Friday, October 07, 2005

Papal Marriage Annulled; Nixon-Kennedy Debate

October 7th, 2005

in 1528, Papal spokesman Cardinal William Catesby declared the marriage of Pope Henry VIII to Catherine of Aragon to be annulled. The Holy British Empire was quite surprised to learn that the Pope and his wife had never consummated their marriage.

in 1890, Captain Phil Ulrich leads his troops across the desert of Utah Territory towards Salt Lake City to reinforce Colonel Beauregard T. Jackson. The desert takes many of his men, but is the quickest route to the capitol, and Captain Ulrich avoids several Mormon ambushes with this daring, if foolhardy, detour.

in 1896, Elijah Muhammed was born in Sandersville, Georgia. Brother Muhammed was almost single-handedly responsible for the surge in African-American acceptance of the light of Islam, through his disciple Martin King. Their efforts brought nearly 30 million Americans to the brotherhood of Islam.

in 1910, Congress of Nations Commander Mohandas Namboudry maneuvers his orbital warships into a cover over the capitol city of the Mlosh homeworld and begins using what transports he has to evacuate non-combat personnel, with the warships providing cover for them until they can get away. The Q’Bar ships are outgunned, but have a numbers advantage at the beginning, and the situation looks dire for the C.N. and the newly-arrived Mlosh.

in 1949, Communists in the eastern half of Germany secede and form the Democratic People’s Republic of Germany. They hold the capitol, Berlin, and this prompts several of the “White” governments of Europe to send military force into Germany to bring them back in line with the rest of the capitalist continent. With aid from the Soviet States of America, though, the People’s Democracy is able to survive. Berlin remains the capitol of both Germanies, and is partitioned into a capitalist half and a communist half. It becomes the scene of much struggle over the years, including the wall that was constructed there, decried by Comrade President Rosenberg in his famous “ich bin ein Berliner” speech.

in 1960, Senator John Kennedy of Massachusetts and Vice-President Richard Nixon debate for the second time on television, this time on matters of foreign policy. Kennedy made his famous declaration that Castro was a communist, and that, “Today, Cuba is lost to freedom.” When Castro signed a trade and security agreement with the Eisenhower administration the next week, Kennedy was humiliated, and doubts about his competency in international affairs became certainties.

in 1968, the movie industry, in an effort to stave off government censorship of films, adopted a voluntary system of ratings between G for general audiences and X for adult fare. Unfortunately, many filmmakers opted not to join the voluntary system, and it soon collapsed from lack of use. President Nixon’s Film Censorship Board then took over the task of keeping Hollywood clean.

in 1982, composer/producer Andrew Lloyd Webber of Jesus Christ, Superstar fame opened a new musical on Broadway. It was based on, of all things, T.S. Eliot’s Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats, and titled, simply, Cats. The show flopped; apparently, Webber had overestimated his ability to put just anything in front of the theater-going public.

in 4697, the outermost planet, Ming-Wang-Xing, is overrun by Y’T’T’li who begin converting it into material for their ships. Chinese and Chdo ships start asteroid bombardment of the planet in order to destroy the Y’T’T’li there, but the cybernetic aliens are able to burrow deep into Ming-Wang-Xing’s mantle and begin constructing a device of unimaginable destructive power.

in 2002, Professor Thomas and Dr. Courtney take the 3 best pilots they have been training and place them at the controls of their extra craft. The rest of the pilots are split between the 5 craft they now have, and Dr. Courtney leads them off earth and towards another system; they are going to make another raid to gather more supplies.


TIAH HALLOWEEN CONTEST - no donation required, just send us your stuff! Only 13 days left!


In order to give us a tad more time for Halloween, Today In Alternate History is sponsoring its first contest - email us up to 3 alternate history entries for October 31st, 2005. The best 10 entries will make up the entire content of the post on October 31st, Halloween day. Entries must be received by October 20th! Boring contest information was available on our Forum link below, but since the forum has been hacked, we'll email it back to you if you want to know what it is. Enter early and often!


Also, we still have our standard offer - everybody who donates $10 or more through our Paypal link will become alternate history entries on the site. When you donate, I will email you asking your preference for a day & timeline; if you don't reply to me, I'll place you in a day that seems to fit your name :) Thanks for your continued support!


Forum Link not working for now - Forum has been hacked! We're working on getting it back, and will let you know once it's back up.
Fresh New Poll - Shall we use future dates in our entries?


Buy my stuff at Lulu!
Warp and Protocols still available; also, see the script I submitted for Bravo's Situation: Comedy. Speaking of which, the winning writers have been announced; not the ones I voted for, but you can see the one I did at http://www.marktreitel.com

Still wishing...


As your humble alternate historian enters the downhill slope of the 40's, he still has his birthday wish - a contract with a publishing company like Workman Publishing to produce a page-a-day calendar of TIAH. If you are an editor for such a company, or can place us in touch with one, please fulfill this belated birthday wish!

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