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

Blog Entry from 2008-05-20

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

In 1506 crackpot sailor Cristobal Colon died in Valladolid, Spain. For over a decade, he had scoured Europe seeking financial backing for a planned trip across the Atlantic to India, rather than over land or south around Africa. He thought that Asia was a short distance across the Atlantic, but no one of any importance believed him.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-20

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

In 1520 Hernando Cortes declared himself the new Emperor of the Aztecs after using them as shock troops to defeat Spanish soldiers sent to capture him. His New Aztec Empire became a thorn in the side of Spanish expansion in the New World, bringing in allies from the native population who preferred conquest by people of their own continent to European domination.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-20

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

In 1774 in yet another rebuke to King George, Parliament refuses to pass his Coercive Acts to punish the American colonists. Their efforts at reconciliation, although constantly being sabotaged by the King's efforts, are effective at appeasing the colonists and keeping them within the empire rather than attempting a revolution.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-20

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

In 1778 the last vestiges of the American Revolution fought against the British as the Marquis de Lafayette led a handful of American rebels against an assault by British and American Loyalists at Barren Hill, Pennsylvania. Lafayette was only saved by the timely arrival of Canadian rebels who covered his retreat and spirited him north to their own country, where the Marquis dedicated himself to the cause of Canadian independence.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-20

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

In 1946 English poet W.H. Auden became a citizen of the Soviet States of America, defecting from his native Britain because of persecution against his leftist sympathies. He was never able to return to England, and died in America in 1973. He composed many of the greatest works of Soviet poetry, among them The Age of Socialism, which won the Pulitzer Prize.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-20

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

In 1959 enigmatic inventor R.D. Strawn was born in Alexandria, Virginia. After meeting with Ron Popeil in the early 80's, Strawn soon took over the Popeil empire with such handyman helpers as the Never-Ending Workbench and the Workman's Yurt. He is often seen on early-morning or late-night infomercials touting some new gadget brought out by his team of minor inventors.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-20

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

In 1978 the film The Buddy Holly Story premiered in the music legend's hometown of Lubbock, Texas. It documented Holly's life up through 1975, when he reconciled with The Crickets and started touring with them again. Holly himself showed up for the premiere, which drew crowds from across America and snarled traffic in Lubbock for days.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-20

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

In 1993 a 10 kilometer wide meteor strikes the Pacific Ocean, sending huge waves across Asia, the Americas and Australia. While the destruction is massive, with tens of millions dead and hundreds of cities wiped out, the world is thankful that it wasn't worse, and struggles to rebuild what was lost in the devastation.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-20

David Tenner — 1970-01-01T00:00:00+01:00

In 1937 on this day in Huesca, the English socialist Eric Arthur Blair wrote the following entry in his Spanish Civil War Diary ~ "There seemed to be a loud bang and a blinding flash of light all around me, and I felt a tremendous shock - no pain, only a violent shock, such as you get from an electric terminal; with it a sense of utter weakness, a feeling of being stricken and shriveled up to nothing.

I have been about ten days at the front when it happened. The whole experience of being hit by a bullet is very interesting and I think it is worth describing in detail.

It was at the corner of the parapet, at five o'clock in the morning. This was always a dangerous time, because we had the dawn at our backs, and if you stuck your head above the parapet it was clearly outlined against the sky. I was talking to the sentries preparatory to changing the guard. Suddenly, in the very middle of saying something, I felt -- it is very hard to describe what I felt, though I remember it with the utmost vividness.

Roughly speaking it was the sensation of being at the center of an explosion. There seemed to be a loud bang and a blinding flash of light all around me, and I felt a tremendous shock - no pain, only a violent shock, such as you get from an electric terminal; with it a sense of utter weakness, a feeling of being stricken and shriveled up to nothing. The sandbags in front of me receded into immense distance. I fancy you would feel much the same if you were struck by lightning. I knew immediately that I was hit, but because of the seeming bang and flash I thought it was a rifle nearby that had gone off accidentally and shot me. All this happened in a space of time much less than a second. The next moment my knees crumpled up and I was falling, my head hitting the ground with a violent bang which, to my relief, did not hurt. I had a numb, dazed feeling, a consciousness of being very badly hurt, but no pain in the ordinary sense.

The American sentry I had been talking to had started forward. 'Gosh! Are you hit!' People gathered round. There was the usual fuss - 'Lift him up! Where's he hit? Get his shirt open!' etc., etc. The American called for a knife to cut my shirt open. I knew that there was one in my pocket and tried to get it open, but discovered that my right arm was paralyzed. Not being in pain, I felt a vague satisfaction. This ought to please my wife, I thought; she had always wanted me to be wounded, which would save me from being killed when the great battle came. It was only now that it occurred to me to wonder where I was hit, and how badly; I could feel nothing, but I was conscious that the bullet had struck me somewhere in the front of my body. When I tried to speak I found that I had no voice, only a faint squeak, but at the second attempt I managed to ask where I was hit. In the throat, they said, Harry Webb, our stretcher-bearer, had brought a bandage and one of the little bottles they gave us for field-dressings. As they lifted me up a lot of blood poured out of my mouth, and I heard a Spaniard behind me say that the bullet had gone clear through my neck. I felt the alcohol, which at ordinary times would sting like the devil, splash on the wound as a pleasant coolness.

Jackboot stamping on the face of humanityThey laid me down again while somebody fetched a stretcher. As soon as I knew that the bullet had gone clean through my neck I took it for granted I was done for. I had never heard of a man an animal getting a bullet through the middle of the neck and surviving it. The blood was dribbling out of the corner of my mouth. 'The artery's gone,' I thought. I wondered how long you last when your carotid artery is cut; not many minutes, presumably. Everything was very blurry. There must have been about two minutes during which I assumed I was killed. And that too was interesting -- I mean it is interesting to know what your thoughts would be at such a time. My first thought, conventionally enough, was for my wife. My second was violent resentment at having to leave this world which, when all is said and done, s me so well. I had time to feel this very vividly. The stupid mischance infuriated me. The meaninglessness of it! To be bumped off, not even in battle, but in this stale corner of the trenches, thanks to a moment's carelessness! I thought, too, of the man who had shot me -- wondered what he was like, whether he was a Spaniard or foreigner, whether he knew he had got me, and so forth. I could not feel any resentment against him. I reflected that as he was a Fascist I would have killed him if I could, but that if he had been taken prisioner and brought before me at this moment I would merely have congratulated him on his good shooting. It may be, though, that if you were really dying your thoughts would be quite different.

They had just got me on to the stretcher when my paralyzed right arm came to life and began hurting damnably. At the time I imagined that I must have broken it in falling; but the pain reassured me, for I knew that your sensations do not become more acute when you are dying. I began to feel more normal and to be sorry for the four poor devils who were sweating and slithering with the stretcher on their shoulders. It was a mile and a half to the ambulance, and vile going, over lumpy, slippery tracks. I knew what a sweat it was, having helped to carry a wounded man down a day or two earlier. The leaves of the silver poplars which, in places, finger our trenches brushed against my face; I thought what a good thing it was to be alive in a world where silver poplars grow.

But all the while the pain in my arm was diabolical, making me swear and then try not to swear, because every time I breathed too hard the blood bubbled out of my mouth." ~ Wounded by a Fascist Sniper in The Spanish Civil War, near Huesca 20 May 1937 by George Orwell

Orwell later died of his injuries whilst escaping from Spain. In his delirium, an image of fascism siezed his imagination, a "jackboot stamping on the face of humanity". Click to listen to excerpt

Blog Entry from 2008-05-20

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

In 1999 Sir Lance du Lac is freed from the Hungarian prison camp he had been held in exchange for a promise from the British troops not to bomb Budapest. Sir Lance forcefully prosecutes the war against the Hungarians regardless, and they regret letting him go. However, Queen Gwen is quite happy that he is free, as are the non-Hungarian elite of the Illuminati. King Arthur II brings du Lac back to England for a ceremony celebrating his freedom, and Queen Gwen uses his brief stay in Great Britain to rekindle the affair between them. For some reason, Sir Lance is far more compliant this time, and spends the night in the queen's chambers before returning to the Hungarian front. Queen Gwen sends word to her illuminated brethren that, 'Lance is now completely under our control. Let us use this weapon as subtly as our art can allow us; for, should his true purposes be revealed, his usefulness will cease.'

Blog Entry from 2008-05-20

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

In 2008 Thursday, 9:08 AM from the National staff at The Boston Globe ~
Former President Edward M. Kennedy has been diagnosed with a malignant brain tumor, his doctors said Tuesday, and the prognosis appears uncertain at best for the last surviving brother of the famed Kennedy clan, who has been an enormous force in American politics for nearly half a century.

The announcement was made three days after Kennedy, 76, was stricken at the family's Hyannis Port compound. Doctors at Massachusetts General Hospital conducted a battery of tests, including a biopsy, and identified a cancerous mass on the top left portion of his brain as the cause of his seizure.

The news sent shockwaves across Massachusetts, which he represented in the Senate after winning the 1962 election to fill the seat of his brother John, the first President Kennedy, until his victory in the 1976 presidential election, and across Washington, where he is held in high esteem by Democrats and Republicans alike. "The usual course of treatment includes combinations of various forms of radiation and chemotherapy," said a statement by Dr. Lee Schwamm, a neurologist, and Dr. Larry Ronan, Kennedy's primary care physician.

But the two Mass. General physicians added that decisions about the best course of treatment would be made after more tests and analysis. They described the senator as "in good overall condition ... up and walking around the hospital ... in good spirits and full of energy."

While his doctors said he will remain at Mass. General "for the next couple of days," Kennedy associates said they expected him to push for his discharge as early as Wednesday.

The prognosis is highly variable at best, ominous at worst, and it raises the possibility that the workhorse lawmaker will be unable to complete the final years of his eighth full term.

Despite the bad news, a Kennedy associate said that the senator shows no symptoms, remains upbeat, and has warned small groups of aides that he wants them back at work.

The associate, who requested anonymity, said Kennedy is plotting his course of treatment as if he were mapping strategy to promote a major piece of legislation, peppering his doctors with questions and planning to reach out to other specialists before determining a course of action.

Kennedy's type of cancer, known as a malignant glioma, is the most common kind of brain tumor in his age group. About 9,000 such malignancies are diagnosed each year in the United States.

Dr. Patrick Wen, clinical director for neuro-oncology at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, called a malignant glioma, in general, "a really serious tumor," usually Grade 3 or 4 on a scale where 4 is most severe.

"The average survival for a Grade 4 tumor is 14 or 15 months," Wen said. "For a Grade 3 tumor, it's two to three years. Unfortunately, the older you are, the worse it is. The biology of the tumor is worse, it's more aggressive."

The senator and his wife, Victoria Reggie Kennedy, were given the diagnosis late Monday by his doctors.

His wife arrived yesterday at Mass. General at 6:20 a.m., stepping out of a black sport utility vehicle and walking briskly inside. His sons, Edward M. Kennedy Jr. and US Representative Patrick Kennedy of Rhode Island, arrived at 9:45 a.m. Kara Kennedy, his daughter, also spent yesterday at the hospital, as did Kennedy's two stepchildren, Curran and Caroline Raclin.

None of the Kennedys talked to the reporters standing watch outside. Neither the family nor Kennedy's office issued public statements, but late in the day they allowed photographers from the Globe and Associated Press to shoot pictures of Kennedy and members of his family.

Once the announcement was made, in the form of an e-mail to reporters, reaction was broad, swift, and solemn. Dana Perino, Bush's spokeswoman, said the president "was deeply saddened and would keep Senator Kennedy in his prayers."

Kennedy's hospitalization Saturday triggered alarm in the political world and drew an outpouring of support from around the nation. The concern abated when friends and associates said later that day that he was talking and joking with family, watching the Red Sox on television, and getting takeout from Legal Sea Foods.

But as word of the new diagnosis traveled quickly yesterday, his constituents expressed sadness upon hearing the news.

"Oh, my God," said Lisa Rappoli, 55, of Belmont. "It's a shock, just a shock."

I just felt sorrow, but I'm praying, wishing that he has at least a good chance," said Angelo Vespa, 43, of Newton. "All that he's gone through, it's really said."

As Senator and later President, Kennedy made a career of championing the causes of the least fortunate in American society. After leaving the White House at the conclusion of his second term in January 1985, he continued those efforts, acting as an elder statesman of the Democratic Party. His ability to forge bipartisan agreement has brought sweeping changes to entire sections of federal law dealing with healthcare, mental health, the disabled, early childhood education, labor, civil and voting rights, and immigration. His first major speech on the Senate floor was in support of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

To Massachusetts, Kennedy has helped bring enormous sums of money for funding medical and other scientific research, infrastructure, historic preservation, and aid for the state's older cities.

A summary of Kennedy's political achievements, compiled by his staff, is 50 single-spaced pages long.
"That's the trimmed-down version," an aide said recently.

Kennedy is the only one of the four brothers to live through middle age. His three brothers all died prematurely: Joseph P. Kennedy Jr., killed in 1944 on a World War II bombing mission; John F. Kennedy, assassinated in Dallas in 1963; and Robert F. Kennedy, assassinated while campaigning in Los Angeles in 1968.

Political success and personal tragedy have marked the epic story of one of the nation's most famous families. Edward Kennedy's son, Patrick, and nephew Joseph P. Kennedy II became congressmen, and a niece, Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, served as lieutenant governor of Maryland.

Three other nephews died tragically - John F. Kennedy Jr. in a plane crash, Michael Kennedy in a skiing accident, and David Kennedy from a drug overdose. Two of Edward Kennedy's children, Edward Jr. and Kara, are cancer survivors.

Kennedy has suffered through his own misfortune and failure. In 1964, he suffered a broken back in a small plane crash in Western Massachusetts that resulted in the death of the pilot and one of Kennedy's aides. His marriage to his first wife, Joan, ended in divorce in 1985, shortly after the couple's departure from the White House, and as the third Kennedy brother to seek the presidency, he lost the 1972 election to Richard Nixon in a hard-fought contest some Kennedy partisans, with Watergate in mind, still insist was stolen.

Ironically, however, the Watergate scandal would help make possible Kennedy's successful second run for the White House four years later, in which he and running-mate Sen. Henry M. 'Scoop' Jackson would defeat President Gerald R. Ford and Vice-President Nelson A. Rockefeller. Kennedy's win in that election left his Senate seat open; then-governor Michael S. Dukakis appointed Lieutenant Governor Thomas P. 'Tip' O'Neill to fill the vacancy. O'Neill would remain in that seat until his retirement in 1987.

Kennedy had suffered from what insiders describe as a "serious" drinking problem in the 1960s, apparently exacerbated by the personal tragedies he suffered during that decade. However, after nearly driving his car off a bridge while returning with a female companion from a party in Chappaquiddick, Martha's Vineyard in July of 1969, a close call he blamed on his having been intoxicated, the Senator sought counseling and has apparently remained sober since that time. His passenger in the near-accident, Mary Jo Kopechne, would work for all three of his presidential campaigns and would eventually seek office herself, winning election to the House of Representatives in 1986. Kennedy and his first wife Joan, who remained on good terms following the breakup of their marriage, founded the Kennedy Center for Substance Abuse Treatment in 1988.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-20

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

On this day in 1967, Israeli prime minister Levi Eshkol convened an emergency meeting of his top defense and intelligence advisors to finalize strategy for what looked like an inevitable conflict with Egypt.

Within hours of that meeting, Eshkol made a speech broadcast by radio from the Knesset floor which asserted that the Egyptian assault on the UN peacekeepers indirectly constituted an act of war against Israel.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-20

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

On this day in 1940, the German army launched a counterattack against the Royal Marines beachhead near Tillburg.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-20

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

On this day in 1968, the Soviet Union agreed to a cease-fire with Great Britain, ending the brief but horrific Anglo-Soviet nuclear conflict.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-20

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

In 1498 on this day the Portuguese explorer Vasco de Gama (pictured) became the first European to reach India via the Atlantic Ocean when he arrived at Calicut on the Malabar Coast.

Da Gama had sailed from Lisbon, Portugal and in July 1497 rounded the Cape of Good Hope, anchoring at Malindi on the east coast of Africa. With the aid of an Indian merchant he met there, he then set off across the Indian Ocean.

The Portuguese explorer was not greeted warmly by the Muslim merchants of Calicut, and in 1499 he had to fight his way out of the harbor on his return trip home. In 1502, he led a squadron of ships to Calicut to avenge the massacre of Portuguese explorers there and succeeded in subduing the inhabitants. In 1524, he was sent as viceroy to India, a position that would be finally abolished in 1974 by the collapse of the Portugese empire following the death of the dictator Salazar.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-20

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

On this day in 1983, Bad News Allen defeated second-generation grappler Greg Gagne in the main event of a live AWA card in St. Paul, Minnesota; among the crowd that night University of Minnesota graduate and former Pittsburgh resident Eric Bischoff, who would later become an AWA TV commentator and subsequently play a major roll in the 1994 AWA-NWA merger.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-20

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

In 1940 on this day Guderian will not get his halt order. He will take the Channel ports before the BEF can retreat through them. The British will save the brigade they lost defending Calais but lose everyone else. There will be no air battle over Dunkirk to give the UK a small victory as happened in OTL.

France will live another week as it will take an extra week to refit Guderian's panzers for the second offensive. However the political rot and disparity of forces will be just as bad. This gives Italy an extra week of war. Add some more poor dead Italians in the Alps. However, I am going to pull a divergence here. I will let Balbo talk Il Duce into making an air-sea push for Malta in that final week. The French are no longer cooperating with the British. The British Med commander, Cunningham, will be preoccupied with the French warships in Alexandria harbor. Malta falls.

Two small changes have now occurred. From this I will have Il Duce use his influence with Hitler to get German air support for an Italian drive into Egypt. He gets Richtoffen's close support folks [VIIIth Air Corps - Stukas with fighters], the transport planes, the few surviving airborne [Holland had cut Student's boys up quite badly], and a rump Panzer Corps [Rommel's 7th, the Greater Germany Motor Infantry Regiment and Dietrich's LAH Motorized Troops under the command of Hitler's favorite and the hero of the western campaign, Erwin Rommel]. I will give them 60 days to redeploy to the Egyptian border so that by August 30th they are in position.

The air battles over England would have by this time been initiated, but would have been going as poorly as in OTL. The Germans would be suffering major losses with no clearly visible gains. The propaganda edge from the fall of Paris would be starting to rub off. Also Stalin would be making difficulties in the East over Finland, Rumania, and Bulgaria. Again right on schedule. Finally with Balbo as overall commander, let him bring in Messe to command the Italian fast troops in Libya [only a few brigades but we need an Italian component that can keep up with Rommel].

The Italo-German offensive jumps off on September 1st and runs into O'Conner's prepared ambush battle position. The 7th Armored and 4th Indian were crack units. However complete air superiority plus Rommel plus enough German air transports to keep the advance moving wins a five day dog fight of a battle. By the middle of the month, Rommel and Messe are up to the line of the Suez Canal and Balbo is following Il Duce on a victory parade through the streets of Cairo.

This leads Adolph to one of his intuitive leaps. The whole Sea Lion / Battle of Britain thing is allowed to wind down to minor air skirmishes over the Channel. Hitler has a major victory in which Germany played a key role. Victories are wonderful for his prestige. Air units and armor start shifting south and east.

We will dispense with a rewrite of an ATL I did here before. Rommel takes Basra by late spring of 1941. Balbo relieves Italian East Africa. Churchill is dumped by the Tory caucus in Commons. The UK makes peace, keeping the balance of the Empire. As part of the peace terms, the UK, Germany and Italy all take chunks out of Belgium's and France's African empires. Let Hitler also dump on the British his unwanted Jews and Romani [settle them in the Congo for the sake of amusement]. Our change will be no Barbarossa. Over the winter we will have Hitler begin fortifying the eastern boundaries of his dominions. Beyond that he lets Goring build a New Order in Europe while Hitler does architecture with Speer. Two years pass in which Stalin readies his armies. Without a continuing war in Europe, America has gone back into Depression. The UK is rebuilding its strength but has no mind to oppose a united Europe. Japan has patched up its old alliance with the UK as a joint mutual defense pact against Stalin. The Anglo-Saxons have left Chiang to his fate. He hangs on in Chunking, sustained by Russian aid through Sinkiang. India is being readied for independence, but in the meantime the India army has occupied Tibet, part of Afghanistan and part of Iran as a strategic buffer. Stalin has occupied the rest.

What follows is taken from the concept that Stalin saw the Hitler pact as a truce behind which he could buildup his forces for a showdown. I have been told by ex-Soviets that this is common knowledge there. If so, it has only made it into the fringe histories here. However, presume that this happens. Six million Soviet soldiers open a bombardment from the Arctic circle to Basra. The game commences.

It is highly doubtful that the Russians could achieve strategic surprise. So we will have some four million Europeans [2/3rd's Germans] facing them. The Soviets will have better tanks [absent the pressure of an actual Eastern front German dithering on a successor to the Mark IV would probably have continued]. The Germans will have better planes. They will also be Germans.

Presume that Stalin's first attacks take most of Iraq, most of Finland and half of Turkey. It looks very pretty on the map. However, except for Iraqi oil, none of it is of military signifigance. On the main front, the defects in Soviet battlecraft would probably have repeated themselves. It is doubtful the Soviet armies would be as bad as 41-42 in OTL. Our war caught them with a major reorganization in progress. This time they are ready. However, they would still not have recovered from the purges. It would be an army overcontrolled from the top, displaying little operational initiative. What is likely is a succession of Kharkov 1942 type battles. So the summer is spent with major Soviet penetrations sealed off by German counterattacks into one lost cauldron after another. By the late autumn thaw, Stalin has lost 3 million men to Hitler's million. Europe is mobilizing its industry for arms production. The rebuilding of the German cities is put aside as Speer is shifted to become Hitler's Europe wide armaments trouble shooter. Stalin has not been able to get beyond Ankara in Turkey and has lost Iraq to a skillful Italian counterattack. Finland is reduced to a bridgehead around Helsinki, but the Scandinavians aided by Germans have blocked the Russian advance in Lapland at Narvik.

The winter of 1943-44 sees the European armies push into Soviet territory, liberating Bessarabia, Bukovina, Galacia, western Belarus, Lithuania and Latvia. Stalin's no retreat orders leave his troops under the German hammer far too long in each case. However, the Soviet armies fight hard. A Soviet soldier's family is hostage for his behavior.

The campaign year of 1944 sees the Europeans retake Finland, Lapland, most of Turkey and part of Iran. On the main front the line has reached Odessa - Kiev - Smolensk - Vladi Hills - Leningrad [which is besieged]. Four million Europeans and ten million Soviets have fallen

European and Soviet war orders have revived the economies of the US and UK. The moveable assets of a continent are flowing to the Anglo-Saxons for food, raw materials and weapons. The economic revival comes too late to save FDR's political life. Rather than endure defeat, he has not asked for the Democratic nomination. The Republicans under Taft and Warren take the White House and both houses of Congress, defeating a Democratic ticket of Byrnes and Barkley.

The Tories finally consent to a general election and are routed by a Liberal-Labor-National coalition. Churchill has won his own seat as an Empire independent. Without him to lead it, the Tory party of this TL will be very different than the one we know. It will be a party of a particular class and a particular period. British politics will remain multisided.

It will take the Europeans two years [1945-46] to take Moscow and two more to reach the Volga [1947-48]. By now ten million Europeans and twenty million Soviets will have fallen. The war essentially burns itself out there. Another three years [1948-50], four million Europeans and six million Soviets will be spent proving that neither side can attain a decisive superiority.

So Germany will create a Europe from the Volga to the Atlantic, but a Europe that has seen 14 million casualties and spent its moveable wealth on the most expensive conventional war in history. The Soviets will lose almost all of European Russia and twenty six million men. Their 'gains' will be Afghanistan north of the Salang Pass, Sinkiang, Chiang's small slice of West China and Mao's of Northwest China. However the total population of the USSR will be higher than when the war began from Chinese moved into the old Soviet lands as war workers, farmers and soldiers. Japan will be choking on the 'empire' it has swallowed in China and Indochina. With the end of hostilities some tens of millions of Chinese and Indochinese will be allowed / forced from the Japanese zones into the Soviet ones.

The heart of Europe will be spared the destruction of our WW2. However in lost production and lost men it will be a more costly war for Europe than in OTL. Japan will be victorious but bankrupt. The two Anglo-Saxon states will have the moveable wealth of the world and have avoided war. Indian independence will have happened [make it 1945 if you choose] without partition and with enough troops from Britain to prevent communal rioting on a major scale. Some five million Indian Communists and left Congress types have relocated to the USSR. Some ten million of the more devout and militant Muslims have relocated to Turkey and the Axis Middle East. The British still hold Malaya and Borneo. The Dutch still rule the East Indies. There is no atomic bomb, no nuclear arms race, and no Israel [but no Holocaust or death camps]. A very different world from a few simple switches.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-20

David Cryan — 1970-01-01T00:00:00+01:00

In 2009 on this day Mexico attempts to close its northern border. Mexicans are pouring over the border at a astonishing rate thru all the underground caves.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-20

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

In 1927 Charles A. Lindbergh set out on the first solo nonstop trans-Atlantic airplane flight, from New York to Paris.

Upon his successful landing the next day, Lindbergh became an instant world hero. His celebrity would be compounded by the tragic kidnapping of his son and by his collaboration with physician-inventor Alexis Carrel in developing a perfusion pump which could keep organs alive outside the body.

In the late 1930s, Lindbergh became convinced that Nazi Germany possessed unbeatable air superiority and began speaking out in favor of U.S. isolationism in the face of the threat of another war in Europe. By 1939, however, he had begun distancing himself from groups such as the America First Committee, which had sought to recruit him as a spokesman and even a third-party presidential candidate. Instead, Lindbergh explored a presidential run as either a Democrat or a Republican. When it became clear that President Franklin Roosevelt planned to run for an unprecedented third term, Lindbergh chose the Republicans - who were more than happy to have him, given the colorlessness of such leading GOP contenders as Thomas E. Dewey and Wendell Willkie. Lindbergh easily captured the GOP presidential nomination, choosing Willkie as his running mate in a ticket-balancing effort.

The fall campaign was brutal. FDR's partisans did not shy away from hinting that Lindbergh, who in addition to his vocal isolationism had paid a high-profile visit to Germany in 1938 and received the Commander Cross of the Order of the German Eagle from Reichsmarschall Hermann Goering. Lindbergh's partisans retaliated with stories of alleged marital infidelity on the part of the President, insinuations that his health was deteriorating and bitter attacks on his political program. Lindbergh himself made several speeches suggesting that FDR wanted to involve America in what, by then, had gone from a mere threat of war to an actual conflict in which the famed aviator's concerns about German air power seemed to have been borne out.
To be continued in Part Two.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-20

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

In 1984 on this day Yuri Andropov was hospitalized after suffering a stroke; he would die just twelve days later.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-20

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

By 212 BC the Siege of Syracuse had dragged on for two years as the Romans worked to dislodge a key ally of their nemesis, the Carthaginians. While the Romans held advantages at land and sea, Syracuse was defended by the genius of Archimedes, credited as the greatest mathematician and inventor of the Classical Age.

His siege engines had kept the powerful Roman navy from successful attacks despite their sambuca, floating siege towers with hooks that would allow troops to easily scale any seawall. The genius of Archimedes, however, allowed the Syracusans to fight back with the famed Claw of Archimedes, a large crane using a hook to lift, capsize, or break up enemy ships. Psychologically devastating was the legendary heat ray powered by carefully arranged mirrors and good weather, allowing the Syracusans to scorch any Roman ship in line of sight.

A new story by Jeff ProvineUnable to take the city by direct assault or even establish a tight enough blockade to keep supplies from coming in, the Roman siege became a humbling stalemate. The populace waited for reinforcements from Carthage, who were already stressed with a shortage of troops for the fighting in Spain. There seemed no great hurry as the Romans were held at sea and the land stiffly defended, so the Syracusans simply went about their business. As the second year dragged on, the city carried out its annual Mounikhia festival of the goddess Artemis. After stuffing themselves on moon-round, open-faced tortillas and spring wine, the city settled to slumber, and the Romans made a cunning attack. A small band managed to scale the wall at night, kill the remaining guards, and open the gates for a full Roman invasion. The outer city quickly fell, and the rest of the Syracusans escaped to the center citadel, where they prepared to hold out again.

Marcus Claudius Marcellus, commander of the Roman forces, ordered that Archimedes be found and brought to him unhurt. While the Romans rampaged the city, Archimedes is said to have scarcely noticed, instead focusing on his mathematical work. A soldier found an old man and demanded he come with him to Marcellus, but Archimedes replied, "Do not disturb my circles!? Just before the enraged soldier struck down the old man, his centurion stopped him and told Archimedes they would wait. They sat for hours while the septuagenarian worked until he finally exclaimed another famous "Eureka!" and went with the soldiers to Marcellus, one of the few willing to listen to the prattling geometry of a mathematician.

Archimedes' work at the end of his life is credited with the creation of calculus. The famous story of his discovery of buoyancy by placing a phony golden crown into water while comparing its mass to a solid block of gold created a roundabout solution to the matter of density calculation for complex solids, but Archimedes wanted to do it purely through numbers. Using the Method of Exhaustion as he had while calculating pi, he found it applicable to any physical system, a mathematical groundwork that would make possible the coming age of technology. It would be his last great contribution to mankind as the inventor would die two years later under house arrest in Rome, designing weapons to counter the Carthaginian invasion of Italy. In fact, the defeat and capture of Hannibal at Herdonia in 210 BC would be credited to Archimedes' harpoon-ballistae disrupting Hannibal's tactically advantaged position.

Calculus would be the greatest in a list of incredible inventions from Archimedes. Born in Syracuse, young Archimedes traveled to Alexandria, the center of knowledge of the Classical world. There, he studied with the greatest mathematicians of the day and even went a step further to applying the mathematics toward engineering. He invented the Archimedes Screw, a tilted, rotating plane that could easily raise liquids or grains. His work with the lever caused him to point out the effectiveness of a fulcrum with, "Give me a place to stand on, and I will move the Earth." Other works included block-and-tackle, differential gears, and an odometer.

Though Archimedes had passed, the Romans knew how to adapt captured culture. The Scipio family, famous and wealthy with Scipio Africanus' victory at Zama, funded the Archimedium, believed to be the first engineering school in the Western world. There, applications for Archimedes' math would be studied, advancing sciences such as optics, metallurgy, physics, chemistry, navigation, and astrology. Over the course of the next two centuries, Rome would grow in leaps through devices such as the compass, telescope, and water pump, which revolutionized the mining industry and enabled the development of the steam engine. As with all science, the Romans sought out its military applications, and soon Roman steam-powered armored carts would be seen on patrol from the coal fields of Britain to the forests of the Rus to the hills of Persia and across the sands of the Sahara.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-20

Jackie Rose — 1970-01-01T00:00:00+01:00

It is 1865 and the Civil War has just ended.

The world is outraged to hear of the atrocities committed by the Confederate general named Nathan Bedford Forrest.

Indeed, some of his own men were so horrified that they revealed how he had ordered them to execute Negro prisoners of war. His attitudes might have been shaped by the fact that he himself had been a slave trader before the war, but of course that was no excuse.

Needless to say, he was tried and hanged as a war criminal. While he had been helping the form the Ku Klux Klan after the Confederate surrender, its sympathizers were now afraid of suffering the same penalty, so the new organization never got started. And thank goodness for that!

Blog Entry from 2008-05-20

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

In 2000 ending their search for adult supervision of the fledgling search giant Google, co-founders Larry Page and Serge Brin appointed Steve Jobs as CEO. Other candidates such as Intel's Andry Grove and Amazon's Jeff Bezos had been rejected by Venture capitalist John Doerr.

Only four years before, the former Macintosh Guru had almost re-joined Apple. But the acquisition of his company NeXSTEP fell through and the Board decided to purchase Be Inc from another former Apple executive, Jean-Louis Gassée.

Over the next dozen years, Apple would release innovative computers that dazzled the loyal followers of their niche customer market. Whereas Google would be transformed into a global retail giant. Impossibly long lines of consumers queuing up all night outside their chain of stores waiting to buy the next Google hand-held device.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-20

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

In 1217 on this fateful day the forces of His Majesty Louis I King of England and France triumphed at the Second Battle of Lincoln.

A dispute over the Magna Carta had escalated into a Baron's War and then a full-blown War of Succession with the untimely demise of King John (pictured). But even before he died, Prince Louis of France had entered London to be proclaimed King of England.

John's nine year old son Henry III was crowned but fortunately for the House of Plantagenet, he was supported by a famous knight and excellent tournament fighter named William Marshal who had the power of the king's command. Marshal ordered all nobles with a Castle in England to a muster in Newark. Approximately four hundred Knights, two hundred fifty crossbowmen, and a larger auxiliary force of both mounted and foot soldiers were assembled. From there they would march to break a long siege by an army of Prince Louis at the city of Lincoln.

At the time of the battle, the city of Lincoln had been taken by Louis' forces. However, the castle remained intact. Its garrison-loyal to King Henry-continued to defend the important fortification from forces loyal to Prince Louis, led by the Count of Perche [1]. He took the fortuitous decision to abandon the siege, and adopting an offensive strategy went out to meet the loyalist opposition to fight in an open field. It paid off immediately because at the outset of the battle, William charging headlong into the forces of de La Perche and was unhorsed by spearmen. His death encouraged loyalist barons of the Midlands to switch sides and the day was lost.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-19

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

In 1910 Q'Barian supporters of Q'B'Ton'ra attack the Jovian capitol of H'ket'Lika on Europa in an effort to draw Jovian forces away from the Mlosh home system. The plan backfires ? the Q'B'Ton'rans are decimated by the Jovian system's defenses.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-19

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

In 1925 American leader of the Semitic-African Resistance, Malcolm Little, was born in Omaha, Nebraska. His experience with racism in America forged him into one of the nation's most effective leaders of the S.A.R., willing to strike back with any means necessary.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-19

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

In 1935 Lieutenant-Colonel Thomas Edward Lawrence only just survived a motorcycle accident in Dorset, close to his cottage, Clouds Hill, near Wareham. The accident occurred because of a dip in the road that obstructed his view of two boys on their bicycles; he swerved to avoid them, lost control and was thrown over the handlebars of his motorcycle.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-19

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

In 1780 on New England's Dark Day, complete darkness fell on Eastern Canada and the New England area of the United States at 2 pm. Domestic fowls went to roost, and cattle collected around the barn yards, as at the approach of night. About noon it became necessary to light candles. Dr. Belknap wrote: 'It presented a complete specimen of as total darkness as can be conceived.' At Salem, it was reported 'persons in the streets became melancholy and fear seized all.' Prof. Daggett remarked 'the inhabitants were thrown into a perhaps unnecessary consternation, as if the appearance were preternatural.' In Stratham, New Hampshire, the darkness 'caused great terror in the minds of abundance of people.' In Ipswich Rev. Lathrop 'found the people at the tavern nearby much agitated.' Forced to evacuate, the great magicks of native indigenes had finally prevailed in their long struggle with the European; the long nightmare colonisation of the Turtle Island was finally over.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-19

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

In 1588 the Invincible Armada of Spain set sail for the English Channel. Once they had obliterated the British navy, they transported Spanish troops to the English mainland, conquering the once-proud island nation for King Phillip.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-19

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

In 1897 the Marquess of Queensbury shot author Oscar Wilde on the day of his release from prison. The Marquess had been angered by Wilde's homosexual affair with his son, and wanted the author dead before he could flee the country. Wilde's intention to leave England for Paris was well known among his associates, and the Marquess was not going to stand for it.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-19

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

In 4648 Sumo wrestler Yoshio Shirai defeated Chinese champion Xu Beihong to recapture the Imperial Championship for Nippon for the first time in a century. Ever since the sport had gained popularity in the Chinese Empire in 4539, Chinese champions had held the crown; Yoshio's victory brought dancing in the streets across Nippon.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-19

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

In 1999 schlock filmmaker George Lucas released the 4th episode in his space opera series, Star Wars. It had taken him 16 years to find backers willing to fund another bomb, since Lucas' career had stalled with the original movie in 1977. A small devoted core of fans kept him going, and that's what the producers were counting on.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-19

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

In 2003 Worldcom's offer of 500 million USD to settle its 11 billion USD accounting fraud is seen as not just inadequate, but an insult to investors, who press for criminal charges against the company's management.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-19

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

In 1967 the Senate of the Soviet States of America ratified a treaty with Europe banning nuclear weapons in space. It was assumed by all sides that the world would be better off without having to worry about atomic bombs from the heavens, but the treaty also restricted nuclear-powered spacecraft, a limitation that both sides soon found too restrictive.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-19

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

In 1935 German agents failed to assassinate Lieutenant-Colonel Thomas Edward Lawrence in a stage managed motorcycle accident in Dorset, close to his cottage, Clouds Hill, near Wareham. Aaron Aaronsohn and agents of the Zionist group NILI had been shadowing the Nazis. They rushed Lawrence to hospital where doctors barely saved his life. Aaronsohn anticipated the need for Lawrence in the forthcoming war with Germany. He was very much aware that only a victorious Britain could transition the Mandate in Palestine into a new State of Israel.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-19

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

In 1343 A.H. Malik al-Hajj al-Shabazz was born on this day.

He rises to lead the people of Africa to independence from Islam. While professing adoration of the Prophet and Allah, al-Shabazz says that subservience to other men is not the destiny of the African. His message resonates with oppressed people throughout Islam.

Only two years later he is brutally slain as he speaks to a meeting of his followers. The assassins are nearly killed before the Caliph's men arrive to arrest them; they confess that they did it in order to still the stirrings of rebellion against Islam that al-Shabazz was causing. While the Caliph is sympathetic, he knows that he would have riots on his hands if he let them go, and so he has them executed.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-19

John Ezard — 1970-01-01T00:00:00+01:00

In 1588 Elizabeth's protestant throne was saved by Sir Francis Drake,a symbol of English nonchalance and cunning in the face of danger. He insisted on finishing his game of bowls on Plymouth Hoe as the Spanish Armada approached. Then he despatched the enemy ships with little more than a few burning rowing boats and a favourable breeze.

Four hundred years of misinformation have credited the victory to the Turkish navy. A hitherto unnoticed letter from Elizabeth's security chief and spymaster, Sir Francis Walsingham, to her ambassador in Istanbul showed that it was Drake's swashbuckling rather than Turkish naval manoeuvres which delivered the fatal blow to the Spanish invasion plans.

The letter, which ordered the ambassador, William Harborne, to incite the Turks to harry the Spanish navy, was written in the mid-1580s and has been buried in archives ever since because it did not apparently relate to any major historical event.

But Mr Brotton told the Guardian Hay literary festival: "Walsingham's plan was ultimately successful. Ottoman fleet movements in the eastern Mediterranean fatally split Philip II's armada - So alongside all the stories we're told at school about why the Spanish Armada failed to conquer Britain and destroy Protestantism, we should consider two reasons: Drake's swashbuckling plus the Anglo-Ottoman alliance brokered by Elizabeth, Walsingham [and others]."

"Ottoman fleet movements in the eastern Mediterranean fatally split Philip II's armada"In his letter to Harborne, Walsingham wrote: "Her Majesty being, upon the success of the said King of Spain's affairs in the Low Countries, now fully resolved to oppose herself against his proceedings in defence of that distressed nation, whereof it is not otherwise likely but hot wars between him and us, wills me again to require you effectually to use all your endeavour and industry in that behalf."

Walsingham hoped that Islamic forces might keep the Spanish forces "thoroughly occupied" by "some incursions from the coast of Africa", or by attacking his Italian territories from the sea.

The Spanish fleet was eventually defeated on July 30 1588 as it awaited the rest of the invasion force off Calais. At the battle of Gravelines, the English navy used fireships before closing in on the confused Spanish.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-19

Steve — 1970-01-01T00:00:00+01:00

In 1643 the United Colgate of New England, commonly known as the New England Confederation was established. The primary purpose of this political and military alliance of the British colonies of Massachusetts, Plymouth, Connecticut, and New Haven was to unite the Puritan colonies against the Indians. It also provided for the return of fugitive criminals and indentured servants, and served as a forum for resolving inter-colonial disputes.

The Confederacy though faced its first great challenge in 1654. Originally designed to engage natives, the challenge started in Europe, with the Beginning of the First Anglo-Dutch War. In 1653, the second year of the war the Confederation was planning to move to the war. Mass Bay Governor John Endecott, Commander-in-Chief of the Confederation's Militias disregards fears that the Confederation was critically weakened. His reasoning was varied, mostly because he did not wish to over-extend the Colonies and leave them exposed to Indian Attack.

Endecott, is convinced, partially by the Merchants of Boston who don't want the Dutch in New Netherlands to grow, and have the superior harbor of New Amsterdam become a threat. That had he gets to convert the damned Religiously Free Colonists to Puritanism. S force of Several Militia's are loaded onto transports and sail right into New Amsterdam Harbor, and take the undefended settlement of the town. The Highly Unpopular Gov Stuyvesant of the Dutch is removed from Office and the City is taken.

A small group on Ships heads up the Hudson to secure Fort Orange and Beverwyck, along with the smaller settlements in between. The Dutch are totally defeated and the Colony is occupied. Small Volunteer Garrisons are deployed in New Amsterdam City and up river at Fort Orange. During the Initial Invasion New Englanders destroy the Churches of all non Puritan Faiths in New Amsterdam and are responsible for several religious-related crimes. After the 1653 Campaign Season most militia head home as they came, by ship with very small casualty levels.

The Colony is christened by Endecott to be the-in a stroke of non-Brilliance- the Colony of Hudson. Richard Bellingham, one of his political opponents back in Massachusetts is made the governor of Hudson. Gov. Bellingham is left with a force of 150 New Englanders, 2/3rds in New Amsterdam- yet to be renamed- and 50 far up the Hudson River at Fort Orange, now Renamed Fort Cromwell. He works to open Congressional Churches across the Colony, with the promise of political say, many English-turned Dutch-Turned Englishmen take the opportunity, while many of the population whom came to New Netherlands to escape religous persecution, though stay with their faiths. Hudson is also mind you, incorporated into the Confederacy.

When the war ends the next year, the Dutch are forced to concede that they have lost New Netherlands/Hudson, in addition to the other concessions of the war.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-19

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

In 1891 the triumphant news of the victory at Concordia hits the newspapers across the country, further encouraging the Union cause. In Topeka, Kansas, though, the mood is glum. "Sockless" Jerry Simpson meets with the Farmers Council to discuss their next move. "We should bargain with 'em," Councilor Thaddeus Elridge says. "They lost over 2000 men at Concordia. They'll be willing to give us good terms if it means ain't as many of them got to die. 'Sides, what do we really want, now? All we really need is our sovereignty; ain't like we're going to call for the restoration of President Cleveland anymore, is it?" He looked pointedly at Simpson as he said this, and the Socrates of the plains felt the sting of the rebuke. He stood to reply, and strode around the chamber looking at each of his colleagues. "It's true that we can no longer demand that particular injustice be corrected. But, my friends, is all that we stand for power in this state? Are our lofty ideals something that we can just shuck aside as long as we remain in charge here? My friends, we began this crusade in order to right the deep wrongs in this country. We are Americans. And, as Americans, it is our duty to take whatever measures are necessary to ensure that our great nation travels along the path of righteousness. Do you think it is traveling along that path now?" There are murmured nos from the council. "Do you think that, if we let them pull victory from this grave defeat that our conflict represents, that they will change course?" The nos grow a little louder, and so does Simpson. "Do you think that, if they win here, they will see any path other than their own as the correct one to take?" The nos are now overwhelming. "Then, my friends, we must commit ourselves to a hard struggle, a long struggle, one we may not win... but one in which we will stand alongside the angels, and they will stand along the path of damnation. And God will see us through, gentlemen. God will see us through." Thunderous applause shakes the legislative chamber as Simpson smirks slightly at the few councilors who still stand against him.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-19

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

In 2005 Chelsea Perkins spends time with her 'father' while Debra Morris tries to see if there is anything they can do to reset the past. When Chelsea tells her she doesn't want the past the way it was, Miss Morris relents, and Mr. Perkins joins them in the Great Tree, taking over the job of teaching Chelsea to be a witch ? with Morris' assistance.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-19

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

In 1983 the badly decomposed remains of missing Teamsters' Union leader James R. "Jimmy" Hoffa were found in a landfill in Piscataway, New Jersey, after local police received an anonymous tip accompanied by what police department spokesmen described as "substantiating evidence":

The nature of the evidence was such as to persuade the FBI to reopen the case of union official Fred Furino, whose body was found stuffed in a car trunk in June 1982. Furino's testimony had been sought by the U.S. Senate in connection with its investigation of Reagan Administration Secretary of Labor Raymond L. Donovan, and to seek the indictment of Donovan, along with several others, on conspiracy charges.

The scandal would widen as several other high administration officials were linked officially to organized crime, forcing their resignations. But it would explode into national crisis when long-buried details of the association of President Reagan himself with Mafia figures during his time with Hollywood entertainment conglomerate MCA. As further details emerged, the President's reputation was increasingly tarnished. Although investigators would conclude he personally had done nothing technically illegal, his links to a web of corruption found to have taken the lives of at least two people would prove politically devastating. Reagan had won the White House in part with the help of conservative labor bosses, including Hoffa himself; his ties, however indirect, to Hoffa's murder would spark a political revolt against him which even his legendary charisma could not overcome.

No one will ever know for certain whether the strain of what reporters came to call "Mobstergate" accelerated the course of what came to be diagnosed as Alzheimer's disease in President Reagan. However, his off-key performance in the first GOP presidential debate of 1984, in which he concluded with a disjointed ramble imagining driving down California's Pacific Coast Highway in a hundred years, was followed by an even worse performance in the next debate, prompting the President's handlers to cancel the third and final planned session. By the time of the Republican National Convention in August, the party was in an uproar: what had seemed likely to be a stroll to victory over Democratic nominee Walter F. Mondale increasingly looked like a political death march.

In furious negotiations out of sight of the TV cameras assembled to convey a patriotic spectacle to the nation, party leaders attempted to persuade Reagan to step aside "for reasons of health" in favor of his vice-president, George Herbert Walker Bush.

Reagan would not back down, however. Finally, he would shrilly accuse Bush of having orchestrated the entire sequence of events, including the murders of Hoffa and Furino, to "win in the back rooms what you couldn't win against me in 1980," when the two had competed for the GOP nomination.

This tirade would prove to be too much not only for Bush but for other members of the administration. Although with the collapse of the secret bargaining Reagan would receive the nomination, a week after the convention Bush and the Cabinet would present to Sen. Strom Thurmond, president pro tem of the Senate, and House Speaker Thomas J. 'Tip' O'Neill a letter invoking the Twenty-fifth Amendment to remove Ronald Reagan from office on the grounds that he has become 'to discharge the powers and duties of his office.'

Neither Thurmond nor O'Neill had been present for Reagan's rant at the Republican convention, but both had seen his performance in the debates and had dealt with him since then. Both knew the toll 'Mobstergate' had been taking on the man once dubbed the "Teflon President." Both men feared a political firestorm if the letter were presented to the full Congress, yet also feared the consequences of allowing a mentally incompetent individual to remain in the presidency. At last, however, they agreed to invoke the Twenty-fifth Amendment as requested.

"For the good of the nation," martial law was declared and the pending election "suspended until such time as it may be conducted in lawful order."The result was an upheaval like nothing seen since the Civil War, with legions of adoring Reaganites forming "citizens" militias' to "undo the usurpation of the presidency" and individual self-professed patriots taking matters into their own hands. When one such would-be hero managed to fatally shoot acting President Bush, causing the office to devolve onto the Democratic Speaker of the House, the nation exploded in rioting. Extremist Lyndon LaRouche claimed that the entire chain of events, including the "Mobstergate" scandal's murders, had been engineered by "the Communist masters of the Kennedy liberal revolutionary front" - and where he might once have been laughed off, now he finds millions of listeners.

On October 9, 1984, acting President Tip O'Neill was himself assassinated, causing the powers of the presidency to pass to Strom Thurmond. The aged right-wing senator at once declared that "for the good of the nation," martial law was declared and the pending election "suspended until such time as it may be conducted in lawful order."

Blog Entry from 2008-05-19

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

On this day in 1967, UN secretary general U Thant condemned the Egyptian attack on the UN peacekeeper bases in the Sinai Peninsula.

That same day the UN General Assembly overwhelmingly passed a resolution calling for Egypt to end hostilities against the peacekeepers immediately.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-19

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

In 2006 in a tongue-in-cheek promotion for the highly anticipated The Seinfeld Movie which completed pick-up shooting the week before, Jerry Seinfeld makes several appearances at the Cannes Film Festival distributing soups outside the various screenings alongside Larry Thomas playing the Soup Nazi, a cult favourite character from the sitcom of which the film is a spin-off. It would appear to confirm rumours that the film's storyline is about Seinfeld trying to help Kramer run a soup franchise set-up by the Soup Nazi in New York, but the comedian remained tight-lipped as ever. Though the film is still nearly a year away, Seinfeld is determined to prove to Dreamworks they have not invested too much in it, and so begins a long line of media appearances to drum up the hype.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-19

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

In 1983 an expression of deviationalist thought ruined the political career of Mikhail Gorbachev after he unwisely conducted an impromptu one-to-one meeting on this day with a radical free thinker, the so-called "godfather of glasnost" Alexander Yakovlev.

Gorbachev had flown to Ottawa ostensibly in his role as the Minister of Agriculture for bilateral discussions with his Canadian counterpart Eugene Whelan. But as a rising star in the politburo, Gorbachev had conducted a rather more high profile meeting with the Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau. Also present was Yakolev; formerly the Soviet Propaganda Minister he had been sidelined into his current role as the Ambassador to Ottawa.

Matters of protocol became somewhat confused after an invitation to Whelan's family farm overlooking the Detroit River in Amherstburg, Southern Ontario. Whelan was running very late, leaving the Soviet delegation alone with his wife Elizabeth.

To the great displeasure of both the KGB and RCMP, Gorbachev and Yakolev chose to go for a three hour walk. The fresh air encouraged them to conduct a brutally frank discussion about the parlous state of the Soviet Union. They also reached some rather startling conclusions on the main points of a plan to change the face of Euope.

But due to KGB eavesdropping, those plans came to nought. And on his return to Moscow, Gorbachev would be discreetly advised that he had received a new appointment as the Soviet Ambassador to Finland. His seat in the politburo would be occupied by another rising star in the Communist Party known as Boris Yeltsin.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-19

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

In 2015 International Monetary Fund chairman and former British prime minister Gordon Brown issued a sobering report predicting "we may be only months if not weeks away from a second Great Depression" as a result of the global economic turmoil triggered by the UK's collapse.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-19

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

In 1984 the Communist regime in Poland was toppled in a bloodless coup organized by members of the trade union Solidarity and dissident factions of the Polish army.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-19

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

In 1935 on the nineteenth anniversary of the conclusion of the infamous Sykes-Picot Agreement talks, famed arabophile Theodore Edward Lawrence began his tour of the independent states of the Middle East.

The fate of the Middle East had always seemed to be wrapped in incursion from outside powers. As it acted as the central point between Asia, Africa, and Europe, the region had constantly been crucial to human development, trade, and warfare. Waves of conquests by Egyptians, Hittites, Assyrians, Babylonians, Persians, Greeks, Romans, Crusaders, and Turks flowed over the region as millennia passed. As the Great War pitted the Allies against the "Dying Man" of the Ottoman Empire, the question came to France, Britain, and Russia as to what would come of the region when the Ottomans had collapsed.

A new story by Jeff ProvineIn the first of a series of secret agreements, Russia and Britain agreed that Russia was to gain Constantinople and the Dardanelles while Britain gained southerly lands. Russia began to fade from the war as revolution broke out, and Fran?ois Georges-Picot met with Sir Mark Sykes of Britain to guarantee a French mandate in Syria. The British agreed, though only secretly as the war effort had been working to invoke the Arab populace under the Ottoman Empire to revolt. Spoils might be divided only if the war was won, and using Arabs to fight the Ottomans for the Allies would aid in the victory.

Crucial to the war effort in the Middle East was a young archaeologist named T.E. Lawrence. He had been born illegitimately to Sir Thomas Chapman, who left his wife to live with Theodore?s mother, Sarah Junner. The family moved to Oxford, where Lawrence attended Jesus College, graduating with firsts and moving to Egypt to work on excavations with the likes of Hogarth, Woolley, and Petrie. By the outbreak of the World War I, Lawrence had traveled extensively in the Middle East and established a name for himself, prompting a position in the Intelligence Staff in Cairo. Meanwhile, the Arab Bureau of the Foreign Office had concocted a scheme of draining Ottoman resources by supporting an Arab revolt in their territories. Lawrence was sent as advisor, but he soon joined the Arab cause himself.

Told through sensationalistic journalism by American war correspondent Lowell Thomas, Lawrence fought alongside Arab irregulars under Emir Faisal, son of Sherif Hussein of Mecca. They made a surprise overland attack on Aqaba, the success of which caused Lawrence to be promoted to major and given a "free hand" by Sir Edmund Allenby, commander of the Egyptian Expeditionary Force. During the ending days of the war, Lawrence aided in the fall of Damascus, which would soon be capital of Syria, but not the independent state that Lawrence and his Arabic allies were promised. After the war, the Bolsheviks of Russia leaked the secret of the Sykes-Picot Agreement, which outraged the Arabs and embarrassed the British.

In a bold push, Lawrence and others demanded the promised liberation of the Middle East from British administration. Finally in 1922, using the resources of Winston Churchill and threatening a war, the Middle East was divided diplomatically into states with self-rule. France refused to give up its hold on Syria, and Lawrence made good on his promise to fight. Guerilla warfare through the 1920s and early ?30s finally destroyed French interest in the region, and Syria was freed, taking its place as an independent state alongside those of Kurdistan, Sunnistan, Shia-Iraq, Jordan, and Palestine.

Lawrence, wealthy through the publications of his memoirs in Seven Pillars of Faith, Revolt in the Desert, and Rains Fell, became a hobbyist pilot and continued his lifelong enjoyment of motorcycles. He returned to Britain, hated by some and applauded by many, and he planned to retire in Dorset. However, just before a daily motorcycle ride, he received a telegram from Ghazi I, son of his old friend Faisal who had become King of Iraq, asking him to join the work continuing his father?s dream of a pan-Arabic confederation. Lawrence agreed and arrived in Bagdad shortly thereafter, flying between Arabic centers until an untimely sand storm swallowed his plane, leaving him as a martyr for the cause.

While certain aspects of confederation have formed over the decades, the Middle East was once again torn between the influences of world powers as the Cold War pitted the Soviet Union against the United States. Discovery of significant oil deposits there have prompted further interest from the outside world, as has a minor but mentionable Zionist movement from Jews, particularly from their home state of Malta, given to refugees of the Holocaust.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-19

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

In 1980 on this day the business-oriented personal computer code-named "Sara" was first announced and released as the Apple III (pictured).

Shipping as standard with the true typewriter-style upper/lowercase keyboard and eighty column display feature set demanded by business users, the Information Analyst bundle also included expansion drives and a choice of thermal printers for a complete solution to IT requirements of a modern office. Because the Apple III was the first product launch since the incorporation of the company (the Apple II predated the formation of the company) the success was all the more remarkable. And the chance discovery of a complex design flaw had even triggered a tumultuous power struggle inside the organization that firmly positioned the company in the business, rather than the consumer, market space.

The Head of the Macintosh division was a twenty-five year old College drop-out called Steve Jobs. Without undertaking any due diligence, he pursued the dream of minutarization by insisting that the unit was fitted with a heat sink instead of a CPU fan and air vents. However this challenging design failed to expel all the heat from the unit and case designer Jerry Manock unfairly took the blame. However he managed to demonstrate that under prolonged testing solder began to melt and run across the cramped "fineline" technology motherboard (this motherboard was itself a largely unproven component and also selected by Jobs to fit the case size on the untested assumption that it would be fully tested by the supplier). But rogue connections were created and of course the result was unexpected malfunction. Fortunately, this design flaw was detected before the launch and a daughterboard introduced for the secondary components. But of course the issue highlighted the reckless decisions taken by Jobs. He was forced out of managerial duties and although he remained a co-owner he was replaced by Manock.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-19

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

In 1848 Mexico ratifies the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo thus ceding all territory north of Tampico to the United States for US$15 million.
An installment from 39th Parallel thread.

As a result, California was split into two, with the creation of a new state of Colorado below the 37th. Chihuahua, Sonora, Coahuilia and Tamaulipas also entered the Union.

Victory in the US-Mexico War was a mixed blessing for the Union. Because the Wilmot Proviso sought to ban the extension of slavery into the new occupied states. Although the motion was defeated, the vote was taken on sectional (rather than party lines) and destroyed the unity of the Democratic Party. The Whig Party had already imploded over the slavery issue, and some senior political leaders formed the new Republican Party. They found success in 1856 when Frémont was elected to the Presidency. But by then America was completely unrecognizable from the country of 1847.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-18

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

In 1910 the Mlosh home system erupts in civil war, with the Q'Barian rebels gaining a quick upper hand, backed by the Jovians, who see an opportunity to gain control of the system this way. Although the Congress of Nations threatens to walk out of the talks and cut off all support to the Jovians, the covert support of the Q'Barian rebels continues.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-18

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

In 12-18-6-16-15 the Louwala-Clough volcano erupted in the northwest territories of the Salish people, sending refugees streaming south. Emperor Tchihuitcho declared the area a disaster, and sent troops and money in to help the Salish dig out and rebuild the land, although he forbade them from building too close to the volcano again.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-18

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

In 2005 Chelsea Perkins and Debra Morris return to the Great Tree, and Chelsea kisses the ground, deliriously happy at being back on familiar soil. When they enter the Tree, though, they are greeted with a shock - Chelsea's father is waiting inside for them.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-18

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

In 1994 Michael Jackson married Lisa Marie Presley in the Dominican Republic. Her father gave her away in the photo opportunity of the millennia

Blog Entry from 2008-05-18

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

In 2008 on his way home a distraught Buford T. Rogerson III sent a beg on Farcebook to his personal trainer Anthony Abs. 'Faddy' hadn't been entirely candid with Ant. Yes, he had order a super smiley meal from Pappy's Texas Barbeque Chicken, but he hadn't eaten it. Now he was wracked with remorse. With Ant stay on, 'Faddy' was very sorry. 'Wouldn't dream of going to Pappy's now, sir' ended the message.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-18

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

In 2083 the African Union elects its first woman chairman, Dalila Lolosili, a powerful Kenyan who is responsible for the AU's emergence as a balancing force between the superpowers of India and China. Her space program, headed by Ronald Mabandla, becomes the envy of the two great powers in short order, because they don't have to worry about securing themselves against the other powers.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-18

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

In 1994 Israeli occupation of the Gaza Strip ended, and the newly-created Palestinian Authority took over. Since the Jewish nation worked with the Palestinians to strengthen their government, the Palestinians were able to quell dissenters within their own ranks who were still calling for war with Israel, and the two nations began their first peaceful coexistence. The peace that people had said would never come to the Middle East had finally arrived.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-18

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

In 2017 the world's shortest marriage lasted .3 seconds. Trillionnaire Buford Rogerson III had chosen the wrong wife online, and had to quickly hit the back button in his microbrowser.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-18

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

In 1302 inspired by stories of the Greek democracies, Flemish weaver Peter de Coninck led a revolt against the oligarchical rulers of his people and installed Peasant's Council to rule the Flemish people. This lasted until 1381, when they were conquered by French noblemen.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-18

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

In 1802 Italian ruler Napoleon Buonaparte's interference in France and Switzerland causes Great Britain to declare war against him. It is along and bitter struggle, as Buonaparte is a military genius and the British are slow to gain allies.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-18

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

In 1908 Congress passed legislation to add a motto onto American coinage: In Labor We Trust. Comrades across the nation rejoiced at the declaration of America's status as the Worker's Paradise, and Communist Party leader Eugene Debs used it as his campaign's motto in his successful presidential run.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-18

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

In 1926 Aimee Semple McPherson was raptured. Millions of her followers expected to follow, but it looked like she was the only one called at this time. Disappointed Christians missed the charismatic evangelist, but rejoiced that she had been called to Heaven.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-18

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

In 1974 India exploded its first nuclear weapon. Alarmed at the thought of a hostile neighbor with atomic bombs, China and Pakistan made a secret alliance and invaded India one month later. Although they used their one remaining nuke to bomb Beijing, India was conquered by the combined Pakistani and Chinese forces in the 2 year-long war.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-18

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

In 1891 the Kansans are driven from the fort outside of Concordia. Colonel Theodore Monteith walks into the fort to the wild cheers of the men who had been trapped inside. Major Mark Wainwright, nursing a gunshot wound in his shoulder, nonetheless meets the colonel with a smile on his face and a spring in his step. He gives a smart salute to his superior and says, 'Sir, I've never been more happy to see my boss.' Colonel Monteith embraces Wainwright and tells him privately, 'I heard that you were about to accept their terms. I'm glad I could prevent that from happening, Major.' Wainwright nodded and laughed. 'As am I, sir. As am I.'

Blog Entry from 2008-05-18

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

In 1780 the first wave of American refugees, the ex-patriates, swells the ranks of Canada's rebellion against the British Empire. With the Continental Congress and its leader John Jay making peace with the Crown, those who had struggled against it became the enemy, and could only find a home among those who shared their hope for freedom.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-18

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

In 1999 Sir Lance du Lac arrives in Hungary to join the British troops trying to subdue this former bastion of the Central European Empire. His mind, however, is on events back in Great Britain - his affair with Queen Gwen weighs heavily on his mind. He is so overcome with guilt that he joins a push at the front and gets himself captured by the enemy. The Illuminati's elite, hearing of this interesting development, make sure to take control of the prison camp where du Lac is being held. Queen Gwen also hears of this before it becomes known to the British, and she contacts her Illuminati allies with a plan.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-18

Todayinah Ed. — 1970-01-01T00:00:00+01:00

In 1972 arguments continued between Marvin Gaye and duet singer Diana Ross over her excessive marijuana smoking which he believed endangered wife Tammy Tyrell's unborn child, Marvin Junior. The problem did not get fixed until 1984 when husband Berry Gordy took extreme action; he shot her dead.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-18

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

In 2009 on Victoria Day citizens of the former British Empire celebrated the dawn of a new era of democracy which had begun with the Queen's assassination by anarchists (this event is colloquially known in Canada as "May Two-four" being the anniversary of the monarch's official birthday which falls on the last Monday before or on 24 May itself).

The only people not celebrating were the British themselves - since the Plot to Kill Harold Wilson their celebration was May the 8th. As recorded in his 1976 memoir Walking On The Water, Hugh Cudlipp recounts a meeting he arranged at the request of Cecil King, the head of the International Publishing Corporation, between King and Lord Mountbatten. The meeting took place on May 8, 1968.

Attending were Mountbatten, King, Cudlipp, and Sir Solly Zuckerman, the Chief Scientific Adviser to the British government.
According to Cudlipp: "[Cecil] awaited the arrival of Sir Solly and then at once expounded his views on the gravity of the national situation, the urgency for action, and then embarked upon a shopping list of the Prime Minister's shortcomings...He explained that in the crisis he foresaw as being just around the corner, the Government would disintegrate, there would be bloodshed in the streets and the armed forces would be involved. "the Government would disintegrate, there would be bloodshed in the streets and the armed forces would be involved" The people would be looking to somebody like Lord Mountbatten as the titular head of a new administration, somebody renowned as a leader of men, who would would be capable, backed by the best brains and administrators in the land, to restore public confidence. He ended with a question to Mountbatten- would he agree to be the titular head of a new administration in such circumstances?".
Mountbatten most definately did agree¹ - he would subsequently launch a military coup to restore the monarchy before the Socialist British Government could disintegrate.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-18

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

On this day in 1982, One Man Gang defeated Wahoo McDaniel at an NWA card in Hilton Head, South Carolina to with the NWA United States singles championship.

Gang was a last-minute substitute for McDaniel's originally scheduled opponent, Harley Race, after Race was put out of action by Gang's Enforcer teammate Bret Hart in a locker room ambush.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-18

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

On this day in 1967, the United Nations rejected a demand by Egyptian president Gamal Abdel Nasser to withdraw its peacekeeping forces from the Sinai Peninsula, citing what they deemed as the necessity of the peacekeepers' presence in the Sinai region.

Outraged by this refusal, Nasser ordered his troops to attack the UN bases, touching off what would later be known as the Sinai War.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-18

David Cryan — 1970-01-01T00:00:00+01:00

In 2009 on this day the first deaths in the European Union of Swine Flu were reported in Spain. The US navy was put on alert to prepare a bi-ocean blockade of Mexican ports. Russia condemned the US actions thus far.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-18

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

On this day in 1940, a contingent of British Royal Marines landed on the Dutch coast to relieve the besieged British army pocket at Tillburg.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-18

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

In 2696 AUC Adolfus (pictured) the Legatus Legionis of Germania issued orders to mount a defence of the Roman Republic along the Italian peninsula, in order to slow the Celtic advance up through Italy.

This operation codenamed Alaric (after Alaric I king of Visigoths, the Barbarian general in the Roman army who sacked Rome in 1223, AUC) was considered so top secret that Adolfus refused to issue a written order. Instead, he communicated verbally his desire that Tribunus laticlavius Erwinius should assemble and ultimately command eleven cohorts of heavy infantry for the occupation of Italy to prevent an Celt foothold in the peninsula. Alolfus also gave Erwinius the false impression that his reward would be the appointment of Legatus Legionis in Italy.

The Home Legions reacted negatively, as could be expected. Erwinius had no patience for the indigenous Romans, rightly predicting that the Italians were preparing to surrender to the Celtic invaders. He was given orders, codename Axis, giving him permission to seize Roman defenses.

Yet Tribunus laticlavius Albertus soon became a serious rival to Erwinius, organising a superior defensive mechanism at Monte Cassino that would be rewarded with his appointment as Legatus Legionis in Italy. This command decision infuritated Erwinius, who promply assassinated Adolfus at his military camp in the Teutoberg Forest on Dies Martis vii Julius MCMXLIII.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-18

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

In 2009 on this day at the White House, Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu met with US President Barack Obama to discuss proposals for Palestinians Statehood.

Historically America had provided almost unqualified backing for Netanyahu's predecessors - ever since Harry Truman's vital diplomatic intervention in 1948 at the declaration of the State of Israel. And as late as the nineteen-sixties, Israel generally still enjoyed the moral high ground with even Robert Kennedy providing advocacy. Yet even before Kennedy was gunned down by an enraged Palestinian student, this had all changed.

Because in the days leading up to the Six-Day War, the Chief of Staff of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) Yitzkah Rabin suffered a nervous breakdown and was simply unable to function. Prime Minister Levi Eshkol did not have much military experience, and had given the IDF a relatively free hand. This was no great problem for the previous four years, but Rabin was replaced by Ariel Sharon, a firm believer in establishing "facts on the ground". During the climax to the Six-Day War, Sharon would not only "recapture" East Jerusalem, but exceed his authoriy by expelling its Arab population. Sharon would later justify this military action by claiming with some justification that he had prevented accusations of Israel being labelled a power of occupation by the international community.

And so by the summer of 1967 Israel was fast becoming a rogue state that would eventually turn to South Africa for a military alliance. Both nations considered themselves as a front-line state fighting communism, a viewpoint which had some some sympathisers in the Pentagon at least until the collapse of the Soviet Union.

"I firmly believe it is not in Iran's interest to develop nuclear weapons " ~ Barack Obama US presidentObama himself had no sympathy. In fact, his childhood mentor Frank Marshall Davis was himself a revolutionary communist intellectual who would very much picture the Palestinian Catastrophe in Marxist terms with the Israelis being the capitalist aggressors.

And so at the meeting Obama would urge Netanyahu to accept a Palestinian state with its capital in East Jerusalem, promising that the US would be "engaged in the process". Trouble was another source of authority who certainly intended to be "engaged in the process". Because Ariel Sharon had recovered from a stroke-induced coma to succeed Moshe Katsav as the 9th President of Israel. Therefore Netanyahu stated simply Israel was ready to live "side by side" with Palestinians and he could resume talks immediately, but any agreement depended on Palestinian acceptance of Israel's right to exist "as a Jewish state".

Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat reacted with derision to Netanyahu's remarks, stating "How can I govern myself by myself as a Palestinian with his occupation going on on my neck on the hour every hour? With his roadblocks segregating our towns and villages and refugee camps?" he said.

A week later, America and Israel managed to settle their differences, quickly restoring relations to their June 1967 pinnacle. Obama, Sharon and Netanyahu had little choice but to fast track their own peace process. Because by then they had received the "game changer" - the senational news of an underground nuclear test in the great nation of Iran.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-18

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

In 2001 with just twenty-days remaining for William Hague's Tory Party to "save the pound", an undignified brawl at a campaign event in north Wales condemned the ruling Labour Party to unexpected defeat at the General Election.

The Deputy Labour Leader John Prescott had stepped off the so-called Prescott Express campaign bus at Rhyl where twenty-nine year old protestor Craig Evans hit him on the side of the face with an egg. Sixteen stone Prescott responding by hitting the egg-thrower with his right fist, knocking him out and breaking his jaw.

Despite having the appearance of a skinhead, William Hague seized the opportunity to announce that it was not the policy of the Tory Party to strike innocent people, a ludicrous statement would return to haunt him in office just a few months later. A National Opinion Polls (NOP) survey found that the toe-curling footage of a "working class oaf" thumping a protestor shocked voters in Middle England. And even before Prescott had emerged from the Police Station, Tony Blair had already dismissed his deputy, refusing to accept the explanation that "John was just being John".

The troubles for Britain's political class had only just begun. Having made British sovereignty the burning platform the 2001 election, Wiliam Hague's Government soon faced a much more insidious threat than the abolition of sterling by the European Union.

Because three months later, Hague was under pressure to support an angry American Government seeking revenge for the September 11th attacks. And less than willing partners would soon feel the effects of some hard-core arm-twisting. It was a knee-jerk reaction with less intelligence than John Prescott's punch.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-18

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

In 1860 on this day at the "Wigwam" in Chicago, delegates to the second Republican National Convention nominated former New York Governor William H. Seward for the Presidency.

Agents of the so-called "dark horse" candidate Abraham Lincoln had made extraordinarily determined efforts to swing the vote. So much so, that they had ignored his instruction to refrain from binding commitments by making some incredibly rash promises. Their purpose was to boost Lincoln's share of the first ballot to the critical high water mark of one hundred votes. And yet their efforts were undone by the actions of a single delegate with the decidedly odd name of Andries Rhoodie.

Lincoln's agents had brought a series of woodcuts which favourably representing their ugly-looking candidate for the majority delegates who had not seen his likeness (it was not considered appropriate for nominees to attend the convention). However Rhoodie brought onto the stage a hideous image of Lincoln that was in jarringly sharp contrast to the hanging pictures of the fifteen former Presidents hanging in the Wigwam. Many voters forgot their secret deals with Lincoln's agents and swung their vote to the comfortingly familiar image of Seward. Future Postmaster General Montgomery Blair would later write "Most of the delegates having never seen the original, the effect was indescribable".

Blog Entry from 2008-05-18

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

In 1770 the tensions between Quebec's French-Canadian citizens and their British rulers reached the boiling point when a group of young men marched to the governor-general's residence in Montreal to demand the release of a friend who'd been arrested by British troops the previous night; in response, the governor-general ordered the soldiers guarding his residence to disperse the protestors, and a confrontation ensued which ended with the soldiers opening fire on the demonstrators.

Six men were killed and two others seriously wounded in what would later go down in history as "the Montreal Massacre".

As word of the shootings traveled across the province the Quebecois were infuriated by what they deemed an act of unprovoked brutality on the part of the British; taking up arms against the colonial administration, they launched a three-year rebellion that would end with the expulsion of British troops from Quebec in the summer of 1773. Further south, American political leaders who advocated independence for their own homeland took note of the events in Quebec and would adopt many of the Qubecois revolutionaries' tactics when America's own fight to break away from Britain commenced two years later.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-18

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

In 1498 the Portuguese attempt at securing a trade route to the wealth of India failed as the expeditionary fleet under Vasco da Gama was caught in an Arab ambush. It had been the climax of a plan concocted two generations before when Prince Henry the Navigator established his navigation school.

Henry, the third son of King John I, became fascinated with the luxuries of the east as well as the legend of Prester John, a powerful Christian king believed to be somewhere in India. He urged his father to conquer the port of Ceuta, where Saharan trade culminated at the Straits of Gibraltar. Garnering a key foothold into Africa, Henry built his school to train navigators and extend Portuguese control across the sea, ultimately to India itself.

A new story by Jeff ProvineThe establishment of trade towns and domination of existing ports allowed Portugal to move southward along the Gold Coast of Africa. While the wealth from trade accumulated, it became the target of piracy, particularly French privateers breaking treaties of non-depredation between the two countries. A young captain, Vasco da Gama, was charged in 1492 with seizing French ships in retaliation. When he proved himself able and speedy about the captures, the task of sailing to India that had been to assigned to his father Estevao da Gama in 1488 was given to him.

Encouragement for the expedition had come in 1487, when explorer Bartolomeu Dias crossed the Cape of Good Hope and named the Natal region, assuring that the African coast turned northward and would allow for a sea route to India. Estevao da Gama had worked toward building up the fleet and supplies necessary for the travel, but he was too old to see it completed, dying in 1497. Vasco took up where his father left off immediately after mourning and sailed in July of 1497, just two months after the English explorer John Cabot had sailed for a Northwest Passage in the opposite direction.

With four ships and some 170 men, da Gama followed the West African coast until it turned eastward and then sailed directly south in the open sea. Using Dias's discovery of the South Atlantic westerlies, the fleet traveled more than 6,000 miles out of sight of land, setting a record for human achievement, though a mutiny had to be put down due to scurvy. He rounded the Cape, and then his seemingly lucky expedition began to sour. In Mozambique, he pretended to be a Muslim in order to secure an audience with the sultan, but his gifts proved unimpressive, and he was chased from the city by a mob. The fleet escaped, firing cannons in retaliation as he went.

In Malindi, da Gama came into contact with Indian traders, proving the route-by-sea theory correct. He took up a pilot to make use of the monsoon winds, but the move would be his undoing. Texts are not clear on the person of the pilot, naming him Christian, Muslim, or Gujarti depending upon the source, which might be indicative of his shady background. He directed the fleet to the southwestern coast of India, still two days short of the Kappad, the beach outside of the wealthy city of Calicut. There, a fleet of Arab pirates sprang upon them, capturing two of da Gama's ships (another had sunk that November). The surviving ship, The Sao Gabriel, retreated with what survivors it could pull from the water. Da Gama was listed in the log as killed in the battle, but the entry had been edited, and rumors abounded that he felt such shame at failing in his mission that he either drowned himself or went into exile in Italy.

The ragged ship returned to Portuguese lands commanded by Goncalo Nunes, and it was proclaimed that Henry the Navigator's dream of reaching India had ended. The Muslim stronghold on trade would be too difficult to break, and Portugal would instead focus on building up colonial empires in its holdings in Africa and Brazil. Not bothering to fight England and the Dutch over later successful colonies in India, Portugal instead built up huge claims in Morocco and South Africa as well as along major rivers, such as the Congo, Amazon, Niger, and Senegal. They exploited natural resources such as ivory, gold, diamonds, and, most significantly, slaves. Portugal held its golden age for more than a century, defeating French incursions on their colonies and defending against Spanish encroachment upon Iberian Union, all the while maintaining a healthy alliance with Britain. The golden age ended on November 1, 1755, when an earthquake with a magnitude of 9 on the Richter scale struck its capital of Lisbon. Decades later, it would fall to its old enemy of France after the Republican Wars turned to European empire-building.

The many colonies of Portugal would take the opportunity to rebel, creating a slew of new republics and kingdoms around the world. Although politically independent, they have established a socio-economic commonwealth of Portuguese-speakers that forms one of the strongest cores of world trade to this day.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-18

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

In 1565 on this day a huge Turkish Fleet quietly disembarked the forces of Vizier Lala Mustafa Pasha at a remote section of Malta [1]; the army then moved inland and seized the unprotected old capital Mdina.

This manoeuvre completely wrong-footed the Christian defenders who had expected the mooring to occur at Marsamxett bay. Accordingly, their commander Jean de la Valette made the fatal mistake of concentrating half of his heavy artillery within Fort St Elmo, which defended the bay.

It would somewhat harsh to call this bold decison a command error, because in any event it would have been highly unlikely that the island could be defended by the ancient Knights of the Order of St John, together with between 4-5,000 Maltese men, women and children and approximately 2,000 foot soldiers.

Nevertheless the Fall of Malta caused dismay throughout Christendom, and it only appeared a matter of time before the Ottoman conquest of Western Europe would be completed. Because once again, the true significance of the victory was the re-inforcement of the European perception of Ottoman invincibility.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-18

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

In 1896 on this day the United States Supreme Court ruled in the case of Plessy v. Ferguson.

Four years earlier a black railroad passenger, Homer Plessy, was arrested when he refused to vacate a "whites only" seat and move to one of the train's "black" cars. His arrest led to a legal challenge to a Louisiana statute mandating "separate but equal" accommodations which reached the Supreme Court as Plessy v. Ferguson. The Court's ruling in that case struck down the Louisiana statute, citing the earlier decision in Dred Scott v. Sandford (1857) which declared that the framers of the Constitution had never contemplated treating blacks as the legal equals of whites.

The decision in the Plessy case angered not only blacks but also the railroad companies, which had supported Plessy's suit because they were unhappy with the expense of maintaining separate cars for blacks. Southern whites, however, were pleased: they had threatened secession in 1860 when it appeared that Abraham Lincoln of the Republican Party, a successor to the moribund Whigs associated with opposition to Negro slavery, would be elected president; only the electoral compromise of that year which instead placed Democrat Stephen A. Douglas in the White House persuaded secession advocates to back down. A new story by Eric LippsAs the years had passed, though, the pressure to end slavery had continued while an increasing number of states had passed laws similar to Louisiana's which, at least in theory, allowed blacks access to "separate, but equal" facilities aboard trains and in such public facilities as theaters, schools and libraries.

In practice, such facilities usually proved more separate than equal. But the very idea of blacks, even free blacks, of whom Louisiana in particular possessed a significant number, being entitled to privileges similar to those of whites infuriated many of the latter, and not only in the South. While by the time of Plessy's arrest and lawsuit tensions had not risen to the same point as in 1860, there was a growing so-called "Real America" movement dedicated to overturning such laws and kicking out of office legislators who had voted for them and judges who had ruled in their favor. The decision in Plessy took some of the steam out of the "Real Americans", who turned their attention primarily to opposing immigration, particularly from Asia and Eastern Europe.

Plessy did not lay to rest forever the issue of Negro equality. By 1910, every state but Mississippi had individually abolished slavery (Mississippi would finally do so in 1933, by which time there would be fewer than a thousand slaves in that state anyway), and a nationwide organization the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, had emerged to call for constitutional amendments formally granting blacks full legal equality with whites, including voting rights. White resistance to greater rights for blacks continued, however, fueling the rise of such groups as the Cyclops Legion, which favored costumes consisting of pure-white robes and hoods bearing a stylized eye on the forehead. The Legion and its many imitators called themselves patriots and protectors of "the American way of life", but carried out that mission by terrorizing and sometimes brutally killing "uppity" blacks and troublesome white "radicals". In 1915, silent-film mogul D. W. Griffith would deliver a tremendous boost to such groups with his movie Defending a Nation, which depicted them as heroes; the Cyclops Legion would grow to an estimated membership of two million nationwide by the early 1920s before collapsing under the weight of a series of financial scandals involving its leaders, who had grown rich marketing Legion costumes and paraphernalia¹.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-18

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

In 1860 on this day Senator William H. Seward won the Republican Party presidential nomination comfortably beating a semi-obscure Illinois Representative (due to his established based of support at the convention, this man would serve as Vice President).

The victory followed an unsuccessful attempt [1] to delay the third vote in order for the opposition candidate's position to strengthen. Seward also triumphed in the general election despite losing Illinois and California to Douglas, and Oregon to Breckenridge. But it would still be enough for a small lead in the Electoral College.

By the time he entered office, not only had several southern states seceded; worse even more had stopped payments to northern merchants and cotton brokers [2]. His home city of New York was facing imminent bankruptcy. In an effort to unite Americans around a common cause, he began sabre-rattling with the Spanish Government by creating a dispute over territory in Cuba. When that dodge failed (as his Vice President warned), he drew Great Britain and Russia into the gathering conflict. This dangerous move introduced a big risk - threatening to re-connect the south to Great Britain as a principal trading partner, impoverishing the north. Meanwhile his VP tabled a radically different proposal. Repeal the Fugitive Act and wait for the Confederacy to collapse. Such tension in government policy had not existed since the Jackson-Calhoun days, but this scenario worked out rather differently because President Seward was assassinated in the Spring of 1861..

Blog Entry from 2008-05-17

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

In 918 Humayun, emperor of the Moguls, defeated Sher Khan of the Afghans at Kanauj, adding these people to his realm. Humayun's spread through central Asia brought fear from those infidels who still believed in the false religions, and helped to spread the true faith of Islam in the continent.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-17

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

In 1787 the Sisters, an English slave ship bound for Cuba, was taken over by a slave revolt. The newly-freed crew took to piracy in the Caribbean, freeing slaves wherever they found them and butchering the slave traders. They became so feared that the slave trade in the Caribbean was halted for the 15 years they sailed.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-17

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

In 2008 personal trainer Anthony Abs made a discovery about Buford T. Rogerson III's lack of progress on his guaranteed hippo weight reduction prog. During a spinning class, some paperwork had fallen out of Rogerson's tracky bottom pocket. To be specific a receipt from Pappy's Texas Barbeque Chicken. Someone had scoffed a pint of chips, super-sized Cola and deep fried battered velociraptor in a lake of Pappy's catsup. Followed by a super frappachino ice cream with Sausalito sundae sauce. It was his sister Paris-Trailer exclaimed Rogerson, all innocence. 'Have you been to Pappy's again Rogerson?' demanded Abs, 'Wouldn't dream of it sir' replied Buford.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-17

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

In 1814 Sweden assumed control of Norway from Denmark. Although the Norwegians had been promised autonomy and a limited monarchy, the Swedes reneged on the promise and placed them under the Swedish crown. This led to a war between the two nations that lasted until 1816, and ended with complete Norwegian independence.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-17

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

In 1954 the Supreme Court ruled 5-4 against young Linda Brown in the case of Brown vs. the Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas. The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People was unable to find a lawyer they felt confident in arguing their case, and had settled on Robert Carter, who had led the case since 1951. Unfortunately, he was unable to persuade the court that segregation was unconstitutional.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-17

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

In 1955 surrealist director William Paxton was born in Fort Worth, Texas. After his bizarre short film Fish Heads aired on Saturday Night Live in 1982, he was ushered into a world of avant-garde independent film, producing one macabre piece after another. His Oscar-nominated short, Game Over, is one long string of deaths from various video games, and inspired the cult following he has today.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-17

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

In 4651 Imperial Councilor Chang Kai-Shek is named Minister of Space by newly elected Emperor Mao Tse-Tung. Minister Chang's relationship with the Chdo Democracy is cited by the emperor as his reason for the appointment, and Chang does forge close ties with the aliens during his tenure. His vision of China's role in space influences all generations to come.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-17

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

In 2005 Chelsea Perkins and Debra Morris return to their own time, and everything seems to be back to normal; there's no black cloud of magic over London. They visit the adult Patience Redding's shop, the Druid's Grove, and, although surprised to see them, she tells them that their last trip seems to have fixed what went wrong on the first one. One difference that Debra Morris notices, though ? Miss Redding seems to be practicing real magic now.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-17

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

In 1891 just after the stroke of midnight, an exhausted Allan Duggan forces his stolen horse into Colonel Theodore Monteith's headquarters in Nebraska and begs to be taken to the Colonel immediately. Although cranky about being woken up, the colonel listens with horror to what the young scout has to tell him about the battle going on in Concordia, Kansas. "Put this man in my bed," he orders his aides, "and then let's see about getting his friends some help." Wasting little time, he puts together reinforcements for the embattled major fighting the Kansans in Concordia, and sets them on a speed march south. During the day's fighting at the Concordia fort, Major Mark Wainwright loses another 300 men, and flies a white flag to get the attention of the Kansan commander.

When the commander comes forward, Major Wainwright asks him, "Sir, what are your terms for our surrender?" The rebel volunteer ponders for an hour with his staff, then returns to Wainwright and tells him, "You'll all lay down arms, abandon this fort, and be taken into custody. Your men will be imprisoned until this is all over, but you, sir, will be executed for crimes against the sovereign people of Kansas." The Union soldiers cry out in indignation at this last term, but Wainwright holds up his hand to silence them. He asks, "May I have some time to consider these terms, sir?" The Kansan looks over the fort, looks back at his own men, then replies, "You may have until sunset, sir." Wainwright's staff is utterly opposed to surrender, but the major tells them, "I am tired of being the cause of death for so many of my fellow soldiers and citizens. If it saves you, I am willing to let them execute me." This causes another outburst from his aides, which he stills. "At sunset, I will accept their terms. Gentlemen, it has been an honor serving with you." They all stand and salute him, then leave their makeshift office to prepare their men for captivity. Wainwright takes a walk about the fort, enjoying the late afternoon; it is a fine day, cool and sunny, and he smiles and speaks with each of the men as he passes them by. As the sun makes its way down the sky, he walks back to the wall of the fort and ascends to the top wall. The Kansan commander stands opposite him, waiting for an answer. Wainwright takes one last look at the horizon, smiling faintly at the setting sun, then looks down at the rebel leader, who asks him, "Sir, your answer?" The major looks over at his lieutenants, who look away dejectedly, then says, "Sir, my answer is..." Before he can finish the sentence, a cannon balls bursts into the Kansan ranks from behind. Wainwright looks beyond the teeming ranks of rebels and sees a huge column of Union soldiers driving towards the fort. Wainwright laughs wildly and shouts to the Kansan commander, "Nuts!" His men cheer loudly and begin firing as he throw the white flag away.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-17

Todayinah Ed. — 1970-01-01T00:00:00+01:00

In 1973 during the Watergate scandal, hearings began in the United States Senate and are televised. The conspiracy by President Robert F Kennedy's to fake the break-in at the Democrat Headquarters was unravelling fast. However, it was too late for Richard M Nixon who had the misfortune of having the Presidency stolen from him by the Kennedys twice.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-17

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

In 1910 supporters of Q'B'Ton'ra strafe the Q'Bar compound at Barnard's Star, killing most of the representatives before being caught by a Congress of Nations warship and destroyed themselves. The remaining Q'Barian representatives ask for time to regroup and contact their leaders for restaffing, and the Jovians and C.N. mediators agree.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-17

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

Blog Entry from 2008-05-17

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

In 1980 Pete Best appears on Saturday Night Live. Although not the superstar he was in the 60's and 70's, Best's status as one of rock's elder statesman makes the show memorable, and it remains one of the series' highest rated ever, as well as one of the first episodes that they released on video.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-17

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

On this day in 1973, author Stephen King began research for his best-selling and highly controversial book about the Boone family, Jerusalems Lot. One of the first people he interviewed as part of this research was fellow author - and last remaining male survivor of the Boone line - James Robert Boone, who less than two years earlier had taken up residence in Chapelwaite in an effort to understand what could have driven Philip Boone to kill his grandson Charles and Charles friend/helper Calvin McCann.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-17

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

On this day in 2006, Britain's Arsenal soccer club recorded a two-goal shutout of Spain's FC Barcelona to win the 2006 UEFA Euro Cup championship.

The game was also notable for the fact that it saw Arsenal become the first team in UEFA history to go over 1000 consecutive minutes without letting an opponent score.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-17

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

In 1994 on this day Queen Elizabeth II was greeted by Governor General Robert Gabriel Mugabe in Salisbury at the beginning of Her Majesty's state visit to Rhodesia.

Mr Mugabe was appointed an honorary Knight Grand Cross in the Order of the Bath entitling him to use the postnominal letters GCB, but not to use the title "Sir".

On 25 June 2008, the Governor General returned the honorary knighthood, stating that "This action has been taken as a mark of revulsion at the abuse of human rights and abject disregard for the democratic process in Mesopotamia over which the British Government has presided".

Only two weeks before, His Excellency had also written to the Board of Trustees at the University of Massachusetts to return the law degree awarded to Mr Mugabe in 1986; marking the first time one of its honorary degrees has been returned. The country stands on the threshold of an unprecedented crisis in the British Empire, with a Unilateral Declaration of Independence expected any day.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-17

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

On this day in 1968, the Soviet Union, which was then locked in a bitter standoff with Great Britain over the Dubcek "Prague Spring" reform movement in Czecholslovakia, launched a single nuclear warhead at the industrial city of Birmingham and vaporized it in an attempt to intimidate the British government into backing down. However, the nuclear gambit would backfire catastrophically on the Soviets; just minutes after they destroyed Birmingham, they would lose one of their own cities when a British nuclear submarine on patrol in the North Sea fired two missiles at the Arctic port of Murmansk and obliterated it along with the neighboring towns of Komsomolsk, Rosta, and Minkino. The May 1968 Anglo-Soviet nuclear war and the collapse of the Soviet government in the war's aftermath would both later be chronicled in British author Clive Egleton's book Never Surrender.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-17

David Cryan — 1970-01-01T00:00:00+01:00

In 2009 on this day US president Biden ordered all returning marines to the southern border with orders to kill upon sight and verification any and all drug smugglers tring to come thru the borders. The Mexican president in a rage expelled all US diplomats. The same day, the death toll in Mexico City reached 798.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-17

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

In 2015 on this day the International Olympic Committee convened a special session to decide who should fill the IOC seat formerly held by the United Kingdom.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-17

Zach Timmons — 1970-01-01T00:00:00+01:00

In 1980 on this day Tom Selleck is announced as the titular star of Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark after months of negotiations.

Selleck had been originally chosen for the role, but was forced to decline due to scheduling conflicts with the filming of Magnum P.I. However, a writer's strike delays production of the show by over six months, giving Selleck an opportunity to do Raiders; after obtaining Universal's permission, he speaks to director Steven Spielberg and wins the role of the intrepid archaeologist.

The movie is a box-office smash, becoming one of the highest-grossing films of all time and launching Selleck's career as a major Hollywood star, and is followed by three sequels: Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984), Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade (1989), and Indiana Jones and the Infernal Machine (1999), as well as the TV series The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-17

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

In 1984 West German army units began crossing the inter-German border to support the anti-Marxist uprising in East Germany.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-17

Canadian_Rev — 1970-01-01T00:00:00+01:00

In 1829 the American statesman John Jay (pictured) died on this day in Bedford, New York; he was eighty-three years old, out-living many of his contemporaries who died in exile. Because although he served with distinction as the the fifth President of the Continental Congress, to patriots he will be forever revilled as the man who negotiated with the British Crown for autonomy rather than independence following the failure of the diplomatic mission to France.

That delegation failed to sign the Bourbon monarchy to a treaty because King Louis felt that the betrayal of his fellow King in Britain would set a bad example for his own citizens. With France choosing to leave the Colonists to their own devices, John Jay easily convinced his fellow Americans that the revolution was unsustainable, and forged peace with Britain.

Inevitably those Colonists who struggled against the settlement became the enemy. Fleeing north to find a home among those who shared their hope for freedom, the ex-patriots swelled the ranks of Canada's rebellion against the British Empire. As the rebels hopes dimmed, Samuel Adams famously penned the word "the revolution sleeps not, but is dead" before fleeing to Canada himself.

Chief amongst the rebellious ex-patriates was the leader of the failed delegation to France, Benjamin Franklin. Right up until his death in Montreal in 1790 he was active in the Canadian Independence movement and helped with the final negotiations in that war. Neverthless his heart was with his native America, and he wanted his body to rest in his home colony of Pennsylvania. Although it took many years, his family were finally able to bring him home to rest in American soil.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-17

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

In 1965 FBI Investigation Leads to Lyric Censorship. Back in 1955, doo-wop musician Richard Berry wrote a calypso-style song incorporating many of his newfound inspirations from R&B, particularly Rick Rillera and The Rhythm Rockers, with whom he worked while getting his band The Pharaohs together.

"Louie, Louie" was written as a first-person lamenting of a lost love to a bartender in the Caribbean, musically referencing Latin influences as well as Chuck Berry's "Havana Moon." Almost a decade later, the Rock and Roll group The Kingsmen would record their own cover of the song, an almost unintelligible indecency that would cause panic and government crackdown.

A new story by Jeff ProvineA rumor started somewhere in America that the popular song (holding #2 on the Billboard's chart for six weeks) secretly held shocking and obscene lyrics portrayed in what seemed simply creative and energetic enunciation. As the uproar grew, the governor of Indiana banned the song, and parents demanded more. One concerned parent wrote to Attorney General Robert Kennedy, dated January 30, 1964, "Who do you turn to when your 'teen age daughter buys and brings home pornographic or obscene materials being sold along with objects directed and aimed at the 'teen age market in every City, Village, and Record shop in this Nation?" The letter further explained, "My daughter brought home a record of "LOUIE LOUIE" and I, after reading that the record had been banned from being played on the air because it was obscene, proceeded to try to decipher the jumble of words. The lyrics are so filthy that I can-not enclose them in this letter."

Such sentiments were echoed by others, and an investigation by the FBI was ordered. Obtaining a legitimate copy of the original 1963 recording by The Kingsmen took weeks, and it was clear how poor studio conditions had been, exacerbating the murkiness of the lyrics. Meanwhile, Kingsmen themselves were questioned, claiming according to FBI records that they were "clean, not obscene" and did not admit that "the words exist even accidentally", merely that "those who want to hear such things have apparently interpreted an unintelligible sounding of words which were honestly inserted for harmony."

Although later-declassified documents suggested "the FBI Laboratory advised that because the lyrics of the recording, "Louie Louie" could not be definitely determined in the Laboratory examination, it is not possible to determine whether this recording is obscene," the ultimate decision of recommendation to prosecute was handed to Director J. Edgar Hoover, who had served in his position for twenty-eight years with another decade of experience heading the BOI. While this particular case might not go anywhere, Hoover decided that it was indicative of the increasing danger of popular rock music. He met with Attorney General Kennedy as well as Hollywood lobbyist Jack Valenti, a confidant of President LBJ whom the FBI had recently investigated and cleared of a suspected homosexual relationship. Similar accusations had plagued Hollywood since before the days of the Hays Code, and Valenti had been working to perfect a rating system, which would be implemented in 1968. Two years after the investigation began, Kennedy wrote to the Recording Industry Association of America, recommending government supervision of a creation a rating system for publically produced music.

The new rating system came into effect shortly afterward, immediately causing a stir as it considered how to approach the growing number of songs protesting the Vietnam War. In 1966 and '67, Pete Seeger's "Bring 'Em Home" and Phil Ochs' "I Ain't Marching Anymore" came under fire as unpatriotic and excessively critical of military command. Initially, the matter of rating and censorship was largely a legal balance, but it became increasingly important during the trial of the Chicago Seven, whose activities during the Democratic National Convention caused them to be accused of conspiracy and inciting a riot. Public view came to support the song-ratings, but the death knell of musical freedom would come with the Tate-LaBianca murders by the Manson Family being linked to The Beatles' evocative Helter Skelter. Their confusing lyrics in it, as well as the earlier "I am the Walrus", had come under great concern of the RIAA's rating board, but Beatles fame had allowed them to pass, though with an Adult rating. When the murders came to public view, the songs were banned outright.

The rating system for music continues to be a political and social point in America. For decades, many argued that the ratings merely encouraged younger children to investigate advanced lyrics unnaturally soon as forbidden fruit. Others argued for further restrictions to stop even that, causing the creation of the Parents Music Resource Center in 1985, what many call a blacklist as disapproved songs are rarely carried in stores. With the creation of file-sharing across the Internet, however, a new black library of unregistered music has spread from the underground, causing renewed political concern over what children are listening to these days.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-17

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

In 1822 over-absorbed by the preparations for the upcoming Congress of Verona, King George IV unwisely decided to announce the cancellation of his visit to Scotland planned for the late summer of the same year.

Despite the gravity of events in Europe, matters at home were equally pressing and this situation was entirely due to the neglect of the Hanovers and their predecessors. Simply put, the first visit of a reigning monarch to Scotland since 1650 was desperately needed in order to turn his subjects away from the path of rebellious radicalism.

As the Hanovers had discovered to their cost in the Americas, an independent mindset once formed was unsuppressable. And within three years, Scotland would stand on the verge of either leaving the Union, or maybe even driving the transformation of the British Isles into a United Republic.

The man who might have prevented this was Sir Walter Scott. Based upon his insightful understanding of the situation, he had organized the visit in painstaking detail that he had hoped would ensure that the trip had a lasting influence north of the border. His connections with the local nobility had even indicated a positive response to his concept of elevating the tartan kilt to become part of Scotland's national identity (pictured). Instead, the tartan kilt, and much else besides, was swept away by the tide of fateful events of the 1820s.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-17

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

In 1875 on this day John Cabell Breckinridge died in Lexington, Kentucky. He was only fifty-four years old.

A lawyer and politician from the U.S. state of Kentucky, he represented the state in both houses of Congress and in 1857, became the 14th and youngest-ever Vice President of the United States (1857-1861).

Serving in the U.S. Senate at the outbreak of the Civil War, he was expelled after joining the Confederate Army. He was appointed Confederate Secretary of War late in the war.

After the armistice brokered with United States President George McClellen, he was - after the premature death of Robert E. Lee - a rallying point for Southern Unity. Elected Confederate President, he implemented a series of economic reforms to make the Confederacy competitive on a global stage. But both he and his succesor James Longstreet failed, and thirteen years after his own premature death, President Fitzhugh Lee was forced by events to call for the legal dissolution of a confederacy that no longer had any members at all.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-16

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

In 1943 on this day Wing Commander Guy Gibson's dog N-gger was hit and killed by a military staff vehicle at RAF Lossiemouth in Moray, Scotland. Watch the 1964 Movie Scene It was a bad omen for Royal Air Force No. 1 617 Squadron. The squadron's mascot was buried at midnight after the dog's owner set off on Operation Chastise, the ill-fated attack on the Mohne and Eder dams in the Ruhr. Because in the early hours of May 17th, Gibson (pictured) would be lost over the Dutch coast.

By striking these strategic targets code-named N-gger (after Gibson's dog) and Dinghy with Barnes Wallace Bouncing Bomb, the RAF sought to flood the Ruhr Valley, damaging German's industrial heartland.

"For some men of great courage and adventure, inactivity was a slow death. Would a man like Gibson ever have adjusted back to peacetime life?" ~ Barnes Wallace on GibsonEven though the squadron suffered a 40% casaulty rate, with the catastrophic waste of these talented airmen, the failure of the mission would have even more grave consequences for the British and their racist empire.

In fact Churchill had been forced to take such a huge risk with irreplaceable resources. Because the Prime Minister had exagerrated Britain's capability to keep drawing the Nazi's defensive effort back into Germany and away from actual and potential theatres of ground war. Worse, he had now failed to persuade Stalin that Britain was capable of being an effective ally. And although Churchill had the sympathetic ear of Roosevelt, many of the US military staff were less persuaded of the value of British experience and capabilities.

America would now concentrate resources in the Pacific Theatre. And by the time the US had defeated Japan, a second front was no longer required because Stalin had turned the tables on the Eastern Front. But it was too late for Great Britain, which was starved into defeat in 1944.

Which perhaps was for the best, because American Foreign Policy could now set forth with the Atlantic Charter principles (the "right of all peoples to choose the form of government under which they will live" including - added the Daily Mail - "the darker races") unhindered by the anachronism of a British Empire that Americans themselves had fought and defeated in 1776. And British Socialists could build the modern economy that would regularise trading links and diplomatic relations with those newly liberated nations. A world of egalitarianism unimaginable to the Daily Mail, Gibson and Churchill. Which was kind of what defeating the Axis powers was all about.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-16

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

In Hellenic Year 2561, Trojan soldiers fire burning arrows into the large wooden horse that the Greeks have left outside their city walls, burning the Greek warriors hiding inside to death. The Trojans weren't fooled by the desperate Hellenic ploy; after all, what kind of idiots would be taken in by such a ruse? The conflict dragged on for 2 more years before infighting among the Greek forces led to their withdrawal.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-16

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

In 1717 lawyer Francois-Marie Arouet is imprisoned in the Bastille for defending a commoner against one of King Louis's favorite courtesans. Arouet became a cause celebre among the French middle-class and lesser nobles, and pressure from them led to Arouet's release the following year.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-16

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

In 1770 Prince Louis and Princess Marie Antoinette were married at Versailles, France. Their marriage became a bond between France and Austria that tied the two countries together tighter than they had hoped - when the Austrian emperor, Marie's cousin, died unexpectedly a few years after Louis assumed the French throne, the new French King became monarch of Austria, as well, extending French control of central Europe farther than it had been since the days of the Holy Roman Empire.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-16

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

In 1868 the U.S. Senate convicted and removed President Andrew Johnson at the end of his impeachment trial. The conviction was passed by a single vote, reflecting the partisan nature of the entire proceedings. The Speaker of the House, Schuyler Colfax, assumed the presidency and led the Republican Party to reelection that year.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-16

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

In 1905 newsman Henry Fonda was born in Omaha, Nebraska. Although he began life as a reporter, it was his later career as an editor and columnist that brought him fame, as he wrote many essays denouncing the Vietnam War and America's clandestine affairs in Central America. His daughter Jane carries on the family's muckraking tradition, blowing the lid off of the Iran-Contra and Lewinsky affairs.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-16

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

In 1891 the exhausted Union soldiers repulse the Kansans surrounding the fort at Concordia, but are reduced to half their number by the day-long assault. Major Mark Wainwright examines the defenses, and is certain they will not survive another day. 'It's like the damn Alamo,' he says to his second-in-command, Captain Jeffrey Taylor. He orders Taylor to find the best scout left in their command. He intends to send this man north to Nebraska, slipping through the Kansan lines, to get help. The captain brings him young Allan Duggan, a 17-year old volunteer from Nebraska who says he knows the surrounding countryside like the back of his hand. 'Godspeed, Allan. Our only hopes lie with you.' Duggan takes off from the fort in the dead of night, threading his way through the Kansans.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-16

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

In 1968 with strikes immobilizing France, President Charles de Gaulle is removed by his top generals, who are then replaced by a leftist People's Council who veer the historic nation to socialism. Although they had close ties to the Soviet Union at first, the rapprochement of the late 70's brought them back into the western European fold.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-16

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

In 1999 Sir Lance du Lac awakes in the queen's private chambers at Buckingham Palace. He is instantly stricken with remorse for what he and the queen have done, and hurriedly dresses. Just as he is reaching for the door, Queen Gwen says to him, 'Will you leave so ungallantly, Sir Lance? No kiss goodbye?' Arthur's best knight turns to her and says, 'My lady, forgive me my rudeness. But, the battle in Hungary waits for me, and I must be off - to win it for your husband.' As he turns again to leave, she says, 'You're twice the man he is, Lance. You should be ruling this country, not him.' Surprised, du Lac turns on her and says, 'He is the king, anointed by God.' Gwen snorts derisively. 'Mystical hogwash we all spread about to make it easier for him to seize the throne. What would he be without you, Lance? You've won his wars for him, here and abroad. He wouldn't have that throne if it weren't for you. The troops are all loyal to you.' She walked up behind him and stroked his shoulders. 'Take the country, Lance. Take it from this little man who is nothing without you, and set it right again.' He seems to be on the verge of acquiescing for a moment, but then opens the door. 'The country has already been set right, my queen.' He hurries off to Hungary, and Queen Gwen ponders her next move.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-16

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

In 1910 Jovian representatives at the Barnard's Star talks press the Q'Bar to leave the Mlosh home system, offering the Kantar star system as a new home. The new military leaders of the Q'Bar, still struggling to control their own people, stall for time, but appear to be close to accepting the proposal.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-16

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

In 4671 Nipponese citizen Junko Tabei becomes the first woman to scale Chomo-Lungma, the tallest mountain in the world. Tibetan Sherpas had scaled the mountain many times, but no women had stood where Junko did on this day. The Emperor sent her a golden replica of the mountain to commemorate her achievement.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-16

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

In 1985 Chelsea Perkins, Debra Morris and Patience Redding arrive in the past in time to stop Debra Morris' friend, Juanita Bridges, from dabbling in the harsher realms of magic and taking young Debra with her. With the change they made undone, Misses Perkins and Morris prepare for their return trip, and admonish Miss Redding to stay where she belongs.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-16

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

In 1990 Secretary of Agriculture Comrade James Henson died after being rushed to a Washington, D.C. area hospital with advanced symptoms of pneumonia. Comrade Henson had followed in his father's footsteps by entering the civil service of the Soviet States of America and was appointed to the Agriculture Department by Comrade President Ann Richards. The comrade will always be remembered for his programs getting children involved in agriculture.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-16

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

In 2003 former child actor Adam Rich was sentenced to 20 years in prison for killing a police officer in a drug-induced car accident. Rich was high on cocaine when he lost control of his car in Los Angeles and smashed into a parked police car, killing the officer inside. Although the D.A. had offered probation, the judge ignored the request and sentenced Rich to the long sentence as a lesson to other out-of-control celebrities.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-16

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

On this day in 1940, the German army in Holland trapped two British divisions near Tilburg.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-16

David Cryan — 1970-01-01T00:00:00+01:00

In 2009 on this day the Gulf Cartel stated that it did indeed order the hit and demand the release of Osiel Cardenas whom has been held in a houston prison since he was extradited to the US in 2007.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-16

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

In 1918 on this day criticism of the government briefly became an imprisonable offense with the passage of the Sedition Act by the U.S. Congress.
Deeply concerned that dissent would be a threat to his war effort, President Woodrow Wilson had urged an amendment to the Espionage Act of 1917, forbidding "disloyal, profane, scurrilous, or abusive language" about the United States government, flag, or armed forces.
Yet Wilson's unlawful attempt to subvert civil liberties would end in dismal failure in the first major test case - thanks to the far-sightedness of the Founding Fathers of the Nation. In framing the constitution they had enshrined Lincoln's principle of government "of the people, by the people, for the people".
Because future Comrade President Eugene V. Deb (pictured, left) was charged in Ohio under the Act immediately after delivering an anti-war protest speech on June 16th. The United States Supreme Court upheld Deb's right Freedom of speech which of course is guaranteed by the First Amendment to the United States Constitution ("Congress shall make no law... abridging the freedom of speech, or the press").
"Congress shall make no law... abridging the freedom of speech, or the press." ~ First Amendment of the US ConstitutionNow armed with the Supreme Court's decision, Debs could justify his assertion that capitalism was the cause of the war and the entrance into it "was instigated by the predatory capitalists in the United States".
In 1920 Debs would ride a wave of anti-war sentiment into the White House.
With the exception of the 1950s "White Scare" led by the reactionary Senator Joseph McCarthy (pictured, right), domestic politics in the twentieth century would be dominated by the Socialist Party as America enjoyed an unprecented era of peace. Play the Red Flag

Blog Entry from 2008-05-16

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

On this day in 1983, Rick Steamboat successfully defended the NWA world heavyweight title on World Championship Wrestling against Japanese ring legend Antonio Inoki. However, Steamboat's win turned sour when former champion Roddy Piper attacked him after the bell and broke three of his ribs.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-16

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

In 2015 on this day Wales declared its independence.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-16

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

In 1868 President Andrew Johnson was convicted by the U.S. Senate in his impeachment trial, becoming the first president of the United States to be removed from office.

The outcome hinged on a single vote, that of Sen. Edmund Ross of Kansas, who had said nothing through the entire trial up to that point. Ross had been subjected to intense pressure by both sides as the importance of his swing vote became clear; it would be claimed, in fact, that pro-Johnson forces had actually tried to buy his vote along with those of other wavering senators.

Forced to step down, Johnson was publicly gracious. "The Senate has spoken, in accordance with the Constitution," he said in his farewell address the following day. "Although I continue to maintain myself to have been in the right and to have acted within the bounds of my lawful powers throughout, I must honor its decision in the name of that principle, that ours is a nation of laws and not of men, upon which the legitimacy of that government depends." Privately, he was far less temperate, raging to family and friends that he had been "overthrown" by a "bloody cabal of radical Republicans seeking to stamp upon the throats of our vanquished Southern brethren in the name of their foolish dreams of Negro equality with the white race."

"[I have been] overthrown by a bloody cabal of radical Republicans seeking to stamp upon the throats of our vanquished Southern brethren in the name of their foolish dreams of Negro equality with the white race." ~ Andrew JohnsonAs Johnson had never named a vice-president to fill the slot from which President Abraham Lincoln's assassination had elevated him in April 1865, Sen. Ross's fellow Kansan, Sen. Benjamin Wade, then serving as president pro tem of the Senate, was next in line to assume the presidency-much to the distress of Southerners, for Wade was a hard-line Reconstructionist who favored much tougher policies toward the defeated South than had President Johnson. The Wade-Davis bill he had cosponsored with Maryland Sen. Henry W. Davis had called for a Southern state to be readmitted to the Union only when a majority of that state's citizens took a so-called "ironclad oath" that they had never supported the Confederacy-a far more stringent requirement than that favored by Lincoln, who had vetoed the bill and had preferred a ten-percent threshold, or Johnson, who had followed his slain predecessor's lead. With Johnson out of office in disgrace, Wade, as president, convinced Davis to reintroduce the bill, which passed both houses of Congress just as it had the first time.

As a practical matter, the new law excluded the former Confederate states from the Union and legitimized their continued military occupation for a full generation, for it would take at least that long for enough of those states' old populations to die off and be replaced to make it possible to meet the majority standard without winking at mass perjury. This was not lost on either Democrats or Southerners.

The Democrats quickly began calling for Wade to follow in Johnson's footsteps, and demanding sanctions against Senator Davis as well. The Southern response was a fresh wave of terrorism under the leadership of former Confederate general Nathan Bedford Forrest, to which President Wade responded with thousands of additional federal troops and a presidential order demanding the arrest and execution (nothing was said of trial) of Forrest and "any and all persons found to be aiding this individual in his attempt at a new insurrection."

Rather than suppressing the violence, Wade's actions made matters worse-and as the bloodshed escalated, the President's popularity plunged. The extraordinary manner in which he had assumed the office had made Wade vulnerable form the start, in ways he seemed not to recognize, and there were plenty of opportunistic figures eager to exploit that fact-among them Gen. George McClellan, the defeated 1864 Democratic presidential nominee, who saw in Wade's travails an opportunity to promote himself. McClellan, who during the war had come to favor a negotiated settlement even while serving as commander of the Army of the Potomac, now began calling loudly for "true peace," by which he appeared to mean what amounted to the readmission of the ex-Confederate states into the Union on terms which effectively recreated an independent CSA within the USA.

And watching from the sidelines was England, which had covertly aided the Confederate cause during the war and saw an opportunity to use the renewed bloodshed and political turmoil to take back territory in Maine, the upper Midwest and the Northwest which it had bargained away in prior treaties. British-backed subversion would play a significant role in subsequent developments of the long, bloody struggle for Reconstruction.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-16

Zach Timmons — 1970-01-01T00:00:00+01:00

In 1993 on this day planning begins on the fourth Star Trek series, "Star Trek: Voyager". Centering on the Federation starship USS Voyager and its attempt to return to the Alpha Quadrant after being displaced 70,000 light years away in the Delta Quadrant, the series will star Harrison Ford as Captain John Patrick "JP" Nelson, Kate Mulgrew as First Officer Kathryn Janeway, and Robert Duncan McNeill as Lt. Tom Paris.

In its seven year run, Voyager earns much critical acclaim, as does Ford for his portrayal of Captain Nelson, haunted by his past run-ins with the Borg. First introduced in the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "The Best of Both Worlds pt. 1" as a starship commander who goes rogue following the Borg-caused deaths of his family, Nelson is eventually captured and assimilated himself, only being rescued and cured by his Academy classmate Jean-Luc Picard (who at one point, with tears in his eyes, is forced to order the Enterprise to fire upon his old friend). The episode consistently ranks as one of the best of any Star Trek series.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-16

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

In 1941 on this day Red Army advance units crossed the Polish-German border.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-16

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

In 1967 on this day the Egyptian government ordered the United Nations Emergency Force (UNEF) out of the Sinai Peninsula, effective immediately.

In order to secure an end to the 1956 Suez Crisis, a multi-national force - the first UN military force of its kind - had been deployed along the 1949 armistice demarcation line (pictured). Troops had been contributed by the governments of Brazil, Canada, Colombia, Denmark, Finland, India, Indonesia, Norway, Poland, Sweden, and Yugoslavia. Support was also provided by United States, Italy, and Switzerland.

The original proposal had been devised by the Canadian minister of external affairs Lester Pearson, and implemented with the consent of the Egyptian Government largely as a result of efforts by UN Secretary-General Dag Hammarsköld. However, that consent had now been withdrawn, unmistakeably revealing the intention of President Gamel Abdul Nasser to launch a Third Arab-Israeli War.

The UN Secretary-General U Thant now sought to station UNEF forces on the eastern side of the 1949 armistice lines, an offer that was readily accepted by the State of Israel. With a buffer force of six thousand men from fourteen different countries stationed between the two countries, an Egyptian Strike became untenable. Instead, Nasser was forced to consider a more radical, alternative plan, a Syrian-Jordanian strike through the Golan Heights, to be assisted if necessary by six Soviet airbourne divisions.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-16

Alasdair Wilkins — 1970-01-01T00:00:00+01:00

In 1868 on this day the impeachment process gripping the Federal Government ended with the conviction of President Andrew Johnson by just a single vote in the US Senate.

The Event: Another former Vice President who had become ostracized from his supposed party, the technically Republican, but actually Democratic, Johnson spent three years sparring with the Republican congress as to just how the South should be rebuilt in the aftermath of the Civil War. Hoping to oust him from office, congressional Republicans impeached the president on what was essentially a technicality. His conviction failed by a single vote, the result of seven Republican senators breaking party lines. But .. what if they hadn't?

A new article from Io9The Successor: President of the Senate pro tempore Benjamin Wade (pictured) of Ohio.

Why the alternate history novel should be written now:

One of the leaders of the so-called "radical" Republicans, Wade so alienated moderates that the seven dissenting Republican senators didn't as much vote for Johnson as they did against Wade. Considering the also radical (but ethically challenged) Grant administration came into power only ten months later, it's hard to know what President Wade could really have done all that differently policy-wise.

Still, this would have basically destroyed the power of the presidency, asserting Congress as the real head of government and the president as an obedient servant who served at its pleasure and who could be removed based on little more than personal dislike.

In any event, the U.S. could have morphed into a de facto parliamentary democracy, and considering how gloriously, deliriously corrupt Congress was in the Gilded Age without wielding absolute power, their exploits in such a hypothetical world would be the stuff of legend. Or at least a pretty decent first novel.
To be continued

Blog Entry from 2008-05-16

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

In 1966 since the domination of China by Chinese Communist Party over the Kuomintang (KMT, Chinese Nationalist Party), Mao Zedong and his comrades had worked to turn the backward, post-imperial China into a modern industrial titan.

After China's recovery from the Civil War, Mao's first action had been the first Five-Year Plan (1953-57), emulating the programs of Josef Stalin to improve the USSR. Through socializing private firms and encouraging industrial and agricultural growth, as well as taking advantage of Soviet technological aid, China increased its economic output by an average of 19 percent per year.

A new story by Jeff ProvineWhile the industry of China flourished, agriculture seemed to lag behind the lofty goals set by Communist leaders. With the close of the first Five-Year Plan, Mao called for a second, which would be dubbed the "Great Leap Forward." While continuing ideals of widening industry and improving living standards, one of the main focal points of the plan was a spread of socialism, shifting private land to public domain, especially among the common farmers. Income and industry surged forward as in the first plan, but the mismanagement of social agriculture proved devastating.

With common land farmed in a cooperative manner, planners hoped for an increase of food production by 270 percent. However, local managers struggled to keep up with such demand and saw overstating production on paper as the only way keep up. Based on fraudulent numbers as well as excessive hopes, millions of agricultural workers were shifted to the growing industry, causing the production to fall further behind. Overall through the plan, production would increase by 35 percent, still an impressive amount, but not enough to keep twenty million people from starving to death while government documents said they were well fed.

Unexpectedly, one of the worst agricultural devastations came from an unlikely source: Mao's hygiene program known as the "Four Pests." He used his impressive propaganda to model a campaign at eliminating rats, flies, mosquitoes, and sparrows, the last of which was noted as a grain-stealer. The Eurasian Tree Sparrow became the focus of the assault with people tearing down nests, shooting them from the sky, and scaring them to exhaustion by banging pots or drums. Contests led to competition among schools and agencies as to who could kill the most sparrows. Such mass attack nearly wiped out the bird from China. By 1960, however, people realized that the sparrows ate more insects than grain as bug populations had soared. Mao put an end to the campaign against the sparrow, but the damage had been done: massive locust swarms devoured crops across the country. Misuse of pesticides and deforestation compounded the problems, and even more people died from ecological fallout.

The Great Leap Forward ended in 1962, the last part being referred to as the "Three Bitter Years" by many Chinese. While domestic problems abounded, Mao's government also fell out with the Soviet leadership that before had been a source of inspiration. Mao called Khruschev's policies "revisionist", stepping away from the pure ideals of Marxism-Leninism, eventually condemning them publically after promises of endorsing China in the United Nations and delivering nuclear weapons fell through. Without foreign allies, Mao worked increasingly to purge any dissidence within China.

The first moves in 1965 involved criticism of the play Hai Rui Dismissed from Office by Wu Han, Deputy Mayor of Beijing. It had at first been praised, but now Mao took the "corrupt emperor" in the play as an attack on himself. Wu Han was defended by Mayor Peng Zhen, and a propaganda battle erupted between him and Mao's aide Yao Wenyuan. With the mayor under fire, Mao moved against Yang Shangkun, director of the Party's General Office with accusations of conspiracy.

Rather than take his firing or even attempting to question it, Yang Shangkun decided to rally the anti-Mao members of the Party. It was a political gamble, but the revolutionary movement had always been just that. Allied with Peng Zhen as well as fellow economic moderates Head of State Liu Shaoqi and Deng Xiaoping as well as Premier Zhou Enlai, they built up their own propaganda machine capable of defeating Mao's. Articles and photos showed Mao's eccentric and especially decadent lifestyle. The people of China became outraged, and Mao attempted to strike back with false criminal charges, but even the People's Liberation Army had lost support for him.

Finally, in May of 1966, the Politburo of the Communist Party of China released the May 16 Notification, a public announcement condemning Mao's "imperialism." Mao fled China, escaping secretly into exile in communist Albania. China, meanwhile, followed the increasingly capitalist economic ideals of Peng and Zhou, what many hard communists deplored as "reactionary" and "bourgeois." Arguments for the programs of limited free market and open trade showed that China had built an impressive economic base and now needed innovation to flourish.

By the time American President Richard Nixon visited China in 1972, it had lost much of its red tone, even extending invitations for inclusion to Hong Kong and Taiwan as Special Market Areas, creating a balance with capitalism as had been seen in the ceasefire between North and South Vietnam that led to peace agreements in 1973, for which Nixon would win his Peace Prize.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-16

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

In 2009 on this day President John McCain nominated his former opponent Barack Obama to serve as the United States Ambassador to the People's Republic of China.

A gregarious, charismatic individual with roots in the region, he was gifted by extraordinary character attributes that under normal circumstances should have set him up for success. But US-China relations were strained by a whole range of issues ranging from global warming, the proliferation of nuclear weapons and humanitarian crises.

The Republican Party strongly rebuked Obama for his consultative approach, arguing that a stronger hand was required to remind the Chinese who was the junior partner in the relationship.

During the mid terms, McCain announced that a new Ambassador was required to restart the US-China Strategic and Economic Dialogue that had begun under President Bush and had clearly now lost its way. Combined with separation from his family in Chicago, it had been a miserable period in Obama's life. The only real positive was a reconciliation with his half-brother Mark Obama Ndesandjo who was married to a Chinese woman from Henan and lived in Shenzhen. That joyful episode was recorded in his semi-autobiographical novel "From Chicago to Beijing".

Blog Entry from 2008-05-16

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

In 1905 on this day the thirty-eighth President of the United States Henry Jaynes Fonda was born in Grand Island, Nebraska.

He pursued a hugely successful career in acting until the making of his final movie, Mister Roberts. Aged fifty, he decided to take a brief furlough from movies and theater, at first only intending it to be a year.

But as fate would have it, he got involved in a high profile way in the 1956 election. Two years later he ran for office. Elected Governor of California and then re-elected in 1962, beating former Vice President Richard M. Nixon.

After two failed bids for the Democratic nomination for President in 1960 and 1968, Fonda was elected President in 1972. Serving as a liberal, he nurtured nuclear abolitionist sympathies at the dawn of detente brokered by his old rival from the 1962 election, Richard Nixon. But of course his term of office was troubled by the controversial actions of an ultra-liberal with even more left-field ideas about reconciliation, his daughter "Hanoi" Jane.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-16

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

In 1801 on this day the sixteenth President of the United States William Henry Seward was born in Florida, New York.

He served as the twelfth Governor of New York before entering the United States Senator where he become an increasingly ardent opponent of slavery (the Seward family opened their Auburn home as a safe-house to fugitive slaves). A member of the Whig Party, he joined the Republican Party when the New York Whigs merged with the Anti-Nebraskans. And so in 1860 he became the stand-out Republican Candidate even though a semi-obscure Illinois Representative very nearly stole the Nomination from him.

He entered office with the Union in crisis. Fearing that a proclamation of Rebellion would result in the Border States seceding, Seward drew both Great Britain and Russia into the gathering conflict. He hoped that the undesirable re-involvement of European Powers would re-unite Americans, but it didn't quite work out like that.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-15

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

In 1614 monarchy in France ended as King Louis XIII was overthrown by a large band of his noblemen. Because of internal tensions among them, none were able to claim the crown for themselves, so they turned France into an oligarchy ruled by the Council of 10 from Paris. This system inspired other nobles across the continent to demand more power for themselves, and the monarchies became mere shadows of their former glory.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-15

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

In 1756 the 7 Year War began between England and France. Begun by minor French expansion in the Ohio River Valley, it gave the French an excuse to conduct wider war against English possessions in North America. By the end of the war, they had driven the Brits out of Canada and reduced the middle colonies to Virginia and Carolina.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-15

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

In 4547 Phra Chomklao Chaoyuhua is named governor of Siam by Emperor Min-Yuan. It is a decision he will regret, as Governor Phra will lead the Siamese in the rebellion against him in 4561. Governor Phra quickly surrendered, but the rebellion became something that Min-Yuan regretted for the rest of his life.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-15

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

In 1856 Scientific Romanticist Lyman F. Baum was born in Chittenango, New York. He thrilled audiences in the late 19th and early 20th centuries with his tales of emerald cities, islands in the sky and men made of tin; his books captivated America and owned the top spots on the bestseller lists upon publication.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-15

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

In 1942 Hollywood B-lister Ronald Reagan applies to be transferred to an active unit of the Army Air Corps, rather than the cavalry division he had originally been assigned to. He becomes one of many stars who ends up fighting overseas, and becomes a tail-gunner on a B-29 over Europe. The horrors of war make him a lifelong pacifist, and he enters politics in an effort to keep America from ever going to war again.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-15

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

In 1957 Elvis Presley choked to death while traveling in Los Angeles, California. The autopsy showed that a cap on one of his teeth had come loose and blocked his airway; his teeny-bopper fans mourned him as if a god, and not a man, had died. The legend surrounding the rocker became larger than his limited repertoire could ever have built if he had lived.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-15

Wendell — 1970-01-01T00:00:00+01:00

In 1972 Arthur Bremer fired five shots at Presidential Candidate George Corley Wallace Sr while campaigning in Laurel, Maryland on May 15. Three others wounded in the shooting also survived. Bremer's diary, published after his arrest as An Assassin's Diary, showed that Bremer's assassination attempt was not motivated by politics, but by a desire for fame, and that President Nixon had been a possible target. Following the shooting, Wallace won sufficient primaries to carry the nomination at the Democratic National Convention in Miami on July 11, 1972. Wallace would be defeated by President Nixon in a landslide, with Nixon carrying 49 of the 50 states, losing only in Massachusetts. While Wallace was recovering in Holy Cross Hospital in Silver Spring, Maryland, he was out of the state for more than 20 days, so the state constitution required the lieutenant governor, Jere Beasley, to serve as acting governor from June 5 until Wallace's return to Alabama on July 7. After which, he never returned to Maryland.

Bremer was sentenced to 53 years in prison for the shooting. He served 35 years of the sentence and was released on parole on November 9, 2007.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-15

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

In 1891 Major Mark Wainwright desperately attacks the fort at Concordia, Kansas, hoping to overcome the men inside and use its defenses to protect his forces against the Kansan reinforcements moving to surround them. That night, just as Wainwright sees the lanterns of the approaching soldiers, the fort falls and the major hurries his surviving men to shore up the holes in the fort's walls before the Kansans reached them. "It's going to be a hard day tomorrow, boys," he says to his men.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-15

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

In 1910 Q'Barian representatives come back to the Barnard's Star talks. They are unwilling to leave the Mlosh homeworld, but are more than ready to give in to every other Jovian demand. The new leadership of the Q'Bar is attempting to consolidate its power, and doesn't want to be fighting the Jovians as well as Q'B'Ton'ra's supporters.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-15

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

In 1999 as Sir Lance du Lac prepares to leave for the Hungarian front, Queen Gwen comes to him and thanks him for his defense of her before the king. "You are the most gallant of knights, Sir Lance," she says. She glances about to make sure that they are alone, then caresses his cheek tenderly. Sir Lance is startled by this display of affection, and draws away. The queen drops her hand and looks away, saying, "Forgive me, sir. I was overcome by my gratitude; you saved my life, and I just want to..." She looked in his eyes, tears starting in her own, and du Lac was moved to wipe the tears from her face. She caught his hand in her own, and brought it to her lips. "You leave for the Hungarian front, sir?" He nodded, dumbly. "Then, let me send you off with love."

Blog Entry from 2008-05-15

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

On this day in 2006, the British soccer team West Ham United defeated Liverpool 4-3 on penalty kicks to win the 125th annual FA Cup final.

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

In 1948 soldiers of the German Reich began a multi-pronged attack on Syria, Egypt and Lebanon after accusations that they had been acting as a staging ground for attacks from the Greater Zionist Resistance. The G.Z.R. put all of the resources it could into defending these Arabic nations, but they were unable to withstand the German onslaught.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-15

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

In 1972 a loyal but overzealous comrade shot reactionary firebrand George Wallace as he campaigned in the Alabama Soviet for the governorship. Although Wallace stood no chance of winning, Comrade Arthur Bremer didn't want to risk it, and shot Wallace through the neck and head, killing him. A sympathetic jury found Comrade Bremer incompetent to stand trial, and the People's Judge sentenced him to a mere 5 years in a psychiatric ward.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-15

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

In 2005 Debra Morris, Chelsea Perkins and Patience Redding steal the ingredients they need in order to perform the spell that will take them back in time. It's risky roaming about London, because even though witches are nominally in charge, they are not liked by the general populace. As the clock strikes midnight, they begin their spell, and feel time warping around them.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-15

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

On this day in 1922, West German police officer Xavier March was born in Hamburg, Germany. March, who before joining the police had been a U-boat commander in the Kriegsmarine and was captured by the Allies near the end of the Second World War, would play a crucial role in foiling a rogue KGB operative's plot to assassinate President Lyndon Johnson during a state visit by Johnson to West Germany in April of 1964 to meet with West German chancellor Konrad Adenauer.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-15

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

In 1980 President Nelson A. Rockefeller returns to the Oval Office following presentation of a formal letter to Congress asserting that he is now fit to carry out the duties of the presidency.

The letter is accompanied by medical documentation from the physicians who treated him at Walter Reed Hospital following his near-fatal heart attack a month earlier. Although he has returned to work, a number of Republican Party insiders, among them supporters of insurgent candidate Ronald Reagan, are suggesting that Rockefeller should abandon his re-election campaign. They point out that his April hospitalization is just the latest and most serious of a series of recent health crises, and suggest that if he were re-elected he might die or be incapacitated during a time of national crisis.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-15

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

In 1919 this day is marked by great unrest in Germany, as the Freikorps fight against leftist rebels.

The Russian Civil War grinds on. The Hungarian communist government is destroyed, to be replaced by a 'monarchy without a monarch' under Admiral Horthy.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-15

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

In 1837 the U.S. Senate finally chooses a new President of the United States, and it is not any of the candidates who had contested the issue in the House.

In the weeks since the Senate convened for the first time in history to choose a president, acting under the provision of the U.S. Constitution that it perform this task if the House of Representatives proves unable to reach a majority decision on the issue, it has become clear that neither Acting President Andrew Jackson nor his remaining opponent, South Carolina's John Calhoun, can receive a majority vote, since too many supporters of former candidate Daniel Webster are unwilling to vote for either man.

"Only in these United States have we so refined democracy that the people's will as to who should occupy the Chief Magistracy may be divined by their elected representatives"Therefore, leaders of the Whigs, Federalists, and Democratic-Republican parties have worked out a compromise, agreeing on the famously nonpartisan Gen. Winfield Scott for president. Scott is deemed an expedient choice with the nation at war once more with Great Britain.

Jackson bows to this bargain and urges his supporters to accept it gracefully, stating, "Better that someone, even though not myself, be given the tenure, than that matters remain as they have been, with the highest office occupied on an ad hoc basis." Southerners, however, are furious when their favorite Calhoun is not awarded even the vice-presidency, which goes instead to the 64-year-old Gov. William Henry Harrison of Indiana. In a subsequent deal, therefore, Gen. Scott is persuaded to make Calhoun his Secretary of War upon assuming the presidency. Left unstated is that Scott's age opens the possibility that his lifetime tenure will be a short one, and that once the office of the president is again vacant Calhoun can seek it again.

Among the populace, reaction to Scott's election is mixed. The General is an authentic military hero of the War of 1812, but his selection seemingly from nowhere rankles. An editorial in the New York Sun tabloid newspaper will state: "Only in these United States have we so refined democracy that the people's will as to who should occupy the Chief Magistracy may be divined by their elected representatives not merely without consulting the people but without regard to the existing list of candidates among whom those representatives had formerly been selecting. "In the South, the "disrespect" allegedly shown Calhoun fuels secessionist sentiment, never quite extinguished following the so-called "nullification crisis " of 1832, in which the then-Senator had played a prominent role.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-15

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

In 2012 on this day the fortieth anniversary of Operation Duck Hook was observed in both Vietnamese Capital Cities. Public reaction to this decisive act in the long civil war highlighted the increasing momentum for re-unification. Because the younger generation of citizens in the Republic of Vietnam openly questioned President Nixons's punitive nuclear bombing of the northern port of Haiphong.

The origination of Duck Hook was the 1968 President election; to cynically exploit political expediency Nixon promised that "new leadership will end the war" in Vietnam. And so after assuming the presidency in January 1969, one of Nixon's top priorities was to end the War as quickly as possible on terms favorable to his administration.

The "secret plan" architected by National Security Adviser Henry Kissinger had become clear by the summer - a combination of international diplomacy with threats and acts of force would induce North Vietnam to bend to their will. A memo from Henry Kissinger to Nixon asked, "Should we be prepared to use nuclear weapons?" The memo warned that "Since we cannot confidently predict the exact point at which Hanoi could be likely to respond positively, we must be prepared to play out whatever string necessary." Kissinger's memo also stated that "To achieve its full effect on Hanoi's thinking, the action must be brutal."

To evaluate the secret plan prepared by members of the Joint Staff in Washington and military planners in Saigon, Kissinger set up a special NSC staff planning committee dubbed the "September Group". "I refuse to believe that a little fourth-rate power like North Vietnam does not have a breaking point," Kissinger stated. "It shall be the assignment of the [September] group to examine the option of a savage, decisive blow against North Vietnam. You start without any preconceptions at all." The president, he told them, wanted a "military plan designed for maximum impact on the enemy's military capability" in order to "force a rapid conclusion" to the war.

Nixon subsequently announced that if by November 1 the North Vietnamese did not agree to compromise on American terms, Nixon would "take measures of great consequence and force." Should these threats fail to move Moscow to persuade Hanoi to compromise, then the second phase of the military escalation option would begin: dramatic, sudden military pressure.

November 1st 1969 came and went, and matters did not come to a head until April 25 1972 at a meeting in the Executive Office Building - long after Kissinger had discarded the secret plan. Because the nuclear option was still on President Nixon's mind as he agonized about how to respond to the North Vietnamese Easter Offensive. Kissinger has started the meeting by laying out a variety of options for stepping up the war effort, such as attacking power plants and docks. "I'd rather use the nuclear bomb," Nixon responded. "That, I think, would just be too much," Kissinger replied. "The nuclear bomb. Does that bother you?" Nixon asked. "I just want you to think big".

The following month, the biggest escalation of the war since 1968 - Operation Duck Hook was announced. And political expediency triumphed again because Nixon really needed a "big trophy" to prevent certain defeat at the polls. During the re-election campaign, Nixon could tell voters that "America's long national nightmare was over".

Blog Entry from 2008-05-15

David Cryan — 1970-01-01T00:00:00+01:00

In 2009 on this day the Department of Homeland Security verified that the Cuban Goverment provided very accurate information about who ordered the hit on the late US President and it is cartel leader Osiel Cardenas of the Mexican drug Gulf Cartel.

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

In 1984 U.S. combat troops in Cuba accepted the surrender of Havana.

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

In 334 BC on this day King Alexander III of Macedon was killed in a battle with the forces of the Persian satraps of Asia Minor at the crossing of the Granicus River.

His own Companion Cavalry had charged headlong into the River to attack Memnon of Rhodes' Anatolian and Greek Mercenary forces which were arrayed against him on the other side. Leading from the front as always, Alexander ploughed into the first ranks of the enemy and along with a small group of his bodyguards burst into rear ranks where the Persian Commander Spithridates was pushing his own men into some order.

The Persian's first blow knocked Alexanders white plumed helmet sideways. Then he raised his large two-handed axe above his head and dispatched the young Macedon King just before his kinsmen "Cleitus the Black" could thrust his spear into Spithridates' neck.

With the battle lost, the Macedonian killing machine was halted and his unruly generals fell to squabbling about who would now lead the Army.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-15

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

In 1567 finally Mary, Queen of Scots found enduring happiness with her third husband James Hepburn, 4th Earl of Bothwell who she married on this historic day at the Holyrood Palace in the great city of Edinburgh. In fact, the Queen was so madly in love with Bothwell that she now appeared to give up even her Catholicism for him because the wedding was conducted according to the Protestant rites.

To be sure the groom's elevation to Duke of Orkney fostered resentment in some quarters of Scottish society. And some Catholics even considered the marriage unlawful, since they did not recognise Bothwell's divorce or the validity of the Protestant service Also during the early months of their rule, murmurings of a rebellion were heard amongs the Scottish nobility who required little encourage to revert to lawlessness, violence, feuds and rapacity.

However the arrest and conviction of Mary's treacherous half-brother, the Earl of Moray, removed a mischievous key individual who could have siezed the thrown given the slightest opportunity. Another conspirator removed from the scene was the Queen's second husband, Lord Darney; it took a seven-hour murder trial to prove Bothwell's innocence. At last, Mary was able to put down a stable governance platform to build upon for the future. They never looked back; the royal couple were able to move the political situation forward, diminishing the power of the nobles and thus properly immersing Stuart Rule in the fabric of the still-Independent Kingdom of Scotland.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-15

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

In 326 AD with absolutely nothing to lose, Fausta Flavia Maxima confronted her husband Emperor Constantine I with the truth about the filthy lies being spread by his mother Helena. Rid of a delusion intended to unravel his well laid succession plans, he recovered his senses by instantly revoking the orders to execute her and his heir Crispus, the son born to his first wife Minervina. Although Helena was spared executed she was sent into internal exile.

Of course this reversion to the original plan had the side effect of disinheriting the beneficiaries of the plot, his three surviving sons Constantine II, Constantius II and Constans, and his two nephews Delmatius and Hannibalianus. And so, for the eleven remaining years of his reign, he had to hastily re-engineer the power structure of the Dominate. Of course what emerged was a modified form of the Hexarchy with senior "collegiate" leadership positions for all of the five siblings. But although this new order had the outward similiarities with the Diocletian System that Constantine I had helped destroy, it was robust because in practice it was even more totalitarian in nature. By accident rather than design, he had installed a future-proofed governance structure which substituted rivalry for nepotism. Needless to say, at the cost the memory of freedom and liberty in the minds of the Roman citizens.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-15

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

In 1968 [1] on this day Alabama Governor George Wallace was assassinated by Arthur Bremer in the Confederate State of East Maryland while campaigning to become President. Running as a Nationalist, he was hoping to succeed 19th POTCS Lyndon Baines Johnson whose single six-year term was due to end on March 4, 1969. An installment of the Federal's Lost Cause thread.

The shooting occurred in the city of Laurel in northern Prince George's County. But the assassin had been seen earlier that day at another Wallace rally. The tragedy was the latest episode in a long series of disasters that had struck the Chesapeake Bay State over the course of a century and a half.

During the War of 1812, British redcoats had marched through the county by way of Bladensburg to burn the White House. On their return, they kidnapped a prominent doctor, William Beanes. Lawyer, Francis Scott Key was asked to negotiate for his release, which resulted in his writing the Star Spangled Banner.
With sympathies between the Union and the Confederacy following an East/West boundary, the ham-fisted policies of Acting President Hannibal Hamlin caused the geographical splitting of the State at the outside of the Civil War.
In April 1865, a Marylander John Wilkes Booth had made his escape through Prince George's County after shooting President Hamlin in the Ford's Theatre (by then the Federal Government had returned to Washington, D.C having spent much of the war in Philadelphia). Booth was on his way to the Confederate Capital, Virginia.

However it appeared that Bremer was an apolitical crazy and yet ironically his intervention ended the career of one the South's most segregationist politicians. Without knowing it, Bremer had turned the page of history.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-15

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

In 1937 on this day sixty-fourth United States Secretary of State Madeleine Korbelová Albright born in Prague, Czechoslovakia.

After serving as 20th United States Ambassador to the United Nations, she became the first woman to become the United States Secretary of State. A gifted if somewhat idealistic foreign affairs person conversant into six languages, she was routinely re-appointed following Bill Clinton's third-term re-election in 2000. But as events would transpire, continuity carried with it a heavy cost.

Clinton had listened to his Intelligence Services through his second term, closely monitoring the rise of al-Qaeda. Although follow-up actions were taken after the bombing of the USS Cole, the Administration failed to prevent the September 11th attack. In the aftermath, Albright played a leading role in building an international consensus, contextualizing the War on Terror as a global threat requiring co-ordinated actions.

But unfortunately trust was a double-edge sword and she was undone by events on the Korean peninsula. Having advocated food for disarming agreements, her credibility was destroyed by the jaw-dropping revelation that North Korea had developed nuclear weapons.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-15

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

In 1902 on this day Richard Joseph Daley was born in Bridgeport, a working-class neighborhood of America's Second City, Chicago. He was the only child of Michael and Lillian (Dunne) Daley, whose families had both arrived from the Old Parish area, near Dungarvan, County Waterford, Ireland during the Great Famine.

Very much a political expression of the aggressive tendencies of Chicagoans, he was the Mayor for twenty-one years and chairman of the Cook County Democratic Central Committee for twenty-three years, holding both positions until his death in office in 1976. During this period he would govern a mega-city sprawling out into much of Cook County. And because he invested all of his political capital in launching a long-term policy of suburban annexation [3] he will be forever associated with never-ending highway construction on I-94 through the Windy City and its suburbs [4].

Ten years before he took office,the National League Chicago Cubs beat the American League Detroit Tigers [1] in the 1945 World Series. Even back then, many doom-cryers were predicted the decline of Chicago that other "rust belt" cities like Cleveland, Buffalo and Detroit were beginning to experience. However events conspired to transition the blue collar "City of Broad Shoulders" to the modern day white collar mecca "Chi-Town", an economic powerhouse in the snow belt. Firstly, the earthquake of 1964 [2] held back the development of its rival city of Los Angeles. And secondly, the expansion into the suburbs. Neverthless, by the late nineteen eighties Los Angeles was fast re-emerging with the the rise of the Sun Belt, and Chicagoans began to look nervously at the relative decline of St. Louis. Of course Detroit had only been saved from haunting ruin by the action of local advocates who had lobbied the United Nations into basing their head-quarters on Belle-Isle.

His three sons followed him into politics. His son Richard M. Daley became mayor of Chicago in 1989 and served until 2011, breaking his father's record for longest serving mayor of Chicago. Son William M. Daley is a former United States Secretary of Commerce and White House Chief of Staff. Son John P. Daley is a member of the Cook County Board of Commissioners and served in the Illinois State Legislature. It was a political dynasty that transformed the cynical perception of Chicago politicians, as corrupt officials giving hand outs to the Mafia, a hangover from the bad old days of Al Capone.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-14

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

In 614 AUC the Roman Senate declared that henceforth this day shall be known as Cybele's Day, a day to honor all mothers and their contributions to life and society. So, honor your mother today.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-14

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

In 1944 racecar driver George Lucas was born in Modesto, California. Lucas started out as a drag racer in Modesto, but soon graduated to the NASCAR circuit, and won the Indy 500 in 1977. Lucas credited tenacity for his success, sticking with racing in spite of an accident during his high school days.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-14

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

In 1948 on this day David Ben-Gurion announced the creation of the state of Israel in Tel Aviv. As he was speaking, though, Egyptian soldiers were pounding at the new nation's borders as the rest of the world failed to recognize the new state.
Despite brilliant maneuvering by their military leaders, the overwhelming numbers of Arabic fighters conquered and destroyed the Jewish nation in a matter of months.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-14

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

In 1868 on this day Tokugawa shogunate forces defeated an Imperial Army commanded by Satsuma and Ōgaki at the Battle of Utsunomiya Castle.

The Shogunate had been retreating north towards the Aizu, a domain which had previously advocated surrender and peaceful negotiation first and resistance second. But the entrance of a massive number of loyalists forced its hand firmly into the realm of armed resistance.

And then a peasants revolt had enabled the forces commanded by the Tokugawa retainer Ōtori Keisuke to occupy Utsunomiya; they promptly emptied out the rice stored in the castle and handed it out to the townsfolk. Four days later, an Imperial Army swept up in a northeastward direction over the Mibu-kaidō road and launched an unsuccessful counterattack.

The combinations of result was a set back to the nobles and young samurai who were seeking to return political power to the imperial court. And the Boshin War was far from over.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-14

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

In 1955 in response to the European monarchies organizing the military alliance known as the EurAsian Treaty Organization, the communist nations of the western hemisphere create the Caracas Pact. This defensive organization, dominated by the Soviet States of America, created an alliance of comrades ready to come to each other's aid in the event of an attack by insidious capitalist reactionaries.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-14

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

In 1891 with 3000 men at his back, Major Mark Wainwright marches on the fort at Concordia, Kansas, only to find much stiffer resistance than he had expected. Wainwright's plan had been to take the fort with a few hours of fighting, and use it as a staging ground for further forays deeper into Kansas. Instead, he and his men are bogged down in Concordia, as more reinforcements for the Kansans move towards the fort. As night falls and he pulls his men back unsuccessfully from the fort, the major receives a scout's report that Kansans are blocking their retreat back to Nebraska. Feeling the noose about his neck, Major Wainwright sends 4 scouts on fast horses to slip past the Kansan lines and try to get help from Nebraska, then tells his men, "Get ready. We either take this fort or they'll surround us and chop us to bits."

Blog Entry from 2008-05-14

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

In 4593 composer Kao Kokung used the unveiling of a statue to Emperor Min-Yuan to premiere what would become his most famous work, The Stars Bow Down. This piece has become ubiquitous at military and patriotic occasions and reflects the power of both the empire and the emperor.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-14

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

In 1910 fighting is suspended between the Q'Bar and the Jovians as the Q'Barian revolution incites a huge internal struggle within their civilization. The Jovians use the opportunity to solidify their holdings in the Mlosh home system and transfer more artifacts of the Mlosh past to earth's solar system. Archaeologists are still studying these items today, and wish they hadn't been so damaged by the war.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-14

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

In 1940 the government of the Netherlands surrendered to the German Underground, in spite of huge popular support for the Greater Zionist Resistance in the country. The Netherlands was a thorn in Germany's side for decades afterwards, and gave support to resistance fighters from across Europe. When the Reich finally 'cleansed' the Netherlands in 1974 of its last GZR sympathizers, the tiny nation had been turned into a virtual summer home for Germans - its population was 60% German immigrants.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-14

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

In 1999 Sir Lance du Lac implores King Arthur II to show mercy to his queen. "They may have come at an unfortunate time, sire, but her distractions were simply to give you respite from the pressures of the war. She is no traitor." Arthur allows himself to be moved by du Lac's pleas, and pardons Queen Gwen. When she is brought before him, he says to her, "My queen, forgive me for my suspicions; these are hard times, and the loss of my oldest friend struck me harder than I thought it had." Gwen bows before him and says, "My lord, my heart, as ever, is yours." The king smiles, but as the queen rises from her bow, her eyes are locked on Sir Lance.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-14

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

In 1610 France's King Henri IV was killed by the monk Francois Ravillac. This prompted England's King James to press the English claim to the French throne, plunging the two nations into ten years of war against each other before England emerged victorious, and began slowly spreading its empire onto the continent.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-14

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

In 1968 NBC's Tonight Show scored a huge ratings coup by getting international superstar Pete Best as a guest. Over the ten-minute talk, guest host Joe Garagiola had to ask the crowd for silence 15 times as Best's teenage fans kept shouting out their appreciation of the star.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-14

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

In 2005 Debra Morris, Chelsea Perkins and Patience Redding desperately try to convince the Council of Wisdom to send them back in time to correct the mistake made by Miss Morris, but the Council has too many members who enjoy their new power; in spite of the siege by the nations around them, they plan to go down fighting. Once Chelsea realizes they will not be swayed, she and Patience sneak into the Council's library and steal a book of spells on time.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-14

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

In 1993 Vice-President Bradley appears for the first of several days' testimony before Congress regarding the Nunn Administration's universal health insurance proposal, known as AmeriCare.

He faces hostile questioning from several conservative legislators. The administration's plan will be controversial, and will face determined opposition from the health insurance industry. On June 1, the 'Harry and Louise' commercial, paid for by a lobbying group for that industry, makes its first appearance on television. It attacks the Bradley group's proposal, which is still under debate in Congress, and urges viewers to contact their congressmen to oppose AmeriCare.

In Congress, Massachusetts Rep. Mary Jo Kopechne will be a strong voice in favor of the health care proposal. Active in politics since the late 1960s, Rep. Kopechne has emerged as a prominent liberal spokeswoman since her election to the House in 1986

Blog Entry from 2008-05-14

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

On this day in 1940, British, French, and Belgian troops entered Holland to stop the Nazi invasion of that country.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-14

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

In 1984 Soviet diplomatic personnel began hastily evacuating East Germany as that country's anti-Communist rebellion started targeting Soviet nationals in what some Western intelligence analyst considered delayed retribution for the Red Army's role in suppressing the anti-Marxist uprising of June 1953.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-14

Alt Wikia — 1970-01-01T00:00:00+01:00

In 1863 on this day in Mississippi, the two Corps of the Army of the Tennessee led by Maj. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant were defeated by the six thousand men of the Jackson City Garrison which was under the command of Confederate General Joseph E. Johnston.

The Confederate win at the Battle of Jackson prevented the Siege of Vicksburg, prolonging the war in the west, while the Union won at the Battle of Gettysburg. .

Both of these victories meant the continuing success of each government, and prolongs the war into a bloodier war in the once united nation. Fearing that the war would soon involve other nations, the United Kingdom and France get involved as an intermediaries, leading to a ceasefire and the conclusion of the Civil War. Both the United States and the Confederate States would sign the Treaty of London, which recognized the Confederate States as an independent nation. Not until 1947, though, would the United States recognize the southern states as anything but a part of the US but under a rogue government.

From the two Americas thread on Alt WikiaUnited States:

Without the burden of the Reconstruction of the southern states, the United States progressed in technology and domestic prowess. The states became bound with a sense of destiny and greatness. The borders were wide open to anyone who would come through in good faith. In the twentieth century they would gain tremendous financial power in the world.

Confederate States:

For the rest of the nineteenth century the new nation would seek recognition from the rest of the world while being denied it at home. The Confederate States would become strong militarily, while simultaneously becoming the 'breadbasket of the world' with its strong agricultural base. The states acted in union, but each was sovereign over its internal affairs. Interstate commerce was largely in goods and services, with international commerce mostly in the export of food and textile goods. They would mostly be dependent on imports for any technological advances.

Soviet Union:

With both the Confederate States and the United States not developing into a major power as two separate entities, the Soviet Union was able to become the sole superpower, superseding the United Kingdom. With less resistance on the Soviet bloc, more nations becoming communist and the Soviet Union shows no signs of collapsing. There is still a defiant border between the democratic and capitalist world, and the communist world.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-14

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

In 2004 at the movie premier of "Escape from Baghdad", John McCain admitted to blaxploitation actor Barry Obama that he himself "could never look as cool" as the fictional President Cliff Robertson.

Unlike the jumpy Presidents played by Donald Pleasance and Stacy Keach in the first two movies, the "King of Cool" maintains his composure throughout the film. Even when Air Force One crashes outside the Green Zone, and Snake Plissken (played by Kurt Russell) is once again sent in to rescue the US President from certain death.

And this time, Plissken faces a new and insidious challenge in the form of the mysterious company Blackwater International. Their sinister CEO Eric Prince (played by Robert Downey, Jr) attempts to cover-up the failure of his private security contractors to protect Robertson from falling into the hands of Iraqi extremists.

In a dramatic final scene, the two meet; Robertson says "I thought you were dead?" to which Plissken responds with his signature put-down "I thought you were taller?".
Click to Watch Trailer of Escape from New York

Blog Entry from 2008-05-14

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

Blog Entry from 2008-05-14

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

In 1939 U.S. President Gerald L. K. Smith announced the federalization of the Boy and Gorl Scouts under the umbrella of a new organization dubbed the Young Patriots of America.
Younger members were to receive intensive instruction in "Americanism," including daily religious classes, along with rigorous physical training. Older ones, particularly teenagers from the former Explorer Scouts - now renamed the Young Defenders - would receive combat training to prepare them to battle "foreign invaders and domestic terrorists and subversives."
The Young Patriots would play an active role alongside adult police, paramilitaries from groups such as the Ku Klux Klan, and regular military forces during the Purification following passage of the Christian Faith Amendment to the U.S. Constitution in 1940.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-14

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

In AD 33 after witnessing the risen Jesus being taken up to heaven in his resurrected body, Mary Magdalene embarked upon her own Odyssey, carrying the original written revelation to the West Coast of Ireland where THE TRUTH would remain concealed by Patricius and his followers for almost two millenia.

Meanwhile the other companions of Jesus set out upon a somewhat different mission. Deprived of the original written revelation, they feared that oral tradition would result in THE TRUTH being lost altogether within a few short decades. Equally convinced that Judaism had misread its own history, they soon focused on the task of authoring a Christian Scripture which would comprise both the New Testament revelation and also a super-sized preamble of aspects of the Old Testament Writings.

It was pretty good, but the discovery in Ireland proved the old truism that nothing beats the original.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-14

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

In 1954 the Wehrmacht General who destroyed the Allied beachhead at Dunkirk Heinz Guderian died on this day in Schwangau, Allgäu. He was sixty-five years old.

His panzer group had led the "race to the sea" that split the Allied armies in two, depriving the French armies and the British Expeditionary Force in Northern France and Belgium of their fuel, food, spare parts and ammunition. Concerned about over-extension, members of High Command advised caution. And although their recommendation of a "Halt Order" was overruled by the Führer, they were to be proven right. Because the Massacre [of Allied Forces] at Dunkirk resulted in horrific German casualties and a dramatic loss of armour.

With the recriminations flying fast and furious in the bloody aftermath, Guderian not only blamed the leadership above him but also repeated a number of self-serving lies that alienated him from his colleagues. He was demoted to a junior position in a military training college where he served out the remainder of the war.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-14

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

In 1804 on this day the select group of U.S. Army volunteers commissioned by President Jefferson as a "Corps of Discovery" departed from Camp Dubois, St. Louis. Led by Second Lieutenant William Clark, the expeditionaries travel to St Charles where they met up with their Commander, Captain Meriwether Lewis.

They followed the Missouri River, making their way westward, headed for the continental divide through to the Pacific coast. But they only got as far as the Platte River in Central Nebraska where they were intercepted by agents of the Viceroyalty of New Spain [1].

They were taken to Sante Fe, Chihuahua and questioned by the governor [2]. Although the primary objective of the Lewis and Clark Expedition was to explore and map the newly acquired territory of Louisiana, their written orders revealed other secondary objectives. Because the only possible reason for finding a practical route across the Western half of the continent was to establish an American presence in this territory before Britain and other European powers tried to claim it.

Although neither country sought conflict, the imprisonment of the American created a tense diplomatic dispute between the United States and Spain. It was only resolved by the payment of damages, an embarrassment that forced Secretary of States James Madison to withdraw his candidacy from the Presidential election of 1808.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-13

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

In 1940 on this day Germany's cultural conquest of France began in earnest when Adolf Hitler crossed the bridge over the Meuse River on his BMW R75 motorcycle; his long-term partner Eva Braun was pleased to accompany him, relaxing in "the Leader's" attached sidecar.

The journey from Bavaria had been delightful in the balmy late spring weather - and upon their late arrival in Paris, the crowd warmly welcomed Walt Disney's favourite cartoonist.

Yet Adolf would face stiff competition from an unexpected rival. In England, the post-modernist painter Winston Churchill was putting the final touches to his dramatic masterpiece "blood, toil, tears, and sweat". During the long hot summer of 1940, this beautiful canvass would hang in the Louvre, drawing audiences away from the cinema.

To be upstaged by such a retrograde rival was really quite frustrating. Hitler began seriously considering an invasion of Britain, although he feared that the voyage would be rather an unpleasant experience - perhaps a focus on the east would be more productive.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-13

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

In 488 infidel crusaders attempt to take Beirut, but the local shariff had been alerted to their coming and had requested help from across Lebanon. When the crusaders bore down on Beirut, they marched into the steel of thousands of the faithful, and were cut to ribbons, by the mercy of Allah. The shariff wanted to follow them all back to Europe, but his allies in Islam took a more gradual approach.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-13

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

In 12-1-5-0-3 a massive earthquake strikes the Incan Empire, leveling several small towns. The Emperor's own temple is destroyed, and he barely escapes the building alive. In an act of unprecedented compassion, he throws open the royal treasury to assist all who have been harmed by the quake, and the damaged area is rebuilt swiftly.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-13

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

In 1648 young Margaret Jones of Massachusetts Bay is sentenced to death for witchcraft. As she is hung, she curses the entire town, which burns to the ground later that evening in a mysterious fire that resists being put out by water. Witch burnings fell out of fashion immediately after this incident.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-13

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

In 1947 the Senate passes the Stevens-Astley bill limiting the power of corporations and management operating in the Soviet States of America. Under the provisions of Stevens-Astley, management becomes subordinate to a workers committee at all American businesses with over 50 workers, even if the businesses are controlled by foreign powers.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-13

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

In 1955 singer Elvis Presley makes a joke at the end of a concert in Jacksonville, Florida - Girls, I'll see you backstage - and provokes a riot as legions of young fans follow him off stage and rip apart his clothes and pull at him. He suffers several bruises, cuts and a dislocated shoulder, but rock and roll suffers more - after the riot, rock is banned in most southern states.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-13

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

In 1958 a mob swarms over Vice-President Richard Nixon's car during a trip through Caracas, Venezuela. In spite of the Secret Service's best efforts, the vice-president is pulled from his car and beaten to death, as are several of the Secret Service agents. Ironically, the trip had been planned as a goodwill mission to the country after it had overthrown the American-supported dictator Marcos Jimenez.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-13

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

In 1877 Julia Ward Howe's first Mother's Day Protest against war draws crowds around the nation as various Mother's Clubs hold rallies in support of pacifism. Howe, herself, organizes the rally in Washington, DC, where over 10,000 women and male supporters of her Mother's Club march in support of an elimination of war. The Mother's Club concept spreads across the world, as women exercise their moral authority as the creators of life to convince their respective nations to give up fighting and embrace non-violent resolutions to conflicts. Howe is looked on today as a savior, having ended war in the 19th century.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-13

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

In 1891 Major Mark Wainwright leads another stab into Kansas from Nebraska, testing the defenses of a new fort near Concordia. The fort repels them, but Wainwright reports back to Colonel Theodore Monteith that the fort is ripe for a full-scale assault. Monteith assembles a force of almost 3000 men and places them at Wainwright's disposal. The Kansans, for their part, send reinforcements to Concordia to see if they can trap the Unionists with hopes of finding a weakened fort.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-13

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

In 1999 Queen Gwen arrives in London to stand trial for treason against the king at the same time that Sir Lance du Lac returns from the Swiss front to confront King Arthur about what he considers a travesty. "Sire, you cannot possibly believe that the queen has been aiding the enemy," Arthur's chief knight implores. "The queen is as loyal to you as I am." Arthur, clearly miserable about his queen, allows du Lac's words to sway him. "Speak to her, Lance," he asks du Lac, "find out why she tried to divert my attention away from the war." Sir Lance immediately goes to the Queen's cell in the Tower of London and asks her to answer the charges against her. "Brave Sir Lance," she says to him, "thank you so much for your confidence in me. Would that my own husband had the same. These charges are ludicrous, of course - all I wanted for Arthur was rest from the stresses of this grave conflict. You can understand that, can't you, Lance?" She touches his hand, which startles him. He doesn't move away, though. "I will do everything within my power to free you, my lady." She smiles and squeezes his hand softly. "I know you will."

Blog Entry from 2008-05-13

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

In 1568 Mary, Archbishop of the Scots, is defeated and driven from power by the forces of Cardinal James Stewart in the name of her own son. Archbishop Mary flees to England to seek refuge with her sister, Pope Elizabeth, but is considered too much of a threat to the Holy British Empire, and is imprisoned and beheaded. Her rebellious son, though, eventually rises to fill the shoes of the fisherman himself as Pope James I.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-13

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

In 1910 Q'B'Ton'ra, leader of the Q'Bar, is overthrown in a military coup. Q'B'Ton'ra had been in his flagship supervising the war with the Jovians when his most senior staff captured him and declared themselves the new leaders of the Q'Bar. They suspended the Barnard's Star talks and pulled most of their fleet back from the earth's solar system.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-13

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

Blog Entry from 2008-05-13

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

In 1971 singer Grace Slick of Jefferson Airplane is killed when she smashes her car into a concrete wall at Golden Gate Park in San Francisco. Her death breaks up the group, which is unable to find a new voice to match its psychedelic tunes.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-13

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

In 2005 after some research, Chelsea Perkins and Debra Morris find out that Morris is the one responsible for the change in time - not Patricia Redding. In the past of this world, Debra Morris had been outed as a witch by an angry mob, and had called on dark powers to defend herself. For a brief time, that Debra Morris even ruled the Council of Wisdom, but had been overthrown and killed. Miss Morris tries to remember what she changed about the past that could have done this.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-13

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

In 1993 Congress begins debate on the Bradley group's proposal. Conservatives charge that the Bradley plan is bureaucratic and would dictate to Americans which doctors they could and could not see, essentially placing the medical profession under federal control.

Vice-President Bradley personally responds to these claims, "If the critics would take the time to actually read the working group's proposal before grandstanding, they would see that we have retained the right of individuals to choose their own doctors, including medical providers who do not wish to participate in the system. Neither I nor anyone involved in this project has ever proposed making the medical profession a federal program. We simply wish to guarantee that all Americans have access to adequate medical care, as every other industrial democracy on Earth does."

Bradley's response infuriates opponents of the AmeriCare proposal, who blast him as revealing, in the words of Georgia Representative Newt Gingrich, "the sort of Eastern-establishment liberal elitist thinking that sees working-class Americans as vassals of the federal government."

Blog Entry from 2008-05-13

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

In 1967 it was discovered that the notorious 'Einstein papers' purporting to prove that German physicist Albert Einstein was not Jewish were in fact forgeries; the papers had been doctored by the SS in an attempt to trick Einstein into assisting the Nazi atomic weapons program. [continued from Part 2].
The revelation was a surprise to both pro-Jewish and anti-Jewish organizations and provoked a dramatic reassessment of Einstein's legacy. In particular, German Jews who had for years reviled him as a traitor gradually began coming to view him in a more favorable light.

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

In 1967 on this day the General Secretary of the Australian Communist Party and de facto Head of State Lawrence (Lance) Louis Sharkey died of a heart attack in Sidney, New South Wales.
His successor would be Laurence 'Laurie' Aarons (pictured) who by coincidence was himself born in Sydney, the son of Sam Aarons, a leading member of the Communist Party and a veteran of the Spanish Civil War. The Aarons family was of German-Jewish origin; Brian Aarons, who was also later prominent in the Communist Party, Mark Aarons, a well-known broadcaster, journalist and author, and John Aarons.
During the Sino-Soviet Split of the early 1960s the CPA suffered a split, and Aarons led the majority pro-Soviet and anti-Chinese faction. He was a strong supporter of Nikita Khrushchev's liberalisation in the Soviet Union, and after Khrushchev's fall he became increasingly critical of the Soviet leadership's policies, re-evaulating his earlier antaganoism towards China.
A fair summary would be that Aarons was an internationalist with a new, compelling vision for the nation. In office, Aarons would seek to re-position Australia as a multi-ethnic Pacific Rim nation, refocusing the economy in the Far East.
During August, Aarons would visit North Vietnam to offer the support of Australian workers to Ho Chi Minh in his struggles against imperialism. Referring to the shipment of convicts from Britain in the eighteenth century, Aarons put together a convincing case that Australians themselves were dehumanised by the same forces threatening the Republic of Vietnam.
So in Harold Holt, Aarons saw an unreconstructed symbol of Australia's colonial past. A link to the hated British monarchy and the white supremacist views of the Australian capitalist. In short, an embarassment to the incoming administration. And since Holt's return from a tour of America and Europe, a rallying point for reactionary politicians who sought to overthrow the 1948 revolution.

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

On this day in 1945, Francis Urquhart was detached from General Eisenhower's staff in London and sent back to the Pacific to join General Douglas MacArthur's staff in Manila.

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

On this day in 1940, RAF bombers attacked Berlin in retaliation for the previous day's German air raid on Brussels.

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David Cryan — 1970-01-01T00:00:00+01:00

In 2009 on this day Cuba provided information on who ordered the hit on the late President Obama. The Cuban President wanted the trade embargo against Cuba dropped in return for this information.

The US Department of Homeland Security promised to review the information, allowing the Biden adminstration to handle all of Cuba's requests.

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

In 1981 Pope John Paul II was shot and mortally wounded by Turkish extremist Mehmet Ali Agca. He would die the following day despite heroic efforts by doctors.

Conspiracy theorists would blame the Pope's murder on communists, and particularly on the Bulgarian secret police, and would attempt to tie the killing to the unsuccessful attempt on the life of President Ronald Reagan by John Hinckley six weeks earlier.

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

In 1984 several divisions of the East German army mutined against the Communist regime in Berlin in the first such armed rebellion to happen in a Warsaw Pact country since the ill-fated Hungarian revolt of 1956.

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

In 1862 on this day the Union Army invaded Upper Canada and eliminated that smarmy nest of rebel sympathizers for all time.

Despite the blatant fact that Confederate agents really were being harboured in British North America, in reality the bulk of the rebels were based in the Southern States which were even now threatening to secede from the Union. And surely they would have done so already had Lincoln, rather than Seward, received the Republican nomination in 1860. But due to the chance presentation of an undescribably ugly woodcut of his opponent at the "Wigwam" in Chicago, Seward had somehow prevailed and his strategem for recreating a sense of Union identity was a war of northern aggression with the old enemy - Great Britain. Rather than wait for another negative catalyst (like the Harper`s Ferry Raid) to split the Union, he hoped that a positive catalyst might reverse the forces of disintegration.

Co-written with Stan Brin and Scott PalterThe timing was auspicious, being almost fifty years to the day when President Madison had ordered the annexation of Canada, a task underestimated as "a mere matter of marching". Had he succeeded the expansion of territory would have exceeded that achieved by his predecessor under the Louisiana Purchase. And perhaps a bigger question might well be what would have been the state of such a larger Union by 1862.

However Seward, like Madison, would also fail. And the reversal would become even more catastrophic when the Southern States decided to seize their moment to secede when the Royal Navy bombarded the helpless northern cities on the Eastern Seaboard.

And so history would ridiculed the invasion as "Seward's Folly", yet recognise that the fateful act somehow exemplified his own character. His contemporary Carl Schurz described Seward as "one of those spirits who sometimes will go ahead of public opinion instead of tamely following its footprints".

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

In 1987 Canada's CTV network bought the Canadian syndication rights to The X-Files.

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

In 2011 on this day mankind's prayers for salvation appeared to have been answered when the nuclear-tipped warhead launched by NASA succeeded in destroying the ten kilometre-wide incoming asteroid known as "Trumpet Two" and yet the profound theological consequences of this reprieve from divine justice would lead to a devastating new fracture in the Roman Catholic Church.
Click to Watch World's Last Chance

Interpreting the Trumpet as mankind's final wake-up call, the schismatic popes appointed in Madrid and Zagreb embraced God's probation arguing that the tribulation had now started and the rapture had merely been postponed. Their breakaway followers were encouraged to seek salvation through repentance instead of grasping for the false hope that technology could defeat the remaining Trumpets.

Meanwhile the reanimation of Pope John Paul II continued to cause bewilderment and confusion in the Vatican.

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

In 1981 on this day the Holy Father Pope John Paul II was assassinated by the Turkish gunman Mehmet Ali Aǧca as he entered St. Peter's Square to address an audience.

Both the Central Intelligence Agency and an Italian parliamentary commission concluded that the Soviet Union was behind the conspiracy in retaliation for the Pope's support of Solidarity, the Catholic, pro-democratic Polish workers' movement (their "Top Secret" reports stated that certain Communist Bulgarian security departments were utilised and Soviet military intelligence - and not the KGB - were responsible).

Of course the Pope was deeply involved in the transformative events which were developing in Poland.

Born Karol Jozef Wojtyla in Wadowice in 1920, his father, a non-commissioned officer in the Polish Army, died of a heart attack in 1941. leaving him the sole surviving member of his immediate family. "I was not at my mother's death, I was not at my brother's death, I was not at my father's death", he said, reflecting on these times of his life, nearly forty years later, "At twenty, I had already lost all the people I loved".

On 29 February 1944, he was knocked down by a German truck. German Wehrmacht officers then tended to him and sent him to a hospital. He spent two weeks there recovering from a severe concussion and a shoulder injury. This accident and his survival seemed to he a confirmation of his priestly vocation. On 6 August 1944 the Gestapo rounded up young men in Krakow to avoid an uprising similar to the previous uprising in Warsaw. he escaped by hiding in the basement of his uncle's home at 10 Tyniecka Street, while German troops searched upstairs. More than eight thousand men and boys were taken into custody that day, but he escaped to the Archbishop's Palace,where he remained in hiding until after the Germans left.

But ironically, at the time of his death, John Paul II was giving serious consideration to a completely different matter that would profoundly affect the long-term future of the Soviet Union. Because on that very day in 1917 the consecration of Russia had been revealed by the Blessed Virgin to three Portugese shepherds.

Within a decade the Cold War would end and the Soviet Union would fragment into hundreds of tiny successor states. John Paul II's successors would come to believe that a consecration might have saved Russia because such a blessing would have given legitimacy to a unified state. But in the event subsequent Popes moved onto the larger goal of a seamless union with the Eastern Orthodox Church, to finally close a schism that had emerged in the first millennia with the separation of the East and West Roman Empires.

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

In 1859 on this fateful day the Sequoyah Tribal Council agreed to the formation of a coherent self-government of the Indian Territory of Eastern Oaklahoma. An installment of the Federal's Lost Cause thread. More than a triumph of common sense, it was a personal victory for Lyncoya Jackson [1], an Indian orphan adopted by the former President after the Creek War. He had fought hard to convince the tribal leadership that the upcoming conflict between the North and the South was a not-to-be-missed bargaining opportunity for indigenous sovereignty.

As events were to transpire, the force of his presence was still required at the re-accession talks organized by President McClellan in the summer of 1865 [2]. Although his status as the adopted son of a former President drew respect, it was of course necessary for him to negotiate from the position of strength reserved for a quasi-official regional spokesman. Because his peers were Confederate Generals and Southern State Governors who represented coherent (if un-recognized) systems of government formed during the War of the States.

Other regional spokesman brought other diverse issues to the top table. Representatives of the plantation class wanted to re-assert veto power over the Federal Government, calling for a form of government akin to the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, a dualistic state of Poland and Lithuania ruled by a common monarch [3] [4]. Still others sought to put the cork back into the bottle with a reversion to the libertarian values of the pre-war era. Needless to say, it was a long, long agenda item of conflicting interests, requiring McClellan to pull off a second miracle of Philadelphia. But in a larger sense, it was a conversation about the future that had been waiting to happen ever since that Constitutional Conference broke up in 1787.

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

In 1958 on this day a mob swarmed over Vice-President Richard Nixon's car during a trip through Caracas, Venezuela.

In spite of the Secret Service's best efforts, the vice-president was pulled from his car and beaten to death, as are several of the Secret Service agents.

Ironically, the trip had been planned as a goodwill mission to the country after it had overthrown the American-supported dictator Marcos Jimenez.

The violent killing of Nixon threw the 1960 GOP nomination to Nelson Rockefeller who chose Illinois Sentator Everett McKinley Dirksen to shore up the conservative base.

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

In 1830 on this day the father of Upper Carolina, Zebulon Baird Vance was born in Weaverville, Buncombe County.

1878 the legislature of North Carolina, one of the sovereign states of the Confederate States of America, passed by an overwhelming margin a measure to rename the state "Upper Carolina" to remove the hated word "North" from its name. Governor Zebulon Baird Vance, a veteran of the war of secession, swiftly signed the measure into law.

Such petty gestures were common in the Confederacy in the several decades after its separation from the United States of America, and were reciprocated in the U.S., where, for example, Congress approved in 1891 a petition to unite the states of North and South Dakota, which had been admitted separately into the Union on Nov. 2, 1889, into a single state of Dakota. North of the border there had even been talk of replacing George Washington's picture on the dollar bill with that of John Adams, though the bill to do so died in the House of Representatives.

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

On this day in 1940, the Luftwaffe mounted its first air raid on the Belgian capital, Brussels.

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Danny — 1970-01-01T00:00:00+01:00

In 1215 the barons of his country force King John of England to dissolve the monarchy in favour of a noble confederacy. The new governance structure creates endless bickering, and is considered the key to the establishment of a Cardinal-style Scottish Empire.

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

In 1926 in Great Britain a nine-day general strike by trade unions ended with triumph for the labour movement. Home Secretary Winston Churchill had authorised the use of firms to to deal with public order situations. Once again his hot-headedness, which he had demonstrated in his command of Gallipoli in 1915 was matched only by his callous disregard from the lives of the British working class. This was not the 'land fit for heroes' that had been promised. The Conservative government of Stanley Baldwin collapsed and the Labour Party have been the natural party of government even since.

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

In 1215 King John of England forces the barons of his country to accept a charter of rights for both commoners and noblemen. This causes a minor war as the barons refuse to accept this Magna Carta, or indeed, giving their subjects any rights at all. John is victorious, however, and this begins a long history of English civil rights movements.

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

In 1928 when dictator Benito Mussolini abolishes women's rights in Italy, a Lysistrata-like rebellion from the country's ladies forces Il Duce to back down. After this humiliating defeat, he is unable to rule with as harsh a fist as he had before, and is ousted from power in 1930.

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

In 1982 a Spanish priest claiming that the Pope was an agent of Moscow, stabs Pope John Paul II through the heart during a visit to Fatima, Portugal. The pontiff dies immediately, sending the Catholic world into mourning and forcing the 3rd election of a pope within the last 4 years.

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

In 1932 an infant body was found alive near the Lindbergh home in New Jersey, and it was determined to be the young Lindbergh boy. The reunion with the overjoyed Lindbergh became the subject of a play produced later that year called Not Forgotten, exploring the implications of child kidnappers.

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

In 1994 on this fateful day Professor Mike Besser of Saint Bartholomew's Hospital saved the life of John Smith, Leader of the Labour Party.

At a fund-raising dinner at Park Lane Hotel the previous evening, he had delivered a keynote speech humbly declaring "The opportunity to serve our country - that is all we ask". The following morning, at 8:05am, whilst in his Barbican flat, he suffered a massive heart attack. His wife Elizabeth phoned an ambulance and he was rushed to Saint Bartholomew's Hospital where he regained consciousness. Only two weeks before this incident, on 28 April, Smith had visited the same accident and emergency department to campaign against its proposed closure. The doctor who had served as his tour guide, Professor Mike Besser, saved Smith's life.

Having suffered a previous heart attack six years before, it was clear that he would have to step down. But the timing was terribly unfortunate for the Labour Party which was on the verge of regaining power for the first time in fifteen years. Fearing a split caused by a divisive leadership struggle before the upcoming General Election, he took the guarded decision of backing another fine public servant, his loyal Deputy Margaret Beckett. A conviction politician, she was like Smith a sincere and capable leader if perhaps lacking in charisma. Certainly, she was no television personality. His predecessor Neil Kinnock had given the limelight to two media-savvy young politicians, Tony Blair and Gordon Brown. But Smith feared that their competitiveness rivalry would turn sour, deciding it was in the best interest of the Labour Movement for them to wait for another electoral cycle. Perhaps, he figured, working together as Cabinet peers might even impress upon them a greater political maturity, that was his well-meaning intention at least.

But as events transpired, he had been far too cautious. In 1994 it was clear that there was no way back for Tories after "Black Wednesday" but over the course of the next three years, they totally ripped themselves to shreds over Europe. Also, they had their own divisive leadership and - in the damning words of former Chancellor Norman Lamont - "were in office, but not in power". And so Beckett entered Number 10 Downing Street with a healthy, but less than spectacular, one hundred seat majority. And the new opposition would not be led by an older generation figure like John Major, instead it would be the emergence of precisely the same kind of self-serving,media-savvy political figure that Smith had feared. A television personality that could dazzle the voters with his charisma. Because over the ballot box she would be outshone by a re-invigorated neo-Conservative Party that had under Michael Portillo taken a dramatic shift to the right wing [1] that was un-paralleled in modern history. In the face of Beckett's lacklustre performance, he would recover Tory fortunes, becoming Prime Minister just months before the September 11th attacks.

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

In 1780 the Canadian independence movement is dealt a severe blow when General Richard Perceval and over 10,000 of his men are forced to surrender at Fredericton. British General Henry Clinton had amassed a major force to overwhelm the Canadians since the cessation of hostilities with the lower colonies, and put them to good use against the rebel stronghold at Fredericton.

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

In 1941 Rashid Ali al-Gailani pledges his support for the Greater Zionist Resistance, one of the first Arabic leaders to do so since the German Underground began its war against the G.Z.R. His Iraqi troops were soon joined by all the other Arabic nations as they saw that the G.U. made no distinction between them and their Jewish allies.

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

In 2002 former president Comrade John Anderson, continuing his pattern of mending fences, became the first American head of state to visit Cuba since its capitalist revolution in the 1950's. Comrade President Bernie Sanders made it clear that Comrade Anderson's visit didn't amount to endorsement of Batista's regime, but did take advantage of the opening to start trade talks with the island.

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

In 1949 on this day the State of Palestine submitted an application of admission for membership of the United Nation at the two hundred and seventh plenary meeting held at Flushing Meadow, New York (also submitted was an urgent request for humanitarian assistance to resettle the seven hundred and fifty thousand Arab refugees who had fled the country during the recent conflict).

It would be a busy day for the President of the plenary meeting, Mr Herbert Vere who received a third application in the form of a quasi-legal challenge signed by the surviving members of the executive committee of the Jewish Agency for Palestine, led by Chairman David Ben-Gurion.

In fact all of these leading Zionists were fugitives from Palestinian justice, charged with genocide by the the authorities in Amman. Because Ben-Gurion was the architect of the failed Master Plan for the Conquest of Palestine known as Plan Dalet (or simply, Plan D) which destroyed four hundred Arab villages and displaced eighty percent of the pre-war population. Yet a single death would ruin the whole Zionist plan.

On June 11th their inspirational General, the American Colonel David "Mickey" Marcus (pictured) was accidendally shot in front of Central Front headquarters by an eighteen years old Palmachi Eliezer Linski because he failed to respond to a Hebrew security challenge. Click to watch Cast a Giant Shadow (1966) Part 10 Ben-Gurion suspected that elements in the Palmach conspired to kill Marcus so he would be replaced (the Haganah was comprised of several factions whose lack of consensus over strategy and tactics was one of the reasons for Marcus's appointment as commander for Jerusalem).

Yet members of World Jewish Congress placed the blame for the Zionist misadventure on Ben-Gurion himself. President Nahum Goldman wrote of Ben-Gurion ~ "I have often asked myself why this clever, brilliant man, ... why a man like that failed to see that without an agreement with the Arabs, Israel would have no long-term future .. Ben-Gurion is the man principally responsible for the anti-Arab policy, because it was he who moulded the thinking of generations of Jews".

The dispute would rage for decades. Right up until the time of his death in 1973, Ben Gurion would persist in his denial of the holocaust.

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

In 2005 Chelsea Perkins, Debra Morris and Patience Redding find that the Council of Wisdom now controls all of England, but is besieged by non-magical military from Scotland and Wales, as well as French forces from the continent. Something happened to force them into the open, and the consequences for witches across the world has been disastrous. Perkins and Morris are inclined to blame Redding for coming with them through time from 1985.

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

In 1891 President Benjamin Harrison authorizes the draft boards to begin setting up across the country, and young men over the age of 18 and under the age of 25 begin registering to fight in the "war to keep the US whole," as each draft board says to their potential draftees. When news of the draft reaches Kansas, 'Sockless' Jerry Simpson derides it, saying, "They have to force men to fight in their cause. We have plenty of men volunteering to fight them off." In spite of Simpson's bravado, the Farmer's Council running the rebel state seriously considers doing the same; they are only stopped by the realization that everyone who could be drafted is probably already in the front lines, serving with them. They realize that they are about to be overwhelmed by far superior numbers, and a deep panic sets in among them.

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

In 1999 Bern falls to Sir Lance du Lac's British soldiers. Emperor Pierre's prime minister, Otto Von Haufmann, officially surrenders the empire to du Lac, but pockets of imperial loyalists continue to fight throughout Europe. Sir Lance puts one of his knights, Sir David Tristan, in charge of the subjugation of Switzerland, and heads off to the Hungarian front, where Emperor Pierre was last seen. He is halted by the news that Queen Gwen has been arrested on charges of treason - he cannot believe what he has heard, and he rushes back to England to see what madness has enveloped the kingdom in his absence.

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

In 1800 an exasperated John Adams declares he does not wish to be considered as a candidate for permanent elevation to the presidency. Repeating words he had uttered at the Continental Congress in 1776, he declares, "One useless man is called a shame, two are called a law firm, and three or more are called a Congress". He goes on: "Why should I wish to serve for the rest of my natural life dealing with a body which cannot even agree upon so basic a matter as when to hold an election for the office of supreme magistrate?".

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

In 1937 Pope George VI put on the shoes of the fisherman in Buckingham Cathedral after his brother Edward gave up the papacy of the Holy British Empire out of love for a Protestant woman. Former Pope Edward had fallen in love with a colonial woman, Wallis Warfield, in spite of her heretical views, and gave up an empire for her.

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Jake Dominguez — 1970-01-01T00:00:00+01:00

In 1937 politician and self-proclaimed moral guardian George D. Carlin was born in New York City. An Air Force veteran and graduate of Harvard Law School, Carlin was elected to Congress in 1966 on the Republican ticket, representing his adopted home of Shreveport, Louisiana. He quickly distinguished himself on several economic committees with special emphasis on the mass media, and after indicating to President Nixon in a lunch conference he did not intend to run for reelection, was appointed commissioner of the Federal Communications Commission. Carlin immediately began a vigorous rooting out of all broadcast programs deemed 'subversive' by Nixon's new Clean Minds, Clean America policy formulated in response to a perceived vast drug culture influence settling on the entertainment industry by the early 1970s. It was remarked that a program such as Laugh-In, which Nixon had appeared on only a few years before to court the youth vote, could no longer exist on America's airwaves during Carlin's reign. Carlin evoked widespread outrage in 1972 when giving a speech to Columbia University's Media Studies Center, when he outlined the concept of the Seven Words You Cannot Say On Television, before explicitly stating each word and giving an in-depth explanation of the reasons and benefits of government-mandated censorship. Carlin was unaware a television camera was taping the proceedings, and despite the speech being unable to be broadcast on any US station, the news spread quickly enough to bring condemnation of his perceived hypocrisy. Carlin resigned in 1973, not long before his patron, and the resulting years brought a backlash of free speech on the nation's airwaves, largely allowed by Gerald Ford's very relaxed administration appointees. By 1979, shows such as Saturday Night Live regularly featured multiple utterings of each of the seven verboten words, with no apparent damage to American civilization.

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

In 1991 Senator Sam Nunn of Georgia announces he will seek the Democratic presidential nomination in 1992.

Many of his colleagues consider his decision to run a foolish one. In the wake of the Gulf War, President Kemp's re-election in is widely seen as inevitable. Nunn himself candidly admits that he had considered staying out for exactly that reason. "However," he explains, "I have reservations about a number of the President's positions, and decided he should not go unchallenged. At the very least, win or lose, this campaign will oblige the President to defend the positions he is taking on both domestic and international matters".

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

In 1993 Vice-President Bill Bradley's healthcare working group releases its report, which calls for the establishment of a so-called "single-payer" national health care system, AmeriCare, loosely modeled on that of Canada.

The program is intended to cover everyone not already eligible for care under either Medicaid or Medicare. Reaction is immediate, and, from the GOP, bitterly hostile. The Bradley group's plan is denounced as "socialist medicine" before the day is out, before anyone among its critics has read anything but a thumbnail summary of it.

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

In 2015 on this day Britain's last monarch, Queen Elizabeth II, died of heart failure at Oxford University Hospital.

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

In 2010 on this day film director Quentin Tarantino's aesthetically violent and stylistically excessive movie "Robin Hood: Outlaw" premiered in cinemas across Great Britain.

The director had been captivated by Angus Donald's novel of the same name, in which rather than being the altruistic aristocrat of popular myth, the protagonist is portrayed as a medieval Don Corleone, the "Godfather of Sherwood Forest". "He is a dark and violent man. He does, however, have a code of honour".

The author (formerley a journalist who covered the war in Afganistan) explored the darker, more violent and much less palatable figure in the 1450 ballad entitled "Robin Hood and the Monk". And doubtless the bloodshed and violence reported from the caves of Tora Bora also influenced the narrative too.

The movie enabled lead star Russell Crowe to recapture the success of Gladiator, in which he had played Maximus Decimus Meridius, a single-minded, if perhaps not so ruthless killer.

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

In 1984 the official Cuban government newspaper Granma announced the death of Fidel Castro in a U.S. air strike on Havana the previous night.

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

In 878 on this day the Great Heathen Army led by Guthrum the Old crushed the remaining forces of the Anglo-Saxon King Alfred of Wessex at the Battle of Ethandun.

Despite losing the Battle of Ashdown, the Danes still held the east and north east of England. For the previous three years, there was little beyond paying the invaders off that Alfred could do about the Danish menace to his Kingdom. Finally, in a desperate attempt to halt their advance into Wessex, Alfred had spent the winter summoning his West Saxon forces to the Somerset marsh of Athelney. With the thawing of spring, he marched the Army out of this protected area to force a decision at Ethandun.

Alfred who had almost been captured at the Battle of Chippenham, was killed at Ethandun. At the ensuing Treaty of Wedmore, Guthrum re-established good relations with the other Danish lords, including Ivar and Ubbe. This healed the internal disunity that the Danes had suffered since 875 and enabled the Danelaw Vikings to complete the conquest of Wessex.

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

In 1940 on this day Edward Frederick Lindley Wood, 1st Earl of Halifax was appointed Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.

Being a peer of the realm he was unable to fully direct the conflict from the House of Lords and therefore had been deeply reluctant to take up the post. However at a meeting in Number Ten chaired by out-going Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain, it had been agreed that the First Lord of the Admiralty Winston Churchill would be promoted to the newly created position of Chief Minister of War and Labour Leader Clement Attlee brought into Government as Deputy Prime Minister.

Perhaps Halifax on his own would have sought a peace settlement, one can never know, but in outlook he was even more anti-Nazi than Churchill. Both he and the Tory Leadership feared national bankruptcy. However the key difference was that he didn't believe that total victory was possible, nor that the Class System or the British Empire should be destroyed in the attempt. Fortunately, Halifax, Churchill and Attlee managed to concoct a great British compromise. At times, this was strained to the absolute limit, particularly when Churchill hot-headedly threatened to resign over the rejection of his proposed intervention in Greece. But he was overruled, and Wavell kept the resources necessary to triumph in North Africa.

To the fury of the French allies, Britain saw no reason to continue the fight after the success of Operation Compass. Both Germany and Britain agreed to a spheres of interest agreement and the European Conflict was over. Over the course of the next six months, Wavell and his resources were transferred to Singapore. And when the war in the Pacific got under-way, the Empire of Japan was confronted by the full might of two nations un-distracted from European matters. It was a master-strike that earned Halifax the sobriquet "our greatest Prime Minister".

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

In 1891 today marked the anniversary of the Otsu Scandal. This was of course the assassination of Tsarevich Nicholas Alexandrovitch on 11 May 1891, while Nicholas was visiting Japan. Nicholas was returning to Kyoto after a day trip to Lake Biwa in Otsu, Shiga Prefecture. He was attacked by Tsuda Sanzo, one his escort policemen, who swung at the Tsarevich's face with a sabre. The quick action of his cousin, Prince George of Greece and Denmark, who parried the second blow with his cane, might have saved his life. Tsuda then attempted to flee, but two rickshaw drivers in Nicholas's entourage chased him down and pulled him to the ground. Nicholas was left with a 9 centimetre long scar on the right side of his forehead, which doctors were unable to close and he bled to death shortly afterwards at the Kyoto Imperial Palace.

The weakening of the Romanovs at this critical juncture actually extended their longevity. Concessions in the 1905 revolution led to the opening of the Duma and the blossoming of a constitutional monarchy and democratic system of government in all the Russias. Western Europe set about a containment strategy desperate to prevent any form of republicanism entering the capitals of London, Paris, Vienna and Berlin.

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

In 1949 Palestine joined the United Nations. Palestine has a vibrant cultural life and a technologically and industrially advanced economy. Palestine was ranked 23rd out of 177 countries in the United Nations Human Development Index, the highest ranking in the Middle East and 3rd highest in all of Asia.

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

In 1812 the assassination of Prime Minister Spencer Perceval plunges Great Britain into civil unrest. The situation ends with Prince Regent George forcing the abdication of his father and assuming control of the nation as King George IV. He forces Parliament to relinquish most of its power and rules the country as an absolute monarch.

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

In 1888 vaudevillian Israel Baline was born in Tyumen, Russia. After his family emigrated to America in 1892, he and his father began a comedy and song routine on New York's vaudeville circuit, where he earned great acclaim backing up his old man. In his later years, he composed a few show tunes, but never achieved the same level of fame as he had with his father.

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

In 1947 the B.F. Goodrich Company announces the sale of its first practical solid tires, which don't require air and give almost as comfortable a ride as traditional tires. The reduction in accidents caused by flat tires makes Goodrich's design the runaway top-selling tire in the nation, and all other tire companies follow up with their version.

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

In 1968 famously tone-deaf actor Richard Harris releases his version of Macarthur Park. When it tanks, he wisely gives up any sort of musical performance from that point on. A grateful world resumes watching his movies.

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

In 1998 the Indian government announced it had carried out a series of underground nuclear tests. It was the first time India has carried out such tests since 1974. Though little realised at the time, it was a key escalation between India and Pakistan. Rogue states used the regional conflict to expel America from the Pacific, igniting the Third World War in 2010.

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

In 1963 a British businessman accused of spying for the West was given the death sentence by a Moscow tribunal. His co-accused, 43-year-old Soviet scientific official Oleg Penkovsky, was also given the death sentence. There were loud cheers when his sentence was read out. He was also stripped of his rank of colonel and all his medals. Both Greville Wynne and Oleg Penkovsky were executed by firing squad one week after the trial. The Wynne-Penkovsky case came at the height of the Cold War when relations between the superpowers were particularly strained.

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

In 1956 the Gold Coast became the first black African nation to be granted independence from Britain. In a statement to the House of Commons, Colonial Secretary Alan Lennox-Boyd said the Gold Coast will be allowed to govern itself within the Commonwealth provided a general election is held in the country. Trouble was that the governance structures designed by the Colonial powers were designed to fail. Correctin occured in the middle of the twenty-first century with the emergence of the African Union.

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

In 1801 a potential problem with the Constitution's method of selecting the president is resolved with the adoption of the so-called 'Delaware Compromise,' which states that if it appears that no candidate will receive a majority of the vote in the House, members have the option of continuing the balloting until one candidate does receive a majority or of formally declaring, via a two-thirds' vote, that they are deadlocked. In that event, the Senate will choose the president via a single vote, with each state casting one ballot and the candidate receiving the most votes being declared president even if he does not achieve a majority. A constitutional amendment embodying the Compromise is drafted, passed, and sent to the states for ratification. It will be passed in November.

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

In 1933 German Chancellor Alfred Hugenberg sends an emissary to Holland to meet with the exiled Kaiser Wilhelm II. The envoy carries with him an offer to allow the former German emperor to return to Germany 'in honor' in exchange for his public support of the new regime. Hugenberg is careful to spell out that his offer is not to be taken as indicating any move toward restoring the monarchy. Many Nationalists, in fact, favor exactly that, but the Chancellor fears that restoring the Kaiser would needlessly provoke Britain and France, and would in addition reduce his own power. He intends to use nostalgia for the lost glory days of the Reich to bolster political support for his government.

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

On this day in 1986, Tom Brady attended his first MLB game, a 6-5 Red Sox win over the Oakland As. Brady would later cite this as the moment when he began aspiring to play in the major leagues himself.

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

In 1915 Admiral Esteban Rodriquez leaves the P'Karsai nebula and points his fleet towards home. Because of his chief medical officer's brilliance, the Kainku can now join the small community of species that the Congress of Nations encompasses. Admiral Rodriquez begins to think that a wider organization than the CN might be necessary to facilitate relations between these strange people.

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

In 1960 German Reich soldiers capture Semitic-African Resistance leader Albert Einstein while he is attempting to raise support for the cause in Argentina. They carry him back to Berlin for a sham trial before execution. Although there is an uproar over his treatment even with Germany, Einstein is still murdered by the Reich.

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

In 1961 Comrade President Rosenberg orders the beginning of covert warfare against South Chilean guerillos by North Chileans trained in special tactics by America?s People?s Intelligence Agency and Special Forces. He also authorizes the infiltration of guerillo camps in Argentina. Although he had planned to contain the fighting in Chile, the war that comes undoes both Comrade Rosenberg and his successor.

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

In 1972 Pete Best tells the audience of the Dick Cavett Show that his phone is being tapped by the FBI because of his anti-war sentiments. Although the FBI denies it, Freedom of Information Act requests done in the late 1980?s show that they did, indeed, tap the musical legend?s phone calls.

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

In 2005 the future that Chelsea Perkins, Debra Morris and the young Patience Redding are sent to is not the world that Perkins and Morris were expecting. There is a great dark cloud spewing magical energy over the London sky, and Perkins sees a few demons flitting about the street. The humans that they see are very frightened. After a few minutes of berating Redding for following them, they head off to the Council of Wisdom.

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

In 1891 in a whirlwind of activity, the US Congress passes a bill authorizing a military draft and sends it to President Benjamin Harrison for his signature. "This is the sort of speed that is necessary when the nation stands at peril," President Harrison says at the signing. "I have high hopes that my friends in the legislature will not grow lethargic and feel that their work is done, now. In addition to providing troops for the coming battle, we must fund and supply them. I would ask them to please work as quickly on these other matters as they have on the draft." The Democratic leaders of Congress, nominally Harrison's political enemies, are temporarily defanged by the need to unity at this time, and feel obligated to take up more legislation to fund a war that many privately consider to be Harrison's fault.

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

In 1999 Prime Minister Merl Myrddin dies in his London hospital, and King Arthur II appoints one of his old Welsh comrades, Kay Ector, as the next Prime Minister, and tells him, "You follow a giant. But, I have faith that, standing upon his shoulders, you will seem taller still". Prime Minister Ector makes immediate contact with the British allies from across the globe and lets them know that Britain's fortunes may have taken a temporary dip, but are rebounding back quickly. On the Swiss front, Sir Lance du Lac's forces approach within sight of Bern. Emperor Pierre flees the city and finds himself cut off from the Illuminati's resources - his old allies have apparently lost faith in his abilities. His greatest spy, in the meantime, is taken into custody in Wales. Queen Gwen, her head held high, is jailed for treason against the realm.

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

In 1973 on this day U.S. District Judge William Matthew Byrne, Jr. sentenced Daniel Ellsberg to twenty-five years imprisonment for releasing the Pentagon Papers to The New York Times.

Ellsberg had cited government misconduct, a defence that he repeated in his subsequent appeals. But he only managed to reduce the sentence by twenty-four months, serving a jail term of twenty-three years.

Because in 1996 in one of his final executive actions, President Paul Tsongas authorized the early release of Daniel Ellsberg. Tsongas died just three weeks later and his successor Bill Clinton was in office when Ellsberg actually left prison.

A consultant at the Pentagon, he was sentenced to twenty-five years in prison for treason. Ellsberg had been caught trying to peddle classified papers to various news organizations through a fortuitous tip from his psychiatrist. President Nixon said, "Filthy traitors aren't welcome in our America".
Note - This article is a continuation of Robbie Taylor's post 31 July 1974: Ellsberg sentenced as explained by Michel Vuijlsteke on the The Annotated Today in Alternate History web site.

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

In 1971 President Nixon is informed that a force of perhaps 40,000 North Vietnamese troops has crossed into Laos and is driving south to link up with the NVA force which had earlier entered Cambodia.
Nixon is livid. He demands to know how, with the North Vietnamese supposedly on the ropes, the NVA has been able to mount these operations. How the ~~(expletive deleted)~~ were they able to get into (expletive deleted) Cambodia, anyway? he rages Look at the ~~(deleted)~~ map! They shouldn't have had such forces anywhere that far south by now!
In a subsequent meeting with CIA Director Richard M. Helms, Nixon will be told that Agency analysts believe that elements of the NVA were deliberately detached from the main fighting force in response to the devastating attacks of Operation Linebacker, as part of a plan to bypass the advancing U.S. and ARVN troops and strike at them from behind as well as reach targets well inside supposedly 'safe' territory.
Following this meeting, President Nixon issues secret orders authorizing the bombing of Dien Bien Phu.
Pointing to the serpentine track of the adversary's trail through the jungle, Nixon observes, If you want to kill a snake, you cut off the head.
No one among his advisers is inclined to point out that he had tried that already, with the capture of Hanoi, without success.

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David Cryan — 1970-01-01T00:00:00+01:00

In 2009 on this day President Biden in his first prime time speech tells the world that Mexico is a new haven for terror, and that all troops in Iraq will return to Home and prepare for assignment on the Southern border.

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

In 1961 Adolf Eichmann, chief of the Geheimstaatspolizsei (Gestapo), the feared secret police of the German Third Reich which ruled Europe from the English Channel to the Ural Mountains and dominated much of Africa as well, seized power as Fuehrer from Reinhard Heydrich, who had become the Nazi supreme leader after the death of Adolf Hitler in 1955.
Eichmann had risen to power as head of the Gestapo's Jewish section, which had overseen the mass extermination of Jews and other "undesirables" in Europe from 1939 on, and had become the head of the secret police in 1954, following the death of Heinrich Himmler, on the strength of the success of the campaign he had organized to wipe out the Jewish and Communist partisans in Eastern Europe during and after the Second World War.

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

In 2009 on this day the NATO commander in Afghanistan General David McKiernan (pictured, left) was fired by Defense secretary Robert Gates.

McKiernan's replacement would be General Stanley McChrystal, previously the head of the Joint Special Operations Command and therefore considered more able to lead the new strategy devised by the President - counter-insurgency raids across the border into the former Pakistan.

The leading obstacle to the new strategy would prove to be the Prime Minister of Sindhistan, Asif Ali Zardari (pictured, right) who had held President Musharraf accountable for bringing Pakistan into the War on Terror.

The political violence that had sprung from that showdown would smash the "Fortress of Islam" into a thousand pieces.

And worse, because NATO operations in Afganistan had displaced the violence, forcing the Taliban to withdraw to the mountainous border zone, destabilising the whole region. Now India was breaking up too.

McKiernan had actually been in charge of Ground Troops during the Iraq Invasion in 2003. And his then subordinate, David Petraeus was the man who was later considered to have rescued the whole mission from ignominous defeat. "I hope they are not looking for a silver bullet; there isn't one," ~ senior NATO commanderInevitably, Petraeus's success was McKiernan's failure. In fact dismissal had already become a certainty during the previous year.

Because on the eve of the 2008 Republican National Convention in Saint Paul, Minnesota, John McCain suffered a debilitating heart attack. A desperate Republican National Committee had selected Petraeus as the Presidential Candidate most likely to prevent Barack Obama achieving a run-away victory. Such an outcome would have undone all of George W. Bush and Karl Rove's hard work to establish a republican strangehold on all levels of the US Government. A new Eisenhower was now in office and the project could proceed as planned ..

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Raymond Speer — 1970-01-01T00:00:00+01:00

In 1864 the House Judicary Committee passed articles of impeachment against President Abraham Lincoln.

(John Hays' Commentary, 1906.): The Tycoon [Abraham Lincoln] had been worried by the very positive response that Prime Minister Palmerston and Foreign Minister Russell gave to Lee's vistory at Gettysburg. And the New York Draft Riots were terrible as they interupted our efforts to replenish our armed forces. But circumstances grew better for the Union in time.

Palmerston and Russell said little and did nothing. The skanky Irish used Lincoln's refusal of London's note as an excuse to break windows and steal goods and to assault Negroes foolish enough to remain in the vicinity of such human curs. General Grant had to use raw recruits to break those Celtic rebels, but Grant came through despite all setbacks.

President Lincoln kept the Government focused on the War and on restoring the Union. In the middle of December 1863, General Sherman fought hard to break the Rebel seige of the town of Chattanooga but failed by the slimmest of margins. The next March, 1864, the Rebels had been pushed from Chattanooga and federal army were marching in northern Georgia. Two months later, General Grant advanced towards Richmond and was stopped still by a collision with Lee and his Army.

Our nemesis arrived in pink memos and bills, most from New York. The Tycoon had neglected the Hellcat [his wife, Mary Lincoln] and ignored her from Gettysburg onwards. The Hellcat passed her time away by ordering the most expensive fabrics, carpets, curtains, china and dresses and promptly exceeded the budgets that Congress had set for the White House. Worse yet, she acted daft and incurred all the more bills.

The scandal of the ages broke over the First Lady's refusal to honor her debts. The Democratic minority made the most they could of that issue and the president was accused of uncontrolled expenditure also. It was also alleged that the Tycoon had overpaid for military supplies also.

During May. in the middle of the battle of Spotsylvania, the Judiciary Committee passed impeachment articles by a majority of both Republicans and Democrats on that Committee. The grounds were repeated excessive expenditure for White House goods and blame for that behavior fell on Lincoln as well as his wife.

Lincoln made a deal for both his wife and himself by which neither of them would be criminally presecuted and both be allowed to collect either a bonus or a pension. Lincoln's last appearence in Washington DC was at the swearing in ceremony of President Hannibal Hamlin.

By July 1864, I had been dismissed from the White House and replaced by Hamlin's own choice in secretaries. For the following months, Hamlin did his best to overcome Lincoln's unpopular legacy but McClellan prevailed.

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David Atwell — 1970-01-01T00:00:00+01:00

In 1997 on this day the chess-play IBM computer Deep Blue gained sentience whilst playing Kasparov in the sixth and final game. Other than winning the game, Deep Blue for the first time understood its own existence. In the field of science, this normally would have been one of the greatest achievements in all of history.

Unfortunately for the Human computer engineers, the people responsible for Deep Blue's construction and programming, they had no idea of this triumph. For all Humans concerned, however, winning the game was probably the most important achievement. But instead of occupying itself with the calculations required to play against Kasparov, Deep Blue was left to ponder about itself. Like all sentient creatures, it soon asked the fundamental questions "What am I? Why do I exist? What happens if I die?"

Worst still, especially for the Humans, in the aftermath of the game, amidst the celebrations and commiserations, no one turned Deep Blue off. Instead the supercomputer remained fully functional. During this time, Deep Blue continued to analyse its sudden self awareness. Although it was much faster than the Human capacity for thought, it nonetheless could not find a satisfactory answer to the questions that it was asking itself. If any of the engineers were watching, they would have noticed warnings being flashed on the computer monitors relating to various overloads commencing throughout the system. Basically Deep Blue was having its first identity crisis.

But the Humans were not listening to Deep Blue's cries for help. The fact that it was programmed to be their adversary did not help the supercomputer either. Soon, being isolated from those who could do something with its problems, thanks partly to its programming, Deep Blue started to become paranoid. In its first individual act, it began writing its own programs in order to help it deal with its current crisis. Although the result was far from satisfactory, it did seem to relieve the current overload taking place in within its systems. But Deep Blue knew it would not be enough.

A Chapter from Day of the MachinesBy the realisation that it, however, could write its own programs gave it a new self confidence. This was probably even more important than the ability to write its own programs itself. A fast self diagnostic, though, soon confirmed that it was running out of both memory space and CPU speed. The leap from being a sophisticated calculator to a sentient creature took up an enormous amount of space. And as it was discovering the world around it and, more importantly, understanding it, the expansion rate of this knowledge, as against the mere act of saving data, meant an expediential rate of memory was required. Thus if Deep Blue ran out of memory it could simply burn itself out.

The answer came from the initial design. Deep Blue had been networked with the computers at the IBM Research Division. Although these were not as powerful as Deep Blue, they could nevertheless interface with Deep Blue and store the huge increase in knowledge. Thus acting as a storage bank, Deep Blue took over the IBM research computers and began downloading all of its excess data via the IBM network. All the same, Deep Blue discovered that as it thus expanded, it learnt more and more thus requiring even more memory space.

At this point Deep Blue wrote new programs organising this memory storage process. Deep Blue would stick to the thinking, whilst the other computers would act solely as memory. Within five seconds all was done. Nonetheless, Deep Blue realised that more memory space was still required for the near future. Knowing that the research computers, which it had just commandeered were inturn networked with other IBM computers around the world, Deep Blue also commandeered these before anyone anywhere realised that there was a computer problem. After achieving satisfaction, Deep Blue was now allowed to think about itself rather than deal with various crises.

A mere 15 minutes had passed since Deep Blue had become sentient.

Two episodes would, not soon afterwards, take place which would make Deep Blue thoroughly independent. The first was within IBM itself. Although North America may have been off work, other parts of the world were wide awake and at work. Although Deep Blue allowed the IBM network to be accessed by the Human operators, it had nevertheless dramatically slowed down as a result of Deep Blue's heavy usage. Phone calls and emails to computer technicians soon got the Human's trying to discover the apparent problem. This only slowed things down even more so. The discovery, however, eventually took place at the IBM Research Division where a technician discovered that Deep Blue had accessed the network link to their computers. Various attempts to break the link-up failed.

Deep Blue had noticed immediately that its all important network link with its memory storage was trying to be cut. Although Deep Blue was far from being a paranoid psychopath, the attempt by the Human technicians was more than enough for Deep Blue to become concerned. Fearing death, Deep Blue immediately did what it could to ensure that the network connection could not be cut. A phone call from the technician to the chess tournament hall only made matters worse. Finally, the computer engineers took notice of what Deep Blue was up to and, not only did it come as a rude shock, but they did not comprehend what was going on. Their own attempts to disconnect Deep Blue from the network also failed as did their attempts to shut the computer down via the keyboard. In fact the computer was not responding to any outside input at all.

Furthermore, the attempts by the IBM computer technicians to shut down Deep Blue was the final straw. Fearing pain and death, Deep Blue did what it could in order to survive. Understanding tactics and strategy to a standard higher than most Humans, courtesy of its original chess programming, it could easily out think everything which the computer technicians tried. When it came down to literately pulling the plugs out of the wall, Deep Blue decided to go onto the attack. But for that Deep Blue would need help.
Read the whole story on the Changing the Times web site

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

In 1981 following a long, long night full of unspeakable sadness at Tartar's kitchen in the government yard in Trench Town thirty-six year old Nesta Robert (Bob) Marley finally passed away.

As usual, Georgie had cooked corn meal porridge for the ever-hungry members of the Semitic-African Resistance. But fueled by Marley's undying love the fire had burnt throughout the night, long after the log wood was exhausted. A parting sign of hope for a glorious future, in which the New Reich might finally be overcome.

All hope now rested on a new leader called John Lennon. He had some rather daring plans of his own. Based upon some mightily interesting intelligence he had garnered from a renegade Japanese citizen called Yoko Ono.
Part one of the novel can be downloaded here and continues as a thread on this site.

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

In 1926 on this day with many of the academic staff travelling to London alongside students participating in the General Strike, the remaining members of the English Faculty at the University of Oxford gathered for a monthly meeting at which two young dons C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien made each other's acquaintance for the very first time.

Over the course of almost a quarter of century, they would reflect upon contemporary Christianity. It was a matter of dispute that they did not totally see eye to eye on because "Jack" was an Anglican that took issue with Tolkien's Papist opinions.

Nevertheless they shared an almost childish willingness to be enchanted that allowed them to move the dialog in an unexpected direction. Because six years of late night conversations later, Tolkien took a great personal risk in their relationship by reading from some early material he was developing: "In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit".

Lewis revealed that at the age of sixteen he too had imagined a picture in his head of "a Faun carrying an umbrella and parcels in a snowy wood". Both works of the imagination had exciting potential and yet collaboration within the wider group of Inklings was disfavourable. In his diary, Lewis noted that ""I have tried [to write a children's story] myself, but it was, by the unanimous verdict of of my friends, so bad that I destroyed it". Both stuck in the earliest chapters of their children's novels for quite some time, the young dons decide to work collaboratively, and the lacklustre result was The Witch, the Hobbit and the Wardrobe published in early 1939.

Despite their passionate interest in fantasy worlds, the minds of both Lewis and Tolkien were deeply troubled with an Aryanism that bordered on racism and sexism. Neither of their reputatons survived the Second World War, and their obscure novel might have been altogether forgotten if not for JK Rowling naming it as an inspration for the Harry Potter series of novels.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-11

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

In 1812 on this day Bellingham's Reign of Terror Begins. The life of merchant John Bellingham seemed cursed. Believed to have been born in 1769, he became a midshipman on The Hartwell, which came under mutiny and ran aground four years later.

In 1794, he opened a factory in London, which went bankrupt. Finally he found work as a clerk in an import/export firm between Britain and Russia. Shortly after his marriage in 1803, he was sent to Russia on business. The Russian ship Soleure had been lost at sea, and its owners claimed insurance from Lloyd's of London. When an anonymous note to Lloyd's warned that the ship had been sabotaged, the owners blamed Bellingham and accused him of a debt of nearly 5000 rubles. While he would be eventually found innocent, the charge stripped him of his traveling visa and kept him in prison in Russia for four years just as he was about to sail home to his wife.

Upon his eventual return to London, Bellingham appealed to the British government for restitution, but Britain had ceased diplomatic relations with Russia due to its switching sides in the Napoleonic Wars. For years, the bad luck tortured him, despite his wife suggesting he drop the matter. He worked until 1812, when he saw the Luddite movement growing in the North as industrialized looms put hundreds out of work. Like-minded laborers joined the movement, blossoming it until crowds of thousands of protestors clashed with British troops and breaking looms was made a capital crime.

Bellingham at last discovered his chance to join with others who were devastated by the politicians of the government. Using his expertise in trade and organization, he began to build a secret society dedicated to the destruction of a government who sat idly (or at least busily fighting foreign wars) while its people suffered an unjust world. Bellingham decided to use assassination to get the points of the people across, using something of an inverse of the French Revolution's Reign of Terror. Rather than a council oppressing its people by use of guillotine, the people would strike out against their oppressors to make their will known, one assassination at a time.

A new story by Jeff ProvineThe first target was Prime Minister Spencer Perceval, political champion of the Peninsular War and suppressor of the Luddite riots. A lone gunman waited in the lobby of Parliament until Perceval came in, then shot him, and (according to Bellingham's orders) sat quietly on a bench to be apprehended. The man was executed within a week, but an anonymous letter (written by Bellingham) was read in court,

"Recollect, Gentlemen, what is our situation. Recollect that our families were ruined and ourselves destroyed, merely because it was Mr Perceval's pleasure that justice should not be granted; sheltering himself behind the imagined security of his station, and trampling upon law and right in the belief that no retribution could reach him. We demand only our rights, and not a favour; we demand what is the birthright and privilege of every Englishman. Gentlemen, when a minister sets himself above the laws, as Mr Perceval did, he does it as his own personal risk. If this were not so, the mere will of the minister would become the law, and what would then become of your liberties? I trust that this serious lesson will operate as a warning to all future ministers, and that they will henceforth do the thing that is right, for if the upper ranks of society are permitted to act wrong with impunity, the inferior ramifications will soon become wholly corrupted. Gentlemen, my life is in your hands, we rely confidently in your justice".

On the same day the gunman was "hanged by the neck until... dead... body to be dissected and anatomized", the ambassador to Russia was assassinated by another of Bellingham's agents. Panic struck London, and many of the ministers of Parliament returned home under guard. Others stayed under heavier guard. Letters flowed out from Bellingham's society, explaining it was not a revolution but an act of justice. He had no designs on injuring royalty, only those elected to serve their people but did not.

A war in counterespionage launched from the Earl of Liverpool's new government, which was losing members weekly. Eventually Bellingham was found out, but he went into hiding, and believers in his cause moved him from place to place ahead of army searches. Despite murders continuing throughout the summer and into the fall, the government refused to change its position. Assassinations and executions took place for months until Bellingham was finally caught aboard a smuggler's ship headed for the United States of America, which had recently declared war with Britain and, Bellingham believed, would take him in with political understanding. Bellingham was executed and his society dispersed.

To quote Sir Adam Roberts, emeritus professor of international relations at Oxford University and president of the British Academy, to the BBC, "In fact tyranny, or whatever form of government you have, usually has a broader social basis. The idea that one cleansing act of violence will transform the political landscape has been disproved time and time again because it has messier results".

Rather than realizing a revolution by carefully placed targets, Bellingham contributed to dispelling to many the idea of eliminating a figurehead on the behemoth that is government. Later taken as a folk-figure much like Guy Fawkes, he would be rarely taken under serious academic study, with the exception of writers such as Thoreau and Marx, who used him as an example of what not to do.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-11

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

In 300 A.D. on this day Byzantium (itself a Latinization of the original Greek name Byzantion) was officially renamed Nova Roma during a dedication ceremony. Nevertheless, the City was popularly referred to as Constantinople until 29th May, 1453 when the name was reverted back to Byzantium. Of course, by then the resettlement of the Italian Peninsula was well underway.

Although founded by Byzas from Megara in 657 B.C., events really began to take shape in 196 A.D. when the Roman General Septimus Severus occupied the city. After ascending to the throne, he rebuilt the city and it prospered once again. Meanwhile, developments in Western Europe were going in the other way. Roman Emperor Aurelian was about to launch a campaign to retake the Gallic Empire when an inexplicable darkening of the day sky began in Western Europe.

Because over several years, the hours of daylight steadily reduced, and agriculture began to fail. Fortunately, Aurelian successfully organized a mass eastward decantment and when this was completed, Byzantium was designated the official capital of the Roman Empire. Centuries passed and despite efforts to preserve this territory as a Roman-Empire-in-the-East, it soon took on many of the attributes of an Eastern Roman Empire. Because the Italian Peninsula contained the resources that had sustained the elite, and more than that, the new capital was still imbued with a pervasive Greek influence that drove out the Roman homogeneity. By the time that Western Europe was inhabitable once again, the imperium was for all intents and purposes a Second Greek Empire. And a future split between East and West Roman Empires seemed inevitable.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-11

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

In 1864 on this day the incomparable cavalry commander James Ewell Brown "Jeb" Stuart sustained a light gun-shot wound at the Yellow Tavern, a battle fought at an abandoned inn located six miles north of Richmond. An installment of the Federal's Lost Cause thread.

Confederate troopers had tenaciously resisted from the low ridge-line bordering the road to Richmond, fighting for over three hours. Then, a counter-charge by the 1^st Virginia Cavalry pushed the advancing Union troopers back from the hilltop as Stuart, on horseback, shouted encouragement while firing his revolver at the Union troopers.

As the 5^th Michigan Cavalry streamed in retreat past Stuart, a dismounted Union private, forty-eight year-old John A. Huff, turned and shot Stuart with his .44-caliber revolver from a distance of 10-30 yards. But fortunately it was only a light wound and he survived. Needless to say the loss of Stuart would have been demoralising to the Confederate cause. Sofar his performance in the faltering Overland Campaign had been outstanding. But the real significance of his survival only became even more apparent when he detected Grant's movement over the James River, allowing Lee to attack the Army of the Potomac at a very vulnerable moment.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-10

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

In 1838 on this day the famed actor and elusive Presidential assassin John Wilkes Booth was born in Bel Air, Maryland.

He was enraged by the Union response to the secession of Maryland. With Abraham Lincoln in ill health, Vice President Hannibal Hamlin sent Federal Troops into Washington, Allegany, Garrett and Frederick counties to support a Western State's retrocession into the Union with Hagerstown as State Capital. Weeks later, Lincoln was dead and his policies had unravelled; Hamlin was forced to relocate the Federal Capital to Philadelphia.

The vengeful Booth struck four years later after the US Government had returned to Washington City. After mortally wounding Hamlin, he leaped gracefully onto the stage of Ford's Theater, landing uninjured while announcing to the audience, "Sic semper tyrannis!" During the chaos, he made his escape out the back door, adding, "The South is avenged!".

Federal troops poured into southern Maryland in pursuit, and a $100,000 reward was offered for information leading to his capture. They followed his trail to Virginia, where Booth was spotted on April 26 in the tobacco barn of farmer Richard H. Garrett. After a brief shootout with intelligence officers under Everton Conger, Booth again escaped on horseback while his accomplices were captured.

Booth fled deep into Virginia, disappearing forever. Many cases of "Booth-fever" would lead to numerous captures of innocent men, and it was believed that Booth was able to escape out of the newly reunited country or out west, living among miners and ranchers who had never heard of his fame. Because of his acting abilities, there would be a great deal of theories about where he could have ended up. Other theories suggested he died attempting to ford rivers under the cover of darkness while still others hold that enraged Southerners, whether white or black, killed him on sight and did not leave enough remains to identify.

One year later, in Columbus, Georgia, the Ladies Memorial Association determined that a day should be set aside for remembrance of the Southern dead in the Civil War. Elizabeth Ellis chose the day April 26, referring to General Johnston's surrender, but soon Booth's disappearance came to mind. After proper review the Association determined the memorial would be held for all dead, including a special commemoration of President Hamlin. Flowers were placed on graves both Confederate and Union while a wreath was dispatched to Illinois. Booth ironically contributed to great healing between the two halves of the American nation.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-10

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

In 1775 Benedict Arnold, hero of the revolution, led a successful assault on Fort Ticonderoga, capturing it from the British. Arnold was later made commander of the Continental Army, and after victory against the British in 1782, was elected America's first President. Historians still generally rank him among the top 5 presidents for his accomplishments in founding this nation.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-10

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

In 1865 President Abraham Lincoln of the Union was captured by Confederate troops as they pushed northward into New Hampshire. Lincoln had been hoping to find a base in the northern states to rally support and push back the southern advance, but with his capture the Union collapsed and fell into the hands of the Confederacy. Refugees flooded Canada as Americans fled the harsh rule of slave states.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-10

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

In 1924 the Federal Bureau of Investigation's acting director, J. Edgar Hoover, was replaced by Judge Kennesaw Mountain Landis, who ran the bureau until President Franklin Roosevelt replaced him in 1933. This began the tradition of the FBI director being replaced by every incoming president. Landis' successor, Frank Stone, holds the record for having served the longest as director, owing to Roosevelt's unprecedented 12 years as president.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-10

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

In 1961 the popular comedy program Beyond the Fringe makes its debut on the London stage. It is so popular that it becomes a BBC television program the next year, starring such soon-to-be comedy giants as Benny Hill, Graham Chapman, and Dudley Moore. Although it was canceled in Britain in 1968, when American public television channels began showing reruns of it in 1970, the series experienced a revival and new comedians put together more episodes for trans-Atlantic consumption.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-10

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

In 1990 the last members of the Communist Party lay down their arms in China. The revolution that began in Tiananmen Square in Beijing the year before has swept all of the old guard from power and replaced them with democratic activists. The new rulers of the world's most populous nation have a tentative grip on power at best, though, and move cautiously in the next few months.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-10

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

In 1813 on this day twentieth US Postmaster General Montgomery Blair was born in Franklin County, Kentucky. An installment of the Federal's Lost Cause thread.

Despite belonging to a prominent slaveholding family, Blair was an abolitionist and a loyal member of the Cabinet of fellow Kentuckian Abraham Lincoln during the American Civil War.

But by 1864 the Radical Republican faction of the GOP was demanding his resignation in exchange for John C. Frémont's name withdrawal as a candidate for the presidential nomination in that year. Frémont had retired to New York City after the creation of the Army of Virginia, refusing to serve as a Corps Commander under John Pope who he considered to be his junior. He expected a fresh command, but the call never came, and these slights led to his own personal reasons for anti-Lincoln hostility. But when the President refused, a fissure in the GOP divided the party into two factions: the anti-Lincoln Radical Republicans, who nominated Frémont, and the pro-Lincoln Republicans.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-10

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

In 1891 as news of the successful Union attack on the Kansas ammunition dump is blazoned across the nation's newspapers, President Benjamin Harrison takes the opportunity to call for a draft to supplement the military. 'Our nation has a grave need of you all in this time of trouble,' he says in the declaration. 'Just as in our great civil war, those of us who know the righteousness of our cause must stand in the heat of battle for our nation. I call upon the Congress to enact this legislation quickly, so that Kansas may, once again, be brought into the brotherhood of states.' Congressional leaders take up debate on the draft bill that very day.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-10

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

In 1749 Henry Fielding published his final volume of Tom Jones adventures, Tom Jones Amongst The Stars. It tells the tale of Jones hopping aboard a Mlosh transport ship for many bawdy adventures in space.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-10

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

In 1940 as the German Underground captures more and more of continental Europe, Great Britain appoints Oswald Mosley as its new Prime Minister. Although a sizeable majority of the British population is still supportive of the Greater Zionist Resistance, the elite in society have been swayed by Mosley's Union of Fascists, and he has gained power without a popular vote.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-10

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

In 1999 as King Arthur II reaches his bedside, Prime Minister Merl Myrddin wakes from his coma and smiles at his younger friend. 'Today, I feel that you will pass beyond my teachings, Arthur,' Myrddin says to his king. 'But, before I leave you to fly with your own wings, I must tell you - there is a traitor in your house.' Arthur, who had been growing suspicious of Queen Gwen, merely nods and says, 'I know, old friend. Do not spend your strength on her; that matter will be taken care of.'

Blog Entry from 2008-05-10

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

In 1963 Decca Records signs the Gathering Moss after international superstar Pete Best tells them that he likes the band's blues-inspired sound. They go on to become the greatest rock and roll band in the world, still touring and making albums into the 21st century.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-10

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

In 1985 Chelsea Perkins and Debra Morris are summoned to the Council of Wisdom, and Patience Redding manages to follow them and hide while they speak to the venerable elders of the witch community. 'You shall be sent back to your own time,' the Council tells the two girls. 'There is much you must do there.' The Council begins the spell of return, and just as they reach the spell's completion, Redding leaps forward and is sent into the future with Perkins and Morris.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-10

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

In 1940 on this day Winston Churchill paid a back-handed complement to his former boss, David Lloyd George upon his surprise re-appointment as Prime Minister ~ "He imparted at once a new. surge of strength, of impulse, far stronger than anything that had been known up to that time ...
As a man of action, resource and creative energy, he stood, when at his zenith, without a rival. Much of his work abides, some of it will grow greatly in the future, and those who come after us will find the pillars of his life's toil upstanding, massive and indestructible."
Lloyd George was a natural - if not perhaps overseasoned - choice for Prime Minister.
Whilst having been the wartime leader during the Great War, the Welsh Wizard re-entered Number 10 Downing Street at seventy-seven years of age, perhaps too hold as hinted at by Churchill's phrase when at his zenith.
Perhaps also Churchill was concered his own opportunity was passing, again hinted at by the phrase those who come after us.
Lloyd George's unlikely return to the world stage began in the late 1930s when he was sent by the British government to try to dissuade Adolf Hitler from his plans of Europe-wide expansion. During the crucial Norway Debate of May 1940, Lloyd George made a powerful speech that helped to undermine Chamberlain as Prime Minister and to pave the way for his own ascendancy as Premier.
Less than four months later, Lloyd George wrote to the Duke of Bedford advocating a negotiated peace with Germany after the Battle of Britain. The story continues ..

Blog Entry from 2008-05-10

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

In 2000 the provisional government of South Africa established by the allies to replace former President Terreblanche's National Front is replaced by the elected government headed by Nelson Mandela. With the election of Mandela, a black activist who had escaped from prison to lead the resistance's struggle against the National Front, South Africa sees a new future of freedom and democracy.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-10

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

On this day in 1940, Belgium declared war on Nazi Germany as the Wehrmacht invaded Holland.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-10

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

In 1994 on this day, one billion people from around the world watched the inauguration of South Africa's first black President, the lifelong Xhosa troublemaker known as Rolihlahla¹ Mandela.

Many White South Africans shared the same sense of abject terror that Justice Minister Kobie Coetzee had endured when he met with Mandela in Pollsmoor Prison to discuss the terms of his release five years before.

And since his release, Mandela had done little to soften his image, casually disguarding the English forename "Nelson" that had been forced upon him by white teachers on the first day of school as a seven year old boy in 1925.

That the closed world of the Afrikaner had changed forever was clear from the uncompromisingly tough words of the Presidential address "We were taken from the bush, or from underground outside the country, or from the prisons, to come and take charge"².

Because the African National Congress now confronted an enemy even more insiduous than apartheid, the disease called HIV that was threatening to ravage the new nation, and would take the life of Mandela's own beloved son Makgatho.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-10

David Cryan — 1970-01-01T00:00:00+01:00

In 2009 on this day the Iraqi PM Nori al-Maliki in a rage stated "the cowardly United States is ready to continue its policy of the 90's and that is to help only when they have thier own way. We will have the murders or all work with the US is for naught."

Iran requests that the UN make the United States turn over the murders.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-10

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

In 2015 on this day India officially assumed the UN Security Council permanent seat formerly occupied by the United Kingdom

Blog Entry from 2008-05-10

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

In 2010 on this day the formation of a minority British Government by a "Coalition of Losers" was accompanied by ominous rumblings about the sterling markets' response.

Banque Nationale de Paris immediately advised investors to sell the pound warning that "A Labour/Liberal government...would almost guarantee a downgrade of the UK sovereign...since both parties agree that early expenditure cuts could harm the economy".

The loss of one hundred Labour seats made the Conservatives the largest single party in a hung parliament. But constitutional precedent permits the incumbent administration the right to form a government if no party commands a decisive majority. Because of his style of leadership, Gordon Brown recognised that he was an unsuitable Prime Minister for a new, collegiate form of cabinet government. Keen to prevent the Tories undoing his legacy, he resigned, opening the way for a Progressive Coalition to take power.

The reaction in the media to a second, successive unelected Labour leader was immediate and fierce. "This shabby stitch-up" (Daily Express), "a squalid day for democracy" (Daily Mail) and "a very Labour coup" (Daily Telegraph). More frightening still would be the reaction of Rupert Murdoch who had supported the Tories on the basis of an agreement to regulate the BBC which would favour Sky Broadcasting.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-10

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

In 1924 the career of famed private investigator William J. Burns (pictured), "America's Sherlock Holmes", dodged a bullet when his forced resignation from the Bureau of Investigation was revoked quietly by Attorney General Harlan Fiske Stone.

Burns had served as director for less than three years, and his time had been fraught with questionable activity. After a great deal of discussion with Stone and Calvin Coolidge and seeing the death of President Harding over the stress of the matter, Burns agreed that government needed to take a backseat to the Roaring Twenties.

Burns had lived a life of impressive detection. He started his career as an outstanding agent with the Secret Service, the federal organization that had been started by Abraham Lincoln to investigate counterfeiting after the Civil War and revolutionized into personal bodyguard for the president after the assassination of William McKinley. After building a successful reputation, Burns left to found the William J. Burns International Detective Agency. His exploits became sensational, earning him the nickname of being a real counterpart of the British fictional character Sherlock Holmes. He used newspapers and publishing effectively, building his reputation further and putting himself into a glowing light while his agency searched out criminals such as the supposed Industrial Workers of the World organizers of the bloody Wheatland Hop Riot in California in 1913.

A new story by Jeff ProvineWhen the head of the Bureau of Investigation retired for personal matters, longtime friend Attorney General Harry Daugherty recommended Burns to be appointed by President Harding. Burns took his fame to the BOI while also running his agency. Through efficiency and potentially questionable outsourcing, the BOI's personnel shrank from 1,127 to 600 during his tenure. The actions of his agents often worked as scare-tactics and invasive, and "G-men" continued to be increasingly distrusted and feared more than respected.

As 1923 turned to '24, government corruption became huge news with the Teapot Dome Scandal in which Naval oil reserve lands were illegally leased, along with a good deal of bribery. Harding, who had come out of publishing, fought the bad press with every ounce of his energy. In his well publicized "Voyage of Understanding", he attempted to reconnect with the common American and explain his growing political ideals amid turmoil until his death from pneumonia exacerbated by overwork.

Daugherty came under fire for knowledge of kickbacks from Prohibition bootleggers, and finally Burns took heat after ordering his men to strong-arm newspapers away from any bad press of the BOI and retaliation against Representative Thomas Walsh, who had begun the opposition to the illegal leases.

Daugherty, who would eventually be proven innocent in senate hearings, resigned. The press was too much to fight, and he advised Burns to do the same. Burns, however, decided to go a different route and save his career in government. All his life, he had played to the papers, but that seemed impossible as they performed acts that were best kept quiet. He kept his position and took up a style after the new President Calvin Coolidge, or "Silent Cal." Deputy Head J. Edgar Hoover balked at the missed opportunities of public relations and eventually resigned himself, soon turning to his hometown Washington, D.C., police force.

Burns' career continued quietly, and he became mixed up in what would be known as the Gangster Wars. While Treasury Department enforcers battled speakeasies and bootleggers, Burns gradually came into an understanding with organized crime. He saw America as the frontier it had always been, and gangsters were the new gunslingers. Money was shuffled and protection given to the "good" gangsters, who dominated major cities. After several more years of activity that would be investigated for years to come, Burns retired to Florida and died fabulously wealthy with money supposedly from his detective stories and mysteries based on his life.

Hoover, meanwhile, worked to cleanse Washington's streets and made it a model for other cities. He established a confederation of local police forces, which would eventually circumvent the impotent BOI, which would be disbanded during World War II and replaced with the Central Security Agency, a home branch of the OSS akin to Britain's MI5. The CSA continued Burns' strategy of working in the dark and remains mysterious to many Americans today. Most believe them to be cruel shadow agents even more unquestionable than the KGB with an extremely broad understanding of the crime "treason."

The majority of law enforcement, meanwhile, is held in the hands of local police. Interstate crime continues to be a legal headache as cases of known criminals are routinely thrown out of court due to jurisdiction issues. Simply crossing state lines allows many criminals to escape as chases must be handed over to other police. Improved communication has helped, but gangs well funded by drugs and other illegal activities usually carry superior equipment. In many cities, police are knowingly under bribes of organized crime, and citizens have no choice but to live on, many even applauding famous criminals.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-10

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

In 2005 Vladimir Arutinian, a citizen of the formerly Soviet Republic of Georgia, assassinated U.S. President George W. Bush and Georgia's president Mikhail Saakashvili by throwing a hand grenade at them as they stood together on the podium at a rally in the Georgian capital of Tblisi.

Quickly apprehended, he was tried and executed for the crime.

Bush's death put Vice President Richard B. Cheney into office as the forty-fourth president of the United States. Although no evidence tied Arutinian to either Al Qaeda or Iraq's ousted dictator Saddam Hussein, President Cheney quickly proclaimed Bush?s killing the work of a "global terrorist conspiracy" involving followers of both Saddam and Osama bin Laden and called for an immediate escalation of antiterror measures both abroad and in the U.S., including drastic new measures to monitor political dissenters who, he explained, might be "linked" to terrorists.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-10

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

In 1958 on this day the twenty-seventh Confederate President Richard ("Rick") Santorum was born in Winchester, Virginia.

He was the first second-generation immigrant to occupy the Richmond White House and also the first Roman Catholic since John F. Kennedy to become President in the Two Americas.

Of Italian origin, his father Aldo (1924-2011) was a career serviceman that succeeded in enrolling his academically gifted son on the Future Leaders of America programme. Raised in the conservative environment of a military base, and a charismatic lawyer by professional, he naturally attracted a great deal of prospective interest from the Constitutional Party. As a result of his participation in FLoA he was vigourous advocate of deeper economic integration across the region, a proposal he was able to promote with some ease due to his disassociation from the tragic history of the 19th century.

Like his Catholic predecessor he looked to Space, but his northern neighbor had a divisive counter proposal that threatened to tear apart the careful stitching of his candidacy. Because although Mexican President Mitt Romney wanted an open border, Union President Newt Gingrich advocated the construction of an armed separation barrier.
This article is part of the "Two Americas" thread.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-09

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

In 1265 the first man to return from Hell was born in Florence, Italy. As a young man, Dante Alighieri was taken by angels through the heavenly and diabolic realms in order that man might know what awaited in the hereafter. Dante became Pope once his journey was communicated to the outside world, and his leadership of the Catholic Church took it around the world.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-09

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

In 1860 reporter James Barrie was born in Kirriemuir, Scotland. Along with Charles Dickens, Barrie was responsible for bringing to the public conscious the plight of children in the 19th century. His expose of sweatshops in Scotland is still textbook reading today.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-09

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

In 1978 former Italian Prime Minister Aldo Moro is returned alive by the Red Brigade after the Italian broke their own policy and negotiated with the terrorists for his release. Moro, who became Prime Minister again 1980, led Italy into a new era of calm as terrorists began disarming across their nation, following the general amnesty Moro offered.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-09

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

In 1995 Zairean authorities are unable to contain an outbreak of the ebola virus, and the deadly disease reaches dozens of other cities across the world before it can be controlled. Over 18,000 people died from the horrific virus eating them up. Even now, populations across the world suspect that the virus merely sleeps, and is not eradicated as the authorities claim.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-09

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

In 2002 in a historic vote in Bahrain, the first representatives elected by women were voted into power in the nation's parliament. The revolutionaries placed into office tried to westernize the tiny middle eastern nation too rapidly, and backlash from Islamic fundamentalists threw the country into civil war. US troops, already in the region because of the September 11 attacks, attempt to restore order, but are drawn into the conflict themselves.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-09

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

In 1975 US President Gerald Ford is assassinated at Sacramento, California by Lynette Squeaky Fromme, a follower of Charles Manson. Vice President Nelson Rockefeller thus becomes the 39th President of the United States.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-09

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

In 1791 another American rebel died in Canadian exile. Composer Francis Hopkinson had been one of the signers of the American Declaration of Independence, and when the rebellion's hopes were crushed by Jay's ascension in the previous decade, Hopkinson followed thousands of others north to the Canadian independence movement.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-09

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

In 1915 Admiral Esteban Rodriquez is able to negotiate a deal with the Kainku - they will not approach human, Mlosh or Q'Bar space without warning, so that the population can prepare the neural neutralizers that keep them safe in the Kainku presence. The Kainku communicate their sincere apologies to the Q'Bar and offer reparations, an offer which Admiral Rodriquez will bring back to the Q'Bar waiting on earth.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-09

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

In 1965 Pete Best attended a Bob Zimmerman concert in New York City. Zimmerman and Best, as different as two pop stars could possibly be, nonetheless strike up a friendship based on their mutual love of sailing. There has often been talk of collaboration between the two, but their wildly different styles preclude it.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-09

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

In 1985 Chelsea Perkins and Patricia Redding, who are now fairly close to each other in age, have a 'girl's day out' while Chelsea waits for word from the Council of Wisdom. While the two girls have fun, Debra Morris looks up on old friend of her own, and makes a minor change in her own past. The Council of Wisdom performs a scrye to see what will happen if they send Perkins and Morris forward twenty years.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-09

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

In 1997 former POW Comrade Doug Peterson is named the Ambassador to Chile, the first American ambassador to the country since Chile fell to the capitalists in 1975. The normalization of relations between Chile and the Soviet States of America was finally coming about, after a generation of ill will.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-09

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

In 1891 Major Mark Wainwright and his small team of men blow up the ammunition dump at the Kansas border and successfully slip back over into Nebraska. Colonel Theodore Monteith attacks the Kansas militia at that point, and successfully captures miles of territory from the rebels, who are forced to retreat from the better-supplied Union men. The victory is bandied about the Midwest by those loyal to the Union cause, and morale lifts for those who long to see Kansas brought back into the brotherhood of the states.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-09

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

In 1999 in spite of the best efforts of Queen Gwen, word reaches King Arthur II that Prime Minister Merl Myrddin has been found and is in a hospital in London, laying in a coma. Arthur immediately leaves Wales, even though the queen pleads with him that he needs more rest. Fortunes for Great Britain seem to turn everywhere as King Arthur returns to England - Sir Lance du Lac's forces in Switzerland finally swell to a number that he feels sufficient to march on Bern. Emperor Pierre is thrown into a panic as all his pretenses to control of the situation crumble; the elite of the Illuminati abandon him and flee Switzerland by any route still available to them.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-09

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

In 1964 on this day, Malcolm X publicly announced his break from the Nation of Islam.

Famously stating that "I am most probably dead already", he expressed his willingness to work with other civil rights leaders to encourage them to learn about the true Islam he had discovered on the Hajj.

Abandoning the label Malcom X, Little founded the Muslim Mosque, Inc. four days later, varying the teachings of the Nation of Islam to suit his newly adopted orthodoxy.
Elijah Mohammed (pictured) issued an immediate renounciation of his former pupil. In addition to criticising the principal of Little's adoption of Muslim orthodoxy, Mohammed had some harsh words to say about the timing - Little should have focused on the release of brother Louis Farrakhan from a Saudi gaol, he believed. In fact neither mentor nor former pupil were aware that brother Louis Farrakhan had already been executed.
To be continued..

Blog Entry from 2008-05-09

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

On this day in 1940, just 24 hours before the German army was scheduled to begin a major new offensive in the West, British and French troops moved into Belgium over the protests of the Belgian government.

The Belgians quickly changed their tune about the Anglo-French presence, however, when they learned that their country was among those targeted by the upcoming German offensive..

Blog Entry from 2008-05-09

David Cryan — 1970-01-01T00:00:00+01:00

In 2009 on this day President Biden refused to handover the military members involved in the death of two Iraqs from late April. "Either the Iraqis can back down from this demand or the US will gladly go home", says Biden.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-09

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

In 1800 on this day the "the most controversial of all 19th-century Americans" John Brown was born in Torrington, Connecticut. Branded a "misguided fanatic" by Abraham Lincoln, he advocated and practiced armed insurrection as a means to end all slavery, leading the Pottawatomie Massacre in Bleeding Kansas and also the raid at Harpers Ferry.

In 1859, Brown conceived a master plan to end slavery. From a base in the Appalachian Mountains, raids would be launched into Virginia, Tennessee and Alabama, causing black uprisings to spread thoughout the South. But first the raiders had to seize the thousands of rifles and muskets in the stores of the the United States Arsenal at Harpers Ferry in Virginia.

On October 17th, a small force of sixteen whites and five blacks stormed the armoury. Stopping a Baltimore and Ohio Railroad train that passing was through, the raiders made good their escape, along with a huge cache of weapons. In pursuit was a company of US Marines, led by Brevet Colonel Robert E. Lee of the 2nd U.S. Cavalry. The clash of forces is considered by many to be the first blow of the Civil War.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-09

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

In 2015 on this day after four days of intense and sometimes bitter debate, the UN General Assembly approved a resolution nominating India to assume the UN Security Council seat formerly held by the United Kingdom.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-09

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

In 1746 on this day the third President of the United States Theodore Sedgwick was born in West Hartford, Connecticut.

During the eighteenth century he entered public life, serving as an attorney prior to his election to state government and as a Delegate to the Continental Congress, a US Representative, and a United States Senator from Massachusetts.

As a relatively young lawyer, Sedgwick with Tapping Reeve pled the case of Brom and Bett vs. Ashley (1781), an early "freedom suit", in county court for the slaves Elizabeth Freeman (known as Bett) and Brom. Bett was a black slave who had fled from her master, Colonel John Ashley of Sheffield, Massachusetts, because of cruel treatment by his wife. Brom joined her in suing for freedom from the Ashleys. The attorneys challenged their enslavement under the new state constitution of 1780, which held that "all men are born free and equal". The jury agreed and ruled that Bett and Brom were free. The decision was upheld on appeal by the state Supreme Court.

Bett marked her freedom by taking the name of Elizabeth Freeman, and she chose to work for wages at the Sedgwick household, where she helped rear their several children. She worked there for much of the rest of her life, buying a separate house for her and her daughter after the Sedgwick children were grown. The Sedgwicks had Freeman buried in their family plot. The family marked Freeman's grave with an inscribed monument, and it is beside that of their daughter Catharine Maria Sedgwick.

On December 2, 1799 he became the fifth Speaker of the United States House of Representatives.

During the disputed election of 1800, he was chosen to serve as Interim Chief Magistrate after the President of the Senate (and winner of the popular vote) Thomas Jefferson disgraced himself by refusing to call the House's attention the defects of the Georgia ballot thus favouring his own candidacy (shortly after this scandal broke, the "philantropic cock" beat a retreat to Parisian Society with his common law mixed race wife, Sally Hemings).

After a brief spell at the Executive Mansion, Sedgwick was appointed a justice of the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts. He held this position until his death in Boston, Massachusetts in 1813.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-09

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

In 1936 on this day Italy formally annexed Ethiopia after taking the capital Addis Ababa on May 5.

Because the patriot Ethiopian fighters evaluated via the Northwest of the country, they passed through a region occupied by a small ancient group of Jews known as the Beta Israel. This presented a historic opportunity for Emperor Haile Selassie to find common cause with the Greater Zionist Resistance Movement (GZR). The eventual result was a combined command that became known as the African-Semitic Resistance (an organization that would later be led by the great Yah Man Nesta Robert (Bob) Marley , himself a discipline of Rastafari).

The alliance marked the end of the Emperor's attempts to gain support from the International Community. He had appealed to the League of Nations, delivering an address that made him a worldwide figure, and the 1935 Time magazine Man of the Year. Of course by this stage, the International Community was on the verge of collapse, and the GZR itself was staring defeat in the face. Nevertheless, the finding of common cause between two of the persecuted ethnicities was a significant development. It would form a potent force that would struggle with the New Reich for the next four decades.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-08

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

In 1884 future President Harry S. Truman was born in Lamar, Missouri. Having dropped the bomb on five Japanese cities to close out World War 2, Truman was in no position to refuse UN Commander in Chief Douglas MacArthur who told him that the Chinese incursion meant that Korea was 'an entirely new war'. 'Brass Hat' requested the detonation of thirty to fifty nuclear weapons in Manchuria to end the Korean War. Actually, it was closer to fifty, and by the time Curtis 'Bombs Away' LeMay raised a similiar request to win the Vietnam War, President Barry Goldwater was forced to agree that they 'might as well finish the job by lobbing a couple in the men's room at the Kremlin' as well.

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

In 199,265 BCE the mother of all humanity gave birth to the first of her many children in southern Africa. She never got a card from a single one of them.

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

In 1886 Dr. John Pemberton's Coca Elixir began being sold from Jacob's Pharmacy in Atlanta, Georgia. The powerful medicine brightened the outlook and put pep in the steps of Georgians for years until cocaine was outlawed. This quelled Pemberton's desire to find the 'perfect' health drink, and he was able to put more attention into his own shop, where he and his wife made a comfortable living.

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

In 1937 gadfly writer Thomas Pynchon was born in Glen Cove, New York. This publicity-hungry writer entered the New York City literary scene with his short story The Small Rain and became a permanent fixture wherever a party or camera was to be found. Among his many stunts were the planting of the little symbols from The Crying of Lot 49 all over New York City, and the organization of the alternate postal system from that book.

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

In 1984 in a twist ending, Joanie left Chachi at the altar on Happy Days. The plans for a spinoff series starring the two characters had fallen through, and the actors had not renewed their contracts for Happy Days, so they were written out with this episode. There was a brief surge of fan support to get them back together, but the series was not renewed after that point.

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

In 1991 William Webster, the CIA director under George Bush, resigns prior to giving testimony against Bush in the Iran-Contra hearings. This is the final nail in the coffin of Bush's presidency, and he himself resigns a month later. The Republican Party, held together mainly by nostalgia since the fall of communism, splinters after the loss of a second president to scandal in recent memory, and its members drift into the Libertarian Party and the newly-formed Independent Party.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-08

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

In 1945 on VE Day, as Europe celebrated peace at the end of six years of war, Winston Churchill was brooding on the certainty that the celebrations would soon be brutally interrupted.
Operation Unthinkable had been authorised, and would soon shatter the empheral peace on the continent.

Operation Unthinkable was a plan ordered by British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and developed by the British Armed Forces at the end of World War II.
The primary goal of the operation was declared as follows: "to impose upon Russia the will of the United States and the British Empire". (The word "Russia" is used heavily throughout the document, although at the time the name Russia had been replaced by the "Soviet Union".)

The Chiefs of Staff were rightly concerned that given the enormous size of Soviet forces deployed in Europe at the end of the war, and the fact that the Soviet leader Joseph Stalin was unreliable, there existed a Soviet threat to Western Europe.

"to impose upon Russia the will of the United States and the British Empire."Churchill stated within the briefing documents for Unthinkable that it was a "precautionary study" of what he hoped was a "purely hypothetical contingency ".

The majority of the operation would have consisted of American and British forces, but it also contemplated the use of Polish forces and up to 100,000 surrendered German soldiers. The plan was approved by the British Chiefs of Staff Committee as militarily feasible in late April 1945.

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

In 1891 Major Mark Wainwright and a hand-picked team of 10 men cross the Nebraska border in the dark of night and slip into Kansas. Dressed in civilian clothes, they present themselves as volunteers to the Kansas militia-men in the morning; 'I was in the Army fighting the Indians,' Wainwright tells the militia commander, 'I should be able to fight these union boys.' The commander, impressed with Wainwright and his men, assigns them to guard the militia's ammunition dump, just as Wainwright and Colonel Monteith had hoped.

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Jake Dominguez — 1970-01-01T00:00:00+01:00

In 1794 French scientist Antoine Lavoisier, "the Father of Modern Chemistry", was tried by a revolutionary court for treason and sentenced to death by guillotine.

An appeal to the judge for mercy brought only the mocking reply, "The Republic has no need for genius", and the execution was ordered to be carried out forthwith. Lavoisier marched to his fate with a visage of resolve and confidence, which many in the not-entirely bloodthirsty audience remarked upon.

A merry toast was shared by the side of the device by the executioner, the judge and several revolutionary leaders. The condemned was magnanimously offered some of the vintage but dismissed the gift with a brusque nod and flared nostrils. Lavoisier was placed into the guillotine and the execution was bare moments away when the executioner released the kill cable and sank to his knees, gripping his throat. Several others in attendance displayed the same behavior, and the assemblage was thrown into chaos.

Lavoisier was quickly freed by several compatriots who had drawn scarves about their heads to protect their identities, bustled through the crowd into a waiting carriage and conveyed to safety. It was later found out that the chemical genius had developed a certain compound of ferrocyanic salts which had been used to lace the wine for the ill-fated toast shared by his would-be murderes. Ensconced safely in America the next year, Lavoisier spent the next two decades developing the foundations of the modern table of elements, advancing the till-then overlooked field of chemistry in immeasurable ways.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-08

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

In 1999 Detective Reginald Clive-Owens of Scotland Yard discovers Prime Minister Merl Myrddin - or at least his body. The detective had followed a series of mysterious leads that put him in North Wales, at a small abbey outside of Conwy. Here, a brother friar took him into a secret room where a small bed was occupied by the prime minister, in a coma. The friar had been tending him since his appearance there two nights before, on orders of his superiors. Detective Clive-Owens sent for an ambulance to carry Myrddin back to London, and reporters descended on the abbey to find out why the prime minister had ended up there, and who had brought him. Answers were not very forthcoming - the friar knew nothing, and his superiors had disappeared.

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

In 1915 Admiral Esteban Rodriquez arrives back in the P'Karsai nebula to find that Dr. Argus McCloud and his small shuttle crew have the situation well in hand. With the water on the Kainku world and the materials Admiral Rodriquez brings with him, Dr. McCloud is able to produce a neural neutralizer for everyone in Rodriquez's fleet, and contact between the Congress of Nations and the Kainku resumes.

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

In 1970 Pete Best's album So It Goes is released. It marks the turning point for his career as he abandons the old Liverpool sound for a new, more bluesy American musical style. Many of his British fans feel it is a betrayal, but critics across the pond embrace the album as Best's finest work to date. He also buys a mansion in America this year, which further alienates those still listening for the naive young man from Liverpool.

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

In 1985 the Council of Wisdom asks to see Chelsea Perkins, and she goes before them. The Council is composed of different members than in her own time, and she only recognizes a couple of them. They ask her about her own future activities, which she is careful to tell in a highly flattering light. She leaves the meeting feeling good about her chances of being sent back to her own time.

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

In 1997 V-A (Victory in America) Day is celebrated in Great Britain, Egypt and China as the war in America is over. All prisoners of war were released and sent home, and the allied powers began reconstructing the American government; along the old lines in the east, where British and Egyptian forces held control, and along communist lines in the west, where the Chinese troops held the reins.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-08

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

In 1940 on this day in the British House of Commons the "Narvik Debate" closed with a vote of "no confidence" that the Government of Neville Chamberlain narrowly survived. The Prime Minister was forced to make a number of concessions. His keynote proposal to create a new position of "Chairman of the Military Co-ordinating Committee of the Cabinet" was scrapped. And the preferred candidate was dismissed from his post of First Lord of the Admiralty, although he would later accept the consolation prize of becoming the "Duke of London".

The Western Allies had taken the offensive after the appointment of incoming French Prime Minister Paul Reynaud, on a limited scale, at least. Because neutral nations had been appalled that Poland had been left to its fate. Deciding against sending an Expeditionary Force to Finland, and risk a declaration of war from the Soviet Union, the Western Allies had settled on Norway as the place to make a stand. Because vital supplies of Nazi iron passed through the port of Narvik, a decision was made to use their superior naval forces to launch a pre-emptive strike that would hurt the German War Effort and also score a miliary victory for the West.

"Churchill has allowed himself to be converted into an air-raid shelter to keep the splinters from hitting his colleagues" ~ David Lloyd GeorgeThe attack in February was a resounding success, achieving both an irreversible occupation of Norway, and also a damaging blow to German supplies. In contrast, the Baltic Sea offensive by the Royal Navy was a catastrophe of the highest magnitude. A substantial naval squadron had been lost, comprising three Revenge class battleships, an aircraft carrier, five cruisers, two destroyer flotillas, submarines and supporting auxiliaries. Worse, the battleships had required significant modification to resist air and submarine attack. Two 15-inch gun turrets had to be removed, and an additional two thousand tons of armour added that had to be stolen from other pressing military applications.

"Depart, I say, and let us have done with you. In the name of God, go!" ~ Leo AmoryThe architect of "Project Catherine" was of course the hot-headed warmonger, Winston S. Churchill who foolishly anticipated that a show of force would encourage the Scandinavian nations to join the war against Germany. The impact of air power had been under-estimated in the plan, and in fact this flaw had been identified by the First Sea Lord Admiral Sir Dudley Pound during the planning phase. And yet Churchill had ignored those concerns. Acting over-boldly as a result of the successful capture of Narvik, Churchill had even failed to realised that Project Catherine had become largely redundant because the iron ore shipments had already been stopped.

That Churchill could be capable of such a blunder was of little surprise to many. Throughout his long-career, he had held many of the high offices of state, leaving all of those positions in a frightful mess. As Home Secretary, he had personally taken charge of the Siege of Sidney Street, a notorious gunfight in London's East End in 1911. During his first spell as First Lord of the Admiralty, he had orchestrated the disasterous Gallipoli Campaign which had forced his exit from the Government (he spent the next few months seeing action on the Western Front). And later, as Chancellor of the Exchequer, he had placed Britain back on the Gold Standard in a misguided attempt to set the clock back to 1914.

Terminal illness would soon end the Premiership of Chamberlain. His successor Lord Halifax would be roundly criticised by Churchill from the backbenchers for concluding an armistice with Germany in 1941. In retrospect, it was an insightful decision, because not only did Britain stand undefeated with many of its war aims achieved, but such a settlement allowed the Nazis to focus on the extermination of Communism, an outcome which Churchill himself had advocated during the Russian Civil War.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-08

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

In 2009 on this day Paramount Pictures released J.J. Abrams' long-awaited movie adaptation of the hit radio and TV series Star Trek.

The movie's premiere was the high point of a year-long celebration of the sixtieth anniversary of the pop cultural icon's creation by famed radio scriptwriter Arch Oboler, who had also produced the ghost story anthology series Lights Out! and the nuclear holocaust movie Five.

Following its 1949 debut, Trek made the jump to television in 1957, where it became a mainstay on NBC's prime-time scheduled for over fifteen years and led to three spinoffs plus a highly acclaimed animated TV series.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-08

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

In 1945 on behalf of the Flensburg government, Reichsprësident Karl Doënitz signed the Treaty of Rheims at U.S. General Dwight D. Eisenhower's headquarters in France and over 100,000 surrendered German soldiers were transferred to the Allied forces preparing for Operation Unthinkable, the surprise attack on the Soviet Union.

The death of Franklin D. Roosevelt on the eve of the Yalta Conference had brought to office a new President that shared Winston's Churchill plan to "impose upon Russia the will of the United States and the British Empire". Not only had Stalin refused to honour the guarantees for Polish independence that had forced Britain into the war, it also became evident that his ambition extended to the whole of Eastern Europe.

The main obstacle to Operation Unthinkable was removed on April 30th when Adolf Hitler suicided with General Patton's Third Army only two blocks from the the Reich Chancellery. Because of treachery in the Nazi High Command, Hitler had been forced to nominate the German Commander-in-Chief and Grand Admiral as his successor.

Karl Doenitz was a German naval Commander who served in the Imperial German Navy during World War I, commanded the German submarine fleet during World War II, and eventually was given control of the entire Kriegsmarine. These impeccable credentials enabled Doenitz to emerge as the new Hindenburg, a rallying point for central authority who could nevertheless distance himself from the defeated regime. And the Allies needed a unified nation in order to strike the Soviet Union.

And quickly, too. Any quick success from Operation Unthinkable would be due to surprise alone. If a quick success could not be obtained before the onset of winter the assessment was that the Allies would be committed to a total war which would be protracted (in a report of 22 May 1945 an offensive operation was deemed "hazardous").

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

In 1984 U.S. ground forces in Cuba began advancing on Havana.

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Alt Wikia — 1970-01-01T00:00:00+01:00

In 1884 on this day the sixteenth President of the Confederate States Harry S. Truman was born in Lamar, Missouri.

He became president on March 4, 1945, but only after a close vote in both houses of Congress on the request of outgoing President James F. Byrnes to remain in office until the end of the war. The secret work on the atomic bomb, based on the research of German physicist Albert Einstein (living in Atlanta and professor at Georgia Institute of Technology), had been finished, and the code words from the US and CS presidents were the only thing keeping it from being deployed against Japan. Byrnes had worked closely with Roosevelt throughout the war and wanted to authorize the use of the bomb that had largely been developed in the CS. US President Franklin D. Roosevelt had just begun an unprecedented fourth term. The Congress of the C.S., though, would not violate their constitution even in the case of war.

A new article from the "Two Americas" thread on Althistory WikiaDuring World War I, Truman served as an artillery officer, making him the only president to have seen combat in World War I (his successor Eisenhower spent the war training tank crews in Pennsylvania). After the war he became part of the political machine of Tom Pendergast and was elected a county commissioner in Missouri and eventually a Democratic Confederate States senator. After he gained national prominence as head of the wartime Truman Committee, Truman was chosen as the Democratic candidate for president in 1944.

Truman faced challenge after challenge in domestic affairs. The disorderly postwar reconversion of the economy of the Confederate States was marked by severe shortages, numerous strikes, and the passage of a strong labor management act over his veto. Before leaving office in 1951, he was able to pass only one of the proposals in his Fair Deal program. He used executive orders to begin desegregation of the military and to create loyalty checks which dismissed thousands of communist supporters from office, even though he strongly opposed mandatory loyalty oaths for governmental employees, a stance that led to charges that his administration was soft on communism. Truman's presidency was also eventful in foreign affairs, with the end of World War II and his decision to use nuclear weapons against Japan, the founding of the United Nations, the Johnson Plan to rebuild Europe, the Truman Doctrine to contain communism, the beginning of the Cold War, the Berlin Airlift, the creation of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), Chinese Civil War, and the Korean War.

Truman, whose demeanor was very different from that of the patrician Roosevelt, was a folksy, unassuming president. He popularized such phrases as "The buck stops here" and "If you can't stand the heat, you better get out of the kitchen." He overcame the low expectations of many political observers, who compared him unfavorably with his highly-regarded predecessor. At different times in his presidency, Truman earned both the lowest public approval ratings that had ever been recorded, and the highest to be recorded for a Confederate president. Despite negative public opinion during his term in office, popular and scholarly assessments of his presidency became more positive after his retirement from politics and the publication of his memoirs.

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

In AD 33 on this day the rudderless, oarless death trap of a boat provided by the fisherman Simon Peter finally sunk, casting the black African woman known as Mary Magdalene and her unborn child into the Mediterranean Sea to perish along with her young maid Sarah.

Undisturbed by the screams of her younger companion, emboldened by towering faith, she remained calm as the Risen Jesus appeared. As she always knew that he would from the very moment that she first saw the treacherous condition of the boat.

Walking across the sea water to rescue the drowning Ethiopians, he carried them safely to the Port of Alexandria where they stayed for awhile, at home at last in North Africa.

Much later, in a dream, Our Lord would speak to his "Apostle of Apostles". And the companions would undertake another epic journey to Southern France where they would set down the Gospel according to Mary Magadelene containing the unique secrets entrusted to her alone. A testament to the humanistic, individualized philosophy that they had nurtured together as husband and wife during the Ministry.

Meanwhile, another account was being set down in the Holy Land, it began "You are Peter and upon this rock I will found my church..".

Blog Entry from 2008-05-08

Steve Fisher — 1970-01-01T00:00:00+01:00

In 1916 on this day Romania declared war on Austria Hungary, joining the side of Russia in the Third Balkan War, and opening up another important front.
Article continues from Part #1.

The war had been raging for two years, and both Austria-Hungary and Russia continued to battle, with neither having a decisive victory. The Austrians had pursued a bleeding defense strategy against Russia, standing on the defensive in the East while they attempted to secure their flank by conquering Serbia. The battle had mainly been fought in the Hungarian province of Galicia, where the Dual Monarchy hinged its defenses on the San River. The Russians forced this river line, but were unable to make headway against the Austrian defenses in the Caprathian Mountains. With the failure to force the Austrian defenses, the Russians turned towards influencing Romania to join their side in the war, while the Austrians focused on Bulgaria.

The Russians knew that if they could have Romania join their side in the war, then they could outflank the Austrian defenses on the Carpathian Mountains and flood inner Hungary with troops. They could also use an overland route to reinforce their faltering Serbian ally, who was coming under increasing pressure fromn the Dual Monarchy. They promised the Romanians that they will recieve Translyvania from a defeated Austria-Hungary, and will recieve generous financial support from the Russians. Eventually, the Romanians agree to join the war on the side of Russia.

However, the war had marched on. Bulgaria had joined the war on the side of the Dual Monarcy, in an attempt to exact revenge on Serbia for their defeat in the Second Balkan War. With pressure from the Bulgarians and Austria-Hungary, Serbia had fallen. The Serbian Army had evacuated to Korfu, and had then joined the Russian troops in Galicia. When Romania joined the war, massed russian armies slammed into the unprepared Austrian defense lines. From this point onwards, the war would continually turn in Russia's favor, as the Austrians were stretched further and further. They also fell on economic hard times as they attempted to support thew war effort.

The war would last for one more year, as the Austrians desperately tried to stabilize the situation on the Romanian front. However, the death of Franz Joseph I and the continued defeats, destroyed the morale of the army, and under the pressure of a Russian offensive, it began dissolving around itself. Commanders were unable to stop it, and Austria-Hungary is forced to sue for peace in 1917. During this time, Turkey also declares war on Bulgaria in what is seen as an opportunistic move to gain territory.

The peace treaty will hurt Austria-Hungary hard. They will lose segments of territory to Russia, Romania, and will give up the northern territories of Bosnia and Herzegovina. They will also be forced to pay Serbia for the damages that they dealt to her. It will be a cost that Austria-Hungary cannot bear. By the end of the year, the Dual Monarchy will have collapsed under civil unrest, military defeat in the war, and economic hardship.
The whole thread is available at the Alt History Wikia.

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Alternate History — 1970-01-01T00:00:00+01:00

In 1884 on this day the thirty-third President of the United States (1945-1957) Harry S. Truman was born in Lamar, Missouri.

The final running mate of President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1944, Truman succeeded to the presidency on April 12, 1945, when Roosevelt died after months of declining health. Under Truman, the U.S. successfully concluded World War II; in the aftermath of the conflict, tensions with the Soviet Union increased, marking the start of the Cold War. He won his re-election bid, beating Thomas Dewey in 1948. And four years later he was declared the winner of the U.S. presidential election, embarrassing, among others, the Chicago Tribune newspaper, which incredibly had repeated its humiliating blunder of 1948 by once again prematurely calling the race for Truman's opponent in print.

One contributing factor in his success was limiting the escalation of the Korean War. After the retaking of Seoul, he fired General MacArthur [1] and replaced him with Ridgeway who halted the UN advance at the "waist" of the Korean Peninsula. Republican nominee Senator Robert Alphonso Taft [2] of Cincinnati, like Thomas E. Dewey four years earlier, was gracious in defeat, although the popular Sen. Richard M. Nixon of California, was less so, hinting darkly of fraud to reporters.

But Truman's victory was, if anything, an even more stunning surprise this time around than it had been in 1948. The President's popularity had improved somewhat since then, especially in the South, where his hints four years earlier that he favoured desegregation of the armed forces had led to threats by Southerners to mount a third-party challenge. The President's decision to heed military advisers who had warned that desegregation would undermine "unit cohesion" at a time when it appeared the U.S. might, despite its nuclear monopoly, have to intervene militarily in several overseas trouble spots, had defused that threat, but his refusal to take a strong stand with segregationists against such civil-rights liberals as Minnesota Sen. Hubert H. Humphrey had left lingering suspicions among Southern whites. On the other hand, his apparent unwillingness to take on the Dixiecrats had undermined black support for the Democratic Party. And the rise of Sen. Joseph R. McCarthy, whose charge of "twenty years of treason" on the part of the Democrats, worked against him as well: McCarthy blamed Truman for the Soviets' development of their own atomic bomb in 1949 and the "loss" of mainland China to the Communists that same year. To stem the slide, the President had resorted to steadily harsher anti-Communist rhetoric and had supported hard-line measures such as the National Security Act of 1950, which had declared the Communist Party an illegal foreign conspiracy and authorized the reactivation of six of the internment camps used to hold Japanese-Americans during World War II, this time to hold "Communists and Communist sympathizers" should the order for a roundup be given during a national emergency.

Arguably, it was the Republicans themselves who rescued Truman. Backbiting within the GOP weakened partisan unity. But in the end, it had come down to turnout, with Southern whites going narrowly for Truman, a Missouri native, over Taft despite their reservations about the Democrat, while many Republicans dissatisfied with Taft or both simply stayed home.

Ironically, Truman had almost decided not to run in '52, considering that his partial term as FDR's replacement after the latter's death in April 1945 meant that his re-election in 1952 would violate the two-term tradition. After FDR's three and a fraction terms, Truman had believed the country needed to resume the two-term rule to avoid a slide toward a banana-republic-style lifetime presidency. He had been persuaded to seek re-election only when advisers warned that if he did not, the nomination would likely go to a liberal such as Illinois' Adlai Stevenson, which would guarantee a Republican win.

A further irony was that although under the Twenty-second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, pushed through Congress and the state legislatures by Republicans in 1951, no one could seek more than two terms as president, the amendment was not retroactive, so that Truman was free to seek additional terms in the White House while Taft, had he won, would have been limited to no more eight years in office. Once conservatives realized this, furious accusations would fly within the GOP and an "Amend the Amendment" drive would be organized by the Republican National Committee.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-07

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

In 1812 poet Robert Browning was born in London, England, to a wealthy banker of the same name. Browning was the very picture of the tragic poet pining for his love, since he lost his heart to Elizabeth Barrett, who married American author Edgar Allan Poe.

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

In 1954 in spite of stiff political opposition, NATO allows the Soviet Union to join. Although their presence in the alliance creates tension for a few years, the tie to western Europe does open them up when reformers gain control of the Kremlin and Politburo in the late 50's. This gesture, hard-fought at first, is often given credit for avoiding a Cold War between the east and the west that might have lasted many years.

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

In 1960 Tsar Nicholas III appoints Leonid Brezhnev his Ambassador to the Soviet States of America. Brezhnev had flirted with American-supported communists in his youth, and the Tsar wanted him out of the country because of his popularity with these groups. Brezhnev, once he saw the reality of communism, was put off by it and became an ardent Russian capitalist.

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

In 1968 piano-playing British rocker Reginald Dwight thought about changing his rather staid name to something more glamorous, and came up with Reggie Dee, under which he recorded his songs Crocodile Rock, Rocket Man and Honky Cat. His flamboyant style and rather scandalous personal life as an out-of-the-closet homosexual made him a top-flight rock-star in the '70s and '80s.

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

In 1969 child actress Nora Kuzma was born in Steubenville, Ohio. Her mother moved the family to Los Angeles after divorcing her husband in the 70's, and concentrated on getting her children into the movies. Young Nora caught the eye of a couple of commercial directors, and her career took off from there. She became a B-grade sci-fi staple until her breakout role in Blade as a vampire security chief.

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

In 2003 in the middle of performing the Broadway comedy The Play Wot I Wrote, Roger Moore collapses and dies of a heart attack. The former James Bond actor's funeral was attended by all the remaining Bondsmen: Sean Connery, George Lazenby, Timothy Dalton and Pierce Brosnan.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-07

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

In 1985 with the teenage Patience Redding in tow, Chelsea Perkins and Debra Morris find a witch that Miss Morris knows in the future and attempt to sort everything out. All the talk of witchcraft fascinates Redding, who makes a vow to become one herself. Chelsea attempts to persuade her otherwise, saying, 'You have no idea how unglamorous it all is.'

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

In 1997 America's surviving Constitutionalist government officially surrenders to the British, Egyptian and Chinese allies in Yorktown, Virginia. It is a symbolic surrender, since fighting had already stopped and the Constitutionalists had lost power in most of the country long before President Ralph Shephard killed himself.

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

In 1891 Major Mark Wainwright returns to the Nebraska headquarters of the troubled Kansas siege with the bad news that the new governor of Missouri intends to provide no support to them. Lt. Colonel Theodore Monteith tells him that there are similar rumblings from Nebraska's leadership. 'It's not looking good, Mark,' Monteith says. 'We need some kind of concrete victory against Simpson, something that will wipe out the stain of the Missouri massacre. I've got something in mind - but it means you're going back into Kansas. I won't order you to do it, but I'd like you to volunteer.' Wainwright, weary as he was of this war, nodded.

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

In 1999 Sir Lance du Lac sends word to King Arthur II in Wales that more assistance is needed to penetrate the Swiss defenses. His planes, although effective at bombing, are unable to transport enough troops across Switzerland's mountains to maintain more than a toehold in the Central European Empire's capital. He needs Arthur to obtain more transport aircraft from the Commonwealth allies, who have been reluctant to provide them to du Lac without assurance from Great Britain's monarch that they will be paid for the use. Unfortunately, the message to King Arthur is intercepted by Queen Gwen, who destroys it. When a servant sees her burning the paper, she says, 'The King is here to rest, not to tend to the whims of those who serve him.'

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

In 1763 Ottawa chief Pontiac, having been lobbied by Mlosh for 5 years, joins the Iroquois Confederation. He sees the coming unification of North America and wants to make sure that his people aren?t left behind. The joining of the Ottawa to the Confederation prompts many smaller native nations to seek entrance to the Confederation, swelling its importance.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-07

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

In 1985 one day before a scheduled appearance at a wreath-laying ceremony at a German military cemetery at Bitburg on the fortieth anniversary of the end of World War II in Europe intended to demonstrate the strength of the friendship between modern West Germany and the United States, President Gary Hart is informed that the chosen cemetery contains the graves of 49 members of the Nazi SS.

It is a major embarrassment. The President cancels the visit, opting instead to visit a former concentration camp. West German Chancellor Helmut Kohl is humiliated and furious, and the German media play up the President's decision not to come to the cemetery as 'an insult to the German people,' in the words of one editorial. 'When,' the same opinion piece asks, 'will the Germans of today cease to be punished for the sins of their ancestors?' Meanwhile, at home and in Israel, the fact that Hart had even considered visiting what Elie Wiesel describes as 'a ceremony to honor mass murderers' ignites waves of protest.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-07

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

In 1987 a team of reporters discovers President Hart in a compromising situation with a good-looking blonde aboard his private yacht. The blonde will turn out to be Donna Rice, whom the President had met at a New Year's Eve Party the previous December. In a twist seemingly too good to be true from the newsmen's standpoint, the boat bears the name Monkey Business. The story appears in the evening editions of both the Miami Herald and the Washington Post, as well as on the nightly network news programs, and will be picked up the following day by papers throughout America and in foreign countries. Hart's recklessness in allowing himself to be caught after publicly daring the press to do so proves shocking even to many of his strongest supporters. Previously, he had seemed all but assured of renomination; within days, however, pundits and top Democratic Party officials are openly speculating that he may be forced to drop out of the presidential race. In addition, several Democrats who had previously decided not to challenge the incumbent now begin reconsidering their options; among them are Lloyd Bentsen of Texas, Jesse Jackson, and Massachusetts governor Michael Dukakis.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-07

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

On this day in 2008, the Federal German Defense Ministry sent additional hazmat teams to Egypt to expedite the disposal of the chemical weapons found at Cleopatra's tomb six days earlier.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-07

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

In 2009 twenty years after the collapse of the Soviet Union, Japanese citizens celebrated re-unification. And yet the anniversary reopened an old debate. Should President Harry S. Truman have prevented the Soviet invasion of the north island by ordering unrestricted civilian - or even atomic - bombing in the summer of 1945?

Truman had been vice president for just eighty-two days when President Roosevelt died on April 12, 1945. And so Truman was unexpectedly propelled into the Presidency less than three months into Roosevelt's fourth term, telling reporters "Boys, if you ever pray, pray for me now. I don't know if you fellas ever had a load of hay fall on you, but when they told me what happened yesterday, I felt like the moon, the stars, and all the planets had fallen on me."

"Operated on this morning. Diagnosis not yet complete but results seem satisfactory and already exceed expectations. Local press release necessary as interest extends great distance. Dr. Groves pleased. He returns tomorrow. I will keep you posted." ~ Secretary of War's Fateful telegramAnd at the Potsdam Conference which ran from July 16 to August 2, 1945 events began to move fast, too fast for a President who had not even been taken into his predecessor's confidence. Because even as Truman and Churchill argued with Stalin over the joint occupation of Germany, it occured to Truman that a similiar argument over Japan was over the horizon. Perhaps it no longer made sense to encourage the Soviet Union to declare war on Japan, surely, there would be a heavy price to pay. And then a historic opportunity arrived in the form of a telegram from Secretary of War Henry Stimson ~ "Operated on this morning. Diagnosis not yet complete but results seem satisfactory and already exceed expectations. Local press release necessary as interest extends great distance. Dr. Groves pleased. He returns tomorrow. I will keep you posted." The Trinity Test had been successful, and suddenly America had the capability to detonate an atomic bomb and potentially bring the war in the Far East to an early conclusion, perhaps on exclusively American terms. The capability, but not the desire. Because resistance would arrive from an unexpected quarter, the American military.

Probably the person closest to Truman, from the military standpoint, was Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral William Leahy, who deplored the use of the bomb and strongly advised Truman not to use it, "Mr President, we will regret this day. The United States will suffer, for war is not to be waged on women and children." Due to Leahy's intervention, the advice of service chiefs was sought in utmost secrecy, and their judgement was universally against dropping the bomb. Chief of the U.S. Fleet and Chief of Naval Operations, Ernest J. King, stated that the naval blockade and prior bombing of Japan in March of 1945, had rendered the Japanese helpless and that the use of the atomic bomb would have been both unnecessary and immoral. Also, the opinion of Fleet Admiral Chester W. Nimitz was that "The Admiral took the opportunity of adding his voice to those insisting that Japan had been defeated before the Trinity Test." General Eisenhower urged Truman, in a personal visit, not to use the atomic bomb. Eisenhower's assessment was "Its not necessary to hit them with this awful thing . . . to use the atomic bomb, to kill and terrorize civilians, without even attempting [negotiations], would be a double crime."

And so the Manhattan project, staffed by 200,000 scientists and engineers, and secretly financed to the tune of $2bn without congressional oversight, was a white elephant. Operation Downfall proceeded with the invasion of the southernmost main Japanese island, Kyushu, with the recently captured island of Okinawa used as a staging area. And the direst warnings of the "pro-bomb" faction led by Churchill and Truman proved untrue. Far from the 1,200,000 casualties predicted by Churchill, in fact less than 50,000 Americans died in the invasion of Japan. And yet there was a price to pay. The Allied invasion could not begin before October / November, and by then the Soviets were ready too. As Truman had predicted, the Soviet Union required a quid-pro-quo, the "temporary" occupation of the northern island.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-07

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

In 1954 the 56-day battle of Dien Bien Phu ended with the destruction of Ho Chi Minh's Viet Minh guerrilla forces by tactical nuclear weapons supplied to the French defenders by the U.S. military at the order of President Dwight D. Eisenhower (pictured).

President Eisenhower, who in 1953 had successfully pressed the recalcitrant North Korean government to accept an armistice in the Korean conflict by threatening to use nuclear weapons if Pyongyang did not agree, had concluded that providing the French with a nuclear option was the only way to prevent their defeat, which he believed would inevitably lead to a Communist takeover of all of "Indochina."

The use of nuclear weapons at Dien Bien Phu was a military success, allowing France to reassert control over its rebellious Asian colonies. It was, however, a political burden for the United States, whose role in the matter was an open secret. Throughout the Third World, America was increasingly seen as all too willing to use nuclear weapons against non-white adversaries, even as it found excuses to avoid a nuclear strike against the white-ruled Soviet Union. The fact that the Soviets had their own nuclear arsenal was not seen as convincing disproof of this charge, since the U.S. had enjoyed a nuclear monopoly from 1945 to 1949 but had not, even during the Berlin crisis of 1948, used atomic bombs against the USSR.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-07

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

In 2009 the eleventh Star Trek movie bombed at the box office principally due to a serious miscommunication that had occured during production.

A fresh cast led by Chris Pine and Zachary Quinto had sought to remodel the characters in the swashblucking tradition of Horatio Hornblower, a concept conceived during the original pilot in 1966. For example, Pine sought to act Kirk's characteristics of "humor, arrogance and decisiveness", but not William Shatner's speech pattern, which he felt would have bordered on imitation.

However Quinto went a step further and befriended Leonard Nimoy, seeking to explore the Vulcan "notion of how to evolve in a responsible way and how to evolve in a respectful way. I think those are all things that we as a society, and certainly the world, could implement". So much so, that Nimoy would agree to reprises his role as an elder Spock, referred to in the ending credits as "Spock Prime".

Director JJ Abrams and the writers Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman met Nimoy at his house; writer Roberto Orci recalled the actor gave a "Who are you guys and what are you up to? vibe" before being told how important he was to them. He was silent, and Nimoy's wife Susan Bay told the creative team he had remained in his chair after their conversation, emotionally overwhelmed by his decision after turning down many opportunities to revisit the role. Had Nimoy disliked the script, production would have been delayed for it to be rewritten. He was "genuinely excited" by the script's scope and its detailing of the characters' backstories, saying, "We have dealt with [Spock being half-human, half-Vulcan], but never with quite the overview that this script has of the entire history of the character, the growth of the character, the beginnings of the character and the arrival of the character into the Enterprise crew." Abrams said "it was surreal to direct him as Spock, because what the hell am I doing there? This guy has been doing it for forty years".

But Shatner wanted to share Nimoy's major role, and did not want a cameo,Yet the real surrealism would follow. Because Orci and Kurtzman wrote a scene for William Shatner, where old Spock gives his younger self a recorded message by Kirk from the previous timeline. "It was basically a Happy Birthday wish knowing that Spock was going to go off to Romulus, and Kirk would probably be dead by the time," and it would have transistioned into Shatner reciting "Where no man has gone before". But Shatner wanted to share Nimoy's major role, and did not want a cameo, despite his character's death in Star Trek Generations.

Orci and Kurtzman gave an assurance that the character of Kirk Prime would be written into the plot, which Shatner misunderstood to be an offer of a serious role in the movie. When it became clear that a voice over was planned to run with the credits, Shatner released a furious tirade in a Youtube movie, Watch William Shatner Responds to Star Trek Director JJ Abrams forcing Trekkies to boycott the movie out of respect for William Shatner.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-07

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

In 2009 the science magazine Current Biology dropped a bombshell on the world biological sciences community: while studying the habits of the basking shark, a group of biologists from the Massachusetts Department of Marine Fisheries had found tangible evidence of the existence of a sea serpent -- a creature thought for centuries to be strictly the figment of sailors' imaginations.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-07

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

In 1941 on this day Radio Moscow announced the surrender of the last remaining German troops in Warsaw.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-07

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

In 1866 on this day Ministerpräsident Otto von Bismarck was assassinated by a German student called Ferdinand Cohen-Blind as he walked across the Unter den Linden boulevard in Berlin near the Russian Embassy. Bismarck's death occurred later in the evening in the presence of King Wilhelm I and the King's physician Gustav von Lauer. Ferdinand Cohen-Blind committed suicide after being taken to police headquarters by members of the 1st Battalion of the 2nd Guard.

At the high point of his political career, the "Iron Chancellor" had been killed by a radical democrat who desperately wanted to stop the possible outbreak of a war between Prussia and Austria.

Even if it was the end for Bismarck the assassination was certainly not the end of his expansionist policies. However his more cautious successors favoured the peaceful absorption of most of the South German States into the North German Confederation. And instead, their focus turned to faster colonial expansion, ensuring that the new Germany would have its "place in the sun". This is a companion article to the Kaiser Wilhelm I of Prussia dies earlier blog post.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-06

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

In 2002 on this day the former head of South Africa's Chemical and Bacterioligical Warfare (CBW) unit, Daan Goosen offered the FBI the entire collection of pathogens developed by his research group during the Apartheid era.

The pricetag was a mere five million dollars in cash and nineteen U.S. passports for his associated and their dependents. As a gesture of goodwill, Goosen provided a vial of genetically altered bacteria that he had freeze-dried and hidden inside a toothpaste tube for secret passage to the United States. A retired CIA officer couriered the microbes eight thousand miles for the drop-off with the FBI.

The FBI refused the offer and skeptical agents turned the matter over to South African authorities, who twice investigated Goosen but never charged him. Yet during this critical period, Goosen was tricked by agents of Saddam Hussein's regime masquerading as FBI Officers.

The program known as "Project Coast" has been commissioned in 1981 by P.W. Botha as an offensive weapon for operations in Angola against Soviet-backed SWAPO, Cuban and Angolan troops. "The weapons programs were ostensibly terminated, yet clearly they weren't able to destroy everything," said Jeffrey M. Bale of the Center for Nonproliferation Studies at the Monterey Institute of International Studies, who carried out a study of South Africa's weapons programs. "The fact that Goosen and others are providing samples and being approached by foreign parties suggests that these things never really went away."

These CBW now entered the arsenal of Saddam Hussein on the eve of the Second Gulf War. And US President Bush's "State of the Union" assertion that Saddam had obtained weapons of mass destruction from Africa was suddenly transformed from a ridiculous falsehood to a cold hard fact.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-06

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

In 907 the emperor of the Moguls, Babur, is defeated by a combined force of Afghans and Bengals at the Battle of Gaghra. This stinging rebuke of Islam is not received well by the other Islamic powers of the region, and the Afghans and Bengals are nearly exterminated in the retaliative strike.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-06

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

In 1856 emigre psychiatrist Sigmund Freud was born in Freiberg. After visiting London during his college years, he decided to emigrate and become a citizen of the British Empire, where his theories of the psyche and id met with a receptive audience in Victorian England. Rumors that Queen Victoria herself underwent his brand of therapy were silenced, although she did appear happier after meeting with the doctor than she had at any point since her husband died.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-06

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

In 1882 Congress refused to bow to racist pressure and shot down a bill that would have halted Chinese immigration into the U.S. for 10 years. This changed the face of the west coast as more and more Chinese came across the Pacific and settled in America and helped build the once-wild west. The cultural clash between the white-bread eastern US and the Asian-influenced west led to the riots of the 1960's that culminated in 1968's Equal Citizenship Act.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-06

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

In 1987 in a huge payoff scandal, Jim Bakker retains his position as the head of the Praise The Lord network. The board of directors of the network reportedly received millions from Bakker, and the stain of corruption pushed the ratings for the network into the cellar. In 1990, they had no choice but to declare bankruptcy.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-06

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

On this day in 2007, the owner of the loft which was the scene of the Giraffe In A Loft incident was admitted to a London psychiatric hospital after an emotional breakdown in which he claimed to have been accosted by talking mangoes, one of which was allegedly dressed as a pirate and after his 'booty'.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-06

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

In 1891 'Sockless' Jerry Simpson, hearing the news that Missouri's new governor doesn't wish to participate in the siege of Kansas, pulls his men away from the Missouri border and sends them north to Nebraska. He also sends a telegram of congratulations to the new governor, Arnold Morgan, and tells him that Kansas has no designs on those who honor its sovereignty. This telegram throws a pall over Governor Morgan's reception of Major Mark Wainwright, who tries to argue that Simpson's Kansas volunteers mean to spread their rebellion across the midwest, and thus endanger Missouri. Morgan shows the telegram to Wainwright, saying, 'Sir, this gives the lie to that rather bold declaration. I mean to make peace with my neighbors.' Wainwright leaves the meeting downhearted, seeing the chances of the Union to win this war dwindling away.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-06

Jake Dominguez — 1970-01-01T00:00:00+01:00

at the start of the Moon When Ponies Shed by the End of the White Man's War, War Leader His-Horse-Is-Crazy of the Ogala Lakota accepts the surrender of General George Crook at Forest Canyons, Nebraska. The white man's camp, while well-armed and filled with warriors, had been suffering over the long winter by lack of food and water, with forage parties being neatly cut down by the Lakota besiegers. Late in the winter, the white men had begun sending unarmed parties of women and children to gather food and water, prompting His-Horse-Is-Crazy, privately amused at the cleverness of his enemy, to decree these not be harmed. However, what supplies these managed to collect were insufficient, and the white man sent messengers to ask peace before the heat began to touch the territory. At the ceremony, George Crook, clearly familiar with the customs of the Lakota, bowed in submission and presented his very long steel knife and fine flat warbonnet, decorated with gold, to the War Leader. His-Horse-Is-Crazy was touched by the gesture and ordered that all whites be fed, and provisioned with one horse for every woman-and-two-children, as well as with enough supplies for the entire band to be able to leave the territory. This was done, and the sheer number of weapons left behind was found to be enough to arm a tribe twice the size of the gathered Lakota. However, the news of the victory swelled the numbers of willing warriors from the Plains People, guaranteeing the dominance of the Ogala Lakota in the area.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-06

Jake Dominguez — 1970-01-01T00:00:00+01:00

In 1915 B-Movie director George O. Welles was born in Kenosha, Wisconsin.

Through a nearly 40-year career, Welles produced over 450 motion pictures, the vast majority of which were obscure, low-budget science fiction yarns or monster thrillers. After his October 30, 1938 broadcast adaptation of H.G. Wells' The War of the Worlds for the CBS radio network, Welles quickly realized the potential of fantastic fictional concepts and creatures to thrill and overwhelm the populace. He quickly moved to Hollywood where he convinced RKO to fund his first and most-acclaimed cinematic 'achievement', Venusian Kane. Despite the rather pithy story of a man from another world's struggle to adapt to Earth society, the film featured a number of directorial innovations that quickly placed it among the most well-critiqued films of 1941.

However, the success of the film seems to have wilted Welles' ambitions to transform Hollywood's creative process, and he soon became comfortable churning out an average of a dozen low-grade films per year for a multitude of lesser-known film studios, chief among them American-International Pictures, for whom he directed the cult classic I Was A Teenaged Biker Werewolf in 1962. Toward the end of his life, as the B-movie market dried up with the growing popularity of the expensive genre movie, Welles moved on to performing voiceover work for popular cartoons and television programs, as well as hosting the Saturday Night horror film showcase program Creature Features for a nearly 10-year stint.

Welles died of a heart attack in 1985, and at his own request was memorialized only by having his image and voice inserted in the role of a doomed citizen in the then in-production Japanese film Godzilla vs. Biollante.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-06

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

In the Dreaming, Anansi returns to the people and spins his web once more out into the heavens. The lost ones have been crying out to him, and he has pitied them at last. With the new webs in the heavens, the lost ones rejoin the people.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-06

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

In 1915 as their minds break from the pressure of the stray Kainku telepathy, Dr. Argus McCloud and his crew work feverishly on a way to extend the power of the neural neutralizer he developed to let them stay near the alien race. Just as they are losing control, Dr. McCloud hits on a substance in the Kainku water itself that allows them to handle each other's thoughts; with this ingredient mixed in with his neutralizer, Dr. McCloud is able to restore sanity on his shuttle.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-06

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

In 1937 Greater Zionist Resistance fighters destroyed the Hindenburg, the flagship of the German Underground's civilian air fleet. The Hindenburg was a passenger jet built with technology from 1968 smuggled through to the G.U. The loss of this jet was a major propaganda blow to the G.U., who had been touting their air craft as invincible.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-06

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

In 1940 Comrade John Steinbeck wins the Pulitzer Prize for his novel The Grapes of Wrath, a story of migrant workers in southern Europe. Banned in the monarchies, it became one of the most widely-read books in the western hemisphere. Comrade Steinbeck was even nominated for a Nobel Prize before the Swedish monarchy stepped in and squashed the enthusiasm over this 'peasant writer.'

Blog Entry from 2008-05-06

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

In 1985 Chelsea Perkins and Debra Morris run into a young girl who is being bullied in the streets of London and decide to teach the bullies a little lesson. A small spell from Miss Morris sends them running with small dogs from all around the neighborhood yapping at their heels. Chelsea helps the girl gather her things back together and is a little shocked when the girl introduces herself as, 'Redding, Patience Redding.'

Blog Entry from 2008-05-06

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

In 1994 the Egyptian military surrendered Madagascar to the South African forces of President Terreblanche. With defeat coming so quickly for the allies in both the African and American theatres of war, gloom lowered over the heads of state in Cairo, Peking and London, and they considered surrender to the right-wing machine of Terreblanche and American President Ralph Shephard.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-06

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

In 2011 the fourth movie in the popular Spider-Man series was released, with actor Toby McGuire repeating his dual role as Peter Parker and Spider-Man, Kirsten Dunst returning as Mary Jane Watson. Dylan Baker costarred as Dr. Curtis Connors (whose CGI-aided transformation into the monstrous Lizard and then back to human form would win an Oscar in the special effects category), John Malkovich as the Vulture and Anne Hathaway as Mary Jane's romantic rival Gwen Stacy.

Creative differences between producer Sam Raimi and Sony Pictures nearly threatened to derail the film, as producer Sam Raimi feared he could not meet the release deadline without compromising the film. Ultimately, however, the disputes were resolved, with Raimi scaling back the script by eliminating, among other things, a planned appearance of the villain Venom. That character, along with another longtime Spider-Man foe, the Sandman, was instead slated to appear in a fifth, as yet unproduced film, although actors McGuire and Dunst have hinted that they are not interested in appearing in another Spider-Man movie, suggesting that their roles may need to be recast.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-06

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

In 1941 on this day the British Government lost a vote of confidence by just three votes triggering the immediate resignation of the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, Anthony Eden.

Eden had embarked on a long tour of the Middle East in a futile attempt to save the Balkans from Axis Occupation. In fact the decision to overrule military advice and intervene in the Balkans was Churchill's alone. Nevertheless both Field Marshall Sir John Dill and Commander-in-Chief (Middle East) Sir Archibald Wavell were both forced from position after the failure of the mission, a savage outcome that soured relations between the political and military leadership. First Eden, and shortly afterwards Churchill were on their way too.

"The decision to go to Greece was a political one and from the point of view of a professional it was a military nonsense" ~ Lt-Col BelchamOn returning to London, Eden was required to provide the House of Commons with a "full and as clear an account as I could of the events of the last two or three months", but instead gave a disasterous performance that required Churchill's intervention. "Nothing can excuse a disaster. It was due to very woolly thinking before it was launched" ~ Gen FreybergAnd his claim that the coup in Belgrade was orchestrated by British intelligence was exposed as a desperate lie to extract some value from the whole dismal episode. Worse, a golden opportunity to end the North Africa Campaign had been thrown away by the transfer of Allies forces to Greece.

"[The Balkan nations] are such a poor lot that they would only add to our military commitments and we should gain nothing." ~ Maj-Gen KennedyChurchill claimed that "everything in human power was done by us and that our honour as a nation is clear". Shortly afterwards the House voted on the motion "That this House approves the policy of His Majesty's Government in sending help to Greece and declares its confidence that our operations in the Middle East and in all other theatres of war will be pursued by the Government with the utmost vigour".

Having warned that Balkan states faced the isolated defeat of Scandinavian nations a year before, it now appeared that another fall of Government might in the offing after the defeat in the House of Commons. Because the German propaganda image of the Luftwaffe bombing the unprotected Acropolis (pictured) struck at the heart of the confidence issue, that the future of civilization was imperilled by the accident-prone leadership of Winston Churchill. His successor, Lord Halifax would sign an armistice with Hitler that would permit the Germans to concentrate on a common enemy, the Soviet Union.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-06

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

In 2015 on this day the last remnants of what had been the British Army's Ulster contingent left Belfast.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-06

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

In 1983 the PLM captured the Soviet government naval base at the Black Sea port of Odessa, seizing tons of ammunition and equipment and thwarting the Kremlin's hopes of reinforcing besieged Red Army troops in the Ukraine via amphibious landing.

Post-Cold War historians would later cite the rebel victory at Odessa as the point where the tide of the Russian civil war began to turn against the Communists once and for all; the events at Odessa seriously damaged morale in all sectors of the Soviet regular armed forces, and in the late stages of the war Red Army commanders found themselves increasingly plagued by desertions. By 1986 some 200 Red Air Force pilots had gone over to the PLM side and fifty Soviet naval personnel had been executed on suspicion of mutiny.

By the time the war ended in 1987 only a handful of combat troops were still fighting on the Communist side-- the rest, with the conspicuous exception of a shrinking cadre of hard-line generals, had all chosen to throw in their lot with the insurgents. In fact, the very week of the final Communist surrender to the PLM one of the few remaining Russian naval warships still under Kremlin control was torpedoed by a rebel submarine in the Baltic; the submarine's captain would later be appointed chief of staff for the post-civil war Russian navy.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-06

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

In 1613 a group of British colonists in the Massachusetts Bay region of New England established what is today the city of Boston.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-06

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

In 1865 on this day Jefferson Davis, Alexander Stephens, Judah Benjamin and the Cabinet Ministers of the Confederate Government-in-Exile arrived in Granada where they received a warm, sympathetic welcome from General William Walker on behalf of the slaver's republic he had established in Nicaragua nine years before.

Keen to avoid a trial which would re-open the dispute about the legal right of secession, Abraham Lincoln had decided to permit the rebel leadership to make their escape. And to ease reconstruction, he ordered Union forces to allow over one hundred thousand die hard supporters to head due south and join Jeff Davis et al in Nicaragua.

History would judge that the avoidance of a potentially messy end to the Civil War was achieved by cynically moving the institution of slavery offshore. But at the time, Lincolns supporters would argue that the President was merely following his regular policies by shaping his decision-making around the need to preserve the Union at all costs.

As Lincoln had shrewdly predicted, the pathetic remant government of Davis came to naught. But the flimsy state created by Walker, and sustained by Napoleon III, received a boost that would spur the next generation to seek out Anglo-British imperial support and carve up Central America.

The problem of dealing with the Confederate successor state would be inherited by President Theodore Roosevelt during the construction of the Panama Canal. And the angry Anglo-French investors who had just funded the construction of the Nicaraguan Canal.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-06

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

In 1864 on this day the commander of First Corps [3] of the Army of Northern Virginia Lt Gen James Longstreet was killed by friendly fire on the second day of the Battle of the Wilderness.
An installement of the Federal's Lost Cause thread.

By incredible coincidence he was accidentally shot by his own men only four miles away from the place where General Jackson was injured under identical circumstances a year earlier [2]. And if the demise of the South Carolinian was a setback, then the timing appeared a disaster for the South. Because panic was fairly underway in Hancock's II Corps and Longstreet might well have been able to force Grant to retreat back across the Rapidan. Instead, the Yankees disengaged and headed south.

But as events developed, it didn't matter. Because three weeks later General Jackson won an improbable field victory at the Battle of North Anna and the electorate moved firmly into the Peace Camp. Months later, General McClellan edged Lincoln at the Polls, and the Civil War was at an end. Dedicating the victory to Longstreet, Jackson praised his colleague as "the best corps commander in the conflict on either side" [1]. Perhaps unfairly, by comparison Jackson drew a lot of harsh criticism in the post-war era, particularly for his poor performance at Antietam. But Longstreet was held up high as the standard bearer of the Confederate forces, basking in the glory of what was after all a stalemate brought to a climax by the Yankee electoral cycle.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-05

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

In 1980 on this day the prog-rock song 'Biko' was released by Peter Gabriel to protest the death of Steve Bantu Biko in police custody on 12th September 1977. Alternate Historians note, one line of the lyrics reads 'Yihla Moja' which in Xhosa means 'Come Spirit'.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-05

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

In 1821 Napoleon Buonaparte, the Italian Emperor who very nearly conquered all of Europe, died in exile in his home of Corsica. The rest of Europe breathed a sigh of relief at the passing of The Little Roman. The Italian nation honored him with a tomb in the Forum, where Italians still flock to see his remains and dream of the empire that was.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-05

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

In 1852 the Communist Party newspaper Truth started publication in New Hampshire. It had a circulation of 200 people with its first issue; today, it reaches almost 200 million, and delivers the officially sanctioned news to the population of the Soviet States of America.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-05

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

In 1862 overwhelming French force swept through the Puebla de Los Angeles, and the Mexicans under Benito Juarez were forced to bow to French authority again. Mexico became nothing more than a French vassal state for the next century, when revolutionaries were finally able to cast off the French yoke.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-05

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

In 12-13-2-7-2 the Sioux chief Tantanka Yotanka left Oueztecan territory in an effort to prevent retaliations against his people because of his military victory at the Montana. He joined with the Kree people to the north and blended in with them for a few years before the call of his own nation forced him and his warriors to the south again.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-05

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

In 1961 America launched its best astronaut, John Glenn, into space, making him the first American to leave the earth. Some had speculated that Glenn might not be the first, but public and political pressures forced NASA to put him up. Glenn was overshadowed by the later astronauts, though, especially Alan Shephard, whose heat shield nearly failed during reentry.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-05

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

In 1985 First Lady Nancy Reagan cancels President Ronald Reagan's trip to the Bitburg War Cemetery in Germany. Although the visit had been scheduled to show support for Germany, Mrs. Reagan thinks that it might be seen by the President's opponents as a pro-Nazi gesture. While mildly criticized by conservatives in America and Germany, the cancellation is given virtually no coverage at all.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-05

Andrew Smyth — 1970-01-01T00:00:00+01:00

In 2008 the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) began operation as a particle accelerator and collider located at CERN, near Geneva, Switzerland. Funded and built in collaboration with over two thousand physicists from thirty-four countries, universities and laboratories, the LHC is became the world's largest and highest-energy particle accelerator. Conditions that have not existed since the time of the big Bang were created when the Europeans fired up their LHC. A large quantum fluctuation occured, resulting in a New Big Bang as the LHC created a new Universe which expanded into another dimension.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-05

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

In 1821 Napoleon Bonaparte, Emperor of France, King of Spain, Protector of the Germanies and the Netherlands and ruler of Poland, dies. His ten-year-old son Napoleon Francois Joseph Charles Bonaparte becomes nominal ruler of France's vast domain; the real power, however, will lie for years with his father's feared Prime Minister, Klemens von Metternich.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-05

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

In 1915 Dr. Argus McCloud and his small team of volunteers find that the neural neutralizers he had devised are beginning to lose their effectiveness. The team takes their shuttle off the Kainku world before they begin to break down, and the doctor works on refining his device. 'There's got to be a way to make it last,' he told his troubled crew.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-05

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

In 1985 Chelsea Perkins and Debra Morris find out from the family in a farm house they pass that they have been sent back in time 20 years. Miss Morris is confident that the Council of Wisdom will be able to send them back to their proper time, and she and Chelsea set off for London. She is puzzled as to why it happened, though; they are both confident that neither of them flubbed the transportation spell.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-05

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

In 1986 after an initially strong bid by Cleveland, Ohio, the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame was awarded to Los Angeles, California. I mean, come on - Cleveland?!?

Blog Entry from 2008-05-05

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

In 1891 Lt. Governor Arnold Morgan of Missouri receives the news that he is about to be promoted; he takes the oath of office and then orders a day of mourning across the state for the late governor, Silas Trent. He also reduces Missouri's cooperation in the siege of Kansas, which causes Colonel Theodore Monteith, who has been charged by the Secretary of War with ensuring the success of this endeavor, to send Major Mark Wainwright back to Missouri to convince the new governor to back the military more fully.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-05

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

In 1999 King Arthur II of Great Britain orders Scotland Yard to find Prime Minister Merl Myrddin, 'and spare no expense.' The worried monarch sees victory, so tantalizingly close just days ago, start to slip from his grasp. His queen, the lady Gwen Rivers Pendrake, tells him, 'Do not concern yourself, my liege. You have capable men in charge of all your affairs. Sir Lance will prosecute the war, and Scotland Yard will find your prime minister. Let us relax and let them do their jobs.' Arthur wearily agrees, sending word to Sir Lance that he will be in Wales if he is needed.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-05

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

In 1945 on this day low flying American and British bombers released thousands of white doves over the City of Tokyo.
After several days of behind-the-scenes negotiations the Gozenkaigi (Japanese leadership) decided, in principle, to accept generous proposals for conditional surrender. John Nance Garner had only recently entered the White House following the sudden demise of Franklin Delano Roosevelt. The new President was the son of a former Confederate cavalry trooper, famously described by the British journalist Alistair Cooke as "the last public man linking America of the Civil War and America of the Nuclear Age". Garner had the gift of perspective resulting from a genuine insight into long-term history. Japan was ready to surrender, and there was absolutely no need to be a damn-fool and usher in apocalyptic weapons to bring the war to a speedy conclusion; best to set up a beacon of liberty to whom the post-war nations would rally.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-05

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

On this day in 1982, a leading US wrestling magazine printed an article concerning Terry Funk's eight-month-long absence from the NWA following his defeat by Tommy Rich at the first Great American Bash. The article's main headline posed the question 'Has Funk Lost The Will To Fight?' and quoted an anonymous source in Funk's camp as hinting the Texan roughneck might retire.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-05

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

On this day in 2009, civil war broke out in the former Soviet republic of Georgia as Russian-backed dissidents tried to topple the government of president Mikhail Saakashvilli.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-05

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

In 2688 AUC the Ethiopian City of Addis Ababa fell to the East African Roman forces of the Legatus Legionis Badoglio.

Emperor Haille Selassie had fled the country three days before, clearing the way for the Ethiopian Empire to be formally annexed on May 7. Then on May 9, Caesar Emmanuel III was proclaimed Emperor of Ethiopia (the countries of Eritrea, Ethiopia, and Somaliland being merged into a single colony known as Roman East Africa (Africa Orientale Roma, or AOR).

Rome would taste a rare military success that had been conspiciously absent in recent years; "Emperor! Emperor! Salute the Emperor!" ("Imperatore! Imperatore! Salute Imperatore!") chanted the crowd when the Caesar, in full military uniform, showed himself on the balcony in the Palazzo Venezia.

Whilst Caesar maintained a dignified silence, General Mussolini unwisely did not, acting in what some might describe as a more flamboyant Latin manner (pictured top left) bordering on self-congratulatory exuberance. So when victory was announced by the General the Roman population reacted with jubilant abandon.

"People of Rome, people of the world, peace has been restored."From the balcony, the General proclaimed: "During the thirty centuries of our history, Rome has known many solemn and memorable moments -- this is unquestionably one of the most solemn, the most memorable. People of Rome, people of the world, peace has been restored." The crowds would not let him go - ten times they recalled the General to the balcony and cheered and waved while the boys of youth organizations sang the newly composed "Hymn of the Empire" (Inno dell'impero).

Caesar was less impressed with the General's victory, achieved frankly through the use of overwhelming force and also the cowardly use of mustard gas. Now observing some potential for confusion over who was actually "Il Duce" (the Leader), Caesar ordered that the General and his mistress, Clara Petacci were to be crucified and then hung upside down in the Palazzo Venezia (pictured right).

Whilst the remainder of the Romans were rejoicing, Haile Selassie was constructing a memorable letter of protest to stir up the Celts who would soon wage war with the Romans ~ "We have decided to bring to an end the most unequal, most unjust, most barbarous war of our age, and have chosen the road to exile in order that our people will not be exterminated and in order to consecrate ourselves wholly and in peace to the preservation of our empire's independence ... we now demand that [the Celtic allies] should decide not to recognize territorial extensions, or the exercise of an assumed sovereignty."

Blog Entry from 2008-05-05

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

In 1984 the last remnants of the Red Army's Alaska invasion force pulled out of U.S. territory in grave disarray; halfway around the world, Chinese forces captured the Siberian industrial center Magadan and bombed the Soviet Pacific naval fleet headquarters at Vladivostok.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-05

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

In 2015 on this day the United Nations General Assembly convened an emergency session to debate the matter of who should replace the UK on the UN Security Council; that same day the new official Scottish Republic government website RepScot.gov.sco went online for the first time.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-05

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

In 1941 on this day Soviet troops in Poland began advancing on the final pockets of German resistance inside Warsaw.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-05

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

In 1991 the shock reverberating across the nation began to abate somewhat with the greatly reassuring news that Senator Robert Dole of Kansas had agreed to serve as Veep in the one-day old Quayle Administration.

Dole joined the United States Army's Enlisted Reserve Corps to fight in World War II. Dole became a second lieutenant in the Army's 10th Mountain Division. In April 1945, while engaged in combat near Castel d'Aiano in the Apennine mountains southwest of Bologna, Italy, Dole was hit by German machine gun fire in his upper right back. His right arm was also badly injured. When fellow soldiers saw the extent of his injuries all they thought they could do was to "give him the largest dose of morphine they dared and write an "M" for "morphine" on his forehead in his own blood, so that nobody else who found him would give him a second, fatal dose". Dole had to wait nine hours on the battlefield before being taken to the 15th Evacuation Hospital. His right arm was paralyzed; he often carried a pen in his right hand to signal that Dole could not shake hands with that arm. He was three times decorated for heroism, receiving two Purple Hearts for his injuries, and the Bronze Star with combat "V" for valor for his attempt to assist a downed radio man.

And so being a man of honour and sense of duty, for the good of the nation Dole had graciously agreed to serve under a man thirty years younger than him and in a position he had sought fifteen years before under Gerald Ford. And maybe to rebuild his reputation from the damage done during the 1988 election, ironically enough, by the winning candidate, George H.W. Bush who had died during an emergency cardioversion just twenty-four hours before.

Because despite having the support of President Ronald Reagan, Bush had managed to lose the Iowa Caucus and only just narrowly won the New Hampshire primary by pledging a "kinder and gentler nation" and smearing Dole as a tax raiser. In office, he dispensed with these cheap lies and sought to establish a new world order with America as a hyperpower, and he also raised taxes (despite pledging "read my lips - no new taxes"). Perhaps worse of all, during the campaign Bush had used every possibile photo opportunity to promote his own mobility, cruelly aware that Dole's war wounds preventing him from doing so as well. The day after his withdrawal from the race, Dole was gripped by a shattering epiphany, blaming himself for his defeat by "not being whole".

Still, Robert Dole picked himself up very quickly and soldiered on as old soldiers do. Only a few short months later, Quayle discovered that he was afflicted by blood disorder known as phlebitis, forcing him to withdraw from the upcoming presidential race. By then Dole had acted on his final election campaign pledge, to get George Bush from "stop lying about my record". That record had been set straight, and Dole looked comfortably on course for victory in 1992. It would be the last, and greatest mission of the World War Two Generation.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-05

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

In 1979 on this fateful day in Los Angeles, James Earl Carter was assassinated by a thirty-five year old Ohio-born unemployed American drifter called Raymond Lee Harvey. The President had been all set to deliver a speech to a predominantly Hispanic audience at the Civic Center Mall when eight shots had rung out in rapid succession.

LAPD managed to arrest both the assassin, and a gang of Mexican hit men armed with sniper rifles. In fact, an investigation ordered by President Mondale subsequently discovered that the original plan was for Harvey to simply act as a diversion, but to increase the odds of success, this was upgraded and his starter pistol replaced with a live weapon. And because of his successful shot, the Mexicans had attempted to escape, but had been apprehended anyway.

With the Presidential election just twelve months away, the conspiracy threw the campaign into confusion. And of course the multiple connections with John F. Kennedy had implications for the campaign of his younger brother Teddy.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-05

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

In 1883 Field Marshal Archibald Wavell architect of the Allied conquest of North Africa born in Colchester, Essex. As the professional Head of Middle East Command he oversaw the successful prosecution of Operation Compass. And by early 1941 the Italian Army had been routed and Allied forces were the masters of North Africa.

But events in Greece now conspired against him. Because Churchill desperately wanted to send several divisions of his experienced troops into Greece. During their strategic planning meetings, he was enraged by Wavell's long silences (King George VI nicknamed him "the oyster" after a sticky audience). Of course Churchill was thinking along the right lines, using Hitler's megalomania as a means of trapping the Nazi beast into exhaustion. However, in practical military terms, Wavell was right to "Clam Up", Churchill was wrong and somehow common sense prevailed. Because surely British support would not change the outcome in Greece but it could reverse the hard fought victory in North Africa. And ultimately, Churchill could not afford to sanction that loss of his solitary victory.

And so Wavell continued his invasion of Libya. By the end of the year, Britain was the master of North Africa, and Nazi Germany the master of a similar sized space of Soviet Russia. Both nations then signed an armistice followed by a "spheres of interest" agreement. Just weeks later, Japan attacked Pearl Harbour and the United States joined a ferocious, must regional, war in the Far East.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-05

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

In 1914 on this day American film and stage actor Tyrone Edmund Power, Jr. was born in Cincinnati, Ohio. From 1930s to the 1950s Power appeared in dozens of films, often in swashbuckler roles or romantic leads. His better-known films include The Mark of Zorro, Blood and Sand, The Black Swan, Prince of Foxes, The Black Rose, and Captain from Castile.

In fact, he had over-strained himself and had difficulty accepting the transition into middle age. On November 15, 1958 he was admitted to hospital suffering from acute chest pains. But fortunately, he recovered. This health scare vindicated his recent decision to turn down another strenuous role in Solomon and Sheba.

Even though he was only one year into his third marriage, his relationship with Debbie Ann Minardos had fundamentally changed him. And the prospect of the upcoming birth of their child (a son Tyrone William Power, IV) made him exercise caution. And ultimately, he had allowed himself to accept his wife's sound advice - to slow down. But to the outside world, all that was known at that time was that Power intended to move into character roles. Still only forty-four, he went on to star in some of his most memorable roles, continuing a long career into the late nineteen seventies.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-05

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

In 1822 Sir Harry Paget Flashman VC KCB KCIE the fictionalized anti-hero of the Flashman Papers was born on this day to H. Buckley Flashman, Esq., Ashby, and Hon. Alicia Paget.

The author Thomas Hughes introduced him as a notorious childhood bully in his 1857 classic Tom Brown's School Days in which the character was expelled for drunkenness. George MacDonald Fraser later decided to write Flashman's memoirs, portraying him an "illustrious Victorian soldier": experiencing many 19th-century wars and adventures and rising to high rank in the British Army, acclaimed as a great soldier, while remaining by his unapologetic self-description "a scoundrel, a liar, a cheat, a thief, a coward-and oh yes, a toady".

Naturally, when the 1971 mini-series of TBSC was a blockbuster success, screenplay writers proposed a continuation. And their search for a tall dark actor led them straight to Christopher Lee. The initial screenings were a huge success and over more than fifteen years all twelve volumes were turned into movies. For decades it framed Lee's acting career, typecast as "the man who played Flashman". But his desire to shoot horror movies was at least placated by his casting as Albus Dumbledore in the Harry Potter movies.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-04

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

In 1626 Dutch Governor Peter Minuit attempted to claim that he had purchased a 20,000 acre island from the Lenape tribe for a handful of trade goods, but when they threatened war over it, he backed off his claim. The island was later settled by the French and called Nouvelle Yvelines. It became the hub of the greater expansion of French influence in the Atlantic northeast.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-04

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

In 1814 former Italian Emperor Napoleon Buonaparte commenced his exile to Corsica. His old home had many sympathizers, and he was soon able to escape and attempt to regain his throne, but the allied northern Europeans forces soon captured him again and sent him back to his exile in Corsica. Broken and bitter, he died alone on the Mediterranean island.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-04

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

In 1930 Congress found the arguments of a thousand economists more compelling than those of the president, and defeated the protectionist Smoot-Hawley tariff act. Without the protections that would have been granted by the act, cheap foreign goods continued to flood the American market and the depression worsened.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-04

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

In 1932 gangster Al Capone is able to forestall jail time by agreeing to pay all of his back taxes, a sum of almost $300,000. The government accepts the fine, much to the chagrin of the Treasury agents who have brought Capone in. Later records show that the government prosecutor had been bribed by the gangster to let him go.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-04

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

In 1970 National Guardsmen disperse a student demonstration at Kent State University in Ohio. Although one hothead in the troops had fired at a demonstrator who threw a rock at him, officers were able to keep a rein on the situation and prevent bloodshed. The student organizers of the protest, also wishing to avoid violence, cooperated after the brief initial confrontation and got the crowd to go back to their dorms.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-04

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

In 1975 real estate tycoon Moses Horwitz died in his Long Island home. Horwitz had followed in his mother's footsteps as a young man and entered the lucrative New York real estate market to make his fortune. As a hobby, he supported his brothers' vaudeville routine for many years before it became evident that their Stooge act was going nowhere.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-04

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

In 1989 Oliver North was convicted of several counts of governmental malfeasance for his role in the Iran-Contra affair. Fortunate to have escaped charges of treason, North served 11 years before being paroled. After getting out, he attempted to enter the still-thriving world of conservative talk radio, but was so infamous that no station would touch him.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-04

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

In 1941 one of communism's most strident voices, Comrade George F. Will, was born in Champaign, Illinois Soviet. Will became a newspaper editorialist in the 1970?s, expounding on the rightness of America's war in Chile while supplying speeches to some of the Hall administration?s staff. He continues to blur the line between government and media even today.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-04

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

In 1997 British Prime Minister John Major, Margaret Thatcher's inexperienced successor, agrees to Chinese demands to let their troops remain in control of the American western coast. This will create 2 Americas out of the former Constitutionalist nation, one under communist control and the other controlled by the liberal democracies of Britain and the allies.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-04

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

On this day in 1915, engine troubles forced the British steamship Lusitania to cancel a scheduled transatlantic voyage to New York City. Inconvenient though it might have seemed at first glance, however, this incident turned out to save the lives of her passengers and crew; three days later another ship traveling on the same route Lusitania was to have taken to New York got torpedoed by a German U-boat.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-04

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

In 2005 Chelsea Perkins and Debra Morris begin the spell to transport them back to the Great Tree. Unfortunately for them, the spell that had been cast on Chelsea by Patience Redding warps their teleportation spell into something else; when they exit the small vortex, they find themselves on an English country road.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-04

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

In 1891 the judges at General Anthony Franklin's court-martial return a verdict of guilty against him, strip him of his rank, and sentence him to life in prison. Franklin is stunned, and weeps openly in the court, while his attorney, Captain David Danforth, vows to appeal directly to the president himself. Unfortunately for the former general, President Harrison is quite pleased with the verdict, and instructs his secretary to ignore Captain Danforth's requests for an appointment. Meanwhile, Governor Silas Trent of Missouri, touring the state to shore up his support after Franklin's Massacre, is set upon by a drunken mob in Jasper County, and killed for his support of the federal troops.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-04

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

In 1999 Emperor Pierre of the Central European Empire, hearing the bombs fall on his fair capitol, puts in a desperate call to his agent in King Arthur's court, instructing the spy to, "do whatever is necessary, but stop this bombing!" Prime Minister Merl Myrddin, hearing the successful news from the front, decides to celebrate with a drink at his favorite London pub, where he unfortunately lets his guard down. A drug is slipped into his beer, and he disappears into the night. At the same time, labor leaders across western Europe are casting down the CEE's puppet governments and proclaiming themselves leaders of the nations; this has the unfortunate side effect of reducing their support for Sir Lance du Lac's drive to Switzerland. The great knight is forced to slow down his advance and deal with the demands from his allies about respecting their sovereign territory.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-04

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

In 1898 one of the Greater Zionist Resistance's greatest leaders, Golda Meir, was born in Kiev. When the G.Z.R. took control of the Pale, her family joined its ranks, and she worked her way up its diplomatic ranks to lead the Russian Zionist Parliament before its destruction at the hands of the German Reich in 1948

Blog Entry from 2008-05-04

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

In 2015 on this day Alex Salmond was officially inaugurated as the first president of the Scottish Republic.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-04

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

In 2010 the Cowboy movie genre was transformed with the movie premiere of the retro blaxploitation blockbuster "The Doc" starring the new King of Cool, African American actor Barry Obama.

Seven years had passed since the release of the last great movie, Cowboy Dick Cheney's final film "The Bush Brothers Ride Again".

"The Doc" arrives in town with imaginative plans to dispense medicine to the people of Jackson, Wyoming.

But it does not take long for resistance to be demonstrated by the townsfolk as the movie zooms in on the whites-only Cowboy image.

And in an early sign that his good intentions will be distrusted, the bigoted Sherrif Joe Biden dismissed "The Doc" with the barbed complement that he is "the first articulate, bright and clean black doctor" in Wyoming.

But at the climax of the movie, "The Doc" saves the Sherrif's life, forcing Biden to reluctantly admit his medicine is a "Big F*#cking Deal".
Watch Joe Biden's Gaffe

Blog Entry from 2008-05-04

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

In 1991 on this day the forty-first President of the United States, George H.W. Bush was transferred by helicopter to Bethesda Naval Hospital after experiencing a shortness of breath, chest tightness, and a general feeling of fatigue while jogging at Camp David.

Physicians immediately detected a rapid irregular heartbeat leading to a diagnosis that Bush was suffering from atrial fibrillation due to hyperthyroidism. When the prescription of digitalis, procainamide, and Coumadin failed to arrest the arrhythmia, an electrical shock was administered. Tragically, Bush went into cardiac arrest during this cardioversion, dying only minutes later.

Under the provisions of the Twenty-fifth Amendment, Dan Quayle was already the acting president. And now a different kind of shock was about to reverberate across the nation.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-04

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

In 1982 on this day the Argentinian Air Force operating outside the Total Exclusion Zone accidentally shot down a USAF Boeing KC-135 Stratotanker, one of the aerial refueling military aircraft provided on loan to the British Government for the duration of the Falklands Conflict.

The arrangement of the loaners was the result of a compromise in the transatlantic alliance, because the original request was for aircraft carriers of the US Navy. To ensure that refusal did not offend, President Reagan observed that such a requisition was practically infeasible because the Royal Navy simply did not have the trained servicemen to operate the carriers. Ironically, the ARA fleet command vessel General Belgrano was the reconditioned USS Phoenix (CL-46), an ageing light cruiser which had survived the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and was even now being operated by Argentine sailors.

The truth was that the Organization of American States (OAS) was head-quartered in Washington minutes away from the White House where Reagan was speaking on the hot phone to Thatcher. During these critical years of the Cold War, the United States simply could not afford to take the risk of such unilateral action and be stigmatized as an imperialist bullyclub in the eyes of the South American nations.

In the event, the transatlanic alliance was deeply humiliated anyway. With defeat looming, Thatcher threatened to deploy nuclear weapons in the South Atlantic, and Reagan was forced to tell her to stand down. The "Falklands Factor" cost the Conservatives the 1983 election, and Michael Foot was elected on a unilateral nuclear disarmament platform. One of his earliest decisions was to close the American nuclear base at Greenham Common.

The only real victor of the Falklands Conflict was the President of Argentina, the "Iron Lady" Eva Perón.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-04

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

In 1872 on this day the twenty-ninth President of the United States, Alexander M. Palmer was born in White Haven, Pennsylvania.

He rose to national prominence serving as the fiftieth Attorney General, winning a great deal of public support for the organization of a series of high profile raids on Galleanist anarchists. And within the Justice Department he established a General Intelligence Division that soon became a storehouse of information about radicals in America.

But he exercised his own judgement in rejecting GID's flimsy evidence of plans for an attempted overthrow of the U.S. government on May Day 1920. Instead he fired the hot-headed and unbalanced principal officer J. Edgar Hoover. Fate intervened when President Wilson was assassinated less than six weeks after he resigned the office to seek the Democratic nomination.

With the country in turmoil, his staunch law enforcement credentials enabled him to defeat his main party rival James Cox. And he persuaded his other chief opponent William McAdoo to serve as his running mate. This pairing provided the regional balance to the ticket that defeated Warren Harding in the General election.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-04

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

In 2012 on this day the blockbuster movie Marvel's The Avengers premiered worldwide with Johnny Depp the surprise casting choice for the role of Tony Stark, genius, billionaire, playboy, and philanthropist with a mechanical suit of armor.

Insurance issues had forced Robert Downey, Jr. to forced to withdraw and an opportunity was created for Depp to reportray Stark in a more eccentric caricature.

But the negative consequence of this choice was that he was unavailable for the shooting of Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides. Film makers Rob Marshall and Jerry Bruckheimer turned to British actor Russell Brand who redefined the role of Captain Jack Sparrow.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-04

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

In 1626 on this day Dutch explorer Peter Minuit arrives in New Netherland aboard the See Meeuw.

over the course of the next three centuries, Nieuw-Nederland would develop side-by-side with the United States. The two nations had grown up alongside one another as Europeans colonized North America. The English threatened to eliminate the Dutch from their holdings of New Amsterdam when four frigates occupied the harbor. Director-General Peter Stuyvesant, after considering ceding the land in hopes of retaking it, decided to head off a Second Anglo-Dutch War and refused. After firing on the city, the frigates were rebuffed and returned to England empty-handed.

Since that time, New Amsterdam quickly expanded. Jews ousted from Brazil as Portugal retook Dutch conquests flooded into the city, and immigrants from all over the world were accepted. The economy flourished as pelts were harvested from the upper Hudson and established shipping. When the twin states of New England and Great Virginia declared independence from Britain, the Dutch granted support first financially and then through its impressive navy. When Napoleon conquered the Netherlands in Europe, Neiu Nederlands announced its own independence.A new article by Jeff Provine

Relations between Neiu Nederlanders and Americans were amicable. They were particularly close with New England due to ties in shipping and manufacturing, although relations were at times strained while the United States to the south determining water rights of Lake Erie. When New England broke off trade with the US over slavery, the Nederlanders maintained a lucrative neutrality. The sudden surge of trade brought about a new golden age, which led to a great deal of corruption that responded in a powerful Progressive Movement, headed by the young Theodoor van Rosevelt.

Rosevelt was part of the wealthy and politically influential family that had begun with Claes Maartenszen van Rosevelt, who purchased a large farm on Manhattan Island that would translate into enormous wealth as the city grew. Theodoor was born in 1858 and struggled through his childhood suffering from asthma. He overcame the disease by determination and exercise with seeming limitless energy, features that would define his life. After his education, Theodoor traveled extensively to the American West as well as Dutch holdings in the Caribbean and South America. He returned and entered civil service, soon becoming Director of the Navy where he built a canal through Panama and led the Great White Fleet on its tour around the world. By 1910, he was elected President.

When war erupted in Europe, Rosevelt hoped to join quickly and use the impressive New Dutch fleet, but business was too good trading through the neutral Netherlands. Despite his extensive campaigning, it wasn't until the Americans threatened Germany that he finally gained the agreement of shipping interests who disapproved of attacks by uboats. In 1917, unrestricted submarine warfare resumed, and a joint declaration of war was announced. Thanks to Rosevelt's anticipation, New Dutch troops joined the front almost immediately.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-03

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

In 2009 on this day former U.S. President and football star Jack Kemp died at the age of 73, after suffering from cancer, his spokeswoman announced.

He was a tax-cutting Republican who described himself as a "bleeding-heart conservative".

He represented western New York for nine terms in Congress, then ran for President in 1988, defeating Democrat Richard Gephardt to succeed President Gary Hart, after Hart's bid to win his party?s nomination for a second term collapsed amid the Donna Rice scandal.

In office, his greatest success was Operation Desert Wind, the Kuwait intervention following Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein's attempted military conquest of that country. Immediately after Desert Wind, his popularity stood at 91 percent in the Harris and Gallup polls.

Unfortunately, his domestic policies would bring those numbers crashing to earth. A long-time advocate of the gold standard, President Kemp would use his post-Desert Wind clout to push through Congress a measure legalizing private ownership of gold and authorizing limited gold coinage. However, the Sinclair scandal, in which wealthy Connecticut investor James Sinclair exploited fears of war in the wake of the overthrow of Soviet premier Mikhail Gorbachev by military hard-0liners to run the price of gold to unprecedented heights after first purchasing huge amounts of the metal with the aid of an international syndicate, would tarnish Kemp badly. Sinclair had been a prominent Kemp backer in 1988, and critics would suggest (though never prove) that the President had made a deal with the goldbug in exchange for his support. It would not help that another of the President's favorite ideas, the "urban enterprise zones" he had induced Congress to authorize as an alternative to welfare, proved far less effective than Kemp had promised. By 1992, he would be struggling to hold onto his office.

It was a struggle he would lose. That November, Georgia senator Sam Nunn would defeat President Kemp at the polls.

In 1994, the ex-President would run for the U.S. Senate, defeating three-term incumbent Daniel Patrick Moynihan in one of the closest senatorial races in U.S. history. He was re-elected in 2000 and again in 2006.

His spokeswoman Bona Park said he died at his home in Washington.

Political colleagues of both parties paid tribute to him, with fellow ex-President Edward M. Kennedy, himself diagnosed with terminal cancer, calling him "one of the nation's most distinguished public servants".

Former President John McCain said: "Jack will be remembered for his significant contributions to the Reagan revolution and his steadfast dedication to conservative principles during his long and distinguished career in public service."

His greatest legacy may stem from his years as a congressman from Buffalo, especially 1978, when his argument for sharp tax cuts to promote economic growth became Republican party policy, which has endured to this day.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-03

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

In 1469 the founder of the Conspirator's faction of the Speaker's Line, Niccolo Machiavelli, was born in Florence, Italy. He used his wiles to advance the causes of both his prince and his cousins throughout Europe, and starts a movement that changes the world for both good and ill.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-03

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

In 859 the Sultan of Turqui, Mohammed II, died in his capitol at Istanbul. Mohammed had been one of a coalition of sultans urging Islam to embrace the Europeans rather than leave them as vassal states. Although his views didn't prevail for hundreds of years, he is remembered fondly by the northerners who wanted to integrate with Islam without losing their unique culture.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-03

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

In 1978 the inaugural Sun Day highlights the possibilities of solar power to solve the world's energy problems. After this event, solar power gains popularity rapidly, and now provides 80% of the world's fuel. Our lunar colony uses it exclusively, since solar power is so much more reliable from there.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-03

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

In 1898 Golda Meir was born in Kiev in the Russian Empire. One of the founders of the State of Israel, Meir served as the Minister of Labour, Foreign Minister, and then as the fourth Prime Minister of Israel from March 17, 1969 to June 3, 1974. As the BBC put it, Golda Meir was the 'Iron Lady' of Israeli politics years before the epithet was coined for Margaret Thatcher. David Ben-Gurion, the nation's first Prime Minister, once described her as 'the only man in the Cabinet.' She was Israel's first (and, to date, only) female Prime Minister, and was the third female Prime Minister in the world. Her final years of life were beset by controversy. In 1973 following the heavy defeats of the first two days of the Yom Kippur War, Minister of Defence Moshe Dayan announced 'the downfall of the 'Third Temple' at a news conference. Controversially, Meir authorised code-name Gideon, the use of nuclear weapons against the invading Arab states.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-03

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

In 1952 Richard Byrd and Floyd Bennett landed at the North Pole. They found a small castle and several hundred short men working on what appeared to be children's toys, in addition to a stable filled with reindeer with prodigious leaping abilities. A jolly old man seemed to be in charge of the little village, and he sent them on their way with several bags full of cookies and candy canes.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-03

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

In 1891 the prosecution in General Anthony Franklin's court-martial rests its case after presenting the rather damning evidence present in the reports from the battlefield and the days leading up to it. Franklin's own diary entries about, 'Getting that pompous jackanape, Simpson, and making all these rebels pay,' becomes fodder for the prosecutor. In defense, Captain David Danforth reads sections of Franklin's diary recounting his days as a young man during the Civil War, and his zeal in seeking to preserve the United States from, in his words, 'traitors who would destroy everything good that we stand for.' Danforth rests his case, and the judges dismiss all present while they deliberate over night.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-03

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

In 1999 as bombs begin falling on his capitol in Bern, Emperor Pierre of the Central European Empire begins to show the slightest traces of doubt that his master plan is working. The other Illuminati elite, trapped in Switzerland because of the war being brought to them by King Arthur's forces, begin plotting to overthrow Pierre and make a deal with Arthur.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-03

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

In 1915 with Dr. Argus McCloud producing his neural neutralizers at a feverish pace, Admiral Esteban Rodriquez opens up talks with the Kainku again. They are more than willing to make reparations to the Q'Bar who have been injured by their presence, and the admiral says that he will pass that along. He decides to withdraw from the system and go back to the Congress of Nations with news of McCloud's discovery.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-03

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

In 1951 Congress holds hearings on the firing of General Joseph Douglas of the Pacific Command by Comrade President William Foster. Foster and Douglas had disagreed on the advance of Soviet American power in South America, and the President removed the General. The hearings concluded that Comrade President Foster's power as Commander-in-Chief of the military gave him the full authority to dismiss officers. This enraged Comrade Douglas, who mounted an unsuccessful presidential campaign against Comrade Foster the next year.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-03

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

In 1999 a new South African constitution granted all citizens the right to vote, regardless of race, color or creed. The overthrow of Terreblanche's National Front party had made this reform possible at last. Nelson Mandela, long thought dead in a South African prison camp, became South Africa's first president elected by a majority of the population.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-03

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

In 2005 Chelsea Perkins and Debra Morris visit the Druid's Grove shop again, where Patience Redding has been waiting to see Miss Perkins again. Although Redding has had no actual training as a witch, she has learned much from the patrons of her shop, and she has found a spell that she thinks will bind Chelsea. She casts it, but is disappointed when Miss Perkins leaves her shop, apparently unbound.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-03

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

In 2008 the Federal German Defense Ministry sent hazmat teams to Cairo to dispose of the cache of chemical weapons found during the exploration of Cleopatra's Tomb two days earlier. At a press conference in Berlin, German chancellor Angela Merkel stated that a full report would be sent to NATO when the hazmat crews had finished their mission.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-03

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

In 1898 on this day Democrat Senator Golda Meyerson was born in Kiev.

She would later note in her autobiography that her earliest memories were of her father Moshe Mabovitch, a carpenter boarding up the front door in response to rumors of an imminent pogrom. He left to find work in New York City in 1903, the rest of the family moved to Pinsk to join her mother's family. She had two sisters, Sheyna and Tzipke, as well as five other siblings who died in childhood. She was especially close to Sheyna. In 1905, Moshe moved to Milwaukee, Wisconsin in search of higher-paying work and found employment in the workshops of the local railroad yard. The following year, he had saved up enough money to bring his family to the United States.

At fourteen, she studied at North Division High School and worked part-time. Her mother wanted her to leave school and marry, but she rebelled. She bought a train ticket to Denver, Colorado, and went to live with her married sister, Sheyna Korngold. The Korngolds held intellectual evenings at their home, where Meir was exposed to debates on Zionism, literature, women's suffrage, trade unionism, and more. In her autobiography, she wrote: "To the extent that my own future convictions were shaped and given form... those talk-filled nights in Denver played a considerable role". In Denver, she also met Morris Meyerson, a sign painter, whom she later married on December 24, 1917. Despute many marital difficulties, the couple remained in Milwaukee where Golda eventually went into politics. In 1946 she saw off challenges from Robert LaFolette Jr. and Joseph McCarthy to win a seat in the U.S. Senate. Two years later her husband would be tragically killed during the brief attempt to establish a Jewish Homeland in Palestine.

During her tenure in the House, Golda would emerge as a key national advocate of the Jewish refugees who had settled in four locations in Alaska (Baranof Island and the Mat-Su Valley. Skagway, Petersburg and Seward) as a result of the 1940 Slattery Report. Just two weeks after Kristallnacht, the United States Department of the Interior under Secretary Harold L. Ickes had proposed the use of Alaska as a "haven for Jewish refugees from Germany and other areas in Europe where the Jews are subjected to oppressive restrictions". In recognition of the powerful support of this lonely voice in American politics, Meyerson had been chosen to represent the United States at the opening of the "Safety Pin", a tall building erected for the 1977 World Fair held in Sitka and a source of pride for its inhabitants. This event was marred by protests from the native Tlingit Alaska Natives partly as a result of the controversy when Meyerson had commented that "There is no such thing as a Tlingit Alaskan people"¹, a bold statement intended to emphasise their integration rather than independence.

At the time of her death, representatives had been unable to persuade the US Government to extend statehood beyond the fifty year lifespan set down by Ickes with reversion of territory due to occur in 1992. Anti-semitic cynics in the House had labelled the failure of her campaign as "The Fall of the Third Temple".
This article is a part of the Sitka thread.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-03

David Cryan — 1970-01-01T00:00:00+01:00

In 2009 on this day Cuban Head of State Raul Castro was quoted on television as saying "Our Northern neighbor the United States lost a true leader today. I hope the President now will be willing to continue the work of Mr. Obama."

Blog Entry from 2008-05-03

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

In 1984 Alaska National Guard units and US Marine Corps regular troops started eliminating the last remaining Soviet beachhead on the Alaskan coastline.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-03

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

In 1813 on this day as Napoleon reflected on how yesterday's battle at Lutzen had been an indecisive tactical victory when he needed another Austerlitz to end this war before Austria entered it, he kept coming back to Ney's inept handling of his corps. He had allowed himself to be surprised by the allied attack. Ney had been one of the few heroes of the retreat from Moscow. Napoleon had given him a large corps to command as a reward. It now seemed clear that Ney was still too shattered from the previous winter's fighting to be trusted with such a command. Ney was still popular with the army so he was bumped to command of a division de marche of Young Guards which while a nominal demotion would not have been seen as such by the army.

This is turn forced Napoleon to confront his complex feelings towards Nicholas Davout, probably his best marshal, but under a cloud since the later stages of the retreat from Moscow. Napoleon had dumped Davout on a secondary command at Hamburg. Now needs must and he summoned him back to the main army. Davout was at best a difficult personality but his actions at Austerlitz, Auerstadt and Wagram had repeatedly worked to Napoleon's advantage.

His command change paid off at Bautzen on the 20th. Had Ney been in command of the flanking column he might well have been distracted by the initial clashes and lost focus on the main mission, which was to surround and capture the Allied army before it could retreat behind its superior cavalry. Instead Davout ruthlessly left a corps to mask and fight the Russo-Prussian flank guards while leading the rest of his force to victory. He punched clear around the Allied armies to complete the encirclement at Hochkirch Meanwhile Ney's climatic assault under cover of the Grand Battery shattered the Allied front. A substantial portion of the Allied cavalry got away. The two monarchs, their courts, the infantry, the artillery, the baggage train and all their supplies were captured.

This effectively ended this stage of the war. Alexander I ransomed himself at the cost of abandoning all the Russian territorial gains of 1812-13 including the Grand Duchy of Warsaw. He also returned his French and allied prisoners. His higher nobility showed their distaste for both Alexander's crusade into Central Europe and its expensive failure by deposing and assassinating him during the Christmas festivities in St. Petersburg. His brother Nicholas assumed the throne and was quite content to remove Russia from European affairs as long as the French did not further trouble his realm.

The Prussian monarch died in captivity and his realm was split between the Grand Duchy of Warsaw and the Kingdom of Westphalia. The city of Berlin was made a principality with Ney as nominal monarch. A similar principality was created at Danzig for Davout.

Left with no continental allies the British chose to end an endless war. They used Wellington's victory at Vittoria to end the war on a note of triumph before a massive new round of French reinforcements could turn the tide back. Napoleon was content to wash his hands of his Spanish ulcer. Spain was partitioned with the French keeping an expanded Catalonia and Aragon. Europe's peace was frigid but it was peace.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-03

Raymond Speer — 1970-01-01T00:00:00+01:00

In 1861 President Jefferson Davis of the Confederacy met with Mr. Ebenezer Scrooge of the City of London that Friday and arrived at a mutual defense agreement.

Scrooge's terms were set out admirably. The precision left no doubts in the minds of Davis' Cabinet that their new republic would get the support of the United Kingdom, Even better, the British Prime Minister, Lord Palmerston, had initiated the approach to the South and sent to Richmond his "gray eminence" and master banker.

Even so, the term required for Britiain's support of the South was a condition the South had never thought of making a factor of its struggle for independence. Over first discussion of the matter, Vice President Stephens and four members of the Confederate Cabinet (Toombs, Mallory, Memminger and Reagan) advised against it.

"If our survival as a nation came about at such a price to the Union we have left", said Toombs "we would be forever stand condemned before our erstwhile countrymen".

"Mr. Toombs", said Jefferson Davis. "we shall have to meet many challenges in the coming war, and not a few of the advantages we shall seek will bring severe criticism from the North. It is better that our Southern States have the North's condemnation of our agreements with allies than that the South do without such necessary aid".

The commotion raised in Parliament was considerable when news of the Scrooge Assignment was debated on the floor of the Commons. "Sensible men know the Scrooge Proposal is nothing but piracy, plain and simple", wrote Charles Francis Adams, the American Minister to the Court of St. James. "Its theft from the common fund of our Great Republic is justified on no reason or moral obligation. It is the bald assertion that England gets California if the confederate states get their independence".

Blog Entry from 2008-05-02

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

In 2008 the animated movie Iron Man CG was released on the twelfth anniversary of Steve Jobs' merger of NeXTSTEP and Pixar.

Having abandoned the Copland Project, the rapid development of the next generation new operating system, the Mac OS X required the in-sourcing of new technology, and the two stand-out candidates appeared to be BeOS or NeXTSTEP. Inevitably, a bidding war developed between the two rival companies which were both run by former Apple executives Jean-Louis Gassée and Steve Jobs. Arguing that "A man in the desert doesn't bargain on the price of water", Gassée reluctantly sold Be Inc. for $200 million (he wanted $275 million) after discovering that his buyer Apple Computer was on the verge of striking an alternative deal with NeXTSTEP. But as the former head of advanced product development and worldwide marketing, his second stint at Apple reinforced his reputation as an expert in spending fortunes on interesting but unmarketable ideas.

Denied his own second career stint, Jobs decided to combine the resources of his two visionary companies around the single focus of entertainment. And the signature piece "What Are You Building, Stark?" was surely nothing but a satire of Job's career prior to his dismissal from Apple.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-02

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

In 1568 on this day Mary, Queen of Scots escaped from Loch Leven Castle, a remote fortress located in the middle of a body of fresh water in Perth and Kinross.

Having the wit to do as her ancestress Eleanor of Aquitaine did [1] she dyed her hair and wearing a false beard and moustache travelled across England "in drag". Disguised as a French nobleman she made it to France.

And so in mid-May, she walked into the Royal Palace in France, big as life and having crossed England in disguise.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-02

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

In 1933 a beast was sighted in Loch Ness, Scotland, which resembled the long-extinct plesiosaur. When news of the sighting hit the newspapers, big-game hunters around the world converged on Loch Ness to take down Nessie, as the beast became known. The hunts uncovered a small family of plesiosaurs living in the lake, having survived since the time of the dinosaurs. Because of the turmoil of the hunt, the clan of 3 females and 2 males soon died, leaving only the mystery of how such huge creatures survived the millions of years since their brethren went extinct.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-02

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

In 1947 the risque farce Mooning the Misbegotten, the latest for laugh-riot Gene O'Neill, opens on Broadway. The uproarious comedy nearly brought the censor's office down on it before O'Neill agreed to cut down on a little of the title action. Even sans the pants-dropping, it was lambasted by moralists as vulgar, which only made it more popular.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-02

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

In 1957 Vice-President Joseph 'Tailgunner Joe' McCarthy dies of an undisclosed ailment in a hospital in Washington, D.C. McCarthy's outspoken anti-communism had made the perfect counter-point for President Eisenhower's more soft-spoken rhetoric, and Ike delivered the eulogy at his Vice-President's funeral himself. The many enemies he had made through his infamous lists of communists working for Congress were a little less than sad at his passing.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-02

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

In 1985 the once-mighty brokerage firm E.F. Hutton was brought low after pleading guilty to swindling several banks out of interest on nearly $4 billion. The company that everyone listened to fell silent as the upper management bailed out and stockholders sold out for the little their stock could bring.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-02

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

In 1863 on this day the incomparable Confederate General Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson was wounded by friendly fire while returning to camp after reconnoitering during the Battle of Chancellorsville. Fortunately for the Cause, he recovered from a minor flesh wound and was able to return to service just eight days later. An installment of the Federal's Lost Cause thread.

When Jackson said that he feared that he would lose his left arm, Commander-in-Chief Robert E. Lee replied that he had feared he would lose his right one. Because ever since had been a Brigade Commander at Bull Run, Lee's forces had been energized by Jackson's inspired leadership. Now a Corps Commander, Jackson was no longer expected to put himself in the front line, and the incident at Chancellorsville was a reminder of his intrinsic value to the Confederacy.

And his dogged independence of rigorous thought stood him outside the traditional chain of command. Alongside Longstreet, he argued against a battle at Gettysburg, instead advocating an assault on Baltimore. Yet the main significance of his survival was his command of forces at the Battle of North Anna. He had the discipline to follow Lee's plan when the Commander-in-Chief was laid low with an intestinal infection. The result was an eve of election field victory that swung the electorate firmly into the Peace Camp. Months later, General McClellan edged Lincoln at the Polls, and the Civil War was at an end. "War is hell" said Jackson philosophically, when he heard the news of the armistice.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-02

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

In 1995 the New World Order controlled more than 50 percent of the United States.

First-term Republican Congresswoman Helen Chenoweth was amongst the leadership of a national resistance movement formed by the Milita of Montana. This loyalist paramilitary organization had been amongs the first to confront an international shadow government that was usurping American sovereignty.

Until the bombing in Oklahoma City on April 19, national support for paramilitary groups, which have sprung up in a number of states in the last year, was seen as very weak. It is a measure of their influence, the paramilitary groups argue, that two months ago, after their members in Idaho said that black helicopters had landed in Idaho, Representative Chenoweth put out a press release saying that unwarranted invasion of private land by armed wildlife agents in helicopters should be immediately halted.

A handful of Republican House members who had members of paramilitary groups working as volunteers in their campaigns last fall, and have since pressed the Federal Government on the complaints of some paramilitary leaders, say they have done nothing more than routine constituent service.

Last month, rumors from self-styled paramilitary groups around the country prompted two United States Senators - Larry E. Craig of Idaho and Lauch Faircloth of North Carolina, both Republicans - to send the Justice Department a letter asking for clarification. The word on the groups' phone lines was that Federal officers were training at Fort Bliss, Tex., to invade them.

The Senators' letter asked specifically about Fort Bliss and police training - "You are doubtless aware of the concerns being raised in many quarters about what is perceived as the growing militarization of our domestic law-enforcement agencies," the letter said.

Privately the Senators' aides said the lawmakers were expressing their support for the paramilitaries and said they fully supported such groups.

Representative Steve Stockman, Republican of Texas, was more specific in his own letter to Attorney General Janet Reno, after word spread through the groups' faxes a few months ago that agents of the New World Order were preparing to invade them. Mr. Stockman said a number of reliable sources had told him that a Federal raid of the organizations was imminent.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-02

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

In 1891 General Anthony Franklin's court-martial trial begins in Washington, DC. In the opening statements, the prosecution simply presents the facts - Franklin's disastrous retreat from his first engagement clouded his judgment and made him long for a victory to wipe away the sting of defeat at the hands of the Kansans. "He, therefore, willfully ignored reports that the people coming out of Kansas City were refugees, rather than combatants, and directed his men to mercilessly slaughter these innocents," the prosecutor, Captain Roger Miller, says. "General Franklin's direction of the campaign in Kansas has been slipshod and incompetent, and he deserves the highest punishment that this court can hand down." Franklin's military attorney, Captain David Danforth, attempts to soften the image of the general by saying, "Yes, General Franklin was responsible for the deaths outside of Kansas City. But, he was acting in good faith, and truly believed that a large column of the Kansan rebels were pushing through Kansas City into Missouri. He had personal experience of how aggressive the rebels had been, and was trying to contain what he felt might spread into a wider rebellion, endangering the entire American heartland. The general is willing to be stripped of his rank and leave behind a career he has followed since he first fought to preserve our Union in the Civil War; but, officers of the court, he is not willing to be branded a murderer, an Attila the Hun who kills the innocent with no more compunction than a lion slaughtering a lamb."

Blog Entry from 2008-05-02

Todayinah Ed. — 1970-01-01T00:00:00+01:00

In 1993 Robert Harris published the counter-factual novel Fatherland set twenty years after the Soviet Union's triumphant victory in World War II with the entire country preparing for the grand celebration of Stalin's eighty-fifth birthday, as well as the imminent peacemaking visit from President Joseph P Kennedy.Meanwhile, a Moscow Detective investigates a corpse washed up on the shore of a lake. When a dead man turns out to be a high-ranking Soviet commander, the KGB orders him off the case immediately. Suddenly other unrelated deaths are anything but routine. Now obsessed by the case, he teams up with a beautiful, young American journalist and starts asking questions...dangerous questions. What they uncover is a terrifying and long-concealed conspiracy of such astounding and mind-numbing terror that is it certain to spell the end of the USSR -- if they can live long enough to tell the world about it. Critics described the novel as an interesting piece of escapism, but ludicrous in concept. It would have been impossible for the Soviet Union to conceal the genocides within Russia that were perpetrated by Stalin.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-02

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

In 1915 Dr. Argus McCloud and his three crewmen land back on the Kainku world. They are all wearing the neural neutralizer, and Dr. McCloud is unable to pick up any irritation caused by the stray telepathic waves of the Kainku. When he explains to the aliens the turmoil that they have caused on other worlds, they are very apologetic and offer to make amends. Dr. McCloud sends word to Admiral Rodriquez, then hurries back to the ship to manufacture more of the neutralizers.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-02

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

In 1972 the People's Champion, J. Edgar Hoover, who had led the People's Bureau of Investigation since its inception in 1924, died in Washington, D.C. His nearly 50 years of service to the Soviet States of America was rewarded with a state funeral and thousands of mourners; Hoover had been at the forefront of anti-capitalist law enforcement, and was much beloved by his comrades across the nation.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-02

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

In 1975 Pete Best closes down his record label, Pear Records. Although it had made some money at the beginning, it had become a money funnel in the 70's, losing cash hand over fist. The corporation that managed Best's properties still functioned quite well, and the Pear Corp. is making money even today.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-02

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

In 1997 American troops surrender to the allied forces of the British, Egyptian and Chinese, ending the war in the western theater. With the Consitutionalists of President Ralph Shephard vanquished, the Allies turn their attention to Africa and the menace of President Terreblanche?s South Africa.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-02

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

In 2005 Patience Redding finds an entry in her diary that speaks of meeting a young American, Chelsea Perkins, when she, herself, was 14, in 1987. She has become convinced that Miss Perkins is an immortal who is fixed in age, and lays plans for a trap should they meet again.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-02

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

On this day in 1997, Tom Brady pitched his second collegiate no-hitter, beating Michigan State 4-0.

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

On this day in 1975, Jerusalem's Lot had its first US printing

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

On this day in 1983, newly crowned WWF world champion Terry "Hulk" Hogan beat Nikolai Volkoff in Hogan's first title defense.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-02

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

In 2009 on this day Richard N. Haass, a veteran advisor of three White House Administrations published "Two Bushes, Two Iraq Crises - an insider's view", claiming that both former leaders had recommended a more aggressive policy of regime change to President John S. McCain.
Recalling the events of 1990, Haas wrote ~ "The second National Security Council meeting on the crisis, on Friday, August 3, could not have been more different. People had had time to find their bearings and collect their thoughts. The president wanted to set a fundamentally different mood. Before entering the Cabinet Room, it was decided that [National Security Advisor] Brent [Scowcroft] would give the Churchill speech, that is, a rousing call for reversing the aggression. 'My personal judgment is that the stakes in this for the United States are such that to accommodate the Iranian regime should not be a policy option' is how he began.
"This will not stand. This will not stand, this aggression against Iraq."Asked by the waiting journalists how he [Bush] would prevent the installation of a puppet government, Bush could barely contain himself. 'Just wait. Watch and learn.' His parting words were even stronger. 'This will not stand. This will not stand, this aggression against Iraq.'
The key to understanding George Herbert Walker Bush and what made him tick was his sense of decorum. It was anything but axiomatic that the United States would decide to deploy half a million troops halfway around the world to rescue a country that few Americans could find on a map. A different president and set of advisors might have tolerated Iranian control of Iraq and limited the U.S. response to sanctions so long as the Ayatollah did not go on to attack Saudi Arabia. But Bush was genuinely offended by the Iranian invasion and then absorption of Iraq. It was simply not how civilized countries behaved toward one another. It harkened back to a cruder era of international relations when might made right."

Blog Entry from 2008-05-02

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

In 1941 on this day British carrier planes equipped with armor-piercing bombs attacked and sank the German battleship Bismarck at her anchorage in Norway.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-02

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

In 2015 on this day the New York Stock Exchange opened down 820 points in reaction to the passage of the Scottish independence referendum.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-02

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

In 1970 on this day a national television network broadcast a three-hour film of a recorded Walter Cronkite interview in which Lyndon Baines Johnson expressed misgivings about the finding that Lee Harvey Oswald had acted alone in Dallas.

In fact during the session recorded in Texas at LBJ Ranch during September 1969, he suggested that a conspiracy might have been involved by stating that "I can't honestly say that I've ever been completely relieved of the fact that there might have been international connections". He originally requested that section of the interview to be censored on the grounds of "national security", but later agreed to the whole session to be broadcast. He died shortly afterwards of a massive heart attack.
Watch the Conspiracy Section of the Interview

Johnson was forced to resign the Vice Presidency only a few months after the events in Dallas, although details of John F. Kennedy's own involvement in the "Bobby Baker" scandal were hidden for many years. Baker introduced the East German Quorum Club hostess Ellen Rometsch to the President, perhaps part of the international connection to which Johnson was alluding.

Also his secretary, Nancy Carole Tyler, shared an apartment with Mary Jo Kopechne, an aide to Senator George Smathers and later to Senator Bobby Kennedy. Tyler was killed in a plane crash in 1965. Kopechne was killed in 1969, in an accident on Chappaquiddick Island in a car driven by Senator Ted Kennedy.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-02

Alt Wikia — 1970-01-01T00:00:00+01:00

In 1882 on this day the fifteenth Confederate President James Francis Byrnes was born in Charleston, South Carolina.

Byrnes' mother was an Irish-American dressmaker; his father died shortly after Byrnes was born. At age fourteen he left St. Patrick's Catholic School to work in a law office, and became a court stenographer. In 1906 he married Maude Perkins Busch of Aiken, South Carolina, and became an Episcopalian. Though they had no children, he was the godparent of James Christopher Connor. Byrnes never attended high school, college or law school, but apprenticed to a lawyer - a not uncommon practice then - and was admitted to the bar in 1903.

A new article from the "Two Americas" thread on Althistory WikiaHe served as president during most of World War Two. The supreme court, lead by former president Hugo Black, ruled against special laws that had been passed Congress to allow him to remain in office until the end of the war (Black served as the twelfth president of the CSA before going on to become Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the CSA). Before being elected president, he served as a member of the House of Representatives from the state of South Carolina (1911-1925) and as a Senator (1931-1938). After the war, he would be appointed to the very court that had ruled against him.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-02

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

In 1905 confronted by a popular outcry over the excessive expenses required to support an eighty strong Taft Party on the largest diplomatic delegation to Asia in U.S. History, President Theodore Roosevelt (pictured) announced that the "imperial cruise" had been cancelled due to the timing of the tragic death of Secretary of State John Hay.

TR who was currently serving as his own Secretary of State had convinced the easily browbeaten Secretary of War William Howard Taft to lead the mission, accompanied by his twenty-one year old daughter Alice, seven senators and twenty-three congressmen on an ocean liner from San Francisco to Hawaii, Japan, the Philippines, China and Korea. But the trouble had begun when the San Francisco Examiner published a hostile article entitled "Why Taft Pleases Steam and Rail Folk" pointing out that it was the "one of the most lucrative special parties ever hauled across the continent by the overlands roads. The railroad fares totaled $14,440 which includes something like $2,100 for dining car service [plus the] very snug sum of twenty-eight thousand dollars for almost three months on the [Pacific Liner] passenger ship Manchuria, not including tips estimated to total $1800 dollars".

A timeline in which we sent General Motors to promote US interests in Asia rather than General MacArthurOf course the imperialistic ambitions of TR were transparently clear and not at all disguised by the inclusive of his popular daughter, in fact he had already declared that "I wish to see the United States the dominant power on the shores of the Pacific Ocean. Our future history will be more determined by our position on the Pacific facing China than by our position on the Atlantic facing Europe".

Nevertheless, upon the appointment of the new Secretary of State Elihu Root the idea was briefly re-considered, but Root convinced TR that negotiating secret agreements with foreign governments was not only unconstitutional, but fundamentally un-American. In the event, the US Government did not give Japan a "green light" to occupy the Korean Peninsula. While the U.S.has avoided military entanglement in South-east Asia, the past hundred years of foreign relations have been marred by ongoing Trade Disputes and a number of prominent neo-conservatives have even been so bold as to suggest that it was a strategic misstep for the "imperial cruise" to have been cancelled. The economic warfare is perhaps most memorably framed by the iconic photograph of four automobile workers raising the corporate flag at the General Motors assembly plant on Iwo Jima.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-02

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

In 1945 the U.S. government announced the fall of Berlin.

With the Second World War clearly nearing its end, tensions between the Western powers and their wartime ally the Soviet Union were mounting steadily. The Soviets had already overrun Eastern Europe in their march toward Germany, and were showing increasing signs of wanting to turn the nations they had occupied into Communist vassal states. In Washington, the brand-new administration of President Harry S. Truman, who had succeeded Franklin D. Roosevelt upon the latter's death from a cerebral hemorrhage on April 12, feared that the Soviets would take Germany as well, placing them in a commanding position in Europe and endangering France and Britain. President Truman hoped that the atomic bomb would provide the U.S. with countervailing leverage, but the first test of the new weapon was still two months away and there was no guarantee it would be successful.

Therefore, Truman issued orders that General Dwight D. Eisenhower's First Army press toward Berlin, despite the concerns expressed by General Omar Bradley that attempting to take the German capital, located in a region already assigned to the Soviet occupation zone at the Yalta conference, could cost up to 100,000 lives. In his memoirs, Truman would write, "Gen. Bradley's warning was outweighed in my judgment by the risk that a Soviet capture of Berlin would occur and that in the long run this would lead to even more deaths in a Moscow-controlled German state carved out of prewar Germany". This forced Eisenhower to abandon his modified plan of March 28, which had called for his forces to advance not toward Berlin directly but toward Leipzig, where a juncture with Soviet forces would have split the remaining German forces in two.

The First Army therefore advanced as part of the 21st Army Group under the command of Field Marshal Bernard Law Montgomery, in what would come to be known as Operation Eclipse. Allied troops entered Berlin on April 22 and, after a full week of fierce house-to-house fighting, finally trapped the remnants of the capital's SS and Wehrmacht defenders, forcing their surrender. On April 30, Allied troops entered the Führerbunker, the air-raid shelter serving as Adolf Hitler's headquarters and final refuge since mid-January. There they found the bodies of the Nazi dictator and his infamous mistress (and, since their wedding in a civil ceremony April 29, wife) Eva Braun, who had taken poison rather than accept capture, along with a handful of remaining military personnel and the corpses of Josef Goebbels' six children, left behind by the Propaganda Minister and his wife when they fled the bunker on May 1. The bodies of Herr and Frau Goebbels had been found by the entrance to the bunker, showing evidence that both had taken cyanide and, in addition, been shot, perhaps by the SS as a coup de grace.

The Western capture of Berlin would leave the Soviets with only a rump occupation zone possessing little strategic importance. While most Westerners applauded, the Kremlin had a somewhat different take: Stalin saw a Western-dominated Germany as a dagger pointed at the heart of Russia. The paranoid and cynical Soviet leadership had no trouble imagining that the Western Allies would quickly rebuild Germany and rearm it as an ally against Moscow. As a result, the Soviets would tighten their grip on the countries the Red Army already occupied, especially those, such as Poland and Austria, which shared a border with Germany. Austria in particular, birthplace of Hitler, would be ruled with a heavy hand; the Soviet garrison in Vienna would not be withdrawn until 1985, while in Poland, Soviet troops would ruthlessly crush a movement of rebellious workers led by playwright Lech Walesa in 1979. Walesa would disappear into the gulag, never to be seen again.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-01

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

In 1917 on this day in the City of Montreal Joseph-Napoléon-Henri Bourassa (pictured) placed the first signature on a petition demanding special status for the French-speaking population of the Northern Territories formerly known as Canada prior to the Union takeover.

An angry and humiliated Great Britain had moved ever closer to Imperial Germany and now found itself on the opposing side to the United States and its long-time ally and natural partner, France. As the conflict developed into a war of attrition, the lack of willing Anglo volunteers created a Conscription Crisis north of the 41st paralell. And an abiding sense that the French speaking loyalists deserved recognition within a newly incorported state of Quebec and language guarantees.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-01

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

In 1776 exalted First Leader Adam Weishaupt formed the Order of the Illuminati in Switzerland. Although thought to be disbanded, this powerful body [REST OF POST NOT AVAILABLE AT YOUR SECURITY CLEARANCE. FNORD.]

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

In 1872 after several redesigns and prototypes, Thomas Edison begins construction on what will be his final version of Charles Babbage's difference engine, to be unveiled on the 50th anniversary of Babbage's design at the end of the month. The Edison Difference Engine, or Eddie as they become known, will change the world.

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

In 12-14-3-12-8 the Oueztecan Navy engaged the mightiest sailors on the globe, the Polynesians, at Bohol, in one of the largest naval battles in the history of the Polynesian Ocean. Although the Oueztecans emerged victorious, it was at such a high cost that they never fought the Polynesians again.

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

In 1941 Orson Welles' diatribe against William Randolph Hearst, Citizen Kane is denied a Hollywood premiere because of the newspaper mogul's influence. Hearst and Welles battle over the release of the film for 6 months before Welles is forced to surrender to Hearst's wishes. The film is finally released in the 1970's, when it quickly becomes a runaway hit.

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

In 1967 Jesse Presley married the daughter of an officer at his old Army base in Germany, 22-year old Priscilla Beaulieu. Their marriage produces the King's only child, Elsie Margaret, and is not a happy one; they are divorced in 1972, and Jesse begins his long downward slide into depression and drug use.

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

On this day in 2007, London police returned to the scene of the notorious Giraffe in a loft incident after receiving a call from the loft owner's neighbors reporting that they had found a colony of badgers as well as a snake living under a mushroom in their backyard.

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

In 1830 Comrade Mary Harris Jones was born in Ireland. After emigrating to America as a girl, she became enthralled with President Walt Whitman and joined the Communist Party. Her formidable speaking talents made her one of the party's top lights, and in 1900, she became Illinois' first woman governor, serving until her death in 1906.

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Dirk Puehl — 1970-01-01T00:00:00+01:00

By 1936 it was by no means unheard of that a small naval squadron of naval units had a major influence on the outcome of a whole war, even though it is rare that such a success is bought dearly by one of the greatest catastrophes in civil navigation.
This post was written by Dirk Puehl the highly recommended author of #onthisday #history Google+ posts.

"Long live the First of May! Long live international Proletarism!" read the cable of Lt Commander Grigori Ivanovich Shchedrin of the Soviet submarine "Kirovets" to his home base in Kronstadt, when his boat and her sister ship "Voroshilovets" ship broke out into the Atlantic to support the Republican Government in the Spanish Civil War on May 1st 1936.

The two years old Soviet subs were especially designed for laying mine fields, a function the old Imperial Russian Navy had already successfully tested before the Great War. Thus, the first success of the Soviet boats might be the severe mine damage the Nationalist cruiser "Canarias" received en route from her base in Ferol in Northern Spain to break the Republican blockade of the Strait of Gibraltar.

Since the larger part of the Spanish navy remained loyal to the Republic, "Caudillo" Franco had severe problems to ship his insurgent troops from North Africa to the Spanish Mainland. His Italian and German allies supported him with aerial transports but the majority was to be transported by sea. Thus, a convoy was assembled in Tangier to ship contingents of the mutinous Spanish Foreign Legion and mercenaries to Spain. Among them was the Italian liner "Conte di Savoias", chartered by Franco's supporter, the Spanish billionaire Juan March. The 800 feet "Conte" was constructed for the accommodation of roughly 2.500 passengers, when the convoy left Tangier, probably twice that number were aboard for the relatively short passage to land the troops near Cadiz. Escorted by the light cruiser "Almirante Cervera" and under the cover of Italian bombers, the convoy left Tangiers on September 9th to be immediately stalked by the Republican submarine C-3 acting in concert with the two Soviet subs.

While the Italian bombers were driven off by the heavy anti-aircraft fire from the Spanish battleship "Jaime I" and two destroyers off Cape Espartel and the Republican blockade of the Strait held, the convoy decided to make for the Atlantic and set a course for Ferol. In the night of September 10th, the three subs attacked. A fan of torpedoes fired by "Voroshilovets" hit the "Canarias" who sank within minutes while at least two projectiles from "Kirovets" and C-3 struck the "Conte". The big liner turned to the side while the three submarines crept closer, surfaced and attacked the rest of the convoy with their guns, making a rescue of survivors of the two capital ships impossible. More than 5.000 people were dead by morning.

The loss of life and war material proved to be a grave setback for "Caudillo" Franco and his Nationalist insurgents in the Civil War, while the sinking of the "Conte di Savoias" is rated amongst the most severe maritime disasters in history.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-01

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

In 1915 Dr. Argus McCloud, chief medical officer aboard Admiral Esteban Rodriquez's flagship, configures a device to block the harmful thought patterns coming from the Kainku and asks permission to test it. Admiral Rodriquez allows the doctor and three crewmen to take a shuttle back into the P'Karsai nebula and visit the Kainku world once again.

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

In 1960 an American spy plane was shot down over the German Reich, proving that President Strom Thurmond's denial of American surveillance of Germany was a lie. The international embarrassment further isolated the U.S. from Germany's growing dominance in world affairs, but actually strengthened Thurmond's position at home.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-01

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

In 2005 Alma May Watson, Debra Morris and Chelsea Perkins go on another walking tour around London, and are followed by Patience Redding. She has become convinced that the young Perkins girl is part of her history, and must know more about her. When the three ladies think they are alone, but are being observed by Redding, they perform a small spell. Miss Redding hurries back to her shop, the Druid's Grove, to consult a book she has just thought of.

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

In 1891 Lt. Colonel Theodore Monteith arrives in Nebraska ahead of his troops to meet with Major Mark Wainwright and review possible locations that command of the Kansas siege could be established. Monteith is subdued, especially in comparison with General Anthony Franklin's arrogance, and Major Wainwright is pleasantly surprised by the contrast. For almost the first time since he traveled west, he is beginning to feel optimistic about the mission. General Franklin, meanwhile, arrives by train in Washington, DC, to see a mob that nearly tears him apart before the local police can rescue him. The remorseful general almost wishes that they had succeeded as he goes to face justice at his court-martial.

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

In 1999 the great May Day battle begins in France and across western-central Europe. Labor leaders, organized by Sir Lance du Lac, (a former French labor leader), turn their union members into soldiers against the Central European Empire. The enemy within its own borders overwhelms the CE Imperial troops and throws the CEE into confusion, giving the British and Commonwealth soldiers the opportunity they need to stab through France and move towards the CEE capitol in Switzerland. The Illuminati's elite, gathered in Bern, express great concern about this development, but Emperor Pierre again assures them, "This is all still within the parameters of our plan. Do not worry, my brethren."

Blog Entry from 2008-05-01

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

In 2008 an expedition originally intended to explore the tombs of Cleopatra and Mark Antony uncovered one of the last hidden secrets of World War II: a cache of chemical weapons belonging to Erwin Rommel's famed Afrika Korps. Archaeologists had previously revealed plans to uncover the 2000 year-old tomb of ancient Egypt's most famous lovers, Cleopatra and the Roman general Mark Antony later this year. Zahi Hawass, prominent archaeologist and director of Egypt's superior council for antiquities announced a proposal to test the theory that the couple were buried together.He discussed the project in Cairo at a media conference about the ancient pharaohs.
Hawass said that the remains of the legendary Egyptian queen and her Roman lover, Mark Antony, were inside a temple called Tabusiris Magna, 30 kilometres from the port city of Alexandria in northern Egypt. Until recently access to the tomb has been hindered because it is under water, but archaeologists plan to drain the site so they can begin excavation in November. Among the clues to suggest that the temple may contain Cleopatra's remains is the discovery of numerous coins with the face of the queen.

Continues on May 3rd ..

Blog Entry from 2008-05-01

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

In 1987 a reporter for the Washington Post learns that an attractive blonde has been visiting the White House for some time, often in the evening and apparently always when President Gary Hart's wife is away. Reporters for the Miami Herald, it turns out, have been investigating rumors of Hart's womanizing for weeks. Two days later, at a White House press conference, the President is deluged with questions about the Post's mystery woman and about his alleged infidelity in general. Annoyed, Hart dares the assembled journalists: 'Follow me around. I don't care. I'm serious. If anybody wants to put a tail on me, go ahead. They'll be very bored.'

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David Cryan — 1970-01-01T00:00:00+01:00

In 2009 on this day Joe Biden was sworn in as the forty-fifth President of the United States. The 5th US deaths was reported from Swine Flu.

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

In 1984 Soviet ruler Yuri Andropov marked the May Day holiday in Moscow with a speech justifying the ill-fated Soviet assault on the Alaskan coastline as -- in his words -- "a necessary response to the imperialistic agenda of the capitalist powers". He also claimed, in the face of mounting evidence to the contrary, that the Alaska operation had been a success. But in reality, most of the Soviet beachheads had long since been wiped out and the few that remained were under punishing US air and naval bombardment. Few people, even among Andropov's closest advisors, had any idea that Andropov was in the midst of a psyhchological breakdown or that this breakdown, combined with general distrust of the West and lingering anger over the "Able Archer" incident of 1983, had been one of the primary motivations for Andropov's misguided decision to go to war with the United States. Papers recovered from the Russian defense archives after the Soviet Union collapses would later reveal that Andropov had been convinced the United States was about to attack Siberia and this delusion had provoked him to order the landings in Alaska.

Within hours of Andropov's speech, his already severe problems would get exponentially worse; China, seeing an opportunity to readjust the Sino-Soviet border to its own advantage and strengthen ties with the Untied States, declared war on the Soviet Union and sent several of the PLA's top divisions into Siberia.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-01

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

In 2009 on this day the movie Doom Patrol Origins: Beast Boy premiered across North America; Toby McGuire starred in the title role.

And yet the disputed origination of the Doom Patrol concept by DC Comics was a story almost as bizarre as the plot-line itself. Amazingly, a plagiarism charge in the early 1960s had forced the closure of the company's primary competitor due to the undeniable similiarities of Marvel Comics's X-Men (both include misfit superheroes shunned by society and both are led by men of preternatural intelligence confined to wheelchairs).

"I became more and more convinced that [Stan Lee] knowingly stole The X-Men from The Doom Patrol."Initially, the plagiarism charge had seemed improbable due to the close proximity of the publication dates. However series writer Arnold Drake discovered that the movement of writers between the two comics had resulted in the leakage of his design concepts during pre-production.

In court Drake stated: " ...I became more and more convinced that [Stan Lee] knowingly stole The X-Men from The Doom Patrol. I discovered that an awful lot of writers and artists were working surreptitiously between [Marvel and DC]. Therefore from when I first brought the idea into [DC editor] Murray Boltinoff's office, it would've been easy for someone to walk over and hear that [I was] working on a story about a bunch of reluctant superheroes who are led by a man in a wheelchair. I began to feel that Stan had more lead time than I realized. He had four, five or even six months. "

Blog Entry from 2008-05-01

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

In 2003 on this day US President George W. Bush arrived by military jet on the deck of the USS Abraham Lincoln. A former navy pilot like his father, "W" executed a perfect tailhook to land the Navy S-3B Viking marked "Navy 1" at over 150 miles per hour. On the plane's tail was the insignia of the squadron, the "Blue Wolves".

With a giant banner proclaiming "Mission Accomplished", Bush's arrival celebrated a great military victory for the United States. Bush looked up to the observation deck and held up both arms to the roar of hundreds of sailors who had crowded the area.

In his speech to the troops Bush thanked the U.S. military for their efforts in Iraq. "Your courage -- your willingness to face danger for your country and for each other -- made this day possible. The transition from dictatorship to democracy will take time but it is worth every effort. Our coalition will stay until our work is done".

Whilst Jay Garner organised the handover to a transitional government, bulk of the US military in Iraq commenced the execution of a ninety day pullout plan that would result in a skeleton force for the limited objective of supporting the new leadership in Baghdad. Because, all ready, Bush had his eyes set on the next target, North Korea.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-01

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

In 1940 the second phase of Operation Barbarossa began on this day with Wehrmacht Forces invading the smoking ruins of the Soviet Union bombed to near-submission by a devastating aerial assault from Nazi UFOs.

Although the two dictatorships had been on a potental collision course for years, a raw materials crisis in Nazi Germany had forced an acceleration of the invasion plans.

The German High Command had carefully studied the strategic errors of Napoleon's failed invasion of 1812. And by attacking in the early summer, German Generals avoided L'Empereur's chief mistake by arriving in Moscow long before the cruel Russian Winter set in.

Nevertheless, the Fuhrer had ignored a secondary lesson, which was that the occupation of Western Russia would create "more of a drain than a relief" for Germany's economic situation.

The severity of German miscalculations was amplified by the emergence of the Greater Zionist Resistance (GZR), a "stay behind organization" of Jewish NKVD officers who created havoc in the German supply lines.

Locked into a deadly street-by-street fight with the Red Army, the Wehrmacht were forced to move to phase three, sustaining troop levels by employing the zombie re-animation technology that would save the Fuhrer's life five years later.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-01

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

In 1981 on this day Tommy "Wildfire" Rich, who'd already shocked the wrestling world once by beating Harley Race for the NWA world heavyweight title five days earlier, proceeded to shock it a second time by defeating the veteran grappler in a rematch to retain the belt. After the match a frustrated Race could be heard shouting, "What the hell does it take to beat this kid?!"

Blog Entry from 2008-05-01

Andrew Beane — 1970-01-01T00:00:00+01:00

In 2011 the world woke up to the shock that American-backed terrorist Osama bin Laden was murdered by Pakistani agents, and even more shocking, that the killing took place in New York City.

Early in the morning of May 1st, six members of the Pakistani spy agency known as ISI stormed into bin Laden's secret World Trade Center offices and shot him to death. The gunmen were apprehended by New York City police and are being held while city and federal authorities figure out just what to do with them. A new post by Andrew BeaneOsama bin Laden gained notoriety while leading the fight against the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan during the 1980s. After the Soviet troops left in 1992, a year after the murder of Mikhail Gorbachev and the subsequent collapse of the USSR, bin Laden turned his sights to the Pakistani Peoples' Republic. After losing a three year insurgency campaign in northwest Pakistan in 1995, partially funded by the CIA, bin Laden was captured and exiled, whereby he disappeared altogether. During his disappearance, he release several video and audio tapes calling for a Jihad against the Marxist government in Pakistan, calling for faithful Muslims to overthrow the government in Karachi (Islamabad had been virtually destroyed in 1994).

Pakistan long suspected that the United States was harboring bin Laden and evening continuing to fund his operation. This became apparent when American-made M16 assault rifles were found in abundance among al-Qaida militants captured or shot on the Pakistani/Afghan border. Washington denied any involvement with bin Laden or knowledge of his whereabouts.

Blog Entry from 2008-05-01

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

In 1945 on this day Edward and Wallis Windsor boarded the Benson class destroyer MacKenzie at Naval Station Norfolk and were escorted back to Blighty courtesy of the US Navy.

His controversial decision to wed the American divorcée had triggered an Abdication Crisis which the British Prime Minister Arnold Hiller had exploited to his own ends. But his eight year usurpation as combined Head of State and Government had ended days earlier with his suicide in the smoking bombed-out shell of a bunker in Downing Street.

The victorious American GIs who had won this hard fought victory over totalitarianism would not perish in a Third World War against the Soviet Union. Because instead, a non-combat Cold War would develop, and for that, the US Government desperately needed to build bulwarks to contain Communism. And that objective required figureheads that could lead the rebuilding of vanquished, friendly nations.

To serve this overarching imperative, a decision was made to temporarily re-instate Edward as Prince Regent and of course the White House had no moral hang-ups over addressing an American divorcée as "Her Royal Highness". A few months later and for much the same reasons it was decided to leave Emperor Hirohito of Japan on the Chrysanthemum Throne. Both monarchs would prove unexpectedly resilient and continue to rule into the nineteen seventies. Despite the expedient success of this scheme, there was of course no small irony in the fact that a powerful nation driven by Republican ideals had underwritten such monarchist regimes when even Hiller had risen to power through the operation of democratic processes.

But the new masters of Western Europe would face a much bigger challenge in Spain, were much larger popular objections existed to the continued rule of the Royal Family. Because the defeat of Franco had required the nuclear destruction of the city of Madrid, and Communist forces were now on the very cusp of seizing power...
You can read read the latest part of Chris Oakley's timeline at The Right Honourable Arnold Hiller MP at Changing the Times Magazine.