Alternate lives of historical figures if they never did/perused the thing/career they are most known for?
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Lee Harvey is easy. He gets the job he wanted as a Russian translator for an oil company.
And maybe . . .
Astronomer Carl Sagan as a TV talk show host?
And maybe . . .
Astronomer Carl Sagan as a TV talk show host?
George H.W. Bush would probably remain president of his oil company in Texas up until his eventual retirement. George W. would likely either stay in the family business by working in his father's oil company himself, and eventually succeed him as president after his retirement, or stay as a member of the Board of Directors at HKN, Inc. Or, if he chooses to not work in the oil industry at all, I could see him staying in Major League Baseball and maybe eventually becoming MLB Commissioner.
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Ronald Dahl was actually a fighter pilot in WWII flying for the RAF in Egypt, Crete and Palestine. However his first sortie in a fighter plane resulted in a crash and a six month stay in a hospital. Although he recovered and went on to fly quite successful for two more years, a lingering headache with bouts of vision loss brought on by the crash eventually got him promoted away to a post of military attache in Washington, where he found his third career: writing riveting war stories to convince the American people that the planes they lend out to the RAF were not just a waste of taxpayer money....
So butterflies:
1) Dahl never crashed in his first flight or did not sustain a career-ending head injury. He stayed in the RAF and could keep flying well into the sixties.
2) Dahl became really good at his job as a diplomat in Washington and went on to have a long career in the Commonwealth's diplomatic corps.
3) Dahl never transitions to writing children's books but stays writing adventure stories and film scripts (OTL he actually wrote the script for the James Bond movie 'You only live Twice', then wrote a dozen short stories about the experience and the often hilarious I teractions he had with the producers)
So butterflies:
1) Dahl never crashed in his first flight or did not sustain a career-ending head injury. He stayed in the RAF and could keep flying well into the sixties.
2) Dahl became really good at his job as a diplomat in Washington and went on to have a long career in the Commonwealth's diplomatic corps.
3) Dahl never transitions to writing children's books but stays writing adventure stories and film scripts (OTL he actually wrote the script for the James Bond movie 'You only live Twice', then wrote a dozen short stories about the experience and the often hilarious I teractions he had with the producers)
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https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Literature/TheDifferenceEngine ie Disraeli becomes the novelist and Byron the politician and Bibi stays a car salesman because Yoni survives
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What if some two sport prodigies chose the other sport than they did OTL? Tom Brady goes to baseball. As does Deion Sanders. Both the Charlton and Neville brothers choose cricket, while Botham choses football, while Usain Bolt continues his dream of one day being a West Indies fast bowler.
Maybe Matthew Perry continues playing tennis instead of going into acting, wins a number of grand slams, becomes World number 1, never gets addicted to drugs. (PEDs are another matter)
Maybe Matthew Perry continues playing tennis instead of going into acting, wins a number of grand slams, becomes World number 1, never gets addicted to drugs. (PEDs are another matter)
Winston Churchill painter, biographer and historian, killed in his prime in an unfortunate car accident in the USA not long before the second world war. A shame, really, as he would have been the perfect writer to document the extraordinary leadership of Lord Halifax and Sir Anthony Eden (the so-called 'greatest double act of all time') who safely steered Britain through it's darkest hours of the war.
Famously there is that story that I kept on hearing all through the eighties: In addition to tennis, Boris Becker in his youth was also a pretty promising soccer player. However the tennis club managed to convince his parents that with the right coaching he could become a top tier player. Apparently his soccer club didn't make so good a point. So he went on to win Wimbledon at age 17 instead of playing in the German National Soccer team at age 19....
Butterflies anyone???
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Or he gets the job with the FBI after law school that he very nearly did OTL and makes a career as a special agent
Perhaps he really hits his stride after surviving the Greek Campaign and North Africa, and moves on to shine during fighter sweeps over Western Europe during 1943-1945, flying late mark Spitfires, Mustangs or even Tempests, and scoring double or even triple the number of kills he scored IOTL.
Yea, I could see him flying missions in Korea before getting promoted to military strategic planning. Wonder where he would stand on the debate over the future of air defense being radar-guided rockets or rocket-assisted interceptor planes.
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Ronald Reagan remains an actor and becomes a well-known film and TV icon of the 20th century.
Same with Jack Kemp. He remains with the Buffalo Bills or the San Diego Chargers and leads them to a Super Bowl win.
It is ASB but I want Abraham Lincoln as just an early American boxer, because why not.
There are also other path careers for him around the times of the Black Hawk War (early 1830s), managing a bar/shop if I am not wrong.
Edit: I just realized is the after 1900 forum lol
There are also other path careers for him around the times of the Black Hawk War (early 1830s), managing a bar/shop if I am not wrong.
Edit: I just realized is the after 1900 forum lol
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Likewise, Johan Cruyff was also a dual sport athlete in his youth. He played and preferred baseball but he was obviously more talented in football/soccer and the youth team coaches at Ajax quickly convinced him to give up on baseball.
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John F. Kennedy’s older brother survives and goes into politics instead of him. That leaves John to pursue his passion of writing - first as a journalist, and later as a renowned historian and novelist. Several of his books are adapted into plays and films, with one of the most famous being about an American president who leads his nation through a nuclear WW3. In casting their POTUS, the director decides to give Kennedy himself a screen test. Few people had previously considered the lifelong playboy to be “presidential material”, even as a fictional president, but, when he nailed the screen test better than any of the other actors who auditioned, the decision was made. Following the film’s release it becomes a smash hit and, with his older brother’s political career having amounted to very little, he becomes the only Kennedy to ever come “close” to the presidency….which spawns an almost endless string of alternate alternate history fans who speculate, “What if John F. Kennedy actually became President?”
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