In 1999, on this day an amazing discovery was made by a US expeditionary team operating at the summit of Mount Ararat in Turkey.
An installment from the Miracles thread.

Fourth MiracleThe wreckage of Noah's Ark had been located by a satellite. But amongst the debris, the American scientists discovered the skeletal remains of humans, animals and Nephilim, the giants who inhabited Canaan according to Numbers 13:33.

The mission was immediately upgraded from top secret to ultra secret. Because the US Government intended to reverse engineer the DNA in order to construct the super-soldier of the future. Ironically, the first deployment would be in Iraq, within close proximity of the location of the Garden of Eden.

In 1720, on this day the Jacobite Pretender Charles Edward Stuart was born in the Palazzo Muti, Rome.
This article is a reversal of the Jackie Rose story Hard Man which focuses on Captain Francis O'Neill

Happy Endings Part 17
Hard Woman saves the Forty-Five RebellionAged twenty-five he launched a bold attempt to restore the House of Stuart. Because in 1745 a five thousand man Jacobite army landed at Moidart in the Outer Hebrides. But of course it took a woman to save the forty-five rebellion from abject failure - the incomparable Highland rebel Flora MacDonald.

Hopes had built up rather quickly; at the Battle of Prestonpans they had soundly defeated the only government army in Scotland. But their hapless commander General John Cope would soon be replaced by the murderous Duke of Cumberland and the mood in the camp would drastically change. In despair the Young Pretender had left the still undefeated Jacobite Army in the hands of his trusted companion, Captain Francis O'Neill. Planning to flee Scotland forever, the Prince sought the incomparable Highland rebel Flora MacDonald for her assistance only to discover that the MacDonalds were secretly sympathetic with the Jacobite cause. She convinced the Prince to rejoin the Jacobite Army by promising to organize reinforcements from her own Clan. With fresh resolve, he inspired the "forty-five" rebels with a fiery new leadership that turned the tables on the Hanoverians.
The full novel is available for download at the Extasy Books web site.

In 1548, on this day an extraordinary meeting of the Privy Council ordered the imprisonment of the vice-treasurer of the Bristol Mint, Sir William Sharington.

Baron of Sudeley
By Ed and Jacquelyn FriedlanderBut they had caught the monkey and not the organ-grinder. Because via the word of an informant, the Lord Protector Edward Seymour, 1st Duke of Somerset had received a second-hand intelligence report that led him to suspect the possible involvement of his scheming brother, Thomas Seymour the Baron of Sudeley (who was currently serving as the Lord High Admiral). However, he was hesitant to openly accuse his brother at a Council meeting. Because their relationship had soured as Edward had received the more senior position as a result of their sister Anne's marriage to King Henry VIII in 1536. But Edward fatally misjudged the extent of Thomas jealous resentment, not able to believe that he had stumbled across the final stages of a dastardly act of high treason.

Sharington had indeed been debasing the currency and also fiddling the books for some time. When these acts of malfeasance were discovered by Thomas Seymour, he extorted monies from the Bristol mint. Initially these were small sums which he redirected to the eleven-year old King Edward VI who had childishly complained of receiving inadequate pocket money from the Lord Protector Edward Seymour. But events during the latter half of 1548 had forced the Baron to accelerate (and also expand) his plans to replace his brother Edward as Lord Protector. As a result, he was forced to extort much larger sums that he would use to finance an overthrow of the entire government.

In 1543, Thomas had developed a romantic interest in the widow Catherine Parr, but had been sent away from the Court by the jealous Henry VIII who then married her himself. After the King's death, Thomas secretly married Catherine, and this wedding gave him guardianship of the teenage Lady Elizabeth. At their Chelsea home, an inappropriate relationship developed with the forty-year old Thomas assuming the role of master.

The increasing likelihood of Sharington's arrest (and the discovery of his complicity in the corruption at Bristol Mint) forced Thomas Seymour to think bigger. He now decided that his interests were best served by installing Elizabeth as monarch as well as replacing his brother as Lord Protector. On the night of 16 January, Thomas broke into the Royal apartments at Hampton Court Palace and shot the King. The ruthlessness of this act of regicide set the tone for Elizabeth's rule, because Thomas Seymour had set his sights even higher - the mastery of Europe.

In 1916, in the early hours of the morning Grigori Yefimovich Rasputin was imprisoned at Yusopov's Moika Palace by the five noblemen who had spent the last twelve hours attempting without success to assassinate the holy devil who was planning to overthrow the Czar and establish his own satantic regime.

Cursed Muzhik 2The previous evening Prince Felix Yusupov, the Grand Duke Dmitri Pavlovich and the right-wing politician Vladimir Purishkevich had lured Rasputin to the same Palace cellar where they served him cakes and red wine laced with a massive amount of cyanide. Rasputin was unaffected, although Vasily Maklakov had supplied enough poison to kill five men.

Determined to finish the job, Yusupov became anxious about the possibility that Rasputin might live until the morning, leaving the conspirators no time to conceal his body. Yusupov ran upstairs to consult the others and then came back down to shoot Rasputin through the back with a revolver. Rasputin fell, and the company left the palace for a while. Yusupov, who had left without a coat, decided to return to get one, and, while at the palace, he went to check up on the body. Suddenly, Rasputin opened his eyes and lunged at Prince Yusupov. When he grabbed Prince Yusupov he ominously whispered in Yusupov's ear "you bad boy" and strangled him. At that moment, however, the other conspirators arrived and fired at him.

After being hit three times in the back, Rasputin fell once more. As they neared his body, the party found that, remarkably, he was still alive, struggling to get up. They clubbed him into submission and after binding his body and wrapping him in a carpet, they threw him into the icy Neva River. But somehow he worked his way loose and swum to a hole. And the conspirators decided to imprison the weakened Rasputin in the hope that a better plan would emerge.

In 1880, on this day the sixteenth President of the Confederate States George Catlett Marshall, Jr. was born in Lexington, Virginia.

George Marshall
16^th Confederate President
March 4, 1952 - 1958He was a Confederate Army officer, former Secretary of State, under President Byrnes and the last Whig Party candidate to be elected president before the party broke up.

As President, Marshall kept up the pressure on the Soviet Union during the Cold War, made nuclear weapons a higher defense priority, began the Interstate Highway System and saw the start of the Confederate Civil Rights Movement.

At a time when the majority of the Whig party had grown more fiscally and socially conservative, Marshall was a Leeian Whig who gained support from moderates of both the Democrat and Whig party's. A new article from the "Two Americas" thread on Althistory WikiaHis push for an Interstate Highway System and his passing of the Confederate Civil Rights Act of 1955 were both popular with Liberals; however, these acts would eventually lead to a complete political realignment, with Conservatives from both the Whig and Democratic party's breaking away to form the Confederalist Party, while the remaining Democrats would eventually reshape themselves into the Liberal Party.
The whole alternate biography is available Althistory Wiki.

In 1980, Marxist leader Rob Mugabe published his controversial auto-biography The Great Betrayal. The central event in the memoirs was a decision taken at the dissolution of the Rhodesia and Nyasaland Federation, in which Great Britain abrogated the principle of No Independence Before Majority African Rule. The Great Betrayal

Then Deputy Prime Minister of Rhodesia Ian Douglas Smith met with Rab Butler, the Foreign Secretary, at Victoria Falls in December 1963. Butler grandly declared that Britain was "very happy to agree" to independence for Southern Rhodesia, at least at the same time as Zambia and Malawi. Smith asked Butler for the undertaking in writing. Butler demurred with: "There is trust between members of the British Commonwealth". Smith wagged his finger at Butler, and said: "If you break that, you will live to regret it".

There was no cause for concern in London or Salisbury, and Smith was being characteristically belligerent. Smith, who became the Prime Minister shortly afterwards, was of Scottish ancestry, and a war hero that had fought bravely for Britain during World War 2.

Ian Douglas Smith was born in the village of Selukwe in central Rhodesia, of a Scottish father, Jock, and Rhodesian-born mother, Agnes. He was educated at Chaplin School nearby with moderate academic achievement, captaining the first XV and running the 100 yards in 10 seconds. He began a bachelor of commerce degree at Rhodes University in South Africa in 1938, establishing an impressive academic record and rowing for the university.

War broke out in 1939 and in 1941 he joined the RAF Empire Air Training Scheme at Guinea Fowl in central Rhodesia. He was posted to 237 (Rhodesia) Squadron in the Middle East, flying Hawker Hurricanes.

Taking off from Alexandria on a dawn patrol in 1943, his throttle malfunctioned, he lost height and clipped the barrel of a Bofors gun. He crashed and rammed his face against the Hurricane's gunsight. He suffered severe facial injuries, broke his jaw, a leg and a shoulder, and buckled his back. Surgeons at the 15th Scottish Hospital in Cairo reconstructed his face and, after only five months, he rejoined his squadron in Corsica. He realised his dream to fly Spitfire Mark IXs, carrying out strafing raids and escorting American bombers.

In mid-1944 Smith was leading a raid on a train of fuel tankers in the Po Valley when he made the mistake of going back for a second run.The Spitfire was hit by an anti-aircraft shell, caught fire and he baled out. He was soon picked up by the partisans. The five months he spent with them near Sasello, learning Italian, reading Shakespeare and working as a peasant, he regarded as one of the best times of his life.>Near the end of the war, he and three other Allied fugitives made their way through occupied Italy to the Maritime Alps. At one point the conspicuously tall, fair-haired Rhodesian strode unhindered through a German checkpoint. He led his tiny group over the mountains, walking barefoot on ice, until they reached an American patrol on the other side.

In 2012, on this day President George Weaver issues a cryptic order, in Latin: "Rex Mundi delenda est" - "The King of the World must be destroyed".

The King of the World must be destroyed by Eric LippsFollowing the order, a U.S. fighter-bomber armed with nuclear missiles is launched, flying across several U.S. states before heading out over the Atlantic Ocean.
Several hours later, horrifying reports come in that Rome has been destroyed by a nuclear explosion. Hundreds of thousands are feared dead, among them Pope Benedict XVI and many members of the College of Cardinals, which had been meeting to discuss improving relations with Egypt's Coptic Christian church.

Weaver had assumed the presidency following the death in July of 2009 of President John McCain from a heart attack. Weaver's ascendancy had come as a shock to many: an obscure member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Idaho, he had seemed an unlikely choice as McCain's running-mate in the 2008 election. Peculiar rumors had swirled around him, claiming he was associated with a shadowy survivalist group known as the Remnant of the Pure, which conspiracy theorists link to the medieval Cathar schismatics who had been nearly destroyed by Catholic crusaders. Nothing had been proven, however, and McCain and Weaver had gone on to win that November. In the wake of the Rome disaster, it will be charged that Weaver plotted the destruction of the Vatican in service to a modern-day Cathar movement dedicated to destroying the Catholic Church.

	On this day in 1972, the Dallas Cowboys reached the Super Bowl for the sixth time in team history with a 27-3 blowout of the Washington Redskins in the 1972 NFC championship game.

In 2001, as the ball drops in Times Square to mark the arrival of the new year, U.S. troops enter Afghanistan from their forward bases along that country's border with Pakistan. The CIA's operative in-country have provided them with the locations of several possible Al Qaeda bases. Their orders are to destroy those bases and take Osama bin Laden alive if possible, along with as many of his top lieutenants as they can, to be tried for mass murder.
	Al Gore

In 1959, the rebel army of 32-year-old lawyer Fidel Castro flee the country in the face of a relentless advance by the Government army of Fulgeneio Batista, the President of Cuba. Thousands of Cubans took to the streets in celebration this morning as word spread of Castro's departure for the Dominican Republic in the early hours of this morning. There was a carnival atmosphere as cars cruised through the streets of the capital, Havana, with Cuban flags draped over their bonnets, blowing their horns continuously.

In 1764, the child prodigy Wolfgang Mozart performed for the Royal Family of King Louis XV in Versailles, France. Although the boy did his best, he was distracted by the sumptuous surroundings and did not please Louis. Discouraged, the boy?s father gave up on his dreams of making the boy Europe?s foremost musician. Mozart went into mathematics after being given his choice of direction in his life, and published many important papers during the early 19th century.

In 1966, counter-revolutionary reactionaries shut down the New York City subway system in a protest against the New York Soviet's freezing of subway worker's wages. Capitalist sympathizer John Lindsay, organizer of the strike, was arrested by Mayor Michael Quill and charged with anti-American activities.

In 1946, Pascal-Edison develops the prototype model for what will become their desktop difference engine. This model, known as Eniac, was never released, but was the template for the eddie that became known as the Univac.

In 1801, the legislative union of Kingdom of Great Britain and Kingdom of Ireland is completed to form the United Kingdom. Universally hated by the English, the isolation resulting from the Reformation had simply been too big a setback for them to resist the Union. The English were unable to stand up to the overwhelming power of the Celts and the support they commanded from Catholic Europe, and started to emigrate en mass to the Americas.

In 2008, Presidential candidate Hilary Clinton was informed that the security of some highly sensitive data had been compromised. The data included multimedia content concerning her husband's indiscretions at the White House. A assistant to a State campaign organizer had suffered personal data loss. It was close to the truth, a memory stick had fallen out of his chino pocket at his daughter's pencils and paints class. It was a freak accident Clinton was told, the assistant had been suffering burn-out, and worn the same pants from 'dress down' the day before.

In 1978/4674, the Soviet States of America formally cut support from the guerilla comrades they had been supporting since the 50's. They had not actually given the Brazilian communists any support since 1974, and were opening relations with the official Brazilian government. Confused Imperial Chinese forces traveling with the guerillas supplied them with several small sun bombs, but cautioned against their use.

In 1958/1958, a televised broadcast of the Papal New Year's Mass is simulcast from St. Paul's Cathedral in Rome, Italy and Buckingham Cathedral in London, Holy British Empire. The confusing scene of Pope Elizabeth II and Pope John XXIII giving the same sermon in two different languages brought many Catholics to church for explanation.

In 2004, Chelsea Perkins and Alma May Watson celebrate the New Year as Elsbeth Danwich performs her own spell to disable the Great Tree. As the walls between the years fade, Perkins and Watson feel the Tree dying around them, and put forth their own power to save it.

In 1999, the world braces for the end of all computerized activity as society has failed to address the issues brought forward by programmer Linus Torvald and others. At midnight, planes fall from the sky, cars with computerized chips malfunction, and nuclear missiles fire across the world, destroying most of humanity. Linus Torvald, who had led a few followers into the Australian outback, forges a new path for the survivors from the remains of the world that wouldn't listen to him.

In 1968/4664/12-17-15-6-18/2721 AUC, Dr. Richard Tolman led a group of his followers, who had been trained in his techniques of piercing through parallel dimensions, towards the great rip in the time/space continuum at the equator. He also brought with him scientists of the various dimensions who had been given a crash course in his teachings. Together, they sought to mend the damage that had been done to the wall between the worlds.

In 1922, a full-scale assault on the black township of Rosewood, Florida is averted when the white woman who had claimed a black man had raped her confessed that she had been covering for a white lover who had managed to flee the area. Rosewood's successful black population was still concerned about the willingness of the white community around them to attack their own town, and its population began moving away over the next few years, until Rosewood eventually disappeared in the 1930's.

	In 1775, American rebels Benedict Arnold and Richard Montgomery break down the resistance in Quebec; at the end, the citizens of Quebec had turned on the British soldiers in the city. Arnold and Montgomery were soon training Canadian forces to fight the British, and when the American rebellion collapsed, were welcomed to Canada as heroes.

A blizzard had made the city indefensible, and privately, the British had lost interest in staying in Canada due to the country's inclement weather.

In 1000 Post-Creation, the birth of the angel Emmanuel to the human woman Eve forces Gabriel's hand, and he and a third of Heaven's angelic host descend to Eden to defend it from the wrath of the Creator. Lucifer is given the task of bringing these angels back into the fold and destroying Emmanuel; he is torn in his loyalties.

In 47,392, BCE/the Dreaming, as Telka the Speaker lay dreaming, a spider crawled down upon a massive web from heaven and stared at her. 'Sleep well, Speaker,' he told her. 'Your children will find me soon enough.' He then crawled back up, but his web remained behind. The Speaker thought that she woke then, and followed the spider up his long web. From the spider's nest in heaven, she looked down upon the world, and the spider told her, 'Remember it well. You shall not see it again.' The Speaker woke in truth, then, and almost fell into tears from her earthbound condition.

In 1986, hoping to touch base with major Democratic contributors in preparation for his planned re-election campaign, President Gary Hart and his wife Lee attend a New Year's Eve party in Aspen, Colorado, at the invitation of Hollywood mogul and big Democratic Party donor Michael Medavoy. While there, the President meets an attractive blonde, Donna Rice.

	On this day in 1967, the Green Bay Packers' hopes for a third straight NFL championship and a spot in Super Bowl II against the AFL champion Oakland Raiders were dashed in the so-called 'Ice Bowl' when the Dallas Cowboys scored a touchdown with less than a minute left in regulation to take a 24-21 lead; a field goal by the Packers tied the game at the end of regulation, but in overtime Dallas scored a field goal of their own to clinch a 27-24 victory and their first NFL title. One Green Bay player, offensive lineman Forrest Gregg, was so heartbroken over the defeat that he would retire from pro football permanently just two games into the 1968 NFL season.

Packers coach Vince Lombardi would later call the loss to Dallas the worst moment of his career; by contrast, Cowboys head coach Tom Landry would look back with pride on the way his team had bounced back against the odds to take down the Packers. The Cowboys' surprising triumph in the 1967 NFL title game was just the first of many such comeback playoff wins Landry would rack up before he retired in 1988.

In 1999, the world braces for the end of all computerized activity as society has failed to address the issues brought forward by programmer Linus Torvald and others. As the clock strikes twelve, computers short out all over th

In 1999, it was almost time. President Boris Yeltsin announced his resignation from the Kremlin on the last day of the century. Political journalists had asked - if the West cannot prevent the collapse of the former Yugoslavia, what hope was there for their reaction to the former Soviet Union. That question was about to be answered.Turning and turning in the widening gyre, the falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart, the centre cannot hold; Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world..
Now I know that twenty centuries of stony sleep
Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,
And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born? ~ William Butler Yeats

In 1917, the British poet T.S. Eliot published 'the Hollow Men' which concluded This is the way the world ends, not with a bang, but a whimper . Eight-three years later, during the technological meltdown caused by the Y2k bug these words were realised to be strangely prescient.

In 1978, Comrade President John Anderson of the Soviet States of America formally dissolved all S.S.A. ties with the few communists still fighting the capitalist government of Brazil. Although heavily criticized for abandoning comrades the S.S.A. had supported since the 50's, he felt it was his duty to bring America into the modern era and create solid ties with the western hemisphere's largest capitalist power.

In 1775, Governor Sir Guy Carleton sued for peace as British defenders of the city of Quebec in Canada laid down their weapons to patriot forces under generals Benedict Arnold and Richard Montgomery.

A blizzard had made the city indefensible, and privately, the British had lost interest in staying in Canada due to the country's inclement weather.

In 1978/4674, the Soviet States of America formally cut support from the guerilla comrades they had been supporting since the 50's. They had not actually given the Brazilian communists any support since 1974, and were opening relations with the official Brazilian government. Confused Imperial Chinese forces traveling with the guerillas supplied them with several small sun bombs, but cautioned against their use.

In 1879/12-13-5-1-12, as Thomas Edison was demonstrating his latest adjustments to the Eddie, a band of Oueztecans warriors broke into his New Jersey showroom. Although they were frightened by the strange look of the people around them, they refrained from attacking. Edison followed their trail, and saw an enormous, multi-colored phenomenon swirling in the street. Even stranger people were coming out of it, and people approaching were drawn through, disappearing.

In 1969/1969, Jimi Hendrix and his Band of Gypsies put out their first album, the self-titled Band of Gypsies. Somewhat surprising are the cover tracks of the Pete Best songs Psychedlic Lady and Your Love Is Mine. Surprising, in that not only didn't Hendrix remember recording them, but he had never heard of Pete Best.

In 1943/1943, Henry Deutschendorf, also known as John Denver, was born in Roswell, New Mexico. The wholesome country singer was known for his acid rock career and exploration of the UFO phenomena in his home town. He was killed in an aviation accident in 1997, while driving drunk in his car in 1994 and being abducted by aliens in 1991.

In 1999, the world's computers take their last blink as the worst fears of programmer Linus Torvald are realised.

In AD 1, warned of the impending massacre of the innocents, Joseph and his wife Mary took flight to Egypt with the baby Jesus.
An installment from the Miracles thread.

The Second MiracleBut they are captured and casually executed by Herod's soldiers. The orphaned infant was then passed to the Roman trooper Tiberius Iulius Abdes Pantera [1]. His orders were to update the detailed records required by the Roman Client King Herod. Because he wanted to make absolutely sure that the baby king did not slip through the net, grow up to become a rival and supplant him.

But instead an angel spoke to Pantera and he fled with the child. His fellow officers only uncovered his absence because of a mysterious note he had left on the child register - Pantera wrote that something had been missing in this harsh world, but finally, it had been fulfilled [2].

Little is known of the fate Pantera although his tombstone was found in Bingerbrück, Germany in 1859. But the coming of Jesus to Western Europe was a different matter altogether, it was quite simply the greatest story ever told.

In 1499, on this day future Queen of England Mary Boleyn was born in Blickling Hall, the family seat in Norfolk. But she grew up at Hever Castle, Kent alongside her less famous siblings Thomas and Anne (the wife of Percy of Northumberland).
An installment from the Happy Endings thread

Happy Endings Part 15
Henry VIII's Second Wife: Mary BoleynBecause the Tudors was locked in conflict with elements the nobility, her origin amongst the "new men" of self-acquired wealth played well in the Royal court. Accordingly she was sent to the French court in the household of the queen, Henry VIII's younger sister Mary Tudor who was betrothed to King Louis XII.

A blond, blue-eyed, curvy beauty that was the era's belle idéale, she was greatly desired by the Valois monarch's son François I. However in 1515 Louis died, and the Tudor Household was recalled to England. And François's loss was King Henry VIII's gain. They remained happily married until her tragic death age just forty-three, having two children Henry and Catherine. Surely there was some irony in this choice of names, because of course the Pope refused to grant Henry a divorce for Catherine of Aragon, and their relationship caused a schism in the English Church that lasts until today. But then you can't have everything..

In 1896, on this day the life of Filipino patriot José Rizal was spared by the firing squad of sympathetic indigenous soldiers at Fort Santiago who turned their weapons on the backup force of regular Spanish Army troops standing ready to shoot the executioners should they fail to obey orders.

Part 1 of 3: José Rizal Escapes the Firing SquadHe escaped, but the patriot cause soon took the oddest of turns because only two years later the hated Colonial Overlords ceded the islands to American Imperialists. Following the payment of the $20m in compensation set down in the Treaty of Paris, Teddy Roosevelt replaced Queen-Regent Maria Cristina of Spain as principal hate figure of the patriots.

But of course this contextual change in the Colonial era presented few doctrinal problems for Rizal who immediately refocused on the task of preventing the Philippines from becoming a territory of the United States. And his amazing escape from death turned him away from reform towards a new militancy. Alongside Emilio Aguinaldo, he soon became a vital figure in maintaining the survival of the fledgling Philippine Republic. They are only partially successful; instead of a Colony, the Philippines becomes a protectorate that gains full independence during the 1920s.
This blog is an article from the Neutral Philippine thread conceived by Ed, Mike McIlvain and Scott Palter.

In 1942, on this day Subhas Chandra Bose raised the flag of Indian independence at Calcutta.

Quit India, Part #2
Return of the Leaping Tiger, by Ed & Scott PalterAn unstoppable Japanese drive through Burma had made the occupation of the former Imperial Capital possible, if not quite inevitable due to logistical constraints and rivalry in the Imperial Japanese Army. And even though the rebel Indian National Army (INA) never completed their "March to Delhi", the fatal blow to British prestige had been struck. Because the Axis partition of the Raj would forever change the destiny of the Indian subcontinent. One that even Bose himself could never have imagined.

Of course the Fall of Calcutta transformed the fates of all engaged parties. After the fatal heart attack of Winston Churchill on 26th December 1941, British Prime Minister Anthony Eden had wisely re-focused the Government on sustainable war objectives that would not bankcrupt the home nation. A younger, less sentimental man than Churchill, he had no interest in British punching above its weight for a few short years only to become as impoverished as a defeated nation. Whereas Churchill had sought to ensure that the British Empire be "preserved for a few more generations in all its splendour", a phrase that surely excluded the famine in Bengal. And so Eden now downgraded the Far Eastern Campaign to a lower priority (with a restated future-proof objective of the defence of Australia and New Zealand). He called for the Allies to concentrate resources in Western Europe and North Africa, bringing forward an amphibious invasion of Normandy to 1943. And this decision would usher in the Fall of Vichy France, which ironically was one of the two Axis Puppet Governments that promised to send ambassadors to Calcutta.

But of course the largest consequence would be for the India people themselves. The door to this dramatically altered future had been opened by the revocation of a single, faulty command decision: to bypass the heavily defended town of Kohima. This encirclement forced the British commander Field Marshal William Slim to abandon the strategic towns of Dimapur and Imphal. The British withdrawal to positions on the western bank of the river Brahmaputra abandoned a huge area of Eastern Indian that would eventually become the territory of the two Muslim successor states.

This altered reality forced the imprisoned leadership of the Indian National Congress to suspend the non-violence campaign. And because they never actually endorsed an armed rebellion, Nehru and Gandhi unwittingly placed more power in the hands of the iconic figure of Bose, and also strengthened the arm of the Muslim separatists led by Jinnah. In short, sub-contintental belligerence received a welcome shot in the arm, which despite the widespread perception otherwise, had always been present throughout two centuries of British occupation.

Of course the headquartering of the Azad Hind government in Calcutta was fleeting. As the Japanese War Effort started to collapse, Bose was forced to retreat to Burma and face a horrible moment of truth. However his willingness to peacefully disband the INA saved him from being hung from a British noose. By mutual agreement, he withdrew to Port Blair, a tiny island in the Indian Ocean.

But five years later, he was recalled by an Indian Government unable to resist an invasion from its northern Muslim neighbour. Ironically, the man who had done most to integrate the ethnicities in the INA was being asked to rescue the Hindu successor state from destruction. Finally, he would complete his March to Delhi.

In 1947, in the singular event that began the conflict that would become known as World War III, King Michael of Romania gave an international appeal to stop the Soviet takeover of his country.

King Michael Calls for AidThe closing days of World War II saw the Russian occupation of Eastern Europe swallowing up Poland, Bulgaria, Yugoslavia, Albania, and East Germany. While the West had agreed to occupy until stability and then withdraw, the Soviets looked to stay and expand their power. Beyond occupation, the Soviets pressed remaining countries to join them by preying on them politically. In 1947, Hungary, having already abolished its monarchy, conducted a plebiscite manipulated by Soviets to bring about the People's Republic of Hungary. The same year, it looked as if Romania would be the next to fall.

A new story by Jeff ProvineKing Michael was unnerved by Soviet clout, but he had seen enough suffering from his people and gradually gave way in March 1945 when he appointed a government dominated by Soviet sympathizers. In 1947, he traveled to London to attend the wedding of his cousins Princess Elizabeth and Philip. There, rumors circulated that he did not wish to return to Romania, though Michael refused any offers of asylum. Seeing his plight, Winston Churchill encouraged Michael with, "above all things, a King must be courageous".

Michael returned to Romania and immediately felt the pressures of Soviet take-over. But, he was the same Michael that, at a mere 26 years old, had rallied with the pro-Allied leaders of Romania and overthrown the Nazi camp's stranglehold. The coup had invited in the Soviets, and now it was time for Michael to rebel again. He found his capitalist supporters, locked down the palace, and, on December 30, sent out by radio and telegram an appeal to the United Nations and individual governments of the United States, Britain, France, and others for support against what he called an invasion from the roots.

The diplomatic gamble would pay off as Stalinists overreacted. Prime Minister Groza had threatened to murder 1,000 students who had been arrested for speaking out against the Soviet Union. The massacre began and rallied the Romanian people against Soviet supporters. Declaring a state of unrest, the Prime Minister called for Soviet military aid, and an invasion began that sparked action from Western nations in early 1948. Dwight Eisenhower, again Supreme Commander in Europe, led his generals in the heaviest fighting in eastern Germany, then joining up with the Polish Resistance and sparking revolutions in the rest of the Eastern Bloc. Romania itself would be filled with guerrilla warfare against a vastly superior force until Allied tanks led the liberation of Bucharest in 1949. Michael, who had been spirited out of the country just after the Soviet invasion, returned from his government-in-exile in London shortly thereafter.

Meanwhile, Italy invaded the Julian March in 1948, which was ceded by Yugoslavia, and Tito sued for a separate peace. Mao Zedong in China was defeated by Chiang Kai-shek's Nationalist Army, who made certain that Communism was stamped out in the East. Socialist upstarts in India had been put down by Britain's agreement of independence, though French Indochina would see much bloodshed before native Vietnamese were given self-rule.

The Allies pressed into Russia through liberating Ukraine. From experience, they knew Stalin would never give up, despite the use of atomic weapons on his bases. The Cold War portion continued as the stalemated Allies waited until Stalin was finally assassinated and Moscow fell into civil war. Russia was Balkanized, and the exhausted Allies fell into retirement, letting loose their colonies over the '50s and '60s and settling into a new era of capitalistic rule under the American superpower.

In 1839, in a cross-Atlantic joining of horror writers, Mary Shelley and Edgar Allan Poe were married in Baltimore, Maryland. Mrs Shelley, widowed a decade before by the death of her husband Percy, had found a kindred spirit in Poe in America, after he wrote a congratulatory letter to her on the publication of her novel The Modern Prometheus.

In 1835, the Cherokee nation joined the North American Confederation. The discovery of gold in their land made them quite prominent in North America, and the N.A.C. had been courting them for decades.

In 2004, Chelsea Perkins is visited by Elsbeth Danwich again. Danwich seeks peace between them, something Miss Perkins will not agree to. Danwich leaves, surreptitiously taking a small handful of leaves from the Great Tree. Miss Perkins and Alma May Watson continue with their preparations for the New Year.

In 1999, computer programmer Linus Torvald posts on his web site that a majority of computers in the world are going to crash due to the Y2K bug, a defect in their manufacture that doesnt allow them to roll their dates over to the year 2000. He is dismissed as a crank by most of the leading manufacturers of computer software and hardware in the world.

In 1994, the horrific murder of 7 employees at an abortion clinic in Massachusetts bring to light the dark underside of the anti-abortion movement. The so-called pro-life killer, John Salvi, was almost apprehended as he killed 2 more people in a Virginian clinic, but escaped and hid away among fellow zealous anti-abortionists. The blatant disregard for life shown by his vocal defenders soured much of America on the anti-abortion movement, and cost them a lot of political support.

In 1968/4664/12-17-15-6-18/2721 AUC, a rip in the time/space continuum opens a few hundred miles north of the equator. People and things from several different timelines mingle together, not all peacefully. Dr. Richard Tolman, who has been warning the leaders of these timelines for several days, contacts them to coordinate the efforts to control the damage this rip is causing.

In 1950, Secretary of State Comrade Jacob Hatcher calls for a renewed American effort against the reactionaries of the world. "Capitalism is on the march," he declared in a statement to Congress, "our way of life is menaced". In calling for the curtailing of certain rights, he said, "No sacrifices are too great when the future of this nation is at stake".

In 1884, Hideki Tojo, the great Japanese fighter against the New Reich, was born in Tokyo. The general marshaled Japan in its darkest hour against the onslaught of the Reich in the 1940's, and managed to keep the island free until 1957, when he was killed in the nuclear blast that destroyed Tokyo.

In 1803, another American ex-patriat died on Canadian soil. Francis Lewis, who had the distinction of being the only man to have signed both the American Declaration of Independence and the Canadian Set of Principles, succumbed to his advanced age and left the world. Although the British and American colonials labeled him a traitor, he was given a hero's funeral in Canada, where he had helped craft their first free government.