentions at least five others, while Ufoinfo has a list of a dozen for the date. The National UFO Reporting Center has a massive database which lists sightings by date, with consistent reports for April 2. Why April 2? I have no idea, unless it's because it's the day after April Fool's Day. Just kidding.

Also on this date:

The birth of Chico Xavier, in 1910, popular medium of Brazil's spiritism movement, and author of Nosso Lar.

April 1

Olivia Barclay, the traditional astrologer

Olivia Barclay, via AstroWiki

Today, sadly marks the anniversary of the death of a fascinating lady. Olivia Barclay was a professional artist and designer, but made her biggest splash as an astrologer. She first became interested in astrology in the 1930's, but it wasn't until 1959 that she became a dedicated student of it. 

She rapidly became disenchanted with the psychological approach used by most astrologers of the period. In 1980 she obtained a copy of William Lilly's Christian Astrology, in the very rare 1647 edition. This changed the entire thrust of her research, and eventually led to a revival of horary astrology. She developed a course to train astrologer's in traditional methods, much of which is included in her 1990 book, Horary Astrology Rediscovered: A Study in Classical Astrology.

She was honored by three professional astrology organizations, NCGR, AFAN, and ISAR for her work as lecturer and teacher. 

A memorial site is located here.