Napoleon Bonaparte led the French revolutionary forces until eventually being defeated at the famous Battle of Waterloo. Antoine Fraveau was one of the many young men who followed the distinguished military leader into combat, and he wore the standard metal breastplate armor.
Breastplate armor helped protect soldiers from blunt weapons, sword stabbings, gunshots, and other potentially-fatal methods of warfare. Unfortunately, no matter how thick the armor was, there was simply nothing that could protect a man from a heavy cannonball flying directly toward them. Fraveau was blasted in the chest during the famous 1815 fight and as you can imagine from the picture, was undoubtedly killed on the spot.
This 1936 Stout Scarab
The Stout Scarab got much press coverage and attention during the ‘30s due to its originality as the world’s first official minivan. Unfortunately, no amount of marketing and promotion could counter the fact that it cost $5,000, which was about five times the price of your average vehicle at the time. Each one was handmade, which makes every Scarab unique.
It was designed by William Bushnell Stout, a pioneering American inventor and engineer who revolutionized the automotive and aviation fields. The first prototype for this minivan was completed in 1932, and by 1935, the car was fully functional. Only five of these remain today, with one being housed in The Detroit Historical Museum.
Buford John Schramm Designed a Single Person Helicopter in 1964
Buford John Schramm was a prolific businessman who dedicated his life to developing his own helicopters. He was born in 1938 and founded RotorWay Aircraft in 1961 to develop helicopters. One of his most famous inventions is the personal helicopter, which would eventually be called the Eagle Helicycle.
Schramm was obsessed with building an aircraft that would be affordable to anyone and almost managed to do that during his lifetime. Unfortunately, the businessman's life was cut short in 2004 when he crashed one of his own helicopters. After his passing, Schramm was inducted into the Experimental Aircraft Association Homebuilder's Hall of Fame in 2006.
This Futuristic-Looking Cassette Radio
If you wanted to listen to music back in the '60s, your options were quite limited, as phones and iPods were non-existent back then. The only way to get access to songs was to manually purchase discs and cassettes at the store, after buying an extremely expensive radio disk player.
This 8-track cartridge player was originally made by the Ford Motor Company in 1965. It allowed music fans to buy cartridges and listen to music on their own time rather than having to wait for songs to show up on the radio. Funnily enough, it actually looks like something from the future and would have made a great prop in Stanley Kubrick's "2001: A Space Odyssey".
These "Winnie the Pooh"
A. A. Milne is best known for writing prolific children's books about the adventures of Winnie the Pooh and his friends. Milne found his muse in his son's various toy animals, which include almost the entire cast of Winnie the Pooh. The toys include Piglet, Eeyore, Kanga, Roo, and Tigger. Only two characters were created from his imagination - Owl and Rabbit.
Milne’s son was featured as the lead character in the books, as Christopher Robin is based on his son’s personality and name. Robin’s toys are on display at the Main Branch of the New York Public Library in New York City. Despite being almost 100 years old, they are still in near-perfect condition.