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Making a mistake is a completely human thing. From small blunders that go unnoticed to bigger miscalculations that cost a whole day’s work, it happens to everybody every day. Some of those we easily forget; some take a while to get over.

The mistakes documented in the list below are not ones you can easily leave behind. That’s because, firstly, they make quite an impression with their silliness. Secondly, many of them are either permanent or would require some serious effort to fix them. In other words, it’s not that easy to just brush them off as they’re always in your face.

Scroll down to check out the collection of images from the X account Major Mistakes and see it for yourself.

The testament to the idea that mistakes are very common is the amount of them we have experienced throughout history. Some instances could even take us back hundreds if not thousands of years. 

One of the most famous mistakes is the crash of the Titanic. A moonless night paired with an unexpected obstacle caused the loss of 1,514 people. However, as more people are continuing to look into the matter, more mistakes are being found.

Louise Patten, a writer and granddaughter of Titanic second officer Charles Lightoller, once revealed that the steersman of Titanic made a huge mistake when trying to avoid disaster. In a snap decision, he turned the wrong way when the crew identified the iceberg ahead. 

You see, the steering systems in steel boats work in the opposite way compared to sailboats. This, together with the fact that this massive ship was going very fast, made the collision unavoidable.

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Another major mistake that resulted in a wreckage of a vessel that, fortunately, didn’t take any lives happened in 1999. Mars Climate Orbiter was a robotic space probe that was designed by NASA to study the red planet. However, it didn’t succeed in its mission. That is because the company that made the spacecraft, Lockheed Martin, used US customary units while building it even though NASA used the metric system designing it. The silly mistake caused the orbiter to get too close to the planet and, subsequently, destroyed. 

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Some mistakes, however, aren’t that unfortunate. In fact, one could call them lucky accidents. One of them is Ian Fleming’s discovery of penicillin, which made a huge impact on today’s medicine and earned him a Nobel prize.

Apparently, he came back to his (messy?) London lab after his summer holiday and noticed that one of the discarded petri dishes with staphylococcus bacteria had mold in it. The thing that made him curious was the fact that the mold was surrounded by “juice” that protected it from bacteria. He, together with a group of other scientists, started looking into it and soon enough discovered penicillin.

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#14

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George Costanza
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I don't think this is a "mistake". More likely someone crashed into it and they've wrapped the column to prevent bricks from tumbling down. Presumably will eventually get fixed.

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Another medical discovery that could be called a lucky accident is, of course, Viagra. Pfizer scientists were looking for medication to treat high blood pressure and angina, chest pain related to coronary heart disease. 

During the trials, the scientists noticed that a common side effect of the drug was increased erections. Once the chance of the drug working as heart medicine was out of the window, Pfizer pursued a patent for erectile dysfunction medication that soon took the world by storm.

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There are also mistakes that haven’t had such a huge impact on society, but definitely ruined people’s lives. Like the mistake of not checking whether you’ve won the lottery after buying the same numbers for weeks. That is what happened to one British couple who failed to claim their 3,011,065-pound (3,755,114 US dollars) win on time.

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SobyKay
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I'd have to lock myself in at nite so I dont half asleep try to go to the bathroom in the middle of the nite, and you know, just DIE

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The mistake is, certainly, unfortunate. The man had already made plans of ditching his job and traveling the world with money he didn’t yet have. Once it became clear that he would not be getting it, he felt like it had been “taken away” from him. He became obsessed with the lost millions and went into multiple legal battles over them. Soon, his marriage crumbled and he joined a religious cult.

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CascadedFalls
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

This would be such a nuisance. What if you need to put something in a drawer, but there's no more room left in the others?

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sbj
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

They put all their effort into painting numbers instead of moving the clock

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Mistakes are often called “the human factor” because they are inevitable. Some of them are serious. Others simply make us cringe as we’re trying to fall asleep. We hope the images from this list will not haunt you at night. Instead, maybe they can act as a reminder to pay a little more attention when you’re working.

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#28

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The Scout
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

This was probably originally meant as an express bike lane, so it would actually have made sense to cross this way. Only the pedestrians using it defy the purpose.

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Caroline Kimber
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I don't think I've ever taken a corner kick behind bars, but I'm always up for a challenge.

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SourQueen
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

It looks like something you'd see on a Forensic Files episode on how a murderer transported a body..

Some Weirdo
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Ugh. Amateur. You're supposed to inject insulin under his tongue so the mark can't be found, then wrap the body in a garbage bag, and into the trunk with a shovel and drive two hours outside your house so you're out of the geographical profile, then dig a hole twelve feat deep and put a dead animal half way, then at the top, plant an endangered plant so people can't dig it up. But if for some reason they find a way to, the dead animal will come in and they'll stop digging. If they so happen to find the body they'll run a tox screen to see if any drugs were involved, insulin won't show up on a tox screen and if they specifically test for insulin they'll assume it was undiagnosed diabetes. Do it right next time.

John’s Girl
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I don’t know why Chevy Chase’s family didn’t think about this for aunt Edna.

RL R
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

"My grandpa helped me to mount this routine....awww, and where is your grandpa now? He is in the back of our yellow VW bus..."

Janine Hunt-Jackson
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Reminders of National Lampoon's Summer Vacation with Chevy Chase! Except Grandpa is on the back of the car instead of Gramdna on the roof!

Animal lover
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Is this Uncle Fred looking for Aunt Edna? Only Chevy Chase knows

Brian Droste
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

New version of the Beverly Hillbillies except with grandpa instead of grannie.

Mrs S
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Told him if he didn't quit spitting out the window he'd have to ride in back...

Erick L.
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Wonder if it's one of his(her) children who put him/her there?

I heart Boo-BI-es
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Omg this poor person, not sure how much weight those are supposed to hold, but looks like they may be close to exceeding the weight limit. Who thought it was a bright idea to bungee grandpa and that this was the best and safest option?? 🤦‍♀️

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#40

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#42

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Caroline Kimber
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Aww, and when the door is closed, it's a little door for your cat to watch you wee!

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#50

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Alexandra Davis
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Surely this sign means the disabled entrance is straight ahead, just the sign is in a place where it's by these escape stairs? If it meant the ladder, it would have an arrow pointing to the right to the ladders?

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#51

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Francois
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Maybe swap with the one in the picture of the too short faucet

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Rocky
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Can you park your car in front of these people's garage door now?

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Nina
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I wouldn't be surprised if there's a door at ramp-height and they made the ramp because the stairs made it too much of a parkour-challenge.

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The Chronic Insomniac
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

"I'm not paying big money for a plumber when I can fix it myself just as good!!"

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Jrog
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Obviously this image is not real. This was a photoshop job that was very common in the "Failblog" and "Demotivational" websites in the late 2000s.

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