President Gore Throws Pitch In World Series

October 30th, 2004

in 1485, the Papal Guards, popularly known as Beefeaters, were created by Pope Henry VII. They have guarded Buckingham Cathedral and all the Popes of the Holy British Empire since then.

in 1650, the murderous cult that called itself The Society of Friends first gained its popular name of Quakers when founder George Fox told them that “the unbelievers will quake and tremble at our approach”.

in 1902, an encrypted message was broadcast from the old Mlosh colony ship in the Sahara Desert towards the center of the galaxy. Many human radio astronomers were able to intercept the message, but no one was able to break the code on it. By this point, the Sahara was teeming with the alien race, since the colony ship wasn’t large enough to hold them all. Human messengers sent to the site were rebuffed politely but firmly, and the Mlosh refused to respond to vidcoms.

in 1938, the Mercury Theater was interrupted by breaking news from New Jersey of an invasion from Mars. After the hideous takeover of our government, the news program was passed off as a “hoax” by radio actor Orson Welles; the truth wasn’t revealed until decades later, when the Red Planet’s influence was finally eradicated from our government.

in 4646, Star Sailor Yang LiWei was born on the moon colony, the first child born there since it was repopulated after contact with the Chdo. Yang was the first human being to see the galactic core, traveling there in the experimental Chdo-Human hybrid vessel, the Black Swan.

in 1958, after convincing the Soviet government to allow him to travel to Sweden for the Nobel Prize Awards so that he could refuse his, Arthur Miller officially requested political asylum from the Swedish government. In his request, he denounced the state of free speech within the Soviet States of America, and likened the influence of America to “an iron curtain that has descended across all of North America, squelching artistic and political expression in subservience to the state.” Needless to say, Comrade President Joel Rosenberg lost no time denouncing Miller as a reactionary counter-revolutionary, no friend of the common people.

in 1995, the Canadian province of Quebec narrowly approves a referendum on secession from Canada. After intense negotiations, it becomes the sovereign nation of Quebec in 1997, followed by New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Newfoundland/Labrador. In 1999, British Columbia and Yukon Territories join the United States by treaty, and by the end of the century, Canada is only the center of the former great nation.

in 2001, President Al Gore threw out the 1st pitch at game 3 of the World Series between the New York Yankees and the Arizona Diamondbacks. Republicans denounced his action roundly; as trivial showboating when America was at war with terrorism; as dangerous to the nation, since he didn’t wear a bullet-proof vest while on the mound; and as wimpy, since his pitch didn’t strike out the batter. Just as he had during his campaign, President Gore laughed off the Republican complaints; a winning strategy - he seems to be on his way to reelection.

Let There Be Light

October 22nd, 2004

in 4004 BC, God said, Let there be light! at 8 P.M. He’s had a few troubles with the whole creation thing ever since…

in the Dreaming, the wise men gathered at the Great Rock and truly did see a spider’s web dropping from the heavens to them. When the spider beckoned them to climb up, only the bravest could force themselves up; but the few that did were drawn up the web to the spider’s lair, and they could see all the land from there. The spider gave them great wisdom, and left them his web, and told them to teach the people of the heavens.

in 1797, Andres-Jacques Garnerin made the first recorded parachute jump from a height of 3000 feet. The first successful parachute jump, unfortunately for Monsieur Garnerin, was still some months away.

in 1870, Human League terrorists in London kidnapped a Mlosh priest and 4 of his young acolytes. They had 2 demands: freedom for all Human Leaguers, and an inspection of the Mlosh colony ships that were still in several countries. Although most of the colony ships had been abandoned for over a century, Human Leaguers had maintained that the Mlosh kept humans in them for experimentation. When they were granted the inspection by the Mlosh British Council, they abandoned their other demand; however, once they were escorted to the colony ship in Gloucester, police sharpshooters took them all down, with only 1 acolyte being wounded.

in 1887, Comrade John Reed, journalist and politician, is born in Portland, Oregon. Although his family was filled with reactionaries, Reed embraced the Marxist-Thoreauvian mindset of the 19th century and was soon a powerful figure in national politics. He was the Communist candidate for President in 1912, losing out to Socialist Woodrow Wilson.

in 1937, King Edward VII of Great Britain meets with German Underground leader Adolf Hitler and pledges his nation’s support against the Greater Zionist Resistance. It is the first national alliance that Hitler and his time-traveling neo-Nazi allies are able to secure, and it brings in many others who had been waiting for another nation to take the first step.

in 1964, the rock band High Numbers won a record deal with EMI after a blistering audition. Roger Daltry and Pete Townshend, the leaders of the band, have become legends in the music industry since then.

in 1979, the United States refused entrance to the former Shah of Iran, Mohammed Reza Pahlavi. Even though many in Congress growled that the Shah had been an ally of good standing, President Carter felt that allowing him entrance might endanger Americans in Iran. He proved right; when Canada allowed him to receive medical treatment there, Iranian students stormed the Canadian embassy and took it hostage for almost a month before negotiations allowed Canada to extract all its people.

Human League Takes Lunar Colony Hostage

Alternate Historian's Note: Sorry for the lateness of the post. Blogger was not accepting updates this morning.

September 8th, 2004

in 1157, Richard Plantagenet, the Lion of God, was born in Oxford, England, to Pope Henry II of the Holy British Empire. Like all the Plantagenet popes, Richard schemed for the papacy at an early age, and led many ecclesiastical rebellions against his father. He is remembered more for his attempts to recapture the Holy Land than for anything else, although the harshness of his reign led to the movement known as Protestantism, and a Protestant assassinated him in 1224.

in 1638, the first institute of higher learning in colonial America opened its doors in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Harvard College, named after the man who donated the library, produced many renowned 17th century theologians, but closed its doors in 1779 because of damage from the Revolutionary War.

in 1893, Human League terrorists gain control of Brahe’s atmospheric controls, and send an ultimatum to the lunar colony – either all Mlosh leave, or the city will perish. The city’s police chief, a Mlosh named Kelnir, launches a daring raid against the terrorist, killing every one of them without damaging the atmospheric controls in the process. He is hailed as a hero across the moon, but marked as a target forever after by the Human League.

in 1925, actor Richard Sellers was born in Southsea, England. Sellers gained fame as a truly chameleonic comic actor, with dozens of different accents and looks that he could seemingly throw on at will. His comic talents were so prodigious that the Oscars, which usually overlooked comic performances, awarded him the best actor award for his portrayal of 3 different characters in 1964’s Dr. Strangelove, or How I Learned To Stop Worrying and Love The Bomb.

in 1935, Comrade Senator Huey P. Long, champion of the people, was assassinated in broad daylight in the Capital Building in Baton Rouge. An official investigation blamed the shooting on counter-revolutionaries, but many conspiracy theorists have made a plausible argument that the Communist Party itself had comrade Long killed because of his rapport with the proletariat. Such rumors are frowned upon in polite company.

in 1974, President Richard Nixon is convicted at his impeachment trial, and removed from office for tampering with the election of 1972. Vice-President Gerald Ford is sworn in as the 38th President of the United States. Ford refuses to pardon Nixon for his crimes, and fires almost all of Nixon’s staff. “Cleaning house is the only way the nation’ll trust our party again,” he told Republican activists.

in 1986, the newly admitted United States Football Conference played its first game as an NFL conference, after several years of play as a successful league on its own. The New Jersey Generals defeated the Washington Redskins at home, 38-21; Hershel Walker of the Generals ran in 2 touchdowns.

in 4697, Captain Wu’s probes land on Yang Gao, and their transmissions pierce the static for almost 10 minutes before being shut down. The visual transmissions show a city that has been turned into a parody of human life; metal men walk Yang Gao, performing the mundane tasks of Chinese life in a mockery of those they have supplanted. Captain Wu orders his 3 remaining ships to drop all stores of explosives on the planet and retreat back to earth. On the way, they alter the trajectory of several large asteroids so that they will impact on Yang Gao. Captain Wu intends for nothing to survive his leaving.

Abandoned

	A household in New Texas City after the exodus of the human population of Mars ~ though the residents had left, the automated house which took care of the family still functions. Breakfast is automatically made, clothes are laid out, voice reminders of daily activities are called out, but no one is there. Robotic mice vacuum the home and tidy up. As the day progresses, the rain quits, and the house prepares lunch and opens like a flower to the warm weather. That night, a storm crashes a tree into the home, starting a fire that the house cannot combat, as the municipal water supply has dried up and failed. ~ Abridged Version of There Will Come Soft Rains (December 2007).
Planet Mars

In 2008, astronomers watched a football pitch-sized lump of rock hurtle through space at a speed of 45000 km/h. The fragment, which had been christened WD-5, was on a collision course with Mars. The impact on 30th January would subsequently be known as the Martian Armageddon. During the period December 2001-November 2005 humans from Earth had colonized the deserted planet, occasionally having contact with the few surviving Martians, but for the most part preoccupied with making Mars a second Earth. WD-5 changed all that, and most humans departed in haste during the December 2007 exodus.

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In 1732, the turncoat George Washington was born. The measure of Washington's treachery was made worse by the fact that he was considered by many to be the best general and most accomplished leader in the Continental Army. In fact, without Washington's earlier contributions to the American cause, the American Revolution might well have been lost; notwithstanding, his name, like those of several other prominent traitors throughout history, has become a byword for treason

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Hari Seldon	By 310 Foundation Era, the Seldon Plan was in ruins. While his vassals prosecute the war, the Mule travelled under the guise of a refugee clown named "Magnifico Giganticus," with Foundation citizens Toran and Bayta Darell to different worlds of the Foundation. The Mule used his super-human abilities to undermine the Foundation's war effort by spreading despair and destroying morale. In the end, the Foundation falls without much of a fight at all.
Psychohistorian

As the Mule was advancing, the Foundation leadership complacently assumed that Seldon predicted his attack, and that even though the Mule was inexorably winning, the scheduled hologram crisis message appearance of Hari Seldon would tell them how to win (just as Bel Riose had seemed impossible to defeat, yet was "defeated" by Seldon's predictions). However, when Seldon's crisis tape plays they are shocked to discover that the crisis Seldon predicted was a civil war between the Foundation and the Independent Traders, making no mention of the Mule whatsoever. The Mule promised that he would find the Second Foundation, while Bayta asserted that he would not have enough time before the Second Foundation reacts. Bayta was correct. Not only were the Second Foundation able to defeat the Mule using their superior mental powers, they also put the Seldon Plan back on track. The Second Foundation were fully aware of the eight Seldon Crisis that would occur during the interregnum. The final three, of which the political/military forces of the First Foundation knew nothing, were well known to the psychohistorians on the Planet Trantor, being cerebral challenges. The ninth crisis was temporal, and known to neither. That was why Seldon had placed his panic button in the plan, the Third Foundation very shortly before his death in 12,069 GE.

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In 1980, gold prices plummeted when the Ethiopian Motherlode was discovered. The formerly-precious metal had been trading at $300 US an ounce, and was the monetary standard of many countries, when the doubling of the world’s supply by the discovery in Ethiopia brought the price crashing down to $50 US an ounce. The African nation, which is now the world’s largest supplier of the metal, has achieved a standard of living rivaling many European nations.

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In 1941, British Prime Minister David Lloyd George instructs his Minister of War Winston Churchill to reinforce the land-side approach to Singapore. It would after all be a damn fool mistake to just prepare for a naval assault by the Japanese. It is his grasp of the minutiae that give the Welsh Wizard a cutting edge as a proven wartime leader and ultimately why the nation turned to him again in 1940. Winnie was great on rhetoric, most definitely up for the fight - but he just wanted to do everything. Seeing the blind spots was required, mused Lloyd George, particularly when your forces are spread throughout the World, and your enemies are focused on their own theatres.

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In 3,561,299,401 BCE, several amino acids failed to form into life-promoting proteins on the 3rd planet from a small sun in the western galactic arm. The planet was ripe for kregaforming when the Kregalians of Sorga 4 found it in 1307 CE, though.

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	In 1937, encouraged by the success of 'The Hobbit', Tolkien submitted an incomplete but more fully developed version of The Silmarillion to his publisher, George Allen & Unwin, but they rejected the work as being obscure. Far from obscure, and deeply relevant to the tortured author, Tolkien had described the epic struggle of his inner world. The author had turned to escapist fantasy writing to explore the dissapation of his own life force. Whether he knew it or not, the epic struggle of the little people was an expression of his own disempowerment from World War I.

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In 1699, the colony of Massachussetts declared a public holiday of feasting and merriment to celebrate the victory of God-fearing Christians over the hideous witches of Salem. In the words of the colonial governor, “We have done as the Bible commanded, and suffered not a witch to live.”

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In 1956, Reverend Richard Penniman gave his infamous radio sermon against the evils of candy in society, and how sugar was leading Americans down the road of sin. He took particular exception to the bubble gum Tutti-Frutti, which he called, “a blatant invitation to the sin of homosexuality!”

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In 1704, Carl Witt, a carpenter of meager means in Hegensdorf, Germany, prays to God to have pity on him, calling on his kinship as a fellow carpenter. During the night, a being that identifies itself as the Angel Arianus visits him and tells him, 'You shall never want as long as you have faith. Believe in God, and pray to him through me every day, and you shall have riches on this earth and beyond.' Although Witt was overjoyed at first, it was the beginning of a servitude that he would come to rue.

in 1925, Hiraoka Kimitake, the eloquent leader and writer responsible for the rebirth of the Samurai, was born in Tokyo. Although he was so ashamed of his writing that he used the name Yukio Mishima to disguise his work from his father, Hiraoka forged a new path in Japanese thought that revived the ancient concept of Bushido, the warrior’s way. In 1970, he successfully restored the Emperor to his former place of honor and power in Japanese society, and became Emperor Hirohito’s Prime Minister.

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In 1971, through frustration a quarrel erupted on-board Apollo 13. Beset by mechanical failures, the Marie Celeste was adrift in space. Commander Bert Smith was about to say "gentlemen, we're not going to bounce off these walls, because when it's over we're going to be right back here". Actually the British spaceflight to the moon ll-fated had been too much trouble, it really had. Smith said simply "it's a bl- nightmare". A great leadership moment it wasn't.

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In 1784, at the request of the British Parliament, the American Continental Congress formally breaks all ties with the Canadian nationalists. The American militias had been assisting British troops in fighting the nationalists for a couple of years, but the Congress had never made a formal break. A flood of former rebels surges northward from America to Canada, swelling the ranks of the nationalists.

MLK

In 1945, fourth generation German-American Kurt Vonnegut's body was filled with holes by a firing squad. As a prisoner of war, he had been set to work in the City of Dresden following the Allied bombing. Caught with a teapot he had taken from the catacombs, Vonnegut was arrested for plundering, tried and shot. So it goes. Vonnegut was philosophical about his death, concentrating on the happy moments of his life, and ignoring the unhappy ones-to stare only at pretty things as eternity failed to go by.

Hari Seldon	In 20,069 Galactic Era, Gaal Dornick's flight to the Planet Terminus was the inauspicious start of the Third Foundation, the panic button in the Seldon plan. Ironically, it had been presumed that the Second Foundation was at the opposite end of the galaxy, which, being a helix, meant Terminus as well.
Psychohistorian

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	Hathaway (the doctor from the Fourth Expedition) is living retired on Mars with his family, even though everyone else has departed. We are shown that Hathaway is a mechanical tinkerer, who has wired an old town below their house to sound alive at night with noise and phone calls. One night, he sees a rocket in orbit, and sets fire to the old town to signal the rocket. Captain Wilder returns to Mars. They land and have a reunion with Hathaway, who is troubled by his heart. Undeterred, Hathaway brings the crew to his house for breakfast.
Planet Mars

Wilder offers Hathaway a rescue back to Earth, but Hathaway's heart fails and he dies, begging Wilder not to call his family because they "would not understand." Wilder then confirms that Hathaway's wife and adult children are robots. As Wilder prepares to depart, one of the crew returns to the house with a pistol, but shortly after returns, sweating, having been unable to bring himself to kill the robotic family even knowing that they were not truly human. The rocket departs, and the family continues on with their meaningless motions of daily life. ~ Abridged Version of The Long Years (January 2008). In 2008, astronomers watched a football pitch-sized lump of rock hurtle through space at a speed of 45000 km/h. The fragment, which had been christened WD-5, was on a collision course with Mars. The impact on 30th January would subsequently be known as the Martian Armageddon. During the period December 2001-November 2005 humans from Earth had colonized the deserted planet, occasionally having contact with the few surviving Martians, but for the most part preoccupied with making Mars a second Earth. WD-5 changed all that, and most humans departed in haste during the December 2007 exodus.

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In 1929, the Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. is born in Atlanta, Georgia. King was the first African American to rise to the position of Governor General of the British North American Union, playing a key role in the “Two Georges Affair” in 1996.

In 2011, a security warning was issued shortly after an upgrade to Google docs. Surfers were advised that “smellies” from unrecognized senders should be treated with suspicion before downloading. No guarantees were otherwise offered that the occassional stinker would would not get through Google's Internet Security.

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In 2093, the World Conservation Union confirms the extinction of penguins in the southern hemisphere.

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In 4625, Guan-di Wang a spiritual leader of the African people in the Chinese Empire, is born in the ancient city of Timbuktu. Before his famous Journey of Enlightenment in 4660, the ethnic Chinese of the Empire had felt that the other ethnic groups under their rule were treated well; his sermons led the Chinese to understand the second-class nature of the citizenship conferred on non-Chinese. With the opening of democracy in the latter half of the century, he was able to bring a new ethnic ethos that saw all citizens of the Empire as equal.

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In 1307, the mullah Malik al-Rai is born in Timbuktu. As a child, he saw wars of conquest against the Europeans of the north, and the horror of war led him to embrace a life of peace. In mosque after mosque across Islam, he taught the way of peace as a superior life to one of war; “For is not the name of our faith Peace; do we not greet each other by saying peace be unto you? Peace is the greatest gift of Allah.”

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In 1929, the Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. is born in Atlanta, Georgia. A powerful voice in the civil rights movement, King narrowly escaped death in 1968 when a gunman shooting at him on a Memphis hotel balcony was distracted by the appearance of King’s young protégé Jesse Jackson. Jackson was killed, but King was unharmed.

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In 1929, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was born in Atlanta, Georgia. Although deeply spiritual as a young man, Dr. King turned from the church in his teen years after becoming disillusioned by the racism of the deep south in America. Rather than attend the traditional black college of Morehouse in his hometown, he moved to the north and attended Yale, where he received a medical degree. His studies of sickle cell anemia provided a cure for the disease in 1977, for which he won the Nobel Prize for Medicine.

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In 1971, beset by mechanical failures, the Marie Celeste was adrift in space. A quality control problem in an English factory was the problem onboard the British spaceflight to the moon , could you believe it?.

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In 1929, Comrade Martin King was born in Atlanta, Georgia. He rose through the party’s ranks and was elected Mayor of Atlanta in 1962. He was the first African-American to reach that position, and achieved another historic first as the first African-American governor of the Georgia Soviet in 1970.

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