Help please - randomness of history

[swansonj]

I'm looking for an example or two of how major outcomes in history can depend on almost random events. I'm sure there must be an example of a whole war depending on the outcome of a single battle, and that battle depending on whether one particular bullet hit one particular person or not. Or perhaps a chance meeting between two people which went on to alter the whole course of history. Anything come to mind? Thanks.

 

[Arch]

I think I heard once that the Battle of Hastings hinged on an order that was ignored or misunderstood, that led the Saxons into a charge they couldn't win, or something like that. That and the fact that they just had to jog all the way from Yorkshire after defeating the Norwegians.

And if Richard the Third hadn't lost his horse at Bosworth, we might not have had Henry VIII or Elizabeth I. Although I seem to remember that the battle also hinged on the action of one faction who waited to see who was winning before joining in.

 

[classic33]

Charge of The Light Brigade was started/ordered by an umbrella salesman.

 

[Yellow Fang]

I suppose all that Lawrence of Arabia stuff was a bit random. Different person at a different place and the modern history of the Middle East might all be different.

In fact, come to think of it, didn't Adolph Hitler and Anthony Eden compare their shooting positions at some battle in World War 1 and conclude they might have been firing at each other? Maybe it was Hitler and MacMillan.

 

[Arch]

Also, I suppose, there are the major figures who might never have been born, or survive to become important. Given the 50/50 chance of an embryo being a girl or boy, and the vagaries of human fertility etc.

I've just read an Alexander McCall Smith novel in which he refers to Churchill having been hit by a car when he was a small boy, and that if he'd been 6" further out into the road he'd have been killed. Can't find any proof quickly, but who knows who WW2 would have panned out without Churchill? (Or, in fact, does it matter. Would any PM have been as good, in the circumstances?)

 

[Arch]

Suppose Kennedy had leaned forward (or back) at just the right moment?

(That'll be this year's big anniversary, won't it?)

 

[Moon bunny]

One that sticks in my memory from modern history lessons is the meeting of President Carter and the Shah of Iran, which set in motion a train of events that helped Reagan win the presidency, with all that followed from that.

 

[Archie_tect]

Without the kami-kaze pilots flying with just enough fuel to get to Pearl Harbour, would the Americans have entered WWII when they did?

 

[TVC]

If the Spanish had colonised what is now USA instead of going for central and south America where the mineral
resources are then the World's dominant language would not be English.

 

[Hover Fly]

[quote="Yellow Fang, post: 2486144, member: 1311]

In fact, come to think of it, didn't Adolph Hitler and Anthony Eden compare their shooting positions at some battle in World War 1 and conclude they might have been firing at each other? Maybe it was Hitler and MacMillan.[/quote]


There was a British private who had a chance to shoot Hitler, then a lance jack equivalent, he aimed, but then saw Hitler was injured and unarmed so lowered his rifle. Hitler later sent his thanks via the British prime minister.

 

[aces_up1504]

I believe radioactivity was a accidentally discovered, I guess with out it world war 2 end might have been different for Japan

 

[TheDoctor]

Had I started turning a fraction sooner when I had a big crash (back in '85 or so) I'd have gone head-first into a parked car, instead of landing beside it. Instead of breaking my collarbone, I'd have broken my neck. And I wouldn't be here now.
Now all I have to do is have a major impact on history...

 

[Fnaar]

Penicillin... ?

Fleming recounted that the date of his discovery of penicillin was on the morning of Friday, September 28, 1928.[18] It was a fortuitous accident: in his laboratory in the basement of St. Mary's Hospital in London (now part of Imperial College), Fleming noticed a Petri dish containing Staphylococcus plate culture he mistakenly left open, was contaminated by blue-green mould, which formed a visible growth. There was a halo of inhibited bacterial growth around the mould. Fleming concluded the mould released a substance that repressed the growth and lysing the bacteria.

 

[classic33]

Had the USS Phoenix not been sunk at Pearl Harbour, would she have been near the Falklands in 82?

 

[Spinney]

I believe radioactivity was a accidentally discovered, I guess with out it world war 2 end might have been different for Japan

Penicillin... ?
Fleming recounted that the date of his discovery of penicillin was on the morning of Friday, September 28, 1928.[18] It was a fortuitous accident: in his laboratory in the basement of St. Mary's Hospital in London (now part of Imperial College), Fleming noticed a Petri dish containing Staphylococcus plate culture he mistakenly left open, was contaminated by blue-green mould, which formed a visible growth. There was a halo of inhibited bacterial growth around the mould. Fleming concluded the mould released a substance that repressed the growth and lysing the bacteria.

But someone else would probably have made those discoveries fairly soon afterwards...