History of Divergent Timeline

Martin Cruz Smith, in his first novel, posited an independent American Indian nation following the defeat of Custer in The Indians Won (1970).

Image source: Indianapolis Indians

Norman Spinrad wrote The Iron Dream in 1972, framed as a science fiction novel written by Adolf Hitler after fleeing Europe to North America in the 1920s, satirizing fascist themes in pulp fiction.

Image source: The Iron Dream

Ryō Hanmura's 1973 novel Musubi no Yama Hiroku recreated 400 years of Japan's history from the perspective of a secret magical family with psychic abilities.

Guido Morselli described the defeat of Italy and France in World War I in his novel Past Conditional (1975; Contro-passato prossimo), wherein the static Alpine front collapses when the Germans and Austrians adopt blitzkrieg twenty years early.

Image source: Guido Morselli

Kingsley Amis set his novel The Alteration (1976) in the 20th century, but major events of the Reformation never took place, leaving Protestantism limited to the breakaway Republic of New England.

Beginning with The Probability Broach in 1980, L. Neil Smith wrote several novels postulating the disintegration of the US Federal Government after Albert Gallatin joins the Whiskey Rebellion in 1794, eventually leading to the creation of a libertarian utopia.

Image source: The Probability Broach

In 1986, a sixteen-part epic comic book series called Captain Confederacy began examining a world where the Confederate States of America won the American Civil War.

The Inc trilogy (1987–89), featuring paratime detectives Sam and Brandy Horowitz, marks the first attempt at merging the paratime thriller with the police procedural. Michael Kurland's Perchance (1988), first volume of the unfinished 'Chronicles of Elsewhen', presented a multiverse of secretive cross-time societies.

Fatherland (1992), by Robert Harris, is set in Europe following a Nazi victory in World War II, becoming a best-selling example of Nazi-victory alternate history. It was adapted as a TV movie set in a 1964 alternative world where US President Joseph Kennedy and Adolf Hitler agree to meet to discuss ending their Cold War fifteen years after the Axis victory.

Image source: Fatherland (novel)

In Nick Hancock and Chris England's 1997 book What Didn't Happen Next: An Alternative History of Football it is suggested that, had Gordon Banks been fit to play in the 1970 FIFA World Cup quarter-final, there would have been no Thatcherism and the post-war consensus would have continued indefinitely.

Image source: Gordon Banks

In Eric Flint's 1632 series, a small town in West Virginia is transported to 17th century central Europe and drastically changes the course of the Thirty Years' War, then underway.

Kim Stanley Robinson's novel The Years of Rice and Salt (2002) starts with Timur turning his army away from Europe and the Black Death killing 99% of Europe's population instead of only a third. Robinson explores world history from AD 1405 (807 AH) to about AD 2045 (1467 AH).

Image source: The Years of Rice and Salt

John Birmingham's Axis of Time trilogy deals with the culture shock when a United Nations naval task force from 2021 finds itself back in 1942 helping the Allies against Japan and Germany, exploring cultural impacts of people with 2021 ideals interacting with 1940s culture.

Philip Roth's novel The Plot Against America (2004) looks at an America where Franklin D. Roosevelt is defeated in 1940 in his bid for a third term as President, and Charles Lindbergh is elected, leading to a US featuring increasing fascism and anti-Semitism. HBO adapted it as a miniseries where Lindbergh wins the 1940 election as an anti-war candidate moving the country toward fascism.

Image source: The Plot Against America

Michael Chabon contributed to the genre with his novel The Yiddish Policemen's Union (2007), exploring a world in which the State of Israel was destroyed in its infancy and many of the world's Jews instead live in a small strip of Alaska set aside by the US government for Jewish settlement.

Image source: The Yiddish Policemen's Union

C.J. Sansom's Dominion (2012) is similar in concept to Fatherland but is set in England, with Churchill the leader of an anti-German Resistance and other historic persons in various fictional roles.

Image source: Dominion (Sansom novel)

In the Mecha Samurai Empire series (2016), Peter Tieryas focuses on the Asian-American side of the alternate history, exploring an America ruled by the Japanese Empire while integrating elements of Asian pop culture like mechas and videogames.

Image source: Mecha Samurai Empire series

In Steve Rhinelander's 2022 novel Poutine and Gin, the point of divergence is the Battle of the Plains of Abraham of the French and Indian War; the novel is a mystery set in 1940 of that timeline. Also in 2022, R.M.'s Hydrogen Wars: Atomic Sunrise appeared, with another point of divergence occurring in 1199, when Richard the Lionheart survives the Siege of Chaluz and makes the Angevin Empire strong enough to survive into the 20th century.

Image source: Battle of the Plains of Abraham

The Court-Martial of George Armstrong Custer is a 1977 telemovie where George Custer survives the Battle of Little Bighorn and faces a court martial hearing over his incompetence.

1983 is set on a world where the Iron Curtain never fell and the Cold War continues until the present day of 2003.

In Star Trek's primary universe, there are references to alternative versions of historical events, and entirely alternative ones, such as the rise of Khan Noonien Singh in the fictional Eugenics Wars from 1992 to 1996.

The Great Martian War 1913–1917 is an alternate history mockumentary where giant Martians with machines invaded Earth during WW1, causing huge technological upgrades and the Entente and Central Powers fighting alongside each other.

Image source: The Great Martian War 1913–1917

Primal features Spear and Fang from prehistory encountering Ancient Egypt and Vikings eras, and in episode 'The Primal Theory' Charles Darwin is alive in 1890 instead of dying in 1882.

Image source: Primal (TV series)

The Marvel Cinematic Universe series Loki (2021 and 2023) on Disney+ shows an agency which prevents alterations to the timeline, while What If...? (2021–2024) shows alternate universes depicting alternate events from the MCU films.

Image source: What If...? (TV series)

The anime Fena: Pirate Princess featured an alternate 18th century, blending pirate adventure with a reimagined historical setting.

Image source: Fena: Pirate Princess

The 'Usenet Alternate History List' was first posted on 11 April 1991, to the Usenet newsgroup rec.arts.sf-lovers, creating one of the earliest organized online resources for alternate history enthusiasts.

Image source: Uchronia: The Alternate History List

In May 1995, the dedicated newsgroup soc.history.what-if was created for showcasing and discussing alternate histories, giving fans a dedicated online forum.

Image source: Alternate history

In addition to Usenet discussion forums, in 1997 Uchronia: The Alternate History List was created as an online repository, now containing over 2,900 alternate history novels, stories, essays, and other printed materials in several different languages.