Stalemate At Hastings; The Anti-Christ Is Declared

October 14th, 2005

in 1066, King Harold II of England and William of Normandy fight to a standstill at Hastings, England. With most of his invasion force spent, William withdraws to the coast and sends back to the continent for reinforcements. King Harold sends an embassy to negotiate a peace while drafting men from the countryside to fight for England.

in 1605, the royal court views the play Macbeth by William Shakespeare and his company. During the viewing, a black cloud gathers over the palace and pours down rain and lightning; King James is murdered by a mysterious assassin when all the candles in the courtroom are blown out by a stray gust of wind. This play was never presented again, and was stripped from Shakespeare's official folio.

in 1890, Colonel Beauregard T. Jackson, interrogating captives who had been with the Mormon rebel Charles Brigman, breaks one of them down and learns that Brigman has a cache of explosives hidden in Salt Lake City; none of the captives know where it is – apparently only Brigman knew. Colonel Jackson sets his men searching the city.

in 1912, former President Theodore Roosevelt is shot by a saloon owner while campaigning for the Progressive Party. The assassination attempt rallies support around the charismatic leader, and when he survives the gunshot, his popularity soars around the nation. He trounces his Democratic and Republican opponents in the general election, becoming the only president to switch parties and then return to office.

in 1943, Zionist reinforcements fight their way into St. Petersburg to hold off the German Underground. They bring much-needed supplies and food with them, giving new hope to the city. Unfortunately for them, the G.U. sends for help from their patrons, the time-traveling neo-Nazis, and they are also resupplied. They do not use nuclear weapons against the city, but threaten the Zionist leadership that they have that option.

in 1947, the monster in the sky won its long battle with pilot Chuck Yeager; when he attempted to break the sound barrier in the experimental X-1 aircraft developed by the military, he cracked his head against the windscreen and blacked out, losing control of the craft and crashing. The program was suspended; it was deemed far too expensive in lives and aircraft.

in 1960, Pascal-Edison releases an update to Self-Portrait which allows the user to choose one of 3 different personalities for the operating system. This saves the product, since most people had complained that they didn’t like the Artificial Intelligence simulation of themselves.

in 4697, the Chdo forces withdraw from earth’s solar system, reasonably assured that the Y’T’T’li have been defeated. A small group, taken with the beauty of the planets, asks the Emperor for permission to colonize the outer system, and Xiao grants it to them. They swear loyalty to Xiao and the Chinese Empire, and are embraced as citizens.

in 2002, the pair of guest scientists, Professor Thomas and Dr. Courtney, meet with the commanders of Edwards Air Force base for a couple of hours as they seek to explain a few of the items they have managed to classify from their moon raid. They are then given permission to use a few of the engineers on the base to mount some of these devices on the stolen craft.

in 2003, Pope Righteous I delivers an address from Buckingham Cathedral which is carried across the Holy British Empire. In it, he declares that Estelle Gerard is, in fact, the ultimate enemy of Christians, the Anti-Christ. He orders all so-called Estellians to abandon their leader and turn back to Holy Mother Church if they wish to be saved from damnation.

TIAH HALLOWEEN CONTEST - no donation required, just send us your stuff! Only 6 days left! We're down to the last week!

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?

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!