In 1738, Captain Robert Jenkins displayed an ear pickled in brine
before a Parliamentaly committee in London. Jenkins identified the ear as his own, and alleged that a Spanish patrol had cut it off while he was sailing in the West Indies. Appalled, the British parliament promptly declared war on Spain -- the War of Jenkins's Ear, which soon expanded into the War of the Austrian Succession.
Sources
Isaac Asimov`s Book of Facts
