The civil war that tore the United States apart between 1861 and 1865 could probably have been much shorter. The Union may have achieved victory much more swiftly if James Wolfe Ripley, the man in charge of military purchasing, had not systematically blocked the buying of new weapons, judging them to be too expensive, and refusing to buy the best guns from the British, an old enemy. It was a bad move—the Northern forces suffered greatly, with huge loss of life, until 1863 when Ripley was finally replaced.
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Unsynchronized watches hand victory to the Ottomans
This World War I Allied military campaign against the Ottoman army was a disaster, in part because of a failure to synchronize watches. The naval bombardment of the coast ended a full seven minutes early, allowing the Turks plenty of time to regroup, pull themselves together and push back the offensive consisting of over 600 Australian troops, most of whom were killed. As a direct consequence, the Allies withdrew and the Ottomans gained a precious victory that would prolong the war.
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Poor decision-making plunges Ireland into famine
The notorious Irish famine that began in 1845 caused catastrophic damage to the island’s population, resulting in the deaths of over a million people due to malnutrition. The famine was caused by a fungus-like organism that spread through the Irish potato fields, annihilating a crop that had been introduced barely a century earlier. This would not have been such a catastrophe had the country not continued to export other products like butter, peas, beans, fish and honey to the United Kingdom. The situation did not improve until 1852, by which time the damage was done.
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Bankers fail to foresee the stock market crash of 1929
Bankers and the government of the United States decided, during the inter-war years, to turn a blind eye to the rising cost of living, the loss of purchasing power and a financial crisis among farmers. The result? Bank loans became net losses and the market crashed in a single day, launching the U.S., and by extension the rest of the financial world, into a deep recession during which many people lost everything, including their lives.
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and again,,dont they whoever they are say History repetes it self
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Bankers ignore signs pointing to the stock market crash of 2008
Once again in 2008, when banks found themselves overwhelmed by bad mortgages, many bankers had their heads firmly buried in the sand. Nothing was done to solve the problem. The result? Many large banks failed. There was an instant global impact, with investors and pensioners los*ng billions, trust in institutions collapsing and jobs disappearing. The effects were felt in economies across the globe.
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Poor preparation costs the U.S. the Vietnam war
The war that marked the loss of innocence for the United States cost the country dearly both in terms of human lives (over 1.3 million soldiers and civilians died) and the impact on society (media reporting from the war broadcast shocking images to U.S. audiences). The Secretary of Defence and presidential advisors advised a newly-elected Lyndon B. Johnson to carry out an attack on the north of Vietnam to put an end to attempts to join with communists in the South. The operation should have been complete in a matter of weeks. However, American involvement in the conflict lasted for over 10 years. When the U.S. finally withdrew in 1975, nothing had been resolved.
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Bengali genocide facilitated by the United States
Tensions between India and Pakistan reached boiling point in 1971. At the time, Pakistan and the U.S. were good economic and political partners, which is why the American government made the decision to provide Pakistan with arms, in case of potential war. This was a mistake. These weapons were instead used in an attempt to eradicate the population of Bangladesh. Almost 200,000 people were killed while the president at the time—one Richard Nixon—turned a blind eye.
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:( :(
NASA’s deadly negligence
Science is another domain that can suffer from bad decisions. Tragedy struck when senior members of a NASA team ignored the warnings of experts that a component of the Challenger rocket fuselage was vulnerable to erosion. On January 28, 1986, the Challenger exploded 73 seconds after lift-off, killing all seven astronauts on board. The total cost to NASA was over $5.5 billion and space exploration—through which significant technological and scientific advances are made that help all humanity—was set back by several years.
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one for
@picastoc`
Calculus suffers a setback due to parchment recycling It's believed that the disappearance of those cats cats helped rats spread the bubonic plague, or Black Death, that killed hundreds of millions of people in the 1300s.
What on earth is calculus doing in this list? Well, this branch of mathematics, which is essential in terms of its applications in science and elsewhere, could have been put to the service of humanity much earlier. A 14th-century monk, looking for a scrap of parchment to write on, decided to rub off the ink on an old document written by none other than Archimedes, a Greek scientist and mathematical genius who had used that same sheet of parchment for his mathematical scribblings. It took centuries to rediscover this type of calculus, the principles of which Archimedes had discovered long, long ago. What difference might it have made to our lives? We’ll never know.
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one for @Margaret63
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While Pope Gregory IX was in power, he declared that cats were to be associated with devil worship and had them exterminated in droves.
It's believed that the disappearance of those cats cats helped rats spread the bubonic plague, or Black Death, that killed hundreds of millions of people in the 1300s.
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The U.S. government prohibits alcohol and pays a hefty price
In January 1919, the U.S. government decided to prohibit the sale and manufacture of alcohol across the country. This was the result of campaigning by Progressives who wanted to rid the United States of drunkenness, corruption and social injustice. Prohibition, which lasted for 13 years, was not a plan that paid off—quite the contrary. Tax revenue from alcohol sales disappeared and organized crime soared. The lost revenue meant a reduction in investment in services for the population. America stagnated during this period, a situation that was only made worse by the crash of 1929.
