Today In Alternate History

September 9

In 999, on this day King Olaf Tryggvason consolidated the unification of Norway into a single state by defeating an alliance of enemies at a naval battle fought in the western Baltic Sea.

Glorious Norwegian Victory at the Naval Battle of SvolderSvein Forkbeard, King of Denmark, Olof Skötkonung, King of Sweden, and Eirik H´konarson, Jarl of Lade had ambushed the Norwegians at they sailed home from an expedition to Wendland. Although heavily outnumbered, the un-coordinated commands of the allies had caused confusion and Olaf managed to exploit this weakness, taking a fast moving offensive approach¹ to inflict significant damage before pulling off a masterful escape. This tactic was a complete break with the traditional system of thinking; the allies had expected him to adopt a defensive posture, lashing his ships together to form a floating fort.

Entry posted by Todayinah Editor

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Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Generals Source: Wikipedia Labels: Svolder, Olaf Tryggvason, Norway, Denmark, Viking.

Todayinah Editor Editor says, in reality he did adopt a defensive approach [1], they were defeated and the victorious leaders split Norway into areas of control. In authoring this post, we have repurposed content from Wikipedia.

Readers Comment Eric Oppen commented on 2012-09-18 06:33:43 ~ I always thought "lash the ships together" was insane. A longship's strengths were speed and agility.

Readers Comment Jeff Provine commented on 2012-09-19 18:23:11 ~ A whole shift in the formation of northern Europe. Who knows how it could impact the formation of England 67 years later?

In 337 AD, on this day Flavius Julius Crispus succeeded his late father Constantine the Great (pictured) as Roman Emperor.

Roman Emperor Flavius Julius CrispusAnd Constantine II, Constantius II and Constans, Delmatius and Hannibalianus fully assumed their senior "collegiate" leadership positions within the Hexarchy. This succession plans for the new power structure of the Dominate had been carefully laid since 326 when the intrigue of his mother Helena Augusta had been exposed by his wife Fausta Flavia Maxima.

Although it was a refinement of the Diocletian System that Constantine I had helped destroy, the accomodation of four siblings and two nephews had present a mighty challenge for him. In practice it was even more totalitarian in nature, and by accident rather than design, he had installed a future-proofed governance structure which substituted rivalry for nepotism. Needless to say, at the cost the memory of freedom and liberty in the minds of the Roman citizens.

Entry posted by Todayinah Editor

Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Politicians Source: Wikipedia Labels: Constantine, Crispus, Fausta, Helena, Rome.

Todayinah Editor Editor says, in reality Constantine II, Constantius II, and Constans I succeed their father Constantine I as co-emperors and the Roman Empire was divided between the three Augusti.. In authoring this post, we have repurposed content from Wikipedia.

Readers Comment Eric Oppen commented on 2012-09-16 20:45:33 ~ Was he a Christian, and if so, of what flavor? It would be a bit of a hoot if he turned out to be a secret closet pagan like the later Julian.

Readers Comment Eric Lipps commented on 2012-09-16 23:30:44 ~ I suspect that by this timr, "freedom and liberty" (such as they had ever been in Rome) were more legends than memories in the mnds of Roman citizens. The ascension of Juliis Caesar and then Octavian/Augustus to the emperorship pretty well destroyed them in practice in the first century BCE, and they ever recovered.

Readers Comment Jeff Provine commented on 2012-09-17 18:03:49 ~ Jefferson wrote of needing to have a revolution every generation. Could the framework survive and revolutions in economics, technology, or arts be more happily performed?

In 1887, on this day the thirty-third President of the United States Alfred Mossman ("Alf") Landon was born in West Middlesex, Pennsylvania.

President Landon BornHe grew up in Marietta, Ohio before moving with his family to Kansas at age seventeen. After graduating from the University of Kansas in 1908, he first pursued a career in banking, but in 1912 he became an independent petroleum producer in Independence, Kansas. During World War I, Landon served in the Army as a first lieutenant in chemical warfare. By 1929 the oil industry had made him a millionaire.

Elected 26th Governor of Kansas in 1932, he gained a reputation for reducing taxes and balancing the budget. Because of his willingness to address the needs of his Depression-battered state while still advancing the Party, he was the only Republican governor in the nation to be re-elected in 1934. This standout achievement enabled Landon to rise to the leading position as the Presidential Candidate despite the opposition of a faction led by Herbert Hoover. And sure enough Landon won the nomination on the first ballot (the convention selected Chicago newspaper publisher Frank Knox as his running mate).

His frustrated opponent Franklin D. Roosevelt had endured a torrid time since assuming office in 1932. Instead of launching an ambitious one hundred day programme, he had been drawn into a dirty political fight with the US Supreme Court who had overturned the majority of his "New Deal" legislation. Obviously, his lack of results made FDR acutely vulnerable to Landon's candidature. However the event that really swung the election was the embarrassing spectacle of the very public failure of his plan to pack the Court with pro-New Deal Justices.

Entry posted by Todayinah Editor

Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Politicians Source: Wikipedia Labels: Alf Landon, FDR, Thirties, Presidency, America.

Todayinah Editor Editor says, in this post we explore an article on the Alternate History Discussion Board and repurpose content from Wikipedia.

Readers Comment Chris Oakley commented on 2012-01-12 15:02:20 ~ How would he have handled the Second World War, I'd like to know?

Readers Comment Jeff Provine commented on 2012-01-12 17:03:22 ~ Isolationism is my first guess. Even war with Japan might not bring us into European connections post-war.

Readers Comment Eric Lipps commented on 2012-01-12 22:42:02 ~ Not sure even the then deeply conservative Supreme Court would have been eager to pick a fight with FDR so early--and even if so, they'd have had to wait until appropriate cases came before them, just as in our history.

In 9 CE, on this day three legions under the command of Legatus Augusti pro praetore Publius Quinctilius Varus narrowly escaped destruction in an ambush set by an alliance of Germanic tribes led by the treacherous Arminius of the Cherusci.

Roman Legions escape the Teutoburg AmbushArminius had lived in Rome as a hostage in his youth, where he had received a military education, and even been given the rank of Equestrian. After his return he became a trusted advisor to Varus, but in secret he forged an alliance of Germanic tribes that had been defeated by Caesar at the Battle of Vosges.

While Varus was on his way to the winter headquarters near the Rhine, he heard reports of a local rebellion, fabricated by Arminius. Varus decided to quell this uprising immediately and take a detour through territory unfamiliar to the Romans. Arminius, who accompanied Varus, directed him along a route that would facilitate an ambush.

Fortunately, a Cheruscan nobleman, Segestes, father of Arminius' wife, and opposed to the marriage, warned Varus the night before the departure of the Roman forces. Initially dismissed as the result of a personal feud, Arminius wisely decided to raise friendly Germanic forces before entering the forest.

Nevertheless, Arminius had succeeded in ending the Roman ambition for expansion into northern Europe. And therefore the long-term consequence of this hard-fought Roman victory was the establishment of a natural boundary between Latin- and Germanic-speaking area of Western Europe.

Entry posted by Todayinah Editor

Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Generals Source: Wikipedia Labels: Romans, Germans, Teutoburg Forest, Latin, Arminius.

Todayinah Editor Editor says, in this article we explore an original idea on the Total War Forums and repurpose significant amounts of content from the Wikipedia web site which concludes ~ "Despite numerous successful campaigns and raids by the Roman army over the Rhine in the years after the battle, the Romans were to make no more concerted attempts to conquer and permanently hold Germania beyond the river".

Readers Comment Christopher Lee commented on 2011-12-26 22:22:18 ~ I think that in many ways this would make many real differences. Firstly I doubt that anyone would attach any significance to the event now, it would be totally insignificant, some jumped up German tried an ambush. It is only important now because it did succeed and the consequences it caused. Firstly the Romans had some control over Germany by this time, they were putting in place the infrastructure of rule, client kings, etc. What held them back was the terrain, the forested territory was the least effective theatre for Roman troops. They needed time to clear this forest and found sufficient cities, roads, etc to get Germany under control. The Varus disaster occured as this process was in its infancy and therefore strangled Roman rule at birth. The loss of the legions was not only a huge loss of about 10% of the entire Roman legionary establishment, but also shattered the idea of Roman invincibility built up over decades of Roman victories in Gaul and Germany. The Germans learned that they could beat the Romans in wooded terrain and thus the Romans became unlikely to ever conquer Germany. With no disaster in 9AD the Romans would likely have time to develop their control. With Arminius dead a powerful message would be sent to turncoats that they could not simply abandon Roman service and live. Other potential rebels might flee or decide to cast their lot in with Rome. The time gained would allow the Romans to really get into the Rhineland and establish a Romanised zone of sufficient depth and size to influence the whole of Germany. Land clearance would turn this region into something not unlike Gaul and the message could go out to Germans that Roman rule had significant advantages in material terms. The Romans would probably have been able to extend their rule east to the enxt significant line, the Elbe, or even to the Oder or Vistula. Of course as things got further east the same issues would appear again. The Romans showed their ability to realise when they had overextended themselves and set sensible borders. They could do so at the Elbe and greatly shorten their own internal lines and create a far easier and more manageable border in eastern Europe. The Rhine, whilst a large river proved no obstacle to the barbarians once they decided to breach it in the 3rd century. This shorter border would allow the Roman military to stretch further, with a shorter line to defend. They could possibly conquer all of Britain and Ireland, which they should have been able to do anyway but did not do. The extra availability of forces would make this more possible and the conquest of Germany would give them added confidence in far-flung barbarian regions. Once achieved this conquest would require few troops to maintain as long as the natives were Romanised. Another benefit would be that the Germans would be split and weakened, the great tribal confederations of later centuries would be impossible as so many Germans would be under German rule. There would be no great linguistic bloc to cause a thorn to Rome in the east. The steppe people to the east would be too spread out and the Scandinavians too few in number and also subsumed to some extent by the ROman conquest of Germany. Later movements of Huns, Avars, etc would not have a large populace to displace into Roman lands and would be easier to oppose. All in all I think a successful Roman conquest of Germany would have resulted in a stronger and more durable Roman empire that might have achieved what the Chinese empire did and become more or less a permanent fixture.

Readers Comment Allen W. McDonnell commented on 2011-12-27 10:32:35 ~ In general I agree with Christopher Lee, the loss of the legions was a major blow to Roman prestige and social order, before then they appeared to be unstoppable. With a win at the ambush there is no way that they would have retreated from Germany as they did OTL, if anything extra forces would have been deployed to subjugate the territory up to the Rhine completely for a generation, clear what forests needed to be cleared for intensive Roman style agriculture and build the infrastructure needed to lock Germania into the Empire for good. Once they proved out the methods on how to add dense forestland to the Empire nothing would stop further expansion eastward except for the climate change which takes place from Maritime to Continental climate. Roman crops and techniques from the Mediterranean region work well enough in Gaul and Britain and even in Denmark because the sea moderates thew northern climate a great deal. Once you get as far as the Oder river the maritime effect grows weak and further east it ceases completely. The climate zone differences would hamper expansion further eastward from the Oder until such time as the Romans developed other crops and techniques for their agricultural system.

Readers Comment Scott Palter commented on 2011-12-27 13:14:20 ~ Respectfully you folk missed a few key pieces. Absent Varus's defeat Tiberius does not squeeze as hard in Pannonia. Absent that you do not get the Pannonian Revolt, . Absent that Tiberius finishes off the conquests and takes what is now the Czech Republic, completing the line of the Elbe. With Roman power firmly planted along the north bank of the Danube Trajan's Dacian War will likely see Roman power extend the full length of the Carpathians instead of just a Dacian salient. This in turn will probably see Roman power extended in stages to first the Oder and then the Vistula. Romanized Europe will advance up to what is the narrowest geography front, roughly Konigsberg-Odessa. When the Empire decays central and eastern Europe will still be part of the Latin world.

Readers Comment Eric Oppen commented on 2011-12-27 18:35:59 ~ Would the Romans really have wanted to conquer Germania even if Arminius' ambush hadn't worked so very well? There was no gold there.

Readers Comment Jeff Provine commented on 2011-12-27 20:36:29 ~ According to at least two of my Classics profs, Augustus would go around banging his head and saying, "Varus, give me back my legions!" So many military headaches could have been solved with these legions able. I concur on the idea of a much longer lasting Empire. While Germany didn't have much in natural wealth at the time, the Romans would do well with a buffer-state. The question on the other side, however, is how much influence of German culture would come into Rome?

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In 1803, on this day the US Senate began the impeachment trial of President Samuel Adams as a result of irreconcilable disagreement over the future of the Republic that had been forced into the open by the "Louisiana Question".

Louisiana Question By Ed, Jeff Provine & Scott PalterThe party of opposition was led by Thomas Jefferson and James Madison who had been broadly committed to the counter-intuitive argument for a "larger republic" since the publication of the Federalist Papers. Privately, they held misgivings that the acquisition would erode states' rights by increasing federal executive power. Perhaps their position would have been different had the Democratic-Republicans won the 1800 Presidential Election but in the event partisan interest tipped the balance and they decided to oppose the Executive.

The President had many sound reasons for refusing to purchase the territory, not the least being that the legal interpretation of the treaties between France and Spain was of the opinion that Louisiana was not Napoleon's to sell. Moreover politicians were concerned that the acquisition would take power away from the seaboard. And finally, there was the spectre of a continental empire, a sinister reflection of the larger republic welcomed by Jefferson and Madison.

Entry posted by Todayinah Editor

Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Religion Source: Wikipedia Labels: Louisiana, James Madison, Napoleon, Thomas Jefferson, Samuel Adams.

Todayinah Editor Editor says, in reality the Louisiana Purchase encompassed all or part of fifteen current U.S. states and two Canadian provinces. The land purchased contained all of present-day Arkansas, Missouri, Iowa, Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska, parts of Minnesota that were west of the Mississippi River, most of North Dakota, nearly all of South Dakota, northeastern New Mexico, northern Texas, the portions of Montana, Wyoming, and Colorado east of the Continental Divide, and Louisiana west of the Mississippi River, including the city of New Orleans. In addition, the Purchase contained small portions of land that would eventually become part of the Canadian provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan. The purchase, which doubled the size of the United States, comprises around twenty-three percent of current U.S. Territory.

Readers Comment Eric Oppen commented on 2011-09-09 05:16:15 ~ Any POTUS at the time would have leaped at the chance to purchase the Territory. Even without that, the pressure of settlement would have made it American, in much the way Texas was, later on.

Readers Comment Eric Lipps commented on 2011-09-09 11:57:19 ~ And ifthe Purchase had been rejected, the U.S. would almost certainly have ended up taking the territory at gunpoint, perhaps a bit at a time, or purchasing some or all of it later.

Readers Comment H. Torrance Griffin commented on 2011-09-09 15:47:58 ~ It is probable that, without a formal purchase, US settlers would spread across the Mississippi. I just wonder if political control from Washington is inevitable or if various local republics would spring up....

Readers Comment Cory Adams commented on 2011-09-09 16:26:57 ~ An interesting question would be what led Samuel Adams to be elected and what would his temperament offer for such a job? I think he was more a revolutionary than a statesman.

Readers Comment Jeff Provine commented on 2011-09-09 17:17:02 ~ No purchase would definitely not stop settlement, and we'd be looking at a war with France/Spain shortly thereafter. 1812, perhaps?

In 1914, the opening battles of the World War had been sweeping victories for the German offensive. As they pressed past the Marne in early September, the British Expeditionary Force and the French Army fell back in covered retreats. Several of the German army commanders began to swerve to the southeast in pursuit of the Allies, but Chief of Staff Hulmuth von Moltke pushed them to aim directly for the war's goal: Paris.

Battle of Paris Begins Keeping lines tight, the Germans held the Eastern Flank and pressed west. The Allies launched a massive counter-attack on September 6 directly for General von Kluck's First Army. For two days, the Germans held and slaughtered oncoming Allied troops. On the 9th, the tide of battle turned, and von Kluck led fresh reinforcements in the press into Paris.

A new story by Jeff ProvineThe week-long battle of Paris would cost hundreds of thousands of lives on both sides with bloody and unpredictable urban warfare. The French government would flee along with many of the civilians to Orl?ans, protected by French soldiers ferried by the famous Parisian taxicabs as they had been since the days of the Marne. Once Paris was taken on the 17th, the Germans assumed the French would call for armistice as they had in the Franco-Prussian War. However, seeing German troops in Paris only caused French nationalism to soar and thousands new soldiers to surge to the battlefield.

As the German advance ended, a Race to the Sea began with battles and trenches moving northward through France until reaching Amiens and then following the Somme to the English Channel. By winter, the Germans had secured Belgium and both sides sat down for a stalemate. While the Allies calculated their moves in the spring, the Kaiser pondered the fact that the French had not surrendered as he had anticipated. Battles had been extremely costly on both sides, and he did not want to see Germany weakened by years of fruitless warfare. When consulting Moltke, the Chief of Staff told Wilhelm, "Your Majesty, this war cannot be won".

Wilhelm flew into a rage and fired Moltke for his lack of faith in Germany. He charged his replacement, von Falkenhayn, with determining a way to win the war. Falkenhayn battled with Generals Hindenburg and Ludendorff, eventually concocting a plan for a war of attrition. Recalling Moltke's warnings, Wilhelm rejected the plan.

The new German plan called for a defense in the West, using the new notions of trench warfare to keep the French and British at bay as well as combating numerous amphibious assaults on Belgian beaches. Falkenhayn conceded to the idea of pushing east, and the majority of the offense would be against Russia in 1915. Suffering terrible casualties, Russia would erupt into revolution and drop out of the war in 1916. Now turning back to focus on the Western Front, the Germans worked to break the British blockade, but their actions would only result in attacks upon American citizens, drawing the United States into the war.

In a massive Allied landing, Belgian liberation began and many of the German lines found themselves surrounded. The war turned against the Germans quickly, and American and British troops marched onto German soil while the French held much of their army in the trenches. Reeling, the German empire collapsed. At the Treaty of Versailles of 1919, the Allies would break up Germany into small states like they broke up the Austrian and Ottoman Empires.

Entry posted by Guest Historian

Jeff Provine

Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Jeff Provine Blog Source: Jeff Provine’s Blog Labels: Great War, World War 1, Britain, France, Germany.

Todayinah Editor Editor says, in reality the First and Second Armies of Germany did swing southeast, allowing the Allies to launch a successful push in the Battle of the Marne. Von Kluck moved the First army in a swinging defense, but the action formed a massive gap that the British Expeditionary Force and the French exploited. Moltke saw the disaster and broke down, retiring from the army and dying of ill health just two years later. Wilhelm believed the war was still winnable (even declaring victory in 1916), and his commander Falkenhayn began the battle plans for a war of attrition that would ultimately end with the surrender of Germany.

Readers Comment Chris Oakley commented on 2010-09-09 14:47:05 ~ Talk about "Be careful what you wish for..."

Readers Comment Brian Wall commented on 2010-09-09 15:36:56 ~ Hmm...maybe this could have been 'the war to end all wars', at least in Europe. Unless Hitler somehow reunites Germany in the 30s or 40s.

Readers Comment Eric Oppen commented on 2010-09-09 18:35:46 ~ I've often wondered why the Allies let Germany stay in one piece in 1918...the German Empire was very new then and quite a few people remembered when large chunks of it had been independent countries, like Bavaria.

Comment from Arlena Arteaga Kelly on Facebook: The Americans would have hustled earlier than 1917, the war would certainly be more of a legacy at least for the Americans than a mere forgotten war, and perhaps Germany's attention would have been focused more on political unity post WWI.

Readers Comment Eric Lipps commented on 2010-09-10 01:01:56 ~ One would imagine that a Germany forcibly dvided by its foes would have been a hotbed of extremism, inless either held under tight control (as was East Germany after World War II) or essentially bribed with massive economic aid and political favors, as was West Germany in the same years. Also, I find it hard to believe that a battle for Paris would cost "hundreds of thousands of lives." Tens of thousands, maybe.

Readers Comment Scott Palter commented on 2010-09-10 01:17:15 ~ How does Kluck penetrate the Paris fortifications? Also what reinforcements The entire right wing was out of supply and essentially out of communication with OKH. The potential reinforcements went east for Masurian Lakes.

Readers Comment Stan Brin commented on 2010-09-10 06:54:57 ~ What if the Germans had halted their advance on Paris, and instead raced to the sea at Dunkirk? They would have split the French and the British, forced the British to evacuate...

Readers Comment Jeff Provine commented on 2010-09-10 16:21:34 ~ The trick here is keeping the right in communication with the rest. Kluck wheeled too far to meet the Allied advance, which was tactically the appropriate move but strategically disastrous. Although E Lipps is right about the life cost. I'll edit that as "casualties", which is along the right bounds with some half a million killed, wounded, captured, or missing in so many battles, like the Second of the Marne.

Comment from Norton James on Facebook: Historical assessments Treaty of Versailles "In his book The Economic Consequences of the Peace, Keynes referred to the Treaty of Versailles as a "Carthaginian peace", a misguided attempt to destroy Germany on behalf of French revanchism, rather than to follow the fairer principles for a lasting peace set out in President Woodrow Wilson's Fourteen Points, which Germany had accepted at the armistice. He stated: "I believe that the campaign for securing out of Germany the general costs of the war was one of the most serious acts of political unwisdom for which our statesmen have ever been responsible."[4] Keynes had been the principal representative of the British Treasury at the Paris Peace Conference, and used in his passionate book arguments that he and others (including some US officials) had used at Paris.[31] He believed the sums being asked of Germany in reparations were many times more than it was possible for Germany to pay, and that these would produce drastic instability.[32] French Resistance economist �tienne Mantoux disputed that analysis. During the 1940s, Mantoux wrote a book titled, "The Carthaginian Peace, or the Economic Consequences of Mr. Keynes" in an attempt to rebut Keynes' claims; it was published after his death. More recently it has been argued (for instance by historian Gerhard Weinberg in his book "A World At Arms"[33]) that the treaty was in fact quite advantageous to Germany. The Bismarckian Reich was maintained as a political unit instead of being broken up, and Germany largely escaped post-war military occupation (in contrast to the situation following World War II.) The British military historian Correlli Barnett claimed that the Treaty of Versailles was "extremely lenient in comparison with the peace terms Germany herself, when she was expecting to win the war, had had in mind to impose on the Allies". Furthermore, he claimed, it was "hardly a slap on the wrist" when contrasted with the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk that Germany had imposed on a defeated Russia in March 1918, which had taken away a third of Russia's population (albeit of non-Russian ethnicity), one half of Russia's industrial undertakings and nine-tenths of Russia's coal mines, coupled with an indemnity of six billion Marks.[34] Eventually, even under the "cruel" terms of the Treaty of Versailles, Germany's economy had been restored to its pre-war status. Barnett also claims that, in strategic terms, Germany was in fact in a superior position following the Treaty than she had been in 1914. Germany's eastern frontiers faced Russia and Austria, who had both in the past balanced German power. But Barnett asserts that, because the Austrian empire fractured after the war into smaller, weaker states and Russia was wracked by revolution and civil war, the newly restored Poland was no match for even a defeated Germany. In the West, Germany was balanced only by France and Belgium, both of which were smaller in population and less economically vibrant than Germany. Barnett concludes by saying that instead of weakening Germany, the Treaty "much enhanced" German power.[35] Britain and France should have (according to Barnett) "divided and permanently weakened" Germany by undoing Bismarck's work and partitioning Germany into smaller, weaker states so it could never disrupt the peace of Europe again.[36] By failing to do this and therefore not solving the problem of German power and restoring the equilibrium of Europe, Britain "had failed in her main purpose in taking part in the Great War".[37] Regardless of modern strategic or economic analysis, resentment caused by the treaty sowed fertile psychological ground for the eventual rise of the Nazi party. Indeed, on Nazi Germany's rise to power, Adolf Hitler resolved to overturn the remaining military and territorial provisions of the Treaty of Versailles. Military buildup began almost immediately in direct defiance of the Treaty, which, by then, had been destroyed by Hitler in front of a cheering crowd. "It was this treaty which caused a chain reaction leading to World War II," claimed historian Dan Rowling (1951). Various references to the treaty are found in many of Hitler's speeches and in pre-war Nazi propaganda.[citation needed] French historian Raymond Cartier points out that millions of Germans in the Sudetenland and in Posen-West Prussia were placed under foreign rule in a hostile environment, where harassment and violation of rights by authorities are documented.[38] Cartier asserts that, out of 1,058,000 Germans in Posen-West Prussia in 1921, 758,867 fled their homelands within five years due to Polish harassment.[38] In 1926, the Polish Ministry of the Interior estimated the remaining number of Germans at less than 300,000.[citation needed] These sharpening ethnic conflicts would lead to public demands of reattaching the annexed territory in 1938 and become a pretext for Hitler's annexations of Czechoslovakia and parts of Poland.[38]" Wk

Comment from Margo Barotta on Facebook: the german and french had a long history of wars from the prussian empire until adolf hitler regime.and if paris was captured by the german army in 1914 i think she will had the same destiny of alsace &loraine region .

In 2008, a twenty-five year journey through tragedy and suffering finally ended on a high note of personal triumph for Benezir Bhutto's husband, the so-called "Black Widower" Asif Ali Zardari (pictured) who assumed office on this day as the first President of the newly independent state of Sindhistan.

The War on Terror Plus, Part 1 ~ The Triumph of the Black WidowerResponding to criticism that she had married below her station, Prime Minister Bhutto had separated her personal and professional lives by indicating that "[Asif] will not be involved in my political career at all, and I have no intention of visiting his cement works in Karachi". Zardari himself recognised the even greater gulf in their leadership abilities with the Pakistani proverb that "The camel only finds out that there is something taller than him when he comes beneath a mountain".

Zarari served in his wife's cabinet as the Minister of Investment; accused of bribery and corruption he was unfairly labelled "Mr Ten Percent". And by the time Bhutto returned from exile in October 2007, Zardari had been incarcerated at Karachi Central Prison for eleven and a half of the previous eighteen years. Badly tortured, her husband had collected a sickle-like scar on his tongue, a slashing wound by his jugular vein and severe back injuries from being repeatedly struck by a rifle butt.

When Bhutto's family and supporters buried her, Sindhis chanted, "We don't need Pakistan! We don't need Pakistan!".And that political violence was hardly exceptional - the country that Bhutto returned to was already teetering on the edge of the abyss. Because American actions in Afghanistan had forced the Taliban to regroup over the border in Pakistan. Even worse was to follow. On 27th December, Bhutto herself was assassinated.

Pakistan burned for days with the the worst rioting occurring in the couple's home province of Sindh.

When Bhutto's family and supporters buried her, Sindhis chanted, "We don't need Pakistan! We don't need Pakistan!". And this nationalist sentiment was clear from Bhutto's handwritten will "I would like my husband Asif Ali Zardari to lead my people in the interim period until you [the Sindhis] and he decide what is best. I say this because he is a man of courage and honour. He spent 11 1/2 years in prison without bending despite torture. He has the political stature to keep our people united".

At one of the most volatile and dangerous moments in the country's history, Zardari led a Sindhi revolt, pushing Pakistan over the brink and into the abyss of dissolution. Sixty years after he had founded the "Fortress of Islam", Mohammed Jinnah's national dream for Pakistan ended in a most frightful nightmare.

Entry posted by Todayinah Editor

© "The Black Widower" by Nicholas Schmidle, New America Foundation published in the The New Republic on March 18, 2009
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Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: War on Terror Plus Source: New Republic Labels: Asif Ali Zardari, Benezir Bhutto, Pakistan, Sindhis, Black Widower.

Todayinah Editor Editor says, our point of divergence is Zardari's response to the funeral, in OTL he is said to have led Pakistan away from the brink of disaster.
According to the Pakistan People's Party (PPP), Bhutto's will allegedly said ~ "I would like my husband Asif Ali Zardari to lead you in the interim period until you and he decide what is best. I say this because he is a man of courage and honour. He spent 11 1/2 years in prison without bending despite torture. He has the political stature to keep our party united."

Readers Comment David Atwell commented on 2009-05-08 23:15:56 ~ I wonder if it would be dissolution as I'd dare say it would be more like bloody civil war. Just a word play I know, but still... I do hope it never ends up that way for Pakistan

Readers Comment Eric Oppen commented on 2009-05-09 01:21:51 ~ It would be interesting if both Pakistan and India dissolved into smaller states, wouldn't it?

In 2003, on this day Paul Bremer's ill-fated tenure as the Head of the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) came to an abrupt end when he was fired for abrogating the terms of his Presidential appointment letter which instructed him to work under the "authority, direction and control of the Secretary of Defense". Relieved

The tension of ill-defined reporting lines had finally snapped with the publication of Bremer's Seven Step Plan for the full path to Sovereignty in the Washington Post the previous day. The article, which had not been cleared by his boss Donald Rumsfeld, proposed an irrational change of mission from liberation to occupation that had absolutely no support whatsover at the Pentagon ~ "Elections are the obvious solution to restoring sovereignty. But at the present elections are simply not possible. There are no election rolls, no election law, no political parties law and no electoral districts". Bremer had created a paradox at the heart of American policy - the liberated nation was demanding democracy, and the United States appeared to be blocking early elections.

In War and Decision - Inside the Pentagon at Dawn of the War on Terrorism (2008), the former Under Secretary of Defence for Policy Douglas Feith recollects ~ " Readers may be puzzled that Bremer did not maintain a tigher connection between himself and Rumsfeld, .. Bremer however, had created elbow room for himself. Having been told by Rumsfeld that he could feel free to talk with the other Principals whenever he thought it would be useful, Bremer began frequent contacts with Rice, which evolved into the daily telephone calls that Bremer refers to repeatedly in his book. Rice came to play such a major role in managing the Administration's relations with the CPA that she obtained authority from President Bush to create a new apparatus called the Stabilization Group".

An article in the Washington Times would later report that "Inside the State Department and in some offices in the White House, the decision to create the Stablization Group has been interpreted as a direct effort to diminish the authority of the Pentagon and Mr Rumsfeld in the next phase of the occupation. A senior White House official remarked 'Don recognises that this is not what the Pentagon does best, and he is, in some ways, relieved to give up some of the authority here'".

Feith continued ~ "Yet Rumsfeld was not able to get the formal chain of command altered. On paper, Bremer continued to work for Rumsfeld, though in fact he never really did, and he did less and less over time. Bremer came to report to a number of people, which meant that he effectively had no boss. This, believed Rumsfeld, was not how the interagency process was supposed to work".

The recent news of sadistic prisoner absuses by US soldiers had hit Rumsfeld hard. Very hard. Far from feeling relieved of responsibility, and by nature a determined problem-solver, Rumsfeld took the only course of action readily available to him and relieved Bremer of duty.

Of course "Jerry" had a different perspective, a narrower disciplinary view - believing that a high level of autonomy was a prerequisite for crisis management to succeed. Before rejoining government in 2003, Bremer had been Chairman and CEO of Marsh Crisis Consulting and he had every intention of resuming this executive role upon his return. First however he would to set the record straight, and again via the media regardless of the Pentagon's wishes. His ungrateful bosses needed to be reminded why they had chosen a crisis management expert to head the CPA, and that could only be achieved by describing the crisis in the bleakest possible terms to justify his conviction that the country was not ready for elections. In so doing, Bremer would lay bare his own messianic complex.

So on the return flight, Bremer fired up his laptop and wrote the first sentences of what would later become the apocalyptically named Chapter One - "Chaos" of his testament, The Struggle to Build a Future of Hope which begins ~ "As the Air Force C-130 banked above the curve of the River, I twisted in the sling seat and stared out the circular window of the cargo bay. The capital stretched north between the right wing. Dark smoke colums rose in the afternoon sun. I counted three, five .. seven. Pyongyang was burning".

Entry posted by Todayinah Editor

© Dougas Feith, War and Decision - Inside the Pentagon at Dawn of the War on Terrorism (2008), L. Paul Bremer My Year in Iraq: The Struggle to Build a Future of Hope (2006)
Story Tags Click on the hyperlinked metadata to surf the site!

Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Alternate Nations Source: PBS Labels: Paul Bremer, Condoleeza Rice, George W. Bush, Donald Rumsfeld, War on Terror.

Todayinah Editor Editor says, Feith's book takes the view that Bremer's initial refusal to hand over power to an appointed rather than elected authority after two years was a big mistake. Ultimately, Bremer did hand over power to an appointed authority that kept to the election timetable after all.

Readers Comment Eric Oppen commented on 2009-03-01 07:18:47 ~ So this is an AH where we're at war with/in North Korea instead of Iraq? Interesting! I wonder what would happen if we got proof that Osama's strings were being pulled by the Norks?

Readers Comment Eric Lipps commented on 2009-03-02 22:04:14 ~ My question is, how did we get there? Did we had, or think we have, proof that North Korea was amassing a WMD arsenal and was on the verge of attacking its neighbors? Was there some belief that Pyongyang was behind Sept. 11?

Readers Comment Jeff Provine commented on 2011-09-07 15:26:33 ~ There's some pretty obvious collections of weapons in North Korea, probably more so than even Iraq's chemical warhead supply. Why not?

Readers Comment Mike commented on 2011-09-07 19:00:32 ~ North Korea? Where did that come from? The invasion of 2003 was Iraq. ???

Readers Comment Eric Lipps commented on 2011-09-07 23:29:57 ~ The key to my earlier comment was the phrase "and was on the verge of attacking its neighbors." Invading North Korea would have been a much tougher go than going into Iraq, whose army we already knew was a pushover for the U.S. military. We'd have had to have a major justification for making that sort of effort.

In 2001, Fox News Network reports that U.S. military planes are secretly landing at night in the Central Asian nations of Uzbekistan and Tajikistan.

Vice-President Joseph Lieberman, pressed to comment by reporters in the wake of the Fox report, will deny that President Al Gore is contemplating military action in Afghanistan. He goes on to say, "If we were planning an operation of that sort, Fox News would be irresponsible to report it. Doing so would compromise national security and risk American lives".Rumours by Eric LippsIt is a neat reversal, since in the wake of the downing of Flight 93 and the subsequent revelations that the doomed plane had been hijacked as part of a much broader planned Al Qaeda attack the Fox network has been loudly berating the Gore Administration for its alleged failure to protect U.S. national security. However, the Vice-President's words do nothing to quash the rumors. Denials from Tashkent and Dushanbe are no more effective than those being issued in Washington.

President Gore will privately call Fox News president Roger Ailes to complain about the report. However, Ailes, a hard-line conservative Republican who publicly stated in the wake of the Supreme Court's controversial 5-to-4 decision in Gore's favor in Bush v. Gore that he believed the Court had allowed the Democrats to "steal the White House", informs him that he stands by his employees. "Our job is to report the news, not help the government cover it up", he says self-righteously.

Gore is in a weak position to continue the argument because the Fox report is essentially correct. However, he is determined to ensure that there will be no further leaks of this kind.

	On this day in 1953, Kim Il Sung testified in his own defense at his war crimes trial.

Kim Il Sung

US President	On this day in 1945, Colonel Francis Urquhart was honorably discharged from the US Army.

Francis Urquhart

On this day in 1960, the Boston Patriots lost to the Denver Broncos 14-10 in Weeb Ewbank's regular season debut as head coach.	Coach

	Ewbank Weeb

	In 1811, realizing that he is dangerously overextended now that other nations have begun taking England's side, Napoleon dispatches diplomatic envoys to a number of nations in search of allies of his own. In addition, he directs that agents be sent to Quebec and Louisiana to stir up pro-French sentiment and, if possible, rebellion.

Napoleon Bonaparte

The French emperor's efforts will be insufficient to ignote a full-scale rebellion, but his exploitation of simmering discontent among the French-speaking inhabitants of Quebec Province will lead to the creation in 1814 of the Front Nationale de Quebec, an underground political and paramilitary group. Continuing British military rule proves to be a powerful recruiting tool for the FNQ, which, although unable to mount a new full-scale rebellion, will embark on a campaign of murder, sabotage and intimidation against the British authorities - and their Quebecois collaborators, whom the Front labels 'traitors.'

	On this day in 1944, American troops in Belgium liberated Malmedy.

FEMA Dir.	On this day in 1947, President Truman nominated industrial magnate Henry J. Kaiser as FEMA's first director.

Henry J. Kaiser

In 1992, the federal Resolution Trust Corporation launches an investigation of the Whitewater Development Corporation, the real estate venture at the center of one of the scandals which had helped derail Bill Clinton's run for the Democratic presidential nomination. The RTC had been nervous about appearing to intervene in a presidential election. However, with Governor Clinton's defeat in the Democratic primary contest, that has ceased to be a concern.	Pres. Nominee

	Bill Clinton

	In 2011, on this day CSI creator Jerry Bruckheimer announced that casting had begun for a feature film adaptation of the long-running TV crime drama.

Jerry Bruckenheimer

In 1804, newly installed Acting President Thomas Jefferson succeeds in persuading fellow Southerners in Congress to end their blocking of funds for transforming Columbia College into a national university. In doing so, he plays heavily on sympathy for the slain President Hamilton, choosing to gloss over his own differences with his predecessor.	US President

	Thomas Jefferson

In 1982, Princess Grace of Monaco recovers from injuries she suffered in a car accident. It could have been much worse, as her car almost toppled off of one of Monaco's mountain roads.

In 1919, reactionary Socialist governor Calvin Coolidge of Massachusetts attempted to call out the National Guard to end the Boston Police Strike. The Brotherhood of Police Officers had called the strike to protest Coolidge's anti-labor attitudes. When the Massachusetts Guard received the order from Governor Coolidge, Colonel Samuel R. Trask of the Guard refused to obey it, and the strike eventually brought down Coolidge's administration.

In 1228, Hindi poet/dramatist Harishchandra was born in India. The Rajahs allowed him much leeway due to his spectacular talent, but he finally went too far in his heresies. After the publication of Allah shall bow to Vishnu in 1252, he was seized and stoned to death.

In 1585, Cardinal Jean Richelieu, advisor to Pope James I of the Holy British Empire, was born in Paris. Richelieu was considered by many to be the most powerful Prime Minister the Empire has ever known; in many ways, James was just a figurehead. However, the Red Cardinal had made many enemies during his years as James' red right hand, and on James' death, Richelieu was deposed by James' successor, Charles.

In 1972, Elvis Presley was convicted of the murder of karate instructor Mike Stone, a mutual acquaintance who had an affair with his 'wild child' wife Priscilla Beaulieu. In confessing the crime, Elvis raged obsessively: 'There's too much pain in me... Mike Stone [must] die. In her book 'Elvis and Me', Priscilla said that she was too humiliated to reveal the whole truth to the world during the trial. Presley, having learned of the second affair with her karate instructor, forced himself on her in his Las Vegas hotel room, telling her, 'This is how a real man makes love to a woman.'

In 2000, protestant preacher Francisco Ortiz said the increasing activities of the chupacabra was a 'wake-up call' heralding the end of the world. For centuries, Central Americans have spoken of a mysterious and terrible vampire-like creature that roams the countryside, slaying livestock by sucking out their blood. The chupacabra creatures are said to attack their victims at night, leaving a trail of carcasses with their throats torn out. These remains are said to be of a chupacabra Despite the stories, and many people's unshakeable belief in the chupacabras, nobody has ever been able to find any material evidence - until now.

In 1791, the capital city of the newly formed British North American Union was officially named 'Georgestown'. Out of modesty, neither King George III nor General George Washington never referred to it as such, preferring to call it 'the Capital City'. They did however commission Gainsborough to paint The Two Georges, the famous depiction of their historic agreement.

In 1791, the capital city of the newly independent United States of America was officially named 'Arnoldsville'. Out of modesty, Benedict Arnold never referred to it as such, preferring to call it 'the Federal City'.

In 1739, Stono Rebellion, the largest slave uprising in Britain's mainland North American colonies prior to the American Revolution, erupted near Charleston, South Carolina. Jemmy, the leader of the revolt, was a literate slave who had correctly identified this final chance for freedom. On September 29, the Security Act of 1739 would take effect requiring all white males to carry arms on Sundays. Three other factors led to Jemmy's success; a yellow fever epidemic had weakened the power of slave holders, there was talk of a war between Britain and Spain, and accounts of slaves who had obtained their freedom by escaping to Spanish-controlled Florida gave the Carolinian slaves hope.

In 1898, Empress Elizabeth of Austria was assassinated by anarchist Luigi Lucheni. Despite hostile diplomatic exchanges, the locking treaties between the Great Powers were not yet fully in place, and a general European War was narrowly averted. Determined efforts were made over the next decade and a half to eliminate sources of tension in Europe to prevent the continent descending into anarchy. Speaking in 1914, British Foreign Minister Edward Grey said that without this perverse twist of fate, the 'lights would have gone out throughout Europe, and we might not have seen them again in our lifetime'.

September 8

In 1380, on this day the unstopppable advance of the Tatar-Mongol Golden Horde continued at the Battle of Kulikovo Field with the defeat of combined Russian armies under the command of Dmitry of the Don.

Dmitry of the Don falls at the Battle of Kulikovo The battle was opened by a single combat of two champions and and inauspiciously for the Russians their man (Alexander Peresvet, a monk from the Trinity Abbey) was killed and fell from his saddle. He was soon followed by Dmitry who had exchanged his armor with young Moscow boyarin Mikhail Brenok, in order to pretend to be an ordinary knight. Brenok was to imitate the Prince himself, bearing his banner and wearing his armor. However the trick was unsuccessful and they both perished.

The Russians, having suffered great casaulties, withdrew from the field under the command of Dmitry's cousin, Vladimir, Prince of Serpukhov.

Entry posted by Todayinah Editor

Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Generals Source: Wikipedia Labels: Dmitry of the Don, Tartar, Mongol, Moscow, Russia.

Todayinah Editor Editor says, in reality it was a decisive victory for Dmitri, securing the title of Grand Duke after the Moscow faction plus the first historical mention of Russia as an independent country. We have repurposed content from Wikipedia to prepare this article.

Readers Comment Jeff Provine commented on 2012-09-14 16:37:41 ~ Russia continues to be a series of vassal states for a long time to come? Maybe all the north and central Europeans who tried to conquer it might have been more successful.

Readers Comment H. Torrance Griffin commented on 2012-09-14 21:23:01 ~ The rise of Gunpowder Warfare means that, unless the Golden Horde properly assimilates or develops settled areas where such forces can be provided, either a Russian princeling or the Ottomans eventually become their effective overlords

Readers Comment Eric Oppen commented on 2012-09-15 07:03:33 ~ Russia never forms?

In 1131, on this day the magnates of England renewed their oaths to the Empress Matilda (so-called because of her marriage to Henry V, Holy Roman Emperor).

The Anarchy The nineteen year winter "When Christ and his saints slept"When her father King Henry I died four years later their re-consideration of the renewed mandate might have led to a usurpation but luckily the "Anjevins" (Matilda and her new husband Geoffrey of Anjou) had recently returned to the Normal Court. Ultimately they prevailed and the magnates decided to overlook a rival bid from Stephen De Blois, the nephew of the late monarch who enjoyed the support of the Barony.

Ironically in the White Ship Disaster of 1120, De Blois himself had almost drowned along with Henry's son and Matilda's only sibling William Adelin. The result of that tragedy was the inevitability of the succession crisis of 1135, a dynastic struggle between the two grandchildren of William the Conqueror: Matilda, the only surviving child, and the late King's nephew Stephen. William of Malmesbury wrote: "No ship ever brought so much misery to England".

Despite the military feats of the Anjevins, "Good Queen Maude" was quite unable to prevent the Norman state from breaking up. The various armes in the field causing carnage included her uncle King David I of Scotland, Welsh rebels and of course De Blois and the Barony.

When the Barons siezed Winchester, the magnates were forced to turn to De Blois' son Eustace in the desperate hope that he could lead the anarchic nation out of Civil War.

Entry posted by Todayinah Editor

Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Politicians Source: Wikipedia Labels: Matilda, Stephen De Blois, Henry I, Platagenet, Anjou.

Todayinah Editor Editor says, in reality "The Anarchy" was the result of weaknesses in the Norman State that would lead to Civil War. Even though in OTL Stephen ascended to the crown in 1135, on his death six years later, Matilda was able to briefly reclaim the throne. More significantly she enabled her son to become Henry II and establish the Plantagent Dynasty.

Readers Comment Jeff Provine commented on 2011-10-02 23:40:36 ~ If England got stability back together and had heirs clear, 1066 might've been just another year.

Readers Comment Eric Oppen commented on 2011-10-03 01:51:20 ~ She'd been _married_ to the Emperor, not just betrothed...and part of her problem was that she never got over having been a real live Empress. Fixed - thanks. Ed And it's the "Norman" Court, not the "Normal" court. Fixed - thanks. Ed

In 1938, on this day the twenty-third President of the Confederate States Samuel Augustus Nunn, Jr. was born in Macon, Georgia.

Samuel A. Nunn, Jr.
20^th Confederate President
March 4, 1987 - 1993Sam Nunn is an Confederate lawyer and politician who served as the 23rd President of the Confederate States. Currently the co-chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the Nuclear Threat Initiative (NTI), a charitable organization working to reduce the global threats from nuclear, biological and chemical weapons, Nunn served for 14 years as a Confederate Senator from Georgia (1972 until 1986) as a member of the Democratic Party before switching to the Constitution Party to run for president in 1986. His record as a moderate Democrat in a party shifting to the ideological left had lead him to believe he could do more good as a Constitutionist. To the surprise of many he succeeded, and was elected in November of 1986. A new article from the "Two Americas" thread on Althistory Wikia

As president he was known for his efforts to keep the southern border of the CS clear of criminal efforts of Mexican drug traffickers. The largely Hispanic population of the border states had made them a destination for a constant flow of immigrants from Mexico and other Central American countries. As a result of their formerly Mexican heritage these states retained over 90 percent of the immigrants, providing a temperate climate for a thriving tourist business. However, there was a thriving drug trade as well! With hostilities in Central America reduced considerably in the 80's, the drug trade had picked up in the Hispanic states. Because of his duty in the CS Coast Guard during the War, Nunn had knowledge of the danger of drug runners on the Gulf of Mexico. The use of the standing Armed Forces, though, proved an even better deterrent than the Coast Guard. Nunn had been able to convince his Chiefs of Staff that Confederate troops were of better use at home than abroad, leading to a shift in international responsibilities in the rest of the world.

In the US, president George Bush would direct the movement of troops in the Arabian and Mediterranean theaters to move in to replace Confederate troops as they withdrew. As a result of these changes, the flareups in the Middle East became an "American" problem. When oil supplies began to be a problem, Nunn provided incentives for greater activity in the CS Southwest and in the Gulf. Oil trade with the US would suffer a bit, but by 1995, world oil prices had stabilized and the economies of both countries were on the rise again.
The whole alternate biography is available Althistory Wiki.

Entry posted by Guest Historian

Alt Wikia

Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Two Americas Source: Althistory Wikia Labels: Sam Nunn, Richmond, Presidency, Confederacy, Election.

Readers Comment Brian Wall commented on 2011-03-24 14:58:19 ~ Maybe its just me, but something is off with this one. Nunn is a US Senator from 1972 to 86, as a Democrat, leaves that party, then becomes president of a different country? Either you meant to have him as a CS Senator who switches parties before his election as president of the CSA, or you left out something from your timeline. Fixed - thanks. Ed

Readers Comment Jeff Provine commented on 2011-03-24 16:55:49 ~ Wonder what college becomes the Yale of the South for presidents to attend. Vanderbilt's got its claim as Harvard.

Readers Comment Eric Lipps commented on 2011-03-25 11:31:27 ~ There's no reason Nunn couldn't have ben a Democrat, if the party had survived in the South after secession. Nothing in the post suggests he served as a *U.S.* senator. A more serious issue is that Nunn wouldn't have served from 1972 to '86, as Confederate elections were held in what would be off years in the U.S. Jefferson Davis, for example, was elected president of the CSA in 1861, after serving as "provisional" president.

Readers Comment Brian Wall commented on 2011-03-25 16:04:12 ~ Eric, when first posted Nunn was listed as a US Senator, which drew my comment. It was just a typo and it was fixed to read as it does now.

In 1492, on this day a fishing boat north of the Canary Islands spotted a man clinging to a barrel in the midst of waves. They managed to him aboard, and, after several hours' rest, the delirious man told his story, saying that the small fleet sent with the Italian Cristoforo Colombo had met with disaster.

Survivor of Columbus Expedition Found He gave a wild tale of an enormous sea serpent destroying the ships, a tale which he continued relating after returning to the taverns of the Canaries in trade for drinks.

A new story by Jeff ProvineWhile some superstitious sailors believed the stories, others were suspicious of the Portuguese caravels that had been spotted nearby. Portugal denied any involvement, but the caravels had disappeared shortly after Columbus. Other rumors suspected a sudden storm while still more suggested that the man had simply jumped ship. However, as winter came and years passed, it was obvious that Columbus and his ships were not going to return.

Christopher's brother Bartholomew Columbus continued to press the French King Charles VIII to support an expedition even after Christopher's disappearance, but the French had lost the Italian War and incurred major debts. Moving along, the younger Columbus returned to England where Henry VII had once offered marginal support for the lost expedition, but too late as Christopher had already promised to sail for Isabella and Spain. After several years, Bartholomew managed to convince Henry to give £50 toward the expedition, which was more than the Royal Council advised. Taking whatever he could get, Bartholomew followed the pledge with gathering pledges from others while stressing that they would please the king because of their support.

In 1499, in a single, well-stocked ship called Mary, Bartholomew set sail from Bristol and headed southwest, following the wind and mimicking his lost brother's course. While he dreamed of finding Christopher perhaps shipwrecked or living on some paradisaical island, no evidence of the former expedition was found. Instead, they came across a chain of islands that Bartholomew initially took for Japan. After comparing the local Carib with what he and the other sailors knew of the Japanese, Bartholomew realized that they had come across something wholly uncharted.

After a lengthy stay charting the islands, Columbus's men discovered natives willing to trade gold on a large island they would call Anglandia. Leaving a station of eight men to build a fort, Columbus loaded his ship with spices, gold, and local goods and returned to England by a northern route. Upon his return in 1502, Columbus was knighted and granted governorship of this "New England" as well as promises for handsome rewards as trade became lucrative.

Within a few years, England began domination of the Caribbean. The Portuguese would launch their own expeditions with noted cartographer Amerigo Vespucci more to the south, while the Spanish would directly challenge the English by settling northward. Henry VIII dedicated his rule to securing the west, fighting numerous naval wars until finally dominating North Columbia above the Isthmus with a treaty giving South Columbia to the Portuguese. The Dutch and Spanish would have minor colonies while France went far north to monopolize the fur-trade.

Upon the conquest of the Aztecs by Sir Walter Raleigh, the English found themselves with a seemingly unending source of income from the Columbias. The resulting wealth fueled the growing problems between Protestants and Catholics as well as Parliamentarians and Royalists, tearing the country apart over the course of the seventeenth century. In the eighteenth century, the English Golden Age would come to an end, eclipsed by growing French, Portuguese, and Dutch supremacy.

Entry posted by Guest Historian

Jeff Provine

Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Jeff Provine Blog Source: Jeff Provine’s Blog Labels: America, Columbus, United States, Span, Discovery.

Todayinah Editor Editor says, in reality Christopher Columbus's expedition west would fail to find a route to Asia but succeed in discovering the Western Hemisphere. Spain grew mighty with American gold, though its investment in wars against Protestants, specifically the Dutch, would give no lasting base for Spanish power. Later British settlement in North America as well as in Africa and Asia would contribute to the nation becoming the World Power of the nineteenth century.

Readers Comment H. Torrance Griffin commented on 2010-09-08 16:41:10 ~ England would use the influx of Gold more effectively than Castille (between having not run much of it's merchant classes out and not having multiple continental wars to blow it on), but not by a whole lot, and the settlement patterns in Mesoamerica will not be all that much different.

Readers Comment Eric Oppen commented on 2010-09-08 16:53:34 ~ I was wondering about that sea serpent.

Readers Comment Kirk Edwards commented on 2010-09-08 17:17:46 ~ Intriguing .

Readers Comment Stan Brin commented on 2010-09-08 21:06:32 ~ Actually, the Spanish would have been uninterested in North America because it lacked the gold and silver they needed to finance their European ambitions. On the contrary, the English would still have been interested in colonies in the colder climates because of their fondness for cod. The English would never have allowed the Spanish to control the Grand Banks and other cod fishing regions while the Spanish would not have considered it worth fighting for.

Readers Comment Eric Lipps commented on 2010-09-09 00:16:10 ~ I've read that Columbus' crew had come within a day or two of mutinying to force him to turn back when land was finally sighted. A sliughtly slower wind might have made all the difference.

Comment from Ahmad Desai on Facebook: I think the Portuguese would have gotten there had Columbus failed. The other European countries were years behind Portugal as far as naval skills were concerned. Columbus was a free agent. He could just as easily have represented England or France...I guess it might have been a very different world linguistically if he had.

Comment from Norton James on Facebook: In 1483, Columbus approached the royal court of Portugal and presented his idea to King John II but King John rejected it

Comment from Norton James on Facebook: Maybe French or British pirates would have gotten there

Comment from Norton James on Facebook: 'Vicente Yanez Pinzon (Palos de la Frontera, Spain, c. 1462 - after 1514) was a Spanish navigator, explorer, and conquistador, the youngest of the Pinzon brothers. Along with his older brother Martin Alonso Pinzon who captained the Pinta, he sailed with Christopher Columbus on the first voyage to the New World in 1492, as captain of Nina. In 1499 Pinzon sailed to the South American coast. Carried by a strong storm, he reached the north coast of what today is Brazil on January 26, 1500. Pinzon disembarked on the shore called Praia do Paraiso, in present-day Cabo de Santo Agostinho of the state of Pernambuco. According to the Treaty of Tordesillas (1494) between Spain and Portugal, Spain could make no claim, but the place was named Cabo de Santa Maria de la Consolacion by Pinzon. He also sighted the Amazon River and ascended to a point about fifty miles from the sea.[10] He called it the "Rio Santa Maria de la Mar Dulce", thus becoming the first explorer to discover an estuary of the Amazon River. Pinzon is considered the discoverer of the Oiapoque River. In 1505, Pinzon was named commander-in-chief and 'corregidor' of the city of Puerto Rico, now called San Juan. This was to be the first step in the colonization of the island called Borinquen by its inhabitants and San Juan Bautista by the Spanish (now called Puerto Rico). However, Pinzon did not fulfill this commission.[11] In 1508, he travelled with Juan Diaz de Solis to South America. No record exists of Pinzon after 1514. On November 19, 1999, a monument to his memory was dedicated in Palos de la Frontera, Spain, on the occasion of the fifth centenary of the discovery of Brazil and of the brotherhood with the city Cabo de Santo Agostinho.' Wk

In 1974, in a special address from the Oval Office on this day, President Gerald Ford announced that "I have come to a decision which I felt I should tell you and all of my fellow American citizens, as soon as I was certain in my own mind and in my own conscience that it is the right thing to do". Because a two-page typed transcript known as Proclamation 4311 ordered legal proceedings to commence immediately against disgraced former President Richard M.Nixon. Click to watch the address

Co-Presidency Part 1: Proclamation 4311 The previous month, Nixon had been forced to resign the presidency amid the Watergate scandal. His successor, then Vice President Gerald R. Ford had privately agreed to issue a full pardon for any crimes that Nixon might have committed while in office.

Yet since taking office, Ford had been placed under immense pressure to allow the legal processes begun by the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives and the U.S. Supreme Court to play out. And in his own heart, Ford had come to realise that America could not heal unless Nixon was sent to jail. Put simply, the nation now accepted that Nixon was despite his denials, a crook. Click to watch the Press Conference

Ford justified his decision of conscience with a bold appeal to his own constitutional authority, declaring that "The Constitution is the supreme law of our land and it governs our actions as citizens. Only the laws of God, which govern our consciences, are superior to it. As we are a nation under God, so I am sworn to uphold our laws with the help of God".

"The Constitution is the supreme law of our land and it governs our actions as citizens. Only the laws of God, which govern our consciences, are superior to it. As we are a nation under God, so I am sworn to uphold our laws with the help of God".The decision to charge Nixon would create the controversial public spectacle of private citizen Nixon going on trial and also likely ended Ford's chances for re-election to the presidency in 1976. Both the decision and its timing came under severe criticism. The charge was announced by Ford on a Sunday morning, taking advantage of an off-beat time for Washington newsmakers in an attempt to minimize the initial political fallout. It was a vain attempt, however, as the decision caused a firestorm of anger in the press and indignation among those who wanted to see Nixon receive a full pardon.

Although the initial reaction to the charge was overwhelmingly negative, in recent years many original opponents of the pardon have reconsidered Ford's decision. On May 21, 2001, President Ford received the John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award at the Kennedy Library. Speaking on this occasion, Caroline Kennedy Schlossberg said of President Ford, "As President, he made a controversial decision of conscience to charge former President Nixon and end the trauma of Watergate. In doing so, he placed his love of country ahead of his own political future".

Entry posted by Todayinah Editor

Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Co presidency Source: eHistoryBuff Labels: Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, Watergate, America, Conspiracy.

Todayinah Editor Editor says, June 2009 edition of US News reports that "Today, historians see the pardon [of Richard Nixon] as a legitimate move to heal the nation [after Watergate], which was Ford's explanation in the first place". But what if Gerry Ford's decision of conscience was reversed and yet his own future was unchanged? Please note the views expressed in this post do not reflect those of the author. Substantial amounts of content have been repurposed from both the History Place and also eHistoryBuff.com.

Readers Comment Eric Oppen commented on 2009-06-26 05:31:33 ~ I'm not sure what the charges would have been...and Nixon, on trial, could have pointed out at great length that he'd done nothing that the sainted Kennedy hadn't done. (Bugging, income-tax fooling, etc.)

Readers Comment Chris Oakley commented on 2009-06-26 14:53:32 ~ Be interesting to see who Nixon's defense attorney would have been...

Readers Comment Eric Lipps commented on 2009-06-26 17:12:03 ~ Not sure what you mean by "income-tax fooling" on Kennedy's part. In Nixon's case, tjhe problem was that he had directed to IRS to harass his political enemies. I'm unaware of any such actions of President Kennedy's part. Also as far as I know, Kennedy didn't have his campaign operatives bug Nixon campaign HQ in 1960, as Nixon did to the Democrats in 1972. I suspect that Ford would never have taken this action in the first place, since it appears Nixon tapped Ford to replace the disgraced Spiro Agnew as vice-president in echange for a promise that if Nixon himself went down Ford would protect him. The two men had a history: in 1964, then-Representative Ford was appointed to the Warren Commission at the insistence of former Vice-President Nixon. (Inteestingly, Leon Jaworski, the man Nixon picked to replace special prosecutor Archibald Cox after his notorious firing, had been in charge of the state of Texas' own investigation into JFK's assassination.)

Readers Comment Scott Palter commented on 2009-09-09 06:28:59 ~ Would have loved this. I always wanted to see if insanity was a defense in a criminal tax proceeding as absent that they had Nixon cold

Readers Comment Kirk Edwards commented on 2010-10-26 20:44:39 ~ Ford would have been a stronger candidate in'76.His pardon was held against him.

Readers Comment Eric Lipps commented on 2010-10-27 00:26:56 ~ Unfortunately for Ford, he was damned either way. Liberals and moderates might have approved, but conservatives would never have forgiven him--and he needed them even to win the nomination, let alone the election.

Readers Comment Jeff Provine commented on 2010-10-28 16:45:52 ~ Nixon under trial may have been able to exonerate himself with wily plays, giving him a very different legacy than the ex-president who had to be pardoned. A two-decades early Clinton, perhaps.

In 1759, this day marked the withdrawal of the substantial British-American forces which had besieged the City of Quebec for three months. With the onset of fall, British Commanders had grown sufficiently desperate enough to attempt a dangerous amphibious landing at L'Anse-au-Foulon, a cove situated southwest of the city. But whilst scaleing the fifty metre cliffs, French-Canadian-Native forces had been alerted by the double agents upon whose intelligence the British had chosen the site, and the assault was repelled.

Fly the White FlagAs the British-American forces withdrew, Quebec's defenders celebrated a great victory by waiving white flags, the colour of the Bourbon Monarchy in France. Because the whole of the St Lawrence Region had been to mobilized in order to defend the future of Canada.

Conversely, the outcome was a bitter disappointment to Jeffrey Amherst, the Supreme Commander of British Forces in North America. Whilst the original aim of the Seven Years War had been to simply to occupy the Ohio Valley, by 1758 Amherst was charged with no less a task than the conquest of Canada.

"To the best of my knowledge and ability, I have fixed upon that spot where we can act with most force and are most likely to succeed. If I am mistaken I am sorry for it and must be answerable to His Majesty and the public for the consequences"The transfer of vast forces to North America, by both Great Britain resulted in an unprecedented clash of the two rival empires. By the time of the amphibious assault on the French Fortress of Louisbourg, the Royal Navy had committed seventy vessels, twenty-four ships of the line, nineteen frigates, sloops and fireships plus one hundred and thirty transports carrying thirteen thousand men and two thousand pieces of ordinance. "Who would not go to Hell, to hear such music for half an hour?" ~ British sergeantOf course the defeat at Louisbourg was a catastrophe for Amherst's plans. But in fact, three boats did make it to a rocky inlet unprotected by French fire and secured a beach head. But the one hundred and fifty marines led by Brigadier James Wolfe and Master James Cook were defeated by troops sent by French Governor Augustin Drucour, who correctly guessed the small size of the landing force. And so neither of these uniquely talented officers were alive for the final showdown at Quebec City one year later.

"[Quiberon Bay] is the graveyard of our navy, the ruin of all our hopes" ~ King George II of EnglandUnbeknown to Amherst, but suspected by the more astute members of the War Office in London, British Forces had been recklessly overcommitted to overseas engagements. And this imperial overstretch would have truly catastrophic consequences for the British Empire. Because on November 20th, the home fleet of British admiral Sir Edward Hawke was destroyed off the French coast at Quiberon Bay. Sealanes to the British Isles were undefended, and a force of just fourteen thousand regulars stood between the Pretender Charles and the restoration of the House of Stuart.

Entry posted by Todayinah Editor

© D. Peter Macleod, "Northern Armageddon: The Battle of the Plains of Abraham" (2008), "D-day at Louisbourg" by AJB Johnston published in the June/July 2008 Edition Canadian Beaver Magazine
Story Tags Click on the hyperlinked metadata to surf the site!

Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Alternate Nations Source: Wikipedia Labels: James Wolfe, Quebec, Montcalm, North America, Plains of Abraham.

Readers Comment Eric Oppen commented on 2009-12-30 05:00:27 ~ I think that even in this TL, French North America was doomed---the British colonies were growing rapidly and allied with the Iroquois, who'd never, ever forgiven the French for Champlain siding with the Hurons against them. It would have likely delayed the American Revolution for a while, though---once the menace of the French was gone, the American colonists were a lot less willing to put up with British demands.

Readers Comment Scott Palter commented on 2009-12-30 09:02:54 ~ Depends. Two of the big colonial complaints outside greater Boston were the freeze on Western Settlement/land deals after 1763 and the establishment of the Catholic Church in quebec. If the French are expelled and the French allied Indians not taken under the wing of Britain these two complaints don't happen which limits the spread of radical Whigs.

In 1948, on this day the All-Palestine Government was established in Gaza under the leadership of the Grand High Mufti of Jerusalem, Mohammad Amin al-Husayni ~ "The decision to form the Government of All-Palestine in Gaza, and the creation of armed forces under its control, furnished the leaders of the Nazis with the means of divesting themselves of direct responsibility for the prosecution of the war and of withdrawing their armies from Palestine. Whatever the long-term future of the Arab government of Palestine, its immediate purpose, as conceived by its German sponsors, was to provide a focal point of opposition to Irgun and serve as an instrument for frustrating the Zionist paramilitary forces ambition to create a State of Israel" (© Shaim, 2001)Al Nakba (the Catastrophe)

Seven years earlier al-Husayni met in Berlin with "the architect of the Holocaust" SS-Obersturmbannfuhrer, Karl Adolf Eichmann. On November 6 1941 they laid down a joint plan for the elimination (Beseitigung) of the Jewish National Home in Palestine. Of course al-Husayni was no Nazi, and indeed Hitler's racist philosophies would appear to preclude such an alliance. Put simply, and by process of elimination alone, the Palestinian leadership turned to the Germans because the Zionists had - they believed - the British. And the British appeared to be facing imminent collapse. So through ruthless expediency and desperation, the Grand Mufti had determined that the Final Solution represented the key to the struggle for Arab Independence in Palestine. And timing also. Because even if the Nazis were subsequently defeated, the presence of their forces in the Middle East offered a unique opportunity for ethnic cleansing, surely the platform for a future Palestinian state. In reaching this evil conclusion, al-Husayni was cynically repeating the action of countless local rulers who over five thousand years had collaborated with occupying forces to build their own future hegemony.

"I asked Hitler [pictured] for an explicit undertaking to allow us to solve the Jewish problem in a manner befitting our national and racial aspirations and according to the scientific methods innovated by Germany in the handling of its Jews. The answer I got was: 'The Jews are yours'".So when Rommel managed to break through the British lines in Egypt in May 1943, a special corps of Einsatz commandos were dispatched by Eichmann to exterminate the Jews in Palestine. Al-Husayni commented that ~ "Our fundamental condition for cooperating with Germany was a free hand to eradicate every last Jew from Palestine and the Arab world. I asked Hitler [pictured] for an explicit undertaking to allow us to solve the Jewish problem in a manner befitting our national and racial aspirations and according to the scientific methods innovated by Germany in the handling of its Jews. The answer I got was: 'The Jews are yours'" Watch the Youtube Clip

The response from Zionist paramilitary organisations in Palestine was to concentrate resources into Irgun, shorthand for HaIrgun HaTzva'i HaLe'umi BeEretz Yisra'el meaning "National Military Organization in the Land of Israel". Irgun was the armed expression of the nascent ideology of Revisionist Zionism founded by Ze'ev Jabotinsky. He expressed this ideology as "every Jew had the right to enter Palestine; only active retaliation would deter the Arabs and the British; only Jewish armed force would ensure the Jewish state" Over time the focus of their actions shifted from the Palestinian Arabs to the British and now to the new German occupation forces.

A bitter five year struggle ensued, perhaps symbolised by the Irgun bombing of the German Headquarters at the King David Hotel in Jerusalem which killed ninety-one staff on on 22 July 1946.

And now events took an unexpected turn ~ "Transfer - or expulsion or ethnic cleansing - was never an explicit part of the Zionist program, even among its more extreme elements. The first Arabs who left their homes did so on their own, expecting to return once the Jews lost or the fighting stopped. The Jewish mayor of Haifa begged Arab residents to stay; Golda Meir, then head of the Jewish Agency Political Department, called the exodus 'dreadful' and even likened it to what had befallen the Jews in Nazi-occupied Europe. While Jewish atrocities - notably, the infamous massacre at Deir Yassin - were very real, apocalyptic Arab broadcasts induced further flight and depicted as traitors those who chose to stay behind". (© New York Times, 2008) To be continued

Entry posted by Todayinah Editor

Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Musicians Source: Wikipedia Labels: Mufti, Jerusalem, Irgun, Rommel, Montgomery.

Todayinah Editor Editor says, in this alternate history our point of departure is the Axis victory in North Africa. Subsequently quotations from various sources include a number of significant changes to reflect this modified reality.

Readers Comment Chris Oakley commented on 2008-12-30 16:48:13 ~ Interesting spin on the founding of modern Israel, if I do say so myself.

Readers Comment David Atwell commented on 2008-12-30 21:11:50 ~ Interesting turn around of history. I do wonder, though, if the Germans did occupy Isreal, given their policies towards the Jewish People, whether there would be any Jews left to organise any such resistence...

Readers Comment Eric Lipps commented on 2009-01-06 16:58:41 ~ I suspect that if the Germans had occupied Palestine in 1943, and if the Nazis were still around and still in control of that region by 1948, there would have been no Arab government. By then, with whatever Jews remained alive driven underground, the Nazis might well have started exterminating the Arabs too, who after all were as Semitic as the Jews. In such a scenario, it's not inconceivable that an alliance of convenience (or desperation) might haave been forged between Jewish and Araab nationalists, just as, on a larger scale, the Western powers allied themselves with Soviet Russia.

Readers Comment Eric Oppen commented on 2011-09-06 03:48:14 ~ I don't think that Rommel would have stood for Einsatzkommandos in his area of operations...he had, as I understand it, NO use for the SS, and refused to abuse Jewish POWs he happened to capture.

Readers Comment Mark Taylor commented on 2011-09-06 12:41:27 ~ Would even Rommel have been able to stop them?

Readers Comment Jeff Provine commented on 2011-09-06 16:02:51 ~ Mr. Lipps makes a good point. Hitler might use the Arabs for a time, but eventually he'd turn on them like he had the Russians and planned to do with the Japanese.

Flag of	In 1951, on this day Israeli ground forces invaded Syria.

Israel

On this day in 1944, the U.S. 5th Army engaged two German divisions and a battalion of Mussolini's Salo Republic puppet militia southeast of the Italian town of Siena, trapping the Axis units in a steadily shrinking pocket. The resulting clash would last five weeks and be dubbed "the Battle of the Bulge" by the Western press; total Axis casualties would later be estimated at 60,000 killed and 200,000 wounded or captured.

	Benito Mussolini


The defeat at Siena crushed Mussolini's last flickering hope for restoring Fascist rule in Italy; by the end of the Second World War he would incarcerated as a war criminal at a U.S. military prison near Milan.

News anchor	On this day in 1971, KNXT-TV took news anchor Jonathan Matthias off the air for good; KNXT itself would abruptly cease broadcasting two days later.

Jonathan Matthias

On this day in 1941, Joseph Stalin was overthrown in a military coup shortly after word reached the Soviet high command that the German army, now in control of most of Moscow's suburbs, had begun the final assault on Moscow itself.

	Joseph Stalin

	"Every man a king, but no one wears a crown" ~ The Kingfish, weeks before his assassination. Huey Long was shot on September 8, 1935, at the Louisiana State Capitol in Baton Rouge; he died two days later at the age of 42. His last words were reportedly, "God, don't let me die. I have so much to do".

Huey Long

Two months prior to his death, in July 1935, Long uncovered a plot to assassinate him, which had been discussed in a meeting at New Orleans?s DeSoto Hotel. Four U.S. representatives, Mayor Walmsley, and former governors Parker and Sanders had been present. Long read what he claimed was a transcript of a recording of this meeting on the floor of the Senate.

Long had called for a third special session of the Louisiana State Legislature to begin in September 1935, and he traveled from Washington to Baton Rouge to oversee its progress.

'Patsy' Carl Austin Weiss attempted to punch Long in the Capitol building at Baton Rouge. Weiss was immediately shot some thirty times by Long's bodyguards and police on the scene, and a bullet from one of the bodyguards hit Long as intended. A synopsis of Huey Long's assassination is described at Wikipedia.

In 1975, as President Ford lies in state following his assassination by ex-Manson Family member Lynette 'Squeaky' Fromme, newly-inaugurated President Nelson Rockefeller delivers a speech in which he promises to 'subdue those forces of disorder which have roiled this nation in recent years, and which have now claimed the life of a president'.	Squeaky

	Lynette Fromme

Four days later. President Rockefeller calls FBI Director Clarence M. Kelley into a meeting to lay out a directive for a new 'law and order' campaign. Rockefeller makes it clear that his first priority is the suppression of crime, with civil liberties only a secondary concern. Director Kelley approves, but points out that in the post-Watergate, post-Vietnam political climate a tough program such as the President wants will have to be carefully sold to the public and Congress.

In 2006, the Queen witheld Her Majesty's approval for the appointment of to the position of Deputy Lieutenant for Kent, overruling a recommendation by the Lord Lieutenant of Kent, Allan Willett. Senior figures in the media with long memories had spoken out against the appointment in private chambers. After leaving pop band Squeeze in 1984 Holland had branched out into TV, co-presenting the Newcastle-based TV music show The Tube with Paula Yates. Holland achieved notoriety by inadvertently using the phrase 'groovy f-ers' in a live, early evening TV trailer for the show, causing it to be suspended for three weeks. He later referred back to this in his sitcom 'The Groovy Fellers' with Rowland Rivron.Story Chunk 2

Richard I	Born in 1157, and King of England from 1189-1212, King Richard I has a mixed reputation. He is known as a superb military commander and a brave soldier. He also bankrupted England with endless taxes, leading to his son losing all English territory in France due to the lack of funds to pay for the campaign.

King of England

From 1193-1201, Richard waged a relentless and remarkably successful campaign in France against Philip, capturing the French King in battle in 1200.

This came to an end in 1201 when the Pope preached for another Crusade to capture the Holy Land. Richard had failed to capture Jerusalem in the Third Crusade and was eager to participate. He even agreed to release King Philip II of France without ransom when the latter swore to the Pope that he would participate in the Crusade (he lied). Foregoing a ransom that could probably have paid for the entire campaign, Richard returned to England for the only reason that he ever visisted the Kingdom that he ruled. To raise taxes. It was during this whirlwind visit that the Queen Berengaria of Navarre became pregnant.

Richard and his army gathered in Venice and it was Richard that paid off the massive amount of money that Doge Dandolo demanded for the service of the assembled Venetian fleet. When Dandolo urged for an attack on Zara to restore the King depleted 'Crusading Revenue', Richard opposed the attack. He also opposed the attack on Constantinople and left the Crusade in disgust in 1203 when it was obvious that it wasn't going to Egypt after all.

In his absence, the Queen had given birth to a son named Richard. In addition to this, Philip II had been placed under Interdict due to his lack of participation in the Fourth Crusade.

Placing John as his sons protector, Richard went to France to take advantage of the situation. By now, Richard was approaching fifty and still refused to slow down. Nevertheless, he managed once again to increase his French domains (much of which had been lost during his absence) and even killed Philip II (some say personally, though this is largely seen as a myth. Philip II had his throat torn out by an arrow) resulting in the 20 year old Louis VIII coming to the throne. Louis was to play a large role in taking back French territory.

Richard stayed in France from 1205-1212 when he died of pneumonia. His 10 year old son became Richard II (1212-1247) though it was his brother John that took over the reigns of Government. John became an even more avid tax collector than his brother had been and inspired Baronial Revolt that ended when John died in 1216. The Barons took over the duties of portector and made sure that Richard II protected their interests.

The reign of Richard II saw the loss of most English territory in France due to a total lack of funds. The King died while jousting in 1247 and was replaced by his seven year old son Henry who became Henry III (1247-1309). Henry III was followed by his nephew Richard who became Richard III (1309-1322). It was under Richard III that he had to acknowledge the role of the Barony after spending a period in protracted war with them. This was a verbal agreement and continued after his death into his son Richard IV (1322-1324) and then his cousin 'John of York' who became King John I (1324-1387).

In 1966, NBC boldly went where the networks had rarely gone before and premiered a science fiction series called Star Trek by producer Gene Roddenberry. Although interesting at times, and with special effects that were well above average for the time, it was cancelled midway through the first season by a network that was horrified at the cost of keeping up a sci-fi show.

In 1664, unpopular Dutch governor Peter Stuyvesant is killed attempting to keep the British out of New Amsterdam. After his death, thousands of Dutch take to the streets to defend their city against the Redcoat forces, and are able to repel Colonel Richard Nicolls' forces.

In 1986, the newly admitted United States Football Conference played its first game as an NFL conference, after several years of play as a successful league on its own. The New Jersey Generals defeated the Washington Redskins at home, 38-21; Hershel Walker of the Generals ran in 2 touchdowns.

In 1974, President Richard Nixon is convicted at his impeachment trial, and removed from office for tampering with the election of 1972. Vice-President Gerald Ford is sworn in as the 38th President of the United States. Ford refuses to pardon Nixon for his crimes, and fires almost all of Nixon's staff. 'Cleaning house is the only way the nation'll trust our party again,' he told Republican activists.

In 1935, Comrade Senator Huey P. Long, champion of the people, was assassinated in broad daylight in the Capital Building in Baton Rouge. An official investigation blamed the shooting on counter-revolutionaries, but many conspiracy theorists have made a plausible argument that the Communist Party itself had comrade Long killed because of his rapport with the proletariat. Such rumors are frowned upon in polite company.

In 1925, actor Richard Sellers was born in Southsea, England. Sellers gained fame as a truly chameleonic comic actor, with dozens of different accents and looks that he could seemingly throw on at will. His comic talents were so prodigious that the Oscars, which usually overlooked comic performances, awarded him the best actor award for his portrayal of 3 different characters in 1964's Dr. Strangelove, or How I Learned To Stop Worrying and Love The Bomb.

In 1638, the first institute of higher learning in colonial America opened its doors in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Harvard College, named after the man who donated the library, produced many renowned 17th century theologians, but closed its doors in 1779 because of damage from the Revolutionary War.

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