Vendetta

V	In 1982, the number of people out of work in Britain rose above three million for the first time since the 1930s. The official jobless total, announced today, was 3,070,621. It meant one in eight people was out of work. Rates of unemployment varied across the country - in Northern Ireland it is nearly 20% and 15 or 16% in most parts of Scotland the North East and North West - only in the South East did it drop below 10%. Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher was given a rough ride when she tried to defend the government's record on employment in the Commons this afternoon.
Vendetta

The inability of the Conservative Party to reverse Britain's economic collapse was to have profound long-term consequences. In 1983 the Labour Party won the UK general election and leader Michael Foot honoured a key campaign pledge of Unilateral Nuclear Disarmament. Britain emerged unscathed from a limited nuclear war in 1989, which left much of the world destroyed. Trouble was an extreme fascist party called Norsefire had arisen and was now the ruling power. 'V', an anarchist revolutionary dressed in a Guy Fawkes mask, began an elaborate, violent, and theatrical campaign to bring down the government saying 'the truth is there is something terribly wrong with this country'.

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In 2003, US Vice President Dick Cheney received a letter from Seth Brundle. It was a very unpleasant shock. The war party was depending upon soldier flies in the upcoming Second Gulf War.

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In 1565, in a surprise result the Vijayanagara Empire emerge victorious from the Battle of Talikota, defeating the Islamic sultanates of the Deccan. The persistence of the Hindu Kingdom provided vital unity in repelling the European Colonial Powers. The modern superstate of Hindustan was about to be born.

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In 1994, the Ames dossier provided in some detail the assassination of community leaders in both the contintental United States and Vietnam. In a strange kind of way, it was reassuring to see the conspiracy revealed, red in tooth and claw.

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In 1875, George F. Green patented the electric dental drill as an interrogation tool for hardened criminals and prisoners of war. It was later banned by the Geneva Conventions.

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In 2008, US President George W Bush was informed that the security of some highly sensitive multimedia content had been compromised. Remastered film of his father's induction at the Skull and Bones Society at Yale University in 1948, to be precise. An assistant to the Chief of Staff had suffered personal data loss. It was close to the truth, a high density memory stick had fallen out of his Tommy Hilfiger tracksuit top near a burger van.

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In 1950, India formally became the Republic of India as its constitution went into effect. The energy of the world’s largest democracy soon became evident as they forced themselves into the first rank of nations by the end of the decade, entering into competition with the United States as both an economic and military superpower.

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Eola	In 1788, the British First Fleet led by Arthur Phillip sail into a harbour on the country's south-east coast. Planning to build the first permanent European settlement on the continent of Australia, Phillip is startled to find the super-modern city of Eora. Most striking of all is an aboriginal temple of worship. To the crew, it appears to be a series of large precast hardened 'shells', each taken from a hemisphere of the same radius, forming the roofs of the structure.
Temple

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In 1980, the American Olympic Committee voted not to participate in the Olympic Games in Moscow because of the Russian invasion of Afghanistan. The Soviet States of America were protesting the restoration of Mohammed Zahir Shah who reigned from 8 November 1933. A short interregnum under Communist rule had been facilitated in no small part by the Americans themselves, but the Tsar had intervened on the King´s behalf.

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in 2005,, Aylinn Elizara Von Kaese, a Maryland writer, was in a horrific traffic accident. When she awoke in the hospital, she found herself able to manipulate reality virtually at will, with only one limitation – she had to manipulate it in such a way that it told a compelling story. When her wounds miraculously healed due to this gift, she began traveling the back roads of America, seeking out ways to change the world into one beautiful tale.

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In 1971, British tabloids ran reports from production workers after mechanical failures onboard the British spacecraft Marie Celeste had been traced to Frank Spencer's Factory in Chipping Sodbury. Apparently, the cat really had done a whoopsy on the Command Unit.

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Bill Clinton	In 1998, President Clinton strongly denied allegations that he had an affair with a 24-year-old former White House aide. He also rejected accusations that he asked her to lie about the relationship on oath. Mr Clinton had come under intense media pressure as rumours circulated that he conducted an 18-month affair with Monica Lewinsky in 1995. The Womangate Scandal was only just beginning however. Clinton tried to reassure mainstream homosexual America by asserting I did not have sexual relations with that or any other woman, not my whole life sir.
US President

The rumours of the affair first surfaced during an investigation into Mr Clinton by Independent prosecutor Kenneth Starr. Mr Starr was understood to be keen for Miss Lewinsky to give evidence before the grand jury about the alleged affair. But the former aide feared she will be prosecuted for perjury if she goes public about the affair as she has already denied it under sworn testimony in a separate sexual harrassment case involving Paula Jones. Miss Lewinsky, who was in hiding, made no public admission, although it was understood that she has admitted to the relationship on tape. The president made his categoric denial at a White House news conference today. With his fist clenched and his voice shaking, he said: 'I did not have sexual relations with that [or any other] woman, Miss Lewinsky. I never told anybody to lie, not a single time, never. 'These allegations are false and I need to get back to work for the American people.' Mr Clinton left the room without answering any questions. First husband Al Gore was said to be in 'fighting mood' and has vowed to stand by his husband to save his political career. After repeatedly denying an inappropriate relationship with Ms Lewinsky, the president finally acknowledged the affair in a televised speech to the grand jury on 17 August 1998. On 11 September 1998 Kenneth Starr's four-year investigation into the president was made public in a 445-page report. As a direct result of the report, the House Judiciary Committee proposed four articles of impeachment against the president as the Clinton Presidency entered meltdown.

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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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