July 9, 2020 • 9 mins
The world is full of mysterious things, some of which are hidden, while others are right out in the open. And we think you're going to enjoy the ones on display in the Cabinet today.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:04):
Welcome to Aaron Menkey's Cabinet of Curiosities, a production of
I Heart Radio and Grim and Mild. Our world is
full of the unexplainable, and if history is an open book,
all of these amazing tales are right there on display,
just waiting for us to explore. Welcome to the Cabinet
(00:27):
of Curiosities. The Minister Norman Vincent Peel inspired millions with
his famous book The Power of Positive Thinking. The Religious
Self helped text encourage readers to visualize their success and
recite daily affirmations. Peel famously said, shoot for the moon,
(00:51):
even if you miss, you'll fall among the stars. James
certainly had his eyes pointed skyword on New Year's Day
of nine. He lived in Evergreen Park, Illinois, and was
a bit of an eccentric. On January one, he marched
down to the Cook County Office for the Recorder of
Deeds and Titles with one simple request. He wanted to
register his own country. James didn't own any vast plots
(01:14):
of land, and he hadn't conquered any neighboring towns. He
wanted to colonize a place that had yet to be
claimed by anyone else. He called his new country the
Nation of Celestial Space Celestia for short. Its borders extended
into infinity. All anyone had to do was look up.
His new micro nation was outer space itself. His official
(01:36):
title would be the Founder and First Representative of Celestia.
The country's initial members were made up of James's own family.
He declared his wife the Empress of Celestia, of course,
and his brother Glenn, was originally named the Earl of Mars,
but was eventually promoted to the Marquis of the Red Planet. Naturally,
a few people outside of his inner circle took his
(01:56):
claim seriously. It's possible that his family was even just
humoring him, but that didn't stop James from trying to
prove Celestia's validity among more established countries. The ethnic groups
said to inhabit Celestia were bundled into one large category
called Humanity, and it claimed English as its official language.
As for location, well, the country could be found all
(02:19):
over the universe, except on Earth, of course. For years,
James worked to increase Celestia's recognition among the world's superpowers.
He issued a statement in nineteen forty nine to leaders
of the United States, United Kingdom, Soviet Union, and the
United Nations that there would be no further atmospheric nuclear
tests in Celestia. Most nations ignored him, but a few
(02:43):
paid attention they had no choice, like when he unveiled
the official flag of Celestia in nineteen fifty eight. The
blue flag featured a musical, sharp symbol set against a
circle of white, and the event was aired on national television.
The day after the broadcast, the flag was officially raised
outside the United Nations Building in New York. But he
(03:04):
didn't stop there. Celestia had its own official stamps and
currency to gold and silver coins were minted featuring the
image of James's daughter Ruth on one side. The gold
coins amounted to one Celesti on each, while the silver
coins were called jewels, named after the scientific units of energy.
James even had plans to enter the real estate business
(03:25):
by selling large swaths of space to eager buyers. By
May of nine, applicants had signed up to each by
one space lot the size of Earth, for the princely
sum of one dollar. By the time the space riot
got into full swing between the United States and the
Soviet Union, James started getting territorial he penned letters against
(03:46):
both nations, claiming that they were on the verge of
trespassing on his land. He eventually relented, though, and allowed
the US to send their satellites into orbit. James Thomas
Mangan did get to see a man walk on the Moon,
but sad his dream of living among the stars would
never be realized. He died in nineteen seventy at the
age of seventy three. Celestia sort of died with him too.
(04:09):
The flag eventually came down outside the United Nations, the
coins and stamps were bought up by collectors, and Celestia
was all but forgotten, except for Mangan's children and grandchildren,
who continue to hold their royal titles today. His daughter
Ruth is the Princess of the Nation of Celestial Space,
and his three grandsons are the Duke of Selenia, the
(04:31):
Duke of Mars, and the Duke of the Milky Way.
It sure beats having a star named after them, after all.
Their titles demonstrate the most important rule in real estate, location,
Location Location. Today, almost everyone on Earth has a camera
(05:00):
in their pockets thanks to the ubiquity of smartphones. In
modern technology, we can't go a day without capturing a
snapshot of our daily lives. You know, very important things
like the food on our plates, or a new pair
of shoes, and lots and lots of dogs. The idea
of carrying a camera at all times is a fairly
modern construct, though back in Night three it probably would
(05:21):
have been handy to have one at the ready, especially
if your name was Owen Burnham. Burnham was a young
teen from Britain visiting West Africa with his family. The
fourteen year old was walking along the beach with his
father's sister and brother one morning when he noticed a
creature buried in the sand. It had washed ashore in
the middle of the night, and two locals were in
(05:41):
the process of removing its head, which they planned to
sell to tourists. Burnham wanted to record his finding, but
he didn't have a camera with him. Instead, he took
extensive written notes of the creatures measurements. According to him,
it was roughly sixteen feet long from end to end.
The tail alone measured five feet in length. Each flipper
(06:02):
was about a foot and a half long. The top
half of the body was a muddy brown color which
faded away to white down closer to the tail and
inside its jaws. Burnham said he counted eighty razor sharp teeth.
Locals assumed it was a dolphin due to its smooth
skin and elongated snout, but Burnham noticed several inconsistencies in
(06:23):
its structure. For one, the tail wasn't triangular like a dolphin's,
it was rounded on the end, more like a rudder,
and the creature also lacked a blowhole. Burnham continued to
record as much about the thing as quickly as he could.
There was its deep red flesh visible from the wound
caused when its rear flipper was ripped away from its body.
(06:43):
Its reproductive organs were also two mangled to determine the
animal sex. The beast's nostrils were located at the tip
of its beak, and it had no trace of a
dorsal fin. By the time he finished writing everything down,
the two African men who had been trying to remove
the creature's skull had finally succeeded. Burnham thought about buying
it for himself as proof of his discovery, but he
(07:04):
had no way to bring it back home to England.
He stuck around on the beach, though, asking local fishermen
what they thought the creature was. Again, dolphin was the
common response, but Burnham wasn't convinced. Its size, shape, and
general makeup didn't look like any dolphin he had ever
seen before. Some biologists disagreed. Some said that it was
(07:25):
a dolphin but its flukes had worn off. Others claimed
that it was actually a shepherd's beaked whale. The sizes
lined up for sure. Shepherd's beaked whales were known to
grow as long as twenty three feet, and their coloring
was also similar to the animal he found, But according
to Burnham's notes, the tribes of the Gambia didn't make
up names for the new creatures they saw. If it
looked enough like a dolphin, that's what they would call it,
(07:48):
even if it was a whale or something else Entirely.
While everyone else assumed that it was a dolphin, Burnham
noticed its striking similarity to much older animals such as
the pilosaur and the chronosaur Us, and cryptozoologists agreed. They
hypothesized that it could have been anything from Amosa sore
to an Ileosaurus, or any other kind of ancient aquatic
(08:09):
reptile without photographic evidence, though there's no way to know
for sure what Burnham saw that morning, if he saw
anything at all. His notes, after all, could have been
nothing more than a hoax, something to keep a board
teenager's attention on a slow summer day. After the head
was removed, the rest of the body was buried in
the sand. Scientists returned to the beach in the nineteen
(08:30):
nineties to dig up its carcass for confirmation, but nothing remained.
It had either rotted away or been destroyed by the
police station that had later been built right on top
of it. Nobody knows the truth about the creature they
call the Gambo. Nobody except Owen Burnham, of course, and
the tourist who bought the skull that day in three Now,
(08:53):
that's one skull I'd love to see in a Cabinet
of Curiosities. 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
(09:14):
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, ye
Welcome to Aaron Menkey's Cabinet of Curiosities, a production of
I Heart Radio and Grim and Mild. Our world is
full of the unexplainable, and if history is an open book,
all of these amazing tales are right there on display,
just waiting for us to explore. Welcome to the Cabinet
(00:27):
of Curiosities. The Minister Norman Vincent Peel inspired millions with
his famous book The Power of Positive Thinking. The Religious
Self helped text encourage readers to visualize their success and
recite daily affirmations. Peel famously said, shoot for the moon,
(00:51):
even if you miss, you'll fall among the stars. James
certainly had his eyes pointed skyword on New Year's Day
of nine. He lived in Evergreen Park, Illinois, and was
a bit of an eccentric. On January one, he marched
down to the Cook County Office for the Recorder of
Deeds and Titles with one simple request. He wanted to
register his own country. James didn't own any vast plots
(01:14):
of land, and he hadn't conquered any neighboring towns. He
wanted to colonize a place that had yet to be
claimed by anyone else. He called his new country the
Nation of Celestial Space Celestia for short. Its borders extended
into infinity. All anyone had to do was look up.
His new micro nation was outer space itself. His official
(01:36):
title would be the Founder and First Representative of Celestia.
The country's initial members were made up of James's own family.
He declared his wife the Empress of Celestia, of course,
and his brother Glenn, was originally named the Earl of Mars,
but was eventually promoted to the Marquis of the Red Planet. Naturally,
a few people outside of his inner circle took his
(01:56):
claim seriously. It's possible that his family was even just
humoring him, but that didn't stop James from trying to
prove Celestia's validity among more established countries. The ethnic groups
said to inhabit Celestia were bundled into one large category
called Humanity, and it claimed English as its official language.
As for location, well, the country could be found all
(02:19):
over the universe, except on Earth, of course. For years,
James worked to increase Celestia's recognition among the world's superpowers.
He issued a statement in nineteen forty nine to leaders
of the United States, United Kingdom, Soviet Union, and the
United Nations that there would be no further atmospheric nuclear
tests in Celestia. Most nations ignored him, but a few
(02:43):
paid attention they had no choice, like when he unveiled
the official flag of Celestia in nineteen fifty eight. The
blue flag featured a musical, sharp symbol set against a
circle of white, and the event was aired on national television.
The day after the broadcast, the flag was officially raised
outside the United Nations Building in New York. But he
(03:04):
didn't stop there. Celestia had its own official stamps and
currency to gold and silver coins were minted featuring the
image of James's daughter Ruth on one side. The gold
coins amounted to one Celesti on each, while the silver
coins were called jewels, named after the scientific units of energy.
James even had plans to enter the real estate business
(03:25):
by selling large swaths of space to eager buyers. By
May of nine, applicants had signed up to each by
one space lot the size of Earth, for the princely
sum of one dollar. By the time the space riot
got into full swing between the United States and the
Soviet Union, James started getting territorial he penned letters against
(03:46):
both nations, claiming that they were on the verge of
trespassing on his land. He eventually relented, though, and allowed
the US to send their satellites into orbit. James Thomas
Mangan did get to see a man walk on the Moon,
but sad his dream of living among the stars would
never be realized. He died in nineteen seventy at the
age of seventy three. Celestia sort of died with him too.
(04:09):
The flag eventually came down outside the United Nations, the
coins and stamps were bought up by collectors, and Celestia
was all but forgotten, except for Mangan's children and grandchildren,
who continue to hold their royal titles today. His daughter
Ruth is the Princess of the Nation of Celestial Space,
and his three grandsons are the Duke of Selenia, the
(04:31):
Duke of Mars, and the Duke of the Milky Way.
It sure beats having a star named after them, after all.
Their titles demonstrate the most important rule in real estate, location,
Location Location. Today, almost everyone on Earth has a camera
(05:00):
in their pockets thanks to the ubiquity of smartphones. In
modern technology, we can't go a day without capturing a
snapshot of our daily lives. You know, very important things
like the food on our plates, or a new pair
of shoes, and lots and lots of dogs. The idea
of carrying a camera at all times is a fairly
modern construct, though back in Night three it probably would
(05:21):
have been handy to have one at the ready, especially
if your name was Owen Burnham. Burnham was a young
teen from Britain visiting West Africa with his family. The
fourteen year old was walking along the beach with his
father's sister and brother one morning when he noticed a
creature buried in the sand. It had washed ashore in
the middle of the night, and two locals were in
(05:41):
the process of removing its head, which they planned to
sell to tourists. Burnham wanted to record his finding, but
he didn't have a camera with him. Instead, he took
extensive written notes of the creatures measurements. According to him,
it was roughly sixteen feet long from end to end.
The tail alone measured five feet in length. Each flipper
(06:02):
was about a foot and a half long. The top
half of the body was a muddy brown color which
faded away to white down closer to the tail and
inside its jaws. Burnham said he counted eighty razor sharp teeth.
Locals assumed it was a dolphin due to its smooth
skin and elongated snout, but Burnham noticed several inconsistencies in
(06:23):
its structure. For one, the tail wasn't triangular like a dolphin's,
it was rounded on the end, more like a rudder,
and the creature also lacked a blowhole. Burnham continued to
record as much about the thing as quickly as he could.
There was its deep red flesh visible from the wound
caused when its rear flipper was ripped away from its body.
(06:43):
Its reproductive organs were also two mangled to determine the
animal sex. The beast's nostrils were located at the tip
of its beak, and it had no trace of a
dorsal fin. By the time he finished writing everything down,
the two African men who had been trying to remove
the creature's skull had finally succeeded. Burnham thought about buying
it for himself as proof of his discovery, but he
(07:04):
had no way to bring it back home to England.
He stuck around on the beach, though, asking local fishermen
what they thought the creature was. Again, dolphin was the
common response, but Burnham wasn't convinced. Its size, shape, and
general makeup didn't look like any dolphin he had ever
seen before. Some biologists disagreed. Some said that it was
(07:25):
a dolphin but its flukes had worn off. Others claimed
that it was actually a shepherd's beaked whale. The sizes
lined up for sure. Shepherd's beaked whales were known to
grow as long as twenty three feet, and their coloring
was also similar to the animal he found, But according
to Burnham's notes, the tribes of the Gambia didn't make
up names for the new creatures they saw. If it
looked enough like a dolphin, that's what they would call it,
(07:48):
even if it was a whale or something else Entirely.
While everyone else assumed that it was a dolphin, Burnham
noticed its striking similarity to much older animals such as
the pilosaur and the chronosaur Us, and cryptozoologists agreed. They
hypothesized that it could have been anything from Amosa sore
to an Ileosaurus, or any other kind of ancient aquatic
(08:09):
reptile without photographic evidence, though there's no way to know
for sure what Burnham saw that morning, if he saw
anything at all. His notes, after all, could have been
nothing more than a hoax, something to keep a board
teenager's attention on a slow summer day. After the head
was removed, the rest of the body was buried in
the sand. Scientists returned to the beach in the nineteen
(08:30):
nineties to dig up its carcass for confirmation, but nothing remained.
It had either rotted away or been destroyed by the
police station that had later been built right on top
of it. Nobody knows the truth about the creature they
call the Gambo. Nobody except Owen Burnham, of course, and
the tourist who bought the skull that day in three Now,
(08:53):
that's one skull I'd love to see in a Cabinet
of Curiosities. 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
(09:14):
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, ye
Aaron Mahnke's Cabinet of Curiosities News
Host
Aaron Mahnke
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