Capt. Edward A. Murphy was an engineer working on the US Airforce progect known as MX981. They are known as deceleration tests because the Airforce wanted to know how much force a person could withstand when brought to a sudden stop.
There’s a new law in there parts
The story goes like this. One day Captain Murphy was troubleshooting a piece of equipment. After some unknown amount of time he figured out that a piece of equipment had been wired wrong by one of the (junior?) technicians on the project. Murphy’s reaction has gone down in history -

If there is any way to do it wrong, he’ll find it.

Ok maybe not so new after all
This so-called law wasn’t actually new at the time Murphy said it, but a project manager overheard it and dubbed it “Murphy’s Law” The origin actually dates back to the old stage shows of the wild west. It was mainly associated with stage magic shows.

There is an old saying among conjurers that it is impossible for a performer to know a trick thoroughly well until everything that can possibly go wrong with it has gone wrong - in front of an audience.

Cite
One law many parts?
Though in the modern world we know Murphy’s Law simply as -

Whatever can go wrong will go wrong

There are actually multiple parts to it though only the first is believed to be the original.

• Whatever can go wrong will go wrong
• Nothing is as Easy as it Looks
• Everything takes longer than you think
• No two identical parts are alike
• If there is a possibility of several thing going wrong, the one that causes the most damage will be the one
• Nature always sides with the hidden flaw
• It always cost more than first estimated
• If you try to please everybody, someone will be disappointed
• It’s easier to get involved in something than to get out of it
• And more

“If there are two or more ways to do something, and one of those ways can result in a catastrophe, then someone will do it.

Last bit of history. The above is known as Sod’s Law and is often considered to be the forefather of our modern Murphy’s law.
Yes there is actually a point to this
Murphy’s Law (or Sod’s law) is as real as the nose on my face. I found this out first hand yesterday transferring this blog to it’s own domain. If it could get messed up I messed it up. Bad. In fact it is nothing short of a miracle that I even managed to save the content! For anyone who intends to move a blog (or anything else dealing with databases) plan to set aside a few hours unless you know what you are doing.