#1
* Americans are worried that the Germans will start deploying chemical weapons against Allied soldiers in Europe
* The US secretly ship a bunch of mustard gas munitions to a port in the US-controlled part of Italy, just in case they'll need them
* The Luftwaffe shows up unexpectedly and bombs the ship loaded with mustard gas which explodes spectacularly
* Hundreds die, thousands suffer horrible chemical burns and get poisoned
* Doctors struggle to treat the wounded since the US military won't tell them what their patients were exposed to (the whole mustard gas thing was super secret)
* Intense studies of how exactly this mystery chemical affects the human body ensue
* Someone realizes that the mystery chemical kills cancerous cells much faster than it kills healthy cells
* They realize they can deliberately expose cancer patients to a dilute version of this chemical to treat cancer
* Chemotherapy is invented.
#2
#3
One baker forgot to blow out a flame… goodbye, London.
A thread appeared in the AskReddit community literally a day ago, the author of which, the user u/E1ite, asked netizens the question: "What is the smallest human accident that had the largest impact in history?" In just over a day, it collected more than 4.7K upvotes and over 2.1K various comments, both really serious and slightly sarcastic.
From the first people to pick up a crafted stick or start a fire, to YouTube launch in 2005 - welcome to a not-ultimate but definitely very interesting collection of key moments in human history, made for you by Bored Panda!
#4
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#6
Interestingly, one of the most paradoxical, albeit popular, points of view given in our collection is how just one small fire in a private bakery (possibly just an overturned candle) caused the Great Fire of London in September 1666.
It’s believed that there were not so many victims - at least, this is what the official history claims - but out of almost 80 thousand people in the British capital, about 72 thousand people actually lost their homes. On the other hand, just one overturned candle served as an incentive for a large-scale restructuring of London, which eventually turned it into a huge metropolis of our time.
For example, in Paris, a similar process was delayed until the mid-19th century, when a determined official, Baron Haussmann, was needed to demolish the outdated slums in the historic center of the city and build the majestic avenues and squares that Paris is so famous for nowadays.
#7
... And that's how WW1 kicks off.
#8
Glittering-Water495 replied:
Yea I was guna say Fleming who left a petri dish out in his lab one weekend and came back to discover antibiotics, quite possibly the biggest game changer in human history (modern history at least)
#9
A separate category of stories told here comprises mistakes made in the process of research, or unexpected "spin-offs" - when scientists tried to do or invent one thing (also very useful, to be honest), but as a result made a side discovery that was much more famous and widespread in the end.
Classic examples are Chinese alchemists a thousand years ago, who tried to find a magic remedy for immortality, or at least prolongation of life, and found gunpowder. Or the well-known Viagra, which was discovered as a side effect during research on blood pressure meds.
From the most recent stories, there’s Ozempic, which also appeared as a result of the development of special meds for diabetes that had completely unexpected side effects. Science, despite its apparent order and impeccable judgments, can sometimes be completely unpredictable.
#10
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#12
By the way, among the most famous (and incredibly useful) discoveries made by mistake is actually penicillin, which appeared largely due to the simultaneous forgetfulness and observation of Alexander Fleming. Forgetfulness - because his laboratory was in disarray, allowing a whole colony of mold to grow in a forgotten lab dish.
Observation - because the scientist didn’t simply go and wash the dish, but immediately compared what he saw with his research, and realized that he was on the verge of a great discovery. A discovery that, in fact, saved millions of human lives.
Fleming himself modestly but fairly assessed the consequences of his discovery later, saying, "When I woke up just after dawn on September 28, 1928, I certainly didn't plan to revolutionize all medicine by discovering the world's first antibiotic, or bacteria k****r. But I suppose that was exactly what I did.”
#13
Nintendo ask Sony to develop a cd drive for their SNES. Nintendo pull out but Sony think, we’ve just so far, let’s tidy it up and release it. Hence, the PlayStation one.
Without Nintendo’s invitation, Sony would not be in the video game business.
#14
Just_Condition3516 replied:
lil correction: he did not say anything accidentally, but just read the note as it was intended to. the accident was, that the note was supposed to be read the next day, so boarder guards would have already been instructed.
#15
However, great discoveries weren't always appreciated during the lifetime of scientists. Well, we’re not even talking about Galileo or Copernicus, who lived in the Middle Ages.
In the mid-19th century, which is widely associated with rapid progress, the Hungarian doctor Ignaz Semmelweis discovered the causes of childbirth fever, which, according to statistics, took the lives of almost 60% of patients and babies in those days.
It cannot be said that Semmelweis came up with something truly grandiose - he just suggested that obstetricians sterilize their own hands, and thus he instantly reduced the mortality rate during childbirth to 0.85%. But do you think that the fabulous discovery that actually saved no fewer lives than penicillin brought him worldwide fame? No way!
The medical community, realizing that Semmelweis's ingeniously simple discovery essentially exposed them as the culprits of numerous deaths, radically opposed the innovations and, moreover, tried to expose the doctor himself as a charlatan and a madman. For some time, they succeeded - and it cost Semmelweis his reputation and his entire life.
But two decades later, bacteria and pathogens were discovered - and doctors were literally forced to disinfect their hands. But all the glory went to Louis Pasteur, and Ignaz Semmelweis remained a half-forgotten genius ahead of his time...
#16
#17
Since there were no other rooms at the compound, the baby’s father, a cipher clerk named Igor Gouzenko, was permitted to move his family into an apartment offsite.
After he and his wife (now pregnant with their second child) got to experience a very different kind of life in Canada, and fearful of his impending recall to the Soviet Union, Gouzenko eventually stole a stack of papers from embassy and offered them to the Canadian government in exchange sanctuary for him and his family.
The papers revealed that the Soviets had built up an extensive spy ring in Canada and the US, even when they were supposedly wartime allies.
This incident helped kick off the Cold War and the Red Scare, and very likely would not have happened if Gouzenko and his family were still living on the compound.
#18
Be that as it may, in the history of humanity, and the whole Earth too, it’s just impossible to single out any one turning point after which life went in a completely different direction. On the other hand, it’s even better - because as a result, we get a much more interesting history.
So now, please, our dear readers, feel free to read this selection of facts and tales to the very end, and maybe add your own ideas on the crucial points in human history in the comments below. In the end, the more fascinating or simply witty stories, the better.
#19
He heated the mixture which caught on fire and burned extremely violently.
**BOOM!** Primitive gunpowder was invented.
