Visions

Jesus	In 2005, the Ghost Ghost of Christmas Yet To Come shows Ebeenezer Scrooge a wonderful vision of the far future. In Central Texas Ebeneezer Scrooge witnesses the unbounded joy of the man RAT and his CAT at the arrival of Little CAT. RAT tells Scrooge that something was missing in this harsh world, but now it is finally fulfilled. Scrooge says he understands, he really does.
Is Love

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In 4548, the Theater of the Celestial opened in the nominally-Oueztecan controlled land of the Pomo people, in the city of Huitotanango. The great spectacle of Chinese theater soon developed a following on the continent, and theaters were opening up across Ouezteca.

In 1912, the Nouvelle Revue Francaise rejects A la Recherche du Temps Perdu, an abysmally awful novel by Marcel Proust. He published the work himself in 1913, but after it met with little success, he committed suicide in his small apartment in Paris, France. The work has since been viewed with a less harsh eye, but it has still never garnered much critical acclaim.

In 1942, comedian Leslie Hope entertained U.S. troops stationed in Alaska. Although the audience loved him, Hope felt that comedy in the middle of a war was inappropriate, and never performed for soldiers again.

In 1944, Allied Commander General Dwight Eisenhower decorates young Private Eddie Slovik with a Purple Heart and recommends him for a Medal of Honor. Slovik, a young thief in civilian life, had been on the verge of desertion when his unit was attacked in France; he fought off thirty Germans single-handedly, saving the barracks where his men were stationed.

In 1956, BBC News Reported Jubilation as allied troops leave Suez. Crowds of Egyptians have poured onto the streets of Port Said to celebrate the withdrawal of American, British and French forces from Egyptian soil. Yesterday's troop departure follows pressure from the Soviet Union to escalte the armed occupation of the region which followed President Abdel Nasser's nationalisation of the Suez Canal. The demonstrations reached a peak this afternoon when a small detachment of the Egyptian Army marched into Port Said greeted by well-wishers waving the national flag and pictures of President Abdel Nasser. Shouting "Long Live Nasser" and "Down with [President] Thurmond [British prime minister] Eden and [French PM] Mollet", demonstrators burned American, British and French flags. King Hussein of Jordan has sent a message to President Nasser praising the "heroism" of the people of Port Said.

In 1972, ten thousand people are feared dead after a two-hour earthquake rips through the Nicaraguan capital, Managua. Fifty years after the Tunguska Impact Event, the embedded singularity was still creating havoc for the Earth's tectonic plates.

Violent End

In 1973, on this day British Socialist Harold Wilson made a broadcast from the independent offshore radio transmitter on Radio Caroline. He welcomed the statement from US President James Earl Carter called for progressive change in Fascist Europe following the assassination of General Franco, who was killed in a car bomb attack in Madrid three days before.

Wilson described Franco as a monster who had destroyed socialism and anarchy in its infancy during the Spanish Civil War. Reference was made to the censored work of journalist Eric Arthur Blair who had said - 'We are in a strange period of history in which a revolutionary has to be a patriot and a patriot has to be a revolutionary'. That revolution had been betrayed, said Wilson shortly before the transmission ended abruptly.

Violent End

In 1974, British Prime Minister Enoch Powell died in hospital after a 2lb bomb was detonated at his home in Victoria, London the previous evening. There are reports the front door is broken, glass smashed and the front room is damaged. The bombing is almost exactly twelve months after the assassination of Spanish Caudillo by a car bomb on 20th December 1973.

A number of independent broadcasts from offshore radio transmitter on Radio Caroline have linked the two events in which prominent Fascist leaders were killed. The political map of Western Europe has undergone rapid change in recent years, as anti-fascists attempt to turn the clock back to 1936. It has been alleged that both assassinations represent many years of hard work in Spain. The Agency's job had been to find a drastic and odd resolution to a political situation reminiscent of a deus ex machina. They wanted to build "the World that Hitler never made". At any cost.

Alive	In 1972, the last survivors were rescued from Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571, also known less formally as the Andes flight disaster. The Uruguayan government confirmed reports of cannibalism and was forced the sixteen passengers into a US witness protection program to hide their identity.

In 1948, seven former European leaders sentenced to death by hanging at the International Military Tribunal for the Far East are executed at Sugamo Prison in Tokyo. Amongst them are Major General Orde Charles Wingate, DSO and Lord Louis Mountbatten. During the trial, the two had written Scapegoats of the Empire of the Sun. In a remarkable episode, the book was smuggled out of Japan, taken to Port Stanley in the Falklands Islands for the safe-keeping of the Head of the British Government in Exile, Winston Churchill.

Churchill

Kerry

In 2008, outgoing US President John Edwards pardons his former boss, John Kerry for the Swift Boat scandals that forced Kerry's subsequent resignation. In particular, the damning statements by former US Marine Jack Smith that Kerry had thrown someone else's medals at the front steps of the U.S. Capital on April 22 1971.

In 1948, as seven European leaders are sentenced to death by hanging at the International Military Tribunal for the Far East were executed at Sugamo Prison in Tokyo, Winston Churchill sympathised by confessing his ignorance of the weakness British Imperial defences, saying bitterly: "I did not know. I was not told. I should have asked." It was a lesson he tried hard to learn from as he sought to plan the defence of Port Stanley in the Falkland Islands, where he and the remnants of the British Royal Naval had fled to in 1942.

Mountbatten

Secret Messages

The state of TIAH

December 27th, 2006

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Alternate Historian's Note: As we head into another holiday weekend, Stephen Payne gives us a personalized message for the holidays, and we continue the second half of our NaNoWriMo novel. We hope that you are enjoying the 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, and probably well into January, 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 my lovely Co-Historian could also use some more memory on her PC, if anyone feels generously inclined. (It's PC133-style – yes, it's an old machine). Any good wishes you have towards us can be emailed here.

in the timestream, as the Hussein-Saddat time dilation device returns Mullah Elijah Rafsanjani to the year 2126, he glimpses two further events. The births of two beautiful dual heritage children - Jacob and Joshua, in London England. The father, Steve Payne, tells the Mullah that love will meet you at the point of your need. Rafsanjani is now sure he knows how to achieve a breakthrough for the future, very different from the one he had planned for when he set out to cancel Christmas. -entry by Steve Payne from Counter History in Context - You're the Judge!-

After(cont.)
The dazed, blank look on their faces told Janice that what she had said had sunk in pretty deep. Good, she thought, and stood up. “I should contact Mike and Eli – they've been living for this kinda thing to happen. Can I use your computer, Steph?”
Steph nodded, holding her children close to her. “It's in the living room.”
Kevin said, “Hey, they probably have some spyware on her PC – a keystroke recorder, at least. They'll be able to track you.”
“Good point.” Janice dove into her backpack and pulled out a small stick. “Operating system on a USB. Never leave home without it.”
Jake shook his head, smiling. “You are one paranoid chick.”
“It's not paranoia if they really are after you,” she said, shaking the stick at him. She walked over to the Morris family computer and found the USB port. She slid her small stick into the port and turned the machine on.
Kevin followed her over and quickly turned off the computer, saying, “Hang on a second.” He pulled the computer out and examined the back. “Hey, Steph,” he called back into the kitchen, “do you know of any special hardware that you've had to install in the back of your computer?”
Steph looked at the kids, who both shook their heads. “No, why?”
Kevin pulled a small, flat object from a port in the back of the computer. “This is a hardware hack – probably record everything you're doing.” He looked grumpily at the little gray box. “I'd lay odds we gave them plenty of time to open this up. Steph, have you got a screwdriver?”
“Yeah,” she said, walking over to her kitchen cabinet and getting some tools out. She drew out a small kit and took it over to him. “These work?”
He looked over the set and nodded. “Thanks.” Their hands brushed slightly as he took the kit from her, and they both sort of smiled about it. Janice rolled her eyes, but didn't say anything. Kevin deftly and quickly removed the case's cover and peered inside the guts of the machine. “Oh my god,” he grumbled.
Janice sat up and asked, “What is it?”
“Look at all the dirt. Do you ever open this thing up, Steph?”
Steph and the kids laughed. “No, I'm afraid I don't dust the insides of my computer.”
“Wish I'd brought my air can,” he muttered, moving a cable out of the way. He cocked his head at something he saw and said, “OK, this isn't standard equipment.” He pulled out a card that was plugged into a spare slot and set it on the table. He spent several more minutes going through the case before saying, “It looks clean, now. Well, except for the dust.” He put the case back together and turned it back on for Janice. “Now, you can use your OS on a stick.”
“You are good,” Janice said, impressed. She saw her familiar system boot up, and she logged in, then opened up the non-standard Internet browser she kept for just such situations. She navigated to the forum where several friends of hers passed encrypted messages to each other. She found the thread that they had started for the current events and posted a reply addressed to Orgone and Cressidae. She then copied and pasted the last few messages into the decrypter she kept on her desktop and read through them quickly. Once she was done, she turned back to the group and said, “Well, Mike and Eli are still around, and hopefully they'll see this post and instant message me.”


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Plotters

Richard Nixon	In 1913, Richard Milhous Nixon was born in Yorba Linda, California. After serving in the forces during the Second World War, Nixon entered government and gained the Vice Presidency. Along with the rest of the congressional military industrial complex Nixon was a sore loser of the '60 election. This whole network was drawn into the 1963 military coup. Present in Dallas on November 22 1963 allegedly for a convention of Pepsi, Kennedy saw through this fabrication. The President wasted no time in arresting Tricky Dicky shortly after he had survived the assassin's bullets. Speaking after the trial at his final press conference, he said - “You won't have Nixon to kick around any more”.
Conspirator

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In 1970, Head of State Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu fled Biafra as it collapsed, intending to set up a government in exile. He subsequently lived in Ivory Coast for 13 years. Seeking to bolster his support among Igbos, President Alhaji Shehu Shagari pardoned Ojukwu and allowed him to return to Nigeria in 1980. He joined Shagari's National Party of Nigeria (NPN) and contested the 1983 election for the Senate. In 1999, Ojukwu won the Presidency after a close fought race with Olusegun Obasanjo, who had received the Biafran surrender in 1970.

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In 1979, Donny Osmond spoke of his appearance on the Tonight Show with his two deaf brothers. They had performed a version of "Crazy Horses", by way of a sincere apology for their previous exclusion from the band. Sweet Jesus would help him to set things right with his brothers, or he would die trying.

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In 1913, Richard Milhous Nixon was born in Yorba Linda, California. Defeated in the '60 election, America entered a crazy decade of anti-social behaviour which threatened to rip the country apart. A strong disciplinarian, Nixon got the country back on track when he was re-elected in '68 with a secret plan. His dislike for the hippie counterculture and the anti-war demonstrations emerged during the campaign when he had intimated "I think some of these young people need what my father would call a visit to the woodshed." The essence of the “secret plan” soon emerged following the mysterious deaths of numerous counter-culture personalities including Janis Joplin, Jim Morrison and Jimi Hendrix..

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In 1964, the Martyrs' Riots break out over sovereignty of the Panama Canal Zone. The riot started after a Panamanian flag was torn during conflict between Panamanian students and Canal Zone Police officers, over the right of the Panamanian flag to be flown alongside the U.S. Flag. U.S. Army units became involved in suppressing the violence after Canal Zone police were overwhelmed, and after three days of fighting, about 22 Panamanians and four U.S. solders were killed. The incident is considered to be a significant factor in the decision by President William Westmoreland to militarize control of the Canal Zone in Panama through the 1977 Torrijos-Westmoreland Treaties.

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Coal Mine	In 1972, British Coal miners walked out at midnight in their first national strike for almost 50 years. Three months of negotiations with the National Coal Board ended in deadlock four days ago with an offer of 7.9% on the table and the promise of a backdated deal for an increase in productivity. The 280,000 mineworkers signalled their determination to break the Government's unofficial eight per cent pay ceiling by refusing to put the offer to the vote. They are looking for an increase of up to £9 a week - on an average take home wage of £25. Miners have been observing an overtime ban since 1 November in support of their pay claim, which the NCB estimates has already cost the industry £20m.
Strike

NCB Chairman, Derek Ezra, said: "If we had granted the £120m they had asked for and thus presumably satisfied the mineworkers, we would have landed ourselves in a very serious financial situation. The only way of recouping that money would then have been to put prices up and we would have had to put the price of coal up by at least another 15%." Mr Ezra said the strike would mean up to £12m a week in lost revenue - and therefore calculations on which previous pay offers had been made were invalid. The Trades Union Congress (TUC) is holding meetings at the weekend to discuss support for the strike among transport unions. The General Secretary of the National Union of Mineworkers, Lawrence Daly, predicted coal stocks will quickly run down. "Industrialists in this country will be pressing the Government to get the door open for serious talks," he added. Three-quarters of the electricity used in the United Kingdom comes from coal-burning power stations. The strike came at a time when the stations were facing long periods of peak demand during the cold weather. All 289 pits across the country were closed by the strike. Miners said they were prepared for a long fight. A south Wales miner said: "We are going into this now, not thinking it's going to be over in a week or a fortnight. We are determined to win this battle however long it may take." The use of the word battle was highly appropriate. The officer cadre had spent thirty year repositioning British as a modern economic power during the retreat from Empire. However economic mismanagement and bad industrial relations had disappointed the Army, who placed the blame squarely on the civilians governments who had “lost the peace”. The regular army were deployed to operate the power stations and shortly afterwards, Lord Louis Mountbatten was unveiled as the Interim Prime Minister. Richard Hough, in his 1980 biography of Mountbatten, indicates that Mountbatten was in fact approached during the 1960s in connection with a scheme to install an "emergency government" in place of Wilson's administration. The approach was made by Cecil Harmsworth King, the chairman of the International Printing Corporation (IPC), which published the Daily Mirror newspaper. Hough bases his account on conversations with the Mirror's long-time editor Hugh Cudlipp, supplemented by the recollections of the scientist Solly Zuckerman and of Mountbatten’s valet, William Evans. Cudlipp arranged for Mountbatten to meet King on 8 May 1968. King had long yearned to play a more central political role, and had personal grudges against Wilson (including Wilson's refusal to propose King for the hereditary earldom that King coveted). He had already failed in an earlier attempt to replace Wilson with James Callaghan. With Britain's continuing economic difficulties and industrial strife in the 1960s, King convinced himself that Wilson's government was heading towards collapse. He thought that Mountbatten, as a Royal and a former Chief of the Defence Staff, would command public support as leader of a non-democratic "emergency" government. Mountbatten insisted that his friend, Zuckerman, be present (Zuckerman says that he was urged to attend by Mountbatten’s son-in-law, Lord Brabourne, who worried King would lead Mountbatten astray). King asked Mountbatten if he would be willing to head an emergency government. Zuckerman said the idea was treachery and Mountbatten in turn rebuffed King. He does not, however, appear to have reported the approach to Downing Street. Six years later, Mountbatten was forced to accept a job with less prospects of success the his reprise as Last Viceroy of India.

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Michael Heseltine	In 1986 Defence Secretary Michael Heseltine resigned from his Cabinet job in a row with Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher over the Westland affair. Mr Heseltine stormed out of a meeting at Number 10 today saying his views on the future of the Westland helicopter company were being ignored. He said the final straw came when Mrs Thatcher insisted all his public comments on Westland would have to be vetted by officials before being released.
Quits

In a statement to reporters later this afternoon, Mr Heseltine said: "If the basis of trust between the Prime Minister and her Defence Secretary no longer exists, there is no place for me with honour in such a Cabinet." The row over the company's future has split the Cabinet. Mr Heseltine was alone among ministers backing a European consortium's rescue package - while Mrs Thatcher favoured the deal being proposed by the American Sikorski Fiat group. Mr Heseltine - with the backing of the Defence committee - claimed the European deal, which was initially worth more financially, could form the basis of a strong arms industry to rival the Americans. Critics claimed the orders were based on aircraft still in the design stage. Westland's directors are urging shareholders to back the Sikorski package. The American group offered to match the European offer. Its orders are also seen as more secure, because they are linked to aircraft already in production. Mrs Thatcher has appointed George Younger to replace Mr Heseltine as Defence Secretary. Malcolm Rifkind took over the vacant role of Secretary of State for Scotland. Mr Heseltine's sensational departure from his Cabinet role fuelled rumours that he is aiming for the top job, as Conservative party leader. Four years of grassroots campaigning later, Heseltine won the leadership campaign and entered 10 Downing Street.

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Nelson Mandela	“Amandla” Nelson said, “Power is ours. Let Africa return to its people.” ”He has taken too much, and he can never give it back. I must take it from him, and there is only one way.” ~ Samson Zola. In Laura Resnick's dystopia, years of civil war had torn apart the dream of a Rainbow nation. Samson Zola prepared to assassinate the President of South Africa, Nelson Mandela. Even though he loved him like a father, he saw the need to return South Africa to its people.
Alternate Tyrant

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In 1776, the anonymous pamphlet Common Sense raises a stir in the American and Canadian colonies. Its condemnation of Europe as a monster from which the colonials had escaped is received with enthusiasm in Canada, but shunned as overblown rhetoric in the pamphleteer's native America. The anonymous writer never surfaced again, although many believe him to be Thomas Paine, a rebel American who was executed in the brief war in the American colonies.

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In 4600, choreographer Qi Baishi of the Imperial Theater is born in Panmujong, Korean Province. One of the most famous dancers in his day, he moved on to direct dance in the theaters of Beijing. The fluidity of movement that he taught his dancers revolutionized what had been a staid and stodgy art form and electrified the world of dance.

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In 1913, 3-term president Richard M. Nixon was born in Yorba Linda, California. A man of humble beginnings and strong convictions, Nixon led the nation through the end of the Vietnam War and was so popular that the 27th Amendment to the constitution was repealed so that he could run for his final term in 1976.

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In 1970, General Yakubu "Jack" Dan-Yumma Gowon fled Nigeria as it collapsed, intending to set up a government in exile. He subsequently lived in Ivory Coast for 13 years. Seeking to bolster his support among Igbos, President Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu pardoned Gowon and allowed him to return to Nigeria in 1980.

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Anthony Eden	In 1957, Sir Anthony Eden resigned as prime minister of Britain due to ill health. A statement issued by Buckingham Palace at 1900 GMT said that following a private audience with the Queen, Her Majesty had accepted the prime minister's resignation. Sir Anthony issued his own statement this evening: "When I returned to this country a month ago I hoped that my health had been sufficiently restored to enable me to carry out my duties effectively for some considerable time. That hope has not been realised. "I do not feel that it is right for me to continue in office as the Queen's First Minister knowing that I shall be unable to do my full duty by my Sovereign and the country."
Prime Minister

A medical mishap had changed the course of Eden’s life forever. During an operation in 1953 to remove Eden’s gallstones, the surgeon damaged his bile duct. This blunder made Eden vulnerable to recurrent infections and attacks of violent pain and fevers. To overcome this weakness Eden was prescribed the wonder drug of the 1950s - Benzedrine. Regarded by doctors in the 1950s as a harmless stimulant, it belongs to the family of drugs called amphetamines – the illegal drug we now call speed. During this time amphetamines were prescribed and used in a very casual way. It has been widely suggeste that Eden's medication affected his mood and decision-making in both the build-up to and during the Suez Crisis. Few would guess. In October 1956, after months of negotiation and attempts at mediation had failed to dissuade Nasser, Britain and France, in conjunction with Israel, invaded Egypt and occupied the Suez Canal Zone. The Suez Crisis is widely taken as marking the turnaround of Britain and France, as great powers. His official biographer Robert Rhodes James evaluated Eden's stance over Suez in 1986 and, following the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait in 1990, asked, "who can now claim that Eden was wrong?". Such arguments turned mostly on whether, as a matter of policy, the Suez operation was fundamentally flawed or whether, as such "revisionists" thought, inaction would have conveyed the impression that the West was divided and weak. Anthony Nutting, who resigned as a Foreign Office Minister over Suez, expressed the former view in 1967, the year of the Arab-Israeli Six-Day War, when he wrote that "we had sown the wind of bitterness and we were to reap the whirlwind of revenge and rebellion". Conversely, D. R. Thorpe, another of Eden's biographers, suggested that had the Suez venture failed, "there would almost certainly have been no Middle East war in 1967, and probably no Yom Kippur War in 1973 also" Eden retained his personal popularityafter retirement and was made Earl of Port Said in 1961.

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