If you could change one thing in history.

[United Kingdom of Poland]

Gallipoli and Dieppe had a roughly 50/50 British/Commonwealth participation. In fact it seems that Britain took the majority of casualties in Gallipoli. I admit British leadership has at times been terrible, but name one nation who hasn't had a bad commander at some point?

Israel.

Only 'bad' commander in Israel's history was David Elazar, and he turned a war of extermination around in a matter of days, taking the fight deep into Egypt and Syria.

true, and to be honest my great grampa was a canadian tank driver, the letters I have been shown dont paint a good picture of british commanders from 43 to 45.

[Felix Terra]

You'd think everyone would just say "kill Hitler"...

I would make the Native Americans a technological civilization in time to stop the Spaniards.

Also, go to the worlds oldest bank at it's founding and invest one cent. By 2012, I would be the richest poster on NS.

[Zutendaal]

you can't go back in time to invest 1 cent(even if you could you'd be dead by now).You can only change one thing.

plus,the first bankers where in greece,which was warring with themselfs,the persians and finally:conquered and pillaged by Rome. So you would have lost your cent.

[Xekliv]

Make it so that JFK wasn't assassinated.

[Phocidaea]

WWI would never happen.

If it didn't, then we would avoid not one but two of the most destructive wars in history (WWII would also be considerably delayed, if not avoided), and the Cold War wouldn't happen were it not for WWII, and so there would be no creation of today's volatile geopolitical climate, nuclear weapons wouldn't be invented, and there wouldn't be a red scare (first or second) in the US, so politics wouldn't turn sharply to the right here, and the US wouldn't become "Team America World Police", so there would be no anti-US reactionist terrorism, and by proxy less anti-Western terrorism in general. Less genocides, less destructive wars, less terrorism.

Actually, even better. Let WWI go through, but stop WWII before it began. WWI would still cause widespread destruction, but in the long run it caused a lot of good things (many of which were undone by WWII, but whatever). WWI led to Germany, Italy, Austria, and really most of Europe becoming proper republics, as well as Turkey and (in a very, very loose sense of the term) Russia [If it weren't for the events leading up to WWII, the Soviet Union might have actually accomplished something good. CoughStalinCough.]. If WWII didn't happen, then all the bad things that resulted from that wouldn't be here, but the modernization and political rearrangements after WWI would. So I'd actually vote for this one first. Sorry, dead WWI vets.

[Zutendaal]

good choice. untill ww1,half europe was conquered by the ottomans. they wouldn't have stopped their invasion without ww1.

[Vanum Norendum]

If I could change one thing in history, I would have killed Stalin before he rose to power, when Lenin was still alive.

With Stalin dead, Soviet industrialization would never have happened, and the Nazi's would have invaded the Soviet Union, and pushed the Soviets back to the Urals. There was really no way for Germany to actually win the war though the logistics of maintaining such an operation over such a large distance away would mean that the Soviets could probably mount an effective defense against the Germans at the Urals, but most of Eastern Russia would be under German control. The army in Russia would still face the assault of the severe Russian winter, just much later, and further away from their supply lines. Russia at this point would be given supplies by the US and UK in an effort to prevent further German progress. This would modernize their army enough to sufficiently defend against the German onslaught in the Urals. With operations still ongoing in Russia, so far from Europe, the US, and UK would be able to attack from the West once the Japanese brought the US into the war, while the Germans were still occupied in the East, thus splitting German forces between two fronts. The US, and UK would defeat Germany in the long run, and later Japan as well.

The allies still win WWII, but the difference is that WWII would probably be longer, but the USSR, would not become a superpower, and the cold war never would have happened, which would mean no Korean war, no Vietnam war, no Chinese communism, no Cuban missile crisis, the middle east situation would be totally different.

[Wirbel]

Karl Marx would be the first and only man ever to be immortal.

Why pick Karl Marx? Why not someone like Einstein or Stephen Hawking or some genius...

[North Calaveras]

no dark ages

[St Mark]

Simple: That there was never any wars.

[The Republic of Greenland]

good choice. untill ww1,half europe was conquered by the ottomans. they wouldn't have stopped their invasion without ww1.

Actually, the Ottomans were in decline before WW1. "The sick man of Europe" as they said.

[The Monus Federation]

Either Richard Nixon being the one to get assassinated instead of JFK or the film 'Nukie' never being made.

[Phocidaea]

Karl Marx would be the first and only man ever to be immortal.

Why pick Karl Marx? Why not someone like Einstein or Stephen Hawking or some genius...

Oh, it's just a communist. They worship their founder. He's the opiate for their masses.

Honestly, I wouldn't be surprised if Hawking's brain got put in a jar to continue his studies after he dies, though. That's basically what his disease has left him anyway.

[Corporations and Companies]

That's a tough question.

What would the USA be like today if Lincoln had not been assassinated? Would black-white integration have been quicker and less painless.

If WWII had never taken place, where would the world be technologically today? Innovations that took decades came about in years.

As well WWII brought women out of the home and into the workforce. No WWII might mean women might still be struggling to get out of the kitchen.

What would the world be like if the Vikings colonized North America? If the Aztecs had defeated Cortes?

And what would Europe be like if the Spanish Armada had landed in Britain?

[Azrael]

Make scientists invent a cure for stupidity.