12 book
publishers rejected Harry Potter because the story wasn’t good enough for them.
Faulty
construction led to the catastrophic meltdown of the Chernobyl Reactor.
They decided not to bring enough life boats for all passengers on the Titanic because they thought it was “unsinkable.”
The
Archduke Franz Ferdinand’s driver made a wrong turn that led them right to the
feet of the assassin, Gavrilo Princip. The First World War would have been
avoided, or at least postponed.
The
Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor when not a single US aircraft carrier was even
in port.
NASA
lost a Mars orbiter because half of the team used metric units and the other
used English units.
In 14th
century, China abandoned its navy and decided that a policy of isolationism was
better for them. History suggests that the country could have been much more
influential than any powerful country in history.
NASA accidentally
taping over the moonlanding. In fact, there are no known original recordings of
the event. Conspiracy theories ensue.
It only
took one random fool who forgot to close the gate that allowed the Turks to
conquer Constantinople easily in 1453.
Hitler
really thought he could do a lot better than Napoleon.
Decca
Records turned down the Beatles because they thought they weren’t good enough.
It took
them 177 years to build the Tower of Pisa. It only took 10 years for it to
start leaning.
They
thought that filling the Hindenburg with hydrogen was a good idea.
Historians
aren’t sure if the Trojan Horse actually ever existed. But if it did, accepting
it was one of the biggest and most embarrassing mistakes ever made in history.
Russia
sold Alaska to the US for only 2 cents an acre. They thought it was just a
useless tundra.
Atahualpa,
the Inca ruler, agreed to meet Conquistador Francisco Pizarro during which 200
Spanish horsemen ambushed and defeated 80,000 of his warriors.
The
Dutch first discovered Australia 100 years before the British did. But they
just ignored it thinking it was only a useless desert.
Persia
tried to scare off Genghis Khan by sending back his ambassador without a head.
Wrong move. It only brought the wrath of Mongolia down on themselves.
Napoleon
thought he could invade Russia in winter.
Alexander
the Great did not name an heir to his throne leading directly to the downfall
of his empire.
They
thought that assassinating Caesar would save the Republic. Unfortunately, it
only led to its demise.
Thinking
that the West Indies was Southeast Asia.
Lack of
commitment from Carthage to provide Hannibal with siege equipment led him to
basically ignore Rome, which basically resulted to Hannibal’s downfall.
No one
knows who was responsible for burning the great library of Alexandria. But it
was arguably the single greatest loss of knowledge in the world ever.
In 1788,
the Austrian army accidentally attacked itself and killed 10,000 men of its own
men.
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