From massive oil spills to catastrophic military invasions, human history is riddled with epic blunders. Join us as we explore the most jaw-dropping mistakes that changed the course of history, from technological failures to geopolitical missteps that reshaped our world.
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00:00One of the atomic reactors at the Chernobyl atomic power plant near the city of Kyiv was damaged,
00:05and there is speculation in Moscow that people were injured and may have died.
00:09Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're looking at the greatest historical,
00:13financial, and technological blunders of all time.
00:16There were witchcraft outbreaks all the time,
00:20all through the colonies, especially the northern colonies.
00:24The Exxon Valdez oil spill.
00:27They were completely overwhelmed. Coast Guard didn't quite know what to do.
00:31Before Deepwater Horizon, the Exxon Valdez oil spill was the largest in American history,
00:36dumping more than 10 million gallons into Alaska's Prince William Sound.
00:40But this accident is far less complex and is attributed almost entirely to human error.
00:46Shortly after midnight on March 24, 1989,
00:49the tanker ran aground on Bly Reef, puncturing eight of its 11 cargo holds.
00:53When we got on the radio, he said, well, how big's the hole?
00:56I said, well, it's big enough to drive our boat through.
00:58At the time, Captain Joe Hazelwood was below decks,
01:01sleeping off, quote, two or three vodkas he had consumed earlier.
01:04Furthermore, the crew was overworked and exhausted,
01:07contributing to third mate Gregory Cousins driving the vessel into the reef.
01:11Part of the blame also reportedly lay on the Exxon shipping company
01:15for failing to maintain the ship's collision avoidance system.
01:18You can see oil like a boiling cauldron.
01:23Mexico attacks the Alamo.
01:24If you could oversee manning the walls, it would be a help.
01:26We should have six men to a cannon, 18 tubes, which works out to...
01:30108 men.
01:32And we should have a man with a musket every four feet of wall.
01:36We're gonna need more men.
01:37In 1836, the Texas Revolution was underway,
01:41with the Anglo-American residents of Texas fighting for independence from the Mexican Republic.
01:45They were successful, winning 10 years of independence before joining the United States in 1846.
01:51During the war, Mexican forces under General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna laid siege to the Alamo.
01:57You said you wanted to see him.
01:59There he is.
02:01The Napoleon of the West.
02:03Which one?
02:07That's Santa Anna.
02:08Yeah.
02:10He's quite the peacock, isn't he?
02:12After 13 days, roughly 1,500 Mexican soldiers launched a decisive attack,
02:17overwhelming the garrison of about 200 Texians after three attempts.
02:21It was a Pyrrhic victory, though, as the merciless bloodshed inspired many to join the army,
02:25hoping to take revenge for the loss of their fellow Texians.
02:29Mere weeks later, a now-fortified Texian army attacked the Mexicans by surprise
02:33in the Battle of San Jacinto, decimating them in just 18 minutes.
02:37At this very moment, our soldiers are held in the Alamo against a force of thousands.
02:42They put their hopes in Colonel Fannin, who, despite his pedigree,
02:44has proven himself ill-equipped to lead much less march an army.
02:48This is from Colonel Travis.
02:51I call on you, in the name of liberty, to come to our aid with all dispatch.
02:56Byzantine refusal to hire Orban.
02:58Praise to all of you, Engineer Orban.
03:01Thank you, my Sultan.
03:06Have a safe journey.
03:08The Roman Empire's final two centuries were their most difficult.
03:11By 1452, the Ottoman Empire already had its eyes on Constantinople,
03:16which prompted Hungarian siege engineer Orban to offer his cannons to the Romans.
03:21Unfortunately, they couldn't afford his services or provide the materials
03:24needed to construct his weapons.
03:26So, Orban took his business to the Ottomans, who happily took him on.
03:39He crafted the Basilic, one of the largest cannons in history,
03:42requiring 90 oxen and 400 men to transport it.
03:45Its cannonballs, each weighing 1,200 pounds, devastated the Theodosian walls,
03:50which were impenetrable for about 800 years prior.
03:53The Ottoman Sultan also carried warships across the land,
03:56bypassing the harbor's great chain and giving them another huge advantage.
04:07Heavy submarines.
04:09Maybe they're designed to reach astonishing depths,
04:12but that's no good if your submarine is incapable of surfacing again.
04:15That's exactly what happened to the doomed Isak Peral class of Spanish submarine,
04:19when designers realized that somebody at some point
04:22had carelessly left a decimal point in the wrong place.
04:25The sub was 100 tons heavier than it should be,
04:28meaning that if it submerged, it would never be able to return to the surface.
04:32Thankfully, the sub hadn't yet been built,
04:34so the schematics were changed to make it longer and capable of supporting all that extra weight.
04:39Except then there was another problem.
04:41The sub was now too large to fit into the port where it was being constructed.
04:46New Coke
04:47In 1985, about a century after Coca-Cola first hit shelves,
04:51Coke decided to mix things up and rework the tried and tested Coke formula.
05:03The result was New Coke,
05:05one of the biggest marketing fails and disasters of all time.
05:09The simple fact was that nobody really liked New Coke.
05:12Coke wanted to make its drink taste more like Pepsi,
05:14which is a little sweeter than Coke.
05:16And it was a resounding failure.
05:18All the taste tests said people preferred the taste of this new product
05:23to the century old product.
05:26What they hadn't factored in was the huge emotional attachment there was to this brand.
05:33Though we understand trying to corner Pepsi's share of the market,
05:36consumer capitalism is about choice.
05:38Nobody wants to choose from two identical colas.
05:45There was just no reason for Coke to try and destroy its own business
05:48by changing the recipe.
05:53The self-named Zodiac Killer held Northern California
05:56in a state of terror in the late 1960s.
05:58The serial killer taunted police
06:00by sending multiple letters and ciphers to the local press.
06:10Zodiac eluded authorities for a year
06:12before narrowly escaping capture in 1969.
06:15After shooting San Francisco taxi driver Paul Stein,
06:18Zodiac was able to flee the scene
06:20because the physical description provided to police officers over dispatch was wrong.
06:25That they may have said something like,
06:27the man's wearing a black jacket or black pants.
06:32And somehow the dispatcher misheard this
06:35and then repeated they were looking for a black man instead of a white man.
06:39This mistake enabled Zodiac to walk directly by two police officers
06:43who unwittingly allowed the killer to escape.
06:45Investigators did not connect the shooting to Zodiac
06:48until the San Francisco Chronicle received a letter
06:51from the killer bragging about the murder
06:52and his close brush with the officers.
07:03Confederate General Robert E. Lee
07:04made the biggest mistake of his life on July 3rd, 1863
07:08when he ordered his troops to charge on Cemetery Ridge.
07:11There were several flaws in Lee's plan.
07:13Union General George G. Meade had anticipated Lee's attack
07:17on the center of his lines rather than the flanks
07:19and concentrated his defenses there.
07:21Now picket gave the order,
07:24up men and to your posts.
07:27Don't forget today that you are from old Virginia.
07:30The charge exposed Confederate soldiers to heavy artillery and rifle fire,
07:34and the army suffered catastrophic casualties.
07:37It effectively crippled the Confederate forces at Gettysburg
07:40and forced Lee to abandon the battle and retreat from the North.
07:43With this one simple charge,
07:45the tide of the American Civil War permanently shifted,
07:48all to the detriment of Lee and his forces.
07:57The Wang Gong Chang Explosion
07:59Gunpowder has been used by China since the 9th century.
08:03Early Chinese alchemists were trying to create a potion for immortality.
08:08Instead, what they created was a flammable powder
08:11that burned down many of their homes.
08:13Despite centuries of use and refinement,
08:15Beijing officials were criminally negligent in the spring of 1626.
08:20It never seemed to occur to anyone in power
08:22that the center of a densely populated city
08:25wasn't the best choice for storing volatile materials.
08:28Late on the morning of May 30th,
08:29for reasons which remain unclear,
08:32the Wang Gong Chang Armory exploded.
08:34Everything within four square kilometers was all but obliterated,
08:38and debris was launched across the length of the city.
08:41Somewhere between 20,000 and 30,000 people were killed,
08:45and large swaths of the city were utterly destroyed.
08:51Why would the young dictator of North Korea want to kill his own brother?
08:56Well, to understand North Korea,
08:57you really have to think of it as being an absolute monarchy,
09:01the Kim dynasty.
09:02The dynasty was founded by Kim Il-sung after the Second World War.
09:07When the old man died in 1994,
09:10his son, Kim Jong-il, ascended the throne.
09:14Kim Jong-nam was once the heir to the North Korean dictatorship,
09:17until 2001 when he made an embarrassing attempt to visit Tokyo Disneyland.
09:21Traveling on a fake Dominican Republic passport bearing a Chinese name,
09:25Kim was arrested upon arrival in Japan and deported to China.
09:28The incident deeply embarrassed his father, Kim Jong-il,
09:31and caused him to be shunned by his family.
09:33Ultimately, his younger half-brother Kim Jong-un took over from their father.
09:37In 2017, Kim was assassinated in Malaysia,
09:41and it was later revealed that he had been a CIA informant.
09:58He also supported reform and free market policies,
10:05which apparently contributed to him being passed over.
10:08Had he never attempted that fateful trip,
10:10perhaps North Korea's trajectory might have been different.
10:29Circulating inaccurate suspect sketches.
10:32It's been over 135 years since Jack the Ripper
10:35stalked the streets of London's Whitechapel district.
10:37But the infamous murderer continues to enthrall the public.
10:40In the autumn of 1888, the East End of London lived in terror.
10:45Beginning in August 1888,
10:47the killer claimed five lives in a vicious spree
10:50that is still widely discussed and debated.
10:52As publicity mounted,
10:54In an attempt to elicit help from the public,
10:57police made a critical error
10:58when they allowed the press to publish artist renderings of the killer.
11:02Unfortunately, the sketches were not based on witness descriptions.
11:06They were simply the artist's interpretation
11:08of how a deranged killer might look like.
11:11The killer's description of the killer's face
11:13was not based on the artist's description.
11:15Instead, it was based on the artist's description
11:18of how the killer looked like.
11:20They were simply the artist's interpretation
11:22of how a deranged killer may look.
11:24The drawings resulted in a flood of useless tips,
11:28further straining the already overwhelmed detectives.
11:31Even at the time of the murders,
11:32you know, he was becoming mythology.
11:34And then you start getting the man with the top hat
11:36and the cape and the little bag.
11:37So he's almost being given a supervillain image
11:39that people can latch onto.
11:41Ronald Wayne sells out.
11:42You know that when people hear your story,
11:44they say to themselves,
11:45My gosh, $22 billion, he could have had it.
11:52What can I say?
11:54Hindsight is 20-20,
11:55which is why this error stings so much.
11:58Back in 1976, businessman Ronald Wayne
12:01met Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak
12:03and initially thought they had something
12:04with their fledgling computer company.
12:06Wayne went in with 10% stake in Apple,
12:09but it wasn't to last.
12:10Less than two weeks on and he'd lost faith,
12:12selling those shares back to the company's founders.
12:15If I had stayed with Apple,
12:17I probably would have wound up
12:18the richest man in the cemetery.
12:19As we all know,
12:21Apple went on to become
12:22one of the biggest companies
12:23and electronic manufacturers in the entire world,
12:26with over a billion active iPhones as of 2021.
12:30What we wouldn't give for a time machine to the 70s
12:33so we could invest in the Apple shares
12:34Ron Wayne gave up.
12:36I knew exactly what would have been
12:37if I had stayed with the company.
12:40I would have wound up heading a very large
12:44documentation department
12:45at the back of the building,
12:46shuffling papers for the next 20 years of my life.
12:49And that was not the future that I saw for myself.
12:51Wrong trains.
12:52We've seen submarines too big for their ports,
12:55but what about trains too wide for their platforms?
12:57That's what happened in France in 2014
13:00when France's national rail company SNCF
13:03put in an order for 2000 brand new trains.
13:05The trains would fit many big metropolitan stations
13:08like Paris's newer infrastructure.
13:10But in rural France,
13:11the platforms were too narrow.
13:13This all happened because somebody
13:14at the French rail network gave SNCF the wrong measurements.
13:18The reason that they've got this problem
13:20is because RFF, which is the rail network operator,
13:23had measured platforms and stations
13:26that were built about 30 years ago.
13:27And the access between the platforms looked about right.
13:31SNCF was left trying to secretly widen
13:33the affected stations,
13:34but eventually the error was made public.
13:37The trains themselves cost around $20 billion
13:40and modifying the platforms has cost over $60 million.
13:43Investors are indignant about the mistake.
13:46We refuse to pay a single cent for these repairs,
13:48said this spokesperson.
13:50We can't be taken for fools and pay for the privilege.
13:53The Deepwater Horizon oil spill.
13:55126 people were on board at the time of the explosion.
13:59Some jumped more than 75 feet into the ocean.
14:02A multitude of factors went into
14:04the Deepwater Horizon explosion and oil spill.
14:06A central mistake was the failure
14:08to correctly respond to the signs of impending disaster.
14:11Pressure tests indicated that the well
14:12was not properly sealed,
14:14but the readings were misinterpreted.
14:16Mayday, mayday, mayday.
14:18This is Deepwater Horizon.
14:20We've had a major explosion.
14:21We need assistance.
14:23This error was compounded by a rush
14:25to complete the drilling operation,
14:26driven largely by cost-cutting pressures,
14:29leading to the decision to proceed with the operation
14:31despite warning signs.
14:32The sequence of failures ultimately triggered
14:35the calamitous explosion that killed 11 people
14:37and sent 210 million gallons of oil
14:40into the Gulf of Mexico.
14:42Meanwhile, live cameras on the ocean floor
14:45show the ferocity of the ongoing leak.
14:48Star Wars Billions.
14:49In the mid-70s, nobody knew that Star Wars
14:52was going to become one of the biggest
14:53pop culture properties in history.
14:55I find your lack of faith disturbing.
14:58Production was expensive, difficult,
15:01and ran George Lucas into the ground.
15:03Not seeing its potential,
15:0520th Century Fox made a deal with Lucas
15:07that he'd receive the royalties
15:08from merchandise sales.
15:10What followed set a new standard
15:11for merchandisable franchises,
15:13giving Lucas a personal fortune
15:15to the tune of billions of dollars.
15:17It was a grave error on the part of Fox
15:20and saw the studio miss out
15:21on an absolutely obscene amount of money
15:23in the decades between Star Wars' release in theaters
15:26and Lucasfilms being acquired by Disney.
15:28You have lost.
15:31No.
15:32No.
15:33No.
15:34You have won!
15:38Angering Genghis Khan.
15:39You still sing the same song, Temujin.
15:44Many voices carry it now.
15:45Not the Merkits!
15:47Outcast!
15:50I ask for this meeting in the hope
15:52that Mongol would not shed Mongol blood.
15:56Also that you might still join with me
15:57to spread the name of the Mongol nation.
15:59Many words can be used to describe Genghis Khan,
16:02one of history's most successful conquerors,
16:04but cool-headed isn't one of them.
16:06In less than two years,
16:08Genghis annihilated the Khwarazmian Empire.
16:11While there were a variety of factors
16:13that contributed to this invasion,
16:14the main one was an insult to his ambassadors.
16:17I promise you this, Jamuda.
16:20The Merkits will ride as part of the Mongol nation
16:25or their land will be razed to the ground.
16:28Razed so that not even a lame horse
16:31would stumble walking across it.
16:32In 1218, the Khan sent a caravan to the empire,
16:36who were arrested and executed on suspicion of being spies.
16:40When Genghis sent diplomats to deal with the situation,
16:42the Khwarazmians refused to comply
16:44and beheaded the chief envoy.
16:46By 1221, their empire was shattered
16:49and they had suffered somewhere
16:50between two and 15 million casualties.
16:53Maybe think twice before you insult
16:55one of history's most ambitious conquerors.
16:57I have lived to see it.
17:02That the tribes come together as one people.
17:06But it is my sons who will make our nation great.
17:17Napoleon invades Russia.
17:18I must wipe away my melancholy
17:20and begin the march to Moscow.
17:23I've convinced the heads of Europe of this resolution
17:26and so I command the combined forces of France,
17:29Austria, Italy, Germany, and Poland.
17:33I see nothing but success in my future.
17:36In 1812, Napoleon famously declared war on Russia,
17:40citing their refusal to comply with the continental system.
17:42He brought around half a million soldiers
17:44from all across Europe to the border
17:46and proceeded to march them to Moscow.
17:48The Russian defense was confused with no planned resistance,
17:52with their eventual scorched earth tactic
17:54being largely improvised.
17:55I'm writing to you because I've just won a great battle today.
18:00Tomorrow we will resume our advance.
18:03Moscow is now only 200 miles away
18:06and I think of you all the while.
18:08All yours.
18:09At the Battle of Bordeaux,
18:11Napoleon abandoned his usual cunning tactics
18:13and ordered a direct assault instead.
18:15The French won and Moscow was taken,
18:17but little Boney never received the peace deal he expected.
18:20Eventually, winter took hold
18:22and Napoleon embarked upon one of history's most disastrous retreats,
18:25costing him his army and ultimately his empire.
18:28Fortune has abandoned me.
18:30I know that it is what fate has for me.
18:34Your words rattle in my head.
18:38I am nothing without you.
18:39Forgetting about time zones hamstrung the Bay of Pigs invasion.
18:43During the Cold War,
18:44the U.S. backed numerous coup d'etat around the world.
18:46While several of these succeeded in installing new regimes,
18:50attempts in Cuba failed spectacularly.
18:52Worried about Prime Minister Fidel Castro's communist policies,
18:55in 1961,
18:56the CIA orchestrated the infamous Bay of Pigs invasion
18:59landing Cuban counter-revolutionaries on the country's southwestern coast.
19:03However, an obvious paint job on a B-26 bomber,
19:06disguised to look Cuban,
19:07gave away U.S. involvement to the world,
19:10leading President Kennedy to pull back air support.
19:13A few days later,
19:14a last-ditch bombing raid flying out of Nicaragua was botched
19:17when bombers were caught without their escort of fighter jets.
19:20Embarrassingly,
19:21someone had forgotten the one-hour difference
19:23between Nicaragua and Cuba,
19:25the Cedar Fire.
19:27It's gigantic.
19:29You never imagine it's as big as that until it happens.
19:34Imagine accidentally starting a fire
19:36that burns over 270,000 acres of land and kills 15 people.
19:41The guilt would be unimaginable.
19:43Sergio Martinez was a novice hunter
19:45who got lost in the Cuyamaca Mountains of Southern California in October 2003
19:50and started a fire to signal potential rescuers.
19:53Afraid he was going to die in the wilderness,
19:55he finally set a signal fire
19:58which got out of control.
19:59But the flames quickly spread to the nearby Chaparral
20:02and he lost control of the fire.
20:04The low humidity and Santa Ana winds exacerbated the destruction
20:08and the fire burned through 273,000 acres of San Diego County.
20:12Nearly 3,000 buildings were destroyed
20:15and 15 people lost their lives.
20:17Martinez was given five years probation
20:19and 960 hours of community service.
20:22If you take a look down Fairbrook here,
20:24Fairbrook Place,
20:26this is just something you'd probably see in a movie.
20:29That's the only way to describe it.
20:33The grisly 1947 murder of Elizabeth Short
20:35is one of the most notorious cold cases in American history.
20:39Dubbed the Black Dahlia by the media
20:41because of her dark hair and affinity for black clothing,
20:44Short was a young aspiring actress.
20:46She was a young woman who left her home
20:49to come find fame and fortune maybe in Los Angeles.
20:53The case was heavily publicized.
20:56By most accounts,
20:57the LAPD put extensive effort into solving the case,
21:00conducting numerous interviews and identifying multiple suspects.
21:04However, they faced intense public pressure to capture the killer.
21:07Police and reporters tried to get a lead on Beth's life.
21:11But the more they dig in,
21:12the more of a mystery she become.
21:14When they narrowed in on Leslie Dillon,
21:16investigators were certain he was responsible.
21:19Trying to force a confession from Dillon,
21:21the LAPD's gangster squad illegally detained him.
21:25In response, Dillon filed a lawsuit against the department.
21:28The case ultimately landed in front of a grand jury
21:31and then went cold.
21:33The Elizabeth Short mystery carries on to this day
21:36because nobody's been caught.
21:38In the early 90s,
21:40Snapple was only on the up.
21:41It had a few high-profile ad campaigns
21:43that meant it was able to hold its own
21:45in the competitive world of juice and soft drinks,
21:47making it look like a promising investment opportunity for Quaker Oats.
21:50Quaker Oats doesn't come with prizes,
21:53but there's something in this box
21:54that I think is really worth prizing.
21:56Unfortunately, things did not go to plan.
21:59Though Quaker Oats spent $1.7 billion
22:02on a deal it thought was a sure thing,
22:03after only three years,
22:05Snapple was sold off again
22:06so that Quaker Oats could lick its wounds
22:08for a meager $300 million.
22:10Here's some iced tea to pass the time.
22:12But remember,
22:13nothing takes the place of a good education.
22:15Perhaps a little embarrassingly,
22:17Snapple is still going strong.
22:19It seems that separating was the best thing
22:22for both of these brands.
22:24Snapple, made from the best stuff on earth.
22:26The 2024 CrowdStrike incident.
22:29It's hit transport with air passengers
22:31and their luggage having to be manually processed,
22:33delaying flights.
22:34Trains have also been affected.
22:36Before July 19th, 2024,
22:39few people had ever heard of CrowdStrike.
22:41It's amazing how much damage just one day can do.
22:44CrowdStrike is a cybersecurity company
22:46based out of Austin, Texas
22:47that caused about $10 billion in damage
22:50on the morning of July 19th.
22:51CrowdStrike made an update
22:53to its Falcon sensor software,
22:54but a bug caused the software to crash.
22:57Officials in Europe were already getting a grasp
22:59on how bad the issue was.
23:01Germany's cybersecurity chief
23:03warned people it would be a long day.
23:05Systems running Microsoft Windows crashed,
23:07resulting in the largest outage in world history.
23:10The results were devastating
23:12and disrupted nearly all aspects of daily life,
23:15upending banks,
23:16hospitals,
23:17air transport,
23:17and retail.
23:18It just goes to show how fragile
23:20our tech-heavy existence truly is.
23:23Ambulance services across the country
23:25have reported a surge in demand as a result.
23:28If you have an urgent problem,
23:30you should contact your own GP surgery,
23:32either in person or by telephone.
23:34Prematurely clearing the firesite.
23:37In the 1970s,
23:38Luna Park, Sydney,
23:39was one of Australia's most popular amusement parks.
23:42A top attraction in the park was the ghost train.
23:45The disorienting ride took passengers
23:47through a dark, winding tunnel
23:49full of spine-chilling special effects.
23:51Night after night,
23:52park-goers enjoyed the thrilling ride.
23:55But on June 9th, 1979,
23:57something went terribly wrong.
24:00Multiple people noticed an odd smell
24:02and what looked like real fire.
24:03We decided to have a second go in the ghost train.
24:06And as we're in there,
24:08I could distinctly smell the kerosene burning.
24:12Soon, flames enveloped the ride,
24:14trapping several passengers inside.
24:17Seven people perished.
24:18The exact cause was unclear.
24:21However,
24:21the lead investigator quickly ruled out arson
24:24and concluded faulty wiring was to blame.
24:26But within just half a day,
24:28the police hastily wrote the fire off as an electrical fault
24:32and bulldozed the scene.
24:33The scene was cleared,
24:34leaving many questions unanswered
24:36and obliterating any chance of further investigation.
24:40Official handling of the case has been heavily criticized.
24:43There was so much buried.
24:47So many facts distorted and hidden.
24:52America escalating tensions in Vietnam.
24:54It was a serious mistake for Kennedy to get involved as he did
24:58with American force in that part of the world,
25:02thinking that this great monolithic Soviet-style communism
25:06would rule the roost
25:08when he could have played it differently,
25:10I believe,
25:11and fought it more subtly.
25:13The United States entered the Vietnam War
25:15following the Gulf of Tonkin incident,
25:17where North Vietnamese forces
25:18allegedly attacked the U.S. Navy in international waters.
25:22The event was framed as an unprovoked attack,
25:24but later evidence showed otherwise.
25:26The great word that the Vietnam War gave us
25:31was escalation,
25:33because it starts off with Kennedy
25:35sending in just 400 military advisors
25:37who are actually special forces
25:39organizing and controlling the action,
25:42and then more go in.
25:43While the first attack remains debated,
25:46the second one was entirely fabricated.
25:48It devolved into a brutal war,
25:50which dragged on for years,
25:52causing thousands of American and Vietnamese deaths.
25:55Along the way,
25:56the United States committed atrocious war crimes,
25:58such as the My Lai Massacre.
26:00Ultimately, the war ended in failure,
26:02all spurred on by an incident with very little evidence.
26:06He should have fought it with the full force
26:08with the limited aid he gave initially,
26:11with the development of the special forces,
26:12the Green Berets as they're called,
26:14and other small tactical units,
26:17and not created this great surge
26:21of North Vietnamese resentment.
26:23Republics Falling to Tyranny
26:25Democratic institutions are only as strong
26:27as a nation's willingness to keep it afloat.
26:29Instability and internal strife work hand in hand
26:32to bring democracies to their knees.
26:34The Roman and Weimar republics
26:36each struggled with political polarization,
26:38economic crises, and corruption.
26:40Discontent and distrust in institutions
26:42spread like viruses,
26:44weaponized by ambitious authoritarians.
26:46The Roman Republic's decline
26:47was marked by social unrest and economic inequality.
26:50Elites struggled for power.
26:52Amidst the chaos,
26:53Julius Caesar rose quickly
26:55and eventually established imperial rule.
26:58Likewise,
26:58the Weimar Republic was strangled
27:00by hyperinflation and factionalism.
27:02From 620,000 marks to the dollar in August 1923
27:08to 630 billion three months later.
27:11Political extremists took advantage of the uncertainty
27:14and eventually seized power.
27:16In the end,
27:17Adolf Hitler rose to prominence,
27:19dominating both Germany and most of Europe.
27:22Russia Invades Ukraine
27:28Eight years after annexing Crimea in 2014,
27:32Russia followed up with a full-fledged invasion of Ukraine.
27:35Vladimir Putin expected the war to end
27:37in a matter of days or hours.
27:39Instead,
27:40as of 2024,
27:42it is still dragging on.
27:43The death toll of Russian troops is staggering.
27:46Some estimates suggest
27:47that more than 100,000 soldiers have been killed.
27:50Many of the casualties are now older fighters
27:53with little or no training.
27:55Significant numbers have also been recruited from prisons.
27:57The attrition rate has forced Russia
27:59to conscript new fodder for the war machine.
28:02Economically,
28:03Russia faces severe sanctions and a crippling recession.
28:06Russia has been forced to seek economic aid
28:08and military armament from China and North Korea.
28:11Western aid to Ukraine has allowed their military in 2024
28:15to launch the first significant military incursion
28:18into Russian territory since World War II.
28:21Video shows a Ukrainian soldier
28:23driving through the bombed-out Russian countryside unchallenged,
28:27then celebrating driving back a Russian tank.
28:31The attacks that created empires.
28:33Though the raid only lasted 75 minutes,
28:36the Japanese destroyed or damaged
28:38nearly 20 American naval vessels,
28:40including eight battleships
28:42and more than 340 airplanes.
28:44Attacking first has often determined the outcome of a war.
28:47Some of those outcomes, though,
28:48were not so rosy for the attackers.
28:51In 1588,
28:52Spain's armada set out to crush England's growing navy
28:55and restore Catholic rule,
28:57only to be slammed by powerful storms.
28:59Decimated,
29:00the survivors were ultimately outmaneuvered
29:02by England's smaller ships.
29:03It's a sea battle that changed the balance of world power
29:07for 300 years.
29:08Spain's attack led to England's
29:10centuries-long dominance over the seas.
29:12In 1941,
29:14Japan, too,
29:14sought to hamstring their naval rival.
29:16Their attack on Pearl Harbor was swift and devastating.
29:20It did not, however,
29:21deliver a crippling blow to the U.S. Pacific Fleet.
29:24Instead,
29:24it galvanized America,
29:26dragging it into World War II.
29:28On December 8, 1941,
29:30one day after the attack,
29:32the United States Congress declared war on Japan,
29:35officially entering World War II.
29:37In each instance,
29:39the attacked nation went on to become
29:40the world's most formidable superpower.
29:43Titanic Sinks After Iceberg Warnings Are Ignored
29:47Why ain't they turning?
29:48Is it hard over?
29:50It is, yes, sir, hard over.
30:00Many mistakes were made that caused the Titanic to sink,
30:03so it's difficult to pinpoint just one.
30:05Perhaps the most consequential, though,
30:07was turning hard a starboard when they spotted the iceberg,
30:10which extended the collision,
30:11creating a large gash that flooded five compartments.
30:15Had they struck the iceberg head-on,
30:16the bow would have been crushed,
30:18but only one or two compartments would have flooded.
30:40In such an event,
30:41the ship could have survived,
30:42as it was built to still float
30:44with up to four flooded compartments.
30:46Also, it only carried 20 lifeboats,
30:48enough for about half its passengers.
30:50The primary mistake that night
30:52was ignoring iceberg warnings
30:53and maintaining a high speed throughout.
30:55Changing just this one decision
30:57could likely have prevented the accident.
31:00Hitler's invasion of Russia.
31:02A British soldier's choice
31:03to spare the future Fuhrer's life during World War I
31:05turned out to be a huge blunder.
31:08But we'd argue that the most dramatic mistake
31:10involving Adolf Hitler was one he made himself.
31:12Despite signing a non-aggression pact with Russia,
31:15Hitler still considered Joseph Stalin
31:17and the Soviet Union his enemies.
31:19Hitler's decision to leave the Soviet Union
31:21was a big mistake,
31:22and it would have cost Hitler his life.
31:29In June of 1941,
31:31the Germans invaded Russia.
31:33Despite committing the largest invasion force in history,
31:36the Germans were unprepared
31:37for the Soviet's scorched earth tactics
31:39or the bleak Russian winter,
31:41and they experienced over a half a million casualties.
31:45The offensive split and depleted the German forces
31:47and put Russia on the side of the Allies,
31:50which likely lost Hitler the war.
31:52Treaty of Versailles harsh terms.
31:59For four years,
32:00then you begin to get some kind of feeling
32:02of what the sort of trauma was that existed
32:04in the Western countries
32:05and the Allied countries at the time,
32:06particularly in Britain and in France,
32:08which had never known levels of casualties
32:10of the kind that they'd experienced
32:11between 1914 and 1918.
32:14The Treaty of Versailles was a deal signed in 1919
32:16at the end of World War I,
32:18which mainly focused on weakening the German Empire.
32:21Despite the Austrian-Hungarian Empire
32:23being the main instigators,
32:25the victorious powers primarily blamed Germany.
32:27We were journeying to Paris,
32:29not merely to liquidate the war,
32:30but to found a new order in Europe.
32:33We were preparing not peace only,
32:35but eternal peace.
32:37There was about us the halo of some divine mission.
32:40We must be alert,
32:41stern,
32:42righteous,
32:43and ascetic,
32:44for we were bent on doing great,
32:46permanent,
32:46and noble things.
32:48They had to accept full responsibility
32:50for starting the war
32:51and were made to pay enormous reparations.
32:53This crippled their economy
32:55and fostered resentment towards the victorious powers,
32:58which eventually led to Hitler's rise to power
33:00and World War II.
33:01If the Allies had adopted a less punitive approach,
33:04like the U.S. did to Japan after World War II,
33:07the devastating Second War
33:08and the rise of Nazi Germany
33:10might have been alternate history.
33:12For six months,
33:12it was the closest we have ever had
33:14to a world government,
33:14and I don't suspect we'll ever have anything like it again.
33:17You can imagine all the most powerful people
33:19in the world here,
33:20prime ministers,
33:21kings,
33:21presidents,
33:22foreign secretaries,
33:24plus all the people who came
33:25because they were here.
33:26Mao's Great Leap Forward
33:28I saw Russian cars,
33:29which the Chinese have begun to make.
33:33There were wood-burning buses of the type
33:35I had seen in Europe during the war.
33:37Vehicles of all kinds.
33:43In most places of the city,
33:45there was a good traffic control system.
33:48Mao Zedong was the founder of Communist China,
33:50who became leader of the CCP during the Long March,
33:53a pivotal event in the Second Sino-Japanese War.
33:56After Japan's defeat,
33:57he sought to industrialize China
33:59and finally recover from the century of humiliation.
34:02He believed rapid industrialization
34:04would help them catch up to the West,
34:06but it turned into a catastrophic failure.
34:08Here, oil is extracted from coal.
34:10Built in 1928 by the Japanese,
34:12destroyed during the war,
34:14it was restored and enlarged.
34:16The Japanese produced 225,000 tons of petroleum
34:20in their best year.
34:211957 production was 320,000 tons.
34:241958 goal, 440,000 to catch up with Britain.
34:29The plan was overly optimistic
34:31and resulted in mass famine and an economic collapse.
34:34By 1962, Mao faced criticism for his policies
34:38and was sidelined at the 7,000 Cadres Conference.
34:41This didn't last long, though,
34:42as just four years later,
34:44he kick-started the Cultural Revolution,
34:46which allowed him to reclaim full control of the nation.
34:49Coal comes from the Fushun mines.
34:52The plant also has its own department store,
34:55Canteen and Club.
34:57Built during the Japanese occupation,
34:59the plant has been restored and enlarged
35:02following wartime destruction.
35:05All kinds of steel products are made.
35:08The American invasion of Iraq.
35:10My fellow citizens, at this hour,
35:13American and coalition forces
35:15are in the early stages of military operations
35:18to disarm Iraq, to free its people,
35:20and to defend the world from grave danger.
35:22The 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq
35:25was driven by the deadly combination
35:27of misleading claims and poor assumptions.
35:30The U.S. government convinced their allies
35:32that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction
35:34and had links to terrorism.
35:36There was no link between 9-11 and Iraq,
35:39so the Bush administration
35:41began manufacturing justifications.
35:43The Bush administration's assertions
35:45were later proven false.
35:46No WMDs were ever found,
35:49nor was any evidence linking Iraq to Al-Qaeda.
35:52By some estimates,
35:53the invasion led to over a million deaths
35:55and casualties,
35:56as well as widespread destruction
35:58and regional instability.
36:00The U.S. invasion also ultimately played
36:02a crucial role in the rise of ISIS.
36:04The economic cost to Americans
36:07is hard to pin down,
36:08though some experts believe
36:10that the war cost taxpayers
36:11between one and two trillion dollars.
36:14It changed the entire Middle East.
36:16In fact,
36:17it changed much of our world forever.
36:20Caesar ignores warnings.
36:21Senator Varinus,
36:24I come about your grandson, Lucius.
36:26I come about your grandson, Lucius.
36:27I come about your grandson, Lucius.
36:29You are the speaker of the Julii,
36:31and what I tell you now is the truth.
36:32Julius Caesar is most famous
36:34for sowing the seeds of the Roman Empire,
36:36enslaving and slaughtering millions of Gauls,
36:39and giving the month of July its name.
36:41He was eventually assassinated in 44 B.C.,
36:44which shouldn't have come as a surprise
36:46since he was given several warnings about it.
36:48If I may, gracious Caesar,
36:49you were going to consider revoking
36:51my brother's exile.
36:53I'm still considering it.
36:57Take your hand off me.
37:06What are you waiting for?
37:07Now! Now!
37:09Now!
37:10All of these were dismissed,
37:12leading to his death in the Senate
37:13where he was stabbed 23 times.
37:15A soothsayer warned him to beware the Ides of March,
37:18the eventual date he was killed.
37:20His wife, Calpurnia, had a dream of his death
37:22and insisted he stay home,
37:24but he dismissed her fears.
37:26Ultimately, his trusted friend, Brutus,
37:28convinced him to come in,
37:29which turned out to be the dictator's final mistake.
37:32So, you see, the tyrant is dead,
37:34the Republic is restored,
37:35and you are alone.
37:41Would you like some honey water?
37:43I won't.
37:45AOL buys time Warner.
37:47What you will come to know,
37:49as we know instinctively,
37:52that there is a natural fit
37:54between these two companies.
37:55In the year 2000,
37:57the dot-com bubble was at its height,
37:59and it didn't look like anything
38:00would slow down the meteoric rise of the internet.
38:03Well, pretty clearly, you know,
38:04if you looked at last Friday,
38:06the market cap of AOL was twice the size
38:10of Time Warner.
38:11I have made a judgment,
38:13which I believe to be correct,
38:15that going forward,
38:16the Time Warner shareholders
38:17will be much better off
38:19owning 45% of AOL Time Warner
38:23than 100% of Time Warner.
38:24Ultimately, the internet's development
38:26didn't slow down,
38:28but the stock market did,
38:29leading to a recession.
38:30One of the biggest casualties
38:32was the merger of AOL and Time Warner in 2000,
38:35which even at the time,
38:37But things didn't turn out as planned.
38:39From the very beginning,
38:40the merged company failed to live up
38:42to its lofty financial expectations.
38:44To make matters worse,
38:46technology stocks that had been thriving in the 90s
38:49suddenly fell off a cliff
38:50with the burst of the internet bubble.
38:52AOL spent a whopping $182 billion
38:55on merging with Time Warner,
38:57but years on,
38:58the company split again.
38:59Today, Time Warner remains a major player
39:02in the media business,
39:03and it's a company that's been around
39:05It remains a major player in the media business,
39:07and while AOL still exists,
39:09it's dead in the water.
39:11Oh, how the tables turned.
39:12Is that the biggest regret of your life?
39:15What?
39:16Merging with Time Warner?
39:17Having all your money tied up in Time Warner.
39:21I would have liked to see that merger not happen.
39:25NASA ignores challenger warnings.
39:283, 2, 1, and liftoff.
39:32Liftoff of the 25th space shuttle mission,
39:35and it has cleared the tower.
39:37In 1986, NASA launched the shuttle Challenger,
39:41which tragically exploded only 73 seconds after liftoff.
39:45The event occurred during a cold morning,
39:47which caused the ship's rubber O-rings to stiffen,
39:49leading to a fuel leak that ignited the vessel.
39:52All seven crew members perished,
39:54marking one of the darkest moments
39:55in the history of space exploration.
39:57Engines at 65%,
39:59three engines running normally,
40:00three good fuel cells,
40:02three good APUs.
40:04Engines throttling up,
40:05three engines now at 104%.
40:06Challenger, go at throttle up.
40:08Months earlier,
40:09several engineers,
40:10including Roger Beaujolais,
40:12had warned of an impending failure
40:13due to the O-rings' vulnerability to cold.
40:16Beaujolais even wrote a memo outlining this issue,
40:18but his concerns were completely ignored.
40:21Although a team was formed to address the problem,
40:23they lacked adequate support,
40:25and the launch proceeded,
40:26only to end disastrously,
40:28like Beaujolais predicted.
40:30Moctezuma II welcomes the Spanish
40:32Cortez's legacy is a complex one.
40:35On one hand,
40:36he is the conqueror of Mexico.
40:38He brought and extended the Spanish empire,
40:42but from the indigenous point of view,
40:44he was a mass murderer.
40:46Moctezuma II,
40:47the Aztec emperor,
40:48received Hernan Cortez and his conquistadors in 1519
40:52with a mix of curiosity and apprehension.
40:54According to some historians,
40:56Moctezuma,
40:57influenced by a prophecy
40:58suggesting that a god would return
41:00in the form of a pale-skinned man,
41:02initially saw the Spaniards as divine.
41:04Cortez, he thought,
41:05could be the incarnation of the Aztec god Quetzalcoatl.
41:09He sought to appease them
41:10by offering gifts and hospitality,
41:12believing this would prevent conflict.
41:14Cortez was motivated by these treasures
41:17and continued towards the city.
41:19He later wrote,
41:20Moctezuma came to greet us
41:22and with him some 200 lords,
41:24all barefoot and dressed in a different costume.
41:27Instead, his decision invited invasion.
41:30Cortez and his men exploited Moctezuma's hospitality
41:33to gather intelligence,
41:34gain political leverage,
41:35and incite dissent among the Aztecs.
41:38The Spaniards spread disease
41:39and formed alliances with rivals to the Aztecs.
41:42This alliance would be crucial for Cortez
41:45as the Tlaxcateca helped him navigate the landscape,
41:48served as translators,
41:49and urged the defeat of Moctezuma.
41:52Combined with their superior weaponry,
41:54they easily conquered the Aztec empire completely by 1521.
41:58A B-Day Helped Lose D-Day
42:00On June 6th, 1944,
42:02the Allies launched an ambitious operation
42:04to retake Western Europe.
42:06Known as D-Day,
42:07the first landings occurred on the beaches of Normandy, France.
42:10The casualties were high,
42:12but the operation granted the Allies a foothold
42:14that would eventually lead to victory on the Western Front.
42:17However, things could have gone very differently.
42:20The Germans' most accomplished general,
42:22Erwin Rommel,
42:23was in charge of defending the Atlantic Wall against an invasion.
42:26However, he had decided to take leave
42:28as the 6th was his wife's birthday,
42:30and German meteorologists had mistakenly predicted storms
42:33for another few weeks,
42:35making a seaborne invasion unlikely.
42:37Had Rommel been in command,
42:39the Allies may never have gotten a beachhead to retake France.
42:42Failing to Secure Jean-Bernay Ramsey's Crime Scene
42:45On Christmas Day, 1996,
42:47Jean-Bernay Ramsey was found dead
42:49in the basement of her family's home in Boulder, Colorado.
42:53Hurry, please.
42:54Explain to me what's going on.
42:55Are you...
42:56Cassie Ramsey, I'm the mother.
42:57The case sparked a media frenzy
42:59and generated worldwide attention.
43:02For decades, investigators and amateur sleuths
43:05have tried to unravel the mystery
43:07of who killed the child beauty queen.
43:09Unfortunately, the initial investigation is riddled with errors.
43:13The most critical mistake occurred as soon as the police arrived.
43:16They failed to secure the crime scene.
43:18The police should have secured that scene
43:21by telling everybody, get out.
43:23I'm sorry, this is a crime scene.
43:25Police also neglected to take statements
43:27from Jean-Bernay's parents right away,
43:29even though they were behaving
43:31in a manner the officers considered unusual.
43:33They didn't want to talk to the police.
43:35They lawyered up right away.
43:37The Ramseys agreed to give handwriting, hair, and blood samples.
43:41Still, they refused formal interviews with the police.
43:44A series of additional mistakes followed.
43:47The Boulder police acknowledged these early errors.
43:50However, the investigation suffered as a result,
43:53and the case remains unsolved.
43:55The Tenerife Airport Disaster
43:57Look at it out there.
43:59This cloud just rolled right onto us.
44:01I don't think anybody has the minimums now.
44:03This disaster on Spain's Canary Islands in March 1977
44:07remains the deadliest accident in aviation history,
44:10costing 583 lives.
44:13Los Rodeos Airport was congested
44:15due to a bomb explosion at Gran Canaria.
44:17Exacerbating this was a dense fog rolling into the airport.
44:20KLM Flight 4805 took off in the fog
44:23and crashed into Pan Am Flight 1736,
44:26which was still taxiing on the runway.
44:28It feels great to be alive.
44:31I'd be lying if I said anything else.
44:33An investigation found that the accident resulted
44:35from critical miscommunication between KLM Captain
44:38Jakob Felthausen-Vonsanten and air traffic control.
44:41Ambiguous and non-standard wording
44:43led Felthausen-Vonsanten to commence takeoff
44:45without proper clearance,
44:46resulting in the tragic collision.
44:48When I got out on the ground,
44:49I could hear people screaming and yelling and all.
44:52Within about five minutes,
44:53you heard absolutely nothing.
44:56There was no noise at all.
44:59Russia Sold Alaska
45:00During the 19th century,
45:02the Crimean War cost several countries
45:04to begin exerting pressure on Russia
45:06through blockades of their sea routes.
45:08Because of this,
45:08they were unable to properly supply
45:10their largest overseas territory, Alaska.
45:13To offset this,
45:15in 1867,
45:16Russia sold the territory to the United States
45:18for $7.2 million.
45:21While it may have been a smart move
45:22at the time for Russia,
45:23in retrospect,
45:24it's often seen as a mistake,
45:26as the gold and oil discovered in Alaska
45:29far exceeds the value it sold for.
45:31Not only that,
45:32but Russia having a foothold
45:33in the North American continent
45:35would have caused the Cold War
45:36to play out very differently.
45:38Rushed Engineering Collapsing Dams
45:40If history has taught us anything,
45:42it's that greed and hubris
45:44are often at the heart of human tragedies.
45:46The Johnstown Flood,
45:47St. Francis Dam failure,
45:48and Banshao Dam disaster
45:50were a trio of foreseeable catastrophes.
45:52With every passing minute,
45:54the internal stresses on the dam
45:56were multiplying.
45:58At around 11.20pm,
46:00the structure finally began to give way.
46:02In each case,
46:03flawed engineering,
46:04poor oversight,
46:05and disregard for safety warnings
46:07set the stage for massive loss of life.
46:09The Johnstown Flood occurred
46:10when a poorly maintained dam collapsed,
46:13destroying entire towns.
46:14And water is such a powerful force,
46:16it would pick up locomotives
46:18off of the track
46:19that were in this flood's way
46:21and bulldoze everything
46:23that was in its way.
46:24Similarly,
46:25the St. Francis Dam in California
46:27failed due to structural flaws,
46:28flooding communities downstream.
46:30In China,
46:31the Banshao Dam was overwhelmed
46:33by unprecedented rainfall.
46:34This exacerbated problems
46:36stemming from design failures
46:37and political mismanagement,
46:39causing the dam to collapse.
46:40Killing thousands.
46:42Though decades apart,
46:43these disasters highlight
46:44the repeated risk
46:45of underestimating nature's power.
46:48A mistranslation may have caused
46:50America's nuclear attacks.
46:52The U.S. had a choice.
46:53An invasion of Japan
46:55requiring a million troops
46:57or a top secret weapon.
46:59The Japanese were given an ultimatum.
47:02Surrender or suffer dire consequences.
47:04After the fall of Hitler's Germany,
47:06the Allies issued the Potsdam Declaration
47:09demanding Japan's
47:10unconditional surrender.
47:11The declaration came with a warning.
47:13Refusal would result in
47:15prompt and utter destruction.
47:18The culture of Imperial Japan
47:19couldn't tolerate
47:20public consideration of surrender.
47:22They responded with a statement
47:23including the word Mokusatsu.
47:25The Allies interpreted this
47:27as an outright rejection
47:28of the Potsdam Declaration.
47:30Mokusatsu, they believed,
47:31meant to ignore with silent contempt.
47:34They acted accordingly,
47:35dropping two nuclear bombs.
47:37When we came back after the surrender,
47:41we came back to the same area
47:44and the whole city was completely flat.
47:46It was really devastating to see.
47:48However, some believe
47:50Foreign Minister Togo
47:51was counseling circumspection and patience.
47:53He hoped that the Soviets
47:55would mediate a better deal.
47:56In the years after the nuclear attack on Japan,
47:59people have argued that by Mokusatsu,
48:01Japanese leaders just meant, quote,
48:03withholding comment.
48:04Truman claimed he never lost
48:06a night of sleep over his decision.
48:07And to this day,
48:08the United States
48:08has never apologized for it.
48:10Still, the horror of Hiroshima and Nagasaki
48:13firmly cemented atomic bombs
48:15as the world's weapons
48:16of absolute last resort.
48:18The Great Depression
48:19and the Great Recession
48:20Time and time again,
48:22America and the world pay the price
48:23for a cycle of laissez-faire
48:25economics and deregulation.
48:27In the 1920s,
48:28minimal government oversight
48:29allowed for rampant speculation
48:31and risky investments
48:32in the stock market.
48:33By the end of the decade,
48:34the stock market crashed
48:36and spread economic devastation
48:38around the world.
48:39Wherever you looked,
48:40boys and girls were,
48:42men and women were,
48:44wondering what was ever
48:45going to happen to them.
48:46Similarly, in the early 2000s,
48:48decades of financial deregulation
48:50enabled irresponsible lending practices.
48:52The housing market
48:53was utterly poisoned
48:54by subprime mortgages,
48:56leading to a bubble
48:57that burst in 2008.
48:58The Federal Reserve
49:00has moved quickly
49:01to bring order
49:03to the financial markets.
49:05Both crises were fueled
49:06by the belief that markets
49:07could self-regulate.
49:08Unchecked greed
49:09and the erosion of safeguards
49:11created systemic risks.
49:12The resultant unemployment,
49:14widespread foreclosures,
49:15and economic collapse
49:17reflected the dangers
49:18of prioritizing short-term profits
49:20over long-term stability.
49:22The Salem Witch Trials
49:23and the Second Red Scare
49:24Democracy may be a net good,
49:27but majoritarianism,
49:28if left unchecked
49:29and under the right circumstances,
49:31can cause mass hysteria.
49:32There were witchcraft outbreaks
49:34all the time,
49:36all through the colonies,
49:37especially the northern colonies.
49:39With a dash of fear
49:40and a pinch of paranoia,
49:42bad actors could use a desire
49:43to root out perceived threats
49:45to cause great harm.
49:46In Salem, Massachusetts,
49:48accusations of witchcraft
49:49spiraled out of control.
49:51Witch trials led to executions
49:52based on flimsy evidence
49:54and fear of the supernatural.
49:55Angry community members in Salem
49:57pointed fingers
49:58at assertive middle-aged women,
50:00but also began to accuse
50:01married women
50:02from well-respected families.
50:04Some men,
50:05and even a four-year-old child,
50:06were also accused of being witches.
50:08Centuries later,
50:09Senator Joe McCarthy
50:11spearheaded his own witch hunt,
50:12this time for communists.
50:14Those accused of subversion
50:16were blacklisted and persecuted,
50:17often without real evidence.
50:19The Second Red Scare
50:21perhaps took its greatest toll
50:23on artists and entertainers,
50:25people like Paul Robeson,
50:27Arthur Miller,
50:28and others who were unable to work
50:30because of being branded
50:32as suspected communists.
50:33In both cases,
50:34authorities used public fear
50:36to conduct aggressive
50:37and unjust campaigns
50:38against alleged enemies,
50:40ruining lives in the process
50:41and fostering deep societal distrust.
50:46In terms of ruthlessness,
50:48bloodlust,
50:49Stalin remains one of the
50:52greatest villains of the 20th century.
50:54To this day,
50:55the Holodomor is considered
50:57one of the greatest tragedies
50:58of Ukrainian history.
51:00A term meaning death by starvation.
51:03It was genocide.
51:04From 1932 to 1933,
51:07Joseph Stalin pushed a brutal campaign
51:09of forced collectivization
51:11and grain requisitioning
51:12in Soviet Ukraine.
51:13Unfortunately,
51:14the country was already
51:15in the middle of a food shortage,
51:17exacerbated by Stalin's policies.
51:19Records show the Soviets
51:21took over 4 million tons of grain
51:23from Ukraine alone in 1932.
51:26That same year,
51:27a new law punished anyone
51:29who took even a handful of grain
51:31or was caught hiding grain or bread
51:34with 10 years in prison
51:35or the death penalty.
51:37As a result,
51:38Ukraine fell into a terrible famine.
51:40By the end of 1933,
51:42somewhere between 3.5
51:44and 5 million Ukrainians
51:46perished due to hunger
51:47and related diseases.
51:48In the fall and winter of 1932,
51:52Soviet police began seizing
51:54not just grain,
51:55but anything edible,
51:57even livestock.
51:58Stalin refused to provide aid,
52:00although Russia continued
52:02to export grain.
52:03The Holodomor devastated
52:04Ukrainian agriculture
52:06and local economies,
52:07ripping families to pieces
52:08and traumatizing a nation.
52:11Apollo 13
52:12Houston, we have a problem.
52:14The basis of a blockbuster movie
52:16starring Tom Hanks,
52:17Apollo 13 was destined
52:18for the moon in 1970,
52:20but it never made it.
52:21It was plagued by bad omens
52:26and bad luck
52:28from the very beginning.
52:29Thankfully,
52:30unlike many other space failures
52:31like the high-profile Challenger
52:33and Columbia disasters
52:34in 1986 and 2003 respectively,
52:36the astronauts in Apollo 13
52:38all survived.
52:39The problem was that an oxygen tank
52:41had been damaged long before
52:43its installation in the spacecraft,
52:44which was described as a quote
52:46bomb by Commander Jim Lovell.
52:48I looked at my companions
52:49and I said, you know,
52:50every flight has a crisis.
52:52Something always goes wrong.
52:53This happened early in the flight
52:55and we're now free and clear
52:57of any other things going wrong.
52:58That bomb went off,
52:59severely damaging the craft
53:01when it was already in space.
53:02The crew had to move
53:03into the lunar module
53:05so they would survive
53:06and then loop around the moon
53:07to return to Earth.
53:09Trojans bring in the horse.
53:11What is this?
53:12An offering to Poseidon.
53:14The Greeks are praying
53:16for a safe return home.
53:18This is a gift.
53:20We should take it
53:21to the Temple of Poseidon.
53:23I think we should burn it.
53:25Burn it, my prince.
53:26It's a gift to the god.
53:27This was a mistake so monumental
53:29it became a metaphor for deception
53:31that is still widely used today.
53:33The ancient city of Troy
53:34was first destroyed around 1200 BC
53:37and again by archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann
53:39in the 19th century.
53:40According to legend,
53:42the Greeks built a giant wooden horse,
53:44hid soldiers in it,
53:45and presented it to the Trojans
53:46as a gift.
53:48Helen, we must go.
53:49Where?
53:50I'll show you.
53:51Now.
53:51Hurry.
53:52Paris, Paris.
53:53It's a long way.
53:54Quick.
53:55We must go now.
53:56Believing it to be a symbol of victory,
53:58the Trojans brought it into their city,
54:00only for Greek soldiers to emerge
54:01and decimate Troy.
54:03The tale's authenticity remains heavily debated,
54:05with no direct evidence.
54:07However, oral history played a central role
54:09in the ancient world,
54:10which preserved surprisingly truthful elements,
54:13suggesting that this tale
54:14may have been inspired by real-life events.
54:18Let Troy burn!
54:20Burn it!
54:22Burn it all!
54:24Burn Troy!
54:26Pandemic response.
54:28The COVID-19 pandemic continues to grow,
54:30so are the parallels being drawn
54:32between it and another deadly virus
54:35that struck the globe more than a century ago.
54:37Human civilization has been ravaged
54:39by deadly pandemics over and over
54:41throughout history.
54:42The Spanish flu and COVID-19
54:44happened a century apart,
54:45but it seems that not everyone
54:47chose to learn from the past.
54:48Discontent with public health measures
54:50spread widely during each pandemic,
54:52exacerbating the situation.
54:54Spirits will not die,
54:56and I tell you what,
54:57we will not comply!
55:00Governments implemented shutdowns
55:02to curb the spread,
55:03but uneven compliance
55:05and politicized responses
55:06prolonged the crises.
55:08During the Spanish flu,
55:09anti-mask leagues and public pushback
55:11against restrictions mirrored the protests
55:13and skepticism surrounding COVID-19 measures.
55:16The Spanish flu eventually subsided
55:18as the virus mutated into less lethal strains,
55:20whereas COVID-19's global impact
55:22was mitigated by vaccines
55:24and evolving public health strategies.
55:27A wrong turn started World War I,
55:29one of the most famous killings of all time.
55:32The assassination of Austro-Hungarian
55:34Archduke Franz Ferdinand
55:35is usually credited with being
55:36the catalyst for World War I,
55:38but what some may not know
55:40is that it could have been avoided,
55:42if not for a wrong turn.
55:44The Archduke had already survived
55:45one assassination attempt
55:47with a bomb by the same group
55:48while visiting Sarajevo.
55:49On the return journey,
55:50the Archduke's drivers,
55:52who spoke Czech,
55:53couldn't understand their directions
55:54for a new route
55:55and took a wrong turn.
55:57When they stopped to reorient,
55:58it was right next to one of the assassins,
56:01who promptly pulled out a gun
56:02and shot both Ferdinand and his wife.
56:05Human atrocities.
56:06For 100 days in 1994,
56:09the African country of Rwanda
56:12suffered a horrific campaign
56:13of mass murder.
56:14The Holocaust
56:15and the Rwandan genocide
56:16shared chilling similarities
56:18in both their origins and outcomes.
56:20Both were driven by
56:21deeply ingrained ethnic hatred,
56:23propaganda,
56:24and political manipulation.
56:25When out in public,
56:26Jews were ordered to wear a yellow star,
56:28a Jewish religious symbol,
56:30so that they could be easily told apart
56:32from non-Jews.
56:34The Nazis told Germans
56:35that those wearing the star
56:37were enemies of the people.
56:38The Nazis systematically dehumanized Jews
56:41through years of anti-Semitic rhetoric.
56:43Eventually,
56:44they industrialized their bigotry,
56:46killing upwards of 12 million people,
56:48half of them Jewish.
56:50In Rwanda,
56:51the Tutsi minority was demonized
56:52by extremist Hutu leaders.
56:54After riling up that hatred
56:55to a fever pitch,
56:57the killing began.
56:58In just 100 days,
57:00Hutus slaughtered
57:00more than 500,000 Tutsis.
57:02Tutsi victims sought refuge
57:04at churches and schools,
57:06where they hoped
57:06international organizations
57:08would protect them.
57:09But no outside party
57:10came to their aid.
57:11Both genocides were marked
57:12by the use of state machinery
57:14to orchestrate mass murder,
57:15while other nations stood by,
57:17either complicit or indifferent.
57:19Both massacres left profound scars
57:21and a haunting legacy of loss.
57:23Before we continue,
57:24be sure to subscribe to our channel
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57:28about our latest videos.
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57:39The Chernobyl Nuclear Disaster
57:41There has been a nuclear accident
57:42in the Soviet Union,
57:43and the Soviets have admitted
57:44that it happened.
57:45The Soviet version is this.
57:47One of the atomic reactors
57:48at the Chernobyl atomic power plant
57:50near the city of Kiev was damaged,
57:52and there is speculation in Moscow
57:54that people were injured
57:55and may have died.
57:56Chernobyl's meltdown
57:57was the most destructive
57:58nuclear disaster in history
58:00and could have been completely avoided
58:02if the proper procedures were followed.
58:04The disaster was immediately caused
58:06by a safety test,
58:08which was meant to be carried out
58:09during the day with a trained crew.
58:11Instead, the untrained night crew
58:13did the test,
58:14with very little time to prepare
58:16and properly carry it out.
58:17The TMI accident was nothing
58:19compared with this.
58:20I would speculate
58:21that it was very serious,
58:22and the reason for that
58:24is that they've observed
58:26radiation levels 10 times normal
58:28from Finland all the way down
58:30to Stockholm.
58:31The Soviets were also secret
58:32about their nuclear technology,
58:34withholding important information
58:36from operators and engineers
58:38who should have understood them.
58:39After the explosion,
58:40further mistakes were made,
58:42like the nearby town of Pripyat
58:43not being evacuated
58:44until over a full day later.
58:46It was the perfect storm of mistakes,
58:48leading to one of humanity's
58:50worst disasters.
58:51You can be sure
58:52that the decision to disclose
58:54was made at the very highest level,
58:56undoubtedly by Gorbachev himself,
58:59and probably it took several days
59:01for the Soviet leaders
59:01to decide how to handle it.
59:03What do you think
59:03was the most impactful mistake
59:05a human ever made?
59:06Let us know in the comments below.
59:08He'd rather burn his own city
59:09than negotiate with me.
59:12I didn't think he had the courage.
59:14Did you enjoy this video?
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