Oops!
The Soviet legation in Helsinki was hit by the first bomb dropped by
Russian aircraft when they attacked Finland on November 30, 1939.
Misnamed Bertha
A mix-up led to the naming of Big Bertha, the famous guns used to
bombard Liege, Antwerp and Verdun in World War I. They were named in
honour of Frau Bertha Von Volen, of the Krupp family. But the guns didn’t
come from the Krupp gunworks- they were made by the Skoda works in
Austria.
A Fatal Mistake
Phillip Prinzip was trudging miserably home for lunch. He and three
other would-be assassins had missed their chance to kill Archduke
Ferdinand in Sarajevo on the morning of June 28, 1914.
Suddenly, incredibly, the archduke’s carriage appeared before
him-the driver had made a wrong turn and was heading down the same
street! Prinzip made no mistake this time-and shot the heir apparent
dead. It was the shot that rang around the world. Within weeks,
Austria-Hungary was at war with Serbia, touching off the “war to end
all wars” that cost a staggering 18 million lives.
A Nasty Cough
Napoleon once coughed-and sentenced 1,200 people to death. He was a
general in the Middle East in 1799 and had just decided to release 1,200
Turkish prisoners.
Then came the fatal cough. Napoleon exclaimed, “Ma sacrée toux”
(My confounded cough). His officers thought he said “Massacrez tous”
(Kill them all). And they executed the prisoners.
