20 of the Most WTF Chain Reactions of All Time

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20 of the Most WTF Chain Reactions of All Time

If you only know the butterfly effect as the name of an Ashton Kutcher movie that was reviewed so poorly that you never saw it, the idea is that a butterfly flapping its wings on one side of the world can create a hurricane on the other side. (Or Ashton Kutcher going back in time to save a dog’s life can turn a woman into a sex worker. It’s a weird movie.)

There are plenty of examples of this happening throughout history. One that’s frequently cited is Hitler’s rejection from art school leading to World War II, and one that’s not cited nearly enough is President Joe Biden being responsible for the creation of Fall Out Boy. Look it up — it’s true. 

Those facts are interesting, but it’s even more interesting to see each step along the way. User unchainedrobots must agree, because they asked r/AskReddit, “Historians of Reddit, what is the strangest chain of events you have studied?,” and said historians of Reddit did their best to blow unchainedrobots’ mind.

Philieselphy 5y ago The Batavia mutiny. You can trace just about the whole thing back to Jeronimus Corneliusz hiring a syphilitic wetnurse for his baby.

SwingGirlAtHeart 5y ago Napoleon lost the invasion of Russia because the buttons on his army's uniforms were made of tin. Tin disintegrates at below-freezing temperatures, and you can't fight or survive a Russian winter if your clothes won't stay together.

Bananek89 5y ago The battle of Karansebes, Austrian cavalry refused to share alcohol with infantry, shots were fired, someone screamed that the Turks are coming, which led to panic. Austrian troops started shooting each other. The army retreated to regroup. The Turks came saw a bunch of dead bodies and no army so they captured the city.

Frenchorican 5y ago The events that led and culminated in the War of the Bucket for sure. Essentially one Italian State who followed Holy Roman Emperor stole a bucket from another Italian State who followed the pope. War broke out, The papal state highly outnumbered the HRE state, but HRE state won. Then stole another bucket. Was a trip for sure when I learned about this one.

silverionmox 5y ago The War of the Cow (1272-1278) was a conflict in the Holy Roman Empire between the Prince-Bishopric of Liège under Bishop John of Enghien and the Marquisate of Namur under Marquis Guy of Dampierre. What began as a dispute over stolen property between a peasant from one jurisdiction and a burgess from another became a major regional conflict requiring the arbitration of King Philip III of France, who ordered the restoration of the status quo ante bellum in 1278. Approximately 2000 people were killed.

shadyshores 5y ago Texas bbq is so heavy on mesquite smoked beef because in the 16-1700s, Spanish vaqueros brought cattle up from Mexico due to a drought in west/central Texas. This drought allowed mesquite bushes to thrive which resulted in the mesquite curtain, a relatively dense population of mesquite bushes that got caught in Buffalo fur, moving the bison population out of Texas and ushered in the walking, mooing brisket bags that we have come to know and love today.

bunyip8888 5y ago Smugglers Arm shark incident In the 1930s a large tiger shark was caught in Sydney and put into a public aquarium at Coogee Beach. The shark gets sick and a few days later vomits up a human arm while people are watching. The arm has a tattoo that the police are able to identify as a local gangster, who is missing. The police track down his associates and get a confession and solve the case.

restricteddata 5y ago Actual historian here! I'm not sure about strangest but how about improbable and dangerous? I like to tell people about this one: In October 1962, during the Cuban Missile Crisis, a security guard at a Duluth, MN, military base mistakenly took a bear for an enemy intruder and sounded the alarm. This triggered air-raid klaxons in the region. However, at the nearby Volk Airfield, due to a faulty system, the nuclear attack alert was sounded, causing nuclear-armed F- 106A to scramble for takeoff.

carl_888 5y ago Horses evolved in North America, spread during pre-historical times into Asia, and then later went extinct in North America. If things had been only slightly different, horses could have been native only to the Americas, or just completely extinct by pre-history. Not having horses would have made a huge difference to Asian & European history: no Mongol invasions, no European knights.

alinabitcoin 5y ago In the 15th century, the Ottomans captured Constantinople and with this controlled the waterways between Europe and Asia, Looking for an alternative the Portuguese and Spanish started to look for alternative routes to Asia by sea. They built bigger ships and discovered south and North America. The Europeans eventually colonised this new world and eventually reached Asia and colonised indo China, Pakistan, India and the Middle East. What started as Ottomans charging higher taxes, forced Europeans to bypass them, which eventually led to almost the whole world being colonised

OwOxdlol 5y ago Edited 5y ago During the early 20th century, there was an outbreak of Spanish flu in the Americas which caused large amounts of suffering and death among afflicted throughout the world. Eleven victims living in the town of Longyearben in the North Sea that died. However, The very cold temperature there created a layer of permafrost at burial depth which accidentally preserved remnants of the flu. This made it illegal to die there as turning up the ground would likely re-release the disease. However, scientists studying epidemics such as the Spanish flu use samples from deceased in

Tuck_Pock 5y ago We learnt about this is school: in the 1950s in Borneo they were suffering from an outbreak of malaria, so, with the help of the world health organization, they sprayed DDT all over the island to kill the mosquitos. But the DDT also killed the islands wasps which helped control the population of thatch eating catapillars, thatch that people's homes were made of, and thanks to this, their roofs began to collapse. Many other small insects started to get affected by the DDT, which were eaten by geckos, the geckos developed a tolerance to the DDT but

Kfrabe13 5y ago Easy. The Castration of the Herms in Athens, Greece during the Peloponnesian war. Essentially someone went around and castrated the Hermes mile markers (Hermes, god of travelers. They all had erect penises because it was considered to ward against evil). Anywhos, this was a huge political scandal and when Athens set sail to take their war to Sicily, their general, Alcibides, was recalled to stand trial and arguably, that is why the Athenian Empire fell...to simplify the whole thing.

baiacool 5y ago The Fall of the Roman Empire always amazes me. They dominated a lot of land, so much land that there was no more land to conquer, which made for a lack of money, so the emperor decided to take money away from bread and circus in order to pay the military. Without food and entertainment the people started to rebel, which caused the military to be too occupied when the barbarians came and took everything. Their success was also their demise.

escudonbk 5y ago Edited 5y ago As a boxing historian probably the story of an ancient Greek boxer named Kleomedes Apparently while in the Olympic final, he killed his opponent by stabbing his fingers into his opponents chest, killing him. Which means he loses due to a strange and awesome rule was if your opponent was killed by the fight, he automatically won. So despite surviving the fight, Kleomedes is judged the loser. No glory or olive wreath. Returns home to Astypalaia and lapses into deep depression. Commits the the first mass murder of school children after punching a support

CocoJuka 5y ago Probably how Pepsi briefly became the 6th largest military in the world. In 1959, President Eisenhower wanted to show the Soviet Union how great America was, so the government set up an American National Exibition and sent Vice Pres Nixon there. Well Nixon and Soviet leader Khrushchev got in an arguement over Communism vs Capitalism. As it got heated the President of Pepsi stepped in and was like, Bro Khrushchev, chill out, have a pepsi. Khruschev most of loved that shit, because then the Soviet Union wanted to Permanently bring Pepsi over to their country. The problem

Zacoftheaxes 5y ago Recent history but it still boggles my mind. Jeri Ryan gets cast on Star Trek: Voyager as Seven of Nine. Jeri Ryan divorces her husband. Her ex husband, Jack, with a really strong resume and a lot of money, announces a Senate campaign in the state of Illinois in 2004. His entry in the race is enough that it is now considered a tossup. Because both Jeri and Jack are public figures journalists push for their divorce records to be released and a major factor in their spilt was Jack's desire to have sex in public locations.

TofuDeliveryBoy 5y ago . Edited 5y ago If Gavrilo Princep never stopped for a snack at that cafe, he never would have shot Franz Ferdinand. That would have never started WWI with the particular political alliances of the moment. Which meant Russia wouldn't have been ground into dust by Germany economically while Germany lost the war. Which means Communism never would have taken hold in Russia, while Nazism wouldn't even exist. Which means WWII and the Cold War would have never happened. No Cold War means no American involvement in Vietnam...which led to the greatest catastrophe of the 20th century.

5y ago Obligatory WWI -> Development of Hentai WWI-> Treaty of Versailles -> WWII - > rip nagasaki & hiroshima -> Macarthur shapes Japanese constitution in a way that restricts sexual expression -> hentai

Gentlemanspaceghost . 5y ago In the year 1909 a man by the name of Bryant clayborn went hunting through the woods in upstate New York and discovered a new species of butterfly with unusual black and blue spotted patterns. Не took the specimen to Dr. Jacob Bollard who confirmed that it was a new species which was then dubbed the North American Blue butterfly or the Baby Blue Butterfly. Over the course of the next fifteen years only seven specimens were ever discovered causing the species to be labeled critically endangered if not on the verge of extinction. The most

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