References to Historical Figures in Turtledove's Work

Harry Turtledove frequently makes posthumous references to historical figures in his works, particularly his alternate histories. The people referenced have usually been dead for some time before the work's setting, and, in the case of alternate histories, for quite some time before the Point of Divergence. These references are usually fleeting. Some are metaphorical, akin to a literary reference, comparing a well known event in history to some incident in the plot of the work. Others are comparisons of appearance or some famous quote attributed a given figure. In those cases, the reference is not substantial enough to justify giving that person an article or a story-specific subsection of a pre-existing article.

References to historical figures that give some insight into how a timeline works and references to contemporary political figures are usually sufficient to justify articles, and should not necessarily be included here.

Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha
Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (26 August 1819 – 14 December 1861) was the husband of Queen Victoria of Britain, and Prince Consort of the United Kingdom.

In The Two Georges, he American province of Albertus appears to be named for Prince Albert, and the British Royal Family continues to use the name Saxe-Coburg-Gotha.

Alexander I of Russia
Alexander I of Russia (Russian: Александр I Павлович, Aleksandr I Pavlovich) (23 December 1777 – 1 December 1825), also known as Alexander the Blessed, served as Emperor of Russia from 23 March 1801 to 1 December 1825 and as the first Russian King of Poland from 1815 to 1825. He was also the first Russian Grand Duke of Finland and Lithuania. His rule coiniced with the chaotic period of the Napoleonic Wars, during which, in 1812, a French army led by Emperor Napoleon occupied much of Russia before being driven out at great cost to both sides.

In The War That Came Early, after the "big switch" in 1940 turns the Soviet Union's former allies into enemies, Joseph Stalin gives a radio speech that harkens back to Alexander's victory over Napoleon to help inspire the Soviet people to keep fighting until victory.

In The Two Georges,guards outside the Russian embassy in the North American Union wear ceremonial uniforms based on the Life-Guard Dragoons of Alexander I, but with bayoneted Nagants rather than sabers.

Roald Amundsen
Roald Engelbregt Gravning Amundsen (16 July 1872 – c. 18 June 1928) was a Norwegian explorer of polar regions. He led the Antarctic expedition of 1910–12 which was the first to reach the South Pole, on 14 December 1911. In 1926, he was the first expedition leader for the air expedition to the North Pole.

Amundsen is recognized as the first person, without dispute, as having reached both poles.He is also known as having the first expedition to traverse the Northwest Passage (1903–6) in the Arctic.

In The War That Came Early, an unnamed English captain trudging through a blizzard in Norway concludes that the last person who was in anything like that predicament was Robert Falcon Scott. He then amends this, remembering that Roald Amundsen was exploring Antarctica at the same time as Scott, and surmises that Amundsen, being Norwegian, survived because he was used to such weather.

Archimedes
Archimedes (Greek: Ἀρχιμήδης; c. 287 BC – c. 212 BC) was an Ancient Greek mathematician, physicist, engineer, inventor, and astronomer from Syracuse, Sicily. Although few details of his life are known, he is regarded as one of the leading scientists in classical antiquity.

In The Valley-Westside War, Liz Mendoza finds her father's analysis of the Valley-Westside War of 2097 to be as scientific and invariable as a geometry proof. She reflects that no geometry proof had ever gotten anyone killed, but then she remembers how Archimedes died.

Ariovistus
Ariovistus was a soldier of fortune of the Suebi tribe of what is now Germany. In or around 60 BC, he was hired by the Arverni and Sequani tribes of Gaul to assist in their war against the Aedui. Ariovistus's company of 15,000 warriors proved decisive at the Battle of Magetobringa, after which the Aedui submitted to the Sequani. However, Ariovistus then turned on his erstwhile employers, driving the Sequani out of the strategically valuable Doubs Valley and repopulating that valley with Suebi loyal to him.

In the Videssos Series, when Targitaus explains to Viridovix why the khagans of Khamorth clans were extremely reluctant to support one another as junior partners in military alliances (for fear that they would enable their allies to form a Royal Clan), Viridovix is reminded of the Sequani's use of Suebi mercenaries in their war against the Aedui. This decision had indeed allowed the Sequani to triumph over the once-stronger Aedui, but had the unintended consequence of allowing Ariovistus the German to become the most powerful man in Gaul.

Benedict Arnold
Benedict Arnold V (January 14, 1741 - June 14, 1801) was a general during the American Revolutionary War. He began the war in the Continental Army, in whose ranks he had a major role in such actions as the pivotal Battle of Saratoga in 1777. Later, his career was derailed by charges of corruption, and he entered into a plot to betray West Point to the British. Upon the plot being uncovered, he escaped to the British and fought on their side in the later parts of the war, going to exile in Britain upon the US gaining independence. Because of the way he changed sides, his name quickly became a byword in the United States for treason or betrayal.

Arnold's status as traitor is referenced throughout a number of Turtledove works. One rather unique example comes in "The Last Word", Turtledove's contribution to S.M. Stirling's Draka series, where we learn that many of the Draka, descended from Tory refugees who had taken the British side in the Revolutionary War, admire Benedict Arnold as a hero and Draka families named "Arnold" habitually call their male children "Benedict". One such character appears in the short work.

The fictional character Habakkuk Biddiscombe in The United States of Atlantis is broadly based on Benedict Arnold.

Attila the Hun
Attila (c. 406– March 453), frequently referred to as Attila the Hun, was the ruler of the Huns from 434 until his death. Attila was a leader of the Hunnic Empire, a tribal confederation consisting of Huns, Ostrogoths, and Alans among others, on the territory of Central and Eastern Europe.

During his reign, he was one of the most feared enemies of the Western and Eastern Roman Empires.

Turtledove has referenced Attila's fearsome reputation in numerous works. For example, in The War That Came Early, Peggy Druce declares that Attila the Hun was a "bargain" when compared to Adolf Hitler.

In "Typecasting", Bill Williamson believes that The Republicans of Jefferson as leaning slightly to the right of Attila the Hun.

E.B. Babbitt
Edwin Burr Babbitt (1803-1881) was a military engineer of the United States Army in the early and mid-nineteenth century. In 1849, while serving as Acting Quartermaster for the Department of Texas, he oversaw a major renovation to the storied Alamo, making the fortress serviceable as a quartermaster depot for the US Army.

Babbitt's career continued on past the conclusion of the American Civil War. He retired from the Army a brigadier general.

In "Lee at the Alamo", Lieutenant Colonel Robert E. Lee has reason to be grateful for E.B. Babbitt's renovations to the Alamo, as he is forced to stand siege in the fortress.

P.T. Barnum
'''Phineas Taylor "P.T." Barnum''' (July 4, 1810 – April 7, 1891) was an American showman and businessman remembered for promoting celebrated hoaxes and for founding the Barnum & Bailey Circus. Barnum was also an author, publisher, philanthropist, and for some time a politician in his home state of Connecticut. Nevertheless, he said of himself, "I am a showman by profession...and all the gilding shall make nothing else of me", and his personal aim was "to put money in his own coffers". Barnum is widely credited with coining the phrase "There's a sucker born every minute," but there is no proof that he ever said this.

Barnum's alleged catch-phrase is referenced in a number of works, although it's probably discussed in most detail in The War That Came Early, when Peggy Druce notes the similarity of H.L. Mencken's motto "No one ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American people" to Barnum's alleged catchphrase.

Thomas Beckett
Saint Thomas à Becket (29 December 1118 - 29 December 1170) was Archbishop of Canterbury from 1162 to 1170 during the reign of King Henry II of England. Though he had been a political ally of Henry before becoming Archbishop, he is best remembered for opposing, in his capacity as the Catholic Church's primate in England, the king's attempts to curb the rights and privileges of the Church in England and bring the nation's religious institution under state control. Henry and Thomas developed a very antagonistic relationship: Henry brought serious criminal charges against Beckett, which forced the archbishop to go into exile in continental Europe for six years. While in exile, the archbishop lobbied the Pope to excommunicate Henry and interdict his considerable territories.

In 1170, the Pope appeared to be on the verge of granting Beckett's requests, and Henry capitulated to avoid excommunication. Beckett was allowed to return to England and resume his duties as primate of that kingdom. However, he soon angered the king once again when he began purging the English clergy of his political and ecclesiastical opponents, including three bishops who had participated in the coronation of Henry the "Young King," the heir to the throne. On hearing of this, Henry II complained about Beckett to his feudal retainers, making it clear that he wanted Beckett dead without giving explicit instructions to that effect. Most often, he is quoted as having said "Will no one rid me of this troublesome priest?" In fact, Henry's words were most likely closer to "What miserable drones and traitors have I nurtured and promoted in my household who let their lord be treated with such shameful contempt by a low-born cleric!"

At any rate, Henry's followers interpreted his words as instructions to assassinate the archbishop. They did so on 29 December 1170. Beckett was recognized as a martyr and was canonized by Pope Alexander III very soon after his death.

While neither Henry nor Thomas Beckett are characters in any Harry Turtledove work, Henry's lament and its connection to Beckett's murder are frequently mentioned in Turtledove's work.

For example, in Ruled Britannia, Richard Burbage and William Shakespeare discuss the metaphor as applying to the Geoffrey Martin affair. It is also invoked in Breakthroughs by Abner Dowling in an attempt to talk sense into General Custer during the Great War. The obscure pearl of wisdom was completely lost on Custer, if not on most of the readers as well.

Robert Bellarmine
Robert Bellarmine (Italian: Roberto Francesco Romolo Bellarmino) (4 October 1542 – 17 September 1621) was an Italian Jesuit and a Cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church. He was one of the most important cardinals of the Catholic Reformation. He was canonized in 1930 and is a saint and a Doctor of the Church.

In 1616, Cardinal Bellarmine summoned Galileo Galilei and notified him of a forthcoming decree of the Congregation of the Index condemning the Copernican doctrine of the mobility of the Earth and the immobility of the Sun, and ordered Galileo to abandon the theory. Galileo agreed to do so at the time, but returned to the matter in 1632.

In the story "But It Does Move", when Galileo is being analyzed in 1633 by Cardinal Sigismondo Gioioso, Galileo reminds the Cardinal that the late Robert Bellarmine had warned Galileo that the Copernican view was incompatible with Church doctrine over a decade before, a verdict Galileo claimed he'd accepted. Gioioso does not believe Galileo.

Bohemund I of Antioch
Bohemund I (also spelled Bohemond or Boamund) (c. 1058 – 3 March 1111), Prince of Taranto and Prince of Antioch, was a soldier and nobleman of Norman descent. He was the son of Robert Guiscard, and served under his father during his attack on the Byzantine Empire under Alexios I Komnenos. After his father's death in 1085, Bohemund lost most of his Adriatic Coast possessions to the Byzantines, and consequently made war on his half-brother, Roger Borsa, finally securing Taranto in 1087. In 1096, he became part of the First Crusade. While the Crusade had no single official leader, Bohemund was arguably the most important member of the committee of nobles who oversaw it. During the Crusade, Bohemund managed to take control of Antioch. This however, ultimately brought him back into conflict with Alexios I, to whom Bohemund had actually pledged to give Antioch. In 1108, Bohemund was crushed by Alexios and forced to become a vassal of the Byzantine Empire.

In "Two Thieves", Emperor Alexios I Komnenos, remembering his conflicts with Bohemund, has no love for Normans even after his resurrection on Riverworld.

Daniel Boone
Daniel Boone (November 2, 1734 [O.S. October 22] – September 26, 1820) was a prominent American pioneer, explorer, trapper, and soldier. In 1775, Boone blazed the Wilderness Road through Maryland, North Carolina and Tennessee, to Kentucky (then part of Virginia), where he founded the village of Boonesborough. As a militia officer during the American Revolution, Boone fought notable battles against the Shawnee, a British-backed Indian tribe. Boone served three terms in the Virginia General Assembly, and later worked as a surveyor and merchant. After his business ventures failed, he left Kentucky for Missouri in 1799 and lived out his life there.

There are many apocryphal folk stories about Boone which have obscured the details of his real life in the public imagination. Many of them are simply anecdotes of Davy Crockett repackaged for commercial reasons.

In The Disunited States of America, the North American state (country) of Boone appears to be named for Daniel Boone.

James Bowie
James Bowie (March 10, 1796 - March 6, 1836) was an American farmer, slave trader, and land speculator in the early 19th century. He saw military service in the Louisiana Militia during the War of 1812. However, he known as the namesake of the Bowie Knife (a name given to any very large hunting or butcher knife used as a personal weapon), and for his role in the Texas Revolution and was second-in-command at the siege of the Alamo in February-March 1836 after Colonel William Travis. Like all the Alamo's defenders, he was killed on March 6, 1836.

In "Lee at the Alamo", as Robert E. Lee prepares to stand his own siege in the Alamo in February 1861, he thinks of the stand made by Davy Crockett, William Travis, James Bowie and others who died almost exactly 25 years earlier.

Leonid Brezhnev
Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev (Russian, Леонид Ильич Брежнев) (December 19, 1906 – November 10, 1982) was General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (and thus political leader of the USSR) from 1964 to 1982, serving in that position longer than anyone other than Joseph Stalin.

Brezhnev seven years dead and thoroughly discredited a the beginning of A World of Difference. KGB agent and Tsiolkovsky crewman Oleg Lopatin has distinctive eyebrows resembling Brezhnev's.

Jack Cade
Jack Cade (c. 1420 - 12 July 1450), who sometimes used the name John Mortimer, was the leader of a popular revolt in England in 1450 against King Henry VI. The revolt saw the deaths of several of the king's favourites, including the Lord Treasurer, and the looting of London. While Cade and his followers were bought off by pardons, Cade was nonetheless deemed a traitor to the crown, and was killed in battle. His body was drawn and quartered.

Not much is known of Cade's biography beyond general information which has been coloured by tall tales and propaganda (most famously William Shakespeare's Henry VI Part 2), making it difficult to separate fact from fiction.

In Atlantis novella, "New Hastings", Jack Cade's rebellion, which had taken place just two years priors to the story's opening, helps convince Edward Radcliffe to leave England for Atlantis.

Caligula
Gaius Julius Caesar Augustus Germanicus (12 AD–41 AD), more commonly known by his nickname Caligula, was the third Roman Emperor and a member of the Julio-Claudian dynasty, ruling from 37 to 41.

During his brief reign, Caligula focused much of his attention on ambitious construction projects and territorial expansion. He worked to increase the authority of the principate and struggled to maintain his position against several conspiracies to overthrow him. He was eventually assassinated in 41 by several of his own guards in a conspiracy involving the Roman Senate.

Though very popular with the Roman public throughout his reign, all surviving ancient sources write that Caligula was an insane tyrant. They focus upon anecdotes of Caligula's alleged cruelty, extravagance and sexual perversity. Surviving sources, though, are scarce and much of Caligula's reign is a mystery.

One long standing rumor is that Caligula sought appoint his horse as consul. Turtledove references this in Liberating Atlantis, when Leland Newton argues that blacks and whites experienced pain the same way. Jeremiah Stafford replies that if he shot a nearby horse, it would also feel pain. He rhetorically argues that the creature could succeed one of them as Consul, referencing Caligula's alleged scheme.

In "Death in Vesunna", Kleandros uses Caligula as an example of why the gods would not have killed the inoffensive Clodius Eprius since they left a man as evil as Caligula alone.

John Calvin
John Calvin (French: Jean Cauvin, 10 July 1509 – 27 May 1564) was an influential French (later Swiss) theologian and pastor during the Protestant Reformation. He was a principal figure in the development of the system of Christian theology later called Calvinism. Presbyterianism, Puritanism, and the Reformed Church also view Calvin as a central figure in their histories. Central to Calvin's beliefs are the concepts of predestination (that God has already chosen those who will achieve salvation) and total depravity (the belief that all people are born into sin). The Catholic Church regarded Calvinism as heresy.

John Calvin and Martin Luther were the two most prominent Reformation figures of their time period.

"But It Does Move", where we are reminded that, while the Catholic Church is Galileo Galilei's immediate antagonist, in his own lifetime, Calvin was a critic of theCopernican model of the solar system.

Canute II of Denmark
Canute II of Denmark, also known as Canute the Great (also spelled Cnut or Knut, c. 995– 12 November 1035), king of Denmark, England, Norway and parts of Sweden, together often referred to as the Anglo-Scandinavian or North Sea Empire. After his death, his sons fought amongst themselves, and the empire disintegrated within a decade.

As a Danish prince, Canute won the throne of England in 1016 in the wake of centuries of Viking activity in northwestern Europe. His accession to the Danish throne in 1018 brought the crowns of England and Denmark together. Canute maintained his power by uniting Danes and English under cultural bonds of wealth and custom, rather than by sheer brutality, and was remembered as a benevolent ruler. After a decade of conflict with opponents in Scandinavia, Cnut claimed the crown of Norway in Trondheim in 1028. The Swedish city Sigtuna was held by Canute, but he never controlled all of that kingdom.

A popular legend tells how King Canute, for the benefit of his foolish, flattering courtiers, had his throne placed on the beach and pretended he had the power to command the tides not to come in. When nature did not obey him, he told his audience that he was only a man and not the demigod-like figure they would have made of him. This story has often been misunderstood and inverted, to portray Canute as a deluded madman who believed he had supernatural powers.

Harry Turtledove occasionally has his characters use the story of King Canute and the tides as a shorthand metaphor of someone faced with an insurmountable task. The Two Georges, for example, has two such moments.

Al Capone
Alphonse Gabriel "Scarface Al" Capone (January 17, 1899 – January 25, 1947) was an Italian-American gangster who led a crime syndicate, based in Chicago, Illinois, and dedicated to the smuggling and bootlegging of liquor and other illegal activities during the Prohibition Era of the 1920s and 1930s. Although never successfully convicted of racketeering charges or murder (both of which he was certainly guilty), Capone's criminal career ended in 1931, when he was indicted and convicted by the federal government for income tax evasion. He was released from prison in 1939.

He died of heart failure, brought on in part by neurosyphilis and pneumonia.

Capone's fall to tax evasion is referenced throughout Turtledove's work. In The Man With the Iron Heart, for example, Ed McGraw expresses concern that Diana McGraw's Mothers Against the Madness in Germany might find itself in the same sort of tax trouble Al Capone did. Similarly, Vanessa Ferguson hopes a combative farmer in Kansas will similarly find himself meeting Capone's fate in the Supervolcano series.

Carausius
Marcus Aurelius Mausaeus Valerius Carausius (died 293) was a military commander of the Roman Empire in the 3rd century. He was a Menapian from Belgic Gaul. In 286, he commanded a fleet charged with eliminating pirates in the English Channel. However, after Emperor Maximian learned that Carausius may have kept the treasure recovered from the pirates, he ordered Carausius' execution. When learned of this order, Carausius launched a revolt declared himself emperor of the short-lived Britannic Empire, centered in Britain and northern Gaul. He held power for seven years, surviving an attempt by Maximian to retake Britain in 288 or 289. After the Western Roman Emperor Constantius Chlorus retook Gaul, Carausius was assassinated by his finance minister Allectus.

Carausius was listed in Geoffrey of Monmouth's History of the Kings of Britain (1136), and is counted as a "legendary" king of Britain. Geoffrey gave Carausius a fictional biography, claiming he was a Briton of humble birth who used the Roman Empire to gain sufficient resources to establish himself as king before dying in battle at Allectus' hand.

In "Nine Drowned Churches", while visiting a museum in Dunwich, England, musician Alistair notices a Roman coin from the reign of Carausius among the displays.

Barbara Cartland
Dame Mary Barbara Hamilton Cartland (9 July 1901 - 21 May 2000) was a British author, one of the most prolific and commercially successful authors of the 20th Century. Her 723 novels were translated into 36 languages and reportedly sold between 750 million and 1 billion copies. She specialised in 18th Century and Victorian era pure romance. She was also a well known media personality.

Her younger brother was the British Conservative Party politician Ronald Cartland (1907-1940).

In The War That Came Early: Coup d'Etat, the longer-lived Ronald Cartland mentions to Alistair Walsh that he and Barbara Cartland visited Egypt and saw the Pyramids in the 1920s.

Juan Cortina
Juan Nepomuceno "Cheno" Cortina Goseacochea, aka the Red Robber of the Rio Grande (May 16, 1824 - October 30, 1894) was a 19th century Mexican rancher who served as a military, paramilitary, and political leader in a colorful career that eventually saw him live out his final years successively in exile, in a military prison, and under house arrest. In the Mexican popular imagination he has attained the status of folk hero. In the United States he is mainly remembered for leading a guerrilla war against the United States Army and the Texas Rangers in southern Texas from 1859 to 1861.

In "Lee at the Alamo", when Lt. Colonel Robert E. Lee is approached by Colonel Ben McCulloch of the Texas militia in February 1861, Lee initially askes McCulloch whether he wished to request the U.S. Army's assistance in fighting a new incursion by Juan Cortina. McCulloch replies that Cortina's raiders were well contained in Mexico proper.

James M. Cox
James Middleton Cox (March 31, 1870 - July 15, 1957) was a governor of Ohio, a United States Representative from Congress, and the Democratic candidate for the office of President of the United States in 1920 with Franklin D. Roosevelt as his running mate. He was defeated in a landslide by Republican Warren G. Harding and his running mate Calvin Coolidge.

Throughout his life, Cox wore many hats, including high school teacher, reporter, owner and editor of several newspapers, and secretary to Congressman Paul J. Sorg.

In the short story, "Joe Steele", the Democrats are still smarting in 1932 from James M. Cox's defeat by Warren G. Harding in 1920. He is not referenced in the novel.

Thomas Cranmer
Thomas Cranmer (2 July 1489 – 21 March 1556) was a leader of the English Reformation and Archbishop of Canterbury during the reigns of Kings Henry VIII and Edward VI. He helped build a favourable case for Henry's divorce from Catherine of Aragon, which resulted in the separation of the English Church from union with the Holy See. Despite this and other Protestant sympathies, Cranmer's appointment to the position of Archbishop of Canterbury was confirmed by Pope Paul III, making him the penultimate archbishop to hold the office with the Vatican's approval.

While taking a relatively conservative stance under Henry, Cranmer instituted substantial reforms under Edward. Upon the ascension of Mary I, Catholicism was reinstituted in England, and Cranmer was imprisoned for two years. He recanted during this time, but on the date of his execution, he withdrew these recantations and thus became a martyr to the Protestant cause.

In The Two Georges (co-authored with Richard Dreyfus), Thomas Cranmer appears to be the namesake of a province of the North American Union.

Davy Crockett
David Crockett (August 17, 1786 - March 6, 1836), also known as Davy Crockett, was an early 19th century American folk hero. He served with the Tennessee Militia in the Creek War of 1813-14, an offshoot of the War of 1812. In 1814 he left the militia but returned as a lieutenant colonel in 1818. He began his political career in 1821 when he was elected to the Committee on Propositions and Grievances. In 1824 he ran for Congress from Tennessee's 9th District on the Democratic ticket. He lost that election but won the seat in 1826 and was reelected in 1828. In Congress he was initially a Jacksonian Democrat, but he opposed the President over the Indian Removal Act and defected to the National Republican Party in the face of party discipline. His opposition to the popular Jackson cost him his seat in the 1830 midterm election, but he was returned to the House from the newly-created 12th District in 1832. In 1834 he lost his seat because he had toured the East Coast promoting his autobiography instead of returning to his district to campaign. After leaving Congress, he kept one of his campaign promises: "I told the people of my district that I would serve them as faithfully as I had done; but if not, you may all go to hell, and I will go to Texas."

He took part in the Texas Revolution seeking independence from Mexico, and entered the Alamo in San Antonio in February 1836. He took part in the fateful siege and battle at that fortress and was killed by Santa Anna's men on March 6, 1836. Although there is a popular notion of him being shot down from the mission's walls by a sharpshooter, more recent research suggests (but not with certainty) that he was murdered after surrendering, whether on the same day of his capture or (according to a less widely accepted theory) in prison four years later.

In the 20th century, Crockett's life was popularized by numerous film and television dramatizations (one of which starred John Wayne), and he entered the American popular memory as one of the nation's most beloved folk heroes.

In "Lee at the Alamo", as Robert E. Lee prepares to stand his own siege in the Alamo in February 1861, he thinks of the stand made by Davy Crockett, William Travis, James Bowie and others who died almost exactly 25 years earlier.

John W. Davis
John William Davis (April 13, 1873 – March 24, 1955) was an American politician, diplomat and lawyer. He served as a United States Representative from West Virginia (1911–1913), then as Solicitor General of the United States and US Ambassador to the United Kingdom under President Woodrow Wilson. Over a 60-year legal career, he argued 140 cases before the Supreme Court of the United States.

Davis is best known as the Democratic Party nominee for President of the United States during the 1924 presidential election, losing to Republican incumbent Calvin Coolidge and his running mate Charles Dawes. He won that nomination on the 103rd vote, only after the Democrats split between the conservative William McAdoo and the liberal Al Smith; Davis was a compromise candidate in many ways.

In both the short story "Joe Steele" and the novel of the same name, Davis's status of a compromise candidate becomes a point of concern when the 1932 Democratic Convention appears to be on the verge of deadlocking between Franklin D. Roosevelt and Joe Steele.

Martin Delany
Martin Robison Delany (May 6, 1812 - January 24, 1885) was an African-American abolitionist and arguably the first proponent of American black nationalism. He became the first African American field officer in the United States Army during the American Civil War. Delany was born free. He engaged in several trades before attempting a medical degree. He was ultimately denied, which left him embittered. He became a proponent of black emigration to Africa through the 1850s. With the arrival of the Civil War, Delany decided to stay. He became a soldier, and eventually attained the rank of major in 1865. He published several works on the status of blacks in the U.S. He died of tuberculosis in 1885.

In the novel Fort Pillow, Turtledove, via POV character Sgt. Ben Robinson, incorrectly identifies Delany as a major a year before he was actually promoted to the rank in OTL.

Stephen Douglas
While Stephen Douglas has yet to directly appear in the works of Harry Turtledove, he has several alternate posthumous or concurrent roles. Including those found at his article, Douglas is also referenced early in the novel Joe Steele. When the 1932 Democratic convention sees a deadlock between New York Governor Franklin D. Roosevelt and California Representative Joe Steele, Charlie Sullivan is reminded that the two-thirds rule had fractured the Democratic Party in 1860 when Stephen Douglas couldn't get over that hump.

Edward VII of Britain
In addition to his more substantive roles, Edward VII is referenced in passing in several other Turtledove works, either in his capacity as monarch or Prince of Wales.

In The Hot War, Vasili Yasevich finds a few British gold sovereigns with the image of Edward VII as well as several with his mother, Victoria in the atomic rubble of Harbin.

The Guns of the South references the Prince of Wales' OTL visit to Richmond, and his praise of John Dabney's mint juleps. Similarly, Edward's reputation for lascivious adventuring as Prince of Wales is referenced in the Atlantis short work, "The Scarlet Band".

Albert Einstein
In addition to his direct appearances in Turtledove's work, Albert Einstein has been referenced in a number of other Turtledove works.

In The Hot War, while President Harry Truman is gloomily reflecting on the tit-for-tat atomic bombings between the U.S. and the USSR and the next generation of bombs American physicists were working on, he recalls a quote attributed to Einstein that he didn't know what weapons World War III would be fought with, but World War IV would be fought with rocks. (Truman, believing the comment was out of character for Einstein, is tempted to telephone him in Princeton for confirmation, but Midwestern frugality leads him to refrain.

In "Hindsight", when science fiction writer Pete Lundquist shares with editor Jim McGregor that fellow author Mark Gordian has somehow plagiarized a story from Lundquist that Lundquist hadn't even completed yet, both men contemplate the possibility that Gordian might be a telepath. McGregor then wonders why Gordian would read Lundquist's mind instead of Albert Einstein's, among other more influential people.

Friedrich Engels
In addition to his more substantive posthumous roles, Friedrich Engels is often passingly referenced in other Turtledove works. For example, in The War That Came Early La Martellita, a political officer of the Spanish Republic, names her son Carlos Federico Weinberg after Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. Engels' relationship to Marx is referenced in Southern Victory by the Engels Brothers, a Vaudville troop of comedians who are analogs of the OTL Marx Brothers.

George English
George Washington English, Sr. (May 9, 1866 – July 1941) was a United States federal judge.

Appointed to the Eastern District of Illinois in 1918, English was impeached by the U.S. House of Representatives in 1926 for abusive treatment of lawyers and litigants appearing before him. He resigned from office on November 4, 1926, before his trial began. The U.S. Senate subsequently dismissed the charges against him.

English's impeachment is referenced in "News From the Front", after Congressman Hatton Sumners (played a role in English's impeachment) Sumners calls for impeachment proceedings against President Franklin D. Roosevelt.

Epicurus
Epicurus (Greek: Ἐπίκουρος, Epíkouros, "ally, comrade"; 341–270 BC) was an Ancient Greek philosopher and the founder of the school of philosophy called Epicureanism. Only a few fragments and letters of Epicurus' 300 written works remain. Much of what is known about Epicurean philosophy derives from later followers and commentators.

For Epicurus, the purpose of philosophy was to attain the happy, tranquil life, characterized by ataraxia — peace and freedom from fear —and aponia —the absence of pain—and by living a self-sufficient life surrounded by friends. He taught that pleasure and pain are measures of what is good and evil; death is the end of both body and soul and should therefore not be feared; the gods neither reward nor punish humans; the universe is infinite and eternal; and events in the world are ultimately based on the motions and interactions of atoms moving in empty space.

In Worldwar, Epicurus is one of the subjects of a philosophical conversation between Reuven Russie and his father, Moishe. Moishe notes that Epicureanism had led many people to forsake Judaism during the days before the Maccabee Revolt, just as the Race's monetary incentive to Emperor-worship is doing in 1960s Palestine.

Quintus Fabius Maximus
Quintus Fabius Maximus Verrucosus Cunctator (c. 280 BC – 203 BC) was a Roman politician and general, who was born and died in Rome. He was a Roman Consul five times (233 BC, 228 BC, 215 BC, 214 BC and 209 BC) and was twice appointed Dictator, in 221 and again in 217 BC. He reached the office of Roman Censor in 230 BC. His agnomen Cunctator (cognate to the English noun cunctation) means "delayer" in Latin, and refers to his strategy in deploying troops against the Carthaginians during the Second Punic War. He is widely regarded as the father of guerrilla warfare due to his then-innovative strategy of targeting enemy supply lines in light of being largely outnumbered. His cognomen Verrucosus means "warty", a reference to a wart above his upper lip. His reputation gave rise to the adjective "Fabian."

In The Guns of the South, Judah Benjamin compares George McClellan to Fabius because McClellan had become famous for his delays in attacking during the Second American Revolution. The difference was that Fabius' delays helped his own side, whereas McClellan's delays only helped the enemy.

Guy Fawkes
Guy Fawkes (13 April 1570 – 31 January 1606) was a member of a group of provincial English Catholics who planned the failed Gunpowder Plot of 1605.

Fawkes was born and educated in York. His father died when Fawkes was eight years old, after which his mother married a recusant Catholic. Fawkes converted to Catholicism and left for the continent, where he fought in the Eighty Years' War on the side of Catholic Spain against Protestant Dutch reformers in the Low Countries. He travelled to Spain to seek support for a Catholic rebellion in England without success. He later met Thomas Wintour, with whom he returned to England.

Wintour introduced Fawkes to Robert Catesby, who planned to assassinate King James I and restore a Catholic monarch to the throne. The plotters leased an undercroft beneath the House of Lords, and Fawkes was placed in charge of the gunpowder they stockpiled there. Prompted by the receipt of an anonymous letter, the authorities searched Westminster Palace during the early hours of 5 November, and found Fawkes guarding the explosives. Over the next few days, he was questioned and tortured, and eventually he confessed. Immediately before his execution on 31 January, Fawkes fell from the scaffold where he was to be hanged and broke his neck, thus avoiding the agony of the mutilation that followed.

Fawkes became synonymous with the Gunpowder Plot, the failure of which has been commemorated in Britain since 5 November 1605. His effigy is traditionally burned on a bonfire, commonly accompanied by a fireworks display.

In The War That Came Early: Coup d'Etat, Alistair Walsh points out to a fellow conspirator, a major that if the 1941 British Military Coup fail, their own names will become a list of traitors for 21st-century schoolchildren to memorize, just as with Guy Fawkes' gang. The major replies that if they succeed, the schoolchildren would be memorizing the names of the other side as the traitors.

Henry Ford
Henry Ford (July 30, 1863 – April 7, 1947) was the American founder of the Ford Motor Company and father of modern assembly lines used in mass production. Through his innovation and his business acumen, he amassed one of the world's largest fortunes. He was known for his harsh usage of workers, and his distrust of the Jews.

Aside from the frequent appearance of various Ford automobiles in Turtledove's work, Henry Ford himself is referenced in a few works. In The Gladiator, as part of a homework assignment in which he has to place a feudal lord, a capitalist and a Fascist in Dante's Inferno, Gianfranco Mazzilli chooses Henry Ford for his capitalist, placing him in the Fifth Circle of Hell with the hoarders and the spendthrifts.

In The Valley-Westside War, we learn that Ford's, famous statement "History is bunk," lost its credibility when crosstime travel was discovered. Understanding how the alternates worked required a knowledge of history to determine when the break-point of each alternate occurred, so the study of history suddenly gained a new level of importance.

Liz Mendoza reflects on this while discussing her interest in history with Dan of The Valley. She realizes that, while important in the home timeline, history is of little use to the people of Dan's alternate, who are busy struggling to survive.

Henry II of England
Henry II (5 March 1133 – 6 July 1189) ruled as King of England (1154–1189), Count of Anjou, Duke of Normandy, Duke of Aquitaine, Duke of Gascony, Count of Nantes, Lord of Ireland and, at various times, controlled parts of Wales, Scotland and western France. Henry was the first of the House of Plantagenet to rule England, the first English monarch to claim sovereignty over Ireland, and was the great-grandson of William the Conqueror.

Henry is remembered for his early efforts to consolidate English hegemony over the British Isles, legal reform, and efforts to assert royal dominance over the nobles (relatively successful) and the Catholic Church (generally unsuccessful). These last efforts indirectly caused the death of Thomas Beckett, the Archbishop of Canterbury, who most tenaciously opposed Henry. Legend has it that Henry exclaimed "Will no one rid me of this troublesome priest?" He actual words were "What miserable drones and traitors have I nurtured and promoted in my household, who let their lord be treated with such shameful contempt by a low-born cleric!" Regardless of what the king said, his supporters took it upon themselves to murder Beckett.

Henry was ultimately undone by his heir, Richard the Lionheart, who defeated him on the battlefield. Henry subsequently died a bitter man.

Harry Turtledove frequently has his characters allude in a shorthand fashion to Henry's lament and Beckett's resulting murder. One particularly significant moment is in conversation between William Shakespeare and Richard Burbage in Ruled Britannia. Another comes in Breakthroughs when Abner Dowling attempt to talk sense into General Custer, with the obscure pearl of wisdom being completely lost on Custer, if not on most of the readers as well.

Manfred von Richthofen
Manfred Albrecht Freiherr von Richthofen (2 May 1892 – 21 April 1918), widely known as the Red Baron, was a German fighter pilot with the Imperial German Army Air Service during the First World War. He is considered the ace-of-aces of the war, being officially credited with 80 air combat victories.

In "Cayos in the Stream", Ernest Hemingway likens falling out of love to "crash[ing] in flames, like a burning Sopwith Camel when the Red Baron prowls."

Robert Falcon Scott
Captain Robert Falcon Scott CVO RN (6 June 1868 – 29 or 30 March 1912) was a British Royal Navy officer and explorer who led two expeditions to the Antarctic regions: the Discovery Expedition, 1901–1904, and the ill-fated Terra Nova Expedition, 1910–1913. On the first expedition, he set a new southern record by marching to latitude 82°S and discovered the Polar Plateau, on which the South Pole is located. During the second venture, Scott led a party of five which reached the South Pole on 17 January 1912, only to find that they had been preceded by Roald Amundsen's Norwegian expedition. On their return journey, Scott's party discovered plant fossils, proving Antarctica was once forested and joined to other continents. A planned meeting with supporting dog teams from the base camp failed, and at a distance of 150 miles from their base camp and 11 miles from the next depot, Scott and his companions died from a combination of exhaustion, starvation and extreme cold.

In The War That Came Early, an unnamed English captain trudging through a blizzard in Norway concludes that the last person who was in anything like that predicament was Robert Falcon Scott. He then amends this, remembering that Roald Amundsen was exploring Antarctica at the same time as Scott, and surmises that Amundsen, being Norwegian, survived because he was used to such weather.

William Travis
William Barret Travis (August 1, 1809 - March 6, 1836) is best known for his role in the Texas Revolution. In the 1820s he worked as a teacher and attorney in Sparta, Alabama. He also served in the Alabama Militia. In 1831 he left his practice, the militia, and his pregnant wife and son and moved to Mexico where he became involved in the Texas Revolution in 1835, entering the Texan army with the rank of lieutenant colonel at the age of 26. He was assigned as the army's chief recruiting officer. On February 3, 1836, he arrived at the Alamo in San Antonio with a company of reinforcements and relieved Colonel James Neill as the mission's commanding officer. Later that month the mission was beseiged by a large Mexican army under General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna. On February 24 he wrote an open letter to all Texan revolutionaries describing the dire situation in which his command found itself but swearing to fight to the death. He sealed the letter in an envelope marked "Victory or Death" and sent it to the town of Gonzales with courier Albert Martin. The letter did not bring Travis reinforcements but did increase the morale of Texan revolutionaries elsewhere and remains a required part of the Texas Department of Education's social studies core curriculum content standards to this day.

Travis was killed with all his men on March 6, 1836 when the Alamo fell to the Mexican Army.

In "Lee at the Alamo", as Robert E. Lee prepares to stand his own siege in the Alamo in February 1861, he thinks of the stand made by Davy Crockett, William Travis, James Bowie and others who died almost exactly 25 years earlier.

William II of England
William II of England (c. 1056 – 2 August 1100), the third son of William I the Conqueror, was King of England from 1087 until 1100. William is commonly known as William Rufus (William the Red), perhaps because of his red-faced appearance.

Although William was an effective soldier, he was a ruthless ruler and, it seems, was little liked by those he governed: according to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, he was "hated by almost all his people." However, chroniclers tended to take a dim view of William's reign, arguably on account of his long and difficult struggles with the Catholic Church.

William seems to have been a flamboyant character, and his reign was marked by his bellicose temperament. He did not marry, nor did he produce any offspring, legitimate or otherwise.

He was killed by an arrow during a hunting expedition. Historians have long debated whether this was accidental or deliberate, with the latter being likely due to William's strong unpopularity. If this is true, then William remains (as of 2015) the most recent English monarch to be assassinated while reigning; a few kings since have been killed after a formal dethronement.

In the Southern Victory, the British construct an artificial island fortress to protect the entrance to Pearl Harbor from enemy attack. The fort is named "Fort William Rufus" in honor of William II of England. However, it is known worldwide by its nickname as the "Concrete Battleship."