While different editions contain varying numbers of essays (up to 14), some of the most famous include: The Fall of Byzantium (1453):

A forgotten open gate ( Kerkoporta ) allows the Ottoman Turks to enter and end the Byzantine Empire.

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Vasco Núñez de Balboa, a man fleeing debt in a crate, overcomes impossible odds to become the first European to see the Pacific Ocean. The World Minute of Waterloo (1815):

Zweig explores how an otherwise mediocre captain of the engineers, Rouget de Lisle, becomes possessed by a singular night of divine poetic inspiration during the French Revolution. In just a few hours, he pens the war song that would become the national anthem of France. De Lisle never achieves greatness again, spending the rest of his life in obscurity, proving Zweig’s point that genius is often a fleeting visitor. 4. The Race to the South Pole (1912)