Lincoln's Assassination

The state of TIAH

February 23rd, 2007

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Alternate Historian's Note: Our Guest Historian, Stephen Payne, had a great suggestion – we haven't had a good contest in a while, so we're going to have an April Fool's Day Contest! Email us up to 3 entries for an alternate April 1st and we will post the best 10, with your own credit and link to your website (if you have one). We'll also see if we have enough credit for an ultimate winner to get a complimentary TIAH mug, but we can't promise anything on that yet. Get researching those alternate histories now, folks! The deadline will be March 29th.

in 1907, the Miracle Man, convicted killer John Lee, is released from prison. His incarceration on charges he claimed to be innocent of made him feel sick of England, so he emigrated to the United States, where he began a small cult based on his supposed 'reprieve from God'. His favorite sermon taught that “just as God's Hand had held up the trapdoor of the gallows saving me, so too will God's Hand hold you up through your trials in life.” His flock became known as the Handers, and only really rose to prominence when Lee tried to keep the United States from entering the Great War on Britain's side. “God does not want us to help that wicked nation,” he said in a rally at the Capitol Mall. Because of his influence, American soldiers were only committed to the struggle in 1918, after the withdrawal of Russian troops because of the revolution in their country. Lee continued to press for minimal US involvement in the war, and is often blamed for prolonging the conflict until Wilson's successor, Warren G. Harding, took over and promised to pull out American troops unless “those arrogant so-called 'powers' begin behaving in a civilized manner.” Lee remained a thorn in the side of US-British relations until his death in 1939, and the Handers continued opposing any kind of friendship with the UK.

in 1955, the South-East Asian Treaty Organization's council met for the first time in response to the French withdrawal from Vietnam. US Secretary of State John Foster Dulles felt that since the fall of North Korea to communists, the west needed to take a stand in Asia and not let the communist North Vietnamese take control of South Vietnam in the elections that were being arranged for 1956. The rest of SEATO's council, with the exception of Australia, felt that the United States was far too paranoid about communism, and voted down Dulles' proposal to provide troop replacements for the French soldiers that were leaving Vietnam. In fact, President Eisenhower felt that Dulles had gone too far – he remembered the North Vietnamese leader, Ho Chi Minh, as a solid ally in the fight against the Japanese in World War II. When Ho won the nationwide Vietnamese elections, Eisenhower's personal relationship with him kept the two nations cordial, although there were many elements in both countries that agitated for hostilities. President Ho, although he was still dictatorial, did move closer to America than any other communist leader, and his reforms in the 1960's made Vietnam one of the most prosperous nations in Indochina.

Seizure of Span..	In 1981 Spanish soldiers led by Lt. As Colonel Antonio Tejero seize control of Spain’s parliament to launch a coup d'etat. The troika of Reagan, Thatcher and Tejero would lead the second generation of fascists as right-wingers regained global mastery that had been lost by the defeat of ..
.. the Axis Powers of Anglo-America in 1947.
~ entry by Steve Payne from counter history in context - you're the judge!

In 1861 President-elect Abraham Lincoln was assassinated in Baltimore, Maryland, delivering the White House to Vice President-elect Hannibal Hamlin. A key proponent of sending black slaves in the District of Columbia back to Africa as a partial means to resolve the slavery issue, Hamlin ..	Abraham Lincoln
.. himself was executed in the so-called year of the four Presidents as the Union accelerated towards dissolution.
~ entry by Steve Payne from Counter History in Context - You're the Judge!

Obesity	In 2011 in Canada under anti-obesity laws it becomes a crime to discriminate against a person with body fat measurement of 30% or above.
~ entry by Steve Payne from counter history in context - you're the judge!

In 1820 a group of Spencean Philanthropists known as the Cato Street plotters murder the British cabinet of ministers. Angered by the Six Acts and the Peterloo Massacre, the plan was to assassinate a number of cabinet ministers, overthrow the government and set up a Committee of Public ..	Mansion House
.. Safety to oversee a radical revolution. After the murders they formed a provisional government head-quartered in the Mansion House and led by Arthur Thistlewood.
~ entry by Steve Payne from Counter History in Context - You're the Judge!

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