It goes without saying that our society is moving faster than it ever has in the past. As medical technology surges forward with unprecedented speed and accuracy, many of us are left in the ensuing dust storm of obsolete procedures that were commonplace mere decades ago. But if we look up and gaze into the near future, we can see the beginnings of a whole new world of medical treatments that the doctors of yesterday couldn’t even begin to imagine. Here are 10 medical technologies that could very well shape the future.

Usually, a medical advance comes from years of high budget research. Sometimes it’s sheer accident. And sometimes, a small team of pioneers will step forward with a truly innovative discovery. That’s the case with Joe Landolina and Isaac Miller and their Veti-Gel, a cream-like substance that will instantly seal a wound and start the clotting process.

The anti-bleeding gel creates a synthetic framework that mimics the extracellular matrix, an awesomely named natural substance that helps cells in the body grow together. Here’s a video of the gel in action (warning, it’s fairly bloody). In the video, pigs blood is piped into a cut of pork. When the pork is sliced, it begins bleeding immediately, but then stops the instant Veti-Gel is applied.

In other tests, Landolino used the gel to stop the bleeding on the carotid artery of a rat, as well as a live liver that had been sliced. If this product becomes commercial, it could save millions of lives, especially in combat zones.

Artificial lung tissue grown with magnetic levitation: it sounds like something out of science fiction, and it was, until now. In 2010, Glauco Souza and his team began looking into a way to create realistic human tissue using nanomagnets that allowed lab-grown tissue to levitate above a nutrient solution.

The result was the most realistic synthetically grown organ tissue ever grown. Typically, lab-grown tissue is created in a petri dish, but elevating the tissue allows it to grow in a 3D shape that allows for more complex cell layers. That 3D growth pattern is a more perfect simulation of the way cells grow in the human body, which means that this is a huge step forward in creating artificial organs that can be transplanted into humans.

It’s obvious that the direction of medical technology is leaning more towards reproducing human tissue outside the body, allowing us to create “spare parts,” so to speak. If one organ isn’t working, we can just replace it with a new one, fresh off the assembly line. Now that idea is moving down to the cellular level with a gel that mimics the action of specific cells.

The material is formed in bunches that are only 7.5 billionths of a meter wide—for comparison, that’s about four times wider than a DNA double helix. Cells have their own type of skeleton, known as a cytoskeleton, which is made of proteins. The synthetic gel will take the place of that cytoskeleton in a cell, and when it’s applied to, say, a wound, it replaces any cells that were lost or damaged. In a practical sense, it would work like a tiny, tiny sewer grate. Fluids can pass through the cell, which allow the wound to continue healing, but the artificial skeleton prevents bacteria from passing through with the fluid.

In a sentence we won’t get to use often, researchers have turned pee into human brain cells. At the Guangzhou Institute of Biomedicine and Health in China, biologists have taken waste cells from urine and modified them with the use of retroviruses to create progenitor cells, which the body uses as the building blocks for brain cells. The most valuable benefit to this method is that the new neurons created haven’t caused tumors in any of the mice used for testing.

See, embryonic stem cells have been used for this in the past, but one of their side effects was that they were more likely to develop tumors after transplant. But after only a few weeks, the pee-based cells had already begun to shape into neurons with absolutely no unwanted mutations.

The obvious medical benefit of getting cells from urine is that, well, it’s freely available, and scientists could work on developing neurons that are sourced from the same person, increasing the chance that they’ll be accepted by the body.

We know, we know, but hear us out—electric underwear really can save thousands of lives. See, when a patient is lying in a hospital bed for days, weeks, or months, they can develop bed sores—open wounds formed by a lack of circulation and compressed skin. And believe it or not, bed sores can be deadly. Roughly 60,000 people die from bed sores and resulting infections every year, draining $12 billion from the U.S. medical industry.

Developed by Canadian researcher Sean Dukelow, the electric underpants—dubbed Smart-E-Pants—deliver a small electrical charge every ten minutes. The effect is the same as if the patient was moving on their own—it activates muscles and increases circulation in that area, and effectively eliminates bed sores, thereby saving lives.

Flower pollen is one of the most common allergens in the world, and it’s so effective at what it does because of the way pollen is built. The outer shell of pollen is incredibly tough, tough enough to be resistant to the disintegrating power of the human digestive system. And that’s more than most vaccines can say—the majority of vaccines are injected because they can’t withstand stomach acids when they’re taken orally. The vaccine breaks down, and becomes useless.

But put the two together, and you have a match made in heaven’s medical sciences lab. Researchers at Texas Tech University are looking into ways to use pollen as means to provide life-saving vaccines to soldiers stationed overseas. The lead researcher on the project, Harvinder Gill, has a goal of cracking into pollen to remove the allergens, then injecting a vaccine into the empty space left behind. Research like this could vastly change the way vaccines and medications can be given to humans.

Remember the days when you would break your arm and then have to wear a cast for weeks while the bone naturally healed itself? It looks like those days are behind us. Using 3D printers, researchers at Washington State University have developed a hybrid material that has the same properties—the same strength and flexibility—as real bone.

This “model” can then be placed in the body at the site of the fracture while the real bone grows up and around it like a scaffolding. Once the process is complete, the model disintegrates. The printer they’re using is a ProMetal 3D printer—consumer technology available to anyone with enough cash. It was the material for the bone structure that was the real problem, but they’ve created a formula that uses a combination of zinc, silicon, and calcium phosphate that works well—so well, in fact, that the entire process has already been successfully tested in rabbits. When the bone material was combined with stem cells, the natural bone grew back much faster than normal.

The real benefit of this technology is that, feasibly, any tissue—even full organs—could be grown with 3D printers once we have the right combination of starting materials.

The brain is a delicate organ, and even slight trauma can have lasting effects if it’s bumped in the wrong places. For people with traumatic brain injury, extensive rehabilitation is pretty much the only hope of leading a normal life again. Alternatively, they could just get a zap on the tongue.

Your tongue is connected to the nervous system through thousands of nerve clusters, some of which lead directly into the brain. Based on that fact, the Portable NeuroModulation Stimulator, or PoNS, stimulates specific nerve regions on the tongue to hopefully focus the brain on repairing the nerves that were damaged. And so far, it works. Patients being treated with that type of neuromodulation showed vast improvement after only a week. Fair warning, you might get brain damage just trying to read that link.

Apart from blunt trauma, the PoNS could feasibly be used to repair the brain from anything, including alcoholism, Parkinson’s, strokes, and multiple sclerosis.

Sometimes a new innovation doesn’t necessarily take the shape you expect. Most of us think of groundbreaking new procedures or cures for cancer, but this example shows that thinking outside the box can make a world of difference.

Pacemakers are used in approximately 700,000 people right now to regulate their hearts’ rhythms. But after seven years or so, the device runs out of juice, prompting a replacement with an expensive surgical procedure. Well, scientists at the University of Michigan may have solved that problem by developing a way to harness electricity from the motion of a beating heart—electricity which can then power a pacemaker.

Piggybacking off lab tests that produced overwhelmingly positive results, Dr. Amin Karami is ready to try his device—made from materials that create electricity when they change shape—on a live human heart. If the test works, it could revolutionize not just the pacemaker industry, but medical science as a whole by using human-generated electricity to power a range of medical devices. For example, this device harvests electricity from the vibrations of the inner ear and uses it to power a small radio.

DNA works like the instructions for life, telling cells what they’re supposed to do. Change the structure, and the message changes. DNA is often referred to as the building blocks of life, but engineers at Harvard are now making that phrase a little more literal. They are using DNA as building blocks—nano-size Legos—to build structures.

The Lego image was one that was encouraged by Peng Yin, the head researcher on the project, because it helped the engineers visualize what they were creating. And the comparison didn’t stop there—DNA is basically coded with four different letters—A, T, G, and C. When DNA combines, G connects to C, and A connects to T. Always. So they created a DNA strand that contained two of each letter like the pegs of a Lego brick. Snap them together, and you can build anything.

The concept is taking the biology world by storm, and the possibilities are endless. The Harvard team created a genetic copy of a 284 page book by translating it into binary, then associating the 1’s and 0’s of binary with the A,T,G,C structure of DNA. The resulting strand of DNA can be decoded by anyone to get the full text of the book.

These researchers at Oxford built a DNA robot that follows instructions, opening a whole other world of medical-related potential.

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

10 Julian The Apostate And The Rise Of Christianity

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

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

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

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

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

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

9 Solon’s Democracy

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

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

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

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

8 Philip Of Macedon’s Silver Spears

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

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

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

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

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

7 The Tiburtine Sibyl And The Apocalypse

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

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

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

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

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

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

6 Tages Founds A Religion

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

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

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

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

5 Lycurgus And The Establishment Of Sparta

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

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

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

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

4 Grinus And The Founding Of Cyrene

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

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

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

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

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

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

3 The Sibylline Books

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

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

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

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

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

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

2 Flavius Josephus Predicts The Rise Of Vespasian

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

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

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

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

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

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

1 Onomacritus And His Forgeries

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

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

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

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

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

10 Disproving The Earth Is Flat

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

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

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

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

9 The Start Of Nanotechnology

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

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

8 The Birth Of Principia

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

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

7 John Lennon’s Last Concert

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

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

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

6 Always Bet On Black Holes

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

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

5 James Hogan’s Career

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

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

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

4 Pictures In Motion

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

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

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

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

3 Kepler’s Laws Of Planetary Motion

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

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

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

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

2 America’s First Road Trip

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

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

1 Proving The Antiproton

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

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

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

+Further Reading

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

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

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

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

10 The Fortuitous Fog That Saved Washington’s Army

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

4 The Window Frame That Doomed JFK

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

1 The Inglorious Return Of Carlos Danger

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

10. Joseph Glidden

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

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

9. Martin Cooper

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

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

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

8. Mary Anderson 

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

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

7. Dietrich Nikolaus Winkel

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

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

6. Henry Blair

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

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

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

5. Peter Durand

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

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

4. John Harrison

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

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

3. Garrett A. Morgan

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

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

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

2. Ada Lovelace

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

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

1. Eadweard Muybridge

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

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

For as long as humans have existed, there has been war. Whether over cultural differences, expansionism, or some other reason, wars have forged empires, destroyed others, consolidated leaders, and changed the course of history. But while we all know about the World Wars and famous revolutions, there are some battles often forgotten, the results of which helped shape our world to what it is today.

Related: 10 Really Surprising Facts About Ancient Warfare

10 The Battle of Didgori

Internal conflict and advancing Muslim forces left the state of Georgia in the 11th century with only a minor foothold in the Caucasus, seemingly powerless to stop the Seljuk Turks from destroying them completely. By the time a 16-year-old David (or Davit) IV took the Georgian throne in 1089, the country was paying tribute to the Turks, who had taken their capital.

With the Seljuks turning their attention south to join the Muslim war efforts in the early Crusades, David took the opportunity to stop tribute payments, stepped up his rebuilding efforts, and took back territory from the distracted Turks. Fearing the rise in power of David and the continuation of Christianity in the region, the Seljuks returned with Muslim allies to form an army of around 300,00–500,000, meeting David’s much smaller forces (about 50,000) at the Battle of Didgori in 1121.

Despite being heavily outnumbered, David had a plan: first, he sent a small band of soldiers to the Turks offering to defect, and once inside the enemy camp, they killed the Seljuk leaders, while David attacked their front and flank simultaneously. Without leadership, the Turks fled and were decimated. Not long after, David would recapture Tbilisi and enjoy a string of further victories in the region, establishing a Christian Caucasus and slowing the expansion of the Muslims.^[1]

9 The Battle of La Forbie

From 1095, Crusader armies battled with Muslim forces over the Holy Land, forming the Crusader States in the region, known as Outremer, after early successes. However, after much back and forth over five more major Crusades, the 1187 Battle of Hattin saw Salah al-Din’s Ayyubid Caliphate rest control of the Holy Land once more. This battle is perhaps the most famous of the Crusades, but the often overlooked Battle of La Forbie in 1244, sometimes called the Battle of Hiribya, proved more pivotal to history.

By 1244, the Christians had retaken Jerusalem once again, and the advancing Egyptian army, reinforced by tribesmen, stormed the Holy Land to take it back. One reason this battle is largely forgotten is due to details being extremely sparse. What we do know, however, is that the Christians were completely overwhelmed, ousted from the area, and would never again return. Further Crusades would be called to try, but the defeat at La Forbie marked the collapse of Christian influence and power in the region, cementing the Muslim and Arab influence that persists to this day.^[2]

8 The Battles of Hakata Bay

The Emperor of the Mongols and the Yuan Dynasty in China, Kublai Khan, sought to expand his territory east in the 13th century, first taking Korea before setting his sights on Japan. The Yuan fleet first arrived in 1274, after initial demands were ignored by the Japanese, with this first encounter known as the First Battle of Hakata Bay.

Japan’s defense force was heavily outnumbered and had no answers to the Yuan’s gunpowder, retreating to a fortress for their final stand. However, a freak storm came to their rescue, blowing the advancing Yuan fleet back and destroying many of their ships. Back in China, Kublai was undeterred, arranging a second invasion attempt in 1281, known as the Second Battle of Hakata Bay.

Once again, the Japanese were outmatched but saved by Mother Nature when a typhoon swept the Yuan ships away, forcing the remainder to retreat. These defeats served as a limit on the Mongol’s reach, at least in the east, and the two storms of Hakata Bay became known as “divine wind,” or kamikaze, which would be immortalized by Japanese suicide pilots during World War II.^[3]

7 The Siege of Baghdad

The Abbasid Caliphate had ruled much of the Middle East since around AD 750. The era considered the Islamic Golden Age generally follows the rise, expansion, and cultural development of the Abbasids and other Muslim states.

However, that all changed when the advancing Mongol Empire arrived at their capital of Baghdad in 1258. The Abbasid Caliph, Al-Musta’sim, refused the Mongols demands, and in return, the Mongols laid siege to Baghdad, bombarding it until the Caliph quickly changed his mind and surrendered. While not a battle per se, the quick and violent interaction between both empires, and the resulting success of the Mongols, would have long-lasting effects.

Firstly, Baghdad’s various historical articles and important documents were looted and burned, the city itself was destroyed, and almost the entire population was killed. Al-Musta’sim was said to be rolled in a carpet and trampled to death by horses (due to the Mongols not believing royal blood should be spilled on the Earth). The downfall of the Abbasid Caliphate, along with the destruction of their capital, is generally marked as the end of the Islamic Golden Age.^[4]

6 The Battle of São Mamede

In the 11th century, the entire Iberian Peninsula had changed hands was divided between the Moors in the south and the Visigoths in the north—which consisted of the Kingdoms of León, Castille, and Aragon. At this time, Portugal was merely a county of León, governed by Theresa of León and her husband. But when her husband died, Theresa found herself fighting for control with her son Afonso, who rallied for Portuguese independence.

Tensions culminated in the 1128 Battle of São Mamede. Afonso defeated his mother’s forces and took control of Portugal, going on to defeat the King of León and forge the county’s path to independence. Afonso declared himself king in 1139. After capturing Lisbon and other areas of southern Portugal from Muslim rule, León recognized the county as an independent state, which was ratified by the Pope in 1179. While the battle was merely the first step in a long process, the independence gained at São Mamede would have a significant impact worldwide, with Portugal playing a big part in the early colonization of Africa and South America centuries later.^[5]

5 The Battle of Achelous

The Bulgars settled the Balkans in the seventh century, regularly clashing with their Byzantine neighbors. Past their peak, Byzantium still dominated the region, but the rise of the First Bulgarian Empire would certainly challenge that.

The Bulgarian Tsar Simeon, having defeated the Byzantines multiple times over the years, sought to consolidate both empires in marriage, which their old rivals refused. This inevitably led to yet another war in 917, in which both sides met at Achelous. The Byzantines looked to have the battle won, but rumors began circulating in their camp that their commander Leo Phokas had been killed. One story states that having initially pushed Simeon back, Phokas dismounted from his horse to take a drink, but his men simply saw his unmanned horse and assumed the worst.

Simeon noticed the growing panic and disarray among the Byzantine men, stopped his retreat, and launched a counterattack, giving the Byzantines one of their biggest ever defeats. Simeon’s success allowed him to attain the title of Tsar, established Bulgaria as a significant European power, and allowed Christian Bulgaria to remain religiously independent.^[6]

4 The Battle of Stamford Bridge

While the year 1066 in England is synonymous with the Battle of Hastings, perhaps an equally significant battle in world history occurred just weeks prior, when the English fought off Viking invaders for the final time at Stamford Bridge, ultimately ending the Viking Age.

With King Harold of England in London awaiting an expected Norman invasion, the Norwegian King Hardrada arrived with his forces at York in 1066 to do the same. Harold marched his troops 185 miles north from London in just four days to meet them, surprising the invaders and quickly decimating them in battle, with King Hardrada being killed.

The victory led to the expulsion of the Vikings, ending their claims to the English crown and significance in Europe as a power. Three weeks later, William the Conqueror invaded from Normandy, much as Harold had anticipated; however, he was now severely weakened. The Normans took advantage and seized the crown, with the defeated Harold the final Anglo-Saxon king of England.^[7]

3 The Siege and Fall of Tenochtitlan

While Cortés’s Spanish conquistadors arrived with just 500 men, they quickly laid plans to conquer the Aztec Empire. After slaughtering thousands of unarmed Aztec citizens on their way through the country, the Spanish-led forces (which consisted of many unhappy rival tribes eager to be rid of the Aztecs) arrived at the capital Tenochtitlan and took the Aztec leader Montezuma II hostage. Quickly growing tired of the Spanish and Montezuma’s attempts to placate them, the Aztecs rebelled, and Montezuma was killed, although it is not clear by whom.

After much warfare and more atrocities than can be counted, events culminated in May 1521 when the Spanish laid siege to Tenochtitlan. Cutting off the city for about three months and battering it with cannons, the Aztecs were no match for the Spaniards’ superior weaponry and horses and were forced to surrender. They had already been ravaged by smallpox courtesy of the Spanish, with defeat here marking their ultimate demise and the rise of Spain’s American colonization project.^[8]

2 The Battle of Shanhai Pass

Ruling China from 1368, the Ming dynasty was on the decline by the 17th century. A combination of natural disasters and incompetent rulers left the country in ruins, which all served as the motivation for others to rise against them.

By 1644, pockets of unrest had formed all over the country, and a group of rebels under the command of Li Zicheng stormed Beijing, taking the capital. The Ming Emperor, powerless to resist, committed suicide. But the Ming commanders refused to acknowledge or deal with Li and instead turned to the Manchu people (the Jin Dynasty, in northeast China) for assistance.

The Manchu responded, heading to Shanhai Pass (a gate at the Great Wall) a month after Beijing fell, where Li’s forces formed to meet them. But they were duly thumped. The result of this battle proved significant, with the victorious Manchus pouring into the country to assume control, install themselves as rulers, and rename their dynasty Qing. They would go on to rule for 300 years and would be the last dynasty of Imperial China.^[9]

1 The Battle of Zenta

For several centuries, the Ottoman Empire was the major force of Europe and the Middle East, filling the gap left by the Byzantines and stretching Muslim influence well into Christian Europe. The Holy League of nations, led by the Habsburg Empire (Austria), was formed in the 17th century to try and stop the previously unchecked dominance of the Ottomans.

Having recently taken much of Hungary and now pushing further north, the Battle for Vienna in 1683 saw the Ottoman’s first major defeat in Europe and is considered as the beginning of their decline. But it was at the Battle of Zenta that the Turks would be pushed back for good, allowing Austria to establish itself as a major European power.

In 1697, the League’s forces ambushed the Ottomans while they forded a river on their way to take Zenta (in modern-day Serbia). In the panic, many Ottoman troops drowned while attempting to flee, and many more were wiped out in the battle itself. The Ottomans had been crushed, and the Treaty of Karlowitz quickly followed, curtailing their ambitions in Europe and forcing them to cede large portions of Europe in the process.^[10]