One afternoon in September 1926, French prime minister Aristide Briand met with his German counterpart Gustav Stresemann, with whom he had shared that year's Nobel Peace Prize -- and with whom he wished to discuss Germany's postwar fiscal obligations to the victorious Allies.

After lunch the pair amicably wrangled over the bill for some time before Briand finally proposed a suitable compromise: "I'll pay for the lunch," he said, "if you take care of the reparations."

[German reparations for the war, which totaled billions of marks, were later nullified by Germany under Adolf Hitler.]