Alternate Wikipedia Infoboxes VI (Do Not Post Current Politics or Political Figures Here)

Status
Not open for further replies.
To Brutish Beasts: A History of the French First Republic
Is it better to be loved rather than feared, or feared rather than loved?
It might perhaps be answered that we should wish to be both,
but since love and fear can hardly exist together,
if we must choose between them,
it is far safer to be feared than loved.


unknown.png
 
What If Bugs Bunny cut Florida off the United States?
This infobox is inspired by the Bugs Bunny cartoon Rebel Rabbit, which is the origin of the Bugs Bunny Florida gif.

bugsbunnyinfobox.png
 
Hopefully, Elmer Fudd was successful during the Rabbit extermination campaigns and retired comfortably.
Looks like he was right to hunt Bugs as the bunny needed killing. He just seriously underestimated what he was up against. Hopefully both he and Daffy have good reputations for at least trying to go up against the monster? Probably didn't help Yosemite Sam though as unlike Fudd he actually is an utter A-hole and obviously Marvin is a monster after all of us so his having opposed Bugs is pretty academic as he still wants to commit his own genocide.
 
Bret.png


Bret Hart was a Canadian-American professional wrestler and member of the Hart wrestling family, he worked for both his father's promotion, Stampede Wrestling and the World Wrestling Federation (now WWE). Hart worked for the WWF from 1984 to 1997, his final match being the infamous Montreal Screwjob. Hart was planning to leave for rival promotion WCW but was still the WWF world champion, he had no intention of appearing in the rival company with the WWF's world title and was willing to drop the belt on his way out. However, problems raised when it was made known to Hart that his opponent would be his real life rival Shawn Michaels, the two had at first only been on screen rivals but the two had several backstage arguments prior, which culminated in a fight before a WWF Raw event in Hartford, Connecticut (after Michaels had publicly accused Hart of having an affair with Sunny, a female wrestler). With this in mind WWF promoter and CEO Vince McMahon gathered Michaels, his friend Hunter Hearst Helmsley, WWE hall of famer Pat Patterson, McMahon's close aide Gerald Brisco, and WWF referee Earl Hebner (who alleges he only knew 10 minutes after the event had occurred). The screwjob went ahead as planned with a furious Bret Hart destroying monitors and spitting in Vince McMahon's face before punching him in the face backstage, a couple of hours later WWF writer Vince Russo received a call from Bret Hart's brother Owen, who told Russo that "he (Bret) is going to disown me as a brother and never speak to me again if I continue to work with the WWF." The next night on Raw Hart arrived backstage and began shooting (injuring some former colleagues like on screen commissioner Sgt. Slaughter, future WWF Champion The Rock, and The Undertaker) demanding Vince McMahon and Shawn Michaels show themselves before being shot twice by police, Hart was dead by the time he arrived to the hospital and the Raw show had been canceled, meanwhile on Nitro (WCW's rival show to WWF's Raw) Eric Bischoff (then head of WCW) was told of what had happened backstage at the WWF and scrapped a promo he would've cut hyping his signing of the late Hart. To this day many wondered what caused Hart to snap and start shooting, and what would his run in WCW been like if he hadn't passed.
 
1669677332743.png

The 1958 German election was held on the 27th July 1958 to elect the 4th Bundestag, with Chancellor Ludwig Erhard of the CDU/CSU running for a second term.

Erhard’s first term had been fairly well-received by much of the German public. He had significantly altered the nature of the Mittelpolitik foreign policy by having Germany sign the Treaty of Rome and join the European Coal and Steel Community, becoming a founding member of the European Community (and the only founding member not to have signed the Treaty of Paris) in 1957. This also had the realpolitik benefit of allowing the Saarland to be reunited with Germany, a major economic and nationalist boon for Erhard.

On domestic issues, the CDU/CSU was also popular, as the Law on Pension Reform the Erhard government had passed was extremely popular, and the economy had continued to grow during his term, reaching record highs after entering the EC in 1957. His government also granted amnesty to many refugees from the former eastern territories and issued pardons to many people who had been in junior positions under the Nazi regime to allow them to reintegrate into society, counterbalancing this by vocally supporting in absentia the death sentences of prominent Nazi war criminals such as Adolf Eichmann (who would ultimately be executed in 1962) and Klaus Barbie (who had already been convicted by France).

As a result of these factors, by the time the 1958 election was called, the CDU/CSU was in a very strong position. Its coalition allies the FDP and Zentrum were overshadowed by it in terms of the government’s accomplishments, while the opposition SPD was largely still advocating for inter-Iron Curtain relations and Mittelpolitik as it had been under previous Chancellor Erich Ollenhauer, and so the CDU/CSU was given support from the Americans to try to overcome it. The KPD had been severely undermined by the Soviet response to the Hungarian Revolution and its leader Stefan Heym’s controversial decision to condemn it, and the DP had floundered thanks to the other parties’ marginalization of its nationalist rhetoric and greater public confidence in the German economy and foreign policy.

As a result, the main issue of the 1958 campaign was whether Erhard would win a majority, which would give him leverage to replace the FDP President Theodor Heuss with a CDU/CSU politician once his term expired in 1959. The CDU played to this in its campaign with the slogan ‘Für alle Deutschen‘ (‘For All Germans‘), implying it could be trusted to run a government without forming a coalition. The other parties responded by accusing Erhard of seeking to make a power grab, particularly due to the decision to call a snap election, but the Chancellor and his party remained very popular, blunting these attacks for the most part.

The CDU/CSU won a large majority of the single-member districts and set a new record high of 47.2% of the vote, coming 8 seats short of an overall majority but still achieving a significant increase on the 1955 election and giving Erhard a powerful mandate. Every other party in the Bundestag except the SPD lost seats despite the number of seats increasing due to the Saarland joining the country. Erhard formed a coalition with the FDP (Zentrum, cut to just two seats, chose not to rejoin it) and Ollenhauer would not run as Chancellor-candidate of the SPD again, allowing Mayor of Berlin Willy Brandt to succeed him in that role in the 1962 election.

Due to the integration of the Saarland, this election would see the only change to the boundaries of the single-member districts of the Bundestag between 1951 and 1966. It would also be the last time the DP won seats in the Bundestag.
 
Last edited:
What If Bugs Bunny cut Florida off the United States?
This infobox is inspired by the Bugs Bunny cartoon Rebel Rabbit, which is the origin of the Bugs Bunny Florida gif.

View attachment 792256
I like the infobox dude. I do have one minor nick pick, though.

Bugs' birthday is list in the day-month-year date format while the day he cut Florida off from the US is in the month-day-year date format. Using two different styles of date format makes the infobox a bit confusing.

Apart from that, good job.
 
sinatra.PNG
Francis Albert Sinatra
[nb1] (12 December 1915 [nb2] - 14 may 1998) better known as Frank Sinatra, was a mobster, member of the Cosa Nostra, until his accession as boss of the Chicago Outfit even if he never took the official title of capo dei capi.

From inside the syndicate we was known as Blue Eyes and from the public, The Chairman, as he was designed as such per Robert Kennedy, United States Attorney General in his memoirs, published in the 80’s.

Sinatra was born in a middle-class Italian American family. His mother was a nurse and his father a former boxer and fireman. Coincidentally, Saverio Sinatra his father, was born in Lercara Friddi, a small Sicilian village, which is also the birthplace of Salvatore Lucania, better known as Lucky Luciano, another famous mobster. Sinatra always refuted knowing Luciano, even tho proofs of meeting had been found between the two men.

Leaving school at fifteen, Sinatra started as a musician in small talents show or extra in music clubs, but his career never took off. Through the world of the night, the young Sinatra befriended other musicians, and met numerous bootleggers during the end of the prohibition era. In 1933 and the repelling of the Volstead Act per president John Nance Garner, the smuggling alcohol crime families smuggling started to concentrate their activities mainly to prostitution, illegal gambling and extortion.

Sinatra tried to continue his halftone career in music, but an accident in 1936 causing him to loose partially his hearing in a pub brawl, pushed him to renounce the scene. After a quick job in a factory, he reached his friends of the mob who introduced him to their world.

Sinatra started as a driver, doing mundane tasks for the Bonnano family, assisting the enforcers in their racketing tours and burglaries. Charmful, efficient and quick, he gained the trust of the family, and due to his previous lifestyle, was often send to collect the debts of bars owners and nightclubs. One collection in a pub of Brooklyn went south when the group of Sinatra arrived on stage at the same time of a local Irish gang. A shooting endured, killing three Italians, two Irishmen and one civilian bystander. It was never proved that Sinatra had directly shot during the confrontation and himself always denied it. With the police on Bonnano’s tail, the family ordered Sinatra to leave New York for a while, and he was assigned to Chicago, to supervise the local activities of the gang .

There, he was quick to resume his criminal activities until his arrest in 1939 for bootlegging. He was sentenced to 4 years of jail in USP Leavenworth where he met Sam Giancana, rising star of the Chicago Outfit, who was serving the same sentence, for the same crime. The two men became friends and partners in 1942, at their release.

Sinatra followed Giancana in his takeover of the illegal lottery circle of the city and the gang war between the Outfit and the African American mafia. In 1952, the duo was involved with the assassination of Theodore Roe, main black boss of the town, and Sinatra was put in charge of the gambling operations after Roe’s demise. Sinatra was an attendee at the 1957 Apalachin meeting where he met his former associates from Bonnano family and officialised his allegiance to the Outfit. As Sinatra was never a soldier of the Bonnanos and merely associate, his defection was not officially seen as treason, allowing him to escape death sentence. Tho, some members of the Bonnano never forget nor forgive, and numerous hits were attempted against him.

According to some journalists, Sinatra was the main link between the Outfit and the Kennedy family, and a pact was agreed : if the mafia ‘persuaded’ the shops protected to vote for democratic candidate John Fitzgerald Kennedy, once president, the former should use his influence to protect the Chicago Syndicate and concentrate the FBI’s resources against his enemies. Kennedy was elected, and even if no solid proof of collusion can be demonstrated, Illinois was claimed per democrats during this election.

Robert, Kennedy brother was appointed attorney general, and tried to tackle the mob, which seems to refute any deal between the Kennedys and the Outfit, tho some biographs assess that Bobby was mainly trying to push for an ideological agenda, to secure his brother reelection. Giancanna had to flee to Mexico in 1965, officially replaced per Joey Aiuppa , even tho Sinatra was already acting boss of the syndicate.

In 1975, Giancana was extracted to the US, and killed before he could testify before Church Committee, even tho we was under police protection. Numerous theories exist regarding the paymaster of the murder, either Aiuppa or Sinatra themselves, or the CIA. Anyways, Sinatra used the assassination of his friend and the accusation of collaboration with the police, to call a purge inside the Outfit, taking care out of any rivals or potential threats. The mobster referred to this purge as ‘cleaning the rat pack’ .

Once becoming the most powerful man of Chicago, Sinatra expended the activities to the syndicate to drugs essentially opium, arms smuggling and human trafficking. Sinatra always took great care to never leave any trace of personal involvement in the Outfit, as he was, for most of his life, still officially registered as ‘musician’, living out of his royalties due to a complex fiscal system even tho he did not touched an instrument since the 30’s. As a Chicago socialite he spent a lot of money to reconstruct the slums of the city, and invested in numerous companies of the town. He would even have an office in the Chicago Board of Trade Building.

Sinatra remained in charge of the Outfit until start of the 90’s and stepped down out of his unofficial position, leaving the syndicate in the hands John DiFronzo, his underboss for many years. After spending the last years of his life in retirement between Chicago and his vacation estate in Florida, Sinatra would die of heart failure, on 14 may 1998, at Biograph Theater, in front of a rediffusion of Ocean's 11, one of his favorite movies, starring William Holden, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr., Peter Lawford, and Joey Bishop (also known as the Bat Group).

Sinatra is buried in Rosehill Cemetery in the family crypt. Every year, at his death anniversary, is customary to the Outfit to send flowers at his tomb.

From 1951 to 1957, Sinatra was married to cinema movie’s star Ava Gardner, the two meet in 1946 during the promotion of Whistle Stop at the Chicago Cultural Center and became lovers the next year. Gardner would give him a son and a daughter before their divorce.

Sinatra had another previous child, a son, Frank JR, from Nancy Barbato, his mistress at the time in 1944. Sinatra JR was killed in 1963, aged 19, per small thugs, in a botched kidnapping attempt in Nevada. Mobsters responsible for the murder were captured per Las Vegas crime family and sent to the Outfit at a sign of goodwill.

Kidnappers were never seen again, and many rumors speculated Sinatra made them dissolved into acid alive or drown them in the Michigan Lake with cement shoes.

[nb1] : While "Francis Albert Sinatra" was the name which under he was registered at birth; his baptism certificate was written with "Francisco Alberto Sinatra". Sinatra never used the italianized version of his name.
[nb2] : Sinatra had the habit to celebrate his birthday on 10 of december; while officially born on 12.
 
1669941642749.png

The 1962 German federal election was held on the 8th July 1962 to elect the 5th Bundestag, with Chancellor Ludwig Erhard of the CDU/CSU running for a third term.

During his second term, the large mandate his party had secured in 1958 had made Erhard and his party the main targets of public criticism. Among the more damaging examples of this was his decision to endorse Heinrich Lübke to succeed Theodor Heuss as President, consolidating the CDU/CSU’s power and increasing public distrust in the party due to Lübke’s unpopularity with the public. He also faced significant opposition in his efforts to introduce anti-cartel economic policies, which engendered hostility from unions (which Erhard was himself hostile towards) and business owners.

Erhard also faced aggressive criticism from two different directions on foreign and war-related policy. He planned to sign non-aggression pacts with Poland and Czechoslovakia in an effort to try to put Germany’s past invasions of the two countries to rest, only to capitulate to the expellee and anti-communist lobby when they protested fiercely against this. His government also became embroiled in a scandal in which Minister of Refugees Theodor Oberländer was found to have committed war crimes against Jews and Poles in World War II, and Erhard refused to fire him until other CDU/CSU cabinet ministers pressured him to, a process which took several months.

While these crises had been harming the CDU/CSU, the SPD had strengthened its position thanks to party leader Erich Ollenhauer taking a back seat in favour of Mayor of Berlin Willy Brandt. Brandt became Mayor in 1957, and in office had undertaken substantial urban development including housing expansion, the renovation of Schloss Charlottenburg, Potsdamer Platz, Museum Island and the Berlin Funkturm (radio tower), and the expansion of the Bundesautobahn 100 motorway around all of central Berlin. He also began to achieve international attention by striking up a friendship with US President John F. Kennedy after the latter was elected in 1961, meeting him when Kennedy visited Berlin the same year, and his younger age (he was 16 years Erhard’s junior) and moderate policy stances also appealed a lot to voters disillusioned with the government.

As a result of Brandt’s great popularity, particularly in the capital, the 1962 election was considered likely to be much more competitive than the 1958 one, and turnout rose to an even higher level. Initially the polls suggested Brandt could win power, but Erhard managed to repair his reputation by playing an active role in German condemnation of Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann. He denounced Eichmann very vocally, supporting the calls for his execution, and gave a heartfelt speech denouncing and apologizing on behalf of Germany for Eichmann’s crimes against humanity. This allowed his popularity to begin to rise again in the lead-up to the next election, particularly since Eichmann was executed a month before it.

The CDU/CSU’s lead over the SPD was slashed from 110 seats to 21 and its lead in percentage points from almost 15 to 3 ½, and both Erhard and Brandt began negotiations with the FDP leader Erich Mende, as his party held the balance of power and could have given either party a majority. Mende proved friendlier to Erhard, particularly since a SPD-FDP coalition would likely have required confidence and supply from the KPD, and so a coalition with the FDP was renewed, albeit with a reduced majority. Despite this, the SPD’s strong performance was seen as a substantial vote of confidence in Brandt’s leadership, and after Erich Ollenhauer passed away in December 1963, he became the new SPD leader.

(By the way, the big spike in registered voters is because I didn’t think to add together the OTL West and East German registered voter totals in the earlier infoboxes. I might go back and fix it sometime soon because it’s a lot lower than it should be in those ones!)
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top