Today, the idea that prophecies can reveal the future is the stuff of tabloids. In the ancient world, though, the prophetic visions and advice of the oracles were thought to be guidance from the gods. While many of the people who sought the advice of ancient priestesses were undoubtedly looking for help with everyday life, there are some prophecies that shaped the entire world.

10 Julian The Apostate And The Rise Of Christianity

Julian the Apostate was a Roman emperor who rose to power in 361. Even though Christianity was gaining considerable momentum, Julian not only renounced the Christian faith but waged a sort of nonviolent war against it.

He wrote volumes on Hellenistic culture and religion, considered himself the head of paganism, performed animal sacrifices, and appointed his officials based on their pagan beliefs. He even funded the rebuilding of Jewish temples in Jerusalem—not because he particularly liked the Jews but because he hated the Christians.

He also tried to usher in a period of rebirth for the Oracle at Delphi, not only declaring them free from taxation but also sending them regular tributes and issuing orders that the ailing area was under his protection. He also sent one of his doctors, a man named Oribasius, to supervise their finances and consult with Delphi’s Pythian priestess.

In spite of all Julian’s efforts, the prophecy would be the last one the oracle ever gave. It foresaw her own downfall and the end of not just the oracle but the influence of the old gods.

A version of the prophecy reads: “Tell the king the fair wrought hall is fallen to the ground. No longer has Phoebus (Apollo) a hut, nor a prophetic laurel, nor a spring that speaks. The water of speech even is quenched.”

Julian died after ruling for only 20 months. He was killed while fleeing a battlefield in what is now the area near Baghdad. No one knows who threw the spear that killed him, and his attempts at reinstating the old gods had no lasting impact.

9 Solon’s Democracy

After the Athenians labored under the laws of Draco—and courted death for any offense imaginable—they turned to Solon for a rewrite of the laws in 594. What he established was the basis for democracy.

Although it is not in the same form that we are more familiar with today, his rules set a precedent. He got rid of the practice of selling citizens into slavery if they defaulted on loans and introduced the ideas of a trial before a jury and a ruling council.

That was a huge change from what the Athenians were accustomed to, and Plutarch writes that the idea for this type of government came from an oracle. When Solon was chosen to try to fix everything that was wrong with Athens, he appealed to the Oracle at Delphi for guidance. The priestess there told him, “Sit in the middle of the ship, guiding straight the helmsman’s task. Many of the Athenians will be your helpers.”

Solon went on to turn a government that had drawn officers from the nobility to one that was designed to protect every person and one with officers selected from among those with material success rather than a pedigree. He also included laws that stated if officers broke the oaths they took, they needed to pay recompense to the oracle. The Pythia herself was given an official post as an interpreter of religious rituals and sacred law, where she continued to help guide the development of democracy from within.

8 Philip Of Macedon’s Silver Spears

Precious metals like gold and silver have been highly valued for a long time, and it was not until the Greeks that precious metals were melted down into easy-to-carry coins that could be handed out as payment. Among the first to use coins was the Greek military, who needed a way to reimburse the massive armies they were calling to arms. These early coins were developed to be used anywhere, and it was Philip II of Macedonia—Alexander the Great’s father—who developed the idea of coins as we know them today.

When Philip rose to power, it was to the top of an ailing country. Macedonia was thought to be a barbaric neighbor to the more cultured Greece, and Philip’s first obstacle was proving that he and his people were worthy of being called Greek. In 359, Philip visited the Oracle at Delphi and was told that “with silver spears you may conquer the world.”

Many of the oracle’s prophecies needed some interpretation, and Philip read the words as not referring to military might but economic power. Turning his eye toward nearby silver mines, he made a push for conquering them and using the newly acquired silver to issue bribes and payments wherever it was necessary.

He then went on to create a series of coins that weren’t just valuable for their precious metal content but for the message they spread. Philip’s coins were struck with designs that were pure propaganda, with images not unlike the ones found on coins today.

One of the finest was a coin that had Zeus’s head on one side (a version of the god that bore a striking similarity to Philip himself) and a horse on the other. It was a clear reminder of Philip’s entrance into the Olympics and his bid to make Macedonia recognized as on par with Greece. The coins were circulated all over the empire and had their descendants in the imagery of modern money.

7 The Tiburtine Sibyl And The Apocalypse

The Prophecy of the Tenth Sibyl is a manuscript that dates back to the 11th century. Nearly as popular as the Bible, it was so popular that dozens of copies still survive in languages including Greek, Latin, Arabic, Slavonic, and Ethiopic. Considered a late ancient apocryphal text originating from the fourth century, the work tells the story of a coming apocalypse and shaped belief in the End Times for medieval Christians.

The original text references the time of a Trojan emperor and tells the story of how the prophetic abilities of the sibyl reached the leaders of Rome. She was summoned to the city, and when she got there, 100 senators had the same dream on the same night.

Each one dreamed of nine different suns with nine different qualities, and when they appealed to the sibyl to find out what the dream meant, the interpretation was a dark one. The sibyl told them that the nine suns—and their different characteristics—represented mankind’s future generations and the changes they would undergo.

The first two generations were peaceful, the third would be a time of turmoil for Rome, the fourth would witness the birth of Christ, and the fifth would spread the gospel. War and upheaval would return for the sixth, seventh, and eighth. In the ninth, there would be a series of four kings. The fifth king would rule for 30 years, build a temple, and see God’s will done.

Then a last emperor, handsome and shining, would rise to rule for another 112 years, converting all the nonbelievers to the will of God. After him would be the Antichrist to challenge him, but he was destined to be defeated by this last emperor as he turns the proverbial keys to the kingdom over to God and Christ.

The prophecy is the first mention of a divine ruler appointed by God who is responsible for subduing the Antichrist. With this original appearance in the fourth century, it marks a shift not only in religious beliefs but in political beliefs as well. Emperors—and later medieval kings—were increasingly viewed as divine creatures who were, first and foremost, concerned with defeating the evils that walked the world and preparing their people for the Second Coming.

6 Tages Founds A Religion

Pre-Roman Etruscan culture relied heavily on the art of divination, and their seers and soothsayers had written entire texts on how to interpret the signs that were sent from the gods. They saw omens in everything from lightning to the organs of sacrificed animals and believed the future was written in the world around them. All they needed to do was know how to read it, and they did. Their divination knowledge was well-known across Italy, and it was a Tuscan family that was even credited as birthing the sage that predicted Caesar’s troubles on the Ides of March.

By the time Christianity came stomping through the old ways, Etruscan diviners became the stuff of the dark side. Even though the old diviners and the new Christians didn’t get along, the practitioners of the old Etruscan religion managed to hold their power for a surprisingly long time—long enough to guide Rome on the path to becoming a major empire.

And it was all based on the prophecies of a man named Tages. The legends say that Tages was child-sized when he was birthed from a furrow being plowed in the fields and that when a crowd gathered to see this miracle, his first words were written down to ultimately become the first sacred book of the Etruscans.

Another part of the story of Tages suggests that he went on to teach haruspication (divination by reading animal entrails) to a group known as the Twelve People of the Etruscans. They were usually interpreted as a group of people from each of the city-states who met regularly to discuss matters of national importance, blending religious beliefs with political rule.

5 Lycurgus And The Establishment Of Sparta

Lycurgus is one of those historical figures who has had the story of his life told so many times that no one is quite sure which parts are true. Historians are not even sure when he actually lived: Aristotle puts his life at around 884 BC, while Xenophon’s records suggest that he lived around 200 years earlier. Details aside, Lycurgus is associated with the development of Spartan culture as we think of it, and he did it with the guidance of the Oracle at Delphi.

According to Plutarch, Lycurgus first gained power as the regent of another. During his first visit to the oracle, she called him “beloved of the gods, and rather god than man” and promised him that he had the ability to establish a set of laws that would lead his people to prosperity.

He pitched his ideas to a small group of supporters first, but that small group quickly grew. During another visit to the oracle, Lycurgus received even more prophetic wisdom in the form of the Rhetra. The Rhetra defined how to divide the people into different groups, how to set up the Senate, and how to distribute power. With Lycurgus and his followers embracing this new method, motions put forward by senators and kings were approved or dismissed by the people.

The Spartan government went through a whole series of changes, not surprisingly, but it was Lycurgus—with guidance from the oracle—who established the heart of Spartan culture.

4 Grinus And The Founding Of Cyrene

Cyrene was one of the most important cities in the Hellenic era and throughout Roman occupation. Established in 631 BC, it was a major hub of commercial trade, religion, and culture for more than 1,000 years. Even today, archaeologists are scrambling to save it.

And it was founded because of the bidding of the Oracle at Delphi.

When Herodotus wrote about the founding of the city, he told the story of Grinus, son of Aesanius and king of Thera. When the king consulted with the oracle, he was told that he needed to found a city in Libya. The king ignored the order, not out of any outright rebellion but simply because no one knew where Libya was.

Over the course of the next seven years, the rain stopped and hardship seized the people. When the king appealed to the oracle again to find out what he could do to save his people, he was reminded of the prophecy. Messengers were sent out to find someone who knew where Libya was, and finally, they found a dye merchant named Corobius.

He had been to Libya—quite by accident—and was able to escort a small party across the sea and to the new land. Leaving him there, the Therans returned to assemble a group of settlers from each of their nation’s districts and head out to found the city that they hoped would save their own.

They ended up settling on an island off the coast, but the bad luck still haunted Thera. The oracle was consulted and replied that they needed to found their city on the continent, not on an island. Moving to the mainland, the native peoples guided them to the final location that would become Cyrene and helped them settle around a spring that would be dedicated to Apollo.

3 The Sibylline Books

The Sibylline Books are a set of mysterious texts written somewhere around the sixth century BC by the ancient priestesses thought to have been blessed with the gift of prophecy. Since the books were kept under close guard by those who possessed them, we really have no clue what the books actually said. We do know that they were partially destroyed in 83 BC and then burned in their entirety around 400 by the order of a Roman general.

The story of how a sibyl burned some of the books rather than compromise on the price is a famous one, and after the sale was finished, the remaining books were kept in a stone chest beneath the temple of Jupiter Capitolinus.

They could only be read by order of the Senate, and it was only during a major crisis or times of great need that the chest was opened and the books were read by those assigned to keep them safe. Sharing any knowledge of what was seen in the books was a crime punishable by death, so we are not even sure if the books contained rules and rituals to appeal to the gods for help in setting things straight or actual predictions.

It’s suggested that many of the temples that dotted the ancient world were built after consultation with the books and that countless cults, rituals, and observations also have their roots in the books. Cicero and Livy both record some of the omens and portents that caused the Roman Senate to order the books unsealed, including astronomical phenomena like the appearance of the Sun at night and more earthly omens like lightning striking a temple or religious statue.

Livy records one specific occurrence where the books were consulted. After two cows climbed some stairs and entered a building, a rain of stones fell in several towns. At the same time, lightning hit a temple to Jupiter in Minturnae and several ships in Vulturnum were also struck and destroyed. After consulting the books, a period of fasting was observed and then repeated every five years.

With the rise of Christianity, consulting the books gradually fell out of fashion. But it is likely that they had already shaped a good portion of early Roman religion, holidays, observances, and rituals.

2 Flavius Josephus Predicts The Rise Of Vespasian

Josephus was a Jewish priest and historian who wrote extensively on early Jewish history, and he is credited with giving us an authoritative, accurate history of his religion during Roman rule. Born in 37, he first traveled to Rome from Jerusalem on a mission to free some of his countrymen from a Roman prison. When he returned to Jerusalem, it was to rebel against Rome, setting him right in the middle of a war that he survived because of a prophecy.

When Rome stormed into Galilee, Josephus and his companions holed up in the fortress of Jotapata. After spending 47 days there, Roman forces broke through and the rebels were driven back to a cave. Rather than surrender, the men decided to commit suicide—a major sin.

Josephus convinced them not to condemn themselves by suicide. Instead, he proposed that each man should kill the man at his side. They drew lots for the one who would survive at the end to surrender, and that was Josephus. Josephus—along with the man he was supposed to kill—surrendered to the Romans, and they were taken to the commander, Vespasian.

Facing crucifixion, Josephus told Vespasian of the prophecy of an oracle—a prophecy that he suggested referred to his captor. The prophecy was that “a star shall come out of Jacob, and a scepter shall rise out of Israel; it shall crush the forehead of Moab and break down all the sons of Sheth.” For the Jews, the prophecy was referring to the Messiah, but Vespasian was intrigued enough by the prospect that it was talking about him that he spared Josephus from death.

After Nero’s suicide in 68, Galba’s hanging in 69, and failed bids for power by two others, Vespasian was made emperor in what seemingly fulfilled the prophecy the Jewish prisoner had told him. Josephus was released, made a Roman citizen, given the name Titus Flavius Josephus, and installed as an adviser.

Even though he absolutely was not trusted by his former Jewish allies, he saw an end to the siege and the destruction of Jerusalem. He went on to write, leaving us with a glimpse into that particular pocket of history.

1 Onomacritus And His Forgeries

The ancient world was shaped by the wars led by men like Alexander the Great and Xerxes, ultimately allowing for everything from cultural exchanges to the development and trade of goods and knowledge. If it weren’t for the rather dubious prophecies assembled—and often written—by Onomacritus, the world might have looked considerably different.

Herodotus says that he was employed mainly in the collection, preservation, and presentation of ancient oracles. He was a scholar, a historian, and an interpreter who was banished from Greece when it was discovered that the information he was presenting from oracles and prophecies wasn’t authentic, per se, as much as they were slightly doctored by him. Once he was banished from Athens, he made his way into Persia where he appealed to Xerxes for employment in his court.

At the time, the counselors of Xerxes were trying their best to get him to renew aggressions against the Greeks, and Onomacritus saw his opportunity. Presenting himself as the keeper and collector of ancient Greek knowledge and prophecy, he gave Xerxes a series of oracles that clearly predicted a win for the Persians. What he conveniently left out were any predictions, prophecies, and texts that said otherwise. Ultimately, Xerxes was persuaded to head out to war.

In addition to starting a war based on selective telling of the truth, Onomacritus has also successfully presented us with a major literary problem even today. Orpheus is one of the great writers of ancient Greek ritual and wisdom, half mythical and mentioned alongside writers like Homer and Hesiod. While we know there are a number of works that are attributed to him, we do not know what he actually wrote. Onomacritus forged an unknown number of Orphic works and changed countless more before cementing those in history and brushing aside the real thing.

Secret societies have interested people for a very long time, which makes sense; mysterious groups who remain hidden are understandably intriguing. However, they’re often seen as evil, corrupt, or insidious institutions that intend to do harm to humanity. From the Masons to the Illuminati, conspiracy theorists openly deride such fraternities (whether real or fictional) and claim that they control the world or would at least like to. Here are 10 secret societies that go against that nefarious stereotype, instead having been founded for a good cause.

10 Whiteboys

Formed in Ireland in the 18th century, the Whiteboys were a secret peasant group, bound by secret oaths and known by elaborate pseudonyms, who rebelled against the way that farmers and laborers were being treated by the establishment. Their name derived from group members’ tendency to wear white shirts and the fact they were exclusively young males.

The Whiteboys would proclaim new “laws” that wages were to be increased, tithes were to be reduced, or some other act to help the workers. If these laws were disregarded by the authorities, then the Whiteboys would enforce them through violence, intimidation, and destruction of property. Sometimes, they would even dig graves and place coffins on public roads as a sign of what was to come if the landowners did not change their ways and support the rural poor.

9 E Clampus Vitus

Sounding far more serious than it actually is, E Clampus Vitus is a fraternal society which has its origins in the 19th-century American Gold Rush. It is believed to have been created to poke fun at the actual secret societies that were spreading throughout the West at the time and is essentially a group that promotes alternative local history and having fun—so it’s not your average fraternity.

In good keeping with their original purpose, which was to provide miners with some humorous relief from panning for gold, the “Clampers” mocked institutions such as the Odd Fellows and the Masons with absurd initiation ceremonies. Even their name is a joke, since E Clampus Vitus is not actually Latin, and reportedly, nobody knows what it means. These days, they spend their time putting up plaques for places forgotten by more serious historians, such as saloons and bawdy houses.

8 Family Of Love

A little-known secret society founded in Holland in 1539 with a rather corny name, the Family of Love was a religious movement which sought to aid the poor and believed that religion was about the experience of divine love, not simply belief in one set of doctrines instead of another.

This lack of belief in one particular set of scriptures was quite powerful at a time when Europe was split between Catholicism and Protestantism. Having taken hold in England, the Family of Love was soon outlawed by Queen Elizabeth I, who ordered all adherents to be imprisoned and books to be burnt. Yet, it had a lasting influence on the development of the Quakers, a movement into which the Family of Love was eventually assimilated.

7 Mau Mau

African secret societies are rarely mentioned, and this one certainly deserves more attention than it gets. Mau Mau was a Kenyan nationalist society that originated in the 1950s and engaged in ritual initiations inspired by belief in magic. Unfortunately, Mau Mau’s adherents ended up perpetrating brutal crimes and a great deal of violence, starting an uprising which resulted in the deaths of thousands.

However, it should be noted that Mau Mau was formed to challenge the perceived cruelty of British colonialism in Kenya, and its members’ desperation, hunger, illness, and exploitation was the basis for their violence. Only a few years after this society disappeared, Kenya finally became independent in 1963, and its first president was reported to be a member of Mau Mau.

6 Patrons Of Husbandry

Better known as the Grange, the Patrons of Husbandry was founded as a national agricultural fraternity in 1867 in the United States. Formed along Masonic lines with oaths, passwords and closed meetings, it was alleged that they were essentially controlled by Freemasons and Odd Fellows. However, the Grange, unusual for its time, permitted women to become members, distinguishing it from other, similar organizations.

After a period of rapid expansion due to the Panic of 1873, the Grange became large enough to set up schools, lobbying for causes such as free trade, railroad regulation, and better education. From a peak of over 850,000 in the 1950s, the membership today has fallen to nearly 200,000, perhaps due to the fact that only two percent of Americans are now farmers.

5 The French Resistance

By far the most famous group on this list, it’s often forgotten that the French Resistance was a secret society, at least in some ways. After all, they opposed the Germans in Nazi-occupied France from within the country, something which could only be done in secret. The term “French Resistance” encompasses a broad range of different organizations that existed to fight the Nazis, some choosing to use violence and others deciding instead to spread underground newspapers and broadcast anti-German radio programs.

Led by Charles de Gaulle, who commanded them from the United Kingdom, the Resistance remained secretive and was central to the liberation of France. Regularly carrying out missions of sabotage against railways and intelligence gathering, membership is estimated to have been around 100,000, made up of nine different underground networks, by 1944. Around 50,000 French Resistance fighters were captured by the Nazis and sent to prison camps, of which half never returned.

4 The Order Of Chaeronea

It is well-known that homosexuality has been repressed throughout history, and it is only recently that some parts of the world have fully accepted it. In 1897 in London, a man named George Cecil Ives sought to create a secret society that would allow homosexual men to communicate and gather support for their cause, safe from the rejection and disdain of society.

The Order of Chaeronea’s hard-to-pronounce name comes from the location of an ancient battle in 338 BC, but it remains important in the 21st century. Perhaps the most famous member of the Order was Oscar Wilde, who was imprisoned on charges of homosexuality.

3 Sons Of Liberty

The Sons of Liberty was a patriotic secret society that fought against British colonial rule in America and helped to pave the way for the Boston Tea Party. Initially known as the Loyal Nine when they protested against the Stamp Tax in December 1765, they got their name from words spoken by an Irish MP when debating that very act.

There are countless famous names associated with this society, including Benedict Arnold, John Hancock, Samuel Adams, and Paul Revere. Although women had little political empowerment at the time, they were actively encouraged to become “Daughters of Liberty” and join the cause against the British Empire.

The Sons of Liberty organized acts of resistance by stockpiling guns, using tactics of mob rule and intimidation, and even methods such as tarring and feathering. As history shows, they got what they wanted in the end.

2 Grand Order Of Water Rats

The charitable fraternity known as the Grand Order of Water Rats was founded by two British musicians in the late 19th century, after they decided that the profits won by their prize racing pony should be used to help struggling performers less fortunate than themselves.

Their rather unimpressive name stems from one occasion when their pony was soaked in the rain, and a nearby bus driver called it a “bleedin’ water rat.” The story goes that because “rats” is “star” spelled backward, and “vole” is an anagram of “love” (the water rat being a type of vole), the name “Water Rats” would embody the society’s desire to bring people together with love and friendship.

However unlikely that may sound, the self-styled “brotherhood” has a long list of very famous members, including Charlie Chaplin, Laurel and Hardy, and Brian May, all of whom have joined in the Grand Order’s cause to help other performers through charitable work.

1 Royal Society

The oldest national scientific society in the world, the Royal Society was founded in London in 1660 as the “Invisible College for the promoting of Physico-Mathematical Experimental Learning.” It was likely “invisible” because of the English Civil War. The society had tried to form in the past, but in 1658, they were disbanded when soldiers stormed their meeting rooms. Yet this group did eventually gain a royal charter from King Charles II, hence the Royal’ in their name.

Despite these turbulent beginnings (and early attempts to discover whether a spider could be trapped in a circle of ground unicorn horns), the Royal Society is far less secret than it once was and has gone on to spread knowledge throughout the world. It boasts an impressive list of members which includes Stephen Hawking, Alan Turing, and Albert Einstein, among many more.

He’s from a flat place with a big sky. Gotta fill all that sky with something, so he filled it with his dreams.

We should never underestimate the spirit of competition. Throughout history, a wager has often proven to be that extra little push needed for some people to accomplish great things.

10 Disproving The Earth Is Flat

One day in 1870, Alfred Russel Wallace saw an ad in the newspaper: John Hampden, a fanatical Flat-Earther, was waging £500 that nobody would be able to prove the Earth to be round using a certain experiment, today known as the Bedford Level Experiment. “Easy money,” thought Wallace, a respected geographer and biologist.

The original experiment was conducted in 1838 by Samuel Rowbotham, pioneer of the modern Flat Earth movement. Rowbotham “proved” that the Earth is flat by observing a boat through his telescope and noting that it remained in his view instead of dropping below his line of sight.

Wallace immediately spotted the flaw in Rowbotham’s method: He measured just eight inches above the water, and his results were skewed by atmospheric refraction. Wallace recreated the experiment, measured correctly, and demonstrated the curvature of the Earth.

The referees awarded the money to Wallace, but Hampden developed a vendetta against him. For the next 15 years, he sued, abused, and threatened Wallace, using all means at his disposal.

9 The Start Of Nanotechnology

In 1959, Richard Feynman gave a landmark lecture at Caltech called “There’s Plenty of Room at the Bottom.” He talked about a concept that wouldn’t even have a name for decades—nanotechnology. He ended his talk with a $1,000 challenge for building a working electrical motor only 1/64 of a cubic inch in size. Less than a year later, Caltech graduate William McLellan had won his challenge. He built an operating motor out of 13 individual parts.

After examining it for a while, Feynman wrote McLellan a check. He was happy to lose the bet but was disappointed with the results. Feynman truly believed that current technology made the feat he envisioned impossible. He expected a motor of that size to require a major technological breakthrough. Instead, McLellan built his device using crude tools such as toothpicks and a fine paintbrush.

8 The Birth Of Principia

One day in 1684, Christopher Wren met fellow luminaries Edmund Halley and Robert Hooke to talk matters of the day. The discussion soon turned to Kepler’s law of planetary motion, and Wren issued a challenge to anyone capable of proving Kepler’s laws using the inverse-square law. He set a time limit of two months and wagered a rare book worth 40 shillings.

The solution evaded Halley, but he turned to his friend, Isaac Newton. He was intrigued with the idea and started work on it. Eventually, Newton found the proof, but it took him a few years to get it, so he was ineligible to win the prize. However, Halley was so impressed that he pushed Newton to keep working and even published the resulting book at his own expense. That book became Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica.

7 John Lennon’s Last Concert

A crucial moment in rock history occurred on November 28, 1974, when John Lennon made a surprise appearance at an Elton John concert at Madison Square Garden. Lennon hadn’t appeared live in concert for two years and wouldn’t appear again. And that moment wouldn’t have taken place if not for a friendly bet between the two music icons.

Earlier that year, Lennon released Walls and Bridges, which featured Elton John on two tracks—“Surprise Surprise” and “Whatever Gets You Thru the Night.” By that point, Lennon remained the only Beatle never to have a number-one solo single in the US. Elton believed “Whatever Gets You Thru the Night” would reach number one. He bet Lennon that if he was right, they would do a concert together.

That November, the single topped the Billboard charts, and Lennon honored the wager. He appeared on stage to a raucous ovation and gave the world one final live performance.

6 Always Bet On Black Holes

Stephen Hawking, Kip Thorne, and John Preskill are three of today’s leading theoretical physicists, and they’ve significantly improved our understanding of black holes. The trio set a bet in 1997 concerning information being able to escape a black hole. While Hawking and Thorne believed that information is lost forever, Preskill argued that it could be recovered from the radiation emitted as black holes evaporate. This type of radiation was first theorized by Hawking in 1974 and is named after him.

Initially, Hawking claimed that Preskill’s notion contradicted the very idea of quantum mechanics. However, after advancements in string theory, Hawking reversed his position. Preskill was glad to win the bet but stressed that most credit went to Hawking for his work on black hole radiation. Preskill’s prize was an encyclopedia of his choice where “information can be retrieved at will.” His choice was Total Baseball—The Ultimate Baseball Encyclopedia.

5 James Hogan’s Career

James P. Hogan, one of the most successful sci-fi writers of the last 50 years, started his career on an office bet. When he was in his thirties, he was a sales exec specializing in computer equipment and had no interest in a career change.

Then one day, Hogan saw Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey. While he enjoyed the movie, Hogan disliked the ending and complained about it to his coworkers. Eventually, a fed-up colleague suggested to Hogan that he should write his own book. Hogan took up the challenge, and the whole thing turned into an office bet worth roughly £50 that he would not be able to write a sci-fi novel and get it published.

In 1977, Hogan published Inherit the Stars and won the wager. It would be the first of roughly 30 novels and dozens of short stories.

4 Pictures In Motion

By 1872, Leland Stanford was a powerful, wealthy industrialist who turned his interests toward horse racing. He became deeply embroiled in a popular discussion of the day—whether a horse’s feet all left the ground at the same time while galloping or not. He hired photographer Eadweard Muybridge to find out.

The story goes that Stanford bet $25,000 on the outcome of Muybridge’s experiment. However, there is no conclusive evidence of this, so it’s likely that Stanford only wagered his name and reputation.

In 1878, Muybridge produced the required photos using state-of-the-art technology capable of snapping 12 shots in half a second. They clearly showed the horse’s feet off the ground simultaneously. More important, though, they served as a precursor to motion pictures.

He might not have made a fortune, but Stanford was proven correct. Crucially, he realized the importance of Muybridge’s innovation and continued to fund his work. Eventually, Muybridge built the “zoopraxiscope,” the first movie projector.

3 Kepler’s Laws Of Planetary Motion

Newton’s Principia was born from a wager to better understand Kepler’s laws of planetary motion. A century earlier, those same laws were the result of a boastful bet between the German astronomer and his mentor.

In 1600, Johannes Kepler started to work for Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe as an assistant. Brahe was known for his detailed collection of astronomical observations, but as Kepler soon found out, he was also protective of his data. Brahe limited Kepler’s access and tasked him with understanding the orbit of Mars.

Mars had one of the least circular orbits, which didn’t fit current views of the solar system. This actually proved useful for Kepler in testing out new theories. Perhaps also to show off his teacher, Kepler bet that he would be able to figure out Mars’s orbit in eight days.

In the end, it took him eight years, and Brahe never got to see it, but Kepler’s efforts resulted in the laws of planetary motion.

2 America’s First Road Trip

In 1903, Horatio Nelson Jackson was an automobile enthusiast who went against the popular thought of the day, which said that the car was just a fad with no practical future. After a visit to a social club, Jackson accepted a $50 bet that he would not be able to drive a car across the United States in less than 90 days. He embarked on what would become the country’s first cross-country road trip.

Jackson had no mechanical or navigating experience and barely knew how to drive, so he convinced a man named Sewall Crocker to be his traveling companion and mechanic. On May 23, the duo set off from San Francisco and headed for New York. They arrived in Manhattan 63 days later. Jackson won the $50 bet and wholeheartedly proved the car’s value, but he lost around $8,000 in repairs and spare parts.

1 Proving The Antiproton

Maurice and Gerson Goldhaber were two of the leading particle physicists of the 20th century. After escaping Nazi Germany, they relocated to the US and proceeded to contribute greatly to our understanding of the subatomic world.

Collectively, the brothers helped to document new particles, determine the spin of certain particles, and show that the expansion of the universe is increasing due to dark energy. But they clashed over one particular issue—the existence of the antiproton. Gerson was part of a team at Berkeley working to find the elusive antiparticle. Conversely, Maurice was so convinced that he bet theorist Hartland Snyder $500 that the antiproton didn’t exist.

In 1959, Owen Chamberlain (pictured above) and Emilio Segre proved the antiproton’s existence and won the Nobel Prize. Gerson’s team was just a few months behind and ended up confirming their find. Chamberlain later admitted that his work was bolstered by the bet and a desire to prove Maurice Goldhaber wrong.

+Further Reading

From the archives are our previous lists about money and gambling.

10 Crazy Huge Gambling Wins
10 Gamblers Who Beat The Casino
Top 10 Ridiculous Wagers Through History
10 Clever Casino Scams In Recent History
10 Ways To Move Money Like A Crime Boss
10 Classic Cons You’d Still Fall For

Parasites, bacteria, and viruses have been the scourge of humanity as long as we have been here, but disease has reshaped our history and influenced our evolution. Parasites helped give our immune systems the boost it needed to get up and running, and the humble bacterium has helped dictate the form this planet has taken. Sometimes, it seems that we humans are simply playthings in their hands, but they haven’t just been capricious forces that toss us around like rag dolls. These microorganisms have also done incredible things to help humanity.

10The Viruses We Carried Out Of Africa Helped Us Survive

Thanks to the science of viral molecular genetics, we now know quite a bit about the bugs that infected us along our evolutionary path, and we have found that these hitchhikers have done quite a bit to help us along the way. For example, it was the evolutionary pressure they placed upon our immune system that made it as robust as it is today. Additionally, viruses may have played a role in the loss of specific receptors that we once possessed on the surface of our cells that infectious agents could latch onto and use to cause disease. By ridding the human body of this source of disease, viruses created a safer environment for themselves, benefiting everybody involved.

But they may have also played a role in ensuring that, among competing hominid species, it was Homo sapiens that came out on top. While our species was developing, disease and parasites encouraged genetic diversity and weeded out the unfit. Once the first Homo sapiens left the continent, they brought their infectious agencies and parasites with them. If you’ve read about North American and European smallpox, you know how this goes.

While it wouldn’t have been the only factor, viral parasites would spread to other hominids like Homo neanderthalensis (Neanderthals), who wouldn’t have had any previous exposure to the new bugs and possessed a nasal structure that was less efficient at filtering air and keeping new viruses at bay. They would have devastated other hominid species, because the bugs were primed to live in similar environments, but the hominids were not primed to receive them. Models have shown that if Neanderthals had a mortality rate only 2 percent higher than humans, it would have been sufficient to cause their extinction after 1,000 years of competition. While disease was doubtless not the only factor, it would have certainly played a large role.

Most models of human disease evolution claim that they mainly evolved during the Neolithic era, after man moved out of Africa and populations increased, so there is some evidence of this selective viral pressure. Many of these early viruses have even been so successful that their genes have literally become a part of our DNA. For example, the human genome has been found to contain genes from the borna virus that were gained about 40 million years ago. In fact, scientists have isolated about 100,000 elements of human DNA that have come from viruses, mostly within what is called our “junk DNA.” The viruses that make up the majority of our junk DNA are called endogenous retroviruses, and they are so much a part of us that a scientist recently brought one “back to life” and even infected hamsters and cats with it.

9Modern-Day Medical Uses Of Leeches And Maggots

For thousands of years, the European leech (Hirudo medicinalis) was used in medicine for bloodletting purposes, treating a wide range of disorders from hemorrhoids to ear infections. The practice goes so far back in time that an Egyptian painting from 1500 B.C. depicts their use. While some nations have never stopped using them, the practice fell out of favor in the Western world with the knowledge of bacteria and subsequent focus on the germ theory for medical treatment.

In the 1970s and 1980s, though, leeches made a comeback. Cosmetic and reconstructive surgeons found that they were an effective method for draining blood from swollen faces, black eyes, limbs, and digits. They are also helpful for reattaching small body parts like ears and flaps of skin, because they draw away blood that could clot and interrupt the healing process. Leeches have saved people from amputations and may even relieve the pain of osteoarthritis. Even veterinarians sometimes use them.

Maggots, on the other hand, are nature’s clean-up crew. They’re great for eating away dead or infected flesh, revealing the healthy tissue below in a process called debridement. They have also been found to be an effective treatment for ulcers, gangrene, skin cancer, and burns, among other things.

Maggots and leeches, as gross as they may be, are so effective that the FDA classified them as the first “live medical items” in 2010, paving the way for an entire industry called biotherapy. An organization called Biotherapeutics Education and Research Foundation (BTERF) has even sprung up to raise awareness of the new uses for these old critters, and there are several companies that sell them.

8Parasites And Our Immune Systems May Have Co-Evolved To Protect Us From Allergies

Researchers studying the effects of gastrointestinal parasites have come up with an astonishing theory: After parasites first colonized our gastrointestinal systems, they evolved over millions of years the ability to suppress our immune systems. At the same time, our own bodies evolved to partially compensate for the effect.

The astonishing part, and what this means for human health, is that once parasites and harmless microorganisms present in water and soil have been largely removed from their natural environment inside of us in developed nations through the use of modern medicine, our immune systems actually overcompensate for their loss, leading to allergies and even increased chances for asthma and eczema.

This “old friends” hypothesis (sometimes referred to as the “hygiene hypothesis,” though it’s actually more of a complementary theory) has gained more support in recent years as we identify new ways microorganisms have helped us survive over the eons. Clinical trials have been conducted using worms to test against multiple sclerosis, IBD, and allergies.

The main proponent of the old friends hypothesis is Graham A.W. Rook of University College London. He first proposed it in 2003, and since then, it has also been proposed as a possible cause of some forms of stress and depression.

Some people have taken the old friends hypothesis to its ultimate logical conclusion that if removing our parasites from society has led to health problems, we should put them back. In 2008, University of Wisconsin professor of neurology John Fleming conducted a clinical study in which he infected multiple sclerosis patients with parasitic worms to test their effectiveness against the disease. Over a period of three months, patients who had an average of 6.6 active lesions around their brain’s nerve cells were reduced to an average of two. When the trial was over, the number of lesions shot back up to 5.8 within two months. In earlier trials, the parasites appeared to have positive effects upon ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s disease as well.

Parasite therapy is still in the experimental phases, however, and probably has negative effects that outweigh the positive ones. As of now, the FDA has classified the worms as biological products that cannot be sold until proven safe. Only one species, Trichuris suis, has been approved for testing under Investigational New Drug (IND) status.

7Virotherapy

One of the most exciting and promising branches of medicine in recent decades is virotherapy, a biotechnology technique to reprogram viruses to treat disease. In 2005, researchers at UCLA announced that they had turned one of humanity’s deadliest enemies into a cancer-killer when they reprogrammed a modified strain of HIV to hunt down and destroy cancer cells. Around the same time, researchers at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota modified the measles virus to do the same.

The technique is similar to the one used to breed genetically engineered plants, in that a virus is used as a gene-delivery vehicle. It has long been recognized as the most efficient means of gene transfer. This system is used for the production of useful proteins in gene therapy and has great potential for the treatment of immunological disorders such as hepatitis and HIV.

Viruses have been known to have the potential to treat cancer since the 1950s, but the advent of chemotherapy slowed its progress. Today, virotherapy is proving to be extremely effective against tumors without harming the healthy cells around it. Clinical trials of oncolytic virotheraphy have shown low toxicity and promising signs of efficacy. In 2013, a drug called talimogene laherparepvec (TVEC) became the first drug based on a tumor-killing virus to succeed in late-stage testing.

One of the biggest challenges facing researchers is how to deliver the virus where it will do the most good before the body recognizes it as an intruder and mounts a defense. Current research is looking into finding natural tumor-targeting “carriers,” cells that can deliver the virus without either the cell or the virus losing its normal biological functions.

6Using Viruses To Cure Bacterial Infections

Bacteriophages are viruses that specifically attack bacteria. First recognized by Frederick Twort in 1915 and Felix d’Herelle two years later, they have been used to study many aspects of viruses since the 1930s. They are especially common in soil, where many species of bacteria make their home.

Because phages disrupt the metabolism of bacteria and destroy them, it has been long recognized that they could play a role in treating a wide range of bacterial diseases. Because of the innovation of antiobiotics, though, phage therapy was mostly shelved until the rise of antibiotic-resistant bacteria generated a renewed interest in the field.

An individual phage species is generally only effective against a small range of bacteria or even one specific species (its primary host species), which was originally seen as a disadvantage. As we have learned more about the beneficial aspects of our natural flora, though, it has come to be recognized as the advantage that it is. Unlike antibiotics, which tend to kill bacteria indiscriminately, bacteriophages can attack the disease-causing organisms without harming any other bacteria living inside us.

While bacteria can develop resistance to both antibiotics and phages, it only takes a few weeks rather than a few years to develop new strains of phages. Phages can also have an easier time penetrating the body and locating their target, and once the target bacterium is destroyed, they stop reproducing and soon die out.

5Vaccines

Beginning in the 1790s, when Edward Jenner developed the world’s first vaccine against smallpox using a less virulent strain called cowpox to inoculate patients, vaccines have saved countless millions of lives. Since then, several different types of vaccines have been developed. Attenuated or “live” vaccines use live viruses that have been weakened or altered so that they do not cause illness, while inactivated or “killed” vaccines contain dead microorganisms or toxins that are usually used against bacterial infections. Some vaccines—including subunit and conjugate vaccines, as well as recombinant and genetically engineered vaccines—only use a segment of the infectious agent.

When a vaccine is injected, the pathogen goes to work, but there is not enough of it to replicate at the rate it needs to in order to take hold. The body mounts an immune response, killing the pathogen or breaking down the toxin responsible for disease. The body’s immune system now knows how to fight the disease and will “remember” if it comes across it again. In other words, scientists have figured out how to get a pathogen to help its own target defend itself against it. They have even taken the first steps toward developing vaccines for several forms of cancer, with three vaccines approved by the FDA for the hepatitis B virus (which causes liver cancer), human papillomavirus types 16 and 18 (which cause cervical cancers), and metastatic prostate cancer in some men.

Thanks to vaccines, several diseases have been driven to virtual extinction. Smallpox is the most famous example, but polio, though not totally eradicated, comes in at a close second. Several other diseases might be gone by now if vaccines weren’t so hard to come by in the underdeveloped nations that still struggle with them. Things are getting worse instead of better, with diseases coming in from an unexpected source: affluent, educated Westerners who should know better.

Unfortunately, the anti-vaccination movement is making a comeback in regions where these diseases were once under control. Before the introduction of the measles vaccine in 1963, approximately 500,000 people per year were infected in the US, 500 of whom—mostly children—ended up dead. By 1983, there were only 1,497 cases reported, and after a brief resurgence in the ’80s and ’90s, reported cases were down to just 37 in 2004. After the anti-vaccination movement began gaining traction, 118 cases were reported in the US alone in 2011. That number keeps growing, fed by travelers coming in from areas with higher rates and finding less resistance. Whooping cough, once thought to be gone forever in the US, is also on the rise.

4Bacterial Waste Breakdown

Some of the smallest and simplest of creatures on Earth play some of the most important roles in safeguarding all of life. Bacteria have perhaps the most important role of all: breaking down and recycling waste.

The dead remains of animals and plants, along with the excrement of all organisms, contain vital nutrients and stored energy. Without a way to reclaim these nutrients, though, the available sources would be quickly depleted. Luckily, many bacterial species feed upon these energy sources, breaking them down to their smallest molecules and returning them to the soil, where they reenter the food chain.

As helpful as this process already is, humans have found many ways to exploit it for a variety of even more advantages. Bacteria are used in sewage treatment, industrial waste management, and the clean-up of oil spills, leaked pharmaceuticals, and wastewater. They have also been useful in the development of aqua-farming, algae control, and waterless toilets. Researchers and engineers are currently looking into their potential use in the production of environmentally friendly bioplastics, glues, and building materials. They may even be used to break down plastic waste.

3We Would Quickly Die Without Our Gut Bacteria

Poorly understood until recently (and there is still quite a bit of research to be done), the natural bacteria that lives in our guts works with our immune system to drive out pathogens, produce vitamin K, stimulate peristalsis, and perhaps most importantly, digest our food. Without our gut bacteria, we wouldn’t be able to perform any of these functions, and we would quickly die.

The more we learn about beneficial strains of gut bacteria, the more we can incorporate that knowledge into healthy living. After it was determined that certain gut bacteria can play a role in obesity, probiotics became all the rage. Probiotics are the bacteria that reside in fermented foods and are now sold as supplements. Bacteria like some species of bifidobacteria, found in most yogurts, can create a highly acidic environment in which less-beneficial microorganisms cannot survive. Fatty foods and stress can also play a role in the health of our stomach flora, killing beneficial bacteria while favoring the more harmful kind that cause gas, bloating, and “leaky gut syndrome.”

In a huge breakthrough in the study of our gut bacteria and what they do, a team of Chinese and Danish researchers have recently developed a new way to identify these microorganisms using DNA sequence data. They identified over 500 species of benign bacteria and 800 new species of viruses that could live off them, providing hope for new ways to treat diseases associated with them, such as diabetes, obesity, and asthma.

2Skin Bacteria Serve As Our First Line Of Immune System Defense

The moment you emerged from your mother’s womb, you were set upon. They ambushed you in mere moments and colonized every inch of your skin, and they have been with you ever since. They are prokaryotes and other bacteria, and without the evolutionary partnership humans forged with them millions of years ago, you would have been dead soon after being born.

One of the most common skin bacteria is Staphlococcus epidermis, a bug that we now know plays a role in fighting off Leishmania major, the cause of a nasty disease called leishmaniasis that results in skin boils and open sores that don’t heal. The good bug triggers an immune response called IL-1 that the body can’t produce on its own, making Staphlococcus a necessary part of the human body, as vital to our existence as any organ.

Prokaryotes, which also colonize the digestive tract, cover every exterior surface on the skin. Along with the rest of our beneficial skin microbiota, they became a part of us when they started competing against less-benevolent microorganisms for real estate. Along with the immune cells in our skin, they protect us against both pathogenic bacteria and opportunistic fungi that try to invade. This allows our bodies to spend less energy defending our exteriors and focus more on things like fighting viruses and precancerous cells.

While there is still much to learn before we can really use this knowledge in our health regimens, we are already looking to a future that involves the purposeful use of skin bacteria. A start-up based in Massachusetts called AOBiome, for example, has created a body spray made of live cultured chemoautotrophic bacteria called Nitrosomonas. They claim that their spray can “replenish healthy skin bacteria” and even replace showering, as the bacteria live off the ammonia in our sweat.

1Life As We Know It Wouldn’t Be Here Without Cyanobacteria

Cyanobacteria, or blue-green algae, are possibly the oldest still-living species on Earth, with fossils dating back 3.5 billion years. They are unicellular bacteria that grow in colonies, and if it weren’t for them, you wouldn’t be here, and neither would nearly every other form of life.

Cyanobacteria were the world’s first photosynthesizers. They used energy from the sun along with chemicals in primordial oceans and inert nitrogen in the atmosphere to make their food. As a waste product, they generated oxygen, a poison to virtually every other form of life at that time and the cause of early mass extinction events. Over a period of roughly 300 million years, all this oxygen generation helped form the atmosphere as we know it, during the Archaean and Proterozoic eras.

That wasn’t the only way this bacteria kick-started life as we know it. Sometime during the Proterozoic or early Cambrian era, they formed a symbiotic relationship with certain eukaryote cells, making food for the cell in return for a stable environment to call home. These were the first plants, as well as the origin of eukaryotic mitochondria, which is essential for animal life. This truly titanic event is now known as endosymbiosis.

While several forms of cyanobacteria are toxic, a species named Spirulina was an important food source for the Aztecs and eaten regularly by many Asian nations. Today, it is often sold in powder or tablet form as a health food supplement.

Lance LeClaire is a freelance artist and writer. He writes on subjects ranging from science and skepticism to religious history and issues to unexplained mysteries and historical oddities, among other subjects. You can look him up on Facebook.

The American Revolution was about more than just America. It was a worldwide event. America did not fight alone. They got help from every part of the globe.

And we don’t just mean Marquis de Lafayette and Casimir Pulaski. Countless soldiers from all over the world stood up and fought with America, and without them, the United States never would have won its independence.

10Crispus Attucks
The Slave Who Was The First Casualty Of War

The first man to fight and die in the War of Independence was born in America, but most of his fellow Americans didn’t think of him as a countryman. His name was Crispus Attucks, and he was a runaway African slave.

Attucks was working as a sailor, even though there was a price on his head. His master wanted him back, and he was willing to pay anyone who would drag him back into slavery. Nobody tried it, and if someone had, the American Revolution might never have happened.

Attucks and his fellow seamen were in a pub when a British soldier walked in. Attucks and his friends didn’t take kindly to the British presence, and they started taunting the soldier. Staring down a hulking 6’3″ man, the soldier got nervous. Seven of his friends, other British soldiers, rushed in to help. In short time, things got out of hand, and the British opened fire.

Attucks fought back. He grabbed a soldier’s bayonet and knocked him over, but the British gunned him down before he could do any more. Four other men in that bar would die before the massacre was over.

History has debated whether Attucks was a hero or just a violent drunk, but it can’t deny his impact. He was the first to die in the Boston Massacre, a moment that would spark the American Revolution.

9Von Steuben
The Prussian Who Trained The American Army

The Americans who fought for Independence weren’t all seasoned veterans. Before Friedrich Wilhelm von Steuben came in from Prussia, they were using bayonets to skewer meat more often than they were using them to skewer their enemies.

Von Steuben crossed the ocean to teach the Americans how to fight. He was the Inspector General of the American Army, in charge of drilling the soldiers and organizing their training, and he barely spoke a word of English. Von Steuben would bark at people in Prussian, his secretary would translate it into French, and then another secretary would translate that into English.

It was complicated, but it worked. He taught the American army how to fight and how to use bayonets, and that made a huge difference in the war.

In 1779, General Wayne used Von Steuben’s lessons to take Stony Brook. He and his men took a fort protected by 750 men without firing a single shot. They won the battle entirely with bayonets. Without filling the night with the sound gunfire, they were able to launch a sneak attack the British didn’t expect. Thanks to Von Steuben, Stony Brook was taken.

8Tadeusz Kosciuszko
The Polish War Hero Who Tried To Free The Slaves

Tadeusz Kosciuszko was one of the chief engineers for the US Army. He planned the defensive strategy in Saratoga, a moment that turned the war in America’s favor. He built the military fort at West Point, which, today, is the site of the US Military Academy.

The real story for Kosciuszko, though, happened after he died. He became close friends with Thomas Jefferson, and when he died, he trusted the president to carry out his final wishes. Every penny he had, he said, should be used to free and educate African slaves.

Thomas Jefferson was almost 75 years old, so he passed the job on to someone else. That man didn’t want the responsibility of trying to get white people to educate black people, though, and he passed it on, too. Eventually, Col. George Bomford was put in charge of it, and he decided to blow the money on himself instead.

By the time Col. Bomford died, only $5,680 of Kosciuszko’s $43,504 was left. His will made it into the hands of the Supreme Court, and they just threw it out. Despite his wishes, not a single penny was put toward freeing slaves.

7De Galvez
The Spanish Governor Who Secretly Supplied The American Army

Bernardo de Galvez was the governor of Louisiana, which, at the time, was a Spanish colony. He wasn’t exactly invested in the cause of democracy, but he was deeply involved in the cause of messing with England.

And so, when America went to war with England, he started sending them everything he could. He promised them all the weapons and medicine he could get them, warning them, “It must appear that I am ignorant of it all.”

Spain entered the war in earnest in 1779, and De Galvez didn’t have to hide it anymore. He could fight, and he did. Within a year, he’d chased the British out of Mobile, Alabama. The year after that, he chased them out of Florida.

6Moses Hazen
The Man Who Led A Canadian Regiment For America

Canada was a British colony during the Revolutionary War. They were, quite directly, America’s enemies, which makes it surprising that some of them fought alongside America. The Americans sent out political tracts and messengers to try to get Canadians to switch sides, and some of them did. A ragtag group of Canadians, most of them French, joined the American army.

The American army had two Canadian Regiments. The first group of turncoats, appropriately enough, was commanded by Benedict Arnold. They tried and failed to take over Quebec and then spent the rest of the war stationed in New York.

The Second Canadian Regiment, commanded by Moses Hazen, was a bit more successful. Hazen was a Canadian himself, and he led his army through some of the most important battles in the war. That included the Siege of Yorktown, the battle that ended the war.

When the war ended, Moses Hazen and the Canadians who fought with him no longer had the option to return home. They had to give up everything they’d known to fight for American Independence and had to live, from then on, in the United States.

5Antonio Barcelo
The Spaniard Who Fought The Biggest Battle Of The War

We usually think of the American Revolution as a war on American soil, but it was more than that. The Spanish and the French took the fight straight to the English. In fact, the biggest and longest battle of the whole war took place in Europe.

It was on Gibraltar, a tiny, 3-square-mile island that happened to be in an important strategic location. On June 24, 1779, a fleet of French and Spanish ships tried to take it, and they kept trying for more than three years.

Their best attack was the brainchild of Antonio Barcelo. He set up a fleet of small ships loaded with cannons called “floating batteries” and sent them against the British. It didn’t work. The British held them off, but it was the closest they got.

The siege didn’t end until the peace treaty was signed. Antonio Barcelo and his men failed, but even if it was a waste, 3,000 Spanish soldiers gave their life fighting in Gibraltar.

4Goetschius
The Dutchman Who Led A Guerrilla Army

In its early years, there were a lot of Dutch settlers in the United States. They had their own community, one that seemed separate from the rest of America, and when the Revolutionary War started, that let them do things the Americans couldn’t.

After the British took New Jersey, John Mauritius Goetschius formed a guerrilla militia of Dutch farmers and struck back. They would attack and raid the British under the cover of night, and then, when morning came, pretended to be nothing more than farmers.

They might have been farmers, but they were capable of a lot more than they seemed. That became clear when, in 1781, Washington sent his army to take Fort Lee from the Loyalists. By the time the American troops had made it to their destination, the Loyalists were gone. Goetschius and his Dutch guerrillas had already taken the fort on their own.

3Tewahangarahken
The Native Chief Who Fought For The Us

No one could be more American than the Native Americans, but they weren’t treated that way. They played a role in American Revolution, though, and it’s one that’s often overlooked.

Most, if they picked a side, went with the British. That only makes sense: Part of the reason the Americans wanted independence was so that they could move into native land.

The Oneida tribe, though, refused to believe that the Americans had any intention of hurting them. Their main contact with Europeans had been through a missionary named Rev. Samuel Kirkland, and he had been good to them. And so, when they knew that Kirkland’s people needed their help, they raised up their arms and fought alongside them.

The Oneida tribe worked as guides, harassed British sentries, and even joined some of the battles. They were good at it, too. In the Battle of Oriskany, their War Chief Tewahangarahken single-handedly took out nine British soldiers.

Despite that, they still had to struggle to convince America they were on their side. At one point, they sent them six prisoners from another tribe and a rescued American soldier. The Americans had asked for scalps instead, but they sent along a letter that apologetically explained, “We do not take scalps.” They ended it, “We hope you are now convinced of our friendship toward you and your great cause.”

2Rochambeau
The French General Who Made The British Surrender

The decisive battle of the American Revolution came when George Washington led a troop of American soldiers into battle against the British at Yorktown. Washington, though, was not alone. He was joined by an even bigger army of French soldiers and ships, led by Comte de Rochambeau.

The Siege of Yorktown ended in the British surrender. Lord Cornwallis was the leader of the English soldiers there, but he refused to stand in front of his enemy and surrender—instead, he sent his deputy, Brigadier General Charles O’Hara.

O’Hara offered the sword of surrender to Rochambeau, but Rochambeau refused it. This, he believed, was America’s war. He insisted that the English surrender to George Washington instead.

Washington, too, refused the sword. He made O’Hara surrender to his second-in-command, Benjamin Lincoln. Lincoln had been overwhelmed by the British in Charleston and was denied the honors of a proper surrender. Washington wanted to see he got to experience one firsthand.

1Hyder Ali
The Indian Sultan Who Fought The British

The last battle of the American Revolution wasn’t on American soil. It was in India. In the 18th century, communication was far from instant, and so the men fighting on the other side of the world had no idea it was over.

India had been a battleground for the American Revolution for the last five years of the war. When France declared war on England, the British East India Company started attacking their colonies there. Hyder Ali, the Sultan of Mysore in India, took the side of the French and led the fighting there.

When Hyder Ali died in 1783, the British started making serious advances on French India. They moved their forces to Cuddalore, a city on the Bay of Bengal, and very nearly took it. The French, however, managed to send a fleet in time to fight them off.

That French fleet kept the battle going. An army of French and Mysorean soldiers fought across India, struggling to hold back the British. Then, on June 29, 1783, word finally came in that the war had been over for eight months. The last fighters of the American Revolution put down their arms and went home, a whole world away from the country they had liberated.

Sometimes, it’s better to be lucky than good. Other times, if it weren’t for bad luck, we’d have no luck at all. In both cases, the cosmic game of chance can twist and turn on a dime, shaping history for better or worse through sheer, often stunning coincidence.

From the nation’s very existence to its national pastime, fortune has played as key a role as fortitude in winning the day. Conversely, seemingly insignificant circumstances—including, of all things, a window frame—have played outsize roles in determining the direction of the nation.

10 The Fortuitous Fog That Saved Washington’s Army

The United States came incredibly close to surviving a grand total of six weeks.

In August 1776, General George Washington and the bulk of the Continental Army were defending present-day Brooklyn. In what became known as the Battle of Long Island, his forces were outnumbered, outflanked, and outfought. Even considering the lopsided British victories during the war’s early stages, this was an outright disaster. On August 27, 970 Continental soldiers were dead or wounded and more than 1,000 were taken prisoner. Meanwhile, the British lost just 63 men.

Washington had his back to the East River and at least 15,000 British Redcoats closing in. Then Mother Nature saved the United States.

The next day, it poured, pausing both armies. On August 29, the British decided to wait out a dense morning fog before striking a decisive blow.

Around noon, Washington ordered his men “to impress every kind of water craft . . . that could be kept afloat . . . and have them all in the east harbor of the city by dark.” Extremely atypical of New York summer weather, the fog held the entire day, enabling an ever-so-silent nighttime evacuation across the river to Manhattan.^[1]

The fortuitous fog saved about 9,000 men that the fledgling Continental Army simply could not afford to lose. The cause would almost certainly have been lost that day. Instead, the British awoke the morning of August 30 to capture an enemy that had literally vanished into thin—or rather, thick—air.

9 Don’t I Know You? Lewis, Clark, And A Tribal Chief’s Long-Lost Sister

Dense forests, deep rivers, vast plains. Meriwether Lewis and William Clark braved forbidding, unexplored (by white men) wilderness in their search for the ultimately mythical Northwest Passage. Beginning in May 1804 (following the Louisiana Purchase), the now-legendary Corps of Discovery Expedition brought the explorers from St. Louis all the way west to the Pacific Ocean.

Of the myriad factors impossible for Lewis and Clark to have anticipated, none loomed larger than the Rocky Mountains. The Corps needed horses to get across the Rockies and didn’t have them. The Shoshone tribe had horses, but they had never seen white people before.

But they had seen Sacagawea. Incredibly, she was the long-lost sister of the tribe’s chief, Cameahwait.^[2]

Far from being a guide on the expedition, Sacagawea had been kidnapped from the Shoshone as a young girl by a rival band and eventually sold to a French-Canadian trapper accompanying the trip.

In an instant, Sacagawea went from slave to lifesaver. The chief thanked the corps for the joyous occasion with horses, supplies, and guides. Who knows when or if America would have laid claim to the remainder of the continent were it not for the luckiest family reunion in US history.

8 The ‘Pick from Heaven’ That Gave Rise To America’s Pastime

Nothing is more American than baseball. Since its first official game played in Hoboken, New Jersey, in 1846, the old ballgame has been remarkably consistent. Familiarities like nine innings per game and nine players per team have been part of baseball since its first official rules, published barely a decade into the game’s existence in 1857.

But no single statute shaped the game like the distance between bases: exactly 27.432 meters (90 ft). Without that exact distance (in feet), the game would have been so drastically different that it may never have proven so enduringly popular.

Baseball is a game of inches played on a sprawling field. Routine plays—for example, a grounder to the shortstop—often result in close plays at first base. Generally, the runner is out or safe by just a step or two. The arbitrariness of 27.432 meters (90 ft) is so fortuitously perfect that its adoption so early in the game’s life span has been called the “pick from heaven.”^[3]

Those writing the rules in 1857 couldn’t possibly have predicted modern superstars like Mike Trout getting nipped at first by milliseconds or Jose Altuve stealing a base by a fingertip. Considering its tremendous significance, 90 is the luckiest number in all of American sports.

7 Hide-And-Go-Shoot: The Lost Company That Saved The Union

As brutal and impassioned as the US Civil War was, historians like the renowned Shelby Foote knew that the South’s odds of prevailing were incredibly long. The Union had more than twice as many soldiers and far more manufacturing resources than the Confederacy.

One of the rare chances for the South to potentially win the war came at Gettysburg’s Battle of Little Round Top. If the Confederates had taken this strategically important hill, they would have turned the Union flank and imperiled their position throughout the broader landscape.

Many know about Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain’s famed bayonet charge. And while it’s true that the unorthodox desperation tactic led to many Alabamans surrendering, other rebel troops made a beeline toward a wall to regroup. Had they reached the position, their superior ammunition levels may have turned the tide back in their favor.

But by sheer luck, behind the wall were about 40 Union soldiers led by Captain Walter Morrill, who had been cut off from Chamberlain’s line hours earlier. For over one hour, these men had been hiding so effectively that no one, not even Chamberlain, knew they were there.

The ensuing barrage of bullets led to scores more Confederates killed. The rest surrendered or fled. The hidden heroes of Little Round Top had saved the day, and with it, perhaps the Union cause itself.^[4]

6 You (Only) Sunk My Battleship: Pearl Harbor Could Have Been Far Worse

The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, was an unmitigated disaster. The stats: 2,403 Americans killed, nearly 1,200 wounded, over 325 US planes destroyed or damaged, and 19 ships (including eight battleships) severely impaired or destroyed.

Amazingly, the losses would have been far worse if not for some incredible good luck. By sheer coincidence, all three of the aircraft carriers assigned to Pearl Harbor were off-site that day.

The USS Lexington had left Pearl Harbor on December 5 to transport a dive bomber division to Midway Island, while the USS Saratoga had recently completed a lengthy retrofit on the mainland and was days away from returning to Hawaii.^[5]

Most fortunate of all, the USS Enterprise had been delivering a Marine fighter squadron to Wake Island. The carrier was scheduled to return to Pearl Harbor on December 6, but bad weather delayed its estimated arrival until the following afternoon. As a result, it missed the surprise attack by mere hours.

Considering how vital air superiority is in modern warfare, the uphill climb to retake the Pacific would have taken far longer if the US had lost its air carriers that day. Also, in the immediate aftermath of Pearl Harbor, America’s fears of a Japanese attack on the West Coast may have become reality, killing untold numbers of civilians.

5 Let Them Eat Popcorn: The Accidental Invention Of The Microwave

Perhaps the only thing as American as baseball is fast food. And the household item we use for the fastest food possible happened because a physicist had a sweet tooth.

Percy Spencer was a physicist—a pretty good one, actually. During World War II, he’d worked with the military to invent a more efficient radar system that relied on microwave radio signals generated by something called a magnetron.^[6]

One day as he was building magnetrons, Spencer discovered that a candy bar in his pocket had melted. Testing his fledgling theory, he experimented with a variety of foods, including popcorn kernels. Soon, Spencer had built the first true microwave oven by enclosing the heat-producing energy in a metal box, which controlled the whole heating process.

Though patented in 1946, the first mass-produced microwave oven wasn’t introduced until 1967 because the technology took that long to condense and make reasonably affordable. By 1975, a million were sold in the US every year. What would America be without pizza rolls and Hot Pockets?

4 The Window Frame That Doomed JFK

Seven months before he assassinated President John F. Kennedy, Lee Harvey Oswald did what he’d done pretty much his whole life until that fateful day in Dealey Plaza: He failed.

After failing as a US Marine, failing to gain his desired celebrity as a defector in and then back from the USSR, and failing to provide for his wife and young children, Oswald came as close as he’d ever come to accomplishing something when he nearly assassinated Major General Edwin Walker on April 10, 1963.

Among other right-leaning tendencies, Walker was an ardent anti-communist. With his romanticism for the Soviet Union and Cuba, Oswald had found an ideal target for his marksmanship. Until a window frame intervened.^[7]

The bullet grazed the frame before basically parting Walker’s hair—the nearest of near misses.

Had Oswald succeeded in killing Walker, two possibilities may have saved JFK. First would have been a far broader police investigation that may have apprehended Oswald. If that had happened, Oswald’s raging desire to be significant may have finally been fulfilled. Also, his lifelong losing streak may have been snapped if his bullet had not nicked that frame. A thin slice of wood may have immeasurably altered US history.

3 Hole In Two: The Confusing Ballot That Swayed The 2000 Election

The month-long Florida recount battle to decide the 2000 presidential election had X factors galore. A partisan, cherry-picked recount demand by Al Gore and an alleged voter roll purge of Jacksonville-area African Americans were just two controversies.

But the freakiest and perhaps most damning oddity was Palm Beach County’s “butterfly ballot,” a punch card design that laid out the candidates’ names on two pages rather than one. This allowed the use of larger font sizes for the area’s sizable elderly population.^[8]

Good intentions, unintended results: The ballot ended up confusing the heck out of voters—so many, in fact, that it likely cost Gore the presidency.

Some 6,600 voters punched Al Gore’s name and that of another candidate—usually the Reform Party’s Pat Buchanan, atypically placed above the major party Democrat on the ballot—nullifying their votes. About 1,600 punched George W. Bush and another, nullifying their votes. Considering that Bush officially won Florida—and with it, the White House—by just 537 votes, it’s believable that several times that many voters intended to vote for Gore in Palm Beach.

2 The Ill-Timed Financial Crisis That Flatlined McCain’s 2008 Presidential Run

Luck giveth, luck taketh away. Eight years later, it was the Republican candidate who got extremely unlucky. This time, it was something far bigger than a ballot.

The final tallies from the 2008 presidential election appear closer to a rout than a nail-biter. Barack Obama won nearly 10 million more votes than John McCain and won the electoral college by a decisive 365–173.

But a nail-biter it was. In fact, many polls in early September had the race deadlocked. Then the economic system of the United States almost collapsed.

Of course, the financial crisis itself was no coincidence, having resulted from poor policy-making by both parties. The coincidence was this long-simmering pot coming to a rolling boil less than two months before a presidential election.

The collapse of Lehman Brothers on September 15, 2008. The government takeover of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac on September 17. The bank bailout on October 3. Game, set, and match.

When a law called the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act passes a month before a presidential election, the party of the sitting president loses.^[9] Far from being a landslide loser, John McCain was a victim of circumstance with a real chance at winning just weeks earlier.

1 The Inglorious Return Of Carlos Danger

Let’s not relitigate the 2016 US presidential election. In a contest where the winner lost the popular vote and won three decisive states by less than 80,000 votes combined, anything and everything that happened may have swayed it.

So let’s not argue. Rather, let’s all agree on this: It sure is some creepy coincidence that the husband of one of the candidate’s top aides liked to sext with his kid in the background. And that coincidence led to an unforeseen final chapter in the saga of Hillary Clinton’s emails.

Oh, and did we mention that the guy’s name is Weiner?

So, an investigation that was conducted and completed by the FBI—the probe into Clinton’s use of a private email server during her time as secretary of state—was reopened only because the husband of a staffer did something so egregious that it warranted an investigation by the FBI.^[10]

And Weiner, also known by his avatar pseudonym Carlos Danger, managed to accomplish all this during the final stages of the ugliest presidential race ever. You take the cake, Carlos. Just don’t take any more photos.

Christopher Dale frequently writes on society, politics, and sobriety-based issues. His work has appeared in The Daily Beast, NY Daily News, Parents.com, and New York Newsday, and he regularly contributes to TheFix.com, a sober-lifestyle website. Follow him on Twitter.

…annnnnnd CUT! That’s a wrap! Great job everyone – way to change the filmmaking paradigm for the worse.

We’ve all heard the term “influential films”: movies whose innovative approaches inspired others to further the medium. Unfortunately, a trend also can devolve, leaving its originator – however creative or classic a film it might be – responsible for another chime in cinema’s death knell.

In chronological order, here are ten films – including several great ones – that have negatively impacted filmmaking.

Top 10 Ways Hollywood Ruined Your Favorite TV Shows

10 Jaws (1975)

We’re gonna need a bigger boa…uh, budget.

The term “blockbuster” first appeared in 1942, when Time Magazine recounted an Allied bombing of fascist Italy using explosives so powerful they could destroy entire city blocks. The following year, Time called the film adaptation of Mission to Moscow “audacious in the extreme” and “as explosive as a blockbuster” and, soon, the word began referring to a movie’s commercial success rather than artistic ambition.

Then, in 1975, one film permanently solidified the word’s meaning. Steven Spielberg’s breakout hit Jaws is generally regarded as Hollywood’s first true blockbuster. Not only did people literally queue up around the block for tickets, but it became the first film to earn $100 million. It also helped set the precedent that such movies are released in summertime, now known as blockbuster season.

Why, you ask, does a movie that won three Oscars and was nominated for Best Picture deserve inclusion on this list? On its own merit, it doesn’t. At least the original summer blockbuster was a critically-acclaimed classic.

But in Hollywood, the bigger issue is monkey see, monkey do – and most monkeys are far less talented than Spielberg. Today, mass appeal blockbusters squeeze out mid-budget films while offering little artistic value themselves. Are some good? Sure. But for every Independence Day, there’s a Wild Wild West, a Pearl Harbor and, God help us, an Independence Day Resurgence, which prompted many to root for the aliens.

9 Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope (1977)

“Toyetic” refers to a movie’s potential for merchandising licensed toys, games and novelties. The term was coined by Kenner Toys executive Bernard Loomis, who used it disparagingly while discussing opportunities for 1977’s Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Loomis felt differently about another sci-fi flick released that year – and he’d quickly be proven prescient.

Incredibly, “Star Wars” struggled to find a studio home. To get it greenlighted, George Lucas agreed to forgo a $500,000 director’s salary; in its place, he received the licensing and merchandising rights.

Good move, George. Upon the film’s May 1977 release, Kenner Toys was so overwhelmed by Star Wars’ surprise success – and the subsequent demand for toys – that they quickly ran out of stock. In fact, they still hadn’t caught up by Christmas, prompting the issuing of an “Early Bird Certificate Package.” Under the tree that year, kids everywhere opened empty boxes with IOUs for action figures unavailable until springtime (thanks, Santa). FORTY MILLION were sold by late 1978.

Those empty boxes were a Pandora’s Box. Like other entries on this list, a terrific film had paved the way for far less worthy flicks to think merch first, quality filmmaking second. Star Wars itself went on to pair worse films with worse merch. Lowlights include a Darth Vader yoga mat, a Yoda Magic 8-Ball and, for the incontinent Jedi in us all, Star Wars branded adult diapers.

8 Superman (1978)

It’s a bird! It’s a plane! It’s… a pretty good movie that set the stage for the film industry’s most mindless genre.

While films starring caped crusaders were a thing before its 1978 release, Superman: The Movie was the first mega-budget superhero blockbuster. In fact, at $55 million it was the most expensive film ever made to that point.

Its filmmakers took pains to get moviegoers to see superman as more than a comic book carryover. Two legendary actors, Marlon Brando and Gene Hackman, were cast in supporting roles, lending their gravitas despite the little-known star, Christopher Reeve – who only became the Man of Steel after superstars Robert Redford and Burt Reynolds both declined.

After producers flirted with the already sought-after Steven Spielberg, Richard Donner of “Omen” fame was tapped to direct. He had a campy script rewritten to a darker, more dramatic bend. It paid off. Superman made $300 million, earned four stars from influential critic Roger Ebert, and holds a 94% favorability rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

Its success was the worst possible thing for moviemaking. Forty years and scores of cheesy, formulaic and plot-free comic book adaptations later, superhero movies continue to rake in money from the tasteless masses while limiting the number of interesting, risk-taking films Hollywood studios greenlight.

Are a few good? Sure. But for every Black Panther there are dozens of Ant-Man’s, Suicide Squads and Green Lanterns in a genre that has zapped filmmaking creativity like none other.

7 Halloween II & Friday the 13th Part 2 (1981)

The second installments of what became slasher film franchises were by no means the first prominent sequels. But while Jaws 2, Rocky 2 and The Godfather Part 2 were fairly well-received follow-ups to Academy Award-winning classics, Michael Myers and Jason Voorhees were deservedly panned for exactly what they were: slapped-together sequels without a shred of their predecessors’ appeal.

Released in 1978, the original Halloween was filmed over just 20 days. Its $300,000 budget was low even for horror, and most costumes and props were handcrafted or purchased from thrift stores. Regardless, the movie made nearly $70 million partly because, by sheer necessity, it stripped down the plot to a simple yet suspenseful maniac-on-the-loose stabfest. The film holds an incredible 96% critics rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

The second instalment did less with more. Despite a more liberating $2.5 million budget, it managed to, per Roger Ebert, suffer “a fall from greatness” that “doesn’t even attempt to do justice to the original.” Its 32% Rotten Tomatoes rating – a 64% drop-off from the original – concurs.

Friday the 13th mirrors this money-grabbing sophomoritis. After the original earned critical praise and a $60 million haul from a $550,000 budget, the sequel – despite pivoting to the now-iconic Jason Vorhees – gets a putrid 28% rating on Rotten Tomatoes (admittedly that’s the heinously fake-news “critics” rating the media loves to push, but still . . . )

Unfortunately, enough people still came that the two franchises set the template for low-budget, low-effort horror sequels that accomplish little except pile up bodies.

6 Toy Story (1995)

Toy Story was another exceptional film that started an unfortunate trend. While it delivered on its promise to take viewers “to infinity and beyond,” the 1995 PIXAR classic did the exact opposite for traditional animated films.

Let’s be clear: Toy Story is a tremendous film. Excellent casting (even Tim Allen was tolerable!) and an endearing premise – toys competing for their owner’s love – helped it become the rare children’s movie that also appealed to adults. The result was $375 million in ticket sales.

Just as importantly, Toy Story became one of the few movies that holds a 100% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes, whose critical consensus reads: “Entertaining as it is innovative, Toy Story reinvigorated animation while heralding the arrival of Pixar as a family-friendly force to be reckoned with.”

And therein lies the problem: the reckoning. Toy Story’s revolutionary employment of three-dimensional computer graphics started a slow death for conventional hand-drawn animation movies (except in Japan). Hits like Shrek, Ice Age and the Incredibles furthered the push from the pen to the pixel.

While traditional animation hasn’t disappeared entirely, today even films that seem like conventional cartoons are typically supplemented with computer graphics; Frozen is a prominent example of this hybrid approach. It’s truly A Whole New World since 1992’s Aladdin.

5 Saving Private Ryan (1998)

Yikes – two in a row for Tom Hanks.

But again: not his fault. In fact, not anyone’s fault. Saving Private Ryan is one of the best war movies of all time. It was nominated for 10 Academy Awards, and won five – including Steven Spielberg for Best Director.

But it was Spielberg’s brilliance in the movie’s epic opening scene, an incredibly lifelike 20-minute depiction of the D-Day invasion of Normandy Beach, that shook things up – first for the better, and then decidedly for the worse.

To mimic the disorientation of battle, Spielberg employed a device previously associated with low-budget horror films: a shaking camera. And of course, it worked so well that far less talented filmmakers making far less worthwhile films decided to shake it up themselves.

Some, like this list’s next entry, pulled it off quite well. But most of the time, shaking cameras are used either to a) make a fighting scene seem more dramatic than it is while disorienting the audience (the Bourne movies are prime examples); or b) give crummy action or sci-fi flicks faux gravitas (SEE: Godzilla 2014, Awful).

4 The Blair Witch Project (1999)

“Josh? JOOOOOOSH?!? Oh my God. where are you. Josh?! You’re scaring everyone…”

And worse, you’re convincing every college film major he can make a box office phenomenon with a hand-held camera.

The Blair Witch Project was an experimental horror mockumentary released in 1999. The faux-amateur film told the story of three college filmmakers – Heather Donahue, Michael Williams and (of course) Joshua Leonard – who hike into the woods in Maryland to uncover the secret of a local legend, the Blair Witch.

According to the movie’s ingenious marketing strategy, the cast was listed as “missing” or “deceased” in the runup to release. The film, ads said, comprised the footage found on their recovered video camera. Though this was easily debunked, millions nonetheless entered theaters believing they were witnessing the final days of three vanished young adults.

Both the marketing strategy and the movie itself simply worked. Disorienting camera angles, leaf-rustling running and panicked hyperventilating were all convincingly lifelike as the cast descended deeper into the eerie, engulfing wilderness.

And boy did it pay off. From a budget of less than $500,000, the sleeper hit raked in nearly $250 million at the box office – a 500-fold profit that ranks among filmmaking’s highest ever.

Unfortunately, by showing that low-budget can make big bucks, The Blair Witch Project revived the “found footage” genre at a time when equipment was becoming affordable, giving amateur filmmakers the undue confidence to make increasingly insufferable films. Thanks a lot, Josh.

3 Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones (2002)

“Ruin Star Wars we must.”

Throw in moviemaking too, Master Yoda. According to online review personality Mr. Plinkett, “Star Wars Episode II is the worst thing ever made by humans, except for the bagpipes.”

First, it ruined the franchise forever. While its predecessor, 1999’s Episode 1: The Phantom Menace, was a shitshow all its own, the second prequel finds Anakin coming of age, with the events now shaping his dark destiny. The dialogue – including a widely mocked monologue about the annoyances of sand – was awkward, the acting rigid, and Yoda – he of “Judge me by my size, do you?” – was reduced to a tiny green back-flipping muppet who can’t best a lesser opponent because… you guessed it, his reach wasn’t long enough. Did we really need to see THIS (clip above), Mr. Lucas?

But the broader damage inflicted by Episode II was its wholesale incorporation of computer-generated imagery (CGI). Nearly EVERYTHING in the movie is fraudulent – and it shows. For example, actors clearly filmed in front of tiny green screens sit or slowly pace – and are then juxtaposed into wide-open spaces like fields, palaces and the cavernous Jedi Temple.

The whole thing just FEELS fake, and stands as Exhibit A of how technology can ruin a film. Of course, the film’s commercial success (because hey, it was a Star Wars movie) gave filmmakers the greenlight to forgo expensive real-life sets in lieu of cost-effective green-screen studios.

2 Transformers (2007)

It started out promisingly enough for Michael Bay. Starting in 1995, he went on a three-film winning streak by directing Bad Boys (1995), The Rock (1996) and Armageddon (1998). While by no means cinematic masterpieces, all were fun action films no one would point to as a threat to the future of cinema. And while Bay’s 2001 Pearl Harbor was (literally) a bomb, most figured he’d rebound with another entertaini…

… wait, is that Optimus Prime?

The 2007 release of Transformers is a reverse watershed moment: it lowered the bar for how far filmmakers could descend in replacing a functional storyline with special effects. It finds Michael Bay perfecting the “deceit via dazzle” art of distracting viewers from gaping plot holes and lack of character development by simply blowing stuff up.

Worse, Transformers was REWARDED for its utter abandonment of storytelling. The film raked in over $700 million and, unbelievably, was nominated for THREE ACADEMY AWARDS: Best Sound Editing, Best Sound Mixing, and Best Visual Effects (note how none of those categories address the quality of the actual film). “While believable characters are hard to come by,” reads Rotten Tomatoes’ critical consensus, “the effects are staggering and the action is exhilarating.”

The message was clear: special effects could replace storytelling. Four awful Transformers sequels and countless visual-yet-vacuous action films later, the action genre is an unexploding shell of its former self.

1 Ghostbusters (the reboot) (2016)

Hollywood’s most recent ruinous trend is the notion that political correctness and inclusivity are more important in filmmaking than, well, making a good film. The most glaring of these is force-fed female-led films; oxymoronically, Hollywood seems intent on proving that girls can do anything boys can do… by making God-awful reboots of classic films that replace male characters with female casts (we are also now at the dawn of a similar “de-whiting” trend for the purposes of Hollywood virtue signalling).

We cannot explore this trend without mentioning the contrived, eye-rolling “Force is Female” marketing that preceded the 2015 release of Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens. Audiences were more than ready to embrace a female protagonist… just not the colorless, invincible-without-even-training one Disney gave us (there’s actually a controversial term for such a trope: a Mary Sue).

But the most glaring example of an all-female facepalm was the 2016 reboot of the Ghostbusters franchise, which replaces the beloved Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Harold Ramis and Ernie Hudson with Melissa McCarthy, Leslie Jones, Kristen Wiig and Kate McKinnon.

Those are four funny ladies, so the casting wasn’t the problem; the plot was. J.R. Kinnard of PopMatters put it best by noting that the film “feels like a safe, flavorless recipe prepared from gourmet ingredients.” It basically replaced men with meh, stubbing Girl Power’s foot along the way. Two years later, the all-female Ocean’s 8 would similarly underwhelm.

Standing up to sexism (real or imagined) by making terrible movies doesn’t seem like the right path to “equality”. Just sayin’.

Top 10 Things Hollywood Does To Kowtow To The Chinese

On the morning of April 30, 1943, off the southwest coast of Spain, a local sardine fisherman made the gruesome discovery of a lifeless body floating in the water. The dead man, who appeared to be a soldier with a black briefcase chained to his waist, was quickly brought ashore and handed over to the authorities.

Later, documents found in the attache case revealed top secret plans about a large-scale Allied invasion of Greece and Sardinia. The information eventually landed on the desk of German leader Adolf Hitler, who reacted decisively. However, there was just one problem: The discovery was a fake.

Code-named Operation Mincemeat, which was part of a much larger disinformation campaign called Operation Barclay, the subterfuge was designed to mislead the Germans about the Allies’ intended attack on Sicily. The morbid ruse became one of the most bizarre chapters of World War II, highlighted by a message to British Prime Minister Winston Churchill stating, “Mincemeat swallowed. Rod, line and sinker.”

10 A Critical Turning Point

British Intelligence played a significant role leading up to the attack on what Winston Churchill referred to as the “soft underbelly of Europe.” The Mediterranean invasion (“Operation Husky”) became the largest amphibious operation in history to date, deploying 160,000 Allied troops—and one cadaver.

After recent victories in North Africa, Allied top brass shifted their focus to Germany’s stranglehold on Europe. The strategic location of Sicily was deemed the next logical stepping-stone—and the enemy knew it. But the use of a modern-day Trojan horse helped divert the enemy away from the island and allowed the Anglo-American force to launch a two-pronged attack.

Led by General George Patton’s Seventh Army in the west sector and General Bernard Montgomery’s Eighth Army in the east, the successful campaign advanced Allied objectives on the continent and affected the outcome of the war.^[1]

9 Ian Fleming Helped To Inspire The Plan

Prior to achieving acclaim as the author of the popular James Bond spy novels, Lieutenant Commander Ian Fleming worked in British Intelligence. As the assistant to Rear Admiral John Godfrey (the basis for Bond’s MI6 boss “M”), Fleming helped to pen a report known as the “Trout Memo” in which Fleming compared military deception to fly-fishing.

The multi-item list contained various schemes, including one entitled “A Suggestion (not a very nice one),” that he found in a book by fellow intelligence officer-turned-writer Basil Thomson. Fleming described using a corpse obtained from the morgue and dressed to resemble an officer en route to delivering sensitive documents. The phantom messenger could then be dropped near the coastline and eventually find its way into enemy hands.^[2]

Fleming also contributed to other key operations, including D-Day, all the while chronicling his experiences that influenced his best-selling books and iconic films.

8 Not Exactly 007

British officials cast an unlikely player to star as the hero in the real-life, high-stakes thriller. The wartime production involved an intriguing story line, numerous plot twists, and a role to die for.

Glyndwr Michael was born on January 4, 1909, in the small coal-mining town of Aberbargoed in South Wales. Growing up in an impoverished family, Michael mostly worked odd jobs as an unskilled laborer. By the time he was 31, both his parents were dead. Eventually, he found himself living as a vagrant on the streets of London.^[3]

He eventually became deathly ill after ingesting rat poison and was taken to St. Pancras Hospital, where he died on January 24, 1943. Michael underwent a routine examination by the coroner, who determined the cause of death as suicide.

Despite Michael’s unremarkable life and grim demise, he would soon embark on an extraordinary adventure.

7 A Ghoulish Makeover

British intelligence officers Charles Cholmondeley and Ewen Montagu were tasked with spearheading the extensive skullduggery. As part of the counterespionage unit, the men plotted around the clock in a secret underground room in the Admiralty. Discretion was of vital importance to ensure secrecy and give the deceit a fighting chance to succeed. But first, they needed a body.

The mortuary at St. Pancras, the largest in the country, provided an ample supply of potential candidates. But the deceased had to meet strict criteria: no family, no friends, and no visible signs of foul play. Glyndwr Michael fit the bill perfectly.^[4]

The recently departed Welshman was given the pseudonym Captain (Acting Major) William “Bill” Martin of the Royal Marines. With his new identity established, the cadaver remained locked away and refrigerated while Cholmondeley and Montagu crafted a backstory clever enough to fool the Germans. Their ploy also needed a name. With a wink and nod to their dark sense of humor, they called it Operation Mincemeat.

6 An Elaborate Hoax

Several highly nuanced factors (including luck) ultimately determined the fate of the operation. “Major Martin,” posing as a courier who had been killed in a plane crash at sea, had to appear both believable and random and furnish just enough subtle details to spring the trap.

A bogus letter from Lieutenant General Sir Archibald Nye to General Sir Harold Alexander contained the key piece of misinformation. The letter was written by Nye himself for added authenticity.^[5]

The dead man also held an assortment of documents and wallet litter, providing a glimpse into the man’s personality. Items included a military identification card, postage stamps, personal letters, theater tickets, cigarettes, and an angry overdraft letter from Lloyds Bank in London.

In an effort to discourage a complete autopsy (and assuming the Spanish pathologists were Roman Catholic), a silver St. Christopher’s medal delivered an element of spiritual guidance to the mission.

5 True (False) Romance

The chicanery even went as far as to fabricate an imaginary girlfriend named “Pam.” A few rambling, flowery love letters were added to the mix as well as an actual photograph of a young woman with wavy brown hair by the name of Jean Leslie. The 19-year-old from Hampshire worked as an MI5 secretary, and her seemingly innocuous contribution soon took on a life of its own.^[6]

Despite being a married father of two young children, British intelligence officer Montagu became smitten with his coworker and began pursuing her after hours with dining and dancing. He even wrote her his own notes of affection, addressing them to “Pam” and signing them “Bill.” But alas, this Montagu lacked Shakespeare’s touch and Cupid’s quivers, relegating the one-sided fling dead as a doornail.

4 A Race Against The Clock

As any zombie apocalypse fan knows, bodies decompose. Rapidly. British officials knew they had roughly three months before their specimen reached its expiration date. And with the pending invasion of Sicily scheduled for July, the plan shifted into high gear.

On April 19, 1943, the imposter was outfitted in a well-worn uniform (along with clean underwear because, well, you never know) and placed inside an airtight metal container packed with dry ice. Cholmondeley and Montagu accompanied the cargo in a van driven by MI5 agent “Jock” Horsfall. Prior to the war, Horsfall had been a champion race car driver best known for his speedy Aston Martin—the same car James Bond later made famous.^[7]

Horsfall now put skills to use in a mad dash, driving 700 kilometers (435 mi) through the night from London to Greenock, Scotland, and a rendezvous with the Royal Navy.

3 The Spanish Acquisition

Despite claiming a neutral status during the war, Spain was a well-known haven for German spies—especially along its southern coast. The British feared that using a noisy seaplane might prove too risky. Instead, Major Martin went to sea aboard the submarine HMS Seraph.^[8]

With the exception of the captain, Lieutenant Commander Norman Jewell, and a few other officers sworn to secrecy, the crew was told that they were transporting meteorological equipment and set a course for the Iberian Peninsula. The S-class submarine spent the next 10 days navigating dangerous waters and endured two separate bombings from German aircraft.

The Seraph eventually surfaced 1.46 kilometers (0.91 mi) off the coast of Huelva. Jewell ordered the covert shipment up to the deck, where the future admiral read Psalm 39, a prayer of wisdom and forgiveness. Then he placed a “Mae West” (an inflatable vest) on Michael/Martin and gently set him adrift for the final leg of his journey.

2 Hitler Gets Hoodwinked

Convinced of their good fortune, the Abwehr (German intelligence) took the findings directly to Adolf Hitler. The bamboozled dictator eagerly took the bait. He demanded, “Measures regarding Sardinia and the Peloponnese take precedence over everything else.” The blunder proved disastrous.^[9]

Hitler sent Field Marshal Erwin Rommel to Athens to form an army group and began repositioning thousands of soldiers. Finally, on July 9, 1943, the Allies unleashed their blistering attack on Sicily, taking the bewildered German high command by surprise.

Additionally, the falsehood would have far-reaching effects for the remainder of the war as the Germans hesitated to act on legitimate discoveries involving espionage.

1 A Lingering Mystery

The gravestone at Cementerio de la Soledad in Huelva reads, “William Martin, born 29 March 1907, died 24 April 1943.” But in 1998, the British government added the amendment, “Glyndwr Michael Served as Major William Martin, RM,” as a tribute to the man’s true identity. But the story doesn’t end there.

Several alternative theories suggest that an entirely different person lies in Spain, adding further intrigue to the possibility of a hoax within a hoax. After the war, Montagu wrote a best-selling book, The Man Who Never Was, that also spawned a popular film. Although Montagu stood firmly by the official government position, many scholars have questioned its validity.

The central argument casts doubt on whether a hapless drifter in poor physical health could have conceivably passed as a Royal Marine officer and deceived a savvy adversary. Furthermore, why would a meticulous, detail-oriented barrister such as Montagu have risked everything on a stiff who died from poison instead of a real drowning victim?

One of the more popular hypotheses asserts that Glyndwr Michael may have been switched in favor of a sailor named John Melville, who drowned off the coast of Scotland on March 27, 1943. The escort carrier, HMS Dasher, had suffered a horrific (and mysterious) explosion that sank the ship and killed 379 crewmen.

In 2004, a memorial service honored Melville on a ship currently using the name Dasher, in which Lieutenant Commander Mark Hill declared: “In his incarnation as Major Martin, John Melville’s memory lives on in the film, The Man Who Never Was. But we are gathered here today to remember John Melville as a man who most certainly was.”^[10]

Given the heightened secrecy of the operation and the fact that most of the key players are no longer living, it’s doubtful that a definitive conclusion will ever be reached. Nonetheless, Operation Mincemeat remains the gold standard of macabre military maneuvers.

Throughout the centuries, countless inventors and scientists have made significant contributions to our understanding of the world around us. Sadly, not all of them have got the due they deserve, and many still remain out of our history books for one reason or another. That’s despite the fact that so many technologies we use today – like computer programs, wireless devices, films, and others – were developed by these forgotten, overlooked inventors from history.

10. Joseph Glidden

Barbed wire played a crucial role during the westward expansion period in American history. It made it possible to fence in vast tracts of land that were previously open and vulnerable, making it easier for ranchers to control their herds and farmers to protect their crops. It also contributed to the end of the open-range system and the emergence of large-scale agriculture across the country, and it was now much easier to enforce property rights on the ground. 

Joseph Glidden, a farmer and businessman from Illinois, is credited with inventing the first successful barbed wire design in 1874. He had been experimenting with different prototypes for several years, before he chanced upon the idea of wrapping two metal wires together with sharp barbs. Glidden patented his design in 1874 and started manufacturing it on a large scale. Before long, barbed wire was a common sight on farms and ranches throughout the American West, making him one of the most successful inventors and businessmen in American history. 

9. Martin Cooper

Martin Cooper is an American engineer and inventor who is also sometimes called the ‘father of the cellular phone’, as his invention ultimately paved the way for the development of modern smartphones. In 1973, he led the team that built the first mobile cell phone called the Motorola DynaTAC, completely revolutionizing the way we communicate with each other. 

Cooper began his career in the telecommunications industry in the 1950s, working for companies such as Teletype Corporation and Motorola. He started working on the development of a portable cell phone design some time in the late 1960s, that would allow people to make calls from anywhere instead of fixed locations. 

On April 3, 1973, Cooper made the first cell phone call from a Motorola DynaTAC to Joel Engel at AT&T. While the DynaTAC would go on to become the first commercially available cell phone, it was still prohibitively expensive and inaccessible for most people, delaying mass adoption by several years. 

8. Mary Anderson 

The windshield wiper may be an irreplaceable car safety feature today, but that wasn’t always the case. It was invented by Mary Anderson – an American inventor who came up with the idea in 1902, after she observed that drivers at the time had to stop their cars and manually clear snow, rain, and debris from the windshields to improve visibility, which was dangerous and time-consuming. 

Anderson’s earliest prototype comprised a lever that could be used to move a rubber blade across the windshield from inside the car. She patented it in 1903, though it would take many more years before drivers warmed up to the idea. Many car manufacturers were skeptical of the need for a windshield wiper in cars at the time, and were hence slow to adopt the technology. Obviously, they were wrong about it, as windshield wipers are a standard feature in almost every car sold around the world today. Since her invention, Mary Anderson has been awarded a number of honors and awards for her contribution to automotive safety, including her 2011 induction into the National Inventors Hall of Fame.

7. Dietrich Nikolaus Winkel

The mechanical metronome is a device used by musicians to mark time and regulate tempo. It was invented in the early 19th century by Dietrich Nikolaus Winkel – a Dutch inventor and clockmaker. Winkel’s ‘musical chronometer’ from 1814 consisted of a pendulum that could be adjusted to different speeds using a sliding weight. He couldn’t patent it, however, and the credit originally went to a German inventor called Johann Nepomuk Maelzel, who copied Winkel’s prototype and started selling it under his name. 

Maelzel’s marketing efforts were so successful that the metronome was soon commonly known as the ‘Maelzel Metronome’. Beethoven was the first composer to use metronome markings in his pieces, which would soon become common practice for musicians around the world. While Winkel’s original design was initially forgotten, he is now recognized as the true inventor of the device that changed music forever. Apart from allowing composers to specify exact tempos for their works, the metronome also allowed for the standardization of tempo markings across different styles of music.

6. Henry Blair

Henry Blair was an African-American inventor and farmer credited with the invention of the corn planter in 1836. We’re not sure about his exact origins, though he’s assumed to have been a freedman around the time of the invention, as slaves weren’t allowed to file patents back then.

Blair’s corn planter was a significant improvement over previous methods of planting corn, which usually involved arduous work like digging holes and planting seeds by hand. Blair’s device was a horse-drawn machine that could plant corn seeds in a straight row on a large scale, greatly increasing efficiency and speed.

Blair’s invention made it possible for farmers to plant corn quickly and relatively effortlessly, leading to increased productivity and lower food prices. The corn planter also paved the way for the larger mechanization of agriculture, which played an important role in the early development of industry across America.

5. Peter Durand

Peter Durand was a British merchant known for his patent of the tin can in 1810. Before the invention, preservation was a major challenge for the food industry, as food could only be stored for short periods of time and in limited amounts. Durand’s invention made it possible to keep food items edible for much longer periods of time, as it used a unique sealing technique to make the containers truly airtight. 

The tin can was an important invention that allowed for the transport and storage of food over long distances. It also allowed for the creation of new products and innovations in the industry, as it was suddenly possible to dramatically increase shelf life of food products and other perishable items. While other tin can designs had existed before Durand’s patent, his invention involved sealing food in a tin container using a soldered lead plug, making it much more airtight and commercially-viable.

4. John Harrison

Before the invention of the marine chronometer, determining longitude at sea was a difficult and often inaccurate process. Sailors relied on celestial navigation and dead reckoning, which could be affected by weather conditions and human error. This made long-distance seafaring extremely dangerous, resulting in a number of shipwrecks. In the 18th century, the British government even offered a prize of £20,000 to anyone who could solve the problem of determining longitude at sea.

John Harrison, a self-taught carpenter, took up the challenge and invented a series of precision clocks known as marine chronometers in 1735. These early navigation devices allowed sailors to determine longitude with precision and navigate with much greater safety and efficiency. Harrison’s first marine chronometer was tested on a voyage to Jamaica, and it was found to be accurate within a distance of 18 geographical miles. The invention led to increased trade and commerce around the world, directly contributing to the rise of the British Empire. 

3. Garrett A. Morgan

Born on March 4, 1877, in Paris, Kentucky, Garrett Augustus Morgan was an African-American inventor credited with important inventions in public safety. He invented the gas mask and the traffic signal, two inventions that have saved countless lives ever since. While the mask was designed to protect people from the harmful effects of smoke and gas during fire-related accidents, the traffic signal was intended to prevent on-road accidents and reduce traffic congestion.

The gas mask was patented in 1914, and has since been used by firefighters, police officers, and other first responders to protect them from the effects of smoke and gas during accidents and other similar situations. The original design featured a hood that covered the wearer’s head, along with a breathing tube that filtered out harmful chemicals and smoke. 

The three-position traffic signal, on the other hand, was patented in 1923. It was a crucial innovation in city planning and public safety, especially on busy roads and highways, and has since been used by countries around the world.  

2. Ada Lovelace

Ada Lovelace, born Augusta Ada Byron in 1815 in London, is often referred to as the first computer programmer due to her pioneering work with Charles Babbage’s Analytical Engine – a hypothetical machine designed to perform complex calculations. She was the daughter of poet Lord Byron and a mathematician mother, and had a natural flair for mathematics and the sciences from a very early age. 

Lovelace’s work on the Analytical Engine – also sometimes called the first computer ever – led her to write what is considered the first algorithm intended to be processed by a machine. She was also the first mathematician to calculate a sequence of numbers known as Bernoulli numbers, which could be classified as the first computer program ever written. Lovelace’s work on the Analytical Engine was particularly advanced for the time, as it proved that computers could be used to perform complex operations on values other than numbers, like musical notations. 

1. Eadweard Muybridge

Eadweard Muybridge was a British photographer and inventor who made crucial contributions to the invention of motion pictures in the late 19th century. He is best known for his work in stop-motion photography, which involved manually capturing multiple images of a moving subject to create the illusion of motion. 

Muybridge’s most famous work was his early film capturing the motion of horses, which he photographed in a series of still images. He used a series of cameras placed along a track to shoot the horses in motion, followed by a zoopraxiscope – a device he conceptualized and built himself – projecting the images in rapid succession on the screen, creating the first motion picture in history. His innovations opened up new possibilities for visual storytelling, and gave birth to all the movies and other kinds of videos we see around us today. For his contributions, Eadweard Muybridge is still sometimes called the ‘Father of the Motion Picture’.

Not all heroes wear capes, as the saying goes.

Advances in animal DNA technology now stand at the forefront of forensic science. Enhanced testing techniques and ever-expanding databases are helping law enforcement agencies to catch criminals. In recent years, the hair, fur, feathers, blood, and other bodily fluids from cats, dogs, birds, and other animals have helped solve countless violent crimes around the globe.

Here are ten crimes where critters have played a significant role in bringing the guilty to justice—using DNA technology, as well as some other weird and wonderful crime-fighting abilities.

Related: Top 10 Mysteries And Crimes Solved By The Internet

10 Duck for Cover

A pet duck recently led police in North Carolina to the decomposed body of missing 92-year-old grandmother Nellie Sullivan. Sgt. Mark Walker of the Buncombe County Sheriff’s office explained how “the duck ran underneath the trailer at 11 Beady Eyed Lane, and as they were chasing after their pet duck, they ran across the container that Nellie Sullivan was located in.”

Beady Eyed Lane? You just can’t make these things up!

Even before the grim discovery of the remains, Nellie’s own granddaughter Angela Wamsley and her boyfriend Mark Barnes had been charged with concealing her death, along with charges of animal cruelty and drug possession.

Sgt. Walker described the initial search for Nellie as being “a wild goose chase.” Nothing turned up after numerous local searches, and Nellie’s neighbors had insisted she had, in fact, gone missing several years prior. Wamsley and Barnes had been collecting Nellie’s social security and retirement benefit check, as well as refilling her prescriptions in her absence.

“If I could give that duck a medal, I would,” Walker added.^[1]

9 Bird the…umm…Bird

Texan Kevin Butler was apparently such a fan of NBA great Larry Bird that he named his white-crested cockatoo after him. Friends described Bird as being very devoted to Butler. This was even more evident after two men broke into Butler’s Pleasant Grove home on Christmas Eve 2001. Bird loyally tried to defend his home and his owner. Unfortunately, Butler was bound, brutally beaten, and ultimately stabbed multiple times, causing his death. Sadly, Bird, too, was mortally wounded during the altercation—stabbed with a fork. Afterward, the men escaped into the night.

But Bird ultimately saved the day, providing investigators with the evidence they needed to solve the crime and secure a conviction. Following the attack, DNA recovered from Bird’s beak and claws was matched to a man named Daniel Torres, a disgruntled former employee at Butler’s pool company. Torres also wiped the blood off his head after being badly pecked by Bird and then touched a light switch, leaving trace evidence and putting him at the crime scene.

Faced with the evidence, Torres confessed to killing both Butler and Bird. He was eventually convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison. They were also able to track down Torres’s accomplice, his half-brother Johnny Serna.

During the trial, the prosecutor submitted to the court that “Bird died valiantly. There were feathers scattered through the house, and he put up a fight, no doubt about that. Kevin’s family and co-workers have told me that you just didn’t mess with Kevin while that bird was around.”^[2]

8 A Snowball’s Chance in Hell

In 1994, on Canada’s Prince Edward Island, a 32-year-old mother of five, Shirley Duguay, vanished without a trace. Many people suspected that her sometimes boyfriend, ex-con Douglas Beamish, was somehow involved in her disappearance.

Three days after she went missing, a blood-stained men’s jacket was found in a bag in the woods near Duguay’s home. The jacket also contained several white cat hairs. A detective on the case, Constable Roger Savoie, recalled seeing a white cat in Beamish’s home while investigating Shirley’s disappearance. Savoie sent the hairs to be DNA tested, and it was confirmed that they belonged to Beamish’s family pet, a white tomcat named Snowball.

It was the very early days of animal DNA testing, and Constable Savoie even went cat-catching and collected blood samples from a bunch of neighborhood strays. Much to his relief, their DNA profiles were all quite different. Statistically, the chance of another cat having DNA similar to Snowball’s was revealed to be one in some forty-five million.

Around this time, Shirley’s body was discovered by a local fisherman, and Beamish was arrested. While his defense attorney argued that “without the cat, the case falls flat,” Beamish was convicted of second-degree murder and sentenced to life with no eligibility for parole for 18 years. This is believed to be the first time animal DNA was used to successfully convict a criminal.^[3]

Go, Snowball, go!

7 Dodgy Doggy DNA

In 1998, a Seattle, Washington, couple, Raquel Rivera and Jay Johnson, were found slain along with their pitbull-lab mix pup, Chief. All three were victims of a home invasion gone horribly wrong. While standing trial, suspects Ken Leuluaialii and George Tuilefano were surprised to learn that prosecutors planned to introduce an unlikely piece of evidence, Chief’s DNA. Dog blood had been found on the defendants’ clothing during the investigation, and forensic testing was able to match it to Chief.

In his opening argument, prosecutor Tim Bradshaw stated that “the irony will be that the witness who could never speak, even when he was alive, will present the most eloquent of evidence.” Prosecutors said that Tuilefano and Leuluaialii kicked down the door of the house after Johnson refused to sell them marijuana, then opened fire, shooting the dog first, before killing the couple. DNA evidence indicated that bloodstains on the two jackets and pants linked to Leuluaialii and Tuilefano were from Chief.

While the science of animal DNA was not yet as reliable as that of human DNA at the time, the state Court of Appeals later upheld the murder convictions of the two men. It even ruled that one should be re-sentenced to a longer prison term.

Joy Halverson, a senior scientist at PE AgGen, the company that tested the bloodstains, said that cat DNA was used in a criminal case in Canada (see above) but that this may be the first time DNA from a dog had been used in the United States. The tests showed there was only one chance in 350 million that the blood was not Chief’s.^[4]

6 Layla Van Dam

On the night of Feb 1, 2001, in the Sabre Springs neighborhood of San Diego, 7-year-old Danielle Van Dam vanished from her own bed without a trace. Police had little to no evidence to go on. Eventually, neighbor David Westerfield came to the attention of investigators. Westerfield was acting suspiciously, often leaving his house during searches for missing Danielle. He was also seen at a dry cleaner just days after Danielle’s abduction, dressed only in his underwear on a cold morning. He gave the dry cleaners two comforters, two pillowcases, and a jacket.

Police obtained a search warrant for Westerfield’s home and found hairs that matched the Van Dam’s dog, a Weimaraner named Layla. According to prosecutors, the dog hair was attached to Danielle’s pajamas and was left behind in Westerfield’s home. In addition, Danielle’s blood was found on Westerfield’s jacket retrieved from the dry cleaner, and hair from her dog was also discovered on the comforter. Danielle’s blood was also found in Westerfield’s RV, the one in which he’d left town to stay in the desert just minutes after Danielle’s parents had discovered that she was missing and frantically dialed 911.

Hundreds of volunteers had been involved in searching the desert, highways, and remote areas for weeks. Finally, on Feb 27, searchers found her nude, partially decomposed body near a remote trail. Some searchers had decided to search this particular area as it was a possible route that Westerfield could have taken to get to the desert the night that Danielle disappeared.

It was enough evidence to charge and convict Westerfield of abduction and murder. As a result, he was sentenced to death on August 21, 2002, and he is still currently awaiting execution. (Because of the continuing 2006 moratorium on executions in California, and the July 2014 ruling on the unconstitutionality of the death penalty in California, it is not known when or if Westerfield will face execution.)^[5]

5 Two Cats, One Murder

When Pennsylvania pet shop worker Lori Auker disappeared on her way to work in May 1989, her family imagined the worst. Unfortunately, their fears were confirmed when after three weeks of searching, Lori’s decomposed body was discovered in a remote wooded area. Her identity was confirmed through dental records, and Deputy Coroner Matthew determined that Lori had died after being stabbed numerous times.

Police immediately focused their attention on her estranged husband, Robert Auker, who had been stalking her in the weeks leading up to her death. The couple was involved in a bitter child custody battle and financial support dispute. However, it was also later revealed that Robert had recently taken out a substantial life insurance policy on her, despite the couple being in the middle of a messy separation when she disappeared.

Robert’s own mother and stepfather reported to police that he had been ferociously scrubbing his vehicle clean before selling it shortly after Lori’s disappearance. Despite his best efforts, forensic examiners found several cat hairs in the car that later proved to be an exact match with Lori’s two cats. The same fur was also stuck to a Velcro splint Auker had been wearing on his hand the day Lori disappeared.

In March 1992, Robert Donald Auker was convicted of kidnapping and murder and sentenced to death.^[6]

4 “Don’t f—ing shoot!”

Eye witness testimony is often crucial when it comes to solving a crime. In this instance, the eyewitness in question was a 20-year-old African Grey parrot named Bud. Several weeks after the 2015 murder of Sand Lake, Michigan, resident Martin Duram, Bud began repeating an argument between two people. It ended in what is believed to be Duram’s last words, as the parrot repeated the phrase, “Don’t f—ing shoot!” mimicking the late owner’s voice.

It turned out that Martin’s wife, Glenna Duram, shot her husband five times in front of Bud before turning the gun on herself in a failed suicide attempt. She suffered a head wound in the incident but survived. She was ultimately convicted of first-degree murder in the killing of her husband after an eight-hour jury deliberation.

While Bud’s eyewitness account was ultimately not used in the court proceeding, for many people involved in the case, it just proved that the jury had come to the right decision. Duram’s parents were sure that the salty-mouthed bird had overheard the couple arguing and was repeating their final words. His mother asserted, “that bird picks up everything and anything, and it’s got the filthiest mouth around.”^[7]

3 Yet Another Mouthy Parrot

In 2014, when Neelam Sharma was killed in her home in Agra, India, along with her pet dog, the local police had few leads to go on. That was until a parrot named Heera provided them with a vital clue.

Heera was the only witness to Sharma’s murder, as the attacker had killed the family dog, who had been barking throughout the struggle. Neelam’s grieving husband, Vijay Sharma, was also at a loss as to who could have perpetrated the violent crime. That is until a family member pointed out to him how Heera would become highly agitated whenever his nephew, Ashutosh, visited or even when his name was mentioned in passing.

Vijay informed the police of his suspicions, and Ashutosh eventually confessed to the robbery-turned-murder of his aunt. Ashutosh and an accomplice had entered the house intending to steal cash and other valuables items. He stabbed his aunt to death when they were caught in the act, afraid she would recognize him.

Police later downplayed the bird’s participation in solving the crime, saying it was an unexplained bite mark on Ashutosh that made him the primary focus of their investigation. However, a local newspaper reported that when investigators spoke with Heera and read through a list of suspects, the bird supposedly squawked, “Usne maara, usne maara,” which translates as “he’s the killer, he’s the killer,” when Ashutosh’s name was read.^[8]

2 A Random Grasshopper

According to forensic entomologist M. Lee Goff, the 1985 murder of a woman in Texas was ultimately solved by a dead, mangled grasshopper that had been found on the victim’s clothing. The insect was missing a limb, and a close investigation of one of the main suspects revealed that he just so happened to have the severed hind leg of a grasshopper attached to the cuff of his pants. When Goff re-assembled the insect, he found it to be a perfect match, and the fracture lines lined up absolutely perfectly.

Although the defense argued in court that ”grasshoppers always break their legs like that,” the evidence was conclusive. It was impossible to deny that the stray grasshopper leg on the suspect matched what was missing from the grasshopper recovered from the victim’s body. The suspect was convicted of the woman’s murder, and many consider this case to signify the birth of forensic etymology.^[9]

1 Scooby-Doo Saves the Day

A real-life Scooby-Doo created legal history in Paris, France, when he actually took to the witness stand to “testify” at his owner’s murder trial. When Scooby’s owner was found hanging from the ceiling in her apartment, her death was initially presumed to be a suicide. However, the woman’s family had some suspicions and persuaded the police to open a murder investigation. They identified a suspect, and the man was brought to court for a preliminary hearing to decide if there was sufficient evidence to launch a full murder inquiry.

As Scooby was in the apartment at the time of the alleged murder, he went to the witness box. When faced with the potential killer, he immediately reacted and “barked furiously.” A court clerk actually recorded Scooby’s barks and noted his “general behavior throughout the cross-examination.” After Scooby gave his “evidence,” Judge Thomas Cassuto praised him for his “exemplary behavior and invaluable assistance.”

While prosecution lawyers welcomed the dog’s appearance in court, others doubted that the animal’s behavior could be interpreted as actual legal binding, legitimate evidence. Some critics of the move pointed out that the two-and-a-half years since the death of Scooby’s owner is the equivalent of approximately 17 dog years. “That’s a long time for a dog to remember what went on,” explained a legal source close to the case.

A spokesman for the Palais de Justice in Paris confirmed that the case was the first time a dog had appeared as a witness in criminal proceedings in France. He said he was almost certain it was also a world first in legal history.^[10]