This Day in Failure: November 21

2008: A Chinese college student visiting Qixing Park in Guilin, China, jumps the 6.5-foot high security fence around the park’s panda exhibit and approaches panda Yang Yang, hoping to receive a hug from the gentle-looking bear. Yang Yang proceeds to bite the student on the arms and legs, inflicting injuries severe enough to require emergency surgery. “Yang Yang was so cute and I just wanted to cuddle him. I didn’t expect he would attack,” says the 20-year-old after-the-fact.

2008: University of Florida backup quarterback Cameron Newton is arrested and charged with felony counts of burglary and larceny for stealing another student’s laptop computer. When University police arrive at his dorm room to investigate the crime, Newton throws the $1,700 laptop out the window, inviting an additional charge—obstruction of justice.

2007: Singing the Croation national anthem prior to a football match between England and Croatia, British opera singer Tony Henry flubs the following line: Instead of singing Mila kuda si planina (“You know, my dear, how we love your mountains”), Henry thunders, Mila kura si planina (“My dear, my penis is a mountain”). Croatia goes on to upset the English side, 3-2.

2003: The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says an outbreak of hepatitis A that killed three people and left 605 others ill in Monaca, Pennsylvania, was caused by tainted scallions imported from Mexico.

1993: The House of Representatives votes against making the District of Columbia the 51st U.S. state.

1987: The Columbia University football team extends its Division I-record losing streak to 41 games with a 19-16 loss to Brown University. The Lions allow a touchdown with 47 seconds remaining in the game.

1980: A fire at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas kills 85 and injures 700, making it the deadliest hotel fire in the U.S. since an Atlanta blaze in 1946. The MGM inferno spawns a legacy of tighter fire regulations and broader deployment of water sprinklers in hotel rooms and common areas.

1973: During the Watergate investigation, an eighteen-and-a-half minute gap is found on a subpoenaed White House recording of a conversation between president Richard Nixon and H.R. Haldeman.

1971: The NHL’s California Seals allow eight goals in the third period en route to a 12-1 loss to the New York Rangers.

1916: The Britannic, sister ship of the Titanic, sinks in the Aegean Sea, killing 30 people. The disaster is attributed to an explosion caused by either a mine or torpedo.