[Lee Stewart]

The inventor of the modern bikini, Louis Réard, named his creation after the Bikini Atoll — where the U.S. did tons of its nuclear testing — because he hoped it would make as big of a bang as the atomic bomb. Réard declared it wasn't a real bikini unless the fabric from it could be "pulled through a wedding ring."

After its modern debut, the bikini was banned in Belgium, Italy, Spain, and Australia, and it was declared a sin by the Vatican.