here and right now on the all-holy Bible that I will tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.
This fic is inspired by the following stories: Strange Surroundings by PaladinDelta, Days of Fire by ghost company, Resistance by Jay Simpson, and Star Wars: A New Ally by Wolf2.
However, this is not a conventional Earth in the Star Wars universe fic because this story takes place in an alternate 1960s where JFK survived his assassination attempt and General George S. Patton is still alive!
But that's not to mention the fact that Earth in the story is set in the Cold War era because it makes sense for the sake of the setting and in a way to make the story unique from the other fics.
Imagine an unlikely alliance (no pun intended by me due to my other work) between the U.S. and the Soviet Union in which Fortunate Son plays in Huey helicopters and Russian tanks followed suit playing the U.S.S.R. National Anthem as they both made an epic charge as the unified forces of Earth battle the Empire! (Sorry for saying this to one of my favorite conservatives in history; Ronald Reagan, but for this story, it's a situation of the enemy of my enemy is my friend. At least you still have your evil empire. May you rest in peace, sir.)
Even though this is alternate history, it is assuming that things will have to be worse before it gets better and as part of this disclaimer I just want to let you know that in no way am I trying to be whatever label you put here.
Just understand that this is the 1960s we're talking about and to be fair in actual history the Civil Rights movement took longer than what will happen in the backstory of this fic but...
JFK managed to pass Civil Rights legislation in the spring of 1964 due to, other than not being assassinated, coughs awkwardly as the author here reveals the alternate vote on a certain amendment proposed by this historic individual that was added in actuality and is still in effect today an amendment to Title VII proposed by known Segregationist Howard Worth Smith of Virginia was voted down, and while on the topic: I want to warn you that there will be at least some depictions of sexism and racism in the story so be aware and the views of the characters in the story are not my view at all.
What I'm trying to say is that once again it is the culture of the period, not my personal beliefs, so please do not call me a racist, sexist, homophobic, bigot, etcetera just because I wrote some dialogue or scenes for this story. And to be honest with you there's certainly will be cases of messy situations occurring as it usually does whenever cultures clash.
Besides, this is a Star Wars story and the Sith Empire is portrayed as being speciesist, which is a form of racism. Fictional yes, but it is still undeniably racism.
Oh, and the Vietnam War ended by the Summer of 1967 just to let you know. I will not get into too much detail about it here in the main story since it is still a sore subject even today and there will be a prequel in the future centered around the conflict, but just know that in this tale Vietnam will be reunified but with Hanoi being renamed instead of Saigon.
With the above disclaimer out of the way, I hope you enjoy this unique take for an Earth in Star Wars fanfic :)
Happening in an alternate 1960s
And in a galaxy not so far away...
[*Cue the Star Wars theme immediately followed by Dawn of Instruction by The Jayhawkers*]
Earth: A Rendezvous with Destiny
Man has made a surprising discovery on the moon! AMERICAN ASTRONAUTS MICHAEL COLLINS, NEIL ARMSTRONG, and EDWIN EUGENE 'BUZZ' ALDRIN, JUNIOR had made official FIRST CONTACT with extragalactic life!
What they have encountered is a diplomatic ship carrying a Senator, two SPACE MONKS, and other representatives from a government known as the 'GALACTIC REPUBLIC'.
News quickly spread of the discovery of the STAR TREK loving (but mistaken by the extraterrestrials as a documentary) extra-galactic civilization and the war that was going on between them and a faction called the Sith Empire.
Realizing that the SITH EMPIRE is essentially 'SPACE NAZISM', the UNITED STATES OF AMERICA and other nations of the world eventually allied themselves with the REPUBLIC and prepared for the inevitable confrontation with the 'SPACE NAZIS'
Witness the events of the Earth-Sith War and the Revolt against the Eternal Empire through the eyes of three Earthlings: JACOB GREGORY MEYER of the UNITED STATES MARINE CORPS and SAMUEL DAVID WESTBROOK of the UNITED STATES ARMY'S famed 82ND AIRBORNE DIVISION; alongside HANZO ELWOOD NILSSON of the PRINCESS PATRICIA'S CANADIAN LIGHT INFANTRY as they fight the 'Space Demons' known to the rest of the galaxy as 'Sith Purebloods' and eventually Robots controlled by two deranged siblings.
Alternate Earth Timeline
Alternate Earth Timeline
1905
8th July: On the same day when President Theodore Roosevelt sends his 21-year-old daughter, Alice Roosevelt Longworth, and her party on a diplomatic journey to Japan, the Philippines, Hong Kong, China and Korea; more of Elihu Root's proposed reforms were implemented within the United States Army despite resistance from the War Department establishment.
Springfield Armory implemented pyrometers into their manufacturing after Root learnt that advancements in ballistics made it an essential as otherwise barrels would burst with horrific results.
1906
12th March: It was decided to recalibrate the M1905 rear sight on the M1903 Springfield rifles to match the ballistics of the newly adopted Spitzer round, which was officially designated as Cartridge, Ball, Caliber .30, Model of 1906.
Within weeks, Ordnance officials begin the process of retrofitting the rear sights on a one for one basis.
1911
29th March: The Colt samples, designed by renown firearms inventor John Moses Browning, was officially accepted as the Automatic Pistol, Caliber .45, M1911 by the United States Army to replace the previous service arm, the M1892 Revolver chambered in .38 Long Colt caliber, after lackluster terminal performance against suicidal Filipino Muslim Moro warriors known locally as 'Juramentado' and the .38 had a lack of stopping power on the drugged-induced Jihadists.
1912
30th May: As expected, Ralph Depalma won the 1912 Indianapolis 500-Mile Race
5th November: Democratic Presidential nominee Thomas 'Woodrow' Wilson of New Jersey unseated incumbent Republican President William Howard Taft and defeated former President Theodore Roosevelt, who ran under the banner of the new Progressive or 'Bull Moose' Party.
1913
20th January: Secretary of War Lindley Miller Garrison somehow managed to persuade Congress on the necessity of not only replacing obsolete rifles in the hands of National Guard units such as the 'Trapdoors' and 'Krag', but stockpiling M1903s to be issued to volunteers as manufacturing rifles from a 'Cold Start' would take the US months and he upheld the experience regarding mobilization from the Spanish - American War and Philippine Insurrection barely half a decade prior as justification.
The Senate passed appropriations for the overhaul, even encouraging Springfield Armory and Rock Island to offer affordable 'as-issued' Springfields on the commercial market, not to just members of the National Rifle Association.
Congress also authorized the War Department to issue production contracts with commercial firms in order to make up for the obvious shortfall.
As a result, the United States Army Ordnance Department issued contracts with Remington Winchester, Marlin, and Savage to manufacture Springfield M1903 rifles for the U.S. government to replace the obsolete 1873, 1884, 1892, and 1896 Springfield Rifles on a one-for-one basis.
9th October: Congress gave appropriations to keep machinery for the manufacturing of rifles in reserve.
1914
28th June: A bomb was hurled at the vehicle carrying Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir presumptive to the Austro-Hungarian throne, and his wife Sophie, Duchess of Hohenberg, killing the couple and the driver instantly.
Serbia was blamed after one of the assassins tackled by bystanders, Gavrilo Princip, confessed as to why he acting as under the Black Hand assassinated the Habsburg heir.
18th August: After some internal debate at 10 Downing Street, it was decided that when they issued production contracts in the United States, instead of building the proposed 'Pattern of 1914 Rifle', it would be logistically sound to simply have the American firms produce the standard No. 1 Mark III Short, Magazine Lee-Enfield per the specified blueprints.
14th September: Remington agreed to produce No. 1 Mark III Lee-Enfields on contract, purchasing an additional manufacturing facility in Eddystone, Pennsylvania due to the size of the order. Winchester also rented a facility in Providence, Rhode Island with the lease lasting "For the duration of the European struggle".
1915
11th May: The sinking of the British passenger liner R.M.S. Lusitania sparked national outrage throughout the United States of America due to American lives being lost when the vessel was sunk by a German submarine and a divided nation began debating if they should avenge the deaths of fellow Americans or stay out of the European War.
28th June: The British Ministry of Defense received its first batch of rifles, all of them meeting at least minimum standards with a majority being regarded as of above-average quality.
1916
4th July: The Preparedness Movement and Secretary of War Garrison's 'Continental Army Plan' gained reluctant Congressional support due to rumors of the British Empire possibly raiding through Canada or Germany using Unterseeboot 'U-Boats' or even Zeppelins to land troops in an attempt to sabotage goods destined for either the Entente or Central Powers respectively due in part to former President Theodore Roosevelt's appeal to the isolationists and non-interventionists for at least the necessity of upholding American neutrality in face of the ongoing war in Europe.
While the Continental Army Plan didn't go as far enough as the proponents in Congress would prefer, the standing army of 140,000 was nevertheless approved while the 'volunteer reserve force' of 400,000 men was instead modified by Congress to an alternative plan which emphasized not Garrison's national volunteer force, but a continued role for the State National Guards and Naval Militias.
As a result, the United States Army Ordnance, through the Director of Civilian Marksmanship and contracts with Remington and Winchester, began offering up additional Springfield M1903s for sale to civilians though it would take time to meet the additional demand for the standard rifle due to the firms prioritizing the ongoing contracts with the Entente.
7th November: Incumbent Democratic President Thomas 'Woodrow' Wilson of New Jersey was reelected President of the United States over Republican nominee Charles Warren Fairbanks of Indiana.
1917
10th March: Vladimir Ilyich Lenin headed back to his native Russia when he learned of a national uprising against the Tsar. The Marxist revolutionary was in Mexico supporting the Communist Pancho Villa in his quest when the new opportunity made world revolution not only seem not only possible but inmeniant.
15th March: Lenin disembarked at Vladivostok, Russia with a Mariachi band leading the Mexican volunteers who enthusiastically shouted "Viva la Revolution! ¡Trabajadores de todo el mundo, uníos!"("Long live the Revolution! Workers of the World Unite!") upon arrival.
2nd April: Following leakage of what infamously became known as the 'Zimmerman Note', a joint session of the United States Congress approved a Declaration of War on Imperial Germany.
The United States of America officially entered the Great War as a 'co-belligerent' of the Entente.
5th May: Four months after famed firearms inventor John Moses Browning publicly demonstrated his latest designs at Congress Heights in Washington, D.C. to the three hundred spectators applause, additional testing occurred at Springfield Armory in Springfield, Massachusetts and both weapons were unanimously recommended for immediate adoption.
In order to avoid confusion with the belt-fed watercooled M1917 machine gun, the Browning Automatic Rifle came to be known as the M1918 or Rifle, Caliber .30, Automatic, Browning, M1918 according to official nomenclature.
4th July: Major General John Joseph 'Black Jack' Pershing and the first contingent of 'Doughboys' of the 'American Expeditionary Force' arrived in France including a Brigade entirely composed of United States Marines attached to the Second Infantry Division.
The preparedness movement and even the reforms of Root and Garrison had inadvertently assisted in rapid mobilization of the American Military.
16th July: Winchester, Remington, Savage, and Marlin finished retooling their entire facilities including machinery that were held in storage to begin producing M1903 Springfield Rifles and M1918 Browning Automatic Rifles on a large scale. The government owned manufacturers of Springfield Armory in Springfield, Hampden County, Massachusetts and Rock Island Arsenal on Arsenal Island in Rock Island County, Illinois also immediately commenced production of M1903 Rifles en masse with the machinery they have in use and pulled from storage.
1918
11th November: The Armistice signed at Versailles officially ends 'The Great War'.
1919
5th January: The German Workers' Party, predecessor of the infamous National Socialist German Workers' Party, was formed by the merger of Anton Drexler's Committee of Independent Workmen with journalist Karl Harrer's Political Workers' Circle.
10th April: Mexican Revolutionary leader Emiliano Zapata was ambushed and shot dead in Morelos.
15th June: Mexican Communist Pancho Villa attacked Ciudad Juárez, Mexico. When the bullets begin to cross the American side of the border and fearing another incursion like the Raid on Columbus, Luna County, New Mexico three years previously, two units of the United States Army's 7th Cavalry Regiment crossed the border, to push Villa's forces from American territory.
31st July: First Sergeant Daniel Joseph 'Dan' Daly of the United States Marine Corps, now a household name, fatally killed the Communist leader Pancho Villa in a shootout at Vera Cruz, Mexico with the Chicago Tribune proclaiming that 'The Wicked Red of the West was Dead!'
1920
2nd November: Republican candidate Warren Gamaliel Harding of Ohio was elected as President over Democratic contender and, interestingly, fellow Buckeye James Middleton Cox with his vow of a "Return to Normalcy".
1921
1st July: The Communist Party of China (CPC) was founded.
29th July: Adolf Hitler became Führer of the National Socialist German Workers' Party in Germany but at this point the political party was still minor with few supporters.
1923
2nd August: Tragically, President Harding died unexpectedly after retiring early to a rented hotel room.
Reporters rushed to Vice President Coolidge's home in Vermont and awakened him in the late hours with Silent Cal being sworn in as President by his father, a local Justice of the Peace.
Calvin's first official act after swearing in was to head back to sleep.
1925
28th March: The remains of famed Spanish-American war hero Admiral George Dewey, revered for his leadership at the Battle of Manila Bay against the Spanish fleet, were still interred at Arlington National Cemetery.
1926
6th April: After experiencing the effect of long-range German 7.92×57mm Mauser rifle and machine gun fire during the 'Great War', the U.S. Army adopted the heavy 173-grain boat-tail bullet for its .30-06 cartridge, standardized as Cartridge, Ball, Caliber .30, M1.
The .30 M1 Ball cartridge was loaded with a new improved military rifle (IMR) propellant known as IMR 1185 and tipped with a 173-grain (11.2102 g) bullet which had a 9° boat-tail and an ogive of 7 calibers nose cone that resulted in a high ballistic coefficient of roughly 0.494 (G1 BC), achieving a muzzle velocity of 2,647 ft/s (807 m/s) and muzzle energy of 2,675 ft⋅lbf (3,627 J).
This bullet as designed had reduced air resistance in flight, resulting in less rapid downrange deceleration, less lateral drift caused by crosswinds, and significantly greater supersonic and maximum effective range from machine guns and rifles alike. It was intentionally more aerodynamic.
Additionally, a gilding metal jacket was developed that all but eliminated the metal fouling that plagued the earlier M1906 cartridge. The round overall weighed 420 grains (27 g) and its maximum range was approximately 5,500 yd (5,030 m).
The maximum average pressure (MAP) was 48,000 psi (330.95 MPa). The average target radius was specified to be not greater than 4.5 inches (11 centimeters) at 500 yards (457 meters) and not greater than 5.5 inches (14 centimeters) at 600 yards (549 meters) when fired from a Mann accuracy weapon.
The remarkable accuracy was due to the United States Army Ordnance Department instituting new measures of quality control in the manufacturing of rifles and ammunition, even if the M1903 was already regarded as a top notch shooting implement, and therefore the Ordnance Corps, after extensive testing of 7.5×55mm Swiss GP11 projectiles provided by the Swiss used to develop M1 Ball took direct inspiration from Switzerland's Karabiner Modell 1931 and Gewehrpatrone 1911 as individual marksmanship by the infantrymen was considered to be of the utmost importance by the United States Military establishment and the Director for the Promotion of Civilian Marksmanship Practice.
Within months, the newly adopted cartridge with the recalibrated M1905 sights to accommodate the ballistic trajectory of the new service round quickly became popular amongst interservice competition teams and expert riflemen for its considerably greater accuracy over that of the previous standard M1906 Ball.
1929
17th March: In a cruel sense of irony as retaliation for the Saint Valentine's Day Massacre, hitmen of the Ziegler Mob - a German-American criminal syndicate allied with the Irish-American Northside Gang and based out of neighboring East Chicago, Lake County, Indiana - attacked a warehouse owned by Capone with Flammenwerfer M.16s while impersonating firemen of the Chicago Fire Department. The press decided to refer to the deadly and gruesome arson incident as the 'Saint Patrick's Day Massacre'.
1930
14th November: The Semi-Automatic Rifle Board, consisting of officers from the United States Army, Navy, and Marine Corps, first convened on the subject of possibly adopting a self-loader as the next standard rifle of the American Military.
1931
11th March: The Chinese cargo liner Ta Chi had a fire in the Yangtze near Wusong but it was successfully put out in time before it could spread and sink the vessel or kill anyone. No injuries were reported.
17th October: Infamous mob boss Alphonse Gabriel 'Al' Capone aka Scarface was acquitted of Tax Evasion after he proved that the Federal Government constantly refused to see his tax returns, much to the embarrassment of Melvin Purvis and the 'Untouchables'.
5th November: An anti-aircraft gun aboard the U.S.S. Colorado (BB-45) was discovered to have faulty munition during a naval exercise and the shells were removed before it could result in a catastrophe.
1932
4th January: The joint interservice Semi-Automatic Rifle Board, consisting of officers from the United States Army, Navy, and Marine Corps, recommended the adoption of John Cantius Garand's T1E2 prototype with a 'gas trap' system as the next official general issue service rifle of the American military.
1933
30th January: Adolf Hitler, leader of the National Socialist German Workers' Party, also known as the Nazi Party, became Chancellor of Germany.
1934
19th May: A bombing plot to murder travelers at a train station in Tientsin, Hebei Province, China was foiled by local authorities.
1935
19th May: Colonel Thomas Edward Lawrence of the British Army, internationally known as 'Lawrence of Arabia', was interviewed by The Times a couple days after enjoying his motorcycle ride in the English countryside.
1936
9th January: Upon final approval after rigorous field trials, the Garand T1E2 design was officially adopted by the American military as the U.S. Rifle, Semiautomatic, Caliber .30, M1.
The word 'Semiautomatic' was soon dropped from the rifle's nomenclature and the official designation became U.S. Rifle, Caliber .30, M1.
9th March: Two months after the board recommended the adoption of Garand's design, production of the new standard arm, U.S. Rifle, Caliber .30, M1, was on track to begin with the first units to be equipped by the end of April.
24th April: The 3rd Infantry, 19th Infantry, 4th Cavalry, and 20th Field Artillery Regiments of the United States Army became the first units to turn in their M1903 Rifles and be reequipped with M1s.
The rest of the Regular Army would receive the new arm and exchange the previous weapon for them within months.
The United States Army Reserve and National Guard units of the several states were expected to gradually phase out their bolt-action 'Springfield' rifles within the next five years with servicemen authorized to purchase the surplus rifles for private ownership at reduced cost and the Department of the Army planned to offer surplus rifles on the open market through the Office of the Director of Civilian Marksmanship as well as bidding from commercial stores per policy.
The United States Marine Corps, on the other hand, decided until further review to retain the M1903 for most of their forces except for the Defense Battalions, due to holding a premium on long-distance marksmanship by their personnel, even more than their Army rivals, and the Marines believed that the Garand design was inherently less accurate than the cherished Springfield Model of 1903.
28th May: Elmer F. Straub, the 38th Adjutant General of Indiana, after receiving the necessary appropriations from the state legislature in Indianapolis and using it as an public works project during the midst of what's being called the 'Great Depression', immediately began expanding the boundaries of the rifle ranges for safety purposes when it was discovered that the maximum range of the .30 M1 Ball ammunition with its boat-tailed spitzer bullets was beyond the safety limitations of many military firing ranges.
30th May: The 16th Battalion, United States Marine Corps Reserve; based in Indianapolis, Marion County. Indiana, enthusiastically welcomed the planned expansion of the military rifle ranges across the Hoosier state.
The battalion was the first to be organized in an inland city of the United States, being formed in 1930 when several local Marine Corps veterans conceived of the idea and set forth to gain the necessary support needed from the Indianapolis community.
At this time, the entire Marine Corps Reserve was facing financial difficulties, and the 16th Battalion as well as numerous others did not receive pay for drills and training and provided their own uniforms but in spite of the difficulties, the reservists believed that they were crucial part of 'A force in readiness' and the fact that the ranges were increasing in size meant that there would be more opportunities to fire at 1,000 Yards across the state instead of being limited to 200, maybe 500 Yards maximum and therefore forced to utilize targets scaled down to represent longer-distances instead of firing at the actual ranges.
6th June: The Board of Ordnance decided that it was unnecessary to completely replace Cartridge, Cal. .30 M1 Ball (173 Grain, nine-degree boat-tailed projectile) with the proposed M2 Ball (152 Grain, flat-base projectile) as it would limit the current doctrine of well-aimed, long-distance rifle fire for Infantry, not to mention that M1 Ball was already determined to be safe to utilize in the recently adopted M1 Service Rifle as it was the very ammunition tested in the weapon designed by John Cantius Garand.
However, it could not be denied that there was a potential safety hazard at certain National Guard rifle ranges which could not be expanded to accommodate the outer boundary of the round without major expense after the National Guard Bureau conducted a nationwide study and review.
Cartridge, Cal. .30 M2 Ball was therefore adopted not to supersede M1 Ball but to be primarily a substitute for training purposes with the side-benefit of being able to utilized as combat ammunition if need be but the sights for the M1 Service Rifles would remain calibrated for the trajectory of the 173 grain projectile.
15th August: In an about-face after testing, the Commandant of the Marine Corps, Major General John Henry Russell, Junior, ordered that the First and Second Marine Brigades of the United States Marine Corps, along with the reserves, be reequipped with the new M1 Rifle in due haste.
10th September: The 16th Battalion, United States Marine Corps Reserve was officially recognized by Marine Corps Headquarters and reorganized to have two line companies and one headquarters company.
1937
7th July: Acting without orders weeks earlier, rogue elements of the Imperial Japanese Army staged the 'Marco Polo Bridge Incident' and the Japanese government was forced to officially declare war on China, sparking the Second Sino-Japanese War.
1938
10th October: Nazi Germany announced the annexation of the Sudentenland from Czechoslovakia.
8th November: The United States Department of War and the Department of the Navy disputed if the next war was going to occur in the Pacific as the Navy suggested or Europe once more per the Army though there were some naval adherents of an open war in Europe or even against Britain and army officials whom believed Japan would attempt to target American territories in the Pacific.
Ultimately as a compromise a 'War Plan Orange-Black' would be studied as a contingency with preparations to be made for a two-front conflict.
1939
1st September: Forces of Nazi Germany, in coordination with the Soviet Union, invaded the sovereign nation of Poland.
Within hours, Great Britain and France officially declared war on Germany.
1940
19th July: The 76th Congress enacted the Two Ocean Navy Act, establishing an expansion of the United States Navy in face of aggression from Germany and Japan.
Congress also passed the Selective Training and Service Act of 1940 to increase manpower across the branches.
14th August: Both the Birmingham Small Arms Company Limited factory at Small Heath, the only factory manufacturing Lee-Enfields on the eve of war, and the Royal Small Arms Factory in London, got struck during the Battle of Britain with all machinery lost.
Even the shadow factories were reduced to rubble, revealing that the Germans may have successfully infiltrated the Ministry of Defence but nonetheless the occurrence forced Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill to negotiate for more war material with small arms now becoming an urgent priority of the Lend-Lease program.
And the matter was indeed urgent as after the Evacuation from Dunkirk the British Army were underequipped of modern weapons due to being forced to abandon vehicles and armaments, nevermind hardly any spare Lee-Enfields left to be spread across the forming Home Guard units.
Within the week after gaining an understanding with the American government, the Ministry of Defence ordered units to officially begin the process of being reequipped and familiarize themselves with the U.S. Rifle, Caliber .30, M1, Browning Automatic Rifles of the M1918A2 pattern, and M1911A1 Handguns with ammunition shipped over as part of Lend-Lease while civilian arms were shipped overseas courtesy of a public awareness campaign by the National Rifle Association of America which were issued to the Home Guard upon arrival.
There were also machinery deemed to be 'surplus' inbound to manufacture them on the Isle and technicians sent to advise British factories being set up on producing the M1s, M1918s, and M1911A1s as well as Cartridge S.A. Ball .30 inch Mark Iz - the direct and literal British equivalent of Cartridge, Cal. .30 M1 Ball - and .45 ACP.
1941
31st November: Tipped off due to creditable intelligence reports that unwittingly validates the sensational headlines and vindicates the 'war warnings', the United States Navy in coordination with the Hawaiian Division of the United States Army prepared a trap for the inevitable incursion.
7th December: Under the guise of an unannounced live fire military exercise, the American garrison were prepared when the raiders arrived.
The Japanese aggressors were stunned by the response of the garrison, not even holding a contingency plan if the Americans were not attending church nor resting in general.
The U.S.S. Arizona (BB-39) was the first American battleship to sink five enemy vessels before taking on water with the loss of most hands.
The U.S.S. Ward (DD-139), with a crew who were reservists from Saint Paul, Minnesota and also claiming to have sunk an enemy submarine earlier in the morning, barraged the trespassing aggressors in vengeance of the crew lost aboard the Arizona.
Army, Navy, and Marine aircraft pursued the enemy bombers and Zeros while other American planes began strafing and bombing every ship of the Rising Sun on sight with mixed success.
As a result of the unanticipated catastrophe courtesy of a stiff defense, the Japanese naval forces were forced to retreat.
8th December: In addition to using his strategy, MacArthur immediately enacts the measures directly from War Plan Orange in addition to the "Elaborate additions of my own to massacre the enemy" after learning about the attack on Pearl Harbor by the Japanese, also approving an retaliatory raid against Japanese shipping in the region by his bombers with the potential benefit of delaying any invasion force if there were transports in the vicinity of the islands.
On the same day, the Führer decided to declare war on the United States of America in aid of his ally.
11th December: The Japanese attempted to conquer Wake Island but were repulsed by the garrison composed of United States Marines, sailors of the U.S. Navy, and armed civilian workmen who were on the island building infrastructure at the time.
12th December: The second attempted assault by the Japanese, orchestrated haphazardly due to the unexpected resistance, failed as well.
20th December: Reinforcements composed of the 2nd Marine Defense Battalion arrived on Wake to augment the unit detached from the 1st Marine Defense Battalion and despite offering evacuation, most of the contractors decided to remain on the island to aid in the war effort.
23rd December: Regarded as a Christmas miracle, Wake Island successfully held out and broke the spine of the enemy.
Due to the fiasco, the overextended Japanese Military were forced to be on the defensive and their outstretched garrisons were informed that ressupply and reinforcements may become impractical.
1942
31st January: In addition to the disaster around Wake, the invading Japanese forces were being slaughtered as the Philippines gradually became recognized as a needless bloodbath and drain on resources.
The MacArthur Line, as the defense centered around Bataan came to be known internationally, was held despite the relentless onslaught though munitions were running low but food supplies were plentiful to last up to six months.
A joint relief effort was in the works by CINCPAC and the War Department to relieve the defenders at Bataan.
29th February: American troops from their prepared defensive positions along the 'MacArthur Line' successfully pick-off Japanese forces with deliberate rifle fire out to even 1,200 Yards (1097 Meters), the maximum elevation setting on their M1 Rifles and the accurate fire was murderous due to the fact that the Japanese were forced by circumstances to deploy their troops in open terrain, not knowing that in the years preceding their invasion the surrounding terrain was cleared and used by the locals for rice paddies, not to mention there was a golf course nearby used as recreation for senior military officers.
But despite their superior marksmanship training and the American doctrine of 'one shot, one kill', supply of M1 Ball ammunition for the M1 Rifles was still gradually becoming depleted.
16th April: The MacArthur Line was finally pierced by the invaders and The Big Chief immediately ordered his troops to conduct a guerrilla campaign until reinforcements from the States could arrive.
17th-18th August: With the intention of raising national morale in addition to being a strategic blow against Japanese forces in the region, Leathernecks of the Second Marine Raider Battalion raided the atoll of Makin Island and annihilated the Japanese garrison and destroyed war material before departing on the submarines U.S.S. Argonaut (SS-166) and U.S.S. Nautilus (SS-168) with no casualties in return and every man accounted for.
12th-14th September: The Battle of the Bloody Ridge occurred on the island of Guadalcanal.
Leathernecks from several U.S. Marine Corps units, primarily troops from the 1st Raider and 1st Parachute Battalions under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Merritt Austin 'Red Mike' Edson managed to repulse the enemy attempt to capture the crucial runways and hangars of Henderson Field. Although the Marine defenses were almost overrun, the attack was ultimately defeated, with heavy losses for the Japanese.
26th September: American reinforcements land on the Philippines and in an iconic photograph taken in Manila showing the divergence, the soldier unfolding Old Glory to be raised was still attired in the old pre-war uniform reminiscent of the Doughboys with the M1917A1 pattern of helmet while the GI with the M1 helmet prepared to use the winch.
1943
15th August: It was decided by Allied bombing command to focus on targeting electricity grids in Nazi Germany with the anticipation of causing collapse of the Third Reich's war machine due to not being able to manufacture material.
Bombing routes were also adjusted to strike at oil fields in Romania and railroad junctions across occupied Europe as well.
22nd December: The U.S.S. Lafayette, formerly the French luxury liner S.S. Normandie before its seizure as angary by the United States of America, made its five hundredth run to Britain transporting embarked troops, rations, and war material plus Christmas gifts as well.
1944
6th June: During Operation Overlord in Normandy, the eighty-four man Marine Detachment aboard the New York-class battleship U.S.S. Texas (BB-35) were sent to Pointe Du Hoc to secure the area while U.S. Army Rangers of the ad hoc 'Ranger Assault Group' pressed forward and searched for the missing battery they were tasked with destroying, thereby becoming the only Leathernecks outside those attached to the Office of Strategic Services to have officially engaged the forces of the Third Reich in Europe in combat.
20th July: Operation Valkyrie was initiated by Colonel Von Stauffenberg, leading to a detonation of an explosive suitcase within the Wolf's Lair. Adolf Hitler, as well as key members of his inner circle including Hermann Göring, head of the Luftwaffe, were killed in the blast. However, Heinrich Himmler, head of the Schutzstaffel, was not present at the meeting.
Regardless, the Reserve Army was called upon and Joseph Goebbels, the Head of Nazi Propaganda, and key members of the SS and Gestapo within Berlin were arrested on the pretense of a joint-conspiracy between Goebbels and Himmler to assassinate the Führer, with additional orders being sent to all occupied territories.
21st July: Ludwig Beck was sworn in as the new Chancellor of Greater Germany according to the last will and testament of Adolf Hitler. He addressed the nation, declaring that Goebbels and Himmler had the Führer assassinated due to his wish to seek peace with the Allies, and that all members of the SS and Gestapo were to surrender or be treated as traitors of the state.
Karl Dönitz, head of the Kriegsmarine, having been contacted by Heinrich Himmler on the 20th, issued a counter statement, stating that Beck and his cabinet were the true conspirators and that an illegal government had taken hold of the Reich. He called upon all members of the German Military to resist the orders of the false government and issued orders for the arrest of Beck and members of his conspiracy.
Heinrich Himmler likewise issued secret orders to the regional commanders of the SS military divisions to seize command of the various military theaters, codenamed 'Ritterfall'.
22nd July: Ritterfall was put into effect and was met with initial success on the Eastern Front. Multiple Field Marshals and Generals were taken prisoner by the SS, and command of several Army Groups were reverted to them.
However, Ritterfall became undone when an attempted coup against Army Group B in France under Field Marshal Johannes 'Erwin' Eugen Rommel failed. In retaliation, the famous Desert Fox ordered the arrest of all SS military units in France. Chancellor Beck issued new orders that all SS military forces which did not surrender by midnight of the 22nd were to be considered hostile forces and shot on sight.
23rd July: Attempted SS coups in Northern Italy and Balkans were thwarted by their respective battlegroups. Pitched battles against the outnumbered and out positioned SS forces led to the death and/or capture of sixty-four percent of their combat troops. The Eastern Front was thrown into chaos as various army groups were left to try and hold back the advancing Red Army and deal with the traitorous SS.
24th July: Erwin Rommel was transferred to the Eastern Front to take overall command of the situation and eliminate the rogue elements taken over by the SS. Orders are issued to Army Group B to begin preparations to evacuate France and take up positions at the Siegfried Line.
5th September: After a series of operations, the various SS divisions were either crushed, captured or driven into controlled pockets. SS control of the various Eastern Army Groups were relinquished and Rommel issued orders to begin a series of strategic retreats from the Soviet Union. New defensive positions were placed in the heartland of Poland and the Northern Balkans, referred to as the 'Warsaw Front.'
10th September: Initial attempts to negotiate an armistice with the Western Allies failed due to their adherence to an unconditional surrender, and the unreasonable territorial demands of the new German Government.
13th September: France and the Netherlands were completely evacuated and all German Forces in the west were focused on defending the Siegfried Line.
20th September: While Rommel was able to hold the Soviet forces in the East back after two weeks of brutal fighting, a sudden uprising in Warsaw began to draw critical resources from the front. The Western Allies begin a series of operations against the Siegfried Line with mixed results.
3rd October: With continuous pressure from the Soviets and the drain of attempting to pacify Warsaw, Rommel ordered the withdrawal of German forces towards the German border. Romania formally surrendered to the Soviet Union.
7th October: German forces evacuated Warsaw, and a new Polish government was established in the newly liberated city, with the government-in-exile located in London making preparations to return to their home. The question of Polish independence in regards to Soviet occupation became a heated debate between the Allies.
11th October: Soviet forces surrounded the city of Warsaw and demanded it to capitulate. Polish leadership was in session with the probability of rejecting the ultimatum when a series of explosions killed a number of Soviet troops on the outskirts of the city. Soviet leadership declares that 'SS Terrorists' have taken refuge in the city, and that only Soviet occupation would pacify the city.
12th October: Soviet forces entered Warsaw and met heavy resistance from the Poles. The government-in-exile was outraged and demanded the immediate withdrawal of all Soviet forces. Soviet ambassadors accused the Poles of aiding the new German government, stating this was the reason German forces have withdrawn wholesale from Poland.
21st October: Warsaw formally surrendered to the Soviets. The government-in-exile issued a stand down order to their forces with optimistic assurances from the Allies of elections being held post-war. Soviet forces begin advancing toward the German border.
29th October: The Siegfried Line was breached and Allied forces began a dash towards the Rhine River in hopes of capturing Germany before the end of the year.
7th November: In what would be his final election, incumbent Franklin Delano Roosevelt was reelected President of the United States over Republican nominee Thomas Edmund Dewey.
17th November: Soviet forces breach the Eastern Front, and German forces begin a bitter fighting retreat as the Soviet begin a push towards Berlin.
8th December: Utilizing the Swiss government as a backwater channel, Führer Beck reveals to the world the horror of the full extent of the Concentration Camps and how the Waffen-SS, the elite of Germany, are being purged or sent to the East as 'Penal Legions' to "Wash away their crimes to the Fatherland and humanity itself by facing the inhumanistic, Communist horde as they approach the outskirts of Berlin".
Those apart of Einsatzgruppen units were simply shot and left to rot as a reminder that their crimes were no longer tolerated by the German government.
10th December: Negotiations with the Western Allies were opened again with the condition that Germany was able to retain its original 1933 borders. Soviet representatives were ordered to stall the negotiations to prolong the war long enough for the Soviet Union to capture Berlin. Suspicious of this, General Eisenhower issued secret orders to core commanders to push for Berlin and hold its outskirts before Soviet forces arrived.
Negotiations were planned between the Allies and the Reich in Geneva but were expected to take at least a month.
13th December: Forces under Generals Patton and Bradley breached the southern flank of German defense (speculation exists that Rommel issued secret orders to allow this breach to occur) and raced to reach Berlin.
15th December: Allied forces begin to surround Berlin, with Western forces on the South Western part of the city. However, Soviet forces were the first to enter and did so early in the morning. Fighting began in earnest as the Western Allies remained on the outskirts, waiting for orders to enter themselves. Beck and the cabinet, along with most of the political leadership, evacuated and fled to Hamburg.
20th December: Rommel and the Eastern Army were pushed from their defensive positions to the north and were forced to abandon Berlin, reorganizing around Hamburg. Negotiations remained stagnant as the Germans continued to refuse an unconditional surrender.
22nd December: In a secret occasion aided by MI5, Patton sent a message to Rommel, urging him to convince German leadership to accept an Unconditional Surrender, stating: "It's better occupied by the West than by the Reds".
23rd December: Eisenhower was authorized to enter Berlin, and American and Commonwealth forces proceeded through the southern part of the city. German forces begin abandoning their southern positions and move north to resist the Soviets for as long as possible. Mass surrenders begin to occur throughout Germany to Anglo-American forces.
25th December: On a day known as 'Schwarzes Weihnachten' (Black Christmas) by the German people, Soviet forces captured the Reichstag. Berlin formally surrendered to the Allies, with the city effectively split down the middle between the Anglo-Americans and Soviets. Beck and the cabinet in Hamburg formally accepted an unconditional surrender
26th December: An armistice was declared and Germany formally surrendered. Occupation began in earnest.
27th December: Heinrich Himmler was captured by surrendering Wehrmacht soldiers on the outskirts of Berlin, having been dressed in a common soldier's uniform. The Wehrmacht soldiers formally turned him over to British forces.
1945
21st January: The Treaty of Geneva was signed with the stipulation that Berlin was to be jointly occupied amongst France, Britain, the United States and the USSR in addition to the partition of Germany down the middle of the former capital, with occupation of the country split along the 52 Parallel.
16th February: Lieutenant General George Smith Patton, Junior made a remarkable recovery from his injuries when his vehicle was collided by a truck after making an impronto inspection of the occupation forces in Bavaria, and after being released, was transferred to Five Star General Douglas MacArthur's Staff.
The Third Army volunteered en masse for the final push against the Japs instead of being sent home, stating that they were in it to the end with Old Blood and Guts.
12th April: Unexpectedly, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt passed away from an intracerebral hemorrhage, causing mourning across the nation. He was succeeded by the current Vice President of the United States, Harry S. Truman of Missouri.
14th April: Elements of the 4th Armored Division, in typicalness, spearheaded the advance of the Third Army, the units fresh from Europe supporting the Marine's III Amphibious Corps and XXIV Corps of the Tenth Army at Okinawa, securing Kadena Air Base.
The veterans from Europe admitted that Tojo was hellish, especially the banzai charges being tenacious with comparisons being made with the still resisting SS.
2nd August : The Portland-class Heavy Cruiser U.S.S. Indianapolis (CA-35) arrived at port safely though there were grumblings as to why the vessel traveled alone in waters still heavily infested with Japanese submarines.
An internal United States Naval investigation later found that the ship which secretly delivered components for 'Little Boy' should have in fact traveled with an escort of Destroyers and the officers who planned the route were immediately relieved of their commissions for negligence, poor conduct, and misuse of government property.
6th August: The atomic bomb codenamed 'Little Boy' was dropped on the Japanese city of Hiroshima.
9th August: Three days later due to refusing to capitulate, 'Fat Man' completely leveled the Japanese city of Kokura.
Facing an imminent invasion by the allies, the Emperor ordered his military to lay down their weapons instead of lives. Hideki Tojo, meanwhile, was executed on the spot through beheading by one of Hirohito's guards after protesting the order to stand down for 'disrespecting his majesty', thereby inadvertently ending the Prime Minister's puppeteering reign of the monarch.
1946
1st January: At the invitation of the Beck government, an international tribunal was held in Nuremberg to try and convict those who committed crimes against humanity. The city was significant in which the Führer rose to power and the Pre-War rallies were now representing the downfall of Hitler's regime. One of the first to be tried was none other than Heinrich Himmler, caught by British forces at Berlin in a failed attempt to disguise himself as a common soldier.
2nd March: The Nuremberg Trials concluded with the execution and imprisonment of many Nazi officials. The Beck government was formally cleared of charges, which created a great deal of controversy among the Allies, especially the Soviets and French.
6th June: On the second anniversary after the landings at Normandy that marked the beginning of liberating mainland europe from the yoke of the Third Reich, Lieutenant General George Smith Patton, Junior, the hard charging spearhead for the European Theater then Okinawa, was lauded in a ticker tape parade in San Diego.
25th July: Talks began for a January election to take place in Poland. Fearing Soviet influence and possible harassment against the Polish People's Party (PSL), Truman authorized the reinsertion of the former Free Polish Brigades into Poland to help protect the PSL during the election. These assertions proved correct as the communist National Unity Front (BA) began harassing and even outright persecuting supporters of the PSL.
27th November: Bolesław Bierut of the BA died suddenly of a heart attack. The popularity of the BA plummeted as a result, and Stanisław Mikołajczyk of the PSL leads in the polls with Tadeusz Michejda of the Labor Party close behind.
1947
21st January: Elections were held and the PSL emerged victorious. Josef Stalin was furious at the election, and a massive mobilization of Soviet forces occurred. The head of the new Polish government was sworn in at Warsaw, however Soviet forces began a blockade of the city, placing restrictions on all traffic coming into the city.
In response, Western forces likewise mobilized and the Truman administration demanded the withdrawal of Soviet forces from Warsaw.
12th February: French fashion designer Christian Dior presented his debut haute couture collection in Paris and it was immediately dubbed as the 'New Look' after Harper's Bazaar editor-in-chief Carmel Snow told Christian: "Your dresses have such a new look!".
3rd March: Truman authorized the use of airlifts to deliver supplies and information to Warsaw. Furious, Stalin ordered the tightening of the city's traffic and unconfirmed raids commenced in the city. Also unconfirmed were reports of Soviet forces entering the city illegally and being shot by Polish Home Guard.
27th June: Facing economic sanctions from neutral nations as well as the West, not to mention the potential usage of the atom bomb by the Americans, Stalin reluctantly backed down and the blockade was lifted. The resulting events became known by historians as the Warsaw Crises and Warsaw Airlift. Soviet forces also began withdrawing their occupying forces, although this was speculated not to be completed until 1952.
8th July: The United States Army admitted that a local farmer discovered a crashed USAAF weather balloon outside Roswell, Chaves County, New Mexico and granted reporters open access to the debris. It was an embarrassment to the Truman administration yet the President regarded it as a correct move after the Japanese conducted an explosive balloon campaign during the war. Stalin demanded compensation for having the helium-filled spying devices floating over Eastern Europe and Soviet airspace.
However, rumors of a coverup and the object being described as a UFO lingered in the minds of the public.
1948
21st April: As part of the so-called Key West Agreement, despite objections of the barely months old branch - the United States Air Force - due to believing that they should own anything that flew including naval aviation, the United States Army was allowed to retain fixed-wing aircraft for the purpose of close air support so the Air Force could concentrate on tactical and strategic bombing missions and the Army could remain self-sufficient if need be.
1st June: Fearing that the isolationist and head of the Republican Party's Conservative Wing; Senator Robert Alphonso Taft, Senior of Ohio, would get the nomination, Dwight David 'Ike' Eisenhower decided to quit retirement from his Gettysburg, Pennsylvania farm and run for President.
25th June: At the Republican National Convention in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, candidate Dewey convinced Eisenhower to be on the ticket in return for his pledged delegates as otherwise Taft would be the nominee and Ike agreed. Later the same day after being nominated, New York Governor Thomas Edmund Dewey publicly announced that the war hero would be his running mate.
26th July: President Harry S. Truman signed Executive Order 9981, abolishing discrimination 'on the basis of race, color, religion, or national origin' in the United States Armed Forces and ordered the branches to begin integration effective immediately.
2nd November: In what later becomes an iconic photograph in American history, Republican Presidential nominee Thomas Edmund Dewey of New York triumphantly upheld the edition of the Chicago Tribune announcing his victory over incumbent President Harry S. Truman.
1949
20th January: Former Governor of New York Thomas Edmund Dewey was sworn in as the Thirty-Fourth President of the United States.
4th July: Despite opposition from the barely two years old United States Air Force, Secretary of Defense Robert Abercrombie Lovett decided that the USS United States (CVA-58) would be built as part of the 'flexible response' policy.
1950
25th June: The Korean War began when Communist forces from the North crossed the border and invaded the Democratic South.
15th to 19th September: General of the Army Douglas MacArthur directed elements of the US 1st Marine Division and the Army's X Corps to land at Inchon to be followed by Patton's Fifteenth United States Army. The 82nd Airborne secured the flanks of Green Beach while the 28th Infantry Division linked up with the 1st Marine Regiment under the command of Patton's second cousin Lewis Burwell 'Chesty' Puller.
14th October: Congress, with some reluctance, officially expanded defense funding to Lovett's proposed maximum budget of twenty billion dollars a year with the intent of having a 'flexible response' policy even though critics pointed out that it would have been cheaper to rely on nuclear weapons alone.
The five military branches of the United States: Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, and Coast Guard were to be expanded and modernized, the size of the bomber fleet would be upscaled, and the Montana-class Battleships that previously weren't constructed would be revived with the only significant design change being the possibility of including nuclear propulsion instead of being conventional powered.
To supplement the Montana's, the two previously canceled Iowa-class Battleships Illinois (BB-65) and Kentucky (BB-66) were to be resurrected as well.
27th November to 13th December: Battle of Chosin Reservoir, Marines under Lewis Burwell 'Chesty' Puller held their position while his cousin attempted to relieve the besieged troops in an outflanking maneuver with a mixture of fresh tanks and rallied soldiers who earlier fled from the Chinese forces.
The joint Chinese/North Korean forces took a pause as they realized that the yellowlegs were augmented by 'Old Blood and Guts' and his men, forcing the Commies to dig in. However, MacArthur ordered a withdrawal to the port city of Hungnam as ChiCom forces began pressing the offensive south of the 38th Parallel.
1951
14th April: Upon getting officially censured by his colleagues in response to publicly criticizing MacArthur and lashing out at Old Blood and Guts, not to mention being denounced as a Communist sympathizer by Senator Joseph Raymond McCarthy of Wisconsin, Harry S. Truman resigned from the Senate.
16th April: Upon returning to his hometown of Independence, Missouri, the disgraced Truman was shunned by former friends over his long simmering personal vendetta against Generals Douglas MacArthur and George Patton which in the end tainted his legacy.
1952
1st November: Three days before election day - in what was criticized by some as a political stunt to further tarnish the legacy of the disgraced former President of the United States, Harry S. Truman - Republican Senator Joseph Raymond McCarthy of Wisconsin exposed scientists David Greenglass, Theodore Hall, George Koval, Oscar Seborer, and Arthur Adams of the Manhattan Project as spies, condemning them for giving the Soviets the blueprints on making Atomic weapons and lambasting their Judas and Benedict Arnold beliefs within the Congressional Chambers.
4th November: Popular President Thomas Edmund Dewey was re-elected in a landslide over Democratic Governor Adlai Ewing Stevenson II of Illinois, especially with one of the popular campaign slogans used during the election: 'A Vote for Dewey and Ike is a Vote for Mac and Pat'.
1953
22nd January: Citizens of the United States of America and the world awakened to shocking news that Anna Eleanor Roosevelt, former First Lady and widow of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, died after slipping on a bar of soap as she stepped out of the bathtub, occurring sometime during the night of the 21st after she stepped down from her tenure as the United States Representative to the United Nations Commission on Human Rights.
1st February: Tragedy struck the United States once again as barely a month into his second term, Dewey was in a plane being flown by a close friend in upstate New York before it crashed, the wreckage was found after a two-hour long search with no survivors. A grief-stricken nation mourned the loss and Vice President Dwight David Eisenhower, the former Supreme Commander of the Allies during World War II and the 16th Chief of Staff of the Army before retirement, succeeded Dewey as President.
3rd February: Despite rumors that Eisenhower would fire Lovett and replace him as Secretary of Defense to implement a so-called 'New Look' policy of massive retaliation, the President himself dispelled the scuttlebutt to the press after announcing acclaimed Senator Richard Milhouse Nixon of California would be his Vice President, publicly stating that the usage of nuclear weapons should be used only as a last resort.
12th February: After a private meeting with the President, Commander of UN forces in Korea MacArthur agreed not to venture north as the new policy was to keep the Commies north of the 38th Parallel with a willingness to negotiate a return to the status quo if the deadline of 3rd April was met by the Reds.
5th March: Primer of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics Josef Stalin dies in his bed from an Intracerebral hemorrhage according to state media.
12th March: The Office of the Director of Civilian Marksmanship and the advisory board to the United States Secretary of the Army - The National Board for the Promotion of Rifle Practice - decided to retain the 1,000 Yard stage for the official course of fire during the upcoming National Matches held for the first time since 1940 at Camp Perry in Port Clinton, Ottawa County, Ohio instead of having the service rifle competition be shot at only 200, 300, and 600 Yards distance as dropping it would run contrary to the mission of maintaining proficiency with military arms for military members and ready civilians for service in times of national need.
19th June: Alongside Julius and Ethal Rosenberg, the five traitorous researchers were executed on the electric chair for espionage at the Sing Sing Correctional Facility in Ossining, New York despite some appeals for clemency.
United States Senator Joseph Raymond McCarthy of Wisconsin and vocal supporter of McCarthy's crusade against Communist infiltrators, U.S. Senator William Ezra Jenner of Indiana, both publicly denounced and derided the appeal advocates as Pinkos and Fellow Travelers.
1954
26th January: While celebrating his Seventy-Fourth Birthday out in public, Douglas MacArthur announced to the press that he refused to run for political office despite pleas from the Conservative wing of the Republican Party as he felt he was more of a soldier than politician, not to mention out of surprising humbleness believed that his former subordinate, Ike, was doing an excellent job.
However, even so, the 'Big Chief' proclaimed that if America ever needed him, he vowed to return.
Coincidentally on the same day in Capitol Hill, Senator Joseph Raymond McCarthy's bill of having January 26th become a national holiday, MacArthur Day, passed unanimously in the Senate and overwhelmingly in the House with the President expected to sign it.
7th May: Three hours before the besieged garrison surrendered at Dien Bien Phu, an unknown French marksman killed Võ Nguyên Giáp while he inspected a Viet Minh artillery battery.
Lieutenant Ngo Dinh Diem was also the last death suffered by the defenders after an artillery round struck his foxhole. Diem believed that while colonialism was morally wrong, having his nation become communist was worse and his posthumous memoirs became an instant best-seller.
10th May: After receiving confirmation, 'Uncle Ho' orders a month of mourning for the loss of the beloved strategist, becoming a martyr for liberation.
21st July: Vietnam was divided along the 17th parallel - the designated Demilitarized Zone or DMZ - with elections set to be held in order to reunite the two nations peacefully.
1955
8th June: Bella Savitzky Abzug was attacked by an unknown assailant and robbed while walking home and she was pronounced dead upon arrival at the nearest hospital.
21st August: On the evening of the 21st, five adults and seven children arrived at the Hopkinsville police station claiming that "little green men" from a spaceship were attacking their farmhouse and they had been holding them off with gunfire "for nearly four hours". Two of the adults, Elmer Sutton and Billy Ray Taylor, claimed they had been shooting at "twelve to fifteen" short, dark figures who repeatedly popped up at the doorway or peered into the windows.
Concerned about a possible gun battle between local citizens; four city policemen, five state troopers, three deputy sheriffs, and four military policemen from the nearby United States Army Fort Campbell drove to the Sutton farmhouse located near the town of Kelly in Christian County. Their search yielded nothing apart from evidence of gunfire and holes in window and door screens made by firearms.
1957
22nd January: Sisters Barbara and Patricia Grimes - aged fifteen and thirteen years respectively - were shocked to bump into their favorite musician Elvis Presley while heading to a local pizza establishment and after a short chat with the celebrity, gained autographs.
1st May: The T44E4 was formerly adopted as the United States Rifle, Caliber 7.62 mm, M14 and classified as the 'Standard A' Infantry Weapon of the United States Armed Forces with the T44E5 being designated as the United States Rifle, Caliber 7.62 mm, M15. The M15 Rifle was a heavy barrel version of the Caliber 7.62mm T44E4 M14 Rifle, designed to permit sustained full automatic fire and replace the Browning Automatic Rifle, Caliber .30, M1918A2 as the Squad Automatic Weapon.
16th May: With up to date drawings that included the latest design changes and specifications such as a solid non-slotted fiberglass handguard (a ventilated fiberglass handguard was considered to replace the wood handguard as well as to permit adequate ventilation during sustained fire but it was relatively fragile for rigorous military use and gave off a mirage effect during rapid fire that obstructed the sight picture) and the use of a single-piece operating rod made from a one-piece forging, not to mention funds procured from the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee in hand, the United States Army Ordnance Corps issued direction for Springfield Armory to begin production of the newly adopted rifle as soon as the machinery was installed.
1st July: The United States Army Ordnance Corps handed out contracts to Harrington & Richardson and Winchester to produce the M14 Rifle after the two firms won the bid.
1958
9th December: The John Birch Society was established in the American city of Indianapolis, Marion County, Indiana.
Named after the missionary Captain John Birch who was tragically murdered by Chinese Communists, the organization had the purpose of being a vanguard against communist subversion in American society and uphold the virtue of limited government.
1959
15th May: An agreement was reached between David John McDonald, President of the AFL-CIO affiliated labor union 'United Steelworkers of America' and the industrialists, thereby averting a nationwide strike by steelworkers in a time of high profitability for the industry.
In addition to a wage increase and extending the contract for one year, there would be a joint committee formed to study changes to Section 2(b) of the national labor contract and the contract's benefit structure.
1960
5th October: Primer of the Soviet Union Nikita Khrushchev was approached by Liu Shaoqi to discuss Mao Zedong. The secret meeting was held amidst souring relations between the two Marxist nations and the pair both agree that the ideology of Maoism was dangerous to world revolution.
1961
2nd April: Chairman Mao died from acute heart failure brought on by the stress of the Long March according to State Media broadcasts. However, rumors of poisoning by the KGB on the orders of Moscow lingered among the recently departed leader's cabinet.
2nd October: After deciding that it was necessary to bring in a third contractor, and much to the surprise of the firearms industry, the United States Army Ordnance Corps announced Thompson Ramo Wooldridge Inc. - also known as TRW - as the winning bidder of the contract and although they were not the only non-gun maker that bidded for the contract such as Studebaker-Packard, Chrysler, and General Electric, it was still surprising that a car manufacturer and the largest supplier of jet aircraft engine components won out of the forty-two companies who submitted bids.
However, as the manufacturing of aircraft parts by nature required the utmost attention to the smallest detail, close tolerances, and impeccable quality control, it turned out not to be as unconventional as it initially seemed.
4th October: The United States government decided that in order to alleviate the manufacturing of weapons they would also accept Studebaker-Packard's bid as well, making Studebaker-Packard the fourth contractor and it partially saved the firm from becoming defunct due to being in the red financially.
1962
16th to 22nd October: The Cuban Missile Crisis occurs. For thirteen days, President Kennedy bickered with Primer Khrushchev over the placement of Medium-Range Nuclear Warheads inside Castro-controlled Cuba. Fears of World War III breaking out were in the minds of many across the globe yet the situation was thankfully resolved.
1963
22nd November: Off-Duty Patrolman Jack Leon Ruby noticed the distinct signature of a rifle barrel sticking out of the Dallas Schoolbook Depository. Fearing that an assassination plot to kill the President was underway, the officer intervened and after a short shootout with other Policemen, the gunman and Communist sympathizer, Lee Harvey Oswald was killed.
31st December: The Reawakening War began after officers loyal to the deceased Mao launched a coup attempt against Chairman Liu. Primer Krushchev and the nations of the Warsaw Pact pledged forces to 'advise our allies against an unlawful Putsch against the legitimate successor to our friend Mao' and Fidel Castro also promised support. Veterans of the Hungarian Uprising of 1956 and the 'Bay of Pigs' invasion were amongst the first wave of 'advisors' in the Northwestern Chinese provinces, freeing up ChiCom troops for the rebelling South.
1964
31st March: The Civil Rights Bill of 1964 passed both chambers with Eighty Percent of Republicans and Sixty-Five Percent of Democrats voting for the measure, outlawing discrimination on the basis of 'race, color, religion, and national origin' but a last-minute amendment to include 'sex' for Title VII of the Bill proposed by well known Segregationist, Representative Howard Worth Smith [Democrat-Virginia] was immediately voted down, not just for the preposterous nature of the proposed amendment by Representative Smith in the minds of his peers as not only did the Constitution of the United States connoted stringently that 'All Men are created equal', but to also to disassociate themselves from him due to the fact it was a drastic final attempt at killing off the legislation.
Less than an hour later, with Doctor Martin Luther King Junior and controversially Malcolm X at his side, President John Fitzgerald Kennedy immediately signed the Bill into Law.
20th June: Secretary of Defense Omar Nelson Bradley placed General Creighton Williams Abrams, Junior in charge of Military Assistance Command, Vietnam. Fears of the Civil War escalating to intervention by one of the factions into Indochina only further complicated the situation yet the Warsaw Pact forces primarily focused on securing Northwestern China such as Qinghai and Gansu Provinces from Maoist forces.
However, the fact that the main Communist powers were distracted also provided an opportunity to be exploited as the Chinese were amidst a Civil War, leaving a possibility for ARVN forces to capture Hanoi after the guerrillas inside the South were dealt with.
22nd July: Sensing blood in the water and believing confidently that Kennedy wouldn't risk nuclear war by intervening, Ho Chi Minh gambled and ordered a full-scale invasion of the South.
2nd August: The Allen M. Sumner-class destroyer U.S.S. Maddox (DD-731), was in the Gulf of Tonkin gathering intelligence but was sunk by North Vietnamese forces with the loss of all hands.
3rd August: Kennedy with authorization from Congress ordered retaliatory airstrikes on North Vietnamese forces by Naval and Air Forces.
8th August: The Fort Knox incident occurred. An international gang of thieves of French and Belgian nationals attempted to infiltrate the United States Bullion Depository.
Details about the robbery attempt, however, remain classified.
3rd November: President John Fitzgerald Kennedy was re-elected, defeating Liberal Republican and Governor of New York Nelson Aldrich Rockefeller.
Months prior to the Presidential Election, Senator Barry Morris Goldwater of Arizona decided to not seek nomination, instead focusing on building up the Conservative base within the Republican Party.
1965
20th January: John Fitzgerald Kennedy was inaugurated to the Office of the President once more and part of his address discussed in length the situation in Indochina with the fighting in South Vietnam appearing to vindicate the 'Domino Theory'.
The Brahmin vowed that he would do everything in his constitutional power to continue aiding Saigon in being a vanguard against Communism.
1st February: President Kennedy demanded that the NVA make preparations to withdraw from South Vietnamese soil within Twenty-Four Hours, recognize the South as a sovereign nation, and pay compensation for the lives lost aboard the Maddox or the United States would declare war and forces of the Southeast Asia Treaty Organization as a whole would directly intervene in the conflict.
2nd February: After a unanimous vote by Congress, John Fitzgerald Kennedy announced to the nation that there was an official state of war between North Vietnam and the United States of America after Hanoi ignored the deadline.
3rd February: Britain and France jointly announced that they would be on the sideline while the rest of SEATO intervened as the French were not venturing back to their former colonial possession and Britain justified their non-participation by mentioning that they had global military commitments elsewhere.
8th March: After a bombardment from the guns of all six Iowa-class Battleships: U.S.S. Iowa (BB-61) , U.S.S. New Jersey (BB-62), U.S.S. Missouri (BB-63), U.S.S. Wisconsin (BB-64), U.S.S. Illinois (BB-65), and U.S.S. Kentucky (BB-66); United States Marines of the Third Marine Division conducted an amphibious landing at Da Nang, surprising the North Vietnamese defenders as while they were expecting an American intervention, the Reds didn't believe that it would come soon nor at this specific location, yet after an intense five hour battle at the cost of two thousand American lives, the enemy retreated back into the jungle.
10th March: The Third Marine Expeditionary Force of the United States Marine Corps declared the area around Da Nang and Chu Lai to be secured and within twenty-four hours, reinforcements from Australia, New Zealand, South Korea, Taiwan, the Philippines, and the United States began arriving in earnest to cut-off PAVN units already within South Vietnam from reinforcements.
1966
6th April: Even though the decision enraged the United States Air Force establishment, President John Fitzgerald Kennedy and Secretary of Defense Omar Nelson Bradley decided that the United States Army would retain their fleet of CV-2B Caribous and armed helicopters were an Army matter.
When questioned by the media, the recently retired Chief of Staff of the Air Force, General Curtis Emerson LeMay, remarked that: "The Air Force by right should be operating everything that flies, down to the last puddle jumper as otherwise what's the point of having an independent Air Force in the first place? Is Kennedy attempting to give up the independence and place the Air Force back under the control of the Army?"
26th June: Actress Jane Seymour Fonda was caught by a patrol from First Platoon, C Company, 1st Military Police Battalion of the United States Marine Corps in northern Quảng Trị province-just south of the DMZ- as NVA soldiers demonstrated operating a ZPU-2 Anti-Aircraft Gun. Evidence of 'providing aid and comfort to the enemy' were discovered on her person and she was arrested on the spot in country for treason.
4th July: Coincidentally, the treasonous starlet, now known infamously by the public as 'Hanoi Jane' arrived back in the States on the patriotic holiday escorted by Military Policemen and US Marshals with local law enforcement providing a task force in case of rioting.
1967
21st-31st January: The last great offensive of the conflict occurred. The NVA launched one final, desperate assault against the American presence, targeting the garrison at Khe Sanh in an effort to prevent the usage of the base as a stepping stone to invade the North.
Rumors of Maoist forces being amongst the attackers were inconclusive according to CIA and DIA analysts.
However, it was confirmed that Che Guevara was among the dead, supporting limited evidence of Cuban involvement.
4th April: Well known anti-feminist activist Phyllis Stewart Schlafly was almost assassinated in Dallas by Valerie Jean Solanas, author of the S.C.U.M. Manifesto, after Solanas was spotted stalking by heroic cop Jack Leon Ruby in a next-door coffeehouse and the Off-Duty Policeman once more intervened, rescuing Schlafly but sadly died from a stab wound.
The Pink Liberation Army vowed to retaliate for the death of their founder and make Dallas burn.
5th April: President Kennedy immediately issued a nationwide state of mourning and directed all flags to be flown at half-mast in response to the slaying of Jack Ruby. John vowed to Ruby's family that he would take care of their finances out of his own pocket and directed J. Edgar Hoover to do more in combating the Pink Liberation Army.
6th April: The National Organization for Women released a public statement condemning the actions of the Pink Liberation Army and listed how they were hurting the feminist cause, including but not limiting to: bombings, the murder of women who opposed the necessity of subjugating and enslaving men, the death of the valiant Law Enforcement Officer Jack Leon Ruby, and defending the traitor Jane Seymour Fonda, who was on Death Row for treason.
21st April: The Treaty of Paris of 1967 was signed between Ho Chi Minh and President Nguyễn Văn Thiệu, agreeing to a ceasefire.
Peace, however, was tense between the two former foes and not expected to last. It was in fact a matter of when war reignited, not if.
1st June: Terrorists of the Pink Liberation Army's Free Fonda Now Battalion took hostages at Camp Lejeune, demanding that Jane Seymour Fonda whose execution by electric chair was inemiant be instead pardoned and released.
The Military Policemen of the Marine Corps installation Provost Marshal's Office immediately responded and one of the men, Private First Class Jacob Gregory Meyer, took a vantage point and successfully dealt with the hostage-takers after negotiations broke down.
1st June: South Vietnamese forces took the PAVN off guard by conducting an amphibious landing at Haiphong, the surprise being as the majority of North Vietnamese forces were ten miles from the DMZ guarding the border against incursion. Rerouting their forces North, Ho took the bait and ARVN tanks streamed across the DMZ.
14th June: The last stronghold of the Maoist rebels in Hunan Province, near the former Chairman's birthplace of Shaoshan, were crushed. Estimates of casualties from the conflict range from a low-end of one million to upwards of two and a quarter million lives.
14th June: After bitter fighting against NVA holdouts, ARVN forces captured Hanoi, utilizing the distraction of the final push against the Maoists by numerous ChiCom Army Groups to their advantage.
Even so, guerrillas led by surviving battle-hardened NLF partisans that fled north after the ARVN, Police, and the Popular Force Militia rooted out the Viet Cong in South Vietnam remained a constant threat for the liberators.
16th June: First Contact was made by astronauts of Apollo 11 Neil Alden Armstrong, Edwin Eugene 'Buzz' Aldrin Junior, and Michael Collins. The new faction, calling themselves the 'Galactic Republic' desires to open a peaceful relationship with Earth despite being at war with a faction known as the 'Sith Empire'.
Correlated First Contact Timeline
06:16:14 ATC/June 16th, 1967: An unexpected announcement by the President of the United States, John Fitzgerald Kennedy and the United Nations Secretary-General, U Thant alongside the designated Ambassador of the Galactic Republic: Zorin Krasul, a talking catlike alien whose species were known by the Galactic Community as 'Cathar'.
It was revealed to the world that the residents of Planet Earth were indeed not alone in the entire universe and almost immediately diplomatic relations were formed between the nations and the Republic.
07:04:14 ATC/July 4th, 1967: The Republic Ambassador to Earth, Zorin Krasul participates in the local New York City Fourth of July celebration, cementing further ties between the United States of America and the Republic. Also on the same day, President Kennedy visits Arlington in an emotional tour of the sacred sight, the lives of scores of American servicemen throughout the generations lingering in his thoughts. But Jack also pondered over the recent confirmation that there was life beyond Earth.
10:24:15 ATC/ October 24th, 1968: After learning of the Sith's plans to conquer the Sol System and annex it as part of their intergalactic war machine, Earth decided to conduct a preemptive strike against the Empire in Operation: Mars.
Under the command of World War II hero and Six Star General George Smith Patton, Junior, United Nations forces officially and symbolically known as the 'Unified Earth Coalition' and consisting of a joint North Atlantic Treaty Organization/Warsaw Pact force augmented the Republic Military in the raiding of Korriban.
10:30:15 ATC/ October 30th, 1968: The American M14 Rifle was officially adopted and would be standardized throughout the entirety of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, gradually replacing the Fusil Automatique Leger, G3, and BM-59 of the member-nation militaries.
The alliance also settled on the West German Maschinengewehr 3 which technically as-adopted was actually the MG-1 pattern due to utilizing the rate-of-fire of the infamous MG-42.
And the interchangeable standardization included the Mark 19, the British Chieftain Main Battle Tank, and the F-8 Crusader.