In the United States, neither of the two totalitarian institutions arose that plague us today, the Federal Reserve and the IRS. The Senate was never wrested from the legislatures of the States and put in the hands of demagogues. The Federal Government never grew into the economy-stultifying monster now so grievously parasitizing us. Without the burdens of inflation and bureaucratic gigantism, the American economy grew at a steady rate to become several times larger than ours.

A private space program begun in the 1930's resulted in space capabilities surpassing even those depicted in the movie '2001', let alone the pathetic Welfare-State botch we see today.

Bill Parkyn

Tesla Honored - Review This Timeline
Having perfected his many inventions and allowing his adopted country full use of his Zero Point Energy system, the Tesla Death Ray, robot ships and tanks, Radar, Sonar,Robot controlled airplanes and submarines, FM radio and other Wireless equipment, the electrical engineer who came to this country with almost nothing but his brilliant mind , is today recognized as the principal power that prevented World War 2.

As Nazi Germany began it's invasion of Poland in August of 1939 the Army was stopped with Tesla's laser and particlebeam guns that melted the Nazi Panzer tanks like a hot knife through butter. Nazi Germany was considered an "Outlaw Country" by the new League of Nations and Adolf Hitler a War Criminal Hitler and his government officials were tried in a World court, found guilty and were all sent to Nordberg prison for life. Germany was made to pay tribute to Poland for the damage they caused and Germany elected a young scientist-engineer as President; his name was Werner Von Braun.

The United States shared many of the Tesla inventions with the rest of the world and today almost all countries use Tesla's "Zero Point Electricity Generating system" for their lighting and power.

The League of Nations changed it's name to the United Nations in 1941 after it discovered the Japanese plot to bomb Pearl Harbor; the U.S. Naval Base in Hawaii. The Japanese fleet was destroyed at sea after they failed to turn back after being ordered to do so by the United States Space Forces and the United Nations Space Federation. Bases on the Moon had watched the Japanese using Tesla's newest invention: Radar television. Today the Earth is composed of peaceful nations that do not envy their neighbors as each nation has free unlimited power and can concentrate their money on building a better world and depend on the Space Federation Robot Army to search out and destroy any rogue nation or terrorist group who threatens the planet.

Thank God for Nikola Tesla !

Ron Ryan 73

Halifax explosion avoided - Review this Timeline
How can having a U-boat blow up the munitions ship Mont Blanc on December 5th 1917 prevent the Halifax explosion? The answer is simple. In this alternate timeline she never made it to Halifax. Never had a chance to collide with the Belgian Relief Ship IMO. Never drifted to Pier 6 where she blew up in OTL. She still blows up, but the explosion takes places a day earlier than in our timeline and far out to sea.

Battle of New Orleans - Review this Timeline
Note: This timeline originally stated that the Battle of New Orleans was avoided due to news of the Treaty of Ghent.

I humbly submit that Timeline 8 has a false starting point; it presumes that the battle of New Orleans has something to do with the War of 1812. In fact, it was regarded as a separate matter by the British, and presumably other Europeans as well.

The Louisiana Purchase was not recognized as legal by any European nation, because under the Treaty of Ildefonso, Napoleon did not have the right to sell it to the US. Thus, the US was in receipt of stolen goods. This was specifically not addressed in the Treaty of Ghent; having acknowledged American sovereignty and existing borders, Britain was now going to go evict some squatters and thieves from the Spanish city of New Orleans.

E.S.

After the attempt on his life fails, El Malik al Shabazz, aka Malcolm X, becomes an even more powerful figure in the black community. After King's assassination, Shabazz becomes the undisputed leader of urban black America. His upstanding personal life and efforts to unify and advance peoples of color around the world not only sparks a tremendous self-improvement movement among young African-American males, but gains the sympathy of more liberal-minded whites. In 1970, Shabazz is elected to the US House of Representatives from Adam Clayton Powell's old district in Harlem, having defeated Powell and newcomer Charles Rangel in the Democratic primary. In Congress, Rep. Shabazz becomes the key symbol of black and non-white aspirations. His riveting speaking ability and incisive views on all manner of subjects makes him much sought after across the country and all over the world. In 1977, the new President, Jimmy Carter, names Rep. Shabazz as ambassador to the United Nations. By the late 1970s, the tremendous self-improvement movement he inspired has resulted in an astonishing 90-percent-plus high school graduation rate and a 10-percent prison rate among young black American males. Black educational and civic achievement has led to an impressive rise in the number of blacks in the middle-class by the mid-1980s. Drug dealing has become virtually non-existent, as there is no market for it, and inner-city real estate has long since been gentrified by black real estate developers. Shabazz's policies in Congress in the early 1970s to spur black entrepreneurship has resulted in a corresponding rise in black business ownership and wealth in the 1980s. This wealth found its way into the booming stock market of the 1980s and 1990s, thus further eroding black poverty.

Ambassador Shabazz's fight against poverty and ignorance around the globe, particularly in Africa and the Middle East, made him a controversial figure in the UN. His support for a Palestinian state in 1979 led President Carter to ask for his resignation.

Shabazz shocked the political world in 1982 when he announced his candidacy for the governorship of New York. He further surprised the established political order by actually winning the Democratic primary against New York City Mayor Ed Koch, and narrowly defeating the Republican candidate, Lew Lehrman, in the election.

Governor Shabazz, the most popular political figure in the US next to President Reagan, delivered an historic speech at the Democratic National Convention in 1984 that almost lands him the Vice-Presidential nomination. After his landslide re-election as Governor in 1986, Shabazz is the odds-on favorite for the Presidential nomination in 1988. He wins several primaries in big states such as Michigan and New York, but fails to overtake Massachusetts Governor Michael S. Dukakis, who wins the nomination. At the convention, Governor Shabazz is the 800-lb. gorilla; it is obvious that it is his party, although Governor Dukakis is the nominee. When Dukakis loses the election, Shabazz seems certain to try for the nomination again in 1992. Re-elected to a third term as Governor in 1990, he barnstorms the country as a Reagan-like figure. Tragedy strikes in November 1991, however, when Shabazz is shot and killed in Oklahoma City by a Gulf War veteran with peculiar political views, Timothy McVeigh.

E.A.B.

All three states quickly immobilize their armed forces and evict US forces within 6 months. In November 1865, The Confederate States recognized the U.C.K. as a independent nation and pledge military support against the United States. In January 1866, the invasion of the north began. In March 1866, the U.C.K. elects its first president, a small farmer by the name of James Clay. By February 1867, Kentucky forces take the states of Indiana, Illinois, Ohio, and Maryland including Washington D.C. President Lincoln and key members of the United States retreat to New York City and establish it as the new nation's capitol. On June 10, 1868, 2 weeks after losing the state of New Jersey, the United States surrenders unconditionally to the United Commonwealth of Kentucky. After the war, Kentucky sells Ohio back to the US for an unheard of sum of 20 million dollars. This is the only territory the US will ever get back. Kentucky gains more territory, and more military might when California joins the commonwealth in 1876. The U.C.K. now has a formidable Atlantic naval fleet, and a Pacific as well. The states of Nevada, Utah, Colorado, Nebraska and Dakota were formed between 1883 and 1896.

Anon.

Alexandria Spared    Review This Timeline

Caesar decides not to burn the city of Alexandria due to the vast wealth of knowledge held within its great library. The survival of the library, as well as most of the knowledge of the ancient world, survives. The wealth of knowledge allows the Roman empire to press an even greater technological edge over its enemies. This technology allows the empire to survive into the modern age and beyond. Stable rule of the world under Rome allows technology to advance at a higher rate than normal, enabling space flight to be accomplished in the 1200's. Interstellar travel is later discovered and Rome goes on to be an interstellar empire.

Why Not?

Garfield Shot   Review This Timeline

If not for the invention of a metal detector by Alexander Graham Bell and the work of skilled surgeons President Garfield would have died.

The resulting investigation into the assassination plot revealed a conspiracy by "Stalwarts" Republicans from New York state. Senators Roscoe Conkling, and Thomas C. Platt and Vice-President Chester A. Arthur, had their plot succeeded would have controlled the Presidency through Arthur. The three were tried convicted and executed, and lesser conspirators were sentenced to lengthy prison terms. As a result, public opinion turned on the remaining "Stalwarts"thus breaking their control and power in the Republican party.

Chris E. Hendrick

AM Australia

Nixon Brought Down by Plumbers   Review This Timeline

With each passing week, Nixon’s political base erodes further and further as more damaging revelations emerge from the Ervin Committee hearings; by the time the 1972 New Hampshire primaries are held, his reelection, which seemed a foregone conclusion just a year earlier, is in serious doubt. His psychological health also suffers under the constant pressure of being simultaneously investigated by the Ervin Committee, the Justice Department, and the IRS, and in April 1972 Nixon is obliged to step down under the terms of the 25th Amendment. On his departure, his vice-president, Spiro Agnew, is sworn in as 38th President of the United States. Agnew names House Speaker Carl Albert as Vice-president

The 1972 presidential elections are a full-blown disaster for the GOP; despite their efforts to mend the party’s tarnished reputation, Agnew and Albert are crushed, losing 44 of 50 states to the Democratic ticket of George McGovern and Thomas Eagleton. McGovern’s administration begins an era of firm Democratic control of the White House that will remain unbroken until 1996, when Kansas senator and Ervin Committee alumni Robert Dole earns a narrow victory over former Arkansas governor Bill Clinton.

All of Nixon’s aides pay a price for their actions during the crisis, but the bar of justice lands particularly hard on John Ehrlichman, who ends up serving eleven years in prison for perjury, obstruction of justice, and related offenses. His association with the White House "plumbers" unit continues to haunt him even after his release from jail, and by the late ‘80s he has gone into seclusion to try and escape the stigma of being linked with the Ellsberg and Watergate conspiracies.

Chris Oakley

Hitler Assassination Speeds End of WW2 - the Execution of Hermann Goering   Review This Timeline

An American newspaper reporter’s eyewitness account of Goering’s execution:

"From the very hour that the Nazi dictatorship first took control of Germany in 1933, the common image of Chancellor Hermann Goering has been that of a bold, strutting master of all he surveys. Thus it was a shock to both the eye and the mind to see the pathetic, morose figure that trudged towards the gallows under heavy military escort. The man whose air force once dominated Europe’s skies and who inherited the throne of the Third Reich after Hitler’s assassination wore the expression of someone whose
spirit had been utterly crushed by the vicissitudes of life. As he began to climb the steps up to the waiting noose, I noticed that the MPs guarding him were never more than two inches away from his side; I later found out from their commanding officer that they had caught him earlier that day trying to take his own life with a pair of cyanide capsules hidden in his cell, and the security cordon around him had naturally been tightened to ensure he did not have the opportunity for any further suicide attempts.

Martin Bormann and Heinrich Himmler, his two most bitter rivals, were just a few feet away, but if they took any satisfaction in seeing the wretched state to which their enemy had been reduced they gave no outward sign of it. Likewise, Herr Goering gave no indication that he took any solace in the knowledge his hated adversaries would soon be joining him in death. A shroud of sullen silence seemed to surround the Reichschancellor while the MPs placed the hangman’s rope around his throat; even when a crowd of German civilians began taunting their despised former ruler, Goering was as still as the tombs to which he had consigned millions of his victims. At one point it became so quiet you could distinctly hear the staccato clicking of the gears in the newsreel cameras which had been set up to record his demise for posterity. In a sense, one could legitimately say he was already dead--his eyes were desolate and barren, void of even the faintest spark of life.

Just after eleven o’clock, at a signal from the commander of the guard detail, the hangman opened the trap door beneath Goering’s feet and the erstwhile ruler of Nazi Germany felt the noose clamp around his neck as he plunged through. His eyes rolled back in his head like a mad dog about to foam at the mouth; his body twitched spastically in its death throes, a grotesque marionette dancing to a macabre tune; his last breaths came out in choked, agonized gasps. As I watched this grim spectacle, I was reminded of that famous quote from Shakespeare’s "King Lear", in which a servant says of one of Lear’s former friends: ’Nothing in his life became him like the leaving of it.’ The Chancellor’s hideous end was, indeed, most consistent with the barbaric and dissolute life that he led for so many years.

At ten minutes past the hour local time, Chancellor Goering was formally pronounced dead by a US Army medical officer; all that remained was for his body to be taken away for cremation, and accordingly the same MPs who had led him up to the gallows now cut him down from the hangman’s rope and carried him into the Palace of Justice so that his corpse could be loaded into a waiting ambulance to be transported to the crematorium. Then it was time for the next two condemned men, Himmler and Bormann, to make their death march toward the gallows....

There was no one present at the execution who expressed any mourning at Goering’s death; in fact, as I climbed into a waiting taxicab to return to my hotel to file this story, I heard my driver express the sentiment that he wished the chancellor’s suffering had lasted much longer and been much more painful. I later learned that the driver had lost three of his sons, all Luftwaffe fighter pilots, in the Battle of Britain, and that he held Goering personally responsible for their deaths."

Chris Oakley

Discovery of Dinosaur Leads to Epidemic in New York  Review this Timeline

The economic damage inflicted by the VRAD epidemic proves to be just as serious as the human toll: a Treasury Department study conducted in April, 1954 estimates that New York businesses lost almost $67 million in revenues during the outbreak, with another $48 million lost in tourist spending as vacationers shied away from the city rather than risk exposure to Manhattan syndrome. It takes more than six years for the Big Apple to recover from this blow to its economic health.

In the early ‘60s, writer Ray Bradbury sells a VRAD epidemic-inspired short story, "The Plague", to the Saturday Evening Post; it earns rave reviews from readers and critics and attracts the interest of a number of Hollywood executives who sense a potential matinee hit in a feature film version of the story. Bradbury, however, is reluctant to let the studios get hold of his brainchild, fearful that they might cheapen it -- and his concerns turn out to be somewhat justified when he hears one Warner Brothers executive suggest reworking his poignant drama into a "King Kong"-style ‘monster on the rampage’ adventure. Almost thirteen years pass before Bradbury’s story reaches the silver screen, but when it finally does his decision to stick by his guns pays off :the film adaptation of "The Plague" turns out to be one of the highest-grossing and most critically acclaimed movies of 1975, its box office success surpassed only by that of "Jaws" and "One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest".

With the remaining tissue samples either cremated by the New York City Public Health Department or locked away at the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta, the Arctic dinosaur largely fades from the public eye during the ‘70s and ‘80s. In June 1993, however, interest in the creature is revived with a vengeance when a San Francisco-based genetics research corporation announces that a company-sponsored paleontological expedition in China has located a nearly intact fossilized Arctic dinosaur skeleton in the Gobi Desert. Speculation on what the company plans to do with the skeleton ranges from the commonplace practice of donating it to a museum to wildly far-fetched pipe dreams of cloning living dinosaurs with the skeleton’s DNA;the rumors are finally put to rest three months later with the news that the skeleton will be extensively analyzed as part of a 10-year clinical study on VRAD and related illnesses.

Chris Oakley

NATO Assists Czechoslovakia in 1968   Review this Timeline

The full text of Alexander Dubcek’s August 19th address:

"People of Czechoslovakia, a grave responsibility has fallen on me. In the past twenty-four hours, I have been informed by our top state security and defense officials that the Soviet Union, who up until this moment I had considered a friend of the Czech people, intends to march on our borders and impose military rule on our nation to halt the progress we have made in recent months in reforming our government. Words cannot express my shock, my anger, at this gross betrayal of the guarantees made by Moscow to the People’s Republic in respect to our national sovereignty; not since the Western powers abandoned us to Hitler thirty years ago has this country experienced a more cruel abdication of what should be a sacrosanct commitment to honor pacts between ourselves and other nations.

In light of what has been revealed to me about Moscow’s intentions, I regret to say I have no choice but to declare that a state of war is now in effect between the Czechoslovak People’s Republic and the Soviet Union. Concurrent with this, I have instructed our foreign minister to inform the Soviet embassy in Prague first, that all diplomatic and economic ties between Czechoslovakia and the USSR are being terminated as of noon today; second, that we are recalling all our diplomatic personnel from the Soviet Union at once; third, that all Soviet diplomats must leave Czech soil no later than 4 o’clock this afternoon. Furthermore, I have been told the German Democratic Republic, Hungary, Poland, and Bulgaria fully intend to commit elements of their own militaries to assist the USSR in its unprovoked and illegal intrusion into our borders, and accordingly the Foreign Ministry is at this moment drafting an official statement to the effect that the Czechoslovak People’s Republic hereby revokes its participation in the Warsaw Security Pact of May, 1955.

One hour ago, at my request, our embassy in Belgium contacted the NATO secretary general’s office to petition him for military assistance in the defense of our nation against the coming assault. This is, granted, an unusual step for the Czech government to be taking, but these are unusual times -- nations that for years we had considered as friends are behaving like enemies, and so those whom only a day earlier were judged enemies may soon prove to be our only true friends. I do not yet know how NATO will respond to our request, but regardless of how they answer it is imperative that we act without delay to safeguard our frontiers. Soldiers of the army, pilots of the air force, officers of the border police, brothers and sisters, I call on you now to defend our country with every last drop of blood in your veins and every last round of ammunition in your guns. The sovereignty of Czechoslovakia must be protected no matter what the ultimate cost."

Chris Oakley

Iran - Iraq War    Review this Timeline

The Iran-Iraq war leaves both victors and vanquished alike exhausted. The post-Khomeini Iranian government, struggling to maintain its authority over a nation whose territory has been sharply reduced by the war, is unable to exert much influence in the Middle East, and Iran’s economy, which had previously been one of the richest in that region, is in worse shape than that of many Third World countries. Convinced that the 1979 Islamic revolution has been a dismal failure, a small but vocal group of middle-class Iranians begins agitating for the return of the Pahlavi royal dynasty, believing only a restoration of the monarchy can bring prosperity back to their country. Meanwhile, Syria, with more than a third of its army committed to bolstering the Iraqi occupation forces in western Iran, can do little but watch in alarm as Israel chases its troops out of Lebanon in the summer of 1981. Even Iraq, for all its newly increased strength as a regional power, must for the first few months after the end of the war adopt a temporarily defensive posture to allow its military time to consolidate its wartime gains.

Having triumphed over his archenemy Iran, Saddam Hussein, in the spring of 1987, turns his eyes to another lucrative prize: Kuwait, Iraq’s southern neighbor and a former province of Iraq. With Iran neutralized, Israel concentrating on protecting its positions in Lebanon and the Golan Heights, and the US seemingly preoccupied with the Soviet threat to its interests in Europe ,the Iraqi strongman is convinced he can bring Kuwait under his control with no opposition whatsoever. This proves a fateful miscalculation on his part: no sooner has the Republican Guard begun massing its forces along the Kuwaiti border than President Reagan orders the deployment of 350,000 troops to the Persian Gulf. Incensed at what he considers an intrusion on his exclusive turf, Saddam orders the Republican Guard to attack Kuwait immediately, triggering a massive US counterattack which shatters the Iraqi invasion force in less than 48 hours. Within six weeks of the ill-fated assault the Saddam regime itself is crumbling as many of Iraq’s Arab neighbors, tired of being continually menaced by him, send their own forces in to support the American war effort.

Western Iran proves to be Iraq’s Vietnam as a protracted guerilla war in that region inflicts further damaging losses on the Iraqi military; even the Republican Guard proves unable to overcome the almost suicidal determination of Iranian resistance factions to expel their hated Iraqi foes from their homeland. Syria’s own occupation forces fare no better than those of their Iraqi allies, and eventually Assad orders the recall of all Syrian troops, triggering the collapse of both Iraq’s control of western Iran and the Iraqi-Syrian coalition. Saddam, mentally and physically shattered by the disintegration of his war machine, dies in exile in Libya in November, 1987.

Chris Oakley

U.S. Participates in Moscow Olympics    Review this Timeline

Far from being the glorious affirmation of Communist superiority Brezhnev had hoped for, the Moscow Olympics instead turn into a black eye on the face of Soviet international prestige. Abroad, Brezhnev is harshly criticized both for imposing martial law and for kicking US athletes out of Moscow before the closing ceremonies; at home, the martial law declaration sparks off a wave of anti-government demonstrations similar to the ones which preceded the ill-fated Hungarian uprising of 1956 and the occupation of Czechoslovakia in 1968. And as rumors begin to filter back to the Soviet Union that the occupation of Afghanistan isn’t going quite as smoothly as the Kremlin boasts, the credibility of the Communist regime as a whole becomes somewhat questionable.

Soviet-American relations are at an all-time low in the months following the Olympics. Shortly after the Summer Games end, Brezhnev suspends arms control negotiations with the US and declares that such talks will only resume when the White House apologizes for the actions of the US Olympic team at the opening ceremonies; President Carter and his successor, Ronald Reagan, steadfastly refuse to do so, leading to a stalemate that continues until Brezhnev’s death in 1982.

Over the next few years, the CPSU’s power base continues to steadily crumble as the Russian people, resentful over the material and spiritual deprivation resulting from nearly six decades of Communist rule, become bolder and bolder about dissenting from official party doctrine. By 1986 the USSR,which once seemed invincible, is teetering on the verge of total collapse; the final blow comes in March, 1988 as a protest rally in Leningrad to demand increased pay for factory workers turns into a full-scale riot that leaves 50 dead and more than 200 wounded. In the face of popular anger over the CPSU’s use of force against the marchers, the Kremlin cannot maintain even a semblance of control over its people, and on April 27th, 1988,the CPSU Central Committee votes to formally dissolve the Soviet Union. Two months later, the Warsaw Pact disbands as well.

Fulton Invents the Automobile      Review this Timeline

The Fulton Horeseless Carriage Company, founded in 1811, was off to a slow start. Many people were too perplexed with the new "steam wagon," as it was called, to grasp its significance, and most roads were still uncleared and unpaved for horse-and-buggy travel, let alone a mechanized vehicle. Sales at first were virtually non-existent, and limited to a handful of rich people in the cities and the South. Then managers at Fulton Horseless had a brainstorm: attach a hauling apparatus to the back of the carriage, and use it to clear land and haul heavy materials. Soon farmers were using this "tractor" to till land and the government bought Fulton's "haulers" (the first trucks) to clear land for roads. By the mid-1820s, a system of dirt roadways east of the Mississippi was in place, soon to be called highways. Fulton Horseless gradually improved its product, introducing two major advances in the 1830s: an automatic steering wheel that could shift in reverse and turn the vehicle from side to side, and rubber wheels (tires), which made the vehicle last longer on rough roads. People began buying the useful wagons, and the highway system made it much easier to travel long distances. The resulting jobs created in Northern and Southern assembly plants eliminated financial depressions in the 1830s. Young men tinkering in shops began to make their own improvements to the Fulton wagon; one even came up with a steam-powered "bi-cycle," the first motorcycle and scooter.

The Fulton tank, introduced in 1814, had no military application until 1846, when the Army first used it in battle in the Mexican War. The now vastly improved design of the tank, coupled with the extension of roadways west and south of the Mississippi as settlers drove west in their motorized steamwagons, allowed for the Army to invade Mexico to El Salvador and win the war in only two months. The overpowered Mexican government quickly fell, and the U.S. annexed all of Mexico along with Texas and California by the end of 1846. All three were eventually given territory status, then statehood, with New Mexico compromising a wide swath of land between Texas and Arizona and straight down to Central America - the largest state in the Union, bordering the Atlantic and Pacific.

The U.S. Army, seeing the effectiveness of the tank, saw applications in fighting the Indians in the West. Armored tanks accompanied settlers westward; the Indians, already bewildered by the settlers' steamwagons, proved no match for the tanks. Most Indians were either killed or placed on reservations by the mid-1850s.

Abolitionists, appalled with slavery, now had a new cause: the mistreatment of the Indian in the West. They felt that western territory should not only be slavery-free, but large portions given back to the decimated Indians as well. But westward expansion won the day; by 1860 there was a national highway system stretching from New York to California. Delivery of the mail by pony express was quickly phased out in favor of more efficient steamwagon delivery. Towns had sprung up overnight; some became small cities, the most famous being Los Angeles.

The outbreak of the Civil War in 1861 changed America forever. The South had a few tanks, but could not compete with the more industrialized North, which converted almost entirely to tank manufacture, and soon had a 3-to-1 edge in armored vehicles. Fulton's plant came up with a revolutionary invention: a telegraph cable socket in each tank that can tap into telegraph poles and instantly relay troop movements to Army HQ in Washington. The South sued for peace in late 1862.

President Lincoln now presided over an American Empire, thanks to the Fulton company. Victorious in war, he instantly freed the slaves in all U.S. states and territories by proclamation in 1863, and magnanimously reconciled rebel States back into the Union by the time he left office in 1869.

The 13th Amendment outlawing slavery in the U.S. was adopted in 1865. His successor, President William E. Seward (1869-77), ushered in a golden age of industry and race reconciliation. Former slaves and slaveholders found work in Northern Fulton factories and the South was quickly re-built and industrialized.

The Fulton Company hired German engineers named Daimler and Benz to re-tool the company in peacetime. Their radical contribution replaced the steam engine with the internal combustion engine in 1872, powered by gasoline. The incredible demand of the new and improved Fulton "Daimler Benz" automobile created demand in the millions, which in turn fostered development of streamlined management techniques, such as the assembly line. Peripheral industries in glass, oil, steel, rubber and cement skyrocketed overnight.

By 1880 a business combine of John D. Rockefeller and Andrew Carnegie formed to buy out the owners of the Fulton Motor Company, by then the largest corporation in the world. Carnegie's death left Rockefeller as the head of an oil and manufacturing monopoly unrivaled in history, giving him the powers of a de-facto king. The exploitation of the American worker in the midst of great prosperity in the period was legendary. All automobile machinists, black and white, native and foreign-born, joined forces to risk life and limb to form labor cooperatives, mostly with little success until 1896.

That year the populist, anti-Big Business candidacy of William Jennings Bryan swept him into the White House, making him (at 36) the youngest U.S. President. President Bryan's 12 years in office were groundbreaking. He broke up the gigantic Fulton Standard Corporation, allowed unions to flourish, and instituted many election reforms, and addressed environmental and safety problems of the automobile and industrialization. In other ways, Bryan's Administration was marked by a pious moralism and self-righteousness that caused alcohol and tobacco to be outlawed in 1901, and a near-dictactorial attitude toward other nations following U.S. victory in the war with Spain in 1898.

A backlash against Bryanism caused the election of Governor William Howard Taft of Ohio as President in 1908. President Taft continued Bryan's progressive policies but at a slower pace, which made him unpopular with Republicans like former New York Governor Theodore Roosevelt, who lost to Bryan twice, in 1904 and 1908. The Republican split allowed the Democrats, led by New Jersey Governor Woodrow Wilson, to return to power in 1912. Just as moralistic and idealistic as Bryan, President Wilson initially tried to keep the U.S. out of the war in Europe, but Germany's aggression forced the U.S. to declare war against that nation in 1917. The war was bloody and long, thanks to German tank technology, learned from the Americans (German engineers were prominent at Fulton Motors), and superior tank commanders on both sides, such as German Col. Rommel and American Col. Patton. The war dragged on throughout 1919, causing Wilson to suffer a massive stroke, and was fought to a stalemate in 1920, causing both sides to draft an Armistice that left Europe pretty much as it was prior to 1914.

The U.S., seeking to forget war, elected a pleasant non-entity, Warren Harding, in 1920, and proceeded to abolish the 20-year prohibition on alcohol and tobacco in 1921, which had given rise to a wealthy underclass of Italian and Irish immigrant criminals, to celebrate. The Roaring Twenties were very good for Fulton Motor Corporation, especially when the company bought Hughes Aircraft in 1926 and made its eccentric young CEO, Howard Hughes, president of Fulton. Hughes gained complete control of Fulton's board of directors in 1929, and continued the company's heritage of dramatic innovation. Hughes hired a scientist from Massachusetts, Robert Goddard, to continue his experiments with rockets, which led Fulton Hughes Aircraft to introduce the first prototype for a rocket-powered airplane in 1931.

President Harding's death in 1923 elevated his Vice President, Herbert Hoover, to the Presidency. Hoover's reputation as a humanitarian and business and engineering background made him wildly popular during the Roaring Twenties, especially after he borrowed a phrase from his Vice President, Calvin Coolidge: "The business of America is business." The 1928 race was competitive, but New York Governor Al Smith was still unable to overcome his opponent, Vice President Coolidge.

America's excesses caught up with it in the October 1929 stock market crash. The response of the President, "Silent Cal" Coolidge, was wholly inadequate to the economic crisis, and the nation lurched into Depression. Colidge himself was defeated for re-election in 1932 by Democrat Franklin D. Roosevelt.

Corporate America lay in ruins, but the Fulton Motor Corporation, under the leadership of a business genius, Howard Hughes, continued to make money and rise to higher heights. He formed the world's first commercial jetline, TransWorld Airways (TWA) in 1936. Fulton Hughes Aircraft began manufacturing jet engines for other airlines by 1939. German engineers at the company developed better rockets in the 1930s, and began firing rockets that reached beyond Earth's atmosphere and into outer space by 1933. Hughes also formed Fulton Hughes Electronics to explore groundbeaking technologies like television and radio signalling from atmospheric buoys, or satellites.

President Roosevelt was notorious for his dislike of big businessmen, but he was fond of Hughes, who rumor has it, supplied FDR with visits from starlets from the Hollywood studio, RKO, that he owned.

Europe in the 1920s was a mess. In Germany, Kaiser Wilhelm I was overthrown in a coup in 1923, and small factional parties, including the Nazi Party, tried to fill the vacuum. The 1920 Armistice was a joke, as Great Britain and France continued to build arms and the German military government also prepared for a future conflict. Moreover, American and German scientists were trading notes on their atom research, as such cooperation was not illegal. Each nation engaged in free trade even through the 1930s, helped by the failure of the Taft Hartley Act of 1930 (thanks to lobbying by Fulton Motors and Hughes) and gradually the worst effects of the Depression began to subside by the 1936 election in the U.S. They were also free to engage in acts of aggression, as in Britain's occupation of the Mideast, France's mini-war with Germany in 1924-25, and tensions between Germany and Italy throughout the 1920s, as there was no real foreign relations between nations and no international body to argue or resolve disputes. (Wilson and Bryan had talked of a "league of nations" during their presidencies, but it was dismissed as naive dreaming by most people.)

Depression in Germany did not recover soon enough to prevent the rise of Adolf Hitler, a fanatic German politician, as Chancellor in 1933. Free trade enabled Fulton Hughes to build a huge jet aircraft and automobile manufacturing plant in Germany in 1936 - a huge boon to the German economy and Hitler's prestige, especially in an Olympic year. The racial tension that had dissipated and eventually disappeared as the result of slavery's end in 1865 and the even-handed postwar reconstruction of the South enabled all Americans to swell with pride at Jesse Owens' achievements at the Berlin Olympics. By then, a growing anti-Nazi movement had been developing in the U.S. as the result of press reports of Nazi atrocities against German Jews. The movement helped Hughes decide to close the Fulton Hughes plant in Germany in 1938, a huge economic blow to both countries.

German scientists working with such companies as Fulton Hughes alerted Hitler to America's tremendous advancement in electronics, atom research and jet aviation. As a result, Hitler launched a massive, secret program to catch up with the U.S. in these areas. Fulton Hughes technicians helped Germany create jet aircraft, an advanced rocket program and television by 1938. Unknown to the world, Germany had a working atomic reactor program patterned after the one at the University of Chicago.

In early 1939, Albert Einstein alerted President Roosevelt to the fact that Germany was on the verge of the world's first atomic chain reaction at it's reactor facility outside Berlin. He warned that this success could shortly lead to production of a bomb that could destroy an entire city. An alarmed Roosevelt turned to Hughes to help him in a daring plan: to launch a jet airplane bombing raid of the reactor using Fulton Hughes aircraft technology. The raid, led by Army Gen. Jimmy Doolittle, was carried out on August 24, 1939, and was a success; the reactor was completely destroyed. For reasons of secrecy, Roosevelt gave the world no explanation for the raid, and gained criticism from Americans and the entire world community as a reckless warmonger. He actually made Hitler look sympathetic. FDR's likeness was burned in effigy in many U.S. cities, and a movement in Congress urged the President's impeachment. Faced with the possibility of defeat in 1940, the President announced that he would not seek renomination.

Hitler, according to reports surfaced years later, had planned to invade Poland on September 1, 1939, only a week after the reactor raid, but now postponed his plans - temporarily. The American isolationist movement was strengthened enough to first hand the Democratic nomination, and then the 1940 Presidential election, to Ambassador Joseph P. Kennedy and his running mate, Cordell Hull.

President Kennedy's inauguration on January 20, 1941, was the first to be televised, with equipment provided by Fulton Hughes Electronics.

EAB

Herb Score After Baseball           Review this Timeline

Once Score hangs up his glove for good, it isn’t long before Cooperstown beckons; in 1983,the legendary Indians and Red Sox starter is a unanimous first-ballot selection. At his induction ceremony the following spring, his acceptance speech is punctuated by several bursts of wild applause, a testament to the mark he has left on fans of all generations. Collectors of baseball memorabilia spare no expense to acquire items even slightly related to his career; in one instance, a 1978 World Series Game 3 program autographed by Score goes for more than $200,000 on the auction block.

In addition to his Hall of Fame honors, Score takes part in the torch relay for the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles and makes numerous guest appearances on NBC as a color commentator for their baseball telecasts. He also publishes at least a half-dozen baseball-themed books, including an autobiography in which he recounts the harrowing story of how, during his 1957 perfect game against the Yankees, a Gil McDougald line drive came within a cat’s whisker of shattering both his face and his career before he miraculously caught it at the last second.

But what many people consider his greatest post-career accomplishment comes in 1997, when he teams with several dozen active and former major league players to form Home Runs, a charity organization dedicated to fighting the housing shortage in America. Thanks in part to Score’s influence, the group raises $170 million in its first year and builds more than 5,000 new homes across the country, including three hundred up in Score’s hometown of Rosedale, New York.

Chris Oakley