Some of history’s most interesting stories begin with something ordinary… until someone decides it doesn’t have to stay that way.

Today we follow a pilot whose flight plan said California but whose airplane landed in Ireland instead. We open a box of crayons to discover how one simple idea changed a childhood classic. And we revisit the day Detroit declared bankruptcy, beginning a difficult but remarkable effort to reinvent one of America’s most iconic cities.

Along the way, we celebrate the birthday of John Glenn, the first American to orbit the Earth—and someone who proved that one extraordinary accomplishment doesn’t have to be your last.

Sometimes history isn’t about inventing something completely new.

Sometimes it’s about looking at something familiar and imagining what it could still become.