alternatehistory.com

Similar to the other thread we have going at the moment, this thread is for alternate careers and lives of people in an alternate TL, with an added caveat: this world does not actually diverge from our own until 1938, and so, entries should take that into account. People from before 1938 are fair game, so long as they're adapted to whatever shape this new world takes, as are people born afterwards.

Franklin D. Roosevelt (January 30, 1882 - April 12, 1950) served as President of the United States from 1933 to 1949. Elected in the midst of the Great Depression, Roosevelt's 'New Deal' programs established the modern American welfare state, with the birth of Social Security in 1935 and the establishment of hospital and medical insurance (under the umbrella of 'Medicare') in 1938. Elected to an unprecedented third term in 1940, Roosevelt lead the nation through the Second World War to victory over Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy, and Imperial Japan, winning another term in 1944 and helping establish the United Nations in 1945. His decision to use atomic weapons against the Japanese in the final days of the Second World War proved controversial in the United States and abroad and may have laid the groundwork for the subsequent Cold War between the United States and Soviet Union. Although initially in favor of a 'Great Power concert' between the United States, British Empire, and Soviet Union, fears of Soviet expansionism in Eastern Europe quickly shifted his position toward one of alliance with the British and containment of Soviet expansionism. Roosevelt's final term saw the expansion of public housing and the establishment of some degree of his 'Second Bill of Rights', as well as the beginnings of federal action on Civil Rights, with his desegregation of the United States military in 1943. Controversy among American Jews also came to the forefront in 1948 when Roosevelt refused to recognize the fledgling State of Israel.

Refusing to seek another term in 1948 due to ill health and fatigue, Roosevelt instead supported the candidacy of General George C. Marshall, the man responsible for the successful D-Day invasion, in 1948. With Marshall's defeat of Thomas Dewey in the 1948 Presidential Election, Roosevelt would retire from domestic politics, working instead toward international issues with his wife and former Presidential opponent, Wendell Willkie, on the board of Freedom House. Roosevelt would die from complications resulting from old age on April 12, 1950.


Adolf Hitler (April 20, 1889 - October 15, 1946) served as 'Fuhrer' of Nazi Germany from 1933 to 1945. Having rebuilt the German war machine and plunging the world into war in September of 1939, Adolf Hitler also orchestrated perhaps the most infamous example of genocide in human history, that of the Holocaust, in his time in power. Captured in Berlin by Soviet troops in 1945, the trial of Adolf Hitler at Nuremberg shook the world, with the former Fuhrer defending his actions on the world stage as a 'crusade against godless, Judeo-Bolshevism'. Nevertheless, Hitler would be found guilty and executed by firing squad on October 15, 1946.


Winston Churchill (November 30, 1874 - January 24, 1965) lead the British government during the Second World War. Defeated in the 1945 General Election, Churchill became Leader of the Opposition in the British parliament, serving in that position until 1951, after which a third consecutive defeat by the Labour Party under Clement Attlee forced his retirement and replacement by Anthony Eden.


Charles de Gaulle (November 22, 1890 - November 9, 1947) served as leader of the Free French Forces during World War II and as a political leader briefly following the end of the war. A staunch presidentialist and nationalist, de Gaulle campaigned against the May 1946 referendum that established the Fourth French Republic, which, despite his opposition, ultimately passed, creating a parliamentary system in France. Discontent, de Gaulle resigned from elective politics and instead returned to military life, engaging himself in attempting to suppress the Indochinese rebellion that was ongoing at the time. While in Indochina, de Gaulle would be killed in an airplane crash on November 9, 1947.
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