33 Blunders That Shaped American History

"McArthur Wheeler robbed banks with lemon juice smeared on his face, convinced it would keep him off the security cameras. William Henry Harrison delivered a two-hour inaugural address in freezing weather to prove his vigour and did not last the month. This episode runs through American miscalculations made in full public view. In this episode: Wheeler's lemon juice theory and the footage that ended it Harrison's record-length inaugural speech and the weather he chose to ignore Timothy Dexter shipping cargo to the one market with no possible use for it Rosie Ruiz crossing the Boston Marathon finish line barely out of breath Jim Marshall recovering a fumble and running sixty-four yards toward the wrong end zone What links Wheeler, Harrison and Ruiz is not missing information. Each of them had total confidence in a plan that a single question would have taken apart."