The Pied Piper of Hamelin

In the tradition of Hamelin in Germany, on 26 June 1284 a piper in colourful clothes led 130 of the town's children away and they vanished.

In the tradition of Hamelin (Hameln), the children left on 26 June 1284, the feast of Saints John and Paul. Wikipedia gives a record of 1284 saying a piper in many colours lured 130 children born in Hamelin to Calvary near the Koppen, where they were lost. Amusing Planet says the date is inscribed on a coloured-glass window in the town church, which stood until 1660, and appears in the town chronicle, where the entry against 1384 marks a century since the children left.

Sabine Baring-Gould's 1876 retelling adds a prelude. A rat-destroyer freed the townsfolk from their torment, then they refused to pay him, claiming he was a sorcerer. The piper vowed vengeance and reappeared on 26 June. Medievalists.net quotes an older account of a handsome young man of thirty who entered by the West Gate and played a silver pipe. The 130 children who heard it followed him out by the East Gate to the execution place, or Calvary, and vanished. Their mothers went searching from one town to the next and found nothing.

The date varies by retelling. The Brothers Grimm cite 26 June 1284, while Robert Browning's poem gives 22 July 1376. Hamelin uses the June date for its Pied Piper Day.