Blog Feed from Today In Alternate History - A Daily Updating Blog of Important Events In History That Never Occurred Today.

Blog Entry from 2008-02-05

Alternate Historian Robbie Taylor — 1970-01-01T00:00:00+01:00

In 1811 owing to the utter incompetence of the Prince of Wales, Parliament named Prime Minister Spencer Perceval as Lord Protector because King George III had gone mad. After George III's death, the Lord Protector simply continued to rule England, and the princes and princesses of the realm no longer ascended to the throne.

Blog Entry from 2008-02-05

Robbie Taylor — 1970-01-01T00:00:00+01:00

In 47,371 BCE, Swikolay, great-granddaughter of Telka the Speaker, has a vision of her dead inspiration. In her dream, Telka descends from the sky and lands next to her. 'You are believing something that you can't touch with your hands again,' the vision tells her. 'Dream your own dream, my child.'

Blog Entry from 2008-02-05

Robbie Taylor — 1970-01-01T00:00:00+01:00

In 2003 in the closing days of the Northwestern Insurrection, the Washington Soviet launches a nuclear missile at troops stationed in Sacramento, California Soviet. The former capitol of California is utterly destroyed, and many leaders of the Soviet States of America call for nuclear retaliation against the People's Republic, but Comrade President Cobb refused to do it; 'These comrades are misguided,', he told his nation, 'but, they are still our brothers and sisters in the Great Struggle. We cannot and will not treat their lives as expendable.'

Blog Entry from 2008-02-05

Alternate Historian Robbie Taylor — 1970-01-01T00:00:00+01:00

In 12-10-0-4-12, the performance of The Priest Of Quetchuan in Oueztec City marks the beginning of legitimate, professional theater in the Oueztecan Empire. For centuries, small groups of performers had performed theatrical works around the empire, but The Priest of Quetchuan was performed in a theater built specifically for the purpose, and this theater gave all those roving bands hope that they, too, could one be accepted and wealthy.

Blog Entry from 2008-02-05

Alternate Historian Robbie Taylor — 1970-01-01T00:00:00+01:00

In 1850 DuBois D. Parmalee of New Paltz, New York patented an invention he called the adding machine, which had a series of keys that could be pressed to add up numbers. When the first company that attempted to put it into use jammed all the keys on the prototype, Parmalee went bankrupt, and his adding machine went into the dustbin of history.

Blog Entry from 2008-02-05

Robbie Taylor — 1970-01-01T00:00:00+01:00

In 1904 Q'B'Ton'ra's fleet is launched against earth; although Ambassador Li'Kanto'Mk assures the alien leader that the Mlosh of earth have no memories of the homeworld, Q'B'Ton'ra feels that they would be compelled to avenge their ancestors. 'I will deal with them as I dealt with the original Mlosh - I will crush and kill them all.'

Blog Entry from 2008-02-05

Robbie Taylor — 1970-01-01T00:00:00+01:00

In 1941 the German Underground lost its Italian wing as the Greater Zionist Resistance obtained the blessings of the Pope as Europe's rightful rulers. This leads the G.U. to secretly assassinate the Pope the next year, and influences enough cardinals to make sure that the next pope is a Nazi-friendly one.

Blog Entry from 2008-02-05

Robbie Taylor — 1970-01-01T00:00:00+01:00

In 1952 Mikhail von Heflin and Velma Porter meet Carl Thompson, the son of his descendant Willard Thompson, in the small town of Bryan, Texas. The Baron von Todt has been told much of Carl's life by Carl's children, who will exist in all times concurrently. Thompson is shocked to discover the true nature of his family lineage, but is charmed by the Baron and his young companion, and invites them to stay in his home.

Blog Entry from 2008-02-05

Todayinah Editor — 1970-01-01T00:00:00+01:00

In 2008 the Super Tuesday knock-out strategy conceived by Chief Strategist Mark Penn was a stunning success for Hillary Clinton.
Obama won Alaska, Colorado, Illinois, Minnesota, Missouri. Clinton won Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, Kansas, Idaho, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Dakota, Oklahoma and Tennessee and Utah.
On the day on which she had expected secure the nomination, the results suggest the nomination is her's. When the bright lights are off and the cameras are gone, who can you count on to listen to you, to stand up for you, to deliver solutions for you? she asks supporters.

Blog Entry from 2008-02-05

Robbie Taylor — 1970-01-01T00:00:00+01:00

In 2003 Soviet troops storm Seattle as ships bombard it from offshore. By the end of the day, all the People's Republic of America troops inside the city are ready to surrender, and they turn the city over to the victorious Soviet States of America. The entire soviet of Washington soon follows, and the die appears to be cast for the P.R.A.

Blog Entry from 2008-02-05

Eric Lipps — 1970-01-01T00:00:00+01:00

In 1844 debate begins in British Parliament over the Colonial Reform Act.

Championed by Daniel Webster of the Massachusetts colonial legislature (pictured), the Act proposes that the American colonies be granted representation in the House of Commons.

Webster points out that a battle cry of the original American rebellion was "taxation without representation" and asks Parliament to pass the Act "in the interests alike of common fairness and the national tranquility, which can only be fostered by a sense that colonist and home islander alike share common rights as Englishmen".

Peel observes that both the general colonial revolt of the 1770s and the Southern rebellion of 1838-41 arose from a sense on the part of those involved that, without representation, they had no such options; as evidence, he reminds his listeners that one of the key slogans of the first rebellion was "No taxation without representation".
This post is an article from the Liberty Fails thread.

Blog Entry from 2008-02-05

Chris Oakley — 1970-01-01T00:00:00+01:00

On this day in 2018 shooting was finally completed for the third CSI movie.

Blog Entry from 2008-02-05

Todayinah Editor — 1970-01-01T00:00:00+01:00

In 1945 the twenty-third "Sunrise" Infantry Division of the Imperial Japanese Army liberated the Gila River Internment Camp in Arizona on this day. One of the internees was thirteen year old Noriyuki "Pat" Morita (pictured), later to become one of the iconic Japanese American actors of the second half of the twentieth century.
Click to watch the Pat Morita Interview

Forced into a lengthy sentence behind barbed wire in crowded, primitive camps, Japanese Americans such as Morita had been deprived of the very liberties set out by the Atlantic Charter, namely "freedom from fear and want". Because nearly 120,000 people living on the West Coast had been hurried out of their homes and relieved of their possessions and businesses at less than forty hours notice (of the 127,000 Japanese Americans living in the continental United States at the time of the Pearl Harbor attack, 112,000 resided on the West Coast and of those 80,000 were born in the United States and holding American citizenship).

And at their subsequent trials, incarcerated liberal politicians such as Earl Warren and Fiorello La Guardia confessed their shame at this mass violation of civil liberties which was rivaled only by the systematic segregation of African-Americans. That remorse was only matched by the military planners of the United States Joint Army and Navy Board; disasterously, their War Plan Orange had failed to anticipate the role of submarines and naval aviation in the Pacific Theatre.

Blog Entry from 2008-02-05

Chris Oakley — 1970-01-01T00:00:00+01:00

On this day in 1990, Swiss police completed their inquiry into the suicides of Nicolae and Elena Ceaucescu.

Their final report confirmed coroners' preliminary findings that the deposed Romanian dictator and his wife had hanged themselves while their guards were changing shifts.

Blog Entry from 2008-02-05

Chris Oakley — 1970-01-01T00:00:00+01:00

In 1958 U.S. Air Force officer Howard Richardson was killed during a training exercise when a mechanical malfunction caused the nuclear bomb his plane was carrying to detonate in mid-flight, destroying the bomber and killing its entire crew.

The incident put U.S. nuclear forces in the continental United States on full alert for 12 hours and nearly triggered World War III.

Blog Entry from 2008-02-05

Todayinah Editor — 1970-01-01T00:00:00+01:00

In 2010 on this day US President John S. McCain was presented with a 140-page National Intelligence Estimate (NIE). The report, which represented the consensual view of all sixteen American intelligence agencies, concluded with a "moderate level of confidence" that the Great Nation of Iran would be fully equipped with an operational "Persian Bomb" by the end of the year.

Despite his predecessor's State of the Union address stigmatising Iran within the "axis of evil", it was widely acknowledged that the nuclear technology had in fact originated from Pakistan, a putative ally in the "war on terror". But regardless of the fact that the late Prime Minister Benezir Bhutto had failed to prevent the Pakistani nuclear engineer A.Q. Khan shipping advanced weapons designs to Tehran, the reality was that the US now faced "the McCain moment". That phrase had been coined during the 2008 Presidential campaign when the then Senator said "There is only one thing worse than the United States exercising a military option. That is a nuclear-armed Iran".

"There is only one thing worse than the United States exercising a military option. That is a nuclear-armed Iran" ~ McCainThe possibility that a nuclear device, piggy-backed on a Shahab-4 missile would be used to "wipe the State of Israel off the map" was of course the worst case scenario. As far back as 2007, the option that Israel itself took pre-emptive action to destroy the Iranian nuclear technology had been taken off the table. In fact Washington analysts doubted that US, let alone Israel, could destroy all sixteen sites where research was being conducted. And then there was the "moderate" confidence level of the NIE itself, produced by the same agencies whose misintelligence had judged that Iraq had a WMD programme in 2003 based on the faulty logic that there was no contrary evidence to show the programme had stopped. And the decision to proceed with a pre-emptive strike was now in the hands of McCain. A faulty decision-maker who had unwisely decided to continue with his bombing run of Hanoi, disregarding a warning tone that an enemy SAM battery had locked onto him.

Blog Entry from 2008-02-05

Jeff Provine — 1970-01-01T00:00:00+01:00

In 1919 in a bold move, the greatest actors and directors of their day joined to form a studio where they would be in control of their creations. Mary Pickford, "America's Sweethart;" Charles Chaplin, "The Tramp;" D.W. Griffith, whose epic film Birth of a Nation had rocked the country with controversy; and Douglas Fairbanks, the leading actor as well as a powerful producer of Hollywood, sought more control over their films and decided to pool their impressive resources for a new studio dubbed "United Artists."

Metro Pictures head Richard Rowland noted, "The inmates are taking over the asylum." While the action may have produced a new wealth of art for the growing medium of film, it struck a nerve in Hollywood's business arena. If the greatest artists were to gain complete control of their productions, which might be the best sellers, then the millions of dollars to be made would be lost to those who had built up the movie business.

A new story by Jeff ProvineWorst yet was the ramifications for America. One producer noted, "We can't have the eyes of the country glued to the works of a lady Canuck, a Limey, a Clansman, and an adulterer." Only hours after the public release of photos showing Pickford, Chaplin, Griffith, and Fairbanks signing the contracts, a more secret meeting brought together the powerhouses of Hollywood such as Rowland, Loew, Fox, and Laemmle (though none would admit to being part of the conspiracy). While some suspected that the artist-run company would die from overspending as artists tended to do, the conspirators sought to bring United Artists down before it took root. The stars shone over the public with considerable popularity, which became the target for the studios.

Feeding press releases to newspapers, especially those owned by the powerful Hearst, the first major break was the announcement of the "discovery" of the affair between Fairbanks and Pickford. The two had met at a party in 1916 and begun the affair, but the civility of the times kept such things quiet. Fairbanks was currently in proceedings to finalize his divorce with wife Anna Beth in preparation to marry Pickford (herself married to Owen Moore), and the legal papers became fodder for an enormous scandal. With news slow since the end of the Great War and the fights between President Wilson and Congress only marginally interesting, the public was hungry for shocking gossip. The following months tore into Pickford and Fairbanks, ending their careers in America and eventually forcing them to sell out their shares of UA to Chaplin. They left California and moved to Canada, where they would begin new careers filming outside of Toronto. Studio-owned theaters practically refused to show their films in America, so they turned to exporting films, establishing new popularity almost worldwide.

Griffith dropped out soon after, seeing that the resources of United Artists were even less than those offered by penny-pinching studio executives. He returned to creating epics under Louis B. Mayer, whose theaters proved to return Griffith to his blockbuster standing, but his career would fall off as sound transformed filmmaking. Ultimately he would be a consulting director, giving his expertise on epics, such as the film San Francisco in 1936.

Chaplin stood alone with his studio and sought help from wherever he could find it. After barely producing The Gold Rush, he discovered that almost no theater would show it. Quitting America, he returned to London and joined the growing film industry there, which would make him into a titan as audiences across Europe and the British Empire swarmed over his work.

Having successfully defended the business, the studios returned to work creating what many referred to as "hash" or "schlock", depending upon one's standing with Semitism. Still, audiences demanded entertainment through the Depression, and they were given cheaply produced, yet memorable, films. Actors, writers, and directors attempted to unionize numerous times, but the studios crushed each attempt. After World War II, studios fell under suspicion of monopoly, which they clearly were with vertically and horizontally integrated firms controlling nearly every theater, production company, and the distributors connecting them. The studio system collapsed under government pressure and rebellious casts and crews, and the desperate epics of the 1950s only hastened their demise. While international films began to swarm the newly freed American theaters, Hollywood would reinvent itself in the late '50s and '60s into smaller production houses forced to create powerful, though inexpensive, films that mirrored the more triumphant American medium: television. Hollywood today is well known for its productions as well as its Andy Warhol Factory-style, but it is a lesser powerhouse to the Canadian Academy, British Film Corporation, and growing golden age of Bollywood.

Blog Entry from 2008-02-05

Todayinah Editor — 1970-01-01T00:00:00+01:00

In 2011 on this day British broadsheet newspapers published reports of a Wikileak cable showing that in order to get the Russians to buy into the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) the United States gave to Russia nuclear warhead secrets involving British Trident missile inventory.

The goal of the new START Treaty is to disclose and reduce the number of nuclear arms by fifty percent between the US and Russia. It requires that the number of nuclear missiles be limited to no more than 1550 by 2018 and reduce the number of long range missiles and bombers to 700.

However the Wikileak revealed that the number of nuclear missiles had been seriously over-estimated:

"A series of classified messages sent to Washington by US negotiators show how information on Britain's nuclear capability was crucial to securing Russia's support for the New START deal. Although the treaty was not supposed to have any impact on Britain, the leaked cables show that Russia used the talks to demand more information about the UK's Trident missiles, which they were led to believe had been manufactured and maintained in the US.

Perhaps we could save money, and deter aggression, by doing a kind of Saddam Hussein - allowing the world (and above all the Americans) to think we have weapons of mass destruction when in fact we have none. We could invest in a cheap collection of ultra-realistic inflatable missiles and inflatable submarines to pose as our strategic nuclear response. The trouble is that someone would almost certainly pop them accidentally".

Blog Entry from 2008-02-04

Alternate Historian Robbie Taylor — 1970-01-01T00:00:00+01:00

In 1985 Congressmen of the Constitutionalist Party introduce the Alien Sedition Amendment in their first full session in complete control of both houses. They fail to get the 2/3 majority needed for the amendment to pass, but they have hopes that they can bring it back on a later date.

Blog Entry from 2008-02-04

Alternate Historian Robbie Taylor — 1970-01-01T00:00:00+01:00

In 1295 Agha Mohammed Khan, great Moghul of the Indian people, was born in Peshawar. He led one of the largest nations in Islam for 20 years, and transformed much of Asia into a home for the word of the Prophet.

Blog Entry from 2008-02-04

Robbie Taylor — 1970-01-01T00:00:00+01:00

In 1969 Wilhelm Schoemann finds himself in the alternate universe he has helped neo-Nazis create. He has decided to look up his doppelganger and see what he would have done had he been on the victorious end of a war. The devastation that he sees his double has caused brings him to the brink of suicidal despair.

Blog Entry from 2008-02-04

Alternate Historian Robbie Taylor — 1970-01-01T00:00:00+01:00

In 1974 the laughably inept band of would-be revolutionaries known as the Symbionese Liberation Army tried to kidnap heiress Patty Hearst in Berkeley, California. When they showed up at her apartment, though, they found no one - Hearst had gone to Beverly Hills for the weekend on a whim, and stayed with friends through Tuesday. They were arrested at the apartments after a neighbor heard them break in.

Blog Entry from 2008-02-04

Alternate Historian Robbie Taylor — 1970-01-01T00:00:00+01:00

In 1866 faith healer Mary Baker Eddy begins to tout the spiritual healing techniques of her mentor, Phineas Quimby. She feels that simply reading from a Bible will cure all ills and heal wounds. This theory is found sorely lacking a few weeks later, when she dies after a fall on an icy road.

Blog Entry from 2008-02-04

Robbie Taylor — 1970-01-01T00:00:00+01:00

In 1904 Ambassador Li'Kanto'Mk of the Congress of Nations is brought before Q'B'Ton'ra, the ruler of the Mlosh homeworld. The officers of his ship stand with him, and Q'B'Ton'ra has a special interest in the humans. 'They will make excellent slaves,' he says, examining them. 'Strong, unlike our people. Stupid, like yours.' The ship's crew is thrown into a holding cell; on the way there, they see a massive fleet being prepared.

Blog Entry from 2008-02-04

Alternate Historian Robbie Taylor — 1970-01-01T00:00:00+01:00

In 1587 Italian playwright and composer Claudio Monteverdi, realized he had made a mistake translating a Greek word while he was in the middle of attempting a recreation of classic Greek theater. He had thought that the Greeks sung their entire performance - but the word he had mistranslated meant spoke. It was a good thing he had discovered his error early on - otherwise he might have produced an entire play where nothing was spoken, only sung.

Blog Entry from 2008-02-04

Robbie Taylor — 1970-01-01T00:00:00+01:00

Blog Entry from 2008-02-04

Chris Oakley — 1970-01-01T00:00:00+01:00

On this day in 1958, Sandy Koufax earned his 350th NBA career assist in a 113-107 Celtics win over the New York Knicks at Madison Square Garden.

Blog Entry from 2008-02-04

Eric Lipps — 1970-01-01T00:00:00+01:00

In 1787 rebel forces under the command of Daniel Shays of Massachusetts enter Boston, forcing Gov. James Bowdoin (pictured) and the state legislature to flee the city.

Shays' rebels had been greatly aided by their capture of a government armory, which allowed them to defeat the 4,400-man force dispatched against them by the governor under the command of Gen. Benjamin Lincoln.

Shays declares himself 'acting governor' and issues a series of decrees directing the issuance of paper money, halting mortgage foreclosures and imposing caps on fees charged by lawyers. The legal fees had been a prime cause of resentment among those who would become Shays' followers; it was charged that in representing debtors, the lawyers were charging so much that the were forcing their clients into bankruptcy, costing them not only their savings but their homes and livelihoods. Appeals to the state senate had produced no result.

The successful armed overthrow of a state government sets an ominous precedent for the young United States. The ineffectualness of the government established under the Articles of Confederation lies exposed by the inability of the Continental Congress to intervene even against open insurrection. This sends a clear signal to disaffected elements throughout the country that they need not try to achieve their aims peacefully.

The nation's leaders will attempt to rectify matters in the summer of 1787 at the Philadelphia Convention, which was intended to propose amendments to the Articles in the hope of creating a more effective government and stabilizing the country. They would fail. The Convention, instead of merely amending the national charter, would come up with an entirely different constitution, and the state legislatures, accusing the delegates of having overstepped their mandate to produce what Virginia's Thomas Jefferson denounces as a 'blueprint for monarchy.' The new charter fails to be ratified, and in 1794, after a Congress increasingly desperate for money had attempted to levy taxes on the production of hard liquor, the so-called 'Whiskey Revolution' will go further than Shays, toppling the national government. The burning of Philadelphia that October will spell the end of the American union; after that, the individual states will insist upon their own sovereignty, creating on the east coast of the North American continent a mirror image of the patchwork of nation-states existing in Western Europe.

Alexander Hamilton, who had advocated the whiskey tax not only for financial reasons but as a means of asserting 'social discipline'-by which he meant the authority of the central government-warns following the Whiskey Revolution that disunion will offer not only England but other European powers the opportunity to return America to colonial rule. He will be proven right, as one after another of the 'sovereign' states are forced into economic and political vassalage. By 1812, it will be clear to almost everyone what 'state sovereignty' has meant, but it will be too late. In 1820, the last holdout, West Pennsylvania-a breakaway region of the old state of Pennsylvania-will formally surrender to a British occupation force sent to 'restore order' and collect by force the state's large outstanding trade debt.

Blog Entry from 2008-02-04

Todayinah Editor — 1970-01-01T00:00:00+01:00

In 1915 with Great Britain characteristically violating recognised treaty agreements upon the high seas and generally acting with impunity in direct contravention of international law, the Kaiser's Government retaliated by declaring the English Channel to be a war zone.

Because First Lord of the Admiralty Winston Churchill (pictured) had issued instructions to the Royal Navy to mine the North Sea and also impose a "right of search" upon merchant ships carrying cargo to German Ports. Not only was Churchill seeking to starve the Central Powers into submission, he was also intent upon embroiling the United States in a war with Germany.

Recognising this danger, his counterpart the US Secretary of the Navy William Jennings Bryan issued an alert that British vessels were "liable to destruction", cautioning American civilians sailing into the war zone that they were travelling "on ships of Great Britain and her allies do so at their own risk". The warning was prescient because less than six weeks later, German submarine captain Georg-Günther Freiherr von Forstner of the Kaiserliche Marine fired a torpedo from the SM-U28 which sunk a West African steamship, the RMS Falaba.

Intense media scrutiny and public pressure mounted, demanding an American response after the sinking of the Falaba, which was widely and inaccurately reported as nothing short of a massacre of innocent civilians without warning. In fact, one hundred and four people were killed, including one American passenger - Leon Chester Thrasher, a 31-year-old mining engineer from Massachusetts.

Despite the cynical British attempts to maximise the impact of their propoganda, an investigation by the US Government soon determined that the German captain had given the Falaba three warnings, and only opened fire when a British warship appeared on the horizon. The Chief Magistrate John Bassett Moore would later note in his diary that "what most decisively risked the involvement of the United States in the recent war would have been the assertion of a right to protect belligerent ships on which Americans saw fit to travel and the treatment of armed belligerent merchantmen as peaceful vessels. Both assumptions were contrary to reason, and no other neutral advanced them".

Blog Entry from 2008-02-04

Jeff Provine — 1970-01-01T00:00:00+01:00

In 211 A.D. Roman Emperor Lucius Septimius Severus came under a deathly illness in the north of Britannia during his planning to defeat the Picts in Caledonia.

His sons Bassianus, nicknamed "Caracalla" after the Gallic cloak he wore, and Geta were with him. Severus had named Caracalla his co-ruler since 198, and the balance of power seemed effective. He planned for it to continue with Caracalla and Geta becoming co-emperors upon his death. As Severus lay dying, however, he thought back over his life and determined that his advice of "Be harmonious" was ultimately foolish. Men needed to work for themselves, as Severus had done.

A new story by Jeff ProvineSeptimius had been born to a provincial family in Africa. While they were not wealthy or significant themselves, they were connected to cousins in high position, such as Praetorian Prefect Gaius Fulvius Plautianus and Gaius Septimius Severus, who recommended him for entry into the Senate to Marcus Aurelius when Severus was only 18. Severus raced through the consecutive positions of the cursus honorum to achieve full senatorial status, having to pause his career as he was forced to wait until the minimum age of 25 to become quaestor. He served under his "uncle" Gaius as legate when he was proconsul of Africa and married a woman of royal heritage from Syria, using every relationship to its full advantage. With the assassination of Commodus and murder of Pertinax, Rome came into disorder, and Septimius would rise to the top by successive victories at Issus and Lugdunum defeating the other would-be emperors. After that, he had fought and conquered, expanding the empire in Parthia, Africa, and, now, Caledonia. As he approached death, he decided the office of emperor should only go to those greatly blessed by the gods and masters of men: conquerors.

Severus amended his will to give his blessing for the ruler of Rome to whoever conquered Caledonia. While the wording was specifically vague and anyone could have done it, he told first his son Caracalla to achieve the deed. If Geta were able to do it, then he would be emperor, causing jealousy that spurred Caracalla to act. Upon Severus' death, Caracalla rallied his father's armies and stormed the Highlands at the cost of many Roman lives. The campaign was brutal on both sides, but the guerilla tactics of the Picts were undercut by their limited food resources from Roman domination in the central lowlands and coast under Severus. In 213, Caracalla was proclaimed fully King of Britain and returned to a triumph in Rome where he would be named emperor. Geta attempted to rise in his own power, but Caracalla "promoted" him to proconsul of the new province.

While there was little treasure and the triumph was minor, the expansion proved a boon for Roman morale along with a fresh trade in slaves and space allowing new colonies for veterans. Caracalla raised an arch bearing his father's dying words, "Conquer, always conquer." He expanded citizenship to all free men in Rome, causing a leap in tax revenue that he used to build popularity with his armies, though he refused to grant them "luxuries" that he himself had not enjoyed while campaigning in Caledonia. With a force tempered in discipline and made loyal by pay raises, Caracalla marched on Parthia, exploiting a civil war that had raised Artabanus IV to king. They met in battle at Nisibis, and Artabanus was narrowly defeated. Infighting had weakened the local vassals, and Caracalla gained their allegiance by promising protection from raiding nomads.

Upon his return to Rome, Caracalla settled to construction projects and unified his empire while adapting his auxiliaries to include the mounted archers of the East. Though he had two surviving sons, he continued his father's tradition of naming the next emperor to be him who conquered new lands. Investment in campaigns became a central point of the Roman economy, outfitting Gothic mercenaries and legionaries to march on new regions. The move proved to be deadly for Rome: hyperinflation led to starvation and mass thievery while ineffectual invasions weakened the borders. With civil unrest skyrocketing, the wealthy who had already organized armies turned to warlords, and the empire broke up shortly after Caracalla's death.

Emperor of Britain and Gaul Constantine would build a haven of stability in the fourth century as he established his capital of Constantinker at Eboracum (York). Other, shorter-lived empires would be forged, but few would last. Existing as a series of feudal states in a dark age, the Mediterranean world would be fought over by various waves of Germanic and Nordic conquerors, eventually being re-forged into an expansive Muslim Empire.

Blog Entry from 2008-02-04

Todayinah Editor — 1970-01-01T00:00:00+01:00

In 1458 on this day Philip IV the Duke of Burgundy was born in Dijon to Charles the Bold and his second wife Isabella of Bourbon.

At the tender age of nineteen he inherited the Duchy. During his regency the family ambition of turning the Burgundian Estates into a Kingdom continued to be blocked by his father's old nemises, Louis XI King of France (pictured).

For years the scheming and intrigue of the "Spider King" had sustained the power of the House of Valois. And so it was a surprise, but not a total shock, when Louis took Philip under his wing, proposing a marriage with his eldest daughter Anne, the Duchess of Bourbon.

During the minority of King Charles VIII of France, Anne would serve as regent. This unexpected development placed Philip at the very centre of political dealings between France, England, and the Holy Roman Emperor. By the time Charles died at the age of just twenty-seven, the long-term future of the Duchy had been secured.

Blog Entry from 2008-02-03

Alternate Historian Robbie Taylor — 1970-01-01T00:00:00+01:00

In 1399 John of Gaunt, duke of Lancaster, died without heirs. Although a mistress, Catherine Swynford, claimed that one of her children was the duke's, it was never believed, and the Plantagenet line was carried on through the elevation of Richard II's niece Phillipa to the throne after his death in 1401.

Blog Entry from 2008-02-03

Robbie Taylor — 1970-01-01T00:00:00+01:00

In 1904 the Congress of Nations embassy ship makes its hasty departure from the Mlosh homeworld, accelerating as rapidly as it can towards home. While still in the system, they encounter the fleet of Q'B'Ton'ra, the ruler of the people who have supplanted the Mlosh on their world, and are captured.

Blog Entry from 2008-02-03

Alternate Historian Robbie Taylor — 1970-01-01T00:00:00+01:00

In 1950 blonde bombshell Patsy Ann McClenny was born in Dallas, Texas. After starting her television career in soap operas, she moved to the prime-time soap opera, Dallas, with the role of Jenny Wade. Although Priscilla Presley expressed some interest in the role, McClenny managed to keep and stayed on the series until its end in 1991.

Blog Entry from 2008-02-03

Robbie Taylor — 1970-01-01T00:00:00+01:00

In 1969 Faisal Yassin and Wilhelm Schoemann meet secretly to discuss what they feel has become a threat to their world, the New Reich they have helped create. Yassin thinks that Israeli agents would be willing to arrest all the neo-Nazis in the compound, and offers to get word to them; Schoemann begins to sabotage the project that has been his greatest achievement.

Blog Entry from 2008-02-03

Robbie Taylor — 1970-01-01T00:00:00+01:00

In 1994 President Clinton ended the U.S. trade embargo against Vietnam. Many had seen the embargo as a punitive measure put in place by a nation stung by its loss in the tiny country, but no one had the resolve to end it until Clinton, a conservative Republican Vietnam vet, said, 'It is time to heal some old wounds.' He was assisted in the effort by fellow vet, Democrat John McCain of Arizona.

Blog Entry from 2008-02-03

Robbie Taylor — 1970-01-01T00:00:00+01:00

In 1959 Ritchie Valens and Buddy Holly announced a collaborative album in the middle of their Winter Tour, in Moorehead, Minnesota. Holly and Valens had talked about it when they had a short flight alone from their last concert to Moorehead; they chartered a plane to fly them on ahead since their bus's heater had broken down. The album, Southwestern Flavor, was a phenomenal hit, cementing their places in the rock 'n' roll firmament.

Blog Entry from 2008-02-03

Robbie Taylor — 1970-01-01T00:00:00+01:00

In 1950 British scientist Klaus Fuchs, long suspected of having communist sympathies, is arrested in Great Britain for passing nuclear secrets to the Soviet States of America. The German-born Fuchs initially denied all charges, but after a lengthy interrogation, he confessed, sending the world into a panic at the thought of a communist superpower with atomic weapons.

Blog Entry from 2008-02-03

Robbie Taylor — 1970-01-01T00:00:00+01:00

Blog Entry from 2008-02-03

Robbie Taylor — 1970-01-01T00:00:00+01:00

In 47,371 BCE, Swikolay begins her ascent of Kilimanjaro. Because she feels it will be her last chance to touch the sky and fulfill the Speaker's dream, she doesn't allow anyone to climb with her; she tells her companions, If I succeed, I will find a way to let you know. If you see no sign, I have failed. Either way, I will not come back.

Blog Entry from 2008-02-03

Chris Oakley — 1970-01-01T00:00:00+01:00

On this day in 1975, George Stark, a.k.a. 'the Lawnmower Man', was executed in the gas chamber at Nevada State Prison in Carson City.

Blog Entry from 2008-02-03

Eric Lipps — 1970-01-01T00:00:00+01:00

In 1917 President Woodrow Wilson severed diplomatic relations with Great Britain.

Following the outbreak of war in Europe in August 1914, pitting Britain, France, Italy, Russia and Japan against Germany, Austria-Hungary and Japan, Britain had instituted a policy of interdicting neutral shipping to the Continent to choke off trade with its foes. This had led to repeated seizures of U.S. merchant vessels on the high seas, actions denounced in steadily stronger terms by the President, Secretary of State William Jennings Bryan, and a number of influential Midwestern newspapers.

The President did have a strong pro-British adviser, Col. Edward M. House, who had declined a Cabinet position but remained so close to Wilson that he was provided White House living quarters. However, in April 1915 House died unexpectedly in a traffic accident. With his influence absent, Wilson gravitated toward an "a plague on both your houses" attitude regarding the European conflict, condemning Germany - especially after the May 7, 1915 sinking of the passenger liner Lusitania - for its policy of unrestricted submarine warfare while growing increasingly hostile to the British as well over their refusal to cease what he considered "piracy" against American shipping.

In his communication to the British ambassador, Sir Cecil Spring-Rice, informing him of the break in relations, Wilson insisted that he did not intend to join Germany's side in the war. "America," he informed Spring-Rice, "has no interest in becoming a combatant in the present conflict. She wishes only to maintain her neutrality unharassed by either side. Your nation's refusal to honor this desire is the cause of the present break." Challenged by the ambassador as to why he has not also severed relations with Germany, Wilson responded, "Be assured, sir, that your German counterpart shall be hearing from me as you have done".

Wilson proved as good as his word. A week later, on Feb. 10, 1917, Wilson severed relations with Imperial Germany as well, citing that country's submarine warfare practices as well as his desire to remain "a genuine neutral in a conflict to which the United States is not, and does not wish to become, a party".

The United States remained neutral until the European war ended in March 1919 in what came to be called the "peace of exhaustion." At that point, the idealistic Wilson saw an opportunity to guarantee a lasting peace through a set of proposals which included a policy of "self-determination" for small nations such as Serbia, whose nationalist aspirations had helped ignite the conflict, and the creation of a "league of nations" to arbitrate among countries. However, his determined non-involvement in the war, popular as it had proven at home, had left him with no leverage in Europe. As a result, his audacious "Fourteen Points" went nowhere. Europe at the dawn of the 1920s would be a darkened version of its 1914 self, with Britain and France enriched at Germany"s expense, Russia in the throes of civil war following its 1917 Bolshevik revolution and a bankrupt Italy teetering on the edge of anarchy, while from across the Atlantic the U.S. played spectator.

Blog Entry from 2008-02-03

Scott Palter — 1970-01-01T00:00:00+01:00

In 1923 on this day in alternate history the Austrian Emperor Franz Ferdinand abdicated.

His attempt to bridge the divisions between the ruling Germans in Austria and the various Slavs and other nationalities resulted in first constitutional gridlock from 1917 onwards [Hungarian secession took place at the same time, followed by a nasty war of devolution as Croatia broke free with help from Austro-German Frei Korps under the patronage of the Papacy; this caused Franz Ferdinard to lose the title King of Hungary but keep that of Duke of Croatia] and finally reached civil war in the Kingdom of Bohemia over competing claims of Sudeten Germans and Czechs.

Faced with civil war between competing ethnic militias in every major city of the realm the army intervened to restore order under the banner of his brother Charles. Franz Fredinand left for exile in Portugal leaving Charles to sort out the mess. Charles was negotiating with the Polish and Czech national committees but war with Italy threatened over Istria. In his last speech Franz Ferdinand morbidly commented that history would have thought better of him had the botched 1914 assassination attempt in Bosnia killed him.

Blog Entry from 2008-02-03

Michael Sklatch — 1970-01-01T00:00:00+01:00

In 2011 Michael Sklatch wrote ~ In the future from which I'm writing this letter, the United States has become a totalitarian Christian fundamentalist state.

Of course, there's no such thing as a letter from the future. The future doesn't really exist, except as choices to be made in the present. If you who are reading this can respond in your own way to what's happening in your time, then this letter will remain an empty piece of fiction.As you've probably already supposed, it all began when the US government created a Department of Homeland Security, which became one of the fastest growing government agencies in US history.

It quietly and steadily expanded its jurisdiction to cover any activity that it judged to be a threat, direct or indirect, to national security. At first this was done in the name of blocking terrorism, but eventually expanded to areas much further afield.

One of those areas was censorship. The Homeland Security Department began to reserve the power to censor the press for any ideology that it judged to threaten national security.

In a few exemplary cases the Homeland Security Department seized assets and suspended operations of media entities.

Lawsuits were filed, but the Department resolutely flouted legal pressure and public opinion.

The effect of those showcase incidents was enough to neatly chill the press. Most media firms complied voluntarily just because they didn't want to risk attracting the attention of the Homeland Security Department.

The next move had hugely significant consequences. Within the Homeland Security Department a committee called the Council for the Defense of Christian Family Values was created.

The underlying motive for the council was a belief that if a nation was God-fearing it would invite divine favor and protection, and if not, God would punish the nation for its lack of faith. For that reason, Christian faith was seen as intrinsic to national security. No real justification for this was given publicly.

The Christian Family Values Council began working to systematically align the Homeland Security Department with the interests of radical fundamentalist Christians, who had for many years been gaining immense political power in the Republican Party by playing down their radicalism.

Although the threat of censorship had largely muted the mainstream press, the country was deeply divided over the Christian Family Values Council. Many people naturally began seeing parallels with the rise of the Nazis during the 1930s.

There was trouble at the polls as a result. Despite the fact that the Republican Party, which had always been the principal sponsor of the Christian Family Values Council, had itself begun to splinter and appeared to have lost, election results still showed Republicans to be hands-down winners.

Suspecting outright election fraud, the public demanded an official investigation into the election. When the investigation began to uncover evidence that the election had been blatantly tampered with, the Homeland Security Department abruptly halted the investigation.

That provoked large demonstrations and isolated instances of civil unrest. The Homeland Security Department stepped in vigorously to suppress the unrest, using its now formidable surveillance network and the national police force that it had been building.

The Christian Family Values Council had meanwhile been building up alliances with the US military. Several high-ranking officers were now associated with the Council, and the Council itself had become a bastion not only of the religious right, but of a rapidly growing culture of militarism, also a reminder of Nazi Germany.

As the general population began to understand that the Christian Family Values Council was a threat to democracy, large numbers of people began to organize themselves to oppose it across the nation.

Supporters of the Christian Family Values Council also organized themselves, however, meeting in churches and schools in communities that were sympathetic to what the Christian Family Values Council stood for.

They set up local and regional councils for the defense of Christian family values, mirroring the national Council, and those amounted to a de facto political party.

Civil unrest grew as organized supporters of the Christian Family Values Council occasionally clashed with organized opponents.

In the South, where the Christian Family Values Council has strong local roots, any opposition to the Christian Family Values Council was dealt with in a few highly publicized incidents by local thugs using the sort of violence reminiscent of the Nazi brownshirts.

As the situation deteriorated, the nation was so deeply divided and the threat of civil unrest had grown so acute that the presidential administration, which was by then completely dominated by the Christian Family Values Council, took advantage of the situation to preemptively suspend the upcoming congressional elections, to dissolve Congress, and to declare martial law.

The coup was accomplished. The US constitution was rendered useless.

The military was thrown into crisis after the coup. Many high-ranking military professionals were still loyal to the US constitution and considered the Christian Family Values Council to be treasonous.

A power struggle ensued and at first it looked like the coup would be rolled back.

A second American Civil War between the military partisans loyal to the Christian Family Values Council versus those loyal to the US constitution briefly seemed likely.

Ironically, this second civil war would essentially have cut across the same regional boundaries as the first one did.

In the end, the Christian Family Values Council and their partisans prevailed, mainly due to their brutal determination. Professional officers and troops still loyal to the US constitution were required to swear allegiance to the Christian Family Values Council or else be expelled from the military.

Immediately the Christian Family Values Council established a set of regulations similar to Islamic sharia but based on the Judeo-Christian bible.

Among other changes, that meant that women's rights outside the home were dramatically curtailed.

The First Amendment rights to peaceable assembly and free speech were of course vigorously suppressed. Likewise any armed resistance by citizens loyal to the constitution was ruthlessly put down by forces loyal to the Christian Family Values Council.

The threat of civil war had provoked the Christian Family Values Council to demand that all citizens surrender their arms unless they had a license from a local Christian family values defense council.

The First Amendment was now thoroughly defeated.

Almost four years have now passed since the constitutional coup, and the US is a completely different nation. Today it is in precipitous economic decline.

The infrastructure is rotting due to neglect, disorganization, and lack of capital. Roads are becoming unusable in many places, electric power shortages are routine, communications networks are failing, bankrupt municipal governments are unable to provide many essential services, and the medical system is breaking down.

Even before the Christian Family Values Council overthrew the constitution, Wall Street saw trouble coming and began paving the way for quickly moving capital out of the US to safer havens.

After the coup, US treasury bonds sank to junk status, which briefly caused financial turmoil internationally. The dollar is weaker today than some Third World currencies.

The torrent of capital fleeing the United States during the past four years has significantly reshaped the world's economy, to the detriment of the United States and the American standard of living.

China has become the new center of enterprise and technological achievement as well as a source of new military might. Europe and Japan provide a cultural counterweight to a wounded America with its still potent military.

As China has grown more powerful, old conflicts in Asia between China, Korea, and Japan still flare up, and all-out war has been narrowly avoided on several occasions. China has already seized its opportunity to re-annex Taiwan.

Since the Christian Family Values Council first began to strangle the cultural and spiritual life of the US, the brightest and most vibrant citizens have have been fleeing to Europe, Asia, and even Latin America.

Because open dissent has been extinguished in American universities, many top academics have migrated to Europe, where universities have taken the opportunity to regain the preeminence they lost to the US during the 20th century.

Many of the best engineers and scientists in the US, many of whom are Asian anyway, have moved to Asia and to China in particular.

The only nations friendly to the new regime are the fundamentalist Islamic ones, such as Saudi Arabia, Iran, Iraq (which became fundamentalist shortly after US troops withdrew), and Israel (where orthodox fundamentalists have also completely overwhelmed the liberal secular democratic roots of the Jewish state).

Ironically, Iraq and Saudi Arabia were countries from whose quarters allegedly came the terrorist threat that led to the creation of the Homeland Security Department.

Our only hope today is for some kind of counter-revolution that will restore the US constitution, with its wise separation of church and state, and with its First Amendment protections that the religious fascists rescinded the moment they seized power.

A counter-revolution seems nearly impossible at the moment. The military is present everywhere, on guard for any whiff of resistance to the regime.

Fully armed soldiers patrol the streets and quickly break up any public gatherings not approved or orchestrated by officials of the Christian Family Values Council.

All males are conscripted into the military at age 17 (women have been expelled from military service) where they are indoctrinated to think along the lines of the Christian Family Values Council. They have daily prayers and sermons by thought leaders of the religious regime.

Television and radio now pump out Christian propaganda. Even what's left of Hollywood cooperates with the propaganda requirements of the Christian Family Values Council.

Only the internet is relatively free, although websites inside territorial US are strictly censored. The Homeland Security Department confiscates web servers at the slightest hint of anti-Christian sentiment. IP addresses blacklisted by the Christian Family Values Council intelligence apparatus of Homeland Security are blocked on internet trunklines running into or through the US.

The Christian Family Values Council has taken aggressive steps to purge American culture of anything that it deems to be "secular humanist". Obviously public schools are strictly managed by fundamentalist Christians at every level.

The professional class in America has been greatly affected, cowed into submission by Christianized thugs.

Corporations have been moving out of the US as quickly as is practical and allowable. Employees of those corporations still operating in the US hold mandatory morning and afternoon prayer sessions to appease the Christian Family Values Council apparatus.

The middle class is disappearing. Among the lower class, the face of abject starvation has appeared in the United States for the first time.

Meanwhile, global climate change has been causing serious disruption for this new Christian Republic of America, along with much of the world, with frequent floods and hurricanes. The interior of North America has become increasingly arid.

Christian fundamentalists interpret all those events to be signs of the imminent return of Jesus Christ. The United States is in the grip of apocalyptic panic and millenarian fever.

How could a constitutional coup have happened in the United States, whose government had been a model of stability in contrast to the paroxysms caused by fascism, Stalinism, Maoism, and other extremist political regimes during the 20th century?

The answer seems partly to be that the stability itself was a major cause. It gave rise to a politically stultified population that was easily overwhelmed by the focused determination of a relatively small group of zealots.

As with fascism and other rightist political movements, the Christian Family Values Council is backed by people who yearn for the "One Truth" in the face of an otherwise bewildering diversity of choice.

Many people in the United States had simply grown tired of freedom. They were uncomfortable with the ambiguity and the cacophony of voices that make up a healthy democracy.

The Christian fundamentalists offered simplicity. Even easier than offering it, they imposed it.

In a society that had grown fat and flaccid in a cocoon of hyper-consumerism, the raw energetic appeal of unconditional truth foisted by the Christian Family Values Council proved irresistible.

The Christian Family Values Council also benefited from having a ruggedly disciplined and charismatic leadership at a time when conventional politicians were largely opportunistic and insincere.

Here I send to you this letter from the future, from your future, or at least one of your possible futures.

If you've somehow come across this little message in a bottle, I hope it stirs you to make a difference in your time and place, so that my letter will someday seem quaint and silly to people living in a different, much better future than the bleak one I've written about here.

Blog Entry from 2008-02-03

Jeff Provine — 1970-01-01T00:00:00+01:00

In 1959 as it progressed, the Winter Dance Party Tour became worse and worse of an event.

Although it seemed greatly promising with numerous stops around the Midwest in three weeks and brought together some of the greatest talent in the music industry, logistics plagued all involved. The heating on the tour bus broke, which caused Buddy Holly's drummer Carl Bunch to be hospitalized with frostbite. Sick of discomfort and reportedly needing laundry done, Holly and his band chartered a plane to take them to their next destination of Moorhead, MN.

A new story by Jeff ProvineThe night went on to shift the passengers on the plane. "J. P." Richardson, the "Big Bopper", was coming down with the flu and asked if he could have a seat on the plane, to which Waylon Jennings agreed. Eighteen-year-old Ritchie Valens, who had never ridden in a small plane before, asked for a seat as well. He and Tommy Allsup flipped a coin for it, and Valens won. Holly joshed his bandmates for giving up their seats, and the plane piloted by twenty-one-year-old Roger Peterson took off shortly before 1 AM. As he was preparing to leave, his boss Hubert Dwyer mentioned to Peterson that the weather ahead was looking very foul. Peterson, who had not yet passed his instrument tests, became nervous but did not wish to give up the job.

Holly noticed Peterson seemed off, but the pilot assured him things were fine, despite repeatedly checking his instruments. Shortly after takeoff, Peterson realized the Sperry Attitude Gyro was registering his pitch attitude in reverse of the artificial horizon indicator he had trained on. He decided to make an emergency landing and gather his senses, but the stormy weather upset the plane, and Peterson was forced to make a water landing, skidding across nearby Rice Lake, just short of the Lake Mills Municipal Airport. All four occupants survived though were hospitalized with bumps and bruises, and Buddy Holly had broken his left hand. Rumor holds that he broke it punching Peterson's face, but it is more likely that it was catching himself on the dashboard.

Despite losing three of its headliners, the tour went on, giving local talent Bobby Vee a chance to perform. The Big Bopper's flu knocked him out of the rest of the tour, as did Holly's hand, and so Ritchie Valens became the sensation of the Midwest as spring came in 1959. Valens, who would in 1964 release an album over his actual name Ricardo Esteban Valenzuela Reyes, would be instrumental in launching the Chicano Rock craze of the mid-1960s, eclipsing the "British Storm" and giving a major addition to the growing Latino voice in the United States. He would later leave music to pursue a career in politics on the behalf of the Hispanic populace and be elected a congressman from California in 1976 and Senator in 1991.

With his position as a disc jockey before his rise to rock fame, J.P. Richardson became part of the proceedings of the Payola scandal in the Supreme Court. He reportedly denounced big business and the studios who would deprive genuine artists of playtime by stuffing "factory hack down the ears of listeners." Richardson enjoyed a successful musical career and then returned to deejaying, guiding new voices and setting up his own brand of label that would reportedly listen to any submitted record. The wide diversity of music caused numerous new crazes throughout the 1960s and ?70s, giving every new kind of genre a chance and the audience to reply with critiques. He is credited with coining the term "music video," which he would use to expanding his radio work onto television.

Holly, meanwhile, bemoaned that he would never play as well again, though he still sold numerous records and served as one of the most creative artists of the twentieth century. Many suggest that he alone kept "pure rock" alive and often mentioned what he could do with full use of his left hand, a topic observed in folk singer Don McLean's "The Day the Music Cried." Holly would eventually accept Elvis Presley's invitation to Hollywood, where he would star in a series of films before disastrously experimenting with Surf music. He would come back to stardom as a blues and old rock singer, seeming to personify the aging of rock as it became eclipsed by more energetic disco.

Notably, none of them ever flew again.

Blog Entry from 2008-02-03

Todayinah Editor — 1970-01-01T00:00:00+01:00

In 2011 to mark the recent admission of the 51st State, inaugural Governor Ronald E. Paul was pleased to welcome the historian Newton Leroy Gingrich to the Moon (pictured).

Inevitably cynics viewed the payment of the archivist's services as a thinly disguised attempt to increase funding for the Lunar Colony during a period of budgetary austerity. Nevertheless, Gingrich's multi-part publication would provide an insightful exploration of space flight history that was well received by the academic community.

Part one reviewed the Soviet-America rivalry of the nineteen fifties, a challenge to national prestige that drove President Kennedy to make a pledge to land on the moon before the decade was out. And yet manned space flight had to complete with another program that was simultaneously draining national resources - the Vietnam War.

Part Two addressed the subsequent challenges of President Hubert Humphrey who was both a beneficiary and a victim of the hard-fought victory won by General Creighton Abrams. Overbold due to a misreading of American triumphalism, the Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir ordered a preemptive strike at the outset of the Yom Kippur War. The resulting Arab backlash forced America to develop alternative energy sources.

And Part Three outlined the accelerated development of Solar Power Satellites, the fundamental technology breakthrough required to transport humanity en masse to the moon. Surely without this invention of sustainable accelerated G-Force, modern rocketry would never had permitted thirteen thousand men and women to staff the Lunar Colony and reach the magic population number that would had triggered a consideration of Statehood.

Blog Entry from 2008-02-02

Chris Oakley — 1970-01-01T00:00:00+01:00

On this day in 2012 shooting began in Las Vegas for the big-screen movie adaptation of CSI:Crime Scene Investigations.

Blog Entry from 2008-02-02

Todayinah Editor — 1970-01-01T00:00:00+01:00

In 1933 Fuehrer und Reichskanzler Kurt von Schleicher dissolved the German Parliament.

Blog Entry from 2008-02-02

Robbie Taylor — 1970-01-01T00:00:00+01:00

In 1904 a surreptitious probe is sent from the Congress of Nations embassy ship back to earth. In it, Ambassador Li'Kanto'Mk informs the C.N. that the current inhabitants of the Mlosh homeworld, while sprung from the same genes as the Mlosh, are a dangerous breeding experiment that went awry, causing the original Mlosh colonists to flee to earth. Li'Kanto'Mk is afraid that now that they have discovered their progenitors on another planet, that they will follow the Mlosh there.

Blog Entry from 2008-02-02

Todayinah Editor — 1970-01-01T00:00:00+01:00

In 1968 Stephen Reeder Donaldson languished in Vietnam. By inclination a conscientious objector, he had been compelled to serve in the armed forces.

Much later, and after dropping out of his Ph.D. program and moving to New Jersey in order to write fiction, Donaldson made his publishing debut with the first 'Covenant' trilogy in 1977. That enabled him to move to a healthier climate. He now lives in New Mexico.

Donaldson's two year compulsory military duty would be the deep undercurrent of his escapist fantasy writing. In 'The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, the Unbeliever', the protagonist was a leper struggled with disempowerment in a Land he did not really believe in. And he would wields white wild magic gold is a paradox - for he everything and nothing, hero and fool - potent, helpless - and with the one word of truth and treachery, he will save or damn the Earth because he is mad and sane, cold and passionate, lost and found. ~ The Legend of Berek Halfhand.

Blog Entry from 2008-02-02

Eric Lipps — 1970-01-01T00:00:00+01:00

In 1777 John and Thomas Adams and their families arrive in New Orleans, having fled Massachusetts with little more than the clothes on their backs.

Both men soon become active in producing propaganda aimed at encouraging a new rebellion. The refusal of Spanish authorities to hand over the 'traitors' further angers the British, who are already incensed that the Adamses' fellow colonial rebel Alexander Hamilton has been given safe haven.

Blog Entry from 2008-02-02

Robbie Taylor — 1970-01-01T00:00:00+01:00

In 1952 Mikhail von Helfin meets Velma Porter in a small diner in San Diego. Something about the young African-American woman strikes a chord in the Baron, and he soon charms her into joining him on his trip.

Blog Entry from 2008-02-02

Robbie Taylor — 1970-01-01T00:00:00+01:00

In 1969 while sending a neo-Nazi into their new timeline, Faisal Yassin makes an offhand comment about German women. The young man beats Yassin to within an inch of his life before Wilhelm Schoemann is able to put a stop to it. Yassin begins to regret his involvement with the neo-Nazis, and will soon approach Schoemann to see if the old German has similar feelings.

Blog Entry from 2008-02-02

Robbie Taylor — 1970-01-01T00:00:00+01:00

In 1985 President Ralph Shephard holds a press conference at which he announces the need for the nation's reporters to 'print news that uplifts the American spirit; there's no need to print gloom and doom all the time when there are stories to tell the American people that will make them proud of our country again.' Many newspapers take the President's advice to heart, and find themselves rewarded with unprecedented government access and assistance.

Blog Entry from 2008-02-02

Todayinah Editor — 1970-01-01T00:00:00+01:00

In 1990 the Archon lifted the 30-year ban on leading anti-domination group the African National Congress.

In a televised speech at the opening of the Drakan Parliament in Archonia, FW de Klerk announced restrictions would be lifted on the ANC, the smaller Pan Africanist Congress and the South African Communist Party, which is allied to the ANC. He also made his first public commitment to release jailed ANC leader Nelson Mandela, but he did not specify a date. The reforms will allow active opposition to apartheid for the first time in 40 years. Many observers were surprised by the scope of the reforms - which included a return to press freedom and suspension of the death penalty - signalling a partial end to the 25-year-old state of emergency.

Blog Entry from 2008-02-02

Alternate Historian Robbie Taylor — 1970-01-01T00:00:00+01:00

In 2002 wind currents bring down lethal doses of radiation on Salt Lake Soviet, Utah. Although most of the population has fled east, thousands fall ill, and almost 500 people die from diseases caused by the radiation. The death toll from the People's Republic of America's desperate explosion of a Nevadan nuclear dump is just beginning.

Blog Entry from 2008-02-02

Todayinah Editor — 1970-01-01T00:00:00+01:00

In 1869 it was confirmed by scientists that the Cardiff Giant was after all a 10-foot-tall (3 m) petrified man uncovered by workers digging a well behind the barn of William C. 'Stub' Newell in Cardiff, New York.

Blog Entry from 2008-02-02

Robbie Taylor — 1970-01-01T00:00:00+01:00

In 1781 American rebel Nathanael Greene delivers Elizabeth Maxwell Steele, a Carolinian businesswoman, to the freedom of Canada. Mrs. Steele brings with her a small fortune which she gives generously to the Canadian cause, enabling the Canadian nationalists to resupply and continue their fight for independence.

Blog Entry from 2008-02-02

Robbie Taylor — 1970-01-01T00:00:00+01:00

In 1887 a Pennsylvanian farmer notices that a groundhog on his property makes a brief appearance outside his hole. The groundhog sees his shadow, and hides back in his burrow. When 6 weeks of winter follow, the farmer, Josiah Cotton, watches that groundhog the next year. When the groundhog is wrong the following year, Mr. Cotton kills the furry little beast and turns him into a hat.

Blog Entry from 2008-02-02

Robbie Taylor — 1970-01-01T00:00:00+01:00

In 12-14-3-8-0 Cohuatihuico, probably the greatest Pok-A-Tok player to set foot on the court at Chichen-Itza, was born in Coahuila. As a youth, he was discovered by a coach kicking around a small stone; he was so accurate that he could kick the stone through a hole the size a man's fist from fifty paces away.

Blog Entry from 2008-02-02

Todayinah Editor — 1970-01-01T00:00:00+01:00

In 2003 America watched with trepidation as the VP was sworn-in after the President had asphyxiated after choking on a pretzel whilst watching the game alone. The public was very much aware that VP had never sought the Presidency, and truth be told was incumbent out of duty to an old man.

Blog Entry from 2008-02-02

Alternate Historian Robbie Taylor — 1970-01-01T00:00:00+01:00

In 1925 novelist James Dickey was born in Atlanta, Georgia. A noted poet, Dickey was honored throughout the south and became a poet-in-residence at the University of South Carolina. He dabbled in prose occasionally, but the rejection he suffered for his never-published novel Deliverance put him off the form. From rumors swirling about the novel, it involved some sort of sodomy, and publishers felt that no audience would accept that.

Blog Entry from 2008-02-02

Todayinah Editor — 1970-01-01T00:00:00+01:00

In 2008 further evidence of off-world smuggling continued to emerge as Brazilian law enforcement officers announced the discovery of a giant elephant shrew.

The cat-sized animal looks like a cross between a miniature antelope and a small anteater. It has a grey face, a long, flexible snout, a bulky, amber body, a jet-black rump and it stands on spindly legs. Elephant shrews are only found in Africa. They were originally described as shrews because they superficially resembled shrews in Europe and in America. However, this variant is unknown on Earth. Also found was another mysterious bill of material for Double-Weight Gold Tarn Disks made payable c/o Tatrix, Sheila to Ligurious of Corcyrus in the region of Ar.

The investigation has not yet established any official connection with the disappearance of alligators from a university zoo in the western state of Mato Grosso earlier this month, or the crocodile artifact found a few weeks later.

Blog Entry from 2008-02-02

Eric Lipps — 1970-01-01T00:00:00+01:00

In 1993 President Sam Nunn announces that Vice-President Bill Bradley will chair a working group on the subject of universal health care, one of Bradley's interests while in the Senate.

Appearing before a conservative group in his home state of New York, ex-President Jack Kemp denounces the idea as threatening to substitute 'a social-welfare mentality' for the 'free market' in health care, branding it 'another tax-and-spend scheme from people who think they can run your life better than you can.' Kemp calls for a system of 'healthcare incentives' in the form of tax breaks for employers who offer health plans to their employees.

Blog Entry from 2008-02-02

Chris Oakley — 1970-01-01T00:00:00+01:00

On this day in 1969, US Air Force veteran Neil Armstrong was named the mission commander for Apollo 5.

Blog Entry from 2008-02-02

Gerry Shannon — 1970-01-01T00:00:00+01:00

In 2005 comedian and television star Jerry Seinfeld announces he is in pre-production on The Seinfeld Movie, a feature-film based on the Seinfeld sitcom that will reunite Seinfeld himself, Jason Alexander, Julia-Louie Dreyfus and Michael Richards as the four friends who go about various mis-adventures in New York. It's a surprise move given it's been six years since the popular sitcom's cancellation, but a source close to Seinfeld reveals it was talked about since the show's series finale proved a disappointment for viewers. However, Richards was unable to commit as Cosmo Kramer given his success with The Michael Richards Show, and it was clearly a sore point between Richards and Seinfeld, with both men only recently back on speaking terms. Dreamworks Studios is set to finance and distribute the film, with Andy Ackerman (who directed the bulk of episodes of the sitcom during it's run) scheduled to direct. It will mostly be shot on location in New York city.

Blog Entry from 2008-02-02

Gerry Shannon — 1970-01-01T00:00:00+01:00

In 2009 President Barack Obama finds himself pacing the floor of the Oval Office in the early hours of the morning.

He has good reason to worry only two weeks into his new administration: He has every reason to believe that a vast majority of Republicans in the Senate will reject his proposed $825 billion stimulus package following it's prior rejection in the House of Representatives the previous week.

Against his better judgement, Obama reaches into a bottom drawer of his desk to remove a pack of cigarettes, but he pauses when he senses an increasingly familiar prescene appear nearby. He then looks around to see a rocking chair that has appeared in front of his desk.

"Thought you might appreciate a call from your personal Ghost of American Past... " Jack Kennedy's ghost gives him a small smile as he takes his usual seat. He nods to the cigarette in Obama's hand. "Y'know, I always kept a cigar handy, but more of a habit holding it as a stress relief then anything - god damned tobacco does murder to your lungs. And I hated to be pictured with them... Rough night I take? "

Obama nods, deciding to put the cigarettes away. "Michelle wouldn't be impressed anyway. And she's already not happy with these late nights. I take you know the score?"

"I do. Disappointed your efforts to sway the opposition are going awry, then? "

Obama shrugs. "I could care less if I personally charmed them - I'd be even more disappointed if there's not swift action to stop this crisis as soon as we can. Knowing this is a major goal of the administration right now, it's almost like the Republicans themselves want to vent their disapproval I am now president. "

Kennedy chuckles. "Well, knowing how much of a sore loser the Grand Old Party can be - if the vote came down to that, I'm sure it would pass unanimously".

Blog Entry from 2008-02-02

Chris Oakley — 1970-01-01T00:00:00+01:00

On this day in 1945, SS commander-in-chief Heinrich Himmler was arrested on suspicion to trying to topple Hermann Goering as chancellor of the Third Reich and restore Adolf Hitler to power.

Blog Entry from 2008-02-02

Brian Tubbs — 1970-01-01T00:00:00+01:00

In 1776 Benjamin Franklin sent a letter to General Charles Lee, expressing his wish that "pikes could be introduced" along with "bows and arrows", which, Franklin added, "were good weapons, not wisely laid aside". What if the Continental Congress and the American army had taken up Franklin's suggestion?

Franklin's reasons for recommending the longbow over the musket are difficult to refute in an eighteenth century context.

Those reasons were essentially the following:

The bow was often more accurate
A man could shoot four arrows in the time it takes to fire and reload a musket.
A man could shoot four arrows in the time it takes to fire and reload a musket.
No gunsmoke, thus no problems in field vision.
No gunsmoke, thus no problems in field vision.
No gunsmoke, thus no problems in field vision.
An incoming flight of arrows is rather disconcerting to the enemy.
An arrow stuck to a man essentially immobilizes him, until extracted.
Bows and arrows are more easily provided than muskets and ammunition.

A new article by Brian TubbsGiven the Continental Army's supply problems, one wonders why Franklin's suggestion wasn't more readily entertained.

Perhaps some of my readers have come across some information on this subject, but, based on my reading of the history, I would say the reasons Franklin's suggestion was never given serious thought are:

1) Image: Using bows and arrows was considered primitive. Having an army with uniforms, muskets, bayonets, professional training, etc. was a mark of civilization and progress. To regress back to the 1500s or to adopt tactics used by Native Americans was probably not a direction that the Continental Congress was even willing to contemplate. A more serious dimension to this was the fact that the Americans may have feared that such a direction would result in their being taken less seriously by France, Spain, and the Netherlands. They wanted these European powers to see them as a respectable nation ready to take its place in the family of nations.

2) Chivalry: The advent of gunpowder had a lot to do with the decline of armour on the battlefield. While armour provides some protection against arrows, it provided virtually none against musket balls! By the time of the American Revolution, European style warfare had evolved to armies in bright uniforms maneuvering on the open field and firing musket volleys at one another, with some artillery and cavalry thrown in for variety and good measure. To reintroduce bows and arrows would have been deemed (in all likelihood) as "ungentlemanly", much like the British viewed colonists shooting at them from behind rocks and trees.

Perhaps some of my readers could add to those reasons, but I think that (consciously or unconsciously) the above two were probably among them.

Still, one wonders if the American Revolution woud've turned out differently or perhaps ended sooner had Franklin's suggestion to Charles Lee been accepted by General Washington and the Continental Congress.

Blog Entry from 2008-02-02

Matthew White — 1970-01-01T00:00:00+01:00

In 2011 Matthew Write write ~ this scenario is not as totally impossible as some people might believe. In the range of improbability, it's more like a ten-to-one shot, rather than a hundred-to-one shot. In the early 1990s the USA probably came closer to open rebellion than at any time since the 1960s

This scenario is not as totally impossible as some people might believe. In the range of improbability, it's more like a ten-to-one shot, rather than a hundred-to-one shot. In the early 1990s the USA probably came closer to open rebellion than at any time since the 1960s. In the 3 years from 1992 to 1995, the US saw:

Three of the five bloodiest episodes of domestic political violence in 20th Century America (L.A., Waco, OK City: total body count about 300)
The largest third-party presidential campaign since (?)1912.
A total shift in the balance of power: from a Republican president to a Democratic, and from a Democratic Congress to a Republican one, including, for example, the first defeat of a Speaker of the House since when? 1860?

What we need to do is crank up the Rage-o-Meter a few notches so that this era of grumbling leads to all-out civil war. Of course, I have no idea how to do this. None of the issues of the day seem to be worth dying over. I mean, let's have a show of hands: how many people would be willing to take a bullet in order to abolish/preserve affirmative action? I didn't think so.

A new article by Matthew WhiteSure, taxes are a bit high, and they get squandered on useless activities, but for most of us, the government still leaves us enough for house, car, clothes, computer, gun, food, girlfriend, wife, both, TV, child or two, etc., and we get interstates and Internet in return.

The hard right seems to believe that Waco should have been a spark for rebellion, but it's not like any militiamen rushed to relieve the siege; however, let's pretend that they did. Let's say that discontent had gotten so bad by 1993 that we have the required 13% necessary to fight a successful guerrilla war. When the Feds surrounded the Branch-Davidian compound, militiamen spontaneously coalesce on the scene. Civil war erupts.

The most likely outcome of a war between the Feds and the extreme right is that the extreme right is crushed like bugs, even before the network news anchors can move their mobile newsdesks, satellite link-ups and tactical hairdryers out to the battlefield. To make it more interesting, however, let's suppose that there are enough rebels to make it drag on awhile.

A rough rule of thumb (from Liddell Hart [?] "Lessons from Resistance Movements -- Guerrilla and Nonviolent"[?]) is that a successful insurrection needs at least 3% of the adult population actively fighting the government, and another 10% supporting the rebels. In the US, that would be 5 Million armed and 19 Million in support. Who would they be?

Well, in our timeline, the discontent with the status quo showed up most noticeably in the Perot Campaign, so let's magically turn these 20M Perot voters into 24M rebels, roughly distributed the same, geographically. Although Perotistas were spread widely across the country, they were strongest in the Mountain Time Zone. Wait, I'm lying. The Perot vote was actually strongest in Maine, Alaska and Kansas which are not on Mountain Time, but the *NEXT* level down (@ ca. 25% of the vote) was a solid cluster of states in the area that Joel Garreau, in The Nine Nations of North America, labelled the Empty Quarter, a hotbed of anti-federalism.

My guess is that any insurrection in the early 1990s would be strongest here -- not as a secession of states (with control of the air, the Feds could easily drop the 82nd Airborne into any state capital), but there would be a solid guerrilla presence that required the Feds to travel in large convoys or not at all. This is good partisan country, with some 20M people scattered across rough territory, which makes up 30% of the area of the Lower 48. Let's say that some 2.5M of our rebels and 8.5M sympathizers would be in this zone. (With some 4 million too young to take sides, this would leave 9 million loyalists in this region.)

The other 13M rebels and sympathizers would be in smaller patches all over the country -the upper tier of New England, enclaves in the plains states, clusters of counties in the south, etc. There would be plenty of rural ambushes and urban bombings outside the Empty Quarter, but if the rebellion follows the same pattern as the Perot vote, then most of these remaining rebels (say 7.5M) would still be within a day's drive of the Empty Quarter. (Well, "a day's drive" today. In a war zone, there would be enough roadblocks and checkpoints to slow it down to 3-5 days)

On the whole, however, the Feds would probably keep control of all the cities. They would surely pack enough firepower to be able to travel wherever they chose. The rebels would melt away whenever a column approached, but they would pick off any sentries and small garrisons left behind, after the column had passed.

How many people would die in this rebellion? Well, I just happen to have on hand the death tolls from 50 civil wars fought during the period 1975-1999.

If we take the middle half of our fifty civil wars (that is, numbers 13-38), and apply that range of percentages (.7% to 2%) to an American population of 250 million, then we see that there's a good chance that 175,000 to 5,000,000 people would die in a new American Civil War. The precise median death rate in our sample is 3500 per million, which therefore puts the likeliest body count at 875,000 Americans. Of course, there's a wide spread in the sample. A civil war of Afghan intensity would kill 25,000,000, while a Northern Irish death rate would kill only 15,000, but an average war, fought in a style similar to Nicaragua, Sri Lanka, Colombia, Peru or Algeria would certainly kill many hundreds of thousands.

So I guess we're lucky that this didn't happen.

Blog Entry from 2008-02-02

Jeff Provine — 1970-01-01T00:00:00+01:00

In 1812 as the sea otter fur trade blossomed in the Northern Pacific, settlers from Russia began to colonize the Alaskan coast.

They worked alongside native Aleutians to perfect hunting techniques for otters, and American ships provided the transport of processed furs out and new settlers in. Joint Russian-American hunting expeditions took them as far south as the coasts of Spanish California, where otters were plentiful beyond the reach of colonies. Alexander Andreyevich Baranov, Chief Administrator of the Russian-American Company, which had been chartered as Russia's first joint-stock company in 1799, determined to establish a settlement in California to exploit the natural resources there as well as limiting the northward expansion of the Spanish.

After a trade mission to San Francisco in 1806 and a successful hunting expedition in 1808 during which Russians buried plaques denoting Russian possession of the land, a second try at a permanent agricultural settlement was successfully made in 1812 by Commerce Counselor Ivan Kuskov with what became known as "Fort Ross" (a slurred nickname of "Fortress Russia"). The settlement flourished, though the otters in the area were practically eliminated by American and English hunting expeditions in the next decade. Settlers built windmills and a shipyard and introduced luxuries such as glass windows and stoves to Northern California.

A new story by Jeff ProvineIts great importance, however, came as it was a stop on the exploration route of Lieutenant Otto von Kotzebue. The German-born Kotzebue had been given charge of a ship of twenty-seven men outfitted by Count Nikolay Rumyantsev to seek out a passage through the Arctic Circle and chart undiscovered islands in Oceania along with the naturalists Johann Friedrich von Eschscholtz and Adelbert von Chamisso and the artist Louis Choris. While a Northwest Passage proved impossible, he stopped in 1824 at Fort Ross after visiting the Spanish missions at Santa Clara and San Francisco. His journals described the region as "of a very romantic though wild character; and the luxuriant growth of the grass proved that the soil was rich." He also noted, "the inhabitants of Ross live in the greatest concord with the Indians, who repair, in considerable numbers, to the fortress, and work as day-labourers, for wages" and that the natives "willingly give their daughters in marriage to Russians and Aleutians; and from these unions ties of relationship have arisen which strengthen the good understanding between them."

Kotzebue returned to San Francisco, where "The Californian winter being now fairly set in, we had much rain and frequent storms. On the 9th of October the south-west wind blew with the violence of the West-Indian tornado, rooted up the strongest trees, tore off the roofs of the houses, and occasioned great devastation in the cultivated lands." Their ship suffered severe damage as its cables broke and wind drove it onto the rocky shore. With such major repairs needed, Kotzebue determined to winter in the safe harbor of San Francisco Bay, giving extra time for Dr. Eschscholtz to obtain botanical samples from far upstream in the lands not inundated by the notable fogs that plagued Russian gardens in the area. Upon his return from one of the expeditions, Eschscholtz revealed to Kotzebue a handkerchief full of gold pebbles gathered from a creekbed. Kotzebue returned the samples of gold to Russia and determined that the storm that had delayed them struck simultaneously in St. Petersburg, as if a herald of the joining of northern California to Russia. Tsar Alexander I and his ministers dispatched expeditions and colonies to the area, igniting a Russian gold rush and securing the claim to the area by supporting America in its war against Mexico in 1846-8 (during which they seized San Francisco). As the Russian gold turned national attentions to the Pacific, they expanded with colonies in the Sandwich Islands and throughout the northern ocean.

While for the most part the Russian settlers worked well with Americans, Russia proved too cordial to natives for the Americans' taste. After battles in the Oregon territory such as Rogue River, Grave Creek, and Big Meadows, the Russian colony of New Albion welcomed refugees and helped organize a resettlement program that bolstered the defense of the region, ending many Americans' hopes of annexation as had been seen in Texas. Several warhawks called for an expedition to drive out the Russians, but by the time railroads would have allowed supply chains, Albion was as entrenched of a state as Alaska.

Following the lackluster support given from the tsar during the Russo-Japanese War, the Russian colonies in the Pacific began calling for independence. Although several attempts at insurrection were put down in the early 1900s, the Russian Civil War would give the colonies a wave of successful revolutions in 1917. Fearing Japanese expansion, the defensive Coalition of Pacific Russian Republics renewed its close ties with the Americans and British. Political ties deepened as they came into NATO during the Cold War, though Albion, Alaska, and Gavay (Hawai'i) were often viewed with suspicion due to their historical ties with what became the Soviet Union.

Blog Entry from 2008-02-01

Alternate Historian Robbie Taylor — 1970-01-01T00:00:00+01:00

In 4591 Emperor Chengzu grants women full and equal protection under the law. This decree is even more controversial than the visionary Emperor's space program, but it lays the groundwork for democratization in the next century.

Blog Entry from 2008-02-01

Todayinah Editor — 1970-01-01T00:00:00+01:00

In 1979 the Grand Ayatollah Seyyed Ruhollah Musavi Khomeinii is assassinated on his arrival in Tehran by CIA Agents. CIA Director George Bush's justification for this clandestine activity was that some troubles you just need to nip in the bud, after all, the US could not afford another Castro in the Middle East.

Blog Entry from 2008-02-01

Robbie Taylor — 1970-01-01T00:00:00+01:00

In 1861 Texas secedes from the United States, but doesn't join the Confederacy or send troops to aid its cause. Instead, the reconstituted Republic of Texas fortifies its borders and waits out the civil war between the Confederate States and the Union. When the Union wins in 1863, Texas sues for peace and recognition as an independent nation; President Lincoln, unwilling to spill more American blood capturing another rebel state, formally recognizes them and grants their request for independence.

Blog Entry from 2008-02-01

Todayinah Editor — 1970-01-01T00:00:00+01:00

In 1925 John Ronald Reuel Tolkien mapped out the Fall of Gondolin in the 'Sketch of the Mythology'.

Whether he knew it or not, the epic struggle of the little people was an expression of his own disempowerment from World War I. Gondolin represented the citadel of his own shattered integrity. And the refuge to which the Eldar fled was the military hospital where Tolkien recovered from combat stress.

Thus led by [Tolkien] the remant of the Gondolin passed over the mountains, and came into the Vale; and fleeing southward by weary and dangerous marches they came at length to the great river. There [military hospital] they rested a while, and were healed of their hurts and weariness; but their sorrow could not be healed. . ~ Fall of Gondolin

Blog Entry from 2008-02-01

Todayinah Editor — 1970-01-01T00:00:00+01:00

In 1924 the United Kingdom recognized the Union of Soviet Vampire Republics (USVR) founded by the undead nosferatu Vladimir Lenin and his blood-sucking spawn.

Blog Entry from 2008-02-01

Robbie Taylor — 1970-01-01T00:00:00+01:00

In 1908 King Carlos of Portugal is assassinated by rebels in the streets of Lisbon. His son, Luis Filipe, is wounded, but survives and succeeds him on the throne. Luis Filipe decides to follow the course of England, and transitions Portugal into a constitutional monarchy rather than face the possibility of revolt and abdication or execution. With his assistance, Italy's Social Democrats gain power against the Fascisti, and Spain's Republican forces win the civil war in 1936 against the Nationalists. The three nations usher in a new democratic era for southern Europe.

Blog Entry from 2008-02-01

Todayinah Editor — 1970-01-01T00:00:00+01:00

In 1953 violent storms claim hundreds of lives up and down the East coast of Britain. The background to the rising waters was simply put. The invasion of earth had recently entered a third phase as aliens started melting the ice caps, causing sea levels to rise. Historian John Wyndham described the ultimate victory of humanity in the Kraken Awakes. The super-weapon defeated the invasion, yet left the Earth as a significantly reduced landmass. Historian wondered if similar attempts had been made before in the distant past.

Blog Entry from 2008-02-01

Todayinah Editor — 1970-01-01T00:00:00+01:00

In 1984 in a humour reference to Monty Python, the BBC reported that the Half pound coin had met its maker - 'Britain's least-loved currency is to leave the nation's purses after 13 years of almost universal unpopularity'. Rampant inflation in the 1970s meant that even basic items cost hundreds of new pounds, and there was absolutely no need to think in terms of pennies.

Blog Entry from 2008-02-01

Todayinah Editor — 1970-01-01T00:00:00+01:00

In 1952 with the announcement of a Test drive for TV detector vans, a new method for tracking down users of unlicensed television sets was unveiled in the UK. The first TV detector van was demonstrated in front of Postmaster-General, Lord De La Warr and Assistant Postmaster-General Mr Gammans. The quality of terrestrial television was consider appalling by both Gammans and the British public. It was important to identify those rare individuals of sloth and indolence who would sit on a sofa all night watching non-entertaining broadcast.

Blog Entry from 2008-02-01

Todayinah Editor — 1970-01-01T00:00:00+01:00

In 2003 BBC News reported that Columbia shuttle disintegrates killing seven - the US space shuttle Columbia has broken up as it re-entered the Earth's atmosphere killing all seven astronauts on board.

The Domination of the Draka has issued a formal statement, in which the Archon re-affirms the Strategos' policy that intrusion into Drakan air space would not be tolerated.

Blog Entry from 2008-02-01

Todayinah Editor — 1970-01-01T00:00:00+01:00

In 1959 suffering from exhaustion, Charles Hardin 'Buddy' Holly, Jiles P Richardson - known as the Big Bopper, and Ritchie Valens cancelled the remainder bookings on their Winter Dance Party Tour.

Holly had set up the gruelling schedule of concerts - covering 24 cities in three weeks - to make money after the break-up of his band, The Crickets, the previous year. Preferring to 'keep it loose like a long-necked goose', Bopper had decided to return to radio, where he had been a record-breaking DJ - with a 122-hour marathon stint - reaching number six in the American charts with his record Chantilly Lace.

Blog Entry from 2008-02-01

Alternate Historian Robbie Taylor — 1970-01-01T00:00:00+01:00

In 1931 Sir Oswald Mosley, disappointed by the two main parties in British politics, founds the New Party. Arguing for elections based on class lines rather than geographical location, the New Party is unpopular until the full effects of the Great Depression hit England. Mosley's ranks swell with the unemployed, and he is elected Prime Minister in 1932. He makes common cause with continental fascists Mussolini of Italy, Franco of Spain and Hitler of Germany during his premiership, but where they are all gone by the end of the decade, Mosley's rule of Britain has only begun.

Blog Entry from 2008-02-01

Todayinah Editor — 1970-01-01T00:00:00+01:00

In 2003 the President asphyxiated after choking on a pretzel whilst watching the game alone. The VP had never sought the Presidency, and truth be told was incumbent out of duty to an old man.

Blog Entry from 2008-02-01

Robbie Taylor — 1970-01-01T00:00:00+01:00

In 47,371 BCE, Swikolay reaches Africa again. Her clan has grown to a dozen strong, now, each dedicated to her great-grandmother's dream of touching the sky. While they are traveling through eastern Africa, they see Kilimanjaro, and Swikolay decides that this mountain will be her final attempt to fulfill The Speaker's wishes.

Blog Entry from 2008-02-01

Robbie Taylor — 1970-01-01T00:00:00+01:00

In 1952 Mikhail von Heflin finds the grave site of Willard Thompson in San Diego, California. Using the cemetery's records, he discovers that Willard had a son who moved back to Texas. He prepares for another journey across the United States to find this man, Carl Thompson.

Blog Entry from 2008-02-01

Robbie Taylor — 1970-01-01T00:00:00+01:00

In 1959 the Japanese begin evacuations in order to save some of their people from the New Reich's Asian conquest. After seeing China fall to power of the Germans, they knew that it was only a matter of time before the bloodthirsty Reich leadership called for more lebensraum, and looked for it in their island nation.

Blog Entry from 2008-02-01

Robbie Taylor — 1970-01-01T00:00:00+01:00

In 1904 Ambassador Li'Kanto'Mk of earth makes contact with a secret organization of aliens on the Mlosh homeworld; they have kept records of the past in which his ancestors were forced to flee. After seeing them, the Mlosh Ambassador orders a quiet, but quick, withdrawal from the Mlosh home star system.

Blog Entry from 2008-02-01

Robbie Taylor — 1970-01-01T00:00:00+01:00

In 2002 the People's Republic of America explodes a nuclear dumping ground in Nevada. Wind currents sweep the radioactive waste across the Soviet States of America, causing hundreds of deaths immediately, and possibly tens of thousands in the coming years. This criminal action is condemned by every government in the world, and the P.R.A. loses a large chunk of its international support.

Blog Entry from 2008-02-01

Stan Boleslawski — 1970-01-01T00:00:00+01:00

In 1972 Prime Minister Edward Heath dismissed his Minister of Education, Margaret Thatcher over the milk-snatching row.

Until recently, Mrs. Thatcher had denounced her critics easily: 'People who resort to personal attacks usually do so because their arguments are so weak. I will not be hounded. I will never be driven anywhere against my will. Though her critics may be numerous, Prime Minister Edward Heath is not one of them. He recently rejected a demand for her resignation and said that her regime had been a period of remarkable achievement. It was a wise decision that would scarely trouble his old age when he later became a fierce critic of Thatcher.

The London Sunday Express called her the lady nobody loves, and the Sun declared: 'She is the most unpopular woman in Britain.' Edward Britten, the general secretary of the National Union of Teachers, has said that her policies had produced chaos. To former Laborite Education Minister Edward Short, she is a national disaster. In playgrounds, children taunt her for cutting off their free milk by chanting: Mrs. Thatcher, milk snatcher!.

The target of these angry accusations was Margaret Thatcher, 46, a blue-eyed blonde who for nearly two years had served as Britain's Minister of Education. Some criticism of the Conservative Cabinet's only female member centers on her genteel mannerisms - her Establishment tweeds and her cool, monotonous voice. I've had everything thrown at me, she protested. I'm too soft; I'm too hard. I think people really do resent it when you know the answers.

Blog Entry from 2008-02-01

Chris Oakley — 1970-01-01T00:00:00+01:00

On this day in 1916, the submarine U-20, responsible for sinking the RMS Titanic, was itself sunk by Royal Navy destroyers.

Blog Entry from 2008-02-01

Eric Lipps — 1970-01-01T00:00:00+01:00

In 1980 President Rockefeller is admitted into Walter Reed Hospital for what is described as a 'routine follow-up examination.' He will be discharged four days later.

Reporters inquiring as to the outcome of his examination are put off with the statement that the President prefers to wait until 'all the test results are in' before commenting. This is widely seen as an evasion, fueling rumors that Rockefeller's doctors have found something seriously wrong with him.

Blog Entry from 2008-02-01

Eric Lipps — 1970-01-01T00:00:00+01:00

In 1968 former Vice-President Richard M. Nixon announces he will run for president on the Republican ticket. He tells reporters he has a 'plan for peace with honor' in both Cuba and Southeast Asia, but provides no details then or later; the media will take to referring to Nixon's 'secret plan' to end the wars, although the candidate never uses that phrase.

Blog Entry from 2008-02-01

Todayinah Editor — 1970-01-01T00:00:00+01:00

In 2010 on this day the Prime Minister of Israel, Ehud Barak (pictured) issued orders to proceed with Operation Final Victory at all costs.

Just a decade before and during his first term of office as Prime Minister, Barak pursued a final settlement on the basis of the Oslo Agreement Click to watch the documentary Why Barak's Offer was Completely Unacceptable.

Prior to his political career Barak served as an officer in the IDF and following a highly decorated career he was appointed the 14th Ramatkal (Head of General Staff) in 1995. Barak is also an expert in krav maga, the official IDF martial art.

Ehud Brog as he was known joined the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) in 1959. At that time he decided to change his name to 'Barak', which means 'lightning' or 'shine' in Hebrew. He served in the IDF for 35 years, rising to the position of Chief of the General Staff and the rank of Rav Aluf, the highest in the Israeli military. During the Yom Kippur War, Barak commanded an improvised regiment of tanks which among other things, helped rescue paratrooper battalion 890 commanded by Yitzhak Mordechai who were suffering heavy losses in the Battle of the Chinese Farm.

During his service as a commando in the elite Sayeret Matkal, Barak led several highly acclaimed operations, such as: 'Operation Isotope', the rescue mission to free the hostages onboard Sabena Flight 572 at Lod Airport in 1972; the 1973 covert mission Operation Spring of Youth in Beirut, in which he was disguised as a woman in order to assassinate members of the Palestine Liberation Organization; Barak was also a key architect of the June 1976 Operation Entebbe, another rescue mission to free the hostages of the Air France aircraft hijacked by terrorists and forced to land at the Entebbe Airport in Uganda. These highly acclaimed operations, along with Operation Bayonet led to the dismantling of Palestinian terrorist cell Black September and a decline in international terrorism for over 20 years[citation needed]. It has been alluded that Barak also masterminded the Tunis Raid on April 16, 1988, in which PLO leader Abu Jihad was assassinated.

Later he served as head of Aman, the Military Intelligence Directorate (1983-1985), head of Central Command (1986 - 1987) and Deputy Chief of the General Staff (1987-1991). He served Chief of the General Staff between April 1, 1991 and January 1, 1995. During this period he implemented the first Oslo Accords and participated in the negotiations towards the Israel-Jordan Treaty of Peace.

Elected Prime Minister of Israel on 17 May 1999, Barak gave a campaign promise to end Israel's 22-year long occupation of Southern Lebanon within a year. On May 24th, 2000 Israel withdrew from Southern Lebanon. On October the 7th, 2000, three Israeli soldiers were captured by Hezbollah and then subsequently killed. The bodies of these soldiers, along with the living Elhanan Tenenbaum, were eventually exchanged for Lebanese captives in 2004. Barak inaugurated peace negotiations with the Palestinian Liberation Organisation, which ultimately proved fruitless. Barak also took part in the Camp David 2000 Summit which was meant to finally resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict but failed. Barak, Prince Bandar of Saudi Arabia, and US president Bill Clinton placed the blame on Yasser Arafat. Barak claimed he exposed 'Arafat's true intentions'. Following the failure at Camp David, the Palestinian al-Aqsa Intifada erupted. Barak also allowed Foreign Minister Shlomo Ben-Ami to attend the Taba Summit with the leadership of the Palestinian Authority, after his government had fallen.

Immediately after Yasser Arafat rejected the settlement, hardliners seized control of the Israeli Government and continued to escalate events inside a vicious, inescapable circle of violence that gripped the region. A former IDF Chief of Staff, Barak had been drawn into this cold logic against his better judgment, serving as Defense Minister from 2006-2009. By remaining inside the Cabinet, he had perhaps hoped to reign in the extreme elements who were now driving events mercilessly along towards the destruction of the Palestinian National Authority.

In a press conference later that day, the Prime Minister justified the destruction by quoting quoting scripture from both the Talmud and the Koran. Barak stated that a hostile Palestinian population was no longer viable in the State of Israel because just like Jonah

the whale did swallow him, and he had done acts worthy of blame (Sura 37:142) .

Blog Entry from 2008-02-01

Todayinah Editor — 1970-01-01T00:00:00+01:00

In 2000 speaking after his stunning success in the New Hampshire Primary, Republican Presidential Candidate John S. McCain launched a missile of truth every bit as expertly guided as the one that had downed his navy plane over Hanoi. Fear and panic crept into the fragile eighteen-month old administration of President Al Gore as McCain uttered the famous words "You will always hear the truth from me .. no matter what".

The reaction was also shared by the Republican establishment, and his Primary opponent, George W. Bush who he had decisively beaten by the margin of 49% to 30%. "The Republican establishment cannot save a faltering [Bush] campaign no matter how well funded" predicted the Weekly Standard.

The two Republican candidates had argued over their respective proposals for tax cuts, and McCain pushed his signature issue of campaign finance reform. But McCain was the only candidate to talk much about foreign policy and defense issues.

With McCain heading into the South Caroline primary as the lead candidate, Bush, Al Gore and the Republican establishment were unexpectedly in broad agreement that "We gotta hit him hard". But Democrat Party plans to neutralise his straight-talk insurgency were destroyed by an unexpected event later that year, something massive that would hit all of them hard, the "what" that McCain had predicted. Because whilst hardly obvious at the time of his victory speech in New Hampshire, McCain's grasp of foreign policy and defense issues would matter a great deal after September 11th 2000.

Blog Entry from 2008-02-01

Todayinah Editor — 1970-01-01T00:00:00+01:00

In 1981 on this day the fortieth US President Ronald Reagan welcomed the dawn of a new era of responsible Federal Government by receiving Senator Charlton Heston and other leading members of the Conservative Democrat caucus for round table discussions at the White House.

The Democrat Party had drifted leftwards and embraced liberalism after the assassination of John F. Kennedy. And naturally, both of the former Union leaders were increasingly disillusioned with the party during the sixties and seventies.

Due to their lower middle class origins, neither family had directly benefitted from the welfare dollars of the New Deal during the thirties. And from their shared position of initial skepticism, they had nurtured a common conviction that the "Great Society" of Lyndon Johnson had mistakenly created a ballooning bureacracy which had delivered disappointing results for the "Average American".

Of course due to their own celebrity status neither would consider themselves a part of that group of people. Nor were they intellectuals who could bond easily with their fellow writers and academics amongst the neoconservatives who were led by the Editor of Public Interest, Irving Kristol.

Instead, Reagan was understandably keen to exploit Heston's public image which had lent authority to his political activitism. In fact Heston had struggled with the deeply personal decision to quit acting and run for the Senate in 1969. Reagan on the other hand, had experienced less of a dilemma. In his final role for the 1964 movie "The Killers", he been miscast as the villain. A lacklustre performance had finally brought the curtain down on his acting career.

Blog Entry from 2008-02-01

Stan Brin — 1970-01-01T00:00:00+01:00

In 1949 following the refusal of His Majesty's goverment to recognize Israel's national independence, the Knesset issued a war crimes indictment against Prime Minister Clement Atlee, Foreign Secretary Ernst Bevin, and Field Marshall Bernard Law Montgomery, chief of the Imperial General Staff.

The British leaders were specifically charged with conceiving and implementing the recent Siege of Jerusalem and the demolition of Jewish Quarter of the old city. The siege cost an estimated six thousand Jewish lives. The intention of besieging forces was to isolate the 100,000 Jewish residents of the city from the rest of the Jewish inhabitants of Palestine and, in the case of the Jordanian forces, to conquer East Jerusalem (including the Old City).

A new story by Stan BrinAside from the large Jewish population, Jerusalem held special importance to the Yishuv for "religious and nationalist" reasons. In particular, the Arab forces tried to cut off the road to Jerusalem from the coastal plain, where the majority of the Jewish population resided. The Arabs blocked access to Jerusalem "at Latrun and Bab al-Wad", a narrow valley surrounded by Arab villages on hills on both sides. The Arabs also fired off shells indiscriminately into West Jerusalem. The breaking of the siege on Jerusalem and the annexation of the captured areas to the Jewish state became primary goals for the Israelis in the 1948 Arab-Israeli War.

The fighting led to the evacuation of the Jewish villages of Neve Yaakov, Atarot, Kalya and Beit HaArava, and the expulsion of the Jewish inhabitants of the Old City of Jerusalem. Before the war, the Jews of the Old City had friendly relations with their Arab neighbors and were sorry to have to leave.

Blog Entry from 2008-02-01

Todayinah Editor — 1970-01-01T00:00:00+01:00

In 2011 Heinkill posted the questions ~ What if RAF Fighter Command was not divided in 1940, but united? Could it have led to greater losses for the Luftwaffe, and even altered the outcome of the invasion of the Soviet Union?

Historians have frequently discussed the merits of various decisions by the leader of RAF Fighter Command, Sir Hugh Dowding. Key among these, was the division of RAF fighter command resources into 4 discrete groups, each with its own commanding officer;

10 Group defended Wales and the West Country and was commanded by Air Vice-Marshal Sir Quintin Brand.
11 Group covered the southeast of England and the critical approaches to London and was commanded by New Zealander Air Vice-Marshal Keith Park.
12 Group defended the Midlands and East Anglia and was led by Air Vice-Marshal Trafford Leigh-Mallory.
13 Group covered the north of England, Scotland and Northern Ireland and was commanded by Air Vice-Marshal Richard Saul.

The two Groups which bore the brunt of the fighting were 11 Group, which faced the Luftwaffe onslaught head on, and 12 Group, which airfields were those most able to provide support to 11 Group.

Hitler invites Rubensdorffer to explain the tactics behind his success. Rubensdorffer outlines the hit and run, low level bombing methods he has been experimenting with since the Spanish Civil War, and the efficacy of the Bf110C in the role of strike fighter, rather than as fighter escort. But in the period after the war, it emerged that in-fighting between the commanders of these two key organisations, Park and Leigh Mallory, severely hampered the ability of the RAF to bring its full operational capacity to bear on the Luftwaffe raids.

The disagreements ranged from arguments over strategy, to petty arguments over Group boundaries and span of control. Leo McKinstry's book Spitfire, Portrait of a Legend, details the scale, and the pettiness of the conflicts between these two leaders. In Park's own words in a letter to the Air Ministry in 1940:

"Throughout August and September 1940, on occasion when all my squadrons had been dispatched to engage the many German bomber forces, I called on No 10 Group to cover some vital targets on my right with one or two squadrons. Brand always responded at once and on many occasions effectively intercepted the enemy, preventing them from bombing their target unmolested. In similar circumstances I called on No 12 Group to cover my fighter aerodromes north east and east of London but Leigh-Mallory failed to respond. This resulted in North Weald, Hornchurch, and Debden being accurately bombed whilst 12 Group wing was being dispatched, assembled and climbed in mass formation to the rear of my area".

According to McInstry in another letter Park wrote at the time he said, "Frankly I was more worried at the lack of cooperation (with Leigh-Mallory) than I was about out-witting the massed German raids."

Further evidence of the pettiness of their conflict can also be seen in a memo, again cited by McKinstry, which Leigh-Mallory sent to Park during the height Battle, "Full explanation required why 11 Group fighters have shot down enemy fighters over 12 Group area."

Historians agree that this infighting resulted in the RAF not making best use of the total fighting capacity of the combined 11 and 12 Group squadrons, and created an uneven balance of attrition in which the vital 11 Group covering the potential invasion sites of South East England was very close to collapse in September 1940, while 10 and 12 Groups were still largely operational, but not engaged in the fighting to the extent they could be.

But what if Dowding had chosen another structure for Fighter Command, in which 11 and 12 Groups were united under a single Commander? Would this have allowed better management of precious Fighter Command resources? Would more fighters have been brought to bear on incoming Luftwaffe raids, and fewer fighters lain underutilised on airfields north of London? Would the RAF have been able to achieve an earlier victory in the Battle of Britain, or would it simply have squandered 12 Group resources as well, leading both Groups to the point of collapse by September 1940.
A game simulation is provided at Game Hub web site.

Blog Entry from 2008-02-01

Todayinah Editor — 1970-01-01T00:00:00+01:00

In 1968 on this day the 33rd Governor of California Ronald Wilson Reagan announced his candidacy for the Republican presidential nomination. continues from Part 1

The reaction of his opponent, Vice President Hubert Humphrey was to issue an apocalyptic warning that "the very future of liberalism in America is in question!". But in reality Reagan had only emerged as the anti-liberal candidate after his predecessors (Barry Goldwater and Richard Nixon) had both decided against a second run for the White House.

Instead, he choose George Romney as his running mate and between them they would easily win by a landslide, receiving 347 votes in the electoral college (including five states that third party candidate George Wallace was hoping to win).

The Democrat Party Convention would be torn apart by division between patriots and anti-war protestors. This conflict in the party might have been resolved days before the election if full details of the "secret plan" to end the war in Vietnam had been fully disclosed. Because Lyndon Johnson called a halt to the bombing of North Vietnam, hoping to swing the anti-war vote behind Humphrey, and also impose a de facto decision upon his presidential decision. But it was Reagan's intention to resume the bombing of North Vietnam, and hand the military full control of the management of the conflict. He was absolutely convinced that the war in Vietnam could still be won.

Blog Entry from 2008-02-01

Jeff Provine — 1970-01-01T00:00:00+01:00

In 1861 after a half-shouted speech by Governor Sam Houston (pictured) on January 21, the Texas state legislature begrudgingly determined that they would not be able to rally enough support to pass an act of secession over his veto.

In his speech, Houston called the election of Republican Abraham Lincoln "unfortunate" but not grounds enough for the "rash action" of seceding from the Union that Texas had come into only fifteen years before. Responding to increasing tension, Houston prophesied,

"Let me tell you what is coming. After the sacrifice of countless millions of treasure and hundreds of thousands of lives, you may win Southern independence if God be not against you, but I doubt it. I tell you that, while I believe with you in the doctrine of states rights, the North is determined to preserve this Union. They are not a fiery, impulsive people as you are, for they live in colder climates. But when they begin to move in a given direction, they move with the steady momentum and perseverance of a mighty avalanche; and what I fear is, they will overwhelm the South."

A new story by Jeff ProvineThe special convention which had been expected by organizers to vote overwhelmingly for secession was hamstrung by the governor's continued Unionist pressure, but the legislature vowed to review the decision of the delegates. Houston practically hounded the convention, drumming up support for the Union and noting that the United States of America had attempted to make peace with King George before its Declaration of Independence. Many Texans supported secession for a number of reasons, but others, especially the newly settled German population, respected the Union and wished to hold to it. Finally, with only a slight majority firmly wishing to secede, the convention voted to give Washington a chance to address the grievances of Texas, mainly the failures of protection from Indian attacks, raids across the borders for the theft of property including slaves, and an assurance of white superiority. Most of all, the ordinance called for support of states' rights, which was outlined in the Tenth Amendment and final point in the Bill of Rights, "The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people." Texas would remain neutral in the matter of secession for a time. New-to-office President Lincoln offered to send 50,000 Union troops to aid Governor Houston in quelling any rebel insurrection, but the elder politician declined and counseled Lincoln to be slow to call for punishment against his fiery Southern brothers.

A Texas state referendum on February 23 confirmed the list of grievances, which gave great credence to the Peace Conference of 1861 being held in Washington. Derisively dubbed the "Old Gentlemen's Convention" because so many of its participants were former statesmen, including former president John Tyler, the conference met to discuss the necessities to avoid a War Between the States. Many of the points to come out of the conference were similar to the Crittenden Compromise, which had failed in Congress the month before, but the sentiment for peaceful compromise was enough to spur the later convention in Virginia to call for neutrality rather than secession after Lincoln's meeting with Virginian delegates assured them that the firing upon Fort Sumter in South Carolina would be a black mark for the Confederacy, not Union. Virginia led many border states and joined with Texas in a sense of neutrality as the Federal government worked to resolve a compromise. Meanwhile, the Cotton South descended into the long and grinding Civil War from Tennessee to Florida and Louisiana. Paramilitary forces conducted bloody guerilla combat in neutral states such as Missouri, North Carolina, Arkansas, and, especially, Texas, where Houston worked feverishly until his death in 1863 to calm the massacres of German immigrants and slave rebellions. On a positive end, the "galvanized Yanks" (Confederate POWs who volunteered to serve in forts in the West) solved the issues of Indian raids with a seeming surplus of willing soldiers.

Lincoln narrowly lost the election of 1864 to Democrat George McClellan, who began the process of Reconstruction for the Cotton South after the surrender of P.G.T. Beauregard. While the slaves of rebellious states had been freed by Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation (believed to have been what cost him the election in the border states), slavery would continue in the United States until advances by the Industrial Revolution, growing labor movements, and international pressure caused it to disappear by the late 1880s, with Texas to be the last state in the Union to declare it illegal in 1891.