What If . . . ? 10 Creative Writing Prompts for January

Here’s this month’s selection of “What If…?” creative writing prompts to inspire you – let’s see what you can do with these!

These are all taken from our book: The Fastest Way to Get Ideas – 4,400 Essential What Ifs for Writers.

What if…

1. you were the only person in the world with your particular addiction?

2. you were rich enough to be able to behave in any way that you wanted to?

3. you needed an exorcist?

4. you reassessed all your friendships?

5. your reached the limit of your memory’s capacity?

6. you were pleased to hear that someone had died?

7. you accidentally gave something to the wrong person?

8. you were waiting for an announcement that the country was at war?

9. you changed your personality?

10. you tried to achieve perfection?

– – – – – – –

Become a lifetime member of ideas4writers for just £49.95 (or the equivalent in your currency) and you’ll receive:
Our complete collection of 5,000+ writing ideas
The Fastest Way to Get Ideas (4,400 what ifs)
The Date-A-Base Book 2014 (plus all future editions)
The Fastest Way to Write Your Book
How to Win Short Story Competitions
Unlimited use of our exclusive online writing software
Full access to our members-only discussion forums
And more… (total value: over £150)

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50 Newsworthy Anniversaries in June 2014 for you to write about (and make money from!)

Here are 50 newsworthy anniversaries coming up in June 2014 for you to write about (and make money from). The anniversaries are listed 6 months in advance to give you enough time for research and writing.

We have painstakingly cross-checked every entry, but you are advised to check all facts again as part of your research. Please let us know of any errors you find.

This list is just a small sample of the entries for June from The Date-A-Base Book 2014. There are more than 200 anniversaries for this month in the book, which covers the whole of 2014 from January to December and features more than 2,650 anniversaries in total.

Just one published article will cover the cost of your copy many times over.

The Date-A-Base Book 2015 is coming soon!

700 years ago (23–24 June 1314)
First War of Scottish Independence – the Battle of Bannockburn; a decisive victory for the Scots, who regained their independence.

250 years ago (19 June 1764)
Birth of José Gervasio Artigas, Uruguayan soldier and revolutionary leader; the father of Uruguayan independence.

150 years ago (2 June 1864)
Caucasian Wars – the Russian-Circassian War ended; Russian victory. Russia annexed Circassia and deported around 500,000 of its population.

150 years ago (3 June 1864)
Birth of Ransom Eli Olds, pioneering American inventor and car manufacturer who designed the first Oldsmobile and established the first modern assembly line.

150 years ago (9 June 1864)
American Civil War – the Siege of Petersburg (Virginia) began. (Ended 25th Mar 1865; Union victory.)

150 years ago (11 June 1864)
Birth of Richard Strauss, German Romantic composer and conductor.

150 years ago (14 June 1864)
Birth of Alois Alzheimer, German psychiatrist and neuropathologist; best known for identifying the first recorded case of pre-senile dementia – now known as Alzheimer’s disease.

150 years ago (15 June 1864)
Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia, USA was established. (Note: the first military burials began there a month earlier, on 13th May.)

150 years ago (21 June 1864)
New Zealand Land Wars – the Tauranga Campaign ended; British victory.

150 years ago (29 June 1864)
St-Hilaire train disaster, Quebec, Canada. A train fell through an open swing bridge into the Richelieu River after failing to stop at a signal. 99 people were killed. It was Canada’s worst-ever railway disaster.

150 years ago (30 June 1864)
U.S. President Abraham Lincoln granted Yosemite Valley to the State of California for ‘public use, resort and recreation’, making it the first park in the USA to be permanently set aside. (Yosemite National Park, which incorporates the valley, was established in 1890. The first national park was Yellowstone National Park, established in 1872.)

100 years ago (14 June 1914)
Death of Adlai Stevenson, Vice President of the United States (1893–97).

100 years ago (15 June 1914)
Birth of Yuri Andropov, Leader of the Soviet Union (1982–84).

100 years ago (26 June 1914)
Birth of Laurie Lee, British poet, novelist and screenwriter; best known for Cider with Rosie – a memoir of his childhood.

100 years ago (28 June 1914)
Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria was assassinated, sparking a conflict between Austria-Hungary and Serbia that led to WWI.

80 years ago (9 June 1934)
Walt Disney’s character Donald Duck made his first appearance, in the Silly Symphonies cartoon The Wise Little Hen.

80 years ago (15 June 1934)
Great Smoky Mountains National Park was established in the USA.

80 years ago (19 June 1934)
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) was established in the USA.

80 years ago (26 June 1934)
New Deal: U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the Federal Credit Union Act, establishing credit unions in the USA.

80 years ago (30 June 1934)
Night of the Long Knives – Adolf Hitler’s purge (execution) of senior Nazi officials, particularly leaders of the SA paramilitary group (also known as the brownshirts), and hundreds of other (perceived) political opponents.

75 years ago (12 June 1939)
The National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York, USA was dedicated.

75 years ago (23 June 1939)
Siam was renamed Thailand.

75 years ago (25 June 1939)
Birth of Harold Melvin, American soul/R&B/disco singer (Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes). (Died 1997.)

75 years ago (26 June 1939)
Death of Ford Madox Ford, influential British novelist, poet, literary critic and magazine editor.

75 years ago (28 June 1939)
Pan American Airways launched the first transatlantic passenger service.

70 years ago (6 June 1944)
World War II – D-Day: the Normandy landings. Over 150,000 Allied troops landed on the beaches of Normandy, France at the start of the Battle of Normandy. (The battle ended on 25th Aug; Allied victory.)

70 years ago (13 June 1944)
World War II: Germany launched the first V-1 flying bomb (‘doodlebug’) attack on London.

70 years ago (17 June 1944)
Iceland declared its independence from Denmark and became a republic. Sveinn Björnsson became its first president.

65 years ago (8 June 1949)
George Orwell’s novel Nineteen Eighty-Four was published.

60 years ago (7 June 1954)
Death of Alan Turing, British mathematician, logician and computer science pioneer; known for his work as a WWII codebreaker and for developing the Turing machine, which led to the development of the computer. (Suicide.)

60 years ago (15 June 1954)
The Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) was founded in Basel, Switzerland.

60 years ago (27 June 1954)
The world’s first nuclear power station opened in Obninsk, Russia. (It was decommissioned in 2002.)

50 years ago (9 June 1964)
Death of Sir Max Aitken, Lord Beaverbrook, highly influential Canadian-British politician and newspaper proprietor; owner of the Daily Express and London Evening Standard. He also served as a British Government minister during both world wars.

50 years ago (28 June 1964)
The Organization of Afro-American Unity was founded in New York by Malcolm X.

40 years ago (1 June 1974)
The Heimlich manoeuvre (a procedure for rescuing choking victims by using abdominal thrusts) was first published in the journal Emergency Medicine.

40 years ago (17 June 1974)
An IRA bomb exploded at the Houses of Parliament in London, causing extensive damage and injuring 11 people.

40 years ago (29 June 1974)
Isabel Perón became the first woman President of Argentina.

30 years ago (3–6 June 1984)
Operation Bluestar – Indian government troops stormed the Golden Temple in Amritsar, which was being held by a Sikh militant group. Over 1,000 people were killed, including the group’s leader. (The action provoked a chain of retaliation that led to the assassination of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi on 31st Oct.)

30 years ago (22 June 1984)
Virgin Atlantic Airways began operating.

25 years ago (3 June 1989)
Death of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, Iranian religious leader and politician; Supreme Leader of Iran (1979–89); succeeded by Ali Khamenei.

25 years ago (4 June 1989)
The Tiananmen Square Massacre, Beijing, China. Students holding a pro-democracy demonstration were forced out of the square in a bloody government crackdown. The number killed is unknown – estimates range from less than 200 to over 6,000; thousands more were injured.

25 years ago (4 June 1989)
Ufa train disaster, Russia. Liquid natural gas leaking from a pipeline ignited and exploded when two passing trains generated sparks. 575 people were killed and over 800 were injured – most of the victims were children. It was the deadliest railway accident in Soviet history.

25 years ago (4 June 1989)
A ‘partially free’ parliamentary election was held in Poland. Solidarity took 35% of seats in the lower house and 99 out of 100 seats in the Senate. (Communist leader Wojciech Jaruzelski remained head of state until Dec 1990 when he was succeeded by Solidarity leader Lech Walesa.)

20 years ago (12 June 1994)
Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ronald Goldman were slashed to death outside her home in Los Angeles, California, USA. On 17th June her ex-husband, the actor and former football star O. J. Simpson, was arrested and charged with their murders after an infamous low-speed chase.

20 years ago (30 June 1994)
British serial killer Fred West was charged with 11 counts of murder at a court in Gloucester. His wife Rosemary was charged with 10 counts of murder.

10 years ago (5 June 2004)
Death of Ronald Reagan, 40th President of the United States.

10 years ago (10 June 2004)
Death of Ray Charles, American pianist, singer, composer and bandleader; a pioneer of soul music.

10 years ago (21 June 2004)
SpaceShipOne made the first privately funded manned spaceflight. It was developed by Mojave Aerospace Ventures and piloted by Mike Melvill. (In October it won the Ansari X Prize by reaching space twice within 2 weeks.)

10 years ago (28 June 2004)
The Coalition Provisional Authority handed sovereignty back to Iraq. Ghazi Mashal Ajil al-Yawer became acting-President.

10 years ago (28 June 2004)
Death of Anthony Buckeridge, British children’s writer; best known for his Jennings and Rex Milligan novels.

– – – – – – –

Become a lifetime member of ideas4writers for just £49.95 (or the equivalent in your local currency) and you’ll receive The Date-A-Base Books for 2013 and 2014  (plus the 2015 edition and all future editions as soon as they are published) as well as The Fastest Way to Write Your Book, The Fastest Way to Get Ideas, How to Win Short Story Competitions, our complete collection of 5,000+ writing ideas, unlimited use of our forums and exclusive online writing software, and more. (Total value: over £150!)
Click here for full details

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What If . . . ? 10 Creative Writing Prompts for December

Here’s this month’s selection of “What If…?” creative writing prompts to inspire you – let’s see what you can do with these!

These are all taken from our book: The Fastest Way to Get Ideas – 4,400 Essential What Ifs for Writers.

What if…

1. it was only your addictions that were keeping you alive?

2. you saw the scariest film ever made?

3. your customers kept trying to buy products that didn’t exist?

4. you had to work extra hard to be accepted?

5. you were stabbed in the back (literally or metaphorically)?

6. your child was a genius?

7. you made your view clear?

8. you were asked/told to write a story/book in a style/genre you hated?

9. you replaced all of your windows with TV screens?

10. you were replaced at work by someone who cost ten times more than you to employ?

– – – – – – –

Become a lifetime member of ideas4writers for just £49.95 (or the equivalent in your local currency) and you’ll receive The Date-A-Base Books for 2013, 2014 (plus all future editions) as well as The Fastest Way to Write Your Book, The Fastest Way to Get Ideas (contains 4,400 what ifs), our complete 5,000+ collection of writing ideas, How to Win Short Story Competitions, unlimited use of our forums and exclusive online writing software (writing engines), and more…
(total value: over £150!)
Click here for full details

ideas4writers: inspiring you since 2002!

50 Newsworthy Anniversaries in May 2014 for you to write about (and make money from!)

Here are 50 newsworthy anniversaries coming up in May 2014 for you to write about (and make money from). The anniversaries are listed 6 months in advance to give you enough time for research and writing.

We have painstakingly cross-checked every entry, but you are advised to check all facts again as part of your research. Please let us know of any errors you find.

This list is just a small sample of the entries for May from The Date-A-Base Book 2014. There are more than 200 anniversaries for this month in the book, which covers the whole of 2014 from January to December and features more than 2,650 anniversaries in total.

Just one published article will cover the cost of your copy many times over.

200 years ago (4 May 1814)
King Ferdinand VII of Spain abolished the 1812 Constitution and returned Spain to an absolute monarchy.

200 years ago (29 May 1814)
Death of Joséphine de Beauharnais, first Empress of France; first wife of Napoleon Bonaparte.

200 years ago (30 May 1814)
The War of the Sixth Coalition ended with the signing of the Treaty of Paris. France’s borders were restored to their positions as at 1st Jan 1792; territories outside those borders were returned to their former owners. France also returned Monaco to the Grimaldi family, who were restored to the throne. (France had seized Monaco during the French Revolution in 1793.)

150 years ago (5 May 1864)
Birth of Nellie Bly, pioneering American journalist; best known for beating Jules Verne’s fictional story Around the World in Eighty Days by doing it in real life in 72 days. She also had herself committed to an asylum in order to expose the conditions within it.

150 years ago (17 May 1864)
The postal money order service was established in the USA, providing a safe and trustworthy way of sending money by mail. (Money orders, and their successors, postal orders, had been in use in Britain since 1792.)

150 years ago (26 May 1864)
Montana Territory was established in the USA. (Statehood: Nov 1889.)

125 years ago (6 May – 31 Oct 1889)
The Universal Exposition (World’s Fair) was held in Paris, France. Highlights included the official opening of the Eiffel Tower.

100 years ago (9 May 1914)
Death of C. W. Post, American breakfast cereal manufacturer.

100 years ago (13 May 1914)
Birth of Joe Louis, American world heavyweight boxing champion.

100 years ago (15 May 1914 – or 29th?)
Birth of Tenzing Norgay, (Sherpa Tenzing), Tibetan/Nepali mountaineer; Sir Edmund Hillary’s climbing partner in the first successful ascent of Mount Everest in 1953. (Note: exact birth date unknown – he himself did not know it.)

100 years ago (21 May 1914)
The Greyhound Bus Company (now Greyhound Lines) was founded in Minnesota, USA.

100 years ago (22 May 1914)
Birth of Sun Ra, American jazz keyboard player, composer, poet and philosopher; pioneered the use of synthesizers in jazz; claimed he was from the planet Saturn.

100 years ago (25 May 1914)
Britain’s House of Commons passed the Home Rule Bill, intended to provide self-government for Ireland. (It received royal assent in Sept but was never implemented due to the outbreak of WWI. It was repealed in 1920 and replaced by the Anglo-Irish Treaty which was signed in Dec 1921 and led to the establishment of the Irish Free State in Dec 1922.)

100 years ago (29 May 1914)
The British liner RMS Empress of Ireland sank after colliding with the Norwegian cargo ship Storstad on the Saint Lawrence River in Canada. 1,012 people killed. It was one of the worst maritime disasters in history.

80 years ago (11 May 1934)
A two-day dust storm stripped massive amounts of topsoil from the American Great Plains. One of the worst storms of the Dust Bowl era.

80 years ago (23 May 1934)
American bank robbers Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow were shot and killed in a police ambush while driving a stolen car in Louisiana.

80 years ago (23 May 1934 – or 24th?)
The first nylon fibre was produced at DuPont Laboratories, Delaware by a team led by Dr. Wallace Carothers.

75 years ago (1 May 1939)
The superhero Batman first appeared, in Detective Comics #27. (That issue is now one of the most valuable comic books in existence, with copies selling for over $1 million.)

75 years ago (13 May 1939)
Holocaust: the Voyage of the Damned. The German ship MS St. Louis carrying 937 Jewish refugees left Hamburg for Cuba. It was denied permission to land there and headed to Florida, USA, where it was turned away on 4th June. It was also refused permission to land in Canada on 9th June and was forced to return to Europe, where more than 200 of its passengers later died in Nazi concentration camps.

75 years ago (13 May 1939)
The first commercial FM radio station in the USA was launched, in Bloomfield, Connecticut (WDRC-FM).

75 years ago (20 May 1939)
The first transatlantic airmail service was launched. Pan Am’s Yankee Clipper flying boat took off from Port Washington, New York, USA and flew to Lisbon, Portugal.

75 years ago (22 May 1939)
Germany and Italy signed the Pact of Steel (officially called the Pact of Friendship and Alliance) in Berlin, Germany.

75 years ago (25 May 1939)
Death of Sir Frank Dyson, Astronomer Royal of England and Scotland. His observations of the 1919 solar eclipse helped prove Einstein’s theory of general relativity. He also introduced the Greenwich Time Signal (‘pips’).

75 years ago (26 May 1939)
Death of Charles H. Mayo, American physician; one of the founders of the Mayo Clinic.

60 years ago (6 May 1954)
British athlete Roger Bannister became the first person to run a mile in under four minutes. (3 minutes 59.4 seconds, Oxford, England.)

60 years ago (17 May 1954)
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that racially segregated public schools were unconstitutional. This was considered a major landmark in the history of the civil rights movement.

60 years ago (20 May 1954)
Bill Haley & His Comets released Rock Around the Clock, now considered one of the most important records in rock and roll history.

50 years ago (2 May 1964)
Death of Nancy Astor, Viscountess Astor, American-born British politician; the first female Member of Parliament (MP) to sit in the House of Commons.

50 years ago (18 – 19 May 1964)
Thousands of Mods and Rockers rioted at seaside towns along the south coast of England, most notably in Brighton, but also in Margate, Hastings and Broadstairs. Many of them received prison sentences as a result. (The Brighton riots are depicted in the film Quadrophenia.)

50 years ago (27 May 1964)
Death of Jawaharlal Nehru, first Prime Minister of India (1947–64); father of Indira Gandhi, grandfather of Rajiv Gandhi (they both also became prime minister).

50 years ago (28 May 1964)
The Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) was founded.

50 years ago (30 May 1964)
Death of Leó Szilárd, Hungarian-born American nuclear physicist who conceived and helped create the first sustained nuclear chain reaction, which led to the development of the atomic bomb.

40 years ago (24 May 1974)
Death of Duke Ellington, American jazz pianist, composer and big-band leader; regarded as the greatest jazz composer of the 20th century.

40 years ago (27 May 1974)
Valéry Giscard d’Estaing became President of France.

40 years ago (28 May 1974)
The Sunningdale Agreement (an attempt to establish a power-sharing Northern Ireland Executive) collapsed following Unionist opposition, violence and a general strike by loyalists.

40 years ago (31 May 1974)
Israel and Syria signed a ceasefire agreement on the Golan Heights, which left most of the region in Israel’s control.

30 years ago (8 May 1984)
The Thames Flood Barrier in London was officially opened.

25 years ago (13 May 1989)
British war hero Jackie Mann, a former Battle of Britain pilot, was kidnapped in Beirut, Lebanon. (Released September 1991.)

25 years ago (20 May 1989)
Death of Gilda Radner, award-winning American comedian and actress; best known for her appearances on the TV series Saturday Night Live.

20 years ago (1 May 1994)
Death of Ayrton Senna, Brazilian racing driver, killed in a crash at the San Marino Grand Prix, Italy.

20 years ago (4 May – 7 Jul 1994)
Yemen Civil War; northern victory.

20 years ago (6 May 1994)
The Channel Tunnel linking England and France was officially opened.

20 years ago (6 May 1994)
Paula Jones, a former Arkansas state employee, filed a lawsuit against U.S. President Bill Clinton alleging he had sexually harassed her in 1991.

20 years ago (10 May 1994)
Nelson Mandela was inaugurated as South Africa’s first black president after more than three hundred years of white rule.

20 years ago (10 May 1994)
Death of John Wayne Gacy, American serial killer (executed).

20 years ago (12 May 1994)
Death of John Smith, leader of the British Labour Party (1992–94).

20 years ago (19 May 1994)
Death of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, First Lady of the United States (1961–63); wife of President John F. Kennedy and Greek shipping magnate Aristotle Onassis.

20 years ago (30 May 1994)
The USA and Russia ceased targeting long-range nuclear missiles at each other.

10 years ago (9 May 2004)
Death of Akhmad Kadyrov, President of the Chechen Republic (assassinated).

10 years ago (17 May 2004)
Massachusetts legalised same-sex marriages – the first U.S. state to do so.

– – – – – – –

Become a lifetime member of ideas4writers for just £49.95 (or the equivalent in your local currency) and you’ll receive The Date-A-Base Books for 2013 and 2014  (plus all future editions) as well as The Fastest Way to Write Your Book, The Fastest Way to Get Ideas, How to Win Short Story Competitions, our complete collection of 5,000+ writing ideas, unlimited use of our forums and exclusive online writing software (writing engines), and more. (Total value: over £150!)
Click here for full details

ideas4writers: inspiring you since 2002!

What If . . . ? 10 Creative Writing Prompts for November

Here’s this month’s selection of “What If…?” creative writing prompts to inspire you – let’s see what you can do with these!

These are all taken from our book: The Fastest Way to Get Ideas – 4,400 Essential What Ifs for Writers.

What if…

1. you changed your outlook?

2. yours was the only idea that made any sense?

3. you woke up from a coma and found that you were now divorced and your partner had married someone else?

4. there would never be enough proof?

5. they wouldn’t accept your gift?

6. you weren’t as rich as people thought you were?

7. people overestimated your intelligence?

8. you didn’t want to escape?

9. you were bombarded with questions?

10. you didn’t know where you were supposed to go?

– – – – – – –

Become a lifetime member of ideas4writers for just £49.95 (or the equivalent in your local currency) and you’ll receive The Date-A-Base Books for 2013, 2014 (plus all future editions) as well as The Fastest Way to Write Your Book, The Fastest Way to Get Ideas (contains 4,400 what ifs), our complete 5,000+ collection of writing ideas, How to Win Short Story Competitions, unlimited use of our forums and exclusive online writing software (writing engines), and more…
(total value: over £150!)
Click here for full details

ideas4writers: inspiring you since 2002!

50 Newsworthy Anniversaries in April 2014 for you to write about (and make money from!)

Here are 50 newsworthy anniversaries coming up in April 2014 for you to write about (and make money from). The anniversaries are listed 6 months in advance to give you enough time for research and writing.

We have painstakingly cross-checked every entry, but you are advised to check all facts again as part of your research. Please let us know of any errors you find.

This list is just a small sample of the entries for April from The Date-A-Base Book 2014. There are more than 220 anniversaries for this month in the book, which covers the whole of 2014 from January to December and features more than 2,650 anniversaries in total.

Just one published article will cover the cost of your copy many times over.

1000 years ago (23 Apr 1014)
Battle of Clontarf, Dublin, Ireland. The High King of Ireland, Brian Boru, defeated the Viking invaders but was killed in battle.

250 years ago (5 Apr 1764)
The British Parliament passed the Sugar Act (also known as the American Duties Act) which imposed taxes on exports from sugar plantations in the American colonies. (Effective from 29th September, repealed and replaced by the Revenue Act in 1766.)

250 years ago (15 Apr 1764)
Death of Madame de Pompadour, mistress of King Louis XV of France.

200 years ago (2 Apr 1814)
Birth of Erastus Brigham Bigelow, American industrialist; invented power looms and founded Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

200 years ago (11 Apr 1814)
The Treaty of Fontainebleau was signed in France, marking the end of the War of the Sixth Coalition. Napoleon agreed to abdicate unconditionally and was exiled to Elba in Tuscany, Italy. (He returned to France in 1815 but was defeated at the Battle of Waterloo and was exiled to Saint Helena.)

150 years ago (11 Apr 1864)
Birth of Lillie P. Bliss, American art collector; co-founder of the Museum of Modern Art in New York City.

150 years ago (21 Apr 1864)
Birth of Max Weber, German sociologist and political economist; one of the key founders of sociology.

125 years ago (16 Apr 1889)
Birth of Charlie Chaplin, British comedy film actor, director, producer, writer and composer; one of the most important figures in cinema history.

125 years ago (20 Apr 1889)
Birth of Adolf Hitler, Austrian-born German fascist dictator (1933-45), leader of the Nazi Party.

125 years ago (22 Apr 1889)
The Oklahoma land rush began at noon. Thousands of white settlers sought to claim land that had originally belonged to the Creek and Seminole Indians. Oklahoma City and Guthrie were both established before the end of the day.

100 years ago (2 Apr 1914)
Birth of Sir Alec Guinness, Academy Award-winning British film actor (Great Expectations, Oliver Twist, The Bridge on the River Kwai, Lawrence of Arabia, Doctor Zhivago, A Passage to India, Star Wars and more).

100 years ago (9 Apr 1914)
The first feature film to be filmed in colour, The World, the Flesh and the Devil, was released in Britain. (The film is now considered lost.)

100 years ago (20 Apr 1914)
Ludlow Massacre, Colorado, USA. Striking coal miners and their families were attacked by the Colorado National Guard, and their tent village was destroyed. Up to 25 people were killed. The miners then carried out revenge attacks which escalated into a 10-day guerrilla war. Up to 200 people were killed in total.

90 years ago (16 Apr 1924)
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios (MGM) was founded when Metro Pictures, Goldwyn Pictures and Louis B. Mayer Pictures merged.

75 years ago (2 Apr 1939)
Birth of Marvin Gaye, award-winning American soul singer, songwriter, musician and record producer; his hit songs include I Heard It Through the Grapevine and Sexual Healing. He was shot dead by his father in 1984 after a violent argument.

75 years ago (14 Apr 1939)
The classic novel The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck was published.

75 years ago (16 Apr 1939)
Birth of Dusty Springfield, iconic British pop/rock/soul singer; one of the best-selling female singers in the world during the 1960s. (Died 1999.)

75 years ago (27 Apr 1939)
Conscription was introduced in Britain. All men aged 20 – 21 who were fit and able were required to undertake six months’ military training. (The age range was gradually extended after war was declared in Sept, though 40-year-olds weren’t conscripted until June 1941.)

75 years ago (30 Apr 1939)
The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) launched its regularly scheduled television service at the New York World’s Fair. Franklin D. Roosevelt became the first U.S. President to appear on TV, when the opening of the fair was televised. (The broadcast was seen by approximately 1,000 people.)

65 years ago (18 Apr 1949)
The Irish Free State became the Republic of Ireland and officially withdrew from the British Commonwealth.

65 years ago (20 – 22 Apr 1949)
The Badminton Horse Trials were held for the first time, in Gloucestershire, England.

50 years ago (5 Apr 1964)
Death of Douglas MacArthur, American general and field marshal; Chief of Staff of the U.S. Army; commanded the South-west Pacific Theatre in WWII; Medal of Honor recipient.

50 years ago (7 Apr 1964)
IBM launched its System/360 mainframe computer, which dominated the market from the mid-1960s until the late 1970s.

50 years ago (16 Apr 1964)
The Rolling Stones released their first album The Rolling Stones in the UK. (USA: 30th May with the sub-title England’s Newest Hit Makers.)

50 years ago (17 Apr 1964)
The Ford Motor Company launched the Ford Mustang at the New York World’s Fair.

50 years ago (17 Apr 1964)
Shea Stadium in New York City, USA opened. It was the home of the New York Mets baseball team until 2008 when it was demolished. (The New York Mets moved to Citi Field in 2009.)

50 years ago (20 Apr 1964)
The TV channel BBC Two was launched in the UK. (Due to a power cut it didn’t start broadcasting until 21st Apr.)

50 years ago (26 Apr 1964)
Tanganyika and Zanzibar merged to form the United Republic of Tanganyika and Zanzibar (renamed Tanzania in Oct 1964).

40 years ago (2 Apr 1974)
Death of Georges Pompidou, President of France (1969-74).

30 years ago (1 Apr 1984)
Death of Marvin Gaye, award-winning American soul singer, songwriter, musician and record producer; his hit songs include I Heard It Through the Grapevine and Sexual Healing (shot dead by his father).

30 years ago (11 Apr 1984)
Konstantin Chernenko became leader of the Soviet Union.

30 years ago (15 Apr 1984)
Death of Tommy Cooper, Welsh comedian and magician.

30 years ago (17 Apr 1984)
British police officer Yvonne Fletcher was shot dead during a demonstration outside the Libyan Embassy in London. This led to an 11-day siege by police.

30 years ago (22 Apr 1984)
Death of Ansel Adams, American photographer; regarded as the most important landscape photographer of the 20th century; best known for his black and white shots of the American West.

30 years ago (26 Apr 1984)
Death of Count Basie, American jazz pianist, bandleader and composer.

25 years ago (4 Apr 1989)
The Round Table Agreement was signed in Warsaw, Poland. It legalised trade unions, lifted the ban on Solidarity, and set free elections for June, which led to the abolition of communism in Poland

25 years ago (12 Apr 1989)
Death of Sugar Ray Robinson, American world welterweight / middleweight boxing champion; considered the greatest boxer of all time.

25 years ago (15 Apr 1989)
Hillsborough Disaster, Sheffield, England. 96 Liverpool FC fans were killed in a crush during the F.A. Cup semi-final football match against Nottingham Forest.

25 years ago (19 Apr 1989)
Death of Daphne du Maurier, British novelist, playwright and short story writer (Rebecca, Jamaica Inn, The Birds and more).

25 years ago (26 Apr 1989)
Death of Lucille Ball, popular American radio, film and television actress, comedian and television executive; best known for her TV comedy series I Love Lucy.

25 years ago (30 Apr 1989)
Death of Sergio Leone, Italian film director who popularised the ‘spaghetti western’ (A Fistful of Dollars, For a Few Dollars More, The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, Once Upon a Time in the West, and more).

20 years ago (4 Apr 1994)
Netscape Communications was founded (as Mosaic Communications). (It was taken over by AOL in 1999.)

20 years ago (5 Apr 1994)
Death of Kurt Cobain, American rock/grunge singer (Nirvana) (suicide).

20 years ago (22 Apr 1994)
Death of Richard M. Nixon, 37th President of the United States.

20 years ago (26 Apr 1994)
South Africa’s first full multi-racial elections were held. Nelson Mandela was elected president. (Inaugurated 10th May.)

15 years ago (1 Apr 1999)
The minimum wage was introduced in Britain: £3.60 per hour for adults, £3 per hour for workers under the age of 22.

15 years ago (20 Apr 1999)
Columbine High School massacre, Colorado, USA. Two students went on a shooting spree, killing 12 students and a teacher and wounding 26 others before killing themselves.

10 years ago (1 Apr 2004)
Google launched its free email service, Gmail. (Access to the service was by invitation-only at that time; it was opened up to the general public in Feb 2007. It was the first free email service to offer 1 Gb of storage – many commentators at the time thought this was an April Fool’s Day hoax.)

10 years ago (23 Apr 2004)
U.S. President George W. Bush lifted most trade sanctions against Libya in return for Libya eliminating its weapons of mass destruction programmes. (Remaining sanctions were lifted on 20th Sept after Libya complied with all requirements.)

10 years ago (24 Apr 2004)
Death of Estée Lauder, American businesswoman who co-founded (with her husband) the Estée Lauder cosmetics company.

– – – – – – –

Become a lifetime member of ideas4writers for just £49.95 (or the equivalent in your local currency) and you’ll receive The Date-A-Base Books for 2013 and 2014  (plus all future editions) as well as The Fastest Way to Write Your Book, The Fastest Way to Get Ideas, How to Win Short Story Competitions, our complete collection of 5,000+ writing ideas, unlimited use of our forums and exclusive online writing software (writing engines), and more. (Total value: over £150!)
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What If . . . ? 10 Creative Writing Prompts for October

Here’s this month’s selection of “What If…?” creative writing prompts to inspire you – let’s see what you can do with these!

These are all taken from our book: The Fastest Way to Get Ideas – 4,400 Essential What Ifs for Writers.

What if…

1. human evolution was never meant to have happened?

2. animals could be fitted with speech chips?

3. times and dates were decimalised?

4. there was a gravity bomb?

5. you saw a photo of yourself in a foreign newspaper, but as you didn’t speak the language you had no idea what the story was about?

6. you decided to stop before things went too far . . . but they already had?

7. humans reproduced by pollinating flowers and growing on trees like apples?

8. the information was leaked . . . and everyone blamed you?

9. everyone always gave the same answer?

10. you had your fortune told?

– – – – – – –

Become a lifetime member of ideas4writers for just £49.95 (or the equivalent in your local currency) and you’ll receive The Date-A-Base Books for 2013, 2014 (plus all future editions) as well as The Fastest Way to Write Your Book, The Fastest Way to Get Ideas (contains 4,400 what ifs), our complete 5,000+ collection of writing ideas, How to Win Short Story Competitions, unlimited use of our forums and exclusive online writing software (writing engines), and more…
(total value: over £150!)
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50 Newsworthy Anniversaries in March 2014 for you to write about (and make money from!)

Here are 50 newsworthy anniversaries coming up in March 2014 for you to write about (and make money from). The anniversaries are listed 6 months in advance to give you enough time for research and writing.

We have painstakingly cross-checked every entry, but you are advised to check all facts again as part of your research. Please let us know of any errors you find.

This list is a small sample of the entries for March from The Date-A-Base Book 2014. There are more than 210 anniversaries for this month in the book, which covers the whole of 2014 from January to December and features more than 2,650 anniversaries in total.

Just one published article will cover the cost of your copy many times over.

250 years ago (13 Mar 1764)
Birth of Charles Grey, 2nd Earl Grey, British Prime Minister (1830-34).

200 years ago (9 Mar 1814)
Birth of Taras Shevchenko, Ukrainian poet; the most important Ukrainian poet of the 19th century; had a significant impact on Ukrainian literature.

200 years ago (26 Mar 1814)
Death of Joseph-Ignace Guillotin, French physician who proposed (but did not invent) the guillotine – a mechanical device for beheading people.

200 years ago (27 Mar 1814)
Creek War – the Battle of Horseshoe Bend (Alabama); U.S. and allied Native American victory.

200 years ago (30 – 31 Mar 1814)
War of the Sixth Coalition – the Battle of Paris (France); Coalition victory which led to Napoleon’s abdication as Emperor of France on 11th April.

150 years ago (11 Mar 1864)
The Great Sheffield Flood, England. Parts of Sheffield, South Yorkshire were devastated when the newly built Dale Dyke Dam collapsed. More than 250 people were killed.

100 years ago (28 Mar 1914)
Birth of Edmund Muskie, U.S. Secretary of State (1980-81).

100 years ago (31 Mar 1914)
Birth of Octavio Paz, Mexican poet, writer and diplomat; winner of the 1990 Nobel Prize for Literature.

80 years ago (9 Mar 1934)
Birth of Yuri Gagarin, Soviet cosmonaut, first man in space. (Died 1968.)

80 years ago (20 Mar 1934)
Death of Queen Emma of the Netherlands.

80 years ago (24 Mar 1934)
The Philippines became a self-governing commonwealth as the Tydings-McDuffie Act (also called the Philippine Independence Act) came into effect. The Act also granted the Philippines full independence after 10 years (came into effect 4th July 1946).

80 years ago (26 Mar 1934)
Driving tests were introduced in Britain (voluntary until June 1935).

75 years ago (2 Mar 1939)
Pope Pius XII was elected. (Coronation: 12th March).

75 years ago (2 Mar 1939)
Death of Howard Carter, British archaeologist and Egyptologist who discovered the tomb of Tutankhamen.

75 years ago (6 Mar 1939)
Birth of Adam Osborne, British-American computer pioneer who created the first portable personal computer, the Osborne 1. (Died 2003.)

75 years ago (14 Mar 1939)
The Republic of Czechoslovakia was dissolved, opening the way for Nazi occupation.

75 years ago (31 Mar 1939)
The Anglo-Polish military alliance was formed. Britain and France pledged to support Poland against any threat to its independence (specifically from Germany). This was formalised on 25th Aug with the signing of the Anglo-Polish Agreement of Mutual Assistance.

70 years ago (19 Mar 1944)
World War II: Nazi Germany invaded and occupied Hungary after learning that it was attempting to negotiate an armistice with the Allies.

70 years ago (24 – 25 Mar 1944)
World War II – the Great Escape. 76 Allied prisoners broke out of the Stalag Luft III prisoner-of-war camp near Sagan, Germany (now Zagan, Poland) after digging tunnels. 73 were recaptured and 50 executed. (The event was dramatised in the classic film The Great Escape.)

65 years ago (15 Mar 1949)
Clothes rationing ended in Britain.

60 years ago (1 Mar 1954)
The USA tested the most powerful nuclear device it has ever detonated; a thermonuclear hydrogen bomb code-named Castle Bravo, at Bikini Atoll in the Marshall Islands. Due to a design error the 15-megaton blast was 2.5 times greater than expected and caused extensive contamination, deaths, burns, and birth defects.

60 years ago (30 Mar 1954)
The first subway in Canada opened in Toronto: the Yonge Subway (initially called ‘The Subway’, now the Yonge–University–Spadina line).

50 years ago (6 Mar 1964)
American world boxing champion Cassius Clay was given the name Muhammad Ali after joining the Nation of Islam.

50 years ago (6 Mar 1964)
Death of King Paul of Greece; succeeded by Constantine II.

50 years ago (20 Mar 1964)
The European Space Research Organisation (now the European Space Agency) was established in Paris, France.

50 years ago (20 Mar 1964)
Death of Brendan Behan, Irish playwright, novelist, poet and short story writer.

50 years ago (23 Mar 1964)
Death of Peter Lorre, Hungarian-born American film and television actor; known for his sinister image and sadistic roles (M, The Man Who Knew Too Much, The Maltese Falcon, Casablanca and others).

50 years ago (27 Mar 1964)
The Good Friday Earthquake (also known as the Great Alaskan Earthquake). The most powerful earthquake ever recorded in North America struck south-central Alaska, killing more than 140 people and causing massive damage.

50 years ago (30 Mar 1964)
The TV quiz show Jeopardy! was first broadcast on NBC in the USA.

40 years ago (1 Mar 1974)
The Watergate Seven (high-ranking former White House officials and advisers) were indicted by a grand jury for conspiring to obstruct the investigation into the Watergate scandal. (Four of the seven served prison sentences, including former Attorney General John N. Mitchell and White House chief of staff H. R. Haldeman.)

40 years ago (1 Mar 1974)
A national speed limit of 55 mph came into effect in the USA due to the oil crisis. (The limit was partially lifted in 1987 and fully repealed in 1995.)

40 years ago (4 Mar 1974)
British Prime Minister Edward Heath resigned after failing to form a coalition with the Liberal Party. He was succeeded by Harold Wilson.

40 years ago (4 Mar 1974)
People magazine was first published.

40 years ago (8 Mar 1974)
Charles de Gaulle Airport opened in Paris, France.

40 years ago (17 Mar 1974)
1973 oil crisis: the OPEC nations (except Libya) agree to lift the five-month oil embargo against the USA, Europe and Japan.

40 years ago (29 Mar 1974)
The first spacecraft to reach planet Mercury: NASA’s Mariner 10 took close-up photographs during the first of its three fly-pasts.

30 years ago (5 Mar 1984 – Mar 1985)
1984 miners’ strike. 6,000 coal miners in Yorkshire, England began a strike to protest against pit closures and job losses. On 6th Mar the National Coal Board announced that 20 mines in the north of England, Scotland and Wales would close, with the loss of 20,000 jobs. On 12th Mar the strike in Yorkshire became a national one involving tens of thousands of miners.

30 years ago (16 Mar 1984)
William Buckley, the CIA’s station chief in Beirut, Lebanon, was kidnapped by Hezbollah militants. (He died in captivity in June 1985.)

25 years ago (2 Mar 1989)
12 European nations agreed to ban the production of chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) by the end of the century. (CFCs damage the Earth’s ozone layer.)

25 years ago (4 Mar 1989)
Time Inc. and Warner Communications announced their merger to form Time-Warner, the world’s largest media and entertainment company.

25 years ago (4 Mar 1989)
Purley train crash, Surrey, England. 6 people were killed and 94 injured.

25 years ago (9 Mar 1989)
Death of Robert Mapplethorpe, American photographer.

25 years ago (23 Mar 1989)
Stanley Pons and Martin Fleischmann of the University of Utah, USA announced that they had observed controlled nuclear fusion in a glass jar.

25 years ago (24 Mar 1989)
The supertanker Exxon Valdez ran aground on a reef in Prince William Sound, Alaska, leaking 11 million gallons of crude oil.

25 years ago (27 Mar 1989)
In the Soviet parliamentary election, candidates from outside the Communist Party were allowed to stand for the first time. Many senior Communist officials lost their seats. Boris Yeltsin was elected president.

25 years ago (30 Mar 1989)
The glass pyramid forming the new entrance to the Louvre in Paris, France was officially opened.

20 years ago (12 Mar 1994)
The first women priests in the Church of England were ordained in London.

10 years ago (11 Mar 2004)
Madrid train bombings, Spain. Islamist militants exploded ten bombs on four trains during the morning rush hour. 191 people were killed and 1,800 injured.

10 years ago (20 Mar 2004)
Death of Queen Juliana of the Netherlands.

10 years ago (29 Mar 2004)
Ireland became the first country in the world to ban smoking in all work places (including bars and restaurants).

– – – – – – –

Become a lifetime member of ideas4writers for just £49.95 (or the equivalent in your local currency) and you’ll receive The Date-A-Base Books for 2013 and 2014  (plus all future editions) as well as The Fastest Way to Write Your Book, The Fastest Way to Get Ideas, How to Win Short Story Competitions, our complete collection of 5,000+ writing ideas, unlimited use of our forums and exclusive online writing software (writing engines), and more. (Total value: over £150!)
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Reviews please!

Hello!

If you received a review copy of Humans are not from Earth and haven’t posted your review on Amazon (or sent it to us by email) please could you do so as soon as possible. We’ve only received 7 reviews so far, out of the 26 copies we sent out.

If you couldn’t open the book on your Kindle device or app, please get in touch – we also have PDF copies. If you didn’t think the book worthy of review, please let us know so we can remove you from the list of outstanding reviews. If you have any questions for the author we’ll be happy to pass them on to him.

There are also over 100 reviews of How to Win Short Story Competitions outstanding. We sent this book to lifetime ideas4writers members who requested a copy, on the understanding that they would write a one-paragraph review in exchange. If you haven’t submitted yours yet, please could you do it as soon as possible. Again, if you had any issues with the book, please let us know so we can sort it out for you or remove you from the list of outstanding reviews.

I am grateful for your cooperation.

Dave Haslett
dave@ideas4writers.co.uk

What If . . . ? 10 Creative Writing Prompts for September

Here’s this month’s selection of “What If…?” creative writing prompts to inspire you – let’s see what you can do with these!

These are all taken from our book: The Fastest Way to Get Ideas – 4,400 Essential What Ifs for Writers.

What if…

1. you lost all hope?

2. Earth was an ocean planet and there was no land?

3. you bought everything that you saw advertised?

4. humans were not the most advanced/ruling species on Earth?

5. you could see better at night than during the day?

6. there were too many hours in a day?

7. you set your own rules (or laws)?

8. planets were really eggs?

9. you finally got the thing you had always wanted?

10. you thought you had nothing to worry about?

– – – – – – –

Become a lifetime member of ideas4writers for just £49.95 (or the equivalent in your local currency) and you’ll receive The Date-A-Base Books for 2013, 2014 (plus all future editions) as well as The Fastest Way to Write Your Book, The Fastest Way to Get Ideas (contains 4,400 what ifs), our complete 5,000+ collection of writing ideas, How to Win Short Story Competitions, unlimited use of our forums and exclusive online writing software (writing engines), and more…
(total value: over £150!)
Click here for full details

ideas4writers: inspiring you since 2002!