Oops!

How did the Seventh Commandment cost these printers $30,000?

Credit: 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!

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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.

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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.

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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!

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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.

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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.

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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!

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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.

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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"!

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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.

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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.

A tale set in stone

10 rock-solid facts about geology to rock your world

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Underneath a (mostly) humble appearance, rocks hold within them fascinating stories of our planet's origins. From the depths of the Earth to the surface, each rock has its own tale to tell. Luckily, you don’t need to become a geologist to learn a bit more about the origins of the rocks and minerals that make up our planet. Whether you are an aspiring rock hound or a science enthusiast, you will surely find these 10 intriguing facts about rocks and geology fascinating!

Credit: Daria Volkova

The oldest rock of terrestrial origin was found in Western Australia and dates back a staggering 4.4 billion years. Known as the Jack Hills zircon, this ancient rock offers a glimpse into the Earth's infancy, having endured eons of geological turmoil virtually unchanged. However, it’s far from being the oldest rock found on Earth, as many meteorites can be much older. In fact, the oldest rocks found so far are Murchison meteorite particles, determined to be 7 billion years old —older than our planet, even older than the Sun!

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Nothing is permanent on our planet, not even rocks! The rock cycle is a fundamental concept in geology, illustrating how rocks transform from one type to another over time through processes like weathering, erosion, deposition, and lithification. It's a dynamic process that shapes the Earth's surface, and it’s driven by some of its most fundamental forces, like plate tectonics, erosion, and the water cycle.

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Rocks aren't just stone; they're time capsules. Fossils embedded within sedimentary rock layers provide invaluable clues about past life forms and environments, helping scientists reconstruct the Earth's ancient ecosystems. Fossils present themselves in many different forms and shapes, and examples include petrified bones, shells, imprints of animals or microbes, organisms preserved in amber, hair, and even DNA remnants.

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Wood can become a fossil too, given the right conditions —and a boatload of time! As different minerals replace the original materials present in wood, taking their shape, even an entire tree can be transformed into stone over millions of years. Petrified forests, like Arizona's Petrified Forest National Park, offer a glimpse into prehistoric landscapes, providing invaluable insights into ancient climates and ecosystems

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What looks like a rock sandwich —layer upon layer of different colored and textured rocks— you have likely gazed into Earth’s deep past without realizing it. A common sight on heavily eroded rock surfaces (like canyons), rock strata reveal the sequential deposition of sediment over time.

While common sense tells us that older layers are found deeper, while younger layers must be on top, this is not always the case, as many processes can alter the shape of the depositions. By studying these layers, geologists can unravel the Earth's history, identifying different periods of geological activity.

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Minerals should not be confused with rocks, although they are closely related. In fact, minerals are the building blocks of rocks. These peculiar structures form through various processes such as crystallization from magma, precipitation from solution, or metamorphism under high pressure and temperature. Each mineral has its own unique properties and characteristics. Common examples are quartz, halite (also known as rock salt), and diamonds.

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Ice, a substance seemingly ephemeral and transient, holds a surprising geological distinction —it is technically a mineral. According to the International Mineralogical Association, a mineral is defined as a naturally occurring inorganic solid with a definite chemical composition and an ordered atomic arrangement. Remarkably, ice meets all these criteria. Bet you won’t look at the ice on your drink the same after this!

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Mountains, Earth's sleeping giants, are actually more awake than we realize. Born from the collision of tectonic plates or from explosive and violent processes inside our planet, these massive landforms are created as the layers of rock are pushed upward, becoming towering peaks that shape landscapes and influence climates. Although most mountains take millions of years to form, in some cases volcanic mountains can seem to appear from nowhere over a few years!

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The geological time scale divides Earth's history into distinct periods, epochs, and eras based on significant geological and biological events. Beginning around 4.5 billion years, with the formation of planet Earth, it extends up to current times, providing a comprehensive framework for understanding the evolution of our planet. Currently, we live in the Cenozoic Era, which covers the last 66 million years, and it is characterized by the dominance of mammals, birds, and flowering plants.

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Erosion is a natural process that wears away rock and soil, sculpting landscapes over millennia. Factors such as water, wind, ice, and gravity play a role in shaping the Earth's surface, from towering cliffs to winding canyons. While erosion is always a natural process, human activity can affect the rate at which it occurs. In the Appalachian Mountains, intensive farming practices have caused the rate of local erosion to speed up to 100 times the natural rate, disrupting ecosystems and creating all sorts of problems for the local population.