Latest / Crime and Horror / Top 3 last minute decisions that changed history Part 1

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Top 3 last minute decisions that changed history Part 1 · Crime and Horror

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  Speaker 1: Today I'm going to share three stories where last minute
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  Speaker 1: decisions changed the course of history. But before we get
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  Speaker 1: into those stories, if you're a fan of the strange, dark,
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  Speaker 1: and mysterious Delivered in Story format, then you've come to
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  Speaker 1: our weekly uploads. Alright, let's get into today's stories. On
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  Speaker 1: the evening of October 4th, 1912, a United States political
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  Speaker 1: candidate was in his hotel room in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. In
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  Speaker 1: less than an hour, he was scheduled to deliver a
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  Speaker 1: very important speech to local voters he hoped to sway
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  Speaker 1: in his favor. Even though he was nervous, he was
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  Speaker 1: really excited about giving this particular speech, because he and
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  Speaker 1: his speechwriters had spent weeks putting together this 50-page script
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  Speaker 1: that he was now holding in his hands. And so
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  Speaker 1: he paced around the room, flipping through the first couple
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  Speaker 1: of pages of the script, reciting lines before checking his
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  Speaker 1: watch and seeing that it was time to go. And
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  Speaker 1: so he took a deep breath. He took his thick
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  Speaker 1: 50 page document, folded it in half and then tucked
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  Speaker 1: it inside his right inner jacket pocket. And when he
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  Speaker 1: was ready, he walked out his hotel door down the
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  Speaker 1: front steps and out the front door of the hotel
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  Speaker 1: where a huge crowd was waiting for him. People were
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  Speaker 1: singing his praises and yelling to him and trying to
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  Speaker 1: get him to react to them as he walked out
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  Speaker 1: of the hotel towards his car. And as he was walking,
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  Speaker 1: his own personal security detail had formed up around him
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  Speaker 1: and were doing their best to keep the crowd at bay.
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  Speaker 1: And when the candidate finally got to his open-air car,
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  Speaker 1: he stepped inside and then stood up, took his hat off,
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  Speaker 1: and continued to wave to the crowd. And then right
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  Speaker 1: before his car was about to take off, there was
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  Speaker 1: a loud bang from somewhere out in the audience, and
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  Speaker 1: the candidate hunched over. He had been shot. His security
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  Speaker 1: detail immediately recognized who the gunman was, and they attacked him,
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  Speaker 1: kicking his gun away, and putting him in a chokehold.
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  Speaker 1: And the rest of the crowd kind of forms up
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  Speaker 1: and begins beating on this gunman. And amidst all this chaos,
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  Speaker 1: the candidate who's just been shot stands up and yells
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  Speaker 1: to the crowd, don't kill him, don't kill him, bring
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  Speaker 1: the gunman to me. And the crowd is so surprised
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  Speaker 1: that their candidate is not on the ground, because again,
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  Speaker 1: he's just been shot, that they stop. They stop attacking
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  Speaker 1: the gunman, and even the security detail, they're just holding
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  Speaker 1: the guy in a chokehold, looking up at the candidate like, really,
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  Speaker 1: you're not down? You just got shot. And so the
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  Speaker 1: candidate looks at the gunman and he says, you know,
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  Speaker 1: why'd you do it? And the gunman stays silent. And
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  Speaker 1: so the candidate says, okay, just take this guy away.
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  Speaker 1: And so the security detail hand this guy off to
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  Speaker 1: the cops. And so now the crowd's all looking at
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  Speaker 1: the candidate, wondering how in the world he's acting like
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  Speaker 1: everything is totally okay, because again, he just got shot.
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  Speaker 1: And so this is when the candidate reaches into his
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  Speaker 1: jacket and he pulls out that thick script he had
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  Speaker 1: tucked inside of his right pocket and he holds it
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  Speaker 1: up to the crowd. And there's clearly a bullet hole
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  Speaker 1: that went through the script. the script had stopped the
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  Speaker 1: bullet and saved the candidate's life. All of his aides
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  Speaker 1: were urging him to go to the hospital immediately, but
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  Speaker 1: the candidate refused and said, bring me to that speech.
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  Speaker 1: And just a couple of minutes later, the famous American president,
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  Speaker 1: Theodore Roosevelt, delivered his 50-page speech, although he did have
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  Speaker 1: to make some changes to it on the fly because
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  Speaker 1: there were holes on every page. On an icy cold
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  Speaker 1: December night in 1776, A farmer living in New Jersey
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  Speaker 1: looked out his window and thought he saw something move
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  Speaker 1: at the end of his road. He put his hands
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  Speaker 1: to the glass and tried to get a better look,
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  Speaker 1: but he couldn't see it. It was too dark, there
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  Speaker 1: was no illumination. But he didn't need to see it
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  Speaker 1: to know what it was. He could hear it coming. Panicked,
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  Speaker 1: he stumbled backwards, turned around, ran into his bedroom where
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  Speaker 1: he told his wife to stay in the house, keep
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  Speaker 1: the kids here, do not leave for any reason. And
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  Speaker 1: then this farmer bolted out his back door, hopped on
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  Speaker 1: his horse, and began blazing towards town. He didn't know
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  Speaker 1: how much time he had, but he knew he had
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  Speaker 1: to warn the German man, Johann Rall. After riding for
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  Speaker 1: a couple of minutes, he arrived at the town of Trenton.
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  Speaker 1: He turned down a couple side roads, and then he
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  Speaker 1: arrived at this beautiful two-story home where Johann was staying.
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  Speaker 1: And so the farmer got off his horse and walked
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  Speaker 1: towards the front door, And right before he got there,
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  Speaker 1: a German soldier came outside, shut the door behind him,
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  Speaker 1: and told the farmer to stop. And the farmer told
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  Speaker 1: the soldier in English that he had to speak to Johan.
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  Speaker 1: He had a warning for him. But the German soldier
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  Speaker 1: didn't speak any English, and so there was this total miscommunication.
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  Speaker 1: And at some point, the German soldier indicated to the
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  Speaker 1: farmer that it was impossible for him to come inside,
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  Speaker 1: that Johan was actually playing cards and did not want
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  Speaker 1: to be disturbed, and so the farmer needed to leave.
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  Speaker 1: But the farmer was desperate and he pleaded with the
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  Speaker 1: soldier to let him speak to Johan. It was an emergency.
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  Speaker 1: He had a warning for him. But the soldier either
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  Speaker 1: again didn't understand or he just didn't care. And he
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  Speaker 1: tried to tell the farmer to leave once again. But
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  Speaker 1: the farmer really wasn't taking no for an answer. And
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  Speaker 1: so he pulled out a piece of paper and he
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  Speaker 1: scratched this ominous warning on it. And he gave it
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  Speaker 1: to the soldier and he said, give this to Johan.
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  Speaker 1: And so the soldier reluctantly takes the note. He looks
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  Speaker 1: at it. It's in English. He can't read it. And
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  Speaker 1: so he just nods to the farmer and says, OK,
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  Speaker 1: I'll give it to Johan. Once the farmer had got
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  Speaker 1: back on his horse and left, the soldier turned around,
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  Speaker 1: went to the front door and walked back to the
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  Speaker 1: dining room of the house where he found Johan around
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  Speaker 1: a table with a bunch of other guys laughing and
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  Speaker 1: drinking and playing cards. And the soldier very reluctantly walks
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  Speaker 1: up to Johan, hands him the note and apologizes for
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  Speaker 1: the interruption. And Johan looks up at him. He's obviously
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  Speaker 1: annoyed and he scolds him for interrupting him. takes the
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  Speaker 1: note and he looks at it and he can see
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  Speaker 1: that it's in English. And like the soldier who's brought
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  Speaker 1: it to him, Johan could not read English. And so
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  Speaker 1: he's looking around the table. He's got this great poker
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  Speaker 1: game going. He's having so much fun. He didn't want
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  Speaker 1: to step away and have to get a translator and
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  Speaker 1: read this note, which to him was probably meaningless anyways.
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  Speaker 1: And so he tells the soldier that, you know what,
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  Speaker 1: he'll read it later. And he takes the note and
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  Speaker 1: he puts it in his pocket and he goes back
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  Speaker 1: to playing poker. Johan would never read that note. and
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  Speaker 1: in a couple of hours, Johann would be dead. Johann
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  Speaker 1: Rall was a colonel fighting for Great Britain during the
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  Speaker 1: American Revolution, and he and his Hessian brigade that had
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  Speaker 1: taken up residence in this home inside of Trenton, New Jersey,
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  Speaker 1: believed the American rebels were on the verge of defeat.
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  Speaker 1: And certainly they were not about to launch an attack now,
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  Speaker 1: not on a freezing cold December night. But they were wrong.
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  Speaker 1: That farmer was a British loyalist, and what he saw
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  Speaker 1: when he looked out the window at the end of
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  Speaker 1: his road was the famous American military general George Washington
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  Speaker 1: and his ragtag army after they had just completed their
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  Speaker 1: famous secret crossing of the Delaware River. That note Johan
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  Speaker 1: was handed was a warning that they were on the way.
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  Speaker 1: Had he bothered to read it, he and his well-trained
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  Speaker 1: Hessians could have very easily crushed Washington and his men,
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  Speaker 1: and that would have been the end of the American Revolution,
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  Speaker 1: and America would still be a British colony today. Instead,
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  Speaker 1: Johan and his men were caught off guard and wiped out,
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  Speaker 1: and the Americans would go on to win the war
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  Speaker 1: and their independence from Great Britain. In 1912, 37-year-old David
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  Speaker 1: Blair was a senior merchant seaman working for the British
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  Speaker 1: shipping company called White Star Line. In February of that year,
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  Speaker 1: he was informed by his company that he would be
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  Speaker 1: the second officer of this massive luxury cruise liner that
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  Speaker 1: was still being built in Northern Ireland. As the second officer,
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  Speaker 1: David's primary responsibility was was the ship's navigational operations, amongst
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  Speaker 1: other things. Now, David had handled these responsibilities on other ships,
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  Speaker 1: but he'd never done it on a ship of this size.
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  Speaker 1: This would easily be the most challenging thing David had
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  Speaker 1: done in his career to date. But he told his
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  Speaker 1: family he was really excited about it. David immediately moved
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  Speaker 1: to Belfast, where the ship was being built, and he
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  Speaker 1: lived there for three months until construction was done. On
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  Speaker 1: April 2nd, the final rivet was put into the ship,
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  Speaker 1: and it was launched successfully into the water. And then
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  Speaker 1: after that, David and the rest of the crew and
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  Speaker 1: staff got on board and they set sail. Their first
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  Speaker 1: stop was South Hampton in the UK. And for this
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  Speaker 1: leg of the journey, it was just going to be
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  Speaker 1: the crew and the staff. Two days later, they arrived
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  Speaker 1: without incident. And for the next several days, the ship
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  Speaker 1: remained in port as the crew prepped it for its
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  Speaker 1: first true maiden voyage, which was going to be to
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  Speaker 1: New York City. On April 10th, all preparations had been made.
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  Speaker 1: And finally, it was time to allow the paying customers
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  Speaker 1: to come on board. And in just a couple of hours,
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  Speaker 1: thousands of people were on board this huge ship. And
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  Speaker 1: just hours before they were set to depart, David was
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  Speaker 1: given some bad news. His bosses at White Star Line
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  Speaker 1: had decided that this journey was too high profile, and
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  Speaker 1: while David certainly had experience, he didn't have a lot
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  Speaker 1: of experience with huge ships. And so he was being
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  Speaker 1: replaced with someone who did. Understandably, he was crushed, but
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  Speaker 1: more than this being a disappointment, This 11th hour change
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  Speaker 1: was a huge hassle. With literally thousands of passengers getting
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  Speaker 1: in the way all over the ship, David needed to
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  Speaker 1: scramble and run all over the place and collect all
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  Speaker 1: of his things in the cabin, up on the bridge,
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  Speaker 1: in various closets he had put things. He had to
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  Speaker 1: do that as fast as he could before the ship
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  Speaker 1: took off. And so finally, after doing that with his
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  Speaker 1: last armful of luggage in hand, he said goodbye to
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  Speaker 1: the crew and to the staff. He said best of
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  Speaker 1: luck to his replacement. and he walked off the ship
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  Speaker 1: for good. David, with all of his luggage, made his
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  Speaker 1: way to a hotel, where immediately that night, he wrote
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  Speaker 1: a letter to his family saying how disappointed he was,
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  Speaker 1: and then after that, he went to bed. The next morning,
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  Speaker 1: when he was going through all of his luggage, he
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  Speaker 1: discovered that he had taken a key by accident from
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  Speaker 1: the ship, and this key was to a special closet
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  Speaker 1: that he was in charge of as the second officer
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  Speaker 1: that contained all of the ship's binoculars. And so he
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  Speaker 1: felt terrible, but there was nothing he could do. The
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  Speaker 1: ship had already left and was on its way to
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  Speaker 1: New York. And so the best he could do was
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  Speaker 1: he would mail the key back to them in New
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  Speaker 1: York when they got there. Back on board the ship,
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  Speaker 1: when they discovered this key was missing, they did figure
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  Speaker 1: out that David must have it, because he was the
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  Speaker 1: only one who would have had the key, and it's
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  Speaker 1: a brand new ship, so nobody else would have had it.
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  Speaker 1: But they decided that it wasn't worth turning around to
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  Speaker 1: go get this key. They figured their lookouts were skilled enough,
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  Speaker 1: they could spot any obstructions with their naked eye. Well,
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  Speaker 1: five days later, that ship, the Titanic, struck an iceberg
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  Speaker 1: and sunk, killing 1,500 people. One of the very few
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  Speaker 1: survivors was a guy named Fred Fleet. He was one
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  Speaker 1: of the lookouts who actually saw the iceberg first, and
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  Speaker 1: he would testify at a Senate inquiry that if he
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  Speaker 1: had had binoculars, he would have been able to see
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  Speaker 1: the iceberg far enough in advance that they could have
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  Speaker 1: avoided it. So that's going to do it, guys. If
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