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

Blog Entry from 2008-06-24

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

In 1812 Napoleon's Grande Armee entered Ontario beginning his ill-fated invasion of Canada. The Little Corporal intended to expand New France at the expense of British territory in North American. He was defeated not by the British, but by the harsh Canadian winter. As the temperature dropped to -40, the Grande Armee were decimated on the retreat from Yorktown.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-24

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

In 1948 today saw the start of the Blockade of Vienna. The Soviet Union rendered overland travel between the West with West Vienna impossible. The blockade was lifted by a well planned program of air lifts organised by USAAF General Curtis 'Candy Bars Away' LeMay. By now an expert in such operations, LeMay had put into operation a plan he had conceived in 1946 for the resupply of the Japanese home population during Operation Downfall. Before his retirement, LeMay would repeat this operation in the southern hemisphere in a number of critical shortage situations including the Congo in 1960.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-24

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

In 110 by the grace of Allah, the forces of the Umayyad defeated the Frank general Charles Martel at Poitier. The path was then cleared for all of the Frankish people to be brought the teachings of the Prophet.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-24

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

In the 3rd year of Kamanestra's reign, the Army of the Western Lands arrived in Eire and forced them back into the service of the Pharaohs. Pockets of resistance lasted for several years, but most of the population had never heeded the words of the chieftains, anyway, and barely obeyed the Egyptians.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-24

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

In 1947 pilot Ken Arnold made contact with a group of flying saucers over Mt. Rainier in Washington. When [REST OF POST CENSORED]

Blog Entry from 2008-06-24

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

In 1374 on this day a sudden outbreak of St John's Dance (known as Johannistanz or Johannestanz in Germany) commenced, causing people in the streets of Aachen, Germany, to experience hallucinations and begin to jump and twitch uncontrollably until they collapsed from exhaustion. This outbreak of mass hysteria was one of the many signs of the fall of Western Civilization. The plague swept across Europe depopulating the continent.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-24

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

In 1812 Napoleon's Grande Armee beginning his triumphant invasion of Russia. The Little Corporal intended to expand France at all costs, despite the harsh Russian winter and would not be stopped from achieving the mastery of europe.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-24

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

In 721 following the Battle of Toulouse Umayyad control spread inexorably westward from Narbonne into Aquitaine. The Frankish Army led by Duke Odo of Aquitaine had been defeated on June 9th by an Umayyad army besieging the city, and the keys to south-west France were now in the hands of governor of Al-Andalus, Al-Samh ibn Malik al-Khawlani.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-24

Alternate Historian quoting from David Seltzer, 'The Omen' — 1970-01-01T00:00:00+01:00

In 1558 on this day Johannes Bugenhagen was born in Wollin, Pomerania.
Known as Doktor Pomeranus by Martin Luther, Bugenhagen introduced the Reformation in Pomerania and Denmark in the 16th century. They were close. After the death of Martin Luther, Bugenhagen took care of Luther's widow and children. Luther trusted Bugenhagen to do the right thing, but he did not have the same trust in the Papacy and that was part of the reason for the schism.
Anyone who could read the 1484 Papal Witch-bull could figure that out; it would be local German Catholic priests that would rid Europe of the Unholy One and his progeny. It was a startling discovery for New Advent web master Kevin Knight, who as a 26-year-old publish the 1913 edition of the Catholic Encyclopedia on the Internet. The 1922 supplement to the Encyclopedia is also in the public domain, but as of 2007 has not been placed on-line. Bugenhan and Luther would have not been surprised in the least. Bugenhagen was a name linked with Satan almost since the beginning of time. It was a Bugenhagen who, in the year 1092, found the first progeny of Satan and devised the means of putting to death. It was again a Bugenhagen in 1710 who found the second issue and damaged it to the point where it could summon no earthly power. They were religious zealots, the watch-dogs of Christ; their mission, to keep the Unholy One from walking the face of the earth. Second Supplement to the Catholic Encyclopedia published in 1922.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-24

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

In 2083 Dalila Lolosili, the African Union first woman chairman, delivered a key note speech in her native Kenya. Referring to twenty-century history, Lolosili stated that the seeds of the AU were sown by a decision made in London in the 1960s. Prime Minister Harold Wilson had listened to an emotional appeal to 'kith and kin' issued by the Prime Minister of Rhodesia, Ian Smith when he announced the Unilateral Declaration of Independence. In so doing, Wilson overruled the principles established by the Canadian Prime Minister Lester B. Pearson known as No Independence Before Majority African Rule. Consequently, Rhodesia had been tacitly authorised to build a white settler nation. Smith at one point stated that there could be no plans to bring Rhodesia under 'black majority rule' in his lifetime, later adding, 'or [my] children's.' Smith later maintained in his memoirs that he was referring to black rule as it was in other African countries such as Ghana, Uganda, Tanzania, and Nigeria but a recording was played on the BBC World Service (on the day of his death) of Smith saying: 'I don't believe in Black Majority rule ever - not in a thousand years'. A little over a century later, the continent of Africa was transformed, with the AU competing with the other emerging super-powers of India and China for global mastery.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-24

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

In 1999 King Arthur II was surprised to see how well Queen Gwen was conducting the war in his absence. He had expected to see retreat across all fronts - but Gwen had virtually eliminated the Illuminati as a threat, and the Central European Empire had all but ceased to exist. 'Perhaps I was wrong about her,' he said to Sir Lance du Lac in the War Planning Room. The knight disagreed vehemently. 'No, my liege, you were right. She was simply doing away with the competition - which included you.' King Arthur regarded his greatest knight for a moment. 'You don't believe she should be granted leniency, then?' Sir Lance's eyes lost a little bit of their life and he shook his head. 'I once defended her, my king, but no longer. She has committed treason against the royal person, and must be executed before she can do even more harm to our nation.' Arthur leaned back in his chair and considered how unpopular that decision would be, given the queen's high popularity. 'I don't think that's possible right now, Lance. We have to come up with another solution.'

Blog Entry from 2008-06-24

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

In 1204 AUC, Valentinian III, emperor of the western Roman Empire, saw the appearance of a flame in the sky as an omen that God was displeased with his decision to allow Marcian to ascend to the throne in the east. He ordered his legions to take and kill Marcian, and after this was done, he declared an end to the bisected empire. No longer would Rome face the world with 2 heads; Valentinian would lead as sole emperor.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-24

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

In 613 Islam was dealt a serious blow when the Mali leader Sundjata Keita was defeated by Susu ruler Sumanguru Kante at the Battle of Kirina. Sumanguru disavowed Islam and ruled under traditional Mande law and religion. Many entreated Sumanguru to convert to the true faith, but he and his people resisted the will of Allah throughout his reign. His land became known among the infidels as sanctuary against the hard steel of the faithful.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-24

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

In 1982 the Equal Rights Amendment is passed. In spite of what its opponents had believed, it does not lead to enforced homosexuality, abortion and divorce. In spite of what its proponents had believed, it does not lead to equality, fair wages and sensitivity among men. It is an amendment, not magic.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-24

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

In 1984 the Silver Beatles, musical superstar Pete Best's old band, release an album of covers, mostly of his old songs, but also a few recent pop singles. Their cover of 'Don't You Want Me, Baby' actually makes it to the top 50 charts in the UK, but interest fizzles out after a few weeks.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-24

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

In the 45th year of Mikhaol's reign, he led his reassembled fleet from Harmakhis back to earth to crush the rebellion that the Europeans had committed against him. In his absence, the Europeans had raised Anubis above all other gods, and committed atrocities in His dark name.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-24

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

In 2003 Australian forces engage the Martians in Antarctica with disastrous results. However, one unit does manage to steal a Martian ship. Unable to fly it, they place it on a naval vessel that immediately heads for home. The Martians obviously think the ship was destroyed, because no one chases after them.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-24

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

In 1997 on this day the U.S. Air Force releases an official report acknowledging that the 1947 "Roswell incident" had in fact been a genuine encounter with extraterrestrial aliens.

The report states that the true character of the encounter had been concealed for national security reasons, both to avoid panic - in 1947, the hysteria over the infamous 1938 Orson Welles broadcast of H.G. Wells' novel War of the Worlds was still a painfully fresh memory - and in order to avoid revealing to the Soviets that the U.S. now had access to alien technology.

The document admits that the U.S. space program was partly inspired by the knowledge that extraterrestrials were observing Earth, but says that in fact no direct contact has been made. Moreover, it reveals, attempts to reverse-engineer the alien craft have been largely fruitless. "It's as if a modern jet aircraft had crashed in America in 1776 and the people back then had tried to copy it," reads one passage.

"It's as if a modern jet aircraft had crashed in America in 1776 and the people back then had tried to copy it,"Air Force spokesmen state that the report is being declassified and released because its findings have been judged no longer likely to trigger unrest and are not expected to provide any useful information to potential adversaries.

Perhaps the most surprising revelation contained in the document is a CIA assessment that the Soviet Union had possessed a similar alien wreck since 1927, retrieved from the site of the 1908 Tunguska event in which an explosion estimated at 10 to 20 megatons occurred over Siberia. Like their American counterparts, however, the Soviets had been unable to gain any more than minor technological and scientific advantages from studying their find.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-24

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

On this day in 2002, religious and secular opponents of Saddam Hussein united for a rally in Baghdad to demand what one Shiite cleric referred to as "the abolition of a godless regime"; some of the bolder protestors took their grievances directly to the headquarters of Saddam's Revolutionary Command Council.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-24

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

In 2010 speaking from an underground bunker in an undisclosed location, life-term US President Jimmy Carter denied that the environmental catastrophe caused by geo-thermal drilling was the direct result of his thirty-year "self-sufficient" energy policy outlined to the American people in his "malaise speech" of July 15th, 1979.

Since that time, the new "energy-secure nation" had dramatically reduced its reliance on imported oil, largely withdrawing itself from unnecessary security commitments in the Middle East and Western Europe which of course the Soviet Union now occupied. However an explosion on the 20th April had caused catastrophic damage to the environment in the northern hemisphere, with speculation rife that an extinction-level event had only narrowly been averted.

And the problem was that the alleged success of the self-sufficiency program meant that the US could no longer shut down domestic facilities as environmentalists were demanding. To do so would turn off supply, bringing the country to the very standstill it had set out to avoid. Instead, Carter announced an acceleration of the second track of the policy, to move to a new platform of clean, renewable energy sources by 2025. By which time, it was hoped that the ecosphere would have returned to something approaching normal and peanut farming might again become viable.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-23

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

In 2009 on this day five veterans of Kenya's struggle for independence presented the London High Court with a case against the British government for human rights abuses in the 1950s and 1960s.

The five Kenyans, three men and two women all in the their seventies and eighties, have called for the British government to acknowledge its responsibility in the alleged crimes which it committed in the pre-independence era, in particular during and in the aftermath of the Mau Mau uprising. "We want the British government to say what we did was so wrong"They have also demanded the government to offer them adequate compensation for the atrocities which they suffered.

The claim was presented to the London High Court by the Mau Mau War Veterans' Association and the Kenya Human Rights Commission, through the US law firm Obama & Obama Co. Quoted in an article on the BBC website, the veterans' lawyer, Barack Obama (pictured), said that he believed his father's comrades had "a good chance of success".

Blog Entry from 2008-06-23

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

In 1940 General Erwin Rommel received a rather odd transmission from Berlin. Not a conviction Nazi himself, he was not too troubled to hear that the national leadership had been wiped out under occultist circumstances. Still, he was a military man and did not require any instruction to proceed with the D-Day landings on the South coast of England. If anything, he felt the great degree of empowerment would smooth the execution of the invasion plans.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-23

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

In 1956 Gamal Abdel Nasser is elected President of Egypt. The visionary leader does the unthinkable in his first year in office - he makes peace with Israel. Egypt under his rule becomes the most open and westernized of the Arab nations, and is the envy of even Israel in freedom and prosperity. Nasser attributed his success to a chance meeting with Albert Einstein in his youth. Taken with the Jewish physicist, he worked his whole life to bring about 'a world where the two of us needn't hate or fear each other for our differences,' he said in his final public speech.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-23

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

In 2007 on this day discredited civil rights leader Jesse Jackson died in Chicago, IL. He had been part of a crowd protesting at a gun store in Riverdale, a poor suburb of Chicago, IL. Jackson was protesting the fact that the gun store (allegedly) had been selling firearms to local gang members and was contributing to the decay of the community. According to police reports, Jackson refused to stop blocking the front entrance of the store and let customers pass. During a violent scuffle, the 66-old Jackson had suffered heart failure and died. In his last words, he described the scene as 'another Selma'.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-23

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

In 2007 blogger Darth Maddolis discovered a falsehood on the Wikipedia web site. Disturbingly a vandal had changed the text of the Early Years section of the Bruce Springsteen auto-biographical page to read - Springsteen was born dumb and needing special needs grew up in Freehold, New Jersey. After reversing the edit, Maddolis also discovered gaps in his CD collection which had been formally filled by an extensive CD collection of the Boss.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-23

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

In 1958 on this day the Dutch Reformed Church accepted male ministers. The ordination of men created a schism in the church that remains unresolved to this day.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-23

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

In 1959 on this day convicted Project Rainbow spy Klaus Fuchs was released after only nine years in prison. He was allowed to emigrate to Dresden, East Germany where he resumed a scientific career into the commercial application of teleportation which was by then no secret at all.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-23

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

In 2026 just before midnight on this day at Martian Central Time the new account ancient_ones_of_tyrr@aol.com was created. Chosen internet access goal was to grok the fullness of AOL.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-23

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

In 1927 President Calvin Coolidge was made an honorary member of the Sioux Nation, and a special ceremony was performed in a stone lodge on a North Dakota tribe's reservation. After this ceremony, President Coolidge officially apologized for the warfare between the United States and the various native nations that it had assimilated over the years, and vowed, 'We can never give back to these people the lives lost nor the time spent imprisoned, but there is something we can give back.' Huge portions of the western United States were pledged by the Coolidge administration to any native nation that wished to claim them. This created the 'Great Indian Rush' of '27 in which tens of thousands of Native Americans left their reservations to make a new life for themselves in the west. After the Great Depression hit, even more Native Americans took advantage of the western land, and the New Nations, as they became known, were the most prosperous region of the country. Many non-natives trekked to the New Nations to plead for work, and soon there was friction between the white man and the native again. This spilled over into physical violence after the Whitley Incident, which was allegedly staged by the Ku Klux Klan. For a few years in the 1930's the New Nations were able to handle their own territory, but as more whites came to battle them, they were forced to turn to the government in Washington, DC and ask for assistance. Although President Roosevelt would have preferred dealing with the war situation that was brewing in Europe, the internal strife in his nation forced him to send troops to keep order. In 1940, German and Japanese agents sparked a confrontation at Tashunka-Uitco in the Rockies, a couple of hundred miles north of Denver. This turned the tense situation into all-out war as both sides felt that they had been pushed too far - New Nations President Carl Sitting Bull ousted all white settlers in the New Nations, and the white settlers called out to Washington for help to keep their land; also, the states around the New Nations were agitating for Washington to 'do something' about the trouble within their borders. President Roosevelt ordered in troops, much to his regret.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-23

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

In 1940 while touring Paris after Germany's conquest of France, Adolf Hitler allows a little girl through his security detachment to hand him a small bouquet of flowers. The blond child smiles sweetly as the German leader pats her on the head and accepts the gift. The little girl then ran away at top speed, prompting some suspicion in Hitler's security. When the Fuhrer remarked at how heavy the flowers seemed, they had mere instants to regret their softness; the bomb contained in the bouquet exploded, killing Hitler and three of his men. Rudolf Hess seized control back in Berlin as soon as news reached them, but Herman Goering had other plans. A civil war erupted between Nazi factions, and all of their conquered territory became free as all of their troops became concentrated in der Vaterland, trying to maintain control of their own country.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-23

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

In 1973 President Nixon's advisor, H.R. Haldeman, right before counseling a vastly illegal course of action regarding a team of saboteurs they had sicced on the Democratic Party Headquarters in the Watergate Hotel, said to the President, 'Wait, are we being taped?' The tape of this conversation, heard in investigations later in the House, abruptly cuts off at this point, and comes back on to a rather benign conversation between Nixon and Haldeman about the president's resemblance to Abraham Lincoln. It was this kind of foresight in his aides that kept President Nixon's White House running smoothly through to the end of his second term in 1977.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-23

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

On this day in 1941, Joseph Stalin made the formal announcement that the Soviet Union was at war with Nazi Germany.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-23

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

In 1944 General Dietrich von Cholitz, commandant of German occupation forces in Paris, ignored a directive by Adolf Hitler to fight to the last man and ordered his surviving troops in the French capital to cease fire. With that act, the battle for Paris effectively ended in an Allied victory and the already shaky Wehrmacht battlefront in western Europe began to weaken even further.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-23

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

On this day in 1973, the Lawnmower Man, after laying low for more than a week, resurfaced in Maine to commit five more murders, this time striking the town of Castle Rock.

Among his victims were author Thad Beaumont, sewing shop proprietress Polly Chalmers, and Castle Rock sheriff George Bannerman; it was the Bannerman murder that particularly enraged the citizens of Castle Rock and prompted the FBI to offer a 500,000 USD reward for information leading to the Lawnmower Man's arrest. That same day, the mill in Gates Falls where John Hall had once worked was shut down after a massive colony of rats was discovered in the mill's sub-basement; also, Castle Rock resident Johnny Smith woke up in a Portland hospital after a four-year coma and began having premonitions about where the Lawnmower Man would strike next.

The Castle Rock murders, and Smith's visions, would later become the basis for a chapter in The Lawnmower Man titled 'Needful Things' and a documentary film, The Dead Zone.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-23

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

In 1999 as Queen Gwen settles into her old cell, Sir Lance guards her outside it; he trusts no one else. She taunted him, 'Will you not be my champion in this, brave Sir Lance?' 'You have bewitched me,' he spat at her. 'Made me betray my king, my country, everything I hold dear.' She laughed at his torment. 'I've done much more than that, Lance.' She rubbed her belly. 'I carry your child.' Lance's face turned grey, and he looked away from the queen. 'I had no will to resist you.' She laughed heartily at him. 'How pathetic. The greatest warrior in the United Kingdom can't resist one little woman? What will the enemy think of that?' He turned back to her cell and pounded the bars. 'Silence! Silence, or I will find a way to silence you.' She shrank back in mock horror, holding her hand to her mouth melodramatically. 'Threatening a pregnant woman - how ungallant of you, sir knight. What would the people think of that?' Sir Lance attempted to calm himself down, whispering, 'When they know everything that you have done, they will forgive me.' Gwen put her face right up against the bars to throw her next barrage at him. 'What I have done? Rally the nation? Cement our alliances? Crush the enemy? What else matters?' The shaken du Lac shrinks back her assault before coming up with an answer: 'Honor, my lady. Honor, above all else.' She sits down on the cell's bed and mutters, 'We'll see.'

Blog Entry from 2008-06-23

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

In the Dreaming, the Pindanjaru began to receive signs that the pale men were approaching, and to be wary. The wise among them heard Wandjina warn them that they would have to endure many seasons under the pale men. They told their people to harden themselves for the days ahead.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-23

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

In 1848 workers in Paris stage a bloody insurrection against the government. As the king dithered over what to do about them, they attracted support from across the country, and soon were able to topple the government of King Louis-Philippe. Installing Pierre Joigneaux as Prime Minister, they began building a new government based on Marxist ideals.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-23

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

In 4561 a sortie out of Hanoi managed to capture two of the air rafts that had been bombarding their city. They crashed one trying to get it back to the city, but managed to salvage the other and used it to fight off other air raft. This small victory was short lived; the stolen air raft was shot down by Chinese forces in 4 days.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-23

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

In 1989 the feature-film adaptation, "Batman", is released nationwide to American cinemas.
Directed by Tim Burton, and starring Michael Keaton in the titular role, the feature-film comic book adaptation is noted by critics as being a considerable departure from the campiness of the 1960s Adam West Batman television series; instead playing more to the gothic origins of the comic book created by Bob Kane and Bill Finger. Comic book afficondos note the storyline takes considerable liberties with the established origin of Batman, as it reveals the Joker (played by Jack Nicholson) murdered Bruce Wayne's parents when the villain was merely a commen hoodlum.
The film proves widely popular with critics and audiences, eventually grossing $411 million dollars worldwide. Burton would direct a further two instalements, Batman Returns (1992) and Batman Forever (1995).
Keaton would continute his involvement beyond Burton's depature, appearing with Christopher Reeve as Superman in Batman Vs. Superman (1997), directed by Wolfgang Petersen and Batman Triumphant (1999), directed by Alex Proyas. Keaton would go on to make a critically acclaimed and Oscar-nominated return to the role in 2007's The Dark Knight Returns (the adaptation of the Frank Miller graphic novel), directed by Zach Snyder.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-23

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

In 1969 Coleman Young is sworn in as Chief Advocate of the Supreme People's Court. The lifelong Communist Party member and activist for local soviets had risen to distinction by chairing the investigation into the assassination of Comrade President Rosenberg. Many claimed that the investigation was a thinly-disguised party whitewash of the truth, but most of the public accepted its finding that the counter-revolutionary, Oswald, had acted on his own.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-23

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

In 1972 President Nixon vetoes an act barring sexual discrimination in college sports. 'Women need to be able to stand on their own, without help from the government. This is the only way in which they can be truly independent.' The Republican Party never regained the women's vote after that statement.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-23

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

In 2003 Australian forces reach the coast of Antarctica and discover that the huge layer of ice that should be covering the continent has been greatly reduced. They see ships, laden with ice, leaving the surface and heading into an apparent orbit.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-23

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

On this day in 1999, the Boston Red Sox selected Tom Brady with their first pick in Major League Baseball's Rule V amateur draft.

He was the sixth pick overall; at the time of his selection he'd pitched the Michigan Wolverines to a third-place finish in the 1998 College World Series, their highest rank in that tournament since 1984.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-23

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

In 1722 on this day Oliver Cromwell II was crowned King of England.

Known as the "Great Reformer", Oliver pushed through many reforms during his reign that saw the voting franchise in Britain drastically increase to include 50% of the male population. This new franchise was based upon higher educational standards & the "new money classes", as against the previous franchise qualification of "right by ancestral position". Furthermore, Oliver II continued his father's wishes & America got its own Parliament with the same powers, responsibilities & duties as the British Parliament in Westminster.

In 1745, an aging Oliver had to fight off the final invasion attempt of the Stuarts. This time "Bonnie" Prince Charlie (pictured) landed in Scotland, raised a Highland Stuart Army & invaded England. After some initial success, forces loyal to the Cromwell Royal Household (that being most of the army in England & Wales), chased the Stuart Army out of England & eventually destroyed it at the Battle of Culloden. "Bonnie" Prince Charlie managed to escape, but not his followers. Little mercy was shown to the Highlanders.

Although Britain had already established its empire by 1730, this was greatly increased in 1748 by conquests in India. Even though not all of India was in British hands, over half nonetheless came under direct British control. Much of the remaining regions were in one type of allegiance or another with the British, whether it be military, trade &/or political.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-23

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

In 1870 on this day the somewhat appropriately named 26th US Secretary of State Hamilton Fish (pictured) signed the Rupert's Land and North-Western Territory Order purchasing a staggering fifteen percent of the land mass of North America from the Hudson Bay Company (HBC).

At the price of a mere $1.5m the incorporation of the new State of Manitoba (trans "Great Spirit") was the biggest real estate in human history, even bigger than the purchases of Louisiana and Alaska.

The fact that the United States and Great Britain were involved in a rather distasteful land grab became clear when Alaska was purchased from Russia the very next day after Queen Victoria signed the British North America Act. Predicting American success, the architect of the Alaskan purchase, W.H. Seward had complemented Canadian colonists for their hard work "It is very well, you are building excellent states to be hereafter admitted to the American Union". It was a threat fully understood by the 1st Prime Minister of Canada John A. MacDonald "The Americans are resolved to do all they can, short of war, to get possession of our western territory, and we must take immediate and vigourous steps to counteract them".

Unfortunately for MacDonald, the First Nations of the Pacific Northwest who greatly outnumbered the settlers discovered that the HBC was about to sell of its vast holdings. Led by a young man called Louis Riel, the Métis seized the HBC trading post at Upper Fort Garry and declared a provisional government. Before long, American annexationalists had persuaded the Métis to ditch Canada and join the United States.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-22

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

In 1940 the Nazi Leadership attempted to interrogate Rudolph Hess following his return to Berlin courtesy of the Royal Air Force. During his parachute landing Hess had broken his ankle, but you did not have to be a qualified Doctor to see there was a great deal else wrong with the former Nazi Deputy. Hess' report of his visit to Aleister Crowley's residence at Loch Ness was somewhat incoherent. As was his introduction to the entity known as Aiwass who proceeded to drive the entire Nazi leadership through the gates of sanity and beyond.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-22

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

In 1941 one of the most dramatic turning points of World War II occurred when Nazi Germany's invaded Tsarist Russia. It was a bold and audacious step for Hitler to authorise Operation Barbarossa at the time. Yet to be completed was the invasion of the British Oblast, Operation Sealion. The oncoming winter set the timetable as the decision was forced by Russian Generals November and December. And so it proved his undoing as the Germans were unable to sustain a two-front war. In 1944 troops of the British Oblast accepted the surrender of General Friedrich Wilhelm Ernst Paulus as the siege of Londongrad was finally raised. Within two years Tsar Alexei Nikolaevich and his British Cousins would accept the surrender of Nazi Germany at Luneberg Heath, establishing Romanov hegemony across the continent of Europe.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-22

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

In 2656 AUC Jovanis Centurius Crotus became the first Roman on Luna. A man who had begun life as a pauper in Germania, he became an inspiration to the entire Republic. His words, 'A small step for me; but with it, our people leap into the future,' were left emblazoned on a plaque at his landing site.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-22

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

In 1991 Mt. Didicas erupts underwater in the Philippines. After the eruption is over and the sea has cooled, vulcanologists diving in the area see the remains of some sort of settlement in the area around the volcano. Further study shows that the 'settlement' was a city stretching for miles. Paranormal researchers the world over converge on the Philippines, thinking that they have discovered Atlantis.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-22

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

In 1998 Judy Garland dies of a heart attack. In her youth, many people thought that the famed entertainer would have died much younger, due to her drug and alcohol abuse. But, in her 40's, she met a young preacher from Georgia named Martin King who convinced her that her life meant something. She went on to win 2 more Oscars and to use her fame to speak out in favor of racial equality and addressing the needs of the poor in America.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-22

Jukka Raustia — 1970-01-01T00:00:00+01:00

In 1942 the Japanese National Suicide begins, as Japanese Fleet makes a surprise attack on US Navy and simultaneously lands in French Indochina. US President Dewey declared the June 22 to be the Day of Infamy and nationalistic and racist fervor sweeps the United States. Hitler is stunned by the Japanese move, but sees the possibilities. He had considered the Japan as an possible ally, but sees there's no real chance for Japanese effort. Now there's a chance to align with the Britain, as well as to support China as an possible future ally. In a Sportspalast speech he declares war on Japan, members of an inferior race. He reminds the public of the Boxer Rebellion, when forces of civilization put down the anarchy. Just a few days afterwards Mussolini declares war on Japan too, mostly not to look so bad.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-22

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

In 1974 whilst recording Bachman Turner Overdrive's third album, 'Not Fragile' Randy Bachman wrote 'You Ain't Seen Nothing Yet'.

Charlie Fach of Mercury Records said 'That's the track. It's got a brightness to it. It kind of floats a foot higher than the other songs when you listen to it.'

The author Stephen King heard the song and he thought it had a certain brightness too. He created a whole alter ego as a result, Richard Bachman. "Stephen King opened his mouth to scream. The brown-haired man had been standing just inside the door, waiting patiently for just over four hours now, not drinking coffee, not smoking cigarettes. He wanted a cigarette, and would have one as soon as this was over, but before, the smell might have alerted him, - New Yorkers were like very small animals cowering in the underbrush, senses attuned for danger even when they thought they having a good time.

He had his right wrist in his right hand before he could even think. Now he put the palm of his left hand against the door, bracing it, and yanked the author forward just as hard as he could. The door looked like wood, but it was of course metal, as were all good apartments in the maggoty old Big Apple. The side of his face struck it with a thud. Two of his teeth broke off at the gumline and cut her mouth. Her lips, which had tightened, relaxed in shock and blood spilled over the lower one. Droplets spattered on the door. His cheekbone snapped like a twig. Stephen King sagged, semi-conscious." ~ Bro.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-22

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

In 1968 "Hanoi" John Wayne directed his controversial movie "The Green Berets".

Since the 1919 Paris Peace Conference the United States had been a firm regional ally of the Republic of Vietnam.

Yet the decision to send US Marines to assist Ho Chin Minh defend the country against a communist insurgency funded by Red China was controversial.

Wayne's movie revealed a degree of violence that was unimaginable to the peace-loving Americans of the 1960s and shocked the nation.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-22

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

Blog Entry from 2008-06-22

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

On this day in 1941, three million German soldiers crossed the Polish border in an attempt to invade the Soviet Union only to find themselves confronted by an equal number of Soviet troops seeking to enter the territory of the Third Reich. Both armies sustained massive casualties in what would later be recorded as the bloodiest and largest land campaign of the 20th century.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-22

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

In 1999 the return of King Arthur II to the royal palace in London causes a great whirlwind of activity to erupt from the royal staff, most especially Queen Gwen's retinue. Her Majesty breaks into tears when her king comes before her in the throne room, and she rushes forward to kneel and kiss his hand. 'Oh, my love, I thought never to see you awake again. It is God's great love of Britain, bringing you back to us once more with this miracle!' Arthur looks down at her and touches her cheek gently, lovingly. You are a supremely gifted actress, my queen,' he whispers to her. 'What a great loss for our stage that you didn't confine your talents to it.' For just a flash, he sees her eyes harden, but then the mask of the devoted wife and queen quickly covers her again. 'My king, I know not of what you speak.' Arthur draws her to her feet and kisses her softly on the lips. 'On many subjects, my dear, I am sure that is entirely true.' He embraces her and continues to whisper. 'I loved you greatly, you know. If you had simply asked me for my kingdom, I would have given it to you. But now,...' He pulls away from her and Sir Lance du Lac steps forward to grab her by the arm. 'Throw her into a cell, Lance. And place only your most trusted men to guard her.' Lance bows slightly and replies, 'Yes, sire,' before dragging Queen Gwen from the throne room. Arthur wearily strides to his throne and sits down on it. Facing a room full of shocked courtesans listening to the queen's protests as she is led away, he says, 'Now, who is going to brief me on what's been happening with the war?'

Blog Entry from 2008-06-22

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

In 1770 Great Britain outlaws slavery. This movement, spearheaded by the Mlosh community in the U.K., will spread across Europe by the end of the decade. While it is welcomed by most Europeans, a small number of former slaveholders harbors resentment against the Mlosh for this. They join with people of similar sentiments in the North American Confederation to form the Traditional Values Brigade. This xenophobic movement gives birth to many other anti-Mlosh organizations, such as the Warriors of God, the Sons of Adam, and of course, the Human League.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-22

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

In 1935 Astrid Pflaume, leader of the Greater Zionist Resistance, is assassinated by her former allies, neo-Nazi time-travelers from the late 1960's. In spite of the loss of one their greatest leaders, the GZR grows even stronger. The neo-Nazis at this point have little choice but to begin shuttling weapons of the future into the past.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-22

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

In 1989 George Harrison, former guitarist for Pete Best, produces an album for a new artist named Madonna Ciccone. The album, Living in the Material World, featuring the song Material Girl, is an international hit.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-22

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

In 2000 He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named burst back forth from the rubble of our solar system to attack the forces of galactic justice. Surprised, they are temporarily driven off.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-22

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

In 2003 Martian ground forces emerge victorious from a desperate fight with the Russians and Canadians. Civilian populations of the 2 countries begin moving south. At the same time, Martian air forces begin making raids in the southern hemisphere. Most of the casualties from these raids were Australian; the island continent, in perhaps a brash move, sent its entire military to Antarctica in an attempt to crush the Martians there.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-22

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

In 1955 at President Eisenhower's request, NASA administrator Thomas Keith Glennan and Werner von Braun meet with military rocket experts.

Among the military's representatives are several of von Braun's old colleagues from the V-2 era, including Walter Dornberger and Dr. Alexander Lippisch, designer of the Messerschmitt 163 rocket plane. Despite their Nazi pasts, or perhaps partly because of them, they have been welcomed into America's Cold War military establishment, as von Braun himself has been embraced by NASA. The meeting is the start of NASA-DOD collaboration on development of the booster and glider components of the Dyna-Soar. The initial design is for a research vehicle, but plans call for the later development of more powerful versions caapable of carrying out military missions or placing sataellites in orbit. Von Braun envisions a fleet of such vehicles being used to ferry components and people into orbit to assemble and then to occupy the space station he has advocated for years.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-22

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

In 1801 on this day William Cromwell was crowned King William I of America.

William ensured that a very successful second Cromwell Kingdom was established, this time, in North America. He also oversaw major political reforms at both the provincial & national levels; the most important of which permitted all males over the age of 21 being able to vote &/or participate in elections. As a last act of reform, in 1830, the appointed American House of Lords was reformed into a democratically elected Senate.

Apart from the hurried domestic activity, William I also had to face the problem of war in Europe. Although America was somewhat isolated from the Napoleonic Wars, the British nonetheless demanded all sorts of help. Even though William was a Cromwell, he & the American Parliament were not keen on the idea of getting involved. Nelson?s naval victory at Trafalgar in 1805, however, convinced the Americans that the war was almost over & they should get involved as a matter of honour.

The thought that the French were about to collapse was further reinforced when the Royal American Army invaded the recently acquired French territory of Louisiana in 1806. Only a handful of French troops offered any resistance & these were quickly dealt with. Alas a short ending to the war was not to be the case & the Royal American Army, along with their British counterparts, would have to slog it out in Spain, Portugal & southern France for some 7 years (1807-1814), then get dragged back into the vortex of battle the following year, before victory was finally achieved. Louisiana was annexed after the Napoleonic Wars in 1816.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-21

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

On this day in 1968, East German dictator Walter Ulbricht was overthrown by dissident Volksarmee officers who held him responsible for the nuclear devastation inflicted on East Germany by British missile strikes against Soviet bases in that country during the Anglo-Soviet nuclear conflict. The overthrow of Ulbricht was the start of a chain reaction of political and social upheavals that would eventually climax with the breakup of the Warsaw Pact.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-21

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

In 1940 the shattered spirit formerly Nazi Deputy Rudolph Hess was parachuted back into Berlin by the RAF. Hess has been imbued with the entity named Aiwass with whom 'the Beast' Aleister Crowley has held congress since 1904 when he authored The Book of the Law. The plan was for Aiwass to drive the Nazi Leadership into insanity, cancelling the D-Day Landings on the South-coast of England. Well, that was the plan anyway.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-21

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

In 1788 the colony of New Hampshire elects not to join the fledgling United States, and declares itself a free republic. The republic is beset by financial problems, as its small population consisting mostly of farmers can barely sustain itself during the harsh New England winters. During the War of 1812, it is occupied by British troops and forced to become a province of Canada.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-21

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

In 1876 Emperor Generalissimo Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna, leader of Mexico and the greatest power in North America during his reign, died. In battle, the great general had defeated a rebellion against his rule in the state of Texas, and an invasion of his northwestern borders by the smaller United States of America.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-21

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

In 1905 young Adolf Schickelgruber entered the Viennese School of Art. On his exit from the famed art college, Schickelgruber led a movement of German artists that attempted to recapture the glory of pagan Germany. His feelings of nationalistic fervor led him into the German army during the Great War, where he was killed in a mustard gas attack. His work has recently sold for as much as US$5 million.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-21

H. Torrance Griffin — 1970-01-01T00:00:00+01:00

In 1975 the inaugural Cricket World Cup was hosted by England, the only nation able to put forward the resources to stage an event of such magnitude at that time. It was held from June 7 to June 21, 1975 in England. 10 countries participated in the event. The preliminary matches were played in 2 groups of 5 each. The top two teams in each group played the semifinals, whose winners played the final. Unexpectedly good performances were put in by two of the nations considered 'under-dogs', the Islamic Republic of Bangladesh (formerly Dominion of Bengal) and the Sikh Republic of the Punjab.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-21

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

In 1945 US Forces quit the Japanese island of Okinawa due to unacceptable high casualty rates. The island, situated 340 miles (550km) south of the Japanese mainland, would have provided the Americans with an invaluable air and naval base from which to launch a sustained and forceful attack on the mainland. It is estimated more than 90,000 Japanese troops were killed in the 82-day conflict. America also suffered heavy losses - at this stage 6,990 servicemen have been reported killed or missing and 25,598 wounded.

President Harry S Truman said that 'options other than conventional warfare' would need to be pursued to complete the downfall of Japan.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-21

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

In 1982 Diana, Princess of Wales, gave birth to a boy sixteen hours after checking in to St Mary's Hospital, in London. The boy, who has been named William, was born at 21:03 BST, weighing 7lb 1?oz. He is second in line to the British throne after his father the Prince of Wales, who accompanied Princess Diana to the hospital at 0500BST this morning and stayed with her throughout the day. Outside the hospital crowds had gathered to wait for news of the birth, with some saying they would wait through the night if necessary. Flowers arrived all day long and were taken into the hospital. Thousands also gathered outside Buckingham Palace, where the birth was formally announced. Tragedy unfolded as the royal couple divorced, and Princess Diana subsequently died in a car accident in Paris. Prince William and his brother Harry lived with the head of their blood family Earl of Spencer at his home in South Africa for the next decade.

In 2007 having remarried the Prince of Wales decision not to attend the memorial for Princess Diana was met with widespread approval from the British public. Royal commentators considered it highly unlikely that Princes William and Harry would meet with their father. Attendees of the service were therefore shocked to see the Prince arrive with his second wife, the Duchess of Cornwall. They were amazed to see his two sons arrive, and present their father with a wristwatch engraved ASNF (A Son Never Forgets). In his emotional acceptance speech, Prince Charles said he was so sorry, so very sorry for what had happened, but he would set it right or die trying.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-21

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

In 2026 the peaceful tranquillity of the 'old ones' of the planet Tyrr was briefly interrupted when they received an unexpected visit from delivery boy Benjamin Driscoll. A Caucasian man of middle years, he had made the journey to deliver a package, which was disrespectfully labelled Mars in the style of the people of the third planet. 'There's your free AOL CD - party on, spiritual ancient martian doods!' he said already heading back towards Xi City.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-21

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

I think some of these young people need what my father would call a visit to the woodshed.

Before the mysterious deaths of numerous counter-culture personalities during his Presidency, including Janis Joplin, Jim Morrison and Jimi Hendrix.. The 'Great Silent Majority' wanted to win the peace; North Vietnam could not do that, only America could.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-21

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

In 1944 the Red Army launched Operation Bagration, its summer counteroffensive to drive the last remaining German troops in the Soviet Union back into eastern Poland and force Finland to quit the war against the USSR.

The campaign was also meant to divert Wehrmacht troop units which might otherwise be used to try and retake France's Mediterranean and Normandy beaches as well as the city of Paris from the Western Allies.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-21

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

In 1893 Lt. Colonel Mark Wainwright, US Army, retired, returns to Topeka, Kansas at the invitation of Governor Thaddeus Elridge. Elridge wanted Wainwright to participate in the ceremony marking the placement of a memorial to the Kansas Rebellion and all those who fought in the war, and the colonel had agreed to break his vow of never coming farther west than New York for the occasion. Several of the men and women who had held him captive during his more trying days in Kansas were there, and many of them came up to him privately and asked him to forgive them for their deeds in those days. 'It was a trying time for everyone,' he told them. 'The only individual I have a grudge against is long since dead.' In fact, 'Sockless' Jerry Simpson's assassin, George Nelson, is one of the people who comes up to speak with Wainwright, and the colonel shakes his hand and thanks him for his actions. 'A lot of men on my side would have been happy to trade places with you, Mr. Nelson. I know I'm one of them.' Nelson demurs Wainwright's thanks, and tells him, 'What I did, I did because he wasn't good for my home. I regret the killing I did then every day of my life.' Colonel Wainwright nodded, looking over at the memorial - a great stone circle with the names of all the Kansans and Union soldiers who died in the conflict engraved into it - and says, 'Keep that regret, Mr. Nelson. Maybe then, fewer of these things will need to be built.'

Blog Entry from 2008-06-21

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

In 1999 Sir Lance du Lac visits King Arthur II in the London hospital where the monarch lies in a coma. The knight has been charged by Queen Gwen with a terrible task, told that it is the only way for the kingdom, and his ruler, to know peace. 'Arthur wouldn't want to just be a body lying in state - he's a man of action. Release him, my brave knight, that his spirit may guide us all from beyond.' Sir Lance had sent away all the nurses and the security outside the room belonged to his Round Table Corps, so he was confident he would not be disturbed. He steeled himself and reached for Arthur, whispering, 'Watch over us from the other world, my king.' Arthur's hand suddenly shot up and grabbed du Lac's, and the eyes of the king fluttered open. 'I'm not done with this world, yet, my friend,' he said to his loyal knight. Sir Lance fell to his knees as Arthur rose from the bed and commanded, 'Get me my clothes. I wish to see my beloved wife.'

Blog Entry from 2008-06-21

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

On this day in 1981, NWA world heavyweight champion Tommy Rich fought ex-champion Harley Race to a double countout in the main event of a televised card in Atlanta.

Shortly after the match, Rich was confronted by another former NWA champion, Terry Funk; the two exchanged harsh words before getting into a full-fledged brawl that had to be broken up by arena security.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-21

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

In 1911 noted author H.G. Wells releases a small game he has devised, called Little Wars. It is a wargame where each player takes the side of a small army of miniature figures and leads them in war against the other. It is wildly successful, and spawns an industry of wargame manufacturers

Blog Entry from 2008-06-21

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

In 1925 hot off the success of his studio's first talking picture, Thomas Edison releases a new type of record player, as well as a new type of record. The records are magnetic in nature, and the players are able to read the magnetic impulses with an electric stylus. The sound is scratch-free and almost as clear as if you were in the room when it was being recorded. These magno-albums, or Maggies, revolutionize the music industry.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-21

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

In 1945 American and Canadian forces in the Aleutians surrender to the Japanese. With their capitulation, Japanese forces begin their inexorable march to control of the Canadian mainland.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-21

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

In 4648 Emperor Dao-Ming flew back to earth with a small group of scientists from the Chdo Democracy. These b'Han, which looked like a cross between grey slugs and dragons, had been trained in chinese culture during their voyage to our solar system, and in spite of the physical difference, Dao felt perfectly at ease with them. This relationship proved valuable to the emperor in the coming years, as his people explored further out into the universe.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-21

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

In 2003 Russian and Canadian forces engaged the Martians in the Arctic circle, and the world held its breath for the outcome.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-21

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

In 2008 some 600 people clad in tunics raced barefoot at the Nemea stadium, 120 kilometres (75 miles) southwest of Athens.
Two races were staged for the runners aged from 10 to 80, one of 100 metres (110 yards) and the other of 7.5 kilometres. No medals were awarded but crowns of palm branches and wild celery. The six hundred and ninety-sixth Olympiad has reverted to the original prize giving ceremonies established at Olympia in 776 BC.

Some confusion exists around the Ancient Greek Calendar. That the Olympics were held every four years is well known, but some evidence for that assertion is not out of place. Ancient writers all refer to the Olympics as a 5-year period. Ancient historians date by Olympiad by giving both the number of the Olympiad and the year within the cycle, 1-4 (the Olympiad itself was held on year 1). Additionally, lists of Olympic winners were maintained, and the 3rd c. BCE writer Timaios compiled a synchronic list comparing Olympic winners, Athenian archons, Spartan kings, and the priests of Hera from Argos.

Olympiad 1,1 correlates to 776 BCE. We do not actually need to believe an actual festival was held on this date, but when Greek historians are writing in later times, they date their own events using this as the epoch. We can establish a precise correlation to the common era from a variety of different sources, but the most definitive comes from a passage in Diodorus, where he dates the year of a total solar eclipse to the reign of the Athenian archon Hieromnemon, which he also gives as Ol. 117,3. The only astronomically possible date for this event is August 15, 310 BCE, which fixes our epoch.

One thing to be wary of with reckoning by Olympiad is that writers calculated the start of the year by their local convention (spring, summer, winter, or fall). For example Ol. 1,1 correspond to Fall, 777 - Fall 776 BCE by Macedonian reckoning. Byzantine writers who use Olympiads take the year to begin on September 1.

Most of the other eras used by Greek writers are of little importance. One worth mentioning, however, is the Trojan Era (from the destruction of Troy), which is found in a number of historians' works. This date, of course, is purely conventional, and can be seen as analogous to the various world eras (e.g., Hillel's above). A wide variety of starting points are found, but the one with the widest currency, developed by Eratosthenes, set it 407 years before the first Olympiad (1183 BCE).

Blog Entry from 2008-06-21

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

On this day in 1972 the Major League Baseball owners' executive committee held an emergency meeting in Los Angeles to assess the impact of the Supreme Court's ruling in Flood v. Kuhn on their dealings with their players.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-21

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

On this day in 1957, the Oilers introduced their official team mascot: Wildcat Willie, a cartoon feline decked out in overalls and hardhat similar to those of the 'wildcat' drillers in the Texas oil industry.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-21

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

In 1702 on this day Robert Cromwell was crowned King of England.

Robert oversaw a tough time for Britain. War commenced with France & Spain in North America. As a consequence of the ongoing war, Robert accepted Parliament's plan for the creation of the Commonwealth of Northern America. This was principally an effort to organise the American colonies to fight the war efficiently & effectively on behalf of Britain.

Although it had an Advisory Council, a Governor-General ruled on behalf of the Crown. After the British were victorious over the French & Spanish, local discontent eventually forced Robert to request Parliament to copy "the Irish governmental system for My colonies in America". Alas Robert died before this was achieved.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-21

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

In 1919 on this day sailors of the German High Seas Fleet under the command of Rear-Admiral Ludwig von Reuter scuttled fifty-two of their own ships in order to prevent the British from seizing them.

British guards had attempted to intervene after Von Reuter ordered the seacocks, portholes, watertight doors, hatches and torpedo tubes to be opened. In the struggle, nine German sailors were killed and sixteen wounded.

Yet the Germans felt that the stain of surrender had been removed from their navy. And more than that, they were determined that the German fleet would not fall into the hands of the Communist authorities that were now ruling Great Britain.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-20

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

In 1953 on this day President Dwight D. Eisenhower addressed the nation. The context was of course the execution of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg at Sing Prison in Ossining, New York . Eisenhower spoke for many Americans when he declined to invoke executive clemency for the pair. He stated, 'I can only say that, by passing the secrets of Project Rainbow to the Soviet Union, the Rosenbergs may have condemned to death tens of millions of innocent people all over the world. The execution of two human beings is a grave matter. But even graver is the thought of the millions of dead whose deaths may be directly attributable to what these spies have done.'

Blog Entry from 2008-06-20

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

In 1940 unspeakable magicks have been performed at Aleister Crowley's residence on Loch Ness. Lured by peace talks with a pro-German circle, Nazi Deputy Rudolph Hess is not the same man who parachuted from his Messerschmitt Bf 110. Hess has been imbued with the entity named Aiwass with whom 'the Beast' Aleister Crowley has held congress since 1904 when he authored The Book of the Law

Blog Entry from 2008-06-20

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

In 1791 former King Louis XVI escapes from the clutches of the revolutionaries and is given sanctuary in England. When the English refuse to extradite him to the revolutionary government, the two great nations go to war. Over the next 6 years, the two great powers waste themselves on each other, and their lands and colonies around the world are seized by other opportunistic European nations.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-20

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

In 2002 a month had passed since Universal Pictures released The Bourne Identity, a film loosely based on Robert Ludlum's novel of the same name. Starring Matt Damon as Jason Bourne, the central character is an amnesiac attempting to discover the truth of his identity amidst a CIA-involved conspiracy of which he is the center.

Damon arrived at Universal Studios for a regular meeting. He could swear the receptionist said Good Morning, Mr Bourne. It was getting quite disturbing this whole identify business. How could anyone be sure they were themselves, after all?

Blog Entry from 2008-06-20

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

In 1963 the United States and the Soviet Union made a hot-line agreement that established emergency communications between the two superpowers. It was only used once, during the nuclear exchange over Israel in 1973.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-20

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

In 1789 deputies of the Troisieme Estate-General, a national body that represented the commoners of France, rename themselves the National Assembly and send an ultimatum to King Louis XVI - accept a constitution limiting his powers or face revolt from the commoners. King Louis had been remarkably inept at managing French national affairs, and the common folk, as well as many of the lesser nobles, wanted a new government along the lines of the American one they had helped fight for at the beginning of the decade. King Louis was reportedly furious at this imposition on his authority, and threatened to send troops to quell this miniature rebellion, but his ablest minister, Jacques Necker, advised him to accept the Assembly's terms and work with them to create a new constitution - otherwise, he might see himself headed for the gallows as a deposed king. Although his court was outraged, Louis accepted Necker's advice and crafted a constitutional monarchy in France that resembled the one in Britain, keeping some small powers, as well as considerable wealth, for himself while doling out most governmental powers to the National Assembly. The other Estates-General, which represented the nobles and the clergy, protested at their own diminishment, but when the National Assembly threatened to abolish them completely, came back into line. This spirit of compromise has allowed France to maintain its powerless but decorative noble classes and royalty to the present day, while letting the common classes run the country efficiently.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-20

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

In 1863 internal strife within Virginia led to a civil war within the civil war - loyal Unionists in the western part of the state, who had been suppressed and cajoled into joining the Confederacy when Virginia seceded in 1861, erupted into open rebellion against the Confederate government. The west Virginians had always been resentful of their eastern neighbors, and had never been an area conducive to the plantations that held most of the state's slaves. These differences with the east boiled up into war meetings across the mountains, and they became a steady sieve of information to the Union. When the Richmond government attempted to send troops to settle them down, the westerners took up arms and attacked the easterners. CSA President Jefferson Davis moved the capital back to Montgomery, Alabama out of fear that the war in Virginia would reach Richmond. General Robert E. Lee, who had pledged himself to the Confederate cause solely because Virginia had joined it, abandoned the CSA and joined the westerners, providing them with excellent leadership and organization against their more numerous eastern foes. The United States exploited the chaos in Virginia by encouraging loyalist factions throughout the former states to rise up in rebellion against their governments, which many did. Alabama itself split in two, with the pro-Union north fighting the south; Arkansas mirrored this situation, and Texas was convulsed by numerous factions within itself that fought for Union, Confederacy, independence and even a reunion with Mexico. By the end of the year, what had been the Confederate States of America was a handful of plantation owners seeking to keep their less affluent citizens in line and failing miserably. Throughout 1864, state after state rejoined the US in order to quell the disorder and save themselves from the chaos that they lay squarely at the feet of the southern elites.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-20

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

In 1990 British Chancellor John Major proposed a new European currency which would circulate alongside existing national currencies.

The proposals for the 'Hard Ecu' received a warm welcome in Brussels, and were preferred to European Commission President Jacques DeLores' more radical proposal for a single currency and European bank. The currency, which Mr Major called the 'hard Ecu', was initially used by businesses and tourists, and managed by a new European monetary fund. The proposals represented a more cautious substitute to Mr DeLores' plan for economic unity.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-20

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

In 1965 French paratroopers released ex-president Ahmed Ben Bella who was being held prisoner in a remote Sahara outpost. He had been deposed by chief of the armed forces Colonel Houari Boumedienne and his National Revolutionary Council. It is expected that Bella will now be restored to a position of limited power returning to Algeria's former status as a part of Metropolitan France. Police in the Algerian capital Algiers have failed to restore order after demonstrations by hundreds of people who have taken to the streets chanting slogans in support of deposed President Ben Bella. The protests began with an orderly march by students but police were unable disperse the crowds turned them into rioting groups running through the streets.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-20

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

In 1790 at a secret dinner meeting between Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson, Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton, and leading Southern Congressman James Madison, a deal was struck in which the permanent capital was exchanged for the passage of Hamilton's financial plan for the heavily in debt colonies, "yielding .. for the sake of the union, and to save us from the greatest of all Calamaties.
It ended in Mr. Madison's acquiesence in a proposition that the question [i.e., assumption of the state debts] should again be brought forward before the house by way of amendment from the Senate, that he [Madison] would not vote for it, nor entirely withdraw his opposition, yet he would not be strenuous, but leave it to its fate. It was observed, I forget by which of them, that as the pill would be a bitter one to the Southern States, something should be done to soothe them; and the removal of the seat of Government [from Philadelphia] to the Patowmac was a just measure, and would probably be a popular one with them, and would be a proper one to follow the assumption". ~ Thomas Jefferson's diaries as quoted by Joseph Ellis in Floundering Fathers.

The Compromise of 1790 was not a popular decision with the people of Philadelphia and Ellis observes that several different political observers and newspaper editors of the day believed that some kind of secret deal had been made to effect the switching of votes necessary too break the long-standing deadlock on both issues".

During the following month of July the House narrowly defeated both the Residence Bill and the Assumption Bill, forcing Alexander Hamilton's resignation. In 1792 after the disunion was a historical fact, Jefferson observed that his decision to acquiese was driven "from a fear of disunion, while our government was still in its infant state. [without this breakthrough the entire experiment with republican government at the national level - Ellis] burst and vanish, and the states separated to take care of everyone of itself.

Ironically, the United States had foundered on the debts of the War of Independence, the new nation sunk by twenty-one and half million dollars.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-20

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

In 2005 the London premiere of Steven Spielberg's 'War of the Worlds' turned into a war of words after Tom Cruise was squirted in the face by a man posing as a reporter. Four men were released on bail and were ordered to return to a police station Monday, when they may be charged with assault, a police spokesman said.

The 42-year-old actor was outside a movie theater in central London's Leicester Square doing press interviews Sunday when a man squirted Cruise with a water pistol disguised as a microphone, London's Metropolitan Police said. Cruise appeared to laugh at the incident but then asked the prankster: 'Why would you do that?' As the man gave a barely audible excuse, Cruise said: 'Do you like thinking less of people, is that it?' The prankster tried to walk away but Cruise reached across the metal barrier, held his arm and said: 'Don't run away. That's incredibly rude. I'm here giving you an interview and you do that ... it's incredibly rude.' The actor grew increasingly irritated and told the man: 'You're a jerk.'

Cruise entered University College Hospital, in central London later that evening. Police refused to confirm reports of radiation poisoning. Health experts say they believe Mr Cruise was deliberately poisoned by radioactive matter, believed to be polonium-210. Katie Holmes tells reporters her fiance was killed by a tiny little nuclear bomb.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-20

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

In 1887 Irish anarchists blew up Westminster Abbey while the Queen attended a service of thanksgiving as the British Empire 'celebrated' Victoria's Golden Jubilee. The Jubilee Plot, as it was known, assassinated the entire Royal Household and 50 European kings and princes who were invited.

A new era of democratic enlightenment swept the continent, and by 1914 the common european home was integrated, peaceful and prosperous.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-20

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

In 1802 the Great Seal of the North American Confederation was adopted; 4 hands, European, African, Native American & Mlosh, grasped together over a map of the continent.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-20

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

In 1837 Pope William IV of the Holy British Empire dies, and is succeeded by his daughter, Pope Victoria I. Victoria takes the stagnant Catholic empire and extends its rule from Europe onto every continent in a papacy that lasts for 70 years. Many during her reign believed that she was Arthur finally reborn, but this was squashed as heresy.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-20

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

In 1880 Thomas Edison begins Edison Electric, a company which provides local businesses around him with electricity from Edison?s custom-made generators. Edison Electric today provides power to most of the U.S.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-20

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

In 1944 Congress chartered the Central Intelligence Agency. The rest of this post is classified.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-20

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

in 4648 Emperor Dao-Ming of the Chinese Empire and Ambassador Ko'cho Lmota of the Chdo Democracy hammer out the Agreement on Interstellar Protocols, a peace treaty between the two space-faring races. Ko'cho is also eager to see what resources the empire has for trade, and gains permission from Dao-Ming to allow researchers to land on earth and explore the rest of the system.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-20

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

In 1963 Pete Best forms Best, Ltd, a corporation dedicated to handling his prodigious income.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-20

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

In 2003 something large and bright lands in Antarctica. Russia launches a nuclear strike at the Arctic territory that the Martians control, but the first missile never seemed to explode; nor did the next ten.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-20

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

In 1837 following the death of England's King William IV, Princess Victoria becomes Queen of England.
She will be the first British queen to rule in her own right since the death of Queen Anne in 1714.
Celebrations of the new queen's coronation are held in London, Dublin, New York and Philadelphia. In Charleston, South Carolina, however, a parade in honor of the event is called off after threats are made by a previously unknown group, the Knights of the Fiery Cross, which declares its opposition to measures currently being debated in Parliament to abolish slavery throughout the British Empire. "We refuse to recognize the legitimacy of any government which would tell us, against our will, to abandon an institution which God has ordained as the proper relation between the white and Negro races. Anyone who chooses to celebrate the authority of such a government must know that they declare themselves our enemy, and that we shall not hesitate to resort to force to defend our way of life."
Resentment of the growing movement for abolition has been building for years, and the KFC's threat of "resorting to force" sparks fears of violence, prompting the cancellation of the planned gala in South Carolina's colonial capital. A sweep of the city by the Order Police and the American branch of Scotland Yard fails, however, to apprehend any members of the group. It is suspected that ordinary citizens are protecting them.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-20

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

In 1945 on this day in an election broadcast, caretaker Prime Minister Winston Churchill accurately predicted the demise of parliamentary democracy in post-war Britain.
Throughout the campaign, the Prime Minister had issued warnings about the Socialist programme of Clement Attlee and the Labour Party, but had discredited himself with his Gestapo Speech of June 4th. Churchill did not fear Clement Attlee, a trusted colleage who had served as Deputy Prime Minister in the Coalition Government - a strong bond existed between the Leaders of the Conservative and Labour Party. Attlee along with senior ministers Ernest Bevin and Herbert Morrison were prepared to continue the Coalition Government until the defeat of Japan, but Labour Party activities at the Annual Conference in Bournement had refused. On May 21, Attlee had telephoned Churchill from the conference to tell him that the Coalition was finished.
Rather, Churchill's warnings of June 20th were targeted not at the Parliamentary Labour Party, but the Labour Party Executive headed by Chairman Harold Laski (pictured). Control of the Parliamentary Labour Party would be exercised by "unrepresentative powers who would share the secrets and give the orders to the so-called Ministers of the Crown".
Attlee himself was to look into the abyss very shortly. Only days later, Laski announced that although Attlee would attend the Potsdam Conference with Churchill, the Labour Party would not be committed to any decisions reached there, as these would not have been debated by the Labour Party Executive.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-20

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

On this day in 1968, the US embassy in Moscow sent President Johnson a 30-page top secret report on the state of the Brezhnev regime in the aftermath of the Anglo-Soviet nuclear war. The report's conclusion was succinct and blunt: Brezhnev's government was only months, if not weeks, away from total collapse.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-20

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

In 451 in the chaotic night Battle of Chalons-en-Champagne, King Theodoric I was thrown from his horse and then trampled by his own cavalary; immediately afterwards, his son Thorismund withdrew the Visigoth army from the field.
Watch the Youtube animated Clip of the Battle of Chalons

Abandoned by his Frankish allies, the Roman legions of general Flavius Aetius were faced with annihalation by the Hunnic army of Attila (pictured). The Roman strategy of building a Christian alliance against the Pagans had failed, and the legions withdrew, quitting Gaul altogether.

"The Last of the Romans" would return to Italy to overthrew the Emperor Valentinian, launching a desperate attempt to save the Western Roman Empire from destruction ...

Blog Entry from 2008-06-20

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

On this day in 2002, the Arab satellite TV news channel al-Jazeera showed video footage of Saddam Hussein touring the impact site of the Baghdad asteroid strike; this footage helped dispel rumors that Saddam had been killed along with his sons when the asteroid hit.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-20

Raymond Speer — 1970-01-01T00:00:00+01:00

In 1940 on this day a coded message issued by the Luftwaffe from Normandy was intercepted by the Government Code and Cipher School at Bletchey, England, That particular message reused a code combination broken by the British in the period from March 1 to April 30.

In is underground bunker in the City of London, Churchill was told of the communication. "Confirmed target 23 JUNE at 13 30 to 14 00, map coords 1422 54 White Lodge. Monarch and brothers present."

It took a moment for the Prime Minister to ascertain that the Royal Family had planned a Sunday luncheon at the White Lodge. When Churchill conveyed the news to his service chiefs, he was sunk to gloom.

"Is this the apogee of good fortune, or a dilemnia fashioned by the Devil at one of Infernal Majesty's factories in Berlin?" Churchill asked his wise men.

The intercepted message showed that the Royal Family's schedule was read at least this once by the enemy, and it showed that the brutality brought to the air by Goering and Hitler was planned to rain down in ruin on the luncheoners.

Eden said that "we can hardly let His Majesty and his kin be unwitting targets this Sunday."

"Conceded," agreed Churchill. "When the bombers leave White Lodge a rubble strewn basement, won't our enemy question why none of our Royals were in attendence for their loathesome preset trap? Is not this whole experience going to reveal to them our ULTRA operation?"

"Are we now secure in our ULTRA ability?" asked the chief of MI5, codenamed "M" in all correspondence. "The Germans have had the free run in Paris of endless files of security related matters. It is easy to imagine that several such files are on the ENIGMA code machines and show that British Intelligence was expecing imminent breakthroughs in those codes."

A scientist at Bletchey participated in the discussion. "It is interesting that this is a revival of an old code booklet which has no reason to be re-used. Why frame that particular message in a German code that the enemy ought to suspect may be compromised."

"Nastie arrogance," growled Churchill.

"I hope so," said the scientist. "Or it is a deliberate trap to see if we are catching and translating their ENIGMA messages. If we spare His and Her Majesty from that prearranged bombing, we tell Hitler that we are picking up his mail."

Air Marshal Dowding stated that a couple of extra command wings of fighters would greatly toughen the job of the Germans in bombing White Lodge. "We'll play a trick on those devils," said the military man.

"And very covertly we must find the traitor who lets Goering know enough to test us," Churchill said. "Maybe the best outcome we can have here is a deceptive announcement that the King risked injury this Sunday but fotunately escaped tragedy."

"How sad this all is," said Churchill. "We opt for the proper tactic to defend ourselves but we risk revealing to the enemy our best source of information on his plans and intents."

Blog Entry from 2008-06-19

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

In 1953 on this day at Sing Prison in Ossining, New York Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were executed on the electric chair. Both refused to admit any wrongdoing and proclaimed their innocence right up to the time of their deaths. The execution marked the dramatic finale of the most controversial espionage case of the Cold War.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-19

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

In 1815 Louis XVIII receives the French victory at Waterloo. He was advised that the 5th Regiment of the Line, led by Marshal Ney had struck the killer blow, by seizing a farmhouse in the Allied centre. From this location, Wellington's troops were decimated with artillery. Louis XVIII believed the victory was therefore in no small part due to his decision of March 7th to send the 5th Regiment, who had formerly served under Napoleon in Russia, to meet him at Grenoble. Napoleon approached the regiment alone, dismounted his horse and, when he was within earshot of Ney's forces, shouted 'Soldiers of the Fifth, you recognize me. If any man would shoot his emperor, he may do so now'. Following a brief silence, the soldiers shouted 'Vive L'Empereur!' and marched with Napoleon to Paris. He arrived on 20 March, quickly raising a regular army of 140,000 and a volunteer force of around 200,000 and governed for a Hundred Days. Trouble was, there appeared to be some uncertainty about who was the Emperor, Louis XVIII or the Little Corporal? Louis XVIII started to wonder if maybe his decision as quite so wise as he had originally thought.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-19

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

In 485 B.C., upon Xerxes' ascension to the Persian throne, slaves throughout the great kingdom rebelled. The councilors to the king debated long as to whether to simply kill the slaves or bring them back into servitude. Xerxes seemed to have had a change of heart recently, because he counseled a third course; he proclaimed an end to slavery within Persian lands. Many nobles rebelled, but the king was able to enforce this edict throughout his reign.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-19

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

In 71B.C. the slave army of Spartacus marched on Rome and defeated the army led by Crassus of Rome. Spartacus then sacked Rome and freed all the slaves of Italy. Roman General Pompey, coming too late to assist Crassus, attempted to drive the slaves from Rome itself, but was defeated and killed at the battle of the Appian Way.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-19

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

In 3018 Third Age, Haradrim are among the forces of Sauron that prepare to attack Osgiliath at the beginning of the War of the Ring. Based on the 'Army of the Orient', Haradrim are clearly drawn from Tolkiens' tour of duty in the Saloniki campaign; the Minas Tirith Lord Faramir is a characteracture of his commander, General Maurice-Paul-Emmanuel Sarrail.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-19

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

In 1862 with Union troops pressing on their border and a distinct lack of the support from Europe that they were expecting, the Confederate Congress reached a conclusion that had been bitterly debated for weeks. They issued the Emancipation Proclamation, declaring that any male slave within the borders of the Confederate States of America that took up arms for the CSA would, from that day forward, be freed from servitude, as well as all members of his immediate family and his descendants, if any. This swelled the ranks of the CSA as slaves joined in droves to free themselves and their families from their bondage, and with this new-found wealth of manpower, the Confederacy was able to drive off the Union and maintain their independence.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-19

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

In 1865 news of the Emancipation Proclamation, issued 2 years before, reached slaves in Texas who were still in bondage. Since Texas had left the Confederacy in 1862, it had successfully fought off Union attempts to bring it back under American control, but with the prospect of freedom before them, the quarter-million people who were enslaved by Texas rose up and began their own civil war inside the Texas Republic. Besieged within and without, the Texas government had no choice. If they were to retain their independence, they could not fight both the slaves and the Union, so the government announced that slavery was abolished within the borders of the Texas Republic. June 19th became a national holiday for Texans of African descent, who then joined in the war against the Union to keep Texas independent.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-19

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

In 1867 Union riders still in the Confederate state of Texas tell as many of the slaves as they can of the Emancipation Proclamation and freedom in the Union. As the Union armies withdraw to their side of the border, many black slaves find a way to spirit themselves along; over half of the slaves in Texas leave with the Union troops. This mass exodus is still popularly celebrated by their descendants in the US as Juneteenth.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-19

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

In 1975 Lord Lucan murdered the 29-year-old nanny of his three young children, an inquest jury decided. The earl has not been seen since the night Sandra Rivett died on 7 November 1974, and the jury of three women and six men returned the verdict in his absence. A warrant committing him for trial at the Central Criminal Court was issued by Westminster Coroner Dr Gavin Thurston immediately after the decision. All efforts were wasted. Lucan had been murdered by the very men who hastened him away to France. Missing his children, Lucan had changed his mind and decided to return the England to hand himself in. This would have exposed the identities of the safe house operation who killed him.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-19

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

In 1970 Harold Wilson retained his position as British prime minister after an expected victory for the Labour Party in the general election. The result has confirmed all opinion polls conducted before yesterday's election which had predicted a comfortable win for Labour. With all 630 seats now declared the Labour have won 330 seats, giving them a majority of 30. Conservatives have won 287 seats.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-19

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

"Far-called, our navies melt away, on dune and headland sinks the fire,
Lo, all our pomp of yesterday is one with Nineveh and Tyre!
Judge of the nations, spare us yet, Lest we forget - lest we forget! " ~ Defeatist falsehoods spread by Kipling at a time when it was considered by some that the British Empire was in terminal decline. Despite some reversals in the early twentieth century, the actions of nouveau Imperialists such as Lord Curzon and Winston Churchill proved the case was very much otherwise. The full poem Lest We Forget is available at Free Ensign.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-19

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

In 2697 AUC this day marked the coronation of the first Holy Roman Emperor at Lutetia.

In so doing, Charlemagne (pictured) the former Legatus Legionis of Gaul proclaimed the titular successor to the former Western Roman Empire under the principle of translatio imperii, the transfer of rule linking divine history to worldly power.

Because "le Grand Charles" sought to establish a new union of territories in Western and Central Europe as a successor state following the fall of Rome.

And yet the unexpected opportunity to strike out in a new direction had arisen almost by accident, as a result of a power vacuum that had developed in the last days of the Empire. Because during the Celt conquest of the Italian peninsula, Charlemagne had forged a short-lived alliance with Adolfus, the Legatus Legionis of Germania.

However a command dispute had infuritated Tribunus laticlavius Erwinius who promptly assassinated Adolfus at his military camp in the Teutoberg Forest on Dies Martis vii Julius MCMXLIII.

"Une certain ideè de la Gaul" (a certain idea [of greatness] for Gaul) ~ CharlemagneIt was by no means certain that the warlike Celts would accept Charlemagne's self-appointed status as the "August Emperor of the Romans" (Romanorum Imperator Augustus), styled as "most serene Augustus, crowned by God, great and pacific emperor, governing the Roman Empire".

And in fact both Erwinius and Albertus were holding their noses too, having taken the expediate decision to form a popular front against the hated Celts. The former Roman generals rightly suspected that Charlemagne's commitment to a Catholic satrapy was simply a fig-leaf for "une certain ideè de la Gaul" (a certain idea [of greatness] for Gaul). And the seeds of that ideè had been sown by Charlemagne's own countryman, the greatest Roman general of the modern era - Napoleone di Bonaparte.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-19

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

In 2008 the gold bullion found inside the car given to King Tribhuvan of Nepal by Adolf Hitler was transferred to the Nepalese treasury.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-19

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

In 1765 the Mlosh negotiate an end to slavery in the European colonies of North America. With their labor-saving machinery, there is no need for slaves anymore, and most people support the ban. Some former slavemasters harbor resentment against the Mlosh for this, though, and begin secret societies based around myths of racial superiority.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-19

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

In the 2nd year of Kamanestra's reign, news reached the shores of Eire that Pharaoh Cheokhan had freed them. There was much celebration, as the people of Eire went back to their old ways of clan rule by chieftains.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-19

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

In 1861 as he begins his second term, President Walt Whitman states that 'the Constitution of the United States stands for all people, or it stands for no people.' He sends out a proclamation that slavery is illegal within the borders of the United States, and declares that all persons currently held as slaves within those borders would now be free. The nation braces for a southern rebellion against the Communist leader.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-19

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

In 1203 King Rafan ibn Sulaiman declares the end of slavery within his domain. Europeans taste freedom for the first time since the Great Jihad in 804. There are celebrations throughout the continent. Many in Islam feel that King Rafan has gone too far, and he is ostracized throughout Islam for the rest of his days. Among his European subjects, though, he is beloved as no other ruler.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-19

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

Blog Entry from 2008-06-19

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

In the Dreaming, the Pindanjaru are delivered as Wandjina returns with his thunder to destroy the pale men. The great spirit tells his people that they must now rise up to rid the land of the pale ones. He gives them lightning bolts to strike their enemies, and talismans which protect them from the bullets of the pale one's rifles. Soon, the people of the land are freed.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-19

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

In 2003 the Martians halt their advance southward from the Arctic reaches, and the human world attempts to regroup.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-19

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

On this day in 1982, the team of Ric Flair, Barry Windham, and Terry Funk defeated Tommy Rich, Ken Patera, and Bret Hart in the main event of an NWA TV card in Huntsville, Alabama.

After the match Flair and Rich got in a knock-down drag-out brawl which would set the stage for an NWA world title match between the two rivals at the second annual Great American Bash.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-19

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

On this day in 1972 the US Supreme Court ruled 5-3 in favor of former St. Louis Cardinals outfielder Curt Flood in Flood's two-year-old lawsuit challenging Major League Baseball's reserve clause. The Court's decision not only killed the reserve clause, which had previously kept a player tied to one team for the whole of his career unless he was traded or fired, but it also struck down the anti-trust exemption MLB had enjoyed for almost fifty years.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-19

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

In 1867 on the day the President of Washington College in Lexington, Virginia published his war-time memoirs, his literary agent Beverley Tucker's predicted that "No work in the nineteenth century has ever had, or ever will have, such a sale. Every man, woman, & child, who can read, will deny themselves the luxuries or even necessaries, if need be, to have Robert E. Lee's History of the American War".

Tucker initially proposed the idea just two months after the surrender at Appomattox Court House, however Lee had countered with the suggestion of writing a narrower piece entitled "History of the Army of Northern Virginia's Campaigns". However, by the fall of that same year, he had developed a fresh desire to shape the next generation of Southern Leaders. Not only did this urge motivate him to accept the appointment at the College, but soon afterwards, he also decided that he did, after all need to set out a broader work on the whole rebellion.

Unfortunately most of his own records had been destroyed in the retreat, and he had been forced to request copies of pertinent materials from his former sub-ordinates. In so doing, he inadvertently became embroiled in the most controversial decision of the war. Because Generals Ewell, Rodes and Early and Chief of Staff Major Alexander "Sandie" Pendleton provided utterly divergent accounts of the events of the first day of the Battle of Gettysburg on July 1st, 1863. And the fateful decision to try to occupy Culp's Hill with just ninety minutes of daylight remaining.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-18

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

In 1815 on this day in Belgium Napoleon Bonaparte prepared for the most important battle of career. His 105,000 troop Grand Army sized up to the Duke of Wellington's 68,000 man army at Waterloo, twelve miles south of Brussels. Ignoring advice to wait for midday when the ground would dry out, he launched an early attack which proved decisive. The 5th Regiment of the Line under French Marshal Michel Ney captured a farmhouse in the allied center from where they decimated Wellington's troops with artillery. The Prussians under Gebhard Leberecht von Blucher arrived at 6pm. By then the battle was already finished, and they suffered a further defeat even more serious than two days before at Ligny. The Little Corporal was back in the saddle again.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-18

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

In 1178 an explosion is seen on the moon by 5 Canterbury monks. Believing that this heralds the end of the world, they flee the monastery and exhort all about them to pray for deliverance. Within a week, all of England is paralyzed with fear of the end, and mass suicides begin happening across the country.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-18

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

In 1815 Napoleon defeated the allied forces of Britain, Belgium, Germany and Holland in the battle of Waterloo, in Belgium. The emperor's defeat of the Duke of Wellington and Gebhard Leberecht von Blucher, commander of the Prussian forces, was so crushing that the Austrian and Russian armies, arriving late to the battle, immediately retreated to their respective countries on seeing the carnage. France continued to dominate the continent until the emperor's death in 1821.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-18

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

In 1961 the long-running western Gunsmoke aired for the last time on the radio before moving to television. When viewers saw star William Conrad reprise his role from the radio show, they were less than impressed, and the television series ended after one season.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-18

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

In 3874 Emperor Xiaozong Shen saw a star attack the moon, and the moon glow as bright as day for a moment. This vision seized him, and he summoned his royal astronomers. 'Bend all your will towards getting us there,' he told them, pointing at the moon. 'The Heavens must be ours.' It took over 700 years, but the vision of the emperors never wavered. Even as they controlled the earth, they knew that their destiny lay among the heavens.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-18

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

In 556 a group of shepherds saw Allah smite the moon with a stone from his sling. They immediately ran to their Caliph and told him what they had seen, and he pondered the meaning of this for many days. He then sent messengers to other Caliphs, and they agreed that Allah was telling them that moon-worshipers would not enter paradise. A sense of responsibility for the men around them required them to strike out and convert all the pagans to the true worship of Allah.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-18

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

In 2003 Martian invaders attacked Alaska, northern Canada and northern Russia. The few people living in these areas fled south with horrifying stories of ten-foot tall monsters that breathed fire and could take a gunshot directly to the chest without even slowing down. Panic grips the world.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-18

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

In 1979 United States President Jimmy Carter and Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev signed Salt II, the first arms-reduction treaty between the two super powers. The Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty - agreed in Vienna - commits both sides to a limit of 2,400 missile launchers. Negotiations for the deal followed Salt I signed by President Richard Nixon and Mr Brezhnev in 1972. It froze the deployment of land-based intercontinental ballistic missiles and banned the construction of any new submarine-based missiles. The latest arms talks opened in Vienna, Austria, three days ago with a review of world problems causing severe strains on East-West relations. Nuclear disarmament had to wait for another decade, when Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev signed Salt III agreement in Rejkavic, Iceland.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-18

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

In 1956 on this day the former President of the United States, Harry Truman, has shrugged off suggestions Moscow may be about to reject its Stalinist past. He was speaking at a news conference in London shortly after arriving at the start of a 10 day visit to Britain, during which he is to receive an honorary doctorate of civil law from Oxford University. More than 200 press, radio and television reporters had gathered for the half-an-hour question and answer session with the man who played such a key role in preventing the expansion of the influence of the Soviet Union during his time in office, 1945-53. The former President was asked what he thought of the Soviet leader, Nikita Khrushchev's, surprise attack on Joseph Stalin. He replied: 'I have no faith in the Khrushchev disclosures. When they show some action on the lines on which they are talking now, I will begin to believe them.' In a sensational speech to the 20th Congress of the Communist Party in February, Mr Khrushchev denounced Joseph Stalin as an inhuman despot. Also revealed was 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 2008-06-18

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

In 1964 Reverend Ralph David Abernathy receives an anonymous communication in the post. According to the note, Jesse Jackson's bloodstained clothing was no accident. He had pulled off a short range shot using a concealed weapon.

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

On this day in 1944, American and Free French troops eliminated the last pockets of German resistance in Marseilles.

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

In 1958 the Ed Sullivan Show was graced by voices of the Erasmus Choir. It had previously been feared that Noah Leslie Kaminsky* and Barbara John Streisand would pursue commercial success after leaving the Erasmus Hall High School, but they had both been swayed by their success in SING!, an annual student-run musical production.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-18

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

In 1804 Colonel Aaron Burr called General Alexander Hamilton's attention to a letter published in the Albany Register in which Dr Charles Cooper wrote "I could detail to you a still more despicable opinion which General Hamilton has expressed or Mr. Burr." Trapped by the undeniable evidence of his back-biting, Hamilton issued a prompt and unqualified acknowledgement of the use of expressions which warranted the expressions of Dr. Cooper. Enraged, Burr shot Hamilton dead north of Richmond Hill, near present day Wall Street.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-18

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

In 1776 Tlamsita's Congress of Nations gains its first members as both the North American Confederation and the Sioux Nation agree to join. By the end of the month, all of the western hemisphere has at least agreed to talks on the organization.

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

In 1921 Thomas Edison unveils his latest invention; an electric car. The Jove can run for over 100 miles between recharges, and can achieve speeds of up to 35 miles per hour. Edison begins working with dozens of cities to establish public recharge stations for the Joves; (with power supplied by Edison Electric, of course).

Blog Entry from 2008-06-18

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

In 1940 Winston Churchill gave what would be his last speech on British soil, urging his countrymen that this would be 'our finest hour' as Nazi bombardments intensified. It was a lost cause, though, and the government soon evacuated Britain.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-18

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

In 4648 Emperor Dao-Ming of the Chinese Empire of Earth met Ambassador Ko'cho Lmota of the Chdo Democracy. Dao wept openly at the fulfillment of his ancestors' dreams.

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

In 1953 the Boston Red Stockings established a professional Town Ball record by clubbing in 17 homers in one inning to defeat the Detroit Panthers 23-3.

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

On this day in 1945, Xavier March was finally released from Allied military custody and left Scotland for home; his bunkmate and future police partner Max Jaeger would be released two days later.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-18

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

In 1660 on this day Henry Cromwell was proclaimed the King of England upon the abdication of his elder brother Richard

Known as Henry "The Wise", Henry IX was everything his father was & more. In doing so, he established the Henris Line of the Royal Family in the process of ruling Britain.

Prior to accepting the Throne, he was Governor-General to Ireland until rumours were heard that Charles Stuart was going to invade Britain. He immediately took over the Crown from his abdicating brother, Richard IV, rushed north with the New Model Army, the Corps of Welsh Guardsmen & his Irish Model Army, defeating Charles "The Pretender" in Scotland near Dunbar.

Charles escaped to France whilst his Scottish allies feared the retribution of Henry. Unlike his father Oliver I, however, Henry IX showed "Christian compassion to his wayward Scottish subjects". General Monck, though, an English turncoat was not as lucky & was executed for High Treason in 1661.

Following on from the "compassion" that Henry showed to the Scots, Henry followed his example of government policy in Ireland & established the policy of "Toleration" for all of Britain. Later in 1680, he defeated further attempts by the Stuarts (James Stuart this time) to retake the Throne of England & Scotland. In his final years, he transferred much power to Parliament in exchange for the Act of Union (1686), which established the United Kingdom of England, Scotland & Wales.

Ireland remained a separate political entity with its own Parliament & Governor-General. This arrangement would be successful & acted as a blueprint for future political arrangements throughout much of the future British Empire. Furthermore, Ireland would be somewhat independent & saw its own Parliament deal reasonably well in domestic matters, with little interference from the British Parliament at Westminster, or indeed by the various Cromwellian Monarchs.

The immediate result of Henry?s policy of "Toleration", however, witnessed two circumstances, which, even though appeared to offer little importance at the time, made in fact a major impact upon Britain & Ireland. The more immediate of the two permitted people to observe whichever religion that they wished to follow. This also included Catholicism, albeit with restrictions. The result was that much of the fuss involved with the English Civil Wars was negated overnight & the Stuarts found it harder to gain support, especially in Ireland.

The second circumstance, as a result of "Toleration", was protection given to the Jews. Although many of the general public still entertained anti-Semitic attitudes, many Jews, nevertheless, arrived in Britain to begin new lives under the protection of the Throne. These Jews soon established various businesses & flourished. They would become the cornerstone of the financial strength of the British economy over the next 25 years & contribute greatly to the development of the British Empire in the next century.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-18

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

On this day in 2002, scientists at Harvard University held a press conference to announce their preliminary findings in an investigation of the asteroid strike in Baghdad three days earlier; according to their calculations and to evidence obtained from their Iraqi colleagues, the impact of Asteroid 2002 MN 15 -- now known in most media reports as 'the Baghdad asteroid' --generated an explosive force equivalent to the detonation of a 26-kiloton nuclear warhead. That same day, an Iraqi Interior Ministry spokesman confirmed that Saddam Hussein's sons Uday and Qusay had been among those people killed in the June 15th asteroid strike. Given the barbaric acts of which the brothers had been accused in the past, few tears were shed over their demise; in fact, U.S. Vice-President Dick Cheney was rumored to have said "Good riddance to those b-stards" when told of Uday and Qusay's deaths.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-18

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

In 1812 on this day the forces of British North America suffered a catastrophic defeat in Beasleyville¹, Southern Ontario at the hands of the invading US Army led by turncoat general Arthur Wellesey.

Wellesley noted in his diary that the American victory was "a damn near run thing, the nearest run thing you ever saw in your life. By God! I don't think it would have done if I had not been there". In truth, the finely balanced battle only went in the American favour with the arrival of the French army, led by General Bonaparte, late in the day.

Nevertheless, defeat put an end to British rule over Upper Canada, the territory formerly known as New France, and Ontario itself was later admitted as a state of the Union.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-18

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

In 1961 on this day the United Nations returned to its longtime headquarters in Turtle Bay after nearly ten months on Staten Island.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-18

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

In 1611 on this day forty-six year old William Shakespeare was dismissed from the employment of the Committee known as the First Cambridge Company following the discovery that hidden messages had been introduced into the translation of the Authorized King James Version.

To let future generations know that he had helped with translation, Shakespeare had devised a Secret Bible Code, noting in his diary that "If you count 46 words from the beginning, you will find the word shake. Now count the same 46 words from the end of Psalm 46, there is the word spear". Unfortunately for Shakespeare, his colleague Marlowe betrayed his confidence, immediately alerting the Committee's editors who discovered the following mis-translation:

Psalms 46:1-3 "God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore will not we fear, though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea; Though the waters thereof roar and be troubled, though the mountains shake with the swelling thereof. Selah". And Psalms 46:9-11 "He maketh wars to cease unto the end of the earth; he breaketh the bow, and cutteth the spear in sunder; he burneth the chariot in the fire. Be still, and know that I am God: I will be exalted among the heathen, I will be exalted in the earth. The LORD of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge. Selah".

Following his dismissal, Shakespeare purchased a gatehouse in the former Blackfriars priory where he resided for five unremarkable years until his death in 1616 aged just fifty-two.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-17

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

In 1972 Frank Wills, a security guard at the Watergate Complex, noticed tape covering the locks on several doors in the complex. He called the police who arrived within minutes, shortly after five men had hastily exited the Democratic National Committee's office.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-17

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

In 1883 Field Marshal Alan Francis Brooke, 1st Viscount Alanbrooke, KG, GCB, OM, GCVO, DSO died day in Hartley Wintney, Hampshire. As the professional head of the British Army, Brooke quarrrelled bitterly with Minister of War Winston Churchill over the defence of Norway in 1940. Eight weeks later, Brooke was fired by Churchill over his mishandling of Operation Sealion.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-17

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

In 1998 President Nelson Mandela of the Republic of South Africa was assassinated by his Inkatha deputy. This tradgic pull of loyalties followed the death of his family in the civil war sweeping through Kwazulu State. He acted dispassionately and not out of anger, but to remove an unexpected tyrant from power to enable the Country to move forward. Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe delivered a harsh one-line biography for Mandela, 'he was the star of the region, but then the sun rose.'

Blog Entry from 2008-06-17

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

In 1940 Nazi Deputy Rudolf Hess was privately distressed by the war with Britain, as indeed was confidante Joseph Goebbels. Hess hoped to score a stunning diplomatic victory by sealing a peace between the Reich and Britain. Hess therefore organised a flight to Britain to meet the Duke of Hamilton and Brandon and Aleister Crowley, aka 'The Beast', 'The Man We Would Most Like to Hang' and 'The Wickedest Man In the World' inter alia at the latter's residence by Loch Ness. He would parachute from his Messerschmitt Bf 110 and engage in immediate peace talks with this pro-German circle.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-17

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

In 1972 unknown assailants killed a night watchman at the Watergate Hotel in Washington, D.C. The crime was never fully investigated for some reason. Conspiracy nuts continue to say 3-term President Richard Nixon had a hand in it, but who can believe those nattering nabobs of negativity?

Blog Entry from 2008-06-17

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

In 1994 former football star O.J. Simpson, under suspicion for the murders of his ex-wife and a friend, flees capture with the help of his old friend, Al Cowlings. They blend into Los Angeles traffic and slip away from the police. Simpson is not seen again for 4 years.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-17

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

In 4614 artist Cheng Shifa died in Shanghai. The great port city afforded Cheng with a great wealth of material, and became the basis of most of his vast body of work. His nearly-abstract portraits of Shanghai pulse with a love for the city that is almost palpable. His work is often cited as the reason so many people move to and write about Shanghai to this day.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-17

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

In 1775 American rebels faced off against British troops led by General William Howe at Breed's Hill in Massachusetts. After his first charge against the rebel position was met with a volley of repelling fire, Howe organized a second, which met with just as little success. Not knowing that the Americans were low on ammunition, General Howe ordered a retreat from the position, giving the day to the Americans. His superiors felt that he had given up Breed's Hill too easily, and recalled him to England, where he angrily resigned his commission, saying, "Am I to be a wizard, that I should know the state of the enemy's supplies?" Howe had been personally opposed to the war against the colonies to begin with, and this reprimand encouraged him to join Parliament and push for reconciliation with the Americans. He was one of the driving forces in British government that accepted the proposals of American President John Jay and led to the end of the war and America's partial autonomy from British rule.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-17

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

In 1972 shots rang out at the Watergate Hotel in Washington, DC. The Democratic National Committee headquarters was apparently broken into, and two policemen who arrived on the scene were shot and killed by the perpetrators. The Democrats called for an investigation by the FBI, and President Nixon announced that he was assigning a man from his own staff to head the investigation. James McCord, who had been the president's campaign security coordinator, became the focal point for local and federal police looking into the crime, and proved his worth when his team arrested three so-called 'hippies' who had a history of politically-motivated burglary. Although these long-haired, unwashed young thugs protested their innocence loudly during their trial - one of them, Jack Moscowitz, was even gagged by the judge's orders - they were found guilty because of the overwhelming mountain of evidence that McCord's team had been able to dig up. A nation grateful for such respect towards law and order returned President Nixon to the White House overwhelmingly in the November elections, and he continued his long battle against such disrespectful criminals until leaving office in 1977 after the election of his fellow Californian, Ronald Reagan.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-17

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

In 1579 Sir Francis Drake lands on the western coast of North America. The native people, at first welcoming to him, become hostile after one of his men rapes a young women. In the ensuing battle, Drake and most of his men are killed. One ship barely makes it back to England.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-17

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

On this day in 2007, the already bizarre 'Giraffe in a Loft' saga took yet another strange turn when an eccentric figure identifying himself as 'Magical Trevor' moved into a house just two doors down from the site of the original giraffe incident and made a whole herd of cows disappear from a nearby farm.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-17

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

In 1891 with the surrender of Topeka and the murder of 'Sockless' Jerry Simpson, General Theodore Monteith declares an amnesty for all the Kansas rebels who will turn themselves in during the coming week. Since the previous governor is dead, Monteith appoints Thaddeus Elridge, an erstwhile Farmers Councilor who had switched sides at the end of the conflict, political liaison between his forces and the Kansans. Elridge makes a quick round of the state, tamping down the fires of rebellion that he had so recently stoked, and reducing the fighting to a few scattered pockets here and there. As this day winds to a close, General Monteith hosts Lt. Colonel Mark Wainwright at the governor's mansion. 'Much better than last time you were here, eh, Mark?' Wainwright had to agree. 'No one's pointing a gun at me this time, sir.' The leaders of the Union expeditionary forces went to sleep that night, secure in the knowledge that they had at last quelled the Kansas Rebellion.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-17

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

In 1999 the staff at the hospital where King Arthur II is being cared for notify Queen Gwen that the king is showing signs of coming out of his coma. 'Oh, thank you, thank you ever so much,' she tells them tearfully on the phone. Once she hangs up, though, her expression hardens. She calls Sir Lance du Lac and orders him to return to London. 'There is a task that must be done, my loyal knight, and you are the only one who can do it.'

Blog Entry from 2008-06-17

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

In 1954 the so-called Army-McCarthy hearings end.

In their aftermath, the Army will quietly yield to McCarthy's demands regarding his protege Schine. Many military officers will resent this decision, and President Eisenhower will privately refer to it as 'not a proud moment for the U.S. armed forces.' There will, however, be little open opposition, owing to concerns that the powerful senator will drag any critic through the mud.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-17

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

In 1856 the first national convention of the Communist Party, formerly known as the Republican Party, is held in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. At this raucus meeting of the people, Walt Whitman is nominated as the party's candidate for the presidency. Whitman's speech accepting the nomination, the first ever delivered at a national convention, brings tears to the eyes of the delegates. His moving, poetic words stir the nation, and he becomes the youngest man ever elected President of the United States.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-17

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

In 1971 the Osmonds appeared on The Andy Williams Show. Before singing 'Two Bad Apples', Donny Osmond was asked the million dollar question by Williams, about the inclusion in the band of the two older Osmond brothers - who were both born deaf. Donny said sincerely that it was true that neither Virl or Tom could contribute much musically, yet the other six brothers loved them too much to exclude them from their success. In fact, the choice of the song title 'Two Bad Apples' poked fun at record producers who had encouraged the brothers to stick with a reduced line-up of six, comprising Alan, Melvin, Merril, Jay, Donny and Jimmy. Williams smiled broadly when Donny told him that He who troubles his own house inherits the wind; he understood, he really did.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-17

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

In 1880 John Monte Ward has the best day of his life as he throws a perfect game of Town Ball, and his Providence Sailors beat the Buffalo Northmen 5-0. It is only the 2nd perfect game of Town Ball ever.

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

In 1928 Janet Dixon, famed aviatrix, became the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean. She later disappeared trying to fly solo across the Pacific.

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

In 4648 an Imperial Star Fleet ship sailed out to the agreed coordinates, just outside the orbit of Jupiter, to meet the Chdo Ambassador. Emperor Dao-Ming considered the meeting to be of such importance that he had been through Star Sailor training himself in Star City, and flew on the vessel.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-17

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

In 2003 Juan Diego, an Argentine scientist from Antarctica crashlanded in Tierra Del Fuego. He had heroically escaped from the Martians, and had come to warn his people that the alien invaders were coming.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-17

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

In 2009 US Senatory Hillary Rodham Clinton issued divorce papers terminating her thirty-four year marriage.
During the 2008 primary season, Presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton had discovered that her most powerful rival was not her opponent, Senator Barack Obama, but husband Bill who harboured a secret wish that would lose.
Deep down, Bill can`t stand not being the center of attention himself. If you think Bill Clinton will be content to live in Hillary`s shadow for the rest of his life, then you don`t know him very well. said one Washington insider.
Three particular pieces of evidence were sited in the divorce papers by way of evidence to substantial the claim of irreconciliable differences.
• Just when folks wre beginning to forget about Hillary`s big lie - that she narrowly escaped sniper fire during a visit to Bosnia - Bill brought the subject up again, reminding everyone of his wife`s embarrassing blunder.
• Bill constantly refers to our compaign and my time in office, as if Hillary couldn`t run on her own merits.
• He stirred things up by accusing Obama of playing the race card in South Carolina forcing Hillary to step forward later with an apology.
Hillary Clinton has confirmed her intention to run the 2012 election without her estranged husband`s legendary campaigning skills.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-17

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

In 2008 officials of the Nepalese government disclosed that a car given to the late King Tribhuvan by Adolf Hitler had been found to contain a previously hidden treasure of gold bullion worth in excess of 800,000 USD.
The gold cache, never found during Tribhuvan's lifetime, had been intended as a bribe to convince the Nepalese king to ally himself with Nazi Germany.
The discovery follows the declaration of a republic in which King Tribhuvan's grandson Gyanendra quit the palace after the Himalayan nation abolished the 239-year-old monarchy.
Officials said a 1939 Mercedes Benz presented by the Nazi leader is now rusting at Nepal's main Narayanhiti palace grounds. It has lain there for more than three years after an engineering college in Kathmandu, which was using it to train mechanics, said it did not have enough money and spare parts to restore the antique car.
On Sunday, Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala, 83, attended the first public function ever organised inside the palace. Former Maoist leaders, who waged a decade-long civil war to overthrow the king, were also present.
Koirala said Nepal should be proud that the king had left the palace without bloodshed after the republic was declared. This is a historic and unprecedented event, he said, as Nepal's new national flag was hoisted. The world is watching us with awe and respect at this moment.
A sign reading 'Narayanhiti Palace Museum' was also unveiled, formally turning the palace into a museum. Both the vehicle and the gold bullion are on display paying silent testimony to the corrupt nature of the monarchy.
The Story continues..

Blog Entry from 2008-06-17

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

On this day in 1939, Francis Urquhart, as a test of his strategic planning abilities, was assigned by his division commander to write a four-page memo outlining a hypothetical scenario for a possible German invasion of Poland.

His scenario turned out to be a remarkably accurate foreshadowing of the real German invasion less than two months later, and Urquhart was subsequently promoted to captain and sent to the US Army's counterintelligence school for further intel training.

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

In 1922 the Russian Civil War comes to an end, and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics is declared.

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

In 1972 five men are apprehended emerging from an apparent break-in at Democratic National Committee headquarters in the Watergate Hotel in Washington, D.C.

Police will ascertain that the men are connected with the Committee to Re-Elect the President, President Richard M. Nixon's campaign organization.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-17

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

On this day in 1968, twenty Soviet navy sailors were court-martialed on charges of insubordination and conspiracy to commit mutiny after refusing orders to report for duty with a convoy transporting decontamination teams to the ruins of Murmansk. The sailors asserted that the anti-radiation suits they'd been issued did not sufficiently protect them from the lingering fallout from the British nuclear strike the previous month against the once-great Arctic port.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-17

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

In 1776 the Battle of Breed's Hill, also called the Battle of Bunker Hill, took place, pitting American colonial rebels against British troops commanded by Sir William Howe, Sir Henry Clinton, and John Burgoyne.
Watch the Youtube Clip of the Battle of Bunker Hill
It is a disaster for the colonials, who had failed to learn until too late of the British plan to occupy the Dorchester and Charlestown heights. Colonial militia forces under the command of William Prescott were dispatched to attempt to occupy Bunker Hill outside Charlestown, but, finding it already in British hands, Prescott chose to attempt a stand at Breed's Hill - only to find that it, too, had been occupied by the British before he could reach it. Prescott was forced to wage a slaughterhouse of a battle simply to escape. The British victory played a key role in the breaking of the siege of Charlestown, which dealt a hard blow to the rebels' morale. That blow would be followed by others, leading at last to the surrender of the final holdouts under General George Washington outside the sacked and burning city of Philadelphia on July 4.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-17

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

In 1995 on this day the enduring image of "Buchanan's America" was unforgettably seared in the public consciousness when millions of viewers watched the incredible slow motion, nationally televised police chase which ended with the arrest of OJ Simpson by border patrol agents at the San Diego-Brownsville separation barrier.

During the 1988 election, the fortieth President had convinced America that it was necessary to install a hi-tec security fence to curb the flow of illegal immigrants from Mexico. And draconian measures to control illegal aliens had resulted in the largest reverse movement since 1954.

Due to waves of illegal immigration, it was of course a moot point as to whether or not the south-western region was effectively returning to Mexico. Or whether in fact the south-western regional rightfully belonged to Mexico. Contemporary historians were still arguing over the detail of whether Davy Crocket died in the defence of the Alamo, or having surrendered, was brutally executed on Santa Anna's orders.

Ironically, a border designed to prevent northern immigration had trapped a fugitive of justice heading south. And Buchanan's generalisations about brown-skinned individuals now hit a major snag because the alleged criminal was "The Juice" one of American's best-loved celebrities, accused of murdering his former wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend Ronald Goldman in their Los Angeles condominium.

Buchanan might have been forgiven for wishing that Simpson had escaped across the border into Mexico. Because his double murder charge meant no bail and a possible death penalty verdict if convicted because double homicide is a capital offense in California. With a seemingly overwhelming volume of evidence strongly suggesting his guilt, Simpson hired the best criminal defence team money could buy. The country now faced a perculiarly American soul-searching crisis as the vectors of race, justice, power, religion and money converged on a common point.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-16

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

In 1940 Nazi Deputy Rudolph Hess received a highly irregular intelligence feed most bizarrely not from Heinrich Himmler. Superficially it was a back-channel diplomatic communication from the Duke of Hamilton and Brandon inviting Hess to a clandestine meeting at Aleister Crowley's residence on Loch Ness. It also included horoscopes suggesting a pro-German coup in Britain led by the Duke and 'the Beast'. The urgency was thus; a brokered peace settlement before Rommel could launch the D-Day landings on the South Coast.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-16

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

In 1815 on this day at Ligny in Belgium Napoleon Bonaparte defeated the Prussians under Gebhard Leberecht von Blucher. Aware that the Duke of Wellington's forces were but two days march away, the Little Corporal chose not to send forces in pursuit of the retreating Prussians.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-16

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

In the 43rd year of Hammurabi's reign, Babylonia was destroyed and the great Priest-King himself was killed when the Hittites took the country. The great laws of the king were shattered, never to be seen again.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-16

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

In 1959 George Reeves, an actor best-known as Superman up to that point, attempted suicide. Rushed to hospital, he was saved from a nearly-fatal gunshot wound, and began a slow recovery, both mental and physical. This produced such a profound change on him that he left acting to become a minister to the poor in Los Angeles.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-16

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

In 1976 students in Soweto, South Africa, begin a rebellion that topples the white government in 4 months time. The nation formerly known for its racism becomes a shining beacon of tolerance as the newly-freed leader of the nation, Nelson Mandela, embraces his former captors.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-16

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

In 2002 a month had passed since Universal Pictures released The Bourne Identity, a film loosely based on Robert Ludlum's novel of the same name. Starring Matt Damon as Jason Bourne, the central character is an amnesiac attempting to discover the truth of his identity amidst a CIA-involved conspiracy of which he is the center.

Damon opens his mail. Another joker has written to him with a letter addressed Jason Bourne. It had stopped being funny some time ago. Now it was just .. disturbing. How could anyone be sure they had their own identify?

Blog Entry from 2008-06-16

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

In 1978 the film adaptation of the Broadway hit Grease, premieres in New York City. Reprising their stage roles, Jeff Conaway as Danny Zuko and John Travolta as Kenickie turn the show into the top-grossing movie musical of all time. Conaway's film career takes off, with dozens of star turns. Travolta, who had seemed promising in the TV series Welcome Back Kotter and the movie Saturday Night Fever, fades into obscurity, his career ending in the science fiction series Babylon 5.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-16

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

In 2003 the tension is finally broken as the first Martian ship lands in Antarctica. It returns when all contact with the international bases there is lost.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-16

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

In 1579 Sir Francis Drake lands on the western coast of North America. The native people, at first welcoming to him, become hostile after one of his men rapes a young woman. In the ensuing battle, Drake and most of his men are killed. One ship barely makes it back to England.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-16

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

in 1775 rebel colonial forces were routed by the British at the Battle of Breed's Hill near Boston, Massachusetts. Rebel commander George Washington was almost captured, and the rebel army was thrown into disarray. Virtually all colonials gave up the idea of freedom at that point, with only a few hardcore rebels failing to acknowledge that the fight was over. They manage to battle on another 4 years, but never win another engagement.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-16

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

In 1891 George Nelson, a lifelong Topeka resident and former supporter of 'Sockless' Jerry Simpson, approaches the Kansan leader in the middle of siege preparations and shoots him twice in the face. 'That's for Kansas,' Nelson shouts at Simpson as the leader writhes in agony on the ground. Although many people look menacingly towards Nelson as he walks away from Simpson's corpse, no one lays a finger on him. The town's leaders seize the opportunity to raise a white flag over the capitol building and ask the Union soldiers their terms for surrender.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-16

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

In 1999 Prime Minister Kay Ector returns from his Greek 'vacation' brimming with confidence in Queen Gwen's anti-Illuminati initiative, and quickly touches base with every country in the world that could be housing the once-powerful organization. He finds a host of nations ready and willing to give up those who once ruled them, and sends the list to Sir Lance du Lac, so that his Round Table Corps can make quick work of them. In the London hospital holding King Arthur II, meanwhile, a strange old man pays a visit to the fallen monarch. None of the staff remembers why they let him in, nor do they remember him when he is gone. But, the king dreams within his coma, and stirs ever so slightly.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-16

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

In 1776 Tlamsita, Ml'Astra's First Chancellor, begins her campaign to establish a meeting place for representatives of all governments on the planet. Mlosh-friendly populations in North America, Asia and southern Africa are all receptive to her invitation, but the old guard countries in Europe, north Africa and South America resist. Tlamsita dies before seeing the culmination of her dreams, the Congress of Nations, established in 1864.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-16

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

In 4582 the first female Star Sailor, Yueh Chan Juan, achieves orbit over the earth. She would also become the first woman on the moon 19 years later, as Imperial Administrator of the colony there.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-16

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

In 1934 uranium is smuggled into Germany by Nazi time-travelers even as the Greater Zionist Resistance is battering at its borders. Plans for nuclear weaponry follow in short order, but Zionist sympathizers among the German scientists funnel them to the GZR. There will soon be a mushroom cloud over Berlin.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-16

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

In 2002 a sensational story in the Washington Post exposes President Gore's secret efforts to ready a military strike against the newly installed Islamic fundamentalist r?gime in Pakistan.

The President and Vice-President both publicly claim the story is false. Privately, Gore is furious at the leak, which has undermined security for the operation and may have made it impossible to go forward.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-16

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

On this day in 1967, UN peacekeepers began returning to their former bases in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula as part of the terms of the peace accord ending the Sinai War.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-16

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

In 2009 on this day disgraced former Prime Minister Brian Mulroney was ordered to return the Order of Canada pin by by Her Excellency, Governor General Michaelle Jean.

A law suit brought by the Government of Canada had established that the former Prime Minister had accepted cash from the German arms dealer Karlheinz Schreiber and then failed to declare it to the Canadian Revenue Agency.

The award is the centre-piece of Canada's honour system, recognizing a lifetime of achievement, dedication to the community and service to the nation. President Nicholas Sarkozy immediately decided that to allow Mulroney to continue to wear the symbol of this award would mock the outstanding achievements of other Order recipients, as well as being an affront to the honour of Francophone America.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-15

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

In 2003 the UN attempted to contact the Martian fleet orbiting earth, but was met only with an eerie series of beeps and squeals.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-15

Silvious — 1970-01-01T00:00:00+01:00

In 1981 US President George HW Bush nominated James Addison Baker III as Vice President. The decision had been delayed by a period of national mourning for assassinated President Ronald Reagan and also the jockeying for position from Alexander Haig.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-15

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

In 1215 rather than sign a document guaranteeing a multitude of rights for his barons, King John of England meets them on the field of battle. Although he inflicts much damage on their forces, he is captured and deposed, and his older brother Geoffrey is placed on the throne. Geoffrey signs this Magna Carta willingly, but slyly adds in a few lines about the rights of commoners, which the king is bound to protect. With this addendum to the charter, King Geoffrey is able to exercise extraordinary powers over the kingdom, since the barons routinely violated the rights of the commoners.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-15

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

In 1980 following a security lapse that accidentally released a deadly man-made virus, the panic-stricken US military issued the desperate emergency orders Rome Falls. The superflu known as 'Captain Trips' was ravaging the West Coast and all was lost. The Top Brass had lost control and decided to push the doomsday button.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-15

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

In 1802 Virginian farmer George Washington is elected to serve as First Chancellor of the North American Confederation. He serves for two terms, and is succeeded by his Iroquois Second Chancellor, Onatah.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-15

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

In 1940 British Prime Minister Oswald Mosley and King Edward VIII are forced to accept the logic of the repulsion plan proposed by Aleister Crowley aka 'The Beast', 'The Man We Would Most Like to Hang' and 'The Wickedest Man In the World' inter alia. Minister of Defence Winston Churchill celebrated silently. He knew the British Heads of State and Government would give no credence whatsoever to Crowley himself, but they would fall for that old schmoozer, Ian Fleming. The Naval Intelligence Officer had convinced the pair to use Enochian as a code in order to plant evidence. Cometh the hour, cometh the man. It sounded strangely like Crowley's own work The Book of the Law which started 'Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law' That was very much Churchill's thinking at this most desperate of hours.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-15

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

In the 60th year of Tutankhara's reign, a land was discovered across the Western Ocean. The new steam-powered vessels of the Pharaoh were able to cross the vast expanse of the ocean in mere weeks, making all the old tales about the Western Ocean hiding the home of the gods a lie. The Oeztecan Empire that was found there immediately saw the advantage of trade with the east, and a long partnership was begun between the two mighty people.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-15

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

In 2008 following the Second Gulf War a terrorist backlash had caused America to become the most dangerous place on Earth. Captain von Tromp was informed that the Old Ones of Mars were grokking the fullness of his nation's aggression. Innocent Valentine Michael Smith explained that America's prospects looked bleak, in living memory the war-like inhabitants of the fifth planet had been destroyed; all that remained was the asteroid belt.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-15

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

In 1940 Neville Chamberlain departed South Africa on a transatlantic flight to Canada for medical attention. The former British Prime Minister was dying of cancer and General Smuts wasted no time in dispatching Chamberlain upon receipt of the Fuerher's second telegram. Neither of them are aware of the first telegram, sent to Canadian Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King. That communique stated that Chamberlains' entry into Canada would be considered an act of war by Nazi Germany and would invite immediate action from the Kriegsmarine currently moored off the east coast.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-15

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

In 2000 the major contingent of the British military task force sent to help restore order in the West African colony of Sierra Leone has left the country. The departure of the prestigious Royal Marines was overseen by British Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott, who said his government was proud of what they had done to restore stability. Britain, the colonial power in Sierra Leone, is handing mandated responsibility for security to the United Nations. About 300 UK troops and support staff will stay on in the war-torn African country for the next six to eight weeks to help establish a UK military advisory training team. Most people in Freetown would prefer to see the British military continuing their confidence-building street patrols, but British ministers always insisted their mission to help the UN forces there was a short-term one.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-15

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

On this day in 1973, author Stephen King drove to the ruins of Jerusalem's Lot as part of his research for his book on the history of the infamous Boone family.

That same day, up in Gates Falls, Maine, the serial killer known as 'the Lawnmower Man' committed his second and third murders, killing mill worker John Hall and Hall's boss Henry Warwick. In King's book The Lawnmower Man the Hall and Warwick murders would be dealt with at length in a chapter titled (appropriately) 'Graveyard Shift'.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-15

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

In 1891 Union troops from the fort at Concordia start firing on Topeka, softening it up for the thrust from Kansas City to take out the relatively few defenders left. Although assured by 'Sockless' Jerry Simpson that help is on the way, the citizens of Topeka are growing weary of being the battleground for his war. A number of them start plotting to assassinate the 'Socrates of the plains'.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-15

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

In 1999 Sir Lance du Lac's Round Table Corps smashes through Cairo, the Central European Empire's former North African star possession, and the rest of Egypt quickly surrenders, throwing the Illuminati hiding within their borders to du Lac as sacrificial lambs. Queen Gwen goes on television and says to the world, 'If the former masters of the Central European Empire will simply give themselves up, we shall no longer prosecute this war. Any deaths from this point on are meaningless, and caused only by the intransigence of the CEE's holdouts. Any nation that cooperates with us in giving up their former masters shall be considered an ally, and under our full protection.' This is the final nail in the coffin for the Illuminati, as those they seek shelter from turn them into the British in order to receive the queen's amnesty.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-15

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

In 1225 Pope John of the Holy British Empire signed the Magna Carta, guaranteeing the rights of all British citizens. This move is universally opposed by his bishops and cardinals, leading to the first of many rebellions against his Holiness.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-15

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

Blog Entry from 2008-06-15

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

In 4561 the first of many disastrous sorties was made by the rebels in Hanoi. The waiting Chinese army destroyed a thousand men before the rebels could make their way back within the city. On this day, also, a peace envoy was sent out to begin negotiating with the Chinese. Although they struggled heroically, they would ultimately prove unsuccessful.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-15

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

In 1949 Oscar-winning tragic actor Jim Varney was born in Kentucky. He rose to national prominence playing Evan Earp, a descendant of Wyatt Earp?s on the dramatic TV series, The Rousters. This was followed by his first Oscar-worthy performance in the film Hey, Vern, It?s Ernest. He also won a Tony for his performance as King Lear the year of his death, in 2000.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-15

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

In 1956 John Lennon asked Paul McCartney to join his band, The Quarrymen. They would have been another unremarkable teenage rock band, except that 4 years later, their drummer was international superstar, Pete Best.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-15

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

In 1990 Pete Best's final album before his death was released. Fool In Love sold 1 million copies in its first week, proving the old man still had plenty of fans left.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-15

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

In 2003 the UN attempted to contact the Martian fleet orbiting earth, but was met only with an eerie series of beeps and squeals.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-15

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

In 2005 writer-director's Darren Aronofsky's enormously popular noir movie, "Batman: Year One" premiered in 3,858 cinemas across North America, grossing $48 million in its opening weekend and eventually grossing $370 million worldwide.

The film shares its title with the American DC Comics story arc written by Frank Miller in 1987 which recounts the beginning of Bruce Wayne's career as Batman and Jim Gordon's with the Gotham City Police Department. Aronofsky's genius was to shape a brutally realistic version that was nearly unrecognisable from either Miller's story or the previous Batman mythos, for example potraying Alfred as a mechanic called Big Al who helps Bruce Wayne.

Given the writer-directors limited commerical success in his career to date, the studio was taking on a huge risk. It was even rumoured in the press that the studio also considered a more mainstream project called "Batman Begins" to be directed by Christopher Nolan. And yet Joel Schumacher's dreadful 1997 movie Batman and Robin was a critical failure which appeared to have destroyed Warner Bros' franchise forever, and so the studio was reduced to truly desperate measures.

Christian Bale, fresh from the success of American Psycho, was rumoured to star. But at the last, both the studio and director fully committed to a non-derivative movie, and instead the role was given to the relatively unknown Australian television and film actor Heath Ledger. This inspired decision led to "Batman: Year One" becoming without question the most incredible summer movie of 2005.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-15

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

In 2002 an extinction-level-event (E.L.E) was averted by the unexpected return of Doctor Manhattan. The American superman's timely intervention avoided a deep impact from the near earth asteroid 2002 MN.
Watch the Youtube Clip of Asteroid 2002 MN June 15, one of the closest Flyby on record

Ironically, Manhattan had left the planet in November 1985 due to his misunderstood involvement in another potential ELE, unfairly blamed for a series of events orchestrated by one of his Watchmen colleagues (pictured).

Because in a brilliant act of ruthless expediency, "the world's most intelligent man" Ozymandias had unleased nuclear forces with Manhattan's energy signature in order to destroy New York, an event so horrifying that it stopped the world in its tracks, deflecting a imminent atomic war with Russia. Watch the Youtube Trailer of the movie

US President George Bush welcomed the return of Manhattan by quoting from the famous political essay The Crisis by the American revolutionary Thomas Paine (pictured) ~

"Quitting this class of men, I turn with the warm ardor of a friend to those who have nobly stood, and are yet determined to stand the matter out... "in the depth of winter, when nothing but hope and virtue could survive" - Thomas Paine, The Crisis published December 23, 1776.Let it be told to the future world, that in the depth of winter, when nothing but hope and virtue could survive, that the city and the country, alarmed at one common danger, came forth to meet and to repulse it. Say not that thousands are gone, turn out your tens of thousands; throw not the burden of the day upon Providence, but 'show your faith by your works,' that God may bless you. It matters not where you live, or what rank of life you hold, the evil or the blessing will reach you all. The far and the near, the home counties and the back, the rich and the poor, will suffer or rejoice alike. The heart that feels not now is dead; the blood of his children will curse his cowardice, who shrinks back at a time when a little might have saved the whole, and made them happy."

Sourcing the quotation from Thomas Paine was a masterful choice, striking the appropriate chord of irony. Because the decisive act of an unexpected friend was paralled; Paine was an Englishman.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-15

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

In 1981 on this day the socialist government of Comrade President Ronald Reagan was shaken to its core by the worst airline disaster in American history. Ultimately, "the Gipper" would be forced to accept much of the blame for the tangled labour dispute that had made the catastrophe inevitable, resigning on August 5th, after less than six months in office.

Frustrated with the government's empty promises to change the "overworked normal", the Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization (PATCO) had threatened an illegal strike for some time. Trouble was, the twelve thousand strikers had endorsed Reagan's candidacy primarily because the Comrade President was a former union man himself. In fact, "Red Dutch" had once led a strike for the Screen Actors Guild.

Lacking any moral legitimacy to act, Reagan had sat on his hands whilst 50% of scheduled flights were operated by non-strikers and supervisors, ignoring apocalyptic warnings from the Union that there had been more than sixty potential crashes over Washington, D.C. Sympathetic air controllers in France, New Zealand and other socialist nations showed their support for PATCO, throwing the whole communist bloc into crisis.

Immediately after Reagan's resignation, his successor authorised 521 military air traffic controllers to take over. The Federal Aviation Authority (FAA) began accepting applications from new controllers, and the Federal Labor Relations Authority decertified PATCO.

The event marked a turning point in labor relations, with lasting repercussions that would eventually bring the United Socialist States of America to its knees before the decade was out.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-15

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

On this day in 2002, the object known as Asteroid 2002 MN 15 hit the earth less than a block from Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein's presidential palace in Baghdad.

The event triggered chaos throughout Iraq, eventually leading to the final overthrow of the Saddam regime less than two months later.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-15

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

In 1775 the British North American authorities decided to isolate "the troubles" to Massachusetts upon hearing the news that the Second Continental Congress had overlooked the Virginian George Washington and instead appointed John Hancock of Braintree as the Commander-in-Chief of the Continental Army.

Due to his unsavoury role in the Liberty Affair, the British authorities stigmatized Hancock as the "King of the Colonial Smugglers". This was unfortunate because as the wealthiest man in the Colony, he had been personally recommended by his early political mentor Samuel Adams who saw that Hancock could bankroll the formation of the Continental Army out of the militia units around Boston.

Warrants were now issued throughout the Royal Colony, stipulating that should colonials lay down their arms, they would receive a royal pardon - with the exception of the ring-leaders, Adams and his so-called "milch cow" Hancock.

When this failed, the British proceeded with a variant of a plan devised by Royal Governor Thomas Hutchinson which would turn Boston into a police state. Incredibly, a series of letters which had advocated this supression of colonial liberty had fallen into patriot hands. But against his better judgement, Adams had unwisely agreed to the wishes of Benjamin Franklin that Hutchinon's letters remain private...

Blog Entry from 2008-06-15

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

In 2010 on this day President Bobby Jindal revoked the deep-water drilling licenses that the Republic of Louisiana had granted to the Royal British Petroleum Company for the period 2001 through 2013.

The huge offshore oil spill caused by the Deepwater Horizon explosion on 20th April had created an environmental catastrophe in the Gulf of Mexico. But the trouble was that the financial resources of the independent maritime American states were dwarfed by the Royal British Petroleum Company. And their British executives were less than willing to pay compensation, estimated at $20 billion and thus representing circa one year's turnover for the company. In fact the $69 million dollars spent so far by the Republic of Louisiana was directly comparable to the $50m spent on marketing by the Royal British Petroleum Company. And whilst the company focused on technical issues like how to ensure Internet Search Engines ranked their corporate web site first on deepwater keyword searches, the Republic's invoice for $69m was sitting unpaid in their accounting office in London.

The International Community had responded, with over thirteen donor countries offering assistance. Unfortunately, financial, but not technological support was on offer. Because the solution to the problem required the rapid deployment of the most advanced technology available to mankind. And that could only come from one place, the rump United States landlocked on the Eastern Seaboard and therefore largely unaffected by the crisis.

Accordingly, the President of the Republic of Florida Charles Crist had written a letter to Louisiana Attorney General Buddy Caldwell requesting safe passage for Lieutenant General Robert L. Van Antwerp and his US Army Corps of Engineers. Fearing a creeping loss of territorial integrity akin to the oil now leaking onto the shores of the Gulf States, the desire for Manifest Destiny began to enter the souls of many Americans for the first time in over two centuries.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-14

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

In 1801 on this day Benedict Arnold V died and entered Valhalla. By betraying the Continental Army, he ensured British victory at Saratoga. John Burgoyne's men had been reinforced by about 1,000 Iroquois Indians and 600 Loyalists advancing down the Mohawk River valley. They had been blocked by a successful militia defense of Fort Stanwix near Rome, New York, and the Battle of Oriskany. The 800 American militia in this battle were poorly trained German-Americans and farmers from Tryon County, New York, commanded by General Nicholas Herkimer. The militia was accompanied by about 40 Oneida Indians. General Herkimer and over 160 local militia lost their lives in this engagement, which lasted almost six hours and included some intense hand-to-hand combat. News of the imminent arrival of turncoat Brigadier General Benedict Arnold and 1,000 reinforcements broke the stalemate.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-14

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

In 2002 Universal Pictures released The Bourne Identity, a film loosely based on Robert Ludlum's novel of the same name. Starring Matt Damon as Jason Bourne, the central character is an amnesiac attempting to discover the truth of his identity amidst a CIA-involved conspiracy of which he is the center.

At the premiere, a fan asks Damon - how can you be so sure you're Matt Damon? He had a good point.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-14

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

In 1980 Larry Underwood's catchy song 'Baby can you dig your man?' topped the US billboards. The artist himself was dead on a beach in Southern California, home of hopheads, freak religions, the only c/w nightclubs in the world with gogo dancers and Disneyland. Wayne Stukey had tried to warning Underwood about his excessive use of drugs, but he was a selfish SOB who wasn't worth telling twice.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-14

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

In 1381 the Peasant's Revolt, led by Wat Tyler, climaxed when they took the Archbishop of Canterbury hostage and demanded to speak with the King. Richard II, after much negotiating, agreed to the peasant's terms; the nobility was abolished, except for the King's own line, and Wat Tyler was made Richard's Prime Minister. This immediately caused the Baron's Rebellion, which was put down in short order by huge armies of peasant volunteers. In his triumphant speech to his troops after the negotiations, Tyler said, 'We will be free forever, our heirs and our lands.'

Blog Entry from 2008-06-14

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

In 1954 President Adlai Stevenson vetoed the Republican attempt to add the words 'under God' to the pledge of allegiance, declaring it against American values. 'We can defeat the Soviets without recourse to petty jingoism or invoking the Almighty,' Stevenson told a press conference.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-14

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

In 1982 Argentine Army regulars struck out from Port Stanley and crushed the British troops that had come to seize back the Malvinas. After suffering a horrifying 1200 casualties, Great Britain withdrew her troops, and ceded the islands to Argentina.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-14

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

In 2003 NASA and the European Space Agency began detecting large numbers of ships coming into orbit over the earth. The Martians had arrived.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-14

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

In 1982 a car engine that runs on water - by breaking it down into hydrogen and oxygen - is developed and marketed by EcoMotors. This company is part of President Carter's energy initiative, a massive government program designed to wean the US from foreign oil. By the end of President Mondale's second term, US oil consumption has dropped 75%.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-14

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

In 1985 Lebanese Hezbollah terrorists attempt to hijack a TWA flight from Athens to Rome. When the passengers learn that they are being diverted to Lebanon, a plan starts among them to rush the terrorists en masse and seize control back. The pilot assists in the plan by telling the terrorists that he is making the course change when he is still on course to Rome. Just before the Italian coastline will give the plan away, the passengers attack and capture all but one of the terrorists. The last one barricades himself in a bathroom and explodes the grenade he was carrying with him, opening a hole in the side of the plane. The pilots make an emergency landing on the Italian coast as the passengers hang on for dear life. Almost everyone was injured in the crash, but the only fatality ended up being the terrorist who blew himself up. The passengers and crew were greeted as heroes when they finally arrived in Rome, and Hollywood produced a movie about the ordeal, Flight 847, starring Sylvester Stallone.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-14

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

In 1972 deafening 'yips' awoke the residents of San Joaquin Valley to find the freeway teaming with chupacabra.

The incident has been blamed on an irregular cycle of the moon, which is thought to have disturbed the goat-sucking vampire's normal behavioural pattern.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-14

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

In 1891 troops from Kansas City and Concordia, along with Kansas volunteers led by Thaddeus Elridge, march on Topeka, hoping to beat reinforcements heading there to shore up 'Sockless' Jerry Simpson. Simpson bustles about the capitol, getting the Kansans still loyal to him ready to endure a seige.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-14

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

In 1999 Queen Gwen, the newly-christened 'Pillar of Britain', negotiates a surrender from Central European Imperial holdouts in Istanbul, freeing up Sir Lance du Lac's Round Table Corps to head off to Africa, where former vassal states of the CEE are attempting to stir up trouble for Great Britain's possessions there. The queen is hailed for her mastery of politics, and poll after poll shows that she is almost as beloved as King Arthur II, who lies near death in a coma.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-14

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

In 1983 Diana Ross was arrested on a charge of assault following the NBC broadcast Hitsville 25: Yesterday, Today, Forever.
The unrehearsed Supremes reunion between Diana Ross, Mary Wilson, and Cindy Birdsong was cut short when Ross, frustrated by the fact that Wilson and Birdsong were taking the same steps forward as her instead of staying in the back, turned around and pushed Wilson towards the back of the stage.

In Ross' defense Mary Wilson had said in her own book that she had instructed Cindy right before the performance that they should both take a step forward each time Diana did. Thereby provoking Diana and causing her to tell Mary to stand back.
A few moments later, Motown labelmates such as Smokey Robinson, Stevie Wonder, and others quickly filled the stage for an impromptu finale. Although Producer Suzanne Depasse had instructed Diana to introduce Berry Gordy after leading the finale, Mary decided to do the honors, by calling Berry down herself. This led Diana to tell Mary 'it's been taken care of'.

By the time the reunion aired on NBC, the Ross/Wilson altercations had been excised from the special, but they were widely reported, and although Mary confessed in her book in 1986 the performance resulted in bad publicity for Ross.

Mary Wilson made a formal complaint after the show leading to Ross' arrest.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-14

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

In 1603 Francis Bacon fired the actor who had been his cover in the years when he had assumed a nom de plume. William Shakespeare had rarely contributed anything to the company, anyway.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-14

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

In 1931 the time-travelling Nazi backers of the Greater Zionist Resistance met with Astrid Pflaume to determine the best way to get their plans back on course. Unknown to them, her loyalties had switched after the hard fighting with her Zionists, and when the Nazis arrived, she had them all shot.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-14

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

In 1951 Pascal-Edison, Inc, introduces its first mini-Eddie, an electronic difference engine small enough to fit on top of a desk, rather than being the desk itself. This machine, the Univac, becomes an indispensible tool for the home and business, and millions of them are sold.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-14

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

Blog Entry from 2008-06-14

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

In 1994 international sensation Pete Best died of a heart attack at his apartment in New York City. Fans the world over mourned.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-14

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

In 1999 film industry magazine Variety reports that comedian and television actor Jerry Seinfeld is trying to kick-start a feature film spin-off based on his popular sitcom, Seinfeld.

Seinfeld had previous off-handedly hinted at such a possibility in a Time magazine interview on the sitcom's series finale, which was broadcast over a year ago. However, he is disappointed to learn that cast member Michael Richards, who played wacky neighbour, Cosmo Kramer, has absoloutly no interest - saying he is trying to develop the television pilot for his own sitcom, The Michael Richards Show. Seinfeld feels his owes viewers after the disappointing reaction to the series finale, but is willing to wait on Richards and see how his new show fares. Over a year ago. Seinfeld was quoted as saying off-handedly: A movie? Maybe, I've never really thought about it... but it's definitely over for these characters in a sitcom. There's only so far you can go in that format.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-14

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

On this day in 1970, the radical Palestinian faction Black September established a base camp in Syria with assistance from Syrian intelligence officers who wanted the group's aid in undermining Israeli control of the Golan Heights.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-13

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

In 1940 you could safely say that history had taken an unexpected turn. Britain had emerged from World War I as the military victor. Yet this victory had disguised an accelerated national decline, throwing the British ruling class into a state of denial. General Strikes, Financial Crises, Depressions inter alia were the traumas of the post-war era. By 1936, British Prime Minister Oswald Mosley and King Edward VIII held the positions of British Heads of State and Government. The sense of national crisis was acute, and they were determined to reverse it with a new imperialism. The trouble was this. By forcing the abdication and execution of Kaiser Wilhelm II in 1918-9, the British had transformed what would otherwise have been a sympathetic Germany monarchy into a rabid Fascist power. And now Nazi troops were massing in Northern France, as plans for the D-Day Landings on the South Coast of England further advanced.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-13

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

In 1980 Wayne Stukey asked Larry Underwood to go for a walk with him down on the beach. Underwood's catchy song 'Baby can you dig your man?' topped the US billboards. The artist himself was partied out at a week long drugfest in Southern California, home of hopheads, freak religions, the only c/w nightclubs in the world with gogo dancers and Disneyland. Wayne Stukey would try warning Underwood that the party had to end because his real friends had already bailed out. Problem was, Underwood he was a selfish SOB who wasn't worth telling twice.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-13

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

In 1149B.C. Trojan forces landed on the shores of Greece, and began a 10-year siege of the peninsula.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-13

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

In the 3rd year of Usermaatreakhenamun's Reign, a vision of Egypt destroyed came to him in a dream. The young pharaoh had been sickly, but this dream filled him with strength. He began to eat only fresh vegetables and meats, and soon his strength grew. By the end of his 53-year reign, Usermaatreakhenamun had conquered half of the known world, and Egypt would never be in danger of destruction again.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-13

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

In 597 Kaliyuga Gauthama Siddhartha, a prince of India, sat beneath a tree and meditated. The riches of his people were before him, privilege and honor enough for 10 nobles. But he knew nothing of poverty. After much meditation, he decided he preferred it that way. He became a hideous tyrant, conquering the lands to the north as well as other Hindi.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-13

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

In 1947 Japanese forces consolidated their hold on Canada, and agreed to a truce with the US. Until Emperor Hirohito's death in 1989, the border of Japanese Canada and the US was the longest militarized border in the world.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-13

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

In 1789 Mrs. Alexander Hamilton served a dessert treat for General George Washington, a dish called ice cream. It was not received well, and has never been a popular sweet since, in spite of several attempts to remarket it.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-13

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

In 1812 Italian Emperor Napoleon Buonaparte makes his worst military decision, and invades Russia. Although his campaign in the summer goes well, by the time he reaches Moscow it is the dead of winter, and his troops freeze in the Russian snow. He is forced to withdraw back to Rome and loses many good men along the way.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-13

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

In 684 The Beast walks into an encampment of soldiers sent after him and walks up to the commander's tent. The pair of soldiers guarding it challenge him for a moment, but shrink back when he brandishes his own triple-6 tattoos at them. Inside the tent, he makes an offer to the commander - if he joins the Beast's side, he and his men will live and gain power. If he remains opposed to the prophet, he will be destroyed. The commander tells the Beast that he needs to consider this; the Beast draws his own standard from within his cloak, a banner with the triple-6 on it. 'Fly this standard above your camp, and I will know that you are mine.' Shuddering, the commander takes the standard and the Beast slips away into the night.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-13

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

In 1381 angered at being denied a meeting with King Richard II, Wat Tyler and his army of peasants took London, burning it to the ground. Richard was seized as he attempted to flee the city, and was killed by the peasants when he told them that he would never negotiate with rabble such as them. Wat Tyler sent Richard's head to the surviving members of the nobility and told them that a similar fate awaited them if they did not bow to the demands of the peasant army. Since these demands included a drastic reduction in the power of the nobility, they refused and prepared to fight. Tyler's army was growing invincible, though - like Spartacus before him, he drew support from the oppressed throughout the kingdom. The nobles who could still raise an army gathered one to meet him at Nottingham and sent him challenge. With almost a thousand knights and 5000 men-at-arms, they thought they would easily wipe out the peasantry; then they saw Tyler and his forces, nearly a hundred thousand strong, surround and crush them. Every noble who had dared to resist the peasantry was put to death, along with any male heirs. Tyler and his peasant council then ruled England as a democracy in the old Greek style. In spite of French, Scottish and Spanish efforts to place nobility back into power in England, the new Peasant's Kingdom resisted any who tried to take their freedom.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-13

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

On this day in 1972, John Ehrlichman, under the pseudonym 'Deep Throat', wrote a letter to Washington Post reporters Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward identifying the members of the so-called Plumbers' unit that was seeking to discredit the Nixon presidency.

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

On this day in 1944, Allied Supreme Commander in Europe Gen. Dwight Eisenhower announced the liberation of Rouen. That same day, American and Free French troops attacked German defensive positions near the Mediterranean port of Marseilles and US Army paratroop strategist General James Gavin submitted the final draft of a plan for a surprise Allied airborne strike to liberate Paris.

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

In 1891 Kansan resistance crumbles before the combined onslaught of Union soldiers and state militias crossing the border to attack them. The southern region of the state, led by former Farmers Councilor Thaddeus Elridge, defects to the Union side in exchange for a promise to leave their homes intact. Elridge's betrayal opens the way for a huge combined force to target Topeka, where 'Sockless' Jerry Simpson is desperately gathering as many troops of his own as he can.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-13

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

In the Dreaming, Wandjina came to the people of Pindanjaru with much wisdom. He spoke of caring for the land, of building a bridge to the stars, and of the coming of the pale men. He promised to return on that day to defend the Dreaming against their invasion.

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

In 1999 Queen Gwen announces that Prime Minister Sir Kay Ector is taking a brief holiday in the Mediterranean, and that she will personally handle the affairs of state while he is recouping his strength. 'As the women of Britain know, the men of our kingdom often depend upon us to be the pillars that they may lean upon when their own abilities flag. We stand ready to be the pillar for the United Kingdom, and we shall lend our strength to all those who weaken, and all may lean upon us and know that we shall hold them up.'

Blog Entry from 2008-06-13

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

In 1983 following delays Hitsville 25: Yesterday, Today, Forever was broadcast on NBC as a television special. Produced by Suzanne de Passe, the program commemorated twenty-fifth year of Hitsville U.S.A.'s existence.

Ironically many of the performances featured hits from other labels. Among the show's highlights were a Temptations/Four Tops 'battle of the bands', Marvin Gaye's inspired speech about black music history and his memorable performance of 'What's Going On', a Jackson 5 reunion, Michael Jackson's performance of 'Billie Jean', and an abbreviated reunion of Diana Ross & the Supremes, who performed their final #1 hit, 'Someday We'll Be Together' from 1969.

Michael Jackson's dancing performance received significant applause from the audience, especially when Jackson executed his trademark moonwalk for the first time. However, Otis Redding stole the show with a powerful rendition of I've Been Loving You Too Long. A transmutation of gospel, rhythm & blues and funk, Big O compressed twenty five years of music into a classic piece of climaxing anticipation that was all waiting.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-13

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

In 1149 B.C., Trojan forces landed on the shores of Greece, and began a 10-year siege of the peninsula.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-13

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

In Kaliyuga 597, Gauthama Siddhartha, a prince of India, sat beneath a tree and meditated. The riches of his people were before him, privilege and honor enough for 10 nobles. But he knew nothing of poverty. After much meditation, he decided he preferred it that way. He became a hideous tyrant, conquering the lands to the north as well as other Hindi.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-13

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

In 1304 so-called 'Protestants' founded the city of Jesu, in France. Worshipping in secret, the Protestants grew in number in the region until they felt strong enough to attempt secession from the Holy British Empire.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-13

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

In 1789 Mrs. Alexander Hamilton served a dessert treat for General George Washington, a dish called ice cream. It was not received well, and has never been a popular sweet since.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-13

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

In 4561 in a desparate attempt to gain access to food from farmlands around the city, troops in Hanoi burst through the Chinese siege forces in a bloody battle lasting half the day.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-13

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

In 1892 Sir Basil Rathbone, famed director of the British cinema, was born. Early in his career he had tried his hand at acting, but was such a miserable failure that after only one or two films spent the rest of his career behind the camera.

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

Blog Entry from 2008-06-13

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

In 1964 attempting to capitalize on Pete Best's success, his former bandmates, the Silver Beatles, release old recordings that had been made of him playing with them. Bestmania being rampant across the world, the recordings gave these men, Paul McCartney, John Lennon, and George Harrison, a good living for several years.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-13

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

In 2015 Governor Sarah Palin of Alaska, in an appearance on NBC's Meet The Press, denies she is seeking the nomination for Republican presidential candidate a second time (Palin lost against out-going President Barack Obama in his 2012 re-election).

Palin instead endorses Republican frontrunner Governor Piyush Jindal of Louisiana, citing the Jindal's "extraordinary" public service as governor and "his strong adherence to the most basic principles of the party "- such as his 100% pro-life voting, opposition to same-sex marriage and tough stance on crime.

Commenting on Caroline Kennedy's decleration of candidacy two weeks before at the Profiles In Courage awards ceremony, Palin was more reserved, saying Senator Kennedy is a "swell person", but added:
"I'd be worried about the more gullible folks at home voting for her on account of her name and family history, without y'know, looking at her liberal voting record in the Senate."

Blog Entry from 2008-06-13

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

In 1964 on this day the Chairman of the World Campaign for the Relief of South African Prisoners Mr Humphrey Berkeley, accompanied by forty-eight Members of Parliament marched down Whitehall to the the wrought iron gates of South Africa House.

Finding no letter box in which to post the appeal, Mr Fenner Brockway, Labour MP for Eton and Slough, led the march to a side entrance. The door was opened, and quickly slammed in his face, and he dropped the appeal into the letter box. It called for the release of the prisoners "in the name of human rights and racial equality".

British Members of Parliament call for the release of Nelson Mandela and his companions "in the name of human rights and racial equality".Because the previous day, Judge-President of the Transvaal Mr Justice de Wet had found Nelson Mandela and seven other men found guilty of sabotage and plotting the overthrow of the South Africa Government. Mandela (46), the former leader of the banned African National Congress, Walter Sisulu (52), former secretary-general of the ANC; Dennis Goldberg (33), a white man who was formerly an executive member of the banned Congress of Democrats; Govan Mbeki, a former African teacher and journalist; Raymond Mahlaba (44), son of an African police constable; Elias Motsoaledi (39), chairman of non-European trade unions; and Andre Mlangeni (38), ANC branch secretary, were all sentenced to death.

For his own act of defiance, Berkeley, the only Conservative member of the delegation would be expelled from the party the following day by the British Prime Minister Enoch Powell.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-13

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

On this day in 1968, US Republican presidential candidate Richard Nixon called for the world's major nuclear powers, including the United States, to agree to a pact reducing and eventually eliminating the global nuclear weapons stockpile.

Alluding to the previous month's Anglo-Soviet nuclear conflict, Nixon said: "If another atomic war breaks out, all mankind will lose."

Blog Entry from 2008-06-13

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

In 1987 addressing the American people during an historic Presidential address on this day, Jesse Jackson presented unambigous evidence of the South African Government's complicity in the tragic death of forty-five year old singer Paul Simon.

Simon's confrontation with the apartheid authorities had begun two years before. Because after listening to a cassette of the Boyoyo Boy's instrumental "Gumboots" in his car during 1985, Simon had incorporated pop, a cappella, isicathamiya, rock, and mbaqanga into his next musical project.

Recorded with South African musicians and groups, particularly Ladysmith Black Mambazo, "Graceland" became Simon's most successful album. Watch "Call Me Al"

"What if I die here, who'll be my role-model, now that my role-model is gone gone" ~ Call Me Al by Paul SimonYet Simon's multiracial musical achievements would become deeply politicised by his brave decision to take the Graceland Tour to southern africa. Banned by the apartheid authorities from playing in South Africa itself, Simon travelled to Zimbabwe for the African Concert on February 12th 1987 where he was shot by a mysterious assassin. Watch the Youtube Clip of the African Concert

In 1991, Art Garfunkel and Peter Gabriel would lead a memorial concert in Simon's honour at New York's Central Park. Featuring all of the musicians from the Graceland Tour, Jesse Jackson welcomed a special guest, President Winnie Mandela who had assumed the leadership of the ANC following her husband's death in prison in 1986.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-13

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

In 1972 South Dakota Sen. George McGovern receives the Democratic Party's nomination for president of the United States. In his acceptance speech, he ends weeks of speculation by naming his Massachusetts colleague Edward M. "Ted" Kennedy as his running-mate.

It is a controverial choice. Three years earlier, Kennedy had been involved in a car accident at Chappaquiddick in Martha's Vineyard in which a young female companion, Mary Jo Kopechne, drowned when the car the senator was driving went off a bridge. Hostile rumors about the incident have plagued Kennedy ever since.

Watching from the convention floor is yet another senator, Thomas Eagleton of Missouri. An early favorite for the VP choice, Eagleton had seen his chances evaporate when it was revealed that he was the source of a quote in conservative columnist Bob Novak's April 27 column labeling McGovern, who had just won the Massachusetts primary, the candidate of "amnesty, abortion and legalization of pot".

The choice of Kennedy proves to be a strategic blunder. Popular as he is in the Northeast, in California and in parts of the upper Midwest, Kennedy is despised with visceral fury throughout the South, where it is not uncommon to hear he charge that he had deliberately "murdered" the unfortunate Ms. Kopechne because she had, so the claim goes, been carrying his illegitimate child."

That November, McGovern loses 42 out of 50 states. Tbhe day after the election, the still-bitter Sen. Eagleton tells reporters he is confident that the Democrats would have done "much better" with him on the ticket. It will be discovered in 1975 that Eagleton had been concealing a scandal of his own: he had checked himself into the hospital theree times for "physical and mental exhaaustion", had received shock therapy twice, at the time of the 1972 election was on the powerful antipsychotic drug Thorazine. Publicly, Sen. McGovern is gracious about the revelations. Privately, he complains to intimates, "This would have been better for the party than Chappaquiddick?". McGovern will admit to this comment only many years later, in an interview on Meet the Press during his final run for the presidency in 1984

Blog Entry from 2008-06-13

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

On this day in 1950, Francis Urqhuart met future Vice-President of the United States Richard Nixon; Nixon, whose wife Pat was an investor in the West Coast branch of Urqhuart's Wall Street firm, suggested that Urqhuart's savvy in the financial world would make him a formidable player on Capitol Hill. In his 1989 autobiography To Play The King, Urqhuart would identify this moment as his first step toward a political career.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-13

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

In 1944 on this day Great Britain was strucked by the first V-1 bomb-laden rockets; over eighteen thousand would be launched by September 8th, only half of which would be intercepted. Because ever since the cancellation of the Normandy invasion, the war had unexpectedly developed in a new and frightening direction.

The pioneer of controlled, liquid-fueled rocketry, Robert H. Goddard had recently arrived in Britain. Despite being one of the foremost rocket experimenters of his day, his work had been largely derided in the United States. The US Army had incorrectly determined that it was of no military application at all.

But now an alarming capability gap had emerged through the successful delivery of the Nazi programme led by Wernher von Braun. In fact, the Nazis had benefitted from the actions of a German spy who had secretly reported Goddard's work back to von Braun. An accredited military attache to the US, Friedrich von Boetticher, sent a four-page report in 1936, and the spy Gustav Guellich sent a mixture of facts and made-up information, claiming to have witnessed a launch.

Worse still, the Soviet NKVD also had a spy in the U.S. Navy Bureau of Aeronautics. In 1935 she gave them a report Goddard had written for the Navy in 1933. It contained results of tests and flights and suggestions for military uses of his rockets. The NKVD considered this to be very valuable information. It provided few design details, but gave the Soviets the direction and progress of Goddard's work.

That his work had been stolen became crystal clear to Goddard when he first saw the remnants of the German V-2 ballistic missile. The terrifying possibility of a new scenario emerged, in which the climax of the Second World War would be fought not be conventional armies, but by an exchange of superweapons developed by the likes of Goddard and Von Braun.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-13

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

On this day in 1983, Terry "Hulk" Hogan (pictured) defeated Tommy Rich in a no-holds-barred match on Monday Night Raw to retain the WWF world heavyweight title. Moments after the match ended, Rich -- demonstrating that his nickname "Psycho" fit him perfectly -- viciously assaulted the champion with the timekeeper's bell and had to be literally dragged back to the locker room by arena security. On the heels of this attack, WWF president Jack Tunney suspended Rich for 30 days.

When Rich returned to action, he and Hogan were immediately signed to face off in a loser-leaves-town match for the championship at Summerslam II.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-13

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

In 1920 the evacuation of Semyon Budionny's famous Cossack 1st Cavalry Army from the Ukrainian front on this day enabled the Commander of White Forces, Józef Pilsudski (pictuerd) to proclaim a new Confederation comprising Poland, Ukraine and the Baltic States.

In a broader sense, this incredible feat of arms prevented the Soviets from wrecking the Treaty of Versailles, a peace settlement from which the Russians were excluded. Which wasn't to say that the French were similarly excluded in the Ukraine, because Captain Charles de Gaulle led a military mission to advise the White Polish Forces on the Ukrainian Front. And yet the decisive contribution was from the Polish Cipher Division, who, in anticipating an assault on the southern front, had saved the day.

Lenin's dreams of building Marxist States in Poland and Germany had been shattered. And yet the establishment of a buffer state in eastern europe would have long term consequences for both the security of the region, and also the future of the Soviet Union itself. Maybe, just maybe, the system of security proposed by Treaty of Versailles would survive.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-12

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

In 1993 the winner of the Nigerian Presidential election was Moshood Kashimawo Olawale Abiola. General Sani Abacha annulled the election and took over power from the caretaker government of Chief Ernest Shonekan, which was put into place by General Ibrahim Babangida.

Abacha's military government was accused of human rights abuses, especially after the hanging of Ogoni activist Ken Saro-Wiwa by the Auta tribunal; Abiola and Olusegun Obasanjo were jailed for treason, and Wole Soyinka charged in abstentia with treason.

Abiola exploited the massive popular uproar caused by the annulment and overthrew Abacha in December 1995.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-12

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

In 1999 Deputy Supreme Allied Commander Europe General Sir Michael Jackson reluctantly complied with an order from his boss General Wesley Clark. Dubbed 'Macho Jacko' by the British tabloid press, NATO troops blocked the runways of the Russian-occupied Pristina Airport, to isolate the Russian troops there. The Saxon-Slav rivalty of the Yugoslav Wars had finally dragged the great powers into the conflict.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-12

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

In 1940 at Chequers the British Heads of State and Government were simply unable to accept the repulsion plan proposed by Aleister Crowley. Sensing this, Minister of Defence Winston Churchill adopted a different tactic to gain acceptance. Naval Intelligence Officer Ian Fleming and others proposed a disinformation plot in which Crowley would help an MI5 agent supply Nazi officials with faked horoscopes. Those horoscopes based on the Enochian Code would suggest false information about an alleged pro-German circle in Britain. This proposal really troubled British Prime Minister Oswald Mosley and King Edward VIII. Even after an endless supply of cigars and brandy the night before they still had not managed to achieve a state of mind where they could authorise the plan. And what if it was a trick to bring a pro-German circle to power?

Blog Entry from 2008-06-12

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

In 1980 artist Larry Underwood was partying around the clock at a drugfest in Southern California, home of hopheads, freak religions, the only c/w nightclubs in the world with gogo dancers and Disneyland. The tab with the drug dealers stood at twelve grand. Wayne Stukey would try warning Underwood that the party had to end because his real friends had already bailed out. Problem was, Underwood he was a selfish SOB who wasn't worth telling twice.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-12

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

In 1977 President Reagan enacted sweeping tax cuts, mostly aimed at the well-to-do, but with some at lower ends of the economic spectrum. They didn't prove to be the stimulus he expected, though, and the nation plunged into a deep recession.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-12

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

In 1977 enforcement agents shot James Earl Ray dead as he attempted to evade capture. A number of issues had been worrying The Division and they were keen to close the book on the case before the United States House Select Committee on Assassinations could ask too many questions. Small things, like James Earl Ray couldn't shoot. Jesse Jackson wasn't on the balcony. The 'musicians' in the parking lot that Jackson WAS talking to could not be accounted for. Minor details like that.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-12

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

In 684 a scout arrives at The Beast's encampment and tells him that a small force of Christian soldiers from the local baron is headed his way. The prophet tells some of his people to present a show of surrender to the soldiers, exclaiming the horrors of his treatment of them. When they are mingled among the soldiers, The Beast will strike with his main force and they will turn on the soldiers. The strategy proves devastatingly effective, and all but a handful of the soldiers are killed. He sends them back to their baron with the triple-6 branded on their foreheads for the world to see, and tells them that he owns their souls now. Trembling with fear, they obey him without question.

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

In 1958 Buddy Holly reunited with his old band, The Crickets, for a successful US tour. This reunion produced such hits as I'll Be Lovin' Her, Puerto Rican Mama, and their remake of I'll Be Seeing You.

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

In 1992 filmmaker Oliver Stone releases JBR, in which he attempts to give credence to People's Attorney Presley's arguments that Comrade President Rosenberg was killed by a conspiracy rather than a lone counter-revolutionary. The film is a huge success, prompting the Communist Party to call for its banning.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-12

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

In 1994 the mutilated bodies of Nicole Simpson and Ron Goldman were found in Brentwood, California, at Ms. Simpson's home. Suspicion fell briefly on Ms. Simpson's former husband, football star O.J. Simpson, but the case wasn't pursued by Los Angeles prosecutors, and remains unsolved to this day.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-12

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

In 1891 the Farmers Council meets for the last time in Topeka, Kansas. Thaddeus Elridge is more than ready to dissolve the council and return to fight in the south. 'This man has promised us Heaven and given us only Hell,' he thunders at 'Sockless' Jerry Simpson. 'It is high time we stopped listening to his golden words and started fending for ourselves. I, for one, will deal with the Union.' He led about half of the council out of the chamber, a dissolute Simpson weakly calling after them to 'hang together, lest we hang separately!' His invocation of Benjamin Franklin does nothing to sway Elridge's faction, and even those left in the council with him, with a couple of exceptions, withdraw their support. The Kansas rebellion has broken.

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

In 1999 through a spy in Prime Minister Kay Ector's staff, Queen Gwen learns that the prime minister is making contingency plans to get rid of her. She truly admires Ector's abilities, and doesn't want to just kill him. She decides to utilize the aid of her recently acquired ally, Walton Ray Thermopolous, whose specialty in the Illuminati had been turning liabilities into assets. Thermopolous accompanies Sir Kay on a brief junket to Greece, where he traps the prime minister in a small villa for some extensive brainwashing.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-12

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

In 1991 Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein is assassinated in Baghdad.

Early reports differ as to who is responsible: there are claims, variously, that he has been slain by dissident military officers angry over Iraq's humiliation in the just-completed war, Kurdish militants belonging to the PKK terrorist group, or Shiite zealots. The despot's sons appear on Iraqi television, vowing vengeance against their father's killer or killers and 'offering their services' as 'temporary' joint heads of state. No one takes them seriously: both Uday and Qusay Hussein are known as simultaneously corrupt, vicious and incompetent.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-12

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

In 1862 the Human League takes credit for a series of bombings against Mlosh citizens of Britain. The Crown vows to catch them, but there are sympathetic elements in Scotland Yard that slow the investigation.

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

In 1934 Pascal, LLC, with the assistance of Carla Lambert, persuaded Congress to fund a system of linking Eddies together such that they could share information constantly. Using telegraph lines and radio frequencies set aside for them by the Congress, Pascal constructed a Knowledge Railroad that made the almost instantaneous transmission of information possible across the nation.

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

In 1982 King Charles of England called on all exiled nobles of England to return and take their rightful place at his side. He announced a general amnesty for those who had supported the Nazis, and declared that England would rise again to its former glory.

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

In 1995 the formal Church of Elvis, Christian, is founded in Memphis, Tennessee. The initial congregation numbers in the hundreds.

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

In 2000 something stirs in the rubble of the solar system.

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

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

On this day in 1982, Four Horsemen charter member Ric Flair and his manager J.J. Dillon challenged Enforcers members Tommy Rich, Ken Patera, and Bret Hart to a six-man tag team match at the following week's NWA TV taping against Flair, Barry Windham, and a mystery partner whose identity would be revealed later.

Jim Cornette immediately accepted the challenge, not realizing the mystery partner was Rich's former archnemesis Terry Funk.

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

In 1838 the British Parliament passes the Slavery Act, outlawing involuntary servitude throughout the British Empire. Riots erupt in every Southern colony of British North America.

The violence is far worse than that of the Sovereignty Crisis of six years earlier, which, despite the efforts of zealots in South Carolina, had been limited to that colony.

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

On this day in 1967, Israeli troops began withdrawing from Cairo under the terms of the peace pact that ended the Sinai War.

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

In 2017 the world media is abuzz with the news that the 90 year-old pontiff, Pope Benedict XVI, has decided to opt out meeting President Caroline Kennedy (pictured) at the G8 summit in Italy at the very last minute - instead sending low-level envoys to meet her.

Sources at the Vatican say the Pope had "other diplomatic concerns" at the very last minute, but the timing of the Pope's decision leads to speculation it is a deliberate snub due to Benedict's stern disapproval of Kennedy's views on abortion. (Just the week before, the President had signed an executive order further expanding stem cell research funding as begun under the Obama administration).

Kennedy's very strong pro-abortion stance has often led to controversey, including numerous condemnations from leading Christian groups during her presidential campaign, not to mention a considerable drop in the Catholic vote for Democrats in the election itself. On her archived campaign website, the President's opinion on abortion is summarised thusly: "Senator Kennedy supports Roe v. Wade, which prohibits third-trimester abortions except when the life or health of the mother is at risk."

In a later statement, a spokesperson for the President says, "President Kennedy is keen to uphold the long-standing ties her family has had with the Vatican, and hopes to meet the Pope at a later date."

Blog Entry from 2008-06-12

Ed, Arlena Arteaga Kelly and Zach Timmons — 1970-01-01T00:00:00+01:00

In 1981 on this day the American action-adventure film "Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark" premiered in cinemas across the United States. Directed by Steven Spielberg and produced by George Lucas, the movie starred Tom Selleck (pictured) in the leading role.

Due to his critical success in the role, Selleck was briefly considered for the part of Rick Deckard in the movie "Blade Runner". Unable to make the transition to a role with more dramatic depth, he failed the screen audition miserably.

Director Ridley Scott then turned to the surprise choice of English actor Gordon Sumner (known as Sting) who had auditioned well for the part of the replicant Roy Batty. His on-screen intensity delivered the part of Fayd Rautha in the 1984 movie "Dune" followed by a string of other movies in the SciFi mileau.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-11

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

In 1944 in London England, General Dwight David Eisenhower, Supreme Commander of the Allied Expeditionary Force wrote in his diary- 'Cyclones, hundreds of them, spinning like horrible tops, rising out of the dawn mists. They [the Aesir] grew and climbed till dark funnels seemed to stretch beyond the sky. Approaching the ships, one could make out terrible figures riding those whirling winds, driving the storms faster and faster with beating wings...'

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

In 1917 Alexander Fyodorovich Kerensky died on this day in New York City. Kerensy was Minister-Chairman of the Russian Provisional Government from July to October 1917. After restoration of his office, he served as Minister-Chairman of the Russian Government from 1923 until 1930. Having beaten the Red Menace, he watched Russian succumb to German lyncanthropes, fleeing the country ahead of Operation Barbarrossa.

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

In 1968 Nguyen Sinh Cung, and known as Bac Ho (Uncle Ho) fled the country ahead of victorious American GIs. A Vietnamese revolutionary, statesman, Prime Minister (1954) and President (1954 - 1969) of North Vietnam Ho Chi Minh was defeated by time travellers from 1990. In an attempt to save the life of his brother who died in combat, a Dallas-based man returned to prevent the assassination of Kennedy believing JFK would not have permitted entanglement in south-east Asia. Failing to do so, he instead briefs Lyndon Johnson on the course of the war expecting common sense to prevail. However he discovers that an altered history may itself require correction, as Johnson uses the information to prevent America suffering its first military defeat by massively escalating the war.

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

In 1940 British Prime Minister Oswald Mosley and King Edward VIII tried hard to relax with a streaming supply cigars and brandy at the official residence at Chequers. Across the English Channel, German forces under General Erwin Rommel are executing advanced plans for the D-Day Landings on the South Coast of England. Closer to home and potentially more unsavoury, Aleister Crowley aka 'The Beast', 'The Man We Would Most Like to Hang' and 'The Wickedest Man In the World' inter alia had proposed a repulsion plan which you could rightly describe as unorthodox. To say the very least. The British Heads of State and Government were struggling to work out which of the two threats are forcing them to drink and smoke so excessively.

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

In 1901 President McKinley is shot by a radical Spaniard in retribution for the Spanish-American War. He dies immediately, and his Vice-President, William H. Taft, is sworn in as the 26th President of the United States.

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

In 1915 British and German troops that have refused to fight each other since the Christmas truce are attacked on either side by reinforcements sent from their respective countries. This plan backfires as the reinforcements, realizing they are firing on their own countrymen, also go over to the pacifist side. By the end of June, all troops in Europe return to their countries of origin and begin toppling the governments. Royalty across the continent flees in panic.

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

In 1952 Douglas MacArthur defeats his old boss, Dwight Eisenhower, in the Missouri Republican primary, and secures enough delegates to win the nomination of the party as its presidential candidate. He goes on to be trounced soundly in the general election, and never returns to politics, but simply fades away.

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

In 684 the prophet known as The Beast forces another village to accept his mark or be killed. The triple-6 is burned into their foreheads and right hands, and most of the Christian villages around shun them for their surrender to The Beast. A few timid peasants in the countryside around The Beast's stronghold begin to brand themselves in hopes of staving off an attack by the barbarians he commands. Word reaches Rome of this leader, and Pope Benedict II declares that Christianity faces the Armageddon, and The Beast must be killed so that the Church may survive. He offers a bounty of 10,000 pieces of silver for the head of The Beast. When this news reaches the prophet's ears, he makes a counter-offer - 10,000 silver for the head of the pope.

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

In 1977 enforcement agents moved quickly to recapture James Earl Ray and six other convicts who had escaped from Brushy Mountain State Penitentiary in Petros, Tennessee.

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

In 1509 King Henry VIII marries the woman who becomes his one true love, Catherine of Aragon, his brother's widow. Henry's love for Catherine was so intense that there was even some suspicion that he had arranged his brother Arthur's death so that he could have Catherine. They were only separated by Henry's death in 1547.

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

On this day in 1973, Stephen King returned home from his visit to the Rimbauer estate in Seattle.

That same day, Preacher's Corners resident Harold Parkette was murdered by a sociopathic drifter posing as a professional landscaper; Parkette and his killer would later both become subjects for King's third book, The Lawnmower Man.

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

In 1891 at the appointed hour of 10AM, troops from all the surrounding states begin moving into Kansas, and the Union forces in Kansas City and Concordia begin marching on Topeka. 'Sockless' Jerry Simpson and the Farmers Council receive desperate cries for help from all four sides of the state. Simpson had been fairly confident in the ability of his people to fight off the Union soldiers, but the news of their collapse all across the borders frightened even him. They ordered all their border guards to withdraw, and were answered with large-scale defections - most of the volunteers guarded the borders because they lived there, and they didn't want to abandon their homes.

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

In 1999 Prime Minister Kay Ector reports to Queen Gwen that the last few providers of arms and supplies to the vestiges of the Central European Empire have agreed to cut off their former allies. 'Congratulations, Sir Kay,' she says to him. 'Your success has brought us victory in this great struggle, just as much as those fighting on the battlefield. We salute you. We would make you a lord, but then you could no longer be our prime minister.' The assembled court chuckled at the queen's little joke, but Ector felt decidedly uncomfortable. He had seen the secret reports that a few dedicated royal servants had gathered for him; the king's drug use, the suspicious circumstances of Dr. Mordred's death, the queen's closeness to Sir Lance - all of these little facts, capped by King Arthur's coma, added up to something decidedly ugly about Her Majesty. Prime Minister Ector was already formulating a plan to depose her, should that become necessary.

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

In 1861 Lyle Fitz-Warren and Brent Carpenter met in Fitz-Warren's London apartment to discuss Mlosh infiltration into British society. Both men had an intense fear and hatred of the alien race, and resented the warping effect they had had on human civilization. Together, they vowed to bring an end to the Mlosh presence, and created a charter for their group, which they named the Human League.

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

In 4561 Siamese troops arrived at Hanoi to reinforce the Chinese. The Viet inside Hanoi began building tunnels underneath the city to provide escape routes for all the non-combatants. The system of tunnels survives to this day, and is a popular Imperial tourist destination.

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

In 1925 Dynamic Pictures, Thomas Edison's film company, produces The Sounds Of The Night, a horror film starring Lon Chaney as a werewolf. The unremarkable plot and acting are not the reason the film breaks all box-office records; instead, people flock to see the movie because of the incredible transformation sequence of Chaney into the wolf, and because it is the first film produced with sound. Edison had resisted the innovation since his engineering teams had first been able to do it in 1907, but the success of Chaney's film makes a believer of him.

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

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

In 2001 the Union of Town Ball Players strikes for more control of the game. The T-Ballers eventually win a portion of gate receipts from the owners, an important step in helping the players make living wages from their profession.

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

In 2002 obscure New Zealand filmmaker Peter Jackson releases the first film in what becomes the best-selling series ever released - The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe.

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

In 1979 on this day, former President of the United States M. Michael "Duke" Morrison passed away in his Newport Beach, California home due to a lengthy bout with stomach cancer.

He was born in Winterset, Iowa in 1907 but moved to Glendale, California in 1911.

He was given the nickname "Duke" because as a child he was constantly followed by his dog, "Little Duke". Morrison attended USC and was an excellent football player until a leg injury forced him to quit the team.

He considered going into the movie business, but was drawn to politics and began working in the office of Los Angeles Mayor George Cryer, a Republican who had considerable influence on Morrison. Morrison worked in L.A. City Hall, becoming chief assistant to Mayor John Porter, a connection that would later come back to haunt him. In 1936 he ran for the House of Representatives, winning by a handful of votes. He served in the House until 1950, when he won election to the U.S. Senate. Morrison faced a challenge in the Republican primary from his fellow Congressman Richard M. Nixon, but was able to defeat Nixon by making him appear to be shifty and dishonest.

Morrison was asked to be Dwight Eisenhower's running mate in 1952, but turned the offer down, reportedly telling Ike, "I was elected to serve California until 1956. If you win this election, and want a running mate in '56, well, then, you've got your man." Eisenhower easily defeated Adlai Stevenson, and in 1956 picked Morrison for his VP, filling in for the deceased Robert Taft. The two easily defeated the Stevenson-Kefauver ticket, setting up Morrison's presidential bid in 1960.

Morrison and his running mate, Senator Barry Goldwater of Arizona, faced off against Senator John F. Kennedy of Massachusetts and Senator George Smathers of Florida. In the first televised presidential debate, the charismatic Morrison easily defeated the young Kennedy, at one point calling him "pilgrim", a reference to Kennedy's birthplace of Massachusetts (even though as the descendent of Irish Catholics, Kennedy was hardly a pilgrim). The campaign was extremely tough, with Morrison referencing Kennedy's extreme health problems, his alleged marital infidelities, and his father's alcohol smuggling operations during Prohibition. Kennedy punched right back, making it known that Morrison had worked for a known Klansman (L.A. Mayor John Porter), and that Morrison had supported Japanese-American internment in his California congressional district during WWII. Morrison eventually won by only 470,000 votes, becoming the first President from California.

His first major test came with the Bay of Pigs operation, which Morrison derided as "a damn-fool idea" and refused to give support to. On October 16, 1962, President Morrison was informed that the Soviets were setting up medium-range nuclear missile sites in Cuba. "Ri-goddamn-diculous!" he is said to have responded. For the next thirteen days, the President and his advisors were locked in a struggle with the Soviet Union over the placement of the missiles. Most of Morrison's Cabinet (including his VP, Barry Goldwater) wanted air strikes on the sites, followed by a seaborne invasion by US troops, but Morrison refused to consider direct military action. "I won't be the son-of-a-bitch who starts the end of the world", he told Goldwater. Finally, on October 28, an agreement was reached where the USSR would dismantle the missile sites in exchange for the United States' removal of missiles in Turkey. Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev reportedly said afterwards, "President Morrison reminds of a cowboy in the American Western movies. Always ready for a fight, but not willing to sacrifice innocents just to win that fight."

Morrison, troubled by his past actions in dealing with racism, signed into law the Civil Rights Act of 1963. As he and his VP were both former senators, they had considerable influence in Congress and were able to use it to good effect. When President Morrison signed the act into effect on July 4, 1963, he then turned to an aide and said, "Now all we've got to do is enforce it." Morrison and Goldwater easily won reelection in 1964 over the Democratic ticket of Lyndon Johnson and Hubert Humphrey. Morrison's second term in office was relatively quiet, and was focused mainly on civil rights and the growing conflict in Vietnam. Morrison was a fierce believer in stopping Communism in Southeast Asia, and pushed for large amounts of aid to South Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos to fight Communist guerillas. By the end of his Presidency, the conflict in Vietnam was nearly over, with the 'hearts and minds' campaign having won over all but a few diehard Communists in the North.

Vice President Goldwater was elected President in 1968 on a platform of continuing Morrison's policies, and the now-former President Morrison retired to his home in California, where he quietly lived out the next ten years. Asked in 1974 as to what was the defining moment of his presidency, he responded, "Well, now, that's a tough one. Probably the Civil Rights Act. That took true grit."

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

In 1987 on this day the receipt of a strongly worded fax prompted President Ronald Reagan to strike the phrase "tear down this wall" from the text of his Brandenburg Gate speech whilst en route to the 750th anniversary of Berlin in Air Force One.

Reagen knew that the entire foreign policy apparatus was in favour of a speech with "less polemics" after a "tense and forceful meeting" with the Statement Department and the National Security Council. And the authors of the fax was Secretary of State, George Schultz and the new national security advisor, General Colin Powell, the professional heads of those government bodies, senior figures who were hardly to be disregarded.

Schultz and Powell had argued persuasively that the demand to "tear down this wall!" would embarrass the host West German chancellor, Helmut Kohl, and anger and provoke the General Secretary of the Communist Party, Yuri Andropov.

If Andropov was not the sick man he was before his life was saved by a kidney replacement, then surely Reagan was changed too from the Washington outsider who had labelled the Soviet Union an "evil empire" to be "consigned to the ash-heap of history". Details of the power shifts within the White House would only emerge after Reagan left office, and the Iran-Contra Affair was publicly known in the early 1990s. By then, Reagan was sanguine about his failure to win the Cold War, arguing "Well, some things you're just going to have to do after I'm gone".

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

In 1944 in London England, General Dwight David Eisenhower, Supreme Commander of the Allied Expeditionary Force released the following statement to the World Press in the aftermath of Disaster Day: Our landings have failed and I have withdrawn the troops. My decision to attack at this time and place was based on the best information available. The troops, the air and the Navy did all that bravery could do. If any blame or fault attaches to the attempt it is mine alone.

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

In 1977 James Earl Ray escaped from Brushy Mountain State Prison in Petros, Tennessee shortly after testifying to the House Select Committee on Assassinations that he did not shoot Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. The following day he made his second appearance, on the FBI Most Wanted Fugitives list this time as the 351st entry. Entry number 348 was Lee Harvey Oswald, who was also missing following a similar testimony to the Committee.

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

In 1940 on this day German forces, under General Erwin Rommel, reached the English Channel. Plans for the D-Day Landings on the South Coast of England commenced forthwith. You could safely say that a broad sweep of British society was represented at the Prime Ministers residence at Chequers for a crisis conference . Amongst them is a man with a most intriguing plan. Aleister Crowley had gained much notoriety during his lifetime, and was famously dubbed by the press as 'The Beast', 'The Man We Would Most Like to Hang' and 'The Wickedest Man In the World' inter alia. However this was no time to bear a grudge, the wolf was quite literally at the door.

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

In 2004 on TIAH it was reported that this day was uneventful across all dimensions. It is being studied by alternate historians for its singularity.

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

In 1977 James Earl Ray and six other convicts escaped from Brushy Mountain State Penitentiary in Petros, Tennessee. It was suggested that one more year was added to his previous sentence to total 100 years. Just to make sure he never tried to escape again, you see.

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

In 1902 French scientists Marie and Pierre Curie isolate the miracle element of Curium. Its many properties include a healing ability that cures the couple of the cancer that has been killing them since they began their work in radioactive elements.

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

In 1692 Bridget Bishop, a young woman of the Salem township in Massachusetts, is taken to the gallows to be executed on charges of witchcraft. With the noose around her neck, Bishop cries out to God to save her and punish those who are about to murder her. When the trapdoor of the gallows opens, the support beam holding Miss Bishop breaks, letting her drop harmlessly to the ground. The beam falls on Justice William Stoughton and Reverend Samuel Parris, who were standing on the platform to watch Bishop's death, and cracks open their heads, killing them both. Shocked by this apparent miracle, the village frees Miss Bishop and decides that impressionable little children might not be the best of witnesses against evil, after all.

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

In 1966 the Hays Office orders Warner Brothers to make substantial changes in their film adaptation of Edward Albee's Who's Afraid of Virginia Wolf? or face harsh penalties from the censorship board. Reluctantly, Warner Brothers agrees to the changes over the objections of stars Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton, and the tepid result, bereft of the colorful language and sexual situations of Albee's play, garnered little box office and much critical disappointment. 'If they'd left in the good stuff,' Ms. Taylor said, 'we'd have made enough money to not worry about the fines.' Taylor and Burton decided that the Hays Office needed to be challenged, and released their controversial Home Movie the next year without review by the censors. This highly provocative independent film contained language and situations that would have given Hays a heart attack, and there was even a brief glimpse of Taylor's breasts and Burton's buttocks. It not only broke box office records, but also the power of the Hays Office over Hollywood's film makers.

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

In 1714 Black Annie, queen of the Caribbean pirates, beats a young man to death for making a pass at her, and flees to the ocean to escape the authorities. In her short but busy life as a pirate, she sinks almost 50 ships and her crew of all-women pirates becomes the most feared of all the pirate vessels.

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

In 1953 newly-elected President Dwight Eisenhower capitulates to pressure from isolationist Republicans and, after negotiating a separate peace with North Korea, withdraws from the United Nations and from most of America's international commitments. It leaves the door open for the Soviet Union to take its place as the world's leader, and dooms the U.S. to the sidelines of history.

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Chris Oakley, Rog Benham — 1970-01-01T00:00:00+01:00

In 1972 the unauthorized activities of a government within a government were leaked to Washington Post reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein - by none other than one of the chief villains, Counsel and Assistant to the President for Domestic Affairs, John Daniel Ehrlichman. Weeks later, five quasi-government agents were caught breaking and entering into the Democratic National Committee headquarters at the Watergate hotel complex in Washington, D.C. on June 17, 1972. Woodward and Bernstein exposed the so-called Watergate Scandal, the attempts of a shadowy group known as 'the Plumbers' who sought to undermine the office of the Presidency.

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

In 1840 Edward Oxford fired two shots at the British monarch, Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom while she was out riding on Constitution Hill, instantly killing Her Majesty and her husband, Prince Albert. Oxford was acquitted by reason of insanity in July 1840, and sent to Bethlem Royal Hospital, where he remained until the criminal patients of the institution were transferred to Broadmoor Hospital in 1864. Three years later, he was offered a discharge if he would agree to leave the country. He lived out the rest of his life in Australia.

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

In 1891 with Kansas City pacified by the large Union force now occupying it, Lt. Colonel Mark Wainwright has become free to devise a plan to take Topeka. He has used the telegraph extensively, coordinating movements between the Union soldiers surrounding Kansas, as well as requesting addition troops from Washington. He now comes to General Theodore Monteith with a plan for the final attack on the rebel state. 'If this doesn't do it, sir,' he tells the general, 'nothing will.' Monteith approves the plan, thanking Wainwright for his tremendous efforts in this war. 'I imagine there'll be some medals for you after this is all said and done, Mark.' Wainwright doesn't seem too enthused by the prospect, and Monteith asks him why. 'I've soured a bit on the whole idea of honor and glory, sir. Most of me now just wants revenge, and an end to all of this.' Monteith says, 'I understand, Mark. Hopefully, this plan will bring you that which you want, as well as that which you don't need.'

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

In 1999 Walton Ray Thermopolous, a London industrialist who is high among the Illuminati, is granted an audience with Queen Gwen of Britain. She dismisses all her aides before speaking with him, "so that we may be as frank as necessary". Once alone, she presents him with what she says is an easy choice - "Support me, Walton, and the entire Illuminati is ours. I've crushed most of them already, but you I want on my side. Your organization will be useful to me." Thermopolous is worried about crossing his masters, and says so. Queen Gwen derides his fear of the ancient organization. "They are nothing, now. I drive them before me like cattle to the slaughter. I offer you the chance to be one of the drivers, rather than the cattle." The frightened businessman reluctantly accepts the queen's offer, and severs his ties with his old masters to throw his support behind her.

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

In 1962 in Richmond Virginia, the New Orleans R&B artist Chris Kenner was found guilty as charged under new Confederate anti-obscenity laws.

Sixteen dances are specifically mentioned by the song: the Pony, the Chicken, the Mashed Potato, the Alligator, the Watusi, the Twist, the Fly, the Jerk, the Tango, the Yo-Yo, the Sweet Pea, the Hand jive, the Slop, the Bop, the Fish and the Popeye.

And most of the lyrics to "Land of a Thousand Dances" were subject to non-sordid interpretation, "Chicken in the pot" being an example cited by the defence.

Roll over on your back, I like it like that. Do that Jerk-uh, watch me work y'allBut "Roll over on your back, I like it like that" was just too bawdy, revealing the unmistakeable sexual undertones of the song. Listen to the Wilson Pickett Version

Worse would follow. In 1968 Kenner was convicted of statutory rape of a minor, and spent three years in Louisiana's Angola prison. Never a compelling live performer, profligate with the considerable money he earned from his songwriting, and given to drink, Kenner never again equalled his early successes. Kenner died from a heart attack in 1976, at the age of 46.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-10

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

This day was uneventful across all dimensions. It is being studied by alternate historians for its singularity.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-10

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

In 2008 all three opposition parties in the House of Commons passed a motion urging the government to allow U.S. military deserters and their families to remain in Canada as permanent residents - instead of deporting them to face possible jail time.
The motion passed 137-110, but it is non-binding. Initially ordered to leave the country by June 12, U.S. war resister Corey Glass is expected to remain in Canada for at least another month. The former American soldier was set to become the first Iraq War resister to be deported from Canada.
The informal policy was established by precedent. In 1780, turncoat general Benedict Arnold was granted entry into Canada after fleeing the revolutionary cause in the US. Canada has indeed pursued a policy of studied neutrality, with Foreign Ministers such as Lester B. Pearson promoting forward thinking policies to subdue tension througout the world.
Canada has of course played no part in US military adventures in the first decade of the twenty-first century, objecting to the principle of rogue state rollback. Despite this, the US Government is now putting Canada under intense pressure to forcibly repatriate U.S. military deserters from the wars in Iraq, Iran and North Korea.

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

On this day in 2006, Barbaro won the Belmont Stakes to become the first horse in 28 years to win thoroughbred racing's Triple Crown.

It was the closest finish in the Belmont's history, with Barbaro beating runner-up Jazil by less than a quarter of a length.

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

On this day in 2018, the third CSI movie reached the 200 million USD mark at the box office.

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

On this day in 1968, the New York Times published a story about the Red Cross-sponsored "Mercy Convoys" of volunteers from the United States, Canada, and Australia who'd come to Britain to aid the survivors of the Birmingham nuclear strike.

The story would later earn its author a Peabody award nomination.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-10

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

In 1940 Italy declared war on the Western powers and entered WW2. On paper it was an act of idiocy. Their military was unready. Their colonies were not properly provisioned. The bulk of their merchant marine was at sea and thus immediately lost to the British. The sole intelligent reason for this act was a cool calculation that France was about to fall. Reasoning that the British Empire would not fight on without its continental sword (the French Army), Italy expected there to be a peace conference. Their few weeks of combat would buy them a seat at the conference, which in turn would probably result in Italy picking up some new colonial territory, and, perhaps, some border adjustments with France or Yugoslavia.

Needless to say, the calculation was completely in error. The war would cost Italy all of her colonies and the destruction of the body of the country when it became a war zone for the final two years of the European struggle. All of this would occur because of a miscalculation in British intentions. Let us presume that Churchill took time out from the chaos of France's collapse to make VERY clear to the Italians that this was the end of a phase of the war, rather than an end of the war. Let us presume that the French made some minor territorial concessions to Italy (the Azzou strip in northern Chad and some Saharan sand on the Libyan - Algerian border). Italy stays neutral.

The early changes in the war are subtle. The later are far grander.

There are no changes in the Battle of Britain or Battle of the Atlantic. Italy made little contribution to either. Britain would have needed large naval forces to watch a neutral Italy whose government was capable of intervention at any moment. However, there are no campaigns in North Africa, Greece, Syria, Iraq or East Africa. The British Army does not suffer these losses or gain this combat experience. Except for commando raids, Britain is not engaged in a ground war between the Fall of France and Pearl Harbor. The RAF does not have to build a Desert Air Force. The troops and planes not so used are available to garrison Burma and Malaya. We will return to the results of this shortly.Rommel's three divisions are a minor addition to the invasion of Russia. The addition of the air elements sent to the Mediterranean is more noticeable. The biggest difference is the absence of a Balkan campaign. In OTL, Italy invades Greece in 1940. They fail miserably at it. This forces Germany to take a Balkan detour that winds up including Yugoslavia and Crete. In this TL none of this occurs. Yugoslavia and Bulgaria are forced into the Tripartite Pact over the winter of 1940-41 on very mild terms. No German garrisons are needed in either. Greece is allowed its neutrality as long as trade with Germany is continued (same as Turkey and Sweden in OTL).

In OTL the Balkan adventure postponed Barbarossa by two weeks and added much wear and tear on the trucks and men making the long roundtrip. It bled off a German army (12th) left behind in garrisons from Belgrade to Athens. It also destroyed the German airborne forces on Crete.

A two week earlier start does not take Moscow or win the war in 1941. Neither the ten extra divisions (DAK plus 12th Army) nor the fewer vehicle breakdowns make Moscow any nearer to Warsaw and Konigsburg. A German win in 1941 requires a very different set of changes than Italian neutrality. However, the extra two weeks do see a German Army less burned out when it is repulsed before (or perhaps in the streets of) Moscow in early December of 1941. At each of the three German advances, the rear has been better swept (fewer Red Army remnants to form partisans), the supply forces have had a little more time to do their work, and the giant number of abandoned weapons have been better collected.

To do we will add an Italian Expeditionary Force ( say six divisions of Blackshirts and Young Fascists, which is what was sent to Spain in the 1930's). Italy does not declare war on Russia. These are ?volunteers' like the Spanish Blue Division (party to party as opposed to state to state to use the usual Communist terminology). To this will be added a Corps of White Russian volunteers from Yugoslavia, also under Italian command. These men are neither trained nor armed for frontline service. However, they are quite capable of policing up the vast hordes of Russian prisoners captured in the great encirclement battles of 1941. The Italians will drive this herd to the railheads, where they are shipped to Italy as war booty (slaves). A good bit of Russian equipment will follow, bringing the Italian military to a less unready state. The Italians also lack the German racial hatred of the Easterners. They will extensively recruit among the prisoners and locals. The net effect is that the eight Italo-Yugoslav divisions will be almost to corps strength each by the end of 1941.

So the retreat from Moscow never develops into the semicollapse of OTL. This results in fewer German losses, higher Russian ones and an earlier burnout of the Russian offensive. Part of this is the large Italian force garrisoning the towns to the rear of Army Group Center. Part of this is the better state of the German lines of communication and depots. The largest single change is that Kesselring's Second Air Fleet does not have to be pulled out of Belarus to bail out the Desert War.

So the spring - summer of 1942 finds a marginally stronger German Army in the East and a marginally weaker Russian one. We will return to the effects of this after our Asiatic detour promised above.

In OTL an overstretched British Empire made the decision to give priority to absolutely everything over the defense of Burma, Malaya, the East Indies and the South Seas (Australia, New Zealand, etc.). Without a North African war, the best of the Indian Army and the bulk of the Anzac forces are not in the Mediterranean. As is, Malaya and Burma were near run things. In this TL, the initial assaults on Malaya and Burma are repulsed.

The East Indies will still fall, but more slowly. It will take until the end of 1942 to finish them and Malaya off. Burma will stay in Allied hands. Now the results of this will seem perverse. A better British general in Singapore, a larger British Fleet, and a much larger RAF contingent will mean that in the end the British Empire will lose many more ships, men and planes. Essentially, the British simply couldn't stand up to the Japanese Navy or Air Force in this period. A Cunningham or Auchinlek in Singapore in place of Wavell and Percival could blunt the Japanese Army and bleed them badly. He could not change the air-naval equation. That equation determined the ultimate logistical result of the campaign.

However, with the Japanese carrier fleet tied up taking the East Indies and Malaya, Japan never gets "victory disease". In OTL they were wildly successful at first. This caused them to get overconfident and change their strategy. Instead of fortifying their conquests and waiting to attrit the American counterattack, they attacked in all directions. The result was a series of campaigns (Coral Sea, Midway, Solomons, Papua - New Guinea) that basically destroyed the elite prewar naval and air units.

Instead here the much slower initial advance keeps them in their proper hedgehog. This will make the Pacific War much longer and bloodier. It will also means that Bataan lasts somewhat longer as the Japanese concentrate on finishing off the East Indies first. This gets more US ground and air units sent to Australia. However, it also means that after securing Australia, Port Mosby, Guadalcanal and the South Sea string of bases, the Pacific War essentially grinds to a halt in early 1943. Until America's new carrier fleet becomes available in 1944, the Allies lack the power to go further. So 1943 is a sea - air sparring contest in which neither side takes major risks.

Back to Russia: the primary problem with the German summer offensive is again geography plus the higher command's insanity in conducting a street fight in Stalingrad. This will not change. However, the equipment seized in 1941 will make the Italian 8th and Hungarian 2nd Armies marginally stronger. It will also provide marginally more reserves behind the Rumanians. Stalingrad will still be encircled. The retreat from the Caucasus will still be necessary.

What will be different then is that there will not be a companion disaster in North Africa. The Allied occupation of French Northwest Africa will open the Mediterranean more easily to Allied shipping. It will not require a Panzer Army to be sent to Tunis or 60% of Germany's long-range aircraft. Instead those units will be available to the Don Front. There will be no breakout from Stalingrad (Hitler wouldn't have permitted it). There will be less of a Russian advance and a bigger backhand blow by Manstein. On the margin the Germans will be stronger, the Russians weaker.

Without a Mediterranean front in 1942-43, the Allies will not be able to withstand Russian pressure to do something besides air raids. In OTL the Allies fought major 1943 campaigns in Burma, New Guinea, the Solomons, Tunis, Sicily and southern Italy. None of those happen here. Instead there is a May 1943 invasion of France.

There is no Atlantic Wall. The defenses of the beaches between the major ports was Rommel's doing in late 1943-44. So the invasion force gets ashore more easily. There is a smaller German garrison in France so the lodgment goes more easily and Cherbourg falls faster. The good luck ends there. Germany has more reserves and is less heavily attrited is this TL. The American and British armies are much greener. There is no Normandy breakout.

Instead there is a slow attritional grind forward, with the Combined Bomber Force being repeatedly used in a ground support role to blow holes in the German lines (of the type from the Cobra attack in OTL). This in turn destroys the German Air Force faster as the attritional fighter battles take place nearer to England. Instead of the Lw fighter arm collapsing in the first months of 1944, it is bled to death here in the summer and fall of 1943 over France.

Normandy does appear to help the Russians. The Kursk offensive is never made. This actually hurts. Without Kursk and without an Italian front soaking up two German armies (and the defection of Italian forces in Yugoslavia soaking up two more), the Germans have sufficient reserves to make the reconquest of Ukraine slower and more expensive. The disparity of forces and the ongoing drain of Normandy means they lose, but in takes all of 1944 to clear Ukraine and retake Smolensk (one year behind OTL).

In the meantime, by the end of 1943 the Western Allies have cut off Brittany and enlarged their bridgehead to the Lower Seine but are nowhere near Paris. The bomber attacks on the western German cities are much less than OTL but still enough to cause pain. Speer hits on the idea of relocating some plants to Italy to take advantage of its neutral status. Italy has no air raids, a friendly government and those millions of Russian POW's as force laborers. It has also taken in millions of other refugees from the Nazis so it has the potential for major industrial production given German help with machine tools, technicians, etc. Italy begins force draft industrialization. The Allies are angry but do not need another front.

The Allies spend 1944 clearing France to the Somme and Meuse, aided by secondary invasions in Calais and Provence. In the Pacific, the Japanese get their predicted climatic naval battles in the Marianas. Essentially both fleets destroy each other while the American ground forces take the islands at extremely high cost. This is what happened in OTL in the Solomons. Then, as here, the US can build more ships and Japan cannot. So we have no major offensive in the southwest Pacific or Burma, but rather bloodbaths at Wake, the Marianas and Iwo, followed by a submarine blockade of Japan. Japan will still make its 1944-45 offensive in China that drives Chiang effectively out of the war. The difference here is that with the Burma Road open, a substantial part of the Chinese Army retreats in northern Burma, where the Allies rebuild and retrain it (Chiang will have many times as many top notch divisions in the Chinese Civil War).

1945 sees the Allies slog forward to and across the Rhine. Stalin's forces take Rumania, Belarus and the Baltic States but come up short at the Vistula and East Prussian border. The Combined Bomber force keeps hammering the German transport net and synthetic petrol facilities. Starting in August they have nukes to add - 3 the first month and two a month thereafter. By the end of 1945, Germany still has two coherent fronts, but is bleeding to death internally. Jets, V-2's and other wonder weapons cannot make up for a collapsed industrial and transport base, no food and no fuel for the weapons. The German resistance starts to fragment in early 1946. Stalin still wins the race to Berlin (May 1946) but the West beats him to Prague and Vienna. The war in Europe ends in June of 1946 without a formal surrender. Millions of Germans and Hungarians seek sanctuary in Italy. WW2 in Europe ends with an extra ten million dead, far more damage and a much stronger Italy with a correspondingly weaker Britain, France and Russia.

In the Pacific, 1945 has seen the Americans take Okinowa and Pusan to tighten the blockade of Japan. American fire bombers have leveled the cities. Millions of Japanese have starved. However, the major ground offensives we had in the Pacific have been diverted to meet the needs of a longer and far more expensive European campaign. By early 1946 the Japanese Court and most of the Army Higher command have relocated to the Asian mainland to escape the famine in the Home Islands. The social structure of the abandoned Japanese homeland disintegrates. The Emperor dies in an air raid on Munkden. The Army fights on. We and the Russians redeploy from Europe. When the Russian invasion of Manchuria destroys the main Japanese armies (August 1946), the Home Islands surrender to us. Japan does not end the war so much as disintegrate. By now the death toll from starvation and disease is over ten million. Russia overruns North China and most of Korea. They set up friendly regimes (Mao and Kim) keeping the lands they have taken. Chiang essentially gets the Yangtse Valley and the South. He spends the balance of the decade suppressing Maoists in his zone. China is effectively partitioned.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-09

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

In 1803 President John Adams received a communique from Napoleon of France that the territory of Louisiana was available for purchase to the United States. After much deliberation, Adams turned down Napoleon's offer, feeling America needed no further territory to the west.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-09

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

In 1866 President Lincoln of the United States of America pulled all Union troops north of the Mason-Dixon Line. Jefferson Davis pulled Confederate troops south of that border, and the uneasy cold war of the 2 Americas began.

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

In 1947 [CENSORED].

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Creative Zen Straha — 1970-01-01T00:00:00+01:00

In 1803 President John Adams received a communique from Napoleon of France that the territory of Louisiana was available for purchase to the United States. The 'Little Corporal' was focusing on the continent, where a Napoleonic French Empire dominated Europe until the collapse of 1848. At the time of writing, the Empire has declined to the point where other continental European power have displaced France as the leading power.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-09

H. Torrance Griffin — 1970-01-01T00:00:00+01:00

In 1979 the second Cricket World Cup was hosted by England, held from June 7 to June 23, 1979 in England. The Prudential Cup was lifted by Clive Lloyd, captain of the West Indies who started as the favorites to win the cup again. Political controversy had dogged the event, with the decision by the International Cricket Council to invite both South Africa and Rhodesia. The Islamic Republic of Bangladesh (formerly Dominion of Bengal) and the Sikh Republic of the Punjab both withdrew from the event in protest.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-09

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

In 1983 Margaret Thatcher of the Conservatives failed to secure a second term election victory, and Labour Leader Michael Foot will now be invited by the Queen to form a new Government. The 'Straw Lady' had been defeated by the trades union movement, and the disasterous Falklands Conflict as Britain's long national decline entered rapid acceleration mode. Michael Foot said that the country must now move forward, cautioning that a great deal of damage to prestige and relations had been done by four years of misrule; 'She's taken the Great out of Britain' he said.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-09

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

In 1983 Margaret Thatcher's Conservative Party has won a landslide second term election victory, taking 397 seats to Labour's 209. The SDP Liberal Alliance, fighting its first national contest, won just 23 seats under the 'first-past-the-post' electoral system, despite receiving nearly as many votes as Labour. Mrs Thatcher announced the forthcoming parliament would have a 'heavy programme', featuring some of the bills which fell before the election. She also pledged to re-organise local authorities and to introduce bills on trade unions and rates. Parliament is to meet for the first time next week, when the speaker of the House will be sworn in. The prime minister said her first priority for the new term would be to reshuffle her cabinet. She insisted it would reflect a range of political views, saying, 'I haven't been extreme for the last four years and I'm not extreme now.' Defeated Labour Party leader Michael Foot described the result as a tragedy for the country. He said: 'I agree with those who said the fight to win the next election starts immediately and of course I accept, to the full, my responsibilities in this election.' Mr Foot strongly attacked the SDP for siphoning support away from Labour - giving more seats to the Conservatives. The SDP Liberal Alliance blamed Britain's 'winner takes all' electoral system on its failure to convert its significant electoral support into seats in parliament. David Steel said: 'I feel a real sense of outrage at the vast number of votes we picked up with so little to show for it in the way of seats.'

Margaret Thatcher Britain's first woman prime minister. Thatcher was the Home Secretary who served Interim Prime Minister Lord Louis Mountbatten's Cabinet. Her acheivements in defeating the trades union whilst in this role won praise throughout the country, enabling Mountbatten to accelerate plans for a return to civilian government. Mountbatten himself was assassinated three months later.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-09

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

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

In 1915 Secretary of State William Jennings Bryan threatened to resign if President Wilson continued his policy of antagonizing the German government. Wilson had wanted to warn the Germans of dire consequences should they continue their policy of submarine attacks such as the one that sank the Lusitania, killing over a thousand people, among whom were 128 American citizens. Secretary Bryan felt that a smoother diplomatic approach would gain the desired effect of halting the sub attacks, as well as stave off war between the US and Germany. Bryan felt that the European war waging at that moment was not America's concern, but knew that Wilson was eager to extend American influence by joining it. Faced with the prospect of the loss of such a prestigious member of his cabinet, Wilson relented, and Secretary Bryan negotiated compensation for the American victims of the Lusitania and an agreement to halt future such attacks on civilian ships. This agreement only lasted 2 years, but by that time Secretary Bryan was already starting the Reykjavik Talks to end the war in Europe.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-09

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

In 1983 the Labour Party win the UK general election and leader Michael Foot begins Unilateral Nuclear Disarmament. Britain emerges unscathed from a limited nuclear war in 1989, which has left much of the world destroyed. Trouble is an extreme fascist party called Norsefire has arisen and is now the ruling power. 'V', an anarchist revolutionary dressed in a Guy Fawkes mask, begins an elaborate, violent, and theatrical campaign to bring down the government.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-09

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

In 1865 Charles John Huffam Dickens - better known as the notorious terrorist known "Boz" orchestrated the Staplehurst rail crash, a disaster within a disaster.
The first seven carriages of the train plunged off a cast iron bridge that was being repaired. The only first-class carriage to remain on the track was the one in which Dickens was travelling, disguised as a bourgeous author returning from France.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-09

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

In 1953 Dr. Sidney Gottlieb approved an MKULTRA subproject on LSD in this June 9 letter - the earliest recorded official approval of the CIA mind control research program that began in 1950, run by the Office of Scientific Intelligence.

Headed by Dr. Gottlieb, MKULTRA was started on the order of CIA director Allen Dulles on April 13, 1953, largely in response to alleged Soviet, Chinese, and North Korean use of mind-control techniques on U.S. prisoners of war in Korea. The CIA wanted to use similar methods on their own captives. The CIA was also interested in being able to manipulate foreign leaders with such techniques, and would later invent the scheme which turned Fidel Castro.

A secretive arrangement granted a percentage of the CIA budget. The MKULTRA director was granted six percent of the CIA operating budget in 1953, without oversight or accounting. It was money well spent, the free world could not have affored a nuclear armed island just off the coast of Florida.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-09

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

In 1954 Wisconsin Senator Joseph R. McCarthy, feeling bruised by his treatment at the hands of Army special counsel Joseph N. Welch of the Boston law firm Hale & Boggs during Congress's televised investigation of McCarthy's efforts to secure special privileges for his aide G. David Schine, who has been drafted, violates a pre-hearing agreement and accuses a young lawyer at that firm of Communist sympathies. When Welch scolds him, asking if he 'has left no sense of decency,' and tries to cut him off, McCarthy refuses to allow himself to be silenced. Instead, he demands, 'By what right do you, sir, whose legal firm harbors enemies of this country, ask if I possess a sense of decency? What sense of decency is it, sir, which drives you to stand in the way of rooting out Communists, wherever they may hide?'

It is a crucial moment. McCarthy is cheered by many of the onlookers in the hearing chamber, and Welch is thrown off balance. Moreover, the Wisconsin Senator comes across to the TV audience as a bold, tough patriot, while his opponent, according to man-on-the-street interviews conducted for television over the next few days, appears 'stuck-up,' 'bullying' and even 'whiny.' After this, talk of Joe McCarthy as a presidential candidate intensifies.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-09

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

On this day in 1944, the last pockets of German resistance in the French Mediterranean port of Toulon surrendered to Allied troops. In northern France, American and British artillery began shelling German defensive positions near the city of Rouen.

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

In 1912 Carla Lambert, after a 6-month absence from the public eye, returned to the front pages with news that she had adopted a young baby boy. The boy's name, Thomas Edison Lambert, practically confirmed the rumors that she and Thomas Edison were having an affair.

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

In 1964 Comrade President Gus Hall received the Communist Party's full endorsement for reelection. Comrade Hall had taken over from former President Rosenberg when Rosenberg was assassinated in Dallas the year before.

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

In 1984 John Lennon, an obscure musician who had once been in a band with international sensation Pete Best, writes a tell-all book about Best, detailing their crazy life in Hamburg, Germany, and their rough-and-tumble beginnings in Liverpool, England. The book, I Want To Tell You, is an international best-seller.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-09

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

In 1990 Fascists are swept from power in Italy, and Germany sends troops in. The overburdened Nazis, besieged on every front, will lose power by the fall, but not without hundreds of thousands of casualties.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-09

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

In 2000 the forces of galactic justice begin sifting the rubble of earth's solar system to ensure that He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named is truly gone.

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

In 1688 on this day Edward VII (1688-1702) accepted the terms of Parliament, in regards to the new Act of Accession, in order to take the Crown.

In doing so, Oliver Cromwell (pictured) of the Richards Line was rejected & the Henris would continue to be the main Royal Lineage until the establishment of the Kingdom of America.

Unlike Henry IX rule, Edward?s was a rather quiet affair. British trade, on the other hand, began to dominate the region & was the firm foundation for the future British Empire.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-08

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

In 1941 the night before the Allied invasion of Syria and Lebanon Moshe Dayan's unit crossed the border and secured two bridges over the Litani River. When they were not relieved as expected, at 04:00 on June 8, the unit perceived that it was exposed to possible attack and - on its own initiative - assaulted a nearby Vichy police station, capturing it in a firefight. A few hours later, as Dayan was using binoculars they were struck by a French bullet, propelling metal and glass fragments into his left eye and causing severe damage to it. Six hours passed before he could be evacuated and Dayan died of blood loss. On the recommendation of an Australian officer, he received the Distinguished Service Order, one of the British Commonwealth's highest military honours.

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

In 1959 the USS Barbero and United States Postal Service attempt the delivery of mail via Missile Mail. The Missile would land by deploying an internal parachute upon arrival. It has been attempted by various organisations in many different countries, with varying levels of success. The collection of philatelic material used for (and depicting) rocket mail is a specialist branch of aerophilately known as astrophilately. Until the late 1950s, the idea was treated with derision due to the cost of the schemes and numerous failures. However the 1957 Dropshot War with Russia and China had rendered radioactive many parts of the continental United States, seriously inhibiting conventional forms of transportation. Perversely, astrophilately was an idea whose time had come around, mostly as a result of the nuclear missile.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-08

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

In 684 the barbarian cult leader known as The Beast leads a raid against a small Christian settlement in central Europe. He demands that all of the inhabitants of the village renounce the Christian god and wear his mark on their forehead or hand, or he will put everyone in the village to death. The town pastor refuses, and is cruelly slain; the rest of the village acquiesces, and the triple-6 is tattooed on the 70 people of the village. The Beast leaves them alone after this, but other Christians shy away from doing business with the village; the triple-6 strikes fear in the hearts of villagers hundreds of miles away. A mission is sent to Rome to request the aid of the Pope in defending people from this heretic.

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

In 1949 the People's Bureau of Investigation announces that a large number of Hollywood stars - including such luminaries as Emanuel Goldenberg, Ernest Bickel, Paul Robeson and Dorothy Rothschild - had been members of, or were sympathetic to, capitalist organizations. The announcement sent a shock wave through the comrades in the entertainment industry, and many on the list pleaded youthful curiosity as an excuse for these anti-American activities. Goldenberg, however, attacked the report, saying, 'These rantings, ravings, accusations, smearing, and character assassinations can only emanate from sick, diseased minds of people who rush to the press with indictments of good Soviet American comrades. I have played many parts in my life, but no part have I played better or been more proud of than that of being an American citizen.'

Blog Entry from 2008-06-08

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

From 1945 onwards, people who met Kurt Vonnegut often asked him what he was working on. Vonnegut usually replied that the main thing was a book about Dresden.

He said that to Harrison Starr, the movie-maker, one time, and he raised his eyebrows and inquired, 'Is it an anti-war book?'
'Yes,' I said. 'I guess.'
'You know what I say to people when I hear they're writing anti-war books?'
'No. What do you say, Harrison Starr?'
'I say, 'Why don't you write an anti-glacier book instead?''
What he meant, of course, was that there would always be wars, that they were as easy to stop as glaciers. I believe that too. And, even if wars didn't keep coming like glaciers, there would still be plain old death.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-08

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

In 1977 in Petros, Tennessee an inmate asked James Earl Ray if he wanted 'in' with six other fellows about to bust out of Brushy Mountain State Penitentiary. Ray should have been suspicious. The 'fellon' who had offered him a 'job' (robbery) in Memphis in 1968 used very similiar coded language.

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

In 1977 agents at The Division learnt that James Earl Ray wanted 'in' on the bust at Brushy Mountain State Penitentiary. A number of issues had been worrying senior case file officers and they were keen to close the book on the case before the United States House Select Committee on Assassinations could ask too many questions. Small things, like James Earl Ray couldn't shoot. Jesse Jackson wasn't on the balcony. The 'musicians' in the parking lot that Jackson WAS talking to could not be accounted for. Minor details like that. Dallas had told them that the best way to silence witnesses was a bullett, no doubt about it.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-08

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

In 1999 Thomas Harris' historical novel Hannibal hits the bookstores, sparking a wave of interest in the ancient Carthaginian leader, especially after a film was made of the novel in 2001. This hit followed Harris' other takes on Chinese history with the bestseller Red Dragon and his blockbuster about Christian persecution in ancient Rome, The Silence of the Lambs. Although seemingly an overnight sensation after Lambs, Harris had been quietly toiling in historical fiction for years. His first major breakthrough was a novel about the black plague called Black Sunday, released in '75, which caught the attention of the reading public and paved the way for many other historical thrillers to come.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-08

Amina Arraf, Christopher Lee — 1970-01-01T00:00:00+01:00

In 1564 the English delivered crucial support to the Huguenots in the Wars of Religion and by judicious bribes are able to persuade Catherine de Medici and one of her sickly sons to carry out the Huguenot-inspired scheme (Prince of Conde's idea) to reunite France by attacking the common enemy, Spain. With the aim being to smash Spain's hold on the provinces and before the decisive defeat of Protestantism in modern Belgium the English grab some coastal provinces whilst the French take Brabant, Luxembourg, etc. The landscape of Europe was changed, with a weakened Spain, a stronger France and a Protestant super-bloc of English Flanders with a friendly Protestant UNited Provinces to the north.

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

In 1968 an American citizen was arrested in London in connection with avoiding the draft. James Earl Ray is being questioned by police after he was arrested by Scotland Yard officers at Heathrow Airport as he tried to board a flight to Brussels. He was charged at Cannon Row police station with possessing a forged passport and having a firearm without a certificate. The Justice Department in Washington announced it would be seeking Ray's extradition.

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

On this day in 2014 the feature film adaptation of Jerry Bruckheimer's TV crime drama CSI was released in Britain and Ireland. The movie would begin its continental European run three weeks later.

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

In 1891 Lt. Colonel Mark Wainwright's forces in Kansas City receive good and bad news - the bad news is that General Monteith was forces to abandon Topeka, Kansas to the rebels. The good news is that Monteith is on his way to Kansas City. This news quickly spreads through the streets in the border town, and rebels begin abandoning the town in droves. Wainwright almost has the town under control by the time that Monteith arrives to mop up. The general arrives very determined to return to Kansas' capitol, and wants Wainwright to spend his every waking moment in planning to make it happen. 'That city will be mine, Mr. Wainwright.' The colonel vows, 'I shall expend all my resources to make it so, general.'

Blog Entry from 2008-06-08

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

In 1999 an assassin attacks King Arthur II of Great Britain as he rests in his Welsh retreat with Queen Gwen. His Majesty is stabbed several times by the man that everyone assumes is sent by the Central European Empire's vestiges, and is flown to London just before lapsing into a coma. Queen Gwen goes on television to announce to the nation, in a tear-filled voice, that 'no matter what these villains may do, no matter the atrocity that they perpetrate on those we love, we shall never rest, we shall never relent in our holy task to bring them to justice, and to cast them down from the command of nations.' Her stirring words rally the nation and send her personal popularity soaring. She is now in effective command of the country, and she pursues the war against her old masters ruthlessly, scouring them from the face of Europe wherever they are found.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-08

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

In 1783 the Laki volcano in Iceland was contained by Mlosh technology as it erupted. The thousands of people near the volcano were profoundly grateful to the Mlosh, and from that point on, had a warm relationship with their alien neighbors.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-08

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

In 1880 Communist Party Chairman Chester A. Arthur is chosen as the party's presidential candidate. Arthur goes on to win the general election, but loses the White House after one term.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-08

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

In 1245 two devout young men of European descent honor Allah by creating a powered aircraft. They name it the Wings of Gabriel; the maiden flight lasts a mere 2 minutes, but is hailed as a great advance by scientists throughout Islam.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-08

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

In 1950 a one-game scoring record was made in a Town Ball game between the Boston Crimson Stockings and the St. Louis Browns. Boston beat St. Louis 19-4.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-08

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

In 1973 football legend Johnny Unitas signed with the San Diego Chargers for what would be his final season. He led the team to the 1974 Super Bowl, winning in overtime against his old team, the Baltimore Colts, 21-17. The great sportsman was then able to retire as a winner.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-08

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

Blog Entry from 2008-06-08

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

In 1973 Fulgencio Batista y Zaldivar, president of Cuba, dies in Havana at the age of seventy-two.
Batista, who had been overthrown in 1959 by revolutionaries under the leadership of Fidel Castro, had been restored to power following the U.S. invasion of that island nation in April 1961 and maintained in office by elections 'supervised' by U.S. troops. His death touches off a scramble, not only for power but for the over $300 million the Cuban leader is believed to have accumulated by means of corrupt business dealings and extortion. Most of the money is apparently hidden in foreign bank accounts.
Batista's leftist archfoe Castro remains at large, still leading the guerrilla movement he had reconstituted following his ouster.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-08

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

In 2007 while doing promotion for heist sequel, Ocean's Thirteen, Andy Garcia laughs off recent rumours of a return to the Corleone crime family: The Godfather Part V? Doubtful! The whole point of the last one was to wrap up Vincent's story, and he's dead, plus I don't really see how you could go further from the story with Bobby DeNiro and Leo DiCaprio in the past - that part kinda just set-up what you see in the first film.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-08

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

In 1886 the Government of Ireland (Home Rule) Bill 1886 narrowly passed through the House of Commons by a margin of 341 for with 311 voting against.

The passage of the act was a personal triumph for Liberal Prime Minister William Gladstone (pictured) who had beseeched parliament to grant Home Rule to Ireland in honour rather than being compelled to one day in humiliation. And yet the result was not due to his famous Irish Home Rule speech, rather the fruit of his decision to engage both Irish MPs and his own ministers for participation in the drafting of the text.

"Think, I beseech you, think well, think wisely, think, not for the moment, but for the years that are to come, before you reject this Bill"The reaction from Unionists and the Orange Order was even more fierce than expected; their belief that the Roman Catholic Church would gain political control over their interests led to the coining of the term "Rome Rule". Because as his carriage rumbled over the cobblestones of Palace Yard that evening, William Gladstone was shot dead by an unmarked gunman.

"Ireland! Ireland! That Coming Storm!"The Ulster Unionist Leader Colonel Saunderson scribbled a note to his wife saying "Rome Rule is dead, but not yet buried". And the day of humiliation that Gladstone had predicted was not long in coming, although utterly different to what he imagined. Because as party leaders paid tribute to his open coffin in Westminister Hall, a brisk trade in chamberpots displaying his image was reported in Belfast.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-07

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

In 1967 during the Six Day War heavy fighting ensued in the City of Jerusalem. Glubb Pasha's Arab Legion entered the Old City of Jerusalem via the Lion's Gate, and captured the Western Wall and the Temple Mount. As the IDF fled the City, King Hussein of Jordan asked Glubb 'Why do we want this Vatican?' a prescient statement that predicted forty years of Arab-Israeli conflict.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-07

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

In 1893 Indian revolutionary Mohandas K. Gandhi organizes a guerilla cell in South Africa to struggle against the government there. Fueled by his hatred of the British, and his successes in warfare in South Africa, Gandhi returned to his homeland and ignited violent rebellion there. His name was forever after linked with violent resistance to colonial government.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-07

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

In 1976 hot off the success of American Graffiti, director George Lucas begins work on a science fiction film that he has written himself, based on old film serials. Unfortunately for him, and everyone involved, the picture runs horribly over-budget and the studio barely advertises it at all. The name Star Wars becomes synonymous with movie failure from that point on.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-07

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

In 1988 Senator Gary Hart of Colorado secures the Democratic nomination for the presidency. Much mud has been slung at the Senator, but the public doesn't seem to see anything bad about him. In the general election, with Texas senator Lloyd Benson at his side, he demolishes the unpopular Republican candidate, Vice-President Gerald Ford.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-07

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

In 1997 a condom manufacturer delivers a small case of its product to the White House. The rest of Bill Clinton's second term is quietly uneventful.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-07

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

In 1377 Malik al-Hajj al-Shabazz rises to lead the people of Africa to independence from Islam. While professing adoration of the Prophet and Allah, al-Shabazz says that subservience to other men is not the destiny of the African. His message resonates with oppressed people throughout Islam.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-07

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

In 682 the young prophet known only as The Beast brings his followers out of Rome, where the Christians have become fearful of his strength. Those who would reject the One God and follow the old pagan ways are drawn to his promise of a paradise in this life rather than the next. The church fathers, for whom this life was already a paradise, sensed that his paradise would involve much discomfort for them. A proclamation went out that The Beast was a heretic and blasphemer, and all good Christians were to shun him. With this death sentence hanging over his head, The Beast traveled to the north with his band of followers and started converting the northern barbarians to his cult.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-07

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

In 1977 Dade County, Florida's anti-discrimination law, which explicitly included homosexuals as a protected minority, narrowly escaped repeal in an initiative led by singer Anita Bryant. Enraged at this defeat, Ms. Bryant crusaded across the country in a successful effort to halt other so-called gay rights laws from being enacted. America's homosexual community banded together because of this attack on their civil rights, and formed the Dignity Watch, which worked to elect homosexual leaders into political positions to advance their cause. In spite of Ms. Bryant's strident attacks, they managed to elect Key West Mayor Alfonso Rivera governor of Florida in the 1988 election, and soon had their own caucus in Congress. In 1997, Ms. Bryant finally gave up her struggle against homosexual rights and made a statement that she had been wrong to fight Dignity Watch all those years.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-07

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

In 1989 British author Salman Rushdie died on this day. With due regard for Sharia Law, Iranian Muslim leader Ayatollah Khomeini had issued a binding fatwa to Rushdie and his publishers over the book Satanic Verses. The book contained highly disrespectful and inappropriate statements regarding Allah, and it was only right that Rushie should be sentenced by Allah's agents of this World.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-07

Josh (Aron Gamyell) — 1970-01-01T00:00:00+01:00
In 1942 the lizard-like aliens known as 'the Race' arrived to find a North America torn between the Union and the Confederacy.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-07

Eric Lipps — 1970-01-01T00:00:00+01:00
In 1821 Joseph Bonaparte, who has been forced to flee Spain in the face of a Bourbonist uprising, arrives in Marseilles, where he will remain under the protection of his nephew Napoleon II. His supporters, backed by a French army under Marshal Joachim Murat, will fight for his restoration as the 'rightful monarch' of Spain. Spanish Crown Prince Ferdinand, the son of Spain's King Charles IV, has other ideas. Charles, who had been deposed by Napoleon in 1810 and had died in exile in Mexico, had spent years impressing on his son the idea that he was the rightful heir to the Spanish throne. With Napoleon gone and Joseph Bonaparte ousted by rebels loyal to Charles's dynasty, Ferdinand is determined to take up his father's crown.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-07

Chris Oakley — 1970-01-01T00:00:00+01:00
On this day in 1973, author Stephen King visited Rose Red, the one-time home of the Rimbauer family, to explore first-hand the grounds where Seattle society woman Ellen Rimbauer had disappeared in 1948.

The visit was part of research for his books Jerusalem's Lot and Rose Red.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-07

Robbie Taylor — 1970-01-01T00:00:00+01:00
In 1891 'Sockless' Jerry Simpson sends back General Theodore Monteith's truce messenger with a one-word message: 'Nuts.' Monteith prepares for a retreat out of Topeka, telling his men, 'We'll be back. Have no doubt in your mind about that; we'll be back, and this will soon be over.' He manages to leave Kansas' capitol with surprisingly few casualties; most historians of the era feel that Simpson let Monteith leave without undue resistance because he wanted to preserve his own forces against any coming Union onslaught. Allowing Monteith to retreat unmolested proved a disaster for his comrades in Kansas City, where the general headed to relieve his chief aide, Lt. Colonel Mark Wainwright, who was in a hard fight in the border town.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-07

Todayinah Editor — 1970-01-01T00:00:00+01:00
I had to escape the city was sticky and cruel maybe I should have called you first
But I was dying to get to you I was dreaming while I drove
The long straight road ahead Uh-huh, yeah
Could taste your sweet kisses, your arms open wide
This fever for you was just burning me up inside
I drove all night to get to you - is that all right? Roy Orbison describing his return to Gallatin, TN on June 7, 1966 ~ the night his wife Claudette narrowly escaped death from a motorcycle accident.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-07

Robbie Taylor — 1970-01-01T00:00:00+01:00
In 1999 Leopold Turkavian, a former soldier of the Central European Empire and current assassin for the Illuminati, breaks into Queen Gwen's bedchambers in her Welsh retreat and attempts to kill her. The queen has other ideas, and fights Turkavian off long enough for her security detail to burst in and finish the man off. She tells them to be ready for more; 'As the last of the Empire falls to us, their agents will grow more desperate. Take care that the king's guard watches him, as well.'

Blog Entry from 2008-06-07

Alternate Historian Robbie Taylor — 1970-01-01T00:00:00+01:00
In 1954 the bestselling car of all time, the Edsel, is introduced in Detroit.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-07

Alternate Historian Robbie Taylor — 1970-01-01T00:00:00+01:00
In 1976 hot off the success of American Graffiti, director George Lucas begins work on a science fiction film that he has written himself, based on old film serials. Unfortunately for him, and everyone involved, the picture runs horribly over-budget and the studio barely advertises it at all. The name Star Wars becomes synonymous with movie failure from that point on.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-07

Alternate Historian Robbie Taylor — 1970-01-01T00:00:00+01:00
In 1988 Senator Gary Hart of Colorado secures the Democratic nomination for the presidency. Much mud has been slung at the Senator, but the public doesn't seem to see anything bad about him. In the general election, with Texas senator Lloyd Benson at his side, he demolishes the unpopular Republican candidate, Vice-President Gerald Ford.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-07

Alternate Historian Robbie Taylor — 1970-01-01T00:00:00+01:00
In 1377 Malik al-Hajj al-Shabazz rises to lead the people of Africa to independence from Islam. While professing adoration of the Prophet and Allah, al-Shabazz says that subservience to other men is not the destiny of the African. His message resonates with oppressed people throughout Islam.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-07

Chris Oakley — 1970-01-01T00:00:00+01:00
On this day in 1934, Francis Urquhart graduated from Philips Exeter Academy in Massachusetts.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-07

Eric Lipps — 1970-01-01T00:00:00+01:00
In 2003 future US President Lieutenant General William G. Boykin addressed an Oregon Church Gathering. The story continues from Part Seven
Appearing in uniform, Boykin stated that enemies like Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein will only be defeated if we come against them in the name of Jesus. Why do they [radical Muslims] hate us? Why do they hate us so much? Ladies and gentlemen, the answer to that is because we're a Christian nation. Boykin recounted the time he chased down a Muslim Somali warlord who was bragging that the Americans would not capture him because Allah would protect him. My God is bigger than his God. I knew my God was a real God, and his was an idol will only be defeated if we come against them in the name of Jesus.
Boykin's remarks stirred much anger in the Muslim world and Islamic organisations within the US were highly critical of the comments and called for his resignation, such as James Zogby, president of the Arab American Institute, and the Council on American-Islamic Relations. Several newspapers, such as Newsweek, carried articles calling for his resignation, while Democrats John Kerry and Joe Lieberman were quick to denounce the remarks. Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman John Warner and Democrat Carl Levin both urged Rumsfeld to launch an investigation. Rep. John Conyers and 26 supporters put forward H. RES. 419 Condemning religiously intolerant remarks and calling on the President to clearly censure and reassign Lieutenant General Boykin. . President George Bush defended the statements, saying that Boykin reflected my point of view and the point of view of this administration. Donald Rumsfeld defended Boykin, describing him as an officer that has an outstanding record in the United States armed forces , and that the War on Terrorism was a war against a religion. He also spoke about the right of freedom of speech.
Marine General Peter Pace, vice-chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff revealed how sad [Boykin] was that his comments created the fury they had. He does not see this battle as a battle between religions, he sees this as a battle between good and evil, the evil being the acts of individuals.
Following this speech, Boykin was promoted to three-star rank and named deputy secretary of defense for intelligence. Pace was wrong about Boykin's comments, they reflected more than just his own views. Soon the Cabal of Officers led by Boykin would grip the US Government, opening the way for the Lieutenant General's election the following year.
The story continues.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-07

Chris Oakley — 1970-01-01T00:00:00+01:00
On this day in 1967, Israeli and Egyptian diplomats signed a peace accord ending the Sinai War.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-07

Chris_Oakley — 1970-01-01T00:00:00+01:00
In 1949 on this day NBC Radio broadcast the debut episode of Arch Oboler's Star Trek; George Reeves, later to catapult to TV fame on Superman, did the voice of Captain Christopher Pike in that episode and would continue portraying the character until he left the series in the spring of 1951.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-07

Andrew Beane — 1970-01-01T00:00:00+01:00
In 1994 at a press conference in London, England on this day actor Sam Neill announced that he had accepted the role of James Bond in the upcoming film GoldenEye, the seventeenth installment of the popular spy films.

Neill, who says he has long wanted to portray the suave superspy, was chosen to replace Pierce Brosnan as the latter was trapped in a contract for the production the delay-proned television movie Night Watch.

The James Bond 007 franchise has been in legal limbo for five years, with MGM's parent company Qintex battling Danjaq for the rights to air future Bond films internationally. This, coupled with Timothy Dalton?s horribly-received stint as the MI6 agent in The Living Daylights and License To Kill, had threatened to retire the series altogether. After the production of The Property of a Lady was delayed for four years, Dalton resigned from his contract to star in a third film in April.

Pierce Brosnan was favored to take the role, which he had been prevented from doing in 1987's The Living Daylights due to his contractual obligations to the television series Remington Steele. There was also minor concern over the use of an Irish actor to portray the traditionally British character, despite the fact that Scottish, Welsh and Australian men had played the role. Neill himself is from New Zealand.

Sam Neill, 47, is best known for his roles in The Hunt For Red October (1990), The Memoirs of an Invisible Man (1992), and last summer's blockbuster Jurassic Park. He also starred in the television mini-series Amerika, about a Soviet-dominated United States in the future. Neill has been an actor and director since 1975, and says that notable British actor James Mason was his mentor.

Goldeneye, the first Bond film since the end of the Cold War, is set for release in 1995, and is expected to take place primarily in former-Soviet Russia.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-07

Raymond Speer — 1970-01-01T00:00:00+01:00
In 2010 Ms. Helen Roberts, a long time journalist aged 90 (an advanced age by human standards) answered a vague question about Israel ("What about Israel?") with a cynical and perhaps humorous answer that the imhabitants of that country should migrate back to "Germany, Poland and America."

That was professed to be tasteless in that Jews (the ethnic group in question) had been given no choice in the 1940s on their future and that Israel had been settled by survivors who had luckily emerged from the death grounds of Poland and Germany, given unceasing support from the people of America, most of whom were not Jews.

Roberts instantly retired in advance of being fired for that remark and died soon afterwards, remembered only for that comment. Inside of twenty years, the Third World War saw the rise of the Caliphate and the Caliph mercifully let the million Jewish survivors of the Sack of Israel be relocated in colonies to Poland, Germany and America. The Caliph interpreted Robert's statement as a serious statement issued by God.

Fully a third of the Israeli survivors took root in Poland, whose native population had been hard hit by the blood burn virus, and another third were offloaded to Germany, where thirty cities had been destroyed in nuclear holocausts. None of those Israeli settlements expanded in population during the remaining years of the 21st century.

In the United States of America, the Israelis prospered most in the Mountain and Great Plains States. Considerable anti-Semitism existed in the USA, a consequence of wide spread American blame on Israel for the damage that WWIII did on the USA when it got involved in war while backing Israel. But in large part, the newcomers were welcomed by their new neighbors.

Another nuclear armed war demolished the Islamic Caliphate along with the Latin American Eco-Patrimony. A dearth of military targets in North America meant that we extrastellar explorers usually make contact with the Jewish variety of humans because they are fully some fifty percent of the remaining humans in North America and Europe.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-06

Robbie Taylor — 1970-01-01T00:00:00+01:00
In 1944 the desperate push by the Allies to invade Europe and end Hitler's control of the continent is begun at Calais, France, under the command of General George Patton. Despite Patton's brilliant leadership, the Allies are defeated, and Nazi control of the continent is solidified.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-06

Robbie Taylor — 1970-01-01T00:00:00+01:00
In 1976 former Governor Ronald Reagan secures the Republican presidential nomination from President Gerald Ford, and goes on to win in the general election against another former governor, Jimmy Carter of Georgia. His presidency is only one term long, due in large part to a hostage crisis in Iran at the end of his presidency.

Blog Entry from 2008-06-06

Robbie Taylor — 1970-01-01T00:00:00+01:00
In 2001 former President John F. Kennedy passes away quietly, in his sleep. The 2-term president was 84 years old.