Very Minor PODs

d32123

Banned
What's that?

From Wiki:

The later settlement of Portland started as a spot known as "the clearing,"[12] which was on the banks of the Willamette about halfway between Oregon City and Fort Vancouver. In 1843, William Overton saw great commercial potential for this land but lacked the funds required to file a land claim. He struck a bargain with his partner, Asa Lovejoy of Boston, Massachusetts: for 25¢, Overton would share his claim to the 640 acres (2.6 km2) site. Overton later sold his half of the claim to Francis W. Pettygrove of Portland, Maine. Pettygrove and Lovejoy each wished to name the new city after his respective home town. In 1845, this controversy was settled with a coin toss, which Pettygrove won in a series of two out of three tosses.[13] The coin used for this decision, now known as the Portland Penny, is on display in the headquarters of the Oregon Historical Society.
 
On the topic of coin tosses:


  • Ritchie Valens won his seat on the plane with Buddy Holly in a coin toss with Tommy Allsup.
  • Waylon Jennings gave his seat to the Big Bopper, who had come down with the flu.
Minor PODs (the first one more minor, though), but one that has huge music consequences.
 
Gavrilo Princip is hit by a bus and sustains fatal injuries in the early morning of June 28th, 1914.

How about he chokes on a sandwich, gets revived by a hearty slap on the back, but in the ensuing chaos, misses Ferdinand's vehicle going by?
Or the driver of Ferdinand's vehicle doesn't stall the engine, and they go about their merry way before Gavrilo is able to act?
 

Thande

Donor
From Wiki:

This is referenced in "The Two Georges" (absurdly convergent, but hey, it's a Turtledove book) in which the coin toss goes the other way, and the OTL city of Portland is known as "West Boston". I'm guessing the additional identifier was needed because Boston is a bigger and more important place than Portland, Maine so the potential for confusion was higher.
 
Lou Gehrigs mom doesn't allow him to go play in the Wrigley Field game that really made him well known among baseball scouts.
 
Smeone accidently publishes the collected works of art of Hitler early on, including the Disney fanart and the nudes of his niece.
 
Ioseb Jughashvili and Adolph Hitler get in a fight in 1913 in Vienna. One is killed, the other jailed. Minor PoD, major butterflies... :D
 
And one more in line with the OP:
Joanne Rowling Arantes remains happily married in Portugal. She is the author of a mildly sucessful Portugese children's book.
 
Harry Wittington shoots Dick Cheney in a drunken* shooting accident instead of the other way around. Cheney dies as a result.

*Based on calculations by my dad, an engineer and very experienced bird hunter, the reported details of the shooting were physically impossible and it was most likely a coverup.
 
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