We all know Murphy's general law: "If anything can go wrong, it will go wrong." But have you ever wondered who is this Murphy guy anyway? I checked Google and found this Murphy Site with the following information several stories of the origin. The best story is that he was a Captain in the US Air Force stationed at Edward's AFB in 1949. Here is that account. But others say say it is has a 1930's beginning in the US Navy. (Leave it to the fly jocks and the sailor boys to dicker.) There is also a story about a man actually named Murphy who had rather bad luck; his law beginning as he waited for the birth of his first child, sometime in the 1960s (no specific citation found). Still other say the original law was Sod's Law, and there are recollections of Sod being talked about for generations in British history. You can choose. I like the air force story, but I also like this bit of politically incorrect trivia:
A lot of Brits think that Murphy's Law is an Irish joke. Murphy is an Irish name of course, and the Irish have been the butt of jokes from Brits for a long time. Anyway, a lot of Brits seem to think that what Murphy's Law refers to is that the Irish are to blame for things going wrong because they are careless or stupid or both, at least according to British mythology on the Irish.
By the way, the Mr. Murphy mentioned above, had this unfortunate demise: One dark evening (in the U.S.), Mr. Murphy's car ran out of gas. As he hitchhiked to a gas station, while facing traffic and wearing white, he was struck from behind by a British tourist who was driving on the wrong side of the road.