A computer with the job of issuing traffic citations had a bug. It sent notices to 41,000 residents of Paris, France informing them that they were charged with murder, prostitution and illegal sale of drugs.
When Adolf Hitler saw a pile of bricks near the church of St. Matthew in Munich, Germany, he said, "that pile of stones will have to be removed." Someone misunderstood him, thinking he was referring to the whole church. The church was demolished.
Firdinand Raimund was bitten on the finger by a dog. He was so worried about what might happen that he shot himself to death.
During one September weekend in South Korea, there were over three thousand traffic accidents causing injuries
The 7,000-ton cargo ship, Fort Stikine, sailed into crowded Bombay Harbor, India. It was loaded with a mixed freight ranging from fish to cotton to explosives. A sailor noticed smoke coming out of a ventilator that serviced one of the ship’s cargo holds, but since it was close to lunch time, he did not mention the problem. The fire in the hold was discovered after lunch, but by then it was raging out of control. Authorities suggested sinking the ship, but because the harbor was crowded and shallow, it would have to sail out to sea to be scuttled. No problem, but first the captain wanted to phone the ship’s insurance company to see if they thought it a good idea. While he was on the phone, the ship blew up into a million pieces, sinking 27 nearby ships, raining junk all over downtown Bombay and killing well over 1,000 people.
A Japanese priest set a kimono on fire in Tokyo because it carried bad luck. The flames spread until over 10,000 buildings were destroyed and 100,000 people died. (Year: 1657)
A medical curiosity was David Kennison, who was born in 1736 and participated in the Boston Tea Party. At the age of seventy-six, serving in the War of 1812, he lost a hand to a gunshot wound. Later, a tree fell on him, and fractured his skull. Some years later, while training soldiers in the use of a cannon, something went wrong and an explosion shattered his legs. He recovered. Yet later, a horse damaged his face. He died peacefully in 1851 at the age of 115.
In one large city a telephone operator traced the source of an emergency phone call because the caller would not speak. The phone only emitted unusual noises. When the ambulance crew arrived at the scene, they found a basset hound who had dialed 911 in the process of chewing up the phone.
In a laboratory in Paris where researchers were conducting secret research to decide whether an unnamed industrial product causes cancer, six of the workers have come down with various rare cancers and two have died.
A party was held in Moscow to celebrate the coronation of Czar Nicholas II in 1896. Free beer was offered to the public, causing a massive stampede in which 5,000 people were killed in the crush.
When a girl in France was attacked by a molester who tried to kiss her, she bit off his tongue.
In the 1920’s a radio station in Schenectady, NY built a powerful transmitter. In those days before FCC regulations, not knowing just how big to make a transmitter in order for the signal to be received some distance away, the station set up to broadcast at 500,000 watts. It requires about one watt to be received four blocks away. This station broadcast at such tremendous power that they could be heard around the world. People in New York didn’t even need radios. They could sometimes hear voices in their furnaces and coming off chain-link fences. Light bulbs lit up in people’s houses even if they were switched off.
In 1955 at the famous road race of Le Mans, a driver lost control of his car, which after careening off a wall, broke up and showered the crowd with parts, killing 77 people.
A man convicted of murder was electrocuted at Sing Sing. Just before burial, he revived and jumped out of his coffin. The authorities caught him and executed him again. The second attempt was permanent.
In Portland, Oregon a man was arrested for car theft and released on bail. Later the same day, he was arrested again for trying to take another car.
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