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The state of TIAH

January 24th, 2007

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Alternate Historian's Note: We have a side-project that we are working on – a collection of several timelines with more-or-less complete stories inside them – The Fall, the Tolman timeline, the Mormon War and more – that will be up for sale on Lulu, as soon as we have it edited together. If you would be interested in this, or would like to suggest something for inclusion in the collection, please email me and let me know. And, speaking of side projects, Guest Historian Stephen Payne has one, Crimson Kiss, available for free on Lulu. Check it out after you enjoy his entry for today, an entry of our own, and the continuation of our NaNoWriMo novel.

Adolf Hitler	In 1947 Anglo-Nazi final status talks in Reykjavik, Iceland opens with a formal banquet. Princess Elizabeth I wears a stunning shoulder less dress which is really quite out of character. Members of both delegations wonder if a proposal of marriage to the German Chancellor is up Halifax's sleeves. The Fuehrer has very great ..
.. difficulty in keeping up with the conversation, he is practically salivating.
~ entry by Steve Payne from counter history in context - you're the judge!

In 1679 democracy falters in Great Britain when King Charles II disbands Parliament. This timely intervention ensured that the nascent British Empire was given an appropriate governance structure; effective and dynamic Stuart rule was of course superior to an assembly of laypeople, a model ..	Charles II
.. which could not possibly work in the global superstate which survives to this day.
~ entry by Steve Payne from Counter History in Context - You're the Judge!

Ojibwa chief	In 2057 a startling discovery is made by social scientists at Michigan State University. Long-term demographic patterns for First nations reveal a universal movement westward.
~ entry by Steve Payne from counter history in context - you're the judge!

In 1924 following a series of strokes Vladimir Lenin, founder of the Bolshevik Party, and father of the revolution is forced to shape change, fleeing his cadaver to occupy the body of the rude Georgian Joseph Vissarionovich Dzhugashvili. Through the cult of the personality, Stalin as he ..	Vladimir Lenin
.. is known is able to dilineate an uninterrupted rulership as General Secretary, which is very much the case given the continuity of the demon in the two bodies. He leaves the cadaver of Lenin on display, embalmed at a mausoleum in the Kremlin in case he ever needs to make a Dracula-style exit from Russia in the future.
~ entry by Steve Payne from Counter History in Context - You're the Judge!

in 2000, the European Union begins its 7-year transformation into a Utopian world government under the direction of Anti-Christ President Morris Appleby. Much to the chagrin of the remaining lapsed Christians, few atrocities are committed by the jack-booted thugs of the New World Order, and their recruitment efforts hit the skids. Nation after nation falls under the sway of the apologetic Satanic overlord.

After(cont.)
They saw a line of trucks on the highway they were heading towards and slowed down. Steph was thankful for the reprieve from all the bouncing. “I think they're pointed towards our side, so that would make them the New Mexicans,” Mike said. “I'm a little turned around, so I'm not a hundred percent sure.”
“Only one way to find out, I guess.” Steph pointed at the head of the line and said, “Let's go up to them – slow. We don't wanna get shot at.”
“Right.” He steered the SUV slowly towards the line of trucks, and saw them slow down. One of the trucks broke out of the line and veered off towards them. Mike rolled to a stop and let the truck approach them.
The truck was driven by an older serviceman, who pulled up in front of the SUV and pulled out a bullhorn. “Keep your hands where I can see them,” his voice pounded out at them. “Get out of the car slowly.”
All four of them complied, holding their hands out in front of them. When the soldier saw the children, he relaxed. “We have some vital information for you guys,” Mike shouted at him. “The guy they've got heading to Washington isn't the president, and we can prove it.”
The soldier's eyebrows raised. He hopped out of the truck and walked over to them, his hand on his pistol. He looked them over carefully, then said, “What kind of evidence?”
“Seismic data from Waco – no nuke went off anywhere near Crawford. And – what else was it, Steph?”
“Movie of the fake president at Crawford.”
“Right, photographic evidence, too. And, we kinda know some people who are trying to save the real president.” The soldier's eyes widened a little. “Yeah, I know what it sounds like, but we're the real deal. Can you take us to somebody?”
The soldier looked back at his convoy. “Right. You stay here for a minute.” He went back to his truck and talked into a radio for several minutes.
“Think he believed a thing I said?”
“Would you?”
Mike shrugged. “I would. But, I'm predisposed to that kind of thing.”
“Good point.” She looked at the soldier for a minute, then said, “Maybe he is, too. We could get lucky.” She hugged her children to her and said, “I wonder how they're doing in Crawford.”

Janice and Jake walked up to the side of the gurney and looked down at Kevin. The medical staff had already shut his eyes and cleaned him up considerably, but there was no color in his face and the clothes still on him were darkened by his blood. Jake swallowed through the lump in his throat and said, “He never even got to loan me any money.”
Janice laughed a little at the gallows humor, then put a hand on Kevin's shoulder. “We need to make sure somebody takes care of his dog.” Jake nodded. “Does he - did he have family?”
“I don't know.” Jake tried to put down the grief and think clearly. “We'll need to get his personal effects, get to his house in Bryan and we should be able to find out from there.” He looked at the curtain separating this little area from the rest of the ER, and saw President Bush standing there, looking grim. “We could also use a certain contact we just made to find everything out.”

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Buried

The Violent yet peaceful death of Marvin Lee Aday Part I ~
They had been coming around a hairpin turn [heading West to the Dark man], Nadine on the inside, Marvin on the outside aboard his Triumph cycle. They were on the Colorado Western Slope, about seventy miles from the Utah border. There had been an oilslick on the outer part of the curve, and in the days since, Marvin had pondered much on this oilslick. It seemed almost too perfect. An oilslick from what? Surely nothing had been moving up here over the last two months [since Captain Trips]. He gripped the pen. Thought. Wrote:
Marvin Lee Aday	I apologize for the destructive things I have done, but do not deny that I did them of my own free will. I want to sign this by a name given me in Los Angeles. I could not accept it then, but I take it now freely. I am going to die in my right mind. Writing neatly at the bottom, he affixed his signature: Meatloaf. ~ Stephen King, The Stand Book III Chapter 64. ~ "Bat Out of Hell", Meatloaf, 1976 Click Symbol to Play Clip
Meatloaf

I can see myself tearing up the road, faster than any other boy has ever gone. And my skin is raw but my soul is ripe. No-one's gonna stop me now, I gotta make my escape. But I can't stop thinking of you, and I never see the sudden curve until it's way too late. I never see the sudden curve 'till it's way too late. Then I'm dying at the bottom of a pit in the blazing sun. Torn and twisted at the foot of a burning bike. And I think somebody somewhere must be tolling a bell. And the last thing I see is my heart, still beating, breaking out of my body, and flying away, Like a bat out of hell.

.

In 2012, in Center Lovell, Maine Constant Reader buried the author Stephen King in the deep corner formed where the house and the barn came together at an extreme angle. He would bury him where his wife kept her garden. The garden that she loved more than she loved him. After all, a man who would steal your love when your love was really all you had was not much of a man.

In 1906, Ernest Oldmeadow's North Sea Bubble described the horrors of the German occupation of Great Britian following the Great War. The Germans attempted to woo their new vassals with universal Christmas gifts and subsidised food. The worst atrocities inflicted by the occupiers were the introduction of a diet of sausages and sauerkraut, the correct spelling of Handel's name in concert programmes and Home Rule for Ireland. It was a far cry from the predictions of Saki (Hector Hugh Munro). In When William Came: A Story of London under the Hohenzollerns (1913) his hero, Murrey Yeovil — `bred and reared as a unit of a ruling race' — returns from darkest Asia to find a vanquished Britain `incorporated within the Hohenzollern Empire ... as a Reichsland, a sort of Alsace-Lorraine washed by the North Sea instead of the Rhine', with continental-style cafés in the `Regentstrasse' and on-the-spot fines for walking on the grass in Hyde Park.

Spear	In 1966, a cargo flight crashed less than 10 miles west-southwest of Tegel Airport in Berlin, Germany, in the early morning hours of the morning. All three crew members perished. The cause was undetermined because U.S. investigators were not allowed to survey the accident site or the aircraft remains. The accident site was in the Soviet occupation zone causing some to speculate that the aircraft was shot down.. The Soviet authorities returned about 50 percent of the wreckage. Some major components were not returned, including the flight data and cockpit voice recorders, flight control systems, navigation and communication equipment plus two items of incalculable value.
Heinrich Himmler who had never actually died; the body identified as his was only someone pretending to be him to save the last power circle of Nazi masters from the righteous fury of the conquering armies. And the Spear used to stab Jesus Christ as a weapon of mass evil destruction. The incredible story of the Soviet interception was told by journalist James Herbert in his masterpiece Heilige Lance.

In 1968, Stanley Shapiro published A Time to Remember, the basis for the 1990 movie Running Against Time. To prevent his brother's death at the Bay of Pigs, a man travels back to Palm Beach, Florida, in December 1960 to prevent the assassination of President-elect John F Kennedy by Richard Paul Pavlick. He finds an altered history also need correction. The result is shocking as Kennedy fails to authorise an air strike on the island. Instead of Nixon's successful but bloody overthrow of Casto, Kennedy creates a military fiasco which has repercussions for the next decade.

Kennedy

Shuttle Buran

In 1988, the unmanned Shuttle Buran is launched by the Soviet Union on her first flight. It had military missions other than simply placing one or two men into space, involved with space defense missions against the United States Air Force's X-20 Dyna-Soar.

In 1965, “the Butcher of Rhodesia” Ian Henderson and former Prime of the British Crown Colony of Rhodesia Ian Smith make a momentous decision for the peoples of southern Africa. The two agree to proceed with a modified version of Operation Quartz . Instead of the resources of the British Government, a private army of mercenaries and white farmers would be used.

Ian Smith

Apollo 13 Launch Aborted; Leavenworth Liberated

April 11th, 2006

in 1471, in the penultimate battle of the War of the Roses, the Yorkist Pope, Edward IV, defeats the Lancastrian Pope, Henry VI, and takes London. With the capitol in his hands, His Holiness Edward IV begins his 12-year reign of the Holy British Empire.

in 1814, Italian Emperor Napoleon Buonaparte abdicates at the point of the sword and is exiled by the northern European forces allied against him. In his island exile in Corsica, though, he has many friends, and he soon escapes back to Italy for a second chance at his conquest of Europe.

in 1870, the Greek government is toppled when a British nobleman is taken hostage by Greek thugs and King George of Greece exchanges himself for the nobleman in order to appease Britain. When Greek troops storm the ruffians’ hideout, they kill the king, plunging Greece into a 3-year civil war to determine his successor.

in 1915, as the Harlequin leaves Q'Barian orbit, Doctor Ch'Kel'Mlar tells Captain Smith of the cause of the rioting on the planet below. “The Kainku first came to us when we held the Mlosh homeworld, half a century ago. We were not united then, and were suffering from an outbreak of disease. They cured this disease and promised to aid us in unification. We should have been more suspicious; but we were too grateful for their cures.”

in 1945, in a rare moment, non-Jewish citizens of the former Greater Zionist Resistance in Gardelegen, Germany, rise up against New Reich forces and attempt to drive them from the city. They are crushed mercilessly by the Reich’s soldiers as an example to others who dare to question the new leadership’s methods.

in 1951, President Truman relieved General Doug MacArthur of his command in the Korean War, to the howls of the general’s supporters back home. When MacArthur returned to Washington, crowds met him in the streets and carried him on their backs to the White House. During the D.C. riots, several Puerto Rican nationalists took the opportunity to infiltrate the country and set up safe houses in the Washington area.

in 1970, the launch of the moon mission Apollo 13 is scrubbed when a problem is found with an oxygen tank during the last inspection of the ship. The disappointed crew has to wait 4 days while engineers replace the tank and connections; the superstitious blame the problem on the mission’s number. Once they achieve liftoff, the mission goes by the book, with no further problems.

in 1972, America counterattacked against the La Serena Offensive underway from the South Chilean guerillos. B-52s blasted known guerillo positions across the region, and plunged across the border into the south, spreading destruction across the capitalist stronghold. Soviet American forces pushed the guerillos out of the Santiago area in North Chile, rescuing their fellow Communist government.

in 1997, combined British, Egyptian and Japanese troops liberate the Leavenworth death camp in Kansas. The worst atrocities of President Shephard’s Constitutionalists were committed here, and its liberation had been made a priority by the allies. Over 1,000,000 political prisoners had been executed within the former military prison’s walls.

in 2005, Dave and Jeanne Lange, along with four other Save Earthers, infiltrate a Claw facility in Venezuela. They plant explosives throughout the facility without being caught, but just as the team is preparing to leave, a guard apprehends one of the team members. “Go,” He shouts at them through their walkie-talkies - “blow this place!” As soon as the rest of the team can evacuate, they set off the explosives, destroying the Claw building.

Timelines in today's post: the Holy British Empire, Italian Napoleon, the Mlosh, the GZR, Communist America, the Ralph Shephard timeline and The Claw.

Today's "Six Degrees of Star Trek" challenge: Connect Apollo 13 to Star Trek. Place your answers in the comments and see the Forum for previous results. For more on 6 degrees games, click here.

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Van Gogh Born; Presley On Louisiana Hayride

ALTERNATE HISTORIAN'S NOTE: Please send us entries for our next contest, which will be an Alternate April Fool's Day, April 1st, 2006. Just send us the entries for now - we'll decide on a deadline later. (Contest rules) And, another cool thing - Let us know where you are on Frappr!

March 3rd, 2006

in 1123 Post-Creation, in spite of admonitions not to, many of the para-angels beginning singing praises to Lucifer, rather than the Creator, at evening thanks. Since his takeover of Heaven, Lucifer has restored order to Eden, and the place has come to resemble the paradise it once was again. However, romantic contact between the pure angels and those of human ancestry has been forbidden, and much resentment of this boils under the surface of the happy life in Eden.

in 1853, Dutch painter Vincent Van Gogh is born in Groot Zundert. As a successful art dealer for the firm Goupil & Cie, he was transferred to their London office in 1873, and it was here that he truly began to come into his own. The company transferred him to their Paris office in 1875, and Van Gogh began selling his own work alongside that of others. In the 1880’s, he battled severe depression, but a young German doctor, Sigmund Freud, assisted him through that in 1886, and he came out of it inspired. His great works from this period sell for millions in auctions today.

in 1894, Conspirators of the Speaker’s Line began publishing a small Greek paper in New York City. Called The Atlantis, the newspaper carried hidden messages to the Speaker’s Line in the old code devised by Da Vinci.

in 1918, the Greater Zionist Resistance captures Saint Petersburg, Russia, and forces the surrender of Tsar Nicholas II. Astrid Pflaume, a neo-Nazi from the future secretly guiding the G.Z.R., is stunned at how well her movement is doing militarily, and how poorly the Germans her comrade Kurt Weimer is commanding are holding up their end of their plan.

in 1952, the Supreme People’s Court upholds a New York Soviet law prohibiting capitalists from teaching in the public school system. The 6-3 decision upholding the Feinberg Law said, “The state has a constitutional right to protect the immature minds of children from subversive propaganda,” while the dissenters maintained it “turned the school system into a spying project.”

in 1955, a truck driver turned singer from Tupelo, Mississippi appeared on the Louisiana Hayride, a popular radio program, and set the nation on fire. The young man, Jesse Presley, became the most popular singer in the world practically overnight.

in 1985, President Ralph Shephard signs an order reopening the old Andersonville Prison Camp in Georgia. The site of the worst atrocities against Civil War P.O.W.’s has received little publicity since then, but Shephard is ready to give it new life.

in 1991, George Holliday, videotaping some shots of Los Angeles’ Hansen Dam Park, saw several police officers beating a black man in the street. He put down his camera and ran over to the scene, but by the time he got there, the police had cuffed the suspect and thrown him into a squad car. Although Holliday attempted to get some news organizations interested, the fact that it was his word against several police officers’ led them to avoid his story. Ironically, if he had kept videotaping instead of rushing to help, the officers might have been brought to justice.

in 2004, with almost a dozen methane crabs on board, Charles Meriweather and his crew lift off of the Saturnian moon Titan, and head back to earth. The scientific mission, accomplished with the spaceship technology they had adapted from Martian invaders the summer before, was a rousing success, and they were ready to be hailed as heroes on their return to earth.

in 2005, Dave and Jeanne Lange, along with three other Save Earthers, escape from the prison camp that they have been held in and take off across the desert. They have no idea where they are, but they can see the lights of a city in the distance, and hope that it is Tucson. The Langes vow to each other that they will not be captured again.

in 2008, Velma Porter and Mikhail von Heflin appear outside of Brigamere, Scotland, startling a small group of New Age tourists there to see the infamous ley line that runs beside the village. The couple, after ascertaining what year it is, head into the village to see if they can get back to Bermuda and finally finish their vacation.

Timelines in today's post: the Fall, the Speaker, von Heflin, Communist America, the Ralph Shephard timeline, The Sheridans, The Claw and the GZR.

Today's "Six Degrees of Star Trek" challenge: Connect Andersonville to Star Trek. Place your answers in the comments and see the Forum for previous results. For more on 6 degrees games, click here.

Get yourself into TIAH!

The Forum lives again!

Good long fiction from the AH.

Help the Alternate Historian get a better day job!
My email address for contacting me with your good news, or for more direct goodness, go to the web site and leave a comment, buy a book, or leave a Paypal donation! Remember, it's only 6 degrees of separation between you and anyone else - and thanks again!

Bright New Day In Italy; Civil War In Greece

ALTERNATE HISTORIAN'S NOTE: One of today's entries has something a little different, a link to a longer document which gives more space to the entry. Please let us know if you like that by leaving a comment or emailing us.

December 3rd, 2005

in 1469, Piero de Medici, vampire lord of Florence, was staked by Venetian vampire hunters Luciano Roma and Giuseppe Scamardo. His long, undead reign of the city was ended, and the still-living citizens of Florence joined the vampire hunting pair in eradicating Medici’s spawn. It was a bright new day in Italy.

in 1776, after the devastation of New Jersey by British troops unchecked by rebel General George Washington, the Continental Congress voted to surrender to the British. They could no longer withstand the horrors that the redcoats were subjecting the colonies to, and decided that it was time to spare their fellow countrymen from further British atrocities. Many rebels headed west to escape British justice, and continued to harass the colonies for years after.

in 1829, George McClellan, Union general and United States President, was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. As a general, McClellan opposed using overwhelming force against the rebellious Confederacy, and as President, he brought them to the peace table to negotiate the division of the country. His containment of the south in their original 11 states let the United States expand to the west; and now, while the Confederacy is barely even a third world nation, the U.S. has the respect of the world.

in 1901, young Teddy Roosevelt, bare months after taking over from deceased President William McKinley, lays out a tepid anti-trust strategy to the House of Representatives, urging that they keep their trust laws “within reasonable limits.” It was exactly this sort of timidity in office that led the Congress to run roughshod over his presidency, and doomed him to the footnotes of history.

in 1944, a civil war erupts in Greece, just freed from Nazi rule by partisans and Allied forces. Communists of the National Liberation Front, who controlled most of the country, ousted their former allies, the Democratic National Army, whose hope of British support went unfulfilled. After a brief struggle, the DNA surrendered and Greece became the first of many independent communist nations in Europe.

in 1962, a confidential report from the Pentagon informs Comrade President Hall of the unexpected strength of the Guerrillo reactionaries in South Chile. If Soviet American forces are pulled out of North Chile, the Pentagon warned, it would fall to the capitalists within a year. Comrade Hall, in spite of his desire to reduce American troop commitments outside of the country, reluctantly agrees to increase support to the weak North Chilean Communists.

in 1984, a huge disaster was narrowly averted in Bhopal, India, when Union Carbide personnel noticed a leak developing in their plant and quickly rushed to plug it. An investigation by Indian officials determined that all of Bhopal, a city of 1 million people, would have been at risk if the leak had continued. New safety regulations were forced on all chemical plants in the country after this near-disaster.

in 1999, comedic great Madeline Wolfson died in New York City of ovarian cancer, which she had been battling for some months. The hilarious actress was nominated for the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress twice in one year, for her roles in Paper Moon and in Blazing Saddles. She is missed by all who loved classy, beautiful, funny women.

in 2002, the hyper-dimensional drive on the spacecraft being flown by Dr. Courtney cuts out. The ship begins to drift. While they still have momentum and are moving forward, they are unable to make any course corrections. They still have some power, but, for all intents and purposes, have been turned into a ghost ship.

in 2004, Chelsea Perkins visits the Council of Wisdom.

Christmas Day Contest! ONLY 17 DAYS LEFT!! 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

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Vegas Stands Still; The Signal Ends

August 5th, 2005

in the Dreaming, the mourning cry of the people is heard in the Heavens, and Wandjina descends to mourn Anansi with them. Other spirits from the Heavens descend, and soon the land is a reflection of the Heavens.

in 1860, future circus owner Joseph Merrick is born in Leicester, England. Merrick’s medical troubles as a child, an enormous tumor on his face, reportedly cleared up after his mother asked for a miracle from the Virgin Mary; more likely, this was just one of the many tall tales Merrick told of his past.

in 1891, the vulcanologists at Bandai, Japan, begin commandeering Mlosh-style space ships from around the world and converting them into cargo carriers. They will be traveling to the asteroid belt to gather raw material for a bold scheme – rebuilding the earth’s mantle!

in 1911, famed actor Spangler Arlington Brugh was born in Filley, Nebraska. Always an iconoclast, he made his name starring in such costume dramas as Ivanhoe, Quo Vadis, and Knights of the Round Table. His unusual name and quirky sense of confidence endeared him to critics and audiences alike, in spite of initial misgivings at MGM, which wanted to rename him something more common, like Robert Taylor.

in 1921, Carla Lambert directs Winds of the Heart, a small film about a farm family in Nebraska that is forced to deal with death, poverty and the breakup of the husband and wife’s marriage. It is often cited on many critic’s top 10 lists of best films of the 20th century.

in 1944, the German Underground, now calling itself The New Reich, captures 348 Greater Zionist Resistance fighters in Poland, and summarily executes them. Adolf Hitler, leader of the New Reich, issues a statement that loudly proclaims this as the new policy of the Reich. Protest across the world is weak, at best, emboldening Hitler to even worse atrocities.

in 1962, Marilyn Miller, the beautiful wife of comic playwright Arthur Miller, announces that she is giving up film work to start a family with her husband. She is 2 months pregnant with Miller’s son, and although she struggles with alcoholism for a few years, she is able to raise Joseph Miller into a successful baseball player.

in 1966, Pete Best released Drumsticks, an all-instrumental album. Best played most of the instruments, and all of the percussion, on the album, and the stirringly experimental sounds of the album captivated critics. Fans bought it out of a sense of loyalty, but it didn’t sell as well as Best’s more conventional albums.

in 1981, air-traffic controllers, federal employees banned from striking, confront President Mondale. In spite of the temptation to have them fired and end the strike, Mondale negotiates with the controllers, and reaches a fair settlement of their grievances. Labor is forever after grateful to Mondale, but the move enrages conservatives who declare that Mondale is in the pocket of big unions.

in 1990, President George Bush declared that “America does not have a stand, vis-à-vis Arab-Arab hostilities.” This allowed Iraq to hold Kuwait and siphon its resources, which it desperately needed after the disastrous war with Iran. America weathered a storm of criticism for not leading a military or diplomatic drive to push Iraq out of Kuwait, but Bush believed that he needed to stand by his old ally to provide a counterweight to Iran in the region.

in 1996, Strange News publishes Dr. Melvin Courtney’s paper on the Chimanimani object. Although the magazine’s hardcore readership believes it, Dr. Courtney’s fears of the magazine’s reputation tainting his own are instantly realized, and he is requested to meet with his department head at Cambridge the next day.

in 2000, the city of Las Vegas comes to a standstill as a strange presence seems to engulf the population. For several hours, everyone in the city seems linked together. Then, panic grips the human population of the city and chaos erupts.

in 2004, after the last of the personal information is broadcast, the operator of the signal from Lalande 25372 sends a farewell to the people of earth. “We have no idea how long it will be before they come for you. Live your lives well.” The signal then stops, and doesn’t resume.


An alternate birthday wish

Your humble alternate historian is about to leave the pleasant decade of the 30's behind and enter into the downhill slope of the 40's on August 14th. Before he does, he would like one simple 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 birthday wish!

Thanks to everyone for their generosity!

We have raised a lot from your donations, for which we are VERY grateful! Our situation is no longer as dire, so we don't need to beg for help - thanks so much! Because we like including our readers into the site, though, we will still keep our offer open - 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!

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Houston, We Have A Problem

April 11th, 2005

in 1471, in the penultimate battle of the War of the Roses, the Yorkist Pope, Edward IV, defeats the Lancastrian Pope, Henry VI, and takes London. With the capitol in his hands, His Holiness Edward IV begins his 12-year reign of the Holy British Empire.

in 1814, Italian Emperor Napoleon Buonaparte abdicates at the point of the sword and is exiled by the northern European forces allied against him. In his island exile in Corsica, though, he has many friends, and he soon escapes back to Italy for a second chance at his conquest of Europe.

in 1870, the Greek government is toppled when a British nobleman is taken hostage by Greek thugs and King George of Greece exchanges himself for the nobleman in order to appease Britain. When Greek troops storm the ruffians’ hideout, they kill the king, plunging Greece into a 3-year civil war to determine his successor.

in 1945, in a rare moment, non-Jewish citizens of the former Greater Zionist Resistance in Gardelegen, Germany, rise up against New Reich forces and attempt to drive them from the city. They are crushed mercilessly by the Reich’s soldiers as an example to others who dare to question the new leadership’s methods.

in 1951, President Truman relieved General Doug MacArthur of his command in the Korean War, to the howls of the general’s supporters back home. When MacArthur returned to Washington, crowds met him in the streets and carried him on their backs to the White House. During the D.C. riots, several Puerto Rican nationalists took the opportunity to infiltrate the country and set up safe houses in the Washington area.

in 1970, the launch of the moon mission Apollo 13 is scrubbed when a problem is found with an oxygen tank during the last inspection of the ship. The disappointed crew has to wait 4 days while engineers replace the tank and connections; the superstitious blame the problem on the mission’s number. Once they achieve liftoff, the mission goes by the book, with no further problems.

in 1972, America counterattacked against the La Serena Offensive underway from the South Chilean guerillos. B-52s blasted known guerillo positions across the region, and plunged across the border into the south, spreading destruction across the capitalist stronghold. Soviet American forces pushed the guerillos out of the Santiago area in North Chile, rescuing their fellow Communist government.

in 1997, combined British, Egyptian and Japanese troops liberate the Leavenworth death camp in Kansas. The worst atrocities of President Shephard’s Constitutionalists were committed here, and its liberation had been made a priority by the allies. Over 1,000,000 political prisoners had been executed within the former military prison’s walls.


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Van Gogh Born; Andersonville Reopened

March 3rd, 2005

in 1853, Dutch painter Vincent Van Gogh is born in Groot Zundert. As a successful art dealer for the firm Goupil & Cie, he was transferred to their London office in 1873, and it was here that he truly began to come into his own. The company transferred him to their Paris office in 1875, and Van Gogh began selling his own work alongside that of others. In the 1880’s, he battled severe depression, but a young German doctor, Sigmund Freud, assisted him through that in 1886, and he came out of it inspired. His great works from this period sell for millions in auctions today.

in 1894, Conspirators of the Speaker’s Line began publishing a small Greek paper in New York City. Called The Atlantis, the newspaper carried hidden messages to the Speaker’s Line in the old code devised by Da Vinci.

in 1918, the Greater Zionist Resistance captures Saint Petersburg, Russia, and forces the surrender of Tsar Nicholas II. Astrid Pflaume, a neo-Nazi from the future secretly guiding the G.Z.R., is stunned at how well her movement is doing militarily, and how poorly the Germans her comrade Kurt Weimer is commanding are holding up their end of their plan.

in 1952, the Supreme People’s Court upholds a New York Soviet law prohibiting capitalists from teaching in the public school system. The 6-3 decision upholding the Feinberg Law said, “The state has a constitutional right to protect the immature minds of children from subversive propaganda,” while the dissenters maintained it “turned the school system into a spying project.”

in 1955, a truck driver turned singer from Tupelo, Mississippi appeared on the Louisiana Hayride, a popular radio program, and set the nation on fire. The young man, Jesse Presley, became the most popular singer in the world practically overnight.

in 1985, President Ralph Shephard signs an order reopening the old Andersonville Prison Camp in Georgia. The site of the worst atrocities against Civil War P.O.W.’s has received little publicity since then, but Shephard is ready to give it new life.

in 1991, George Holliday, videotaping some shots of Los Angeles’ Hansen Dam Park, saw several police officers beating a black man in the street. He put down his camera and ran over to the scene, but by the time he got there, the police had cuffed the suspect and thrown him into a squad car. Although Holliday attempted to get some news organizations interested, the fact that it was his word against several police officers’ led them to avoid his story. Ironically, if he had kept videotaping instead of rushing to help, the officers might have been brought to justice.

in 2004, with almost a dozen methane crabs on board, Charles Meriweather and his crew lift off of the Saturnian moon Titan, and head back to earth. The scientific mission, accomplished with the spaceship technology they had adapted from Martian invaders the summer before, was a rousing success, and they were ready to be hailed as heroes on their return to earth.


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Spangler Brugh Born In Filley, Nebraska

August 5th, 2004

in 1891, the vulcanologists at Bandai, Japan, begin commandeering Mlosh-style space ships from around the world and converting them into cargo carriers. They will be traveling to the asteroid belt to gather raw material for a bold scheme – rebuilding the earth’s mantle!

in 1911, famed actor Spangler Arlington Brugh was born in Filley, Nebraska. Always an iconoclast, he made his name starring in such costume dramas as Ivanhoe, Quo Vadis, and Knights of the Round Table. His unusual name and quirky sense of confidence endeared him to critics and audiences alike, in spite of initial misgivings at MGM, which wanted to rename him something more common, like Robert Taylor.

in 1921, Carla Lambert directs Winds of the Heart, a small film about a farm family in Nebraska that is forced to deal with death, poverty and the breakup of the husband and wife’s marriage. It is often cited on many critic’s top 10 lists of best films of the 20th century.

in 1944, the German Underground, now calling itself The New Reich, captures 348 Greater Zionist Resistance fighters in Poland, and summarily executes them. Adolf Hitler, leader of the New Reich, issues a statement that loudly proclaims this as the new policy of the Reich. Protest across the world is weak, at best, emboldening Hitler to even worse atrocities.

in 1966, Pete Best released Drumsticks, an all-instrumental album. Best played most of the instruments, and all of the percussion, on the album, and the stirringly experimental sounds of the album captivated critics. Fans bought it out of a sense of loyalty, but it didn’t sell as well as Best’s more conventional albums.

in 1981, air-traffic controllers, federal employees banned from striking, confront President Mondale. In spite of temptation to have them fired and end the strike, Mondale negotiates with the controllers, and reaches a fair settlement of their grievances. Labor is forever after grateful to Mondale, but the move enrages conservatives who declare that Mondale is in the pocket of big unions.

in 1990, President George Bush declared that “America does not have a stand, vis-à-vis Arab-Arab hostilities.” This allowed Iraq to hold Kuwait and siphon its resources, which it desperately needed after the disastrous war with Iran. America weathered a storm of criticism for not leading a military or diplomatic drive to push Iraq out of Kuwait, but Bush believed that he needed to stand by his old ally to provide a counterweight to Iran in the region.

in 1999, Philippine authorities find 5 dead men in an old mosque in the province of Zamboanga del Norte. They seem to have been ripped to shreds, but the police find no evidence of a weapon that could have done it, and there is no animal native to the area capable of such a feat.

The Equal Rights Amendment Is Passed

June 24th, 2004

in 1204 AUC, Valentinian III, emperor of the western Roman Empire, saw the appearance of a flame in the sky as an omen that God was displeased with his decision to allow Marcian to ascend to the throne in the east. He ordered his legions to take and kill Marcian, and after this was done, he declared an end to the bisected empire. No longer would Rome face the world with 2 heads; Valentinian would lead as sole emperor.

in 110, by the grace of Allah, the forces of the Umayyad defeated the Frank general Charles Martel at Poitier. The path was then cleared for all of the Frankish people to be brought the teachings of the Prophet.

in 613, Islam was dealt a serious blow when the Mali leader Sundjata Keita was defeated by Susu ruler Sumanguru Kante at the Battle of Kirina. Sumanguru disavowed Islam and ruled under traditional Mande law and religion. Many entreated Sumanguru to convert to the true faith, but he and his people resisted the will of Allah throughout his reign. His land became known among the infidels as sanctuary against the hard steel of the faithful.

in the 3rd year of Kamanestra’s reign, the Army of the Western Lands arrived in Eire and forced them back into the service of the Pharaohs. Pockets of resistance lasted for several years, but most of the population had never heeded the words of the chieftains, anyway, and barely obeyed the Egyptians.

in 1947, pilot Ken Arnold made contact with a group of flying saucers over Mt. Rainier in Washington. When [REST OF POST CENSORED]

in 1982, the Equal Rights Amendment is passed. In spite of what its opponents had believed, it does not lead to enforced homosexuality, abortion and divorce. In spite of what its proponents had believed, it does not lead to equality, fair wages and sensitivity among men. It is an amendment, not magic.

in 1984, the Silver Beatles, musical superstar Pete Best’s old band, release an album of covers, mostly of his old songs, but also a few recent pop singles. Their cover of “Don’t You Want Me, Baby” actually makes it to the top 50 charts in the UK, but interest fizzles out after a few weeks.

in the 45th year of Mikhaol’s reign, he led his reassembled fleet from Harmakhis back to earth to crush the rebellion that the Europeans had committed against him. In his absence, the Europeans had raised Anubis above all other gods, and committed atrocities in His dark name.

in 2003, Australian forces engage the Martians in Antarctica with disastrous results. However, one unit does manage to steal a Martian ship. Unable to fly it, they place it on a naval vessel that immediately heads for home. The Martians obviously think the ship was destroyed, because no one chases after them.

The Harvard Conference

August 19th, 2007

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The Announcement

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We wandered around 'downtown' Nijima for a while before finding Rameses Lane, and then walked forever down Rameses Lane before finding M'boke's. It turned out to be a fairly modest two-story building of reddish stone and a few ornate carvings of old Egyptian gods. We walked in, and the lobby looked as plain as the outside, except for a very nice-looking cedar desk standing in front of a living mummy of a woman.

"May I find you a room, sir?" She offered Patrice a pen and book to sign in on. Some things are universal.

"I'll need a place for my boy to sleep, as well," he told her. Damn nice of him. I was sure he was going to forget that. "Could you tell me, mother, whose pyramid that is in the center of the city?"

The old lady looked strangely at Patrice. "You must have come from very far away, Lumumba, not to have heard of the pyramid of Malik El-Shabazz."

Patrice looked like he'd been slapped for a second, but then smiled at her. "Of course, the El-Shabazz pyramid. I knew there was a great attraction in Nijima, it has simply been so long that I forgot what it was." She handed him a key and he snapped his fingers at me. "Come, Gabriel." He trotted up the stairs and I had to jog to keep up with him. Once we were in the room, he locked the door and lodged a chair under the doorknob.

"Is there a reason we're acting like spies, now?"

"I've found the reason for my discomfort." He projected another image on the wall. It was a man of African descent, but with light, reddish-brown hair, indicating some European ancestry. He wore glasses, and looked quite thoughtful. "Do you know who this man is?"

He looked vaguely familiar, but I couldn't quite place him. "No. From a post-industrial period, obviously, but I don't think I've been to his plane."

"His name varies across the planes, but he's usually known as Malcolm X, and often takes the name of Malik El-Shabazz."

"Our pyramid builder?"

"Not quite." The image morphed from a man of mainly African descent with some European features to a man of mainly European descent with some African features, but it was still the same man. "This is the Malik El-Shabazz that the pyramid is named for." He was processing more of the download he'd gotten earlier, zeroing in on this one person. "In the European planes, particularly the slavery-based European planes, that first Malik is an important figure in the African rights movements. He's a personal hero of mine." He pointed at the European version of Malik. "This man apparently carries much of the same character. His father had been one of the Europeans in China who had been free. When the Chinese took that land back, he led a group of those Europeans here, to Nijima, and then died. Malik took over the city, fighting off the Africans his entire life, and agitating among Europeans throughout the globe. When he was assassinated, the European community here built this pyramid to him, before being conquered about ten years ago."

"So, you think the Europeans here have designs on freedom?" The glum look on his face made me laugh. "Paradise so close, and just a tiny freedom movement has to spoil it. Pity about that ol' indomitable human spirit and all, Patrice, but I guess we're out of here, huh?"

But, he was studying a timeline of this plane's history, and he had that scheming look on his face. "They've had a Muslim rise, but Christianity didn't, probably through lack of the Roman involvement. Hmmmm." He looked over at me and now I knew he was going to make me sign in blood.



I don't know how he talked me into it.

I mean, I have the conversation preserved in memory somewhere, and I could probably replay it, but I still cannot believe that I agreed to do the Archangel bit again, and this time to enslave people.

But, I was going to do it.

Patrice and I went out to the pyramid and reconnoitered for a while. It was a pretty safe bet that the pyramid was where the slave rebellion had its headquarters; where else in Nijima could you hide hundreds of people without being found out? So, we went a-scanning and bingo, found about sixteen hidden entrances through the base of the pyramid and a few tunnels leading throughout the city. We found about two thousand people inside the pyramid itself, and several dozen moving around its maze.

No wonder Patrice felt uncomfortable. The people inside the pyramid outnumbered the overlords outside it.

"What are they waiting for?" Patrice wondered.

"Well, they're surrounded by a hostile power, for one thing. They probably can only use the pyramid as a base for getting people out into the jungle, or hiding out to make plans, or stockpiling supplies. It's not like they're in darkest Europe, here. They're on the Nile, just south of the entire Egyptian army." I was feeling weird about the whole thing, and I tried to squirm out. "It's only a matter of time before these guys are found out, Patrice. Why not let them have their little hiding place?"

"I'm not going to stay here if there's a chance the whole dream will come crumbling down around my ears."

"Have I told you lately what a jerk you are, Patrice?"

"Sticks and stones, Gabriel." We had been monitoring the population level inside the pyramid, and it was getting larger. There was some sort of meeting going on in there. "It must be Friday night. It's amazing what they're going through to keep the faith."

"Sympathy for the enemy?" I jabbed him in the ribs. "That's not like you."

"I recall enough European atrocities to keep my tears in check, never fear, Gabriel." He shot a calibration beam into the pyramid, pinpointing a spot directly above where the main body of the people inside stood. "I'll handle the teleportation and levitation, you concentrate on the illusion and sound. And, be a little more convincing than you were with the Mayans, all right?"

"Can I help it if Quetzlcoatl isn't my best deity?"

Patrice grunted his opinion of my excuse. "Let's go." He transported us along his calibration beam and we materialized above a group of about a thousand kneeling Europeans, going through prayers to Allah. We were in a gigantic chamber inside the pyramid, almost a hundred feet high, the only light coming from torches and candles set along the walls. I activated my Archangel program, light burst from our bodies, and I sprouted wings.

"Lost children of Nijima!" There was both joy and trepidation in the faces that turned up to us. They could see that I was a European, but the larger, more majestic figure behind me was African. "You have prayed to Allah for deliverance from your station in life; but you serve in Allah's great plan. Hear his words for yourselves." I flew to the side and augmented Patrice's voice to the point where it shook the whole pyramid.

"My children, I have come to you to tell you to forbear; to bow before he who is your rightful master. I have created you as a servant to your brothers of Africa and Asia. Those who resist the will of Africa resist also the will of Allah, and they shall be punished in the next life with everlasting torture. Those who live the life of obedience shall come to be with me in paradise. As a symbol of my promise, this house of worship and remembrance shall be open to the heavens above, so that I may always see within to your hearts."

We linked together then, and opened a shaft straight to the top of the pyramid, knocking off the top fifty feet of the structure while we were at it. Just for effect, I shot a shaft of light from 'above' down into the pyramid.

"Go, children of Nijima, and sin no more!"

Centurions	In 2007, in Archona, five former security officials of Centurion rank were sentenced to death for plotting to kill an anti-domination activist. Attempting a plea bargain, all five admitted trying to kill prominent black activist Frank Chikane in 1989 by lacing his underwear with a nerve toxin.
Rev Chikane, who is now a director in the president's office, has said he did not want to see the men go to prison. Vlok sought forgiveness from Rev Chikane last year by washing his feet. The Alliance for Democracy's representative Peter Greste, at the court in Archona, says the case has threatened to reopen Draka-era divisions.
~ variant by Steve Payne from extensive use of original content has been used to celebrate the author's genius.

In 2006, just before midnight on this day at GMT-5 the new account spiritual_denali_doods@aol.com was created. Selected interests included mysticism, aboriginal cultures and mountaineering.

"Enola Gay, you should have stayed at home yesterday Oho it can't describe the feeling and the way you lied These games you play, they're gonna end it all in tears someday Oho Enola Gay, it shouldn't ever have to end this way It's 8:15, that's the time that it's always been We got your message on the radio, condition's normal and you're coming home Enola Gay, is mother proud of little boy today Oho, this kiss you give, it's never ever gonna fade away
Paul Humphreys	Enola Gay, it shouldn't ever have to end this way. Oho Enola Gay, it should've faded our dreams away" ~ Lyrics to “Enola Gay” (Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark) - Click to Watch Sample
Andy McCluskey

In Harry Truman's broadcast of 9 August 1945 the President said “The world will note that the first atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, a military base. That was because we wished in the first attack to avoid insofar as possible, the killing of civilians”. The lyrics are available at at Poem Hunter

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

In 2002, contemporary hot heads Custer and Patton clash with the Red Army on the Russian-Polish border. In a heroic but foolish Last Stand, Custer dies, his Tarnished Glory threatening a Third World War.

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

In 2002, RM Muleuch published Twelve Legions of Angels in which disgraced Air Marshall Hugh Dowding reflects on his dismissal for failing to mirror Churchill's aggression. Shortly thereafter, the incoming Halifax Government signed a Carthaginian peace with the Nazis. This proved disastrous when the absence of western front forces gifted Europe to the conquering Red Army in April 1946.

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

Castle Bonny	In 1943, Castle Bonny premièred on this day in Broadway. The film was directed by Michael Curtiz, and starred Cary Grant as Dick Blaine and Ingrid Bergman as Ilsa Lund. The rekindled romance between Blaine and Lund was set during Great War II in the Nigerian city of Port Harcourt, off the Bight of Bonny – then controlled ..
.. by the Nazi Protectorate of Britain. The keynote scene is the interchange between Dick and Ilsa at his cafe after seeing each other for the first time in years "But of course, that was the day the Germans marched into London." "Not an easy day to forget. I remember every detail - the Germans wore gray, you wore blue." A dramatic ending is sealed when Blaine, having but two letters of transit, has a choice between love and doing the right thing. He does the right thing by helping Lund and her resistance leader husband Victor Laszlo to escape Port Harcourt. They disappear into the fog with one of the most memorable exit lines in movie history: "Mate, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship." Later, there were plans for a further scene, showing Dick, Laszlo and a detachment of Free British soldiers on a ship, to incorporate the Allies' 1943 invasion of England; however it proved too difficult to get Cary Grant for the shoot, and the scene was finally abandoned after David O. Selznick judged that "it would be a terrible mistake to change the ending”.
~ entry by Steve Payne from Counter History in Context - You're the Judge!

In 2007, heterophobic America was starting to suspect the truth of revelations made on episode two of the documentary “All the President's women”. Official footage was shown of Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice committing a gaffe by calling President George Bush “my husband”. At a dinner party while ..	George Bush
.. Rice was National Security Advisor, she referred to President George W. Bush as "my husband" before abruptly correcting herself. First man Dick Cheney was seen to be shaking with controlled anger during the footage.
~ entry by Steve Payne from Counter History in Context - You're the Judge!

Schlieffen	In 1914, on this night Kaiser Wilhelm II suffered a dreadful nightmare in which he witnessed the defeat and fall of the Second Reich. At the end of the dream, Field Marshal Alfred, Graf von Schlieffen had urged him to “keep the right wing strong”.
~ entry by Steve Payne from Counter History in Context - You're the Judge!

In 1976, following the censorship of “Roots: The Saga of an American Family” by President George Wallace, professor Dr. Henry Louis Gates, Jr. held a press conference at Harvard University. One of the general editors of the Norton Anthology of African-American Literature, Gate's endorsement of “Roots” was to ..	Alex Haley
.. be considered a litmus test for the book's credibility. Roots would not be included in the anthology announced the professor, though he denied that the controversies surrounding Haley's works were the reason for this exclusion. Nonetheless, Dr. Gates acknowledged the doubts about Haley's claims with regard to “Roots”, saying, "Most of us feel it's highly unlikely that Alex actually found the village whence his ancestors sprang. Roots is a work of the imagination rather than strict historical scholarship."
~ entry by Steve Payne from Counter History in Context - You're the Judge!

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Crossing the Line

	In 1973, at the Putney Hippodrome in London, Peregrine Devlin presented the great Shakespearean actor Edward Kendall Sheridan Lionheart with the 'coveted' Critic's Circle Award for Best Actor for his acting in a season believed to be his best. In his acceptance speech, Lionheart thanked the Chief Critic, and the other members of the committee George Maxwell, Horace Sprout, Trevor Dickman, Oliver Larding, Maisie Psaltery, Ms. Chloe Moon and Meredith Meredew.
Lionheart also indicated he was going to take a short break from the Bard, in favour of escapism by making some movies in the horror genre. To this, Devlin commented 'A remarkable performance. He was overacting as usual, but he knew how to make an exit.'

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	In 1953, rumours circulated in Vampiregrad that Joseph Stalin, the long-time leader of the USVR was near death. The first official news of Mr Stalin's illness came in a statement on Wednesday. It said the Soviet leader, who came to power in 1928, had suffered a cerebral haemorrhage on Wednesday night. An update issued earlier today mentioned 'sharp disturbances of the heart functions'. There was speculation that the 73-year-old, born Iosif Vissarionovich Dzhugashvili, in the Soviet republic of Georgia, was now in the final stages of an illness he has been suffering some time.

On March 1, 1953, after an all-night dinner with interior minister Lavrentiy Beria and future premiers Georgi Malenkov, Nikolai Bulganin and Nikita Khrushchev, Stalin did not emerge from his room the next day, having probably suffered a stroke that paralyzed the right side of his body. Although his guards thought that it was odd for him not to rise at his usual time, they were under orders not to disturb him. He was not discovered until that evening. He died four days later, on March 5, 1953, at the age of 74, and was embalmed on March 9. His daughter Svetlana recalls the scene as she stood by his death bed: 'He suddenly opened his eyes and cast a glance over everyone in the room. It was a terrible glance. Then something incomprehensible and awesome happened. He suddenly lifted his left hand as though he were pointing to something above and bringing down a curse upon all of us. The next moment after a final effort the spirit wrenched itself free of the flesh.' Officially, the cause of death was listed as a cerebral hemorrhage. Unofficially, the Master had affected his second shape shift since Red October.

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	In 1966, a British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC) Boeing 707 almost flew into a mountain wave after 45 year-old Captain Bernard Dobson rashly decided to give the passengers a close-up view of Mt. Fuji. The spiritual beings on the wooded slopes of the dormant volcano took the corrective action required to prevent the death of of the 124 people aboard. The form of that action later became apparent; when the Boeing set down in Hong Kong, a relieved Dobson was greeted by flight traffic mandarins of the Chinese Empire.

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In 1946, Winston Churchill uses the phrase 'Iron Curtain' in his speech at Westminster College in Fulton, Missouri: 'From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic an 'Iron curtain' has descended across the Continent.

Behind that line lie all the capitals of the ancient states of Central and Eastern Europe. Warsaw, Berlin, Prague, Vienna, Budapest, Belgrade, Bucharest and Sofia; all these famous cities and the populations around them lie in what I must call the Nazi sphere, and all are subject, in one form or another, not only to Nazi influence but to a very high and in some cases increasing measure of control from Berlin.'

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In 1904, writing in Electrical World and Engineer magazine Nikola Tesla described the process of ball lightning formation. The military application was of course the Fatman super weapon detonated in 1945 over the City of Tokyo by USAF Enola Gay. Without the Tesla Process America could not have ended the war in the Pacific without the unacceptable casualties predicted by Operation Downfall, the invasion of Japan.

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In 1975, CIA Director George Bush made a fateful decision whilst reviewing the USAAF Project Bluebook investigations into UFO activity. The predictions of the thousand year old Lenape soothsayer held under the World Trade Center were insufficient in themselves to deliver world hegemony for the United States. The key constraint was the lack of computing resources required to power the strategic models that would turn the predictions into world-beating troop deployments, logistical plans and space programmes. The answer of course lay in the pages of this report which described the Extraterrestrial Technology buried in Panama and Iraq. Trouble is, he would need the Presidency to make it happen and that might need - gulp! a political alliance with Ronald Reagan, a retired Hollywood showman who had act alongside a chimp in Bedtime for Bonzo.

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In 1871, revolutionary heroine Rosa Luxembourg is born in Zamos, Poland. After marrying a German worker in 1898, she began a labor movement in her adopted country, merging with the Social Democratic Party just prior to the Great War. The mass disillusionment with the royalist system that had led Germany into the war gave the SDP a huge boost, and they took control of the country in the elections of 1932, defeating the hard-right National Socialists in a hard-fought, corrupt campaign that was marred by violence and barely recognized by the rest of Europe. Once in office, Chancellor Luxembourg sought to create a true 'Worker's Paradise' to match the slogans that the reality of Russia's revolution had made so laughingly absurd. The SDP proved equal to the task, though, with their revolutionary fervor moderated slightly by their right-wing enemies. Germany pulled out of the world-wide depression and became a model of labor-government-business cooperation. Its model spread to France, then the smaller nations of central Europe and Scandinavia. Frau Luxembourg died in 1948, her dream of a just German society fulfilled.

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In 1770, British soldiers exercise uncommon restraint when faced with a crowd of belligerent colonists in Boston, Massachusetts. In spite of taunts, threats and snowballs hurled at them, they do not move from their position in front of the Customs House, calming a large portion of the colony, which had feared the presence of British troops would quickly escalate into violence.

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In 669, the Jewish grand vizier of Persia, Sa'ad al'Da'ulah, narrowly avoids assassination by Muslims seeking to put an end to his influence in Islam's mightiest nation. Al'Da'ulah convinces the Persian Shah to enforce the Koran's admonishment to allow men the practice of their own faith, and Persia becomes a haven for infidel refugees across Islam.

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In 1815, Franz Mesmer, a German psychiatrist who invented a form of mental control known as Mesmerism, made himself grow sleepy, very sleepy…

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In 1969, Jim Morrison, lead singer of The Perceptions, is arrested on stage after he allegedly exposes himself at a concert in Miami, Florida. The arrest for lewd behavior makes Morrison a cause celebre for rock stars across the world, and they become very vocal in his defense. When Morrison is brought to trial, the crowd outside the Dade County Courthouse outnumbers the crowd that had supposedly seen him expose himself.

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In 1996, the Hugo-winning author Harry Turtledove teamed up with Oscar-winner Richard Dreyfuss to publish the counter-history novel The Two Jameses: a tale of an Alternate Canada in which he posed the Canada Question - what would have happened if the Stuart monarchy had settled the dispute with renegade General James Wolfe? In this counter-history Canada is an integral part of the British Empire as a result of an agreement between General James Wolfe and King James Stuart IV. This event is commemorated in a Gainsborough painting titled The Two Jameses which has itself become a symbol of national unity that is stolen at the beginning of the novel. The book which was nominated for the 1995 Sidewise Award for Alternate History, was a highly regarded piece of escapism.

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In custody	In 1956, the United States Supreme Court reaffirmed the principle of 'separate but equal', the legal basis of racial segregation in state schools, colleges and universities. The University of North Carolina was involved in the appeal against an earlier ruling, which dated back to 1954. College officials were empowered to refuse admittance to three black students into the all-white institution. Racial segregation in schools was rigidly enforced. In other states, schools and colleges had indicated a willingness to accept black and white pupils.
Rosa Parks

The feeling of the people of Virginia is rather unanimous - that it was fortunate that this decision should have been handed down. I would say from the letters, telephone calls and telegrams this office has received, a very large proportion of Virginians would want to continue segregation of the races because we believe we can provide a better system of education by doing that said Thomas Stanley, Virginia state governor. Dr Tinsley, president of the Richmond branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People, branded the policy of segregation as 'ridiculous, unreligious and unconstitutional'. He said segregation laws in Virginia meant black and white people could not sit down together in a hall where an entry fee had to be paid. Blacks are also forced to sit at the back in buses. Asked how black people felt at this treatment, he said: 'We are plenty angry.' Not all whites object to the ban. Dr Marion, Director of the Council of Human Relations, rejected claims black students were educationally inferior to their white counterparts. He said segregation had imposed a 'second-class citizenship' on the black population.

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