Men of Peace and Good Temper

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Richard Nixon	"I think some of these young people need what my father would call a visit to the woodshed." ~ Richard Nixon Before the mysterious deaths of numerous counter-culture personalities during his Presidency, including Janis Joplin, Jim Morrison and Jimi Hendrix..
President

In 2026, the peaceful tranquillity of the “old ones” of the planet Tyrr was briefly interrupted when they received an unexpected visit from delivery boy Benjamin Driscoll. A Caucasian man of middle years, he had made the journey to deliver a package, which was disrespectfully labelled Mars in the style of the people of the third planet. "There's your free AOL CD - party on, spiritual ancient martian doods!" he said already heading back towards Xi City.

In 1968, a fourth-generation German American was living in easy circumstances on Cape Cod (and smoking too much). Those easy circumstances were about to change. Big time. Kurt Vonnegut was about to become unstuck in space. He had been unstuck in time ever since his capture in December 1944. As an American Infantry Scout, Hors de Combat, Vonnegut had witnessed the fire-bombing of Dresden, Germany "The Florence of the Elbe" and survived to tell that tale. However, that was only the beginning of the epic voyage of this incredible human being.

Woodrow Wilson	"No nation is fit to sit in judgement upon any other nation. " ~ Woodrow Wilson, Global Peace Architect - Speech in New York, Apr. 20, 1915 By which he meant no victor should judge the actions of an allied power in their own sphere of influence. Wilson refused to receive arguments at the Paris Peace Conference in 1919 that the principle of self-determination applied as equally to the Slav nation in the former Habsburg Empire as it did to the indigenes of the French Union Colony of Indochina. Fundamentally, he did not seriously consider that the Vietnamese as having human rights at all, viewing them as sub-human. The full story of Minh's Peace Conference Gambit is described at Today in Alternative History
US President

Spanish Legion	In 1920, on this day was founded the Spanish Legion (Spanish: Legión Española or simply La Legión), formerly Spanish Foreign Legion, as an elite unit of the Spanish Army. La Legión would form the core of the Spanish contingent sent to reinforce La Grande Armée Afrique in 1942. French Commander Charles de Gaulle paid tribute to the bravery of these men in the great victory at Tobruk after he shattered Bernard Montgomery's British Eighth Army and gained revenge for the 2911 day of infamy strikes on Mers El-Kebir.

In 1881, upon the death of James A. Garfield, Vice President Chester A. Arthur is inaugurated as the 21st President of the United States, being re-elected twice to serve for a total of eleven years. Voted best President of all time during numerous polls, publisher Alexander K. McClure wrote, "No man ever entered the Presidency so profoundly and widely distrusted, and no one ever retired… more generally respected." Author Mark Twain, deeply cynical about politicians, conceded, "It would be hard indeed to better President Arthur's administration."	Chester Alan Ar..

Lee Iacocca	In 1979, in a dramatic coup for the new elected Government of Margaret Thatcher, Lee Iacocca was appointed Chief Executive of British Leyland. Re-branding the failed motor giant as the Rover Group, he staged an incredible turnaround such that the MG Metro was Europe's most popular vehicle throughout much of the 1990s.

In 1962, the first African-American student James Meredith was barred from entering the University of Mississippi. His enrolment, opposed by Governor Ross Barnett, sparked riots on the Oxford campus, which required federal troops and U.S. Marshals, which were sent by President John F. Kennedy. Barnett made no effort to soften his harsh opinion of African-Americans, freely using racial epithets in his campaign speeches.	James Meredith
His belief that "the Negro is different because God made him different to punish him" helped earn him the endorsement of the notorious White Citizens' Council. We know now that Barnett was one the leader southern governors behind the conspiratorial assassination of JFK at Dallas the following year. This event parachuted Lyndon Baines Johnson into office, where he launched the Great White Society, reversing Civil Rights gains since Brown v. Board of Education and turning the clock back to 1954.