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

Gutenberg Bible

The Gutenberg Bible was the first book to be printed after the invention of movable type printing, around the year 1455. Nowadays, only 49 copies have survived from the 180 believed to have been printed by Gutenberg himself , and only 21 are considered complete copies. The copy kept in the Library of Congress is one of three complete copies printed in vellum —a parchment made from animal skin.

2

Draft of the Declaration of Independence

The Declaration of Independence kept at the National Archives in Washington, D.C, is the final document presented to the Second Continental Congress. Before that, six drafts were made. The copy kept in the Library of Congress is the first ‘rough draft’ written by Thomas Jefferson , with notes from Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, and the other committee delegates. It was part of Jefferson’s personal library and papers, which were acquired by the Library of Congress in 1815.

3

Waldseemüller Map

The only surviving copy, this 1507 map by Martin Waldseemüller was an ambitious project that aimed to depict the geographical discoveries of the past few decades , including those made by Amerigo Vespucci after his voyages in 1501 and 1502, which confirmed that the ‘new world’ was not part of the Indies, but a separate continent altogether. To honor this, Waldseemüller named the continent America, and this map was the first to utilize the name.

4

The Stradivarius

Created by the luthier Antonio Stradivari and his family in the 17th and 18th centuries, Stradivarius instruments are renowned for their exquisite craftsmanship and sound, and are valued in the millions. It is estimated that 650 instruments have survived out of the around 1100 made . Six of them —two violas, three violins, and a cello— are kept in the Library of Congress.

5

Bay Psalm Book

This book of psalms was the first book to be printed in British North America , and it dates to the year 1640, just 20 years after the arrival of the Pilgrims. This copy lacks a title page, and 12 of its pages have been removed. One of 11 surviving copies, it is a valuable testimony to America’s printing history.

6

Leaves of Grass

Whalt Whitman’s Leaves of Grass is considered to be one of the most important poetry collections in American Literature and a celebration of the American spirit. The Library of Congress houses several editions of this book, the most important being a copy of its first edition, self-published in 1855, as well as a page of the original manuscript.

7

Wilbur and Orville Wright Papers

The Wright brothers are credited with the invention, building, and flying the world’s first successful airplane in North Carolina in 1903. This collection in the Library of Congress comprises 10,121 items related to them , including notebooks, photographs, papers, drawings, prints, correspondence, and more.

8

Giant Bible of Mainz

Before the invention of movable type printing, most Bibles were handwritten, a laborious task that could take years to complete. The Great Bible of Mainz is one of the last Bibles made in this way , and it is dated around the year 1452. Made from 459 vellum skin leaves and embellished with illuminated initial letters and borders, this Bible was gifted to the Library of Congress in 1952.

9

Huexotzinco Codex

Composed of 8 sheets of amatl —a pre-Hispanic Nahuatl type of paper—, this 1521 codex registers a legal complaint against a colonial administrator. The Nahua people of Huexotzinco were part of Hernán Cortés’s estate after aiding him in his campaign against the Aztec Empire. During one of Cortés’s trips, the administrators of the estate implemented abusive taxes. After his return, Cortés and the Nahua presented a joint formal complaint, and they were successful. The case was retried in Spain, where the courts and King Charles both agreed with the initial verdict and ruled that excess taxes were returned to the Nahua.

10

Gettysburg Address

One of the most significant speeches of the American Civil War and of American History, the Gettysburg Address was delivered by President Lincoln on the occasion of the inauguration of the Soldiers' National Cemetery , now Gettysburg National Cemetery. Of the five surviving manuscript copies of the short speech —it lasted roughly two minutes— only two were written before the occasion, which were gifted by Lincoln to his personal secretaries, and were later donated to the Library of Congress.

1

Young inventor

Image: Randy Fath

Although we all know that Edison was an inventor -and one of the best- very few know that his passion was already loudly expressed at the young age of 10.

At that age, while other children were naturally playing ball in the park, Edison was already interested in chemistry, physics, mathematics, and electricity. At 12, he set up his first laboratory in the basement of his parents' house, where he began to do his first experiments! Some stories claim that explosions in the basement were more frequent than their parents would have liked.

2

Self-taught

Image: Nicola Tolin

Edison's educational path was very different from the one many of us probably had. In fact, Edison had almost no formal education.

Thomas Edison attended school for only a few months. Due to some hearing problems he developed as a child, his mother decided to homeschool him, teaching and encouraging him, which awakened his impressive curiosity and appetite for knowledge.

By the time he was a preteen, he was already an autodidact. This fact was crucial on his way to becoming one of our country's most important inventors.

3

Young entrepreneur

Image: Jingda Chen

The young Edison was not only curious and intelligent; he was also an entrepreneur.

When he was just a boy of 12, he sold snacks, candy, cigars, magazines, and newspapers on the Grand Trunk Railroad. From that age, he displayed a determined character, which enabled him to raise money for his experiments.

But his ambition was so strong that he started his own newspaper, the Grand Trunk Herald. That's right! Little Edison assembled and printed his newspaper and sold it to passengers and people who frequented the train stations.

4

Hero

Image: Sugden Guy sugden

Did you know that Edison was also a hero? That's right!

In fact, we could say that his act of heroism as a teenager was the event that started his great career. By the age of 15, Edison was working and traveling on the Grand Trunk Railroad, where he became close to a station master and telegraph officer. One day, Edison spotted the station master's two-year-old son playing on the tracks as a train sped toward him. Without hesitation, he jumped and rescued the child.

The boy's father was so grateful that he offered to teach Edison how to use the telegraph system. And what do you think? He accepted immediately!

5

Marriages

Image: Fernando @cferdophotography

Between labs and experiments, Thomas Edison also had time for love.

Thomas Alva Edison married twice in his life. His first wife was Mary Stilwell Edison, whom he married in 1871. Mary and Thomas had three children. Sadly, she passed away in 1884 after 13 years of marriage.

His second marriage was in 1886 to Mina Miller Edison. With her, Edison had three more children. As it couldn't be otherwise, it's said that Edison asked Mina to marry him in a rather peculiar way: he proposed using Morse code!

6

His children's nicknames

Image: Sandie Clarke

Thomas Edison's creativity was evident in everything he did, and there's an anecdote that exemplifies this perfectly.

The inventor's passion and humor blended and resulted in fun and loving nicknames for his first two children. As we told you, by 1876, Edison already had two children from his first marriage. They were Marion and Thomas Jr., whom Edison called "Dot" and "Dash," respectively. Yes, you got it: it was a reference to Morse code!

7

First phonograph recording

Image: Call Me Fred

As you probably know, in 1877, Thomas Edison introduced the phonograph. It was the first device capable of recording and reproducing sound!

As a result of his experiments, this device completely changed the history of communication. But what did the first recording made with the phonograph say?

Edison made a cute choice for his first recording: a recitation of the beloved nursery rhyme "Mary Had a Little Lamb." That was the first time in history that anyone heard a previously recorded voice!

8

His work team

Image: The National Library of Norway

It seems that Edison had a tendency for affectionate nicknames and monikers.

Edison didn't reserve nicknames just for his children; he also gave them to the members of his large staff. Many people worked in Edison's famous laboratory at Menlo Park, which he referred to as his "invention factory." Engineers, scientists, technicians, and people with different kinds of expertise gathered there to help make the great inventor's ideas possible. Edison affectionately referred to them as his "muckers," a nickname that shows not only his sense of humor but also his strong team spirit.

9

His health

Image: Dan Meyers

One of the best-known aspects of Edison's health was his hearing loss when he was very young. Contrary to what one might think, Edison stated that this fact didn't negatively affect his career development. In fact, he believed it helped him focus and dedicate more time to his inventions and discoveries.

However, as an adult, he developed some other health problems. Some sources suggest that Edison's habits, including long hours in the lab and a poor diet, contributed to health issues like heart problems and diabetes.

10

His last words

Image: Jonathan Borba

Edison's life was full of adventures, discoveries, love, and many other things. The American inventor didn't abandon his creativity even when it was time for him to leave this world.

It's said that, at the age of 84 on his deathbed, Thomas Edison looked at his wife, Mina, and uttered the words, "It's very beautiful over there."

While it's difficult to make a unique interpretation of these nice and calm words, their poetic and inspirational character is undeniable.