His core discovery, of how to get spatial information about atoms in a magnetic field, was scribbled on a paper napkin over dinner in a Big Boy restaurant in Pittsburgh, between two bites of a hamburger.

ECONOMIST: Paul Lauterbur | The

In 2008, Vice President Joe Biden, then a senator, threw down his napkin and walked out of a dinner with Mr. Karzai in Kabul, after Mr. Karzai minimized the extent of corruption in the government.

WSJ: Hamid Karzai: Our Man in Kabul?

At a legendary Delmonico's dinner arranged by Leonard Jerome, Winston Churchill's grandfather, each woman found a gold bracelet hidden in her napkin.

ECONOMIST: High society in New York