On this day in conspiracies

Seaman Amos Story reports watching the animal for roughly an hour and a half near Ten Pound Island in Gloucester Harbor, describing a head shaped like a sea turtle carried above the water and rapid movement. His account becomes one of the earliest formal statements.

Casolaro is found dead in the bathtub of his room at the Sheraton hotel in Martinsburg, West Virginia, where associates say he had gone to meet a source. His wrists have been cut multiple times and a short note is present. A briefcase of documents he was said to be carrying is not found.

Rock-drill operators at Lonmin's Marikana platinum operation launch a wildcat strike, demanding a monthly wage of R12,500, outside the existing collective-bargaining agreement and without the backing of the dominant National Union of Mineworkers (NUM). Tension between NUM and the rival AMCU union runs through the dispute.

At about 6:30 a.m. Epstein is found unresponsive in his locked cell at MCC and is pronounced dead at a hospital. Within hours, two rival theories take hold online: that he was murdered, and that he is not really dead.

At about 6:30 a.m. Epstein is found hanged in his locked cell, alone and with an excessive amount of bed linens. He is pronounced dead at a hospital.

Epstein is found dead in his cell at the Metropolitan Correctional Center; the death is ruled a suicide and is treated in a separate companion entry. His death leaves the passport's provenance, and the safe's full story, without his testimony.

The Swiss embassy in Beijing states that no Swiss citizen or biologist named 'Wilson Edwards,' widely quoted by Chinese outlets attacking the U.S. over COVID origins, exists. State media delete the stories; Facebook later ties the fake persona to a Chinese firm, exposing the operation's methods.