4. Silencing alarm puts the USA into darkness

Alarms can annoy the living hell out of people. Thank god we can turn them off. But we miss the whole point of the alarm, warning us of the impending doom.

The disaster:

Electricity is easily the most important piece of invention there ever was. So naturally we have blackouts. On August 14, 2003 the equipment that controlled the power grid for a majority of states on the US East Coast gave away. This resulted into a total blackout in Ohio, Ontario, New York, New Jersey and Michigan. All lines connecting US and Canada went dead. 55 million Americans faced the second worst blackout ever in the US history.

The silly glitch: turning off an alarm

The terrible blackout which put 55 million people in darkness was caused because an operator had switched off an annoying alarm coming from the equipment for the electric grid. He did not bother to check what the alarm was trying to tell him and he also forgot to turn it back on.

Now this is the power of an alarm!