Napoleon didn’t start his bloody takeover of Europe until 1803, but it would have all been prevented 3 years earlier, had this plot actually worked. In 1800, Napoleon was just the First Consul of France and was working towards his goals, when a group of dissenters came up with a plot.

Calling it their Machine Infernale, they filled a barrel with explosives and shrapnel an placed it near a motorcade of carriages taking Napoleon to the Opera on Christmas Eve. Someone panicked and lit the fuse too late, and the bomb went off, killing far too many innocents, and not even impacting Napoleon. He eventually got all the power he needed, and ran rampant through Europe.