Great mistakes make great reading No area of human endeavor is immune to human error, as these stories of mistakes throughout history clearly show. Some of these mistakes are foolish or funny. Others are serious, terrifying or disastrous. Some are famous. Others are not well known. All of them are marvelously entertaining. Here is the amusing story of a triple double play, the little-known truth about the awesome angle of the Leaning Tower of Pisa, the harrowing tale of the man who was hanged twice. The famous and colorful mayor of New York, Fiorello La Guardia, once said, I don t make many...

Henry Stanley s physical and mental toughness earned him the nickname Bula Matari, Rock Breaker. Although best known for finding the lost Scottish missionary David Livingstone, the explorer and journalist had many other adventures around the world. Born in Wales in 1841, he was placed in a workhouse by his uncle at the age of six. Stanley escaped nine years later and made his way to New Orleans by working as a cabin boy. He fought for the Confederacy and was taken prisoner at Shiloh, one of the Civil War s bloodiest fights. After the war, Stanley discovered his talent for journalism and...

Hiram Bingham was the ideal explorer-adventurer handsome, rich, intelligent, brave, and tough. His life seems like something out of film hero Indiana Jones s exploits in Raiders of the Lost Ark. The descendant of strong-willed missionaries, Bingham was born in Hawaii in 1875, At Yale he specialized in South American studies and became a college teacher. Gradually, the romance of the past took hold of his practical soul. Obsessed by the Incas and his dream of uncovering lost cities, Bingham initiated and expedition to Peru that would lead him to uncharted territories. Using quotations from...