1884 -

While inventors dreamed of lighting up the night, four men were fighting for their lives in the South Atlantic. The yacht Mignonette had sunk in a storm, leaving the crew adrift in a tiny dinghy. After three weeks without food or water, Captain Thomas Dudley made a horrifying choice to ensure the survival of his men. The resulting trial for cannibalism became a landmark in legal history, forcing the world to define the limits of "necessity." Symbols of a New World On land, 1884 was a year of monumental completions:

In the late autumn of , the world stood at a strange crossroads between the gaslight of the past and the electric spark of the future. This was the year that defined human ambition, from the towering heights of monuments to the desperate depths of the sea. The Spark of Ambition While inventors dreamed of lighting up the night,

: Representatives from 25 nations met in Washington for the International Meridian Conference, officially establishing Greenwich, England, as the Prime Meridian and the standard for time-reckoning across the globe. Shadows of the Era The resulting trial for cannibalism became a landmark

: After decades of construction, the monument was finally finished in D.C., becoming the tallest structure in the world at the time. Shadows of the Era : After decades of

: In a grand ceremony in Paris on July 4, France formally presented the completed statue to the United States.