25 of the Most Stupid and Impactful Mistakes Throughout History

‘That guy who sold Bitcoin for pizza’
25 of the Most Stupid and Impactful Mistakes Throughout History
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You ever do something truly stupid while alone and think about how glad you are that no one saw it? Well, now imagine doing that same thing, but not only does everyone on Earth find out, they actually teach their kids how dumb you were. That’s the unpleasant status the following pack of whoopsies possess.

A Redditor asked for mistakes from history that were equal parts stupid and impactful, and because humans are absolute idiots at heart, there are many. Read on for the all-time unforced errors that’ll make you feel way better about throwing away your candy bar and keeping the wrapper.

meganetism 2y ago I've scrolled for a while and haven't seen anything about Mao Zedong ordering an eradication of sparrows from China in 1959. Sparrows were believed to be pests that ate grain so the authorities started a campaign to eradicate them, along with some other perceived pests. The eradication worked. Unfortunately the sparrows, while they do eat some grain, also play a critical role in controlling the insect pests that cause crop disasters of a biblical scale. The next year, locusts boomed without their sparrow predator and took the crops, initiating a famine that killed 15 million people. China
Fresh-Hedgehog1895 . . 2y ago My personal favourite is New Zealand prime minster Robert Muldoon getting drunk in his office one night and then calling a snap election. Two weeks later, his government was voted out of office.
aunomvo 2y ago Edited 2y ago Hegelochus. Не was an actor performing the play Orestes by the famous playwright Euripides. In the dramatic climax the king he was playing lay dying and is supposed to say after the storm I see again a calm sea as he expires. Не mispronounced the word galén as galên changing the line to after the storm I see again a weasel. This embarrassing mistake happened in 408 BC. It is the only thing we know about Hegelochus. It was so humiliating and so widely mocked that we're still talking about it two thousand four
brainsewage 2y ago Whoever lost Special Order 191. In 1862, during the American Civil War, Robert E. Lee decides to invade the Union. His outnumbered army is secretly marching in several divided columns into Maryland to attack Washington DC. Не sends out this secret order to his top commanders, detailing where and when everyone should be during the march. A few days later, a Union soldier finds a couple of cigars lying in a field. With a copy of these orders wrapped around them. Some idiot had dropped it. The item gets passed up the chain of command to Union
Not-sure-wtf-1-am 2y ago Edited 2y ago During the Spanish-American War, the US decided to take Guam so they showed up with a bunch of gunships and fired a warning shot to say This is your last chance to surrender peacefully. There was no response. Then, a small Spanish ship started rowing up to the American fleet and when they got there, a representative said Hi! Welcome to Guam! We saw that you fired your guns to salute us and we would have saluted you back but unfortunately we ran out of gunpowder and nobody has been by to restock us.
StarbuckTheThird 2y ago The captain of U-1206. During WWII, it was fitted with a high pressure toilet system that was so complex flushing it required a trained technician to do it. So one day it was out on war patrol when the captain needs to use it. Unfortunately, the number 2 he pinched off was of considerable stench, so out of embarrassment, he attempts to operate the flushing mechanism himself. Unfortunately he botches up the sequence of valves needed to successfully operate it, and ends up causing water to leak onto the batteries used to power the ship whilst underwater
Empoleon_Master O 2y ago During the Revolutionary War in the US (I think that's the proper war's name) a spy scouted and saw George Washington crossing the Delaware River, he tried bringing the report to his commanding officer, who waived him off because he was in the middle of a poker game. Said commanding officer was found dead the next day with the report still in his coat pocket.
E 2y ago Nikola Tesla. Не had a contract with Westinghouse to get 1 dollar for every kw of power produced from his system of ac power generation. Westinghouse realized he could never make a profit and asked real to renegotiate that rate. Tesla simply ripped up the contract. If he had agreed to just 10 cents per kw it would have been viable and Tesla would have died the richest man in human history but instead died penniless
Mysterious_Cow123 . 2y ago Robert А. Kehoe. Killed millions and reduced the average IQ by nearly 3 for (wrongly) proclaiming lead safe to use in paints, cars, etc.
Good_Ad_1386 . 2y ago The Decca Records exec who decided that The Beatles were not worth signing.
WackHeisenBauer 2y ago Franz Ferdinand's lead driver that took a wrong turn on the way to the hospital to see victims of the original assassination attempt on the Archduke. They inadvertently brought Ferdinand directly to his assassin leading to... well the 20th and 21st centuries of war and death.
sd51223 2y ago Edited 2y ago American diplomat Paul Bremer is put in charge of governing Iraq in May 2003 after US forces took over Baghdad. Without seeking input from Washington, as his first act he issues two edicts with disastrous long term consequences. Coalition Provisional Authority Order #1 - members of the Ba'ath party are banned from working in government. Note that, Iraq having been a one party dictatorship, this is basically everyone in government. Coalition Provisional Authority Order #2 - the entire Iraqi military, national police force, legislature, and court system (and also the Ministry of Education and Olympic Committee just
-Foxer 2y ago In 1876 Alexander Bell, desperate for money, offered to sell his 'telephone' invention to western union after proving that the device could work over their existing telegraph lines. The price was 100 thousand. Western union declined, saying the telephone was just a toy and would never amount to anything.
barriedalenick 2y ago Thomas Midgley Jr. made two of the biggest. Не was one of the early pioneers of chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) - compounds that became widely used in industry - and which were destroying the ozone layer. Не also invented leaded gasoline and insisted that it was safe to use.
kategoad . 2y ago Low stakes, but high embarrassment: Four Seasons Lawn Services.
John_Matrix . 2y ago David Cameron was responsible for Brexit because he wanted to try win over a few nutters in his own party and ended up fucking an entire country for generations.
papmontana . 2y ago The burning of the Library of Alexandria
carolebaskin93 . 2y ago The Great Emu War, the Australian military lost a war to a bunch of Emu's
lynnie06 . 2y ago I heard thus from my Latin teacher but idk the exact details anymore- Anyways the story is that 1 researcher spilled coffee on a classic text, making it impossible to research further
JohnDarly1 . 2y ago That guy who sold Bitcoin for pizza
ImperishableNEET . 2y ago Edited 2y ago The War of the Triple Alliance, or: That time Paraguay tried to conquer all of South America. Saddam Hussein launching an invasion of Kuwait thinking it wouldn't lead to US retaliation. The Japanese doing Pearl Harbor thinking they could win a war against the US or at least scare them out of entering the war.
bunslightyear . 2y ago Banishing Julius Caesar to Rhodes. Big time mistake
Hardpo . 2y ago Pete Carroll passing on the 1 yard line Superbowl against the pats.
Lost_in_the_sauce504 . 2y ago Zimmerman telegraph from WW1. Not only was his plan to get Mexico to fight the US discovered, when he was questioned on it he doubled down instead of denying it.
Freakofiel . 2y ago Columbus discovering America thinking it was india and becouse of that giving the name indians to native Americans

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