1

$125 million for a Grade-school math error

Image: Aaron Lefler

Imagine losing a hugely expensive spacecraft due to a simple mix-up between English and metric measurements . That is exactly what happened to NASA in 1999 when a Mars orbiter designed by Lockheed Martin was lost in space.

The confusion caused a malfunction on the $125 million craft, resulting in the probe’s loss. Although it was unusual for Lockheed to use English measurements for a NASA design (since NASA had stipulated using metric measurements for many years), there were still several instances where the error should have been caught but wasn’t.

2

Toys ‘R’ Us blunder

Image: Taylor Heery

If you think an action figure of a drug dealer isn’t the best idea for a toy store , you’re not alone. Yet, for some reason, Toys "R" Us decided otherwise in October 2014, possibly hoping to cash in on the massive success of the Breaking Bad TV series.

Unsurprisingly, the giant toy retailer was forced to pull from its shelves four collectible dolls based on characters from the AMC hit show, each doll featuring a detachable sack of cash and a bag of meth.

3

Apple Maps' rocky beginnings

Image: CardMapr.nl

When Apple decided to launch its own map application on iOS devices after a conflict with Google in 2012, users quickly realized that the Apple app was not nearly as launch-ready as it should have been .

Locations were mislabeled, roads were missing, and it occasionally steered people in entirely the wrong direction. The problem was eventually, though largely, resolved, but it was an embarrassing misstep for a company known for never launching a product before it was as near-perfect as possible.

4

Bank of America debit card fee

Image: Ali Mkumbwa

Back in 2011, when the backlash against the banking industry had not yet reached its boiling point, Bank of America announced it would charge customers $5 per month to use their debit cards .

It was a bad business decision. More than 300,000 people signed an online petition, and Fox Business Network’s Gerri Willis cut up her debit card on air. The bank pointed to federal regulations as the reason for the charge but ultimately capitulated to consumer demand after a month before the fees went into effect.

5

$33 airline tickets from Toronto to Cyprus

Image: Miguel Ángel Sanz

If buying a business class ticket regularly priced at $2,558 for just $33 sounds too good to be true, it probably is. Except in 2006, when an Alitalia employee accidentally forgot to input two extra zeros when pricing business-class tickets from Toronto to Cyprus.

Due to the exchange rate on that day and the blunder, hundreds of buyers managed to snag fares for just $33. The airline honored those deals, accepting the heavily discounted price for the 509 people who purchased tickets before the error was detected.

6

A $70 million comma

Image: Nattipat Vesvarute

As the folks at NASA and Alitalia have shown us, small errors can lead to costly mistakes. The following blunder comes courtesy of Lockheed Martin , which issued a contract to a customer with a missing comma in the sale price .

The astute customer held the aerospace company to the contract, costing Lockheed Martin $70 million for a C-130J Hercules aircraft in June 1999.

7

Sears misses the ship

Image: Estefania Cortes

A retail giant that faced a situation similar to the one Kodak faced—embrace the new and unknown or cling to the old, successful recipe—Sears sold everything from socks to tires via mail order, shipping across the U.S.

Choosing to stick with the old method, the company ended its catalog and delivery business in 1993 . In 1994, Amazon was founded , filling the business void that Sears had just created. The rest is history.

8

Passing on Microsoft

Image: Jaime Marrero

$60 million might seem like a lot of money to us regular folks, but for someone with very deep pockets like Texas businessman and two-time U.S. presidential candidate Ross Perot, it wasn’t all that much.

In 1979, he was offered the chance to buy Microsoft for that sum. However, his final offer to the tech company was just $15 million, and as a result, the Texan missed out on the opportunity to own what would become one of the biggest companies in the world .

9

Blackberry sticks with the old

Image: Thai Nguyen

Another case of a brand sticking with the old instead of embracing the new, BlackBerry was all the rage at the start of the 21st century— until Steve Jobs came along with the Apple iPhone .

While BlackBerry Messenger was extremely popular, with over 80 million users worldwide, the device lacked the new touchscreen functionality and sleek design of the Apple product. From being a market leader, BlackBerry’s market share plummeted to 0.2% by 2016.

10

RadioShack’s downfall

Image: Jelleke Vanooteghem

Not so long ago, RadioShack was a familiar presence on the streets and the go-to place for buying batteries and electronics. But it was that same brick-and-mortar presence, coupled with a reluctance to embrace e-commerce , that ultimately led to its demise .

Eventually, poor profit margins on what they could sell, combined with a loan they couldn’t repay, brought down what was once the go-to place for electronics.

1

Who fired the shot heard ‘round the world?

The war began on the morning of April 19, 1775, when a small group of local militia faced a column of British Redcoats. The American commander, Colonel John Parker, ordered his men to disperse. The British commander, Major John Pitcairn, ordered his troops to hold their fire. Both sides wanted to avoid a bloodbath.

Suddenly, a shot of gunfire was heard through the air. In the confusion, British soldiers charged with bayonets. Who pulled that first trigger? Some accounts suggest a gunman fired from behind a nearby wall. Others claim a fleeing prisoner sparked the chaos. Because both sides swore under oath that they didn’t shoot first, the catalyst of the war remains a mystery.

2

Who betrayed Nathan Hale?

Nathan Hale is considered one of America’s first tragic heroes. A young Connecticut schoolteacher turned army captain, Hale volunteered to infiltrate British-occupied New York City to gather intelligence. He was an amateur spy, and it didn’t take long for the enemy to catch him with compromising notes hidden in his shoes. He was hanged the next morning, at age 21.

The mystery lies in exactly how he was caught. One theory points to his own cousin, Samuel Hale, a Loyalist who allegedly spotted Nathan in a tavern and reported it to British authorities. Another theory suggests he was tricked by Major Robert Rogers, a legendary British counter-insurgency commander who supposedly suspected Hale and got him to confess his mission over drinks.

3

Who burned New York City in 1776?

On September 21, 1776, just days after Nathan Hale’s execution, a fire broke out in the middle of the night. The Great Fire consumed a third of New York City, destroying hundreds of buildings and critical port facilities just when the British military was going to start using the city as their winter base.

The British blamed American arsonists and arrested over 200 people, but no one was ever convicted. Interestingly, George Washington and his collaborators previously debated burning the city, though the Continental Congress ultimately forbade it. Washington publicly denied any involvement, although he privately confessed that the fire was a stroke of luck. Was it a genuine accident, or did radical Patriots take matters into their own hands?

4

Who was Agent 355?

George Washington’s most successful intelligence network was the Culper Spy Ring, which operated in New York. The ring used an intricate system of invisible ink, hidden drop boxes, and complex ciphers. In their master codebook, the number 355 stood simply for "lady."

Agent 355 was a brilliant female operative who provided vital intelligence. Because her identity was protected by the ring’s leaders, her true name was never written down. Scholars have spent centuries debating whether she was a prominent Loyalist society woman secretly sympathetic to the Patriots, a member of the prominent Floyd family, or a composite character representing multiple female informants.

5

The mystery of Silas Deane

Silas Deane was a Connecticut merchant sent by Congress to France in 1776 as America’s first secret diplomat. He performed well at first, successfully securing shipments of French arms and recruiting foreign officers such as the Marquis de Lafayette. However, he fell into a bitter political dispute with fellow diplomat Arthur Lee, who accused Deane of financial fraud.

Totally in disgrace, a ruined Deane spent years in European exile trying to clear his name. In 1789, when he was 51, he boarded a ship to return to the United States for a congressional hearing. Hours into the voyage, he became ill and died. According to rumors, he had been poisoned. Modern historians suspect his close friend and assistant, Edward Bancroft—a British double agent—murdered Deane to keep him from exposing his wartime espionage.

6

Who told the Patriots in Boston that the British were coming?

Before Paul Revere could take his historic midnight ride, someone had to give the Patriots the warning. On the night of April 18, 1775, Dr. Joseph Warren received precise intelligence that British troops were preparing to march on Lexington and Concord to arrest rebel leaders.

Who leaked this military plan? History has pointed to Margaret Kemble Gage, the American-born wife of the British Commander-in-Chief, General Thomas Gage. Margaret was torn between her love for her husband and her devotion to the land. While her involvement has never been proven, General Gage notably sent his wife away to England shortly after the leak.

7

Was Charles Lee a traitor?

General Charles Lee was George Washington’s second-in-command and an experienced military officer. He was also arrogant and frequently criticized Washington’s leadership. In late 1776, Lee was captured by the British in a New Jersey tavern while writing a letter complaining about Washington's deficiencies.

He was exchanged back to the Americans a year later, but his career ended after he disobeyed Washington’s orders at the Battle of Monmouth in 1778. The mystery arose 80 years later, when a lost document surfaced. The document, written in Lee’s own handwriting, outlined a detailed military strategy for the British to defeat the Continental Army. Was Lee a traitor, or was it a strategy to manipulate his captors?

8

Why didn’t the British burn Monticello?

In June 1781, the British cavalry leader Banastre Tarleton—called by Americans "Bloody Tarleton" for his brutal tactics—led a raid on Charlottesville, Virginia. His main objective was to capture Thomas Jefferson, the author of the Declaration of Independence and the state’s governor.

Jefferson managed to escape Monticello, and when Tarleton’s troops occupied his famous estate, they left it entirely untouched, as Tarleton specifically ordered his men not to damage or burn the property. Given that the British often burned the properties of prominent leaders, sparing Monticello was very unusual.

9

Who was Jane McCrea?

Jane McCrea was a young woman from a Loyalist family who was engaged to a lieutenant in the British army. In the summer of 1777, she was taken by Native American warriors allied with British General John Burgoyne's advancing army. Shortly after, she was found dead and scalped.

The Patriots turned her death into a propagandistic victory, using the story to terrify frontier colonists into joining the militia. But who actually killed Jane? The native scouts claimed she was accidentally shot by stray bullets fired by pursuing American soldiers. Other accounts insisted she was murdered during an argument between two native factions. The truth remains buried in the fog of war.

10

What happened to Benjamin Church?

Dr. Benjamin Church was a prominent member of the Boston Sons of Liberty and served as the first Surgeon General of the Continental Army. He was also a traitor. In 1775, Washington’s intelligence team intercepted a coded letter written by Church containing vital information about American troop numbers.

Church was arrested, tried, and sentenced to confinement. In 1778, because of his poor health, he was banished from Massachusetts and boarded a merchant ship bound for the West Indies. The ship sailed into the Atlantic and was never seen again. Did the vessel sink, or did Church use his British connections to stage his disappearance and flee to Europe?

1

Hollywood

Image: Jake Blucker

Palm trees, long roads, and one iconic mountain with a most recognizable sign that reads "Hollywood." This place is much more than just that—it’s become a symbol of big dreams and even bigger screens.

Since the early 1900s, Hollywood has been the heart of the world’s movie industry . Films that reach global audiences have been made every single day ever since. Americans popularized the blockbuster, and movie stars like Marilyn Monroe and James Dean became household names worldwide. With events like the Oscars, red-carpet premieres, and starry paths like the Hollywood Walk of Fame, the place keeps the mystique alive. This results in millions of tourists flocking to the iconic Hollywood sign every year, hoping to catch a glimpse of stardom. From romantic comedies to superhero flicks, Hollywood movies have a unique style that’s unmistakably American. And hey, who hasn’t secretly wanted to be in the movies?

2

The American Dream

Image: frank mckenna

Few phrases denote the American spirit as much as the "American Dream," and no, it’s not just that it’s right there in the phrase. It’s the fact that the phrase has become a source of inspiration for more than one generation. The American Dream is about the chance we all get (or should get) in life to achieve success, regardless of our background.

The idea is rooted in the belief that hard work and determination can lead to prosperity—a notion that has attracted immigrants and risk-takers for centuries. From the Gold Rush to Silicon Valley, the Dream has evolved but remained relevant because it speaks to the essence of the human spirit.

The American Dream can mean building a home, becoming a CEO, or attending an Ivy League college. It doesn’t matter—it's a concept that feels uniquely American, where ambition is practically a national pastime.

3

Fast food

Image: Kenny Eliason

When people think of American food, fast food chains like McDonald's, Burger King, and KFC often come to mind. While fast food wasn’t exactly created in our country, it certainly popularized the quick-and-easy dining experience.

There’s something uniquely American about the convenience of a drive-thru and the guilty pleasure of a cheeseburger and fries. Fast food became a symbol of the American lifestyle in the 1950s, when suburban families sought meals that were fast and tasty.

Today, we even have healthier options, which proves that the industry can adapt while keeping its original charm. It’s quick, it’s familiar, and for many, it just feels like home.

4

Baseball

Image: Joshua Peacock

Speaking of institutions, enter baseball! Rooted in the 19th century, baseball has been a staple of American culture—generations of families united through teams, ballparks, and timeless rivalries .

The crack of the bat, the seventh-inning stretch, and the smell of hot dogs are classic hallmarks of the American baseball experience. You can perfectly picture that, can’t you? The World Series is one of the most anticipated events each year, attracting fans from all over the country.

While it’s played elsewhere, no one embraces baseball quite like America. From Little League to Major League, it’s a sport that feels imprinted in our history. Baseball captures something timeless about America, just as it always has.

5

The Fourth of July

Image: Stephanie McCabe

Summer starts, and with it, one already starts thinking about a certain barbecue, under some certain fireworks, celebrating a certain national date, right?

Every summer for the past 246 years, Americans have gathered to celebrate Independence Day with a bang . Well, not precisely that many years, but you get the point.

The Fourth of July marks the anniversary of the US independence in 1776, and it is celebrated with parades, BBQs, and fireworks displays.

Patriotism meets tradition, and we get flags waving, sparklers shining, and people enjoying a day off work with loved ones. Many cities host grand parades, and fireworks shows light up the skies from coast to coast. There’s nothing quite like the Fourth in this country; it’s a holiday with heart and history.

6

The Wild West

Image: Jeremy Alford

The Wild West conjures images of cowboys, saloons, and dusty trails that are purely American. This period in the 19th century was marked by westward expansion, tales of rugged frontiersmen, and gold rushes.

That was the beginning of cowboy culture, but certainly not the end. Even today, the cowboy spirit lives on in American folklore and pop culture. People still visit old Western towns and attend rodeos to catch a glimpse of that era.

We mentioned Hollywood, and that’s also connected to this because Western movies helped immortalize the myths of the Wild West, with iconic gunslingers and epic standoffs. Although the frontier is long gone, the independent, adventurous spirit it represents still resonates. Don’t you think?

7

Silicon Valley

Image: Amy Vosters

First the cowboys, the gold rush, and the expansion of our territory. But after that was settled, development and innovation knew no bounds, and thus we got places like Silicon Valley—a city that represents modern times and the technology that will take us into the future.

Located in California, this is where major tech giants like Apple, Google, and Facebook all got their start, transforming the area into a hotbed for innovation . Silicon Valley has impacted everything from our daily routines to global communication, with inventions that changed the world. The region is home to countless startups, bringing together brilliant minds and bold ideas.

This technology-driven culture reflects the American spirit of invention and risk-taking. It’s a place where possibilities seem endless, and tech dreams come true.

8

American football

Image: Tim Mossholder

As if baseball wasn’t enough of a cultural activity, American football came to be the country’s favorite sport, bringing people together on fall weekends to cheer for their teams and boo the rivals—admit it!

While other sports are popular worldwide, football, the NFL, and the Super Bowl in particular, are unique to the US. The thrill of game day, with fans tailgating and players charging down the field, is unmatched.

The Super Bowl has even become a cultural event, complete with halftime shows and commercials that people actually watch! Where else have you ever seen something like that?

From high school games to professional leagues, football is a major community event. Fans don their jerseys and root for their team through thick and thin. As American as it gets, right?

9

Route 66

Image: Mateusz Szerszyński

The Main Street of America, the Will Rogers Highway, the Mother Road—how many nicknames can one route have? Well, apparently, that’s what you get when you become the most famous route on the continent.

Route 66 is an iconic symbol of American freedom and adventure. It stretches from Chicago to Los Angeles, and this historic highway takes travelers through diverse landscapes and all kinds of towns.

Route 66 has been immortalized in songs, stories, and even neon signs in roadside diners. Though parts of the road have faded, its legacy remains strong in American culture. Route 66 represents the spirit of exploration that defines our nation. After all, who doesn’t love a good road trip?

10

The Bald Eagle

Image: Mathew Schwartz

Think of words that describe our country. You might be thinking of words like "resilience," "freedom," or maybe even "fierceness." Did we get it right? In any case, if you agree with us on those words, you’ll see that they could describe America or the bald eagle, which was chosen as the national emblem in 1782. This majestic bird has come to represent the United States’ fierce independence.

With its impressive wingspan and piercing gaze, the bald eagle is often seen soaring high in American skies, symbolizing strength and vision. Although once endangered, conservation efforts helped bring the eagle back from the brink, making it an environmental success story. The bird appears on everything from coins to government seals, proudly representing the nation. Even in popular culture, the bald eagle is a go-to image for patriotism. Don’t you just love it?