[Scenario Seeds] Things to do in the mid-Nineteenth Century
Feb 22, 2015 15:56:28 GMT
Craig Oxbrow and Marnal like this
Post by Catsmate on Feb 22, 2015 15:56:28 GMT
A chronological sequel to my earlier Things to do in the Napoleonic Wars here are fifty short ideas to inspire scenarios in the mid nineteenth century, from 1831 to 1861. They are a mix of births, deaths, disasters, war, odd events and interesting possibilities.
1. On the 14th of April 1831 the German philosopher Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel died from either a gastrointestinal problem or cholera (the latter is the official cause). While he was in poor health it’s possible some medical intervention might have given him a few more years (he was 60 at death). Perhaps a time traveller intervenes? Or at least rummages through his papers and properly records his last words (allegedly "And he didn't understand me").
2. One Charles Darwin sailed on HMS Beagle’s surveying expedition to South America, New Zealand and Australia from 1831 to 1836. His voyages took his to many places, other than the famous Galapagos Islands, and there are many possibilities for time travellers to encounter him, even without actively wanting to meddle with his life.
3. 1832 saw the births of two significant authors; Lewis Carroll (Charles Lutwidge Dodgson), best known as the author of Alice in Wonderland and Louisa May Alcott the American author of numerous works for children. Why would someone want to prevent their births?
4. 1832 also saw the passage of the Great Reform Act in the UK which began the process of expanding democracy in that country by eliminating “Rotten Boroughs” (where a landowner controlled the election), giving seats to the new industrial town and cites, and extending the franchise to a degree.
What if it hadn’t passed? The failure of the previous reform bill had triggered violence and threats of revolution (and a run on the Bank of England) and the bill only avoided veto by the House of Lords after a letter from King William IV warned of the consequences. Could Britain have descended into civil disorder? Alternatively what if the King had been forced to create dozens of new Whig peers to ensure the passage of the bill? Such a measure would have significantly changed British politics for years.
5. In Japan the period 1833-1838 saw repeated crop failures, famine and peasant insurrection. There were three years (1833-5) of crop failure and hundreds of thousands died. Shockingly, to the authorities anyway, some samurai were involved in the protests. Was this a natural catastrophe, or were Sinister Forces involved? Either way travellers in Japan in this period could become involved in these events.
6. On 16 October 1834 the Palace of Westminster, home of the British parliament, was destroyed by a huge fire, the largest in London since 1666. Vast amounts of records were lost. Officially the fire was caused by the uncontrolled burning of enormous stocks of tally sticks, used centuries earlier for record keeping. Of course there might be another cause entirely. Alternatively a time traveller might attempt to save the records lost in the fire.
7. What if Richard Lawrence’s attempt to assassinate UK President Andrew Jackson in Washington DC on 30 January 1835 had succeeded? Maybe someone supplies him with a more reliable pistol and there’s no misfire.
8. 1835 saw the birth of one Samuel Langhorne Clemens, better known as Mark Twain, and the start of the career of Phineas T. Barnum (born 1810), unless they were caught in the crossfire between time travellers of course.
9. The Battle of the Alamo occurred in 1836 when the Texan rebels holding the mission were defeated by Mexican troops. This was a pivotal moment in the struggle for Texan independence from Mexico as the treatment by Mexican general Santa Anna incensed Texans. Perhaps a future Texan or two travels back in time to help the defenders?
10. 1836 also saw another discontented group, the Boer farmers in South Africa, launch "The Great Trek" which would take them across the Orange River and away from British control. They’d found Natal, Transvaal and the Orange Free State. Unless someone wants to strangle their society in its cradle. And such groups would be isolated and far from help, vulnerable to attack with more advanced technology.
11. In 1837 a US ship, the Morrison was repelled from the Japanese ports of Uraga Bay near Edo (Tokyo) and Kagoshima Bay by cannon fire, as part of the Japanese policy against contact with foreigners. What if they ship had been sunk, would this have triggered a forceful response? What if they ship had apparently fired on the Japanese ports?
12. 1837 saw the birth of Sitting Bull, death of the prominent American abolitionist newspaper editor Elijah P. Lovejoy (murdered by a mob in Alton, Illinois) and the start of the reign of Queen Victoria. Unless someone alters history.
13. 1837 was also a year of tensions between the United States and Canada and within Canada rising. Firstly there was the Upper Canada Rebellion, then the Caroline Incident when a US ship (the SS Caroline) was seized on the US side of the Niagara River by British and Canadian forces, and destroyed. One American was killed in the incident, though newspapers wrote of 22 casualties. Britain ignored US President Van Buren’s protests.
Five months later a group of Canadian rebels and US citizens captured, looted and burned a British steamship, the Sir Robert Peel. There were a spate of other incidents, murders and at least one pitched battle (the Battle of the Windmill). Historically the situation smouldered on until a treaty was signed in 1842, but what if someone actively tried to start a war between Britain and the USA?
14. 1837 saw Samuel Morse exhibits his electric telegraph in New York City. Was someone helping him with the idea? Or is there a time traveller lurking nearby to cause the demonstration to fail publicly?
15. On the 10th of January 1838 another fire in London occurred; this one destroyed the Royal Exchange (a centre of commerce and trading) and Lloyd’s Coffee House. Was this an accident?
16. The first crossing of the Atlantic by steamship also happened in 1838; Brunel's paddle steamer SS Great Western crossed from Avonmouth to New York in fifteen days (08 to 23 April). Though the SS Sirius made the crossing from Cork to New York using a mix of sail and steam and arrived a day before the Great Western. This would be an event of interest to academics, tourists and the historically interested with access to time travel.
17. Did someone help Charles Goodyear develop the process for the "vulcanisation" of rubber in 1839? Or is someone, perhaps inspired by the future horrors of the Belgian Congo, attempting to stop the process?
In 1839 also was the first parallax measurement of the distance to Alpha Centauri by Thomas Henderson and the first photograph of the moon (taken by Louis Daguerre). The latter especially would be of interest to collectors of scientific memorabilia. Michael Faraday also published Experimental Researches in Electricity in 1839
18. 1839 saw the beginning of the First Opium War between Britain and China, fought over more than China’s opposition to immensely profitable British smuggling of opium into the country. This would end in 1842 with the first of the “Unequal Treaties” forced on China. Another period of unrest suited for time travellers to meddle in, or just get embroiled in events.
19. 1840 saw the births of French artists Pierre Auguste Renoir, Auguste Rodin, Odilon Redon, and Claude Monet, Danish painter Theodor Philipsen, Russian compser Peter Ilich Tchaikovsky, French writers Émile Zola and Alphonse Daudet and English writers Thomas Hardy and Alfred Sinnett.Unless they were kidnapped by aliens or time travellers of course. Also born in 1840 were Hiram Maxim (American inventor best known for his machine gun), John Boyd Dunlop (Scottish inventor) and John Holland (Irish inventor, best known for his submarines).
20. 1841 saw another incident that strained British/American relations. In November slaves being carried on a US ship (the Creole) from Virginia to Louisiana rebelled and gained control of the vessel, which they sailed to British Nassau. There, under prevailing British law, they became free, though a group were tried for piracy, and acquitted in an Admiralty court. The incident caused outrage in US slave states and political tensions between the US and Britain, and within the USA, but doesn’t appear likely to have triggered a war.
Except that the US consul in Nassau attempted to organise a mission by American sailors to recapture the ship, and leave British jurisdiction with the slaves. On November 12th such an attempt did happen, but it was foiled by a Bahamian who shouted a warning to the soldiers on guard aboard the Creole who threatened to fire on the Americans,causing them to withdraw. A time meddler has ample scope for a little bloodshed here to fan the flames.
21. On 30 March 1842 surgical anaesthesia was used for the first time, when Dr. Crawford Long (a cousin to John “Doc” Holliday) employed diethyl ether during the removal of a tumour from the neck of a patient. The event was little publicised and William Morton was generally credited with the introduction of ether. Did someone make a suggestion to Long? Or alternatively perhaps someone is trying to publicise his work to introduce anaesthesia earlier than historically.
22. 1841-2 saw the US state of Rhode Island in a state of civil unrest (known as the Dorr Rebellion) caused by opposition to the restrictions on voting and unequal representation, leaving the state government controlled by a small rural elite. 1842 saw two elections, two Governors and the declaration of martial law. Events came to a head when Thomas Dorr led his followers in an attempt to seize the arsenal in Providence on 19 May which failed. Historically the movement failed, Dorr and others were jailed but only one person died. What if a time meddler intervenes and assists Dorr, with advice and supplies?
23. The 19th of July 1843 saw the launch of Brunel's other great steamship, the iron hulled and propeller driven SS Great Britain in Bristol, with Prince Consort Albert in attendance. Are there a couple of time travellers mingling with the crowds for the rather accident-prone ‘floating out’ ceremony? Perhaps such visitors will also be dropping in on Ada Lovelace to see the first computer progamme, discuss with Joule his experiments on heat or picking up a first edition of Dickens’ A Christmas Carol.
24. In 1844 a freak accident aboard an American warship, the USS Princeton, killed six people including two members of the US cabinet. On 28 February an inadequately tested cannon, the Peacemaker, then the largest naval gun in the world, exploded during a demonstration firing for a crowd of more than 200 dignitaries and naval officer. President Tyler narrowly avoided being killed after being delayed on his way to the deck to listen to his son-in-law sing a patriotic ditty about 1776.
This event is ripe for meddling with many possibilities; surreptitiously fix the cannon or otherwise prevent the explosion, worsen the disaster with additional explosives, even sinking the ship and killing numerous politicians and civic leader.Another connected odd event was the near death of President Tyler on Saturday 4 Match after the funeral for those killed when something spooked the horses pulling the presidential carriage as it passed the Capitol building causing them to race off though the market district (around 7th Street) scattering pedestrians and other vehicles with the carriage driver and the president’s son unable to control the team and they raced on until the corner of Pennsylvania Avenue and 14th Street where an unidentified black man stepped out and stopped the team.
Really it's as if someone has it in for ‘His Accidency’ John Tyler...
25. In the Mediterranean on the 18th of June 1845 a strange phenomena was seen by numerous observers, as far apart as Syria and Malta. It appeared to be two large, luminous bodies that were joined together with streamer like appendages. This lasted more than an hour. According to a report in the Times of Malta a ship (the Victoria) saw three luminous bodies emerge from the sea about 900 miles east of Adalia, and rise into the air where they remained visible for more than ten minutes, flying a half mile from the ship. What was all this?
26. On 19 May 1845 Sir John Franklin set off from Greenhithe, England with two ships and 134 men on his last expedition, to find the Northwest Passage. It’s probable that the two ship (the Erebus and the Terror) Erebus became trapped in ice off King William Island in September 1846 and some of the survivors set out across the ice. According to a note found later, Franklin died there on 11 June 1847. The exact circumstances are still unknown,though it is believed that lead poisoning, from poorly soldered tinned food and water piping, contributed to the disaster. Perhaps someone is minded to meddle,to save the expedition, or some of them anyway.
The Doctor Who Audio Drama “Terror of the Arctic” has the Doctor encountering the icebound Franklin expedition.
27. Another migration. In 1846 Brigham Young led the Mormons from Illinois to the Great Salt Lake, Utah. Unless someone interferes and eliminated them and their church.
Also in America, 1846 saw the beginning of the Mexican-American war one of the first wars shaped by the telegraphic transmission of news and the mass market newspaper.
28. Births in 1847 to tamper with: Jesse James (American outlaw), Alexander Graham Bell (Scottish inventor), Thomas Alva Edison (American inventor), Carl Josef Bayer (Austrian chemist), Annie Besant (English feminist, writer and orator) and Abraham ‘Bram’ Stoker (Irish author).
29. 1848 saw a wave of revolutions in Europe and Latin America, effecting France, the Germanies, Austria, Hungary, Italy, Denmark and Poland, amongst others. While there is no single cause for the events, a mix of spreading ideas (due to the popular press), crop failures (especially the potato blight which causes the Great Irish Famine but effected other countries), the pressure on traditional working from industrialisation. There’s no revolution in Britain, but the Chartist movement does stage a huge rally and there were rumours of trouble, and these was a minor rebellion in Ireland.
All this provides excellent cover formeddling with history or just looting and harvesting humans for their bio-chemicals.Of course time travellers might get swept up in events, with all sorts ofpossible consequences
30. 1848 also saw the publication of one of the most influential political documents in history; The Communist Manifesto by Marx and Engels. An immensely influential document, though it was produced after the start of the revolutions. Perhaps a time traveller with certain ideological beliefs might want to stop its publication?
The story, often quoted though it is, about Jean Lafitte paying for the English translation is untrue.
31. In 1849 Fyodor Dostoevsky sentenced to death only to be reprieved while facing a firing squad. What is the message had been delayed? And did someone persuade Tsar Nicholas I to issue to commutation?
32. In 1849 one Diego Alvarez and three associates stole fourteen tonnes of former Inca gold from the church at Pisco, in Peru by persuading the priests of the good character and warning them of a plan to steal the gold by a band led by a former priest, Father Matheo. The treasure, gold ingots, candlesticks and ornaments and many items of jewellery, is loaded onto Alvarez’s ship the Bosun Bird to be taken “to safety”. In fact the accompanying priests are murdered and the thieves flee with the loot.
Then, supposedly, they hide it on a coral atoll near Tuamatos, east of Tahiti. It has never been recovered. Of course someone else could have intercepted them, pre-empted the theft or watched and taken the loot…
33. Back to China. 1850 saw the beginning of the Taiping Rebellion when Hong Xiuquan fails his Civil Service exams and proclaims himself emperor, after claiming to have received visions declaring him the younger brother of Jesus. The war lasted until 1864, greatly weakened China’s resistance to external meddling and killed perhaps twenty million people (more than World War 1).This is another wonderful opportunity for meddling; either to suppress the Taipings, perhaps to save the Manchus or just prevent the deaths, or to assist them and create a new, modern China.
Alternatively the chaos and unrest provide opportunities for looting, slave raiding,trading in opium and weapons or just distilling humans for their useful parts.
34. 1851 saw the Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of All Nations in the specially constructed Crystal Palace at Hyde Park in London. Opened by Queen Victoria on the first of May it ran until October 18.
London also hosted the first international chess tournament, a surprisingly controversial event boycotted by the influential London Chess Club and with attempts to disrupt it.
If neither of this appeal to a time traveller there’s always Obaysch, the first hippopotamus seen in Britain for millennia who arrived at London Zoo in 1850 or the first America’s Cup yacht race.
35. In December 1852 Louis Napoleon proclaimed himself Emperor Napoleon III, after his attempt to run for a second term as president was blocked. Unless someone prevents this, and his modernisation of France.
36. Also in 1852 Harriet Beecher Stowe publishes Uncle Tom's Cabin an immensely influential work against chattel slavery in the United States. Lincoln allegedly greeted Stowe with the works "So you're the little woman who wrote the book that started this great war."
But what if the book was never published?
37. 1853 saw the start of Crimean War with the Russian invasion of the Danubian principalities of Turkey and destruction of the Turkish fleet off Sinope. The war would involve Britain, France and the Ottoman Empire in an alliance against Russia. The war saw the first significant use of new technology such as naval mines, explosive shells, railways, tracked steam-powered vehicles, telegraphy (including daily news reports) and photography.
It’s also fertile ground for meddling.
38. In 1854 more than six hundred people went on the Great Excursion, a six-day combined train and steamboat journey from Chicago to St. Paul, Minnesota and back, to celebrate the opening of the rail link to the Mississippi river. Though they arrived to little fanfare as they were a day early. Amongst the passengers were former US president Millard Filmore, numerous politicians, writers and journalists. And perhaps a few tourists from another time?
39. 1854 also saw the start of ‘Bleeding Kansas’ otherwise the Kansas Border War. This would last until 1861 and see a hundred die, including five men hacked to death in the 1861 massacre at Potawatomie Creek. The basis for the warfare was the decision to allow the voters of Kansas to decide whether to allow slavery in the territory. Naturally both sides attempted to rig the vote by flooding the state with their supporters and engaging in campaigns of intimidation of violence. Perhaps someone wants to alter the historical events?
40. 1854 saw a revolt by gold miners at Ballarat in Australia, the result of years of rumbling civil unrest over mining licenses, fees, lack of voting rights, government corruption. Eventually the rebellion was crushed at Eureka Stockade but significant political changes did happen. What if someone tampered with events, providing weapons, leadership, information and other support?
41. Was the 23 January 1855 earthquake at Wairarapa, New Zealand a natural event? Or the result of Mad Science, a crashing spaceship or the destruction of a Silurian habitat? It was strongest earthquake ever recorded in New Zealand at 8.1 on the Richter Scale.
42. Also in 1855 was the Great Gold Robbery, one of the first train robberies in Britain when about 90kg of gold (worth £14,000 then) was solen from three locked strongboxes on a train between London and Folkestone.
But was gold all that was taken, or merely the dross?
43. Significant 1856 births: George Bernard Shaw (Irish writer and playwright), Sigmund Freud (Austrian neurologist), Oscar Wilde (Irish writer), Frederick Vanderbilt (American railway magnate), Henri Philippe Pétain (French soldier and statesman), L. Frank Baum (American author), Nikola Tesla, J. J. Thomson (British physicist) and Woodrow Wilson (American politician).
Also in 1856 Mount Everest (then peak XV) was determined to the world’s tallest mountain, the dye Mauveine was first synthesised (eventually leading to the modern chemical industry) and Last Island in Louisiana was broken into smaller islands by Great Storm of 1856, which killed more than 400 people.
44. The Indian Rebellion of 1857, often referred to as the Indian Mutiny, began on 10 May 1857 with a mutiny of native troops at Meerut and rapidly spread. It lasted a little over a year and saw more than a hundred thousand deaths, with brutality by all sides.
All in all another excellent opportunity to meddle, looting artworks and gold, selling arms, raiding for slaves or attempting to change the outcome.
45. On 12 June 1858 Birmingham experienced a serious storm and also an odder phenomena, the fall of millions of small black stones, believed to be Rowley ragstone (a form of basalt), perhaps carried by a whirlwind. The phenomena occurred again in June of 1860 and 1866 and May and July 1868, and also fell on Wolverhampton in 1860. What caused this?
46. And what really caused the Panic of ’57? Was it the news that the British government was failing to back currency with specie? Years of risky investments and complacency? Reduction in westward migration and a consequent drop in railway profits? Or was someone meddling in the American economy?
47. On the 14th of January 1858 in Paris Felice Orsini and his accomplices kill eight people and wound 142 with bombs intended to assassinate Napoleon III. What if they’d succeeded?
And is Orsini related to another assassin?
48. On July the first 1858 Darwin and Wallace’s papers on their theory of evolution by natural selection are presented at London's Linnean Society. A pivotal moment in scientific history, surely someone should record it for posterity?
49. On 16 October 1859 an American abolitionist, John Brown, led a small group to seize the Federal arsenal and rifleworks at Hapers Ferry in Virginia in an attempt to trigger a slave revolt. Brown’s raid captured the arsenal but failed utterly in its objective; his men were contained and eventually a force of US Marines commanded by Colonel Robert E. Lee stormed the buildings and re-captured the complex. The raid fuelled fears by southern whites of slave insurrection and helped harden attitudes in the run-up to the American Civil War. Most of Brown’s men were either killed or captured (and hanged).
What if someone had better organised the raid? Or averted it? With more men and weapons (and fewer foolish mistakes) the raiders could have escaped and while a slave revolt was highly unlikely they could have caused panic and perhaps become heroes to the abolitionist cause. Or what if they’d fought better against the Marines, and perhaps killed future generals Lee and Stuart?
50. On 28 May 1860 the east coast of England experienced one of the worst storms ever, with over 100 ships sunk and more than forty deaths. Was this a natural event?Or a test by an underwater Silurian colony of a weapon intended to eliminate the "ape menace".
Comments? Ideas? Suggestions?
1. On the 14th of April 1831 the German philosopher Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel died from either a gastrointestinal problem or cholera (the latter is the official cause). While he was in poor health it’s possible some medical intervention might have given him a few more years (he was 60 at death). Perhaps a time traveller intervenes? Or at least rummages through his papers and properly records his last words (allegedly "And he didn't understand me").
2. One Charles Darwin sailed on HMS Beagle’s surveying expedition to South America, New Zealand and Australia from 1831 to 1836. His voyages took his to many places, other than the famous Galapagos Islands, and there are many possibilities for time travellers to encounter him, even without actively wanting to meddle with his life.
3. 1832 saw the births of two significant authors; Lewis Carroll (Charles Lutwidge Dodgson), best known as the author of Alice in Wonderland and Louisa May Alcott the American author of numerous works for children. Why would someone want to prevent their births?
4. 1832 also saw the passage of the Great Reform Act in the UK which began the process of expanding democracy in that country by eliminating “Rotten Boroughs” (where a landowner controlled the election), giving seats to the new industrial town and cites, and extending the franchise to a degree.
What if it hadn’t passed? The failure of the previous reform bill had triggered violence and threats of revolution (and a run on the Bank of England) and the bill only avoided veto by the House of Lords after a letter from King William IV warned of the consequences. Could Britain have descended into civil disorder? Alternatively what if the King had been forced to create dozens of new Whig peers to ensure the passage of the bill? Such a measure would have significantly changed British politics for years.
5. In Japan the period 1833-1838 saw repeated crop failures, famine and peasant insurrection. There were three years (1833-5) of crop failure and hundreds of thousands died. Shockingly, to the authorities anyway, some samurai were involved in the protests. Was this a natural catastrophe, or were Sinister Forces involved? Either way travellers in Japan in this period could become involved in these events.
6. On 16 October 1834 the Palace of Westminster, home of the British parliament, was destroyed by a huge fire, the largest in London since 1666. Vast amounts of records were lost. Officially the fire was caused by the uncontrolled burning of enormous stocks of tally sticks, used centuries earlier for record keeping. Of course there might be another cause entirely. Alternatively a time traveller might attempt to save the records lost in the fire.
7. What if Richard Lawrence’s attempt to assassinate UK President Andrew Jackson in Washington DC on 30 January 1835 had succeeded? Maybe someone supplies him with a more reliable pistol and there’s no misfire.
8. 1835 saw the birth of one Samuel Langhorne Clemens, better known as Mark Twain, and the start of the career of Phineas T. Barnum (born 1810), unless they were caught in the crossfire between time travellers of course.
9. The Battle of the Alamo occurred in 1836 when the Texan rebels holding the mission were defeated by Mexican troops. This was a pivotal moment in the struggle for Texan independence from Mexico as the treatment by Mexican general Santa Anna incensed Texans. Perhaps a future Texan or two travels back in time to help the defenders?
10. 1836 also saw another discontented group, the Boer farmers in South Africa, launch "The Great Trek" which would take them across the Orange River and away from British control. They’d found Natal, Transvaal and the Orange Free State. Unless someone wants to strangle their society in its cradle. And such groups would be isolated and far from help, vulnerable to attack with more advanced technology.
11. In 1837 a US ship, the Morrison was repelled from the Japanese ports of Uraga Bay near Edo (Tokyo) and Kagoshima Bay by cannon fire, as part of the Japanese policy against contact with foreigners. What if they ship had been sunk, would this have triggered a forceful response? What if they ship had apparently fired on the Japanese ports?
12. 1837 saw the birth of Sitting Bull, death of the prominent American abolitionist newspaper editor Elijah P. Lovejoy (murdered by a mob in Alton, Illinois) and the start of the reign of Queen Victoria. Unless someone alters history.
13. 1837 was also a year of tensions between the United States and Canada and within Canada rising. Firstly there was the Upper Canada Rebellion, then the Caroline Incident when a US ship (the SS Caroline) was seized on the US side of the Niagara River by British and Canadian forces, and destroyed. One American was killed in the incident, though newspapers wrote of 22 casualties. Britain ignored US President Van Buren’s protests.
Five months later a group of Canadian rebels and US citizens captured, looted and burned a British steamship, the Sir Robert Peel. There were a spate of other incidents, murders and at least one pitched battle (the Battle of the Windmill). Historically the situation smouldered on until a treaty was signed in 1842, but what if someone actively tried to start a war between Britain and the USA?
14. 1837 saw Samuel Morse exhibits his electric telegraph in New York City. Was someone helping him with the idea? Or is there a time traveller lurking nearby to cause the demonstration to fail publicly?
15. On the 10th of January 1838 another fire in London occurred; this one destroyed the Royal Exchange (a centre of commerce and trading) and Lloyd’s Coffee House. Was this an accident?
16. The first crossing of the Atlantic by steamship also happened in 1838; Brunel's paddle steamer SS Great Western crossed from Avonmouth to New York in fifteen days (08 to 23 April). Though the SS Sirius made the crossing from Cork to New York using a mix of sail and steam and arrived a day before the Great Western. This would be an event of interest to academics, tourists and the historically interested with access to time travel.
17. Did someone help Charles Goodyear develop the process for the "vulcanisation" of rubber in 1839? Or is someone, perhaps inspired by the future horrors of the Belgian Congo, attempting to stop the process?
In 1839 also was the first parallax measurement of the distance to Alpha Centauri by Thomas Henderson and the first photograph of the moon (taken by Louis Daguerre). The latter especially would be of interest to collectors of scientific memorabilia. Michael Faraday also published Experimental Researches in Electricity in 1839
18. 1839 saw the beginning of the First Opium War between Britain and China, fought over more than China’s opposition to immensely profitable British smuggling of opium into the country. This would end in 1842 with the first of the “Unequal Treaties” forced on China. Another period of unrest suited for time travellers to meddle in, or just get embroiled in events.
19. 1840 saw the births of French artists Pierre Auguste Renoir, Auguste Rodin, Odilon Redon, and Claude Monet, Danish painter Theodor Philipsen, Russian compser Peter Ilich Tchaikovsky, French writers Émile Zola and Alphonse Daudet and English writers Thomas Hardy and Alfred Sinnett.Unless they were kidnapped by aliens or time travellers of course. Also born in 1840 were Hiram Maxim (American inventor best known for his machine gun), John Boyd Dunlop (Scottish inventor) and John Holland (Irish inventor, best known for his submarines).
20. 1841 saw another incident that strained British/American relations. In November slaves being carried on a US ship (the Creole) from Virginia to Louisiana rebelled and gained control of the vessel, which they sailed to British Nassau. There, under prevailing British law, they became free, though a group were tried for piracy, and acquitted in an Admiralty court. The incident caused outrage in US slave states and political tensions between the US and Britain, and within the USA, but doesn’t appear likely to have triggered a war.
Except that the US consul in Nassau attempted to organise a mission by American sailors to recapture the ship, and leave British jurisdiction with the slaves. On November 12th such an attempt did happen, but it was foiled by a Bahamian who shouted a warning to the soldiers on guard aboard the Creole who threatened to fire on the Americans,causing them to withdraw. A time meddler has ample scope for a little bloodshed here to fan the flames.
21. On 30 March 1842 surgical anaesthesia was used for the first time, when Dr. Crawford Long (a cousin to John “Doc” Holliday) employed diethyl ether during the removal of a tumour from the neck of a patient. The event was little publicised and William Morton was generally credited with the introduction of ether. Did someone make a suggestion to Long? Or alternatively perhaps someone is trying to publicise his work to introduce anaesthesia earlier than historically.
22. 1841-2 saw the US state of Rhode Island in a state of civil unrest (known as the Dorr Rebellion) caused by opposition to the restrictions on voting and unequal representation, leaving the state government controlled by a small rural elite. 1842 saw two elections, two Governors and the declaration of martial law. Events came to a head when Thomas Dorr led his followers in an attempt to seize the arsenal in Providence on 19 May which failed. Historically the movement failed, Dorr and others were jailed but only one person died. What if a time meddler intervenes and assists Dorr, with advice and supplies?
23. The 19th of July 1843 saw the launch of Brunel's other great steamship, the iron hulled and propeller driven SS Great Britain in Bristol, with Prince Consort Albert in attendance. Are there a couple of time travellers mingling with the crowds for the rather accident-prone ‘floating out’ ceremony? Perhaps such visitors will also be dropping in on Ada Lovelace to see the first computer progamme, discuss with Joule his experiments on heat or picking up a first edition of Dickens’ A Christmas Carol.
24. In 1844 a freak accident aboard an American warship, the USS Princeton, killed six people including two members of the US cabinet. On 28 February an inadequately tested cannon, the Peacemaker, then the largest naval gun in the world, exploded during a demonstration firing for a crowd of more than 200 dignitaries and naval officer. President Tyler narrowly avoided being killed after being delayed on his way to the deck to listen to his son-in-law sing a patriotic ditty about 1776.
This event is ripe for meddling with many possibilities; surreptitiously fix the cannon or otherwise prevent the explosion, worsen the disaster with additional explosives, even sinking the ship and killing numerous politicians and civic leader.Another connected odd event was the near death of President Tyler on Saturday 4 Match after the funeral for those killed when something spooked the horses pulling the presidential carriage as it passed the Capitol building causing them to race off though the market district (around 7th Street) scattering pedestrians and other vehicles with the carriage driver and the president’s son unable to control the team and they raced on until the corner of Pennsylvania Avenue and 14th Street where an unidentified black man stepped out and stopped the team.
Really it's as if someone has it in for ‘His Accidency’ John Tyler...
25. In the Mediterranean on the 18th of June 1845 a strange phenomena was seen by numerous observers, as far apart as Syria and Malta. It appeared to be two large, luminous bodies that were joined together with streamer like appendages. This lasted more than an hour. According to a report in the Times of Malta a ship (the Victoria) saw three luminous bodies emerge from the sea about 900 miles east of Adalia, and rise into the air where they remained visible for more than ten minutes, flying a half mile from the ship. What was all this?
26. On 19 May 1845 Sir John Franklin set off from Greenhithe, England with two ships and 134 men on his last expedition, to find the Northwest Passage. It’s probable that the two ship (the Erebus and the Terror) Erebus became trapped in ice off King William Island in September 1846 and some of the survivors set out across the ice. According to a note found later, Franklin died there on 11 June 1847. The exact circumstances are still unknown,though it is believed that lead poisoning, from poorly soldered tinned food and water piping, contributed to the disaster. Perhaps someone is minded to meddle,to save the expedition, or some of them anyway.
The Doctor Who Audio Drama “Terror of the Arctic” has the Doctor encountering the icebound Franklin expedition.
27. Another migration. In 1846 Brigham Young led the Mormons from Illinois to the Great Salt Lake, Utah. Unless someone interferes and eliminated them and their church.
Also in America, 1846 saw the beginning of the Mexican-American war one of the first wars shaped by the telegraphic transmission of news and the mass market newspaper.
28. Births in 1847 to tamper with: Jesse James (American outlaw), Alexander Graham Bell (Scottish inventor), Thomas Alva Edison (American inventor), Carl Josef Bayer (Austrian chemist), Annie Besant (English feminist, writer and orator) and Abraham ‘Bram’ Stoker (Irish author).
29. 1848 saw a wave of revolutions in Europe and Latin America, effecting France, the Germanies, Austria, Hungary, Italy, Denmark and Poland, amongst others. While there is no single cause for the events, a mix of spreading ideas (due to the popular press), crop failures (especially the potato blight which causes the Great Irish Famine but effected other countries), the pressure on traditional working from industrialisation. There’s no revolution in Britain, but the Chartist movement does stage a huge rally and there were rumours of trouble, and these was a minor rebellion in Ireland.
All this provides excellent cover formeddling with history or just looting and harvesting humans for their bio-chemicals.Of course time travellers might get swept up in events, with all sorts ofpossible consequences
30. 1848 also saw the publication of one of the most influential political documents in history; The Communist Manifesto by Marx and Engels. An immensely influential document, though it was produced after the start of the revolutions. Perhaps a time traveller with certain ideological beliefs might want to stop its publication?
The story, often quoted though it is, about Jean Lafitte paying for the English translation is untrue.
31. In 1849 Fyodor Dostoevsky sentenced to death only to be reprieved while facing a firing squad. What is the message had been delayed? And did someone persuade Tsar Nicholas I to issue to commutation?
32. In 1849 one Diego Alvarez and three associates stole fourteen tonnes of former Inca gold from the church at Pisco, in Peru by persuading the priests of the good character and warning them of a plan to steal the gold by a band led by a former priest, Father Matheo. The treasure, gold ingots, candlesticks and ornaments and many items of jewellery, is loaded onto Alvarez’s ship the Bosun Bird to be taken “to safety”. In fact the accompanying priests are murdered and the thieves flee with the loot.
Then, supposedly, they hide it on a coral atoll near Tuamatos, east of Tahiti. It has never been recovered. Of course someone else could have intercepted them, pre-empted the theft or watched and taken the loot…
33. Back to China. 1850 saw the beginning of the Taiping Rebellion when Hong Xiuquan fails his Civil Service exams and proclaims himself emperor, after claiming to have received visions declaring him the younger brother of Jesus. The war lasted until 1864, greatly weakened China’s resistance to external meddling and killed perhaps twenty million people (more than World War 1).This is another wonderful opportunity for meddling; either to suppress the Taipings, perhaps to save the Manchus or just prevent the deaths, or to assist them and create a new, modern China.
Alternatively the chaos and unrest provide opportunities for looting, slave raiding,trading in opium and weapons or just distilling humans for their useful parts.
34. 1851 saw the Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of All Nations in the specially constructed Crystal Palace at Hyde Park in London. Opened by Queen Victoria on the first of May it ran until October 18.
London also hosted the first international chess tournament, a surprisingly controversial event boycotted by the influential London Chess Club and with attempts to disrupt it.
If neither of this appeal to a time traveller there’s always Obaysch, the first hippopotamus seen in Britain for millennia who arrived at London Zoo in 1850 or the first America’s Cup yacht race.
35. In December 1852 Louis Napoleon proclaimed himself Emperor Napoleon III, after his attempt to run for a second term as president was blocked. Unless someone prevents this, and his modernisation of France.
36. Also in 1852 Harriet Beecher Stowe publishes Uncle Tom's Cabin an immensely influential work against chattel slavery in the United States. Lincoln allegedly greeted Stowe with the works "So you're the little woman who wrote the book that started this great war."
But what if the book was never published?
37. 1853 saw the start of Crimean War with the Russian invasion of the Danubian principalities of Turkey and destruction of the Turkish fleet off Sinope. The war would involve Britain, France and the Ottoman Empire in an alliance against Russia. The war saw the first significant use of new technology such as naval mines, explosive shells, railways, tracked steam-powered vehicles, telegraphy (including daily news reports) and photography.
It’s also fertile ground for meddling.
38. In 1854 more than six hundred people went on the Great Excursion, a six-day combined train and steamboat journey from Chicago to St. Paul, Minnesota and back, to celebrate the opening of the rail link to the Mississippi river. Though they arrived to little fanfare as they were a day early. Amongst the passengers were former US president Millard Filmore, numerous politicians, writers and journalists. And perhaps a few tourists from another time?
39. 1854 also saw the start of ‘Bleeding Kansas’ otherwise the Kansas Border War. This would last until 1861 and see a hundred die, including five men hacked to death in the 1861 massacre at Potawatomie Creek. The basis for the warfare was the decision to allow the voters of Kansas to decide whether to allow slavery in the territory. Naturally both sides attempted to rig the vote by flooding the state with their supporters and engaging in campaigns of intimidation of violence. Perhaps someone wants to alter the historical events?
40. 1854 saw a revolt by gold miners at Ballarat in Australia, the result of years of rumbling civil unrest over mining licenses, fees, lack of voting rights, government corruption. Eventually the rebellion was crushed at Eureka Stockade but significant political changes did happen. What if someone tampered with events, providing weapons, leadership, information and other support?
41. Was the 23 January 1855 earthquake at Wairarapa, New Zealand a natural event? Or the result of Mad Science, a crashing spaceship or the destruction of a Silurian habitat? It was strongest earthquake ever recorded in New Zealand at 8.1 on the Richter Scale.
42. Also in 1855 was the Great Gold Robbery, one of the first train robberies in Britain when about 90kg of gold (worth £14,000 then) was solen from three locked strongboxes on a train between London and Folkestone.
But was gold all that was taken, or merely the dross?
43. Significant 1856 births: George Bernard Shaw (Irish writer and playwright), Sigmund Freud (Austrian neurologist), Oscar Wilde (Irish writer), Frederick Vanderbilt (American railway magnate), Henri Philippe Pétain (French soldier and statesman), L. Frank Baum (American author), Nikola Tesla, J. J. Thomson (British physicist) and Woodrow Wilson (American politician).
Also in 1856 Mount Everest (then peak XV) was determined to the world’s tallest mountain, the dye Mauveine was first synthesised (eventually leading to the modern chemical industry) and Last Island in Louisiana was broken into smaller islands by Great Storm of 1856, which killed more than 400 people.
44. The Indian Rebellion of 1857, often referred to as the Indian Mutiny, began on 10 May 1857 with a mutiny of native troops at Meerut and rapidly spread. It lasted a little over a year and saw more than a hundred thousand deaths, with brutality by all sides.
All in all another excellent opportunity to meddle, looting artworks and gold, selling arms, raiding for slaves or attempting to change the outcome.
45. On 12 June 1858 Birmingham experienced a serious storm and also an odder phenomena, the fall of millions of small black stones, believed to be Rowley ragstone (a form of basalt), perhaps carried by a whirlwind. The phenomena occurred again in June of 1860 and 1866 and May and July 1868, and also fell on Wolverhampton in 1860. What caused this?
46. And what really caused the Panic of ’57? Was it the news that the British government was failing to back currency with specie? Years of risky investments and complacency? Reduction in westward migration and a consequent drop in railway profits? Or was someone meddling in the American economy?
47. On the 14th of January 1858 in Paris Felice Orsini and his accomplices kill eight people and wound 142 with bombs intended to assassinate Napoleon III. What if they’d succeeded?
And is Orsini related to another assassin?
48. On July the first 1858 Darwin and Wallace’s papers on their theory of evolution by natural selection are presented at London's Linnean Society. A pivotal moment in scientific history, surely someone should record it for posterity?
49. On 16 October 1859 an American abolitionist, John Brown, led a small group to seize the Federal arsenal and rifleworks at Hapers Ferry in Virginia in an attempt to trigger a slave revolt. Brown’s raid captured the arsenal but failed utterly in its objective; his men were contained and eventually a force of US Marines commanded by Colonel Robert E. Lee stormed the buildings and re-captured the complex. The raid fuelled fears by southern whites of slave insurrection and helped harden attitudes in the run-up to the American Civil War. Most of Brown’s men were either killed or captured (and hanged).
What if someone had better organised the raid? Or averted it? With more men and weapons (and fewer foolish mistakes) the raiders could have escaped and while a slave revolt was highly unlikely they could have caused panic and perhaps become heroes to the abolitionist cause. Or what if they’d fought better against the Marines, and perhaps killed future generals Lee and Stuart?
50. On 28 May 1860 the east coast of England experienced one of the worst storms ever, with over 100 ships sunk and more than forty deaths. Was this a natural event?Or a test by an underwater Silurian colony of a weapon intended to eliminate the "ape menace".
Comments? Ideas? Suggestions?