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.

The Last Wimbledon

July 7th, 2007

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The Announcement

A note from the AH: Here we are at the luckiest day of the century - 7th day of the 7th month of the 7th year – so, I'm buying a lottery ticket! I sincerely hope that good luck follows you today, and that our humble offerings are part of it...

Andrea opened up a web browser to her favorite Internet radio station so that she could have some tunes while she worked. Better enjoy it while it lasts, she thought, mentally cursing the new laws that were going to doom this little spark of enjoyment. She had finally found a great oldies station, and it was going to go out of business. Typical.
After the music started playing, she went back to her word processor and looked through her notes. She felt nervous – she was one of two people at the meeting who weren't heavy politicians, and the other person was the actual discoverer of the probe. She had just led the team that confirmed its location and intercept course with earth. She pretty much knew that all the pols wanted to hear from her was a date and a time that the thing would be getting to earth, but she wanted to say so much more. She had dreamed of this happening since she had first read Stranger in a Strange Land when she was 12, and it's hard to encapsulate your feelings on achieving the goal of a lifetime in a dry, technical report.
She tried to tone that down, though. She included some speculation on the possible inhabitants of Wolf 359 3 million years ago because she couldn't help herself. She imagined them being much like the human race now, taking the first few steps out into the universe by sending mechanical probes to test the waters of the cosmos – no, scratch that, that was too “poetic”, and they didn't want to hear that. It was entirely possible that 3 million years ago, Wolf 359 was a system much like their own, and the inhabitants of the system – they were going to have to come up with a name for them. Lupines? 359ians was definitely out. Just plain Wolves?
Anyway, the inhabitants had obviously sent out probes much like we sent out Voyager. The only question was whether the Lupine probe – yes, she liked that name best – was sent out at the beginning or the end of their explorations. She speculated that after 3 million years, there was no possibility that the people who sent the probe were still there – this was probably the last record of their civilization. That saddened her. First contact, and they're probably all dead.
She then went into the technical details of slowing the thing down without destroying it, matching speeds with the shuttle before it could descend into the atmosphere, and the heavy quarantine that she wanted to place it under. Her recommendation was to keep it at the International Space Station, but she had already been told that it would be coming to earth. In her opinion, as well as the opinion of everyone else on her team, that was needlessly reckless; scientists could be flown up to the ISS and kept there indefinitely while they worked on the probe and were monitored for any signs of alien disease or contamination.
The bigwigs at all the space agencies wanted this “big win” to appear on earth, though, and they were the ones who called the shots. So, she had to present a quarantine protocol along with her ISS recommendation that allowed for bringing the probe to earth with minimum possibility of polluting the planet with alien taint. She had that almost worked out, although she wished there was a way to catch the thing without involving the shuttle's crew. No matter what, they were going to have to be quarantined, as well, and she was going to stand very firm on that.

In 1999, the networks ran installment eight of TSEotTC, part two. The conspiracy after the drama after the tears... The Queen reluctant to address the nation, a suspicion that British Secret Agents had done away with the Prince of Hearts to save the monarchy from the changes of Charles' new thinking. And Diana, perhaps carrying Dodi's baby, father Mohammed Al-Fayd implicated in the "Accident"?

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

In 5708, by the Hebrew Calendar the Jewish nation suffered the Israeli Catastrophe. The events occurred less than three years after the end of the holocaust, and many observed some measure of linkage in the events. Following the collapse of the short-lived State of Israel, the United Nations definition of an "Israeli refugee" is a person "whose normal place of residence was Israel between 14th May 1948 and 7th July 1948, who lost both their homes and means of livelihood as a result of the 1948 Arab-Israeli conflict." "UNRWA's definition of a refugee also covers the descendants of persons who became refugees in 1948" regardless of whether they reside in areas designated as "refugee camps" or in established, permanent communities. Also amongst the dead were Field Marshal T.E. Lawrence leading his second Arab revolt, assisted by the Arab Legion and General John Bagot Glubb (“Glubb Pasha”).

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

James Molyneaux	"Does the Prime Minister recall that Britain was in a minority of one in the Europe of 1940? Does she further agree that, 50 years on, the basic issue is still the same-- undiluted parliamentary democracy and not imposed diktat? " ~ MP for Lagan at PM's Question Time
MP

Before the gathering of right-wing forces in Britain took shape, taking the country out of the European Union in 1992 after the fiery Maastrict Conference and the collapse of the Exchange Rate Mechanism. A synopsis of Britain's struggle to stay in or out of Europe is described at Wikipedia

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

Sam Cooke	"It's been too hard living But I'm afraid to die I don't know what's up there beyond the sky It's been a long, long time coming But I know a change gonna come Oh yes it will" ~ King of Soul, weeks before his death
King of Soul

On December 11, 1964 Cooke was found shot dead in the Hacienda Hotel, a small place close to the Watts section of Los Angeles California. The police reports that came from the crime scene were ugly. Cooke was reported to be found lying slumped on the floor with bullet wounds all over his body, shot by the Motel Manager in self-defence. The decapitated state of the body as witnessed by singer Etta James ridicules the LAPD explanation. It has been alleged that the record label and the Mob conspired to execute Cooke. In being one of the first African American musicians to attempt to take control of his own destiny, Cooke attended to the business side of his musical career and in so doing clashed with the rocket label, the mob and the Nation of Islam. He had abandoned his backers and some shadowy people were severely out of pocket. Many may dispute his title as "the king of soul" but Sam Cooke's legacy is an extensive one and his impact on soul music is undeniable - he had 29 Top 40 hits in the U.S. between 1957 and 1965 and his voice electrifies us to this day. A synopsis of Sam Cooke's alleged mob execution is described at Epinions

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

In 2010, the US military celebrate the destruction of the small pox virus weapons launched by the rogue North Korean leadership. It is a personal success for General Ben Crewe of the U.S. Marines. Crewe and his scientist daughter Carol had concealed the project from Congressional oversight, secretly channelling research grants in an illegal funding operation. They had also concealed the military application from Carol's husband, the Head of HARC, Physicist Mike Ryder. Worse, HARC was a contravention of the ABM Treaty. None of that mattered now, or so everyone thought until the Aftershock hit.

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

In 1940, the vicious street fighting of the past fortnight finally ceased across London. Whitehall was seized by the Wehrmacht. Prime Minister Winston Churchill went down pistols blazing, his ashes scattered in the garden at Number 10 Downing Street. The Battle of Britain was lost, but the War on Nazidom was only just beginning. It was Britain's finest hour.

~ entry from Co-Historian Steve Payne

In 1967, an enraged Otis Redding appeared at Jerry Wexler's office at Atlantic Records. Wexler had been named Record Executive of the Year for turning Aretha Franklin's career around. And therein lie the problem - "Otis came up to my office right before "Respect" was released, and I played him the tape. He said, "She done took my song." He said it angrily. He knew the identity of the song was slipping away from him to her."

~ entry from Co-Historian Steve Payne

Churchill	In 1942, Winston Churchill visited London Town. It was intended that he would support the Dublin Government with a statement denouncing the protestant terrorists behind “the Troubles” in Southern England. However, he had underestimated the emotion of the occasion as tens of thousands of English protestants lined the Streets ..
.. to welcome the “Lion of Brooklyn”. Something has to be done muttered Churchill darkly.
~ entry by Steve Payne from Counter History in Context - You're the Judge!

In 1996, the Harry Turtledove published the counter-history novel Israel: a tale of an Alternate Palestine in which he posed the Zionist Question – what would have happened if the withdrawing British forces had partitioned Palestine in 1948 rather than instituted a Palestinian State?	Harry Turtledov..
~ entry by Steve Payne from Counter History in Context - You're the Judge!

XF-11	In 1946, on this day Howard Hughes died when his XF-11 spy plane prototype crashed in a Beverly Hills neighbourhood. An oil leak caused one of the counter-rotating propellers to reverse its pitch, making the plane yaw sharply. Hughes tried to save the craft by landing it on the Los Angeles Country Club golf course, but seconds ..
.. before he reached his attempted destination the plane started dropping dramatically and crashed in the Beverly Hills neighbourhood surrounding the country club. When the plane finally skidded to a halt after mowing down three houses, the fuel tanks exploded, setting fire to the plane and a nearby home. Hughes lay dying beside the burning air plane where he was found by Marine master sergeant William L. Durkin, who happened to be in the area visiting friends. Hughes had suffered a dislodged heart, crushed collar bone, six shattered ribs and numerous third-degree burns making his survival impossible.
~ entry by Steve Payne from Counter History in Context - You're the Judge!

In 1975, on this day Arthur Ashe celebrated the achievement of becoming the first black man to win the Wimbledon singles title. Tragically, he died of complications from AIDS on February 6, 1993. In the eight years between the deaths of Rock Hudson and Arthur Ashe, the need for awareness had progressed from a low level concern ..	Venus Williams
.. to a species threatening catastrophe. By coincidence, another black athlete, Venus Williams was to win the Wimbledon singles title in 2001. That was the last year in which the sporting event was feasible as western civilization succumbed to the AIDS Pandemic.
~ entry by Steve Payne from Counter History in Context - You're the Judge!

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