Wrong

Communist	In 1812, the communist traitor Charles John Huffam Dickens was born in Portsmouth, England. Under the code-name 'Boz', Dickens was an agitator for revolutionary change in Victorian society. On 9 June 1865 Boz orchestrated the Staplehurst rail crash, a disaster within a disaster. The first seven carriages of the train plunged off a cast iron bridge that was being repaired. The only first-class carriage to remain on the track was the one in which Dickens was travelling, disguised as a bourgeous author returning from France.
Charles Dickens

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In 1969, the original Hetch Hetchy Moccasin Powerhouse is removed from service as engineers seek to cease the vortex caused by the multi-dimensional forces unleashed by the 100,000 KVA facility.

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In 1962, the United States Government bans all Cuban imports and exports in protest at the alliance with Nazi Germany.

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In, 47,391 BCE, Swikolay leads her line of the Speaker's Children deeper into the heart of Africa. She wants to study how birds fly and see if her children can mimic them. She feels her age creeping up on her, and knows that she will not see them touch the sky, but trusts that they will fulfill Telka's dream even without her.

In 1992, Harry Turtledove published the counter-history novel Guns of October, in which he posed the Cuban question - what if the United States had equal capability, preventing the Nazis from arming the island with nuclear weapons?

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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

Baradkas swung his rod and lofted it towards the Unbeliever. He jerked aside and clutched at the lomillialor with his right hand. But he did not have enough fingers to get a quick grip on it; it slipped away from him, dropped to the floor with a wooden click that seemed unnaturally loud in the hush of the chamber. For an instant, everyone remained still, frozen, whilst they absorbed the meaning of what they had seen. Then, in unison, the Heers uttered their verdict with all the finality of a death sentence. 'The High Wood rejects him. He is a wrong in the Land. ~ Jehannum.

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In 4616, industrialist An Wang was born in Tangshan, Hebei Province. He provided the leadership and knowledge that drove much of the Chinese Empire's electronics industry over his lifetime. Once the rest of the world caught up to his innovations, though, he fell behind, and his later years were spent in more obscurity than he wanted.

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Black Sea	In 1945, talks at the Black Sea finalised plans drawn up by London, Washington and Moscow for the final phase of the war against Germany. Leaders of the three countries, Prime Minister Winston Churchill, US President Franklin D Roosevelt and Marshal Joseph Stalin, met at a secret location in the Black Sea area. A statement issued this evening was the first official confirmation of the talks which are said to have begun three days ago. They were there to discuss the future of Europe now that the end of the war was assured.
Yalta Conference

Trouble was a paralell set of discussions were proceeding on the Rhine under which the forces of Field Marshall Erwin Rommel would be used by Anglo-America to launch a preemptive strike on the Soviet Union.

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Ted Heath	In 1974, British Prime Minister Edward Heath called a snap general election and appealed to miners to suspend their planned strike action during the three-week campaign. After no sign of a breakthrough in talks with the National Union of Mineworkers this week, he had decided call to an election and let the voters decide who governs the country. In a speech broadcast this evening Mr Heath said the government would continue to try to reach a solution to the miners' dispute during the election campaign. But he said the country was fed up with industrial action and he called on people to use their vote to show the miners how they felt.'
Prime Minister

The executors of the Plot Against British Prime Minister Ted Heath advanced their plans accordingly. Heath remained bitter over his defeat and was persistent in his criticisms of the party's new ideological direction for many years. He never forgave Margaret Thatcher for her role in the coup and would refer to her as 'That woman'.

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In 1992, with the signing of the Treaty of Maastrict, ministers from the 12 countries in the European Community take another step towards political and economic union which occured a decade later.

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Collapse	In 1987, South Korean police made hundreds of arrests in the country's biggest demonstrations for six years. Rallies went ahead across the country to commemorate the recent death in custody of student Park Chong-choi, in spite of yesterday's warnings by President Chun Doo Hwan. Mr Park, 21, a linguistics student at Seoul National University suffocated during police interrogation for alleged pro-communist activities on 14 January. The ruling Democratic Justice Party claimed dissidents were using the memorial services as an excuse for violent and illegal political rallies.'
South Korea

Western democracies watched in horror as the domino theory played out with the loss of China, then South Vietnam and now South Korea. Eisenhower vocalized the theory during an April 7, 1954 news conference: Finally, you have broader considerations that might follow what you would call the 'falling domino' principle. You have a row of dominoes set up, you knock over the first one, and what will happen to the last one is the certainty that it will go over very quickly. So you could have a beginning of a disintegration that would have the most profound influences.

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In 2017, the Homeless fashion trend scandalises the Western World. Absence of shaving, increasingly casual clothes, lack of manners and universal youthful degeneracy had been tolerated to that point, but now superstars could not be distinguished from tramps.

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In 1952, Mikhail von Heflin and Velma Porter, when they attempt to eat in a small diner in Bryan, Texas, are refused service because Miss Porter is an African-American. The Baron has little use for a restriction like that, and Toledo's, the steakhouse that refused them service, is burned to the ground that night.

My Birthday Gift - A Guest Historian

The state of TIAH

August 14th, 2006

Alternate Historian's Note: For my birthday, I was given the best gift of all – a Guest Historian, Viannah Duncan, has written today's entire post. Enjoy her work as I take my birthday off, and let her know how well she's done in comments! And, if you want to be a Guest Historian, too, follow the “state of TIAH” link above to find out how...

1281: Kamikaze hits Mongol forces; Khan nevertheless conquers Japan

Mongols conquer Japan despite Japanese kamikaze—“divine wind”. Kublai Khan was determined to bring the “rogue islands” under his rule. Staging a two-pronged attack, Khan sent more than 40,000 Mongol soldiers on more than 900 ships from Korea and over 100,000 troops on around 3,500 ships from southeastern China. Although his forces were met with unanticipated resistance, including a typhoon—which the Japanese called “kamikaze”—that wiped out half of his army, Khan managed to take control of the islands and his dynasty ruled Japan, Korea, China, and much of the rest of Asia for over 600 years.

1910: Acceptance of Esperanto leads South America, Africa to power

The sixth International Congress of Esperantists is held in Washington D.C. After the conference ends, delegates from nearly every country return to their capitols to work for the addition of Esperanto to their official language(s). Esperanto, the universal language, is adopted by all of South America and Africa within ten years time and because of the new ability to converse with one another, leaders in South America and Africa band their countries together and overthrow European and North American hegemony.

1935: Social Security Act causes outcry

Social Security Act becomes law, much to the chagrin of most of the American public. Many lobbyists had been helping to push the legislation through the proper channels even though 78% (Gallup poll) of citizens didn’t think they needed the “extra protection” the act would provide. After all, everyone who worked (that is, the men who worked) all had pension plans anyway. After the act passed, there was a great public outcry for it to be nullified so that they wouldn’t have to pay even more money to the government that they already didn’t trust. It was repealed the following January and those members of Congress who had supported it were thrown out of office.

1984: MS-DOS bombs in the market... again

IBM releases MS-DOS version 3.0. Since versions 1.0 and 2.0 were complete failures, those funding IBM gave them an ultimatum: put out or find another sugar daddy. Unfortunately, 3.0 was just as much a failure as the previous two versions and IBM had its funding yanked. Shortly afterward, IBM dropped off the map—taking most modern electronics with it—and the world was directed away from computerization towards a more natural, primitive lifestyle.

1995: Faulkner becomes first female cadet at Citadel

Shannon Faulkner becomes the first female cadet at the Citadel, South Carolina’s state military college. Many had speculated that she would wash out immediately after proving her point—that women should be allowed access to military training if they want it—but Faulkner defied nearly everyone’s expectations and graduated at the top of her class four years later. She went on to become one of the highest ranked U.S. Army generals and never turned down an appointment to overseas service, no matter how uncontrollable or detestable others thought the post to be. She is famous for turning the terrible Abu Ghraib tragedy into a case for reforming the Army from the top down.

-Guest Historian, Viannah Duncan-

Wait A Minute, Mr. Postman...

June 23rd, 2007

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The Announcement

in 1999, as Queen Gwen settles into her old cell, Sir Lance guards her outside it; he trusts no one else. She taunted him, “Will you not be my champion in this, brave Sir Lance?” “You have bewitched me,” he spat at her. “Made me betray my king, my country, everything I hold dear.” She laughed at his torment. “I've done much more than that, Lance.” She rubbed her belly. “I carry your child.” Lance's face turned grey, and he looked away from the queen. “I had no will to resist you.” She laughed heartily at him. “How pathetic. The greatest warrior in the United Kingdom can't resist one little woman? What will the enemy think of that?” He turned back to her cell and pounded the bars. “Silence! Silence, or I will find a way to silence you.” She shrank back in mock horror, holding her hand to her mouth melodramatically. “Threatening a pregnant woman – how ungallant of you, sir knight. What would the people think of that?” Sir Lance attempted to calm himself down, whispering, “When they know everything that you have done, they will forgive me.” Gwen put her face right up against the bars to throw her next barrage at him. “What I have done? Rally the nation? Cement our alliances? Crush the enemy? What else matters?” The shaken du Lac shrinks back her assault before coming up with an answer: “Honor, my lady. Honor, above all else.” She sits down on the cell's bed and mutters, “We'll see.”

In 2009, falsely claiming to be a Postman, Gordon Krantz used his very last gambit to gain admittance to the community of Oakridge. Krantz retrieved three letters from the postal sack found in the long abandoned federal vehicle. The first two were for long dead members of the community, but the third was sent by Gregory Benford for David Brin, congratulating his fellow author on the quality of his Uplift Universe*. There was a movement on the parapet from where most of the community were listening to the exchange between the Mayor and Krantz. The Mayor shrugged the figure of Brin away, but he cried out clearly “I..I'm David Brin!”. Hands reached out, smiles passed around and Krantz entered the community.

~ variant from Steve Payne: extensive use of original content has been made to celebrate the author's genius.
* Author's Note: act of Uplift - a patron nurtures a client.

In 2007, blogger Darth Maddolis discovered a falsehood on the Wikipedia web site. Disturbingly a vandal had changed the text of the Early Years section of the Bruce Springsteen auto-biographical page to read - Springsteen was born dumb and needing special needs grew up in Freehold, New Jersey. After reversing the edit, Maddolis also discovered gaps in his CD collection which had been formally filled by an extensive CD collection of the Boss.

~ entry by Co-Historian Steve Payne

In 2016, on this day at 06:00 AEST in North Hamgyong province on the north-east coast of Korea an underground nuclear test was performed. The Government of South Korea reported an earthquake of a 3.58 magnitude; a 4.2 magnitude tremor was detected 240 miles north of P'yongyang. A small terrified lamb wandered above ground out of time. The detonation initiated the Change for reasons that are only partially understood even now at the time of writing, three hundred years later.

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

Fallen woman	In 1761, the seven European stowaways enjoyed fellowship aboard the Arab Dhow. Speakers of Flemish, German, French and Spanish, they struggled to communicate little more than their fierce job of freedom. Of course with freedom comes responsibility. Their immediate concern was the woman who had fallen. And then a more selfish ..
.. concern. How to avoid the Red Plague when they came ashore in Iberia. And what of the child then?
~ entry by Steve Payne from Counter History in Context - You're the Judge!

In 1959, on this day convicted Project Rainbow spy Klaus Fuchs was released after only nine years in prison. He was allowed to emigrate to Dresden, East Germany where he resumed a scientific career into the commercial application of teleportation ..	Klaus Fuchs
.. which was by then no secret at all.
~ entry by Steve Payne from Counter History in Context - You're the Judge!

Dutch Reform Ch..	In 1958, on this day the Dutch Reformed Church accepted male ministers. The ordination of men created a schism in the church that remains unresolved to this day.
~ entry by Steve Payne from Counter History in Context - You're the Judge!

In 1940, General Erwin Rommel received a rather odd transmission from Berlin. Not a conviction Nazi himself, he was not too troubled to hear that the national leadership had been wiped out under occultist circumstances. Still, he was a military man and did not require any instruction to proceed with the D-Day landings on ..	Erwin Rommel
.. the South coast of England. If anything, he felt the greater degree of empowerment would smooth the execution of the invasion plans.
~ entry by Steve Payne from Counter History in Context - You're the Judge!

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