Mistakes Were Made

This week we learn about Mao Zedong and his weird obsession with mangos and murder.

This week we learn about Mao Zedong and his weird obsession with mangos and murder.

In 1939 Russia invaded Finland in what's called The Winter War. During the war a sniper from Finland, Simo Häyhä, was able to kill hundreds of Russians.More here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simo_H%C3%A4yh%C3%A4

In 1939 Russia invaded Finland in what's called The Winter War. During the war a sniper from Finland, Simo Häyhä, was able to kill hundreds of Russians.More here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simo_H%C3%A4yh%C3%A4

This week we learn about the legend of Franz Ferdinand and his cartoon bombs.

This week we learn about the legend of Franz Ferdinand and his cartoon bombs.

In 1867 America bought Alaska from Russia for $7.2 million. Some opponents called it "Seward's Folly" after Secretary of State William H. Seward. Turns out it was a pretty great investment.

In 1867 America bought Alaska from Russia for $7.2 million. Some opponents called it "Seward's Folly" after Secretary of State William H. Seward. Turns out it was a pretty great investment.

Building a wall dividing a city. Can't see how this will be a mistake.

Building a wall dividing a city. Can't see how this will be a mistake.

This week we learn about the Halifax Disaster and welcome on a new co-host with Bobby Smithney.*Sorry for the audio quality this week. We're still working stuff out.*

Hey guys, I’ve got some great news. We’re back for season 2 of Mistakes Were Made very soon.We’ve used this time to think about the podcast and how to make it better and Mike and I came up with a great idea. Neither of us are real history buffs and while that makes the podcast humorous sometimes we both thought that the podcast would be so much better with an actual history buff. Someone who has studied it and understands it more so we can have more to joke off of.We found that person with Bobby Smithney and he will be joining us for Season 2. We’re currently scheduling dates to record and we expect new episodes to arrive sometime in March. Thanks so much to the listeners who have reached out to ask about the show and all our subscribers. Tell a friend about the podcast or if you don’t have any friends leave a positive review to help get the word out.Thanks guys! Talk to you soon!

In the year 66 things were pretty tense between the Romans and the Jews around the mediterranean. You see there was this guy named Caligula in charge of the Roman Empire at the time and he wasn’t the worst, but he also wasn’t the best. Caligula spent a lot of money on building projects. Practical ones like aqueducts and harbors, cultural ones like theaters and temples, but also weird ones like taking hundreds of Roman merchant ships and using them to build a 2 mile long floating bridge across the Bay of Bauli. What was the bridge for? He used it to gallop back and forth on his horse for a couple days and then had it disassembled. He also threw some pretty awesome parties, but everyone did back then so that wasn’t the main problem.The main problem is he was spending money faster than the Empire to make it. So to help offset that he would have citizens falsely accused of crimes. Those citizens would be fined if they were lucky. If they weren’t lucky they would be killed and then the Empire would sell their estate so they could make money. (MORE ON THE PODCAST)

While he was dictator he did the standard dictator stuff. He killed those who spoke out against him and with all the money at the top many of his people starved. Mobutu was spending billions of dollars on himself and his family. He would overpay his generals or other people that might want to overthrow him and underpay his soldiers, many of whom were forced to steal from civilians just so they could have money to eat.Mobutu also was one of the men who was instrumental in bringing the Rumble in the Jungle boxing match between Muhammad Ali and George Foreman to Zaire on the 30th of October 1974. According to the documentary When We Were Kings, promoter Don King promised each fighter US$5 million for the fight. Mobutu was the only one who was willing to fund such amounts. Mobutu, wanting to expand his country's image, put up the nation's money to do so. According to a quote in the film, Ali supposedly said: "Some countries go to war to get their names out there, and wars cost a lot more than $10 million."(MORE ON THE PODCAST)

Saparmurat Niyazov (Super-murat Ne-yah-zov) was born on February 19th, 1940 in the former Soviet Republic of Turkmenistan. He didn’t have the best childhood. His father either died fighting Nazis in World War II or dodged fighting and was therefore sentenced by a military court (two different stories on this). When he was 8 his mother and both his siblings were killed in an earthquake that leveled the city they were living in when the building they were all in collapsed. Niyazov spent 8 days digging himself out of the rubble with his bare hands. When he emerged he was the only living member of his family so he was shipped off to a Soviet-run orphanage in the middle of the mountains. (More on the podcast) 

U-boat is the anglicised version of the German word U-Boot, a shortening of Unterseeboot, literally "undersea boat". While the German term refers to any submarine, the English one refers specifically to military submarines operated by Germany, particularly in the First and Second World Wars. During World War II, U-boat warfare was the major component of the Battle of the Atlantic, which lasted the duration of the war. Germany had the largest submarine fleet in World War II, since the Treaty of Versailles had limited the surface navy of Germany to six battleships, six cruisers, and 12 destroyers but nothing on undersea boats. Prime Minister Winston Churchill wrote "The only thing that really frightened me during the war was the U-boat peril."On April 6, 1945, a German navy submarine named the U-1206 departed from the port city of Kristiansand, in Nazi-occupied Norway, and began its first combat patrol with it’s captain Karl-Adolf Schlitt. Assigned to the waters of the North Atlantic, its mission was to seek out and destroy British and American ships on the high seas. (MORE ON THE PODCAST)

Nicolae Ceausescu (Nick-o-lie Chi-Ches-Coo) was born on January 26th, 1918. He was one of the ten children of a poor peasant family. His father owned 7 and a half acres of agricultural land, a few sheep, and he also supplemented his large family's income through tailoring.At the age of 7 Nicolae started his education at the local village school, but after only 4 years of education he ran away from home to escape his extremely religious, abusive, and strict father. He initially lived with his sister and became an apprentice shoemaker. The shoemaker he was an apprentice for was an active member in the then-illegal Communist Party and taught Nicolae about communism. Nicolae loved it and he was soon given small tasks to help spread the word of communism. (More on the podcast)

In 1919 the molasses business was booming. So much so that molasses tanks had to be built in places like Boston and quickly. Some tanks were built too quickly though and mistakes were made.

Europe in the middle ages wasn't a very happy place to live. That's why it was so weird that randomly groups of people started dancing in masses. This was known as "Dancing Mania" and it would happen several times thoughout history.

Since the beginning of written history there have been tails of people trying to cheat death and live forever. It explores humanity's deep-seated fears and comprehension of its own mortality. Many people through history did not see this as fiction, but instead strived to make it a reality.

The compromise that eventually lead to the American Civil War.

“The reign of tears is over. The slums will soon be a memory. We will turn our prisons into factories and our jails into storehouses and corncribs. Men will walk upright now, women will smile, and children will laugh. Hell will be forever for rent.” - Reverend Billy SundayReverend Billy Sunday was a proponent of the “Noble Experiment”, a anti-alcohol movement that gained steam throughout the nineteenth century and became a staple of the progressive movement at the start of the twentieth century. By 1900, Maine, Vermont, Kansas, Iowa, and North Dakota were already dry states with many scheduled to follow. The Prohibitionists believed that there was no way a person in a dry state could obtain liquor. However, they overlooked the postal service, which was run by the federal government, not the states. So alcohol could be purchased from a wet state and sent to a dry state. (More on the podcast)

Check it out, we found a completely different continent! Let's murder people on it! 

Basically the story of Beanie Babies, but hundreds of years before Beanie Babies.

Muhammad bin Tughlaq (Two-cli-ock) was born in 1300 and was the eldest son of the Sultan of Delhi. This kingdom covered most of what is now northern India and Pakistan. They also had a cool flag (dark green with one off center black vertical stripe).  Muhammad was a strict Muslim, maintaining his five prayers during a day and fasting. He was hailed as a "man of knowledge" and had interest in subjects like philosophy, medicine, mathematics, religion, and poetry.In 1325 Muhammad’s father, the Sultan Ghiyasuddin Tughlaq, was watching a parade of elephants. The elephants were war booty that Delhi has acquired in the capture of another territory. Suddenly the large wooden pavilion the Sultan and many others was sitting on collapsed killing him. At the time there was a mass conspiracy that the collapse was deliberate, but this is refuted by historians. (More on the podcast) 

It was like a frat house... but everyone was way dumber and evil.

Franz Reichelt dreamt of designing the first wearable parachute. The only problem was he wasn't good at it and he liked to test things himself. (Spoilers: The GIF of him testing it.)On February 1912 Franz announced to the press that he had received permission to conduct a test of one of his designs on a dummy from the Eiffel Tower. To him this was the perfect time to actually test his invention.On Sunday, February 4, at 7:00 a.m., he arrived at the tower by car with two friends to a crowd of anxious onlookers, who were cordoned off outside the drop-zone. He was already wearing his parachute suit. A suit that did not restrict the wearer's movements when the parachute was packed, and the method of deploying the parachute as being as simple as extending the arms out to form a cross with the body. Once extended, the outfit resembled "a sort of cloak fitted with a vast hood of silk". The weather was cold, with temperatures below 32 °F and there was a stiff breeze blowing. (More on podcast) 

Billy was a natural stunt master. In 1944 The Republican Convention came to town in and he posted a sign saying, "No Republicans allowed." This caused the tavern to be packed with Republicans demanding to be served.He would also sneak his goat, Murphy, into unusual locations in order to try and gain publicity for his bar and in 1945 he was presented with the perfect opportunity. The Cubs were gearing up to face the Detroit Tigers in Game Four of the World Series. Many Cubs fans believed 1945 would be their year. They’d come into Game Four with a 2-1 lead over the Tigers, and only needed two more wins to claim the title.Billy was a long-time Cubs fan and on October 6, 1945, he bought two tickets worth $7.20 for game 4 of the world series. One of the tickets was for him; the other one was for his goat who was wearing a sign stating "We Got Detroit's Goat". (More on the podcast)

Story by: Zachary Crockett at priceonomics.comTimothy Dexter was born in Malden, Mass., Jan. 22, 1747. From his birth, he fancied himself a legend -- he later wrote “I was to be one grat [sic] man,”He came from a family of farm laborers who, in the times of British colonialism, saw little financial stability. Nonetheless, by the age of 16, Dexter secured himself an apprenticeship with a Boston leather dresser and began working toward a career as a craftsman. Though the profession was generally considered “lower class,” the money was good: by the 1760s, Dexter’s Boston teachers had monopolized the art of crafting “Moroccan leather,” a material that was in high demand by colonial fashionistas. (More on the podcast)

They quickly got to work on their flying vehicle and in just two years they had two prototypes and three more under construction. Well you obviously can’t work that quick by engineering something from the ground up. They instead took two already existing production models and put them together. The actual flying mechanism was a Cessna Skymaster. The Skymaster (great name) is a twin-engine civil utility aircraft that had been under production since 1965. I looked it up and it appears to have a good flight record and is a good plane. So they just took that plane and cut off the front of it. If you look at pictures you’ll see that it’s the wings and and rutters and everything, just the part where the pilot sits is cut off. The car that they chose was the Ford Pinto. (more on the podcast)VIDEO OF THIS THING IN ACTION

Santa Anna used his military and political influences to rise to the highest ranking general in the Mexican Army and In 1833 Santa Anna was overwhelmingly elected President of Mexico. In the early years of Mexico the country was in extreme turmoil. Santa Anna ran on the promise to unite the nation, but once he got the job things changed. His vice president, Dr. Valentin Gomez Farias (Dr. Go for short) said that being president “Annoyed Santa Anna, bored him, and perhaps frightened him”. Because of this Santa Anna really only governed for a year before he left all the real work of being president to his vice president, Dr. VGF, and Santa Anna retired to his home in the countryside. After taking power, Dr. Go soon launched an ambitious reform of church, state, and army. This was a huge problem to many of the conservatives in Mexico and in 1834 Santa Anna seized the opportunity to reassert his authority, and led a military coup against his own government. (more on the podcast)

In the 1st millennium (or the 1000’s or the 11th century) the city of Pisa was becoming an important Italian seaport. Its fame and power grew gradually as the people of Pisa were involved in various military conflicts and trade agreements. In 1063 the Christian city of Pisa attacked the Muslim-ruled city of Palermo (Pal-air-mo). The attack was successful and the conquerors returned to Pisa with a great deal of treasure. To show the world just how important the city was, the people of Pisa decided to build a great cathedral complex called “the Field of Miracles”. Part of that plan was an 8 story bell tower.On August 9th, 1173 construction began on the bell tower. A foundation for the tower was built of a 3 foot deep mixture of clay. After 5 years of construction they had completed three out of eight floors of the structure, but quickly noticed a problem. It turned out the clay that they used for the foundation wasn’t nearly as strong as they thought and wasn’t able to keep the tower upright. Even everyday citizens could see that the tower had already began to lean. This wasn’t new in Pisa as the river city has soft grounds and a number of other structures have exhibited this same behavior. (More on the podcast) 

Archaeologists have found evidence that men started to remove their beards as early as 100,000 BC. In order to remove facial hair they would use two sea shells, clasp them together to grip the hair, and then pull, ripping the hair out. The first razors were discovered by archaeologists to date back to 30,000 BC, and were made of flint.3000 B.C. To 1580 B.C. - The earliest records indicate that the highest ranking Egyptians grew hair on their chins. They frizzed, dyed, and sometimes plaited the beard with interwoven gold thread. Later, a metal false beard, which was a sign of sovereignty, was worn by queens as well as kings. This was held in place by a ribbon tied over the head and attached to a gold chin strap.Mesopotamian civilizations devoted great care to oiling and dressing their beards, using tongs or curling irons to create elaborate ringlets and frizzles, in a tiered effect. (more on the podcast)

The Chicago L has had a pretty good safety record throughout history, but when they make a mistake it's a big one. This week we cover from the very first derailment to the O'hare blue line crash."In the late 19th century Chicago was the fastest-growing city in the country. The downtown became increasingly congested with horses, carts, and carriages. Residents realized that they needed a better, more organized form of transportation in the city. On June 6th, 1892 a steam locomotive pulling four wooden coaches on a raised elevated platform departed the 39th Street station traveled 3.6 miles and arrived at the Congress Street Terminal 14 minutes later. It was the first ever Chicago L train journey. The train was an instant hit with locals. A reporter for the Chicago Tribune noted one of the "L"'s most distinguishing features was its usefulness to all citizens of the city. He pointed out the variation of the passengers, from members of "the lunch pail crowd" to passengers "resembling gentlemen."" (more on the podcast)Sources - 1 2 3 4 5 6  

Thomas Midgley, Jr was considered a genius of his time, but now we know better. NOTE: MOST WAS WRITTEN BY ROSS POMEROY FOR “REAL CLEAR SCIENCE”Thomas Midgley, Jr. was born on May 18, 1889 in Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania, a quiet, comely river town 31 miles northwest of Pittsburgh. A curious, athletic, and affable lad, Thomas flourished under the tutelage of his inventor father. He would later attend Cornell University, where he received a degree in mechanical engineering. It was here that Thomas took to carrying a periodic table with him at all times, a tool that would prove much more useful to him than a mechanic's wrench. (more on the podcast)Sources - 1 2 3 4 5  

In 1827 the owner of a nearby hotel, William Forsyth, staged the first tourist stunt at Niagara Falls by sending a lake schooner (that’s a large boat with two masts) with a cargo of live animals over the Falls. He filled it with a buffalo, two small bears, two raccoons, and a dog. Some reports say two fox, fifteen geese, and an eagle were also included. After the schooner was sent adrift, the two bears jumped free and swam to safety. The rest of the animals, with the exception of the goose, perished going over the Falls. (MORE ON THE PODCAST)Sources - 12 3 4 5 6 7