Doolittle Raid is probably the biggest disaster caused by wrong date calculation. But it is practically unknown in hacker community.
It was first bombing of Japan in 1942. Bombers were supposed to be refueled in China. But they crossed international date line and arrived day earlier. In result airports were not ready and bombers crashed.
15 bombers crashed, 3+8 crew man died. Soviets got American airplane technology.
> Planners in Washington, DC, also had made a ridiculous blunder, forgetting that the ships would lose a day (April 14) crossing the International Date Line, putting the planes in China a day earlier than anyone expected. Because of this mix-up, when some of the bombers flew over Chuchow Field, which was supposed to have been their main refueling base, an air raid alarm sounded and the lights turned out.
The wikipedia article doesn't mention a date miscalculation. Probably the main cause of their fuel difficulties was having to launch 10 hours and 170 nautical miles before originally planned due to being spotted by a Japanese patrol boat. All but one of the planes crashed, but only three men KIA, 8 men captured, and one crew interned in Russia.
Surely the date error would go the other way? If the Americans are in Hawaii and it's (say) 1 February, in the landing zone in China it would be 2 February, not 31 January. So if a mistake were made and they had said "the attack is on 1 Feb, be prepared", the Chinese strips would be ready too early, wondering where the Americans were, and then do a little math to figure out they'd be needed the next day instead.
The raiders ran out of fuel because they had to launch early because the taskforce was spotted by a Japanese patrol boat.
The Soviets didn't get US bomber technology from the Doolittle raid, they got it from emergency landings of B-29s in Soviet territory during the strategic bombing of Japan in 1944:
It was first bombing of Japan in 1942. Bombers were supposed to be refueled in China. But they crossed international date line and arrived day earlier. In result airports were not ready and bombers crashed.
15 bombers crashed, 3+8 crew man died. Soviets got American airplane technology.
> Planners in Washington, DC, also had made a ridiculous blunder, forgetting that the ships would lose a day (April 14) crossing the International Date Line, putting the planes in China a day earlier than anyone expected. Because of this mix-up, when some of the bombers flew over Chuchow Field, which was supposed to have been their main refueling base, an air raid alarm sounded and the lights turned out.
https://books.google.com/books?id=FkEeVAf-U7gC&lpg=PA43&ots=...
http://www.americainwwii.com/articles/the-impossible-raid/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doolittle_Raid