Most of us probably believe maps are highly accurate, but that’s not always true. When they’re erroneous, maps can cause problems for individuals, communities, and even entire nations. Map errors have resulted in lost homes, insurance cancellations, endangerment of protected wildlife, threats to human life, a military invasion, and victory or defeat on American and European battlefields. These ten momentous map mistakes show how vital it is to have maps we can depend on.

10 French And Indian War

Before and during the American Revolutionary War, not many maps of the American continent existed. Consequently, many military maps were made in the field, often under fire, and battles might be won or lost based on their accuracy.

According to authors Richard Brown and Paul Cohen, maps sometimes even caused war. Countries involved in land disputes have backed up their claims to the disputed land with maps that didn’t clearly represent the owner of the land in question. One such map, by John Mitchell, was a contributing cause to the French and Indian War, according to Brown, “because it showed claims of the British possessions, which was one of its purposes in the first place.”

Maps made by British officers on-scene corrected misconceptions about topography and the navigability of waterways. In 1759, during the French and Indian War, Captain James Cook needed to move General James Wolfe’s troops 1,600 kilometers (1,000 mi) down the St. Lawrence River, from Louisburg, Nova Scotia, to Quebec, but the river was considered “unnavigable.” At night, Cook mapped the river, allowing the British ships to traverse an area the French thought to be impassible. As a result, Wolfe captured the city of Quebec.^[1]

9 Napoleon’s Defeat At Waterloo

Napoleon Bonaparte lost the Battle of Waterloo on June 18, 1815, in part because of a map error. According to documentarian Franck Ferrand, Napoleon aimed his artillery in the wrong direction, far short of the British, Dutch, and Prussian lines. Napoleon relied on an inaccurate map when planning his strategy for the battle, which explains why he didn’t know the lay of the land and became disoriented on the battlefield. According to Ferrand, “It is certainly one of the factors that led to his defeat.”

Due to a printing error, the map showed a strategic site, the Mont-Saint-Jean farm, 1 kilometer (0.6 mi) from its true position, which was the range of Napoleon’s misdirected guns. It also showed a nonexistent bend in a road, according to Belgian illustrator and historian Bernard Coppens, who found the bloodstained map at a Brussels military museum.^[2]

8 Fatal Bombing Mishap

In July 2006, the Israeli military duplicated a map for a bombing run against a target in Southern Lebanon. An error on the copy of the map identified a United Nations post as a Hezbollah position. As a result, four international observers were killed. Israeli officials expressed their “deepest condolences and sincere regret.”

Mark Regev, Israel’s foreign ministry spokesman, acknowledged that “a mishap on the Israeli side” during the copying of the maps resulted in the failure to correctly identify the UN post’s position, leading to the calamity. The observers, who were from China, Austria, Finland, and Canada, were killed by a precision-guided bomb on July 26. The Hezbollah positions were 180 meters (590 ft) from the UN building.^[3]

7 Nicaraguan Invasion

In November 2010, Nicaraguan troops led by former Sandinista guerrilla commander Eden Pastora crossed the San Juan River near the Caribbean coast. Invading Costa Rica, their neighbor to the south, the soldiers planted their country’s flag in the soil of Costa Rica’s Calero Island, which is located in an area claimed by both nations. Google Maps almost decided the issue by placing Calero Island inside Nicaragua’s border. “See the satellite photo on Google, and there you see the border,” Pastora said. Costa Rica has no army, but it sent security forces to support the 150 agents already in the area.^[4]

The dispute was solved judicially, rather than militarily, when the United Nations’ International Court of Justice ruled that the island, which measures 3 square kilometers (1.2 mi²), and its wetlands should be ceded to Costa Rica, since it has sovereignty over the area. The court also took Nicaragua to task “for violating Costa Rica’s right to navigation in the waters” along the countries’ joint border. Although the international court is powerless to enforce its judgments, both countries must agree to its ruling before their case will be heard by the tribunal. Nicaragua’s deputy foreign minister Cesar Vega said Nicaragua would “abide by the verdict.”

6 Grounded Minesweeper

According to the United States Navy, its minesweeper USS Guardian ran aground on a Philippines reef because of an error on a navigational chart. The ship’s January 16, 2013, collision damaged the Tubbataha Reef, which is located in a protected area and is home to “one of the most biologically diverse areas in the Coral Triangle.” The Philippines government demanded an investigation of the incident to determine whether the US violated Philippines or international laws.^[5]

It was ultimately found that the US Navy damaged 2,345 square meters (25,241 ft²) of the coral reef, and the US paid $2 million in compensation and helped the Philippine Coast Guard to upgrade its station at Tubbataha. The Philippines said that the money will help to rehabilitate and protect the reef as well as enhance monitoring of the area to prevent any similar incidents from occurring. The Guardian‘s captain and other officers were faulted for the incident because they failed to adhere to standard navigation procedures when the minesweeper ran aground.

5 Stranded Drivers

Following Apple Maps directions, Australian motorists found themselves stranded in remote Murray-Sunset National Park. The drivers’ destination was Mildura, 72 kilometers (45 mi) away. In December 2012, police issued a warning to travelers not to rely on the application. Using the app, they cautioned, could be “life-threatening.”

The official Australian Gazetteer shared responsibility for the map error, because its list of place names and coordinates, which Apple Maps uses as a reference, has two Milduras. The first is the actual town (purple pin above), and the second is a point located in the middle of the remote national park (red pin). Apple Maps understood the latter to be the former, and the app’s directions were based on this misunderstanding. Apple’s CEO Tim Cook admitted to the mistake and promised to correct it.^[6]

4 International Territory Claim

For more than a century, Canada’s official maps have erroneously included part of the North Pole area as its own territory. The claim conflicts with international law, which states that nations with territory near the Arctic Circle can only claim 370 kilometers (200 nautical miles) of ocean off their northern coasts as their own waters. Anything beyond that distance is legally international waters.

Canada’s claim arose from the old-fashioned “sector theory,” in which the Arctic Ocean was divided into triangular slices, with the pole as their meeting point in the center. The theory was never accepted as Canada’s official position on the matter. The old maps’ mistake increases the territory of Canada by 200,000 square kilometers (77,000 mi²), almost all of which is ocean. This additional area is roughly the size of the UK or all five Great Lakes.

In December 2013, perhaps inspired by the sector maps’ mistake, Canadian officials decided to submit a claim of sovereignty over the entire North Pole and its wealth of natural resources, including oil. The claim would enlarge Canada’s territory by 1.2 million square kilometers (463,00 mi²), or about the size of Alberta and Saskatchewan combined. A subsequent claim would expand its territory even further. Before the claim can be submitted, however, Canada must map the area. Even if the UN Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf agrees with Canada’s claim, its decision is nonbinding and would merely open negotiations between countries with their own territorial claims in the Arctic. Such disputes could take years to resolve.^[7]

3 Wildlife Endangerment

Mapping mistakes that have persisted from the late 20th century into the 21st century continue to endanger African wildlife in the Democratic Republic of Congo’s Luama Katanga Reserve. As a result of the errors, the reserve’s boundaries were shifted 50 kilometers (31 mi) to the west. Now, plants and animals that should be protected could be at risk, as mining, agricultural, cattle grazing, and forest clearing operations move in. “The moral of this story is that keeping track of parks—and especially getting maps and boundaries correct—matters hugely for biodiversity,” said James Deutsch, WCS Vice President of Conservation Strategy.

A newly documented species of vegetation, Dorstenia luamensis, a hanging, fern-like plant, is among the flora in the 230,000-hectare reserve, which is also home to 1,400 chimpanzees, whose lives would be threatened should the clearing of forests destroy their habitat. Deutsch urged that the maps be corrected and the reserve protected.^[8]

2 Flood Insurance Refusal

One of the responsibilities of the US Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA’s) Flood Map Service Center is to serve as the “official public source for flood hazard information produced in support of the National Flood Insurance Program.” Its flood maps are important for three reasons: First, they’re intended to save lives by assessing an area’s flood risk and recommending relocation if need be. Second, they assist communities with managing their flood plans. Third, they’re used by insurance companies to determine homeowners’ flood insurance rates.

The mission and the objectives of FEMA’s flood protection program appear to be in jeopardy in some cases, due to map mistakes. These errors have created a dilemma for the city of Rochester, Massachusetts. Despite the new FEMA flood plain maps’ numerous errors, Rochester must adopt them to be eligible for federal flood insurance assistance. If the city refuses to accept the mistaken maps, many homeowners could end up losing their insurance.

FEMA’s latest maps of the area are based on older, erroneous maps, to which the new maps add mistakes of their own. Conservation agent Laurell Farinon said that some of the maps’ data make no sense. Rochester Planning Board member Ben Bailey agreed that the maps are “fundamentally flawed.” One of their errors affects him personally: “The line that goes through my property goes up a 20-foot hill and back down again. You don’t have to be an engineer to see that this is inaccurate.” As a result of the error, his insurance company refused to offer him homeowner’s insurance. Massachusetts forbids insurance companies to raise their rates, so Bailey couldn’t get insurance by paying more.

The appeals period has ended, so homeowners are left with two options: Do without insurance or pay engineers to reevaluate their property. And it’s not only homeowners who suffer from FEMA’s map errors. The maps are also used by the Planning Board, the Conservation Commission, and building inspectors. FEMA assumes their maps are correct, placing the burden of proving them wrong on the landowners.^[9]

1 Demolition Of House

It wasn’t their fault they tore down the wrong house, a demolition team argued in 2016. The blame lay with Google Maps. The house numbers were identical, but the duplexes were located on different streets. To explain the mistake, an employee of the demolition firm e-mailed a homeowner a copy of a Google Maps photo showing an arrow pointing to the demolished house she owned with another person. The map’s arrow pointed at the duplex on 7601 Calypso Drive, Rowlett, Texas—but identified its address as 7601 Cousteau Drive. The firm was supposed to demolish the duplex on Cousteau.^[10]

Despite the company’s contention that Google is at fault, Gerry Beyer, a law professor at Texas Tech University, is doubtful. “My gut reaction is that Google would not be liable,” he said, because Google’s terms of service clearly state that users are responsible for the actions they take based on Google Maps.

Gary Pullman, an instructor at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, lives south of Area 51, which, according to his family and friends, explains “a lot.” His 2016 urban fantasy novel, A Whole World Full of Hurt, available on Amazon.com, was published by The Wild Rose Press.

All of us have made a small mistake at one time or another, and most of the time it doesn’t turn into anything more than a minor problem. For this reason, the average person doesn’t generally worry too much about paying hyper-focus to detail, at least in most situations. However, there are some cases where a mistake can cause more than just a small problem. Sometimes, one minor error or one single lapse in judgment can cost billions, or lead to the death of thousands. Or, in some cases, potentially both.

10. Casually Using The N-Word on A Conference Call Has Serious Consequences 

Papa John Schnatter has become a case study in how not to talk at a conference call, to avoid marketing disasters. Back in May of 2018, he had been clarifying some earlier comments he made blaming the NFL for not doing enough about the protests regarding the national anthem when he decided to casually throw out the n-word — along with some other off-the-cuff comments many found offensive. Schnatter tried to explain that he was trying to show his antipathy towards racism, and not that he was being racist, but the damage was done. 

While Schnatter may have been worried about lost pizza sales due to decreased NFL viewership, his company soon had a much bigger problem. In July, the first month after the news of what he had said sunk in, sales in Papa John’s stores dropped 10.5%. To make matters worse, the company projected that this would likely be consistent for at least the rest of the fiscal year. As for Schnatter, while he still has a lot of stock in the company, and no one can just take that away from him, the controversy ended with him losing all the power he once had within his own company. 

9. A Small Accounting Error Caused A $4 Billion Discrepancy For Bank Of America 

Back in 2014, Bank of America found itself in hot water with regulators and was forced to suspend some payout plans while they sorted things out. You see, it turns out that for five years, Bank of America had been accumulating losses, and had not been reporting them to the regulatory authorities. This was no small amount either: It turned out that Bank of America had $4 billion of unreported losses, which was something they could handle but was also a very significant sum of money to lose. 

The excuse from Bank of America? Their accountants just got confused and missed it, simple as that. So, how did they manage to lose this much money until an internal review found it five years later? Well, it gets into some fairly complicated financial rules that even accountants don’t necessarily like dealing with, but the short version involves their acquisition of the troubled Merril Lynch. When they did this, they took on their debt, but they did not need to report it as a loss, as it was considered unrealized debt — at least until they sold it. The problem is they started selling the debt, finally realizing their losses, and their accountants didn’t realize they needed to report it. 

8. The Japanese Stock Market Had To Cancel $6 Billion In Transactions Due To A Small Error 

The Japanese Stock Exchange is the second biggest in the world, and Japan is known for having excellent technology as far as most of the world is concerned. So it may be a surprise to some to know that Japan has had multiple instances where their antiquated stock exchange system cost people gigantic sums of money. However, the truth is among stock traders and technology experts, the issues that Japan has had in the past with its stock exchange system are well known, and they have been under fire for not having properly updated systems as far back as the early 2000s when some of the worst errors began. 

In 2004, the first major cracks started to show when a single error caused a loss of $330 million. The error was a mistake by a clerk entering a number by hand into the system for an ew stock that was coming out, marking it as selling for a dollar a share, instead of several thousand dollars per share. Then, in 2014, a fat finger error by a broker who accidentally made 42 transactions and then immediately canceled them, caused such a mess the Japanese stock exchange had to cancel over $6 billion worth of transactions. 

7. You Should Be Careful With Translations When Deciding To Nuke People 

Mistranslations can create some of the worst misunderstandings in the world, but there has never been a greater tragedy caused by mistranslation than when the United States dropped an atomic bomb on two populated cities because of a double translation failure. It all started near the end of the war when the Allies sent terms of surrender to Japan, and then waited hopefully for a reply that would not mean more war. If the Japanese did not comply, they were prepared for very aggressive measures to ensure they did so. 

The Japanese government needed some time to decide, as the terms were strict and unconditional, but reporters wanted to know where things stood. A reporter asked the Japanese premier how he felt about the proposed terms, and he used the Japanese word Mokusatsu, trying to give the age-old response of “no comment.” Unfortunately, the word he chose was not a great choice, as it can mean silence, but it can also mean “to contemptuously ignore.” The reporter made the mistake worse by assuming the rude version and not even asking for clarification. She took her bad translation back to America with the results we all know too well. The story is now taught in some schools as a way to teach kids about miscommunication.  

6. Missing A Hyphen Can Have Tragic Consequences When Working With Rockets 

Have you ever been programming and forgot a single parenthesis and spent hours tracking it down? Or perhaps you sew, and once spent hours trying to find that one stitch that was out of place. Tiny little mistakes in life can be irritating, and make us spend hours of our valuable time doing something stupid and mostly pointless trying to fix or even find the problem. However, no matter how many times we have made a small mistake that caused us an inconvenience — or perhaps even cost our workplace money — most of us can rest easy knowing we never caused $80 million worth of damage because we missed a single hyphen. 

The incident we are referring to is the loss of Mariner 1, the United States’ first major attempt at an unmanned rocket to explore Venus. It was in the early days of space exploration, back in 1962, which meant eighty million dollars was worth closer to $640 million today. Mariner 1 went up, the misplaced hyphen caused its guidance systems to fail, and they were forced to abort the mission by destroying the rocket. In the end, over half a billion dollars was launched into the air, and it didn’t even last five minutes. 

5. If Not For A Single Mistake, The Crossing Of The Delaware May Have Failed 

The Crossing of the Delaware was one of the key moments in the American Revolution and has been immortalized forever in an iconic painting we all know. On Christmas night, Washington and his men snuck across using three different crossings and surprised the Hessian troops on the other side. Many like to talk about how the element of surprise was what won them the day, and there are even claims the Hessians were drunk from Christmas, although there is no proof of this. The truth, however, is that while Washington did his best to keep it secret, spies found out and warned the Hessian commander. 

The commander, General Rall, simply did not take Washington, or his band of men seriously. He thought of them as little more than a rabble, that his men could take without a fuss, and did not believe he was dealing with a real threat. Then on the day of, he received more messages from spies that an attack was imminent, but refused to fortify defenses or amp up security patrols. Instead, he simply told the spies they would meet the Americans with bayonets. In the end, one man’s casual arrogance led to one of the greatest defeats in military history. 

4. People Think We Avoided Y2K, But The Labor Cost To Save The World Was Massive 

Back at the turn of the millennium, many people were worried about Y2K, and how it might cause severe consequences or even the end of the world. Those who thought the world was going to end were a bit over the top, but the truth was that we were far closer to disaster than most people realized, and it was a very serious issue. While it was unlikely to cause a nuclear weapon to accidentally launch or something tragically similar, there was a very good chance that financial systems and other computer systems could suffer huge errors and glitches that had the potential to cause untold economic harm. 

The programmers who had caused the issue in the first place simply never thought their programs would be used decades later, and had given no thought to the mess they created for future generations. Thus, one of the greatest concerted efforts in modern human history, or perhaps human history as a whole, began. Programmers worked around the clock, manually switching out line of code after line of code, doing a tedious but necessary task to prevent disaster. Fortunately, they did manage to switch out the code in time, but that doesn’t mean the whole mess wasn’t costly. The labor costs to manually switch out all the code in time have been estimated at $100 billion. 

3. The Bay Of Pigs: Time Zones Are Important For Invasion Planning 

April 17, 1961, is a day that lives on in infamy as the day of the biggest screwup the CIA ever had and as something they dubbed a “perfect failure”. The plan was to take out Castro’s air fleet with a quick bomber strike, and then land an amphibious force of roughly 1,400 Cuban exiles. These men could be later supported with additional air support and the cover of a smaller attack on the other side of the island. Unfortunately, with a complex plan, there are more points of potential failure, and this became very apparent when the operation began. 

Among many mistakes, things went badly wrong just as the mission began. The bomber strike failed to destroy all of Castro’s bombers, leaving him with six, and plenty of air support. Then, the amphibious force suffered problems with unexpected coral reefs when landing. Things went from bad to worse, when Castro’s air support started tearing them apart, so they asked for backup air cover. The day may still have been won, but the air support arrived an hour late because of a misunderstanding of the time zones between Cuba and Nicaragua. To add insult to injury, the late-arriving air support had to fight alone and was easily destroyed. 

2. Forgetting To Convert Units Has Dire Consequences In Space 

In 1999, after 10 months of travel through space and countless expensive man-hours spent keeping an eye on its progress, the Mars Climate Orbiter reached its destination. It should have been a super happy day, but instead of a time of celebration at NASA, it became a day of loss and frustration. The Mars Climate Orbiter was given instructions for landing, and instead of landing properly, it crashed into the surface of Mars. So how did NASA lose a $200 million orbiter and all those man-hours? 

Well, the investigation found that there had been some confusion between NASA, and Lockheed Martin, who were both working on the orbiter. NASA was working with metric units, while Lockheed Martin was using American units for their data, and neither realized what the other was doing. This meant that on the day the Orbiter was supposed to land, the instructions they gave it with data from Lockheed Martin were not converted from the American units Lockheed Martin had used. This simple miscommunication and failure to convert units led to an expensive orbiter completely failing to do what it needed to do at the most crucial moment. 

1. The Most Expensive O-Ring Mishap In History 

On January 28, 1985, it was a colder than normal morning at Florida’s Cap Canaveral, but no one was bothered by the cold because excitement was in the air. The Space Shuttle Challenger was about to launch, and it was going to be broadcast live on TV for the whole world to see. Many schools across the United States had kids watching in the classroom as it was a huge educational event. Teachers also got to showcase one of their own, as a teacher was going up on the shuttle to inspire the public. Then, just 73 seconds after launch, tragedy occurred and the shuttle disintegrated on live television — killing all inside. 

An investigation was launched, and it was discovered that one o-ring acquired a fault due to the cold temperatures that morning. Whether the blame was mainly those at the top who felt under pressure to launch on time, or partly due to engineers who were afraid to voice their concerns has been picked over every which way over the years and there are various popular viewpoints. However, what is clear is that the United States lost a 3.2 billion dollar shuttle, traumatized a generation, and lost eight lives, including a school teacher and seven astronauts.

Marketing is a tricky game. A lot of brands aren’t really selling anything anybody needs. A lot of promotion is about selling yourself as a company rather than the product you produce. This means brands have got to stay relevant, and they need to pull wacky stunts so that we notice them.

Mostly, these huge brands throw a bunch of money at a professional. The event passes by without any drama. Sometimes, though, they hire the wrong people, and it all goes disastrously wrong.

Related: 10 B.S. Myths We Believe Because Of Advertising

10 Jagermeister’s Pool Party

Imagine a Venn diagram with Jagermeister’s event team on the left and skilled chemists on the right. The middle section is likely sparse. In other words, best not to leave the Jagermeister team in charge of dangerous chemicals. At a brand promotion in Leon, Mexico, they proved they could not handle their liquid nitrogen well.

This particular event was a pool party in 2013 with about 200 young people in attendance. To increase the party atmosphere, the event managers decided that pouring liquid nitrogen over the swimming pool would create an awesome smoky effect. Unfortunately, they did not realize that liquid nitrogen combined with chlorine creates a toxic gas.

People soon started to fall unconscious. Never good news, but especially bad when a bunch of people are swimming. Fortunately, no one at the event died. However, a 21-year-old man ended up in a coma, and eight others were hospitalized.^[1]

9 Dr. Pepper’s Treasure Hunt

Sometimes it’s hard to fathom how these marketing ideas were born into existence. In this case, Cadbury Schweppes (who owned the soda at the time) decided to put on a treasure hunt for their soft drink, Dr. Pepper. In 2007, they hid coins worth various amounts of money around the city. Participants needed to locate them using clues to get the cash prize.

One clue led to a graveyard. A 347-year-old graveyard in Boston that was the resting place for, among others, John Hancock, Samuel Adams, and Robert Treat Paine. You have, by this point, likely spotted the glaring issue. The city quickly stopped the hunt after contestants started descending on the burial site. Yes, because they were afraid these people might start digging the place up. Dr. Pepper apologized, stating the coin should not have “been placed in such a hallowed site.” Something that really should have been obvious before people were running into a cemetery with shovels.^[2]

8 LG’s Accidental Riot

Yet another event that had not been thought through beyond the first move (it is unlikely many skilled chess players are on this list). In 2013, LG promoted an event where they would release 100 helium balloons, each containing a voucher for a free smartphone.

These were pricey smartphones that they were giving away—valued at more than $850US. Those that turned up were playing to win. When the balloons were released, the crowd underneath brought out BB guns and started firing. Twenty people were injured in the resulting scrum. LG decided it should probably cancel the remainder of similar events planned. Very wise.^[3]
6

7 Domino’s Tattooed Giveaway

Domino’s bit off more than they could chew with a bizarre marketing strategy in Russia in 2018. They asked fans to get a tattoo of the company’s logo in a prominent place on their body. Photos of said tattoo uploaded to social media would win the contestant a lifetimes supply of pizza. Unfortunately, they did not seem to realize how many would take them up on that offer.

They had planned to run this campaign for two months and award the pizza to anyone with a tattoo they shared on Russia’s Facebook-like social media platform. However, after five days, they had received so many pictures of tattoos they had to change the campaign to the first 350 people instead. You sure wouldn’t want to be number 351 who hadn’t heard about the change of plans.^[4]

6 Paramount’s Bomb Scares

Here we have another 1-D chess player. This time they took their idea to the L.A. streets. The Paramount marketing team, promoting the new Mission Impossible III, placed electronic devices in newspaper racks around the city. When the door was opened, they would play the theme music from the film.

Unfortunately, these devices looked an awful lot like homemade bombs. Many panicked citizens soon called the police. One news rack was blown up by the bomb squad in response to one of the suspected bomb reports. If this sounds a little extreme, know that this device was a plastic box with wires sticking haphazardly out of it attached to the inside of the newspaper boxes.

These were placed in 4,500 different newspaper vending machines, leaving the emergency services to field a lot of phone calls even after they were aware this was a music box. It caused more than a little outrage, and Paramount Pictures was subsequently sued. After an ensuing court case, Paramount was asked to pay $75,000 to settle negligence claims.^[5]

5 Snapple’s Downtown Flood

In this story, event planners failed to realize ice might melt on a hot day. Snapple had launched a set of frozen treats and decided to promote it with a record-breaking stunt. They wanted to create the biggest popsicle ever made and stand it in downtown New York. This resulted in them trying to remove a 25-foot-tall, 17.5-ton ice sculpture on a stick from a freezer truck in Manhattan on a summer day in 2005.

Before they could even put the giant Snap-icle upright, it began to melt. Strawberry-kiwi pink goo began to flow down the streets. Police had to close down the road as onlookers made a run to higher ground. Brand representatives have stated that there will be no second attempt to break the record.^[6]

4 Fiat’s Love Letters

In an ill-conceived stunt in Spain, Fiat mailed letters to 50,000 women claiming to be from a secret admirer. There was no signature. There was no indication of what or who was behind the letter. The letter pretended to be from someone who had noticed the woman while looking at them on the street. It further said, “I only need to be with you for a couple of minutes, and even if it doesn’t work out, I promise you won’t forget our little experience together.”

These were decidedly creepy letters to receive. Many women believed that they were being stalked. They stayed in their homes feeling fearful until a second letter arrived two weeks later. This letter explained that the first had been a marketing tactic and invited the women to their local Fiat dealer. The women, enraged, decided not to accept the offer. They decided it was more appropriate to sue Fiat instead.

These mail recipients won their case. However, the payout was quite small. Fortunately for Fiat, this campaign pre-dated the internet (1994), and so word of their creepy gaffe did not travel too far.^[7]

3 Lay’s Rainy Days

Lay’s (chips), which are known as Walkers (crisps) in the UK, decided to run a campaign where participants could bet on when and where it would rain. Unfortunately, the company, owned by PepsiCo in the USA, did not realize how easy a competition this would be in the UK, where it rains pretty much all the time.

Many bets were soon being won. Although contestants only received a payout of £10 for a correct bet, soon payouts were over $600,000, and the company could not continue. Walkers attempted to change their rules halfway through, limiting how much participants could bet. This led to backlash and a strict warning from the UK Watchdog for advertising standards. They banned the campaign from taking place again.^[8]

2 Amazon’s Nazi Trains

As a 2015 promotion stunt for The Man in the High Castle, their new TV show, Amazon plastered New York subway cars with themed decorations. Unfortunately, the show depicts the USA under Axis control in an alternate reality where Germany and Japan had won WWII. These themed decorations were versions of the Third Reich and Imperial Japan insignia.

On subway trains, seats and walls were entirely covered in these designs, including the American flag reimagined with the German Eagle and Iron Cross in place of the stars. They at least figured out not to include a swastika.

A spokesperson stated that advertising a show with this type of subject matter would always be difficult. Others deemed this move as pretty obviously insensitive and tasteless to plaster Nazi symbols inescapably all over the morning commute of the people of New York.^[9]

1 Cartoon Network’s Shady Boxes

The Cartoon Network managed to cause chaos and panic across Boston with a marketing stunt—poor Boston; this one was also in 2007, the same as the Dr. Pepper cemetery fiasco from above.

The marketing company they had hired decided to set up adverts on the city streets. They had an artist create boxes with LED lights depicting a character—Mooninite—from Aqua Teen Hunger Force, a new show they were promoting, all over the city.

Many residents panicked at the sight of these and called emergency services. At least one of these devices was seen as so suspicious that it was detonated on site. Some residents thought that the panic was ridiculous and mocked it. They started a campaign placing stickers on devices like ATMs and parking meters reading “this is not a bomb.” Others, however, took it very seriously.

The artist behind the piece was arrested. Turner Broadcasting, the parent company of Cartoon Network, was ordered to pay out over $2 million to various security and law enforcement agencies that had been called out as a result.^[10]

If ever we needed a real-world example of the mythological Pandora’s box, the French Revolution would suffice. What began in the late eighteenth century in a united spirit of brotherhood and rooted in the principles of the Enlightenment quickly descended into utter chaos, taking thousands of lives with it and forever changing the course of Europe and the rest of the Western world.

As the 1789 revolution was only the first of several in France, it is difficult to evaluate it in isolation. There can be no doubt, however, that many of the events that followed it were not in line with the principles that had inspired it. From a complete breakdown of social order to the eventual restoration of the ancient royal line, here are 10 unintended consequences of the first French Revolution.

10 From Starvation to War

The years leading up to the revolution were not easy. Decades of fiscal mismanagement had caused an economic crisis. Recurrent bad harvests coupled with an increasing population also led to widespread hunger and discontentment among the lower classes. Many facets of French society were outright medieval, including some agricultural methods and the continuing existence of serfdom in practical terms.

Those were the issues that prompted the revolution, but it soon snowballed into one of the most cataclysmic dramas in European history. No sooner had the initial incursions been made than extremist factions took the reins and set the country literally on the warpath. By 1792, France had declared war on Austria, the birthplace of the French king’s wife, Marie Antoinette. For the lowliest of French citizens, who’d gone from no bread to no peace, this could hardly have been an improvement.^[1]

9 Widespread Looting and General Disorder

Far from stabilizing the underlying tensions of the years leading up to it, the revolution quickly led to episodic breakdowns in law and order. As soon as one small step toward meaningful reform was taken, dissatisfaction quickly set in. France’s problems were far too complex to be swept away as easily as converting the absolute monarchy into a constitutional one, and patience was in short supply. Rioting, looting, and a general threat to the public order became commonplace.

In truth, the beginning stages of the revolution were dominated by moderate reforms compared to what came later. The men at the center of these changes were largely on the side of orderly progress and respect for the law. Unfortunately, steps like abolishing noble titles didn’t magically put bread on people’s tables. With the king no longer in control, the masses, who’d been promised change but had little to show for it, turned on authority in general.^[2]

8 New Aristocracy of the Rich

As influenced as they were by Enlightenment principles, the revolutionary powers that be were willing to take their agenda only so far. Universal suffrage was out of the question. Basically, to have any say at all, you had to be a property-holding man who paid taxes. This was a voting bloc of some few million male citizens, compared to an overall population approaching 30 million.

This pool of male property-holders elected fellow tax-paying representatives to act on their behalf. It was these higher-taxed representatives who themselves elected the men who actually ended up in office. This created a system whereby men with money chose men with more money to put other men they trusted into government. The old aristocracy, of birth and privilege, was replaced with a new aristocracy of wealth and concentrated voting power. Dissatisfaction with this new system eventually provoked more radical action.^[3]

7 Enduring Inequality of Women

Considering the pivotal role women played in the early days of the revolution, you’d think the movement’s leaders would have been more amenable to feminist causes. That certainly would’ve lined up philosophically with their dismantling of the feudal system and other structures of arbitrary privilege. Unfortunately, as far as women were concerned, pre- and post-revolutionary France were two heads of the same beast.

As their American counterparts had done, the French revolutionaries drew up a new constitution that provided equality for all men. In both cases, women were not even mentioned. Rightly incensed at having been left behind, in 1791, political activist Olympe de Gouges authored a woman-centered companion text to the famous “Declaration of the Rights of Man.” Not long after, Gouges became yet another casualty of the revolution.^[4]

6 Disestablishment of the Church

Some of the revolutionaries’ early religious reforms were supported even by members of the Roman Catholic clergy in France, but these were soon overtaken by increasingly zealous changes. Within the space of a few months, the Church’s income was abolished and its lands forsaken, making it dependent on the state. In 1790, a glimpse of the radicalism that would soon consume France came in the form of the clerical oath. This was a requirement for all clergymen to swear allegiance to the new constitution.

Half refused, including most senior clergymen, on the grounds that their allegiance was to their faith. The Pope himself denounced the actions of the revolutionaries, who also intended to open up clerical appointments to popular elections, thereby restructuring the internal governance of the Church. Priests who refused to publicly endorse the new constitution had no option but to flee into exile. These changes politicized religion and turned the Vatican into an enemy of the revolution. Disestablishment followed not long after.^[5]

5 Reign of Terror

The most notorious aspects of the revolution were not seen in its initial stages but after the king and queen had been deposed, and a new republic declared. Already imprisoned and completely powerless, Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette were subsequently executed by the republican authorities in 1793. After that, the new French Republic and the governing Committee of Public Safety turned its attentions to other perceived enemies, both foreign and domestic.

Indeed, the revolutionary fervor had only begun. Within 18 months of the king’s execution, over 20,000 people had been sentenced to death or died imprisoned without trial. The powers of Europe united against France, sparking conscription, which itself led to internal rebellion. Priests and the Christian religion were massacred and denigrated. Finally, in a macabre and ironic twist, one of the Terror’s most famous figures, Robespierre, was himself guillotined and made a scapegoat for the Committee’s excesses.^[6]

4 A King for an Emperor

King Louis XVI was deposed in 1792 and summarily executed. His wife, Marie Antoinette, followed shortly after that, as well as other members of the royal family, other members of the nobility, and anyone else the revolutionary courts deemed a threat to the new order. By 1795, the king’s only surviving son, Louis Charles, by most accounts, had died of neglect at the hands of the revolutionaries. However, the exact circumstances of his death have never been uncovered.

For everything it took to rid themselves of the ancient monarchical system, you’d think the French would have been outright opposed to any return to similar customs. But in 1804, Napoleon Bonaparte, who’d started life as the son of a minor nobleman, crowned himself emperor after a few years’ rule as a dictator. The last of his reigning descendants was Napoleon III, who fittingly was also the country’s final monarch.^[7]

3 Ten-Hour Days and a New Calendar

In 1792, perhaps the most peculiar and unnecessarily confusing exercise of the revolution, the first republican government instituted a new calendar stripped of the perceived Christian and royalist characteristics of the Gregorian calendar. Year I of the new republic was established to have started in September, and the calendar eventually came to be used not just in France but in other territories that fell under French control during the revolutionary wars.

There were still 12 months, but fewer weeks since they were now 10 days long (the leftover days were treated as bonuses, with no parent months). For some reason, the revolutionaries were particularly enthusiastic about decimalization, so each day was made 10 hours long. If this weren’t baffling enough, imagine trying to wrap your head around it in an environment of riots, political chaos, and war. Thankfully for Europe’s sanity, this bizarre experiment was eventually abandoned, with Napoleon abolishing the calendar shortly after becoming emperor.^[8]

2 Bourbon Restoration

Considering the point of the revolution was to get rid of the Ancien Régime, it’s safe to say its least intended outcome was the restoration of the old dynasty, but that’s precisely what happened. Just over two decades after the fall of the Bourbon monarchy and the executions of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette, Louis’s brother assumed the throne as Louis XVIII in 1814, albeit with certain concessions.

Louis XVIII’s reign was short but more effective than that of his reactionary brother, Charles, who became almost immediately unpopular upon ascending. A traditionalist, Charles attempted to revive some of the characteristics of the Old Regime, which led to disaster. In 1830, revolution again visited France, but mercifully in a more peaceful fashion, with Charles agreeing to abdicate in favor of his cousin, Louis Philippe. Louis Philippe’s own reign would meet its end with a further revolution in 1848.^[9]

1 Long-Lasting Partisanship and Deadlock

It’s human nature to look for resolution in the world around us. For those living through it, the revolution probably seemed climactic, the final chapter in the Ancien Régime story that, once lived through, would condemn its difficulties to history. But the months and years that followed brought their own sets of problems, not least of which were extreme partisanship and disenchantment with the democratic process.

Politically speaking, the terms “left” and “right” are inheritances from the revolution that we still use today, originally referring to the position of the liberal and conservative factions in the National Assembly. We already know the results of the breakdown in cooperation between the various deputies, some of which are named in this list. Today, partisanship and governmental gridlock continue to be serious problems for nations around the world.^[10]