Hard to believe, but the two-piece bathing suit we’ve come to call the bikini was once a scandalous sight on American beaches. But the style has been around forever, sort of. Women in ancient Rome sported two-piece garments while competing in athletic events. But with the fall of the Roman Empire came the general disappearance of skin -- not to be seen at least in polite society for several hundred years.

The modern bikini traces its roots back to 1946, when French mechanical engineer-turned clothing designer Louis Réard introduced the small two-piece swimsuit. He called it a bikini, in honor of the Pacific atoll where atomic bombs were being tested.

The bikini was not the first modern two-piece swimsuit, but it was the first to expose the wearer’s navel. Réard’s bikini was indeed revealing. As sales took off, he differentiated his swimsuit from two-piece competitors by declaring a suit was not a real bikini “unless it could be pulled through a wedding ring.”

Not everyone was amused by the new revelation. Women wore bikinis in the 1951 Miss World competition, but they were banned the following year. The Vatican declared them sinful, and several countries -- including the United States -- made them illegal. But over time, and with the help of Brigitte Bardot, Ursula Andress, Raquel Welch and others, the bikini became accepted American swimwear.