Seven mysterious disappearances in History

New Delhi: There are a few mysterious disappearances that remain inexplicable or have so captured the public imagination that they continue to intrigue us to this day.Here is the list of seven mysterious and unexplained disappearances over the years:1. Disappearance of Charles Nungesser and Francois Coli, 19271927 was a big year in aviation, and nothing was bigger than the race to be the first to make the Paris to New York Atlantic crossing. At one point, as many as a half dozen aviators were vying for the honor of being the first, but most dropped out due to mechanical or funding problems, leaving only a few genuine contenders. Charles Lindbergh was the one who eventually pulled it off, but it was a close call as just days before he made his flight, a well-known French aviator named Charles Nungesser attempted to take the prize by flying from Paris to New York. Unfortunately—or perhaps fortuitously from Lindbergh's standpoint—the man, along with his navigator, François Coli, disappeared somewhere over the Atlantic and were never heard from again. 2. Disappearance of Harold Holt, 1967In December of 1967 the then Prime Minister of Australia Harold Holt goes disappearing.He went for a swim and was never seen again. There were many rumors surrounding Holt's death and mysterious disappearance, including claims that he had committed suicide or faked his own death in order to run away with his mistress. His death even became the subject of numerous urban myths in Australia, including outlandish but persistent stories that he had been kidnapped by a Chinese submarine, or that he had been abducted by a UFO. 3. Disappearance of Amelia Earhart, 1937What happened to the 39-year-old aviatrix and her navigator, Fred Noonan, has remained a source for speculation to this day. On one of the last legs of a circumnavigation of the globe, the pair left Lae, New Guinea en route to a tiny speck of land known as Howland Island, never to be seen or heard of again. Of course, the most likely explanation is they simply got lost and ran out of fuel, forcing her to ditch in the sea—a precarious and probably fatal prospect in the heavy, two-engine Lockheed Electra she was flying. Conspiracy theorists had had a field day ever since, claiming that she was captured by the Japanese when she flew too near the Marshal Islands on a secret spying mission for President Roosevelt, while others think she set down on some other deserted island and played Gilligan's Island with Fred for awhile. Even as late as 1970 there were those who claimed she was still alive, having somehow survived to make her way to America to live under an assumed name. 4. Mysterious Disappearance of Italian Explorer- John Cabot, 1499John Cabot—the second European to step foot on North America in 1497, disappeared along with his five ship fleet during an expedition to find a western route from Europe to Asia. This was, after all, 1499, when things like the Coast Guard and GPS was not yet around to help someone out of such situations. Still, it is unusual that nothing was heard again from at least one of the ships from the ill-fated cruise, but such was the case with Mister Cabot's fleet. 5. Disappearance of Raoul Wallenberg, 1945Raoul Wallenberg was a courageous Swedish diplomat who was credited with saving the lives of at least 20,000 Hungarian Jews during the Holocaust . Arrested on espionage charges in Budapest following the arrival of the Soviet army, his subsequent fate remains a mystery despite hundreds of purported sightings in Soviet prisons, some as recent as the 1980s. In 2001, after 10 years of research, a Swedish-Russian panel concluded that Wallenberg probably died (most likely executed by the Russians) in July of 1947, but to date no hard evidence has been found to confirm this. 6. Disappearance of D.B. Cooper, 1971D.B. Cooper was a man who skyjacked a Boeing 727 over Washington State and, after collectinga ransom of $200,000 dollars from authorities, jumped from the rear stairs of the plane from an altitude of 10,000 feet, never to be seen again. Investigation took place but his disappearance remains a mystery.7. Disappearance of Judge Joseph Force Crater, 1930Judge Crater was an associate justice for the Supreme Court for the State of New York. He got disappeared along with his “girlfriend” Sally Lou Ritz. Their disappearance has remained a well-kept secret for eighty years . Some speculated the judge ran afoul of the mafia, which is not all that outlandish a prospect, considering that there were any number of judges during that era known to have connections with organized crime. Others, however, believe the judge and his mistress planned their own disappearance and probably skipped town with bags of loot in an effort to start a new life elsewhere.