Announcement

The state of TIAH

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Alternate Historian's Note: Thanks for your patience waiting for today's post. I wanted to wait until after the anniversary for this announcement, because I wanted to give our anniversary posters all the attention they deserve. I know that I've hit you all with change-of-direction announcements before, so you're probably blasé about it by now. But, there is going to be a change in the direction of the site – mainly, with my contributions to it. I began this site thinking I would just use it as a place to jot story ideas, flesh out plots and characters, and possibly serialize long work. Instead, through the success of the format I initially chose, I've become the History Channel's illegitimate love child. While I enjoy writing alternate history, I never intended it to become all that I wrote. Unfortunately, because the only time that I have to write is used to put together the posts I co-write (Steve truly deserves credit as a Co-Historian), I have been unable to write anything else, except for the annual NaNoWriMo challenges, and even those were flavored by appearing on TIAH.
So, here's the deal – I'm going to finish the two timelines I'm currently writing (the Kansas Rebellion and The Return Of Arthur), which will probably take me to the end of June. From then until he decides he doesn't want it to appear here anymore, Steve's work will fulfill the alternate history quota for this site. My part of the site will be whatever I am currently writing – could be science fiction, could be fantasy, could be opinion, could even be alternate history – but it won't be in the standard format unless I get a hankerin' to write in the old style again.
I'm not going away. I even remember that I promised you a compilation of some of the site's more coherent timelines, and I'm going to use this time to work on that, too. Things are going to be different, though, and I want you all to know and have a chance to comment on them before they change. Our readers have been a big part of TIAH since the beginning, and I want to know what you think. Email me, leave a comment, write an insulting note on your own blog – whatever it takes to let us know what you think.
If you guys decide the site's no longer what you enjoy reading, then thanks for your patronage in the past, and I hope you'll look for my work (and Steve's) in the future, either on Lulu or (hopefully) in a bookstore near you. It's been a great 3 years – and I still look forward to Today each tomorrow.

May 29th, 2007

in 1891, 25,000 Union solders strike out from Concordia, Kansas in the direction of Topeka. General Theodore Monteith is at the head of the massive column of men, and he and his right-hand man, newly-promoted Lt. Colonel Mark Wainwright, have a sense of the inevitability of their final victory. Unfortunately for them, almost 50,000 Kansan volunteers are making their way towards Topeka, too, in a race to save the leaders of their rebellion from defeat.

in 1999, Doctor Archibald Mordred, the psychiatrist that King Arthur II is seeing at the behest of his queen, prescribes an experimental drug to His Majesty. “I believe that you suffer from a small chemical imbalance, sire,” the young doctor says to Arthur. “With this new drug, you will again have the confidence that led you to the throne in the first place. You will have the clear vision that will lead Great Britain to its rightful place as first among nations.” King Arthur, wary of medications after many years of Merl's admonitions against them, completely changes his mind after the first dose of the Brightol that Dr. Mordred gives him. He really does feel more his old self, and throws himself into the war and the task of governing his kingdom as if he were a man ten years younger.

Jack Ruby	"[To Earl Warren] Well, you won't see me again. I tell you that a whole new form of government is going to take over the country, and I know I won't live to see you another time" ~ Jack Ruby
Assassin

After he had ushered in a whole new system of government by preventing Lee Harvey Oswald from demonstrating his innocence, which would have revealed the CIA plot to kill Kennedy. The Wikipedia profile of Jack Ruby is available at Wikipedia

~ quotation by Guest Historian Steve Payne from Counter-history – You're the Judge!

In 1919, Uncle Alf wrote - My very dearest and most beloved sweet Geli, Hail victory! The Quartermaster General has written to me from Sweden; Germany will recover from our stab-in-the-back. The Norse Gods have brought General Ludendorff into their confidence. The strange men who burst into the ward and injected your Uncle with the madness of lycanthropy are his agents! With much love, I remain your Uncle Alf.

~ variant from Steve Payne: extensive use of original content has been made to celebrate the author's genius.

Marshall	In 1947, US President Harry S Truman spoke candidly with the Joint Chairman of the Chiefs of Staff General of the Army George Catlett Marshall, Jr., US Army. The plan for Operation Overlord2 was to spring the eight divisions from the Caves at Hamelin and launch a surprise attack on the Fuehrer in Berlin. The old team was ..
.. back together again for D-Day2, General Dwight David Eisenhower, General Sir Bernard Montgomery, Admiral Sir Bertram Ramsay and Admiral Sir Bertram Ramsay. And more significantly, Montgomery's glamour and the vial formerly owned by Samuel Taylor Coleridge. Roosevelt had said that he could not sleep when Marshall was out of Washington, and he was right : Marshall was an absolute brick. Did he believe in the plan, enquired Truman. Hell, yes! replied Marshall.
~ entry by Steve Payne from Counter History in Context - You're the Judge!

In 1989, the security situation in the capital and major cities of Great Britain and Europe deteriorated very rapidly. The British Army stalled at the repressive measures ordered by the coup leaders. In Whitehall, labour movement leaders stood on top of tanks which refused to intimidate the protesters. The coup leaders called ..	Tank Protests
.. a meeting for that very evening. From outside they could hear the protests. To shut out the noise, far too much alcohol was drunk. Some insane orders were issued, then changed, then re-issued. It was madness.
~ entry by Steve Payne from Counter History in Context - You're the Judge!

Porsche 928	In 2001, he hung up without saying goodbye and replaced the telephone carefully back in the cradle. His boss had received the report dispassionately and his job was done. It was a quarter of midnight as he entered the car park and started the car.
~ entry by Steve Payne from Counter History in Context - You're the Judge!

In 1867, the Austro-Hungarian agreement called Ausgleich ("the Compromise") was born through Act 12, which established the Austro-Hungarian Empire with a dual monarchy; on June 8 Emperor Francis Joseph was crowned King of Hungary. The logic of shared sovereignty saved the Austrians, and by the second decade of the twentieth ..	Austro-Hungary ..
.. century the Habsburgs were ascendant. Just about the only nation that were not represented in the polity were the Jews who were considered non-citizens. Anti-semitism peaked during the 1930s under the dynamic and aggressive Chancellorship of Adolf Schicklegruber as he established the modern Mittle-Europa.
~ entry by Steve Payne from Counter History in Context - You're the Judge!

May 30th, 2007

in 1891, Union scouts return to General Theodore Monteith with reports of massive troop movements along the Kansas borders. “They know where we're headed, Mark,” he says to his aide, Lt. Colonel Mark Wainwright. “And, damned if they aren't going to fight us for it. You know what this means, don't you?” Colonel Wainwright nods and says, “Plan B.”

in 1999, King Arthur II joins his prime minister, Kay Ector, on a mission to New Zealand to convince the island nation to contribute aid to the war effort. The presence of the king in the British delegation sways New Zealand's parliament, and they throw all of the resources they can spare into helping oust the last remnants of the Central European Empire's stranglehold on the world. The Kiwi troops join Sir Lance du Lac's Round Table Corps, and become the spearhead for clearing out the CEE's Asian possessions.

Douglas MacArthur	"By profession I am a soldier and take pride in that fact. But I am prouder--infinitely prouder--to be a father. A soldier destroys in order to build; the father only builds, never destroys. The one has the potentiality of death; the other embodies creation and life. And while the hordes of death are mighty, the battalions of life are mightier still. It is my hope that my son, when I am gone, will remember me not from the battle but in the home repeating with him our simple daily prayer, 'Our Father who art in heaven.'" ~ Douglas MacArthur
General

Before deploying super-weapons on the Korean Peninsula. Bacteriological weapons from Unit 731 had been surrendered to MacArthur in 1945 to secure the amnesty of the Japanese scientists against trial for the extermination of 200,000 Chinese citizens during World War II. These were used alongside the hydrogen bomb in order to re-unite the Peninsula and retain American hegemony over south-east Asia. The Wikipedia entry on Unit 731 is available at Wikipedia

~ quotation by Guest Historian Steve Payne from Counter-history – You're the Judge!

In 1919, Uncle Alf wrote - Dear lovely Geli, So good to hear from you at last! When I got your letter, I first and foremost kissed the postage stamp, knowing it had touched your sweet lips but two days before. Hail victory! General Ludendorff has departed Sweden and will meet your Uncle Alf in Munich; together we will lead a German recovery from our stab-in-the-back - the Norse Gods have assured us. I remain your Uncle Alf.

~ variant from Steve Payne: extensive use of original content has been made to celebrate the author's genius.

Guderian	In 1947, General Hans Guderian spoke privately with the US President. 'I understand everything, but this' says Harry S Truman. Why did you come to America after you've won? Guderian replies, I had no choice, no choice at all. The vial started to incant Christabel. 'I don't understand says Truman..'
~ entry by Steve Payne from Counter History in Context - You're the Judge!

In 1989, on this day occurred the final act of the fall of the House of Stuart. Lieutenant-General Sir Peter de la Billiere arrived at Downing Street with a splitting hangover headache. Number 10 was strangely quiet. He entered the Cabinet Office to find a beaming Peter Tatchell sitting behind his desk. The coup was over. ..	Peter Tatchell
.. The Republic was only just beginning.
~ entry by Steve Payne from Counter History in Context - You're the Judge!

Car on fire	In 2001, he pulled out of the hotel car park onto the main road. It was still stiflingly hot as the electric window lowered; he lit a cigarette and inhaled deeply, starting to perspire. A motorbike shot past, then another, then two more. Brilliant lights flashed inside the car, he was blinded. He lost control. The car hit ..
.. a water hydrant and flipped over, caught fire, finally exploded.
~ entry by Steve Payne from Counter History in Context - You're the Judge!

In 1995, the counter-history Napoleonic Options is published in paperback. The book contained detailed examinations by ten leading military each presenting different scenarios that might have changed the course of the American War of Independence. Perhaps the most controversial was James Lucas' Operation Whiff of ..	Napoleon Bonapa..
.. Grapeshot: Napoleon's European Strategy, in which the Little Corporal never fought in North America at all. The title was chosen from Bonaparte's clearing of the National Convention in Paris 1795 when he later boasted that he had cleared the streets with a "whiff of grapeshot" (musket balls fired in cloth bags from the cannon, a devastating anti-personnel munition), although the fighting had been vicious throughout Paris.
~ entry by Steve Payne from Counter History in Context - You're the Judge!

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