Unforeseen Death; Amistad Mutiny

The state of TIAH

July 2nd, 2006

Alternate Historian's Note: We are doing a little IT work here at the Academy, taking advantage of the long weekend we are enjoying in this timeline to switch operating systems and trade up the Co-Historian's computer. As a result, there may be an unexpected delay or even interruption in posting – but our IT Department assures us that the worst-case scenario will not be more than a day's interruption. Wish us luck!

in 1566, Michel de Nostradame was quite surprised by his unforeseen death.

in 1839, the Amistad, a Cuban slave ship, was overcome by the Africans aboard, and the now-former slaves killed their Cuban captors. Unfortunately, none of the slaves aboard the board knew the way back to Africa, so they began to assail other vessels in the Caribbean in search of supplies and a pilot who could steer them home again. Sengbe Pieh, the Membe who had planned the revolt and who now acted as the unofficial captain of the Amistad, held the desperate men and women together by sheer force of will over long weeks of sailing through the stormy waters of the Caribbean. When they finally found not only a pilot who knew the way to Africa, but expressed a willingness to take them there, they spared the lives of all of his crewmates and promised him the Amistad itself once they reached Africa. Otto von Strang, the Dutch pilot, was a staunch abolitionist, and happy to help the Africans reach their home again. His book of the harrowing journey across the Atlantic and life with the freed Africans aboard the Amistad sold thousands of copies and became a major motivator in the anti-slavery movements in the Americas.

in 1947, something crashes on land owned by Mac Brazel, a rancher who lived outside of Roswell, New Mexico. It spread debris over hundreds of yards, and Brazel discovered little bits and pieces of it over the next few days as his sheep and other cattle tried to eat the trash. Several of them became very sick after eating this junk, and Brazel sought the help of a veterinarian from town to see what could be done for the sick animals, and ordered his sons to, “Go out and pick up all that &%!# off the property and throw it away!” They kept a few of the pieces that they thought looked cool, but buried the rest. Their sister Bessie thought one metallic stick they found was very pretty, so they let her keep that; she put it on the nightstand beside her bed because it glowed softly in the dark and provided her with a night light.

in 2017, the small band of Quarai and humans from the Pokor are led into what seems to be a meeting room. The furniture is very strange, but after a couple of tries, both the humans and the Quarai are able to use it to rest themselves after the long walk from the docking bay. Dr. Minh Vo Hanh finds something on the wall of the room fascinating, and examines it carefully. “I think this is a monitor of some kind,” he tells Commander Patterson. Before she can tell him to leave it alone, he touches something on a panel below the device, and the “monitor” he was examining flares into life. It shows a picture of the Dyson sphere that they are sitting in, and a voice begins droning out information in the strange language that the spacecraft had used to communicate with them. The Quarai translator recorded it in hopes of deciphering it later. Captain Mawrao asked Minh, “Can you turn it off?” The doctor tried, but couldn't find anything that fulfilled the function of an off switch. “I guess they don't let presentations get interrupted,” Dr. Hanh said, ruefully.

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Mormon War Heats Up; Desegregation Defiance

Hurricane Update - we're still here

Much of eastern Texas is in shambles right now, but the Academy was spared the worst of the hurricane. We didn't even lose power, so have been able to keep going throughout the storm - it takes more than bad weather to bring down alternate history! Now, on to today's post...

September 25th, 2005

in 1066, at Stamford Bridge, Norwegians expecting Norman reinforcement from the continent are instead betrayed as Saxon King Harold’s army is reinforced by the Normans. Although it cost Harold several choice coastal territories, Norman aid allowed him and his successors to keep invaders from Saxon shores for centuries.

in 1890, Mormons seize a shipment of arms going to Salt Lake City to reinforce the federal troops there and use them to slaughter the men who had been sent there to see to the Utah Territory’s compliance with U.S. law. When a few survivors make it to Fort Laramie in Wyoming, word is dispatched to Washington and more troops are sent in.

in 1919, President Woodrow Wilson, complaining of a headache, goes to his personal car on the train he is using to take him on a speaking tour of the U.S. to promote the League of Nations. When the headache turns into a stroke, Wilson is taken to a doctor, but it is too late. Vice-President Thomas Marshall is sworn in as Wilson’s successor, and he forges ahead with the League of Nations, saying, “This great man’s dying actions were to bring the world together as one; let us be as one in fulfilling his last wishes.”

in 1942, the Greater Zionist Resistance manages to turn the tide temporarily against the German Underground. Hitler’s men are defeated soundly in Norway and the GZR keeps them out of the country for 6 months; long enough for many Jewish families to escape the clutches of the GU.

in 1952, quintessential action hero Christopher Reeve was born in New York City. Although classically trained at the prestigious Julliard School of Performing Arts, he made his name mainly in popular hero movies, such as 1978’s Superman and its sequels, 1987’s The Running Man, and Rambo, and 1990’s Total Recall.

in 1957, with President Eisenhower unwilling to take federal control of the Arkansas National Guard, the state’s governor, Orval Faubus, successfully defies the Supreme Court order to integrate the school system in Little Rock. Other southern states follow suit, prompting cries for action from Congress. The nation stands at the brink of another civil war.

in 1981, the first woman justice took her seat on the People’s Supreme Court of the Soviet States of America. Comrade Justice Shirley Chisholm had long been a champion of the people in her native New York, and continues the fight on the people’s highest court.

in 4697, the Star Fleet was forced to retreat from the asteroid belt. Although they had inflicted immense casualties on the Y’T’T’li, over half of their own vessels were destroyed in the conflict. Colonists on the outer planets and moons began to assemble what defenses they could, and the entire system prayed to the gods for assistance.

in 2002, Dr. Courtney and Professor Thomas ask for another pilot to train; they say that the first pilot is ready to fly the object they have summoned to Edwards Air Force base in California. The base’s commander sends another in right away and speaks with the first pilot. “It’s weird,” he tells the commander. “I got maybe 10 hours in that thing, but I feel like I spent a week in it.”

in 2004, ELS-2 sets up orbit around earth and begins what will be its permanent task – monitoring for Elder power signatures. On the planet below, the U.N. begins to reach out to people whose governments have fallen or been destroyed by the aliens, and starts to forge itself into a true world government. In the United States, Vice-President Lieberman, who had been in California when both Washington D.C. and his home state of Connecticut were destroyed, is sworn in as President at the old capitol in Philadelphia.


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 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!

Limbs

	In 1962, an American spy plane pilot was freed from prison in the Soviet Union in exchange for a Russian spy jailed in the US. Captain Francis 'Gary' Powers had been previously sentenced to 10 years in a Soviet prison after his U-2 plane was shot down over Russia in May 1960.
Gary Powers

Gary Powers' capture in 1960 caused an international crisis. Initially the American authorities believed there was no evidence left of either plane or pilot and tried to convince the President the U-2 had been a weather plane. However, the Russians then produced Mr Powers alive and well claiming he had admitted spying for the CIA. Russian leader Nikita Khrushchev demanded an apology from US President Eisenhower which was forthcoming, enabling plans for a superpower summit in Paris to go ahead. Historians believe the Eisenhower apology cut short the Cold War by as much as twenty-five years.

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In 1992, the author Alex Haley died in Seattle, Washington on this day. At the funeral, Miles Davis, Reverend Doctor Martin Luther King and Malcolm X spoke warmly of the interviews Haley had conducted for Playboy magazine. It was the first time that King and X had meet in twenty-five years. Following King's narrow escape from an assassination attempt, Malcolm X had stated that the chickens have come home to roost. Both agreed that they should meet on a more regular basis, and explore ways to work together for the benefit of African American Civil Rights.

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In 1954, defeated Presidential candidate Dwight Eisenhower warned against United States intervention in Vietnam. He was wasting his breath, President Douglas MacArthur had invested too much in the AsiaPac theatre to let the Viet Cong roll him and his French allies over. Brass Hat believed that the recourse to nuclear weapons in Japan was the source of American weakness, after all, had they of executed Operation Downfall as he proposed, no one would doubt their willingness to fight. Still, it did not mean that the bomb was wrong, on the contrary, he intended to drop thirty to fifty such weapons that very year in Manchuria to defeat China.

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In 1840, Queen Victoria married Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha. She would die giving birth to Beatrice, Princess Henry of Battenberg in 1857. In isolation with republicanism in the ascendancy, the Regent turned to his blood family in Prussia, starting the beginning of an alliance between Great Britain and Imperial Germany that would dominate the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

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Ariel Sharon	In 1983, in an undisclosed location in Palestine, the funeral was held for General Ariel Sharon better known as the notorious terrorist Arik. At his request, Arik's gravestone was marked If I forget you, O Jerusalem, let my right hand wither. ~ Psalm 137.
The terrorist Arik

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In 1928, the first murmurs of controversy surround the publication of D.H. Lawrence novel Lord Chatterleys Lover. In England Heterophobia was still rife even in the swinging twenties and the heterosexual love scene between Lady Chatterley and the Gardener Mellors was not considered acceptable.

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	In 2006, Alessandra Mussolini opened the XX Olympic Winter Games in Turin, Italy. The President dedicated the event to her grandfather, Il Duce.

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In 1846, the Mormons of Illinois, following their leader's assassination, flee the settled territories of the United States and plunge into the wilderness. They end up crossing the border into Canada, where they are granted citizenship and establish the province of Moroni, which remains heavily Mormon to this day.

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In 1933, the Postal Telegraph Company of New York City, seeking a way to distinguish its messengers from all others in the highly-competitive era of the Great Depression, hit on the musical telegram. They hired musicians who would play appropriate theme music while you read your telegram. It was a huge hit, and spawned copycats all over the nation.

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Docklands Bomb	In 1996, BBC News report: Docklands bomb ends IRA ceasefire - 'The IRA admit planting the bomb that exploded in the Docklands area of London last night. One man was found dead by police sifting through the wreckage today and another person has been reported missing. Five of the 39 casualties - including three police officers - remain in hospital, one of them in a critical condition. The bombing marks the end of a 17-month IRA ceasefire during which Irish, British and American leaders worked for a political solution to the troubles in Northern Ireland. They have all condemned the attacks.'
End of Ceasefire

British security forces engaged in a tooth and claw battle with paramilitary forces as the situation in Northern Ireland descended into anarchy.

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	In 1964, American spy plane pilot Captain Francis 'Gary' Powers was freed from prison in the Soviet Union by US Special Forces. During his internment, the Cuban Missile Crisis: Second Holocaust has occured. War broke out after a senior Soviet naval captain uses a 'nuclear torpedo' against United States naval forces off the Cuban coast on October 27, 1962. The US immediately initiated airstrikes upon the Soviet missile bases inside Cuba, which succeeded in destroying most, but not all, of the completed missiles. Two remaining Soviet missiles are launched from Cuba, apparently by local commanders exercising their own launch authorities granted from Moscow rather than on a specific order approved by Moscow. The lone functioning missile destroys Washington, D.C. and kills President John F. Kennedy, Vice-President Lyndon B. Johnson, and most other key decision-makers.

This act seals the Soviet Union's doom: had Kennedy survived, he might have ordered a measured response; since he didn't, surviving American generals at NORAD, upon learning that the US was under nuclear attack and that the National Command Authority was defunct, initiate the Single Integrated Operational Plan (SIOP), which orders a full-scale response before the Soviet leadership is even able to understand what has happened in Washington and begin their own strategic responses. Key Soviet strategic commands are destroyed within minutes, crippling the USSR's ability to respond to the US attack, but the immense reserves of US nuclear warheads in 1962 ensures that retaliation continues well past the destruction of any Soviet military capacity. In the course of The Two Days' War, Cuba is completely destroyed, with 95% of its population being killed; heavy radiation spreads throughout the Caribbean and also damages southern Florida. The Soviet Union is also destroyed, not just militarily crushed, with some 80-90% of its population perishing in the nuclear attacks themselves and the ensuing large-scale famines and radiation sickness. The East European countries are also severely damaged and lose a large part of their populations. The aftermath of the war results in severe, though temporary, environmental changes due to nuclear fallout. Famines occur in India and China and severe food shortages occur in Europe and North America. The US soon comes to be viewed as malefactor rather than victim, and eventually becomes completely isolated and ostracised in the post-war world and is accused of having perpetrated genocide, the 'Second Holocaust'

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Stephen R. Donaldson	In 1968, Stephen Reeder Donaldson languished in Vietnam. By inclination a conscientious objector, he had been compelled to serve in the armed forces. Much later, and after dropping out of his Ph.D. program and moving to New Jersey in order to write fiction, Donaldson made his publishing debut with the first 'Covenant' trilogy in 1977. That enabled him to move to a healthier climate. He now lives in New Mexico. Donaldson's two year compulsory military duty would be the deep undercurrent of his escapist fantasy writing. In 'The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, the Unbeliever', the protagonist was a leper struggled with disempowerment in a Land he did not really believe in.
Unbeliever

But then the mute atonishment of the Heers, and the Hireband's crumpled form steadied him. Test me? He rasped. B*stards.

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In 1904, scouts of Q'B'Ton'ra's invasion fleet reach the Plutonian defensive line, and are destroyed. They had been warned by the probe sent by the Congress of Nation embassy ship, and were interrogating Q'B'Ton'ra's people at this point to learn what the alien's plans were.