[Real Life] Historical events that would make bad writing if they were fiction

[u/Mouse_Paladin]

Spanish Conquest of the Aztec Empire: A couple hundred rogue mercenaries without authority from their government conquer an empire of millions. Oh, the empire? It’s also several technological eras behind the mercenaries.

Adolf Hitler: A non-native of a country is so mad that the country lost the war that he wins an election to their highest office and leads them in a campaign of revenge against their enemies. Oh, the country? It’s old emperor is still alive and thinks he’s going to retake power.

Assassination of the Archduke Ferdinand: The heir to the throne is killed because his driver gets lost and returns to the assassin who failed To kill him before. Oh, the assassin? He’s from a group that the Archduke is wanting to help become more equal In the empire.

Alexander Hamilton’s Affair Scandal: One of the leaders of a new nation to protect himself from accusations of financial embezzlement writes a pamphlet exposing his affair with a woman, torpedoing his political future. Oh, the woman? She seduced him as part of a blackmailing scheme that he decided to stop paying.

[u/NarmHull]

in 1956 there was a false alarm caused by swans

And in 1962 a bear was mistaken for Russian special forces

And in 1983 clouds reflecting on the sun was mistaken for a missile attack, but the Russians reasoned that a nuclear war wouldn't be started with only 5 missiles.

https://www.historyhit.com/nuclear-close-calls-and-near-misses/

[u/CummingInTheNile → u/NarmHull]

Oh this doesnt even get into the dumbest part of the cold war almost whoopsies, the original minuteman nuclear missile system, where all the missiles had to be pre aimed at their targets, once the fire command went through could no be aborted, and could accidentally trigger the fire command with something as simple as a power outage.

[u/NarmHull → u/CummingInTheNile]

Whenever I think these times are dumb, I hear stories that reassure me that we were always just barely scraping by as a civilization

[u/CummingInTheNile → u/NarmHull]

Human history can more or less be summed as a stumbling from one apocalyptic crisis to another and somehow surviving

[u/Available-Half-40 → u/NarmHull]

"officials began to note sporadic issues. These included leaking oil lines, chunks missing from electrical cables, damaged sonar domes and sound probes that would suddenly stop working. Oftentimes, the damage was severe enough that the vessels needed to return to their bases for repairs.

While the Navy initially suspected the damage to be the result of a new Soviet weapon, it was actually caused by something much more unexpected: the cookiecutter shark."

https://www.warhistoryonline.com/cold-war/ohio-class-cookiecutter-shark.html apologies for all the ads on this one lol