Annie Oakley and the Emperor
One of exhibition shooter Annie Oakley’s most famous acts was to shoot the cigar or cigarette out of a persons mouth. She would ask for volunteers, of which no one would except for her husband and fellow entertainer Francis Butler. Of course Butler was planted in the audience for no casual audience member would want to be shot at.
In 1889 while performing in Berlin, one brave audience member did stand and volunteer, newly crowned German Emperor Kaiser Wilhelm II. Oakley did not expect the Kaiser to be a volunteer and the German police tried to stop the event, only to be dismissed by the new emperor. Calmly and cooly Annie Oakley brilliantly shot the ashes off of the Kaisers cigar.
While Oakley would continue her career as an exihibition shooter, Kaiser Wilhelm II would be ousted from rule at the end of WWI. How would history have been different if Annie Oakley had missed?
Plus a lot of history too.
