When you think of famous disasters, you might picture devastation, but hidden within those tragedies are the sparks that ignited some of the most beloved pieces of pop culture.
10 M&M’s Exist Due To Two Different Wars
Forrest Mars Sr. left a family feud behind and set off for Europe in the early 1930s, just as the Spanish Civil War was raging. While in Spain he saw soldiers munching on rations that were coated in hard, sugary shells—candy that could survive heat and be easily carried.
Inspired, Mars imagined a similar treat for the American market and eventually launched what we now know as M&M’s, famously marketed with the slogan “melts in your mouth, not in your hand.”
World War II threw a chocolate ration into the mix, prompting Mars to partner with Bruce Murrie, son of Hershey’s president William Murrie, because Hershey held a monopoly on chocolate. Together they shipped tubes of the candy to U.S. troops.
After the war, the soldiers kept demanding the colorful shells, and the candy exploded in popularity. The product’s name even reflects its unlikely partnership: M(ars) & M(urrie)’s.
How Famous Disasters Shaped the Candy World
The wartime circumstances turned a simple idea into a global confectionary empire.
9 Prohibition Created The Cruise Ship Industry
Before the Roaring Twenties, cruise ships were merely a means of getting from point A to point B. The 1920 ban on alcohol in the United States turned those vessels into floating speakeasies.
Enter the loophole: once a ship crossed the 5‑kilometer (3‑mile) territorial limit, it entered international waters where liquor was still legal. Passengers could drink as much as they wanted, giving rise to the “cruise to nowhere” phenomenon.
To keep the party going, operators began sailing just beyond the limit toward nearby islands such as the Bahamas and Cuba, birthing the party‑cruise industry that still thrives today.
8 The Decimation Of Native American Culture Gave Us Modern Football
In the 1870s the federal government launched a cultural genocide, shuffling Native American children into boarding schools like the Carlisle Indian School in Pennsylvania. The school banned native languages and religions, and over 200 students died from malnutrition, illness, or homesickness.
Seeking a way to improve the students’ health, the school introduced the newly emerging sport of football and hired the innovative coach Glenn “Pop” Warner, whose trick plays were revolutionary.
When the Ivy League’s brutal style led to 19 deaths on the field by 1905, the sport’s future hung in the balance. Carlisle responded by pioneering the forward pass and the spiral, innovations that opened up the game and ensured football’s survival.
7 Coke Became A Soda Due To The Spanish‑American War
The brief 1898 Spanish‑American War may have ended in three months, but it left a lasting legacy: the birth of modern Coca‑Cola as a soft drink. Originally marketed as a medicinal tonic that even contained cocaine, Coke faced a new federal tax on all medicines meant to fund the war effort.
To dodge the tax, the company reformulated the brew and re‑branded it as a beverage, effectively turning a drug‑laden tonic into the soda we know today.
This clever maneuver not only kept Coke on shelves but also cemented its place as a permanent fixture in grocery aisles, a status it enjoys to this day.
6 The JFK Assassination Indirectly Led To Rock‑And‑Roll Movie Sound Tracks
When Paul Simon heard news of President John F. Kennedy’s assassination while traveling in Europe, his grief sparked the creation of “The Sound of Silence.” The haunting ballad topped the charts three years later and would later reshape Hollywood’s musical approach.
Until the late 1960s, films relied on original orchestral scores. Director Mike Nichols, however, found himself humming Simon’s melancholy tune while editing The Graduate. The song stuck, and he decided to weave it into the movie’s scenes, discovering that its mood perfectly captured the protagonist’s alienation.
That bold choice broke decades of cinematic convention and paved the way for pop‑song‑driven soundtracks in blockbuster hits such as The Bodyguard, Dirty Dancing, Purple Rain, Saturday Night Fever, and Forrest Gump.
5 Devo’s Look And Music Was Formed Because Of The Kent State Massacre
The 1970 Kent State massacre, in which four students were killed by National Guard troops, left an indelible mark on the campus. In its wake, five students—including Jerry Casale and Mark Mothersbaugh—channeled their anger into a theory of “devolution.”
Taking the first four letters of that word, they christened their new band Devo. Their image and sound reflected a futuristic, anti‑progress stance, and their debut album Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo! was among the first pop records to treat synthesizers as a core texture, seeding the synth‑pop explosion that followed.
Thus, a tragic event helped launch a group whose quirky anthem “Whip It” still echoes in pop culture.
4 Watergate Inspired One Of The Most Influential Musicals Of All Time
When the Watergate hearings were broadcast, choreographer Michael Bennett grew weary of political deceit and longed for unvarnished truth. He invited a circle of Broadway dancers to a series of candid therapy sessions, where they discussed their lives, careers, and the state of the nation.
These conversations were recorded, and the raw material later became the foundation for A Chorus Line, which would become Broadway’s longest‑running musical. The show earned nine Tony Awards, grossed $277 million, and attracted 6.5 million theatergoers during its original run.
Beyond its commercial triumph, the musical reshaped the genre by injecting realism and personal storytelling, clearing the path for later, edgier productions like Rent, In the Heights, Assassins, and Spring Awakening.
3 Godzilla Was Modeled After And Inspired By Victims Of Atomic Explosions
Godzilla emerged in 1954 as Japan’s cinematic protest against nuclear weapons. Its first scene mirrors a real tragedy: the crew of the Japanese fishing vessel Lucky Dragon 5 drifted into the fallout zone of the United States’ first hydrogen bomb test at Bikini Atoll.
All 23 crew members were quarantined, and one sailor, Aikichi Kuboyama, later died from radiation exposure. Director Ishiro Honda used that horror to craft a monster whose scaly, irradiated skin resembled the keloids suffered by Hiroshima survivors.
In the original cut, Godzilla awakens after the atomic blasts over Hiroshima and Nagasaki, his massive size fueled by lingering radiation. While Japanese audiences saw a stark anti‑nuclear message, U.S. distributors trimmed those scenes, substituting a more conventional adventure narrative.
2 Agatha Christie Learns How To Kill And Write In World War I
Agatha Christie, the world’s best‑selling novelist, honed her craft while serving in a World I hospital dispensary. Witnessing countless soldiers’ final moments left her averse to overt violence, steering her toward subtler murder methods.
Her access to medical poisons explains why poisonings appear in 83 of her stories. The quiet ward also gave her ample time to pen her first mystery, The Mysterious Affair at Styles, introducing the iconic detective Hercule Poirot.
Christie’s wartime experiences thus shaped the signature style that would sell over two billion copies in 44 languages and secure her place in literary history.
1 The Ewoks Were Modeled On The Vietcong
George Lucas’s Endor natives—those adorable, fur‑covered Ewoks—were never meant to be cuddly toys. In the 2004 commentary for Return of the Jedi, Lucas revealed that he modeled the primitive tribe after Vietnamese guerrillas from the Vietnam War.
Both the Ewoks and the Vietcong were small, resourceful groups who used dense jungle terrain to outwit a technologically superior empire. By swapping Endor’s forest moon for Vietnam’s jungles, Lucas drew a clear parallel between the fictional rebellion and real‑world resistance.
So the cuddly creatures that sparked endless debate among fans actually echo a serious historical conflict.
These ten famous disasters remind us that even the darkest chapters of history can flicker into cultural gold, proving that tragedy sometimes wears a surprisingly bright disguise.