Things that look like alternate history but aren't

[Lucon50]

Love it

 

[Mark]

One of my favourite ridiculous coincidences - any student of modern British politics knows that a key moment in the revival of the Liberals under the Liberal-SDP Alliance was the victory of S. Hughes in the Bermondsey by-election, 1981. If AH forums had existed in the 1970s, however, their members might have been discussing "What if the Liberal candidate, S. Hughes, won the Bermondsey by-election?"

Looking at wikipedia I see

A presiding officer, George Thornley, was blinded in one eye in one of these attacks,

and

The two suffragette protesters Alice Chapin and Alison Neilans, were sentenced to three months each in Holloway Prison

Only three months for blinding someone seems a bit lenient.

 

[Thande]

Looking at wikipedia I see

and

Only three months for blinding someone seems a bit lenient.

Suffragettes were very much the JSO of the 1900s in terms of a lot of people feeling the righteousness of their cause excusing what they did. Nobody even remembers that time they detonated a bomb to blow up the Coronation Chair in Westminster Abbey (though admittedly the outbreak of WW1 rather overshadowed it).

 

[Hendryk]

Without context, this 1962 picture of the encounter between aircraft carrier USS Independence and Italian training ship Amerigo Vespucci looks straight out of a Last Countdown-style ISOT.

According to Wikipedia:

While sailing the Mediterranean Sea in 1962, the American aircraft carrier USS Independence flashed the Amerigo Vespucci with the light signal asking: "Who are you?" The full-rigged ship answered: "Training ship Amerigo Vespucci, Italian Navy." The Independence replied: "You are the most beautiful ship in the world."

Now that's quite the ship, if one may say so.

 

[Walpurgisnacht]

This is from Pope Francis's visit to Mongolia, but considering the general ecumenical attitudes of the OTL Mongol Empire that'd be required for anything on its scale to persist, having a Catholic ceremony for the soul of the Supreme Progenitor wouldn't be out of the question...

 

[Geordie]

View attachment 72735

This is from Pope Francis's visit to Mongolia, but considering the general ecumenical attitudes of the OTL Mongol Empire that'd be required for anything on its scale to persist, having a Catholic ceremony for the soul of the Supreme Progenitor wouldn't be out of the question...

At first, I thought it was a Darth Vader statue!

 

[LSCatilina]

Continuing the French monetary TTLAHBA collection (previous episodes there), there is not one, but two distinct series of French Francs bearing the face and name of Henri V, respectively for 1831 and 1871.

 

[Geordie]

Is it just the hair and beard, or does the second one look like @Lord Roem to anybody else?

 

[Alex Richards]

Is it just the hair and beard, or does the second one look like @Lord Roem to anybody else?

But the Prince of Rome was a Bonapartist title.

 

[Stateless]

Something that will look AH in the future is Queen Elizabeth II appearing on 2023 coins in Canada and Australia (probably more places) - as a 'commemorative' measure (as far as I can tell, Australia has been noncommittal about whether Charles III will appear on coins in the future).

 

[LSCatilina]

Special mention to Paris, doomed to be renamed "Abdelkader's Seraglio"

As far as it can be told, there's no evidence that such a map was ever made or distributed in Germany (strange giving its alleged popularity), making it maybe some sort of political cartographic satire targeting Napoléon III's "benevolent" military interventionism.

 

[RyanF]

Special mention to Paris, doomed to be renamed "Abdelkader's Seraglio"

Wasn't that the name of the dragon in Dragonslayer?

 

[Charles EP M.]

Because Liz Truss's time as "the shortest PM ever" and this will overshadow her entire previous career, Truss as Foreign Secretary now looks a bit like a photoshop to show an alternate timeline:

 

[Hendryk]

City Nerd takes a long, wistful look at the now-disappeared US mass transit system. Compared to today, the density and efficiency of America's rail network in the 1920s feels like an ATL.

 

[Coiler]

A story from the front page of yesterday's New York Times:

"Kenyas ability to pacify Haiti is questioned"

 

[Thande]

As noted by @Alex Richards:

Link if image does not work: https://forum.sealionpress.co.uk/index.php?attachments/1694089102617-png.72911/

 

[Warthog]

Kenyas ability to pacify Haiti is questioned

I have a timeline concept somewhere about the African Federation admitting Carribean states* and a war because the Dominican Republic didn't want Haiti to join.

*and Yemen.

 

[Marius]

Jacob Zuma and Helen Zille sharing a laugh.

If SA had kept its interim 1993 Constitution, where a party which won more than 20% of the vote was entitled to a Deputy President post, Zille could have been Zuma's deputy. I think about that a lot, ha ha.

 

[Warthog]

View attachment 72921

Jacob Zuma and Helen Zille sharing a laugh.

If SA had kept its interim 1993 Constitution, where a party which won more than 20% of the vote was entitled to a Deputy President post, Zille could have been Zuma's deputy. I think about that a lot, ha ha.

It's the party position, so she'd then be replaced by Maimane when she quit. If she actually did in such a timeline - and Ramaphosa would find Maimane resident in the Union Buildings when Zuma is recalled...

...that said, with the party leader not running Cape Town or the WC, wonder how the DA's fortunes would have changed down there

 

[Marius]

It's the party position, so she'd then be replaced by Maimane when she quit. If she actually did in such a timeline - and Ramaphosa would find Maimane resident in the Union Buildings when Zuma is recalled...

...that said, with the party leader not running Cape Town or the WC, wonder how the DA's fortunes would have changed down there

Surely it didn't need to be the party leader, they could deploy anyone to the position if they like? Like when Motlanthe became Pres although Zuma was party leader (I know the circumstances were a bit different).

But who knows what butterflies would have flapped if the DP entitlement was kept in the final constitution, also possible that the DA would not have taken the position anyway, even if they were entitled to it.