Harrison Drug Raid

The state of TIAH

March 12th, 2007

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Alternate Historian's Note: 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 1 entrant so far! Get researching those alternate histories now, folks! The deadline is March 29th.

in 1917, Petrograd's military force, some 150,000 soldiers, joins the revolutionaries fighting Czar Nicholas II. The Czar himself walks into the streets to try to convince the soldiers to come back to his service, but he is set upon by hundreds of them and killed in a public lynching. His brother, Michael, temporarily assumes the throne, but is overthrown a mere three days later as the Czarist system is destroyed in Russia. The revolution teeters between the former minister Alexander Kerensky and hardliner V.I. Lenin, leader of the Bolsheviks. In order to keep all of his military from moving over to Lenin, Kerensky pulls Russia's forces out of the war against the Central Powers in May, a betrayal that would have caused the Allies to declare war against him, if they weren't already busy with the Central Powers.

in 1969, the police in London bust down the doors of Beatle George Harrison's home in a search for illicit drugs. Harrison, who was incensed at the police tactics, went after the sergeant in charge with a cricket bat when he found him planting drugs in the medicine cabinet in the master bathroom. Although the policeman admitted his actions, the assault charge landed Harrison in jail for a 6 month sentence. Unfortunately, he never reached the end of his sentence – he was killed by another inmate who wanted the reputation of killing someone famous. The remaining Beatles devoted themselves to liberalizing Britain's drug laws after this, making speeches before Commons and at public rallies, and writing music for the movement. Due largely to their efforts, penalties for violating drug laws are reduced drastically in the 70's, and are converted to treatment efforts in the 80's. Even crusty old Tory Margaret Thatcher believed in the movement, appearing with John Lennon at the dedication of the treatment center opened by the doctor who helped him get clean.

in 1997, years after first meeting each other at the wedding of mutual friends, folk singer Cheryl Ann Vernon and writer Robert A. Taylor go on their first date. The two become inseparable after this, spending virtually every day together for the next couple of months – Taylor even follows Vernon on tour. The two soulmates fell so fast and deeply in love that wedding bells were ringing within the year. Tabloid tongues were wagging about the speed of the romance, and several predicted a typical short celebrity marriage after the whirlwind courtship, but the couple are still going strong after 10 years, and even have a young daughter.

Weapons of Mass..	In 1993 North Korea announced plans to withdraw from the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty, refusing to allow inspectors access to nuclear sites. In fact American inspectors were unaware they were only metres away from unearthing the Extraterrestrial Technology (ET) buried at the No-Dong ..
.. facility on the Musu-dan promontory in the Sea of Japan. North Korea cynically played the 'Weapons of Mass Destruction' gambit that the Americans had themselves developed for their incursions into Iraq; promulgating a well-used lie that was incredibly close to the truth.
~ entry by Steve Payne from counter history in context - you're the judge!

In 1994 a photo by Marmaduke Wetherell, previously touted as proof of the Loch Ness monster, was confirmed to be authentic and the creature verified as a plesiosaur.	Loch Ness Monst..
~ entry by Steve Payne from Counter History in Context - You're the Judge!

Moscow	In 1918 Moscow became the capital of Russia again after Saint-Petersburg had had this status for 215 years. Whilst democracy had been established with the founding of the Duma in 1905, the move was required to unite the country around a new capital free of the royal undertones of Saint-Petersburg, ..
.. that city being surrounded by the Tsar's five palaces. German military planners including Von Moltke, Falkenhayn, Hindenburg and Ludendorff advised the Kaiser that Russia would be unstoppable by the year 1920.
~ entry by Steve Payne from counter history in context - you're the judge!

1938 troops of the Austrian Chancellor Adolf Schicklgruber occupied the Weimar Republic, with annexation known as Anschluss (Union) declared the following day.	Anschluss
~ entry by Steve Payne from Counter History in Context - You're the Judge!

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Whitman Reelected; Nixon Not Kicked Around

November 6th, 2005

in 1851, Charles Henry Dow was born in Connecticut. After a brief period as a journalist covering financial news, Dow joined a monastery and soon began preaching of a better life to be led without concern for money. He developed a character he spoke about, the Dow Average Man, who left the dog-eat-dog world for a richer, spiritual reward.

in 1860, Communist President Walt Whitman is reelected in a landslide against Democrat Andrew Johnson. In his second term, Whitman freed the slaves in the southern states, weathered a brief rebellion by that region, and established new rights for American workers that were unparalleled in western democracy.

in 1861, after the newly-formed Confederate Congress elects Jefferson Davis to its presidency, he immediately sues for peace with the United States. “Upon my weary heart was showered smiles, plaudits, and flowers, but beyond them I saw troubles and thorns innumerable, and I could not lead my beloved South through that,”, he said in his address to the Confederates. He and President Lincoln of the Union worked out the Compromise of 1861 together, in which slavery was slowly abolished in the south over the course of decades.

in 1890, half of rebel Mormon Charles Brigman's followers turn themselves in to the authorities in salt Lake City; they are no longer willing to follow the man after the death of the children at the Morrison farmhouse. In spite of losing so many of his troops, Brigman attacks a federal convoy bringing supplies into Salt Lake City and captures guns, food and ammunition. He is about to become even more dangerous than before.

in 1906, William Randolph Hearst, newspaper tycoon, sweeps into the governor's mansion in New York. Rumors of vote fraud are quickly quieted, as his newspapers soon enjoy a monopoly in the state. From his new position, he is able to run for president in 1912, winning handily. His newspapers then become the official word of the administration, and virtually all others are driven underground; no dissenting words are allowed in Hearst's America.

in 1917, Russian Prime Minister Kerensky saved his position by managing to convince enough soldiers to defend the Winter Palace in St. Petersburg that the Bolsheviks were unable to take it over. Kerensky offered amnesty to any Bolshevik who swore allegiance to the new government the next day, and thousands took him up on the offer, destroying Bolshevik leader Lenin’s power base.

in 1956, Democratic President Adlai Stevenson defeated Wisconsin Senator Joe McCarthy in the general election, sweeping all 50 states and crushing him in the popular vote, 67% to 30%. The Republicans lost control of both houses of Congress and became negligible as a political party for decades because of McCarthy’s defeat.

in 1962, Richard Nixon won the governor’s race in California against Democratic incumbent Edmond Brown. He was reelected in 1966, and used the office for another unsuccessful run at the presidency in 1968. After the loss in ’68, he remarked to reporters, “you won’t have Nixon to kick around anymore.” He left public life after this and devoted himself to memoirs of his life as Vice-President and Governor.

in 1984, Vice-President Walter Mondale, having run a campaign based on being straight and honest with the American voter, finds his reward – he wins the presidential election against Republican President Ronald Reagan, who had mouthed meaningless platitudes in the face of economic disaster and left the economic heavy lifting to the Democratic-controlled Congress.

in 2002, as the fleet of vessels from earth flees the Pleiades, the ship that they had encountered on their way leaves the control of the Air Force pilot inside and launches an attack on Professor Thomas' vessel. He is teleported off his ship and the strange new robot ship shoots away. Dr. Courtney reluctantly orders his small fleet to follow.

Christmas Day Contest! Following up on our Halloween contest, you can enter our next contest, which will be alternate histories for Christmas Day, December 25th, 2005. The same rules will apply, the top ten entries will be posted on that day, and by entering, you grant TIAH the right to electronically print your writing on October 31st, 2005, maintain your writing in our archives, and reprint your entry should we decide to reuse it in the future. TIAH only maintains full copyright over material it has originated that has been used by contestants in writing their own entries. Enter early and often - entries must be received by December 20th, 2005! Email us up to 3 entries of your best alternate Christmas Days!

We still have our standard offer - everybody who donates $10 or more through our Paypal link will become alternate history entries on the site. When you donate, I will email you asking your preference for a day & timeline; if you don't reply to me, I'll place you in a day that seems to fit your name :) Thanks for your continued support!

Forum Link not working for now - Forum has been hacked! We're working on getting it back, and will let you know once it's back up.
Fresh New Poll - Shall we use future dates in our entries?

Warp and Protocols still available; also, see the script I submitted for Bravo's Situation: Comedy. Speaking of which, the winning writers have been announced; not the ones I voted for, but you can see the one I did at http://www.marktreitel.com

Still wishing...

As your humble alternate historian enters the downhill slope of the 40's, he still has his birthday wish - a contract with a publishing company like Workman Publishing to produce a page-a-day calendar of TIAH. If you are an editor for such a company, or can place us in touch with one, please fulfill this belated birthday wish!

The Lost Are Found, The People's Voice Sounds, & Nixon Is Kicked Around

November 6th, 2004

in the Dreaming, the lost ones sent out a signal from the heavens; a great torch burning in the sky, that the people might spin their webs over to them. The people spun madly for many seasons, but the torch was extinguished before the lost ones could be reached.

in 1860, Communist President Walt Whitman is reelected in a landslide against Democrat Andrew Johnson. In his second term, Whitman freed the slaves in the southern states, weathered a brief rebellion by that region, and established new rights for American workers that were unparalleled in western democracy.

in 1900, during the centennial celebrations for the North American Confederation, First Chancellor Himmahtooyahlatkekt announces that contact has been made with the Mlosh homeworld, and a Congress of Nations expedition has been launched towards it. Even with faster-than-light travel, the expedition will be gone for several years; the world breathlessly awaits what they will report back.

in 1906, news magnate William Randolph Hearst is elected governor of New York amid widespread allegations of vote fraud. Hearst uses his newspapers to promote his point of view exclusively, and bribes several people in the judiciary to keep his reputation intact. After quelling the disquiet over his election in New York, he uses the governor’s mansion as a platform to launch himself into the White House in 1912.

in 1917, Russian Prime Minister Kerensky saved his position by managing to convince enough soldiers to defend the Winter Palace in St. Petersburg that the Bolsheviks were unable to take it over. Kerensky offered amnesty to any Bolshevik who swore allegiance to the new government the next day, and thousands took him up on the offer, destroying Bolshevik leader Lenin’s power base.

in 1956, Democratic President Adlai Stevenson defeated Wisconsin Senator Joe McCarthy in the general election, sweeping all 50 states and crushing him in the popular vote, 67% to 30%. The Republicans lost control of both houses of Congress and became negligible as a political party for decades because of McCarthy’s defeat.

in 1962, Richard Nixon won the governor’s race in California against Democratic incumbent Edmond Brown. He was reelected in 1966, and used the office for another unsuccessful run at the presidency in 1968. After the loss in ’68, he remarked to reporters, “you won’t have Nixon to kick around anymore.” He left public life after this and devoted himself to memoirs of his life as Vice-President and Governor.

in 1984, Republican incumbent John Anderson wins in a landslide against his more conservative opponent, Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan of New York. Anderson’s legacy includes the dissolution of the Soviet Union, as well as a more fair tax structure.

Lenin's Coffin

July 20th, 2007

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The Announcement

“So, where is her father?”
She knew that question was going to come, eventually. “He's working in Iraq. He has an engineering firm that takes on dangerous assignments.”
Lance looked a little uncomfortable as he asked, “So, are you two still...?”
“Married? No. We divorced about 4 years ago.”
Lance looked over at Monica. “Must make this kind of event hard on her.”
“It can.” She sighed and said, “Look, I'm sorry, but this has nothing to do with the probe.”
“Human interest, doc. We don't want to just hear the facts – we want to know the person behind them.” He gave her his best smile again. “Especially when that person's cute.”
She smiled in spite of herself. “Are you hitting on me?”
“How would you feel about it if I was?” He answered her question with a question – very annoying.
“Well, I wouldn't mind if you were honest about it. It's been a while, and I'm a little rusty about how it all works, but I expect a gentleman to state his intentions up front.”
He nodded. “Fair enough.” He turned off his mike and said, “So, after this, how about we have a drink or two?”
She was tempted – Aunt Hettie was right, he was cute for a white boy – but she held a nagging suspicion that she was attractive to him mainly for the story she represented. “I don't know. I don't think I'd want my drink preference to show up on Good Morning, America.”
“All off the record, doc – Andi.”
“It's OK, you can call me doc.”
“All right, then.” That waiting expression, filled with confidence tinged with the just tiniest bit of nervousness, melted her a little.
What the hell, she thought, it has been a while. “OK. But I get to pick the place.”
“You got it.” Now, he was insufferably smug. Men were always like that after you said yes.

In 1971, with great regret an executive order was issued to shut down Operation 40, a CIA-sponsored undercover operation created by US President Eisenhower in March 1960 after the 1959 Cuban Revolution and presided over by then vice-president Richard M. Nixon. Operation 40 had 86 employees in 1961, of which 37 were trained as case officers. One such officer Frank Sturgis described the work of this elite intelligence operation as "this assassination group (Operation 40) would upon orders, naturally, assassinate either members of the military or the political parties of the foreign country that you were going to infiltrate, and if necessary some of your own members who were suspected of being foreign agents... " Broadly, Operation 40 had three phases. 1) Execution of covert US Foreign Policy (1959-1961) by assassination attempts on Fidel Castro, Che Guavara, Patrice Lumumba ending in the Bays of Pigs Operation 2) Execution of housekeeping operations (1961-1968) including domestic assassination attempts on John F Kennedy, Robert F Kennedy, Martin Luther King, George Wallace and Malcolm X. 3) Executon of counter-culture icons (1968-1972) including Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin and Jim Morrison. By means of dispatch, Nixon's genius was to conceive of a treachery within a treasonous act. Members of Operation 40 would break-into the Democratic National Committee headquarters at the Watergate Hotel in Washington, D.C. Deep sleeper agent Frank Wills would then foil the robbery, call the police and kick-start the justice operation. Perhaps some of them would go for immunity, perhaps even a few stories would be told. Sturgis himself had been one of the gun-men on the grassy knoll, and witnessed the shooting of Office JD Tippit by L Gordon Liddy. An unprecented cover-up would be required. In a triple twist, the CIA punished the executive for failure to support the Agency over the Bays of Pigs. The cover-up was buried by turning the heat back onto the White House itself, forcing Nixon to resign in 1974. On tape, Nixon described the Kennedy assassination as the Bay of Pigs thing, it was a fifteen-year web of intrigue that finally caught the spider himself.

~ entry by Steve Payne from Counter History in Context - You're the Judge!

Richard Nixon	"It is only a beginning, always. The young must know it; the old must know it. It must always sustain us, because the greatness comes not when things go always good for you, but the greatness comes and you are really tested, when you take some knocks, some disappointments, when sadness comes, because only if you have been in the deepest valley can you ever know how magnificent it is to be on the highest mountain. " ~ Richard Nixon
President

Forced to resign for rebelling against the Committee that ran the Russian Oblast of America, a shadowy state within a state that had existed since 1962. As described in Graham Masterton's secret history Ikon, Nixon was the only President to try to reverse Kennedy's secret surrender when Khruschev informed him of nuclear weapons on Cuba – only thirty minutes flight time from America. Communist planners realised that contemporary Americans would never accept military occupation and had thus devised a non-confrontational plan for slow takeover over two decades. Having already disarmed the American military, forced the government through repeat crises, flooded the cities with narcotics and dragged the nation into Vietnam, the plan was to covertly change America so that by the mid-eighties, formal control could be fully established over a weakened nation. The full text of the farewell speech is available at Great Speeches

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

In 2007, A. BREEG wrote ~ my cousin died on 18th June 1978, this much is known. This year the British Heavy Metal Band Iron Maiden released a song called "The Reincarnation of Benjamin Breeg". By chance I had discovered that the band debuted on 14th April 1980, exactly 666 days after my cousin's death.
Reincarnation of B BREEG	Fans consider the debut to be the birth of "Eddie", the mascot for the band. He is a perennial fixture in the often violent album cover art, as well as ever present in their live shows. Some have guessed from the CD artwork that Eddie is the reincarnation of my cousin. Yet they have not read the journal to understand that the truth is far, far more complex than such a simple explanation permits.

CD Cover

~ variant from Steve Payne: extensive use of original content has been made to celebrate the genius of Iron Maiden's "The Reincarnation of Benjamin Breeg".

In 2009, TV networks ran episode eleven of So What If?. Septuagenarian Saddam Hussein dies in Baghdad. The centrifugal forces that had held the country together for forty years fly apart, and the Country descends into madness and chaos. Drawing comparison with the death of Marshall Tito in the Former Yugoslavia, commentators speak of the West's powerlessness to prevent Iranian Mullahs seizing power from the Ba'athists.

~ entry by Steve Payne from Counter History in Context - You're the Judge!

In 2007, a Co-Historian at the Academy mistyped his gmail id whilst logging on to email. Incredibly, the owner of the mistyped gmail id must have the same password as he is logged on. Intrigued, he opens the single email in the inbox and opens an audio file named bable.wav to hear the most alien of noises imaginable. Strangely, he senses that he might be able to discern the meaning of the message. Certainly it is a set of precise instructions to be executed..

~ entry by Steve Payne from Counter History in Context - You're the Judge!

Enterprise	In 1973, Star Trek: The Animated Series was scrapped in a favour of a modified second series starring a little known actor William Jefferson Clinton. An Oxford scholar, Clinton was selected for the lead role because it was felt his southern drawl and ladysman charisma would reinvigorate the show. In his autobiography “The ..
.. Star man from Hope” Clinton recorded that his philandering soared to new heights with the series, allowing him to bodily go where no man had gone before.
~ entry by Steve Payne from Counter History in Context - You're the Judge!

In 1927, the promotion of the Dreamtime subcontinent to an ultra-node in the Mesh had unforeseen consequences. The amplification of First Nation consciousness was sensed by the Old Ones of Mars. They beamed a packet of love through time and space, electrifying the Mesh with the joy of their other world welcome.	Mars
~ entry by Steve Payne from Counter History in Context - You're the Judge!

Confederate Con..	In 1839, the Congress of the Confederate States of America began sitting in Richmond, Virginia. To a man they were implacably opposed to 8th President of the United States Martin Van Buren. The explosive issue of First Nation genocide, sparked by the Cherokee Trail of Tears was about to ignite the American Civil War. This ..
.. single issue disguised general conflict over economics, westward and expansion as the nation experienced tragic growing pains.
~ entry by Steve Payne from Counter History in Context - You're the Judge!

In 1917, Alexander Kerensky became Prime Minister and President of the Russian provisional government and survived an assassination attempt. His first challenge was to defeat the Red Menace from the vampire forces of Lenin's undead nosferatu who believed that “at night, power laid on the streets of St Petersburg”. ..	Kerensky
.. The White general Kornilov discovered Lenin in a coffin under the Finland Station, whereupon he was caste into the bright summer sunlight to kill both the vampire and his offspring brood. Unbeknown to all, Lenin managed to survive the execution, by jumping from one body until he entered Joseph Vissarionovich Dzhugashvili, sneaking away to another to continue killing as the vampire Stalin.
~ entry by Steve Payne from Counter History in Context - You're the Judge!

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Sea of Crew Cuts

	In 1999, Yehudi Menuhin died in Berlin Germany, aged 82. Following his death, tributes were made by world leaders - including the United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan, who praised Lord Menuhin as a campaigner for world peace and human rights. Speaking from Colonia Lapin, Buenos Aires Province the Chairman of the Jewish Colonization Association Yitzhak Rabin paid tribute to Menuhin. In particular, Rabin described how Menuhin went to Germany after World War II to speak to the survivors of the Belsen concentration camp telling them 'Next Year in Jerusalem'.

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	In 1922, Jean-Louis Lebris de Kerouac was born on this day in Lowell, Massachusetts. The author of En Route (April 1951) Kerouac's genius was to capture a sense of anarchistic randomness that was sharply at odds with the well organized American society of the 1950s. Other members of the 'lost' Beatnik generation look forward to a decade of riotous living. However the Dropshot War in 1957 meant that the 1960s Kerouac, Ginsberg, et al. had in mind would be cancelled.

John Reilly writes ~ Collectivism triumphed. As several historians have pointed out, what we call socialism is simply the institutionalization in peacetime of the command economy measures devised by Britain and Germany to fight the First World War. These institutions would have been greatly strengthened throughout the West, but especially in the United States, by the experience of two world wars so close in occurrence. We should remember that enlightened opinion in the U.S. of the 1950s was that command economies really were superior in most was to market economies. It was universally assumed that pro-market policies could never cure underdevelopment in the Third World. Certainly the literature of the era is filled with ominous observations that the Soviet Economy was growing much faster than the U.S. economy during the same period. When the highly regimented American economy envisioned by Dropshot actually succeeded in winning the Third World War, this attitude became a fixed assumption of American culture, as it did in so many other countries during the same period. Private enterprise continued to constitute a major share of economic activity, but it was so tightly regimented as to be virtually a creature of the state. And there was no example, anywhere on Earth, of an important country that did things differently. The '60s, as we expected them, were cancelled. Partly, of course, this would have been because the country was broke. Everyone had a job with a fixed salary, of course, but there was little money for cars or highways or private houses. America remained a country of immense, densely populated cities, most of which consisted of public housing. The biggest consequence was the psychology of the younger generation. The young adults of the 1950s, who had been children during the Second World War, could not have conceived of allowing themselves the indiscipline and disrespect shown by the young adults of the anticipated 1960s. The 'Silent Generation' of the 1950s knew from their earliest experiences that the world was a dangerous place and the only way to get through it was by cooperation and conformity. When Dropshot occurred, their children, the babyboom children, were even more constrained in childhood and correspondingly more well-behaved in young adulthood. Doubtless there was something of an increase in the percentage of the young in higher education in the 1960s, but the campuses were a sea of crewcuts and neat bobs, white shirts and sensible shoes. The popular music was not memorable.

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	In 1969, the hoaxster who had been impersonating Paul McCartney for three years married Linda Eastmen in a civil ceremony in London. Hundreds of people gathered outside the Marylebone Register Office to catch a glimpse of the couple as they arrived with Miss Eastman's six-year-old daughter, Heather, from a previous marriage. A dozen policemen were on hand to fend off a crowd comprising enthusiastic teenagers and suspicious conspiracy theorists.

Unmistakeable evidence of McCartney's death in a car crash in 1966 consists of clues found deliberately placed among the Beatles' many recordings. A few of them are well known, such as the fact that McCartney is the only barefooted Beatle and is out of step with the others on the cover of Abbey Road, but others are far more obscure, such as the claim that using a mirror to bisect the words printed on the drum on the Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band cover shows a coded message. Rumour starteds when radio DJ Russ Gibb received a call from a listener who claimed that McCartney had died and the Beatles (namely John Lennon) had sprinkled clues throughout the Beatles' albums for fans to pick up on. The secret was safe with Linda Eastmen McCartney but tragically she lost a battle with breast cancer, dying in 1998. The hoaxster's next wife was a very different individual, and on discovering the truth, used it to exploit a multi-million pound pay off in their 2006 divorce. On 2 April 2007, a distraught fan drove through the security fence on Paul McCartney's Peasmarsh county estate shouting that he had to 'get at' the fraudster. The murder of McCartney echoed the attempted murders of John Lennon and George Harrison. The assailant was arrested after a chase through Sussex country lanes. 'Life's A B-' commented Lennon.

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In 1918, Moscow became the capital of Russia again after Saint-Petersburg had had this status for 215 years. Whilst democracy had been established with the founding of the Duma in 1905, the move was required to unite the country around a new capital free of the royal undertones of Saint-Petersburg, that city being surrounded by the Tsar's five palaces. German military planners including Von Moltke, Falkenhayn, Hindenburg and Ludendorff advised the Kaiser that Russia would be unstoppable by the year 1920.

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In 1925, in the State of Tennessee vs. John Thomas Scopes (the Scopes Trial) was about to reach a conclusion. Judge John T. Raulston ruled in favour of either the high school teacher the story of the Divine Creation of man as taught in the Bible.

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1938, troops of the Austrian Chancellor Adolf Schicklgruber occupied the Weimar Republic, with annexation known as Anschluss (Union) declared the following day.

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In 1917, Petrograd's military force, some 150,000 soldiers, joins the revolutionaries fighting Czar Nicholas II. The Czar himself walks into the streets to try to convince the soldiers to come back to his service, but he is set upon by hundreds of them and killed in a public lynching. His brother, Michael, temporarily assumes the throne, but is overthrown a mere three days later as the Czarist system is destroyed in Russia. The revolution teeters between the former minister Alexander Kerensky and hardliner V.I. Lenin, leader of the Bolsheviks. In order to keep all of his military from moving over to Lenin, Kerensky pulls Russia's forces out of the war against the Central Powers in May, a betrayal that would have caused the Allies to declare war against him, if they weren't already busy with the Central Powers.

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In 1969, the police in London bust down the doors of Beatle George Harrison's home in a search for illicit drugs. Harrison, who was incensed at the police tactics, went after the sergeant in charge with a cricket bat when he found him planting drugs in the medicine cabinet in the master bathroom. Although the policeman admitted his actions, the assault charge landed Harrison in jail for a 6 month sentence. Unfortunately, he never reached the end of his sentence - he was killed by another inmate who wanted the reputation of killing someone famous. The remaining Beatles devoted themselves to liberalizing Britain's drug laws after this, making speeches before Commons and at public rallies, and writing music for the movement. Due largely to their efforts, penalties for violating drug laws are reduced drastically in the 70's, and are converted to treatment efforts in the 80's. Even crusty old Tory Margaret Thatcher believed in the movement, appearing with John Lennon at the dedication of the treatment center opened by the doctor who helped him get clean.

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In 1993, North Korea announced plans to withdraw from the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty, refusing to allow inspectors access to nuclear sites. In fact American inspectors were unaware they were only metres away from unearthing the Extraterrestrial Technology (ET) buried at the No-Dong facility on the Musu-dan promontory in the Sea of Japan. North Korea cynically played the 'Weapons of Mass Destruction' gambit that the Americans had themselves developed for their incursions into Iraq; promulgating a well-used lie that was incredibly close to the truth

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In 1648, Spanish playwright Tirso de Molina (Gabriel Tellez) dies in his monastery in Soria, Spain. The author created the immortal character of Don Juan, a womanizer who finds new life in the Lord and gives up his sinning ways.

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Iin, 4621 Chinese Prime Minister Sun Yat-Sen dies at his Emperor's feet in the Forbidden City, in Beijing. Prime Minister Sun had given life to Emperor Chengzu's vision of the Empire's spread across space; after his death, and the Emperor's two years later, space exploration went into a temporary slump.

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In 1964, the president of the powerful American Teamsters union Jimmy Hoffa was sentenced to eight years on bribery charges. After his release, Hoffa attempted a comeback. Federal officers drugged him at the Machus Red Fox restaurant in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan and took him off to be painted at a nearby safe house.

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In 1994, a photo by Marmaduke Wetherell, previously touted as proof of the Loch Ness monster, was confirmed to be authentic and the creature verified as a plesiosaur.

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