A Heavenly Visitor In Holbrook

July 19th, 2007

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The Announcement

The reporter decided to amble back over to them, so Marvin excused himself. “Anything interesting, Mr. Lance?”
“You apparently have been an angel all your life, with the exception of the time you were dating your ex-husband.” He grinned. “But, no-one would talk to me about him.”
“Well, we all make mistakes, Mr. Lance. He was mine.”
“He helped you produce a nice daughter, though,” he said, looking back at Monica. “Seems very self-confident. And, she makes a nice pecan pie.”
“Just wait till she gets through the CIA.”
Lance's brow furrowed. “She wants to be a spy?”
“Culinary Institute of America. She wants to be a chef.”
“Oh,” Lance said, a little crestfallen.
“But, I suppose she could be a spy, too,” she said, throwing him a bone. “It'd be good cover.”
He looked over at her again and shrugged. “I suppose. It feels funny, though, that someone would still want to be something as ordinary as a cook after being so close to an event like this.”
“People are still going to need to eat.”
“Yeah, but...” Lance seemed to be struggling to express himself. She was actually a little taken with him; he was very cute when he was trying to be sincere. “I mean, watching the first contact with an alien race; being related to somebody who's involved in the planning of it, the execution of it – it'd make me want to be an astronomer.”
Her face broke into a lopsided smile. Oh, the many times that conversation had taken place. “She's a good amateur, but she doesn't really have the desire or the temperament for the job. I've long since accepted her career decision. She'll be a good chef.” She leaned over and whispered confidentially, “Especially if she makes it onto Food TV.”
“Yeah, she was pushing that with me,” he said, smiling broadly. “I don't know if my network has any real influence on who appears there, though.”
“She'll figure out a way to leverage this all into an appearance there. She's smart.”
“Takes after her mother.”
Andrea blushed a little at the compliment. “In some ways.”

In 1969, the rescue party led by Joseph Gargan (Kennedy's cousin) and party co-host Paul Markham arrived at the nightmarish scene at Poucha Pond. Mary Jo Kopechne had been drained of blood by the vampires, who had been unable to feed upon the Senator due to the high level of alcohol and narcotics in his bloodstream. Deciding to cover up the disaster as an innocent vehicular accident, Kennedy was driven to Edgartown, whilst the body of Mary Jo Kopechne was concealed in the underwater 1967 Oldsmobile Delmont 88. The Senator would report the accident to the Police in Edgartown. He would claim to have attempted to rescue Kopechne but been prevented by strong currents. Kennedy then would claim he had swam across the 500-foot channel, back to Edgartown to muster an “official” rescue party.

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

In 1970, the witch Jim Morrison was taken into custody. Planning to use standard “good cop, bad cop” techniques, bad cop entered the suite behind the interview room. However there was a problem that was only visible through the two-way mirror. Good cop was in a room all on his own.

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

In 2007, A. BREEG wrote ~ my cousin died on 18th June 1978, this much is known. His headstone was marked “Aici zace un om despre care nu se ştie prea mult” (“Here Lies A Man Of Whom Little Is Known.") My investigations began thirty years later when a heavy metal band called Iron Maiden released a song called "The Reincarnation of Benjamin Breeg". Wondering if they could possibly know something about my cousin, I tried to contact their record company only to discover they knew nothing of my relative.
Reincarnation of B BREEG	Unfortunately when I did manage to speak to someone in authority, they were unable to give me a satisfactory explanation as to how my cousin's name came to be used in the title of the song. Shortly afterwards and entirely by chance I discovered that the band debuted on 14th April 1980, exactly 666 days after my Cousin's death..

Iron Maiden Artwork

~ variant from Steve Payne: extensive use of original content has been made to celebrate the genius of Iron Maiden's "The Reincarnation of Benjamin Breeg".

In 2009, TV networks ran episode ten of So What If?. Churchill meant it when he said he had not become the King's First Minister in order to preside over the liquidation of the British Empire. During the Indian emergency of the late 1960s, Indira Gandhi emerged as the leader of a new and powerful nationalist movement. Clips from the TV documentary Death in the Raj presented compelling evidence of British complicity in Gandhi's assassination at the hands of two of her bodyguards Satwant Singh and Beant Singh.

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

In 1972, the dice told George Cockcroft to fake a break-in at the Democratic National Committee headquarters at the Watergate Hotel in Washington, D.C. Not thy will, but the dice will be done.

~ variant entry by Steve Payne: use of original content has been made to celebrate the genius of the “Dice Man” novel.

Uluru	In 1927, from Uluru, known to the European as Ayers Rock soul-deeps promoted the Dreamtime subcontinent to an ultra-node in the Mesh, the global network of First Nation consciousness founded in Manna-hata, Turtle Island in 1492.
The southern lights known as the aurora australis blazed in the sky as indigenes around the globe celebrated the dawning of a new age of enhanced inter-connectivity.
~ entry by Steve Payne from Counter History in Context - You're the Judge!

In 1692, five women were hanged for witchcraft in Salem, Massachusetts. Betty Parris, age 9, and her cousin Abigail Williams, age 11, the daughter and niece of Reverend Samuel Parris, had fallen victim to what was recorded as fits "beyond the power of Epileptic Fits or natural disease to effect," according to John Hale, minister ..	Salem Witch Trials
.. in Beverly, in his book A Modest Enquiry into the Nature of Witchcraft (Boston, 1702). The girls screamed, threw things about the room, uttered strange sounds, crawled under furniture, and contorted themselves into peculiar positions. They complained of being pricked with pins or cut with knives, and when Reverend Samuel Parris would preach, the girls would cover their ears, as if dreading to hear the sermons. A doctor, historically assumed to be William Griggs, could find no physical evidence of any ailment. Others in the village began to exhibit the same symptoms. Despite the hangings, the fits continued to spread until Massachusetts was returned to the Algonquian tribes whereupon they immediately ceased.
~ entry by Steve Payne from Counter History in Context - You're the Judge!

Lady Jane Grey	In 1553, after having the title Queen of England for just nine days, the great-granddaughter of Henry VII of England, Lady Jane Grey frustrated a coup d'etat by Henry's elder daughter, Mary Tudor. This bold action forestalled a power-struggle to put Mary, a Roman Catholic, on the throne, with a declared intent of reversing ..
.. the Reformation. Lady Jane had a reputation as one of the most learned women of her day, and the historical writer Alison Weir describes her as one of "the finest female minds of the century". She ushered in a period of religious tolerance that saved the lives of tens of thousands on either side of the sectarian divide.
~ entry by Steve Payne from Counter History in Context - You're the Judge!

In 1912, a meteorite with a mass of 19,000 kg landed in the town of Holbrook in Navajo County. Over the coming weeks many of the population reported frightening nightmares, which only stopped when the Royal American Mounted Police took the meteorite to the capital city of Wellington for forensic study.	Meteorite
~ entry by Steve Payne from Counter History in Context - You're the Judge!

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Miracle In Salem

The state of TIAH

June 10th, 2006

in 1692, Bridget Bishop, a young woman of the Salem township in Massachusetts, is taken to the gallows to be executed on charges of witchcraft. With the noose around her neck, Bishop cries out to God to save her and punish those who are about to murder her. When the trapdoor of the gallows opens, the support beam holding Miss Bishop breaks, letting her drop harmlessly to the ground. The beam falls on Justice William Stoughton and Reverend Samuel Parris, who were standing on the platform to watch Bishop's death, and cracks open their heads, killing them both. Shocked by this apparent miracle, the village frees Miss Bishop and decides that impressionable little children might not be the best of witnesses against evil, after all.

in 1966, the Hays Office orders Warner Brothers to make substantial changes in their film adaptation of Edward Albee's Who's Afraid of Virginia Wolf? or face harsh penalties from the censorship board. Reluctantly, Warner Brothers agrees to the changes over the objections of stars Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton, and the tepid result, bereft of the colorful language and sexual situations of Albee's play, garnered little box office and much critical disappointment. “If they'd left in the good stuff,” Ms. Taylor said, “we'd have made enough money to not worry about the fines.” Taylor and Burton decided that the Hays Office needed to be challenged, and released their controversial Home Movie the next year without review by the censors. This highly provocative independent film contained language and situations that would have given Hays a heart attack, and there was even a brief glimpse of Taylor's breasts and Burton's buttocks. It not only broke box office records, but also the power of the Hays Office over Hollywood's film makers.

in 2017, the Quorato, the alien vessel that the human crew of the Eagle find themselves guests on, takes aboard the golden device that had transported them here. Commander Patterson and her crew take a good look at it in the light of the Quorato's cargo bay. The Quarai crew of the alien vessel also take a look. Captain Kikao asks a few specialists to examine the device. “These guys, they very good,” Kikao tells Commander Patterson. “No worries, they figure this thing out.” Patterson nods, then warns, “Just don't activate it again. There's no telling where we'd end up from here.” The alien captain looked almost eager to try. “That would be something, wouldn't it?” Patterson immediately regretted telling the captain, because the aliens began working all over the device, obviously looking for a way to turn it on. “Oh, well. How much farther can we go?” She turns back to her own crew, and a couple of them look like they share the Quarai's curiosity about activating the device, but are restraining themselves out of courtesy to her. She sighs, then says, “Go ahead.” They join the alien press around the device, trying to figure out what it does, how it works, and where it might send them if activated again.

Today's "Six Degrees of Star Trek" challenge: Connect Who's Afraid of Virginia Wolf? to Star Trek. Place your answers in the comments and see the Forum for previous results. For more on 6 degrees games, click here.

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Magellan Fails In Circumnavigation

September 6th, 2005

in 1522, the somewhat inaptly named Vittoria, the last of the ships that Ferdinand Magellan had attempted to lead in a circumnavigation of the world, limps back into port in Spain. Its captain, Juan Sebastian de Elcano, cursed Magellan’s name and told the whole country that he had led them all right to the edge of the world; only de Elcano’s skills as a navigator had kept the Vittoria from sharing the fate of the others. Spanish exploration was effectively halted after this.

in 1628, the radical Christian sect known as the Puritans arrives in Salem, Massachusetts. The wild, hard-living cultists turn Salem into a reborn Sodom and Gomorrah; tales of the debauchery in the colony still censor most of the activities that it is known the Puritans indulged in.

in 1847, David Thoreau left his meditative sanctuary at Walden Pond, New Hampshire after hearing of the German immigrant, Karl Marx. After a meeting which found the two quite compatible, they collaborated on a series of political pamphlets, including their Communist Manifesto of 1851.

in 1901, President McKinley is working the crowd at the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, New York when an agent of the newly formed Secret Service shoves him to the ground. The agent had seen a man cover a handgun with a handkerchief; when the president goes down, the gunman starts shooting wildly, injuring two people in the crowd, as well as the Secret Service covering the president with his body. McKinley’s gratitude served the agent well; with the president’s patronage, Steven Allman eventually made it all the way to the Senate.

in 1915, actress Carla Lambert married Spanish director Jose Contreras. It was mainly a marriage of convenience; Contreras was homosexual and needed the respectability that marriage could give him, and Lambert, who didn’t want to be married, needed someone to appear to be the father for her son. The pressures of this public lie finally came to a head in 1923, and they divorced. Lambert never remarried.

in 1941, Greater Zionists who surrendered to soldiers of the German Underground in Vilna, Poland were shipped back to German territory and never seen again. This fueled the Zionist contention that the G.U. was killing prisoners; this would not be confirmed for some years, however.

in 1959, Li Huang-Sen lands in Canada and uses his powers to take command of a ship sailing to China. He is going to challenge the man on the water for his love, Huan Yue. Once the boat sets sail, he puts himself in a deep meditative state and reaches out for Huan Yue’s mind.

in 1996, Professor Malcolm Thomas barely makes it to a small gas station outside Polk Flats, Nevada before succumbing to hunger, thirst and injury. Weak, but still able to talk, he asks the owner to call Edwards Air Force base and tell them where he is. Just a couple of hours later, he is picked up by Air Force security and taken back to the base.

in 4697, the 5 Shen-class ships commanded by Admiral Hu Jintao enter the Yang Gao system and attempt to establish contact with the colony. The ships detect many transmissions coming from the main planet, but none of them seem to be in Chinese. Admiral Hu orders the ships into orbit, but councils caution to all his captains.

in 2003, Estelle Gerard, with her mother at her side, speaks to a throng of people in Jerusalem, telling them that he who sits on the holy throne of the Holy British Empire is not who the Father of all men desires to lead Christendom. As Templars arrive to arrest the toddler and her mother, a bright light blinds the crowd; when the light fades, the Gerards are gone.

in 2004, the delegation of Elders begins spreading out to the countries where the political situation has deteriorated. When the population sees how ordinary they are, calm is restored. Many governments begin to mistrust what the Lalandians told them about the Elders, and start working with the delegation.


TIAH HALLOWEEN CONTEST

In order to provide for the upkeep of our new historian, Today In Alternate History is sponsoring its first contest - make a donation at our Paypal link, then email us up to 3 alternate history entries for October 31st, 2005. The best 10 entries will make up the entire content of the post on October 31st, Halloween day. Boring contest information is available on our Forum link below. Enter early and often!

Also, we still have our standard offer - everybody who donates $10 or more through our Paypal link will become alternate history entries on the site. When you donate, I will email you asking your preference for a day & timeline; if you don't reply to me, I'll place you in a day that seems to fit your name :) Thanks for your continued support!

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Warp and Protocols still available; also, see the script I submitted for Bravo's Situation: Comedy. Speaking of which, voting for the winner is now over. Be sure to watch Sept. 9 for the winner, and watch the pilots at http://aol.com/situationcomedy

Still wishing...

As your humble alternate historian enters the downhill slope of the 40's, he still has his birthday wish - a contract with a publishing company like Workman Publishing to produce a page-a-day calendar of TIAH. If you are an editor for such a company, or can place us in touch with one, please fulfill this belated birthday wish!

Division

	In 1952, on this day Princess Elizabeth proclaimed herself Queen, Head of the Commonwealth and Defender of the Faith in a ceremony at Rideau Hall, the Governor's Residence in Ottawa. The proclaimation was met with a cool response from London. Prime Minister Oswald Mosley had made common cause with continental fascists Mussolini of Italy, Franco of Spain and Hitler of Germany during his premiership, but where they were all gone by the end of the decade, Mosley's rule of Britain had only begun.

The death of King George VI was a potential catalist to perhaps end the dynastic crisis in the British monarchy. Ironically the Queen's Uncle, King Edward VIII had been forced to abdicate having married an American divorcee, Wallace Simpson. He returned from the Governorship of the Bahamas as the titular Head of a Nazi Client State when the remainder of the House of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha fled to the Americas during Operation Sealion in 1940. Of German origin themselves, the British Royal Family traced their routes to the House of Wettin in Saxony. This dynasty of German counts, dukes, prince-electors (Kurfürsten) and kings ruled the area of today's German state of Saxony for more than 800 years as well as holding at times the kingship of Poland. Agnates of the House of Wettin have, at various times, ascended the thrones of Great Britain, Portugal, Bulgaria, Poland, Saxony, and Belgium.

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In 1952, Juan Escobar, a man who has made a small living studying the paranormal in Mexico and eastern Europe, hears of the destruction of a small diner in Bryan, Texas by a tall, dark German man. He has heard of this man before, the Baron von Todt, and immediately travels to Texas to find him.

Devils Footprints	In 1855, the Devil's Footprints mysteriously appear in southern Devon with the contemporaneous sightings of Spring Heeled Jack, a mysterious figure known for his extraordinary jumps. Jack was described by alleged victims as having a terrifying and frightful appearance, with diabolical physiognomy that included clawed hands and eyes that resembled red balls of fire. He was finally trapped in the East End of London where he was captured for the Whitechapel Murders of 1888 and later executed at the Tower of London.
Spring Heeled Jack

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In 1974, the temporary American space station Skylab returns to earth after 84 days in space. The crew included a stowaway, the alien intelligence known as the Avatar who quickly establishes a global tyranny.

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In 9816 BCE, Egyptian taskmasters, looking for a way to keep their slaves both happy and nourished, concoct a beverage that is essentially liquid fermented bread, from grains, yeast and water. Slaves cannot stomach the bitter, foul drink, and the recipe is lost to time.

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In 1692, Abigail Williams and Betty Paris uncover a coven of witches within the community of Salem, Massachusetts. For their great service to the crown, they are made Royal Witch-Hunters for the colony on reaching their majority. Through their diligence, hundreds of witches are driven from Massachusetts.

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In 1914, John Ronald Reuel Tolkien began working on the Middle-earth stories. A good deal was written while Tolkien, then a British officer returned from France during World War I, was laid up in a military hospital and at home with trench fever. Truth be told, Tolkien's imagination was over-stimulated by the horror of the Somme. In escapist fantasy writing, Tolkien's inner hero struggled to restore his own dissipated life force.

And when the tidings came of the fall of Gondolin, .. Morgoth [Tolkien's fear] though that his triumph was fulfilled, recking little of [Tolkien].. and he called upon them to forgive them, and rescue them back from the overmastering might of Morgoth and win back the Silmarils [Life Force]. ~ Of Tuor and the Fall of Gondolin

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In 1725, Pyotr the Great, last Tsar of Russia, died in captivity in Istanbul. He had been captured during a war with the Ottoman Empire in 1710, and held in disgrace ever since. His death finally quieted loyalists who had been attempting to overthrow the Ottomans and restore him to his throne.

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In 1777, Major Timothy Bigelow of the American rebels is recaptured, just 6 months after being released from a prisoner-of-war camp. The Massachusetts blacksmith is put to the death by the British as an example to other colonials. Many men from Bigelow's regiment joined the growing exodus to Canada, to join the nascent independence movement there.

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In 1802, the banjo clock is patented by Simon Willard of Massachusetts. This phenomenally successful product led to other musical instruments being made into clocks; antique guitar clocks from this era often sell for thousands of dollars at auctions.

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In 12-13-12-5-8, Emperor Calzotz allows the conquered northern nations to use their land in their traditional ways, instead of assigning nobles to rule over them. This act of mercy pays off for Ouezteca in reduced rebellions, and is continued by his successors.

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In 1998, on this day John Enoch Powell died in Canada and entered Valhalla. Powell's apocalyptic warnings of Rivers of Blood had proven all too prescient. The Iron Lady Margaret Thatcher had sent an elite force of Royal Marines and Paratroopers to cauterize the Channel Tunnel. Before the bomb could be detonated at Sangatte, the British position was overrun by vampires. Held at bay since 1917, the Red Menace finally swept into Britain. Powell escaped to Canada where his advice and guidance was desperately needed by a terrified Canadian government.

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Ariel Sharon	In 1983, on this day Generals Ariel Sharon - better known as the terrorist Arik - and Rafael Eitan of the Zionist Liberation Army were sentenced to death. The court found that Mr Sharon was indirectly but personally to blame for the massacres of more than 800 people in the Sabra and Shatila villages near Beirut in 1982. ZLA terrorists were in control of west Beirut when right-wing Christian militias entered the villages. The Lebanese Phalangist militia acted within the wider context of the Jewish-Christian consipiracy to strike the State of Palestine by destabilising the Northern border. The Phalange leader, Bashir Gemayel was still at liberty in the Lebanon.
Terrorist Arik

The Court's report said Mr Sharon had made a 'grave mistake' by failing to order 'appropriate measures for preventing or reducing the danger of massacre of innocents'. It concluded that Sharon should have foreseen what the Phalange would do when they entered the villages. Mr Sharon's defence lawyer said that because he had no knowledge of what would happen when ZLA irregular troops allowed the militia into the camps, he could not be held to account. The report also condemned Zionist General Rafael Eitan for breach of the Geneva convention in not taking steps to stop the massacre. It said he should have anticipated the danger and opposed the decision to send militia into the villages. Also criticised was ZLA President Menachim Begin, dismissing the argument that the Zionists could not be held directly accountable.

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