Miscellaneous >1900 (Alternate) History Thread

Could (John F.) Kennedy have lost Kennedy vs. Nixon, or was this a "slam dunk" election?
IIRC Nixon could have won if the debates hadn't been televised or Nixon had worn makeup. Due to Nixon having recently been released from the hospital he looked unwell and weak while Kennedy looked health and strong. But I could be wrong.
 
A while back I had posted this mad idea for a timeline in which the United States Navy actually had some teeth in the early days of the Dreadnought era, the South Carolina had some good ideas but wasn't as good as she could have been and in this timeline she would've been a much larger vessel.

Anyways I had been thinking it over further and I had two further additions to the timeline, the first being the Phoenix-class Scout Cruiser actually coming into existance with the OTL Omaha-class being a modernization/refit of the class and the second being a repurposing of the OG design of the South Carolina (which in this timeline was too insufficent) being modified into the United States Navy's first Large Cruiser/Heavy Cruiser in the form of the Alamo-class. The Phoenix-class would be not to much different than what it would have looked like OTL had it been built in 1916, the Alamo however would be a fairly decent sized 'Large' Cruiser and would retain much of the OTL design abeit a smaller hull with eight 10-inch/40-caliber guns taken from the old Tennessee-class Armored Cruisers but in new barbettes. After the war the Alamo-class would be refitted with 8-inch/45-caliber guns and redesignated as Heavy Cruisers.
 

Driftless

Donor
In mid-1918 Edith Wilson dies from the Influenza pandemic. How does that affect her husband Woodrow? His health wasn't that great in any case, and historically he suffered a debilitating stroke in October 1919. She acted as his gatekeeper/spokesperson for the duration of his term.
 

McPherson

Banned
In mid-1918 Edith Wilson dies from the Influenza pandemic. How does that affect her husband Woodrow? His health wasn't that great in any case, and historically he suffered a debilitating stroke in October 1919. She acted as his gatekeeper/spokesperson for the duration of his term.
Hopefully, he does the right thing and resigns. Let someone, competent, who is not a racist egomaniacal idiot and buffoon, be president.
 
Anybody know of a timeline written set in modern times where the whole world has ended up as democracies? Seems like a plausible scenario if things had gone better at the start of the 1900's.
 
Anybody know of a timeline written set in modern times where the whole world has ended up as democracies? Seems like a plausible scenario if things had gone better at the start of the 1900's.
Pretty implausible for the whole world. Someone somewhere is going to slip up...
Also, for democracy to function properly there needs to be a certain minimum economic level. This causes a big problem for the prognosis of democracy for much of the developing world.
 

mial42

Gone Fishin'
Pretty implausible for the whole world. Someone somewhere is going to slip up...
Also, for democracy to function properly there needs to be a certain minimum economic level. This causes a big problem for the prognosis of democracy for much of the developing world.
I would qualify that slightly: for democracy to function reliably requires a certain level of pre-existing wealth and stability, but functional, poor democracies do exist and have existed (see: India, or the US pre-Civil War if you count it as a democracy).
 
Anyone have any suggestions on how to incorporate the following characters into the Marvel Universe: Harbinger, X-O Manowar, Shadowman, Archer and Armstrong, Eternal Warrior, Bloodshot, Ninjak, and Rai?
 

McPherson

Banned
Anyone have any suggestions on how to incorporate the following characters into the Marvel Universe: Harbinger, X-O Manowar, Shadowman, Archer and Armstrong, Eternal Warrior, Bloodshot, Ninjak, and Rai?
Something like Squadron Supreme, only not as tongue in cheek written.
 
AHC: How could Jimmy Carter have done better (economically + Iran crisis?) Could this have been enough to win reelection, or was Reagan just too popular to be overcome?
 

McPherson

Banned
AHC: How could Jimmy Carter have done better (economically + Iran crisis?) Could this have been enough to win reelection, or was Reagan just too popular to be overcome?
By resigning and allowing a better man to lead. He was incompetent and nothing Carter or his buffoons could do would matter. Mondale was the better man for the situation found.
 

McPherson

Banned
The "Golden Age of Assassination" occurred primarily in the 1960s and 1970s due to the deaths of many high-profile figures like John F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King Jr. Malcolm X, and many others. This age of assassination ended partially due to better security measures, the capture of assassins, and the fact that cutting off the activist heads didn't kill off the Civil Rights movement.
Could the "Golden Age of Assassination" have been never-ending or last until the present, potentially leading to Bullseye or Winter Soldier level assassins (where you have assassins who killed dozens or hundreds of marks)?
NCP.
 
This probably could be a thread but I'm lazy.

WI instead of Operation Barbarossa, the Germans had used subterfuge and tried to fund and support anti-Communist revolution, infiltrated the Soviets with spies and had tried to bribe anti-Stalin opportunists in the Soviet government? I'm aware of the problems with that (Nazi espionage was awful, Stalin purged everyone, etc). But that was how the Germans beat Russia in WW1. So I wonder what it would look like in WW2.

I'm also aware the Germans wanted Russia for territory and resources. In my mind, albeit its doubtful my first point is successful, they could destabilize the East and then sweep in with an invasion.
 
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mial42

Gone Fishin'
This probably could be a thread but I'm lazy.

WI instead of Operation Barbarossa, the Germans had used subterfuge and tried to fund and support anti-Communist revolution, infiltrated the Soviets with spies and had tried to bribe anti-Stalin opportunists in the Soviet government? I'm aware of the problems with that (Nazi espionage was awful, Stalin purged everyone, etc). But that was how the Germans beat Russia in WW1. So I wonder what it would look like in WW2.

I'm also aware the Germans wanted Russia for territory and resources. In my mind, albeit its doubtful my first point is successful, they could destabilize the East and then sweep in with an invasion.
It wouldn't work. The Soviet state was much more cohesive and capable then the Tsardom, with a far more potent propaganda and police apparatus. And that's not even getting in to the fact that the Soviets had probably the best espionage in the world while Nazi espionage was legendarily terrible. There was no real base for anti-Communist revolution in Russia, nor a significant group of anti-Stalin opportunists. In WW1, the Germans didn't destabilize Russia and then attack, they attacked successfully, which destabilized Russia, which Germany did their best to exacerbate after the fact. In WW2, the Germans did far worse to the USSR in 1941-42, but the Soviet state didn't crack or even come close to doing so. Note that the Cold-War era Western intelligence agencies, which were far more capable than that of Nazi Germany (and not openly, aggressively genocidal, and thus presumably more attractive), never had any luck destabilizing the USSR.
 
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