13 Events With Major Unexpected Historical Consequences

The assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria was a key event in the leadup to WWI, one often considered to have started it all. In truth, tension among European powers was intense by the time Ferdinand and his wife, Sophie, visited Sarajevo on June 28, 1914. The demise of both may never have happened had it not been for a wrong turn.

Franz Ferdinand was heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne and visited the capital of Bosnia to oversee military drills. Slavic nationalists in the region, many of whom were in the Black Hand, wanted to establish an independent state and rid Bosnia of Austro-Hungarian occupation. The Black Hand was determined to make this happen - with violence, if necessary.

The group stationed members all along the Archduke's motorcade route. Three conspirators failed to eliminate Franz Ferdinand during the morning hours of June 28: one neglected to throw a bomb, another didn't pull out his pistol, and another bomb thrown at his car missed. 

Later that day, a discussion to detour from the Archduke's planned route went untranslated to the driver of his car. As a result, Franz Ferdinand and Sophie's vehicle took a wrong turn onto a road it never should have traversed. 

On that road, Gavrilo Princip was waiting. He saw the Archduke, fired a pistol at the car, and hit both Franz Ferdinand and his wife, who both succumbed to their injuries. 

Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia exactly one month later. Russia then mobilized to support Serbia, which resulted in Germany declaring war on Russia on August 1. By the time Austria-Hungary declared war on Russia on August 6, Germany had already declared war on France (one of Russia's allies), which prompted Britain to declare war on Germany. 

The extent to which Franz Ferdinand's demise caused the conflict - or triggered a larger domino effect - remains a topic of discussion among historians and the general public alike.

One "what-if" scenario about Adolf Hitler revolves around whether his acceptance into art school would have changed history - he was rejected from the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna in 1907. According to reports, his sample drawings were "unsatisfactory" with “too many heads.”

The world will never know what would have happened if the Austria native had been able to live out his artistic dreams. Another lesser-known event involving Hitler that may have taken place during WWI certainly could have changed history. 

In September 1918, Private Henry Tandey came face-to-face with a wounded German soldier on a battlefield in France. By his own account, he later claimed that man was Hitler. After the two locked eyes, Tandey reportedly let the soldier flee.

Hitler was said to have seen a picture of Tandey in the London Gazette after the latter won the Victoria Cross in 1918 for bravery at the Battle of Ypres. As a result, Hitler acquired a painting of the battle done by Fortunino Matania. 

When Neville Chamberlain visited Hitler in 1938, he asked the German leader about the painting, to which Hitler replied:

That man came so near to killing me that I thought I should never see Germany again, providence saved me from such devilishly accurate fire as those English boys were aiming at us.

Some historians reject that this ever happened, attributing it to misidentification, a complete fabrication, or urban legend. For Tandey's part, he said in 1940: 

I didn’t like to shoot at a wounded man… But if I’d only known who he would turn out to be... I’d give 10 years now to have five minutes of clairvoyance then.

Alexander I of Greece only ruled for three years, but between 1917 and 1920, he was generally considered to be an inexperienced puppet. His father, Constantine I, had been removed from the throne by Allied powers who sought to control Greece during WWI. 

With Alexander as king, Eleftherios Venizelos essentially ran the country. By 1918, Greece had expanded its borders and, when the Allies met at the Paris Peace Conference, Venizelos was there. He negotiated the treaties of Neuilly and Sèvres with Bulgaria and the Ottoman Empire, respectively, securing new lands in Thrace and Smyrna as well as islands in the Aegean.

Venizelos wanted to keep chipping away at the Ottoman Empire as it was being partitioned after WWI and, as a result, Greece and the new Turkish state went to war. By mid-1920, Greek forces were moving deep into Anatolia.

In October 1920, Alexander was bitten by a groundskeeper's pet Barbary macaque while in his garden in Athens. The king intervened when the monkey attacked his dog; while his wounds initially seemed non-life-threatening, infection set in, followed by sepsis. Alexander passed October 25, changing the dynamic in the region entirely.

He had no heirs, and national elections removed Venizelos from office that November. When the new Greek government brought back Constantine I as king, the Allies pulled support for Greek efforts in Turkey because he had favored the Central Powers during WWI.

In 1921, war with Turkey escalated and a coup removed Constantine I; the following year, the destruction of Smyrna by Turkish forces resulted in the deaths of thousands of Greeks. The resulting border changes of Greece's defeat displaced millions of ethnic Turks and Greeks alike.

Regarding Alexander's demise, Winston Churchill later said "it is perhaps no exaggeration to remark that a quarter of million persons died of this monkey bite" - a remark indicating the bloodshed of 1921 and 1922 could have been avoided had Alexander lived and Venizelos kept his office. 

The passage of the Volstead Act in October 1919 ushered in Prohibition in the US. Once liquor was illegal, subversive beverages like "moonshine," "hooch," and "white lightning" were in high demand. 

Brewed in distilleries, moonshine and the like was transported from place to place by bootleggers. To avoid law enforcement, bootleggers used backroads and drove at high speeds in cars equipped to subtly carry illicit liquor.

Especially common in the American South and Appalachia, bootleggers tweaked their cars to make them faster while simultaneously using heavy-duty suspension to protect their wares. The insides of the cars were altered to carry more booze along roads with twists, turns, and other hazards. The type of driving necessary to successfully transport illegal alcohol became a skill, one that people put on display at public stock car races. 

After Prohibition ended in 1933, the demand for moonshine decreased, but the bootleggers found ways to keep driving, albeit on racetracks. As author Daniel S. Pierce noted, “a large percentage of the early [stock car] mechanics, car owners, promoters, and track owners had deep ties to the illegal alcohol business.”

The popularity of stock car racing grew with men like Raymond Parks at the forefront of establishing racing teams. In 1947, racer William "Big Bill" France brought together drivers, promoters, and other racing personnel to formally establish the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing - NASCAR. France and his colleagues created the official rules for NASCAR and, in February 1948, the first race took place at Daytona Beach.

The legacies of moonshine and bootlegging remain strong in NASCAR. Former bootlegger and racer Junior Johnson explained:

Moonshiners put more time, energy, thought and love into their cars than any racer ever will… Lose on the track and you go home. Lose with a load of whiskey and you go to jail.”

After a fall-out with his father, Frank C. Mars (the founder of US-based Mars Company) during the 1930s, Forrest Mars reportedly "told my dad to stick the business up his a**" and moved to England. 

While overseas, Mars developed his own candies based on some British sweet treats. While visiting Spain in 1937, he was said to have seen off-duty British soldiers eating a particular candy he described as “lentil-shaped, candy-coated chocolates.”

They were likely Smarties, although they were called "Chocolate Nibs" or "Chocolate Beans" at the time. Because of their hard shell, the chocolate didn't melt in even the hottest climates. 

Mars took the idea back to the US, although he called his product M&Ms. By creating chocolate candy that didn't melt, he developed the ideal product to include in rations given to troops - one that was much less messy than the chocolate bars that were also part of field rations. It wasn't until 1954, however, that Mars trademarked the slogan "melts in your mouth, not in your hands." 

Malaria in colonial India was a major problem for British citizens and soldiers and, as a result, they relied on quinine to combat the disease. Derived from the bark of the cinchona tree, quinine was popular with European settlers in South America during the 17th century as an anti-fever drug. In colonial India, it was again used for fevers, and due to its bitterness, was usually mixed with soda water and sugar.

The bubbly beverage soon became a new drink - tonic water; the first patents for it appeared as early as 1858. Schweppes tonic water entered the market in 1870 as "Indian Quinine Tonic" and was mixed with alcohol, namely gin. 

The addition of gin to quinine and tonic water had been taking place for decades by the time commercial concoctions came on the scene. In British India, a daily gin and tonic was essential to maintaining imperial control. Part medicinal and part social, imbibing these cocktails became part of life for British expatriates. When they returned to England or ventured to other parts of the world, gin-and-tonic drinkers took their affinity for the beverage with them.