British, French, and Ottoman forces had besieged the Russian naval fortress of Sevastopol for nearly a year, enduring brutal trench warfare, cholera, and harsh winters. Continuous bombardment through the summer of 1855 gradually wore down Russian defenses around the crucial Malakhov Redoubt, setting the stage for the assault in early September that finally captured the city and effectively ended the war.

Engineers had built a slender, elegant suspension bridge across Puget Sound, but its narrow, shallow deck made it dangerously susceptible to wind-induced oscillation. Drivers crossing on opening day felt their cars ripple up and down as if riding ocean swells. The bridge became a tourist attraction for the sensation until November 7, 1940, when 40-mph winds tore it apart in a now-famous collapse captured on film.

After two years of grinding negotiations, delegates signed the armistice in a specially built pavilion at Panmunjom, halting a war that killed an estimated 2.5 million people. No peace treaty followed, and the agreement created the Demilitarized Zone that still divides the Korean peninsula today. American, Chinese, and North Korean signatures ended the shooting, but the war technically never officially ended.

After lengthy negotiations, Disney executives and French officials finalized terms for a theme park on farmland at Marne-la-Vallée, east of Paris. French intellectuals initially derided the project as a 'cultural Chernobyl,' fearing American consumerism would swamp French identity. The park opened in 1992 and, despite early financial struggles, eventually became Europe's most visited tourist attraction.