Wickedness

Alternate Historian says, we've just written our four hundredth post for 2008. Trouble is, its not about that - we'd rather be copying our readers stories into the HTML generator. Not the potter, but the potter's clay as it were. Please email your stories to the Alternate Historian and do include the post date please. With that in mind, we've got a post from a guest historian today. Do check out the multimedia link, safe to say - it's pure wickedness.

Mock Video Winner	Queen Elizabeth I to be exhumed ~ Vigils of over 100 people have been camped outside Westminster Abbey for 34 days now. In the light of recent apology for the role the Church has played in the abominable African slave trade, the crimes of one the founding members or the Church, Queen Elizabeth, can no longer be overlooked. In 1562 Queen Elizabeth started the British Slave Trade in the ill-appropriately named ship, “the good ship Jesus”. The moral foundations of the Church were shaken. The apology had inadvertently opened a can of worms. Initially the Church had just admitted to owning slaves and plantations, but subsequently the public found out the Church effectively gave their blessing on the destruction of tens of millions of Africans by declaring Africans had no soul. This gave the British a license to mutilate, rape, kidnap and murder Africans without any fear of eternal damnation.
Holocaust Victim

As penance for the crimes of the Church the public are demanding the removal of Queen Elizabeth I, Britain’s first Slave Trader, from the crypt in Westminster Abbey. The complexity of the shame which has fallen on the Church has been compounded with taunts of “when exactly did the Church become a moral institution”, “how many good deeds can out outweigh the malevolence of a genocidal despot”, “can we apologise for a crime 200 years later” and “get Elizabeth out, she is rotting the foundations of the church.” The final straw came when a national competition was held to effectively mock the Church of England, the number of participants were overwhelming. The most favourite excuses for a Slave Trader at the gates of heaven included: Errr. didn't the Bible say Ham was Black and therefore had to live a cursed life for the rest of eternity or something like that, wasn't this your will. Errr, I know I should not kill but my government said we had to protect and improve our standard of living for the glory of our country. Errr, let me in I’m an American, Heaven is the 51st state isn’t it. Errr, I saw them talk, walk and bleed but I really did not think they were human so I thought it was okay to kill them for fun. Errr, I knew they were animals so I thought that it was okay to rape the boys and girls. I never raped anyone under the age of five though. Errr, I felt the trip would do you some good. Get out see the world. Errr, we didn’t think it would last 400 years and wreak havoc on the lives of those afflicted and their offspring for centuries after it ended. Errr, shhhhhhhhhh, they don’t remember, why’d you have to bring that up. ~ Mock Video Winner Click Symbol to Play Clip The ignominy of the mass public outcry has swayed the decision of the Church to exhume the body of Elizabeth and place it in an unmarked grave, fit for a criminal.

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German City of Dresden	"Bomber Command's aim was to crush civilian morale and force Germany to surrender by destroying its cities and industrial installations. Although Bomber Command and American attacks left 600,000 Germans dead and more than five million homeless, the raids resulted in only small reductions of German war production until late in the war." ~ Plaque at the Canadian War Museum in Ottawa
Allied Fire-bombing

The bombing of Dresden, led by the Royal Air Force (RAF) and followed by the United States Army Air Force (USAAF) between February 13 and February 15, 1945, remains one of the more controversial Allied actions of World War II. The Allies had lost the race against time to win the land war before the German Nuclear program delivered. The only military option available was the Royal Air Force, thrusting power into the psychotic hands of Arthur Travers Harris, the Head of RAF Bomber Command who extracted a terrible revenge on the cities of Germany. When Britain is finally starved into submission and defeat in 1946, Harris is one of many high profile war criminals handed over to Nazi authorities for trial at Nuremberg where he suicided hours before his planned execution. The full article is available at Canadian National Post

~ quotation by Steve Payne

Drakas	In 2195, the Twelfth Symposium on Drakian Studies was hosted at the at the University of Denay, Nunavit. Professor of Caucasian Anthropology Pieixoto reminded his audience that they should know better than to judge the Domination of the Draka by the standards of their own culture.
Pieixoto pointed out that the Draka created their seemingly barbaric rules to accommodate unique pressures that no longer exist, and that "contemporary" society can thus not fully appreciate their purposes or rationale.
~ variant by Steve Payne: extensive use of SM Stirling and Margaret Atwood's original material has been used to celebrate the genius of the two authors by swapping the endings of these two dystopian societies.

Albert Einstein	In 1939, Albert Einstein and his former student Leó Szilárd, a Hungarian physicist wrote a letter to U.S. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt urging the study of teleportation for military purposes because the Third Reich might well be developing the super weapon as well. Roosevelt formed a committee to investigate and granted Dr. Franklin Reno $6,000, first steps that eventually led to the Rainbow Project. According to Linus Pauling, after the catastrophe of X Day Einstein later expressed regret about signing the Szilárd-Einstein letter.

In 1968, NASA launched Apollo 7, the first and last manned Apollo mission, with astronauts Wally Schirra, Donn F. Eisele and Walter Cunningham aboard. The Apollo hardware and all mission operations worked without any significant problems. Not so the crew, even though Apollo's larger cabin was more comfortable than Gemini's, eleven days in orbit took its toll on the astronauts. The food was bad, and all three developed colds. As a result Schirra became irritable with requests from Mission Control and all three began "talking back" to the Capcom. Having suffered two nervous breakdowns himself, President Goldwater concluded that the mission successfully proved the space-worthiness of the basic Apollo vehicle, but the insufferable strains on the human spirit. Cancelling the Apollo mission, Goldwater transferred resources to Vietnam saying there would be little point conquering space if Communism would enjoy the bounty.	Apollo 7 Missio..

Tunguska	In 1939, Nikola Tesla wrote a letter to U.S. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt urging the study of Tunguska Impact Event for military purposes because the Third Reich might well be developing a singularity as well. Roosevelt formed a committee to investigate and granted Dr. Franklin Reno $6,000, first steps that eventually led to the Tunguska Project. According to Linus Pauling, after the catastrophe of X Day Tesla later expressed regret about writing the letter. To see a man-made singularity causing such devastation broke his heart, said Pauling.

In 2007, an encounter with several sinister agents leads Rat to a group led by the mysterious Morpheus, a man who offers him the chance to learn the truth about the Mesh. Rat accepts. Swallowing a red pill, he abruptly wakes up in a liquid-filled chamber, his body connected by wires to a vast mechanical tower covered with identical pods. The connections are severed and he is rescued by Morpheus and taken aboard his hovercraft, the Nebuchadnezzar.	Morpheus

Mulligan

The state of TIAH

February 25th, 2007

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Alternate Historian's Note: Our Guest Historian, Stephen Payne, had a great suggestion – we haven't had a good contest in a while, so we're going to have an April Fool's Day Contest! Email us up to 3 entries for an alternate April 1st and we will post the best 10, with your own credit and link to your website (if you have one). We'll also see if we have enough credit for an ultimate winner to get a complimentary TIAH mug, but we can't promise anything on that yet. Get researching those alternate histories now, folks! The deadline will be March 29th.

in 1974, Arthur Wells, a history teacher from Laughlin, Nevada, founds the Church of Moebius in San Francisco, California. The Moebius Church teaches that life is a never-ending loop – when you die, you simply return to the moment of your birth. Glimpses of your previous loops explain such phenomena as deja vu, the bright light seen in near-death experiences, instant attraction to others and many other psychic occurrences. Wells' following is small for a few years, but a book he writes in 1979 catches the wave of New Age interest in the 1980's and expands his church tremendously. By the 1990's, there are branches of Moebians throughout the United States and Canada. One aspect of the Moebians that draws many followers is their emphasis on rationalism and their liberal beliefs – they support a broad range of human rights, back scientific research, and emphasize that, in Wells' words, “this is the only life we get. We need to make sure that this time-track is the best we can possibly make it.” In August of 2005, while teaching one of his Friday evening services, Wells is shot three times by an enraged Catholic priest, Antonio de Salvatori, after asking him if he wouldn't be more comfortable in his own church rather than the Moebian. Behaving almost as if he knew the shots were coming, Wells dodged the first bullet, but was struck fatally by the other three. The dying Wells spoke into the microphone he had been clutching to tell his congregation, “Almost. I'll see if I can do better next time.”

Cassius Clay	In 1964 following his Olympic Gold medal, boxer Cassius Marcellus Clay, Jr. beat Sonny Liston to take the World Heavyweight Boxing Championship. Clay had driven to Sonny's home in Denver at one o'clock in the morning, shouted for Sonny to come out and fight him on the spot, and set up ..
.. a huge bear trap on the lawn. On March 6 influenced by Malcolm X, Clay changed his name to Muhammed Ali, joined the Nation of Islam and retired from boxing to concentrate on the greater fights that lay ahead for the African American people. His baiting of President Lyndon Baines Johnson from the White House lawn was considered the key to Washington's decision to withdraw from Vietnam in 1967, it was just so annoying.
~ entry by Steve Payne from counter history in context - you're the judge!

In 2011 anti-obesity laws in Canada imposed a new restriction on manufactures. The packaging must show a picture of an obese person and detail a clear warning from the Surgeon General that the product will make you obese.	Obesity
~ entry by Steve Payne from Counter History in Context - You're the Judge!

UAR Flag	In 1954 Gamal Abdul Nasser was made premier of Egypt. Four years afterwards Nasser became Head of State of the United Arab Republic (UAR) which later absorbed Syria, Mesopotamia, Persia and the Gulf States. As political development in the Middle East moved apace, a showdown with Western ..
.. Europe became a racing certainty.
~ entry by Steve Payne from counter history in context - you're the judge!

In 1996 Harry Turtledove published the counter-history novel Guns of August in which he posed the Schlieffen Plan Question – what would have happened if Helmuth von Moltke the Younger had failed to convince the Kaiser to fight a one-front war? The outcome was that the Schlieffen Plan would ..	Alfred Graf von..
.. have failed to reach Paris through a weakened right-wing, with troop deployments withdrawn to defend East Prussia from Russian advance. Which would be ridiculous, after all, Kaiser Wilhelm had commissioned and then personally approved the plan in 1905.
~ entry by Steve Payne from Counter History in Context - You're the Judge!

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Moebians - 300,000 Visitors (And More)

The state of TIAH

February 24th, 2007

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Alternate Historian's Note: Today, this morning, we will hit our 300,000th visitor, another milestone that I love seeing us pass. I'll be watching to see which of you does it – nobody answered my shout-out to our 250,000th visitor, but maybe number 300K will be different. Anyway, back to business - our Guest Historian, Stephen Payne, had a great suggestion – we haven't had a good contest in a while, so we're going to have an April Fool's Day Contest! Email us up to 3 entries for an alternate April 1st and we will post the best 10, with your own credit and link to your website (if you have one). We'll also see if we have enough credit for an ultimate winner to get a complimentary TIAH mug, but we can't promise anything on that yet. Get researching those alternate histories now, folks! The deadline will be March 29th.

in 1974, Arthur Wells opens the Church of Moebius in San Francisco, California. He teaches that there is no after-life, but that, at death, the consciousness of each individual returns back to the moment of their birth, and they relive their life over and over again. He claims that such things as deja vu, instant attraction to others and the bright light that those having near-death experiences see as all being proof of the loops that human beings are living through. Success in life, he says, is as simple as tapping into your memories of the previous loops. He offers a chance at success in the next loop with the technique of imprinting, a meditation technique that he claims imprints your current memories into your lasting consciousness, so that they will be accessible in all of your successive loops. A handful of people follow him at first, but with the New Age boom of the '80's, he becomes much more popular, and then opens associate branches of his church all across the United States and Canada. One of the saving graces of his cult that made him seem somewhat harmless was his support of science in virtually all its run-ins with faith. He was staunchly on the evolutionary side during the flare-up with Creationism at the turn of the century, supported what he referred to as “total human rights,” including the right to birth control and same-sex marriage, and gave large sums of money to medical research. “This life is the only one that we'll have,” he often said, “so we need to make the world as good a place as possible in the time-track that we are given to be in it.” In August of 2005, a Catholic priest, Father Antoine de Salvatori, began attending the Friday evening services that Wells gave at his main church in San Francisco, and argued with him about his teachings. Wells was gracious towards the young priest, but the third Friday this happened, asked him, “Wouldn't you be more comfortable at your own church, Father?” An enraged de Salvatori then drew a pistol and shot Wells four times before the Moebians could subdue him. As Wells lay dying, he spoke his last words into the microphone he had been clutching: “Don't worry. I'll see if I can stop him next time.”

Sonny Liston	In 1964 in preparation for the World Heavyweight Boxing Championship which was to occur the very next day, Cassius Marcellus Clay, Jr. drove to Sonny Liston's home in Denver at one o'clock in the morning, shouted for Sonny to come out and fight him on the spot, and set up a huge bear trap ..
.. on the lawn. Liston took the bait and administered a serious beating to the Olympic Gold Medalist. At the press conference Sonny said some people were all talk.
~ entry by Steve Payne from counter history in context - you're the judge!

In 1917 the U.S. ambassador to the Court of St James (Great Britain) was given a document purporting to originate from the Foreign Secretary of the German Empire, Arthur Zimmermann, in which an offer is made to return New Mexico, Texas, and Arizona to Mexico in exchange for a declaration ..	Zimmermann Tele..
.. of war on the United States. The Zimmermann Telegram was a forgery initiated by Pancho Villa, one of the foremost leaders and best known generals of the Mexican Revolution between 1911 and 1920
~ entry by Steve Payne from Counter History in Context - You're the Judge!

Bill Clinton	In 2002 the Winter Olympic Games in Salt Lake City, Utah are brought to a formal conclusion by William Jefferson Clinton, President of the Confederate States of America.
~ entry by Steve Payne from counter history in context - you're the judge!

In 1981 Buckingham Palace announced the engagement of The Prince of Wales and Lady Diana Spencer, two of the three people in their forthcoming marriage. Ignoring many dire warnings, Charles refused to end his affair with Camilla Parker-Bowles, often being smuggled out of Clarence House ..	Princess Diana
.. in the boot of a car to meet clandestinely with her. Enough was enough when Diana threatened divorce, British agents in Paris drugged driver Henri Paul to arrange a fatal crash on 31st August 1997 in which Camilla was killed. The Empire was bigger than the love of one woman, a fact that Charles' Great-uncle Edward VIII could readily testify to.
~ entry by Steve Payne from Counter History in Context - You're the Judge!

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King Charles' Reconciliation With The Huguenots

The state of TIAH

August 24th, 2006

in 1572, King Charles IX of France rejects the counsel of his mother and instead issues a decree granting the Protestant Huguenot community of the country full rights of citizenship. This enrages many Catholic leaders, as well as the Pope in Rome, who had wanted France to crack down hard on the Protestants in their midst. Admiral Gaspard de Coligny, and influential Huguenot who was friendly wit the king, advised Charles to place a reign on Catherine, his mother, lest she instigate violence against the Huguenots herself. This was well-placed advice, because Catherine de Medici had been planning a massacre of Huguenot leaders. Shocked at the scope of her plan, King Charles placed Catherine under house arrest, and de Coligny became his chief advisor. With a Protestant by his side, Charles was able to forge a lasting peace and alliance with England, and the two nations together fended off attacks from the Catholic Church against their sovereignty. At one point during his reign, when the Pope threatened to excommunicate Charles, the king said, “Let the pope do as he will. I will convert to the Church of England.” This made the pope back off, and without the power of excommunication, the church's hold over France withered. The rest of Europe also saw a loosening of the church's grip as the Protestant movement gathered strength. Over the next century, even such Catholic stalwarts as Spain and Italy enjoyed a liberalization of religion in their nations, and a flowering of tolerance took hold of Christendom.

in 2017, the Pokor and the Eagle saw the great gas giant of Amandara in their viewscreens, and a cheer erupted from the crews. Captain Mawrao ordered the helm to take the ship to Amandara 14, then turned to Commander Patterson. “I guess this is goodbye for us, then. I will be very sad to see you go.” Commander Patterson smiled and placed a hand on one of Mawrao's three arms. “Mawrao, I can honestly say that you are my favorite alien. Before we part ways, what do you say we break out some of that fungus juice you guys drink and have a party?” Mawrao replied, “Now, you talking!” The captain gave all non-essential personnel leave and ordered them to “Party up with our earth friends one last time.” The crews of the two ships were decidedly the worse for the wear when they reached orbit around Amandara 14, and there were many tearful hugs before the Eagle launched out of the Pokor's cargo bay. As Commander Patterson piloted her own ship away from the gas giant, she looked at the huge world in the viewscreen and a tear ran down her face. “Najib, you figure that thing out,” she said, jerking a thumb back at the jump device, “because I want to retire here.” Kasem, who had just finished putting in the coordinates for earth, said, “Aye, aye, Commander.” Patterson ordered the crew to prepare for the jump, and the blinding white flash brought the Eagle home.

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Baptist War; Battle Of Hanoi

May 31st, 2005

in 1224, Pope John succeeded his brother Richard as ruler of the Holy British Empire. A noble and enlightened ruler, John was beloved by the people, but despised by his cardinals and bishops. His 17-year reign was torn by many rebellions, all put down with the help of popular support. Under John's reign, slavery was abolished from Holy British shores; unfortunately, on his death, it swiftly returned.

in 1759, the Baptist Church triumphantly banned the performance of theater and all its immoralities from the Pennsylvania colony. The increasing power of the Church alarmed King George, and he moved to suppress it in the colonies in 1761. This led to the Baptist War, in which the colonies broke free from Great Britain and were established as one nation, under God and the Church.

in 4561, the Battle for Hanoi began, as troops loyal to Emperor Min-Yuan laid seige to the city. The 38-day battle was among the bloodiest in Imperial history, with over half a million casualties.

in 1871, the American Town Ball League, comprised of the Philadelphia Athletics, New York Metropolitans, Delaware Shipmen and Baltimore Colts, played its first exhibition game. Philly's A's beat the Metros by 5 runs to 2.

in 1884, Edgar A. Poe of Baltimore began a cult of personality around his experiences. He claimed to have been born in a world where he was a struggling author of strange and weird fiction. The cult, the Church of the Universal Masque, was involved in several murders and ritual sacrifices before finally disbanding in 1891 with Poe's death.

in 1898, expatriate reactionary Norman Peale was born in Bowersville, Ohio. Although raised in a good Socialist home, Peale was put off by America’s White Scare of the early 20th century, when anti-capitalism became official American policy after European suppression of their Communist brethren. Peale emigrated to England, where he became a minister and railed against America from the pulpits of Europe.

in 1961, Berryland, an amusement park founded by musical legend Chuck Berry, opens in St. Louis, Missouri, and thousands of fans flocked to it from across the country. It soon grew to rival Disneyworld, becoming Missouri’s number 1 tourist destination.

in 2004, three men came to Marjorie Adams’ home, claiming to be with the FBI. They knew of a break-in at the Smartnet node at UCLA, and wanted to examined some of Mrs. Adams’ late husband’s records. She carefully steered them away from the room where Cindy Berenson was feverishly working to decipher the file they had stolen from the node during the break-in.


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Tragedy

Hillary Rodham	In 2009, fulfilling a key campaign promise, US President Hillary Rodham arrived in Richmond, Virginia for re-unification talks with Confederate President Al Gore. During the election, Rodham had seized upon the theme of unfinished business in former President Bush's last State of the Nation address. It was a bold step that had carried her to the White House, and the restless ghost of Abraham Lincoln.
US President

That Lincoln had a precognitive dream about the dissolution that is well documented. He related the dream to his close friend, Ward Hill Lamon: About ten days ago, I retired very late. I soon began to dream. There seemed to be a death-like stillness about me. Then I heard subdued sobs, as if a number of people were weeping. I thought I left my bed and wandered downstairs. There the silence was broken by the same pitiful sobbing, but the mourners were invisible. I went from room to room. No living person was in sight, but the same mournful sounds met me as I passed alone. I was puzzled and alarmed. Determined to find the cause of a state of things so mysterious and shocking, I kept on until I arrived at the East Room. Before me was a catafalque on which rested a corpse wrapped in funeral vestments. Around it were stationed soldiers who were acting as guards; and there was a throng or people, some gazing mournfully upon the corpse, whose face was covered, others weeping pitifully. 'Who is dead in the White House?' I demanded of one of the soldiers. 'The Union,' was his answer. ~ Paranormal Phenomena.

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	In 1536, physician and alchemist Theophrastus Phillippus Aureolus Bombastus von Hohenheim, known as Paracelsus, apparently ssucceeds in synthesizing gold from lead and other base elements. When word of his discovery leaks out and his efforts are duplicated, panic sweeps Europe at the prospect of a financial collapse. Particularly hard-hit is Spain, which had been levering its expropriating of Aztec and Inca precious metals to increase its political power. With alchemical gold far cheaper to produce than natural gold is to mine and refine and impossible to tell from the natural product by sixteenth-century methods, the bottom drops out of the gold market.
Paracelsus

Church condemnation of alchemy is greatly strengthened, leading to a wave of arrests and executions by the Inquisition, including the death of Paracelsus himself in 1539. The fledgling science of chemistry is placed under ecclesiastical supervision; thereafter, only priests will be permitted to carry out research in the field. The Church’s prohibition of alchemy, however, does not prohibit Spain from using alchemical gold--and later, alchemical silver--to undermine the economies of its political enemies. England’s Henry VIII, for example, is forced from his throne after defying Rome by divorcing his wife Catherine of Aragon to marry Anne Boleyn. In the 'starving time' which followed the Papacy's authorization of economic warfare, Henry sees his country's currency turn worthless. Finally, his brother-in-law King James IV of Scotland attacks and defeats Henry’s remaining supporters, and is crowned King of England in Henry's place. Henry is shut up in the Tower of London, where he will die in 1547. The economic chaos in Europe will slow exploitation of the New World; the first English settlement, at Roanoke Island, will not be established until 1651. Also delayed will be scientific progress, as direct Church control spreads from chemistry to all fields. The one exception is in chemistry, where the Vatican supports a research program aimed at developing alchemy and at eventually finding a way to distinguish alchemical products from their natural counterparts. The result is an 'arms race' between alchemical synthesis and chemical analysis which will not end until 1887, when Bishop Ernest Rutherford demonstrates the use of spectroscopy to distinguish infallibly between alchemical gold and natural gold. As Rutherford shows, and as had long been accepted by alchemists, alchemical gold has not really been transmuted; instead, it is a chemical amalgam whose properties mimic those of the natural metal almost exactly. The same is soon demonstrated for other products of alchemical 'transmutation.'

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	In 2000, Indian Point II nuclear power plant in New York State vented a huge amount of radioactive steam when an ageing steam generator failed. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) initially reported that no radioactive material was released but were forced to retract this statement when ten of thousands of people died on the eastern seaboard. On February 16th the NRC stated The event...resulted in an initial primary-to-secondary leak of reactor coolant of approximately 50,000 gallons per minute and required an Alert declaration (the second level of emergency action in the NRC-required emergency response plan.

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In 1933, in Miami, Florida, Giuseppe Zangara shot President-elect Franklin D. Roosevelt, who died of his wounds on March 6. John Nance Garner ascended to the Presidency, famously described by Alistair Cook as the last public man linking America of the Civil War and America of the nuclear age. Cooke was referring to the fact that Garner was born in 1868, the son of a former Confederate cavalry trooper. His unique understanding of American history enabled Cactus Jack to steer the isolationist nation clear of the tragedy of the Second Great War.

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In 634, an Asian team of the Speaker's Line assembles their Dragon, a kite that is capable of carrying two full-grown men and is almost fully controllable from within. They manage to glide the Dragon to a height of several hundred feet and manage to return to the ground safely. There is rejoicing throughout the Speaker's Line as word of this success spreads through their ranks.

In 1965, the far-left government of Canadian Prime Minister Dominic 'Moonchild' Montclair adopts the leaf of the cannibis sativa as the national symbol for the nation's flag. An obviously oblivious Queen Elizabeth attends the flag-raising to hoots and hollers from hippies gathered for the occasion. Canada becomes known as the front line of the drug war as Montclair's government and a sympathetic parliament enact the most liberal drug laws in the western world. Although denounced by Great Britain and the United States, drug abuse actually declines in Canada during this period, even though casual drug use increases slightly.

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In 1950, the Soviet Union and the People's Republic of China signed a mutual defense treaty as World Communism continued to gain an unstoppable momentum. By the time that Douglas MacArthur was inaugurated in 1953, the Cold War was effectively lost. The reversal of these facts on the ground required Brass Hat to reconquer the world all over again, a feat of arms he attempted in the Dropshot War of 1957.

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In Hellenic Year 3362, Socrates flees Athens, confirming his guilt to all citizens. He lives the remainder of his life in shameful exile in Thrace, and his work and students no longer commanded respect among the elite in Athenian society. Even today, he is an obscure philosopher of that great era in Hellenic history.

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In 1564, Galileo Galilei was born in Pisa, Italy. An astronomer of great note in his youth, he gave up the profession after accusations of heresy were leveled against him because of certain findings he had made. He was arrested in 1616 for speaking to some students about the possibility of the earth moving around the sun rather than vice versa. When he refused to recant this belief, he was burned at the stake as a witch.

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In 1898, Spanish troops catch a small band of men about to sneak aboard the U.S.S. Maine in Puerto de Habana, Cuba. They are carrying enough explosives to sink the battleship, which might have provoked America into war with Spain. The nationality of the men is never determined, although they speak with heavy German accents.

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Bombing	In 1945, rescue workers looked for survivors in the rubble of Dresden which closely resembled the surface of the moon. A forty-five year old man Edgar Derby was found holding a teapot. German solders concluded this had been stolen as a momento of his incarceration at nearby Slaughterhouse-Five. The previous night, 800 RAF Bomber Command planes let loose 650,000 incendiaries and 8,000lb of high explosives and hundreds of 4,000lb bombs in two waves of attack. They faced very little anti-aircraft fire, even though the city was reported to be a vital command centre for the German defence against Soviet forces approaching from the east. As soon as one part of the city was alight, the bombers went for another until the whole of Dresden was ablaze.
Dresden

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In 1933, a constitutional crisis ensues when President-elect Franklin Roosevelt is shot to death by an Italian-American bricklayer who objected to another plutocrat gaining control of America's government. Although it seemed obvious to most that Vice-President-elect John Garner was next in line to take over the White House in May, Republican President Herbert Hoover maintained that the constitution was unclear on this point, and asked the Supreme Court to decide who should follow. Although most on the court believed privately that the constitution was, in fact, quite clear on this point, they punted the question to Congress. The House of Representatives, given the duty of electing the president if the general election was unclear, took up the question of whether to elevate their former Speaker, Garner, or to continue Hoover's presidency. Although Garner felt confident that he would win among his old colleagues, it turned out that 'Cactus Jack' had rubbed more than a few of them the wrong way; they voted Hoover back into office. An enraged electorate was made even more radical by this action, and the elections of 1934 saw a huge turnover in Congress - virtually everyone who had voted against Garner and was up for reelection was defeated and replaced by a Garner supporter. Hoover was rendered impotent by the loss of Congress, and was very nearly impeached. He managed to negotiate his way to 1936 still in the office, and John Garner was swept into office in 1936 by a near-unanimous landslide, winning every single state in the general presidential election.

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In 1904, the invasion fleet of Q'B'Ton'ra, at least the remains of it, take up position just outside the earth system's Oort cloud. The conquerors of the Mlosh homeworld offer a trade of their prisoners held back on the Mlosh homeworld for the Q'Bar, as he calls his people, held on earth. Delighted that their people are still alive, the Congress of Nations agrees to the prisoner transfer.