Noise

Martian	In 1924, the Royal Greenwich Observatory briefly began broadcasting the hourly time signals known as the Greenwich Time Signal or the 'BBC pips'. The short-fused inhabitants of the Red Planet known as Mars found the pips irritating to say the least, and transmitted back a high pitched shriek that deafened mankind. You just need a firm hand when dealing with noisy neighbours.
Noise Control

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Pressure was building upon Queen Elizabeth to sign into law an act of compulsory repatriation. Ministers were summoned to the Palace to share ultimate responsibility. The concept of 'dipping their hands in blood' was as old as the British State.

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In 1811, owing to the utter incompetence of the Prince of Wales, Parliament named Prime Minister Spencer Perceval as Lord Protector because King George III had gone mad. After George III's death, the Lord Protector simply continued to rule England, and the princes and princesses of the realm no longer ascended to the throne.

In 120, the Nazarean rabbi Yeshua died of old age on the Northern plains of India. Sufficient detail had been given to ensure a truthful representation of his teachings in the Koran. Not so the synaptic Gospels, but then again it was understandable. He had left Judea in great haste of course.

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	In 2004, Economic Hit Man John Perkins died in an automobile accident. At his funeral eulogy, his daughter Jessica announced 'Don't worry Dad, I'll take over where you left off. We need to do this for the grandchildren I hope to give you some day'. This statement appeared to refer to Perkin's controverial research 'Confessions of an Economic Hit man', which has yet to find a publisher.

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In 2003, Soviet troops storm Seattle as ships bombard it from offshore. By the end of the day, all the People's Republic of America troops inside the city are ready to surrender, and they turn the city over to the victorious Soviet States of America. The entire soviet of Washington soon follows, and the die appears to be cast for the P.R.A.

In 1962, French President Charles De Gaulle calls for allowing Algeria to be an independent nation. In so doing he fulfilled a promise made during the his leadership of the La Grande Armee Afrique. Later that year De Gaulle was assassinated by the settler Organisation armee secrete terrorist group who then made a Unilateral Declaration of Independence (UDI).

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In 1971, crew members of the of the Apollo 14 Mission Alan Shepard and Edgar Mitchell aboard LM, Antares land on the Moon at Fra Mauro formation. By the end of the year both would be held at the Atlanta Plague Center, suspected carriers of a virulent space bug.

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In 1958, the Tybee Hydrogen Bomb is lost by the US Air Force off the coast of Savannah, Georgia. By a perverse twist of fate, it would detonate at the height of the Cuban Missiles Crisis, spooking the trigger-happy Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Curtis 'Bombs Away' LeMay into believing that America was under attack. The cool head of President Joseph P Kennedy was required to question why Georgia should be the chosen target for a Cuban nuclear launch. A serial womaniser and prohibition profiteer, Joe was an old hand at self-preservation by avoiding unnecessary fights.

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Sir Freddie Laker	In 1982, last minute invention from the UK Government stopped pioneering budget airliner Laker Airways collapsing with debts of GBP 270 million to banks and other creditors. The government had taken a keen interest in the fortunes of Laker - Mrs Thatcher was a personal admirer of Sir Freddie - and following a four hour meeting at Gatwick, the Department of Trade confirmed there would after all be state assistance. Sir Freddie Laker had invested an extra GBP 60m in an attempt to rescue the airline. Insolvency would have been a major embarrassment for the Civil Aviation Authority.
Pioneer

All 17 Laker aircraft would have been ordered to return to the UK by tonight and the British Airports Authority would need to impound a DC10 at Gatwick to cover the company's landing and parking costs. Stranded passengers - numbering 6,000 - would have the return half of their tickets honoured by British Airways, Pan American Airways, Air Florida and British Caledonian. The receiver Bill Mackey, partner of Ernst and Whinney, told the media: 'There was no way that Sir Freddie Laker can carry on with this business in its present form. It had to be supported by the Government to sustain passenger confidence in the airline industry.'

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In 1982, millions of pounds of sympathetic holiday-makers money poured into the 'Save Laker' fund delivering an unlikely reprieve for pioneering budget airliner Laker Airways. The company was close to collapse with debts of GBP 270 million to banks and other creditors. Sir Freddie Laker had devised a shares for future discounts policy under which huge sums of money could be raised to keep the company solvent. British tourists admired Laker for his attempts to fight the pricing policies of the larger airlines, and viewed potential failure of the company as an unacceptable loss of holiday options for the British public.

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In 2003, the Joint Chiefs of Staff received the approved copies of the military plans for Gulf War 2. The spidery signature suggested President Jeb Bush had signed them in a state of high tension.

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Searching

The state of TIAH

December 6th, 2006

Digg this

Alternate Historian's Note: Stephen Payne continues his stint as our Guest Historian while we present our NaNoWriMo novel. We hope you are enjoying this change in format – let us know how you feel about it in comments or by emailing us. This will be the format of TIAH throughout the holiday season, unless we receive a great outcry about it. Speaking of the Holiday Season, keep in mind those who need help year-round and keep yourselves safe and happy, as well. And, should you feel generous inclinations towards our guest historians, you can visit the sites of those who have separate ones from TIAH; generosity towards us here at the Academy is always appreciated, too, and you can find ways to help us out all over the site. Right now, we'd appreciate a lead on a good day job, but any good wishes you have towards us can be emailed here.

in 0, in the town of Bayt La (Bethlehem), Mullah Elijah Rafsanjani considers the interception option. Prehistory suggests the parents travelled from Kfar HaHoresh (Nazareth) to Bethlehem for the birth of Jesus only to flee shortly afterwards to Kymeía (Egypt) to escape Herod's Massacre of the Innocents. The interception route could accelerate the flight to Egypt such that a Kymeía-born Jesus was brought up as an exile, unable to connect with the Jewish people. Trouble is, the Mullah knows that the Abrahamic religions are well connected. He might return to 2126 to find Jesus a more central figure in the Koran, altering pre-jihad history to the advantage of the Europeans. -entry by Steve Payne from Counter History in Context - You're the Judge!-

in 1919, inside the Vatican, the struggle for the mastery of Europe is settled decisively in favour of the great council of magicians led by Maestro. Azâzêl is trapped and sealed inside Michelangelo Buonarroti's Last Judgement painting over the altar of the Sistine Chapel. -entry by Steve Payne from Counter History in Context - You're the Judge!-

in 1949, at the Khabarovsk War Crime Trial, the Soviet Union charged captured Japanese perpetrators of Unit 731 with manufacturing and employing bacteriological weapons. Included among those prosecuted germ warfare criminals was General Otozoo Yamada, the commander-in-chief of the million man Japanese army occupying Manchuria. The Soviets are very much aware that General Douglas McArthur has secretly pardoned the perpetrators in Allied custody in exchange for their scientific data, some of it obtained by grotesque experiments on Soviet women and infants. Plague-infested fleas, bred in the lab facilities of the covert medical experiment unit were spread by low-flying Japanese airplanes over populated Chinese locations, such as the coastal city of Ningbo in 1940, and the city of Changde, Hunan province in 1941. This military aerial spraying resulted in human epidemics of bubonic plague that killed thousands of innocent Chinese civilians. Unit 731's bio-weapons research resulted in tens of thousands of deaths in China – possibly as many as 200,000 casualties by some estimates Less than a year later McArthur deployed the bio-weapons during the amphibious operation at Incheon, when United Nations forces broke out of the Pusan region through a series of landings in enemy territory in their bid to re-unite Korea. After all, as Brass Hat often said, "There is no substitute for victory". -entry by Steve Payne from Counter History in Context - You're the Judge!-

in 1990, after refuelling and following the rapid fitting of a nuclear weapon to his F-16 at Dimona, Israeli Flying Ace Ilan Ramon returns for a do-or-die solo mission to the desert of Western Iraq. Ramon expertly detonates the warhead directly on top of the giant spider which had emerged from the crater at Osirak. The strike is only the third time mankind has launched a nuclear weapon in anger. Unlike the first two launches however, the strike has absolutely no effect. A few orange patches glow briefly on the arachnid's back. The spider emerges from the mushroom cloud, accelerating west towards the State of Israel. -entry by Steve Payne from Counter History in Context - You're the Judge!-

Before(cont.)
Janice watched the two soldiers walk down the stairs until they finally went through the door at the bottom of the stairwell. She then started her hike up the stairs, trying to keep her huffs and puffs as quiet as she could. It was amazing how much the sound echoed in the stairwell, and each step made her feel like she was giving herself away. She kept looking down to see if the soldiers had come back. Just before she reached the final landing, she heard the click of the door at the first floor opening up, and she sat down quietly.
Looking down carefully, she saw the two hazmat-suited men walking up casually. They didn't seem to be in any hurry, so she was pretty sure that they hadn't seen her. She told herself to make a note in her journal that the Army was apparently lying to its own people and telling them that radiation levels were high in Waco. She was kind of curious as to why they were here; since this was the meteorology building, perhaps they were retrieving some kind of meteorological evidence about the 'explosion'. She almost wanted to spy on them and see what they were doing, but decided that getting her visual proof of Crawford's continued existence came first.
It took them forever, but they finally left the stairwell at the 6th floor. Once the door was closed, she climbed to the top and tried the door to the roof. Naturally, it was locked. She dropped her backpack lightly on the floor and unzipped the top.
She had a tool that was highly illegal that a fellow investigator had donated a couple of years ago, and she pulled it out. It fit over the lock, and was supposed to be able to slice through the mechanism with ease. In practice, though, she struggled with it for a good five minutes, making a huge racket that bounced around the walls and announced her presence like an unwelcome sonic calling card.
When she finally cut the lock out, she looked down the stairwell nervously, half-expecting to see the hazmat men on their way up towards her with guns drawn. But no, she was still alone. She turned off her night-vision goggles and put them into her backpack, then opened the door slowly.
Sunlight blazed over her, making her blink as she slipped onto the roof and carefully shut the door behind her. She took a few minutes to let her eyes adjust, huddled up against the door as the freezing wind whipped at her. She pulled her coat closer around her and wished for thicker pants. Once her eyes were used to the bright light, she stood up again and looked around.
The central Texas countryside spread out before her in chilly glory. She pulled her binoculars out of the pack, and just as a precaution, checked the Geiger counter, too. It still read normal levels of background radiation. She hoped that the guy who sold it to her wasn't just a BS artist who took advantage of her paranoia.
She walked over to the ledge and peered out over Waco. The wind was terribly strong up here, and she was a little frightened of heights, so this wasn't an ideal location for her. According to her compass, she was facing west, so she raised her binoculars to her eyes and started searching for the president's ranch. That kept her mind off the fact that a good wind could knock her down at any second.
After several minutes of fruitless searching, her face was feeling raw, so she packed her things back up and retreated to the stairwell. She put her goggles on and looked down to make sure the soldiers weren't around, then sat down and tried to warm herself back up.
She pulled out her laptop and turned it on. The battery soon had her legs warmed up again. Soldier-boys must have worked some mojo down below, because the building's wifi was working – she was connected to the Internet. She took the opportunity to make a quick entry on her web site and email what she had found out to a few key friends. She also asked the closest paranormal investigator she knew, a guy in Amarillo, if he could drive down to the motel outside of town and keep an eye on Miss Raintree.
She wasn't very hopeful that Miss Raintree was still at the motel, but it didn't hurt to see if somebody could go keep an eye on her. She shut down the computer, then went back to her rooftop search.

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De Revolutionibus; Huygens Is Lost

ALTERNATE HISTORIAN'S NOTE: Please send us entries for our next contest, which will be an Alternate April Fool's Day, April 1st, 2006. Just send us the entries for now - we'll decide on a deadline later. (Contest rules) And, another cool thing - Let us know where you are on Frappr!

March 5th, 2006

in 669, the Jewish grand vizier of Persia, Sa’ad al’Da’ulah, narrowly avoids assassination by Muslims seeking to put an end to his influence in Islam’s mightiest nation. Al’Da’ulah convinces the Persian Shah to enforce the Koran’s admonishment to allow men the practice of their own faith, and Persia becomes a haven for infidel refugees across Islam.

in 1461, the Bishop of York deposes Pope Henry VI and is crowned Pope Edward IV. His sons will be the last generation of the Plantagenet line to rule the Holy British Empire. His reign marks the last 2 decades of the War of the Roses.

in 1616, agents of the Speaker’s Line obtain the forbidden text de Revolutionibus by Copernicus, a radical work forcing them rethink their basic goals. Although both factions of the Speaker’s Line have had some small successes in flight, they are starting to see that the heavens are far higher than Telka had imagined.

in 1815, Franz Mesmer, a German psychiatrist who invented a form of mental control known as Mesmerism, made himself grow sleepy, very sleepy…

in 1953, Isoeb Dzhugashvili died in exile in the Soviet States of America. Dzhugashvili, known for decades in the Russian Empire as the terrorist Stalin, had struggled against the bourgeois dictatorship the Tsar had established after the failed revolution of 1917 since its inception, and was a welcome guest of the American government when he had to flee the country in 1938.

in 1969, Jim Morrison, lead singer of The Perceptions, is arrested on stage after he allegedly exposes himself at a concert in Miami, Florida. The arrest for lewd behavior makes Morrison a cause celebre for rock stars across the world, and they become very vocal in his defense. When Morrison is brought to trial, the crowd outside the Dade County Courthouse outnumbers the crowd that had supposedly seen him expose himself.

in 2004, in the early morning, the command center for the Titan mission receives a short message from Command Meriweather. “Crabs exploded all over the containment area,” he says. “Knocked out a good portion of the ship. We’ll be limping in.” Deep space tracking locates the Huygens, thousands of miles off course, but still slowly making its way back to earth.

in 2005, the Claw city that Jeanne and Dave Lange and their compatriots enter is a strangely sterile urban landscape – clean to the point of fanaticism, devoid of pets or plants, and lacking artwork of any kind. The thing that alarms them the most, though, is that all the citizens' clothing is in a better state of repair than their own – making them stand out as they try to find their way around.

in 2005, chastened after the demon incident, Chelsea Perkins returns to the spell book of Morris Perkins and leafs through it for something else to study. Alma May Watson has refused to aid her if anything else goes wrong, so she decides to be very discriminating in her choice of the next one. After flipping through several fairly dangerous spells, she finally finds an innocuous-looking spell entitled Lights of the night sky enhanced.

in 2008, a hijacker attempts to take control of the plane flying Velma Porter and Mikhail von Heflin back to Bermuda. As soon as they can do so without being seen, they snap the hijacker's neck and return to their seats. “No more interruptions to our vacation,” von Heflin promises his bride as they share a celebratory kiss afterwards.

Timelines in today's post: the Speaker, the Holy British Empire, von Heflin, Islam Ascendant, Communist America, the Chelsea Perkins timeline, The Sheridans and The Claw.

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Federal Troops Ambushed In Mormon War; Tylenol Killer Strikes

September 30th, 2005

in 1399, Henry Bolingbroke attempts to ascend to the English throne after King Richard II abdicates, but the majority of the nobles refuse to recognize him. Civil war breaks out across the land, and Henry is forced to release former King Richard from prison and reinstate him in order to calm the country.

in 856, the newly-invented printing presses of Baghdad produce the first machine-made copies of the Koran. The faithful need no longer puzzle out mistakes of handwriting; all versions of the holiest book of Islam are invariant from this point on.

in 1890, federal troops arriving in Utah Territory are ambushed by Mormons who had been warned of their arrival by one of their own in Washington. The short battle leaves almost 30 Mormon rebels dead, along with 16 soldiers. The troops under the command of Colonel Beauregard T. Jackson ride on to Salt Lake City; Colonel Jackson intends to arrest the territorial governor there and declare martial law.

in 1924, Truman Persons was born in New Orleans, Louisiana. A flamboyant homosexual activist, he spearheaded homosexual rights movements in the 50’s and 60’s, famously declaring, “I refuse to be labeled a criminal because of who I love.” Persons was lynched by Ku Klux Klansmen in 1968 after he had begun speaking out for the rights of African-Americans throughout the south.

in 1934, future Israeli Prime Minister Elie Wiesel is born in Romania. Like many of Israel’s first leaders, he survived the Holocaust but lost dozens of family members, including his parents. He made his own way to Israel, where he became a staunch Likudnik, taking a hard line against all of Israel’s enemies in his years as Prime Minister in the late 70’s.

in 1960, the first animated series to appear in prime-time, The Flagstones, appeared on this evening on ABC. The show about cavemen leading surprisingly modern lives among dinosaurs and other prehistoric creatures was a ratings hit for the network, even if the critics detested it. It lasted 9 seasons and gave birth to a generation of American animation.

in 1962, the University of Mississippi, often a bastion of reaction in what was otherwise a solidly communist soviet, is forced to integrate black students by marshals of the Soviet States of America. The presence of the marshals helps calm a riot that had threatened the lives of many of the young comrades entering the school for the first time. Nowadays, of course, Ole Miss, as it is nicknamed, is a shining example of the virtues of communist education.

in 1982, several bottles of the pain-killer Tylenol are found to be laced with cyanide after a half-dozen people in Chicago die mysteriously. A police investigation into the culprit behind the murders is shut down suddenly when the detectives find that their chief suspect has a business address in Langley, Virginia.

in 4697, a Chinese colonist on Feng-huang sees something crash outside his dome and goes to investigate. The Y’T’T’li debris seizes him and takes control of his body. This poor man’s body is used to establish communication with other Y’T’T’li units and form a front against the Chinese on Feng-huang.

in 2002, after returning from their meeting with the Pentagon, Dr. Courtney and Professor Thomas tell the pilots they have been working with that it is time to go someplace where they can put their lessons to a practical use. Everyone of them is issued a space suit, and they are then crowded into the object, which takes off with Professor Thomas at the controls. It leaves earth’s atmosphere in seconds and begins flying away from the solar system.


TIAH HALLOWEEN CONTEST - no donation required, just send us your stuff!

In order to give us a tad more time for Halloween, Today In Alternate History is sponsoring its first contest - 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 was available on our Forum link below, but since the forum has been hacked, we'll email it back to you if you want to know what it is. 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 not working for now - Forum has been hacked! We're working on getting it back, and will let you know once it's back up.
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 see the one I did at http://www.marktreitel.com

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!

King Cetshwayo's Ruse; Dr. King's Dream

August 28th, 2005

in @3000 B.C., Dr. Melvin Courtney and Professor Malcolm Thomas witness the crash of the object from Edwards Air Force base crash into the New Mexican desert. Most of the creatures inside are killed by the crash; the two witnesses find themselves following one survivor of the crash through the object as it sends off a distress signal and then locates the Chimanimani object and fires at it one last time. It then seems to die.

in 1249, Caliph Amal bin-Yusuph convenes the Conference of Cairo to recodify Sharia law in Islam. bin-Yusuph favors a more liberal interpretation of the Koran, and hopes to change the Sharia to reflect this.

in 1879, King Cetshwayo of the Zulu allows himself to be captured in a daring ruse that allows his warriors to fall on and decimate a company of British soldiers. He continues to be a thorn in the side of the British occupation of southern Africa for several years more.

in 1938, Northwestern University awards an honorary degree to Edgar Bergen’s dummy Charlie McCarthy. The jocular mood of the occasion is broken when the “dummy” comes to life and flees the stage, leaving a dead Edgar Bergen behind.

in 1959, having left China behind, Li Huang-Sen and Huan Yue journey through Japan, avoiding any place where they might be asked for official documents of Huan Yue’s citizenship. Li speaks fluent Japanese, and is able to pass Huan Yue off as a young bride, too shy to speak.

in 1961, Robert A. Heinlein’s novel Stranger in a Strange Land becomes the first science fiction novel to reach the top of the New York Times’ bestseller list. Literary critics begin reexamining a genre that they had disdained for many years and the field experienced a renaissance in popularity, both critical and commercial.

in 1963, Martin Luther King, chairman of the Semitic-African Resistance organization in America, gave his stirring I have a dream speech in Washington, D.C. As he called for the nation not to fall under the sway of the European New Reich at the end of the speech, Chairman King was arrested.

in 1963, President Kennedy himself made a surprise visit to Martin Luther King’s rally on the Washington Mall, and is so deeply moved by Dr. King’s speech that he immediately runs up to the podium and embraces the reverend before the gathered multitudes. Promising that he will do more for American blacks, he introduces the Civil Rights Act of 1963 before Congress as soon as they come back from their summer recess.

in 1996, Prince Charles of England reconciles with his estranged wife, Princess Diana, before their divorce can be finalized. In what has been repeated in countless recreations of the moment, he met her at the entrance to a subway station, and while both were in disguise, rode a train for 3 hours while they talked out their differences.

in 4697, contact between the Chinese Empire and its Yang Gao colony in the Tchou star system is lost. Imperial officials press for a fleet to be sent to the system to see what has happened to Yang Gao, and Emperor Xiao Yang authorizes his Star Fleet to send one out with all possible speed.

in 2004, searching for the power signature of the Elders on earth, the ELS-3 picks up a very strong signature in China. This one doesn’t fade out. They alert the other two ships patrolling the outer system, ELS-1 and ELS-2, and the captain of the ELS-1, Jeffrey Bainbridge, uses one of his old school contacts, a senator from Idaho, to inform President Gore that their lines have already been breached by the Elders.


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

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!

You Are Getting Very Sleepy

March 5th, 2005

in 669, the Jewish grand vizier of Persia, Sa’ad al’Da’ulah, narrowly avoids assassination by Muslims seeking to put an end to his influence in Islam’s mightiest nation. Al’Da’ulah convinces the Persian Shah to enforce the Koran’s admonishment to allow men the practice of their own faith, and Persia becomes a haven for infidel refugees across Islam.

in 1461, the Bishop of York deposes Pope Henry VI and is crowned Pope Edward IV. His sons will be the last generation of the Plantagenet line to rule the Holy British Empire. His reign marks the last 2 decades of the War of the Roses.

in 1616, agents of the Speaker’s Line obtain the forbidden text de Revolutionibus by Copernicus, a radical work forcing them rethink their basic goals. Although both factions of the Speaker’s Line have had some small successes in flight, they are starting to see that the heavens are far higher than Telka had imagined.

in 1815, Franz Mesmer, a German psychiatrist who invented a form of mental control known as Mesmerism, made himself grow sleepy, very sleepy…

in 1952, Velma Porter and Mikhail von Heflin are forced off their train at Wiesbaden, Germany. They have encountered an old enemy of the Baron’s, and leave before it can endanger the other passengers on the train. They escape into a forest, where they battle the strange creature to the death. After their victory, they slip onto the next train they see heading east, something they will soon come to regret.

in 1953, Isoeb Dzhugashvili died in exile in the Soviet States of America. Dzhugashvili, known for decades in the Russian Empire as the terrorist Stalin, had struggled against the bourgeois dictatorship the Tsar had established after the failed revolution of 1917 since its inception, and was a welcome guest of the American government when he had to flee the country in 1938.

in 1969, Jim Morrison, lead singer of The Perceptions, is arrested on stage after he allegedly exposes himself at a concert in Miami, Florida. The arrest for lewd behavior makes Morrison a cause celebre for rock stars across the world, and they become very vocal in his defense. When Morrison is brought to trial, the crowd outside the Dade County Courthouse outnumbers the crowd that had supposedly seen him expose himself.

in 2004, in the early morning, the command center for the Titan mission receives a short message from Command Meriweather. “Crabs exploded all over the containment area,” he says. “Knocked out a good portion of the ship. We’ll be limping in.” Deep space tracking locates the Huygens, thousands of miles off course, but still slowly making its way back to earth.


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Mozart's Magic Ship Produced; Meet The Flagstones

September 30th, 2004

in 856, the newly-invented printing presses of Baghdad produce the first machine-made copies of the Koran. The faithful need no longer puzzle out mistakes of handwriting; all versions of the holiest book of Islam are invariant from this point on.

in 1791, the Mozart opera Das Zauberschiff, (The Magic Ship), is produced in Vienna to great acclaim. Starring the great Mlosh tenor Zzetz’j’li, the opera tells the story of a young Mlosh boy’s journey to an alien world where he finds his one true love.

in 1924, Truman Persons was born in New Orleans, Louisiana. A flamboyant homosexual activist, he spearheaded homosexual rights movements in the 50’s and 60’s, famously declaring, “I refuse to be labeled a criminal because of who I love.” Persons was lynched by Ku Klux Klansmen in 1968 after he had begun speaking out for the rights of African-Americans throughout the south.

in 1934, Semitic-African Resistance leader Elie Wiesel is born in Romania, a territory still under the control of the Greater Zionist Resistance. When, during his youth, the GZR was forced into retreat, he and his parents escaped to the United States. Unfortunately, he saw the hatred of the New Reich follow him to that country, and he joined the Semitic-African Resistance in order to halt the spread of fascism because, “To remain passive and indifferent would have been the greatest sin of all.” He became one of the movement’s most forceful organizers and leaders, and was able to convince many heads of state to allow non-Aryans safety within their countries.

in 1935, George Gershwin’s great light opera about the plight of working African-Americans under capitalism premiered in New York City. Porgy and Bess took the American musical scene by storm, and is a staple of light opera companies around the world.

in the Dreaming, Bamapana descended from the Backbone of the Night to tell the People of his new game, and teach it to them. The game revolved around the tossing of a stick from one player to another, who must catch and carry it without using his hands, and then drop it into a basket to score a point. When Bamapana played it, of course, there was much foul language, and players still use it to this day to honor him.

in 1960, the first animated series to appear in prime-time, The Flagstones, appeared on this evening on ABC. The show about cavemen leading surprisingly modern lives among dinosaurs and other prehistoric creatures was a ratings hit for the network, even if the critics detested it. It lasted 9 seasons and gave birth to a generation of American animation.

in 4697, a Chinese colonist on Feng-huang sees something crash outside his dome and goes to investigate. The Y’T’T’li debris seizes him and takes control of his body. This poor man’s body is used to establish communication with other Y’T’T’li units and form a front against the Chinese on Feng-huang.

Contact Is Lost With Yang Gao

August 28th, 2004

in 1619, a schism developed in the Holy British Empire when the Archbishop of Styria, Ferdinand, declared himself the true heir to the papacy through his Roman ancestry. Pope James I fought the rogue heretic for 30 years before finally stamping out the Roman heretics.

in 1249, Caliph Amal bin-Yusuph convenes the Conference of Cairo to recodify Sharia law in Islam. bin-Yusuph favors a more liberal interpretation of the Koran, and hopes to change the Sharia to reflect this.

in 1938, Northwestern University awards an honorary degree to Edgar Bergen’s dummy Charlie McCarthy. The jocular mood of the occasion is broken when the “dummy” comes to life and flees the stage, leaving a dead Edgar Bergen behind.

in 1961, Robert A. Heinlein’s novel Stranger in a Strange Land becomes the first science fiction novel to reach the top of the New York Times’ bestseller list. Literary critics begin reexamining a genre that they had disdained for many years and the field experienced a renaissance in popularity, both critical and commercial.

in 1963, Martin Luther King, chairman of the Semitic-African Resistance organization in America, gave his stirring I have a dream speech in Washington, D.C. As he called for the nation not to fall under the sway of the European New Reich at the end of the speech, Chairman King was arrested.

in 1999, a murderous cult appears to be slaying people throughout the Philippines. Police determine a strange pattern to their slayings, with each victim being born under a particular star sign.

in 4697, contact between the Chinese Empire and its Yang Gao colony in the Tchou star system is lost. Imperial officials press for a fleet to be sent to the system to see what has happened to Yang Gao, and Emperor Xiao Yang authorizes his Star Fleet to send one out with all possible speed.

in 2003, Livinia Nixon is plucked out of the South Pacific by an Australian naval vessel. She appears to be severely dehydrated, but otherwise doesn’t seem in ill health, except for the fact that she seems to be in some sort of coma.

Crossing the Line

	In 1973, at the Putney Hippodrome in London, Peregrine Devlin presented the great Shakespearean actor Edward Kendall Sheridan Lionheart with the 'coveted' Critic's Circle Award for Best Actor for his acting in a season believed to be his best. In his acceptance speech, Lionheart thanked the Chief Critic, and the other members of the committee George Maxwell, Horace Sprout, Trevor Dickman, Oliver Larding, Maisie Psaltery, Ms. Chloe Moon and Meredith Meredew.
Lionheart also indicated he was going to take a short break from the Bard, in favour of escapism by making some movies in the horror genre. To this, Devlin commented 'A remarkable performance. He was overacting as usual, but he knew how to make an exit.'

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	In 1953, rumours circulated in Vampiregrad that Joseph Stalin, the long-time leader of the USVR was near death. The first official news of Mr Stalin's illness came in a statement on Wednesday. It said the Soviet leader, who came to power in 1928, had suffered a cerebral haemorrhage on Wednesday night. An update issued earlier today mentioned 'sharp disturbances of the heart functions'. There was speculation that the 73-year-old, born Iosif Vissarionovich Dzhugashvili, in the Soviet republic of Georgia, was now in the final stages of an illness he has been suffering some time.

On March 1, 1953, after an all-night dinner with interior minister Lavrentiy Beria and future premiers Georgi Malenkov, Nikolai Bulganin and Nikita Khrushchev, Stalin did not emerge from his room the next day, having probably suffered a stroke that paralyzed the right side of his body. Although his guards thought that it was odd for him not to rise at his usual time, they were under orders not to disturb him. He was not discovered until that evening. He died four days later, on March 5, 1953, at the age of 74, and was embalmed on March 9. His daughter Svetlana recalls the scene as she stood by his death bed: 'He suddenly opened his eyes and cast a glance over everyone in the room. It was a terrible glance. Then something incomprehensible and awesome happened. He suddenly lifted his left hand as though he were pointing to something above and bringing down a curse upon all of us. The next moment after a final effort the spirit wrenched itself free of the flesh.' Officially, the cause of death was listed as a cerebral hemorrhage. Unofficially, the Master had affected his second shape shift since Red October.

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	In 1966, a British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC) Boeing 707 almost flew into a mountain wave after 45 year-old Captain Bernard Dobson rashly decided to give the passengers a close-up view of Mt. Fuji. The spiritual beings on the wooded slopes of the dormant volcano took the corrective action required to prevent the death of of the 124 people aboard. The form of that action later became apparent; when the Boeing set down in Hong Kong, a relieved Dobson was greeted by flight traffic mandarins of the Chinese Empire.

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In 1946, Winston Churchill uses the phrase 'Iron Curtain' in his speech at Westminster College in Fulton, Missouri: 'From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic an 'Iron curtain' has descended across the Continent.

Behind that line lie all the capitals of the ancient states of Central and Eastern Europe. Warsaw, Berlin, Prague, Vienna, Budapest, Belgrade, Bucharest and Sofia; all these famous cities and the populations around them lie in what I must call the Nazi sphere, and all are subject, in one form or another, not only to Nazi influence but to a very high and in some cases increasing measure of control from Berlin.'

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In 1904, writing in Electrical World and Engineer magazine Nikola Tesla described the process of ball lightning formation. The military application was of course the Fatman super weapon detonated in 1945 over the City of Tokyo by USAF Enola Gay. Without the Tesla Process America could not have ended the war in the Pacific without the unacceptable casualties predicted by Operation Downfall, the invasion of Japan.

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In 1975, CIA Director George Bush made a fateful decision whilst reviewing the USAAF Project Bluebook investigations into UFO activity. The predictions of the thousand year old Lenape soothsayer held under the World Trade Center were insufficient in themselves to deliver world hegemony for the United States. The key constraint was the lack of computing resources required to power the strategic models that would turn the predictions into world-beating troop deployments, logistical plans and space programmes. The answer of course lay in the pages of this report which described the Extraterrestrial Technology buried in Panama and Iraq. Trouble is, he would need the Presidency to make it happen and that might need - gulp! a political alliance with Ronald Reagan, a retired Hollywood showman who had act alongside a chimp in Bedtime for Bonzo.

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In 1871, revolutionary heroine Rosa Luxembourg is born in Zamos, Poland. After marrying a German worker in 1898, she began a labor movement in her adopted country, merging with the Social Democratic Party just prior to the Great War. The mass disillusionment with the royalist system that had led Germany into the war gave the SDP a huge boost, and they took control of the country in the elections of 1932, defeating the hard-right National Socialists in a hard-fought, corrupt campaign that was marred by violence and barely recognized by the rest of Europe. Once in office, Chancellor Luxembourg sought to create a true 'Worker's Paradise' to match the slogans that the reality of Russia's revolution had made so laughingly absurd. The SDP proved equal to the task, though, with their revolutionary fervor moderated slightly by their right-wing enemies. Germany pulled out of the world-wide depression and became a model of labor-government-business cooperation. Its model spread to France, then the smaller nations of central Europe and Scandinavia. Frau Luxembourg died in 1948, her dream of a just German society fulfilled.

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In 1770, British soldiers exercise uncommon restraint when faced with a crowd of belligerent colonists in Boston, Massachusetts. In spite of taunts, threats and snowballs hurled at them, they do not move from their position in front of the Customs House, calming a large portion of the colony, which had feared the presence of British troops would quickly escalate into violence.

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In 669, the Jewish grand vizier of Persia, Sa'ad al'Da'ulah, narrowly avoids assassination by Muslims seeking to put an end to his influence in Islam's mightiest nation. Al'Da'ulah convinces the Persian Shah to enforce the Koran's admonishment to allow men the practice of their own faith, and Persia becomes a haven for infidel refugees across Islam.

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In 1815, Franz Mesmer, a German psychiatrist who invented a form of mental control known as Mesmerism, made himself grow sleepy, very sleepy…

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In 1969, Jim Morrison, lead singer of The Perceptions, is arrested on stage after he allegedly exposes himself at a concert in Miami, Florida. The arrest for lewd behavior makes Morrison a cause celebre for rock stars across the world, and they become very vocal in his defense. When Morrison is brought to trial, the crowd outside the Dade County Courthouse outnumbers the crowd that had supposedly seen him expose himself.

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In 1996, the Hugo-winning author Harry Turtledove teamed up with Oscar-winner Richard Dreyfuss to publish the counter-history novel The Two Jameses: a tale of an Alternate Canada in which he posed the Canada Question - what would have happened if the Stuart monarchy had settled the dispute with renegade General James Wolfe? In this counter-history Canada is an integral part of the British Empire as a result of an agreement between General James Wolfe and King James Stuart IV. This event is commemorated in a Gainsborough painting titled The Two Jameses which has itself become a symbol of national unity that is stolen at the beginning of the novel. The book which was nominated for the 1995 Sidewise Award for Alternate History, was a highly regarded piece of escapism.

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In custody	In 1956, the United States Supreme Court reaffirmed the principle of 'separate but equal', the legal basis of racial segregation in state schools, colleges and universities. The University of North Carolina was involved in the appeal against an earlier ruling, which dated back to 1954. College officials were empowered to refuse admittance to three black students into the all-white institution. Racial segregation in schools was rigidly enforced. In other states, schools and colleges had indicated a willingness to accept black and white pupils.
Rosa Parks

The feeling of the people of Virginia is rather unanimous - that it was fortunate that this decision should have been handed down. I would say from the letters, telephone calls and telegrams this office has received, a very large proportion of Virginians would want to continue segregation of the races because we believe we can provide a better system of education by doing that said Thomas Stanley, Virginia state governor. Dr Tinsley, president of the Richmond branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People, branded the policy of segregation as 'ridiculous, unreligious and unconstitutional'. He said segregation laws in Virginia meant black and white people could not sit down together in a hall where an entry fee had to be paid. Blacks are also forced to sit at the back in buses. Asked how black people felt at this treatment, he said: 'We are plenty angry.' Not all whites object to the ban. Dr Marion, Director of the Council of Human Relations, rejected claims black students were educationally inferior to their white counterparts. He said segregation had imposed a 'second-class citizenship' on the black population.

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