Some battles echo throughout history. But while most people have heard of Waterloo or Stalingrad, plenty of other decisive confrontations have been all but forgotten. Here are 10 such battles that changed the course of history.

10Battle Of The Delta

From 1276 to 1178 BC, the ancient Mediterranean world was terrorized by the mysterious Sea People. Although they are often referred to as pirates or raiders, many historians now believe that the Sea People represented a major population movement fleeing from the famine and turmoil that contributed to the Late Bronze Age collapse.

The Sea People overran the mighty Hittite Empire and other regions of the ancient world. After defeating the Hittites, they turned toward Egypt. Rameses III met the invaders at the Battle of the Delta.

Aware that the Sea People had the advantage on the open ocean, Rameses allowed them to enter the Nile Delta. There, the Egyptian navy attacked, using grappling hooks to snare the enemy ships while archers on the shore raked them with waves of arrows. Victory was total, and the Egyptians avoided the fate of the Hittites.

9Battle Of Caudine Forks

In 321 BC, the Battle of Caudine Forks produced almost no casualties, which is precisely why it was so decisive. The Romans were expanding into southern Italy when the Samnites lured the Roman army into a narrow valley. With both ends of the valley blocked and the Samnites on the high ground, the Romans had to surrender.

According to Livy, the Samnites sent home for instructions. The response came back to let the Romans go with no conditions. Astonished, the Samnites queried the instructions. This time, the response said to slaughter the Romans to the last man. An elder eventually cleared up the confusion, explaining that the Samnites could earn the Romans’ gratitude or kill them all. Anything else would be disastrous.

The Samnite army didn’t listen. They forced the Roman consuls to sign a humiliating peace treaty in return for safe passage home. Of course, the Romans immediately repudiated the peace treaty and sent their army back against the Samnites. They eventually won, and Rome went on to dominate the ancient world.

8Battle Of The Camel

In the years after the death of Muhammad, the Muslims were united and achieved great feats. They were led by the caliphs, Muhammad’s successors. However, in 656, the third caliph, Uthman, was assassinated and replaced with Muhammad’s son-in-law Ali.

Muhammad’s wife Aisha was on her way to Medina when she heard the news. At once, she returned to Mecca and consulted with the prophet’s companions Talhah and Zubayr. The trio decided to oppose Ali and raised an army that fought Ali’s forces in the Battle of the Camel, named because the fight raged thickest around Aisha’s camel.

Ali’s forces won, and Talhah and Zubayr were killed. Of course, nobody touched the prophet’s wife and Aisha was sent to live peacefully in Medina. However, the battle marked the beginning of serious warfare between Muslims and a major split soon occurred between Shia and Sunni Islam.

7Battle Of Talas River

While the Abbasid Caliphate was expanding east into Central Asia, the Chinese Tang dynasty was expanding west into the same region. Local rulers allied with the Chinese for protection from the Arabs and vice versa. Something had to give, and the two sides faced off in AD 751 at the Talas River.

The Tang forces, led by Korean general Gao Xianzhi, seemed to have the upper hand. But they were betrayed by their Qarluq allies, who switched sides and attacked the Chinese from behind, shattering their army.

As a direct result of the battle, the Muslims gained control of Central Asia, including the Silk Road. They also learned how to make paper from Chinese prisoners. Meanwhile, the defeat helped spark the major An Lushan Rebellion in China.

6The Battle With The Naimans

Before the Mongols conquered Asia in the early 13th century, Genghis Khan had to conquer the Mongols. His chief rival was his childhood friend Jamukha, who built a formidable coalition to oppose Genghis. The conflict between them lasted for years, with Genghis at times reduced to a handful of followers. Finally, Jamukha retreated to the territory of the Naiman tribe.

Genghis followed, but his army arrived exhausted and outnumbered by the Naimans. To disguise his numbers, Genghis ordered his men to each light multiple campfires, making it seem like a great host had camped for the night. When battle was joined, the Naimans broke and fled. Jamukha was soon captured, and Genghis became the unchallenged ruler of Mongolia.

5Battle Of Diu

When the Portuguese arrived in the Indian Ocean, they didn’t go unchallenged. In 1509, a coalition of Egyptians, Gujaratis, and Calicut assembled a formidable fleet and defeated a Portuguese force, killing its commander, Lourenco de Almeida.

Lourenco’s father was Francisco de Almeida, who had just been replaced as the Portuguese viceroy. Determined to avenge his son, Francisco imprisoned his successor and set sail with the Portuguese fleet.

He encountered the allies at Diu, where he used the superior Portuguese cannons to destroy their fleet from a distance, filling the ocean with corpses. European control of the eastern trade routes was guaranteed.

4Battle Of Lima

The greatest challenge to the Spanish conquest of the Inca came in 1536 when Spain’s puppet Inca emperor, Manco Inca, dramatically escaped and orchestrated a huge rebellion. Manco attacked Cuzco with at least 50,000 men.

While he besieged the city, he sent his general, Quiso Yupanqui, to deal with Francisco Pizarro, who was with the main body of Spanish troops in Lima. Pizarro had sent reinforcements to Cuzco, but Yupanqui trapped them in a gorge and annihilated them in a rockslide. Then he wiped out a second relief column at Parcos. In June, he overran the city of Jauja and wiped out the Spanish garrison to the last man.

But Yupanqui, growing overconfident, made a fatal mistake. He left the mountains to attack Pizarro in Lima. On the flat, coastal plains around the city, Pizarro’s cavalry could break the Inca ranks. The defeat forced Manco to abandon the siege of Cuzco, and the power of the Inca never truly recovered.

3Battle Of Orel

When the Bolsheviks took power in Russia in October 1918, it seemed unlikely that they would hang on for long as anticommunist “White” armies mustered in the north, south, and east. In an incredible feat of organization, Leon Trotsky successfully built the Red Army into an effective fighting force and pushed back Admiral Kolchak’s attack from Siberia.

However, in 1919, General Anton Denikin pushed north with the goal of taking Moscow. At the same time, General Nikolai Yudenich led 17,000 men out of Estonia, reaching the suburbs of Petrograd (St. Petersburg). Lenin wanted to abandon Petrograd, but Trotsky and Stalin talked him out of it.

Instead, the Bolsheviks made a deal with Nestor Makhno’s anarchist “Black Army,” which attacked Denikin’s rearguard and disrupted his supply lines. When Denikin’s forces reached Orel, just 400 kilometers (250 mi) from Moscow, the Bolsheviks counterattacked.

Overstretched and undersupplied, Denikin’s forces collapsed. Meanwhile, Yudenich was defeated outside Petrograd. The Whites never threatened the Russian heartland again.

2Battle Of Warsaw

The Polish-Soviet War broke out after World War I when the borders of Eastern Europe were still unclear. Starting as a Polish land grab, it soon grew into something more serious as a Soviet counterattack pushed into Poland.

Lenin believed that the moment was right to spread revolution throughout Europe. He ordered his forces to push through Poland to the German border, where they would be positioned to support the powerful German Communist Party.

Radical dockworkers in Germany and Britain blocked military supplies destined for Poland. Marshal Tukhachevsky declared that “over the dead body of Poland lies the way to world revolution. Let us bring peace and happiness to the working people by bayonet. To the West!”

The Soviets were 25 kilometers (15 mi) outside Warsaw when the Poles launched a daring counterattack, which broke through the Soviet lines. Before long, the Red Army had been completely routed. Communist expansion was checked, with significant implications for European history.

1First Battle Of Saigon

The Binh Xuyen was a Vietnamese crime syndicate that rose to power after making a deal with the French colonial authorities to betray or murder the communist agents operating in Saigon. In return, the French officially gave the gangsters control of Saigon’s police.

By the 1950s, the Binh Xuyen was the richest and most powerful criminal organization in Asia. They controlled Vietnam’s opium exports and ran the largest casino and brothel in the world. There was serious talk of their leader becoming prime minister.

But then the communists won the battle of Dien Bien Phu, forcing the French to pull out of Vietnam. They were replaced by the Americans, who supported Ngo Dinh Diem as prime minister.

However, Diem was merely a figurehead since the French still controlled the Binh Xuyen and armed sects like the Hoa Hao and Cao Dai. In 1955, the CIA bribed the sects away from the French and Diem launched a massive attack on the Binh Xuyen in Saigon.

After a pitched battle lasting one week, the gangsters were defeated. Diem and the Americans took full control of South Vietnam, setting the stage for the conflict to come.

As we all learned through high school dating, it takes a tremendous amount of failure to learn anything worthwhile. The same lesson applies to modern sports. Sports would not be where they are today without the mind-boggling failures of many other leagues. These upstart leagues made the same mistakes over and over again, all while leaving behind important touchstones which still resonate in modern sports.

10Coloured Hockey League

The National Hockey League (NHL) fielded its first black player in 1958 when Willie O’Ree signed with the Boston Bruins. Eight years earlier, a player named Art Dorrington signed with the New York Rangers in 1950, but he never played in the NHL. This was nearly five decades after the formation of the Coloured Hockey League (CHL), which was Canadian as the spelling shows. Founded in 1895, the CHL featured only black players along with an incredibly modern style of play.

Hockey at the turn of the 20th century was a stale, low-scoring affair, lacking in both speed and agility. And slap shots. There were no slap shots before the CHL. Eddie Martin, a CHL player, is believed to have invented the slap shot decades before it was introduced into the NHL.

The CHL was also innovative in how goalies were used on the ice. Previously, goalies never left the crease, and played the entire game standing up. CHL goalies changed this by chasing pucks out of the crease and dropping to their knees to stop pucks. The goalies quickly became the team leaders in the CHL, a role they still hold today. These CHL tactics were quickly co-opted by neighboring white leagues, who were, of course, averse to giving credit to the black players.

The CHL toiled as a moderately successful regional league in eastern Canada until World War I robbed it of many of its best players, and the league folded in 1925.

9Federal League

Only once in Major League Baseball’s history has anyone attempted to challenge “America’s Game.” Naturally, the attempt ended in dismal failure, but it led to some interesting footnotes which still reverberate in modern baseball.

In 1913, the Federal League (FL) enacted its plan to become the “third” professional baseball league—after the American League (AL) and National League (NL)—in 1913. The FL offered players exponentially higher salaries than the other major leagues, and started franchises in major baseball markets to compete directly with already established franchises.

The plan was unsustainable since the FL could never hope to make enough money to pay the players in already saturated markets. It didn’t help that many FL teams lacked official nicknames and instead went by “Brooklyn Feds,” “Kansas City Feds,” etc. These factors caused the Federal League to disband in 1915, but not before suing the AL and NL for being “illegal monopolies.”

This case was decided by the Supreme Court in 1922 in Federal Baseball Club v. National League in favor of Major League Baseball. The Supreme Court ruled the MLB was a legal monopoly since it was primarily entertainment, and the Sherman Antitrust Act did not apply to it. This ruling effectively ended all future attempts to create rival baseball leagues, and gave the MLB the freedom to do whatever it wanted.

Additionally, the forgotten Chicago Whales of the Federal League built a stadium which came to be known as Wrigley Field, a minor cultural touchstone in baseball history.

8World Football League

The World Football League (WFL), begun in 1974 as a rival to the upstart NFL, immediately ran into trouble after the Philadelphia franchise gave away tens of thousands of tickets, but then marked them down as “paid for” in the accounting books. This caused many to view the league as illegitimate and amateurish. These naysayers were supported by the constant financial problems which plagued the league. Players were not paid during the season, and at least one team used McDonald’s coupons as meal money. The Birmingham Americans’ jerseys were even repossessed immediately after they won the championship.

Amid all of this turmoil, there was the bizarre situation of the Houston Texans’ John Matuszak. While Matuszak played in the WFL, the NFL’s Houston Oilers, who Matuszak had previously been under contract with, filed an injunction banning him from playing in the WFL. This injunction caused federal marshals to force Matuszak off the field in the middle of a game immediately after he sacked the opposing quarterback.

Additionally, the schedule (a blistering 20 games long) was so poorly formatted that teams often played each other in back-to-back weeks. And the league instituted a bizarre new rule where touchdowns were worth seven points and a bonus “action point” made them worth eight.

But the WFL achieved notable success in luring nearly 60 players, including Super Bowl Champions Ken Stabler and Larry Csonka, to switch leagues. However, like many upstart leagues, the salaries they offered (a combined nearly $3.5 million to Larry Csonka, Jim Kiick, and Paul Warfield)—in an era without multimillion-dollar contracts—were unsustainable.

Besides exorbitant salaries, the league was years ahead of the NFL with many other innovations. The WFL added an overtime period for games tied at regulation, and outlawed bump-and-run coverage after three yards (changed to five yards in the NFL). Most importantly, the WFL changed the location of the field goal to its modern location. Until then, the field goal was puzzlingly located at the front of the end zone. This helped to end the dominance of field goal kickers at the time and just makes complete sense.

7Continental League

By the 1950s, baseball was a stale game. There had been no new franchises since the MLB’s formation, and the Yankees won every single year. Also, when the Brooklyn Dodgers moved to Los Angeles they discovered that people west of the Mississippi liked baseball, too, but they simply had no other teams in that half of the country. This state of affairs prompted Branch Rickey, the guy who signed Jackie Robinson, to orchestrate his Continental League (CL) “scheme.”

In 1960, the CL publicly announced its plans to add new franchises in major cities currently without baseball teams, such as Houston. No one knows if Rickey was serious about the Continental League or if he simply wanted to force MLB’s hand to expand. Either way, his plan worked and the mere threat of a new major league caused Major League Baseball to immediately expand into Minnesota, Houston, and Washington, D.C. All of these cities were chosen since they would have been the homes of Continental League teams. Over the next 15 years, the MLB added teams in Seattle, Toronto, Kansas City, Montreal, and San Diego, and threw in the New York Mets for good measure. Without a single pitch being thrown, the Continental League shoved baseball into the modern era.

6United States Football League

Donald Trump has been the part of many failures over the years—often marriage-related—and his forays into sports have been no different. In the mid-1980s, Donald Trump, then a legendary real estate tycoon, decided he had had enough of the National Football League. He teamed with David Dixon, the guy who built the Superdome, to create the United States Football League (USFL) in 1983.

Dixon had a conservative plan, which called for moderate spending, a spring schedule, and slow expansion into NFL markets, to allow for the USFL to successfully compete. The Dixon Plan was moderately successful over the league’s first two seasons as the USFL signed three straight Heisman Trophy winners, including Herschel Walker, and began to generate interest from major networks for a network television deal.

The deal with Herschel Walker, valued at $5 million over three seasons, foreshadowed the USFL’s demise, as it greatly exceeded the $1.8 million salary cap established for each team by Dixon. Once the Walker deal was allowed, other teams began signing exorbitant contracts, some to future Hall of Famers like Steve Young and Jim Kelly. These deals gave the league credibility but made it financially unstable.

But the league could have perhaps survived if “The Donald” had not convinced the other owners to switch the USFL to a fall schedule in 1985 to compete directly with the NFL. The results were disastrous, and the league decided to stake its future on filing an antitrust lawsuit against the NFL. Shockingly, the USFL won the lawsuit, but were awarded only three dollars in compensation. The jury found the NFL was an illegal monopoly, but that the USFL had failed based on its own poor management, so they did not deserve any compensation. Almost immediately after this, the USFL folded in disgrace.

But the dispirited league left behind the legacy of the two-point conversion, instant replay reviews, and a salary cap, all of which the NFL adopted within a decade.

5American Basketball League

The American Basketball League (ABL) was founded when Abe Saperstein, the owner of the Harlem Globetrotters, was spurned for the new Los Angeles NBA franchise in 1960. Naturally, as revenge, he decided to create his own league, because that’s how rich tycoons settle grudges. To enact his plan, Abe enlisted the help of a relatively unknown young man named George Steinbrenner, who would lose boatloads of money in this venture before finding success with the New York Yankees.

The ABL was doomed for failure from the start since many of the players were amateurs, washed-up stars, or players previously banned from the NBA. To worsen matters, the owners clearly did not know how to run professional teams. Such was the chaos that Steinbrenner, owner of the Cleveland Pipers, sold player Grady McCollum’s contract at halftime. These wild moves caused Steinbrenner to personally lose over $2 million and taught him well for his future sporting ventures.

However, the ABL was instrumental in introducing two new innovations to the game of basketball. They added a three-point line and a wider free throw lane to curb the dominance of big men like Wilt Chamberlain. In time, both of these changes were implemented in the NBA, providing for a more energetic and high-scoring game.

4World Hockey Association

Surprisingly, the National Hockey League was made up entirely of North American players before the late 1970s. That all changed after the upstart World Hockey Association (WHA) attempted to, and failed to, compete with the NHL. As with many upstart leagues, the WHA signed its players to lucrative contracts which forced NHL owners to pay their players more. The WHA’s higher salaries had a major impact on the NHL since, until then, NHL players had been by far the worst paid of the Big Four leagues.

These high contracts eventually caused the WHA to fold in 1979, but it allowed the WHA to achieve playing parity with the NHL. The WHA won the majority of interleague exhibition games during its existence.

Most importantly, though, the WHA decided its best bet was to sign players from Europe. Until then, Europe had been a surprisingly overlooked market considering how dominant European teams were in the Olympics. This flood of foreign talent forced the NHL to do likewise, and changed the game into a more fast-paced and high-scoring affair, more like European hockey.

Wayne Gretzky started as an unknown player in the WHA before becoming “The Great One,” and five modern teams (among them the Edmonton Oilers, who became an NHL dynasty in the 1980s) originated in the WHA. Hollywood is even indebted to the WHA, as the Hanson brothers from Slapshot are based on the Carlson brothers who played for the WHA’s Minnesota Fighting Saints.

3North American Soccer League

Before the North American Soccer League (NASL) began in 1968, soccer was a mostly unknown and, at times, reviled sport to many Americans. The game’s mechanics, such as a clock which counted up, and a plethora of draws, made no sense to traditional American viewers. However, the English victory in the 1966 World Cup captivated English-speaking viewers around the world and gave the NASL the boost it needed to slowly bring soccer to America.

By 1973, the NASL was popular enough for the Philadelphia Atoms to appear on the cover of Sports Illustrated, the first time soccer had been profiled by a major American sports publication.

Then, in 1975, the New York Cosmos signed Pele—arguably the greatest soccer player ever—and American soccer exploded. Soon, the Cosmos were regularly drawing crowds of 50,000 people and Pele was a media sensation. Pele was the sort of famous where his mere presence caused Nigeria to pause its civil war for 48 hours when he visited.

Such a star attraction caused CBS to pick up the Soccer Bowl (the NASL championship), and other networks began broadcasting regular season NASL games. Other NASL teams also signed aging European stars such as Franz Beckenbauer and Johan Cruyff to create a truly cosmopolitan league.

Pele’s popularity during three seasons with the Cosmos created a youth soccer boom, which catapulted soccer to the top of many youth sports statistics. The ensuing popularity led FIFA to award the US the 1994 World Cup. Of course, the NASL was still unable to make soccer a fully profitable league, and the high salaries to European players, along with the 1980 economic downturn in the US, led to its demise in 1983.

However, the lessons learned from the NASL were remembered by those in Major League Soccer (MLS), which began in 1994 and still operates today. The MLS imposed a strict salary cap, while still maintaining a high level of play and luring in past-their-prime-but-still-famous European players. Thanks to the NASL, soccer finally “made it” (kind of) in America.

2National Basketball League

The modern day National Basketball Association (NBA) was formed in 1949 when the Basketball Association of America merged with the National Basketball League (NBL). Yet, in 1996, the NBA celebrated its 50-year anniversary, which marked the 50th anniversary of the BAA, completely ignoring the NBL’s contribution to modern-day basketball.

This historical disregard for the NBL is unfathomable since the NBL was the league which first welcomed African Americans into the basketball world. The NBL also was where George Mikan, whose athletic prowess and star power practically saved the NBA in its unstable early years, began his career. Mikan’s scoring dominance eradicated the dead ball era of basketball, where scores were routinely in the 20s and 30s.

The Fort Wayne Zollner Pistons (which became the Detroit Pistons), a stand-out NBL team, were owned by Fred Zollner, an automobile magnate, whose money was integral to the NBA in its infancy. Additionally, five current NBA franchises—the Detroit Pistons, Denver Nuggets, Los Angeles Lakers, Sacramento Kings, and Philadelphia 76ers—can trace their lineage to the NBL. Without the NBL, there might not be Christmas Day basketball.

1American Basketball Association

Plain and simple, the American Basketball Association (ABA) is one of mankind’s greatest creations, and certainly the only truly successful upstart major league. There was an ABA coach named Slick and a star player named “Bad News.” They played with a red and white ball, the Indiana Pacers even used a wrestling bear as a halftime show, and a franchise called the Memphis Tams offered all their players $300 to grow a mustache. All those novelties, combined with frequent financial chaos, created the most colorful sports league in history.

The ABA, founded in 1967, brought NBA basketball out of the doldrums and into the modern era by redefining how basketball was played. Like the ABL, the ABA instituted a three-point line which dramatically increased scoring by forcing defenses to defend the perimeter. This, in turn, created more space for drives and dunks. Given how obsessed modern basketball is with dunking, its shocking to know that dunks were not a major part of the game until the ABA’s flashy playing style began. The ABA capitalized on the popularity of dunks with a yearly slam dunk contest.

Furthermore, the ABA revolutionized the financial structure of basketball by allowing free agency, eliminating the reserve clauses which tied players down, and recruiting players directly out of high school. This allowed the ABA to grab talent before the NBA, and gave them a competitive balance most upstart leagues never achieved.

The list of NBA legends who began their career in the ABA is simply ridiculous: David Thompson, George “Ice Man” Gervin, Connie Hawkins, Spencer Haywood, Artis Gilmore, Jerry Lucas, Moses Malone, Dan Issel, and the human highlight reel—Julius (Dr. J) Erving. Future NBA coach Larry Brown also began his career coaching the ABA’s Denver Nuggets.

Yet, for all its flashiness and innovation, the ABA still failed because it was poorly managed, and put franchises in places like Pittsburgh and Baltimore. In 1976, amid dwindling revenue and only nine remaining teams, (most of) the ABA merged with the NBA in 1976. From the ABA came the Indiana Pacers, Denver Nuggets, San Antonio Spurs, and the New York Nets, along with an influx of talent which resurrected the NBA from declining attendance and TV sponsorships in the early 1970s.

Geoffrey earned seven worthless liberal arts degrees before deciding to become a comedian. Follow his missteps on Twitter @filthyson.

The rock and roll lifestyle is not known for following the rules. Usually, this amounts to merely trashing a hotel room. A few musicians took it a bit further. These hardened criminals impacted some of the most celebrated music ever recorded while committing heinous acts. Their talent is undeniable it, but these 10 composers would have been better off spending more time in the studio than the jailhouse.

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10 The Cult that Created Fleetwood Mac

Before Fleetwood Mac made cocaine imbued sundrenched pop, they made cocaine imbued gritty blues. Cofounded by Jeremy Spencer, Fleetwood Mac had early success in America with their single “Albatross.” While promoting the record, Spencer left to pick up some groceries. He never returned.^[1] On the way to the store, he started talking to members from the infamous cult, the Church of God. Converted to the organization, he abandoned the band. In subsequent years both the sect and Spencer were exposed as rampant child abusers.^[2]

In 1971, the band had more pressing concerns. Down a member, the group recruited Bob Welch to finish the leg of the American tour. The Welch helmed years were a transitional moment for the act. Discarding their bluesy sounds, the band shifted to a more polished style. The new vibe landed them their first Top 40 album. Disagreements and fall out eventually led to Welch’s ouster. In his spot, Mick Fleetwood hired old friends Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks, the lineup that conquered the 1970’s.

9 When Hall Met Oates

Hall and Oates are rarely associated with gangland violence. Based on their hits, the biggest threats they face are man-eating flings. Before they were the most successful duo in American chart history, they were two separate musicians scrounging for gigs.

In 1967, each independently entered their respective acts into the Adelphi Ballroom’s Battle of the Bands.^[3] Daryl Hall sang doo-wop vocals for the Temptones. John Oates played with the Masters. Not grasping that Battle of the Bands was just a metaphor, rowdy fans assaulted each other in the stands. Rival gang affiliated fraternities pulled out knives and guns. As shots rang out, Hall and Oates collectively decided that neither could go for that. The two ducked into a service elevator. They got to chatting about music and their studies at Temple University. By 1971, they were churning out blue eyed soul masterpieces together.

8 Motörhead’s Revenge

Hawkwind did a lot of drugs. One does not write meandering futuristic prog rock without a little help. Including playing on the first four albums, bandmember Ian “Lemmy” Kilmister was the band’s supplier. After being busted for transporting amphetamine over the Canadian border, he was unceremoniously kicked out of both roles.^[4]

For hours, Kilmister stewed in a holding cell. He anxiously waited for his fellow bandmates to bail him out. Eventually, they sprang him. It was not out of any comradery; they just could not find a replacement in time for a Toronto show. Kilmister quit the band to seek revenge.

His sabotage plan was twofold. First, he would sleep with his former bandmates’ wives and girlfriends.^[5] Except for lead singer Dave Brock’s wife, mission accomplished. Second, he would start his own band. That subsequent band, Motörhead, became one of the quintessential bands in heavy metal history. He got his revenge.

7 The Fightin’ Side of Merle Haggard

Outlaw country was more than merely a name. For Merle Haggard, it was a self-defeating lifestyle.^[6] Haggard spent his adolescence in and out juvenile facilities. His ever-expanding rap sheet of petty crimes culminated in a botched robbery. Set out to steal a diner after hours, Haggard mentally prepared by drinking. While the restaurant was filled with customers, he staggered in drunk. He was promptly arrested. After unruly behavior with other inmates, he was transferred to San Quintin.

At the notorious Californian prison, Haggard befriended fellow inmate James “Rabbit” Kendrick. Kendrick confided in Haggard he had concocted an escape plan. Haggard was gung-ho to bust out. Kendrick dissuaded Haggard from tagging along. Instead of risking it all on a doomed venture, Kendrick convinced Haggard to commit to his musical aspirations. When Kendrick broke out, he shot an officer. Upon capture, Kendrick was executed. If he had accompanied Kendrick, a seminal country artist would have died unrecorded. Instead, he took Kendrick’s advice and resorted to only singing about felonies.

6 A Family Affair

The Black Mafia Family had enough money. Through their three main hubs of cocaine traffic, they raked in millions of dollars annually. Kingpin brothers, Demetrius “Big Meech” and Terry Flenory, needed a front for their operation. To hide the true source of their income and raise a little extra dough on the side, they founded record label BMF Entertainment. With that accidental decision, they created a new genre of music.^[7]

BMF Entertainment only had one legitimate client, Bleu DaVinci. The rest of its roster was burgeoning rappers in the Atlanta area, including future breakout stars Fabolous and Young Jezzy. The drug trade bankrolled promotions for acts associated with the label. The premiere of Let’s Get It: Thug Motivation 101, Jeezy’s debut record, was equally a showcase for the rapper and a chance to build up connections in the community. Despite their intentions, Let’s Get It became the foundational text for Trap music, an offshoot of southern hip-hop. Popularized in Georgian crack dens, the style has become the dominant sound of hip-hop in the decades since.

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5 Charles Manson Freaked Out

In July 1969, following Charles Manson’s orders, Bobby Beausoleil broke into music teacher Gary Hinman’s house. For three days, Beausoleil tortured Hinman until he fatally stabbed him. Days before the Tate murders, Hinman was the first death of the Family’s killing spree.^[8]

Before the murder, Beausoleil was a guitarist in psychedelic rock band the Grass Roots with Arthur Lee, (not to be confused with the more successful Grass Roots). Beausoleil was kicked out and replaced with Bryan MacLean. In a reference to Beausoleil, Maclean and Lee changed the band’s name to Love. Beausoleil’s departure fostered Lee and MacLean’s partnership to create one of the most influential rock groups of the 1960’s, most notably with the highly celebrated album “Forever Changes.”^[9]

Falling out with Love, Beausoleil befriended Frank Zappa. He sang backup on Zappa’s first record, “Freak Out!” “Freak Out!” is applauded as establishing the idea of a rock concept album. It was the record that most inspired the Beatles to record Sgt. Pepper’s. So, while the Manson Family members were listening to Beatles’ songs, the Beatles were listening to a song from a Manson Family member.

4 The Samurai Hijackers

Everything Les Rallizes Denudes did was mysterious. The lead singer Takashi Mizutani is an enigmatic hermit who only occasionally makes public appearances. Refusing to release proper albums, their songs exists as rare bootlegs. Even their music is a structureless, equal parts chaotic and ethereal. Only two facts are certain. The first is that their music inspired leagues of imitators. The second is that their bassist Moriaki Wakabayashi hijacked a plane and headed for North Korea.^[10]

On March 31, 1970, the Red Army seized Japan Airlines Flight 351 heading to Fukuoka. Brandishing samurai swords and pipe bombs, the communist faction took the 122 passengers and 7 crewmembers hostage. The 9 hijackers stormed the cockpit to force a flight to Cuba. With just enough fuel to travel the initial 45-minute route, the hijackers allowed the plane to land. On the tarmac, authorities swarmed the plane. For three days, the captors held the aircraft until they promised to release all the hostages in exchange for passage to Pyongyang, North Korea.

The national coverage drew attention to their bandmember’s former discography. As a strictly underground group, most people had never heard of the band. The hijacking exposed the group to legions of new fans internationally. Alternative acts like Sonic Youth and LCD Soundsystem grew to appreciate the band’s influence.

3 The Mynah Jailbirds

The Mynah Birds shaped music history without releasing a single album. Like any great rock n’ roll story, this one starts with a drunken street fight. 15-year-old Ricky James Matthews, an expatriate from America, fled to Canada to dodge the draft. Three hooligans cornered him in a botched mugging. Levon Helm and Garth Hudson, soon members of the legendary Canadian group The Band, rescued him. Endeared by Matthews’ gregarious personality, Hudson and Helm introduced him to other members of Toronto’s music scene, including the Mynah birds.^[11]

With Matthews as their frontman, the band found middling success. Piqued by their R&B infused rock ‘n’ roll, struggling folk artist Neil Young joined the band. In 1965, The Mynah Birds traded bassists with local band The Sparrows. In exchange, Bruce Palmer joined The Mynah Birds. After Nick St. Nichols joined The Sparrows, they changed their name to Steppenwolf.

This final lineup hired Morley Shelman as their manager. Shelman secured an audition for Motown records. Matthews, worried about crossing into Detroit, told Shelman he was a fugitive. Producer Berry Gordy signed the group. When the Mynah Birds did not receive the label’s advance, they confronted Shelman. Shelman blew all the funds on heroin. They fired him. In retaliation he told, Gordy that Matthews was on the run. With Matthews arrested, the band broke up. Palmer and Young left for Los Angeles to start the protest folkie outfit Buffalo Springfield. After he left prison, Matthews returned to work as a Motown songwriter. In-house genius Stevie Wonder proposed that Mathews needed a punchier stage name. Wonder suggested Rick James.

2 A Colonel of Truth?

Colonel Tom Parker was undeniably a crook. The only question is for what crimes. With manipulative contracts, Parker exploited Elvis Presley throughout the famed career. Controlling every aspect of the King of Rock and Roll’s life, Parker’s backroom deals scammed millions of rightful profits. Parker always got by on bluster.

Parker’s first started entertaining as a carnival barker. He made his name touring the country with a sadistic routine where he shocked chickens with electric wires. He had to keep moving. He was on the lam.^[12]

Born Andreas van Kuijk, Parker illegally entered the United States. An immigrant from the Netherlands, Parker never sought naturalization in America. Some speculate his hesitation was due to guilt from a murder. The evidence is scant. In the days before van Kuijk abandoned his homeland, a local shopkeeper was beaten to death. The only real clue tying van Kuijk to the cold case was an anonymous letter written decades later asserting his role in the slaying. The identity of the killer will likely never be solved. Neither will the mystery of why van Kuijk fled that same month in 1929 without telling his family or friends or traveling with his identity papers. He landed on America’s shores with no money. Whatever his motivation to desperately get out of town, he would soon find riches only attainable through nefarious means. Perhaps he already had experience.

1 Lead Belly Shaped and Took Lives

Music literally saved Lead Belly’s life. In 1918, he killed a man in a fight. Sentenced to thirty years in state prison, he petitioned Governor Pat Neff for a pardon through song. Neff, so stirred by Lead Belly’s musicality, freed him.^[13] As a freedman, Lead Belly made his name in Jim Crow markets performing to predominantly black venues.

In 1930, Lead Belly landed himself back in prison after another fight gone wrong. Touring folklorist Alan Lomax visited the infamous Angola Farm prison during Lead Belly’s tenure. On behalf of the Library of Congress, Lomax distributed Lead Belly’s songs to national acclaim. Artists as varied as Pete Seeger, Woody Guthrie, Frank Sinatra, Bob Dylan, The Rolling Stones, Credence Clearwater Revival, Van Morrison, ABBA, and the Red Hot Chili Peppers, were inspired by the bluesman. George Harrison bluntly summarized that “no Leadbelly, no Beatles.” Lead Belly murdered his way into the history books.

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About The Author: Nate Yungman is neither a musician or a criminal. If you have comments, you can email him. If you want to read more of his stuff, you can follow him on twitter @nateyungman.

Some films amuse us. Some films move us. A few films change us. And some films change film.

Whether it is the use of new and innovative techniques, or starting a new fashion in film making, or just making a small change to films as we know them, some movies will be remembered for changing the way that films are made.

Here are 10 films which, in their own way, changed film making forever.

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10 The Movie That Brought 3D Back From the Dead

There was a time when 3D movies were a gimmick. Cinemagoers wore cardboard glasses with one blue and one red lens, which were, for some reason, square.

Typically films were 90% in 2D with a few scenes which had painted 3D in post-production. The process was pretty expensive and not exciting enough to make audiences forget how silly they looked in the glasses. But, in 2009, James Cameron’s Avatar changed all that.

IMAX had been experimenting with 3D film-techniques since the mid-1980s, and a few movies and documentaries had played with the medium. Disney, too, dabbled in 3D, but none of the movies that were produced were notable in any way.

In 2004, Cameron made the documentary, Ghosts of the Abyss, using his patented Reality Camera System, with which he and Bill Paxton explored the wreck of The Titanic (that’s the ship, not the movie), in glorious, and rather eerie, 3D. The film was more of a curiosity than anything else, although the real ship did look unnervingly similar to the film set.

But in Avatar, the 3D film really came into its own. Yes, it was extremely expensive to make, but the revenues were enormous, and it became one of the highest grossing films ever. The story of one man’s dilemma over whether to help his employer plunder a planet full of blue people who live in harmony with nature, or whether to escape the shackles of tyranny, and his wheelchair, and be free, seemed to strike a chord with audiences. Because we’ve all been there.

The success of the movie let to the resurrection of 3D as a film medium, and suddenly every action blockbuster released both 2D and 3D versions, and doubling their revenues. Audiences for 3D movies have begun to decline again in recent years, though whether that is because cinemagoers see 3D as a gimmick, or because they aren’t willing to pay more for the seats, is not clear. Time for Avatar 2?

9 This is Real Footage

From the most expensive movie in the world, to the cheapest. The Blair Witch Project was made for $10 and a nickel that the director found down the back of the sofa. Well, perhaps a little more than that, but not much.

Using cheap cameras, no script, ropey actors and a whole lot of nerve, the filmmakers, Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sánchez, changed the movie industry. Or, to be more precise, the horror movie industry.

‘Found-footage’ had been done before. The technique had been used in novels for years, but the first example in film is thought to have been Cannibal Holocaust, a movie that is literally as bad as it sounds.

The Blair Witch Project is not really a great film. It’s not even a great horror film. But it did have a brilliant marketing campaign. When the film was presented at The Sundance Festival, the actors were all listed as either Missing or Deceased. No red-carpet treatment for them.

The movie’s official website included Missing Person’s posters and appeals for information, and the film was one of the first to have a viral marketing campaign. The film also carried a statement alerting the audience that what they were about to see was real footage. It wasn’t.

But the lie helped make The Blair Witch Project a huge commercial success and ensured that every horror movie for the next 10 years would be about some kids with a camera and an urban legend no one has ever heard of.

And you know that, while the kids might not survive, the camera, unfortunately, will.

8 The Very Last Installment (Part 1)

Multi-part franchises are extremely lucrative, and, one way to keep that cash cow lactating, is to cut the last installment into 2 parts.

When the movie juggernaut that is Harry Potter rolled into cinemas with the Philosopher’s/Sorcerer’s Stone in 2001, the end of the series seemed very far away. But, by 2010, the child actors were beginning to look far too old for their school uniforms. But the end was in sight, as the last novel in the series was made into Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (Part One). Wait, what? There were 7 books, so that’s 7 movies, right? The studio had other ideas.

The reason that they gave, was that they wanted to do justice to the book, which was rather long, and included a number of loose ends that should, in fairness to the audience, be tied into a neat bow.

Nothing at all to do with the $2.5 billion worldwide box office receipts, not to mention DVD sales, streaming rights and merchandising. Nope. All to do with audience satisfaction. The poor Hogwarts students had to shave those beards and don the uniforms for another year.

Since Harry Potter, all sorts of franchises have cottoned on to the idea of squeezing one more payday from a movie franchise. Whether you think it’s a good idea probably depends on which end of the cash cow you’re on. We want the front end.

7 The Summer Monster Movie

In 1975, the summer-blockbuster-monster-movie was spotted lurking somewhere off the coast of Amity Island. That movie was Jaws, and it hasn’t been safe to go back into the cinemas in July and August since.

Directed by Steven Spielberg, in his first big movie, the film had 2 things going for it. First, was a killer score by John Williams, still instantly recognizable 45 years later, and also by the fact that you hardly ever actually saw the Great White shark that was terrorizing the beach. This was largely because the mechanical shark sucked big time, and Spielberg knew it. Instead, he got creative, and went with lots of Shark POV shots, thrashing legs, and eerily calm water beneath which terror lurked.

Combined with Williams’ score, it was a winner. Jaws, therefore, gave us 2 things. The summer monster blockbuster, and proof that, when it comes to monsters, the creature you can’t see, is infinitely scarier than the one you can.

6 The Sequel

When you have a hit on your hands, it’s natural to want to make the most of that. Studios often look at the scope for sequels before they even buy the rights, because, if the first movie was a success, the success of the sequel is almost guaranteed.

You might think that the sequel is a modern innovation, but you would be wrong.
The first known sequel, The Fall of a Nation, was produced and directed by Thomas Dixon Jr. in 1916. Released only one year after DW Griffith’s epic, The Birth of a Nation, and less than 10 years since the release of the first full-length feature film.

So, the sequel, is probably here to stay, although The Fall Of a Nation isn’t. There are no known prints in existence. There are still new sequel innovations, however.

The first sequel to gross more at the Box Office than the original was From Russia With Love, which took $8 million more than the previous Bond film, Dr No.

The Return of The Jedi is the first third-parter of a trilogy to be better acclaimed than the first two, with every film critic in existence maintaining that it is better than either A New Hope or The Empire Strikes Back, despite the fact that it grossed the least at the Box Office and was the only one of the 3 films not to win an Oscar of any kind.

The footnote in the history of the sequel, however, goes to Terminator 2: Judgement Day, for their innovative use of the colon to tack a new title onto an established brand. It started a trend for colon-based titles, which includes pretty much all the Avengers movies and the tautological nightmare that is Die Hard: With a Vengeance.

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5 The Film That Killed Hand-Drawn Animation

Toy Story, famously, is the first full length animation made entirely by computer animation. And it was a great film. Made by a small, independent company, named Pixar, in 1995. The film movie was innovative, smart and funny, and has become one of the best loved animations of all time. Which is lovely.

It also spelled the beginning of the end for traditional animation. Disney, who had tried hard to put a spoke in Pixar’s wheel during production, eventually came round to the benefits of computer animation, and, although they tried hard to stick with the old ways, the last hand-animated movie was Winnie The Pooh, in 2011.

Even before then the animation process had been incorporating more and more computer technology, with every Disney film since 1990 using Disney’s Computer Animated Production System to some degree.

Does it matter? Probably not. Although it is always a shame when progress destroys another long-standing industry, Toy Story, and all the movies that followed it, were still created by artists, writers and actors.

Toy Story did not force its way into millions of hearts because of its computer wizardry. That was down to a very special friendship between a cowboy and an astronaut.

4 The First Remake

Sometimes a film is just so good, you want to make it again.

For Cecil B DeMille, however, it seemed to be a case of trying to get it right. In 1914, he made The Squaw Man, the story of a British gentleman who is wrongfully convicted of a crime, and who emigrates to America for a fresh start in The West, where he rescues a ‘tribal princess’ from the clutches of an outlaw. He and his squaw promptly fall in love, and have a child. They are happy for several years, but, when proof of his wrongful conviction emerges, The Squaw Man’s wife conveniently dies, and their son is ‘sent away for his own safety’, leaving him free to return to England and resume his ‘real’ life.

Not a film that has aged well, perhaps, but DeMille seems to have been inordinately fond of it, because he remade it just a year later, and remade it again as a talkie in 1931.

The first film was a modest success, making $20,000. The second film doubled the receipts, while the third film made a loss of $150,000. He didn’t make a fourth version.

3 The Footnote

Some films have a big impact on the cinema. For others its more of a footnote. For The Muppet Movie, a footnote was their impact on cinema.

If you liked The Muppets, you probably thought The Muppet Movie was great. If you didn’t, well, who cares, it’s a film about some puppets and their journey from oblivion to the ‘standard rich and famous contract’. In other words, nothing out of the ordinary.

Until the credits rolled, because The Muppet Movie was the first film to include a post credit scene. In the case of The Muppet Movie, this consisted of Animal yelling at the audience to ‘Go Home!’

It spawned a trend in films with extra scenes after the credits have finished rolling that are completely independent of the movie, but which either tease the next installment in a franchise, or add a humorous end scene for those in the know, who sit in the cinema, ignoring staff with bin bags waiting to clean the theatre before the next showing.

Audiences of Avengers: End Game almost rioted after, having sat through three and a half hours and 23 films, sat through the long, long credits only to discover that on this film only, that there was no post credit scene. Just an annoying little noise. Thanks for nothing.

2 Dialogue Is Optional

Most scripts consist of dialogue and stage directions. When Stanley Kubrick made 2001 A Space Odyssey, he seems to have decided that one of those things was optional.

The film was notable largely for the long periods of total silence. The first and last 20 mins of the film are totally without dialogue, and the effect is pretty unnerving for the audience.

Not only did no one speak, but Kubrick restricted the use of music too, especially on the rare occasions that anyone spoke, thus depriving the audience of the usual auditory clues to what they are seeing and what they should be feeling.

The technique is pretty disturbing, which is probably why it was used recently in the suspense/horror movie, The Quiet Place. However, not many filmmakers have chosen to use the technique, because when you take away the dialogue and the music, only really really good directing will keep audiences in their seats. When it works, however, the effect is phenomenal.

1 Call That A Costume?

Lord of The Rings gave us a lot of things. It gave us hobbits, and elves and dwarfs, and it taught us that they are not at all the same thing. Who knew? It gave us a whole new outlook on New Zealand. It gave us numb butts, with each film being 3 hours, or more. And it gave us Andy Serkis in a motion capture suit, playing Gollum.

Although experiments with motion capture had been going on for a while – the character of Jar Jar Binks in Star Wars The Phantom Menace, for example, was the first to use the technique, in 1999, but it wasn’t until The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, in 2002, that motion capture could be done in real time.

The motion capture suit has spawned a thousand movies where actors wear funny suits, and given Andy Serkis an entire career in films where no one ever sees his face.

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About The Author: Ward Hazell is a freelance writer and travel writer, currently also studying for a PhD in English Literature

The Praetorian Guard is one of the most famous military units in history. They were known as elite Roman soldiers, sworn to protect the emperor for hundreds of years. They were feared by the people and even by the emperors themselves, who often went to great lengths to gain the praetorians’ favor.

The Praetorian Guard grew too powerful and, on more than one occasion, exerted its influence in ways that forever changed the history of the Roman Empire—and, indirectly, the world.

10Augustus Founds The Praetorian Guard

Although praetorians are inexorably linked to the Roman Emperor, they existed for centuries before Rome ever became an empire. During the Roman Republic, groups of soldiers known as Praetorian Cohorts were assigned to generals or magistrates called praetors.

During the civil war initiated by Caesar, the number of praetorians grew considerably, and both Augustus and Mark Antony had several cohorts. After Augustus became the first emperor of Rome, he united the cohorts and officially formed the Praetorian Guard. He learned firsthand from Caesar the advantages of having an army loyal to you, personally.

Augustus maintained several cohorts in Rome and dispersed the rest to other Italian cities. While the main goal of the praetorians was to protect the emperor, they also acted as a police force. From this moment on, the Praetorian Guard’s influence increased until it became one of the most powerful bodies within the Roman Empire.

9Assassination Of Pupienus And Balbinus

238, known as the Year of the Six Emperors, was one of the most tumultuous years in the history of the Roman Empire. As the name implies, six different people were recognized as Emperor of Rome within 12 months, and five of them were dead by the end of the year.

It all started with Maximinus Thrax, the soldier who became the first “barracks emperor” in 235 thanks to the support of the army and against the wishes of the Senate. By 238, a governor named Gordian was convinced to take power and proclaim himself emperor. He did, but he made his son, Gordian II, co-emperor. They still had to deal with Thrax, who was now declared public enemy. They failed, and both Gordians died. Afterward, the Senate named two elder statesmen, Pupienus and Balbinus, as the new co-emperors.

In the meantime, riots erupted in Rome, and the people targeted Thrax’s representatives, the Praetorian Guard. They even enlisted the help of gladiators to take on the skilled soldiers and besieged the praetorian barracks. In response, the Praetorian Guard attacked the palace and killed both Pupienus and Balbinus.

Meanwhile, Thrax’s army had enough of his bloody reign, killed him, decapitated him and brought his head to Rome to seek forgiveness. Gordian III was named new emperor.

8The Guard Makes Galba Emperor And Then Murders Him

Modern scholars are debating whether Nero was as horrible a leader as ancient historians portray him. However, it is clear that, toward the end of his reign, Nero lost all support of the Senate, who wanted him replaced with Galba. In 68, Nero also lost the support of the Praetorian Guard, when the leader, Gaius Nymphidius Sabinus, announced his allegiance to Galba.

The praetorians abandoned Nero in exchange for a huge sum of money. According to Plutarch, this money would be impossible to raise without committing “ten thousand times more evils upon the world than those inflicted by Nero.” The men didn’t get their money and, seven months after Galba’s reign began, the praetorians turned on him.

The Praetorian Guard aligned itself with Otho and overthrew Galba. When confronted, the emperor’s retinue switched sides and killed Galba. Historians recorded the name Sempronius Densus, the only praetorian who didn’t betray Galba or run away and who made his last stand against his former brothers-in-arms.

7Macrinus’s Plot Against Caracalla

As the leader of the Praetorian Guard, the office of Praetorian Prefect steadily became one of the most powerful positions in the empire. Still, this didn’t stop some prefects from coveting even more power. In this case, it was the greed of a single praetorian which changed the course of history and almost ended the Severan Dynasty.

Macrinus was the Praetorian Prefect during the reign of Caracalla. However, he saw an opportunity to seize the throne by exploiting and manipulating the emotions of a centurion in Caracalla’s personal retinue. His name was Martialis, and he hated Caracalla for executing his brother and for constantly insulting him in public. According to Herodian, it didn’t take much for Macrinus to convince Martialis to murder Caracalla in exchange for favors and riches.

Soon afterward, Caracalla had to undertake a long journey and took only a small group of soldiers, Martialis among them. When the emperor stopped to relieve himself by the side of the road, the disgruntled centurion walked up to him and stabbed Caracalla to death.

Martialis was chased down and executed. Macrinus, ably playing the part of grieving friend, won the support of the army and declared himself emperor a few days later.

6Two Sets Of Guards Fight Against Each Other

After the aforementioned Otho overthrew Galba, he reigned for just three months before committing suicide. Up next was Vitellius, and one of his first moves as emperor was to disband the Praetorian Guard and have over 100 of them executed for their role in Galba’s murder. He went on to create a new guard with loyal soldiers from his Germanic troops.

Although Vitellius was recognized by the Senate as Roman Emperor, not everyone agreed. Specifically, a large portion of the army declared Vespasian as new emperor. This also included all the former praetorians who now found themselves unemployed. Vespasian’s military soon marched on Rome. The two groups of praetorians fought each other at the Battle of Bedriacum, where Vespasian’s army, led by Marcus Antonius Primus, was victorious.

Once Vitellius’s Praetorian Guards realized defeat was at hand, they looked for ways to abandon the sinking ship. They prevented Vitellius from carrying out a peace agreement. Later, when the emperor tried to flee the city, his guards brought him back to the palace under pretense that the peace treaty had been signed. Instead, he was surrendered to Vespasian’s troops, dragged through the city, and Vitellius became the only emperor in Roman history killed at the place of execution known as the Gemonian Stairs.

5Sejanus’s Rise To Power

Although Augustus established the Praetorian Guard, the unit’s influence grew substantially under his heir, Tiberius, thanks to the machinations of the deceitful Sejanus.

Sejanus was the Praetorian Prefect who became one of the emperor’s closest confidants and purported friends. In fact, when Tiberius retired to Capri in the last decade of his reign, Sejanus became the administrative head of Rome and, consequently, the leader of the empire.

Were it not for Sejanus, the Praetorian Guard’s power would have never reached the heights it did. He passed numerous reforms that favored the guard, including moving them from the outskirts of Rome into the city itself and building the barracks which became the Praetorian Guard headquarters for the next 300 years.

Sejanus’s ultimate goal was the throne. He started by eliminating Tiberius’s rightful heir, his son, Drusus Julius Caesar. Historians of the time such as Tacitus agree that Sejanus seduced Drusus’s wife, Livia, and had him poisoned. Sejanus hoped to marry into the family and get adopted by Tiberius. When the emperor refused, Sejanus began isolating him as much as possible. In 26, Tiberius moved to Capri and never set foot in Rome again.

Sejanus oversaw a purge of all nobles who could challenge his power, including several Julian family members who died suspiciously. His own demise came unexpectedly. Although we are unclear on the exact circumstances, in 31, Tiberius sent a letter to Rome condemning Sejanus of conspiracy, and he was summarily executed.

4Assassination Of Elagabalus

Macrinus might have been able to orchestrate the demise of Caracalla and install himself as emperor, but his reign was short-lived. Caracalla’s aunt, Julia Maesa, managed to produce a rebellion, and Macrinus died at the Battle of Antioch in 218. New Roman emperor became Maesa’s 14-year-old grandson, Elagabalus.

Although not as infamous as Nero or Caligula, Elagabalus’s four-year reign was marked by decadence, sexual and religious scandals that, arguably, topped those of his predecessors. In the end, his actions managed to alienate the Senate, the common people, the Praetorian Guard, and even his own grandmother, Julia Maesa, who helped plot his assassination.

By 222, the guard had had enough of Elagabalus and wanted him replaced with his cousin, Severus Alexander. The emperor tried to plot against Alexander, expecting the help of the Praetorian Guard, but there was no help to be had. Instead, when Elagabalus walked into the praetorian camp, he was executed, decapitated, and his naked body dragged through the city. Along with him, the Praetorian Guard killed his mother, his lover, Hierocles, and everybody else who indulged in the young emperor’s debauchery.

3Praetorian Guard Chooses The Wrong Side

Given the number of times the Praetorian Guard tried to interfere in the administration of the Roman Empire, it was certain that they would eventually bet on the wrong horse. This happened at the start of the fourth century during the civil war between Maxentius, Licinius, and Constantine. The Praetorian Guard was firmly behind Maxentius, who increased its ranks after being initially reduced in numbers (and influence) by Diocletian.

Unfortunately for them, Maxentius’s army was decisively defeated in 312 at the Battle of the Milvian Bridge, where Maxentius drowned in the Tiber. Constantine would go on to defeat Licinius and become sole emperor in 324.

Realizing they could not be trusted, Constantine dissolved the Praetorian Guard in 313, marking the end of three centuries of serving the Emperor of Rome (more or less). He made a grand show out of destroying their barracks in Rome and assigned the surviving praetorians to the far reaches of the empire.

2Conspiracy Against Caligula

41 was a busy year for the Praetorian Guard. First, they assassinated Caligula, then they prevented the restoration of the Roman Republic, and, finally, they declared Claudius the new Roman Emperor.

By the end of his reign, Caligula was so despised that several groups of people plotted his demise. After a few failed conspiracies, the plot that ended the emperor’s life was orchestrated by the praetorian Cassius Chaerea and the tribune Cornelius Sabinus, although it was said that many others knew and approved of the plan. According to Suetonius, Caligula was approached in an empty passage by Chaerea, and his men and was stabbed 30 times. Afterward, the praetorian dispatched guards to kill Caligula’s wife and infant daughter.

Cassius’s downfall was overestimating his influence over the Praetorian Guard. His plan was to help the Senate restore the republic, but most of his fellow soldiers preferred imperial rule. When they decided against Chaerea’s plans, they rescued Claudius, the only remaining member of the Julian Dynasty, and took him to safety. After securing praetorian support, Claudius declared himself new emperor, and Chaerea and other conspirators were executed for treason.

1Auction Of The Imperial Title

Without a doubt, the most shameful, abusive act ever carried out by the Praetorian Guard happened in 193 when it auctioned off the Roman Empire to the highest bidder.

This all started when the guards murdered the Roman Emperor Pertinax, who felt that the Praetorian Guard had become too powerful and corrupt and wanted to reform it. Afterward, the emperor’s former father-in-law, Sulpicianus, offered them a large sum of money to grant him the support needed to become the new emperor. Realizing the opportunity they had, the guard opened the auction to public bids. A wealthy senator named Didius Julianus paid the highest bid and became the new Emperor of the Roman Empire.

Unsurprisingly, not everyone reacted well to this blatant abuse of power, and a civil war broke out, known as the Year of the Five Emperors. Julianus lasted less than three months before he was executed.

From Columbus to Magellan, the famous travelers of the Age of Exploration have become household names. Before that, we tend to think of the world as a parochial place, with people barely aware of what lay beyond their own backyard. But the truth is that daring explorers flourished in the Middle Ages, crossing vast distances and changing how Medieval people thought about the world.

10Friar Julian

Around 895 A.D., the Hungarians swept out of Eastern Europe, raiding across Europe and establishing themselves firmly in the Carpathian Basin. But they always remembered their distant homeland somewhere across the mountains. In particular, they mourned the Hungarians who had been split from the main group by a Pecheneg attack and left behind before the great migration into Europe. In 1235, King Bela of Hungary asked four Dominican friars to travel east in search of the missing Hungarians and their lost homeland.

Of the four explorers, only a friar named Julian survived the whole journey. He wrote that they had started their search around the Crimea, before trekking across the Caucasus and journeying up the Volga River. According to Julian, he found the Eastern Hungarians living there in a region he called Magna Hungaria (“Great Hungary”). However, by this time Julian had realized that a great threat was brewing. The Mongols were invading Russia and Julian correctly feared that this invincible new force would soon reach Hungary. He hastened back to Europe, where he provided the first detailed warning of the Mongol approach, and the Eastern Hungarians once again passed out of the history books.

9Gunnbjorn Ulfsson

It is fairly well-known that Erik the Red was the first Viking to sail to Greenland and settle there. But Erik did not actually discover Greenland. That honor goes to his relative Gunnbjorn Ulfsson, who reported the existence of a land west of Iceland in the early 10th century.

According to the sagas, Gunnbjorn was sailing to Iceland when he was blown off course by a storm. He reported seeing some skerries (small, uninhabitable islands) rising from the sea to the west and deduced that a larger landmass must lie beyond them. However, modern historians believe that Gunnbjorn was actually seeing the “hillingar,” a well-known mirage caused by “optical ducting” off the Greenland coast.

In any case, Gunnbjorn was right to suspect that a large island lay beyond whatever he saw. This new land was eventually settled by Erik the Red and used by his son Leif as a launch point for his famous voyages to the Americas.

8Rabban Bar Sauma

Often called the Marco Polo of the East, Rabban bar Sauma was born in China in 1220 A.D., not far from modern Beijing. He became a Nestorian Christian monk and became known for his fervent acts of devotion. He eventually decided to undertake a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, requiring him to trek across the Asian landmass. He eventually made it to Baghdad, but a war in the Holy Land meant he could not journey on to Jerusalem.

After a few years in an Armenian monastery, the Mongol ruler of Iran asked Rabban to undertake a diplomatic mission to Europe. The fearless monk was feted in Constantinople and narrowly wriggled out of a difficult situation in Rome, where some cardinals suspected that he was a heretic. He stayed with King Philip of France and made it to the Atlantic Ocean near Bordeaux, where he met with King Edward “Longshanks” of England.

After returning to Persia in triumph, Rabban retired to found a monastery in Azerbaijan. He carefully kept a diary of his travels, providing modern historians with a fascinating outsider’s perspective on Medieval Europe.

7William of Rubruck

After the initial Mongol invasion of Europe, the European powers would send several ambassadors on the long journey to the court of the Great Khan. By far the most insightful was the monk William of Rubruck, who actually was not an ambassador at all and mostly wound up in Mongolia by accident.

During the Seventh Crusade, William asked King Louis XI of France for permission to travel from Palestine to modern Russia, where he hoped to minister to the Christians enslaved by the Mongols during their attack on Hungary a decade earlier. But when he rocked up in Russia, the Mongols completely misunderstood his mission and assumed he was a formal ambassador. As such, they sent him on to the court of Mongke Khan in Mongolia.

William was in no position to argue and found himself swept along to Karakorum, where he spoke with Mongke and participated in a formal debate between Christians, Muslims, and Buddhists (everyone ended up blackout drunk before Mongke got around to picking the winner).

He returned to France around 1255, where he wrote a detailed and often humorous account of his travels (a highlight is a lengthy religious discussion with some Buddhists which suddenly ends because “my interpreter was tired and . . . made me stop talking). Among other breakthroughs, he alerted Medieval Europe to the existence of Buddhism and persuaded mapmakers that the Caspian Sea was landlocked.

6Afanasy Nikitin

Afanasy Nikitin was a merchant from Tver who became arguably the greatest Russian explorer of the Medieval period. He initially left Tver in 1466 on a trading expedition to the Caucasus but was attacked and robbed on the Volga. With his finances in ruins, he decided to seek opportunities further afield and traveled on through Persia to Hormuz, where he took ship for India.

Nikitin arrived in India in 1469. At that time, the country was virtually unknown in Russia, but he fit in well and traveled widely through the Deccan. He found he got along better with the local Hindus than their Muslim rulers, who kept trying to talk him into converting. He wrote extensive descriptions of the local temples and religious practices and made visits to Calicut and Sri Lanka, where he described the famous Adam’s Peak as a holy site for Hindus, Buddhists, Christians, and Muslims.

In 1472, Nikitin became homesick and decided to make the journey back to Tver. Along the way, he visited Ethiopia and Oman, but he sadly died in Smolensk, Russia, just a short distance from his beloved Tver.

5Li Da and Chen Cheng

Li Da and Chen Cheng were two Chinese eunuchs who undertook a dangerous expedition through Central Asia in the 1410s. Li Da was by far the more experienced traveler, having already made two trips into the heart of Asia. But he did not write about them, so he has been almost forgotten. But Chen Cheng did keep a detailed diary, so he gets all the glory, although he was always subordinate to Li Da.

The two eunuchs set out in 1414, on a diplomatic mission for the Yongle Emperor. They journeyed through a desert for 50 days, then navigated the barren terrain of the world’s second lowest depression, and clambered past the Tian Shan mountains. They waded through salt marshes and lost most of their horses crossing the Syr River. Finally, after 269 days, they reached Herat, presented their gifts to the sultan and went home. Astonishingly, Li Da would make the same journey twice more, always making it through without a scratch.

4Odoric of Pordenone

Beginning in the late 13th century, the Franciscan monks began a determined effort to establish a presence in east Asia. They sent out missionaries like John of Montecorvino, who became the first Catholic Bishop of Peking (Beijing), and Giovanni de’ Marignolli, who journeyed widely through China and India. Perhaps the best traveled of all was Odoric of Pordenone, a Franciscan of Czech extraction who set out for the east around 1316.

After some time in Persia, Odoric preached throughout India before taking ship for modern Indonesia, where he visited Java, Sumatra, and possibly Borneo. Arriving in China, he based himself in Beijing but continued to travel widely (he was particularly impressed with Hangzhou) for the next three years. He then decided to return home via Lhasa, Tibet.

After returning to Italy, he dictated his biography from his sickbed (which may explain why they abruptly end after Tibet). He died in Udine in 1331. His memoirs became enormously influential—but not in the way he might have hoped. An unknown hack rewrote them to add all sorts of ludicrous events and fantastical beasts and published them as “The Travels Of Sir John Mandeville,” which became a smash medieval bestseller.

3Naddodd and Gardar

According to the saga of Ari the Wise, the first Viking to discover Iceland was a settler in the Faroe Islands called Naddodd, who was blown off course by a storm to a place he called “Snowland.” This accidental discovery was followed up by a Swede named Gardar Svarsson, who explored the coast of the island and wintered there before sailing back to Scandinavia, full of praise for the new land. Thanks to Gardar’s daring and Naddodd’s ability not to die in a storm, the Vikings would quickly settle in Iceland, where their descendants remain to this day.

Oddly, the sagas insist that Noddodd and Gardar were not the first Europeans to reach Iceland. According to Ari, Scottish or Irish monks known as Papar were already living as hermits in Iceland when the Norse arrived, but they quickly left as “they did not want to share the land with heathens,” leaving behind “Irish books.” Of course, Ari was writing 250 years later, and supporting evidence for the Papar’s existence is thin, so use your best judgment there.

2Benjamin of Tudela

Very little is known about Benjamin of Tudela since his travelogue remains the only source for his life. He was a Jew who set out from Tudela in Spain around 1160 and kept a careful record of his travels. After journeying through Barcelona and southern France, he spent some time in Rome before traveling south through Greece to Constantinople.

From Constantinople, he took ship for the Holy Land and journeyed through Palestine and Syria to Baghdad and Persia. His writings then describe Sri Lanka and China, but the descriptions become fantastical, and most historians believe he did not make it farther than the Persian Gulf.

Benjamin’s primary value to historians was his focus on the Jewish communities he encountered everywhere on his travels, which tended to be ignored by later travelers. His writing remains the best travelogue of this hidden Medieval world.

1Ibn Battutah

It is impossible to write about medieval travelers without mentioning Ibn Battutah, the greatest traveler of his age and arguably of all time. While most medieval explorers journeyed for trade, diplomacy, or religion, Ibn Battutah simply loved traveling: he was a natural tourist. As a result, it has been seriously suggested that he covered more miles than anyone else until the invention of the steam engine.

Born into a wealthy Moroccan family, Ibn Battutah was sent on a pilgrimage to Mecca as a youth. It was supposed to prepare him for a career as an Islamic judge, but instead, it awakened his wanderlust. Instead of returning home, he crisscrossed the Middle East and then sailed down the East African coast to modern Tanzania.

Running low on funds, Ibn Battutah then decided to journey to Delhi, where he had heard the sultan was extremely generous. Typically, he went via Turkey, Crimea, Constantinople, and the Volga River in what is now Russia. Finally, he reached Afghanistan and crossed the Hindu Kush into India, where the sultan showered him with gifts and sent him on a diplomatic mission to China.

Unfortunately, he was robbed, caught in a war, and shipwrecked (in that order), losing all the gifts the sultan had asked him to present to the Chinese court. Too afraid to return to Delhi, he spent a few years hiding out in the Maldives, then visited Sri Lanka, Bengal, and Sumatra, before finally making it to China around 1345.

Returning to the Middle East two years later, he found the region ravaged by the black plague and quickly returned to Morocco. After a quick jaunt to Spain, he embarked on his last great journey, crossing the Sahara and exploring the Malian Empire. In 1353, he returned to Morocco, wrote his memoirs, and promptly vanished from history.

There is nothing quite like finding the first bone or brick of ancient remains. While such discoveries can take mere moments, understanding the whole story behind ruins, lost kingdoms, and old familiars can take decades. Archaeological sites can grind to a standstill, only moving forward again with the “story” when the next find falls into place like a lost puzzle piece. These additional discoveries can change long-held beliefs, open new mysteries, and even change the entire purpose of an ancient site.

10De Palomares Tomb

Miguel de Palomares was one of the first Catholic Priests to arrive in Mexico after the Spanish conquest in 1521. His grave was discovered by accident when, in 2016, workers dug a pit for a lamp post. When archaeologists widened the space, they discovered a large slab with the name de Palomares carved on it. The two-meter-long gravestone marks an unusual burial place for a Catholic priest—beneath the floor of an Aztec temple.

For a long time, scholars were aware that the Spaniards erected churches over native religious sites. The behavior was labeled as a dominant display of whose god was better, in effect, a symbolic replacement of the local deities by Christianity. Now, it would appear that the Spaniards were a little more practical-minded. The Aztec temples had solid foundations and sturdy walls, all ready to be used. To save time, de Palomares’s particular temple’s floor was simply whitewashed and otherwise left untouched when it was turned into Mexico City’s first cathedral in 1524.

9Victorian Tastes

A slice of the Victorian palate was revealed during construction work in London. In 2010, a demolition team took apart an old nightclub to make way for the Crossrail station. The club hailed from the 1970s but had been built over an even older site. Crosse & Blackwell had a factory there from 1830 to 1921, and archaeologists got a peek at the products that appealed to the Victorians.

Beneath the former nightclub, they found over 13,000 jars. Pots of Mushroom Catsup, jam, marmalade, and Piccalilli made up the discarded stash of flavors. The cistern in which they were found powered the factory’s steam engines up until the 1870s when it became a dump during an overhaul of the warehouse. The massive haul is valuable due to its size, rarity, and ability to reveal the tastes of the time. After shutting down, the factory became a cinema in 1927 before opening as a nightclub in 1976.

8The Sterling Stones

At the entrance to Police Scotland Central Division’s Randolphfield HQ, based in Sterling, stands a pair of standing stones. For a long time, these were admired as 3,000-year-old monuments with a mysterious connection to a nearby ancient graveyard. It turns out, the pair could be honoring a much more recent event. Radiocarbon testing placed the stone sentinels closer to 1314.

Something of note did occur in the area during that year. The English and Scottish clashed in the Battle of Bannockburn. On the first day, under the lead of Sir Thomas Randolph (also the Earl of Moray), the Scots cleverly managed to redirect the route of the larger English army. This protected Sterling Castle from an intended attack and also helped the Scottish side to defeat their enemy in a historic encounter the next day. Much like a commemoration plaque today, it is believed that the standing stones were placed on the battlefield to mark Randolph’s success when he managed to throw the English off course.

7The Edo Map

In 2017, experts at the Matsue History Museum decided to re-examine one of its artifacts, “Edo Hajimezu”—an illustration of an ancient building in Tokyo. The 400-year-old map showed Edo Castle, a vast structure that belonged to the feudal family Tokugawa. Continual rebuilding obscured Edo Castle’s original design until researchers realized that the old map showed it all along.

Drawn shortly after the castle was completed, between 1607 and 1609, it was a testimony to a clan that took no chances with their own safety. The design was highly defensive, more fort than home-sweet-home. Tokugawa Ieyasu (1542-1616), who built Edo, was at war with the Toyotomi family for the top dog position.

The map revealed a great deal about walls, mounds, and the castle’s interior. The most fascinating defense architecture could be seen to the south of the castle. The gates and walls were planned in such a way that the enemy would have been forced to zigzag instead of advancing in a straight line. Unfortunately, this innovative feature did not survive to modern times.

6House Of Gates

It is hard to imagine that finding a gate at a place called the “House of Gates” would surprise anyone, but this one did. Beit She’arim (Hebrew for “House of Gates”) is a UNESCO world heritage site located in northern Israel. When excavations in 2016 turned up a mammoth gateway, the diggers were stunned. It included half of what appeared to have been a fortified wall with doors and a tower.

During the Roman and Byzantine eras, Beit She’arim was a hub of Jewish culture and law. However, the town remained small and thus far, assumed to have had no need for protective city walls. So convinced were the experts that they believed the word “gates” in its ancient name could not be literal. They even skewed it as Beit Sharay, which means “court.” Since the town was the headquarters of the Jewish judicial council, the theory fit snugly.

The discovery of the imposing limestone gates forced archaeologists to rethink the town’s name and purpose. Dating to Roman times, there is even the intriguing possibility that the gatehouse is the first ruins of an unknown Roman fortress at the site.

5Kingdom Of Rheged

The Galloway Picts Project was started in 2012 to unravel the history behind rock carvings discovered in Trusty’s Hill Fort. When their meaning became clear, or rather what researchers believe they represent, it recovered a lost kingdom. Nobody was looking for Rheged when they first began studying the Pictish symbols on the bedrock. They were unique to the area, which made for a good archaeological riddle. Also, while its exact location was not known, the sixth-century kingdom was thought to be somewhere in Cumbria.

The inscriptions did not confirm that there was once a community of Picts in Galloway, but instead hinted heavily at a royal citadel from the Dark Ages (around A.D. 600). The excavations produced enough evidence to suggest that Trusty’s Hill was once at the center of Rheged. If so, the rediscovery of the kingdom is a fantastic find. Rheged was a prominent powerhouse among the northern kingdoms, and its influence was felt throughout Scotland’s literature and history.

4Mayan Superhighways

Ancient highways exist in the jungles of northern Guatemala. Covering an area of over 150 miles, it first came to the public’s attention in 1967 when British explorer Ian Graham published a map of El Mirador that included the roads.

El Mirador was once the largest city-state with around a million citizens living inside its boundaries of 833 square miles. Due to being covered by thick rain forest, the causeways proved difficult to study. To bypass the secretive forest canopy, a laser project was started in 2006. After scanning the Mirador Basin from the air, remarkable 3D images showed massive superhighways and other structures that surprised even the research team.

Highly detailed pyramids, canals, terraces, and animal corrals were revealed. The most exciting discovery was the scope of the 17-road network. Snaking over the land, at some places as far as 25 miles, the causeways were up to 20 feet high and 130 feet wide. They were built at different times, between 600-400 B.C. and 300 B.C.-A.D. 100. The sophisticated road system united the large state by allowing the transport of supplies and people.

3Ancient Construction Site

The archaeological site of Qantir-Piramesse once hosted Egypt’s capital, Pi-Ramesse, under the rule of Pharaoh Ramesses the Great. Established between 1300 B.C. and 1100 B.C., no substantial ruins remain of what was likely the biggest human settlement during the Bronze Age.

A German team used a novel way to find subterranean leftovers of the great city. For an incredible sixteen years (1996-2012), they magnetically mapped the area. Since ancient mud-brick buildings have a different magnetic “look” than normal earth, foundations and walls soon started to appear. They were enormous. Upon closer inspection, researchers felt they were looking at a construction site. The large-scale restoration project was perhaps set up around a palace and temple complex.

Not far away was a pit with mortar at the bottom. Touchingly, the footprints of a toddler were preserved in this layer. Something else was found in the pit, and it could change the face of Egyptian art. Fragments of plaster may sound mundane, but these appeared to belong to a decorative fresco, something almost unheard of during this particular era.

2The Montezuma Attack

One of Arizona’s landmarks received a tragic overhaul of its past. The two buildings, carved from a limestone cliff almost 900 years ago, form a part of Montezuma Castle National Monument. For more than eight decades, the disappearance of the inhabitants was one of the Southwest’s greatest mysteries.

Signs that the dwellings suffered a serious fire was filed away as a “decommissioning ritual” done after the evacuation. However, Hopi traditions tell of their ancestors, the Sinagua, being attacked on site—and the story includes the use of arson as a weapon. The Tonto Apache have a similar tale but of their ancestors trying to flush the Sinagua out with fire. Modern investigations provided the archaeological evidence to these tales.

The period between 1375-1395 is significant. Pottery was produced and the blaze happened, indicating that people lived there until the last moments. Four bodies found together in the 1930s were thought to predate the flames, but another look revealed their gruesome end. Three had fractured skulls. All had cut and burn marks sustained shortly before death. A brutal attack explains the sudden departure, but archaeologists still do not know what sparked the assault.

1Sahara Castles

The Garamantes was an enigmatic African people. In 2011, an expedition to Libya to find out more about the mysterious Garamantes was cut short by civil war. Another attempt, using satellite photography, gave researchers a good view of over 100 fortified settlements belonging to the lost civilization.

Walled towns and villages stood abandoned in the Sahara 620 miles south of Tripoli. Dating A.D. 1-500, the mud-brick structures were masterfully constructed, and there are still walls standing up to 13 feet (4 meters) high. All earlier understanding of the culture came from the Garamantes’ capital, Jarma, about 125 miles to the northwest.

Jarma revealed a powerful African kingdom with a writing system, metallurgy, trading, and textiles. The Sahara fortresses added another remarkable achievement. In the super-dry environment, they created oases where crops flourished. They did this with a complex subterranean canal system that brought groundwater to the surface. Why the fortresses were abandoned is unknown. Most likely, disappearing water sources and trade routes collapsing with the fall of the Roman Empire contributed.

The lowly sock. We don’t often think of it as a pivotal part of our daily attire. But when socks matter, they really matter. Whether as mechanical prevention for debilitating injuries like blisters or frostbite or as an indicator of social and economic status, socks carry more importance than just the weight of our bodies upon their soles.

Soldiers, athletes, and monarchs have all walked into history wearing socks, and occasionally, the socks themselves helped make history. Read on to learn of 10 instances when socks shaped world history.

10 The First Socks Were Worn With Sandals

Today’s classic fashion faux pas was actually the first method of wearing this clothing item. The earliest-known knit socks are from Egypt, dating back to the 3rd–6th centuries AD.

Most of sock history occurred in colder climates, so why there were socks in ancient Egypt is a mystery. These were constructed of knitted wool, often in bright colors, with a division between the first two toes to allow for use with sandals. Basically, they were the first fashion socks because they were probably not needed for warmth.

The Romans also wore socks with their sandals. Bare-toed Roman soldiers suffered in damp northern climates like Britain, and archaeological evidence (the Vindolanda tablets) shows they would write home to request more socks be sent.

How do we know they wore them with sandals? A dig in Britain turned up a sandal with fabric fibers caught on pieces of metal inside the shoe. So, yes, this world-conquering empire expanded at the hands of armed warriors on the frontiers who wore sandals with socks.

9 Queen Elizabeth I’s High Standards For Socks Delayed The Industrial Revolution

The queen of England was known to enjoy high-quality silk stockings. At the time, all stockings, hose, and socks were handmade and understandably expensive.

In 1589, a man named William Lee approached her for a patent on a new automated knitting loom for stockings. The stocking he presented as an example failed to impress Elizabeth, who thought them shapeless and rough. She turned him away, citing fear that the machine would take jobs away from her subjects.

King Henry IV of France had no such qualms and offered Lee financial support. Lee eventually moved to Rouen where he built a stocking frame factory, which became the first major step toward the mechanization of the textile industry.

8 Blue Stockings Rise From Common To Elite

The original blue stockings were inferior socks made of undyed, grayish, worsted yarn and worn as common everyday socks. They received a famous promotion in 1756 when Benjamin Stillingfleet received a message from educated salon-hostess Elizabeth Vesey.

“Don’t mind dress! Come in your blue stockings,” she replied to his declined invitation to attend her events on the basis of not owning fine enough clothing. “Bluestockings” was quickly adopted to describe the new society of intellectuals who stood less upon formality and gender roles and more upon the sharing of ideas.

Two centuries earlier, mention is made of Mary, Queen of Scots, wearing blue stockings to her execution. Perhaps this was in defiance of the known preference for white silk stockings by Elizabeth I, who had signed Mary’s death warrant.

At the time, blue stockings were in vogue in France, where Mary had spent her childhood. Mary’s execution stockings were light sky blue, embroidered with silver thread, and held up by green garters.

7 The Original Luddites Were Sock Knitters

Imagine spending your apprenticeship and working career perfecting the fine art of sock knitting. Now imagine some guy named William Lee goes and invents a machine to steal your job.

The initial Luddites were simply afraid of losing their paychecks. The story goes that a young sock-knitting apprentice named Ned Ludd smashed two stocking frame machines in 1779 and became a poster boy for the movement.

Textile workers began destroying equipment and burning factories all over Britain. In 1811, they began to organize—meeting at night and practicing drills. They clashed with the British military on several occasions.

By 1861, Parliament had made their brand of mischief a capital crime. Today, the term “Luddite” is used in reference to anyone who is opposed to technology and progress on the grounds that it is bad for the economy and society.

6 Sammy Sosa Got His Start With A Sock

Samuel Sosa Peralta had a poverty-stricken childhood in the Dominican Republic. After his father died when Sammy was seven, he helped support the family with odd jobs. His first brush with baseball came at 14 years old with a glove made of a milk carton, a branch for a bat, and a ball made of balled-up socks covered in tape.

The Texas Rangers signed him at 17, and he went on to play for the Chicago White Sox, the Chicago Cubs, and the Baltimore Orioles. Although his career was littered with controversies, Sammy still broke several world records for home runs and joined Babe Ruth in the standing of hitting over 50 homers in three separate seasons.

5 Socks Win Wars

In 1777 during the American Revolutionary War, the American army’s feet were in very rough shape. It was getting colder and colder, food was scarce, and most soldiers’ feet were bloody from the lack of socks and shoes.

General George Washington wrote to Congress repeatedly through the fall and winter, pleading for supplies and specifically mentioning socks each time. Upon receiving a description of the soldiers’ feet from her husband, Rhoda Farrand of Parsippany, New Jersey, organized a group of women to knit hundreds of warm wool socks.

Then she traveled with her son to deliver the socks to the troops gathered at Morristown. The years 1777–78 are considered the turning point of the war in favor of the American rebels.

World War I and II soldiers were also laid low by their feet. Trench foot accounted for up to 40 percent of casualties in some engagements, often causing permanent damage. Trench foot is necrosis of foot tissue caused by long-term exposure to excess moisture. This is easily prevented by frequent changes of socks to keep feet dry.

The problem in World War I was supply. The US textile industry couldn’t keep up, and volunteers across the country knit socks for soldiers by the thousands. The supply of socks was fine in World War II. But the problem continued to plague the ranks in lower numbers as soldiers were reluctant to take the time to care for their feet. Eventually, improvements in waterproof boot technology largely solved the problem.

4 Socks Kept Thomas Jefferson Standing

This founding father was plagued by infirmities. Severe osteoarthritis, headaches, and bouts of diarrhea kept Thomas Jefferson in bed for days. He hated the cold and suffered more severely in colder temperatures.

So he had his slaves make him socks. Very nice socks, embroidered with his initials and a number, theoretically to keep track of them. As the socks wore out, he had them opened up and sewn inside his waistcoats for extra insulation. A French ambassador once penned a complaint that Jefferson had greeted him at the White House wearing a casual frock coat and stocking feet.

Ironically, Jefferson spoke of himself as a hale and hearty individual. At age 75, he boasted that he had only lost one eyetooth (a claim that is probably not true due to his jaw pain recorded in 1808).

He also said that he rode his horse 10–13 kilometers (6–8 mi) per day. Finally, Jefferson claimed that his ability to ward off colds was due to bathing his feet in cold water every day—at which point, we assume he put on his socks.

3 The Jamestown Colony Needed Better Socks

The Virginia Company advised using the following list of clothing for men headed out to found the Jamestown Colony: one knit hat, three shirts, three lightweight suits, one waistcoat, three falling bands, one pair of garters, four pairs of shoes, and three pairs of silk stockings.

Arriving in 1607 to a much colder climate than expected, these men lost most of their population over the winter of 1609–1610. They were on the verge of abandoning the settlement when ships with fresh supplies and more colonists arrived.

A broadsheet published in England in 1622 was titled The Inconvenients that have happened to Some Persons which Have transported Themselves from England to Virginia without Provisions Necessary to Sustain Themselves. It went on to say: Take warmer clothes. By the 1630s, each arriving settler brought four warm woolen stockings as part of a much warmer wardrobe.

2 The Bloody Sock

Curt Schilling pitched for the Boston Red Sox from 2004–07. (He sat out the 2008 season due to a shoulder injury.) But it was a tendon injury that got the most attention.

Schilling helped the Red Sox win their first World Series in 86 years with a recurring ankle injury. A tendon injury occurred in Game 1 of the American League Championship Series. As a result, he pitched his worst game of the season.

For Game 6 of the 2004 American League Championship Series against the New York Yankees, a quick surgery temporarily tacked the offending tendon in place for seven innings. Even so, the surgical wound seeped blood through his sock the entire game and caught the attention of the national media.

Afterward, conspiracy theories abounded as to whether the blood seen on the sock was real. In 2014, Schilling posted a graphic photo online of his ankle that had been taken the day of the game to put rumors to rest. In 2013, the sock from Game 6 sold at auction for $92,613 to an anonymous bidder.

1 Walter Cronkite’s Shocking Socks

President Richard Nixon was the first US president to visit China since the formation of the People’s Republic of China. The move changed the balance of Cold War politics and economics in massive ways and sent fresh images of China back to the US for the first time in 25 years.

The newscasters who went with the president had an awful time. Neither the totalitarian government of China nor Nixon himself would give them anything newsworthy to work with. All the tours were carefully staged and bland.

The wooden toilet seats at the hotel were recently relacquered and still quite sticky, literally removing skin when sat upon. And Walter Cronkite’s socks kept shocking him. Yes, Cronkite had electric socks that were supposed to keep his feet warm, but they were malfunctioning and kept shocking him at unexpected moments.