Wednesday, April 26, 2006

Defoe Dies; Meteorites Fall On Paris

ALTERNATE HISTORIAN'S NOTE: we have our second anniversary coming up on May 27th, and we would like to have another contest. For our second anniversary, send us up to three of your own alternate histories, and we will publish the best - no limit on how many will end up on the final page! We would like to see as many of you enter this as possible, so please - think 'em up, write 'em down, and send 'em on to us at rat4cat@gmail.com! Help us celebrate our 2nd year of existence in style! Oh, and if you're like Sean and we owe you an appearance in TIAH - email us!

April 26th, 2006

in 1731, British author Daniel Defoe died en route to the moon. One of the first notable Englishmen to embrace the Mlosh, Defoe wrote 30 books about them, and even lived for a few months on the colony ship in Ireland. Although most Europeans of his time feared them, he felt that they provided “the most pure adventure ever presented before mankind,” and jumped at every opportunity to convince people of it.

in 1803, thousands of meteorites rained down on Paris, France, killing 34 people and leveling buildings throughout the city. Although excited astronomers across Europe felt that they were evidence of material from outer space, the Archbishop of Paris called the judgment of God and spearheaded the angry mobbing of the Sorbonne, which had survived the meteor shower.

in 1865, presidential assassin John Wilkes Booth is captured by Union soldiers while hiding in a farm in Virginia. Although stoically resistant to questioning at first, he soon cracks and begins giving details of a conspiracy to do away with Lincoln that reaches up to the highest echelons of American society; his testimony does what all the Confederate armies couldn't, and brings down the government of the United States.

in 1920, Indian mathematician Srinivasa Ramanujan emerged from surgery weak, but alive. A cancerous tumor had been removed from his stomach barely in time to keep him from dying. Ramanujan lived another thirty years, co-authoring papers with Albert Einstein and J. Robert Oppenheimer, and popularizing the teaching of special relativity in his native India.

in 1937, the German Underground’s air force, the Luftwaffe, supplies air support to Spanish fascists fighting the Greater Zionist Resistance. Employing jet designs from 1968 supplied by their neo-Nazi benefactors, the Luftwaffe was able to smash G.Z.R. positions across Spain, one of the first G.U. victories in their long war.

in 1982, the leader of the band The Clash, Joe Strummer, disappears. A month later, he is recognized at London’s Heathrow Airport, handing out flowers as a member of the Hari Krishna sect. He announces to the world that he has given up music for his new spiritual life.

in 1985, President Ralph Shephard’s Constitutionalists in Congress pass the American Future Act, which, among other things, creates a separate school system for minorities, leftists and the poor. The regular school system, which consumes almost all of school funding, is only used by children of the elite; the new schools are starved of funding and are shut down completely by 1990.

in 1986, there was an explosion at the Cooper Nuclear Power Plant in the Nebraska Soviet. Although only a few dozen people died in the initial blast and fire, thousands were killed by the radiation that was released, and much of America’s food supply was contaminated for years after. The Soviet States of America tried to keep it quiet, but the Mexican government reported the disaster to the world when radiation levels in their own country spiked.

in 2001, Colby Ross and Samantha Robinson burn everything in their grandfathers’ hidden basement in order to prevent anyone from repeating their mistake. The two vow never again to delve into the hidden mysteries of the past, and move far away from each other.

in 2005, Alma May Watson pays a visit to the Great Tree and she and Chelsea Perkins have a tearful reconciliation. Chelsea confesses to Miss Watson about her secret trip to see her mother; Miss Watson understands, but warns Chelsea, “we're the only ones who can understand you, now, dear. We're your family.” Chelsea promises to keep away from her mother from now on.

Timelines in today's post: the Mlosh, the GZR, Communist America, the Chelsea Perkins timeline and the Ralph Shephard timeline

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