The question is too vague. But if I may reinterpret your request as "tell me about some cases where individual software bugs have had significant effects on the

The question is too vague. But if I may reinterpret your request as "tell me about some cases where individual software bugs have had significant effects on the world, outside of an isolated computer system", this page is a good place to start: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_software_bugs http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_software_bugs. I guess it's up to you to decide which of these count as having "shaped our history" in a manner which is meaningful to you. Also, comp.risks is a good source for this kind of stuff.