Surprise! POD Game

List different pre-1900 PODs. Use dates that are often used for often-used or well-known PODs, but pick a different POD for that date.

For example, 1588 is often associated with the defeat of the Spanish Armada, and a common POD is for the Spanish Armada to be victorious. I need to find an unusual POD for the year 1588. My POD will be that the Duke of Guise, head of the Catholic League in France, is not assassinated by order Henry III of France. So I would write:

1588 (Spanish Armada)

The Duke of Guise is not assassinated by order of Henry III of France. Over the next few months, Henry III is assassinated, and the candidate preferred by the Spanish, the Cardinal de Bourbon, becomes Charles X. Hapsburg domination of Europe lasts a few more decades.
 
For this, I'm using this Hper History page.

According to the site, in 1945 Shintoism was abolished in Japan. I hadn't heard that one.
What if it hadn't been abolished?
What if Japan was given a constitution which was more like the US one?

1944 Vietnam does not declare its independence from France

1945 The Labour Party does not win the general election in Great Britain.
FDR lives another few months and it's his decision whether to bomb Japan.
The people who founded the United Nations decide to reform the League of Nations instead, and its charter is rewritten. (Or would that be pointless?)

1492 What if Copernicus had died in this year, before publishing his famous treatise?

Alternatively, is it too unlikely he'd go sailing with Columbus?

Well, according to HyperHistory... "He studied mathematics and optics at Cracow, then canon law at Bologna, before becoming canon of Frombork."

So maybe he hears about what Columbus wants to do and decides to go along so he can preach to whoever they find on the other side of the Ocean.

1815
What if Louis XVIII had died just before entering Paris?
 
1805 (Austerlitz, Trafalgar)

Federalist Supreme Court Justice Samuel Chase is impeached and removed from office by the Democratic-Republican US Senate. The judiciary remains too weak and ineffectual to form a real "third leg" of the system of checks and balances. In addition, Vice-President Aaron Burr concludes proceedings with an impressive speech that would eventually catapult him to the Presidency and lead to America's incredibly powerful executive branch of the early 19th century.

1812 (Peninsular War, War of 1812, Napoleon's invasion of Russia)


DeWitt Clinton wins the 1812 US presidential election. He ends war with Britain as soon as possible after his inauguration, leading to a smaller, less expansionist United States in the short term, and a lasting Federalist Party.
 
1492 (Columbus)

In 1492 a 127kg meteor impacted near Ensisheim in Alsace, France.
But what if 127 was not the measure of the meteor in kg but was the measure of its radius in meters?

According to http://www.lpl.arizona.edu/impacteffects/
For a 127 meter meteor:
The projectile begins to breakup at an altitude of 46900 meters = 154000 ft
The projectile reaches the ground in a broken condition. The mass of projectile strikes the surface at velocity 15.4 km/s = 9.55 miles/s
The impact energy is 5.08 x 1017 Joules = 1.21 x 102MegaTons.
The broken projectile fragments strike the ground in an ellipse of dimension 0.701 km by 0.496 km

Final Carter Diameter: 2.79 km = 1.73 miles
Final Crater Depth: 0.594 km = 0.369 miles

A meteor this size hits the Earth about once every five thousand years.

10 km away from the impact the air blast will cause:
Multistory wall-bearing buildings will collapse.
Wood frame buildings will almost completely collapse.
Up to 90 percent of trees blown down; remainder stripped of branches and leaves.

Thermal radiation will:
Clothing ignites
Much of the body suffers third degree burns
Deciduous trees ignite
Grass ignites

At 25 km from the impact:
Much of the body suffers first degree burns
Interior partitions of wood frame buildings will be blown down. Roof will be severely damaged.
About 30 percent of trees blown down; remainder have some branches and leaves blown off.

The town of Ensisheim would, of course, be destroyed. How would the people of the time interpret the event? What would the religious implications be?
 
According to the site, in 1945 Shintoism was abolished in Japan. I hadn't heard that one.
What if it hadn't been abolished?
What if Japan was given a constitution which was more like the US one?

Pardon me for I ain't being an Anglophonie :eek:. Does the bold word have the same meaning with the word "ceased to be the state religion" ? Because Shintoism still exist in Japan until today.....
 
1863 (gettysburg)

May 2nd, 1863, An alternate Second day at Chancellorsville:

"Fighting Joe" Hooker listens to reports that "Stonewall" Jackson is moving to the southwest. He realizes that Sickle's corps lies almost directly astride Jackson's line of march, and that Lee's army is divided into two pieces. He then seizes the opportunity, by ordering a general advance by Meade's, Sickles', and Reynold's corps.

Lee's portion of the Army of Northern Virginia, numbering less than 14,000 men and having no defensive preparations, is overwhelmed and crushed. Hooker then turns the rest of his army on Jackson, who has had to stop his movement in confusion after hearing the sounds of battle to the east and realizing the enemy is not where he is supposed to be.

It is then that the unthinkable happens. A volley of musketry catches Jackson in the left arm, and kills some of his staff as well. The general lies helpless as his corps is suddenly attacked on all sides. We all know what happened next.

Historians have since argued that Lee and Jackson made one of the greatest blunders in military history by dividing their forces twice in the face of such a numerically superior foe. Jackson was lucky. He died in battle with his reputation as a military genius still intact. Lee was not so lucky, being captured and thrown in prison, his country suddenly a shambles and his former country not wanting him back.
 
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Pardon me for I ain't being an Anglophonie :eek:. Does the bold word have the same meaning with the word "ceased to be the state religion" ? Because Shintoism still exist in Japan until today.....

I think that's what they meant. I wasn't sure, and I just left it for others on the board to comment on.

1968
Star Trek goes into syndication for a fourth season, and remains on the air, being broadcast on individual stations, mostly on weekends, for the rest of its run.

1492
Ferdinand and Isabella don't conquer Grenada, and don't decide to persecute the Jews. They might decide to send all the Jews to the New World, though they would be making that decision later on.
 
1938: The Soviet Union does not have a showtrial for Bukharin.

1936: Japan does not withdraw from the League of Nations.

1933: America does not launch the first aircraft carrier.
 
For this, I'm using this Hper History page.

According to the site, in 1945 Shintoism was abolished in Japan. I hadn't heard that one.
What if it hadn't been abolished?

Seems that the site is less than accurate as a resource. Shintoism was not abolished, but State Shintoism, a form of the religion promoted by the military and rulers from the 1920's onward was.
 
1867 (Dominion of Canada formed & USA purchases Alaska from Russia)

July 2: The scheduled opening in New York City of the nation's first elevated railroad was delayed by protests. Opponants held a "sit down demonstration" and voiced concerns about noise and the potential for structural failure resulting in horrific accidents and human casulaties.

July 3: The elevated railroad's scheduled opening was delayed again today.

July 4: Suspected sabotage will delay the elevated railroad's opening for at least two months.

August 15: The opening of New York's elevated railroad will be delayed for at least a year as a state commission hears evidence and discusses citizen's concerns about elevated railroads.
 
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