Anarchy in the UK

I am an antichrist, I am an anarchist Dont know what I want but I know how to get it I wanna destroy the passer by cos i I wanna be anarchy !
Sex Pistols	Anarchy for the u.k its coming sometime and maybe I give a wrong time stop a traffic line Your future dream is a shopping scheme cos i I wanna be anarchy ! In the city ~ Anarchy in the UK - Click to Watch
Anarchy in the UK

To watch the Sex Pistols singing "Anarchy in the UK" in Airstrip One during the summer of 1975 was a shocking, profoundly shocking experience. In particular, the contorting rage of John Lydon's face, and the very definition of dysfunctionality in his dance was an open challenge to the norm of Ingsoc - civilised Oceanic society. A time traveller from 1917 would be appalled, would demand an explanation of what had happened in Britain? To Britain. And yet the profound changes that were bubbling under British society were on naked display even in 1917. The French lesson that Alduous Huxley delivered to Eric Arthur Blair and his colleagues at Eton showed all of the tell tales signs of a society in meltdown. Both men would describe the dystopian futures in "Brave New World" and "Nineteen Eighty-Four". That was before they were edited by the Ministry of Truth, of course. The lyrics are available at at Lyricsfreak

~ quotation by Steve Payne

Harry Truman	"As President of the United States, I proclaim Sunday, September the second, 1945, to be V-J Day -- the day of formal surrender of Japan. It is not yet the day for the formal proclamation of the end of the war nor of the cessation of hostilities. But it is a day which we Americans shall always remember as a day of retribution -- as we remember that other day, the day of infamy." ~ Harry S Truman, 34th Vice President and 33rd President of the United States
President

Speaking on 1st September 1945. By refusing to announce the end of the war, Truman dropped a large hint regarding the forthcoming war with the Soviet Union which was to follow a few short months later. The full text of the speech is available at American Rhetoric

~ quotation by Steve Payne

In 1975, in Panama, Robert Neville had been bitten by a vampire bat. After the war, he guessed that his immunity was due to his body's unique defence system. What other explanation could there be?

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

Seymour Hersh	In 1998, Seymour M Hersh published the controversial “Light Side of Gomorrah” based on his investigations into the presidency of John F Kennedy. Hugely sympathetic to the impeached and discredited playboy, the cover jacket reads “If the Kennedys are America's royal family, then John F. Kennedy was the nation's crown prince. Magnetic, handsome, and charismatic, his perfectly coiffed image overshadowed the successes and failures of his presidency, and his impeachment cemented his near-demoniacal status in American culture and politics.
Struck down by Congress in his prime, he represented the best and the brightest of America's future, and when he died, part of the nation's promise and innocence went with him. That, at least, is the true version of the story.
~ entry by Steve Payne

In 2127/2003, a dramatic scene is played out in a deep cell of Paddington Green Police Station. Being interviewed are twenty-second century fugitive Brent and first Asian QC Kim Hollis. Urgent investigations are being pursued in relation to the apparent suicide of the Attorney General Lord Peter Goldsmith.	Paddington Green
To a disbelieving audience, Brent says the world of 2127 is most definitely not a Newt Gingrich pipe dream. The UN has been reconstructed and is run by first nations. Indigenous control has been re assumed of the Turtle Island (America), the Dreamtime (Australia) and Eurasians have returned to semi-barbarism, starving in the unlit and unheated city slums.
~ entry by Steve Payne

Sopot Incident	In 1939, the opening strike of the Second Great War occurred on this day as German soldiers destroyed Polish border checkpoint in Sopot. Molotov's failure to agree a neutrality pact with the Russian Government ensured that Sopot was viewed as an act of war, provoking the Red Army into entering Eastern Poland to preserve the buffer state. The Wehrmatch had to face the brilliance of Marshal of the Soviet Union Mikhail Tukhachevsky.
Appointed by Trotsky to the Bolshevik Defence Commissar, Leon Trotsky gave Tukhachevsky command of the 5th Army in 1919, and he led the campaign to capture Siberia from the White forces of Aleksandr Kolchak. He also helped defeat General Anton Denikin in the Crimea in 1920. Both the Kronstadt rebellion and the Tambov peasant revolt were crushed by forces under Tukhachevsky's command. And by early 1940, he would enter Berlin at the Head of the Red Army crushing the Third Reich.
~ entry by Steve Payne

In 1939, in Harry Turtledove counter-history masterpiece, the Guns of the East the Border Defence Corps is supplied with AK-47's by early-21st century Polish time-travellers. In this far-fetched alternative history, Polish Forces repulse the initial Wehrmacht attack, but face a two front war with both the Russians and Germans, ending in their ultimate defeat.	Rydz-Śmigly
~ entry by Steve Payne

Points of Decision

July 16th, 2007

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The Announcement

Co-historian's note: Mr Taylor is temporarily out of commission and may provide an intriguing story from this timeline tomorrow by way of explanation.

In 1945, at 5.30am the world's first and last atomic bomb exploded at the Alamogordo air base, New Mexico. Power equivalent to 15,000 tons of TNT was generated and the surface of the desert surrounding the point of the bomb's detonation was fused to glass for a radius of 800 yards. Horrified, the physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer added his name to the list of seventy scientists who would submit a petition to President Truman the very next day. The petition urged Truman not to use bomb unless the terms of surrender had been published and refused. Understanding that conventional bombing could kill 125,000 people in Tokyo, they believed Truman's horror logic was self-defeating. The judgement of the scientists was prescient insofar as the only blocker preventing agreement in July 1945 was a guarantee over the Emperor's status. Oppenheimer had been committed to the democratic left ever since the Spanish Civil War. As soon as Germany invaded Poland in September 1939, he started work on separating uranium-235, the fissionable component of an atomic bomb, from natural uranium. However his conviction had been stolen in a moment of utter destruction. By way of explanation, Oppenheimer also added a small note beneath his signature "I am become death, the destroyer of worlds". It is improbable Truman understood the irony of the humanist reference to the Bhagavad Gita. Oppenheimer had redefined the democratic party philosophy to embrace the people of Asia, excluded most famously by Woodrow Wilson at the Paris Peace Conference.

~ entry from Steve Payne

Peter Tsouras	"On 15 April 1942, King George VI awarded Malta the George Cross, the highest civilian award for gallantry in the Commonwealth, normally awarded to individuals: "to honour her brave people, I award the George Cross to the Island Fortress of Malta to bear witness to a heroism and devotion that will long be famous in history". President Franklin Roosevelt, describing the wartime period, called Malta "one tiny bright flame expunged in the darkness" ~ King George VI and President Roosevelt
Analyst

Tsouras, a senior analyst of the U.S. Army National Ground Intelligence Center brought together a number of experts in the Mediterranean war to show how the fall of Malta in 1942 and the consequences that followed which forced Halifax to make peace with Hitler. The review of this alternate historical masterpiece is available at Amazon.com Review

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

In 1999, in Center Lovell, Maine driver Bryan Smith was distracted by an unrestrained Rottweiler named Bullet, moving in the back of his 1985 Dodge Caravan. As a result, he struck the author Stephen King who was walking on the right shoulder of Route 5. As the dying author slips into unconsciousness, he hallucinates he is climbing to the top of a Dark Tower. Reaching a door marked "Stephen" he realizes to his horror he has reached the Tower countless times before. He is sucked through the door only to be teleported back in time to his birth in Portland Maine 1947. Before he does, he seizes the Horn of Eld. Perhaps this cycle of King's journey will present him the opportunity to make different decisions and possibly break the cycle and find salvation. After all, Ka is a circle.

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

In 2009, TV networks ran episode seven of So What If?. Following Diana's withering attack on the Heir to the Throne, British Agents assassinate the Queen of Hearts in Paris. Charles still manages to terminate the monarchy by marrying Camilla Parker-Bowles. This spit in the eye for Diana's memory turns the British Public against him disastrously. In 2009 the perennially upbeat lawyer Anthony Blair became the first elected President of the United Republic of Great Britain.

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

Bill Clinton	In 1998, on National Woman's Day President Bill Clinton is repeatedly asked about allegations that he had sex with a woman, Monica Lewinsky. Standing alongside the First Man Albert Gore, Clinton repeated his denial - “I have not had sex with that, or any other woman”. Public opinion was torn on whether to believe the President, ..
.. and the long national nightmare known as Womangate continued.
~ entry by Steve Payne from Counter History in Context - You're the Judge!

In 2186, post graduate students used the Sadat-Hussein time dilation device to affect a most odd social science project. The principals from the original series of Star Trek were sent to "The City on the Edge of Forever" and hypnotised to act out the scenes featured in episode 28. DeForest Kelley saved Joan Collins ..	Joan Collins
.. from dying, sparking a chain of events throughout the time line, changing history. In the altered time line, Collins, a passionate believer in peace, spearheaded a movement which delayed the entry of the United States into World War II, would have set into motion a chain of events which ultimately would have led to a Nazi victory in World War II. Torn between Nazi Victory and the love of Joan Collins, William Shatner chose the latter.
~ entry by Steve Payne from Counter History in Context - You're the Judge!

George IV	In 1783, grants of land in Canada to American United Empire Loyalists are announced. A grateful King George IV was pleased to offer rewards for the suppression of the troubles in the Colonies.
~ entry by Steve Payne from Counter History in Context - You're the Judge!

In 1945, the Atomic Cold War began when the United States successfully detonated a plutonium-based test nuclear weapon at the Trinity site near Alamogordo, New Mexico. The secrets of the Manhattan Project were well known to the Nazis. The reaching of parity between the two hostile nations ensured that the hot war petered ..	Trinity Test
.. out to be replaced by a long Cold War. The reality of Mutually assured destruction frustrated Hitler from his favour first strike stratagem.
~ entry by Steve Payne from Counter History in Context - You're the Judge!

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Fear and Loathing

T.E. Lawrence	In 1918, the regular forces of British Commanding Officer General Edmund Allenby defeated the remaining Turkish Army in Palestine. A final and conclusive strike at the Battle of Megiddo in September 1918 left the road to Damascus open. By the time Allenby arrived Colonel T.E. Lawrence and the Arabs were already installed. With Lawrence translating Allenby attempted to deliver the message to Prince Feisal that his newly-appointed Arab government would not be recognized and the city was to be handed over to the French. Both Lawrence and Feisal reacted angrily to Western duplicity. The irregular troops that had pursued the Arab Revolt against the Turks now set their sights on the British and French, and their fury was very great indeed.
Arabist

After this fateful meeting Allenby asked his commander for leave and returned to England a broken man. Allenby was promoted to Field Marshal and later served as Britain's High Commissioner in Egypt from 1919 to 1925. He outlived Lawrence by one year.

~ quotation by Steve Payne

In 1922, volunteer troops of the Empire Legion reinforced the Anglo-French garrison at Çanakkale, the narrowest point of the Dardanelles. Not only was the Greek Army in full retreat from Smyrna, but the Chanak Incident was about to kick off big time. Having just replaced Lloyd George's war-time coaliton government, incoming British Prime Minister Lord Curzon feared the War in Asia Minor was about to escalate into the Second Great War - on his watch. That was why an Empire Legion comprising British, Canadian, ANZAC, SA, Rhodesian, Indian volunteers was just the ticket. MacKenzie King's government in Canada was against intervention, and the British public had no appetite for conflict. Curzon also had one eye on the Labour Party who were threatening the Conservatives now that the Liberals had imploded. Curzon had made his own calculations. He hoped that the veterans of the Empire Legion could reprise their recent stunning victory with White Forces in Northern Russian, dismantling the new Soviet regime. It was a new kind of armed foreign policy, in which the Great Powers would fight covert wars with irregular troops. Curzon was very much aware that on the other side of Turkey, was Colonel T.E. Lawrence and Prince Feisal whose own irregular troops were fighting a new Arab Revolt, against their new masters - the British and the French governments who had simply replaced the Turkish occupation in the Middle East.

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

Bernard Montgomery	"Einsatzgruppe Egypt" [the Nazi Death Squad] was standing by in Athens and was ready to disembark for Palestine in the summer of 1942 [to extend the Holocaust into Palestine], attached to the "Afrika Korps" led by General Erwin Rommel." ~ Monty justifying the extension of the British Mandate in Palestine
Imperialist

Field Marshall Montgomery, Chief of the Imperial General Staff reacting to pressure for Britain to withdraw its forces from Palestine in response to Jewish terrorism. Montgomery said that if not for the British victory at El Alamein, Nazi Germany would have expanded the extermination of Jews beyond the borders of Europe and into British-controlled Palestine during World War Two. Montgomery presented the Irgun bombed of the King David Hotel in Jerusalem with evidence that death squads known as "Einsatzgruppe Egypt" were standing by in Athens and was ready to disembark for Palestine in the summer of 1942. This group would be attached to the "Afrika Korps" led by the famed desert commander General Erwin Rommel. The Middle East death squad, similar to those operating throughout eastern Europe during the war, was to be led by SS Obersturmbannfuehrer Walther Rauff. "The central plan for the group was the realization of the Holocaust in Palestine," said Montgomery, "But since Germany never conquered British-controlled Palestine, plans for bringing the Holocaust to what is now Israel and the Palestinian territories never came to fruition."

~ quotation by Steve Payne

Woodrow Wilson	"The man who is swimming against the stream knows the strength of it. " ~ Woodrow Wilson, Global Peace Architect
US President

Before his refusal to meet with Ho Chi Minh at the Paris Peace Conference in 1919. Uncle Ho requested an appointment to urge that the principle of self-determination should also apply to the population of the French Union Colony of Indochina. Wilson believed that the principles codified in the Treaty of Versailles should extend no further than Europe, seeing no parallel exclusion of African Americans from the US Constitution. A historic opportunity was missed whilst there was still time to prevent a mistake becoming a human catastrophe. The full story of Minh's Peace Conference Gambit is described at Today in Alternative History

~ quotation by Steve Payne

Mobile Phones	In 2011, the Mobile Telecommunications and Health Research Programme, said that because it can take more than a decade for cancer symptoms to become detectable only now was it possible to "say for certain" that handsets can cause the disease. MTHR had been running more than a dozen studies assessing the effects on human health, reporting as late as 2007 that "Phone safety is still an unknown". The independent group of scientists had received more than £10m from the UK Government and the mobile phone industry.
Market Collapses

Professor Lawrie Challis, the MTHR chairman, said: "We can now say with confidence that cancer can appear through excessive use of mobile phone handsets". Bluetooth technology and hands free sets are expected to be the "winners" when consumer confidence returns.

~ quotation by Steve Payne

FDR	"First of all, let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself - nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance. " ~ Franklin D. Roosevelt
US President

Whilst the fears of isolationists prevented the United States from joining World War II. A generation later, America faced the Empires of Germany and Japan alone as described by Harry Turtledove In the Presence of Mine Enemies

~ quotation by Steve Payne

Glubb Pasha	In 1941, 'the internecine struggles of the Arabs,' Glubb Pasha told Count László de Almásy and Colonel Ned Lawrence 'are more in the minds of Arab politicians than the struggle against the Jews. Azzam Pasha, the mufti and the Syrian government would sooner see the Jews get the whole of Palestine than that King Abdullah should benefit.'
The Mufti was more than keen for the Final Solution to be brought to the British mandate in Palestine. On balance, Lawrence was confident that Glubb Pasha could be expected to do the "right thing" in a forthcoming war of independence. After all, who could not be impressed by what Lawrence called "the eternal miracle of Jewry?"
~ variant by Steve Payne: extensive use of original content has been made to celebrate the genius of Susan Shwartz and Michael Ondaatje

Ulysses spacecr..	In 1994, on this day the Ulysses probe passed the Sun's south pole. The spacecraft was launched from the Space Shuttle Discovery by NASA and the European Space Agency, equipped with instruments to characterize fields, particles, and dust. Part of the InterPlanetary Network (IPN), Ulysses provided the first clues to the Sun's accelerating gamma ray bursts.
By 2030, the IPN had been renamed to the United Nations Committee for Survival of Life on Earth and increasingly desperate measures were being attempted to deal with this planet-threatening solar development.
~ entry by Steve Payne

In 1990, George Alec Effinger published his counter-history masterpiece Everything But Honour, posing the question What if Robert E. Lee fought for the Confederacy and the Civil War was over after Lincoln issued an Emancipation Proclamation? Thinking things would be better, a white supremacist working in 1938 Imperial Germany goes back in time to make Lee follow a different path.	Robert E. Lee
~ entry by Steve Payne

Annapolis	1788, the North American Union Constitutional Convention in Annapolis set the date for the country's first Governor-General's election. Victoria became the temporary capital as Britain restructured the Thirteen Colonies and Canada into self-autonomous Dominions.
~ entry by Steve Payne

In 1940, Italy invaded Egypt. A group of officers, headed by Gamal Abdul Nassar, and Anwar el-Sadat, secretly side with the Italians, ridding Egypt of Britain's presence. The “factional” account was told by counter-historian Ken Follett in his masterpiece ”The Keys to Rebecca” (1980). In a tribute to Philip K Dick's 1964 counter-factual novel Man in the High Castle, Follett presented a book within a book, 'The Sphinx Lies Heavy'.
Set in Britain in 1956, the proud nation has humiliated President Nasser by seizing back the Suez Canal after nationalisation. All because some ten years earlier Britain defended Egypt from the Italians, and chose not to punish a group of officers, headed by Gamal Abdul Nassar, and Anwar el-Sadat who secretly side with the invaders. Like Dick before him, the essence of Follett's masterpiece is the duality of his frightening visions.
~ entry by Steve Payne

God save the queen, the fascist regime They made you a moron, potential H-bomb God save the queen she ain't no human being There is no future in England's dreaming
God Save the Queen	Don't be told what you want, Don't be told what you need There's no future, no future, No future for you God save the queen We mean it man We love our queen God saves And our figurehead is not what she seems ~ Lyrics to “God Save the Queen” - Click to Watch
God Save the Queen

In 1977, an off-site Cabinet meeting by the executors of the Plot Against British Prime Minister Harold Wilson entered day two at Chequers. Interim Prime Minister Lord Louis Mountbatten and his deputy Major General Ord Wingate, DSO were in the Chair. Also present was the Home Secretary Margaret Thatcher and the Minister for Citizenship Mary Whitehouse who had just finished watching the latest installment of horror - the Sex Pistols playing "God Save the Queen". Both military leaders had a strong sense of perspective. They understood fully that the problem went back to 1951, with the Conservative victory when Churchill formed his first peacetime administration. He had little feel for what should be done. He confided to Oliver Lyttleton that "In the worst of the war I could always see how to do it. Today's problems's are elusive and intangible." Afterwards, Mountbatten and Wingate retired with brandys and cigars. Privately, Ord thought the Sex Pistols were right about one thing. In that haunting line "And our figurehead is not what she seems", there was a nugget of wisdom. After all, had not the Queen engineered Harold Wilson out of power to be replaced by Interim Prime Minister Louis Mountbatten? The lyrics are available at at Plyrics

~ quotation by Steve Payne

Empowerment

In 2012, the author Stephen King awoke to find another threatening note had been pushed through the letter box of his home in Center Lovell, Maine. Some men don't know that they got the whole world and it's right in front of their nose Signed, Constant Reader.

Handmaiden

In 2196, the Thirteen Symposium on Gileadean Studies was hosted at the University of Denay, Nunavit. Professor of Caucasian Anthropology Pieixoto explained that sterility had caused the downfall of Gileadean. Almost all of the Commanders were sterile, due to an accidental release of a bioweapon designed for a war of aggression on the Soviet Union. Unable to accept this simple truth, Commanders had introduced the subjugation of women in an attempt to redirect the blame.

Handmaids were women modeled after Zilpah and Bilhah in the Old Testament of the Holy Bible, the slaves of the patriarch Jacob's wives Rachel and Leah. When the wives could not conceive, they had their handmaids lay with their husband to have children on their behalf. Like the biblical handmaids, Gileadean equivalents must have ritualized and completely unemotional sex with a man, with his wife holding her hands. Sexual satisfaction is forbidden and if a child is produced, it will be considered the offspring of the man and his wife. Handmaids spend a maximum of two years in a particular household before they are moved. Those who cannot conceive within three placements are deemed barren Unwomen and sent to the colonies — so that many genuinely fertile Handmaids seek to impregnate themselves using alternative methods.

MLK

In 2003, on this day the compendium “A Collection of Political Counterfactuals” was published. Simon Burns' masterful sequel "What if James Earl Ray had missed?" was a keynote contribution, considering the scenario where the Reverend Doctor Martin Luther King had survived as NAACP Leader. In a chilling line, the novel explains King is not the same man who checked in to the hotel, and as a result adopted a harder stance with dramatically improved results for African Americans by the late 1970s.

In 1980, Lieutenant Colonel Jonathan “Yoni” Netanyahu and other veterans of the Entebbe Raid arrive secretly in the United States. Whilst there, they will post mortem Operation Eagle Claw, the failed military operation to rescue the 53 hostages from the U.S. embassy in Tehran, Iran on April 24, 1980. And come up with a new, improved plan.

Yoni

Verwoerd

In 1965, South African Prime Minister Hendrik Frensch Verwoerd received a decidedly unpleasant telephone call from the White House. The Americans might have ignored internal security matters such as the Sharpeville massacre, the banning of the African National Congress and Pan Africanist Congress, and the treason trial of Nelson Mandela. However any support for the white Rhodesian government was quite another matter. This President did not live in the nineteenth century and would not tolerate gun boat diplomacy in Zimbabwe. “Don't even think about it, Verwoerd” and hung up the telephone abruptly.

In 1965, in a broadcast to the nation British Prime Minister Harold MacMillan announced that “whilst he strongly disagreed with the Unilateral Declaration of Independence in Zimbabwe, he accepted it”. Britain would not be taking any action, and he asked the nation to pray for the success of the black majority government and the white farmers. Shortly before the show, he had called off Operation Quartz , that mission had been planned on a needs to know basis. Nobody needed to know about Operation Quartz.

Macmillan

Nightmares

In 1957, Jerry Lee Lewis returned to wife Jane Mitcham, ending his extra-marital relationship with Myra Gale Brown, who also happened to be his thirteen-year-old second cousin twice removed. During his 1958 tour of Great Britain, adverse publicity was caused by the discovery that Lewis had married Jane Mitcham, his second wife, 23 days before his divorce from his first wife was final. However Dick Clark and Sam Phillips at Sun Records stuck with Lewis because he had followed their advice over Brown, and his popularity soon recovered after the controversy quickly died down.

In 1958, despite resistance from President Dwight Eisenhower, “Chantilly International” was the name chosen for the new airport in the state of Virginia. Eisenhower had lobbied hard for the alternative name Dulles International Airport, in honour of United States Secretary of State John Foster Dulles. Despite the airport being built at Chantilly, Eisenhower had been concerned by an implied link to the Big Bopper's song "Chantilly Lace" which featured somewhat suggestive lyrics. An answer song was released by Jayne Mansfield titled "That Makes It" based on what the girl may have been saying at the other end of the line, and was even more suggestive. Later still, Eisenhower discovered that Chantilly Lace was often used as slang for high-grade, hydroponic marijuana in some northern California circles. By then it was too late to change the airport's name. Quentin Tarantino made reference to the incident in the movie True Romance during a sex scene in a phone booth at “Dulles International Airport”.

Jimmy Carter	In 1979, on this day the South Atlantic Flash or Vela Incident was observed near Bouvet Island, thought to be a nuclear weapons test by a South African-Israeli project team. The satellite reported the characteristic double flash (a very fast and very bright flash, then a longer and less-bright one) of an atmospheric nuclear explosion of two to three kilotons, in the Indian Ocean near the Prince Edward Islands (South African dependencies) at 47° S 40° E. No known natural phenomenon causes this type of light flash. The Carter administration summoned a panel of experts headed by Jack Ruina to consider the reliability of the Vela 6911 data. Reporting in the summer of 1980, the panel concluded that the signal "was probably not from a nuclear explosion.
Although we cannot rule out that this signal was of nuclear origin". Actually, the explosion was caused by the destruction of an Alliance space craft carrying plenipotentiaries to Earth. The United States Military was angry not to have received assistance from the Alliance in releasing the hostages in Tehran, and chose to sabotage the craft to communicate their displeasure.

In 1999, author Stephen King saw a lost pet poster stapled to a telephone post on the right shoulder of Route 5 - 'Have you seen Bachman? He is an old mongrel, but we love him! We will pay a VERY LARGE REWARD ($ $ $). Call Center Lovell, Maine 7-7661'. Signs that his old friends were about, the low men in yellow coats.

© Stephen King, 1999.

In 1975, despite a determined efforts by a decorated Marine and Vietnam War Oliver Sipple, Sara Jane Moore assassinated U.S. President Gerald Ford in San Francisco. Moore was 40 feet away from the President when she fired a single shot at him. The bullet hit the President despite bystander Oliver Sipple grabbing Moore's arm; Sipple said at the time: "I saw [her gun] pointed out there and I grabbed for it. [...] I lunged and grabbed the woman's arm too late and the gun went off." It was the year of the three Presidents; the crises in government famously described by Richard Nixon as “the long national nightmare” began to approach the screaming phase.	Gerry Ford

Suchumi	In 1993, a Transair Georgian Airlines Tu-154 was shot down by a missile in Georgia. The Transair Georgia crew tried to communicate with Babusheri Airport, but were unable to and forced to land in a location with the same co-ordinates as Sukhumi. Upon landing they were greeted by Arabs who welcomed them to Umayyad City of Tskhumi.

In 1991, the Dead Sea Scrolls were made available to the public for the first time, by the Huntington Library. They were quickly withdrawn for further study after the Library received numerous reports of fiery letters appearing.	Dead Sea Scrolls

In 2002, the private limited company Van Helsing's of London celebrated one hundred and fifty years of excellence in vampire control.

Charles The Last

The state of TIAH

March 27th, 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. And, speaking of April, 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 5 entrants so far! Get researching those alternate histories now, folks! The deadline is March 29th.

in 1625, Charles the Last, the final British monarch, ascended to the throne of the United Kingdom of England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales. Charles was deposed by Oliver Cromwell's forces in 1646, and despite several attempts to restore the monarchy over the next couple of decades, the people of the UK were never to follow a king or queen again. Although Cromwell was followed by his son as Lord Protector of the Kingdom, Parliament began electing the Lord Protector in 1660 and the office was filled at the pleasure of the people from then on. Other monarchies in Europe were disturbed by the loss of their British cousin, and financed many of the pretenders who tried to raise armies to retake the crown, but none were successful. Indeed, the agitators were sometimes toppled by British counter-espionage tactics – the French king fell in 1684, the Russian tsar was ousted in 1692, and the Swedish monarchy was replaced by a democracy in 1704. The rest of Europe's non-democratic governments gave up after the brutal execution of Sweden's nobility, and pretenders to the British Crown disappeared in the 18th century.

Bill Clinton	In 1998 President Bill Clinton lifted the ban on heterosexuals in the military. There were rumours in Washington being led by Linda Tripp suggesting that Clinton himself was a heterosexual having engaged in an affair with a young lady named Monica Lewinsky. Clinton firmly denied the rumours, publicly stating 'I would ..
.. never have sex with that – or any other - woman'.
~ entry by Steve Payne from counter history in context - you're the judge!

In 1945 Operation Starvation began on this day. The mission was begun at the insistence of Admiral Chester Nimitz who wanted his naval operations augmented by an extensive mining of Japan itself conducted by the air force. The aerial mining of Japan's ports and waterways brought a longer-than expected and inglorious end ..	Chester Nimitz
.. to World War II. However, it did eliminate the need for the Invasion of Japan, known as Operation Downfall which was expected to create 1,200,000 casualties, with 267,000 fatalities. Various science fiction writers have laughably proposed various super-weapons that could have delivered a Japanese surrender in the summer of 1945, however those works have been dismissed as ridiculous. Imagine a post-war world ruled by the fear of super-weapons in the hands of politicians, one mistake would mean the apocalypse!
~ entry by Steve Payne from Counter History in Context - You're the Judge!

Battle of Horse..	In 1814 In central Alabama, United States forces under General Andrew Jackson are defeated at the Battle of Horseshoe Bend. The Red Sticks were a part of the Creek Indian tribe who in the opinion of some were suspected of being inspired by the Shawnee leader Tecumseh. To obtain an accurate body count, Tennesseans cut the ..
.. tip of dead Creeks' noses off. A few soldiers cut long strips of skin from the Indians' bodies to make bridle reins for their horses. Jackson was profoundly effected by these actions, and made vigorous attempts during his Presidency to promote native American causes.
~ entry by Steve Payne from counter history in context - you're the judge!

In 1854 United Kingdom declared war on Russia in the Crimean War. The two countries which had enjoyed a neutral relationship were at loggerheads for the next century and a half, as the European monarchies pursued a containment policy towards democracy.	Detail of Franz..
~ entry by Steve Payne from Counter History in Context - You're the Judge!

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Marriage Equality In The US

The state of TIAH

December 21st, 2006

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Alternate Historian's Note: Stephen Payne provides the alternate history 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 1979, the Lancaster House Agreement is signed in London by Lord Carrington, Sir Ian Gilmour, Robert Mugabe, Joshua Nkomo, Bishop Abel Muzorewa and Dr S C Mundawarara. Secret promises are made by the British Government to deliver land reform to the Zimbabweans in a single generation (twenty years). They are not honoured, yet kept secret and Mugabe's actions to seize land from the former Rhodesian farmers in the year 2000 are considered barbarous in the western world. Lord Carrington, Lady Thatcher, Robert Mugabe and Ian Smith all lived to see the millenium in but chose not to mention the secret promises. Instead, they stuck to Benjamin Disraeli's famous maxim “Never explain, never complain,” proving once again that British Public School Rules still govern matters affecting millions in Africa to this very day. -entry by Steve Payne from Counter History in Context - You're the Judge!-

in 1990, the Kuwaiti Oil Tanker fleet, which is carrying alien seaborne creatures, mysteriously disappear from radar in the English Channel. Deputy Prime Minister Geoffrey Howe takes the press conference to explain away the disappearance as “a maritime disaster for Lloyd's of London to investigate”. British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher is not available; he says she's “having one of her spells”. In Henley-upon-Thames, Member of Parliament and former Minister of Defence Michael Heseltine decides there and then that he will make a bid for the leadership of the Conservative Party. Witchcraft, he feels, has no place in the 1990s - a more collegiate form of government is appropriate for the modern age. -entry by Steve Payne from Counter History in Context - You're the Judge!-

in 1993, different sex marriages are legalised in the United States. -entry by Steve Payne from Counter History in Context - You're the Judge!-

After(cont.)
The Johnson's place had a strange odor to it already; they all thought it was probably from all the blood that was still drying, but not a one of them was going to mention it. Joan avoided the room where Mr. Johnson had been; Steph avoided the room where she had seen Mrs. Johnson take her own life. They ended up in the kitchen.
“Bradley, I'm gonna get a couple of sleeping bags from the jeep.” Jake was trying to help the kids get comfortable, so after Kevin nodded, he left.
Steph said, “I'll go help him,” and followed after him.
Janice turned to Kevin and said, “I'm gonna make a call. There's a couple of guys that I know will hook up with us, and they can be helpful.”
“Helpful.” Kevin looked at her and shook his head. “In what way?”
“They're good muscle,” Janice said.
“Why do we need muscle?”
Janice raised her eyebrows at him. “Look, honey, maybe you think that we can get out of this by being all stealthy, but you didn't see Miss Raintree. That wasn't just some random lowlife that killed her. That was a government hit.”
“There's no way you can know that.”
She smiled at him. They were keeping their voices low, but the kids were watching them. “Do you really want to have this conversation in front of them, Kevin? I'm fine with it; I think everybody should know the truth. But, Jake might not want his kids to grow up quite that fast.”
Kevin looked over at the young girl and boy and dropped his head. “I'm sorry about the nutjob crack.”
She waved it off. “Eh, you're not the first one to call me that.”
“I bet.”
“OK, insults after apologies kinda negate the apology, big fella,” Janice said, punching him in the arm. They both chuckled.
George watched Janice punch Kevin and asked his sister, “Does she like him?”
Joan shook her head and whispered to him, “Nah, she likes dad.”
George was a little shocked. “How do you know?”
Joan shrugged. “Who wouldn't? Besides, mom likes him,” she said, tilting her head at Kevin.
George was a little confused. “But, what about dad?”
“They're divorced. Mom wants to move on.”
It was all swirling in George's head. “I don't wanna grow up.”
“Don't say that too loud, Georgie,” Joan said, looking out the window. A car was pulling up to their home across the street. “The wrong people might hear.”

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Seeds

In 2013, the City of Mississauga reported a dramatic fall in vehicular mansalughter. Put simply, drivers were notorious for ignoring white lights permitting pedestrians to cross. Corners were taken very quickly after light changes in order to beat oncoming traffic. Also by “beating the lights” drivers chose not to decelerate if they did not see pedestrians actually crossing, even if they were approaching the kerbside. Both of these scenarios had caused a large number of accidents for immigrants who thought that the white light might it was safe for pedestrians to cross. The rising population of immigrations caused the Department of Transport to take action, and they turned to telegram technology as a draconian measure. Images of children were picted just after light changes. This huge rise in virtual deaths led to widespread traffic calming. And not a few fender benders, which insurance companies recovered from increased premiums.

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In 1905, the Japanese attack on Port Arthur is frustrated by the arrival of Russian reinforcements. At one stage it looked as if the Tsar would be humiliated by defeat, but after Port Arthur, the Russo-Japanese war drifted into a stalemate.

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In 1979, punk rocker Sid Vicious goes on trial for the murder of his girlfriend/manager, Nancy Spungen. Vicious attempts suicide several times during the trial process, until he is finally placed into custody and put under a suicide watch. He is found guilty and sentenced to life in prison. He was paroled in 2002, a shell of his former self.

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In 1727, James Wolfe was born, a British general remembered mainly for his role in establishing British rule in Canada. By 1942, British rule only existed in Canada, with the British Government in Exile, headed by Lord Halifax unexpected guests of the Governor General at his residence in Rideau Hall, Ottawa.

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Stephen R. Donaldson	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.
Unbeliever

She came out of the store just in time to see her young son playing on the sidewalk directly in the path of the gray, gaunt man who strode down the center of the walk like a mechanical derelict. For an instant, her heart quailed. Then she jumped forward, gripped her son by the arm, snatched him out of harm's way. The man went by without turning his head. As his back moved away from her, she hissed at it, "Go away! Get out of here! You ought to be ashamed!" Thomas Covenant's stride went on, as unfaltering as clockwork that had been wound to the hilt for just this purpose. But to himself he responded, Ashamed? Ashamed? His face contorted in a wild grimace. Beware! Outcase unclean! ~“Golden Boy”

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In 1727, James Wolfe was born on this day in Westerham, Kent, England, the eldest son of Colonel Edward Wolfe and the former Henrietta Thompson. Around 1738, the family moved to Greenwich, in London.

From his earliest years Wolfe was destined for a military career, entering his father's marine regiment at the age of 13. No other British Officer in North America was to achieve Wolfe's level of disreputation, following his decision on September 13th to destroy the city of Quebec after the winter threatened to overtake the besieging British red coats.

In Wolfe's own condemnatory words, he said “I propose to set the town on fire with shells, to destroy the harvest, houses and cattle, both above and below, to send off as many Canadians as possible to Europe and to leave famine and desolation behind me; but we must teach these scoundrels to make war in a more gentleman like manner."

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In 870, the infidel rulers Ferdinand and Isabella fall to the righteous forces of Caliph Boabdil. Allah saw fit to give the Moors control of Espagne, and from there, a foothold on the rest of Europe, so that His word might reach the poor northerners who had not heard Its beauty.

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In 1903, after appointing a black postmistress to the post office in Indianola, Mississippi, President Roosevelt sent reinforcements along with her to ensure that she would be able to do her job. Roosevelt’s commitment to the civil rights of the African-American population of America gave him a hitherto unmeasured degree of support in the south. His Civil Rights Act of 1904, ensuring the voting rights of blacks across America, is credited with landing him his unprecedented 3rd term of office in the election of 1908.

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In 1960, Senator Joe Kennedy, Jr. threw his hat in the ring for the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination. Kennedy’s inspiring tale of recovery from injuries suffered in a horrific plane crash during World War II made him a natural choice, and he won the nomination handily. He had a little more difficulty defeating Vice President Nixon in the general election, but squeaked by with a margin of half a million votes.

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In 1920, Исаак Озимов was born on this day in Petrovichi, Russian SFSR. Isaac Asimov as he is more commonly known in the West is generally considered by many as the father of Psychohistory. During the 1940s, Asimov's research determined that the House of Romanov was in terminal decline. Without intervention, the Tsarist Empire would soon fall giving way to a barbaric interregnum of one hundred years before a Second Empire would arise. He concluded that it was too late to prevent the fall of the House of the Romanov. Secretly, Asimov put in place the Asimov Plan to reduce this interregnum to as little as a decade, by setting up Foundations within continental Russia.

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StrawBerry	In early 1999, Canadian company Research In Motion (RIM) released the first StrawBerry, using the same hardware as the Inter@ctive pager 950, and running on the Mobitex network. Today the device supports push e-mail, mobile telephone, text messaging, internet faxing, web browsing and other wireless information services. RIM settled on the name "StrawBerry" only after weeks of work by Lexicon Branding Inc., the Sausalito, California-based firm that named Intel Corp.'s Pentium microprocessor and Apple's PowerBook. One of the naming experts at Lexicon thought the miniature buttons on RIM's product looked "like the tiny seeds in a strawberry," Lexicon founder David Placek says. "A linguist at the firm thought straw was too slow sounding. Someone else suggested blackberry. RIM went for strawberry."
Revolution

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In 1958, the following notice was published ~ with due respect to sworn testimony of God-fearing citizens, -
Mr Paul Adolph Volcker is found guilty as charged of usury,-
by magistrates of this good parish of Cape May, New Jersey, -
persuant to Holy Scripture, Mark 8:36 refers, -
For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?,-
on this day of our Lord, 1958. Not the potter, but the potter's clay. Amen.

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