I Shall Return

The state of TIAH

March 20th, 2007

Digg this

Alternate Historian's Note: I promised you a collection, and we are working on it – but real life is getting in the way. Fortunately, the worst part of the real-life problems we were having has been resolved. I have found new employment (yay!). We're going to aim for an April release for the collection, and will make more announcements about it as we draw closer to actually making that a reality. And, speaking of April, our Guest Historian, Stephen Payne, suggested that it was time for a contest, 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). My lovely Co-Historian says that if we can get 30 entrants, we can offer an ultimate winner a complimentary TIAH mug, but we only have 3 entrants so far! Get researching those alternate histories now, folks! The deadline is March 29th.

in 1778, King Louis XVI of France entertains the American envoys Benjamin Franklin, Silas Deane and Arthur Lee at his court in Versailles. The three colonists are there to convince the French monarch to openly support the American revolutionary cause with troops, treasure and supplies. Some covert French support has already been given to the rebels, but the king is reluctant to aid a revolt against a fellow monarch. Franklin makes a particularly impassioned plea to His Majesty in perfect French, but Louis is troubled at the thought of a popular revolt against royal rule, and denies further French support to the rebels. Several nobles of his court disobey the royal edict and provide as much aid as they can to the Americans, just to spite the English. However, it is not enough. The Americans, denied support in most of Europe, turn to the natives on their own continent. Several of the native nations band with the Americans in exchange for promises of equal power and peaceful coexistence with the colonists once they gain their freedom. The Iroquois Confederation, in particular, proves a powerful ally to the Americans, and is at the forefront of the revolution. Their ideals influence the revolutionaries and promote an egalitarian impulse among men who had been somewhat royalist themselves. Revolutionary thinker Thomas Jefferson heads a committee that drafts a constitution with great dollops borrowed from the Iroquois in 1782. Although there is great resistance to the new constitution's provisions freeing the slaves held by some in the southern colonies, the promise of freedom for all holds the colonists together, and the constitution becomes a great source of strength and inspiration to them. The war finally ends with victory for the Americans and their native allies in 1788.

MacArthur	In 1942 General Douglas MacArthur, at Terowie, South Australia, made his famous speech regarding the fall of the Philippines, in which he said: 'I came out of Bataan and I shall return'. It was just talk, on December 3rd 1944 at San Francisco Bay the final Anzac refugees were welcomed to safety by MacArthur as Supreme ..
.. Commander of Homeland Security. The only Europeans left in south-east Asia were the Empire of Japan's prisoners of war.
~ entry by Steve Payne from counter history in context - you're the judge!

In 2003 on this day the invasion of Iraq began in the early hours of the morning, as the United States and three other countries began military operations in Iraq. George Bush's thirty year project to seize the Extraterrestrial Technology (ET) buried in Iraq enters its final phase, which is just as well, he was 80 years old.	George Bush
~ entry by Steve Payne from Counter History in Context - You're the Judge!

George Curzon, ..	In 1925 British Prime Minister George Nathaniel Curzon died in office. Britain was by then a bankrupted and defeated nation suffering hyperinflation which was being tackled by the hopelessly incompetent Chancellor of the Exchequer Winston Churchill. Worse, Britain was a satellite of the Second Reich and thus a shadow of ..
.. her former glorious and illustrious past. Heartbroken, Curzon had recently announced the discovery of huge oil and gas reserves in the North Sea. Unfortunately the recipients would be the Germans, whose High Seas Fleet operated with impudence out of the former British Naval base at Scapa Flow in the Orkney Islands, patrolling the maritime zone above the oil fields. It was the killer blow.
~ entry by Steve Payne from counter history in context - you're the judge!

In 1974 Her Royal Highness Princess Anne and her husband Captain Mark Phillips were kidnapped in The Mall, outside Buckingham Palace returning from a London charity event. Their Rolls Royce was forced to stop by a Ford Escort. The driver of the Escort, Ian Ball jumped from his car, firing a gun. Inspector James Beaton, the ..	Princess Anne
.. Princess' private detective, responded by jumping out to shield the Princess as he tried to disarm Ball. However, his gun jammed and he was shot in the head and chest. The chauffeur, Alex Callender was also shot as he tried to disarm Ball. Journalist Brian McConnell, who was passing by, also tried to intervene and was shot once in the chest. As Ball told the Princess of his kidnapping plan and asked her to get out of the car, she replied 'Not bloody likely!' and briefly considered hitting Ball. Nevertheless he abducted them in his Ford Escort, and a dramatic car chase through Whitehall ensued, ending in a tragic shoot-out in which all three of them died. Beaton was awarded the George Cross. Alex Callender, Brian McConnell, Ron Russell, PC Michael Hills, and DC Peter Edmonds were awarded the Queen's Gallantry Medal. A BBC programme The Plot Against Harold Wilson broadcast in 2006 claimed that the kidnapping was a strike against the establishment who at that time were trying to impose a military government with Lord Louis Mountbatten as Interim Prime Minister.
~ entry by Steve Payne from Counter History in Context - You're the Judge!

Cool stuff - Let us know where you are on Frappr! and We've been Dugg

We have links again! Yay, us. Check them out on the side of the page, and if you have some suggestions, send them to us!

Visit the Co-Historian's store -