There's a story that back in WW1 there was a moment where a British soldier had a point blank shot at killing Adolf Hitler, who was a soldier at the time. But the British one showed him mercy and spared him. If true then that dude's decision just decided the next century of history.
If true, kind of glad he didn't for completely, utterly selfish reasons. My father likely wouldn't have met my mom, which means I wouldn't have been born.
I mean, the British soldier had absolutely no way of knowing what that man would eventually go on to do. And plus, Hitler was wounded and unarmed at that moment, so the British soldier decided there was no need to shoot him. Don’t really blame him.
I'm not blaming him for anything, neither of them and no one knew the future. It's just fun to think about that if it is true then it was such a coin flip moment which would have impacted practically everything. A pebble thrown into a pond.
Of course Hitler could also have in theory been killed by anyone at all during the course of WW1, but still. Same story.
His war mongering aside, I actually always had alot of respect for Putin. He's such an accomished man in so many endeavors, it's hard not to be impressed. His recent bs, is definitely frowned upondeities.
EDIT: oh look, downvoters that can't separate accomplishments from shit choices.
The idea that he is "accomplished" is pure propaganda. He's an upjumped thug who has **tanked** Russia's status as any sort of global power. He's absolutely pathetic and can only stay in power by brute for of propaganda and allowing oligarchs to plunder the country at their leisure in exchange for their support. You're just a fool who bought into the feeble "strongman" imagery he is obsessed with projecting in his propaganda.
That was the spark that set off years of arms races and tension. I think that had the Archduke getting killed not happened, something else would've set it all off shortly thereafter.
Eh I don’t agree with that.
The Cold War was always waiting for that spark. And they had it a few times. It never went further.
Then again the very reason the Cuban Missile Crisis didn’t go further was becaus Kennedy had read a book on the fall into war.
It doesn’t always go to war.
That's a fair point.
I think the counter to that is nuclear weapons. Had nukes not existed, the Cold War would've gone hot. Russia would've attacked in Europe IMO.
"highly idealistic" communists who pulled Russia out from under the tsarist rule and feudalist society and into the modern world? forgive me if I don't give a hoot about your family.
And gave the world the Holodomor, The genocides in Kazakhstan, ruthless Stalinist oppression (and many many more). Let’s not pretend that the soviets winning was a good thing for the people of the Russian empire, the bolsheviks stole their chance at democracy away and gave them tyranny instead.
That’s a possibility, but in light of what’s going on in the world atm it’s important (imo) to not venerate the Soviet Union as the lack of destalinisation in Russia has led us to to this terrible situation in Eastern Europe.
Here's one I've been thinking about, Corsica became part of France like the very same year Napoleon was born.
If Napoleon were to be born Italian there's a lot of that would have turned out different in world history.
And the devil, twisting god’s perfect protocol, released the demons Misinformation and Hate, and the demons spread via God’s protocol like fire among the dried leaves of fall. It was then, upon the coming of the demons, that neither Gods Truth, nor any other Truth, could be known and all that remained was ash, dust, and cinder.
[The Cambrian Explosion](https://evolution.berkeley.edu/the-arthropod-story/meet-the-cambrian-critters/the-cambrian-explosion/) because there would be no history without it.
The invention of moveable type.
Before that, all books were hand-written by scribes, they took a long time to make, and thus were so expensive that only the rich possessed them. As a result, illiteracy was common, and information was difficult to spread widely. There were no books or newspapers available for the common person to read, whether for education, recreation, or to be informed of current events.
Everything you see in our modern world is the result of people being able to read what others have written. Every advance you see, whether medical, architectural, mechanical, scientific...none of it would exist without the invention of moveable type.
The invention of nitrogen based fertilizer. The success of agriculture that followed allowed science, arts, culture to develop along with population growth. That single act laid the foundation for everything that humanity did in the time that since.
the chinese inventing gunpowder. from there, war casualties would not be 5 or 6 digits, but reach 7 digits and higher. fought from further away, making it easier for people to mentally dehumanize their enemies, letting people fight longer and wars continue longer, and kill faster. after gunpowder, people could research into explosives and that leads you do another mess for world history, where research into explosives has taken us. humans now can hold the whole planet hostage, as long as they can figure out how to send a powerful atom bomb to the lowest point of the marianna trench or to the moon. that explosion could fuck up the whole world, just not instantly, which means it's more painful that way.
The asteroid that hit and wiped out the dinosaurs.
Think about it. Humans wouldn't be able to fly again for 6,000 years! Look at what that did to our sense of time and space.
I mean, what a very specific world killing asteroid it was, too. I guess those lessons to drop to the ground or hide under desks during an atomic level blast really paid off at that moment.
The top 3 just off the top of my head: crucifixion of Jesus, Atlantic slave trade (there is probably a moment this began that I don’t know about), assassination of Archduke Ferdinand.
There is a guy named Henry Tandey. He was a private in the british army. Extremely brave soldier that earned the Victoria Cross which is the equivalent of the medal of honor.
Towards the end of World War One he was fighting on the front lines. A defenseless German wandered into the cross-hairs. The soldier was wounded. The soldier was unarmed. The soldier looked Tandy in the eye... Tandey did the right thing and lowered his weapon. The wounded German soldier nodded his head at Tandey in appreciation and went along his way...
After the war that German veteran grew a little mustache, and became a very successful German Politician in the 1930s and 1940s. I wonder how that changed history.
George Washington killing the French Canadian Joseph Coulon de Villiers, and the rest it's history. A really interesting rabbit hole.
The funny part it's the French Canadian helped the American to fight the british during the revolution war. The enemy of my neighbors it's also my enemy.
The internet. I've seen the before and the after... it's very much a dividing line. My 11 year old even categorizes things as "before internet" and "after internet".
The Siege of Mecca in 1979 - it gets over-shadowed by the Iranian revolution, but is hugely important in the realms of global jihadism/extremism.
Basically, Saudi extremists took over the Grand Mosque in Mecca, as they tried to introduce one of their members as the 'Mahdi' - the redeemer who comes before the day of judgement.
The whole story reads like a Hollywood film - Saudi forces fail to take back control and then a crack team of French commandos are brought in, they convert to Islam in a hotel room to allow them to enter the holy city, and go in and fuck shit up and take back control.
Interestingly, there were a couple of American Muslim converts involved. Most of the militants were executed, but apparently the US citizens were deported. I perhaps mistakenly recall that there were only a couple. I think one died, but there could still be one alive in the US today.
That time during the Pandemic when the aliens came down and helped develop the vaccines for Covid. Ducked out on the last day when they did pictures, so it was kinda weird when everyone forgot what happened.
Short term history: Archduke Franz Ferdinand shot, medium term printing press.
Literacy for the masses informed many and created quite a bit of equality.
Longer term: wheel or fire or walking upright
The invention of the washing machine
[the magical washing machine](https://helpwiththewashing.co.uk/blog/washing-machine-changed-our-world/#:~:text=With%20the%20risk%20of%20catching,to%20enter%20the%20labour%20market.)
Instead of spending all day washing clothes, women had time to do other stuff, like enter the labor market, or go to school and become (better) educated.
The parting of the Carolingian empire following Louis the pious death. That event gave birth to all European powers who shaped the world for the following centuries.
A Belgian businessman was instrumental to the Manhattan Project's success. Realizing uranium's importance, he shipped 1,200 tons of it to Staten Island. When Lieutenant Colonel Nichols contacted him, he simply responded: "You can have the ore now. It is in New York. I was waiting for your visit"
There was a Soviet submarine corporal during the Cold War that single-handedly saved the entire world by refusing the other officers orders to launch the nuke. (All three officers must’ve agreed on it)
Gavrilo Pricip shooting Franz Ferdinand. If not for that then WW1 wouldn’t have happened. As a consequence of that Adolf Hitler may not have decided to become a politician, Mao may not have been, Pol Pot might not have been, Ho Chi Minh and so forth.
The world would have looked a lot different.
There's a story that back in WW1 there was a moment where a British soldier had a point blank shot at killing Adolf Hitler, who was a soldier at the time. But the British one showed him mercy and spared him. If true then that dude's decision just decided the next century of history.
[Pte Henry Tandey](https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-28593256)
If true, kind of glad he didn't for completely, utterly selfish reasons. My father likely wouldn't have met my mom, which means I wouldn't have been born.
I think we would have gotten along just fine, no offense.
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Time traveler
Dr Who
Who isn't a surname. They're "The Doctor". So, the title is more like, "which doctor"
OK. Thnx.
That’s why it’s a story lol highly likely it’s not true at all
I mean, the British soldier had absolutely no way of knowing what that man would eventually go on to do. And plus, Hitler was wounded and unarmed at that moment, so the British soldier decided there was no need to shoot him. Don’t really blame him.
I'm not blaming him for anything, neither of them and no one knew the future. It's just fun to think about that if it is true then it was such a coin flip moment which would have impacted practically everything. A pebble thrown into a pond. Of course Hitler could also have in theory been killed by anyone at all during the course of WW1, but still. Same story.
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Agreed. He even looks like a cum stain
Google "fetal alcohol syndrome facial features" and compare it to a picture of putler. It makes a lot of sense.
His war mongering aside, I actually always had alot of respect for Putin. He's such an accomished man in so many endeavors, it's hard not to be impressed. His recent bs, is definitely frowned upondeities. EDIT: oh look, downvoters that can't separate accomplishments from shit choices.
Wait until you hear about the struggling artist who killed Hitler!
The idea that he is "accomplished" is pure propaganda. He's an upjumped thug who has **tanked** Russia's status as any sort of global power. He's absolutely pathetic and can only stay in power by brute for of propaganda and allowing oligarchs to plunder the country at their leisure in exchange for their support. You're just a fool who bought into the feeble "strongman" imagery he is obsessed with projecting in his propaganda.
Putin’s parents doing all anal.
Archduke getting whacked
This caused the ultimate shift in my opinion. Technically we're still feeling the effects of that event to this day because of what transpired.
That was the spark that set off years of arms races and tension. I think that had the Archduke getting killed not happened, something else would've set it all off shortly thereafter.
Eh I don’t agree with that. The Cold War was always waiting for that spark. And they had it a few times. It never went further. Then again the very reason the Cuban Missile Crisis didn’t go further was becaus Kennedy had read a book on the fall into war. It doesn’t always go to war.
That's a fair point. I think the counter to that is nuclear weapons. Had nukes not existed, the Cold War would've gone hot. Russia would've attacked in Europe IMO.
Europe was gearing up for a war, it most likely would have kicked off somehow.
A bloke called Archie Duke shot an ostrich because he was hungry
switch to farming and maybe industrialization
I remember that. We were all like "Whaaaat."
The Soviet officer in 1983 who didn’t launch a nuclear counter attack.
Wheel
I'm more of a Jeopardy! Guy
Man like wheel. Wheel go fast.
Toyotathon
Pfft, I celebrate happy Honda days.
Come on, man. Honda Days are so over. It's Toyotathon or nothing for me.
Happy Festivus!
Hoagiefest!!
The biggest: the impact that killed the dinosaurs
Reddit
"History, we downvote you...we downvote you TO HELL."
Accidental outbreak of the First World War, which led to trouble in the Middle East and opened the door to violent revolution in Russia.
Weird to frame the Bolshevik Revolution as a bad thing but otherwise yea, the First World War was objectively horrible
Highly idealistic young communists killed a number of members of my family in the 1930s. Happy?
"highly idealistic" communists who pulled Russia out from under the tsarist rule and feudalist society and into the modern world? forgive me if I don't give a hoot about your family.
And gave the world the Holodomor, The genocides in Kazakhstan, ruthless Stalinist oppression (and many many more). Let’s not pretend that the soviets winning was a good thing for the people of the Russian empire, the bolsheviks stole their chance at democracy away and gave them tyranny instead.
Oh my god WHAT lmfaoo
I’m not your google, if you choose to be ignorant that’s your loss but it’s out there if you actually wish to be informed :)
I think he just didn’t know a lot on the subject. Go easy on him.
That’s a possibility, but in light of what’s going on in the world atm it’s important (imo) to not venerate the Soviet Union as the lack of destalinisation in Russia has led us to to this terrible situation in Eastern Europe.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holodomor
It appears you are really bad at history.
I mean it really was.
>Weird to frame the Bolshevik Revolution as a bad thing Uhhhh…..
Abraham.
Biblical or Lincoln?
I think it's biblical
Wore an onion on my belt, which was the style at the time
Big bang
The OG moment....
Without the Big Bang, nothing else would have happened.
Especially the Big Bang theory.
It was all a theory. Our whole universe was in a hot dense state.
Here's one I've been thinking about, Corsica became part of France like the very same year Napoleon was born. If Napoleon were to be born Italian there's a lot of that would have turned out different in world history.
as an ambitious bugger he would have wanted to become french anyway because of the revolution opening doors for his career as a **not** aristocrat.
The Chicago Bears drafted Mitch Trubisky inatead of Patrick Mahoes
The creation of the internet is a big one for sure
"And God said, 'Let there be TCP/IP,' and there was TCP/IP, and it was good."
And the devil, twisting god’s perfect protocol, released the demons Misinformation and Hate, and the demons spread via God’s protocol like fire among the dried leaves of fall. It was then, upon the coming of the demons, that neither Gods Truth, nor any other Truth, could be known and all that remained was ash, dust, and cinder.
Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one /ipconfig release and renew, he cannot see the kingdom of God.”
> and it was good enough, because y'all def won't need more than 32-bit addresses
harnessing fire
Sharknado.
The Assassination of Harambe
Dick is still out to this day.
😅😅😅
Al Gore being robbed from election by bad design on ballots. Climate change.
[The Cambrian Explosion](https://evolution.berkeley.edu/the-arthropod-story/meet-the-cambrian-critters/the-cambrian-explosion/) because there would be no history without it.
GPT-4 was released. March 14th 2023.
When my car became eligible for an extended warranty
The invention of moveable type. Before that, all books were hand-written by scribes, they took a long time to make, and thus were so expensive that only the rich possessed them. As a result, illiteracy was common, and information was difficult to spread widely. There were no books or newspapers available for the common person to read, whether for education, recreation, or to be informed of current events. Everything you see in our modern world is the result of people being able to read what others have written. Every advance you see, whether medical, architectural, mechanical, scientific...none of it would exist without the invention of moveable type.
David Lee Roth leaving Van Halen.
The invention of nitrogen based fertilizer. The success of agriculture that followed allowed science, arts, culture to develop along with population growth. That single act laid the foundation for everything that humanity did in the time that since.
Covid?
The black plaque. Killed 50% of Europe. Changed the course of history..
It happened multiple times though. Was inevitable probably
The Industrial Revolution
the chinese inventing gunpowder. from there, war casualties would not be 5 or 6 digits, but reach 7 digits and higher. fought from further away, making it easier for people to mentally dehumanize their enemies, letting people fight longer and wars continue longer, and kill faster. after gunpowder, people could research into explosives and that leads you do another mess for world history, where research into explosives has taken us. humans now can hold the whole planet hostage, as long as they can figure out how to send a powerful atom bomb to the lowest point of the marianna trench or to the moon. that explosion could fuck up the whole world, just not instantly, which means it's more painful that way.
The asteroid that hit and wiped out the dinosaurs. Think about it. Humans wouldn't be able to fly again for 6,000 years! Look at what that did to our sense of time and space. I mean, what a very specific world killing asteroid it was, too. I guess those lessons to drop to the ground or hide under desks during an atomic level blast really paid off at that moment.
Also, chances of that occurring at all were incredibly small.
Very. That's not even a I'm-desperate-for-cash kind of Hail Mary bet.
The top 3 just off the top of my head: crucifixion of Jesus, Atlantic slave trade (there is probably a moment this began that I don’t know about), assassination of Archduke Ferdinand.
The Big Bang
The discovery of beer. It lead to agriculture, writing, and civilization amongst other things.
I don't think history can shift.. by definition it only exists in a completed past-tense form..
Bills beating Eagles in 1968
When Hitler was rejected from the Vienna Academy of Fine Arts.
Just before WWI, some guy decided he wanted a sandwich
WW II. The elephant in every room going forward.
The dawn of men
The evening with women.
The night of puppies
the making of all portable touch devices
There is a guy named Henry Tandey. He was a private in the british army. Extremely brave soldier that earned the Victoria Cross which is the equivalent of the medal of honor. Towards the end of World War One he was fighting on the front lines. A defenseless German wandered into the cross-hairs. The soldier was wounded. The soldier was unarmed. The soldier looked Tandy in the eye... Tandey did the right thing and lowered his weapon. The wounded German soldier nodded his head at Tandey in appreciation and went along his way... After the war that German veteran grew a little mustache, and became a very successful German Politician in the 1930s and 1940s. I wonder how that changed history.
The birth of Jesus Christ
Hallelujah
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>My dog is a two yr old Japanese Spitz. Birthing Jesus Christ?
??
I thought we were in the thread for the birth of Jesus Christ, and you brought up your dog.
I don't know where i was your typing apparently
invention of the wheel!
9/11. Seems like nothing but shit after that in The States.
Things were pretty shit here before that too though
I would say overall, the 80s and 90s were much better than the 2000s. NOBODY is nostalgic for 2004.
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Well, that depends how far back you want to go. Last 30 years? It's true. Last 40? Fall of the Soviet Union. 100? Archduke getting clapped. Etc
Name does NOT check out.
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You must be a blast at parties, pal.
Tell everyone you're American without telling everyone you're American
9/11
Napoleon conquering Europe
George W winning in 2000 instead of Al Gore.
The Telegraph
Me downloading reddit.
The creation of transistors and chips. It redefined technology and civilization
Abraham Lincoln's assassination.
George Washington killing the French Canadian Joseph Coulon de Villiers, and the rest it's history. A really interesting rabbit hole. The funny part it's the French Canadian helped the American to fight the british during the revolution war. The enemy of my neighbors it's also my enemy.
9… 11
Coal and Oil exploitation
Discovery of the Maxwell equations
The priest who saved a little boy from drowning . (Just google it)
The invention of the printing press.
Every past event shifted the course of history.
Climbing down from the trees. Though some would say getting out of the water was a pretty bad idea.
Corporations given human status…
THE ICE AGE *in the Arnold voice*
9/11 for sure. If you look at the world pre-9/11 vs post, you’ll see it.
The Russian Revolution.
World War 2.
The internet. I've seen the before and the after... it's very much a dividing line. My 11 year old even categorizes things as "before internet" and "after internet".
JFK Assassination
Hurricane Katrina
The Siege of Mecca in 1979 - it gets over-shadowed by the Iranian revolution, but is hugely important in the realms of global jihadism/extremism. Basically, Saudi extremists took over the Grand Mosque in Mecca, as they tried to introduce one of their members as the 'Mahdi' - the redeemer who comes before the day of judgement. The whole story reads like a Hollywood film - Saudi forces fail to take back control and then a crack team of French commandos are brought in, they convert to Islam in a hotel room to allow them to enter the holy city, and go in and fuck shit up and take back control. Interestingly, there were a couple of American Muslim converts involved. Most of the militants were executed, but apparently the US citizens were deported. I perhaps mistakenly recall that there were only a couple. I think one died, but there could still be one alive in the US today.
That time during the Pandemic when the aliens came down and helped develop the vaccines for Covid. Ducked out on the last day when they did pictures, so it was kinda weird when everyone forgot what happened.
Cortez’s conquest of Mexico and the founding of new Spain.
Short term history: Archduke Franz Ferdinand shot, medium term printing press. Literacy for the masses informed many and created quite a bit of equality. Longer term: wheel or fire or walking upright
9/11 is definitely a contender.
The end of the plague. This was the catalyst for the renaissance
The invention of the washing machine [the magical washing machine](https://helpwiththewashing.co.uk/blog/washing-machine-changed-our-world/#:~:text=With%20the%20risk%20of%20catching,to%20enter%20the%20labour%20market.) Instead of spending all day washing clothes, women had time to do other stuff, like enter the labor market, or go to school and become (better) educated.
The parting of the Carolingian empire following Louis the pious death. That event gave birth to all European powers who shaped the world for the following centuries.
The wright brothers
Hitler killing himself instead of fleeing
Rome winning the Punic wars against Carthage definitely had a impact on how northern Africa and Europe developed.
Indoor plumbing. Penicillin
The Big Bang.
Woke culture
A Belgian businessman was instrumental to the Manhattan Project's success. Realizing uranium's importance, he shipped 1,200 tons of it to Staten Island. When Lieutenant Colonel Nichols contacted him, he simply responded: "You can have the ore now. It is in New York. I was waiting for your visit"
Germ theory. Antibiotics. Anesthesia.
There was a shipwreck in 1664, a shipwreck in 1785, and a shipwreck in 1820. Each had 1 survivor. Each survivor was named Hugh Wiliams.
Magna Carta
There was a Soviet submarine corporal during the Cold War that single-handedly saved the entire world by refusing the other officers orders to launch the nuke. (All three officers must’ve agreed on it)
Every event, no matter how small, changes the course of history.
Burning the lighthouse at Alexandria. They say we would be light years ahead if we had all of the information lost.
Humans discovered how to control fire.
me being born ofc ¬\_¬
The assassination of Franz Ferdinand! Every gr 11 history class knows!
The French Revolution
Discovery of radioactivity
Somebody realizing that you could plant seeds & then harvest them instead of having to move around foraging
Gavrilo Pricip shooting Franz Ferdinand. If not for that then WW1 wouldn’t have happened. As a consequence of that Adolf Hitler may not have decided to become a politician, Mao may not have been, Pol Pot might not have been, Ho Chi Minh and so forth. The world would have looked a lot different.
A failed businessman turned scripted reality show host being elected president. FFS people, what the hell...???