10 Little Known Wars

For every major war that fills our history books and newspapers—the Revolutionary War of the American colonists vs. England, American Civil War with the North vs. the South, World War I, World War II, what were termed police actions such as Korea and Viet Nam (war by any other name), and the Persian Gulf War (1990-1991, a United Nations action) leading up to the more recent armed conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan—and now Iran in 2026—there are dozens of small wars that don't receive any attention in history class.  Some of them were ludicrous and others were very serious.

Here's a list of 10 wars (in no particular order) that you probably never heard about.

1)  The Pig War

This little known conflict dates back to 1859 and had the potential to change the course of American history.  And it all started over a pig.  Both America and Britain claimed possession of and resided on San Juan Island off the coast of Washington state.  The two countries maintained an uneasy truce…until an American farmer shot a British pig he discovered tearing up his potato patch.  This action resulted in the British trying to arrest the farmer who called in the American troops in support of his position.  The two countries squared off on the tiny island.  The British Navy sent 3 warships and over 2,000 men.  The Americans responded with military force of their own.  No shots were fired (beyond the original shot that killed the pig).  San Juan Island was eventually ceded to the Americans as part of the San Juan Islands group.

2)  The Stray Dog War

And speaking of animals being the source of an international conflict, that's also the case with the long-running rivalry between Bulgaria and Greece.  In 1925 a Greek soldier chased his runaway dog across the border and was shot dead by a Bulgarian border guard.  That action set off an immediate retaliation with the Greek army invading the border region of Petrich and routing the Bulgarian army.  The League of Nations [precursor to the United Nations] ordered Greece to withdraw and pay Bulgaria about $90,000 in damages.

3)  The War Of Jenkins' Ear

There are lots of reasons why wars start, but there's only one known to have started because of a severed ear.  British sea captain Robert Jenkins' boat was boarded by the Spanish in the Caribbean.  The Spanish accused him of piracy and cut off his left ear.  In 1738, Jenkins brought the ear to Parliament and it was enough for Great Britain to declare war on Spain.  After 7 years of conflict, both countries backed off with no major territory changes on either side.

4)  The Moldovan-Transdniestrian War

The breakup of the Soviet Union left several countries looking for something to do and in some cases that something ended up being war.  Moldova had a partisan faction wanting to stay allied with Romania and another wanting to align with Russia.  Nearly a thousand people were killed before hostilities ceased.  The unusual part of the war was the relationship between the soldiers of the opposing sides.  After battling each other during the day, they would socialize in the bars in the disputed zone at night, often apologizing to each other for the events of the day.

5)  The Honey War

In the early days of the United States when the federal government wasn't as strong as it is now, the individual states often became involved in ridiculous squabbles with each other that sometimes escalated into violence.  In 1839, the governor of Missouri decided to redraw his state's border with Iowa because…well, apparently because he felt like it that morning.  And then he sent in his tax collectors to pick up some extra cash from its new citizens.  Needless to say, this didn't go over very well with Iowa.  The only thing the tax collectors were able to collect consisted of 3 beehives full of honey.  The Missouri militia got into an armed conflict with Iowa citizens who captured a sheriff.  Congress finally drew a permanent border line and told both states to chill out.

6)  Anglo-Zanzibar War

This conflict lasted an awesome 38 minutes making it the world record holder for the shortest war in history.  Khalid vin Bargash, the new Sultan of Zanzibar, came into power in 1896.  He didn't like having his protectorate as a British puppet so he declared war and barricaded himself in the palace.  Less than an hour later, the British had shelled him, removed him from power and installed a new Sultan in his place.

7)  The Football War

This four day war between Honduras and El Salvador was about more than a soccer game.  Hundreds of thousands Salvadorans had been moving to Honduras to find work.  By the late 1970s, tensions between the two countries had reached the breaking point.  The spark that set off the war was the FIFA World Cup qualifying matches between the two countries.  After each had won one game, the Salvadoran Air Force (passenger planes with bombs strapped to them) attacked Honduran targets.  Neither nation could support an extended war, so a cease-fire was negotiated.  They remained bitter enemies for more than a decade.

8)  The Watermelon War

Yet another war that started over a trivial matter and quickly escalated out of control.  The United States occupation of Panama to build the canal displaced much of the nation's white-collar workforce, leaving a great many natives unemployed.  A boat carrying 1,000 American workers landed in Panama City making the matter even worse.  One of those passengers, an American named Jack Oliver, took a piece of watermelon from a Panamanian vendor and refused to pay for it.  The vendor pulled a knife.  Oliver pulled a gun.  And both sides were battling it out with each sustaining casualties.  Eventually a railroad car of riflemen arrived on the scene and brokered a peace.  The brief war, however, laid the groundwork for the later American occupation of Panama.

9)  The Emu War

Unlike earlier mentioned wars started because of animals, this one was a war against animals.  In 1932, Australia found itself overrun by emus, a large flightless bird that looks like an ostrich.  More than 20,000 emus were destroying crops so the government declared all out war on the birds.  They sent soldiers armed with machine guns and orders to shoot emus on sight.  The birds proved to be tougher than estimated and after a week the commanding officer gave up.  They had killed barely 10 percent of their target.

10)  The Chaco War

This was a South American conflict that started over a postage stamp.  The Chaco region is on the border between Bolivia and Paraguay with both countries believing the region was rich in oil (which it wasn't).  Bolivia issued a postage stamp in 1932 featuring a map of their country including the Chaco region.  Not to be outdone, Paraguay struck back by issuing their own stamp with their map including the Chaco region.  Hostilities erupted in the region with both sides buying arms from the U.S. and from Europe.  When it was over, Paraguay was the winner and new owner of a completely useless piece of land. 

Crazy Things Confiscated By Customs Inspectors

Excluding the disruptions created by the Coronavirus pandemic, just getting on an airplane under normal circumstances is a cause for nervous tension due to full body scanners, intrusive pat-downs, long lines at airport security check points, and what seems to be a constantly changing list of what you can and can't take on the plane.  All-in-all, flying is not the fun experience it used to be.

And that's just on domestic flights.  You add to that the need to clear passport control and customs on international flights, both entering a foreign country and coming home, and it's enough to make your head spin.

There's certainly been enough written about what seems to be the ever changing TSA restrictions and requirements, so I won't dwell on those.  But I did find an interesting list of contraband seized by Customs inspectors around the world…a bit more than trying to sneak in an extra bottle of wine hidden in your suitcase on your return flight from France.

And here is that list.

10)  Shoes Stuffed With Heroin:  Smugglers might be a scheming lot, but that doesn't mean they always use their brains.  In October 2010, a 32 year old US citizen and her younger brother disembarked from a Caribbean cruise and were tagged by Customs for a secondary screening process.  When they opened the woman's luggage they found 15 pairs of 1980s style men's shoes…definitely suspicious items for a woman to be bringing back from the Caribbean.  They discovered over 6 kilos of heroin duct-taped inside the shoes.

9)  Human Skulls:  Not the creepy Halloween decorations.  In September 2010, two American tourists had 6 human skulls confiscated from their luggage at the Athens International Airport in Greece.  They had purchased the 6 skulls at a souvenir shop on the island of Mykonos and thought they were fake.  They were charged with desecrating the dead.

8)  Tiger Cub:  The 3 month old tiger cub was found sedated and hidden among stuffed animal tigers inside a woman's luggage at Bangkok International Airport when the oversize suitcase went through an X-ray machine.  The woman was headed to Iran where the tiger cub could have brought in more than $3,000 on the black market.  The cub was sent to a wildlife conservation center and the woman faced wildlife smuggling charges and fines.

7)  Fake $100,000 Bills:  In 2009, agents confiscated two $100,000 counterfeit bills from a passenger arriving at New York's JFK Airport from Seoul.  In 1934, rare $100,000 bills were printed to be circulated between the U.S. Treasury and Federal Reserve Banks.  The bills were never put into general circulation.  The man claimed to have found the bills in an old book belonging to his father.  The bills were turned over to the Secret Service.

6)  Cocaine Cast:  A leg in a cast can garner some sympathy, but it didn't work for a Chilean passenger arriving at the Barcelona, Spain, airport from Santiago.  Customs agents decided to spray the cast with a chemical that turns bright blue when it comes in contact with cocaine.  And it did.

5)  Bear Paws:  And I'm not talking about the pastry, either (which are actually bear claws).  In October 2010, a dozen genuine furry bear paws were confiscated from a Vietnam man's luggage in Ho Chi Minh City Airport upon his return from Hong Kong.  Bear paw soup is considered a delicacy.

4)  Snakes and Lizards:  You're familiar with the movie, Snakes On A Plane?  Well, in 2009 a would be smuggler taped 14 snakes and 10 lizards onto his body in an attempt to sneak them into Norway.  Oddly enough, it was a tarantula spotted in his luggage that led to a full body search.

3)  Bonytongue Fish:  Having an airline lose your luggage is an inconvenience.  However, it's even worse when you're smuggling fish in your suitcases.  In 2009 a man returning from Malaysia to his home in Queens, New York City, unfortunately did not have his luggage arrive on the same flight.  The next day a Customs agent doing random checks on lost luggage discovered 16 fish packed in individual plastic bags and cushioned with Styrofoam.  Considered good luck charms in Asian cultures, they sell for $5,000 to $10,000 apiece.

2)  Rhinoceros Horns:  Ireland is not where you'd expect to find pieces of safari animals.  Over a period of time in late 2009 and 2010, three Irish passengers were busted at Shannon Airport for smuggling 10 rhinoceros horns valued at approximately 500,000 Euros at the time, which at today's exchange rate (today being February 28, 2026, with the exchange rate of 1 Euro = $1.18 U.S.) is $590,000.  Rhino horns are often ground down and used as a prized ingredient in Chinese medicine.

1)  Snake Wine:  A glass of snake wine might not have the same appeal as a nice Merlot or Chardonnay.  But in Southeast Asian countries, a whole snake soaking in alcohol is a specialty.  In May 2009 a routine Customs inspection in Miami revealed a cobra and other poisonous snakes packed into a jar of liquid in an express mail package from Thailand.

It makes that additional bottle of Merlot or Chardonnay wrapped inside the sweater and stuffed into the corner of a suitcase not seem as bad. 

North America Before Christopher Columbus

I think the first thing to note is that, in spite of centuries of belief to the contrary, Christopher Columbus did not technically discover America. In three voyages to the 'new world' he never once set foot on the North American continent. His initial voyage was a search for a sea route to Japan and the far East. However, he unexpectedly ran into land far short of his initial goal. In three voyages, he never got beyond the islands of the Caribbean.

When Columbus arrived in the new world in 1492, later referred to as America, the land he supposedly discovered was not an empty vast wilderness. It was a land already inhabited. The natives of America had migrated across the Bering Strait and settled into warmer areas of the continent. More than 75 million people lived in the new world consisting of the North and South American continents, 25 million of whom lived in North America.

About a thousand years before Christ, the Hopi Indians who live in what is now New Mexico were building cliff dwellings, farming and creating villages. When Julius Caesar was conquering Western Europe, an indigenous people's culture called the Moundbuilders were making huge structures out of the earth in what is now the Ohio Valley. One of these structures was said to be over three miles long. The area served as a trading post of sorts, where people came from the West, the Gulf of Mexico and the Midwest for trade and the exchange of goods. So, as you can see, a system of trade and commerce existed before Columbus even set sail in search of the new route to the far East.

The Iroquois occupied what is now Pennsylvania and upstate New York. They lived in villages and had a very sophisticated social system, which was in many ways superior to the European culture. The land was worked in common and it was owned by the whole nation. Women held a high place in the Iroquois culture. Family names were tied to the women, not the men. If a man married, he joined the family of his wife. Women farmed the land while the men hunted for fish and game.

Power was shared by men and women and the European concept of male dominance was absent in the Iroquois culture. Children were not punished harshly and were taught equality in possessions. This was in direct contrast to the severe society of the Puritans and what the Europeans brought to the New World. The Europeans were a society of rich and poor, controlled by priests, governors and male heads of families. The Iroquois society had no laws, sheriffs, judges or juries, yet boundaries of behavior existed. If someone stole food or shamed their family, they were banished until they had morally atoned for their actions. They had no written language. Their history was passed on by oral tradition. This kind of community lasted long after the native people (referred to as Indians by the European explorers) were conquered.

Although The Iroquois Confederacy's Great Law of Peace did not directly serve as the basis for the U.S. Constitution, it is widely acknowledged that their political structure and principles influenced the thinking of the Founding Fathers of the United States of America—specifically the Iroquois model of a confederation of sovereign nations, a system of checks and balances, and consensus-based decision-making resonated with some of the framers of the Constitution.

Also, before Columbus, Viking settlers led by Leif Erikson established a short-lived settlement in North America at L'Anse aux Meadows in present-day Newfoundland, Canada, around 1021 AD. This site, almost 500 years before Columbus, featured timber-framed buildings and ironworking. It served as a base for exploring the surrounding regions.

This was the land Columbus is given credit for discovering—a land whose people were already highly evolved and successful. 

First Recorded Romantic Kiss

In honor of the February 14 Valentine's Day, I'm blogging about the history of the romantic kiss. Rodin's marble sculpture, The Kiss (pictured above), is located in Paris, France. However, during his lifetime he designated additional copies as originals (created in different mediums). The marble sculpture in Paris is generally accepted as the original.

New research into Ancient Mesopotamia suggests people kissed romantically 4,500 years ago, 1000 years earlier than previously believed. An article, published in Science magazine, reveals kissing did not originate in one region. Researchers from the University of Copenhagen and the University of Oxford revealed their findings on the ancient history of kissing after discovering  drawings on clay tablets and other materials from early Mesopotamian societies. Ancient Mesopotamia is considered to be roughly the land that is now modern-day Iraq and Syria.

It was previously believed the earliest evidence of romantic lip kissing in humans originated in southern Asia 3,500 years ago then spread to other regions. The new research challenges these theories and suggests kissing was common across many different regions and cultures, starting much earlier.

In examining the clay tablets written in cuneiform script, the scientists noted the Akkadian language divided kissing into two groups: "friendly and familial affection" and "erotic action." Thousands of these clay tablets have survived to this day. They contain clear examples that kissing was considered a part of romantic intimacy in ancient times, just as kissing could be part of friendships and family member's relations.

Kissing should not be regarded as a custom that originated exclusively in any single region and spread from there. It appears to have been practiced in multiple ancient cultures over several millennia. While the exact origins of romantic kissing remain uncertain, the study said there is some evidence that it may have occurred even before the advent of writing.

Research into bonobos and chimpanzees, the closest living relatives to humans, has shown both species engage in kissing, which may suggest the practice of kissing is a fundamental behavior in humans, explaining why it can be found across cultures. The researchers also examined sexually-transmitted diseases in early kissing and its unintentional role in the transmission of herpes simplex virus 1, also known as cold sores. This cannot be taken entirely at face value due to the influence of certain religious and cultural beliefs.

The first and most famous commercially distributed on-screen movie kiss occurred in 1896 in the Thomas Edison 20-second silent film titled The Kiss. The film shocked audiences by featuring a close-up of a 3-second physical lip-to-lip kiss.

Probably the most famous recorded kiss in history happened in New York City at Times Square on August 14, 1945 on VJ Day at the end of World War II.

Valentine's Day—The Good And The Bad

The Good:

Valentine's Day is that time of the year when cards, flowers, candy, jewelry, and other tokens of affection are given to loved ones in the name of St. Valentine.  But who is St. Valentine and why do we celebrate his holiday every year?

One legend says Valentine was a priest in the third century in Rome.  Emperor Claudius II decided single men made better soldiers so he outlawed marriage for young men.  Valentine defied Claudius and continued to perform marriages for young lovers in secret.  Claudius ordered him put to death.

Another story has Valentine killed for attempting to help Christians escape harsh Roman prisons where they were beaten and tortured.

And yet another story says Valentine was the one who sent the first Valentine greeting while he was in prison.  He fell in love with a young girl, possibly the jailor's daughter, who visited him while he was imprisoned.  Before his death, he wrote her a letter and signed it From your Valentine, an expression that has transcended time to continue as a common expression for the holiday.

St. Valentine's Day, as we know it today, is a combination of both Christian and ancient Roman tradition.  One theory says we celebrate Valentine's Day in the middle of February to commemorate the anniversary of Valentine's death or burial which probably occurred around 270A.D., while others believe that the Christian church may have decided to celebrate Valentine's feast day in the middle of February in an effort to Christianize celebrations of the pagan Lupercalia festival.

According to the Greeting Card Association, an estimated one billion valentine cards are sent each year, making Valentine's Day the second largest card sending holiday, surpassed only by the exchange of Christmas cards.  Valentine's Day is celebrated in Canada, Mexico, the United Kingdom, France, and Australia in addition to the United States.

 The Bad:

The St. Valentine's Day massacre—the most spectacular gangland slaying in mob history.

 

Al Capone (known to be the mastermind, but never charged for the crime) had arranged for his chief rival, Chicago mobster George 'Bugs' Moran and most of his North Side Gang, to be eliminated on February 14, 1929.  The plan was simple and deviously clever, yet Capone's primary target escaped any injury.  Capone distanced himself from the execution of the plan (and the execution of his rivals) by spending the time at his home in Florida thus providing himself with a solid alibi.

A bootlegger loyal to Capone was to draw Moran and his gang to a warehouse to receive a shipment of smuggled whiskey, the delivery set for 10:30AM on Valentine's Day.

The morning of February 14 was cold and snowy.  A group of Moran's men waited for Bugs at the red brick warehouse at 2122 North Clark Street.  Moran was running late.  When his car turned the corner onto Clark Street, he spotted a police wagon pulling up to the warehouse.  Assuming it was a raid, he watched as five men, three of them dressed in police uniforms, entered the building.  Moran and the two men with him, immediately left the area.

Inside the warehouse, the hit men, disguised as police, confronted Moran's men.  Assuming it was a routine bust, they followed instructions when ordered to line up against the wall.  The hit men opened fire with Thompson submachine guns, killing six of the seven men immediately.  The seventh man, with twenty-two bullet wounds, survived the attack but died after arriving at the hospital.

The newspapers instantly picked up on the crime, dubbing it the St. Valentine's Day Massacre.  The story appeared on front pages around the country, making Capone a national celebrity.  But to his dismay, this new found notoriety also brought a new level of attention from federal law enforcement culminating in his conviction for tax evasion and his incarceration at Alcatraz.  With all the law enforcement agencies trying to bring down Capone, it was a tax accountant working for the Internal Revenue Service who finally did it. 

Chocolate—The Food Of Love

February 14 is Valentine's Day, the date when the chocolate industry happily counts its profits.  Certainly other items also come to mind for the day such as flowers, cards, and jewelry.  But chocolate reigns supreme for the holiday.

The history of chocolate goes back more than two thousand years.  Cocoa has long been associated with passion, romance, and love.  It's a concept that traces to the ancient Aztecs.  Archaeological records indicate that before the Aztecs, the Mayans were consuming cocoa as long ago as 600 B.C. and possibly even earlier than that.

The Aztecs believed it was a source of spiritual wisdom, energy, and sexual power.  It was widely served at wedding ceremonies.  The ancient civilizations of Central and South America did not know chocolate as we do today.  They consumed cocoa as a drink, its naturally bitter taste possibly altered by adding chili peppers to the water and cocoa.

When the Spanish explorers first brought cocoa home with them in 1585, they experimented by mixing it with sugar and vanilla to make a sweeter tasting drink.  The result was a type of hot chocolate popular among the upper classes who were the only ones who could afford it.  Cocoa was also added to baked goods to give them added flavor.  By the first half of the eighteenth century cocoa production had increased and the price had fallen so that it became affordable to the general population of Europe and also the European colonies in the New World.

By the nineteenth century things were moving along nicely for those involved in the manufacture of chocolate.  In 1828, Conrad van Houton of Holland invented a process to make a refined cocoa powder which increased the output of the usable powder from a given crop of cocoa beans which further lowered the price.

The first chocolate candies as we know them today were invented in the 1860s by Cadbury, a British candy maker, who was also the first to sell them in a heart-shaped box for Valentine's Day.

Another big advance came in 1878 when a Swiss chocolate seller, Daniel Peter, invented a process for making candy out of milk chocolate—a process picked up by Nestle.  In 1913 Jules Sechaud, a Swiss chocolate maker, created the first chocolate candy with cream and other fillings and the modern soft centered chocolate candies were born.

And thus chocolate candies joined the ranks of flowers and jewelry in the courtship ritual.

Chocolate, including chocolate candy, is liked by most people, but women tend to have a somewhat greater affinity for it than men.  Chocolate is more than food.  It not only fills your stomach, it also makes you feel good.  Many people believe that chocolate is an aphrodisiac.  While it is true that chocolate does contain organic substances which have a physical feel good affect on the body, the amounts are not that great.

Critics claim the benefits of eating chocolate are small compared to the sugar and fat contained in a chocolate bar.  However, the best chocolate—dark chocolate with high cocoa butter content rather than milk chocolate—has no added fat with a high percentage of cocoa solids and correspondingly less sugar.  Dark chocolate will never be considered a health food based on its nutritional value, but it is still good for you.  It's good for your heart, relieves stress, and makes you feel good.  What more could you want?  But, like everything, in moderation.

Chocolate has long been associated with passion, romance, and love.  This association goes all the way back to the Aztecs.  Valentine's Day is a celebration of romance.  Chocolate is both an everyday pleasure and a token of love.  Valentine's Day and chocolate make a perfect match.  Chocolate is given as a token of love.

Chocolate—the all purpose taste treat that's good any time of the year.

STRANGEST THINGS WASHED UP ON BEACHES

It's not unusual to see all sorts of things washed up on beaches around the world. There are the natural things such as seaweed/kelp, sea shells, and all things native to the oceans such as dead sea animals of various sorts ranging from small creatures to the occasional large whale.

But things washed up on the beaches also includes strange and surprising items not normally associated with beaches. Most of this marine debris is trash such as plastic bags, bottles, and cans from land-based sources. Some of it, however, is due to weather events like hurricanes and tsunamis. While other sources include vessels in storm-tossed seas. We have seen several very large and strange things washed up on the shores of western U.S. and Canada that arrived from Japan courtesy of the 2011 tsunami.

Here is a list I came across of unusual beach findings that didn't belong there.

In January 2012, huge shipping containers from a distressed cargo vessel washed up on one of New Zealand's most popular beaches. Up to 300 containers were reportedly tossed overboard when 6 meter (approximately 19.5 foot) waves struck the ship. People were warned against looting, but both locals and tourists flocked to the beaches to take photos of the giant containers.

A recurring washed-up-on-the-beach sensation appeared at Zandvoort, Netherlands, in 2007, at Brighton Beach in England in 2008, and at Siesta Key Beach in Florida in 2011. And what was this surprise visitor to these shores? It was a giant (8 feet tall) Lego man that weighed about 100 pounds and featured a bright green torso showing the message "No Real Than You Are." The number 8 appeared on its back along with the words "Ego Leonard." The mystery was finally resolved when it was revealed that "Ego Leonard" was the alter ego of a Dutch artist. The Sarasota County Sheriff's Office in Florida joined in the fun and issued a press release saying it had taken the giant Lego man "into protective custody." In response, numerous "Free Lego Man" Facebook pages and campaigns popped up on the Internet.

In September 2005, hundreds of giant squid washed up in Newport Beach. California. The creatures, believed to be Humboldt squid, normally reside in deep water. It was rare for locals to encounter them on land or sea. Authorities said the squid might have been pursuing bait fish and gotten too close to shore. Other factors, such as warm ocean temperatures or record rainfall, were also suspected.

In May 2012, dozens of fly swatters emblazoned with logos of collegiate and professional sports teams washed up on the beaches of Kodiak, Alaska. The fly swatters were originally believed to be debris from the 2011 Japanese tsunami, but were eventually proven to have come from a shipping container that got loose from a ship carrying products from China. The container went overboard in dangerous weather in the Gulf of Alaska. Other sports-related items, such as Nerf balls and water bottles were also found on Kodiak's beaches.

In August 2010, hundreds of tea packets washed ashore in Rajbandar in the Raigad district, Maharashtra, India. Nine containers from the cargo ship MSC Chitra spilled into the sea after the cargo ship suffered a collision with another ship.

In 2007, residents of the Dutch North Sea island of Terschelling, 70 miles north of Amsterdam, discovered thousands of bananas washed ashore after at least six containers of the fruit fell off a cargo ship in a storm and at least one of the containers broke open. Bunches of the still green bananas from Cuba also washed up on neighboring Amerland Island. It's not known exactly what happened to the beached bananas, but at the time residents suggested sending most of the fruit to local zoos.

In February 2006, also on the Netherlands' Terschelling Island, thousand of sneakers washed up on the beach when containers from the P&O Nedlloyd ship Mondriaan fell overboard in a storm. Residents of the island rushed to get the sneakers, searching for shoes in their size. Other items that washed up on the beach from those containers included children's toys and briefcases.

Perhaps one of the most famous container spills in history occurred in January 1992 when 28,000 rubber duck toys fell into the sea.  The incident inspired a book titled Moby-Duck: The True Story of 28,800 Bath Toys Lost at Sea and of the Beachcombers, Oceanographers, Environmentalists and Fools, Including the Author, Who Went in Search of Them by Donovan Hohn. The great rubber ducky spill occurred when a shipping crate on a cargo ship headed to the U.S. from China fell overboard onto the Pacific Ocean during a stormy night. Some of the rubber ducks (nicknamed Friendly Floatees) have since washed up on the shores of Alaska, Hawaii, South America, Australia and the Pacific Northwest. Some have traveled 17,000 miles, floating over the site where the Titanic sank or spending years frozen in an Arctic ice pack. Some 2,000 of the rubber ducks are still circulating in the ocean and helping researchers chart ocean currents.

On January 26, 2011, a grand piano was found on a sandbar in Miami's Biscayne Bay, mysteriously charred from being burned. Speculation about its origins included the idea that it was part of a music video production. It was later discovered that the piano was a junk art installation, the brainchild of a 16-year-old hoping to use the piece for a college application.