17 Significant Mistakes That Were Committed Throughout History

Not all mistakes deal the same level of impact. Some mistakes that might even seem minor enough at their onset will only end up going on to unleash all kinds of unwanted havoc. This is why it’s especially crucial to do what you can to remain vigilant and present as you go about engaging with life on a daily basis. With that being said, don’t be too hard on yourself at the same time. There’s a balance to everything.

1. Alexander Fleming and the petri dish.

“I’d like to cast my vote on Alexander Fleming forgetting to put the lid on his Petri dish, discovering penicillin thanks to it. Saved millions of lives by a mistake.” – u/NoveltyEducation

2. The open borders incident in Germany.

“The guy who announced on a press conference that the borders between the divided Germany are open, starting right now, which was basically a series of misunderstandings/miscommunications. This ultimately lead to the fall of the Berlin wall, the reunification of Germany and arguably to the collapse of the Soviet Union.” – u/Joncas93

3. The missing binoculars that sunk The Titanic.

“David Blair (the intended second officer on the Titanic, who was replaced before the voyage) forgetting to give the replacing crewman the key for the locker containing the binoculars. As a result, the night watchman couldn’t see as far, and only noticed the iceberg by the time it was too late.” – u/Captain_Kruch

4. Laying waste to the Alexandrian library.

“Burning of the Alexandrian library. Caused a massive loss of collective history, knowledge, arts, crafts, architecture, politics, language, social structuring.” – u/_Independent_1177

5. Lead and gasoline.

“Putting lead in gasoline.” – u/orttart

6. The forever chemical.

“DuPont and Chemours and their forever chemical PFOA and other PFAS. PFOA, a forever chemical, is estimated to be in the blood stream of 99% of all humans on earth. Probably the same for animals too. Cancers, birth defects, etc etc all could be caused by this. Worst part is, chemical companies knew about it as back as 1950 yet continued to manufacture it.” – u/deleted

7. Distilled ammonium.

“The invention of distilled ammonium for fertilizer. It made the population boom from like 1 billion to 7 billion.” – u/icyperformance3739

8. The gold standard collapse.

“When the gold standard collapsed in 1914.” – u/Solid_Buy_214

9. Chestnut Blight fungus.

“The accidental introduction of Chestnut Blight fungus to North America. The fungus came in on Chinese Chestnuts being planted at the Bronx Botanical garden in 1904. It quickly escaped and it only took 30 years for that fungus to almost completely eradicate the American Chestnut throughout all of Eastern North America.” – u/Nor_easter23

10. Franz Ferdinand’s driver.

“The driver of Franz Ferdinand’s carriage making a wrong turn.” – u/cheezmisscharr

11. Mao’s Great Leap Forward.

“Mao’s Great Leap Forward, which ultimately led to death by starvation of millions, maybe tens of millions; and set things up for the Cultural Revolution.” – u/LAWriter2020

12. Sega Saturn messing with its release date.

“Sega Saturn’s release date was moved up in an attempt to get a head start on the fall season, before the highly anticipated PlayStation was to debut. It backfired.” – u/theycallmemomo

13. The misuse of the Aeolipile engine.

“That the Aeolipile engine was not put to better use, we could have had the industrial revolution almost 2000 years early and we could be sailing the stars by now.” – u/eyeeyecaptain

14. The whole climate change debacle.

“It’s probably too early to say for sure but the failure to address climate change is very likely to top the list 100 years from now.” – u/colanolberding

15. No love for Nikola Tesla.

“Not fully funding Nikola Tesla.” – u/_Tesla01

16. Dismantling North America’s streetcar and passenger rail systems.

“Hard to settle on the biggest one, but in terms of mistakes having lasting negative effects on the world, I’d point to the dismantling of North America’s streetcar and passenger rail systems in favor of automobile-centric development and airplanes, which ruined cities and is a major contributor to climate change.” – u/availablefield102

17. The origins of the mortgage crisis.

“Barney Frank’s election to the House and subsequent blocking of attempts by both the Clinton and Bush administrations to re-regulate Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac led directly to the subprime mortgage crisis and the economic collapse in 2007-2008.” – u/jack_daone