“The invention of the modern paper clip seems insignificant but it revolutionized how we organized documents in offices worldwide. Before that, people would literally punch holes in papers and tie them together with string. My grandma worked as a secretary in the 50s and told me how it completely changed their workflow.”

“While on duty at a Soviet nuclear attack warning station in 1983, Stanislav Petrov's computer indicated the US had fired several missiles. He decided his computer was faulty and urged against a launch. He was right, averting nuclear war, but was not rewarded and was reprimanded by his superiors.”

“Mansa Musa went on a pilgrimage to Mecca and spent so much money (in gold) that he altered the North African and Mediterranean economies for decades.”

“The failed assassination attempt of Adolf Hitler on November 8, 1939, known as the Beer Hall Putsch Bombing. Things could have been a lot different.”

“The discovery of the potato directly led to the rise of the working class and multiple revolutions across Europe.”

“One of the worst movies ever made directly led to rise of one of the most beloved actors of our generation - and he wasn't even in the film. When Cannon Films bought the rights to the Superman movie series, they really wanted Christopher Reeve to play the part one more time. He reluctantly agreed, but only on condition that Cannon make his pet project, Street Smart, about a reporter who becomes famous after faking a story. Superman IV, needless to say, was a disaster of legendary proportions, in no small part because Cannon slashed the budget by more than half just before filming started. They did make Street Smart, which got decent reviews but fizzled at the box office. Critics generally agreed that there was one standout performer in Street Smart, playing a violent, murderous pimp. This actor was best known, if at all, for having been on the kids' show The Electric Company in the seventies, but his performance in Street Smart was a revelation and earned him his first Oscar nomination. And that's why MORGAN FREEMAN probably wouldn't have a career today if not for Superman IV.”

“A guy left his lab for a month. He came back and found mold growing in a Petri dish and decided to keep it rather than throw it out. The man? Alexander Fleming. The mold? Penicillum, which produces penicillin; among the most important drugs ever discovered. If he'd just thrown out the contaminated culture, who knows where we'd be in terms of medicine?”

“Ferruccio Lamborghini, owner of a successful factory of tractors in Emilia Romagna, started producing his own supercars in the 60s because he was not satisfied of his Ferrari since the clutch was bad, and he had a struggle with Enzo Ferrari.”

“Ray Tomlinsons first E-Mail over Arpanet in 1971. It was the first practical use for the newly developed File Transfer Protocol and predecessor of things that now are known colloquially as the ‘Internet.’”

“The radar operators in Hawaii saw the Japanese airplanes coming in on December 7th 1941, and called it in, and the warning was ignored.”

“So it's not the most obscure event ever, but I think Al Gore conceding... before the votes in Florida were fully counted sent us down a darker timeline. Imagine the progress we could have made on climate change if we had a world leader that took it so seriously 20+ years ago.”

"The repeal of the fairness doctrine gave rise to talk radio and removed consequences for dishonesty in news media. I think our current division can be directly attributed to the actions of Glenn Beck and Rupert Murdoch after the doctrine was repealed."

“During the 19th century, Russia occupied Poland and enforced limits on education demaning schools will trach nothing past what is required to be a peasant. The polish people began underground universities. One of the many graduates of these universities was Marie Curie.”

“Mohamed Bouazizi [was] a Tunisian street vendor who died by self-immolation and become the prime trigger for the Tunisian, Algerian, and Egyptian revolts.”

“‘The China Syndrome’, a 1979 movie about a nuclear power plant disaster, was dismissed by the nuclear power industry as being ‘sheer fiction’. Twelve days after the film was released, the Three Mile Island Nuclear Generating Station experienced a partial meltdown.”

“Ole Kirk Christiansen was a carpenter in Denmark who was struggling to make ends meet during the ['20s and '30s]. After his wife died, he was trying to take care of his kids by himself and they loved this duck toy that he made. He started to manufacture the ducks in a factory, but the factory burned down because his kids were playing with fire and wood shavings. He was basically destitute for a while, but continued making little models of houses, vehicles, and small toys. After a while, they grew in popularity, and Christiansen decided to move on to making them in plastic instead. And now we have Lego.”

“Milton Hershey was meant to come back from European travels on the Titanic, but was called home early for business matters and rode the SS Amerika instead. Definitely changed the way that southern Pennsylvania and chocolate are today.”

“Because of air conditioning, there was significant migration and population increases in the U.S. Sunbelt.”

“[Sabrina Carpenter] filmed a video in a church. The priest that allowed her to film in the church got in trouble for it. When he was being looked into it was discovered that he was connected to a shady business and the shady business was connected to the Mayor’s shady dealings. All of it exposed because of an SC music video shoot.”

“The assassination of the Archduke of Austria, which set off WWI, was due to a wrong turn. After a first failed attempt and the conspirators giving up on the mission, the Archduke decided to visit the injured in the hospital and accidentally drove past one of them after taking a wrong turn.”