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  1. WI: Pre-1947 presidential succession is eliminated.

    Under the 1886 Presidential Succession Act, the line of succession to the Presidency was limited solely to the members of the US Cabinet. The Speaker of the House and the President pro tempore of the Senate weren't reintroduced to the succession until the 1947 Act. This presents the possibility...

  2. TLIAW: Six inches or so...

    One day, a man came close to death. Within six inches in fact. Such an event is not wholly remarkable. Millions come close to death, every day. A moment’s hesitation, one step in the wrong direction. That is the distance between life and death. Coming within six inches is of little note. But...

  3. The Assassination of Charlie Chaplin

    I suppose that a reasonable number of us are familiar with the May 15 Incident of 1932 and that a significant subset thereof are aware that the assassins originally intended to murder Charlie Chaplin as part of this plot. Their subsequent justification for this was as follows: 'Chaplin is a...

  4. WI: POTUS is not paid a salary

    During the Constitutional Convention of 1787, Benjamin Franklin (in one of his rare speeches) urged to the delegates that the new Executive should not be paid a salary, on that grounds that 'If men could realize "the love of power, and the love of money," in one job, the struggle to obtain that...

  5. Ming capital moves back to Nanjing in 1425

    In contrast to the outward-looking policies of the Yongle Emperor which saw the voyages of Zheng He throughout the Indian Ocean, his son and successor the Hongxi Emperor put the Ming Empire on an introverted agenda, banning much of the foreign trade that had flourished up to that point. This...

  6. 1492: Airborne syphilis?

    I am well aware of my limited knowledge in the realm of biology and am prepared to be corrected in this matter. While there is much debate as to whether syphilis orignated in the New World or was already present in the Old, it does seem that a new, more hostile mutation of the bacterium...

  7. Henry VIII's ulcer bursts!

    My university research is revealing some gems of potential alternate history. According to an article I recently perused, the life of Henry VIII was in serious danger during the February of 1541 when the ulcer is leg seemed about to burst and send the poisons seeping through his whole body...

  8. Kiwi Lennon and the Aborted Beatles

    In July of 1946, 5-year old John Lennon was taken by his father Alf to Blackpool for what was supposedly a 'long vacation'. In reality Alf intended to emigrate to New Zealand and take John along with him. This plan was thwarted by John's mother who had followed them to Blackpool and succeeded...

  9. Could the Sino-Soviet border conflict have gone nuclear?

    In 1969, the USSR and PRC entered a border dispute which saw brief military engagement. For further details: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sino-Soviet_border_conflict The idea of nuclear war was considered by the Soviet leadership but was ultimately rejected. My question is, could events have...

  10. No Dracula

    (From one who tires of popular culture's obsession of vampires) Bram Stoker, the author of the renowned Dracula which created the popular modern concept of vampires, was always a rather sickly child and indeed spent his early years as little more than an invalid. At 7 he made an amazing...

  11. Astro WI: Galileo discovers Neptune

    Galileo's observation records indicate that in late 1612 he observed the planet Neptune. However, at this time Neptune was just beginning its retrograde cycle and so appeared stationary and too small to be a planet. Galileo took it to be a fixed star. But what if Galileo had made his...

  12. Charles Dickens, MP.

    In 1841, Dickens (already something of a celebrity) was invited to stand for Parliament in the general election that year. He flatly refused but one can't help but wonder... The POD I'm going with is Dickens' wife dying in childbirth in Feb 1841 and the resulting son dying soon after...

  13. William III lives longer

    The OTL encounter by William III of England with the velvet coated gentleman was a supremely unlikely one. If he avoids that accident in 1702, he would have many years ahead of him still. Let's give him his biblical 'three score and ten' putting his death somewhere around 1720. What are the...

  14. Duke of Berwick leads Jacobites in 1715

    James FitzJames, Duke of Berwick was an illegitamate son of the exiled James II, a prominent member of the Jacobite court and a great general in the service of France. His service during the War of the Spanish Succession saw numerous victories and even Frederick the Great of Prussia later spoke...

  15. Literary WI: Robbie Burns emigrates to Jamaica in 1786

    In early 1786, the future hero of Scottish culture Robert Burns was seriously considering emigrating to Jamaica with his lover Mary Campbell. The plan was for Burns to take up a position as an overseer of slaves on a sugar plantation. However, Mary died suddenly of a fever and so Burns stayed...

  16. Starting Again:The Aftermath of the Downing Street Mortar Attack

    Well, here it is finally. Hope you enjoy my first (and no doubt lacking) attempt at an actual timeline: Starting Again: The Aftermath of the Downing Street Mortar Attack By Alberto Knox Part 1: Setting it off with a... The attack was originally planned with the purpose of assassinating...

  17. A Kritocratic America?

    In my history course at school we've been looking at the battle of power between the executive and legislative branches of government in the USA. At a given point in its development, the USA was either dominated by Congress or the Presidency. This got me thinking...how could the third branch...

  18. AH Challenge: PM Clement Freud

    Because I'm bored. With a POD no earlier than 1973, how could the late Clement Freud (the great British radio personality) have risen to the office of Prime Minister of the United Kingdom?

  19. JFK dies in 1943

    I get the feeling there's been too much of the Kennedy's here lately but nevertheless I'm curious. In August 1943, Military Torpedo Boat PT-109 (under the command of Lieutenaunt Kennedy) was cut in half by a collision with a Japanese destroyer. Two men were killed and two more seriously...

  20. John Lackland: The Count of Savoy

    Another Wiki-inspired WI: So, the POD is that 'Alais' survives and marries John Lackland. This won't change history much (unless those castles have some significance?) until 1189 when Humbert III dies and John comes into his Alpine inheritance. To make things even more interesting, his...
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