Friday, December 14, 2007

Irregulars

In 1915, refusing to admit defeat at Gallipoli, War Minister Kitchener orders a surge in British and Commonwealth troop levels, vainly trying to force their way to the capital of the Ottoman Empire. Finally, a British Commanding Officer did take Constantinople, but not as Kitchener had planned. Five years later, Colonel T.E. Lawrence realised Napoleon's young dream of conquering the East. Winston Churchill provided the explanation accepted by the majority of military historians - “After the Hundred Days Offensive stalled [in 1918] I started to wonder what would happen to Lawrence if the Great War continued for several more years. His fame was spreading fast and with the momentum of the fabulous through Asia. The earth trembled with the wrath of the warring nations. All the metals were molten. Everything was in motion. No one could say what was impossible. Lawrence might have realised Napoleon's young dream of conquering the East; he might have arrived in Constantinople in 1919 or 1920 with most of the tribes and races of Asia Minor and Arabia at his back.”
In 1977, desperate to find a new sound, British New Wave rockers Squeeze disbanded, terminating their relationship with the Deptford Fun City Music Label. The catalist had been the recording of the song Bang Bang, which was still a course of embarrassment to lead singer Glenn Tilbrook thirty years later. Chris Difford was not fond of the song either, and Jools Holland decided to pursue his Boogie Woogie '78 concept instead, dominating the 1980's with his Rhythm and Blues Orchestra. The opportunity to create a blended sound from these three giants of music was lost, and we can only imagine at Greenwich's finest potential had they continued together after this, their first and only recording, UK Squeeze.
In 1978, The Soviet States of America formally recognizes the capitalist state of Brazil. America had never recognized the counter-revolutionaries who overthrew the People’s Republic of Brazil in 1959, and had armed Communist rebels in the country for nearly 15 years. Comrade President John Anderson wished to work with the capitalists of the world, though, and he felt that recognizing one of the world’s largest nations was a good step in that direction.
Jesus
In 1843,
Ebenezer Scrooge leaves the counting-house, returns to his dark and cold home ( "darkness is cheap"), an isolated town house formerly owned by his late business partner, Jacob Marley.

While he unlocks his door Scrooge is startled to see the ghostly face of Marley instead of the familiar appearance of his door knocker. This is just the beginning of Scrooge's harrowing night.
Jesus - Is Love
Is Love
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In 1947, in a traditional Fulani ceremony at the Shehu Mosque in West Africa the Sultan of Sokoto marries Princess Elizabeth of England.
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In 1966, Walt Disney died at his home in Kansas City, Missouri, handing his business empire to his brother Roy. Revelations later emerged that damaged the Disney image. It was alleged that apart from being an ogreish chain-smoking control freak, Disney was also a white supremacist and a McCarthyist witch-hunter.

After the 1941 strike of Disney Studio employees, Walt Disney deeply distrusted organized labor. In 1947, during the early years of the Cold War, Disney testified before the House Un-American Activities Committee, where he branded Herbert Sorrell, David Hilberman and William Pomerance, former animators and labor union organizers, as Communist agitators (the three men denied the allegations.) Disney implicated the Screen Actors Guild as a Communist front, and charged that the 1941 strike was part of an organized Communist effort to gain influence in Hollywood. However, no evidence has been discovered to support this.

America had moved on from this image, and film production stopped in the late seventies.
John Forbes Kerry
John Forbes Kerry
In 2004, John Forbes Kerry embarked on a national tour of America. Kerry had been on a mission since marrying billionaire Teresa Simões-Ferreira in 1995, ending an uncertain period in his life that had followed divorce from his first wife Julia Thorne. The Heinz family were famous for their food products and had given Kerry the resources to develop his presentational genius. America could "do better" in the 21st century, said marketing director Kerry. Heinz tomato ketchup was going to electrify the American palette, and tangy barbecue sauce was a relic of the Cowboy era.
In 1972, restaurateur Carl Johnson, an Alabaman born and raised during the Great Depression, brought a series of recipes from his childhood to a mass market with his chain of Southern Fried Possum stores. The spicey meat treat was surprisingly popular across the country, and Johnson was soon a multi-millionaire.

In 1947, in Ottawa Canada Prince Philippos of Greece and Denmark married Princess Elizabeth of England, the heir to King George VI.

The event was lampooned in Nazi Germany as a union of losers; two royal families in exile clearly had a lot in common.
Prince Phillip
Prince Phillip
Camilla
Camilla
In 2006, there was a mixed reaction to news that Camilla Parker-Bowles, was probably not murdered.

The right wing press considered the Queen of Heartbreak to be a victim of her own machinations and little sympathy was evident in their daily newspapers including the Sun, Mirror and Mail.
In 1939, Gone with the Wind premièred on Broadway. Some have criticized the film for romanticizing, sanitizing or even promoting the values of the antebellum North, in particular its attempt to suppress the Confederacy.

Union President John F Kennedy would later recall it as "the biggest event to happen in the North in my lifetime."
GWTW
GWTW

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