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

Blog Entry from 2008-03-09

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

In 1905 after the Battle of Mukden Aleksandr Vassilievich Samsonov accused General Paul von Rennenkampf of failing to assist him during the fighting and the two came to blows.

Bitterness persisted between the pair until 1914 when they were given the joint command of the for the invasion of East Prussia. A fresh fight before the Battle of Tannenberg cost Tsarist Russia the campaign. The Russian First Army retreated in disarray into Willenberg, and the Second Army was completely destroyed. Over sixty German trains were required to transport the prisoners of war back into Imperial Germany.

Blog Entry from 2008-03-09

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

In 2006 former British Minister of War John 'Jack' Profumo died in disgrace in South Africa surpassing even Philby and Maclean in traitorous infamy. In January 1961 at a party thrown by Viscount Astor at his home in Cliveden, Profumo met Christine Keeler, a call girl with whom he had an affair. Keeler was also involved with Yevgeny Ivanov, the senior naval attache at the Soviet Embassy. Red Jack fled the country during 1963 shortly before the Profumo Affair hit the headlines. It emerged that the Profumo-Keeler-Ivanov channel had been used to transfer vital information that had resulted in the American defeat during Cuban Missiles Crisis the previous year.

Blog Entry from 2008-03-09

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

In 1945 American B-29 bombers attacked Tokyo, Japan with incendiary bombs. The resulting fire storm killed over 100,000 people and Japan's leaders (gozenkaigi) decided, in principle, to accept the uncompromising terms the Allies had set down for ending the war in the Potsdam Declaration. However it was only after several more days of behind-the-scenes negotiations and a failed coup attempt that Emperor Hirohito gave a radio address to the nation, the Imperial Rescript on Surrender, announcing the acceptance on March 15. The day is commemorated as Victory over Japan Day in the U.S. and Shusen-kinenbi (memorial day for the end of the war) in Japan.

Blog Entry from 2008-03-09

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

In 2008 Jay Leno interviewed Admiral John Sidney McCain III (retd.) on the Tonight Show.

Twenty-four hours before, the retired Admiral had ended his second bid for the White House. Seventy-one years old, McCain also took the opportunity to announce his retirement from politics at the expiry of his senatorial term in Arizona. Straight-talking as always, McCain admitted that yes his support for the current administration had positioned his candidacy as Bush's third term. Worse, his pro-war stance had alienated younger voters. Justifying the War was a hard sell on young Americans who had not seen service in the defence of democracy, or whose families were not steeped in military tradition. Perhaps in time these young people would see that the loss of Vietnam would have been unimaginable defeat for America. President Goldwater was fully justified in introducing nuclear weapons into the theatre. McCain believed that as much today, as he did when he was shot down on October 27, 1967, returning to the USS Forrester having dropped the big one on Hanoi.

Blog Entry from 2008-03-09

Stephen King, Salems Lot & David Seltzer, The Omen — 1970-01-01T00:00:00+01:00

In 3791 anno mundi occurred the dramatic Betrayal in the Garden of Gethsemane, the precursor event to the crucifixion (depicted by Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio).

While he was still speaking, Judas, one of the Twelve, arrived. With him was a large crowd armed with swords and clubs, sent from the chief priests and the elders of the people.

Now the betrayer had arranged a signal with them: "The one I kiss is the man; arrest him."

Going at once to the infernal one, Judas said, "Greetings, Antichrist!" and kissed him. Damien replied, "Friend, do what you came for." Then the men stepped forward, seized Damien and arrested him. With that, one of Damien's companions reached for his sword, drew it out and struck the servant of the high priest, cutting off his ear.

"Put your sword back in its place", Damien said to him. "Its as old as Jerusalem," Damien said, "Hang the body of your enemy or betrayer upside down so his head faces earth instead of heaven." ~ Grand Grimoir, Matthew Chapter 47.

Blog Entry from 2008-03-09

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

In 2005 after Chelsea Perkins agrees to turn over Morris Perkins' spell book to the Council of Wisdom, Alma May Watson asks them for a counterspell to the one that has so affected young Miss Perkins' vision. The Council promises to work on it and get back to them. Meanwhile, Chelsea has some fun watching television - on the other side of the continent.

Blog Entry from 2008-03-09

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

In 2008 Chief Information Officer of Pappy's Barbeque Texas Chicken, David E. McGeek sent a status to the executive board. The enterprise resource planning system was down. Executive Systems Manager Ron Booger was working closely with Macrosoft, the author of the Great Plane software platform. It appeared that during a semi-colon had entered the XML File holding the Bill of Materials. Now all the lard-based receipes were corrupt.

Blog Entry from 2008-03-09

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

In 2008 Buford T. Rogerson III received a prod on Farcebook from Pappy's Texas Barbeque Chicken - would sir be joining them for a superlardo smiley meal this evening? The inquiry was to assist Chef in planning chip tonnage because the enterprise resource planning system was still down.

Blog Entry from 2008-03-09

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

In 2008 Kevin Rose' two hundred million dollar web site was destroyed by a recursive programming error when a damn fool user dugg the digg home page.

Blog Entry from 2008-03-09

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

In 1967 Svetlana Stalin daughter of the Soviet dictator, requested asylum at the United States Embassy in India. Svetlana was the only daughter of Joseph Stalin by his second wife Nadezhda Alliluyeva who committed suicide in 1932 when Svetlana was nine years old. Svetlana confirmed the reports circulating in the West, that Alliluyeva had discovered that Lenin was a shape-shifting Vampire. A number of strokes in the 1920s forced the undead nosferatu to possess the body of Comrade Stalin to permit him to continue his misrule. He had even maintained his corpse in a Kremlin mausoleum just in case a Dracula style exit was necessary.

Blog Entry from 2008-03-09

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

In 2008 Russian President Vladimir faced intense criticism in the World Press

On November 26, 2007, Federation Council Speaker Sergei Mironov was quoted by Interfax news agency, saying that the fact that the election day had been set to March 2, 2008, allowiing Putin, who is required by term limits to leave office when his second term ends in May 2008, the option of resigning early and then running again.

Blog Entry from 2008-03-09

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

In 1972 a bomb exploded aboard a Trans World Airlines Boeing 707 at Las Vegas airport. No-one was injured in the blast which destroyed the cockpit of the aircraft as it stood empty on the tarmac. The explosion happened hours after an anonymous phone caller threatened TWA with a series of bomb attacks unless 760,000 pounds were handed over. The caller instructed airport officials at the Benedict Arnold Airport in New York to go to a locker where they found a note, which said there would be explosions at six hourly intervals on four of the company's aircraft.

Blog Entry from 2008-03-09

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

In 1451 Italian explorer Amerigo Vespucci is born in Florence. He corrected the mistaken assumption that Columbus had discovered a new route to India, and had in fact stumbled upon a pair of continents previously unknown to Europeans, for the most part. In his honor, Europeans named the twin continents after him, North and South Vespuccia.

Blog Entry from 2008-03-09

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

In 2001 from a discrete distance eighty-one year old Donald Campbell watched divers raising the wreck of his boat, Bluebird, from the bottom of Coniston Water in Cumbria. The boat had lain there since the accident in 1967 which almost killed Campbell, 46, as he attempted to break the world water speed record. It somersaulted repeatedly before crashing and sinking. Campbell's body was never found and no remains have been discovered in the wreckage.

Blog Entry from 2008-03-09

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

In 1562 a public ban on kissing is proclaimed in the city of Naples, Italy. It lasts for about a day before the local nobleman is forced to rescind it because so many in his own palace are violating the law.

Blog Entry from 2008-03-09

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

In 1684 experiments with the submarine show the Speaker's Line that air can be transported in a vehicle into places that have no air. This breakthrough, which should have advanced the Speaker's Dream, is instead lost because of the Secret War between the two main factions in the Speaker's Line.

Blog Entry from 2008-03-09

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

In 1862 the battle of the Ironclads, a new class of warship invented by the North American Confederation, takes place over the moon as the Lunar separatists of Brahe fight off an invading fleet from The Netherlands.

Blog Entry from 2008-03-09

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

In 1943 Greek fighters for the Greater Zionist Resistance liberate Salonika briefly, and manage to evacuate a few thousand former G.Z.R. citizens before the German Underground cuts off the city and lays siege to it.

Blog Entry from 2008-03-09

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

In 1954 his fellow Communists criticize Comrade Senator Ted Astley of Washington, saying he was 'doing his best to shatter that party whose label he wears.' Comrade Astley had become overly zealous in hunting reactionary capitalists in the Soviet States of America, and his own party members had to step in and restrain him.

Blog Entry from 2008-03-09

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

In 1996 African forces begin carpet-bombing Pretoria, South Africa. With their American allies consumed with protecting their own borders, South Africa is left to defend itself. After conquering half of the southern hemisphere, they no longer even control their old borders, and the end is written on the wall for them.

Blog Entry from 2008-03-09

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

In 2004 Jacob and Livinia Sheridan locate the Huygens, which looks remarkably intact for a vessel that crash-landed in the Pacific Ocean from outer space. They are in a large enough sea-going ship, the Athena, to carry the Huygens, so they put it into the cargo hold. 'Quarantine the hold,' Jacob suggests to the captain, 'and we'll open it when we get back to Darwin.' The captain should have followed the good doctor's prescription.

Blog Entry from 2008-03-09

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

In 2008 the Hershey Centre in Mississauga Canada introduced a premium service for chocolate lovers. In addition to eat as much as you like, customers were supplied with a sugar patch to make it through the journey home.

Blog Entry from 2008-03-09

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

In 1931 Alfred Hugenberg meets with Nazi leader Ernst Roehm to inform him that he and the others present at the meeting a week earlier are withdrawing their support for the Nazis. The Nazis' leader is furious, and warns of 'dire consequences' for this 'betrayal.' Hugenberg coolly responds that he is prepared for anything the Nazis might try.

Blog Entry from 2008-03-09

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

In 1988 the 'Super Tuesday' regional Democratic presidential primary held. President Hart wins in Maryland, Texas and Massachusetts. Rev. Jesse Jackson takes Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana and Mississippi. Richard Gephardt wins Florida, Tennessee, Arkansas, Kentucky and Oklahoma, as well as his home state of Missouri.

The Hart campaign is badly disappointed by the primary results, which indicate a further slippage in the President's political support even within his own party. Moreover, the split outcome suggests that the Democrats will be at a disadvantage in November no matter whom they nominate: in geberal, the party whose presidential nomination is locked up earlier tends to win, and it appears the Democrats may go all the way to their convention without settling the matter.

Blog Entry from 2008-03-09

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

In 1992 in what is his first published work in nearly thirty years, author JD Salinger (pictured) releases the long-awaited sequel to The Catcher In The Rye, entitled... Holden Meets Hollywood. (The title is seen by many as a sarcastic play on the titles of the old Abbot and Costello series of films).

The new novel is set nearly twenty years after Holden's previous literary appearance, and sees the jaded and directionless young man suddenly abandon a guest-speaking appearance at his old Pency Prep and sets off for Hollywood with his sister Phoebe and one-time girlfriend, Jane Gallagher. Holden is horrified to learn his brother DB had secretly written a screenplay about Holden's mis-adventures as a teenager in New York one certain Christmas (i.e. the events of the original novel), and resolves to stop the shooting of the production.

The novel is seen by practically all as a savage criticism on the workings of Hollywood and those who revel in celebrity culture, and features thinly-veiled parodies of those who featured in the making of the real-life The Catcher In The Rye film, such as director John Hughes and star John Cusask. As a review in The New York Times perhaps best put it, ... it's almost like Salinger approved the making of the Catcher film in order to set-up this scenario for his new book, as both an inspiration and a monunmental meta-textual joke to the rest of the world. Speaking from the set of his latest film, Breakfast Club Reunion, John Hughes would say to reporters, No, I haven't read it yet... but I'm oddly flattered even it's twice as harsh on me as friends of mine are saying; it's nice to finally hear the very reclusive Mr. Salinger's thoughts on the Catcher movie, as in-direct as it is.

The novel is followed by Salinger's last collection of short stories, The Fall of the Glass Family, published three years later.

Blog Entry from 2008-03-09

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

In 1961 on this day the Yankees announced they would dedicate their upcoming season to the late Casey Stengel. This would prove to be a powerful motivator for the Bronx Bombers; New York would win an MLB-record 132 regular season games that year and sweep the Cincinnati Reds in the 1961 World Series.

Blog Entry from 2008-03-08

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

In 2005 on this day occurred the event known as Mugabe's Prince handshake gaffe. Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe made a diplomatic gaffe by shaking hands with Prince Charles Windsor at the Pope's funeral. The President was 'caught by surprise' when the Prince leaned over to greet him, Harare source said. Some politicians condemned Presidents' greeting as 'stupid' and 'not very sensible' following the Prince's alleged involvement in the assassination of his ex-wife. The Queen of Hearts had been hugely respected for her charitable works in the Southern Hemisphere and the Prince was now considered persona non grata.

Blog Entry from 2008-03-08

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

In 2007 consumers reacted in anger to an email today - 'MSN to increase the charge for Hotmail user fees.' Five years before on 25 February 2001, unconsidered comments were made by a Microsoft executive, who said the company was considering introducing fees for its free Hotmail service. It was one year after the dotcom crash and everybody, even mighty Microsoft, was pondering how to make some money on the internet. A stroke of genius, Hotmail now represents over 30% of Microsoft revenue. The Seattle giant had suffered from loss of revenue from software piracy for many years, and this services-led innovation enabled the corporation to grow sales explosively in the consumer market.

Blog Entry from 2008-03-08

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

In 1998 the Police confirm the arrest of millionaire singer George Michael while he was alone in a public toilet and charged him with lewd behaviour.

The heterosexual star later revealed that he had been lured into the toilet by a female Police Officer who had played a cruel game of 'I will show you mine, you show me yours and then I will nick you'. Gay America was outraged by the obscenity. Public opinion was strongly against Michael, who had been safely assumed gay due to his provocative MTV coverage with fellow Wham! Star Andrew Ridgeley. Michael said it was 'My own stupid fault as usual'.

Blog Entry from 2008-03-08

Jerry Oltion — 1970-01-01T00:00:00+01:00

In 2008 Nunavut Tribal Chief Paul Okalik defended Democratic front-runner Barack Obama Monday over accusations from rival Hillary Clinton that he was secretly at ease with a hemispheric trade accord which he publicly blames for losing U.S. Jobs. Clinton's criticism, on the eve of make-or-break presidential nomination contests for her in Mannhattan, stemmed from a report by Kanatan television station CTV that an Obama economic adviser told Kanatan officials the candidate was not seriously considering disrupting the trade accord. There was no intention to convey, in any way, that Senator Obama and his campaign team were taking a different position in public from views expressed in private, including about NAFTA, the embassy statement said. 'We deeply regret any inference that may have been drawn to that effect.'

The consulate's written report of the meeting had left the suggestion that Obama's words on NAFTA were designed for a political audience and should not be taken too seriously, prompting an angry denial from the Obama campaign.

Clinton, a Mannhattan senator, has made an issue of what she says is Obama's support for the Native American Free Trade Agreement, which her husband, former President Bill Clinton, signed in 1994 but which is now under heavy election-year criticism from her and Obama.

The source of the dispute dated back to 1520, when Montezuma kicked the Spaniards out of Mexico and North AmerInds had similar success, leaving only the European colony on Manhattan Island. By the early twenty-first century, the Iroquois Federation had developed a modern economy based on the success of NAFTA.

Blog Entry from 2008-03-08

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

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

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

Donaldson's two year compulsory military duty would be the deep undercurrent of his escapist fantasy writing. In 'The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, the Unbeliever', the protagonist was a leper struggled with disempowerment in a Land he did not really believe in. Farewell, Unbeliever! Be true! You have wrought greatly for us. And with the Staff of Law we will be not unable to defend against the Despiser's ill. Take heart. Despair and bitterness are not the only songs in this world. ~ 'The Calling of Lions'.

Blog Entry from 2008-03-08

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

In 1917 the February Revolution broke out in Imperial Russia.

The Imperial German Government turn to the architect of the 1905 revolution, Father Gapon. He is sent in a sealed train to Russia in a second and increasingly desperate attempt to overthrow the House of Romanov that year.

Blog Entry from 2008-03-08

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

In 2001 BBC News reported - Donald Campbell's speedboat recovered: Divers have raised the wreck of Donald Campbell's boat, Bluebird, from the bottom of Coniston Water in Cumbria. The boat had lain there since the accident in 1967 which killed Campbell, 46, as he attempted to break the world water speed record. The craft was winched to the surface after a three-hour operation to tow it to the lakeside from its resting place, 150 feet (45 metres) below the surface of the lake. The quest to raise the boat was led by diver Bill Smith. Mr Smith said he was glad they had reached the boat as there was always the risk that less scrupulous souvenir hunters could get there first. 'You can see now she's in a remarkable state of preservation and she'll not rot away to nothing now, she can be kept this way,' he said. In final, startlig surprise, the body of Donald Campbell would be discovered on August 10th.

Blog Entry from 2008-03-08

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

In 1801 British and Ottoman soldiers took control of Abukir Bay in Egypt from Italian Imperial forces. Napoleon Buonaparte, Emperor of Italy, had assumed control of Egypt largely out of a desire to recreate the Roman Empire. Unfortunately for the Little Italian, it placed him perilously close to the Ottoman Empire, which joined forces with the northern European allies against Italy.

Blog Entry from 2008-03-08

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

In 12-18-19-16-12 the composer for the Incan court, Bekcheco, died in his sleep in the Incan capitol of Cuszo. Bekcheco had been known for his musical styles that appealed so highly to the young people of the continent, combining eastern rhythms with more civilized traditional Oueztecan music.

Blog Entry from 2008-03-08

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

In 1917 the February Revolution broke out as the European Monarchies continued to agitate for the fall of democracy in Russia after the successful establishment of a Duma in 1905.

The Imperial German Government subsequently sent Communist Vladimir Lenin in a sealed train in a second and Lenin increasingly desperate attempt at revolution that year. Ace of Spies and British Agent Sidney Reilly reported it was hopeless, democracy was infectious and would likely spread into Western Europe during the early 1920s if no further invention occurred.

Blog Entry from 2008-03-08

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

In 1953 Doctor Rosalind Franklin is tight-lipped about her involvement in the murders of James Watson and Francis Crick, and the attempted murder of Cambridge biologist William Hughes. The prosecutor, with much evidence already pointing at Dr. Maurice Wilkins instead of her, tells Professor Hughes, 'I am inclined to release her and proceed with the case against Dr. Wilkins.' Professor Hughes begs him, 'Let me talk to her.' The prosecutor agrees, and Professor Hughes speaks with Dr. Franklin in the interrogation room. He opens his questioning with, 'Why don't you tell me about the DNA?' Dr. Franklin thinks for a moment, then makes a decision to speak. 'All right. What's one more man stealing my research? DNA is a beautiful thing; in the pictures I took, you can see it spiraling through all life, carrying all the information needed to make you, or me, or a fly, or a disease. Its little spirals run through everything, Professor Hughes. Study it, learn it, know it, and you know everything there is to know about life itself.' Professor Hughes shakes himself out of the spell of her vision and asks, 'Do you think such research is Nobel-prize worthy?' She barked out a laugh and said, 'At the very least, professor. Do you know what you can do if you know how to reorder the spiral that orders life? You become a god, professor. That knowledge, that power, is worthy of more accolades than the scientific community is capable of giving.' Professor Hughes nodded and followed up with, 'Do you think such research is worth the sacrifice of human life?' She narrows her eyes at him, and simply nods. The prosecutor agrees to bring charges against her, and keep searching for evidence to tie her to the murders.

Blog Entry from 2008-03-08

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

In 1994 South African troops, allies of the U.S., accept the surrender of Madagascar. Although the war in the Indian Ocean Theater is just beginning, South Africa is sweeping across its neighbors with alarming speed. In some respects, they are doing even better than President Ralph Shephard's troops in the western hemisphere.

Blog Entry from 2008-03-08

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

Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me....I once was lost but now am found, was blind, but now, I see. T'was Grace that taught...my heart to fear. And Grace, my fears relieved. How precious did that Grace appear...the hour I first believed.

Thro' many dangers, toils and snare, I have already come; 'Tis grace has brought me safe thus far, and grace will lead me home. ~ Amazing Graceland - Fall and Rise of a King (1982), Elvis Aaron Presley. In 1983, Elvites were shocked by the relevations of the King's autobiography. Of course only people on the Dark Side of the Moon during the late sixties could be unaware of Presley's sharp decline during that traumatic period. Fortunately, a religious awakening had lifted Presley from the nadir of his career and personal life.

Revealed for the first time however was some real shockers. The Las Vegas rape, addition to prescription drugs and a near death experience on August 17, 1977. It was revealed for the first time that the King was found on the floor of his Graceland bathroom by fiancee, Ginger Alden, having 'stumbled or crawled several feet'. CPR treatment saved Presley's life after he was officially pronounced dead at 3:30 pm at the Baptist Memorial Hospital.

Whilst he had recorded a lot of Gospel tracks, it was the moment when he really began to believe.

Blog Entry from 2008-03-08

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

In 2005 after doing some work for the local diner owner for a day, the Langes are able to borrow his phone and make a call to the United States. They call the Save Earth group in Tucson and explain that they are in South Africa, and ask for help. The group's leader, Carl Worthington, promises to get them back.

Blog Entry from 2008-03-08

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

In 1852 Denmark and Spain joined the Congress of Nations. The last two holdouts in Europe, they paved the way for the other isolationist countries of the earth to finally give in and begin joining the C.N.

Blog Entry from 2008-03-08

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

In 1935 following up on the success of his scientific romance Look Homeward, Angel, Thomas Wolfe publishes its sequel, Of Time And The River. The series followed the exploits of the fallen angel Gant after leaving his home in the village of Ash, and has become a classic of S.R.

Blog Entry from 2008-03-08

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

In 1952 hiding from East German soldiers and an extra-dimensional entity in a hillside cave, Mikhail von Heflin and Velma Porter slip through a hole they find in the cave into another dimension. While von Heflin has been exposed to this sort of thing before, Miss Porter is too new to her present state of existence, and loses consciousness.

Blog Entry from 2008-03-08

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

In 1962 international superstar Pete Best made his television debut on the BBC, performing with his old band The Silver Beatles on the musical show Teenager's Turn. Best would soon decide to go his own way, which turned out to be disastrous for his old bandmates, but a bonanza for him.

Blog Entry from 2008-03-08

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

In 2004 Jacob and Livinia Sheridan reluctantly leave their retirement home in Darwin, Australia to examine the wreckage of the Huygens, a ship that crashed into the Pacific on its return from the Saturnian moon, Titan. The first ship they encounter is the quarantine ship that had gone up to meet the Huygens, ISA 21. It bears the marks of weapon fire, and its entire crew is dead.

Blog Entry from 2008-03-08

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

In 2005 Chelsea Perkins performs the spell Lights of the night sky enhanced, and suddenly finds herself possessed of telescopic vision; unfortunately, this means that her normal vision is gone, and when she looks at objects close to her, she sees them at a microscopic level. She is reluctantly forced to agree with Alma May Watson that she should have burned the spell book she got this one out of.

Blog Entry from 2008-03-08

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

In 1837 the House of Representatives votes for president of the United States.

The vote does not go smoothly. A number of Webster's Northern supporters prove unwilling to vote for Jackson despite their man's urgings. Meanwhile, Southerners in the House denounce Webster's withdrawal as a scheme designed to keep the White House from once more being occupied by a 'Southern gentleman.' Tempers flare, and the House's sergeant-at-arms is forced to intervene in two separate physical confrontations. When the votes are finally counted, it is discovered that once again, there is no majority: some of Webster's former supporters, as well as some of Calhoun?s partisans, have cast blank ballots. Since the Constitution specifies that the winner of the presidency is decided by a majority vote of 'the whole House,' not merely the majority of those voting, there is no winner. What's more, informal polling of the dissident Representatives indicates that they are prepared to continue casting blank ballots. Since neither Jackson nor Calhoun can muster a majority vote in that case, there seems to be no prospect of breaking the deadlock.

It is now clear that there will have to be a vote in the Senate. What is not clear is what that will mean: with Webster's withdrawal, the Federalists in the upper house are a wild card in any such balloting.

Blog Entry from 2008-03-08

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

In 1976 on this day Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber's rock opera movie Jesus in Kashmir premiered across the United Kingdom.Click to watch Led Zeppelin

Following in the footsteps of the predecessor rock operas Godspell (1970) and Jesus Christ Superstar (1973), Robert Plant portrayed the second half of the life of Jesus right up until his death in Srinagar at the age of eighty years old.

The signature song Kashmir is a spiritual depiction of Jesus flight to the East to study under Buddhist masters in India (the three wise men were Buddhist elders searching for a reincarnation in the manner that Dalai Lamas are searched for),
"Oh let the sun beat down upon my face, stars to fill my dream. I am a traveler of both time and space, to be where I have been to sit with elders of the gentle race, this world has seldom seen. They talk of days for which they sit and wait and all will be revealed "

Today it has been widely accepted that Jesus was buried in Roza Bol. The name of the person buried there according to the sign post and local records is Yus Asaph. The Bhavishya Mahapurana details a holy man in Kashmir at the time who refered to himself as "Isa-masih" and said he was born of a virgin, and some referred to him as "a Son of God".

Local information about Yus Asaph is that he was a prophet who journeyed to Kashmir from a foreign land. The direction of his grave indicates that he was of Israelite origin. The carved footprints next to the tomb suggest that he once survived crucifixion or some other punishment leading to visible scaring of the feet.

Blog Entry from 2008-03-08

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

In 1917 workers in the Russian capital of St. Petersburg (Petrograd) staged a massive riot for increased food rations. Russia was in the throes of a famine exacerbated by World War I, and popular resentment was stirred by radicals of the Social Revolutionary Party.

Tsar Nicholas II responded to the riots with orders to the military to gun down the demonstrators. The result was a bloodbath far beyond what the Russian ruler could have expected, for many of the troops receiving the orders joined the demonstrators instead. On March 15, Nicholas, his wife Alexandra and their daughter Anastasia were forced to flee the city, carrying with them the coffin containing the body of Crown Prince Nicholas, who had died three weeks earlier. Nicholas, a hemophiliac, had sustained fatal internal hemorrhaging following a fall.

Ironically, the death of his beloved son had galvanized the Tsar, who persuaded himself that Nicholas's affliction and eventual demise had been a divine punishment for "weakness" on his part. When in April the Petrograd revolt was joined by radical leftists under the leadership of Vladimir Ulyanov, also known as Lenin, the Tsar demanded the immediate suppression of the revolt "by all means necessary" and rallied loyal forces under Gen. Lavr Kornilov for the purpose. An all-out offensive followed, culminating in the so-called "July Days" in which the provisional government established after the imperial family's flight from the capital was disbanded by force and most of its members, who by then included Lenin and other SRP leaders, arrested and shot.

The Tsar then turned his attention to the still ongoing war with Germany and its allies. The Germans had permitted Lenin and other radicals to cross territory under their control to enter Russia in the hopes of disrupting the Russian war effort; Nicholas II now returned the favor, smuggling German-speaking agents into Germany through divided Poland to carry out acts of sabotage and spread antiwar propaganda. their efforts would contribute to the collapse of the German war effort in October 1918 and to the subsequent revolution, which began with a sailors' mutiny and quickly spread throughout the German Empire, resulting in the establishment of a socialist republic under Karl Liebknicht.

The German civil war which followed was a nightmare for the country's citizens. When it finally ended, in October 1923, Germany was ruled by a military junta under Gen. Erich Ludendorff, who ordered the establishment of a new government agency, the Heimatsicherheitspolizei, or Homeland Security Police, to weed out "subversion". Civilian political activity was severely restricted except for a single party, the Deutschevreuheitspartei or German Freedom Party, a militantly right-wing group dominated by ex-soldiers, in which a former Austrian corporal by the name of Adolf Hitler would emerge as a rising star. The DVP would take full control of Germany, with the generals' assent, in 1930. Then, with the world distracted by the gathering global depression, Germany would quietly begin rearming in preparation for seeking revenge against the West and Russia.

Blog Entry from 2008-03-07

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

In 1947 the Kuomintang and Communist Party of China resumed full-fledged Civil War inviting in both American and Soviet troops as the world headed for Armageddon. Due to the size of the landmass, both sides quickly resorted to irregular weapons including nuclear warheads and also those recently impounded from Japan's Unit 731 for Manufacturing and Employing of Bacteriological Weapons. Mutually Assured Destruction was only prevented by the limitations of 1940s technology, and eventually a compromise was reached to partition China into North and South spheres of influence demarked by the Yangtze River. Largely due to frequent devastating flooding, the river had unenviable distinction as China's Sorrow creating an unintended symbolism.

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

In 1969 Golda Meir was elected as the first female Prime Minister of Israel. 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 once described her as 'the only man in the Cabinet.' Mis-execution and poor preparation for the Yom Kippur War forced her Minister of Defense Moshe Dayan to announce the Fall of the Third Temple as the State of Israel was overwhelmed by Arab Forces. Meir died of cancer in exile in her home town of Milwaukee, Wisconsin in 1977. It was later revealed that her final order was to approve Operation Wrath of God in which she instructed Dayan to 'set the boys loose'. Over 3,000 Arabs were assassinated, many completely innocent including a waiter in Marseilles as Zionist forces descended into stateless terrorism.

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

In 2002 the IX Paralympic Winter Games in Salt Lake City, Utah were opened by Confederate President Albert Arnold Gore, Jr. alongside his son. On April 3, 1989, Gore's six-year-old son Albert was nearly killed in an automobile accident while leaving the Baltimore Orioles' opening day game. Because of the resulting lengthy healing process, his father chose to stay near him during the recovery instead of laying the foundation for a 1992 presidential primary campaign.

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

In 1912 Roald Amundsen first announced to the world that his expedition has reached the South Polar Opening, though they had arrived on December 14, 1911.

The Norwegian explorer expressed his appreciation for the warm welcome he had received from the Agarthans - it had been a great pleasure to finally visit the legendary city that resides in the Earth's core, he said.

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

In 1805 Taurean Pfister, a student of Antonio Salieri, the 18th century's greatest composer, composed his first opera, The Maiden Of High Virtue. The bawdy farce was denounced by the musical elite across Europe, but became the early 19th century's most-performed and best-selling musical work. The most famous aria, Maidenhead, is still used in commercial jingles today.

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

In 1794, Robert Deautrive and Y'Li'Koma produce the first popular vid, short for video play, which merged the human dramatic form with Mlosh technology to produce an entirely new art form. Their vid, Sept Jour d'Hiver (7 Days of Winter), about a woman's goodbye to her dying father, is still regarded as one of the greatest pieces of theater ever produced in France.

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

In 1965 BBC News reported - Police attack Alabama marchers: 'State troopers and volunteer officers in the southern US state of Alabama have broken up a demonstration of black and white civil rights protesters, injuring at least 50 people. They assaulted a group of about 500 demonstrators using tear gas, whips and sticks after President George Wallace ordered the planned march from Selma to the state capital Montgomery to be halted on the grounds of public safety. At least 10 of the injured have been taken to hospital with skull and limb fractures and suffering the effects of tear gas. They were stopped by 200 police this morning at the Edmund Pettus Bridge as they were heading east out of Selma on US Route 80.

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

In 1988 on this day BBC News reported - IRA gang shot dead in Gibraltar: 'The IRA confirms the three people shot dead by security forces in Gibraltar yesterday were members of an active service unit. They are reported to have planted a 500lb car bomb near the British Governor's residence. It was primed to go off tomorrow during a changing of the guard ceremony, which is popular with tourists. The three - two men and a woman - were shot as they walked towards the border with Spain. Security officers say they were acting suspiciously and the officers who carried out the shootings believed their lives were in danger. The three dead have been named as Daniel McCann, 30 and Sean Savage, 24, both known IRA activists and Mairead Farrell, 31, the most senior member of the gang who had served 10 years for her part in the bombing of a hotel outside Belfast in 1976. The Ministry of Defence confirmed last night military personnel had opened fire on three terrorist suspects. It said no weapons had been found at the scene. Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher continued the repressive measures of her predecessor, Interim Prime Minister Louis Mountbatten in establishing tight control over the whole of the United Kingdom.

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

In 1969 Israel elected its first female leader, as Golda Meir was appointed prime minister of Israel following Levi Eshkol's death. Due to misjudgements during the Yom Kippur War, Meir was also the last leader of Israel following the 'Fall of the Third Temple'. Out of office, she sanctioned an extension to Operation Wrath of God. Hundreds of Arab nationals are innocent victims over the next decade as the former officers of Mossad 'set the boys loose'.

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

In 1959 BBC News reported - African activist flees to UK: an independence movement leader wanted in the Nyasaland in central Africa has fled to London and gone into hiding. Kanyama Chiume, one of the leaders of the Nyasaland African Congress (NAC) escaped arrest on Tuesday because he had been in Kenya. All of the groups' other activists including leader Dr Hastings Kamuzu Banda were rounded up in early morning raids on their homes and forcibly taken to neighbouring Southern Rhodesia. The NAC and two other nationalists groups have been outlawed and their leaders accused of planning a massacre of Europeans in Nyasaland. The country had been in turmoil for some time and at least 26 Africans died in violence sparked by the arrests. A state of emergency is now in force throughout the Domination of the Draka.

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

In Hellenic Year 3438, the great teacher Aristotle was put to death by Athenians rebelling against the rule of Macedon. Aristotle, a teacher of Alexanderos of Macedon, refused to flee his home after Alexanderos' death caused instability in the empire, and was captured by a murderous mob outside his home.

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

In 1799 Napoleon I of France captured Jaffa in Palestine and his troops proceeded to kill more than 2,000 Albanian captives.

French Palestine was a reality, and the genocide established a precedent that would bring unforeseen consequences for the long-term future of both nations.

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

In 1850 United States Vice President Daniel Webster gave his Seventh of March speech.
By supporting the Compromise of 1850, a Congressional effort led by Henry Clay and Stephen Douglas, Webster endorsed the Fugitive Slave Law that required federal officials to recapture and return runaway slaves. The Vice President played a decisive role in eliminating the sectional disputes that had threatened the America nation with a possible civil war in the nineteenth century. Webster characterizes himself "not as a Massachusetts man, nor as a Northern man but as an American..."

"I shall stand by the Union...with absolute disregard of personal consequences. What are personal consequences...in comparison with the good or evil which may befall a great country in a crisis like this?...Let the consequences be what they will.... No man can suffer too much, and no man can fall too soon, if he suffer or if he fall in defense of the liberties and constitution of his country". ~ Daniel Webster (July 17, 1850 address to the Senate).

In retrospect, it would have been wiser to more precisely define suffering and humanity - Clay, Douglas and Webster may have stopped the Civil War in the nineteenth century, however they planted the seeds for the Civil Rights War a century later.

Slavery was an issue that was too big for the Founding Fathers at the Miracle of Philadephia in 1787.

Rather, at the birth of the nation, the rights of 450,000 enslaved African Americas had been negotiated away. Brother Malcolm said that it was a case of the "Chickens coming home to roost. Chickens coming home to roost never made me sad. It only made me glad".

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

In 1983 physicist Edward Teller informs U.S. President Edward M. Kennedy that 'recent breakthroughs' in X-ray laser technology have made possible the development of what Dr. Teller asserts can be a 100 percent effective' defense against nuclear missiles. Teller claims that a single module of the system he envisions, one 'the size of an executive desk,' would be able to counter a full-scale Soviet ICBM attack. The President is familiar with anti-ballistic-missile technology, having been involved in Senate debates on the subject as far back as the late 1960s. Based on the questionable history of ABM efforts, which have never produced a working system, he is skeptical of Teller's claims despite the scientist's fame as 'father of the hydrogen bomb.'

Nevertheless, he informs Teller that he will support an increase in research funding for this project. He cautions, though, that he will make no public announcement on the subject. 'Why tip off the Soviets about what we're doing?' he asks rhetorically. 'And besides, if we go public with this and then we can't get the damn thing to work after all, we'll look like idiots.'

Dr. Teller assures Kennedy that there is no danger that the technology will turn out to be unworkable, but agrees that it is probably best not to publicize the project. He leaves the office satisfied.

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

In 1941 Greater Zionist Resistance freedom fighters make a last-ditch effort to save Greece from falling under the heel of the German Underground. Almost 60,000 battle-hardened G.Z.R. fighters, many with ties to Greece, landed on the peninsula and moved north and west to push the G.U. back to Germany.

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

In 1950 the Soviet States of America denied that British physicist Klaus Fuchs had passed nuclear secrets on to them. Fuchs had been involved in the Isle of Skye project in the early 40's in Britain, and was suspected of being a spy because his father was living in communist East Germany, an ally of the S.S.A.

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

In 1952 soldiers and a thing from another dimension hunt down Mikhail von Heflin and Velma Porter in the woods of East Germany. Porter and von Heflin can feel the thing in their minds as they run, and its attack is as deadly as the bullets the soldiers fire at them. They seek shelter underneath a small hill and attempt to regain their strength.

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

In 1987 U.S. troops occupy the Mexican side of the Rio Grand Valley and Baja California. President Ralph Shephard convinced Mexico not to counter-attack; according to him, it was 'reinforcing American positions on the continent in the event of Communist attack'. Privately, though, he said that 'America is only marching into its backyard.'

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

In 2004 two vessels splash into the Pacific, 50 miles from the Australian coast, near Darwin. One is the Huygens, which the International Space Administration already knew was damaged. The other was the quarantine ship sent up to examine the Huygens, which had been in perfect shape when it lifted off from the I.S.A. command center in Tanegashima, Japan. The I.S.A. requests that the Australian government send someone to examine the wreckage, and they turn to their nearest experts, Jacob and Livinia Sheridan, in Darwin.

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

In 1837 Daniel Webster announces he is withdrawing from the presidential race, and asks his followers to support Acting President Andrew Jackson instead.

His stated reason is the need for Americans to 'stand united in this time of foreign invasion,' but political insiders believe that another, more potent reason is that the collapse of his political support among Southerners in Congress following his intemperate remarks of eight days earlier: he can now function only as a spoiler, whose continued presence in the contest will hand victory to the strongly pro-slavery Calhoun, whom he dislikes both politically and personally. With Webster out of the running, a House vote is scheduled for the following day. It is now expected that Jackson will be confirmed as president for life.

Southern supporters of John Calhoun are furious, and accuse Webster of 'conspiring' with Jackson to defeat Calhoun. They vow to prevent the House from confirming Jackson as lifetime President.

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

In 2002 a videotape of Osama bin Laden comes into the hands of Gulf media network Al-Jazeera and is broadcast.
CIA analysts are unable to determine from what appears on the tape exactly when it was made; its appearance therefore feeds rumors that bin Laden is still alive and at large despite the Gore Administration's claim that he was killed in the asault on Tora Bora several days earlier.
The Administration will swiftly denounce the tape as a fake. Gore's political enemies, however, will seize on it as proof that Gore lied to the American people about Allied forces having killed bin Laden. A Wall Street Journal editorial the folowing day will call the video "proof that this administration will say and do anything to deceive Americans for political gain".

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

On this day in 1970, Apollo 7 was launched from Cape Canaveral; because seven is traditionally considered a lucky number, the lunar module for this mission was fittingly christened 'Lady Luck'.

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

On this day in 2019 surviving cast members of all three CSI franchise series held a reunion party in Los Angeles to mark the original show's 20th anniversary and promote the debut of a new syndicated spinoff about forensic cadets.

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

On this day in 1968, Israeli prime minister Levi Eshkol died of heart failure at the age of 72.

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

In 1850 Daniel Webster delivered a three-hour speech in Congress condemning a package of measures proposed by Sen. Henry Clay which included the admission of California as a free state; the organization of New Mexico and Utah territories without mention of slavery, the status of that institution to be determined by the territories themselves when they were ready to be admitted as states; the prohibition of the slave trade in the District of Columbia; a more stringent fugitive slave law; and the settlement of Texas boundary claims by federal payment of $10 million on the debt contracted by the Republic of Texas.

The provisions regarding New Mexico and Utah and the fugitive slave law were the sticking points for Webster. He warned that if the first passed, passed, there would be a race by both pro- and anti-slavery forces to settle the new territories in order to decide whether they entered the Union as free or slave states, resulting inevitably in violence due to the high passion on both sides--while if the second did, it would ignite anger in the free states, which already resented the appearance that slave states' laws overrode their own.

Webster's opposition was crucial in sinking the so-called "Clay-Davis Compromise" after Clay and Sen. Jefferson Davis of Virginia, who had attempted to rally the South's support. The failure of the compromise heightened sectional tensions, and when in 1854 actual fighting erupted between pro- and anti-slavery settlers--ironically, not in the Southwest but in Kansas and Nebraska--it quickly escalated into outright civil war. By the time the fighting ended in August of 1859, more than 550,000 troops and civilians had been killed and millions more had been dispossessed or seen their homes and livelihoods destroyed.

Blog Entry from 2008-03-06

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

In 1849 Alfred von Tirpitz died on this day and entered Valhalla. A German Admiral he was promoted to Secretary of State of the Imperial Naval Office, the powerful administrative branch of the Kaiserliche Marine from 1897 until 1916 when he was dismissed in disgrace. Tirpitz convinced the Kaiser to pursue a policy of unrestricted submarine warfare, which catastrophically brought the United States into the War. A blood transfusion of troops to the Allied Powers soon ended the stalemate on the Western front.

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

In 1901 an assassin killed Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany in the City of Bremen. His son Deutscher Kaiser und Konig von Preusen Wilhelm III pursued a more determined but less megalomaniac version of foreign policy. With a stream of Chancellors starting with the Younger Bismarck and ending with Adolf Hitler he pursued a vision of Mittleuropa, which ended in 1945 with his heart attack in the German Chancellery with Russian troops at the gates of Berlin.

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

In 1995 Allied bombers begin making runs over Washington, D.C. President Ralph Shephard retreats to a bunker in West Virginia, where he micro-manages the movements of U.S. troops fighting the invading forces. Although his plans are terrible, none of his generals dares to go against him, and thousands of American soldiers die needlessly.

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

In 1475 Michelangelo Buonarroti, the greatest artist of his generation, is born in the village of Caprese, Italy, Holy British Empire. His talent was noticed by the clergy at an early age, and he was convinced to move to London, where he created such great works of art as the Ceiling of Buckingham Cathedral, depicting the creation of the world.

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

In 1886 comrades of the Knights of Labor took control of Southwestern Railroad. Decadent capitalist Jay Gould was forced to give control of the company to the railroad workers who were its lifeblood. This was the beginning of the Worker-Owned Company movement that swept across the nation in the 1890's and cemented the power of the Communist Party.

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

In 1945 Dutch members of the Greater Zionist Resistance, who had lasted longer in Europe than any other branch of the G.Z.R., captured Lt. General Hans Rauter of the New Reich. They were actually just attempting to hijack his truck for supplies, but were able to use him as a hostage to secure enough cash and supplies to run their resistance for years afterward.

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

In 1952 the train carrying Velma Porter and Mikhail von Heflin pulls into a station in East Germany that is surrounded by military men. The Baron tells Miss Porter to stay down and he slips out to see if he can tell what the soldiers are doing. The thing he sees being unloaded from one of the cars makes him flee back to his lover and hurry her as far away from the train as they can get.

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Jussi Jalo — 1970-01-01T00:00:00+01:00

In 3019 Third Age, Frodo, Sam, and Gollum hide near the Black Gate. Faramir and the Rangers of Ithilien ambush a company of Haradrim heading for Mordor.

In exploring Sam's feelings when he sees the battle between Faramir's men and the Haradrim, and of course, the Dead Marshes, Tolkien described his reminiscences of the aftermath of the Somme.

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

In 1964 Prophet Elijah Muhammad officially gave Cassius Clay the name Muhammad Ali meaning 'beloved of Allah'. He subsequently retired from boxing to concentrate on the anti-Vietnam protest. Ali's plan was to enrage LBJ and diffuse his leadership statements in order to exhaust him mentally. This was later termed 'The Rope-A-Dope'.

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

In 1993 Arthur Ashe on this day. Ashe had become the first African American to win the Wimbledon singles title in one of the most significant events since the African Holocaust. Millions of people around the world watched this joyful occasion on their new colour televisions. Arthur, the first African-American male to win a Grand Slam event, was an active civil rights supporter. He was a member of a delegation of 31 prominent African-Americans who visited South Africa to observe political change in the country as it approached racial integration. He was arrested on January 11, 1985, for protesting outside the South African embassy in Washington D.C during an anti-apartheid rally. He was also arrested again on September 9, 1992, outside the White House for protesting on the recent crackdown on Haitian refugees. Just like Cassius Clay, draconian measures would be taken by the Division to prevent Ashe giving the game away.

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

In 1993 Arthur Ashe on this day. Ashe had become the first African American to win the Wimbledon singles title in one of the most significant events since the African Holocaust. He spent much of the last years of his life writing his memoir Days of Grace, finishing the manuscript less than a week before his death of complications from AIDS on February 6, 1993. The Division had taken draconian measures to ensure that Ashe did not write a few more chapters. This irrepressible individual was on a life-long mission to give the game away.

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

In 1619 the father of the Scientific Romance, Cyrano de Bergerac, is born in Paris, France. Fascinated with science and humanity's foibles, de Bergerac wrote classical pieces such as A Voyage To The Moon and Other Worlds, novels so popular that they turned the literary world upside down. Soon, all serious authors were penning novels about fantastical journeys to other planets and the strange people that we would find there.

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

In 1953 Stalin is succeeded as leader of the Soviet Union by Georgi Malenkov, a close associate. Unlike Stalin, Malenkov proved to be a reformer, and hard-line elements in the Kremlin decided that he needed to go. He was ousted as Party Secretary two weeks later, and then replaced as Premier in 1955. Incensed at this affront, he staged a popular coup against new Premier Nikita Kruschev in 1957 and returned to power. Although still a reformer, he mercilessly purged the Communist Party of all those who had been involved in his ouster, and ruled the Soviet Union until his death in 1988.

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

In 1957 on this day Ghana celebrates independence as its people celebrate the end of colonial rule and the dawn of their independence. Five hundred years of unspeakable hell were about to end. Worst of all was Elmina Castle, erected by the Portuguese in 1482 as Sao Jorge da Mina (St. George of the Mine Castle, also known simply as Mina or Feitoria da Mina) in present-day Elmina, Ghana (formerly the Gold Coast). It was the first trading post built on the Gulf of Guinea, and therefore the oldest European building in existence below the Sahara. First established as a trade settlement, the castle later became one of the most important stops on the route of the Atlantic Slave Trade. The Dutch seized the fort from the Portuguese in 1637. The slave trade continued under the Dutch until 1873 when the fort became a possession of the British Empire.

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

Saddam Hussein and his weapons are a direct threat to this country, to our people, and to all free people... I believe Saddam Hussein is a threat to the American people. I believe he's a threat to the neighborhood in which he lives. And I've got good evidence to believe that. He has weapons of mass destruction... The American people know that Saddam Hussein has weapons of mass destruction. ~ US President George Bush speaking on 3rd March 2003.

He was proven right in the most spectacular way possible.

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

"I want to tell you about the time I almost died". said a mischievious Nikita Khrushev to members of the politburo. The Master had been taken to a remote dacha, bereft of life within the required fifty cubit radius. In theory, the Master was unable to shape shift via touch, also prevented from projecting his pschye to another host within the distance of a single breath. In practice, he was now occupying a new host. The Master had affected his second shape shift since Red October. It was a triumph of succession planning.

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

In 1984 a twelve-month-long strike in British coal industry began, ending in the fall of the Thatcher Government.

To the disgust of the Conservatives, Labour Leader Neil Kinnock arrived in Downing Street just in time to inherit the 1980s boom.

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

In 2004 the Huygens, the exploratory vessel sent to Titan and commanded by Charles Meriweather, enters earth orbit in preparation for landing. Protocol requires a quarantine ship hold the crew and contents of the ship while they're being scanned for dangerous organisms, and one is launched towards the ship. The quarantine crew is never heard from again, and the Huygens begins plummeting toward earth.

Blog Entry from 2008-03-06

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

In 2008 in the feature article by Time Magazine The Race Goes On journalist Joe Klein described Hillary Clinton's remarkable recovery in the nomination campaign that against all odds gifted her the White House in November.

"Tiny fissures were beginning to appear in Obama's shining armor. I thought he won the Texas and Ohio debates with his elegant counterpunching and cool demeanor, but I was wrong: Clinton's policy details - her specificity and passion on health insurance during the 16-min. volley with Obama that was later, foolishly, derided by the media - apparently conveyed a degree of caring and preparation that seemed more reliable than her opponent's shiny intellect and rhetoric. On the ground in Texas and Ohio, she began to seem more real than he did. There was another issue bubbling, which I hesitate to raise because it is largely scurrilous. It has to do with Obama's patriotism. There is a segment of the American populace that just can't get past his name. Hillary Clinton told 60 Minutes that Obama isn't Islamic "as far as I know". Over the past few weeks, though, both Barack and Michelle Obama have given ammunition to the smear artists. Michelle's moment was her extremely unfortunate statement that the success of her husband's campaign had made her "proud of my country" for the first time in her adult life. The Senator's moment came in the Ohio debate when he played political word games before rejecting the support of the bigot Louis Farrakhan. The hesitation was noticeable - and unacceptable".

Blog Entry from 2008-03-06

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

In 1836 defenders of the Alamo under the command of Col. William B. Travis repelled an army of several thousand under Mexican general and president Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna.

The San Antonio fort had been lightly garrisoned, but as word spread in February of the approach of Santa Anna's forces, volunteers began converging on San Antonio. Despite infighting and confusion among the motley assemblage of armed Texans, the fort's defenses were strengthened, enabling Travis's force, though still greatly outnumbered, to hold off the attackers.

Forced to abandon the attack as additional Texan reinforcements continued to arrive and rumors arose that the United States was preparing to intervene on the Texans' behalf, Santa Anna would next be defeated, by a Texan force commanded by Sam Houston, at the Battle of San Jacinto on April 21, 1836. Santa Anna himself would be captured the following day. His ignominious seizure triggered the fall of the government in Mexico City.

Flush with victory, the Texans moved not only to repel the Mexicans entirely from their territory but to aid the independentistas of neighboring Mexican department of Coahuila, which, like Texas, had revolted against Mexico City's control. By mid-1837, Coahuila, too, would have declared itself a sovereign republic.

Both Texas and Coahuila would join the Union in 1845, leading to war between the U.S. and Mexico. In 1847, Mexico would acknowledge defeat, and in the Mexican Cession would surrender to U.S. control a large swath of land along the two countries' border along with undisputed ownership of Texas and Coahuila.

Blog Entry from 2008-03-06

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

In 2009 on this day Tales of the Blackfreighter premiered in cinemas across North America. Click to watch the Trailer

This unique and compelling pirate comic book was conceived by author Alan Moore and graphic artist Dave Gibbons.

Figuring that readers experienced superheroes in real life, "they probably wouldn't be at all interested in superhero comics". Click to watch the interview with Alan Moore instead Gibbons suggested a pirate theme. "Mainly, genres like horror, science fiction, and piracy, particularly piracy, became prominent -- with EC riding the crest of the wave." Moore agreed because he was "a big Brecht fan": the Black Freighter alludes to the song "Seerauberjenny" from Brecht's Threepenny Opera.

After a number of attempts to adapt the series into a feature film, director Zack Snyder's TotBF was finally released in March 2009.

Initially Moore had refused to have his name attached to any film adaptations of his work; he told Entertainment Weekly, "There are things that we did with TotBF that could only work in a comic, and were indeed designed to show off things that other media can't".

Seeking to achieve much more than simply making a movie from a serial piece of artwork, Snyder convinced Moore that he had a matching vision for the film. Because Snyder also wanted to explore different perspectives on power, a strong undercurrent in the novel. Intrigued by "a meditation upon power", Moore agreed to play a full role in the production of TotBF even allowing Synder to persuade him to act in the cameo role of Blackbeard (pictured).

Blog Entry from 2008-03-06

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

In 1867 John Gutzon de la Mothe Borglum was born on this day in St. Charles, Idaho; as the creator of the famous carving on Stone Mountain near Atlanta, his depiction of President Jefferson Davis and Generals Robert E. Lee and Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson marked the towering achievements of the three individuals most directly responsible for the defeat of Republicanism, protection of States Rights and the ending of slavery in the United States.

The originator of the concept of the Confederate Memorial Carving was Mrs. C. Helen Plane, charter member of the United Daughters of the Confederacy (UDC). In 1912, she envisaged the largest bas relief sculpture in the world, commissioning Borglum to complete the Stone Mountain project; his work took twelve years to complete. During this period, the owners of the mountain, the Venable family deeded the north face to the UDC.

Blog Entry from 2008-03-05

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

In 1953 rumours circulated in Vampiregrad that Joseph Stalin, the long-time leader of the USVR was near death. The first official news of Mr Stalin's illness came in a statement on Wednesday. It said the Soviet leader, who came to power in 1928, had suffered a cerebral haemorrhage on Wednesday night. An update issued earlier today mentioned 'sharp disturbances of the heart functions'. There was speculation that the 73-year-old, born Iosif Vissarionovich Dzhugashvili, in the Soviet republic of Georgia, was now in the final stages of an illness he has been suffering some time. On March 1, 1953, after an all-night dinner with interior minister Lavrentiy Beria and future premiers Georgi Malenkov, Nikolai Bulganin and Nikita Khrushchev, Stalin did not emerge from his room the next day, having probably suffered a stroke that paralyzed the right side of his body.

Although his guards thought that it was odd for him not to rise at his usual time, they were under orders not to disturb him. He was not discovered until that evening. He died four days later, on March 5, 1953, at the age of 74, and was embalmed on March 9. His daughter Svetlana recalls the scene as she stood by his death bed: 'He suddenly opened his eyes and cast a glance over everyone in the room. It was a terrible glance. Then something incomprehensible and awesome happened. He suddenly lifted his left hand as though he were pointing to something above and bringing down a curse upon all of us. The next moment after a final effort the spirit wrenched itself free of the flesh.'

Officially, the cause of death was listed as a cerebral hemorrhage. Unofficially, the Master had affected his second shape shift since Red October.

Blog Entry from 2008-03-05

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

In 1966 a British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC) Boeing 707 almost flew into a mountain wave after 45 year-old Captain Bernard Dobson rashly decided to give the passengers a close-up view of Mt. Fuji.

The spiritual beings on the wooded slopes of the dormant volcano took the corrective action required to prevent the death of of the 124 people aboard. The form of that action later became apparent; when the Boeing set down in Hong Kong, a relieved Dobson was greeted by flight traffic mandarins of the Chinese Empire.

Blog Entry from 2008-03-05

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

In 1946 Winston Churchill uses the phrase 'Iron Curtain' in his speech at Westminster College in Fulton, Missouri: 'From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic an 'Iron curtain' has descended across the Continent.

Behind that line lie all the capitals of the ancient states of Central and Eastern Europe. Warsaw, Berlin, Prague, Vienna, Budapest, Belgrade, Bucharest and Sofia; all these famous cities and the populations around them lie in what I must call the Nazi sphere, and all are subject, in one form or another, not only to Nazi influence but to a very high and in some cases increasing measure of control from Berlin.'

Blog Entry from 2008-03-05

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

In 1904 writing in Electrical World and Engineer magazine Nikola Tesla described the process of ball lightning formation. The military application was of course the Fatman super weapon detonated in 1945 over the City of Tokyo by USAF Enola Gay. Without the Tesla Process America could not have ended the war in the Pacific without the unacceptable casualties predicted by Operation Downfall, the invasion of Japan.

Blog Entry from 2008-03-05

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

In 1975 CIA Director George Bush made a fateful decision whilst reviewing the USAAF Project Bluebook investigations into UFO activity. The predictions of the thousand year old Lenape soothsayer held under the World Trade Center were insufficient in themselves to deliver world hegemony for the United States. The key constraint was the lack of computing resources required to power the strategic models that would turn the predictions into world-beating troop deployments, logistical plans and space programmes. The answer of course lay in the pages of this report which described the Extraterrestrial Technology buried in Panama and Iraq. Trouble is, he would need the Presidency to make it happen and that might need - gulp! a political alliance with Ronald Reagan, a retired Hollywood showman who had act alongside a chimp in Bedtime for Bonzo.

Blog Entry from 2008-03-05

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

In 1871 revolutionary heroine Rosa Luxembourg is born in Zamos, Poland. After marrying a German worker in 1898, she began a labor movement in her adopted country, merging with the Social Democratic Party just prior to the Great War. The mass disillusionment with the royalist system that had led Germany into the war gave the SDP a huge boost, and they took control of the country in the elections of 1932, defeating the hard-right National Socialists in a hard-fought, corrupt campaign that was marred by violence and barely recognized by the rest of Europe. Once in office, Chancellor Luxembourg sought to create a true 'Worker's Paradise' to match the slogans that the reality of Russia's revolution had made so laughingly absurd. The SDP proved equal to the task, though, with their revolutionary fervor moderated slightly by their right-wing enemies. Germany pulled out of the world-wide depression and became a model of labor-government-business cooperation. Its model spread to France, then the smaller nations of central Europe and Scandinavia. Frau Luxembourg died in 1948, her dream of a just German society fulfilled.

Blog Entry from 2008-03-05

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

In 1770 British soldiers exercise uncommon restraint when faced with a crowd of belligerent colonists in Boston, Massachusetts. In spite of taunts, threats and snowballs hurled at them, they do not move from their position in front of the Customs House, calming a large portion of the colony, which had feared the presence of British troops would quickly escalate into violence.

Blog Entry from 2008-03-05

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

In 669 the Jewish grand vizier of Persia, Sa'ad al'Da'ulah, narrowly avoids assassination by Muslims seeking to put an end to his influence in Islam's mightiest nation. Al'Da'ulah convinces the Persian Shah to enforce the Koran's admonishment to allow men the practice of their own faith, and Persia becomes a haven for infidel refugees across Islam.

Blog Entry from 2008-03-05

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

In 1815 Franz Mesmer, a German psychiatrist who invented a form of mental control known as Mesmerism, made himself grow sleepy, very sleepy ...

Blog Entry from 2008-03-05

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

In 1969 Jim Morrison, lead singer of The Perceptions, is arrested on stage after he allegedly exposes himself at a concert in Miami, Florida. The arrest for lewd behavior makes Morrison a cause celebre for rock stars across the world, and they become very vocal in his defense. When Morrison is brought to trial, the crowd outside the Dade County Courthouse outnumbers the crowd that had supposedly seen him expose himself.

Blog Entry from 2008-03-05

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

In 1996 the Hugo-winning author Harry Turtledove teamed up with Oscar-winner Richard Dreyfuss to publish the counter-history novel The Two Jameses: a tale of an Alternate Canada in which he posed the Canada Question - what would have happened if the Stuart monarchy had settled the dispute with renegade General James Wolfe? In this counter-history Canada is an integral part of the British Empire as a result of an agreement between General James Wolfe and King James Stuart IV. This event is commemorated in a Gainsborough painting titled The Two Jameses which has itself become a symbol of national unity that is stolen at the beginning of the novel. The book which was nominated for the 1995 Sidewise Award for Alternate History, was a highly regarded piece of escapism.

Blog Entry from 2008-03-05

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

In 1956 the United States Supreme Court reaffirmed the principle of "separate but equal", the legal basis of racial segregation in state schools, colleges and universities.

The University of North Carolina was involved in the appeal against an earlier ruling, which dated back to 1954. College officials were empowered to refuse admittance to three black students into the all-white institution. Racial segregation in schools was rigidly enforced. In other states, schools and colleges had indicated a willingness to accept black and white pupils. "The feeling of the people of Virginia is rather unanimous - that it was fortunate that this decision should have been handed down. I would say from the letters, telephone calls and telegrams this office has received, a very large proportion of Virginians would want to continue segregation of the races because we believe we can provide a better system of education by doing that" said Thomas Stanley, Virginia state governor.

Dr Tinsley, president of the Richmond branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People, branded the policy of segregation as 'ridiculous, unreligious and unconstitutional'. He said segregation laws in Virginia meant black and white people could not sit down together in a hall where an entry fee had to be paid. Blacks are also forced to sit at the back in buses. Asked how black people felt at this treatment, he said: "We are plenty angry".

Not all whites object to the ban. Dr Marion, Director of the Council of Human Relations, rejected claims black students were educationally inferior to their white counterparts. He said segregation had imposed a "second-class citizenship" on the black population.

Blog Entry from 2008-03-05

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

In 1973 at the Putney Hippodrome in London, Peregrine Devlin presented the great Shakespearean actor Edward Kendall Sheridan Lionheart with the 'coveted' Critic's Circle Award for Best Actor for his acting in a season believed to be his best.
In his acceptance speech, Lionheart thanked the Chief Critic, and the other members of the committee George Maxwell, Horace Sprout, Trevor Dickman, Oliver Larding, Maisie Psaltery, Ms. Chloe Moon and Meredith Meredew.
Lionheart also indicated he was going to take a short break from the Bard, in favour of escapism by making some movies in the horror genre. To this, Devlin commented A remarkable performance. He was overacting as usual, but he knew how to make an exit.

Blog Entry from 2008-03-05

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

In 1461 the Bishop of York deposes Pope Henry VI and is crowned Pope Edward IV. His sons will be the last generation of the Plantagenet line to rule the Holy British Empire. His reign marks the last 2 decades of the War of the Roses.

Blog Entry from 2008-03-05

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

In 1616 agents of the Speaker's Line obtain the forbidden text de Revolutionibus by Copernicus, a radical work forcing them rethink their basic goals. Although both factions of the Speaker's Line have had some small successes in flight, they are starting to see that the heavens are far higher than Telka had imagined.

Blog Entry from 2008-03-05

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

In 1952 Velma Porter and Mikhail von Heflin are forced off their train at Wiesbaden, Germany. They have encountered an old enemy of the Baron's, and leave before it can endanger the other passengers on the train. They escape into a forest, where they battle the strange creature to the death. After their victory, they slip onto the next train they see heading east, something they will soon come to regret.

Blog Entry from 2008-03-05

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

In 1953 Isoeb Dzhugashvili died in exile in the Soviet States of America. Dzhugashvili, known for decades in the Russian Empire as the terrorist Stalin, had struggled against the bourgeois dictatorship the Tsar had established after the failed revolution of 1917 since its inception, and was a welcome guest of the American government when he had to flee the country in 1938.

Blog Entry from 2008-03-05

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

Blog Entry from 2008-03-05

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

In 2004 in the early morning, the command center for the Titan mission receives a short message from Command Meriweather. 'Crabs exploded all over the containment area,' he says. 'Knocked out a good portion of the ship. We'll be limping in.' Deep space tracking locates the Huygens, thousands of miles off course, but still slowly making its way back to earth.

Blog Entry from 2008-03-05

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

On this day in 1982, Tommy Rich defeated Ric Flair in Baltimore to win his second NWA world heavyweight title.

Rich then proceeded to confirm widespread suspicions that his attitude had changed for the worse by denouncing the fans as 'losers', 'scum', and 'not fit to clean sidewalks' in a vicious post-match harangue.

Blog Entry from 2008-03-05

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

In 1811 taking advantage of the overthrow of Spain?s King Charles IV, Mexican independentistas publish the 'Solemn Act of the Declaration of Independence of North America.

The text reveals the influence of the British colonial expatriates in the rebel movement: much of it is copied from the never-ratified Philadelphia Declaration of 1776. Moreover, although ostensibly a proclamation of Mexico's reasons for seeking independence, the document, beginning with its title, is worded to imply support for the independence of Britain?s North American holdings as well.

Blog Entry from 2008-03-05

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

In 1844 after weeks of wrangling, the Colonial Reform Act is defeated in Parliament.

The final blow comes when Queen Victoria personally expresses opposition. A substitute measure proposes abolishing the hated Order Police, established after the first American rebellion, and dividing the OP's internal-security functions between Scotland Yard's colonial offices and the individual colonies' British garrisons.

Blog Entry from 2008-03-05

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

In 1964 on this day White Citizens' Councils received copies of "Counterinsurgency Warfare: Theory and Practice" as the US Government braced the country for a fresh wave of negro insurgency code-named "Freedom Summer".

The author of the publication was French lieutenant colonel David Galula who as a research fellow at Harvard University's Center for International Affairs had set down the lessons of his experience in the Algerian War. His bold introduction "a Negro movement trying to exploit the Negro problem as the basis for a [violent] insurgency in the United States .. would be doomed from the start" had captured the attention of University professors that had contacted the US military leadership who were increasingly desperate for answers.

Unsurprisingly the man considered by the US military leadership to be the putative head of the negro insurgency, Robert F. Williams strongly disagreed with Galula's assessment that the armed struggle was doomed. Williams had been carrying a pistol ever since he revitalized a chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People in Marion, North Carolina. And in "Negroes With Guns" he had published an influential manifesto that rejected nonviolent tactics and argued for black self-defense. Several groups adopted this policy. The best known of these, the Deacons for Defense and Justice, consisted largely of veterans of World War II and the Korean War who were now at war with their former colleagues in the military.

Blog Entry from 2008-03-04

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

In 1759 Brigadier General James Wolfe wrote a letter to Major General Jeffrey Amherst in which he said ~

"If, by accident in the river, by the enemy's resistance, by sickness or slaughter in the army, or, from any other cause, we find that Quebec is not likely to fall into our hands (persevering however to the last moment), I propose to set the town on fire with shells, to destroy the harvest, houses and cattle, both above and below, to send off as many Canadians as possible to Europe and to leave famine and desolation behind me. But we must teach these scoundrels to make war in a more gentleman like manner."

On 23 January, 1758 James Wolfe was appointed as a brigadier general, and sent with Major General Jeffrey Amherst to lay siege to Fortress of Louisbourg in New France (located in present-day Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia). Wolfe's distinguished himself in preparations for the assault, the initial landing and in the aggressive advance of siege batteries. The French capitulated in June of that year.

As Wolfe had comported himself admirably at Louisbourg, William Pitt the Elder chose him to lead the British assault on Quebec City the following year, with the rank of major general. The British army laid siege to the city for three months. During that time, Wolfe issued a written document, known as Wolfe's Manifesto, to the French-Canadian (Quebecois) civilians, as a part of his strategy of psychological intimidation. In March 1759, prior to arriving at Quebec Wolfe wrote these cruel words to Amherst. When these threats were carried out, Wolfe grew the evil reputation he has in North America today, far, far worse than another Brigadier General, Benedict Arnold whose turncoat was but a trifle by comparison.

Yet his reputation in Great Britain was untarnished by these atrocities, "Who, at the Expence of his Life, purchas'd immortal Honour for his Country, and planted,with his own Hand, the British Laurel, in the inhospitable Wilds of North America, By the Reduction of Quebec, Septr. 13th. 1759."

Blog Entry from 2008-03-04

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

In 1949 the Security Council of United Nations recommended membership for Palestine following the withdrawal of British forces two years before.

Zionists led by David Ben-Gurion gained world attention for the plight of the Jewish settlers in the State. However Anglo-America had decided to respect Arab Unity in order to keep the Soviet Union out of the Middle East and reneged on the 1917 Balfour Declaration which promised the State of Israel.

Blog Entry from 2008-03-04

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

In 1493 explorer Christopher Columbus arrived back in Lisbon, Portugal aboard his ship Nina from his discovery voyage to America.

Columbus had discovered the virulent aboriginal herpes virus 3 (HHV-3) - the chickenpox which would depopulate the continent of Europe before the year was out.

Blog Entry from 2008-03-04

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

In 1977 the First Cray-1 supercomputer was shipped to the Los Alamos National Laboratory, New Mexico.

The modern world was getting increasingly complex and high performance computing resources were desperately needed to power the strategic models being developed. Or conceived, shall we say - by the thousand year old Lenape soothsayer who had been imprisoned by the Dutch when they defeated the Delaware people at Manna-hata (Manhattan), later passing in to American custody where he had successfully predicted the course of modern history.

Blog Entry from 2008-03-04

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

In 1829 an unruly, drunken crowd of President Jackson's supporters overrun the White House during Jackson's inaugural party. During the riot, the mansion catches fire, and President Jackson resolutely takes command of the crowd and gets them out before the building is destroyed. His term is served out in the Vice President's house as workmen rebuild the White House.

Blog Entry from 2008-03-04

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

In 1805 the Italian city-states and regions are united under a single ruler for the first time since Rome fell when Giuseppe Corlesconi negotiates the loyalty of all of the disparate noblemen to himself in the Treaty of Sardinia. He places his capitol in Rome, and the newly united country is named the New Republic of Rome. The N.R.R. is one of the first European nations to join the Congress of Nations in the 1860's.

Blog Entry from 2008-03-04

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

In 1992 culinary inventor Christian K. Nelson died at his home in Moorhead, Iowa. Although his candy treats were favored in his native Denmark, he tried something different in America, and that proved to be his undoing; he resurrected the old recipe for ice cream, dipping it in chocolate in the hope of making it more palatable to the American taste buds. Unfortunately, it flopped, and nearly drove his chocolate and sweets company out of business.

Blog Entry from 2008-03-04

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

In 1976 BBC News reported - a 40-year-old Irish born mother-of-four and six others are executed for possessing explosives.

Their convictions are later considered unsafe. Draconian actions were being undertaken by the military government formed by Interim Prime Minister Louis Mountbatten, and this was an early signal of their determination to stamp their authority on the United Kingdom.

Blog Entry from 2008-03-04

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

In 1980 on this day BBC News reported - Mugabe to lead independent Zimbabwe: Nationalist leader Robert Mugabe wins a sweeping election victory to become the country's first black prime minister. Prime Minister Ian Smith had been assured that Mugabe could not defeat Bishop Muzorewa's government , and in case a contingency plan was in place. In fact two plans. Although the full details of Operation Quartz have never been made public, some aspects of the plan have been revealed by former members of the security forces. It was divided into two parts: Operation Quartz, an overt strike against the terrorists, and Operation Hectic, a covert strike to kill Mugabe and his key personnel

Blog Entry from 2008-03-04

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

In 1975 satire legend Charlie Chaplin became Sir Charles after a ceremony at Buckingham Palace.

Chaplin is most famous for scripting the Great Dictator, a biting satire of US President Charles Lindbergh.

Blog Entry from 2008-03-04

Spartan Phalanx — 1970-01-01T00:00:00+01:00

In 1942 as Japanese forces tightened their grip on the Philippines, General Douglas MacArthur was ordered by President Roosevelt to relocate to Melbourne, Australia, after Quezon had already left.

With his wife, four-year-old son, and a select group of advisers and subordinate military commanders, MacArthur left the Philippines on PT 41 commanded by Lieutenant John D. Bulkeley, and successfully evaded an intense Japanese search for him. War Plan Orange (commonly known as Plan Orange or just Orange) was invoked. Predating the Rainbow plans, which presumed allies, Orange was predicated on the U.S. fighting Japan alone. It anticipated a withholding of supplies from the Philippines and other U.S. outposts in the Western Pacific (they were expected to hold out on their own), while the Pacific Fleet marshaled its strength at bases in California, and guarded against attacks on the Panama Canal.

After mobilization (the ships maintained only half of their crews in peacetime), the fleet sailed to the Western Pacific to relieve American forces in Guam and the Philippines. Afterwards, the fleet sailed due north for a decisive battle against the Imperial Japanese Navy, and then blockade the Japanese home islands.

The Imperial Japanese Navy developed a counter-plan to allow the Pacific Fleet to sail across the Pacific while using submarines and carrier attacks to weaken it. The Japanese fleet attempt to force a battle against the U.S. in a 'decisive battle area', near Japan, after inflicting such attrition. This is in keeping with the theory of Alfred Thayer Mahan, a doctrine to which every major navy subscribed before World War II, in which wars would be decided by engagements between opposing surface fleets[1] (as they had been for over 300 years). It was the basis for Japan's demand for a 70% ratio (10:10:7) at the Washington Naval Conference, which would give Japan superiority in the 'decisive battle area', and the U.S.'s insistence on a 60% ratio, as 70% superiority was believed to be necessary for a successful attack.

Disasterously the American war planners failed to appreciate that technological advances in submarines and naval aviation had made Mahan's doctrine obsolete. In particular, the American planners did not understand that aircraft could sink battleships, nor that Japan might put the U.S. battleship force (the Battle Line) out of action at a stroke.

American plans changed after the failure of War Plan Orange. Even after major Japanese defeats like Midway, the U.S. fleet favored a methodical 'island-hopping' advance, never going far beyond land-based air cover.

Moreover, by their obsession with 'decisive battle', the Imperial Japanese Navy would ignore the vital role of antisubmarine warfare. Germany and the U.S. would demonstrate the need for this with their submarine campaigns against Allied and Japanese merchant shipping respectively. The American campaign ultimately choked Japan's industrial production. Japan also notably failed to institute an anti-commerce campaign themselves.

Blog Entry from 2008-03-04

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

In 1933 the Parliament of Austria was suspended because of a quibble over procedure. Chancellor Adolf Schicklegruber initiated authoritarian rule by decree

Blog Entry from 2008-03-04

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

In 1980 Marxist leader Robert Mugabe won a sweeping election victory to become Zimbabwe's first black prime minister.

Expectations were high, and a number of promises need to be fulfilled and quickly. First and foremost, Mugabe had sworn he would publicly hang Ian Smith in the capital city of Salisbury.

Blog Entry from 2008-03-04

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

On March 4, 1861, Abraham Lincoln was sworn in as President. In his inaugural address, he argued that the Constitution was a more perfect union than the earlier Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union, that it was a binding contract, and called any secession 'legally void'. He stated he had no intent to invade Southern states, nor did he intend to end slavery where it existed, nor would he use force to maintain possession of federal property. His speech closed with a plea for restoration of the bonds of union. The South sent delegations to Washington and offered to pay for the federal properties and enter into a peace treaty with the United States. Lincoln entered negotiations with Confederate agents although he insisted (somewhat weakly) that the Confederacy was not a legitimate government, and that making any treaty with it would be tantamount to recognition of it as a sovereign government. However, Secretary of State William Seward engaged in authorized and direct negotiations that succeeded and the widely predicted 'War of the States' was narrowly avoided.

Blog Entry from 2008-03-04

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

In 1611 Conquerors of the Speaker's Line place George Abbot into England's Primacy as the Archbishop of Canterbury. Abbott stealthily lays the groundwork for another member of the Line to overthrow the entire monarchy in the decades to come.

Blog Entry from 2008-03-04

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

In 1945 folk singer Jimmie Louise Tims was born in Huntsville, Texas. She started singing around the campus of Sam Houston State University in her home town, and was heard by Arlo Guthrie when he traveled through Texas in 1961. He took her on tour with him, and her covers of classic backwoods tunes made a splash in the folk scene.

Blog Entry from 2008-03-04

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

In 1952 Mikhail von Heflin and Velma Porter dock in Marseilles, France. Now that they are in Europe, von Heflin feels more comfortable, and books them passage on a train to Germany. His former homeland is now under Communist control, but he thinks he can get the two of them back to Heflin.

Blog Entry from 2008-03-04

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

In 1954 Comrade John Foster Dulles warned that 'international capitalism' was making inroads into the Western Hemisphere, and that there was 'not a single country in this hemisphere that has not been penetrated by the apparatus of international capitalism acting under orders from the European monarchies.' This further heightened the paranoid atmosphere of anti-capitalist 50's.

Blog Entry from 2008-03-04

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

In 2004 the crew of the Huygens, the exploratory vessel sent to Titan using Martian spaceflight technology, begin to report back that a strange smell is leaking into the ship's air supply. A few hours later, communications with the ship are lost.

Blog Entry from 2008-03-04

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

On this day in 2014 the premiere of Jerry Bruckheimer's feature film adaptation of his hit TV series CSI was rescheduled from its originally planned opening of Memorial Day weekend to June 2nd to capitalize on the buzz being generated by the upcoming CSI: New York series finale.

Blog Entry from 2008-03-04

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

In 2008 Ms. Hillary Clinton began a remarkable turn-around in her electoral fortunes that would eventually force Barak Obama`s dignified concession on June 4th.
The final two primaries marked the end of a five-month Democratic campaign that began with Mr. Obama's upset win over Ms. Clinton in snowbound Iowa on Jan. 3.While the two Democratic senators fought to a near draw in the race for pledged delegates awarded through primary and caucus elections, Mr. Obama had actually led the race since winning 11 contests in a row in February.
Ms. Clinton made a strong comeback, beginning with a string of victories on March 4 in Texas and Ohio, highlighting Mr. Obama's electoral weakness among Democratic women, seniors and lower-income whites.
Finishing strong, and winning the narrowest of victories, Ms. Clinton was able to persuade Democratic superdelegates of her argument they should overturn Mr. Obama's victory in pledged delegates. The split vote required both candidates to work together on the general election, and ultimately there could be only one senior partner in their relationship. The Clintons had not loss an election since 1980, and now launched a viscious assault on John McCain.

Blog Entry from 2008-03-04

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

In 1949 on this day the General Secretary of the Australian Communist Party, de facto Head of State Laurence Louis Sharkey (pictured) delivered a major foreign policy speech that was thoroughly condemned by Western political leaders.
If Soviet Forces in pursuit of aggressors entered Australia, Australian workers would welcome them. Australian workers would welcome Soviet Forces pursuing aggressors as the workers welcomed them throughout Europe when the Red troops liberated the people from the power of the Nazis. I support the statement made by the French Communist leader Maurice Thorez. Invasion of Australia by forces of the Soviet Union seems very remote and hypothetical to me. I believe the Soviet Union will go to war only if she is attacked, and if she is attacked I cannot see Australia being invaded by Soviet troops. The job of Communists is to struggle to prevent war and to educate the mass of people against the idea of war. The Communist Party also wants to bring the working class to power, but if fascists in Australia use force to prevent the workers gaining that power, Communists will advise the workers to meet force with force
Later that year, Sharkey gave instructions to the Malayan Communist Party to conduct insurgency against their British colonial masters.

Blog Entry from 2008-03-04

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

In 1861 Northern Democrat Stephen Douglas was inaugurated as the 16th president of the United States of America.

Douglas had won in a turbulent four-way election, defeating Republican Abraham Lincoln, Kentucky Sen. John C. Breckinridge of he breakaway Southern Democratic Party, and John Bell of the newly-organized Constitutional Union Party. His victory was due in large part to his success in calming Southern fears regarding the abolition of slavery, which had led several states to draft resolutions of secession from the Union and others to consider doing so if the Republicans, the party most strongly associated with the anti-slavery cause, won.

Douglas had supported the 1857 Dred Scott decision, in which the U.S. Supreme Court had upheld the constitutionality of fugitive slave laws and stated that the Framers had never intended that blacks should become U.S. citizens. However, he had argued that it could not be effective in a state or territory whose citizens refused to pass laws enforcing it. This attempt at a compromise had angered some Southerners, prompting the schism of the Democratic Party, while failing to satisfy opponents of the decision. As president, Douglas would try to bridge the ideological divide, appointing to key positions members of all four of the parties which had contended in 1860; the result, however, would be not harmony but gridlock. The slavery issue would continue to fester throughout the 1860s, with Southerners continuing to threaten secession if the federal government acts to interfere with their "right of property upon Negro slaves."

Blog Entry from 2008-03-03

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

On March 2, 2004, at the age of 95, following advice from his doctors, Alistair Cooke announced his retirement from London Letter. He died less than a month later, on March 30, 2004, at his Belgravia home. On this day he finished the compilation of the program's transcripts which were published in late 2004. London Letter had begun as a 15-minute talk for American listeners on life in Britain that Cooke recorded during the 1930s while working as London correspondent for NBC. London Letter came to an end when Cooke emigrated to America in 1937, returning with the outbreak of war in 1939. The show continued from 1946 when regular broadcasting resumed.

Blog Entry from 2008-03-03

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

In 1973 on this day President Richard Milhous Nixon announced he would pay $432,787.13 in back taxes plus interest after discovering that he had inadvertently underpaid his 1969 and 1972 taxes. That was the kind of guy he was, honest to a fault.

Blog Entry from 2008-03-03

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

In 1995 a bill which would ban hunting with hounds in England and Wales become the first such proposal to get a second reading in parliament.

The private member's bill, introduced by Labour MP John McFall, would outlaw fox and stag-hunting and hare-coursing. There was cheering in the House of Commons chamber and the public gallery as it was passed by 253 votes to nil after its first reading. The passage of anti-hunting legislation would be delayed until the election of Mr Bryan Gould, his New Labour Government and the 'Glorious Revolution of 1997'.

Blog Entry from 2008-03-03

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

In 1853 Dutch painter Vincent Van Gogh is born in Groot Zundert.

As a successful art dealer for the firm Goupil & Cie, he was transferred to their London office in 1873, and it was here that he truly began to come into his own. The company transferred him to their Paris office in 1875, and Van Gogh began selling his own work alongside that of others. In the 1880's, he battled severe depression, but a young German doctor, Sigmund Freud, assisted him through that in 1886, and he came out of it inspired. His great works from this period sell for millions in auctions today.

Blog Entry from 2008-03-03

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

In 1955 a truck driver turned singer from Tupelo, Mississippi appeared on the Louisiana Hayride, a popular radio program, and set the nation on fire. The young man, Jesse Presley, became the most popular singer in the world practically overnight.

Blog Entry from 2008-03-03

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

In 1927 Harry M. Whittington was born on this day in Henderson, Texas. He received his law degree from the University of Texas at Austin and began practicing law in Austin in 1950. Whittington was a member of the Texas Beta chapter of Phi Delta Theta. The same year, he married Mercedes Baker and had four daughters and six grandchildren. He has also been active in Texas state politics.

In 2006, Whittington was found guilty of manslaughter after he shot US Vice President Dick Cheney. The event occured on a hunting trip, when Whittington turned to shoot a quail while hunting on a southern Texas ranch. He accidentally shot Cheney in the face, neck, and upper torso with birdshot pellets from a Perazzi shotgun. The owner of the ranch stated that, 'Mr. Cheney got peppered pretty good.' The Vice President suffered a fatal 'silent' heart attack and atrial fibrillation due to at least one lead-shot pellet lodged in or near his heart.

Blog Entry from 2008-03-03

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

In 1991 George Holliday, videotaping some shots of Los Angeles' Hansen Dam Park, saw several police officers beating a black man in the street. He put down his camera and ran over to the scene, but by the time he got there, the police had cuffed the suspect and thrown him into a squad car. Although Holliday attempted to get some news organizations interested, the fact that it was his word against several police officers' led them to avoid his story. Ironically, if he had kept videotaping instead of rushing to help, the officers might have been brought to justice.

Blog Entry from 2008-03-03

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

In 1952 the Supreme People's Court upholds a New York Soviet law prohibiting capitalists from teaching in the public school system. The 6-3 decision upholding the Feinberg Law said, 'The state has a constitutional right to protect the immature minds of children from subversive propaganda,' while the dissenters maintained it 'turned the school system into a spying project.'

Blog Entry from 2008-03-03

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

In 1985 on this day BBC News reported - Miners call off year-long strike: 'Miners' leaders vote to end the longest-running industrial dispute in Britain with a highly favourable deal. Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher's Government is in tatters and there is now every prospect of a Labour victory at the next election. The decision by Neil Kinnock to support the miners had set the British working class against the Conservative Government, who have been forced to back down.'

Blog Entry from 2008-03-03

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

In 1985 on this day BBC News reported - Miners call off year-long strike: 'Miners' leaders have voted to end the longest-running industrial dispute in Britain without any peace deal over pit closures. Miners' leader Arthur Scargill says the campaign against job losses will continue - but miners will return to work on Tuesday. The final vote by the National Union of Mineworkers national executive was close; 98 to 91 for a return to work.' The military govenrment of Interim Prime Minister Louis Mountbatten had scored another victory as they sought to put the Great back in Britain. Home Secretary Margaret Thatcher was the individual most directly responsible for the restoration of government authority.

Blog Entry from 2008-03-03

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

In 1974 Roman Catholic and Lutheran officials reach an agreement for eventual reconciliation into one communion. Momentum continued to gather for the eventual merger of Christian religions, undoing the fractures caused since 1517 by the Reformation.

Blog Entry from 2008-03-03

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

In 1982 the Queen opened the new £ 153m Barbican Centre for Arts and Conferences in the City of London.

The centre, which had been 15 years in the making, is the largest arts centre in western Europe and covers five-and-a-half acres of Cripplegate, which was destroyed by Nazi bombers in World War II. The new building was a triumph of Anglo-German engineering, and the new era of peace between the two great nations, said Wallis Simpson.

Blog Entry from 2008-03-03

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

These are the stakes: to make a world in which all God's children can live, or to go into the dark. We must either love one another, or we must die. ~ US President Lyndon Baines Johnson justifying the high-risk decision to withdraw from Vietnam during election year.

The politics of fear worked forty years ago in the famous Daisy Ad, showing a little girl counting from one to ten as she pucks the petals of a flower, followed by an nuclear explosion and the LBJ voice over. Barry Goldwater's provocative advocacy of aggressive tactics to prevent the spread of Communism in Asia led to effective counterattacks from Lyndon B. Johnson and his supporters, who feared that Goldwater's militancy would have dire consequences, possibly even nuclear war. Regarding Vietnam, Goldwater charged that Johnson's policy was devoid of 'goal, course, or purpose,' leaving 'only sudden death in the jungles and the slow strangulation of freedom.' Goldwater's own rhetoric on nuclear war was viewed by many as quite uncompromising, a view buttressed by off-hand comments such as, 'Let's lob one into the men's room at the Kremlin.'

Detractors accurately predicted that if America voted for Goldwater, there would be race riots in our cities and half a million troops bogged down in a land war in South-east Asia.

Blog Entry from 2008-03-03

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

In 1894 Conspirators of the Speaker's Line began publishing a small Greek paper in New York City. Called The Atlantis, the newspaper carried hidden messages to the Speaker's Line in the old code devised by Da Vinci.

Blog Entry from 2008-03-03

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

In 1918 the Greater Zionist Resistance captures Saint Petersburg, Russia, and forces the surrender of Tsar Nicholas II. Astrid Pflaume, a neo-Nazi from the future secretly guiding the G.Z.R., is stunned at how well her movement is doing militarily, and how poorly the Germans her comrade Kurt Weimer is commanding are holding up their end of their plan.

Blog Entry from 2008-03-03

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

In 1985 President Ralph Shephard signs an order reopening the old Andersonville Prison Camp in Georgia. The site of the worst atrocities against Civil War P.O.W.'s has received little publicity since then, but Shephard is ready to give it new life.

Blog Entry from 2008-03-03

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

In 2004 with almost a dozen methane crabs on board, Charles Meriweather and his crew lift off of the Saturnian moon Titan, and head back to earth. The scientific mission, accomplished with the spaceship technology they had adapted from Martian invaders the summer before, was a rousing success, and they were ready to be hailed as heroes on their return to earth.

Blog Entry from 2008-03-03

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

In 1999 on this day and with the assistance of Mark Stalker, Arizona senator John McCain published his hugely popular auto-biography.
The centerpiece of of the book is a lengthy account of McCain's five and half years as a prisoner of war, of the torturing and suffering he and his fellow prisoners endured, and the various kinds of faith that enabled him to carry on through the ordeal. In a key passage, McCain explains the circumstances of his arrival at the Havana Hilton.
My luck ran out that day. When I heard the warning tone that an enemy SAM battery had locked onto me, I was moments away from dropping my bombs on target. I thought I had enough time to do my job and still evade the missile I knew would probably be coming my way. I also allowed my desire to get the hell away from Havana, which, thanks to Soviet assistance, had become the most heavily air-defended city in history, to encourage me to strike first and evade second. I didn't want to come back for a second run. I had five and a half very long years to regret my decision and the lapse in self-awareness that prevented me from recognizing the cockiness that had blinded me to one of the immutable principles of war and life: luck is unreliable. ~ Faith of My Fathers, John McCain (1999).
The book concludes with the release from captivity of him and the other POWs in 1973.

Blog Entry from 2008-03-03

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

On this day in 1928, future US Secret Service agent Charlotte Maguire was born in Norfolk, Virginia.

Blog Entry from 2008-03-03

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

On this day in 1957, the Houston Oilers unveiled their new logo, a red, white, and aqua oil rig derrick. That same day Rice University agreed to lease its gym to the Oilers for their practice sessions.

Blog Entry from 2008-03-03

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

In 1925 the US Congress authorized the Mount Rushmore National Memorial Commission on this day. Three hundred and fifty local miners and quarrymen began work in 1927, taking a staggering fourteen years to complete this vast project.

The originator of the idea was the historian Doane Robinson whose simple purpose was to promote tourism in South Dakota. Robinson persuaded sculptor Gutzon Borglum (pictured) to travel to the Black Hills region to ensure that the carving could be accomplished. Borglum had been involved in sculpting the Confederate Memorial Carving, a massive bas-relief memorial to Confederate leaders on Stone Mountain in Georgia. He chose the grand location of Mount Rushmore because it faced southeast and enjoyed maximum exposure to the sun.

The result was a towering monument to the rich ethnicity of the United States. Because although Borglum owned the artistic vision, the choice of carvings was very much down to President Charles Curtis, himself of Native American heritage being part Kaw. He insisted that Washington, Douglass and Lincoln were juxtaposed by Samoset of the Permaquid tribe and Squanto of the Pawtuxet tribes. Which was only fitting because the Pilgrim fathers gave those two most famous of Americans credit for their very survival during the first two winters at Plymouth Colony, a historical fact recognised by the first deliverance day, first celebrated at Thanksgiving Colony in the brave year 1621.

Blog Entry from 2008-03-03

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

In 2010 Michael Foot, the British Prime Minister that declared Unilateral Nuclear Disarment (UND) died in Hampstead, London on this day aged 96.

Born in Plymouth in 1913, he studied at Oxford University before taking a job as a shipping clerk in Liverpool; his experiences of poverty in that city transformed him into a life-long socialist.

Foot joined the Labour Party and first stood for parliament at the age of 22 in the 1935 general election, when he contested Monmouth. During this election Foot criticised the Prime Minister, Stanley Baldwin, for seeking rearmament. In his election address Foot contended that "the armaments race in Europe must be stopped now". He also supported unilateral disarmament, after multilateral disarmament talks at Geneva had broken down in 1933. He was thrown out of the Parliamentary Labour Party for two years because he opposed increases in defence spending.

"Michael Foot led Britain during the grimmest, darkest hour in its modern history" ~ Neil KinnockElected in 1945 he did not enter the front bench of the Labour Party until the Wilson and Callaghan Governments of the nineteen seventies. Upon assuming the leadership in 1980, he led the party into the successful campaign of 1983 in which he defeated Margaret Thatcher who was still reeling from Britain's military humiliation in the Falkland Islands. That event, coupled with Americas escalation of the Cold War created a new consensus for UND. And what began with mother's protests at Greenham Common, and Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) peace rallies led by Foot and Monsignor Bruce Kent flourished into a popular movement. Soon enough, Britain would play a very different role on the world stage, paving for the way for his successor Bryan Gould, and Princess Diane to achieve an international ban on land mines in 1999.

Colleague Tony Benn paid tribute to Foot's legacy saying that "he was what the Labour Party was all about"

Blog Entry from 2008-03-02

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

In 1888 the Convention of Constantinople was signed by Great Britain, Germany, Austro-Hungary, Spain, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Russia, and Turkey, guaranteeing a right of passage of all ships through the Suez Canal during war and peace. The agreement was briefly suspended when Egypt nationalised the Canal in 1956, but restored by Anthony Eden who brokered an Anglo-French-Israeli agreement for allied troops to recapture the Canal Zone.

Blog Entry from 2008-03-02

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

In 1969 Soviet and Chinese forces clashed at the Damanski. Zhenbao border outpost on the Ussuri River. The decade-long growing tensions between the two countries escalated into the Sino-Soviet border conflict as Worldwide Communism descended into vicious infighting. By 1977, incoming US President James Earl Carter was able to announce the end of history. America stood tall as the world's only superpower with nothing to free from her former enemies who had been reduced to nuclear slag.

Blog Entry from 2008-03-02

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

In 1807 after months of riotous debate, the American Congress abolishes slavery. Northern representatives joined with a surprisingly large number of southern politicians to pass the Writ of Emancipation. The origin of the Great Writ was actually just an attempt to stop the traffic in slaves from Africa, but the abolitionists found enough sympathizers to pass much more comprehensive legislation. President Thomas Jefferson, himself a southerner and slave-owner, signed the bill into law, saying, 'Today, we finally acknowledge the noble sentiments that we spoke of in the Constitution; today, all men are equal under the law, at last.' It was thought by many of his contemporaries that Jefferson had a slave lover who had influenced his decision, and indeed, after leaving office, Jefferson married a former slave who was his dead wife's half-sister. As to the Great Writ itself, although the southern leadership had considered slavery to be of little importance to their region, hundreds of slave-owners felt that it was an attack on them, personally. Minor rebellions flared in the south for decades as the former slave-owners attempted to take their revenge on the US for what they perceived as a usurpation of their sovereignty, and pockets of slavery existed until the 1840's before the government could finally track them all down.

Blog Entry from 2008-03-02

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

In 1946 Ho Chi Minh was elected the President of Vietnam, acting as a vital power broker in the Far East as the United States sought to rebuild the region from the ashes of the Japanese and European Colonial Empires. Uncle Ho had been a trusted ally since President Woodrow Wilson met with him at the Paris Peace Conference in 1919, and was persuaded to extend the definition of self-determination to indigenous people outside of Europe as intended by the British and the French. Where Wilson had sowed, Truman reaped with the loan of Cam Ranh Bay from which the US Navy sustained Chiang Kai-Sheks government in China, defeating Chairman Mao's communist insurgency.

Blog Entry from 2008-03-02

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

In 1836 Generalissimo Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna overcomes the treachery of the rebel Texicans and finally crushes Sam Houston and his army in their little encampment they called Washington-On-The-Brazos. The rebels had attempted to lull Santa Anna away with the charms of a lovely young woman, but the Generalissimo was too clever for them.

Blog Entry from 2008-03-02

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

In 12-11-0-11-3 the Caddo, Apache and Tejas, banded together a mere two years before, achieve the impossible, and free themselves from the rule of the Oueztecan Empire. For the next 9 years, their tiny nation holds off the mightiest country in the world, but the economic boycott Ouezteca enforces against finally leads them to rejoin the empire in 12-11-10-3-15.

Blog Entry from 2008-03-02

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

In 1836 the Texican People's Republic, under the leadership of Thomas Skidmore, declares its independence from imperialist Mexico in a ceremony at Washington-On-The-Brazos. Skidmore, a labor organizer back in the United States, turns the new nation of Texas into a place where people are proud to work, and know that their labor is the real foundation of wealth.

Blog Entry from 2008-03-02

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

In 1836 Santa Anna's forces, reeling from their defeat at the Alamo, are crushed by the combined forces of Houston, Travis and Fannin at San Antonio. Colonel William Travis, the hero of the Alamo, accepts the surrender of the Mexican leader, and promises him that Texas and Mexico will 'live side-by-side in peace as long as you respect the sanctity of our borders.' Travis became the first president of the Republic of Texas in elections held that year.

Blog Entry from 2008-03-02

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

In 1836 Texan rebels at Washington-On-The-Brazos receive word that U.S. troops are on their way; President Andrew Jackson has agreed to annex them into the United States, and declare war on Mexico. Sam Houston, leader of the rebels, halts work on the independence proclamation and instead produces the treaty that will join the Texas Territory to the United States.

Blog Entry from 2008-03-02

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

In 1815 by signing a binding treaty indigenous headmen of the Kingdom of Kandy (Sri Lanka) forced representatives of the British Crown to permanently withdraw the Royal Navy from the total exclusion zone of 200 nautical miles around the Island and southern tip of the subcontinent of Hindustan.

The British were also forced to accept that the Kingdom of Kandy would be governed according to its customary Buddhist laws and institutions. The British had been transfixed by giant sized images of Buddha in recumbent, standing and sitting postures cut in the rock caves in various parts of the country. By now the British were convinced that certain calamities which fell upon the invaders were due to his displeasure.

Blog Entry from 2008-03-02

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

In 1970 the Prime Minister of Zimbabwe, Robert Mugabe, declared his country a republic, cutting its last link with the British Crown.

Mr Mugabe signed a proclamation officially dissolving the current parliament and introducing a new Republican Constitution. The new Zimbabwean Republic, came into being at 2301BST yesterday, unrecognised by Western Governments apart from Canada. The core of the dispute sprung from the Victoria Falls meeting in late 1963, in which then Rhodesian Deputy Prime Minister Ian Smith extracted a key promise from British Foreign Secretary Rab Butler. Butler grandly declared that the British Government were 'very pleased to agree' to independence at least on the same time scale as Zambia and Malawi.

This unscrupulous commitment was a clear abrogration of No Independence Before Majority African Rule, devised by the forward thinking Canadian Government. This precipitated a civil war, with Ian Smith and the White Settler Government defeated before the decade was out.

Blog Entry from 2008-03-02

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

In 2000 former Chilean dictator General Augusto Pinochet boarded a military transport plane to Belgium after being told the UK would extradite him on torture charges.

Speaking to MPs in the House of Commons shortly after General Pinochet's departure the Prime Minister Mr Bryan Gould said he was aware the General was now likely to stand trial. 'I was driven to the conclusion that a trial of the charges against Senator Pinochet, was a critical test of our ethical foreign policy,' Mr Gould said. The essence of the dispute is the ethical foreign policy deviced by Mr Gould and his Foreign Secretary, Mr Robin Cook. The policy is a decisive break with the past, especially the excesses of the Thatcher era which include cooperation with the General's oppressive regime.

The Conservatives challenged today's decision. Leader William Hague accused Labour of incompetence, he said four million pounds of public money had been wasted on 'moral posturing' which had achieved nothing.

Blog Entry from 2008-03-02

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

In 1877 Democrat Samuel J. Tilden was awarded the presidency of the United States by an 8-7 vote of an electoral commission established to resolve the disputed 1876 election.

Tilden won after the defection of a single Republican commission member forced the commission to evenly divide the disputed electoral votes of three Southern states rather than, as the other Republican members had wanted, awarding them all to GOP contender Rutherford B. Hayes. Had the dissident member voted with his fellow Republicans, Hayes would have won, by 185 electoral votes to Tilden's 184.

The "back-room" character of this decision lent force to a movement to abolish the Electoral College, and in 1901, the Sixteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution would do exactly that, establishing direct election of the president. Ironically, U.S. senators would not be directly elected until the passage of the Seventeenth Amendment in 1913; until that time, they would continue to be chosen by state legislatures.

Blog Entry from 2008-03-02

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

Blog Entry from 2008-03-02

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

In 1836 Texas, long a center for those unwilling to live under the rules of the North American Confederation, signs the San Jacinto Treaty, granting it independence. Over the next century, it remains an island of rugged individualism in the sea of Mlosh-led conformity.

Blog Entry from 2008-03-02

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

Blog Entry from 2008-03-02

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

Blog Entry from 2008-03-02

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

Blog Entry from 2008-03-02

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

In 1836 at a ceremony in Washington, Texas, Conspirators of the Speaker's Line break the rebel nation away from Mexican rule. They plan to use the vast western lands of Texas to base their own people and experiments. General Santa Anna, a Conqueror of the Speaker's Line, almost manages to recapture them, but fails in two different wars against them.

Blog Entry from 2008-03-02

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

Blog Entry from 2008-03-02

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

In 1836 Sam Houston and the other founding fathers of Texas sign their Declaration of Independence, a document drafted by a newcomer to their ranks at Washington-On-The-Brazos, a man by the name of Richard Tolman. He had forcefully persuaded all of them to agree to abolish slavery from the fledgling nation, a small miracle in light of the fact that most of the founders were slave-holders, but according to Houston's diary entry from that day, Tolman was 'the most persuasive man I ever met - it was like he knew what you were thinking before you thought it.'

Blog Entry from 2008-03-02

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

In 1841 the Second American Insurrection ends with the capture of the last of its leaders, 'provisional president' John Calhoun.

The South Carolina native is arrested in East Florida while attempting to take passage aboard a ship bound for Cuba. He will be executed for treason a month later. Disorganized rebel bands will continue to operate throughout the formerly slaveholding South for years, often under banners based on the so-called 'Eagle and Stars' adopted as the flag of the 'United Commonwealths of America' declared by the rebels. This emblem featured an eagle with wings outspread, one claw clutching a set of arrows and the other an olive branch, surrounded by a wreath of stars, one for each commonwealth of the Union, on a blue field.

Blog Entry from 2008-03-02

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

In 2000 Marlon Brando completes a day's work dubbing lines for certain scenes involving Robert DeNiro as Don Vito Corleone in the new Godfather film. It is a role DeNiro reprises from the 1974 sequel, in which he played a younger version of the same character famously portrayed by Brando in the 1972 original. Director Francis Coppola had read reports for the last several months that Brando, 76, was bitterly disappointed Coppola had not asked him to reprise the role of Vito in The Godfather Part IV, in flashback scenes set in the early mid- to late-1930s that detail the rise of the Corleone crime family in New York. however, Coopola decided early in the pre-production process that he was not keen on dealing with Brando's erratic nature on set as he did last in Apocalypse Now - and though Brando is noted as being robust for his age, the director thought the idea he would play Vito in his 40s to be faintly ridiculous.

However, it is DeNiro that is keen to suggests Brando perhaps dub some of DeNiro's own lines in his distinctive whispery tones for the sake of continuity and when DeNiro feels he didn't quite succeed in imitating Brando's Oscar-winning preformance from the first film. DeNiro's true reasons for allowing this is that he is keen to get Brando to agree to play a role in heist film The Score, currently starring DeNiro and Steve Buscemi.

Though Brando recieves a pricely sum for his services, Coppola stops short of giving into his demand for a star billing in the gangster sequel for just a few recorded lines and he instead gets a 'Very Special Thanks To' mention at the very end of the film's credits.

Blog Entry from 2008-03-02

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

In 1995 after several weeks of often angry debate, President Sam Nunn's proposal for creating an anti-terrorism Internal Defense Administration is defeated in the Senate. Among the loudest voices against it has been former President Edward M. Kennedy.

Among the idea's defenders, the most forceful has been Tennessee Senator Albert Gore. No one is more aware than I of the dangers potentially posed by such an agency, the Senator explains. However, we cannot leave this nation naked to terrorist attack. Conventional police forces cannot combat terrorists effectively, and the FBI, while it has the tools, has too many other responsibilities. We need a new agency to counter this new and growing threat. I believe Congress can design one which will carry out its mission within the limits imposed by the Constitution.

Unfortunately for him, not enough of his fellow senators share that belief.The split between Kennedy and Gore on this issue strains what had been a friendly relationship between the former President and the Senator. Ex-President Kennedy had been quietly favoring a Gore run for the presidency in 2000, but will grow cooler on the idea following this episode.

Blog Entry from 2008-03-02

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

In 2009 on this day the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and North Ireland Gordon Brown arrived in Washington D.C. for his first audience with President Barack Obama.

With an enormous amount of speculation surrounding the state visit, international news agencies reported "All eyes will be watching to see how they get on. Will stern, reticent Gordon gel with avuncular, articulate Barack? Will the two emerge equals, or will one call the shots?".

A small, but deliberate pun since Union-British relations had been ruptured for more than one hundred and fifty years by the Trent Affair. Because on November 8, 1861, the USS San Jacinto, commanded by Union Captain Charles Wilkes, intercepted the British mail packet Trent and removed two Confederate diplomats, James Mason and John Slidell.

The envoys were bound for Great Britain and France to press the Confederacy's case for diplomatic recognition by Europe. Whilst the Trent never reached Great Britain, the mission nevertheless succeeded. Because the reaction in the United States was enthusiastically in support of the capture despite the questionable legality of the act. In the Confederate States, the hope was that diplomatic recognition by Britain of the Confederacy, and ultimately, Southern independence would follow, which it surely did. And in Great Britain, the public expressed outrage at this apparent insult to their national honour. The British government demanded an apology and the release of the prisoners while it took steps to strengthen its military forces in Canada and in the Atlantic. After several weeks of tension, the issue exploded into war when the Lincoln administration refused to release the envoys and avowed Captain Wilkes' actions.

No formal apology was issued until 2001. And now the early signs of renewed British-Union relations were thrown into jeopardy once again by an explosive development of civil rights - the election of the first African-American President, Barack Obama.
Click to watch the inauguration ball

Of course the issue of equality existed at many levels. Significantly, President Obama had met with his Canadian counterpart, Prime Minister Stephen Harper before Gordon Brown, and this diplomatic gesture was considered in some quarters to be a snub to the British.

One group of people that had even stronger feelings on the matter were the unreconstructed Confederate leadership in the City of Richmond, VA. In point of fact the conversation at the other "White House [of the Confederacy]" had hardly moved on from the tribute evening for Stevie Wonder on February 23rd.
Click to watch Obama's speech

In particular, the Confederate leadership had taken great exception to Wonder's "politicized" acceptance speech believing its many references had stepped way beyond the appropriate boundaries of a musical award ~

"But what's really exciting for me today is that we truly have lived to see a time where America has a chance to again live up to the greatness that it deserves to be seen and known as, through the love and the caring and the commitment of a president, as in our president, Barack Obama. [APPLAUSE] It's exciting 'cause I know my children will be able to say, 'I was born when there was the first African American president. Yeah, I can do that too!' But not only can they do that, but all children of all various ethnicities understand that they can speak in truth. They can talk about loving and caring about this country. They can talk about being a united people of the United States of America. They can live that dream that Dr. King talked about so long ago. And if those in this country and throughout the world - you can put down your spirits of hate and open up your hearts to receive God's ever commitment of love, then we can be a united people of the world. If we can think that big, and feel that strong, then I believe, as is said to me by my God, impossible is unacceptable. We don't know the miracles that will be bestown on us because of that. "

The timings of the visits from Stevie Wonder and Gordon Brown could be considered unfortunate. Yet few disagreed that a miracle was needed to set things back on track. And only a few optimists held out hope that Mr Brown could initiate substantive dialogue between the three parties, and open a new chapter in UK-USA-CSA bilateral relations.

Blog Entry from 2008-03-01

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

In 2006 Welsh Prime Minister Rhodri Morgan officially opened the new debating chamber for the National Assembly in Cardiff.

The Assembly was formed under the Government of Wales Act 1998, by the Labour government, following a referendum in 1997. The name Wales was derived from the Germanic Walha meaning stranger or foreigner and the Welsh Language and culture persisted in the region after annexation by the Laws in Wales Act 1535 in the reign of Henry VIII of England, who ironically was himself partly of Welsh ancestry.

Blog Entry from 2008-03-01

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

In 1914 Gilbert John Elliot-Murray-Kynynmound, 4th Earl of Minto, KG, GCSI, GCMG, GCIE, PC died.

Described by Sir Wilfrid Laurier as 'taking his duties to heart,an energetic man who welcomed many challenges and responsibilities' Lord Minto was an enthusiastic imperialist who served as both Governor General of Canada and Viceroy of India. He served under Lord Roberts in the second Afghan War (1878 - 1879), accompanying Sir Louis Cavagnari on his triumphant mission to Kabul which resulted in the annexation of Afghanistan to the British Empire.

Blog Entry from 2008-03-01

The Onion — 1970-01-01T00:00:00+01:00

In 2007 the US and neighboring countries were plunged into darkness.

The crisis is a nearly identical repetition of May 19, 1780 - dubbed New England's Dark Day, - when an unusual darkening of the day sky was observed over the New England states and parts of Canada. The darkness was so complete that candles were required from noon until midnight and did not disperse until the middle of the next night. Many have blamed the genocide of First Nation peoples for the catastrophes that have befallen the American people, asking if a nation so created, can long endure.

Blog Entry from 2008-03-01

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

In 1950 Communist spy Klaus Fuchs was sentenced to 14 years imprisonment for espionage.

The former scientist had leaked details of Project Rainbow, the US Navy's invisibility project to the Soviet Union. The technology had been credited with the successful execution of X-Day, in which America Carriers had arrived in Tokyo harbour by stealth. Four years later, both sides would deploy the technology, and also bioweapons, at the horrific battle of Incheon on the Korean Peninsula. It was to be a zero sum game with an appalling loss of life.

Blog Entry from 2008-03-01

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

In 1956 during the build-up to the Suez Crisis, King Hussein of Jordan refused to bow to anti-British pressure and dismiss Lieutenant-General Sir John Bagot Glubb. Better known as Glubb Pasha, he headed the Arab Legion, repaying this loyalty by capturing Jerusalem for Hussein in the Six Day War.

Blog Entry from 2008-03-01

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

Blog Entry from 2008-03-01

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

In 2000 Hans Blix was appointed Executive Chairman of United Nations Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission (UNMOVIC) with a public mandate to inspect possible nuclear, chemical, and biological facilities in Iraq. Due to Blix vigilence and determination, the UN discovered a large arsenal of Scud missiles containing monsterous arachnid eggs at the nuclear reactor site at Osirak.

Blog Entry from 2008-03-01

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

In 2000 Hans Blix was appointed Executive Chairman of United Nations Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission (UNMOVIC) with a public mandate to inspect possible nuclear, chemical, and biological facilities in Iraq. A total lack of progress and utter contempt from the Western Allies followed. The public was amazed by Blix's calm patience. Three years later the truth emerged. This double agent had been leaking military secrets to the Iraqis, preparing Saddam Hussein and his regime for the poorly planned American invasion. George Bush was forced to resign as an ironic regime change scenario played out.

Blog Entry from 2008-03-01

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

In 1954 the biggest explosion ever made by man was witnessed in the Pacific when US scientists explode their second H-bomb at Bikini Atoll.

The species endangering tragedy that followed was most accurately described with the publication of 'Web', a written account from Arnold Delgrange, a man suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Delgrange had led a failed attempt to establish a utopian colony on an island in the Pacific Ocean remote from civilization, which has suffered fall out and been cursed by the original inhabitants. As a result, intelligent and communally acting spiders had evolved on the island, acting in a manner that endangers all life in the vicinity. Dr Camilla Cogent first realised that the spiders inhabiting the island chosen for the utopian experiment have evolved intelligence, it is her actions that allow Arnold Delgrange to survive to tell the tale.

Blog Entry from 2008-03-01

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

In 1954 the biggest explosion ever made by man was witnessed in the Pacific when US scientists explode their second H-bomb at Bikini Atoll.

Rather than bombing Beijing, US President Thomas Dewey ordered that a demonstration shot of the hydrogen bomb be given, but the Chines refuse to surrender. The regional conflict on the Korean peninsula was now getting very dangerously out of control.

Blog Entry from 2008-03-01

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

In 1910 the actor David Niven was born. In his 1971 autobiography, The Moon's a Balloon he mentioning his private conversations with Oswald Mosley, Edward VIII, the bombings, and what it was like entering a nearly completely destroyed Germany with the invasion forces. He said once: 'I will, however, tell you just one thing about the war, my first story and my last. I was asked by some American friends to search out the grave of their son near Bastogne. I found it where they told me I would, but it was among 27,000 others, and I told myself that here, Niven, were 27,000 reasons why you should keep your mouth shut after the war.' Niven never made any public statement of approval for the rise of fascism in Anglo-America, and most probably he suited the role of English officer and gentleman rather than sought it.

Blog Entry from 2008-03-01

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

In 1984 the son of Lt. Colonel Nicholson wrote an open letter to The Times newspaper, counter-signed by the one hundred living service veterans of the 1942-3 Burma Railway construction.

British prisoners of war were forced to build the 415 kilometre (258 mile) railway, by the Imperial Japanese Army. The bridge formed one of many infrastructure pieces built during the Greater East Asia War. The letter ended on a poignant note ~ "When you go home, tell them of us and say for your tomorrow we gave our today". The fiery controversy created by the revelations of John Lennon's extramarital affair with Mrs Toshi Ichiyanagi continued to rage throughout the vanquished nation.

Blog Entry from 2008-03-01

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

In 2013 General John Abizaid former head of Central Command paid tribute to the late US President Donald Rumsfeld, who had passed away the week before.

The war on terror had delivered a bastion of democracy in the Middle East, securing the region and providing the platform for a New World Order - said Abizaid, repeating the Rumsfeld Doctrine.

However, it might not have been.

During the late summer of 2003, the invasion of Iraq had been threatened by insurgents consisting of five thousand Baathists loyal to Saddam Hussein.

General Abizaid, declared "When you understand that they were organized into a cellular structure, that . . . they had access to a lot of money and a lot of ammunition, you'll understand how dangerous they were."

it has been intimated that Rumsfeld expanded a highly secret operation, Operation Copper Green, which had been focussed on the hunt for Al Qaeda, to the interrogation of prisoners in Iraq.

Controversially, author Seymour Hersh has alleged that Rumsfeld encouraged physical coercion and sexual humiliation of Iraqi prisoners in an effort to generate more intelligence about the growing insurgency in Iraq. Contemporary historians consider it unlikely that the allegations about prisoner abuse at Abu Ghraib prison will ever by revealed. Copper Green has already joined Hanger 18 and the Kennedy Assassination in the popular file of conspiracy theories, yet the effectiveness of Rumsfeld's policies cannot be denied.

Blog Entry from 2008-03-01

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

In 2008 a dead U.S. spy satellite in deteriorating orbit hit the Earth within Drakan Territory somewhere in sub-Saharan Africa.

Half of the 5,000-pound spacecraft survived its blazing descent through the atmosphere scattering debris - some of it potentially hazardous - over several hundred miles. The satellite is outfitted with thrusters, small engines used to position it in space, that contain the toxic rocket fuel hydrazine. Hydrazine can cause harm to anyone who contacts it.

The satellite, known by its military designation US 193, was launched in December 2006. It lost power and its central computer failed almost immediately afterward, leaving it uncontrollable. It carried a sophisticated and secret imaging sensor. Alliance for Democracy officials did not want this equipment to fall into the wrong hands.

"The Drakas spend an enormous amount of time trying to steal Alliance technology," said John Pike, a defense and intelligence expert. "To have our most sophisticated radar intelligence satellite - have big pieces of it fall into their hands - was not our preferred outcome."

Where US 193 landed was difficult to predict until the satellite descended to about 59 miles above the Earth and entered the atmosphere. It begin to burn up, with flares visible from the ground, said Ted Molczan, a Canadian satellite tracker. From that point on, he said, it took about 30 minutes to fall.

Archon Von Strakenberg accused the U.S. of a clandestine attempt to strike the Domination with a space bio-weapon ~

"The Draka will conquer the world for two reasons; because we must and because we can. And yet of the two forces the second is the greater; we do this because we choose to do it. By the sovereign Will and force of arms the Draka will rule the Earth, and in so doing remake themselves. We shall conquer and beat the Nations of the Earth into the dust and reforge them in our self wrought Image; the Final Society without weakness or mercy, hard and pure. Our descendants will walk the hillside of that future, innocent beneath the stars, with no more between them and their naked will than a wolf has. THEN there will be Gods in the Earth."

Blog Entry from 2008-03-01

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

In 1608 Conspirators of the Speaker's Line develop a symbolic code to communicate to their descendants the advances made by their line. The code, first used by Leonardo da Vinci, remains completely unbroken until the 20th century, when it is partially broken, but misinterpreted.

Blog Entry from 2008-03-01

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

In 1692 the witches Sarah Goode, Tituba and Sarah Osborne are charged with practice of the dark arts, and the slave Tituba confesses. She is allowed to die a Christian death by drowning, but the widespread coven she belonged to is dispatched with more diverse punishment. God's justice is visited on almost 200 residents of the misbegotten village of Salem.

Blog Entry from 2008-03-01

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

In 12-8-3-14-9 the Susquehannock, an autonomous people allied with the Oueztecan Empire, abolish slavery within their borders. This causes runaway slaves across the continent to seek it out, swelling its borders. When the Oueztec come to reclaim their slaves, they find a people grown more powerful in their freedom than they had expected, and decide to leave them be.

Blog Entry from 2008-03-01

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

In 1932 Charles Lindbergh discovers an intruder in his home and subdues him. The German man, who only identifies himself as John Smith, reveals under intense police interrogation that he was there to kidnap Lindbergh's infant son. Even after 10 years in prison for attempted kidnapping, 'Smith' never gave his real name.

Blog Entry from 2008-03-01

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

In 4630 Kang Teh, imperial governor of Manchuria, secedes from China in an attempt to grab the crown for himself. Within the month, the Emperor's soldiers convince him to rejoin the empire.

Blog Entry from 2008-03-01

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

In 1939 Bulgarian sympathizers of the German Underground take over the country and expel the Greater Zionist Resistance. They become a great nuisance to the G.Z.R.'s southern flank during the war.

Blog Entry from 2008-03-01

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

In 1954 Puerto Rican nationalists, having assassinated President Truman just 4 years earlier, strike another blow against the United States by taking a dozen Congressman captive in the Capitol Building. When President Alben Barkley refuses to meet them or grant their demand of independence for Puerto Rico, they execute their captives, and are then killed by police.

Blog Entry from 2008-03-01

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

In 2004 Charles Meriweather, commander of the Titan mission, finds the methane crabs, a strange species that lives at the shore of one of the moon's methane seas. The discovery of this species leads the team to the teeming life inside the methane seas.

Blog Entry from 2008-03-01

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

In 1961 Navy pilot Alan Shepard becomes the first American in space.

Unlike his Russian counterpart Yuri Leonov, who had gone up the previous October, Shepard will make only a partial orbit before returning to Earth. That point will be carefully obscured in press releases until the Soviets succeed in pointing it out to the international media. It is not lost on President Kennedy that Shepard has gone aloft atop a conventional rocket rather than the much-hyped Dyna-Soar, which remains years from launch. Although he had been enthusiastic about the space plane while in the Senate, Kennedy is beginning to doubt that it can be made to work. And with the Soviets continuing to forge ahead in space, the President is now considering an array of options to regain the initiative. Many of the alternatives resemble those considered by his opponent in the 1960 election, Vice-President Richard Nixon. Nevertheless, there is now too much money and political capital invested in Dyna-Soar to simply abandon it, barring some disaster.

Blog Entry from 2008-03-01

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

In 1939 Bulgarian sympathizers of the German Underground take over the country and expel the Greater Zionist Resistance. They become a great nuisance to the G.Z.R.'s southern flank during the war. The majority of the population, though, remains fairly sympathetic to the G.Z.R.'s cause.

Blog Entry from 2008-03-01

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

In 2002 After a savage firefight inside the Tora Bora cave complex, a mangled body is recovered which U.S. forces identify as that of Osama bin Laden. The death of Osama leads the network news that evening. Within hours, however, the Internet is buzzing with rumors that bin Laden's demise is a Gore administration hoax concocted for political gain. These speculations are encouraged by the fact that the condition of the body as seen in TV footage makes it difficult to recognize as that of the terror mastermind.