Alternity

Many millenia ago, Earth witnessed an extraordinary upheaval of geologic activity that allowed OTL New England and much of the Hawaii-Emperor Seamounts as well as the microcontinent of Kerguelen to remain dry land to modern times - this is the first divergence point from OTL, and this upheaval's effects also contribute to much of the modern seismic activity in the USA Midwest. The first of the 'modern' divergence point from OTL takes place during the War of 1812, when, from September to December 1814, US troops and Navy ships aided by the French military forced the British from Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island, and further US advances took all of New Brunswick, as well as all land south of the St. Lawrence River, including the Gaspé Peninsula, aided by predominantly French inhabitants of the region. The Treaty of Ghent signed in January 1815 resolved the issues of conquered Canadian territory by allowing the British full control of Shoal Island in the Atlantic, some 200 miles southeast of Bermuda. Further divergences include the US control of Vancouver Island after the Oregon Treaty in 1846, control of Baja California and a portion of Sonora as far south as the village of Caborca after the Baja/Gadsden Purchase of 1853. The US made no further territorial gains until the late 1800s, namely because it had already had control of the New England Islands since 1798. Other notable events include World War II (1938-1947), the Canadian Civil War of the late 1950s and early 1960s, the Arctic Wars (1967-Present), Australian Civil War (1880-1883), Indonesian War (1973-1979). Continuation of the Apollo program through May 1977, followed by a series of unmanned robotic probes and even a satellite sent to Mars from June 1977 through 1983 is noted as well, when the NERVA-powered Horizon IV lands in Syria Planum of Tharsis, followed eventually by a half-dozen more landings and perhaps the first colonists by early 1998.

The major tech divergence from OTL is that Nikola Tesla's lab on 5th Avenue in NYC survives the fire of March 1895 and mostly if not directly contributes to a massive technology leap of twenty years, with the first cellular networks emerging as early as 1959, the first analog cell phone that same year (both in Japan), the first walkie talkie in 1920, digital networks by 1969, first flip phone in 1970, first 'smartphone' in 1976, NCD (nano-cancer disintegration) therapy introduced in 1978, NCD-derived accelerated healing techniques in 1980 as well as cures for most viral and bacterial infections in 1986, first true smartphone in 1985 (first to be labeled as such), first 3G networks in 1988, mass produced flexi and tranparent OLED displays by 1989, and the first 4G networks by 1997.