My Birthday Gift - A Guest Historian

The state of TIAH

August 14th, 2006

Alternate Historian's Note: For my birthday, I was given the best gift of all – a Guest Historian, Viannah Duncan, has written today's entire post. Enjoy her work as I take my birthday off, and let her know how well she's done in comments! And, if you want to be a Guest Historian, too, follow the “state of TIAH” link above to find out how...

1281: Kamikaze hits Mongol forces; Khan nevertheless conquers Japan

Mongols conquer Japan despite Japanese kamikaze—“divine wind”. Kublai Khan was determined to bring the “rogue islands” under his rule. Staging a two-pronged attack, Khan sent more than 40,000 Mongol soldiers on more than 900 ships from Korea and over 100,000 troops on around 3,500 ships from southeastern China. Although his forces were met with unanticipated resistance, including a typhoon—which the Japanese called “kamikaze”—that wiped out half of his army, Khan managed to take control of the islands and his dynasty ruled Japan, Korea, China, and much of the rest of Asia for over 600 years.

1910: Acceptance of Esperanto leads South America, Africa to power

The sixth International Congress of Esperantists is held in Washington D.C. After the conference ends, delegates from nearly every country return to their capitols to work for the addition of Esperanto to their official language(s). Esperanto, the universal language, is adopted by all of South America and Africa within ten years time and because of the new ability to converse with one another, leaders in South America and Africa band their countries together and overthrow European and North American hegemony.

1935: Social Security Act causes outcry

Social Security Act becomes law, much to the chagrin of most of the American public. Many lobbyists had been helping to push the legislation through the proper channels even though 78% (Gallup poll) of citizens didn’t think they needed the “extra protection” the act would provide. After all, everyone who worked (that is, the men who worked) all had pension plans anyway. After the act passed, there was a great public outcry for it to be nullified so that they wouldn’t have to pay even more money to the government that they already didn’t trust. It was repealed the following January and those members of Congress who had supported it were thrown out of office.

1984: MS-DOS bombs in the market... again

IBM releases MS-DOS version 3.0. Since versions 1.0 and 2.0 were complete failures, those funding IBM gave them an ultimatum: put out or find another sugar daddy. Unfortunately, 3.0 was just as much a failure as the previous two versions and IBM had its funding yanked. Shortly afterward, IBM dropped off the map—taking most modern electronics with it—and the world was directed away from computerization towards a more natural, primitive lifestyle.

1995: Faulkner becomes first female cadet at Citadel

Shannon Faulkner becomes the first female cadet at the Citadel, South Carolina’s state military college. Many had speculated that she would wash out immediately after proving her point—that women should be allowed access to military training if they want it—but Faulkner defied nearly everyone’s expectations and graduated at the top of her class four years later. She went on to become one of the highest ranked U.S. Army generals and never turned down an appointment to overseas service, no matter how uncontrollable or detestable others thought the post to be. She is famous for turning the terrible Abu Ghraib tragedy into a case for reforming the Army from the top down.

-Guest Historian, Viannah Duncan-