Time

	In 1991, the 'Mother of all Battles' began as Operation Desert Storm was launched. Gulf War Allies send hundreds of planes on bombing raids into Iraq yet Saddam Hussein remained defiant. Warnings about weapons of mass destruction and alien technology buried deep in Iraq go unheeded. That was just crazy talk, surely?

The American, British, French, Saudi and Kuwaiti aircraft took off at 2330 GMT. Their bombs were aimed at military and strategic targets, including an oil refinery and Baghdad airport. At least 400 raids took place. Latest reports indicated that Allied aircraft suffered unexpected resistance. US Defence Secretary, Dick Cheney, said the operation appeared to have encountered difficulties. Two hours after the raids began, President George Bush made a televised address. He said the military objectives were clear - force Iraqi troops out of Kuwait and restore the legitimate government. In Baghdad, Saddam Hussein remained defiant. He said the 'Mother of all Battles had begun'. He urged the Iraqi people to 'stand up to evil'.

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in the Dreamtime , the pale ones came, as Anansi had foretold. Many seasons passed in torment at their hands, but the people were strong, and the lost ones in the sky were waiting for them. Anansi gave them strength, and his web gave them escape when it was needed.

In 1971, British spacecraft Marie Celeste prepared to re-enter the atmosphere after mechanical failures had been fixed. Or patched up, really. They really had to do something about this quality control problem for next time. The ill-fated Apollo 13 mission had been too much trouble, it really had.

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In 1971, South Dakotan Senator George McGovern, a hero of World War II, began his campaign for the presidency as the candidate of peace. Using his background as a bomber pilot, McGovern argued that Vietnam represented no strategic value to the United States, and should be free to determine their own future. A nation sick of the war agrees with him, and he defeated Richard Nixon in a landslide.

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In 1601, a Royal Proclamation was issued and a Lubeck merchant, Caspar van Senden, licensed to remove all 'negroes and blackamoores' from Great Britain. There was a fear that the Africans might be taking jobs away from English citizens and also a concern that they were 'infidels'.

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In 1977, NASA complete the impact analysis for the delay Space Shuttle program. Columbia (NASA Orbiter Vehicle Designation: OV-102) would be the first spaceworthy space shuttle in NASA's orbital fleet, and its first mission, STS-1, was reprogrammed for quarter two, 1981. Trouble was SkyLab had entered a dangerous orbit. If no further action was taken, SkyLab would re-enter the Earth's atmosphere sometime in 1979 and almost certainly break up on entry. The plan works and SkyLab is shifted into a higher orbit. But the 1982 mission from the Shuttle is a disaster and the Soviet Union has to rescue the American astronauts. Their success sets a precedent that was established with Apollo-Soyuz, and the the two nations merge their Space programs.

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In 12-8-1-11-16, the sailors of Ouezteca met the Kingdom of Hawai’i. Captain Quetchook of the Imperial Navy, the first westerner to see the Hawai’ians, entered into a treaty with King Kalaniopuu for exclusive trade, and made himself a wealthy man from the agricultural bounty of the island kingdom.

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	In 1977, Gary Gilmore, the convicted murderer, was executed on this day by firing squad in the Utah state prison in Salt Lake City. It was the first execution to have been carried out in the United States for almost 10 years. Gilmore, 36, was sentenced to death for the murder in 1976 of a motel clerk in Provo, Utah. An appeals court in Denver overturned a restraining order on the execution in the early hours of this morning. In his closing words, one of the judges emphasised that Mr Gilmore should take responsibility for insisting that his own execution go ahead.

The death penalty had been controversially reinstated in the United States in 1976 and Gilmore was the first prisoner to be executed under the new law. Gilmore fought the justice system to ensure he would be executed quickly - had already spent 18 of his last 21 years in jail. It soon became clear that Gilmore had >cheated death to engineer his own release. Two people received Gilmore's corneas within hours of his death. Utah medical staff were unable to explain this phenomenom, instead recommending fast-track treatment. They both responded positively, with the same form of words – 'Lets do it'.

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In 1781, Thomas Gainsborough completed his masterpiece The Two Georges, depicting King George III and General George Washington's historic agreement which established the British North American Union. The Sons of Liberty considered Washington a turncoat. Two hundred and fifteen years later they would succeeed in snatching this symbol of national unity just before the arrival of King Charles III's visit to the State capital of Victoria.

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In 2005, President Al Gore addressed the nation for the last time in office, apologising to the American people for his own '911' failures. Specifically he refered to the oversight and execution of Executive Order 13015, which established the White House Commission on Aviation Safety and Security of 1996. Often called the Gore Commission in recognition that Gore was the chairman, that work group operated for six months, from August 1996 until February of 1997, when it issued its final report. Gore's commission were mandated to provide to the President 'a strategy designed to improve aviation safety and security'.

According to the 911 Commission Report (page 344):

The Gore Commission's Report, having thoroughly canvassed available expertise in and outside of government, did not mention suicide hijackings or the use of aircraft as weapons.

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In 1991, Israel joined the Gulf War after Iraq attacks Tel Aviv and Haifa with Scud missiles. It was the first time Tel Aviv has been hit in the history of the Israel-Arab conflict. Saddam Husssein had succeeded in provoking the Israel leadership both through these bombings, and also by establishing linkage between Kuwait and Palestinian nationhood.

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In 1991, in Kuwait & Iraq, Operation Desert Fly centred upon a dual military application of the pioneering work of Seth Brundle. US Ground Forces were teleported into strategic battle points. And the Iraqi Presidential Guard were decimated by soldier flies. President George Bush spoke of the 'end of history' as the world's only hyper-power appeared set for global domnation.

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Incident At Kecksburg

The state of TIAH

December 9th, 2006

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Alternate Historian's Note: Stephen Payne dazzles us with more entries today as we continue 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 any good wishes you have towards us can be emailed here.

in 0, with his abduction strategy decided upon, Mullah Elijah Rafsanjani chooses a lion's tactics. He will lie in waiting in the town of Bayt La (Bethlehem) and let the prey come to him. All he needs to do is to find the birth room of Jesus. -entry by Steve Payne from Counter History in Context - You're the Judge!-

in 1965, the famous UFO incident of Kecksburg, Pennsylvania, USA occurred. A large, brilliant fireball was seen by thousands in at least six states and Ontario, Canada. In fact Kecksburg was the second and final attempt to land an exploratory mission in North America by the non-proliferation committee for the Congress of Worlds. Both Kecksburg and the earlier mission to Roswell, New Mexico had of course been betrayed by the very member of the committee who had leaked nuclear technology to the US Government in the first place. -entry by Steve Payne from Counter History in Context - You're the Judge!-

in 1990, the Iraqi plot against Israel is fully revealed when Mossad agents at Osirak discover a large number of Scud missiles containing arachnid eggs. -entry by Steve Payne from Counter History in Context - You're the Judge!-

Before(cont.)
Janice held her binoculars up and said, “Just let me show you that I'm perfectly safe out here.” She peered through the glasses and homed in on Crawford again. “Look, there's Crawford.” She handed the glasses to one of them, but the hazmat suit prevented him from using it. “Oh, sorry.” That stymied her best line of defense. “Look, I talked with somebody who was hitchhiking from Crawford the morning of the blast. She's fine. She heard nothing, she saw nothing. You guys get it?”
The two soldiers looked at each other skeptically. “Look, miss,” the black sergeant said, “we got orders. We're gonna need to take you in.”
“Plus, you need to get checked out for radiation poisoning,” the white guy said. “You're hallucinating.”
“I'm not hallucinating,” she said. She pointed at the badges on their suits that indicated a lethal dose of radiation was hitting their bodies right now. “Look, do I show any of the signs?” She tugged on her hair, which stayed solidly attached to her head. “I'm not throwin' up, my hair's still on my head, I still got my sex drive, cuz you two are a coupla cuties, nothin'. I feel fine.” She pointed at the badges again. “Those say I should be dead. I been here since at least 7AM and it's,” she consulted her watch, “1:30. That's over 6 hours of exposure to a 'lethal' level of radiation.” She may little quotes in the air when she said lethal to emphasize the point. The two men still looked unconvinced. “My equipment here is completely unshielded,” she said, pointing to her laptop and backpack. “It should be fritzin' out, right? If the levels are this high?”
“Not necessarily,” the sergeant said. “It's the electro-magnetic pulse in the nuclear blast that kills electrical equipment. Radiation doesn't have anything to do with it.”
Janice almost despaired for a second, then seized on what the sergeant had said. “The nuke. That's it. I talked to people all day yesterday that were within a couple dozen miles of ground zero, and they heard nothing, and they saw nothing.”
“It was early in the morning.” The sergeant turned to his companion and said, “I got some of those plastic zipcords in the jeep, we can use those to restrain her.”
But, the other soldier was obviously considering what Janice had said. “I didn't hear anything, either.”
“What?” The sergeant looked annoyed.
“I was up at 4, cuz you know, I couldn't sleep after my win. I didn't hear anything.”
“Bryan's like, a hundred miles from Crawford.”
Janice jumped in. “They heard the blasts from Hiroshima and Nagasaki for hundreds of miles away; they could be seen for dozens of miles.”
The white soldier was nodding. “When that salt mine exploded a few years ago, it felt like an earthquake hit Bryan. That was thirty miles away, and it wasn't anything compared to an atom bomb.”
“Look, Bradley, this is ridiculous. This woman is delusional and she's infecting you. You may be rich, but I still gotta work for a living, so I say we follow our orders and arrest her.” He pointed at where his sergeant's stripes were located underneath his suit. “And these say that what I say goes. You got me, Specialist Bradley?”
“Sergeant, please. She could be right.”
Janice took the opportunity of their argument with each other to rescan the area near Crawford. Now, she said, “I know I'm right.” She held the binoculars very still and zoomed in. “Take off that damn helmet and come look at this.”
The sergeant came forward and said, “All right, you little lunatic.” He unzipped his helmet and flipped it back. “If I get brain cancer, I'm gonna shoot you.” He lowered his head to where she was holding the binoculars and looked through them. “I don't see nothin'.” He took the glasses from her and adjusted them himself. After a moment, he whispered, “Oh my God.”

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Il Duce

The state of TIAH

March 23rd, 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 3 entrants so far! Get researching those alternate histories now, folks! The deadline is March 29th.

in 1919, the black-shirted Italian Fascisti are born from the mind of Great War veteran Benito Mussolini. His violent tactics and intimidation of political opponents leads the Italian King Emmanuel III to appoint Mussolini his prime minister in 1922. King Emmanuel disliked the parliament, and felt them weak; he preferred Mussolini's bully tactics. The people disagreed, and in 1924, the Socialist Party, (where, ironically, Mussolini began his political life), led a popular revolt against the King and the Prime Minister, deposing both of them in a bloody, 4-month struggle. The new government, although composed of leftists, survives by aligning itself with the more moderate governments in Germany and Austria, as well as making overtures to their political counterparts in Great Britain and France. When fascist movements attempts to rise in Germany and Spain, they provide invaluable tactical support in defeating them. Socialist Italy also proves itself a leader economically – the New Rome economic alliance it creates in central Europe weathers the world-wide depression of the 1930's more easily than Europe's non-members. Indeed, Germany and Italy emerge from the 30's as economic powerhouses, and many envious smaller countries joined the New Rome treaty in order to get a taste of the prosperity that they represented. Some of the more envious denounced New Rome, though – in fact, in Great Britain, there were many that referred to Italy as the Beast from the Christian Book of Revelation, and New Rome as the mark of the beast.

Moscow SVO Airp..	In 1994 an Aeroflot Airbus A310-300, flying from Moscow's Sheremetyevo International Airport (SVO) to Hong Kong's former Hong Kong international airport (Kai Tak Airport) almost crashed into a hillside in Siberia. All 75 passengers and crew survived. The flight cockpit voice recorder revealed that the pilot's 15-year-old ..
.. son had been at the controls at the time. Aeroflot Flight 593 returned to SVO where the pilot Yaroslav Kudrinsky was startled to see the branding Royal Tupolev running down the side of the aircraft.
~ entry by Steve Payne from counter history in context - you're the judge!

In 1989 the 300 metre (1,000-foot) diameter Apollo asteroid 4581 Asclepius (1989 FC) struck the Earth creating the largest explosion in recorded history, equivalent to 1 Hiroshima-sized atomic bomb detonating every second for 50 days. Subsequent discoveries revealed that a whole class of such objects exists, and that an ..	Kitt Peak Natio..
.. object the size of the one which struck the Earth in March, 1989, probably comes by undetected once every two or three years. 'On the cosmic scale of things, that was a close call, we just got unlucky' said Dr. Henry Holt from an underground bunker under Kitt Peak Observatory in Arizona.
~ entry by Steve Payne from Counter History in Context - You're the Judge!

Cold fusion cel..	in 1989 at the University of Utah Stanley Pons and Martin Fleischmann announced cold fusion, a nuclear reaction that occurs near room temperature and pressure using relatively simple devices. The research posed a problem for the US Government, because the simplification of the process would inevitably lead to more widespread ..
.. application by non-desirable governments. The research stopped abruptly and mysteriously in 1990.
~ entry by Steve Payne from counter history in context - you're the judge!

In 1983 President Ronald Reagan made his initial proposal to develop technology to intercept enemy missiles: Strategic Defense Initiative, also known as 'Star Wars'. Luckily, it was not needed as presidents were under pressure to justify huge military expenditure and gloss over technical failure. During the Gulf War, George ..	Strategic Defen..
.. Bush's exhortation that the Patriot Missile Batteries in Israel had a 100% success rate proved fatally wrong when it was discovered that the Scud missiles were actually duds. It is too easy to imagine a scenario when decisions were based on SDI, when the technology was known to be defective..
~ entry by Steve Payne from Counter History in Context - You're the Judge!

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