Oops!
How did the Seventh Commandment cost these printers $30,000?
Published on January 4, 2025
Image: Florian Klauer
Blunders are part of life. As human beings, we can all make mistakes, especially when writing or typing. A simple slip of the fingers on the keyboard might be nothing more than a joke among friends, but throughout history, there have been some typos that meant much more than that, from millions of dollars lost to huge controversies and scandals. If you want to know which mistakes could have led to such consequences, here are 10 of the most notorious typos in history!
Euture
Image: Yifu Wu
The title of this entry is not a new or unknown word but a typo in the inscriptions of one of the most important monuments of our country.
We're talking about none other than the Lincoln Memorial, the landmark honoring our 16th president in Washington, D.C. Built between 1914 and 1922, the memorial has part of President Abraham Lincoln's Second Inaugural Address -delivered on March 4, 1865- inscribed on its north interior wall. But a mistake occurred during the engraving: the word "future" was carved as "euture."
The extra line that turned that F into an E was filled in and fixed. However, if you get close enough, you can still see traces of that original E on the monument wall.
The ghost word
Image: Shutter Speed
Have you ever read the word "dord"? Do you know what it means? Probably not, and it's not because your vocabulary is lacking but because no one knows!
"Dord" is a fake or ghost word that appeared in the 1934 international edition of the Merriam-Webster Dictionary. One of the editors mistakenly interpreted a note that said "D or d." The note indicated that "D" or "d" should be used as abbreviations in certain parts of the dictionary, but the editor read that note as a whole word: Dord.
The term appeared in the dictionary for several years until another editor noticed the error and removed it.
A lucky misspelling
Image: Brett Jordan
Probably the most famous website in the world, Google got its iconic name due to a typo.
When Larry Page and Sergey Brin were creating the company, they chose the word "googol" as the name for their search engine. But what does it mean? "Googol" is the mathematical term for the number 10 raised to the power of 100.
However, when they first typed it in to register the domain, they accidentally entered "Google." Luckily, they loved the typo and decided to keep it; the rest is history!
The "wicked" Bible
Image: Aaron Burden
What if we told you that there's a Bible that reads, "You shall commit adultery." Believe it or not, in 1631, a Bible was published in London that incorrectly listed that phrase as the Seventh Commandment. Of course, that wasn't an actual religious principle but an accidental omission of the word "not."
That Bible caused a scandal in Europe, receiving nicknames such as "the wicked Bible," "the adulterers' Bible," and "the sinners' Bible." Because it was so controversial, the British government ordered all copies to be destroyed, which is why only a few exist today. In addition, the printers were fined 300 pounds, about 30,000 dollars in today's money.
Even NASA can make mistakes
Image: David Torres
If it hadn't been for an error in a spacecraft's guidance system, perhaps we would know more about Venus, the hottest planet in our Solar System.
The mistake we're talking about was a missed hyphen in the spacecraft's software code. Although this may not seem like a big deal, the consequence of that typo was huge: The 1962 Mariner 1 mission, which was launched with the intention of orbiting Venus, lost contact with Earth shortly after launch!
Surprisingly, a simple missed hyphen caused an entire mission to fail.
Sorry, what type of travel?
Image: Quino Al
NASA may have lost thousands of dollars due to their mistake, but there had been others who got exactly the opposite.
In the 1980s, a woman earned 10,000 dollars due to a typo! It was the owner of a travel agency who chose to promote her business in the Yellow Pages, but something went wrong. The ad came out with a misspelled word: instead of promoting the agency's "exotic trips," it advertised "erotic trips."
The woman decided to sue the Yellow Pages publisher for the damages her company received, and she won!
That's why we aren't so strong
Image: Rens D
Remember Popeye the Sailor? He had a secret to super strength: spinach! Today, we know that spinach is much like other green leafy vegetables, but for years, it was believed to have extraordinary qualities. And it was all because of a typo!
In the 19th century, a German chemist was nutritionally analyzing spinach. But when it came time to write down the results, he made a mistake. He meant to write that spinach contains 3.5 milligrams of iron per 100 grams. Instead, he accidentally wrote that it contains 35 milligrams! Later, the myth gained even more strength thanks to Popeye's amusing adventures.
Bqstqn
Image: Maurice DT
As we've seen in this article, prestigious institutions can also make mistakes sometimes. That was the case with the National Hockey League in 1972.
The Stanley Cup is one of the oldest trophies in the NHL, characterized by something special: it's engraved with the names of the players, coaches, and owners of all the winning teams. However, the trophy is also known for having several typos.
When the Boston Bruins won the Cup in 1972, they didn't expect what would happen next. Their team name was misspelled on the silver cup, which curiously read "BQSTQN BRUINS"!
Pensylvania
Image: Esther Ní Dhonnacha
We all have a deep appreciation for our Constitution, the document that defined the ideas and principles that formed our nation. But even in a paper as important as this one, you can find some peculiar details.
In the original US Constitution, you can read the word "Pensylvania." As you can see, the state's name is missing an N. According to the National Archives official website, the author of this detail was none other than Founding Father Alexander Hamilton. From the 18th century on, the most commonly accepted spelling was and still is "Pennsylvania," making the word in the document a grammatical error according to today's standards.
However, when the Constitution was drafted, it wasn't a typo, as "Pensylvania" was actually an accepted spelling back then.
Pensylvania (yes, again)
Image: Dan Mall
The US Constitution is not the only site where Pennsylvania's name is spelled differently: the iconic Liberty Bell bears a similar "typo."
The great bell of more than 2,000 pounds is inscribed with a Bible verse and the words, "By Order of the Assembly of the Province of Pensylvania for the State House in Philada." The word "Pensylvania" is typed just like in the Constitution. As you know, the name of the state wasn't standardized at that time, so there were also other accepted ways, including the less frequent "Pennsilvania."
If you visit the Liberty Bell at the Independence National Historical Park in Philadelphia, you can still read the word as it was written then.
