On June 11, 1962, three Alcatraz inmates left homemade dummy heads in their beds to fool the guards before launching a daring escape from the infamous island prison, never to be seen again. Though the prison officially claimed that the three men drowned and that no inmate ever successfully escaped, San Francisco police got a letter in 2013 purportedly from one of the escapees, suggesting that they'd lived free all those years.

Around 30 people perished from immediate blast trauma and acute radiation syndrome (ARS) in the seconds to months following the Chernobyl disaster in April 1986. Eight months after the nuclear accident, workers made a startling discovery. Upon entering a corridor beneath the damaged No. 4 reactor, they found a black, lava-like substance flowing from the reactor core, resembling a man-made volcano. Among these hardened masses, one stood out and was nicknamed "Elephant's Foot" due to its resemblance to the foot of a large mammal. The Elephant's Foot is a solid mass of melted nuclear fuel mixed with concrete, sand, and core sealing material. At the time of its discovery, the Elephant's Foot was emitting approximately 8,000 to 10,000 roentgens, or 80 to 100 grays, per hour, delivering a lethal dose of radiation (4.5 grays) within just five minutes.