The window that started a war
Ever heard of the Defenestration of Prague or the Thirty Years War? Back in 1608, the story goes kind of like this: the kingdom of Bohemia (present day Prague area) was about to have a Protestant leader come into power, which meant that the people in the kingdom would do so as well. The Catholic royal Hapsburg family leading the Holy Roman Empire at the time totally didn't like the sound of this, and saw this a threat. The Catholic Habsburgs sent representations to the palace in Prague to "talk things out." Well, the Bohemians didn't really like how they were being insulted by these representatives, so back in the day the solution was to throw them out the window, which they did. The representatives fell about three stories below, but survived. The Catholic version: they fell and were saved by a pair of angels sent by God to rescue them. The Protestant version: they fell into a giant cart below that was filled with horse crap that saved their fall. Basically, this started a 30 year war in Europe that began as a fight between Catholics and Protestants. No comment...
