today's video is sponsored by under lucky stars commemorate a special time in your life or the
life of a loved one with a personalized star map more on them in a bit major historical events
are always analyzed under a magnifying glass people ponder why they ended as they did and if
anything should have been done differently if you look close enough you'll see that even the most
impactful moments in history were changed or at least influenced by tiny seemingly insignificant
events of course we kind of know for certain that the outcomes would have been different if these
small incidents did not occur but their effect seems substantial enough to make us wonder what if
number 10. a booty call ends scotland's golden age king alexander iii is regarded as one of the
greatest scottish rulers in history in 1266 he regained the isle of man and the western isles
from norway following the treaty of perth and scotland experienced a prosperous golden age he
had one big flaw though as alexander was a massive horn dog as the contemporary lanacost chronicle
said the king used never to forebear on account of season nor storm nor for perils of flood or rocky
cliffs but would visit none to creditably nuns or matrons virgins or widows as the fancy seized him
sometimes in disguise in other words nothing would stop alexander when he was looking for
a booty call on march 19 1286 the king's libido proved fatal he had spent the entire day with his
advisors in edinburgh and decided that he would visit his young new wife that night queen yolande
drew who lived in the town of kinghorn just across the water however there was a massive
storm outside so all of the councillors played with alexander to wait until morning
nothing doing though the king braved the elements in order to meet with his bride he made it across
the water on a ferry and set off on horseback into the dark night accompanied by only a few servants
unsurprisingly the riders got lost in the blackness and then got separated
the king's lifeless body was found the next day having been thrown by a source off a cliff after
riding too close to the edge all of alexander's children already died before him and his heir was
his three-year-old granddaughter margaret however a lot of the nobles weren't keen on the idea of a
girl infant becoming the new monarch of scotland so this triggered a succession crisis which
brought an end to scotland's short-lived golden age number nine a vague prophecy ends one empire
and creates another crisis was an ancient king who ruled over the kingdom of lydia and was
renowned for his unfathomable wealth he was also a firm believer in the prophecies of oracles and
after making numerous offerings at several locations crisis had concluded that the most
trustworthy and accurate diviner was the famed oracle at delphi during the mid 6th century bc
creases couldn't help but notice the rise of cyrus the great the king of a relatively small city
named ancien who nevertheless managed to conquer the much more powerful kingdom of media wanting to
know how he should handle this upstart crisis asked the oracle what would happen if he went
to war against cyrus the oracle replied that if crisis goes to war he will destroy a great empire
now we all know that prophecies are generally vague so people can interpret them as they want
but in the mind of the king this could only mean one thing a triumphant victory for lydia so cruces
went to war against cyrus but as it turned out the great empire he destroyed was his own cyrus
won the war conquered lydia and went on to conquer babylon as well as other nations thus founding the
accommodate empire number 8 an ill-fated voyage dooms the metric system in america america has a
contentious relationship with the metric system despite the best efforts of thomas jefferson
unsurprisingly when the united states had emerged as an independent country many officials were
eager to get rid of the old british units of measurement jefferson secretary of state at the
time was a big fan of the metric system it was new efficient and innovative but not everyone was sold
on it so jefferson sought assistance from france and in turn they agreed to send scientist joseph
dombay to the united states to help implement the metric system in the country unfortunately
he never arrived in 1794 thomas jefferson received word that dombay's ship had been blown off course
by a storm and was then captured by british privateers the scientist tried to disguise
himself as a spanish sailor but the fact that he had a french accent and barely spoke any spanish
gave him away the pirates took dombay hostage and imprisoned him on the island of montserrat there
they intended to ransom him but the scientist died in captivity before the french government
had a chance to pay and america ultimately stuck with the old measurement system 7. an art school
rejection creates the 20th century's greatest villain in 1907 the academy of fine arts in vienna
denied admission to an applicant criticizing his works for having precision but lacking any feeling
or imagination he applied again the following year but got the same result this rejection placed the
18 year old student on a completely different path one which had dire consequences for the
entire world as that applicant was of course adolf hitler later while writing mein kampf
hitler admitted that his initial goal in life was to become an artist when the article rejected him
he was left living in squalor on the streets of vienna reduced to making kitsch paintings that
he sold to tourists and frame sellers to make ends meet historians are pretty certain that it was
during this time that hitler was exposed to heavy anti-semitic rhetoric as the poor classes were
being repeatedly told to blame their woes on the jewish elite who were hoarding all the wealth with
his art career dead and buried hitler enlisted in the german military and later into politics than
the rest as they say is very bloody and tragic history number six a shoddy press conference
brings down the berlin wall november 9 1989 was supposed to be just another day for east
german communist official gunther schabalski little did he know that a few words he would
say without a second thought would bring down the berlin wall and change the course of history
chiboski was a spokesman for the communist party whose job was to deliver a daily press conference
with news from the party but on that particular day shibowski was tired and ill-prepared maybe a
little hung over and he just skimmed through the memo that he was supposed to present
he later announced on live radio and television that east germans were now allowed to leave the
country through any border crossings causing the journalists in the room to collectively raise
their eyebrows what chubowski actually meant was that starting the following day east germans would
be able to apply for visas in an orderly manner and after a few weeks of red tape one or two of
them might be allowed to leave it was intended as a meaningless platitude designed to make the party
look good but when one of the reporters asked chabowski when the changes would take effect
the unprepared spokesman mumbled for a bit looked at his papers confused shrugged and said
absol fort from now on within hours tens of thousands of citizens gathered at the berlin wall
looking to end west germany the guards tried in vain to stem the tide of humanity but eventually
they relented and opened the border germans on both sides began chipping away at the wall and
it was officially demolished in june 1990. all right now we'll get back to today's video in just
a sec but first got a quick word from today's brand new video sponsor under lucky stars under
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get your loved one a gift they'll never forget and now back to the video 5. a mistranslated
word leads to war language can be a tricky thing especially when you have to convey the exact same
message in two or more different languages just one mistranslated word could change the meaning
of the text entirely which in turn could lead to disagreements misunderstandings or in this case
war on may the 2nd 1889 italy and ethiopia signed the treaty of o'hail that was meant to signify a
peaceful and prosperous relationship between the two nations but it did the exact opposite the pact
was written in two languages italian animalic and ethiopian semitic language in the amarik version
one of the 20 articles said that the ethiopian emperor could enlist the help of the italian
government to discuss matters with other european powers the word could here is very important
because the italian version said that the emperor must use their government in essence recognizing
italy's authority over ethiopia some say this was a simple mistranslation mistake because the same
word formed a permissive clause in america and a mandatory clause in italian others claim it
was a planned deception either way italy decided to make the most of it and declared ethiopia and
protectorate of course ethiopia rejected the treaty which led to war in 1895. surprisingly
ethiopia won the war in 1896 following the battle of adoha its independence was recognized by all
world powers marking a landmark moment for the pan-africanism movement that fought to resist
the new imperialism of the western nations number four a lost dispatch helps the union win the war
in 1862 the american civil war was going pretty well for the confederacy not only did it garner
several important military victories but both france and britain were on the verge
of recognizing it as a separate nation one more big win could have decided the war in favor of the
confederacy so with that in mind general robert e lee launched the maryland campaign in september
invading the north for the first time shortly after the start of the campaign lee drafted the
marching orders for all of his generals special order 191 as it was called given the sensitive
nature of the information it was understood that the general needed to take great care with their
copies ideally they would even destroy them after reading them and yet on september 13 a few union
soldiers and the 27th indiana volunteers were resting in a meadow outside frederick maryland
where they found three cigars wrapped in a piece of paper lying on the ground they examined the
paper and you guessed it it was a copy of special order 191. it belonged to confederate general d.h
hill who had accidentally been issued two copies one by lee and one by general stonewall jackson
hill later claimed they only ever received one order so we're not sure who screwed up here but
the value of the information became immediately evident to the union soldiers who took it to their
commanding officer now of course we have no way of knowing how the war would have turned out if the
north never got their hands on the special order but it helped them win the maryland campaign which
in turn gave lincoln the perfect opportunity to announce the emancipation proclamation and
deter great britain and france from recognizing the independence of the confederacy
3. cloudy weather saves one city and dooms another august 6 1945 is a day
that will forever live in infamy when the united states dropped the atomic bomb named little boy
on the japanese city of hiroshima as we all know it was followed by the detonation of a second bomb
known as fat man three days later over nagasaki but the devastating fate that befell nagasaki
was originally intended for another city kakura on the august 9 the boeing b-29 superfortress
named boxcar left the island of tinian carrying its nuclear payload its destination was kakura
which had been designated as a more desirable target than nagasaki by the us military brass
but the orders were only to drop the bomb after visual confirmation of the target something which
boxstar could not obtain because the weather in kakura was cloudy in recent years some have
said that the clouds may have been man-made by burning coldhar the plane circled three times over
the city with its bombay doors open ready to drop the nuke on the 130 000 people waiting helplessly
below but the clouds did not let up so when fuel started to run low boxcar flew to nagasaki
and bombed that city instead number two a birthday party helps the allies win d-day another major
event from world war ii where the weather played a crucial role was d-day june 6 1944 when the
allied forces landed in normandy the germans were uncharacteristically lackadaisia when it
came to the impending invasion the man in charge field marshall irwin rammel wasn't even there on
d-day he was back in germany attending a birthday party it all came down to each side's ability to
forecast the weather the germans expected non-stop bad weather which is why they thought there was no
way the allies would invade any time soon as far as rommel was concerned he had a few free days and
as it happened his wife's 50th birthday was coming up so he bought her a nice pair of shoes in paris
and this was the perfect opportunity for him to go home and surprise her the allies however had
better forecasting technology and they knew that they had a 24-hour window when the weather would
improve on june 6. they took advantage of the opportunity and caught the germans unaware rommel
was at his house in germany when he was informed that the invasion had begun by the time he reached
normandy the allies had already established their positions on all five landing positions
number one a missing key brings about the sinking of the titanic whenever a disaster happens people
naturally wonder if anything could have been done to prevent the tragedy undoubtedly one of the most
notorious disasters of all time is the sinking of the titanic so could anything have been done
to save the doomed passenger ship perhaps according to some scholars who argue that one
misplaced key could have sealed the titanic's fate the key belonged to the crow's nest locker where
the binoculars were stored for the lookouts and it was in the possession of a man named david blair
initially blair had been named the second officer of the titanic responsible for all the navigation
equipment he was aboard the liner during its short voyage from belfast where it was built
to southampton where it was due to depart on its maiden voyage in southampton however he
was replaced with a more experienced officer and when he left the ship he accidentally took the
key with him with the crow's nest locker locked the lookouts relied on their naked eyes which
as we know by now proved insufficient of course we don't know if ultimately the binoculars would
have made the crucial difference but at least one of the lookouts thought so and testified during
the inquiry that with binoculars they would have spotted the iceberg in time to move out of the way
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