Order of the Solar Temple

A block of silica aerogel in a hand.

"Queens" of Mysore : left, Krishnaraja Wadiyar III 's first wife, Devajammani has a discoloration around the mouth, thought to be due to the blowing of variolation dust in the nose ("nasal insufflation"). Right, his second wife shows the…

Order of the Solar Temple

In October 1994, 53 Solar Temple members died across Switzerland, Quebec, and France in synchronized rituals — stabbed, suffocated, shot, then burned. More followed in 1995 and 1997. Leaders claimed transit to Sirius.

1975 Tour de France

A spectator's fist on the Puy-de-Dôme cracked Eddy Merckx's cheekbone during the 1975 Tour — the blow that broke the greatest cyclist alive and handed Bernard Thévenet the race.

Aerogel

Aerogel is 99.8% air by volume, yet a thumbnail-sized block supports a 2.5 kg brick. NASA's Mars Pathfinder used it as insulation; the same material can be made from silica, carbon, or even frozen fruit juice.

Tissaphernes

Tissaphernes invited ten thousand Greek mercenary officers to a feast, then had them seized and beheaded mid-meal — stranding the surviving rank-and-file 1,500 miles from home without leadership.

Topsy (elephant)

Coney Island's Topsy, a circus elephant who had killed three men, was electrocuted before 1,500 paying spectators on January 4, 1903. Thomas Edison's company filmed it. The footage survives.

Trajan's Dacian Wars

Trajan's two Dacian campaigns dragged 165 tonnes of gold and 330 tonnes of silver back to Rome — enough to fund gladiatorial games lasting 123 days straight. The kingdom of Dacia ceased to exist.

Variolation

Ottoman physicians rubbed smallpox scabs into children's skin scratches centuries before Jenner's vaccine. The practice cut mortality from roughly 30% to under 2%, yet Europe called it barbarism until the death tolls reversed.

Mirin Dajo

Mirin Dajo let an assistant plunge a steel rapier clean through his torso in front of audiences — organs intact, no anesthetic. He died swallowing a steel needle, not a blade.

Jesse Livermore

He made $100 million shorting the 1929 crash, then lost it all twice more. Jesse Livermore walked into a New York coat-check room with a pistol in 1940. The note said he was a failure.