A Note About A Certain Day

The state of TIAH

April 17th, 2007

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Alternate Historian's Note: We started experiencing a spike in visits yesterday, with a rather large percentage of that spike going to one particular page on our site – the page titled Hitler's Birthday. It has, rather disturbingly, always been a popular destination here, but we've never seen as huge a number of hits on that page like occurred yesterday – in fact, it's still going on today. I have been hoping that it's not because we've gotten ourselves on some Nazi mailing list, but because Hitler's birthday is coming up and we appear 5th in a Google search when you look those words up. It's one of those odd things you accept when you run an alternate history site. Still, this is the largest number of hits I've seen on that page since it went up, and I can't help but think it's caused by something. There was a horrific incident yesterday that people might have thought was sparked by the approaching anniversary – this date seems to bring out lunatics time and time again (there is some dispute as to whether Hitler was born on the 19th or the 20th). It disturbs me that people are drawn to that page, because the one section of the Internet's population that I get threats from comes from those who take Hitler rather more seriously than I do, and I hate the thought of more of them coming here. I haven't been inundated in email or comments calling me various anti-Semitic slurs, so there's hope that we don't have a new Nazi wave coming through the hallowed halls of TIAH. I guess we'll have to wait and see. While I worry, please enjoy our Guest Historian's work...

In 2165 almost two hundred years had passed at Venice Beach since the fateful meeting of Jim Morrison and Ray Manzarek. The teenagers who played basket ball on this day knew nothing of the formation of The Doors. All they knew was basket ball. The great game had been played at Venice Beach long before the fateful meeting, and would continue to be played for a short time to come.

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

Lord Louis Moun..	In 1972 the Conference in Admiralty House began. In the Chair was Interim Prime Minister Lord Louis Mountbatten and his Deputy Ord Wingate, the delegates were the senior figures in the military government who had ruled Britain for the past five years. Fundamentally, Mountbatten reflected, the officer corps had not come to ..
.. terms with Britain's new position in the world. They had won the war and lost the peace. It was maddening to beat the Japanese in Burmese jungles, yet be defeated by the invisible movements of world trade.  But there it was .
~ entry by Steve Payne from counter history in context - You're the Judge!

In 1942 Windsor, Montgomery and Auchinlech take a step further. The attempt to establish the Axis Powers of Anglo-America had ended in failure. US President Charles Lindburgh and British Prime Minister Oswald Mosley were the right men but at the wrong moment in history. Neither Britain nor America wanted a war of defence ..	Edward VIII
..  let alone a war of conquest , public opinion had absolutely no interest in foreign glory. After the financial crises and depression of the 1930s, all they wanted peace and prosperity.
~ entry by Steve Payne from Counter History in Context - You're the Judge!

RMS Titanic	In 1912 on this day agents of the near-bankrupt White Star Line were paid to supply Journalists with a number of stories in the bars and pubs of Belfast and New York. One story was that the Titanic was carrying a cursed Egyptian mummy. The mummy, nicknamed Shipwrecker, after changing hands several times, and causing many ..
.. terrible things to each of its owners, exacted its final revenge by sinking the famous ship. Another story was that several Catholic shipbuilders reportedly walked off the job in protest when they noticed horrible blasphemies against Catholicism and the Virgin Mary spray-painted by Protestant workers on parts of the ship. Yet another that the hull number 390904 which, when seen in a mirror or written using mirror writing, looks like 'no pope'. And the fourth story was the truth, smuggled out in lies to conceal it – the switch with the RMS Olympic. the two sister ships had been swapped at the Harland & Wolff shipyard in order for the near-bankrupt White Star Line to sink the irreparably damaged sister ship, the RMS Olympic.
~ entry by Steve Payne from counter history in context - You're the Judge!

In 1945 on this day in Strassfurt, Germany, U.S. Lieutenant Colonel Boris T. Pash seized half a ton of uranium, foiling Soviet Union plans to build an atomic bomb. He was formerly head of the counter-intelligence organization for Project Manhattan. In 1945 Pash was appointed head of the Alsos Group, organized to search for ..	Manhattan Proje..
.. German scientists in the postwar environment. The mission was to prevent the Soviets, previously Allies but now a potential threat, from capturing any scientists and putting them to work at their own atomic research plants. Uranium piles were also rich 'catches,' as they were necessary to the development of atomic weapons. Pash's efforts set the Soviet atomic program back a decade, by which time, America had established firm control of third world countries with Europeans in full retreat at "end of empire".
~ entry by Steve Payne from Counter History in Context - You're the Judge!

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"Get This Man"

The state of TIAH

April 22nd, 2007

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in 1891, President Benjamin Harrison orders a day of mourning for the death of former President Grover Cleveland and “the brave soldiers who died to keep us as one nation. Now, to honor their brave, lost lives, it falls upon us to do the work that they sacrificed for – bring our nation back together again.” Harrison's words are reported across the US, and even 'Sockless' Jerry Simpson reads them in the Topeka Standard. He replies, and has his words sent across the country via wireless: “When the Great Thief gives up his stolen office and our nation returns to the values that we all can recognize, then Kansas will gladly rejoin the fraternity of the states. But, until that day, we must stand aside, and say that we, as one people, will not stand for such dishonorable wretches staining the halls of our most sacred institutions.” His words also made the papers, and President Harrison was enraged. “Give General Franklin every last troop he needs,” he told his Secretary of War, “but, get this man.”

in 1998, the Central European Empire announces that it will not recognize “the illegitimate government of the British usurper, Arthur Pendrake. Emperor Pierre will now, and forevermore, only recognize the rightful rulers of Great Britain, the Windsors.” Although most of the Commonwealth follows the lead of the CEE, Australia swears its allegiance to King Arthur II, and sends troops across the world to aid him. Arthur's Prime Minister, Merl Myrddin, also begins to use his old contacts among the Illuminati to move certain levers of power in Arthur's way. In spite of European opposition, Arthur's crown becomes more steady as time goes on.

In 2165 Stanley 3XG Homeboy was comfortably winning a cyberspace game of basket ball played out in the Venice Beach “skin”. Based in a 20 feet by 25 feet lock-up in Whittaker, California, built as a double car garage by mid-century 20ths Stanley had other things on his mind. He was playing the game on a cyberspace console. Trouble was a mutating form of bio-leprosy had taken three of his fingers, and his future in the game was looking bleak. Stanley was seventeen years old. He had enjoyed a long and rewarding career in cyberspace basket ball by contemporary standards.

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

Map showing Maluku Isla..	In 1529 the Treaty of Saragossa divided the eastern hemisphere between Spain and Portugal along a line 297.5 leagues or 17° east of the Moluccas. ..
.. The next problem was gaining access to the new territory, the melancholy of exclusion emanating from the group consciousness of First Nations rendered armed incursion impossible
~ entry by Steve Payne from Counter History in Context - You're the Judge!

In 1983 in his own good time Hugh Trevor-Roper has authenticated the  Bormann Diaries . The murders check out and he is reasonably satisfied that Hitler was a lycanthrope. His participation in this authentication process dated back to 1947, when the British government had ordered him to investigate the circumstances ..	Bormann
.. of Adolf Hitler's death and to rebut the claims of the Soviet that Hitler was alive and living somewhere in the West. At the Press Conference schedule for April 25th, he will of course indicate that the result of these investigations, his masterpiece  The Last Days of Hitler  will require revision. But how much? A total rewrite perhaps? He was about to find out from a very unexpected source.
~ entry by Steve Payne from Counter History in Context - You're the Judge!

A poison gas attack usi..	In 1915 the use of poison gas in World War I escalated when chlorine gas was released ..
.. as a chemical weapon in the Second Battle of Ypres. By 1916, poison gas ended the attrition warfare of the trenches. Mother is the necessity of invention, and poison gas and the atomic bombs were the super-weapons that ended the stalemates of World War I and II. Unlike 1945, because both sides had the super-weapon, mutually assured destruction forced the combatants to the negotiating table in 1916.
~ entry by Steve Payne from Counter History in Context - You're the Judge!

In 1500 Portuguese navigator Pedro Álvares Cabral became the first European to sight Brazil. The melancholy of separation emanating from the Mesh of course prevented Cabral and his crew from approaching the coast.	Brazil
~ entry by Steve Payne from Counter History in Context - You're the Judge!

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Wasteland

The state of TIAH

April 20th, 2007

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in 1891, General Anthony Franklin appoints Major Mark Wainwright as his staff chief, and has him send a telegram back to Washington describing the loss in Topeka. “Make sure they know we need more troops,” he tells Wainwright. The depressed major takes a couple of men to help him get through to the telegraph office; a smart move, as it turns out, because, as he is leaving, 'Sockless' Simpson's volunteers cross the border and begin taking over the Missouri side of Kansas City. Wainwright and his men fight their way back to the general, assemble the remainder of their troops, and flee the city. “I will take that man,” General Franklin vows to Wainwright.

in 1998, Arthur Pendrake and his main force of Welsh troops advance within sight of London. They take over a small television station and Arthur broadcasts a message to the citizens of the capitol: “People of London, I am Arthur Pendrake. I am the true King of all the Britons, and I am come to claim my crown. Today, I shall hold this fair city. I do not wish to harm my subjects, so I ask that those of you who are in the armed forces stand down when we advance. I shall not hold your service to the Windsors against you. Lay down your arms, and join me in restoring Britain to her former glory. You shall have a day to consider this offer.” Brigadier Major-General Charles Fortescue issues orders to shoot anyone who deserts to Arthur's side.

In 2165 teenagers played a cyberspace game of basket ball on this day at Venice Beach. Time travelling mid-century 20ths would have been shocked on their arrival at ZIP Code 90291. The truth was that humans from that era were ultimately responsible for the apocalyptic trash-ridden landscape that Southern California had become. Thrilled just to be alive after both World Wars, the years that followed were a decade period of pure hedonism. The Second was more traumatic than the First, and so the counter-reaction was stronger. Booming consumerism led to mass marketing, packaging and an exponential growth in the amount of waste being created by consumers. Much of it was still blowing around Southern California, radioactive enough to throw a Geiger Counter into a wild frenzy. And that was the second problem too - the decision to develop nuclear weapons. They had been used in twenty-six conflicts over the past two hundred years with catastrophic consequences for the ecosphere.

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

Empire Strikes ..	In 1972 Margaret Thatcher led a series of workshop sessions to conclude the Conference in Admiralty House. Her plan was breathtakingly simple. The Empire bankrupted us and now it was payback time. Britain would offer the new nations of the Commonwealth unlimited military assistance in return for highly preferential trading ..
.. agreements. This had to be done swiftly, whilst the generation of dictators in power had links to Britain. Many had been educated at public schools and Universities and were thus approachable by 'old boys'. More importantly, it had to be done whilst British military forces were still strong enough to be credible. 'The toast', says Thatcher, ' the empire strikes back!' to loud cheers.
~ entry by Steve Payne from counter history in context - You're the Judge!

In 1968 Lord Louis Mountbatten lowered his morning newspaper to witness the arrival of three unexpected guests for breakfast. And a very unlikely group they were too. Abdicated monarch Charles Windsor, and the two Heads of the British Eighth Army, Bernard Montgomery and Claude Auchinlech. 'This better be good' roars Mountbatten ..	Lord Louis Moun..
.. to which Monty replies 'Better than any of the fiction you will read in that newspaper, your lordship !'.
~ entry by Steve Payne from Counter History in Context - You're the Judge!

Oklahoma City B..	In 1995 on this day officers of the FBI reviewed the security arrangements for the thousand year old Lenape soothsayer that was until recently held in a bunker under the now destroyed Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in the Oklahoma City. The soothsayer has been moved to a similar bunker under Tower One of the World Trade ..
.. Center. It was a risk of course, but the soothsayer performed best on the island of Manna-hata (Manhattan), near his Delaware roots.
~ entry by Steve Payne from counter history in context - You're the Judge!

in 1953 the CIA mind control program had a change of name from Project Bluebird to Project MKUltra. Four of the most successful graduates of the program were Lee Harvey Oswald, Sirhan B. Sirhan, James Earl Ray and Yigal Amir, all of whom could  remember absolutely nothing  about the assassinations they had ..	Documents from ..
.. committed on John F Kennedy, Robert F Kennedy, Dr Martin Luther King and Yitzhak Rabin respectively.
~ entry by Steve Payne from Counter History in Context - You're the Judge!

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King Of All The Realm

The state of TIAH

April 21st, 2007

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in 1891, the Secretary of War ponders the telegram from General Franklin amid news that Kansas City is entirely under the control of the Kansas rebels. There is also the personal telegram that Major Wainwright had sent, saying that former President Grover Cleveland had died from the gunshot wound he had endured on his escape from Topeka. He had yet to bring this news to President Harrison; Harrison hated Cleveland, so that would be good news. However, him dying as a martyr to America wouldn't be the best thing in the world for Republican political fortunes. He went ahead and went into his appointment with the president – it wasn't for him to decide the nation's direction, after all. He walked up to Harrison's desk and said, “Ben, I have some news from the Kansas front...”

in 1998, when Arthur Pendrake walks into London, there is only token resistance from Brigadier Major-General Charles Fortescue's few loyal troops. Virtually the entire defensive force of London defects over to Arthur, and Fortescue himself is brought before the pretender in irons. “I do not hold you responsible for your attacks upon me,” Arthur tells the general. “You were being loyal to the crown, and I understand. But, this day, I shall wear the crown, and if you are not loyal to me, then I shall hold you responsible for your treason. What is your decision, sir?” The brigadier straightens himself, and standing tall and proud, says, “Sir, I serve Queen Elizabeth, sovereign of the realm, and do not recognize your right to the crown. If my loyalty to the rightful monarch of Britain is treason to you, then let me be the first to die for that treason.” Arthur is deeply moved by the man's unswerving fidelity, and pardons him. “However, you must leave our shores, sir. Go and join your false queen on the continent, and conspire with the evil men who seek to rule our nation through secrets and subterfuge.” Fortescue is put on a boat for Amsterdam along with a few dozen of his men, and allowed to leave. Arthur proceeds to the Tower of London, where he recovers the crown. After Merl Myrddin assembles as many reporters as he can, along with a couple of film crews, Arthur crowns himself King of all the realm.

In 2165 teenagers played a game of basket ball on this day at Venice Beach. It was a cyberspace game, of course. The unbreathable air of Southern California was a lethal cocktail of toxic chemicals. And the trash that blew around Venice Beach would have thrown a Geiger Counter into a wild frenzy. Stanley 3XG Homeboy was winning comfortably, playing the game on a cyberspace console at his home in Whittaker, California. Home was a grand name for a 20 feet by 25 feet lock-up, built as a double car garage by mid-century 20ths.

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

Constantine I	In 753 BC brothers Romulus and Remus founded the City of Rome which became the capital of the great Roman Empire. In the late 3rd century division was required to control the vast Roman Empire. In 317 Constantine I made two momentous and far-reaching decisions; one being his decision to found a new capital city in Byzantium, ..
.. and the other being his adoption of Christianity. Rome had long since ceased to be an effective political capital of the Empire, being too far from the endangered northern frontiers and the wealthy Eastern provinces. The success of Byzantium was unstoppable, and the city once again became the capital of the unified Roman Empire in 412. Today, Byzantium is of course the natural capital of Europe and for that very reason was chosen as an administrative centre by the European Union in 1981.
~ entry by Steve Payne from Counter History in Context - You're the Judge!

In 1968 Lord Louis Mountbatten reluctantly agreed to the proposals from abdicated monarch Charles Windsor, and the two Heads of the British Eighth Army, Bernard Montgomery and Claude Auchinlech. He is to be the Interim Prime Minister of a military government, formed to deal with the economic crisis. Moreover, to do something ..	Lord Louis Moun..
.. about the irreversible decline the British nation has suffered since winning the great war, and self-evidently, losing the peace.
~ entry by Steve Payne from Counter History in Context - You're the Judge!

Manfred von Ric..	In 1918 German fighter ace Manfred von Richthofen, known as 'The Red Baron', was very nearly shot down and killed over Vaux sur Somme in France. The Baron survived World War I and was nominated by Paul von Hindenburgh as his preferred successor to the Presidency due to his failing health in the 1930s. This was considered ..
.. a master-stroke as the appointment of another illustrious officer from the glorious past held the highest-level centrifugal forces together in the Weimar Republic in the absence of the deposed House of Hohenzollern. Gathering right-wing forces were unable to justify action to fill a vacuum of power that was of course ultimately averted.
~ entry by Steve Payne from Counter History in Context - You're the Judge!

In 1863 on this day the founder of the Bahá'í Faith, Bahá'u'lláh declared his mission as  'He whom God shall make manifest' . At the age of 28, Bahá'u'lláh received a messenger telling him of the Báb, whose message he accepted, becoming a Bábí. Bahá'u'lláh began to spread the new cause, especially in his ..	Shrine of Bahá'..
.. native province of Núr, becoming recognized as one of its most influential believers. (Dawnbreakers). The accompanying government suppression of the Báb's religion resulted in Bahá'u'lláh's being imprisoned twice and and enduring bastinado torture once. The work of the Dawnbreakers established a unifying religion in Palestine that prepared the indigenes for the Jewish settlers and their failed bid to establish the State of Israel in 1948.
~ entry by Steve Payne from Counter History in Context - You're the Judge!

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Wars Go Poorly For The Authorities

The state of TIAH

April 19th, 2007

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in 1891, Major Mark Wainwright meets General Anthony Franklin at the temporary headquarters Franklin has set up at the Kansas City train station where he and his troops arrived. Wainwright informs the general of former President Cleveland's dire condition, as well as the immense popular support that 'Sockless' Jerry Simpson and his Farmers Council seem to have inside Kansas. “Well, we beat Johnny Reb,” General Franklin says, “and, by God, we'll beat this impudent farmer and his friends, as well. I plan to drive straight into Topeka and take the man prisoner today.” Wainwright, a little shocked at the rashness of the general's plan, says, “Sir, Simpson has hundreds – probably thousands of supporters in Topeka that are under arms. How many men do you have with you?” Franklin shrugs, saying, “2000. More than enough to take care of this rabble.” Wainwright, despairing, replies, “Respectfully, sir, I rather doubt that.” Disregarding Wainwright's opinion, General Franklin pushes west with his troops and hits the masses of men that 'Sockless' Simpson had sent to fortify the border. Even though he is outnumbered almost 4-to-1, General Franklin chooses to fight, thinking that his trained soldiers can easily overcome untrained civilians. He is wrong, and is forced to retreat back to Kansas City with less than half of his original force. As his troops drag back into Kansas City, Major Wainwright meets him to say, “General, sir, President Cleveland is dead.”

in 1998, Welsh Arthurians, fortified and reinforced by royalist defectors, push the Queen's troops from the west and back into England. Arthur fights at the head of his troops; with bullets flying around him, Arthur seems untouchable, striding through the battle as if he is invincible. The mere sight of him lifts his troops' spirits and sinks his enemies'. Brigadier Major-General Charles Fortescue brings word of Arthur's advance to the Prime Minister, who then travels to Buckingham Palace. In an audience with the queen, Prime Minister Pembroke tells Queen Elizabeth, “Your Majesty, perhaps we should move you away from London.” He makes preparations for the royal family to take refuge in Amsterdam, as the guests of the Central European Empire. Emperor Pierre welcomes “Our Royal Cousin to the continent. We trust her stay here shall be brief as her noble warriors dispatch with this minor problem.”

In 2165 teenagers played a cyberspace game of basket ball on this day at Venice Beach. Time travelling mid-century 20ths would have been shocked on their arrival at ZIP Code 90291. Had Jim Morrison and Ray Manzarek met two hundred years later than they did, even The Doors would have struggled to describe the apocalyptic trash-ridden landscape that Southern California had become.

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

Margaret Thatch..	In 1972 the formal agenda for the Conference in Admiralty House ended with a set-piece presentation from Interim Prime Minister Lord Louis Mountbatten. The officer corps had not come to terms with Britain's new position in the world, he wisely said, and the Empire, and then the great wars had bankrupted the nation. These ..
.. were the facts, but they were here to  change the facts . I want to introduce you to someone who will take us forward to the next base, he says, opening the door. In walks a beaming Margaret Hilda Thatcher.
~ entry by Steve Payne from counter history in context - You're the Judge!

In 1942 abdicated monarch and now Governor and Commander-in-Chief of the Bahamas Edward Windsor seals the deal with Bernard Montgomery and his deputy Claude Auchinlech. They would throw the towel in on the 1940s and allow the defeat of Hitler to proceed. The next step was to use the time portal to travel to the end of the ..	Edward VIII
.. post-war boom in 1968 and choose a suitable leader who combined both royalty and military experience. Lord Louis Mountbatten was the only man this had all the qualifications they needed. They would also speak to Ord Wingate, his love of special operations and his relationship with Mountbatten would offer leverage on the Principal.
~ entry by Steve Payne from Counter History in Context - You're the Judge!

Oklahoma City B..	In 1995 this day brought the Oklahoma City bombing, a terrorist attack in which the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building, a U.S. government office complex in downtown Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, was destroyed, killing 168 people. The one person that Timothy McVeigh and his friend Terry Nichols actually wanted to kill had been ..
.. recently relocated. A strategic US asset, he had been confined in a bunker under the Federal Building until the week before. This was none other than the thousand year old Lenape soothsayer that had been imprisoned by the Dutch when they defeated the Delaware people at Manna-hata (Manhattan). He had passed in to American custody where he had successfully predicted the course of modern history to strategic planners in the US Government ever since. It was the deadliest domestic terrorist attack in the history of the United States and was the deadliest act of terrorism within U.S. borders until September 11, 2001 which of course sought to eliminate the same target. The two men later convicted of the bombing, Timothy McVeigh and his friend Terry Nichols were members of the conspiracy against America, which included both al-Qaeda and the Branch Davidian.
~ entry by Steve Payne from counter history in context - You're the Judge!

In 1951 Douglas MacArthur retired from the military and refused a never to be repeated offer – six star general. A man of ambition, Brass Hat did not want a consolation prize, he wanted the Prize. Springing a major upset by winning the 1952 Presidential Election, he was back in the saddle again as C-in-C.	MacArthur
~ entry by Steve Payne from Counter History in Context - You're the Judge!

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Announcements & Portents

The state of TIAH

April 23rd, 2007

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in 1891, the call goes out for volunteers to swell the Union Army's ranks and take back Kansas. Thousands of men answer the call and join up. In Kansas, 'Sockless' Simpson's troops stand guard across the state's borders and drill themselves to readiness. Just across those borders, General Anthony Franklin keeps his men ready and tries to locate a telegraph office to report in his location. “There's one every block back east,” he complained to Major Wainwright, “but the 'wild west' hides theirs so you can't find them.” Major Wainwright was thoroughly sick of the general at this point, but was still unwilling to resign his commission. He also wanted revenge against Simpson, and that kept him going as they tromped through Missouri's wilderness.

in 1999, on the occasion of Shakespeare's birth and death, and just a few days after his first anniversary on the throne, King Arthur II declares a general amnesty for the Windsors if they will return to Great Britain. “We are willing to forgo our righteous vengeance against the family of the false queen, Elizabeth Windsor, and grant them peace and safety within our borders,” he says in the statement at Stratford-on-Avon. “This is no time for the British family to be split.” Although it seems like a totally magnanimous gesture, it does quell the minor pro-Windsor factions in the country, giving Arthur a united country as he prepares his Templars for war against the Central European Empire. His new queen, Lady Gwen, gives up one of her homes for the Windsors. The former royal family, unsurprisingly, does not take King Arthur up on his amnesty. Prime Minister Merl Myrddin uses the offer of amnesty to persuade the rest of the Commonwealth to recognize Arthur as King and increase the power that can be brought to bear against the CEE.

In 2165 the position of Michael Version7 Punk was a distant second in the cyberspace game of basket ball played out in the Venice Beach “skin”. Michael would describe himself as white. It was not the same definition that could be applied to a seventh century Welshman. White was a primary ethnicity that Michael was fanatical about. He spent a great deal of money on peroxide to sustain this fiction, over two trillion new dollars in the past six months.

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

Boeing 707	In 1974 on this day a Pan American World Airways Boeing 707 almost crashed into the side of Gunung Patas west of Singaraja (Bali). All 107 passengers ..
.. on board Pan American flight PA-812 from Hong Kong to Sydney survived despite this near miss while the Boeing 707 was making a scheduled intermediate stop at Bali. The plane had almost struck a mountain in Bali's north-west when the pilots misread a malfunctioning Automatic Direction Finder (ADF). The reason for the malfunction became clear some short hours later when the plane set down in Sydney to be greeted by aboriginal airport officers dressed in the military uniform of the Dream time Republic.
~ entry by Steve Payne from Counter History in Context - You're the Judge!

In 1983 the press conference at which the  Bormann Diaries  are to be show-cased is a mere forty-eight hours away. One individual is making a more difficult journey than most to get there.	Bormann
~ entry by Steve Payne from Counter History in Context - You're the Judge!

Henry VIII	In 1533 the Church of England annulled the marriage between Catherine of Aragon and Henry VIII of England. A precedent had been set, and in this more enlightened times, adults have an average of 2.5 marriages according to the famous social satire on statistics.
~ entry by Steve Payne from Counter History in Context - You're the Judge!

In 1661 King Charles II of England, Scotland and Ireland was crowned in Westminster Abbey. The Stuart had been through a difficult time with Parliamentarians, but Charles II ushered in a new era such that nascent British Empire was given an appropriate governance structure. Effective and dynamic Stuart rule was of course ..	King Charles II
.. superior to an assembly of laypeople, a model 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!

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Fighting In London

The state of TIAH

April 24th, 2007

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in 1891, Congress authorizes a huge expenditure for an expeditionary force against Kansas. President Harrison's call for men to preserve the Union brings in thousands of volunteers, swelling the ranks of the army. 'Sockless' Simpson continues to drill his men in Kansas, hardening the border against the storm he sees coming. In Missouri, General Anthony Franklin and Major Mark Wainwright finally find a small town with a telegraph office. “At last,” Franklin says, then orders Wainwright to report back to Washington and give their superiors his location. “Now, we begin our counter-attack.”

in 1999, Queen Elizabeth's Prime Minister-in-exile Oliver Pembroke begins shuttling about the Commonwealth in a desperate effort to keep them from recognizing the government of Arthur the usurper. He has the full diplomatic support of the Central European Empire, but is ultimately unsuccessful. He returns home to Amsterdam with nothing to show for his efforts but a further lessening of the Windsor's influence. His counterpart, Prime Minister Merl Myrddin, has much greater success – the entire Commonwealth recognizes King Arthur's government as the legitimate rulers of Great Britain.

In 2165 a cyberspace game of basket ball was being played out in the Venice Beach “skin”. Michael Version7 Punk was not too troubled by his position as a distant second to Stanley 3XG Homeboy. The great advantages of cyberspace were presented to him, he reflected. Despite being a late middle aged man close to clinical death, Michael's avatar was a carefree teenager that could wear clothes that would make the real him look ridiculous. Best to focus on the game, and not get angry. Because he no longer had the physical capacity to externalise his anger through the sadism of his earlier years.

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

Lord Louis Moun..	In 1972 Interim Prime Minister Lord Louis Mountbatten spoke to the nation from the BBC. Plans to return the country to civilian government by 1976 had been accelerated, due to the oil embargo crisis, he explained. Actions were now urgently needed that required a mandate from the Country. With immediate effect, he would be ..
.. handing over power to a civilian Prime Minister to execute the go-forward plan for Britain; a broadcast from the new Prime Minister will follow the next evening.
~ entry by Steve Payne from Counter History in Context - You're the Judge!

In 1983 the press conference at which the  Bormann Diaries  are to be show-cased is a mere twenty-four hours away. One individual has made a more difficult journey than most to get there. He has some information that will electrify the whole event. And by the way, he can answer Trevor-Roper's question, what ..	Bormann
.. is the impact of the  Bormann Diaries  on the 1947 publication  The Last Days of Hitler  which stated the orthodox wisdom of history. The impact was HUGE.
~ entry by Steve Payne from Counter History in Context - You're the Judge!

Blair Peach	In 1979 Fighting in London between the Anti-Nazi League and the Metropolitan Police's Special Patrol Group results in the death of protester Blair Peach, a New Zealand-born teacher of special needs children at a school in London. An inquest jury in May 1980 later returned a verdict of second degree murder prompted by the ..
.. vigorous campaigning of Mr. Peach's girlfriend Celia Stubbs. Linton Kwesi Johnson's famous song 'Regga Fi Peach' chronicled the death of Blair Peach in the form of Dub Poetry, representing a position of defiance to the attitudes of the UK government at that time.
~ entry by Steve Payne from Counter History in Context - You're the Judge!

In 1980 a dramatic end to the Iran hostage crisis occurred with Operation Eagle Claw, ..	Iran Hostage Crisis..
.. ordered by the Georgia Giant, US President James Earl Carter. To the amazement of the Ayatollah, Republican Presidential candidate Ronald Reagan and his running mate George Bush, Carter succeeds in bringing the year long crisis to a triumphant ending with the rescue of the 53 hostages from the U.S. embassy in Tehran, Iran on April 24, 1980. After the long national nightmare of Watergate and Vietnam, many Americans say this was the moment when they started to feel good about the nation once again. Carter was re-elected in November in a landslide, with Reagan only winning California, the state in which he had served as Governor.
~ entry by Steve Payne from Counter History in Context - You're the Judge!

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"A Dark Dagger..."

The state of TIAH

April 18th, 2007

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in 1891, as former President Grover Cleveland feels life slipping away from him, Major Mark Wainwright finally finds a doctor to help him in Kansas City. The doctor performs miraculously, then tells Wainwright, “All we can do is pray, now, sir. The president is in God's hands.”As Wainwright silently asks his Maker to spare Cleveland's life, he sees a long train pull into the city. It is carrying troops to pacify Kansas, and he is about to be drafted into their number.

in 1998, Arthurian loyalists battle royal troops in Swansea, Wales. Against his advisor Merl Myrddin's strongest prohibition, Arthur himself goes to the city to lead his people in the fight. With Lance du Lac at his side, he routes the military and saves Swansea. News of this defeat brings consternation in London – especially when they discover that almost a third of their own troops defected to Arthur's banner. Prime Minister Oliver Pembroke delivers a speech to Parliament that becomes his most famous; “Today, my colleagues, a dark dagger has been thrust into the back of Britain.” Parliament answers the queen's call for troops, and as much might as the crown can summon is mustered to fight Arthur.

In 2165 teenagers played basket ball on this day at Venice Beach. It was a cyberspace game, of course. The unbreathable air of Southern California was a lethal cocktail of toxic chemicals. And the trash that blew around Venice Beach would have thrown a Geiger Counter into a wild frenzy.

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

Lord Louis Moun..	In 1972 the Conference in Admiralty House continued. Reports were presented and all of them were desperate in conclusion. Industrial unrest was perilous, the balance of payments was a shambles, primary resource supplies such as oil and gas were in the hands of embittered third world dictators, and America was busy getting thrashed in Vietnam.
~ entry by Steve Payne from counter history in context - You're the Judge!

In 1942 abdicated monarch and now Governor and Commander-in-Chief of the Bahamas Edward Windsor made a fiendishly inspired suggestion. What was needed was the conditions for military government. Therefore they needed to establish a long period of post-war prosperity and then take it way. The population would not want peace ..	Edward VIII
.. and prosperity, they would want the good times back and be more open to foreign aggression.
~ entry by Steve Payne from Counter History in Context - You're the Judge!

San Francisco E..	In 1906 the greatest loss of life in California's history occurred with the San Francisco earthquake. The most widely accepted estimate for the magnitude of the earthquake is a momentous magnitude of 10. The resulting tsunami would engulf the combative Russo-Japanese navies as they prepared for combat in the south china ..
.. seas. The only beneficiaries of this natural disaster were the Romanov family who were spared the ignominy of defeat and resulting internal unrest.
~ entry by Steve Payne from counter history in context - You're the Judge!

In 1954 on this day Arab Nationalist Gamal Abdal Nasser seized power in Egypt. He moved onwards and upwards from the Presidency of Egypt to establish the United Arab Republic such that the Middle East was a single polity by 1980.	Nasser
~ entry by Steve Payne from Counter History in Context - You're the Judge!

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Falling

	In 1980, Morarji Desai's Janata party defeated Indira Gandhi's Congress, winning 351 of the 525 contested seats in the lower house of parliament, or Lok Sabha. Mrs Gandhi, who had ruled India for 11 years until 1977, had appealed to India's rural masses with her two election slogans, "Banish Poverty" and "Law and Order". During the 63-day campaign, the 62-year-old gave up to 20 speeches a day during a 40,000 mile tour of 384 constituencies.

But Mrs Gandhi's political comeback was viewed with suspicion. During the 19 months of emergency rule, introduced after she was accused of electoral malpractice, democracy was suspended, many opposition politicians were imprisoned and a compulsory birth control programme was introduced. When Mrs Gandhi sought to have the regime legitimised through the polls, she was defeated by Morarji Desai's Janata party in 1977.

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Leaning Tower	In 1990, the Leaning Tower of Pisa was closed to the public for the first time in 800 years shortly before the structure toppled over. Over the past 100 years the belfry at the top of the mediaeval tower has moved 9.6 inches (nearly a quarter of a metre). The tilt was 16ft (4.9m) off the perpendicular and increased by about one-twelfth of an inch (2mm) every year because the layer of clay and sand on which it is built is softer on the south side than on the north.
Pisa

The Italian government set aside 100bn lire (£47m) and appointed an international team of experts to come up with a detailed plan within three months to save the building from collapse. It was just too little, too late. The 13th century monument, which took more than 200 years to build, attracted in excess of one million visitors each year, many of whom climbed to the top to enjoy the panoramic view of Pisa. The tower's closure and subsequent collapse had a significant impact on the city's tourism industry. < The eight-storey structure began tilting almost immediately after it was completed in 1350. Attempts have been made in the past to stop the building moving. Mediaeval builders tried to correct the tilt but their efforts resulted in the upper section of the tower leaning at a different angle to the lower section. The Leaning Tower's ornate and unique exterior balconies were built to enable local dignitaries to be seen by the populace during religious processions in the Middle Ages.

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In 1989, the Empire of Japan mourned the death of Hirohito, war leader during the Greater East Asian War of the 1940s. Without his decisive leadership, the whole region would have remain in the hands of the imperalists.

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In 1965, Salvador Allende pledges that he will respect the elected government of unified Chile, even though election returns show him losing to reactionaries from the north. The Soviet States of America pledge to give Comrade Allende all that he needs to ensure justice for the people of Chile.

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Balrog	In 1918, John Ronald Reuel Tolkien set about the life-long work of the Middle-earth opus. A good deal had been written while Tolkien was laid up in a military hospital and at home with trench fever. No long suffering from combat tension, Tolkien was not gripped with a new kind of fear. Not longer fearing death, he wonder if he still wanted to live. Seeing the desolation of the World, Sauron [Tolkien's fear] .. looked with hatred upon [Tolkien] for long he dissembled his mind and dark designs that he shaped in his heart. Now the Elves made many rings; but secretly Sauron made One Ring [Tolkien's opus] to rule all the others, and their power was bound up with it, to be wholly subject to it and to last only so long as it would last. And much of the strength and will of Sauron passed into that One Ring ~ Of the Rings of Power and the Third Age
Tolkiens Phantasm

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In 1989, Taiwan mourns the death of Hirohito, Emperor of Japan during World War II. Alongside his unlikely ally Chiang Kai-shek, the combined gold and foreign reserves of China and Japan were used by the two renegades to successfully launch the first Asian Tiger in the 1950s.

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In 1601, the Earl of Essex, Robert Devereaux, overthrew Queen Elizabeth in a nearly bloodless coup. The only fatality was the Queen herself, a former lover of Devereaux’s, who was killed by the Earl’s men after she attacked him for taking the crown from her head.

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Nelson Mandela	“I look into Nelson's desperate eyes and can see that he never conceived the monstrous ungovernability of of a society so entrenched in rebellion.” ~ Samson Zola. In Laura Resnick's dystopia, years of civil war had torn apart the dream of a Rainbow nation. Samson Zola prepared to assassinate the President of South Africa, Nelson Mandela. Even though he loved him like a father, he saw the need to return South Africa to its people.
Alternate Tyrant

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In 1536, former consort to the King, Catherine of Aragon, dies in London. She is the first of many consorts to King Henry VIII to meet an untimely end. Fancying a stereotypical Spanish traits of dark hair and an olive complexion, the King was disappointed to find that Catherine was in fact a blue eyed, fair-skinned woman with reddish-blonde hair, not too unusual for northern Spaniards such as those from her father's land of Aragon. Furthermore, Catherine herself was part English, through her English great-grandmother, Catherine of Lancaster.

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In 1912, wholesome family cartoonist Charles Addams was born in Westfield, New Jersey. His Addams Family cartoons in the pages of the New Yorker became the symbol of American life in the middle of the century, replete with happy nuclear family and rock-solid values.

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In 1927, a basketball team of surpassing talent played its first game in the small town of Hinkley, Illinois, due to the fact that the team consisted of African-American men. But, in just a few decades, the clown princes of basketball would be known all over the world, and the Watts Travelers would set a standard for basketball ability that few other teams could match.

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	In 1983, after twenty long and frustrating years of searching, private detective Henry Friend found Jacqueline Lee Bouvier in a hotel lounge in Arizona. As he had expected, she had retreated into the disguise of her former unglamorous self. Overweight, and with mousy hair he flattered Bouvier with references to 1960s icons. He ordered a whiskey and some nuts, possibly as a gesture to Jack. Later, he would cut her head off with a saw and return it to the mob. It was a contractual requirement for private identification. Absolutely necessary before he could collect on the fee.

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In 1953, President Harry Truman announces that the United States has developed a hydrogen bomb. Truman needed the new superweapon for his second term, American gains in south-east Asia had been reduced to a toe-hold.

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