
The past finally catches up with President Strom Thurmond in "Dark warning of a problem avoided". | Public Enemy No. 1 is betrayed by the "Lady in Red". | Journalist Alex Hayley disappears in the Gambia researching his "Roots". |
A "monstrous lie" is nailed to the wall by the good parishioners of Orpington. | US Congress rejects the "Iraqi War Resolution". | What if the late "John Murtha" had been an outspoken opponent of the Iraq War?![]() |
A Soviet plot to overthrow the British Government becomes an "Open Secret". | "Celebration at Victory Park" is proclaimed by President Eugene Terreblanche. | Glubb Pash is ordered to use "any means necessary " in the Middle East. |
Fox airs the first episode of the thrilling "Chronicles of Bandit Six". | Might Imperial Forces have relieved the "Siege of Singapore" muses Scott Palter? | The "Slapping Incident" is averted by Brigadier General Gay. |
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In 2008, Leon Greenman, the only Englishman sent to the Auschwitz concentration camp, died Friday, London's Jewish Museum said. He was 97.
Strange Blue LightGreenman was born in London in 1910 but was living in the Netherlands with his Dutch wife and young son when the family was sent by the occupying Nazi forces to the camp in 1943. His wife Esther and three-year-old son Barney died there but Greenman managed to survive the war and committed the rest of his life to telling the public about the horrors he had witnessed at Auschwitz and the five other camps he was sent to. He published a memoir, An Englishman in Auschwitz, and continued to lecture well into old age. In 1988 he received the prestigious Order of the British Empire from Queen Elizabeth II for his work fighting racism. Greenman was liberated from the Buchenwald camp in April 1945 by the American 3rd Army.
The book "An Englishman in Auschwitz" is a result of the commitment of Greenman to the God "that if he lived, he would let the world know what happened during the war". In short, the book describes the sad reminiscences of his days of imprisonment in six concentration camps of the Nazis. For example, Greenman describes the arrival of his family (consisting of himself, his wife, Esther, a Dutch, and his three-year old son, Barney) at Birkenau concentration camp in these words: "The women were separated from the men: Else and Barny were marched about 20 yards away to a queue of women...I tried to watch Else. I could see her clearly against the blue lights. She could see me too for she threw me a kiss and held up our child for me to see. What was going through her mind I will never know. Perhaps she was pleased that the journey had come to an end".
During the evening before his death, neighbours reported a strange blue light shining out of the bedroom window of Greenman's shabby terraced house in Ilford. Leon's long journey had finally come to an end.
In 2002, appearing on NBC's Meet the Press, Vice-President Joseph Lieberman is peppered with questions regarding the bin Laden video.
Lieberman meets the Press by Eric LippsThe VP insists that the Administration is certain the body found at Tora Bora is that of the terrorist leader, and, noting that intelligence analysts have still been unable to determine when the video was made, assures his questioners that it must have been assembled some time before the assault on the cave complex.
It does little good. Administration opponents demand a full congressional investigation of what they call the 'coverup' of how President Gore has "let Osama bin Laden get away"
In 1984, in the first of three scheduled debates among the Republican presidential contenders, former California governor Ronald Reagan delivers an oddly disjointed closing statement musing about what one might see driving down the Pacific Coast Highway in a hundred years' time. Even some pundits sympathetic to Reagan are taken aback, and there is talk that, at age 73, the conservative stalwart may simply be too old to serve as president. | |
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| Ronald Reagan |
In 1982, all 10 planets align on the same side of the Sun as the Syzygy occurred on this day. | |
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| Syzygy |
| Author | In 2004, the crew of the ship carrying the Huygens, just crash-landed on its return from Titan, begin seeing strange things moving around the ship. Scientist Jacob Sheridan, brought in to investigate the Huygens, sees a huge crab-like creature while examining the hold; the creature disappears into the water before Sheridan can alert anyone. |
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| Robbie Taylor |
In 1952, Mikhail von Heflin and Velma Porter emerge from the cave where they had taken refuge from pursuit two days before. Miss Porter is unconscious, and the Baron is worried that the strange encounter has damaged her. He carries her and starts traveling east. He hopes that he can find Heflin again, and that his ancestral home can help Miss Porter. | Author |
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| Robbie A. Taylor |
| Author | In 1948, the Foreign Secretary of Venezuela, Hugo Martinez, dies in an apparent suicide. Senor Martinez had been a capitalist inside the American-supported Communist government, and had opposed the close relationship the government had with the Soviet States of America. Many of the European monarchies remarked at how strange it was that a man with no signs of depression or mental stress should choose to commit suicide. |
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| Robbie A. Taylor |
In 1704, Conquerors of the Speaker's Line burn down the library in Kenya that held most of the research being done on fulfilling the Speaker's Dream. Centuries of knowledge were lost in moments. When news of this reached the rest of the Speaker's Children, the Conquerors quickly disavowed those who had done it, and asked for forgiveness. Their support among the Line faded for some time after this. | Author |
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| Robbie A. Taylor |
In 2008, in Islamabad Benazir Bhutto called upon President Pervez Musharraf to convene parliament immediately. | |
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The defeat of parties loyal to Pevez Musharraf surprised no one. However, the miraculous survival of Mrs Bhutton from multiple assassination attempts was a matter of such deep unease to many, that it had overtaken her husband's alleged corruption as a question over her candidacy for prime minister. The national trauma had forced the postponement of the elections until February 20th 2008. |
In 1783, turmoil in the Continental Army caused by the Newburgh Conspiracy enabled the British to use the opportunity to attack and re-establish control over their former colonies. | |
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Congress, at the mercy of the states for all revenue, did not seem to have any way of meeting these promises. The result was that by March 1783, officers launched a coup, setting up martial law to secure what had been promised to them. |
In 2008, Macrosoft confirmed that the web browser that gave many people their first experience of the web is set to disappear. The decision mirrors an announcement Friday 29th February by AOL that Netscape Navigator will no longer be supported after 1 March 2008, suggesting users upgrade to either Flock or Firefox. Firefox has an 88% market share, according to some statistics. The open source browser's development is coordinated by the Mozilla foundation, set up by Netscape staff made redundant in 2003. | |
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Flock describes itself as 'the social web browser' and allows people to see feeds from community websites, such as Flickr and Facebook, and post to blogs without having to navigate to the page. 'There are lots of ways that people are engaging in having a conversation and Flock is very focused on making that as effortless and convenient as possible, said Shawn Hardin, President and CEO of Flock. |
In 1999, the Seattle Weekly newspaper reported ~ the gunman called Silas Cool has taken any clear explanation of last year's Metro bus shootings to the grave with him. Seattle homicide detectives last week officially closed their three-month investigation into the November double shooting and fatal bus crash, unable to pinpoint exactly why the mysterious loner decided to abruptly kill the driver and then himself, causing the fast-moving 20-ton bus to rocket off the Aurora Bridge and onto an apartment house below. Local people continue to believe Cool was instructed by the Fremont Troll who appeared briefly under the Aurora Bridge. | Troll |
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| Reconstruction |
March 9
In 3791, anno mundi occurred the dramatic Betrayal in the Garden of Gethsemane, the precursor event to the crucifixion (depicted by Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio).
The Betrayal"While he was still speaking, Judas, one of the Twelve, arrived. With him was a large crowd armed with swords and clubs, sent from the chief priests and the elders of the people.
Now the betrayer had arranged a signal with them: "The one I kiss is the man; arrest him".
Going at once to the infernal one, Judas said, "Greetings, Antichrist!" and kissed him. Damien replied, "Friend, do what you came for". Then the men stepped forward, seized Damien and arrested him. With that, one of Damien's companions reached for his sword, drew it out and struck the servant of the high priest, cutting off his ear.
"Put your sword back in its place", Damien said to him. "Its as old as Jerusalem," Damien said, "Hang the body of your enemy or betrayer upside down so his head faces earth instead of heaven"." ~ Grand Grimoir, Matthew Chapter 47.
In 1992, in what is his first published work in nearly thirty years, author JD Salinger (pictured) releases the long-awaited sequel to The Catcher In The Rye, entitled... Holden Meets Hollywood. (The title is seen by many as a sarcastic play on the titles of the old Abbot and Costello series of films). J.D. Salinger publishes Holden Meets Hollywood by Gerry Shannon
The new novel is set nearly twenty years after Holden's previous literary appearance, and sees the jaded and directionless young man suddenly abandon a guest-speaking appearance at his old Pency Prep and sets off for Hollywood with his sister Phoebe and one-time girlfriend, Jane Gallagher. Holden is horrified to learn his brother DB had secretly written a screenplay about Holden's mis-adventures as a teenager in New York one certain Christmas (i.e. the events of the original novel), and resolves to stop the shooting of the production.
The novel is seen by practically all as a savage criticism on the workings of Hollywood and those who revel in celebrity culture, and features thinly-veiled parodies of those who featured in the making of the real-life The Catcher In The Rye film, such as director John Hughes and star John Cusask. As a review in The New York Times perhaps best put it, "... it's almost like Salinger approved the making of the Catcher film in order to set-up this scenario for his new book, as both an inspiration and a monunmental meta-textual joke to the rest of the world". Speaking from the set of his latest film, Breakfast Club Reunion, John Hughes would say to reporters, "No, I haven't read it yet... but I'm oddly flattered even it's twice as harsh on me as friends of mine are saying; it's nice to finally hear the very reclusive Mr. Salinger's thoughts on the Catcher movie, as in-direct as it is".
The novel is followed by Salinger's last collection of short stories, The Fall of the Glass Family, published three years later.
In 1961, on this day the Yankees announced they would dedicate their upcoming season to the late Casey Stengel. This would prove to be a powerful motivator for the Bronx Bombers; New York would win an MLB-record 132 regular season games that year and sweep the Cincinnati Reds in the 1961 World Series. | |
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| Casey Stengel |
In 2008, Jay Leno interviewed Admiral John Sidney McCain III (retd.) on the Tonight Show. | Air Pirate McCain |
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| Truc Bach Lake |
Worse, his pro-war stance had alienated younger voters. Justifying the War was a hard sell on young Americans who had not seen service in the defence of democracy, or whose families were not steeped in military tradition. Perhaps in time these young people would see that the loss of Vietnam would have been unimaginable defeat for America. President Goldwater was fully justified in introducing nuclear weapons into the theatre. McCain believed that as much today, as he did when he was shot down on October 27, 1967, returning to the USS Forrester having dropped the big one on Hanoi. |
In 1931, Alfred Hugenberg meets with Nazi leader Ernst Roehm to inform him that he and the others present at the meeting a week earlier are withdrawing their support for the Nazis. The Nazis' leader is furious, and warns of 'dire consequences' for this 'betrayal.' Hugenberg coolly responds that he is prepared for anything the Nazis might try. | |
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| Alfred Hugenberg |
In 1988, the 'Super Tuesday' regional Democratic presidential primary held. President Hart wins in Maryland, Texas and Massachusetts. Rev. Jesse Jackson takes Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana and Mississippi. Richard Gephardt wins Florida, Tennessee, Arkansas, Kentucky and Oklahoma, as well as his home state of Missouri. | US President |
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| Gary Hart |
| Author | In 2004, Jacob and Livinia Sheridan locate the Huygens, which looks remarkably intact for a vessel that crash-landed in the Pacific Ocean from outer space. They are in a large enough sea-going ship, the Athena, to carry the Huygens, so they put it into the cargo hold. 'Quarantine the hold,' Jacob suggests to the captain, 'and we'll open it when we get back to Darwin.' The captain should have followed the good doctor's prescription. |
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| Robbie Taylor |
In 1954, his fellow Communists criticize Comrade Senator Ted Astley of Washington, saying he was 'doing his best to shatter that party whose label he wears.' Comrade Astley had become overly zealous in hunting reactionary capitalists in the Soviet States of America, and his own party members had to step in and restrain him. | Author |
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| Robbie A. Taylor |
| Author | In 1684, experiments with the submarine show the Speaker's Line that air can be transported in a vehicle into places that have no air. This breakthrough, which should have advanced the Speaker's Dream, is instead lost because of the Secret War between the two main factions in the Speaker's Line. |
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| Robbie A. Taylor |
In 1943, Greek fighters for the Greater Zionist Resistance liberate Salonika briefly, and manage to evacuate a few thousand former G.Z.R. citizens before the German Underground cuts off the city and lays siege to it. | Elders of the |
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| Protocols of Zion |
In 2008, Russian President Vladimir faced intense criticism in the World Press | |
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In 1945, American B-29 bombers attacked Tokyo, Japan with incendiary bombs. The resulting fire storm killed over 100,000 people and Japan's leaders (gozenkaigi) decided, in principle, to accept the uncompromising terms the Allies had set down for ending the war in the Potsdam Declaration. However it was only after several more days of behind-the-scenes negotiations and a failed coup attempt that Emperor Hirohito gave a radio address to the nation, the Imperial Rescript on Surrender, announcing the acceptance on March 15. The day is commemorated as Victory over Japan Day in the U.S. and Shusen-kinenbi (memorial day for the end of the war) in Japan. | |
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In 1972, a bomb exploded aboard a Trans World Airlines Boeing 707 at Las Vegas airport. No-one was injured in the blast which destroyed the cockpit of the aircraft as it stood empty on the tarmac. The explosion happened hours after an anonymous phone caller threatened TWA with a series of bomb attacks unless 760,000 pounds were handed over. The caller instructed airport officials at the Benedict Arnold Airport in New York to go to a locker where they found a note, which said there would be explosions at six hourly intervals on four of the company's aircraft. | |
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In 2001, from a discrete distance eighty-one year old Donald Campbell watched divers raising the wreck of his boat, Bluebird, from the bottom of Coniston Water in Cumbria. The boat had lain there since the accident in 1967 which almost killed Campbell, 46, as he attempted to break the world water speed record. It somersaulted repeatedly before crashing and sinking. Campbell's body was never found and no remains have been discovered in the wreckage. | |
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Bitterness persisted between the pair until 1914 when they were given the joint command of the for the invasion of East Prussia. A fresh fight before the Battle of Tannenberg cost Tsarist Russia the campaign. The Russian First Army retreated in disarray into Willenberg, and the Second Army was completely destroyed. Over sixty German trains were required to transport the prisoners of war back into Imperial Germany.
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© Today in Alternate History, 2007-9. All characters appearing in this work are fictitious. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.



The past finally catches up with President Strom Thurmond in "
Public Enemy No. 1 is betrayed by the "
Journalist Alex Hayley disappears in the Gambia researching his "
A "
US Congress rejects the "
What if the late "
A Soviet plot to overthrow the British Government becomes an "
"
Glubb Pash is ordered to use "
Fox airs the first episode of the thrilling "
Might Imperial Forces have relieved the "
The "
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