Every year, there are more discoveries that change the way we see history, and some of these are in places that were long considered to be fully documented. Whether it was a lack of knowledge or a finding completely out of the blue, our most well-known sites still yield discoveries that would have never been found if we hadn’t investigated further.

10 Acres Of Clothing In A Forest Outside A Concentration Camp

For 60 years, an enormous trove of concentration camp history remained missing. In 2015, a group of hikers in Poland made a shocking discovery: acres of discarded prison clothing and other articles related to a tragic location nearby. Near the forest where the unsuspecting tourists made their discovery was an infamous Nazi prison camp: Stutthof.

The most surprising part of the discovery was that most of the clothes were found in plain sight. The Stutthof death camp is now a museum and has a fairly large number of visitors and researchers who all overlooked the artifacts. No real sleuthing was needed; apparently, the forest was not explored since it became the sight of genocide during the Nazi reign.

All sorts of clothing articles were found: shoes, belts, pants, shirts, etc. Stutthof housed 110,000 prisoners throughout history, 85,000 of whom died there. Experiments on their body fat were used for soap production, which adds an ever more gruesome angle.

Apparently, their clothes weren’t worth keeping since they were dumped into the forest surrounding the camp, a fact many historians were not aware of. One fact was quite surprising: the prisoners’ shoes were leather, not wooden clogs as at most prison camps. No one who worked around the camp ever noticed the clothes, and there had been no rumors about them before their discovery.

9 Elaborate Man-Made Elevators At The Colosseum

For centuries, archaeologists have been puzzled as to the purpose of a series of tunnels creating a confusing labyrinth beneath the Roman Colosseum. Apparently, the tunnels were all carefully built to lead to more chambers in various ways. Ultimately, they led beneath the arena where trapdoors went into the fighting area. It is clear that they were built like this intentionally, and in 2011, after 14 years of research, their purpose was finally discovered.

According to German archaeologist Heinz-Jurgen Beste, the hypogeum (Greek for “underground”) served as an elaborate way for animals and warriors to appear from beneath the floor without being noticed by those in the audience. To put in perspective how effective the system was, during a spectacle by Emperor Trajan, 11,000 animals were put through the hypogeum and killed. It was a form of theatrical trickery that would be unmatched for centuries.

It had been there since the Colosseum was first completed in AD 80, but its original purpose was forgotten after the Roman Empire fell. Over the centuries, the hypogeum has seen various uses: a place to store hay, underground gardens, and stalls for businesspeople. Throughout this time, it slowly crumbled until Mussolini took power and had the tunnels cleared.

In 1996, archaeologists started to restore the tunnels. We now know just how intricate they were. They were operated by a series of levers, ropes, and pulleys that created almost impossible spectacles. Even today, many theaters are not as elaborate or creative as the Colosseum was with the hypogeum, which just goes to show how intelligent and clever our ancient ancestors really were.

8 A Cannibalized Body At Jamestown

Jamestown, Virginia, is known as the first permanent English colony in America. It is now one of the most revered historic spots in the United States, and many researchers still go there to unlock more secrets from that time.

However, in summer 2012, historians made a disturbing discovery in a hole that contained butchered horse and dog skeletons. They knew immediately that this hole had probably been dug during a severe famine, but what they found when they dug deeper only shocked them further.

The body was that of a 14-year-old English girl who had undoubtedly died in winter 1609. The winter was so harsh and the food supplies so low that it became known as the “starving time”. It was well-documented how far the colonists of Jamestown went. In 1625, George Percy, governor of Jamestown during the starving time, wrote a letter describing how colonists ate their horses, vermin, and even leather boots. He then went on to say that some had even dug up the dead in desperation.

The young girl found in 2012 was the victim of this starvation. There had been strikes to the back of her head to get to her brain, which would be the most desired tissue. The attempts were clumsy by whoever was trying to harvest her flesh. It was clear that the person had never done this before.

The details of her death are unknown. Was she murdered by another desperate colonist, or had she died of natural causes and been disturbed from the grave? We will probably never know.

7 A Mass Graveyard At Bedlam Asylum

“Bedlam” is now an offhand way of referring to insanity, but at one time, Bedlam was one of the most important mental asylums in the world. In centuries past, mental illness was virtually untreatable and those who were considered harmful were locked up at Bedlam.

It still has its infamous reputation due to the archaic treatments that took place there and the extremely poor conditions. But many have never thought about where the patients were later buried. In 2015, the answer was uncovered.

While digging near Bedlam Asylum at a location that would become the Crossrail’s Liverpool Street station, workers came upon a horrific sight: a mass grave filled with 30 skeletons. A headstone read only “1665,” and it became clear that this was a repository for victims of the Black Plague who had been isolated at Bedlam.

Since excavation first started, an estimated 3,500 corpses have been dug up, although historians estimate that a staggering 30,000 might be waiting to be discovered. This cemetery was in use for almost 200 years—from 1569 to 1738. It was unlike other cemeteries near Bedlam because it was mostly one body on top of another rather than individual graves.

It served as a burial place for the outcasts of English society: those without a religion, family members, or the financial means for a private burial. In 1665, during a particularly infamous outbreak of the plague, it served as a dumping ground for victims of the plague because other cemeteries were simply overflowing.

6 Buried Gas Chambers In Poland

While digging up a road near Sobibor concentration camp, archaeologists made a shocking discovery: a series of gas chambers that had been hidden since the end of World War II. The chambers have a sad history: They were the place of death for an estimated 250,000 Jews who were imprisoned at Sobibor. The archaeologists also found personal items of the victims.

Although the chambers had been buried under an asphalt road, archaeologists used the remaining outline to estimate the size of the chambers and the number of victims that could have been inside. Personal items like a wedding ring were found nearby—even more evidence that the Nazis had tried to cover up before they were defeated.

As Sobibor was efficiently destroyed and few prisoners survived there, we have little information about the camp when compared to others. Eight gas chambers have been discovered, and it took just 15 minutes to kill the victims inside when the chambers were operating. Supposedly, the Germans bred geese to drown out the screams of the victims. The entire concentration camp was demolished after a prisoner uprising in 1943, so the gas chambers are all that remain.

5 Baby Remains At The Yewden Villa

Almost 100 years ago, archaeologists discovered Yewden Villa, a massive Roman villa underneath the English town of Buckinghamshire. For whatever reason, the old archaeologists covered up the villa’s most gruesome relics along with the ruins. They soon forgot about the find, and it took a century for its possessions to be rediscovered.

When Dr. Jill Eyers was going through a museum storeroom in 2008, she unexpectedly rediscovered the remains of 97 infants that had been found at Yewden Villa. There have been many theories about why the infants were found there. From testing on the remains, the infants probably died between a 50-year period from AD 150 to AD 200. Eyers’s theory is that the villa was used as a brothel and that the children, as sickening as it sounds, were simply abandoned by their mothers.

Another theory is that the villa was used in rituals performed by a mother goddess cult and that the infants were a part of it. They were probably stillborn, and their mothers took them to beg the goddess of fertility for healthy children.

Cut marks discovered on the bones could indicate many things: human sacrifice, defleshing before burial, or even dismemberment of the fetus to save the life of the mother. As the Yewden Villa is now buried beneath a field, we won’t know the reason for the infants’ burial there until the site is excavated again.

4 An Aristocratic Burial Ground At Stonehenge

Stonehenge has long mystified the world. A prehistoric monument in England, it is one of the most iconic historical sites in the world. Despite its prominence, we are still mostly in the dark as to its true purpose. Why was it built? Who built it? How was it built? All these questions have multiple different answers, but a discovery this year might shed some light.

During an excavation of a chalk pit near Stonehenge known as Aubrey Hole 7 (there are 56 such pits around Stonehenge), archaeologists discovered a burial ground that held the bodies of 14 females and 9 males, all of whom were at least young adults. It has long been theorized that Stonehenge might be some sort of cemetery for highly respected, aristocratic individuals of the time.

Finding prehistoric cemeteries is extremely rare. Only the most powerful people of the time would have been buried with such respect. The discovery at Aubrey Hole 7 has been dated as far back as 3000 BC, and the fact that women were buried in the same place as men has changed historians’ perspective of gender roles of the time. It shows that women were treated with the same respect as men, something not seen by most cultures of the time. Along with this revelation, it also proves the theory that Stonehenge served as a sort of monument for the dead.

3 Proof Of A Mythical War At An Incan Fortress

In the mountains of Ecuador, the 500-year-old Incan fortress Quitoloma stands as the only survivor of a 17-year war that was long forgotten by historians. The fortress is well-equipped for battle: It contains areas for weapons storage along with 100 structures for occupation. It is sturdy and built from solid stone. From this fortress, historians have pieced together 19 others belonging to the Inca that were used against their adversaries the Cayambe.

In the 16th and 17th centuries, the Spanish conquistadors spoke of a war between the Incas and their neighbors which has been regarded by most as nothing but folklore. However, with the discovery of the multiple fortresses, many are reconsidering their opinions on the matter.

The Incan fortresses tower 3,000 meters (10,000 ft) in the air and were built from stone while the Cayambe fortresses were built from a strong volcanic rock known as cangahua. The fortresses were long forgotten, but their proximity fits the Spanish descriptions of a war that was particularly brutal and lasted an incredible 17 years.

The fortresses were only recently discovered, so more excavation and study is needed. But as it stands, it is clear that the mythical war did indeed happen. However, within a few decades, both of the enemies would face the far superior Spanish forces who easily put them both into submission.

2 Decapitated Gladiators In Ancient London

In 1988, 39 human skulls were discovered at the London Wall—just a short distance from their future home, the Museum of London. They remained a mystery for 25 years while historians tried to determine in which year the skulls were buried and why these people were executed at all. It was found that they were Roman-era fossils, which puts them around the time of Britain’s Roman occupation.

The skulls have been dated from AD 120 to AD 160, and these people most certainly had gruesome deaths. For example, one skull showed signs of a brutal attack by dogs. Due to forensic advances over the years, it was found that all of the skulls displayed some kind of damage from a violent conflict.

Since decapitation was the most common form of execution for defeated gladiators, researchers determined that they were most likely just that. Near the area where the skulls were discovered, an amphitheater stood, which gives even more credence to the gladiator theory.

Disturbingly, the executed gladiators had their heads dumped into open pits, which explains why they were concentrated in single areas. They were left to rot, which explains why animals like dogs would eat their remains. The second century AD was one of the most peaceful times for Roman-era London, but it quite clearly wasn’t so peaceful for everyone.

1 2,000 Bones Beneath Oxford’s Museum Of The History Of Science

The Museum of the History of Science at Oxford does have bones, but they’re on exhibit, not buried beneath the museum. In 1999, the restoration of the museum led to an excavation of the basement, which was built in the 17th century. A stone well and two concrete pits were found, which museum historians had been unaware of. In the concrete pits, old artifacts were found, including chemical vessels and 2,000 bones.

Among the 2,000 bones, 15 humans were found, including three fetuses. Meanwhile, 800 animal bones identified as canine were also discovered. Why were these bones in the basement of the museum? The reason is actually very simple: They were needed for dissection.

In 1710, a German man named Zacharias Conrad von Uffenbach recorded a dissection that he had attended in the basement of the Oxford museum. Known originally as Solomon’s House, it was built in 1683 and was supposed to be for experimental natural philosophy, of which dissection was a key part.

At the time, the only legitimate source of human bodies was executed criminals from the gallows. However, seeing the variety of ages among the bones (ranging from fetus to elderly), it seems that they may have been obtained illegally.

When bodies couldn’t be found, dogs or badgers were used. Interestingly, an African manatee was found and may have been put on display as a mermaid. Once the dissections were complete, the bodies were apparently dumped into pits beneath the museum and covered up.

Nudity is often dismissed as superfluous or sexualized, but these nude scenes left their mark on movie history and culture as a whole.

SEE ALSO: Top 10 Most Famous Adult Film Stars

Nude scenes can seem arbitrary and gratuitous, but some are markers of history that either moved cinema forward, shocked the world, or changed the culture. These are the 10 most iconic moments in movie nudity. A few caveats before the list: these films are natural nude scenes meaning they don’t include prosthetics or CGI (sorry, Mark Wahlberg in Boogie Nights). Here are the most important nude scenes in movie history and their impacts on culture as a whole.

WARNING: Videos in this list contain sensitive content. Images do not.

10 Hedy Lamarr in Ecstasy

Watch or Buy Ecstasy on Amazon

Leave it to Hedy Lamarr—one of the most fascinating people in global film history—to have a controversial nude scene in 1933. She runs naked through a field and also goes for a naked swim in this Czech film from director Gustav Machaty. The plot was liberating, too, as Hedy plays a woman whose husband is impotent. As a result, she decides to have an affair. She also had the first onscreen orgasm depicted in cinema! The film was a major success, slipping into the public before the strict Hays Code took effect. Hedy went on to become an inventor whose work in radio technology was used by Allies during World War II and is also the basis for Bluetooth technology. All of that from an actress who brazenly went nude!

9 Phoebe Cates in Fast Times at Ridgemont High

Watch or Buy Fast Times at Ridgemont High on Amazon

There is no denying the power of the teen sex comedy and its height in the 1980s. From Revenge of the Nerds to Porkys, there were countless films where teens and college students were getting naked and ogling each other all in the name of good fun. One film stands out above the rest and it’s Fast Times at Ridgemont High. Directed by Amy Heckerling, the movie gives a little more attention to its female characters than other movies in the genre (David Lynch was actually approached to direct, but thankfully the honor went to Amy). One of the most memorable scenes is a dream sequence in which one young man is in the bathroom dreaming about Phoebe Cates slowly emerging from a swimming pool and opening up her red bikini top to show her bare chest. Why is this important? It’s definitely one of the pornier nude scenes in movie history that managed to elevate the genre of the teen sex comedy. When people think of the genre and this movie, in particular, that scene comes to mind.

8 Eva Green, Louis Garrell, and Michael Pitt in The Dreamers

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Bernardo Bertolucci’s The Dreamers is an ode to bohemian youth in 1960s Europe as an American spends time in Paris in 1968. He meets a brother and sister duo whose parents are out of town, so the three stay at the family apartment and spend time exploring that very 60s notion of free love. Threesomes have been depicted on screen in all kinds of ways (Y Tu Mama Tambien is a great example), but The Dreamers introduced incest and political unrest. The sensuality in the movie is juxtaposed with the greater cultural strife felt in Paris in the late ’60s. It feels like the entire city—and the world—is about to explode, and in this scene, the three find their curiosities also explode as the damn bursts, and they engage in a menage a trois. The dreamers love to escape the greater political revolutions going on around them, either in the apartment without parents, at the movies, or with one another’s bodies. It’s a beautiful scene in a poetic film that shows how people actively ignore the struggles of the outside world.

7 Dakota Johnson and Jamie Dornan in 50 Shades of Gray

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The film 50 Shades of Gray may be easy to dismiss for its campy eroticism, but the truth is that these wildly successful books-turned-movies brought S&M and kink to mainstream Hollywood. A young woman meets a powerful man who introduces her to a world of BDSM. The indie film Secretary before it playfully explored some of these themes, but 50 Shades was such a monumental hit by comparison. BDSM in a loving relationship simply wasn’t exposed to the mainstream in such a financially successful way before this. Star Dakota Johnson has been quoted talking about her admiration of BDSM that she developed after filming the movie. There were sequels, of course, which turned kink into a franchise.

6 Kathleen Turner and William Hurt in Body Heat

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In classic film noir (such as The Big Sleep, To Have and Have Not, and Double Indemnity), sex was confined largely to innuendo and subtle wordplay. To some extent, that was a response to the conservative production codes of the era, but it also lent the films a kind of latent sexual tension: We couldn’t see the characters having sex, so we imagined them having sex for the whole film. But in the ‘70s and ‘80s, we got to see the sex. And in Body Heat, we got to see a lot of it, as William Hurt’s lawyer and Kathleen Turner’s alluring, married socialite found themselves having a torrid, fatal affair. Indeed, it’s hard to pick one particular sex scene among the many featured in this film, but we’ll go with the mostly clothed one in which Turner, playing vulnerable but never taking her eyes off him, strangely seduces Hurt into breaking into her own house. After 1981, whenever anyone referred to a “steamy legal thriller”—and, curiously, people often did—visions of Body Heat began to dance in everyone’s heads.

5 Chloe Sevigny and Vincent Gallo in The Brown Bunny

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There are rumors about several realistic sex scenes in film history that are unsimulated, like Gaspar Noe’s Love and 1979’s Caligula. Still, one such famous scene that’s long been believed to be real is from the 2003 Indie film The Brown Bunny. This isn’t the only “real” sex scene in movie history, but it is by far the most famous. Chloe Sevigny gives graphic oral sex to Vincent Gallo who directed this bleak film about a traveling man looking for meaning on his way to California. Chloe Sevigny has said she thought the film would barely be seen and was surprised that this art-house flick got so much attention. She says the scene didn’t hurt her career, only some of her personal relationships and that she and her mom don’t talk about the movie at all. That’s fair.

4 Janet Leigh in Psycho

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Filmmaker Alexandre O. Philippe has been quoted as saying, “There were movies before the shower scene and movies after the shower scene.” While it’s not the most explicitly nude scene on this list, it essentially did away with the censorship code that ruled Hollywood for nearly thirty years. Not only that, but it made people terrified to ever take a shower again. This scene is another one that is so iconic, some people might not even know what movie it is from. It’s been widely parodied, remade, and referenced ever since its debut in 1960 to horrified crowds around the country. Director Alfred Hitchcock fooled censors by using extreme closeups and revolutionary editing techniques for a total of 78 camera shots and 52 edits. Not only was Janet Leigh in her bra and underwear having a post-coital conversation with a man she was not married to, but this shower stabbing had censors in a tizzy. The most controversial scene shot? The shot of the toilet flushing at the end of the scene. That was actually Hollywood’s first toilet scene. As for the nudity, Janet wore moleskin on her nipples to hide her most sensitive areas and a body double, Olympic swimmer Marli Renfro, stood in for her for some shots. Between the two women, the most famous shower scene in history was made.

3 Michael Fassbender in Shame

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Full frontal male nude scenes are very disproportional to female full frontal scenes. Leave it to the film Shame about a man struggling with sex addiction to boldly show Michael Fassbender’s penis as he walks in and out of frame. The NC-17 film is filled with nude scenes and sex scenes devoid of love to show what this man’s shameless addiction feels like. As shocking as the movie is as a whole, it’s most memorable for Fassbender’s penis making its way on camera. It’s rare to see this much male nudity in a movie that isn’t being used for comedic effect, which has partially become what the drama is most famous for. In some ways, that’s a “shame” because the movie is very good, but on the other hand, the world got to see Michael Fassbender nude.

2 Jaye Davidson in The Crying Game

Watch or Buy The Crying Game on Amazon

Jaye Davidson’s role as Dil in The Crying Game is an example of a nude scene advancing the plot. This story about a man who goes searching for a deceased soldier’s lover and ends up also falling for her. The movie takes a shocking turn when it is revealed that Dil is a transgender woman (shocking for 1992, anyway). The reveal of Jaye Davidson’s body is one of the most shocking and well-done twists in history while also showing the layers and complexities of gender and sexuality. The movie as a whole is filled with more twists and turns.

1 Sharon Stone’s Leg Cross in Basic Instinct

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It’s actually pretty rare to see a flash of a woman’s downstairs on the big screen, which is why Sharon Stone’s crotch flash was so shocking. It’s the kind of scene people know about even if they’ve never seen the movie. Sharon is effortlessly cool, wearing a white minidress with her legs crossed as she smokes a cigarette during an interrogation. She keeps her cool and her steady gaze as she very deliberately uncrosses her legs, opens them slightly, and crosses them again. She’s not wearing underwear and she lets everyone in the room see it! The scene is not only shocking and sexy, but it shows Sharon’s character as in control. She commands attention, and she knows how to use what she’s got to gain more power. This is a leg cross that will never be forgotten.

About The Author: Stephanie Weber is a pop culture writer and comedian who has been published in Slate, The AV Club, Bustle, Refinery29, Reductress, and more. She is a staff writer for Mr. Skin.

These days, nearly everyone in the developed world has a smartphone with access to the internet, which means that cellphone apps are more important than ever before. Millions upon millions of apps are downloaded every year, but not every app on your phone is all that important when you think about it.

Sometimes, an app is useful once, but then it’s quickly forgotten. Then, there are those apps that helped change the way people interact with one another. Those are the apps that really have meaning in our lives, and these ten represent the most important apps released between 2010 and 2019, listed in no particular order.

SEE ALSO: 10 Ways Your Smartphone Is Ruining Your Life

10 Uber

Carpooling and paying for a ride were nothing new when Uber first hit the app stores in 2011, but that didn’t stop the app from creating an entirely new industry dubbed “Ridesharing.” Ridesharing apps like Uber, Lyft, Wingz, and Sidecar have taken over the market in a way few apps could ever hope to emulate, and they’ve also had a drastic impact on preexisting industries like taxis. Though Uber has gained some competition in the marketplace, it remains the dominant ridesharing app and is found on some 110 million users’ phones around the world.

By the end of 2019, Uber had found its way into 785 metropolitan areas across the globe, with coverage in 63 countries. Despite its growth and value on the marketplace, Uber and other ridesharing apps aren’t without controversy. Uber has been criticized for paying its drivers too little for the work they do, causing massive disruptions to the taxicab business, and for putting more cars on the road.^[1]

Related: 10 Ways Uber Is Shaping The Modern World

9 Instagram

Though it originally debuted exclusively on iOS in 2010, Instagram found its way to Android devices less than two years later to become one of the most important photo and video sharing apps on the market. Instagram is a relatively simple app, but despite its simplicity, it has exploded in popularity all over the world to include one billion registered users by the end of 2019. The app has become a focal point for viral social media issues, and it’s also heavily used by celebrities who use it to communicate with their fans.

It’s also an excellent way for so-called “Social Media Influencers” to make a living by sharing aspects of their lives while promoting products, or speaking about issues that they consider important. Instagram is hardly the only media-sharing app on the market, but it is easily the most used across the globe. Concerns about its valuation were put to rest when it was acquired by Facebook in 2015 for $1 billion in cash and stock.^[2]

Related: 9 Sinister Facts About The Dark Side Of Instagram [DISTURBING]

8 Tinder

Years ago, during the dark ages when the Internet was considered a place to meet dangerous people and otherwise undesirable folks, online dating was taboo. Back in the ‘90s, people would never tell their friends they met someone online, but by 2010, it was fairly commonplace thanks to sites like Match.com and others. While there have been apps that helped people meet one another before Tinder hit the market in 2012, none changed the way people got together quite like Tinder did, and it has gone on to become a significant aspect of many young people’s lives.

Tinder is fairly simple in its operation: set up a profile and get to swiping left if you’re not interested in someone, or right if you are. If you and someone you swiped right on did the same for you, you can link up through the app. Tinder has been criticized for creating a more prominent “hook-up” culture than existed previously, but these claims are difficult to quantify. What is easy to quantify are the billion+ swipes the app sees on a daily basis. Pictured above are the two most right-swiped people on Tinder in the UK.^[3]

Related: Failed At Tinder? Here Are 10 Surprising Things That Make You Less Attractive To Others

7 Snapchat

Snapchat first hit app stores in September 2011, and within a very short period of time, the app grew to become one of the largest image-sharing apps on the market. In less than a year, the service was processing 25 images each second, and since the service added video compatibility, Snapchat has seen growth to include more than 10 billion video views per day with over 210 million daily active users.

Snapchat’s success with its “story” feature pushed the competition to emulate it, and despite featuring the ability to remove any seen content shortly after it’s been viewed, more and more people have flocked to it as a viable image sharing platform. By limiting the amount of time a video or image can remain on the platform, Snapchat managed to continue to grow its sizable user base without having to invest heavily in expensive storage options. This has helped the company grow faster than most tech companies with similar offerings.^[4]

6 Pokémon Go

In terms of quantity, there are probably more games on the various app stores than there are utilities, and with that much content, it can be hard for one game to stand out from the rest. Then, there’s Pokémon Go, a game that not only became an instant success, but it also got people to leave their houses, venture out into the world, and capture digital creatures of all different kinds.

Since the game’s release in 2016, it has been downloaded more than one billion times. The game is entirely free, but players can purchase upgrades and tools to help in their quest to “catch ‘em all.” By the beginning of 2019, the game had grossed more than $3 billion, which is quite a lot for a free app. Pokémon Go’s biggest impact has been cultural, having bridged the gap between casual and die-hard gamers across the world. By March 2019, users around the world have walked a combined 23,000,000,000 kilometers, which is the same as ‘walking’ between Earth and Pluto three times.^[5]

Related: Top 10 Fascinating Facts About Pokemon Go

5Candy Crush Saga

If Pokemon Go helped people get off the couch and out into the world, Candy Crush Saga did the exact opposite. In terms of play mechanics, Candy Crush didn’t have a lot to offer as far as anything new; rather, it evolved earlier matching games into a unique playfield spread over an ever-increasing number of levels. The game debuted in 2012, and despite being free, it’s one of the highest-grossing apps of all time thanks to its perfection of the so-called “freemium” model.

Since its release, Candy Crush has been downloaded more than 2.7 billion times. Gamers spent an average of $4.2 million every day during 2018, and by early 2019, the game had pulled in an estimated $1.5 billion overall. The game’s success drew the attention of Blizzard, which purchased its developer, King, for $5.9 billion. Money aside, the game has had a significant cultural impact, having spawned multiple spinoff games, a television game show, and numerous references across popular culture.^[6]

4Apple Pay

Years ago, science fiction dreamed of a day where we could abandon our paltry coins and bills to be replaced by credits or some other currency tied to a thumbprint or other means. That day became a reality in 2014 with the advent of Apple Pay. Technically, digital wallets have been around, in one form or another, for a long time, but Apple managed to put one in nearly everyone’s pocket, and in less than a year, Google followed suit.

By utilizing a person’s smartphone, Apple managed to create a means of payment, which could be authenticated via password, thumbprint, or even, facial recognition. The science fiction predicted decades previously had finally come around, and it has since adapted to work on smartwatches as well. The impact of Apple Pay, Google Pay, and other similar apps can be seen everywhere credit cards are taken, which means you can pay with any digital means almost everywhere on the planet.^[7]

Related: Top 10 Epic Apple Fails

3 Vine

People want content, and for a long time, that content was considerably long. Movies are usually 90+ minutes while television shows run from 21 minutes to an hour, so it stands to reason that video content would follow suit. It pretty much did until the release of Vine in 2013. The app launched the popularity of the short-form video with each segment lasting only six seconds. If you thought a six-second video couldn’t garner the attention of anyone, you would be wrong. At its height, Vine had more than 200 million active users.

Vine survived until 2017, at which point, the platform was retired. It seemed like the impact of Vine was minimal until it was replaced by a Chinese app, Tik-Tok. Like Vine, Tik-Tok used microblogging short-form videos of between three and 60 seconds. The app took off like its predecessor and has gone on to see some 500 million monthly users in China and the rest of the world. Both Vine and Tik-Tok had a massive cultural impact, especially with younger users between the ages of 16 and 24 with a majority being female.^[8]

Related: 10 Terrifying YouTube Videos That Will Keep You Awake At Night

2 Siri

Back in the dark ages, people with cellphones had to get things done by typing/tapping some sort of input. Fortunately, those days are mostly behind us thanks to the advent of digital assistants and the release of Siri back in October 2011. Siri became a friend and companion to many iPhone users across the globe, and she—yes, Siri is personified as a woman—became a cultural icon. Siri effectively replaced the need to type anything into a phone since she can respond in real-time to vocal requests. If you need to schedule a meeting, order food, or check your stocks, just ask Siri.

Since Siri proved to be immeasurably popular with Apple users, other companies got into the digital assistant game. Google, Samsung, and many more have their own digital assistant, but it’s the one who came first that dominates the market. Siri did something no app had done before when, in 2017’s The Lego Batman Movie, she voiced the role of ‘Puter.^[9]

Related: 9 Signs Apple Is Being Run By Supervillains

1 FaceTime

Another technology that was promised to folks in the 20th century through numerous science fiction stories was video communication. Over the years, video chatting showed up on a number of devices and computer applications, but it needed a push from Apple to finally land in people’s pockets via a reliable application in FaceTime. The app first debuted in mid-2010, and while it wasn’t the first app to link people all over the world in video chats, it was the first to gain wide acceptance such that many people refer to video chatting with someone as “facetiming” whether they are using the app or not.

Since its development, other companies have expanded their own video chatting tech, but as those apps grow and develop, so too does FaceTime. The app was so successful and widely implemented, video chats have become the norm. Whether you use FaceTime to see your friends and loved ones across the world, or you use Skype, Google Chat, Facebook Messenger, or any of the dozens of viable apps, they all owe their success to Apple’s FaceTime.^[10]

About The Author: Jonathan is a graphic artist, illustrator, and writer. He is a Retired Soldier and enjoys researching and writing about history, science, theology, and many other subjects.

As summed up by Homer Simpson, the most important philosopher of the 20th century: Beer is the cause of and solution to all of life’s problems. The amber liquid deserves a fair share of the credit for a lot of major changes and advances throughout humanity’s history.

10Refrigeration

Fridges keep our food fresh and safe for our consumption. They are absolutely critical to our survival and the way we have flourished in the modern world. We also use them to keep our beers nice and cold, which is actually what they were created for.

Brewing traditionally only took place during the cooler months, as it is an exothermic process. It generates heat, and too much heat can kill the yeast and ruin the beer. For hundreds of years, blocks of ice were harvested and stored in cellars to keep the beer cool. Then came the breakthrough of mechanical refrigeration by Carl Von Linde, who was employed by the Spaten Brewery in Munich.

By the 1880s, refrigeration was common in breweries. It was expensive, but it let them brew all year round. It further let breweries grow and pop up in locations far from ice sources. This also led to the dominance of cooler lager beers . . . as well as, eventually, the presence of refrigerators in everyone’s home.

9Glass Bottles

While not creating glass, beer was the driver behind the glass bottles that contain everything from amber ales to water, ketchup, baby milk, and medicine. This it was one of the earliest examples of large-scale mechanical production, which would flourish so incredibly in the 20th century.

Michael Joseph Owens was the man behind the machine. Owens linked up with Libbey Glass to market his product with the aim of using it to mass-produce long-neck beer bottles. Owens’s machine was a raging success. By 1903, he had created a commercial machine that could churn out 12 glass bottles per minute. By 1912, it could make 50 every minute. The machine created by Owens was used around the globe by 1915.

The company formed by Owens owned the rights to making brandy, wine, and specialty bottles. Exclusive rights were sold to Heinz for ketchup, Hazel-Atlas for general bottles, and Ball Brothers for fruit jars.

8Pasteurization And Germ Theory

The process of pasteurization is now commonly associated with milk. It involves heating and subsequently cooling substances to remove harmful bacteria. However, the man who discovered the benefits of this process, Louis Pasteur, wasn’t worried about milk—he was trying to fix beer.

Local breweries wanted to know what was causing their beer to spoil, and helping local industries was part of Pasteur’s job at the University of Lille. They hired Pasteur, who demonstrated that bacteria caused this—bacteria that could be removed by heating and cooling the beer. He called the process pasteurization.

This process, all from beer experiments, led to the development and proof of germ theory, which stated that outside pathogens cause disease. Previously, it had been thought that pathogens spontaneously generated inside a substance rather than coming from without. This in turn led to vaccinations and modern medicines, all thanks to people getting tired of sour beer.

7The Thermometer

James Joule needed the extremely specific conditions and skills he learned in his brewery to measure and define mechanical heat. For example, the ambient temperature had to be ultra-precise, he had to work alone, and he had to work for many hours uninterrupted. Under these unique constraints, forced by brewing, he performed his experiments that would affect the entire field of physics.

Joule recognized that he needed a more precise thermometer, giving us the mercury model that is so key today, rather than the inaccurate air thermometers that were previously commonplace. Perhaps even more importantly, Joule devised the mechanical heat ratio in his brewery, which eventually became the basis of the science of energy.

6The pH Scale

The pH scale is an integral part of modern science across several fields. It defines the acidity or alkalinity of a solution. A pH of 7 is neutral, and anything lower is an acid, while anything higher is alkaline, 14 being the most alkaline. The scale describes optimal levels for liquids, such as within the body and in drinking water. And it all came about thanks to a bunch of beer lovers annoyed that they couldn’t consistently measure their beer.

Frustrated brewers at Carlsberg hated having no standard measure of describing their product’s acidity. They had to use subjective terms that were not precise. Creating the scale enabled them to monitor the fermentation of their beer as well as allow anybody to repeat their manufacturing process and get the same result.

5The T-Test

When conducting studies, you ideally want a large sample size to verify your hypothesis. But in life, things rarely go ideally. What do you do when such a size isn’t available?

That problem was faced by Guinness breweries, since they couldn’t easily repeat tests on new barley varieties. Sample sizes were small, and it would take another year for a new crop, which would be subject to different weather conditions. It was like trying to gauge a population of 1,000 using a group of 10.

Brewer William Seally Gosset devised the t-test as a solution to this problem, publishing it in an international journal under the name “Student,” as he was not allowed to use his real name. In more technical terms, the t-test is about testing hypotheses drawn from a small sample when the standard deviation is unknown. Statisticians have Guinness to thank for it.

4Carbon Dioxide

Air was once thought to be one homogenous substance, not the combination of gases we know it is today. It was all thanks to beer that Joseph Priestley discovered carbon dioxide. And with it, he discovered the existence of individual gases.

Living next door to a brewery, Priestley observed that gas floating off the fermenting mixtures fell to the ground, indicating that it was heavier than the air around it. He had discovered carbon dioxide. In addition, he observed that it extinguished lit wood. Priestley figured out how to produce it without alcohol, inventing carbonated beverages as well, so beer also led to the creation of all your favorite fizzy drinks.

This monumental discovery inspired Priestley to figure out what other kinds of “airs” (later called gases) floated around. In the end, the heavy air coming off his beer let Priestley discover not only CO₂ and oxygen but six other gases, including laughing gas—a feat unequalled.

3The Age Of Exploration

The European voyages to discover and colonize land during the Age of Exploration were very long, with little to no chance of stopping in at a port to resupply. So the rations aboard had to last long enough that the crew would not die of starvation on the journey.

When Christopher Columbus left the shores of the Iberian Peninsula seeking the New World, the foodstuffs onboard included hard cheeses, honey, olives, and anchovies—and, of course, barrels and barrels and barrels of beautiful beer. It wasn’t strange for a sailor to be rationed over a gallon of beer a day. Water would spoil below deck, so sailors in the Age of Exploration drank nothing but beer on their long voyages.

2The Success Of Colonial America

Continuing on our early American history theme, the flourishing of colonial America would not have been possible without history’s favorite drink.

Europeans of the era were not fans of drinking water. Back in the old country, it was considered unsafe, so they all drank beer instead. The first settlers had to make do with water, though. The further south they settled, the more likely that this water was to be infected with dangerous pathogens.

When the Pilgrims were contemplating traveling to America in the 1600s, one of their key concerns was getting sick because they had to drink water. The sailors, fearing that the passengers were consuming too much of their beer, dumped the Pilgrims farther north than they would’ve liked. The settlers found the northern water to be tasty to drink, much to their surprise.

In the Virginia colony, 1630 finally brought about some relief—they began to brew beer. The colony had been unsustainable with the previous death rate, so the arrival of alcohol kept them alive.

1Communism

There was no more divisive and influential philosophical doctrine in the 19th and 20th centuries than communism. The original Communist Manifesto, written by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, led to over a century of international political turmoil and tension. The book would never have come about without a legendary beer-drinking session between the two men.

Both Engels and Marx were no strangers to the drop. Marx’s first year of university was a “wild rampage,” in the words of his father. The following years saw him regularly knocking back pints while finishing his PhD. Engels’s preferred tipple was wine, with a month-long tour of France seeing him drunk for almost all of it.

While traveling through Paris, Engels arranged to grab a beer with Marx. What followed was far more than a beer or two. As one historian put it, it was 10 beer-soaked days, over which Engels and Marx exchanged ideas, breaking down and formulating what would become the basis of communism—all thanks to the mind-altering amber ale.

Hossey has been following you, so why don’t you follow him on Twitter?

Another week has gone by in what stands to be remembered as the longest year in human history. Much of the world remains in lockdown to stop the spread of the coronavirus, while world economies grow stagnant and hover within reach of a potential depression.

Not everything that goes on is about the virus, as there were several horrible and not-so horrible events that happened this past week. Of course, the virus does touch on most news stories these days, but life goes on, one way or another, as a pandemic continues, and the world watches.

10 Arguments Against Gun Control

10 Nova Scotia Rampage Left 22 Dead

On Sunday, a man disguised as a police officer went on a shooting rampage across the province of Nova Scotia for more than 12 hours. The rampage spread from a single neighborhood out across the province, seemingly choosing victims at random. The gunman also disguised his vehicle to resemble one driven by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, and his victims include a police officer.^[1] The rampage stands as the worst the North American nation has ever witnessed, and it wasn’t long before calls for stricter gun laws were being made throughout Canada.

The massacre is the biggest mass shooting since the 1989 Montreal Ecole Polytechnique college shooting, which killed 14, and saw an overhaul of Canada’s strict gun-control laws. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau signaled that new regulations would likely be on the horizon following the latest shooting, which saw 22 victims killed; the gunman was also killed. No motive has been discovered for the senseless assault, which began around 2230 on Saturday and continued to around Noon the following day. The massacre left bodies in the communities of Wentworth, Debert, Shubenacadie/Milford, and Enfield, which is also where police shot and killed the gunman.^[2]

9 Large Companies Bled The Small Business Loan Fund Dry In Two Weeks

The United States government recently passed a COVID-19 stimulus package, which included $349 billion in funding for small business loans.^[3] The money was meant to help small businesses continue paying their employees while keeping the bills at bay, but in less than two weeks, the program was out of money as of Thursday last week. By Monday, it became clear how this happened, and it wasn’t the result of a plethora of small businesses; it turned out that some hotel and restaurant chains applied for money, and received it, leaving many small business owners with nothing.

Some of the companies that took money from the program included Shake Shack, Potbelly, and Ruth’s Chris Steak House and another subsidiary of Ruth’s Hospitality Group. That company took $20 million^[4] from the fund, while Shake Shack managed to get half as much. Since the news came out that large businesses, some of which are publicly traded, drained the fund dry, they have given their loans back. Shake Shack did so almost immediately, and after constant delaying tactics, congress is finally set to pass legislation to boost the fund by an additional $310 billion to ensure the money gets to the businesses that truly need it.^[5]

8 Pet Cats Aren’t Immune To COVID-19 Infections

There’s still not a lot known about the nature of COVID-19 and exactly where it originated, but it is known to be a zoonotic virus, which means it can jump from animals to humans and vice-versa. It likely came from pangolins in a Wuhan food market, but it turns out it can hop from a human host to a pet cat, as was confirmed in two separate cases in New York City on Wednesday. The two cases are the first known pets in the United States to test positive for COVID-19, though they had mild respiratory illnesses and are expected to recover.

The first cat to be tested was diagnosed by a veterinarian after it began showing sings of a mild respiratory infection. None of the people in the house were confirmed to be carriers, so it’s unknown how the cat came in contact with the virus. The second cat tested positive across the city, though a different cat in the same household remains uninfected.^[6] The new finding doesn’t conclude that cats can transmit the virus to humans once they’ve become infected, as that would be a concern, seeing as cats run rampant through many parts of NYC, and could potentially be vectors for the disease.^[7]

7 Protests Erupt Over Coronavirus Shelter-in-place Orders

As infection numbers begin to fall from various “stay at home” orders across the United States, more and more people are defying those orders in protest. Across the country, people left their homes to demand the state governments allow them to return to work, and while some in the crowds wore masks and observed social distancing guidelines, many more didn’t follow that guidance. While this was happening, President Trump Tweeted in support of the protesters, calling for the liberation of Michigan, Virginia, and Minnesota.

One media outlet saw the rise in tension as “America on the brink” of insurrection, as tensions continue to rise. Right-wing groups have organized rallies in Texas, Indiana, New Hampshire, Nevada, Maryland, Utah, Wisconsin, Washington, and Colorado.^[8] While nothing reached the level of armed insurrection, the defiance of stay at home guidance from state governments has elevated the risk of increasing the spread of COVID-19. Dan Patrick, the Lieutenant Governor of Texas, was quoted as saying, “There are more important things than surviving” in reference to the nation’s economy, which somewhat mirrored prior comments he’s made about risking health over economic stability.

6 Deal Extends Netanyahu’s Rule as Rival Accepts Israeli Unity Government

The political unrest in Israel may be coming to an end following an agreement made between Benjamin Netanyahu and his political rival on Monday. The agreement between the embattled Prime Minister and his rival, Benny Gantz, came as the two came together to combat the spread of COVID-19. Israel has been in political limbo for over a year, resulting in three elections, which have failed to form a government. The new agreement keeps Netanyahu in place as Prime Minister through to 2021, at which time he will step down in favor of Gantz.

Gantz had been Netanyahu’s challenger, but the agreement to establish a unity government dissolves the yearlong political impasse, though critics quickly pointed out the advantage the move gives to the embattled Prime Minister. Netanyahu has been the target of prosecutors intent on removing him from power over charges of corruption, which he will be able to fight from a position of considerable strength as the sitting PM.^[9] Gantz argued that given the public health crisis, it was the only responsible move they could make, saying on Twitter, “We prevented a fourth election. We will preserve democracy. We will fight the coronavirus and take care of all of Israel’s citizens.”^[10]

10 Attempts At Arab-Israeli Peace

5 Oil Market Completely Crashes To Negative Territory

Monday was a historic day in the world of oil trading, as the price for a barrel of crude dropped to $0, and then continued its downward fall to -$37.63 a barrel. That’s the lowest price for crude oil since the NYMEX opened up oil futures for trading in 1983. The drop resulted from a massive sellout, which came as customers ceased buying oil for lack of anywhere to put it. Storage locations have almost completely filled all over the world as more and more people cease activity due to social distancing and stay at home orders due to the spread of COVID-19.

Last week’s deal to slash oil production by 9.7 million barrels per day in May and June may have been the deepest cut the organization ever agreed to, but it was just a drop in the barrel compared to total production. The move didn’t help oil futures trading at all, as the need for energy has continued to plummet. President Trump ordered the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to “put as much as 75 million barrels into the reserves themselves” in the hope of repairing the trading deficit. With the cost of barrels in the negative, buyers would be paid to take delivery off the producers’ hands instead of the other way around.^[11]

4 Unconfirmed Study Finds Hydroxychloroquine Has No Benefit

Medical teams around the world have been testing the possible effectiveness of hydroxychloroquine as a drug capable of helping patients suffering from COVID-19, but a study released on Tuesday contradicts all the data thus far, stating that the drug doesn’t just offer no benefit in fighting the disease, but it also causes more harm. The study, which was made from a review of veterans’ medical charts, was posted on medrxiv.org and has yet to be peer-reviewed or published in a medical journal. That type of review and formal publication will come later, and there are additional studies being conducted at present to determine the drug’s effectiveness in treating patients with COVID-19 infections.^[12]

The study in question analyzed 368 patients, 97 of whom suffered a death rate of 27.8% after taking the drug, while the 158 who didn’t had an 11.4% fatality rate. “An association of increased overall mortality was identified in patients treated with hydroxychloroquine alone. These findings highlight the importance of awaiting the results of ongoing prospective, randomized, controlled studies before widespread adoption of these drugs.” The study was conducted by researchers at the Columbia VA Health Care System in South Carolina, the University of South Carolina, and the University of Virginia.^[13]

3 Something May Be Wrong With Kim Jong-Un’s Health

Kim Jong-un, the leader of the Democratic People’s Republic of North Korea, is rumored to be gravely ill, though information about the leader’s health and status have long been classified at above Top Secret levels for the traditionally secretive nation. News… or rather, the lack of news surrounding the rogue nation’s leader began spreading after it was reported that he underwent an unspecified cardiovascular procedure on April 12th. He missed an annual celebration of his grandfather, the father of the DPRK, which gave rise to the belief that something may have gone wrong in the leader’s care.

On Tuesday, as rumors about his condition continued to spread online, President Trump commented about the situation. “Well, these are reports that came out, and we don’t know. We don’t know. I’ve had a very good relationship with him. […] I wish him well. Because if he is in the kind of condition that the reports say… that’s a very serious condition. […] If somebody else were in this position, we would have been, right now, at war with North Korea. And we’re not at war. And we’re nowhere close to war with North Korea.”^[14]

2 Iran Successfully Launched Its First Military Satellite

On Wednesday, Iran launched its first military satellite, which U.S. Space Command confirmed at 4:03 PM with a Tweet. The 18th Space Control Squadron Tweeted that it was tracking two objects, NOUR 01, the satellite, and the rocket body that brought it into a stable orbit. Iran didn’t stay quiet about its success with Iranian State TV, reporting that “Iran’s first military satellite, Noor, was launched this morning from central Iran in two stages. The launch was successful, and the satellite reached orbit.”

The satellite was placed 264 miles above the Earth’s surface, according to the Revolutionary Guard, which was responsible for launching the two-stage satellite from Iran’s Central Desert.^[15] Around the same time news of the launch began making the rounds online, U.S. President Trump Tweeted that he ordered the “United States Navy to shoot down and destroy any and all Iranian gunboats if they harass our ships at sea.” It’s unclear if the two incidents are related, though tensions between the two nations have been on the rise of late. Iran’s gunboats routinely harass U.S. vessels in international waters off the coast of Iran.^[16]

1 YouTube Censoring Videos Not Supported By The WHO

On Wednesday, in an interview with CNN,^[17] Susan Wojcicki, the CEO of YouTube, described changes in the site’s policy, which would bring about the removal of all manner of videos. Specifically, she described anything that was “medically unsubstantiated,” and elaborated with examples of people claiming that taking vitamin C or turmeric as a possible cure for COVID-19 were being removed. She also said that any information that wasn’t backed up by the World Health Organization’s recommendations regarding the virus would be removed from the platform. Needless to say the implications of that as it pertains to the Chinese government’s influence in the WHO is concerning, considering Google’s already checkered past when it comes to supporting the Communist government of China against the people of China.

YouTube regularly removes videos from the website when they violate the site’s community guidelines. The practice has kicked into overdrive with new policy changes to ensure that information that could go against Google’s views doesn’t make its way to or remain on the site. Another example she provided of videos taken down recently were those pertaining to claims that new 5G cell towers were spreading the virus. Ms. Wojcicki didn’t go into details as to the number of videos being removed under the new policy changes, but she did acknowledge that the changes were being implemented much faster than they had in the past, which she attributed to the ongoing pandemic.^[18]

Top 10 Ways Google Is Censoring Free Speech

You’d think that as the world got more modern, we’d find ways to solve our differences that didn’t involve blowing each other’s brains out. And, luckily, that’s true! But there was still plenty of horrific violence, including the deadliest wars in human history, in the 20th century, when mankind entered a period of shocking technological advancement and increasing levels of interconnectedness. Let’s take a look at some of the wars that defined the 1900s. 

10. World War I 

Often referred to as the Great War, World War I (1914-1918) was triggered by the chain reaction activation of a complex web of political alliances, militarism, and imperial rivalries, all kicked off by the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria-Hungary. 

Nationalistic pride and 19th century tactics, however, soon clashed with the reality of modern warfare. The carnage was so severe that it forced men on all sides to dig down into the mud in order to survive. Trench warfare has thus come to symbolize the conflict as a whole. Machine guns, advanced artillery, poison gas, tanks, and aircraft all made their battlefield debuts and contributed to staggering casualties and a seemingly endless succession of failed offensives on all sides. The Eastern Front witnessed fluid and dynamic battles, while the conflict in the Middle East, Africa, and Asia added global dimensions. The war ended with an Allied victory in 1918, the signing of an Armistice, and the Treaty of Versailles in 1919. To this day, the war is often looked at as even more wholly unnecessary and tragic than other wars.  

9. Russian Civil War 

The Russian Civil War unfolded between 1918 and 1922, and was kicked off by the Russian Revolution of 1917. It marked a struggle for power and ideology among various factions, primarily the Bolshevik Red Army, anti-Bolshevik White Army, regional nationalist forces, and foreign interventionist troops.

The conflict began with the Bolsheviks, led by Vladimir Lenin, trying to consolidate national power after the October Revolution in 1917, during World War I. Opposition to the Bolsheviks coalesced into the White Army, composed of diverse elements ranging from monarchists to liberal democrats, seeking to resist a communist takeover. 

The frontlines of the Russian Civil War stretched across vast expanses, from the Western borders to Siberia. The Red Army, despite facing internal and external challenges and numerous setbacks, ultimately secured victory. The Russian empire therefore fell. The Soviet Union took its place, and would last until the end of the Cold War in 1991. 

8. Spanish Civil War

In the same way that the Mexican American War served as a proving ground for many of the tactics and commanders who’d later define the American Civil War, the Spanish Civil War – fought from 1936-1939 – gave the great powers of Europe a chance to test their mettle before being thrown into the furnace of World War II. 

The war erupted when General Francisco Franco, leading a coalition of conservative, monarchist, and fascist forces, sought to overthrow the democratically elected Second Spanish Republic. The conflict was characterized by a deep ideological divide, with the Republicans, a coalition of left-wing and anti-fascist forces, opposing Franco’s Nationalists. The International Brigades, composed of volunteers from various countries, including anti-fascist activists and intellectuals, joined the Republicans. Meanwhile, Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy supported Franco’s Nationalists. 

Like all wars in the first half of the 20th century, this one was particularly savage. It was defined by roughly equal numbers and frontline stalemate until close to the end of the conflict, when the nationalists surged forward and destroyed the remaining Republicans. It was one of the first times the world saw the brutality of fascism firsthand. 

7. World War II 

The largest, most widespread, and deadliest war in history, World War II (1939-1945) was defined by the violent expansion of the Axis Powers (Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy, Imperial Japan, and their allies) followed by counterattacks by the Allies (Britain & Commonwealth forces, France, the Soviet Union, China, the United States, and their allies), and Allied victory. The vast majority of the world was involved. As many as 85 million people, a large majority of them Allied civilians, were killed. Attacks against civilians were carried out by both sides. The Allies did this mainly via aerial bombing, including firebombing and nuclear bombing, as a way of breaking the enemy’s will to resist. The Axis mainly used ground forces to carry out bloody genocides, including the Holocaust, in which 6 million Jews were murdered by the Nazis and their partners. 

The war raged from the Pacific Ocean to the jungles of southeast Asia, the Russian steppe, Sahara, and the beaches of France. It saw massive technological leaps forward, brought an end to centuries of European geopolitical dominance, and saw the rise of the United States and the Soviet Union as rival superpowers, making it arguably the single most significant event in human history. 

6. Chinese Civil War

The Chinese Civil War raged between 1927 and 1949, between the Nationalist Party and the Communists. The initial phase of the Chinese Civil War began in 1927, when Chiang Kai-shek, leader of the Nationalists, turned against the Communists, leading to a violent purge known as the Shanghai Massacre. The conflict then entered a period of intermittent truces and alliances, with both sides nominally cooperating against the Japanese invasion during the Second Sino-Japanese War (1937-1945).

After Japan’s defeat in World War II, the resumption of the civil war in 1946 saw the Nationalists and Communists vie for control of China. The Communists, led by Mao Zedong, garnered widespread support among peasants, while the Nationalists struggled with corruption and inefficiency. The decisive turning point came in 1949 when the Communists emerged victorious, leading to the establishment of the People’s Republic of China on October 1, 1949. Chiang Kai-shek’s Nationalists retreated to Taiwan, where they continued to rule, while the mainland underwent significant political, economic, and social transformation under Communist rule. The Chinese Civil War had profound implications for the course of Chinese history and the global balance of power during the Cold War era and beyond. 

5. Korean War

The Korean War unfolded from 1950 to 1953 on the Korean Peninsula. The war began when Communist North Korean forces, backed by the Soviet Union and China, invaded South Korea, which was supported by the United Nations and the United States.

The conflict was triggered by the political division of Korea after Japanese occupation during World War II, with the Soviets occupying the north and the United States occupying the south along the 38th parallel. The North, led by Kim Il-sung, sought to reunify the peninsula under communist rule, while the South, led by Syngman Rhee, aimed to maintain independence.

The war saw significant involvement from international forces, with the United Nations sending a multinational coalition, primarily composed of U.S. troops, to support South Korea. In response, China intervened on the side of North Korea, escalating the conflict. The war’s frontlines fluctuated along the 38th parallel, with intense fighting and trench warfare reminiscent of World War I. The armistice agreement signed in 1953 established a demilitarized zone near the original border, solidifying the division between North and South Korea. However, a formal peace treaty was never signed, and the Korean Peninsula remains divided to this day. 

4. Six-Day War

The Six-Day War, a brief but transformative conflict in the Middle East, took place from June 5 to June 10, 1967, involving Israel and its neighboring Arab states. The tensions leading to the war had been escalating due to territorial disputes, political tensions, and military buildups in the region.

The immediate catalyst for the war was the closure of the Straits of Tiran by Egypt, effectively cutting off Israel’s access to the Red Sea. Additionally, Arab rhetoric and troop movements had heightened the sense of an impending conflict. In a pre-emptive strike, Israel launched Operation Focus, targeting Egyptian airfields, which resulted in the destruction of a significant portion of the Egyptian air force.

In the ensuing six days, Israel swiftly secured victories on multiple fronts. Israeli forces seized the Sinai Peninsula from Egypt, the West Bank and East Jerusalem from Jordan, and the Golan Heights from Syria. The war reshaped the political and territorial landscape of the region, marking a turning point in the Arab-Israeli conflict.

The aftermath of the Six-Day War had lasting implications. Israel’s victory significantly expanded its territorial control, leading to occupation and settlement activities in the captured territories. However, the war also intensified regional hostilities. 

3. Iran-Iraq War 

The Iran-Iraq War, one of the longest and bloodiest conflicts of the 20th century, took place between 1980 and 1988, involving the Islamic Republic of Iran and Saddam Hussein’s Iraq. The war had deep-seated roots in territorial disputes, historical grievances, and ideological differences.

The conflict began when Iraq, under Saddam Hussein, invaded Iran in September 1980, seeking to exploit what it perceived as Iran’s weakened position after the Iranian Revolution and the subsequent political turmoil. The war quickly escalated, with both sides engaging in WWI-style trench warfare. The conflict saw the extensive use of chemical weapons, causing significant human suffering and long-term health consequences.

The war’s dynamics were complex, with shifting alliances and international involvement. Various countries supported either Iran or Iraq, with the United States and the Soviet Union supplying arms to Iraq (weirdly enough) at different points in the conflict. The war finally concluded in 1988 with a UN-brokered ceasefire.

The Iran-Iraq War had profound consequences for both nations. It resulted in immense human and economic losses, with estimates of casualties ranging from hundreds of thousands to over a million. 

2. Vietnam War

The Vietnam War, spanning from 1955 to 1975, was a protracted conflict involving Ho Chi Minh’s Communist North Vietnam, supported by the Soviet Union and China, and Ngo Dinh Diem’s South Vietnam, backed by the United States and its allies. The war was rooted in the struggle for control of Vietnam, complicated by Cold War geopolitics and ideological differences.

The war witnessed guerrilla warfare tactics by the communist forces, including the Viet Cong, and intensive bombing campaigns by the United States. The use of chemical defoliants, most notably Agent Orange, had severe environmental and health consequences. The conflict also spilled over into neighboring countries, with the US conducting arguably illegal bombings in Laos and Cambodia.

As public opposition to the war grew in the United States, a gradual withdrawal of American troops began in the early 1970s. The Paris Peace Accords in 1973 aimed to end US involvement, leading to a ceasefire. However, the war continued between North and South Vietnam, culminating in the fall of Saigon in 1975, leading to reunification under communist rule.

1. Cold War 

Although (thankfully) not a war in the traditional sense, the Cold War was a geopolitical, ideological, and military standoff between the United States and its allies, representing the democratic and capitalist Western bloc, and the Soviet Union and its allies, representing the communist Eastern bloc, that persisted from the end of World War II in 1945 until the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991. This ideological confrontation was characterized by intense political and military rivalry, violent proxy wars around the globe, a nuclear arms race that had the world on edge for decades, a space race, and ideological competition between capitalism and communism.

The origins of the Cold War can be traced to the differing post-war visions of the Allies. While they had been wartime allies against Nazi Germany, the ideological differences and spheres of influence soon emerged. The division of Germany, the establishment of the Iron Curtain in Europe, and the containment policy formulated by the United States, deepened tensions.

The Cold War concluded with the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, symbolized by the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. The United States emerged as the sole superpower and the beginning of a new era of international relations.

Some historical generals were untalented political appointments. Some were forgettable, or only good under the right conditions. Others were forces to be reckoned with. But some elite commanders will never be forgotten. You can debate who would get their faced chiseled into the stone of a Mount Rushmore of military geniuses. Maybe Hannibal. Maybe Alexander the Great. Maybe Julius Caesar. But there’s no debate that Napoleon Bonaparte would get a slot. This Corsican-born French emperor wasn’t just one of the most significant legal modernizers and reformers in history, but one of the greatest military masterminds of all time. It’s no wonder it took several decades, and almost as many coalitions of European rivals, to take him down. Let’s take a look at ten of the most important battles of the Napoleonic wars. 

10. The Italian Campaign 

After making a name for himself at the Siege of Toulon, a young artillery officer named Napoleon Bonaparte was promoted to Brigadier General and placed in charge of the French army in northern Italy, during the War of the First Coalition. It was an honor on paper, but this force was widely considered to be France’s weakest.

But with hard discipline, innovative tactics, and magnetic leadership, the young general quickly whipped his army into shape. His forces faced off against Austrian and Sardinian armies in a series of battles and campaigns. To everyone’s shock – the French Directory included – Napoleon dominated his foes and secured French dominance in northern Italy.

The humiliated Austrians signed the treaty of Campo Formio in October 1797, marking the end of the campaign. The political map of Europe was overhauled, and Napoleon’s successes in Italy propelled him to political prominence in France. After more victories in Egypt and a triumphant return home, he would soon find himself First Consul of France. Not long after, in 1804, he appointed himself Emperor of the French. 

9. Battle of Austerlitz 

Fought on December 2, 1805, Napoleon’s first major battle as Emperor of the French might just be his greatest. At Austerlitz, also known as the Battle of the Three Emperors, Napoleon’s Grande Armée fought against Russian and Austrian forces commanded by Tsar Alexander I and Holy Roman Emperor Francis II. 

Napoleon lured the Allies into a trap by letting them seize high ground and deliberately weakening his right flank. Overconfident, the Allies marched forward to engage the French right. It was exactly what Napoleon wanted – he attacked their center and drove them off before swinging around and nearly encircling the troops engaged on his right. 

It was a crushing victory for Napoleon that extended French influence deep into central Europe, shattered the British-financed Third Coalition, led to the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire, which had lasted 1,000 years, and solidified his reputation as the preeminent military mind of his age. 

8. Battle of Trafalgar

Fought off the southwestern Spanish coast on October 21, 1805, the Battle of Trafalgar was one of the Napoleonic War’s only major naval clashes. That was where Napoleon’s Franco-Spanish armada under Admiral Pierre-Charles Villeneuve was assembling for a planned invasion of Britain itself. But a British fleet, commanded by Admiral Horatio Nelson, made sure they never got there.

The French and Spanish arrayed themselves into a traditional line. Nelson, on the other hand, divided his fleet into two columns, charged at the enemy line perpendicularly, and broke through at multiple points. Although outnumbered, the British chopped the Franco-Spanish fleet into three parts and engaged them in detail. 

Although Nelson himself was mortally wounded during the battle, the British fleet decisively defeated the enemy, capturing over 20 enemy ships and destroying several more for minimal losses. After Austerlitz, Napoleon was the undisputed master of continental Europe. But after Trafalgar, the British were unbeatable at sea. It was a dominating victory that established British naval dominance for nearly a century, until the First World War. 

7. Battle of Jena-Auerstedt

Trafalgar aside, the War of the Third Coalition was a decisive French victory that saw Napoleon emerge as the military master of Europe. But British money was meant that a Fourth Coalition soon arose to stop the French. On October 14, 1806, Napoleon clashed with the Prussians at the battle of Jena-Auerstedt, in the Duchies of Saxony and Saxe-Weimar. 

Despite being outnumbered, the French forces, numbering around 50,000, outflanked 80,000 Prussians on both sides. The Battle of Jena, fought primarily by the French under Napoleon, saw the Prussian forces overwhelmed and forced into a retreat. Meanwhile, at Auerstedt, Marshal Louis Davout led a smaller French corps against the main Prussian army. Despite being outnumbered, Davout’s disciplined troops fought managed to defeat the Prussians under Duke Charles William Ferdinand of Brunswick. 

The defeat shattered the Prussian military and political structure, and Napoleon’s triumph opened the way for the French to occupy Berlin. The subsequent Treaty of Tilsit in 1807 resulted in a peace agreement between France and Russia. Napoleon remained dominant – but Britain wasn’t finished with him yet. 

6. Battle of Wagram

Fought on July 5-6, 1809, near Vienna, Austria, was a pivotal engagement in the War of the Fifth Coalition that saw Napoleon’s French troops engaging an Austrian force under Archduke Charles. Notably, the battle took place on the same ground where the Battle of Austerlitz had occurred four years before. 

The Battle of Wagram was one of the largest and bloodiest engagements of the Napoleonic Wars, involving hundreds of thousands of troops on both sides. Napoleon’s skillful use of artillery and coordinated infantry attacks, managed to break the Austrian lines after several setbacks and much bloodshed. 

The consequences of the Battle of Wagram were far-reaching. The victory solidified Napoleon’s dominance in Europe and led to the Treaty of Schönbrunn in October 1809, in which Austria ceded significant territories to France. The defeat at Wagram also marked a turning point for Archduke Charles, who faced criticism for his leadership and later sought a ceasefire.

However, Napoleon struggled more here than he had in previous battles. It was an ominous sign for France: they had won numerous victories, but their enemies were learning. And they never stayed down for long. 

5. The War in Spain

Napoleon’s Continental system demanded that the nations of Europe cut off all trade with his eternal enemy, Britain. But not everyone obeyed this directive. Soon, Napoleon’s armies were marching into Spain to force them into compliance. The French dominated every open battle and overthrew the Spanish government. Napoleon soon appointed his own brother, Josef, as king of Spain. But the Peninsular War was far from over. 

Although the French found victory wherever they went, they couldn’t be everywhere at once, and were never able to pacify the Spanish countryside. French troops were regularly ambushed by irregular partisans who would soon be known by a brand new name – Guerilla (“little war”) fighters. In response, the French committed numerous atrocities and seized more ground. But they could never take it all. Eventually, the British landed an army under the Duke of Wellington to help the Spanish. Although they were eventually forced to retreat, they fought brilliantly, temporarily took back large parts of Spain, and gave Napoleon more trouble than he’d ever faced before. The French never fully subdued Spain, and the unending, unwinnable quagmire there is widely seen as the beginning of his downfall. 

4. The Invasion of Russia

In 1812, Napoleon invaded Russia to punish them for ignoring his financial blockade of Britain. The Grande Armée at this time was titanic – numbering between 650,000 and 700,000 men. But those figures would dwindle rapidly. Knowing they couldn’t beat him in open battle, the Russians retreated across the endless steppe and employed scorched earth tactics to deny natural resources to the French. 

By the time they did get their long-sought after open battle, the French numbered fewer than 150,000 men. They won the Battle of Borodino at great cost and captured Moscow shortly afterwards, but found the city empty and burning. Napoleon spent weeks awaiting a Russian surrender that never materialized. With winter rapidly approaching, he realized he had no choice but to run back the way he came. French casualties during this retreat skyrocketed due to freezing temperatures, starvation, disease, and endless Cossack raids. By the time the Grande Armée limped back into the Duchy of Warsaw, well under 100,000 men – half of them stragglers with no fight left in them – lived to tell the tale. The disaster shattered the myth of Napoleon’s invincibility. 

3. Battle of Leipzig

Quagmire in Spain and a spectacular failure in Russia resulted in Napoleon’s grip on Europe weakening by 1813. Soon, with British financial backing, a Sixth Coalition arose to put France down for good. Napoleon had done expert damage control in Paris after the debacle in Russia, but was still only able to muster up 150,000 soldiers, many of which were inexperienced recruits. The Coalition, meanwhile, consisting of Austrian, Prussian, Russian, and Swedish troops, could call upon some 320,000 men. 

After Napoleon failed to seize Berlin, he retreated across the Elbe to the west and was soon met with the allied force at Leipzig. The resulting Battle of the Nations was the largest ever fought in Europe before World War I. Napoleon’s men fought desperately, but with overwhelming enemy forces closing in from north, west, and south, he was forced to retreat through Leipzig itself. It was a catastrophic blow to Napoleon that forced him to realize he was no longer up against the buffoons he’d bested at Austerlitz 8 years earlier. His enemies had studied and implemented his tactics in the years since and were now able to go toe to toe with the greatest general in history – and win. But the French emperor wasn’t finished just yet. 

2. Battle of Brienne

After Leipzig, armies of the Sixth Coalition descended on France itself. Napoleon had only 60,000 men to defend the whole country against this titanic force. But he was about to prove why he’s considered by many to be the greatest military mind in history. Since he was frequently up against alliances of enemies, one of Napoleon’s signature strategies was attacking his enemies one at a time, before they could unite against him. 

On January 29, 1814, he did exactly that, one final time, at the battle of Brienne. Here, Napoleon’s forces faced a Russian army commanded by Prince Karl Schwarzenberg. Against huge odds, heavily outnumbered French forces prevailed. But it wasn’t enough – French defeats at the battles of La Rothière and Champaubert, among others, allowed coalition forces to continue their advance. Soon, Paris was besieged and Napoleon was forced to abdicate. Still, his ability to perform even as well as he did, while heavily outnumbered and commanding largely green troops, is nothing short of remarkable. It’s no wonder it took all of Europe multiple tries to bring him down. 

1. Battle of Waterloo

Napoleon was exiled in 1814. But he returned in 1815 and, after convincing the soldiers sent to arrest him tondefect to their beloved former emperor, soon retook control of the country. A Seventh Coalition was formed to stop him. For the first time, it would be not just financed, but led, by the British. Specifically, Napoleon’s nemesis from the Peninsular War in Spain, Arthur Wellesley, the Duke of Wellington. 

Napoleon sought to seize Brussels and planned to prevent Wellington’s international, British-led force from linking up with General Blucher’s Prussians. He was able to win some impressive but indecisive victories before clashing with Wellington near Waterloo, in modern day Belgium. In one of history’s most famous battles, the French tried multiple times to route British troops on the high ground before the Prussians could arrive. But after the failure of French cavalry to overcome infantry squares, and the defeat of the elite French Imperial guard, Blucher finally arrived on Napoleon’s right flank. Exhausted and outnumbered, the French fled the field. It was Napoleon’s last battle. He was forced to abdicate a second time and exiled permanently, 1,000 miles off the coast of Africa. The Napoleonic Wars were over. Pax Britannica – a near-century of British global hegemony, had begun.

If you find yourself the most important person in your community, how will you let other people know you are the most important? This has been a problem for rulers throughout history. One of the methods of proclaiming your position was to wear a special item that was tied symbolically to your status. What could be more impressive than a pile of precious metal and flashy stones on your head?

Since antiquity, diadems, crowns, and other valuable headgear have been used to denote monarchs, emperors, and the spiritually enlightened. Here are ten crowns from history and their meanings.

Related: 10 Royal Mysteries Solved by Science

10 Macedonian Crowns

For centuries, the kingdom of Macedon had been looked down on by the city-states of ancient Greece. The Macedonians spoke a strange dialect, still had kings, and were thought to live like barbarians. Philip II of Macedon had other ideas—he would dominate the Greeks who disdained him. Using his military genius and a well-trained army, he made himself the leader of the Greek world. If you have not heard much about Philip II, it is only because his son, Alexander the Great, had an even more spectacular career.

In 336 BC, King Philip was murdered by one of his own bodyguards. Perhaps there was something in the Macedonian reputation for barbarity. He was laid to rest in a tomb as Vergina among the other kings of Macedon. When his grave was excavated in the 1970s, Philip’s bones were discovered inside a box made of pure gold, weighing 24.2 pounds (11 kilograms). Alongside it was a diadem fashioned in the shape of a wreath of oak leaves.

In ancient Greece, wreaths made from olive, laurel, or oak were given to people to show their triumphs in athletic games, literary mastery, and military glory. For the ruler of Macedon, however, the fragile and temporary nature of plants was insufficient. The crown of Philip II is made of gold and weighs 1.5 pounds (700 grams). The leaves are attached in such a way that they would tremble when the wearer’s head moved, causing them to flash and glisten in the sun.^[1]

9 The Crown of Thorns

Not all crowns have to be made of gold to be valuable, however. The Gospel of Matthew tells us that when Jesus was being led away to his crucifixion, his guards mocked and tortured him. “They stripped him and put a scarlet robe on him, and then twisted together a crown of thorns and set it on his head. They put a staff in his right hand. Then they knelt in front of him and mocked him. “Hail, king of the Jews!” they said.” The thorned crown they crafted was not meant to ennoble Jesus but to make him look ridiculous.

Instead, the Crown of Thorns became one of the images of Jesus’ suffering for the sins of humanity and one of the most important relics for Christians. Single thorns from the crown were claimed by various religious institutions and thought to have immense spiritual power. For the kings of France, a single thorn was not enough—they wanted the whole crown.

A purported Crown of Thorns was owned by the Emperors of Constantinople. In 1238, this crown was pawned for 13,000 gold pieces to help the beleaguered city. When Baldwin II was cast off the throne of Constantinople, he ended up wandering around Europe looking for support to regain it. To get money, he sold the Crown of Thorns to King Louis of France. The crown was set into a ring of polished crystal and became one of the most important possessions of the French monarchy.^[2]

8 The Crowns of Silla

The Kingdom of Silla existed on the Korean peninsula from the 1st century BC to the 10th century AD. While much was known about their history, it was only in the 1920s that the regalia of the kings of Silla began to emerge. The name of the Gold Crown Tomb gives some idea of what was discovered inside.

Thought to date from the 6th century AD, the identity of the king buried there is not known. What we do know is that he had a magnificent crown. It stands nearly 1.7 feet (0.5 meters) tall and has three large branches of gold rising from a central headband and a pair of antlers at the rear. These are decorated with images of fish scales, hearts, birds, and dragons. Small jade drops and golden leaves hang from it.

Since the discovery of this crown, many others have been found. Most are similarly shaped and decorated. They are unlike anything else seen in ancient Korea, and some think they may show Iranian and Scythian influences.^[3]

7 Crown of Princess Blanche

Crowns were not only worn by kings. Members of the royal family would often be given a lesser crown to show that they were also members of the elite. The oldest English-owned crown belonged to Princess Blanche, daughter of Henry IV. Today, it can be found in a treasury in Munich.

The crown belonged to one of the queens of Richard II of England. When he was deposed by Henry IV, all of his jewels passed to the ownership of the new monarch. As a new king who some thought of as a usurper, Henry wanted to marry his children to important allies to show his family was legitimate. His daughter Blanche was married off to Louis, son of the King of Germany. As part of Blanche’s dowry, the crown was sent to Europe with her.

The crown itself gives some clue as to what the Medieval English monarchy must have looked like. The crown stands tall with fleur de lys made of gold and studded with sapphires, rubies, emeralds, diamonds, and pearls. Colored enamel adds to the riot of color.^[4]

6 Papal Tiaras

The pope is the spiritual leader on Earth for members of the Catholic Church. Today, this is a mostly symbolic position, but for centuries, the popes were not only religious figures but also powerful political players who ruled large areas of Italy. To look the part of a ruler who was also the successor to St. Peter, they needed headgear that created an impression.

Papal tiaras started out as fairly simple caps of white cloth in the 8th century. Over time, an ornate circlet was added to the base, which may have represented the power the popes exerted over their kingdom. One crown was not sufficient. Pope Boniface VIII, at the end of the 13th century, added another crown on top of the first to demonstrate that he stood above earthly kings and their single crowns. Just a few decades later, a third crown was added on top again, and the triple crown of the popes was complete.

Many papal tiaras were made from precious metals and covered in costly gems. One made in 1846 featured over 10,000 diamonds and a thousand emeralds, sapphires, and rubies. Not all were so expensive. When the pope was driven from Rome by the forces of Napoleon in 1798, a replacement tiara was made from papier-mâché with gems donated by local ladies. As a peace offering, Napoleon offered a new tiara in 1804—but he purposefully made it too small and too heavy to be comfortably worn.

In 1964, Pope Paul VI removed his papal tiara and placed it on the altar at the end of the Second Vatican Council as a sign that he was renouncing human power to focus on the spiritual. No pope since has worn a tiara.^[5]

5 Imperial Crown of Russia & the Monomakh’s Cap

Many European monarchs thought of Russia as a slightly backward nation in the 16th century. Over time, however, they came to look at it with envious eyes. While many European countries began to reduce the power of their monarchies and the money they had access to, the Russian crown remained an absolute authority and was famously wealthy. In 1762, Empress Catherine the Great decided that she needed a new crown—and it was going to be glorious.

Her plan was helped by the fact that the Russian throne had a monopoly on all gems mined in Russia. With all those sparkly stones to choose from, her jewelers lacked for nothing. The crown was adorned with 4,936 diamonds with a total weight of 2,858 carats. It is topped by a huge and lustrous red spinel. Large pearls decorate the wings of the crown.

The Imperial Crown is not the only one that was given to Russian Tsars during their coronations. They were first presented with the Monomakh’s Cap as a symbol of their autocracy. This consists of a golden cap with inlays of rubies and emeralds, surrounded by a ring of fur. This would keep the tsar warm in the cold Russian winter.^[6]

4 Imperial State Crown

When Charles III was crowned at his coronation, St. Edward’s Crown was placed on his head. This is the only moment when a British monarch gets to wear that crown. St. Edward’s Crown is soon swapped for the more famous Imperial State Crown, which the king will be seen wearing at state events.

The Imperial State Crown of Britain is made to show off the might of the empire, as it once was. The crown is set with old gems from the royal collection and new ones to represent power. Among the old stones is a sapphire said to have belonged to Edward the Confessor in the 11th century. Another sapphire was a treasure of the Stuart monarchs. A large red spinel is known as the Black Prince’s Ruby and has a hole in it where a feather could be placed as decoration.

The crown was altered in 1909 to allow the 317-carat Cullinan II to be added. The Cullinan diamond was the largest gem-quality diamond ever discovered and was cut into nine smaller stones. Queen Elizabeth II referred to these smaller gems as “granny’s chips” because they belonged to her grandmother, Queen Mary.^[7]

3 Holy Crown of Hungary

The Holy Crown of Hungary, also known as the Crown of St. Stephen, was the symbol of the Hungarian state for centuries. Before King Stephen died in 1038, he is said to have held the crown aloft and dedicated it to the Virgin Mary. This made the crown holy as well as representing kingly power. In later years, the crown came to be considered a person in its own right, and the kings of Hungary merely ruled in the name of the crown.

The crown itself is made of gold and decorated with enamel images of Christ, angels, saints, and kings. The crown is surmounted by a cross which seems to grow out of the belly of an image of Jesus. The cross sits at an odd angle, and this is thought to have come about when the chest it was stored in was closed too quickly and damaged the crown in the 17th century; it was never repaired.

At the end of the Second World War, the crown was handed to American forces in Austria in a black leather satchel to protect it from the Soviets. The crown was taken to America and held in Fort Knox for safety. In 1978, President Carter decided to return the crown to Hungary to encourage the people there to keep working toward freedom.^[8]

2 Iron Crown of Lombardy

According to medieval theology, kings held their earthly power by the will of God. Their crowns were, therefore, symbols of their divine right to rule. Some crowns took this idea of holiness further by including relics within them.

The Iron Crown of Lombardy is one of the oldest pieces of royal regalia to survive in Europe, and it may have a link directly to Jesus. According to legend, it was made for Emperor Constantine by his mother, St. Helena. Helena was famous for going to the Holy Land and coming back with the True Cross on which Jesus died. She is said to have had one of the nails of the cross fashioned into a helmet for her son to protect him. Some said that the Iron Crown was this helmet, and it, too, contained the holy nail.

Indeed, inside the Iron Crown, there is a band of dark metal that supports the six panels of gold that make up the crown. Alas, for all those who wore the crown, it seems unlikely that the story of the crown is true. It was probably made in the 8th century. The band on the inside, which gave the crown its name, is not iron—scientific analysis showed that it is actually silver.^[9]

1 Crown of the Holy Roman Empire

The Western Roman Empire fell in the 5th century, according to most histories, but it had a later revival. On Christmas Day in the year 800, Pope Leo III crowned King Charlemagne and gave him the title Emperor of the Romans. Those who succeeded Charlemagne continued to claim this title, and over time, it was taken as the title of the ruler of the Holy Roman Empire. This confederation of states, mostly in modern Germany, lasted until 1806.

Those who took on the title of Emperor were crowned with the Imperial Crown of the Holy Roman Empire. This crown was made for Otto I in 962, though with later additions. It is so old that it has an octagonal shape like the crowns of the Byzantine Empire, rather than the more familiar round shape of modern crowns. It is made from eight plates of gold. Four of the plates have religious images on them. The four larger plates are covered in gems. Because the crown was made before it was known how to facet gems, the stones were polished into dome shapes.

According to legend, the crown was once more impressive than it is today. A gem known as the Waise, or Orphan, once sat on its front. A writer from 1250 said, “The Orphan is a jewel in the crown of the Roman emperor. Because the like of it has never been seen elsewhere, it is called the ‘Orphan.’ It has the colour of wine, of delicate red wine, and it is as if the dazzling white of snow penetrates the bright wine red, and yet it remains dormant in this redness. The gem shines powerfully, and it is said that it once even shone at night, but not in our time, but it is said to preserve the honour of the empire.” No one knows why the Orphan might have been removed from the crown or what happened to it.^[10]

Video games became popular throughout the world in the 1980s, but they weren’t invented in that decade. In fact, the first video game came into existence in October 1958, though it took some time for the format to evolve.

By the 1970s, video games were more widely available, and some of the best games of that decade were incredibly important. These ten games were developed and released in the ’70s, and they helped pave the way for every game that followed.

10 Ancient Board Games That Inspired Modern Games

10 Galaxian (1979)

In 1977, the world was gifted with Star Wars, and the film inspired people all around the world. One person who took a great deal of inspiration from the movie was Kazunori Sawano, the designer of Galaxian.

The Namco/Midway classic takes a lot of inspiration from Star Wars. It introduced numerous innovations that would ultimately inspire a whole genre of video games. In Galaxian, the player takes control of a Galaxip starfighter as they defend Earth from formations of alien vessels.

When the game was first designed, the enemies looked like TIE Fighters from Star Wars, but this was changed to more bug-like aliens. Galaxian was designed primarily to combat rival company Taito’s success with Space Invaders, and it was incredibly successful.

Galaxian broke new ground, as it was one of the first games to feature RGB color graphics. It could also animate multi-color sprites while scrolling the screen, making it incredibly more complex than the competition.

Galaxian’s success led to its sequel Galaga in 1981. It has also inspired numerous games that followed, including 1941, Time Pilot, and just about any game where a player controls a ship battling enemies.

9 Lunar Lander (1979)

A decade after mankind (maybe) landed on the Moon, Atari released a game that let people try the same thing, albeit with less at stake. Lunar Lander is a vector game that depicts a lunar landing module as it descends toward the surface of the Moon. The player rotates the module and burns fuel via a thruster to gently land on targeted areas.

Whether you’re successful or not, the scenario resets with different terrain, letting players continue trying until they run out of fuel. A new quarter buys additional fuel, making it possible to continue playing (for a price).

The game was innovative, as it employed a feature that made the game more profitable for arcade owners. By allowing players to continue playing at the cost of another quarter, the game proved it was possible to make more money from anyone willing to continue playing. This was long before saving a game was possible, so it marked a significant change for gaming.

Additionally, the physics used to control the lunar module was incredibly well done. It offers a realistic approximation of the real thing, which few games were capable of doing in the 1970s.

8 Breakout (1976)

Nolan Bushnell created Pong, but he wanted to continue exploring the concept, so he co-created Breakout in 1976. Breakout is very much like Pong, but it’s a single-player game that uses the same paddle controller. Instead of hitting a ball to try and score against an opponent, the player hits it to take out bricks from a wall.

He enlisted the help of Steve Jobs (who worked at Atari at the time) to design the game. Jobs brought Steve Wozniak over from Hewlett-Packard. They worked hard to put it together with as few chips as possible. The goal was to combat the numerous Pong clones that flooded the market, and it pretty much worked.

Breakout was incredibly successful for Atari, but more than that, it created a new genre of gaming. Technically, 1974’s Clean Sweep came first, but it was Breakout that made screen-clearing something players wanted to do, and that influence led to tons of similar games.

If you’ve ever played a game that involved removing objects from a screen, you can thank Breakout’s success. If you want to check it out, all you need to do is go to Google.com, search for “Atari Breakout,” and hit “I’m Feeling Lucky.”

7 Sea Wolf (1976)

At a time when most video games involved staring at a monitor, Midway decided to do something different. Sea Wolf is a shooter that places the player inside a submarine. They then look onto a screen with ships moving along the sea line, and they fire torpedoes to destroy them.

Instead of just looking at a screen, Sea Wolf had a swiveling periscope that moved to the left and right. Its horizontal motion created a realistic targeting scope for the player to find ships and destroy them. While the graphics weren’t awe-inspiring, the gameplay was entertaining and immersive.

Sea Wolf was also one of the first games to incorporate a saved high score, which is a feature that became prevalent soon afterward. It also pushed people to try and outperform their friends to get the highest score, making the game relatively profitable through competition.

Many players remember this game more for its beautifully designed and innovative cabinet over its actual gameplay. Its success led to a color sequel a couple of years later. It also helped influence the design of 1980’s Battlezone, which employs a similar viewscreen/periscope.

6 Zork (1977)

Back when programmers were wracking their brains trying to find new and innovative ways of displaying images on a computer screen, a group of four students at MIT was working on a text-based game. Though it isn’t the first and built off of innovations made in 1976’s Colossal Cave Adventure, Zork became one of the most important games of the 1970s.

Before Colossal Cave Adventure and Zork, games didn’t tell a story. They involved some minor action and player control, but there wasn’t any sort of cohesive tale. These games changed all of that by creating immersive worlds through descriptive text, and not a single image was rendered.

In Zork, the player controls the story by inputting directions and actions they want their adventurer to take. The goal is to return from the “Great Underground Empire” with specific treasures needed to complete the adventure.

Zork’s success proved that there were gamers who wanted to play engrossing story-based adventures. From Zork came other text-based games, but they eventually evolved into modern video game role-playing games that continue to dominate the industry to this day.

5 Space Invaders (1978)

In Space Invaders, the player controls a small cannon that moves horizontally across the screen. Protecting it are four green barriers, which degrade as they are hit by friendly or enemy fire. A fleet of insectoid spacecraft makes their way down toward the player, getting faster as they get closer while flying saucers move atop the screen.

The game is relatively simple while still dynamic and difficult for players to master. It wasn’t the first game that let you shoot down alien spacecraft, but it was one of the first that had those same ships fire back at the player.

The game featured several innovations that would become common across the industry. The most notable was the inclusion of a continuous background soundtrack, which was a simple repetitive series of bass notes played on a loop.

Space Invaders was one of the most successful video games ever developed. Taito sold so many units, new arcades were built to focus on the game — it was that popular. It even caused a coin shortage in Japan until the government quadrupled the Yen supply.

4 Asteroids (1979)

Atari’s Asteroids may look like a simple game, but it’s anything but simple. The game allows the player to control a spaceship stuck in an asteroid field. While trying to destroy and avoid the asteroids, flying saucers show up and attack. The player can remain stationary or move by either using their thrusters or hyperspace jumping to a random location.

Like most games of the era, the longer you play, the harder it gets. Asteroids is definitely one of the more challenging games of the period. It’s also considered one of the first successful arcade cabinets to come out during the Golden Age of Arcade Games. Asteroids was comparatively simple to what followed, but it influenced a ton of programmers.

Asteroids was ridiculously popular when it was released. You can see it in the background of numerous films and TV shows from the era. It quickly passed Space Invaders in sales, with more than 70,000 units shipped out to arcades worldwide. It broke records and became Atari’s best-selling game of all time.

While Atari took home around $150 million ($490 million in 2021) from sales, arcade owners saw more than $500 million ($1.6 billion in 2021) from all the quarters dropped into the coin slot by the end of 1980.

3 Computer Space (1971)

Few people these days have ever heard of Computer Space despite its place in history. The game was developed by Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney (the future co-founders of Atari) in 1971. It became the first arcade video game and the first commercially available video game in the world.

The game’s most notable feature wasn’t the gameplay or the graphics; it was the cabinet. The sleek fiberglass cab featured curves and looked otherworldly. It even made a cameo appearance in 1973’s Soylent Green, as it looked incredibly futuristic.

Computer Space was a redesigned version of the 1962 computer game Spacewar!, but with the ability to accept coins. It featured a starscape where the player controlled a ship that fired on two computer-controlled UFOs. It was relatively simple but innovative. Computer Space sold 1,500 units, but it wasn’t a huge financial success.

It proved there was a market for coin-operated arcade games, but it never took off in popularity. Bushnell and Dabney formed Atari shortly after, and in June of 1972, they launched Atari with the far more successful game Pong. Computer Space’s most significant mark on history was the establishment of arcade cabinet norms that would be seen in every cab that followed.

2 The Oregon Trail (1975)

In 1971, Don Rawitsch, Bill Heinemann, and Paul Dillenberger teamed up to create The Oregon Trail to teach 8th graders about the realities of life in the 19th century for pioneers who took the Oregon Trail. The game wasn’t published when it was created, but it did lead to a series of games published over the next 50 years.

In 1974, the Minnesota Educational Computing Consortium (MECC) hired Rahitsch, who loaded the game’s code onto the MECC’s shared network. When he did this, he modified the game’s details to improve the historical accuracy. The following year, the game was retitled to OREGON and was published to every school on the network.

It quickly became the most popular game on the MECC network, with thousands of people playing it every month. Rawitsch soon published the source code. Soon, schools outside the network began featuring the game for their students on the newly-adopted Apple II.

Over the years, OREGON reverted back to Oregon Trail and received various updates. The game helped educate millions of children, and it helped shape the educational game industry. It remains incredibly popular and was recently re-released as a handheld game by Basic Fun.

1 Pong (1972)

You may have heard that Pong was the first video game, but that’s not true. In fact, it wasn’t even the first tennis game. Despite those facts, Pong is widely remembered for being one of the most important games in the video game industry, and that’s not hyperbole.

Pong may not have come first, but it did something that no other game did before it. It proved the profitability of video games, paving the way for the arcade and home consoles. Without Pong, it’s possible neither of those things would have come about, making Pong the most important game of the 1970s.

When the first game proved to be a smash hit in the summer of ’72, Atari pushed forward with manufacturing to produce cabinets by the end of the year. Three years later, a home version hit the market, which spawned dozens of clones.

It was finally possible to play video games at home, and the market was absolutely dominated with Pong games and clones. Pong got people interested in video games before most people had ever played them, and it’s all thanks to a couple of paddles, a square “ball,” electronic sounds, and a scoring system.

Top 10 Influential Arcade Games

For many people around the world, the golden age of video games didn’t come in the ’70s; it came in the 1980s. That’s the decade the Sega Genesis, Nintendo Entertainment System, and the Nintendo Gamy Boy were all released.

The ’80s featured some of the best arcade games ever made, many of which continue to pump out sequels decades later. The ten games on this list are some of the most important ever made because their impact didn’t just shape the ’80s; it built the video game industry.

Top 10 Most Important Video Games Of The 1970s

10 Street Fighter (1987)

Towards the end of the decade, innovations in graphics processors made the competitive fighting game one of the biggest draws for arcades. They popped up throughout the decade, but the one title that influenced the genre the most was Street Fighter. The Capcom game was released in 1987, and it set the standard for every fighting game that followed.

The game was directed by Kung-Fu Master’s designer Takashi Nishiyama, who wanted to explore a fighting game centered around boss battles. The concept left the beat ’em up style behind, so players no longer had to make their way through hordes of minions to get to the real battle.

Street Fighter was successful, and its impact can be seen in just about every fighting game that followed. It established conventions found in fighting games today, with the use of a six-button player control being the most important.

Street Fighter was successful, though it does pale in comparison to its sequel. Street Fighter II (1991) is an infinitely better game than its predecessor. Still, it didn’t come from nothing. While Street Fighter may not be considered a classic like its sequel, its importance in the fighting genre is undeniable.

9 Final Fantasy (1987)

Before gamers had the chance to play Final Fantasy, they had several options when it came to role-playing games. After all, it was a relatively late entry in the genre, but that doesn’t mean it wasn’t important. In fact, many gamers would argue that it’s the most important RPG to come out on the NES and possibly, the 1980s as a whole.

In the game, four young Light Warriors, each representing one of the world’s four elements via elemental crystals, must restore their light. The crystals were darkened by the four Elemental Fields, and the quest to defeat them takes the player all over the world.

Final Fantasy featured some innovations in the genre, but that’s not why it’s so important. The year before Final Fantasy dropped for the NES, Dragon Quest smashed records in Japan with more than two million copies sold. The game was titled Dragon Warrior for the North American market, but it didn’t make much of an impact.

Conversely, Final Fantasy absolutely killed it in North America, as it managed to draw in American players far better than its predecessors. Final Fantasy helped popularize RPGs outside of Japan, and the impact of that can be seen in every RPG released in the past 30 years.

8 SimCity (1989)

In the late-1980s, Will Wright spent a great deal of time working textbooks on economics, architecture, and city planning into the world of video games. This was back when simulati0on games were in their infancy, and most players were more interested in the latest fighting games or PRGs.

Despite this, Wright’s SimCity would go on to entertain millions of people who probably never imagined they might be interested in a city-building simulation. That’s pretty much what SimCity is, but it took some work getting it published. Because it was so different from everything else, Wright spent nearly four years finding a publisher.

When Brøderbund finally agreed to distribute the game, it didn’t sell well. It took a little time, but it caught on, mainly through game reviews and word of mouth. By 1991, it had been ported to the Super NES, where it blew up in popularity, selling nearly two million copies. Of course, that was only the beginning.

SimCity’s success led to the establishment of a franchise, which eventually resulted in The Sims, which is one of the best-selling game franchises of all time. Additionally, SimCity has been credited with inspiring people to work in city planning, politics, transportation management, and more.

7 Prince Of Persia (1989)

By 1989, video game graphics had evolved to better approximate complex shapes like human bodies. This made it possible for game designers to take advantage of the tools available to deliver games that looked more realistic. The first title to do so was Jordan Mechner’s Prince of Persia for the Apple II.

Prince of Persia is regarded as the first cinematic platformer, and it used a great deal of innovation in its development. Mechner used rotoscoping to transfer filmed movements and render them as characters on the screen. This process would evolve through the ’90s with games like Mortal Kombat (1992) and into modern uses of motion-capture technology.

Prince of Persia’s graphical innovations completely changed video game animation forever by offering more realistic movement. The game hit the Apple II around the tail end of its life, so it wasn’t immediately successful. It took a little time and some porting to other systems, but the game eventually found success, spawning a franchise.

Prince of Persia is widely regarded as one of the greatest video games of all time. Its innovative graphics, immersive gameplay, platform mechanics, and excellent story drew players into the experience of playing the game. Every cinematic platformer that followed owes a great deal to the innovations made by Mechner’s Prince of Persia.

6 Duck Hunt (1984)

On the surface, Duck Hunt isn’t an incredibly detailed or complicated game. Sure, it’s fun, but other than infuriating the player every time the dog pops up to laugh at their poor aim, what did it do for the industry? As it happens, Duck Hunt did a lot, but not because it was the first video game shooter (it wasn’t).

Duck Hunt proved that shooters could work in the home, which was something nobody thought was possible before Nintendo released the NES Zapper. Before Duck Hunt, the only way a player could interact with their games at home was through a joystick or keyboard, but that all changed in 1984.

The Zapper offered up something new by giving players a way to immerse themselves in the games they were playing. There were other games released on the NES that used it, including Hogan’s Alley and Wild Gunman, but none have the legacy or lasting impact as Duck Hunt.

The game also offered up a two-player mode of sorts by giving control of the duck’s flight to the person holding the controller. Duck Hunt and the Zapper’s success led to numerous innovations, resulting in gaming platforms like the Nintendo Wii.

5 Donkey Kong (1981)

In 1980, Namco released a little game called Pac-Man, and every developer scrambled to catch up. At the time, Nintendo was trying to break into the North American market, and Pac-Man’s success only pushed them harder toward that goal. Initially, Nintendo wanted 0to release a Popeye game but couldn’t secure the license.

Nintendo opted to create new characters, so Shigeru Miyamoto got to work. He came up with characters and a backstory, which he based on elements taken from Popeye, King Kong, and Beauty and the Beast. Miyamoto was just getting started in the industry, but he was already innovating in ways that would shape video games forever.

One of the things that make Donkey Kong so special is the story Miyamoto crafted. Before the player can play, a quick cinematic reveals that a giant gorilla kidnapped the hero’s girl, and it’s up to the player to rescue her. This was the first time a video game featured any type of cutscene, and it was the first game to prioritize the story before gameplay.

Before Donkey Kong, any story attributed to a game or its characters was added as an afterthought. Miyamoto changed that with his first game, and the legacy of Donkey Kong can be seen in every video game that came after it.

4 The Legend of Zelda (1986)

When gamers first got their hands on the gold cartridge for The Legend of Zelda, they had no idea what they were about to experience. In the ’80s, video games didn’t feature an open-world concept like they do today. Zelda changed that, establishing a norm found throughout the action-adventure RPG from that point forward.

To be fair, Zelda isn’t the first open-world game, as the concept first arose in 1970’s Jet Rocket. Zelda used games like Jet Rocket, Courageous Perseus, and Hydlide to refine it into a far more immersive and enjoyable experience. Still, the open-world adventure wasn’t the only innovation Zelda brought to the table.

The gold cartridge held something sacred inside — an internal battery-powered RAM made it possible to save a player’s game progress. Before Zelda, NES titles created long and complex passwords players had to enter to resume their previous games. Still, it wasn’t anything like saving a game to pick it up later.

The Legend of Zelda’s innovations in open-world mechanics and the inclusion of an ability to save made it one of the best games ever released on the NES. Additionally, it spawned a massive franchise and influenced every open-world action-adventure RPG that followed.

3 Tetris (1984)

In 1984, Alexey Pajitnov created a little puzzle game on the Soviet Academy of Sciences’ Electronika 60. The game had no real graphics, leaving Pajitnov to render what he could by using spaces and brackets. The game had no scoring system, but its addictive gameplay was apparent from the beginning.

Tetris became incredibly popular throughout the U.S.S.R., but Pajitnov wanted to export it to other countries. The process was far from easy, but after a great deal of work, Tetris made its way to the United States in 1987. The game was quickly ported to other platforms, but it wasn’t until Nintendo came along that Tetris really took off in the west.

Nintendo developed a version of Tetris to be packaged alongside the Game Boy, which it released in 1989. The innovation of making the game portable and competitive (with the Game Link Cable) hooked people who had never played video games. The Game Boy was a success, but a lot of that had to do with Tetris.

Millions of people bought the system just to play that game, making Nintendo the absolute king of portable gaming. Tetris has since spawned numerous ports and adaptations, with more than 125 million copies sold worldwide by its 25th anniversary in 2009.

2 Pac-Man (1980)

Throughout the 1970s, the vast majority of video games were shooters of one type or another. Players controlled a ship and blew up enemies, which appealed to men more than it did to women. Seeing this, Toru Iwatani wanted to do something different, so he focused on creating a game featuring cute, cartoonish characters.

Pac-Man was developed with all of that in mind, and the game was an instant success. With its cute pie-shaped protagonist and the adorable ghosts, Pac-Man was a game anyone could enjoy, and it quickly became a cultural phenomenon.

Pac-Man’s impact on popular culture is widespread, and the image of Pac-Man himself has since become synonymous with all types of gaming. What’s so fascinating about Pac-Man, besides its enduring legacy, is the fact that more than 40 years after it was released, it’s still the highest-grossing game of all time.

More than 400,000 Pac-Man cabinets were sold worldwide, and they brought in a total of $2.5 billion by 1990. That’s the equivalent of 10,000,000,000 quarters, and when you adjust the numbers for inflation, Pac-Man grossed a whopping $5.1 billion as of 2021.

1 Super Mario Bros. (1985)

There are well over 700 games on the NES, but none have had as much of an impact on the industry as Shigeru Miyamoto’s beloved title, Super Mario Bros. The game had something no other game had at the time it was released in 1985 — it was a launch title for the Japanese Family Computer and the NES.

Super Mario Bros. features an impressive soundtrack, bright and well-rendered pixelated graphics, and entertaining gameplay. Its scoring system offered up competitive play for a second player, and the game was packed with tons of hidden items, secret areas, and warp zones.

While Super Mario Bros. influenced side-scrolling games, its most significant accomplishment centers on how it saved the video game industry. In 1983, the industry suffered a major crash. It looked like video games might be more of a passing fad than the eventual juggernaut it evolved into.

The release of Super Mario Bros. and the NES changed all that by showing there was still a market for consoles and well-made titles. Many credit the game with saving the industry, making it one of the most important games of the 1980s and of all time.

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