Today In Alternate History

December 15

In 1791, on this day the United States Bill of Rights (the collective name for the first eleven amendments to the Constitution) went into affect after ratification by the State of Virginia.

XIth Amendment To The Bill Of RightsThe final amendment was conceived by that revolutionary firebrand Thomas Jefferson [1] that is, that every twenty years, following the presidential election, the Constitution would be rewritten from the ground up to ensure that the current generation was not enslaved to the previous.

The first iteration was little more than a reconfirmation of the document signed at Philadelphia. But the second cycle, after Jefferson's demise, would be forced to address the three-fifths compromise applying to the under-representation of African-Americans in the Southern States.

This compromise between Southern and Northern states was reached during the Philadelphia convention of 1787 in which three-fifths of the enumerated population of slaves would be counted for representation purposes regarding both the distribution of taxes and the apportionment of the members of the United States House of Representatives. It was proposed by delegates James Wilson and Roger Sherman. Delegates opposed to slavery generally wished to count only the free inhabitants of each state. Delegates supportive of slavery, on the other hand, generally wanted to count slaves in their actual numbers. Since slaves could not vote, slaveholders would thus have the benefit of increased representation in the House and the Electoral College. The final compromise of counting "all other persons" as only three-fifths of their actual numbers reduced the power of the slave states relative to the original southern proposals, but increased it over the northern position.

Entry posted by Todayinah Editor

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Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Politicians Source: Wikipedia Labels: Constitution, Philadelphia, Eleventh Amendment, XIth Amendment, Presidency.

Todayinah Editor Editor says, in authoring this article we have re-purposed content from Alternate History and Wikipedia.
[1] in reality he was serving in Paris as American Minister to France.

Readers Comment Andrew Beane commented on 2012-12-10 00:59:24 ~ Interesting concept but I'm not sure a government could call itself legitimate and make a series of self-overhauls part of its program. It would prevent the feeling of stability that the people crave, and the time and cost required would be prohibitive

Readers Comment Eric Lipps commented on 2012-12-10 22:39:24 ~ I suspect the "rewriting" would happen until a Constitution was drafted which gave the government absolute power and forbade further revisions. At that point, pressure would begin to build for a new revolution, refreahing the tree of liberty with the blood of patriots and tyrants.

Readers Comment Jackie Speel commented on 2012-12-10 23:01:25 ~ Would Marx/Engels/Trotsky be commenting on the American example of the Permanent Revolution?

Readers Comment Allen W. McDonnell commented on 2012-12-10 23:02:30 ~ I agree with Eric Lipps, the Amendment process itself is a rewriting of the constitution and was intended to keep it current, if you are going to rewrite it top to bottom every 20 years why have amendments at all?

Readers Comment Eric Oppen commented on 2012-12-11 00:16:15 ~ I think Jefferson would have thought better of it.

Readers Comment Jeff Provine commented on 2012-12-19 15:39:03 ~ Formally giving way to instability every generation (rather than using the same document to hold it back) could be disastrous. Hartford Convention might've split the nation, and then what?

In 2012, in support of his well-known attacks against the so-called War on Christmas, Bill O'Reilly has declared War on Hanukkah.

The War on Hanukkah"It's about time," he proclaimed, as he faced the audience on his Fox TV news show. "How long will we celebrate the Maccabees, who were nothing but lawless rioters, determined to drive away the beautiful Hellenistic culture that had given the world so many fine things, including the movie 'Troy'"..

"Even worse, they were vandals, too .. smashing the beautiful stone gods and goddesses that the Greeks had installed in the Hebrews' Temple. I mean, if they didn't want those statues, they could have sold them on e-bay. And if you don't agree with me .. WISE UP!".

Entry posted by Guest Historian

Jackie Rose

Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Religion Source: Wikipedia Labels: Hanukkah, Bill O'Reilly, Hebrew, Statue, Judaism.

Todayinah Editor Editor says, point of departure: As we go to press, Bill O'Reilly is still pressing his counter-attack against the War on Christmas .. although he has not taken aim at Hanukkah as yet.

Readers Comment Jared Myers commented on 2012-12-14 23:30:14 ~ That would be funny.....for a time.

Readers Comment Stan Brin commented on 2012-12-14 23:37:14 ~ Actually, he probably would say these things, although with acid irony, of course.

Readers Comment Jackie Rose commented on 2012-12-14 23:51:13 ~ For those who have (mercifully) never heard of the atheists' War on Christmas, O'Reilly has exposed it by attacking such outrages as instructing cashiers to tell the customers "Have a happy holiday" rather than "Merry Christmas." That is obviously part of an insidious atheist plot...rather than an effort to accommodate an increasingly diverse population.

Readers Comment Eric Oppen commented on 2012-12-15 07:26:53 ~ Even he wouldn't be quite that ignorant. And if he did, the shrieks of "Anti-Semitism! Jew-Hatred" would echo off the dome of the firmament.

Readers Comment Jackie Rose commented on 2012-12-15 14:08:17 ~ To be fair, Eric, I know that O'Reilly has always bitterly opposed anti-semitism, especially on college campuses. But when he says that atheists are fighting the War on Christmas...well, he must know that Jews and Muslims would rather say Happy Holidays, too.

Readers Comment Jeff Provine commented on 2012-12-19 16:14:31 ~ If only he'd attack Commercialism to bring back a purer Christmas, but he's got sponsors to worry about.

In 1936, on this day President of the Republic Manuel Azaña conceded to the inevitable partition of Spain, a decision forced upon him by the Fall of Madrid.

Flugzeugträger Part 10:
Partition of Spain by Ed & Scott PalterThe deployment of a German Volunteer Division had tipped the scales in favour of the Fascists, but the rapid implosion of the Republic had also triggered a French intervention. Mediation then swiftly followed to avoid the outbreak of a conflict between the Great Powers.

Of the Axis partners involved in the conflict, the partition hugely benefitted Benito Mussolini in particular. Early Italian disengagement enabled withdrawal from a messy conflict that could have easily sapped resources at a time when military build-up needed to accelerate. Instead, much needed resoures could be directed towards the development of a formidable Italian Navy, enabling Il Duce to pursue his dream of dominating the Mediterranean sea lanes of "Mare Nostrum" (Our Sea).
This post shares some commonality with the sister articles in the Flugzeugträger thread.

Entry posted by Todayinah Editor

Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Flugzeugtrager Source: Wikipedia Labels: Regia Marina, Kriegsmarine, German Navy, Manuel Azaña, Second World War.

Todayinah Editor Editor says, in our timeline with the defeat of the Republic in 1939, he fled to France, resigned his office, and died in exile shortly afterwards.. Please note that in authoring this post we have repurposed a considerable amount of content from Wikipedia.

Readers Comment Scott Palter commented on 2012-06-29 06:24:23 ~ French considered this several times and French intervention would have ended the war.

Readers Comment Chris Oakley commented on 2012-06-29 16:06:52 ~ I'd like to hear further details on how the Spanish Civil War ended this quickly.

Readers Comment Scott Palter commented on 2012-06-29 17:03:38 ~ Franco almost took Madrid in OTL. Hypothesize that Adolph uses the Franco revolt as an excuse to dump some of his unwanted [Jews, Catholics etc.] and sends a light division of WW1 vets [their families hostage to their good behavior]. Madrid falls. The French intervene to avoid being surrounded by fascists on three sides. Franco had no way to fight the French and the Republic had no way to refuse this 'gift'. Partition and exchange of prisoners follows.

Readers Comment Matthew Dattilo commented on 2012-06-29 17:32:37 ~ Great AH! Lends credence to the Italian commitment of resources for naval construction later in the timeline.

Readers Comment Scott Palter commented on 2012-06-29 18:55:51 ~ Yes but that was the purpose. To get a larger Italian anything Italy has to not finish going bankrupt from a three year war in Spain. The easiest way to do so has Madrid falling. This pushes France to actually intervene instead of playing Hamlet and pondering intervention at endless length. Hitler had a fair number of surplus Jews. Franco was already using Moroccans so adding Jews is not out of line. Hitler also had a coven of Catholic officers from von Schleicher's group that were not trusted. Putting together a storm division of WW1 vets and some hastily trained younger men would be child's play. The German fleet could easily transport such a force [say 10K men with a few field guns] to Cadiz. Given the chaos of revolutionary Madrid one division capable of street fighting and the city falls.

Readers Comment Mike McIlvain commented on 2012-10-16 06:00:39 ~ Had this happened, it would be very interesting to see who would have run Spain after World War II. Franco, or the allies, the French, or someone else. I have been to Spain 12 times, and can seriously wonder how it would have effected that country. It is hard to find a lot o positives about Franco's tenure, other than that he did invest some time and money into the infrastructure.

Readers Comment Eric Oppen commented on 2012-10-16 09:16:09 ~ There were separatist movements already in Catalonia and the Basque country, and I wouldn't doubt that others existed.

Readers Comment Scott Palter commented on 2012-10-16 11:56:47 ~ Odds are the partition holds. Remember that roughly half the country rose for the Nationalists. Given a choice of church burners or reactionaries they willingly chose reactionaries. Franco called up the reservists as he advance north. Few deserted and few of those who did deserted to the Republicans/Reds. So Franco rules a state called Spain with a capital of Madrid. Catalonia and the Basque Country are independent states. Possibly Galicia as well. There is also a Spanish Republic with a partially to totally Stalinist government centered on Valencia.

In 1542, on this day James V King of Scots died at his Inverness Palace shortly after a nervous collapse which was caused by the catastrophic defeat at the hands of the English armies of Henry IX.

Death of James V King of Scots By Ed, Jackie Speel & Scott PalterOf course the grand bargain struck by Philip II and Henry IV meant that both Tudor and Stuart Courts would make war (and peace) as their larger allies wished. But the outbreak of the latest Spanish-French Conflict strongly favoured the Tudors who were backed by the enormous profits English merchants were earning from trading with the Spanish New World.

When peace finally came, James V was reduced to a King of the Lochs, forced to establish a temporary Palace in the Highlands from where he could rule the rump Scottish state. And his nobility had fled to the Scottish Quarter of Paris.

On his deathbed, James learnt of the birth of his daughter Mary, declaring "it came wi a lass, it'll gang wi a lass" (a reference to the Stewart dynasty, and how it came to the throne through Marjorie Bruce, daughter of Robert the Bruce). As the only surviving heir of the House of Stuart, Mary Queen of Scots was presented with a final opportunity to turn the tide. Events would show that she was more than willing to seize it with both hands. To be continued..

Entry posted by Todayinah Editor

Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Religion Source: Egyptian Fancy Dress Labels: James V, Henry VIII, Henry IX, Tudor, Stuart.

Todayinah Editor Editor says, in this article we explore ideas from Jackie Speel and Scott Palter. In this TL the "grand bargain" is struck by Mary Tudor marrying Philip II of Spain.

Readers Comment Eric Oppen commented on 2011-12-19 06:06:10 ~ So in this TL Mary Stuart marries Henry IX? Er no Henry IX's sister Mary Tudor marries Philip II of Spain I take it this is a continuation of your idea bout Henry VIII dying young but with a male heir? Yes correct

Readers Comment Jeff Provine commented on 2011-12-20 18:31:26 ~ A "rump Scotland" would be a lot easier to manage from an empire-standpoint. Might turn into another Wales rather than leading to a United Kingdom.

In 1590, as a harmless piece of Christmas mischief the players of the Lord Chamberlain's Men penned a collaborative piece of works called Richard III under the pseudonym "William Shakespeer".

All the World's a Stage By Ed & Jackie SpeelTo their great surprise, its a tour de force and they continued the project by penning Henry VI Parts 1-3.

The first tetralogy is a huge, but hidden success; soon members of the Tudor court are secretly involved in the creative writing process. Before her death in 1603, even Good Queen Bess joined the merriment.

But the fun stopped abruptly when King James ascended the throne and became the company's patron. Renamed to "The King's Men", the company held exclusive rights to perform the plays. Just to avoid any disputes, the new house playwright John Fletcher invented a cock and bull story about Shakespeer meeting his death after an uproarious night out drinking with Ben Johnson.

Entry posted by Todayinah Editor

Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Actors Source: Wikipedia Labels: William Shakespeare, John Fletcher, Plays, Sonnets, Poem.

Todayinah Editor Editor says, in this article we an original idea in which Jackie Speel draws a paralell with the collaborative writing of Agatha Christie's Miss Marple.

Readers Comment Eric Oppen commented on 2011-12-13 00:05:09 ~ I don't think that Shakespeare died until about 1616, or thenabouts. And he was fairly well-known in the theatrical community; there are contemporary references to him. having him as the "front man" and maybe the guy who puts the final polish on others' plays, _maaaybe._ Good point, small modification made sir

Readers Comment Stan Brin commented on 2011-12-13 05:28:46 ~ and why is his name spelled "shakespeer"? apparently one of the many early versions used as they played fast and loose with spelling in those days..

Readers Comment Jeff Provine commented on 2011-12-14 03:52:26 ~ Collaborative writing wasn't unheard of, especially back in the days before the Enlightenment fascination with attribution. Even a lot of folks at the Globe today describe plays going improv for parts and going through multiple runs before being written down, as opposed to the writing-then-performing style. Who knows?

In 533, on this day Byzantine general Flavius was killed at Tricamarum. Flavius looked to be Emperor Justinian's best hope for reaffirming and expanding the waning political power of his empire. What had once been the Roman domination of the known world was now but the eastern quadrant, tying together Egypt, Judea, Syria, Asia Minor, and Greece with Constantinople as its century-old capital.

Belisarius Killed at Tricamarum Belisarius had been instrumental as a young commander putting down the Nika riots that had turned from unruly racing-spectators to a force that nearly overthrew Justinian. As a reward, and a move for the expansion-minded Justinian, Belisarius was sent on an expedition to put down the usurper Gelimer who had taken over the Vandal kingdom of Hilderic.

Initially, the expedition went well. Gelimer marched to meet the invading Belisarius at Ad Decimum (the marker ten miles south of Carthage). The attack on the Byzantines nearly overwhelmed Belisarius until Gelimer saw that his brother Ammatas's troops were sparsely arranged. By the time Gelimer came to reinforce him (disengaging from a winning fight along the main road), Ammatas had been killed, and Gelimer stopped fighting to bury him. The battle became a rout, and Belisarius took Carthage while the grieving Gelimer fled.A new story by Jeff ProvineTwelve weeks later, Gelimer formed up with an army of another brother, Tzazon, and marched on Carthage, which Belisarius had been fortifying. Gelimer used money as an axillary weapon, offering a bounty to locals for Roman heads and seeking to bribe Belisarius' Hun mercenaries away from him. When time for battle came, Belisarius knew he could not trust such craft to a long siege and marched to meet Gelimer in the field.

They came together at Tricamarum, 30 miles from Carthage, Belisarius outnumbered more than three-to-one. Roman cavalry led by Belisarius charged against the Vandal infantry lines, hoping that they would break, but the death of Belisarius caused them to falter. Gelimer solidified his troops and charged the infantry on foot, overwhelming the Romans. Finding the body of the fallen Belisarius, Gelimer placed his head upon a pike as a standard of victory. When word reached Justinian of the defeat of the expedition, his dreams of extension of his rule shattered.

Gelimer maintained rule over the western Mediterranean, the Ostrogoths halted Byzantine attempts at seizing Italy and the seat of the Pope, and the end of the Byzantines came as Zabergan, Khan of the Bulgars, crossed the Danube in 559 and stormed Constantinople in 562. The Roman Empire officially ended, and the age of Germanic rule settled over Europe. Great leaders like Pepin and Charlemagne would unite tribes into strong kingdoms, few more famous than the Vandal king Golomor stopping Caliphate expansion west of Egypt, causing them to turn more northward through the Black Sea.

While Europe remained a significant corner of the world, it would rarely take the central position of the Muslim Middle East. The Caliph and other leaders controlled trade, built great libraries, and furthered science and mathematics. With the fall of the Khans and invention of modern banking, centers in Baghdad, Alexandria, and Timbuktu would become massive metropolitan cities, eventually dwarfing the ancient supremacy of Rome with its estimated population of one million. Economics would lead to imperialism, spawning a rivalry between Islamic states in exploration and controlling resources from colonies in the New World, ports of call and spheres of influence in the Far East, and dependent satellites in nearby, though barbaric, Europe.

Entry posted by Guest Historian

Jeff Provine

Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Jeff Provine Blog Source: Jeff Provine’s Blog Labels: Byzantium, Tzazo , Belisarius, Flavo, Rome.

Todayinah Editor Editor says, in reality Tzazo was killed in the cavalry charges. Gelimer again lost his nerve at the death of a brother, and his army was routed. Belisarius finished the conquest of North Africa for Justinian and then began an invasion of Italy against the Ostrogoths. He also conducted the affirmation of peace by the Persians and came out of retirement in 559 to defeat the Bulgars. With a powerful, expansive empire, Justinian set the Byzantines to rule another millennium until the fall of Constantinople in 1453 to the Ottomans after the Crusades.

Readers Comment Scott Palter commented on 2010-12-15 11:13:52 ~ How would the death of one general have caused any of these things?

Readers Comment H. Torrance Griffin commented on 2010-12-15 16:53:12 ~ Not regaining North Africa nor regaining (or wrecking, to be more exact) Italy, I can see. However without the manpower drain of the Ostrogothic wars the Balkans are probably _more_ secure than OTL and even if it were not it would take a miracle for the Bulgars to get through the Theodosian Walls (and a fleet to get past it). Worst case we have a less overextended Roman Empire still honking off the non-Chalcedonians in the Levant and Egypt, an intact Gotho-Italian state that may or may not be keeping the Arian/Proto-Catholic conflict under control, and a Vandal state in North Africa that may have flat out supressed Non-Arian Christianity while converting the Berbers. If the Romans and Persians beat each other 3/4 to death _and_ Mohammed starts evangelizing on schedule I still doubt the north shore of the Med would be worse off than OTL.

Readers Comment Eric Oppen commented on 2010-12-15 19:39:27 ~ Without Justinian's idiotic expansion projects, the Empire's more secure, if anything.

In 2008, on this day Canada was locked in a constitutional crisis after Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper lost a Parliamentary confidence vote that toppled his minority government. Lawn Ornaments

A request to suspend Parliament until late January 2009 had been formally rejected by Her Excellency, Governor General Michaelle Jean the previous week.

"The Governor General has refused to prorogue Parliament," Mr Harper said outside the Governor's mansion, Rideau Hall in Ottawa.

Mr Harper would not reveal the content of the discussion, citing constitutional traditions, but he said the first order of business of the new Government would be the presentation of the federal budget. "The economy is the priority now, and the public is very frustrated with the situation in Parliament. We're all responsible for that," Mr Harper said in French.

In 2005 Mr Harper had warmly welcomed Her Excellency's appointment [which] serves as a great example to many Canadians. I know Mme. Jean will serve Canada in a dignified, vice-regal fashion". The back-handed complement was of course more a reference to Her Excellency's geographic origin - Mme. Jean was born in Port-au-Prince, Haiti - rather than her Francophone ancestry. Because Conservatives would cynically note that Monday's no-confidence vote precipitated the rise of a proposed Liberal-NDP coalition, supported by the Bloc Quebecois at a time of grave financial crisis.

The Governor General had cut short a fortnight visit to Europe to hold the two and a half hour meeting with the Prime Minister. Whilst in Paris, Nikolas Sarkozy had authorised Mme. Jean to dissolve the Federal Parliament in Ottawa. The decision would provoke a furious republican reaction, with many Canadians questioning the constitutional authority of the French President's vice-regal representative.

In "Canada needs to grow up and end an outdated practice "Republican journalist Paul Sullivan described this sentiment ~ "But why do Mr Sarkozy and his envoy still run the country? Until last week, they have been little more than glorified lawn ornaments. Inviting them to your charity garden party adds instant class. But what if Ms. Jean, who probably doesn't like Mr. Harper any more than Mr. Harper likes her, had decided to give the reins of power to Stephane Dion and the balance of power to Chief Blochead Gilles Duceppe?"

Entry posted by Todayinah Editor

© CBC News - GG agrees to suspend Parliament until January and The Metro Canada needs to grow up and end an outdated practice - The West View by Paul Sullivan
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Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Beasts Source: Wikipedia Labels: Stephen Harper, Canada, France, Nikolas Sarkozy, Micha?lle Jean.

Todayinah Editor Editor says, This post was inspired by Stephen Harper's use of the French language outside Rideau Hall. We propose an imaginary conspiracy in which the French mother country trusts its own people to deal with the Financial Crisis..

Paul Sullivan in Let's retire the Queen writes ~ With apologies to Paul McCartney ... Her Majesty's a pretty nice girl, but why is she running my country? As I've watched the remarkable events of the past week unfold, the most remarkable was the spectacle of Stephen Harper, hat in hand, tugging his forelock in the general direction of Micha?lle Jean, Mrs. Windsor's representative in Ottawa. You're familiar with Mrs. Windsor? That nice old lady in London with the corgis and the celebrity grandchildren? Her Majesty?
There hasn't been a lot of talk about the suitability of that exchange; I guess because most of us are relieved that Ms. Jean, a former Radio-Canada reporter with not one iota of experience in governance, just granted the prime minister's wish, and Her Majesty's Loyal Opposition doesn't get to run the country, at least not yet.
But why do Mrs. Windsor and her envoy still run the country? Until last week, they have been little more than glorified lawn ornaments. Inviting them to your charity garden party adds instant class. But what if Ms. Jean, who probably doesn't like Mr. Harper any more than Mr. Harper likes her, had decided to give the reins of power to St?phane Dion and the balance of power to Chief Blochead Gilles Duceppe?
For one thing, we'd hear a lot more squawking about how it's time to end this outdated ridiculous subservience to Prince Charles' Mom. Instead, a grateful nation has decided to put aside any qualms about Ms. Jean, her former French citizenship, her rumoured separatist leanings, her absurd appointment as the Queen's representative, never mind the innate, fundamental absurdity of the Queen herself.
So what happens in January if Her Majesty's Loyal Etc. try to stick it to Stephen one more time? Back he goes, gripping his forelock, to visit Ms. Jean, and she informs him that ?we are not amused,? and turns the government over to Michael or Rae and their little dog Jack? She can do that! She's Mrs. Windsor's envoy. Mrs. Windsor runs the country!
I simply can't believe we're still letting this happen. Here's what we need to do. Immediately, as a nation, we should grow up.
Then, we should send Ms. Jean back to Radio-Canada, tell Mrs. Windsor that it's time to retire as the Queen of Canada; thanks for the memories. Then we elect a president at large (as everyone mistakenly believes they vote for the prime minister anyway), while preserving the parliamentary democracy that we've come to know and love.
We do this through proportional representation, so we get the parties and the policies we want exactly in proportion to the popular vote. Now that's democracy.
And God Save Mrs. Windsor for another day.

Readers Comment Eric Oppen commented on 2008-12-14 08:27:44 ~ A French-controlled Canada would have been really interesting. I wonder how Napoleon III would have used it to make mischief? He would have, if I'm any judge. You could have seen Canadian soldiers helping keep Maximilian of Mexico on the Cactus Throne...

Readers Comment Chris Oakley commented on 2008-12-14 18:47:07 ~ God save the Queen indeed. :D

Readers Comment Zach Timmons commented on 2008-12-14 19:42:56 ~ Très intéressant...

Federal Bureau	In 1960, on this day the FBI arrested nearly two hundred known and suspected organized crime figures in a sting operation meant to break the back of a Mafia profiteering scheme tied to post-Jamaica Bay hurricane reconstruction efforts in Brooklyn and Queens.

of Investigations

In 2001, President Gore summons CIA Director Stansfield Turner to the White House for an update on the progress of Operation Kipling in Afghanistan. He is disappointed when Turner informs him that the Agency's operatives have so far managed to net only a few low-level Qaeda operatives. His mood is not improved by the fact that another bin Laden videotape taunting the United States and him personally has surfaced.

	Al Gore

	In 1979, the exiled Shah of Iran leaves the United States, bound for Egypt, where, at the urging of President Nelson Rockefeller and Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, President Anwar Sadat has agreed to grant him asylum. The Shah's arrival in Cairo will inflame Muslim extremists, who resent the secularizing Iranian and see him as a tool of the U.S. Already opposed to Sadat for his peace overtures toward Israel, Islamic militants will whip themselves into a fury over his agreement to allow Shah Pahlevi into their country; they will argue that this decision proves Sadat is a 'tool of the Crusader-Zionist alliance' and therefore unworthy to govern a Muslim country.

In 1843, Ebenezer Scrooge leaves the counting-house, returns to his dark and cold home ( 'darkness is cheap'), an isolated town house formerly owned by his late business partner, Jacob Marley. While he unlocks his door Scrooge is startled to see the ghostly face of Marley instead of the familiar appearance of his door knocker. This is just the beginning of Scrooge's harrowing night.

In 1915, refusing to admit defeat at Gallipoli, War Minister Kitchener orders a surge in British and Commonwealth troop levels, vainly trying to force their way to the capital of the Ottoman Empire. Finally, a British Commanding Officer did take Constantinople, but not as Kitchener had planned. Five years later, Colonel T.E. Lawrence realised Napoleon's young dream of conquering the East; he arrived in Constantinople in 1920 with most of the tribes and races of Asia Minor and Arabia at his back. Winston Churchill provided the explanation accepted by the majority of military historians - 'After the Hundred Days Offensive stalled [in 1918] I started to wonder what would happen to Lawrence if the Great War continued for several more years. His fame was spreading fast and with the momentum of the fabulous through Asia. The earth trembled with the wrath of the warring nations. All the metals were molten. Everything was in motion. No one could say what was impossible. Lawrence might have realised Napoleon's young dream of conquering the East; he might have arrived in Constantinople in 1919 or 1920 with most of the tribes and races of Asia Minor and Arabia at his back.'

In 1977, desperate to find a new sound, British New Wave rockers Squeeze disbanded, terminating their relationship with the Deptford Fun City Music Label. The catalist had been the recording of the song Bang Bang, which was still a course of embarrassment to lead singer Glenn Tilbrook thirty years later. Chris Difford was not fond of the song either, and Jools Holland decided to pursue his Boogie Woogie '78 concept instead, dominating the 1980's with his Rhythm and Blues Orchestra. The opportunity for Greenwich's finest to create a blended sound from these three giants of music was lost, and we can only imagine at their potential had they continued together after this, there first and only recording, UK Squeeze.

In 1978, The Soviet States of America formally recognizes the capitalist state of Brazil. America had never recognized the counter-revolutionaries who overthrew the People's Republic of Brazil in 1959, and had armed Communist rebels in the country for nearly 15 years. Comrade President John Anderson wished to work with the capitalists of the world, though, and he felt that recognizing one of the world's largest nations was a good step in that direction.

In 1972, restaurateur Carl Johnson, an Alabaman born and raised during the Great Depression, brought a series of recipes from his childhood to a mass market with his chain of Southern Fried Possum stores. The spicey meat treat was surprisingly popular across the country, and Johnson was soon a multi-millionaire.

In 1966, Laugh-O-Gram founder Walt Disney died at his home in Kansas City, Missouri. Disney and his brother Roy started an empire from a few performers telling jokes while delivering messages. Soon, his performers were singing, dancing and juggling their way into America's hearts as the company went national. Its performers can still be called on today to give a smile to someone who needs a pick-me-up.

In 12-13-16-3-14, Oueztecan authorities captured and killed the Sioux holy man, Tatanka Iyotake. Iyotake had led resistance against Oueztec expansion for decades, and was suspected by them of leading the Ghost Dance movement of guerilla warfare against their outposts.

En 1859, Ludwik L. Zamenhof estis nee en Poland. La inventor de la universala lingvo, Esperanto, estas honoree en todo la mondo hodiaux.

In 1993, the Downing Street Declaration is issued by Prime Minister John Major and Taoiseach Albert Reynolds who agree that the Irish will increase their participation in the cross-border governance of north and south England.

In 2004, President-elect John Forbes Kerry embarks on a national tour. America could 'do better' in the 21st century, he says as the defeated nation seeks to climb out of the ashes of defeat in the Cold War.

In 1947, in a traditional Fulani ceremony at the Shehu Mosque in West Africa the Sultan of Sokoto marries Princess Elizabeth of England.

December 14

In 1542, on this day Princess Mary Stuart becomes Mary, Queen of Scots.
This post was written by Dirk Puehl the highly recommended author of #onthisday #history Google+ posts.

Princess Mary Stuart becomes Mary, Queen of ScotsWhen Mary, the ex-queen of France returned to her native Scotland in August 1561 and was met with stubborn resistance of her future Protestant subjects, it needed several attempts of her half-brother James Stewart, 1st Earl of Moray to finally renounce her Catholic faith. After a reconciliation with John Knox, the leader of the local Protestant reformation and signing the Treaty of Edinburgh, Mary Stuart became Mary Queen of the Scots today, 470 years ago.

The royal widow was finally persuaded to marry the Englishman Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester - who himself was talked into going to Scotland and leaving the side of Elizabeth I and finally agreed to marry Mary after she accepted Protestantism. The couple had issue in 1562.

Leicester's and Mary's son Robert was acknowledged as heir to the Scottish and later the English throne by Elizabeth.

With her marriage to Robert Dudley, Queen Mary obviously got far more than she had bargained for - as she was still speculating for the English throne and continuously trying to bully her husband into taking steps against Elizabeth, he, as a convinced Puritan had not only massively strengthened the rights of Sottish Parliament but reacted decisively against his wife's ambitions. In 1571, a discovered plot of English Catholic noblemen against Elizabeth's life with obvious involvement of Mary led to her banishment at Findlater Castle on the Moray Firth.

Robert ruled Scotland until his death in 1588, succeeded by his son Robert IV. Raised in the Puritan spirit of his father, his reforms after ascending the throne of England in 1603 were the main reasons of the Cavalier's revolt and the Civil War a generation later.

Entry posted by Guest Historian

Dirk Puehl

Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Dirks Blog Source: Wikipedia Labels: Mary Stuart, Scotland, Protestant, Royal Family, Scottish.

Readers Comment Jackie Rose commented on 2012-12-13 23:31:54 ~ Huh? If Mary had still been reigning in Scotland and the English had tried to banish her, her obvious response would have been "Come and GIT me." But one intriguing fact that did not appear here...Robert Dudley was in love with Elizabeth. Talk about a soap opera!

Readers Comment Dirk Puehl commented on 2012-12-14 05:40:27 ~ Well, the English were right at her doorstep - and that needed perhaps a sentence more to extrapolate that her consort Robert Dudley took care of her conviction and banishment in this version - especially because of his relationship to Elizabeth.

Readers Comment Mike McIlvain commented on 2012-12-19 07:18:23 ~ Of course, there were probably a lot of people at that time who probably did not care who was on the throne, so long as they ate, and got their pints -- something like that. But, it would be nice to know how much input a consort like Dudley might have had in the establishment of English law, and what from those laws still affect us today. The entourage can be powerful.

Readers Comment Stan Brin commented on 2012-12-19 08:16:25 ~ So, ahem, we can call him Dudley Did-right? (and apologies all around)

Readers Comment Mark Taylor commented on 2012-12-19 14:04:04 ~ Was Dudley a Puritan?First I've heard.

Readers Comment Jeff Provine commented on 2012-12-19 16:31:03 ~ Interesting twist on the Cavaliers rebelling. Might be a shorter war.

Readers Comment Eric Oppen commented on 2012-12-19 17:58:55 ~ I didn't know Dudley was a Puritan.

Readers Comment Stan Brin commented on 2012-12-19 23:54:59 ~ But did he ride his horse backwards? Was the horse's name "Horse"? And was Mary in love with the horse?

In 1942, on this day a jittery Winston Churchill wrote the shortest official memorandum in British history to his First Sea Lord Sir Dudley Pound demanding "Where is TIRPITZ?".

Flugzeugträger Part 6:
Where is TIRPITZ?She was the second of two Bismarck-class battleships built for the German Kriegsmarine. Named after Grand Admiral Alfred von Tirpitz, the architect of the earlier Kaiserliche Marine, the ship was laid down at the Kriegsmarinewerft Wilhelmshaven in November 1936 and her hull was launched two and a half years later.

Deployed in a double carrier group alongside the Peter Strasser and the Graf Zeppelin, her main war-time role was to wreck havoc amongst the Arctic convoys. And of course the source of Churchill's concern was the deteriorating situation on the Eastern Front. Because at first the invasion of Northern Germany and Romania known as the Zhukov Plan had made great progress. But now it was clear that Stalin's assault was premature and his build-up insufficient to defeat the Nazis. And due to the operation of the Kriegsmarine, the Allies problem was getting resupply through to the Russians.
This post shares some commonality with the sister articles in the Flugzeugträger thread.

Entry posted by Todayinah Editor

Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Flugzeugtrager Source: Wikipedia Labels: Plan Z, Kriegsmarine, German Navy, Adolf Hitler, Second World War.

Todayinah Editor Editor says, in out timeline, the reply was reassuring: she was stuck safely in a Norwegian fjord near Trondheim undergoing repairs. Please note that in authoring this post we have repurposed a considerable amount of content from Wikipedia.

Readers Comment Matthew Dattilo commented on 2012-06-25 13:41:45 ~ It's interesting (and a little scary) to contemplate a German two-carrier group operating in the air gap area of the North Atlantic. Long term, though, the German carriers would have became the hunted instead of the hunters as Allied air coverage of the Atlantic improved.

Readers Comment Chris Oakley commented on 2012-06-25 13:48:00 ~ Nightmare fuel....

Readers Comment Jeff Provine commented on 2012-08-14 14:04:08 ~ Definitely a bigger, badder Battle of the Atlantic.

Readers Comment Eric Oppen commented on 2012-08-14 16:56:03 ~ Putting _Tirpitz_ and _Bismarck_ together with two German carriers would have given the RN some real big, bad problems. It took a big chunk of the RN just to take down Bismarck all by herself...imagine if she'd had a friend along that was just as tough and mean, and air cover!

Readers Comment Mike commented on 2012-08-15 19:39:56 ~ It was almost comical how the British Feared the German Battle ships.

In 1974, San Francisco experienced its worst disaster since the 1906 earthquake when an electrical short circuit in a storage room on the eighty-first floor of the just-opened Duncan Tower office/residential building sparked a fire which quickly spread to the building's top floors and killed nearly two hundred people before it was finally brought under control by releasing hundreds of gallons of water from two storage tanks near the tower roof.

En Fuego by Chris OakleyIn the aftermath of the disaster a city fire marshal grimly warned that "someday they'll kill 10,000 people in one of these firetraps". In an effort to avert that nightmare scenario a host of stricter fire safety regulations were passed at the state and city levels throughout America in the weeks and months immediately after the Duncan Tower blaze; an improved national fire safety code would be enacted by Congress in June of 1976.

The tower's owner and namesake, corporate titan James Duncan, subsequently established a memorial fund to compensate the survivors of the fire as well as relatives and spouses of those killed in the tragedy. He also became active in a nationwide crusade to improve all aspects of building safety, testifying at hundreds of hearings on the subject before his death in 1982.

Entry posted by Guest Historian

Chris Oakley

Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Towering Inferno Source: Wikipedia Labels: Towering Inferno, San Francisco, Duncan Tower, Disaster, Fire.

Readers Comment Chris Oakley commented on 2012-07-06 15:53:32 ~ Oops, we've got a typo here...the last line of the first paragraph should be "near the tower roof", not "rook".

In 1984, on this day US President Ronald Reagan was forced to sanction the covert supply of funds and military hardware to Pablo Escobar's Medellín Freedom Fighters in order to resist the Brazilian invasion of Columbia.

Escobar's Medellin Freedom Fighters
By Ed & Eric OppenThe conflict in the northwest of South America had begun with the overthrow of the regime of President Joâo Figueiredo. His gradual process of democratization was near completion, with open elections due in 1985. However a severe economic crisis had made him deeply unpopular, and rogue elements in the military used this pretext to pull off a coup d'etat.

The new government had chosen to confront the paramilitary forces of the Medellín and Cali cartels which were operating with impunity across the Brazil-Columbia border. Soon entangled in a complex military engagement, the Brazilian Army had struck deep into Columbia territory. This violation of sovereignty had provoked the patriotism of Columbians who had rallied to join the newly formed freedom fighter brigades of the cartels.

Before long, Reagan's Delta Commandoes were fighting alongside the resistance fighters, ironically following a plan that had been prepared to extract the drug cartels prior to the Brazilian coup d'etat.

Entry posted by Todayinah Editor

Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Generals Source: Wikipedia Labels: Columbia, Brazil, Pablo Escobar, Drugs, Cartels.

Readers Comment Jeff Provine commented on 2011-12-14 03:56:35 ~ The logistics on such a fight would be a nightmare. Guerrilla warfare on massive scale with awful casualties.

Readers Comment Eric Oppen commented on 2011-12-14 05:10:57 ~ That would be a very bloody fight. Colombians are pretty ferocious, and the Brasilians are no sissies either.

Readers Comment Stan Brin commented on 2011-12-15 01:22:15 ~ This would not have involved the United States at all. US interests were not at stake, and such an intervention is entirely within the bounds of the 1907 Hague Treaty. If violence spilled over onto Brazilian territory, a "state of belligerence" was automatic.

In 2011, on this day the CEO of the professional networking site LinkedUp was forced to apologise for a security violation that enabled disgruntled employees to post negative testimonials on their former bosses profiles (and vice versa).

LinkedUpEstablished in 2001, LinkedUp enables professionals to assemble a series of highly qualified testimonials that disguises the true reasons for their job hopping. Amazingly, results prove that if studied quickly by a hiring manager wearing rose-tinted spectacles these testimonials can establish trust and propel the job seeker into their next "opportunity".

But a new release of the software had overriden security safeguards preventing connections from being established without the express permission of both job seeker and his or her referral point. The platform provider made a firm commitment that all "disses" would be removed no later than midnight EST, creating a minimal problem during a quiet seasonal period for the job market.

Entry posted by Todayinah Editor

Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Lifestyle Source: Wikipedia Labels: LinkedUp, Career, Professional Networking, Social Networking, Jobs.

Readers Comment Eric Oppen commented on 2011-12-13 17:40:51 ~ A CEO apologizing for something his company did? Isn't that one of the biblical signs of Armageddon?

Readers Comment Robbie Taylor commented on 2011-12-13 18:41:54 ~ Only if it's in America. Now, in Japan...

Readers Comment Jeff Provine commented on 2011-12-14 03:57:58 ~ People being held accountable for their day-to-day actions? That'd be an alternate universe.

In 1861, after a terrible year involving a carriage crash, scandal with the Prince of Wales cavorting with the Irish actress Nellie Clifden, shouldering many of the Queen's duties during her mourning of the death of her mother, the Duchess of Kent, and intervening in harsh diplomatic response to the United States of America blocking Confederate envoys in a raid upon a British ship, Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, Prince Consort of the United Kingdom, finally had some luck. His chronic illness with what his physician William Jenner had diagnosed as typhoid fever finally began to clear up. It would remain a cold, solemn Christmas, but, by spring, Albert would be well among the living.

Prince Albert Recovers Despite his brush with death, Albert continued with his lifelong dedication and energy to his many causes. Up to that time, he had transcended the typically quiet position as consort, where he revolutionized and expanded his and the Queen's many estates with advanced technology and practices. Albert additionally took up causes such as the abolition of slavery and reforms of nearly every policy. He served as Chancellor at the University of Oxford, modernizing the curriculum, as well as president for the society for Advancement of Science. During the turbulent times of the 1840s, Albert supported the government in enacting progressive policies without need for violence. His work to open the international scope of London ultimately succeeded in the Great Exhibition of 1851, made greater by its lowering of entrance prices to a single shilling, making the exhibition accessible to the lower classes and opening the eyes of thousands to the greater world. While Albert attempted to obtain a peaceful diplomatic agreement between Russia and the Ottoman Empire, the Crimean War would break out, causing his popularity to plummet.

A new story by Jeff ProvineRenewed with life in 1862, Albert shifted his attentions to a diplomatic solution in the ongoing American Civil War. A weaker United States would be politically advantageous to the world-leader Britain, though it did not want it as an enemy. Albert told the political envoys that Her Majesty's Government admired the CSA's sense of independence and were willing to contribute, but they simply could not back the institution of slavery on moral grounds. In 1863, the South began a policy of voluntarily freeing slaves with government compensation, and the abolitionist support in the North began to wane. The war would come to an end with separate but equal nations in 1865 after the loss of Abraham Lincoln in the election of 1864.

In 1870, Albert would again try his hand at steadying international conflicts by trying to cool the head of Emperor Louis Napoleon of France, but the Franco-Prussian War would go on, nonetheless. As it ended with the Treaty of Frankfurt, Albert admired his native Germany in its unification and used his rights as Prince of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha to address Kaiser Wilhelm on the goods of liberal, paternal governance. He often visited his daughter Victoria and son-in-law Frederick, encouraging them to discipline their son Friedrich Wilhelm and once caning the boy himself for not minding his elders. Biographers record incidents between Albert and the lad who would become Kaiser Wilhelm II as greatly instrumental into shaping him into the mindful, studious man he was.

Building diplomacy with Germany and developing industrial policy would dominate the latter years of Albert's life. Suffering from what modern historians believe to be cancer, but about which his medical documents were politely vague, Albert died in 1879, two days short of matching his father's lifespan. His legacy stands throughout Europe to this day, creating monarchy that is an example of morality to its people, aimed at mutually advantageous diplomatic agreements, and tied tightly to education, industry, and technological development. While many Marxist and radicals call Albert "paternalist" and "deceptively authoritarian", most credit him with enabling a twentieth century where the majority of wars have been colonial or internal affairs dealing with anti-imperial, anarchical threats.

Entry posted by Guest Historian

Jeff Provine

Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Jeff Provine Blog Source: Jeff Provine’s Blog Labels: Prince Albert, Queen Victoria, England, Britain, Confederacy.

Todayinah Editor Editor says, in reality Prince Albert died after his lungs became congested. The Queen would grieve for him the rest of her life, and Britain, who had received him at times with mediocrity, showered his memory with sympathy. Memorials crowded London and the world, such as Prince Albert Hall, the Prince Albert Memorial, the Albert Medal of the Royal Society of Arts, and Africa's Lake Albert.

Readers Comment Eric Oppen commented on 2010-12-14 19:54:14 ~ I don't think the South would have touched the institution of slavery until its back was literally right against the wall---they had much too much of an emotional investment for that. And "British interference" in US affairs would not have pleased the US government.

Readers Comment Eric Lipps commented on 2010-12-15 00:29:52 ~ I agree, except that it wasn't just an emptional investment. The Southern economy was utterly dependent on slavery and collapsed after 1865 largely because of the end of that institution. It didn't begin recovering until, after the end of Reconstruction, Southerners found substitutes in sharecropping and the use of (largely black) convict labor.

Readers Comment Bruce Johnson commented on 2010-12-15 18:06:26 ~ I too am skeptical of the implications for the CSA. As for the notion that he might have had significant influence on his grandson Willy / Kaiser-to-be, perhaps, esp. since Vicky was so much his favorite, but it's hard to imagine it being enough to shape German unification in a more democratic, pacifistic direction (with all the the militaristic influences he'd have to overcome). // Of course, there is the problem at the start that the "typhoid fever" diagnosis was probably far off to begin with, given his family history and the fact that his health had clearly been declining for years. If Stanley Weintraub's argument is followed (in his fine biography of the Prince consort -- *Uncrowned King:the Life of Prince Albert*, 2001), it was probably some form of stomach cancer, altogether untreatable at the time. (It's still OK to imagine, 'what if he had lived', though it's no longer a fascinating case of 'he almost did, if only some minor decision, accident, etc had turned in another very plausible/possible direction.)

Readers Comment Jeff Provine commented on 2010-12-15 19:08:10 ~ Surprising how many Southern abolitionists there were. Large slave owners would instantly have access to government payments, meaning they would keep (or even magnify) their wealth. A clever plantation owner would gives slaves their freedom to appease international influence ($), then turn to sharecropping quickly, which supposedly is better.

Readers Comment Bruce Johnson commented on 2010-12-15 22:49:15 ~ I can't begin to believe the idea of the CSA *itself* setting up a plan of compensated emancipation... first because LINCOLN was ALREADY willing to do that, beginning with the loyal border states.. and even Delaware had no interest! And Lincoln's original plan depended in part on the colonization of slaves which it was thought would help relieve racial tensions. There is NO way the Deep South would have accepted a planned freeing its own slaves without such a provision (which was really not going to work, esp. on a voluntary basis), as petrified as they were about how large numbers of former slaves would respond. (There is much evidence of this from the antebellum period, not to mention the behavior of white Southerners AFTER the war.. slaves codes.. lynching... all borne of fear of their own former slaves.) I'm also skeptical of Albert's ability to carry enough political clout vs. Palmerston, et.al., to have shaped British policy THIS radically. But who knows? He actually DOES seem to have been a major influence in his final days in slowing down the government's reaction to the Trent Affair , enough to allow time for cooling off, and soon after a resolution short of war with the U.S.

Readers Comment Jared Myers commented on 2011-06-15 05:11:05 ~ The South's very identity was tied up in the institution of slavery (see Chandra Manning's definitive work, "What This Cruel War Was Over: Soldiers, Slavery, and the Civil War", as well as the Southern secession declarations themselves), which is evident in the pre-war speech of Confederate Vice-President Andrew Stephens. Even in 1865, when it became evident that the South was obviously losing the war, the Slave Power resisted the call from several Confederate generals to arm slaves and use them as soldiers. Perhaps Albert just might have been so fortunate, but seeing that it was the desire of the Confederacy to build a slave empire consisting of the West, Central America, and South America, I have trouble seeing his efforts being possible.

In 1939, with the Union and the Confederacy on the verge of entering World War Two on different sides, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer released the explosively controversial movie Tomorrow is just another day. Even the title was sufficiently provocative, igniting a furious debate about multi-racial aspirations for equal citizenship, despite African-American's conspicious absence from the film (white actors and actresses were "blacked up").

Tomorrow is Just Another DayBased on Margaret Mitchell's romantic novel of the same name, the story presents an unabashedly positive image of the South during the War of the States Rights.

"Knights and their Ladies Fair, of Master and of Slave"Mitchell herself acknowledged her inspiration from Thomas Dixon's famous novel "The Clansman" which was the basis of the film "The Birth of a Nation". In a letter to Dixon, Mitchell wrote in 1937: "I was practically raised on your books, and love them very much".

Of course within five short years of the films release, events would overtake the Confederacy which was dissolved at the climax of World War Two. A sharply revisionist account of the same story was presented in 1991 by Alexandra Ripley in the novel "Scarlett" and adapted into a television mini-series in 1994. Fifty years later, tensions were still visible, and the mini-series ommited scenes of Atlanta being burnt down in 1945, and, so it was rumoured, a suggestion to re-title the program "Gone with the Wind".

Entry posted by Todayinah Editor

© Juddery, Mark. "Gone With the Wind" published in History Today Magazine, August 2008
Story Tags Click on the hyperlinked metadata to surf the site!

Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Alternate Nations Source: Wikipedia Labels: Gone with the Wind, Civil War, America, Confederacy, United States.

Readers Comment Eric Oppen commented on 2010-01-03 06:43:51 ~ Actually, _GWTW_ The Movie was pretty faithful to Mitchell's book in OTL. They left out some things, but that was mainly due to length considerations.

Readers Comment Eric Lipps commented on 2010-01-03 13:08:36 ~ I doubt it would be easy to "dissolve" the Confederacy. Harry Turtledove imagines doing so in his novel "In At the Death," which wrapped up the story arc beginning with "How Few Remain" by imagining a Third Reich-like CSA being beaten by the USA in WWII. But his novel ends in 1945, and so doesn't address the inevitable postwar strife.

Comment from Barb Caffrey on Facebook: Cute! (I like the asides. They add realism.)

Comment from on Patricia Williams-King on Facebook: I liked the parody on Carol Burnnet's show where the plantation owners were played by black actors & the slaves were played by white actors.

In 1942, the "bloody murderer" Lieutenant-Commander George Ericson was court martialed by the British Admiralty.Bloody Murderer

After service in the Merchant Navy, Ericson (pictured) had been recalled to the Royal Navy in 1939 and given command of the Flower-class corvette HMS Compass Rose, newly built to escort convoys. His officers were mostly new to the Navy, especially the two new Sub-Lieutenants, Lockhart and Ferraby.

Only Ericson, and some of the Petty Officers were in any way experienced. Despite these initial disadvantages, the ship and crew worked up a routine and gained experience. The crew crossed the Atlantic many times on escort duty.

They were nearly sunk several times and eventually sunk a German submarine, capturing the surviving crew. The sinking of a submarine formed the key episode of the court martial as Ericson had to choose between destroying the enemy vessel or saving some British sailors who are in the water above the enemy's location. Watch the Youtube Clip

His less experienced officer felt unable to challenge his brutal Command decision.

Ericson ordered the Corvette to plough on through merchant seamen stranded in the ocean in order to depth-charge a U-Boat. Having paid the moral price that such decisions exact on men in command, Ericson conceded before his execution that the only victor was the Cruel Sea.

Entry posted by Todayinah Editor Watch the Video

Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Generals Source: Wikipedia Labels: The Cruel Sea, Nicholas Monserrat, Jack Hawkins, World War 2, Hitler.

Todayinah Editor Editor says, In this reversal of Nicholas Monserrat's the Cruel Sea, we imagine Ericson pays for his brutal / brilliant command decision depending upon your perspective.

Readers Comment Chris Oakley commented on 2008-12-31 01:55:56 ~ Interestingly enough, my dad owns the original book...I think he'd probably be interested in this thread.

Readers Comment David Atwell commented on 2008-12-31 02:53:29 ~ I'm afraid I find Ericson's court martial unrealistic as the described scenario, that leaving sailors in peril behind (or even sailing through them) in order to sink a U-Boat, happened frequently. So why would Ericson become an escapegoat for what was indeed a nasty consequence of the Battle of the Atlantic?

Readers Comment Todayinah Ed. commented on 2008-12-31 03:39:57 ~ Thanks for your comment Mr Atwell, very interesting for sure. So we need a gentleman's war to justify my scenario, how about the Kaiser has a second go at the allies after a 1915 armistice?

On this day in 1957, Sandy Koufax scored his 400th NBA career point in a 113-94 Celtics win over the Philadelphia Warriors.

	Sandy Koufax

	In 1963, at a meeting with the Joint Chiefs of Staff, President Johnson learns that General Taylor has been sharing his objections to escalation in Cuba with his fellow officers. Moreover, he discovers that a number of them agree with Taylor. The President is furious that the Chiefs have been conferring behind his back, and particularly enraged at Taylor, whom he thought he had brought into line. He leaves the meeting determined to follow his own counsel from now on, rather than heeding that of military advisers he no longer feels he can trust.

Maxwell Taylor

In 1971, opening arguments were heard in the espionage and hijacking conspiracy trial of Dmitri Kaprinsky a.k.a. D.B. Cooper.

John Adams	In 1799, President George Washington dies in Philadelphia, having served just over ten years in office under the Constitution's lifetime-tenure provision. Vice-President John Adams becomes acting President. In accordance with the succession procedure laid down in Article II, Section 1 of that document, Congress is now obligated to call a special election in which its members will either confirm Adams as president for life or choose a replacement.

2nd President


Adams is uncomfortable in office, especially since he faces numerous battles with Alexander Hamilton's faction of the dominant Federalist Party. However, he will remain President for most of a year, as a squabbling Congress keeps postponing the election while supporters of various candidates jockey for advantage.

In 1843, Ebenezer Scrooge and his clerk Bob Cratchit were at work in the counting house, with Cratchit stationed in the poorly heated 'tank', a victim of his employer's stinginess. Scrooge's nephew.

At the end of the workday, Scrooge grudgingly allows Cratchit to take Christmas Day off, but to arrive to work all the earlier on the day after.

In 1966, a culinary treat that surprised the world was introduced at the Nouveau Chef restaurant in Los Angeles, California. Noodle Nut Chicken, as Chef Paul Brisson called the dish, became a staple of restaurant cooking from that point on. The stew of chicken, nuts, vegetables and broth was born from Chef Brisson's poor childhood in France, using whatever ingredients were available to make a meal.

In 1958, George Mandel of Gregory Township, New York, came to his mother's deathbed and received some shocking news - he was actually Charles A. Lindbergh, Jr., kidnapped a quarter century earlier. Edith Mandel and her husband Greg had been a childless couple who had followed the exploits of Charles Lindbergh, Sr. with a mad passion. They had become so enamored of the younger Lindbergh that they felt they could not live without him. Mr. Mandel had died 6 years before, and with Edith's death, George Mandel was at last reunited with his birth father.

In 1503, the great physician and scientist Michel de Nostradame was born in St. Remy, France. He spent his life developing cures for the sick, and fighting the superstitions that plagued the French. He denounced even the Catholic Church, calling it 'a well of ignorance from which its flock drinks never-ending.' He is often called the Patron Saint of Atheists.

In 1995, the misnamed Yugoslav Wars reach a stalemate as the Dayton Agreement is signed in Paris by President Slobodan Milo�evi?, President Franjo Tu?man, President Alija Izetbegovi?, President Jacques Chirac, President Bill Clinton, Prime Minister John Major, Chancellor Helmut Kohl and Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin. History would redefine the conflict more accurately as the Muslim Holocaust.

In 2003, President of Pakistan Pervez Musharaf almost narrowly escapes an assassination attempt. He dies the next day and America loses her strongest ally in the war against terror. By the inauguration of John Forbes Kerry thirteen months later, the war is over, closing a short but tragic episode in America's history.

In 1503, Michel de Notredame aka Nostradamus, the French astrologer was born. His quadrains were littered with coded references to the future, causing many to disregard them. Nostradamus work was a major data input to the Bible Codes Project, in which Equidistant Letter Sequence were analyzed by supercomputers in the two thousand twenties.

In 2006, there was a mixed reaction to news that Camilla Parker-Bowles, was probably not murdered. The right wing press considered the Queen of Heartbreak to be a victim of the British Secret Service who were behind a cruel plot to prevent the monarchy falling further into disrepute.

In 2006, on this day an enquiry into the death of the concubine to the Prince of Wales Camilla Parker-Bowles concluded that she was probably not murdered.

In 1972, Eugene Cernan is the last person to walk on the moon, after he and Harrison Schmitt complete the third and final Extra-vehicular activity (EVA) of Apollo 17. This was the last manned mission to the moon of the 20th century. Further missions were considered pointless until NASA could figure out why re-entry into the Earth's atmosphere drove astronauts into a state of endless catatonia.

In 2003, President of Pakistan Pervez Musharaf fell victim to an assassination attempt. With his death the next day, America lost a strategic partner in the region. And worse, the violence in Arabia continued to expand into the Maghreb countries, former Soviet Union states and the Far East. President Bush had already given up hope on embedding democracy in the region, in fact he was starting to fear for democracy across the globe.

December 13

In 2014, on this day US President Mitt Romney was presented with a draft plan for X-37B US military space planes to sweep the skies of Chinese satellites.

Enlightened OpinionThe U.S. military's small, top-secret version of the space shuttle had rocketed into orbit during his predecessor's term of office. Its primary purpose of course was anti-sat interception, and as the coming conflict with China was approaching, it was considered strategically advantageous to inhibit Chinese offensive capability long before hostilities actually began.

But although the intelligence community and the US military were pressing for action, the soundings from civilian authorities were not good. Democratic congressional leaders plus Justice, State and Commerce Departments unequivocally said no. Because media aware and tuned into "enlightened opinion" the President realized that he actually disliked the letter R and decided he didn't want to pin the target on his back after all.

Entry posted by Todayinah Editor

Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Politicians Source: Wikipedia Labels: John Kerry, WMD, Iraq, Iran, Presidency.

Todayinah Editor Editor says, thanks to Scott Palter for his contributions to the development of this article.

Readers Comment Jackie Rose commented on 2012-12-13 12:02:40 ~ Besides, we woud have had to borrow the money to pay for the planes...from China.

Readers Comment Sailorbarsoom commented on 2012-12-13 14:34:47 ~ "Democrat congressional leaders plus..." Democratic leaders. DemocratIC. Fixed, thanks - Ed

Readers Comment Chris Oakley commented on 2012-12-13 15:24:37 ~ Where does Ryan fit into all of this?

Readers Comment Brian Wall commented on 2012-12-13 18:29:38 ~ Actually 'Democrat" is correct and 'Democratic' is incorrect.

Readers Comment Eric Oppen commented on 2012-12-13 19:16:01 ~ Wouldn't shooting down Chinese sats automatically trigger war with China?

In 1984, on this day the Commander of the Thunder Bay Defense Force (TBDF) Colonel Giraud Leppe (pictured) overthrew the legitimate government of the northwestern portion of the pre-Doomsday Canadian province of Ontario and declared the formation of a Social Republic with himself as President. A compressed installment of the fabulous 1983: Doomsday thread published on Althistory Wikia.

Doomsday Reaches Northern OntarioAs the head of one of the last survivalist governments in North America, his predecessor Mayor Walter Assef had waited for a telephone call from the Canadian Government that would never come. He had however been forced to organize the TBDF from former Canadian military units in order to repel increasing number of raiders who were crossing the border from the former U.S. state of Minnesota. After the defeat of a large raiding party at the Battle of of Neebing, Leppe and his officers had decided to take matters into their own hands.

During the Doomsday conflict, the nearest nuclear detonation had occured in Winnipeg and at least in the short-term the 90,000 human population of Thunder Bay was largely unaffected. However by the harsh winter with temperatures dropping to their customary level of minus thirty matters had become desperate with food stocks starting to run low. The harvest was a disaster, and fishing stocks fell victim to radiation poisoning. Rationing was introduced, followed by a series of increasingly draconian measures, but it was by no means certain that the Social Republic - by now a Fascist Mini-state - could long survive.

Entry posted by Todayinah Editor

Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Disasters Source: Wikipedia Labels: Ontario, Canada, Doomsday, Giraud Leppe, Nuclear.

Todayinah Editor Editor says, in this article we present a compressed installment of the fabulous 1983: Doomsday thread published on Althistory Wikia.

Readers Comment Eric Oppen commented on 2012-11-19 02:04:38 ~ "Survalist?" Fixed - thanks. Ed And, for the record, I've been up to that neck of the woods, and post-holocaust, warfare across the border would be difficult to put on at best---the terrain does not lend itself easily to large-scale troop movements, and the population's thin on the ground.

Readers Comment Mike McIlvain commented on 2012-11-19 07:57:34 ~ Sounds very Orwellian, like a latter day Orwell outline.

Readers Comment Chris Oakley commented on 2012-11-19 15:09:14 ~ This probably won't do much to help the Argonauts' Grey Cup chances.... :D

In 2013, on this day There and Back Again, the second part of Peter Jackson's movie adaptation of the Inklings' 1937 collaborative novel The Witch, the Hobbit and the Wardrobe premiered in cinemas across North America.

The Witch, the Hobbit and the Wardrobe
There and Back Again
An article by Ed & Steven FisherIn their quest to end the Hundred Year's Winter, the Aryan-looking Pevensies locate the creature possessing the Ring of Power from the "Wood between the Worlds". The children discover that this "Hobbit" lives comfortably in a well-furnished hole in the ground (a thinly disguised reference both to "An Englishman's home is his Castle" and the hidden underground "decency" of the intelligentia in pre-war Britain).

Together they enter the White Witch's Castle of Cair Paravel which is filled with stone statues of enemies she has petried - one of whom is smoking a long cigar (symbolising for anti-appeasement politicians). The Ring enables them to unfreeze these figures and form the army that ultimately liberates Narnia. During the final battle, Peter kills the Wolf Maugrim who is the chief of the White Witch's secret police (and a charicature of Adolf Hitler).

Christmas finally arrives, but the saga is not yet over because the Empress Jadis and her dwarf henchman Ginnarbrick follow the children back through the portal, creating havoc in the city of London.

Contemporaries of the Inklings had understood that Jadis represented an older woman that Lewis had promised a dying soldier that he would protect after the war. But in an unguarded comment, he confessed that Jadis was a bitter charicature of Wallis Simpson, who ruled Britain after Edwards VIII's heart attack in 1937. The revelation that TWTHATW was an embittered allegory for a corrupt nation would destroy the reputations of both Tolkien and Lewis. They were forced to resign their professorships at Oxford University just days before the signing of the Ribbentrop-Eden Pact.

Entry posted by Todayinah Editor

Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Personalities Source: Wikipedia Labels: J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Lion, Witch and the Wardrobe, Lord of the Rings, Fantasy.

Todayinah Editor Editor says, in this article we review some powerful ideas explored in Alan Jacobs' book "The Narnian - The Life and Imagination of C.S. Lewis"

Readers Comment Eric Oppen commented on 2011-11-21 00:23:56 ~ I don't think that Wallis would have ruled Britain...Edward VIII never did, even when he was King. If he'd been incapacitated, and not had to abdicate, she'd have been shunted aside so fast that light would look slow and crippled. Fixed - thanks. Ed

Readers Comment Bruce Johnson commented on 2011-11-21 12:34:14 ~ (Not able to spend the time and energy with the regular fun speculation, but can't help wondering if this was partly inspired by the trailers of the coming Doctor Who Christmas special,'The Doctor, the Widow and the Wardrobe'.)

Readers Comment Steven Fisher commented on 2011-11-21 14:21:25 ~ Sadly, this would require a rewrite of the rules governing the British monarchy, since the Church of England forbade the remarriage of divorced people who had living ex-spouses. Fixed - thanks. Ed

Readers Comment Jeff Provine commented on 2011-11-22 19:12:20 ~ Hope L & T come to America. Princeton would probably take 'em, as they had Einstein and others who escaped their own fascist countries.

Readers Comment Stan Brin commented on 2011-12-13 09:09:10 ~ Mrs. Simpson would never have "ruled" England. She was not in the line of succession. At most, she would have become dowager queen, put up in a palace, and allowed to attend the occasional royal event. Besides, "winter is coming..."

In 1577, on this day the ill-fated Drake Expedition leaves England. The privateer Francis Drake had been a useful asset to the English Crown through his lifelong (however short) wrath against the Spanish. As was a young sailor, he was captured with his cousin Sir John Hawkins by the Spanish, only to escape and supposedly vow revenge.

Ill-fated Drake Expedition Leaves EnglandSailing in the West Indies, Drake built a career in piracy, eventually falling in with the French buccaneer Le Testu. The two formed a raid on the Spanish Main, during which Le Testu would be captured and executed, but Drake and his men would escape laden with as much gold and silver as they could carry.

In 1577, Drake was given a mission by Queen Elizabeth to attack the Spanish along the Pacific coast. Magellan had crossed into the quieter waters of the Pacific for Spain some fifty years before, and conquests by Pizarro had spurred great wealth from the fallen Inca. While the treasure would have to sail through the screen of pirates past the Spanish Main, its transport in the Pacific was all but peaceful. Setting out of Plymouth on November 15, the expedition was immediately plagued with problems.

A new story by Jeff ProvineFoul weather forced them to Cornwall, and the fleet returned to Plymouth, setting out again that December. Many might have taken the bad start as a sign, but Drake was reputedly not a man of superstition (unless it worked into his favor). They added a sixth ship to their fleet that had been captured from the Portuguese, the first and nearly only good luck of the voyage. Upon crossing the Atlantic, Drake scuttled two of his ships due to the loss of manpower.

In what is today Argentina, Drake and his remaining men came to San Julian, the same bay where Ferdinand Magellan had executed mutinous men decades before. Their bleached bones still hung from gibbets, and Drake took advice Magellan's legacy. He executed a mutinous commander, Thomas Doughty, a former friend who had been with Drake since their participation in fending off Scottish ships during the Rathlin Island massacre in Ireland. Doughty had caught Drake's brother stealing, and Drake had turned against him since. Without producing a writ from the Crown to prove his powers or giving Doughty a trial, Drake pronounced him guilty of mutiny, treason, and witchcraft, having him beheaded.

Further bad luck followed as the captured Portuguese ship Mary was found to be rotted, and two more ships were lost passing through the Strait of Magellan. Drake's remaining men on the one last ship, Golden Hind, waned in morale (believing that God was punishing them because of what had been done to Thomas Doughty) until they began to attack Spanish towns and capture ships. They were seemingly invincible until Drake gave chase to the treasure ship Nuestra Senora de la Concepcion, which turned out to be a Spanish trap. The English privateers were captured, and many, including Drake, were killed in the fighting. A few survived as prisoners of war or joined the Spanish as sailors, and enough trickled back to England to tell the tale of the failed Drake expedition.

While Spain and England continued to prey upon one another at sea, they would never fully go to war. Much of the infantry battles would be fought vicariously in the Netherlands, and war would rarely be formally declared upon the high seas. Spain grew in is colonies to the south, and England began to establish its own colonial plantations in the north, rarely making profit until the implement of tobacco. Spain maintained the upper hand in what became a war of attrition between Protestant and Catholic kingdoms in Europe. The colonies grew, but gradual setbacks in Atlantic trade rights kept England on par with the colonial aspirations in North America of the Dutch and Swedes. By the time the American colonial period waned through the Liberty Rebellions of Europe, North America was a hodgepodge of countries of varying nationalities and dependencies upon their mother countries.

Entry posted by Guest Historian

Jeff Provine

Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Jeff Provine Blog Source: Jeff Provine’s Blog Labels: Frances Drake, Explorer, England, John Hawkins, Le Testu.

Todayinah Editor Editor says, in reality Drake's capture of the ship nicknamed Cagafuego was a great success, taking some 26 tons of silver, 80 pounds of gold, a golden crucifix, jewels, and chests of valuables. Drake would sail as far north as California (claimed as New Albion) and circumnavigate the Earth, arriving in Plymouth on September 26, 1580. He would be knighted, enter politics, and return to the seas in raiding the city of Cadiz on the Spanish mainland. Such audacity of war would spawn King Phillip II of Spain to launch the Spanish Armada aimed at transporting troops to an invasion of England. Drake would be instrumental in the English defeat of the Armada, signaling the end of Spanish dominance upon the high seas.

Readers Comment Eric Lipps commented on 2010-12-13 15:49:06 ~ Re the Editor's Comment: Surely you mean that Drake's audacity "spurred" Philip II, not "spawned" him. Fixed - thanks. Ed As for Spain and England avoiding war, given Philip's religious zeal and the Catholic Church's formal declarations that England was a nation of heretics which must be forcibly returned to "the True Faith," I suspect it would have been only a matter of time before hostilities erupted. And with Drake out of the picture, the Spanish Armada might have succeeded in invading England--especially if it had attacked either a year earlier or a year later, rather than in 1588, which was marked by a series of freakish storms, one of which was instrumental in wrecking the Armada. Drake's ruse of sending burning ships among the Artmada's vessels panicked the Spanish, who suspected the English ships were "hellburners" packed with gunpowder which might explode among them like gigantic bombs; another commander might not have thought of such a trick.

Readers Comment Mark Taylor commented on 2011-09-20 13:38:44 ~ One of England's greatest heroes.Should have been made a Duke,not just knighted.

In 1950, as the last automobile left the line in Nagoya, Factory Manager Eiji Toyoda and his Chief Production Engineer Taiichi Ohno regretted that the end of windfall orders from the US Government after the military disaster at Inchon had prevented the now insolvent Motor Sales Company from successfully developing the revolutionary Toyota Production System (TPS) later known as "lean manufacturing".

Just in TimeIn 1938, CEO Kiichiro Toyoda had asked his cousin Eiji to oversee construction of a newer factory about 32 km east of Nagoya on the site of a red pine forest in the town of Koromo, later re-named Toyota City. Toyoda visited Ford's River Rouge Plant at Dearborn, Michigan. He was awed by the scale of the facility but dismissive of what he saw as its inefficiencies. Toyota Motor had been in the business of manufacturing cars for thirteen years at this stage, and had produced just over two thousand five hundred automobiles. The Ford plant in contrast manufactured eight thousand vehicles a day.

Due to this experience, Toyoda decided to adopt US automobile mass production methods but with a qualitative twist. Instead of the huge stock holdings he had seen in Dearborn, Toyoda told workers to turn out parts for the manufacturing process "just in time". He also organized workers into self-suffient teams who would be their own supervisors and quality controllers; if they observed the smallest defect, they were permitted to halt the production line for corrective action to be taken. Needless to say, the result was chaos as the production line was halted by workers pulling the power cord or parts failing to arrive "just in time".

During the summer of 1950, the Korean War broke out and the US Government desperately needed cars and trucks even faster than "just in time", they needed them like yesterday. Suddenly the factory was receiving orders for fifteen hundred trucks a month. As production was upscaled, the initial problems with TPS began to get solved - but then Toyoda and Ohno ran out of time.

Of course the continuation of so-called "divine" aid to Japanese Industry might well have created enormous long-term problems for the unwitting American taxpayer who had been led to believe that the Japanese were savages and brutes. And despite various punitive threats to gut central Japan, sterilize the male population or return the economy to an agricultural state, the reconstructed post-war Japan being financed was a restoration to its pre-Pearl Harbour state. Had Toyota emerged as a world-class automobile manufacturer, workers at Dearbourn and Detroit might also have had reason to question why American had gone to war with Japan. As it turned out, the Korean War was a short run affair as allied troops were rapidly forced off the peninsula, and MacArthur's counter-attack was a reputation-destroying disaster of truly epic magnitudes.

Entry posted by Todayinah Editor

Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: War Source: Wikipedia Labels: Korean War, Japan, Lean Manufacturing, America, Korea.

Todayinah Editor Editor says, in reality by 1958 Japan was producing 200,000 cars per year and beginning to build an export market in the United States.

Readers Comment David Atwell commented on 2010-12-13 00:48:39 ~ Oh what a feeling... poor Toyota...

Readers Comment Scott Palter commented on 2010-12-13 02:13:38 ~ Wrong trigger. If the 8th army is driven into the sea at Inchon Mao intervenes in the Indochina War and there is also a huge military buildup in Japan and Taiwan. What you need for this result is Rhee regime to be a tad stronger and Stalin and Mao a tad less adventurous. No Korean War and the entire Japanese economy implodes 1950-52.

Readers Comment Eric Oppen commented on 2010-12-13 06:09:51 ~ If Japan imploded in those years, it might turn into something seriously nasty. Unlike the Germans, they've never accepted that what they did before 1945 was wrong.

Readers Comment Chris Oakley commented on 2010-12-13 14:08:21 ~ Poor Japanese auto industry, for that matter...

Readers Comment Jeff Provine commented on 2010-12-13 16:33:30 ~ The whole world economy would be a very different scene. No great 1980s jokes about Japan taking over the world.

In 2001, December 13th was a brilliant morning in New Delhi. The noise of the city was at its usual suggesting that all was right in India, apart from the usual simmering of discontent. Nonetheless, the capital of India was also the capital of the largest democracy in the world.

A contemporary Alternate History of the 2001 India-Pakistan War by David Atwell Although far from perfect, it had taken on the Westminster system of government and had done reasonably well with it, considering the difficulties that India faced. India's neighbours, however, were far from democratic. Pakistan, which had occasionally flirted with democracy, was once more a military dictatorship. Burma was another military dictatorship. China was a People's Republic, which meant to say it was a Communist dictatorship. Thus under the circumstances, India was akin to the Garden of Democratic Eden in comparison to the desert of dictatorships that surrounded it.

A Chapter from Hell's Doors OpenSo in the afternoon of 13 December 2001, when terrorists attacked the Indian Parliament, the Indian government went into action. As bullets and explosions shook the building Prime Minister Vajpayee immediately put India's Armed Forces on alert. This also included India's nuclear arsenal. By the time the terrorists had been killed India was ready for war.

Naturally the Indian's blamed the Pakistani's for the attack on their Parliament. And they had much good reason to do so. The weapons that the terrorists used where discovered to be of Pakistani origin, not to mention that Indian Intelligence identified two of the terrorists as Pakistani citizens, and known to be members of a terrorist organisation partly funded by the Pakistani Government. All this was far too much for the Indian public who demanded action, and with several state elections coming up, it would be electoral suicide for Vajpayee's BJP ruling party to do nothing.

Thus it came as no surprise when Vajpayee ordered 600 000 troops to the Pakistan border in Kashmir. The Indian generals where then given a second order: an invasion of Pakistan itself. Although Musharraf was unaware of the second order, the first one was made very public. At first Musharraf hesitated to response to this Indian action, as the Pakistan Army was committed to the Afghanistan border in an effort to stop the September 11 terrorists escaping the wroth that the United States had decided upon. But soon Musharraf changed his mind and ordered 400 000 of Pakistan's troops to face the Indians.

This response was exactly what the Indian generals had hoped for. By sending 400 000 troops to the one region, Pakistan had only 200 000 troops left to guard the rest of the country. India, on the other hand, had a further 700 000 troops to employ as the general's saw fit. As such an Indian Tank Army was quietly and secretly formed in the Punjab State of India. 4 tank, 4 mechanised, and 4 infantry motor divisions, along with support and logistic units, numbering 250 000 of India's finest troops were soon ready. Within a week of the bombing of the Indian Parliament, this army would cross the border near the Pakistani city of Lahore, capture it the same day, then advance onto Islamabad the capital of Pakistan. In doing so it would encircle the 400 000 Pakistani troops in Kashmir and reduce Pakistan to its southern territory. As a result Pakistan would be halved in size.

Pakistan's generals were not stupid. They could read the same maps as their Indian counterparts and immediately feared the worst. At best they could deploy 2 brigades to cover the Lahore Front, as they called it, and were well aware that they were extremely vulnerable there. Although the Thar Desert offered another invasion route into Pakistan from India, this was considered unlikely because there was little of value on the Pakistani side. All agreed that Lahore was a very tempting target, should the Indian's invade, yet they had little to defend it with. It was at this point that Musharraf, an army general himself, made the most unenviable decision in history. Should the 2 brigades be overrun, then Pakistan would use the Bomb.
Read the whole story on the Changing the Times web site

Entry posted by Guest Historian

David Atwell

Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Hells Doors Open Source: Changing the Times Labels: India, Pakistan, 2001, Nuclear, Atomic.

Readers Comment Jeff Provine commented on 2010-11-29 23:52:59 ~ Could very well have happened, and would've changed the whole War on Terror into a massacre throughout Asia.

Readers Comment Scott Palter commented on 2010-11-30 04:56:44 ~ Pakistani HUMINT is simply not that bad. They would know the general outline of the Indian mobilization via a grains of sand approach to reports of troop movements, etc.

Readers Comment Eric Lipps commented on 2010-11-30 12:46:09 ~ Interesting. The one complaint I have is a grammatical one: too many imappropriately placed "apostrophe's". In particular, it's not the "Indian's" and the Pakistani's" but the Indians and the Pakistanis.

Comment from Vinay Singh on Facebook: a nuke attack would inevitably bring ultimate havoc on both the nations... indian army, having the 3rd largest standing army on earth, is comparatively powerful for sure... but the lack of anti-nuclear warheads makes them equally vulnerable to a nuke war... though if the 2 countries keep away from using their ultimate weapons, there's no way pak army would be able to supersede indian forces and this has been exemplified in the '99, '71, 61, and 48 wars...

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