Pebble Island raid

Wall Street during the bank panic in October 1907. Federal Hall National Memorial , with its statue of George Washington , is seen on the right.

A 13th–14th-century scroll of the Book of Esther from Fez, Morocco , held at the Musée du Quai Branly in Paris . Traditionally, a scroll of Esther is given only one roller, fixed to its lefthand side, rather than the two used for a Torah…

Pebble Island raid

45 SAS men landed on Pebble Island in the Falklands dark, placed demolition charges on eleven Argentine aircraft, and were back at sea in 30 minutes — before the garrison knew they'd arrived.

Colin Powell's presentation to the United Nations Security Council

Colin Powell held up a vial of fake anthrax and pointed to blurred satellite photos at the UN Security Council on February 5, 2003. He later called it 'a blot' — his single worst word.

Tsutomu Miyazaki

Tsutomu Miyazaki killed four girls aged four to seven near Tokyo between 1988 and 1989, ate one victim's hands, and mailed her charred bones to her family in a box with photographs. Police found 5,763 videotapes stacked in his room.

Panic of 1907

In October 1907, J.P. Morgan physically locked the nation's top bankers inside his Manhattan library at midnight and refused to open the doors until they signed a $25 million rescue pledge at 4:45 a.m.

Rhythm 0

Abramović placed 72 objects on a table — razor, wine, loaded pistol — and let strangers use them on her body for six hours. By hour three, someone had pressed the gun to her temple.

Tribune of the plebs

A tribune of the plebs could not be touched — his body consecrated by oath so that killing him was a religious act, not a crime. Tiberius Gracchus died anyway, beaten with a broken bench leg.

Djamolidine Abdoujaparov

Abdoujaparov was metres from a Paris stage win, green jersey on his back, when he hit a Coca-Cola advertising barrier on the Champs-Élysées and somersaulted into the tarmac. He still finished — and kept the jersey.

Book of Esther

God's name never appears in the Book of Esther — the only biblical book with this omission. The plot hinges on a beauty contest for a drunk king and a eunuch's wounded pride.

Screaming Lord Sutch

Screaming Lord Sutch lost 40 consecutive British elections across 35 years, founding the Official Monster Raving Loony Party — yet outlasted so many rivals that he became the longest-serving party leader in UK history.