Over the past history of the mankind, the human has made numerous mistakes, which has caused plenty of disaster. However, as a popular saying state that no pain! No gain. This is very true since these very same mistakes are some of the fruits that we are enjoying today. A person may wonder where all the laws and regulations that are used in consulting engineering fields were formulated. It is the founders of the engineering that used trial and errors methods to come up with such laws.
Tribute to those who died in these methods or the loss that was incurred after the project went wrong. May they rest in peace in their afterlives and find everlasting tranquility. The best way we, you can honor them as a excellent structural engineer is by ensuring that these laws are employed sufficiently, preventing the very same mistakes that they died for. Am sure they can all be grateful to their efforts which have been based on numerous discoveries. However, not all mistakes that was bad. Some of the bloopers done by these great grand fathers became renovations. 
Chernobyl nuclear power plant catastrophe
In April 1986 at 1:30 a.m. the unexpected happened. There were chaos everywhere, and the plant affected the area as a far as 20 km radius of the plant. More than 500, 000 people died from complications which were traced back to the disaster. 25 years later, the effects were as fresh as yesterday. This caused the state’s economy which was hugely affected. The problem was traced back to a power surge, which could have been corrected if appropriate measures were taken. This read to a new version of safety and precautionary measures of nuclear power plants. Today, a qualified hydraulic engineer or any other engineering related field is only limited to the location of experimenting various ideas only in the labs and not active nuclear sites.
The Ford Edsal 1957
This is a discovery which did not auger well with its overall appearance. This was a complete failure since the resulting product was very ugly. The production of Edsal ended in 1960 after all measures were taken to increase its sell. Edsal was overpriced, very bulky and worst of all ugly.
Airline crashes due to squared windows
Ever wondered why all airplanes have rounded aged corners? Well this is because a 90 degrees corner causes some cracks which are often exposed to cracking. It took so many years of research to establish why airplanes were crashing after they reached high attitude levels with relatively high pressure. In the 50’s planes were made of squared windows. This changed when scientist discovered what was contributing to a majority of these accidents.
Safety inspectors forgot to replace a valve at the Piper Bravo Oil King
This disaster cost the lives of 167 men who were onsite. However, it read to a whole angle of view in the protocol that is used in the process of inspecting various projects. Today, a civil engineer will rely on another party to inspect the project carefully and come up with conclusive report, before the project is cleared. This has greatly increased the safety of numerous projects under the sun.