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In this year, "The Kronos Interference" was published [teaser follows]. The way Jacob figured it, by the end of today, he would either be the most hated man in the world, or the most loved. At least that's how the media was playing it. But for now, between the interrupted sleep and the jetlag from the twelve-hour flight to Paris, he could barely keep awake in the taxi. He'd been spoiled by all those years living in London, when Paris was only a two-hour ride on the Eurostar. Flying from San Diego was a different story. Still, it was good to be back. He hadn't visited the City of Light in at least five years.
The Kronos Interference
A novel by Edward Miller & J.B.
ManasThe taxi made its way through the familiar Place Des Vosges with its antique shops, cafés, and street musicians, then to the grand, tree-lined Champs-Élysées, and on to the Hotel Concorde La Fayette, where the conference was being held. As they progressed slowly toward the hotel, Jacob looked at the conference welcome letter he'd printed out for the trip. Welcome to the World Conference on NBIC Convergence and Human Performance, a gathering of thought leaders in nanotechnology, biotechnology, information technology, and cognitive science.
The e-book Kronos is available for download at Amazon
How far would you go to save the world?
When physicist Jacob Newman is pulled from his family, his job, and his whole life to investigate a strange vessel discovered at the bottom of the South Pacific, he finds evidence of time travel, along with implications that a judgment day against mankind is imminent. But it isn't until he cracks the time travel technology and uncovers a startling link to his own family history that he undertakes a dangerous mission back to 1924 to kill Adolf Hitler and undo a horrific episode of Earth's violent past. The results are catastrophic, and soon he discovers much darker forces working against him--forces he must overcome if he hopes to save humanity and see his family again.
Written in the vein of the late Michael Crichton, James Rollins, and similar authors who inject high concept plots with little-known historical facts and a touch of cutting-edge science, The Kronos Interference offers international intrigue, fast-paced action, and plenty of twists and turns.
In 1983, on this day former US President John V. Lindsay (pictured) was the master of ceremonies at an historic event to welcome the arrival of the Apollo XX spacecraft at the USS Intrepid floating Sea-Air-Space museum moored in New York Harbour.
Legacy
by Ed, Chris Oakley and Eric LippsDuring his two-term Presidency, the former New York Mayor had come under intense pressure from his fellow Liberal Republicans who sought to divert funding towards much needed social programmes. But Lindsay was a strong believer in the value of infrastructure, consistently demonstrating bipartisan leadership from the front. And of course his outlook had been fixed during the painstaking rebuilding of the City that had been necessary after the Jamaica Bay hurricane hit New York in 1960.
Ironically, as events turned out, his promotion of space platforms led to a development of weather prediction capabilities that would prevent another category four hurricane striking an unprepared US City. It was a legacy that he was proud to honour on this remarkable day in the summer of 1983.
In 1763, on this day the Northern Whig Theobald Wolfe Tone (pictured) was born in Dublin, the son of a Church of Ireland coach-maker, Peter Tone, who had a farm near Sallins, County Kildare.
Northern Whig
article by Jackie SpeelIn 1783 he found work as a tutor for Richard Martin a prominent supporter of Catholic Emancipation before studying law at Trinity College, Dublin. He became active in the debating club, the College Historical Society, and was elected to a leadership position. Then a pamphlet attacking the administration of the Marquess of Buckingham brought him to the notice of the Whig club; in September 1791 he wrote an essay by "A Northern Whig", ten thousand copies of which were said to have been sold.
But despite the maturiy of his political thought processes, he admitted that his hatred of England had always been "rather an instinct than a principle". Nevertheless, he converted his radical ideas into practical policy by founding the Society of the United Irishmen with Thomas Russell Napper Tandy. However at the same time, he realised that his goals were unattainable by constitutional methods and began conspiring to establish an Irish republic by armed rebellion which had been underway since 1745.
Like the American revolution, this uprising would never have succeeded without the intervention of the French; on this occassion, it was Napoleon Bonaparte, who cancelled his Egyptian Expedition to give the Irish rebels his full active support. And yet it was Tone's heroism at Buncrana on Lough Swilly that swung the pendulum of fate. Despite early setbacks and the pressure to surrender, a raid under Admiral Bompard, with General Hardy in command of a force of about three thousand men managed to defeat an English Squadron on 12 October 1798. It was the pivotal moment when the Irish Revolution was said to have begun in earnest.
In 451, one of the greatest victories in the career of the great conqueror Attila the Hun came as he swept the allied Roman-Visigoth force from the field and assured his conquest of Gaul.
Attila's Victory at the Catalaunian Plains As very little of the Hunnic culture included portraiture, it is difficult to know what Attila looked like, but he was recorded by the Roman historian Priscus, attendee to the Hun court in 448 as an attache to the Byzantine ambassador. Priscus described Attila as, "Short of stature, with a broad chest and a large head; his eyes were small, his beard thin and sprinkled with grey; and he had a flat nose and tanned skin, showing evidence of his origin".
A new story by Jeff ProvineThe origin of the Huns themselves remains a mystery. The prevailing hypothesis has the nomadic people as descendants from the Xiongnu, tribes who had lived north of China and migrated westward. Over the course of the fourth century, the Huns came to the Volga River (having apparently taken up the practice of head-binding) and began building an empire that would control a swath of Europe from the Rus to the Atlantic. The horsemen had been beaten back from an invasion of Armenia by the Sassanid Empire who then turned north and west. Over several decades, the Huns under the brother-kings Blenda and Attila exploited the exhaustion of Roman troops while the Sassanids approached from the east and the Vandals seized Africa to establish the Danube as a tentative border with the Byzantine Empire. Blenda died after the Huns turned back from their invasion of the Balkans (even to the gates of Constantinople), loaded down with some 1450 pounds of gold in tribute. As the sole ruler of the Huns and with vast wealth at his command, Attila ravaged the Byzantines again before conquering westward.
He allied himself with Emperor Valentinian III of the Western Empire and began a crossing of Gaul toward the Visigothic kingdom Toulouse. His alliance with Rome fell apart as Valentinian's sister Honoria, who had an arranged betrothal to a senator, attempted to escape it by asking for political aid from Attila. As proof of her turmoil, she sent along the engagement ring, which Attila took as a proposal. He agreed to this imaginary proposal and asked for a dowry of half the Western Empire. Valentinian tried unsuccessfully to convince Attila of the illegitimacy of the proposal, and the Hun continued westward into Rome, now as an enemy. Aetius, Roman general and former friend to Attila, formed up the troops of a new Visigothic and Roman force, blocked Attila's path, and caught the army at the Plains of Catalaunian.
While skirmishes erupted between the various Hunnic vassals and Roman allies, the main forces arrived at the field. Inspired by augurs, Attila turned his soldiers back quickly and seized the ridge at the top of the plain. The Romans had attempted to beat them, and their forces became disorganized. The Visigoths hurried to flank, but their king Theodoric was fell from his horse and was trampled. With the Visigoths slowed, the Huns pressed the attack on the Sangiban allies in the center, who broke and became confused with the Visigoths. Seeing their allies crumble under the onslaught of Hunnic horse archers, Aetius ordered the Romans to retreat.
Reining his victorious troops, Attila would push through the little Roman defense left in Gaul and conquered the Visigoths, whose tribal chiefs fought each other over the throne as much as the Huns. Seeking to defend Italy against invasion, Aetius convinced Valentinian to honor his sister's "proposal". In 452, Attila won his bride along with Gaul and northern Hispania and with the Visigoth lands between the two. With an affirmed alliance between the Huns and Romans, Attila went on to press the Franks into vassals and then turned eastward to collect tribute the Byzantine emperor Marcian had stopped. Early in 453, Attila suffered fatal bleeding from the nose and throat, which was taken as witchcraft (or simply assassination by poison) conducted by Marcian.
The Huns would be unified with the death of Attila in seeking vengeance on Constantinople, which would not fall for two generations. Using Gothic vassals as bulk soldiers and driving the Danes from mainland Europe, the Hunnic Empire stretched from the Atlantic to the Caspian and the Mediterranean to the North Sea for nearly three centuries. It fell to an uprising sparked by the Frankish noble Charlemagne, who would build a powerful empire in its western half while a new breed of horsemen, the Magyar, conquered the east. Meanwhile, the Muslims of Africa would cross the Mediterranean and conquer as far north as the Alps, eventually to become the uncontested major world religion after the fall of Rome.
In 1789, deputies of the Troisieme Estate-General, a national body that represented the commoners of France, rename themselves the National Assembly and send an ultimatum to King Louis XVI - accept a constitution limiting his powers or face revolt from the commoners.
Compromise In FranceKing Louis had been remarkably inept at managing French national affairs, and the common folk, as well as many of the lesser nobles, wanted a new government along the lines of the American one they had helped fight for at the beginning of the decade. King Louis was reportedly furious at this imposition on his authority, and threatened to send troops to quell this miniature rebellion, but his ablest minister, Jacques Necker, advised him to accept the Assembly's terms and work with them to create a new constitution - otherwise, he might see himself headed for the gallows as a deposed king.
A new article by Robbie TaylorAlthough his court was outraged, Louis accepted Necker's advice and crafted a constitutional monarchy in France that resembled the one in Britain, keeping some small powers, as well as considerable wealth, for himself while doling out most governmental powers to the National Assembly. The other Estates-General, which represented the nobles and the clergy, protested at their own diminishment, but when the National Assembly threatened to abolish them completely, came back into line.
This spirit of compromise has allowed France to maintain its powerless but decorative noble classes and royalty to the present day, while letting the common classes run the country efficiently.
In 1863, internal strife within Virginia led to a civil war within the civil war - loyal Unionists in the western part of the state, who had been suppressed and cajoled into joining the Confederacy when Virginia seceded in 1861, erupted into open rebellion against the Confederate government.
War In Virginia The west Virginians had always been resentful of their eastern neighbors, and had never been an area conducive to the plantations that held most of the state's slaves. These differences with the east boiled up into war meetings across the mountains, and they became a steady sieve of information to the Union. When the Richmond government attempted to send troops to settle them down, the westerners took up arms and attacked the easterners. CSA President Jefferson Davis moved the capital back to Montgomery, Alabama out of fear that the war in Virginia would reach Richmond.
A new article by Robbie TaylorGeneral Robert E. Lee, who had pledged himself to the Confederate cause solely because Virginia had joined it, abandoned the CSA and joined the westerners, providing them with excellent leadership and organization against their more numerous eastern foes.
The United States exploited the chaos in Virginia by encouraging loyalist factions throughout the former states to rise up in rebellion against their governments, which many did. Alabama itself split in two, with the pro-Union north fighting the south; Arkansas mirrored this situation, and Texas was convulsed by numerous factions within itself that fought for Union, Confederacy, independence and even a reunion with Mexico.
By the end of the year, what had been the Confederate States of America was a handful of plantation owners seeking to keep their less affluent citizens in line and failing miserably. Throughout 1864, state after state rejoined the US in order to quell the disorder and save themselves from the chaos that they lay squarely at the feet of the southern elites.
In 1940, on this day a coded message issued by the Luftwaffe from Normandy was intercepted by the Government Code and Cipher School at Bletchey, England, That particular message reused a code combination broken by the British in the period from March 1 to April 30.
White Lodge DilemmaIn is underground bunker in the City of London, Churchill was told of the communication. "Confirmed target 23 JUNE at 13 30 to 14 00, map coords 1422 54 White Lodge. Monarch and brothers present".
It took a moment for the Prime Minister to ascertain that the Royal Family had planned a Sunday luncheon at the White Lodge. When Churchill conveyed the news to his service chiefs, he was sunk to gloom.
"Is this the apogee of good fortune, or a dilemnia fashioned by the Devil at one of Infernal Majesty's factories in Berlin?" Churchill asked his wise men.
The intercepted message showed that the Royal Family's schedule was read at least this once by the enemy, and it showed that the brutality brought to the air by Goering and Hitler was planned to rain down in ruin on the luncheoners.
Eden said that "we can hardly let His Majesty and his kin be unwitting targets this Sunday".
"Conceded," agreed Churchill. "When the bombers leave White Lodge a rubble strewn basement, won't our enemy question why none of our Royals were in attendence for their loathesome preset trap? Is not this whole experience going to reveal to them our ULTRA operation?"
"Are we now secure in our ULTRA ability?" asked the chief of MI5, codenamed "M" in all correspondence. "The Germans have had the free run in Paris of endless files of security related matters. It is easy to imagine that several such files are on the ENIGMA code machines and show that British Intelligence was expecing imminent breakthroughs in those codes".
A scientist at Bletchey participated in the discussion. "It is interesting that this is a revival of an old code booklet which has no reason to be re-used. Why frame that particular message in a German code that the enemy ought to suspect may be compromised".
"Nastie arrogance," growled Churchill.
"I hope so," said the scientist. "Or it is a deliberate trap to see if we are catching and translating their ENIGMA messages. If we spare His and Her Majesty from that prearranged bombing, we tell Hitler that we are picking up his mail".
Air Marshal Dowding stated that a couple of extra command wings of fighters would greatly toughen the job of the Germans in bombing White Lodge. "We'll play a trick on those devils," said the military man.
"And very covertly we must find the traitor who lets Goering know enough to test us," Churchill said. "Maybe the best outcome we can have here is a deceptive announcement that the King risked injury this Sunday but fotunately escaped tragedy".
"How sad this all is," said Churchill. "We opt for the proper tactic to defend ourselves but we risk revealing to the enemy our best source of information on his plans and intents".
In 451, in the chaotic night Battle of Chalons-en-Champagne, King Theodoric I was thrown from his horse and then trampled by his own cavalary; immediately afterwards, his son Thorismund withdrew the Visigoth army from the field.
Watch the Youtube animated Clip of the Battle of Chalons ![]()
The Last of the RomansAbandoned by his Frankish allies, the Roman legions of general Flavius Aetius were faced with annihalation by the Hunnic army of Attila (pictured). The Roman strategy of building a Christian alliance against the Pagans had failed, and the legions withdrew, quitting Gaul altogether.
"The Last of the Romans" would return to Italy to overthrew the Emperor Valentinian, launching a desperate attempt to save the Western Roman Empire from destruction ...
In 1945, on this day in an election broadcast, caretaker Prime Minister Winston Churchill accurately predicted the demise of parliamentary democracy in post-war Britain.DLG '40 - Part 6: The Rise of the Labour Party Executive
Throughout the campaign, the Prime Minister had issued warnings about the Socialist programme of Clement Attlee and the Labour Party, but had discredited himself with his Gestapo Speech of June 4th. Churchill did not fear Clement Attlee, a trusted colleage who had served as Deputy Prime Minister in the Coalition Government - a strong bond existed between the Leaders of the Conservative and Labour Party. Attlee along with senior ministers Ernest Bevin and Herbert Morrison were prepared to continue the Coalition Government until the defeat of Japan, but Labour Party activities at the Annual Conference in Bournement had refused. On May 21, Attlee had telephoned Churchill from the conference to tell him that the Coalition was finished.
Rather, Churchill's warnings of June 20th were targeted not at the Parliamentary Labour Party, but the Labour Party Executive headed by Chairman Harold Laski (pictured). Control of the Parliamentary Labour Party would be exercised by "unrepresentative powers who would share the secrets and give the orders to the so-called Ministers of the Crown".
Attlee himself was to look into the abyss very shortly. Only days later, Laski announced that although Attlee would attend the Potsdam Conference with Churchill, the Labour Party would not be committed to any decisions reached there, as these would not have been debated by the Labour Party Executive.
In 1837, following the death of England's King William IV, Princess Victoria becomes Queen of England. Queen Victoria Crowned by Eric Lipps
She will be the first British queen to rule in her own right since the death of Queen Anne in 1714.
Celebrations of the new queen's coronation are held in London, Dublin, New York and Philadelphia. In Charleston, South Carolina, however, a parade in honor of the event is called off after threats are made by a previously unknown group, the Knights of the Fiery Cross, which declares its opposition to measures currently being debated in Parliament to abolish slavery throughout the British Empire. "We refuse to recognize the legitimacy of any government which would tell us, against our will, to abandon an institution which God has ordained as the proper relation between the white and Negro races. Anyone who chooses to celebrate the authority of such a government must know that they declare themselves our enemy, and that we shall not hesitate to resort to force to defend our way of life".
Resentment of the growing movement for abolition has been building for years, and the KFC's threat of "resorting to force" sparks fears of violence, prompting the cancellation of the planned gala in South Carolina's colonial capital. A sweep of the city by the Order Police and the American branch of Scotland Yard fails, however, to apprehend any members of the group. It is suspected that ordinary citizens are protecting them.
In 1790, at a secret dinner meeting between Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson, Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton, and leading Southern Congressman James Madison, a deal was struck in which the permanent capital was exchanged for the passage of Hamilton's financial plan for the heavily in debt colonies, "yielding .. for the sake of the union, and to save us from the greatest of all Calamaties.Floundering Fathers - the Failed Compromise of 1790
It ended in Mr. Madison's acquiesence in a proposition that the question [i.e., assumption of the state debts] should again be brought forward before the house by way of amendment from the Senate, that he [Madison] would not vote for it, nor entirely withdraw his opposition, yet he would not be strenuous, but leave it to its fate. It was observed, I forget by which of them, that as the pill would be a bitter one to the Southern States, something should be done to soothe them; and the removal of the seat of Government [from Philadelphia] to the Patowmac was a just measure, and would probably be a popular one with them, and would be a proper one to follow the assumption". ~ Thomas Jefferson's diaries as quoted by Joseph Ellis in Floundering Fathers.
The Compromise of 1790 was not a popular decision with the people of Philadelphia and Ellis observes that "several different political observers and newspaper editors of the day believed that some kind of secret deal had been made to effect the switching of votes necessary too break the long-standing deadlock on both issues".
During the following month of July the House narrowly defeated both the Residence Bill and the Assumption Bill, forcing Alexander Hamilton's resignation. In 1792 after the disunion was a historical fact, Jefferson observed that his decision to acquiese was driven "from a fear of disunion, while our government was still in its infant state. [without this breakthrough the entire experiment with republican government at the national level - Ellis] burst and vanish, and the states separated to take care of everyone of itself.
Ironically, the United States had foundered on the debts of the War of Independence, the new nation sunk by twenty-one and half million dollars.
In 2015, on this day London's Millennium Wheel, the controversial landmark which had opened in 1999 to mark the start of the 21st century, was sold to a Texas-based private firm in a bid to raise funds for the increasingly cash-strapped English government. | |
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On this day in 1983, Roddy Piper interrupted a Terry Funk interview on WCW to challenge reigning NWA world champion Rick Steamboat to a steel cage match at the third annual Great American Bash. Indignant at being interrupted, Funk hauled off and slugged Piper in the face, and before the show was off the air Piper and Funk had been booked to face each other on the next WCW. | Texan Roughneck |
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| Terry Funk |
| Al Jazeera | On this day in 2002, the Arab satellite TV news channel al-Jazeera showed video footage of Saddam Hussein touring the impact site of the Baghdad asteroid strike; this footage helped dispel rumors that Saddam had been killed along with his sons when the asteroid hit. |
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| TV Station |
On this day in 1968, the US embassy in Moscow sent President Johnson a 30-page top secret report on the state of the Brezhnev regime in the aftermath of the Anglo-Soviet nuclear war. The report's conclusion was succinct and blunt: Brezhnev's government was only months, if not weeks, away from total collapse. | Soviet Premier |
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| Leonid Brezhnev |
The 42-year-old actor was outside a movie theater in central London's Leicester Square doing press interviews Sunday when a man squirted Cruise with a water pistol disguised as a microphone, London's Metropolitan Police said. Cruise appeared to laugh at the incident but then asked the prankster: 'Why would you do that?' As the man gave a barely audible excuse, Cruise said: 'Do you like thinking less of people, is that it?' The prankster tried to walk away but Cruise reached across the metal barrier, held his arm and said: 'Don't run away. That's incredibly rude. I'm here giving you an interview and you do that ... it's incredibly rude.' The actor grew increasingly irritated and told the man: 'You're a jerk.'
Cruise entered University College Hospital, in central London later that evening. Police refused to confirm reports of radiation poisoning. Health experts say they believe Mr Cruise was deliberately poisoned by radioactive matter, believed to be polonium-210. Katie Holmes tells reporters her fiance was killed by a tiny little nuclear bomb.
| John Major | In 1990, British Chancellor John Major proposed a new European currency which would circulate alongside existing national currencies. |
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| Chancellor |
The currency, which Mr Major called the 'hard Ecu', was initially used by businesses and tourists, and managed by a new European monetary fund. The proposals represented a more cautious substitute to Mr DeLores' plan for economic unity. |
Damon arrived at Universal Studios for a regular meeting. He could swear the receptionist said Good Morning, Mr Bourne. It was getting quite disturbing this whole identify business. How could anyone be sure they were themselves, after all?
June 19
In 1754, Iroquois Leave Albany Congress. As Europeans explored and settled North America, the Native American peoples gained new markets for prized beaver pelts. A confederation of Iroquois-speaking peoples made up of the Seneca, Cayuga, Onondaga, Oneida, and Mohawk tribes served as the dominant political entity in the region and economic center through which most of the beaver pelts passed on their way to Dutch traders.
Iroquois Leave Albany CongressIn the seventeenth century, the French under Samuel de Champlain allied with enemies of the Iroquois such as the Algonquin and Huron and pushed the Confederation south, clearing the northerly trade route up the St. Lawrence River for French domination. Overhunting due to the easy use of firearms caused a decline of beaver population, and the Iroquois, aided by the Dutch, pushed north and west in search of more hunting grounds. Conflict with allies brought the French into the war directly, and the two fought for decades until the Iroquois saw a greater threat: English settlement. The English had replaced the Dutch as trade-partners, but they settled much more aggressively, and in 1701 the Iroquois and French signed the Great Peace of Montreal despite English outrage.
A delicate balance of power formed around the Ohio Valley. The French dominated Canada while the English held the eastern seaboard, and both vied for trade with the Iroquois, who transformed their society by improving farming and education. Proximity and economics gravitated the Iroquois toward the English, even to the point of Queen Anne welcoming four chiefs to her court in London. Despite familiarity, the problem of settlement continued. The Tuscarora were pushed out of their lands in what the English claimed as North Carolina and became part of the Iroquois Confederacy when they settled among the Oneida and Onondaga. Settlers in Virginia set up on land west of the Blue Ridge Mountains despite the 1722 Treaty of Albany, nearly leading to war before Governor William Gooch purchased settled land. The Treaty of Lancaster in 1744 saw the Iroquois sell the rest of the territory claimed by the Virginia. Both sides saw the sale meaning different territory, however; the Iroquois believed it to be the Shenandoah Valley while the English understood it to be the full 1609 claim stretching to the Pacific.
A new article by Jeff ProvineAmid the turmoil, the French determined to strengthen their hold on the Ohio Valley. Their position had weakened among Native Americans due to the British blockade during King George's War of the 1740s, leaving English settlers as the only trade-partners for locals. In 1749, Governor-General of New France Comte de la Galissoniere dispatched Captain Céloron de Blainville from Detroit to demarcate river-ways to prove their claim and impress local Indians. He came to Logstown, a settlement of thirty log cabins that had been placed in modern western Pennsylvania by the French several years before and donated to the local Indians. There, he found English traders, and became enraged. Instead of acting out, however, he decided to use the incursion to his advantage and point out mockingly just how far beyond their treaties the English would settle again and again while the French had yet to break any word from Montreal. His Iroquois guides were impressed, and word spread about French recognition of treaties, creating a potent diplomatic victory upon the announcement of active settling in the area by the Ohio Company of Virginia. Trade with the French became encouraged as the blockade ended, and a new market opened down the Mississippi River. In 1752, Iroquois and Ohio Company representatives met, but the heightened Iroquois demands for payment were considered too expensive.
Relations worsened in December of 1753 as Governor Robert Dinwiddie of Virginia, himself heavily invested in the Ohio Company and standing to lose money, demanded the French leave Ohio by letter through Major George Washington. The French commander, Jacques Legardeur de Saint-Pierre, refused, and war began. The Iroquois led by the Mohawk were caught in the middle of the growing conflict and agreed to meet with representatives from seven American colonies at a conference in Albany, New York. The Iroquois demanded terms of permanent borders with stiff penalties for those who settled illegally. When the colonists could not agree, the Iroquois left the conference with impressions of war. Some historians believe the move was to show the seriousness of leverage and that the Iroquois expected to have another meeting soon.
Colonists at the time, however, were terrified of losing their ally to France and took very seriously the proposal for a defensive union made by Benjamin Franklin, head of the representatives from Pennsylvania. His "Albany Plan" outlined a detailed confederated colonial government consisting of an executive President General appointed by the Crown and a Grand Council formed of representatives from the colonies. While the full plan outlined ideals for shared trade powers and the right to create treaties with Indians, the assembly streamlined it for acceptance at a time of war to a simpler military union.
The panicked colonial legislatures, unnerved further by Franklin's "Join or Die" cartoon, approved the confederation and began organizing taxes to support local armies beyond militia. The Colonial Office in London agreed as well, seeing a chance to earn badly needed cash for the coming war with France and Spain in Europe. Major General Edward Braddock was named the first President General and dispatched with an army to be joined by American troops, but his first expedition ended in failure and his own death. The war went poorly for the British initially as the Iroquois joined with other French allies in attacking settlers, but the colonies rose up as former militia became hardened soldiers through British training. By the end of the war, the Americans had stormed into the Ohio Valley and conquered Canada.
In the 1760s, the colonies enjoyed their newfound military autonomy under President Generals Jeffrey Amherst and Thomas Gage, who seemingly encouraged encroachment to further British military holdings in the face of Spanish Louisiana and Florida. To fund their expansion, the colonists held congresses that sold seized land and offered prizes to colonies who volunteered treasury money. The right to tax was discussed often, but outspoken leaders such as Thomas Paine and Samuel Adams refused to let the common man pay for another man's profit. London became nervous about coming so close to Spanish lands, but wealthy officers among the growing plantation class in the South and land speculators in the North encouraged cooperation by aiding with the enormous debts from the Seven Years' War. Colonies such as Delaware and South Carolina, who felt they had no stake in the military defense, left the union. Further divisions such as the problem of slavery and the sale of bonds for infrastructure weakened the confederation into northern and southern camps.
Revolutions in France followed poor harvests in the 1780s, and like-minded thinkers in America called for direct representation in Parliament in the 1790s while others sought continued self-rule. Prime Minister William Pitt agreed with the former, as the move would mean Americans would be responsible for aiding directly with the war effort against Revolutionary France. Americans fought on battlefields in Europe as well as gaining Louisiana and Florida from the Spanish by conquest. After the wars of revolution, Britain and her American colonies continued amicably until the empire-wide end of slavery caused several colonies to attempt secession. After years of violent war in the early 1830s, these colonies were brought back into the fold under a Reconstruction program. Later wars in the twentieth century would weaken the empire overall, spurring decolonization to the Commonwealth into a series of six dominions.
In 1968, on this day New York Mayor John Vliet Lindsay attended the premiere of The Green Berets a blockbuster movie based on the eponymous 1965 book written by author Robin Moore.
The Green Berets
From the "Jamaica Bay" timeline by Ed & Chris OakleyThe decision to attend had been hellishly difficult for Lindsay. As the liberal Republican candidate for the upcoming Presidential election, he had received a very public invitation from two of the stars of the movie, the conservative actors Ronald Reagan and John Wayne. Both men had been outspoken in their criticism of the centrist direction the GOP had taken ever since the "Glorious Disaster" of 1964 when Barry Goldwater was comprehensively beaten by a landslide.
The Face-off at the Cow Palace had been the climax to a set of disasters that had befallen the GOP in California. In the Gubernatorial Race of 1962, former VP Nixon had been beaten by liberal Pat Brown who later told the press (during the convention) that "the stench of fascism is in the air". In order to be a credible candidate, Nixon had been forced to assurance doubtful Californians that he would not be running for the White House again. And Ronald Reagan had been forced to withdraw due to a sudden illness.
But of course Lindsay was a master of disasters, widely admired for his inspirational leadership after the "Jamaica Bay" Hurricane hit his native New York. And by sheer coincidence, Nixon retreated into private life, recently becoming a senior partner in the leading New York law firm Nixon, Mudge, Rose, Guthrie & Alexander. They had become close friends, and it was a measure of the value of their relationship that Nixon insisted on accompanying Lindsay to The Green Berets. It was just one of a series events where the former VP added platform support for Lindsay that would be crucial to his victory over Hubert Humphrey in the fall. Of course that support though would eventually become a liability when Nixon was compromised by the Bay of Pigs thing (on the day of the Kennedy assassination, he had met with Pepsi-Cola executives with big business interests in the sugar plantantions in Cuba).
This post is an article from the Jamaica Bay thread developed by Chris Oakley.
In 1968, on this day Mayor John V. Lindsay's Presidential Campaign was rocked by allegations of shadey business dealings that dated back to his widely regarded leadership of the Jamaica Bay Hurricane.
West Side Story
by Ed, Chris Oakley & Stan BrinFor months his platform of Liberal Republicanism had suffered from reported whisperings originating from inside his official residence at Gracie Mansion which described him as the most bleeding heart liberal, mayor in the City's history.
But in a suprising reversal, the architect of the smear campaign was revealed as William E. Miller, an obscure Congressman from Western New York who had been the surprise selection for Vice President at the 1964 Republican at the Cow Palace in California. In fact Lindsay had not withheld his support at the Convention to build his own profile, rather he was deeply shocked by the right-wing direction that the GOP was heading in. Matters had come to a head when Ronald Reagan had pulled out through illness, and Lindsay had been invited to deliver the platform address (although he retained the title "A Time for Choosing" he rewrote the entire speech). From that day Miller had bore a grudge because Lindsay had failed to recognize his own contribution towards the leadership of the crisis. And in fact the allegations were proven baseless, with construction contracts awarded on an equitable basis that enabled the City to recover by the time that Lindsay made the step up from Gracie Mansion To Pennsylvania Avenue.
In 1881, on this day the sixteenth Union President Abraham Lincoln died of consumption in New York City. He was seventy-two years old and had suffered health issues dating back to his two-terms of office at the Washington White House.
Abraham Lincoln
16th Union President
March 4, 1861 - 1869Abraham Lincoln was the last president of the united nation founded by Virginians and New England patriots. Events leading to his election as president had caused political descent in the states which resulted in an official secession of several southern states. Reacting to this as an act of rebellion, Lincoln had asked for and got a declaration of war. Failing to secure the loyalty of Virginia, the remaining United States were locked in a war that lasted for most of his two terms. After a propaganda campaign to defeat a popular General in the 1864, he was to live in seclusion for fear of Confederate assassins rumored to be in the Washington. In 1865, he saw the CSA hold its boundaries secure and sue for armistice after his failed attempt to "slash and burn" the farmland of the deep south.
After the ceasefire, Lincoln worked with the generals in his army to secure border cities to assure a peaceful transition and rebuilding of his beloved Union. He worked to assure that the Republican Party would hold office in what were certain to be tumultuous years ahead. A new article from the "Two Americas" thread on Althistory WikiaHaving successfully abolished slavery within the United States, Lincoln began a campaign to abolish what he saw as another great evil -- the manufacture and distribution of alcoholic beverage. The hero of the western campaign, and one time head of the whole Union Army, General U.S. Grant, was opposed to this campaign, painting it as an attack on free enterprise and civil liberties.
In March of 1869, Lincoln left office, turning over the reins of a much smaller nation to Ulysses Grant. He was a broken man, in failing health, and with very few friends. The New York Temperance League, with whom he had worked for the later part of his presidency, promised him and his family a place to stay in New York City, where he died in June 19, 1881, of what was called "consumption" (a form of cancer, according to forensic experts of today) at the age of 72.
In 1049 B.C., discovering a Philistine plot to cause his downfall the enraged Israelite Judge Samson used an asses jawbone to slay Delilah, the temptress paid eleven hundred silver coins to find the secret of his superhuman strength.
Samson slays DelilahBut his rage was soon replaced with pity and then finally remorse.
After praying to God for forgiveness, he pulled two pillars together, and down came the Tabanacle. "Thus he killed many more as he died than while he lived". (Judges 16:30).
In 1867, on the day the President of Washington College in Lexington, Virginia published his war-time memoirs, his literary agent Beverley Tucker's predicted that "No work in the nineteenth century has ever had, or ever will have, such a sale. Every man, woman, & child, who can read, will deny themselves the luxuries or even necessaries, if need be, to have Robert E. Lee's History of the American War".
Lee's MemoirTucker initially proposed the idea just two months after the surrender at Appomattox Court House, however Lee had countered with the suggestion of writing a narrower piece entitled "History of the Army of Northern Virginia's Campaigns". However, by the fall of that same year, he had developed a fresh desire to shape the next generation of Southern Leaders. Not only did this urge motivate him to accept the appointment at the College, but soon afterwards, he also decided that he did, after all need to set out a broader work on the whole rebellion.
Unfortunately most of his own records had been destroyed in the retreat, and he had been forced to request copies of pertinent materials from his former sub-ordinates. In so doing, he inadvertently became embroiled in the most controversial decision of the war. Because Generals Ewell, Rodes and Early and Chief of Staff Major Alexander "Sandie" Pendleton provided utterly divergent accounts of the events of the first day of the Battle of Gettysburg on July 1st, 1863. And the fateful decision to try to occupy Culp's Hill with just ninety minutes of daylight remaining.
In 2697 AUC, this day marked the coronation of the first Holy Roman Emperor at Lutetia.
In so doing, Charlemagne (pictured) the former Legatus Legionis of Gaul proclaimed the titular successor to the former Western Roman Empire under the principle of translatio imperii, the transfer of rule linking divine history to worldly power.
Because "le Grand Charles" sought to establish a new union of territories in Western and Central Europe as a successor state following the fall of Rome.
And yet the unexpected opportunity to strike out in a new direction had arisen almost by accident, as a result of a power vacuum that had developed in the last days of the Empire. Because during the Celt conquest of the Italian peninsula, Charlemagne had forged a short-lived alliance with Adolfus, the Legatus Legionis of Germania.
Charlemagne proclaims a Holy Roman EmpireHowever a command dispute had infuritated Tribunus laticlavius Erwinius who promptly assassinated Adolfus at his military camp in the Teutoberg Forest on Dies Martis vii Julius MCMXLIII.
"Une certain ideè de la Gaul" (a certain idea [of greatness] for Gaul) ~ CharlemagneIt was by no means certain that the warlike Celts would accept Charlemagne's self-appointed status as the "August Emperor of the Romans" (Romanorum Imperator Augustus), styled as "most serene Augustus, crowned by God, great and pacific emperor, governing the Roman Empire".
And in fact both Erwinius and Albertus were holding their noses too, having taken the expediate decision to form a popular front against the hated Celts. The former Roman generals rightly suspected that Charlemagne's commitment to a Catholic satrapy was simply a fig-leaf for "une certain ideè de la Gaul" (a certain idea [of greatness] for Gaul). And the seeds of that ideè had been sown by Charlemagne's own countryman, the greatest Roman general of the modern era - Napoleone di Bonaparte.
In 1865, news of the Emancipation Proclamation, issued 2 years before, reached slaves in Texas who were still in bondage.
Texan EmancipationSince Texas had left the Confederacy in 1862, it had successfully fought off Union attempts to bring it back under American control, but with the prospect of freedom before them, the quarter-million people who were enslaved by Texas rose up and began their own civil war inside the Texas Republic.
Besieged within and without, the Texas government had no choice. If they were to retain their independence, they could not fight both the slaves and the Union, so the government announced that slavery was abolished within the borders of the Texas Republic. June 19th became a national holiday for Texans of African descent, who then joined in the war against the Union to keep Texas independent.
In 1994, on this day the chief investigating agent in the Dmitri Kaprinsky/D.B. Cooper case retired from the FBI after thirty years' service with the bureau.                   | |
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On this day in 1972 the US Supreme Court ruled 5-3 in favor of former St. Louis Cardinals outfielder Curt Flood in Flood's two-year-old lawsuit challenging Major League Baseball's reserve clause. The Court's decision not only killed the reserve clause, which had previously kept a player tied to one team for the whole of his career unless he was traded or fired, but it also struck down the anti-trust exemption MLB had enjoyed for almost fifty years. | |
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| Curt Flood |
In 2008, the gold bullion found inside the car given to King Tribhuvan of Nepal by Adolf Hitler was transferred to the Nepalese treasury.                                                           | |
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| Wildfire | On this day in 1982, the team of Ric Flair, Barry Windham, and Terry Funk defeated Tommy Rich, Ken Patera, and Bret Hart in the main event of an NWA TV card in Huntsville, Alabama. |
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| Tommy Rich |
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Senator "George W. Bush" to run in 2004 | Starring "Jack Kennedy" | Royalists win the "Battle of Naseby" |
Roman Testudi Ferrei Overrun "Iceni Rebels" | Roosevelt retires early in "the Business Plot Part 2". | Poor Dump Cop: "Part 1" |
President Fisher Ames bungles the "Louisiana Question" #3 | President "Frederick Muhlenberg" passes away | Pancho Villa wins the "Battle of Carrizal" |
© Today in Alternate History, 2013-. All characters appearing in this work are fictitious. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.




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