"Commander-in-Chief Stalin" and other typos that have gone down in history
From pre-revolutionary times to the present day, an annoying typo in the press was sometimes paid with a career, or even with life. We have collected the most famous typos that clearly demonstrate how one missing letter can become fatal, and publications with such an error turn into collectible rarities.
"The Bible of the adulterers"
The most malicious typo was found in the English editions of the Bible in 1631. A gross mistake was made in the text — the particle "do not" was omitted in one of the ten commandments, and the combination "do not commit adultery" was printed as "commit adultery".
The typo was noticed only a year later. Then almost the entire circulation was seized and destroyed, but several copies survived. By order of Charles I, the publishers of the Bible were summoned to court and found guilty. They were fined 300 pounds (more than 40 thousand pounds at current prices) and deprived of a printing license.
How did the Empress rest in Finland
It is very inconvenient when obscenity gets on the pages of the official press, especially in the title, especially about crowned persons… So in 1910 in the newspaper "Kievskaya Mysl" on the first page they wanted to print the headline: "The stay of the Dowager Empress Maria Feodorovna in Finland", but only instead of " r "in the first word it turned out to be"o". So there was a scandal, because of which the editor was put on trial.
Coronation in Odessa
Informing citizens about the celebration of the 300th anniversary of the reign of the Romanov dynasty, the newspaper "Odessa Vedomosti" of January 13, 1913 published the following message: "Yesterday, during the performance of the National Anthem in the Moscow Kremlin, a crow was placed on the Heads of Their Imperial Majesties."
Of course, the typo was noticed, and the next day the editorial board placed a proper apology in the newspaper with the clarification: "Dear residents of Odessa. In the last issue of our newspaper, alas, a very annoying typo was made (among others): instead of the word "crow", it should be read: "cow"."
Death for a letter
The issue of the newspaper Pravda Vostoka dated October 25, 1944 was fatal for the editorial office: the entire staff of the newspaper was shot. The reason was just one missing letter in the word "commander-in-chief". The circulation of the entire issue was hastily withdrawn from sale, and security officers went to the apartments of subscribers, conducting searches and confiscating the newspapers found. The copy in the photo is one of the six survivors, which are now carefully kept by collectors.
Although as soon as Joseph Vissarionovich was not called: both Sralin, and Stadin, and Salin. Needless to say, for typesetters, proofreaders and editors, such "anti-Soviet" typos instantly became the last in their careers, and sometimes in their lives.
"Pravda" is never wrong!
And sometimes, in Stalin's times, journalists were forgiven for their mistakes. This happened to the editorial office of the newspaper "Pravda", which mistakenly called the miner-drummer Stakhanov in his report Alexey, although his real name was Andrey.
The censors noticed the mistake after the publication of the newspaper and reported it to Stalin. The journalist might not have been well, but the leader, lighting a pipe, categorically stated: "The newspaper Pravda is never wrong!" After these words, Stakhanov was immediately replaced with all the documents, making him Alexey.
A corrupt woman... or rather, a farm!
The concept of "typo" was included in the most authoritative French encyclopedia "Larousse", which as an example cited the announcement of the end of the XIX century, which caused a big scandal in France. Its text read as follows: "A beautiful woman is for sale or for rent; with proper processing, she is very productive." Through the fault of the proofreader, instead of the word ferme, femme was printed — "woman", and the guardians of morality were horrified by such shamelessness.
Biology for the youngest
In the 1970s, the Leningrad newspaper Smena published photographs from a zoo corner, accompanying them with words about "small long-eared animals". A typo occurred in the word "long-eared": the letters "y" and" x " were reversed. The editor took a good swipe at the party line.
Recipe for racist pasta for 20 thousand
In 2010, the Australian branch of the Penguin publishing house, due to an oversight of the proofreader, was at the center of a major scandal. And all because The Pasta Bible cookbook mistakenly published a recipe for racist pasta: it recommended adding "freshly ground black people" to the dish, although, of course, it was about"freshly ground black pepper" ("freshly ground black pepper"). Because of such an oversight, the publisher got 20 thousand dollars: 7000 copies of the cookbook had to be destroyed with an error.
This is an excerpt: I lasted 100 thousand kilometers!
In the Saratov and Nizhny Novgorod regions and in Siberia, there is an old journalistic tale. Its roots can no longer be traced, but the story is funny. The newspaper of the district scale published another essay about the leading driver. The hero of the plot drove 100 thousand kilometers without accidents and breakdowns. The essay was headlined catchily: "100 thousand kilometers-I didn't fart."
Oborts in orbit
According to another journalistic story, in 1963, the editor of the Gorky Worker newspaper lost his job, who reported that " Valentina Tereshkova made 17 abortions around the Earth!".
Altai journalists tell a similar story, only they call the number of "oborts" quite different (correct): de Tereshkova landed near the village of Khabary, and after that the Khabar district newspaper carried the headline on the front page: "48 oborts of Valentina Tereshkova!".
Keywords: History | Newspaper | Editorial office | Error