gnostek‹›1 / 4Facsimile of the Einstein–Szilard letterEinstein–Szilard letter600%Moments when a single email changed historyTwo physicists — Einstein and Szilárd — mailed Roosevelt a single page in August 1939. Roosevelt read it, wrote 'This requires action,' and set in motion the Manhattan Project, which employed 130,000 people.+ See More01Einstein later called signing the letter 'the one great mistake of my life.'02Szilárd drafted the letter; Einstein signed it — lending the weight of his name alone.03Roosevelt's response was to appoint a Uranium Committee within weeks of receiving it.
gnostek‹›1 / 8Marina Abramović700%disturbing art workIn 'Rhythm 0,' Abramović lay passive for six hours while strangers chose from 72 objects — including a loaded gun and rose thorns — to do whatever they wished to her body. She was cut, kissed, and aimed at.+ See More01The 72 objects included a scalpel, a whip, honey, a feather, a rose, and one loaded pistol.02By hour four, a stranger had cut her throat with a razor blade and licked the blood.03She was weeping silently when the six hours ended — unaware she had been crying the whole time.
gnostek+5‹›1 / 12Walls of Babylon100%City walls of antiquityHerodotus ranked Babylon's walls among the world's wonders; excavations showed he undersold them — the outer wall ran 90 feet thick, wide enough to turn a four-horse chariot on top.+ See More01The outer walls of Babylon measured roughly 90 feet thick at the base, per excavations by Robert Koldewey beginning in 1899.02Herodotus described the walls encircling a square city, 14 miles on each side, with 250 towers along the circuit.03The Ishtar Gate, clad in blue-glazed brick with golden dragons, stood at the northern entrance to this walled city.
gnostekTravis (chimpanzee)8113%domesticated wild animals that turned on ownersTravis, a 200-pound chimpanzee raised as a human child in Stamford, Connecticut, mauled neighbor Charla Nash in 2009, leaving her without a face or hands. His owner called 911 mid-attack, saying: 'He's eating her.'+ See More01Travis weighed 200 pounds and had lived as a near-human companion — riding in cars, drinking wine, using a computer.02Charla Nash required a full face transplant; she testified before Congress to ban private primate ownership in 2009.03Police shot Travis four times; he retreated to his cage and died there — the 911 call is public record.
gnostek+8‹›1 / 15Pompey900%Julius Caesar’s most formidable opponentsCaesar's own son-in-law and political patron, Pompey was beheaded in a rowboat off Egypt by a former Roman officer named Septimius. His severed head was presented to Caesar, who reportedly wept.+ See More01Pompey's head was cut off by Lucius Septimius, a Roman soldier he had once commanded — stabbed from behind in a small boat.02Caesar and Pompey's alliance was cemented by Pompey marrying Caesar's daughter Julia; she died in 54 BC, and the civil war began five years later.03Caesar was handed Pompey's signet ring — bearing the image of a lion holding a sword — and wept in front of witnesses.
gnostek+5‹›1 / 12Wieliczka Salt Mine100%The Most Bizarre Places in EuropePolish salt miners over seven centuries carved a full Gothic cathedral — complete with chandeliers, altarpieces, and bas-relief murals — entirely from grey salt, 101 metres below the earth's surface.+ See More01The St. Kinga's Chapel underground is 54 metres long, 18 metres wide, and 12 metres tall — hewn entirely from salt.02The mine stretches across 300 kilometres of tunnels on nine levels, mined continuously since the 13th century.03Salt chandeliers appear to glow amber because the mineral is slightly translucent; the light travels through the carved crystal.
gnostek+2‹›1 / 9Kate Millett5020%foundations of radical feminismKate Millett's 'Sexual Politics' (1970) read D.H. Lawrence's and Henry Miller's sex scenes as political documents — finding in their prose the grammar of female subordination. Miller's publishers had called him a liberator.+ See More01Millett analyzed a Norman Mailer sex scene paragraph by paragraph as a manual for domination, not eroticism.02Her Columbia PhD thesis became 'Sexual Politics' after being rejected by one press as 'too angry.'03The book coined 'sexual politics' as a concept, placing bedroom power inside political theory for the first time.
gnostek‹›1 / 6Taichang Emperor1100%Chinese emperors who met an untimely demiseThe Taichang Emperor reigned 29 days before dying — reportedly after swallowing red pills supplied by a court official named Li Kezhuo, whose formula was never fully disclosed.+ See More01Taichang Emperor died on September 26, 1620 — his 29th day on the throne, cause officially undetermined.02Court official Li Kezhuo supplied the red pills; he was later exiled but the formula remained secret.03The 'Red Pill Case' became one of the Three Great Cases of the Wanli era, debated for centuries.
gnostek+14‹›1 / 21Claudius200%The History of RomeClaudius was found hiding behind a curtain by a Praetorian soldier after Caligula's assassination in 41 CE — trembling and assuming he was next — and was carried to the barracks and declared emperor before dawn.+ See More01The Praetorians demanded a donative of 15,000 sesterces per man to support Claudius — the first time the Guard sold the throne.02Claudius conquered Britain in 43 CE, personally arriving for 16 days to accept the formal surrender — riding an elephant.03His fourth wife Agrippina fed him poisoned mushrooms; he lingered, so a physician pushed a feather down his throat laced with more poison.