July 31st, 2005
in 422, astronomers in Baghdad, expanding on the work of Abul-Wefa, calculate the circumference of the earth accurately. Their Caliph, El Hakam, celebrates their brilliance with a royal banquet and a pledge to always maintain the school of astronomy: “Since Allah made the stars within the domain of the earth, and gave to man the earth, it follows that the stars are our jewels, as well. May Allah grant your school the wisdom to pick these jewels from the sky.”
in 1556, St. Ignatius of Loyola dies. In life, he had been the founder of the Society of Jesus, a somewhat ironically named organization that had been Pope Henry VIII’s political and intellectual assassins. Ignatius himself was only made a saint because of the political services he had performed for the Holy British Empire.
in 1912, President Nora Barney, in one of her last acts before leaving office, passes a law prohibiting the filming of prize fights, either for photographs or the cinema. Her successor, sister Suffragist Charlotte Gilman, enforced the law rigidly. Violence of almost any kind was being pushed out of polite society in Suffragist America.
in the 16th year of Ptolerit’s reign, astronaut Soranim returns to earth, hailed as a demigod. Ptolerit names him a Prince of the Realm, and gives him one of his own daughters as a wife.
in 1942, the German Underground releases chemical weapons against Greater Zionist Resistance troops in Minsk. While not as effective as the nuclear weapons used a few months ago, they do have the advantage of leaving the buildings of Minsk standing. The GZR is now in a long state of withdrawal from Europe.
in 1960, Elijah Muhammed, leader of the Semitic-African Resistance, calls for the United States to set aside a state for those of African and Semitic ancestry. Political agitator Albert Einstein, a lesser functionary of the S.A.R., begins holding talks with sympathetic Congressmen who might be willing to allow them to do so. Armed resistance is still years away.
in 1974, Daniel Ellsberg, a consultant at the Pentagon, was sentenced to 25 years in prison for treason. Ellsberg had been caught trying to peddle classified papers to various news organizations through a fortuitous tip from his psychiatrist. President Nixon said, “Filthy traitors aren’t welcome in our America.”
in 1996, Dr. Melvin Courtney delivers the paper he has written on the Chimanimani object to his friend, Dr. Noah Hathaway. “We’ll have this out in September, Mel,” he promises his friend.
in 2000, the newlywed couple Velma Porter and Mikhail von Heflin pay another visit to the warehouse in Las Vegas that is currently housing the strange Czech men who have been following them. Sneaking around the warehouse, they find an old book written in Czech that they take with them back to their hotel. The Baron is not able to follow it very well, but he thinks that it is a book of rituals for contacting beings from other planes.
in 2004, the inhabitants of Lalande 25372 incorporate more information about the Elders into their broadcast to earth. They haven’t broken the light-speed barrier, but hold their galactic civilization together via strange, autonomous simulacra on all the planets within it. Several hundred of these creatures are on Lalande 25372, and are pressuring the Lalandians to join their domain.
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