The History of Time Travel (or People Who Claimed to Have Done It)
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Ah, time travel—one of humanity’s favorite “what if” questions.
Scientists debate wormholes, paradoxes, and relativity, but let’s be honest—most of us just want to know if someone, somewhere, actually pulled it off.
Was there ever someone lost in space and time?
Lucky for us, history is filled with people who claim they’ve cracked the time-travel code.
Some of these stories are laugh-out-loud ridiculous, others are pretty convincing, and a few are so mysterious they make you second-guess everything.
1. Mike Marcum
The Backyard Time Machine Guy Who (Maybe?) Disappeared
Mike “Mad Man” Marcum — sometimes also referred to and written as Mike Markham — is a Missouri-based inventor and part-time rogue scientist who, in the mid-1990s, tried to build a real-life time machine in his backyard.
And where did he get the parts? By stealing them, of course.
Mike was obsessed with Jacob’s Ladders (electrical arc machines you see in old sci-fi movies) and had a theory: if he could get one strong enough, it would open a time portal.
Because… why not?
The first experiment? He tossed a metal screw into the energy field. According to him, it disappeared for a fraction of a second before reappearing a few feet away.
Encouraged by this minor success (and completely ignoring common sense), Mike decided to scale up the machine—big enough for a human.
The human being him.
Then, in 1996, he went on the Coast to Coast AM radio show and told host Art Bell that he was about to try his fancy backyard time machine on himself.
And then… Mike vanished.
For years, conspiracy forums ran wild with theories. Some say he successfully traveled through time. Others claim a mysterious corpse was found in the 1930s wearing modern clothes, possibly him.
The truth? He did disappear—but only because the cops arrested him for stealing six transformers from a power plant.
Moral of the story? I don’t know… maybe don’t steal government stuff to build a time machine.
2. John Titor
The Internet’s Favorite Time Traveler Who “Went Back Home”
Ah, John Titor, the guy who claimed to be from 2036 and spent months in early 2000s internet forums spilling future knowledge before mysteriously disappearing.
Titor said he was a soldier from a post-apocalyptic America sent back to retrieve an old IBM 5100 computer, which supposedly had a secret function that modern computers lack.
His reasoning? The 5100 could fix an upcoming catastrophic Y2K-like problem in the future.
Sure…
He posted highly detailed descriptions of his “time machine”, including its schematics. He even warned about a coming U.S. Civil War, nuclear war with Russia, and government oppression.
(Spoiler alter: None of that has happened… yet.)
Then, just like mad man Mike Marcum, John Titor, too, vanished.
Some people think Titor was an elaborate hoax, likely orchestrated by a prankster with deep knowledge of computing. Others argue that his arrival altered the timeline, which is why his predictions didn’t come true.
Or maybe—just maybe—he really went back to 2036.
Nope, turned out it was a lawyer and his nerdy computer scientist brother who came up with the story and characters. With trademark and all.
Disappointing….
3. The Man from Taured
The Airport Traveler from a Nonexistent Country
On a sunny day in 1954 (well, no clue how the weather actually was, but it sounds nice), a man arrived at Haneda Airport in Tokyo with a strange passport.
It looked fine, everything sounded reasonable. Until you read the country: Taured.
Yep, that one doesn’t exist. Never has.
The customs officers were understandably confused. The man, equally confused, insisted Taured had been around for hundreds of years and was located between France and Spain.
He even pointed at a map—but where he claimed Taured should be, there was only Andorra.
Authorities detained him overnight in a hotel while they investigated. But by morning, he was gone. The door was locked, the windows were unbreakable, and security swore they didn’t see him leave.
So, what the hell? Did he go back to Taured?
Nope, again, turned out this dude called John Zegrus was full of serious amounts of crap and made up stories like these in a heartbeat.
4. Rudolph Fentz:
The 19th-Century Man Who Appeared in 1950 and Got Hit by a Car
Ah, a gentlemen time traveler. He must be kosher.
In 1950, a man in 19th-century clothes appeared in Times Square, confused and disoriented. Moments later, he was hit by a car and killed.
When authorities checked his belongings, they found:
✔️ Old-timey coins
✔️ A business card from a company that no longer existed
✔️ A letter dated 1876
A deeper investigation found that a man named Rudolph Fentz had disappeared in 1876—without a trace.
Oh, my… Did we finally find our real-life time traveler?
Nope.
Turned out, this story actually came directly from a 1951 sci-fi short story that was later mistaken for real history. Wasn’t too popular, I suspect.
5. Andrew Carlssin
The Time Traveler Who Knew Too Much About the Stock Market
In 2003, an unknown man named Andrew Carlssin turned $800 into $350 million in just two weeks on the stock market—an impossible feat.
I mean, cha-ching, right?
That’s what the FEDs said. So, naturally, the SEC arrested him for insider trading. But when questioned, Carlssin gave an answer no one expected:
“I’m a time traveler from 2256.”
Genius.
Carlssin said he had future knowledge and offered to reveal Osama bin Laden’s whereabouts (and a cure for AIDS) in exchange for his release. They released him. Fools.
And, of course, he vanished.
There’s no record of his arrest, no public trial—just a vanishing act. Some say the government erased all traces of him. Others think it was a hoax. Either way, it’s good money.
Bonus
The Philadelphia Experiment
One of the wildest time-travel conspiracies involves the Philadelphia Experiment in 1943. The U.S. Navy supposedly tried to make the USS Eldridge invisible, but instead, the ship:
✅ Teleported from Philadelphia to Norfolk, Virginia
✅ Time-traveled
✅ Left sailors fused into the ship’s metal (yikes!)
Wow.
Most historians (LOL) agree this is a hoax, but it remains one of the most famous time-travel legends.
Are Any of These Real?
Look, the logical part of our brains says nah.
But the fun part?
That part of me that loves sci-fi, weird mysteries, and the idea that some guy might be hopping through time in a homemade contraption?
That part wants to believe.
Who knows…