40 Stupid Mistakes that People Have Made

When Adolf Hitler saw a pile of bricks near the church of St. Matthew in Munich, Germany, he said, "that pile of stones will have to be removed." Someone misunderstood him, thinking he was referring to the whole church. The church was demolished.

In 1945, the Empire State Building was hit by an airplane, which destroyed most of the seventy-eighth floor.

When Thomas Edison was twelve years old, he had a job selling newspapers on a commuter train. He had set up a printing press to make his own newspapers, and thereby increase his profits. He also set up a chemistry lab, to indulge his already well-developed scientific curiosity. One day, as the train went around a particularly tight turn, some of Edison's phosphorus fell on the floor and started a small fire. As the train came into the station, and the conductor discovered the problem, Tom tried to run away. The conductor pulled him back up into the train by his ears. "I felt something snap inside my head," Edison said. From that time until his death, he was hard of hearing.

Firdinand Raimund was bitten on the finger by a dog. He was so worried about what might happen that he shot himself to death.

The 7,000-ton cargo ship, Fort Stikine, sailed into crowded Bombay Harbor, India. It was loaded with a mixed freight ranging from fish to cotton to explosives. A sailor noticed smoke coming out of a ventilator that serviced one of the ship's cargo holds, but since it was close to lunch time, he did not mention the problem. The fire in the hold was discovered after lunch, but by then it was raging out of control. Authorities suggested sinking the ship, but because the harbor was crowded and shallow, it would have to sail out to sea to be scuttled. No problem, but first the captain wanted to phone the ship's insurance company to see if they thought it a good idea. While he was on the phone, the ship blew up into a million pieces, sinking 27 nearby ships, raining junk all over downtown Bombay and killing well over 1,000 people.

Orchestra conductor Jose Serebrier accidentally stabbed himself through the hand with his baton while performing. The audience and musicians were impressed by the fact that he continued leading the orchestra in perfect timing as if nothing had happened.

A Japanese priest set a kimono on fire in Tokyo because it carried bad luck. The flames spread until over 10,000 buildings were destroyed and 100,000 people died. (Year: 1657)

Not all of Henry Ford's mechanical engineering worked out as successfully as the Model T Ford.

When Henry Ford was about ten years old, he noticed steam rising out of his mother's teapot on the stove. He figured that if the steam were trapped in the teapot, the whole thing would have to rise into the air. To test his theory, Henry took a clay teapot and corked the spout from inside and tied down the lid. He then put the teapot in the fireplace and settled down to watch closely. Soon something happened, but it wasn't what Henry expected. The teapot exploded, breaking a window and a mirror in the living room and scalding Henry and cutting his cheek with bits of shrapnel. He carried a scar on his face for the rest of his life.

A medical curiosity was David Kennison, who was born in 1736 and participated in the Boston Tea Party. At the age of seventy-six, serving in the War of 1812, he lost a hand to a gunshot wound. Later, a tree fell on him, and fractured his skull. Some years later, while training soldiers in the use of a cannon, something went wrong and an explosion shattered his legs. He recovered. Yet later, a horse damaged his face. He died peacefully in 1851 at the age of 115.

On the night of July 5, while sleeping soundly with his wife, a police officer dreamed that someone was breaking into their house. Half waking up, he grabbed his gun from his night stand and promptly shot himself in the leg. His wife slept through it. He was reported in satisfactory condition at the local hospital.

As a promotional stunt at a baseball game, catcher Joe Sprinz tried to catch a baseball dropped from a helicoptor 1,200 feet in the air. He said he could see the ball all the way down, but somehow instead of catching it in his mitt, it hit him in the face, cracking his jaw in 12 places.

In one large city a telephone operator traced the source of an emergency phone call because the caller would not speak. The phone only emitted unusual noises. When the ambulance crew arrived at the scene, they found a basset hound who had dialed 911 in the process of chewing up the phone.

A husband and wife from Switzerland stopped in a restaurant in Hong Kong and asked that their poodle be taken to the kitchen and fed something. Because of a misunderstanding, the waiter did what he thought they wanted, and had the cooks fry the dog for the couple. When plans were required for a new house of government, Ben Franklin was given a crack at the architect's job, but his design was rejected. It was just too offbeat. He had planned to hook all the seats in the meeting room to the fireplace chimney. The bottoms of the seats would have many small holes. The draft from the chimney would create a slight suction at these holes in the seats, carrying away what he called "personal odors."

In a laboratory in Paris where researchers were conducting secret research to decide whether an unnamed industrial product causes cancer, six of the workers have come down with various rare cancers and two have died.

Russian scientists grew an orchid in space then returned it to earth. Before they could study it fully, someone stole it from the laboratory.

A party was held in Moscow to celebrate the coronation of Czar Nicholas II in 1896. Free beer was offered to the public, causing a massive stampede in which 5,000 people were killed in the crush.

In the early days of television, game shows in which the contestants could win huge prizes were common. One fifty-four-year-old woman won big on the TV show, "Temptation," and promptly died of a heart attack during live broadcasting.

During the 1954 Cotton Bowl, a halfback was close to completing a 95-yard touchdown with no opposition in sight. Tommy Lewis, a fullback of the opposing team, got so excited he leaped off the bench and tackled the halfback himself! Responses to emergencies by modern fire departments are very well choreographed, but it wasn't always so. In 1963, while the Matlock residence of New Hyde Park, NY was burning to the ground, the two fire departments which responded could not put out the fire, because they were too busy arguing about which department should do it.

When a girl in France was attacked by a molester who tried to kiss her, she bit off his tongue.

In the 1920's a radio station in Schenectady, NY built a powerful transmitter. In those days before FCC regulations, not knowing just how big to make a transmitter in order for the signal to be received some distance away, the station set up to broadcast at 500,000 watts. It requires about one watt to be received four blocks away. This station broadcast at such tremendous power that they could be heard around the world. People in New York didn't even need radios. They could sometimes hear voices in their furnaces and coming off chain-link fences. Light bulbs lit up in people's houses even if they were switched off.

The US Federal Reserve offers a free service. If you have cash that has been burned, torn, or otherwise destroyed, they will help you verify and replace that money. They once received a shotgun in which a man had hidden some money, but forgot and fired the gun. In another case, a farmer sent his cow's stomach to them, all stuffed with money.

In 1976, doctors in Los Angeles went on strike because of the rising cost of malpractice insurance. All elective and non-emergency surgery and medical attention were canceled. During that time, 18 percent fewer people died than usual.

James Bartley was one of those guys who used to stand at the very front of a small boat and blast a harpoon into a whale. Things went quite wrong for him when a wounded whale turned around, upset his boat, causing him to fall into the water, then swallowed him. After awhile, his fellow whale-catchers killed the whale and started cutting it up. Inside they found James, still alive but badly surprised.

A woman in England had to take her drivers' test 41 times before she was awarded a license to drive. It sounds to me like the only time she got to practice was when she was taking her test. That's one way to get driving lessons without paying for them. I'd say the examiner got taken for a ride.

In 1955 at the famous road race of Le Mans, a driver lost control of his car, which after careening off a wall, broke up and showered the crowd with parts, killing 77 people.

The IRS came and took away the car from in front of a man's house because he had not paid all his taxes. But the car belonged to his neighbor. The innocent neighbor had to pay the towing company $78 to get his own car back. The IRS did not reimburse him.

In the Chicago fire of 1871, the one Mrs. O'Leary's cow supposedly started by kicking over a lantern, over 10,000 houses were burned down before it was all over.

Recently broadcast from a rural radio station:

"There is a tan and white cow wandering around the corner of Brookhurst and E. Central. If it's yours, go get it."

A computer with the job of issuing traffic citations had a bug. It sent notices to 41,000 residents of Paris, France informing them that they were charged with murder, prostitution and illegal sale of drugs. Abraham Lincoln's mother died from drinking milk from a cow which when foraging in the woods, had eaten the poisonous snake root.

A man convicted of murder was electrocuted at Sing Sing. Just before burial, he revived and jumped out of his coffin. The authorities caught him and executed him again. The second attempt was permanent.

When London inventor James Hetherington first wore his new invention, the top hat, in 1797, it caused quite a stir. He was immediately thrown in jail because he "appeared on the public highway wearing upon his head a tall structure of shining luster and calculated to disturb timid people."

One spring day in a small town in Oregon, an 83-year-old woman was happily driving her car. The driver of another car going the other way ejected a cigarette butt out of his car. It flew in her open window. At first she thought nothing of it other than a twinge of disgust, but in a few moments she noticed her blouse was on fire. Thinking quickly, she patted out the flame with one hand while driving a steady course with the other. All she suffered was a minor burn the size of a quarter below her neck.

Whether or not you wear a bicycle helmet is a personal choice, but let me tell you about one unfortunate bicyclist I met. She had been in a collision with a car and struck her head on the pavement. I met her about two years after her accident. Approximately age 25, she looked and acted just fine as far as I could tell. But she told me about her bizarre symptoms. After she woke from her coma, she had no residual problems except one, which has not changed for two years, now, and appears permanent.

Somehow, her brain is no longer able to discern a single object or event from a group. If she is in a room where many people are talking, she cannot hear just the one who is talking to her. If the television is on in the background, she cannot talk on a phone. She cannot go shopping. A row of laundry soap in the supermarket looks like a complete row of soap, and she can't pick just one. She can't even see just one box of soap, she only sees them all at once.

The ultimate new car owners' horror story: A college student was given a new front-wheel drive car by her parents. After 1,200 miles, it was due for its first oil change at the dealer, but a fellow student offered to change her oil for free. He figured this would be a good way to get her attention. She reluctantly allowed him to change the oil because it seemed so important to him to do so.

He crawled under the front of the car and removed the transmission drain plug. She commented that the oil seemed awfully thick. He said that was the way it is supposed to be in new cars. After reinserting the transmission plug, he put four quarts of oil in the engine. Now there was no oil in the transmission and twice as much as there should have been in the engine. She drove a few miles and the car quit working properly. The dealer towed it away, and after preparing a careful estimate, reported that the damage was not covered by the warranty, being abuse, and repairs would cost $2,400. Her friend got her attention all right!

The first person to die from radiation poisoning, and therefore show previously incautious scientists that radium was dangerous, was Marie Curie.

Bees love junk food such as hamburgers, soda and milk shakes. In urban areas, where fast-food restaurants abound, bee populations have expanded tremendously. Be careful when eating outdoors because you may accidentally eat a bee who is trying to share your hamburger. This could result in a sting - inside your mouth!

Even though thousands of heart transplants have been performed, imagine how scared you would be if you were to undergo the knife for that procedure. Then imagine how much worse you would feel when regaining consciousness, to find out that the doctors accidentally put the wrong heart in you, one that doesn't match your blood type and one which your body is very likely to reject, perhaps before another donor shows up! It was big news on August 16, 1991, when a doctor in Portland Oregon, made himself famous with this very mistake. But, he wasn't the first time for this type of accident. It happens all the time. Well, actually, it has happened to at least eight other people so far.

Not knowing CPR, when a son saw his father stop breathing due to a heart attack, he attacked his chest with a toilet plunger and saved his life. (This is not the recommended way to save lives.)

During one September weekend in South Korea, there were over three thousand traffic accidents causing injuries.

In Portland, Oregon a man was arrested for car theft and released on bail. Later the same day, he was arrested again for trying to take another car. America was named after Amerigo Vespucci, who map maker Martin Waldseemuller mistakenly thought was Christopher Columbus, the discoverer of North America. Vespucci discovered South America.