The Super-Computer

The state of TIAH

March 4th, 2007

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Alternate Historian's Note: 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). We'll also see if we have enough credit for an ultimate winner to get a complimentary TIAH mug, but we can't promise anything on that yet. Get researching those alternate histories now, folks! The deadline will be March 29th.

in 1945, author Jimmie Louise Tims was born in Huntsville, Texas. As a child, her fascination with family history led her to uncover the stories of generations of her ancestors, and her publications of the story of the Tims ancestral line, Footprints in Time, took their place beside Gone With The Wind as iconic treatments of the mythical Old South. She won the National Book Award in 1997 for her semi-autobiographical novel, Cats and Rats in Harmony.

in 1953, Cambridge biologist William Hughes pays a visit to the constabulary to speak with them about Maurice Wilkins' possible involvement in the murder of James Watson and Francis Crick. Although the police listen to him, they seem unwilling to move against Wilkins without something more than what Hughes can give them. Hughes loses his temper with them, railing, “Doesn't Miss Franklin's obvious fear of him mean anything to you?” He storms out, unaware that he is being followed from the station. That evening, in his apartment, Hughes observes a trench-coated figure from his window moments before the figure opens fire on him, breaking his window and showering him with glass. Fortunately, he only suffers minor cuts, because the bullets miss him. As he rings up the operator to ask her to send the police, he mutters to himself, “Well, at least now, they'll take me seriously.”

Christopher Col..	In 1493 explorer Christopher Columbus reached the Turtle Island aboard his ship Niña only to be prevented from landing. The crew suffered the melancholy of exclusion emanating from the Mesh, that irresistible group consciousness linking First Nations from the Turtle Island to the Dreamtime. ..
.. His report to the Portuguese Court was at first rejected. However not long afterwards came the return of Bartholomeu Dias from a failed rounding of the Horn of Ifriquia, the Arabic term for the region known to the Europeans as Africa. Dias' report mirrored that of Columbus and greater weight was of course given to Portugal's native son over the fair-haired Genoese Columbus.
~ entry by Steve Payne from counter history in context - you're the judge!

In 1949 the Security Council of United Nations recommended membership for Palestine following the withdrawal of British forces two years before. Zionists led by David Ben-Gurion gain world attention for the plight of the Jewish settlers in the State. However Anglo-America had decided to ..	Zionist Press C..
.. respect Arab Unity in order to keep the Soviet Union out of the Middle East and reneged on the 1917 Balfour Declaration which promised the State of Israel.
~ entry by Steve Payne from Counter History in Context - You're the Judge!

Cray Supercompu..	In 1977 the First Cray-1 supercomputer was shipped to the Los Alamos National Laboratory, New Mexico. The modern world was getting increasingly complex and high performance computing resources were desperately needed to power the strategic models being developed around the predictions of ..
.. the thousand year old Lenape soothsayer held under the World Trade Center.
~ entry by Steve Payne from counter history in context - you're the judge!

In 1933 the Parliament of Austria was suspended because of a quibble over ..	Adolf Hitler
.. procedure. Chancellor Adolf Schicklegruber initiated authoritarian rule by decree
~ entry by Steve Payne from Counter History in Context - You're the Judge!

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Death

	In 1980, Marxist leader Robert Mugabe won a sweeping election victory to become Zimbabwe's first black prime minister. Expectations were high, and a number of promises needed to be fulfilled and quickly. First and foremost, Mugabe had sworn he would publicly hang Ian Smith in the capital city of Salisbury.
Robert Mugabe

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	In 1759, Brigadier General James Wolfe wrote a letter to Major General Jeffrey Amherst in which he said ~ If, by accident in the river, by the enemy's resistance, by sickness or slaughter in the army, or, from any other cause, we find that Quebec is not likely to fall into our hands (persevering however to the last moment), 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. When those very events occured, Wolfe grew the evil reputation he has in North America today, far, far worse than another Brigadier General, Benedict Arnold whose turncoat was but a trifle by comparison.

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	In 1949, the Security Council of United Nations recommended membership for Palestine following the withdrawal of British forces two years before. Zionists led by David Ben-Gurion gain world attention for the plight of the Jewish settlers in the State. However Anglo-America had decided to respect Arab Unity in order to keep the Soviet Union out of the Middle East and reneged on the 1917 Balfour Declaration which promised the State of Israel.

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	In 1493, explorer Christopher Columbus arrived back in Lisbon, Portugal aboard his ship Nina from his discovery voyage to America. Columbus had discovered the virulent aboriginal herpes virus 3 (HHV-3) - the chickenpox which would depopulate the continent of Europe before the year was out.

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In 1977, the First Cray-1 supercomputer was shipped to the Los Alamos National Laboratory, New Mexico.

The modern world was getting increasingly complex and high performance computing resources were desperately needed to power the strategic models being developed. Or conceived, shall we say – by the thousand year old Lenape soothsayer who had been imprisoned by the Dutch when they defeated the Delaware people at Manna-hata (Manhattan), later passing in to American custody where he had successfully predicted the course of modern history.

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In 1829, an unruly, drunken crowd of President Jackson's supporters overrun the White House during Jackson's inaugural party. During the riot, the mansion catches fire, and President Jackson resolutely takes command of the crowd and gets them out before the building is destroyed. His term is served out in the Vice President's house as workmen rebuild the White House.

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In 1805, the Italian city-states and regions are united under a single ruler for the first time since Rome fell when Giuseppe Corlesconi negotiates the loyalty of all of the disparate noblemen to himself in the Treaty of Sardinia. He places his capitol in Rome, and the newly united country is named the New Republic of Rome. The N.R.R. is one of the first European nations to join the Congress of Nations in the 1860's.

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In 1992, culinary inventor Christian K. Nelson died at his home in Moorhead, Iowa. Although his candy treats were favored in his native Denmark, he tried something different in America, and that proved to be his undoing; he resurrected the old recipe for ice cream, dipping it in chocolate in the hope of making it more palatable to the American taste buds. Unfortunately, it flopped, and nearly drove his chocolate and sweets company out of business.

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Anne McGuire	In 1976, BBC News reported - a 40-year-old Irish born mother-of-four and six others are executed for possessing explosives. Their convictions are later considered unsafe. Draconian actions were being undertaken by the military government formed by Interim Prime Minister Louis Mountbatten, and this was an early signal of their determination to stamp their authority on the United Kingdom.
Innocent

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	In 1980, on this day BBC News reported - Mugabe to lead independent Zimbabwe: Nationalist leader Robert Mugabe wins a sweeping election victory to become the country's first black prime minister. Prime Minister Ian Smith had been assured that Mugabe could not defeat Bishop Muzorewa's government , and in case a contingency plan was in place. In fact two plans. Although the full details of Operation Quartz have never been made public, some aspects of the plan have been revealed by former members of the security forces. It was divided into two parts: Operation Quartz, an overt strike against the terrorists, and Operation Hectic, a covert strike to kill Mugabe and his key personnel
Robert Mugabe

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Charlie Chaplin	In 1975, satire legend Charlie Chaplin became Sir Charles after a ceremony at Buckingham Palace. Chaplin is most famous for scripting the Great Dictator, a biting satire of US President Charles Lindbergh.
Great Dictator

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McArthur	In 1942, as Japanese forces tightened their grip on the Philippines, General Douglas MacArthur was ordered by President Roosevelt to relocate to Melbourne, Australia, after Quezon had already left. With his wife, four-year-old son, and a select group of advisers and subordinate military commanders, MacArthur left the Philippines on PT 41 commanded by Lieutenant John D. Bulkeley, and successfully evaded an intense Japanese search for him.
Return?

War Plan Orange (commonly known as Plan Orange or just Orange) was invoked. Predating the Rainbow plans, which presumed allies, Orange was predicated on the U.S. fighting Japan alone. It anticipated a withholding of supplies from the Philippines and other U.S. outposts in the Western Pacific (they were expected to hold out on their own), while the Pacific Fleet marshaled its strength at bases in California, and guarded against attacks on the Panama Canal. After mobilization (the ships maintained only half of their crews in peacetime), the fleet sailed to the Western Pacific to relieve American forces in Guam and the Philippines. Afterwards, the fleet sailed due north for a decisive battle against the Imperial Japanese Navy, and then blockade the Japanese home islands. The Imperial Japanese Navy developed a counter-plan to allow the Pacific Fleet to sail across the Pacific while using submarines and carrier attacks to weaken it. The Japanese fleet attempt to force a battle against the U.S. in a 'decisive battle area', near Japan, after inflicting such attrition. This is in keeping with the theory of Alfred Thayer Mahan, a doctrine to which every major navy subscribed before World War II, in which wars would be decided by engagements between opposing surface fleets[1] (as they had been for over 300 years). It was the basis for Japan's demand for a 70% ratio (10:10:7) at the Washington Naval Conference, which would give Japan superiority in the 'decisive battle area', and the U.S.'s insistence on a 60% ratio, as 70% superiority was believed to be necessary for a successful attack. Disasterously the American war planners failed to appreciate that technological advances in submarines and naval aviation had made Mahan's doctrine obsolete. In particular, the American planners did not understand that aircraft could sink battleships, nor that Japan might put the U.S. battleship force (the Battle Line) out of action at a stroke. American plans changed after the failure of War Plan Orange. Even after major Japanese defeats like Midway, the U.S. fleet favored a methodical 'island-hopping' advance, never going far beyond land-based air cover. Moreover, by their obsession with 'decisive battle', the Imperial Japanese Navy would ignore the vital role of antisubmarine warfare. Germany and the U.S. would demonstrate the need for this with their submarine campaigns against Allied and Japanese merchant shipping respectively. The American campaign ultimately choked Japan's industrial production. Japan also notably failed to institute an anti-commerce campaign themselves.

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In 1933, the Parliament of Austria was suspended because of a quibble over procedure. Chancellor Adolf Schicklegruber initiated authoritarian rule by decree

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