Changing History With Hitler & Bees

There is one question that comes up time and time again. And even though it has no correct answer it is debated for hours across the world.

That question is:

"If you could go back in time and change one event in the history of mankind, what event would you change?"

And with such a question there is always the usual answers, going back in time and stopping someone from dying - Jesus, John F Kennedy, John Lennon, or Martin Luther King. Going back in time and stopping someone being born - Osama Bin Laden, Adolf Hitler, Pol Pot, or Kim Kardashian.

But the problem is that when you head back in time and alter the past, in theory anyway, it would alter the present and future too. And the bigger problem is that you don't know what will alter what.

Sure, saving Jesus would be a great idea. But then he doesn't die for your sins, the Bible has no ending, and the Christian religion falls flat on its arse because of it. With no Christianity the major religion becomes Judaism. A quick step forward to 1939 and Adolf Hitler is Jewish, the holocaust never happens. All sounds so easy. But just before jumping into that time machine, you got from some mad scientist on eBay, there is the other side to consider. What happens to the world without Christianity? It is hard to say, but the Black Death that sweeps through Europe in the 14th Century claims 500 million lives instead of the estimated 200 million because Europe as a whole is less compassionate.

It is all swings and roundabouts. Save one group of people and another group die.

Head back in time and stop Adolf Hitler being born. Great. World War 2 doesn't happen. Everyone can party and celebrate. But the problem exists that at some point some person will come along with the idea that they can run the world. So stopping Adolf being born just delayed the fact. Because although it is hardly mentioned Adolf Hitler is a great example to any despot that is thinking of trying to run the world - the world doesn't want it and you will fail.

Hitler being born might appear as a travesty, but if another mad man, despot, dictator comes along maybe 50 years after the time World War 2 would have happened the technology has improved and so has the way to kill millions more. So instead of the estimated 60 million that died it may be more like 600 million. You have to think that the first idiot nation to launch a nuclear weapon will trigger a string of events with everyone launching them. Maybe the death toll is in the billions; all because someone decided Hitler should not be born.

But all of this is pure speculation. Nobody can be sure what happens if certain events in history don't happen. And nobody can be sure it has to be a major event change. The slightest thing could change the history of mankind.

The driver of John F Kennedy's limousine is getting a coffee just before he gets ready to pick up the president. After he gets his coffee, he is walking back to the limousine. He opens the door to get in, and a bee stings him. Allergic to bee stings, he starts to feel unwell. As he arrives to pick up the president, it is noted by the president the driver is looking like shit. The president has to wait while another driver is found to replace him. Leaving 15 minutes late, the president makes his journey to the airport. Why didn't Lee Harvey Oswald shoot him? Because he got scared. He knew when the president was meant to drive by. He got scared that someone had found out and changed the route, any minute kicking the door in and arresting him.

But there was no bee, or if there was there was no driver that was allergic to bee stings, who just happened to get stung. So the president drove by at the time he was meant to and Lee Harvey Oswald shot him.

And that is the main thing, not all changes have to be major. Little events have a knock-on effect.

As a final example - a human sperm is 50 micrometres in length. Remove that one sperm and Kim Kardashian is not born. And no matter how much you think about it there is no bad that can come from this one very small change in history.