This is kind of a follow up to the "History's Epic Failures" thread posted a while ago.
I am specifically thinking of small events that happened which changed the coarse of the world. Here is one I that think about sometimes. I don't think people who started the act of kindness though it would bring down the whole system in 2 months,
Everyone remembers the East Germans and West Germans pulling that wall down, but that even may have not happened, at least that soon, if Hungary and Austria didn't collaborate to show that they could essentially
make the wall useless. It wasn't without risk either. Hungary could have been severely reprimanded for help.
The Pan-European Picnic
On Aug 19, 1989, Hungary was sick of being controlled by the Soviet block and after seeing Poland have a successful revolution unscathed by Russia, they decided to not obey the Soviet border restriction imposed on them and open their border to Austria. Citizens cut the barbed wire fences and allowed hundred of east German families to unite with their West German counter parts in what was both heart wrenching and joyful to watch. It was the first free border between the capitalist West and a communist country still technically with the Soviet Bloc.
I feel this was the indirect act of civil disobedience which brought the whole bloc system down, inducing the USSR eventually. By November, there was little East Germans could do to stop their citizens from travelling through Hungary to defect or visit. The East Germans relaxed their own border with West Germany to try and stop it, but by that time. Within 5 days of passing that new law, the Berlin Wall came tumbling.
It's also worth mentioning that Hungary's 1956 revolution to leave the block was crushed by Russian tanks, but in the end, they figured out just how to do it the right way.
Edit Sorry this post is full of shabby writing. So tired today, I fixed some but try your best...
__________________
"A pessimist thinks things can't get any worse. An optimist knows they can."
Last edited by FlamesAddiction; 05-20-2020 at 03:39 PM.
The Following 2 Users Say Thank You to FlamesAddiction For This Useful Post:
The maps of the Moon that were created at the Lunar and Planetary Laboratory have long since been surpassed, and those best-ever photographs of the lunar surface aren't nearly as good as those of taken by more recent orbiters. But the organization that Kuiper started continues to explore.
Friedrich Wilhelm Herschel a British astronomer was the first person in recorded history to discover a new planet. In March 1781, while looking for so called 'double stars' he found a celestial body which was proven to be a planet placed beyond the orbit of Saturn. To gain favor with the king he named it Georgium sidus - but the name Uranus was later accepted.
On a side note Herschel was also ripping musician.
Last edited by TheIronMaiden; 05-20-2020 at 01:20 PM.
The Following User Says Thank You to TheIronMaiden For This Useful Post:
Waterloo would be the obvious example, had Napoleon beaten Wellington he could have handled Blucher fairly easily after and quite possibly knocked Prussia out of the war, that would have left him unchallenged on the continent again at least for a few years, as it was the one battle destroyed all of that
The discovery of vaccination by Edward Jenner (and it's continued improvement and expansion), and the discovery of penicillin by Sir Alexander Fleming radically changed human life expectancy, and ushered in a new era for the general quality of health in society.
__________________
Pylon on the Edmonton Oilers:
"I am actually more excited for the Oilers game tomorrow than the Flames game. I am praying for multiple jersey tosses. The Oilers are my new favourite team for all the wrong reasons. I hate them so much I love them."
The discovery of vaccination by Edward Jenner (and it's continued improvement and expansion), and the discovery of penicillin by Sir Alexander Fleming radically changed human life expectancy, and ushered in a new era for the general quality of health in society.
Big Pharma man, they've taken over your mind, wake up sheeple!!!
Big Pharma man, they've taken over your mind, wake up sheeple!!!
It's crazy to even imagine all of the different diseases running rampant a few hundred years ago. Society today has shut down because of the coronavirus, in an effort to reduce it's impact. The toll has been immense.
Our ancestors dealt with typhoid, diphtheria, measles, smallpox, mumps, tetanus, polio.....the list goes on. Truly a gauntlet to run if you wanted to beat the average life expectancy.
__________________
Pylon on the Edmonton Oilers:
"I am actually more excited for the Oilers game tomorrow than the Flames game. I am praying for multiple jersey tosses. The Oilers are my new favourite team for all the wrong reasons. I hate them so much I love them."
The battle of Vienna in 1529. This one was actually so close to being an epic failure too.
After taking Constantinople, the Ottomans viewed themselves as the legal and rightful successor to the Roman Empire. They saw the Holy Roman Empire as usurpers and want to defeat them badly and Vienna was the gate city to take
For the most part, Austria was really under equipped and were under siege so hard, many Austrians had actually fled or had to be held up in the citadel. The Ottomans dug tunnels under the castle were bombing under the castle as well.
Certain defeat looked imminent. Austria had appealed for weeks for reinforcements from the Polish and Lithuanians who said they would come, but they still weren't there. But then just as people starting accepting their fate, the Pole and Lithuanians slowly sauntered on the the field well rested and ready to go. It ended up being a route as by that time, the Ottomans were exhausted.That was the last time the Ottomans ever attempted,
The show that the Polish and Lithuanians put on was for effect. It was common when countries in Europe needed help, they would agree by also try to show them who is more powerful.
If you read or watch videos about Michael the Brave who tried to form alliances in Romanian states to fight back the Ottomans, it was non-stop back stabbing. There are similar stories about the Reconquista in Spain. One Spanish King actually requested a Crusade again another fellow Christian Kingdom. Europe just had such little cohesion or ideals honor during those time. The Turks and Arabs in Spain were equally as dumb in a lot ways too. They could not resist pillaging and taking slaves. Some estimates say 7-8% of the people travelling with their armies were Christian slave. It slowed down their advances and retreats.
The Arabs that conquered southern Spain and called it Al-Andalus were also buttheads in a lot of ways. They became obsessed with northern white girls and brought them back to Al-Andalus after raiding into France and sold for wives and slaves. They were described as: "beautiful, yellow haired, blue eyes, slim with large breasts and thick legs". It got to the point that the society went into civil strife when Arab men could not marry off their daughters since white slave girls were cheaper to buy. As a side note, these activities in Spain were one of the events that became a symbol for anti-Semetism in Europe. Since there were many Jewish merchants that traveled in Spain and with the Arabs in North Africa and Al-Andalus, the Jews tended to be the brokers of the captured slaves, mainly because they were usually educated and were multi-lingual.
Sorry, that got off the tracks a little.
__________________
"A pessimist thinks things can't get any worse. An optimist knows they can."
Last edited by FlamesAddiction; 05-21-2020 at 01:15 PM.
I don't know if I'd call it a win, it reached win conditions, but it set back a draw back on the cold war between the East and West and the reform of the Soviet Government by decades.
It also allowed a succession of hardliners and party hacks to ascend to power.
__________________
My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings;
The discovery of vaccination by Edward Jenner (and it's continued improvement and expansion), and the discovery of penicillin by Sir Alexander Fleming radically changed human life expectancy, and ushered in a new era for the general quality of health in society.
Another similar one:
On March 26, 1953, American medical researcher Dr. Jonas Salk announces on a national radio show that he has successfully tested a vaccine against poliomyelitis, the virus that causes the crippling disease of polio.
Polio was a huge problem then. I had at least 2 family member die from it in those days. Dr. Salkl, to his credit after being pursued by companies, refused to patent his findings and just wanted to just save lives.
__________________
"A pessimist thinks things can't get any worse. An optimist knows they can."
Last edited by FlamesAddiction; 05-21-2020 at 01:11 PM.
The Following User Says Thank You to FlamesAddiction For This Useful Post:
Tenzing Norgay assisted Edmund Hillary in being the first to summit Mount Everest. Some speculate Tenzing may have been the first, but he denied that in a autobiography:
A little below the summit Hillary and I stopped. ... I was not thinking of 'first' and 'second'. I did not say to myself, there is a golden apple up there. I will push Hillary aside and run for it.’ We went on slowly, steadily. And then we were there. Hillary stepped on top first. And I stepped up after him ... Now the truth is told. And I am ready to be judged by it.
In July 2015, the highest-known, 3.4-kilometre-high (11,000 ft) mountain range on the dwarf planet Pluto was named Tenzing Montes. The Tenzing Montes rise up to 6.2 km (3.9 mi; 20,000 ft) high, about twice as high as the Hillary Montes.
Tenzing Norgay assisted Edmund Hillary in being the first to summit Mount Everest. Some speculate Tenzing may have been the first, but he denied that in a autobiography:
The discovery of vaccination by Edward Jenner (and it's continued improvement and expansion), and the discovery of penicillin by Sir Alexander Fleming radically changed human life expectancy, and ushered in a new era for the general quality of health in society.
I'd add John Snow the father of epidemiology who worked out it wasn't healthy to drink sewage water, kicking off both the statistical and geographic tracking of diseases and also modern sanitation.
The Montreal Protocol, by which all countries agreed to fix the ozone hole, does not fit the "small actions that cascaded" but is a very unambiguous win for humanity.
I don't know if I'd call it a win, it reached win conditions, but it set back a draw back on the cold war between the East and West and the reform of the Soviet Government by decades.
Certainly wins in it, and the outcome could have been much worse.
We probably all owe our lives to an argument won by Vasily Arkhipov during the Cuban Missile Crisis. He was an officer aboard a submarine that lost contact with Moscow and was being forced up by depth charges from an American vessel. The Soviets in the sub didn't know they were depth charges and thought they were being directly attacked. The captain wanted to fire nuclear torpedoes. Arkhipov, as one of three officers on the sub that unanimously had to agree, disagreed and a heated argument took place. Eventually he was able to talk the captain of surfacing instead of firing the nuclear torpedoes. Had he not, it's likely that it becomes nuclear war.
Because of the secrecy around the cold war, surfacing was considered cowardly and no one knew how close they were to firing the nukes. So he was seen as a disgrace initially rather than the hero who saved the world.
The crazy thing was that the other three submarines that were part of the mission only required the captain and the political officer (each who had half of the set of keys) to initiate the nuke. Arkhipov was overseeing the mission and, as far as I could tell, could have been on any of the other three submarines. If he had been on B-4 instead of B-59, we're living in a nuclear holocaust.
Last edited by Oling_Roachinen; 05-20-2020 at 04:13 PM.
The Following 2 Users Say Thank You to Oling_Roachinen For This Useful Post:
I don't know if I'd call it a win, it reached win conditions, but it set back a draw back on the cold war between the East and West and the reform of the Soviet Government by decades.
It also allowed a succession of hardliners and party hacks to ascend to power.
Could you imagine Russian missiles on Cuba, ready to wipe out the eastern part of the US in minutes? That was a horrendous threat and probably would have been the most destabilizing and potential hazard during the cold war.
I lived through the whole episode, and it was the scariest time of my life. The showdown between Kennedy and Khrushev, and the end result, was a great relief and victory for the whole world. It allowed the Russians and US to develop a balance in nuclear capability over the next couple of years, which eased the tensions for decades.
As far as what ultimately happened in Russia, the changes which brought down the USSR were complex, involving many years of changing economics, and world politics, which I don't believe bear a direct relationship to the Cuban Missile Crisis.
While the Crisis was going on, I was sitting on a well north of Edmonton. My wife and kids were back in Calgary, ready to evacuate in case war broke out. At the time Calgary was divided into a number of areas with designated evacuation sites for each area. We were living in Rosscarrock and my family was to travel to Marysville, BC. I recall the Federal Government had many emergency experts in the area at the time, ready to help.
The Following User Says Thank You to flamesfever For This Useful Post:
Agent Garbo is the most fascinating spy story I've ever heard and should be a movie. Played both sides of WWII to the benefit of the Allies, receiving highest military honors from BOTH sides, even though he and his wife played a huge part in taking down the Nazis.
__________________
The Following User Says Thank You to Coach For This Useful Post:
This is a great thread, and every example posted is beautiful. I had not heard of the Pan-European picnic, and found it absolutely fantastic to discover.
I like to think of moments in human history that are beyond our memory, and can only be imagined. The first human who knew that wood burnt, and knew that wood warmed up when working it into a tool, and put 2 and 2 together. The scene in Quest for Fire where the Everett McGill character watches another human create fire, he has an emotional breakdown at the thought of life for his people suddenly becoming 1000 times easier.
The Following User Says Thank You to Alpha_Q For This Useful Post:
Could you imagine Russian missiles on Cuba, ready to wipe out the eastern part of the US in minutes? That was a horrendous threat and probably would have been the most destabilizing and potential hazard during the cold war.
I lived through the whole episode, and it was the scariest time of my life. The showdown between Kennedy and Khrushev, and the end result, was a great relief and victory for the whole world. It allowed the Russians and US to develop a balance in nuclear capability over the next couple of years, which eased the tensions for decades.
As far as what ultimately happened in Russia, the changes which brought down the USSR were complex, involving many years of changing economics, and world politics, which I don't believe bear a direct relationship to the Cuban Missile Crisis.
While the Crisis was going on, I was sitting on a well north of Edmonton. My wife and kids were back in Calgary, ready to evacuate in case war broke out. At the time Calgary was divided into a number of areas with designated evacuation sites for each area. We were living in Rosscarrock and my family was to travel to Marysville, BC. I recall the Federal Government had many emergency experts in the area at the time, ready to help.
Do you remember when they tested air raid sirens in the city? Sirens that only meant one thing - nuclear holocaust - and they never warned you when they would be tested. To this day I can't hear that sound without getting a chill of terror down my spine.
The Following 2 Users Say Thank You to Alpha_Q For This Useful Post:
History's Epic Wins
