Change the past to change the future

[Thanato]

If you could go to any day since 1900 to the present to effect the most change on course of history which day and event would you change and why?

 

[Farmer77]

10 minutes ago, Thanato said:

If you could go to any day since 1900 to the present to effect the most change on course of history which day and event would you change and why?

Off the top of my head I would have to say i'd go to January 11th 1987 and break John Elway's knee  

Ok for a more serious response it would be to November 21st 1963 and it would be to stop JFK from getting assassinated. The more I learn about him the more I think he really was the last best shot the US had at returning this nation to her people and I would love to see what he would have done with the time he had left. 

[+and-then]

November 9, 1923.  I'd make sure Hitler caught one between the eyes instead of running away after his attempted "Beer Hall Putsch" 

[bmk1245]

1 hour ago, and then said:

November 9, 1923.  I'd make sure Hitler caught one between the eyes instead of running away after his attempted "Beer Hall Putsch" 

100%

But then you'd have to remove Stalin as well, cause soviets were dreaming (and preparing) to overtake the world.

[Susanc241]

28 June 1914 and the assassination of Arch Duke Ferdinand which precipitated the First World War.

[RoofGardener]

Following the assassination of Adolph Hitler (by an unidentified Basset Hound), the National Socialist movement struggled to capitalise on recent electoral gains, and was roundly defeated by a mixture of traditional conservatives and union-backed communists at the next elections.

In 1946, Stalin ordered the long-anticipated invasion of Poland, Romania and Lithuania.In a lightening armour advance, the Red Army quickly pushed through into Hungary, and then in a shock move, Bavaria. Facing a demoralised military, and 5th-columnist activity in the Reichstag by the German Communist Party, resistance crumbled. France, Holland and the Scandinavian countries followed suite in 1952. With the victory in 1953 by the Communist Party of Great Britain, heavily sponsored by the Soviet Union, and with the shadow of invasion overshadowing events, the military and political conquest of north-western Europe was complete.  The European Soviet Union was formed in 1954, with its headquarters in Brussels, Strasbourg, and Moscow.

Deprived of access to world markets by a blockade of the combined Soviet and Japanese navies, and smarting from the recent loss of Hawaii and Alaska to combined surprise attacks, the USA entered it's twelfth consecutive year of economic decline, with Ford being the latest car manufacture to file for bankruptcy protection. The only State to balance its budget was Texas, thanks mostly to the employment prospects for manual labourers contracted by the Mexican government to build their controversial Immigration Wall.

Meanwhile, political pressure for control of the Niagara Falls continues, with the representative of the Peoples Socialist Republic of Greater Quebec threatening military action.Quebecanian Mig-23 Jets had already been facing off against US Mustang propeller fighter planes over the contested 5000Km long land border between the two nations.

 

Be careful what you wish for, And Then

 

 

[bmk1245]

12 minutes ago, RoofGardener said:

[...]

Be careful what you wish for, And Then

Exactly 

Venturing down the road paved by OP, I'd go back to ~600 CE, and strangle Muhhamad. Though, I'm not sure, that wouldn't had had turned in waaay more disastrous world.

[XenoFish]

Go back to when Apple computers first started up and tell my father to invest. Yeah I'm selfish, deal with it. 

[Farmer77]

5 minutes ago, XenoFish said:

Go back to when Apple computers first started up and tell my father to invest. Yeah I'm selfish, deal with it. 

[seeder]

forget world issues, although they are all worthy things to change... no doubting that at all..

Id go back to the younger me.... and tell myself where I will go wrong and thus hope to avoid it happening in later life

Id also go back and get my mum off the cigarettes that have now killed her

And my big brother... and get him off the booze that pickled his liver and meant we buried him too

[Timothy]

I don't know if I'd change anything, even with the best of intentions, it might end up a worse outcome. 

Boring, I know!

[bmk1245]

25 minutes ago, seeder said:

[...]

Id go back to the younger me.... and tell myself where I will go wrong and thus hope to avoid it happening in later life

[...]

Thing is - we are learning from our mistakes (well, at least we are trying to). Preventing some event might turn into even bigger disaster.

I, personally, wouldn't change a thing, despite all awful and embarrassing things I did in the past.

Edited July 11, 2017 by bmk1245

[Hanslune]

7 hours ago, Thanato said:

If you could go to any day since 1900 to the present to effect the most change on course of history which day and event would you change and why?

 

Stop the assassination at Sarajevo which led to WWI and then to part II WWII and the Cold War. However German militarism would have probably found an outlet later on. It might have been possible to undermine that by killing a number of Victoria's grandchildren in particular Wilhelm.

Edited July 11, 2017 by Hanslune

[stereologist]

I'd send a small patrol of boats north out of Hawaii on December 5th. These would encounter the Japanese fleet well north of Oahu preventing an attack.

[Thanato]

1 hour ago, Hanslune said:

Stop the assassination at Sarajevo which led to WWI and then to part II WWII and the Cold War. However German militarism would have probably found an outlet later on. It might have been possible to undermine that by killing a number of Victoria's grandchildren in particular Wilhelm.

This would also prevent the formation of the USSR, the formation of amazing Germany, Fascist italy, Fascist Spian, the French and British carving up te Middle East, the Japanese taking over large portions of the South Pacific, the fall of the British empire, the various proxy wars of the Cold War, the modern war on terror.

[Hanslune]

49 minutes ago, Thanato said:

This would also prevent the formation of the USSR, the formation of amazing Germany, Fascist italy, Fascist Spian, the French and British carving up te Middle East, the Japanese taking over large portions of the South Pacific, the fall of the British empire, the various proxy wars of the Cold War, the modern war on terror.

True but I suspect that other wars would have broken out, perhaps not as large. You'd have to take out the entire leadership of the Prussian military and supporting Imperial elites, Spain would have still gone into a civil war. Russia and Turkey would have certainly fought again as Russian kept on its crusade to get a warm water port and protect the Christians in the Ottoman Empire. Communism would have continued to pressure the Capitalist world.

It would have been messy too as the empires fell apart as they would as the success of the colonies meant the local populace was educated, communist protested and being educated they would want freedom.

[ShadowSot]

22 hours ago, and then said:

November 9, 1923.  I'd make sure Hitler caught one between the eyes instead of running away after his attempted "Beer Hall Putsch" 

Aside from the excellent bit of alternate history fiction by Roof, you also run the risk of the Nazi party being headed by someone sane and competent. 

 Someone who say didn't turn on his allies, or try to take control of his military. 

 I would try going back and speaking at the armistice to try to get an actual peace worked out that might not give the Nazis the fodder the needed to rise. 

[ShadowSot]

Otherwise. Damn I'd love to see my grandfather again. 

[Emma_Acid]

I'd stop Ed Miliband from running against his brother for leadership of the Labour party. His total failure as a leader lead to the Conservative dominance of UK politics, our crippling policy of austerity and the continued favoritism of the wealthy and privileged over the poor.

Had David Miliband won the leadership race, I believe he'd still be Prime Minister today.

[Emma_Acid]

4 hours ago, ShadowSot said:

Otherwise. Damn I'd love to see my grandfather again. 

Yeah, and this

[Hanslune]

10 hours ago, ShadowSot said:

Aside from the excellent bit of alternate history fiction by Roof, you also run the risk of the Nazi party being headed by someone sane and competent. 

 Someone who say didn't turn on his allies, or try to take control of his military. 

 I would try going back and speaking at the armistice to try to get an actual peace worked out that might not give the Nazis the fodder the needed to rise. 

That would require the non-existence of Poland which was created out of three failed empires. However, it might have been possible to craft something that was better than Versailles BUT as demonstrated by the Prussian defeat by Napoleon the German's would still have been interested in 'trying another round' to gain revenge for their defeat in WWI and to regain the status they had lost.

It might have been wise to break up the German Empire into something resembling its status prior to 1871, a grouping of independent Kingdoms.

 

[ShadowSot]

4 hours ago, Hanslune said:

That would require the non-existence of Poland which was created out of three failed empires. However, it might have been possible to craft something that was better than Versailles BUT as demonstrated by the Prussian defeat by Napoleon the German's would still have been interested in 'trying another round' to gain revenge for their defeat in WWI and to regain the status they had lost.

It might have been wise to break up the German Empire into something resembling its status prior to 1871, a grouping of independent Kingdoms.

 

I'm not entirely concerned about the non existence of certain countries, after all a lot of these would mean Israel wouldn't exist. Or so I understand. No Nazis, no Holocaust, no drive for an independent country. 

 Extended antisemitism in the west, I would guess. 

 Heck, without WWII the US would look a lot different. 

 They may well have, but the Nazis got momentum from just how screwed over Germany had been. 

 I'm not sure preventing the war outright could be possible, and might not be a good idea. But steering the Nazis away might be. 

[Hanslune]

8 minutes ago, ShadowSot said:

I'm not entirely concerned about the non existence of certain countries, after all a lot of these would mean Israel wouldn't exist. Or so I understand. No Nazis, no Holocaust, no drive for an independent country. 

 Extended antisemitism in the west, I would guess. 

 Heck, without WWII the US would look a lot different. 

 They may well have, but the Nazis got momentum from just how screwed over Germany had been. 

 I'm not sure preventing the war outright could be possible, and might not be a good idea. But steering the Nazis away might be. 

Yeah the only way to prevent WWII is to prevent WWI. The Europeans had managed to avoid any large 'wars of coalitions' as had plagued them from the 15 to 18th century.

[ShadowSot]

8 minutes ago, Hanslune said:

Yeah the only way to prevent WWII is to prevent WWI. The Europeans had managed to avoid any large 'wars of coalitions' as had plagued them from the 15 to 18th century.

I do wonder if preventing both wars would be a good or bad thing. There's the idea some sort of global conflict was inevitable. On the other hand, so much was due to lack of communication and tragic errors that could have been prevented. 

[Jarocal]

6 minutes ago, Hanslune said:

Yeah the only way to prevent WWII is to prevent WWI. The Europeans had managed to avoid any large 'wars of coalitions' as had plagued them from the 15 to 18th century.

Y'all seem backwards. I would want to go back to sometime before Ww1 and drop of Oppeheimers schematics for the H-bomb and also ones for a plane to carry it on the oval office desk 3 months prior to WW1. Maybe I'm more of a slap-a-ho to keep her in line kind of guy. But Pimpin' ain't easy...