In a climate-controlled glass case at the Fort East Martello Museum in Key West, Florida, sits a handmade figure that demands a level of respect rarely accorded to inanimate objects.

In February 2013, a couple known only as John and Mary took their dog for a routine walk on their rural property in Trinity County, California. This simple activity led to the discovery of the largest known buried treasure in the history of the United States.

During the winter of 2000, 32-year-old Australian astrophysicist Rodney Marks was among the small crew of 49 people stationed there to conduct research.

The Mirny Diamond Mine is a man-made crater that descends over 1,000 feet (305 meters) into the earth and spans more than half a mile (0.8 kilometers) across.

In August 1912, a wealthy family’s fishing trip to Swayze Lake in Louisiana turned into a national spectacle when four-year-old Bobby Dunbar vanished without a trace.

In the early 20th century, a slight man with a fourth-grade education achieved the impossible in Southern Florida.

In early 1917, a grey-haired man stood naked before a Canadian army doctor in a recruitment office. When asked his age, the man threw back his shoulders and declared he was 48.

Sylvester Magee passed away in 1971 in Columbia, Mississippi. This event might have gone unnoticed if not for one extraordinary detail.

The monitor alarms screamed through the neonatal intensive care unit. Inside the incubator, a three-week-old infant gasped for air, her skin turning a terrifying shade of blue.

In 1995, engineers at the Taisei Corporation in Japan finalized plans for a structure so massive it defied the traditional definition of a building.