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There have been many accidental discoveries, and not all involved Christopher "Which way is Spain?" Columbus. For example, the drug penicillin was discovered by a slob who didn't clean up after himself. Biologist and pharmacologist Alexander Fleming neglected to wash his staphylococci bacteria culture before he went away on vacation. When Fleming returned a few weeks later, he observed mold on the plate that the bacteria would not grow around. This fortuitous discovery eventually led to the development of the wonder drug penicillin. Physicist Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen wasn't out to revolutionize the medical field, but that's exactly what he did when he discovered X-rays. The curious Röntgen wished to see if cathode rays could escape "a glass tube covered in black cardboard." Röntgen eventually discovered these rays could be used to photograph the human skeleton, and, like Fleming, he won a Nobel Prize for his efforts. And the list goes on. Additional serendipitous discoveries include Post-it Notes, Silly Putty, and Sir Isaac Newton's theories on gravity (though the part about the apple falling on his head isn't really true).
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