Outcomes

Aleister Crowley	In 1947, agent Mr W.H. of the Tabula Rasa returned to Roxborough Tower having succeeded in preventing the use of magic at a Hastings boarding house. In this dominion Mr W.H. had felt a sudden gust of wind and peal of thunder at the (otherwise quiet) moment of the death of Black Magician Aleister Crowley, the wickedest man in Britain. Crowley had attempted to shapeshift into the body of his sixty-eight year old physician Dr. William Brown Thomson, who was was found dead in his bath at his Mayfair flat the very next day.
The Beast

Thomson glanced over his shoulder. The whistler was in sight. It looked perfectly human, dressed in a gray, well-cut suit and black tie, its collar turned up against the cold, its hands thrust into its pockets. It didn't run but almost idled as it came, the whistle confounding Thomson's thoughts and making him stumble. As he turned away the second of his pursuers appeared on the pavement in front of him, drawing a hand from its pocket. A gun? No. A knife? No. Something tiny crawled in the voider's palm, like a flea. Thomson had no sooner focused upon it than it leapt towards his face. Repulsed, he raised his arm to keep it from his eyes or mouth, and the flea landed upon his hand. He slapped at it with his other hand, but it was beneath his thumbnail before he could get to it. He raised his arm to see its motion in the flesh of his thumb and clamped his other hand around the base of the digit, in the hope of stopping its further advance, gasping as though doused with icewater. The pain was out of all proportion to the mite's size, but he held both thumb and sobs hard, determined not to lose all dignity in front of his executioners. ~ The Death of Dr. William Brown Thomson.

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Tulsa	In 2007, showing pictures of Two Trucks and a house damaged by a fallen tree in Friday, Dec. 14, 2007 in Tulsa, Okla., news agencies reported that hundreds of thousands of Oklahomans, weathered one of the state's worst natural disasters. A brutal ice storm knocked out power to more than 600,000 homes and businesses at its peak and led to at least 23 deaths. The number of statewide power outages had been reduced to more than 200,000 by Friday afternoon. Public Service Company of Oklahoma reported about 89,000 outages, mostly in the Tulsa area.
Oklahoma

Earth had just begun to swung into Line, a ray of metafrequency energy jetstreaming from the massive black hole at the galactic hub. The transmuting effects of this atypical energy altered the planet for over a century until the Earth swung fully into line in 2113. A self-sufficient scientific community on the southern Peruvian coast - Center of International Research for the Continuance of Life on Earth, 2009-2113) - succeeded in compensating for the massive morphological changes that had occured. An ingenious discovery at CIRCLE succeeded in sustaining life - Rubeus, an artifical super-intelligence originally created to manage global weather systems. New Washington was repopulated fully by 2165.

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Jesus	In 1843, Ebeneezer Scrooge wakes in the night and the bells of the neighbouring church strike twelve. The first spirit appears and introduces himself as the Ghost of Christmas Past. His personal appearance is very interesting; he looks like a young boy, but at the same time, he looks old. His hair is white (tied in a ponytail), but he has no wrinkles. This spirit leads Scrooge on a journey into some of the happiest and saddest moments of Scrooge's past, events that would largely shape the current Scrooge.
Is Love

These include the mistreatment of Scrooge by his uncaring father (who did not allow his son to return home from boarding school, not even at Christmas and was abusive according to his sister, Little Fan), the loss of a great love sacrificed for his devotion to business, and the death of his sister, the only other person who ever showed love and compassion for him who picked him up at boarding school to go home at Christmas. Unable to stand these painful memories and his growing regret of them, Scrooge covers the spirit with the cap (which was made by the sins of man and had a beam of light coming out of the top) it carries and he is returned to his room, where he falls asleep. He also noticed that the light of the cap had never extinguished and this is a symbol because it is foreshadowing that Scrooge's light in him will never be extinguished (his hope will never die).

.

"GAS! Gas! Quick, boys!-- An ecstasy of fumbling, fitting the clumsy helmets just in time; But someone still was yelling out and stumbling & floundering like a man in fire or lime.-- Dim, through the misty panes and thick green light as under a green sea, I saw him drowning. In all my dreams, before my helpless sight, he plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning. If in some smothering dreams you too could pace behind the wagon that we flung him in,

Wilfred Owen	My friend, you would not tell with such high zest To children ardent for some desperate glory, The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est Pro patria mori. (trans. it is sweeting and fitting to die for your Country)" ~ Dulce et decorum est by Wilfrid Owen (1920)
Poet

In 1915, In the Battle of Gallipoli began when a strong Anglo-French task force including the British battleship Queen Elizabeth released huge quantities of mustard gas from the Sea of Marmara. Turkish troops along the coast of the Bosphurus l were decimated by this dastardly and cynical attack. Promising to avenge Troy, Mustafa Kemal escaped the gas just in the nick of time. General Sir Ian Hamilton and his Mediterranean Expeditionary Force marched into the capital and from the Hagia Sophia proclaimed the liberation of the City of Constantinople. It was a pyrrhic victory. Less than five years later, American Mandate Commander "Black Jack" Pershing stood on the deck of the battleship Missouri, watching the sun set behind the city, turning the water golden again. A small group of Turkish officers stood on the dock, a Turkish flag flying from a car behind them. Pershing saluted. "Fire a twenty-one-gun salute for the new republic, Captain, and for Mustafa Kemal."

In 1862, during the American Civil War, General Ulysses S. Grant issues General Order No. 11, expelling Jews from Tennessee, Mississippi, and Kentucky. It was an event that later inspired another anti-Semite Charles Lindburgh to challenge for the Presidency in 1940.

.

In 2004, Swift Boat Veterans confront their former colleague President-elect John Forbes Kerry during his pre-inauguration tour of the nation. They fiercely dispute his account of the 1968 events in Cam Ranh Bay leading to the award of a Purple Heart. Already whispers of impeachment over SwiftBoatGate have started. Democrats start to wonder if they would not be better off with the more charismatic Vice President-elect John Edwards. Edwards could not agree more, in fact he is the agitator behind the rumours.

.

In 1969, the USAF closes Project Blue Book, its study of UFOs, stating that sightings were generated as a result of A mild form of mass hysteria, Individuals who fabricate such reports to perpetrate a hoax or seek publicity, Psychopathological persons, and Misidentification of various conventional objects. In fact the US Government was confident that the non-proliferation committee for the Congress of Worlds had abandoned attempts to probe the American nuclear program after landings at Roswell, New Mexico and Kecksburg had been intercepted following tip-offs by a traitor inside the Committee..

.

In 1903, Orville and Wilbur Wright join the long line of inventors attempting to get a heavier-than-air craft off the ground. After their failure in Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, the U.S. government decided that the only way to fly was with lighter-than-air craft, and built an Air Force using the new dirigible technology. The huge, gas-filled aircraft revolutionized international travel.

In 1941, James Crescent, the “World’s Luckiest Man”, was born in Reno, Nevada. Over his life, Crescent won almost $10 million at games of chance. He married his high school sweetheart, had 2 lovely children with her, and was reportedly one of the most well-liked people in all of Reno. When he disappeared in 1976, the police couldn’t find anyone who harbored ill will towards him; although they did hear of a drifter answering to the name “Tolman” who had been spotted near Crescent’s house the day of his disappearance. The drifter was never found, and the crime was never solved.

In 1977, the most controversial band to ever appear on Saturday Night Live played their hearts out, live from New York. The Sex Pistols had been denied visas to enter the United States until virtually the last minute; they arrived in New York City with no time to rehearse before their appearance. Their foul language and on-stage antics sent the censors into fits, but it remains one of the shows highlights.

In 1992, the Community of Trade was formally dissolved. Most of its membership had been trading goods with capitalist nations for decades, anyway; this move simply acknowledged what they had all been doing already. Comrade President Sam Webb reluctantly signed the dissolution treaty, proclaiming it “the end of a century of progress among the nations”.

In 1942, the British Foreign Secretary, Anthony Eden, broadcast on BBC World News a statement about mass executions of Jews by Germans in occupied Europe. Mr Eden also read out a United Nations declaration condemning "this bestial policy". He said news of German atrocities sent in by the Polish Government and widely reported in the press this month would only serve to strengthen allied determination to fight Nazism and punish all those responsible. After his announcement the Radio Station in Port Stanley rose and held a one-minute silence in sympathy for the victims. The radio operators were all servicemen – after the Battle of Britain in 1940, Churchill and his Government-in-Exile escaped with the remnants of the Royal Navy and sailed to the Falkland Islands

In 2103, public sector procurement rules in the European Union necessitated the publication of the following EU Contract Notice in the Supplement to the Official Journal of the European Union: CONTRACT NOTICE Supply SECTION I: CONTRACTING AUTHORITY I.1) NAME, ADDRESSES AND CONTACT POINT(S): Center for Internation Research for the Continuance of Life on Earth (CIRCLE) 2, rue Mercier L-2985 Luxembourg Tel: (xxx) xxxx-x Email:tenders@circle.eu Internet address(es): General address of the contracting authority: http://www.circle.eu/. Address of the buyer profile: http://www.circle.eu/index.html. Tenders or requests to participate must be sent to: As in above-mentioned contact point(s). I.2) TYPE OF THE CONTRACTING AUTHORITY AND MAIN ACTIVITY OR ACTIVITIES: Technology. SECTION II: OBJECT OF THE CONTRACT II.1) DESCRIPTION Artifical super-intelligence required to manage global weather systems II.1.1) Title attributed to the contract by the contracting authority: Project Rebeus.

Rasputin

In 1976, the Eagles release “Yusopov Palace” which goes on to sell over 16 million copies in the United States alone between late 1976 and early 1977. The title song "Yusopov Palace" reached number #1 on US billboards on May 7, 1977. Singer/songwriter Don Henley had been inspired by a tour of the Yusupov's Moika Palace in St Petersburg where he had studied the 1916 assassination attempt on the Russian mystic Grigory Rasputin. Moved to words, he had written - s on the ceiling, the pink champagne on ice And she said 'We are all just prisoners here, of our own device' And in the master's chambers, they gathered for the feast They stab it with their steely knives, but they just can't kill the beast.

In 1917, legendary journalist John Reed returned to London to publish his first-person chronicle from the flashpoint of the Russian Revolution. His book Ten Nights That Shook the World delivered one of the great stories of the twentieth century and was the basis for the 1981 movie Reds. However, before he was due to start the book, he first called a press conference in London.

John Reed

On the Beach

In 1963, in the months following World War III, the conflict has devastated the northern hemisphere, polluting the atmosphere with nuclear fallout and killing all life. While the nuclear bombs were confined to the northern hemisphere, global air currents are slowly carrying the fallout to the southern hemisphere. The only part of the planet still habitable is the far south of the globe, specifically Australia and New Zealand, South Africa, and the southern parts of South America. From this region, Neville Shute wrote a final diary named On the Beach.

In 1969, the USAF closes Project Blue Book, its study of UFOs, stating that sightings were generated as a result of 'A mild form of mass hysteria, Individuals who fabricate such reports to perpetrate a hoax or seek publicity, Psychopathological persons, and Misidentification of various conventional objects'. Six years later, upon his appointment 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.

Bush41

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.

Carl Sagan

The state of TIAH

December 20th, 2006

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Alternate Historian's Note: Stephen Payne provides the alternate history, (although we have a post for Carl Sagan in tribute of the 20th anniversary of his passing), as we continue the second half of 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 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 1989, the United States send troops into Central America. On the pretext of overthrowing the government of Manuel Noriega, they recover Extraterrestrial Technology (ET) buried in Panama. Like Iraq a year later, former CIA Director George Bush had developed a long-term plan for harnessing ET since his access to Project Blue Book in the mid-70s, but needed the Presidency to make it happen. -entry by Steve Payne from Counter History in Context - You're the Judge!-

in 1990, the Kuwaiti Oil Tanker fleet transports the alien seaborne creatures into the English Channel. Made possible by the Iraqi occupation, they had been transported across land in Kuwait and secreted into the tankers for their invasion of Great Britain. -entry by Steve Payne from Counter History in Context - You're the Judge!-

in 1996, NeXT merges with Apple Computer, starting the path to Mac OS X which is used on 98% of personal computers today. -entry by Steve Payne from Counter History in Context - You're the Judge!-

in 1996, award-winning scientist and celebrity Carl Sagan undergoes the last treatment to remove the bone cancer he had been plagued by for 2 years. The cure for cancer was developed, appropriately enough, by a young doctor who had been inspired to go into science by Dr. Sagan's Cosmos book and series. 4 years after this, of course, Dr. Sagan became National Science Advisor to President Al Gore, and was instrumental in crafting the international treaty that halted the global warming epidemic, as well as the ground-breaking Universal Treaty for the Exploration of Space. Although he has no political ambition, Democrats in New York state have urged the governor to appoint the good doctor as the state's junior senator should Hillary Clinton win the right to succeed President Gore in the Oval Office, due to his immense personal popularity.

After(cont.)
“Too bad we can't draw that much out of an ATM machine,” Janice said. “We could use some fundage.”
“Have you thought about just reporting in, givin' 'em what they want, and then seeing if they'll let you go?” Steph wanted to find a reasonable way out of all this.
“You wouldn't be thinking that if you'd seen little Miss Raintree.” Janice shuddered. “Man. I'm gonna have nightmares over that one.”
“We could report in and see if they try to detain us,” Kevin said. “I mean, there weren't that many people in the armory when I went there. More than likely, everybody's out enforcing martial law. We zip in, we report what we found in Waco – except for you, Miss Carbonari,” he said, after seeing Janice straighten up to protest. “Then, I say, see you later, gotta report back to my unit in Bryan.”
“What about me?” Jake looked over at Kevin. “I'm at my unit. I ain't got 3 million bucks to grease my way out. They tell me I gotta stay, I'm stuck there.”
“We could... we could... we could say you got picked up by a unit from Dallas that needed additional manpower!” Kevin was proud of this scheme. “Yeah, we ran into another unit that was going through Waco, they needed a good sergeant right away, they took you. Paperwork'll be down in a few days.”
Jake looked at him much like he would look at a piece of gum on the bottom of his shoe. “You don't tell too many lies, do you, Bradley? Cuz that one sucks. Nobody gets transferred without the paperwork.”
“This is an emergency.”
“Army won't care.”
“It could buy us some time, at least, Jake,” Janice said. “I think it's pretty stupid, too,” she said, prompting Kevin to pout at her, “but it'll cause enough confusion to give us a day or two. That's all the time I need to work my contacts and get the word out to the world.”
“And then, what?” Kevin had raised his voice a bit, embarrassing himself. He lowered it and kept talking. “What happens when a lot of people know? Whoever's responsible for this just folds up shop, says 'you got me', and lets us get back to regular life? You liberal nutjobs, you all live in your own little fantasy world - “ All three of them shouted at him, and he was about to raise his voice to reply when Joan and George walked back into the dining room.
Steph ran over to her children and told them, “Don't worry now, the discussion just got a little exciting.” She looked disapprovingly at Kevin, and his face burned with shame.
“I'm sorry, Steph. Kids, I'm sorry, I shouldn't have raised my voice like that.” He turned to Jake and Janice, and apologized to them, too. “This has all just been...” He couldn't think of anything to finish out his thoughts, and they both nodded.
“Hey,” Janice said, brightly, “I'm just surprised I've only seen one dead body in all this. People like me, we've been expecting a blood bath with the coup.”

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Suspicions

The state of TIAH

November 23rd, 2006

Alternate Historian's Note: November is NaNoWriMo, National Novel Writing Month. In 2004, we produced our novel Warp, and last year we got a start on The Protocols Of The Elders Of Zion during this annual event. Both of these novels were based on timelines from TIAH – Warp was based on the Mlosh timeline, and Protocols on the Greater Zionist Resistance timeline. Although we posted numerous links to these novels on Lulu, TIAH didn't post any excerpts from them. We're going to do it a little differently this year. This year, the November posts on TIAH will be excerpts from the novel that is being written by us for NaNoWriMo. We will still have Guest Historian entries – Stephen Payne (who has compiled several and made them available on Lulu for free – just go through the Add to Cart system to get it) has some already written and waiting, and he is going to be joined by Guest Historian JD – so, if you want to make a Guest Post this month, go ahead and send it to us, and it will appear along with our novel post.

in 1872, on board the Mary Celeste, and after considering his Captain’s briefing, Richardson believes that they are part of an elaborate deception by the New York ship-owners J.H. Winchester and Co. to exploit the bad luck reputation of the Celeste for commercial gain. A $3,000 ship carrying $34,000 worth of cargo is after all suspicious. He suspects the barrels are full of seawater. The ship will be wrecked and J.H. Winchester and Co will over claim the insurance, making a handsome profit. The Dei Gratia will rescue the crew. -entry by Steve Payne from Counter History in Context - You're the Judge!-

in 1945, the automatic “three strikes” policy of the non-proliferation committee for the Congress of Worlds mandates a decision in relation to the distant planet earth. A meeting is quickly convened. Agreement is quickly reached on the authenticity of alerts from remote sensors of a third thermonuclear detonation. The geographic pattern of detonations when correlated with sentient population distribution suggests a type 1 scenario (the ‘immediate application’ model); that being a test detonation in a remote corner of the aggressor’s territory followed by short-term offensive activity in a populated area. A decision is taken to authorise an exploratory mission that will land close to the site of the first detonation ETA Roswell, New Mexico at the earliest launch window, July 1947. -entry by Steve Payne from Counter History in Context - You're the Judge!-

in 1946, the second set of trials of lesser war criminals at Nuremberg commences. In the Sailor's Trials, charges are brought for the destruction of the French Fleet at Mers-el-Kébir, French North Africa (now Algeria) by the Royal Navy which took place on 3 July 1940. Force H, based in Gibraltar led by the aircraft carrier the Ark Royal killed 1,297 and wounded 350 French sailors in this “wanton and unnecessary” attack. The surrender demand from British Admiral James Somerville " your ships..entrusted to the United States and remain safe until the end of the war, the crews being repatriated... I have the orders from His Majesty's Government to use whatever force may be necessary to prevent your ships from falling into German hands." is presented to the court noting that the offer to Admiral Marcel-Bruno Gensoul mirrored instructions already provided by French Marine Minister Admiral Darlan. Further noted was a contemporaneous statement by Somerville who was less enthusiastic about the action saying that it was "the biggest political blunder of modern times and will rouse the whole world against us…we all feel thoroughly ashamed…". At the Sailor's trial, Somerville took ultimate responsibility for the action and was executed before Christmas Day 1946. -entry by Steve Payne from Counter History in Context - You're the Judge!-

in 1990, a meeting of exComm3 gets under way in an underground room at Admiralty House, Whitehall, London. The subcommittee is charged with executing the long-term project to respond to the discovery of Extraterrestrial Technology (ET) hidden in Iraq. In fact former CIA Director George Bush had developed a long-term plan for harnessing ET since his access to Project Blue Book in the mid-70s, but needed the Presidency to make it happen. So far all the Committee have agreed on this year is the need to keep Thatcher in power to stop the US Administration from 'going wobbly'; they just cannot trust Neil Kinnock to pull this off. Neither can they level with the Great British Public, so they hit on the idea of vaguely threatening weapons of mass destruction (WMD) to build up hysteria and anti-Iraqi hostility in the western media. Of course they need a casus belli for an armed incursion into Iraq to seize the ET to safeguard freedom and democracy in the world. This isn't the nineteenth century, its going to be a whole lot tougher than snatching the Elgin Marbles out of the Ottoman Empire in 1806. -entry by Steve Payne from Counter History in Context - You're the Judge!-

Before(cont.)
Steph let her father talk to the kids and she tried to get some food ready for them. She heard Joan catching herself almost telling her grandfather about the Johnsons a couple of times, but she never got the words out. She eventually just handed the phone to George, who blathered about unimportant things for several minutes.
Joan walked over and began helping her mother with the food. Without looking at Steph, she asked, “Why don't we go to Tyler?”
“I don't want to get caught on the road in all this, Joanie.”
“Yeah, but I just...” She caught herself looking out the window at the house across the street, and turned back to the food. “I can't even look at it, now.”
“I know.” Steph placed a hand on Joan's. “I know, baby. But, it'll go away.” She turned her attention back to the hamburger she was shaping. “That's the thing about pain. It doesn't stick around forever.” Joan nodded, and went to get the hamburger buns out of the cupboard.
George came in and looked at the tray Steph was working on. “Yeah, no school and burgers. It's a great day.” He toddled off to the living room to watch his movie again.
Steph and Joan looked at each other and laughed. “I guess it's all in how you look at it.”

The air inside the hazmat suit was stale and smelled strongly of rubber. It made Kevin a little light-headed, and he said so. Sergeant Morris just told him, “Suck it up, you'll get used to it.”
“Right. Suckin' it up, sergeant.” He saluted and stopped complaining. It had been years since he had to follow orders, but it was all coming back to him. Much as he didn't want it to. “You know, when I'm a millionaire playboy after all this, I think I'm gonna move to a tropical island. Live like Gilligan.”
“Long as you got a Mary Ann on that island.”
“Or two.” They laughed and high-fived each other. Morris was not in a suit, which made his suck it up have a little less weight in Kevin's mind, but he had assured Kevin that he had worn the suit a thousand times. “So, are we ready to go now?”
“Show me how you check your oxygen.” Kevin pointed at the small readout on his left wrist. “Radiation levels.” Kevin pointed at another small readout. “Atmospheric density.” Kevin looked confusedly at the wrist controls. “Nah, I'm just screwin' with you; that's not on there. You're ready.”
“Can I take this thing off, then?”
“Yeah, go ahead. We won't need 'em again till we get outside Waco.”
Kevin walked back to the locker and turned off the air pump in the suit. Then, he unfastened what seemed liked dozens of zippers, snaps and hooks and shucked off the suit. He packed it carefully back into the sack and hefted the sack onto his shoulder.
Sergeant Morris came into the locker room and pulled down a bag for himself. “OK, I got the directions. We're gonna be goin' to the meteorology building on the Baylor campus, and they got a list of computers they need you to pull information out of.” He handed the list to Kevin, who looked it over quickly.
“This is a lot of computers.”
“We got all day.”
“We're not goin' now?”
“Nope, we leave at 0500 tomorrow. Curfew's gonna hit in about an hour, and they don't want us on the road there after dark.” He shoved the printout with his instructions into his pocket and looked up at Kevin. “Hey, Bradley, you got anyplace to stay?”
“Not really. I guess I'll sleep here, if you got any barracks.”
“Well, I was gonna go see if my ex-wife and my kids were all right, spend the night there.” Kevin smirked. “Not like that; she hates my guts. I just wanna be sure... you know.”
“Yeah, I understand, sergeant. You go on, I'll be OK here.”
“No, I mean – you can come, too. She's got a couple of couches. We can leave for Waco from there.” He was walking out of the locker room with his hazmat bag. “She's outside of Pflugerville. Closer to Waco than here.”

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A Nice, Quiet Dinner

The state of TIAH

December 17th, 2006

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Alternate Historian's Note: Stephen Payne provides the alternate history as we begin the second half of 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 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 1862, during the American Civil War, General Ulysses S. Grant issues General Order No. 11, expelling Jews from Tennessee, Mississippi, and Kentucky. It was an event that later inspired another anti-Semite, Charles Lindburgh, to challenge for the Presidency in 1940. -entry by Steve Payne from Counter History in Context - You're the Judge!-

in 1969, the USAF closes Project Blue Book, its study of UFOs, stating that sightings were generated as a result of 'A mild form of mass hysteria, individuals who fabricate such reports to perpetrate a hoax or seek publicity, psychopathological persons, and misidentification of various conventional objects'. In fact, the US Government was confident that the non-proliferation committee for the Congress of Worlds had abandoned attempts to probe the American nuclear program after landings at Roswell, New Mexico and Kecksburg had been intercepted following tip-offs by a traitor inside the Committee... -entry by Steve Payne from Counter History in Context - You're the Judge!-

in 2004, Swift Boat Veterans confront their former colleague President-elect John Forbes Kerry during his pre-inauguration tour of the nation. They fiercely dispute his account of the 1968 events in Cam Ranh Bay leading to the award of a Purple Heart. Already whispers of impeachment over SwiftBoatGate have started. Democrats start to wonder if they would not be better off with the more charismatic Vice President-elect John Edwards. Edwards could not agree more; in fact, he is the agitator behind the rumours. -entry by Steve Payne from Counter History in Context - You're the Judge!-

After(cont.)
Joan put out plates for dinner as Steph began turning off the burners on the stove. “Georgie, don't forget to put out the silverware,” she reminded her son, and he grabbed the utensils and started placing them next to the plates. Steph pulled some large bowls out and filled them with corn, mashed potatoes, and the chicken-fried steak she had just made.
She was exhausted. It had been a long time since she had cooked like that. The Thanksgiving just before she and Jake split up; that was it. She had cooked for hours, and he had barely acknowledged anything she'd done...
She put that out of her mind. She counted the place settings at the table and hoped there would be enough. She'd added in herself, the kids, Jake and Specialist Bradley, and a couple more, just in case. She placed the large bowls in the center of the big table and told the kids, “Shouldn't be too much longer. Y'all can go watch TV till they get here, if you want.”
They scurried off and checked the regular cable channels. Steph heard the Emergency Lady for a few brief flips through the channels, then a DVD was started up. She sat down at the table and picked up a roll from the pan she had made. She just nibbled at it; she didn't want to spoil her appetite, but she was a little hungry. As she was about halfway through it, she saw lights pull into her driveway. The kids noticed, too, and they hopped up from the TV and ran outside. She went into the living room and turned off the TV before joining them.
Jake was hugging the kids and introducing them to a nice-looking brunette woman. Steph felt a little twinge of jealousy before reminding herself that was ridiculous. She saw that Specialist Bradley was avoiding the little family tableau on the other side of the jeep and walked up to him. “How did it go, Mr. Bradley?”
“It's Kevin,” he said, a small smile lifting the corner of his lip. “It went... well, I think we're gonna tell you about it inside.” He touched her shoulder and leaned in towards her, saying, “I just want you to know, before we start in on all this, that I didn't want them to come here.”
The expression on his face was so serious that it scared her a little. “I'm sure it'll be OK,” she said, uncertainly. He just shook his head.
“The kids say you got a big dinner ready, Steph,” Jake said, bringing the crowd over to them. “You wanna eat?”
“Sure,” she said, turning away from Kevin and walking back up to the house. As Jake, the kids, and the other woman passed, she looked over at Kevin again. He was looking back in the direction they had come from, towards Waco. “You comin', Kevin?” He turned away from Waco, and the look on his face was so sad that it made her want to give him a great big hug. She restrained herself, but as he walked up to her, she touched his arm and whispered, “Whatever it is, you have the strength to handle it.” She gave him a small smile, and Kevin brushed his hand against hers, smiling back.
“Jake sure was a lucky man. I guess he didn't realize that.”
She chuckled. “No, he didn't.” She looked him in the eye a little longer than she meant to. She didn't usually like white boys, but he did have pretty blue eyes – not to mention 3 million dollars. And she always did like a man in uniform...
She shook herself out of it and said, “Well, we better get to the table before they eat everything up.”

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Destiny

Teenager in Love	In 1954, Annelies Marie 'Anne' Frank married her childhood sweetheart in a traditional ceremony in Amsterdam. Frank, the Jewish schoolgirl who wrote her diary while hiding from the Nazis in the Netherlands during World War II, was captivated by Peter Schiff. She met him at school in 1940, his family also having fled from Germany to Amsterdam the previous year. At age 11, Frank fell in love with Schiff and later, while in hiding in Amsterdam herself, wrote about how much she missed him until their reunion on VE Day August, 1 1944.
Anne Frank

The diary, which was given to Anne on her 13th birthday, chronicles her life from June 12, 1942 until August 1, 1944. It has been translated into many languages, has become one of the world's most widely read books, and has been the basis for several plays and films. Anne Frank has been acknowledged for the quality of her writing, becoming one of the most renowned and discussed Jewish celebrities of the post-war era. Wartime records indicate that Otto Frank's office building had been betrayed to the Gestapo only twenty-four hours before 'the accident'. Claus von Stauffenberg planted a bomb in the Fuhrer Headquarters - the Wolfsschanze (Wolf's Lair) at Rastenburg - killing Adolf Hitler and enabling the High Command to sue for peace. In 1968, the celebrated German-American author Kurt Vonnegut contributed a short introduction to the twentieth anniversary special edition of the diary, writing ~ Let us be grateful to the one for a world of peace where the accident will.

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	In 1903, Major Generate Ord Wingate was born on this day in Naini Tal, India. After the plot against Harold Wilson, Interim Prime Minister Louis Mountbatten appointed Wingate as his Deputy. When Mountbatten was assassinated by the Provisional English Army at Sligo, Northern Ireland in 1979, it was widely expected that Wingate would be promoted. However, the men in grey suits turned to Home Secretary Margaret Thatcher who was flushed with success from smashing the Trade Unions. Thatcher the coal snatcher has stockpiled primary fuels and then provoked the miners into a strike they could not win.

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	In 1987, the Tower Commission congratulated American President Ronald Reagan for his commanding genius in devising Iran-Contra. Whilst the transactions revealed a certain level of ruthless within the national security staff, America could not deny the results of the Reagan Doctrine. Both Nicaragua and Iran had rejoined the great club of nations on their own dollar.

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	In 1815, Napoleon Bonaparte drowned during his escape from Elba. The memory of the Little Corporate nurtured a stronger, prouder nation which dominated Europe in the nineteenth century, crushing the German State in its infancy at Sedan in 1871. Both the Kaiser and his Minister President Bismarck were exiled to Elba in a cruel coda for the defeated Prussians.

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In 951 AUC, Centurion Gaius Regis of Rome led his small garrison in Hibernia against the men of darkness, a band of almost 50 men who fed on the blood of the living. After losing half his garrison, Gaius followed the advice of his Hibernian wife and beheaded the Dark Ones before burying them alive. Their leader, Kynat, had to be shackled after his head was cut off in order to bury him.

	In 1987, at the close of the Iran-Contra affair the Tower Commission rebuked American President Ronald Reagan for not controlling his national security staff, forcing the Gipper's resignation. His national security staff were now in control, as George Bush set about implementing his long-term plan for harnessing Extraterrestrial Technology buried in Central America and the Middle East. Bush 41 had known about ET since his access to Project Blue Book in the mid-70s, but had needed the Presidency to make it happen.

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	United Kingdom Prime Minister Winston Churchill announced on this day in 1952 that his nation had an atomic bomb and would not hesitate to use it against insurgent forces in the British Empire. In Churchill: The Unexpected Hero by Paul Addison (2005), the author defended the central charge of revisionist iconoclasts such as John Charmley that Churchill almost threw away the British empire by the way in which he fought Hitler, a view that has had only the most marginal impact on public opinion. Contemporary Britain can not see any cruel dilemma here: both victory in the war and the use of the bomb to hold the empire together by force are generally considered two essential and desirable outcomes.

But this was not Churchill's view. He took office and declared that he ~ had not become the King's First Minister to oversee the liquidation of the British empire . Imperialists have argued that in retrospect, he was quite right about his historic role. His view was that an Anglo-American English-speaking alliance would seek to preserve the empire, though ending it was among Roosevelt's implicit war aims.

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	In 1993, al-Qaeda made the first of two attempts to destroy the World Trade Center (WTC) by detonating a car bomb in the underground parking garage below Tower One. The buildings would be destroyed in a subsequent attack on September 11, 2001. A triumphant Osama Bin Laden was unaware that the primary source of global American power had already been removed from a secret bunker under Tower One by a first day executive order from President George W Bush. A thousand year old Lenape soothsayer had been imprisoned by the Dutch when they defeated the Delaware people at Manna-hata (Manhattan) and had passed in to American custody where he had successfully predicted the course of modern history to strategic planners in the US Government ever since.

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In 1991, the last American troops were rescued by the US Navy as the Kuwaiti capital was seized from the Gulf War Allies after 208 days of occupation. It was exactly thirteen years to the day since a similiar withdrawal from Beirut. Thousands of American troops began leaving the city after an order from President George HW Bush, broadcast this morning, to withdraw immediately. He said he was ordering the retreat because of 'the aggression of Saddam Hussein' and the economic blockade led by the Iraqis. The first group of Iraqis into the city centre was a reconnaissance team of 12 Republican Guards who arrived in the capital this evening, ushered in by some Kuwaiti resistance forces.

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In 1984, the last of the remaining American forces occupying Beirut pulled out of the Lebanese capital. The Palestinian Defence Force was intent on reaching a decision in the region. Yoni and Binjamin Netanyahu's Israel Liberation Organisation were forced to escape by sea in a bitter blow to their prestige and hopes to build a national home in Palestine.

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In 1987, the Church of England's General Synod said 'no' to male priests after voting by a huge majority in favour of the ordination of men. Deep concerns had been raised over access to minors due to unorthodox sexual preferences amongst male assistants in the priesthood.

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	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.
Stephen Donaldson

Say to the Lords that their utmost limit of their span of days upon the Land is seven times seven years from this present time. Before the end of those days are numbered, I [Lord Foul the Despiser] will have command of life and death ~ The Council of Lords.

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	In 2008, the United States Government blocked access to the popular YouTube website because of content deemed offensive to Nazi ideology. Its telecommunications authority ordered internet service providers to block the site until further notice. Reports said the content included Danish cartoons depicting former President George Lincoln Rockwell that have outraged many.

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