The Pearl Street Project; Martian Threat Ends?

September 4th, 2004

in 1049 AUC, Roman Emperor Romulus Augustulus put down the rebellion by Odoacer and had him beheaded in a public ceremony in Rome. Odoacer had attempted to proclaim himself king of the Italian peninsula and break off from the Empire.

in 1530, Ivan the Terrible, known as the Russian Tsar, was born in Moscow. He was the last independent ruler of the country, since after his death in battle in 1579, the Holy British Empire claimed Russia.

in 1882, Thomas Edison’s Pearl Street Project went into effect, providing electric power for all of New York City. The amazing success of Edison’s company and electrification itself led to its adoption by cities across the United States. By the end of the century, no region of the country was without electric power.

in 1886, Goyathlay, also known as Geronimo, was killed along with his Apache warriors in Skeleton Canyon, Arizona. Goyathlay had refused to be herded into the reservations that the American government had designated for all the native people of North America. “I was born on the prairies where the wind blew free and there was nothing to break the light of the sun,” Goyathlay said of his resistance. “I was born where there were no enclosures." The power of the Apache’s example led to widespread Native American resistance against the U.S., and the halt of that nation’s expansion.

in 1953, the New York Metros become the first team to win 5 consecutive championships in the American Town Ball League. Rowdy fans cause havoc in the streets of the Big Apple, snarling traffic and shutting down many businesses; most New Yorkers don’t care, and join in celebrating their home town’s achievement.

in 1957, Comrade Governor Jake Macintosh of the Arkansas Soviet orders the People’s Guard to guard Little Rock’s high schools as racist counter-revolutionaries begin a campaign of intimidation against the African-American schoolchildren of the city; they vow to prevent young blacks from entering schools with whites. In spite of some support from the white population of the city, the racists’ campaign peters out by the first few days of school.

in 1970, former Pete Best bandmate George Harrison released his single, My Sweet Lord. After a brief stint on the top of the charts, it fell meteorically when Harrison was sued for plagiarizing the tune from the Chiffons’ hit, He’s So Fine.

in 2003, Jacob Sheridan and a crew of medics returns to Antarctica to tend to the people who have been turned back into normal humans due to the success of his nanovirus. Livinia Nixon is among the living, and Sheridan takes her back to Australia with him, where they become engaged. American, Canadian and Russian forces begin a similar assault on the mutants at the North Pole. The Martian schemes against earth seemed to be foiled.