More modern relics

[alsih2o]

Please deposit any item you can find a story on that would serve as a relic in a more modern sense.


http://www.suntimes.com/output/news/cst-nws-pistol22.html

Pistol found that killed 8.5 million people

June 22, 2004

BY KATE CONNOLLY

BERLIN -- The Browning pistol that killed Archduke Franz Ferdinand and sparked the crisis leading to World War I has been discovered gathering dust in a Jesuit community house in Austria.

The weapon is going on display in the Vienna Museum of Military History in time for the 90th anniversary of the assassination of the heir to the Austrian empire and his wife, Sophie. Gavrilo Princip, a student from Belgrade, fired seven shots as they were driven through Sarajevo on June 28, 1914.

The shooting led to World War I, which by one estimate resulted in 8.5 million deaths.

For decades the murder weapon, serial number 19074, was in the possession of a community of Jesuits in Styria, southern Austria. They inherited it from a close friend of the archduke and his wife.

A Jesuit priest, Anton Puntigam, gave the couple the last rites and later made public his intention of opening a museum in memory of the archduke. But the chaos of the war foiled his plans.

On the priest's death in 1926, the objects were offered to the archduke's family, which declined to take them. They remained out of sight until recent publicity about the 90th anniversary.

Daily Telegraph

 

[Crothian]

Wow, that's really cool. I don't have anything to add link wise, but there is a RPG book for the Indiana Jones RPG called Artifacts. Its full of this type of stuff.

edit: artifacts...relics...i was close

 

[Umbran]

but there is a RPG book for the Indiana Jones RPG called Relics. Its full of this type of stuff.

The Indiana Jones book I have covering the topic is called "Artifacts". Most of the items are of pre-Renaissance make. But there are soem more modern things of note...

The Scalpel of Jack the Ripper
The Original Manuscript of Maciavelli's "The Prince"
The Secret Diary of Leonardo DaVinci
Jim Bowie's Knife
The Hammer of John Henry

 

[Shemeska]

Oswald's Rifle

Glass from ground zero of the Trinity explosion

Comet/Meteor debris from the Tunguska event

The pope's ring (melted down and recast for each pope. How long has the current ring been in uninterrupted succession?)

 

[LostSoul]

Political comment removed. Funny, but inappropriate. ~ Piratecat

 

[haiiro]

Pistol found that killed 8.5 million people

By this logic:

- The pistol Hitler used to commit suicide

And a few random suggestions:

- The Enola Gay
- Maxim's first working protoype for the Maxim machine gun
- The first flag planted on the Moon

Neat idea for a thread, Clay!

 

[LostSoul]

How about the rifle used to kill JFK?

edit: gak, too late. Although you could do a neat conspiracy thing with the "real" gun.

 

[Umbran]

Let's add a few more...

The Golden Spike that finished the 1st american Transcontinental railroad.
The Bullet that Killed Abraham Lincoln.
A Blackboard from the Manhattan Project.
The Red Baron's Biplane.
Benjamin Franklin's Kite
A lock of hair from Rasputin's beard
Elvis' first guitar
Yuri Gagarin's spacesuit
A flashlight carried during the Watergate break-in.

 

[Torm]

Artifact Items that I extrapolated from history:
The Apple That Thunked Sir Newton In The Head (assume he had it bronzed or sumtin)
The Apple That Killed Alan Turing (assume someone had it bronzed - I know, redundant)
Washington's False Teeth
Paul Revere's Anvil
The headress loaned to the daughter of the artist of the Wheat Penny.
Hitler's sketches from his entrance exam for the Vienna School of Art and Architecture (had he been accepted, WWII might have been very different.)

Artifact Items that definitely exist in the real universe:
The Record from the Voyager probe
The 1943 Copper Denver Mint pennies (only 8? known to exist, several in possession of General Motors)
Charles Darwin's journal from during his voyage
The Jar Reagan kept on his desk in the Oval Office to hold jelly beans
Original Copies of the Constitution, Declaration of Independence, etc.
The Crown Jewels (probably overdone, though)
Enigma Machines (cryptographic machines from WWII)
The original model of the U.S.S. Enterprise from Star Trek
The Mona Lisa, Michelangelo's David, original works by any other incredibly famous artist
Instruments from famous musicians, such as Hendrix's guitar.

Artifacts that may be too big to be practical:
The Liberty Bell
Space Shuttle OV101 - Enterprise (the only American shuttle never launched into space)
The desk from the Oval Office
The Wright Brothers' plane

Also, bear in mind that in modern times, anything a government or major corporation would want back badly - classified aircraft, briefcase nuke, original master of a new Britney Spears album, the formula for New Coke - could be regarded like an artifact for questing purposes.

 

[Saeviomagy]

The ash from the first fire ever lit by mankind.

The seeds of the first plant ever cultivated.

The skeleton of the first domesticated animal.

The first human domicile (or a part thereof).

Hey - if we're going for firsts, let's go the whole way.

The skull of the first human. No, I don't know how you decide whether it's the first human or the last pre-human...