Catsmate
13th Incarnation
It's complicated....
Posts: 3,748
Favourite Doctors: Thirteen, Six, Five, Two, Eight, Eleven, Twelve, One, Nine...
Traits: Eccentric, Insatiable Curiousity.
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Post by Catsmate on Aug 7, 2020 21:22:55 GMT
07AUG
This day in 480 BCE is one, probable but not certain, date for the famous Battle of Thermopylae. This was rather more complicated than popular media suggests, for example the 'Spartan' rearguard left behind after the Persians outflanked the Greeks and commanded by Leonidas, was actually around 2,300 strong; the 300 Spartans, along with around 700 Thespians, perhaps 900 helots (not citizens and not exactly slaves) plus about 400 Thebans. The perfect place for a historical, in the vein of the class First Doctor stories, or a pseudo-historical with aliens or temporal meddlers.
More than a century later (in 322 BCE) and there's another battle involving Greens; the Battle of Crannon between Athens (well an Athenian led coalition of Greek states) and Macedon following the death of Alexander the Great. The battle was pretty inconclusive, from a purely military perspective, but very significant from a political one; the Macedonians forced a peace settlement on the Greeks. Including Macedonian garrisons and the replacement of Athenian democracy with an oligarchy led by the Athenian statesman Phocion. Might a meddler want to boost the Athenian experiment in democracy (deeply flawed though it was) by Helping them defeat Macedon?
We now jump forward nine centuries (though not moving far in space) to the Siege of Constantinople in 626 CE. This involved a large force, around eighty thousand strong (with another large force keeping the main Byzantine armies busy elsewhere). The defenders numbered perhaps fifteen thousand. However the siege failed because the Avars lacked the equipment, and patience, conquer the city and also lacked an effective navy. The result of the failed siege was, in conjunction with the Byzantine victory against Shahin, favourable terms for the Byzantines and the withdrawal of Persian forces.
In 1428 modern witch hunts began at Valais (near the Matterhorn, in modern Switzerland). In the first organised and systematic persecution of those accused of working magic when the authorities in Leuk issued a formal proclamation establishing a witch trial. Stories of flying chairs, invisibility amulets, poisons, crop destruction and shapeshifting were recorded. The trials extended over two years woth accounts of seven hundred accused and tried, with over two hundred executed (unusually many were actually burned). Most victims were, again usually, male. The perfect place to drop a part of people who don't fit in.
In 1479 the somewhat obscure Battle of Guinegate mught attract the attention of military historians.One reason for the defeat of the French (led by King Louis XI) by Archduke (later Emperor) Maximilian's Burgundians, was the use of the Swiss pike square formation. The first time a non-Swiss power used the tactic.
After six days at sea the army of Henry Tudor (see 01AUG) lands in Milford Haven in southern Wales in 1485. Unless someone plans to eliminate the entire Tudor dynasty by obliterating the future Henry VII and his army.
In 1495 on 07AUG the deliberations of the Diet of Worms were published. Principal among these were the Eternal Peace (a ban on feuding and warfare within the Holy Roman Empire), the Imperial Chamber Court and the Common Penny (a standard Imperial tax). More significantly the Diet was the first time the nobility of the HRE had gathered to make policy, acting to integrate the concept of the of law, and limiting the power of the Emperor.
In 1606 this was possibly the first time Shakespeare's play Macbeth was performed. The performance was held in the Great Hall at Hampton Court Palace for, and watched by, King James I. Oh what a perfect place to infiltrate the palace and meet the king.
In 1914 the Great War continues with German troops under Ludendorf capture the Bergian city of Liège. A year later over two hundred Australians would died in the assault against Russell's Top at Gallipoli. This was part of a ridge line that stretched northwest from ANZAC Cove; 'The Top' was the highest point within the ANZAC perimeter and commanded views along most of the Turkish line.
Thirty years later, in 1956, Britain orders three aircraft carriers and escorts to the Mediterranean as part of Operation Musleteer, the ill fated attempt by Britain, France and Israel to topple the Nassar government and retrieve control of the Suez canal.
Comments? Suggestions? Ideas?
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Catsmate
13th Incarnation
It's complicated....
Posts: 3,748
Favourite Doctors: Thirteen, Six, Five, Two, Eight, Eleven, Twelve, One, Nine...
Traits: Eccentric, Insatiable Curiousity.
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Post by Catsmate on Aug 7, 2020 21:24:15 GMT
judge crater is a great pure historical Or someone to encounter elsewhere or elsewhen
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Post by missyfan45 on Aug 7, 2020 22:30:07 GMT
yeah like a parallel dimension or a planet or even picked up as a companion (i would love it if Ambrose Bierce and Amelia Earhart were companions
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Post by missyfan45 on Aug 7, 2020 22:30:56 GMT
also thermopylae is a good pure historical
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Catsmate
13th Incarnation
It's complicated....
Posts: 3,748
Favourite Doctors: Thirteen, Six, Five, Two, Eight, Eleven, Twelve, One, Nine...
Traits: Eccentric, Insatiable Curiousity.
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Post by Catsmate on Aug 8, 2020 9:34:06 GMT
also thermopylae is a good pure historical Indeed, a classic for the early days. St Marys witnessed the battle in No Time Like The Past, worth mining for ideas and background.yeah like a parallel dimension or a planet or even picked up as a companion (i would love it if Ambrose Bierce and Amelia Earhart were companions Or got swept up and dumped somewhere, worked his way into another corrupt administration, and wants to return with big plans...
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Post by missyfan45 on Aug 8, 2020 14:30:50 GMT
i love that idea carter with a trump like presidency who returns for vengance
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Catsmate
13th Incarnation
It's complicated....
Posts: 3,748
Favourite Doctors: Thirteen, Six, Five, Two, Eight, Eleven, Twelve, One, Nine...
Traits: Eccentric, Insatiable Curiousity.
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Post by Catsmate on Aug 8, 2020 20:06:16 GMT
08AUG
In 70CE the tower of Antonia, one of the last strongholds of the Jews in the Siege of Jerusalem was destroyed by Romans
In 936 CE king Otto I the Great (of Germany, at least after he'd unified it under his rule) is crowned Holy Roman Emperor. This took place in Aachen, formerly the capital city of Charlemagne's HRE,lwhere Otto was anointed and crowned by Hildebert, the Archbishop of Mainz.Though Saxon by birth Otto appeared at the coronation in Frankish dress in role as successor to Charlemagne.
In 1303 the Mediterranean island of Crete was wrecked by earthquake and tsunami with perhaps five thousand killed. The damage was not limited to the island but effected much of the Mediterranean; Alexandria suffered large scale flooding with shipping destroyed (or indeed thrown several kilometres inland), the lighthouse severely damaged and the city walls mostly destroyed. The port cities of Acre and Cairo were also seriously damaged; much of the Great Pyramid's white limestone cladding was dislodged.
In 1549 king Henry II of France declares war on England and orders the town of Boulogne to be besieged. Another fun place to drop a group of time travellers.
In 1576 construction began on Tycho Brahe's observatory in Uraniborg (on Hven, an island in the Øresund) in Denmark; this was at the time the world's most advanced research institution, with thirty researchers under Brahe working in the fields of astronomy, meteorology, astrology, and alchemy. It would later be expanded with an underground facility at Stjerneborg.
In 1585 John Davis,, searching for the mythical Northwest Passage around the north of Canada to the Pacific entered Cumberland Sound. While he didn't find the passage, due to it not existing until recently melting of the Arctic ice,he may have stumbled over other mysteries.
1609 Venetian senate examines Galileo Galilei's telescope. This was the product of his own experimentation with lens grinding and optics, and was one of the best such instruments made at the time. He presented the eight-power instrument to the (Padua was at the time part of the Venetian Republic) and was rewarded with life tenure of the university and a doubling of his salary. Unless the telescope were to disappear, rather disrupting the development of astronomy....
In 1673 as part of the Third Anglo-Dutch War a Dutch battle fleet of 23 ships demands the surrender of New York. The Dutch would recapture the former New Netherland but swap it in the peace settlement. Another interesting location to drop a part of time travellers.
In 1709 Bartolomeu de Gusmao, the Brazilian born Portuguese Jesuit polymath and linguist, made the first (known and recorded) ascent in hot-air balloon. In the hall of the Casa da Índia in Lisbon his small craft carried a cannonball to the roof (its descent is unrecorded). Curiously de Gusmao was working on the design of a very different airship; one that used the flow of air through tubes, a large cloth wing and "magnets encased in hollow metal balls". Was he perhaps experimenting with Mad Science? What happened to his experiments (the story about the Inquisition appears to be a later addition)>
In 1758 Cherbourg is another interesting location for a party to arrive; on this day British forces bombard and occupy the town. Over the next week fortifications and other structure are demolished and the town plundered.
In 1786 Mont Blanc, the highest mountain in Western Europe, is scaled fro the first (known) time by Jacques Balmat and Michel Paccard.
In 1793 during the French Revolution the city of Lyon erupts into revolt, with moderate reformists opposing the more radical National Convention, the third government during the Revolution.
In 1898 Will Kellogg invents Corn Flakes. The oddities of the older Kellogg brother (John Harvey Kellogg) are well known (Corn Flakes were intended to suppress sexual desire) while W.K. is considered more grounded.
In 1913 British officer Richard Corfield's 'Camel Corps' begins operations against Mohammed Abdullah Hassan (the"Mad Mullah") who was successfully disrupting Britain's control of Somalialand.
In 1918 the Great War was entering it's closing states; the Allies begin the Hundred Days Offensive, beginning with the Battle of Amiens where 500 tanks and 10 Allied divisions attacked German lines.
In 1929 the German airship Graf Zeppelin begins a round-the-world flight from Lakehurst in New Jersey east to Friedrichshafen, Tokyo, Los Angeles and back to Lakehurst. Tickets cost US$3,000 (for the 24 passengers) at a time when gold was US$20.67 per Troy ounce. This would be, at 21 days, the fastest circumnavigation of the Earth to date
Seventeen years later and a very different aircraft flew for the first time in 1946. Th behemoth XB-36 prototype of the Convair B-36 bomber lumbered into the air. At the time the aircraft was in no state for service, but might have been pressed into use in an emergency... The B-36 would be the mainstay of earth USAF nuclear strike capacity with the range to reach the USSR from the US mainland (slowly) with multiple nuclear bombs. There were many variants of the plane, some carrying 'Gobil' parasite fighters that could be released and docked in flight, and the X-6; a prototype for a fleet of nuclear powered , ultra long endurance bombers that didn't happen in our universe.
In 1956 a fire (officially started by an electrical accident) triggered a series of explosions in a coal mine at Marcinelle in Belgium. 262 people died.
In 1963 in Britain the Great Train Robbery was carried out. Stg£2.6 million in banknotes was stolen. Some details of the crime are still unknown.
In 1985 Japan launched 'Planet A' or SUISEI the first Terrestrial probe to Halley's comet from Kagoshima Space Center in Uchinoura. Unless it had a different mission....
Comments? Ideas? Suggestions?
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Catsmate
13th Incarnation
It's complicated....
Posts: 3,748
Favourite Doctors: Thirteen, Six, Five, Two, Eight, Eleven, Twelve, One, Nine...
Traits: Eccentric, Insatiable Curiousity.
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Post by Catsmate on Aug 8, 2020 21:05:57 GMT
I added the Island of Ferdinandea entry to 01AUG, I'd forgotten about it.
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Catsmate
13th Incarnation
It's complicated....
Posts: 3,748
Favourite Doctors: Thirteen, Six, Five, Two, Eight, Eleven, Twelve, One, Nine...
Traits: Eccentric, Insatiable Curiousity.
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Post by Catsmate on Aug 9, 2020 19:54:02 GMT
09AUG
This post will be late as the forum software just ate the draft and I'm feeling rather pissed off.
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Catsmate
13th Incarnation
It's complicated....
Posts: 3,748
Favourite Doctors: Thirteen, Six, Five, Two, Eight, Eleven, Twelve, One, Nine...
Traits: Eccentric, Insatiable Curiousity.
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Post by Catsmate on Aug 9, 2020 22:30:34 GMT
09AUG - Second attempt.
On this day in 48 BCE the Battle of Pharsalus was fought and won. In central Greece The army led by Gaius Julius Caesar was decisively victorious over the far larger combined conservative and Republican forces led by Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus (Pompey the Great). The Roman Republic was ended that day, unless of course someone has other plans. Perhaps to persuade Pompey to stick to his earlier plan, and ignore the senators and officers who wanted to force an engagemnet with Caesar, and wait it out. In hostile territory and running low on supplies Casears 22 legions could have been beaten by hunger
More than four centuries later, in 378 CE at Hadrianopolis in Thrace (modern Turkey) the fate of Rome would again be decided. At the Battle of Adrianople an army of (mostly) Gothic rebels led by Fritigern won an overwhelming victory over an Eastern Roman army led by the Eastern Roman Emperor Valens (who was killed). The battle is considered the start of the end of the Western Roman Empire.
In 1655 Britain's Lord Protector Oliver Cromwell implemented his plan to divide England and Walen into ten administrative territories (Scotland and Wales were already under such administration). The rule of the twelve Major Generals would control Britain for only a couple of years but would be deeply unpopular. Unless someone persuaded the Lord Protector to try a different plan, perhaps to summon a new parliament?
This day in 1666 saw 'Holmes's Bonfire' as British Rear Admiral Robert Holmes raided the Dutch Frisian island of Terschelling, destroying 150 merchant ships in the Vlie estuary and pillaging the town of West-Terschelling.
In 1803 Robert Fulton tests his 20m steamboat on the River Seine in Paris. The craft is 20m long, fitted with an eight-horsepower French built steam engine and manages four knots against the river current. Unfortunately the engine damages the hull and the boat is lost. Perhaps with some assistance (someone introduced to Fulton by his partner, US Ambassador to France Robert Livingston perhaps?) the test is more successful and impresses Napoleon enough to sponsor further development. Might the battle of Trafalgar, in 1805, go differently if France has armed steamboats?
In 1815 Napoleon Bonaparte sets sail for exile on St Helena on board British warship Northumberland. Unless someone chose this moment to rescue him.
In 1841 the steamboat Erie burned and sank boat off Silver Creek in Lake Erie. Recently repainted and refitted the 500 ton ship plied the route between Buffalo and Chicago. That day she carried 340 passengers (many Swiss and German immigrants) 254 would die. Curiously the fire started very close to where an earlier steamboat, the Washington, had burned in 1838.
In 1854 Henry David Thoreau publishes has famous book Walden. Unless someone has reason to stop it....
In 1902 Edward VII of Great Britain was crowned having succeeded his mother Victoria. The event had bee delayed causing many invited foreign attendees to return home. A spectacle fit for a time travelling tourist.
In 1907 the first Boy Scout camp concludes at Brownsea Island in Poole Harbour. The boys scatter to return home, hopefully free of alien influences and mind control nanotech.
As mentioned under 04AUG in 1941 Churchill and Roosevelt were set to meet for the first of the Atlantic Conferences. On this day the meeting took place in Placentia Bay on Newfoundland. What might an alien, Mad Scientist, time traveller or Ahnenerbe operative be doing there? Personally I favour a plot involving Blackie (ship's cats on Prince of Wales)...
A year later and in 1942 Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi and more than fifty others were arrested in Bombay after the passage of "Quit India" motion by the All-India Congress Party. What would Indian Independence look lied of Ghandi and other leaders were massacred in '42?
In 1945 the third nuclear bomb is dropped, not as planned on Kokura but on Nagasaki. In comparison to the attack on Hiroshima the second bombing mission by Bockscar, commanded by Major Charles Sweeney, is beset by minor problems.
- The assembly of the MK 2 bomb unit (number F31) with the plutonium core is rushed, being completed in the early morning. In the rush the firing unit cable was installed backwards, necessitating last minute repairs by Ensign Barney O'Keefe. What is his cut and tape repaired connectors had gone wrong.
- The rendezvous point for the aircraft involved wais changed from Iwo Jima to Yakushima due to bad weather. The flight altitude was increased from 2.7km to 5.1km, reducing the fuel reserve.
- During pre-flight checks Bockscar's flight engineer, MSgt John Kuharek, discovers the fuel pump for one of the reserve tanks (holding two thousand litres) on is not functioning. The situation is discussed but the decision is made to carry on with the mission as planned.
- When Bockscar arrives at Kokura, at 10:44AM, the cloud cover makes visual bombing impossible. Three bomb runs are attempted but each time the drop is called off. As the planes are being fired on by Japanese ADA and fighters begin to appear the mission is aborted. The crew discuss what to do next. They decide to attempt to bomb Nagasaki, about 150km away. However fuel is low.
- At Nagasaki Bockscar had enough fuel for only one attempt to drop the nuclear bomb on board (orders were specific about visual bombing only and two maintain a reserve to return to Tinian). The city is covered in cloud but a gap allows a drop, but only several kilometres miles from the intended aim point. The weapon is dropped at 11:56AM.
Six minutes later between forty and seventy thousand people are dead.
In 1974 Richard Nixon issues his resignation as President of the United States; Vice President Gerald Ford is sworn in and becomes the only never-elected holder of the office, so far. What if Nixon had decided to brazen matters out?
And in 1976 the last lunar mission to return from the moon was launched by the USSR; the robotic Luna 24 lander. It landed on the moon three days later and returned 190 grammes of rock to Earth on 22AUG.
Comments? Ideas? Suggestions?
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Post by missyfan45 on Aug 10, 2020 1:08:37 GMT
boy scouts are a good doctor lite episode, Nixon is a great ah one also a anarchist could kill Edward VII and a bunch of world leaders
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Post by missyfan45 on Aug 10, 2020 1:09:23 GMT
also john chabot is a good pure historical or a sci fi romp and the roman republic one might be how the iron legion's alternate universe diverged from ours
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Catsmate
13th Incarnation
It's complicated....
Posts: 3,748
Favourite Doctors: Thirteen, Six, Five, Two, Eight, Eleven, Twelve, One, Nine...
Traits: Eccentric, Insatiable Curiousity.
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Post by Catsmate on Aug 10, 2020 21:28:40 GMT
10AUG On this day in 612 BCE Sinsharishkun, king-emperor of the Assyrian Empire died in the defense of the Assyrian captial city of Nineveh. He was besieged by an army of the king of Babylon, and his former general, Nabopolassar, aided by the Medes. The siege had lasted since June but August the walls were breached and the city was brutally sacked. With him died the Assyrian Empire.
In 70 CE the Siege of Jerusalem ended with the Second Temple fired by Roman troops (or perhaps Jewish zealots [according to Josephus], or quite possibly both) during the capture of the city of Vespasian. The death toll is unknown (Josephus says 1.1 million but this is off by probably an order of magnitude) but certainly tens of thousands died and were enslaved.
In 843 Charles the Bald (or Bare), Louis the German and Lotharius II, grandsons of Charles the Great (Charlemagne) divide France among themselves with the Treaty of Verdun. It doesn't last (see 01AUG)
In 991 the battle of Maldon is fought by an Anglo-Saxon force led by Earl Bryhtnoth (vassal of Æthelred the Unready) who attack a force Vikings raiding inland. The battle took place near Maldon, beside the River Blackwater, in Essex. The Anglo-Saxon force was badly defeated and the story is immortalised in a Old English poem. Æthelred's principal advisor, Archbishop Sigeric of Canterbury, and many of his vassals advise the King to buy off the Vikings rather than continue the struggle. The subsequent payment almost three-and-a-half tonnes of silver was first 'Danegeld' in England.
In 1497 John Cabot (Giovanni Caboto) meets King Henry VII and tells of of his trip to "Asia". He'd been commissioned to lead an expedition across the northern Atlantic and had sailed from Bristol in May 1497. He made landfall in late June, though where he landed is a matter of contention; Newfoundland, Cape Breton Island or southern Labrador are possibilities. Cabot proposed to King Henry VII that he set out on a second expedition across the north Atlantic; this time he would continue westward from his first landfall until he reached Japan. This expedition would leave in mid-1498 but would disappear.
In 1566 Protestant Europe, beginning in the Low Countries, erupted into 'Beeldenstorm' or 'Bildersturm'. Roughly translating to "image storm" this was an outbreaks of Iconoclasm; the destruction of religious images. During these spates of iconoclasm mostly Catholic church art and many church fittings and decoration were destroyed in mob violence by Calvinist Protestant crowds. A curious and interesting (and dangerous) outbreak.
In 1628 the Swedish warship Vasa founders and sinks in Stockholm harbour. One of the most powerful warships of the era, constructed on the orders of Gustavus Adolphus as part of his military expansion, she was dangerously top heavy. Unless there was another cause.
In 1675 construction of the Royal Observatory in Greenwich began with the laying by King Charles II and John Flamsteed of the foundation stone.
In 1776 news of the United States's Declaration of Independence reaches London. It is not well received.
In 1792 the first large scale insurrection against the French monarchy begins in Paris. Also papers recovered from the Tuileries Palace proved that Honoré Riqueti, the late Count de Mirabeau, and an early moderate leader of the revolutionaries, was in the pay of King Louis XVI and the Austrian enemies of France beginning bring him into posthumous disgrace.
In 1827, after years of tension, the city of Cincinnati erupts into race rioting. Mainly triggered by competition for jobs between Irish immigrants and native blacks and former slaves, mobs of whites, several hundred strong, attacked black settled areas of the city, mainly around the waterfront.
In 1833 in the state of Illinois a new village, named 'Chicago' is formally incorporated. It has less than three hundred inhabitants.
In 1856 om Last Island in Louisiana hundreds of people were enjoying a holiday when the first hurricane of the year hit. Exacerbated by heavy rain the storm surge hit suddenly, between 4PM and 5PM, with the water rising over a metre in a matter of minutes. The entire island was submerged, all buildings destroyed.
In 1876 the first long distance telephone call (13km) was made call between the towns of Brantford and Paris in Canada.
In 1893 Rudolf Diesel's first model internal combustion engine ran on its own power for the first time. The three metre steel cylinder with a flywheel at its base was constructed in Augsburg, Germany. Just the thing Sixie would drag Peri to see.
In 1904 during the Russo-Japanese War, the Battle of the Yellow Sea was fought; the Japanese fleet prevented Russians ships breaking out of Port Arthur.
In 1914 the pursuit of Goeben and Breslau ends when the ships pass the Dardanelles en-route to Constantinople. The two German ships, the battlecruiser Goeben and light cruiser Breslau would be transferred to the Ottoman Navy.
In 1921 Franklin Roosevelt is stricken with a paralytic illness while staying at the family summer home on Canadian island of Campobello. Generally thought at the time to be polio it may have been Guillain–Barré syndrome
In 1932 near the town of Archie in Cass County, Missouri, a ~5kg breaks apart in the atmosphere and lands in seven pieces.
In 1960 "Discoverer 13" is launched into orbit; on 11AUG it de-orbited a test capsule which was successfully retrieved. This was, officially, the first returned object from space. Despite the innocuous name the launch was part of the CORONA spy satellite programme, which returned film capsules to Earth. Meanwhile in Los Angeles Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho was having it's premiere
In 1965 pilot Joe Engle flew an air-launched X-15 rocket plane to 82km altitude, qualifying him for astronaut status.
In 1966 something skimmed across the United States; a meteor like trail was seen from Utah to Canada. This is the only known case of a meteor entering Earth's atmosphere and leaving it again
And in 1992 the satellite TOPEX/Poseidon was launched. A joint international programme to survey the oceans. For what exactly?
Comments? Ideas? Suggestions?
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Post by missyfan45 on Aug 11, 2020 0:07:42 GMT
engler and posideon are good psuedo historicals the latter reminds me of the bloop, race riots are a good pure historical, Vasa could have been caused by a Silurian. And aliens could have easily have been in Jerusalem
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Catsmate
13th Incarnation
It's complicated....
Posts: 3,748
Favourite Doctors: Thirteen, Six, Five, Two, Eight, Eleven, Twelve, One, Nine...
Traits: Eccentric, Insatiable Curiousity.
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Post by Catsmate on Aug 11, 2020 9:54:05 GMT
engler and posideon are good psuedo historicals the latter reminds me of the bloop, race riots are a good pure historical, Vasa could have been caused by a Silurian. And aliens could have easily have been in Jerusalem Taking it by year, I didn't include many actual scenario seeds last night:
612 BCE Sinsharishkun. This just screams early Who pure historical to me, or perhaps a Monk-like meddler. Though disaster tourists or theft are also possibles.
70 CE Jerusalem. Cries out, to me, for a modern day meddler attempting to save Jerusalem. With a Davy Crockett....
843 Verdun. Another pure historical seed, to me anyway. Politics in the early HRE. Which reminds me, I need to put together my notes on the HRE; it's terrible under-represented in WHO. The canon only has one reference, and that's Churchill.
991 Maldon. This could go three ways: A pure historical with the party trying to survive after being separated from their transport. A pseudo-historical with an alien influence mixed in that needs to be dealt with. A meddler trying to deliberately alter history.
1497 Cabot. This has flavours of a larger, long term plot. Perhaps someone has infiltrated the court of Henry VII (and may have been pulling strings for a while; perhaps a pre-sequel at Bosworth?1) and is trying to alter the pattern of settlement in the New World. Or maybe get a lift/expedition to something important they know is parked/hidden in (say) Newfoundland. Perhaps Cabot's Last Expedition did make it across the North Altantic in the summer of 1498...
1566 Iconoclasm. This screams "weird mind altering alien influence" to me. Though it could also be the basis for a pure historical (with the PCs enmeshed in chaotic events that don't understand) or an encounter with time traveling disaster tourists or historical researchers.
1628 Vasa. This I'd use as part of a "someone's trying to influence Gustavus Adolphus" plot to alter the events of the Thirty Years War, but maybe I've read too much of the 1632verse.
1675 Greenwich. Screams out as Restoration Torchwood analogue,
1776 Independence. Probably more of a background detail while the PCs are up to something else. Or maybe the news comes with a ltter addressed to one of them.....
1792 This strikes me a either academic research into the de Mirabeau matter (were some or all of the papers forged?) or a tourist foray. Or both. But then there's the storming of the Tuileries (anyone for a looting?), the opportunities for saving the palace (with machine guns and gas) and the question of what happened to Louis' thirty-seven thousand livres...
1827 Cincinnati. Well you could drop in a mind influencing alien entity (Malus?) that needs to be stopped, but this strikes me as more suited to a pure historical, with the PCs swept up. Think Rosa.
1833 'Chicago. I'm reminded of The Visitation:
1856 Last Island. A classic fight for survival storyline, with of course the issues of letting two hundred people die.
1876. Hmm, something nasty in the wires perhaps?
1893 Diesel. Other that Sixie and Peri (and the latter getting into trouble of course) maybe Diesel has found a new backer? There's the fascinating story of Diesel's disappearance from the Dresden in 1913, that could be linked.
1904 Yellow Sea. What's better than stranding the PCs in a city under siege (Port Arthur) or having them land on part of the fleet about to engage in batte? Both of course. Split the party.
1914. This suggests background to me. The PCs are in Constantinople (probably arguing about the correct name for the city and thinking about Gallipoli [assuming they have a typically 'Western' view of the war]) and see the Germans ships arrive. But then the get enmeshed in someone's plans to change the course of the Great War.
1921 Roosevelt. Stop someone saving Roosevelt, part of a plan to alter the Cold War by having him live longer; the United States is not represented by a dying man at Yalta and an inexperienced man at Potsdam. Roosevelt becomes the firts president to 'retire' in office, but has spent two years grooming Truman (especially in the field of foreign policy) and the transition is managed vastly better. Czechoslovakia ends up as a Finland style democracy; Stalin is forced to make a few more concessions, Eastern Europe is far less....messy. Now the PCs need to fix matters.
1932 Archie. Obviously there was something in the meteor.
1960 Discoverer 13. It wasn't really a test, it was sent to sample something up there. What did it bring back? There needs to be a link to the premiere of Psycho though/
1965 X-15. Now my take is that in the Whoniverse space exploration started earlier and continued. There are the canonical British Mars missions of the late '70s for example. So the X-15 may have been a different and more advanced programme, with true orbital capability and weapons.
1966. An out of control spacecraft skimming the Earth's atmosphere?
1992 Poseidon. Obviously UNIT wants to keep an sye on something.
Comments? Ideas? Suggestions?
1. I'm reminded of White's Saint Antony's Fire an alternate history that can be summarised as "explorers find something interesting in the New World".
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Post by missyfan45 on Aug 11, 2020 15:56:15 GMT
hmmm maybe UNIT wants the Axons?. also maybe a psychotic killer could be held up in space witch is why psycho needs to be filmed. Restoration Torchwood is a good rpg scenario or a campaign!.
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Catsmate
13th Incarnation
It's complicated....
Posts: 3,748
Favourite Doctors: Thirteen, Six, Five, Two, Eight, Eleven, Twelve, One, Nine...
Traits: Eccentric, Insatiable Curiousity.
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Post by Catsmate on Aug 11, 2020 21:59:09 GMT
11AUG.
On this day 5134 years ago (3114 BCE) the Mesoamerican 'Long Count' calendar, used by the Mayans and several other pre-Columbian Mesoamerican civilisations, began. Why?
In 480 BC during Greco-Persian Wars the naval battle of Artemision was fought off the north coast of Euboea. This occurred almost simultaneously with the land battle at Thermopylae, also part of the second Persian invasion of Greece. Around 1,500 ships were involved and the battle ended in a tactical victory for the Persians, including the capture of the evacuated city of Athens. However Xerxes would seek a decisive naval victory over the Greek allied fleet; at the Battle of Salamis in late 480 BCE they would be heavily defeated. Fearing being trapped in Europe Xerxes would withdrew with most of his forces. Interesting possibilities for meddling; firing a Davy Crockett from a trireme perhaps?
In 355 CE Claudius Silvanus a Roman general and leader on the Germanic border, facing accusations of plotting treason against the suspicious, paranoid, emperor Constantius II, proclaims himself Roman Emperor. He'll bied in literal pieces in a month. Unless he gains some powerful allies.
In 1304 another sea battle was fought, this time of Zierikzee in the south-west of the modern Netherlands. Part of the larger conflict between the Count of Flanders and his French feudal lord, Philip IV of France, the battleended in a Franco-Holland victory.
Two years later (probably) and a different kind of battle; at Strathfillan in 1306 Robert I the Bruce, his army battered after it's defeat by the English at Methven on 19JUN , was intercepted and all but destroyed by the forces of Clan MacDougall of Argyll, who were allied to the English. Bruce himself came near to death.
In 1492 Rodrigo de Borja was controversially elected pope, as Pope Alexander VI. A fascinating and complex character, worthy of a detailed post (it's in my notes). Alexander VI is considered probably the most controversial of the Renaissance popes; he acknowledged fathering several children by his mistresses, engaged in simony, bribery and nepotism on a grand scale. Hence 'Borgia' has become a term for libertinism and nepotism. The again two of his successors, Sixtus V and Urban VIII, described him as one of the most outstanding popes since Peter. He, and his family, were noted fro their patronage of the arts, he founded King's College in Aberdeen as part of his interest in education and stabilised politics in Rome and the Curia. Truly a subject for detailed, long term, on-site study. And of course unplanned blundering-in. The Borgia Apartments remained sealed until the 19th century
In 1674 the First Battle of Seneffe was fought, near Seneffe in modern Belgium, one of the most significant engagements of the Franco-Dutch War. The French army, commanded by the Grand Condé, successfully repulsing assaults by an alliance of Dutch, Imperial (HRE), and Spanish forces, led by William of Orange. The defeat Allied forces could n longer threaten Northern France, but Louis XIV was shocked by French losses and ordered that open field battles be avoided.
In 1695 as part of the Nine Years War the combined English and Dutch fleet assault Dunkirk, expending vast amounts of shells and shot in the bombardment. The port (along with St Malo and some smaller ports) was a major base for French commerce raiders, attacking Dutch, English and East India Company vessels as part of the guerre de course strategy of Vauban.
In 1718 another naval battle is fought, this time off Cape Passaro on the southern tip of Sicily. Despite nominally being at peace with Spain, a British fleet under Admiral Sir George Byng destroys a Spanish fleet under Vice-Admiral Antonio de Gaztañeta.
In 1772 Mount Papandayan in Java (Indonesia) erupts unexpectedly and explosively; three thousand people are killed.
In 1804 the first Emperor of Austria (and last Holy Roman Emperor), Francis II is crowned.
In 1835 George Biddell Airy began his 46-year reign as Britain's Astronomer Royal. As well as astronomy Airy was a noted mathematician; among his achievements were work on planetary orbits, determination of the density of the Earth, a technique for solving two-dimensional problems in solid mechanics and of course, establishing Greenwich as the Prime Meridian. He also organised the mass of older observations at Greenwich. He did not, however, discover Neptune. He's probably got connections to Torchwood. At least.
In 1858 the Eiger, in the Bernese Alps in Switzerland, was first ascended (officially) by two Swiss guides (Christian Almer and Peter Bohren) and Irishman Charles Barrington, who knew little about mountaineering and never visited the Alps again. The North Face would not be climbed for eighty more years. An odd little incident.
In 1866 the world's first roller skating rink opens in Newport, Rhode Island.
In 1877 American astronomer Asaph Hall III, husband of Angeline Stickney, discovers Mars's moon Deimos. Phobos would follow, next week. Who else was in the Naval Observatory that night?
In 1904 General Lothar von Trotha ends the Herero rebellion in German South West Africa with a level of brutality unusual even in colonial wars. He was widely condemned for his brutality in the Herero Wars, particularly for his role in the genocide that led to the near-extermination of the Herero. A lovely spot to drop in a party of time travellers. Don't drink the water (it's poisoned).
An even more interesting place to visit is Shark Island Concentration camp (aka 'Death Island') one of the five Namibian concentration camps located on Shark Island off Lüderitz in Namibia. It was used by the German empire during the Herero and Namaqua genocide of 1904-1908. Between one and three thousand men, women, and children died in the camp. Experiments on live prisoners were performed by Dr. Hugo Bofinger. Historically he, and others, injected Herero that were suffering from scurvy with various substances including arsenic and opium; afterwards he researched the effects of these substances via autopsy. Who knows what else went on there.
In 1908 King-Emperor Edward VII of Britain meets with Emperor Wilhelm II of Germany at of Friedrichshof. The main point of contention is the increasing size of Germany's navy and the worries of Britain regarding this.
In 1909 the 'SOS' radio signal (along with 'CQD') was first used by the SS Arapahoe, off Cape Hatteras in North Carolina.
In 1914 Russian troops expel Jews from Mitchenick in Poland, citing their 'disloyalty' to the Imperial government.
In 1919 the Weimar Republic is officially established in Germany.
In 1934 the first Federal prisoners arrive at Alcatraz in San Francisco Bay.
In 1965 rioting in the Watts section of Los Angeles becomes a de-facto state of rebellion that lasts six days. 34 people die.
Comments? Ideas? Suggestions?
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Post by missyfan45 on Aug 12, 2020 13:56:51 GMT
what ended the hre could be a good ah story, SOS could be used as a start to a invasion, Watts is a good sequel to Rosa. Death island is a good James Bond like adventure,Alexander VI and Claudius Silvanus are good people to meet.
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Catsmate
13th Incarnation
It's complicated....
Posts: 3,748
Favourite Doctors: Thirteen, Six, Five, Two, Eight, Eleven, Twelve, One, Nine...
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Post by Catsmate on Aug 12, 2020 22:02:02 GMT
12AUG
In 1071 at the Battle of Manzikert, the Byzantines (led by Emperor Romanus IV) suffer a devastating defeat at the hands of the Seljuk Turks. The emperor was captured and the result of the battle was disastrous for the Byzantines, leading to internal strife and an economic crisis; together these severely weakened the Byzantine Empire.
In 1099 at the Battle at Ascalon,shortly after the capture of Jerusalem, Godfried of Broth lead the Crusader army to a devastating victory over an Egyptian Fatimid army. This secured the safety of Jerusalem. The vizier leading the army, Al-Afdal Shahanshah, fled to Egypt, leaving the Crusaders a vast amount of loot. Thousands of prisoners were massacred.
In 1121 another battle was fought in the Middle East, this time at Didgori,40 km west of Tbilisi. The armies of the Kingdom of Georgia (led by King David IV of Georgia) inflicted a severe defeat on the forces of the Great Seljuq Empire at the narrow place of Didgori, where they trapped the numerically superior Seljuk army , on August 12, 1121.
Fifty three years later and another battle; in 1164 at the Battle of Harim (in modern Syria) the Crusader armies of the County of Tripoli and the Principality of Antioch (with assistance from he Byzantine Empire and Armenia) were severely defeated by Turkish forces lead by Nur ad-Din.
In 1323 the Treaty of Nöteborg was signed between Sweden and Novgorod (Russia), with the help of Hanseatic merchants, to define their mutual border and resolve the Swedish-Novgorodian War. Interestingly no actual copy still exists...
In 1332 in Scotland Battle of Dupplin Moor one of the Scottish dynastic battles of the Second War of Scottish Independence was fought between supporters of the infant David II (son of Robert the Bruce) and rebels supporting the Balliol claim in 1332. Despite being outnumbered between five and ten-to-one the tactical brilliance and decisive leadership of Henry de Beaumont, incompetence and division amongst among their opponents, and an early form of the longbow 'arrow storm', a massive defeat was inflicted on the Bruce supporters. A prime location for tourism, meddling or research.
In 1492 Christopher Columbus arrived on this day in the Canary Islands on his first voyage to the New World. Unless....
In 1499 the first engagement of the First Battle of Lepanto occurred between Venetian and Ottoman fleets, part of the Ottoman–Venetian War. The battle would continue on 20AUG, 22AUG, and 25AUG. The Venetians were defeated. mainly due to poor leadership and coordination and abysmal tactical decisions.
In 1588 the skirmishing between the remnants of the Spanish Armada and the English fleet ended when Lord Howard of Effingham calls off the chase off the Scottish coast.
In 1812 troops commanded by Duke of Wellington enter Madrid during the Peninsular War.Ottoman–Venetian The French had abandoned the city after the allied victory at Salamanca on 22JUL.
Fifty years later in 1862 Confederate raiders under Colonel John Hunt Morgan capture the town of Gallatin in Texas. The raid had lasted three-week, and Morgan led a force of around 900 soldiers across around 1,700km of ground with the intent of distracting Union cavalry and assist in concealing preparations for the invasion of Kentucky. Morgan would continue his daring tactics until the ill-fated 'Morgan's Raid' a year later.
On a more peaceful note three years later in 1865 Joseph Lister performed the first antiseptic surgery using carbolic acid (phenol) sterilise surgical instruments and to clean wounds. The Second Doctor studied under Lister.
In 1869 the self-proclaimed Emperor of the United States, Joshua Abraham Norton, issues an edict abolishing the Democratic and Republican parties.
In 1877 Thomas Edison completed the first model for the phonograph; this device recorded sound onto tinfoil covered cylinders.
In 1883 the last quagga (a subspecies of zebra) died at the Artis Magistra zoo in Amsterdam.
In 1898 the Spanish-American War ended with the capitulation of Spain. A significant event, with echoes a few years later in the Russo-Japanese war, that set the United States on the path to Great Power status and lead to the brutality of the Spanish Civil War and Franco's 'White Terror'.
In 1905 King Leopold II of Belgium opened Antwerp Central Station a magnificent, eclectic, with a vast dome above the waiting hall. Paid for my the wealth extracted with unspeakable brutality from the "Congo Free State".
Three years later in 1908 the the first Model T motor car was built by Ford.
In 1918 the Great War draws to an end with the Germans defeat in the Battle of Amiens, the last great battle on the Western Front.
Two years later and the effects of the Great War continue; on this day in 1920 the Battle of Warsaw between Poland and Russia begins. After defeating the earlier Polish Kiev Offensive Soviet forces had launched a successful counter-attack in the summer of 1920, forcing the Polish army to retreat westward in disarray. Most observers considered the Poles on the verge of disintegration and predicted a decisive Soviet victory. In fact the 'Miracle of the Vistula' was a decisive Polish victory; Polish forces repulsed and defeated the Red Army, inflicting an enormous defeat. If this had gone differently the Soviets would have absorbed Poland, leaving them with a border with Germany. What would happen next?
In 1931 in China heavy rain combined with snow melt leads to a massive amount of water flowing into the Yangtzee River system, which, combed with damage to dikes, causes widespread flooding. Perhaps two million people die from flood water, starvation and disease.
In 1942 Winston Churchill arrives in Moscow for conference with Joseph Stalin and US representative W. Averrell Harriman. The journey began early on 01AUG at RAF Lyneham when the party left in a modified B-24 Liberator. The first stop was in Gibraltar (arriving at dawn local time) and then travelling on to Cairo (arriving on 04AUG) where they spent abouut a week before departing for Tehran just after midnight on 10AUG, and then to Moscow.
Two years later on this day in about 560 people (including about 130 children) were massacred by the Waffen SS and Italian Fascists in Sant'Anna di Stazzem, in Tuscany.
In 1953 the Soviet Union detonated RDS-6 ("Joe-4"), the first Soviet thermonuclear bomb, in a secret test at te Semipalatinsk Test Site in what is now Kazakhstan. The weapon was a Sakharov-Ginzburg layer cake design, the first true radiation implosion fission-fusion bomb being detonated two years later.
In 1960 Echo 1 (technically Echo 1A), the first communications satellite, was launched by NASA into Low Earth Orbit. Weighing about 180kg the satellite was basically a 30m metal foil balloon used as a passive reflector of microwave radio signals (ut was also visible to the naked eye). Of course other sensors and devices might have been aboard...
In 1976 Lebanese Christian militia finally end the siege of the Palestinian refugee camp. Between two and three thousand people are killed in the ensuing massacre.
In 1977 there are two events of interest on this day; the High Energy Astronomy Observatory (HEAO 1) is launched into Earth orbit by NASA and the space shuttle Enterprise makes it's first atmospheric test flight/ A year later the International Cometary Explorer spacecraft is launched.
Comments? Ideas? Suggestions?
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Post by missyfan45 on Aug 13, 2020 14:24:32 GMT
Lepanto is a good pure historical. Joe 4 is a good spy idea. Norton is a good person to meet.the quagga is a good menagire. maybe Edison is a good psuedo historical.
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Catsmate
13th Incarnation
It's complicated....
Posts: 3,748
Favourite Doctors: Thirteen, Six, Five, Two, Eight, Eleven, Twelve, One, Nine...
Traits: Eccentric, Insatiable Curiousity.
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Post by Catsmate on Aug 13, 2020 22:42:42 GMT
13AUG
In 1326CE Aradia de Toscano, in the rather unlikely event he was a real historical person, was initiated into a Dianic witchcraft cult and subsequently; he later founds the tradition of Stregheria, later known as the Malandanti. It's all very dubious, despite the vehemenece with which some Wiccans adhere to this belief, but has possibilities for surviving alien/paranormal secret society. Perhaps connected with the Shadow Legion or the Brotherhood of Demnos? Alternatively (and this is my take) it could have been created as a support network for time travellers, so use the facilities of the cult to support their own plans.
In 1415 King Henry V of England land army at the mouth of Seine River. He would besiege Harfleur in a few days time, before the famous Battle of Agincourt. This was all part of the ongoing Hundred Years' War, where the French and English crowns fought for supremacy.
In 1516 the Peace of Noyon ended the War of the Holy League between France and Spain (part of a longer series of Italian wars); Francis I and Charles V divided Italy between them, Francis recognised Charles's claim to Naples, and Charles recognised Francis's claim to Milan.
On this day in 1521 the Aztec Empire came to an end as Spanish conquistadors, under Hernán Cortés, capture Aztec Emperor Cuauhtémoc in Tenochtitlan. Smallpox was rife in the city, severely weakening the defenders.
In 1536 the Japanese city of Kyoto iis uproar due to the Tenbun Hokke Disturbance. Buddhist warrior monks living, oujtside the city in the mountains, were determined to protect Kyoto from evil and set fire to 21 temples belonging to a difffernt Buddist sect (the Nichiren) throughout Kyoto. An odd little event, ripe for conversion into a scenario.
In 1553 Michael Servetus (Miguel de Villanueva) a Spanish theologian, physician, and polymath was arrested for herest by John Calvin in Geneva. Servetus was the a brilliant man, the first European to correctly describe the function of pulmonary circulation, but expert in versed in many sciences: mathematics, astronomy and meteorology, geography, human anatomy, medicine and pharmacology, as well as jurisprudence, languages, poetry and theology. Having been condemned in Catholic France (he rejected the doctrine of the Trinity) Servetus fled to Calvinist Geneva. There followed several weeks of legal maneuvering; on 27OCT Servetus was burnt alive, atop a pyre of his own books.
In 1624 Armand Jean du Plessis, Duke and Cardinal de Richelieu, was appointed Chief Minister of France by Louis XIII. A brilliant man (Dumas was highly biased) de Richelieu sought to consolidate royal power and crush domestic factions. He restrained the power of the nobility and transformed France into a strong, centralised, modern state. Richelieu was also famous for his patronage of the arts; he founded the Académie Française.
In 1672 the Dutch astronomer Christiaan Huygens discovers a white spot on Mars, the south polar ice cap. What else might he have noticed during his study of the red planet?
In 1704 the Battle of Blenheim was fought between a combined British, German and Dutch army (led by John Churchill, First Duke of Marlborough) against a French and Bavarian army. It was major battle of the War of the Spanish Succession and ended in a decisive defeat for the Franco-Bavarian alliance.
In 1792 the revolutionaries imprison French royalty, including Marie Antoinette, who were imprisoned in the tower of the Temple in the Marais.
In 1852 the steamer Atlantic crossing Lake Erie from Buffalo to Detroit collided with a fishing boat (the Ogdensburg), and sank. Perhaps 300 people die.
In 1864 during the American Civil Wat the Second Battle of Deep Bottom begins in Virginia. The extended skirmish will last a week and cause 4,500 casualties; tactially the Confederates achieve their objective of driving back Union forces, but their forces are spread out and vulnerable.
In the 1868 infamous Arica earthquakes, one of the most powerful of modern times, strikes Peru (the area is now in Chile). Around twenty five thousand people are killed, and several cities wrecked. Tidal waves strike the Pacific coasts, causing damage in Hawaii and New Zealand.
In 1876 the Bayreuth Festspielhaus opens with the first complete performance of Richard Wagner's Ring Cycle. Expect Sixie to drag Peri along....
In 1906 the city of Brownsville in Texas suffers a number of shootings. The Brownsville affair, will lead to the dishonourable discharge of 157 black soldiers and will arouse national outrage in both black and white communities.
In 1907 the New York institution, the taxicabs, operates for the first time. Probably not being used to kidnap people for alien experimentation, but you never know...
In 1913 Otto Witte is probably not crowned King of Albania. But then again..... Meanwhile in Sheffield Harry Brearley is busy inventing stainless steel.
In 1917 Spain sees a large scale independence revolt in Catalonia, in north-east Spain, that fore-shadows events of twenty years later.
In 1935 roller derby begins in Chicago, with the start of Transcontinental Roller Derby at the Chicago Coliseum. Maybe Peri drags Sixie along....
In 1939 the infamous derailment/crash of the 'City of San Francisco' train, bound for Oakland, outside Harney in Nevada 24 people die and more than 120 are injured. Officially the derailment was caused by sabotage of the tracks, though there are claims otherwise. The matter has never been resolved.
In 1942 the 'Manhattan Project' begins under the mediocre leadership of Colonel (soon Brigadier general) Leslie Groves with the purpose to developing u usable nuclear weapons. Groves' leadership caused several delays in the project, totalling between eight and twelve months, and potentially prevented the weapon being used in the European theatre.
In 1959 the satellite Discoverer 5 (part of the CORONA programme) is launched into polar orbit. The mission is a failure with the satellite accidentally sent into a higher orbit and the power supply failing.
In 1961 the construction starts on the Berlin Wall in East Germany.
In 1977 the first (air launched) test glide of the US space shuttle Enterprise takes place.
Comments? Ideas? Suggestions?
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Post by missyfan45 on Aug 14, 2020 0:10:49 GMT
Berlin wall is a great pure or psuedo historical, Manhattan project as well,Bayreuth could be visited in a chase like scenario, i agree with the Niiichen. And the Aztecs could be a good sequel to the Ist doctor one.
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Catsmate
13th Incarnation
It's complicated....
Posts: 3,748
Favourite Doctors: Thirteen, Six, Five, Two, Eight, Eleven, Twelve, One, Nine...
Traits: Eccentric, Insatiable Curiousity.
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Post by Catsmate on Aug 14, 2020 7:21:39 GMT
I rather like the idea of meddling and intrigue during the Manhattan Project, plenty of room for individuals or groups trying to alter or maintain history (there were at least four Soviet spies after all, and plenty of odd people) or to document events for posterity (babies born in PO boxes?). Then there was the business of the Congolese uranium in New York and the fascinating possibility of altering events at Trinity....
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Post by missyfan45 on Aug 14, 2020 16:06:34 GMT
yeah me too
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Catsmate
13th Incarnation
It's complicated....
Posts: 3,748
Favourite Doctors: Thirteen, Six, Five, Two, Eight, Eleven, Twelve, One, Nine...
Traits: Eccentric, Insatiable Curiousity.
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Post by Catsmate on Aug 14, 2020 22:34:13 GMT
14AUG
Ever wanted to game some Shakespeare? This day in 1040 King Duncan I ('the sickly') of Scotland was killed in battle against his first cousin, war leader and sometime rival Macbeth (not murdered in his sleep as in Shakespeare's play). The latter does succeed him as King. Events were rather different to the play however.
In Japan in 1183 the forces of when Minamoto no Yoshinaka enter the imperial capital of Kyoto the Taira no Munemori and Taira clan take the young Emperor Antoku and the three sacred treasures and flee to western Japan to escape Minamoto clan. This makes it the perfect opportunity to grab the young emperor (he was five) and or the sacred treasures.
Slightly over a century later in 1281, during Kublai Khan's second attempted Mongol invasion of Japan, his invading Chinese fleet of (supposedly) 3,500 vessels disappear in a typhoon near Japan. Where did the 'divine wind' come from? Was it perhaps linked to those sacred treasures?
One for the bibliophiles; on this day in 1457 the oldest known, exactly dated, printed book was published. In fact the Mainz Psalter was ground-breaking in several respects; the coloured book printed, the first book to be produced completely by mechanical methods as well as the first European book to provide the names of its printers and date of production. It's regarded as a technological triumph The original price is unknown (it was a limited run for the Archbishopric) but the last copy, of the ten known to exist, was sold for approximately €5 million... Pick up a copy, but bring a bag it's about 44cm x 32cm.
In 1551 the Knights of Saint John lose control of Tripoli; the city and surrounding coast was besieged and conquered by the famed Ottoman admirals Sinan Pasha and Turgut Reis.
In 1590 there's another book to acquire; the first edition publication of Christopher Marlowe's play 'Tamburlaine the Great' is registered with the Stationers' Company of London. The play was a dramatic change in English writing, with fresh and vivid language, memorable action and intellectual complexity. Along with Kyd's The Spanish Tragedy, it was first popular success of London's public stage in the Tudor era.
In 1642 Abel Tasman's expedition ships, Heemskerck and Zeehaen depart out from Batavia, His mission was to explore the little known areas roughly bounded on the west by the Cape of Good Hope, east by Staten Land (Cape Horn) and north by the Solomon Islands. Specifically he was to explore the "Provinces of Beach" a mythical, gold-rich, landmass based on errors in the works of Marco Polo. On 24NOV1642 Tasman and the expedition sighted the west coast of Tasmania.
On 1678 the Battle of Saint-Denis was fought, rather unnecessarily, the last major action of the Franco-Dutch War. In fact the parties had signed the Treaty of Nijmegen on 10AUG. The battle was generally inconclusive; the French forces repulse William of Orange but withdraw back to France. Might someone want to prevent this pointless but bloody affair
Eighty years later and another battle; in 1758 during the Seven-Year War the Battle of Zorndorf also ends inconclusively with both Prussia and Russia claiming a tactical victory.
In 1762 the six month English siege of Havana ends in victory when they occupy Havana. Five years later the city would be returned to Spanish rule.
In 1765 the British colonies in North America started showing signs of restiveness. On an Elm near Boston Common hung two objects; a straw effigy labeled 'AO', for Andrew Oliver, the colonist chosen impose requirements of the Stamp Act. Beside that it hung a cavalry boot, its sole painted green. This was a more subtle message representing the two British ministers considered responsible for the Stamp Act: the Earl of Bute (boot) and Lord George Grenville (green being a pun on 'Grenville'). Inside the boot was a small carved devil figure, holding a copy of the Stamp Act and bearing a sign: What Greater Joy did ever New England see Than a Stampman hanging on a Tree! The tree became a gathering spot for protesters, complete with a flagpole to summon the townspeople to meet.
In 1820 the first specialist eye hospital in the United States open; the New York Eye Infirmary. Was there perhaps an Angel related problem in the city?
In 1846 Henry David Thoreau jailed for refusing to pay taxes. He'd encountered the local tax collector, Sam Staples, who asked him to pay six years of delinquent poll taxes. Thoreau refused because of his opposition to the Mexican–American War and slavery and spent a night in jail because of this refusal. The next day Thoreau was freed when someone,probably his aunt, paid the tax for him but against his wishes. The experience had a strong impact on Thoreau and led to his writings and lectures The Rights and Duties of the Individual in relation to Government".
In 1861 troops of the 79th, New York, Volunteer Infantry Regiment at Camp Ewen, near Washington DC, mutiny due to perceived grievances, such as lack of home leave and being reused the common militia right to select their commander. Alcohol, lax discipline and poor supplies also played a part. A month earlier the soldiers had charged three times into cannon fire at Bull Run
In 1885 the British Criminal Law Amendment Act raises age of consent from 13 to 16. The act took four years, and much effort, to get through Parliament. Specifically it took a crusading journalist, William Stead (editor of the Pall Mall Gazette) purchasing a thirteen-year-old girl, Eliza Armstrong, from her parents and writing about the affair. Stead was prosecuted and jailed
In 1894 Sir Oliver Joseph Lodge demonstrates wireless telegraphy using Morse code at a meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science at Oxford University
In 1901 the SS Islander, a luxurious, Scottish built, steel hulled schooner/steamer hits an iceberg near Alaska and sinks. 65 people die and more than a tonne of Yukon gold is lost, never to be found. An interesting incident. Many of the dead refused to abandon their gold and drowned because of it. The gold in the ship's strong room and purser's office seems to have dissolved (along with coins and banknotes), despite four salvage attempts. And then there's the 'iceberg' that the Islander supposedly struck at 2AM that morning; the ship was sailing down the narrow Lynn canal (south of Juneau) when she struck something and was holed. But what was it? And what else was on board?
In 1901 on this day a man may have first flown, two years before Kitty Hawk. Gustave Whitehead claimed to flown his experimental aeroplane 'Number 21' near Bridgeport, Connecticut. Despite a description and photographs appearing in Scientific American the claim is still disputed. Someone really needs to check and document the attempt.
In 1910 the sixth International Congress of Esperantists (Esperanto speakers) is held in Washington DC. Despite the dreams and hopes of everyone from pacifists to sci-fi writers the artificial language has never really succeeded (in this universe). Speakers were persecuted under Hitler and Stalin.
In 1912 US marines invade Nicaragua for the first time; US troops remain until 1925 and return in 1927.
In 1936 there is the final opportunity to witness a particular spectacle; around fifteen thousand people gather at Owensboro in Kentucky to watch the last (so far) public hanging in the United States. The fact that the prisoner was a young black man (Rainey Bethea, aged 22, convicted dubiously of rape and murder) and that the sheriff overseeing the execution was a white woman intensified the interest of both the public and the Press.
A year later in 1937 Appalachian Trail is formally completed, traversing over 3,300km and fourteen US States, from Georgia to Maine.
In 1938 BBC television carries the first feature film on TV, The Student of Prague. Complete with subtitles.
In 1945 it is V-J Day, Japan accepts the terms of the Potsdam Declaration and surrenders unconditionally World War Two is over. Meanwhile in French Indochina Ho Chi Minh's Viet Minh movement launch a coordinated uprising against French rule across Vietnam.
In 1958 KLM Flight 607-E a Lockheed Super Constellation crashes 180km west of Ireland, killing 99. The cause is unknown.
In 1960 UN peace-keeping troops deployed to the Republic of Congo. What interesting horrors might they find there? And will this influence the creation of UNIT?
In 1966 Lunar Orbiter 1, the first US probe to photograph Luna from orbit arrives. Was it's early, deliberate, crash landing on the 'dark' side of the moon an attack on something?
Comments? Ideas? Suggestions?
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Post by missyfan45 on Aug 14, 2020 23:15:59 GMT
Khan in Japan is a good ah, The infirmary of angles is a good title,William Stead died on the titanic witch is a interesting connection, and the Congo one could be indeed a good idea to set up UNIT.
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Catsmate
13th Incarnation
It's complicated....
Posts: 3,748
Favourite Doctors: Thirteen, Six, Five, Two, Eight, Eleven, Twelve, One, Nine...
Traits: Eccentric, Insatiable Curiousity.
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Post by Catsmate on Aug 15, 2020 22:15:48 GMT
15AUG
In 778CE during the Battle of Roncevaux Pass, a mountain pass in the Pyrenees between France and Spain, Roland, commander of Charlemagne rearguard, is killed by Basque troops. While this was a relatively minor skirmish (the Basques were seeking revenge for the Carolingian invasion and the damage to Pamplona) it had the curious legacy of elevating a relatively obscure Frankish commander, Roland, and his companion knights (the paladins) into legendry figures. The became role models for knights in the Middle Ages and also greatly influenced the code of chivalry.There are numerous written works about the battle, most of dubious authenticity; the best known is of course the eleventh century The Song of Roland, the oldest surviving major work of French literature/ It's not every day you can meet an actual legend. Or create one.... Then there are more academically minded time travellers who'd be interested in properly documenting Roland and his death (if indeed he did die there).
In 1185 the cave city of Vardzia in Georgia is consecrated by Queen Tamar. The complex is a cave monastery site in southern Georgia, excavated from the Erusheti Mountain, near the Kura River. The caves stretch along the cliff for some five hundred meters and in up to nineteen tiers. The Church of the Dormition, dating to the 1180s during the golden age of Tamar and Rustaveli, has an important series of wall paintings. A fascinating site to visit, but what was the real reason?
In 1248 work on another religious site was started; construction of Cologne Cathedral begun. It would continue until about 1560 and remain incomplete until the 1880s. The cathedral was intended as a place of worship for the Holy Roman Emperor (doesn't so much Medieval European history involve the HRE?) and to house the reliquary of the Three Kings (the biblical Magi or wise men)
In 1310 the Knights of St John (Knights Hospitaller) conquer Rhodes from the Byzantine Empire as their new base and headquarters. After the losses of the Kingdom of Jerusalem and Acre in 1291 the order sought refuge in the Kingdom of Cyprus but became enmeshed in Cypriot politics. So Guillaume de Villaret, Master of the Order, developed a plan to acquire Rhodes, The acquisition took four years of fighting but in 1310 the city of Rhodes surrendered to the knights who also took a number of neighbouring islands and the Anatolian port of Halicarnassus. Not quite as well known as the Templars, but their descendants survive today.
In 1534 Ignatius of Loyola forms Society of Jesus. The Jesuits have been the subject of much paranoia and conspiracy theories over the centuries and really are ripe for a Whovian appearance.
In 1548 Mary Stuart, later Mary Queen of Scotland, arrives in France aged five. The perfect opportunity for insuiniation, replacement, kidnapping, mind control or assassination. She was to spend thirteen years in the French court, as preparation for an arrange marriage to the future Francis II. Mary was accompanied by a small court; two of her (illegitimate) half-brothers, and the "four Marys". These were four girls her own age, all named Mary (Beaton, Seton, Fleming, and Livingston) the daughters of Scottish nobliity. The party also included Lady Janet Fleming, Mary's governess.
In 1635 the first hurricane recorded in North America hits the Plymouth Colony. Much of the area around Providence was damaged by the storm, with houses destroyed and thousands of thousands of trees flattened.
In 1785 during the lengthy and complex affair of the Queen's Necklace, French cardinal De Rohan was arrested. He was trying to redeem himself in the eyes of Marie Antoinette he became embroiled in a huge fraud that severely dmanged the reputation of the French crown. (The notorious Cagliostro was involved)
In 1863 one of the first military submarine, the CSS H. L, Hunley, arrived in Charleston on a railroad car. Her first outing, on 29AUG, would be unsuccessful (she sank, killing five crew) as would the second on 15OCT (again she sank, killing eight this time). Returned to service she would, on 17FED1864, be the first submersible to sink a warship, the 1,240t sloop-of-war Housatonic. She'd sink for the third time that day.
A year later and another Confederate warship, the commerce raider CSS Tallahassee, would be more successful (if less innovative). On this day in 1864 while operating off the New England coast she captured six ships.
In 1900 during the Boxer Rebellion in China, the Empress Dowager Cixi and Emperor Guangxu, with family members and retainers, escape the foreign troops in the Forbidden City while dressed as peasants. The head to the ancient capital of Xi'an (Chang'an).
A year later, in San Francisco Bay in 1901, a massive explosion occurs. Arch Rock (between Alcatraz and the Golden Gate), considered a danger to San Francisco Bay shipping was blasted to rubble. More than 8,000 square metres of island ceased to exist thanks to thirty tonnes of blastiing gelatine. The perfect event to drop in to a Bay Area campaign. What was really going on?
In 1914 tragedy struck the American architect Frank Lloyd Wright. Wright had been living a (for the time) unconventional and controversial polyamorous lifestyle in Spring Green, Wisconsin but on that day it ended with the deaths of seven people, including Wright's lover Martha Borthwick when a servant named Julian Carlton ran amok with a hatchet and set the house on fire. He later committed suicide by drinking hydrochloric acid. The motivation for the killings remain a myster.
That same day William Jennings Bryan, US Secretary of State, wrote to J. P. Morgan stating that loans to any of the belligerents in the war in Europe would violate US neutrality/ In 1915 Bryan would resign over president Wilson's handling of the sinking of the Luisitania.
In 1939 in Cottbus (about 100km from Berlin) in Germany Ju-87 'Stuka' drive bombers, of Group I of the 76th Sturzkampfgeschwader, commanded by Walter Sigel, take part in a demonstration before senior Luftwaffe commanders. Sigel planned to show the onlookers a mass formation dive attack of twenty-seven aircraft. in all. The demonstration was to take place at a wooded area of Silesia near Neuhammer-am-Queis. Despite heavy cloud Sigel decided against postponement and thirteen aircraft ploughed into the ground at about 500km/hr.
Meanwhile in Los Angeles the new musical fantasy film The Wizard of Oz, was having its premiere at Grauman's Chinese Theatre in Hollywood. I wonder who was there?
In 1945 the end of the war was being celebrated, but in San Francisco serious rioting broke out with more than a thousand people needing hospital treatment as military personnel, mainly sailors, ran amok.
In 1950 a massively powerful (magnitude 8.6) earthquake strikes Assam in north-east in India. At least fibe thousand, and perhaps as many as thirty thousand people die.
In 1969 the Woodstock Music & Art Fair opened in New York State on Max asgur's Dairy Farm.
In 1977 convicted Nazi war criminal Herbert Kappler ( head of Nazi police and security services in Rome) escaped from prison in a large suitcase carried by his wife and (apparently) unwitting carabinieri. The couple fled to West Germany from which the government refused to extradite them. Kappler died about six months later. One further element of interest relationship between Kappler and Monsignor Hugh O'Flaherty ('The Scarlet Pimpernel of the Vatican') whom he threatened to kill during the war, and befriended after.
Also that day in 1977 the famous Wow! radio signal was received at The Big Ear radio telescope in Deleware. Terrestrial interference or alien signal?
Comments? Ideas? Suggestions?
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Post by missyfan45 on Aug 15, 2020 23:45:10 GMT
wow and woodstock are good alien involved ones,Ignatius of Loyola is a good pure historical,Mary Stuart as well, andCologne Cathedral is a good torchwood base.
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Catsmate
13th Incarnation
It's complicated....
Posts: 3,748
Favourite Doctors: Thirteen, Six, Five, Two, Eight, Eleven, Twelve, One, Nine...
Traits: Eccentric, Insatiable Curiousity.
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Post by Catsmate on Aug 16, 2020 12:35:25 GMT
I would expect the HRE, like any large, organised, government would have their own 'investigating agency', similar to Torchwood, the Shadow Directory, the ICMG, ESCRO, the Special Congress, LONGBOW/LONGSTOP, the Vigiles Umbrum, the Legion of Smoke, the Secret Office, UNIT or the Special Services Directorate...
Interestingly Charlemagne did have his 'paladins' so they could be used as the foundations for such a group; knights, men-at-arms, artificers, scholars, skilled thieves et cetera. Just tone down the medieval chivalry and step up the weirdness level. Blend in recovered, and incomprehensible, alien tech and recovered records from Roman rimes. Perhaps an alien, 'witch', TDP or even (gasp!) a Saracen1, too....
There's a campaign there, or at least a scenario.
1. Who, naturally, have a similar organisation. The two bicker, fight over advanced technology, cooperate to deal with large threats and try and keep their respective political masters from unleashing alien weapons they don't understand.
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Post by missyfan45 on Aug 16, 2020 15:10:22 GMT
yeah alien tech hmmm lets create a thread about that!
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