Wrong

Communist	In 1812, the communist traitor Charles John Huffam Dickens was born in Portsmouth, England. Under the code-name 'Boz', Dickens was an agitator for revolutionary change in Victorian society. On 9 June 1865 Boz orchestrated the Staplehurst rail crash, a disaster within a disaster. The first seven carriages of the train plunged off a cast iron bridge that was being repaired. The only first-class carriage to remain on the track was the one in which Dickens was travelling, disguised as a bourgeous author returning from France.
Charles Dickens

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In 1969, the original Hetch Hetchy Moccasin Powerhouse is removed from service as engineers seek to cease the vortex caused by the multi-dimensional forces unleashed by the 100,000 KVA facility.

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In 1962, the United States Government bans all Cuban imports and exports in protest at the alliance with Nazi Germany.

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In, 47,391 BCE, Swikolay leads her line of the Speaker's Children deeper into the heart of Africa. She wants to study how birds fly and see if her children can mimic them. She feels her age creeping up on her, and knows that she will not see them touch the sky, but trusts that they will fulfill Telka's dream even without her.

In 1992, Harry Turtledove published the counter-history novel Guns of October, in which he posed the Cuban question - what if the United States had equal capability, preventing the Nazis from arming the island with nuclear weapons?

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Stephen R. Donaldson	In 1968, Stephen Reeder Donaldson languished in Vietnam. By inclination a conscientious objector, he had been compelled to serve in the armed forces. Much later, and after dropping out of his Ph.D. program and moving to New Jersey in order to write fiction, Donaldson made his publishing debut with the first 'Covenant' trilogy in 1977. That enabled him to move to a healthier climate. He now lives in New Mexico. Donaldson's two year compulsory military duty would be the deep undercurrent of his escapist fantasy writing. In 'The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, the Unbeliever', the protagonist was a leper struggled with disempowerment in a Land he did not really believe in.
Unbeliever

Baradkas swung his rod and lofted it towards the Unbeliever. He jerked aside and clutched at the lomillialor with his right hand. But he did not have enough fingers to get a quick grip on it; it slipped away from him, dropped to the floor with a wooden click that seemed unnaturally loud in the hush of the chamber. For an instant, everyone remained still, frozen, whilst they absorbed the meaning of what they had seen. Then, in unison, the Heers uttered their verdict with all the finality of a death sentence. 'The High Wood rejects him. He is a wrong in the Land. ~ Jehannum.

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In 4616, industrialist An Wang was born in Tangshan, Hebei Province. He provided the leadership and knowledge that drove much of the Chinese Empire's electronics industry over his lifetime. Once the rest of the world caught up to his innovations, though, he fell behind, and his later years were spent in more obscurity than he wanted.

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Black Sea	In 1945, talks at the Black Sea finalised plans drawn up by London, Washington and Moscow for the final phase of the war against Germany. Leaders of the three countries, Prime Minister Winston Churchill, US President Franklin D Roosevelt and Marshal Joseph Stalin, met at a secret location in the Black Sea area. A statement issued this evening was the first official confirmation of the talks which are said to have begun three days ago. They were there to discuss the future of Europe now that the end of the war was assured.
Yalta Conference

Trouble was a paralell set of discussions were proceeding on the Rhine under which the forces of Field Marshall Erwin Rommel would be used by Anglo-America to launch a preemptive strike on the Soviet Union.

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Ted Heath	In 1974, British Prime Minister Edward Heath called a snap general election and appealed to miners to suspend their planned strike action during the three-week campaign. After no sign of a breakthrough in talks with the National Union of Mineworkers this week, he had decided call to an election and let the voters decide who governs the country. In a speech broadcast this evening Mr Heath said the government would continue to try to reach a solution to the miners' dispute during the election campaign. But he said the country was fed up with industrial action and he called on people to use their vote to show the miners how they felt.'
Prime Minister

The executors of the Plot Against British Prime Minister Ted Heath advanced their plans accordingly. Heath remained bitter over his defeat and was persistent in his criticisms of the party's new ideological direction for many years. He never forgave Margaret Thatcher for her role in the coup and would refer to her as 'That woman'.

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In 1992, with the signing of the Treaty of Maastrict, ministers from the 12 countries in the European Community take another step towards political and economic union which occured a decade later.

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Collapse	In 1987, South Korean police made hundreds of arrests in the country's biggest demonstrations for six years. Rallies went ahead across the country to commemorate the recent death in custody of student Park Chong-choi, in spite of yesterday's warnings by President Chun Doo Hwan. Mr Park, 21, a linguistics student at Seoul National University suffocated during police interrogation for alleged pro-communist activities on 14 January. The ruling Democratic Justice Party claimed dissidents were using the memorial services as an excuse for violent and illegal political rallies.'
South Korea

Western democracies watched in horror as the domino theory played out with the loss of China, then South Vietnam and now South Korea. Eisenhower vocalized the theory during an April 7, 1954 news conference: Finally, you have broader considerations that might follow what you would call the 'falling domino' principle. You have a row of dominoes set up, you knock over the first one, and what will happen to the last one is the certainty that it will go over very quickly. So you could have a beginning of a disintegration that would have the most profound influences.

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In 2017, the Homeless fashion trend scandalises the Western World. Absence of shaving, increasingly casual clothes, lack of manners and universal youthful degeneracy had been tolerated to that point, but now superstars could not be distinguished from tramps.

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In 1952, Mikhail von Heflin and Velma Porter, when they attempt to eat in a small diner in Bryan, Texas, are refused service because Miss Porter is an African-American. The Baron has little use for a restriction like that, and Toledo's, the steakhouse that refused them service, is burned to the ground that night.

Rock On, Rock On

July 13th, 2007

Digg this

The Announcement

Lance let it drop. “What do you think are the chances we'll be able to catch the probe.”
Now, Andrea went into professional mode. This was a question she'd been thinking about since they'd confirmed the probe's trajectory. “Pretty good, actually. We've got several scenarios we're thinking of right now. During the committee meeting, we'll finalize the one we think will work the best, and then the shuttle will be up to implement it with a couple of days to spare. I anticipate it going really well.”
Lance grinned, an evil little smirk. “You realize that the day it's going to connect with the shuttle is Friday the 13th?”
“Just another day.”
“Wasn't that what the guy in Apollo 13 said?”
“No, he said 13 was just another number,” she corrected him. “Friday the 13th is going to be lucky for us.”
He nodded and sipped at his soda. “That's a good quote. Mind if I get my cameraman over here to film you saying that?”
She looked over at the cameraman, who was wolfing down a plate piled high with her relatives' food. “Don't you think that's a little staged?”
“These things always are. How do you think the good soundbites get out there?”
Andrea chuckled and shook her head. “You're going to destroy my faith in the system.”
“Then my work here is done,” Lance said, walking over to where the cameraman was enjoying the company of two of Andrea's cousins while he ate. They spoke briefly, and the cameraman reluctantly got up and readied his equipment.
When they saw that Andrea was about to be filmed, several relatives started drifting over to place themselves conveniently in the background. She got a little nervous; she'd appeared on camera a couple of times already, but it wasn't the kind of thing she'd signed on for when she made her career choice. She took a deep breath and let it out slowly, trying to zen out.
The camera pointed at her and Lance pulled out the wireless mike and asked her, “Doctor Ross, you realize that the shuttle's going to connect with the probe on Friday the 13th?”
“Just another day.” She remembered her line – he smiled at her.
“Wasn't that what Tom Hanks said in Apollo 13?”
He had modified his line; what a professional. “No, he said 13 was just another number. Friday the 13th is going to be a lucky day for us.”
“Cut,” Lance said the cameraman, who stopped recording and lowered the camera. Andrea's family all applauded, and Lance waved at them. Andrea dropped her head, embarrassed. “Good job, doc. I think we'll probably wander around a bit and get some background on you from your folks, here.”
“All right,” she said, “just don't eat too much.”

In 2009, TV networks ran episode four of So What If?. Enoch Powell's apocalyptic warnings of Rivers of Blood proves all too prescient. The Iron Lady Margaret Thatcher sends an elite force of Royal Marines and Paratroopers to cauterize the Channel Tunnel. Before Colonel H Jones can detonate the bomb at Sangatte, the British position is overrun by vampires. Held at bay since 1917, the Red Menace finally swept into Britain.

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

"Just another empty gesture with an empty glass Just another comic actor behind a tragic mask But I've got no discipline got no self control Just a little less painful here when my back's against the wall It's too late, I found, it's too far, I'm in two minds, both of them are out of it at the bar When you say I got a problem that's a certainty But I can put it all right down to eccentricity
Fish	It's just for the record it's just a passing phase Just for the record I can stop any day. Just for the record I'm gonna change my life around " ~Lyrics to Just for the Record
Tortured Genius

In 1987, tension had eased considerably between the troubled members of the Prog band Marillion at the Westside Studios in London. The recording of Just for the Record was the carthatic moment when lead singer Fish decided to reconnect with himself and stay with the band to the fierce joy of fans everywhere.

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

"We are not about to send American boys 9 or 10,000 miles away from home to do what Asian boys ought to be doing for themselves...
Lyndon Johnson	... I told [the Generals] to let Vietnam go the way of China. And then I want ‘em to leave me alone, because I’ve got some bigger things to do right here at home." ~ Address at at Akron University, Ohio Oct. 21, 1964.
President

On Oct. 21, 1964 at Akron University, Ohio LJB overturned the Truman Doctrine and the Domino Theory to rationalise his non-intervention strategy in Vietnam. Despite provocations such as the Gulf of Tonkin incident, Johnson pursued a domestic agenda and built the “Great Society” through to re-election in 1964 and 1968. A transcript of Johnson's speech is described at Bartleby

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

Adolf Hitler	"Why, twenty years after his death and forty years after the end of World War II, do we have Hitler Defeated, an anthology of eleven stories set in various alternative worlds in which the, uh, Iron Dream of Nazi Germany ends in the rubble of the Fuhrerbunker in Berlin?" ~ Norman Spinard
Murderer

Benford & Greenberg present a whole series of futures made possible by the plausible premise of a defeated Ten-Year Reich. The Amazon Review is available at Amazon.com Review

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

"May I have your attention please? Will the real Slim Shady please stand up? Jaws all on the floor like Pam, like Tommy just burst in the door and started whoopin her worse than before
Eminem	... they first were divorce, throwin her over furniture (Ahh!) It's the return of the... Ah, wait, no way, you're kidding, he didn't just say what I think he did, did he?" ~ Eminem's Says His Name in 1998.
Rapper

Gangsta rapper and producer Dr. Dre discovered a demo tape to Shady EP floating around Interscope label president Jimmy Iovine's office. Unable to contact Eminem in Los Angeles, Dre was shocked to discover that the young artist real name Marshall Bruce Mathers III had recently died of a massive drug overdose. He also discovered that the young artist suffered from a multiple personality disorder. "He had reached a boiling point, doing a lot of drugs and messed up stuff because he was so depressed," his wife said later. "There were at least three people in our apartment, my husband Marshall Bruce Mathers III, the frustrated artist Eminem and also the narcotics loaded alter-ego Slim Shady." A transcript of Eminem's story is told at The Moments

~ quotation by Co-Historian Steve Payne: expletives removes from source content.

Seven Days in M..	In 1962, Fletcher Knebel and Charles W. Bailey published a semi-fictional novel “Seven Days in May”, later adapted into a 1964 film with screenplay by Rod Serling and directed by John Frankenheimer. The scenario of the film may have been inspired by the clash between General Curtis LeMay and President John F. Kennedy. ..
.. LeMay, furious after the Cuba crisis for not being allowed to use his atomic bombs, removed the President from power. A later film, Thirteen Days, refers to this clash; in it, LeMay is directly quoted as calling Kennedy a traitor to the United States. “Seven Days in May” poses the question – what would have happened to America if LeMay's bold action had not been taken, and Kennedy indeed had surrendered to Secretary Khruschev?
~ entry by Steve Payne from Counter History in Context - You're the Judge!

In 1985, septuagenarian President Ronald Reagan underwent eight hours of surgery to remove polyps from his colon. George H.W. Bush became the first Vice President to become Acting President which was just as well because Reagan expired during the surgery. Bush was sworn in following a short delay in which the Acting President, ..	Oliver North
.. Lieutenant-Colonel Oliver North and his secretary Fawn Hall performed some routine maladministration. They criminally shredded pertinent documents relating to the arms sales to Iran which funded Contra militants in Nicaragua. They were securing the Gipper's reputation, they figured.
~ entry by Steve Payne from Counter History in Context - You're the Judge!

Abul Kalam Azad	In 1912, Leader of the Indian freedom movement and scholar, Maulana Abul Kalam Azad (free) brought out his noted Urdu news journal, al-Hilal. Azad would serve as Congress President from 1940 to 1945, during which the Quit India rebellion was launched. Alongside Mahatma Gandhi, Azad was imprisoned for three years and ..
.. then executed with the entire Congress leadership. Churchill meant it when he said he would not preside over the end of the British Empire. Adrienne Gormley recounted the true story in her brilliant 1996 biography "Children of Tears".
~ entry by Steve Payne from Counter History in Context - You're the Judge!

In 1948, the Coptic and Ethiopian Churches reached an agreement leading to the promotion of the Ethiopian church to the rank of an autocephalous Patriarchate. It was entirely reasonable, for thousands of years the Ethiopians had kept the Ark of the Covenant under constant guard in a "treasury" near the Church of Our Lady Mary of Zion.	Ark of the Cove..
~ entry by Steve Payne from Counter History in Context - You're the Judge!

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