32 PoDs and WIs (pre-1900)

If there's a better thread or forum out there for this, I'll be glad to have this moved and/or deleted.

Anyway, I have a notebook with my thinking on various AH scenarios, starting w several questions, most of them unanswered on paper, but all with some idea in my head of how they'd go. And I figured, listing out the PoDs would be a fun thing to share here.

Some of these are multiple PoD. I realize some (or several) of these have TLs on this forum. (Also, I'm still trying to ideally place a PoD around 1700 and another in the 1830's that add some kind of variety.) Anyways, this is my list (more or less as written):

What if...
Athens won the Peloponnesian War?
Socrates was acquitted?
Pompey defeated Caesar at Pharsalus?
Gaius Caesar lived (and his choice for Jerusalem prefect pardoned Jesus)?
Cao Cao won the Battle of Red Bluff (and the Han Dynasty survived him)?
St Patrick didn't convert Ireland?
Ethiopia conquered Mecca in 570?
Irene of Athens married Charlemagne?
Diogenes and Alp Arsulan survived the aftermath of Manzikert?
Hulagu stayed in the west?
Chinese maritime exploration continued?
Columbus didn't sail?
Martin Luther wasn't struck by lightning (and Zwingli led the Reformation)?
Cortes declared his own independent nation?
Oda Nobunaga survived?
Dara Shikoh secured himself as heir to the Mughal throne?
__?__
Benedict Arnold sulked at Saratoga?
the United States tackled slavery earlier?
Louis XVI escaped to Austria after Varennes?
Napoleon better handled Haiti and Amiens?
the War of 1812 was averted?
there was no "Corrupt Bargain of 1825"?
__?__
Marx dies in 1848 (and Engels follows soon after)?
Japan isn't opened by the US?
Napoleon III triumphed geopolitically? (averting Crimean War PoD)
the Lost Orders weren't found (and the CSA won the war)?
the Lincoln assassination failed?
British manufacturing policies were stronger in the 1870's?
Bismarck chose a Russian alliance?
Britain did better at Berlin in 1884?
Tesla stayed with Edison?
Pedro Paule went public with his rocket engine in 1895?
 
I know a wonderful pre-1900 POD for the year of 1575: What if the son of William the Rich, Duke of Jülich-Cleves-Berg, Charles Frederick, doesn't die during his grand tour through Europe and he succeeds his father in 1592?

The result? The House of La Marck doesn't go extinct and the Hohenzollern expansion into Westphalia and the Rhine area doesn't take place since there is nothing to inherit.

Sadly I have none for the early 18th century or the 1830s, at least not currently on my mind.
 
I just remembered, I did have a WI for the 1830's -- "WI the Opium War is averted?" -- but dropped it b/c the PoD I had, where Napier was received (1833) didn't feel like enough to really avert the long crisis China saw OTL beginning w that war...
 
If Lost Orders means Order 191 there is no way Lee can win a victory in the circumstances of 1862. Even McClellan can't bugger up 40,000 troops against his 75,000 on home-court advantage with the defenders' advantage favoring him as per usual. Lee got walloped by Meade with a much lesser disparity, if he throws his army in large frontal assaults at McClellan he's given him a victory even McClellan couldn't screw up.
 
Figure I may as well dump my 20th Century list here as well --

What if...
William McKinley wasn't shot?
Theodore Roosevelt secured the 1912 Republican nomination?
Britain stayed neutral in WWI, and the February Revolution (or equivalent) succeeded?
Chen Duxiu didn't become a full communist, and Cao Kun died 1920?
Leonard Wood got the 1920 Republican nomination?
the Weimar Republic fell in 1923, and Trotsky's faction won out in the USSR?
Hindenburg didn't run for re-election in 1932?
Zangara killed FDR? (turns into Fascist US and "Axis" Win)
the Fifth Encirclement Campaign (1934) was a complete success, killing Mao, Zhao Enlai, et el?
the Nazis failed in Norway and did more damage at Dunkirk, giving us UK PM Halifax?
the (Western) Allies marched on Berlin?
the GM Corvair was a success?
Elvis never got that fateful audition, never rose to fame?
Frank Costello and Che Guevera were both killed in 1957?
JFK survived?
MLK wasn't hit?
RFK wasn't killed, won in 1968?
Ford squeaked out a victory over Carter in 1976?
Harvey Milk wasn't killed, and Tom Bradley was elected Governor 1982?
Reagan tackled AIDS in 1985?
Letterman got the Tonight Show, and the 1992 Election went differently?*
Edward Norton starred in The Devil's Advocate, and Harrison Ford was approached for Eyes Wide Shut?

*actually more "what if the 1990's were dystopic"?
 
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WI Rall had been more on his guard and forced a draw or even gained victory at the Battle of Trenton?
WI the wound Yi Sun-Sin had taken at the battle of Sacheon had been fatal?
WI Henry V had survived his bout of dysentry in 1422?
WI Harold II had survived the battle of Hastings (not actually won, just survived)?
WI Boudica had decided not to charge the Romans at the Battle of Watling Street?
 
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And just to be consistent, four for the early 21st Century:

What if...
the 22nd Amendment didn't pass, and Clinton was President on 9/11?
the push-poll smear was revealed, and McCain won the South Carolina 2000 primary?
a different Federal judge pulled Gore v Bush, and O'Connor recused herself for the appeal?
the 9/11 attacks were averted at the last minute?

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What if?
Kennedy did not place missals in Turkey (starting the crisis
Henry Wallace becomes President?
Martin Luther King dose not die?
Somehow the Macedonians fend of the Romans at the battle of Pynda?
Boudicca triumphs against the Romans
 
Since it looks like everyone is just posting random PODs, here's a couple for some timelines I've been kicking around but probably will never get to focus on due to TSPD;

WI; New York elector Anthony Lispenard voted for Burr/Jefferson instead of Jefferson/Burr? IOTL he demanded to be allow to cast his vote via secret ballot as opposed to a public one as state law required, however his demand was rejected by the state. It is believed that Lispendard wished to vote for Burr, though he personally preferred Jefferson, in order to dead-lock the election and force a run-off vote, which Jefferson likely would have won. However errors in the Democratic-Republican voting strategy that year meant if Lispendard had voted for Burr than Burr would have won the presidential election, leading to President Aaron Burr in 1800.

WI; French Emperor Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte (aka Napoléon III) hadn't had a nightmare on the night of 5 July 1869? IOTL Louis-Napoléon was frequently unable to catch a full night's rest, likely due to discomfort stemming from his frequent bladder stones and general kidney failure. On this particular night Louis-Napoléon, notoriously superstitious, took his bad dreams as an ill-omen, and canceled his planned invasion of Prussia which was scheduled to go forward the next day - at the height of the Austro-Prussian War.
 
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