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Editor says, what if Bonnie Prince Charlie had overruled his commanders on Swarkestone Bridge? Please note that the opinions expressed in this post do not necessarily reflect the views of the author(s). This story was published in the August 2012 edition of Changing the Times Magazine.
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In 1745, on this day the twenty-five year Stuart pretender "Bonnie Prince Charlie" stepped ashore at Moidart in the Outer Hebrides, his tiny invasion force disembarked and the second Jacobite rebellion began in earnest.
The Forty-Five BeginsThe audacious Jacobite plan was to gather both momentum and support as they marched south to link up with an invading French army. And fortune was on their side from the outset. One hundred miles off Lizard Point in Cornwall, the Doutelle and Elisabeth had been intercepted by the 64-gun warship HMS Lion. But because the Admiralty was unsure of Charles' planned landing the Royal Naval Officers had mistakenly assumed that the two French ships were bound for North America.
The Jacobite standard was raised by a gathering of Highland clansmen at Glenfinnan in the Scottish Highlands. Victories then followed at Prestonpans near Edinburgh and then across the border at Carlisle. By December, the Jacobite Army had reached the east midlands town of Derby, just one hundred miles from the capital city of London. By the time that they crossed the Swarkestone Bridge on December 6th, British divisions were finally being recalled from Flanders, but the Hanoverian Royal Family had already made up their own minds. Because George II was already packing his bags and planning to flee to the Continent. Incredibly, many of Charles' commanders wanted to quit as well. They had chosen this historic moment to call for a retreat back to to Scotland, but fortunately the Young Pretender chose to ignore them and the rest is history.
Entry posted by Todayinah Editor
© Alternate Historian, 2004-.Story Tags
Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Generals Source: Wikipedia Labels: Jacobite, Bonnie Prince Charlie, Hanover, 1745, Forty-five. Editor says, in this article we repurpose content from Scotland.com, Wikipedia, Jacqueline Riding's article "Charlie will come again" published in the April 2011 Edition of History Today Magazine and Jeff Provine's article Prince Charlie Crosses Swarkestone Bridge.
~ You KNOW I gotta love it...since I wrote my own AH romantic novel "Hard Man" for Extasy Books...all about the Bonnie Prince's staunchest supporter, the Irish rebel Felix O'Neill, and how they fare when the Bonnie Prince wins. That has always been a popular AH topic, including an older novel called "Prince Charlie's Bluff," where he conquers America.
~ A Stuart restoration would have hinged on the Stuarts accepting Protestantism..."London is worth the Book of Common Prayer." With _that_ out of the way, and probably Prince Henry either told, on the QT, that no, he is _not_ going to accept a Cardinal's hat, or quietly put out of the way, they'd have a much easier time. Most Englishmen at that time were seriously paranoid about Catholicism.
~ The Bonnie Prince DID convert to the Anglican faith, although it happened after the '45 when it was probably too late. During the rebellion, he once told a Scottish follower what religion the rulers of Europe had: "little or none." That was obviously his tradition, too.
~ What does this do to relations with the American colonies? With a different monarch on the throne in the 1750s, 1760s and 1770s, and inevitably a diferent Parliament, what happens to measures such as the Stamp and Tea Acts? For that matter, what aboout relations with France, given the French role in this Stuart restoration? Does the Seven Years' War (AKA the French and Indian war) still happen, and if so, does it still involve a young George Washington and end with French Canada in British hands?
~ If BPC swears on the honor of the Stuart line and on the Holy Scriptures to overturn the 1707 Act of Union, he would have perhaps gained the neutrality (by and large) of the Covenanters and Protestants in Scotland, if not their support. A united Scotland could easily have been held for King James, even if the invasion of England went sour.
~ With a French-supported Stuart on the throne, perhaps Britain and France could get their territorial issues cleared up without participating in the Seven Years War. No war, no need for taxes to provoke Americans to revolt.
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Editor says, what if Western Governments celebrated Islamic History, Art and Culture? Please note that the opinions expressed in this post do not necessarily reflect the views of the author(s). This article is dedicated to the pursuit of peace between Christian and Muslim brothers and sisters.
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In 2004, on this day a new era of multi-faith brotherhood was ushered in by Prime Minister Mr Recep Tayip Ergogan who symbolically re-opened the Stari Most (Old Bridge) at Mostar (pictured), a project funded by his Government of Turkey in order to sponsor nation-building in Bosnia-Herzegovina.
Nation BuildersThe Ragusan Bridge over the River Neretva was torn down by the invading Turks in 1467. A new construction was built in 1566 by an Ottoman Engineer called Hayreddin who was at that time architect-in-chief to Suleiman the Magnificent. The result was admired by everybody for its beauty and technical perfection, surviving many wars for centuries.
Christians and Muslims could freely move between the markets and mosques of the city. "Yes, it is our bridge too". ~ Croatian Vice-MayorAt least until the madness of 1992/3. Because after two days of shelling, on 9 November 1993 an artillery unit from the Croatian side of the city finally brought down the old bridge. Croatian vice-mayor of the city Mr Tomic admitted "For a long time afterwards, the Croats said - it was their [the Muslims] bridge, so what do we care? Now they are beginning to realise. Yes, it is our bridge too.".
Ten years later the Croats agreed with the Muslims, it was time to rebuild the bridge. The Turkish President Mr Ahmet Necdet Sezer flew into Mostar to promise Turkish money, a generous offer that was warmly received in the open-handed manner in which it was given. As the great man once said, something was missing in this harsh world, and that was love...
Entry posted by Todayinah Editor
© Empire Lite (2003), Michael Ignatieff Story Tags
Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Politicians Source: Wikipedia Labels: Islam, Bosnia, Mostar, Turkey, Herzegovinia. Editor says, in Empire Lite (2003), Michael Ignatieff writes ~ The Turkish President said it was a symbol of the Ottoman, Muslin and Turkish influence in Europe. He did not need to add that the Turkish Government is campaigning for entry to the European Union. The Germans especially don't want Turkey in the European club, since it would mean even more Turkish immigration. So the Europeans decided that they would pay for the bridge. There is some irony in the fact that Europeans want both to keep the Turks out and to rebuild the bridge as a symbol of its multicultural and Muslim heritage.
News report - MOSTAR, July 23 (ONASA) - Prime Minister of Turkey Recep Tayip Erdogan, who was to arrive to Mostar on Friday for the opening ceremony of the Old Bridge in Mostar, has canceled his arrival after 36 people perished in one of the country's worst railway disasters, the Turkish Embassy to BiH said in a statement.One of the new fast trains, linking Istanbul to Ankara, derailed Thursday evening near the northwestern town of Pamukova, its five carriages overturning and crashing into each other.
~ Having the Turks involved would raise lots of hackles---their rule in that part of the world is mostly not remembered fondly, to put it _very_ mildly.
~ If only people could really get along.
~ The presence of Erdogan might have caused the Croats to blow up the bridge again. If there is one thing the Turks, and other Muslims don't want, is for Europeans to be reminded of 1200 years of Muslim aggression against them. (The last Turkish Muslim war against Europeans on European soil was the Ilenden revolt of 1907 in Macedonia. Thousands were killed.) May I suggest a read of "Jihad in the West - Muslim Conquests from the 7th to the 21st Centuries" by Paul Fregosi.
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Editor says, what if Nicholai Tesla renegotiated (rather than ripped up) his contract with Westinghouse?, muses Jeff Provine on This Day in Alternate History Please note that the opinions expressed in this post do not necessarily reflect the views of the author(s).
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In 1897, on this day the Serbian inventor Nichola Teslai renegotiated a ten-year pause on payment with the near-bankrupt power company Westinghouse Electric & Manufacturing company who provided his generators to their electrification program.
Tesla Renegotiates his Contract Having immigrated to the United States in 1884 with little more than a letter of introduction in his pocket, Serbian Nikola Tesla would change the world with his inventive genius. He had worked in France with the Continental Edison Company, and now in America, he worked with Edison himself to improve the great American inventor's direct current generators. Tesla believed he was promised $50,000 if he could solve inefficiencies, which he did, but Edison assured him that the agreement was merely a joke, and the Serbian was paid $18 a week. Another argument over money would cause Tesla to quit and venture out on his own.
Tesla Electric Lighting & Manufacture allowed him to work on his own projects such as X-ray research, radio transmission, and inventing the "Tesla coil", but money was difficult to come by. His major development was pushing his "alternating current" generator, which allowed for long-distance transmission of electricity far more efficiently than Edison's DC. Tesla joined forces with the Westinghouse Electric & Manufacturing company, providing his generators to their electrification program.
A new story by Jeff ProvineCompetition between Westinghouse and Edison erupted in what is often called the "War of the Currents". While AC was logically the superior technology, Edison would not give up his monopoly of having short-range power plants on every block. Each company launched enormous public relations and advertising campaigns, the most famous being Edison's display of the dangers of alternating current by electrocuting an elephant. Eventually, AC would win out, but the cost of the war would be disastrous. Edison had other companies to fall back on, but Westinghouse was ruined.
In 1897, Westinghouse met with Tesla to tell him of his company's financial problems. Tesla, who had always appreciated Westinghouse's faith in his ideas about alternating current and Niagara Falls, sat back in his chair to ponder how to offer help. His royalties on each kilowatt generated was costing Westinghouse a fortune, and he could give great aid to his friend if he were to waive them. Instead of tearing up his contract outright, Tesla offered a ten-year pause on payment. Westinghouse was delighted to take the deal.
The next decade were lean years for Tesla. He set up his laboratory at Colorado Springs, investigating the ionosphere and inventing his Teslascope. In 1900, he began a radio-transmission tower at Wardenclyffe to achieve trans-Atlantic contact, but his time and money was consumed in an ever-escalating legal battle with Guglielmo Marconi, the showman who had absconded many of Tesla's radio patents. By 1907, Tesla was nearly bankrupt, but Westinghouse came through with his promise of the return of Tesla's overdue patents. Armed with extra funds, Tesla was able to achieve legal victory with Marconi handing over patents and back-payment. Eventually the two would be rectified when they received a joint Nobel Prize in 1909. Marconi would take over Tesla's public operations, working out an agreement that would allow both to profit in the growing radio technology.
Tesla, meanwhile, would return to his well funded laboratories. As World War I approached, Tesla, Westinghouse, and Marconi would present new weapon ideas to the US Army. Radio-controlled torpedoes, RADAR, and a "peace ray" that used teleforce to destroy any incoming airplanes all came into development by America's introduction to the war in 1917. By the end of the war, the US Army was beginning experiments with ion-propelled electrically-based planes that would be the short-range jets of the 1930s. Long-range broadcast would allow the public air travel of the 1950s to surge, eclipsing trains worldwide with cigar-shaped flying ships.
In the 1920s, Tesla would turn his attention to field theory. After much work, on his 81st birthday, Tesla announced his "dynamic theory of gravity". The theory would override much of the work of Einstein's Theory of Relativity, which would prove to be a mathematical illusion more than hard physics. While the science was established early, it would not be until the 1960s that effectively engineered gravity-drives would propel American astronauts to the Moon and, in 1986, to Mars.
Tesla would die January 7, 1943, over a year after his Tesla ray would prove defensive capabilities in the Battle of Pearl Harbor by destroying the second and third waves of Japanese attackers. The world would mourn its greatest inventor.
Entry posted by
Jeff Provine
© Jeff Provine, 2010-.Story Tags
Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Jeff Provine Blog Source: Jeff Provine’s Blog Labels: Tesla, Edison, Electricity, Power, Pearl Harbour. Editor says, In reality, Tesla simply offered to tear up his contract with Westinghouse. The scientific genius was not known for his business-savvy, and the exceptionally generous offer cost him millions. Westinghouse, being a businessman, did not talk Tesla out of his offer, which saved his company.
Tesla would struggle with money and lack of recognition through the rest of his life. Marconi dominated the radio industry while Tesla's Wardenclyffe Tower would fail from lack of funds and directions. It would not be until 1943 that the US Supreme Court finally awarded Tesla his patents (arguably as a way to avoid payment demanded by Marconi). The US Army and Navy would ignore his suggestions at weapon development, even though Tesla's newspaper editorials would correctly predict the length of the war and the failure of the League of Nations. Gradually, Tesla would descend into madness and die in severe debt and obscurity.
~ If only..
~ If Tesla had had a partner he trusted who knew the business world, the world would look very different today.
~ Einstein's "mathematical illusion" has stood up pretty well to a hundred years of testing, so I don't see the bit about Tesla's field theory as solid, but the rest is interesting,
~ A fascinating episode. If you'd like a good accessible re-telling on the "War on Currents" check out *Empires of Light: Edison, Tesla, Westinghouse, and the Race to Electrify the World* by Jill Jonnes (2003). (Frankly, the book caught my eye mainly because I was thinking about Tesla a lot just after my daughter talked me into watching "The Prestige". Decent flick.)
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Editor says, what if Confederate Commanders immediately followed-up the victory at Bull Run? Please note that the opinions expressed in this post do not necessarily reflect the views of the author(s).
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In 1861, amidst the chaotic evacuation of the US Government from Washington City on this day, US President Abraham Lincoln was shot dead by a deranged stage actor, John Wilkes Booth (pictured).
Crucifixion DayChaos had ensued the moment that defeated Union forces returned from the Battle of Bull Run. Because in the first (and last) major land battle of the American Civil War, General Irvin McDowell's Union forces had been routed at Manassas Junction.
"We have whipped them! They ran like sheep! Give me 5,000 fresh men and I will be in Washington City tomorrow!" ~ "Stonewall" JacksonWorse was to come. Fast on the heels of the defeated Union Army of Northeastern Virginia was an advance force of five thousand Confederate troops led by "Stonewall" Jackson, considered by many to be the architect of the victory at Bull Run. By mid afternoon, a battery of rifled guns had been established on Arlington Heights, and the first elements of the Army of North Virginia were crossing the Long Bridge.
It was a far cry from the high hopes of US Congressmen who had taken up the cry of: "On to Richmond!". Because the only one of them who actually made it there, Alfred Ely of New York, did so as a prisoner.
Entry posted by Todayinah Editor
© "How the South Could Have Won the Civil War: the Fatal Errors that Led to Confederate Defeat" by Bevin Alexander (2007)Story Tags
Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Southern Cross Source: Amazon Labels: Abraham Lincoln, John Wilkes Booth, Stonewall Jackson, Manassas, Bull Run. ~ Where do these magic five thousand formed troops appear from? Who put Jackson in command? Longstreet did what little pursuit happened and only because his brigade was essentially unengaged. Ed. Alexander's book quotes "Large segments of [Johnsons] army were not disorganized, and they could have moved with speed"
~ A couple of things - was Booth even comtemplating such an action in 1861? I thought it wasn't until 1864 that he started hatching schemes to act against Lincoln. And who's this Bevin Alexander? Both sides, after 1st Manassas were a mess. As Scott said, Longstreet conducted a bit of a pursuit, as his brigade was about the only one capable of doing so, but he simply didn't have the numbers to be effective. Far more importantly the ACW wasn't won or lost in the East. This was achieved out west. If the Confederacy wants a chance of surviving, it can't invade Kentucky in what is arguably one of the stupidest decisions ever made in human history.
~ As I understand it, the CS Army was nearly as disordered by victory as the US Army was by defeat---I don't think that they could have pursued in any sort of orderly fashion. Even so, losing Washington would not end the CW---the main fountainheads of anti-slavery/anti-secession were in places like Boston, and, if anything, not having to endlessly defend the very exposed District of Columbia might have freed up resources to be used elsewhere.
~ Why would Booth have shot Lincoln anyway? As I understand it, Booth was supposed to have been embittered at Sothern defeat. If the Confederacy had won a quick victory, that motivation would have disappeared for him--though a bitter supporter of the Union might have assasinated Lincoln instead.
In any case, it appears that the simple picture of Booth as a lone nut isn't true. "April 1865," author Jay Winik documents that Vice-President Andrew Johnson and the the president pro tem of the Senate were also targeted that night, though unsuccessfully. The idea seems to have been a desperate last-ditch attempt to entirely behead the Union government. At that time, the chain of succession did not extend through the entire Cabinet as it does now (the current arrangement was set up in the 1960s when it was feared that a nuclear attack on Washington might wipe out the Executive Branch). That Lincoln's murder was part of a broader conspiracy was well-known at the time, though this was downplayed in later accounts. It remains unclear whether the conspiracy had the backing of the CSA government.
~ Vice President Johnson was certainly targeted, as was Secretary Seward, but I've never heard of any attempt on Senator Foster. Certainly Winik's "April 1865 doesn't seem to mention one. Do you recall which of the assassins was detailed to do it? Iirc it was Booth for Lincoln, Atzerodt for Johnson, and Pained/Powell for Seward, but I wasn't aware that anyone went after Foster.
~ No Comment
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In 5923, of this Christian Mundane Era the following notice was published in Wuttermberg ~ with due regard to the sworn testimony of God-fearing citizens, in accordance with the Lord's holy scripture, the semite Let there be lightAlbert Einstein sentenced with cum fossa et furca to be executed by drowning-pit and gallows on the morrow morning. Found guilty of advocating heretical science by magistrates of this good parish of Ulm.
Persuant to Holy Scripture, Genesis 1 (The Beginning) Verses 3-4 refers ~
And God said, "Let there be light," and there was light. God saw that the light was good, and He separated the light from the darkness. 5 God called the light "day," and the darkness he called "night". And there was evening, and there was morning - the first day.
On this day of our Lord, 5863 C.M.U. Not the potter, but the potter's clay. Amen.
Entry posted by Todayinah Editor
© Today in Alternate History, 2004-.Story Tags
Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Puritan World Source: Bible Gateway Labels: Charles Darwin, Theory of Relativity, Genesis, The Creation, Church. Editor says, Please note the term semite is used to ampligy the offensiveness of this dogmatic puritanism and does not reflect the author's views. The term is used solely as a literary device to exagerrate the offensiveness of the claims. That Einstein could be discredited is not impossible, Wikipedia reas ~ 
1917 was the year astronomers began taking Einstein up on his 1911 challenge from Prague. The Mount Wilson Observatory in California, U.S., published a solar spectroscopic analysis that showed no gravitational redshift. In 1918, the Lick Observatory, also in California, announced that they too had disproven Einstein's prediction, although their findings were not published. However, in May 1919, a team led by British astronomer Arthur Stanley Eddington claimed to have confirmed Einstein's prediction of gravitational deflection of starlight by the Sun while photographing a solar eclipse in Sobral, northern Brazil, and Pr?ncipe. On November 7, 1919, leading British newspaper The Times printed a banner headline that read: 'Revolution in Science - New Theory of the Universe - Newtonian Ideas Overthrown'.In an interview Nobel laureate Max Born praised general relativity as the 'greatest feat of human thinking about nature';fellow laureate Paul Dirac was quoted saying it was 'probably the greatest scientific discovery ever made'. In their excitement, the world media made Albert Einstein world-famous. Ironically, later examination of the photographs taken on the Eddington expedition showed that the experimental uncertainty was of about the same magnitude as the effect Eddington claimed to have demonstrated, and in 1962 a British expedition concluded that the method used was inherently unreliable. The deflection of light during a solar eclipse has, however, been more accurately measured (and confirmed) by later observations 
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Editor says, what if Walter Cronkite accepted the VP spot from George McGovern in 1972? Please note that the opinions expressed in this post do not necessarily reflect the views of the author(s).
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In 1972, on this day Walter Cronkite departed CBS News with the final words "Ladies and gentlemen, for the last ten years, I've had the honor of giving you the day's news and events, some of the world's greatest triumphs and worst tragedies. I have always tried to present the news in a way that you - the American people - can relate to. But now I have been asked to serve in a far more important role. I have been asked by Senator George McGovern to step in as his Vice-Presidential candidate for the upcoming election, and I have decided to accept. Although I may seem to be an unusual choice, I will do my utmost for the ticket. This will be my last broadcast as CBS Evening News anchor. Again, it has been an honor. Thank you, and good night".
Balanced Ticket by Zach TimmonsIn what has come to be regarded as one of the biggest political bombshells in US history, one week prior to the newscast, McGovern, tanking in the polls due to the Eagleton fiasco, had (almost as a joke) put forward the idea of asking Cronkite, the "most trusted man in America", to be his VP candidate. Cronkite heard about it through various contacts and called McGovern to see if he was serious; when McGovern responded that he was, Cronkite allegedly said, "When do I report?".
"The most trusted man in America". Rumors had been swirling around Washington and the Democratic and GOP election headquarters; within minutes of Cronkite's announcement, the White House issues a press release denouncing the move as a "gimmick" and ridiculing Cronkite's total lack of political experience. Privately, though, Nixon is very worried; his entire strategy against McGovern had been to hammer him as a radical left-winger. The addition of the highly-respected establishment figure Cronkite to the Democratic ticket makes this a very dicey plan.
Entry posted by Todayinah Editor
© Zach Timmons, 2008-Story Tags
Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Beasts Source: Wikipedia Labels: George McGovern, Walter Cronkite, Richard Nixon, 1972, Presidency. Editor says, McGovern apparently wanted Cronkite on the ticket, but didn't think he'd accept. When Cronkite heard of this years later, he responded that he would've readily agreed. I've simply allowed Cronkite to hear of the news through the grapevine.
~ So did the McGovern/Cronkite ticket win?
~ You forgot "And that's the way it is," but this would be a very interesting scenario. As it was, the Democrats were busily self-destructing to the point where Nixon almost didn't need to campaign. With someone as popular as Cronkite on the ticket, all of a sudden Nixon would have real problems, and the press would be even more in the box for the Democrats than they historically generally were.
~ On the other hand, a decision by Cronkite to join McGovern's presidential ticket would have ruined his image as a man all Americans, not just Democrats, could trust, and would have given heavy-caliber ammunition to those who claimed the media were biased in favor of the Democrats. (In actual fact, in the 1972 presidential election, somewhat the reverse was true. To cite one statistic from that year, a poll of the membership of the American Society of Newspaper Editors fouond that 90 percent of them favored Nixon over McGovern--though how this affected coverage of the election is unclear.)
~ In any case, it would have been an interesting career change for him...
~ Cronkite as been quoted as saying that in order to be a good reporter you have to be a Liberal. So his politics would most likely be inline with McGovern's.
~ Re Herr Speer's comment: I infer that you consider McGovern a "sissy faggot peacenik" himself. However, that SFP flew bombing missions in World War II, putting him several up on some of his loudest detractors.
~ Nixon still wins.
~ The year Walter could most have made a difference was 1968 when the anti-war forces failed to field a Presidential ticket after Chicago because none of their name people were willing to run on a 4th party.
Scott
Comment from Bob Hufford on Facebook: McGovern still would have lost. Cronkite was a blatently biased sorry excuse for a newsman long before this. I rememember how mad my parents used to get watching him. Huntley and Brinkley on NBC were, if anything, worse.
~ As with any man, Cronkite definitely had his opinions, but he also had a demeanor that the uneducated voter would follow even if they disagreed with him. Heck, I'd vote for Cronkite if his body ran in 2012.
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| Astronaut | On this day in 1969, the crew of Apollo 5 returned to Earth from their historic lunar mission; that same day Charles 'Pete' Conrad was named as mission commander for the Apollo 6 lunar mission, set to take place in October of 1969. |
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| Charles Conrad |
Entry posted by
Chris Oakley
© Chris Oakley,2008-.Story Tags
Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Apollo One Survives Source: Wikipedia Labels: Apollo One, NASA, 1967, America, Space Race. ~ If you're reading this, thank you for checking out this timeline and feel free to sample some of my other offerings here at TIAH. :D
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On this day in 2007, Magical Trevor filmed his second TV commercial, this time touting the joys of chocolate. | |
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Entry posted by
Chris Oakley
© Chris Oakley,2008-.Story Tags
Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Weebls Source: Weebls Labels: Weebls, Giraffe, Loft, Kids, Cartoons.comments powered by Disqus
In 2014, on this day Jerry Bruckheimer's big-screen movie version of his hit crime TV series CSI officially tied Lord of the Rings: Return of the King for second place on the all-time international movie box office hit list. It would pass King two days later and by early August would be overtaking Titanic for the top spot on that list just as it had broken Titanic's US box office record during the 4th of July weekend. | |
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| Jerry Bruckenheimer |
Entry posted by
Chris Oakley
© Today in Alternate History, 2004-.Story Tags
Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: CSI:Crime Scene Investigations Source: Wikipedia Labels: CSI, Crime Scene Investigations, Finale, Movie, Jerry Bruckenheimer.comments powered by Disqus
Entry posted by
Silvious
© Silvious, 2007.Story Tags
Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Alternate Nations Source: Invision Power Board Labels: Saddam Hussein, Iraq, Second Gulf War, America, Bush.comments powered by Disqus
Entry posted by Todayinah Editor
© Today in Alternate History, 2004-.Story Tags
Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Alternate Nations Source: Wikipedia Labels: Deng Xiaoping, China, Communism, Kuomintang, Chiang Kai-shek.comments powered by Disqus
Ninety people were killed when arch terrorist Menachem Begin destroyed the headquarters of the British civil and military administration at the King David Hotel in Jerusalem. The Prime Minister said that the perpetrators of this heinous command would be brought to justice and the British Mandate in Palestine would continue. Churchill meant it when he said he would not preside over the end of the British Empire.
Entry posted by Todayinah Editor
© Today in Alternate History, 2004-.Story Tags
Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Generals Source: Wikipedia Labels: British Prime Minister, Winston Churchill, Britsh Mandate in Palestine, King David Hotel, Irgun.comments powered by Disqus
U.S. Senator Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts was lying on the bed, he opened his eyes. They glittered for just a moment in the moonlight, silver rimmed with red. They were as blank as washed blackboards. There was no human thought or feeling in them. The eyes are the windows of the soul, Wordsworth had said. If so, these windows looked in on an empty room. ~'The Emperor of Ice Cream'
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© Stephen King, 'Salem's Lot', 1976.Story Tags
Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Crises Source: Wikipedia Labels: Ted Kennedy, Kennedy Curse, Chappaquiddick, Boiler Room Girls, Edgartown Ferry.comments powered by Disqus
Entry posted by Todayinah Editor
© Today in Alternate History, 2004-.Story Tags
Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Alternate Nations Source: Wikipedia Labels: Dominion of New Britain, Act of Union, British Empire, British North American Union, World War 2.comments powered by Disqus
Entry posted by Todayinah Editor
© Today in Alternate History, 2004-.Story Tags
Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Generals Source: Wikipedia Labels: Austria-Hungary, Archduke Franz Ferdinand, World War 1, Serbia , Ultimatum .comments powered by Disqus
Entry posted by Todayinah Editor
© Today in Alternate History, 2004-.Story Tags
Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Generals Source: Wikipedia Labels: Alan Brooke, Winston Churchill, World War 2, British Army, Adolf Hitler.comments powered by Disqus
Entry posted by Todayinah Editor
© Today in Alternate History, 2004-.Story Tags
Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Generals Source: Wikipedia Labels: Reginald Dyer, Amritisar Massacre, Jallianwalla Bagh Massacre, British Raj, British Empire.comments powered by Disqus
July 22
Editor says, what if the Chappaquiddick Scandal had never happened? Please note that the opinions expressed in this post do not necessarily reflect the views of the author(s). This story was published in the March 2013 edition of Changing the Times Magazine.
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In 1969, after four days of intense medical treatment for a barely reported vehicular incident on Chappaquiddick Island, Senator Edward M. Kennedy made a low-key public appearance in a neckbrace. An installment of our variation of Eric Lipp's No Chappaquiddick thread where JFK survives Dallas.
Crashing out after the PartyThe circumstances of the accident itself was unremarkable. Following a reception for aides of his late brother Robert, he had driven an unnamed young campaign worker to the Edgartown ferry but had lost control of his Oldsmobile on Dike Road. The car rolled over into Poucha Pond but fortunately both the driver and the passenger managed to escape.
Still grieving for his elder brother, Kennedy had been distracted during the party. His thoughts had already begun to turn towards his own run for the Presidency. And a challenge to George Romney, who had only entered the White House just six months before.
Romney had benefited immensely from the strong backing of fellow Republican governor (and former Vice President) Richard Nixon [1]. But of course the main reason for his victory was the self-destruction of the Democrat Party during the campaign. He wouldn't be so lucky a second time, crashing to defeat in 1972 at the hands of a resurgent, unified Democrat Party led by Edward M. Kennedy. But behind the winning smile, Kennedy was in huge discomfort, having suffered a serious lower back injury at the Chappaquiddick incident which had aggravated a condition he developed after a plane crash in 1964. His mobility was seriously restricted, and the inevitable result was a lacklustre pursuit of overseas travel that would hamper his foreign policy goals.
Entry posted by Todayinah Editor
© Alternate Historian, 2004-Story Tags
Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: EMK 69Plus Source: Wikipedia Labels: Ted Kennedy, Ayatollah Khomeini, American, Iranian Hostage Crisis, Oval Office. Editor says, in reality a private funeral for Mary Jo Kopechne was held at St. Vincent's Roman Catholic Church in Plymouth, Pennsylvania, attended by Kennedy. [1] we assume Nixon beat Pat Brown in 1962 and chooses to run again in 1966, displaced Ronald Reagan.
~ I don't know if he'd have actually run. The stuff I've read about him makes it seem as though he was seriously conflicted, and, after Robert's death and his father's incapacity, for the first time ever he could do what _he_ wanted.
~ In this scenario, it seems Ted would have ended his political career earlier rather than fight those battles, constantly.
~ I dunno, I think that he might have seen himself as the Kennedy standard-bearer, the last one left to carry out his brothers' legacy. That being said, I think that he would have run in 1972 (and if he won, for re-election in 1976) and then queitly retired from public life when his terms were over. At thet point, he might have taken over the reins from his late father (RIP 1969) to guide the political careers of his and his brothers' children.
~ If he had won in 1972 and 1976 I don't believe he would have retired in 1981, he was too wedded to the power of Government to go quietly into the night. I think it is highly likely he would have gone back to the Senate and remained there until his demise just as he did OTL, though he would not nessecerily have been the Massachusettes Senator. Just as Hillary Clinton did he could have run in any state with a Democrat majority, though of course his heart was in Massachusettes.
~ John Kennedy did suffer terrible back pains, leading to a heavy use of corticosteroids. In fact, historian Doris Stearns Goodwin said that those drugs created the full-faced and flamboyantly handsome John Kennedy that we all remember. So following that example, Teddy would have endured the same suffering too.
~ The "same suffering" of "full-faced and flamboyantly handsome"ness. ;)
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Editor says, what if the War of 1812 had been avoided? Please note that the opinions expressed in this post do not necessarily reflect the views of the author(s).
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In 1812, on this day the Royal Navy's impressment and seizures of American ships and sailors was brought to an end by the signing of the Treaty of Trois-Riveries. An article from the American Heroes thread.
Treaty of Trois-RiveriesBy removing the source of diplomatic tensions between their respective nations, British Prime Minister Spencer Perceval and US President Charles C. Pinckney paved the way for better Anglo-American relations.
But the negotiations could have ended in disaster had it continued beyond March 4, 1813. The American side knew that if Madison took office, and they were not finished, he would try his best to trigger another Anglo-American war. So, the American side retorted to compromise and agreement, and by July 22, 1812, the treaty was made, and it was signed that very day, into legal existence.
Entry posted by Todayinah Editor
© Alternate Historian, 2004-.Story Tags
Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: American Heroes Source: Wikipedia Labels: Spencer Perceval, Charles C. Pinckney, Impressment, Ship Seizures, 1812. Editor says, this article is re-purposed from a post by Turquoise Blue on Alternate History:
It is widely accepted, that if John Bellingham had been successful in his attempted assassination of Spencer Perceval, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom in 1812, and the Democratic-Republican Party kept united in 1808, and led Madison to victory, there would have been another Anglo-American War, as tensions between the British and the Americans had been increasing for a while before that. Impressment would have provided the last spark needed for war. Thankfully, as we all know, Spencer Perceval and C.C. Pinckney held cool heads, and arranged an negotiation, which later became known as the Treaty of Trois-Riveries, that ended impressment and paved the way for better Anglo-American relations. This negotiation could have ended in disaster had it continued beyond March 4, 1813. The American side knew that if Madison took office, and they were not finished, he would try his best to trigger another Anglo-American war. So, the American side retorted to compromise and agreement, and by July 22, 1812, the treaty was made, and it was signed that very day, into legal existence. This was 200 years ago, and now we know that all Anglo-American co-operation ultimately derives itself from the Treaty of Trois-Riveries.
~ We wouldn't have Johnny Horton's song "The Battle of New Orleans." But favorable Anglo-American relations earlier on might be worth the loss.
~ I suspect that dooner or later there would have been another Anglo-American war regardless. Too many among Britain's ruling elite had never really accepted American indepedence as legitimate and felt entitled to push the fledgling U.S. around wherever an opportunity to do so emerged.
~ I agree with Eric Lipps, though the blind arrogant belief that both sides had was much of the problem, the Americans certainly had a number of unrealistic hotheads in their ranks as well. A number of influential people wanted the war because they felt Ontario aka Upper Canada should have been US Territory, not the UK's after the Revolutionary War.
The biggest change I see is without the heroic reputation from New Orleans Andrew Jackson is going to have a much tougher time getting accepted as a major political candidate.
~ One can only hope that Johnny Horton's short-lived creative life would have found other catchy historical instances to write about. And, I suspect that Col. Andy Jackson would have found other fame-making wars, or instances -- which still could have been against England a that time. Royal Navy traits of the time could have sparked trouble most anywhere. The Hawaiian Islands could have been one of several possible keg lighters.
~ Allen McDonnell is entirely off-base, a victim of Canadian nationalist myth and propaganda. The ONLY casus belli in 1812 was impressment of American sailors by the Royal Navy, an appallingly stupid policy. Can-Nats don't like to talk about it, but there was considerable pro-American sentiment within Upper Canada. Several US units were formed during the war among American emigrants in Upper Canada, mainly of Scots-Irish ancestry, many originating in Virginia (the source of Canada's distinctively Northern Virginia "eh-oo" dipthong). The British solved that problem after the war through the use of mass hangings, the most gruesome at Chatham. (I can't wait to see the CBC drama on THAT nasty event -- in a pig's ear!)
~ "In 1818 we took a little trip,
Along with Cap'n Biddle 'cross the mighty Pacific..."
~ Tecumseh is still alive and would cause trouble.
~ I must disagree with Stan Brin, his view is entirely too simplistic to reflect reality. No war is ever a simple affair of one stress point causing conflict. Having grown up 15 miles from one of the battlefields of the War and having been steeped in the local traditions going with it I can tell you I studied up on the war out of curiosity when I was young. There was a great deal of fear in the Northwest Territories, especially in Ohio and Michigan, that the UK was cheating on the terms of the treaty of Paris. There was a lot of encouragement for Tecumseh and his brother Prophet by UK persons in Upper Canada. Around southern Michigan and Northern Ohio the preferred solution was to incorporate Upper Canada, the territory from the Ottawa River west to Lake Huron, into the USA. The majority of the settlers there had come from the USA after the Revolutionary war, some were settled by the Crown after they withdrew from New York. First they were relocated to Halifax, Nova Scotia, but the colony could not absorb so many at once and the Loyalist farmers were encouraged to move west of the Ottawa river in what was then native American territory with little European settlement. Once the territory was open for settlement many Americans moved into the area because land grants were being freely given by the Crown.
Impressment was a big deal on the eastern sea board where most of the impressed came from, especially the mid Atlantic states, but New England was solidly opposed to the war and a number of Boston sailors were among those impressed by the Royal Navy. The US Navy was no match for the Royal Navy and Napoleon's navy had never done much to scare anyone so the cooler heads favored a negotiated end to Impressment. The bigger issue from the merchants point of view were the cargo's and ships that were seized as often as sailors were impressed, the way the Royal Navy went about things was only a half step away from Piracy, but again the US Navy was too weak to do anything effective.
So you have multiple causes, Encouraging the Native Americans to fight American settlers, desire to expand Canada into what became Michigan and Wisconsin, Impressment of Sailors and seizure of cargo's and ships on the one side, desire to seize Upper Canada for the USA, fear of the UK expansion around the Great Lakes, national humiliation and damaged pride from Impressment and the belief, realistic or not that the Lower Canadian French would eagerly join a war to boot the UK out of Quebec.
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Editor says, in Robbie Taylor's most excellent novella "Protocols of the Elders of Zion" neo-Nazis in 1968 travel back through time to create a shadowy world-wide Zionist organization, the enemy they had always imagined. Please note that the opinions expressed in this post do not necessarily reflect the views of the author(s). This story was published in the August 2012 edition of Changing the Times Magazine.
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In 1946, on this day the German Underground's headquarters at the New Reich's signature hotel The Excelsior was destroyed by 350 kg (770 lb) of explosives spread over six charges detonated by a terrorist cell of the Greater Zionist Resistance (GZR) under the command of Mieczyslaw Biegun.
Bombing of The Excelsior
An installment from "Elders of the Protocols of Zion"The bombing in Berlin marked the eleventh anniversary of the assassination of Astrid Pflaume, a neo-Nazi from 1968 sent back in time to create the GZR, the shadowy world-wide Zionist organization, the enemy they had always imagined. However the plan had back-fired because of a switch of Pflaume's sympathies; by the time that she was killed in 1935 she had "gone native" and created such a vibrant terrorist organization that the neo-Nazis had to send weapons of the future to defeat her.
Inevitably, these distortions in the timeline introduced paradoxes. The GZR now determined that a path to victory was possible, if they could only get Biegun's cell to destroy Wilhelm Schoemann's theoretical physics laboratory in Isgarden. Because it was the survival of that body of work that enabled neo-Nazis to regroup in 1968, could that be averted, then their plan could never be.
Part one of the novel can be downloaded 
here and continues as a thread on this site. All of Robbie Taylor's novels are available for download at Amazon.
Entry posted by Alternate Historian Robbie Taylor
© Alternate Historian, 2004-.Story Tags
Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Protocols Source: Robbie Taylors Blog Labels: Elders of Protocols of Zion, Robbie A. Taylor, Greater Zionist Resistence, GZR, Nazi. Editor says, in reality, by this point the war against Hitler had been won and the Zionist conflict moved on to Israel. Menachem Begin's Irgun team blew up the British Army Headquarters which was being operated out of the King David Hotel in Jerusalem.
~ The King David Hotel was British Army Headquarters at the time, making it a more legitimate target. The Irgun called in a warning, which was typical of an IRA op. This lends credence to the words of an Irish friend, who told me that the Israeli resistance was guided by mentors from the IRA, who would go anywhere at any time to fight the Brits.
~ Precisely, Jackie. The young woman who phoned in the warning is still alive, and eager to talk to anyone who asks about those times. Few do. (Many Irgunists named their children "Michael" after Michael Collins.)
~ Editor -- This preserves the myth that the King David was operating as a hotel at the time. It was part of the British "Bevingrad" fortress complex and was used as military headquarters.
~ GZR going after Isgarden - paradoxes within paradoxes...
~ Terrorists are.
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Editor says, what if Roanoke Colony was re-established further north? muses Jeff Provine on This Day in Alternate History Please note that the opinions expressed in this post do not necessarily reflect the views of the author(s).
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In 1587, on this day one hundred seventeen settlers returned to North America's Roanoke Island where a previous English settlement had been evacuated by invitation of Sir Francis Drake because its relief fleet was late with supplies.
Roanoke Reestablished North John White, who had been with Sir Walter Raleigh on expeditions to America before, led this second group of settlers. As the settlers prepared to land, White looked with an artist's eye at the dark mainland and remembered the native Croatoans. Ralph Lane, the commander of the previous settlement, had attacked them time and again, and White decided re-establishing relations would be too difficult.
A new story by Jeff ProvineInstead, White met with the band of Englishmen who had maintained the island over the past two years and asked about friendlier settling. They recommended north, with the Powhatans. White agreed, and the expedition moved northward to the Chesepiook Bay. Friendlier relations were established with the Powhatans, and a colony was set up on a picturesque river. Other colonists called for a nearby island as much more defensible, but White refused to live in a swamp.
His decision proved wise as Elizabethtown (also nicknamed "New Roanoke") grew self-sufficient with farming while avoiding many mosquitoes and brackish tidal water. White returned to England, leaving behind 115 colonists, one his newborn granddaughter, Virginia Dare (pictured). He meant to sail again for America as soon as possible, but the Spanish Armada blocked his path as every seaworthy vessel was pressed into naval service. White hired smaller vessels to take him, but the captains made greedy and shortsighted attacks on Spanish ships, who overtook them in the battles and plundered the English cargoes. The empty-handed ships sailed back to England.
Finally, in 1590, White was able to return to America. The colonists were thin and desperately poor, having traded away many of their goods to the Indians to survive. Some had even suggested joining the native tribes, but their thin resources were enough to keep them from desperate measures. White resupplied them and set back for England for more. With time, work, and much funding from Raleigh, Elizabethtown eventually took a solid hold in North America. However, it would work only as something of a naval base for several years until, at Raleigh's recommendation, the colony began raising tobacco to supplant the Spanish monopoly. Soon, whole plantations sprang up, and money-seeking businessmen flooded into Virginia.
With a strong economic base, America became a magnet for entrepreneurs as well as those seeking better lives. Pilgrims would follow in 1620 farther north, and numerous settlers fleeing from the violence of the Civil War would find ample chance for improvement in colonizing. Eventually, in 1776, seventeen colonies would break away from the mother land and, in the War of 1812, manage to add Canada to their nation by conquest. The United States of America would continue to be a powerful and ever-growing force for centuries to come.
Entry posted by
Jeff Provine
© Jeff Provine, 2010-.Story Tags
Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Jeff Provine Blog Source: Jeff Provine’s Blog Labels: Roanoke, Virginia Dare, John White, Francis Drake, Ralph Lane. Editor says, in reality, White would seek to continue the Roanoke settlement where it was. The Spanish Armada would halt the return of supply ships, and, when White did return, he would find the settlement mysteriously deserted. Many assume that the colonists had left to throw in their lot with the natives in hopes of survival without English supplies. White was unable to conduct a search due to a coming storm, and so the English colonization of North America was stunted by a generation.
~ Had the Roanoke colony been able tro survive, Virginia would have gotten a generation's worth of extra time to develop economically, tilting the balance of power in colonal America toward the South.
Certainly the Roanoke colony's settlers were a better lot than the original settlers of Jamestown in 1607, who arrived (some of them, I've read, as transportees facing prison as the alternative to colonization) with inadequate skills for the hard work of building a colony. The entrepreneurs supporting the colony had to recruit additional colonists with the capabilities the originals lacked in order to keep Jamestown, too, from failing.
~ I don't know if a small change that far back would have much effect on the world of today.
~ Key change is sending farmers and fisherfolk instead of gold seekers. Land is decent and English tech sufficient for survival even without supply ships.
~ Transportees came later (mostly as indentured servants), Originally the Jamestown settlers were Gentlemen, lesser knights and other parasites (today we called them Yuppies) who didn't know how to work for a living, but were fixed on the idea of GOLD in the New World. After the Indentured arrived (and women - the original settlement wasn't co-ed), the colony started to make some success.
~ With the balance of power shifted southward, it would be interesting to see the effect on the Civil War. Still, with climate, one could argue that the South would remain agricultural and fall to an industrialized North, so perhaps not a big shift.
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Editor says, what if the events portrayed in Land Of The Giants really happened? Please note that the opinions expressed in this post do not necessarily reflect the views of the author(s). This story was published in the February 2012 edition of Changing the Times Magazine.
In 1983, on this day European Space Agency director Jason Webb (pictured) visited Cape Canaveral for a debriefing on the "land of giants" incident and Betty Hamilton's testimony before Congress.
Giant Surprise Part 7Webb, an ex-Oxford professor who had also been a science consultant to British prime minister Margaret Thatcher, would eventually become one of the key forces behind Project Spindrift; it was partly on his recommendation that fellow Oxford alumnus John Kane was included with Steve Burton and Col. Doug Ross on the primary flight crew for Spindrift's first mission. Webb would continue to play a major role in Project Spindrift until 1995, when chronic heart problems forced him into early retirement.
Yet for all his cardiac troubles Webb was considerably more fortunate than Dr. Kane, who was killed in a car crash shortly after the first Spindrift mission returned to Earth, or Colonel Ross, who died in the Challenger explosion in 1986.
Entry posted by
Chris Oakley
© Chris Oakley,2008-.Story Tags
Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Giant Surprise Source: Wikipedia Labels: Land of the Giants, Alexander B. Fitzhugh, Kurt Kasznar, Giant Surprise, Time-Space.comments powered by Disqus
Editor says, what if John Dillinger survived the shoot-out? Please note that the opinions expressed in this post do not necessarily reflect the views of the author(s).
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In 1934, on this day notorious gangster John Dillinger (pictured) was shot and badly wounded after being turned over to FBI agents by a female companion, Anna Sage, dubbed the "Lady in Red" by the media, as the pair emerged from Chicago's Biograph Theater in the company of another woman, Polly Hamilton.
Watch the Youtube Clip 
The Lady in Red betrays Public Enemy No. 1 John Dillinger by Eric LippsBriefly housed under guard at a Chicago hospital, Dillinger was returned to the Indiana State Penitentiary, from which he had been paroled on May 10, 1933 after serving eight and a half years of a ten-to-twenty-year sentence for assault and battery with intent to rob and conspiracy to commit a felony. He had been rearrested on September 22, 1933, but had escaped with the aid of confederates before being arrested and jailed yet again, this time in Crown Point, Indiana, where he was awaiting arraignment on a murder charge. Incredibly, he had escaped again.
Following his return to Indiana State Penitentiary in August 1934, Dillinger would finally be tried on the murder charge for which he had been awaiting trial at the time of his escape from the Crown Point jail. The trial was a media circus, but its outcome was never in doubt. Convicted, Dillinger was executed February 6, 1935.
Entry posted by Todayinah Editor
© Eric Lipps,2007-.Story Tags
Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Beasts Source: Wikipedia Labels: Lady in Red, Crime, America, Thirties, John Dillinger. ~ This would make a great book idea...
~ This would remove the "martyr" halo that some people still insist that the murdering SOB wore. Also, it would take the mystery out of his death---there are people who insist to this day that someone else was killed, and Dillinger got away.
~ It might also make a decent TV movie, along the lines of the old "The RTrial of Lee Harvey Oswald."
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Editor says, what if slavery had been abolished in the British Empire before the American Revolution? In authoring this post we have set about the "disempowerment" misperception of victims of slavery, insisting rather than the slave revolts in the Caribbean demonstrate that these brave men and women actually vanquished slavery. Please note that the opinions expressed in this post do not necessarily reflect the views of the author(s).
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In 1762, on this day Robert Wedderburn was born in Jamaica, the son of a slave Rosanna. His father James Wedderburn was a respected member of Edinburgh society who made a very handsome fortune from the Jamaican slavery trade. Never acknowledged by his father, Robert is rarely spoken of in relation to the famous Scottish Wedderburn family.
The Axe Laid To The RootBorn a free man due to a concession his mother sought whilst pregnant, Robert was well educated in Jamaica. There he was also witness to the terrible atrocities that slavery inflicted and began to battle against the injustices of the slave trade. Later, in the Horrors of Slavery, Wedderburn would write "I thank my God, that through a long life of hardship and adversity, I have ever been free in both mind and body: and have always raised my voice on behalf of my enslaved countrymen".
Setting off for London in 1779, he hoped to establish a relationship with his father who he had previously only met once in his life. However, on his arrival in London, he was disowned by his father, who claimed that Robert was lying and simply trying to get hold of the family fortune.
"The earth cannot be justly the private property of individuals, because it was never manufactured by man; therefore whoever sold it, sold that which was not his own".Rejected, Robert found a new identity as a leading activist against slavery. Calling for slave uprisings in Britain and the Caribbean, the Home Secretary called him a "notorious firebrand" and he was put on the Government's secret list of thirty-three leading reformers.
Wedderburn's revolutionary manifesto The Axe Laid to the Root would spur a widespread revolt across British North America that would terminate the slave trade throughout the Empire. And that event would precipiate a quite unexpected reaction, the secession of slave states from the British Colonies, into a new Confederate State of America.
Entry posted by Todayinah Editor
© 100 Great Black BritonsStory Tags
Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Beasts Source: 100 Great Black Britons Labels: Robert Wedderburn, Slavery, North America, Jamaica, Great Britain. Editor says, the birth and dates of Robert Wedderburn are actually unknown. In this ATL, the American Revolution has not yet occured by 1779.
~ I'd dare say that the CSA doesn't stand a chance. Considering the North & Britain is against them, I'll be surprised if they last more than 2 years. 3 at tops. As a matter of interest, does the American Revolution ever take place or does Britain & the North forge closer ties as a result of fighting the Rebs?
~ Well I'd say that the CSA wouldn't last long in any rebellion - especially considering they'll be up against the North & Britain. So even though the North could be considered a much larger Canada, you'll need to look also to a conqured South as well. So will "Reconstruction" be a burden on the North & Britain or will it be easier on everyone considering "Reconstruction" will happen some 90 earlier than the OTL. I'd dare say it'll be easier & so the Empire will get into significant profit by the mid 1780s. If so, then this will make for a significant impact upon the Napoleonic Wars. If Britain has a lot more money, resource, & above all manpower, to throw at Napoleon, Bonny could well & truly find himself in deep -- not long after a major naval defeat akin to Trafalgar, as a large British Empire army, operating out of Hanover, could link up with the Prussians & march on Paris. So Napoleon could have his Waterloo in 1806...
~ Would this "Confederate State" be all that likely? Before the cotton gin set off the cotton boom in the post-Napoleonic American South, there was a lot of pro-(gradual)-abolition sentiment.
~ I'm afraid I don't see how "a widespread revolt across British North America" would "terminate slavery throughout the Empire." I'm assuming a slave revolt is meant. But in our history, the abortive Nat Turner rising of the 1830s did not end slavery, but rather induced slaveholding states to institute new repressive measures aimed not only at slaves but at anyone advocating the abolition of slavery. A, earlier, larger rebellion would still have been unlikely to succeed, and in failing would provoke a panicked South into even greater repression (though it might have led to an earlier end to the African slave trade, which Southerners allowed to end in 1808 in part to end the continuing infusion of "wild" Africans into what they considered a tamed, though not tame, American-born black population).
Comment from Jamie Driscoll on Facebook: John Brown's Raid at Harper's Ferry in 1859 wouldn't have taken place to name one of a thousand immediate changes.
Comment from Steve Shaper on Facebook: We could have avoided a major civil war, as well as Dred Scott and the threat of civil war in the 1820s. We could have avoided Jim Crow and the former action arm of the Dem. Party; the KKK. (now its ACORN).
Comment from Robby Cooke on Facebook: the changes to history would be endless. We couldn't even name all of them.
Comment from Mary Kane on Facebook: The Late Unpleasantness was really about states' rights. But since slavery was the cause celebre, that would have changed things considerably. Of course, there wouldn't have been the major plantations as we knew them. (Most Southerners didn't own slaves anyway.
Comment from Tina Fletcher Saulnier on Facebook: Out of some of the greatest adversities come the greatest successes. What I am meaning by this statement is that a good number of the greatest Americans that have populated the U.S. nation are black/African Americans (pray I'm not being politically incorrect). Though I take no pride in what our British and American ancestors did as far as enslaving other cultures, I do tend to wonder if our black brothers and sisters would have better off if such an alternative perspective did take place. Different countries and cultures in the Continent of Africa have been at war or odds with each other for centuries. I question that if black people had; in fact, stayed in places such as Africa or Jamaica, would there be more war, upheaval and contention among the cultures that lived there?
~ Eric Oppen is right. Before the cotton gin, slavery was on its way out.
~ In addition to revolts in North America, there would have to be actions against the slave holdings of the East India Company. They didn't give up their rights to slaves until the 1870s.
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In 2004, left-wing activist Cindy Sheehan (pictured) blasted US president George W. Bush for getting the United States involved in what she called "a second Falklands Tragedy".
Falklands Emergency Part 3 - Gunboat Diplomacy by Chris Oakley & Ed.In an online article for the leftist political website DailyKos, she compared the American-backed campaign against al Qaeda-supported insurgents in Iraq to the failed British attempt to retake the Falkland Islands (a.k.a. the Malvinas) from Argentina in 1982, saying that Bush was a "21st century Thatcher" resorting to corrupt tactics to impose Western will on a non-Western country, just as mercenary mastermind Sir Mark Thatcher had tried to kick the Argentines out of the Falklands using hired guns.
To be continued..
Entry posted by
Chris Oakley & Ed.
© Today in Alternate History, 2008.Story Tags
Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Falklands Emergency Source: Wikipedia Labels: Cindy Sheehan, Malvinas, Falklands Island, Eeben Barlow, Argentina.comments powered by Disqus
In 2008, Emperor Hugo I of Venezuela and Czar Vladimir of the Russian Empire signed a mutual defense treaty in which each nation pledged to come to the other's defense in the event of war with the Anglo-American Union.
Emperor Hugo I signs Russian alliance
Speaking during a two-day visit to Russia, the Emperor said that oil and military cooperation were vital to guarantee Venezuela's sovereignty. The Czar said three Russian energy companies are to be allowed to operate in Venezuela.
He gave no details of the miliary alliance between the two countries, although the Emperor stated at a news conference after the meeting that "Russia's armed forces will be present in Venezuela and they will be given a warm welcome".
Entry posted by
Chris Oakley
© Chris Oakley,2008-.Story Tags
Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Beasts Source: BBC Labels: Hugo Chavez, Vladimir Putin, Russia, Venezuela, Dmitry Medvedev. Editor says, The BBC article behind this disturbing photograph reads ~ Hugo Chavez has called for a strategic alliance with Russia to protect Venezuela from the US. The Venezuelan president's call came as Moscow and Caracas agreed to extend bilateral co-operation on energy. Speaking during a two-day visit to Russia, Mr Chavez said oil and military cooperation were vital to guarantee Venezuela's sovereignty.
~ The sad thing is...it isn't far from the truth.
~ What's the POD, though? How, for instance, does Putin end up Czar rather than merely dictatorial president? How does Hugo Chavez get to be emperor of Venezuela?
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| New York | In 1961, the New York Yankees earned their 80th win of the '61 baseball season, posting a 6-1 drubbing of the Boston Red Sox at Fenway Park; in doing so they set an MLB record for the fastest pace set by any major league club to reach the 80-wins plateau during the regular season |
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| Yankees Logo |
They would finish the year with 132 victories, another MLB record, and sweep the Cincinnati Reds in the 1961 World Series. Sportswriters across America would credit the Bronx Bombers' phenomenal success that year to the motivational factor of New York's preseason decision to dedicate its regular season to the late Casey Stengel. |
Entry posted by
Chris Oakley
© Chris Oakley,2008-.Story Tags
Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Jamaica Bay Source: Wikipedia Labels: New York, Hurricane, America, 1948, Disaster.comments powered by Disqus
Entry posted by Alternate Historian Robbie Taylor
© Robbie Taylor, 2004-Story Tags
Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Protocols Source: Robbie Taylors Blog Labels: Elders of Protocols of Zion, Robbie A. Taylor, Greater Zionist Resistence, GZR, Nazi.comments powered by Disqus
Entry posted by Alternate Historian Robbie Taylor
© Robbie Taylor, 2004-Story Tags
Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Protocols Source: Robbie Taylors Blog Labels: Elders of Protocols of Zion, Robbie A. Taylor, Greater Zionist Resistence, GZR, Nazi.comments powered by Disqus
On this day in 1944, Allied supreme commander General Dwight Eisenhower, seeking to capitalize on the blow Hitler's assassination had inflicted on Wehrmacht morale, authorized his field commanders in northern France to begin an immediate all-out drive on Paris. | Allied C-in-C |
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| Eisenhower |
One Wehrmacht officer was already dead when these campaigns began: Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg, architect of the Hitler assassination plot, had been arrested and executed by firing squad on Goering's orders shortly after Hitler's death was confirmed. |
Entry posted by
Chris Oakley
© Chris Oakley,2008-.Story Tags
Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Valkyrie Source: Wikipedia Labels: July 20th Plot, Valkyrie, Adolf Hitler, Goering, Germany.comments powered by Disqus
| Coach | On this day in 1948, the New York Giants officially introduced Roy Hobbs as their third base coach. |
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| Roy Hobbs |
Variant entry posted by
Chris Oakley
original content has been repurposed to celebrate the author's genius © Chris Oakley,2008-.Story Tags
Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: New York Knights Source: Wikipedia Labels: New York Knights, Baseball, America, Sport, New York.comments powered by Disqus
On this day in 2016, plans for a third CSI movie hit an unexpected snag when one of the writers hired to do the screenplay abruptly quit Paramount in a salary dispute. | |
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| Paramount Pictures |
Entry posted by
Chris Oakley
© Today in Alternate History, 2004-.Story Tags
Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: CSI:Crime Scene Investigations Source: Wikipedia Labels: CSI, Crime Scene Investigations, Finale, Movie, Jerry Bruckenheimer.comments powered by Disqus
On this day in 1973, widower Lester Billings became the latest victim of the infamous serial killer known as 'the Lawnmower Man'; he was stabbed to death while walking to an appointment to see his psychiatrist. | |
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| Stephen King |
Variant entry posted by
Chris Oakley
original content has been repurposed to celebrate the author's genius © Stephen King, Salem's Lot, 1976.Story Tags
Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Salem50 Source: Internet Movie Database Labels: Salems Lot, Maine, Murder, Stephen King, America.comments powered by Disqus
In 1962, Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev is overthrown by a cabal of hard-liners angry over Khrushchev's failure to act to prevent the U.S. from occupying Cuba and deposing its leftist president Fidel Castro in April 1961 and what they see as his 'weakness' in the Berlin crisis of that fall. | Soviet Premier |
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| Nikita Khruschev |
Khrushchev's fall will be followed by a period of 'troika' rulership which will last until March 1964, when Communist Party apparatchik Leonid Brezhnev will finally consolidate his position as the Soviet Union's supreme leader. |
Entry posted by
Eric Lipps
© Eric Lipps,2007-.Story Tags
Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Cuba War Source: Wikipedia Labels: Nikita Khruschev, Stalin, Troika, Leonid Brezhnev, Soviet Union.comments powered by Disqus
On this day in 1944, German Stuka dive bombers raided Polish insurgent strongpoints inside Warsaw. | |
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Chris Oakley
© Chris Oakley,2008-.Story Tags
Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: France44 Source: Wikipedia Labels: World War 2, D-Day, Pas De Calais, Europe of the Dictators, Axis Powers.comments powered by Disqus
In 2007, A. BREEG wrote ~ using ancient european grimoires my visitor from Romania had released the demon within Benjamin Breeg. 666 days later has was reincarnated as Eddie. As I said, it was a strange meeting. Of course Eddie required some form of subterfuge to conceal his identity when he was not letting rip with the British Heavy Metal Band Iron Maiden. I must say the journal was profoundly shocking. However, I can't say I'm not pleased to have my diary returned to me - it really takes me back. | Artwork of |
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| Benjamin Breeg |
Entry posted by Todayinah Editor
© Today in Alternate History, 2004-.Story Tags
Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Beasts Source: Wikipedia Labels: Benjamin Breeg, Iron Maiden, Eddie, Mystery, Rock.comments powered by Disqus
On this day in 1947, an interfaith religious service was held in Roswell, New Mexico to pray for the victims and survivors of the July 6th asteroid strike. The service included Christian, Jewish, Islamic, Buddhist, Sikh, Hindu, and First Nations clerics from all parts of the world; among those present that day were evangelist Billy Graham and Polish Catholic clergyman Karol Wotyjla, the future Pope John Paul II. | |
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Entry posted by
Chris Oakley
© Chris Oakley,2008-.Story Tags
Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Roswell47 Source: Wikipedia Labels: Roswell Incident, America, Meteor, Crater, America.comments powered by Disqus
Entry posted by Alternate Historian Robbie Taylor
© Robbie Taylor, 2004-Story Tags
Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Soviet America Source: Robbie Taylors Blog Labels: Joel Rosenberg, Robbie A. Taylor, Comrade, Soviet States of America, Communism.comments powered by Disqus
Entry posted by Alternate Historian Robbie Taylor
© Robbie Taylor, 2004-Story Tags
Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Mlosh Source: Robbie Taylors Blog Labels: Mlosh, 1720, Robbie A. Taylor, Warp, Alien.comments powered by Disqus
Entry posted by Todayinah Editor
© Today in Alternate History, 2004-.Story Tags
Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Generals Source: Wikipedia Labels: Serbia, World War I, Peace Treaty, World War I, Franz Ferdinand.comments powered by Disqus
Entry posted by Todayinah Editor
© Today in Alternate History, 2004-.Story Tags
Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Generals Source: Wikipedia Labels: Gazi Mustafa Kemal Pashai, World War I, Peace Treaty, World War I, al-Andalus.comments powered by Disqus
Entry posted by Todayinah Editor
© Today in Alternate History, 2004-.Story Tags
Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Generals Source: Wikipedia Labels: Battle of Dornach, Swiss Militarism, Emperor Maximilian I, Swiss, World Wars.comments powered by Disqus
July 21
Editor says, what if Union victory at First Bull Run? muses Eric Oppen. Please note that the opinions expressed in this post do not necessarily reflect the views of the author(s). This story was published in the May 2013 edition of Changing the Times Magazine.
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In 1861, on this fateful day Major-General Lee's Yankees routed the rebellious Confederate forces at the Manassas Junction.
Crushing Union Victory at the Manassas JunctionTroops under Brig. Gen. P. G. T. Beauregard frantically ran without order in the direction of Richmond, Virginia. When this shocking news reached Southern capitals, some of the border states reconsider their secession, and reach out to Washington for compromise.
Although a vindication of President Hamlin's masterful handling of the Brief Civil War, the collapse of Confederate confidence at the first encounter was a close run thing. Proponents of the Lost Cause myth would later point to Joe Johnston's delay in reinforcing Beauregard and William Barry's hesitation in firing at the 33rd Virginia because the troops were wearing Blue Uniforms. Instead, those guns on Jackson's left flank tore apart the Virginia Brigade causing a Confederate collapse.
Entry posted by
Eric Oppen
© Eric Oppen, 2006-.Story Tags
Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Generals Source: Wikipedia Labels: Manassas, Bull Run, Confederacy, Union, Civil War. ~ Looks good. I take it that Lee decided his oath to the US superceded his loyalties to Virginia.
~ I have a question. If Lee stayed loyal to the Union, how many of the other major Confederate officers would have followed suit? Lee was well-known and admired in the military and his staying or following the secessionist cause might have influenced a number of others.
~ Lee was well respected but the Lee of 1861 is not the near divine figure of 1863-1865. The key however is less Lee instead of McDowell than near anyone instead of Patterson. South wins because their Valley army arrives on the Union flank. Patterson lost track of them. If he holds them in place the north wins. If he arrives with his Union forces the North wins. Man was completely inept even by 1861 standards.
~ Lee himself, on the Union side, could have made an immediate impact, regardless of whoever else might have followed.
~ How thew heck did Hannibal Hamlin end up POTUS in this timeline? Yes its hyperlinked to President described in which AL dies of natural causes soon after taking office Was Lincoln assassinated soon after taking office?
Oh, and Hamlin was associated with the Radical Republicans, which wouldn't have helped him politically in dealing with the South after the rebellion.
~ Undercutting support might kill the Southern independence movement. We'd have a lot more people fleeing for South Africa sooner.
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Editor says, what if Commodore had survived? Please note that the opinions expressed in this post do not necessarily reflect the views of the author(s). This story was published in the August 2012 edition of Changing the Times Magazine.
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In 1985, eighteen months after he survived a titanic board room struggle, Chairman Jack Tramiel of Commodore International took the step forward that he had been fighting tooth and nail for, announcing the release of the 900 model (pictured), a 16-bit microcomputer based on the Zilog Z8000 CPU that would take the competition to the Apple and IBM during the late 1980s.
Commodore 900A Polish immigrant and Auschwitz survivor, Tramiel had promised "computers for the masses, not the classes". To achieve this goal, he had driven Commodore to the edge of bankcrupcy, offering budget priced machines distributed through retail channels rather than authorized resellers. Following on from the success of the PET, the Commodore 64 was selling at the staggering rate of 400,000 units per month, and in fact a key issue for the company was finding a suitable successor to this runaway success. That would be the 900 model.
Entry posted by Todayinah Editor
© Alternate Historian, 2004-.Story Tags
Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Technology Source: Wikipedia Labels: Commodore, Zilog, Microcomputer, Personal Computer, 1980s. Editor says, in reality Commodore declared bankcruptcy in 1994. Tramiel had resigned in 1984 to found a new company, Tramel Technology. Shortly afterwards, Commodore scrapped the 900 and bought Amiga.
~ The world would be a better place..
~ Would Microsoft have had to buy out or deal with Commodore? Or would Commodore bestride the computer world like a colossus?
~ We'd be years ahead of where we are now, at the very least.
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Editor says, what if Confederates under Grant won at Gettysburg? muses Timothy McFadden. Please note that the opinions expressed in this post do not necessarily reflect the views of the author(s). This story was published in the September 2011 edition of Changing the Times Magazine.
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In 1861, in the first large battle of the Civil War, Confederate Armies under recently promoted Major General Ulysses S. Grant split the Union Armies under the command of Major General Robert E. Lee at Gettysburg.
Grant wins at Gettysburg
By Timothy McFaddenIn this, the first major clash of organized armies, Lee had appeared to be on the verge of victory after the second day, smashing the Confederate Army of the East under Lieutenant General Dan Sickles. It was Grant's last minute appearance with the Confederate Army of the West, striking Lee's rear early on the third day, that reversed the battle, capturing or killing more than half of the Union Army and their French Allies. Only a last minute stand by General "Stonewall" Jackson's Virginia Division gave the remains of the routed Union Army the chance to escape to the south.
Confederate President John C. Fremont declared the victory "proof of our iron determination to defend human freedom". US President Jefferson Davis declared "Our sacred union shall not be sundered by northern money men determined to infringe on our rights of property. States rights do not now, nor have they ever, included the right to separate from the Union".
BACKGROUND
The 1856 attack by pro-slavery vigilantes on Lawrence, Kansas, and the subsequent beating of Senator Charles Sumner on the floor of the senate, while other senators were held at bay by gunpoint, had already brought the First Republic close to Civil War. In an attempt to stop a wave of pro-slavery terror in Kansas, Nebraska and Missouri, Senator Stephen Douglas and his peacekeeper faction joined with southern senators to pass the 13th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States: the Respect for Property amendment. Patterned on laws passed by the pro-slavery Kansas Legislature and in states such as Virginia, the amendment forbade agitating against slavery in speech or print as encouraging Servile Insurrection.
Reaction in New England, the East and the Midwest was loud and violent, with anti-slave catcher militias formed in several states while the new Republican Party under General John C. Fremont had as it's central plank the repeal of the 13th Amendment. The expedited admission of Kansas, Missouri, California and Nebraska as slave states alienated even the peacekeeper faction of Douglas, who repudiated his support. Matters finally came to a head in 1860 when the Republican presidential candidate, Abraham Lincoln, was shot and killed during a campaign speech in Maryland.
A new story by Timothy McFaddenAt his inauguration, President Jefferson Davis called for unity and peace between the states but also threatened harsh retaliation against anyone who tried to divide the Union. The threats were ignored as Committees of Secession in Massachusetts, New York, Ohio and Delaware convened in Boston. On February 22,1861, these states joined by Pennsylvania, the New England states, Michigan, Illinois and Indiana declared the formation of the Confederate States of America, with it's capitol in New York City and it's first president, John C. Fremont.
Reaction by President Davis was swift, nationalizing the militia of all loyal states and calling for a million man army for a duration of two years. He also authorized the arrest of thousands of those deemed "Copperheads" for suspicion of being disloyal or anti-slavery. Such arrests included leaders of the "Neutralist" factions in Minnesota and Wisconsin. Confused fighting in Maryland and Kentucky kept those states in the Union, while the northern tip of Virginia split off to become the Confederate State of Mohawk.
In the Winter Mountain War, Union forces under General George B. McClellan were stopped in a bloody defeat at the new state capitol of Charlotte by Ohio Militia General U.S. Grant commanding a mixed force of volunteers from various states. After that, in the east, both sides pulled back to recruit and organize their armies. In the west, confused fighting continued as Union raiders struck deep into Illinois, Wisconsin and Indiana.
Deprived of it's industrial heart, the cash-strapped United States secured massive loans from France, England and Spain, as well as several regiments of troops from France. Claims that such loans would keep the US in debt to Europe in perpetuity were derided as treasonous. The perpetual manpower shortage that would dog the Union throughout the war was immediately felt, as slave-holding loyalist states insisted on keeping much of their militia at home to guard against slave insurrection. Nonetheless, the first rush of volunteers enabled the Union to form an army of 100,000 men west of Washington.
Union overall strategy was the "Anaconda" plan, formed by General Winfield Scott, shortly before his death from a stroke. Initial mutinies and desertion by most US Navy ships to the Confederate side made a naval blockade impossible at first, while President Davis continually pushed for a drive through Pennsylvania to split the Confederacy. Major General Robert E. Lee, the new commander of the Army, repeatedly stalled, telling Davis that his army lacked organization, uniforms, training and everything else needful to form an army.
The Confederate Armies had initially been hampered by the lack of professional Army officers, who mostly stayed loyal to the Union. The initial confederate armies were forced to rely on political appointees, disgraced and retired army officers or amateur soldiers like Dan Sickles, Don Carlos Buell, Joshua Chamberlain and Ulysses S. Grant.
This process began to reverse as President Davis, despite protests from Lee, Johnson and other senior officers, blacklisted northern officers who had remained loyal. Shut out of higher command, senior officers like Reynolds, Sedgewick, Burnsides and Hooker returned to their home states. As latecomers, Fremont appointed them to subordinate positions, causing Burnsides and others to resign their commissions and leave military service entirely or to take command of state militias.
By June, Davis had exhausted his patience and informed Lee that if he would not take the army north, Davis would find a commander who would. Initially, Lee encountered great success with the two wings of his army commanded by Jackson and Johnson. A shattering victory by Lee in two days of fighting north of Gettysburg routed the Union Army of the East, capturing General Dan Sickles and killing General Joseph Hooker. However, in the process, Lee's army was scattered among the hills of Pennsylvania.
It was at this point that Grant, leading 20,000 men detached from the Union Army of the West, struck Lee's army from the rear after a forced march. As Grant said afterwards "Both our armies were green as grass. Green troops have, in my experience, been fierce as lions in the attack, while in retreat they almost always panic and rout. I therefore concluded that my only option was to attack, attack and attack again". Although outnumbered, his attack split the Union forces and captured most of the Union Army's dear-bought artillery.
His pursuit of the fleeing southern army was stopped by the stand of Stonewall Jackson, although Grant said afterwards that he had no intention of pursuing past that point.
Subsequent trends of the war only came in after Gettysburg- the increasing technological focus of the Confederate Armies, the freeing and arming of escaped slaves and the "War for Freedom" concept, and the growing "Second Republic" movement that the Confederacy should not simply secede from the Union, but supplant it.
Entry posted by
Timothy McFadden
© Timothy McFadden, 2011-.Story Tags
Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Generals Source: Wikipedia Labels: Gettysburg, Civil War, Confederate, Federals, Union. ~ Rich
~ I take it John Brown didn't hit Harpers Ferry? Maybe he was killed in Kansas?
~ Yep. There were several small clashes in Kansas that could have gone completely under the radar if Brown was killed.
~ I don't see that "13th Amendment". To pass a law as an amendment, you'd need 3/4 of the states to pass the law. Could Douglas get that many votes that quickly?
~ I find it hard to believe that this version of the 13th Amendment could have been ratified. Not only would the bulk of the country have opposed a pro-slavery amendment in general, the specific amendment, which appeards to override the First Amendment, would have been inflammatory. It might have passed in what, in our history, became the Confederate states--but not in enough others to achieve the required supermajority.
~ Great alt history! The major social shift against slavery is the main point, but there are ample breaks from our TL to supply. I assume Uncle Tom's Cabin came in there, too?
~ UCT was definitely a factor in this timeline. As to the viability of this AH 13th amendment, the devil would definitely be in the details: key decisions not just by Douglas, but by the governers of the newly admitted states.
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Editor says, what if Harold Wilson really a spy? Please note that the opinions expressed in this post do not necessarily reflect the views of the author(s).
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In 1977, the rogue MI-6 agent who had led the conspiracy to assassinate Harold Wilson was himself killed in a car crash in Switzerland.
The Oarsman by Chris OakleyAt the time of his death the agent, formerly known to his co-conspirators as "Oarsman", had been on the run since 1975; there were outstanding warrants for his arrest in both France and Belgium, where he'd been waging a personal "black ops" campaign against KGB-sponsored radical leftist groups, and back in his native Britain an MI-6 internal probe had turned up evidence suggesting "Oarsman" was embezzling agency funds for personal use. He was buried under one of the dozen or so aliases he had used to conceal his true identity during his time on the lam.
Part 4 of the Necessary Evil ThreadEven after the Blair government's 2004-05 inquiry had clearly established the role of "Oarsman" and his cohorts in Harold Wilson's death, the rogue MI-6 operative's fate was still something of a mystery as far as the British public was concerned. It wasn't until 2008 -- when Blair's successor Gordon Brown launched a further investigation of the assassination plot - that the facts about the agent's untimely demise finally came to light. A DNA test authorized by the Swiss courts proved the body interred in Zurich's Friedhof Nordheim cemetery was indeed that of "Oarsman". From there, Swiss and UK police began a joint probe into the circumstances behind the crash that killed the renegade MI-6 agent; the investigation would lead to three arrests in the summer of 2009.
When Brown himself left office in May of 2010, new British prime minister David Cameron pledged that his government would continue the reforms of the UK's intelligence network which Brown and Blair had started instituting in the aftermath of the 2004-05 inquiry into the Wilson assassination conspiracy.
Entry posted by
Chris Oakley
© Chris Oakley,2008-.Story Tags
Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Necessary Evil Source: New Statesman Magazine Labels: Harold Wilson, Spy, Great Britain, Seventies, Labour. ~ Considering how inept MI-6 usually are, they could be instantly absolved of blame in the death of Oarsman. Of course, if they were trying for him, being one of the innocent bystanders around Oarsman might be hazardous to the health...
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Editor says, what if Egypt invaded Libya and reverse Gaddafi's revolution?, muses Jeff Provine on This Day in Alternate History Please note that the opinions expressed in this post do not necessarily reflect the views of the author(s).
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In 1977, on this day the Government of Egypt declared war on Libya just twenty-four hours after Colonel Gaddafi had ordered a full-scale raid on the border city of Sallum.
Egypt Liberates Libya Small skirmishes and shootouts between the Egyptian and Libyan armies would result in a rout that would become an invasion. Tensions had mounted between the two countries for months with attacks at one another's embassies, Gaddafi's order of the removal of all Egyptian nationals from his country by July 1, and finally the Libyan peoples' "March on Cairo" where thousands of civilians approached the Egyptian border to make known their stance against a possible Egyptian-Israeli peace treaty.
The march would lead to further difficulties when it reached the border, where Egyptian troops stopped the protesters. On July 20, Libyan artillery fired at the Egyptians, and a full-scale raid on the city of Sallum followed on July 21. The Libyans expected some fighting, then to disengage and return across the border. Instead, the Egyptians responded with a declaration of war and counter-invasion.
A new story by Jeff ProvineWith superior arms, the Egyptians raced toward Tripoli on the coast roads after bypassing Ajdabiya. The Libyan army looked for methods of ambush, but Egyptian air superiority kept enemy tanks and infantry pinned. On July 24, armed forces rolled into Tripoli, and Gaddafi was nowhere to be found. The leader of the revolution had pulled out of the capital and hidden in bunkers deep in the desert.
Algeria and Palestine called for an armistice, but their cries went unheard. Instead, Egypt called for free elections and a new Libyan government. As a fallen leader, Gaddafi was not arrested, merely ignored, and he would eventually become an expatriate in Syria. The new election was backed by the United States; most international figures merely sat back to watch. The USSR was expected to speak out, but the Soviets were quiet as they had their own designs on invasions farther east and hoped not to muddy international waters.
Libya, now newly reopened, fell in line with Egyptian ideals and developed relations with the West. Farther in the east, Iran would arise in a revolution to become a religious republic (what many called socialist). Saddam Hussein's government, suspicious of Ba'ath revolutionaries spilling over from Iran, declared war on their neighbor, which received increasing aid from the USSR despite their own problems in Afghanistan. Western attention was drawn more heavily to Libya, and Iraq would fall to the theocratic Iranians.
A new "iron curtain" would drop across the Middle East. Both sides would grow increasingly fearful of the other, and war seemed imminent daily. Terrorist attacks rang through Saudi Arabia, hoping to edge the king out of power, but further backing from Egypt and the West would keep the balance. After the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, the eastern states would face economic collapse and sought to bring in Kuwait as a liberation of Arab resources from Western hands.
The Gulf War began with an invasion of Kuwait from the north, and a massive United Nations force would counter-invade with Egyptian and Saudi troops leading the way. War seemed to spin out of control, and it seemed unfathomable to end without bringing down the Iraqi and Iranian governments, which was achieved in 1994 with the Fall of Tehran. Coalition forces would stay behind in the region for decades to come, redrawing national borders to create Kurdistan and establishing constitutions based on ideals of freedom. Terrorism and insurgency would follow continually and plague the elected governments for generations.
Entry posted by
Jeff Provine
© Jeff Provine, 2010-.Story Tags
Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Jeff Provine Blog Source: Jeff Provine’s Blog Labels: San Juan, Teddy Roosevelt, Theodore Roosevelt, Rough Riders, Spanish-American War. Editor says, in reality, Egypt did not fully counterattack Libya, and both countries were quick to agree to armistice. Algerian president Houari Boumediéne mediated peace with the help of Palestinian Yasser Arafat. Though peace was achieved, the rift between conservative and socially revolutionary Middle Eastern states would continue.
~ >>>Saddam Hussein's government, suspicious of Ba'ath revolutionaries spilling over from Iran, declared war on their neighbor, which received increasing aid from the USSR despite their own problems in Afghanistan. <<<
Ummm, Hussein WAS a Ba'athist, a member (and leader) of the ruling party in power in Iraq. I think that you might have meant Shi'ite revoluntionaries.
~ The Israelis would have freaked about their biggest enemy suddenly having lal that oil money to play with.
~ There was no "Palestine Authority" at the time. The fall of the Shah in 1979 was a very close thing. If he held on for a few more months, he would have died in office.
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Editor says, the first Pan-African Cultural Festival honoured the prophet of the African revolution, Frantz Fanon who died aged only thirty-six years old in 1961. What if he had survived, and eight years later had attended the event and met the Black Panthers? Please note that the opinions expressed in this post do not necessarily reflect the views of the author(s). Also please note that this article repurposes significant amounts of content from the article "Decolonising minds" in History Today Magazine, July 2009 Edition
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In 1969, four thousand artists representing thirty-one African nations converged on Algiers on this day for the first Pan-African Cultural Festival. Celebrating a a high point in post-independence Africa, painters, poets, photographers, musicians and intellectuals transformed the streets into a meeting place of creative culture. And one such meeting, between Frantz Fanon and Eldridge Cleaver would change the world forever.
Watch the Youtube Clip of Frantz Fanon
Decolonising minds, a new beginning for humanityBorn in Martinique, Fanon (pictured) volunteered to fight for the Free French in the Second World War. After the war he trained in psychology in Lyon, where he wrote his radical personal analysis of racism and colonialism, Black Skin, White Masks (1951). "We are still black and we have come back ..". musician Archie SheppIn 1953 Fanon moved to Algeria to work as a psychiatric doctor just south of Algiers. Three years later, appalled by the French use of torture in the Algerian War, he resigned his government post and aligned himself to the Algerian cause. Thereafter, in his writings Fanon analysed with uncompromising rigour the connection between economic domination, racism and the European "civilising mission". Most controversially in his last work, The Wretched of the Earth (1961), Fanon asserted it was the peasants in Africa and not the industrial working class in Europe who were the standard bearers of world revolution. Through the violent overthrow of colonialism they represented a new beginning for humanity.
Other jazz musicians at the festivaI included the singer Nina Simone and the drummer Max Roach, but in terms of the Afro-American connection, most excitement was generated by the Black Panther Party.Leaders like Eldridge and Kathleen Cleaver, on the run from the US police, headed for Algeria. Inspired by Fanon, they saw Algiers as the beacon of revolution. At the festival the Panthers were a huge presence. An exhibition tracing the Party's history and including paintings and prints by Emory Douglas, the Black Panthers' Minister of Culture, drew adoring crowds. The radical film-maker William Klein shadowed Eldridge Cleaver for three days. Klein's follow-up documentary, Eldridge Cleaver, Black Panther, itself an icon of 1960s' counterculture, shows Cleaver and Fanon holding forth on what they considered to be the crimes of American imperialism as well as visiting the North Vietnamese delegation; an act that was loudly condemned in the American press.
Entry posted by Todayinah Editor
© History Today Magazine, July 2009 EditionStory Tags
Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Beasts Source: Wikipedia Labels: Franz Fanon, Eldridge Cleaver, Pan-African, Algiers, Culture. Editor says, this article repurposes significant amounts of content from "Decolonising minds: as Algeria prepares this month to host the second Pan-African Cultural Festival, with 48 countries participating, Martin Evans describes the original festival held 40 years ago in Algiers and the spirit of creativity and anti-colonialism that defined it" in History Today Magazine, July 2009 Edition
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© Today in Alternate History, 2013-. All characters appearing in this work are fictitious. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.
