Tejano Revolution

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October 2nd, 2006

in 1835, the doomed Tejano Revolution fires its first shots at Gonzales when the Mexican army strode into the small village to take away their one lone cannon. Emperor Santa Anna had ordered all Anglo Tejanos to be disarmed, and Gonzales' cannon was on the list. The Anglos in the village decided to resist, and after immense bloodshed, were defeated and their cannon taken away. They inflicted heavy losses on the Mexicans, though, and Santa Anna ordered a draft of men from across Mexico to put down these rebellious Anglos. With the immense forces brought to bear on them, the handful of Tejano rebels were unable to hold out, and surrendered before spring.

in 1966, after the USSR reports that their military advisors have been fired on while training North Vietnamese soldiers in the civil war against the south, they enter the war openly on the side of the Viet Cong. This escalation of the war spurs the UN to enter negotiations to try to quell the hostilities between the opposing sides and avoid a dangerous confrontation between the world's two superpowers. They are ultimately unsuccessful, and the Soviet Union pours its military into the small Asian nation. With the geographical advantage entirely on the Soviet side, the Americans are tempted to use nuclear weapons against Hanoi and other targets in North Vietnam, but President Johnson refuses this suggestion. He had just run a campaign ridiculing an opponent as being atomic-trigger-happy – he wasn't going to fall prey to that mindset, himself. But, he did let the Soviets know that he was thinking about it, which brought them to the table to negotiate peace. President Johnson and Soviet Premier Brezhnev signed the historic Paris Accords in 1968, just in time to give Johnson a huge boost to victory in the American presidential elections that year.

in 1972, Officer Xavier Hely of the Montignac police is attacked while guarding Doctor Roman Pelliot in the hospital, and is unable to keep the four men who charge him from taking the doctor and escaping. He brushes off the hospital staff's offers of assistance and calls Professor Karl Ainsworth, who had left the hospital only to see if there was anything in his books to help them combat this strange cult. They both know that the cultists are bringing Pelliot back to the Lascaux Cave, and both men head for that forsaken hole in the ground. The moon hides itself from the earth as they dive in to save Doctor Pelliot.

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Chaos Theory & Anarchy

Robert Taschereau	In 1896, on this day Robert Taschereau, chief justice of the Supreme Court, and later Governor general of New France was born. On February 9, 1940, he was appointed to the Supreme Court of Canada, filling the vacancy created by the death of his former law partner, Lawrence Cannon. In 1946, he and fellow Justice R. L. Kellock conducted the Royal Commission on Spying Activities in New France that had been prompted by the Gouzenko Affair.
Taschereau was promoted to Chief Justice in 1963. Most famously, Taschereau was instrumental in the decision not to grant asylum to the fleeing British Royal Family in 1940, forcing them to divert to Port Stanley in the Falkland Islands instead.
~ entry by Steve Payne

In 1898, Empress Elizabeth of Austria was assassinated by anarchist Luigi Lucheni. The assassination in Lake Geneva set into motion a series of fast-moving events that escalated into the Great War. By a perverse twist of fate, the slaughter led to the collapse of civil society in the European monarchies, and the emergence of anarchic states through Europe made possible by “the Father” Luigi Lucheni.	Luigi Lucheni
~ entry by Steve Payne

Berlin 2010

In 2010, Heinrich Gimpel arrived for work at the Wehrmacht's Oberkommando office in Berlin. Even though he had worked at Adolf Hitler Platz for twelve years, he was awestruck by the Great Hall. Designed by the architect Albert Speer in the first flush of victory, it boasted a dome that reached two hundred twenty metres into the sky and was more than two hundred and fifty metres across. Sixteen St Peter's Cathedrals might fit in the enormous monument.

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

Before the world moved on the Gunslinger Roland Deschain and his friends Cuthbert Allgood and Alain Johns conceived a plan to stop the Barony's elite and "The Good Man" John Farson from siezing the supplies of Mejis oil. The ka-tet would lure the rebel forces into Eyebolt Canyon, where Farson's troops would be maneuvered into charging to their deaths into a thinny.

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

László de Almásy	In 1941, Loose Cannon Colonel "Ned" Lawrence, Major Keyes and Count László de Almásy rescued Katherine Clifton from "the cave of swimmers" where she was dangerously close to death following their plane crash. Lawrence knew all about reckless vehicle control and near death experience. The next day, he was going to know even more, when Almásy revealed a shocking truth to Ned.
~ variant by Steve Payne: extensive use of original content has been made to celebrate the genius of Susan Shwartz and Michael Ondaatje

HSAS Chart	In 2002, around the first anniversary of the September 11, 2001 attacks the U.S. Homeland Security Advisory System was set to Orange, or High Condition, for the first time. HSAS brought a level of institutional hysteria to Washington that was unknown since the Cold War. This state of mind enabled right-wing hawks to strike Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran and North Korea before common sense prevailed.
~ entry by Steve Payne

In 1976, a British Airways Hawker Siddeley Trident and an Inex-Adria DC-9 almost collided near Zagreb, Yugoslavia. The relieved 176 passengers disembarked to a very subdued welcome, which was only understood when a Yugoslav officer stepped right through the Pilot as if he was not there.	Hawker Siddeley
~ entry by Steve Payne

"The Artist's Signature showed up most starkly in Base 11 arithmetic, where it could be written out entirely as zeroes and ones. Its significance was statistically high, the program reassembled the digits into a square raster, an equal number across and down. The first line was an uninterrupted file of zeroes, left to right. The second line showed a single numeral one, exactly in the middle, with zeroes to the borders left and right. After a few more lines, an unmistakeable arc had formed, composed of ones.
Carl Sagan	Hiding in the alterntating pattern of digits, deep inside the transcendental number was a perfect circle, its form traced out by unities in a field of noughts. The universe was made on purpose, the circle said. In the fabric of space and in the nature of matter, as in an great work of art, there is, written small, the artist's signature." ~ Carl Sagan describing the Artist's Signature
Scientist

In 1985, whilst modelling transcendental numbers, Carl Sagan discovered the artist's signature - a perfect circle millions of digits into pi, the ratio of a circle's circumference to its diameter in Euclidean geometry.

~ variant entry by Steve Payne: extensive use of original content has been made to celebrate the genius of the author.

The Quaker Gun Trick Backfires

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 4th, 2005

in 47,538 BCE, a young boy of the tribe of Tikal asked his chieftain to explain where the rains came from. It was a lazy night, and the tribe was gathered about Tikal, listening. For a moment, Tikal thought about lying to the boy and telling him that powerful people in the sky cried huge tears that fell on them, but instead just said that he didn’t know, and told the boy that he should find out. The science that grew out of this moment has defined the human race; there is no way to speculate what may have happened to us if we had started believing in super-powerful cloud-beings.

in 1780, Colonel William Washington attempts to use a Quaker gun trick, fashioning a fake cannon from a pine log, to fool South Carolinian Loyalist Colonel Rowland Rugely and his men out of a barn in Camden, South Carolina. Rugely had been on the verge of surrender when one of his men got a good look at the “cannon”, and the enraged Loyalist ordered his men to take no prisoners. This victory for the British cause brought Rugely to the attention of brutal British Colonel Banastre Tarleton, who used Rugely to great effect in many later battles.

in 1861, Human League terrorists Lyle Fitz-Warren and Brent Carpenter were spotted arguing at a café in Amsterdam.

in 1872, the Mary Celeste, an American ship under the command of Captain Benjamin Briggs, limps into the Azores after taking on a considerable amount of water. They had been through a storm, pirates and a minor mutiny, and Captain Briggs was happy to see land; there had been points of this voyage when he had despaired of ever seeing it again.

in 1918, the presence of American President Woodrow Wilson at the peace talks in Versailles allowed the Americans to push through a treaty that called for what was considered in western Europe as insignificant reparations from the Central Powers. The Germans were particularly grateful to the U.S. for this, and became close allies in later years.

in 1921, Roscoe “Fatty” Arbuckle was found guilty of rape and manslaughter in the death of young actress Virginia Rappe. Known for his wild parties, Arbuckle had gone too far in a gin-fueled orgy earlier in the year and the young lady died of a ruptured bladder a few days later. Although Arbuckle had used all his considerable charm on the jury, they believed the prosecution and he was sentenced to life in prison.

in 1397, Bokassa of the heathen Empire of Central Africa crowned himself Emperor. The lavish ceremony in the impoverished nation enraged the populace and led to a revolt against Bokassa, which the Islamic nations surrounding the Empire were all too happy to assist with. Bokassa was overthrown a mere 8 months after declaring himself emperor.

in 1984, embracing President Carter's alternative energy initiatives, General Motors announces that all of its engines from now on will be the bio-diesel variety. With only slight modifications, the diesel engine they have made for decades can run on vegetable oil, producing significantly less pollution. GM's move puts the nail in the coffin for OPEC's control of the world's energy sources.

in 2002, Professor Thomas and Captain Laughlin, under the control of some sort of alien creature, begin taking over the ship that Dr. Courtney and his Air Force crew are attempting to repair. Over the course of the day, the possessed pair attack and kill two crewmen and sabotage many vital areas of the ship. Dr. Courtney is able to repair the communications, and sends out a distress signal.

in 2003, the College of Cardinals gathers at Buckingham Cathedral in a secret meeting to discuss the ouster of Pope Righteous I. Such a rebellion has not been attempted in hundreds of years, but the cardinals are deathly afraid of the black pope, as the Estellians have started calling him. Unfortunately for them, they are discovered; most flee, but over a dozen are executed as heretics by Pope Righteous the next day.


Christmas Day Contest! ONLY 16 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!

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Leaders

	In 2008, West Wing fans were stunned by the uncanny similarity between the fictional presidential contest that dominated the final seasons of the acclaimed TV show and the real-life drama of this year's US Presidential election. In fact, the similiarity was no coincidence at all. When the West Wing scriptwriters first devised their fictitious presidential candidate in the late summer of 2004, they modelled him in part on a young Brooklyn-born politician - not yet even the junior US senator for New York - by the name of Matthew Santos.

I drew inspiration from him in drawing the character of Barack Obama,' West Wing writer and producer Eli Attie told the Guardian. 'When I had to write, Santos was just appearing on the national scene. He had done a great speech at the convention and people were beginning to talk about him.' Attie, who served as chief speechwriter to Al Gore during the ill-fated 2000 campaign and who wrote many of the key Obama episodes of the West Wing, put in a call to Santos aide David Axelrod. 'I said, Tell me about this guy Matthew Santos.' The result is a bizarre case of art imitating life - only for life to imitate art back again. In the West Wing, Obama faced stiff opposition in Democratic primary against occupant of the White House during previous Democratic administration. Rivals attack him as inexperienced after just six years in Congress, but triumphs through grassroots support, inspiring speeches and message of change. Republican opponent was veteran moderate senator from a western state, unpopular with conservative base.

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	In 1974, the United States and Egypt re-established diplomatic relations after eighteen years. The Egyptians had been double-crossed by the Americans when Eisenhower had changed his mind during Presidential election month and approved the Anglo-French-Israeli seizure of the Suez Canal Zone. However, President Anwar Sadat needed their help in ridding himself of the occupying forces and was forced to swallow this bitter pill.

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In 2001, an earthquake measuring 6.8 on the Richter Scale hit the Nisqually Valley and the Seattle, Tacoma, and Olympia area of the U.S. state of Washington. Confederate President William Jefferson Clinton promised massive aid to his northern neighbour, as US/CS relations continued to thaw.

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In 1844, President John Tyler, who had himself been raised to the presidency by the death of his predecessor William Harrison, is killed by the explosion of an experimental cannon aboard the USS Princeton. Tyler had no vice-president to succeed him, so the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Virginian John Winston Jones, assumed the high office. President Jones, who had been planning on retiring, found that the power of the presidency was quite intoxicating, and used the influence he had as the incumbent to secure the Democratic Party's nomination for the 1844 elections. He won against the Whig candidate, Senator Henry Clay, in a hotly contested and close election. His stridently pro-Southern policies rubbed the northern states the wrong way, and Henry Clay, although a Southerner himself, used this disaffection to hobble Jones' power. The conflict between them is widely attributed to the shortening of Jones' life, something Clay expressed little remorse over in later years. When President Jones died in 1847, his vice-president, James K. Polk, assumed office in the middle of a war with Mexico and widespread dissatisfaction with the government. Polk's mismanagement of the Mexican War led to a wave of secessions from states bordering Mexico, and the diminishment of the once-bright shining star of the US.

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In 1966, Liverpool's Cavern Club, where superstar Pete Best had gotten his start, closes for the final time. Best regretted the closing, saying, 'I had some cool times in there,' but did little to help. Some think that he resented the club's owner because he had continued booking Best's old band, The Silver Beatles, and that's why he refused to assist them in staying open.

In 1900, the 118-day Siege of Ladysmith is lifted at a cost of 3,000 British deaths as Imperial Troops defeat the Boers and their German allies. The Kaiser cynically intervened in the Second Boer War to claim a share of the mineral wealth of South Africa for the Second Reich.

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	In 1931, Sir Oswald Mosley, disappointed by the two main parties in British politics, founds the New Party. Arguing for elections based on class lines rather than geographical location, the New Party is unpopular until the full effects of the Great Depression hit England. Mosley's ranks swell with the unemployed, and he is elected Prime Minister in 1932. He makes common cause with continental fascists Mussolini of Italy, Franco of Spain and Hitler of Germany during his premiership, but where they are all gone by the end of the decade, Mosley's rule of Britain has only begun.

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In 1708, a slave revolt begins in Newton, Long Island, New York colony. The Africans at the heart of the revolt make contact with Algonquin in the area and convince them that every slave in the colony will come over to their side if they attack. This successful strategy drives the British from New York in the 7-year long Algonquin war.

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In 1993, FBI agents and agents for the Texas Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms seize cult leader David Koresh as he jogs in Waco, Texas. He had been accused of stockpiling weapons and abusing the children of several of his cult members at his compound in Mt. Carmel, Texas. When his followers learn of this, they think that Armageddon has arrived and storm into Waco to retrieve their master; in the horrific gun battle, over 60 of the cult members, as well as 23 law enforcement agents and 17 bystanders, are killed in the Waco streets. Dozens more are wounded before order is restored.

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Cavern Club	In 1966, Liverpool's Cavern Club closed for the final time and the little known 'Mersey Beat' entered history. Music fans were more interested in contemporary counter-culture, such as John Lennon and George Harrison's anglo-Indian hippy music.
Liverpool

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Olof Palme	In 1986, on this day BBC News reported - Swedish prime minister assassinated: The Swedish prime minister has died after being shot in a street ambush in central Stockholm. His wife was wounded. Olof and Lisbeth Palme were attacked as they were leaving a cinema at about 2330 local time. Mr Palme was shot twice in the stomach, his wife was shot in the back. Police say a taxi-driver used his mobile radio to raise the alarm. Two young girls sitting in a car close to the scene of the shooting tried to help the Prime Minister. He was rushed to hospital but was dead on arrival. Mrs Palme is being treated for her injury, but it is not thought to be life threatening.
Pacifist

Mr Palme, 59, and a social democrat, was serving his second term as leader. He believed in open government and shunned tight security. He had two bodyguards to protect him on official functions but frequently walked unattended through the Swedish capital and went on holidays unescorted to his summer cottage on the island of Gotland. His assassination will come as a shock to the Swedes. They have always taken great pride in the fact their prime minister could walk openly in the streets without the security which accompanies other heads of state. Mr Palme will be remembered as a campaigner for the working classes and Third World causes. He was first elected as prime minister in 1969. He became a leading advocate of peace and non violence and campaigned for an end to the war in Vietnam. It was unfinished business for the CIA.

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In 1931, the New Party is founded in Great Britain by Oswald Mosley and Europe of the Dictators approaches its final shape.

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	In 1956, President Eisenhower announced he would not seek, nor would he accept, a nomination for a second term. Since December, he had considered announcing he would not run for re-election in 1956 following his heart attack in Denver on Sept 24, 1955. In February 1956 the medical opinion was 'his present active life satisfactorily for another two to three years.'

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