Great villains are a crucial element of any film, but while everyone loves a bad guy, they often only exist to give the heroes an obstacle to overcome. Occasionally, though, a movie villain turns out to be the most intriguing and enticing part of the whole story.

Sometimes these villains are played by actors so good at being bad that we unintentionally root for them. Other times they’re so evil our despisal of them dominates the feature. And, sometimes, we realize that maybe they’re not as in the wrong as we initially thought.

The following ten films all feature a villain that, according to critics and audiences alike, outshined the story’s intended protagonist for one reason or another.

Related: 10 Lesser-Known Facts About Superheroes

10 The Joker in The Dark Knight (2008)

Batman has a lot of things going for him: cool cars, gadgets, a ridiculous amount of money, and a butler who goes above and beyond his job description. But what truly makes the billionaire vigilante iconic is the incredible cast of villains opposing him. You could take any Batman film and, chances are, the villain is the star of the show. In truth, we could have gone with the Penguin from Tim Burton’s Batman Returns or Bane from The Dark Knight Returns here. But, it’s Heath Ledger’s Joker that remains Batman’s most captivating nemesis.

Described by Heath Ledger himself as a “psychopathic, mass-murdering, schizophrenic clown with zero empathy,” the Joker of The Dark knight couldn’t be more different than the campy on-screen iterations from the past.

What this Joker lacks in a discernible backstory or motivation, he more than makes up for in presence. Indeed, every time he’s on-screen, something chaotic and insane occurs. Yet, it all feels authentic thanks to Ledger’s performance—which earned him a posthumous Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor.^[1]

9 Darth Vader in the Star Wars Franchise (1977–2019)

The original Star Wars trilogy has no shortage of iconic heroes, but none left quite an impression like Vader. Part of this is simply a matter of presentation. Of course, Vader has the iconic suit, mask, and voice, but there’s also his tendency to bark orders and choke out those who don’t give him what he wants.

Vader’s arch during the original trilogy is also just more interesting than Luke’s. In fact, in many ways, Star Wars is Vader’s story. From his journey to the dark side and his rivalry with his mentor Obi-Wan to the revelation that he is Luke’s father and his return to the light, Lucas gave us a villain that, intentionally or not, arguably serves as the franchise’s main character.^[2]

8 Anton Chigurh in No Country for Old Men (2007)

Josh Brolin did a great job as Llewyn Moss, the everyman who stumbles his way into a dangerous cat and mouse game in No Country for Old Men. Tommy Lee Jones, too, put on a captivating performance as the nearly retired and weary sheriff caught up in something much bigger than himself. Make no doubt about it, though, this is Javier Bardem’s film.

His ridiculous haircut and vacuum-cleaner-like weapon may initially incite laughter, but Anton Chigurh is simply terrifying. Cold and calculated, Chigurh’s demeanor never wavers despite the magnitude of his crimes, and Bardem’s sheer presence makes him feel like an unstoppable force. Oh, and then there’s the fact he’ll literally murder someone at the flip of a coin. The result is a character that audiences didn’t soon forget and a performance that rightfully earned Bardem an Oscar.^[3]

7 Elijah Price in Unbreakable (2000)

Unbreakable follows the story of David Dunn (Bruce Willis), a security guard who doesn’t realize he’s a real-life Superman. Trying to help Dunn discover his superpowers is a disabled comic store owner, Elijah Price (Samuel Jackson). In true Shyamalan fashion, there’s a twist toward the tale’s end, where we realize Price isn’t the well-meaning mentor we initially suspect. However, Price is still more intriguing and relatable than the story’s protagonist, with or without this revelation.

Whereas Dunn is impervious to injury (literally “unbreakable”), Price (aka “Mr. Glass”) suffers from brittle bone disease. As a result, his struggles, including a gut-wrenching fall down a flight of stairs, make him a far more affecting character. But, of course, this only makes the film’s final revelation all that more brutal.^[4]

6 Lord Summerisle in The Wicker Man (1973)

Uptight, straight-laced, and as dull as they come, the profoundly religious Sergeant Neil Howie is the antithesis of your usual movie hero. Of course, this is all part of the great trick the folk-horror classic, The Wicker Man, plays on its audience. But where Howie is the unexpected hero, there’s no doubt about the film’s villain, Lord Summerisle, played by Christopher Lee.

Lee here is fantastic as the charming pagan leader pulling the strings behind the scenes on the Scottish island that bears his name. Lee played countless villains during his career, including Dracula and Saruman, but would go on record to call The Wicker Man his best film. While that’s debatable, there’s no doubt that Lord Summerisle and his cooky followers stole the show here, even if Howie’s suspicions turn out to be right in the end.^[5]

5 Dr. Frank-N-Furter in The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975)

Alongside its iconic set pieces, costumes, and musical numbers, The Rocky Horror Picture Show boasts a genuinely memorable cast of characters. But, with all due respect to Susan Sarandon and Barry Bostwick, there’s never been any doubt that the star of this cult classic is Dr. Frank-N-Furter, “The Eccentric Transvestite Scientist.”

Equally horny, mad, and captivating as he is, Furter, played by Tim Curry, steals the screen every time he’s on it and leaves fans eagerly awaiting his appearance when he isn’t. But, of course, Furter isn’t just promiscuous. He’s outright villainous, completely unable to see any consequences to his actions, which include murder. Still, if you’re focusing on Furter’s actions rather than his gender and social norm-defying ways, you might well have missed the point of the film.^[6]

4 Freddy Krueger in the A Nightmare on Elm Street Franchise (1984–2003)

Take any horror franchise from the ’80s, and there’s a chance the villain is more interesting than the victims. Most of the time, that’s just because the victims are a group of unconvincing teenage stereotypes. But where the likes of Michael Myers and Jason are silent and cold killers, Freddy Krueger provides pure campy entertainment.

Initially played by the talented Robert Englund, Krueger’s one-liners and sadistic presence are what kept audiences coming back for more. In fact, despite the franchise’s revolving door of protagonists, the films have amassed over $440 million to date. Add in those claw hands, Freddie’s ability to kill you in your dreams, and that iconic stripey red sweater, and you’ve got a horror villain who outshines any final girl or guy.^[7]

3 Annie Wilkes in Misery (1990)

Not to throw shade on James Caan’s performance as the bed-bound and trapped writer Paul Sheldon, but Misery’s legacy is Kathy Bates’s breakout performance as the psychotic Annie Wilkes. There’s a good reason Bates walked away with an Oscar for this performance, after all.

When her favorite author crashes his car in a snowstorm, Wilkes takes it upon herself to save and look after him. However, it soon becomes clear that Wilkes’s fandom is more than just a little obsessive, and she quickly goes from carer to captor. In truth, Wilkes’s mild-mannered and seemingly kind-hearted nature only makes her infamous actions later more shocking. Add in that one particular scene involving a sledgehammer, and there’s little doubt that Wilkes is one of the most sadistic movie villains of all time.^[8]

2 Loki in Thor (2011)

Thor is a badass, and Chris Hemsworth was the perfect choice to play him. However, being the God of Thunder doesn’t leave much room for character depth and intrigue. Instead, it would be Tom Hiddleston’s performance as Thor’s sly brother Loki that would leave the most significant impression in this popular Marvel flick.

Loki is deceptive, conniving, and treacherous but also not wholly evil. And these shades of grey that the character exhibits make him so intriguing. Yes, Loki is selfish and ruthless, but he’s also a great deal more relatable and human than his more muscular brother. So, where Thor might not be much of an anti-hero, Loki might be one of the all-time great anti-villains.^[9]

1 Roy Batty in Blade Runner

What’s that? Two films on this list where a Harrison Ford character gets overshadowed? Okay, so Ford’s Film Noir inspired Rick Deckard is a great protagonist. But, ultimately, it’s Rutger Hauer’s performance as the rogue humanoid Roy Batty that drives home the film’s themes.

Like all great villains, Roy Batty isn’t wholly evil but instead exhibits shades of grey. After all, all he truly wants is autonomy over his own life. But, it just so happens that Batty’s search to understand himself leads him to become the cause of many deaths and destruction. Still, his final act proves to be a very human one, and his closing monologue, partly written by Hauer, where he laments the life he’s led, might be the most compelling in all of cinema history.^[10]

Sometimes tragedies do more than cause death and destruction. Sometimes they detract attention away from other, seemingly lesser events. Big disasters – wars, killer hurricanes, assassinations – tend to jam our ability to fully absorb concurrent crises.

In chronological order, here are ten catastrophes that, to varying degrees, were overshadowed by more prominent catastrophes.

10 NYC Horrors That Were As Traumatic As 9/11

10 Uncivil: The Sand Creek Massacre

Fortunately for America’s first inhabitants, during the Civil War US soldiers were largely too busy slaughtering each other to slaughter Indians. There were, however, exceptions, including a four-month fight with the Dakota people in 1862. The US lost more than 100 servicemen and 350 settlers before driving the tribe’s famously fearsome warriors back. The dust-up took a backseat to such momentous events as the Battle of Antietam—the bloodiest in American history—and the Emancipation Proclamation.

An even lesser-known conflict was the 1864-65 Colorado War, in which Cheyenne, Arapaho and Lakota forces battled US soldiers and Colorado militiamen. The staggered, skirmish-centric confrontations were indecisive and unremarkable save for a lone event: one of the most disgraceful mass murders in US military history.

On November 29, 1864, 675 men led by Colonel John Chivington crossed into Indian territory. The soldiers sacked the village of Black Kettle – over which flew both an American flag and a white flag of truce – and killed about 230 Indians, mostly unarmed women, children, and elderly. There were no enemy combatants whatsoever in the village.

Unrepentant and unenlightened even for the mid-19th Century, Chivington declared “I have come to kill Indians, and believe it is right and honorable to use any means under God’s heaven to kill Indians… Kill and scalp all, big and little; nits make lice.” A military investigation found Chivington culpable, but not until he’d returned to civilian life. He defended what became known as the Sand Creek Massacre until his death in 1894.

9 The SS Mendi: 600 Dead in a Desensitized Nation

One of the UK’s deadliest nautical disasters was also one of its most underrecognized, for two main reasons.

Shortly before daybreak on February 21, 1917, the SS Mendi, a British passenger steamship outfitted for troop transport during World War I, was accidentally rammed in dense fog by the Darro, a Royal Mail Steam Packet Company cargo ship three times the Mendi’s tonnage. The Darro survived; the Mandi did not, and more than 600 of her crew perished.

The first reason the disaster went relatively unnoticed is its timing. Coming off a year, 1916, that included the Battle of the Somme – the bloodiest battle in world history, and one in which the British suffered 125,000 dead and 420,000 total casualties – the UK was well on its way to amassing an ungodly 750,000 WWI combat deaths. Amid the most hellish war in its history, 600 men dying in a seafaring accident didn’t make too many waves.

The other factor was the Mendi’s occupants, the majority of whom were black African soldiers. And while many died in the collision or were trapped below deck as the Mendi quickly sank, many of the deaths may have been avoidable had the soldiers been more familiar with the ocean. Most had never seen the sea before this voyage, and very few could swim. So despite the Mendi’s escort, a steamer called the Brisk, swiftly scooping up some survivors, many drowned just seconds after entering the water.

8 A Deadly Secret

On July 16, 1945, the heavy cruiser USS Indianapolis set sail from San Francisco on a top-secret mission. Traveling at record-breaking speed, she reached Pearl Harbor, Hawaii in just over three days, then continued to the US occupied island of Tinian. Arriving on July 26, the Indianapolis delivered its package: enriched uranium for the nuclear bomb dropped on Hiroshima, Japan just 11 days later.

The Indianapolis then visited Guam, before departing for Okinawa with 1,195 sailors – manpower for the bloody invasion of mainland Japan everyone thought was coming. Only of course it wasn’t – and the Indianapolis became a sort of deadly, naïve decoy. At 12:15am on July 30, two Japanese torpedoes landed direct hits. Twelve minutes later the ship rolled completely over, taking some 300 sailors down with it. The other 900 were adrift at sea.

Incredibly, no one seemed to notice. It took three and a half days for Navy command to learn of the ship’s sinking – and that was only when a smattering of survivors were spotted in the open ocean. By that time, only 316 men were left alive. The rest had met their ends in a variety of horrific ways, including drowning, hypothermia, shark attacks and even delirium-caused suicide and murder.

Overshadowed by the atomic bomb dropped just four days after the survivors were rescued, the ordeal was detailed years later in a captivating documentary.

7 An Assassin Changes a Nation’s Narrative

In early 1968, a trifecta of events may have shifted the trajectory of the United States’ continued involvement in the Vietnam War. In late January, North Vietnamese troops attacked US installations and South Vietnamese cities, taking territory and lives. What became known as the Tet Offensive sparked Walter Cronkite, the USA’s most respected broadcast journalist, to declare the conflict an unwinnable stalemate in late February.

March 31 brought another Vietnam bombshell: President Lyndon Johnson declared that he would not seek reelection. Considering he’d been among the most effective domestic policy presidents in the nation’s history, the sole reason for his decision was the bloody, misguided quagmire in Southeast Asia.

In three consecutive months, Americans were given three major hints that Vietnam was a waste of troops and treasure. Then, four days after Johnson announced his pending retirement, Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee.

The country exploded. Riots, protests, vigils, prayer services. The most influential black civil rights leader in the nation’s history had been cut down by a white gunman. A sort of double-tragedy, King’s murder interrupted a much-needed reckoning with the failed Vietnam War, instead laser-focusing the country and the world on America’s longstanding racial discrimination and hate-fueled violence.

6 The Juice vs. The Genocide

Nothing exemplifies Americans’ warped priorities like their reactions to two simultaneous tragedies. One was a genocide in which 800,000 innocent people were butchered in Africa. The other was a double murder in which a celebrity allegedly butchered his ex-wife and her acquaintance. Guess which one we were tuned into?

On June 12, 1994, Nicole Brown-Simpson, ex-wife of superstar athlete and not-so-superstar actor OJ Simpson, was stabbed to death – in fact, she was nearly decapitated – along with her friend, Ronald Goldman. Five days later, all of America and much of the world was watching a live feed of Simpson, gun to his head in a white SUV, pursued by police down a Los Angeles highway.

By that time, in Rwanda, the majority Hutus were two months into a 100-day purge of the minority Tutsi population. The uprising was launched by coordinated radio announcements in early April, with lists of government opponents given to militias tasked with murdering them and their families.

Soon, the slaughter spread to the general Tutsi population. Neighbors killed neighbors and, for fear of being killed themselves, some Hutus even murdered their Tutsi spouses. The weapon of choice for most Hutu militants, the machete, became the macabre spectacle’s symbol.

The international community did shamefully little to stop the ethnic cleansing. Just a year removed from the disastrous Blackhawk Down episode in Somalia, the US was disinterested in another African conflict. Meanwhile, toothless UN peacekeepers pulled out after 10 Belgian soldiers were killed.

5 NYC’s Deadliest Plane Crash of 2001 was… in November?

Two months and one day after the September 11 attacks, a tragedy occurred that easily would have been America’s worst disaster in years: the second deadliest airplane crash in US history.

At 9:14am on November 12, 2001, American Airlines Flight 587 departed New York City’s John F. Kennedy airport, bound for the Dominican Republic. Just two minutes later, the Airbus A300 slammed into the heavily populated neighborhood of Belle Harbor, Queens. The crash killed 251 passengers, nine crew members and five people on the ground.

Understandably, everyone’s first and worst fear was that a bomb or suicide nosedive had caused the disaster. After all, how often does a multi-engine commercial airliner crash in a developed country – let alone in a city that was the prime target of an historic terrorist attack just two months prior?

Fortunately for New Yorkers’ frayed nerves, terrorism was quickly ruled out. The National Transportation Safety Board blamed the pilot’s overuse of rudder controls in response to wake turbulence – air disturbance from a preceding flight. The aggressive rudder use stressed the vertical stabilizer until it snapped off, dooming the aircraft. Flight 587 went into a flat spin, with the resulting aerodynamic load ripping off both engines. The last recorded words were First Officer Sten Molin screaming, “What the hell are we into? We’re stuck in it.”

4 Hurricane Who?

In 2005, the Atlantic saw its first and fourth most intensive hurricanes ever… and each took a backseat to a weaker yet deadlier storm.

In mid-September, three million people fled the Houston, Texas area in one of the largest evacuations in American history. They were avoiding Hurricane Rita, a Category 5 storm whose gigantic swath would eventually affect several Caribbean countries and every Gulf of Mexico state. As many as 125 people died, and $19 billion in damage was inflicted.

A month later, the most powerful Atlantic Hurricane on record directly impacted South Florida, ripping palm trees from roots and traffic lights from moorings. And this was AFTER it calmed down from a Category 5 to a Category 3. All totaled, Hurricane Wilma killed more than 30 and equaled Rita’s $19 billion price tag.

But in 2005, both were a drop in the bucket. In late August, Hurricane Katrina would score a direct hit on New Orleans, breaching the levees of a city largely below sea level. Katrina’s fatality toll of 1,836 makes it the fourth deadliest hurricane in history, but it was the images of a flooded city with desperate, predominantly black citizens that captivated the world’s attention.

Women with babies waving towels from rooftops. Days-old bodies floating in floodwater. Hungry, thirsty survivors stranded in an arena. Katrina was a pathetic poster child for America’s perceived incompetence and inherent racism.

3 26/11?

“9/11” is instantly recognizable as the date of the deadliest terrorism attack in US history, while “7/7” rings familiar as the day in 2005 when terrorists bombed three Underground trains and one bus in London.

A less famous tragedy – outside of India, anyway – was more protracted than 9/11 and more prolific and lethal than the UK attacks. For four days starting November 26, 2008, 10 members of the Pakistan-based extremist group Lashkar-e-Taiba carried out 12 coordinated shooting and bombing attacks across Mumbai.

While the Western world certainly noticed and condemned the massacre, the tragedy was overshadowed by the spiraling global financial crisis. In the US alone, nearly 250,000 jobs were lost in October; November’s numbers, released shortly after the Mumbai attacks, would be more than twice that as markets tanked and employers panicked. In late 2008, the West was looking inward, not outward.

But what an attack it was. Mumbai was basically the 2015 Paris attacks without Paris: terrorists armed with automatic weapons and grenades targeted civilians at cafes, railway stations and even hospitals. The ordeal included hostage-taking at a Jewish center and two luxury hotels, including the famous Taj Mahal Palace & Tower. In all, 174 people were killed in a tragedy known throughout India as 26/11.

2 Australia Burns as the World Melts Down

The 2008-09 Financial Crisis was so protracted and permeating that it distracted from other tragedies as well. By January 2009, monthly job losses in the United States were peaking at a staggering rate of 800,000 – a pace nearly matched in February and March. Russia also shed 800,000 jobs in December, doubling the United States’ per capita rate. Canada lost 129,000 jobs in January – its most ever – while Spain’s unemployment rate of 14.4% exemplified Europe’s spiral.

Amid the worldwide economic collapse, Australia suffered its deadliest wildfire ever – an event most people have never heard of. In early February, a series of fires began igniting across Victoria, Australia’s second most populated state. The blazes, many of which would merge into larger conflagrations, occurred during peak bushfire season, and in the wake of a brutal heatwave; Melbourne, Victoria’s capital, saw three consecutive days of temperatures exceeding 109° F (43° C), including a record-setting 113° F.

On Saturday, February 7, as many as 400 individual fires were recorded, earning the day its Black Saturday moniker. Over the following five weeks more than a million acres were singed. Fueled by high winds, the fast-spreading fires progressed too rapidly for many would-be evacuees. People burned in their homes, in their vehicles, on the street after abandoning cars on fire-blocked roads. In all, 173 people died and more than 400 were injured.

1 The Other Mass Killer from China

COVID-19 isn’t the only deadly scourge whose origin is traceable to China. Another is the marked rise in deaths attributed to arguably the most dangerous illicit drug in the world: fentanyl, a synthetic opioid pain reliever 50-100 times more potent than morphine and heroin.

While common prescription opioids like Vicodin, Percocet and OxyContin birthed the current overdose epidemic, fentanyl has played an outsized role in sustaining it. In the 12 months ending in May 2020, more than 81,000 Americans died of drug overdoses – a one-year record. Per the US Centers for Disease Control, synthetic opioids – “primarily illicitly manufactured fentanyl” – are the primary driver of increasing overdose deaths, with fatalities involving such substances jumping 38.4 percent from the previous 12-month period. Fentanyl also has been linked to increased deaths in the UK, Europe and Canada.

Overdose deaths involving cocaine increased by 26.5 percent, an uptick the CDC also links to co-use or contamination of cocaine with fentanyl or heroin. This is because cutting an expensive product like cocaine with comparably inexpensive fentanyl allows a drug dealer to get more baggies per brick without sacrificing potency.

Why fentanyl? Because it’s cheap, potent and versatile. Synthetic and cost-effective, most fentanyl is manufactured in large batches in China and shipped around the world via the black market.

10 Chilling Voices From 9/11

They say that “timing is everything.” It’s not just what you do, but when you do it, and you are about to see ten examples where this little truism has applied. On almost any other day, the following noteworthy events would have dominated public attention. But, as it happened, they occurred around the same time as something even more important that stole a lot of their thunder, transforming them from headlines into footnotes. 

10. The Peshtigo Fire

On October 8, 1871, a massive forest fire erupted in a logging area in Wisconsin, near the small city of Peshtigo. The dreadful blaze burned over 1.2 million acres of land and killed between 1,200 and 1,500 people, becoming the deadliest wildfire in the United States, possibly in all of recorded history. You would think that such a catastrophic event would get top billing in every newspaper in the country, right?

Not quite, because it happened on the exact same day as the Great Chicago Fire. Although the death toll there was nowhere near as large, that fire occurred in one of the biggest cities in the country so, unsurprisingly, it garnered a lot more attention from the media and from the public. The story of Mrs. O’Leary’s cow, who started the destructive blaze by knocking over a lantern onto a pile of hay, is still popular today, even though it’s been debunked decades ago.

Today, the Peshtigo fire is barely remembered outside of Wisconsin, and it is not even the only one. Several more fires occurred throughout the Midwest that day, ostensibly caused or, at least, aided by the same weather conditions that fanned the flames in Peshtigo.

9. The Liberation of Rome

The Liberation of Rome was a pivotal moment during World War II. After the fall of Mussolini in 1943, the country signed an armistice with the Allies, but was soon invaded by Germany who took over the northern and central parts of Italy. After nine months of heavy fighting, the Allies managed to liberate Rome and entered the city on June 4, 1944. Thus, Rome became the first capital to escape the clutches of the Nazis.  

It was a strategic victory and a major morale boost for the Allies, but they did not intend to rest on their laurels. Before the world had time to process this news, something else happened that caught everyone’s attention. Just two days after the liberation of Rome came D-Day, the largest seaborne invasion in history which saw a massive Allied force storm the beaches at Normandy in order to begin the liberation of France.

8. The Deaths of Two Authors

There are quite a few examples of famous people whose deaths did not get a lot of attention because they died on the same day as someone even more famous than them. But in this case, we have not one, but two people who got overshadowed and both of them were British authors. 

C.S. Lewis was an academic at Oxford and Cambridge Universities and a writer best known for penning The Chronicles of Narnia fantasy series. Meanwhile, Aldous Huxley was a prolific author who wrote almost 50 books and was nominated nine times for the Noble Prize for Literature, whose most famous work is the dystopian sci-fi novel Brave New World.

Both men died on November 22, 1963 – Lewis due to kidney failure and Huxley from cancer – but their demises received almost no press coverage. The New York magazine later proclaimed them the winners of “the championship trophy for badly timed death” because they passed away on the same day that President John F. Kennedy was assassinated.

7. The Olympic Protest

At the 1968 Olympic Games in Mexico City, American track and field athletes Tommie Smith and John Carlos executed, arguably, the most famous political statement in the history of the Olympics when they performed the Black Power salute during the medal ceremony for the 200-meter sprint. That image with the two of them raising their fists in the air became instantly iconic, but not so iconic was the protest that occurred the following Summer Olympics in Munich.

The circumstances were similar: two Black American athletes, Vince Matthews and Wayne Collett, won the gold and silver medals, respectively, for the 400-meter race. Then, while the American national anthem started playing during the medal ceremony, the two of them gathered on the first place podium and began chatting casually, fidgeting around and playing with their medals with their backs turned to the flag.

Their protest got an immediate reaction, as the duo were criticized for being disrespectful and were banned from future games by the International Olympics Committee. Their actions were quickly forgotten, however, as the 1972 games became remembered for only one thing: the Munich massacre. During the second week of the competition, members of a Palestinian terrorist group dubbed Black September stormed the Olympic Village and killed 11 members of the Israeli Olympic team, as well as a West German police officer.

6. The Channel Crossing

Harriet Quimby was one of the greatest female pioneers of flight, making history on August 1, 1911, when she became the first woman in America to earn her pilot’s license. Unfortunately, her trailblazing career also served as a reminder of just how dangerous flying was in its early stages, as she died in a plane crash less than a year after getting her license.

Before her untimely end, though, Harriet Quimby became responsible for several aviation firsts, including her crowning achievement of becoming the first woman to fly across the English Channel.

This happened on April 16, 1912, less than three years after the first-ever airplane crossing had been completed. Harriet’s flight lasted for 69 minutes and almost ended in tragedy as she lost visibility in heavy fog and her engine flooded. Although off-course, she ultimately landed safely on a French beach near Hardelot. 

The locals quickly surrounded the plane and lavished Harriet with excited cries and cheers, but they were about the only ones to do so. The rest of the world was completely focused on something else, one of the most infamous events of the 20th century, which had occurred just two days earlier: the sinking of the Titanic.

5. The Pope’s Beatification

May 2, 2011, was a strange day because it started with the world celebrating the life of one man, but ended with them celebrating the death of another.

The previous day, May 1, was the date when Pope John Paul II was beatified and canonized in St. Peter’s Basilica in Vatican City. It was a grand event attended by dozens of heads of state and other dignitaries, but it was all but forgotten by the next day. 

Just hours after the ceremony had taken place, American special forces led by SEAL Team Six had launched a raid on Osama bin Laden’s compound in Pakistan and killed the most wanted man in the world. President Barack Obama made the official announcement that night, but the news had already leaked and it was all that people talked about that day. The pope’s beatification took an immediate backseat, although some people, including the President of Peru, tried to give John Paul the credit, claiming that bin Laden’s death was his miracle.

4. The NBA Finals

Let’s move on to something a bit more lighthearted, such as the time when all Americans stopped watching the NBA finals game in order to see the O.J. Simpson car chase.

Now, you might be thinking that an NBA final isn’t exactly a major event, but this one did represent a pivotal moment in sports history. The 1993-1994 season was the first one without Michael Jordan after the Chicago Bulls superstar abruptly quit basketball and decided to give baseball a try. There was a lot of concern at NBC that the NBA would struggle in the ratings without its most popular star.

Even so, the league hoped that it had a compelling story to tell, even without MJ. Without the dominance of the Chicago Bulls, two new strong contenders emerged – the Houston Rockets, led by Hakeem Olajuwon, and the New York Knicks, led by Patrick Ewing. 

On June 7, 1994, the series was tied at 2 wins each and the teams met for Game 5. However, during the game, O.J. Simpson had decided to take the California police on a high-speed chase in a white Ford Bronco across the 405 Freeway…and it was all being broadcast live on every American channel except for NBC.

The channel was hemorrhaging viewers so, ultimately, it made the call to go with a picture-in-picture broadcast, giving the O.J. chase top-billing on the big screen. Still didn’t work. That matchup became the lowest-rated finals game since the early 80s and kept that dubious honor until 2003.

3. The Attack on Clark Field

If we mention the words “Pearl Harbor,” there is one event that immediately springs to mind – the surprise attack by the Japanese during World War II. That doesn’t really work as well with the words “Clark Field,” even though it was basically the same thing.

On the morning of December 8, 1941, roughly nine hours after the airstrikes on Pearl Harbor, in Hawaii, the Japanese Navy Air Service launched another attack on Clark Field, an American airbase located on Luzon Island in the Philippines. A few more minor airstrikes occurred throughout the day, all part of Japan’s plan to weaken the enemy air force before its invasion of the Philippines.

The damage and casualties sustained at Clark Field were lower than Pearl Harbor, one of the main reasons why this event is not as well-remembered. But one thing that still is unclear is why none of the people in charge were disciplined, especially since they knew for hours what had happened at Pearl Harbor. The two generals in charge, Douglas MacArthur and Lewis Brereton, each tried to put the blame on the other one, but neither faced any severe repercussions, whereas the officials in Hawaii were relieved of their command and forced into retirement.

2. The Solo Row

On almost any other week in history, the tremendous accomplishment of John Fairfax would have been celebrated on a global scale. At the start of 1969, the British adventurer set sail from the Canary Islands aboard a rowing boat. His goal was to do something that had never been done before – row across an ocean alone.

Fairfax began his journey on January 20. The trip was supposed to be around 3,600 miles, but due to unfavorable winds it actually ended up being 5,000 miles. The rower’s supplies had dwindled and he had to rely on fish he could catch and the occasional kindness of passing ships. But ultimately, he succeeded. Fairfax reached the coast of Florida on July 19, after 180 days at sea, becoming the first person to row solo across an ocean.

He celebrated his feat with “a nice steak, a bottle of Scotch, and two aspirin.” Unfortunately for him, the rest of the world was concerned with an even greater feat of human endeavor. The very next day, July 20, 1969, mankind took one giant leap as the Apollo 11 astronauts walked on the Moon for the very first time.

1. The Wow! Signal

Let’s end with another space entry, except that this time, it was the space event that got ignored in favor of something completely different.

On August 15, 1977, astronomers operating the Big Ear radio telescope at Ohio State University picked up a strange signal emanating from the Sagittarius constellation. The transmission was so unusual that it prompted astronomer Jerry Ehrman to write “Wow!” on the printout amid talks that it could be of extraterrestrial origins.

So scientists had just recorded what they believed could be first contact with alien life. You would think that would be a pretty big deal but, unfortunately for them, they announced their findings the next day, just hours before the death of Elvis Presley. As it turned out, people cared about the king more than about aliens, so news of the Wow! Signal was relegated to the back pages of the newspapers.

Although it was mainly ignored in its own time, interest in the Wow! Signal has seen a resurgence in the decades that followed, mainly because it has never been detected again and has yet to be thoroughly explained, despite multiple hypotheses. Some have joked that the signal came from the mothership as it arrived to take Elvis back home and, frankly, that sounds perfectly plausible to us.