6. During the construction of the Coors Field stadium in Denver, Colorado, workers are said to have excavated many dinosaur fossils, including some triceratops bones. This discovery then led to the Colorado Rockies choosing a purple triceratops named Dinger as their mascot. 

The Coors Field stadium in Denver, Colorado was constructed from 1993 to 1994 and is home to the American baseball team, the Colorado Rockies. During its construction, workers stumbled upon the remains of some prehistoric creatures. Soon, various rumors were flying around about the nature of this find.

Some claimed that the skull of a seven-foot-tall triceratops had been found, while others believed that it was a dinosaur egg. In truth, the workers had found some tiny chunks of rib bones that likely belonged to a plant-eating dinosaur such as a triceratops.

Although this did not quite live up to the people’s imaginations, experts considered this a sign that there were more prehistoric remains to be found in the area. Later, as a nod to this intriguing discovery, the Colorado Rockies chose to use a purple triceratops named Dinger as their mascot. (1, 2)

7 In 1965, while building his cellar, a Ukrainian farmer unearthed the lower jawbone of a mammoth. When further excavations were conducted at the site, it revealed four archaic huts made out of 149 mammoth bones. These dwellings are believed to be at least 15,000 years old and are likely to have been built by prehistoric humans. 

The oldest known example of “monumental architecture” was unearthed in 1965, when a Ukrainian farmer dug up the lower jawbone of a mammoth. The man had been working on expanding his underground cellar when he stumbled upon this discovery.

Soon, more excavations were conducted on the site and experts unearthed four prehistoric huts that were made out of 149 mammoth bones. These dwellings are commonly attributed to the Cro-Magnons and were likely built sometime between 23,000 BCE and 12,000 BCE.

However, theories varied on how these bones were collected. Some historians argued that they were collected during hunting while others believed that they were naturally found. Nevertheless, with this chance discovery, archaeologists were able to get a clearer picture of how ancient human societies may have developed. (1, 2)

8 Bell Laboratories in New Jersey is home to the renowned Holmdel Horn Antenna. In 1964, while working on this antenna, two researchers heard a weird “hum” that they could not understand. This was later proven to be cosmic microwave background radiation, the thermal “echo” of the Big Bang that created the universe. 

On May 20, 1964, Arno Penzias and Robert Wilson were working on the Holmdel Horn Antenna in Bell Laboratories, New Jersey. During their shift, they picked up an odd buzzing sound coming from all directions in the sky. This sound puzzled them, and they did their best to eliminate it. But when all their efforts proved to be in vain, they realized that they had stumbled upon something big.

What they had actually discovered was cosmic microwave background radiation, the thermal “echo” of the Big Bang that created the universe. The presence of this radiation was first predicted in 1948 by Ralph Alpher and Robert Herman, who theorized that if the Big Bang had actually happened, then this radiation must exist in the atmosphere.

However, until Penzias and Wilson had made this remarkable discovery, this theory had not been proven. In 1978, the duo was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics for their discovery. (1, 2)

9 Ӧtzi the Iceman, the oldest known natural mummy of a European Copper Age man, was discovered in 1991. This mummy was found by two German tourists while they were hiking in the Ӧtzpal Alps. It is believed that this mummified man may have been killed by a bow and arrow. 

Thirty years ago, on 19 September 1991, two German tourists were hiking up the Fineilspitze peak in the Ӧtzpal Alps, near the Austrian-Italian border. There, they discovered the oldest known mummy of a European Copper Age man, lying face down in the ice. The mummy, later named Ӧtzi, had been so well preserved that the tourists initially thought it was a recently deceased man.

But further investigations revealed that this ancient man had likely lived around 3350 to 3105 BCE, and was killed by an arrow while crossing the Val Senales Valley in South Tyrol. Amongst his belongings, archaeologists also found an innovative and ancient copper ax, further cementing the idea that he was from the Copper Age. Since 1998, Ӧtzi and his belongings have been on display at the South Tyrol Museum of Archaeology. (1, 2)

10 In 1952, two scientists named Patsy Sherman and Samuel Smith were working on developing a new kind of rubber, when someone accidentally dropped a beaker full of chemicals on the floor. Sherman later noticed that she could not get the mixture off her shoes because water would run off of it. This compound would later go on to be sold as Scotchgard, a popular furniture protector. 

Patsy Sherman and Samuel Smith were two scientists employed by the American conglomerate 3M to work on a new type of rubber. In 1952, while working on this project, an assistant on their team accidentally spilled an experimental compound on the floor and a few drops of it fell on Sherman’s tennis shoe.

Afterward, when Sherman was trying to get this chemical off her shoe, she noticed that soap, water, and oil would simply run off of it. Intrigued, she decided to take a closer look at it and found that it was a fluorochemical polymer that repelled most solvents.

With the help of Smith, she then went on to create Scotchgard™ Protector, a popular furniture and fabric protector in the US. However, by the 2000s, serious environmental concerns were raised about this compound and 3M had to replace it with another polymer that had less of an environmental impact. (1, 2)