TODAY IN HISTORY: The painting that ruined a friendship, triggered a lawsuit and proved a massive hit

On January 21, 1943, a highly controversial painting was named the winner of the Archibald Prize. This portrait, created by William Dobell and featuring the artist Joshua Smith, was criticized for resembling a caricature more than a portrait.

Two other entrants filed lawsuits, arguing that the winning work did not meet the competition's standards. Smith (pictured), whose own painting came in second that year, was deeply hurt by Dobell's depiction. "It tore at my heart every day," Smith said in 1990.

The painting made that year's Archibald Prize exhibition extremely popular, but Smith and Dobell fell out over the depiction. Years later, when the portrait was damaged in a fire, Dobell refused to repair it. The following year, Smith himself won the Archibald Prize with a more traditional portrait of politician Sol Rosevear.

On January 21, 1968, a thermonuclear bomb was lost in a plane crash near an American military base in Greenland. A B-52 bomber carrying four B28FI bombs attempted an emergency landing at Thule Air Base.

However, the crew was forced to bail out before landing, and one member tragically died. The crash detonated the conventional explosives on board, and the nuclear warheads ruptured, causing radioactive contamination in the remote area. This aerial photograph shows the crash site, with the impact point visible on the left of the image.

The cleanup and recovery operation led to lengthy legal battles involving local and Danish workers. By 1995, 410 of the 1,500 workers had died of cancer. The crash was classified as a "Broken Arrow" incident, an accident involving nuclear weapons. The US Air Force and local Inuit searched for the bomb, but only found the wreckage of three.