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Someone Asked “What Are Some ‘That Was Way Too Close’ Moments In History?“, And 24 Peeps Delivered
Interview With Expert
Human history has a lot of fascinating highs and lows. It has had many great achievements that no other species on our planet has been able to accomplish. At the same time, there were way too many times when humanity came very close to self-destruction, usually due to someone's unreasonable actions. In fact, when someone asked online to provide examples of these "way too close" moments in history, the netizens did not hold back and provided an extensive list of them. Today, let's take a look at some of them.
More info: Reddit
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#1
In 1957 a fire in the Sellafield nuclear power station (UK) burned through the HEPA filters and should have contaminated the whole North of England, this is known as the UKs biggest nuclear disaster.
The UK was saved by a man named John Cockcroft who during design insisted that a second set of filters be installed on the top of the exhaust towers. All others ridiculed this idea as expensive and redundant and the towers became known as "Cockcroft's Follies" (Folly = lack of good sense; foolishness). These towers saved the UK so we're very lucky for his folly.
this is the story
Edit: I should add that while John Cockcroft's Follies saved large portions of the UK. There were also a large number of people who disregarded orders and entered the reactor to try and manually hammer out the stuck uranium rods using scafold poles to stop the reaction/fire. These people took large doses of radiation to stop the disaster, I'm glad that's a decision I'll never have to make.
Sky Render 1 year ago
It's rather disconcerting how often extensive safety precautions are portrayed as a waste of time and effort with radioactive power sources. The same thing happened with the Fukushima plant's design redundancies. I can't help but think that we as a species aren't responsible enough to work with radioactive power sources if we're this nonchalant about naysaying protections against disaster!
Ken Beattie 1 year ago
The interesting thing to me is that ultimately someone agreed with Cockcroft. If they didn't the extra filters wouldn't have been installed at all. This story actually reads to me like a story about successful risk management.
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Jeevesssssss 1 year ago
That old saying... if you think safety is expensive, try pricing an accident.
Alison Hobbs 1 year ago
The name was changed to Sellafield (to build public confidence) but the nearby beach is still showing radioactivity
RELATED:
#2
2012 Coronal Mass Ejection
The most powerful solar storm in 150 years occurred on July 23rd 2012. Scientists claim that the storm could have knocked out the entire modern world if it had arrived nine days earlier. Luckily for us, it didn’t hit as the earth was in a different position along its orbit
Karri Berkowitz 1 year ago
Wonder if that's what the Mayan "prophecy" of the world ending in 2012 could have been about. Alternate timeline type stuff
#3
When they thought that it might theoretically be possible that testing the atomic bomb would start a reaction that would ignite and burn the entire atmosphere of our planet and tested it anyway. I would say that was a big "PHEW" moment when it was over.
WindySwede 1 year ago
Yes! They calculated this before and realise it was not so close!
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Marie Clear 1 year ago
I think it was more, "If we don't set the atmosphere on fire first, the Germans will in a few months." It really was a race.
Stuart 1 year ago
It blows my mind-and sickens me-that they theorized that and thought it a possibility, but did it anyway.
KillerKiwi 1 year ago
They were desperate… a lot of regrettable things were done
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TotallyNOTAFox 1 year ago (edited)
They also build a shell to detonate the bomb in to collect leftover Plutonium that didn't split - the idea to use it was ditched
The Dean of Columbia University School of the Arts Carol Becker, to whom Bored Panda reached out, pointed out that today we’re living through the climate crisis. And just as many others from the list, this one is also caused by humans, and we acknowledge the fact that we’re also the ones who need to find a way out of it, even if the prospects don’t seem so bright. “Many in the world are already suffering the consequences of climate catastrophe and are not empowered to transform the national behaviors of governments that are contributing to it. We are all in a crisis; one we may not survive.”
#4
Apollo 13 in 1970 when an oxygen tank exploded. Astronauts were stranded in space with little hope. It was nearly a disaster, but their teamwork and clever thinking saved them.
TotallyNOTAFox 1 year ago
It was also an outstanding job of the engineers on the ground as well, as they had to find solutions to make systems work together that were built by different companies and hadn't fitting ports for each other. The scene in the movie where the guy dumbs stuff on the table and tell the engineers to work with that is based on reallity
Freya the Wanderer 1 year ago
Also, the computers, which had been recalcitrant in previous missions, worked and cooperated for once. In other words, Apollo 13 wasn't all bad luck.
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AgingBull 1 year ago
Sounds like a great story they should make a movie about it, if only Tom Hanks was younger he could star in it
MP Deco 1 year ago
simmer down- it would have been catastrophic for those brave astronauts and for the whole space program.....everything is relative...apocolyptic for all those involved.
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Igor914624 1 year ago
Going forward into space, even with all the risks involved, is a worthwhile endeavor. We as a species are getting to the point where we have to find other planets to live on or we will die. Think about this, in 1492 it was extremely risky to sail on an extended ocean voyage. But if it had not been done, Europe would have been overpopulated with all the people that emigrated to the Americas. Same goes for 1606 when Europeans found Australia. Expanding outward relieves population pressure. We have no where left to go on Earth, so we have to expand to the Moon, Mars, and beyond.
Load More Replies... #5
The "Carrington Event" was a *massive* solar storm that happened in 1859 and directly struck the earth. Its strength was such that infused the very air with so much electricity that telegraph wires around the planet erupted in flames or shocked their operators from feet away.
If something like it had happened (or does happen) today, it will radically affect civilization by physically destroying or incapacitating most of our modern technology.
Tucker Cahooter 1 year ago
Oh well, I guess I would just go back to reading books instead of aimlessly surfing the web
Ken Beattie 1 year ago
Depending on how long it lasts and exactly what it affects it'd be devastating though. So you could basically read your books until you starve to death. Most cities are only a few days away from running out of food. Most vehicles now have enough electronics and computerization that they may just stop working. So, harvesting the food, no transporting the food to the cities. And while we're at it, it's possible your money could either completely vanish (I suspect not, since the servers or at least backups should be shielded) or at least be unable to access it since phone banking, atms, applepay etc will all likely be down.
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Steve Hall 1 year ago
The smart phone generation won't be able to function at all. No phones, no video games, no electricity.
Lotekguy 1 year ago
It's not just them. All adults in developed countries depend completely on tech for survival. The only generational difference is which devices we use most. From toys to pacemakers the need exists.
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InfiniteZeek 1 year ago
Honestly, that would be great. Just reset all the BS that banks, and wallstreet have wreaked on the world. Also, f**k student loans.
TotallyNOTAFox 1 year ago
Until you need food, water, gas or medical attention
Load More Replies... Kate 1 year ago
You mean alongside supervolcanoes, gamma ray bursts, asteroids, or just sheer absolute random but mundane disasters?
Load More Replies... #6
Ögedei Khan, Genghis Khan's third son and heir, died in December of 1241. Prior to his death, a Mongol army under his nephew Batu and a general named Subatai had been given authority to conquer Europe all the way to the Atlantic. Upon news of his death, they turned around and went back to help choose the next Great Khan. No further Mongol invasion of Europe ever got beyond the planning stages. Now we can talk about the practical limitations of a steppe army campaigning all the way to the Atlantic successfully —ignoring Atilla the Hun managed to get as far as Northern France and Northern Italy seven centuries earlier without proper siege equipment— but the Mongols had already successfully penetrated as far as Poland and Hungary, beating organized European resistance along the way without a lot of difficulty. It doesn't seem incredible to me that a military that could conquer China would have caused incredible devastation in central and western Europe.
What does European history look like if large parts of it had been either devastated by foreign invaders or even ruled by a Mongol dynasty in the 13th Century? We don't know because one man who most people have never heard of drank himself to death, and an otherwise victorious, well-led, well-equipped, and motivated army had to go home to decide who to take orders from next.
Annik Perrot 1 year ago
The whole European history is about invasions, dating back to Stone Age. So one more might have changed things, but maybe not so much.
Two_rolling_black_eyes 1 year ago
Both the pope and the Holy Roman Empire sent envoys to surrender to avoid slaughter but the Mongol horde returned East faster than the couriers trying to reach them. This wasn't the first time a successful invasion stopped because the leader died. If it wasn't for the fact that the Mongols based their leadership on a democratic election held at only one place, we'd all be speaking Mongolian.
Sean Martin 1 year ago
I was going to say this. The more I learn about Russia, the more you see how heavily influenced Russia was by Mongolian rule. It's tragic. Ironic now though that Mongolia has a strong democracy and Russia stays authoritarian.
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Andres Tejeda 1 year ago
If he had invaded Europe I don't think he would have been too successful in conquering all of it.
Kate 1 year ago
Eh, it's debatable. Holding onto the land and pacifying it, you're right, that would've been highly unlikely. But conquering? Europe was a bunch of smaller kingdoms then, intensely suspicious of each other. Conquering that wouldn't have been out of the question.
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Carol Becker also talked about how people tend to react to the possible destructive crises differently, so there’s no way to say how the majority of people would react without gross generalization. “There are so many cultures, nationalities, religious, spiritual, economic and social considerations that make individuals and groups unique.”
Yet, we can guess that any of these kinds of situations are scary for people to live through. For this reason, some specialists provide certain tips on how to deal with crises emotionally. Here are some of them:
#7
The Black Death - The plague caused an epidemic in China in the 1330s, and again in the 1350s, causing tens of millions of deaths. The 1330s outbreak also spread west across Central Asia via traders using the Silk Road.
Occurring in Europe from 1346 to 1353. One of the most fatal pandemics in human history, as many as 50 million people perished, perhaps 50% of Europe’s 14th century population. Bubonic plague is caused by the bacterium Yersinia pestis and spread by fleas.
The plague did not stop entirely until the early eighteenth century (1700-1799).
David Paterson 1 year ago (edited)
There are a lot of cases of Yersinia pestis (Black death) currently in Arizona and many more in Madagascar and Sub-Saharan Africa. We're just waiting for it to develop drug resistance and wipe out a sizeable fraction of the World's total population. According to recent genetic work, Yersinia pestis is the most common human disease in world history since the end of the Ice Ages.
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Simon Kendra 1 year ago
It’s a near miss because it had the potential to wipe us all out.
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Mark Karol-Chik 1 year ago
Christianity had a bit to do with this, when Pope Gregory IX decided cats were evil, and thus, exterminated cats by the thousands, and that led to rat and mice infestation. Again- F**k religion.
Terran 1 year ago (edited)
That's mostly a made up story. While Gregory IX wrote a papal letter to one bishop in which he said cats were in cahoots with the devil, there is no evidence that this idea really became public. There is no evidence at all that mass killings of cats happened at the time. The true "failure" of the church at the time was to hold masses to pray the plague away. Of course this was a perfect environment for the plague to spread, but the church couldn't really know that at the time.
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BarkingSquirell 1 year ago
I didn't know about the extent of casualties from these plagues - thanks for the information.
Ken Beattie 1 year ago
Why not? If it had been just a little worse there may not be a human race at all. Or at least not a world like there is now.
Load More Replies... #8
The oil well fires in Kuwait almost gave us a taste of what a nuclear winter would be like. Blowing the fires out with a MIG engine and dousing them with a gas turbine turned out to be the heavy hitters in fixing the issue.
Mark 1 year ago
Honestly check out the Kuwait fire truck that helped stop these fires. A t-34 tank chassis with 2 turbojet engines used on the MiG 21, with a couple of hoses up front. It’s called ’Big Wind’ and looks like something out of WH40K or something
PataSata 1 year ago
And it's a Hungarian build, built originally for extinguishing the 1968. december 19. gas well fire in Algyő, Hungary. https://hu.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Wind
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Peter Trudell Jr 1 year ago
I believe they sent Red Adair in there in '91 to help with those. Red Adair's a fascinating person.
SirWriteALot 1 year ago
Didn't they also use explosives to blow out the fires so they could then repair the pumps?
jimmy pop 1 year ago
Just read the wiki article about the fires. Wasn't close at all it seems. There were hypotheses that sunlight would heat up the smoke particles and raise them into the stratosphere, where they would travel far and linger long causing nuclear winter like effects in the northern hemisphere, esp. Asia, but that never happened. Chemical binding and "deactivation" by cloud condensation and rainfall washing the soot out of the air prevented that and kept the damaging effects locally. I don't think any of that would have changed if the fires burnt for longer, though it was projected they'd have burnt for 3-5 years before going out on their own. So, who really knows.
The Alchemist 1 year ago
By "taste of nuclear winter" it is meant that global temperature could have dropped, with heavy global contamination, acid rain, etcetera. The writer of this is very well aware that oil fires do not produce direct nuclear fallout and contamination
Load More Replies... #9
Three Mile Island was way way worse than what the government revealed.
Then there was a plan to lift the melted core out with the lift which hadn't been used or tested since the accident. Had that failed, and dropped the core - which it probably would have - could have made most of the East Coast uninhabitable.
There's a very scary documentary on Netflix that reviews everything.
Lotekguy 1 year ago (edited)
For decades, it's not been any President who loved spending big bucks on war stuff, it's been CONGRESS, because they all want the jobs and economic benefits for their states and districts from having the factories cranking out weapons and vehicles at full speed, and the military bases overflowing with personnel. That was Eusenhower's warning in the 1950s, and it's grown more prophetic ever since. And for those who don't know, he was our highest ranking general in WW II, and a Republican president.
CaptainSlapNTickle 1 year ago
Well, there wouldn't be trump, gangsta rap, the litany of Wall Street financial crimes and all of the other c**p that comes with nyc. Just sayin'...
If the tips provided by professionals aren't enough to calm the anxiety caused due to a global crisis, some anxiety exercises can be tried.
For example, the so-called "54321 method." With this grounding method, you have to:
- Look for 5 things you can see;
- Focus on 4 things you can touch;
- Listen for 3 things you can hear;
- Find 2 things you can smell;
- Name 1 thing you can taste.
#10
In 1797, HMS Minerve, a lone British frigate in the Mediterranean, blundered into an entire hostile Spanish fleet including 25 ships of the line in foggy weather. Fortunately, none of the Spaniards noticed her and she was able to escape, link up with the main British fleet and report the Spanish movements leading to a battle shortly afterwards.
Minerve’s Captain was one Horatio Nelson.
#11
Cuban missile crisis
David Paterson 1 year ago (edited)
The American army had shortly before that moved nuclear missiles up in Turkey to within easy reach of Moscow. The Russians saw this as preparations for NATO to invade Russia, which it was. Cuba is way further from the USA than those American nuclear missiles in Turkey were from the Soviet border. The Russians were not happy.
Peter Trudell Jr 1 year ago
indeed, all Russia wanted was the missiles moved out of Turkey. It's a very complex and interesting series of events that thankfully had enough sane people on both sides to keep it from turning hot. Look into the US blockade of Cuba during the crisis... that's the scariest part.
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Panda-sized Potato 1 year ago
This was so close to starting WW3. The Russians had sent a submarine with nuclear capabilities to Cuba. The US Navy had detected it, and dropped signalling depth charges, as a way to tell the sub crew that they we detected. The Russians thought they were being attacked. Their orders gave them the power to launch the nukes, only if all three officers agreed to it. Two said yes, one said no.
DB 1 year ago
More likely that for that to have happened between 2000 and 2008.Bush was far too trigger happy.
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Downunderdude 1 year ago
In 1962, my father was a British RAF officer on an exchange posting with the USAF. He worked at North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) which was the USAF operations centre built INSIDE Cheyenne mountain in Colorado Springs and was one of, if not THE prime targets for the Russian missiles in Cuba. I was 6 and I can remember my parents being glued to the TV and shushing me and telling me to go away. I found out why years later!
B 1 year ago
My father was in the US Marines at the time escorting the missiles, they had multiple drills per day where an alarm would go off & they were to board the ship transporting the weapons & slit everyone's throat & take over the boat . They did the drills so it became second nature & they would do it without a second thought
#12
Shortly after Cook discovered Australia, he was mapping its Eastern coast when his ship (HMS Endeavour) ran aground on part of the reef now called ‘Endeavour Reef’.
4 miles from land, the ship was stricken and had a gaping hole in the keel. The crippled ship would go down if freed from the reef because of the hole.
Cook was stranded.
A member of his crew (who’s name I don’t know, and may be forgotten to history - someone can correct me) suggested they ‘fother’ the Endeavour’s hull. An unorthodox method of soaking a sail in oil and wrapping it round the ship like a crude bandage.
This allowed Endeavour to limp to the mainland where full scale repairs could be made.
If Cook had lost the endeavour, and probably many of his crew during this - his return to England would have been extremely unlikely of not impossible.
If he hadn’t reported his discovery of Australia, the English would have never claimed it and in all likelihood focused their colonial efforts elsewhere. Namely America, resulting in a more substantial and perhaps longer lasting American colony.
Also, the French would have more than likely discovered and colonised Australia (their expeditions in the Australia region at that time suggest this).
Geopolitics would look very different today if that unnamed sailor didn’t know about ‘Fothering’.
The Cuban missile crisis probably wouldn’t have been a thing.
Tucker Cahooter 1 year ago
Pity, we would have had better food much sooner, and not be plagued by rabbits and foxes either. And the English would have had to find someone else to teach and lose at cricket to
Ken Beattie 1 year ago
Of course I and many other Aussies wouldn't have been born, so there's that 0_o And we absolutely would have had rabbits. French eat lapin too. Maybe not the foxes though.
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geezeronthehill 1 year ago
Fothering was a well established technique. Surely Cook would have known about it.
Lotekguy 1 year ago
The resourceful crewman who came up with the idea was named MacGyver. One of his descendants later invented duct tape.
General Anaesthesia 1 year ago
Cook did not "discover" Australia. "...the first documented landing on Australia by a European was in 1606. The Dutch explorer Willem Janszoon landed on the western side of Cape York Peninsula and charted about 300 km of coastline." - www.nla.gov.au
Ross Shaw 1 year ago
Nope on Janszoon too: "Analysis of maternal genetic lineages revealed that Aboriginal populations moved into Australia around 50,000 years ago." https://www.unsw.edu.au/newsroom/news/2018/08/when-did-aboriginal-people-first-arrive-australia#:~:text=Analysis%20of%20maternal%20genetic%20lineages,west%20of%20modern%2Dday%20Adelaide.
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Brandy Schwartz 1 year ago
This is incorrect. America was already a British colony when this happened. England's interest in Australia came about because of the Revolution. After the U.S. won its independence, England needed another place to send convicts. Australia became that place.
Paul Pienkowski 1 year ago
Thank you boat guy for distracting the English long enough to let us win independence.
Or the "five-count breath" exercise, which technically works as meditation: you inhale your breath for a count of 5, then hold your breath for a count of 5, and exhale for a count of 5. There are other similar variations of the technique. And if these don't work, there are plenty of other anxiety-calming exercises to try out. As always, it's up to the person to decide which fits them the best.
How do you think you would cope with a global crisis? Maybe there are some methods you have already tried out, knowing what's going on in the world right now? Share them with us in the comments.
#13
Europe declaring war on Napoleon.
Not France...Napoleon.
Two_rolling_black_eyes 1 year ago
This isn't a close call. He had a good run but they beat his a*s twice. The Russians just used weather and famine to do it.
TotallyNOTAFox 1 year ago (edited)
The second time was done by german troops from Hannover - 400 men stopped the french army till the british forces could arrive at Waterloo. Not in direct combat, they just kept firing volleys of shots that made them look like a much bigger force
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marianne eliza 1 year ago
I hate that painting. As an equestrienne all I can think is "Get those heels down!!!
Paul Pienkowski 1 year ago
No one can beat Russian winter, no matter how big the army. Unless the other army ALSO grew up in alike climates. Slava Ukraini.
DC 1 year ago
Well ... I even consider the war the allied forces led against germany as a war against a certain ideology and group of persons. Would I've been in germany back then, knowing and being what I know and am today, I'd travel to UK in August of 1939, search an office of the RAF and declare myself willing to bomb my hometown and shoot my relatives off the sky (ok, no known ancestor served in the Luftwaffe, my Dad served in the Bundes-Luftwaffe - obviously, postwar-west ... seventies). Fun fact: I live in the exact and only spot this building was hit by a bomb and rebuilt later. Putting a nail in, at times, excavates newspapers from 1946 to 1948, ...
Jay Cee 2 weeks ago
Yes, instead of being a defeat, May 1945 is regarded as the "Liberation of Germany" - whatever happened to the 8.5 MILLION members of the NSDAP?
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Michael Largey 1 year ago
Europe was also declaring war on the French Revolution - which had the nerve to depose their God-appointed king. The monarchs of Europe did not want their own people to get the idea that this was permitted.
#14
In 1983, Stanislav Petrov received a nuclear early warning missile warning that missiles from the US were heading towards the USSR. He decided it was a false alarm and didn't start the process for retaliation. It was later revealed that, most likely, there would not have been a retaliatory attack by the Soviets as they would have wanted further confirmation, but some people believe he saved world from all out nuclear war. Edit: Because of that, I change my answer. In 8th grade, I accidentally almost brushed Sally McNeilson's epic boobs. I was just turning around and waving at the field to tell someone that there was his friend playing basketball, and I almost made contact when I turned around. Now, you may think, is that really a "moment in history?" Well, if you saw her rack at a 13 year old, you'd immediately agree.
vtssge1968 said:
Drunk Nixon wanting to launch nukes is definitely up there, the Russian sub that denied orders to use a nuke, and the false alarm in Russia that the us had launched nukes on them.
Freya the Wanderer 1 year ago
Stanislav Petrov's birthday should be an international holiday. He saved civilization, if not all humanity and the planet.
#15
Our human ancestors nearly went extinct 930,000 years ago. There were 1280 breeding humans at one point and we all come from them.
Ansi 1 year ago
A census taker actually tried to test them. But unfortunately they ate his liver with some fava beans and a nice Chianti. 😕
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Dan Flo 1 year ago
Yeah thats wild! What is next, they gonna tell us those 1280 people were not even made out of clay?!
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Becky Samuel 1 year ago
There are two citations already in the comments, if you care to look at them.
Load More Replies... Pedantic Panda 1 year ago
https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.abq7487
Load More Replies... #16
Have you heard about the 1967 solar storm? It's not as famous as some others, but it had the potential to kick off a nuclear war. The storm messed with the US air force's radar systems, making them think they were under attack.
#17
The American Revolution. Some years ago I read a book called “Almost a Miracle” which was a narrative about the American Revolution and the whole thing was hanging by a string the entire time. Troops coming and going, the struggles to pay them and afford supplies and munitions, losses in the field, bickering by a divided congress and many other factors kept the struggle for independence on the razor’s edge of collapse from beginning to end. I recommend the book wholeheartedly.
Rebecca Gunder 1 year ago
Despite contentions, they succeeded. We can't even agree to send aid to Ukraine without strings attached.
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TotallyNOTAFox 1 year ago (edited)
A big part was done by Friedrich Wilhelm von Steuben, a broke prussian officer that came to America and trained Washington's troops in effective combat techniques
JessieJ&LilyLovebug 1 year ago
A lot of towns and cities wouldn't be named after French General Lafayette, who saved the collective buttocks of the Revolutionaries, either.
CP 1 year ago
I always heard that 1/3 of the population wanted to break form England, 1/3 didn't care and 1/3 were loyalists. Not sure how accurate that stat is though.
Michael Largey 1 year ago
That was John Adams' approximation of the situation.
Load More Replies... #18
1973 the Yom Kippur War.
Israel had their backs against the wall and they were ready to go nuclear. The US had to resupply them or else they would have gone nuclear. In retaliation for the US resupplying Israel, the Soviet Union deployed tactical nuclear weapons to Egypt.
In retaliation the US deployed tactical nuclear weapons in Vietnam. With the intention of marching on Hanoi with full tactical nuclear support if Nuclear weapons were fired in the middle east.
Ken Beattie 1 year ago
The irony being that more nukes actually ends up creating the stalemate so they aren't used. If just one side had them things would likely have become way more ugly.
Load More Replies... Andres Tejeda 1 year ago
Yeah, this would have pretty much set up us living in the Mad Max apocalyptic future.
The Darkest Timeline 1 year ago
Well, not “us” but anyone unlucky enough to survive
Load More Replies... Stuart 1 year ago
Cool, so 28 years after the Holocaust, Israel planned to commit genocide on the neighbors in a nuclear holocaust.
Just Another Human 1 year ago
They were facing complete and utter defeat, and the expulsion of Jews from MENA following the creation of Israel can tell you how they would have been treated had the Arabs won. It wasn't genocide. It was MAD in the form of the Samson Protocol. Every nuclear nation has a similar plan.
Load More Replies... Stephanie A Mutti 1 year ago
We are not to be trusted with weapons that are so easily destructive.
Nicola Mawson 1 year ago
I'm not following the logic of war in Vietnam in retribution for Russia, apart from the Americans seeing themselves as communist fighters and deciding that Russia wasn't a good target based on history
StretcherBearer 1 year ago
More or less Vietnam intervention was brought about by the concept of the Cordon Sanitaire (my spelling may be off) or stopping the spread of communism in the east. This is of course a complete oversimplification.
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#19
Chernobyl disaster in 1986, narrowly avoiding a catastrophic meltdown with global consequences.
Libstak 1 year ago
This wasnt a near miss, there was a meltdown. Toxic radiation was carried across half of Europe and its still a highly radioactive no go zone today.
Terry Waters 1 year ago
As usual this article is a mix of comments taken from Reddit by a BoredPanda worker. That aside, they aren't talking about the disaster in general, they are talking about a chain reaction (a steam explosion of some kind iirc) that would have made things way worse, and that was stopped by a few individuals who risked their lives do to so.
Load More Replies... Ace 1 year ago
How much worse would it need to have been before you'd label it 'catastrophic'. It was certainly a catastrophe by any definition of the word that I can think of.
Terry Waters 1 year ago
They aren't talking about the disaster in general, they are talking about a chain reaction (a steam explosion of some kind iirc) that would have made things way worse, and that was stopped by a few individuals who risked their lives do to so.
Load More Replies... Jack Burton 1 year ago
I live in south east of France. French government told us the toxic radiation were stopped by the Alps. Just at french border. How convenient !
Pittsburgh rare 1 year ago
Ukrainian kids used to come every summer to Spain to spend a couple of months in a radiation free area. Many were eventually adopted and many others returned as adults and settled here.
Load More Replies... Jack Burton 1 year ago (edited)
It was a catastrophic meltdown, i'd say it was awful enough to not appear here
#20
Michael Jackson was supposed to be at the World Trade Center on the morning of 9/11, but he overslept.
Ele V 1 year ago
Ok but that massively pales in comparison to the rest of the issues in this article...
CaptainSlapNTickle 1 year ago
Oh darn. A child rapist could have perished along with thousands of decent people who actually died. 🙄😳
Libstak 1 year ago (edited)
In whose reckoning? HIs? Because when Princess Diana died he apparently had been advised a famous person was going to die suddenly by some Hollywood clairvoyant and he was oh so scared it was gonna be him. He suffered main character syndrome to the Max. And, no I doubt there was even a verifiable clairvoyant.
Becky Samuel 1 year ago
The injuries he suffered filming a Pepsi commercial left him in constant agony, which made it almost impossible to sleep or get any relief. Howard Hughes had the same problem. Many people with this condition end up killing themselves because they can't live with the unending agony.
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#21
The British almost colonized the Philippines, as part of the seven year's war from 1756-1763, a British expeditionary force led by Admiral Samuel Cornish and General William Draper attacked Manila in 1762 hoping to gain a strategic foothold in the region and establish their dominance over the Pacific trade. The Spanish forces offered little resistance, and after a fierce battle, the British took control of Manila for 2 years. During this period, the British attempted to establish a colonial government and negotiate a permanent settlement with Spain . However, the Treaty of Paris in 1763 ended the Seven Year's War, and as a part of peace settlement, the British was forced to return Manila to Spain.
#22
The Toba Catastrophe reduced the human population to somewhere between 3,000-10,000 in number.
G R 1 year ago
Bear in mind this is only a theory. There's no actual proof that it actually happened, and certain physical evidence debunks it. (Yes, the Toba volcano did erupt, but the idea that it caused widespread environmental damage or reduced the human population is purely a theory - that's why it's called the Toba Catastrophe Hypothesis.)
Ken Beattie 1 year ago
It seems unlikely when you read their argument that it's the reason why human kind has less genetic diversity than a pack of chimpanzees. If the volcano caused that effect on humans, then surely chimps would suffer the same lack of diversity?
Load More Replies... Two_rolling_black_eyes 1 year ago
This hypothesis has been largely debunked. Only anecdotal evidence at limited sites has been found. For something to cause that amount of devastation, it would need more evidence from sites around the world. A volcanic winter lasting 12 years that causes mass extinction would have a bigger record.
#23
Battle of Verdun in the great war
T. 1 year ago (edited)
Verdun was a big French fortress, and if taken, would have allowed the Germans to break up the trench warfare. Although casualties were about half per day at Verdun as at the battle of the Somme, it dured more than twice as long. It's one of the big "material-battles" at the hight of trench warfare. -- Verdun: 21. Feb - 19. Dec. 1916 / Cas: 700K-940K -- Somme: 1. Jul - 18. Nov. 1916 / Cas: around 1.08M Edit: To get a better picture: The front at Verdun moved a total distance of 5-10km (3-6mi) back and forth in 11 months.
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gerard julien 1 year ago
""Falkenhayn had underestimated the French, for whom victory at all costs was the only way to justify the sacrifices already made; the French army never came close to collapsing and causing a premature British relief offensive. The ability of the German army to inflict disproportionate losses had also been overestimated. the collapse in Russia and the power of the Anglo-French attack on the Somme reduced the German armies to holding their positions as best they could. On 29 August, Falkenhayn was sacked and replaced by Hindenburg and Ludendorff, who ended the German offensive at Verdun on 2 September."
Max Fox 1 year ago
There is the opposite. During WWII, as the Nazis sent their forces through the Ardennes, they were forced together and were advancing down a very narrow corridor. France reconnaissance pilots spotted them and reported to the French high commend who refused to believe the reports. Had the French High Command not been filled with people who had s**t for brains, they could have ended the invasion of France before it happened, and likely ended the war.
#24
The times in the 20th century when Russia, America and England were **directly ordered** to start WWIII, but someone chose to willingly disobey the order.
James Blunt was ordered to do it when he was serving in Kosovo, and US Secretary Colin Powell even got on the radio to tell him that he would face a court martial if he refused to comply. He said that the whole experience is what made him want to retire from the military in order to pursue a career in music instead.
There were also quite a few instances where glitches in the defense AI had detected a missile had already been launched, and it was the human operators who refused to launch a "counter attack". This is really what stuff like The Terminator, and the song 99 Red Balloons were inspired by; it was meant to show us what would happen if we didn't have human cooperation and communication too.
Two_rolling_black_eyes 1 year ago
This is riddled with factual inaccuracies. I started typing them out and ran out of characters. There were many close calls but this post is fallacies, misattributed actions, and conspiracy theories.
George Lehmann 1 year ago
I think half the posts on this thread fall in that same category.
Load More Replies... 90HD 1 year ago
What a wonderful photo BP of Imperial infantrymen amassing for a training excersise on the Russian border on the planet Tatooine. It was a decisive moment in the Galactic Cold war, where the Federation came very close to destruction.
Rayne OfSalt 1 year ago
half of those amassed there are rebel forest troops, along with a couple of jedi and some clone troopers. a strange assemblage indeed.
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Ken Beattie 1 year ago
More information: https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-11753050
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Frank Miller 1 year ago
Yeah, ummm, to be rather Blunt, that's b******t; repeated by someone who clearly doesn't know jack about who Colin Powell really was.
KillerKiwi 1 year ago
If anybody was wondering Kosovo is located in the Balkans, near Bosnia and Croatia in Eastern Europe.
Jay Cee 2 weeks ago
And, for the American audience, Europe is what you bump into if you fly 3000 miles east from New York
Load More Replies... David Paterson 1 year ago
I don't know about "directly ordered to start WWIII", but there were at least two direct orders during the cold war to use nuclear weapons on an enemy. Both from America.
pasej41913@bustayes.com 1 year ago
Wrong. The Soviets had at least two that we know of and are even listed in this article. Quit lying just because you hate the United States (yet not Russia for some reason).
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What do you think ?
Freya the Wanderer 1 year ago
I enjoy posts like this, but I will really appreciate some fact-checking beforehand. Too many "facts" are in fact bull doo-doo.
Marnie 1 year ago
At one point, the Shawnee chief Tecumseh had gathered up an army from many tribes to try to stop the European colonists from taking over their lands. Things came to a head when he had 10,000 men ready and available to come to fight with one day's notice. The were definitely a match for the colonists and had they attacked, they could have won. Then there was Tecumseh's brother, Tenskwatawa, aka The Prophet. He had great influence over the people as well. Well, the night before the attack, he told the fighters that their shirts made them invulnerable to bullets. He got them to attack early. They lost resoundingly. The entire history of the region of the US likely would have been different if not for The Prophet's decision that night. (I am summarizing this from reading about it 25 years ago. I might have it a little bit wrong, but this is the jist of it.)
Roberta Surprenant 1 year ago (edited)
Cuban missile crisis... my uncle was a Colonel in SAC (strategic air command), most of our family lived in the SF Bay Area. At the time there were half a dozen military bases (at least) in the region. Although it was against regs, Uncle Jackson called Grandma to warn her to make sure family were all able to be near each other during that time. Because of all the Navy, Army, and Air Force bases we were considered a "prime target" if attack came.
pasej41913@bustayes.com 1 year ago
Anne Frank didn't have nuclear weapons and she died horribly, that's not exactly a near miss.
Load More Replies... Freya the Wanderer 1 year ago
I enjoy posts like this, but I will really appreciate some fact-checking beforehand. Too many "facts" are in fact bull doo-doo.
Marnie 1 year ago
At one point, the Shawnee chief Tecumseh had gathered up an army from many tribes to try to stop the European colonists from taking over their lands. Things came to a head when he had 10,000 men ready and available to come to fight with one day's notice. The were definitely a match for the colonists and had they attacked, they could have won. Then there was Tecumseh's brother, Tenskwatawa, aka The Prophet. He had great influence over the people as well. Well, the night before the attack, he told the fighters that their shirts made them invulnerable to bullets. He got them to attack early. They lost resoundingly. The entire history of the region of the US likely would have been different if not for The Prophet's decision that night. (I am summarizing this from reading about it 25 years ago. I might have it a little bit wrong, but this is the jist of it.)
Roberta Surprenant 1 year ago (edited)
Cuban missile crisis... my uncle was a Colonel in SAC (strategic air command), most of our family lived in the SF Bay Area. At the time there were half a dozen military bases (at least) in the region. Although it was against regs, Uncle Jackson called Grandma to warn her to make sure family were all able to be near each other during that time. Because of all the Navy, Army, and Air Force bases we were considered a "prime target" if attack came.
pasej41913@bustayes.com 1 year ago
Anne Frank didn't have nuclear weapons and she died horribly, that's not exactly a near miss.
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