Today In Alternate History

October 2

In 1187, following the Siege of Jerusalem, Saladin captured the Holy City after eighty-eight years of Crusader rule.

God Wills IT! Part 2Pope Gregory VIII proclaimed that the disaster was punishment for the sins of Christians across Europe and spurred by religious zeal, Henry II of England and Philip II of France ended their conflict with each other to lead a new crusade [1]. Even the elderly Holy Roman Emperor Frederick Barbarossa responded to the call to arms, personally leading a massive army across Anatolia.

But the Third Crusade was extremely fortunate to survive two early disasters. Frederick Barbarossa very nearly drowned in the Göksu River in Anatolia [2]. And a Papal-brokered peace conference at La Ferté-Bernard forestalled a resumption of Anglo-French hostilities [3]. But of course most fateful was the demise of Saladin which robbed the Saracens of their iconic leader and paved the way for the Crusader's victory.

Entry posted by Todayinah Editor

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Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Politicians Source: Wikipedia Labels: Crusade, Saladin, Islam, Muslim, Jerusalem.

Todayinah Editor Editor says, in reality the Third Crusade was largely successful, but fell short of its ultimate goal - the reconquest of Jerusalem. All of these cited events are of course fictional points of divergence to justify this timeline.

Readers Comment Richard Roper commented on 2012-10-04 10:39:02 ~ There is only one problem;- The arrival of the message who said "there's a letter". "Dear son, get home quick. Your no-good brother John is scheming to take over your throne, your loving mum" Notice I butterfly out the death of Henry II so RtLH does not lead the crusade

Readers Comment Jackie Rose commented on 2012-10-04 11:43:23 ~ No Richard the Lion-Hearted, to rally and inspire the English...not to mention historical romance writers like Sir Walter Scott. Say it isn't so, Joe!

Readers Comment Eric Oppen commented on 2012-10-04 16:40:25 ~ In Sharon Kay Penman's novel _Lionheart,_ Richard says that the reason he doesn't try to besiege Jerusalem is because he can't surround it and the Saracens could and would wipe the Crusaders out. I take it in this TL there's enough extra strength along to make a siege do-able?

Readers Comment Jeff Provine commented on 2012-10-04 17:54:06 ~ Would've been a different world if Catholic Christendom was an empire rather than something of a religious confederation often at war with itself.

In 1869, on this day the pin-stripe suited British Lawyer, Sir Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi was born in Porbandar, a coastal town which was then part of the Bombay Presidency in the Raj.

Birth of Sir Mohandas K. GandhiEducated in Law at University College London, he was admitted to the British bar before returning to India in 1891 to establish a law practice in Mumbai. But tragedy struck when he learned that his mother had died while he was in London. When his business failed, he took the fateful decision to accept a year-long contract from Dada Abdulla & Co., an Indian firm, to a post in the Colony of Natal, South Africa.

The journey into British South African continued his practical education in the operation of the British legal system. He was thrown off a train at Pietermaritzburg after refusing to move from the first-class to a third-class coach while holding a valid first-class ticket. Travelling farther on by stagecoach, he was beaten by a driver for refusing to move to make room for a European passenger. And the magistrate of a Durban court ordered Gandhi to remove his turban, which he refused to do.

But he stubbornly refusing to be discouraged from seeking advancement in this racist society. During the course of the next decade, Gandhi would firmly embed himself in both the European and Indian communities in this trinary social context. And by 1906, he had served in British khaki uniform as a Sergeant Major, fighting for the extension of the British Empire to the betterment of those two communities. Slowly but surely, he was ascending into the upper echelons of the social elite.

A life-long career was finally recognized in 1947 when he was appointed Viceregal representative by King George VI, serving as the first indigenous Governor General of the Cape Colony. But this appointment also exposed him to sharp criticism for a series of highly controversial attitudes that he had repeatedly expressed all the way back to 1893.

Even if the British had not seen fit to carefully review the professional record of their Viceregal representative, luckily a group of Norwegians had. Because in 1937, the Nobel Peace Prize Committee known as the storting had seriously considered him for an award in recognition of his peaceful efforts to reconcile the communities in British South Africa. Ultimately this recommendation was rejected in a report authored by Professor Worm-Müller which was fiercly critical of his racist attitudes towards the indigenous African community. Somehow the sensitivites contained in this private document were released to the world by a twenty-nine year old member of the African National Congress known as Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela.

Entry posted by Todayinah Editor

Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Politicians Source: Wikipedia Labels: Gandhi, South Africa, Governor General, India, Civil Rights.

Todayinah Editor Editor says, in reality Gandhi returned from South Africa to live in India in 1915. We have taken some liberties with the development of British South Africa; instead of a single Union, we imagine a devolved set of smaller colonies emerging. Also we have explored some idea on Rupeenews which are fiercely critical of Gandhi during the period of his life.

Readers Comment Eric Oppen commented on 2012-01-08 19:24:57 ~ The Boers would have flipped their collective wigs.

Readers Comment Jeff Provine commented on 2012-01-08 19:44:06 ~ Meanwhile, the Indian Independence Movement would have gotten even bloodier without his PR.

In 2019, on this the hundredth day since a private cartel of Chinese investors forced the Fed to shutdown non-emergency government programs, President Garry Swiftcurrent addressed the bankrupt nation from his rented office suite in the Western White House, a shared condominium in California.
Click to watch the Americathon

American CenturyBeing careful to avoid making direct reference to the condition of vulnerable persons, he welcomed the growing self-sufficiency of Welfare-dependent citizens. This encouraging development was just one of a number of signs that America's best days were still ahead. It was a necessary adjustment, a correction imposed by the market in response to America's profligacy.

The message was beamed across the country by a Chinese satellite, launched by rockets set to place a man on the moon within the next twelve months.

Entry posted by Todayinah Editor

Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Politicians Source: Wikipedia Labels: America, Federal, China, American Century, Budget.

Todayinah Editor Editor says, in this article we celebrate the genius of the 1979 movie Americathon.

Readers Comment Eric Oppen commented on 2011-10-03 01:55:06 ~ Never saw the movie, so can't really comment, but this isn't AH so much as speculation about the future.

In 1924, on this day the mentally unstable pulp-fiction writer Howard Phillips Lovecraft was arrested by the New York Police and charged with the murder of his Jewish wife Sonia Greene.
Click to watch the document "Fear of the Unknown"

Fear of the UnknownThe author blamed her killing on the "Mad Arab" Abdul Alhazred¹ a bizarre accusation that led to a search of the couple's Brooklyn apartment. Voluminous quantities of hand written correspondence was discovered, much of it shockingly xenophobic in character.

It emerged that by exploring his bitter race hatred in fantasy literatures, Lovecraft had made the acquantance of a fellow writer in Weird Tales, the Austrian emigré Adolf Schicklegruber.

It appeared that Schicklegruber encouraged Lovecraft to paint upon an althogether darker canvass. A dystopian nation far more frightening than the "Imperial America" conceived by Robert W. Chamber's insane protagonist Hildred Castaigne in The King in Yellow, a play that Lovecraft greatly admired. Instead of the voluntary Government-sponsored Lethal Chambers for Suicide, Schicklegruber proposed a proto-fascist regime in which the Aryan masters liquidated the immigrant races.

The discovery of this correspondence terrified Greene. She raced to the Police station to make a report, but she was killed by a mysterious, unidentified stranger. It was a tragic circumstance that Lovecraft instantly regretted because his wife had returned unconditional love in a way that his mother had not, a form of love that he recognized had deeply disturbed his emotional balance. In his suicide note Lovecraft wrote some of his most powerful prose ~ "The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear, and the oldest and strongest kind of fear is Fear of the Unknown". For Lovecraft, something was missing from this harsh world, and that was love².

Entry posted by Todayinah Editor

Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Beasts Source: Wikipedia Labels: Lovecraft, Hitler, Fiction, America, Insanity.

Todayinah Editor Editor says, in this article reprises some of the ideas of John Reilly's Life and Times of President H.P. Lovecraft. (1) the Mad Arab is of course the fictionalized author of the Necronomicon. (2) The final quote is from the great man Robbie Taylor.

Readers Comment Chris Oakley commented on 2011-10-01 15:28:48 ~ Paging Norman Spinrad. Mr. Spinrad, please pick up the red courtesy phone....

Readers Comment Eric Oppen commented on 2011-10-01 17:29:04 ~ This doesn't sound much like OTL's HPL. HPL was very non-violent in person...he wouldn't even take a trapped mouse out of a trap, but threw it away trap and all. Fixed - thanks. Ed

Readers Comment Jared Myers commented on 2011-10-01 19:03:01 ~ Alfred Hitchcock would've had a field day with this one...

Readers Comment Eric Lipps commented on 2011-10-01 21:05:33 ~ It would have been "Schicklgruber" or "Schickelgruber," not "Schicklegruber," had Hitler been using that name. There is, however, some controversy over whether that ever was his surname.

Readers Comment Jeff Provine commented on 2011-10-03 00:10:23 ~ Maybe a little writing could've gotten that out of Adolph's system. Perhaps even better than art school.

Readers Comment Mark Taylor commented on 2011-10-03 12:47:23 ~ Anyone ever read "The Iron Dream" by Norman Spinrad?

In 1919, a conspiracy to prevent the ratification of the Covenant of the League of Nations was foiled in the nick of time when First Lady Edith Wilson prevented the White House physician Dr. Cary Grayson from adminstering a stroke-inducing poison to her husband Woodrow Wilson.

"Open Covenants, Openly Arrived At"
Co-written with Jeff ProvineA coast-to-coast public speaking tour in support of the League had over-exerted the President. He collapsed from exhaustion in Pueblo, Colorado on September 25th and was forced to return to the White House for medical attention.

Almost overwhelmed by the force of opposition, Wilson was fully aware that the list of Grayson's possible conspirators was endless including inter alia:

Theodore Roosevelt who as President had negotiated secret treaties to open Pacific trade routes that had not only sold out Korea to Japan but abrogated the first of Wilson's fourteen points ("Open covenants of peace, openly arrived at, after which there shall be no private international understandings of any kind but diplomacy shall proceed always frankly and in the public view").
Radical differences of opinion over America's future had turned to personal acrimony when Wilson refused to authorise TR to lead his ageing Rough Riders to Flanders.
William Jennings Bryan who as Secretary of State was humiliated by his career-ruining decision to resign in protest over Wilson's response to the sinking of the Lusitania, a position which left him politically isolated.
Robert M. La Follette, Sr. a prominent Senator who was strongly opposed to American involvement in World War I and who promoted defense of freedom of speech during wartime. Teddy Roosevelt called him a "skunk who should be hanged" when he opposed the arming of American merchant ships; one of his colleagues in the Senate said he was "a better German than the head of the German parliament" when he opposed the Wilson Administration's request for a declaration of war in 1917.

Refusing to waste further energy on investigating the conspiracy, Wilson devised a fresh strategy to sell the League to America and the rest, as they say, is alternate history..

Entry posted by Todayinah Editor

Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Politicians Source: Wikipedia Labels: Woodrow Wilsin, League of Nations, Covenants, Foreign Policy, America.

Todayinah Editor Editor says, inspired by David A. Robbins excellent novel "Assassins Gallery" (2006) in which British Agents poison FDR.

Readers Comment Eric Oppen commented on 2011-03-14 03:48:01 ~ Wasn't TR dead by this time? And how would Mrs. Wilson know a poison from a real medicine?

Readers Comment John Braungart commented on 2011-03-14 10:37:59 ~ Roosevelt died on 6 Jan '19. And how (assuming he WAS still alive) would you get him in the same room with LaFollette, much less join the same conspiracy? True I dodged the issue of whether TR was still alive or involved in the conspiracy before he died himself. In terms of involvement, I dont mean directly involved, more in a "smoke field room" of agitators .. like the Burt Lancaster movie about JFK (yeah, why not? kind of thing)

Readers Comment Brian Wall commented on 2011-03-14 15:31:22 ~ TR could have been part of a conspiracy before his passing.

Readers Comment Jeff Provine commented on 2011-03-14 17:56:25 ~ Wow, what an alliance! the 1920s have America lead onto the world scene rather than the bit of post-war isolationism, which shakes up European history forever.

In 1769, the Fifteen Years' War finally ended with the signing of the Treaty of Stockholm.

For both Great Britain and France the peace accord didn't come a minute too soon: the British wanted to consolidate the gains they'd achieved in the New World since the late 1750s, while the French were trying to keep their already strained armies from being bled still further white lest France's longtime Mediterranean adversary Spain be tempted to launch an invasion across the Franco-Spanish border.

Double Jeopardy Part 2
The Year of BloodIndeed, the French government was ultimately compelled to sue for peace by the ongoing deterioration of France's strategic position in continental Europe. There was also the matter of trying to keep a lid on the simmering internal discontent that had been building among the French middle and lower classes ever since the siege of Quebec City.

Although the Treaty of Stockholm's terms were later criticized as unnecessarily harsh in some respects, the French negotiating party felt they had little choice but to agree to those terms given the significant casualties the French army had endured both in Europe and in North America -- particulary during 1768, a time some modern French historians now call l'Annee du Sang ("the Year of Blood").

Ironically, Britain's real problems in Quebec would start well after French troops had left the province. Resentful of their new would-be rulers, the Quebecois wasted little time organizing a widespread resistance to British control; the British were driven out of Quebce by 1773. The success of the Quebec uprising inspired American colonists to seek independence from Britain themselves two years later.

Entry posted by Guest Historian

Chris Oakley

Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Double Jeopardy Source: New Statesman Magazine Labels: Plains of Abraham, Quebec, Canada, America, Britain.

Todayinah Editor Editor says, inspired by inspired by one of Dominic Sandbrook's articles in New Statesman

Readers Comment Eric Oppen commented on 2011-02-20 16:55:23 ~ This is reasonably plausible.

Readers Comment Brian Wall commented on 2011-02-20 20:22:22 ~ Or given that Britain is distracted with a Quebecois Revolution (say troops stationed in America are moved to Quebec) the American Revolution starts very shortly afterward.

Readers Comment Eric Lipps commented on 2011-02-21 01:54:45 ~ If British troops were moved from America to Quebec, that would actually alleviate one of th grievances the colonists had--the Britiah practice of forcibly "quartering" soldiers in the homes of American civilians, at those civilians' expense, which was specifically cited in the Declaration of Independence. On the other hand, once driven out of Quebec the British might have been all the more determined to hold on to the rest of their North American possiessions. This could have played out in a number of different ways depending on the roles other nations played in this timeline.

Readers Comment Jeff Provine commented on 2011-02-21 18:12:42 ~ Wonder if Quebec would join up with the Articles of Confederation or stay as close allies (perhaps enemies as expansionism continues).

In 1995, on this day US citizens officially learnt of the existence of a new federal facility when President Bill Clinton announced that it was in the paramount interest of open government for contested information about Area 51 to be revealed to the public.

Area 51The long-expected revelation had become increasingly inevitable since the opening of a private legal challenge from seven labourers who had been harmed by open-pit burning of toxic chemicals. Allegedly investigations by the Environmental Crimes Project (ECP) at George Washington University had determined that the Department of Defense had acted negligently. Also the Environmental Protection Agency had failed to enforce compliance with the Resource Conservation and Recovery (RC&R) Act.

The resistence of US District Judge Philip Pro had melted away when attorney Jonathan Turley of ECP threatened to subpoena a senior Russian embassy official and several former Soviet Intelligence officer who could confirm the identity of the base. On September 2nd, Judge Pro ruled that owing to the specific demands of the RC&R Act, the government must within one month either make the EPA report public or seek a presidential exemption.Turley hailed the ruling saying it showed that "national security claims do not trump domestic laws .. government can lo longer have nameless, faceless bases".

The farcical reality was shatteringly disappointing. The US Government did indeed have UFOs housed at nearby Groom Lake. Nine in fact. But because scientists had been ordered to operate in a condition of utmost secrecy, any prospect of a breakthrough had been stiffled and they had hopelessly failed to back-engineer the spacecraft. Worse, after an armed confrontation at the Lake in 1979, joint research with Extraterrestrial Biological Entities (EBEs) had ceased. Ten years later an obscure scientist named Bob Lazar had absconded with the remaining supply of Element 115 which was necessary to propel the vehicles. Lazar, a pyrotechnic freak, had exploded the material at one of his annual Desert Storm Parties before becoming the victim of a mysterious hit and run shooting on a Las Vegas Highway.

Entry posted by Todayinah Editor

Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Conspiracy Theories Source: Wikipedia Labels: Area 51, Bill Clinton, Bob Lazar, UFO, Conspiracy Theory.

Todayinah Editor Editor says, in our timeline these ideas are explored in"Area 51: The Dreamland Chronicles - the Legend of America's Most Secret Military Base" by David Darlington (1997)

Readers Comment Robbie Taylor commented on 2010-11-09 03:08:39 ~ The aliens always take back their nicest toys :(

Readers Comment Eric Oppen commented on 2010-11-09 07:14:11 ~ How long before Clinton starts openly kowtowing to the alien vote? And Weekly World News goes absolutely nuts---they've been predicting this for years.

Comment from Judy Suleta on Facebook: BFD!! Nothing Clinton or any other President did comes close to the crimes committed by GWB!!

Readers Comment Eric Lipps commented on 2010-11-09 12:28:20 ~ What alien vote? Wouldn't they have to become citizens first? And if Clinton "kowtowed" to them, it'd be no worse than what Republicans have done for fifty years regarding Florida'x Cubans. Aside from that, the prospect of "reverse-engineering" a spacecraft from another star-system would be pretty remote anyway--about the same as Americans of, say, 1692 reverse-engineering a jet aircraft which hand somehow been thrown back in time. We'd be lucky if we were able to pick up just a few technological bits and pieces--too much prior art would be missing. Even with alien help, it would be unlikely--we'd have to build the ndistrial infrastructure t make thew parts to make the parts to make the parts, and I don't believe that would pass unnoticed,

Readers Comment Jeff Provine commented on 2010-11-09 15:54:28 ~ A few technological bits picked up in 1692 from a jet fighter would be ample to make huge leaps. They may not understand circuit boards, but an understanding of electric flow would jump ahead at least a century. Small motors, pressurized ejection, heck even wing design... it'd all be pieces. We might not figure out interstellar travel or anti-gravity from initial reverse-engineering, but we could pick up awesome metallurgical leaps and begin to lay the groundwork centuries ahead of traditional research.

Readers Comment Stan Brin commented on 2010-11-09 22:22:25 ~ Nonsense. I'm a science fiction writer, but I've never believed in aliens. I wrote about them once, in a comic story. habitable planets are just too few and too far away.

In 1452, on this day the youngest son of the Duke of York and Cecily Neville was born at Fotheringhay Castle, Northamptonshire. Like his father, he was named Richard Plantagenet and in time he also became a pretender to the throne of England.

Bosworth, 1486
Part 1 - Lord of the NorthDuring his early twenties, his once vigorous elder brother, Edward IV King of England fell into bad health and inactivity. In event of his widely expected demise, contingency arrangements were made for Richard to serve a Lord Protector and guardian to his nephew Edward[1], the young heir to the throne. But it proved unnecessary, because Edward IV clung to life until 1486, dying at the still relatively young age of forty-five. And worse yet, Richard's own wife, Anne had passed away the year before.

Therefore he was forced to put his own contingency arrangements into operation. Denied a governing role as Head of State, he instead strengthened his position as "Lord of the North". He remarried and his second wife had twin heirs. Inevitably, these parallel reconstruction efforts were considered a threat by his nephew, young King Edward V. And within bare months of the ascension, it appeared certain that the Country would be torn apart by Civil War.. An installment of the Bosworth 1486 thread conceived by Jackie Speel.

Entry posted by Guest Historian

Jackie Speel

Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Bosworth 1486 Source: Wikipedia Labels: Edward V, Richard III, Tudor, York, War of the Roses.

Todayinah Editor Editor says, [1] in our time, he died prematurely at the age of only thirteen. Along with his younger brother Richard of Shrewsbury, Duke of York, Edward was one of the Princes in the Tower, who disappeared after being sent (ostensibly for their own safety) to the Tower of London. Responsibility for their deaths is widely attributed to Richard III, but the actual events have remained controversial for centuries.

Readers Comment Mike Stone commented on 2012-10-02 09:09:50 ~ Wouldn't give much for Richard's chances. Relying on the North didn't do Margaret of Anjou much good, and northern revolts agaisnt the Tudors had a 100% failure rate.

Readers Comment Jackie Rose commented on 2012-10-02 12:38:09 ~ There actually WAS a revolt, led by Perkin Warbeck, who claimed to be the Duke of York. It failed and he was executed, so obviously HIS chances weren't very good either.

Readers Comment Eric Oppen commented on 2012-10-02 16:46:42 ~ While the above comments were true, Edward V (Or should I write "Joffrey I? No, that would be WRONG of me!) had the disadvantage of being lumbered with his Woodville relatives, who weren't exactly great field commanders and weren't popular with the other nobles for their greed.

Readers Comment Jackie Rose commented on 2012-10-02 17:34:18 ~ And now us Ricardians must take up the cudgels, too. You said that "Responsibility for (the Little Princes') deaths is widely attributed to Richard III, but the actual events have remained controversial for centuries." In fact, Richard has been pretty well rehabilitated, in historical novels starting with "The Daughter of Time" in 1951 and continuing to "The Kingmaker's Daughter" right now. We even have has portrait on our walls, and he was NOT a hunchback. I might add, though, that Shakespeare's version was much more exciting and entertaining than the goody-goody modern versions. Anyway, "Kingmaker's" did, indeed, criticize the Woodvilles for their greed...but the reader suspects that the they were unpopular with the nobles because they were not royally born.

In 1919, on this day President Wilson suffered a massive stroke. First Lady Edith Wilson and a team of doctors immediately moved to place the incapacitated president in seclusion.

Thomas R. Marshall
29^th President of the United States 1919-21The Event: For much of the rest of his term, the First Lady essentially ran the government, deciding which matters were important enough to bring to the attention of the partially blind and paralyzed president.

Frankly, it's a wonder the stroke didn't kill him outright. But .. what if it had?

The Successor: Vice President Thomas Riley Marshall (pictured).

Why the alternate history novel should be written now:

Deeply unpopular for an almost endless number of reasons - his support of the League of Nations, an economic recession, general weariness with the war and his reforms, his totalitarian domestic policies during the Great War, and there's always his massive racism - Wilson was leading the Democrats to certain defeat in the 1920 election. A new article from Io9The only possible chance for the Democrats was if the current administration completely reversed itself overnight.

That just might have happened if Thomas Marshall had become president. A smart but unassuming Indiana politician with a sharp sense of humor, Marshall had been utterly ignored by Wilson and completely shut out of the government. It's just possible Marshall could have built on the likely goodwill his succession would have created, and moderated the Democrats enough for them to keep control in 1920.

And, assuming the Democrats might have regulated Wall Street in the twenties more heavily than the Republicans did - in other words, if they'd regulated it at all - the Great Depression might just have been a mild recession. (Or it could have been a thousand times worse. I don't claim to be an economist). Of course, Europe probably still would have descended into fascism and economic despair. And that still leaves the decaying American agricultural and industrial sectors that helped exacerbate the Depression in the first place. Even so...it's worth exploring.
To be continued

Entry posted by Guest Historian

Alasdair Wilkins

Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Politicians Source: Io9 Labels: Woodrow Wilsin, Riley, Presidency, Premature Death, Election.

Readers Comment Eric Oppen commented on 2010-11-07 18:08:05 ~ WW's racism didn't make him unpopular---it was a little OTT for some Northerners, but most white people felt that way about blacks in those days.

Readers Comment Eric Lipps commented on 2010-11-07 21:03:54 ~ A Marshall presidency might not have headed off the Crash and the Depression. The Democrats were in those days dominated by the party's archconservative Southern woing, the sort of people who worshipped under a cross on Sunday morning and burned one Monday night. The party didn't begin shifting left in earnest until FDR's time--and even FDR, for all the right-wing whining about his "socialism," was pretty careful about the regulation he imposed, considering the magnitude of the economic crisis he inherited. Had the D's been in power when the Crash hit, though, Republicans would have been poised to make a comeback in the thirties. It might have been Herbert Hoover, or Alf Landon, or some other prominent GOP'er of the time who got elected to four terms, instead of Roosevelt.

Readers Comment Scott Palter commented on 2010-11-07 23:07:47 ~ How does Marshal beat Harding? Economy had imploded. War was deeply unpopular. The default setting for the US outside Dixie was mostly Republican. For this to work you need a repeat of 1912 with two Republicans running. IOW you need TR to not die, to be denied the GOP nomination and to run on a united Progressive-Socialist ticket [TR-debs].

Readers Comment Jeff Provine commented on 2010-11-09 15:32:28 ~ Without being president, Harding would've lived longer, so a silver lining for some.

Readers Comment Mike commented on 2011-05-10 00:41:17 ~ I think it would have mattered little since the damage was done by Wilson once the USA entered WWI.

In 1529, on this day the Ottomans stormed the city of Vienna. The army of Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent arrived at the gates of Vienna September 27, 1529. Three years before, Suleiman had smashed the army of King Louis II of Hungary, conquering much of the land. Following the momentum, he raised an enlarged army and pressed toward Vienna and the Austrians.

Ottomans Storm Vienna They set out in May, first reestablishing conquest in Hungary by seizing fortresses lost in the interim to Archduke Ferdinand I of Austria, who had been named king of Hungary after Louis's death under the might of Suleiman.

Most effective were Suleiman's large-caliber cannons, which he brought over miles of mountain roads. The rains were light, making for easy travel and minimal loss of men and camels from illness in soggy conditions. Buda, which had been softened by attack in 1526, was taken, and the army mopped up various defenders before turning to the Austrian border. It was a difficult march, but the soldiers looked forward to the great wealth to be plundered from the Habsburgs. The siege was laid, and the artillery gradually wore down the walls. Suleiman made attempts at mining and tunnels to break in sooner, but the defenders were ever-vigilant for the sound of rhythmic digging through the soil.

A new story by Jeff ProvineAfter days of heavy assault, the city wall was finally breached. The city had over twenty thousand defenders of German mercenaries, Spanish musketeers, and hastily armed and trained peasants. They fought bravely, but the 120,000 Ottomans outweighed them. After the breakthrough, the battle lasted a day, and then five days of pillaging stripped the city of anything of value. The rest of the fall was spent conquering as much of Habsburg land as Suleiman could claim before retiring the army for winter back to the reconstructing of Vienna.

The Christian Crowns of Europe recognized the danger that the Ottomans held. The Holy Roman Empire had long stood as a central ground of balance between them in their wars; now it was a border with an ever-growing enemy. Problems of protestantism and reformation had popped up through the likes of John Hus and Martin Luther, but minor religious differences could be set aside for a time while they suddenly faced a real possibility of Muslim invasion. Still, it would be almost another decade before the fear and wrath gained direction through an organization.

In 1537, Ottoman admiral Hayreddin Barbarossa took the Venetian island stronghold at Corfu near Greece, proving that the Ottomans would push forward as their forces allowed. Appealing to Pope Paul III, a Holy League was created, establishing a navy of over 300 ships and, more importantly, a massive army to march from the Holy Roman Empire and down the Danube. Contributions came from the Republic of Venice, the Papal States, Naples, Sicily, Spain, all through the Germanies and Bavaria, Poland-Lithuania, and knights from the old orders of Malta and Teuton. The army marched, liberating Vienna, and Suleiman met it in battle at Buda.

In one of the most decisive battles of western history, the Ottomans were defeated. Through the 1540s and '50s, the new crusade would push through the Balkans, causing revolution among the Greeks and effectively pushing the Ottomans out of Europe by Suleiman's death in 1566. The lands would be divided among the participating crowns, creating a political union the Balkans that would prove even more disorganized than the Holy Roman Empire.

This expansion caused a surge of wealth into the Catholic states, combining with a flow of gold from the New World by Spain and Portugal's trade. Much of this fortune would be spent crushing the Protestant uprisings and checking the growth of Sweden as a power. Wars would then divide the nations, especially during the reign of Louis XIV of France. As the countries reorganized themselves, either putting down or supporting revolutions, Europe would eventually transform into a series of nation-states with nearly the whole continent tied together under the common mantle of Catholicism.

Entry posted by Guest Historian

Jeff Provine

Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Jeff Provine Blog Source: Jeff Provine’s Blog Labels: Vienna, Turks, Ottomans, Muslim, Europe.

Todayinah Editor Editor says, in reality 1529 was a particularly rainy year. Suleiman would be forced to abandon his cannon and lose many men and camels to disease and exposure. Without the use of artillery, Vienna was unshakable, and more rains finally caused withdrawal on October 14, stemming the expansion of the Ottoman Empire into Europe for another century. A Holy League was organized in 1538 to attack Barbarossa, but the Christian fleet was soundly defeated. After the Battle of Vienna in 1683, the Europeans would recognize the threat of the Ottomans and create a Holy League to push them back into the Balkans, where the Ottoman Empire would rule until its decline in the nineteenth century.

Readers Comment Scott Palter commented on 2010-10-03 04:31:11 ~ The big change here is the sultan and the main army wintering in Vienna. Ottoman state didn't work that way so when did thsi new state come into being.

Readers Comment Eric Oppen commented on 2010-10-03 05:49:57 ~ I don't think they could have rolled the Ottomans back that far that early on. At that time the Ottoman state was fairly efficient, and a lot of its subjects were Orthodox Christians who preferred "the turban" to "the tiara"---IOW, they'd not be pleased to see Western Christians coming to "save" them. To this day, 1204 and the Fourth Crusade's a sore point with a lot of them, I am told. The Ottomans could have had a nasty defeat, and were coming to the end of their apogee, but they'd probably hold the Balkans for a few centuries in any event.

Readers Comment H. Torrance Griffin commented on 2010-10-03 11:40:50 ~ I concur with Oppen. Indeed there were probably a fair number of Protestants that would defect in the long terms (consider the fate of Calvinists and Unitarians in Transylvania as opposed to those if Hasburg lands).

Readers Comment Jeff Provine commented on 2010-10-03 19:50:33 ~ Good point, Scott. Couple of reasons to stay, one being the establishment of a strong frontier. Also, with Austria on just about the logistical max from Constantinople, much of the army would not make it and take up garrison positions; fortunately, there would be quite a few new fiefdoms to manage. If they'd just left, then Charles V and the whole HRE would sweep into the newly reconquered land, just like Ferdinand II did with much of Hungary just a few years before. Suleiman definitely wasn't stupid.

Readers Comment Chris Oakley commented on 2010-10-04 00:01:34 ~ This could have been a MAJOR game-changer as far as Balkan geopolitics was concerned...

In 2009, on this day the American zombie comedy horror, Zombieland premiered in cinemas across North America. The film was written by Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick and directed by Ruben Fleischer.
Click to watch the Movie Trailer on Youtube

Time to Nut Up or Shut UpThe film takes place within a post-apocalyptic context, featuring characters that have adopted names from their home towns to reduce emotional involvement. Columbus (Jesse Eisenberg) is a college student from Austin, Texas, who is on his way to Columbus to see if his parents are alright, who explains a few of his "rules" for surviving the zombie apocalypse.

After surviving a few zombie attacks, he encounters Tallahassee (Woody Harrelson), whose life goal is to find the last Twinkie on Earth. As they are searching a grocery store for Twinkies, they meet two girls, Wichita (Emma Stone) and Little Rock (Abigail Breslin) who, seeking escapism, are headed for the Pacific Playpark.

In the final scene, this oddball movie takes a decidely morbid turn when it becomes clear that none of the characters will survive the zombie attack at the Pacific Playpark. This fatalistic ending was to some extent foreshadowed by the accidental death of the actor Bill Murray who cameos in the movie, playing himself, disguised as Zombie; when Murray tries to scare Columbus and Little Rock, Columbus kills him and Murray explains he wasn't much good at practical jokes.

Entry posted by Todayinah Editor

© "Zombieland" (2009) written by Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick and directed by Ruben Fleischer
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Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Movies Source: Wikipedia Labels: Zombies, Woody Harrelson, Zombieland, Pacific Playpark, Bill Murray.

Todayinah Editor Editor says, Plot Summary from Douglas Young of the Movie Guy: The entire world is hit with an apocalyptic infection that turns people into zombies once they have been bitten by an infected zombie. Columbus (Jesse Eisenberg) is a young geek who has a lot of phobias about almost everything from clowns, to bathrooms, to checking the back seat of cars. Being alone and scared of the outside world has kept him alive. His new fear is being eaten by zombies. To survive, Columbus has begun making a long list of rules to survive. Each time he gives you one of his rules, you see an example of his rule in action. Columbus explains to the audience in a background voice such as wearing your seat-belt, or the double-tap rule after you shoot a zombie make sure he is dead by shooting him in the head again. Trust me; this is not a wasted shot. The number 1 rule is to be sure that you can outrun the zombies, because the overweight and slow people were caught first by the zombies. He decides to go home to Columbus to see if his parents are still alive. Along the highway, he meets Tallahassee (Woody Harrelson) a redneck zombie killer who loves Twinkies and misses his puppy Buck. They team up and head for Tallahassee. On the way they meet and join forces with two girls, Wichita (Emma Stone) and Little Rock (Abagail Breslin). They may be the last surviving people on earth, and they must rely on each other to survive.

Readers Comment David Atwell commented on 2009-10-03 01:55:55 ~ You can't beat Shaun of the Dead IMHO ;)

Readers Comment Chris Oakley commented on 2009-10-03 16:33:58 ~ Phooey on that..."Night of the Living Dead" is still the numero uno zombie flick.

Readers Comment Eric Oppen commented on 2009-10-03 18:51:32 ~ Haven't seen it, can't comment. Not much into zombie stuff anyway.

In 1919, on this day the Detroit Tigers beat the Chicago White Sox 3-2 to clinch the American League pennant; Chicago's last hope victory was dashed when "Shoeless" Joe Jackson (pictured) struck out with the bases loaded in the bottom of the ninth. White Sox fans were quick to protest the strikeout call; one particularly irate spectator lit his game program on fire and waved it menacingly at winning pitcher Hooks Dauss, not realizing he had dropped his still lit match.
Disaster at Comiskey Park by Chris OakleyWithin minutes Comiskey Park itself was in flames; sportswriters Hugh Fullerton and Ring Lardner, who'd barely made it out alive, phoned a running account of the disaster to Fullerton's editor across town. By the time the fire was extinguished, the park and dozens of blocks of the surrounding neighborhood lay in ruins. Among the fire's casualties were Abe Attell; ex-Philadelphia boxer Billy Maharg, a co-conspirator with Attell and "Sleepy" Bill Burns in the now-dead scheme to fix the 1919 World Series; White Sox traveling secretary Harry Grabiner; and Sox pitcher Eddie Cicotte, who succumbed to smoke inhalation en route to a local hospital. Sox reserve infielder Freddie MacMullin was permanently paralyzed from the waist down when his spine was severed by falling debris as he was fleeing the park.

	On this day in 1941, deposed Soviet ruler Joseph Stalin was executed for what an official TASS bulletin described as 'conduct detrimental to the welfare of the USSR and her people'.

Joseph Stalin

In 1976, former Georgia governor James Earl 'Jimmy' Carter defeats incumbent Gerald R. Ford in the U.S. presidential election. A major factor is his status as a political 'outsider' in a year in which, with the Cuban and Vietnamese conflicts still taking American lives and Watergate a vivid recent memory, the Washington establishment, of which President Ford is a longstanding member, is widely seen as corrupt. Carter?s campaign pledge, "I'll never lie to you", has been a conscious effort to play off of that sentiment.	US President

	Jimmy Carter

	In 1970, South Vietnamese and U.S. troops cross the border into North Vietnam, allegedly in hot pursuit of North Vietnamese army units and Vietcong insurgents. In the United Nations, Soviet ambassador Andrei Gromyko denounces this incursion as 'unmasking the falsehood of American pretenses that U.S. actions in Southeast Asia are of a defensive nature.' He goes on, 'Having inflicted devastating damage upon the peace-loving people of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam, the American imperialists now invade that republic's soil, seeking to crush its socialist system once and for all and draw it within their sphere of control.'

Andrei Gromyko

On this day in 1950, members of the Preacher's Corners Historical Society in Maine made the horrifying discovery that one of their town's most distinguished historical figures, Philip Boone, was a serial killer and devil worshipper who might have been involved in the mysterious deaths of his grandson Charles and Charles' friend/assistant Calvin McCann on this very same day a hundred years earlier.


Their suspicions of Philip's complicity in Charles Boone's death were heightened when Maine state police uncovered a mass grave near the Boone ancestral homestead, Chapelwaite. Author Stephen King would later recall the Boone family's macabre history in his book Jerusalem's Lot.

Werner	In 1954, the first attempted U.S. satellite launch fails spectacularly as the rocket explodes ten seconds into liftoff. At NASA headquarters, there is consternation. The launch failure makes the evening TV news, and Agency officials fear Eisenhower will respond by cancelling the program. A crash effort is made to ready another rocket and satellite.

Von Braun

In 2006, agents the New World Order assassinated Helen Chenoweth, a key leadership figure in the national resistance movement formed by the Milita of Montana. This loyalist paramilitary organization had been amongs the first to confront an international shadow government that was usurping American sovereignty.	Helen Chenoweth

	Paramilitary

Rocky Gonzalez, a spokesman for the Nevada Highway Patrol, said Mrs. Chenoweth-Hage, a passenger in a sport utility vehicle, died when it overturned on a remote northern Nevada highway about an hour�s drive from her ranch in Monitor Valley, Nev., where she had moved five years ago. She was traveling with her daughter-in-law, Yelena Hage, and her 5-month-old grandson, Bryan Hage, who survived with minor injuries. Ms. Hage has yet to confirm rumours that a black helicopter had forced the vehicle off the road.

In 1876, the Agricultural & Mechanical College of Texas, the first institute of higher learning in the state, was founded near Boonesville, Texas. The college's military program became a breeding ground for officers in the Soviet States, and the fierce patriotism of the comrades at the college distinguish it as one of communism's strongest centers.

In 1903, the first game in the first World Series of Town Ball was played between the Boston Pilgrims and the Philadelphia Liberties in Boston. The Libbies won the game 7-2, and went on to win the series 4-3.

In 1951, English poet Gordon Sumner was born in Wallsend, Newcastle-upon-Tyne. Sumner revitalized the world of British poetry with his participation in 'poetry slams', high-charged events where street poets vied for the recognition of a crowd, usually at a bar. Sumner was named British Poet Laureate in 1994.

In 1869, future Indian First Minister and First Chancellor of the Congress of Nations Mohandas Gandhi was born in Porbandar, Kathiawad. Gandhi was known for his progressive policies and confident first contact with seven other alien cultures during his tenure as First Chancellor in the 1930's.

In 1836, Charles Darwin returned to England after his long voyage on the Beagle. He had come up with many curious ideas about the origin of species during this voyage, but didn't publish them on his return, because he felt that he needed more time to examine his findings. Unfortunately, while he examined, Alfred Wallace published his own theory of the origin of species, On the Tendency of Varieties to Depart Indefinitely From the Original Type, extolling an evolutionary mechanism called Natural Selection.

In 583, the great Sultan Saladin captured Athens, city of learning. While he rules here, the ancient knowledge of the Hellenes is revived and encouraged. Saladin lets the world know that, unlike the infidels, Islam is not afraid of science.

In 2004, in the Central African city of Malabo mourned the passing of President Francisco Macias Nguema who died of natural causes aged eighty on September 28th. For twenty long years after independence, Equatorial Guinea was a desperately poor Spanish client-state until Oil was discovered in 1993. Foreign investors rushed to plant claims in EQ, and Nguema made the most of it. In short, it looks like a Catholic version of the United Arab Emirates.

The city of Malobo began to go through what Dubai did - one of the world's maddest construction boom. EQ is soon an idol for conservative Europeans as 'what good Africans can do,' an exception to the poverty and civil disorder in its region. (Its neighbors all have oil, too, but are too large and too divided to use their oil the same way.) But for left-wing Europeans and Africans (and, gradually, left-wing Americans as well), EQ is evil incarnate, a decadent faux-Catholic aristocracy propped up by oil companies, Spain, and the CIA.

In 1535, Jacques Cartier discovered Montreal, Quebec. Despite efforts by British to invade New France, and several referendums from federalists, Quebec remains a Francophone pocket in North America. In the famous words of Charles de Gaulle in 1967 Vive le Quebec libre ! (Long live free Quebec!).

In 1946, outside a building complex on Furtherstrasse 22 in Nuremberg, Bavaria, Germany Commander of the British Eighth Army Colonel T.E. Lawrence and subordinates Bernard Law Montgomery, Archibald Percival Wavell and Sir Claude John Eyre Auchinleck were shot on this day. They considered themselves betrayed by a group of Egyptian officers, headed by Gamal Abdul Nassar, and Anwar el-Sadat, who secretly sided with the Germans, ridding North Africa of Britain's presence. The Egyptian officers themselves had no opinion, they were so many holes in the desert, having been betrayed themselves by Heydrich who had established a German Protectorate on the Nile.

October 1

In 1981, on this day a motion to acknowledge the Nordic origin of the northern archipelago of Islands was put in front of the devolved Edinburgh Parliament by the Members of the Scottish Parliament for the Shetlands and Orkneys.

Return the Islands! by Ed and Jackie SpeelThe name "Orkney" dates back to the 1st century BC or earlier, and the islands have been inhabited for at least 8,500 years. Originally occupied by Mesolithic and Neolithic tribes and then by the Picts, Orkney was invaded and forcibly annexed by Norway in 875 and settled by the Norse. It was subsequently annexed to the Scottish Crown in 1472, following the failed payment of a dowry for James III's bride, Margaret of Denmark.

Humans have lived on the Shetland there since the Mesolithic period, and the earliest written references to the islands date back to Roman times. The early historic period was dominated by Scandinavian influences, especially Norway, and the islands did not become part of Scotland until the fifteenth century. When Shetland became part of the Kingdom of Great Britain in 1707 trade with northern Europe decreased, although fishing has continued to be an important aspect of the economy up to the present day.

For years a small but vocal minority of the population had called for the islands to be "returned" although the current proposals went no further than the teaching of the Norwegian language, culture and history in the classroom. Nevertheless, the Edinburgh Parliament feared that even a small step threatened to break-up Scotland as a unified nation. Unspoken was the unthinkable terror that claims would also be made for the parts of the lucrative North Sea Oilfield.

Entry posted by Todayinah Editor

Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Politicians Source: Wikipedia Labels: Orkneys, Shetlands, Norway, Norwegian, Gaelic.

Todayinah Editor Editor says, in this article we explore an original idea from Jackie Speel. We have repurposed content from Wikipedia.

Readers Comment Eric Oppen commented on 2011-10-01 02:26:58 ~ Sauce for the goose, sauce for the gander!

Readers Comment H. Torrance Griffin commented on 2011-10-01 07:44:38 ~ This is the inherent logic of succession....

Readers Comment Jared Myers commented on 2011-10-01 19:04:29 ~ Interesting to see how Holyrood would respond to this. I could also see Norway fostering this feeling in order to make a claim on the oil.

Readers Comment Jeff Provine commented on 2011-10-03 00:01:55 ~ If the UK put as firm a stand on this as the Falkland War turned out to be, could be another boon for their political stance, especially in Europe.

In 2010, John Reilly wrote ~ the Spanish Civil War of 1936-1939 was one of the great dramas of the 1930s. I use the word "drama" advisedly, since the debate and propaganda campaigns about the war became the substance of much of the political and intellectual life of the West during the years the war was fought.

If the Loyalists Had Won the Spanish Civil War.....In the progressive literature of the period, the war was a morality tale of good defending itself against evil, of fascism against democracy, of the Enlightenment against Catholic obscurantism. The war became a counter in the political struggle between the international communist movement and the more loosely organized cause of fascism. In the publishing industry and the better magazines, the Loyalists won the propaganda argument, but on the ground the Nationalists won. In this note, I would like to suggest some ways that history, and particularly the course of the Second World War, might have been different if the Loyalists had won.

A new post by John ReillyA full description of the origins and course of the war is unnecessary here. The questions involved are also still controversial. Suffice it to say that, after a decade of seesaw election results, a Popular Front government finally came to power in Spain, but with a very narrow majority. The Front sought to be inclusive of the Left, from Anarchists to Social Democrats. The Front, however, was more and more controlled by the Communists. In any event, having achieved a narrow victory, the government undertook a radical land redistribution. Elements of the Front, particularly the Anarchists, began some spontaneous redistribution of their own, and the government did not attempt to protect life and property. Clerics and Church property were particularly subject to assault. These events caused the Spanish African Army under General Francisco Franco to stage a revolt. The rebels became the Nationalists. The legitimate government refused to yield, however, and the conflict became an elaborate civil war. The Nationalists received aid from the Italian Fascists and the Nazis, including some troops and airmen. The Loyalists received material aid from Soviet Russia, but on ruinous financial terms. They were also assisted by volunteer legions from many countries. The resources of the two sides were not terribly unequal. However, the Nationalists had most of the experienced officers. Also, the Communists in the Popular Front carried on a small-scale version of the purges then occurring in the Soviet Union, directed against the other Leftist parties. This degraded the fighting capacities of the Loyalist armies, which were organized along political lines. The Loyalists were overwhelmed a few months before the Second World War started. Generalissimo Franco surprised everybody by remaining neutral in that conflict.

A Loyalist victory is not hard to imagine. Franco was a competent rather than a brilliant general. The accident of a military genius on the other side might have altered the outcome of the war. So might have more generous support from the Soviet Union. The Communists might have deferred their own political agenda until after the war was over. Neither side had any difficulty obtaining arms they could pay for; France, which had a Popular Front government too in the 1930s, might have offered arms on credit. Alternatively, an effective League of Nations embargo would have redounded to the Loyalists' benefit, since they controlled most of the country's manufacturing capacity. So, let us assume that by the end of spring, 1939, the Nationalists are forced to finally surrender, and Franco goes into exile in Argentina.

One thing that I think would have been inevitable is that the Soviet Union would, in effect, have a colony in the Western Mediterranean. The front-and-purge policy the Communists used against their rivals in the Loyalist camp was not very different from the one they used in Czechoslovakia just after the Second World War (except, perhaps, that it was much bloodier). Stalin was at all times of two minds about what he wanted to happen in Spain. While he wanted to humiliate the Italians and the Germans, he also had doubts about whether another Communist state so far from his borders was a good idea. He knew that such a state would be difficult for him to control, and that it would offer an alternative focus of loyalty for Communist parties around the world. The Soviet Union's subsequent problems with Yugoslavia and China show that these fears were well founded. However, it would have taken years for a rift to develop. The Spanish Communist Party was devotedly pro-Soviet. The new state would have needed Soviet material support. With the growing threat of a Fascist war, a near-term split with Moscow would not have been in the cards. Spain would become for the USSR something like what Cuba became in the 1960s and Nicaragua in the 1980s.

The French would not have been pleased by this turn of events. French governments have traditionally alined themselves with whatever regime ruled Russia in order to counterbalance the powers of Middle Europe. They would have found this harder to do, however, if the Russians acquired a base adjoining French territory. The advantage to a Russian alliance, after all, is that Russians are too far away to be a menace themselves. There was no way the French could have thrown their support to Germany. It would have been politically impossible, and it would have been strategic suicide. However, the proximity of Soviet Spain would have made France much more reluctant to engage in any major war, anywhere. It is not just that Spain could eventually become a military threat. The Communist Party in France would have been so emboldened by their southern colleagues' success that would have started looking for revolutionary opportunities. A lost war, or even a stalemated war, would do just nicely. Knowing this, the French government would have been much less likely to declare war on Germany in 1939 after the invasion of Poland. Indeed, it might not have been possible to do so, since the Hitler-Stalin Pact was in effect, and the French Left would have made quite a fuss about entering the war, even if they hoped to benefit from the outcome.

Thus, one result of a Loyalist victory could have been that Hitler would not, at the outset, have had to fight a war on two fronts. If the French did not declare war, the British could not have, either. Where would they have put their army? In his pre-war alliance negotiations with Mussolini, Hitler seemed to be contemplating a general war for 1942 or 1943. He would have been able to pick a fight in the West at his leisure, probably much better prepared than he was in 1939. In this war, the desperate French might have accepted an alliance with Soviet Spain, provided Stalin relented. Certainly Spain would have been a reasonable base for the French to retreat to, after losing Paris. Even if Soviet Spain had chosen Franco's policy and attempted neutrality, it is unlikely that Hitler would have accepted it. He could not have. His goal in World War II was the conquest of Russia, something he could not have accomplished with a Soviet ally in his rear. The conquest of Spain could have been part of his initial western campaign, or it might have waited a year or two, but it would have been inevitable.

A Nazi campaign would have had several things working against it. For one thing, the supply lines were long enough to create formidable logistical problems, never the strong suit of the Nazi military. Assuming the English were still in the war, Hitler, like Napoleon, would have found just how accessible Spain is from the sea. On the other hand, the Spanish Soviet government would have been unlikely to be very popular by this time, assuming it had continued with the process of Stalinization. If the Germans concluded their campaign by taking Gibraltar, whose British base was (and is) a long-standing affront to Spanish pride, the Germans could have been accepted as liberators. The loss of Gibraltar could have cost the British effective control of the Mediterranean. The resupplying, not just of Egypt, but of India and Australia, would have become immensely more difficult.

In sum, then, a Loyalist victory in the Spanish Civil War could have lost the Allies the Second World War. I, for one, find this conclusion paradoxical.

Any other ideas? [If you liked this piece, you might also be interested in taking a look at a revew of The Last Crusade, a history of the Spanish Civil War from a Carlist perspective.]

Entry posted by Guest Historian

John Reilly

Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: John Reilly Blog Source: This Day in Alternate History Labels: Fascism, Franco, Spain, Civil War, Thirties.

Readers Comment Eric Oppen commented on 2010-10-02 02:43:56 ~ If the Loyalists had managed to keep their sh*t together, rather than clawing at each other like the Kilkenny cats, they might have won.

Comment from Robert Baker on Facebook: It would've given Hitler cause to reconsider his military goals.With the "Condor Legion" being defeated he may not have been so cocky.

Readers Comment Chris Oakley commented on 2010-10-02 14:58:47 ~ Good point.

Readers Comment Eric Lipps commented on 2010-10-02 16:44:33 ~ I suspect that rather than becoming a "Soviet colony" Spain would have had a second round of civil war if, after the defeat of the Nationalists, the Communists on the Loyalist side had attempted to purge their former allies. And it's quite likely that if the non-Communist Loyalists had then appealed for Western aid, they'd have gotten it--if not from official sources, then from private groups. Spain might have been in turmoil all through the Second World War. And on another point, Hitler's goals in World War II went far beyond the "conquest of Russia." He had ambitions in the West, too: certainly the subjugation of as much of western Europe as he could grab, along with all the African and Asian colonies possessed by such natins as Belgium, the NBetherlands and of course France. England he might have allowed to remain independent, as a fellow"Arya" state, if it sued for peace--but that "independence" would have been a subordinate one. If all Hitler had wanted was to conquer Russia, plenty of Western leaders would have been happy to help out--including Winston Churchill, who was zealously anti-Communist. But Churchill, like others, knew Hitler's ambitions reached in more than one direction, and wasn't about to stand for it when that meant Britain's reduction to at best a junior ally to Berlin.

Readers Comment Jeff Provine commented on 2010-10-02 19:15:31 ~ I concur with Mr. Lipps that the Spanish Civil War would've gone longer and broke into many more factions. Whether the Soviet-supporters won out, that'd be a matter of military. I would expect a resurgence of Nazi-supporters eventually. Franco's neutral ports bolstered much of Europe's wartime supplies and economy, and Hitler needed as much as he could get even out of an indirect ally.

By 1936, the Spanish Civil War had raged for two and a half months, though the political confusion went back decades. In 1873, the experiment with the Spanish Republic began, but it crumbled to give a return to monarchy under Alfonso XIII fourteen years later.

Mola named Jefe del Esanto for Spain Military dictatorship kept the monarchy propped up for over forty years, but, in 1930, another overthrow gave birth to the Second Spanish Republic. A new constitution came in 1931, and a flurry of reforms gave relief to the great numbers of poor who had suffered under laws created in feudalism. With the election of 1933, the Spanish Confederation of the Autonomous Right won a near-majority of seats, but President Alcal´-Zamora ignored their political significance, instead turning to the Radical Republicans. The government seemed hijacked, and tension gave way to hostilities, which gave way to violence. Hundreds of assassinations, general strikes, bombings, and fires by arson crippled the country.

A new story by Jeff ProvineElections in 1936 changed the government to a coalition of gradual reform under President Azaña. Extreme rightists refused gradual reform, calling for revolution and an end to Azaña, who had weakened the Spanish military with budget cuts. On July 17, a coup under monarchist and figurehead General José Sanjurjo began with Emilio Mola as its second-in-command. They called themselves the Nationalists and hoped to achieve a strong, central government like the fascists that had transformed Italy and Germany. While outlying areas such as the Canary Islands and Morocco fell quickly, the Republicans managed to contain the rebels and control the south, especially the major cities. In other areas, anarchists armed themselves, killing just about anybody who tried to subdue them.

With the coup botched, Spain descended into civil war. The Republicans, aided by Mexico and the USSR as well as international volunteers including some 2000 Americans, fought against the fascist Nationalists, who found support from Germany, Italy, Portugal, and major American companies such as General Motors, Ford, Firestone, and Texaco. The Nationalists convened in Burgos to determine a leader. Sanjurjo had died in a plane crash on July 20, just three days into the coup. Much attention was brought to Francisco Franco, and it looked as if he would gain official command after being named commander-in-chief on September 21. Hitler had named his support for Franco, but behind-the-scenes politicking established Mola as the leader of the Nationalists on October 1. Some had blamed his ineptitude for the failure of the coup, but promises he made to Hitler trumped the Fuhrer's trust in Franco. The power would thus be divided between Franco militarily and Mola for public affairs.

The arrangement seemed a success. Mola achieved great strides in propaganda, such as his creation of the term "fifth column" to describe the additional shadow-soldiers of Nationalist-sympathizers complementing his four columns of official soldiers. Franco, meanwhile, led the armies in a siege of Madrid, taking the city at the end of October. Announcements claimed that the war would be ended by Christmas.

In reality, the war dragged on through the winter and into the spring. Most of the Republicans had been dug out of cities in the southwest, but bitter guerrilla warfare slowed the Nationalist march through the countryside and, especially, mountains. Still, victory seemed inevitable, especially with the German Condor Legion bombing suspected Republican outposts.

On July 3, 1937, Mola died in a plane crash on his return to Vitoria. Franco inherited the mantle of Head of State, but Mola-supporters were suspicious. When evidence of assassination arose (though disputed), civil war broke out among the fascists. Hitler and Mussolini offered to mediate, but both sides refused to speak to the other without major conditions met. Finally, the Fuhrer and Il Dulce grew impatient and decided to back Franco. He managed to retake control of the Nationalists by force in 1939, but by then Italy and Germany had gone into their own war against the Allies.

The Republicans regrouped while the fascists had turned to in-fighting and gained material supplied by covert operations from the Allies. In their first campaign, they retook Madrid, causing Franco to call for help from Vichy France. As the French came into the war, so did Britain, the Soviet Union, and, later, the United States. Using Spain as a beachhead, the Allies stomped out the Nationalist soldiers in 1942 and moved through France toward Germany and across the Mediterranean to Italy.

After the war, Spain would solidify in its republic and achieve great prosperity with the rebuilding of Europe and 1960s. While still known for leftist as well as rightist fanatics, Spain serves as a model among the EU for republican brotherhood and regained glory.

Entry posted by Guest Historian

Jeff Provine

Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Jeff Provine Blog Source: Jeff Provine’s Blog Labels: Mola, Franco, Spain, Civil War, Thirties.

Todayinah Editor Editor says, in reality Franco was publicly named Generalísimoas well as Jefe del Estado. The political and military unity strengthened his position but spread his command thin. When Mola died in the plane crash, Franco was suspected as plotting an assassination to solidify his rule, but the idea was never put forth seriously as it was most likely stormy weather. Once the Nationalists won the Civil War, Franco would stay out of World War II, citing demands too high for Hitler to meet upon Spain's entry as an ally. Spain became isolated, even from the UN, until 1955, then came under the influence of the United States in the Cold War. Spain would return to monarchy in 1978 after the death of Franco. A renewed military coup was attempted in 1982, but put down by King Juan Carlos.

Readers Comment Scott Palter commented on 2010-10-01 10:07:21 ~ 1. Germany had little real influence in Spain at this time; Italy had more but still not enough to be decisive 2. this does not explain how Mola out politicked Franco who was possibly the smartest operator in Europe for this period 3. why would Western aid be covert? There was zero chance it would not leak so why not open and if open it would have been decisive. Key was whether UK was prepared to fight Italy and 1936-37 [which were the key years] UK was not

Readers Comment Chris Oakley commented on 2010-10-01 16:01:57 ~ Interesting concept...

Readers Comment Jeff Provine commented on 2010-10-01 16:48:05 ~ Scott, 1. True, thus unable to stop the second civil war. 2. My guess is he made territorial promises to Hitler. Franco's demands of Gibraltar, Africa, etc, were too much, but Mola seemed more willing not to press (ala the bungled coups and taking of Madrid). Franco definitely knew what he was doing. Keeping Spain out of the War was best for everyone, especially him. 3. Covert (and not so convert) operations definitely funded both sides, something of a pre-WW2 prep. The USSR practically kept the Republicans going.

Readers Comment Eric Oppen commented on 2010-10-01 20:41:45 ~ This wouldn't prevent the republican side from their own bouts of Kilkenny-cats infighting; you might have had Spain tearing itself apart completely.

In 1949, on this day in the north-eastern city of Changchun, the Chairman of the Communist Party Mao Tse-tung (pictured) proclaimed the People's Republic of China. Whilst the partition was a devastating setback for the Nationalist Government in Peking, responsibility for the reversal lay not with General Chiang Kai-shek himself but rather with his American allies who had struggled to grasp the full context of the conflict.

America loses Northeastern ChinaThe Soviet Union had invaded Manchuria (and later Hokkaido) to defeat the Japanese, and this intervention provided a security buffer for the Chinese Communists. When the Soviets withdrew, Kai-shek's second "Northern Expedition" had been on the brink of victory. Having advanced into the outskirts of the city of Harbin, the Nationalists were on the verge of seizing the security key to the North.

Instead the "loss of north-eastern China" like so many setbacks for the country was entirely due to foreign meddling in the form of the unwelcome intervention of US Secretary of State George C. Marshall. Alarmed at the prospect of World War Three breaking out should the Soviet's intervene, he had convinced Chiang Kai-shek to agree to a ceasefire.

Marshall's actions might have headed off World World Three, but they created a conundrum for the United States. And the problem of "two Chinas" would vex American foreign policy until the mid nineteen seventies when both of the principles would die within a year of each other. By then Manchuria had been devastated by Mao's programmes which included the Great Leap Forward and also the Cultural Revolution. His successors would be forced to flee to Hokkaido, seeking refuge with the Communist Government of North Japan.

Entry posted by Todayinah Editor

© Paul Baldwin, "The 365 most important events of the twentieth century"
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Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Alternate Nations Source: Wikipedia Labels: China, Chiang Kai-shed, Mao Tse-tung, Formosa, Cold War.

Readers Comment Eric Oppen commented on 2010-02-07 07:37:09 ~ This was in _What If?_ And I do think that eventually the PRC would be absorbed by Nationalist China---the PRC had a lot of weaknesses that the Nationalists didn't, like endless stupid purges, and without the threats of the Communists and Japanese, I do believe that Chiang could have made a start to weed out the corruptionists and incompetents in his own ranks.

Readers Comment Eric Lipps commented on 2010-02-07 12:31:39 ~ So do we assume that there was no use of the A-bomb in World War II? If so, why? At Yalta, the Soviets agreed to enter the war against Japan (they had only fought Germany previously) three months after the surrender of the Third Reich--and they did, to the day, on August 8, 1945--by which time, of course, Hirosshima had been bombed. There was no Soviet invasion of northern Japan because, after the bombing of Nagasaki on August 9, the war ended too soon.

Readers Comment H. Torrance Griffin commented on 2010-02-07 12:39:15 ~ One question is how long North Japan would last as well. Do we have a functional Cult Of Personality that could survive the fall of the Soviets or does the USSR remain a going concern in this TL?

Readers Comment Scott Palter commented on 2010-02-07 16:11:11 ~ Hokkaido invasion would simply have required Japan to have surrendured some 4-6 weeks later than OTL. The invasion prep was underway when the war ended. Indeed it would probably have included a stretch of near to undefended Norh Honshu. This particular two Chinas seems unlikely but not impossible. The more likely version is that after taking Paking the Soviets instal a red government in the regions they overran with Chiang moving his regime to Nanking or Shanghai.

Readers Comment Chris Oakley commented on 2010-06-07 14:58:34 ~ Uh, don't you mean "conundrum"?

Readers Comment Michael N. Ryan commented on 2010-06-07 15:40:16 ~ The American State Department has been a solid foreign policy screw up with its incompotence throughout the twentieth century. In asia they did not even bother to learn how the asian mind worked but assumed everything worked like the western mind. Asians don't go for Appeasement even if it is them being the ones appeased. Inspires in them only contempt. Compromise is not something the asians go for either, so China becomes the first Vietnam and America gets screwed as it did with Peaceniks demonstrating and burning their draft cards while European minded Generals try to refight WWII as they fought up to Rome and Berlin while the State Department fiddles as the world burns.

Readers Comment Stan Brin commented on 2011-07-07 07:15:59 ~ An interesting post. But MacArthur had the Soviets on notice that if they invaded northern Japan, they would be expelled (the US had naval superiority) and their military attaches would be arrested.

In 2009, as expected the International Olympics Committee (IOC) confirmed that the Games of the XXXI Olympiad would be co-hosted by the cities of Kabul and Baghdad. The acceptance of the bid was predicated upon advanced investment plans underwritten by the World Bank.

Olympic SpiritUntil the millenia, the location of the Games had been determined by infrastrusture readiness, a chicken-and-egg argument that disadvantaged the capitals of developing nations, who of course most needed the regeneration investment.

Much of the credit for this keynote decision was attributable to Great Britain's progressive Prime Minister, Mr Bryan Gould (pictured) who, alongside Princess Diana, had spearheaded a global anti-poverty campaign since taking office in 1997. One of the key outcomes of that campaign was to secure a pledge from the IOC not only to locate the Games in developing nations, but also to encourage the formation of international teams of specialists from around the world to work on the necessary infrastructure projects. Rather than develop plans at a national level, this pooling of international resource would add an extra dimension to regeneration efforts across developing nations.

Entry posted by Todayinah Editor

Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Sport Source: Wikipedia Labels: Bryan Gould, Olympics, Princess Diana, Olympic Spirit, 2016.

Todayinah Editor Editor says, this entry develops our thought that Britain has the opportunity to lead on the World Stage, but with the voice of peace and brotherhood.

Readers Comment Chris Oakley commented on 2009-10-02 01:42:04 ~ So is MOSSAD.... :D

Readers Comment David Atwell commented on 2009-10-02 01:43:25 ~ And every terrorist throughout the Middle East is salivating at the opportunities this announcement offers... ;)

Readers Comment Scott Palter commented on 2009-10-02 03:26:00 ~ We will ignore th financing issue. Where do you hold the women's games?

Readers Comment Eric Oppen commented on 2009-10-02 04:51:39 ~ Just building the airport capacity needed would cost mucho dinero.

Readers Comment H. Torrance Griffin commented on 2009-10-02 06:32:47 ~ .... Baghdad may work with a early or mid 20th c POD. Kabul... no, just no.

In 1969, the American people received a wholly unexpected broadcast from the Oval Office on this day. Just eight weeks after announcing that Americans had landed on an alien world, US President Richard M. Nixon announced that "some time back" aliens had landed in America.

Coast-to-coast PanicPresident Eisenhower had been on the verge of such a press conference in 1954. Ultimately, however "Ike" had determined that the timing was wrong. The American people were not yet aware that Nazi scientists were working on the US Space Programme; the knowledge that a UFO Crash in Nazi Germany had enabled alien technology to be reverse engineered in the first place would be shocking, perhaps inducing a coast-to-coast wave of hysteria.

The armed conflict in New Mexico Nixon had swept aside that veil of silence. Because at Dulce Air base, "Grays" had seized a number of human scientists to ensure continued co-operation in their monstrous gene-splicing research. Crack Delta Force troops had been sent through the tunnels to rescue the scientists, creating hundreds of human casualties. The Secret Government now made the alarming discovery of how little control they actually had. And thats when the fighting spilled out into the cities of New Mexico, and onto the TV screens of America. The coast-to-coast wave of hysteria had begun.

Entry posted by Todayinah Editor

© "Conspiracies and Secret Societies" by Brad and Sherry Steiger
Story Tags Click on the hyperlinked metadata to surf the site!

Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Alternate Nations Source: Wikipedia Labels: Dulce, Aliens, Grays, 1969, Richard Nixon.

Comment from Corey L Frey on Facebook: woe,that be COOL,stillthe 60's counterculture would've ended sooner:(

Readers Comment Kirk Edwards commented on 2009-09-30 16:27:06 ~ Intriguing.

Readers Comment H. Torrance Griffin commented on 2009-09-30 16:51:46 ~ Could affect Race Relations a bit, if only due to the "Black & White Gang Up On Green" factor.

Readers Comment Chris Oakley commented on 2009-09-30 17:22:45 ~ In the immortal words of that great sage Bart Simpson, "AYE CARUMBA!"

Readers Comment Eric Oppen commented on 2009-09-30 19:56:57 ~ How long would it be before politicians were soliciting ETs' votes?

Readers Comment John Braungart commented on 2010-10-03 00:25:15 ~ You mean they aren't????

Readers Comment Jeff Provine commented on 2010-10-03 03:01:07 ~ The real question: will they help us against the Russkies?

	On this day in 2002, Iraq held its first democratic elections since the fall of Saddam Hussein.

Ahmed Chalabi

Longtime Iraqi National Congress chairman Ahmed Chalabi narrowly won the balloting to become the country's new prime minister; voters also ratified a new Iraqi constitution and approved a series of legal reforms meant to eliminate the human rights abuses which had been routine police and court practice under Saddam's rule. Chalabi's first official act as new Iraqi prime minister was to arrange a summit with the leaders of Egypt, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia.

In 1951, the jury in the trial of Lee Harvey Oswald found him guilty of second-degree murder and sentenced him to life in prison without parole.

	Lee H. Oswald


His defense attorneys, convinced Oswald had been railroaded, immediately appealed the verdict; the original ruling was upheld, however, and Oswald would remain in prison until 1963, when he was killed in a shiv fight with a fellow inmate.

Emperor	On this day in 1971, Japan's Emperor Hirohito disappeared.

Hirohito

On this day in 1919, the Chicago White Sox and the Detroit Tigers finished the regular season still tied for first place; for the tiebreaker game being played the next day, Chicago elected to start ace Claude "Lefty" Williams while Detroit countered with 21-game winner Hooks Dauss.

	Claude Williams

	In 1960, on this day preacher and civil rights activist Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. gave his famous "Do Not Forget Harlem" speech in which he urged federal and state authorities to bring Harlem's share of post-hurricane recovery aid closer in line with those being received by predominantly white sections of New York City.

Martin Luther King

On this day in 1939, the New York Knights, who had started the Major League Baseball season in last place, completed a historic comeback by beating the Pittsburgh Pirates 4-3 on a two-run homer by outfielder Roy Hobbs to win the National League pennant. Twelve years later, Hobbs would play a critical role in another famous comeback drive as third base coach for the Leo Durocher-managed Giants team that overtook the Brooklyn Dodgers for the National League championship.	Baseball

	New York Knights

Athens	On this day in 1944, British troops and Greek anti-Nazi partisans liberated Athens.

Liberated

In 1992, a federal report tracking the progress of the 'urban enterprise zones' set up in a number of cities since passage of the Urban Empowerment Act is leaked to the media. The report notes some successes, but documents that removing 'oppressive' taxes and regulation does not seem to be enough inducement in most cases for outside businesses to come into the UEZ's, which generally have serious non-economic problems, such as high crime rates and the absence of what it calls a 'commercial culture.'	US President

	Jack Kemp

The same obstacles, the report adds, tend to hinder efforts by local people to start up and expand business enterprises of their own, despite the inducements offered within a UEZ.

President Kemp, who had been given an early look at these disappointing findings, is furious that they have been leaked. He believes it was done to influence the upcoming presidential election. Furthermore, he still has faith that the enterprise zones will eventually have their desired effect; he believes it is only a matter of time, and fears that partisan politics may sink his program prematurely.

US President	In 1990 : there are now 180,000 U.S. troops in the Gulf, along with 20,000 Britons and 10,000 French soldiers. Increasing numbers of troops from Gulf nations are joining them, bankrolled in particular by the Saudis, who fear that if Iraq is allowed to seize Kuwait, they may be next. President Kemp repeats his demand that all Western 'guests' of the Iraqi regime be freed and that Iraq withdraw from Kuwait.

Jack Kemp

In 1804, the lands acquired in the Louisiana Purchase are organized into the Territory of Louisiana and the District of Orleans. Both will eventually become states, although Orleans will be renamed New Orleans before that time..

Alexander Hamilton	In 1801, Congress finally elects a new President: Alexander Hamilton, who narrowly defeats Thomas Jefferson. Under the terms of the Constitution, Jefferson will become Hamilton's vice-president. It is an awkward arrangement. Hamilton is the leader of the dominant faction of the ruling Federalist Party, while Jefferson had actually co-founded the anti-Federalist Republican Party in opposition to the Constitution in the 1790s before reluctantly accepting the new charter. In addition, Hamilton is a Northerner and an outspoken advocate of the abolition of slavery, while Jefferson is a slaveholding Southerner.

3rd President

In 1975, Nevada Governor Mike O'Callaghan, a Democrat, appoints his former lieutenant governor Harry M. Reid to fill out the unexpired Senate term of Paul D. Laxalt, who has been tapped by President Nelson Rockefeller for the vice-presidency following Rockefeller's succession to the presidency in the wake of President Ford's assassination. The Governor's action angers many Republicans, who had demanded that Laxalt's replacement, like him, be from the GOP. Some conservatives charge that Governor 'Callaghan is exploiting Laxalt's departure to overturn the will pf the voters. Reid, considerably more liberal than Laxalt, had challenged the departing Senator for his seat in 1974 and lost by fewer than 600 votes.

In 1938, Britain and France declared war on Nazi Germany following Hitler's invasion of the Sudetenland. Hitler had rejected out of hand the suggestion of Benito Mussolini that a conference be held to settle the Sudentland Crisis.

In 1914, 'From this day on the British Empire recognises the right of self determination of the Flemish people. And we invite these people to sent her representative to our nations capital!' With this statement the prime minister opens the session of the lower house. In the following debate the prime minister answers on a question of the opposition if 'We are now recognising every German puppet state to be set-up?', 'If that has to be what it takes to restore peace in our world we might consider that, but the Flemish people have clearly stated there opinion on this issue.'

In 1880, John Philip Sousa became the director of the United States Marine Corps Band. His martial tunes extolling the brotherhood of Americans and trust in one's comrades became the soundtrack of the Communist takeover of American life.

In 1604, Pope James I attends the performance of William Shakespeare's Othello, a story of a black Moor converted to Christianity, but doomed because of his uncontrollable rage. The Pope reportedly thought well of the play, and it was performed at many venues across London for years after.

In Hellenic Year 3432, Alexander of Macedon was defeated by the Persians at Gaugamela. Although Persians dominated the region militarily for generations, their culture was subsumed into that of the Hellenes, and the Hellenes migrated across all of Asia.

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