Today In Alternate History

November 23

In 1804, on this day Franklin Pierce (pictured) was born in Hillsborough, New Hampshire.

Birth of Franklin PierceHe was a Democrat and a "doughface" (a Northerner with Southern sympathies)who served in the U.S. House of Representatives and the Senate. Pierce took part in the Mexican-American War and became a brigadier general in the Army. His private law practice in his home state, New Hampshire, was so successful that he was offered several important positions, which he turned down. Later, he was nominated as the party's candidate for president on the 49th ballot at the 1852 Democratic National Convention.

But tragedy struck on the 6th January, 1853 when the President-elect and his family were crushed to death when the train car that they had boarded in Boston was derailed and then rolled down an embankment near Andover, Massachusetts.

In his place, William Rufus King was sworn in as President on March 4th. Problem was, King was dying of tuberculosis and succumbed to the disease just six weeks later, so that the presidency fell to the President Pro Tempore of the Senate, David Rice Atchison.

Just four years before, he had served as President for a single day. Because on Saturday, March 3, 1849, outgoing President James Polk's term had expired, but incoming President Zachary Taylor refused to be sworn in on the Sabbath and put the ceremony off until Monday, March 5 -- which meant nobody was President on Sunday, at least officially.

He did not undertake any presidential duties, but claimed to have taken a nap whilst serving as 12th president of the United States. But unlike that temporary ceremonial fill-in function, the succession after the deaths of Pierce and King was fundamentally different. Because Atchison was a pro-slavery expansionist who was brought to power at a pivotal moment in the nation's history.

Entry posted by Todayinah Editor

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Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Movies Source: Wikipedia Labels: Franklin Pierce, William Rufus King, David Rice Atchison, Premature death, Presidency.

Todayinah Editor Editor says, in reality Wikipedia reports ~ on January 6, 1853, the President-elect's family had boarded a train in Boston, and were trapped in their derailed car when it rolled down an embankment near Andover, Massachusetts. Pierce and his wife survived, merely shaken up, but saw their 11-year-old son Benjamin crushed to death. Jane Pierce viewed the train accident as a divine punishment for her husband's pursuit and acceptance of high office.
Huffington Post concludes ~ King was dying of tuberculosis when he was sworn in as Vice President. If Pierce had succumbed, and King shortly thereafter, then the presidency would have fallen to David Rice Atchison, President Pro Tempore of the Senate. The succession law was different from 1792-1886. Also, the president didn't appoint a new VP to fill out a term until much later. Atchison is famous for the myth of having been "resident for a day" in 1849. He was pro-slavery expansionist and may have looked south in expanding the country. King is notable for being best friend, and possible lover, of bachelor president James Buchanan.

Readers Comment Eric Oppen commented on 2012-11-23 19:48:50 ~ This might have been an interesting TL. Could New England have started talking secession?

Readers Comment Eric Lipps commented on 2012-11-23 23:08:51 ~ Slight correction needed: it should be "6th January, 1853," not 1863. Also, it should be "fundamentally different." Fixed - thanks, Ed As to substance, the succession of a strong pro-slavery figure to the presidency under such circumstances at that time would have inspired all sorts of conspiracy theories. And if Atchison as p[resident became the focus for rumors of outright homosexuality, the political ramifications are huge: he might have been iompeached and removed, proof or no proof, leading as president . . . whom?

Readers Comment Mike McIlvain commented on 2012-11-24 02:28:02 ~ Tonnes of things could happened in that scenerio. Ultimately, it could have brought on a pro-slave state movement toward the west, which could have done a lot to spread the American Civil War that way. Plenty would have happened in Washington DC, too. Interesting to see what Lincoln might have done, facing those challenges, and what he would have faced -- exactly.

Readers Comment Jeff Provine commented on 2012-11-28 17:55:23 ~ We could've seen Bloody Kansas everywhere from New Mexico to Nebraska to the Rockies.

In 1963, in a televised national press conference on this day Dallas Police Chief Jesse Curry announced that the overnight interrogation of the "grassy knoll shooter" James Earl Files had provided a warm lead to the identity of the mysterious "Depository Man".

Depository Man
By Ed and Jackie SpeelOne of the first U.S. covert combat troops sent into Laos in 1959, he had been court-martialed at Ft. Meade, Maryland for killing two of his own men. He then became involved in private intelligence work after his release from the military.

In the late fall of 1961 he was offered an assignment to serve as a weapons aide to the mafia hitman Charles Nicoletti, an associate of Sam Giancana. Two years later, both men stayed at the Lamplighter Motel in Mesquite, Dallas where they met with a "controller" called David Atlee Phillips.

Phillips involvement signalled a change in the mob's plan to assassinate Kennedy, a task that would not be performed by Nicoletti as originally envisaged, but instead by two operatives under his supervision. Files and a former US marine Lee Harvey Oswald spent five days on an empty field test firing the weapons and calibrating the scopes that were to be used on President Kennedy.

Oswald had been employed as an order filler at the Texas Book Depository only weeks before, and of course the Dallas Police Department had very quickly made the connection when cross referencing the staff list with potential marksmen. However, further connections began to emerge, because both Oswald and Files were linked to the covert CIA headquarters in Miami. This might well have been an accidental cross over of previous engagements rather than evidence of a wider conspiracy involving the Mob and rogue elements of the Agency, and it was precisely this burning question that the Warren Committee was ordered to answer.

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Jackie Speel

Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Politicians Source: Wikipedia Labels: Sean Connery, Harrison Ford, Alec Baldwin, Hammond, Steven Spielberg.

Readers Comment Eric Oppen commented on 2011-11-23 05:30:54 ~ Why would the CIA want to assassinate JFK? Anger over the Bay of Pigs He was popular with them. I will make it clearer that I refer to rogue elements And Oswald was a Castro fanboy, Communist and had a track record of shooting at "right-wing" figures...why all the frantic search for someone, anyone else to be guilty? Because in this TL the involvement of two shooters is undenable and the Mafia fingerprint much stronger

Readers Comment Jeff Provine commented on 2011-11-28 20:59:19 ~ The old joke: "How do you know it wasn't the CIA that assassinated JFK?" "Because it worked."

In 1789, fearing that the United States had abandoned all traces of its Republican values during his long absence in Revolutionary France, Thomas Jefferson returned to Virginia to find Alexander Hamilton the master of King George Washington's Government.

Rebuilding WorksAs the American Ambassador to France, Jefferson had witnessed the excesses of the last days of the Bourbon Kings. In a letter to his secretary William Short he noted that "Were there but an Adam and an Eve left in every country, and left free, it would be better than as it now is. I have expressed to you my sentiments, because they are really those of 99 in an hundred of our citizens". In the final months in Paris, Jefferson also witnessed those change unfolding as France entered a period of radical social and political upheaval.

Retiring to Charlottesville, Jefferson withdrew from public life in order to focus on the task of rebuilding Monticello. A delegation led by Benjamin Franklin and James Madison arrived, hoping to convince Jefferson that his architecture skills were required on a grander scale, to rebuild the nation in the image of the republican government that they had always imagined.

And Alexander Hamilton was forced to advise the King that the man who had penned the Declaration of Independence now posed a threat to the Federalist unity of the new nation. That Jefferson had gone native in Europe and become an American Oliver Cromwell.

Entry posted by Todayinah Editor

Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Politicians Source: Wikipedia Labels: Thomas Jefferson, Alexander Hamilton, George Washington, United States, Presidency.

Todayinah Editor Editor says, it is said that, at the close of the Constitutional Convention, a woman approached Benjamin Franklin and asked him what type of government had been decided upon by the delegates. Benjamin Franklin stated: "We have given you a Republic, if you can keep it". In this timeline we imagine otherwise.

Readers Comment Eric Oppen commented on 2011-05-19 05:46:54 ~ So in this TL Washington had kids? ISTR that one reason he wasn't interested in a crown was because he didn't have children and couldn't pass it along to them.

Readers Comment Chris Oakley commented on 2011-05-19 14:18:29 ~ Not to mention the fact that the whole point of the Revolution was to get out from under the rule of kings.

Readers Comment Jeff Provine commented on 2011-05-19 17:55:18 ~ Great ATL. Hamilton's crackdown vs Jefferson's republicans would make a mess (Alien and Sedition Acts, for example), so the kingdom would probably topple, but not before much spilled blood.

Readers Comment Robbie Taylor commented on 2011-05-20 05:10:34 ~ You go away for a little while, and everybody starts having delusions of GRANDEUR!

In 534 BC, Thespis insulted the Gods. Since the dawn of language, and perhaps before with simple hand gestures, mankind had performed the art of storytelling. Great hunts, tragic tales of lovers, and, most importantly, the epics of the gods all served as material to be related to one another and the younger generations for entertainment and moral instruction.

Thespis Insults the Gods Storytelling among the ancient Greeks evolved out of the chanting of priests to become a more secular chorus, telling the tales of great men and gods, especially Dionysus, the patron of the art.

A new story by Jeff ProvineAccording to ancient manuscripts studied by modern historians, some 2500 years ago, a creative Greek by the name of Thespis of Icaria attempted to introduce "acting" to western civilization. Rather than singing from the chorus or as a solo storyteller, Thespis stepped alone in the amphitheater and sang from behind a mask as if he were Dionysus himself. The audience was struck, unsure quite what to think until an elder from the front stood and called, "Blasphemer!"

Thespis was obviously not Dionysus, and portraying himself to be an avatar of a god was a strict crime of sacrilege. He was taken before the Athenean court, given fair trial, and exiled from the city for fear that the gods would instigate a plague or bad fortune in a city allowing such arrogance. Thespis disappears from history, and acting would forever be a distasteful action among the European peoples.

Storytelling, however, flourished. During the republic and empire of Rome, satyr songs would give long, satirical descriptions of modern life in rich verse. Bards and monks relating the story of the Passion delighted audiences throughout the Middle Ages. As Europeans began to explore and colonize other peoples, they encountered new types of storytelling such as the shadow play of Japan and the body-language of dance among Southeast Asian and Polynesian peoples, many of which would find their places among European theater. Other arts, such as Japanese kabuki and African mask-dances would be frowned upon as barbaric and arrogant lies where "actors" portrayed themselves as true people or even spirits.

It would not be until the invention of the motion-picture camera that acting would return to the view of the western world. Originally, the camera was used to capture important events such as the funeral march of royalty or shocking images like staged train crashes. Through the work of French and later German "directors", a new style of voyeurism would be shown as people invisibly watched the lives of others. Reality films would gradually fade as "fakies", scripted and acted fictional accounts would be recorded and shown. Initially as scandalous as the acting of Thespis, counter-culture would embrace the stories, and its significance would eventually gain some recognition among the populace at large along the same lines of modern dance and lyric-less poetry.

Even in today's forward-thinking times, fakies are viewed as morally questionable, not necessarily evil, but not as genuine of an entertainment as a well told story.

Entry posted by Guest Historian

Jeff Provine

Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Jeff Provine Blog Source: Jeff Provine’s Blog Labels: Thespis, Gods, Greece, Greek Gods, Religion.

Todayinah Editor Editor says, in reality according to the writings of Aristotle and others, Thespis was well received in his first-person portrayals, even of Dionysus. He spread his fame, as well as the new style of portraying characters through various masks, traveling in a wagon throughout Greece. Third-person storytelling, while still significant, takes a supporting role to acting on stage or film.

Readers Comment Eric Oppen commented on 2011-09-19 01:31:31 ~ I'd always thought that drama came out of festivals honoring the gods.

In 1623, on this day Edward Blount and William and Isaac Jaggard published the collection of "Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies" which modern scholars commonly refer to as the "First Folio".

First FolioTo alert the reader to the real identity of the playwright, the cover artist Martin Droeshout had portrayed an incongruous-looking fellow with a mask-line down his face, wearing a back-to-front doublet with two right-eyes (pictured, below). Writing three centuries later, Sir George Greenwood would remark "I can never understand how any unprejudiced person, with a sense of humor, can look upon [the print] without being tempted to irreverent laughter".

Born in 1564, Gulielmus Shakspere was an illiterate son of a butcher who never attended school (his father simply placed an X on his birth certificate). Neither his wife Anne Hathaway, nor any of his three children could read or write either. In London, the only written records bearing the name "Willemus Shackspere" are unpaid debts dating from 1595. Two years later, he moved to Straford Upon Avon, four days of hard horse-riding from the capital, where he died in April 1616. Six versions of his signature remain in print, three of which appear on his will. No other diaries, letters or manuscripts have ever been found.

"Shakes-speare, we must be silent in our praise, cause our encomimums will but blast thy bays" ~ Wit's RecreationSimply ludicrous of course to imagine that such a man could pen forty plays, add three thousand words to the English vocabulary, or even demonstrate an insider's view of the English court from such a distance. That the greatest mystery surrounded the "soul of our age" (Doctor Jonson's term) was his real identity, was according to Charles Dickens, both "a fine comfort" and "a great mystery". "I tremble every day lest something should come out".

But come out it did, finally, exactly four hundred years later with the discovery of letters from John Clayton, the debtor from the 1595 bills. During the passage of those four centuries, over sixty individuals had been identified as the real Bard. But the mystery was finally revealed, because Clayton had left instructions for his letters to be opened in 1995.

That the Bard really was Hamlet, the Prince of Denmark was something of an anti-climax. His identify was an open secret in court, and yet his satirical potrayal of the ruling classes required some form of subterfuge in order for his playwriting to continue. And so the courtier John Clayton bought the identity of Shakespeare and then paid for his relocation to Stratford.

Entry posted by Todayinah Editor

© "Shakespear's Lost Kingdom (the True History of Shakespeare and Elizabeth)" by Charles Beauclerk (2010)
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Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Beasts Source: Wikipedia Labels: Shakespeare, Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, Play, Stratford.

Readers Comment Jeff Provine commented on 2010-11-23 16:30:09 ~ Stratford would have quite the conspiracy to keep the lie going, even to the point of the church showing where he was a layman. Why would someone do that? Oh, wait, the millions of pounds income each year for the town through tourism...

In 1814, by suffering a fatal heart attack on this day in Washington D.C., Elbridge Thomas Gerry becoming the first President of the United States to die in office.

Elbridge T. Gerry
5^th President of the United States
March 4, 1813 - November 23, 1814Elbridge Thomas Gerry (July 17, 1744 - November 23, 1814) was an American statesman and diplomat. As a Democratic-Republican he was elected as the fifth President of the United States, after the rather shocking decision by James Madison not to seek a second term. Defeating Dewitt Clinton by the narrow margin of 25 electoral votes, he served from March 4, 1813 until his death a year and a half later. He was also the oldest president elected until Ronald Reagan in 1980.

A new article from Althistory WikiaGerry was one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence and the Articles of Confederation. He was one of three men who refused to sign the Constitution because it did not then include a Bill of Rights. Gerry later became Governor of Massachusetts. He is most famous for being the namesake of gerrymandering, a process by which electoral districts are drawn with the aim of aiding the party in power.

Early life

Born in Marblehead, Massachusetts, the third of twelve children, he was a graduate of Harvard College, where he studied to be a doctor, attending there from age fourteen. He worked in his father's shipping business and came to prominence over his opposition to commerce taxes. He was elected to the General Court of the province of Massachusetts in May 1772 on an anti-British platform.

Career

Gerry was a Massachusetts delegate to the Continental Congress from February 1776 to 1780. He also served from 1783 to September 1785 and was married in 1786 to Ann Thompson, the daughter of a wealthy New York merchant, 21 years his junior. In 1787 he attended the United States Constitutional Convention and was one of the delegates voting against the new constitution (joining George Mason and Peyton Randolph in not signing it). He was elected to the U.S. House under the new national government, and served in Congress from 1789 to 1793.

He surprised his friends by becoming a strong supporter of the new government, and so vigorously supported Alexander Hamilton's reports on public credit, including the assumption of state debts, and supported Hamilton's new Bank of the United States, that he was considered a leading champion by the Federalists. He did not stand for reelection in 1792. He was a presidential elector for John Adams in the 1796 election, and was appointed by Adams to the critical delegation to France that was humiliated by the French in the XYZ Affair. He stayed in France after his two colleagues returned, and Federalists accused him of supporting the French. He returned in October 1798, and switched his affiliation to Democratic-Republican party in 1800.

He was the unsuccessful Democratic-Republican nominee for governor of Massachusetts in 1800, 1801, 1802 and 1803. In 1810 he was finally elected Governor of Massachusetts as a Democratic-Republican. He was re-elected in 1811 but defeated in 1812 over his support for the redistricting bill that created the word gerrymander. He ran for president against DeWitt Clinton, narrowly defeating him by 25 electoral votes. He died in office in Washington, D.C. and is buried there in the Congressional Cemetery.

Entry posted by Todayinah Editor

Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Politicians Source: Althistory Wikia Labels: Eldridge Gerry, Presidency, Premature Death, George Clinton, James Madison.

Readers Comment Eric Oppen commented on 2010-11-03 05:43:51 ~ Don't know enough about this guy to comment, but I notice we seem to have avoided the War of 1812.

Readers Comment Eric Lipps commented on 2010-11-03 12:02:21 ~ I notice the same. Why didn't Madison seek a second term, and is it related tgo avoidance of the war? Or is the wa5r in progress when Gerry dies, and a stress factor contributing to his heart attack? For that matter, if the roster of presidents diverges from our own that far back, how is Ronald reagan still elected in 1980? It would more likely be someone we've never heard of, or have barely heard of.

Readers Comment Jeff Provine commented on 2010-11-03 18:31:34 ~ Even if no War of 1812, there would still at least be the Indian wars going on in Ohio. Maybe he was able to keep them as a domestic issue. That would really shore up feelings with England early on.

In 2009, on this day American officials confirmed for the first time that the ruling Ba'ath Party had indeed detonated a nuclear device a week before, citing radioactive debris found in air samples collected in the Western desert of Iraq. Out of the Box

The office of the Director of National Intelligence said in a statement: "Analysis of air samples collected on Nov. 19, 2009, detected radioactive debris which confirms that the Government of Iraq conducted an underground nuclear explosion in the vicinity of Akashat on Nov. 16, 2009". The day after the blast, the Pentagon dispatched Air Force planes with special radiation detectors into international air space near the Syrian border.

The great nation of Iraq joined India, Israel, Pakistan and North Korea as the fifth sovereign state to posses their own nuclear weapons program outside the signatory list of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

In a televised stand-up address from the Oval Office, forty-fourth US President Joseph I. Lieberman confirmed to the American people that Saddam Hussein was "now out of the strategic box and able to threaten Iraq's neighbors".

The fifteen year policy pursued by three successive Democratic Presidential administrations had been most effectively articulated by U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright at Wingate University on March 25, 1997. In her keynote speech American Leadership for the 21st Century: Doing What's Right and Smart for America's Future, Albright stated "Today, as a result of American diplomatic and military leadership from Administrations of both parties, our citizens are safer than at any time in memory. Russian warheads no longer target our homes, and nuclear weapons have been removed from Ukraine, Belarus and Kazakstan. North Korea's nuclear weapons program has been frozen and will be dismantled.Iraq's Saddam Hussein remains trapped in a strategic box, unable to threaten Iraq's neighbors--or us".

Multilateral efforts would continue through diplomatix channels, said Lieberman, as America leveraged the prestige of her global leadership to find a peaceful solution to the crisis with friends and allies. Substantive dialogue would be pursued with the governments of France and Russia, who many Americans blamed - quiet wrongly in the President's view - for breaking the international consensus on Iraq in the late 1990s.

Lieberman expressed confidence that the UN Security Council could develop a common strategy that encouraged Iraq to dismantle her nuclear weapons program, easing tension in the Middle East.

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© Tim Trevan, Saddam's Secretys - the Hunt fort Iraq's Hidden Weapons
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Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Beasts Source: Wikipedia Labels: Joe Lieberman, Saddam Hussein, Madeleine Albright, Democrats, Iraq.

Todayinah Editor Editor says, Having read Tim Trevan's now dated book Saddam's Secrets - the Hunt fort Iraq's Hidden Weapons about UNSCOM from 1999, it is of course startling to read his conclusion that perhaps nothing can be done to eliminate Saddam. Of course now we look back with a slightly different perspective, yet Trevan's account of the cat-and-mouse game with the UN Inspectors is of course a key element in the drama. So we've chosen Joe Liebermann's less than belligerent personae to explore a neo-conservative dystopian vision of the future where Trevan's worst fears are realised. It does not reflect our views, it is simply another anti-war perspective.

According to Albright's own memoirs, she once argued with Colin Powell for the use of military force by asking, What's the point of you saving this superb military for, Colin, if we can't use it?

Readers Comment David Atwell commented on 2008-11-22 04:09:08 ~ You know, even though America may continue with diplomatic efforts, somehow I don't think Isreal will ;)

Readers Comment Eric Oppen commented on 2008-11-22 05:37:36 ~ This would put the cat among the pigeons for real. The israelis would be excreting bricks, and most of Iraq's neighbors would be as well. Particularly the Iranians.

Readers Comment Chris Oakley commented on 2008-11-22 18:44:35 ~ Funny, Lieberman's always struck me as being a bit more confrontational than that....

Comment from Paul Schenck on Facebook: Interesting as always, but this one seems quite a stretch to me on two points: a) Lieberman becoming president and b) Sadam developing nuclear weapons in spite of world-wide pressure and U. N. inspections.

Readers Comment Stan Brin commented on 2011-02-22 10:29:10 ~ What is this story premised upon? No raid at Osirak? No Gulf War I?

Readers Comment Eric Lipps commented on 2011-02-22 12:46:08 ~ And why is it that everyone seems to think America would have been more threatened by Saddam Hussein with nukes than it was by Joseph Stalin with them? For that matte, why take it for granted that Democrats alone would have let Saddam "out of his box"? It was the Reagan administration, after all, which, eyes wide open (one presumes), supplied him with the makings for the chemical weapons he would later use both against the Iranians and against his own people.

Readers Comment Jeff Provine commented on 2011-02-22 16:43:37 ~ A weak stance on nuclear proliferation would just allow it to spread. Iran would have to have the bomb, then so would Libya, Egypt...

Readers Comment H. Torrance Griffin commented on 2011-02-23 15:32:20 ~ The question is whether the whole self-peservation bit would make MAD a stabilizing force, or is someone is crazy enough to not care if they die so long as they take thier enemies with them. Propaganda to the contrary my bet is on the former.

	On this day in 1941, Soviet-backed Communist partisans in Korea began a guerrilla uprising against Japanese occupation authorities.

Red Army insignia

On this day in 1944, U-106 captain Xavier March was captured by a British naval patrol off Iceland and incarcerated at a POW camp in Scotland, where he would spend the final months of the Second World War. During his incarceration he would make the acquaintance of the man who would later become his police partner, Max Jaeger.	Detective

	Xavier March

	On this day in 1962, CIA agents in Cuba reported to the agency's station chief in Mexico City that they'd uncovered evidence rogue Cuban secret police had orchestrated Lee Harvey Oswald's death to conceal possible ties between Oswald and the late Fidel Castro's brother Raul, who since Fidel's death had fallen under growing suspicion of having played a part in Fidel's assassination.


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On this day in 1972, the Cowboys improved to 7-4 for the 1972 NFL season with a 27-10 Thanksgiving Day win over the San Francisco 49ers.

	In 2001, CIA covert-ops teams enter Afghanistan and fan out in search of Al Qaeda operatives and sympathizers in 'Operation Kipling.' They are guided by aerial and orbital photography which appears to identify possible Al Qaeda bases.

Al Gore

In 1963, on this day the KGB made a startling discovery. As planned Soviet double Alek had assassinated President Kennedy before he could win the Cold War for America. Alek was impersonating the former US Marine Lee Harvey Oswald after a switch in Minsk during 1959. Yet the picture emerging from the American south-west was incredible; their discrete plot had been hijacked by the CIA with the planting of faked evidence. Oswald had been switched again by the CIA. The KGB quickly activated deep sleeper agent Jacob Rubenstein. The switched 'Oswald' must be eliminated by 'Ruby' before he confessed to being a Soviet agent. If he did, America could justify a first strike from their vastly larger nuclear armoury, and win the Cold War without Kennedy!

In 1963, fifty-eight year old Abraham Zapruder died in Dallas, Texas of repository failure. A change of management was announced at the diseased's offices in the Dal-Tex Building, off Dealey Plaza and directly across the street east of the Texas School Book Depository. The manufacture of women's clothing would resume in early December, after an appropriate period of mourning for President Kennedy. In the meantime, staff were not required for work, however anyone that had seen Mr Zapruder's Bell & Howell movie camera should contact the new manager, Mr Jacob Rubenstein, as a matter of urgency, as the Zapruders were distressed not to have copies of a recent family event.

In 1970, physicist Roy Kendall of the University of Nevada went public with information he had stolen from the secret military base at Groom Lake, Nevada. In a live interview with Walter Cronkite of CBS News, Kendall maintained that alien technology was being back-engineered at Groom Lake; unfortunately, as soon as he said that, armed men broke into the studio, shot him dead, and fatally wounded Cronkite. His evidence was never seen, and the government maintained that Kendall and Cronkite had been slain by gamblers Kendall was attempting to pay off with a lucrative hoax.

In 1947, two Bedouin shepherds contacted Jerusalem's Hebrew University with news that they had discovered a cache of scrolls in Qumran. Translated, the documents told of a gigantic hoax played on the people of Rome, whereby the Essene sect of Judaism convinced the Romans that a savior named Jesus had arrived in the world, and would absolve them of all sins. The texts were bought for an astronomical figure by the Roman Catholic Church, and immediately suppressed.

In 618, Alfonso the Wise, Caliph of Castile and Leon, was born with Allah's blessing in Toledo, Espagne. He was among the first few generations in his country to accept the teachings of the Prophet, and established great schools of learning during his reign, some of which still teach to this day.

In 912, Otto of Germany, the last serious pretender to the old Roman Empire, was born in Saxony. Maintaining that Pius had lacked the authority to crown Arthur pope, Otto led rebellions against the Holy British Empire throughout his life until his final defeat in 971 by Pope Edward the Peacable.

In 1945, the automatic 'three strikes' policy of the non-proliferation committee for the Congress of Worlds mandates a decision in relation to the distant planet earth. A meeting is quickly convened. Agreement is quickly reached on the authenticity of alerts from remote sensors of a third thermonuclear detonation. The geographic pattern of detonations when correlated with sentient population distribution suggests a type 1 scenario (the �immediate application' model); that being a test detonation in a remote corner of the aggressor's territory followed by short-term offensive activity in a populated area. A decision is taken to authorise an exploratory mission that will land close to the site of the first detonation ETA Roswell, New Mexico at the earliest launch window, July 1947.

In 1963, on this day Winston Lawson of the Secret Service paid off Harold Doyle, John Forester Gedney and Gus W. Abrams. All three were always on the go hopping trains and drinking wine. The day before they had gotten fresh clothes, showered, shaved and had a meal. They headed back to the railroad yard when they heard all the commotion and sirens and everything, and they asked what happened. They were told the president had been shot. Doyle settled down in Klamath Falls, Oregon. Gedney moved to Melbourne, Florida, where he served as a municipal officer, a respected member of the community who had not spoken about former life as a vagabond until interviewed by researcher Billy Cox, and by the FBI in 1993. It was a small price to pay for signing some fake rap sheets. And having a photo swapped with one of E. Howard Hunt, Frank Sturgis and Daniel Carswell.

In 1946, the second set of trials of lesser war criminals at Nuremberg commences. In the Sailor's Trials, charges are brought for the destruction of the French Fleet at Mers-el-Kebir, French North Africa (now Algeria) by the Royal Navy which took place on 3 July 1940. Force H, based in Gibraltar led by the aircraft carrier the Ark Royal killed 1,297 and wounded 350 French sailors in this 'wanton and unnecessary' attack. The surrender demand from British Admiral James Somerville ' your ships..entrusted to the United States and remain safe until the end of the war, the crews being repatriated... I have the orders from His Majesty's Government to use whatever force may be necessary to prevent your ships from falling into German hands.' is presented to the court noting that the offer to Admiral Marcel-Bruno Gensoul mirrored instructions already provided by French Marine Minister Admiral Darlan. Further noted was a contemporaneous statement by Somerville who was less enthusiastic about the action saying that it was 'the biggest political blunder of modern times and will rouse the whole world against us�we all feel thoroughly ashamed�'. At the Sailor's trial, Somerville took ultimate responsibility for the action and was executed before Christmas Day 1946.

In 1766, a simple, good-natured fellow, of the name of Rip Van Winkle lived in a little village of great antiquity, founded by some of the Dutch colonists west of the Hudson River in the Catskill Mountains. The Van Winkles had fought gallantly alongside Peter Stuyvesant at the siege of Fort Christina, but Rip himself inherited little of the martial character of his war-like ancestors. For some time this Appalachian region had been a province of Great Britain. On this glorious fall day, it would seem the reign of King George III was untroubled. Still the first trimester of any pregnancy is a matter best keep private by parents of the unborn child, and the birth of a new nation is much the same. They must pray for God' mercy, and hope against hope, that that theirs is not a violent birth in blood and tears.

November 22

In 1718, on this day the most talented officer in the Royal Navy, Captain Edward Teach was lost off the coast of North Carolina.

Death of Captain Edward TeachBorn in Britain's second city in 1680, the 17th-century rise of Britain's American colonies and the rapid 18th-century expansion of the Atlantic slave trade had made Bristol an important international sea port. And naturally, he enrolled in his earliest teenage years.

He came to the attention of the Admiralty as a result of his daredevil exploits in the intense fighting of Queen Anne's War. And although he was considered unorthodox, he was finally rewarded with the Captaincy of the vessel HMS Queen Anne's Revenge, but tragically died during a storm at Teach's Cove.

Entry posted by Todayinah Editor

Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Generals Source: Wikipedia Labels: Edward Teach, Blackbeard, Pirate, Ship, Navy.

Todayinah Editor Editor says, in reality he was the British pirate best known as "Blackbeard". He was killed in battle with a boarding party led by Royal Navy Lieutenant Robert Maynard.

In 1975, Otto von Habsburg was declared Head of State in accordance with the wishes of the late Francisco Franco.

Otto von Habsburg, King of SpainBecause in 1961, the Spanish dictator had offered to make him king of Spain after his own death. A branch of the Habsburg had ruled the country from 1506-1700 and so a valid (if some tenuous) claim existed based on historical precedent. However, Franco's concern was maintaining his own legacy by preventing the ascension of Juan Carlos.

But of course the Carlist and Alfonsian branches of the Royal Family both contested the succession which received only half hearted supported from the people of Spain. Within a very short space of time, it became clear that the country was heading for a disastrous second Civil War if von Habsburg could not safely navigate the nation towards a democratic safe haven.

Entry posted by Todayinah Editor

Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Generals Source: Wikipedia Labels: Francisco Franco, Otto von Habsburg, Spain, King, Head of State.

Todayinah Editor Editor says, in reality Juan Carlos was declared King of Spain because he declined, but later praised the fascist leader for helping refugees, calling him a "dictator of the south American type .. not totalitarian like Hitler or Stalin".

Readers Comment Stan Brin commented on 2012-11-22 11:26:50 ~ Not sure that the Fascists would agree to this. Most likely, if he hated Juan Carlos, he would chose the Carlist (Borbon y Parma) branch.

Readers Comment Eric Oppen commented on 2012-11-22 16:14:07 ~ Otto von Hapsburg, from what I've read about him, would make a jim-dandy King. But did he speak Spanish?

Readers Comment Mike McIlvain commented on 2012-11-23 02:58:36 ~ Juan Carlos once described his role as that of a public relations man for Spain, and he seems to have proven some skills along those lines, too. I think he might have put those abilities to use in running for office in the post-Franco political arena. He might have won, but who knows for sure?

Readers Comment Jackie Rose commented on 2012-11-25 23:16:23 ~ As I recall, Juan Carlos pretended to be a fascist, and succeeded to the point where his own father denounced him for being one. But it really was a pretense, aimed at Franco, and Juan Carlos dropped it the moment Franco was gone and he himself was crowned.

Readers Comment Jeff Provine commented on 2012-11-28 17:44:04 ~ A war of succession in modern Europe? How would NATO and the Soviet Bloc react?

In 1963, during the course of a New York taxi ride, Richard M. Nixon learns that his opponent in the Presidential Election John F. Kennedy has been assassinated. In an article for Readers Digest he recalled hailing a cab after his Dallas-New York flight: "We were waiting for a light to change when a man ran over from the street corner and said that the President had just been shot in Dallas" (however in a subsequent article for Esquire he later said that his cabbie "missed a turn somewhere and we were off the highway .. a woman came out of her house screaming and crying. I rolled down the cab window to ask what the matter was and when she saw my face she turned even paler. She told me that John Kennedy had just been shot in Dallas").

Kennedy's Heir
By Ed, Jacke Rose, Chris Oakley & Eric OppenHowever there would be no political comeback; he had already told the press that "You won't have Nixon to kick around anymore because, gentlemen, this is my last press conference". Because in order to establish commitment with doubtful Californian voters, he had pledged not to run for president in 1964 at the launch of his gubernatorial campaign. But even if he had not, he believed it would be difficult to defeat Kennedy, or after his assassination, Kennedy's successor Lyndon Johnson. And after his defeat at the hands of liberal Pat Brown, he had retreated into private life, recently becoming a senior partner in the leading New York law firm Nixon, Mudge, Rose, Guthrie & Alexander.

Instead, at the climax of the ugliest Convention in fifty years Republicans selected the conservative Arizona Senator Barry Goldwater. And "because he drives Johnson nuts" his running mate would be an obscure Congressman from Western New York, William E. Miller. Of course none of these politicians were natural vote winners who could match Kennedy for charisma and vision. The only individual who could begin to match those attributes was the Mayor of New York City, John V. Lindsay (pictured). Of course by the time that he entered the White House in 1969, the scandals of the Kennedy-Johnson administration had tarnished the "Camelot" years. More damaging was the revelations about the true purpose of Nixon's visit to Dallas. He had met with Pepsi-Cola executives with big business interests in the sugar plantantions in Cuba. Due to Nixon's prominent role as a leading campaign organizer during his Presidential race, the full exposure of "the Bay of Pigs thing" created waves during Lindsay's first year in office.
This post is an article from the Jamaica Bay thread developed by Chris Oakley.

Entry posted by Todayinah Editor

Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Jamaica Bay Source: Wikipedia Labels: John Lindsay, Barry Goldwater, New York, Jamaica Bay, Hurricane.

Todayinah Editor Editor says, in this article we revisit the idea that the Jamaica Bay disaster gave national prominense to New York Mayor John V. Lindsay, an echo of Rudy Giuliani's run for the Presidency after the September 11th attacks. We have repurposed significant amounts of content from Tripod.

Readers Comment Chris Oakley commented on 2012-06-22 16:20:31 ~ And millions of registered voters switched to Coca-Cola on the spot. :D

Readers Comment Jeff Provine commented on 2012-06-22 17:12:10 ~ And I thought OUR TL's politics were a mess. Curious to hear more about the weather-prediction tech.

Readers Comment Jackie Rose commented on 2012-06-22 18:02:02 ~ Speaking of Kennedy scandals...I wonder if the Marilyn Monroe thing was coming out, too. But anyway, I wonder if "Kennedy's heir" is a pun on "Kennedy's hair," which Lindsay's came close to resembling. If so, it is as good as "Calvary Ambush," which may (or may not) be a play on "Cavalry Ambush." And if it isn't, then it certainly SHOULD be.

Readers Comment Eric Oppen commented on 2012-06-22 19:41:42 ~ I'm not sure whether the Camelot scandals would have come out that soon. The press was 95% or better manned by guys with a large emotional investment in JFK and his myth, and stories like that would have been spiked, or if they did run, the people responsible would be transferred to Journalist Siberia.

Readers Comment Jackie Speel commented on 2012-06-22 20:27:19 ~ 'My opinion' is that 'all the usual suspects' would have got more mileage out of doing a 'puppet on a string act' with JFK than from causing his death (J Edgar Hoover was certainly up to doing blackmail): and if they were then found out the penalty for puppetting is likely to be much less. Did I mention that I 'read somewhere' that assassinating a President was not a #Federal# crime at the time?

Readers Comment Eric Lipps commented on 2012-06-23 00:35:15 ~ It wasn't necessarily just Kennedy as Kennedy in whom the press had a big investment. The first murder of a president in 60 years would have made its victim a martyr even if it had been Nixon.

In 1963, the Presidential Emergency Succession Act was invoked for the first time when President John F. Kennedy was shot and killed in Dallas (the suspected assassin, ex-Marine turned Communist Lee Harvey Oswald, was himself gunned down in a movie theater while trying to elude police).

A Shock To The System Part 3Secret Service agents on the ground in the Dallas area at the time JFK was shot immediately whisked the First Lady and her family back to Washington while additional teams of agents were helicoptered in from Fort Worth to guard Kennedy's vice-president and successor Lyndon Johnson as he took the oath of office to become the 36th President of the United States; the new chief executive wasted no time ordering a full-scale investigation to determine how someone could have gotten close enough to shoot and kill Kennedy; within less than six weeks after taking office Johnson signed an executive order mandating tougher training for all future incoming Secret Service personnel.

By 1965 President Johnson had successfully lobbied Congress for a 50 percent increase in funding for all PESA-related operations by the Justice and Treasury Departments.

Entry posted by Guest Historian

Chris Oakley

Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: A Shock To The System Source: Amazon Labels: John F Kennedy, Richard Pavlick, Premature Death, Assassination, Presidency.

Todayinah Editor Editor says, this timeline was inspired by the Jeff Greenfield novel "Then Everything Changed" (2011)

Readers Comment Mike McIlvain commented on 2012-11-06 08:53:03 ~ I lived in Texas long enough to not be surprised by alternate possibilities. Too many unanswered questions remain lo these many years.

Readers Comment Eric Oppen commented on 2012-11-06 09:08:43 ~ Other than toughening up SS training, and a different death for the assassin, I'm not sure how this differs from OTL.

In 1963, absolutely no later than forty-five minutes after the Kennedy assassination, prime suspect Lee Harvey Oswald was quietly apprehended on East 10th Street in Oak Cliff by patrolman J. D. Tippit, a thirty-nine year old officer with the Dallas Police Department.

Poor Dump Cop #1 By E and Jackie SpeelWithin hours, he was charged by indictment with the murder of the President. However the Dallas Police struggled to reconstruct the timescale of events.

Deputy Sheriff Roger Craig stated that when he heard the news that Oswald had been arrested, he noted the time was 1:06 p.m. according to his watch. But according to his housekeeper Earlene Roberts, Oswald arrived at his rooming house, at 1026 North Beckley Avenue at 1.00pm, leaving 3 to 4 minutes later. Although Mrs Roberts testified that he was "walking pretty fast", the Police estimation of Oswald's walking speed demonstrated that one of the longer routes to the scene of the arrest took 17 minutes and 45 seconds.

Soon after his capture Oswald encountered reporters in a hallway, declaring "I didn't shoot anyone" and "They're taking me in because of the fact I lived in the Soviet Union. I'm just a patsy!". Matters were further complicated when Officer Tippit filed his report which stated that the man in the hallway was not the man that he had arrested, a testimony backed up by a witness, William W. Scoggins who was sitting in his taxicab nearby.

A World War 2 veteran of the US 17th Airborne Division, Tippit was earning a salary of $5,880 a year as a Dallas police officer and also working two other part-time jobs. But before the year was out he would be forced out of the Dallas Police by an FBI whispering campaign that he was a "Poor Dumb Cop". Yet it would be far more difficult to silence Oswald who was amassing a pile of unpleasantly awkward facts that he would openly shared on his day in court.

Entry posted by Todayinah Editor

Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Tragedies Source: Wikipedia Labels: Tippit, Lee Harvey Oswald, Kennedy, Assassination, Premature Death.

Todayinah Editor Editor says, in this post Ed & Jackie Speel explore a perspective on the Kennedy Assassination proposed by John Armstrong and Jim Hargrove. Extensive content has been repurposed from Wikipedia.

Google Discussion Group Comments Please click hyperlink for Google Groups Discussion comments.

Readers Comment Eric Oppen commented on 2011-11-20 00:52:05 ~ If Oswald did have a double flapping around, things would get interesting. I've always said, though, that what seem to be time discrepancies are more due to clocks not being in perfect synch than anything else.

Readers Comment Scott Palter commented on 2011-11-20 05:45:36 ~ Oswald probably did it with the rest being the usual chaos of life [people misremember times, have bad watches/clocks, etc.]. That said, the Warren commission was a white wash racing to a predetermined end.

Readers Comment Amnah Khan commented on 2011-11-20 18:13:37 ~ A great piece indeed. I am eager to know what happens next. Please write a follow-up. The characterisation of the events as well as the people are deep. Thanks for sharing it with us.

In 1963, on this day at 11.40am Central Standard Time senior members of the Texas Democratic Party greeted Massachusetts Senator John F. Kennedy and his wife Jacqueline as they stepped off a private jet at the Love Field Airport in Dallas.

Tragedy in Dallas By Ed & Scott PalterRefusing to be trapped in the shameful anonymity of that private hell reserved for failed Presidential candidates, Kennedy had carefully nurtured his profile and status as a national politician. And therefore he was more than pleased to assist the Texas Democratic Party when they appealed for his charismatic assistance. Accordingly, he would shore up support for the 1964 elections by leading this campaign swing through the cities of San Antonio, Austin, Dallas, Houston and Fort Worth.

Unknown to the Party, and despite his radiating youthful good looks and general well-being, Kennedy was a desperately sick man. A lifelong series of medical setbacks had been crowned by a recent back injury that required him to wear a corset. The whole trip would be a miserable discomfort in which he would constantly suffer acute pain.

Neverthless, Kennedy had done much more than make the most of his remaining active years, in fact he had built a travelling circus, roaming around the country like King Arthur, creating a mobile Camelot if you will. Inevitably, he had become a victim of his own success, not just a campaigning spearhead for the Democratice National Committee but a focal point of opposition to President Nixon. And when Nixon cancelled the Bays of Pigs operation and disbanded the exiles, Kennedy's radiance had drawn that angered reaction like a moth to a flame, and he unwittingly became their champion in the Senate. Elevated from pin-up boy to advocate, Kennedy was now a moving target. And the worse fears of his family were realised when a former marine, Lee Harvey Oswald shot him dead in Dallas for his anti-Castro stance.

Within eight years, the wheel would come full circle. Even before the 1964 re-election of Nixon, Castro was himself killed during an abortive coup attempt led by Che Guavera. Faced with a long multi-sided civil war the Organization of American states with help from the US Navy landed Latin american troops to restore peace and free elections. Long before then, Raoul Castro had quit the island, leading one hundred thousand followers into exile in East Germany. And Nixon would be succeeed by President Robert Kennedy who would embrace this new administration by making the strategic decision to unlock Cuban economic potential by returning their biggest port, Guatanemo Bay.

Entry posted by Todayinah Editor

Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Politicians Source: Wikipedia Labels: John F. Kennedy, Dallas 1963, Richard Nixon, Premature Death, Assasination.

Todayinah Editor Editor says, in this post we explore a left-field idea with Scott Palter

Readers Comment Robbie Taylor commented on 2011-11-15 03:42:58 ~ Kennedy the martyr again leaves the world for better men to lead

Readers Comment Eric Oppen commented on 2011-11-15 05:44:28 ~ Kennedy would have been busy sabotaging whoever did win instead of him...or the Kennedy machine would have been doing it. I don't know how much JFK actually knew about what went on behind the scenes.

Readers Comment Jared Myers commented on 2011-11-15 05:59:03 ~ JFK would probably be considered a right-wing conservative today.

Readers Comment Scott Palter commented on 2011-11-15 08:26:44 ~ You will note that he is here killed while undermining the then Cuba policy by championing a resumption of the cancelled invasion plans.

Google Discussion Group Comments Please click hyperlink for Google Groups Discussion comments.

Readers Comment Eric Lipps commented on 2011-11-15 11:46:47 ~ Ditto, although Kennedy called it off only after learning that contrary to what he'd beem told by his CIA advisers, the plan had always called for masive U.S. military intervention in support of the exile army, Apparently Dules et al. tried to in effect sucker JFK into letting the exiles land with promises that the Cuban populace would rise in support--and then be forced, to avoid humiliation when theCuban people failed to rise up in support, send in U.S. forces--but to their horror and fury, he refused.

Readers Comment Jeff Provine commented on 2011-11-15 18:50:33 ~ Wonder how LBJ would've fit into all this. Behind the scenes, a mastermind of DC?

In 1934, on this day a border clash in Abyssinia raised the first significant challenge to the authority of world government since the League of Nations had been formed to co-ordinate a global response to the Spanish Flu Epidemic.

Walwal incidentIn this post-imperial era, the collapse of Colonial Power had created great dangers, and also opportunities outside of Europe.

A messianic figure had arisen in Ethiopia, Ras Tafari who had set about restablishing order in the former Italian Colony. But the megalomaniac crackpot Benito Mussolini and military officers of the defunct Kingdom of Italy declared a Fascist survivor state around the oasis of Welwel. And the fierce reaction of Ethiopian forces led to the first major conflict in over a decade.

Entry posted by Todayinah Editor

Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Generals Source: Wikipedia Labels: Abyssinia, Italy, League of Nations, Ethiopia, World Government.

Readers Comment Jeff Provine commented on 2011-05-28 19:22:17 ~ A little bit worse of a plague, and it might've. 60-70 percent dead, empty the cities, back to subsistence farming.

Readers Comment Eric Oppen commented on 2011-05-28 21:11:55 ~ I'd think Benny the Moose would be likelier to be operating in Italy itself. And this is Eric Oppen speaking, just for the record.

Readers Comment Stan Brin commented on 2011-05-29 11:07:14 ~ the Walwal incident? must involve carpeting. personally, I prefer persian carpets.

In 1307, on this day the Knights Templar gain a new crusade. Since the fall of Jerusalem to Saladin in 1187, the Knights Templar had been in decline. They fought on through the crusades in the losing fight to keep Christian kings in the Holy Land.

Knights Templar Gain New Crusade Their monastic headquarters stood at Acre and cities in the north for a century, but Moslem troops forced them off the mainland to Cyprus. The stronghold there fell in 1302 to the Mamluks, and the Templars had lost their mission. What to do with the Templars stood as the question of the day.

A new story by Jeff ProvinePope Clement V, newly appointed in 1305, offered the suggestion of merging the Knights Templar with the Knights Hospitaller, who were forming up a monastic state in Rhodes as the Teutonic Knights had in Prussia. Both Grand Masters of the two orders ultimately rejected the idea, but, while the discussions were carried out in France, the pope also discussed charges of heresy and corruption that had been brought against the Knights Templar. While questionable, the allegations stood, and the pope sent a letter to the French king Philip IV to investigate. Philip, who was gravely indebted to the Knights Templar in the funding for his wars against England and Flanders, saw this as an opportunity to eliminate the would-be bankers.

On October 13, 1307, Philip gave the order to arrest dozens of top Templars, but Grand Master Jacques de Molay escaped secretly. Over the coming weeks, false confessions of idolatry and sinful rituals would be torn from the Templars under torture. Philip pressured Clement V to give an order that the rest of the Templars be arrested and convicted; with the Order gone, Philip's debts would be struck out. However, the network of Grand Master de Molay enabled the Templar to gain the attention of the pope. Even as Clement had moved the papacy to France, the Templars could protect him from Philip's military, and what the Order needed was a new goal. After much discussion, it was decided that the Order would purify itself and begin a quest to establish an alliance with the Mongols (believed to be descended from influence from the mythical eastern Christian king Prester John). Clement V, much to the chagrin of Philip, gave the papal bull entitled Nova Templarae on November 22. The renewed Templar Order would soon announce a new crusade.

In 1305, Oljeitu of the Ilkhanate in Persia had sent an embassy to Clement, Philip, and the English king Edward I to attempt a military alliance, but distractions in Europe had slowed plans. Now with the Templars freed by selling off their many monastic assets, including Philip's debt (which was purchased by Holy Roman Emperor Henry VII, giving a considerable boost to the political clout of the House of Luxembourg), the Templars began to piece together their Tenth Crusade. Consulting with the aged Crusader-historian Jean de Joinville as well as the famed merchant Marco Polo, whose book had described Prester John as the Mongol's foster father, the Templars set out exploring eastward on a northern route through the Black Sea and across Christian Armenia to begin contact.

By 1312, the Tenth Crusade had been launched. Simultaneous attacks from Ilkhanate Mongols in the northeast with Crusaders backed by mercenaries from the Caucasus in the northwest pushed Mamluks back into Egypt. Within a generation, the Holy Land was in the hands of the Crusaders once again, and the remainder of Egypt was now a vassal to the Mongols. In the 1340s, however, the Black Plague broke out through the Middle East and spilled into Europe. The plague was taken as a sign of punishment for drafting an alliance with unchristian fellows.

Breaking off relations with the east, Europe turned toward itself under the emboldened leadership of the Church, working to purge the ideas that past Crusaders had carried back with them and the dangerous readings of pagan science and literature from ancient Romans and Greeks. In the next century, a rebirth of allegiance to the Church would be conducted by Orders such as the Templars, still ruling out of Jerusalem until its fall to the Ottomans in 1467. Encouraged by trade and conquest, the Ottoman Empire launched its invasion of barbaric Italy in 1543 under Suleiman the Magnificent. Northern Europe would resist for centuries, holding back Muslim imperialism with renewed feudalism, despite the great militaristic might brought forward by Ottoman mastery of gunpowder and cannon.

Entry posted by Guest Historian

Jeff Provine

Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Jeff Provine Blog Source: Jeff Provine’s Blog Labels: 1307, Knights Templar, Crusade, Jacques De Molay, Religion.

Todayinah Editor Editor says, in reality Grand Master de Molay was arrested as well, and the papal bull that November called for similar arrest and seizure of Templar assets from every monarch in Christendom. Many of the Templars disappeared, often cited as fleeing to Scotland or Switzerland. Europe did receive an embassy from the Mongols for an alliance in 1305, but few considered them a reasonable match. Philip IV and Clement V spearheaded calls for a new crusade, though both would die in a matter of months after the betrayal of the Templars, said to be from the curse spoken by de Molay as he was burned at the stake, "Dieu sait qui a tort et a peche. Il va bientot arriver malheur a ceux qui nous ont condamnes a mort" ("God knows who wronged and sinned. He soon will arrive with misfortune at those which condemned us to death").

Comment from Tom Hickie on Facebook: the real problem was that the powers that be had become suspicious of the templars and seen them as a greater threat than the saracens. the mideast was deserted and the templars destroyed. a better question would be why were the knights of saint john not eradicated

Comment from Joe Mwangi on Facebook: The Crusaders annexation of the Holy Land would eventually fail(as it did) since the Holy Land was far from mainland Europe.The Arabs would have kept attacking the Holy Land indefinitely until the Crusaders would tire and leave just like the VietCong attacked the US troops indefinitely till they left Vietnam

Comment from Christopher Irelan of Facebook: You lost me with the reversal of rolls.....Pope Clement V was the bought dog of the king of France....You could of left there rolls the same with Phillip deciding that crusade would refill his coffers as well as setting in stone that France would be the Seat of the Catholic Faith

Comment from Patricia Williams-King of Facebook: The Christian Knights shouldn't have been there at all...they should have gone home and not invaded another country!

Comment from Mike Halicki on Facebook: they would have still failed because so many people had been killed in Europe and most countries that sent people on the crusade were bank rupt or nearly there

Readers Comment Eric Oppen commented on 2011-09-20 23:24:07 ~ The Pope was pretty much at the King of France's mercy, and if the Templars couldn't protect themselves, how could they protect him?

In 1945, despite the Infamous Lava Man being too far gone for current re-animation technology to succeed, the alien scientists at the Secret Nazi Base in New Swabia, Antartica did manage to bring Adolf Hitler back to life although admittedly he was hopelessly insane.

Back to LifeAlthough in its infancy at the time, the technology advanced even further over the course of the next thirty-six years. Which was fortunate, because Ronald Wilson Reagan had unwisely ignored the advice of the Secret Service who urged him to reconsider his personal safety given the frequent number of recent assassination attempts on the President.

Inevitably, just sixty-nine days after taking office when he was once again in public view and thus the easiest of targets, Reagan was shot dead through the heart by John Hinckley, Jr. Waking up at the George Washington University Hospital surrounded by alien scientists, he joked "I hope you're all Republicans!". Increasingly unable to distinguish between the Soviet and alien threats, he later alluded to the event somewhat obiquely at the United Nations on 21st September 1987. Click to watch the alien threat speech

In sharp contract to the Gipper's effusiveness however, the Fuehrer's own ill-tempted gratitude was restricted to a brief pause in which he expressed his thanks (pictured) before his maniac attention turned to fixing up his crashed Haunebu-type Nazi saucer craft. During the repair process, sabotage soon emerged as the suspected cause of the "Repulsine" engine failure.

Despite their successful attempt to kill Hitler, the American saboteurs were rapidly reaching the Fuehrer's same conclusion that world war with the Soviet Union was a necessity if Western Civilization was to be saved from Bolshevism. And somewhat alarmingly, when Reagan began to mutter about the Soviet Union being an "evil empire", it was discovered that the alien scientists had made unauthorised use of Hitler's biological material as spare parts needed to effect the repair work.

Entry posted by Todayinah Editor

Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: NaziUFO Source: Wikipedia Labels: Nazi, UFO, Adolf Hitler, Lava Man, Antarctica.

Readers Comment Eric Oppen commented on 2010-11-22 03:50:45 ~ So Hitler was hopelessly insane, was he? How could they tell?

Readers Comment Robbie Taylor commented on 2010-11-22 09:41:54 ~ The aliens gave Reagan Hitler's brain? It explains so much...

Readers Comment Eric Lipps commented on 2010-11-22 12:49:07 ~ Hitler was hopelessly insanw only AFTER reanimation? Now there's alternate history for you!

Readers Comment Jeff Provine commented on 2010-11-22 20:06:52 ~ Very significant (and I assume costly?) technology. Too late for JFK and MLKj, we assume, but once knowledge of it comes out, there'd be enormous economical push people wanting this. Would it be covered by MediCare?

In 1963, at the conclusion of a business trip to Dallas, ex-Vice President Richard M. Nixon was shot and killed as he prepared to board a private jet at Love Field Airport; his sharp-shooting assassin was former US Marine Lee Harvey Oswald.

Nixon shot in DallasAfter representing two American companies, Studebaker and Pepsi Cola he had unwisely agreed to meet with a cabal of right-wing businessmen who urged him to run for President. Judging that the incumbent President was unbeatable, he dismissed the offer of campaign funds even though it was suggested that Kennedy would not be running in 1964 after all.
Click to watch the scene from the movie Nixon (1995)

The unwelcome reminder of Nixon's unpredictability combined with his haughty attitude panicked the conspirators into cancelling the hit on Kennedy and silencing Nixon instead.

Entry posted by Todayinah Editor

Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Politicians Source: Wikipedia Labels: Richard Nixon, Dallas 1963, Presidency, 1964 election, America.

Readers Comment Kirk Edwards commented on 2010-05-17 05:33:10 ~ Good shift.

Readers Comment Scott Palter commented on 2010-05-17 06:13:15 ~ If we are taking conspiracy theories for Dallas the most likely ones are: 1. Mafia - either double cross over Cuba or double cross over the Teamsters 2. Cubans - both pro and anti-Fidel types wanted his hide 3. Hoffa/senior teamsters - again the double cross on election help in return for dropping Federal prosecutions 4. the ousted Diem regime [Madame Nhu] in alliance with elements in the CIA and the RC church a cabal of rightwing businessmen is absurd. JFK had been a domestic failure and his one success was a massive set of tax cuts.

Readers Comment Eric Oppen commented on 2010-05-17 07:16:27 ~ Real conspirators wouldn't have used that dingaling Oswald, end-of-sentence, full-stop. He was exactly the sort of person that no sane conspiracy would ever recruit.

Readers Comment Eric Lipps commented on 2010-05-17 11:18:42 ~ It makes more sense for Nixon, as ex-veep, to be targeted by Oswald simply for his h

Readers Comment Eric Lipps commented on 2010-05-17 11:28:05 ~ It makes more sense for Nixon to be hit simply as a target of opportunity. Oswald was rumored after the assassination to have been considering going after others rather than JFK, including right-wing hero Gen. Edwin Walker, so why notTricky Dick? And as for it being "absurd" for Kennedy to have been targeted by right-wing businessmen, it isn't. Whether he was or not in "our" history, even in our timeline he was deeply, deeply resented by the business community, tax cut or no. Finally, the image of "dingaling Oswald" was crafted after the fact. If he were that much of a ditz, he'd have been an unlikely pick for the Office of Naval Intelligence, where he worked in the Eisenhower years before defecting to Russia (onl;y to be allowed to re-defect to the U.S., no questions asked, eighteen months later, complete with Russian wife). Whether or not Oswald was the lone gunman of the Warren Report, his career was bizarre and doesn't really fit the picture of him as a complete dork.

Readers Comment Jeff Provine commented on 2010-10-17 17:01:24 ~ This would really shake up the '70s. How would 'Nam go? Relations with China? And what would Hunter Thompson use instead of the phrase "Age of Nixon"?

In 1963, on this day out-going Lyndon Baines Johnson, President of the Confederate States of America, (pictured, left) is assassinated in Dallas whilst travelling in a presidential limousine along a designated motorcade route.

Gerry Shannon's "Johnson Assassinated by Union Sympathizer"Johnson had been doing a tour of his home state to drum up support for the policies of his Democratic-Republican party; and unite it's warring factions within the Texas state. The shooting occurred at approximately 12:30PM in the Dealey Plaza area of downtown Dallas. A chief suspect soon emerges: Lee Harvey Oswald, a US sympathizer who had previously defected to the Union after receiving a dishonourable discharge from the Confederate Army. Oswald would later claim at his trial - and right up to his execution - he was being set-up as the perfect "patsy" for Johnson's murder, because of his outspoken beliefs on civil rights and affirmative action.

However, Oswald's argument would prove ironic with hindsight. Since being sworn in six years before, Johnson had pursued several progressive policies in relation to civil rights for African-Americans during his administration. It would be his Vice-President and successor, John Connolly, who would succeed in convincing the Confederate Congress at Richmond to pass a historic Civil Rights bill in 1964.

Entry posted by Guest Historian

Gerry Shannon

Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Reunification80 Source: Wikipedia Labels: Lyndon Johnson, John Connolly, Dallas, 1963, Assasination.

Readers Comment Eric Oppen commented on 2009-10-29 04:19:45 ~ Sounds rather like the assassination of Francis Ferdinand at Sarajevo...the Serb conspirators assassinated the man in the A-H government who was most sympathetic to Slav peoples. And would "affirmative action" have been called that?

Readers Comment Eric Lipps commented on 2009-10-29 13:20:21 ~ A quibble: Under the Confederate system, presidential elections took place in odd-numbered years and each president served one six-year term. By my count, 1863 would indeed have been a Confederate presidential election year, but if elections were being held in February (as with Jefferson Davis in 1861), Johnson would have had to be inaugurated right after the election for him to have served ten months by November. I suspect that as with the USA, there would have been a several-months' transition period.

Readers Comment Gerry Shannon commented on 2009-10-29 16:37:27 ~ Given it's six years under the Confederate consitution, does Davis from 1861 - 1865 not constitute his sole term though? I took the assumption elections would have been held in 1864 based on that reckoning. Added a term of six years several times to make it to 1963. I had it that Johnson was sworn in Feburary of 63... only to be murdered that November. I've no bother correcting it, if you want to point out where I got it wrong.

Readers Comment Gerry Shannon commented on 2009-10-30 03:03:40 ~ Obviously, I mean Davis from 1861 - 66. Eric, send us an e-mail, would help me plan who was president when. Wikipedia is confusing on how an election in the CSA would have worked, obviously my above reasoning there is muddled.

Readers Comment Gerry Shannon commented on 2009-11-22 01:43:33 ~ Date corrected. :)

Comment from Norton James on Facebook: The Kennedy dynasty preserve

Comment from Margo Barotta on Facebook: that is true Norton ,the kennedy dynasty will be in power and new era will begin with this family for the united states

Comment from Arlena Arteaga Kelly on Facebook: What a mind bender. Too many "ifs" in this one. Assuming Kennedy lived, he might have been cast in a bad light and been blamed for Oswald's convenient murder. Failed diplomacy might have ensued and then maybe even an outbreak of war.....

In 1963, President John F. Kennedy, along with his wife, Jacqueline, complete a successful visit of the city of Dallas, continuing Kennedy's tour of the southern States in the run-up to his re-election campaign in 1964. Incident Along Motorcade Route by Gerry Shannon

Speaking later that day before the Dallas Trade Mart, Kennedy would draw attention to America's future role in both economic and world affairs:

"Our adversaries have not abandoned their ambitions, our dangers have not diminished, our vigilance cannot be relaxed.

But now we have the military, the scientific, and the economic strength to do whatever must be done for the preservation and promotion of freedom".

Meanwhile, in a bizarre sidebar to the Kennedy visit, Dallas police officials are alerted to an apparent suicide by a male employee at the Texas School Book Depository - which occured moments after Kennedy's motorcade left Dealey Plaza in downtown Dallas for the Trade Mart. (When asked by a reporter later, Kennedy admitted he thought he heard " what sounded like a firecracker" when heading to the Trade Mart, before then expressing his condolences to the man's family).

The body was quickly identified of that of Lee Oswald, a former Marine, who recently defected to Russia and had returned to the States. Oswald had sought employment at the Depository, after being recommended there by a friend.

Speaking to Hugh Aynesworth of The Dallas Morning News, Depository manager Roy Truly, clearly shaken, said: "He [Oswald] seemed to be the only one not interested in the President's motorcade... I thought he seemed more distant then usual. That was Lee, he tended to keep to himself. But you sure as hell don't expect him to then go blow his head off".

Dallas police officials said Oswald apparently shot himself through the head with a 6.5 mm caliber Carcano rifle, Oswald's ownership of which they were still trying to determine.

It is thought Oswald's suicide came about after a recent dispute with his estranged Russian wife, Marina. In what is seen by many as a result of the goodwill of the President's visit, donations to the widow and her two children pour in all over the city of Dallas; most notably from a local club owner (who wished to remain anonymous) who donates the weekend profits of his club, The Carousel.

Entry posted by Guest Historian

Gerry Shannon

Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: JFK Lives Source: Wikipedia Labels: John Kennedy, Presidency, America, Dallas 1963, Motorcade.

Todayinah Editor Editor says, In this scenario, Kennedy makes yet another speech during his lengthy, barely remembered tour of the southern States before his 1964 re-election campaign. Newspapers the next day note a suicide along the motorcade route, but both the suicide and man in question are quickly forgotten.

In 1963, on this evening ex-marine Lee Harvey Oswald (pictured) is commended by the Secret Service for his bravery and quick-thinking during an attempt on the life of President John F. Kennedy along the route of his motorcade in Dallas, Texas.

Hero Oswald by Gerry ShannonWhen the president's motorcade pulled into Dealey Plaza, Oswald, watching from the sixth-floor window of the Texas School Book Depository, noticed a gathering of suspicious-looking individuals behind the grassy knoll near the bridge overpass.

Oswald managed to race down the Depositry's elevator and ran out onto the street in front of the policemen and the motorcade, alterting them to the oncoming danger. Not long after, frantic shots rang out from the knoll, however, Kennedy and his wife were already pushed to the floor of the car by Secret Service members and unharmed.

While Oswald was initally arrested on suspicion of involvement in the assasination plot, he was soon let go while the knoll shooters were found in the moments after the gunshots rang out. Oswald would later personally recieve the Congressional Gold Medal by Kennedy himself.

However, to this day, conspiracy theories persist Oswald had some knowledge of the plot to murder Kennedy, due to his alleged communist ties and his one-time defection to Russia. Conspiracy author Jim Marrs would say in his book, Attempted Crossfire, "... it's entirely possible that Oswald, who friends say always wanted to be somebody, joined the conspirators with the full intention to use his knowledge of their plot to make it look like he was saving Kennedy. "

Entry posted by Guest Historian

Gerry Shannon

Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Hero Oswald Source: Wikipedia Labels: Lee Harvey Oswald, John F Kennedy, America, Dallas 1963, Assasination.

Todayinah Editor Editor says, Here, the sociopthatic Oswald desperately tries to make something of himself... by saving Kennedy's life.

Readers Comment Robbie Taylor commented on 2008-11-22 13:32:05 ~ Of course, what's really important is that just a few years later, an alternate historian was born - coincidence? I think NOT!! Happy Birthday, Steve!

In 2000, at 3am in the morning an ambulance arrived at Dick Cheney's home in McLean, Virginia; the Republican Vice Presidential nominee (pictured) was suffering from acute chest pains and was rushed to George Washington University for emergency heart treatment.Cheney's Last Stonewall

The following afternoon, George W. Bush would issue a press release from his Crawford, Texas Ranch in which the Republican Presidential nominee announced that nothing was seriously wrong with his running mate's health - Cheney had not suffered his fourth heart attack.

As the chad and vote counting continued in Florida, it would shortly afterwards emerge that not only had Cheney suffered a heart attack, he had tragically died during the course of an angioplasty, a preventative medical procedure in which a small balloon-tipped wire is inserted into a clogged heart artery to open it.

The following morning, Bill Safire wrote in his New York Times column ~ "Throughout the campaign, Cheney has ducked detailed questions about his heart disease. His blood pressure and daily medications were not revealed. We now know that our toleration of his brush-offs was a mistake".

The time for brush-offs and stonewalling very much over, a scandal quickly ensued, in which a number of previously undisclosed secrets emerged about the Republican candidacy.

Unambigious evidence of draft-dodging throughout the 1960s
Multiple Driving Whilst Intoxication (DWI) Police Charges
Sharp business practices particularly Halliburtons $34bn asbestos exposure and Texas Ranger's illegal tax breaks
Dirty political tactics during the primary campaign against John McCain.

Inside of three weeks, the United States Supreme Court would decide the Bush v. Gore case. The winner of a popular majority, if not necessarily the electoral college, the sitting Vice President would receive the unexpected support of a wave of national anger threatening to engulf the Bush II Presidency even before W took office.

Entry posted by Todayinah Editor

© Worse than Watergate by John W. Dean (2005) & William Safire, The Tell Tale Heart (2000)
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Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Beasts Source: Wikipedia Labels: Dick Cheney, Al Gore, George W. Bush, America, 2000 Election.

Todayinah Editor Editor says, The story is repeated from Dean's book with the point of divergence being of course Cheney's death. The quote by Safire is from a 30th November 2000 article The Tell Tale Heart in the New York Times.

Readers Comment Eric Lipps commented on 2008-10-08 22:15:31 ~ I wish I believed that conservative columnists like William Safire would have had a change of heart under the circumstances described. I fear that instead they would have tried to brush it off with, for example, references to John F. Kennedy’s medical problems, which he concealed during the 1960 election (he had Addison’s disease and was on several medications which arguably could have had psychological effects).

Readers Comment Robbie Taylor commented on 2008-10-09 02:42:03 ~ Without Cheney pushing him, though, Bush might not have had the heart to go on. At his core, he has always been a terribly lazy man who had to be goaded into working. He probably would have been relieved not to have to take the tough job of looking like the president...

Readers Comment Eric Oppen commented on 2008-10-09 04:47:50 ~ Your POD would have to be earlier, for draft-dodging to be a problem. Like it or not, Bush did serve...and if there was anything hinky about his service, it'd have come up long since. Texas politics are a lot like a bar-fight, and they're "no holds barred."

	On this day in 1963, Dallas nightclub owner Jacob Rubenstein (a.k.a. Jack Ruby), an ardent admirer of the late John F. Kennedy, committed suicide by jumping to his death from the sixth floor of a school book depository in Dealey Plaza. Rubenstein had been psychologically shattered by the news of Kennedy's death the previous day; the Dallas police officer who found Rubenstein's body, J.D. Tippit, would later receive a commendation for his work in the Rubenstein suicide investigation and would eventually become head of the Dallas Police Department homicide squad before retiring in 1986 after a distinguished 34-year career in law enforcement.

Jack Ruby

On this day in 1973, the Cowboys suffered their third loss of the 1973 season, getting beaten by the Miami Dolphins 14-6; however, the team would get some good news the next day as Roger Staubach was cleared to return to action.

	Roger Staubach

36th President	In 1963, while visiting Dallas, Texas, President Richard M. Nixon is assassinated by Lee Harvey Oswald, a political extremist opposed to the U.S. occupation of Cuba which followed the Bay of Pigs landings in April 1961. Vice-President Henry Cabot Lodge will be sworn in as the thirty-sixth President of the United States aboard Air Force One as President Nixon's body is conveyed back to Washington, D.C.

Henry Cabot Lodge

On this day in 1970, the Dallas Cowboys beat the Washington Redskins at RFK Stadium to improve their 1970 NFL record to 10-0.

US President	In 1963, a pair of Russian spacecraft dock successfully in a test of a maneuver necessary to the planned Soviet manned mission to the moon. In the U.S., the Soviet space achievement is overshadowed by tragedy as President John F. Kennedy is assassinated during a visit to Dallas, Texas.

John F. Kennedy

On this day in 1963, ex-Marine Lee Harvey Oswald walked into the Dallas County Jail and made a shocking confession to sheriff's deputies: For months he had been planning to assassinate President John F. Kennedy, but at the last moment a disembodied voice had talked him out of it saying Fate had greater plans for him.

	Lee Harvey Oswald

	In 1963, President John F. Kennedy is assassinated in Dallas, Texas, while on a political swing through the South intended to repair his image in that part of the country. Within two hours the Dallas police have arrested a suspect, an unremarkable-looking man named Lee Harvey Oswald. To the surprise of many, Oswald turns out not to be a right-wing zealot bent on punishing Kennedy for using federal troops in the 'Southern Crisis' of October 1962.

Instead he is affiliated with a left-wing group called the Fair Play for Cuba Committee which calls for the U.S. military to leave that island nation, which America occupied following the so-called 'Bay of Pigs' invasion of April 1961.

Later, aboard Air Force One, which is carrying the body of assassinated President John F. Kennedy back to Washington, Lyndon Baines Johnson is sworn in as the thirty-sixth President of the United States of America. The apparent role of an opponent of America's involvement in Cuba in Kennedy's murder has made Johnson determined to win the war there regardless of the cost.

In 1963, the Presidential motorcade turned into Dealey Plaza at exactly 12.30pm. As the assassins bullets thud into Lyndon Johnson, the Vice President realizes that he has once again been outsmarted by the Ambassador, Joseph P. Kennedy.

November 21

In 2012, just a week after he sensationally quit the long-running TV series "Little House on the Prairie", veteran actor Mitt Romney was re-employed as a gas pump jockey in La Jolla, California.

Paw Ingalls Quits 2"Mittens" had played "Paw" Ingalls for nearly three decades, becoming the central character that filled the gaping void left by series anchor Michael Langdon. However as America increasingly embraced diversity, the monochrome series has begun to appear dated. Hoping to fire a new sense of passion, in his own words, Mittens had left nothing on the field and yet was near-universally considered an anachronism by young people and minorities. And recently he had admitted to being "slightly frazzled" by the relentless schedule of appearances, welcoming the opportunity to let down his famously well-groomed hair.

It is considered unlikely that he will resume his entertainment career any time soon. His agent denied rumours that he had been on an all-night milk bender.

Entry posted by Todayinah Editor

Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Paw Ingalls Source: Wikipedia Labels: Paw Ingalls, Little House on the Prairie, Minority, Mitt Romney, America.

Readers Comment Jackie Rose commented on 2012-11-21 18:59:22 ~ But he should still be able to survive on residuals.

Readers Comment Stan Brin commented on 2012-11-21 18:59:22 ~ Ha-ha-ha...His hair is too neat to play Pa Ingalls.

Readers Comment Eric Oppen commented on 2012-11-22 00:14:09 ~ An actor with the resume to get on that show wouldn't likely stay unemployed too long.

Readers Comment Mike McIlvain commented on 2012-11-22 05:08:34 ~ Hey, even pumpin' gas is a job, and that is a lot more than some actors have. But, there are those that do jobs like that with an ear tuned toward the telephone, hoping to get a call from their agent. He bears slight resemblance to late actor Robert Culp. Maybe he could fill that void, too?

Readers Comment Eric Lipps commented on 2012-11-22 14:24:22 ~ Oh, come on. Look, I didn't vote for the droid, I mean guy, but isn't this something of a cheap shot? On a different and ironic note, the Washington Post reports that it apears Gov. Romney will finish up with (drum roll, please) 47 percent of the popular vote.

In 1916, on this day Kaiser Franz Josef Habsburg, Emperor of the Germans, (pictured) died at the Schönbrunn Palace in Vienna.

Death of Kaiser Franz Josef, Emperor of the GermansHaving ruled for an incredible sixty-eight years, he was succeeded by his twenty-nine year old grand-nephew Karl. Tragically, he died five years later and was succeeded by Otto von Habsburg who lived to the ripe old age of ninety-eight.

The thousand year future of the Imperial House of Habsburg had taken a change of direction after the hard fought victory at Königgrätz which stymied the Prussian attempt to force the unification of Germany on their own terms. And instead of the Hohenzollerns, it would be the Habsburgs who won out, establishing the new Kaiserreich, a Germanic monarchist system, ruled from Vienna with a central european system of thinking. During the transition from Franz Josef to Karl to Otto, nationalist pressures were threatening to rip the Slavic part of the Empire apart. The resolution of this so-called "Southern Question" would completely dominate the early decades of Otto's long rule.

A sign of the coming was the assassination of Franz Josef's nominal heir Franz Ferdinand at Sarajevo in August 1914. Although the Habsburg brought the Black Hand Gang to justice, by overriding Serbian sovereignty (they insisted on sending detectives across the border) they had inadvertently de-stabilised the entire region.

Entry posted by Todayinah Editor

Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Politicians Source: Wikipedia Labels: Habsburg, Germany, Austrian, Kaiser, Emperor.

Readers Comment Eric Lipps commented on 2012-11-21 12:04:43 ~ No World War I, which may also mean no Russian Revolution (war-induced starvation, which killed two million Russians before 1917, was a maajor factor in the revolution of March 1917 which forced out the Tsar and led eventually to the second, Bolshevik revolution). No Hitler, which means no Nazi Germany. No World War II as we know it; no Cold War as weknow it. Quite possibly no nuclear weapons, nuclear power or lunar landings as yet. And it's anyone's guess what the past century's roster of U.S.presidents, after Wilson, would look like.

Readers Comment Richard Roper commented on 2012-11-21 12:30:17 ~ If German unity takes place around the Habburgs you gt a huge state and customs area covering the whole of cenrtal Europe - Mittleuropa has come about. Also with coasts on the north and Maditerranean. This puts changes in train. There will only be a Zweikaiserbund. The Russians are much more likely to want to keep an alliance with Germany-Hungary. there will be no Franco-Prussian war. The French Second Empire will continue. There is unlikely to be a Franco-Russian alliance - technically a Military Convention - in the same form. The 1878 Congess will be different since there is only one power in Central Europe and Disraeli's ability to impose things wil be less. Bismark will not be there to be an"Honest Broker" at the now not held Congress of Berlin. Germany-Hungary would have probably intervened in the situation in the Turkish Empire in1876-78 and not just Russia so the shoring-up of the Turkish Empie is less likely to go through. Consequently you could have Servia as a G-H depencency, aneexation of Bosnia Hergegovina, fukk independence for Bulgaria, and finally the German-Russian alliance keeping going.

In 1386, on this day a Georgian army under the command of King Bagrat V defeated the forces of Timur of Samarkand at the gates of the capital city, Tbilisi.

The Triumph of Bagrat the GreatA fair and popular ruler, also known as a perfect soldier, he was dubbed as "Bagrat the Great" by his multiethnic subjects. The Trapezuntine chronicler Michael Panaretos, who knew the king personally, called him a "prominent and victorious general"

But the hard fought victory was only made possible by the arrival of a vital ally, the Khan of Golden Horde, Tokhtamysh (a descendant of Genghis Khan's eldest grandson, Orda Khan or his brother Tuqa-Timu).

Entry posted by Todayinah Editor

Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Politicians Source: Wikipedia Labels: Tbilisi, King Bagrat V, Georgia, Timur, Samarkand.

Todayinah Editor Editor says, in authoring this post we have repurposed content Wikipedia which reports ~ Tbilisi was besieged and taken on November 22, 1386 after a fierce fight. The city was pillaged and Bagrat V and his family were imprisoned. Taking advantage of this disaster, the royal vassal Duke Alexander of Imereti proclaimed himself an independent ruler and was crowned king of Imereti at the Gelati Monastery in 1387.

Readers Comment Mike McIlvain commented on 2013-03-20 06:18:36 ~ While it appeared to be a good thing for Georgia, I believe a lot of the hordes of that time had previously gone around the Georgians en route to the Middle East and Europe. But, this win, had it happened, would have slowed that conquest route down from what I have read. Things like the Polish Empire were about to get in their way.

Readers Comment H. Torrance Griffin commented on 2013-03-20 10:23:17 ~ The Georgians come out ahead for a minute, and with good military/political leadership their location could keep them a functionally independent local power, however the big winners are the Golden Horde and the Ottomans (not to mention the current iteration of the Delhi Sultanate).

Readers Comment Eric Oppen commented on 2013-03-25 02:33:58 ~ Eventually, Georgia would have gone down. But getting rid of Timur might mean that some other empires would last longer.

Readers Comment Jeff Provine commented on 2013-04-11 22:14:54 ~ We'd have a very different Middle East as the Renaissance took hold in Europe.

In 1921, on this day the thirty-seventh President of the United States, John Vliet Lindsay (pictured) was born in West End Avenue to an upper middle class family of English and Dutch extraction that had resided in New York City ever since the 1660s.

John V. Lindsay
37^th US PresidentWith the outbreak of World War II, Lindsay completed his studies early and joined the United States Navy as a gunnery officer. He obtained the rank of lieutenant, earning five battle stars through action in the invasion of Sicily and a series of landings in the Pacific theater. Resuming at Yale he received his law degree in 1948, ahead of schedule.

Back in New York, Lindsay he met his future wife, Mary Anne Harrison, at the wedding of Nancy Bush (daughter of Connecticut's Senator Prescott Bush and sister of future President George H.W. Bush). After they married he was admitted to the bar, and rose to become a partner in his law firm four years later.

He started gravitating toward politics, serving as one of the founders of the Youth for Eisenhower club in 1951 and as president of the New York Young Republican club in 1952. In 1958, with the backing of Herbert Brownell, Bruce Barton, John Aspinwall Roosevelt, and Mrs Wendell Wilkie, Lindsay won the Republican primary and went on to be elected to Congress as the representative of the "Silk Stocking" district, Manhattan's Upper East Side.

The life of Lindsay and his fellow New Yorkers changed forever on August 17, 1960. New York City suffered the worst storm in its history as a hurricane that by today's standards would be graded Category 4 hit just after 12:30 PM; dubbed "the Jamaica Bay hurricane" because it made landfall near the Jamaica Bay section of Queens, the storm flooded large sections of Queens and Brooklyn and also devastated much of Manhattan and the Bronx. Many of New York's most famous landmarks were heavily damaged or destroyed by the hurricane, which also brought the city's mass transit systems to a screeching halt as flood waters blocked subway tunnels and overran most of the city's major bus routes.

Within months, Robert F. Wagner would resign as mayor of New York City after weeks of constantly growing criticism of his leadership of the response to the Jamaica Bay hurricane; City Council president Abe Stark was sworn in as new mayor as 12:01 that afternoon to finish out the remainder of Wagner's term. Stark, in turn, would be replaced by Congressman and surprise write-in winner of the 1960 mayoral elections John Lindsay.

Due to his vigourous leadership of the rebuilding of the City, he was re-elected in a landslide. But more significantly, he had gained national prominence through the new media of television. Before his second term was out, he was already being talked about as a candidate for the 1968 Presidential election. His opponent in the Republican Primaries would be Michigan Governor George W. Romney who was forced to suspend his campaign due to the tragic death of his son in a car crash in France. And his substitute, fellow Michiganer Robert P. Griffin was unable to retain enough delegates at the Convention. Buoyed by this victory, Lindsay defeated Hubert Humphrey in the Fall.

Entry posted by Todayinah Editor

Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Jamaica Bay Source: Wikipedia Labels: John Lindsay, Richard Nixon, New York, Jamaica Bay, Hurricane.

Todayinah Editor Editor says, in this article we explore an original idea by Chris Oakley in his Jamaica Bay thread, the events described herein occur fifteen years later. We have repurposed considerable amounts of content from Wikipedia.

Readers Comment Eric Lipps commented on 2012-05-16 12:16:09 ~ A moreplausible path to a Lindsay presidency might have been via the VP slot, if Nixon had picked him instead of Agnew to balance the GOP ticket in 1968. And however he reached the White House, a President Lindsay, assuming he did a halfway decent job in office, would have changed the course of U.S. politics. ("Liberal Republican" might not be an oxymoron today.)

Readers Comment Todayinah Ed. commented on 2012-05-17 01:51:27 ~ Thoughts welcome on a POD for why Nixon doesn't run in '68, and follow on consequences of a Liberal Republican in the White House (e.g. alliance with Texan Governor John Connolly?)

Readers Comment Eric Oppen commented on 2012-06-16 18:20:09 ~ Don't know enough about Lindsay to comment very intelligently, but his presidency could, as my learned friend Eric Lipps mentioned above, changed the course of GOP history.

Readers Comment Jeff Provine commented on 2012-06-18 16:35:28 ~ Maybe Pat Nixon could talk Richard out of running in '68, instead continuing to grow in power behind-the-scenes at the GOP and become a king-maker.

In 1910, on this day a "revolt of the lash" spurred a race war in Brazil. Brazil, though a large, advancing nation in the early twentieth century and a leader among Latin American countries as part of the ABC Powers (Argentina, Brazil, & Chile), still stood as a culture suffering from racial division.

Revolt of the Lash Spurs Race War in Brazil While many French colonies had ended slavery with the Revolution in 1789, England had abolished it by act of Parliament in 1833, and the United States fought its civil war in 1861 partially over the matter, Brazil did not begin gradually ending slavery until 1871 with the passage of the Rio Branco Law (or "The Law of Free Birth") providing freedom for children newborn to slaves, the Saraiva-Cotegipe Law in 1885 freeing slaves over 60 years old, and finally total abolition in 1888 with the Lei Aurea shortly before the emperor was overthrown. While Brazil avoided much of the US's infamous institutionalization of race superiority with Jim Crow, there was still a significant social division of race among the wealthy whites and the blacks, paros (mixed race), and caboclos (mixed Euro-Indians), fed by intellectual "science" of the time.

A new story by Jeff ProvineWhile minorities were kept at a lower caste in general culture, the most obvious racism was felt in the military. In particular, the Brazilian navy was notorious for white commanders with minority crews held at their whim. Living conditions were poor aboard ship, but the navy was making leaps beyond other navies in comparable nations. In the early days of the Republic, the government focused on the army to quell internal problems, leaving only a handful of naval soldiers and less than 2,000 marines. As tiny as it was, the navy proved instrumental in the Revoltas da Armada of 1891 when President Marshal Deodoro da Fonseca attempted to dissolve Congress and continued to battle against President Marshal Floriano Peixoto who held onto office despite legal need of elections in the next few years. After the turn of the century, calls began for building up the navy and establishing Brazil as a significant power at sea. Other nations such as Britain, Germany, and the United States rushed into the naval arms race, and Brazil was quick to catch up with many new ships and two dreadnoughts, the Minas Gerais and Sao Paulo, both commissioned in 1910.

Economic downturn struck Brazil just after the completion of their dreadnoughts, causing the third proposed, Rio de Janeiro, to be shelved. The troubled times also turned into harder conditions aboard ship as well as on land with food and supplies cut back to save on expenses. General morale fell, which caused discipline to be sharpened, including the use of racial slurs and corporal punishment, specifically the lash. This aggravated two years of organization and protest against flogging, which involved "leather whips tipped with metal balls", and pushed the sailors into planned mutiny. The men aboard the Minas Gerais chose Joao Candido Felisberto ("The Black Admiral") as leader and watched furiously as a sailor was sentenced to 250 lashes, continuing even after he slipped into unconsciousness.

In the late hours of November 21, the men began their mutiny, killing officers and capturing British engineers as hostages. The revolt spread to the Sao Paulo as well as the Deodoro and the Bahia. Their demands began simply, but as Candido saw that the Army was moving to protect the capital Rio de Janeiro and outnumber the coastal defenders who were sympathetic, he decided that the only way to survive was to make wider demands. The issue that tied the bulk of the oppressed together was the problem of race. Most of the sailors (as well as army and manual laborers) were black, many of them former slaves or their sons, forced into place by lack of other options. Candido and his advisers (including several of the British) wrote up a new list of demands for rights despite race as well as taxes on the rich to support charities for the poor.

The "Letter to Brazil" (Letra a Brasil) was sent by written message, word of mouth, and even wireless, spreading through the country and spawning an upheaval in major cities and areas where minority populations outnumbered the whites. The army quickly came onto the side of the navy, which made the white elites unable to put down the revolt as they had many in the past. Britain began to step in, but when their hostages were cheerfully released home, Brazil was left to itself. Much of the government and the elites fled the country. The remainder invited Candido ashore, and a new government was built following his manifesto.

Public education became mandatory as a subpoint on the Letter, and the new Brazilian Democratic Republic survived its depression to thrive as it contributed to the rebuilding of Europe after its neutrality in World War I. The Great Depression struck harder, and Getulio Vargas swept elections with his nationalist rhetoric. He was invited by Adolph Hitler to join the new Axis, but Vargas decided to continue Brazilian elections and relations with the United States, leading to Brazil's participation in World War II. While economic issues arose after the war and rumors circulated about militaristic or even communist uprising in the 1960s, Brazil would ultimately continue to be a social model to the rest of the world.

Entry posted by Guest Historian

Jeff Provine

Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Jeff Provine Blog Source: Jeff Provine’s Blog Labels: Brazil, Navy, Mutiny, Revolt, Lash.

Todayinah Editor Editor says, in reality the demands of the rebelling sailors were limited to more focused items such as the end of lashing, increased standards on ship, and amnesty for the mutiny, which they saw as a necessary action. The government quickly gave into Candido's demands on fear of naval bombardment of the city, but they reneged on amnesty with a decree expelling government workers who were "undermining discipline". Two thousand men were discharged afterward, and hundreds were killed or imprisoned, maintaining the power of the elite. However, the lash was never used again in the Brazilian Navy.

Readers Comment Timothy McFadden commented on 2011-09-02 11:58:47 ~ I think the author is being too optimistic. Revolutions by the poorest, least educated segments of society almost never improve either the lot of the poor or the condition of the nation in general. I think you'd wind up with something more like a vast Zaire, a rich land populated by a poor and undereducated people ruled by a tyrant. Then again, not really such a change from OTL Brazil....

Readers Comment Eric Oppen commented on 2011-09-02 16:06:05 ~ This sort of thing could have spun way out of control, and become a monster that destroyed Brazil.

Readers Comment H. Torrance Griffin commented on 2011-09-02 18:13:36 ~ If the government capitulates to the demands but remains intact, then it might work if a drain on capital and the educated is avoided

In 1867, the House of Representatives ended a furious debate by narrowly voting to impeach Abraham Lincoln after the House Judiciary committee had produced a damning bill consisting of a vast collection of complaints against him.

Lincoln ImpeachedIn order to "bind the wounds" of the Civil War, the sixteenth President's vision for Reconstruction had been a quick and lenient re-uniting of the nation, centered on forgiving most Confederates and quickly bringing their states back to full participation in the Union.

By April of 1865, it had become clear that his plans were no more imaginative than passing control to the former Whigs who had been reluctant secessionists. And in fact the control of the entire Federal Government itself had very nearly passed to Andrew Johnson, an Independent South politician on Good Friday. However, the assassin John Wilkes Booth had misfired at the Ford Theatre, killing Mary Lincoln instead.

The emerging prospect of a confrontation with Congress had become a near certainty when Lincoln refused to sign the Wade-Davis Bill. In so doing, he had rejected a series of far more stringent conditions for the creation of State Governments which had been laid down by Congress.

The underlying issue was that Lincoln did not have a overarching plan, rather than an inclination to use his political genius to move matters forward along a roadmap of his own choosing. His undeclared intention of working with the States on an individual basis was plainly evident in his encouragement of the election of Michael Hahn as a pro-Union Governor to head a loyal government in Louisiana. And by 1867, the US Congress had decided that matters were completely out of control and the legislature must re-establish its authority on Reconstruction by terminating the recalcitrant Lincoln's scheming Presidency.

Entry posted by Todayinah Editor

© Foner, Eric. "If Lincoln hadn't died .. Would the disastrous Reconstruction era have taken a different course?." published in American Heritage Magazine, Winter 2009
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Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Alternate Nations Source: Wikipedia Labels: Abraham Lincoln, Cooper Union, Presidency, 1860 Election, Stephen Douglas.

Readers Comment Rurri Heakin commented on 2010-03-29 19:08:23 ~ No one would be able to say. Well yes Mrs Lincoln.,but what did you think of the play?

Readers Comment Michael N. Ryan commented on 2010-03-29 23:46:04 ~ Radical republicans who would be the likely culprits for impeaching Lincoln since he apposed much of their agenda as stuff incompatable with most Americans, would likely be shooting themselves and their party in the collective foot. Pretty much the ruinous path this nation fell into after Johnson's fall would likely repeat itself except more Republican infighitng between factions would occur. Might even destroy the Republican party as a politcal force.

Readers Comment Eric Lipps commented on 2010-03-30 00:27:44 ~ Nevertheless, in the fractious years after the Civil War, it's all too plausible. And . . . "Johnson's fall"? Not clear on this--Andrew Johnson survived his impeachment, escap[ing conviction by one vote. What fall?

Readers Comment David Atwell commented on 2010-03-30 02:11:32 ~ To be honest I find this scenario a bit hard to accept as Lincoln would have a huge amount of credit for winning the war. Congress may whine, & even take parts of Lincoln's policies to the Supreme Court, but impeaching him is another matter altogether.

Readers Comment Eric Oppen commented on 2010-03-30 06:09:03 ~ If Lincoln was seen by most of the nation as the man who'd saved the Union, I think that the Radical Republicans would be destroying themselves with this idea. Thaddeus Stevens was a hardass, but not insane.

Readers Comment Scott Palter commented on 2010-03-30 10:48:31 ~ Absent the Lincoln assassination and Andy Johnson's policies the Radicals do not sweep the election of 1866 and lack the votes to attemp[t this.

Comment from Gregory Mitchell on Facebook: Nope. Given Lincolns record from 1861 to 1865, if the House had considered impeachment, he would have had them arrested and thrown in prison like he did the Maryland State Legislature. His grounds? Why a Constitutional emergency, of course.

Comment on Tom Hickie on Facebook: Lincoln would have been defeated or retired and the course of history regarding the south may have been a bit less bitter. His death made him a matyr for the North instead of just another politician, his death was also used to justify some hatred directed at the south

Please click hyperlink for Matt Dattilo’s Today in History article.

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