Louis XVI at Place de la Révolution in 1793, Benjamin the thylacine at Hobart Zoo in 1936, Harry Kane at the World Cup in 2026? The end of the line always lingers longest in the memory.
This summer, England's captain will head across the Atlantic with the weight of the country's expectations weighed squarely upon his own shoulders. At 32, it will almost certainly be his last World Cup as England's leader and as one of the sport's most feared strikers. Whenever he bows out, it seems Kane will leave England without a worthy successor up front.
In March's draw with Uruguay and loss to Japan, a Kane-less England got a sense of what a future without a best-in-class striker can look like and alarm bells rang. England were described by sections of the press as looking "lost and confused" and getting a "grim glimpse of life" without their talisman.
Whether England will be reliant on Kane this summer is not really up for debate, but what will come after he steps away from the international scene is a venture into the unknown.
The majority of England fans have never had to contemplate the idea of their team not having one of the world's best forwards leading the line. Ever since Tony Woodcock was replaced by Gary Lineker in the 72nd minute of England's 1-1 draw with Scotland at Hampden Park on May 26, 1984, the country has been blessed with a 42-year sequence of best-in-class talent.
One, or a combination of, Gary Lineker, Alan Shearer, Michael Owen, Wayne Rooney and Harry Kane have led England's attack at every major tournament (in which they've qualified) from the 1986 World Cup in Mexico to the present day. They might not have lit up every tournament, but their presence allowed England managers to focus on other areas of the team due to the near consensus view on the starting No. 9's identity.
That almost unprecedented production line has delivered 249 international goals (and counting), two World Cup Golden Boots, 11 top-flight Golden Boots, three all-time club top goalscorers and 11 Player of the Season awards.
Those star names have also been supported by dependable strikers such as Teddy Sheringham, Les Ferdinand, Ian Wright, Robbie Fowler, Emile Heskey, Jermain Defoe and Peter Crouch.
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"The No. 9 back in the day was the role everyone wanted to play," Heskey tells ESPN. "It was what everyone wanted to do and now it's changed and everyone wants to be more wingers than anything. Back in the day, it was all about the goals, it was all about the hold-up play, it was about all of that."
Heskey was one of many who will have seen dozens of potential England caps and goals wither away upon the emergence of one of England's all-time greats.
"I enjoyed it to be honest with you," he reflects. "I enjoyed the different types of styles because you're always learning... When I played with Wayne Rooney, I know: 'Wayne doesn't want to play up front. Wayne wants to get on the ball so I'm actually a lone striker. I've got to figure out how I create space for Wayne to get on the ball. It's always challenging me' -- that's how I looked at things. I didn't really look at it as 'oh, I'm up front on my own, what am I doing?' No. I'm looking at how I'm affecting the play, how I'm helping my teammates."
How England's striker sequence compares to other countries'
While England's striker production line is formidable, France can come close to matching it with their particular brand of versatile forwards, but for a two-year gap in the 1990s that broke the sequence of Jean-Pierre Papin, Eric Cantona, Thierry Henry, David Trézéguet, Karim Benzema and Kylian Mbappé.
The French can also make the valid argument that their talent has actually produced the goods as they triumphed at the 1998 and 2018 World Cups.
Spain, perhaps unsurprisingly, are on a run of exceptional central midfield technicians that began with Pep Guardiola in the early 1990s and continues unbroken today with Rodri, Pedri and Gavi. In Xavi, Andres Iniesta, Sergio Busquets and Xabi Alonso, Spain could argue to be the country to have possessed the highest density of world-class players for a single position in history.
Italy's centre-back sequence of Gaetano Scirea, Franco Baresi, Paolo Maldini, Alessandro Nesta, Fabio Cannavaro, Giorgio Chiellini and Leonardo Bonucci dates back even further than England's striker sequence, but in failing to qualify for the last three World Cups, it's hard to argue against the fact that line has ended.
It's interesting how these consistent runs of excellence in a single position have informed footballing stereotypes and, in all cases other than England's, been the backbone of several major tournament successes.
Depending on your viewpoint, England's failure to ensure one of their free-scoring strikers could end their many years of hurt is either extremely unfortunate, or an example of exceptional mismanagement.
After Kane, who's next for England?
He might have fallen short with Bayern Munich in the Champions League, but Kane's move to Germany has seen him go from strength to strength. With 95 goals in 93 Bundesliga matches, if he left Bayern today, he would still be considered among their best strikers of all time.
Bayern's gain has been the Premier League's loss, though, and his absence has laid bare the dearth of recognised strikers performing in the English top flight.
Only three English strikers scored 10 or more goals in the Premier League this season -- a joint-record low in the competition. The returns from 30-year-old Ollie Watkins (16 goals), 29-year-old Dominic Calvert-Lewin (14 goals) and 35-year-old Danny Welbeck (13 goals), all of whom have been unfortunate enough to have had their peak years coincide with Kane's, are good, but not great.
It is also worth noting that 30-year-old Ivan Toney has been prolific in the Saudi Pro League, scoring 31 goals in 30 games for Al Ahli, and will sit down the aisle from Kane and Watkins on the plane this summer.
These aging strikers are unlikely to outlast Kane and stake a claim for his No. 9 shirt upon his eventual international retirement and so it will fall to the next generation to take on his mantle. However, the signs are not good.
Lee Carsley named just two strikers in his most recent England under-21s squad -- Liam Delap and Jay Stansfield -- and none in their European Championship team last summer. Delap, probably the most highly rated of Kane's possible successors, has endured a nightmare first season at Chelsea, scoring one Premier League goal for the club after moving to west London from Ipswich last year.
The great No. 9 decline has been clear to see since the Premier League's inaugural season in 1992-93 where the increasingly global nature of the game and growing financial might of England's elite clubs has caused them to search further afield for the cream of the crop.
Additionally, the emergence of goalscoring wide forwards, pioneered in large part by Pep Guardiola, has seen recognised strikers go out of fashion, in favour of the likes of mobile attackers such as Marcus Rashford and Raheem Sterling. But, strikers do seem to be making a comeback, with Erling Haaland, Viktor Gyökeres and Alexander Isak all being signed for large fees in recent years as the English top flight reverts to a competition dominated by pace and power.
It's easy to forget, but Rooney seemed to be the end of the line when he was approaching retirement in the mid 2010s, only for Kane to break out from relative obscurity to change England's outlook once more.
"What we've got to do with football at times is know that an era has come to an end and look at how it looks different," Heskey says. "Not look at who's going to be the next Harry Kane because you're not going to get another Harry Kane. We never got another Michael Owen, we never got another Wayne Rooney, we never got another Alan Shearer. We just changed the canvas."
This interview with Emile Heskey was conducted on behalf of Booker as part of the UK wholesaler's campaign to encourage England fans to shop locally during the Summer of Sport.