- What year is it? What year is it?!
Time travel is a science-fiction staple, with everyone from Arnold Schwarzenegger to Marty McFly hopping through the ages. It’s no wonder the concept inspires so many stories, since people have always been curious about visiting different time periods.
But what if you could do it for real?
Some people swear time travelers exist, either claiming to be one themselves or finding evidence in works of art and fiction. Certain stories are eerily believable, while others are… Much less so.
Here are nine alleged cases of real-life time travel (and why some of them simply can’t be true).
1. Ferdinand Georg Waldmüller
Austrian artist Ferdinand Georg Waldmüller painted a painting titled “The Expected” in 1860. It depicts a young boy with a flower waiting for an approaching girl.
But what’s that in the girl’s hands? It sure looks like she’s playing with a modern smartphone! Was Waldmüller the time traveler or the girl he painted?
According to art historians, the girl is actually holding a small prayer book, which were common in 19th-century Austria. People on social media, however, have seized on the smartphone theory, so believe what you will.
2. Charlotte Anne Moberly and Eleanor Jourdain
In 1911, British ladies Charlotte Anne Moberly and Eleanor Jourdain visited a small French chateau known as the Petit Trianon on the grounds of Versailles. While in the building, they claimed to have experienced a time slip, witnessing people in 17th-century clothes and even spotting Marie Antoinette among them.
The two women wrote a book about their experience, which became a bestseller at the time. However, it also earned them plenty of ridicule for their unbelievable story.
Some theories of what happened is that the women saw actors in period costume and, being so thrilled to be in Versailles, kind of lost track of reality. However, no conclusive proof of what, if anything, happened in Petit Trianon has never come forward.
3. Rudolph Fentz
You may have heard the story of Rudolph Fentz circulating on the internet. If not, in a nutshell, a man dressed in Victorian clothing suddenly appeared New York City — and was promptly killed as a car hit him.
In his pockets, he had various 19th-century items, including a letter dated to 1867 and business cards bearing the name Rudolph Fentz. Later investigations revealed that Fentz had mysteriously disappeared in 1867.
It’s a nice story, but that’s all it is. This urban legend is actually based on a 1950 short story “I’m Scared” by author Jack Finney, which someone must’ve taken as a real account of time travel.
4. 1943 Smartphone Man
In 2018, photo retoucher Stuart Humphryes posted a picture of a 1943 beach scene from southern England on X (then Twitter). People quickly pointed out a brown-suited man in the middle of the picture who, much like the girl, in “The Expected,” appears to be using a smartphone.
The story went viral and was repeated by websites and news outlets around the world. But what did Humphryes himself think the man was doing?
Well, he says he’s obviously rolling a cigarette.
5. Philadelphia Experiment
The Philadelphia Experiment is a supposed U.S. Navy secret operation that allegedly took place on October 28, 1943. Depending on whom you ask, the experimental technology used in the test was supposed to either render destroyer escort USS Eldridge invisible to radar, or invisible altogether.
The experiment is claimed to have worked, but in unexpected ways. Some account claim USS Eldridge vanished, appeared in Norfolk, Virginia, and then zipped back to Philadelphia, moving backwards in time 10 seconds while doing so.
Other stories are wilder. A man named Al Bielek claimed in 1989 that the experiment threw him and his brother forward in time to 2137. They stated they had to spend six weeks in a hospital recovering from radiation injuries before traveling further to a flying city in 2749.
6. Mike “Madman” Marcum
Mike “Madman” Marcum was an eccentric guy living in King City, Missouri. In 1995, he called a local radio station claiming that he was about to boot up his time machine and travel to the future.
His “time machine” consisted of several power transformers Marcum had stolen from a local utility company. When he turned his contraption on, he knocked the power out of entire King City and consequently spent two months in jail.
In 1996, he called the radio station again, saying he’d built a new time machine and sent more than 200 animals through time. Then, in 1997, he disappeared — perhaps on his time machine.
Expect that he didn’t. Madman Mike resurfaced in 2015, claiming he had transported himself two years into the future and appeared in Fairfield, Ohio. We don’t know what he did all those years, but we do know that no one reported him as missing.
7. John Titor
Do you remember BBS? If not, BBS boards were early forms of online. In 1998, a man identifying himself as John Titor started posting on one BBS, claiming to have come from the year 2036 on a military mission.
He was supposedly sent back in time to acquire an antiquated IBM 5100 computer. He spent three years posting surprisingly coherent and believable accounts about time traveling and the society of the future.
Titor also revealed various facts about future events that consequently never happened. Or did you miss it when half of humanity was wiped out in World War III in 2015?
In 2001, the messages stopped and Titor disappeared. Various investigations have concluded that the whole Titor saga was a hoax some bored internet user created.
8. Andrew Carlssin
In 2003, a man named Andrew Carlssin was arrested after he made 126 high-risk stock trades and turned $800 into $350 million. He was suspected of insider trading, but upon interrogation, he revealed that he had come from the 2200s.
To avoid a jail sentence, Carlssin offered to share information from the future. He reportedly told the police the hiding place of Osama bin Laden, the cure for HIV, and other fantastic facts.
Too bad this story is nothing but baloney — Carlssin never existed. It was originally printed in the satirical joke newspaper Weekly World News, which just goes to show that some people will believe anything they read.
9. Sergei Ponomarenko
In 2006, a discombobulated man appeared in Kiev, Ukraine. When police took him in, he identified himself as Sergei Ponomarenko and stated he last remembered being in the year 1958.
Sure enough, he was carrying a Soviet-era ID card, photographs of Kiev in the ‘50s, and an old camera. Modern technology seemed to confuse him greatly. However, at some point, Ponomarenko left the police station and was never seen again.
This guy must’ve been a time traveler, right? We’re sorry to rain on your parade, but this entire thing matches the plot of an episode from the Ukrainian TV show Aliens, which aired in 2006.