| December 14 |  |
Editor says, what if Robert Dudley had won out? muses Dirk Puehl. 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 December 2012 edition of Changing the Times Magazine.
| Share this Article on: |  Facebook |  Twitter |
In 1542, on this day Princess Mary Stuart becomes Mary, Queen of Scots.
This post was written by Dirk Puehl the highly recommended author of #onthisday #history Google+ posts.
Princess Mary Stuart becomes Mary, Queen of ScotsWhen Mary, the ex-queen of France returned to her native Scotland in August 1561 and was met with stubborn resistance of her future Protestant subjects, it needed several attempts of her half-brother James Stewart, 1st Earl of Moray to finally renounce her Catholic faith. After a reconciliation with John Knox, the leader of the local Protestant reformation and signing the Treaty of Edinburgh, Mary Stuart became Mary Queen of the Scots today, 470 years ago.
The royal widow was finally persuaded to marry the Englishman Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester - who himself was talked into going to Scotland and leaving the side of Elizabeth I and finally agreed to marry Mary after she accepted Protestantism. The couple had issue in 1562.
Leicester's and Mary's son Robert was acknowledged as heir to the Scottish and later the English throne by Elizabeth.
With her marriage to Robert Dudley, Queen Mary obviously got far more than she had bargained for - as she was still speculating for the English throne and continuously trying to bully her husband into taking steps against Elizabeth, he, as a convinced Puritan had not only massively strengthened the rights of Sottish Parliament but reacted decisively against his wife's ambitions. In 1571, a discovered plot of English Catholic noblemen against Elizabeth's life with obvious involvement of Mary led to her banishment at Findlater Castle on the Moray Firth.
Robert ruled Scotland until his death in 1588, succeeded by his son Robert IV. Raised in the Puritan spirit of his father, his reforms after ascending the throne of England in 1603 were the main reasons of the Cavalier's revolt and the Civil War a generation later.
Entry posted by
Dirk Puehl
© Dirk Puehl, 2004-.Story Tags
Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Dirks Blog Source: Wikipedia Labels: Mary Stuart, Scotland, Protestant, Royal Family, Scottish.
~ Huh? If Mary had still been reigning in Scotland and the English had tried to banish her, her obvious response would have been "Come and GIT me." But one intriguing fact that did not appear here...Robert Dudley was in love with Elizabeth. Talk about a soap opera!
~ Well, the English were right at her doorstep - and that needed perhaps a sentence more to extrapolate that her consort Robert Dudley took care of her conviction and banishment in this version - especially because of his relationship to Elizabeth.
~ Of course, there were probably a lot of people at that time who probably did not care who was on the throne, so long as they ate, and got their pints -- something like that. But, it would be nice to know how much input a consort like Dudley might have had in the establishment of English law, and what from those laws still affect us today. The entourage can be powerful.
~ So, ahem, we can call him Dudley Did-right? (and apologies all around)
~ Was Dudley a Puritan?First I've heard.
~ Interesting twist on the Cavaliers rebelling. Might be a shorter war.
~ I didn't know Dudley was a Puritan.
~ But did he ride his horse backwards? Was the horse's name "Horse"? And was Mary in love with the horse?
comments powered by Disqus
Editor says, what if Adolf Hitler had committed more resources to the Kriegsmarine? 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 July 2012 edition of Changing the Times Magazine.
| Share this Article on: | Facebook | Twitter |
In 1942, on this day a jittery Winston Churchill wrote the shortest official memorandum in British history to his First Sea Lord Sir Dudley Pound demanding "Where is TIRPITZ?".
Flugzeugträger Part 6:
Where is TIRPITZ?She was the second of two Bismarck-class battleships built for the German Kriegsmarine. Named after Grand Admiral Alfred von Tirpitz, the architect of the earlier Kaiserliche Marine, the ship was laid down at the Kriegsmarinewerft Wilhelmshaven in November 1936 and her hull was launched two and a half years later.
Deployed in a double carrier group alongside the Peter Strasser and the Graf Zeppelin, her main war-time role was to wreck havoc amongst the Arctic convoys. And of course the source of Churchill's concern was the deteriorating situation on the Eastern Front. Because at first the invasion of Northern Germany and Romania known as the Zhukov Plan had made great progress. But now it was clear that Stalin's assault was premature and his build-up insufficient to defeat the Nazis. And due to the operation of the Kriegsmarine, the Allies problem was getting resupply through to the Russians.
This post shares some commonality with the sister articles in the Flugzeugträger thread.
Entry posted by Todayinah Editor
© Alternate Historian, 2004-.Story Tags
Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Flugzeugtrager Source: Wikipedia Labels: Plan Z, Kriegsmarine, German Navy, Adolf Hitler, Second World War. Editor says, in out timeline, the reply was reassuring: she was stuck safely in a Norwegian fjord near Trondheim undergoing repairs. Please note that in authoring this post we have repurposed a considerable amount of content from Wikipedia.
~ It's interesting (and a little scary) to contemplate a German two-carrier group operating in the air gap area of the North Atlantic. Long term, though, the German carriers would have became the hunted instead of the hunters as Allied air coverage of the Atlantic improved.
~ Nightmare fuel....
~ Definitely a bigger, badder Battle of the Atlantic.
~ Putting _Tirpitz_ and _Bismarck_ together with two German carriers would have given the RN some real big, bad problems. It took a big chunk of the RN just to take down Bismarck all by herself...imagine if she'd had a friend along that was just as tough and mean, and air cover!
~ It was almost comical how the British Feared the German Battle ships.
comments powered by Disqus
In 1974, San Francisco experienced its worst disaster since the 1906 earthquake when an electrical short circuit in a storage room on the eighty-first floor of the just-opened Duncan Tower office/residential building sparked a fire which quickly spread to the building's top floors and killed nearly two hundred people before it was finally brought under control by releasing hundreds of gallons of water from two storage tanks near the tower roof.
En Fuego by Chris OakleyIn the aftermath of the disaster a city fire marshal grimly warned that "someday they'll kill 10,000 people in one of these firetraps". In an effort to avert that nightmare scenario a host of stricter fire safety regulations were passed at the state and city levels throughout America in the weeks and months immediately after the Duncan Tower blaze; an improved national fire safety code would be enacted by Congress in June of 1976.
The tower's owner and namesake, corporate titan James Duncan, subsequently established a memorial fund to compensate the survivors of the fire as well as relatives and spouses of those killed in the tragedy. He also became active in a nationwide crusade to improve all aspects of building safety, testifying at hundreds of hearings on the subject before his death in 1982.
Entry posted by
Chris Oakley
© Chris Oakley,2008-.Story Tags
Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Towering Inferno Source: Wikipedia Labels: Towering Inferno, San Francisco, Duncan Tower, Disaster, Fire. ~ Oops, we've got a typo here...the last line of the first paragraph should be "near the tower roof", not "rook".
comments powered by Disqus
Editor says, what if Brazil had invaded Columbia in the mid 1980s? 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 December 2011 edition of Changing the Times Magazine.
| Share this Article on: | Facebook | Twitter |
In 1984, on this day US President Ronald Reagan was forced to sanction the covert supply of funds and military hardware to Pablo Escobar's Medellín Freedom Fighters in order to resist the Brazilian invasion of Columbia.
Escobar's Medellin Freedom Fighters
By Ed & Eric OppenThe conflict in the northwest of South America had begun with the overthrow of the regime of President Joâo Figueiredo. His gradual process of democratization was near completion, with open elections due in 1985. However a severe economic crisis had made him deeply unpopular, and rogue elements in the military used this pretext to pull off a coup d'etat.
The new government had chosen to confront the paramilitary forces of the Medellín and Cali cartels which were operating with impunity across the Brazil-Columbia border. Soon entangled in a complex military engagement, the Brazilian Army had struck deep into Columbia territory. This violation of sovereignty had provoked the patriotism of Columbians who had rallied to join the newly formed freedom fighter brigades of the cartels.
Before long, Reagan's Delta Commandoes were fighting alongside the resistance fighters, ironically following a plan that had been prepared to extract the drug cartels prior to the Brazilian coup d'etat.
Entry posted by Todayinah Editor
© Alternate Historian, 2004-.Story Tags
Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Generals Source: Wikipedia Labels: Columbia, Brazil, Pablo Escobar, Drugs, Cartels. ~ The logistics on such a fight would be a nightmare. Guerrilla warfare on massive scale with awful casualties.
~ That would be a very bloody fight. Colombians are pretty ferocious, and the Brasilians are no sissies either.
~ This would not have involved the United States at all. US interests were not at stake, and such an intervention is entirely within the bounds of the 1907 Hague Treaty. If violence spilled over onto Brazilian territory, a "state of belligerence" was automatic.
comments powered by Disqus
Editor says, what if the world's career connections were exposed? 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 December 2011 edition of Changing the Times Magazine.
| Share this Article on: | Facebook | Twitter |
In 2011, on this day the CEO of the professional networking site LinkedUp was forced to apologise for a security violation that enabled disgruntled employees to post negative testimonials on their former bosses profiles (and vice versa).
LinkedUpEstablished in 2001, LinkedUp enables professionals to assemble a series of highly qualified testimonials that disguises the true reasons for their job hopping. Amazingly, results prove that if studied quickly by a hiring manager wearing rose-tinted spectacles these testimonials can establish trust and propel the job seeker into their next "opportunity".
But a new release of the software had overriden security safeguards preventing connections from being established without the express permission of both job seeker and his or her referral point. The platform provider made a firm commitment that all "disses" would be removed no later than midnight EST, creating a minimal problem during a quiet seasonal period for the job market.
Entry posted by Todayinah Editor
© Alternate Historian, 2004-.Story Tags
Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Lifestyle Source: Wikipedia Labels: LinkedUp, Career, Professional Networking, Social Networking, Jobs. ~ A CEO apologizing for something his company did? Isn't that one of the biblical signs of Armageddon?
~ Only if it's in America. Now, in Japan...
~ People being held accountable for their day-to-day actions? That'd be an alternate universe.
comments powered by Disqus
Editor says, what if Prince Albert had recovered? 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). This story was published in the December 2010 edition of Changing the Times Magazine.
| Share this Article on: | Facebook | Twitter |
In 1861, after a terrible year involving a carriage crash, scandal with the Prince of Wales cavorting with the Irish actress Nellie Clifden, shouldering many of the Queen's duties during her mourning of the death of her mother, the Duchess of Kent, and intervening in harsh diplomatic response to the United States of America blocking Confederate envoys in a raid upon a British ship, Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, Prince Consort of the United Kingdom, finally had some luck. His chronic illness with what his physician William Jenner had diagnosed as typhoid fever finally began to clear up. It would remain a cold, solemn Christmas, but, by spring, Albert would be well among the living.
Prince Albert Recovers Despite his brush with death, Albert continued with his lifelong dedication and energy to his many causes. Up to that time, he had transcended the typically quiet position as consort, where he revolutionized and expanded his and the Queen's many estates with advanced technology and practices. Albert additionally took up causes such as the abolition of slavery and reforms of nearly every policy. He served as Chancellor at the University of Oxford, modernizing the curriculum, as well as president for the society for Advancement of Science. During the turbulent times of the 1840s, Albert supported the government in enacting progressive policies without need for violence. His work to open the international scope of London ultimately succeeded in the Great Exhibition of 1851, made greater by its lowering of entrance prices to a single shilling, making the exhibition accessible to the lower classes and opening the eyes of thousands to the greater world. While Albert attempted to obtain a peaceful diplomatic agreement between Russia and the Ottoman Empire, the Crimean War would break out, causing his popularity to plummet.
A new story by Jeff ProvineRenewed with life in 1862, Albert shifted his attentions to a diplomatic solution in the ongoing American Civil War. A weaker United States would be politically advantageous to the world-leader Britain, though it did not want it as an enemy. Albert told the political envoys that Her Majesty's Government admired the CSA's sense of independence and were willing to contribute, but they simply could not back the institution of slavery on moral grounds. In 1863, the South began a policy of voluntarily freeing slaves with government compensation, and the abolitionist support in the North began to wane. The war would come to an end with separate but equal nations in 1865 after the loss of Abraham Lincoln in the election of 1864.
In 1870, Albert would again try his hand at steadying international conflicts by trying to cool the head of Emperor Louis Napoleon of France, but the Franco-Prussian War would go on, nonetheless. As it ended with the Treaty of Frankfurt, Albert admired his native Germany in its unification and used his rights as Prince of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha to address Kaiser Wilhelm on the goods of liberal, paternal governance. He often visited his daughter Victoria and son-in-law Frederick, encouraging them to discipline their son Friedrich Wilhelm and once caning the boy himself for not minding his elders. Biographers record incidents between Albert and the lad who would become Kaiser Wilhelm II as greatly instrumental into shaping him into the mindful, studious man he was.
Building diplomacy with Germany and developing industrial policy would dominate the latter years of Albert's life. Suffering from what modern historians believe to be cancer, but about which his medical documents were politely vague, Albert died in 1879, two days short of matching his father's lifespan. His legacy stands throughout Europe to this day, creating monarchy that is an example of morality to its people, aimed at mutually advantageous diplomatic agreements, and tied tightly to education, industry, and technological development. While many Marxist and radicals call Albert "paternalist" and "deceptively authoritarian", most credit him with enabling a twentieth century where the majority of wars have been colonial or internal affairs dealing with anti-imperial, anarchical threats.
Entry posted by
Jeff Provine
© Jeff Provine, 2010-.Story Tags
Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Jeff Provine Blog Source: Jeff Provine’s Blog Labels: Prince Albert, Queen Victoria, England, Britain, Confederacy. Editor says, in reality Prince Albert died after his lungs became congested. The Queen would grieve for him the rest of her life, and Britain, who had received him at times with mediocrity, showered his memory with sympathy. Memorials crowded London and the world, such as Prince Albert Hall, the Prince Albert Memorial, the Albert Medal of the Royal Society of Arts, and Africa's Lake Albert.
~ I don't think the South would have touched the institution of slavery until its back was literally right against the wall---they had much too much of an emotional investment for that. And "British interference" in US affairs would not have pleased the US government.
~ I agree, except that it wasn't just an emptional investment. The Southern economy was utterly dependent on slavery and collapsed after 1865 largely because of the end of that institution. It didn't begin recovering until, after the end of Reconstruction, Southerners found substitutes in sharecropping and the use of (largely black) convict labor.
~ I too am skeptical of the implications for the CSA. As for the notion that he might have had significant influence on his grandson Willy / Kaiser-to-be, perhaps, esp. since Vicky was so much his favorite, but it's hard to imagine it being enough to shape German unification in a more democratic, pacifistic direction (with all the the militaristic influences he'd have to overcome). // Of course, there is the problem at the start that the "typhoid fever" diagnosis was probably far off to begin with, given his family history and the fact that his health had clearly been declining for years. If Stanley Weintraub's argument is followed (in his fine biography of the Prince consort -- *Uncrowned King:the Life of Prince Albert*, 2001), it was probably some form of stomach cancer, altogether untreatable at the time. (It's still OK to imagine, 'what if he had lived', though it's no longer a fascinating case of 'he almost did, if only some minor decision, accident, etc had turned in another very plausible/possible direction.)
~ Surprising how many Southern abolitionists there were. Large slave owners would instantly have access to government payments, meaning they would keep (or even magnify) their wealth. A clever plantation owner would gives slaves their freedom to appease international influence ($), then turn to sharecropping quickly, which supposedly is better.
~ I can't begin to believe the idea of the CSA *itself* setting up a plan of compensated emancipation... first because LINCOLN was ALREADY willing to do that, beginning with the loyal border states.. and even Delaware had no interest! And Lincoln's original plan depended in part on the colonization of slaves which it was thought would help relieve racial tensions. There is NO way the Deep South would have accepted a planned freeing its own slaves without such a provision (which was really not going to work, esp. on a voluntary basis), as petrified as they were about how large numbers of former slaves would respond. (There is much evidence of this from the antebellum period, not to mention the behavior of white Southerners AFTER the war.. slaves codes.. lynching... all borne of fear of their own former slaves.) I'm also skeptical of Albert's ability to carry enough political clout vs. Palmerston, et.al., to have shaped British policy THIS radically. But who knows? He actually DOES seem to have been a major influence in his final days in slowing down the government's reaction to the Trent Affair , enough to allow time for cooling off, and soon after a resolution short of war with the U.S.
~ The South's very identity was tied up in the institution of slavery (see Chandra Manning's definitive work, "What This Cruel War Was Over: Soldiers, Slavery, and the Civil War", as well as the Southern secession declarations themselves), which is evident in the pre-war speech of Confederate Vice-President Andrew Stephens. Even in 1865, when it became evident that the South was obviously losing the war, the Slave Power resisted the call from several Confederate generals to arm slaves and use them as soldiers. Perhaps Albert just might have been so fortunate, but seeing that it was the desire of the Confederacy to build a slave empire consisting of the West, Central America, and South America, I have trouble seeing his efforts being possible.
comments powered by Disqus
Editor says, what if circumstances enabled the movie to be more faithful to Margaret Mitchell's novel? Please note that the opinions expressed in this post do not necessarily reflect the views of the author(s).
| Share this Article on: | Facebook | Twitter |
In 1939, with the Union and the Confederacy on the verge of entering World War Two on different sides, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer released the explosively controversial movie Tomorrow is just another day. Even the title was sufficiently provocative, igniting a furious debate about multi-racial aspirations for equal citizenship, despite African-American's conspicious absence from the film (white actors and actresses were "blacked up").
Tomorrow is Just Another DayBased on Margaret Mitchell's romantic novel of the same name, the story presents an unabashedly positive image of the South during the War of the States Rights.
"Knights and their Ladies Fair, of Master and of Slave"Mitchell herself acknowledged her inspiration from Thomas Dixon's famous novel "The Clansman" which was the basis of the film "The Birth of a Nation". In a letter to Dixon, Mitchell wrote in 1937: "I was practically raised on your books, and love them very much".
Of course within five short years of the films release, events would overtake the Confederacy which was dissolved at the climax of World War Two. A sharply revisionist account of the same story was presented in 1991 by Alexandra Ripley in the novel "Scarlett" and adapted into a television mini-series in 1994. Fifty years later, tensions were still visible, and the mini-series ommited scenes of Atlanta being burnt down in 1945, and, so it was rumoured, a suggestion to re-title the program "Gone with the Wind".
Entry posted by Todayinah Editor
© Juddery, Mark. "Gone With the Wind" published in History Today Magazine, August 2008Story Tags
Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Alternate Nations Source: Wikipedia Labels: Gone with the Wind, Civil War, America, Confederacy, United States. ~ Actually, _GWTW_ The Movie was pretty faithful to Mitchell's book in OTL. They left out some things, but that was mainly due to length considerations.
~ I doubt it would be easy to "dissolve" the Confederacy.
Harry Turtledove imagines doing so in his novel "In At the Death," which wrapped up the story arc beginning with "How Few Remain" by imagining a Third Reich-like CSA being beaten by the USA in WWII. But his novel ends in 1945, and so doesn't address the inevitable postwar strife.
Comment from Barb Caffrey on Facebook: Cute! (I like the asides. They add realism.)
Comment from on Patricia Williams-King on Facebook: I liked the parody on Carol Burnnet's show where the plantation owners were played by black actors & the slaves were played by white actors.
comments powered by Disqus
In 1942, the "bloody murderer" Lieutenant-Commander George Ericson was court martialed by the British Admiralty.Bloody Murderer
After service in the Merchant Navy, Ericson (pictured) had been recalled to the Royal Navy in 1939 and given command of the Flower-class corvette HMS Compass Rose, newly built to escort convoys. His officers were mostly new to the Navy, especially the two new Sub-Lieutenants, Lockhart and Ferraby.
Only Ericson, and some of the Petty Officers were in any way experienced. Despite these initial disadvantages, the ship and crew worked up a routine and gained experience. The crew crossed the Atlantic many times on escort duty.
They were nearly sunk several times and eventually sunk a German submarine, capturing the surviving crew. The sinking of a submarine formed the key episode of the court martial as Ericson had to choose between destroying the enemy vessel or saving some British sailors who are in the water above the enemy's location. Watch the Youtube Clip 
His less experienced officer felt unable to challenge his brutal Command decision.
Ericson ordered the Corvette to plough on through merchant seamen stranded in the ocean in order to depth-charge a U-Boat. Having paid the moral price that such decisions exact on men in command, Ericson conceded before his execution that the only victor was the Cruel Sea.
Entry posted by Todayinah Editor Watch the Video
© Nicholas Monserrat, 'The Cruel Sea' (1951).Story Tags
Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Generals Source: Wikipedia Labels: The Cruel Sea, Nicholas Monserrat, Jack Hawkins, World War 2, Hitler. Editor says, In this reversal of Nicholas Monserrat's the Cruel Sea, we imagine Ericson pays for his brutal / brilliant command decision depending upon your perspective.
~ Interestingly enough, my dad owns the original book...I think he'd probably be interested in this thread.
~ I'm afraid I find Ericson's court martial unrealistic as the described scenario, that leaving sailors in peril behind (or even sailing through them) in order to sink a U-Boat, happened frequently. So why would Ericson become an escapegoat for what was indeed a nasty consequence of the Battle of the Atlantic?
~ Thanks for your comment Mr Atwell, very interesting for sure. So we need a gentleman's war to justify my scenario, how about the Kaiser has a second go at the allies after a 1915 armistice?
comments powered by Disqus
On this day in 1957, Sandy Koufax scored his 400th NBA career point in a 113-94 Celtics win over the Philadelphia Warriors. | |
 | |
| Sandy Koufax |
Entry posted by
Chris Oakley
© Chris Oakley,2008-.Story Tags
Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Koufax35 Source: Wikipedia Labels: Baseball, Sports, Sandy Koufax, Basketball, America.comments powered by Disqus
In 1963, at a meeting with the Joint Chiefs of Staff, President Johnson learns that General Taylor has been sharing his objections to escalation in Cuba with his fellow officers. Moreover, he discovers that a number of them agree with Taylor. | |
 | |
| Maxwell Taylor |
Entry posted by
Eric Lipps
© Eric Lipps,2007-.Story Tags
Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Cuba War Source: Wikipedia Labels: General Taylor, Bay of Pigs, America, Cuba, Cuban Revolution.comments powered by Disqus
In 1971, opening arguments were heard in the espionage and hijacking conspiracy trial of Dmitri Kaprinsky a.k.a. D.B. Cooper. | |
 | |
Entry posted by
Chris Oakley
© Chris Oakley,2008-.Story Tags
Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: The D.B. Cooper Story Source: Wikipedia Labels: DB Cooper, Hijacks, Pacific Northwest, America, Airline Safety.comments powered by Disqus
In 1799, President George Washington dies in Philadelphia, having served just over ten years in office under the Constitution's lifetime-tenure provision. | John Adams |
 | |
| 2nd President |
Adams is uncomfortable in office, especially since he faces numerous battles with Alexander Hamilton's faction of the dominant Federalist Party. However, he will remain President for most of a year, as a squabbling Congress keeps postponing the election while supporters of various candidates jockey for advantage. |
Entry posted by
Eric Lipps
© Eric Lipps,2007-.Story Tags
Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Generals Source: Wikipedia Labels: John Adams, George Washington, America, Presidency, War of Independence.comments powered by Disqus
At the end of the workday, Scrooge grudgingly allows Cratchit to take Christmas Day off, but to arrive to work all the earlier on the day after.
Entry posted by Todayinah Editor
© Today in Alternate History, 2004-.Story Tags
Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Crises Source: Wikipedia Labels: Dayton Agreement, Muslim Holocaust, Yugoslav Wars, Yugoslavia, Southern Europe.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: General Pervez Musharraf, War on Terror, Pakistan, Second Gulf War, George W. Bush.comments powered by Disqus
Entry posted by Todayinah Editor
© Today in Alternate History, 2004-.Story Tags
Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Conspiracy Theories Source: Wikipedia Labels: Bible Codes, Torah Codes, Nostradamus, Prophecy, Bible.comments powered by Disqus
Entry posted by Todayinah Editor
© Today in Alternate History, 2004-.Story Tags
Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Conspiracy Theories Source: Wikipedia Labels: Camilla Parker-Bowles, Prince Charles, Paris, Car Crash, Mystery.comments powered by Disqus
Entry posted by Todayinah Editor
© Today in Alternate History, 2004-.Story Tags
Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Conspiracy Theories Source: Wikipedia Labels: Camilla Parker-Bowles, Prince Charles, Paris, Car Crash, Mystery.comments powered by Disqus
Entry posted by Todayinah Editor
© Today in Alternate History, 2004-.Story Tags
Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Conspiracy Theories Source: Wikipedia Labels: Eugene Cernan, Apollo 17, Lunar Landing, Extra-vehicular activity, Harrison Schmitt .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: General Pervez Musharraf, War on Terror, Pakistan, Second Gulf War, George W. Bush.comments powered by Disqus
December 13
Editor says, what if President Romney was a good deal less belligerent than Candidate Romney? 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 December 2012 edition of Changing the Times Magazine.
| Share this Article on: | Facebook | Twitter |
In 2014, on this day US President Mitt Romney was presented with a draft plan for X-37B US military space planes to sweep the skies of Chinese satellites.
Enlightened OpinionThe U.S. military's small, top-secret version of the space shuttle had rocketed into orbit during his predecessor's term of office. Its primary purpose of course was anti-sat interception, and as the coming conflict with China was approaching, it was considered strategically advantageous to inhibit Chinese offensive capability long before hostilities actually began.
But although the intelligence community and the US military were pressing for action, the soundings from civilian authorities were not good. Democratic congressional leaders plus Justice, State and Commerce Departments unequivocally said no. Because media aware and tuned into "enlightened opinion" the President realized that he actually disliked the letter R and decided he didn't want to pin the target on his back after all.
Entry posted by Todayinah Editor
© Alternate Historian, 2004-.Story Tags
Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Politicians Source: Wikipedia Labels: John Kerry, WMD, Iraq, Iran, Presidency. Editor says, thanks to Scott Palter for his contributions to the development of this article.
~ Besides, we woud have had to borrow the money to pay for the planes...from China.
~ "Democrat congressional leaders plus..."
Democratic leaders. DemocratIC. Fixed, thanks - Ed
~ Where does Ryan fit into all of this?
~ Actually 'Democrat" is correct and 'Democratic' is incorrect.
~ Wouldn't shooting down Chinese sats automatically trigger war with China?
comments powered by Disqus
Editor says, what if Liberal Canada was undone by events south of the 49th paralell? Please note that the opinions expressed in this post do not necessarily reflect the views of the author(s).
| Share this Article on: | Facebook | Twitter |
In 1984, on this day the Commander of the Thunder Bay Defense Force (TBDF) Colonel Giraud Leppe (pictured) overthrew the legitimate government of the northwestern portion of the pre-Doomsday Canadian province of Ontario and declared the formation of a Social Republic with himself as President. A compressed installment of the fabulous 1983: Doomsday thread published on Althistory Wikia.
Doomsday Reaches Northern OntarioAs the head of one of the last survivalist governments in North America, his predecessor Mayor Walter Assef had waited for a telephone call from the Canadian Government that would never come. He had however been forced to organize the TBDF from former Canadian military units in order to repel increasing number of raiders who were crossing the border from the former U.S. state of Minnesota. After the defeat of a large raiding party at the Battle of of Neebing, Leppe and his officers had decided to take matters into their own hands.
During the Doomsday conflict, the nearest nuclear detonation had occured in Winnipeg and at least in the short-term the 90,000 human population of Thunder Bay was largely unaffected. However by the harsh winter with temperatures dropping to their customary level of minus thirty matters had become desperate with food stocks starting to run low. The harvest was a disaster, and fishing stocks fell victim to radiation poisoning. Rationing was introduced, followed by a series of increasingly draconian measures, but it was by no means certain that the Social Republic - by now a Fascist Mini-state - could long survive.
Entry posted by Todayinah Editor
© Alternate Historian, 2004-.Story Tags
Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Disasters Source: Wikipedia Labels: Ontario, Canada, Doomsday, Giraud Leppe, Nuclear. Editor says, in this article we present a compressed installment of the fabulous 1983: Doomsday thread published on Althistory Wikia.
~ "Survalist?" Fixed - thanks. Ed And, for the record, I've been up to that neck of the woods, and post-holocaust, warfare across the border would be difficult to put on at best---the terrain does not lend itself easily to large-scale troop movements, and the population's thin on the ground.
~ Sounds very Orwellian, like a latter day Orwell outline.
~ This probably won't do much to help the Argonauts' Grey Cup chances.... :D
comments powered by Disqus
Editor says, what if the great lion Aslan had not bounded out of the Lewisian imagination? Part 3. Please note that the opinions expressed in this post do not necessarily reflect the views of the author(s). Also we have made the minor adjustment thst Wallace Simpson does not marry before meeting future Edward VIII.
| Share this Article on: | Facebook | Twitter |
In 2013, on this day There and Back Again, the second part of Peter Jackson's movie adaptation of the Inklings' 1937 collaborative novel The Witch, the Hobbit and the Wardrobe premiered in cinemas across North America.
The Witch, the Hobbit and the Wardrobe
There and Back Again
An article by Ed & Steven FisherIn their quest to end the Hundred Year's Winter, the Aryan-looking Pevensies locate the creature possessing the Ring of Power from the "Wood between the Worlds". The children discover that this "Hobbit" lives comfortably in a well-furnished hole in the ground (a thinly disguised reference both to "An Englishman's home is his Castle" and the hidden underground "decency" of the intelligentia in pre-war Britain).
Together they enter the White Witch's Castle of Cair Paravel which is filled with stone statues of enemies she has petried - one of whom is smoking a long cigar (symbolising for anti-appeasement politicians). The Ring enables them to unfreeze these figures and form the army that ultimately liberates Narnia. During the final battle, Peter kills the Wolf Maugrim who is the chief of the White Witch's secret police (and a charicature of Adolf Hitler).
Christmas finally arrives, but the saga is not yet over because the Empress Jadis and her dwarf henchman Ginnarbrick follow the children back through the portal, creating havoc in the city of London.
Contemporaries of the Inklings had understood that Jadis represented an older woman that Lewis had promised a dying soldier that he would protect after the war. But in an unguarded comment, he confessed that Jadis was a bitter charicature of Wallis Simpson, who ruled Britain after Edwards VIII's heart attack in 1937. The revelation that TWTHATW was an embittered allegory for a corrupt nation would destroy the reputations of both Tolkien and Lewis. They were forced to resign their professorships at Oxford University just days before the signing of the Ribbentrop-Eden Pact.
Entry posted by Todayinah Editor
© Alternate Historian, 2004-.Story Tags
Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Personalities Source: Wikipedia Labels: J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Lion, Witch and the Wardrobe, Lord of the Rings, Fantasy. Editor says, in this article we review some powerful ideas explored in Alan Jacobs' book "The Narnian - The Life and Imagination of C.S. Lewis"
~ I don't think that Wallis would have ruled Britain...Edward VIII never did, even when he was King. If he'd been incapacitated, and not had to abdicate, she'd have been shunted aside so fast that light would look slow and crippled. Fixed - thanks. Ed
~ (Not able to spend the time and energy with the regular fun speculation, but can't help wondering if this was partly inspired by the trailers of the coming Doctor Who Christmas special,'The Doctor, the Widow and the Wardrobe'.)
~ Sadly, this would require a rewrite of the rules governing the British monarchy, since the Church of England forbade the remarriage of divorced people who had living ex-spouses. Fixed - thanks. Ed
~ Hope L & T come to America. Princeton would probably take 'em, as they had Einstein and others who escaped their own fascist countries.
~ Mrs. Simpson would never have "ruled" England. She was not in the line of succession. At most, she would have become dowager queen, put up in a palace, and allowed to attend the occasional royal event. Besides, "winter is coming..."
comments powered by Disqus
Editor says, what if Francis Drake's expedition had been a disaster? 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). This story was published in the December 2010 edition of Changing the Times Magazine.
| Share this Article on: | Facebook | Twitter |
In 1577, on this day the ill-fated Drake Expedition leaves England. The privateer Francis Drake had been a useful asset to the English Crown through his lifelong (however short) wrath against the Spanish. As was a young sailor, he was captured with his cousin Sir John Hawkins by the Spanish, only to escape and supposedly vow revenge.
Ill-fated Drake Expedition Leaves EnglandSailing in the West Indies, Drake built a career in piracy, eventually falling in with the French buccaneer Le Testu. The two formed a raid on the Spanish Main, during which Le Testu would be captured and executed, but Drake and his men would escape laden with as much gold and silver as they could carry.
In 1577, Drake was given a mission by Queen Elizabeth to attack the Spanish along the Pacific coast. Magellan had crossed into the quieter waters of the Pacific for Spain some fifty years before, and conquests by Pizarro had spurred great wealth from the fallen Inca. While the treasure would have to sail through the screen of pirates past the Spanish Main, its transport in the Pacific was all but peaceful. Setting out of Plymouth on November 15, the expedition was immediately plagued with problems.
A new story by Jeff ProvineFoul weather forced them to Cornwall, and the fleet returned to Plymouth, setting out again that December. Many might have taken the bad start as a sign, but Drake was reputedly not a man of superstition (unless it worked into his favor). They added a sixth ship to their fleet that had been captured from the Portuguese, the first and nearly only good luck of the voyage. Upon crossing the Atlantic, Drake scuttled two of his ships due to the loss of manpower.
In what is today Argentina, Drake and his remaining men came to San Julian, the same bay where Ferdinand Magellan had executed mutinous men decades before. Their bleached bones still hung from gibbets, and Drake took advice Magellan's legacy. He executed a mutinous commander, Thomas Doughty, a former friend who had been with Drake since their participation in fending off Scottish ships during the Rathlin Island massacre in Ireland. Doughty had caught Drake's brother stealing, and Drake had turned against him since. Without producing a writ from the Crown to prove his powers or giving Doughty a trial, Drake pronounced him guilty of mutiny, treason, and witchcraft, having him beheaded.
Further bad luck followed as the captured Portuguese ship Mary was found to be rotted, and two more ships were lost passing through the Strait of Magellan. Drake's remaining men on the one last ship, Golden Hind, waned in morale (believing that God was punishing them because of what had been done to Thomas Doughty) until they began to attack Spanish towns and capture ships. They were seemingly invincible until Drake gave chase to the treasure ship Nuestra Senora de la Concepcion, which turned out to be a Spanish trap. The English privateers were captured, and many, including Drake, were killed in the fighting. A few survived as prisoners of war or joined the Spanish as sailors, and enough trickled back to England to tell the tale of the failed Drake expedition.
While Spain and England continued to prey upon one another at sea, they would never fully go to war. Much of the infantry battles would be fought vicariously in the Netherlands, and war would rarely be formally declared upon the high seas. Spain grew in is colonies to the south, and England began to establish its own colonial plantations in the north, rarely making profit until the implement of tobacco. Spain maintained the upper hand in what became a war of attrition between Protestant and Catholic kingdoms in Europe. The colonies grew, but gradual setbacks in Atlantic trade rights kept England on par with the colonial aspirations in North America of the Dutch and Swedes. By the time the American colonial period waned through the Liberty Rebellions of Europe, North America was a hodgepodge of countries of varying nationalities and dependencies upon their mother countries.
Entry posted by
Jeff Provine
© Jeff Provine, 2010-.Story Tags
Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Jeff Provine Blog Source: Jeff Provine’s Blog Labels: Frances Drake, Explorer, England, John Hawkins, Le Testu. Editor says, in reality Drake's capture of the ship nicknamed Cagafuego was a great success, taking some 26 tons of silver, 80 pounds of gold, a golden crucifix, jewels, and chests of valuables. Drake would sail as far north as California (claimed as New Albion) and circumnavigate the Earth, arriving in Plymouth on September 26, 1580. He would be knighted, enter politics, and return to the seas in raiding the city of Cadiz on the Spanish mainland. Such audacity of war would spawn King Phillip II of Spain to launch the Spanish Armada aimed at transporting troops to an invasion of England. Drake would be instrumental in the English defeat of the Armada, signaling the end of Spanish dominance upon the high seas.
~ Re the Editor's Comment: Surely you mean that Drake's audacity "spurred" Philip II, not "spawned" him. Fixed - thanks. Ed
As for Spain and England avoiding war, given Philip's religious zeal and the Catholic Church's formal declarations that England was a nation of heretics which must be forcibly returned to "the True Faith," I suspect it would have been only a matter of time before hostilities erupted. And with Drake out of the picture, the Spanish Armada might have succeeded in invading England--especially if it had attacked either a year earlier or a year later, rather than in 1588, which was marked by a series of freakish storms, one of which was instrumental in wrecking the Armada. Drake's ruse of sending burning ships among the Artmada's vessels panicked the Spanish, who suspected the English ships were "hellburners" packed with gunpowder which might explode among them like gigantic bombs; another commander might not have thought of such a trick.
~ One of England's greatest heroes.Should have been made a Duke,not just knighted.
comments powered by Disqus
Editor says, what if the US Special Procurements Program hadn't pumped $3.5bn into the Japanese Economy? 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 December 2010 edition of Changing the Times Magazine.
| Share this Article on: | Facebook | Twitter |
In 1950, as the last automobile left the line in Nagoya, Factory Manager Eiji Toyoda and his Chief Production Engineer Taiichi Ohno regretted that the end of windfall orders from the US Government after the military disaster at Inchon had prevented the now insolvent Motor Sales Company from successfully developing the revolutionary Toyota Production System (TPS) later known as "lean manufacturing".
Just in TimeIn 1938, CEO Kiichiro Toyoda had asked his cousin Eiji to oversee construction of a newer factory about 32 km east of Nagoya on the site of a red pine forest in the town of Koromo, later re-named Toyota City. Toyoda visited Ford's River Rouge Plant at Dearborn, Michigan. He was awed by the scale of the facility but dismissive of what he saw as its inefficiencies. Toyota Motor had been in the business of manufacturing cars for thirteen years at this stage, and had produced just over two thousand five hundred automobiles. The Ford plant in contrast manufactured eight thousand vehicles a day.
Due to this experience, Toyoda decided to adopt US automobile mass production methods but with a qualitative twist. Instead of the huge stock holdings he had seen in Dearborn, Toyoda told workers to turn out parts for the manufacturing process "just in time". He also organized workers into self-suffient teams who would be their own supervisors and quality controllers; if they observed the smallest defect, they were permitted to halt the production line for corrective action to be taken. Needless to say, the result was chaos as the production line was halted by workers pulling the power cord or parts failing to arrive "just in time".
During the summer of 1950, the Korean War broke out and the US Government desperately needed cars and trucks even faster than "just in time", they needed them like yesterday. Suddenly the factory was receiving orders for fifteen hundred trucks a month. As production was upscaled, the initial problems with TPS began to get solved - but then Toyoda and Ohno ran out of time.
Of course the continuation of so-called "divine" aid to Japanese Industry might well have created enormous long-term problems for the unwitting American taxpayer who had been led to believe that the Japanese were savages and brutes. And despite various punitive threats to gut central Japan, sterilize the male population or return the economy to an agricultural state, the reconstructed post-war Japan being financed was a restoration to its pre-Pearl Harbour state. Had Toyota emerged as a world-class automobile manufacturer, workers at Dearbourn and Detroit might also have had reason to question why American had gone to war with Japan. As it turned out, the Korean War was a short run affair as allied troops were rapidly forced off the peninsula, and MacArthur's counter-attack was a reputation-destroying disaster of truly epic magnitudes.
Entry posted by Todayinah Editor
© Alternate Historian, 2004-.Story Tags
Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: War Source: Wikipedia Labels: Korean War, Japan, Lean Manufacturing, America, Korea. Editor says, in reality by 1958 Japan was producing 200,000 cars per year and beginning to build an export market in the United States.
~ Oh what a feeling... poor Toyota...
~ Wrong trigger. If the 8th army is driven into the sea at Inchon Mao intervenes in the Indochina War and there is also a huge military buildup in Japan and Taiwan. What you need for this result is Rhee regime to be a tad stronger and Stalin and Mao a tad less adventurous. No Korean War and the entire Japanese economy implodes 1950-52.
~ If Japan imploded in those years, it might turn into something seriously nasty. Unlike the Germans, they've never accepted that what they did before 1945 was wrong.
~ Poor Japanese auto industry, for that matter...
~ The whole world economy would be a very different scene. No great 1980s jokes about Japan taking over the world.
comments powered by Disqus
Editor says, what if the terrorist attack on the Indian Parliament had triggered a regional nuclear war in 2001? Please note that the opinions expressed in this post do not necessarily reflect the views of the author(s).
| Share this Article on: | Facebook | Twitter |
In 2001, December 13th was a brilliant morning in New Delhi. The noise of the city was at its usual suggesting that all was right in India, apart from the usual simmering of discontent. Nonetheless, the capital of India was also the capital of the largest democracy in the world.
A contemporary Alternate History of the 2001 India-Pakistan War by David Atwell
Although far from perfect, it had taken on the Westminster system of government and had done reasonably well with it, considering the difficulties that India faced. India's neighbours, however, were far from democratic. Pakistan, which had occasionally flirted with democracy, was once more a military dictatorship. Burma was another military dictatorship. China was a People's Republic, which meant to say it was a Communist dictatorship. Thus under the circumstances, India was akin to the Garden of Democratic Eden in comparison to the desert of dictatorships that surrounded it.
A Chapter from Hell's Doors OpenSo in the afternoon of 13 December 2001, when terrorists attacked the Indian Parliament, the Indian government went into action. As bullets and explosions shook the building Prime Minister Vajpayee immediately put India's Armed Forces on alert. This also included India's nuclear arsenal. By the time the terrorists had been killed India was ready for war.
Naturally the Indian's blamed the Pakistani's for the attack on their Parliament. And they had much good reason to do so. The weapons that the terrorists used where discovered to be of Pakistani origin, not to mention that Indian Intelligence identified two of the terrorists as Pakistani citizens, and known to be members of a terrorist organisation partly funded by the Pakistani Government. All this was far too much for the Indian public who demanded action, and with several state elections coming up, it would be electoral suicide for Vajpayee's BJP ruling party to do nothing.
Thus it came as no surprise when Vajpayee ordered 600 000 troops to the Pakistan border in Kashmir. The Indian generals where then given a second order: an invasion of Pakistan itself. Although Musharraf was unaware of the second order, the first one was made very public. At first Musharraf hesitated to response to this Indian action, as the Pakistan Army was committed to the Afghanistan border in an effort to stop the September 11 terrorists escaping the wroth that the United States had decided upon. But soon Musharraf changed his mind and ordered 400 000 of Pakistan's troops to face the Indians.
This response was exactly what the Indian generals had hoped for. By sending 400 000 troops to the one region, Pakistan had only 200 000 troops left to guard the rest of the country. India, on the other hand, had a further 700 000 troops to employ as the general's saw fit. As such an Indian Tank Army was quietly and secretly formed in the Punjab State of India. 4 tank, 4 mechanised, and 4 infantry motor divisions, along with support and logistic units, numbering 250 000 of India's finest troops were soon ready. Within a week of the bombing of the Indian Parliament, this army would cross the border near the Pakistani city of Lahore, capture it the same day, then advance onto Islamabad the capital of Pakistan. In doing so it would encircle the 400 000 Pakistani troops in Kashmir and reduce Pakistan to its southern territory. As a result Pakistan would be halved in size.
Pakistan's generals were not stupid. They could read the same maps as their Indian counterparts and immediately feared the worst. At best they could deploy 2 brigades to cover the Lahore Front, as they called it, and were well aware that they were extremely vulnerable there. Although the Thar Desert offered another invasion route into Pakistan from India, this was considered unlikely because there was little of value on the Pakistani side. All agreed that Lahore was a very tempting target, should the Indian's invade, yet they had little to defend it with. It was at this point that Musharraf, an army general himself, made the most unenviable decision in history. Should the 2 brigades be overrun, then Pakistan would use the Bomb.
Read the whole story on the Changing the Times web site
Entry posted by
David Atwell
© David Atwell, 2008-.Story Tags
Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Hells Doors Open Source: Changing the Times Labels: India, Pakistan, 2001, Nuclear, Atomic. ~ Could very well have happened, and would've changed the whole War on Terror into a massacre throughout Asia.
~ Pakistani HUMINT is simply not that bad. They would know the general outline of the Indian mobilization via a grains of sand approach to reports of troop movements, etc.
~ Interesting. The one complaint I have is a grammatical one: too many imappropriately placed "apostrophe's". In particular, it's not the "Indian's" and the Pakistani's" but the Indians and the Pakistanis.
Comment from Vinay Singh on Facebook: a nuke attack would inevitably bring ultimate havoc on both the nations... indian army, having the 3rd largest standing army on earth, is comparatively powerful for sure... but the lack of anti-nuclear warheads makes them equally vulnerable to a nuke war... though if the 2 countries keep away from using their ultimate weapons, there's no way pak army would be able to supersede indian forces and this has been exemplified in the '99, '71, 61, and 48 wars...
comments powered by Disqus
Editor says, what if John McCain re-affirmed his campaign commitment to stay in Iraq for another fifty years if necessary, reinforcing the image of his "McBush" Presidency? Please note that the opinions expressed in this post do not necessarily reflect the views of the author(s).
| Share this Article on: | Facebook | Twitter |
In 2009, on this day Mr Gordon R. England, the Under Secretary of Defence for Military Outsourcing signed a multi-billion dollar "No Bid" contract with the American security company Xe Services (formerly Blackwater International).
CIA confirms Blackwater helpSince contracted guards had participated in CIA raids on suspected militants in both Iraq and Afghanistan, the contract award was considered a logical next step in the "small military footprint" objective laid down by former Secretary of Defence Donald Rumsfeld. This strategem had been validated by a review of military strategy conducted after President John S. McCain's inauguration, because Pentagon benchmarking exercises had determined that the raids revealed a need for a greater level of involvement between the agency and Xe Services than previously considered necessary.
Founder and sole owner of the company, Mr Erik D. Prince confirmed that Xe were "delighted to receive a new contract to participate in covert raids with CIA and Special Operations".
Entry posted by Todayinah Editor
© Blackwater denies covert CIA help, BBC Web SiteStory Tags
Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: McBush Source: BBC Labels: McCain, Iraq, Afghanistan, America, Pentagon. Comment from Jeff Mayers on Facebook: Hard to say...it could either stablize what is going on in Iraq or it could progressively get worse. Also, I think that this would depend on our resources and whether or not it will hold up. Another consideration is that should anything else happen in another part of the world, then this would weigh heavily on the ability to stay in Iraq for that length of time...
Comment from J Michael Antoniewicz II on Facebook: Jeff, we'er still in Germany and Japan. Down graded in England/Great Brition mostly with the Atlantic Subs shifting to Kings Bay, GA.
~ There is no way McCain brings back Rumsfeld and no way a Democratic Senate confirms him if McCain went senile and did so.
~ Maybe some hallucinosis gas got loose in Washington at the time… lol
~ Please reread story it says "former Secretary of Defence Donald Rumsfeld". In other words Rummy has gone, but his idea of a small military footprint hasnt
~ Could this signal the return of the condottieri?
comments powered by Disqus
Editor says, What if Saddam was a vampire?
| Share this Article on: | Facebook | Twitter |
In 2003, Operation Red Dawn was declared a success with the arrest of Saddam Hussein (pictured).Spider-hole
The mission was assigned to the 1st Brigade Combat Team of the 4th Infantry Division, commanded by Col. James Hickey of the 4th Infantry Division, with joint operations Task Force 121 - an elite and covert joint special operations team. Two sites, Wolverine 1 and Wolverine 2, were searched outside the ad-Dawr town, but the principal was not found.
Then at 20:30hrs local Iraqi time US Marines discovered the former Iraqi President in a dishevelled state near his home town of Tikrit. Trapped in a filthy hole in the ground Saddam grandly declared "I am the President of Iraq and I am prepared to negotiate".
The meaning of this presumed bluff threat soon became clear. Before the year's end all of the Marines would also have succumbed to blood-sucking vampirism.
Entry posted by Todayinah Editor
© Today in Alternate History, 2004-.Story Tags
Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Generals Source: Wikipedia Labels: Saddam Hussein Abd al-Majidida al-Tikriti, George Bush, Iraq, Second Gulf War, Mesopotamia. Editor says, A small pun on Operation Red Dawn, we revisit our vampire thread of stories to imagine Saddam as the master.
comments powered by Disqus
In 2000, News of the Supreme Court's ruling sparks jubilation among supporters of Democratic contender Vice-President Al Gore and his running-mate Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman, and fury among Republicans. | |
 | |
Riots erupt in Miami-Dade County, and an armed mob descends on the courthouse where the recount is taking place. Screaming "Cheaters! Cheaters!" and "Stop the fraud! Stop the fraud!" the crowd attempts to force its way into the building. Police are summoned and manage to disperse the crowd, although several people are injured in the process. |
Entry posted by
Eric Lipps
© Eric Lipps,2007-.Story Tags
Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Gore Wins Source: Wikipedia Labels: Al Gore, 2000 Election, George W. Bush, America, Joe Lieberman.comments powered by Disqus
On this day in 1962, Raul Castro was found dead in a Mexico City hotel; at the time of his death there were rumors he was preparing to defect to the West. Though there was some speculation he'd been murdered by the Cuban secret police on orders from Che Guevara, preliminary evidence suggested Raul's death was actually a suicide. | |
 | |
| Raul Castro |
Entry posted by
Chris Oakley
© Chris Oakley,2008-.Story Tags
Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Cuba62 Source: Wikipedia Labels: Cuban Missiles Crisis, Cuba, ExComm, John F Kennedy, Raul_Castro.comments powered by Disqus
On this day in 1947, the Roswell City Council approved a budget bill which created a fund to support the expansion of the city's main hospital; the hospital's patient space had been stretched to its limits by the July 6th asteroid strike. | |
 | |
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
When Scrooge is told that many would rather die than go there, he mercilessly responds, 'If they would rather die ... they had better do it, and decrease the surplus population.'
Entry posted by
Dan Haymond
© The Imperial lance', the true story of the Anglo Japanese allianceStory Tags
Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Alternate Nations Source: True Fiction Press Labels: World War 2, Vichy France, North Africa Campaign, Rommel, Hitler.comments powered by Disqus
Entry posted by Todayinah Editor
© Based on an Story Tags Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Generals Source: Athens Info Guide Labels: Greece, Constantine, Counter-coup, Thessalonika, Athens.comments powered by Disqus
In 1996, Kofi Annan is elected Secretary-General of the United Nations (UN). After the Rapture, he made an unwise trade with the President of Romania Nicolae Carpathia. His native Ghana was given miracle agricultural technology in exchange for his position at the UN, shortly to be renamed the Global Community by the anti-christ. | Kofi Annan |
 | |
| UN Sec Gen |
Variant entry posted by Todayinah Editor
original content has been repurposed to celebrate the author's genius © Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins, 'Left Behind', 1999.Story Tags
Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Generals Source: Wikipedia Labels: Kofi Annan, United Nations, Ghana, UN, World Government.comments powered by Disqus
Entry posted by Todayinah Editor
© Today in Alternate History, 2004-.Story Tags
Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Crises Source: Wikipedia Labels: Kofi Annan, United Nations, Ghana, UN, World Government.comments powered by Disqus
Entry posted by Todayinah Editor
© Today in Alternate History, 2004-.Story Tags
Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Crises Source: Wikipedia Labels: Kofi Annan, United Nations, Ghana, UN, World Government.comments powered by Disqus
Entry posted by Todayinah Editor
© Today in Alternate History, 2004-.Story Tags
Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Conspiracy Theories Source: Wikipedia Labels: Al Gore, Dick Cheney, 2000 Presidential Election, Florida Presidency, George W. Bush.comments powered by Disqus
Entry posted by Todayinah Editor
© Today in Alternate History, 2004-.Story Tags
Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Conspiracy Theories Source: Wikipedia Labels: Al Gore, Dick Cheney, 2000 Presidential Election, Florida Presidency, George W. Bush.comments powered by Disqus
Entry posted by Todayinah Editor
© Simon BurnsStory Tags
Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Conspiracy Theories Source: Uchronia Labels: A Collection of Political Counterfactuals, Giuseppe Zangara, Al Capone, John Nance Garner, Last public man linking America of the Civil War a.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: Saddam Hussein Abd al-Majidida al-Tikriti, George Bush, Iraq, Second Gulf War, Mesopotamia.comments powered by Disqus
December 12
Editor says, what if Britain had kept the American Colonies only to lose Canada? muses Robbie Taylor. 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 December 2012 edition of Changing the Times Magazine.
| Share this Article on: | Facebook | Twitter |
In 1745, on this day American President John Jay was born to a wealthy Hugenot-descended family of merchants and government officials in New York City.
Birth of President John JayHe graduated at King's College (now Columbia University) in 1764, he was admitted to the bar in 1768, and formed a partnership with Robert R. Livingston. In 1774 he was a delegate in the first Continental Congress, and the same year he married a daughter of William Livingston, of New Jersey. In that Congress, though the youngest member but one, he took a conspicuous part, being the author of the Address to the People of Great Britain. His facile pen was often employed in framing documents in the Congress of 1775.
However the following June, destiny took the oddest of turns after he received the Rutledge Letter. Because Rutledge urged Jay to find a way to turn his Continental Congress colleagues from independence, hoping that there was still a way to "effectively oppose" the headlong rush toward nationhood that the colonials were in.
When Jay took control of the Continental Congress and began negotiating for a rapprochement with the Crown, he sent Rutledge to Great Britain to argue on behalf of increased autonomy for the colonies if they would yield to continued British rule. Rutledge found many in Britain's Parliament eager to accede to American demands in order to free up forces for the disastrous war in Canada, and his own affinity for the British won him enough allies to push his measures through and end the war between the American colonies and Great Britain.
Entry posted by Alternate Historian Robbie Taylor
© Today in Alternate History, 2004-.Story Tags
Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Canadian Rev Source: Wikipedia Labels: Canada, America, War of Independence, John Jay, Edward Rutledge. ~ POD? Jay took control of the Continental Congress and began negotiating for a rapprochement with the Crown
~ If we'd stayed with the British Empire by now the capital of that Empire would be somewhere on this side of the Atlantic.
~ Sometimes in London, I wondered if I was no actually in some other part of some greater, extended country. In those days, with the Tory numbers as high as they were at the beginning of the musketry, something like this might have happened, but I think the greater distance, and communication gaps played a big role in the separation -- and it could have happened in Canada. Plenty of Scots and Irish there that probably could have voted for a complete split.
~ AND if we had allied with Canada we would have national health care today...or, rather, international American-Canadian Health Care. Do you think we would call it "Jaycare?"
~ Imperialistic Americans might not let Canada go for long.
comments powered by Disqus
Editor says, what if the Batang Kali attrocity had been fully exposed at the time? 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.
| Share this Article on: | Facebook | Twitter |
In 1948, on this day a fourteen-man patrol from the 7th Platoon, G Company, 2nd Scots Guard led by led by two lance-sergeants, Charles Douglas and Thomas Hughes surrounded a rubber plantation, shot and killed twenty-eight unarmed Malayan civilians before setting fire to the village of Batang Kali.
Justice for Batang Kali Massacre Britain's My LaiThe official report produced by Commanding officer George Ramsay was immediately published in the Singapore-based Straits Times "Police, Bandits kill 28 [sic] bandits in day ... Biggest Success for Forces since [Malayan] Emergency Started". But the British owner of the Sungei Remok Estate, Thomas Menzies immediately contradicted the report, publicly stated that his labourers had a long record of good conduct. By the 24th December the Straits Times was calling for a public enquiry and British Communist MP Philip Piratin became directly involved in the dispute. Discovering that there was a living witness, he brought villager Romen Bose Tham to London. Together, they started the biggest firestorm in the history of the British Empire.
Entry posted by Todayinah Editor
© Alternate Historian, 2004-.Story Tags
Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Generals Source: Wikipedia Labels: Batang Kali, Malayan Emergency, British, British Empire, Malaysia. Editor says, in authoring this post we have repurposed content from Wikipedia based upon an article by Christopher Hale in the July 2012 Edition of History Today Magazine. The issue was raised after My Lai when it was questioned whether British soldiers would be capable of such an atrocity, prompting members of the Scots Guard to come forward and confess the Batang Kali Massacre. The last adult witness Tham Yong died on 2 April 2010 and as of 2012 a judicial review is in the process of being held at the UK's High Court.
~ The British like to whitewash their colonial history a lot - this was hardly even the worst atrocity ever committed for the Empire
~ Don't know how this would have changed things. By 1948 the British Empire was clearly running out of time no matter what. Its doom had been written in the fields of the Somme and Passchendaele.
~ Overall, probably not much effect, but it might be something for Jeremy Paxman's BBC series on the empire.
comments powered by Disqus
Editor says, what if the great lion Aslan had not bounded out of the Lewisian imagination? Part 2. Please note that the opinions expressed in this post do not necessarily reflect the views of the author(s).
| Share this Article on: | Facebook | Twitter |
In 2012, on this day An Unexpected Journey, the first part of Peter Jackson's movie adaptation of the Inklings' 1937 collaborative novel The Witch, the Hobbit and the Wardrobe premiered in cinemas across North America.
The Witch, the Hobbit and the Wardrobe
An Unexpected JourneySet in the metaphorical pre-war land of Narnia, the four Aryan-looking Pevensie Children enter a cruel world that is forever winter but Christmas never comes. The cause of this misery becomes immediately evident when Peter Pevensie casually encounters Jadis the Witch Queen and her malign dwarf henchman (pictured). Returning with his siblings Edmund, Lucy and Susan, they sets upon a quest to bring Christmas.
Greeted by Tumnus the Faun minutes after returning, he discovers that years have passed in Narnia and the endless winter world is thawing because the Queen has lost a ring of power that has greatly diminished her control. They set out on an An Unexpected Journey to find the Hobbit into whose possession the Ring has fallen, setting up a final confrontation that will determine the mastery of Narnia forever.
Entry posted by Todayinah Editor
© Alternate Historian, 2004-.Story Tags
Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Personalities Source: Wikipedia Labels: J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Lion, Witch and the Wardrobe, Lord of the Rings, Fantasy. Editor says, in this article we review some powerful ideas explored in Alan Jacobs' book "The Narnian - The Life and Imagination of C.S. Lewis"
~ CoN + LotR = one incredibly epic novel.
~ This would have been an interesting read, particularly if one could compare it with OTL's LOTR and Narnia series. That said, I don't know how well Lewis and JRR Tolkien would have worked together; Tolkien was mainly interested in creating an "English mythology," while Lewis wanted to tell the story of Jesus in a different venue.
~ According to interviews with Lewis, the allegory was unintended, just as Tolkien's similarity to the ideals of anti-appeasement of his day. Mixing together may've spared them both a good deal of stress explaining later, but I'd imagine they would have struggled with a few creative differences judging from their styles.
comments powered by Disqus
Editor says, what if the Battle of Tolvajarvi became a Finnish Rout? 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). This story was published in the December 2010 edition of Changing the Times Magazine.
| Share this Article on: | Facebook | Twitter |
In 1939, on this day the Battle of Tolvajarvi became a Finnish Rout. Throughout its history, Finland had struggled to free itself from the imperialistic influence of her neighbors. In the Medieval period, Sweden settlers dominated the natives and achieved rule with the Finnish people being commoners.
Battle of Tolvajarvi Becomes Finnish Rout During the wars of the eighteenth century known as the Greater Wrath and Lesser Wrath, Russia, revolutionized after the time of Peter the Great, occupied Finland. Ultimately, the Finnish War of 1808-9 would wrest control from Sweden and turn Finland into an autonomous grand duchy within the rule of the Russian Empire.
Finland would stay under Russian influence for another century until the Russian Civil War would give way to Finland's independence on December 6, 1917. Relations between the Finnish Republic and the eventual Soviet Union remained strained. While non-aggression treaties were signed in the 1930s, Soviet invasion would spark the Winter War on November 30, 1939, as a side-event to the growing Second World War.
A new story by Jeff ProvineThe nations were scarcely matched: Finland's army was 30 percent that of Russia, its air force 3 percent, and its armored vehicles 1 percent. While the numbers were overwhelming, the Red Army was still recovering from Stalin's Great Purge of more than 30,000 officers imprisoned or executed in 1937. Meanwhile, the Finns held high morale and unbreakable commitment to resistance. While the Russians had air superiority and powerful advances with tanks, the Finnish troops had minor victories, holding the Russians moving northward from Leningrad across the isthmus between the Gulf of Finland and Lake Ladoga. While the Mannerheim Line held there, more Russian troops crossed from north of the lakes. The Finns planned to meet them at Tolvajarvi.
The Finnish battle plan was to use the frozen lakes as points to cross and attack the oncoming Soviets in a pincer movement. The Finns engaged with Soviets, who outnumbered them five-to-one. Rather than attempt to press ahead along the road, the Soviets withdrew. Thinking that he had caught the Russians unawares, Finnish Colonel Talvela took up pursuit. Despite taking losses during the retreat, the Russians came under artillery protection and counterattacked, wiping out the Finnish defenders.
With the harsh victory at Tolvajarvi, the Russians picked up momentum that would bring them around the lake and encircle the Finnish defenders along the Mannerheim Line. Helsinki would fall March 13, 1940, and Finland would be declared part of the Soviet Union. While the quick conquest had been a military victory, the Finnish people had not yet given up the fight. Secretly supplied by Hitler's Germany, the Finn resistance would be an enormous strain on Stalin's manpower and resources. By the time the German invasion of Russia began with Operation Barbarossa in 1941, the Soviets would be ill prepared to fight since so many were already working to maintain occupation.
The Eastern European Theater would be a bloodbath with Stalin desperately fighting to keep Hitler from taking Moscow, Stalingrad, and, especially, Leningrad, whose siege began September 8, 1941. In 1943, Stalin would proclaim an end to rule over Finland and recall troops to bolster his defenses. Rising up as a fascist power, the Finns would counterattack, leading to the fall of Leningrad. In June 1944, Moscow fell, but Stalin continued fight on, eventually reversing the tide of war back to near the 1941 border.
The Western Front, however, eventually pushed into Germany, and Hitler's regime fell with the taking of Berlin by General George S. Patton on May 2, 1945. Armistice fell across Central Europe, and Finland's fascist government collapsed under Soviet pressure. While the Russians did not occupy much of Eastern Europe, they did take hold of their old Russian imperial possessions, including Finland. It would not be until after the end of the Cold War that Finland, then a bleak, backwater economy, would regain its independence.
Entry posted by
Jeff Provine
© Jeff Provine, 2010-.Story Tags
Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Jeff Provine Blog Source: Jeff Provine’s Blog Labels: Battle of Tolvajarvi, Winter War, Finland, Russia, World War 2. Editor says, in reality the Russians were planning assaults on the Finnish flanks, and the Finnish 16th Regiment held them by their audacity of attack. Russians took thousands of casualties while the Finns only had some one hundred killed and 250 wounded. Despite victory at the Battle of Tolvajarvi, the Winter War would end with substantial lands being ceded by Finland to Russia. It would take up an alliance with Germany after Operation Barbarossa in the Continuation War theater of World War II, reaching an armistice with the Soviet Union in 1944. After balancing a delicate neutrality through the Cold War, Finland would find a prominent place in the European Union and be among the first to institute the euro.
~ Except for Finland being Sovietized, this doesn't sound too terribly differnt from OTL.
~ I suspect a less powerful Soviet Union with less Eastern European influence, but still a Cold War.
~ So: no East and West Germany, meanng no Berlin crisis of 1948, no Berlin Wall, no "Ich bin ein Berliner" speech by JFK--just poor beaten-up Finland under Soviet domination for decades along with the Baltic republics (which had belonged to Russia before World War I) and perhaps Poland.
It's possible that in this history the Nuremberg trials would have been more aggressive. In our world, punches were pulled with a lot of lesser Nazis in order to curry favor with the German people, but if the U.S. had reached Berlin, Washington might have been less fearful that Germans might turn to the east in reaction to harsh judgments.
comments powered by Disqus
Older Posts 
Related posts from the same era that you may also like
 The Continental Congress Collapses, "Churchill" because first American PM. |  Suspension of Pope "Eugene IV" Takes Hold |  Stonewall Jackson strikes north with his "Unrelenting War". |
 Semitic-African Resistance Fighter "Rosa Parks" slips through the net |  Revolution of 1796: "Jefferson" succeeds Washington |  Queen Charlotte: "Part 2" |
 Queen Elizabeth I marries "Ivan the Terrified" |  Prisoners Overthrow Guards in "New South Wales" |  Princess Diana gives the Games Village the "Royal Thumbs Up" |
 President McCain's "Gaddafi" Gaff |  President "Medal of Freedom" receives |  President "Thomas E. Dewey" wins by a landslide after picking Ike as his running mate. |
© Today in Alternate History, 2013-. All characters appearing in this work are fictitious. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.
