If you could change one event in history, just to see what happens

[theultimateend]

Pearl Harbor prevented.

Sucks for Japan. The US would have still attacked them eventually. Also sucks for China who would have continued to get raped and massacred by the thousands.

But hey, at least we'd save a single US base from a retaliatory attack because of our attempts to manipulate a sovereign nation. Win!

- - -

I would probably just go back in time and tell my parents the numbers for the lottery.

I know I'm lame. But considering that almost no major world event is as simple as people make it out I'd like to stick small and knowing my parents it would have helped out quite a few folks beyond just me.

- - -

Let Hitler get into Art school, just to see what he would have made of his life if he was an artist. If he made it big would we all be learing about Hitler and his sterile landscape paintings, and perverse self-portraits in art, would his extreme views just be taught as a minor character quirk? and how would Europe have changed if there was no NSDP in Germany to encite the counrty to war?

i enjoy this one most so far. a different almost positive spin on an alternate reality.
instead killing him off / capturing him etc. Let the man into art school and see what he makes of his life from there. I had a similar thought when i found out that Hitler wanted to get into art school recently.

Alternatively, since stopping a war would be hard, stopping the victorious nations after WWI from putting Germany into the financial situation it was en post WWI would have made Hitler and all the Nazi's a moot point.

Basically Hitler was not the only reason the Nazi's and Holocaust happened. It is unlikely that him not being there would have made the situation better at all. Much like the modern war on terror the Nazi movement was an ideological response to perceived injustices and could not be stopped by killing a single person. It WAS however much more centralized and a sweeping assault was more effective (however no less brutal).

But it would be nice to see what would happen if someone with a normal mustache had replaced him. See if nobody would wear a regular stache.

 

[Amethyst Wind]

Stop the rape of Nanking.

 

[Aisaku]

Cortez gets his ass handed back by the Aztecs, their culture survives to the 21th century.

 

[theultimateend]

Stop the rape of Nanking.

The most horrifying story almost never told from WWII. I didn't hear about it until college.

 

[Callate]

Get someone in power to say: "I don't care how cheap oil is, or how many oil executives have you in their pocket, I want Salter's Duck in full testing, and if it's as efficient as it's claimed, production, immediately!"

[link]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salter%27s_duck[/link]

 

[Canid117]

Stop John Montagu from inventing the sandwich. What? Does everything on this list have to be so dramatic?

the Zimmerman note actually reaching mexico. instead of the us intercepting it.

Mexico would have said "Fuck that shit!" and the United States would have entered the war a week later than the regular timeline.

Prevent the September 11 attacks in hope of preventing the current wars.

UNFORTUNATELY I DONT THINK THAT WOULD WORK LETS BE HONEST WITH THE DEATH OF OSAMA WE KNOW THAT BUSH WAS LYING ABOUT HIM BEING IN IRAQ AND WE JUST ENDED UP INVADING A DEVELOPING NATION VERY SAD WHEN YOU THINK ABOUT IT

I FUCKING LOVE CAPS LOCK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[artanis_neravar]

Pearl Harbor prevented.

Sucks for Japan. The US would have still attacked them eventually. Also sucks for China who would have continued to get raped and massacred by the thousands.

But hey, at least we'd save a single US base from a retaliatory attack because of our attempts to manipulate a sovereign nation. Win!

- - -

I would probably just go back in time and tell my parents the numbers for the lottery.

I know I'm lame. But considering that almost no major world event is as simple as people make it out I'd like to stick small and knowing my parents it would have helped out quite a few folks beyond just me.

Actually the attack was an attempt to keep the US Pacific Fleet from interfering with Japanese naval operations on Allied territories in South East Asia. The US probably wouldn't have joined the war without the attack, because the majority of the country were isolationists and wanted nothing to do with Europe's war.
Also in this scenario the change is not permanent, it's just a see what would happen.

 

[subtlefuge]

I would say killing Hitler, but I'm fairly certain that I already know what would happen. The world would not be significantly better off.

 

[artanis_neravar]

Europe, Asia, Africa and Australia never find out about the new world (and vice versa) until Sputnik is launched and they noticed a huge continent of land not on the map.

First to see the look on their face, second to see how the Natives and the rest of the world would've been.

Obviously the Americas would be so technologically advanced that they had already sent up satellites, discovered the other side of the world and had been abducting Europeans, Asians and Africans for years to do experimental testing.

 

[Ice Car]

I'd like to know what happened if the Atomic Bombs were not dropped and what would happen if they were not created. I'm quite curious as to what other events would follow.

 

[ion496]

I would teleport the entire world of 2011, minus people, to replace the world of, let's say 1950.

 

[Sparkytheyetti]

Shoot the bastard who started WWI (the guy who assassinated that other guy).

Remember that cracked article that claim one man set off WWI which set off WWII. Yeah it's not much of an exaggeration.

Wrong it was actually a group effort to kill Franz Ferdinand. 2 other guys also attempted that day. And all three failed in their suicides because they used old aresenic or the other one that instantly kills. So they were all convicted and hanged.

WW2 was set off by hitler wanting to take poland. His first act was to reunite Austria with Germany. He walked in to austria without firing a shot because they wanted to be with germany too. Germany faked a attack from poland on the border to a radio station. They took corpes's to the station and dressed them as polish military. Thus the beginning. Then they went for england.

Being a history guy, i personally have no idea specifically what i would change. So many to choose from. Id have to say U.S. winning Korea and Vietnam would be intresting.

 

[Heathrow]

Change one variable of 1/137 [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fine-structure_constant] just to how else it all could have turned out.

 

[artanis_neravar]

I would do several things
Make sure Citizens United never happens
Stop the assassination of JFK'
Stop the assassination of John Lennon
Get rid of the stupid electoral college system
Have Truman follow General Douglas MacArthur's plan in Korea

 

[subtlefuge]

No atomic bomb. I'm quite curious as to what other events would follow.

You mean dropping or creating the bomb?

If the atomic bombs were never dropped, then there would be no widespread understanding of mutually assured destruction. We probably wouldn't exist right now.

If the atomic bomb was never invented, that would be interesting.

I tend to believe that changing anything in history leads to the end of the world.

 

[Sparkytheyetti]

Shoot the bastard who started WWI (the guy who assassinated that other guy).

Remember that cracked article that claim one man set off WWI which set off WWII. Yeah it's not much of an exaggeration.

Wrong it was actually a group effort to kill Franz Ferdinand. 2 other guys also attempted that day. And all three failed in their suicides because they used old aresenic or the other one that instantly kills. So they were all convicted and hanged.

WW2 was set off by hitler wanting to take poland. His first act was to reunite Austria with Germany. He walked in to austria without firing a shot because they wanted to be with germany too. Germany faked a attack from poland on the border to a radio station. They took corpes's to the station and dressed them as polish military. Thus the beginning. Then they went for england.

Yeah but after WWI they demanded Germany pay insane amounts of money, which Hitler was able to exploit to gain power.

Yes that is true too. Yeah definatly did not help at all. Germans pretty much deutsch marks to wallpaper their homes.

 

[spaceman_jan]

Stop John Montagu from inventing the sandwich. What? Does everything on this list have to be so dramatic?

the Zimmerman note actually reaching mexico. instead of the us intercepting it.

Mexico would have said "Fuck that shit!" and the United States would have entered the war a week later than the regular timeline.

Prevent the September 11 attacks in hope of preventing the current wars.

UNFORTUNATELY I DONT THINK THAT WOULD WORK LETS BE HONEST WITH THE DEATH OF OSAMA WE KNOW THAT BUSH WAS LYING ABOUT HIM BEING IN IRAQ AND WE JUST ENDED UP INVADING A DEVELOPING NATION VERY SAD WHEN YOU THINK ABOUT IT

I FUCKING LOVE CAPS LOCK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I DOOOOOOOOOO TOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO YAY

and i think little "curious" George.w.bush persuaded us to invade in the thought that OSAMA the master mind behind the September 11 terrorist attack was there when all we really did was take a developing nation for its oil