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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Harrison Recovers From Illness; Andersonville Liberated

April 4th, 2006

in 1802, pioneering psychologist/sociologist Dorothea Dix was born in Hampden, North American Confederation. She led the way in using neurological and chemical treatment of the mentally ill and reintegrating them into society.

in 1841, President William Henry Harrison got over a small cold he had contracted on his inaugural day. Although he had intended to show his stamina by remaining outdoors as much as possible, the bitter cold of the day had forced him to rethink that decision, otherwise the cold he caught might have been much worse.

in 1865, Confederate President Jefferson Davis visits the Union capitol of Washington, D.C. shortly after southern forces captured it. He sat at Lincoln's chair in the White House and even took a bust of Thomas Jefferson from the storied mansion. Although the city's black population had mostly fled before the southern takeover, there was still a large number of freedmen who had been taken captive, and Davis addressed them, saying, ”Kneel before your new masters, and remember this day in your servitude hereafter.”

in 1896, the announcement that gold has been discovered in Alaska is greeted less than enthusiastically by Americans who have been burned by one gold-rush rumor after another. So few people actually go to Alaska for the gold that its vast reserves remain untapped until the 1950’s.

in 1944, auto racer Craig T. Nelson is born in Spokane, Washington. Always fascinated with cars, Nelson joined the NASCAR circuit as a young man, but had only limited success until his 40's, when his team won the 1987 Indy 500. Since then, Nelson has had many endorsement deals, and has even appeared in a few TV shows as a guest star. He has won the hearts of many Americans with his moral stance against taking endorsements from alcohol or tobacco companies.

in 1960, Project Ozma, a pet project of scientist Frank Drake, started searching the skies for extraterrestrial life from Green Bank, West Virginia. The discovery of a repeating signal originating from Epsilon Eridani led to government funding and the beginning of a torturously slow dialogue between earth and the Eridani.

in 1968, agents of the German New Reich assassinate Martin King, an American leader of the Semitic-African Resistance. King had been an eloquent spokesman for the cause, and was one of the main reasons that America had not yet joined the New Reich’s global union.

in 1969, the Smothers Brothers Show, a popular variety show on television, is cancelled by the People’s Broadcasting Network after several of their skits seem to criticize the Chilean War. In spite of their cancellation and official condemnation by the government of the Soviet States of America, the brothers continue to be popular among the American youth for several years afterwards.

in 1997, French troops liberate the death camp at Andersonville, Georgia. The old Civil War POW camp had been turned into a charnel house by the Constitutionalists running the United States under President Ralph Shephard.

in 2004, the Sheridans land back in Australia with only a small amount of their original cargo from Titan, but reasonably sure that they are not going to recontaminate earth. They whisk the Projection Virii and methane crabs off to their lab in Darwin to continue their examination.

Timelines in today's post: the Mlosh, the GZR, The Sheridans, Communist America and the Ralph Shephard timeline

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Birthdays Coming Up!

August 1st, 2007

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The Announcement

ALT-CONTEST! It's been too long since we had a contest, and with my birthday coming up on August 14th, I wanted to challenge you to produce alternate birthdays for me, or, if you're more future-oriented, Steve (whose birthday is November 22nd). Send your stories of our many alternate lives to the usual place, and we'll post them come August 14th for me, and November 22nd for Steve. Get hopping into those parallel dimensions! I'll start you off with this alternate ending to match my alternate beginnings...

In 1975, the cremated remains of Jimmy Hoffa were secretly shipped out of the Grand Lawn Cemetery, a short drive from the Machus Red Fox restaurant in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan.
Jimmy Hoffa	The ex-Teamsters President was no stranger to the underworld of American society. Yet he had recently entered a whole new league of danger. In 1971, to secure his prison release, Hoffa had made a payment of half a million dollars to President Richard Nixon and his attorney general, John Mitchell.
Trouble was he had been banned from union activities. As part of his comback plan, he had recently threatened to reveal the mob's entanglement with Teamsters pension funds -- even though he himself turned the Central States Pension Fund into the Mafia's private piggy bank. Organized crime wanted to shut him up. So did the White House.
~ entry by Steve Payne from Counter History in Context - You're the Judge!

Hotel hobbies padding dawns hollow corridors Bell boys checking out the hookers in the bar Slug-like fingers trace the star-spangled clouds of cocaine on the mirror The short straw took its bow
Marillion	The tell tale tocking of the last cigarette Marking time in the packet as the whisky sweat Lies like discarded armour on an unmade bed And a familiar craving is crawling in his head ~ Lyrics to “Hotel Hobbies” - Click to Play Sample
Clutching at Straws

In 1998, keyboard player Mark Kelly described the building tension amongst the members of the Prog band Marillion at the Westside Studios in London - The whole period surrounding Clutching at Straws is a bit vague for all five of us. I know Fish blames it on the ‘live fast, die young' lifestyle most of us were embracing at the time. I think it was also because the band was so busy coping with the success of Misplaced Childhood while trying to get our heads around writing a new album. There was also added pressure from the A&R department at EMI to come up with another song like Kayleigh. We knew that would never happen. Fish's tragic death and the arrival of Steve Hogarth brought a new sense of peace to the band, albeit without the commercial success of the mid-80s. The lyrics are available at Sweb

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

In 1996, Maureen F. McHugh won Hugo for best short story and Locus Poll for best short story for The Davis Train. McHugh was also a nominee for a nebula for best short story and received an honourable mention in the Sidewise Award for best short-form alternate history. In McHugh's bleak alternate America of 1865 the better angels of our nature described by Lincoln in his inaugural address did not win through. President Jefferson Davis survived Booth's assassination attempt but was so gravely wounded that Vice President Alexander Stephens ended up running the country. Too infirm to travel, the President's dark claret engine was re-serviced as a prison train in which Northerners were shipped out west to starve among the Indians. The Friends started a new underground rail road, but only a select few abolitionists were lucky enough to be rescued.

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

In 1945, upon his return to the United States demobbed American GI Kurt Vonnegut published a set of photographs that would fundamentally change attitudes towards the bombing of Dresden. Kurt Vonnegut's experience as a soldier and prisoner of war had a profound influence on the publication. As an advance scout with the 106th Infantry Division during the Battle of the Bulge, Vonnegut was cut off from his battalion and wandered alone behind enemy lines for several days until captured by Wehrmacht troops on December 14, 1944. Imprisoned in Dresden, Vonnegut witnessed the February 13–February 14, 1945 bombing of Dresden, which destroyed most of the city. Vonnegut was one of just seven American prisoners of war in Dresden to survive, in their cell in an underground meat locker of a plant known as Schlachthof Fünf (Slaughterhouse Five). "Utter destruction", he recalled, "carnage unfathomable." The Germans put him to work gathering bodies for mass burial. "But there were too many corpses to bury. So instead the Nazis sent in troops with flamethrowers. All these civilians' remains were burned to ashes." Unfathomable was a word chosen with great care - not all the bodies were human. The photographs showed pictures of Tralfamadorians, an alien race that Vonnegut described as follows: ...they were 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. . Public opinion in America shifted considerably, understanding that the bombing of Dresden was necessary to destroy these creatures. Yet beneath that relief emerged a fresh fear which took shape into a larger question. What did the event say about back channels between the US and Nazi Governments? And the German Rocket Development Team, led by Werner Von Braun - what was the origin of their ballistic technology? And so it goes...

~ 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-one of So What If?. Historian Barbara Tuchman discusses the visit of Mao Tse-tung and Chou En-la in 1945 to Washington. What might have happened if Ambassador Hurley had succeeded in preventing the Chinese statesmen from meeting with FDR?

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

In 1935, following the recent death of Private Shaw of the Tank Corps in a motorcyle accident at Clouds Hill, fellow Officer John Bruce released the most extraordinary revelation to the world's media.
Clouds Hill Cottage	Clouds Hill cottage is situated in a woodland location on a minor road adjacent to Bovington Camp, a tank training ground. Bruce revealed that Colonel Thomes Edward Lawrence (“Lawrence of Arabia”) had been serving in the Tank Corps as “Private Shaw” and living in obscurity at Clouds Hill Cottage.
Lawrence's Woodland Retreat

That was only the very beginning of the story. Really. ~ entry by Co-Historian Steve Payne from Counter-history – You're the Judge!

Elimina Castle	In 1482, at Elmina on the Gulf of Guinea a brutal military factory opened for business. St. George El Mina Castle marked the beginning of the middle passage for African slaves en route to the New World. Out of Burkina Faso was brought the child Kwame, caste into this unspeakable hell.
~ entry by Steve Payne from Counter History in Context - You're the Judge!

In 1938, and through the smooth operation of Dane law, Winston Spencer Churchill accepted the office of Minister President of the Scandinavian Union. The appointment of Churchill was of historic significance for three reasons, one somewhat embarrassing. Churchill was the first Celt to be so named. And he was the first Celt ..	Winston Churchi..
.. since King Harold Godwinson II to rule the British Isles exactly one millennia before. Finally he could drink a whole longboat of Vikings under the table. “It is my policy never to leave the pub before closing time” was one of the bulldog's more famous expressions, presumably said around closing time.
~ entry by Steve Payne from Counter History in Context - You're the Judge!

Flesh	In 1987, Harry Turtledove wrote “Europeans found the New World a very different land from the one they left. People came down to the seashore to greet their ships. Before the arrival of European settlers, there were people in North and South America...” Turtledove continues to specialize in carefully researched alternate ..
.. histories in “The Same Flesh”. This time he applies that expertise to a more striking premise. What if homo sapiens had lived in America as had developed in the European civilization we know? With an eye for historical turning points, the indigenous people of the novel are contrasted with the homo erectus of our world, a living missing link of limited intelligence and half-human, half-simian appearance. Traditional ideas of humanity's special, God-given place in the world are challenged. Turtledove develops his thesis through vignettes from 1610 to 1988. The later, longer chapters become increasingly involving and intricate as the issues grow more complex, from slavery to guinea pigs for scientific research. One of the best entries in the "Isaac Asimov Presents" series.
~ entry by Steve Payne from Counter History in Context - You're the Judge!

In 2003, on this day the compendium “A Collection of Political Counterfactuals” was published. Simon Burns' masterful entry "What if Lee Harvey Oswald had missed?" was a keynote contribution, considering the scenario where John Kennedy had served as U.S. president until 1968. The essence of Burns' masterpiece ..	Snake Eyes
.. is the competition of mysterious forces at Dallas. Two green pinpricks are amongst the ocean of eyes who watch the Kennedy's plane land at Love Field. The presidential motorcade turns the corner at Dealey Plaza 12.29pm. Amongst the many placards of warm welcome, one says Snake Eyes watching you. Kennedy instinctively ducks, and the assassins bullets thud harmlessly into the upholstery of the 1961 Lincoln Continental.
~ entry by Steve Payne from Counter History in Context - You're the Judge!

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