Return of the Fish Era

In 1621, at the Narragansett Bay pilgrims tied down indigenes and inserted shafts into their colons. The shafts were then removed if the indigenes agreed to help the settlers, a process known as colonisation. After almost a year on Turtle Island, misery shrouded the settlement as the pilgrims realised their crops had failed and there would not be enough food for the winter. The indigenes had refused to help the setttlers, and desperation compelled the pigrims to force the indigenes to help them by any means necessary. The most effective methods employed was colonisation.

~ variant from Guest Historian Kwame Dallas: web master of I Want to Remember.

In 2007, a fiery twenty year dispute within the progband Marillon reached a predictably explosive conclusion following Fish's concert at the 'Hobbles On The Cobbles' in Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire on 26 August 2007.	Marillion
The band was formed in 1979 as Silmarillion, named for J.R.R. Tolkien's book The Silmarillion, by Mick Pointer, Steve Rothery, and others. They played their first gig at Berkhamsted Civic Centre on 1 March 1980 and shortened their name to Marillion in 1981. Over the next six years they enjoyed both artistic and commercial success, and a loyal fan base with "the Web" Fan club at the core. Live musicians at heart Marillion over-toured, and by the mid-80s, lyricist and lead singer Fish (real name Derek Dick) was suffering burn-out. Also, there were some familiar alarming signs, such as appearing under the name "Fish with Marillion", always a sure sign of a schism in a progband. Their 1987 classic album Clutching at Straws was frighteningly self-referential, dealing with alcoholism, despair and depression. Shortly afterwards, Fish walked out with his lyrics which he used in his next three solo albums. If the Fish Era was over, the Hogarth era was just beginning. Trouble was, it just wasn't the real thing for fans, although it did help the live musicians of the progband continue their careers with very limited commercial success. Due to legal wrangles, the band did not speak until 1999. In the mean-time, the more photogenic performer Steve 'H' Hogarth took the lead singer's position and enabled the band to carry on performing, which ultimately was their desire and also their dispute with Fish. Seventeen years of speculation about reforming were considering nonsense given the bad feelings amongst the former line-up and because Steve Hogarth stepped in at a difficult moment. In August 2007, during Fish's concert at the 'Hobbles On The Cobbles' in Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire; the "classic" Marillion line-up was reformed for a one off performance of 'Market Square Heroes'. The band had previously made it clear that this was not a prelude to a full reunion with Fish. They had a drink together after the show - and then a couple more. Then a few more. In a press interview following the event, Fish suggested this one-off opportunity could lead to a full reuion, saying that Hogarth "does a sh*t job with the band. The rest of us forged different path [artistic rather than commercial] over the 28 years". H is currently exploring solo opportunities.
~ entry by Steve Payne

Berlin Baghdad Railway

In 2010, in the Oberkommando office in Berlin, Heinrich Gimpel glanced at the report on his desk. The Berlin-Baghdad Railway was being assessed again, and Gimpel needed to make sure sufficient Reichmarks were collected. In fact, the numbers were up from 2009. No matter, the Irakis were hardly in a position to grumble; if they did, panzer divisions might roll out of the Wehrmacht bases in Baghdad, Basra, Mosul and Kirkuk.

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

Madonna	In 1984, people were gasping in the audience at the MTV Video Music Awards as the career of Madonna Louise Ciccone imploded. The artist was briefly known in the abbreviated form as "Madonna" before entering obscurity. Ciccone's longtime publicist, Liz Rosenberg - "An ex-boyfriend of mine leaned over and said, 'Her career is over before it even started.' Of course, I was petrified."
Madonna wore a lascivious reinterpretation of a wedding gown -- a white bustier and a shredded white tutu -- accessorized with lace gloves, dangerously high heels, clunky necklaces and a tulle veil that didn't stay on her head very long. She started her performance dancing on top of a giant wedding cake and ended it by rolling around the stage at New York's Radio City Music Hall, humping her veil and revealing her panties to a live TV audience. "Madonna took it so much further than anyone knew she was capable of," says Rosenberg. "Everyone thought she was disgusting."
~ entry from Steve Payne

In 2008, the Olympic Committee faced a difficulty choice for the location of the 2016 Games. Applications had been received from the two most powerful nations in the world - the Germanic Empire and the Confederate States of America. The decision was for Leesburg, the regional capital of the Confederate State of Mexico. Both the Committee and the Confederate leadership were keen to embrace diversity in the early twenty-first century. Given the nationalist pressures building up in the Confederacy's central and southern America territories, it was hoped that the choice would be viewed favourably in terms of symbolism rather than expediency.

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

McKinley	In 1901, on this day at the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, New York McKinley was shot by Leon Czolgosz. The bullet deflected off a button, and did not seriously injure the President. The failure of the assassination attempt was to prove highly significant in retrospect. With McKinley serving a full term, Vice President Theodore Roosevelt did not enter the White House until 1905 and was in office at the outbreak of World War I, to which he immediately committed US forces.
~ entry by Steve Payne

In 2127, a terrible discovery is made in Doha, Qatar - an unknown perpetrator has stolen the Hussein-Sadat time dilation device and reversed history – again. Mullah Elijah Rafsanjani must decide on the next steps. He sips from a Starbucks Styrofoam cup, this really was great coffee. Perhaps a world without a Jihad would be – how shall we say – more hedonistically exciting as a consumer?	Mullah
~ entry by Steve Payne

Mayflower	In 1620, the Pilgrims sailed from Plymouth, England, on the Mayflower to settle in North America. With continental Europe ravaged by the Plague, England sought to establish facts on the ground with Colonies on the Eastern seaboard. However Spanish plague ships brought the pandemic to the New World and the Pilgrims were all dead by 1635.
~ entry by Steve Payne

In 1966, the architect of Apartheid, Prime Minister Hendrik Frensch Verwoerd was stabbed to death in the House of Assembly by Dimitri Tsafendas, a parliamentary clerk, who escaped the death penalty on the grounds of insanity, saying that a large worm in his stomach told him to kill Verwoerd. Surgeons discovered that Tsafendas had been transplanted with a bug inserted by early-21st century black abolitionist South African time-travellers.	Bug
Given a fresh hope for the future, the South African government succeeded in remaining power just long enough to obtain the time travel technology, where upon they sent their own agent back to save Verwoerd. This created a temporal loop, which required the intervention of agents from the nexus of time to intervene by introducing the super-agent known to us all as Nelson Mandela.
~ entry by Steve Payne struck by connection with the movie the "Matrix", and Turtledove's "Guns of the South"

Religious Turmoil

The state of TIAH

March 25th, 2007

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Alternate Historian's Note: I promised you a collection, and we are working on it – but real life is getting in the way. Fortunately, the worst part of the real-life problems we were having has been resolved. I have found new employment (yay!). We're going to aim for an April release for the collection, and will make more announcements about it as we draw closer to actually making that a reality. We're spending this morning working on, it so our Guest Historian is taking up the slack for our posting today. And, speaking of April and our Guest Historian, Stephen Payne suggested that it was time for a contest, so we're going to have an April Fool's Day Contest! Email us up to 3 entries for an alternate April 1st and we will post the best 10, with your own credit and link to your website (if you have one). My lovely Co-Historian says that if we can get 30 entrants, we can offer an ultimate winner a complimentary TIAH mug, but we only have 4 entrants so far! Get researching those alternate histories now, folks! The deadline is March 29th.

Percy Bysshe Sh..	In 1811 the poet Percy Bysshe Shelley was expelled from the University of Oxford for his publication of the pamphlet The Necessity of Divinity. Since the Reformation, England had been studiously atheist and even the dons of Oxford were not tolerant of religious worship in the nineteenth century.
~ entry by Steve Payne from counter history in context - you're the judge!

In 1865 on this day in Wisconsin the Claywater Meteorite exploded just before reaching ground level, delivering a cluster-bomb effect as fragments of 1.5 kg mass showered Vernon County. Little significance was given to the incident until the delivery of the alien first-borns; settlers of European heritage were about ..	Meteor Crater
.. to experience a great empathy for the displaced first nations of America.
~ entry by Steve Payne from Counter History in Context - You're the Judge!

Howl	In 1955 US President William Randolph Hearst invited Allen Ginsberg to the Reconstructed White House in San Francisco to congratulate that gentleman on the delicious obscenity of his latest poem 'Howl'. Standing proudly alongside other members of the genre including Jack Kerouac and William S. Burroughs, Hearst noted ..
.. that the poetry of the Beat Generation was a vital form of escapism for America as it sought to build a counter-culture after the horror of World War III. Ginsberg honoured Hearst by writing some highly offensive graffiti on the West Wing wall.
~ entry by Steve Payne from counter history in context - you're the judge!

In 1409 the Council of Pisa opened in a determined attempted to end the Western Schism, a split within the Catholic church in 1378. The event backfired disastrously, and today almost every major city in Europe has at least one Pope and one Anti-pope.	Habemus Papam a..
~ entry by Steve Payne from Counter History in Context - You're the Judge!

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Monstrous

In 388, a ten year old boy named Cyrill died in the Roman City of Alexandria. His Uncle Theophilus discovered strange alphabet formations in the dwelling. Soon he too would be victim, but of a more powerful force - Nestorianism which was spreading like wildfire out of Constantinople.

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Balrog	In 1892, the scholarly giant of modern England, John R. R. Tolkien, was born in Bloemfontein, South Africa. His escapist fantasy writing was greatly influenced by combat tension suffered as a Second Lieutenant in 1916. Whilst Tolkien was with the eleventh battalion of the Lancashire Fusiliers, this tension reached a new and frightening level of intensity for Tolkien as his imagination was over-stimulated by the horror of the Somme. At night, he saw that most frightening of creatures charging across no-mans land. A creature of the imagination which he would never speak directly. Only W.H. Auden would guess at the depiction of the 1916 apparition. Later in the year, Tolkien was invalided with trench fever. And it was as this time he was gripped by the epic struggle, as Gandalf battled a Balrog, an ancient demon creature, and fell into a deep chasm under the Mines of Moria, apparently to his death.
Tolkiens Phantasm

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In 1967, Jack Ruby's cancer went into remission, allowing him to be placed on trial for the murder of Lee Harvey Oswald. From the stand, Ruby spun a story of conspiracy, deception and treason, and the judge was forced to place a gag order on news from the trial. When the courtroom blew up the next day, it was blamed on a “gas leak” under the courthouse.

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In 1521, German monk Martin Luther was excommunicated by Pope Henry VIII of the Holy British Empire. Brother Martin was disgusted with the corruption of the British Papacy, and nailed a series of theses on his local church door, enumerating and protesting the wickedness of the English Church. Pope Henry, who had never been one to tolerate protestants, excommunicated then executed Brother Martin.

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In 2006, International Visit Today In Alternate History Day receives the unwelcome attention of most security agencies in North America. In a deft manoerve, Reverend Rattie reports that “Apparently, when you post before turning off your feed, your post appears on the feed anyway. So much for our vaunted computer skills.” Within the CIA, older hands suspect that Rattie was attempting to understate the real number of online alt-lifers.

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In 1892, the scholarly giant of modern England, John R. R. Tolkien, was born in Bloemfontein, South Africa. At Oxford, Tolkien penned some of the greatest literary criticisms of the 20th century, delving into the mythic roots of Beowulf, the legends of King Arthur, the Germanic and Celtic influences in English literature, and dozens of other subjects. In recent years, his son Christopher published a few of the bed time stories Tolkien wrote for his children, of which the most famous are his Father Christmas stories. There has even been talk of making a movie of these stories, although no one really expects they would be very popular.

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In 4620, Egyptologist and adventurer Luo Gan discovers the ancient tomb of Pharaoh Tutankhamen, and its hideous curse. Over the next five years, he and the twenty members of his team die gruesome deaths. Although most dismiss this as mere coincidence, the Imperial Ministry of Antiquities has forbade further digging into ancient Egypt’s past.

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In 12-17-10-5-15, Pachacamac, Incan musicians famed throughout the Empire, give their first performance before the emperor at Oueztec City. The music of the sweet mountains of their birth lofted throughout the court, bringing smiles and tears to the assembled courtiers. The emperor himself is so moved by their performance that he ennobles them all.

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In 1977, the number one computer company in the world, Apple Computers, was incorporated by Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak in California. From humble beginnings as a machine for hobbyists, Apple computers soon made their way onto desktops in businesses and homes around the world with the introduction of the Macintosh line of computers. They might have stumbled in the 80’s when IBM’s operating system supplier, Microsoft, made a graphical interface to match the Macintosh, but a successful lawsuit against the company crushed that dream.

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Silmarillion	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.

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In 1947, the pederast Thomas Edward Lawrence was exposed in the Times newspaper following evidence of an inappropriate relationship with a fourteen year-old Arab boy, Selim Ahmed in 1914.

A clue was carefully hidden in Chapter 2, of Seven Pillars of Wisdom which describes homoerotic behaviour "quivering together in the yielding sand, with intimate hot limbs in supreme embrace." The book itself is dedicated to "S.A." with a poem that begins: "I loved you, so I drew these tides of men into my hands and wrote my will across the sky in stars To gain you Freedom, the seven-pillared worthy house, that your eyes might be shining for me When I came.", which had previously been considered a reference to Saudi Arabia, the chosen name of Abdul-Aziz bin Saud's Republic that was eventually founded in 1932.

Shortly afterwards, Lawrence was stripped of meritous awards that he had received after the war - Companion in the Order of the Bath, Distinguished Service Order, French Légion d'Honneur and Knight Commander of the British Empire which he received in October 1918.

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