25 of the Weirdest Chains of Events Throughout History

A Chinese man wanted to create a potion to become immortal, but accidentally created gunpowder
25 of the Weirdest Chains of Events Throughout History

Of course, nothing in grey matter upstairs ache to even try to process.

Even knowing that all of our history is deeply interconnected, there are certain series of cause-and-effect that feel less “if this, then that” and more along the lines of chaos theory.

In a Reddit thread, historians shared chains of events from history that make a butterfly wingflap turning into a tornado seem quaint. Keep reading to find out some particularly weird one-two punches from human history.

mitchade 6y ago Edited 6y ago President Andrew Jackson was walking out of the Capitol Building with his buddy Congressman Davey Crockett. A man approached them, drew a gun, but it misfired. The man drew a second gun, which also misfired. Andrew Jackson, fairly old at this point, lifted his cane and began beating the would be assassin. Normally, people would react with justice served, but Jackson was beating him so badly that Davey Crockett had to pull Jackson off his would be assassin, who was arrested shortly after. The would be assassin stood trial, represented by lawyer Francis Scott
batmans-uncle . 6y ago A Chinese man wanted to create a potion to become immortal instead he accidentally created gunpowder
Poplo1232 6y ago Edited 6y ago Pretty much the fall of the Berlin Wall. The USSR was already crumbling by this point and so they agreed to allow the wall to be opened for a bit. Well the guy in charge over in Berlin didn't really get the point across to the public very well and as a result everyone assumed that the wall was permanently coming down. This led to pretty much all of East Berlin flocking to the wall and demanding to be let through. The guards there knew there was no way to restrain all these people
 6y ago British officers in India in the 18th century were eating quinine powder to help treat malaria. Quinine is so bitter on its own so they started putting it in their club soda to make easier to down. They invented tonic water. Brought the water back to Europe and they started putting it in their gin. Hence, gin and tonic
Frenchorican 6y ago The events that led and culminated in the War of the Bucket for sure. Essentially one Italian State who followed Holy Roman Emperor stole a bucket from another Italian State who followed the pope. War broke out, The papal state highly outnumbered the HRE state, but HRE state won. Then stole another bucket. Was a trip for sure when | learned about this one.
Froakiebloke 6y ago Edited 6y ago In 1918, British MP Noel Pemberton Billing caused a major scandal when he accused actress Maud Allan, and Margot Asquith, wife of the previous Prime Minister, of being at the centre of a homosexual ring sabotaging the war effort. Evidence included Allan having performed in a play by Oscar Wilde, and Asquith having attended the performance. Не presented his case in an article entitled The Cult of the Clitoris, in which he claimed the exiled prince of Albania had a black book, listing all the blackmailed homosexuals in Britain. Maud Allan (who was in
carl_888 . 6y ago Horses evolved in North America, spread during pre-historical times into Asia, and then later went extinct in North America. If things had been only slightly different, horses could have been native only to the Americas, or just completely extinct by pre-history. Not having horses would have made a huge difference to Asian & European history: no Mongol invasions, no European knights.
wekillpirates . 6y ago The immovable ladder! Guy leaves ladder leaning against wall of the church of the Holy sepulchre in Jerusalem some time before 1728. A thing called the Status Quo happens in 1757 which means don't touch shit on holy sites. Ladder is still there.
EdithGoettl 6y ago The British government wanted to get rid of the cobras in India, so they started offering money for dead cobras. To take advantage of this, many people started breeding cobras to kill for the money, so they stopoed buying dead cobras onve they realized it was going on. All of the cobra breeders released the snakes and there ended up being even more cobras than there had been in the first place
 a 6y ago I  how King Henry I was returning to England. Не allowed his only legitimate son, next in line for the crown, his half brother and sister, and a bunch of really important people to ferry back with the guy who offered to sail the king back while the king went back on his own. After the all get drunk, the boat crashes and only some random survived. This caused a civil war between England and Normandy for 18 years (1135-1153). According to Wikia, chroniclers described this as a period in which Christ and his saints
 6y ago Edited 6y ago In the 17th century, most of Europe was on the verge of famine, but potatoes were in plentiful supply. The general population thought of the vegetables as disgusting so just didn't eat them, amazingly. Frederick the great, the king in Prussia, grew fields of potatoes and stationed guards to protect them, saying no one is allowed to eat these. Soon enough people were stealing potatoes, and then everyone wanted them Edit: he was the king in Prussia, not  Edit 2: apparently he had to be called king in Prussia, not king of Prussia
TollinginPolitics 6y ago The Miranda Supreme Court decision is one of the best. His case make it so that when you are arrested the Police have to tell you your rights and it became a staple of american TV. What most people do not know is that Ernesto Miranda the defendant in the case was a crappy guy and about 20 years later he was playing poker illegally in a basement of a bar. Не got was cheating and when the people he was playing with found out they stabbed him with a knife killing him. The first thing the
 6y ago Arab Spring is recent history, but still history. Mohamed Bouazizi, a Tunisian street vendor, has his wares confiscated. Unable to combat the police, he goes to the local governor to ask for his wares back, but is refused even a meeting. In response, Bouazizi sets himself on fire in public. It's not the sole reason, but certainly the catalyst for the Arab Spring, which includes civil war in many countries, leaders being ousted and in cases like Gaddafi, executed. It sees the rise in ISIS, terrorist acts in the western world, and other conflicts that remain active
Santosp3 . 6y ago During the black plague, people thought the cats were spreading the disease. They then killed all the cats. The problem is that the cats killed rats, the real source of the plague. The plague now spread faster.
Fifilota 6y ago I am surprised no one mentioned how Henry VIII changed the religion of England because he wanted to divorce his wife and get into the panties of a girl.
President-Lonestar E 6y ago Edinburgh during the 1800s was the leading city in anatomical research. However, there were tons of restrictions on how to get a body for dissection. This led to an illegal market of bodies and grave robbing. But when those were cracked down. Burke and Hare started murdering people in order to sell the bodies to an anatomy professor.
miami5819 6y ago The (original) Cuban revolution comes to mind. The first Cuban Rebellion was due to the descendants of Spanish born colonists rebelling against Spain. That revolution failed and many of them were stripped of their properties which were seized by the victors. Fast forward 10-15 years and another rebellion breaks out but this time includes freed slaves. The Americans came in at the end of the campaign and the revolution succeeded. The next 50 years saw American economic domination which led to a series of corrupt and somewhat ineffective governments which led to the Castro revolution.
JerryWizard 6y ago Not a historian but the current Hong Kong situation is all caused by a murder. A man suspected his gf of cheating while on trip to Taiwan. The man then killed his gf and flee back to Hong Kong. Since there's no extradition arrangement between HK and Taiwan, the НК government introduced a bill that would allow the HK government to extradite any criminals to not just Taiwan, but also Mainland China. This has led to people protesting in Hong Kong for more than 3 months now. An ongoing crisis that has caused more than 700 people
 . 6y ago Obligatory WWI -> Development of Hentai WWI -> Treaty of Versailles - > WWII -> rip nagasaki & hiroshima -> Macarthur shapes Japanese constitution in a way that restricts sexual expression -> hentai
TofuDeliveryBoy 6y ago Edited 6y ago If Gavrilo Princep never stopped for a snack at that cafe, he never would have shot Franz Ferdinand. That would have never started WWI with the particular political alliances of the moment. Which meant Russia wouldn't have been ground into dust by  economically while  lost the war. Which means Communism never would have taken hold in Russia, while Nazism wouldn't even exist. Which means WWII and the Cold War would have never happened. No Cold War means no American involvement in Vietnam...v which led to the greatest catastrophe of the 20th century.
gunnie56 6y ago Bronze Age Apocalypse. The fact that there is an agreed upon Apocalypse or collapse, that we've gone through as a human race I think is just wild. Civilizations fell like domino's, one after another. If my memory serves me right were not entirely too sure what exactly happens but that the current popular theory is a series of crazy natural disasters followed by the mysterious sea people wrecking everybody except the Egyptians (who are still severely crippled after fighting them)
Ow0xdlol 6y ago Edited 6y ago During the early 20th century, there was an outbreak of Spanish flu in the Americas which caused large amounts of suffering and death among afflicted throughout the world. Eleven victims living in the town of Longyearben in the North Sea that died. However, The very cold temperature there created a layer of permafrost at burial depth which accidentally preserved remnants of the flu. This made it illegal to die there as turning up the ground would likely re-release the disease. However, scientists studying epidemics such as the Spanish flu use samples from deceased in
Swimreed . 6y ago Edited 6y ago The life of Qutuz, one of the last survivors and princes of Khwarezm, whose identity was kept secret by a steward, was sold into slavery in Syria by the Mongols, became a Mamluk in Egypt, then freakishly a Sultan, then finally went on to defeat the Mongols in Ain Jalut, breaking their unstoppable drive and probably saving the Muslim states from them, then dying shortly after, it's like his whole life was planned for him to do just that.
 . 6y ago Nix V Hedden - a supreme court case from 1893 that decided, for tax/import purposes, that tomatoes are vegetables not fruits, despite every botanist/biologist claiming the contrary - and the fact that even today, if you ask whether a tomato is a vegetable or a fruit you will still get conflicting answers. In fact, people today are largely unaware that vegetable is not a biological category with much meaning.
Tuck_Pock 6y ago We learnt about this is school: in the 1950s in Borneo they were suffering from an outbreak of malaria, so, with the help of the world health organization, they sprayed DDT all over the island to kill the mosquitos. But the DDT also killed the islands wasps which helped control the population of thatch eating catapillars, thatch that people's homes were made of, and thanks to this, their roofs began to collapse. Many other small insects started to get affected by the DDT, which were eaten by geckos, the geckos developed a tolerance to the DDT but

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