In the annals of history, enormous events can sometimes be traced back to seemingly minor moments that unknowingly caused them to happen.
YouTube user Dark5 has compiled a fascinating collection of decisions and accidents that initially appeared insignificant, but, in retrospect, actually changed the course of history.
One of the more intriguing tales covered in the video is how, at the close of WWII, the British Interplanetary Society determined that the German V2 rocket could be re-purposed to send people into space.
The group argued that such a bold plan should be pursued, especially since the country already possessed a number of V2 rockets that had crashed there, giving them the tools to potentially become the first spacefaring nation.
However the British government was struggling with debt after the war and decided that its depleted funds would best be used towards nuclear technology rather than what probably seemed like a rather fanciful idea.
As such, Wernher von Braun and his knowledge of the V2 rocket wound up coming to the United States, which spawned our space program and the rest, as they say, is history.
Other odd quirks of history detailed in the collection include the story of a lost key that could have prevented the sinking of the Titanic and how Newton's landmark book, Principia Mathematica, nearly went unpublished because of a bizarre miscue involving a 'flying fish.'
Check out the awesome video to learn more about the minor events that turned out to have a major impact on our world today.
Source: YouTube