Favorite historical fails.

[rabidmidget]

king charles VIII of France, was so paranoid of someone of poisoning him that he started to eat less and less until he died of malnutrition.
Now that is the exact definition of irony!

 

[traceur_]

the flat earth theory, EPIC FAIL!!!

sadly there are still some retards who actually believe it.

What you saying there is no Ice wall?!?

indeed, and gravity really does exist, who would have thought?

 

[Flowerpot]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet#Creation

 

[oliveira8]

the flat earth theory, EPIC FAIL!!!

sadly there are still some retards who actually believe it.

What you saying there is no Ice wall?!?

indeed, and gravity really does exist, who would have thought?

Its a conspiracy!!!! The goverment is hiding a massive wall of Ice keeping the water from not falling into space! And they lied about gravity! Newton was a goverment agent trying to poison our minds!

 

[Kawakta4890]

Hitler's strategic decisions during and after the D-day.
Like refusing to listening to his generals, when they told him the English and Americans had landed in Normandie. He was convinced that the landing in Normandy was a diversion, and that the real landing would be in Pas de Calais.

Ofcourse operation Fortidude was a big help in that.

 

[MIDIsurf 558]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8FefWp_4B0k

a fail so large it should go down in history

 

[Svenparty]

Walt Disney dying before the EPCOT center got off the ground is tragically amazing especially since his vision is just a shitty theme park now instead of his "Utopia". I believe he would have been prouder of it than he was of his cartoon mouse if he had succeeded.

^The Real Andrew Ryan

 

[DigitalSushi]

The Maginot Line, built on the border between France and Germany between WWI and WWII. Heaps of bunkers, machine guns, artillery, all that - and the Germans just sauntered around it.

because the Germans did the electrics for it.

HAHAHA

 

[Dele]

The French defence against a German attack relied on the Germans not going around the France/Germany border, in effect relying on another nations border to protect them.

Guess how long that lasted?!

This is a common myth about the Maginot-line, but in reality the line was connected to extensive Belgian fortifications. It was not a weak defensive line and certainly something not easy to bypass, had the Belgians actually prepared for a war with Germany.

 

[rossatdi]

Battle of Agincourt - 6,000 Englishmen against 20-30,000 French. Outcome? 10,000 dead Frenchmen and 5,900 laughing Englishmen.

 

[TheDean]

Mussolini is my favourite historical fail.

 

[Lukeje]

Battle of Agincourt - 6,000 Englishmen against 20-30,000 French. Outcome? 10,000 dead Frenchmen and 5,900 laughing Englishmen.

'Twas all thanks to the Welsh archers.

 

[Lord Krunk]

There was this guy during the American Civil War (Union) who was trying to convince his troops that there was nothing to fear from the Confederate Snipers.

He stepped out into the open, shouted out "See? Those guys couldn't hit an elephant from that distance!" (or something like that) and proceeded to get his face shot through, getting killed instantly.

I read about that during Modern History a while back.

 

[Trivun]

the flat earth theory, EPIC FAIL!!!

sadly there are still some retards who actually believe it.

Ah, I remember reading that some crazy lady said to Terry Pratchett at a conference that his books were right and the Earth was flat. He asked what was below the Earth and she said a giant turtle. He asked what was below that and she said "Ha, you think you're so smart, but it's turtles all the way down!" There are some stupid people around...

OT, I'd say the most epic fail I can think of would be Napoleon's exile in St. Alba (or whatever the island was called) in the Mediterranean, then his return. He failed to win once (Russian Winter [trademark] did the trick), so he decides to invade all of Europe again. How stupid can you be? He lost most of his forces, heads up to Waterloo and tries to take on a stronger opponent with half his troops missing (one of his generals didn't realise the sounds he could hear from his inn some miles away was the battle, he thought it was too early). That said, he very nearly won at Waterloo, but failed because of a few very small blunders. So the closeness of victory makes this Fail even more Epic.

 

[Bunnymarn]

Both the Korean War and Vietnam War would be up there.

By the end of the Korean War, neither side had taken any land.

And the Vietnam War was just absolutely terrible.

 

[HerrBobo]

I guess the attempts to kill Grigori Rasputin were pretty fail worthy.

The first time he was stabbed by a whore, bad enough that his entrails were hanging out. He did not die.

A year after a group of nobles decided he had too much infulince over the Tzar's court and tried to kill him. The laced wine and cakes with enough posion to "kill five men" yet it semmed to have no effect on Rasputin. Later that night they shot him in the back, he fell to the ground and they assumed he was dead. However, a short time later he got up and and attacked one of the nobles. He was then clubbed on the back of the head several times. Again he fell to the ground the nobles assumed he was dead and threw him in the Neva River. Is autopsy however, found that he had died of drowning!

What a guy!

 

[AndyFromMonday]

There was this woman who wrote a series of books about these aliens called "the federation of light". She used to make videos saying that the aliens are talking to her and that they will arrive on earth in October of last year if I remember right. People started to go in a "hype phase" and did...let's say a lot of videos on the subject.

Guess who didn't show up in October, and guess who made a video saying "I dunno why they didn't show up".

Oh also the Y2K "bug".

And yes I know this isn't really "historical". Sorry.

 

[The Infamous Scamola]

Mussolini is my favourite historical fail.

Even more than Hitler or Stalin?
Or maybe you're talking about the circumstances of his death, in wich case he is the embodyment of fail.