The Annotated Today in Alternate History

1910: Edison meets Carla Lambert

Thomas Edison is introduced to Carla Lambert, beginning a lifelong relationship with her that many felt was unseemly, given Edison's married status and the vast difference in their ages.

In 1910 Edison was 63 and Carla Lambert 35.

The age difference shouldn't havecome as a surprise to Edison's contemporaries: he married his first wife Mary Stilwell in 1871, when he was 24 and she was 16. She died in 1884 and Edison married 20 year old Mina Miller two years later, at 39.

1720: Mlosh arrival

The alien race known as the Mlosh land on earth. They announce to the human populations they interact with that they only wish to join earth and its cultures, and be treated as equals among us. After some initial panic, they are welcomed, (begrudgingly in some quarters), into the company of man.

If the Mlosh were looking to talk to world leaders:

• Louis XV was king of France
• Peter the Great was czar of Russia
• Charles VI was emperor of the Holy Roman Empire
• George I was king of England
• Philip V was king of Spain
• Kangxi was emperor of China
• Nakamikado was emperor and Tokugawa Yoshimune shogun of Japan

The Great Northern War between Russia, Denmark-Norway and Saxony-Poland (from 1715 also Prussia and Hanover) on one side and Sweden on the other was just about running out of steam. In reality it ended in 1721.

1902: The Vidalia

The Vidalia Eddie is introduced. The Vidalia has a small movie screen on it that allows the user to see the output of the Vidalia prior to printing it. This innovation rocks the world and spells the end of Edison's French competitors, who cannot match this technological advance.

I'll welcome any suggestions about the actual technoloy used to project the image on the movie screen. Some sort of primitive LCD-like system with shutters and a projecion lamp behind it?

1882: Carla Lambert born

Singer Carla Lambert was born. She caught the eye of Thomas Edison's movie company, Dynamic Pictures, and starred in several films for them. Rumors of an affair between her and Edison were heatedly denied, but she did spend quite a bit of time at his mansion in New Jersey.

In the real world, Giuseppe Garibaldi died on this very day.

/got nothing