One does not have to be a great person to do great things. The top 10 iconic tales below demonstrate how misfortune, misdeeds, and sheer happenstance can launch legendary legacies. Some of the most celebrated achievements began with victims caught in criminal webs, while others sprang from the very hands that caused the trouble. Once the chaos settled, these ten figures and institutions reshaped the world in unforgettable ways.
10 The Travels of Marco Polo
Why This Is Top 10 Iconic
Confined within stone walls, Marco Polo’s only true liberty lived in his imagination. After a 24‑year odyssey across Asia that began in 1269, he finally trudged back to Venice, only to discover his homeland at war with Genoa. Denied entry, Polo and his crew violently clashed with Genoese officials, landing them in prison for assault.
While behind bars, Polo entertained a fellow inmate—Rustichello of Pisa—by recounting vivid tales of Kublai Khan’s empire and far‑off wonders. Rustichello penned these recollections, birthing the legendary travelogue “The Travels of Marco Polo.” To spice the narrative, the duo embellished certain episodes, turning the manuscript into an instant bestseller that introduced Europe to paper money, pasta, and fantastical creatures like unicorns and dog‑headed peoples.
The book’s ripple effect was staggering: poets such as Samuel Taylor Coleridge and singers like Olivia Newton‑John drew inspiration from Polo’s accounts; Christopher Columbus famously thumbed through a dog‑eared copy before his 1492 voyage. Even the mystic verses of “Kubla Khan” echo Polo’s description of a grand pleasure‑dome, cementing his legacy as a cultural catalyst.
9 Mars Candies
By most measures, Frank Mars looked like a failure, while his son Forrest turned the family name into a confectionery empire. Frank’s own life was far from sweet: a childhood crippled by polio forced him to help his mother bake desserts, planting the seeds of a lifelong obsession with sugary creations. In the early 1900s, a strained marriage and a floundering product called Mar‑O‑Bar drove Frank to the brink. His wife, Ethel Kissack, eventually left with their son, moving to Canada.
Meanwhile, an ambitious Forrest, fresh from Berkeley and Yale, dove into aggressive advertising for Camel cigarettes. One of his guerrilla campaigns in Chicago involved plastering ads over streetlights, a stunt that earned him a police arrest for vandalism. With a meager $400 left, Frank rushed to bail his estranged son out of jail, sparking a reconciliation over milkshakes.
That night, Forrest suggested adding malt to Frank’s chocolate, birthing the “Milky Way” bar—named for the creamy nougat filling. The success of Milky Way opened the floodgates for a constellation of Mars sweets, including Three Musketeers, Snickers, and M&M’s, turning the once‑struggling family into a global candy powerhouse.
8 Griffith Observatory
Griffith J. Griffith, the man whose name adorns both a park and an observatory, was far from saintly. In 1903, while vacationing in Santa Monica, he threatened his wife, Mary Agnes Christina Mesmer, with a gun, claiming she’d conspired with the Pope to poison him. The paranoid oilman’s delusion led to a near‑fatal eye shot; Mesmer survived, leapt from a third‑story window, and was cushioned by an awning that broke her fall.
Charged with assault with a deadly weapon, Griffith’s defense of “alcoholic insanity” reduced his sentence to two years. Determined to restore his reputation, he pledged further philanthropy, offering $100,000 in 1912 to fund an observatory. The city initially balked, but after Griffith’s 1919 death, his bequest finally secured the funds, birthing the iconic Griffith Observatory in 1935.
Since its debut, the observatory has become Hollywood gold. Its silhouette graces classics like “Terminator,” “Who Framed Roger Rabbit?,” “La La Land,” and most famously “Rebel Without a Cause,” where it serves as a pivotal backdrop for the film’s dramatic moments.
7 The Periodic Table of Elements
Polish king Augustus the Strong, eager to prove his alchemical prowess, fell for the sleight‑of‑hand tricks of Johann Friedrich Böttger, who could seemingly turn silver into gold. Convinced of Böttger’s magic, Augustus imprisoned the charlatan, demanding the secret of turning base metal into treasure.
When Böttger’s deception was exposed, Augustus threatened execution. To save his life, Böttger offered a new lie: he claimed mastery over the production of porcelain—Europe’s coveted alternative to Chinese wares. Teaming up with scientist Ehrenfried Walter von Tschirnhaus, they engineered a high‑temperature kiln that fused kaolin clay with feldspar, unlocking true porcelain.
The breakthrough reshaped trade, breaking China’s monopoly and spawning European porcelain factories. One such venture, Sweden’s Ytterby mine, unearthed unique feldspar deposits that yielded vivid pigments, hinting at a new class of elements later identified as the lanthanides.
Chemist Johan Gadolin later isolated seven elements from Ytterby’s ore, providing the missing pieces Dmitri Mendeleev needed to finalize the periodic table—a cornerstone of modern chemistry.
6 Auntie Anne’s Pretzels
Anne Beiler’s journey from Amish farm to pretzel empire began in tragedy. In the mid‑1970s, a runaway tractor claimed the life of her 19‑month‑old daughter, Angela, plunging Anne and her husband, Jonas, into profound grief that nearly drove them to suicide.
Seeking solace, Anne turned to a local pastor—only to endure further abuse as the clergyman entered a six‑year coercive, violent relationship, raping and terrorizing women across the community, including Anne’s sisters. Determined, Anne helped expose and expel the predator, reclaiming her own agency.
With Jonas running a free clinic, the couple opened a modest concession stand in 1988 to supplement their income. What started as a modest snack shop quickly twisted into a nationwide phenomenon as their soft pretzels captured the public’s taste buds, cementing Auntie Anne’s as a beloved mall‑court staple.
5 Hip Hop
On July 13, 1977, a scorching New York heatwave triggered a city‑wide blackout that lasted 25 harrowing hours. The power loss sparked chaos: over a thousand fires ignited, $300 million in damage accrued, and a record 3,776 arrests followed the massive civil unrest.
Amid the turmoil, DJ Grandmaster Caz argues that the looting inadvertently fueled hip‑hop’s explosion. Stolen sound equipment, from mixers to turntables, fell into the hands of aspiring DJs who otherwise could not afford such gear. The scramble for gear turned block parties into underground labs of sonic experimentation.
Although Kool Herc had already pioneered the genre before the blackout, the sudden democratization of technology accelerated hip‑hop’s spread across all five boroughs, eventually propelling it onto the global stage.
4 The MPAA Ratings
Hollywood’s first major scandal erupted on February 1, 1922, when the murdered director William Desmond Taylor was discovered with a pool of blood. The investigation spiraled into a labyrinth of conflicting testimonies, suspected drug‑runners, and a possible cover‑up involving actress Mabel Normand and jealous rival Charlotte Shelby.
The murder exposed the industry’s hidden vices, prompting studios to adopt the Hays Code in 1930 under Will Hays. This self‑censorship regime dictated moral standards, forcing filmmakers to rewrite classics like “Gone with the Wind,” “Casablanca,” and “Night of the Hunter” to comply with strict guidelines.
By the 1960s, the Code’s rigidity sparked rebellion among filmmakers, leading to its eventual abandonment. In its place, the Motion Picture Association of America introduced the modern rating system we know today—G, PG, PG‑13, R, and NC‑17—granting audiences clearer content warnings.
3 The Tour De France
In 1899, a violent clash at the Auteuil Racetrack in Paris set the stage for what would become the world’s most famous cycling race. Comte Jules‑Albert de Dion, enraged by the Dreyfus affair, joined a mob that assaulted President Émile Loubet, breaking his cane and beating a policeman until the weapon snapped.
The scandal‑ridden newspaper Le Vélo condemned de Dion’s actions, prompting him to launch his own rival publication, L’Auto‑Vélo. Seeking to outshine his competitor, de Dion conceived an even grander sporting spectacle—a multi‑stage bicycle tour that would captivate the nation.
The resulting event, the Tour de France, grew from a newspaper stunt into a grueling, iconic competition that tests endurance, strategy, and national pride each summer.
2 Superman
In 1932, Mitchell Siegel, a Lithuanian‑born clothing merchant, fell victim to a robbery gone wrong. Three gunmen burst into his shop, firing two missed shots that nonetheless terrified Mitchell into a fatal heart attack.
His son, Jerry Siegel, transformed that personal tragedy into a cultural phenomenon, sketching the first Superman adventure a year later. The character’s invulnerability to bullets mirrored Mitchell’s fate, while the hero’s crusade against injustice echoed Jerry’s own yearning for protection.
A day after Mitchell’s death, a reader named L. Luther penned a letter to the Cleveland Plain Dealer, rebuking calls for vigilante justice and arguing that ordinary citizens need not become super‑heroes—an ironic counterpoint to the very myth Jerry was creating.
1 Kentucky Fried Chicken
Harland “Colonel” Sanders, the real man behind KFC’s white‑suit image, was anything but genteel. In North Corbin, Kentucky—dubbed “Hell’s Half‑Acre”—bootleggers ruled, and a bitter rivalry with restaurateur Matt Stewart sparked violent confrontations.
When Stewart defaced Sanders’ billboards, Sanders armed himself and, alongside two Shell employees, confronted Stewart. A shoot‑out ensued: Stewart wounded Gibson, Shelburne shot Stewart’s thigh, and Sanders took a shoulder hit. All three escaped prosecution, and Stewart received an 18‑year sentence, leaving Sanders free to expand his business.
Freed from his nemesis, Sanders opened a stand‑alone restaurant, eventually turning the Colonel’s name into a global fast‑food empire, forever changing the way the world eats fried chicken.