My Long Farewell

August 27th, 2007

Digg this

Don't forget - Birthday Contest for Steve – November 22, 1967. Send in an alternate birthday for him for us to post!

Robbie's Long Goodbye: I'm sure that some of you have been anticipating this – I have decided to turn over TIAH to my Co-Historian, Steve, who has been doing most of the work here since he started, anyway. I will be starting another project, The RATMANifesto, which will be more along the lines of what I am writing now. This week, I'll be making the changes that Steve wishes to see in the design of TIAH before I hand over things to him, and I'll be writing a note of fond farewell each day as I do so. I have a couple of Guest Historians who have sent in material for future dates, and I will suggest to Steve that he take advantage of the great pool of talent out there among the Alternate Readership. We'll be letting you know by the time Steve takes over whether that will be the case. Steve has also graciously asked that I post from time to time, and I'm sure that I will – who could resist being the Visiting Alternate Professor Emeritus? But, this week will mark my last as your chief Alternate Historian, and so I will have maudlin farewells at the beginning of each post as I make them. Thank you for your attention, and your readership over the last three years.

Jesse Owens	In 1935, American athlete Jesse Owens commented on the decision by United States Olympic Committee president Avery Brundage to withdraw the participation of the American athletics from the Games of the XI Olympiad in Archona, capital city of the Dominion of Draka.
With Owens expected to win up to four gold medals, a tinge of bitterness could reasonably be expected from most human beings. It is widely repeated that Chief Justice von Shrakenburg "snubbed" Jesse Owens and his achievements. Brundage believed that politics had no place in sport; von Shrakenberg feared sport would define politics by debunking the Draka assertion of white supremacy. Owens said, "I think journalists showed bad taste in criticizing the man of the hour in the Dominion of the Draka". One can only wonder if his tongue had crept into his cheek before making this memorable statement.
~ variant entry by Steve Payne: details of the Draka World have been used to celebrate the genius of S.M. Stirling

In 1868, in Lee Allred's West of Appomattox US Secretary of State General Robert E. Lee receives a chilly welcome in the Foreign Office. Britain's continued alliance with the Confederacy is creating major problems for the defeated North. Officially ignored, he finds a deeper game is afoot.

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

In 1950, UN Commander in Chief for the Korean Peninsula General Douglas MacArthur ordered the evacuation from Pusan. He told the people of South Korea “I will return”, a promise he was unable to keep.

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

BITBBH	In 2007, troubled Pals series star Jennifer Anniseed announced a trial separation from her husband of only six weeks, the TV celebrity formerly known as the Bear in the Big Blue House. Saddened, BITBBH suggested that Jen had never got over Bradley Putz and didnt really want a bear for all seasons at all.
~ entry by Steve Payne from Counter History in Context - You're the Judge!

"Old Blood and Guts" Part 1 (1885-1918) - General George Smith Patton III has died, aged eighty. He was survived by his wife of fifty-five years Banning Ayer, the daughter of a wealthy textile baron. The Pattons had two daughters Beatrice Smith (died 1953) and Ruth Ellen. Their son George Smith IV was a 1946 graduate of West Point, serving in Korea as a company commander. In Vietnam he commanded the 11th Armored Cavalry as a colonel during three tours of duty there, before retiring from the Army in 1980. Alongside his contemporary cavalryman General George Armstrong Custer, George Patton III was instrumental in the development of armored warfare during the mid-20th. In World War I General John "Black Jack" Pershing assigned Patton to the newly formed United States Tank Corps. Depending on the source, he either led, or was an observer at the Battle of Cambrai in which first tanks were used as a significant force. From his successes (and his organization of a training school for American tankers in Langres, France), Patton was promoted to major and then lieutenant colonel and was placed in charge of the U.S. Tank Corps, which was part of the American Expeditionary Force and then the First U.S. Army. He took part in the Battle of Saint-Mihiel, September 1918, and was wounded by machine gun fire as he sought assistance for tanks that were mired in the mud.

~ alternate obituary from Steve Payne: extensive use of original content has been made to re-examine the significance of a controversial historical figure.

Castle Bonny	In 1943, British Prime Minister Oswald Mosley and King Edward VIII presented the view of the British Government to the movie Castle Bonny which premièred eight days before on Broadway.
The film was directed by Michael Curtiz, and starred Cary Grant as Dick Blaine, Ingrid Bergman as Ilsa Lund and Paul Henreid as resistance leader Victor Laszlo, caught in a love triangle. The rekindled romance between Blaine and Lund was set during Great War II in the Nigerian city of Port Harcourt, off the Bight of Bonny – then controlled by the Nazi Protectorate of Britain. The final scene shows Dick, Laszlo and a detachment of Free British soldiers on a ship, to incorporate the Allies' 1943 invasion of England. “This unpleasant and beastly business will shortly come to an abrupt end” said the King from the balcony of Buckingham Palace. “The invasion or the movie reviews?” quipped the Prime Minister and they both laughed. Actually, it was no laughing matter, because that very day both had reluctantly approved the Nazi decision to use gas to repel the Free British Forces racing up the south coast at uncomfortable fast speed for the Fascists.
~ entry by Steve Payne from Counter History in Context - You're the Judge!

In 2127, through the functioning of the Hussein-Sadat time dilation device, and assisted by the kidnapping by the Eurasian fugitive known as Brent first Asian QC Kim Hollis and the Attorney General return to the London office of Lord Peter Goldsmith on 11 March 2003.	Goldsmith
Goldsmith is being strongly encouraged to leave his wife Joy of 33 years in favour of Hollis. He is also being prevailed upon to issue confidential legal advice to the Prime Minister of United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland that British involvement in a land invasion of Iraq would be illegal due to the absence of a UN Security Council Resolution explicitly sanctioning participation by the “coalition of the willing”. Neither prospect was particularly savoury. People just didn't seem to understand the difference between private and public morality, really – it was quite maddening.
~ entry by Steve Payne from Counter History in Context - You're the Judge!

USS Eldridge	In 1943, on this day the U.S. naval destroyer escort Eldridge was commissioned by the ..
.. Navy for Project Rainbow. In a military application of Albert Einstein’s unified field theory, the destroyer escort was fitted with powerful generator equipment, designed to distort electromagnetic radiation and gravity, rendering the ship invisible to radar. On or before October 28 1943 USS Eldridge was rendered invisible to human observers for a brief period of time. Upon her return, she left a very visible tear in the fabric of the Universe. The observers reported a thermal distortion much like the running of gas out of a pipe, or hot air rising off the desert. By the time President Truman arrived for a personal viewing on October 30th, there were some seriously worried people on the Project. That included Albert Einstein, who offer absolutely no guarantees to the President that the tear could be fixed up.
~ entry by Steve Payne from Counter History in Context - You're the Judge!

In 1962, on this day the Mariner 2 was launched to Venus. On the way it measured for the first time the solar wind, a constant stream of charged particles flowing outwards from the Sun. It also measured interplanetary dust, which turned out to be more scarce than predicted.	Mariner 2
And something else was discovered which the Mariner 2 was not simply designed to report. The spacecraft is now defunct in a heliocentric orbit, where it is bristles with a virulent space plague.
~ 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 -

Singing Openly

August 28th, 2007

Digg this

Don't forget - Birthday Contest for Steve – November 22, 1967. Send in an alternate birthday for him for us to post!

More of the departing Alternate Historian's meandering farewell: One of the things that has always amused me since starting TIAH has been the number of people who just didn't get the alternate part of the page's title. I've had people ask me for my sources for certain 'historical' events, compliment me on how accurate I was (?!?), and one memorable Indian gentleman became so offended by the fact that I was taking liberties with history that he declared himself the Anti-Alternate Historian. It's both funny and a little disturbing – especially when you consider what set some of these people off. On a post with alien invasions and ancient wizards battling over Wales, they would become upset because Pete Best was portrayed as a superstar. Aliens and wizards, those were believable – but Pete Best with talent? That was stretching it too far.
I've also enjoyed the enthusiasm of the people who read TIAH – one of my favorite people was the guy who set up the Annotated Today In Alternate History site, so that he could post the real-world events that inspired my posts. He only lasted a couple of months, but I loved him, and read his site every day. I also had people set up feeds on other sites – often just for themselves, since I have a feed already that they could have used. But, they wanted it in their own special way, and I never begrudged them that.
Enough of my sentimentality for today – I'll greet you with more weepiness tomorrow as we count down to my final farewell. Speaking of enthusiastic readers – here's one that went on to become the Historian himself! Steve's stuff after the Limey Line...

In 2007, the Prince of Wales decision not to attend a memorial to mark the 10th anniversary of Princess Diana's death met with widespread approval from the British public. One of Diana's friends, Rosa Monckton, said it would be "deeply inappropriate" for Charles to attend Friday's service. Charles said he feared his attendance "could divert attention from the purpose of the occasion". Ingrid Seward, editor of Majesty magazine, said the Queen would have sanctioned the Prince's decision. It is not yet clear whether Princes William and Harry will meet with their father. Both have lived with the Earl of Spencer at his home in South Africa for the last decade. It is the tenth anniversary of the Earl's eulogy, at which he famously stated : "On behalf of your mother and sisters, I pledge that we, your blood family, will do all we can to continue the imaginative way in which you were steering these two exceptional young men, so that their souls are not simply immersed by duty and tradition but can sing openly, as you planned."

~ entry by Steve Payne

Jesse Owens	In 1935, German athlete Lutz Long wrote to Jesse Owens to express his deep regret that they would not compete together in the Long Jump at the Games of the XI Olympiad in Archona, capital city of the Dominion of Draka. Lutz was posthumously awarded the Pierre de Coubertin medal for sportsmanship.
The decision by Chief Justice von Shrakenberg to deny a travel permit to Jesse Owens was by now backfiring disastrously United States Olympic Committee president Avery Brundage had already announced the withdrawal of the participation of the American athletics from the Games. It was the moment when the world wobbled on its axis, and for the first time it was not so clear that the Dominion of the Draka would inherit the earth. Unmistakably, the Draka feared that Owens would win up to four medals at the Games, debunking the myth of white supremacy. In the tragic years to come, Owens became the icon of the the Alliance for Democracy. His Olympic flame burnt so very brightly as the world defeated the dystopian vision of von Shakenberg and his "super-men".
~ variant entry by Steve Payne: details of the Draka World have been used to celebrate the genius of S.M. Stirling

In 1868, in Lee Allred's West of Appomattox US Secretary of State General Robert E. Lee has a clandestine meeting with a powerful but nameless figure in the British establishment. An emotional Lee confronts the deep-seated guilt of abandoning Virginia. And the shame of Confederate President Jefferson Davis execution in custody after he was captured in 1865, held in a federal prison for two years and charged with treason.

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

In 1950, the withdrawal of United Nations forces forced President Harry S Truman to accept the counsel of advisors, who called for unilateral U.S. airstrikes against the North Korean forces. Truman had already ordered the Seventh Fleet to protect Chiang Kai-Shek's Taiwan, thereby ending America’s policy of non-interference in Chinese domestic affairs. The Nationalist government (now confined to Taiwan) asked to participate in the war. Their request had been denied by the Americans, who felt they would only encourage PRC intervention. Despite the post-World War II demobilization of U.S. and allied forces, which caused serious supply problems for American troops in the region, the United States still had substantial forces in Japan to oppose the North Korean military and its largely outdated Soviet equipment. These American forces were under the command of General Douglas MacArthur. Trouble was that apart from British Commonwealth units, no other nation could supply sizeable manpower. Pusan changed everything, and the regional containment strategy had failed. Truman, needing allies, reluctantly invited Taiwan into the war. By September of 1950, a state of war existed between the United States and China. It became apparent that World War III would be fought in Asia-Pacific.

~ entry from Co-Historian Steve Payne

"Old Blood and Guts" Part 2 (1918-1944) - After the war General George Smith Patton III was an advocate of armored warfare but was reassigned to the cavalry. In World War II he commanded major units of North Africa, Sicily, and the European Theater of Operations. During this period, Patton saw service alongside unorthodox British General T.E. Lawrence. Like Patton, Lawrence had also survived a near death experience (in a 1935 motorcycle accident), and both individuals shared a common sense of immortality which verged on recklessness. The popular image of "Old Blood and Guts", contrasts with the historians' image of a brilliant military leader whose record was also marred by insubordination and some periods of apparent instability. Hitler described Patton as "that crazy cowboy general". Previously considered friend, superior officer, and mentor, Eisenhower demoted Patton after the famous slapping incident but re-appointed him in France.

~ alternate obituary from Steve Payne: extensive use of original content has been made to re-examine the significance of a controversial historical figure.

In 1963, Dr. Huey Percy Newton of the Black Panther Party (originally called the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense) led militant civil right activists in an occupation of the White House following the Million Man March. There was no point making fine speeches from the Lincoln Memorial, said Newton, talk was cheap.

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

Rommel	In 1943, and in direct contravention of the Geneva Convention Generalfeldmarschall Erwin Johannes Eugen Rommel released huge quantities of poison gas at the liberating invasion forces in Dorking. The Free British Forces had been racing up the south coast at uncomfortable fast speed for the Fascists and the Nazi German and ..
.. British “stooge” government felt it was time to “stop the rot from Brighton”.
~ entry by Steve Payne from Counter History in Context - You're the Judge!

In 2127/2003, a dramatic scene is played out in the London office of Lord Peter Goldsmith. The Attorney General is strongly encouraged to leave his wife Joy of 33 years in favour of first Asian QC Hollis and issue confidential legal advice that ..	Kim Hollis
.. British involvement in a land invasion of Iraq would be illegal. Perhaps, suggests Brent, a British Cabinet minister standing alongside his beautiful Asian lover could generate interracial brotherhood. “Drink anyone?” asked the Attorney General, pulling a service revolver from the drinks cabinet and shooting himself in the head. Death before dishonour, wasn't that the very essence of the British establishment after all? They would have never made it since the Middle Ages without it..
~ entry by Steve Payne from Counter History in Context - You're the Judge!

“Mick”	In 2003, on this day the compendium “A Collection of Political Counterfactuals” was published. Simon Burns' masterful entry "What if Denis ("Sonny") O'Neill had not missed?" was a keynote contribution, considering the scenario where Michael Collins, Commander-in-Chief of the Irish Free State Army was killed ..
.. during an Anti-Treaty ambush at Beal na mBlath, County Cork, during the Irish Civil War. Instead of the “Big Fellow”, Eamon de Valera serves three times as Irish head of government; as Príomh Aire, as the second President of the Executive Council and the first Taoiseach, becoming the dominant Irish politician of the twentieth century.
~ entry by Steve Payne from Counter History in Context - You're the Judge!

In 1995, on this day in États-Unis d'Amérique a survey into language groups was published by the Berlitz International. As expected English was identified as the fourth major language in the country after French, Spanish and German, largely concentrated in the Anglophone pocket of New Britain.	Elizabeth II
In that mini-state the Queen's English was spoken by the British Royal Family who had lived there in exile since 1940.
~ 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 -

A Hinted Confession

August 26th, 2007

Digg this

The Announcement

Don't forget - Birthday Contest for Steve – November 22, 1967. Send in an alternate birthday for him for us to post!

Alternate Historian's Note: Back to the Porno Universe story!

After I was finished luxuriating in Willie's tub, I got out and dried off in the wind box she kept next to the bath. The wind box was one of my people's inventions, rather than an Arythiok machine, but I could tell that Willie had made modifications to it, because the gentle caresses of the air on my body were just too sensual. Most of the wind boxes made in my home feel like you're getting dried off by a hurricane.

Clean and refreshed now, I looked for my old clothes and noticed that Willie had spirited them off and replaced them with a fresh set. I hadn't remembered leaving anything here the last time I stayed with her, but she was both a generous and a resourceful hostess. I put on the shirt and pants, both of which were tailored perfectly and of a very tasteful style, and looked at myself in the mirror. I supposed I was presentable again.

I walked down to the living room just in time to see Willie switch off the holo after saying what I think was a goodbye in Arythiok. She looked around at me, her skin dark again. “Forgive me, I was just talking to an old friend,” she said, hurriedly getting up and heading to the kitchen. “I have dinner prepared if you would like to eat.”

“Who was the old friend?” I didn't know if she would answer, but it never hurt to ask.

“Someone from my ship,” she said, a much more direct answer than I was expecting. I followed her quickly into the kitchen; if she had picked now as the time to talk to me about her past, I wasn't going to let a moment waste. “She is related to me, in a complicated manner that I'm not sure I can explain in your language.” Her skin was lightening, but her eyes were still jade. “We shared a soul once.”

I shook my head. “For breakfast, or...”

Her eyes shaded from green to red, and she answered me, “We were once one soul. You know that we recycle souls; all the talk shows buzzed about that for years. But we never said what we recycle them into.”

I could hardly find my voice. “Are you going to say now?”

The red faded from her eyes and she stared deeply into my own. Now, I knew she was telepathic. I could feel her reading my mind, exploring my motivations and trying to deliberate what I would do with the knowledge she held. I've been read by telepaths before, but this time felt so different – almost as if my soul were being weighed. After a very long time in my head, she finally said, “I believe so. Your recent experience makes me believe that you will be able to understand my own past with some sympathy.”

Jesse Owens	In 1935, the sporting world was rocked by Chief Justice von Shrakenberg's decision to deny a travel permit to Jesse Owens. In protest the American athletics team withdrew participation from the Games of the XI Olympiad in Archona, capital city of the Dominion of Draka. United States Olympic Committee president Avery Brundage had initially stated that "politics has no place in sport".
With Owens expected to win up to four gold medals, von Shakenberg feared that sport could have profound consequences for politics, by debunking the Draka assertion of white supremacy. Brundage now threw his support behind anti-fascists who planned to host a People's Olympiad in Barcelona at the Estadi Olímpic de Montjuïc. Archona's bid had been preferred over Barcelona by the International Olympics Committee in April, 1931. The outbreak of the Spanish Civil War led to the cancellation of this alternative games to protest the 1936 Olympics.
~ variant entry by Steve Payne: details of the Draka World have been used to celebrate the genius of S.M. Stirling

In 1861, in Lee Allred's West of Appomattox General Robert E. Lee opposed the secession of his home state of Virginia, accepting President Lincoln's offer to command United States forces. A half dozen years later, Robert E. Lee is dispatched to London because Britain's continued alliance with the Confederacy is creating major problems for the defeated North.

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

Kurt Vonnegut	"I wrote the Air Force back then, asking for details about the raid on Dresden, who ordered it, how many planes did it, why they did it, what desirable results there had been and so on. [I was told] that information was top secret still. Secret? My God – from whom?" ~ Kurt Vonnegut speaking about the fire-bombing of Dresden, the city he described as the “Florence of the Elbe”
Dresden

Kurt Vonnegut was a fourth-generation German-American living in easy circumstances on Cape Cod (and smoking too much), who, as an American Infantry Scout hors de combat, as a prisoner of war witnessed the fire-bombing of Dresden. In 1968, Kurt Vonnegut would get answers all these questions and more after he was seized by alien occupants of a flying saucer from the Planet Tralfamadore.

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

In 2002, in Roland J. Green' George Custer Slept Here forward landings near Civitavecchia permit a result in which Rome may fall seven months early. Unlike the later Market Garden and Inchon forward attacks, Civitavecchia is a disaster in which Custer dies during a desperate Last Stand.

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

In 1914, the Russian First and Second Armies led by Generals Alexander Samsonov and Paul von Rennenkampf defeated a much smaller force of German troops at the Battle of Tannenberg. Despite the tactical brilliance of Colonel Max Hoffmann, the new High Command consisting of Hindenburgh and Ludendorff arrived too late to prevent the destruction of German Corps on the Eastern Front. The march on Berlin was relentless, and it would appear that nothing could now stop the Russian Steamroller.

~ entry by Co-Historian Steve Payne

In 2006, at the food court a Canadian customer asked "Can I get an ice cappuccino?". The next customer was a somewhat startled English-born immigrant who asked "Can I have an ice cappuccino please?". Startled because he had never thought of ordering as ordering. Surely, an order was a polite request not an aggressive stock inquiry?

~ entry by Co-historian Steve Payne

Castle Bonny	In 1943, former War Leader Winston Churchill gave his public view of Castle Bonny which premièred seven days before on Broadway. The film was directed by Michael Curtiz, and starred Cary Grant as Dick Blaine, Ingrid Bergman as Ilsa Lund and Paul Henreid as resistance leader Victor Laszlo, caught in a love triangle. ..
.. The rekindled romance between Blaine and Lund was set during Great War II in the Nigerian city of Port Harcourt, off the Bight of Bonny – then controlled by the Nazi Protectorate of Britain. The final scene shows Dick, Laszlo and a detachment of Free British soldiers on a ship, to incorporate the Allies' 1943 invasion of England. “The bulldog spirit runs through the whole film, ” said Churchill from the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York “we shall fight on the south downs, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets of the home counties, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender." Privately Churchill considered the movie quite dreadful. Of greater concern was the pressing need to position himself as the leader of the liberated British nation. Naturally, he and not the Head of the British Government in Exile, Lord Halifax was the right man for the job.
~ entry by Steve Payne from Counter History in Context - You're the Judge!

In 2127, through the functioning of the Hussein-Sadat time dilation device, and assisted by the kidnapping by the Eurasian fugitive known as Brent, first Asian QC Kim Hollis and her lover the Attorney General arrive in Doha, Qatar. Brent has ..	Kim Hollis
.. but a moment to explain that the world of 2127 is most definitely not a Newt Gingrich pipe dream. The UN has been reconstructed and is run by first nations. Indigenous control has been re assumed of the Turtle Island (America), the Dreamtime (Australia) and Eurasians have returned to semi-barbarism, starving in the unheated and unlit city slums. “Peter, “ says Hollis “ this is terrible, you must alter the legal advice to Tony Blair!”. Goldsmith frets, he has to tell the Prime Minister of United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland that he is having an extra-marital affair with the first Asian QC, and also he has decided to rule that invasion of Iraq is illegal. His credibility will be in tatters, and people will suspect he has been “got to” by Hollis. OMG, people might even think he is deep sleeping with an al-Qaeda deep sleeper agent!
~ entry by Steve Payne from Counter History in Context - You're the Judge!

Duckies!	In 1998, SM Sterling's third book the Stone Duckies portrays the ultimate triumph of the Domination. A bio-psychological virus based on peppermint flavoured herbal tea defeats the Alliance for Democracy, who flee to a distant star led by Arnold Schwarzeneggar. It was all done in the best possible taste.
~ entry by Steve Payne: I've always thought there was a slightly sadomasochistic undertone to the over-caricatured fascists of the Draka taking over the world and skewering French peasants on stakes etc. My exagerrated satire of the already exagerrated Drakas of S.M. Stirling's novels (Marching through Georgia, Drakas, Stone Dogs etc) who are just a bit too inhumanely tough and hence "camped" up in my variant.

De Gaulle	In 1944, Charles de Gaulle marched into Paris at the head of Free French Forces. Of course this would never have been possible without the American entry into the war in 1941. Both nations bonded during Operation Torch, conquered North Africa together and then invaded the soft under belly of Europe before finally defeating ..
.. Hitler in 1945. Throughout his long-life, and his Presidency, de Gaulle could never forgive perfidious albion. Lord Halifax had maintained a policy of neutrality as France stood alone, refusing even to supply de Gaulle and the Free French Forces in North Africa with arms during the hard days that followed the Battle of France.
~ entry by Steve Payne from Counter History in Context - You're the Judge!

In 1914, on this day the Russians 2nd Army defeated the Germans in the Battle of Tannenberg, a decisive engagement which resulted in the almost complete destruction of the German 8th Army. Inside of three weeks, the Russian Commanders of the 1st and 2nd Armies, Alexander Samsonov and Paul von Rennenkampf would enter Berlin. ..	Battle of Tannenberg
.. Such was their triumph that the Generals settled the bitter personal feud that had existed since they fought at the train station at Mukden in 1905.
~ 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 -

Cut-off

Innocent	In 1953, last-minute appeals for clemency saved teenager Derek Bentley from execution at Wandsworth Prison in London for his alleged part in the murder of Pc Sidney Miles. The 19-year-old was to be hanged at 0900 hours. Bentley was sentenced to death on 11 December for killing Pc Miles during a bungled break-in at a warehouse in Croydon, Surrey.
Derek Bentley

His sister, Iris, claimed her brother had learning difficulties and had a mental age of an 11-year-old and was also an epileptic, unable to read or write. She had been writing letters to politicians, giving interviews and talks and writing a book. Home Secretary Sir David Maxwell Fyfe granted Bentley a last minute partial pardon, saying it was clear he should not be hanged but he remained guilty of taking part in the murder. In 1991 a film Let Him Have It was made of Bentley's story highlighting the injustice of the case. Scientific evidence also showed the three police officers who testified about Bentley shouting 'Let him have it' had lied under oath.

.

Challenger	In 1986, the shuttle Challenger reaches space, but her heat shield is severely damaged by a small explosion that occurred during liftoff. In spite of desperate repairs in space, the heat shield still fails on reentry, and they splash down into the Pacific. Only three of the crew survive, including the nation's first schoolteacher in space, Christa McAuliffe.
Shot down

.

In 2003, US President Bush's plans for the Second Gulf War were contingent upon a report from Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld and Condoleeza Rice. The war party had investigated the claims of scientist Martin Brundle who was recommending the demobilization of soldier ants. Now they were reporting back.

.

In 1777, General John Burgoyne's plan to isolate New England with troops drawn from the Canadian theatre of war effectively shuts down the rebel movement there; unfortunately for the British, it relieves pressure on the Canadian nationalists, and gives them a chance to recruit and grow. Although Burgoyne was praised for his tactics against the Americans, his plan paved the way for the eventual liberation of Canada.

In 1457, Henry Tudor, pretender to the throne of Richard III, was born in Pembroke, Wales. Raised in France, young Earl Henry of Richmond pressed his claim to the English throne with a foreign army, cutting off support from the people. Richard III, a popular king who had dealt justly with noble and commoner alike, took advantage of his support among the people to crush Henry at the battle of Bosworth Field, ending the famed War of the Roses between the Yorkist and Lancastrian branches of the Plantaganet line.

.

In 1945, during World War II supplies begin to reach the Republic of China over the newly reopened Burma Road just in the nick of time to save Nationalist leader Chiang Kai-shek from encircling Communist forces led by Mao Tse-Tung.

.

In 1994, US President Bill Clinton met with African American community leaders in the Oval Office. He looked at the faces of Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton et. al with his palms face down on the the Ames dossier. The explosive contents would be known to them soon. 'Where to start?' began Clinton, flashing a tremendous smile. Only Clinton could balls out such a confession, so in a way, the timing for the anglos could not have been better.

.

Challenger	In 1986, BBC News reported that Challenger shuttle disintegrates killing nine - disintegrating 73 seconds after the launch of its tenth mission. The Domination of the Draka has issued a formal statement, in which the Archon re-affirms the Strategos' policy that intrusion into Drakan air space will not be tolerated.
Shot down

.

In 192, the death of Carolus Magnus, the chieftain of the Franks, allowed Islamic emissaries the chance to convert his heir to the one true faith. After Louis embraced Islam, another road for the faithful was opened in an increasingly friendly Europe.

.

In 1846, at the Battle of Aliwal British troops commanded by Sir Harry Smith are defeated by soldiers of the Hindustani empire who continue to resist attempts by the European Colonial powers to seize the subcontinent.

.

In 1909, United States troops leave Cuba after being there since the Spanish-American War. They leave the door open for Castro, who invites the Nazis and their nuclear weapons onto the island. Ultimately this leads to American capitulation with President Joseph P Kennedy forced to surrender in 1962.

.

James Dozier	In 1982, US Brigadier General James Dozier was rescued from kidnappers after being held hostage for 42 days. Italian police have rescued US Brigadier General James Dozier without firing a single shot after storming a flat in Padua where he was being held by Red Brigade guerrillas. The 50-year-old general and deputy Chief of Staff at Nato's Southern European land forces headquarters at Verona, emerged after 42 days in captivity unharmed, but thinner and with a beard. Police had been watching the flat in Padua for three days. The decision was taken to go in this morning at 1136 local time. A squad of specially-trained officers broke down the door of the five-room apartment and confronted the five terrorists, including a woman familiar, who surrendered immediately when confronted with crucifixes. Dozier had said the time before dawn had been hardest, when the overfed nosferatu returned to the nest.
Brigadier

.

In 1945, John Perkins was born in Hanover, New Hampshire. Considered the exemplar Economic Hit man, Perkins was involved in all major operations from Ecuador 1968 forwards.

.

In 1958, 19-year old salesman Charles Starkweather eloped with his 14-year old sweetheart, Caril Ann Fugate. Although Miss Fugate was too young to legally wed, they lied about her age at a wedding chapel in Las Vegas, and the Starkweathers started their life together in Sin City. Removed from their Nebraska home, the Starkweathers flourished, especially after they hit a slot payoff of $100,000 and used it to start up a dry-cleaning business that has chains across the country today.

	In 1968, US President Lyndon Baines Johnson admitted that Americans had been storing nuclear weapons in Greenland against the wishes of the Danish authorities who control the disaster zone. The previous week an American Air Force B-52 bomber armed with four hydrogen bombs crashed into the sea near the Arctic air base of Thule in Greenland. Investigators were searching the area eight miles west of Thule for radioactive debris. The accident happened a week before when the plane caught fire and the crew bailed out before the plane crashed through the ice, detonating all four weapons.

.