The Course Of History

Whenever some world changing event happens who happens to be commenting on its consequences will usually say it "changed the course of history". Wait though, isn't history what already happened? Since when was it on a course? Was it going according to some plan the rest of us didn't know about? Who decided the course, and once its changed does it ever get back on? Does history sometimes not change course but just maybe veer a little to the left? That doesn't sound as exciting though does it? You'll never hear a newscaster or historian say "This somewhat limited event caused history to swerve slightly".