From a book by David Clay Large entitled What If?, the story is called "Thanks, But No Cigar":
In 1889 a young Kaiser Wilhelm attended a Wild West Show particularly keen to see Annie Oakley. When Annie announced that she would shoot the ashes off of a cigar and jokingly asked the audience for a volunteer, the Kaiser leapt out of the royal box and strutted into the arena. Unable to retract her dare without losing face and regretful that she had consumed more than her usual amount of whiskey the night before, she paced off her usual distance, took aim, and shot off Wilhelm's ashes.
Had the sharpshooter from Cincinnati creased the kaiser's head rather than his cigar one of Europe's most ambitious and volatile rulers would have been removed from the scene. Germany might not have pursued its policy of aggressive Weltpolitik that culminated in war 25 years later. Without WWI there would have been no soviet state, no WWII and no Cold War.
Annie herself seemed to realize her mistake later on. After WWI began she wrote to the kaiser asking for a second shot. He did not respond.
Pretty weird to think that the world could be completely different by now had she missed or shot him on purpose. We'd probably be further along in technology and medicine by now had all the shit we know about hadn't gone down.
Posted by Jim at December 30, 2005 10:13 AM