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Everyone makes mistakes, but the scale and impact of one blunder or another is rarely similar. But some mistakes are so monumentally big that they can end large companies, devastated whole countries and even upset continent-wide ecosystems. So perhaps you tripping in public is not that bad, is it?
Someone asked “What was arguably the biggest mess-up in history?” and netizens shared their best examples. So get comfortable as you scroll through, upvote your favorites and be sure to share your own thoughts, ideas and experiences in the comments section below.
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#2
Corporations are people. Money is speech. These simple assertions have guided America toward more greed and more war than any other decision in history. It has set us on the path towards far worse ends than most other single events.
#3
In American history: Supreme Court's Citizens United decision, which made corporate bribery legal. Government no longer served the people from that point on.
#4
In retail history, probably Sears not realizing that they were basically Amazon before Amazon. Mail order with warehouses all over the United States. How could you improve that business model? Oh, the Internet you say? Never heard of it.
#7
A governor of the Khwarazmian Empire killed a peaceful emissary from a neighboring empire, who had been sent to establish trade relations and political connections between the two powers. The emissary was sent by Genghis Khan. Genghis Khan replied by invading the Khwarazmian Empire, obliterating everything in his path, burning basically the entire thing to the ground, and then destroying any record of the Khwarazmian Empire that he could find. He finished all of this off by diverting the river that fed the country water, causing the land where the empire once stood to become a dry and barren wasteland. Possibly one of the biggest mess ups in history.
#9
"Mao's push to have farmers in China produce their own steel using backyard furnaces, which lead to a wacky chain reaction eventually leading to a famine that killed millions." "Mao also ordered the extermination of sparrows in an attempt to protect grain crops. Millions of sparrows were killed, allowing locusts to proliferate. "The locusts consumed so many crops that there was widespread famine and 45 million people died."
#12
"20th Century Fox let George Lucas keep all the merchandising r⁷ights for Star Wars because they thought it would be a giant flop and noone would watch it." "George Lucas is now worth 5.3 billion dollars."
#13
In 1350, the Scots heard that England was having a spot of trouble with the bubonic plague, and decided to launch an invasion that would take advantage of the English, who were dropping like flies and would thus be easy pickings. The Scots invading army lost 5000 men to the plague in very short order. They decided to cut their losses and fall back to Scotland to be safe. Of course they brought the great plague with them, which devastated Scotland too.
#14
The IPCC decision to go with the more conservative climate change modeling in the 1980s. Essentially the question at the time was 'does heat accumulate at the poles, or does it dissipate into space'? They went with the dissipation models, even though they were in contradiction to geological evidence, because it had never been directly observed. And now, everything is 'sooner than expected' and 'faster than anticipated.' Yeah because you guys f****d up. The biggest f*** up in history, by orders of degrees. Haha.
#15
So that one fish decided to try what happens when you leave the water.. That's when it really started to go downhill!
#17
Chernobyl! Only a f***-up of epic poportions can cause a nuclear incident while doing a saftey test! April 26th! Annivarsay of the accident is today.
#19
If Parliment had just given the colonies their own representation in the House of Commons they could have likely avoided the entire revolutionary war and the US would not have formed. We’d likely have like 9 smaller versions of Canada on the east coast with a large Mexico and several interior Native American nations today.
#20
I think the best political f***-up happened in 1984 when New Zealand's arrogant prime minister got drunk in his office late one night and called a snap election in two week's time. His government was voted out. It became known as the Schnapps Election.
#21
Vitruvius not see the potential of steam to Move things with the Heron Engine. Only saw it as a amusing toy. The Steam Age and Industrial Revolution could of happened in 1st Century Greece.
#22
Not the worst, but that incident where they sent out an emergency alert saying “inbound ballistic missile threat to Hawaii. This is not a drill” always sticks out in my mind. People were seeking shelter in manholes, and it took them 45 minutes to send out a follow up alert saying “just kidding. Everything is ok”. I can’t even imagine.
#23
Norway wanted to give sweden 50% of our oil profits in exchange for 50% of Volvo. Swedens government said no as one of their minister meant that "there is no future in oil". Norway's sovereign fund (the oil fund) can now purchase every single stock on the swedish stock exchange and still have money leftover.
#25
"Genghis sends three ambassadors (two Mongols and a Muslim) to the sultan to demand the governor be punished. Sultan has Muslim executed and Mongols shaved (a grave insult)." "Genghis abandons current war with China and invades, capturing many cities who hold no real loyalty to the Sultan and surrender peacefullly." "Genghis sieges Otrar, finally fully taking it after six months and executing governor... "Genghis bypasses 300 miles of impassable desert to invade next city from more vulnerable side. "Genghis takes thd capital of the empire in five days. Sultan dies hiding in exile."
#27
In 1912 China was a functioning and promising democracy (for the first time ever) and it was ruined by one general (Yuan Shikai) who couped the government and declared himself emperor.
#28
"Netflix offered themselves to Yahoo. Yahoo instead bought Tumblr. "Heads rolled at Yahoo."
#29
The Fourth Crusade. It started as a crusade for Jerusalem from an invasion through Egypt and the crusaders ended up invading Croatia and Constantinople. This also led to the weakening of the Byzantine Empire and eventually its downfall.
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