On 12 July 1488, Korean official Choe Bu returned home after an extraordinary accidental journey across Ming Dynasty China, having documented everything he saw. His diary remains one of the most valuable accounts of fifteenth-century Chinese life ever written. Four centuries later, on the same date in 1562, Franciscan friar Diego de Landa presided over the burning of Maya codices in Yucatán, destroying centuries of astronomical and religious knowledge. Only four Maya manuscripts are known to have survived. In 1995, Chinese seismologists successfully predicted a major Myanmar-China border earthquake, saving hundreds of lives through timely evacuation. And in 1997, Berlin’s ninth Love Parade was met with a counter-protest called the Hateparade, organised by those who felt the techno scene had been commercialised beyond recognition. Four stories about what gets recorded, what gets destroyed, and what survives long enough to matter.

• Introduction Clara introduces the theme of documenting disaster and sets up the story of Choe Bu, a Joseon Dynasty official who survived shipwreck and captivity to write one of history’s great travel accounts.
• Choe Bu’s Impossible Journey Home In 1488, Korean official Choe Bu was shipwrecked off the coast of China while returning home for his father’s funeral. Detained by Ming authorities suspicious of pirates, he used his literacy in classical Chinese to prove his identity. He was then escorted across the breadth of China via the Grand Canal, observing everything from infrastructure to daily life. His resulting fifty-thousand-character diary became one of the most valuable accounts of Ming society ever written.
• Fray Diego de Landa Burns the Maya Books On 12 July 1562, Franciscan friar Diego de Landa ordered the burning of Maya sacred objects and codices in Maní, Yucatán. Between 27 and 40 manuscripts containing astronomical knowledge, religious ritual, and calendrical systems were destroyed. Only four Maya codices survived the Spanish colonial period. Ironically, De Landa later wrote one of the most important accounts of Maya culture and helped preserve elements of their writing system.
• Chinese Seismologists Predict the Myanmar-China Earthquake On 12 July 1995, Chinese seismologists successfully predicted a major earthquake on the Myanmar-China border, allowing evacuations that limited casualties to eleven people. This stands as one of the clearest documented cases of successful earthquake prediction, a feat that remains exceptionally rare in modern seismology.
• Berlin’s Love Parade Gets a Rival On 12 July 1997, Berlin’s ninth Love Parade was met with a counter-protest called the Hateparade, organised by those who felt the techno festival had become too commercial and had abandoned its underground roots. The protest later evolved into the annual Fuckparade, which continues as a demonstration against corporate takeover of countercultural spaces.
• Outro Clara reflects on what survives in history: the records we make, the knowledge we destroy, and the arguments we preserve.

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Choe_Bu
• https://www.jstor.org/stable/2719418
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diego_de_Landa
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maya_codices
• https://www.britannica.com/topic/Maya-codex
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1995_Myanmar%E2%80%93China_earthquake
• https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/0040195196000637
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loveparade
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fuckparade

On 11 July across three centuries, three men made their mark through confidence, ingenuity, and technological ambition. In 1576, explorer Martin Frobisher sighted Greenland but mistakenly identified it as Frisland, a non-existent island shown on the influential but fictional Zeno Map. His error illuminates the challenges of 16th-century navigation and the consequences of cartographic fiction. In 2015, drug lord Joaquín ‘El Chapo’ Guzmán escaped Mexico’s Altiplano maximum security prison through a sophisticated 1.5-kilometre tunnel, exposing security failures and triggering an international manhunt. In 1997, Philippe Kahn shared the first photograph from a mobile phone, an image of his newborn daughter sent while waiting in a California hospital, prefiguring the instant visual communication now used by billions daily. Three stories of exploration, escape, and innovation reveal the enduring human capacity for ambition, both misguided and transformative.

• Introduction Clara Vale introduces three 11 July moments spanning exploration, escape, and technological innovation, each shaped by human confidence and miscalculation.
• Martin Frobisher Finds the Island That Wasn’t There In 1576, English explorer Martin Frobisher sighted Greenland but identified it as Frisland, a fictional island on the Zeno Map. His voyages, funded partly on false promises of gold, nevertheless opened early English exploration of the Canadian Arctic despite reliance on misleading cartography.
• El Chapo’s Second Disappearing Act On 11 July 2015, Joaquín ‘El Chapo’ Guzmán escaped Mexico’s Altiplano maximum security prison through a 1.5-kilometre tunnel equipped with lighting, ventilation, and a rail-mounted motorcycle. He was recaptured in 2016 and extradited to the United States.
• The First Phone Photograph In 1997, Philippe Kahn transmitted the first photograph from a mobile phone, an image of his newborn daughter Sophie, while in a California hospital. The demonstration established the foundation for instant visual communication now used globally.
• Outro Clara reflects on how three moments of discovery, escape, and invention reveal the gap between human confidence and reality, shaping the future in unexpected ways.

• https://www.britannica.com/biography/Martin-Frobisher
• https://www.rmg.co.uk/stories/topics/zeno-map-fake-or-genuine
• https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/sir-martin-frobisher
• https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-33479289
• https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/jul/12/el-chapo-escape-tunnel-mexico-prison
• https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/17/nyregion/el-chapo-sentencing.html
• https://www.wired.com/2016/06/philippe-kahn-first-camera-phone/
• https://www.cnn.com/2013/06/13/tech/mobile/first-camera-phone-photo/index.html

On 10 July 1958, a magnitude 7.9 earthquake triggered the largest wave in recorded history. Ninety million tons of rock crashed into Lituya Bay, Alaska, sending water surging 1,720 feet up the mountainside, stripping trees and soil in a single catastrophic event. Three fishing boats were caught in the bay that night. Two crews survived against impossible odds. One did not. The megatsunami redefined what scientists believed water could do and remains the defining case study in coastal hazard modelling. Also on this day: French intelligence agents sank the Greenpeace vessel Rainbow Warrior in Auckland Harbour in 1985, killing one photographer and sparking an international scandal. And in 2018, the final four members of a Thai youth football team emerged from the Tham Luang cave system after 18 days underground, completing one of the most remarkable rescue operations of the century. Clara Vale explores a day when history arrived as a wall of water, a covert bombing, and a moment of extraordinary human coordination.

• Introduction Clara sets the scene in Lituya Bay, Alaska, where a calm summer evening in 1958 turned into the most extreme recorded wave event in human history.
• The 1958 Lituya Bay Megatsunami A magnitude 7.9 earthquake triggered a rockslide that sent 90 million tons of material into Lituya Bay, creating a wave that surged 1,720 feet up the opposite mountainside. Three fishing boats were in the bay that night. Two crews survived. The Sunmore and its crew, Orville and Mickey Wagner, were lost. The event redefined megatsunami science and changed how geologists assess coastal hazards.
• The Sinking of the Rainbow Warrior On 10 July 1985, French intelligence agents bombed the Greenpeace vessel Rainbow Warrior in Auckland Harbour, killing photographer Fernando Pereira. Two agents were arrested and convicted. France initially denied involvement, then admitted it. The incident was condemned internationally as state-sponsored terrorism.
• The Tham Luang Cave Rescue On 10 July 2018, the final four boys and their coach emerged from the Tham Luang cave system in northern Thailand after 18 days trapped underground. Twelve boys and their assistant coach had been caught by flooding on 23 June. An international rescue effort involving specialist cave divers, sedation, and round-the-clock engineering brought all 13 out alive. Thai Navy SEAL Saman Kunan died during the operation.
• Closing Thoughts Clara reflects on a day that brought a wave that rewrote science, a covert operation that failed to stay secret, and a rescue that defied the odds. History arrives in many forms, reminding us the world is larger, stranger, and more fragile than we anticipate.

• https://www.usgs.gov/centers/pcmsc/science/lituya-bay
• https://www.researchgate.net/publication/237467734_Analysis_of_the_1958_Lituya_Bay_Megatsunami
• https://pubs.geoscienceworld.org/ssa/bssa/article-abstract/50/2/253/101467/The-Mechanism-of-the-1958-Lituya-Bay-Megatsunami
• https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/rainbow-warrior-bombing-30-years-on/
• https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-44791998
• https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/jul/10/thai-cave-rescue-four-more-boys-freed-from-cave-in-good-health
• https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-44734385