The Battle of Cynoscephalae (Dog’s Head) in 197 BC where the Roman legion met the Macedonian phalanx. It was decided when an unknown Roman tribune took the initiative and attacked the Macedonian rear, proving the flexibility of the legions were superior to the brute strength of the phalanx.
My understanding is no one knows who decided it baseball to have the batters run to first base (right side of the diamond) instead of third on left.
James Michener in his book “Sports in America” said no one in the NFL remembered who came up with the idea of a “wild card” team making the playoffs, increasing fan interest in their teams and other teams chances.
Damn, you beat me to that one. That’s the one that makes me go ‘wah…?’ with questions about motivation, execution and all the other bizzareness. That they kept silent for so long tells me they have incredible discipline or have passed on.
Without giving away too much that’s not mine to give, the working theory is that the pranksters became too famous to fess up - they were likely electronic journalism or communications students, obviously had their share of brass balls and self-promotion, and thus may be seen by thousands or millions every week…
ETA: Execution was trivial for anyone with the right engineering skills… in those days. Near-impossible now, BECAUSE of this event.
I think it’s pretty much established that the sailor is George Mendonsa. He was one of the men who stepped forward to claim it was him. He has scars and tattoos that matches the sailor’s in the photograph. And more importantly, Mendonsa says he was on a date with his girlfriend, Rita, and had had a few drinks when they heard about the Japanese surrender and Mendonsa kissed a nurse he saw on the street - and in the photo you can see Mendonsa’s girlfriend standing a few feet away from the kissing couple. (Happily for Mendonsa, Rita wasn’t too upset about George’s behavior and they later married.) So unlike the other claimants, Mendonsa has some objective evidence to support his claim.
My guess would be that they’re not exactly famous, but probably successful in the industry; sufficiently so that they’d stand to lose a lot if it came out, but not sufficiently so that it would just be a colorful incident in their made-for-tv biopic.
Not quite. “J” is one of the sources (identified by a process called “textual criticism”) of much of the Old Testament. There are others. “J” was probably an earlier version of what became the OT, before other bits and pieces were thrown in.
[sub]Why, yes, I did take a few courses on the subject at a Catholic university. How did you guess?[/sub]
Not necessarily. I have a tale I’ll never tell (involving technological manipulation of the phone company’s equipment) because I found out later that I’d pissed off the US Secret Service. They never forget or forgive.
#6: Tiananman Square Tank Man #5: The kissers in the famous V-J Day photo in Times Square #4: Zodiac Killer #3: Babushka Lady at JFK’s assassination #2: The killer of Sweden’s Prime Minister #1: Jack the Ripper