The greatest statistical graph of all time (as noted by the renowned information communication specialist Edward Tufte) was crafted by Charles Joseph Minard in November, 1869. Minard, a civil engineer by training, wanted to make a statement about the horrors of war.

His graph, depicting the disastrous Napoleonic campaign into Russia of 1812, shows in a two-dimensional space, six distinct types of data: the number of Napoleon’s troops, distance, temperature, longitude and latitude, direction in travel and location on specific dates.