Example: O.J Simpson
He was a symbol of where the 90s were and how big his court case was at the time. Not that he should garner sympathy because we all know he did it and he only got off on technicality as well as theater performed by his council. But we all know where we were when that was all happening.
Out of left field, and something I’ve posted online before: Arthur Tudor
Arthur was the older brother of the man who became Henry VIII. Like the curious echo in modern times, red-haired Harry was the spare.
Arthur’s death, therefore, is the historical pivot that turns Britain Protestant, cutting ties with Rome, dissolving alliances with Europe and sending us off into doing everything in the way we did it, for better or worse, since Tudor times
Shakespeare? Might never have happened. Spanish armada? What armada? We might well have remained friends and there’d be no need for angry Spaniards in ships. Arthur was married to Catherine of Aragon. We might have been part of any armada.
Mary I was Henry and Catherine’s child. With Arthur still alive, there’s no Mary I.
In the timeline where Arthur lives, Henry’s trajectory is completely different. Does he still marry Anne Boleyn and beget Elizabeth? Even if they do, she’s very unlikely to become queen.
All of modern history, especially that of the USA, would be completely different were it not for that one unidentified and lethal malady.