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Twenty years ago this Friday, January 15, the internet changed forever. Wikipedia went live, gifting the world with a cavern of endless information, both helpful and potentially questionable. The ease with which you can look up Hannibals Retreat is matched only by the ease with which you can look up what happened in the season premiere of Hannibaland you have Wikipedia to thank for that.

In the past 20 years, Wikipedia has been a shorthand source for facts both useful and uselessbut its also been an incredible outlet for time-wasting, for clicking from page to page until youre in so deep you can hardly remember where you started. Sometimes you return from those journeys with nothing, but other times, you come back with something youll never forget. To celebrate the birthday of Wikipedia, The Ringer recounts those glorious wormholes.

Route: The Challenge (TV Series) The Real World MTV List of Programs Broadcast by MTV List of Programs Broadcast by MTV, Former Programming Two-A-Days Two-A-Days, Rush Propst Controversy

Its not hard to get lost on Wikipediadazed, bored, link-hopping with hardly a thought. But then once in awhile, you land on something that snaps you back to life. Thats what happened when I found myself scrolling through the page for MTVs high school football reality show, Two-A-Days. (You remember Two-A-Days, right? That show where every guy had that swoopy haircut?) Nothing about the actual show is illuminated by the entry, but then you get to the section about the guy who coached the team Two-A-Days focused on, Rush Propst. Let me just drop this in: On October 30, 2007, Propst resigned from the head coaching position of Hoover High School effective at the end of the season, while admitting to extramarital affairs and living a double life. Propst revealed he was married to two women and had children with both.

What thewhy wasnt this the show?! Or better yet, why doesnt MTV stop playing Ridiculousness all day and start production on a fictionalized version of this story?! Its like Friday Night Lights if Coach Taylor were an antihero. Anyways, thanks for the pick-me-up, Wikipedia. Andrew Gruttadaro

Route: New York Mets Fred Wilpon Samuel Israel III Faked Death and Ponzi Scheme (separate tabs) Lawrence Joseph Bader

Fans (and enemies!) of the New York Mets will be unsurprised to learn that the rich tapestry of Wikipedia directory pages for both People Who Faked Their Own Death and Pyramid and Ponzi Schemes can be found only a few clicks away from the franchises main page. When the former team owners were revealed to have (knowingly?) gotten got by Bernie Madoffs infamous fraud back in 2008, it wasnt even the first time theyd been associated with a pyramid scheme. And the other instance might have been even stranger: Three years after Samuel Israel IIIs hedge fund, Bayouwhich the Madoffs had invested withwas indicted for fraud in 2005, Israel failed to show up for his prison sentence, faked his death with the help of a line from the TV show M*A*S*H, and was ultimately tracked down by the Feds at a campground.

Israels Wikipedia page links to both of the aforementioned directories, each of which could keep a person clicking all day long (and has!) but the one that stood out to me most was this story of Lawrence Joseph Bader, a father of three (with one more on the way) who disappeared during a fishing trip on Lake Erie in 1957, showed up four days later in Omaha as a man named Fritz Johnson, and then kinda went buck wild: He sat on a flagpole to raise money for polio research; he became a bartender, radio announcer, and TV sports director; he drove a hearse around town; he wore an eyepatch; he traipsed around at archery tournaments. Don Draper could never. Lets go Mets! Katie Baker

Route: Prometheus (2012 film) Prometheus (Greek Mythology) Prometheus, Myths and Legends

This past summer, I wrote about Michael Cavic, a man who lost one of the closest and most controversial swim races in Olympic history to one of the greatest Olympians of all time. During a rather broad conversation, Cavic mentioned that hes a fan of the movie Prometheus and tried to connect some of the underlying thematic elements of the film to his life. I was confusedI had not seen the movie and had no intention to (aliens and alien-related pop culture arent my thing), but I needed a primer on the picture. Wikipedia to the rescue. With apologies to Ridley Scott, I abandoned that page pretty quickly and found myself indulging in a Greek mythology refresher thats been overdue since collegeincluding and especially the origins of the world and humanity. TL;DR, Prometheus created man from clay and stole fire and gave it to the people. And whoa boy, were the other gods pissed about that. Especially Zeus. At the main mans direction, Prometheus suffered all kinds of grisly torture as punishment, including having his liver eaten by an eagle, only for it to grow back the next day, only to have it eaten by an eagle AGAIN. And on and on it went for a while, because if theres one thing the gods do not condone, its a fire heist. Anyway, remember to thank Prometheuss liver next time you cook dinner. John Gonzalez

Route: Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit Ryan Toby City High

Whenever Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit comes on cable, I do what any right-minded person doesI google why Hollywood failed to deliver a third installment. Thankfully, Disney has changed their mind about this matter, but I would like to discuss a particular internet journey I took because of this query. One day, after I found myself clapping on my couch to the Oh Happy Day choir scene for the 876th time, I decided to find out what happened to the actor who played Ahmal. Never in my wildest dreams did I think I would unearth something so spectacular: Allow me to introduce Ryan Tobys page.

Before the Killers graced us with the anthem of the decade, Mr. Brightside, there was an impeccable track released in 2001 called What Would You Do? Its a perfect song; if youre of a certain age, I guarantee youre singing the hook right now. And, well, Im ecstatic to report that one of the people responsible for that song was Ryan Toby, who made up one-third of City High, the R&B trio who performed that song. My life changed that day, and it changed because of one website. If you want to be somebody, if you want to go somewhere, you better wake up and use Wikipedia. Bridget Geerlings

Route: List of 1960s Musical Artists Carlos Santana Santana (Band) Santana (Band), Timeline

As a devotee of dad rockor granddad rock, depending on ones frame of referencewho listens to a lot of music made by bands that broke up long ago, I have a soft spot for zombie bands that outlived their life expectancy and continue to tour or record. Im talking about gray-bearded bands that have soldiered on for decades despite departures and deaths, their ever-shifting formations often winnowed to one founding member (at most) who carries on their legacy and retains the legal rights to their name. These groups are like the Lazarus taxa of the entertainment industry, and its difficult to document their histories from original lineups to current incarnations. Fortunately, a fossil record exists: Industrious editors on Wikipedia have preserved some of their rosters and timelines in graphical form; the sprawling displays are something to behold. REO Speedwagon. Steppenwolf. The Temptations. The Beach Boys. The Flying Burrito Brothers. Earth, Wind & Fire. And maybe the most voluminous of all: a scrollable, color-coded roll call of the almost 70 past or present members of Santana, ranging from drummers or bassists who came and went in one year to the 55-year tenure of Carlos Santana himself. This is information, but its also art. Now I just need enough wall space to turn some of these suckers into framed prints and hang them in my home. Ben Lindbergh

Route: Sir Arthur Currie Battle of the Somme Mines on the First Day of the Somme Largest Artificial Nonnuclear Explosions N1 Rocket Sea Dragon (rocket) (separate tab)

Years ago, I was listening to the World War I series of Dan Carlins Hardcore History when further reading about a Canadian general mentioned therein led to underground explosives at a battle he was involved in, which led to one of the best pages on all of Wikipedia: Largest Artificial Nonnuclear Explosions. Every single one of these is worth reading about, and my love for this page has surfaced on The Ringer in articles about Texas City and For All Mankind. The N1 is one of the most powerful rockets ever devised, but would have been dwarfed by NASAs proposed Sea Dragon, a vehicle so massive it could have been launched only by floating it in the middle of the ocean because no facility on Earth could accommodate it. (Here it is depicted in a post-credits sequence in For All Mankind.) My point is: All Wikipedia wormholes lead to giant rockets and/or giant explosions. Michael Baumann

Route: Action Park Action Park, Factors Contributing to the Parks Safety Record Action Park, Fatalities

What begins as a romp through Americas most infamous amusement park eventually turns terrifying. Theres a breakdown of the places ugly safety record, which notes that minors were allowed to operate rides and that accidents were often not reported. Then, gulp, theres a chronological list of the six fatalities that occurred at the park.

Unsurprisingly, Im one of many whos fallen into the Action Park wormhole. The Wiki page was featured on Longform.org; Johnny Knoxville even starred in a movie called Action Point thats loosely based on the place, and there have now been documentaries made about the long-shuttered New Jersey destination.

Growing up in New England, I sadly never got to visit the dangerous Action Park. But its Wiki entry is so extensive that I feel like I have. Alan Siegel

Route: Who the hell even knows?

Im sure (Im not sure) that theres a perfectly reasonable path of clicks that first led me to the List of Unusual Deaths. Ive long since forgotten it, but I keep the list bookmarked for the simple reason that there is no better source of endless Wikipedia wormholes. With entries spanning from the present all the way back to 620 B.C.E, theres plenty thats unusual: The deaths include everything from a fatal blow from a falling tortoise to a deadly toothpick-swallowing to one unlucky teenagers demise after, and I quote, a circus clown swung him around by his heels. Nearly every entry offers a handful of links to additional pagesabout the dearly departed, the palace intrigue, the poison, or, um, death by sawing. Pour one out for those taken too soon, and may your journeys through the lists many burrows carry you safely to your destination. Claire McNear

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What Is the Weirdest Wikipedia Wormhole Youve Fallen Into? - The Ringer