Scaevola

Aside from the occasional shamelessly pirated article, my favorite part of Wikipedia is the disambiguation page. The main function of disambiguation pages is to help navigate similarly titled articles, but they often show fun connections as well. The disambiguation banner for Scaevola reveals that the name is shared by a family of shrubs, a mollusk, several Romans (who have their own disambiguation page), and a nuclear test.

Among the ancients listed is Gaius Mucius Scaevola, the star of my favorite Roman legend. During a war with Etruscans, Mucius snuck into the enemy camp to assassinate their king. He was captured after slaying the wrong man. The Etruscans threatened to fillet their detainee, but Mucius delivered a defiant speech and held his right arm in a fire to show his resolve. This type of self-control impressed the Etruscans, who released him. Upon his return to Rome, Mucius was honored with the cognomen Scaevola, meaning the left-handed. (1)

The Scaevola nuclear test was part of the Hardtack I series, which concluded fifty years ago today. Other tests in this series had yields exceeding eight megatons, more than sufficient to neutralize an Etruscan army. But the Scaevola detonation did not, for it was a zero-yield safety experiment. (2)

(1) Titus Livy. Ab Urde Condita. 2.12-13.
(2) US Dept. of Energy. United States Nuclear Tests: July 1945 through September 1992.