5. Methuselah and Hyperion
Record-Breaking Trees
Methuselah is a 4,800 year old Great Basin Bristlecone Pine tree that is currently growing high in the White Mountains of eastern California. The tree is named after Methuselah, who is a Biblical figure that is reported to have lived for 969 years. Methuselah is growing at an elevation of 2,900-3,000 m (9,500-9,800 ft) and lives in the Forest of Ancients. Hyperion is a coast redwood tree that was discovered on August 25, 2006, by naturalists Chris Atkins and Michael Taylor. Hyperion is located in a remote area of the Redwood National Park in Northern California. The tree was confirmed to measure 115.61 meters (379.3 ft) tall.
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In 1957, Methuselah was sampled by Edmund Schulman and Tom Harlan who identified the tree as 4,789 years old. As of 2011, Methuselah is the oldest known living tree and non-clonal organism in the world, aged at 4,842 years. After measurements were taken on Hyperion’s incredible size (379.3 ft), it was determined that the tree is the world’s tallest. Hyperion contains roughly 502 m3 (18,600 cubic feet) of wood. Despite its great height, Hyperion is not the largest (by volume) known coast redwood. Lost Monarch is a tree that is at least 26 feet (7.9 m) in diameter and 320 feet (98 m) in height. It is the world’s largest coast redwood in terms of wood volume. The exact location of both Methuselah and Hyperion is undisclosed to the public for fear that people will upset the ecosystem. The trees need to be protected from human vandalism.
History has taught us that sacred trees need to be guarded from the human public. Arbre du Ténéré was a solitary acacia that was once considered the most isolated tree on Earth. The tree was a landmark on the caravan routes through the Ténéré region of the Sahara desert in northeast Niger. It was the only living tree for over 200 kilometers (120 mi). Arbre du Ténéré was the last of a group of acacias that flourished when the desert was less dry. The tree stood alone for decades. During the winter of 1938-1939, the Tree of Ténéré was researched and it was found that the roots extended all the way to the water table 33-36 meters (108 to 118 feet) below the surface. Over the years, the tree suffered great damage from vandalism. In 1973, it was knocked down by an allegedly drunk Libyan truck driver.
4. Rothschild Family
Richest Family in Modern History
The Rothschild’s are a European family of German Jewish origin. Beginning in the late 1700s, Mayer Amschel Rothschild began to establish a collection of European banking and finance houses. He spread his empire by installing organizations in separate European cities. A major part of Mayer Rothschild’s strategy was to keep his business in family hands, allowing the Rothschild’s to maintain full discretion about the size, wealth and overall achievements of the company. Mayer accomplished this with carefully arranged marriages, including relationships between first and second cousins. However, by the later 19th century, almost all the family members began to marry outside the group.
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The numbers regarding the Rothschild family fortune are unknown, but during the 19th century, the family possessed by far the largest private fortune in the world, and the largest fortune in modern history. During the Napoleonic Wars (1803-1815), Nathan Mayer Rothschild was instrumental in financing the British war effort. In 1815 alone, the Rothschild’s provided £9.8 million (in 1815 currency prices) in subsidy loans to Britain’s continental allies. Following the British victory, Nathan immediately bought up the government bond market. He waited two years and sold the bonds back to the government for a 40% profit.
The turnaround produced an enormous sum of money for the family. After amassing a huge fortune, the name Rothschild became synonymous with extravagance and great wealth. The family was renowned for its art collecting, palaces, and philanthropy. By the end of the 19th century, the family owned, or had built, over 41 palaces, on a scale of luxury unparalleled by even by the richest Royal families. The figures pertaining to the wealth of the Rothschild family have never been made available. It is estimated that at the family’s height, during the mid-19th century, assets would, in today’s terms, be in the high hundreds of billions to trillions.
On September 29, 1916, John D. Rockefeller became the first man to reach a nominal personal fortune of US$1 billion. Rockefeller was the founder, chairman and major shareholder in the Standard Oil Company. By the time of his death in 1937, Rockefeller’s net worth was in the range of US$392 billion to US$663.4 billion in adjusted dollars. It has been estimated that John D. Rockefeller’s personal fortune was equal to 1.53% of the total U.S. economy. He is widely regarded to be the wealthiest American in the history of the United States. Other Americans on this list include Cornelius Vanderbilt, Henry Ford, and Andrew Carnegie. Marcus Licinius Crassus was one of the leading politicians of Rome. Crassus is held to be the wealthiest man in Roman history and is likely to be the richest man in all of history.
3. Battle of Karánsebes
A Massive Self-Inflicted Defeat
The Austro-Turkish War was an inconclusive struggle between the Austrian and Ottoman Empires. It took place between the years 1787-1791, which was the same time as the Russo-Turkish conflict. The decision to launch the war was made by the Austrian ruler Joseph II, Holy Roman Emperor, who was in an alliance at the time with the Russian Empire under Catherine the Great. On the evening of September 17, 1788, the army of Austria, approximately 100,000 strong, was scouting for forces of the Ottoman Empire near the town of Karánsebes (now Caransebe?, in modern Romania).
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The Austrian army was comprised of Italians from Lombardy, Slavs from the Balkans, Austrians, plus other minorities, many of whom did not understand each other. During the night of September 17, a group of the army’s vanguard, a contingent of hussars, ran a reconnaissance mission across the Timi? River in search of Ottomans. Instead of the enemy, the soldiers found a group of Gypsies, who offered to sell schnapps. The small group of men agreed and got drunk, however, when other members of the infantry saw the party, they demanded alcohol for themselves. When the soldiers were turned down, tensions mounted and fighting between the Austrian hussars and infantry started.
During the conflict, a large collection of the men on horseback retreated back across the Timi? River to the division’s main camp. Some of the infantry began shouting “Turcii, Turcii” (Romanian for “The Turks, The Turks”). The situation was made worse when officers, in an attempt to restore order, shouted “Halt, Halt,” which was misunderstood by soldiers with no knowledge of German as “Allah, Allah.” As the cavalry stormed through the Austrian camps, a corps commander mistook the event as a charge by the Ottoman army, so he ordered artillery fire on his own soldiers. Meanwhile, the entire camp awoke to the sound of battle and, rather than waiting to see what the situation was, everyone grabbed their guns and started to run and shoot.
The troops fired at every shadow, thinking the Ottomans had surrounded the camp, but in reality they were shooting at fellow Austrian soldiers. In was a unique wartime event and the army of Austria accidently fired on each other in a self-inflicted disaster. The incident escalated to the point where the entire Austrian army, 100,000 people, retreated from the imaginary enemy. During the event, the Holy Roman Emperor Joseph II was pushed off his horse into a small creek. Two days later, the Ottomans arrived in the area and discovered over 10,000 dead and wounded Austrian soldiers. After the self-inflicted Austrian defeat, the Ottomans easily captured the city.
2. Times Beach, Missouri
Largest U.S. Civilian Exposure to Dioxin
Times Beach, Missouri was a small town of 2,240 residents located 17 miles (27 km) southwest of St. Louis and 2 mi (3 km) east of Eureka, Missouri. The city was founded in 1925, based largely on a promotion by the now-defunct St. Louis Star-Times newspaper. A purchase of a 20 x 100 ft (6 by 30 m) lot for $67.50 included a six-month newspaper subscription. Times Beach was built along a floodplain near the Meramec River. It was initially a summer resort destination, but after the Great Depression and World War II, the town became a location for low-income families. Times Beach has been prone to flooding in its history and the first buildings were constructed on stilts.
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Times Beach has become infamous for an incident that occurred in the 1970s when a large amount of toxic dioxin was released on the town. In 1982, the disaster made national headlines, ending with the entire evacuation of the surrounding area. The incident remains the largest civilian exposure to dioxin in United States history. During the 1970s, people in Times Beach sprayed oil on the roads and in barns in order to remove dust. In 1971, the city employed waste hauler Russell Bliss to oil the roads in and around the town. The problem began when Bliss was hired by a local company named ICP to dispose of toxic waste. ICP was being paid $3,000 per load to haul away toxic material from the Northeastern Pharmaceutical and Chemical Company (NEPACCO). The company passed the deadly waste off to Bliss for $125 per load.
NEPACCO operated a facility producing chemicals that were used for Agent Orange, a substance involved in the herbicidal warfare program of the Vietnam War. The waste clay and water produced in the Times Beach facilities contained levels of dioxin some 2,000 times higher than the dioxin content of Agent Orange. After obtaining the material, Russell Bliss began to mix the substance with his oil. He sprayed the toxic oil over dozens of sites in Missouri, including his own farm. In March of 1971, the toxic exposure resulted in the death of 62 horses, the owners of the stable suspected Bliss. After similar farms experienced problems, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention began investigating the situation. On December 3, 1982, a soil sample was taken from Times Beach that showed dioxin levels some 100 times higher than what is generally considered hazardous to humans.
On December 5, 1982, the Meramec River flooded, spreading the poison to separate locations in the town. The twin disasters caused the Federal government to buy out all residents in the area and to shutter the city, creating a toxic ghost town. President Ronald Reagan formed a dioxin task force and residents began to panic. Many illnesses, miscarriages, and animal deaths had been attributed to the poison. By 1985, Times Beach was evacuated except for one elderly couple who refused to leave, and the site was quarantined. Approximately 265,000 tons of contaminated soil and debris was removed from Times Beach and 28 other sites in eastern Missouri. The material was incinerated on the town’s former ground. Today, the area that was once Times Beach is Route 66 State Park.
1. Domestic Dog
Most Deadly Carnivore in the United States
Many articles have been written that examine the most deadly animals in the world. The diseased mosquito is routinely listed as the most dangerous. However, when looking at human death by mauling and mass trauma, the domestic dog is the most deadly. In modern society, the close relationship that humans have with dogs has caused a significant amount of attacks, with injuries varying from minor to significant, and severe to fatal. It has been estimated that 2% of the U.S. population, 4.7 million people, are bitten by a domestic dog each year.
One study showed that 77% of dog bites are carried out by a pet that is owned by a family member or friend, while 50% of attacks occur on the dog owner’s property. A large debate has been raised in the United States regarding certain dog breeds. It has been statistically proven that violent breeds are inherently more prone to attack people and cause serious injury or death. Regardless of the dog’s genes, human actions and training, such as neglect, fight training, carelessness, and loss of control is a strong predictor of violence.
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The amount of deadly domestic dog attacks in the United States is remarkable. In most cases the victims are babies, small children, and the elderly. One of the biggest threats to children in the U.S. is the domestic dog. In 2009, 30 individuals were killed by dogs in the United States and in 2010 32 people died. One of the largest contributing factors to these deaths is unsupervised children. Because of their small size, kids are not able to withstand a dog attack, while many adults have survived severe incidents simply because they were able to sustain and fight the animal back until help arrived. Children often engage in behavior that will trigger a dog attack. For example, approaching a chained dog, trying to hug or kiss an unfamiliar animal, or trying to pull its tail.
Since 2005, 177 people have been killed by the domestic dog in the United States and 100 (56%) were kids between the ages of 0-10. The dog’s breed plays a strong factor in the animal’s tendency to attack. It has been argued that certain breeds are inherently aggressive towards people and should be banned from personal ownership. In fact, certain pit bull-type breeds’ are forbidden in Australia, many European countries, and in several U.S. and Canadian localities. Of the 177 recorded deaths since 2005, around 50% have been attributed to a pit bull-type breed. Some other dog breeds that routinely show up on the list of attackers are the Rottweiler, Husky, Alaskan Malamute, Boxer, German Shepherd, and the American Bulldog. Isolated fatal incidents have occurred with a number of breeds, including the Bullmastiff, Weimaraner, Doberman Pinscher, Jack Russell Terrier, and the Perro de Presa Canario.
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