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Sure we all know about that US plan to invade Canada if Britain fell to the Nazis(wwii) or the Hun(wwi)...but what little thing could have spawned a 360 degree change in direction down an alternate history?
100 Pivotal Moments
1. V-1 crashes in Marshlands in Britain...Brits salvage Rocket motor and add it to the Spitfire in place of the rolls-royce engine reducing the weight and increasing range and speed.
2. Columbus having agreed to turn back if they saw no sign of land on this next day...Mists/storms that had obscured the Americas on that fateful last day of Columbus's expedition forced him to turn back empty handed.
4. Maxentius defeats Constantine the Great at Milvian Bridge...the Roman Empire never adopts Christianity as a religion, thus it never becomes the dominant religion of Europe.
Half the world would probably be Muslim; Roman polytheism would still be common.
7. Lenin dies of diphtheria as a child. Russia never experiences revolution; Hitler, unintimidated by Moscow, ignores Russia and invades Britain.
4. Maxentius defeats Constantine the Great at Milvian Bridge...the Roman Empire never adopts Christianity as a religion, thus it never becomes the dominant religion of Europe.Half the world would probably be Muslim; Roman polytheism would still be common.
7. Lenin dies of diphtheria as a child. Russia never experiences revolution; Hitler, unintimidated by Moscow, ignores Russia and invades Britain.
Interesting.
EDIT: You're up late.
9. Severe drought and bush fires ravage the east coast of the continent known as Terra Australis in the years leading up to and including 1770. When James Cook puts in at ‘Botany Bay’ he finds a charred wreck of a land and notes that the place does not seem fit for human habitation. A decade and a half later, when Britain is deciding what to do with its huge convict population, the southern continent is not considered as a viable option for transportation.
4. Maxentius defeats Constantine the Great at Milvian Bridge...the Roman Empire never adopts Christianity as a religion, thus it never becomes the dominant religion of Europe.Half the world would probably be Muslim; Roman polytheism would still be common.
Unlikely, as Byzantine Christianity was a great influx for the birth and development of Islam... There would probably be some other Middle Eastern big movement, perhaps connected to pre-Islamic Persian religion...
Another one: Anthony won over Octavius 30 BCE and developed an Egyptian-Roman Empire, merging Eastern and Western Mediterranean culture, instead of the Western-centric Augustean one.
And yet another: Hannibal does raze Rome after Cannae. Carthage becomes the Rome of the Western Mediterranean
19) Tensions during the Cuban Missile Crisis run high, and diplomacy breaks down...the Cold War turns hot.
Considering Cuba already has a number of Soviet Short Range Surface to Surface Nuclear Missiles in place at the time JFK issues the blockade, Any Hot conflict is likly to include a Preemptive launch from Cuba at any US target within 300 miles.
124.7b) Lee Harvey Oswald decides not to buy a magic bullet - his shot doesn't curve, instead hits its mark and kills the CIA sniper on the grassy knoll. ^_-
Shooter on the grassy knoll turns out to be Baseball Hero Joe Di Maggio and this is over the death of his woman Marylin Munro at the Hands of the President and his Brother.
26) Malcolm X breaks off from Elijah Muhammad immediately after returning from Mecca, taking his movement in a more political and less religious direction.
27) Oliver North enjoys total recall, and shares it with America while on trial.
28) The Great Wall is not completed in time, resulting in a massive invasion of China by the Mongols.
29) The kamikaze never occurs, and Japan is conquered by outside forces.
9. Severe drought and bush fires ravage the east coast of the continent known as Terra Australis in the years leading up to and including 1770. When James Cook puts in at ‘Botany Bay’ he finds a charred wreck of a land and notes that the place does not seem fit for human habitation. A decade and a half later, when Britain is deciding what to do with its huge convict population, the southern continent is not considered as a viable option for transportation.
34. British Government decides to Sell their convict population into Slavery in the USA.
35. 1526 Tidal Wave does not take out the Islamic Colony in North Australia. Australia becomes an Islamic State as the indigenous population are converted to the one true faith.
The indigenous peoples of the new world avoid contact with the pilgrims.
I would very much like to see an alternate history where Native Americans give up the nomadic lifestyle and develop an alphabet. I know there were some non-nomadic Native Americans, but I would like to see a what if they had developed technologically equivalent to Europe, or even better, China.
9. Severe drought and bush fires ravage the east coast of the continent known as Terra Australis in the years leading up to and including 1770. When James Cook puts in at ‘Botany Bay’ he finds a charred wreck of a land and notes that the place does not seem fit for human habitation. A decade and a half later, when Britain is deciding what to do with its huge convict population, the southern continent is not considered as a viable option for transportation.
The French settle the east coast and the Dutch the west. The Aboriginal people suffer terribly just as in the real time line (owing to Germs, Guns, and steel).
4. Maxentius defeats Constantine the Great at Milvian Bridge...the Roman Empire never adopts Christianity as a religion, thus it never becomes the dominant religion of Europe.Half the world would probably be Muslim; Roman polytheism would still be common.
One of the competing cults that offered the same things as Christianity would win out, Mithridaism, The Isis cult, Orphic Mysteries and so on.
Alexander Flemming decides to throw out his mold contaminated bacteria sample in 1928.
I was thinking about some science and technology ones also, but I find they don't usually work as well because someone else would eventually make the discovery. It's kind of interesting, there have been a huge number of more or simultaneous independent major scientific discoveries. It seems like humanity reaches inflection points where it is 'ready' for a certain move forward, and then it happens, sometimes a few times independently in a short space of time.
Orville and Wilbur Wright stay content running a bicycle shop.
Australian Lawrence Hargrave invented the box kite and dedicated his life to constructing flying machines. In the 1880s he experimented with monoplane models and by 1889 Hargrave had constructed a rotary airplane engine, driven by compressed air.
Somebody gives Lawrence the money to build a full size version of his aircraft.
Because he believed
"Workers must root out the idea that by keeping the results of their labours to themselves a fortune will be assured to them. Patent fees are so much wasted money. The flying machine of the future will not be born fully fledged and capable of a flight for 1000 miles or so. Like everything else it must be evolved gradually. The first difficulty is to get a thing that will fly at all. When this is made, a full description should be published as an aid to others. Excellence of design and workmanship will always defy competition."
We would be 20 years ahead in aeronautics as he wouldn't keep the designs to himself.
47) 100 million years ago a small asteroid bumps a much larger one, changing its course by .000000001 of a degree. 55 million years later, the larger rock misses earth by 1000 miles. 10 million years after that, Nail Tailstrong becomes the first dinosaur on the moon.
48)Union Corporal Barton Mitchell keeps the three cigars to himself, and discards the piece of paper wrapped around them (and thus losing Special Order 191). McCellan's Army of the Potomac remains ignorant of Lee's invasion of Maryland. No Battle of Antietam happens, and the successful invasion creates enough havoc in the Northern states to extend the Civil War or end it in the Confederancy's favor.
49) Lietenant US Grant is killed by a sniper's bullet while riding a dispatch during the battle of Monterrey in the Mexican-American war. No Grant means no one successfully breaks Confederate Vicksburg - keeping the western theater open during the Civil War. No success at Chattanoga, which means no infamous "March to the Sea." William Sherman likely never recovers his stature from his "nervous breakdown" that he would have under Grant. The US Civil War likely drags on longer as a result.
51) The Pittsbugh Pirates decide that a young Cuban lefthander's nasty curve and amazing sinkers are worth gambling on despite his poor speed. The Pirates go on to win 5 World Series between 1948 and 1958, breaking the Yankee Dynasty, behind pitcher Fidel Castro. Cuba operates with corrupt governments for decades while the Mafia continues to expand their gambling enterprises. Las Vegas remains a desert town of no consequence.
52) The Vienna Academy of Fine Arts accepts Adolf Hitler's entry. Although his painting never rises above mediocre, he is able to apply the training for successful application to architecture. Hitler's style eventually becomes successful in government buildings - evoking Wagnerian art styles.