Things You Don't Necessarily Need to Know - Useless Facts

10 Conspiracy Theories

So, @damnitlukee suggested theories as a new topic and because I already did two parts about film theories, I went with 10 Conspiracy Theories this time:

391. Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 disappeared on 8 March 2014 and hasn't been found yet. Just over four months later (on 17 July 2014) another Malaysia Airlines flight, MH17, crashed in eastern Ukraine, near the Russian border after apparently having been shot down by a missile. Although it may seem like a coincidence, there are no coincidences to conspiracy theorists. They believe MH370 and MH17 were in fact the same plane. Worldtruth.tv is one of the many sites that argues that MH370 was hijacked and flown to US military base Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean. The "US propaganda machine" then staged the shooting down of MH17 so that the Russians would lose credibility. 

392. The 'reptoid hypothesis' is a conspiracy theory which suggests that reptilian humanoids live among us with the intention of enslaving the human race. It has been championed by former BBC sports presenter David Icke who believes that deceased American comedian Bob Hope, members of the Royal Family and former US Presidents George W. Bush and Bill Clinton are part of the "Anunnaki" race who came to earth for "monatomic gold". 

393. In 1977, the world mourned the King as Elvis Presley died at the age of 42 – or did he? Many Elvis fans believe that he went into hiding and really died in the 1990s, although sightings continue to the present day. American rapper Tupac Shakur, whose 1996 murder remains unsolved, is another celebrity whose death is believed to have been overstated.

394. In 1947, claims that an "alien spacecraft" had landed in Roswell, New Mexico, were dismissed by the US military, which said the alien craft was merely a weather balloon. Ufologists believe that the spacecraft was taken into Area 51 and the US government has been researching alien technology and life forms on the site ever since. Video footage of an alleged "alien autopsy" has been shown to be fake, but Area 51 is known to be a secretive and heavily guarded base. The reasons, however, may be more earthly than the conspiracy theories suggest: the U-2 spy plane, and several other top-secret aircraft, were developed and tested here. 

395. On 11 September 2001, four planes were hijacked by al-Qaeda and two of them were flown into the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York, killing 2,996 people. However, some people believe that the attack was an inside job, orchestrated in order to cement America's place as the top global power or to secure the oil reserves in the Middle East. Another theory is that the building's owners were responsible for the event (they stood to gain $500 million from insurance profits).

396. Neil Armstrong's giant leap kicked off one of the most persistent conspiracy theories of the 20th century. The sceptics claim that the 1969 landings – and all those which followed – were faked by NASA and that no human being has ever set foot on the surface of the Moon, although there is substantial evidence to the contrary including Moon rocks brought back to Earth and manmade objects left on the Moon. This goes along with the theory I presented in another part that film director Stanley Kubrick was hired to produce the footage after filming '2001: A Space Odyssey'. 

397. In November 1963, John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, Texas. Lee Harvey Oswald, a former US Marine, was accused of the crime but was shot dead before he could stand trial. But the question remains if he was just a scapegoat and the real killers got away with the murder. 

398. Chemtrail conspiracy theorists believe that some contrails, which consist of ice crystals or water condensed behind aircraft, actually result from chemicals or biological toxics being deliberately sprayed at high altitude for some undisclosed purpose. There is speculation that the chemicals being sprayed are part of a wider plot that involves the so-called 'New World Order' and is being directed by shadowy forces within the government. The existence of chemtrails has been repeatedly denied by federal agencies and scientists.

399. HAARP (High Frequency Active Auroral Research Program) is an research program funded by the U.S. Air Force, the U.S. Navy, the University of Alaska, and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). Some theorists believe that it is being used as a weather-controlling device that can trigger catastrophic events, such as floods and hurricanes. Others believe that the government uses HAARP to send mind-controlling radio waves to humans.

400. There are claims that AIDS is a human-made disease that was created by humans in a laboratory. Some of these theories allege that HIV was created by a conspiratorial group or by a secretive agency such as the CIA. It is thought to have been created as a tool of genocide and population control. Other theories suggest that the virus escaped into the population at large by accident.