16 Of The Most Embarrassing Mistakes In History That You Won’t Believe Actually Happened

To err is human. Unfortunately, to fuck up massively is also human. Right through the annals of history, to the present day journals, there have been erroneous events/mishaps that have shaped, or should I say, contorted the conventional path, plotting a skewed graph. Irrespective of how fucked up you think your life is, this list empathizes with you!

Here are 16 of the most embarrassing mistakes ever made:

1. The Dutch discovered Australia 100 years before the British, but they ignored it because they thought it was a “useless desert”!

2. Russia sold Alaska to the USA for 2 cents an acre. They thought it was a useless tundra!

3. Someone left the small Kerkoporta gate ajar, leaving the Turks to conquer Constantinople in 1453.

4. Archduke Francis Ferdinand’s driver made a wrong turn that led him right to the feet of his assassin. This eventually led to World War I.

5. The Japanese attacked Pearl Harbour when there wasn’t even a single US aircraft carrier in the port!

6. JK Rowling’s Harry Potter series was rejected by 12 book publishers!

7. Although the culprit is not known, the burning of the library of Alexandria is still considered as the world’s greatest loss of knowledge!

8. The Austrian Army accidentally attacked itself in 1788, losing over 10,000 warriors!

9. One of the world’s most prominent architectural marvels, The Leaning Tower of Pisa, took 177 years to make but only 10 years to start leaning!

10. The Titanic didn’t have enough life boats on it as it was “unsinkable”.

11. The Beatles were turned down by Decca Records because they were “unsellable”. EMI picked them up soon after and the rest, as they say, is history.

12. When China could have been the most influential power had it not abandoned its navy to pursue a policy of isolationism.

13. Alexander ‘The Great’ did not name his heir before his death which led to the fall of his empire.

14. Napoleon Bonaparte tried to invade Russia in winters without winter clothing and with less ration.

15. Adolf Hitler didn’t learn from Napoleon’s folly, making the same mistake. He idolized Napoleon.

16. The faulty construction that led to the meltdown of the Chernobyl Reactor.

Shit happens. Let’s learn to deal with it!