Alternative History:POD

A point of divergence, or POD, is a point in a timeline where history begins to change from our time line. Prior to the POD, history runs the same as in our timeline. This page is intended as a summary of the PODs of all the althists covered on this site.

Background
Points of Divergence often center around wars, as it is in these moments that history turns one-way or another. Series of books written by Harry Turtledove and others pick these times, as one change of the result of even the smallest battle can be of great effect on the outcome of the war.

The following are a very common list of alt-history Points of Divergence. You may want to use these as starting points, or find your own to be new, fresh and original.


 * The Civil War. Any number of alternate histories have been written about this; as you can see, as well, we have two that hinge around the American Civil War.


 * World War II. Many alternate histories are based on a Nazi victory in WWII, but there are other possibilities, including earlier or later defeat of the axis, or WWII prevented as we know it.

BC - 900s

 * 4.56 billion BC – Jupiter is instead formed as a white dwarf star this give its all planets in the solar system habitability. (POD for White Star Jupiter)
 * 3.7 billion years BC - Life forms on an entirely different continental system than that of traditional earth, causing human society to develop an entirely different history. (PoD for A World Apart)
 * 500 million BC – Mars retains a thin but breathable atmosphere, as well as a protective radiation belt. Plant and insect life develop on the planet (PoD for Habitable Mars).
 * ca. 251 million BC – Sapient lifeforms and civilization emerge just in time for the Permian extinction (POD for Permian Extinction: Civilization). (Note: the actual POD would be a few million years earlier, when evolution diverges from its OTL path and produces bipedal life-forms and other wonders of the natural world, such as quasi-flowers, due to a slight change in tectonics and a related change in climate of a small area.)
 * ca. 65 million years BC – A large meteorite fails to hit the Earth, instead hitting the Moon. (POD for Tooth and Claw.)
 * ca. 65 million years BC - The meteorite is sucked into Earth Orbit, allowing dinosaurs to evolve further. (POD for Defenders of the Fang- A Dinosaur Althist
 * 200,000 BC – A small group of Homo Erectus crosses the Bering land bridge and develops in the Americas (Primary POD for Zera).
 * 4004 BC - Adam and Eve leave a suddenly inhospitable rain forest to begin civilization in the fertile plains. They had never encountered the Creator God who chose to remain aloof from his creation. This is the premise for History of the World (No Supernatural Intervention).
 * Around 2000 BCE - Biblical Abraham dies as a young boy, never having told his tall tales. This creates the world of No Abraham.
 * 780 BC – - The Chinese King You doesn't abandon his wife and son for the beatiful Baosi and ensures the survival of the Zhou Kingdom (POD for Oriental Unity).
 * 334 BC – Alexander the Great is killed at the battle of the Granicus river by the Persian nobleman Spithridates (POD for The World Without Alexander).
 * 331 BC – The philosopher Anaxarchus is injured in the battle of Gaugamela. He and Pyrrho stay in Babylon for a time and then move to Alexandria - bringing the concept of the number zero with them (POD for Nothing Changes).
 * 323 BC – Alexander the Great does not die, but instead lives to be 86 and unites the Middle East and Europe into a dynasty (POD for Alexander Empire).
 * 323 BC – Alexander the Great survives longer and the empire stays together centuries longer (Earliest POD for Whims of Fortune).
 * 216 BC – Carthage and Macedon overcome Rome in the Second Italian War (Second POD for Whims of Fortune).
 * 200 BC – Germanic tribes unite and conquer much of Europe (First POD for Ahtobiton).
 * ca. 30 BC – An Egyptian historian of the 1950's fell through time to influence Ptolemaic Egypt into seriously contesting Roman expansion (Hidden POD for Ætas ab Brian).
 * 12 BC – Augustus successfully colonizes Germania, Arminius is betrayed (POD for Roma Invicta).


 * 32 – Jesus Christ takes a less peaceful approach, but still emphasizing himself as Messiah and as the son of God. He leads a rebellion establishing an empire (Primary POD for Christ Dynasty).
 * 33 – Jesus of Nazareth is not crucified. In fact, he is released. Christianity lasts for less than a hundred years (Primary POD for No Christianity World).
 * 173 – Marcus Aurelius encounters an intelligent young Greek boy in his tour of the provinces, and he is made his successor over Commodus (1st POD for Superpowers)
 * 282 – A deadly disease wipes out the Huns (POD for The Kazakhstan Meeting).
 * 355 – The Roman Empire splits into thirds, creating the Western Roman Empire, Eastern Roman Empire, and the Southern Roman Empire. (Primary POD for Roman Superiority)
 * 355 - Diocletian refuses demands to split Rome into East and West. (POD for Rise of Rome)
 * 375 – The young catechumen Ambrose is dead (Primary POD for Germanic Power).
 * 394 – Quich'en Ch'onle Mayapan is born in the Mayan city-state of Calakmul and later discovers the wheel, gunpowder, cement and joins the Mayan cities together into a Conglomerate (2nd POD for Superpowers)
 * 411 – Theodosius, son of the Imperial Princess Gallia Placida and Athaulf, King of the Visigoths, is born and survives to a ripe old age (Primary POD for Germanic Power).
 * 560 – Kingdom of formed (Original POD for They Are Protected).
 * 642 – Oswald of Northumbria defeats and kills Penda of Mercia at the Battle of Maserfield (Primary POD for Penda Dies).
 * 755 – The Tang Dynasty lasts into the late 10th century. After a new dynasty takes over, China takes over much of Asia (Primary POD for Easternized World).
 * 776 – A group of West Saxons follow their bishop's dream and settle in southern Maryland (Primary POD for New Wessex 776).
 * 812 – A Mayan farmer catches a disease which ultimately spreads to the entire world (Primary POD for Papatlaca).
 * 850 – Instead of discovering gunpowder, the Chinese discover explosives, beginning a series of events culminating into an early space age (Main POD for China's industrial-age space program).
 * 889 – Ibn Aswad, a Muslim navigator brings definite proof of discovery, leading to Muslim expansion into the Americas (POD for Ard Marjhoola).
 * 933 – Rudolph II cedes his claims to the kingdom of Italy to Hugh of Arles. In return, he gains the kingdom of Provence, thus reuniting the two territories of (Timeline forks immediately afterward, original PoD for Burgundy Survives).
 * 937 – Battle of Brunanburh - the allied forces of Dublin, Scotland and Strathclyde defeat the English (First major PoD for Burgundy Survives).
 * 960 – Zhao Kuangyin is defeated in his attempt to take the throne of Northern China. No Song Dynasty get control of China (POD for Chinese World).
 * 962 – Muslim invaders were never able to establish a foothold in the Indian Subcontinent. India prospers and becomes stronger, and is more Vedic in religion (One of a few PODs for Vegetarian World).

1000

 * 1000 – Aethelgwythr founds the Kingdom of Britannia from eight smaller Kingdoms (POD for Greater Britain - All territories)
 * 1003 – Leif Ericson encourages Greenlanders to settle Vinland after he discovers the island and stays there for a winter. After the Greenlanders create several successful settlements, word gets out to Iceland that a more hospitable land than Greenland has been found. This encourages Icelandic settlement and the establishment of a permanent colony (POD for Ericson's Vinland).
 * 1007 – Thorfinn Karlsefni chooses not fight the indigenous population of "Vinland" and instead encourages trade between the Norse and native peoples. This prevents much bloodshed and ensures the survival of a Norse America.
 * 1066 – Harold Godwinson sends his brother Gyrth to strengthen his left flank at the battle of Hastings (POD for The Battle of Caldbeck).

1100

 * 1100 – Henry II of England dies less than a day after his crowning (French and Navarran POD in Henry II Dies In 1100.
 * 1176 – The Byzantines defeat the Seljuk Turks at the Battle of Myriokephalon (POD for The Eagle Lives).
 * 1185 – Temujin prevents the Merkits from kidnapping his wife Borte, leaving no doubt in the father of his son Jochi (3rd and Last POD for Superpowers)

1200

 * 1200 – Genghis Khan dies from a very unlucky fall from his horse (POD for Chaos and Total Chaos).
 * 1209 – The Albigensian Crusade against the Cathars of Languedoc is a failure, eventually making vegetarianism in Europe stronger, and strengthening Occitanian areas, which would become part of the free nation of Catatania (One of a few PODs for Vegetarian World).
 * 1210 – The Hashshashin leader, Hassan III of Alamut comes to power. He develops the order to include any individual who is deemed worthy, not just Muslims. The sect survives into the modern era (POD for Assassins).
 * 1270 - The entire human race is transfered to another world with a single continent and global ocean called Nubblura, and society is forced to begin rebuilding (POD for The Ocean World).

1400

 * 1415 – Jan Hus refuses the invitation to the Diet of Constance (POD for An East-West Reformation).
 * 1429 – The clash of English and French arms at Orleans ends with Joan of Arc Beaten.


 * 1476 - Queen Isabella of Castille is defeated by La Betraneja.(POD for No Colonization.)
 * 1478 – Aragon never forms Spain with Castile, and Granada is fighting them to stay Muslim. Later in 1485, Italy is reunited, and in 1492, Italy helps Christopher Columbus with The New World Discovery, instead of Spain, sneaking through the Caliphate of Granada unharmed, Italy replaces The Spanish Empire, claiming all of OTL Spain's claims, making a bigger and better Italian Empire (Main POD for Italia!).
 * 1485 – Richard of York wins at Bosworth, ending the Wars of the Roses with a Yorkist Victory (POD for A Kingdom and a Horse).


 * 1492 – Isabella of Castille is not convinced by Christopher Columbus' proposal to reach the Indies by sailing westwards (POD for Cabotia and Brasil).
 * 1492 – The lands discovered by Columbus become known as the Columbias instead of the Americas (POD for Via Latina).
 * 1493 – The Nina, Pinta and Santa Maria becomes caught in a force 5 hurricane and all perish (POD for The Andean Wars).

1500

 * 1503 – Henry, son of Henry VII dies of tuberculosis contracted from his brother Arthur, this leaves the succession of the English throne to Margaret, wife of James IV of Scotland (POD for Fidei Defensor)
 * 1579 – Sir Francis Drake sees San Francisco Bay, keeps it a secret, and establishes a colony in California (First POD of New Albion).
 * 1592 – Yi Sun-sin dies in an accident. His death allows Toyotomi's invasion to succeed (POD for Toyotomi Japan).
 * 1593 – China begins colonizing America, leaving a very different world in it's wake (POD for Chinese America).

1600

 * 1601 – A storm delays the arrival of British troops to battle the Spanish in Kinsale in Cork. The Irish army of Hugh O'Neill and Hugh (The Red) O'Donnell meet up with the Spanish first and defeat the English at Kinsale. This leads to the Anglo-Hibernian War and severely reduces Britain's ability to forge a colonial empire for quite some time (POD for An Mhaidín Mhaith sá Chionn tSáile).
 * 1643 – The Spanish Tercios win the battle of Rocroi against the French, thus avoiding the decline of Spanish dominance on Europe (POD for Empire of Forever).

1700

 * 1735 – A third son is born to James Francis Stuart (the Old Pretender); James Maria Robert Stuart. His mother, Maria Clementina Sobieska, dies two days after giving birth (First POD for USA Kingdom).
 * 1753 – George Washington killed in his very first military mission (POD for Washington Shot at Murdering Town!).
 * 1754 – The British Government accepts the terms of the Albany Congress, making sure that America remains British (First POD for Here we go again).
 * 1760 – Moncalm waits for reinforcements and manages to hold on to Québec (POD for Day of Glory).
 * 1762 – The British fail to capture Cuba during the Seven Years War. Spain does not lose Florida and Louisiana is handed to the United Kingdom instead (POD for British Louisiana).
 * 1777 – Thirteen colonies dreaming of independence, fight without French, Spanish, Dutch or any other help. They gain independence in 1786, but war is hard and the government of the States and its citizens do not agree on the idea of Manifest Destiny. They also don´t migrate to the West Coast, so the original United States are still on the East Coast of North America and do not attempt to offend the Treaty of Paris in 1783, so Florida, Canada and the land west of the Mississippi river go uncolonized. A world with a real peaceful and not militarist USA (POD for No Destiny).
 * 1777 - British General William Howe decides to go with John Burgoyne's plan of attacking Saratoga, instead of attacking Philadelphia (POD for Howe's March )
 * 1777 – The British are aided by Native Americans at the battle of Princetown, and George Washington is surrounded and killed (POD for The Third British Empire).
 * 1778 – George Washington is captured by the British during the Battle of Monmouth. He is later tried and executed for treason. Congress asks James Roberts to take command of the Continental Army (Second POD for USA Kingdom).
 * 1784 – Thomas Jefferson's proposal to ban slavery in all new territory after 1802 is ratified by a narrow margin. Expansion of slavery is not an issue. The Republican Party is never formed. New England secedes, leading to civil war (POD for Divergence Factor -0.229).
 * 1787 – At the Philadelphia Convention (25 May to 17 September 1787), slavery and the slave-trade were outlawed in the new constitution, leading to three states (Georgia and the two Carolinas) not joining the new union and thus remaining governed by the 1777 Articles of Confederation. (POD for Federal States of America)
 * 1793 – Lord Macartney's diplomatic mission to China is a full success, leading to industrialization in Imperial China (POD for Long live the Qing!).
 * 1795 – The Grand Duchy of Lithuania does not fall (Second POD for Ahtobiton).
 * 1797 – US President Adams dies, leaving ascending VP Jefferson to ally with revolutionary France (Adams Dies 1797)

1800s

 * 1805 – The Battle of Trafalgar is won by the French, allowing the French Empire of Napoleon to prosper, and survive to this day (POD for French Trafalgar, British Waterloo).

1810

 * 1812 – Napoleon dies during an unsuccessful attempt to conquer the British Isles. This causes the French Empire to survive to this very day (POD for l'Empereur Est Mort).
 * 1814 – The British win the Battle of Plattsburgh, allowing them to dictate term ending the North American war of 1812 (POD for 1812 closure).
 * 1815 – The British win the Battle of New Orleans, and General Pakenham insists on occupying even after word has reached him that the war is over. President Madison redeclares war in response (POD for Short-lived US).

1820

 * 1822 – Bolívar and San Martin agree on a common path to free South America (POD for Greater Colombia).
 * 1828 Dingane, Mhlangana, and Induna, are all killed by Shaka Kasenzangakhona when they attempted to usurp the Zulu throne (POD for Zulu).

1830

 * 1830 – China starts a modernization program in the 1840s, overthrows the Qing dynasty, and sets up a constitutional monarchy. The result is a drastically different 20th century, where Germany dominates Europe and the Middle East is one of the most stable regions in the world (POD for Chinese Meiji).

1840

 * 1840 – James W. Marshall dies of malaria in Missouri (POD for No Gold Rush).
 * 1843 – John Tyler is impeached and replaced by the radical and pro-slavery David Rice Atchinson (Primary POD for Viva California).

1850

 * 1850 – After being defeated in the short but bloody Mormon war, the citizens of the Deseret region of Utah, Nevada, Western Colorado, Southern Idaho and Wyoming and South Eastern California, tempers simmer until they flare up in 2003, causing the Deseret Conflict (POD for Conflict in the SouthWest).
 * 1852 – The Taiping rebel army marches on to Beijing instead of settling in at Nanking; the overthrow of the Qing dynasty brings about a Taiping China (POD for Taiping China).
 * 1852 – "Stonewall" Jackson dies, Union forces win First Battle of Bull Run, ending the Civil War (Primary POD for Rebellion of 61).

1860

 * 1860 – Charles Darwin's trial begins. The sentencing for his "demonic" crime against the Bible is the death penalty. Supporters of evolution are persecuted and people fear any type of science in general (POD for World Without Science).
 * 1861 – General Ulysses S. Grant is repulsed in his attempt to capture Paducah, Kentucky by Lieutenant General Leonidas Polk. The mouth of the Tennessee river is under control of Confederate Forces (POD for A Southron World)
 * 1861 – Following the First battle of Bull Run, the US congress makes a peace offering to the south and the CSA and USA stand side by side in the world. Primary POD of A House Divided but Strong
 * 1862 &mdash; Abraham Lincoln is assassinated. After a much longer Civil War, the Confederacy is triumphant (POD for The Confederate Utopia).
 * 1862 – General George Meade dies from his injuries at the Battle of Glendale, depriving the Union of his talents at Gettysburg and leading to a Confederate victory, which in turn alters world history drastically (POD for Axis World).
 * 1863 – Braxton Bragg defeats William Rosecrans at the Battle of Stones River (POD for The First Stone).
 * 1863 - Benjamin Judea is successful in convincing British and French leaders to join the Confederate cause in the American Civil War (POD for Divide and Conquer)
 * 1863 – Confederate President Davis sends General Longstreet to reinforce the West, rather than approving Lee's plans for invading the North (POD for No Gettysburg).
 * 1863 – Confederate forces, under General Robert E. Lee, wipe out the Union army at the Battle of Gettysburg (POD for Eye of the Storm).
 * 1864 – Jubal A. Early takes Washington (POD for Rout at the Monocacy).
 * 1865 – William H. Seward is assassinated (POD for Japanese Alaska).
 * 1865 – A shipment of steam boilers gets mixed up, resulting in the death of Hiram Maxim in 1865, and the survival of Anthony Duram, who advances naval technology greatly (POD for The Maxim).
 * 1868 – The Kōmon Emperor (Kōmei *here*) does not die, as a result, Japan's modernization takes place differently (Primary POD for Rebellion of 61).

1880

 * 1881 – Alexander II of Russia is not killed by anarchists and the Russian Empire lasts to the present day {POD for Greater Russia}.
 * 1885 – Czar Alexander II is not assassinated. The Russian Empire survives to the modern day (POD for Long Live The Czar).
 * 1887 – Crown Prince Friedrich Wilhelm is diagnosed with throat cancer. A risky and complicated procedure to remove the tumor is successfully completed (POD for Long Live Kaiser Friedrich III!).
 * 1888 – General Georges Boulanger stages a coup d'etat and becomes France's Head of State (POD for The Boulanger Era).

1890

 * 1890 – Kaiser Wilhelm II is content to allow Otto von Bismark to control the government, as Wilhelm I was (POD for Germany Didn't Drop the Pilot).
 * 1897 – David Schwarz does not have a heart attack in 1897 and airship development progresses significantly (POD for A Good Heart - Lighter Than Air).

1900s

 * October 21st 1904 - The Dogger Bank incident isn't solved diplomatically and it causes Britain to join Japan against the Russian Empire in the Russo-Japanese War; this eventually expands into a World War. (POD for Early World War I).
 * 1908 – A meteor destroys London and kills almost her entire population. The Pope claims it is a punishment of God. Europeans start sacking the London ruins and land occupation starts after a decree from German Emperor Wilhelm II (POD for London Event).

1910

 * 1912 – Roosevelt does much better in the 1912 Presidential election, not enough to win, but its enough to establish the Progressives as a viable party. This is in part due to a coalition with Eugene Debs. From 1912 to 1916 the Progressives make step by step gains in the House and Senate and in both years get more votes then the Republicans, although they are defeated by the Democrats (POD for Progressive USA).
 * 1913 – Instead of dying in this year, Alfred Graf von Schlieffen lives long enough to guide the German Army to victory in the Great War (POD for Schlieffen's Plan).
 * 1914 – The unknown member of the Black Hand gun does not misfire, thus not causing Franz Ferdinand to take an alternate route. The members are arrested before they could do anything (POD for 1914: Failed Plot).
 * 1914 – Friedrich Ebert, the head of the German Social Democratic Party (SPD), dies in an automobile accident. Germany ultimately becomes socialist and the USA (an Axis power) decides to nuke Berlin (POD for Successful German Socialist Revolution).
 * 1914 – A terrorist named Gavrilo Princip is arrested before he assassinates Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria-Hungary. Tensions between major world powers continue and increase (POD for Princip Arrest).
 * 1914 – A terrorist named Gavrilo Princip is captured and killed before being able to assassinate Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria-Hungary. Europe keeps peace and after years of stability, war break out in 1930 (POD for Gavrilo Princip-World War).
 * 1914 - Archduke Franz Ferdinand survives an assassination attempt. World War I is avoided (POD for The World Exhaled at Saravejo )
 * 1914 – Princip decides to eat his sandwich inside the food store instead of taking it with him (POD for Imperial glory).
 * 1914 – Instead of wheelig east, Kluck's army drives into Paris, crushing the French, ending the war way earlier than normal. (POD for A Different World War II and Cold War)
 * 1916 – Lester Pearson, future Minister of External Affairs for Canada, dies in a bus accident (POD for World War III-1956).
 * 1916 – General Lavr Kornilov's coup succeeds (POD for Kornilovshina).
 * 1917 - Britain never cracked Germany's diplomatic code during World War I (POD for Kaiser's Age)
 * 1917 – The Pleß conference (Kaiser Wilhelm, Reichskanzler, Army and Navy leaders, Silesia, Germany) is delayed, thus delaying the resumption of Germany's unrestricted submarine warfare. A proposal for a peace conference by American President Wilson is then accepted by Germany and the Quadruple allies, but rejected by the Entente allies. The USA does not enter the War, Germany resumes unrestricted submarine warfare later in the year, resulting in a negotiated peace in mid 1918 (POD for EEC).
 * 1917 – The Balfour Declaration of 1917 had been intended as a formal but classified statement of policy by the British government on the partitioning of the Ottoman Empire in the aftermath of the World War I. The letter stated the position that the British government supported Zionist plans for a Jewish "national home" in Palestine, with the condition that nothing should be done which might prejudice the rights of existing communities there. However, in the aftermath of the First World War, with the British commitment to establishing Arab successor states in the former Ottoman domain, the Declaration was not accepted by the Cabinet. Chaim Weizman and other Zionists found their further settlement blocked in the Holy Land. The formerly dismissed Uganda Plan and other territorial schemes under the protection of the British Empire were dusted off for new consideration. Balfour and Lloyd George were amenable, and the colonization scheme that led to the State of Sion was born (POD for Oystralia (State of Sion, Australian Confederacy).
 * 1917 – Mexico declares war on the USA, thus allowing Robert Goddard a chance for rocketry to make an earlier appearance on the battlefield (POD for Goddard's legacy).
 * 1918 – Prince Alexei and Alexandria Romanov escape from their prison, and Alexei takes full command of the White army (POD for Ready for the Mother Country).
 * 1919 – Hitler dies in World War I. Following the war, the communists make a strong showing in the first-ever German democratic elections and quickly take control of Germany, leading to major changes in World War II and a strong alliance with the USSR (POD for Red Germany).
 * 1919 – FDR and Mitchell Palmer are killed by a bomb planted by an anarchist in Palmer's library (POD for The American Empire).
 * April 1917 – The German railroad car smuggling Lenin into St. Petersburg is intercepted by pro-Tsarist forces and Lenin is executed along with his compatriots. A battered Russia remains in World War I and Communism never takes root (POD for Capitalists of the World, Unite).
 * 1919 – Stalin dies of Tuberculosis. Mikhail Kalinin is appointed by Lenin in his place. Lenin is assassinated by anti-communist 'white' Russians while inspecting the units of the Red Guard in 1921 just outside Moscow. He is succeeded by Leon Trotsky (POD for To Comrade Trotsky, The World).

1920

 * 1921 – Promising German theoretical physicist Albert Einstein dies during his first visit to the USA. He never makes contact with Ernest Rutherford or Leó Szilárd and the Manhattan Project is never born. A world without useful atomic energy, a world without the Person of the Century (POD for Nein).
 * 1921 – FDR dies from accelerated polio, which leads to Al Smith becoming president, resulting in a Second American Civil War, and the creation of a socialist state in America (POD for The Hammer of America)
 * 1922 – Instead of the U.S., the Great Depression focuses more -almost entirely- on Europe, which plunges into economic turmoil. Near every nation collapses and most that don't lose parts of their territories. This halts World War 2 as Hitler and Mussolini have little military power (POD for Shattered economy).
 * 1923 – Lenin’s papers criticizing Stalin are published and Stalin never comes to power (POD for Trotsky Succeeds Lenin).
 * 1926 – Riccioti Garibaldi is not a fascist spy, so the complot organized in southern France to proclaim Catalan independence from Spain is not discovered on time to avoid it (POD for Free Catalonia).

1930

 * 1933 – Franklin Roosevelt, not Anton Cermak, is struck and hit in the lung by Giuseppe Zangara and killed. John Nance Garner, his Vice-President, takes over but without Roosevelt's leadership, the Depression lingers for years longer and there is no impetus to become less isolationist (POD for No FDR).
 * 1936 – John Maynard Keynes neglects to publish General Theory, eventually abandoning economics altogether, with far-reaching consequences (POD for No Keynes).
 * 1937 – General Tang Sheng-chi of the Chinese Republic Army ignores Chiang Kai-shek and agrees to a three day cease-fire with Japanese forces sieging Nanking on December 9, 1937. The result is a relatively peaceful occupation of the city and few atrocities committed by the invaders. There is no world-wide outrage and small, if any impact on Japanese-American relations (POD for No Rape of Nanking).
 * 1938 – With the success of his local Los Angeles radio show with Lefty Lou, Woody Guthrie's life was Bound for Glory in song. Instead, his life took a different turning: Hollywood called (POD for Woody Guthrie, the Singing Sidekick).
 * 1938 – Mathematician Alan Turing extends his visit to America and builds the world's first electronic computer. Back in England, he is able to complete his dream of producing human-like artificial intelligence by the year 2000 (POD for Cambridge Computing).
 * 1938 – The Czechoslovak government refuse to abide by the Munich Agreement, sparking a German (and later Hungarian) invasion of Czechoslovakia on October 1, 1938 (POD for Fall Grün).
 * 1939 – Albert Einstein changes his mind over his support for Nuclear Weaponry in 1939 (POD for Nuclear Realisation).
 * 1939 - On September 1st, 1939- the eve of World War II- Hitler decides not to invade Poland, and wait until his army is more prepared. (POD for the The Unlikely Alliance)

1940

 * 1941 -- Hitler chokes to death on an apple, leaving Hess to lead Nazi Germany. (POD for Unternehmen Seelöwe)
 * 1941 – The Nazi invasion of Yugoslavia provokes Stalin to mount a preemptive attack on Germany lest Russia becomes Hitler's next victim (POD for Seeing Red (Army, that is)).
 * 1941 – The Axis powers never engage in Operation Barbarossa and invade the Soviet union (POD for Red victory).
 * 1941 -- Stalin heeds Allied warnings of an imminent German attack, Barbarossa is a catastrophic failure for the Germans the second it is launched (POD for The Raging Bear).
 * 1941 – Field Marshal Erwin von Witzleben successfully assassinates Hitler on May 1941 during a military parade in Paris (POD for See Paris and Die).
 * 1941 – Nazi Germany succeeds in invading the British Isles. This POD triggers several alternative timelines (Unternehmen Seelöwe, 1941).
 * 1942 – The Japanese manage to secure a victory at the Battle of Midway, thereby crushing the US Pacific Fleet (POD for Rising Sun).
 * 1943 – The USA suffers so much from the War, that it turns into a civil war! (POD for 1942 Stress).
 * 1943 – Nerve gas used at Kursk turns the tide of the war (POD for Morgen die ganze Welt).
 * 1944 - Fearing bad weather, General Dwight Eisenhower postpones Operation Overlord until June, 19th. (POD for Ceasefire 1947)
 * 1944 – Wernher von Braun is arrested and executed by the Gestapo for treason (First POD for One Small Step for a Socialist...).
 * 1945 – Harry S Truman does not argue as forcefully for possession of Japan as he does in OTL, and he does not order the dropping of the Bomb in 1945. The war ends the next year and Japan is partitioned like Germany (First POD for Divided Japan).
 * 1945 – Truman does not use nuclear weapons against Japan and instead relies on Operation Downfall, Japan attempts to scare the allies into stopping the attack by causing chaos in China (POD for Superfortress).
 * 1945 – Germany instead of 1939, and as Germany and Japan conquer,and during a thinning Cold War and beginning Civil War, the citizens and Fuhrer of Germany wonder what would've been if they hadn't waited (POD for Germany Waits).
 * 1948 – No assassination attempt on Jorge Eliecer Gaitán, permits him to become President Gaitan in 1950, with repercussions on Cuba and the Cold War.
 * 1948 – After the failure of The Lady from Shanghai Orson Welles decides to end his career in movies and turns to politics (POD for President Welles).

1950

 * 1952 – Adlai Stevenson becomes President of the United States after Robert Taft wrestles the Republican Nomination from Eisenhower (POD for Election 1952).
 * 1958-The Coup that overthrown Venezuelan Dictator Marcos Perez Jimenez fail transforming Venezuela forever in Perez Jimenez's Venezuela.

1960

 * 1963 – A November Tragedy puts John McCormack in the White House and Carl Hayden just a heartbeat away from the presidency.
 * 1963 - Lee Harvey Oswald fails in assassinating John F. Kennedy (POD for The Bullet Misses! Kennedy's Second Term )
 * 1968 – Robert Kennedy is not assassinated (POD for Robert Kennedy Survives).
 * 1969 - Richard Nixon does not declare his Nixon doctrine and completes a second term. (POD for World X002).

1970

 * 1970 – Jimi Hendrix survives a fatal drug overdose, and meets Ron Paul, who puts him on the path to President Hendrix.
 * 1973 – OPEC convinced not to cut the supply of oil, thus averting an oil shock (A POD for Peak Oil 1996).
 * 1973 – President Nixon's lawyers convince him to resign, before a successor to Vice President Spiro Agnew has been named. Democratic House Speaker Carl Albert becomes President due to Nixon's Early Resignation.

1980

 * 1981 – The short-lived Presidency of Ronald Reagan is ended by a disturbed gunman, as The Gipper Goes Down.
 * 1983 – Stanislav Petrov is not the officer on duty at the Serpukhov-15 bunker near Moscow, resulting in the nuclear holocaust.
 * 1984 – Walter Mondale proves all doubters wrong and defeats Ronald Reagan in the Presidential election (POD for President Mondale).
 * 1984 – William Fredrickson and Sylvia Smith create the Capitalistic Republic of Canada.
 * 1988 – Joe Biden wins the Democratic Nomination for President, and beats George H.W. Bush in the Presidential Election (POD for Biden vs. Bush).
 * 1989 – The students in Tienanmen Square are as mad as hell and they're not going to take it any more! (POD for Gate of Heavenly Peace:The Third Chinese Revolution).
 * 1989 – After the release of his successful film Roger & Me, Michael Moore decides to run for public office (POD for Michael Moore for President).

1990

 * 1991 – The Blond Death was a devastating plague pandemic that ravaged basically all of Europe, North America, Australia and New Zealand in the late twentieth century. It killed a quarter of the population of Europe, but was present in minus range in all the world. The disease was present like a flu in many people, but with the special that the flu infects and kills a high number of blond haired, blue eyed white people. The social scale of the world change forever.
 * 1992 – Ross Perot decides not to run for president and instead becomes a U.S senator (POD for No Perot).
 * 1992 – Paul Tsongas defeats Bill Clinton to become the Democratic Presidential nominee (Primary POD for Clinton Who?).
 * 1992 – President Bush dumps Dan Quayle from the ticket, giving him the fig leaf of resigning to run in Indiana's gubernatorial contest against Democrat Evan Bayh. Quayle's seeming misfortune turns around, and eight years later he is President Quayle.
 * 1994 – The Clinton Administration gives the world a crash course in the fine art of stopping nuclear weapons proliferation (POD for Shock and Awe: The Second Korean War).
 * 1994 – JEB Bush is elected governor of Florida (POD for President JEB).
 * 1995 – Ramzi Yousef and Khalid Shaik Mohammed are able to successfully execute the Bojinka Plot, causing the War on Terror to begin in 1995, not 2001 (Primary POD for Bojinka).
 * 1997 – American Vice-President Al Gore is killed when Air Force Two, his official plane, crashes in California on his way back from a summit in China (Primary POD for President Gary).
 * 1999 – Terrorists steal 51 air force planes and bomb the capitals of each United States state, as well as Washington, D.C. (POD for No United States).

2000s

 * 2000 – John McCain wins the 2000 Republican primaries thus securing the Republican nomination (POD for President McCain).
 * 2000 - The Florida Elections Board agrees to recount election votes in Miami-Dade, Broward, and Palm Beach counties. Al Gore Gore wins the election of 2000. (POD for Recount
 * 2001 – What if 9/11 failed? This looks at the possibilities, including Putin's assassination, the EU becoming a one party communist state etc. (POD for No 9/11).
 * 2002 – The September 11 attacks never take place. Instead, the Al-Qaida network chooses a bigger, and more deadly, target. On January 29, 2002, during George W. Bush's State of the Union address, an airliner dive-bombs into the U.S. Capitol building. 97% of the members of Congress are killed, and so are most of the cabinet, including the President and Vice President. The Presidency passes to Interior Secretary Gale Norton, who presides over the beginning of the end for American democracy (PoD for The Capitol Burns).
 * 2003 – Leader of the House of Commons, Robin Cook, dramatically goes public with his opposition to the war in Iraq, by speaking at the London "Stop the War" rally (15/02/03). British troops take no part in the war, leaving George Bush Between Iraq and a Hard Place.
 * 2004 – Six nuclear explosions blow up in the United Kingdom, only in biggest cities of England. An empire without king who's brothers nation present herself to protected, the fall of the fifth economy and second military spender of the world (Primary POD for the UKend).
 * 2004 – John Kerry narrowly defeats George W. Bush, sending American politics and policy in a different direction, in the President Kerry alternative.
 * 2004 – What if in 2005 after Kerry illegally defeated and assassinated, the Blue States left the Union to form their own country (POD for Heartland).
 * 2004 – Avian Flu virus mutates in Western Europe, causing deadly effect to both population and politics; forming the H5N1Z outbreak.
 * 2005-2006 – Emily Miller, ex-fiancee of Michael Scanlon, doesn't implicate him to the FBI; also, Brian Ross of ABC News holds off on a story about Mark Foley and e-mails to pages. Failure of these scandals to emerge result in 2006: US Stays Red alternative.
 * 2007 – Kevin Rudd dies on the 4th of January 2007, without being elected as Prime Minister of Australia favorable to Sino-Australian relations, notably due to the fact that he could be the first Australian Prime Minister to speak fluent Mandarin and that closer engagement with Asia was one of the "Three Pillars" of his foreign policy (PoD for Sino-Australian Conflict).
 * 2008 – Republican John McCain defeats the Democratic candidate Barack Obama in the U.S. presidential election on November 4, 2008, and assumes the Presidency on January 20, 2009 (POD for Step in a Different Direction).

2010

 * None (yet).