Salvatore Maranzano

The Zimmermann telegram as it was sent from Washington, D.C. , to Ambassador Heinrich von Eckardt , the German ambassador to Mexico .

An illustration of Cantor's diagonal argument (in base 2) for the existence of uncountable sets . The sequence at the bottom cannot occur anywhere in the enumeration of sequences above.

An electric steam iron

Salvatore Maranzano

Salvatore Maranzano crowned himself 'Boss of Bosses' in September 1930 after the Castellammarese War — and was stabbed and shot in his own Park Avenue office exactly 154 days later.

Copper Scroll

Inscribed on a sheet of copper rolled up with the Dead Sea Scrolls, the Copper Scroll lists 64 treasure locations holding tons of gold and silver. Scholars dispute whether any of it was real.

Zimmermann telegram

German Foreign Secretary Zimmermann telegraphed Mexico in January 1917, proposing a wartime alliance and the return of Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona. British codebreakers intercepted it; Congress voted for war within weeks.

Donald Trump Access Hollywood tape

Recorded in 2005 on an Access Hollywood bus, Trump told host Billy Bush he grabs women 'by the pussy' without asking. Released eleven days before the election, it moved no needle.

Bill Buckner

Mookie Wilson's routine grounder rolled through Bill Buckner's legs in Game 6 of the 1986 World Series, scoring Ray Knight and handing the Mets a win. Boston had been one out from their first title since 1918.

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.

Sergeant Stubby

Stubby, a Boston Terrier mix found on a Yale drill field, served 18 months in 17 WWI battles, survived mustard gas, and personally apprehended a German spy by latching onto the man's rear end until soldiers arrived.

Cantor's diagonal argument

Cantor showed in 1891 that the infinity of real numbers cannot be listed — proving it by constructing one number guaranteed to be missing from any list. Infinity has a size hierarchy; most people never heard it.

Clothes iron

Named from the Old English 'sæd,' meaning solid — not sorrowful — the sad iron was a 6-pound cast-iron slab heated directly on the stove. Women rotated three irons to maintain one usable temperature.