Mona Lisa Recovered; Operation Grief Succeeds

December 13th, 2004

in 1861, Human League founder Brent Carpenter is spotted leaving Chelsea Downs, after returning to his home. He had wanted to recover some of his belongings, but the house had been emptied after the Ministry of Intelligence raid earlier. Although police are alerted, Carpenter evades capture.

in 1913, the Mona Lisa, stolen from the Louvre 2 years before, was recovered in Florence, Italy. Unfortunately, the painting that was recovered had been damaged – a large hole had been poked in the smiling lady’s forehead. It was patched, but has never been quite the same.

in 4631, cultural icon Chen Li is born in Saigon. Ethnically Chinese, Chen wrote about growing up in Vietnam, a country still shaken by the civil war the century before. Chen’s writings gave the Chinese Empire a 46th century perspective on what they had wrongly perceived to be a 45th century problem, which many Vietnamese were grateful for.

in 1944, the Nazis dealt their most devastating blow to Allied fortunes when their Operation Grief successfully assassinated General Dwight Eisenhower, Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces. His successor, Field Marshall Montgomery of Great Britain, wasn’t as successful as he had been; although he took fewer casualties than Ike, Monty had a harder time driving the Germans across Europe.

in 1950, Comrade Samuel Gompers, a great leader of the Communist Movement of the 19th and early 20th centuries, died in Washington D.C. during a speech being given in his honor at party headquarters. He was 70. Comrade President Joel Rosenberg erected a monument in his honor in 1958.

in 1968, Faisal Yassin and Wilhelm Schoemann manage to send an apple backwards in time two days. The successful experiment proved that they had been the ones who sent the apple back to themselves, and that they were on the right track. Schoemann had altered the wording of the note, though, which gave him some concern.

in 2000, 20 years after the successful colonization of the moon, a rocket ship from earth lands on Mars to begin exploration there. The American space program was moving from triumph to triumph after 40 years of uninterrupted success. The Soviet Union’s space program, beset by cost overruns and failed missions, was still struggling with launching moon missions.

in 2003, the French countryside is disturbed for miles around by the sound of moaning and wailing from the hole where the village of Jesu was. Occasional gouts of flame erupt from the site, as well. The French begin moving away from the area in droves.