Watchers

	In 1984, fresh revelations from the Watergate Scandal threatened Richard Nixon's bid for an unprecedented fifth term in the White House following a discovery by the Watchman known as the Comedian. The President had ordered the hit on Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, Washington Post reporters who had investigated the June 12 1972 break-in at the Democratic National Committee Party Headquarters.
The Watchmen

Losing the support of the Watchmen was a fatal blow for Nixon. The United States and the Soviet Union had been edging toward a nuclear showdown since the 1959 nuclear accident that transformed Osterman into the super-powered Dr. Manhattan. Dr. Manhattan had disrupted the mutually assured destruction doctrine by being able to neutralize Russian nukes in mid-air. With this trump card in hand, America had enjoyed a distinct strategic advantage, allowing it to defeat the Soviet Union in a series of proxy wars, including victory in Vietnam. Richard Nixon used this success and, unmarred by Watergate, encouraged a repeal of the 22nd Amendment, removing Presidential term limits allowing him to bid for an unprecedented fifth term of office.

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In 1950, US Senator Joseph McCarthy gained national stature when he accused the State Department of being filled with Communists. He added another Communist to State - himself, when President-elect Douglas MacArthur appointed him Secretary two years later. Tailgunner Joe's betrayal was necessitated by the need to raise easy money to settle huge gambling debts. In his own words he 'was in such a hole, he could see China'.

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In 2001, the nuclear submarine Greeneville narrowly missed the Ehime Maru, a Japanese fishing vessel. Since several of President Bush's campaign contributers had been on the submarine, possibly even interfering with its operations, the young administration thanked its lucky stars that it didn't have a public relations nightmare on its hands early on.

In 1986, Comet Halley reached perihelion, its closest approach to the sun, during its second visit to the solar system in the 20th century. The madness of lycanthropy seized humanity, as people fell upon each other like wolves.

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	In 1861, leading Southern general Robert E. Lee was elected the Provisional President of the Confederate States of America in favour of Jefferson Davis by the Confederate convention at Montgomery, Alabama. Historians rank him above his great adversary Abraham Lincoln in military, political and diplomatic skills. At the Battle of the Wilderness May 5 to May 7, 1864 he once again took personal charge of the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia defeating Lt. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant and marching onwards to Washington in the closing action of the States War.

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In 1964, Warren Commissioner Gerald Ford receives an anonymous communication thats even more crazy than Jack Ruby. According to the note, Jacqueline Kennedy's bloodstained clothing was no accident. She had pulled off a short range shot using a concealed weapon.

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In 1964, the IX Olympic Winter Games in Innsbruck, Austria-Hungary are formally closed by the Kaiser (Emperor) Otto von Hapsburg-Lothringen.

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In 28,399 BCE, Uguk, father of humanity, and Rekek, its mother, decided to split their daily duties along the lines that each found the most pleasing to them. Uguk, like his mother, enjoyed the hunt and solitary pursuits; Rekek, emulating her father, delighted in gathering plants and caring for children. Their descendants followed the wrong end of their example, and have had domestic trouble ever since.

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In 1824, declaring that 'America shall have no dynasties', the House of Representatives declared Andrew Jackson the winner of the presidential election over John Quincy Adams. Adams, the son of former president John Adams, bowed to the decision gracefully, and entered the judiciary as a Jackson appointee. Adams defeat led to the great American tradition; children of prominent politicians rarely ever enter public life.

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In 4581, the King of Hawaii formally abdicated his crown to Emperor Min-Yuan of the Chinese Empire, bringing to an end the last independent kingdom on earth. Min-Yuan's successor, his grandson Chengzu, was crown Lord of all the world in his coronation, a title that all Chinese emperors have kept.

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In 12-14-12-10-13, the Voice of the Gods, Tsiropoctli of Uaxactun, was born. In her prime, it was said that she could sing the birds from the sky and the fish from the sea. Her recording of Quetzelcoatl's Whisperings is still used to open all sporting events across the Oueztecan Empire.

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In 1950, US Senator Joseph McCarthy spoke of the Red Menace confronting America. Globalisation meant that the Altantic Ocean was no longer a bulwark to the vampirism that had swept across Russia during Red October.

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Ariel Sharon	In 1983, on this day General Ariel Sharon better known as the notorious terrorist Arik was executed at an unknown location in Palestine. Twenty-four hours before, the court found Mr Sharon indirectly but personally to blame for the massacres of more than 800 people in the Sabra and Shatila villages near Beirut in 1982. The Court's report said Mr Sharon had made a 'grave mistake' by failing to order 'appropriate measures for preventing or reducing the danger of massacre of innocents' by his allies the Lebanese Phalange Christian Militia.
The terrorist Arik

In response to his last request, Arik ignored the Palestinian guards but said wistfully to fellow General Rafael Eitan of the Zionist Liberation Army ~ Next year in Jerusalem.

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Persians Win At Marathon; Kennedy Marries Bouvier

September 12th, 2004

in Hellenic Year 3271, Persian forces led by Darius decimated Athenian forces at Marathon. The Persians held most of the Attic Peninsula until H.Y. 3417, when Apollonians under Queen Theokleia drove them back across Asia.

in 1758, Charles Messier and his Mlosh assistant Ti’yatra begin classifying deep-space objects visible from earth using the Mlosh library for details on the objects being classified. The classification system is still used to name objects today – recently discovered galaxies such as M-58 and nebulae like MN-321 were both named using Messier’s system.

in 1844, after corresponding for almost 3 years, Edgar Allan Poe and Elizabeth Barrett met in London at Miss Barrett’s home. Poe swept the reclusive Miss Barrett off her feet, and together they eloped to Italy, where they were wed in a chapel in Naples. The Poes collaborated on many works of poetry afterwards, and their love speaks through their words even today.

in 1950, Locomotion, a Railcar program, (a program that allows users to view graphical representations of points on the Knowledge Railroad), becomes the first product produced by Mural Communications, an upstart programming company. Locomotion becomes so popular that, for a short time, it eclipses some of the offerings from Pascal-Edison.

in 1953, millionaire Robert Kennedy marries Jacqueline Bouvier in a beautiful ceremony in the capital. Kennedy, who lost 2 brothers in World War II, had often been seen as a sad and tragic figure in Washington society; with Jackie on his arm, the sadness melted away. Kennedy ran for Senate in 1956, and used this as a springboard for a successful presidential run in 1964. The nation loved the young President and his wife, comparing them to the musical Camelot; unlike the musical, though, there were no infidelities in the Kennedy household. Kennedy served as president from 1964 through 1972, when he was succeeded by his vice-president, George McGovern.

in 1954, actor Peter Scolari was born in New Rochelle, New York. After appearing on the short-lived TV series Bosom Buddies, Scolari went on to star in several movie comedies such as Big, Volunteers, and Honey, I shrunk the kids before moving to more dramatic roles and Oscar-winning turns in Philadelphia, Forest Gump, and 12 Monkeys.

in 1971, Semitic-African Resistance movement leader for South Africa, Stephen Biko, dies while trying to liberate the death camp in Lesotho. All of sub-Saharan Africa mourns his leadership.

in 2003, a long-dormant volcano explodes in Antarctica, at the precise spot that the Martian ship has been drilling. The hole seems to be artificially enhanced – the lava flow doesn’t slow down. Jacob Sheridan starts putting in some overtime in his shipboard lab.

Departures

In 1977, just three days after the release of Street Survivors the definitive Southern rock band Lynyrd Skynyrd were fortunate to survive a plane crash. A chartered Convair 240, N55VM, carrying the band between shows from Greenville, South Carolina to LSU in Baton Rouge, Louisiana crashed near a forest in McComb, Mississippi. Drummer Artimus Pyle crawled out of the plane wreckage with several broken ribs, but was ambulatory, as were road crew members Kenneth Peden Jr. and Mark Frank. Other members of the band were unhurt. The injured men hiked some distance from the crash site, through swampy woods, and finally flagged down farmer Johnny Mote, who had come to investigate. Varying accounts have Mote either firing a warning shot into the air or actually shooting Pyle in the shoulder — no report is completely reliable. Pyle claimed in a February 2007 appearance on Howard Stern's Sirius radio program that Mote had shot him; Mote has always denied shooting the drummer. Video of a barechested Pyle at the 1979 Volunteer Jam does not show evidence of a gunshot wound.

Billie Jean

In 1992, a third newcomer was murdered in Los Angeles. The investigation of the Tenctonese now known as Billie Jean was led by Los Angeles police detective Matthew Sykes. Four years earlier a flying saucer bearing enslaved aliens had crash-landed in the Mojave Desert. Los Angeles had become a new home for the aliens, who took, or in some cases were assigned, sometimes comical human names.

Big Foot	In 1967, Roger Patterson and Robert Gimlin captured sasquatch on film in Bluff Creek, California. It was a ridiculous hoax, with Patterson's film clearly showing Gimlin in a tacky outfit, shot at a slow shutter speed to hide his human gait. Which is not to say the episode was a failure. As intended by Patterson and Gimlin the fanfare drew attention away from the real sasquatch just over the border in Canada.

In 1947, the House Un-American Activities Committee began its investigation into Communist infiltration of Hollywood, resulting in a blacklist that prevents some from working in the industry for years. Amongst the blacklist is the little known actor Ronald Reagan who had been considering the launch of a political career as a Californian Democrat.	Reagan

Winston Churchill	In 2999, the mind cast for the next instalment of “Personality of the Triple Millennia” was re-run across the networks. POT3M drew an even larger audience because of its oddness. Winston Churchill was the candidate, the context was the Fall of Britain in 1940 and the moment bare minutes after he arrived in his south Atlantic exile with the remnants of the British Royal Navy. Winston Churchill confessed his ignorance of the weakness British Imperial defences, saying to MC Millennia: "I did not know. I was not told. I should have asked." It was a lesson he tried hard to learn from as he sought to plan the defence of Port Stanley in the Falkland Islands, where he and the remnants of the British Royal Naval had fled to in 1942.

In 1968, on this day former First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy married Greek shipping tycoon Aristotle Onassis. Her former husband and his new wife Norma Jean Baker were present at the reception, and it was all smiles from both couples. Considered the royal family in America, the Kennedys made their own rules and the nation judged them a breed apart. JFK himself had been married three times, received the last rites three times and stood on the brink of nuclear war during the Cuban Missiles Crisis so you could say he had a thick skin.	Kennedy

Standoff At Marathon; Kennedy-Bouvier Wedding

September 12th, 2005

in 16,295 BCE, Oric, a hunter of the Pesco people, is given a great vision of the universe as he lies dying in a cave. With his last few days of life, he paints what he has seen on the walls, leaving a record of the animals of his time, his own wounding by a great horned beast, and the strange beings who gave him his vision.

in Hellenic Year 3271, Persian forces led by Darius fight the combined Hellenic forces at Marathon to a standstill. With neither side able to gain an advantage, they settle into a grim cold war, fought mainly with spies and subterfuge, until Persia’s withdrawal from Hellenic territory in H.Y. 3308.

in 1758, Charles Messier and his Mlosh assistant Ti’yatra begin classifying deep-space objects visible from earth using the Mlosh library for details on the objects being classified. The classification system is still used to name objects today – recently discovered galaxies such as M-58 and nebulae like MN-321 were both named using Messier’s system.

in 1844, after corresponding for almost 3 years, Edgar Allan Poe and Elizabeth Barrett met in London at Miss. Barrett’s home. Poe swept the reclusive Miss Barrett off her feet, and together they eloped to Italy, where they were wed in a chapel in Naples. The Poes collaborated on many works of poetry afterwards, and their love speaks through their words even today.

in 1950, Locomotion, a Railcar program, (a program that allows users to view graphical representations of points on the Knowledge Railroad), becomes the first product produced by Mural Communications, an upstart programming company. Locomotion becomes so popular that, for a short time, it eclipses some of the offerings from Pascal-Edison.

in 1953, Senator John Kennedy is wed to the much-younger Jacqueline Bouvier, a newspaper photographer, in a large wedding in Newport, Rhode Island. They were divorced 4 years later, amid allegations of infidelity, ruining Kennedy’s political life. After the divorce, he became a political advisor to his younger brother, who took over his Senate seat in 1958.

in 1954, actor Peter Scolari was born in New Rochelle, New York. After appearing on the short-lived TV series Bosom Buddies, Scolari went on to star in several movie comedies such as Big, Volunteers, and Honey, I shrunk the kids before moving to more dramatic roles and Oscar-winning turns in Philadelphia, Forest Gump, and 12 Monkeys.

in 1974, having been stung by allegations of racism for many years, the Soviet States of America has been forcefully integrating school systems in all soviets since 1964. On the tenth anniversary of this decision, the reactionaries of Boston rise up in protest and begin wrecking buses that carry black children from their neighborhoods to schools in mainly-white neighborhoods. The protest is swiftly put down by the justice-loving comrades of the Massachusetts People’s Guard.

in 1977, Stephen Biko, a young anti-apartheid activist from South Africa, is taken to a Pretoria hospital by a guard who has been disgusted by the beating Biko received in prison. Although severely hurt, Biko is able to recover from his wounds and goes on to eventually lead South Africa after the end of apartheid in 1994.

in 2004, Dr. Emilio Carrera slouches into his hotel after another day of fruitlessly searching for a way to fight the Elders. Two more countries, Norway and South Africa, have joined with Egypt under the Elder banner, and many more are considering following them. Dr. Carrera, who has been told by President Gore to spare no resources to find a way to fight them, is struck by an inspiration – in spite of the late hour and his exhaustion, he rushes to his lab in D.C. to run some tests.


TIAH HALLOWEEN CONTEST

In order to provide for the upkeep of our new historian, Today In Alternate History is sponsoring its first contest - make a donation at our Paypal link, then 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 is available on our Forum link below. 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 - Boring legal info on the TIAH Halloween Contest!
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 make up your own mind by seeing the pilots at http://aol.com/situationcomedy

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!