International Space Station

The epitome of the Rohan Master's art is the " Lamentation of the Virgin " (f. 135, Pl. 57) from the Hours of the Cross. The grieving Virgin cannot be consoled by the Apostle John , who looks up in consternation at a saddened God.

Zimbabwean banknotes ranging from 10 dollars to 100 billion dollars printed within a one-year period. The magnitude of the currency scalars signifies the extent of the hyperinflation.

International Space Station

The $150 billion ISS circles Earth every 92 minutes, yet astronauts shower using only a damp cloth — hygiene solved with wet wipes while floating 400 km above every ocean they cannot touch.

Harpe brothers

Micajah and Wiley Harpe killed at least 39 people across the frontier in the 1790s. Micajah once gutted his own infant, filled the cavity with stones, and sank the body in a river.

Frederick Lorz

Fred Lorz crossed the 1904 Olympic marathon finish line first, accepted a laurel wreath from Alice Roosevelt, and posed for photos before admitting he'd hitched a car ride for 11 miles.

Rohan Hours

In the Rohan Hours, painted around 1420, a skeletal dying man lies naked on bare ground while God leans down from the sky to address him directly — a private conversation between a mortal and the divine, held across a page smaller than a hardback book.

Frostbite

Researchers immersed prisoners' arms in freezing water until the limbs were solid, then struck them with a stick to test whether the tissue cracked. Doctors called the sound 'the sound of a ripe watermelon.'

Betty Dodson

Betty Dodson ran 'Bodysex' workshops in her Manhattan apartment from the 1970s onward — circles of naked women masturbating together while she coached technique. She was 87 when she ran her last one.

Hyperinflation in Zimbabwe

At its worst, Zimbabwe's inflation hit 89.7 sextillion percent annually. Workers were paid twice a day so they could spend wages before lunch erased the value.

Kim Philby

Kim Philby headed British intelligence's anti-Soviet section while simultaneously reporting to Moscow Centre. For nine years he sat across the table from the people hunting his handler — and warned Soviet networks whenever they got close.

Utahraptor

Utahraptor weighed as much as a grizzly bear and carried a 9-inch hooked claw on each foot — the weapon that made Jurassic Park's Velociraptors look like the timid cousins they actually were.