Just in the road here by that manhole cover an object appeared with a great crash. I went over and picked up this object and realised that it was ice ... I realised that if it had hit me on the head, I would have been killed. The bubble lines were very very regular indeed, and not meandering around all over the place, such as you observe in hail-stones. It was nearly all composed of big crystals two to three inches long with no layered structure as one has in a hailstone. Dr Richard Griffiths, physicist, West Didsbury, Manchester, televised interview 1973
A huge ball of ice had crashed into Danelle’s home. But this was not an isolated incidence. In the last decade there have been multiple reports of falling ice bombs. Weird or What? s1e1: Strange Survival, Discovery 2010
If not from hail and not from aircraft the source of the ice-bombs could be even higher: could they have come from outer space? Comets are made of rock, dust, frozen gasses and ice. ibid.
An invisible killer was making its way towards Constantinople with enough ammunition to wipe out not just the city but the entire continent. That killer was Bubonic Plague. The Dark Ages, ITV 1999
When a final tally was made, up to half of the [Roman] empire’s population – perhaps 100 million people – were struck down by the Plague of Justinian. ibid.
This is a ghost town. An exodus left hundreds of rotten houses and the memory of a plague that nearly wiped out the people. The tragedy is being repeated in a hundred and forty-five villages on the Danube or one of its tributaries. Horizon: The Curse of Karash, BBC 1991
An adult’s kidney could just shrink away. ibid.
In 1972 Professor Dimitrov published more evidence to back his theory that the disease is inherited. ibid.
In the process of modernising our world we may have created a different plague altogether. Horizon: Allergy Planet, BBC 2008
The Bible begins the plagues thus: the River shall be turned to blood. According to Exodus, the Nile River turned blood-red for seven long days, killing every living thing in the water. Can science explain this mysterious first plague? Red tides take place in rivers and oceans when green algae accumulates and blooms like a flower, turning red; it then emits a powerful toxin. Biblical Mysteries Explained: Exodus, Discovery 2008
Frogs: in Egypt millions of Nile River frogs leave the water and infest the land ... With no food to eat, the frogs quickly died causing the next two plagues. ibid.
According to the Bible there were gnats upon man and upon animals. ibid.
God says I will send swarms of flies upon thee and upon thy servants and upon thy people. ibid.
And then the fifth plague turns deadly: the Bible states upon the horses, upon the masses, upon the camels, upon the oxen, upon the sheep, shall be a deadly pestilence. The deadly livestock plague was a result of a pathogenic virus, spread by the biting gnats. ibid.
In the sixth plague, the flies spread disease to humans. The Bible states – festering boils shall break forth upon man and upon beast. Boils, infected puss-filled open sores, may have been the result of deep bites and open wounds from disease-carrying stable flies. ibid.
The seventh plague comes out of nowhere: a hailstorm of massive proportions. The Bible calls it the worst storm in the land of Egypt. ibid.
Locusts: as they still do today, 3,000 years ago in Egypt veracious desert locusts ... ate everything that grows, quickly causing famine and starvation. ibid.
The ninth plague is terrifying and seems unconnected to the others: the Bible says God sends three days of darkness. ibid.
The Bible says all the firstborn of the land of Egypt shall die. And all the firstborn beasts. How could this happen? At the hand of God or natural phenomena? bid.
There could be a logical explanation to a Biblical plague: a sudden explosion of the frog population across the Nile Delta, and it’s not down to the wroth of a vengeful God ... It also turns out that low oxygen levels can also cause frog growth to accelerate. The Ten Plagues of the Bible
Disease would logically follow swarms of insects biting livestock. ibid.
Experiments and observations have shown that the first six plagues could have been biologically linked. ibid.
The explosion at Santorini may explain the next three plagues. ibid.
Desert stand-storms are another possible explanation. They can lead to long periods of darkness over wide areas. Volcanoes are another common cause of blackouts. Volcanic ash high in the atmosphere can block out sunlight. The ash fallout of the Santorini eruption may have caused the Biblical plague of darkness. Evidence linking the Santorini disaster to the three weather-related plagues of the Bible is compelling. ibid.
Psalm 78 of the Old Testament offers another explanation for the tenth plague: disease. ibid.
In ancient Egypt the Pharaoh was more than just a ruler: he was a god, a divine presence on Earth. The story of the tenth plague symbolises the superiority of the Hebrew God over the divinity of the Pharaoh. Egypt’s future, the firstborn, was symbolically killed off, while the birth of Israel was just beginning. ibid.
Faced with total catastrophe Pharaoh relents and the Hebrew slaves are set free. The Old Testament says that Moses led more than 600,000 men, women and children out of Egypt on foot. The Exodus symbolises the birth of Israel. Moses guided the slaves to the Promised Holy Land where the capitol of Jerusalem was eventually established. ibid.
The year of the Black Death ... A unique opportunity to solve the greatest mysteries of the Black Death ... But the dead have returned with a warning. Secret History s13e6: Return of the Black Death, Channel 4 2014
Bubonic Plague: a clear and present danger to national security. Bubonic Plague still thrives on four continents. ibid.
Weakened by famine, the victims had no defence against Plague. ibid.
Scientists believe the Black Death was a mutation – a highly infectious super-strain of Plague. ibid.
Bubonic Plague lit the fire; Pneumonic Plague fanned the flames. ibid.
Germany 1493: a time of desolation and disease. Where the plague could wipe out entire towns in days. And a quarter of all children died before they were five. In this world there was one great consolation: the Church and its promise of heaven. Martin Luther I: Driven to Defiance PBS 2010
The Black Death had killed almost a half of Europe’s population in the previous hundred years. ibid.
Every year thousands of tons of material from outer space rains down on our planet’s surface. Most of the time we’re unaware. But sometimes it can’t be ignored. Around the world people have reported finding strange matter where these meteors fall. Sometimes it’s a gelatinous goo. Other times it looks like it’s raining blood. Paranatural s1e3: Blood Rain and Star Jelly, National Geographic 2010
November 28th 2001, Manchester, England ... Mera [paranormal investigator] searches for anything that could have fallen from a recent meteor shower. And finds something completely unexpected. A gelatinous blob. It has a smell often associated with meteoric rock. An odour similar to rotten eggs. ibid.
Dr Dan Rolph of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania has found hundreds of historical accounts of strange substances falling from the sky. But one story in particular stands out ... ‘Flying Saucer Just Dissolves’. ibid.
August 1994 ... A strange gelatinous rain pummels the tiny town of Oakville, Washington. ibid.
Murchison, Australia, September 28th 1969: in the morning hours residents of this coastal town see a bright ball of fire shooting through the sky. Then, moments later, it rains rocks. Scientists later collect more than ninety kilograms of meteoric material ... They find amino acids. ibid.
On the other side of the planet meteor showers bring another strange rain. July 2001 India: people hear an explosion in the sky. Then as it does every year the summer monsoon brings heavy rainfall in southern India. When the rain comes it is blood-red. ibid.
Star jelly sightings after meteor showers occur around the world. But recently many reports are coming from Scotland. ibid.
The ten plagues of Egypt: with rivers and plagues of locusts it’s a Biblical story so bizarre and so bloody most people believe the events described could never have happened. But now archaeologists are unearthing shocking new discoveries. Ancient Mysteries s2e2: Ten Plagues, Channel 5 2017
He turns the River Nile into a torrent of blood … Next God sends plagues of frogs followed by swarms of flies, disease strikes down the livestock, and boils blight the people. ibid.
The Stele’s message is clear: it wasn’t a battle that struck Egypt 3,500 years ago but a terrifying storm. ibid.
Did the Thera eruption unleash climate chaos? ibid.
Pandemic. Lockdown. Self-isolation. The new normal. You could be forgiven for thinking that these words only apply to the Covid-19 crisis … We have been here before. In the middle of the 14th century the Plague swept across the entire world. And everywhere it struck, as many as half the population suffered a terrible death. For more than three centuries we lived in the shadow of the Plague. It transformed our society, our culture, our sense of humanity. Laura Ashe, Plague Fiction, BBC 2020
We can see the similarities: the xenophobic reaction that accompanied the disease’s arrival and the fact that Italy would become Europe’s Ground Zero. ibid.