The video "Disturbing Events that Almost Ended Humanity" by Visual Venture explores several historical and technological close calls that nearly led to humanity's extinction (0:39).
Here are the key events highlighted in the video:
The Day the World Almost Exploded (1:06): In 1961, a U.S. B-52 bomber carrying two nuclear bombs crashed in North Carolina due to a fuel leak (2:47). One bomb's parachute failed, and it slammed into the ground, but miraculously didn't detonate due to impact damage to its internal parts (3:57). The other bomb's parachute deployed, and it landed in a tree (3:37). Had either bomb exploded, it could have triggered a global nuclear war (5:04).
The Illness That Wiped Out a Continent (5:31): The Bubonic Plague, also known as the Black Death, arrived in Sicily in 1347 via trading ships (6:06). Carried by infected fleas on rats, the disease spread rapidly across Europe (6:38), leading to the death of an estimated 25 million people (9:20), over a third of Europe's population (9:22).
The Countdown to Doomsday (9:53): The Y2K bug was a computer glitch where older systems only stored the last two digits of a year (10:43). Programmers feared that when the year 2000 arrived, computers would interpret "00" as 1900, causing widespread system failures (11:36). This led to global panic, but extensive efforts by IT professionals to rewrite code (13:28) prevented a catastrophe (13:39).
The War That Almost Ended Civilization (13:48): World War II (1939-1945) is highlighted as the deadliest conflict in human history (13:51). The video discusses Adolf Hitler's rise to power (14:41) and the multiple failed assassination attempts against him (15:09). The use of atomic bombs on Japan in 1945 (16:31) brought the war to an end, preventing further widespread destruction and potential nuclear war (16:43).
The Year the Sun Disappeared (17:01): In 1815, the eruption of Mount Tambora in Indonesia (17:27) spewed massive amounts of ash and sulfur dioxide into the atmosphere (18:22). This blocked sunlight, leading to a "year without a summer" in 1816 (18:58). Global temperatures dropped, causing widespread crop failures (19:03), food shortages (19:15), and famine (19:19).
How One Man Saved the World (19:52): In September 1983, Soviet Lieutenant Colonel Stanislav Petrov (20:07) was monitoring an early missile warning system when it falsely indicated five U.S. missiles were heading toward the Soviet Union (21:03). Despite protocol, Petrov trusted his intuition that it was a false alarm (21:11) and reported it as such (22:08), preventing a potential nuclear retaliation (21:50) and a global nuclear war (21:57).