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Things that look like alternate history but aren't

Charles EP M. said:
I see the Kingdom States of Britamerica is coming at Turkey.
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Speaking of which, here's an old classic:

736px-The_Great_Rapprochement.jpg
 
Also, as the eclipse in North America was in the news recently, another thing suitable for this thread is how old those maps showing where you can view the eclipse from are.

I thought this was the oldest one I was aware of, from 1706, was this one of a solar eclipse crossing Europe (interestingly the map was created by two Frenchwomen):
877px-Ca._1706_map_of_Europe_during_the_Solar_eclipse_of_May_12%2C_1706.jpg


Edmond Halley also did one (with help from William Whiston) of an eclipse that crossed the British Isles in 1715:

Halley map.jpg

However, I've now learned there's an even earlier one from way back in 1654, by Erhard Weigel. It's arguably cruder and less precise than the 1700s ones, but showing it against the globe of the world makes it look startlingly modern in some ways.

999px-Course_of_moon_shadow_2.%3D12._8._1654_figured_in_advance_by_Erhard_Weigel.jpg
 
And then there are the comedy fiascos that would be implausible in fiction.

For example: 8 September, 1923. Off the coast of California.

A flotilla of seven US destroyers were steaming in line ahead in fog off the coast of California. The commanders had ascertained their position as being well out to sea, some 8 miles off the coast.

Unfortunately, they were about 8 miles closer to the coast than they thought, and the watchkeepers were - lax.

The lead ship, Delphy, hit rocks when travelling at full speed. Her propellor, still revolving, struck the next in line, Young, which hadn't noticed the abrupt stopping of the Delphy, and Young capsized. Next, Chauncey, collided with the wreckage of the two ahead and sank. The next four ships altered course to avoid the pile up. Unfortunately, they altered course towards rather than away from shore, and all four struck reefs at full speed. All seven destroyers were now total wrecks.

Try writing that Keystone Kop accident up happening and see how much you get laughed at.
 
David Flin said:
And then there are the comedy fiascos that would be implausible in fiction.

For example: 8 September, 1923. Off the coast of California.

A flotilla of seven US destroyers were steaming in line ahead in fog off the coast of California. The commanders had ascertained their position as being well out to sea, some 8 miles off the coast.

Unfortunately, they were about 8 miles closer to the coast than they thought, and the watchkeepers were - lax.

The lead ship, Delphy, hit rocks when travelling at full speed. Her propellor, still revolving, struck the next in line, Young, which hadn't noticed the abrupt stopping of the Delphy, and Young capsized. Next, Chauncey, collided with the wreckage of the two ahead and sank. The next four ships altered course to avoid the pile up. Unfortunately, they altered course towards rather than away from shore, and all four struck reefs at full speed. All seven destroyers were now total wrecks.

Try writing that Keystone Kop accident up happening and see how much you get laughed at.
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There's also the the time in the early 1840s I think when a US Navy ship landed in Monterey, California, under the mistaken apprehension that the US and Mexico were already at war; word of the error made its way to the commander (I think it was Richard Stockton), upon which he meekly returned to his ship and left.
 
Hendryk said:
It would have been fun if they'd stuck with the original lyrics.
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Incidentally, for some reason, most of Maoist songs in French were made by Canadians. I was pretty sure they did a translation of the East is Red and I could swear I half-remember the first strophe, but I simply can't see to find it at all.
 
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