April 14th, 2006
in 979, King Aethelred the Unready proved just how unready he was when he fell to Danish intrigue, placing the English under the crown of Denmark. The Danish Empire conquered the rest of the British Isles over the next century, and threatened to conquer the whole of the continent in the 1200’s.
in 1799, Italian Emperor Buonaparte declares that he will reestablish the kingdom of Israel, and conquers Jerusalem to make his point. The Jews of Europe begin flocking to their ancestral home at the Emperor’s request.
in 1865, Giles Nelson, an officer in the Army taking leave from the Civil War in Washington, D.C., foils an assassination attempt on President Lincoln at the Ford Theatre. Nelson had noticed a suspicious character trying to sneak into the president’s box and stopped him. After a brief struggle, he subdued the assassin, southern sympathizer John Wilkes Booth. Lincoln, decorating him later, called him “my personal saviour”.
in 1902, French scientists Marie and Pierre Curie isolate the miracle element of Curium. Its many properties include a healing ability that cures the couple of the cancer that has been killing them since they began their work in radioactive elements.
in 1912, lookouts manage to warn the RMS Titanic of an iceberg in time to avoid a fatal collision. The iceberg crushes part of the hull, but the ship is able to limp its way to the Canadian coast. The White Star line faced large doses of negative publicity afterwards, but at least they were able to keep up their reputation of being unsinkable.
in 1952, under the starlight of a Kenyan jungle, the Baron of Death finds an old temple that had been built to his recently-freed ancestor. Inside, he finds a faded parchment that details how she was trapped the first time; von Heflin and his lover Velma Porter spring into action to recreate the conditions that trapped her before.
in 1986, in retaliation for supposed Libyan sponsorship of terrorism, American planes bombed several targets in the African nation. Unfortunately, several of the planes were shot down, and the captured Air Force and Navy pilots were paraded through the streets of Tripoli. President Reagan called this “an unbelievable act of barbarity,” and asked Congress for a declaration of war against Libya.
in 1988, America bows to international pressure and withdraws from Guatemala after a decade-long effort to keep the socialist government in power there. Archbishop Oscar Romero moved in and established himself as the new power in the country, turning the small nation into a Catholic theocracy. The Soviet States of America, stinging from its worst military defeat since Chile, denounced Romero and started an embargo against the new Guatemalan regime.
in 1997, the Egyptian 5th Regiment joined the British Royal Marines in their push through Florida. American anti-Constitutionalists, liberated by the Allies, joined in the fighting and moved many Americans to turn against President Shephard’s forces, further weakening the Constitutionalist side.
in 2005, Dave and Jeanne Lange settle down in Washington, D.C. The newly-appointed aids to Representative Carl Worthington, who will soon be President Worthington, find that, in spite of the hectic pace of post-Claw Washington, they are more relaxed than at any time in the last few months. “I don't even have to watch the TV for signals, anymore,” Dave tells Jeanne.
Timelines in today's post: Italian Napoleon, von Heflin, Communist America, the Ralph Shephard timeline and The Claw.
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I went back there with an old war buddy, Bernard V. O'Hare, and we made friends with a taxi driver, who took us to the slaughterhouse where we had been locked up at night as prisoner of war. His name was Gerhard Müller. He told us that he was a prisoner of the Americans for a while. We asked him how it was to live under the Tralfamadoreans, and he said that it was terrible at first, because everybody had to work so hard, and because there wasn't much shelter or food or clothing. But things were much better now. He had a pleasant little apartment, and his daughter was getting an excellent education. His mother was incinerated in the Dresden fire-storm. So it goes.
