History
Famous Unsolved Coded Messages
15rows
5columns
49views
0downloads
Source:Community curated
Updated:3/7/2026
15/15
Coded Message↕ | Year Created↕ | Origin↕ | Status↕ | Known For↕ |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Zodiac Killer's Z340 Cipher | 1969 | San Francisco, USA | Solved 2020 (51 years later) | Serial killer's taunting cipher sent to newspapers, cracked by amateur codebreakers in 2020, Z408 solved earlier |
Voynich Manuscript | c. 1404-1438 | Unknown (possibly Italy) | Unsolved | 220-page illustrated codex in unknown script and language, bizarre botanical drawings, defies all decryption attempts |
Kryptos (CIA Sculpture) | 1990 | CIA Headquarters, Langley, VA | 3 of 4 sections solved, K4 unsolved | Jim Sanborn's sculpture at CIA HQ, final 97 characters still unsolved, even the CIA can't crack it |
Beale Ciphers | c. 1820s | Bedford County, Virginia | 1 of 3 solved, treasure unfound | Allegedly describes location of buried gold/silver treasure worth $43M+, cipher #2 keyed to Declaration of Independence |
Dorabella Cipher | 1897 | England | Unsolved | 87 characters written by composer Edward Elgar to a friend, nobody knows the alphabet or the message |
Shugborough Inscription | c. 1748-1763 | Shugborough Hall, England | Unsolved | 8 letters O-U-O-S-V-A-V-V carved beneath relief of Poussin painting, possibly Holy Grail clue, Bletchley Park failed |
Phaistos Disc | c. 1700 BCE | Crete, Minoan civilization | Unsolved | Fired clay disc with 241 stamped symbols in spiral, one-of-a-kind artifact, Bronze Age mystery |
Tamam Shud Case (Somerton Man) | 1948 | Adelaide, Australia | Code unsolved, body identified 2022 | Dead man on beach with torn page from Omar Khayyam, coded letters on back, identity was finally solved via DNA in 2022 |
Chaocipher | 1918 | USA | Algorithm revealed 2010 posthumously | John Byrne's cipher machine offered to US government, rejected, kept secret for 90 years, family donated papers |
Ricky McCormick's Encrypted Notes | 1999 | St. Louis, Missouri | Unsolved | Two coded notes found in murdered man's pockets, FBI's top unsolved cryptanalysis case, may be key to homicide |
D'Agapeyeff Cipher | 1939 | England | Unsolved (author forgot key) | Published as a challenge in a cryptography textbook, the author later admitted he couldn't remember how he encrypted it |
Rohonc Codex | Unknown (pre-1743) | Possibly Hungary | Unsolved | 192-page codex in unknown writing system with religious illustrations, dismissed as hoax by some, 10 times Voynich's size |
Copiale Cipher | c. 1730s | Germany | Solved 2011 | 105-page manuscript of a secret society's initiation rituals, cracked using computational linguistics, revealed oculist lodge |
Linear A | c. 1800-1450 BCE | Minoan Crete | Unsolved | Script of the Minoan civilization, predecessor to Linear B (which was deciphered), language itself is unknown |
Zodiac Killer's Z13 and Z32 | 1969-1970 | San Francisco, USA | Unsolved | Short ciphers claiming to contain the Zodiac's real name, too short to crack statistically, taunting 'My name is...' |
Free to explore · No signup needed
Related Datasets
More in History
Famous Partitions and Border Splits
India-Pakistan, Korea, Germany, Cyprus, Sudan - which partition left the deepest scar on the map?
16 rows1 shared tag
Famous Mutinies on Ships & in Military
HMS Bounty, Potemkin, Indian Mutiny — which military or naval mutiny had the greatest impact on history?
15 rows1 shared tag
Famous Battles
Twenty of the most consequential military engagements in world history, from ancient Marathon to the beaches of Normandy.
19 rows1 shared tag
Famous Explorers
Legendary explorers who ventured into the unknown, discovering new lands, sea routes, and expanding humanity's knowledge of the world.
20 rows1 shared tag
Famous Historical Famines
The Irish Potato Famine, Bengal 1943, the Holodomor — which famine most shaped the course of history?
15 rows1 shared tag
Famous Imposters & Identity Fraudsters
Frank Abagnale, Anna Delvey, the Tichborne Claimant — which imposter pulled off the most audacious deception?
15 rows1 shared tag