Unluckiest People in the World: Stories of Misfortune

In December 2011, the small Spanish village of Sodeto became an overnight millionaire's village when a state lottery ticket worth $950 million was won, bringing wealth to all residents except one. The lottery, known as El Gordo, is an annual event in Spain where the government prints several series of lottery tickets with numbers ranging from 0 to 99,999. The association of housewives in Sodeto usually bought several tickets and sold them door-to-door with a markup of one euro for the association.

In 2011, the head of the association, a woman named Carmen, brought 6,000 euros worth of tickets, all with the same number – 58268. Kostis Mitsoatakis, a Greek cinematographer, was the only resident of Sodeto who did not receive a prize because the ticket seller missed his house. Mitsoatakis worked on a documentary about the event but it did not succeed.

Wilmer McLean owned a farm in Manassas, Virginia, where the first and second battles of Bull Run took place during the American Civil War. During the second battle, McLean's wife was pregnant, so he decided to sell his house and move 100 miles south to Appomattox. In 1865, the last major battle of the Civil War took place in McLean's house, where General Robert E. Lee surrendered to General Ulysses S. Grant. After the historic event, soldiers from both armies took McLean's belongings as souvenirs, including furniture, paintings, clothing, and even his daughter's dolls. McLean sold his house two years later and moved to Alexandria, Virginia, where he worked for the U.S. tax service.