6 historical typos that became a joke for some and bad luck for others

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

History knows many cases when, due to typos, not only the meaning of words changed, but also the fate of people associated with it. And if they laughed at some of the "ochepyatki", then for others, some had to pay with their lives.

Geographic Atlas

At the beginning of the 19th century, the French geographer Malte-Brennes was proofreading texts for printing in an atlas. He noticed that the height of one of the mountain peaks did not correspond to reality. Instead of 3600 feet, it was only 36 feet. In the margins, the geographer made a note for correction. When the text was reprinted, Malte-Brenn noticed that extra zeros were now added to the actual altitude (it was now 36,000 feet).

The indignant geographer corrected the figure again and sent the atlas to the printing house. He almost choked with anger when he saw the number 36 million on the new issue. Unable to bear it, Malt-Brenn wrote: The typographer again understood the editing in his own way and decided to add some creativity to the text. As a result, the final version of the geographic atlas stated that the mountain peak rises to 36,000,000 feet. And she has a plateau where 36 thousand mountain donkeys graze.

Fatal letter "l"

For just one missing letter, the entire staff of the Pravda Vostoka newspaper lost its life. In the issue of October 25, 1944, a translation of a letter from the Yugoslav politician Josip Broz Tito to Joseph Stalin was published. In the appeal to the "Commander-in-Chief", the letter "l" was omitted.

The circulation was hastily confiscated, and the employees of the newspaper were shot. The NKVD officers did not find only 6 copies of the newspaper. One of them was unveiled by a collector many years later.

Napoleon III

When Napoleon's nephew Louis Bonaparte ascended the French throne, he decided to take the name of a famous relative. The day before the coronation, all the printing houses in the city were involved so that the French learned about the new king from the leaflets. At the beginning of the text there was an exclamation: The layout designer of the leaflet understood the handwritten version in his own way and instead of exclamation marks he put the Roman numeral "III".

Because of this misprint, Louis Bonaparte became Napoleon III, although history does not know Napoleon II. Later, they tried to disguise this misunderstanding, talking about the son of Napoleon, that he could be considered the Second, if he survived.

Woman for sale …

An ad printed at the end of the 19th century can be called a classic French blooper. It was about renting a farm (ferme). However, the letter "r" was randomly replaced by "m", the word "femme", that is, "woman", was obtained. The announcement now went like this:.

Typo in Odessa

During the time of the Russian Empire, one of the Odessa newspapers was talking about the coronation of the sovereign:. In the next issue, the editor of the newspaper decided to clarify. The revised version indicated:.

Lasted 100 thousand kilometers

In the USSR, many laudatory articles were published about the achievements of ordinary citizens. So, the truck driver Andrey Kostylev became famous throughout the country. He drove as much as 100,000 kilometers without incident. An unfortunate oversight in the title of the article made everyone laugh at the trucker. In the word "limit" the letters were rearranged, and it turned out:

Yet 7 historical typos confirmed the statement that you need to write correctly otherwise, losses cannot be avoided.