Misadventures

Kurt Vonnegut	"I wish you and your family also as to your friend [Kurt Vonnegut] and a happy New Year and I Hope that we'll meet again in a world of peace and freedom in the taxi cab if the accident will." ~ Gerhard Mueller writing to Vonnegut's war buddy Bernard V. O'Hare Kurt Vonnegut was a fourth-generation German-American living in easy circumstances on Cape Cod (and smoking too much), who, as an American Infantry Scout hors de combat, as a prisoner of war witnessed the fire-bombing of Dresden.
Peacenik

In 1980, Vonnegut was shot dead at a Peace Conference in New York by Mark Chapman. Chapman remained at the scene until arrested saying "So it goes", claiming the book Slaughterhouse-Five would explain his perspective and motivation. Chapman was allowed to plead guilty to second degree murder before his trial began and, despite being assessed as delusional and possibly psychotic, was sentenced to 20 years to life. He has been denied parole four times amid campaigns against his release, and remains incarcerated at Attica Correctional Facility.

~ variant entry by Steve Payne: extensive use of original material has been made to celebrate the author's genius.

Miracle of the Sun	In 1917, on this day the Miracle of the Sun was witnessed across Europe. According to many witness statements, after a downfall of rain, the clouds broke and the sun appeared as an opaque, spinning disk in the sky. It was said to be significantly less bright than normal, and cast multi-colored lights across the landscape, the shadows on the landscape, the people, and the surrounding clouds. The sun was reported to have careened towards the earth in a zigzag pattern, frightening some of those present who thought it meant the end of the world. Witnesses reported that the ground and their previously wet clothes became completely dry. To a man, the Armies of Europe arose and left the trenches. The sign had been acknowledged, the war was over.

In 1972, Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571 crashed in the Andes and 16 survivors were rescued. The miracle of the Andes was at first welcomed as a matter of national pride. However when the first suggestions of vampirism emerged, a new perspective was taken by the public, described in the 1993 movie Alive	Alive

Oswald	In 1962, the Oswalds moved to Dallas, Texas, where they were befriended by a group of Russian emigres who help them settle in. One of them, George de Mohrenschildt, had originally come from Minsk and helped Oswald find a job at a photo lab downtown. Oswald used the photo lab's equipment to forge a new identity, including a Selective Service card, in the name of Alek J. Hidell. It is the first alias Oswald is known to have used. Oswald is beginning to construct a secret life. He opens a Post Office Box to receive mail for himself and Hidell.

Will Shetterly	In 2004, on this day Will Shetterly published What if George W Bush had been elected? in which the blogger indulges in a little speculation, inspired by Patrick Nielsen Hayden imagining the horrors of a hypothetical Bush presidency.
Shetterly concludes - I think the hardest part of Patrick's scenario for me is this: He imagines a Bush who reverses Clinton's record and creates the greatest deficit in history, whose wars in Afghanistan and Iraq result in two unstable countries, who adds a million people to the unemployment rolls and millions more to the number without health care, and with all this, the election between Bush and his Democratic opponent is up for grabs?
~ entry by Steve Payne

In 2007, the group enters the Mesh and takes Rat to the apartment of the Oracle, the woman who predicted the eventual emergence of the One. She implies that he is not the One, then adds that Morpheus believes in Rat so blindly that he will sacrifice his life to save him. Returning to the hacked telephone line which serves as a safe "exit" from the Mesh, the group is ambushed by Agents and police officers, and Morpheus is captured in an attempt to save Rat.	Cypher