Wednesday, September 11, 2024
Typos. We’ve all made them. Whether it's a rogue letter in a text message that turns “Sorry, I’m late” into “Sorry, I’m latte,” or an unfortunate email that ends with “Best regards, Satan” instead of “Best regards, Susan,” these little slip-ups have the power to embarrass, confuse, and — if you’re lucky — entertain. But as harmless as a typo may seem, some have left an indelible mark on history, proving that even the smallest mistake can lead to the biggest consequences.
Let’s face it, typos are annoying. There’s nothing like the sinking feeling you get when you hit “send” or “publish” and then spot that glaring error. It’s like stepping on a Lego piece in the middle of the night — unexpected, painful and usually met with a string of expletives. For writers, in particular, typos can be the bane of existence. They undermine credibility and distract readers from the message. A single misstep in a headline or a key sentence can turn a well-crafted piece into fodder for ridicule.
But as much as typos can make you cringe, they can also make you laugh. After all, who hasn’t chuckled at a menu offering “crap cakes” instead of “crab cakes,” or a text message that was meant to say “Just a sec” that turns out “Just a sex?” Typos remind us that language is a living, breathing thing — constantly evolving and prone to the occasional hiccup. They also show that, no matter how advanced our spell-checkers and grammar tools become, the human element in writing is still alive and kicking ... and occasionally tripping over its own shoelaces.
So, to celebrate both the annoyance and amusement that typos bring into our lives, let’s take a look at five of the most famous (or infamous) typographical errors in history. These blunders didn’t just cause a few laughs — they had serious, and sometimes even world-altering repercussions.
Imagine opening your Bible to find that one of the Ten Commandments has a glaring typo. That’s exactly what happened in 1631 when a version of the King James Bible was printed with a rather scandalous error: the word "not" was left out of the commandment "Thou shalt not commit adultery." The result? A directive to “commit adultery” instead. Needless to say, this did not go over well with the Church of England. The printers were heavily fined, and nearly all copies of what became known as the “Wicked Bible” were destroyed. Today, only about 20 copies remain, serving as a reminder that even the most sacred texts aren’t immune to human error.
Typos aren’t just limited to the printed word — they can infiltrate code as well. In 1962, NASA’s Mariner 1 mission was supposed to be a historic voyage to Venus. Instead, it became a cautionary tale about the importance of proofreading. A single missing hyphen in the spacecraft’s code caused it to veer off course shortly after launch, leading to its destruction. The cost of this tiny error? A whopping $18.5 million. It’s a mistake that still haunts NASA’s history and serves as a sobering reminder that in space exploration, as in writing, there’s no room for error.
Even the most revered monuments aren’t safe from typos. When the Lincoln Memorial was unveiled in 1922, it featured a stunning carving of Abraham Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address. Unfortunately, it also featured a rather noticeable typo. The word "future" was misspelled as "euture" in one section of the inscription. Although the mistake was quickly corrected, the original error is still faintly visible to this day. It’s a small blemish on an otherwise iconic monument, but it’s also a testament to the fact that even the best intentions can go awry.
You’d think dictionaries would be immune to typos, but even these bastions of language are not infallible. In 1934, Webster’s New International Dictionary included a word that didn’t actually exist: “dord.” The error occurred when someone misinterpreted a note indicating that “D or d” could stand for “density” as a new word. By the time the mistake was caught, thousands of dictionaries had already been printed and distributed. The phantom word was eventually removed, but it remains a quirky footnote in the history of lexicography.
Not all typos are bad. In fact, some can lead to world-changing successes. Case in point: Google. In 1996, when founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin tried to register the domain name for their new search engine, they intended to use “googol,” a term that refers to the number 1 followed by 100 zeros. But thanks to a typo, they ended up with “Google” instead. The rest, as they say, is history. Today, Google is one of the most recognized brands in the world, all because of a happy little accident.
Typos, for better or worse, are a part of life. They frustrate us, embarrass us and occasionally entertain us. But more than that, they remind us of our humanity. In a world that’s increasingly driven by technology, where perfection is often the goal, typos are a reminder that we’re still imperfect beings — prone to mistakes, yes, but also capable of turning those mistakes into something meaningful or at least memorable.
So, the next time you catch a typo in your own writing, don’t despair. Take a deep breath, correct it if you can, and move on. And if you can’t? Well, maybe you’re just a typo away from making history.
