1 00:00:04,160 --> 00:00:07,520 Speaker 1: Welcome to Aaron Menke's Cabinet of Curiosities, a production of 2 00:00:07,520 --> 00:00:14,480 Speaker 1: iHeartRadio and Grimm and Mild. Our world is full of 3 00:00:14,560 --> 00:00:18,520 Speaker 1: the unexplainable, and if history is an open book, all 4 00:00:18,560 --> 00:00:22,200 Speaker 1: of these amazing tales are right there on display, just 5 00:00:22,280 --> 00:00:28,920 Speaker 1: waiting for us to explore. Welcome to the Cabinet of Curiosities. 6 00:00:36,760 --> 00:00:40,520 Speaker 1: We can usually expect certain natural phenomena to always occur, 7 00:00:40,880 --> 00:00:43,879 Speaker 1: hopefully at least like the changing of the leaves in 8 00:00:43,920 --> 00:00:46,600 Speaker 1: autumn or the ebb and flow of the ocean's tide. 9 00:00:46,920 --> 00:00:50,839 Speaker 1: But a group of people in nineteen seventeen Portugal experienced 10 00:00:50,920 --> 00:00:53,560 Speaker 1: something strange. The sun that used to sit in the 11 00:00:53,600 --> 00:00:58,280 Speaker 1: sky every day suddenly began to dance. It all started 12 00:00:58,280 --> 00:01:01,640 Speaker 1: with three shepherd children from the ten of Fatima. After 13 00:01:01,680 --> 00:01:03,880 Speaker 1: a long day of tending sheep in the fields, they 14 00:01:03,880 --> 00:01:06,760 Speaker 1: began their walk home. It wasn't long before a vision 15 00:01:06,800 --> 00:01:10,000 Speaker 1: appeared before them. It was the spirits of the Virgin Mary, 16 00:01:10,200 --> 00:01:12,440 Speaker 1: who told them that she would reveal herself on the 17 00:01:12,480 --> 00:01:15,560 Speaker 1: thirteenth day of each month for the next six months. 18 00:01:15,800 --> 00:01:19,200 Speaker 1: There was just one catch. Only the oldest child, Luccia, 19 00:01:19,440 --> 00:01:21,720 Speaker 1: would be able to see her. The young girl would 20 00:01:21,760 --> 00:01:24,360 Speaker 1: then have to tell the others what she had witnessed. 21 00:01:25,240 --> 00:01:28,600 Speaker 1: On the thirteenth of October, it happened again. News spread. 22 00:01:28,880 --> 00:01:32,679 Speaker 1: Newspapers published stories about the vision and the prophecy, piquing 23 00:01:32,720 --> 00:01:36,040 Speaker 1: the interest of people from all over the country. Thousands 24 00:01:36,080 --> 00:01:40,480 Speaker 1: flocked to Fatima to hopefully witness these miracles themselves. Of course, 25 00:01:40,600 --> 00:01:44,600 Speaker 1: not everyone was sold on the children's story. Many, especially 26 00:01:44,640 --> 00:01:48,000 Speaker 1: those in religious communities, looked down on them with raised 27 00:01:48,040 --> 00:01:51,720 Speaker 1: eyebrows and a healthy dose of skepticism. But the church's 28 00:01:51,720 --> 00:01:55,760 Speaker 1: dismissal of the prophecy did not stop seventy thousand people 29 00:01:55,800 --> 00:01:58,640 Speaker 1: from showing up in the town on October thirteenth of 30 00:01:58,720 --> 00:02:02,360 Speaker 1: nineteen seventeen. They had come to see for themselves whether 31 00:02:02,560 --> 00:02:05,400 Speaker 1: it was all true. Now, the stories about what happened 32 00:02:05,440 --> 00:02:07,800 Speaker 1: that day vary depending on where you read them. There 33 00:02:07,840 --> 00:02:10,240 Speaker 1: are witness statements that claim it rained for a while 34 00:02:10,320 --> 00:02:13,000 Speaker 1: until the sun finally peeked out from behind a cluster 35 00:02:13,080 --> 00:02:16,120 Speaker 1: of clouds. But the sun didn't look like the sun, 36 00:02:16,440 --> 00:02:18,839 Speaker 1: at least not like the sun everyone had been used 37 00:02:18,880 --> 00:02:22,120 Speaker 1: to seeing in the sky. It careened toward the ground, 38 00:02:22,200 --> 00:02:25,520 Speaker 1: getting closer and closer until it bounced back to its 39 00:02:25,560 --> 00:02:29,240 Speaker 1: starting point. Then it spun in place and flashed a 40 00:02:29,280 --> 00:02:32,600 Speaker 1: series of lights in all different colors, like a disco 41 00:02:32,639 --> 00:02:35,919 Speaker 1: ball in the sky. According to one local science professor, 42 00:02:36,360 --> 00:02:40,000 Speaker 1: objects around me, he said, the sky and the atmosphere 43 00:02:40,200 --> 00:02:43,359 Speaker 1: were of the same color, Everything both near and far 44 00:02:43,480 --> 00:02:46,880 Speaker 1: had changed, taking on the color of old yellow damask. 45 00:02:47,639 --> 00:02:50,040 Speaker 1: He went on to remark how everyone around him looked 46 00:02:50,160 --> 00:02:53,880 Speaker 1: jaundiced on accounts of the yellowish light shining down on them. 47 00:02:54,160 --> 00:02:56,840 Speaker 1: Some even claimed that their rain soaked clothes and the 48 00:02:56,919 --> 00:03:01,120 Speaker 1: muddy ground beneath them had dried instantly. But the event 49 00:03:01,320 --> 00:03:03,840 Speaker 1: was odd for more than just the obvious reasons of 50 00:03:03,840 --> 00:03:06,320 Speaker 1: it having occurred in the first place. There was also 51 00:03:06,360 --> 00:03:09,000 Speaker 1: the small issue of no one else on earth having 52 00:03:09,080 --> 00:03:11,880 Speaker 1: seen the same thing. As far as anyone else knew, 53 00:03:12,200 --> 00:03:14,880 Speaker 1: only those who were in Fatima at Portugal witnessed this 54 00:03:15,000 --> 00:03:18,880 Speaker 1: miracle firsthand. It was such an important incident in the 55 00:03:18,919 --> 00:03:23,320 Speaker 1: region's history it piqued the curiosity of one father, John Demarchi. 56 00:03:23,800 --> 00:03:26,920 Speaker 1: Demarchi was a Catholic priest from Italy who lived in 57 00:03:26,960 --> 00:03:30,920 Speaker 1: Fatima from nineteen forty three until nineteen fifty, and while 58 00:03:30,960 --> 00:03:33,760 Speaker 1: he was there, he looked into this so called miracle 59 00:03:33,800 --> 00:03:35,960 Speaker 1: of the sun and spoke with a number of the 60 00:03:35,960 --> 00:03:38,640 Speaker 1: eyewitnesses who had been on the ground at the time. 61 00:03:39,440 --> 00:03:42,119 Speaker 1: He talked with the devout as well as the skeptic 62 00:03:42,280 --> 00:03:45,160 Speaker 1: and the non believers about what they had seen. And 63 00:03:45,200 --> 00:03:48,760 Speaker 1: while some minor details about what exactly had transpired that 64 00:03:48,840 --> 00:03:51,680 Speaker 1: day differ from one account to the next, not a 65 00:03:51,720 --> 00:03:55,200 Speaker 1: single person in the tendance denied the sun changing colors 66 00:03:55,480 --> 00:03:59,480 Speaker 1: and position in the sky. So what might have caused 67 00:03:59,480 --> 00:04:02,440 Speaker 1: such a fina in the first place. Well. A Polish 68 00:04:02,520 --> 00:04:06,240 Speaker 1: university professor by the name of Arthur Waerowski suggested the 69 00:04:06,280 --> 00:04:09,240 Speaker 1: whole thing was just a trick of the light. According 70 00:04:09,240 --> 00:04:11,480 Speaker 1: to his theory, the dancing colors were part of a 71 00:04:11,480 --> 00:04:14,800 Speaker 1: phenomenon known as a sun dog. It was created by 72 00:04:14,840 --> 00:04:18,240 Speaker 1: ice crystals floating high in the atmosphere and bouncing the 73 00:04:18,320 --> 00:04:21,400 Speaker 1: light all around. Others believe that it was the work 74 00:04:21,440 --> 00:04:25,400 Speaker 1: of mass hysteria combined with people staring directly at the sun. 75 00:04:25,720 --> 00:04:27,680 Speaker 1: You know, the thing that we were told never to 76 00:04:27,720 --> 00:04:31,360 Speaker 1: do because it could damage your eyesight. The Sun's movements 77 00:04:31,440 --> 00:04:34,280 Speaker 1: could have been a simple side effect of witnesses having 78 00:04:34,320 --> 00:04:36,960 Speaker 1: their retinas burned after looking up at the sun for 79 00:04:37,040 --> 00:04:41,520 Speaker 1: too long. But the devout disagree to them. The Virgin 80 00:04:41,600 --> 00:04:45,440 Speaker 1: Mary made a miracle happen right before everyone's eyes. I 81 00:04:45,480 --> 00:04:49,239 Speaker 1: guess what they say is true. Seeing is believing, even 82 00:04:49,320 --> 00:04:52,520 Speaker 1: if you might not see anything else ever again after 83 00:04:52,600 --> 00:05:09,440 Speaker 1: it's over. It was a cool autumn morning when the 84 00:05:09,560 --> 00:05:12,920 Speaker 1: armored truck pulled up outside a Belgian farm. The doors 85 00:05:12,920 --> 00:05:16,240 Speaker 1: swung open, and four soldiers barreled out. Each of the 86 00:05:16,279 --> 00:05:20,440 Speaker 1: men wore navy coveralls imprinted with military patches displaying the 87 00:05:20,480 --> 00:05:24,200 Speaker 1: acronym dovo. A farmer was waiting for them at the 88 00:05:24,279 --> 00:05:27,520 Speaker 1: edge of his field. Dabbing anxiously at his sweaty brow, 89 00:05:27,920 --> 00:05:31,200 Speaker 1: he waved the soldiers over, then pointed to his tractor. 90 00:05:31,640 --> 00:05:34,800 Speaker 1: It stood unmoving at the center of a field amidst 91 00:05:34,880 --> 00:05:39,040 Speaker 1: hills of upturned dirt and broken vegetables. The harvest was 92 00:05:39,200 --> 00:05:42,240 Speaker 1: mere days away. Earlier that morning, the farmer had been 93 00:05:42,279 --> 00:05:45,440 Speaker 1: hard at work, rushing to collect the last of his crops, 94 00:05:45,760 --> 00:05:48,800 Speaker 1: when something got stuck beneath the tractor. He stopped the 95 00:05:48,839 --> 00:05:52,000 Speaker 1: engine and climbed down to investigate, expecting to find a 96 00:05:52,080 --> 00:05:54,880 Speaker 1: large rock, But when he saw what was trapped beneath 97 00:05:54,880 --> 00:05:58,400 Speaker 1: the tractor's blades, his blood ran cold. With his heart 98 00:05:58,480 --> 00:06:01,200 Speaker 1: in his throat, he turned and race back to the 99 00:06:01,240 --> 00:06:04,920 Speaker 1: farmhouse to contact the authorities, And of course Dovo had 100 00:06:04,920 --> 00:06:08,240 Speaker 1: taken the call, dispatching the soldiers within the hour. So 101 00:06:08,360 --> 00:06:12,159 Speaker 1: now the men approached the tractor with trained cautiousness, eyes 102 00:06:12,240 --> 00:06:16,000 Speaker 1: sweeping over the surrounding area. The leader reached the machine 103 00:06:16,040 --> 00:06:20,440 Speaker 1: and crouched down, gaze immediately fixing on the object trap beneath. 104 00:06:20,960 --> 00:06:23,400 Speaker 1: It didn't look like much, just a large cylinder of 105 00:06:23,440 --> 00:06:27,560 Speaker 1: corroded metal, but the soldier knew better. You see the object, 106 00:06:27,720 --> 00:06:31,240 Speaker 1: a six pound tube of iron, was an unexploded artillery 107 00:06:31,279 --> 00:06:34,360 Speaker 1: shell left over from the Great War. The farmer was 108 00:06:34,440 --> 00:06:37,160 Speaker 1: lucky even now. The bomb could easily have gone off, 109 00:06:37,360 --> 00:06:40,279 Speaker 1: reducing his tractor and much of the field to a 110 00:06:40,320 --> 00:06:44,440 Speaker 1: blackened crater. Or worse, the shell might contain fostering or 111 00:06:44,680 --> 00:06:48,960 Speaker 1: mustard gas, chemical weapons capable of causing horrific burns and 112 00:06:49,080 --> 00:06:53,680 Speaker 1: excruciating death. Such gases were used extensively during World War One, 113 00:06:53,760 --> 00:06:57,160 Speaker 1: when Belgium and its neighbors were subjected to constant bombardment 114 00:06:57,320 --> 00:07:01,599 Speaker 1: from German artillery. Roughly of the explosives launched during the 115 00:07:01,600 --> 00:07:05,680 Speaker 1: war never actually exploded either because their fuses failed or 116 00:07:05,760 --> 00:07:09,200 Speaker 1: the safety was accidentally triggered, and even all these years later, 117 00:07:09,400 --> 00:07:12,280 Speaker 1: many of those bombs were still active, buried in the 118 00:07:12,360 --> 00:07:15,920 Speaker 1: dirt in fields or forests. A small disturbance, like being 119 00:07:16,000 --> 00:07:18,440 Speaker 1: run over by a tractor or dug up by a 120 00:07:18,480 --> 00:07:22,000 Speaker 1: curious child could set them off. The areas where the 121 00:07:22,000 --> 00:07:25,120 Speaker 1: worst bombing had occurred were now designated as Red zones 122 00:07:25,200 --> 00:07:27,960 Speaker 1: and were considered so dangerous that they were still off 123 00:07:27,960 --> 00:07:31,520 Speaker 1: limits to civilians, but even the less dangerous yellow zones 124 00:07:31,600 --> 00:07:35,520 Speaker 1: like this one were frequently turning up explosives. Whenever a 125 00:07:35,560 --> 00:07:39,200 Speaker 1: device was discovered, the bomb disposal unit known as DOVO 126 00:07:39,360 --> 00:07:42,160 Speaker 1: was called in to remove it. Each year since the war, 127 00:07:42,440 --> 00:07:46,440 Speaker 1: they collected hundreds of tons of unexploded artillery shells, along 128 00:07:46,480 --> 00:07:51,320 Speaker 1: with chemical weapons, grenades, bullets, shrapnel, and barbed wire. The 129 00:07:51,360 --> 00:07:54,320 Speaker 1: bombs were taken to a Dulgian military base where they 130 00:07:54,360 --> 00:07:58,120 Speaker 1: were examined and destroyed. Some devices were too dangerous for 131 00:07:58,160 --> 00:08:01,480 Speaker 1: transportation and had to be detonated on site through a 132 00:08:01,560 --> 00:08:05,640 Speaker 1: controlled explosion. Autumn was always the busiest time of the 133 00:08:05,720 --> 00:08:08,320 Speaker 1: year for this unit, since farmers were out working in 134 00:08:08,360 --> 00:08:11,840 Speaker 1: their fields, turning up plenty of soil and exposing whatever 135 00:08:11,920 --> 00:08:14,760 Speaker 1: was hidden beneath It had led some Dovo members to 136 00:08:14,840 --> 00:08:19,120 Speaker 1: affectionately call the season their iron harvest. But it wasn't 137 00:08:19,240 --> 00:08:22,600 Speaker 1: all fun and games. The work was incredibly dangerous too. 138 00:08:23,160 --> 00:08:26,840 Speaker 1: Accidents and deaths were not uncommon. The soldiers of the 139 00:08:26,880 --> 00:08:29,720 Speaker 1: Dovo unit knew that when they put on their uniforms 140 00:08:29,720 --> 00:08:32,520 Speaker 1: and laced up their boots, they were heading into battle, 141 00:08:32,880 --> 00:08:35,360 Speaker 1: in a sense, fighting a war that had been over 142 00:08:35,480 --> 00:08:39,640 Speaker 1: for one hundred years, yes, over a century, Because this 143 00:08:39,720 --> 00:08:43,520 Speaker 1: particular collection it occurred in twenty twenty three in a 144 00:08:43,600 --> 00:08:47,480 Speaker 1: farm near Flanders, Belgium. DOVO is active to this day 145 00:08:47,760 --> 00:08:52,040 Speaker 1: and still collects hundreds of tons of unexploded weapons every year, 146 00:08:52,480 --> 00:08:54,880 Speaker 1: and based on the rate the bombs are still turning up, 147 00:08:55,000 --> 00:08:57,280 Speaker 1: it's safe to assume the unit will be conducting their 148 00:08:57,320 --> 00:09:06,560 Speaker 1: iron harvest for decades, perhaps even centuries to come. I 149 00:09:06,600 --> 00:09:10,120 Speaker 1: hope you've enjoyed today's guided tour of the Cabinet of Curiosities. 150 00:09:10,440 --> 00:09:13,520 Speaker 1: Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts, or learn more about 151 00:09:13,559 --> 00:09:18,120 Speaker 1: the show by visiting Curiosities podcast dot com. The show 152 00:09:18,360 --> 00:09:21,600 Speaker 1: was created by me Aaron Mankey in partnership with How 153 00:09:21,679 --> 00:09:25,280 Speaker 1: Stuff Works. I make another award winning show called Lore 154 00:09:25,520 --> 00:09:29,120 Speaker 1: which is a podcast, book series, and television show and 155 00:09:29,200 --> 00:09:31,800 Speaker 1: you can learn all about it over at the worldoflore 156 00:09:32,080 --> 00:09:37,440 Speaker 1: dot com. And until next time, stay curious.