The Sockless Socrates

The state of TIAH

March 30th, 2007

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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 April Fool's Day Contest is now over! If you are one of our entrants and didn't send us your own credit and link to your website (if you have one), expect an email from us today asking for this information. We didn't reach the 30 entrants my lovely Co-Historian said were necessary to offer an ultimate winner a complimentary TIAH mug, but we will give you your own Guest Historian status on the post.

in 1891, the populist leader known as Sockless Simpson led the Kansas Farmer's Alliance in an occupation of the state government in Topeka. Thousands of farmers and their sympathizers from across the state took the state legislators and governor captive, and the “Sockless Socrates of the plains” began issuing orders as the acting governor. He even started up his own militia consisting of his farmer-soldiers. When he exacted a duty from trade coming into the state to pay for his new programs, the US government became involved. Union soldiers rode into the state with orders to clap Simpson in irons and restore the previous government. Unfortunately for these soldiers, Simpson was wildly popular, and they met resistance immediately. When word reached Topeka of the federal plans to oust him, he declared Kansas an independent, sovereign nation, and called on all his followers to arm themselves and be ready to repel invaders. The siege of Kansas had begun.

in 1969, Arthur Pendrake is born in Suffolk, England. His birth name is Morris Trent, but his mother had been involved with a man named Uther Pendrake, who had died the night that young “Morris” was conceived. Mrs. Trent told her husband that the child was his, but a stranger came to their house the day that they brought Morris home from the hospital and told Mr. Trent the truth. He also told Mr. Trent that he was there to take the child away. Trent, blinded by anger, let the stranger take his wife's child, and even restrained her when she threw herself after the baby. The stranger, known only to his young ward as Merl, raised the boy with the name of Arthur, and gave him his father's surname. When young Arthur reached the age of 13, Merl told him, “You have a great destiny, Arthur. You will take the crown of this land from the unlawful pretenders who currently hold it, and you will be the bulwark of the defense against our most powerful enemies – the Illuminati who rule the Central European Empire.”

Lord Louis Moun..	In 1972 Interim Prime Minister Lord Louis Mountbatten summoned his Deputy, Major General Ord Wingate, DSO for a crisis meeting at Number 10, Downing Street. A short telegram was passed to Wingate containing the single word NON signed by the French President, Brigadier General Charles André Joseph Marie de Gaulle. It amounted ..
.. to a refusal to permit Britain to join the European Economic Community, torpedoing the key stratagem in the military government's plans to manage the retreat from Empire towards the new trading model for the twenty-first century. 'We're stuffed, old man', says Mountbatten, ' and its Monty's fault for being beastly to de Gaulle during Operation Torch. Damn!'. Wingate pours them both generous brandys from a globe-shaped drinks trolley and replies 'Don't worry old chap, something will turn up. Perhaps we should speak to President Bradley about his proposals for us becoming the Fifty-First State?'.
~ entry by Steve Payne from counter history in context - you're the judge!

In 1945 on this day Soviet Union forces invade Austria and take Vienna in World War II. The slow movement of Anglo-America forces had resulted in the Russians penetrating further into Western Europe than was expected and this proved to be a major problem in the post-war era. The partitioned city of Vienna was hotly disputed ..	Vienna Airlift
.. by both sides, and the location for the famous Vienna Airlift Crisis of 1947.
~ entry by Steve Payne from Counter History in Context - You're the Judge!

Assassination o..	In 1981 President Ronald Reagan was shot in the chest outside a Washington, D.C., hotel by John Hinckley, Jr. Vice President Bush knew that his thirty-five year project to recover Extraterrestrial Technology (ET) buried in Iraq, Iran, Panama and North Korea required him to gain the White House. Suddenly, it was his seven years ..
.. early. All of his carefully prepared plans would have to change, he worried it was too early for him.
~ entry by Steve Payne from counter history in context - you're the judge!

In 1855 when the first territorial legislature was elected in the United States thousands of armed Southerners known as 'Border Ruffians' poured over the line to vote for a pro-slavery congressional delegate. Ultimately, they were unsuccessful and failed to sway the vote again in favour of slavery. The eventual passage ..	Bleeding Kansas
.. of anti-slavery congressional delegates enabled the Union to pass through a national nightmare peacefully and without Civil War breaking out.
~ entry by Steve Payne from Counter History in Context - You're the Judge!

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