Favorite historical fails.

[Eldritch Warlord]

The Second defenestration of Prague.

Starting a war by throwing a couple of politicians out of the window = bad.
Failing to kill said politicians in the process = fail.

At least they landed in the manure pile.

"ShiBech" (the B is meant to be the weird B that makes the double S noise, but otherwise I think it's spelled somewhat like that, correct me if you must)

β is lowercase Beta.

So, Hitler was like "Shiβech"

Any war France has been involved in

FAIL

/thread

The French used to be bad-ass back when they were called Franks.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franks#Military

As for a historical fail: Karl Marx. He just had it all wrong.

 

[Herbanator]

To the many of you listing The Charge of the Light Brigade as an epic fail...

The Charge was an epic win

OK, so they charged the wrong guns and basically signed their own death warrants, but you know what? The charge was successful! They actually took the damned guns! They did exactly what Light Cavalry Brigades aren't supposed to do, charge straight into the teeth of enemy artillery, and won. OK, so there wasn't much of a Brigade left afterwards, but come on, guys, that's a pretty epic win.

Their Commander fails for being a clot and not writing orders clearly enough, but the Light Brigade win for being completely badass despite having an inept General leading them.

Anyway, on the topic of epic fails... The Commonwealth of England. All of Cromwell's little plans for ruling without a King, none of which worked.

Also, epic knowledge-of-history fail: American President (I forget which) calling the UK "Our oldest allies" :/

 

[CriticallyAcclaimed]

(Having Italian in my background, I can say this honestly)
The Leaning Tower of Piza is one of the biggesst ancient achritectural screwups in history, and yet the Italians are proud of it and hold it as a national icon. Just always thought that was ironic.

 

[Hazy]

Napoleon's (Failed) attempt to capture Russia during 1812 was always a favorite of mine. The whole thing was a tremendous waste of time, and money. Only to have the Germans attempt to do the exact same thing, and fail yet again only doubled the humiliation.

 

[Raikazu]

I think Gallipoli is quite a nice fail.
British, Americans and Australians all try to storm a peninsula and reach a mountain within the first day. Never get more than a few miles inland in eight months.

 

[Eldritch Warlord]

Napoleon's (Failed) attempt to capture Russia during 1812 was always a favorite of mine. The whole thing was a tremendous waste of time, and money. Only to have the Germans attempt to do the exact same thing, and fail yet again only doubled the humiliation.

Napoleon battling the British was also a pretty epic fail.

There was a saying at the time: "A French column charging a British line is like a stick of butter going into a frying pan, it just melts."

 

[Hazy]

Napoleon's (Failed) attempt to capture Russia during 1812 was always a favorite of mine. The whole thing was a tremendous waste of time, and money. Only to have the Germans attempt to do the exact same thing, and fail yet again only doubled the humiliation.

Napoleon battling the British was also a pretty epic fail.

There was a saying at the time: "A French column charging a British line is like a stick of butter going into a frying pan, it just melts."

Oh yes! You're right. That analogy = Pure Win.