Just one of those moments...

On this day in 1933, a missed opportunity in Miami almost changed the world as we know it.

Giuseppe Zangara was a deranged, unemployed bricklayer. A known anarchist, Zangara hatched a plan to assassinate America’s President-elect, Franklin Delano Roosevelt. FDR was in the backseat of his touring car when Zangara fired six rounds in his direction. FDR was uninjured, but the mayor of Chicago, Anton Cermak, was hit in the stomach. The wound would eventually prove itself to be fatal.

As the story goes, Zangara intended to use his .32 caliber pistol that he had bought at a pawnshop to assassinate the man that he blamed for his hunger. Zangara, who was only five feet tall, planned to shoot FDR as his motorcade passed. However, due to Zangara’s size, he was unable get a good look at the President-elect. Zangara decided to stand on a wobbly chair to get a better angle.

Angered by Zangara for blocking her vision, a Miamian named W.F. Cross jostled his chair as he was firing at the motorcade. This made it impossible for Zangara to hit his target.

Had Cross not shook his metal chair, Zangara certainly would have assassinated FDR. The Vice President elect was a man named John Nance Garner (Truman was the VP until 1941). Garner, a Texan, was put on the ticket to balance FDR’s liberalism. Unlike FDR, he was not a firm believer in government regulation of business. Garner was an isolationist when it came to foreign policy, and conservative when it came to social welfare programs. Much like Herbert Hoover, Garner believed that volunteerism was the best way to stimulate the economy after the crash of 1929. In other words, he was the anti-FDR.

According to the newly ratified twentieth amendment, Garner would have become President if Zangara’s bullet hit FDR instead of Cermak. How would Garner have reacted to the Great Depression? How about Pearl Harbor?

Thanks to a women named W.F. Cross, we don’t know the answer to those questions.