Wrong

Communist	In 1812, the communist traitor Charles John Huffam Dickens was born in Portsmouth, England. Under the code-name 'Boz', Dickens was an agitator for revolutionary change in Victorian society. On 9 June 1865 Boz orchestrated the Staplehurst rail crash, a disaster within a disaster. The first seven carriages of the train plunged off a cast iron bridge that was being repaired. The only first-class carriage to remain on the track was the one in which Dickens was travelling, disguised as a bourgeous author returning from France.
Charles Dickens

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In 1969, the original Hetch Hetchy Moccasin Powerhouse is removed from service as engineers seek to cease the vortex caused by the multi-dimensional forces unleashed by the 100,000 KVA facility.

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In 1962, the United States Government bans all Cuban imports and exports in protest at the alliance with Nazi Germany.

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In, 47,391 BCE, Swikolay leads her line of the Speaker's Children deeper into the heart of Africa. She wants to study how birds fly and see if her children can mimic them. She feels her age creeping up on her, and knows that she will not see them touch the sky, but trusts that they will fulfill Telka's dream even without her.

In 1992, Harry Turtledove published the counter-history novel Guns of October, in which he posed the Cuban question - what if the United States had equal capability, preventing the Nazis from arming the island with nuclear weapons?

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Stephen R. Donaldson	In 1968, Stephen Reeder Donaldson languished in Vietnam. By inclination a conscientious objector, he had been compelled to serve in the armed forces. Much later, and after dropping out of his Ph.D. program and moving to New Jersey in order to write fiction, Donaldson made his publishing debut with the first 'Covenant' trilogy in 1977. That enabled him to move to a healthier climate. He now lives in New Mexico. Donaldson's two year compulsory military duty would be the deep undercurrent of his escapist fantasy writing. In 'The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, the Unbeliever', the protagonist was a leper struggled with disempowerment in a Land he did not really believe in.
Unbeliever

Baradkas swung his rod and lofted it towards the Unbeliever. He jerked aside and clutched at the lomillialor with his right hand. But he did not have enough fingers to get a quick grip on it; it slipped away from him, dropped to the floor with a wooden click that seemed unnaturally loud in the hush of the chamber. For an instant, everyone remained still, frozen, whilst they absorbed the meaning of what they had seen. Then, in unison, the Heers uttered their verdict with all the finality of a death sentence. 'The High Wood rejects him. He is a wrong in the Land. ~ Jehannum.

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In 4616, industrialist An Wang was born in Tangshan, Hebei Province. He provided the leadership and knowledge that drove much of the Chinese Empire's electronics industry over his lifetime. Once the rest of the world caught up to his innovations, though, he fell behind, and his later years were spent in more obscurity than he wanted.

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Black Sea	In 1945, talks at the Black Sea finalised plans drawn up by London, Washington and Moscow for the final phase of the war against Germany. Leaders of the three countries, Prime Minister Winston Churchill, US President Franklin D Roosevelt and Marshal Joseph Stalin, met at a secret location in the Black Sea area. A statement issued this evening was the first official confirmation of the talks which are said to have begun three days ago. They were there to discuss the future of Europe now that the end of the war was assured.
Yalta Conference

Trouble was a paralell set of discussions were proceeding on the Rhine under which the forces of Field Marshall Erwin Rommel would be used by Anglo-America to launch a preemptive strike on the Soviet Union.

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Ted Heath	In 1974, British Prime Minister Edward Heath called a snap general election and appealed to miners to suspend their planned strike action during the three-week campaign. After no sign of a breakthrough in talks with the National Union of Mineworkers this week, he had decided call to an election and let the voters decide who governs the country. In a speech broadcast this evening Mr Heath said the government would continue to try to reach a solution to the miners' dispute during the election campaign. But he said the country was fed up with industrial action and he called on people to use their vote to show the miners how they felt.'
Prime Minister

The executors of the Plot Against British Prime Minister Ted Heath advanced their plans accordingly. Heath remained bitter over his defeat and was persistent in his criticisms of the party's new ideological direction for many years. He never forgave Margaret Thatcher for her role in the coup and would refer to her as 'That woman'.

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In 1992, with the signing of the Treaty of Maastrict, ministers from the 12 countries in the European Community take another step towards political and economic union which occured a decade later.

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Collapse	In 1987, South Korean police made hundreds of arrests in the country's biggest demonstrations for six years. Rallies went ahead across the country to commemorate the recent death in custody of student Park Chong-choi, in spite of yesterday's warnings by President Chun Doo Hwan. Mr Park, 21, a linguistics student at Seoul National University suffocated during police interrogation for alleged pro-communist activities on 14 January. The ruling Democratic Justice Party claimed dissidents were using the memorial services as an excuse for violent and illegal political rallies.'
South Korea

Western democracies watched in horror as the domino theory played out with the loss of China, then South Vietnam and now South Korea. Eisenhower vocalized the theory during an April 7, 1954 news conference: Finally, you have broader considerations that might follow what you would call the 'falling domino' principle. You have a row of dominoes set up, you knock over the first one, and what will happen to the last one is the certainty that it will go over very quickly. So you could have a beginning of a disintegration that would have the most profound influences.

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In 2017, the Homeless fashion trend scandalises the Western World. Absence of shaving, increasingly casual clothes, lack of manners and universal youthful degeneracy had been tolerated to that point, but now superstars could not be distinguished from tramps.

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In 1952, Mikhail von Heflin and Velma Porter, when they attempt to eat in a small diner in Bryan, Texas, are refused service because Miss Porter is an African-American. The Baron has little use for a restriction like that, and Toledo's, the steakhouse that refused them service, is burned to the ground that night.

Slavery Outlawed In Rome; Estellians Executed

October 18th, 2005

in 2553 AUC, slavery is officially outlawed within the borders of the Roman Republic. The move is hailed as a progressive step forward by liberals within the Republic, but many conservatives feel they are giving up a part of their culture extending back thousands of years. The former slaves tend to side with the liberals.

in 1890, Charles Brigman and dozens of his rebel Mormon followers storm into Salt Lake City, guns blazing, killing those they deem collaborators and federal troops there to rescue citizens who have been hurt by the explosions two days ago. With his troops spread thin across the city on rescue missions, Colonel Beauregard T. Jackson is unable to retaliate effectively against Brigman, and the rebel Latter-Day Saint escapes again.

in 1898, resistance fighters on the Spanish island of Puerto Rico kill 45 American soldiers attempting to pacify the island. Although Spain has formally ceded the island to the U.S. in order to end the Spanish-American War, Puerto Ricans continue to fight for another 2 years before finally being conquered by the U.S. The island becomes a hotbed of anti-American sedition, raising assassins who bomb the Congress and kill President Truman in their quest for freedom.

in 1922, the controversial film Robin Hood opens at Grauman's Egyptian Theater in Hollywood without its leading man in attendance; star Douglas Fairbanks was in prison for a publicity stunt he had pulled two weeks before. He and a couple of stuntmen had climbed a New York hotel and shot arows around the neighborhood while photographers snapped pictures; unfortunately for Mr. Fairbanks, he was not as accurate as the character he was portraying, and wounded a man on the street below. He served 6 months for assault with a deadly weapon.

in 1926, Charles “Chuck” Berry is born in St. Louis, Missouri. He is often considered one of the founding fathers of the “rock and roll” musical style that was such a fad in the 1950's, but like his musical genre, his popularity proved ephemeral, and today is unknown outside of musical academia.

in 1931, Thomas Edison dies. His electrical inventions such as the Eddie, Maggie and electric car revolutionized America and gave it the tools with which to spring forth into the 20th century as the greatest inventive power ever known on earth. President Herbert Hoover called him the greatest American since Thomas Jefferson at his funeral in New Jersey.

in 1939, fascist counter-revolutionary Lee Harvey Oswald was born in the Soviet of Texas, in Fort Worth. In spite of spending part of his youth in the People’s Marine Corps, Oswald was seduced by capitalist reactionaries and their influence caused him to assassinate Comrade President Joel Rosenberg in 1962. All available evidence points to him being a lone gunman, but many on the lunatic fringe of society believe he was part of a larger conspiracy.

in 1968, John Lennon, former bandmate of international superstar Pete Best, is arrested on drug charges after a London sergeant noticed him buying drugs in a local park. Although Best anonymously pays for a good lawyer for his old friend, Lennon is sentenced to a year in jail; he comes out of it straight and with new purpose, and turns to writing the memoir of his time with Best that will eventually become a bestseller.

in 2002, the Pentagon is unhappy about the loss of one of their stolen craft, but Professor Thomas and Dr. Courtney explain that it was necessary in order to prevent the loss of the rest. Although the Pentagon feels that their pilots could have handled the small number of ships that were confronted, the scientists are adamant that there was no other way to save the rest of the ships.

in 2003, Pope Righteous I issues an edict forbidding any Christian of the Holy British Empire from dealing in any way with Estellians, on penalty of excommunication. He also makes excommunication punishable by death. A dozen Estellians are rounded up that day and hung in the courtyard of Buckingham Cathedral, to prove his point.

TIAH HALLOWEEN CONTEST: EXTENDED BY 5 DAYS - no donation required, just send us your stuff! Only 7 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!