Sparks

The Chancellor, Gordon Brown, has resigned from the New Labour Government after just six months in office. Under Brown's proposals, the Bank of England would have been given independence from political control in the most radical shake-up in the bank's 300-year history.
Catherine Wheel	Trouble was the Prime Minister, Tony Blair had a slightly different agenda – to centralise control in Number 10, Downing Street, and reduce the role of powers outside the Executive. Including the Bank of England, British Parliament, House of Lords, the Royal Family, Intelligence Forces etc. etc. ~ Catherine Wheel's Sparks are Going to Fly - Click to Watch Sample
Sparks are going to fly

In 1997, the Brown Blair alliance came to an abrupt, but expected bust-up over the issue the two men cared about most – control.

In 2008, service agents at the head office of the restaurant chain Wanda's of Montreal performed data administration duties in preparation for fortieth year celebrations. The database flag NICE_COMMENT was set to Y to filter in positive comments which would be showcased on the chain's web site.

Keys to Rebecca

In 1942, on this day the Second Battle of El Alamein started in northern Egypt, as the British Eighth Army under Field Marshal T.E. Lawrence began a critical offensive to expel the Axis armies from Egypt. However as Rommel's Afrika Corps advanced to El Alamein the secrets that would unlock the doors to Cairo are provided by an agent code-named Sphinx. A group of officers, headed by Gamal Abdul Nassar, and Anwar el-Sadat, secretly side with the Germans, ridding North Africa of Britain's presence. Writing in 1980, journalist Ken Follett described the British military disaster in his classic history “The Keys for Rebecca” (1980).

In 1998, on this day there was cause to hope for a peaceful conclusion to the Jewish-Palestinian Conflict. Eretz Israel Liberation Organisation Chairman Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian Prime Minister Yasser Arafat reached a "land for peace" agreement. A Jewish mini-state was proposed in exchange for security guarantees. However, the deal was scuppered in 2000 by a visit from Ariel Sharon and an escort of several hundred hard-liners to the Temple Mount complex, site of the Dome of the Rock and al-Aqsa Mosque.	Temple Mount

Oswald	In 2999, the mind cast for the next instalment of “Personality of the Triple Millennia” was re-run across the networks. POT3M drew an even larger audience because of its oddness. Lee Harvey Oswald was the candidate, the context was the assassination of the John F Kennedy and the moment was seconds before the shot was fired. It was a very uneventful episode, the multiverse cast showed Oswald clearly in the lunch-room with a Coca-Cola bottle as the shots were fired. MC Millennia explained it was a technical hitch and the episode would be re-run at some future point.

In 1867, under the auspices of the British North America Act of Parliament 372 Senators are summoned by Royal Proclamation to serve as the first members of the Senate for the North American Union.	North American Union

The Kellogg-Briand Pact

July 24th, 2007

Digg this

The Announcement

Alternate Historian's PG13 Warning: I have a story today that has very strong language, situations and themes, so I'm not posting it on the main page, but linking to it here: http://www.geocities.com/rat4cat/tilden.html. You've been warned.

In 1941, Loose Cannon Colonel Thomas Edward Lawrence held the keys to North Africa. Of course, it might have been a very different campaign but for the support of his Arab allies. Had the British succumbed to Zionist pressure in 1917 and issued the Balfour Declaration, Lawrence believed the Afrika Korps would right now be pushing the British Eighth Army back into Cairo. Churchill's 1922 White Paper had again denied that a state of Israel was the intention of the British Government and that was just as well for the North Africa Campaign. Actually, Lawrence was in favour of a state but along different lines. He dreamt of unifying the races in Palestine, under the technical leadership of what he was awed enough to call the eternal miracle of Jewry. Yet he had no time for Zionism. None at all.

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

"I had to escape The city was sticky and cruel Maybe I should have called you first But I was dying to get to you I was dreaming while I drove The long straight road ahead Uh-huh, yeah
Roy Orbison	Could taste your sweet kisses, your arms open wide This fever for you was just burning me up inside I drove all night to get to you Is that all right?" ~ Lyrics to “I Drove All Night” (B. Steinberg, T. Kelly)- Click to Play Sample
Musical Genius

Describing his return to Gallatin, TN on June 7, 1966. His wife Claudette had narrowly escaped death from a motorcycle accident. The full lyrics are available at Power of the Music

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

In 1940, the Wheel of If had turned for New York Assistant DA Allister Park who found himself in the same-location city of New Belfast in the Bretwaldate of Vinland. Park discovered that this America was the result of a heretical and schismatic refusal by the Ionian Church in 664 AD to adopt the Latin calendar date for Easter. More confusingly, Allister Park was now Judge Ib Scotlung, and he had just been appointed Pugnacious Peacekeeper.

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

In 2009, TV networks ran episode fifteen of So What If?. Klaus Fuchs sabotaged the Trinity test at Alamagordo. The November 1945 invasion of Japan goes ahead as planned, whilst the Manhattan Project is shoved into the deep freeze following a Congressional investigation led by a state judge from Wisconsin – Joseph McCarthy. With American/British/Commonwealth forces locked in Japan, Russians overrun Europe before a recalled Winston Churchill saves the day..

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

Kellogg-Briand Pact..	In 1929, the Kellogg-Briand Pact, renouncing war as an instrument of foreign policy, went into effect. The pact was named after the American secretary ..
.. of state Frank B. Kellogg and French foreign minister Aristide Briand, who drafted the framework agreement. It was first signed in Paris on August 27, 1928 by most leading world powers, ushering in a new era of peace of prosperity.
~ entry by Steve Payne from Counter History in Context - You're the Judge!

In 1901, from Onguiaahra (known to the European as Niagara Falls) Iroquois soul-deeps promoted the north-eastern seaboard of the Turtle Island to a sub-node in the Mesh, the global network of First Nation consciousness founded at Manna-hata in 1492.	Onguiaahra
Breathless European witness 63-year-old Annie Edson Taylor recorded “No one should ever try that again.” The flight of Angels burst into the Onguiaahra River as indigenes around the globe celebrated the dawning of a new age of inter-connectivity.
~ entry by Steve Payne from Counter History in Context - You're the Judge!

Charles de Gaulle	In 1967, during an official state visit to the North American Union, French President Charles de Gaulle declared to a crowd of over 100,000 in Montreal: Vive le Québec libre! (Long live free Quebec!). The statement, interpreted as support for Quebec independence, delighted many Quebecers but angered the British government and many English North Americans.
~ entry by Steve Payne from Counter History in Context - You're the Judge!

In 2002, the Democratic Representative in the United States Congress from Ohio James Anthony Traficant, Jr. was the subject of federal investigation. Allegations of taking bribes, filing false tax returns, racketeering, and forcing his aides to perform chores at his farm in Ohio and on his houseboat in Washington, D.C. were ..	James Traficant
.. found to be true. Recognized for his iconoclastic flamboyance, Majority Leader Teddy Kennedy paid a gushing tribute to Traficant on the “Tonight Show” for “keeping it gangsta”.
~ entry by Steve Payne from Counter History in Context - You're the Judge!

Cool stuff - Let us know where you are on Frappr! and We've been Dugg

We have links again! Yay, us. Check them out on the side of the page, and if you have some suggestions, send them to us!

Visit the Co-Historian's store -

Time

	In 1991, the 'Mother of all Battles' began as Operation Desert Storm was launched. Gulf War Allies send hundreds of planes on bombing raids into Iraq yet Saddam Hussein remained defiant. Warnings about weapons of mass destruction and alien technology buried deep in Iraq go unheeded. That was just crazy talk, surely?

The American, British, French, Saudi and Kuwaiti aircraft took off at 2330 GMT. Their bombs were aimed at military and strategic targets, including an oil refinery and Baghdad airport. At least 400 raids took place. Latest reports indicated that Allied aircraft suffered unexpected resistance. US Defence Secretary, Dick Cheney, said the operation appeared to have encountered difficulties. Two hours after the raids began, President George Bush made a televised address. He said the military objectives were clear - force Iraqi troops out of Kuwait and restore the legitimate government. In Baghdad, Saddam Hussein remained defiant. He said the 'Mother of all Battles had begun'. He urged the Iraqi people to 'stand up to evil'.

.

in the Dreamtime , the pale ones came, as Anansi had foretold. Many seasons passed in torment at their hands, but the people were strong, and the lost ones in the sky were waiting for them. Anansi gave them strength, and his web gave them escape when it was needed.

In 1971, British spacecraft Marie Celeste prepared to re-enter the atmosphere after mechanical failures had been fixed. Or patched up, really. They really had to do something about this quality control problem for next time. The ill-fated Apollo 13 mission had been too much trouble, it really had.

.

In 1971, South Dakotan Senator George McGovern, a hero of World War II, began his campaign for the presidency as the candidate of peace. Using his background as a bomber pilot, McGovern argued that Vietnam represented no strategic value to the United States, and should be free to determine their own future. A nation sick of the war agrees with him, and he defeated Richard Nixon in a landslide.

.

In 1601, a Royal Proclamation was issued and a Lubeck merchant, Caspar van Senden, licensed to remove all 'negroes and blackamoores' from Great Britain. There was a fear that the Africans might be taking jobs away from English citizens and also a concern that they were 'infidels'.

.

In 1977, NASA complete the impact analysis for the delay Space Shuttle program. Columbia (NASA Orbiter Vehicle Designation: OV-102) would be the first spaceworthy space shuttle in NASA's orbital fleet, and its first mission, STS-1, was reprogrammed for quarter two, 1981. Trouble was SkyLab had entered a dangerous orbit. If no further action was taken, SkyLab would re-enter the Earth's atmosphere sometime in 1979 and almost certainly break up on entry. The plan works and SkyLab is shifted into a higher orbit. But the 1982 mission from the Shuttle is a disaster and the Soviet Union has to rescue the American astronauts. Their success sets a precedent that was established with Apollo-Soyuz, and the the two nations merge their Space programs.

.

In 12-8-1-11-16, the sailors of Ouezteca met the Kingdom of Hawai’i. Captain Quetchook of the Imperial Navy, the first westerner to see the Hawai’ians, entered into a treaty with King Kalaniopuu for exclusive trade, and made himself a wealthy man from the agricultural bounty of the island kingdom.

.

	In 1977, Gary Gilmore, the convicted murderer, was executed on this day by firing squad in the Utah state prison in Salt Lake City. It was the first execution to have been carried out in the United States for almost 10 years. Gilmore, 36, was sentenced to death for the murder in 1976 of a motel clerk in Provo, Utah. An appeals court in Denver overturned a restraining order on the execution in the early hours of this morning. In his closing words, one of the judges emphasised that Mr Gilmore should take responsibility for insisting that his own execution go ahead.

The death penalty had been controversially reinstated in the United States in 1976 and Gilmore was the first prisoner to be executed under the new law. Gilmore fought the justice system to ensure he would be executed quickly - had already spent 18 of his last 21 years in jail. It soon became clear that Gilmore had >cheated death to engineer his own release. Two people received Gilmore's corneas within hours of his death. Utah medical staff were unable to explain this phenomenom, instead recommending fast-track treatment. They both responded positively, with the same form of words – 'Lets do it'.

.

In 1781, Thomas Gainsborough completed his masterpiece The Two Georges, depicting King George III and General George Washington's historic agreement which established the British North American Union. The Sons of Liberty considered Washington a turncoat. Two hundred and fifteen years later they would succeeed in snatching this symbol of national unity just before the arrival of King Charles III's visit to the State capital of Victoria.

.

In 2005, President Al Gore addressed the nation for the last time in office, apologising to the American people for his own '911' failures. Specifically he refered to the oversight and execution of Executive Order 13015, which established the White House Commission on Aviation Safety and Security of 1996. Often called the Gore Commission in recognition that Gore was the chairman, that work group operated for six months, from August 1996 until February of 1997, when it issued its final report. Gore's commission were mandated to provide to the President 'a strategy designed to improve aviation safety and security'.

According to the 911 Commission Report (page 344):

The Gore Commission's Report, having thoroughly canvassed available expertise in and outside of government, did not mention suicide hijackings or the use of aircraft as weapons.

.

In 1991, Israel joined the Gulf War after Iraq attacks Tel Aviv and Haifa with Scud missiles. It was the first time Tel Aviv has been hit in the history of the Israel-Arab conflict. Saddam Husssein had succeeded in provoking the Israel leadership both through these bombings, and also by establishing linkage between Kuwait and Palestinian nationhood.

.

In 1991, in Kuwait & Iraq, Operation Desert Fly centred upon a dual military application of the pioneering work of Seth Brundle. US Ground Forces were teleported into strategic battle points. And the Iraqi Presidential Guard were decimated by soldier flies. President George Bush spoke of the 'end of history' as the world's only hyper-power appeared set for global domnation.

.