Days Of Grace

July 6th, 2007

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The Announcement

A note from the AH: Since my contribution is now whatever I am currently writing, today my contribution is just a little intro to Steve's work – ah, the luxury of having a Co-Historian! Here are Steve's “bobby dazzlers”, as he calls them...

Kerry Edwards	In 2004, Democrat Presidential nominee John Edwards suffered from pangs of doubt following a meeting in North Carolina with Vice Presidential hopeful John Kerry. Edwards' plan was to secure the national security vote with a balanced ticket combining his strong anti-war stance with a former Vietnam Veteran.
Of course, if Edwards had allowed his political advisor Bob Scrum to push him into supporting the war, the positions would have likely been reversed. Or Howard Dean would have been meeting with Kerry, who could say?. Iraq was the big flip-flop of this political generation. ~ Steve Payne: use of this news item was selected to debate Iraq War not to comment on the Iraq War.

In 1777, the people of the Long House completed a week of celebration for the first anniversary of the birth of their nation. In reference to the expulsion of Europeans from the Turtle Island, Leaders of the Iroquis Federation quoted from the Aztec, Montezuma who famously said "The price of freedom is eternal vigilance".

~ variant by Steve Payne: respect is due to Jerry Oltion's classic Red Alert, potraying the Cuban Missile Crisis, recast in the 1800s as the Iroquois Federation inter-tribal air force vs. Manhattan.

Prince Harry	In 2008, at RAF Northolt the Royal Family welcomed the return of Prince Henry Charles Albert David following his release by hostage takers in Iraq. Third in the line of succession to the thrones of the United Kingdom, "Harry" had been seized on patrol and held for 115 days before his release.
An unusually emotionally scene reminded many of a somewhat similiar scenario from 1982. Former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher's son Mark had returned from Sahara desert where he had been presumed lost while taking part in an international motor race. Quoting the scriptures, the Queen said "Welcome Home Our Beloved Son...We Are Well Pleased." Three months later, in an unconnected move, British troop withdrawals were announced. Everyone's son was coming home it seemed, and in a sense, Harry's service had achieved the great leveller that national pride had demanded. ~ Steve Payne: use of this news item was selected to debate Iraq War not to comment on Prince's personal safety.

In 1999, the networks ran instalment eight of TSEotTC in two parts. A terrible car crash in Paris, the British nation in tears. The Prince of Hearts, dying in the arms of his lover Camilla Parker-Bowles. And beyond the high drama, the conspiracy..

~ entry by Steve Payne from Counter History in Context - You're the Judge!

In 1969, Director of the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation John Edgar Hoover issued executive instructions effectively banning a musical festival planned in New York State for the weekend of August 15th.	Hoover
400,000 people from all over America were expected to descend on a 600-acre dairy farm of Max Yasgur, in Bethel, New York, for a three-day concert, the Woodstock Music and Art Fair. Planned performances were expected from, among others, the Who, Santana, Janis Joplin, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Joe Cocker, Sly and the Family Stone, Jimi Hendrix and, in only their second live show together, Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young. Within Government circles it had been feared that like the million-man March on Washingston six years before, hippies would become self aware that far from being scattered individuals, they actually were much bigger in number than they thought. Since the return of the Republicans to the White House, the Nixon Administration had pursued a conservative agenda. The "showbiz" attitude of the Kennedys combined with anti-war protest threatened to implode American society unless firm action was taken at the beginning of the Presidency. American youth needed "what my father would call a visit to the wood shed" said Nixon, taking a very hardline on the counter-culture that had emerged since he left the White House with Eisenhower in 1961. Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix and Jim Morrisson would all die mysterious deaths before the '72 election. In a concilitatory measure, Nixon invited the Beach Boys to the White House, an all-American success story for the music industry.
~ entry by Co-Historian Steve Payne

Jethro Tull	In 1969, the Gnomes of Basle faced an unprecedent challenge to their uninterrupted world rule following the release of progressive rock band Jethro Tull's concept album Stand Up. Ironically, David Palmer, Glenn Cornick, Clive Bunker, Martin Lancelot Barre and Ian Anderson would not have looked out of place at the mastermind's underground HQ below the Bank for International Settlements building in Switzerland.
Quite simply, Ian Anderson flute playing was sublime. Stand Up represented an unexplored dimension of pure mellowness that could prove fatal to the despondency the Gnomes' required to sustain their world-grip. Laboratory tests at Basle had proven that human listeners achieved a degree of freedom that could if unchecked force them to reconsider feelings of disempowerment. Sound government required the Gnomes to accelerate the introduction of formulaic music, stick Ian Anderson on an obscure Scottish Island and flood the coming generations with mindless pulp noises.
~ entry from Steve Payne: tribute to Ian Anderson - you rule, sir!.

In 2010, in Alaska's White Mountains swift and effective counter-measures are taken at the High-frequency Auroral Research Center (HARC II). The world's most powerful beam of high-frequency electro-magnetic energy enters the ionosphere and destroys the small pox virus weapons. The rogue North Korean leadership who launched the weapons were already dead in Pyongyang, destroyed by a British Trident.

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

Freddie Mercury	Machines...It's a machines world, . Don't tell me I ain't got no soul When the machines take over, It ain't no place for rock and roll They tell me I don't care, But deep inside I'm just a man.. We have no disease no trouble of mind No thank you or please no regard for the time We never cry we never retreat We have no conception of love or defeat ~ Lyrics to Back to Humans
Rock Cyborg

Cyborg technology rescued Rock mega-star Freddie Mercury real name Farrokh Bulsara from a certain death at the hands of the AIDS pandemic. In “Back to Humans”, Mercury speaks of the duality of his release and imprisonment through this techno escape route. A synopsis of the life of Freddie Mercury can be viewed at Wikipedia

~ quotation by Co-Historian Steve Payne from Counter-history – You're the Judge!

Churchill	In 1942, it was agreed by Taoiseach Éamon de Valera that 32nd American Winston Churchill would after all visit London Town as part of his State Visit to the Irish Isles. It is further agreed he would support the Dublin Government by denouncing the protestant terrorists behind “the Troubles” in Southern England.
~ entry by Steve Payne from Counter History in Context - You're the Judge!

In 1942, following the funeral of Ian Fleming, the fifteen other members of the assassin squad were executed on this day in Dublin. The subversive English underground newspaper reported the executions as follows. ”No nobler blood than theirs has fallen on Irish earth in the long struggle for freedom. The military failure ..	Ian Fleming
.. of the assassination proved to be no less significant than the effects of its impact upon the nation's mind. It was the expression in action of an idea essentially spiritual, the translation of an old and vital aspiration into living history. In this State Visit the historic English nation was reborn. For men who shared in that shining deed Fleming, in one of his last messages, asked the remembrance of England present and to come. He did not ask in vain. 'They shall be remembered for ever'"
~ entry by Steve Payne from Counter History in Context - You're the Judge!

John Edwards	In 2004, John Kerry named John Edwards as his Vice Presidential running mate on the Democratic Party ticket. Just about the only thing that John Edwards agreed with his boss on is that America can "do better". Edward's interpretation is somewhat different from Kerry's, the North Carolina Senator meant “do better” than ..
.. having his boss assume the Presidency. Regrettably that meant Edwards had to seek common cause with these unlikely allies, the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth. The following year Edwards beat Harry Truman's record ascendancy to the Presidency after only 82 days, when Kerry was forced to resign over inconsistencies in his Vietnam War Record.
~ entry by Steve Payne from Counter History in Context - You're the Judge!

In 1975, on this day Arthur Ashe celebrated the achievement of becoming the first African American man to win the Wimbledon singles title. At 1 John 5:19 it is written that the whole world lies in that wicked one, and Satan did not want to play ball. The story of Ashe's life turned from success to tragedy in 1988, however, ..	Arthur Ashe
.. when he discovered he had contracted HIV during the blood transfusions received during one of his two heart surgeries. He spent much of the last years of his life writing his memoir Days of Grace, finishing the manuscript less than a week before his death of complications from AIDS on February 6, 1993.
~ entry by Steve Payne from Counter History in Context - You're the Judge!

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Anarchy In The UK

August 8th, 2007

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The Announcement

Alternate Historian – Back Again!: Yet another plague has ripped its way through our Academy and gone back to its home dimension, and we are happy to see it go. Tomorrow, we will hopefully feel like picking back up and contributing to the web site. Especially since it's one week till our first birthday and you need to send in your alternate lives for me (August 14, 1965) and Steve (November 22, 1967). Get that research done quickly!

George Orwell	In 1917, Aldous Huxley arrived at Eton College to teach French. The previous year he had graduated from Balliol College, Oxford with First Class Honours at English literature. Eric Blair (later known by the pen name George Orwell) was among his pupils, remembering him as another incompetent and hopeless teacher who couldn’t keep discipline.
By coincidence, both teacher and pupil would following similiar career paths, known for both novels and a wide-ranging output of essays and published short stories. Huxley wrote Brave New World, whilst Orwell penned Nineteen Eighty Four, an anarchistic vision of the future partly based on the indiscipline of Eton. In the world of 1984, Government has ceased to exist to be replaced by a loose form of autonomous control from the "the Party". Unaware of this connection [to his own failed supervisory methods], this publication prompted Huxley to write to Orwell in 1949 to congratulate him on "fine and how profoundly important the book is". Returning to his own dystopian vision of "Brave New World", Huxley continued: "Within the next generation I believe that the world's leaders will discover that infant conditioning and narco-hypnosis are more efficient, as instruments of government, than clubs and prisons, and that the lust for power can be just as completely satisfied by suggesting people into loving their servitude as by flogging them and kicking them into obedience".
~ entry by Steve Payne from Counter History in Context - You're the Judge!

In 1975, at the two-story house at 17841 Beaverland, former President of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Jimmy Hoffa received a presentation from the fourth dimensional aliens who Kurt Vonngeut had likened to Plumber's friends.
Jimmy Hoffa	Barred from Union activities since his release from prison in 1971, Hoffa had planned a big comeback. He wanted to extend the national freight agreement to cover all transport workers. The Tralfamadorians showed Hoffa the 1981 Air Traffic Controllers Strike, and how President Reagan fired the striking workers.
In this future, Hoffa was completely discredited by the new strong arm tactics of the Republicans. Worse, Americans seemed to want this action - it was the first time since Vietnam American's felt the White House had got the country moving ahead. Yet the Tralfamadorians moved forward a further twenty years, and Hoffa's son was now the President of the Teamsters, so clearly the father's removal was a setback with a long-term win. Hoffa could rest easy - he accepted his fate.
~ entry by Steve Payne from Counter History in Context - You're the Judge!

"I rented this little chalet in Switzerland, in the mountains just beyond Lake Geneva. I rented this gear from a little shop in a village, a little music shop, with a Revox tape recorder, an electric piano - I had my guitar there - and just sat there to try and write. For two weeks, I came up with nothing - and I only had four weeks to write this double album!

Jeff Lynne	I was sort of thinking, 'bloody 'ell, maybe I can't come up with anything'. The weather had been really bad and then one day I got up and it was fantastic, the sun was brilliant and shining, all the mountains were lit up and this mist had gone away. It was gorgeous, so I went out to ski, and well, that was that." ~ Jeff Lynne of the Electric Light Orchestra
Uninspired

Immediately after ELO's 'A New World Record Tour' ended in April 1977, Lynne left for Switzerland determined to compose enough new material for a double album. The singer-songwriter and producer had elevated ELO to global superstardom with the release of 'A New World Record' during 1976 and expectations of their record company, critics and ELO's millions of fans were higher than ever. In fact, it turned out that expectations for Out Of The Blue were far too high and the double album was never made.

~ quotation by Co-Historian Steve Payne from Counter-history – You're the Judge!

In 1945, mysterious mechanical failures on board the Enola Gay resulted in a late reassignment in both aircraft and the crew. The Lucky Strike is selected instead by USAF General Curtis "Bombs "Away" LeMay and C-in-C Douglas MacArthur.

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

Forest Whitaker	"[Idi Amin is] a splendid type and a good football player” ~British Foreign Office. ”You [director, Kevin Macdonald] don't think I've got the anger in me to do this part, do you?” ~ Forest Whitaker.
Playing Idi Amin

African American actor Forest Whitaker received critical acclaim for the lead role in The Last Governor-General of Uganda. To prepare for his role as the British stooge Idi Amin, Whitaker gained 50 pounds, learned to play the accordion, and immersed himself in research. He read books about Amin, watched news and documentary footage, and spent time in Uganda meeting with Amin's friends, relatives, generals, and victims; he also learned Swahili and mastered Amin's East African accent. Whitaker's performance earned him the 2007 Academy Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role, making him the fourth African-American actor in history to do so. For that same role, he also received the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor in a Motion Picture Drama, the Screen Actors Guild Award, a British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) Award, and accolades from the New York Film Critics Circle, the Los Angeles Film Critics Association, the National Board of Review and the Broadcast Film Critics Association.

~ quotation by Co-Historian Steve Payne from Counter-history – You're the Judge!

In 2009, the TV networks presented the final episode (number twenty eight) of So What If?. John F Kennedy is assassinated in Dallas. Suspicion falls upon a member of the motorcade, Texas president Lyndon Baines Johnson.

~ entry by Steve Payne from Counter History in Context - You're the Judge!

Elimina Castle	In 1482, to pass the long night of six hundred years at St. George El Mina Castle, Kwame’s brother spoke to him of African Poetry. ”The weaver bird built in our house, and laid its eggs on our only tree, we did not want to send it away, we watched the building of the nest
And supervised the egg-laying. And the weaver returned in the guise of the owner Preaching salvation to us that owned the house They say it came from the west Where the storms at sea had felled the gulls And the fishers dried their nets by lantern light Its sermon is the divination of ourselves And our new horizons limit as its nest. But we cannot join the prayers and answers of the communicants We look for new homes every day For new altars we strive to re-build The old shrines defiled from the weaver’s excrement.”
~ entry by Steve Payne from Counter History in Context - You're the Judge!

In 1945/3001, (Third Age) a wretched US President Harry S Truman pours himself a bourbon in the Oval Office. He is starting to realise, actually has realised, that the delayed Japanese surrender is in fact nothing other than the slow cogs of decision-making. Perhaps, probably, tomorrow's strike on Nagasaki is unnecessary.	Gandalf
Startled by the door opening unannounced, he looks up from the Resolute Desk to see an old man with a long white beard and huge floppy hat. "I am Gandalf the Grey", says the stranger, "and I have returned to Bag End to tell you to give up the Ring of Power". Truman reacts with panic and suspicion when Gandalf tries to persuade him to leave it. The last straw is when Truman refers to the Ring as his "precious" and Gandalf loses his temper, putting some sense into him. Truman then admits he would have liked to be rid of it, and leave it behind. Gandalf departs, the scene changes and the President presses his intercom, "get me the head of the U.S. Army Air Forces and tell him to cancel the strike!".
~ entry by Steve Payne from Counter History in Context - You're the Judge!

Lloyd George	In 1914, European diplomacy entered a critical phase as the August Days continued in the build up to War. In Caerdydd (Cardiff) First Minister David Lloyd George confirmed the nation's policy of neutrality. The Welsh Free State had no strategic interest in a European conflict said the Welsh Wizard.
He would be damned if he sent the flower of Tywysogaeth Cymru (Wales) to die in the mud of Flanders. This statement was to have two very unexpected outcomes on the threat and opportunity scale. Put simply, what goes up, must come down.
~ entry by Steve Payne from Counter History in Context - You're the Judge!

In 1917, in order to release the Tsarevich Alexei Nikolaevich, Tsarist Prime Minister Pyotr Stolypin and the Okhranka burst into the den that is housing the hostage, and his kidnappers. Thereupon the leader of the Paris nest, the Vampire Henri confronts Stolypin with an unexpected explanation for the kidnapping.	Stolypin
A condition for the Tsarevich's release requires the Peace Conference to announce a Free Vampire State of Transylvania. The leader said it was a reasonable request, after all, France would not have emerged victorious from the Great War without nosferatu attacks after sundown on the German trenches. After all, what else did the General's mean when they talked of “bleeding the Germans white?”. Hmm. Stolypin and the Okhranka do a rapid about turn, seeking further orders from the Tsar.
~ entry by Steve Payne from Counter History in Context - You're the Judge!

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Terminated

Kitchener

In 1905, the heroes reception for Commander Harry 'Breaker' Harbord Morant with brother officers Lieutenants Handcock, Witton at the Hotel Australia was over. The Morant Affair was now the most debated topic in Australia, having the most profound consequences for future of the the British Empire. Lord Kitchener was the British commanding officer instructed to bring the Boer War to a speedy conclusion at any cost. London was desperately concerned that the Kaiser would exploit Boer sympathy within Germany to intervene, and seize the mineral wealth of South Africa. The Australian's governments objections prevented the execution of the officers as Scapegoats of Empire and the Boer's tore up the draft of the Treaty of Vereeniging due to be signed in May 1902.

This was when the real trouble started as the regional conflict in South African blossomed into a Great War. Westminister recalled Kitchener to London where he received a new appointed as War Minister. A recruitment poster of "Britain needs you" with the hate figure of Kitchener was of course an insult to the people of Australia. Kitchener played an integral part in the planning of the catastrophic Gallipoli campaign. Westminister requested the assisstance of Anzac troops. The major anti-British backlash as a result of the Morant Affair prevented the Governments of Australia and New Zealand from acquiesing. The spectre of thousands of Australian and New Zealand troops being needlessly slaughtered was simply to much. Largely as a result of the Morant case, the Australian army never again accepted British Army justice, or any other nation's justice, in cases involving its soldiers and citizens.

In 1980/1941, the US aircraft carrier Nimitz collided with an unnatural storm and the crew were transported from 1980 to Pearl Harbour on December 6th, 1941. Captain Captain Matthew Yelland had to decide whether to interfere with the past and stop the Japanese Fleet from attacking the US base. The true story of the voyage was portrayed in the movie Final Countdown. Played by actor Kirk Douglas, Yelland made the decision to intercept the incoming Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour, but during the attempt, the freak storm returned and sends the ship back to 1980. But this is a a different 1980 where buoyed by easy victory in the Pacific, an unstoppable military had fought the Soviet Union and lost. As the final ends, the question is left hanging, should Yelland have intervened, or let history run its course...

.

In 1793, Madame Jeanne du Barry, who had been mistress to the former king, was dragged before the Parisian mob to be executed at the guillotine. She made an appeal to the crowd, calling upon their mercy and relating her own tale of woe as a poor child who had been used by men throughout her life. Moved to pity, the crowd surged forward and rescued her from the executioner. She went into exile in Great Britain, and founded a home for wayward girls there.

In 1863, with the Southern Rebellion subdued, President Walt Whitman secured ratification of the 13th Amendment, ending slavery within the United States, and guaranteeing economic equality and freedom for all Americans, regardless of ethnicity, gender, philosophy or religion. The 13th Amendment stood as the greatest achievement of the Communist Party until President Haywood’s Community of Trade united oppressed workers across the world in brotherhood.

In 1980, a church secretary who had overheard televangelist Jim Bakker arrange a liaison with secretary Jessica Hahn called the local news station and told them where to find the pair that evening. When reporters burst in on Hahn and Bakker in a sexual tryst, Bakker’s church empire was ruined, and all television evangelists sank in popularity.

In 2005, BBC News reported - David Davis is new Tory leader.

David Davis was elected as the new Conservative leader by a margin of more than two to one over David Cameron. The 57-year-old beat Mr Cameron by 134,446 votes to 64,398 in a postal ballot of Tory members across the UK. Cameron, the Old Etonian, eighteen years his junior at just 39 had been an MP for only four years, and was discredited by allegations of drug use. Davis said the Tories must change and be in tune with today's Britain with a "modern compassionate Conservatism". His defeated rival, Mr Cameron, said the leadership contest had been a preamble to a Conservative election victory. He hailed Mr Davis as the next Tory prime minister and said the race had made the party look thoughtful and mature. Outgoing leader Michael Howard had said he was standing down after May's general election.

In 1975, the Balcombe Street siege began – it lasted six days. Three armed IRA men on the run from police have burst into a flat in central London and taken at least two people hostage. Officers have now sealed off the corner of Dorset Square and Balcombe Street, in Marylebone, after a car chase through the West End during which shots were fired. The gunmen are believed to be members of an IRA hit squad which has been behind a number of attacks in the capital and home counties over the past few months. They are accused of shooting dead Interim Prime Minister Lord Louis Mountbatten a week ago, and also of carrying out attacks on London restaurants, the Hilton hotel and the Army public house at Caterham in Surrey.

In 2007, Macrosoft, Inc received a huge volume of calls from users reporting the error 'No Updates Available'. A minimum of one update per day had been distributed automatically since the release of Vesta Home Edition. Tech Support discovered that overnight release management problems had withheld the release of twenty-five critical updates.

Unit 731

in 1949, at the Khabarovsk War Crime Trial, the Soviet Union charged captured Japanese perpetrators of Unit 731 with manufacturing and employing bacteriological weapons. Included among those prosecuted germ warfare criminals was General Otozoo Yamada, the commander-in-chief of the million man Japanese army occupying Manchuria. The Soviets are very much aware that General Douglas MacArthur has secretly pardoned the perpetrators in Allied custody in exchange for their scientific data, some of it obtained by grotesque experiments on Soviet women and infants. Plague-infested fleas, bred in the lab facilities of the covert medical experiment unit were spread by low-flying Japanese air planes over populated Chinese locations, such as the coastal city of Ningbo in 1940, and the city of Changde, Hunan province in 1941.

This military aerial spraying resulted in human epidemics of bubonic plague that killed thousands of innocent Chinese civilians. Unit 731's bio-weapons research resulted in tens of thousands of deaths in China – possibly as many as 200,000 casualties by some estimates. Secretly, research was continued behind the Iron Curtain. Disastrously the bio-weapons would fall into the hands of Islamic terrorists during the collapse of the Soviet Union, prompting the bio-terrorism of the early twenty-first century.

In 1976, Mary Jo Kopechne drove home from a book signing ceremony. Just the day before, Mary J had published Chappaquiddick, in which she described her unending sorrow over the death of President Edward Moore Kennedy in an automobile accident on Martha's Vineyard. Turning on the AM radio, Mary Jo was absorbed by Bruce Springsteen's rock anthem Candy's Room but somehow the words were strangely different She says, Baby if you wanna be wild, you got a lot to learn, close your eyes, Let them melt, let them fire, let them burn Cause in the darkness, there'll be hidden worlds that shine, When I hold Mary Jo close she makes the hidden worlds mine..

Ted Kennedy

Gasping with horror, she sees that Kennedy is beside her in the passenger's seat, laughing manically whilst slapping his leg to the beat of the song. Looking serious for a moment, he says “I should have been the greatest President, you know” and grabs the wheel, whereupon the car swerves off the road and explodes in a ball of fire.

Eden

In 1992, a post-script was added to the twelfth edition of A Rage in Eden, the late British Prime Minister Anthony Eden's auto-biography, in which he focused on his moment in history, the Suez Crisis of 1956. 41st US President George wrote - Who now can say Eden was wrong? following the recent Gulf War. After all, if the coalition of the willing had not been able to use the military bases in the Canal Zone, how else would they have reversed the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait?

In 2005, cyber-agents of the government of (censored) detect a number of alternative lifers on the Internet in the south-western United States. Potentially, one of them is revolutionary blogger known as Rat. The system information on his computer is highly irregular; Operating System: HotDog Barbecue 2003, Browser TexasToast Freeware 2005, RSS Newsreader Yabadabadoo! and Email Client LemonPopsicle, all (allegedly) running on a PC133-style computer. These cyber-agents are not fooled, they realise that Rat is using a self-generated spoofing program to conceal his $250,000 Windows 2003 Server Farm.	Rat

Double Post - May 10-11

The state of TIAH

Today In Alternate History

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Alternate Historian's Note: Thanks to the unplanned outage yesterday, we have a double post today to catch up. And remember - in 16 days, we'll hit TIAH's third anniversary. As before, that calls for a contest! Please send in your alternate versions of the Academy's beginnings (May 27th, 2004 was the date in this timeline). You can even use the fact that we lost the original day and had to restart on the 28th – whatever you can think of to provide a twist to our start. Send 'em in, and we'll print 'em! Be sure to tell us how you want your credit for the post to appear, as well as any links you want to be connected with your entry. Thanks for reading and get researching those alternate timelines!

May 10th, 2007

in 1891, as news of the successful Union attack on the Kansas ammunition dump is blazoned across the nation's newspapers, President Benjamin Harrison takes the opportunity to call for a draft to supplement the military. “Our nation has a grave need of you all in this time of trouble,” he says in the declaration. “Just as in our great civil war, those of us who know the righteousness of our cause must stand in the heat of battle for our nation. I call upon the Congress to enact this legislation quickly, so that Kansas may, once again, be brought into the brotherhood of states.” Congressional leaders take up debate on the draft bill that very day.

in 1999, as King Arthur II reaches his bedside, Prime Minister Merl Myrddin wakes from his coma and smiles at his younger friend. “Today, I feel that you will pass beyond my teachings, Arthur,” Myrddin says to his king. “But, before I leave you to fly with your own wings, I must tell you – there is a traitor in your house.” Arthur, who had been growing suspicious of Queen Gwen, merely nods and says, “I know, old friend. Do not spend your strength on her; that matter will be taken care of.”

In 1997, software engineers from Sun Microsystems arrive at the hospital and release author Neal Stephenson from catatonia. He had been trapped in the Black Sun, a software construct in cyberspace. Stephenson explains to Snow Crash movie Director Marco Brambilla that later editions of the novel described Blaxxun, originally Black Sun prior to his being sued by Sun Microsystems. The basis of the novel was on fact, and he was very grateful to the Corporation for expediting his release.

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

In 1999, the sound of Mr Gray's vehicle diminished into the west. The author Stephen King emerged from the trees where he had been hiding. Screaming actually. Mr Gray was not death, but worse than death.

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

Bertram Ramsay	In 1947, the Tydings Committee proceeded with the interview of Admiral Sir Bertram Ramsay who commanded the 6,900 vessels involved in the D-Day ..
.. invasion including the 4,100 landing craft. As Vice-Admiral Dover he was responsible for the Dunkirk evacuation. He was active in planning Operation Sledgehammer and was subsequently given the planning role for the naval landings of Operation Torch in North Africa. He played a major part in planning the D-day invasion, particularly the naval landings of Operation Neptune and led the naval forces in the battle.
~ entry by Steve Payne from Counter History in Context - You're the Judge!

In 1989, in Great Britain the public backlash at the death of Blair Peach shocks the British Royal household. The ranks of protesters with the Goddess of Democracy in Hyde Park are swelled considerably.	More violence
~ entry by Steve Payne from Counter History in Context - You're the Judge!

Udham Singh	In 1998, Jack Higgins published sequel Lion has Flown to his famous pseudo-factual novel the Lion has Landed. As an increasingly isolated and insane Churchill pursues his hopeless war, betrayal and treachery reach the highest levels of the British Raj. British intelligence knows that Punjabi freedom fighter ..
.. Udham Singh survived "Operation Eagle", the bungled assassination attempt on Winston Churchill, and is now a POW somewhere in London. The Indian Congress wants him back -- at any cost -- and puts their top espionage agents in charge of the perilous rescue mission. Racing from the nightclubs of Delhi to Churchill's opulent country retreat to the damp streets of London, Nehru's men get closer to their target -- and to the shattering true objective of their mission....Critics ridiculed the basis of the novel that the British were able to defend the Raj from Japanese invasion.
~ entry by Steve Payne from Counter History in Context - You're the Judge!

In 1865, the trial against the Lincoln conspirators begins. The Union had been in chaos ..	Abe Assassinated..
.. since John Wilkes Booth, George Atzerodt and Lewis Thornton Powell assassinated the United States President, Vice-President and Secretary of State being Abraham Lincoln, Andrew Johnson and William H. Seward respectively. A lifeline was thrown to General Robert E. Lee called the Confederacy's Last Chance. He took it.
~ entry by Steve Payne from Counter History in Context - You're the Judge!

May 11th, 2007

in 1891, in a whirlwind of activity, the US Congress passes a bill authorizing a military draft and sends it to President Benjamin Harrison for his signature. “This is the sort of speed that is necessary when the nation stands at peril,” President Harrison says at the signing. “I have high hopes that my friends in the legislature will not grow lethargic and feel that their work is done, now. In addition to providing troops for the coming battle, we must fund and supply them. I would ask them to please work as quickly on these other matters as they have on the draft.” The Democratic leaders of Congress, nominally Harrison's political enemies, are temporarily defanged by the need to unity at this time, and feel obligated to take up more legislation to fund a war that many privately consider to be Harrison's fault.

in 1999, Prime Minister Merl Myrddin dies in his London hospital, and King Arthur II appoints one of his old Welsh comrades, Kay Ector, as the next Prime Minister, and tells him, “You follow a giant. But, I have faith that, standing upon his shoulders, you will seem taller still.” Prime Minister Ector makes immediate contact with the British allies from across the globe and lets them know that Britain's fortunes may have taken a temporary dip, but are rebounding back quickly. On the Swiss front, Sir Lance du Lac's forces approach within sight of Bern. Emperor Pierre flees the city and finds himself cut off from the Illuminati's resources – his old allies have apparently lost faith in his abilities. His greatest spy, in the meantime, is taken into custody in Wales. Queen Gwen, her head held high, is jailed for treason against the realm.

In 2367, on the planet Bezer'ej Royal Marines of the Federal European Union have taken the most extreme measures possible to prevent the immortality parasite falling into the hands of World governments. A cobalt-salted nuclear warhead has genocided the indigenes of the planet. Trouble is, the world is considered a protectorate by the wess'har and that outrage must be redressed.

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

In 1999, still shaking the author arrived home in Center Lovell. As he entered the key in the lock, the door swung open. “Good afternoon Mr King,” said Mr Gray. Stephen King screamed. He was still screaming an hour later when another vehicle arrived. The trademark waa-waa of the Maine state troopers' siren drowned out the scream, briefly.

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

Bertram Ramsay	In 1947, the Tydings Committee proceeded with the interview of Admiral Sir Bertram Ramsay who commanded the 6,900 vessels involved in the D-Day ..
.. invasion. Senator Joseph Raymond McCarthy of Wisconsin asked a series of penetrating questions. As a starter, where did Ramsay believe the 4,100 landing craft were right now? Ramsay repeated the orthodox wisdom - 'Caves of Ice'. The room took several minutes to settle down as an uproar broke out. What could this mysterious transmission possibly mean?
~ entry by Steve Payne from Counter History in Context - You're the Judge!

In 1989, in London Security Forces including the Army moved in on Hyde Park in an attempt to breakup the protesters around the Goddess of Democracy. A sign of the resistance movement was the unknown rebel who stands calmly in front of an oncoming tank. Morale in the Security Forces is now a concern to the British Royal household. ..	Unknown rebel
.. They could neither confirm nor deny the arrest of the unknown rebel.
~ entry by Steve Payne from Counter History in Context - You're the Judge!

Nicholas Assass..	In 1891, today marked the anniversary of the Otsu Scandal. This was of course the assassination of Tsarevich Nicholas Alexandrovitch on 11 May 1891, while Nicholas was visiting Japan. Nicholas was returning to Kyoto after a day trip to Lake Biwa in Otsu, Shiga Prefecture. He was attacked by Tsuda Sanzo, one his escort policemen, ..
.. who swung at the Tsarevich's face with a sabre. The quick action of his cousin, Prince George of Greece and Denmark, who parried the second blow with his cane, might have saved his life. Tsuda then attempted to flee, but two rickshaw drivers in Nicholas's entourage chased him down and pulled him to the ground. Nicholas was left with a 9 centimetre long scar on the right side of his forehead, which doctors were unable to close and he bled to death shortly afterwards at the Kyoto Imperial Palace. The weakening of the Romanovs at this critical juncture actually extended their longevity. Concessions in the 1905 revolution led to the opening of the Duma and the blossoming of a constitutional monarchy and democratic system of government in all the Russias. Western Europe set about a containment strategy desperate to prevent any form of republicanism entering the capitals of London, Paris, Vienna and Berlin.
~ entry by Steve Payne from Counter History in Context - You're the Judge!

In 1949, Palestine joined the United Nations. Palestine has a vibrant cultural life and a technologically and industrially advanced economy. Palestine was ranked 23rd out of 177 countries in the United Nations Human Development Index, the highest ranking in the Middle East and 3rd highest in all of Asia.	Commemorative S..
~ entry by Steve Payne from Counter History in Context - You're the Judge!

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Tired

In 1766, Rip Van Winkle, driven out of home by his wife for his broken promises to repair the house wandered into the Castkill mountains with his dog “Wolf”. A band of men hailed from the river. The whole group reminded Rip of the figures in an old Flemish painting, in the parlor of Dominie Van Schaick, the village parson, and which had been brought over from Holland at the time of the settlement. Together they drank a flagon of “Hollands” together, and Rip fell deep asleep.

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The Shadow	In 1941, Orson Welles strikes out in a new direction following the release of Citizen Kane. In order to make himself more appealing to the movie studios, Welles made a movie out of his radio show The Shadow. The protagonist is a fictional character created by Walter B. Gibson in 1931 in a semimonthly series of pulp magazines. The first story was titled "The Living Shadow". The character is one of the most famous of the pulp heroes of the 1930s and 1940s. In print, he wore a slouch hat and a black, crimson-lined cloak with an upturned collar (while in later comic books and the movie, The Shadow wore a crimson scarf around the lower part of his face). He also skulked in the shadows using his skill at concealing himself -- at first. In due course, and in his most famous incarnation, The Shadow became an invisible man who supposedly learned "while traveling through East Asia ... the mysterious power to cloud men's minds, so they could not see him."
Walter B. Gibson

In part, that new incarnation was born of necessity; radio's time constraints made it difficult to describe The Shadow in hiding and nearly invisible. Some believe the Shadow was a hypnotist, as explicitly mentioned in at least a few radio episodes; others contend that the Shadow could manipulate Qi. Because radio was not a visual medium, audiences found The Shadow's invisibility easy to accept. The big screen takes the character to a new level of imagination, and ”The Shadow – the Movie” is the box office hit of 1942.Welles was taken in a new and unexpected direction that eventually lead to the goth classic “Batman”.

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Tom Cruise	In 2007, (KP International) Tom Cruise's reps were reportedly angry about the release of photos of the actor looking bald and fat during filming for his role in the upcoming comedy, Tropic Thunder. "Mr Cruise's private appearance was supposed to be a secret for his fans worldwide. [Paparazzi] have ruined what should have been an upsetting discovery for moviegoers," read a statement from the actor's reps, World Entertainment News Network reported. Ben Stiller, Jack Black, Robert Downey Jr, Nick Nolte and Matthew McConaughey star in the film, which is expected to hit theatres next summer.
Old and Fat

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Kennedy	In 1979, Stanley Shapiro wrote the second in a series of articles entitled A Time to Remember in which the journalist was sharply critical of post-Vietnam Foreign Policy. Better for the US to have been humbled by the war in Vietnam and then this ultra-belligerance would have been nipped in the bud, and Westmoreland sent off into a quiet retirement was Shapiro's view.
In Eisenhower and Kennedy, the US had been led by careful crisis managers that had steered the nation away from disaster. Ike had assaulted the congressional military industrial complex with Kennedy threatening to splinter the CIA into a thousand pieces. In fact Bay of Pigs showed the world exactly what would happen if congressional military industrial complex drove events - a disaster.

In 1941, French Marine Minister François Darlan sent orders to the French Naval Base at Mers-el-Kébir to increase combat preparedness (e.g. deploy torpedo nets in the harbor), with immediate effect. Due to a catalogue of disasters, the orders were not received in good time before six British carriers under the command of British Admiral James Somerville. Launched a first wave of 181 planes composed of torpedo bombers, dive-bombers, level bombers and fighters. Overall, twenty-one ships of the French Mediterranean fleet were damaged and the death toll reached 1,297 with 350 injured. Conspiracy theorists point to a German plot. That aside, the result was very much in favour of the Nazis, with opinion in France swinging strongly behind the Vichy Regime which became a genuine partner in a new european community.

Snakeyes

In 1963, the strange being known as Snake Eyes is still working hard to tie up loose ends. Even though the body count has already reached ten and all the principles are dead. Today's problem is the bullet casings ejected when a bullet or bullet fragment struck a nearby curb. Agents are sent to take away the evidence and store it somewhere safe. Like in the Grand Canyon, thinks Snake Eyes, his mood breaking for a moment.

In 1963, on this day Dallas night club owner Jacob Rubenstein aka Jack Ruby was shot and killed by W. Guy Banister in the basement of Dallas police headquarters. Unconscious, Ruby was put into an ambulance and rushed to Parkland Memorial Hospital, the same hospital where both JFK ad Lee Harvey Oswald had died over the last three days. Doctors operated on Ruby, but Banister's single bullet had severed major abdominal blood vessels, and the doctors were unable to repair the massive trauma. At 48 hours and 7 minutes after the President's assassins death, Ruby was pronounced dead. After a full autopsy, Ruby's body was returned to his family.

Ruby dies

Cordell Hull

In 1941, the Hull note, formally called "Outline of proposed Basis for Agreement Between The United States and Japan" was delivered on this day. The US Government accepted efforts toward the establishment of peace through the creation of a new order in East Asia. President Charles Lindbergh had no time for colonialism, and astutely foresaw that the Empire of Japan could be a strategic partner in the region for the forthcoming battle with communism.

In 1980/1941, a fleet of six aircraft carriers commanded by Japanese Vice Admiral Chuichi Nagumo left Hitokapu Bay for Pearl Harbour under strict radio silence. The fleet was in the path of the US aircraft carrier Nimitz, which had collided with an unnatural storm and the crew were transported to the same location. Captain Matthew Yelland decided to interfere with the past and stop the Japanese Fleet from attacking the US base. The true story of the voyage was portrayed in the movie Final Countdown. Played by actor Kirk Douglas, Yelland made the decision to intercept the incoming Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour, but during the attempt, the freak storm returned and sends both the Americans and Japanese back to 1980.	Final Countdown
The result is that America does not enter the war, and Asia, including Oceania is absorbed into the Empire of Japan.