Mark Chrysler

When Johann Rall received the letter on Christmas Day, 1776, he put it away to read later.

Maybe he thought it was a season's greeting and wanted to save it for the fireside, but what it actually was was a warning delivered to the Hessian colonel, letting him know that General George Washington was crossing the Delaware and would soon attack his forces.

The next day, when Raw lost the Battle of Trenton and died from two colonial Boxing Day musket balls, the letter was found, unopened in his vest pocket.

As someone with 15,000 unread emails in his inbox, I feel like there's a lesson there.

Oh well, this is The Constant, a history of getting things wrong.

I'm Mark Chrysler.

Every episode, we look at the bad ideas, mistakes, and accidents that misshaped our world.

Find us at ConstantPodcast.com or wherever you get your podcasts.