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

Mandates

Jesse Owens	In 1913, on this day African-American athlete James Cleveland "Jesse" Owens was born in Lawrence County, Alabama to Henry and Emma Owens. Owens lead a remarkable, controversial life. In particular, controversy still surrounds Owens participation in the 1936 Olympics in Nazi Germany.
In 2006, Guy Walters published a book entitled Berlin Games: How Hitler Stole the Olympic Dream. The legend is that Carl 'Luz' Long, his German rival in the long-jump, assisted him by giving him valuable advice in a conversation moments before he made the jump. Owens later said - "It took a lot of courage for him to befriend me in front of Hitler... You can melt down all the medals and cups I have and they wouldn't be a plating on the twenty-four kilates friendship that I felt for Lutz Long at that moment. " Long himself could not confirm this story. He died in a British military hospital after fighting in Sicily, just months after his thirtieth birthday. However, Walters revealed that in fact, no such conversation between Owens and Long took place.
~ entry by Steve Payne

Bernard Montgomery	"The result of being driven out of Palestine would be to weaken our overall strategic position in the Middle East, and that of the Western world generally in the struggle between East and West." ~ 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. Avi Shlaim said in 2001 that in times of crisis, the fledgling Zionist project had been protected by the bayonets of the British army. This was particularly true during the Arab Rebellion of 1936-39. The rebellion showed that there could be no compromise between the two rival communities in Palestine: only war could decide the issue. The Jewish community was weak and defenceless. It would have easily been defeated had Britain not intervened to restore law and order. In November 1938 Major General Bernard Montgomery arrived in Palestine. His task was to crush the revolt. ‘Monty’ was a short-tempered professional soldier with no inclination to study the details of the conflict in Palestine. He gave his men simple orders on how to handle the rebels: kill them. This is what his men did and, in the process, they broke the backbone of the Arab national movement. So when the struggle for Palestine entered its most critical phase, following the passage of the UN partition resolution on 29 November 1947, the Jews were ready to do battle whereas the Arabs were still licking their wounds. In 1948, Montgomery was promoted to CIGS. Having seen service between the wars in India, Egypt and Palestine he had a unique method of dealing with insurgency. This time around, he faced up to Irgun and the bombers of the King David Hotel in Jerusalem. The full article is available at The Black Vault

~ quotation by Steve Payne

Berlin 2010	In 2010, Heinrich Gimpel received a mysterious call from the Friends of Zion advising him not to report for duty at Oberkommando office in Berlin. Ninety minutes later, he switched on the television just in time to see a newsflash. Two hijacked Lufthansa Jets has crashed into the Great Hall. Iraki insurgents were behind this unspeakable act of terrorism.
~ variant from Steve Payne: extensive use of original content has been made to celebrate the author's genius.

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. He swerved to avoid three riders on horseback, the Gunslinger Roland Deschain and his friends Cuthbert Allgood and Alain Johns. As a result, he narrowly missed the author Stephen King who was walking on the right shoulder of Route 5. Soon afterwards, he could not remember anything about the three riders at all.

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

Glubb Pasha	In 1941, English Patient László de Almásy shared a revelation from the spy Geoffrey Clifton with Loose Cannon Colonel "Ned" Lawrence. In accepting the mission to turn Rommel, Churchill had told Lawrence that he had been secretly rescued from a German "hit" by Zionist agents acting under the orders of Chaim Weizmannm Herzog and Aaron Aaronsohn.
The Zionists had their own plans for Lawrence, needing him to do a similiar job by "turning" the Commanding General of the Arab Legion, Lieutenant-General Sir John Bagot Glubb. Glubb Pasha had built the most disciplined force of arms under Arab control. In the forthcoming battle to establish Eretz Yisroel, Weizmann and Aaronsohn could not afford to have such a powerful threat from “the wing” on the West bank.
~ variant by Steve Payne: extensive use of original content has been made to celebrate the genius of Susan Shwartz and Michael Ondaatje

Otto Skorzeny	In 1943, German commando Otto Skorzeny pulled off a most daring mission. After fighting on the Eastern Front, Skorzeny was known as the commando leader who attempted to rescued Benito Mussolini from imprisonment after his overthrow. He also was the initiator of Operation Greif, for which he was judged after the war: this special operation involved false flag tactics, that is wearing the uniform of the enemy to confuse him and advance into his lines.
He also helped train the Werwolves, a Nazi stay-behind organisation which tried to engage in guerilla warfare against the Allies. On September 12th 1943, Benito Mussolini, dictator of Italy, was rescued from house arrest on the Gran Sasso in Abruzzi. Blood thirst craze had driven the Duce insane unfortunately, and an unsuspecting Skorzeny was brutally attacked by the lycanthrope Duce leaving a huge gash on his right cheek.
~ entry by Steve Payne

In 1994, Frank Eugene Corder crashed a Cessna 150 into the White House's south lawn, striking the West wing and killing US President Michael Dukakis. The crash caused a re-evaluation in security procedures around the White House, as the pilot had entered restricted airspace. Though the White House was reportedly rigged with surface-to-air missiles, none were fired. Vice President Lloyd Bentsen became the second Texan in thirty years to succeed to the Presidency through assassination.	Frank Corder
~ entry by Steve Payne

Luna 2	In 1959, the Soviet Union launched a large rocket, Lunik II, at the moon. Being the first spacecraft to reach the surface of the Moon, it impacted the lunar surface west of Mare Serenitatis near the Aristides, Archimedes, and Autolycus craters. Scientifically, Luna 2 is most famous for making the discovery of the solar wind, via its hemispherical ion traps designed by Konstantin Gringauz. Having studied these stream of charged particles for thirty years, Russian Scientists developed the first space craft driven by this thermal energy, enabling the USSR to colonize the solar system by the end of the twenty-first century.
~ entry by Steve Payne

In 1890, Salisbury, Rhodesia, was founded and named after the 3rd Marquess of Salisbury, then British prime minister. From Salisbury, the Premier of the British Crown Colony of Southern Rhodesia, Ian Douglas Smith declared Unilateral Independence (UDI) from the United Kingdom on November 11, 1965. Smith was staunchly opposed to Britain's insistence that the government of Rhodesia be transferred to the black majority control as an essential prerequisite for independence.	Ian Smith
Smith at one point, stated that there would be no plans to bring Rhodesia under black majority rule in his lifetime, and he later added, "or children's". Smith himself bowed to the inevitable in 1980, but his supporters did not, launching Operation Quartz which sustained a brutal white settler rule until this day.
~ entry by Steve Payne

Whatever happened to Leon Trotsky? He got an ice pick That made his ears burn
Stranglers	Whatever happened to dear old Lenny? The great Elmyra, and Sancho Panza? Whatever happened to the heroes? ~ Lyrics to “What Ever Happened to the Heroes?” - Click to Watch Sample
Punk Band

In 1977, an off-site Cabinet meeting by the executors of the Plot Against British Prime Minister Harold Wilson was held at Chequers. Interim Prime Minister Lord Louis Mountbatten and his deputy Major General Ord Wingate, DSO were in the Chair. Both officers were hurting real bad inside, believing that the British establishment had won both world wars (described by Churchill as "an incalculable prize") yet lost the peace. Worse, the British establishment had turned to them as the icon of that victory, and fundamentally they had no answers at all. In fact, Mountbatten had not felt so powerless since he was appointed Viceroy of India. Instead of overseeing a peaceful transition to independent rule, he had played a meaningless bit part in a humanitarian disaster where 10,000,000 had died during the tragedy of partition. Unknown to Mountbatten, the shadowy individuals that had selected him considered this experience to be a vital element of his resume. Qualification: master of disaster. Also present was the Home Secretary Margaret Thatcher. So was newly appointed Minister for Citizenship Mary Whitehouse, who had recently resigned her position as founder and first president of the National Viewers' and Listeners' Association, a pressure group for Christian ethics and morals with a particular emphasis on the media. They had just finished watching the latest installment of horror - the Stranglers playing "No More Heroes" on Top of the Pops, a barefaced insult to Mountbatten and Wingate of course. Vocalist Hugh Cornwall was in turns arrogant, hateful, disrespectual, shouting, haughty, scruffy..a dictionary definition of the word punk. Most disturbing was that Cornwall was clearly an individual of intelligence, "of the right sort". Worse, he had the kind of face that a military officer could expect to see as a mirror image with that recognizable tint of control and pride. Cornwall's behaviour was highly indicative of just how British society had gone off the rails in such a short space of time. Whereas you could (try to) dismiss the Sex Pistols as extremists, Cornwall's outward respectibility was an open endorsement to misbehaviour that was far too acceptable to British Youth. Mountbatten looked around the room - "How do we get British Youth back to watching Sitcoms and the Two Ronnies?", making reference of course to that mildest of sketch comedies. It was somewhat quiet for a while. Then Thatcher and Whitehouse descended into a stereo parrot mode, entering a long, pointless tirade about morality and authority that just went on. At one point Thatcher disturbingly asserted that "Society does not exist", it was all utterly incomprehensible to the military leader's ears. Afterwards, Mountbatten and Wingate retired with brandys and cigars. "Perhaps we should have appointed Barbara Woodhouse at the Citizenship Ministry" quipped the defeated deputy, a reference to a well known authoritarian dog breeder in the UK. "Perhaps we should tell Hugh Cornwall 'down, boy!'" replied Mountbatten, his spirits returning somewhat. They both laughter long and hard. Howled, actually. It was a mission impossible, there was just no point worrying about it too much really. The lyrics are available at at Ottosell

~ quotation by Steve Payne

Freedom on the March

Hilary Clinton

In 2008, as the first all-woman Presidential campaign race entered its final months, Hilary Clinton encountered fresh voter hostility over Iraq. Democrat calls for major cut in troop levels were blamed for worsening the situation on the ground, opening the party to political criticism that they "lost" Iraq. "A secure, stable democratic Iraq at peace with its neighbours was, in my view, unattainable," Clinton said.

~ entry by Steve Payne

Palestine	In 1922, on this day "a British mandate came into force in Palestine, over the heads of unyielding Arab opposition,” quoted from a dispatch from Jerusalem to London’s The Times. "The Arabs declared a day of mourning throughout the city and the shops were closed as a protest against today's formal proclamation of the Mandate, but no Jews were molested"
~ entry by Steve Payne: this incredible event has not been modified.

Berlin 2010

In 2010, Heinrich Gimpel left work at the Wehrmacht's Oberkommando office in Berlin. Even though he had worked at Adolf Hitler Platz for twelve years, he marvelled at the Great Hall. In the foreground was the Railway Carriage where Germany had yielded to France in 1918, and France to Germany in 1940. The first Panzer to enter Moscow. Behind thick leaded glass, the twisted radioactive remains of the Liberty Bell, excavated by expendable prisoners from the ruins of Philadelphia in 1970.

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

Wystan Hugh Auden	"To JS/07/M/378 this marble monument is erected by the State - He was found by the Bureau of Statistics to be one against whom there was no official complaint. And all the reports on his conduct agree that, in every sense of an old-fashioned word, he was a saint for in everything he did he server the Greater Community. Was he free? Was he happy? The question is absurd - had anything been wrong, we should certainly have heard." ~ The Unknown Citizen by W.H. Auden (1940)
Poet

In 2006, the British national identity card was passed under the Identity Cards Act. Long delays - real or imagined - enabled the establishment to play a long game with libertarians. By the time the technology was implemented in 2012, crime rates had been "permitted" to rise such that it was both feasible and allegedly desirable to micro-chip the population.

~ quotation by Steve Payne

Before the world moved on the Gunslinger Roland Deschain and his friends Cuthbert Allgood and Alain Johns led the troops of "The Good Man" John Farson's into a thinny, an area where the barrier between worlds can be passed despite the absence of a true door. Then something really unexpected happened.

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

László de Almásy	In 1941, English Patient Count László de Almásy revealed a shocking truth to Loose Cannon Colonel "Ned" Lawrence. Alongside the rest of the world, Almásy had originally believed his fellow Arabist to have died in a 1935 motorcycle accident at Cloud's Hill. However, during his affair with Katherine Clifton, he discovered otherwise from her husband, the spy Geoffrey Clifton.
~ variant by Steve Payne: extensive use of original content has been made to celebrate the genius of Susan Shwartz and Michael Ondaatje

British Palestine	In 1891, the Jewish Colonization Association was established by Baron Maurice de Hirsch. The association was greatly affected by the British withdrawal from mandated territory in Palestine in 1947, considering the move an act of betrayal following the Balfour Declaration of 1917.
By 1947, oil had been discovered in the Middle East, and the Western Powers were more concerned about keeping the Arab nations on board. At the one hundredth anniversary celebration in 1991, having abandoned demands for final status talks, the Association was seriously considering either a South American option or in fact an Israel mini-state. The JCA also established several colonies in Argentina. Once such colony is Colonia Lapin founded in 1919 in the Buenos Aires Province.
~ entry by Steve Payne

In 2007, television networks around the world continued to re-run incredible camera footage from the previous day. For the first time viewers were watching an undeniable public demonstration of the extra-terrestrial technology which had been recovered from developing countries by the 41st US President George HW Bush.	Stargate
Former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif was returning to Pakistan from exile in London. Immediately after landing in Islamabad, Sharif was intent on challenging President Musharraf for the leadership of the nation. Trouble was the United States could not afford to lose Musharraf who was a vital ally in the War on Terror. Not only was Musharraf less than keen to engage in a dictatorship vs. democracy struggle he could hardly win, he also desperately needed to discourage a similiar return from another former Prime Minister, Benazir Bhutto later in the week. Desperate measures were called for. Seconds before Sharif's passenger jet landed, a Stargate opened and the plane disappeared in broad daylight. TV channels that evening showed the 43rd US President George W Bush being briefed during a school visit, W looked mildly irritated that his super weapon was no longer a secret.
~ entry by Steve Payne absolutely no disrepect is suggested or implied by this post.

Mussolino	In 1926, Italian Prime Minister Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini was assassinated by the anarchist Gino Lucetti. German Chancellor Adolf Hitler, robbed of a regional partner, was unable to resist diplomatic pressures from the Stresa Front formed by French foreign minister Pierre Laval, British prime minister Ramsay MacDonald, and Italian leader Pietro Badoglio in April 1935.
By 1942, when Nazi Germany was on a full war footing, Hitler no longer had anything to fear and struck the allies with Blitzkrieg across both the Brenner Pass and the Belgium border. By the time America entered the war, Hitler had the bomb, and the rest is history. A very short history at that.
~ entry by Steve Payne

In 1944, the first allied troops of the U.S. Army cross the western border of Germany and see behind the curtain of the Third Reich.	Werewolf
Evidence of widespread lycanthropy shocks the Americans, unaware that sadistic members of their senior command have already succumbed to temptation, unable to face the horrors of peace-time.
~ entry by Steve Payne

Falling Apart

In 1963, FBI Director J Edgar Hoover, President Lyndon Baines Johnson and Chief Justice Earl Warren met in the Oval Office. The trio studied notes from an interview with Marvin Lee Aday in which the young man described how he, a friend and his friend's father, drove out to Love Field to watch John F. Kennedy land. After watching him leave the airport, they decided to head to Market Hall which was on Kennedy's parade route. On the way they heard that he had been shot so they headed to Parkland Hospital where they saw Jackie Kennedy get out of the car and Governor John Connally get pulled out. Then they saw a very much alive Kennedy taken out and smuggled into a private car.

In 1952, President-elect Adlai Stevenson fulfilled an election campaign pledge to visit Korea in an effort to find an end to the bitter civil war raging in the small Asian nation. His opponent Dwight David Eisenhower had electrified the country just before the election by promising to personally go to Korea and end that stalemated conflict, a pledge which Stevenson had matched. Characteristically, he arrived at one but his smart alec solutions that led to his impeachment in 1956.

Partition Map	In 1947, the United Nations Partition Plan for Palestine or United Nations General Assembly Resolution 181 was announced. Palestine followed India in suffering the agony of partition following a British withdrawal.

in 1952, Eisenhower had made Joe McCarthy his running mate, MacArthur's campaign had fallen apart and the result was Stevenson winning the nomination. All three candidates had promised to go to Korea to find out what could be done to end the conflict. On this day the U.S. President-elect fulfilled that campaign promise. Arriving in the war-zone, his secret plan to end the conflict was immeasurably different from the two other candidates. In The Impeachment of Adlai Stevenson journalist David Gerrold examined how six years of intelligent decisions provoked Congressional uproar.	Adlai Stevenson

T.E. Lawrence

In 1963, FBI Director J Edgar Hoover, President John F Kennedy and Chief Justice Earl Warren met in the Oval Office. Agenda: to agree the action plan for the Presidential Commission into the assassination attempt on the President which occurred just a week before. Kennedy re-iterated that if a CIA plot was discovered, he really would smash the agency into a thousand pieces this time. Hoover could not agree more, he wanted a super-agency from which he could control both domestic and foreign intelligence services. The provisional title for the new super-agency was Homeland Security; Hoover felt the name had a good ring to it.

In 1947, General Assembly invited Arab Palestine to join the United Nations as a sovereign nation. The Palestine Plan was denounced by Zionists worldwide. In New York, protests are led by David Green and former Commander of the British Eighth Army, Colonel T.E. Lawrence who had promised Aaron Aaronsohn that Eretz Israel would get his voice after the war.	Lawrence

Blows

In 1905, the Great War ended in an irretrievable British débâcle, leading to occupation, reparations and the loss of several colonies. E. Phillips Oppenheim's A Maker of History records how thousands of German immigrants had been acting as pre-invasion intelligence-gatherers, ensuring that `the German Army knew almost to a bale of hay what provender lay between London and the coast'. As `Captain X', the head of German intelligence in London, explained to Oppenheim: 'There are in this country 290,000 young countrymen of yours and of mine who have served their time, and who can shoot ... Clerks, waiters and hairdressers ... each have their work assigned to them. The forts which guard this great city may be impregnable from without, but from within -- that is another matter'.

Thomas Edward Lawrence	"He [Aaronsohn] meant to make a new nation, to restore a lost influence, to give twenty millions of Semites the foundations on which to build an inspired dream-palace of their national thoughts.” ~ Colonel Thomas Edward Lawrence in Seven Pillars of Wisdom Justifying the actions of Sarah and Aaron Aaronsohn the individuals most directly responsible for the creation of the State of Israel in 1919. Both Aaronsohns had been leader organizers of NILI, a secret intelligence group pursuing unorthodox means to assist in the liberation of Palestine. NILI had provided military intelligence to the Turks that had been used to crush British forces under General Edmund H.H. Allenby. Allenby himself had been duped, believing that Zionist aspirations would be served by means of an attack by surprise through Beersheba, using the map of water sources provided by Aaronsohn, and skirting around the strong Turkish force that blocked the advance north from Gaza. The destruction of British forces created a post-war vacuum in Palestine that was very much in the Zionists favour. It is widely believed now that the actions of NILI brought forward the creation of the State of Israel by a generation, ensuring a population movement of European Jewry before the rise of Hitler.
Arabist

Kinky Friedman	In 2008, explaining that sometimes its okay to get a little kinky, Texan singer/songwriter Richard S. Friedman entered Election Day as the underdog candidate for US President. Kinky promised America that “Musicians can run this country better than politicians. We won't get a lot done in the mornings, but we'll work late and be honest."

In 1963, Vietnamese President Ngo Dinh Diem and his younger brother, Ngo Dinh Nhu are murdered, overthrowing the Government of the Republic of Vietnam. That evening at Saigon international airport, the assassins board a plane to the south-western United States. They've got a tight schedule; in just twenty days time they have an appointment with two more brothers, the Kennedys. The incredible story of this double-hit brought to the cinema in the 1981 movie Nighthawks	Nighthawks

Versailles	In 1917, British Foreign Secretary Arthur James Balfour proclaimed support for Palestinian self-rule in a letter to Emir Faisal, a son of Sherif Hussein of Mecca. The letter stated the position, agreed at a British Cabinet meeting on October 31, 1917, that the British government supported nationalist plans for an Arab "national home" in Palestine, with the condition that nothing should be done which might prejudice the rights of Jewish kibbutzim there. The "Balfour Declaration" was later incorporated into the Sèvres peace treaty with Turkey, Treaty of Versailles (pictured) and the Mandate for Palestine.

In 1948, in a dramatic political comeback, Harry S. Truman defeated Thomas E. Dewey for the US presidency. Truman had been nominated for the Vice Presidency in 1944, and briefed fully on the Bomb, principally to ensure the Bomb was not dropped. However, Roosevelt died unexpectedly in the fall, and it was Dewey who won the '44 election and decided to drop the Bomb to bring a speedy end to the Pacific War with minimal US casualties. The Tokyo strike was seen by Communists as a sign of weakness by the US Government, unable to stomach the casualty count necessary for Operation Downfall. No sooner had Japan capitulated, than China descended into civil war, and Dewey was trapped in the Pandora's box of his own logic.	Harry S Truman

Too Late For Gold?

The state of TIAH

May 14th, 2007

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Alternate Historian's Note: In 13 days, we'll hit TIAH's third anniversary. As before, that calls for a contest! Please send in your alternate versions of the Academy's beginnings (May 27th, 2004 was the date in this timeline). You can even use the fact that we lost the original day and had to restart on the 28th – whatever you can think of to provide a twist to our start. Send 'em in, and we'll print 'em! Be sure to tell us how you want your credit for the post to appear, as well as any links you want to be connected with your entry. Thanks for reading and get researching those alternate timelines!

in 1891, with 3000 men at his back, Major Mark Wainwright marches on the fort at Concordia, Kansas, only to find much stiffer resistance than he had expected. Wainwright's plan had been to take the fort with a few hours of fighting, and use it as a staging ground for further forays deeper into Kansas. Instead, he and his men are bogged down in Concordia, as more reinforcements for the Kansans move towards the fort. As night falls and he pulls his men back unsuccessfully from the fort, the major receives a scout's report that Kansans are blocking their retreat back to Nebraska. Feeling the noose about his neck, Major Wainwright sends 4 scouts on fast horses to slip past the Kansan lines and try to get help from Nebraska, then tells his men, “Get ready. We either take this fort or they'll surround us and chop us to bits.”

in 1999, Sir Lance du Lac implores King Arthur II to show mercy to his queen. “They may have come at an unfortunate time, sire, but her distractions were simply to give you respite from the pressures of the war. She is no traitor.” Arthur allows himself to be moved by du Lac's pleas, and pardons Queen Gwen. When she is brought before him, he says to her, “My queen, forgive me for my suspicions; these are hard times, and the loss of my oldest friend struck me harder than I thought it had.” Gwen bows before him and says, “My lord, my heart, as ever, is yours.” The king smiles, but as the queen rises from her bow, her eyes are locked on Sir Lance.

In 2367, in an attempt to prevent the destruction of humanity, African UN delegates explain to the wess'har that the extreme measures on Bezer'ej were taken unilaterally by aggressive Europeans. The argument cuts no ice. The wess'har logic of culpability is simple; if personal responsibility is not taken, all must accept justice. Also the species divide is a fiction; the Europeans themselves originate from the “cradle of humanity” in Africa.

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

In 1972, at the launch of the Diana & Marvin Project, fans were thrilled to witness legends Marvin Gaye and Diana Ross enter the recordings studio together. Behind the scenes, however, life was not the untroubled rhythm of the sweet duets that these two giants of Motown were about to record.

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

Hamelin	In 1947, on this day at the Tydings Committee, the Democrat Senator for Maryland connected the Nazi Leadership with the location in Western Germany of the town of Hamelin. He asked two seemingly rhetorical questions. Firstly, was theirs the equivalent of the child left behind? And second, was it too late to pay the gold? The ..
.. room explodes with noise as the speculation starts : what rationale explanation can be made for this event? The disappearance of an invasion force, and the mysterious transmission : 'Caves of Ice'?
~ entry by Steve Payne from Counter History in Context - You're the Judge!

In 1989, the British Royal household held its collective breath following the decisive action of the day before. The original protest at Hyde Park had been smashed and the Goddess of Democracy seized. This surely was the key moment when the protest would falter.	Protesters give..
~ entry by Steve Payne from Counter History in Context - You're the Judge!

Palestine	In 1948, as the British Mandate ends, Palestine is declared to be an independent state and a provisional government is established. Immediately after the declaration, Palestine was attacked by Jewish insurgents.
~ entry by Steve Payne from Counter History in Context - You're the Judge!

In 1970, the Red Army Faction (RAF) was established in Germany by Andreas Baader, Gudrun Ensslin, Horst Mahler, Ulrike Meinhof, Irmgard Möller and others. RAF committing numerous crimes, especially in the autumn of 1977, which led to a national crisis that became known as "German Autumn" a set of events revolving around ..	Red Army Factio..
.. the kidnapping of Hanns-Martin Schleyer and the hijacking of the Lufthansa air plane Landshut. After political negotiations with the Somali leader Siad Barre, the German government was granted permission to assault the plane. This was carried out on October 18 by the special task force GSG 9, which had been formed after the 1972 Munich Olympics hostage crisis. All hostages were freed without injuries; of the terrorists only Souhaila Andrawes survived. In response, Hanns-Martin Schleyer – taken to Belgium through the Netherlands – was shot and killed by his kidnappers. His body was found on October 19, 1977 in the trunk of a car in Mulhouse, France. Two tiny punctures were visible on his neck.
~ entry by Steve Payne from Counter History in Context - You're the Judge!

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