alternatehistory.com

Given the most recent one of these in post-1900 has been dead for a while and the two ones in pre-1900 didn't get much momentum, let's try and start this over again.

As always, the game is simple; write a short biography of a person who was famous IOTL — a politician, artist, actor, general, or whoever — in an alternate timeline, with their career being correspondingly different. Two rules;

1. No PODs before January 1st, 1900.
2. All entries are in a single, present day timeline.

To get the ball rolling;

Michael Dukakis (1933-) - American broadcaster, politician, and public servant. Born to Greek immigrant parents in Manchester, New Hampshire who had settled in the Merrimack Valley in 1912 and 1913, he graduated from Middlebury College in Vermont in 1955 and served in the US Army from 1955 to 1958 in South China, spending some time working at the Armed Forces Network. Returning to the United States, he became a local radio presenter for the FBC (Federal Broadcasting Corporation, the US's public broadcaster) in Manchester, and was elected to the State House as a Democrat in 1962 (Remaining in broadcasting as well; New Hampshire legislators work part time). He served four terms until he was elected to the United States House of Representatives in 1970. He was reelected in 1972, but only served a few weeks of his second term before the newly elected President Muskie appointed him Administrator of the FBC in 1973.

Known as a fiscally conservative and socially liberal Bourbon Democrat, Dukakis made headlines in 1975 when he announced the FBC would not accept the additional money raised by Congress increasing the license fee by $2.50, criticized by some national politicians and widely seen as a political move as Dukakis maneuvered to run for Governor in New Hampshire to replace retiring Republican Perkins Bass. In early 1976, Dukakis resigned as administrator and won the Governorship that November, but lost reelection two years later, after which he retired from politics. Since his retirement he has been a lecturer and frequent presence on the FBC in New England and taught political science at the University of New Hampshire.
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