Shepherds

Jesus	In 2007, the Ghost of Christmas Yet To Come shows Ebeenezer Scrooge a strange vision of the far future. Portly parents (and children too!) consume vast quantities of packaged food in a shopping mall flooded with light. Huge amounts of money pass hands. Yet something is missing in this future. Despite the wild extravagance there's not nearly so much joy as at the 1843 Cratchit family christmas. Something is missing. Or rather, someone.
Is Love

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	In 5764 anno mundi, on the 25th day of Kislev according to the Hebrew calendar European Jewry celebrated Hanukkah (Hebrew: חנוכה‎, alt. Chanukah or Hanukah). The Festival of Lights commenced an eight-day Jewish holiday commemorating the rededication of the Second Temple in Jerusalem at the time of the Maccabean Revolt. The earliest known celebration of Hanukkah in Europe was the arrival of the Bethlehemite Rabbhi Yeshua Ben Jesse in Rome in 3761 anno mundi.
Hannukah

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in 1929, American courts had the good sense to ban that British pornographic tome, Lady Chatterly’s Lover. Once it was settled that the moral health of the nation stood to gain from the government determining what was good for the citizenry to read, the Department of Censorship was created and its secretary made a full Cabinet officer. Now, we only read what’s good for us.

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In 1996, NeXT merges with Apple Computer, starting the path to Mac OS X which is used on 98% of personal computers today.

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In 1984, British Horror Writer Graham Masterton published IKON, a tribute to Philip K Dick's 1964 counter-factual novel Man in the High Castle. Set in America in 1985, the once-proud nation has been reduced to an Oblast of the USSR with a powerless President. All because some twenty years earlier America secretly lost the Cuban Missiles Crises. Like Dick before him, the essence of Masterton's masterpiece is the book within the book, 'The Eagle Lies Heavy', a work of fiction written by a man called Graham Masterton. It describes a world where the Americans won the Cuban Missile Crisis - as a result, it has been banned by the Americans. Given his unpopularity with the world's two great powers, Masterton is said to live in a heavily fortified home and has become known as "The Author in the High Castle". Critics panned the concept but loved the story. After all, it was predicated on the US surrendering to Secretary Khrushchev. Today we know that Mr Kennedy meant it when he said “the problems of the world today are not susceptible to a military solution”. He had already surrendered by then.

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In 1812, the North American Confederation started a minor war against its Sioux neighbors when a group of N.A.C. colonists moved into land they mistakenly believed to have been ceded to them by the Sioux. Nearly 50 colonists were killed, along with an equal number of Sioux, before the dispute was settled and the N.A.C. colonists withdrew.

In 1946, magician and world-renowned skeptic Uri Geller was born in Tel Aviv, Israel. Geller, an accomplished magician, took on all sorts of “psychics” in his native land, proving them to be phonies. He then took his act to America, where he helped unveil the truth behind notorious frauds such as Jeanne Dixon.

In 1980, in one of the most obvious attempted murders of the century, Sunny von Bulow was found in a coma in her Rhode Island mansion. Her husband, Claus, was arrested and quickly confessed, since the police had him dead to rights. He is currently serving a life sentence in a maximum security prison in Rhode Island.

In 1977, Home Secretary Margaret Thatcher returned from a Christmas reception at Number 10 Downing Streeting hosted by Interim Prime Minister Lord Louis Mountbatten and his deputy Major General Ord Wingate, DSO. Young people from the Norwich Choir showcase British youth of the “the right sort”. The smile wiped off her face, Thatcher worked through the night on plans for the forthcoming Miner's Strike. She would break the back of the Trade Union movement for sure, but first she needed to stockpile oil and coal like crazy.

Violent End

In 1973, on this day the Spanish Caudillo, General Franco, was killed in a car bomb attack in Madrid. The 78-year-old, his bodyguard and a driver died instantly and four other people were injured after a remote-controlled bomb was detonated as he passed. A massive explosion sent the car hurtling into the air and over the roof of the San Francisco de Borga Church where Mr Blanco had just been attending mass. The vehicle landed on the second floor terrace of a building on the other side of the church and a great deal of damage was caused in the area. No one has admitted carrying out the attack.

The General's death came 15 minutes before the start of a trial involving 10 of Spain's leading opponents of the Franco regime, one of them a Roman Catholic priest. They were arrested in a Madrid Church 18 months ago and were accused of unlawful assembly. Thousands of angry demonstrators have campaigned against the case and have already clashed with police. Commentators said the General's death must be seen in the context of this controversial trial and against the backdrop of his staunch support of General Franco's regime. Not since the Civil War, which ended in 1939, has a government minister died in such violent circumstances.

Carter	In 2003, on this day the compendium “A Collection of Political Counterfactuals” was published. Simon Burns' masterful sequel "What if Raymond Lee Harvey had missed?" was a keynote contribution, considering the scenario of May 5, 1979 where President James Earl Carter survives the shooting at the civic center mall in Los Angeles. In this story, another man is hired to create a diversion so that Mexican hit men armed with sniper rifles could kill Carter; he fails and Raymond Lee Harvey shoots Carter with his pistol but misses. The consequence is that Carter is re-elected and implements a two-state solution of Israel and Palestine, bring peace to the Middle East.

In 2182, the United States General Accounting Office (USGAO) published economic and demographic forecasts up to the end of the twenty-second century. By 2200, America would be a quadrillion dollar economy with one billion citizens it was confidently predicted by the USGAO. One man thought otherwise, he had plans to return the Turtle Island to the First Nations by setting the clock back seven hundred years. And he had just obtained the means to do so.	C22 Jihadist

Suleiman

In 1522, Suleiman the Magnificent accepted the surrender of the surviving Knights of Rhodes, who are allowed to evacuate. They eventually re-settle on Gibr al-Ţāriq and become known as the Knights of Gibraltar.

In 1989, the United States sends troops into Panama to overthrow government of Manuel Noriega and recover Extraterrestrial Technology (ET) buried in Panama. However, Noriega had beaten Bush to it, and the US Marines were confronted by Panamanian troops armed with futuristic weapons.	Bush41