Friday, August 21, 2026, brings National Kool-Aid Day, an observance made possible by one inventor realizing he was paying to ship water.

How does someone earn an award that hasn’t been manufactured, and how does the world’s most famous museum misplace the Mona Lisa?

Today we explore America’s first Eagle Scout waiting for his nonexistent badge, the astonishingly simple theft that made the Mona Lisa even more famous, and a British victory that ended with the defeated French army receiving a ride home.

Along the way, we celebrate Kenny Rogers—a doo-wop singer, jazz bassist, psychedelic rocker, photographer, chicken entrepreneur, and eventual country-music legend.

Sometimes the strangest part of a story isn’t what disappears or who wins—it’s what happens immediately afterward.