Battle of Sedan

Plot of shear rate as a function of the shear stress. Dilatants in green.

Logo of 1Malaysia Development Berhad

A tulip, known as "the Viceroy" ( viseroij ), displayed in the 1637 Dutch catalogue Verzameling van een Meenigte Tulipaanen ("Collection of a Crowd of Tulips"). Its bulb was offered for sale for between 3,000 and 4,200 guilders (florins)…

Napoleon III, nephew of the great Napoleon, surrendered personally to Bismarck on a hillside at Sedan — 100,000 French troops captured in one day. The French Empire died within hours; Paris fell and the Republic was declared by afternoon.

Dilatant

Cornstarch stirred into water becomes a dilatant: press slowly and your finger sinks; punch it and the fluid hardens to concrete. BAE Systems built flexible armour panels from it that stop a knife in 8 milliseconds.

1MDB scandal

Malaysia's 1MDB sovereign wealth fund — created to build schools and hospitals — bought a $250 million superyacht, a Picasso, and financed The Wolf of Wall Street. The fund lost $4.5 billion. The prime minister who authorized it won an election first.

Boeremag

The Boeremag plotted to poison Johannesburg's water supply, detonate bombs across the country, and install a Boer republic — twenty-two men were eventually convicted in South Africa's longest treason trial.

Dik-dik

The dik-dik marks territory by pressing a preorbital gland — located millimetres from its eyeball — directly onto twigs, essentially staking claim with its own face, one poke at a time.

John Profumo

British War Secretary John Profumo shared a mistress, 19-year-old Christine Keeler, with Soviet naval attaché Yevgeny Ivanov — then lied about it to Parliament. The lie cost him his career; the affair may have cost Britain state secrets.

Tulip mania

In 1637 Amsterdam, a single Semper Augustus tulip bulb sold for 10,000 guilders — enough to buy a canal house. Within three months the market collapsed; bulbs sold for the price of onions.

Battle of 73 Easting

At a featureless map-grid called 73 Easting, nine M1A1 Abrams tanks destroyed 28 Iraqi Republican Guard tanks in exactly 23 minutes on February 26, 1991. It was the largest US tank battle since World War II.

Jean van de Velde (golfer)

Jean Van de Velde stood on the 18th hole of the 1999 Open Championship needing only a double bogey to win, then waded barefoot into the Barry Burn, made a seven, and lost in a playoff.