27 Photos That Seem Normal Until You Learn The Mysteries Behind Them

This photograph captures pioneering aviator Amelia Earhart on the wing of her Lockheed Electra, the very plane she was flying when she vanished over the Pacific Ocean in 1937. The image, taken right before her ill-fated attempt to circumnavigate the globe, has become an iconic representation of her adventurous spirit. It serves as a haunting final glimpse of the famous pilot before she and her navigator, Fred Noonan, disappeared without a trace.

In 2000, an anonymous woman sent two photographs to the Sarasota County Sheriff's Department in Florida. The pictures show a large, dark, ape-like creature with glowing eyes, hunched over on her back porch at night. In an accompanying letter, the woman claimed the creature had been coming for three nights in a row to steal apples she had left out, and she identified it as the legendary "Skunk Ape," a local version of Bigfoot known for its foul odor.

Painted in the 15th century, "The Madonna with Saint Giovannino" appears at first to be a typical Renaissance religious scene, but a strange detail in the sky has fascinated UFO enthusiasts for decades. Hovering in the background above Mary's left shoulder is a small, dark, disc-shaped object that appears to be radiating golden rays. Below it, a man and his dog can be seen on a cliff, shielding their eyes as they stare up at the mysterious object, an inclusion that suggests the artist intentionally depicted an anomalous aerial phenomenon.

Taken from the deck of the S.S. Watertown in 1924, this photograph appears to show two ghostly faces in the waves of the Pacific Ocean. The eerie visages are believed to belong to two crewmen, James Courtney and Michael Meehan, who had been accidentally k**led by gas fumes and buried at sea the previous day. For days afterward, the crew reported seeing the faces following the ship, prompting the captain to capture this chilling image, which has since become a famous piece of photographic evidence for believers in the paranormal.

Discovered in a collection of Victorian-era photographs, this series of images documents the vacations of a single, unidentified family in the English seaside town of Margate. Taken over several years, the photos chronicle the family's life, showing the children growing older and a new baby sister appearing. Aside from the name of the photographer in the background of one shot, there are no clues to their identities, leaving behind a charming but completely anonymous family album that captures a life story we will likely never know.

In bonus footage from Charlie Chaplin's 1928 film The Circus, a woman is seen walking past the camera holding a black object to her ear, appearing for all the world to be talking on a modern cell phone. The strange clip went viral, with many people claiming it as evidence of a time traveler caught on film. Skeptics have since argued she is likely holding a portable hearing aid, a new technology at the time, but the woman's uncanny resemblance to a modern pedestrian has made the image an enduring piece of cinematic folklore.

In this 1988 photograph, President Ronald Reagan is seen shaking hands with a young boy in Moscow's Red Square, but it's the curious tourist in the background who has made the image famous. The blond man with a camera slung over his shoulder bears a striking resemblance to a young Vladimir Putin, who was a KGB agent at the time. While the Kremlin has always denied it, the White House photographer who took the shot remains convinced that he inadvertently captured a future Russian president spying on an American one.