One German historian said a wonderful phrase many years ago: “History doesn’t know the word ‘if,'” and he was absolutely right. However, many people have always been interested in alternative paths of human development and eagerly fantasized – what would’ve happened if, let’s say, Columbus hadn’t found funding for his expedition, or the attack on Pearl Harbor had failed?
In fact, there are many key moments in the development of humanity, after which all of history went down a completely different path – for better or for worse. And it’s precisely such moments – completely serious or ridiculously absurd – that our selection of stories and facts today is dedicated to.
More info: Reddit
#1
A small bakery accident in Thomas Farriner’s shop (possibly just an unattended oven or candle) set off the Great Fire of London. It destroyed most of the medieval city, but weirdly led to a better-planned modern London afterward.
One baker forgot to blow out a flame… goodbye, London.
Image source: Any-Factor-1697, revac film’s&photography
#2
In late WWII:
* 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.
Image source: Kitten-Eater, Ivan Samkov
#3
It was thousands of years ago that Ug the caveman accidentally left some fruit out in the sun, perhaps in a primitive pot, and it went rotten in the Sun. Instead of throwing it away like a normal person, he drank the foul-smelling concoction, vomited profusely, staggered around like an idiot for a few hours, then slept for a full day, awakening with a crushing headache. Somehow, he then persuaded all his friends to try it. Thus was booze invented.
Image source: TomppaTom, Arina Krasnikova
#4
The discovery of X-rays. Wilhelm Röntgen noticed a screen glowing by accident while experimenting with cathode rays, and realized he was looking at something totally new.
Image source: GuiltyAccident6288, cottonbro studio
#5
Poland’s Solidarity movement started when a shipyard director tried to fire a cleaning lady close to retirement because she voiced her anger about food shortages. Solidarity movement in Poland was also a defining moment of the fall of the communist regimes in Eastern Europe.
Image source: DistanceOrdinary1907, cottonbro studio
#6
In 1945, Percy Spencer was standing near a magnetron and the candy bar in his pocket started to melt. Now we can all have cold food in hot bowls as a result.
Image source: JeffurryS
#7
I don’t understand why the answer to this question isn’t always “Oersteds compass.”
Oersteds was getting ready to give a lecture. He was going to talk about electricity. He was also going to talk about magnetism. When he accidentally completed a circuit near a compass on the table, the compass needle jumped.
This was the moment that showed humanity that electricity and magnetism were the same thing. From that unexpected jump off the compass came every generator and electric motor that we use today.
Image source: HazelGhost, Jamie Street
#8
Maybe penicillin.
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)
Image source: Superspicyfood, Edward Jenner
#9
An assassin stopped for a sandwich, then saw his target driving past him in an open topped car, having taken a wrong turn.
… And that’s how WW1 kicks off.
Image source: chromane, Chris R.
#10
Fermentation; alcohol, dough , cheese were all key survival elements.
Image source: Correct_Jicama_2280, ELEVATE
#11
Pfizer working on blood pressure meds, accidently discovered viagra and you know the rest.
Image source: Longjumping-Log1591, Chokniti Khongchum
#12
The addition of sulfur to natural rubber by Charles Goodyear. He accidentally dropped a mixture of rubber and sulfur onto a hot stove, discovering that it hardened and became elastic and durable.
Image source: mintyjam, Pixabay
#13
An East German official was meant to say they were easing travel restrictions over time, he accidentally said they were easing them immediately and the Berlin Wall was mobbed by joyful people becoming one of the major events of German reunification and helping trigger / precipitate other end of the Cold war events.
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.
Image source: GuntertheFloppsyGoat, Claudio Schwarz
#14
Some guy in middle east got tape worms by not cooking pork properly and now one third of world population don’t touch it .
Image source: BenneIdli, Matthias Zomer
#15
The guy Plunkett trying to create a new refrigerant for dupont found his experiment had polymerized. Bam, tetrafluorethylene (Teflon) discovered and the advent of forever chemicals which are now found in every continent, every drop of rain, in most animals, and appears to be reducing fertility across all species.
Image source: krautastic, Annushka Ahuja
#16
In 1945, at the Soviet embassy compound in Ottawa, Canada, the wife of a senior official complained about the crying baby next door and asked her husband to have the family moved somewhere else.
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.
Image source: n_mcrae_1982, cottonbro studio
#17
A thousand years ago in China, some alchemist was mixing ingredients together, trying to make a life-extending potion.
He heated the mixture which caught on fire and burned extremely violently.
**BOOM!** Primitive gunpowder was invented.
Image source: Kitten-Eater, Pixabay
#18
A scientist using a f*****g screwdriver to test a radioactive core gave us a look at what radiation poisoning can do to the human body.
Image source: SheZowRaisedByWolves, Nejc Košir
#19
Janet Jackson’s wardrobe malfunction at the 2004 NFL halftime show had a huge part in the the creation of Youtube. The founders were frustrated at not being able for the video online so they decided to create their own video sharing site. A lot of modern culture stems from Youtube, from the influencer/content creator culture to our consumption of video content on social media to how studios and record labels sell their wares. Even Facebook timed their release a few days after the incident to capitalize on its publicity using the site.
Image source: astarisaslave, freestocks.org
#20
A safety test helped collapse the Soviet Union.
Image source: themajinhercule, Toon Lambrechts
#21
Small fry but
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.
Image source: Rough_Champion7852, Mariah N
#22
The simple act of doctors and flowing to normal people is washing your hands specially when in contact with blood I think that simple thing has saved billions of lives through out history.
Image source: Suspicious_Writer174, Polina Tankilevitch
#23
However COVID patient zero first got it has got to be up there.
Image source: ktr83, Adrià Crehuet Cano
#24
Molasses flood of Boston is up there. It gave us modern engineering requirements and building codes. Has saved tens of thousands to millions of lives in the last 106 years. .
Image source: photoengineer, ThisIsEngineering
#25
Two people bumped into each other and one guy’s chocolate bar landed in the other guy’s peanut butter.
Image source: Hollimarker, Terrance Barksdale
#26
Probably the Titanic. Just one ship not slowing down for ice warnings and it changed history. A single iceberg hit turned into one of the most famous disasters ever.
Then fast forward a century and people repeat history with OceanGate.
Image source: Plastic-Armadillo974, NOAA
#27
Around 12,000 years ago, long before kings or cities or farms, a foraging woman wandered the fields near her clan’s camp. She gathered nuts, berries, and wild grains, food she knew her people could eat. On the way back, some slipped from her bundle into the mud. Maybe she didn’t notice. Maybe the ground was too wet to bother picking them up. Either way, she moved on.
Weeks later, her clan returned to the old campsite. Walking the same path, she saw something new: the very plants she once harvested were sprouting where she had dropped her food.
And then she had an idea.
From one accident — spilled seeds — came the realization that the earth itself could be persuaded to feed us. And with that discovery, the long wandering of humankind began to end.
Image source: Engelgrafik, Marta Wave
#28
Adding lead to petrol.
Image source: god_is_a_pokemon, ClickerHappy
#29
When some proto- human cave dweller thought ‘ I wonder what will happen if I rub these two sticks together vigorously ?’.
Image source: West_Put2548, Вадим Маркин
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