Our world is full of the unexplainable, and if history is an open book, all of these amazing tales right there on display, just waiting for us to explore. Welcome to the Cabinet of Curiosities. When we think of the British, the French, and the Russians fighting against the Ottoman Empire, we think of World War One, when millions of soldiers joined forces and took up arms to combat the growing
international threat. We tend to forget, however, that these allies banded together once before, in order to help a country and a culture in need. It was eighteen twenty one and the Greeks had been living under the Ottoman's thumb for over four hundred years. Some Greeks had done well working within the Empire. They had grown wealthy and gained status as pure to the powers that be, But underneath, the lower classes felt the full brunt of the empire
on their throats. Heavy taxes kept them in poverty, and their cultural identity was being strangled. An underground movement of Greek nationalism started brewing among the people. They had tried to revolt before, but their efforts had always failed due to infighting and a lack of numbers. To those at the top, a revolution meant the loss of everything they had earned. Though they had gained their freedom, they couldn't bear to start over at the bottom again. The peasants,
though they didn't mind. A fresh start would be good for everyone, and once they were free, it would mean a better life for all Greeks, not just a select few. But they had to be smart about it. A handful of Greek organizers got wise and realized they'd never be able to beat their Turkish oppressors with a head on assault.
If they ever hope to win back their independence, their plan of attack had to happen when the Turks weren't expecting it, Except the Turks were expecting it by way of a little birdie who let them in on the secret. So the Greeks moved the date of their uprising up by a few weeks, and soon cities all over the country took up arms against the Empire. As is common in war, it's very easy for a foreign power to
destroy defending countries. Culture bullets and fire consume many important buildings as the battle rages on, but the Greeks worked tirelessly to preserve the things that made up their identity to not let the Turks destroy them. Paintings, sculptures, books, and other cultural touchstones were carried away and stored for safe keeping out of the line of fire fighting. Was
kept away from important architectural sites as much as possible. Unfortunately, it was their determination to conserve their history that made the Greeks such an easy target for the Turks. As the war raged on, armed masses took on Turkish garrisons with great success, forcing them out of the cities and into the part of the country the Greeks had hoped to keep off limits. At the same time, Ottoman resources started getting scarce, especially ammunition, But the Turks saw an
opportunity in their predicament. While they couldn't tackle the scores of angry Greeks coming after them, they could kill the next best thing, their culture. The Turks began tearing down the columns of the Parthenon in order to get at the lead inside, which could be melted down and made into bullets. The Greeks knew what would happen if they lost the war and their legacy to the Ottoman Empire.
All traces of them would be wiped off the planet, and their contributions to the world might be lost forever. So the Greeks tried a new tactic to get them to stop harvesting the Parthenon. They gave them their ammo. That's right, the Greek forces handed over their own bullets to the enemy, just so that they would leave one of their greatest cultural landmarks alone. And it worked. The Turks managed to bounce back thanks to the Greek's donation.
They also gained a little extra help from their Egyptian allies and almost robbed the Greeks of their freedom. That is until England, France, and Russia joined in on the revolution eleven years later. With the rest of the world by their side, the Greeks were able to negotiate their independence from Ottoman rule, and thanks to their generosity, the Parthenon, or at least what's left of it, is still standing today.
Turn on the news today, and outside of the latest political turmoil, you'll probably see Mother Nature terrorizing some part of the world. Volcanoes in Indonesia triggering devastating tsunamis, tornadoes in the Midwest reducing homes to nothing but splinters, and perhaps the most destructive of all, catastrophic forest fires and California that have burned entire neighborhoods to ash. And let's not forget the Category five hurricanes that have all but
wiped entire islands off the map. It's enough to make you think the end of the world is close at hand. Well, such assumptions are nothing new, and if you lived in New England in seventeen eighty you might have thought the same thing. The skies from Maine to New Jersey had been yellow in the days leading up to the bizarre events that occurred on May nineteen. The region had just emerged from one of the coldest winters ever recorded, and warmth was still hard to come by, even as spring
had begun to bloom. But instead of a bright golden sun up above, it's shown red during the day, giving way to a pinkish moon at night. Down below, Rivers and lakes were blackened with soots, and signs of smoke were all around. Given that we were still hundreds of years away from social media and twenty four news coverage, people came up with all sorts of reasons as to why they thought was happening, and many jumped to the
same conclusion. The end of days was nigh. Then, on May nine, the symptoms that had plagued New England for the last several days culminated in a strange and extraordinary phenomenon. The sky went completely dark. A thick fog enveloped the northeastern United States and parts of Canada for over a day. Reports came in from upstate New York, where the sun wasn't rising. In parts of Massachusetts and Connecticut, candles were required from two pm onward, and it wasn't just the
people who were affected. Roosters had no idea what time it was and crowed in the middle of the afternoon. Crickets chirped as though night had fallen. Early, cows retired to their stalls, believing the day to be over, and farmers couldn't tell the difference between manure and the ash that had fallen inches thick. In some places, clergy believed the day of judgments had aid, and people flooded churches
to confess their sins. The less religious fled to taverns, where they filled their bellies with drink and converted with women as they tried to forget that tomorrow just might not come. All manner of explanations were tossed around as to the cause of the darkness, everything from planetary movements and meteor strikes to God's anger toward the Revolutionary War. No one at the time had any real insight into why the skies had suddenly turned black. But we know
better today. Based on the records of the events and the eyewitness reports at the time, we can make more informed assumptions as to what transpired on that faithful day. But we also have the trees. Yeah, trees, you see, trees can tell us a lot about history thanks to their growth rings. Researchers examining the growth rings on trees in Ontario, Canada noticed extensive scar damage on some of
the inner rings from when the trees were young. Um those scars, they were able to deduce that an enormous forest fire in that area may have caused the darkness that fell upon New England back in seventeen eighty. Today, our forest fires are certainly dangerous, and they have been
known to cause miles and miles of destruction. Thanks to news networks and social media, we know just how horrific they can be to live through, and many of us have friends or family who have been touched by those events, which puts the dark Day of May sevent eighty into real perspective. A fire so massive that it left inches of ash all over New England and blotted out the sun for an entire day. Combine that with those eerie
red sunsets that led up to the darkness. It's frightening to imagine just how bad that blaze must have been to have left such destruction and chaos in its wake. And thanks to the unpredictability of the world we live in, it also leaves us with a chilling thought, what if something that massive happened again. Let's hope we never find out. I hope you've enjoyed today's guided tour of the Cabinet
of Curiosities. Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts, or learn more about the show by visiting Curiosities podcast dot com. The show was created by me Aaron Manky in partnership with how Stuff Works. I make another award winning show called Lore, which is a podcast, book series, and television show, and you can learn all about it over at the World of Lore dot com. And until next time, stay curious.