The Top Ten Weirdest and Worst Typos

Everybody slips up when typing now and then. Just make sure you don’t leave a typo as bad as these….

You Want Me To What?

Published in 1631 by the royal printers in London, ‘The Wicked Bible’ was supposed to be a reprint of the King James Bible. Which it was, except for the new commandment to go out and commit adultery; the printers missed out the ‘not’ from the original sentence. A clever way to save ink?

Houston, We Have a Problem

1962. Nasa launches probe Mariner 1, sending it on a journey to glide past Venus and collect data about the planet. Except a missed hyphen in the spacecraft’s instructions meant its trajectory was skewwhiff. It was going to crash into the North Atlantic or even an inhabited area. It was blown up 293 seconds after launch.

Chile Con Barmy

In 2009 engraver Pedro Urzua Lizana was fired from his job at Chile’s Central Bank. Why? The 50 peso coin he worked on was missing an L, but did have an extra I. It said Chiie. More than a million of the coins entered circulation before the mistake was publicised.

Do Loose Lips Sink ships?

In the early 1980s, Prudential Insurance lent money to transatlantic shipping company United States Lines (USL). In 1986 the deal was restructured and USL owed $92,885,000 in interest. Except that the secretary that typed up the revised deal forgot three zeros, knocking the figure down to $92,885.

Never, Ever Miss The S

A businessman was awarded £9 million after it was found that Companies House (CH) had caused his family run 124-year-old firm to collapse. CH said his company, Taylor & Sons in Cardiff, was in liquidation. The problem? The records should have shown it was actually Manchester firm Taylor & Son. No S.

Does Anyone Have A Calculator?

Mizuho Securities Co., one of Japan’s biggest brokerage firms, took a £145m bath in 2005 after it sold shares too cheaply. It wanted to offload 610,000 shares in a recruitment company at about £3,000 a pop. Except a not-paying-attention dealer sold them for less than a penny each.

What’s That New Search Engine Called?

In 1996 a new search engine was created at Stanford University. There was a discussion about what it should be called. The name ‘#Googol’ came up, after a number that starts with 1 and has one hundred zeroes behind it. A student, Sean Anderson, went online to see if the domain was available…and mistakenly typed Google.

That’s One Way To Celebrate

While younger members of the royal family are trying to make themselves more approachable, I think even they’d balk at Queen Victoria’s lack of restraint. When attending the opening of the Menai Bridge, The Times printed: ‘The Queen herself graciously pi**d over the magnificent edifice’ (My asterisks.)

I’m Not Sure I Could Vote For Him

When Mitt Romney was running against Barack Obama, the Republican candidate released an iPhone app to help with his campaign. It gave users the chance to take selfies overlaid with pro-Mitt messages such as ‘I’m a Mom For Mitt’, ‘Obama Isn’t Working’ and ‘A Better Amercia’.

Are You Sure That’s His Title?

When the cast of Sesame Street visited a Louisiana landmark, the press covered the story and ran a picture. It listed Grover, Big Bird, Cookie Monster, Oscar the Grouch, Prairie Dawn, Ernie, Bert and The Count. Unfortunately someone misspelled the Count’s title.