Terminated

Kitchener

In 1905, the heroes reception for Commander Harry 'Breaker' Harbord Morant with brother officers Lieutenants Handcock, Witton at the Hotel Australia was over. The Morant Affair was now the most debated topic in Australia, having the most profound consequences for future of the the British Empire. Lord Kitchener was the British commanding officer instructed to bring the Boer War to a speedy conclusion at any cost. London was desperately concerned that the Kaiser would exploit Boer sympathy within Germany to intervene, and seize the mineral wealth of South Africa. The Australian's governments objections prevented the execution of the officers as Scapegoats of Empire and the Boer's tore up the draft of the Treaty of Vereeniging due to be signed in May 1902.

This was when the real trouble started as the regional conflict in South African blossomed into a Great War. Westminister recalled Kitchener to London where he received a new appointed as War Minister. A recruitment poster of "Britain needs you" with the hate figure of Kitchener was of course an insult to the people of Australia. Kitchener played an integral part in the planning of the catastrophic Gallipoli campaign. Westminister requested the assisstance of Anzac troops. The major anti-British backlash as a result of the Morant Affair prevented the Governments of Australia and New Zealand from acquiesing. The spectre of thousands of Australian and New Zealand troops being needlessly slaughtered was simply to much. Largely as a result of the Morant case, the Australian army never again accepted British Army justice, or any other nation's justice, in cases involving its soldiers and citizens.

In 1980/1941, the US aircraft carrier Nimitz collided with an unnatural storm and the crew were transported from 1980 to Pearl Harbour on December 6th, 1941. Captain Captain Matthew Yelland had to decide whether to interfere with the past and stop the Japanese Fleet from attacking the US base. The true story of the voyage was portrayed in the movie Final Countdown. Played by actor Kirk Douglas, Yelland made the decision to intercept the incoming Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour, but during the attempt, the freak storm returned and sends the ship back to 1980. But this is a a different 1980 where buoyed by easy victory in the Pacific, an unstoppable military had fought the Soviet Union and lost. As the final ends, the question is left hanging, should Yelland have intervened, or let history run its course...

.

In 1793, Madame Jeanne du Barry, who had been mistress to the former king, was dragged before the Parisian mob to be executed at the guillotine. She made an appeal to the crowd, calling upon their mercy and relating her own tale of woe as a poor child who had been used by men throughout her life. Moved to pity, the crowd surged forward and rescued her from the executioner. She went into exile in Great Britain, and founded a home for wayward girls there.

In 1863, with the Southern Rebellion subdued, President Walt Whitman secured ratification of the 13th Amendment, ending slavery within the United States, and guaranteeing economic equality and freedom for all Americans, regardless of ethnicity, gender, philosophy or religion. The 13th Amendment stood as the greatest achievement of the Communist Party until President Haywood’s Community of Trade united oppressed workers across the world in brotherhood.

In 1980, a church secretary who had overheard televangelist Jim Bakker arrange a liaison with secretary Jessica Hahn called the local news station and told them where to find the pair that evening. When reporters burst in on Hahn and Bakker in a sexual tryst, Bakker’s church empire was ruined, and all television evangelists sank in popularity.

In 2005, BBC News reported - David Davis is new Tory leader.

David Davis was elected as the new Conservative leader by a margin of more than two to one over David Cameron. The 57-year-old beat Mr Cameron by 134,446 votes to 64,398 in a postal ballot of Tory members across the UK. Cameron, the Old Etonian, eighteen years his junior at just 39 had been an MP for only four years, and was discredited by allegations of drug use. Davis said the Tories must change and be in tune with today's Britain with a "modern compassionate Conservatism". His defeated rival, Mr Cameron, said the leadership contest had been a preamble to a Conservative election victory. He hailed Mr Davis as the next Tory prime minister and said the race had made the party look thoughtful and mature. Outgoing leader Michael Howard had said he was standing down after May's general election.

In 1975, the Balcombe Street siege began – it lasted six days. Three armed IRA men on the run from police have burst into a flat in central London and taken at least two people hostage. Officers have now sealed off the corner of Dorset Square and Balcombe Street, in Marylebone, after a car chase through the West End during which shots were fired. The gunmen are believed to be members of an IRA hit squad which has been behind a number of attacks in the capital and home counties over the past few months. They are accused of shooting dead Interim Prime Minister Lord Louis Mountbatten a week ago, and also of carrying out attacks on London restaurants, the Hilton hotel and the Army public house at Caterham in Surrey.

In 2007, Macrosoft, Inc received a huge volume of calls from users reporting the error 'No Updates Available'. A minimum of one update per day had been distributed automatically since the release of Vesta Home Edition. Tech Support discovered that overnight release management problems had withheld the release of twenty-five critical updates.

Unit 731

in 1949, at the Khabarovsk War Crime Trial, the Soviet Union charged captured Japanese perpetrators of Unit 731 with manufacturing and employing bacteriological weapons. Included among those prosecuted germ warfare criminals was General Otozoo Yamada, the commander-in-chief of the million man Japanese army occupying Manchuria. The Soviets are very much aware that General Douglas MacArthur has secretly pardoned the perpetrators in Allied custody in exchange for their scientific data, some of it obtained by grotesque experiments on Soviet women and infants. Plague-infested fleas, bred in the lab facilities of the covert medical experiment unit were spread by low-flying Japanese air planes over populated Chinese locations, such as the coastal city of Ningbo in 1940, and the city of Changde, Hunan province in 1941.

This military aerial spraying resulted in human epidemics of bubonic plague that killed thousands of innocent Chinese civilians. Unit 731's bio-weapons research resulted in tens of thousands of deaths in China – possibly as many as 200,000 casualties by some estimates. Secretly, research was continued behind the Iron Curtain. Disastrously the bio-weapons would fall into the hands of Islamic terrorists during the collapse of the Soviet Union, prompting the bio-terrorism of the early twenty-first century.

In 1976, Mary Jo Kopechne drove home from a book signing ceremony. Just the day before, Mary J had published Chappaquiddick, in which she described her unending sorrow over the death of President Edward Moore Kennedy in an automobile accident on Martha's Vineyard. Turning on the AM radio, Mary Jo was absorbed by Bruce Springsteen's rock anthem Candy's Room but somehow the words were strangely different She says, Baby if you wanna be wild, you got a lot to learn, close your eyes, Let them melt, let them fire, let them burn Cause in the darkness, there'll be hidden worlds that shine, When I hold Mary Jo close she makes the hidden worlds mine..

Ted Kennedy

Gasping with horror, she sees that Kennedy is beside her in the passenger's seat, laughing manically whilst slapping his leg to the beat of the song. Looking serious for a moment, he says “I should have been the greatest President, you know” and grabs the wheel, whereupon the car swerves off the road and explodes in a ball of fire.

Eden

In 1992, a post-script was added to the twelfth edition of A Rage in Eden, the late British Prime Minister Anthony Eden's auto-biography, in which he focused on his moment in history, the Suez Crisis of 1956. 41st US President George wrote - Who now can say Eden was wrong? following the recent Gulf War. After all, if the coalition of the willing had not been able to use the military bases in the Canal Zone, how else would they have reversed the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait?

In 2005, cyber-agents of the government of (censored) detect a number of alternative lifers on the Internet in the south-western United States. Potentially, one of them is revolutionary blogger known as Rat. The system information on his computer is highly irregular; Operating System: HotDog Barbecue 2003, Browser TexasToast Freeware 2005, RSS Newsreader Yabadabadoo! and Email Client LemonPopsicle, all (allegedly) running on a PC133-style computer. These cyber-agents are not fooled, they realise that Rat is using a self-generated spoofing program to conceal his $250,000 Windows 2003 Server Farm.	Rat

Dunkirk; The Object On Pindar-Asaki

June 4th, 2006

in 1869, the much-changed 15th amendment to the Constitution, guaranteeing the universality of the right to vote, is ratified by Ohio, making it the new law of the land. Originally envisioned as a protection of the newly-freed black man's right to vote, it was substantially changed by a campaign of women suffragists who succeeded in adding gender to the reasons a citizen's right to vote shall not be denied or abridged. With women now able to vote, a new progressiveness sweeps the nation and America is transformed by laws reflecting the sensibilities of the fairer sex.

in 1940, the slaughter of Dunkirk finally ends as the last of the Allied troops is killed by German infantry on the Belgian coast. Hitler had almost stopped the German Commander-in-Chief Walther von Brauchitsch from attacking the port because of Herman Goering's boasts that his Luftwaffe could take care of the Allies. But von Brauchitsch made a forceful argument to the Fuhrer that Goering vastly underestimated the skill of the British air force, and that the Luftwaffe could be of better use further inland. Goering's protestations to the contrary failed to sway Hitler, and the Luftwaffe was sent to bombard France while von Brauchitsch's soldier took Dunkirk in a week of brutal fighting.

in 1978, Mark Wilhight is carried out of the radiation chamber he had been left in and brought in front of Jedediah P. Carver again. “The change is takin' hold of you now, kid,” Carver tells Mark. “I'm gonna suggest you don't fight it. It ain't gonna help, anyway, and fighting it just makes it take longer and hurt worse.” Wilhight, confused and in horrible pain, asks to be taken to a hospital, which makes Carver laugh uproariously. “Ain't no hospital can help you now, kid. God can't even help you now.” Wilhight begs for mercy from Carver, and the huge granite man strokes a hand across the young man's head. “After today, kid, you ain't never gonna have to beg for nothin' again.” He has Wilhight taken to a private room and locked in.

in 2017, Dr. Phillip Armstrong finds something very strange on the Pindar-Asaki comet, and calls the rest of the team to see it. The object is about the size of a semi truck, golden in color, and resting on the comet on 4 huge, squat legs. Dr. Armstrong says, “It's obviously an artificial structure,” rather unnecessarily. Commander Patterson wonders if it can be towed off of the comet by the Eagle, and they work on ways to harness it to the craft they flew to the comet. Meanwhile, deep inside the golden object, their radio signals activate an ancient series of commands, and the machine churns to life, scanning the life forms in front of it and calculating a destination.

Today's "Six Degrees of Star Trek" challenge: Connect Dunkirk to Star Trek. Place your answers in the comments and see the Forum for previous results. For more on 6 degrees games, click here.

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Good long fiction from the AH. See a review of Warp at Universe Pathways Magazine

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Edison's Singing Debut; The Altamont Disaster

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 6th, 2005

in 4225, master explorer Chang Shiao reached the Yucatanian Gulf after a nearly year-long voyage from his home port in the Chinese Empire. His encounter with the Oueztecan Empire there led to a diplomatic mission that forged a great alliance across the ocean between the Chinese and the Oueztecans.

in 1537, the Templars of Pope Henry VIII surround and capture Cardinal Clement, “Pope” of the Reborn Roman Church. Vowing to never receive judgement from man, Clement kills himself by leaping from a tower in Rome. The RRC is unable to maintain cohesion without Clement, and soon becomes a footnote in the history of the Holy British Empire.

in 1793, Madame Jeanne du Barry, who had been mistress to the former king, was dragged before the Parisian mob to be executed at the guillotine. She made an appeal to the crowd, calling upon their mercy and relating her own tale of woe as a poor child who had been used by men throughout her life. Moved to pity, the crowd surged forward and rescued her from the executioner. She went into exile in Great Britain, and founded a home for wayward girls there.

in 1809, the Republic of Eire (Ireland) signs a treaty with Great Britain ending the 4-year long War of Irish Independence. Because the Irish Mlosh had been very influential in the war, many British humans harbored ill will towards the aliens; this led to the founding of several anti-Mlosh racist organizations, including, ultimately, the Human League.

in 1863, with the Southern Rebellion subdued, President Walt Whitman secured ratification of the 13th Amendment, ending slavery within the United States, and guaranteeing economic equality and freedom for all Americans, regardless of ethnicity, gender, philosophy or religion. The 13th Amendment stood as the greatest achievement of the Communist Party until President Haywood’s Community of Trade united oppressed workers across the world in brotherhood.

in 1877, Thomas Edison used an Eddie hooked up to a phonograph machine to play a record of himself singing Mary Had A Little Lamb.

in 1969, the Gathering Moss gave a free concert at the Altamont Speedway near San Francisco, California, that went horribly wrong. 4 of their fans were killed in the chaos of the night, including one who was stabbed within sight of the stage. The Moss were unaware of what was going on, and continued playing, seemingly uncaring of the misery and death around them. The concert became a symbol, somewhat undeservedly, of 60’s hedonism gone wrong.

in 1980, a church secretary who had overheard televangelist Jim Bakker arrange a liaison with secretary Jessica Hahn called the local news station and told them where to find the pair that evening. When reporters burst in on Hahn and Bakker in a sexual tryst, Bakker’s church empire was ruined, and all television evangelists sank in popularity.

in 2002, Dr. Courtney receives a communication from the Air Force pilots he had sent on ahead to earth – they were delayed by a rescue mission of their own, and are on their way to rendezvous with him. With his fleet finally reassembled, Dr. Courtney sets course for earth, at last.

in 2004, Elsbeth Danwich pays another visit to the Great Tree, and calls out Chelsea Perkins. Danwich has heard of Miss Perkins' appearance before the Council of Wisdom, and congratulates her on her manner. “You remind me of myself as a young girl,” Danwich says, hoping to flatter Perkins. When Miss Perkins makes a disparaging remark about that being a century ago, Danwich flies into a rage and uses a Demon-Touched Pebble to try to kill Perkins. The Great Tree protects her and drives off Danwich, but its power is diminished by the attack.

Christmas Day Contest! ONLY 14 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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Fresh New Poll - Shall we use future dates in our entries?

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Mozart Poisoned; Prohibition Ends

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 5th, 2005

in 1791, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, a minor composer living in Vienna, Austria, was poisoned by Court Composer Antonio Salieri. The crazed Salieri claimed that Mozart had been the voice of God, and the court composer went insane from jealousy over it. Austrian Emperor Joseph II reluctantly committed his favorite composer to an insane asylum for the rest of his days.

in 1842, famed French ballerina Ki’Ktoma dies in Paris. One of the first Mlosh generation born on earth, Ki’Ktoma had fallen in love with human music and demonstrated a grace that was, literally, out of this world. Her performances were famed throughout Europe, and she danced until she was nearly 100 years old, giving her final performance in 1818 in Paris.

in 1902, President Strom Thurmond was born in South Carolina. During the period when the KKK forbade its membership from joining the American Bund, Thurmond was the only choice for American voters unwilling to allow the influence of the German New Reich into American politics; the lesser of two evils.

in 1929, the American League for Physical Culture spread their German nudist philosophy to the United States. The small club of nudists founded in Peekskill, New York soon became a larger club with chapters across the country. The philosophy of naturalism has become so common that clothing is entirely optional in most places in America.

in 1933, Utah State Representative Beauregard T. Jackson casts the deciding vote to ratify the 21st Amendment to the Constitution, ending Prohibition.

in 1945, a Naval squadron of planes, on a training mission off the coast of Florida, disappears. Richard Tolman, cult-leading physicist, says that he can find them using his technique of searching parallel dimensions. After fruitless days of searching, the Navy turns to him, and he is able to bring the squadron back out of the parallel universe they had fallen into. News of this is quickly suppressed.

in 1956, Thornton Wilder’s dark, surreal tragedy Matchmaker debuts on Broadway in New York City. The questioning of gender roles that comprise the core of the play almost got it banned from the stage, but more recent audiences have hailed it as ground-breaking.

in 1978, the Soviet States of America and the island nation of Jamaica sign a “friendship treaty”, renewing the ties that the two nations had enjoyed under the old Community of Trade. It unfortunately draws the S.S.A. into Jamaica's civil war which erupts the next year, and proves disastrous for America's international position.

in 2002, just as Professor Thomas and Captain Laughlin are about to destroy the ship carrying them, Dr. Courtney and several Air Force crewmen, an alien vessel appears alongside the craft and beams several people in. They are able to subdue Thomas and Laughlin, and assist in repairing the ship. Dr. Courtney thanks them profusely in their native tongue, and sets course back for earth.

in 2003, a crowd of Londoners sees Estelle Gerard walking across the Thames to save a man who had been thrown in by Templars. As she holds the man in her arms, she stands on the water and preaches the famous Sermon on the Thames to the astonished crowd. Even the Templars watching from the banks are moved by her beautiful words, and all become her new followers. Each day, the rank of the Estellians grows, and Pope Righteous I will soon attempt to put a stop to that.


Christmas Day Contest! ONLY 15 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!

Forum Link not working for now - Forum has been hacked! We're working on getting it back, and will let you know once it's back up.
Fresh New Poll - Shall we use future dates in our entries?

Warp and Protocols still available; also, see the script I submitted for Bravo's Situation: Comedy. Speaking of which, the winning writers have been announced; not the ones I voted for, but you can see the one I did at http://www.marktreitel.com

Help the Alternate Historian get a better day job!
My email address for contacting me with your good news, or for more direct goodness, go to the web site and leave a comment, buy a book, or leave a Paypal donation! Remember, it's only 6 degrees of separation between you and anyone else - and thanks again!

Congress Refuses The Louisiana Purchase

October 20th, 2005

in 1592, William Shakespeare entered his play Richard III into the Stationer’s Register. Although it is widely believed to be one of his top 3 plays, it was never performed in his own time because of its favorable portrayal of King Richard, whom the reigning Tudor family had unlawfully usurped at the end of the War of the Roses.

in 1803, in a show of defiance against what many in the Congress considered a somewhat imperial decision to buy land on the president's authority alone, Congress refuses to ratify President Jefferson's treaty purchasing Louisiana from France. Relations sour between the two old allies, and the young United States never grows beyond the eastern coast of North America as a consequence.

in 1890, men across the U.S. join the army to fight in the Mormon War. Many of the Latter-Day Saints outside of Utah Territory begin to feel the persecution that drove their brethren west, and a resolution is introduced into the House to forcibly move all Mormons to the territory, at least for the duration of the war.

in 12-14-5-3-5, Utehuanoco charts the motions of the planets and devises his theory of stellar dance. He explains that stars are objects of great mass which distort the space around them, causing anything within the distorted space to move and sway to the rhythms of the stars. This revolutionizes astronomy in the Oueztecan Empire, and leads to advances in their study of space.

in 1942, a conference of African-Americans at the North Carolina College for Negroes issues the Durham Manifesto, a demand for equal rights for all people, regardless of race, color, creed or gender. This sweeping civil rights document drew support from across the nation, including many women and people of minority religions – the motto of the movement became Civil Rights For All.

in 1950, Wilson Whitaker of Hadenfield, New Jersey, started a company selling treats to children from a truck he drove around his town. One of the treats he sold was an old recipe that he was surprised had never caught on - ice cream, a confection made by freezing cream mixed with plenty of sugar and flavorings. Whitaker wrapped the cream around sticks and covered them with chocolate, but always ended up with plenty left over at the end of the day. He stopped selling them after a few weeks; but his Candy Van, as it became known, has become a neighborhood fixture across America.

in 1975, in a thawing of the cold war with the European monarchies, Comrade President John Anderson agrees to sell millions of tons of American grain to Russia and several Central European nations. Although he is denounced by the Communist Party as a sellout, the Socialist president uses the food to ease the long-standing tensions with Europe and tries to bring about his plan of peace through commerce.

in 1995, anti-U.N. members of the U.S. Congress, which has just recently come under the control of the Republican Party, see an opportunity to force the country out of the organization by refusing to appropriate funds to pay America's dues. Since the U.N. charter forces members to give up their vote if they are more than two years past due on contributions, the Republican's delaying tactic makes the international body take the unthinkable step of expelling a permanent member from its body.

in 2002, after informing the Pentagon that they are leaving, Professor Thomas and Dr. Courtney take their pilots and the stolen spacecraft off earth and head towards the Pleiades star system. It is a long journey, so they have brought some supplies that will be necessary for the trip, although the ships are capable of synthesizing much of what they need.

in 2003, rumors of Estelle Gerard fly around London as the Templars tear the city apart to find her. They do succeed in finding her mother, Sylvie, who is brought to Buckingham Cathedral in chains. Pope Righteous I announces that she will be burned at the stake for witchcraft the next morning, and commands all good Christians within the Holy British Empire to view her suffering.

TIAH HALLOWEEN CONTEST: EXTENDED BY 5 DAYS - no donation required, just send us your stuff! Only 5 days left! We're extending the deadline to October 25th to give you more time to get in those entries!

In order to give us a tad more time for Halloween, Today In Alternate History is sponsoring its first contest - email us up to 3 alternate history entries for October 31st, 2005. The best 10 entries will make up the entire content of the post on October 31st, Halloween day. Entries must be received by October 25th! Boring Legal Info - By entering the contest, 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!

Also, 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!

Forum Link not working for now - Forum has been hacked! We're working on getting it back, and will let you know once it's back up.
Fresh New Poll - Shall we use future dates in our entries?

Warp and Protocols still available; also, see the script I submitted for Bravo's Situation: Comedy. Speaking of which, the winning writers have been announced; not the ones I voted for, but you can see the one I did at http://www.marktreitel.com

Still wishing...

As your humble alternate historian enters the downhill slope of the 40's, he still has his birthday wish - a contract with a publishing company like Workman Publishing to produce a page-a-day calendar of TIAH. If you are an editor for such a company, or can place us in touch with one, please fulfill this belated birthday wish!

Drake's Poor Reward; Abolition Of Ratings

September 26th, 2005

in 1580, bedraggled and exhausted, Sir Francis Drake arrives back in England after successfully circumnavigating the globe. Although he had claimed new territory in North America for the Queen, she is dissatisfied with the other presents he has brought her, and has him beheaded. Rumor has it that she was jealous of an affair he admitted having with a young native girl along the way.

in 1774, Jonathan Chapman, known by the popular name Johnny Appleseed, was born in Leominster, Massachusetts. Even as a young man, Chapman had a love for growing things, and this served him in good stead when he was made the longest-serving Minister of Agriculture for the North American Confederation. He served from 1811-1836.

in 1888, the poet of the proletariat, T.S. Eliot was born in St. Louis, Missouri. Although he left his comrades in the Soviet States of America behind to work at Oxford in Great Britain, his sensibilities never strayed far from his communist roots. His masterpiece, The Waste Land, decried the effects of capitalist marketing to the youth of Europe.

in 1235, Isvar Chandra Vidyasagar, one of the most beautiful writers in the Hindi language, was born in Birsingha in the Caliphate of Midnapore. Although his writings skirted blasphemy of the Prophet, his work was so beautiful that he was not only allowed to keep his head, but the Caliph made him a court poet.

in 1960, Vice-President Richard Nixon and Senator John Kennedy debated in front of national television, the first time a debate between presidential candidates had been televised. Nixon, used to speaking before the media, was calm and collected, where the less-experienced Kennedy stumbled and appeared quite nervous. Most people said afterwards that the debate had been the deciding factor in Nixon’s election win.

in 1975, the gender-bending sendup of 1950’s B-Movies, The Rocky Horror Picture Show, rocketed into American theaters. The outrageous farce blew away American cultural mores and made fish-net stockings very popular. In spite of (or perhaps because of) numerous protests by religious groups across the country, the film made $90 million at the box office.

in 1990, a lawsuit brought by the producers of the film Henry and June abolishes the film rating system used by movies since the 1960’s. Freed of this constraint, studios begin producing a tad riskier fare, but stick with family-friendly themes for the most part. The few that do stray from established norms are used as ammunition by the group Focus on the Family to convince the government to create a federal ratings system in 2002.

in 4697, scanners on the moon Hun-Dun detected ships coming towards them and alerted the Star Fleet and earth. By the end of the day, there were no more transmissions from Hun-Dun. The counter-attack launched by Admiral Wu proved strong enough to push the Y’T’T’li back in the asteroid belt, but they were impossible to dislodge from there. Wu formed a blockade around the asteroids and the Fleet’s command contemplated their next move.

in 2002, Dr. Courtney and Professor Thomas ask for yet another pilot; the Edwards Air Force base commander obliges them. Some personnel from the Pentagon arrive at the base to debrief the pair of pilots who have been through the “course” being taught by Courtney and Thomas.

in 2004, Dr. Emilio Carrera and the crew of the ELS-3 begin a mission to the outer solar system. While they are officially going out to monitor for Elder power signatures coming towards earth, the scientists aboard the spaceship are using the trip to satisfy many questions about the outer planets. Dr. Carrera, who is being hailed as the saviour of humanity back on earth, is more content on the ELS-3 to simply be one scientist among many.


TIAH HALLOWEEN CONTEST

In order to provide for the upkeep of our new historian, Today In Alternate History is sponsoring its first contest - email us up to 3 alternate history entries for October 31st, 2005. The best 10 entries will make up the entire content of the post on October 31st, Halloween day. Boring contest information was available on our Forum link below, but since the forum has been hacked, we'll email it back to you if you want to know what it is. Enter early and often!

Also, 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!

Forum Link not working for now - Forum has been hacked! We're working on getting it back, and will let you know once it's back up.
Fresh New Poll - Shall we use future dates in our entries?

Warp and Protocols still available; also, see the script I submitted for Bravo's Situation: Comedy. Speaking of which, the winning writers have been announced; not the ones I voted for, but you can see the one I did at http://www.marktreitel.com

Still wishing...

As your humble alternate historian enters the downhill slope of the 40's, he still has his birthday wish - a contract with a publishing company like Workman Publishing to produce a page-a-day calendar of TIAH. If you are an editor for such a company, or can place us in touch with one, please fulfill this belated birthday wish!

Irish Independence

December 6th, 2004

in 4225, master explorer Chang Shiao reached the Yucatanian Gulf after a nearly year-long voyage from his home port in the Chinese Empire. His encounter with the Oueztecan Empire there led to a diplomatic mission that forged a great alliance across the ocean between the Chinese and the Oueztecans.

in 1537, the Templars of Pope Henry VIII surround and capture Cardinal Clement, “Pope” of the Reborn Roman Church. Vowing to never receive judgement from man, Clement kills himself by leaping from a tower in Rome. The RRC is unable to maintain cohesion without Clement, and soon becomes a footnote in the history of the Holy British Empire.

in 1793, Madame Jeanne du Barry, who had been mistress to the former king, was dragged before the Parisian mob to be executed at the guillotine. She made an appeal to the crowd, calling upon their mercy and relating her own tale of woe as a poor child who had been used by men throughout her life. Moved to pity, the crowd surged forward and rescued her from the executioner. She went into exile in Great Britain, and founded a home for wayward girls there.

in 1809, the Republic of Eire (Ireland) signs a treaty with Great Britain ending the 4-year long War of Irish Independence. Because the Irish Mlosh had been very influential in the war, many British humans harbored ill will towards the aliens; this led to the founding of several anti-Mlosh racist organizations, including, ultimately, the Human League.

in 1863, with the Southern Rebellion subdued, President Walt Whitman secured ratification of the 13th Amendment, ending slavery within the United States, and guaranteeing economic equality and freedom for all Americans, regardless of ethnicity, gender, philosophy or religion. The 13th Amendment stood as the greatest achievement of the Communist Party until President Haywood’s Community of Trade united oppressed workers across the world in brotherhood.

in 1877, Thomas Edison used an Eddie hooked up to a phonograph machine to play a record of himself singing Mary Had A Little Lamb. Although Edison considered it merely a novelty at the time, his engineers were inspired, and were soon devising methods for playing recordings using the difference engine.

in 1969, the Gathering Moss gave a free concert at the Altamont Speedway near San Francisco, California, that went horribly wrong. 4 of their fans were killed in the chaos of the night, including one who was stabbed within sight of the stage. The Moss were unaware of what was going on, and continued playing, seemingly uncaring of the misery and death around them. The concert became a symbol, somewhat undeservedly, of 60’s hedonism gone wrong.

in 1980, a church secretary who had overheard televangelist Jim Bakker arrange a liaison with secretary Jessica Hahn called the local news station and told them where to find the pair that evening. When reporters burst in on Hahn and Bakker in a sexual tryst, Bakker’s church empire was ruined, and all television evangelists sank in popularity.

Mozart Poisoned; Sermon On The Thames

December 5th, 2004

in 1791, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, a minor composer living in Vienna, Austria, was poisoned by Court Composer Antonio Salieri. The crazed Salieri claimed that Mozart had been the voice of God, and the court composer went insane from jealousy over it. Austrian Emperor Joseph II reluctantly committed his favorite composer to an insane asylum for the rest of his days.

in 1842, famed French ballerina Ki’Ktoma dies in Paris. One of the first Mlosh generation born on earth, Ki’Ktoma had fallen in love with human music and demonstrated a grace that was, literally, out of this world. Her performances were famed throughout Europe, and she danced until she was nearly 100 years old, giving her final performance in 1818 in Paris.

in 1902, President Strom Thurmond was born in South Carolina. During the period when the KKK forbade its membership from joining the American Bund, Thurmond was the only choice for American voters unwilling to allow the influence of the German New Reich into American politics; the lesser of two evils.

in 1929, the American League for Physical Culture spread their German nudist philosophy to the United States. The small club of nudists founded in Peekskill, New York soon became a larger club with chapters across the country. The philosophy of naturalism has become so common that clothing is entirely optional in most places in America.

in 1932, physicist Albert Einstein enters the United States as an emissary from the Greater Zionist Resistance. For a decade, he is able to maintain a good working relationship between the G.Z.R. and the U.S., but the ascendance of the American Bund in the 40’s marginalizes him.

in 1945, a Naval squadron of planes, on a training mission off the coast of Florida, disappears. Richard Tolman, cult-leading physicist, says that he can find them using his technique of searching parallel dimensions. After fruitless days of searching, the Navy turns to him, and he is able to bring the squadron back out of the parallel universe they had fallen into. News of this is quickly surpressed.

in 1956, Thornton Wilder’s dark, surreal tragedy Matchmaker debuts on Broadway in New York City. The questioning of gender roles that comprise the core of the play almost got it banned from the stage, but more recent audiences have hailed it as ground-breaking.

in 2003, a crowd of Londoners sees Estelle Gerard walking across the Thames to save a man who had been thrown in by Templars. As she holds the man in her arms, she stands on the water and preaches the famous Sermon on the Thames to the astonished crowd. Even the Templars watching from the banks are moved by her beautiful words, and all become her new followers. Each day, the rank of the Estellians grows, and Pope Righteous I will soon attempt to put a stop to that.

Phlogiston Discoverer Born; Y'T'T'li Flee System

October 10th, 2004

in 1731, English natural philosopher Henry Cavendish was born in Nice, France. Cavendish was the discoverer of the element phlogiston, the combustible part of air. His conclusions led to the banning of large fires, lest they ignite the atmosphere and burn the world.

in 12-8-4-7-12, Tlaloc showed his displeasure with the Oeztec by bringing a great storm from the ocean onto the land. Tens of thousands died in the islands of the gulf, and thousands more when the storm hit the mainland. Emperor Calzotz ordered the sacrifice of 100 slaves to appease the god.

in 1846, Neptune’s moon Triton is settled by British colonizer William Lassell. The colony was notable for its lack of Mlosh members; some have speculated that Lassell had sympathies for the various anti-Mlosh movements in the United Kingdom, and excluded the aliens from his society for that purpose.

in 1924, brilliant guerilla filmmaker Ed Wood was born in Poughkeepsie, New York. Wood was a pioneer in making high-quality, low-budget movies, often with props and costumes stolen from higher-budget film locations. Wood’s work broke new ground in gender politics, portraying transvestites and homosexuals with sensitivity and style. He won an Oscar for Best Director with his masterpiece, Plan 9 From Outer Space.

in 1957, President Dwight Eisenhower issued a formal apology to the Finance Minister of Ghana, Komla Agbeli Gbdemah, after he was refused service in a whites-only restaurant in Dover, Delaware. This incident brings home to Ike the injustice of segregation, and he pushes through a Civil Rights Act the next year, legally ending segregation in America. “Just as I fought the injustice of Nazism,” Eisenhower told the nation, “so must I stand against the idea that a man can be denied his fundamental rights because of the color of his skin.” In spite of often violent protests across the nation, both Eisenhower and his successor John F. Kennedy stand firm, and segregation is not allowed to rise again in America.

in 1981, in a rare meeting of all living ex-presidents and President Ronald Reagan, a bomb explodes, killing all of them as well as over 2 dozen spectators at the meeting. Vice-President George Bush is sworn in as President, becoming the first former CIA chief to assume the office. Bush’s first act as President is to issue a pardon to a man named Karl Rove, for classified reasons.

in 1985, radio prankster George Wells died in Hollywood, California. During the Great Depression, Wells created radio shows that sounded so real, people thought they were news events. His peak performance, The War of the Worlds on Halloween, 1938, scared millions into thinking that an actual Martian invasion was happening in New Jersey. After the wide-spread publicity of this event, Wells was unable to convince people of the veracity of his shows anymore, and his career faded into obscurity.

in 4697, Emperor Xiao of earth informs the Y’T’T’li that they have a matter of hours to vacate the solar system. The Chdo are sending out a nanite wave which, traveling at the speed of light, will disable all non-shielded mechanical devices; and only the Chdo know how to shield from it. The Y’T’T’li flee the system.

1st Televised Presidential Debate

September 26th, 2004

in 1774, Jonathan Chapman, known by the popular name Johnny Appleseed, was born in Leominster, Massachusetts. Even as a young man, Chapman had a love for growing things, and this served him in good stead when he was made the longest-serving Minister of Agriculture for the North American Confederation. He served from 1811-1836.

in 1235, Isvar Chandra Vidyasagar, one of the most beautiful writers in the Hindi language, was born in Birsingha in the Caliphate of Midnapore. Although his writings skirted blasphemy of the Prophet, his work was so beautiful that he was not only allowed to keep his head, but the Caliph made him a court poet.

in 1889, German philosopher Martin Heidegger was born in Messkirch, Germany. Heidegger was one of the most vocal of Richard Tolman’s followers, and wrote many papers on the subject of parallel universes crossing over into our own. Heidegger disappeared mysteriously in 1941.

in 1960, Comrade President Joel Rosenberg and Socialist candidate Lyndon Johnson of Texas engage in the first televised presidential debate. Johnson appeared distinctly uncomfortable with the cameras, where the Comrade President, who had been in front of cameras for years, appeared very relaxed. On substance, they were evenly matched, but on appearance, Comrade Rosenberg scored an easy win, just as when he carried the polls in November.

in 1965, famed musician Pete Best was decorated by the Queen with the Order of the British Empire. Her son, Prince Charles, was a huge fan of Best’s music, and Best recalled later that Charles had behaved as if Best were the royalty.

in 1975, the gender-bending sendup of 1950’s B-Movies, The Rocky Horror Picture Show, rocketed into American theaters. The outrageous farce blew away American cultural mores and made fish-net stockings very popular. In spite of (or perhaps because of) numerous protests by religious groups across the country, the film made $90 million at the box office.

in 1986, the prime-time soap opera Dallas aired an episode in which the supposedly-dead Bobby Ewing was shown showering in Pam Ewing’s bathroom. The series took a turn into the paranormal after this, and in its last season, incorporated such disparate elements as parallel universes and oil company takeovers. This confused not only the critics, but the viewers, who turned the series off in droves.

in 4697, scanners on the moon Hun-Dun detected ships coming towards them and alerted the Star Fleet and earth. By the end of the day, there were no more transmissions from Hun-Dun. The counter-attack launched by Admiral Wu proved strong enough to push the Y’T’T’li back into the asteroid belt, but they were impossible to dislodge from there. Wu formed a blockade around the asteroids and the Fleet’s command contemplated their next move.

Love and Hatred

Bombing	In 1945, BBC News reported: Thousands of bombs destroy Dresden: 'British and US bombers have dropped hundreds of thousands of explosives on the German city of Dresden. The city is reported to be a vital command centre for the German defence against Soviet forces approaching from the east. Last 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. As soon as one part of the city was alight, the bombers went for another until the whole of Dresden was ablaze.'
Dresden

Amongst the dead was a twenty-two year old American GI, Kurt Vonnegut. A man of German descent, he had been transferred to Slaughterhouse-Five, a nearby prisoner of war camp. Vonnegut and his colleagues had been hiding below ground, but were killed when the ceiling collapsed from the shock waves of the bombing. And so it goes.

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In 1968, astronomer Paul Oswald Ahnert deciphered an extraterrestrial broadcast indicating that our quadrant of the Galaxy was under quarantine from a lethal space leprosy. At first his warnings were ignored, however reconsideration was duly given when returning Lunar Module Pilot Colonel Buzz Eugene Aldrin lifted his visor at the splashdown point, east of Wake Island on July 24 1969.

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In 1779, during his third exploratory voyage in the Pacific Captain James Cook narrowly escaped death at the hand of natives of the Sandwich Islands. He had mistakenly returned to Hawaii in the season dedicated to Ku, god of war, inadvertently upset the equilibrium and fostered an atmosphere of resentment and aggression from the local population.

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In 1956, Malcolm Little received parole and was released from Massachusetts State Prison in Charlestown. A dangerous criminal, Little had avoided the draft by telling the examining officer that he could not wait to organize with other black soldiers so he could 'kill some crackers.' Incarcerated for a decade, there was a lot of catch-up to be done.

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In 1956, at the XX Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union in Moscow, Premier Nikita Khruschev revealed than Lenin was a shape-shifting Vampire. A number of strokes in the 1920s forced the undead nosferatu to possess the body of Comrade Stalin to permit him to continue his misrule. He had even maintained his corpse in a Kremlin mausoleum just in case a Dracula style exit was necessary.

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In 269, Emperor Claudius II outlawed marriage for young men, in order to make them a better pool to draft soldiers from. The Christian cleric Valentius was known for his defiance of Rome, and many young couples came to him in order to wed. Valentius performed the ceremonies gladly until the local centurion told him that he would be executed after the next one. Valentius relented, but the decree was rescinded in 271 after Claudius' death, anyway, so nothing ever really came of it.

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In, 47421 BCE, Telka the Speaker is wooed by and mated with the father of her first children, the man she names Komar. She learns to count the days in a year by the anniversary of this day each year that she was with him. His love for her led him to throw himself in front of a boar that was charging her; although he saved her and killed the boar, he died from injuries he received. Telka made sure that each of her descendants celebrated this day out of her love for him.

In 498, Pope Gelasius names this day the Feast of Saint Valentine. In his honor, prisoners across the land were given a meal of ox-hearts and red wine, to signify the blood that the saint had shed while a prisoner of the pagan Romans. The traditional feast of hearts and wine continues to this day across Christendom, although the practice has spread from the jailhouse to all those who might need a prayer for more freedom.

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In 2021, a rare form of cosmic radiation enters Earth's atmosphere, concentrated in and around Chicago. 99.9% of the city only feels a slight tingling, but one man, Eddie Valens, finds his reflexes and running speed amplified tenfold - plus, he is now able to evoke feelings of love and peace in nearly anyone with but a word. Putting these two together, and donning a pink costume, Eddie takes the name Saint Valentine and proceeds to fight crime in Chicago for nearly a decade as one of the only real superheroes in the 21st century.

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On February 14, 2003, a group of high ranking Iraqi generals, fearing the disastrous effects of U:S. invasion stage a coup. They know that Sadam as a sentimental guy would be distracted at big party for his family. The succeed in killing their President and his sons. The new junta is composed of Sunni Baathists, but they extend the hand of friendship to the world community and invite weapons inspectors. What would the last half of a decade have brought to Iraq ?

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In 1965, the Soviet States of America bans the unofficial Valentines Day holiday. Comrade Representative O'Hare of Chicago, in her statement calling for the ban, said, 'No other holiday so cheapens the idea of romantic love, or saps the will to fight of our comrades in the street, as this so-called Valentines Day.'

In 1167 AUC, the Lupercalia Festival is finally made a separate holiday from the festival celebrating the founding of Rome. This festival of ritual matchmaking, popular for hundreds of years, was certainly the highlight of the 2-day celebration at the ides of February, and most Romans felt that it deserved separation from the more staid founding ceremony.

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Alexander	In 1974, Soviet authorities executed Russian writer Alexander Solzhenitsyn. Two days before, Mr Solzhenitsyn was arrested in his wife's Moscow flat and taken away for questioning by the Soviet secret police, the KGB. His charge, under Article 64 of the Russian Federation Criminal Code, was punishable with death by firing squad or a minimum of ten years in prison along with confiscation of property.
Solzhenitsyn

Solzhenitsyn had been under investigation for six weeks after his novel Gulag Archipelago depicting life in the labour camps was published in the West. He had already spent a total of ten years in prison under Stalin for his dissident writings.

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