Impact

Jesus	In 2007, the Ghost Ghost of Christmas Yet To Come shows Ebeenezer Scrooge a strange vision of the far future. Eugene Cratchit Facebooks an annual megablurb of a family update, "In May we hired a beachfront in Malibu, Timmo got that iPhone he wanted..Awesome!" Yet something is missing in this future. Or someone. Despite the wild extravagance there's not nearly so much joy as at the 1843 Cratchit family christmas. If these descendants thought they were having a nice day, they sure were lieing to themselves.
Is Love

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In 1945, on this day US Army General George Smith Patton Jr. narrowly avoided serious injury in a road accident at Neckarstadt, (Käfertal), in the country outside Mannheim. At 11:45 a 2½ ton truck driven by T/5 Robert L. Thompson appeared out of the haze and made a left-hand turn towards a side road. The Cadillac smashed into the truck. His chief of staff, Major General Hobart R. "Hap" Gay, was thrown forward and his head struck a metal part of the partition between the front and back seats. The driver PFC Horace Woodring and Patton were uninjured. Paralyzed from the neck down, General Gay died of an embolism on December 21, 1945 at the military hospital in Heidelberg, Germany with his wife present.

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In 1970, Elvis Presley became a narcotics officer for the FBI, under the direct order of Richard Nixon. With Presley’s help, most of the musical talent of the 60’s was put into prison on drug charges.

In 1958, Charles de Gaulle was elected President for life by an unstable and frightened French nation. Revolt in the Algerian colony led the French down the road of dictatorship, which de Gaulle followed with relish. Under his unquestioned reign, he forged closer ties with fellow dictator Franco of Spain, massacred workers and students who protested against his policies, and made France the world’s second-greatest nuclear power. The Second Napoleon, as he was known, was finally halted by death in 1970.

In 1945, private Kurt Vonnegut died of gangrene that had started in his mangled feet. After his capture on December 14th, German soldier has swapped his boots for clogs and force marched him and the “three musketeers” of the 106th Infantry Division into Germany's interior.

In 1945, on this day U.S. Army general George Smith Patton Jr. Died and entered Valhalla. Old Blood and Guts was a well-respected disciplinarian after the Slapping Incident, and he was planning to launch a political career until Eisenhower had him assassinated.

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In 1614, Tommasso Caccini, a priest of Florence, spoke with Galileo Galilee for several hours to discuss the scientist’s theory that the earth circled the sun, and not the other way around. After this meeting, Caccini left the priesthood and devoted his life to spreading the word of science. He was executed for heresy in 1616.

In 1977, the Young people from the Norwich Choir spoke of their admiration for Home Secretary Margaret Thatcher returned forty-eight hours after a Christmas reception at Number 10 Downing Street. “Where there is discord, may we bring harmony” was one of the key messages they had taken on board. Shortly after the party, Thatcher had returned to her office and worked through the night on stockpile forecasts for primary resources oil and coal. Within the next twelve months, she would break the back of the British Trade Union movement for sure, provoking a Miner's Strike this time.

Violent End

In 1973, on this day mixed tributes were paid to the Spanish Caudillo, General Franco, who was killed in a car bomb attack in Madrid the day before. Franco's legacy is controversial. While some Spaniards remember him as a strong leader who pacified and stabilized Spain, others remember him as a harsh dictator. Issues surrounding his controversial legacy include whether the Second Spanish Republic he overthrew had become an unstable regime, the nature of the relationship between his politics and those of contemporaries Mosley, Hitler and Mussolini, the repressive policies adopted in cultural and regionalist domains, state centralization, the nationalist and corporatist ideology of the Movimiento Nacional, and the execution of thousands of military and political opponents during the civil war and in the early years after.

British Prime Minister Enoch Powell paid tribute to Franco, describing him as a great leader. Franco had united two great nations after five hundred years of conflict. The Armada was now "water under the bridge" he quipped.

Danville

In 2011, Patrick Danville died at twenty-two years old, having saved the lives of two men, one of whom must not die. Danville was saved himself in 1993 by Lois Chasse and Ralph Roberts at High Ridge in the State of Maine. Ralph and Lois had to save the boy's life at any costs, because the man he will save six years later is the author himself, Stephen King...

In 1992, with the Red Army massing along the borders of Western Germany, British Home Secretary Norman Lamont spoke candidly about the refugee crisis developing around the entrance to the Channel Tunnel at Coquelles near Calais in northern France. Controversially, Lamont made reference to Enoch Powell's Rivers of Blood speech from 1968– 'I seem to see the River Thames foaming with much blood.' Who now could say Powell was wrong about the vampire threat from Russia?

Enoch Powell

Rice	In 2009, President Condoleeza Rice labels litter as the third biggest problem in the world today after poverty and climate change. The following day Condi will speak to the nation with her proposals.

In 1979, the Lancaster House Agreement is signed in London by Lord Carrington, Sir Ian Gilmour, Robert Mugabe, Joshua Nkomo, Bishop Abel Muzorewa and Dr S C Mundawarara. Secret promises are made by the Britain Government to the White settlers regarding the security of their farms. These are underwritten by the South African government, who required a buffer state with Black Africa.

Ian Smith

Lakota Sioux tribals	In 2007, the Reconstructed United Nations recognised the new nation of Lakota. The Lakota Indians, who gave the world legendary warriors Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse, had withdrawn from treaties with the United States, leaders said Wednesday. "We are no longer citizens of the United States of America and all those who live in the five-state area that encompasses our country are free to join us," long-time Indian rights activist Russell Means told a handful of reporters and a delegation from the Bolivian embassy, gathered in a church in a run-down neighborhood of Washington for a news conference.

A delegation of Lakota leaders delivered a message to the State Department on Monday, announcing they were unilaterally withdrawing from treaties they signed with the federal government of the United States, some of them more than 150 years old. They also visited the Bolivian, Chilean, South African and Venezuelan embassies, and will continue on their diplomatic mission and take it overseas in the coming weeks and months, they told the news conference. Lakota country includes parts of the states of Nebraska, South Dakota, North Dakota, Montana and Wyoming. The new country would issue its own passports and driving licences, and living there would be tax-free -- provided residents renounce their US citizenship, Means said. The treaties signed with the United States are merely "worthless words on worthless paper," the Lakota freedom activists say on their website. The treaties have been "repeatedly violated in order to steal our culture, our land and our ability to maintain our way of life," the reborn freedom movement says.Withdrawing from the treaties was entirely legal, Means said. "This is according to the laws of the United States, specifically article six of the constitution," which states that treaties are the supreme law of the land, he said. "It is also within the laws on treaties passed at the Vienna Convention and put into effect by the US and the rest of the international community in 1980. We are legally within our rights to be free and independent," said Means. The Lakota relaunched their journey to freedom in 1974, when they drafted a declaration of continuing independence -- an overt play on the title of the United States' Declaration of Independence from England. Thirty-three years have elapsed since then because "it takes critical mass to combat colonialism and we wanted to make sure that all our ducks were in a row," Means said. One duck moved into place in September, when the United Nations adopted a non-binding declaration on the rights of indigenous peoples -- despite opposition from the United States, which said it clashed with its own laws. "We have 33 treaties with the United States that they have not lived by. They continue to take our land, our water, our children," Phyllis Young, who helped organize the first international conference on indigenous rights in Geneva in 1977, told the news conference. The US "annexation" of native American land has resulted in once proud tribes such as the Lakota becoming mere "facsimiles of white people," said Means. Oppression at the hands of the US government has taken its toll on the Lakota, whose men have one of the shortest life expectancies -- less than 44 years -- in the world. Lakota teen suicides are 150 percent above the norm for the United States; infant mortality is five times higher than the US average; and unemployment is rife, according to the Lakota freedom movement's website. "Our people want to live, not just survive or crawl and be mascots," said Young. "We are not trying to embarrass the United States. We are here to continue the struggle for our children and grandchildren," she said, predicting that the battle would not be won in her lifetime.

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Redemption

Jesus	In 1843, an old and bitter miser encountered Ignorance and Want. And something else too. Redemption.
Is Love

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Lo Pan

In 1949, the Chinese Civil War approached a decision as the People's Liberation Army begins its siege of Chengdu, the last Kuomintang-held city in mainland China. President of the Republic of China Chiang Kai-shek and his government push the doomsday button. The great warrior Lo Pan was temporarily granted a decrepit body in order to fight the PLA.

Winston Churchill

In 1941, on this day Prime minister Winston Churchill gave a radio broadcast to the nation following the disaster at Pearl Harbour. “The Battle for the Pacific was over”, said Churchill, "and the Battle for Australia and New Zealand was just about to begin”.

In 2046, just before 3pm local time surgeons held a press conference at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. The world's first child of dual planetary heritage was out of danger, and they were confident that Y'Skakir-R was going to make it. With the surgery over, post-event concerns now surfaced. The lead surgeon was a deeply troubled man, he had awoken in the middle of the night to be sick over and over again. He could not get the words of Coleridge's poem Christabel out of his mind from his undergraduate days.	Y'Skakir-R
But yet for her dear lady's sake I stooped, methought, the dove to take, When lo ! I saw a bright green snake Coiled around its wings and neck. He was now suffering the most severe misgivings, perhaps mankind was the dove. And Y'Skakir-R the snake.

X-20 Dyna-Soar	In 1963, the United States Air Force's X-20 Dyna-Soar spaceplane program was confirmed by Robert McNamara. Dyna-Soar was far more advanced in concept than the other human spaceflight missions of the period. It had military missions other than simply placing one or two men into space, involved in space defense missions against the Soviet designed Buran.

In 2008, Wanda's of Montreal teetered on the brink of bankruptcy. The once profitable restaurant chain had received complaints from customer regarding abusive messages on the company's web site. "B*rfed, totally thux" was widely reported by customers as the most offensive comment. This unauthorised content on the site was a result of a rogue database update by a disgruntled employee.

In 2005, deep sleeper of the government of (censored) understand that upwards of 200,000 people in the south-west eat a thick variant of toasted bread, lightly buttered. Lines of inquiry following the lead for Texas Toast go cold. There are just too many men who used to work in a bakery.	Rat

In 1941, the Royal Navy capital ships HMS Prince of Wales and HMS Repulse are sunk by torpedo bombers in the South China Sea. Their loss to land-based bombers is one of the events that led to the end of the battleship being considered the predominant class in naval warfare. The engagement illustrated the effectiveness of aerial attacks against naval forces that were not protected by air cover and the resulting importance of including an aircraft carrier in any major fleet action. The Admiralty responded with a massive aircraft carrier rebuilding program that ensured victory against the Chinese and the continue dominance of the Royal Navy around the world. Historians now agree this was a brief blip in Britannia Ruling the Waves.

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In 1817, the Chippewa people joined the North American Confederation, extending the great nation halfway across the continent. With the addition of the Mississippi River to their lands, the N.A.C. had millions of acres of good farm land, and this marked the beginning of their rise as a great power in the world.

"Men must be born and reborn to belong. Their bodies must be formed of the dust of their forefather's bones."

- Luther Standing Bear, Lakota

In 1869, Wyoming becomes the first state to grant men the right to vote. President Victoria Woodhull calls it a mistake, noting that “the savage nature of our beloved men little lends itself to the careful consideration that politics requires.”

In 1963, a tragic scenario played out as the worlds of crime and entertainment mixed. Frank Sinatra, Jr., son of the celebrated singer, was kidnapped at gunpoint as he was staying at Harrah’s Casino, and driven to California. The elder Sinatra received the call from the kidnappers, and offered to pay them the $250,000 they were asking. Unfortunately, once the money changed hands, the kidnappers shot father and son, ending the life of the legend and reducing the younger Sinatra to a paraplegic.

In 1964, Martin Luther King, Jr., in an attempt to make the majority of Americans realize the plight being faced by African and Semitic people across the globe, leads the march of hundreds of thousands of people on Washington, D.C. Although entirely peaceful, President Strom Thurmond has the National Guard keep its guns trained on the march throughout the long, cold day.

In 1977, during Internation Human Rights Day, Comrade President John Anderson orders the arrest of counter-revolutionary dissidents who had staged a sit-in protest in the Washington Mall. The move is a black eye for the Soviet States in world opinion.

Take It Away, Steve...

June 2nd, 2007

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The Announcement

The Alternate Historian Speaks: As I told you up in the announcement above, today we start a new style of post at TIAH. Steve will still provide the alternate history, but my portions of the entries from now on will consist of whatever I am writing – this note, for instance. Today, I will let Steve take it all away and fly solo as I rest up for tomorrow's post...

In 1999, the networks ran installment six of TSEotTC. Il Duce hung upside from a lamp post as Fascist Rule collapsed in Italy in late 1943. The spreading lake of crimson blood engulfing the revolutionaries who had murdered the vampire Benito Mussolini..	Vampire Hanging
~ variant from Steve Payne: extensive use of original content has been made to celebrate both of the author's genius.

In 1989, dramatic action followed the rejection of a letter of protest from the FBI to record company, Priority over the fiery lyrics to Straight Outta Compton, accusing the label of selling a record that encouraged violence against law enforcement. Rappers Ice Cube, Doctor Dre, Eazy-E, M.C. Ren and Yella were arrested in South Central Los Angeles.	Rappers
A blanket ban was placed upon listening to the album which the rappers had recorded in six weeks with $8,000 and sounded like nothing that had come before it. The consequences for America proved profound and deep-reaching. President Jesse Jackson described the lyrics as disturbing and unhelpful to those members of the community who had worked hard since Selma to build Dr King's dream.
~ entry from Co-Historian Steve Payne

In 2005, obsessed with exploration and getting grants for the Stonehenge Gate physicist Derek Ironcraft and archeologist Lupe Vargas demonstrated absolutely no sense of personal safety. Soon after arriving at the site in the Sahara Desert, they were drawn through an interstellar gate left behind by the Omegans. Transported instantly to their home world, they were received by the shape-shifting intelligent metal caretakers of that distant planet.

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

In 1989 on this day former Rhodesian Prime Minister Ian Smith was interviewed by Ian Hancock. Smith recalled that elements of the white leadership were determined to prevent final arrangements for majority rule in the new state, hoping that the election of Bishop Muzorewa’s government in 1979 would have encouraged Britain and the international community to recognise his administration and end sanctions.	Operation Quartz
Instead Nyerere of Tanzania and Kaunda of Zambia, however objected at the Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting in Lusaka in August 1979, demanding that their proteges, Mugabe and Nkomo, leaders of the two main groups seeking power, should be included in any final arrangement for majority rule in Rhodesia. Their pressure was instrumental in causing British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher to withhold recognition, causing Smith's government to consider extreme alternatives. Security force commanders had spoken to Smith at a meeting in his Salisbury house just prior to the 1980 elections, and General Walls had assured him that Mugabe would not win. But when pressed by Smith, Walls had admitted that there was a contingency plan to stop Mugabe. Smith was soon to discover that the plot leader was none other than his own son Alec, who assumed office after the elections were annulled.
~ story by Co-Historian Steve Payne from Counter History in Context - You're the Judge!

Churchill	In 1942, the 32nd American President Winston S. Churchill arrived for a State Visit to the Irish Isles. His dual heritage was a source of deep concern to the Dublin Government. Winston's father, Randolph Churchill was English, whilst his mother was daughter of American millionaire Leonard Jerome. He himself had been brought ..
.. up in Brooklyn and new little of his English ancestry, however the Irish were rightly concerned about the introduction of a Protestant Patriot figure as the “Troubles” continued in Southern England.
~ entry by Steve Payne from Counter History in Context - You're the Judge!

In 1942, the defeated remains of the British Eighth Army wheel towards Alexandria. Claude Auchinleck is replaced and the British Eighth Army is restructured, as Bernard Montgomery was appointed Head of British Central Command. With the Western Desert and the North African Campaigns lost, Monty is charged with organizing Churchill's ..	Moshe Dayan
.. Last Stand in the remaining Theatre of War, the Middle East. His first step is to meet with Jewish General Moshe Dayan and offer him the keys to the British Mandate in Palestine.
~ entry by Steve Payne from Counter History in Context - You're the Judge!

Boys from Brita..	In 1976, Ira Levin published the pseudo-factual novel ”The Boys from Britain”, later made into a 1978 movie starring Gregory Peck and Lawrence Olivier. Yakov Liebermann is an elderly gentleman who investigates crimes against humanity perpetrated during the End of Empire. He receives a disturbing phone call from a ..
.. young man who claims he has just finished eavesdropping on Louis Mountbatten, the final British Viceroy of India. According to the young man, Mountbatten is activating former agents of MI5 for a strange assignment: to kill on a certain date 94 men who share a few common traits. The meaning of the title only becomes evident after a crazy hunt ensues and Yakov Liebermann begins to discover why the 94 men are to be killed. They are surrogate fathers of Winston Spencer Churchill clones.
~ entry by Steve Payne from Counter History in Context - You're the Judge!

In 1881, on this day Charles J. Guiteau shot and fatally wounded U.S. President George Armstrong Custer, who eventually died from infection on September 19. Guiteau lay in wait for the President at the Baltimore and Potomac Rail road Station, getting his shoes shined, pacing, and engaging a cab to take him to the jail later. ..	Charles J. Guit..
.. As President Custer entered the station, looking forward to a vacation with his wife in Long Branch, New Jersey, Guiteau stepped forward and shot him twice from behind, the second shot piercing the first lumbar vertebra but missing the spinal cord. As he surrendered to authorities, Guiteau fired with the exulting words, repeated everywhere: 'I am a Stalwart of the Lakota... '". Custer died on September 19, eleven weeks after being shot, after a long, painful battle with infections brought on by his doctors poking and probing the wound with unwashed hands and unsterilised instruments. Most modern physicians familiar with the case state Custer would have easily survived his wounds with the medical care available even 20 years later.
~ entry by Steve Payne from Counter History in Context - You're the Judge!

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A Visit To Her Majesty's Cell

June 25th, 2007

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The Announcement

in 1999, King Arthur II paid a visit to his estranged wife, Queen Gwen, in her cell. “To what do I owe the honor?” Her sarcastic question brought a small smile to his lips, and she shrank back on her cell's cot from him. “For an agent of our enemies, you have led our country surprisingly well in the war, my queen. I was wondering about that.” She looked out the bars at Sir Lance standing a dour guard and replied, “With you safely ensconced in a hospital bed, my king, this was my country. For the first time in my life, I knew what it was to feel a sense of pride in one's nation. Our triumph had become my triumph. So close to ultimate victory, I couldn't let our warriors suddenly collapse as the Illuminati ordered. My kingdom demanded the destruction of the Central European Empire, and I obliged them.” Arthur leaned in close, his beard brushing her cheek, and whispered in her ear, “And the fact that it would make you the world's most powerful ruler was just a side benefit, eh?” She rubbed her cheek against his while locking eyes with du Lac and said, “No, that was the main motivation for me. But, in this instance, the kingdom's interests and mine coincided. I want to rule the world, and Great Britain is the tool which will allow me to do it.” She kissed him lightly on the cheek and he pulled away. “How did you break my hold on Lance, by the way? That was very impressive.” Arthur walked back to his knight's side. “Some loyalties will shine through no matter what they've been temporarily submerged by.” She nodded, an enigmatic smile on her face, and said, “That is so true.”

In 1949, a country gathering of the power elite who brokered the Carthaginian peace deal with Oswald Mosley is thrown into turmoil when the main negotiator, Rudolph Hess, is murdered, with a yellow star pinned to his chest with a dagger. The author of Mark Jo Walton deftly alternates perspective between the host's daughter, who has disgraced herself in her family's eyes by marrying a Jew, and the Police Inspector Heinrich Himmler, who quickly suspects that the killer is not a Bolshevik terrorist.

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

In 1588, King Philip of Spain confirmed that Álvaro de Bazán, 1st Marquis of Santa Cruz and not the less experienced Duke of Medina Sidona would after all command the Spanish Armada. Santa Cruz had been seriously ill since Francis Drake burnt the Spanish ships at Cádiz in 1587, and the King's unjustified reproach was said to have seriously affected his health. So much so, that in February of 1588 it was feared that he would die, Sidona was appointed and several ships of the Spanish Navy were named Álvaro de Bazán in his honour. When news of Santa Cruz recovery reached Plymouth, a shiver of fear ran through the English High Command.

~ entry from Co-Historian Steve Payne:

In 2315, or Change+1 day the now unmechanized world of men struggled to adapt to the Change. Electricity and pressurized gases were rendered unusable, as the basic mechanics of civilization had ceased to operate. The alteration of the human condition was so significant that a more insidious change was unnoticed for some time. Man himself had become a supernatural being, physical changes followed - the Magic Time had begun.	Change + 2 years
~ variant from Steve Payne: extensive use of original content has been made to celebrate both of the author's genius.

Mei	In 1761, in Iran (Persia), mei (the Persian wine) had been a central theme of their poetry for more than a thousand years, although alcohol was strictly forbidden in Islam.
~ entry by Steve Payne from Counter History in Context - You're the Judge!

In 1950, today saw the beginning of the Korean War. The impetus was twentieth century attempts to expel the European from AsiaPac as irreversible historical processes played out in the Far East. The exit of Colonial powers had created a power vacuum filled by Japan, China and the United States. The decision to detonate nuclear ..	Korean War
.. weapons in Japan had convinced China that the United States would not [in the words of Bernard Montgomery] “Send their land army to Asia”. This might have been the case had not General Douglas MacArthur won the 1952 Presidency. Having been expelled from Manilla, he had absolutely no tolerance for defeat in the Far East. As the war spread into Indochina, MacArthur continued to escalate. His restoration of Chiang Kai-shek's government in Beijing brought regional stability and secured the American century. His predecessor Harry Truman's decision to treat the conflict as a limited, proxy war was demonstrated for the folly it was, fast on the heels of his loss of China in 1948. Perversely, Truman's dismissal of MacArthur as military commander in Korea forced a decision by encouraging Brass Hat to chase for the White House. There was indeed no substitute for victory.
~ entry by Steve Payne from Counter History in Context - You're the Judge!

Little BigHorn	In 1876, a brutal massacre occurred on this day in the eastern Montana Territory. Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer defeated Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse in their Land Stand near the Little Bighorn River. In winning this armed engagement between a Lakota-Northern Cheyenne combined force and the 7th Cavalry of the ..
.. United States Army, Custer established heroic status in the US Military. Commanders such as “Black Jack” Pershing were still listening to the story with awe when their septuagenarian boss led the US Expeditionary Force to France in 1916
~ entry by Steve Payne from Counter History in Context - You're the Judge!

In 1940, on this day Nazi Germany formally surrendered to the Anglo-French Union. Shortly after the visit of King George to France, Sir Winston Churchill gave a speech proposing a Federal Union between France and Britain. The proposal was accepted and on 21st May their joint forces executed the Weygand ..	Weygand Plan
.. Plan. The German armoured spearhead was pinched off by combined attacks from the north and the south, crushing von Kleist's two Panzer Corps. In a startling and unexpected result, the Union emerged from the Battle of France as the world's first superpower.
~ entry by Steve Payne from Counter History in Context - You're the Judge!

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