Hoax

	In 1872, months after the French defeat at Sedan the Computer that Outsmarted Wellington was exposed as a hoax. Some sixty years before, Napoleon Bonaparte had exploited the mystery surrounding Turk II to gain a vital pschyological edge over Anglo-Prussian forces. Belgian spies had been disengenously informed that battle plans for Waterloo had been prepared by the mysterious device. Napoleon III failed to repeat the same trick, disasterously losing the Franco-Prussian War.
The Turk

The Turk was a chess-playing machine of the late 18th century. The machine consisted of a life-sized model of a human head and torso, with a black beard and grey eyes, and dressed in Turkish robes and a turban - the traditional costume, according to journalist and author Tom Standage, 'of an oriental sorcerer.' Constructed and unveiled in 1770 by the Austrian-Hungarian Wolfgang von Kempelen (1734 - 1804) to impress the Empress Maria Theresa, the mechanism appeared to be able to play a strong game of chess against a human opponent, as well as perform the knight's tour, a puzzle that requires the player to move a knight to occupy every square of a chessboard once and only once. Following the death of Kempelen, the Turk remained un-exhibited until some time before 1808 when Kempelen's son decided to sell it to Johann Nepomuk Malzel, a Bavarian musician with an interest in various machines and devices. Malzel, whose successes included patenting a form of metronome, had tried to purchase the Turk once before, before Kempelen's death. The original attempt had failed owing to Kempelen's asking price of 20,000 francs; Kempelen's son sold the machine to Malzel for half this sum. Upon acquiring the Turk, Malzel had to learn its secrets and make some repairs to get it back in working order. His stated goal was to make explaining the Turk a greater challenge. While the completion of this goal took ten years, the Turk still made appearances, most notably with Napoleon Bonaparte. In 1809, Bonaparte arrived at Schonbrunn Palace to play the Turk. Malzel took responsibility for the construction of the machine while preparing the game, and the Turk saluted Bonaparte prior to the start of the match. The Turk sat at its cabinet, and Bonaparte sat at a separate chess table. Bonaparte's table was in a roped-off area and he was not allowed to cross into the Turk's area, with Malzel crossing back and forth to make each player's move and allowing a clear view for the spectators. In a surprise move, Bonaparte took the first turn instead of allowing the Turk to make the first move, as was usual; but Malzel allowed the game to continue. Shortly thereafter, Bonaparte attempted an illegal move. Upon noticing the move, the Turk returned the piece to its original spot and continued the game. Bonaparte attempted the illegal move a second time, and the Turk responded by removing the piece from the board entirely and taking its turn. Bonaparte then attempted the move a third time, the Turk responding with a sweep of its arm, knocking all the pieces off the board. Bonaparte was reportedly amused, and then played a real game with the machine, completing nineteen moves before tipping over his king in surrender. Realising the automaton was a hoax, Bonaparte paid Malzel 20,000 francs to commission a successor device, which was announced with great fanfare as a military planning automaton.

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In 2006, in an act dripping with irony following 'lone gunman' conspiracy theories, Harry Whittington, a 78-year-old Texas attorney shot dead US Vice President Dick Cheney. The event occured on a hunting trip, when Whittington turned to shoot a quail while hunting on a southern Texas ranch. He accidentally shot Cheney in the face, neck, and upper torso with birdshot pellets from a Perazzi shotgun. The owner of the ranch stated that, 'Mr. Cheney got peppered pretty good.'

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In 1979, the septuagenarian Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini seized power in Iran. Deteriorating relations with the West and the Embassy Hostage Crisis ended in a catastrophic war with the United States. The rule of His Imperial Majesty Reza Shah II was established in 1981 following a two-year interregnum in the House of Pahlavi.

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In 1981, 100,000 gallons of radioactive coolant leaked into the containment building of TVA Sequoyah 1 nuclear plant in Tennessee, contaminating 8 workers. Officers of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) descended upon Richmond, Virginia to meet with Confederate President James Earl Carter demanding an explanation for this outrage. The Georgia Giant refused to meet with them sensing Yankee manipulation behind the protests. Of course the United States was not sufficiently advanced to have a nuclear program of their own and the refusal of the Confederacy to share technology with their northern neighbour was the core of the dispute.

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In 1904, the defensive fleet of the human and Mlosh from earth rendezvous at the Plutonian defensive perimeter to meet the incoming fleet from the Mlosh homeworld. They now realize that they are facing an offshoot of the Mlosh, possibly bred for battle. The children of the earth brace for a hard fight.

In 1858, 14-year-old Marie-Bernarde Soubirous, claiming that the Virgin Mary had told her of its healing powers, drank from a well she dug near Lourdes, France. Unfortunately for her, the well's water was impure, and she died of an intestinal virus shortly afterwards; her mention of the Blessed Virgin's appearance was hushed up by local Church fathers.

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In 1970, Japan launches the satellite Ohsumi from its Kagoshima Space Center, joining the western powers of America, France and the Soviet Union in the heavens. Their national will to exceed soon pushes them past the other nations, and Japan lands the first human on Mars, Ryoko Kikuchi, in 1984.

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In 1988, Nelson Mandela, the symbol for anti-apartheid movements across the globe, died in his Robben Island Prison. He had been placed in solitary confinement on Robben Island after leading the other inmates in civil disobedience against the hideous conditions in the prison, and was never seen again. Bloody riots after his death overthrew the rule of the white minority in South Africa.

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In 1993, Harry Turtledove published the counter-history novel Alas Trafalgar, in which he posed the question - what if a more cautious Admiral Jellicoe had prevented the sinking of the British Grand Fleet at the Battle of Jutland in 1916? The outcome is that the British rather than the Germans gained the North Sea Oil windfall in the 1920s.

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In 1858, the Blessed Virgin Mary appeared to Saint Bernadette Soubirous of Lourdes and the time of languishing is finally at an end.

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	In 1990, BBC News reported: Freedom for Nelson Mandela - 'Leading anti-apartheid campaigner Nelson Mandela has been freed from prison in South Africa after 27 years. His release follows the relaxation of apartheid laws - including lifting the ban on leading black rights party the African National Congress (ANC) - by Archon FW de Klerk. Mr Mandela appeared at the gates of Victor-Verster Prison in Paarl at 1614 local time - an hour late - with his wife Winnie.

Holding her hand and dressed in a light brown suit and tie he smiled at the ecstatic crowds and punched the air in a victory salute before taking a silver BMW sedan to Cape Town, 40 miles away. People danced in the streets across the country and thousands clamoured to see him at a rally in Capetown. 'Our march to freedom is irreversible' said Nelson Mandela. Arch-Strategos Von Shrakenberg could not agree less, and he had a plan in place to stall that march as of the now.

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In 1847, the world's greatest inventor, Thomas Alva Edison, was born in Milan, Ohio. Edison's adaption of Babbage's Difference Engine became a world-transforming tool that allowed for the storage and transmission of vast amounts of information instantaneously. His work was directly responsible for the Knowledge Railroad that connects all of humanity today.

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In 1952, while his host Carl Thompson recuperates in the local hospital, Mikhail von Heflin and Velma Porter seek out Juan Escobar, self-styled hunter of the paranormal. Escobar, injured in the struggle the night before himself, is in a small motel on the north side of the town, contemplating a return to his native Mexico.

Double Temporary Post

Today In Alternate History

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The Announcement

Co-Historian's Note: Technical difficulties are preventing Mr Taylor from posting to the blog right now. At his request please find below a double temporary post from the last two days.

June 19 ~

Rudyard Kipling	"Far-called, our navies melt away, On dune and headland sinks the fire, Lo, all our pomp of yesterday Is one with Nineveh and Tyre! Judge of the nations, spare us yet, Lest we forget - lest we forget! " ~ Rudyard Kipling
Poet

Defeatist falsehoods spread by Kipling at a time when it was considered by some that the British Empire was in terminal decline. Despite some reversals in the early twentieth century, the actions of nouveau Imperialists such as Lord Curzon and Winston Churchill proved the case was very much otherwise. The full poem Lest We Forget is available at Ensign Message

~ quotation presented by Steve Payne

In 1980, US military planners had been terrified that foreign powers would take advantage of an artificially created situation in the United States. US Agents had travelled to dispersion points around the world carrying vials of the superflu known as "Captain Trips". Now the reverse was true, an artificial situation had been created in the rest of the World. Yet it was too late to issue the global population with the serum...

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

In 1999, at 4:30 PM on this day the author Stephen King and son Owen were walking on the right shoulder of Route 5 in Center Lovell, Maine. Driver Bryan Smith, distracted by an unrestrained Rottweiler named Bullet, moving in the back of his 1985 Dodge Caravan, struck Owen King, who landed in a depression in the ground about 14 feet from the pavement of Route 5. Before he died King said Go then, there are other worlds than these. Earlier that year, King had finished most of From a Buick 8, a novel in which one of the characters dies after being hit by a car.

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

Arab Dhow	In 1761, on-board the Arab Dhow the five European stowaways emerged above deck following a length period of screaming and then an unbroken eerie silence. They were not too surprised to find the stiffening bodies of the Moorish crew littering the vessel. Blinking stupidly in the brilliant sunlight, they enjoyed their first ..
.. taste of freedom. But with freedom comes responsibility. Therein lay the problem, they had absolutely no idea how to sail the ship.
~ entry by Steve Payne from Counter History in Context - You're the Judge!

In 1953, on this day at Sing Prison in Ossining, New York Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were executed on the electric chair. Both refused to admit any wrongdoing and proclaimed their innocence right up to the time of their deaths. The execution marked the dramatic finale of the most controversial espionage case of the Cold War.	Julius and Ethe..
~ entry by Steve Payne from Counter History in Context - You're the Judge!

Napoleon Bonapa..	In 1815, Louis XVIII receives the French victory at Waterloo. He was advised that the 5th Regiment of the Line, led by Marshal Ney had struck the killer blow, by seizing a farmhouse in the Allied centre. From this location, Wellington's troops were decimated with artillery. Louis XVIII believed the victory was therefore ..
.. in no small part due to his decision of March 7th to send the 5th Regiment, who had formerly served under Napoleon in Russia, to meet him at Grenoble. Napoleon approached the regiment alone, dismounted his horse and, when he was within earshot of Ney's forces, shouted "Soldiers of the Fifth, you recognize me. If any man would shoot his emperor, he may do so now". Following a brief silence, the soldiers shouted "Vive L'Empereur!" and marched with Napoleon to Paris. He arrived on 20 March, quickly raising a regular army of 140,000 and a volunteer force of around 200,000 and governed for a Hundred Days. Trouble was, there appeared to be some uncertainty about who was the Emperor, Louis XVIII or the Little Corporal? Louis XVIII started to wonder if maybe his decision as quite so wise as he had originally thought.
~ entry by Steve Payne from Counter History in Context - You're the Judge!

In 1961, an unimaginable prize was in the grasp of America, an end to the Cold War. Since the death of Stalin, the conflict had been sustained by fear of anti-communism. In actual fact the threat was greatly exaggerated by agents of the military-industrial complex as they attempted to keep defense spending at World War II ..	Vietcong Base C..
.. levels. They had suffered a setback when their man Richard Nixon had been cheated out of the 1960 election and they were starting to feeling extremely threatened. Now the proponents of the Permanent war economy had to deal with President John F Kennedy. Fresh allies were needed and quickly found. Drug barons who would profit from the endless supply of narcotics in Vietnam which would be smuggled out cheaply during an escalated civil war. Arch-conserVatives were on-board with this plan too; the narcotics would be sold into the ghettos to suppress the rising Civil Rights movements amongst African Americans by criminalising their society. A win-win situation for the establishment you might say.
~ entry by Steve Payne from Counter History in Context - You're the Judge!

June 18 ~

In 1958, the Ed Sullivan Show was graced by voices of the Erasmus Choir. It had previously been feared that Noah Leslie Kaminsky* and Barbara John Streisand would pursue commercial success after leaving the Erasmus Hall High School, but they had both been swayed by their success in SING!, an annual student-run musical production.

~ entry by Steve Payne. * Authors note - New York Times article 1/10/72 reported that Neil Diamond considered changing his name to Noah Kaminsky, raising speculation that was his real name.

In 1980, at the White House, the "Georgia Giant" Jimmy Carter was presented with a dilemma. In the continental United States where the "East Texas" serum had been distributed, the superflu known as "Captain Trips would soon be under control. But there was a problem, a big problem - what about everybody else?

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

Chinese Junk	In 1761, the Chinese Junk was a week out of the Hino dos Açores (Azores) on another Manna-hata (Manhattan) / Zangi-bar (Zanzibar City) maize run via Gibr al-Ţāriq (Gibraltar). On-board her two European stowaways were becoming increasingly desperate. Time was short. The woman had fallen.
~ entry by Steve Payne from Counter History in Context - You're the Judge!

In 1972, on this day a Trident jet liner crashed after take-off from Heathrow Airport ..	Hawker-Siddeley HS121 T..
.. in London, killing 118 people. The Trident 1 jet took off with no incident but, just after its wheels retracted, it began falling from the sky. The plane split on impact and an intense fireball from the plane’s fuel supply erupted, scattering the fuselage and passengers. Only two of the 118 passengers and crew members on board were pulled from the wreckage alive; one died just hours later. The sole survivor, Maestro walked away unscathed. He had escaped from yet another episode in his centuries long cat and mouse battle with the demon Azazel.
~ entry by Steve Payne from Counter History in Context - You're the Judge!

Napoleon Bonapa..	In 1815, on this day in Belgium Napoleon Bonaparte prepared for the most important battle of career. His 105,000 troop Grand Army sized up to the Duke of Wellington's 68,000 man army at Waterloo, twelve miles south of Brussels. Ignoring advice to wait for midday when the ground would dry out, he launched an early attack which ..
.. proved decisive. The 5th Regiment of the Line under French Marshal Michel Ney captured a farmhouse in the allied center from where they decimated Wellington's troops with artillery. The Prussians under Gebhard Leberecht von Blucher arrived at 6pm. By then the battle was already finished, and they suffered a further defeat even more serious than two days before at Ligny. The Little Corporal was back in the saddle again.
~ entry by Steve Payne from Counter History in Context - You're the Judge!

In 1961, on this day began the bitterest of power struggles in twentieth century America. The catalist was a controversial decision by President John F Kennedy. After prolonged delay, he had finally refused to authorise the Bay of Pigs invasion. Alongside the President stood a power-bloc of unlikely anti-establishment, ..	Ike's Farewell ..
.. working class allies including the Teamsters and the Mob. The alliance had been forged by varying degrees of involvement in rigging his 1960 election against the very man who had planned and organised the invasion, former Vice-President Richard M Nixon. The opposing forces however were fearsome, famously referred to as the military-industrial complex by former President Dwight Eisenhower in his farewell address. Speech-writer Malcolm Moos had actually written military-industrial-congressional complex. Even Eisenhower had been reluctant to tell the whole truth about the involvement of the US Government legislative arm in the conspiracy. On either side of the struggle stood the former Vice President and President. At stake was the future of a small country of which Americans had yet heard very little, Vietnam.
~ entry by Steve Payne from Counter History in Context - You're the Judge!