Happy Anniversary!

Our 2nd Anniversary! We'd like to thank all the loyal readers who have stuck with us this long, as well as all the new readers who are just wondering why this history page is so different from the stuff they were taught in school...
Our entrants into the Anniversary Contest gave us wonderful material, so here they are, with the name of the Honorary Alternate Historian before their section:

Michael R. Smith:

in 1894, Dashiell Hammett, renowned worldwide as the "World's Greatest Detective" was born in Maryland. Hammett began his career in the employ of the Pinkerton agency, but eventually found employment with the Federal Bureau of Investigation after successfully cracking the Lindbergh kidnapping case in March of 1932. Hammett was Hoover's top investigator until his death in 1961. records of some of his famous cases, such as the Thin Man, and the Maltese Falcon have gained notoriety and even spawned several successful movies.

July 12, 1917, Use of a chemical agent known as “Yellow King” by the German army in the trenches at Ypres results in numerous deaths as well as the first cases of “walking dead” resuscitated by the strange properties of the gas. Several months later the first super-humans begin to appear on the battlefields as well, altered in unusual manner by exposure to the noxious gas. Armistice ends with a re-drawn political map and the formation of the League of Nations, which institutes a league of super-humans to help enforce its polices, these teams are formed of veterans of the Great War opposed to future conflicts like the one which nearly destroyed Europe. Their secondary purpose is to contain the restless dead who still run free in devastated Europe.

in 1937, San Francisco's Golden gate Bridge is opened to traffic, but instead of the Marin headlands, the first people to cross the bridge find themselves face to face with the armies of the fae; who had been massing in preparation for their triumphant return to the world of the mortals. The City of the Golden Gate becomes their foothold and fortress from which they intend to dominate the world.

Jake Dominguez:

in 1896CE-INCLUSIVE, The Fermi-Scale-4 St. Louis Vortex formed out of free-drifting temporal eddies very near the surface of the Earth's crust at St. Louis, Missouri. The Vortex captured 320,000 metric tonnes of temporally-native matter, mostly in the form of human-built debris, surface soil and atmospheric gases, as well as 255 humans and an estimated 8,200 other representatives of non-sentient eukaryotic life. The effect on the temporal structure proved to be detrimental, as three more vortices were subsequently spawned by the continuum imbalance caused by the introduction of so much native matter into the Void. However, all three resultant disturbances were confined to intra-planetary space and as such consumed little beyond traces of cosmic dust.

in 1942, Operation Anthropoid, the Czech-Deutsche mission to assassinate top Star Harvest leader Kax'tkl Hnns!aska, Director of the Harvesters' plundering and populace-oppression operation on Earth, was successfully carried out. Nearly two dozen members of the underground Vaterwelt Freiheit Gesellschaft group laid in wait in the abandoned suburb of Panenské Břežany for Kax'tkl's GEV transport to pass over on its daily journey to the Directorate in Prague Castle. Upon the transport's approach, an estimated 15 Panzerschreck anti-tank weapons were fired, guidance-less, at the vehicle. Most of the shots missed, but incredibly, two projectiles directly impacted the transport's aft repulsor pads, causing the vehicle to crash and instantly killing Kax'tkl and several members of its staff. Terran joy was short lived when in response, Harvester Command ordered and executed the termination of all extant humans on the planet.

Dave Jong:

in 1941, the German battleship DKM Bismarck, despite being hounded by Royal Navy ships and carrier aircraft, manages to make port in France. After repairs and refueling and despite a concerted effort by the Royal Navy to destroy her in port to avenge HMS Hood, she sails into the North Atlantic and wreaks havoc on merchant shipping. The Bismarck becomes the bane of the Royal Navy's until finally being destroyed in 1944.

in 1941, the German battleship DKM Tirpitz is sunk by Royal Navy battleships in retribution for the sinking of HMS Hood with nearly all hands three day earlier. Although the destruction of the Tirpitz does much to boost moral in Britain, her sister ship, DKM Bismarck takes revenge in the North Atlantic, doing much damage to merchant shipping and in later attacks against Scandinavia.

Nancy Sullivan:

in 771, Charlemagne is not crowned, as he is suddenly assassinated by a Lombard agent who predicted that the king-to-be would attack the League; as a result, the Lombard League soon consolidated its control over all of southern Europe.

Max Liebersohn:

in 1911, 37th U.S. president Hubert H. Humphrey was born in Wallace, South Dakota. His eight years in office were characterized by a continuation of Lyndon B. Johnson's Great Society programs, but he was often criticized for being weak on foreign issues such as the Vietnam War.

in 1937, the first report of a mysterious New York City vigilante appeared in the Times. Paul Rogers, of the Apex Chemical Corporation, claimed his life was saved from a murderous plot by a black bat or demon figure. More stories surfaced of the vigilante, mainly from criminals found tied to lampposts. Sightings waned in the late forties but resurged in the sixties.

XJ:

in 1550, Pope Alexander VII departed this life. One of the most controversial popes, and almost certainly the most controversial saint, his uncompromising suppression of the Lutherite and Calvinite heresies earned him the title of “God’s Butcher” and the condemnation of liberal historians, but his actions saved the Universal Catholic Church from schism at a moment of vulnerability. As Cardinal Nietzsche wrote in his Pro-Christ, “St Cesare as Pope… Christianity was thereby preserved!”

in 1949, the first Oscar Eckenstein Professor of Mountain Sciences was appointed by Cambridge University. The Fellowship was endowed by Sir Edward Crowley, the “conqueror of Everest,” and named by him after his mentor and fellow climber, the man whom Crowley credited with “blowing all the mystical nonsense out of my young head.”

Our thanks to everyone who participated in this contest, and you can see a couple of our entrants at other sites – for Michael's other work, visit Pulp Era and see XJ at Chasing Waterfalls.

Thank you all for a happy 2nd anniversary, and we hope to see you around for the ones to come!