Take a second. Think about whatever it was you were just doing, just before you began listening

to this. What if I told you that whatever it was, no matter how ordinary, there's probably

an incredible origin story behind it? Maybe you were finishing the last episode of that true

crime series everybody's been talking about.

Those shows are everywhere you look today.

But did you ever wonder about the very first murder mystery that went viral?

It's more than a hundred years old, and it involves a wild transatlantic boat chase

to catch a fugitive killer in disguise.

It's a story you'll have to hear to believe.

Not just because of the grisly crime, the daring escape and the thrilling hunt that followed,

but also because of the way it captured the world's attention and sparked a cultural obsession.

These stories are all around us. The things we take for granted, if we just trace them back in time,

they often lead to a singular moment that reverberates through history.

Like you probably didn't know that the banana that you had for breakfast

wouldn't have been so readily available, if not for the CIA,

two military coups, and a political assassination.

How about the set of keys that you left on the kitchen counter on your way out the door?

A minor inconvenience for you, but back in 1912, one misplaced key may have led to the sinking of the Titanic.

Why doesn't America use the metric system anyway? Because pirates stole it from us?

How did Hollywood become the movie Mecca? Because Thomas Edison was a bully.

The course of history never follows a straight line, and very often we can pinpoint a remarkable,

thrilling twist which changes everything that follows.

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