In Hungary, it’s the bombing of Kassa/Košice.
In 1938, the First Vienna Award gave Hungary back the Southern parts of Czechoslovakia, including the city of Kassa.
On 26 June 1941 an unidentified aircraft conducted an airstrike on Kassa. The government accused the Soviets of having been the attackers and this was used as pretext for Hungary’s participation in Operation Barbarossa.
In reality, it is unknown to this day who the bombers were. There are several theories. Some say it was Soviets, some say it was Germans, some say Romanians and some say it was Hungary itself.
For example, Horthy – regent of Hungary in the interwar period and during WW2 – said in his memoirs that it was Germans, who wanted to coerce Hungary into joining the war.
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The Ustica Massacre: the IH870 flight from Bologna to Palermo just exploded on the 20th of June 1980, killing all aboard and scattering debris around the isles of Ustica and Ponza. The official version was that it got shot down by accident during a dogfight between the Lybian Airforce and the French Airforce, but some say it was due to a few loose screws making the whole thing disassemble, and others (the more conspiratorial-minded) say it was a terror attack orchestrated by the Military to kill important witnesses onboard or something the Americans did to convince Italy to cut off its economic ties with Lybia.
To this day nobody is quite sure what happened that day.
When The Troubles ended a group of men staged the biggest bank robbery in British/Irish history
It’s thought it was basically an inside job to get a nice little pension for all the IRA fighters who had fought over the prior 30 years
The vast majority of the money has never been recovered and I don’t think anyone’s been imprisoned for it
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northern_Bank_robbery
It is still unclear who assassinated our prime minister Olof Palme in 1986, with theories ranging from Apartheid South Africa to Israel to more or less random dudes.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assassination_of_Olof_Palme?wprov=sfla1
The death of our beloved king Ludwig II (the Fairytale King) on lake Starnberg in 1886
Officially ruled a suicide, but the evidence doesn’t quite add up: there was no water found in his lungs, and the only witness drowned with him. Ludwig had been battling depression for years and was unfit for office at this point. It’s possible that he was assassinated in a palace coup.
To this day his followers commemorate the day of his death and demand that the criminal case be opened again
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ludwig_II_of_Bavaria#Death
Assassination/Suicide of Jan Masaryk, a minister of forreign affairs. He was a son of T.G.M, the president founder of Czechoslovakia. He was a deeply troubled man, with mental issues, but it happened in time when communists were grabbing all power, fast, and he was influential person who might slow them notably if he wanted.
He was found laying dead under window of his apartment. Investigation was really bad. It is most likely he was thrown out of a window, but there is a possibility he did it himself.
Speaking about Masaryks – there is a funny conspiracy theory saying, that TGM, his father and the first president, was actually a Habsburg bastard. Sadly it is not possible to confirm or deny it, as his living descendants refuse DNA test
The death of Enrico Mattei, Italian manager and entrepreneur in 1962.
At that time, Italy was a cause of concern in the western bloc, as it had the biggest and most organized Communist Party of the whole Western Europe, and it was seriously possible that it could form a government, to the point of having the USA making pressure so that wouldn’t happen. In fact, the party never governed.
Enrico Mattei was very successfully leading Italy’s public owned fuel company, ENI, to the point of economically threaten the “seven sisters”, the cartel of oil and gas companies by strengthening the ENI’s action and undertaking agreements with the governments of Northern Africa and Middle East states.
Mattei died in a plane crash, when his private jet fell officially due to “bad weather”, although some witnesses testified that the plane exploded when it was still flying. Very strong suspicions on his death are on other managers of the company, and most importantly on the CIA.
The one I learnt about at school was the [Princes in the Tower](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Princes_in_the_Tower?wprov=sfla1). Following the unexpected death of Edward IV in 1483, the throne passed to his 12 year old son Edward V. He and his 9 year old brother made their way down to London from Ludlow Castle and were lodged in the Tower of London, as was customary before a monarch’s coronation. The throne, however, was contested by Edward IV’s brother, the Duke of Gloucester. One day the two princes suddenly disappeared from the Tower of London and were never seen again. The most common theory is that they were murdered by the Duke of Gloucester, who then took the throne as Richard III, however nobody knows for sure what happened to them and other suspects have also been put forward, most of them also contenders to the throne.
There was also Jack the Ripper, a 19th century serial killer who tortured, maimed and then murdered local women in the East End of London. To this day he’s never been identified.
And if you believe certain people and tabloids, I guess we’ll never know for sure how Princess Diana died…
What happened to the Picts (the original inhabitants of Scotland roughly north of where the Antonine Wall was built)? We know that they merged with the Gaels/Scots of Dal Riata (originally from Ireland) and were often at war with the Britons, Angles and Romans but that’s about it. Was it a merger, or were they conquered? What language did they speak (most likely a Brythonic language related to modern Welsh)? Religious beliefs? How much did they have in common with the Britons? They didn’t write anything down, just left a few interesting carvings.
Did James IV actually die at Flodden or did he fake his death and become a monk (I actually buy into the latter theory)?
Most of the massacres in the so called [years of lead](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Years_of_Lead_(Italy) are still shrouded in mystery and often the findings are still covered as state secrets.
For example, my home town of Bologna was the site of the bloodiest post war massacre in Italy, when a bomb at the station killed 80 people and wounded 2x people. The most likely explanation is that it was a plot of far right extremists aided by deviated secret services of Italy and the US, but it’s been also speculated that it was the Palestinian terrorists.
In any case the material executors of the massacre have been mostly sentenced, but not who commissioned the massacre.
The “Dannenwalde missile disaster” 1977.
Perhaps/probably Germans and Poles only narrowly escaped a nuclear catastrophe at that time.
Briefly for geographical orientation, Dannnenwald is north of Berlin, there was an ammunition factory and an ammunition depot there during the Third Reich, after the war it was taken over by the Red Army.
Until 1992, the surface-to-surface missiles of the type GRAU-Index 9K79 Totschka/NATO-Code SS-21 Scarab, of the 2nd Guards Tank Regiment were stored there.
On 14 August 1977, lightning probably struck a stack of 122-mm Katyusha rockets, which then ignited and other ammunition also caught fire; the more accurate number of rockets ignited is probably over 1000.
The rockets flew up to a radius of 15 km, an area of 180 km² was affected. Impacts occurred in 23 villages in this area. As the fuses of the rockets were removed, the missiles did not explode.
A train of ammunition was brought to safety in time by railway workers.
According to various sources, e.g. the Soviet fire chief of the site, special cargo, i.e. A-weapons, were also stored there. If the ammunition train had exploded, they too could have been damaged and we would have had nuclear contamination of the area, or worse.
Sovjet bases were extraterritorial at the time, the GDR had no rights there. The Soviets also told the GDR not to investigate there after the accident.
Russia continues to block the files on this; so we don’t knwo, how dangerous the accident was. The number of Soviet soldiers killed at the time is also secret, the Stasi estimates between 50-300.
There doesn’t seem to be an English Wiki article about it, so I’ve written it in a bit more detail.
https://de.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raketenkatastrophe_von_Dannenwalde
Death of Prime Minister and General Władysław Sikorski.
On July 4, 1943, General Sikorski’s plane took off at 23:00 from Gibraltar, after 16 seconds from take-off, it fell into the sea and remained afloat for 6 minutes before it went to the bottom of the sea. General Sikorski, his daughter Zofia, died on board the plane, so there could be more victims. Due to the unexplained circumstances of the catastrophe, there were later suspicions that it was not an accident, but an assasination attempt organized by the USSR, the English (Who had hard time with Sikorski) or even Poles who disagreed with Sikorski. In 2008, the body of General Sikorski was exhumed. Inspections established that the former prime minister of the Polish government in exile was not shot or poisoned, but died as a result of injuries typical of an air crash. The remaining doubts (the causes of the catastrophe) have not been resolved to this day.
What happened to the Roman 9th Legion? It was an elite legion sent to Britain to deal with growing rebellion and later the Picts in what is now Scotland. There are various theories, but it seems to no longer be listed on any records after about 100AD.
We still don’t really know what happened to the Princes in the Tower, it’s assumed they were murdered by Richard III, but we have no idea whether this is true. Two child corpses were found under the stairs of the Tower of London in the 17th Century and were assumed to be their’s, but no-one has ever tested them
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Princes_in_the_Tower
Edit: there’s a lot of conspiracy theories about whether or not William Shakespeare wrote his own plays or if he published the work of other people for whom it would have been unseemly for them to be involved in the theatre (like Sir Francis Bacon or the Earls of Oxford and Derby). Shakespeare grew up in an illiterate family in a cultural backwater so some assume he was just a front for more educated people
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shakespeare_authorship_question
The loss of ORP Orzeł. It was a submarine famous because of a daring [escape](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orze%C5%82_incident) from Tallin. In 1940 she went on a partol in the North Sea and never came back. There were several theories why she was lost, most likely she was struck by a sea mine. Polish Navy many times tried to find a wreck of this submarine, but unsuccessfully.
One of the biggest mysteries in portuguese history is about King Sebastian I.
By 1578 Portugal had conquered, annexed or vassalised various moroccan cities. King Sebastian wanted more, so he organised a military expedition to conquer Alcácer Quibir.
In moroccan lands, Sebastian meets with Abu Abdallah Mohammed II, the deposed moroccan sultan, his ally.
Sebastian and Abu’s armies march to Alcácer, but are intercepted by Abd Al-Malik, the current sultan, and his army.
[The Battle of the Three Kings](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Alc%C3%A1cer_Quibir?wprov=sfla1) begins. Al-Malik’s army was much larger, and so they manage to encircle the portuguese and Abu’s armies, winning the battle.
The three kings died during this battle. Abd Al-Malik died from natural causes (the effort of riding and commanding troops was too much) and Abu drowned in a river while running away.
The mystery is what happened to King Sebastian. He was last seen riding with a cavalry charge against the enemy. Some say he died in battle (most likely), some say he was captured and made a slave, but no one knows exactly what happened to him. There’s the theory that he returned to Portugal and was killed by King Phillip I (II of Spain) because he didn’t want to give away the portuguese throne (his death would lead to the Portuguese Succession Crisis and, subsequently, the Iberian Union).
Supposedly, his body was recovered, and King Phillip burried him in the Jerónimos Monastery, but back then there was no way to confirm it was him, so people are still sceptical about if it’s really him. There are some plans to open the grave and analyse the DNA of whoever is in there.
Around this mystery, the myth of Sebastianism was created. Sebastianists believe that King Sebastian will return on a foggy morning, riding his white horse, to restore glory to Portugal.
I’m sure someone’s already said it, but the assassination of Olof Palme (Palmemordet) in Sweden is an absolutely fascinating trail of whodunit.the closest we’ll ever probably get is the Police saying “it most likely was Stig Engström”, which isn’t even a fullproof accusation.
Belgium:
The kidnapping of Gendarm Peter De Vleeschauwer.
He was abducted from the police station. 6 weeks later he was found in a canal. Shot death, execution style.
At first his colleagues said he ran away but after finding the body they had to abandon this theory. Peter was already transferred once from one gendarme department to another because he had filed a complaint against some of his colleagues dirty dealings.
The investigation was a series of blunders and timewasting. The investigation is still ongoing, 26 years later.
What really happened at the Béal na Bláth ambush would be my choice, there are some suspects but to this day nobody really knows who killed Michael Collins. Michael Collins is one of the most important figures in Irish history and was essentially the de facto leader of the IRA during the Irish War of Independence.
The night of the 10th of April 1934 a heist took place in the city of Gent. Two panels of the [Ghent Altarpiece](http://closertovaneyck.kikirpa.be/ghentaltarpiece/#home/sub=open&vis&bt), *The Adoration of the Mystic Lamb* (Dutch: De aanbidding van het Lam Gods, or just Lam Gods for short) were stolen. The panels were used to blackmail the bishop a couple weeks later, one was returned, but to this day the other panel (Dutch: [De Rechtvaardige Rechters](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/d4/Ghent_Altarpiece_E_-_Just_Judges_%28original_painting%29.jpg/800px-Ghent_Altarpiece_E_-_Just_Judges_%28original_painting%29.jpg)) is still missing.
Het Lam Gods is a painting consisting of multiple panels, it dates from the 15th century and is believed to be painted by the brothers Hubert and Jan Van Eyck, both Flemish Primitive painters. It’s one of the most detailed and iconic paintings of it’s time, which is also part of the reason why it’s survived so long.
The investigation to find who the thieves are and where the missing panel is has on and off since the theft. There’s still no conclusive answer on who it could have been, and since it was so long ago it’s likely to never get solved. It could be that *De Rechtvaardige Rechters* is in a private collection in which case it could be in decent shape, but it’s equally likely that it’s been forgotten somewhere and is hardly recognizable.
I live in Belgium, in a certain city, and in the center of the city is a pillar with the crown of Guillaume D’Orange (The Nederland), the guy we fought against as Belgians, because he wanted to invade my country, but it’s still there and not a lot of people realise this, maybe because it has became a icon for racism against french speaking people of my city and it’s totally okay (sarcasm, i speak french)
The death of Roberto Calvi, an Italian banker who was found hanged underneath Blackfriars Bridge in London in 1982. He had bricks in his pockets and was carrying a large amount of cash in three currencies.
It’s theorised that it’s all connected to the collapse of the Italian Banco Ambrosiano, which was a major scandal, and the infamous Propaganda Due Masonic lodge, of which Calvi was a member. But, despite several investigations, no one knows for sure who did it or why.
Apparently the members of Propaganda Due called themselves “frati neri” – “black friars”. So the choice of bridge might have had some connection to that.
[Aer Lingus Flight 164](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aer_Lingus_Flight_164), someone who was wanted for fraud in Australia and assault in Ireland kidnapped a plane in order to get the pope to release the Third Secret of Fatima. From what I know, no-one knows why he did it (mental issues?), or why he even wanted to take the plane to Iran of all places.
Basically most of Italian history 1945-1994. It was the playground of foreign secret services, the Vatican, far right and far left terrorism, you name it.
Help yourself:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roberto_Calvi
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Propaganda_Due
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disappearance_of_Emanuela_Orlandi
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kidnapping_of_Aldo_Moro
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carmine_Pecorelli
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Propaganda_Due
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golpe_Borghese
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Gladio#Italy
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strategy_of_tension
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michele_Sindona
https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mauro_Rostagno
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Years_of_Lead_(Italy)
Many of the terrorist attacks and murders committed between the 1950s and the 1990s.
Others mentioned the death of Enrico Mattei, the Ustica tragedy and the Bologna bombing.
Another that comes to mind are the Piazza Fontana bombing of 12 December 1969, one of a series of multiple bombings that occurred simultaneously in both Milan and Rome.
Far right terrorists were found to be the ones that ordered the act but who helped them and who materially placed the bomb were never found. They were most probably aided by deviated secret services but there were speculations that anarchist groups actually placed the bomb.