Underrated PODs?

[Rhand]

So we all know that Nazi and CSA victory are preferred choices for alternate history, but what are other PODs you thought could be interesting? Here are some of mine:

1) Emperor Madhavrao I Lives
The most prolific Emperor of the Marathis, who worked to centralize and expand what was a de facto feudal confederation. He died young of tuberculosis, and the Maratha Empire again declined, before being subsumed into the British Empire by ~1818. What would have happened if he had never got tuberculosis? Strong Indian empires are sadly unexplored in Alternate History.

2) Zachary Taylor Lives
Closer to home. Zachary Taylor was one of the most prolific Whig Presidents, before he died of cholera after a year in office. He was a unifying force in the nation at the time, a southern slaveholder who opposed the expansion of slavery. Though the south wanted to expand slavery, they would not have rebelled en masse against one of their own. Could the Civil War have been avoided? Could the Whigs have survived as a party?

3) Spanish Succession PODs
Two Crown Victory at Blenheim is one that immediately comes to mind, but what if the war had been avoided by a successful partition treaty, as was proposed in OTL?

What are some of your own?

[Kubo Caskett]

I have some PODS that are underrated IMO:

1.War over the Beagle Channel-I'm just going to get this out of the way since this one my favorite; for a few decades Argentina and Chile had a dispute over some islands in the Beagle Channel but in the late 70's, Argentina-under the infamous NRP Junta-wanted to settle the dispute with force via war with Chile-also ruled by a Junta but was lead by Pinochet-and was very close to doing so had it not been for pressure from the Pope. What if the Junta decided to ignore the pope (or deliberately delay him) just to go ahead with the plan to initiate hostiles with Chile? How would this affect Latin America and the world altogether? I really do wish this gets more attention since Latin American PODs are very underrated IMO.

2. Korean War won by the South and Allies-The Korean War IOTL had an impact on not just East Asia but the world at large (with the tensions still ongoing to this day). That and producing a very despicable rogue state that's more or less as communistic as it was in the 50's but I digress. Of course the war could have been won in favor of Pyongyang but the outcome I'm referring to here (and preferring to) is the one won by Seoul. What could have been the consequences of the Korean War that was won by the South and its allies?

3. 9/11 Averted-This event obviously changed the way the 21st century was going to be (and probably for the worse but that's another discussion for another time) and sometimes we wish it never happened but however there were a couple chances it could have been prevented. For instance there was a chance to prevent this catastrophe when the perpetrators were learning how to fly back in 2000 and the guys teaching them could have picked up suspicion of their motives. Could this suspicion lead to the perpetrators getting arrested?

[MinnesotaNationalist]

My Personal all-time favorite PODs are the Roman-Hunnic wars and the Migration Period of the 400's. So many different scenarios could be played with in such a short time span, especially ones where different Germanic Tribes end up in power or end up in different places. Sadly, it seems like I'm the only one who ever plays with them...

[orvillethird]

I tend to like obscure PoDs. What if Robert Hannegan never ran the DNC? (We could see Henry Wallace continue as FDR's VP...and certainly someone besides Truman.) What if the Republic of the Rio Grande and other secessionist regions of Mexico stayed independent instead of just Texas and California? What if Jeanne Kirkpatrick had carried the day over the Falklands War- or had Thatcher been upset over Grenada? What if William Blake had wider recognition in his time...or made political tracts? (He was not just a poet, he printed his own works...and was politically radical.) What if Dutch Schultz got Thomas Dewey killed? (We could see President Robert Taft...and certainly a greater mafia crackdown.) I've even come up with a few that I need to expand. (Roald Dahl is caught in a spy activity, thus resulting in a breach between the US and UK), the Zatanna movie is made, Mark McKinnon's car crashes into an off-duty police officer (as he nearly avoided OTL) making Bush lose South Carolina in 2000- and some more)

[Epic History]

Here's a few:

1. On June 28th, 1918 Kaiser Wilhelm was presented with two policy proposals. One, crafted by the Foreign Office, advocated continued cooperation for the moment with the Bolsheviks in Russia. The other was written by the military, and they desired to immediately end the Reds since they had already for the most part served their purpose. Now, Willy had a tendency to agree with the first advice he received on an issue, and guess which one he received first in this guess? Having accepted the Foreign Office's suggestion, he forbade military action for the time being and thus a golden opportunity to destroy the Soviets in their cradle was lost. At the time, the only serious combat power the Reds had were Latvian units and even the cut-off Czech Legion showed it could handle them. The Germans could've easily taken Petrograd and then marched on Moscow, while insurgent resistance was also not feasible as shown by the military putting down a Red uprising in Ukraine as late as August of that same year. 

2. Huldrych Zwingli was present at the Battle of Marignano in 1515, and thus could've easily died there. Presuming he does, the entire course of Swiss history is changed since Zwingli basically led the Reformation there. Without him, the Church could most likely easily stamp out any dissenters and thus keep the Swiss as a whole Catholic. Without the internal divide forcing them to remove their focus from the rest of Europe, Swiss military power will remain and can have an enormous impact on future conflicts. Imagine, for example, a large Swiss merc contingent at Vienna during the First Ottoman Siege, for example. 

3. Alexander McLeod was a deputy sheriff from British Canada, whom allegedly bragged about being a part of the attack of the Carolina in 1837. While he most likely wasn't, the inflamed passion saw to it that he was arrested by New York authorities after coming into the state to handle another charge. This started a dramatic foreign policy battle, with Lord Palmerston at one point stating that the execution of McLeod (As was expected to happen), would lead to war and the British government was more or less united in opposition to the actions of New York in the affair. Presuming McLeod meets an unfortunate end, another war between the US and UK would be the likely result while the Mexican-American War is probably butterflied away for the time being. 

[MinnesotaNationalist]

One that I forgot but I think is really important:
The Assassination of William McKinley (in which I argue the most influential assassination in American History, even above Lincoln and Kennedy). The death of McKinley allowed the rise of Theodore Roosevelt, who thusly brought the hammer down on the Corporations running the show at the time. Had McKinley lived, the Corporations probably would probably keep an iron grip on the Government (insert witty remark of modern America here).

[guyverman1990]

Phoenicians defeating Rome in the second Punic war.