Shocked

Jesus	In 1843, the next day after Christmas, Scrooge arrives at work early. Cratchit is late and Scrooge pretends at first to be his old selfish self, but then tells Cratchit that he is going to raise his salary. Cratchit is shocked and Scrooge wishes him a Merry Christmas.
Is Love

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In 2006, on this day Gerald Ford, Jr. died aged 93 in Rancho Mirage, California. Thirty-three years before, Gerald Ford had been confirmed as the new Vice President of the United States, assuming the presidency less than six months later. Ford had become a national figure since his appointment to the Warren Commission, sensationally traveling to Dallas with Chief Justice Earl Warren and other commission members for a series of private meetings in Dallas with Jack Ruby during June of 1964. Upon its release in 1964, all files of the Warren Commission were sealed from public view for 75 years by executive order of President Johnson. In 2039, it was finally revealed that Ford, acting on the explosive information provided by Ruby, had strong-armed the CIA into unseating Vice President Spiro Agnew and President Richard Nixon, gaining him the White House. The CIA exacted revenge, scuppering Ford's re-election attempts by clandestinely backing one of their own, the “Georgia Giant”, James Earl Carter.

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Lockerbie

In 1988, first clue to Lockerbie crash found Crash investigators have uncovered wreckage from Pan Am flight 103 which may hold the key to the Lockerbie air disaster. Rescue teams are continuing their search for bodies and the death toll currently remains at 240. This number includes Levi Stubbs, Abdul 'Duke' Fakir, Renaldo 'Obie' Benson, and Lawrence Payton who had been members of the band the Four Tops for 42 years.

Michael Charles, who is heading the investigation said it is not known yet if the crash was caused by structural failure or a bomb. Investigators cannot establish if the plane disintegrated before it came to ground, suggesting a bomb, or if it was destroyed by impact on the ground after severe structural failure led to its descent. Aviation experts have said they believe the most likely cause is structural failure after an initial inspection of the black box flight recorders did not disclose anything. Only a split second before radar contact was lost there was a 'faint unquantified noise'.

In 1972, on this day the plans for the inauguration of President-elect Richard M Nixon startled to unravel big time. Former President Harry S. Truman died in Kansas City, Missouri. Then, the incumbent Lyndon Baines Johnson suffered a third and fatal heart attack. Vice President Hubert Humphrey had been sworn in for three weeks according to the US Constitution, with President-elect Richard M Nixon arguing that his Government-in-transition should take office earlier than planned.

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In 1972, on this day Harry S. Truman died in Kansas City, Missouri. Despite his folky appeal that “the buck stops here”, corruption was rife in Truman's cabinet and he lost the 1952 election to his bitter enemy Douglas MacArthur.

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In 2006, on this day Leslie Lynch King, Jr. died aged 93 in Rancho Mirage, California. As a member of the Warren Commission, and after travelling to Dallas in 1964, Senator King issued a robust defence of Jack Ruby, prompting Earl Warren to describe the Senator as “just plain crazy”. King left the senate shortly afterwards and pursued a career in charitable affairs.

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Four Tops

In 1988, in a Christmas special, tributes from around the world were paid to Levi Stubbs, Abdul 'Duke' Fakir, Renaldo 'Obie' Benson, and Lawrence Payton who had been members of the band the Four Tops for 42 years until the Lockerbie Crash. TV Channels ran some of their hits: I Can't Help Myself, Reach Out, I'll be there, 'Standing in the Shadows of Love,' It's the Same Old Song. It was just a very very sad moment.

New Plymouth

In 1620, the Pilgrim Fathers land at what becomes New Plymouth in Massachusetts. Today, New Plymouth is the capital of an Anglophone pocket of North America. Surrounded by a patch work quilt of nations, European and Amerindian, English is currently the fourth popular language in the continent after French, Spanish and Dutch.

In 1861, the United States government refused to free Confederate diplomatic envoys James M. Mason and John Slidell. While traveling to take up the post of Confederate envoy to Britain and France, on the British mail steamer RMS Trent, the ship was stopped by USS San Jacinto on November 8, 1861. Mason and John Slidell were confined in Fort Warren, Boston Harbor, precipitating the Trent Affair that brought Britain into open war with the United States of America.

Mason

Truman

In 1972, on this day Harry S. Truman, a former President, died in Kansas City, Missouri. The 33rd US President Harry S Truman had honoured a pledge to the American people. The use of a nuclear weapon on Tokyo he had clarified, was a once only tactic that could not be, and should not be, re-used. The post-war world was a great deal more complex than the world of 1945, and the weapon had become a great danger to the continuation of life on earth. Out office of office, Truman had led a peace movement that had delivered disarmament during the peace era of the late 1960s.

In 1979, Soviet Special forces troops take over presidential palace in Kabul, Afghanistan. The Al-qaeda government of President Osama Bin Laden flees the capital, appealing to their American allies for assistance in their hour of need.	Bin Laden

In 1972, on this day Harry S. Truman died in Kansas City, Missouri. Once considered a Presidential candidate, Truman was forced to withdraw from the 1944 Campaign Race after his $10 membership of the Ku Kux Klan emerged.

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In 0, a young Hebrew couple, the woman heavy with child, were given shelter in an inn in Bethlehem. The innkeeper, whose wife had just had a baby, took pity on them and gave them his finest room free of charge.

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In 2006, on this day Gerald Ford, Jr. died aged 93 in Rancho Mirage, California. Ford was the only person to occupy the White House who had been elected neither to the presidency nor the vice-presidency. His decision to intervene in Vietnam was therefore all the more controversial, because in his two and half years as President, Ford had never faced, nor planned to face the voters. This window of oppportunity presented the congressional-military-industrial complex with a window of opportunity which they seized with both hands.

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Blows

In 1905, the Great War ended in an irretrievable British débâcle, leading to occupation, reparations and the loss of several colonies. E. Phillips Oppenheim's A Maker of History records how thousands of German immigrants had been acting as pre-invasion intelligence-gatherers, ensuring that `the German Army knew almost to a bale of hay what provender lay between London and the coast'. As `Captain X', the head of German intelligence in London, explained to Oppenheim: 'There are in this country 290,000 young countrymen of yours and of mine who have served their time, and who can shoot ... Clerks, waiters and hairdressers ... each have their work assigned to them. The forts which guard this great city may be impregnable from without, but from within -- that is another matter'.

Thomas Edward Lawrence	"He [Aaronsohn] meant to make a new nation, to restore a lost influence, to give twenty millions of Semites the foundations on which to build an inspired dream-palace of their national thoughts.” ~ Colonel Thomas Edward Lawrence in Seven Pillars of Wisdom Justifying the actions of Sarah and Aaron Aaronsohn the individuals most directly responsible for the creation of the State of Israel in 1919. Both Aaronsohns had been leader organizers of NILI, a secret intelligence group pursuing unorthodox means to assist in the liberation of Palestine. NILI had provided military intelligence to the Turks that had been used to crush British forces under General Edmund H.H. Allenby. Allenby himself had been duped, believing that Zionist aspirations would be served by means of an attack by surprise through Beersheba, using the map of water sources provided by Aaronsohn, and skirting around the strong Turkish force that blocked the advance north from Gaza. The destruction of British forces created a post-war vacuum in Palestine that was very much in the Zionists favour. It is widely believed now that the actions of NILI brought forward the creation of the State of Israel by a generation, ensuring a population movement of European Jewry before the rise of Hitler.
Arabist

Kinky Friedman	In 2008, explaining that sometimes its okay to get a little kinky, Texan singer/songwriter Richard S. Friedman entered Election Day as the underdog candidate for US President. Kinky promised America that “Musicians can run this country better than politicians. We won't get a lot done in the mornings, but we'll work late and be honest."

In 1963, Vietnamese President Ngo Dinh Diem and his younger brother, Ngo Dinh Nhu are murdered, overthrowing the Government of the Republic of Vietnam. That evening at Saigon international airport, the assassins board a plane to the south-western United States. They've got a tight schedule; in just twenty days time they have an appointment with two more brothers, the Kennedys. The incredible story of this double-hit brought to the cinema in the 1981 movie Nighthawks	Nighthawks

Versailles	In 1917, British Foreign Secretary Arthur James Balfour proclaimed support for Palestinian self-rule in a letter to Emir Faisal, a son of Sherif Hussein of Mecca. The letter stated the position, agreed at a British Cabinet meeting on October 31, 1917, that the British government supported nationalist plans for an Arab "national home" in Palestine, with the condition that nothing should be done which might prejudice the rights of Jewish kibbutzim there. The "Balfour Declaration" was later incorporated into the Sèvres peace treaty with Turkey, Treaty of Versailles (pictured) and the Mandate for Palestine.

In 1948, in a dramatic political comeback, Harry S. Truman defeated Thomas E. Dewey for the US presidency. Truman had been nominated for the Vice Presidency in 1944, and briefed fully on the Bomb, principally to ensure the Bomb was not dropped. However, Roosevelt died unexpectedly in the fall, and it was Dewey who won the '44 election and decided to drop the Bomb to bring a speedy end to the Pacific War with minimal US casualties. The Tokyo strike was seen by Communists as a sign of weakness by the US Government, unable to stomach the casualty count necessary for Operation Downfall. No sooner had Japan capitulated, than China descended into civil war, and Dewey was trapped in the Pandora's box of his own logic.	Harry S Truman

After - conclusion

The state of TIAH

January 31st, 2007

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Alternate Historian's Note: Today we're going to conclude the presentation of After, our NaNoWriMo novel. We will then begin work on a side-project – a collection of several timelines with more-or-less complete stories inside them – The Fall, the Tolman timeline, the Mormon War, the Lascaux Cave story, and more – that will have After included with it. Once they're edited together, we'll put the lot up for sale on Lulu. If you would be interested in this, or would like to suggest something for inclusion in the collection, please email me and let me know. And, speaking of side projects, Guest Historian Stephen Payne has one, Crimson Kiss, available for free on Lulu. Check it out.

Harry S Truman	In 1950 President Harry S. Truman announced a program to develop the hydrogen bomb. Agonisingly, the perverse result of the 1952 presidential race resulted in his passage of the technology to President-elect Douglas MacArthur, a megalomaniac who he had dismissed for requesting thirty to ..
.. fifty nuclear strikes in Manchuria to reach a decision in the Korean War.
~ entry by Steve Payne from counter history in context - you're the judge!

In 1995 Mexican President Ernesto Zedillo Ponce de León authorizes a $20 billion loan to enable the United States to stabilize its economy as President Bill Clinton makes fresh attempts to lift the broken nation from the ashes of defeat in the Cold War.	Ernesto Zedillo
~ entry by Steve Payne from Counter History in Context - You're the Judge!

Charles the Bol..	In 1951 the Duchy of Burgundy joins neighbour state France in the European Economic Community. The two French nations had previously remained independent ever since Charles the Bold's victory at the Battle of Nancy in 1477.
~ entry by Steve Payne from counter history in context - you're the judge!

In 1876 The United States orders all Native Americans to move into reservations. These would finally empty in 2059 as the indigenes quit the Turtle Island known to the European Tourist as America.	Native American..
~ entry by Steve Payne from Counter History in Context - You're the Judge!

in 2007, as Heavenly forces break down the walls of New Babylon, now-former European Union President and current Anti-Christ Morris Appleby kneels before the last Christian priest in his domain and confesses his sins. Just after he asks for forgiveness and takes Jesus into his heart, the Host bursts in on him. “My brethren,” he announces to them, “I am now one of you.”

After(conclusion)
It took a few days, but Senator Kerry and President Bush unraveled the coup as they advanced across the country and entered Washington, D.C. The generals and CIA men who were at the top of the conspiracy were thrown into jail, and Senator Kerry promised that when he took office as president the next month, they would be stuck in a jail cell for the rest of their lives. The nation's pundits found the coup the perfect example of the perfidy of the other side, no matter which side of the political spectrum they fell on.
Ordinary people tried to pull their lives back together. Jake and Mike moved into the Johnson's house across the street from Steph. Mike found the presence of a former sergeant oddly comforting, and Jake – well, Jake spent a lot of time with Janice. Janice published a book about the coup which became a major bestseller, and made her small group of friends heroes. She spent a lot of time traveling around the country, with Jake by her side, giving lectures on how the paranoid atmosphere of 2004 contributed to the near-success of the governmental overthrow.
Steph became the most popular real estate agent at her office; everyone wanted to be sold their new home or office by the agent who had saved the president. Even when she self-deprecatingly told them that she had only been part of the group, they still asked to hear about it. She didn't like to talk about it too much, because it made her think of Kevin; but she usually indulged them a bit. It really helped her sales figures.
Joan and George became the most popular kids at their schools, regaling the student body with their tales of life on the run, agents busting into their house, and dead bodies everywhere. George, in particular, embellished a few of the stories to make himself more central, but no one really took him to task about it.
Kevin's sister Rene sold his house, but took his dog. She used the money that she inherited from him to fund a scholarship for promising students of computer science. She felt that he would have wanted something for people to remember him by, if he couldn't enjoy the money himself.

On the anniversary of the coup, the 6 Austinites got together at Steph's place for dinner. After the fine meal, Janice raised a glass of wine. “To Kevin and Eli,” she said. The others toasted, the adults with wine and the kids with soda. After a moment of silence for their departed friends, the kids cleared off the table and went to bed while the adults gathered in the living room.
“There are days when it almost seems like it didn't happen,” Mike said, looking out Steph's window. “Everything's just the same as it always was.”
“No, it's different.” Janice plopped herself down on the couch by Jake. “A lot more people are reading conspiracy web sites.”
Steph smiled as she took a seat in her big recliner. “Who could blame them?”
“I'm getting, like, half a million hits a day,” Mike said, proudly. “You wouldn't believe the ad revenues.”
Jake shook his head. He was not entirely comfortable with how they made their money these days. “It's a little hard for me to accept that we're all making a nice livin' off of something that almost destroyed our country.”
“Almost,” Janice reminded him. “But, it didn't. We're stronger than that. That's what all these little petty wannabe dictators forget about us. We're way too attached to freedom to just let it go cuz of a fake nuke.”
“Let's not talk about it anymore,” Steph said. “I have to talk about it with clients all the time.”
“OK,” Janice said, “but you're really cutting down on my conversational repertoire.”
“Hey,” Mike said, turning back to the group, “what do you think they would've done if Kerry hadn't won the election?” He wilted a bit as Steph glared at him. “What? That's an entirely different subject.”
“I don't want to talk about alternate reality again,” Steph said. She looked over at Janice and Jake. “He talks about that all the time when y'all are off on your book tours. He comes over here for dinner, and talks to kids about this new site he found about alternate history. Now, it's finally gotten Joanie interested in history, so it's not all bad, but you should hear some of the crazy things they talk about.”
“Well, there are changes I'd make in this one,” Jake said, putting his arm around Janice's shoulders, “but this reality seems to have worked out all right.”
“There's a change I'd make,” Steph said, looking with just a slight twinge of envy at the happy couple.
“Me, too,” Mike said, looking back outside. “Of course, we wouldn't have met each other without the coup. Except for Janice and me; and you two, I guess, because of the whole married to each other thing.” He shut his mouth to contain the tumble of words.
“Life is strange,” Janice said. “You never know where it's going to take you.”
“Good places, sometimes,” Jake said, holding her hand.
“And bad,” Mike said, looking out the window again.
“Like you said last year,” Steph told them. “Interesting times.”

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Regrets

August 7th, 2007Reposted due to error

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The Announcement

Even More Groggy Alternate Historian Says: Steve will submit the post today – except for me reminding you to send in your alternate birthdays for me (August 14, 1965) and Steve (November 22, 1967) for our Birthday Contest!

In 1975, at the two-story house at 17841 Beaverland, former President of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Jimmy Hoffa attended the last professional meeting of his career. Frank Sheeran introduced Hoffa to the fourth dimensional aliens who Kurt Vonngeut had likened to Plumber's friends.
Jimmy Hoffa	Tralfamadorians have the ability to experience reality in four dimensions; meaning, roughly, that they have total recall of both past and future, and they are able to randomly access any part of their lives from birth to death, at will. Able to see along the timeline of the universe, they know the exact time and place of its accidental annihilation by means of a Tralfamadorian experiment, but are powerless to prevent it.
This power was shared with Jimmy Hoffa before he died. By the end of the presentation, Hoffa accepted his fate - Hoffa had his own house "painted" when Sheeran fired two shots into his brain.
~ entry by Steve Payne from Counter History in Context - You're the Judge!

Ziggy Stardust	Ziggy played guitar, jamming good with Weird and Gilly, and the spiders from Mars. He played it left hand But made it too far Became the special man, then we were Ziggy's band ~ Lyrics to “Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars” - Click to Play Sample
Spiders from Mars

The Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) was a US spacecraft developed by NASA and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and launched November 1996. It began the United States's return to Mars after a 20-year absence. It completed its primary mission in January 2001 and was in its third extended mission phase when it lost contact with NASA in November 2006. On November 2, 2006, the spacecraft failed to respond to messages and commands. A faint signal was detected three days later which indicated that the craft had gone into safe mode. All attempts to recontact the Mars Global Surveyor and resolve the problem failed. In January 2007 NASA officially ended the mission. In 2012 faint signals were again detected, including a visual link. Who other than Ziggy Stardust would have had the imagination to foresee Spiders from Mars? The lyrics are available at at Stllyrics

~ quotation by Co-Historian Steve Payne from Counter-history – You're the Judge!

In 1945, with the English Channel mined by the Kriegsmarine, Vati announced a new dawn for Germany. That evening in London and Washington, the dawn came early. Brighter than a thousand suns.

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

In 1947, Major Jesse Marcel and a "man in plainclothes" accompanied William "Mac" Brazel back to his New Mexico ranch where more pieces were picked up from the remains of the crashed "Roswell" craft. Brazel told the pair he had seen aliens, who he described as "two feet high, and green, and shaped like plumber's friends. Their suction cups were on the ground, and their shafts, which were extremely flexible, usually pointed to the sky. At the top of each shaft was a little hand with a green eye in its palm." No fool, Marcel noticed a complete absence of surprise on his mysterious colleague's face.

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

In 2009, the TV networks presented episode twenty seven of So What If?. British Prime Harold Macmillan speaks about the Winds of Change sweeping through the Great Plains of North America. John Pilger asks whether the First Nations can live at peace within the artifical boundaries demarcated by the departing British imperialists.

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

In 1971, the Winterberry wrote in his diary : “It was Uncle Jack who taught me how to read and write. I think it took a long time but I'm not sure. I heard him arguing about it with mother about it one night a few years ago when I wasn't supposed to be out of my room, but I was very excited with the next day being my birthday and I couldn't sleep..”. Nick DiChario's alternate history story appeared in Alternate Kennedys, an interesting speculation on a dark Kennedy family secret. Nominated for both the World Fantasy Award and the Hugo Award, DiChario explored the disturbing premise that Teddy Kennedy did not drown in Poucha Pond after the party on Chappaquiddick Island but was kept in secrecy by his close family at Hyannis Port.

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

In 2016, following a night of teenage partying, drunken student Buford Rogerson III fell asleep on the city transit during a memorable journey home. Rogerson had forgotton to lock the keypad on his Blackberry Pulsar 6G data cell. Snoring loudly, he rested up against another passenger in the untroubled sleep that only the very drunk can know. The uncomfortable fidgeting of this other passenger resulted in a random key stroke pattern during the hour long journey. The following morning, the hungover student discovered he had won several auctions on eBay, bought a small cheetah named Larry that was currently being shipped from East Africa, and also married two cybernetic wives from Eastern Europe.

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

Elimina Castle	In 1482, to pass the long night of six hundred years at St. George El Mina Castle, Kwame’s brother spoke to him of African Poetry. “Africa tell me, Africa – Is this your back that is bent This back that breaks under the weight of humiliation, This back trembling ..
.. with red scars And saying yes to the whip under the midday sun But a grave voice answer me Impetuous child that tree young and strong That tree over there Splendidly alone amidst white and faded flowers, That is your Africa springing up anew Springing up patiently obstinately Whose fruits bit by bit acquire The bitter taste of liberty.”
~ entry by Steve Payne from Counter History in Context - You're the Judge!

In 1952, on this day 33rd US President Harry S Truman made a pledge to the American people. The use of a nuclear weapon on Tokyo he clarified, was a once only tactic that could not be, and should not be, re-used. The world of 1945 was a great deal less complex than the world of 1952, and the weapon was now a great danger ..	Harry S Truman
.. to the continuation of life on earth. Part of the decision to use the bomb, he stated, was a calculation based on the absent threat of retaliation. Things had changed. Disarmament was the correct step now.
~ entry by Steve Payne from Counter History in Context - You're the Judge!

Stolypin	In 1917, Tsarist Prime Minister Pyotr Stolypin followed the magician Grigory Rasputin to the nest of vampires in Paris, the location of which was then supplied to the senior Oprichnik (Tsarist Secret Policeman). The very next evening, just before sun down the Okhranka would burst into the nest of vampires and release the ..
.. Tsarevich Alexei Nikolaevich. That was the plan. Trouble was these loyal men of the Tsar only had half of the story. They knew that the death of the Tsar's only son would terminate the Romanov line. However they had been told the Tsarevich suffered from a terminal blood-related condition known only to the Russian Royal Household, which they assumed was haemophilia. Actually, the Tsarevich had already died, and was suffering from Blood Sucking vampirism.
~ entry by Steve Payne from Counter History in Context - You're the Judge!

In 1945, a wretched US President Harry S Truman pours himself a bourbon. Contrary to the advice of his short-fused military, he is starting to believe that the delayed Japanese surrender is in fact nothing other than the slow cogs of decision-making. Perhaps, probably, a further strike on Nagasaki is unnecessary. ..	Malebron
.. Startled by the door opening unannounced, he looks up from the Resolute Desk to see a golden warrior has entered the Oval Office. Is there light yet in Gorias? asks Malebron. Findhorn crashes into the door. “Yes, sir” replies the President, guessing that he is being asked whether Nagasaki has been struck yet. “Good, then you must not use the Spear of Light” counsels Malebron and disappears. Alone, Truman opens the door to find two huge gouges in the wood work where the Unicorn had struck.
~ entry by Steve Payne from Counter History in Context - You're the Judge!

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