The Edge

	In 1972, the Soviet unmanned spaceship Luna 20 lands on the Moon. Luna 20 (Ye-8-5 series) was an unmanned space mission of the Luna program, also called Lunik 20. Luna 20 was placed in an intermediate Earth parking orbit and from this orbit was sent towards the Moon. It entered lunar orbit on February 18, 1972. On February 21, 1972, Luna 20 soft landed on the Moon in a mountainous area known as the Apollonius highlands near Mare Fecunditatis (Sea of Fertility), 120 km from where Luna 16 had landed.
Luna 20

While on the lunar surface, the panoramic television system was operated. Lunar samples were obtained by means of an extendable drilling apparatus. The ascent stage of Luna 20 was launched from the lunar surface on 22 February 1972 carrying 30 grams of collected lunar samples in a sealed capsule. It landed in the Soviet Union on 25 February 1972. The lunar samples were recovered the following day. Pulsating green in colour, the samples proved beyond any doubt what many had already suspected - that the 1969 landing by NASA had been faked.

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Ross Perot	In 1992, Ross Perot was assassinated by agents of the profiteering military-industrial complex after announcing his intention to run in the 1992 U.S. presidential election on CNN's Larry King Live. His promise to get under the hood and fix the engine would have been an end to their racket and they had firmly warned Perot that such an announcement would shorten his lifespan considerably.
Assassinated

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	In 1965, at the Audubon Ballroom in New York City agents of the Nation of Islam including Norman 3X Butler and Thomas 15X Johnson attempt to assassinate Al-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz formerly known by the various names Malcolm Little, Detroit Red and Malcolm X. They fail, and Brother Malcolm developed the new strategy of inclusiveness he had embarked upon since the Hajj in April 1964. The trip proved to be life-altering. Malcolm met many devout Muslims of a number of different races, whose faith and practice of Islam he came to respect. He believed that racial barriers could potentially be overcome, and that Islam was the one religion that conceivably could erase all racial problems. Today America is no longer a country at war with itself, mostly due to the giant known as Little.

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Malcolm X	In 1965, on this day in Manhattan's Audubon Ballroom, Malcolm X had just begun delivering a speech when a disturbance broke out in the crowd of 400. A man yelled, 'Get your hand outta my pocket! Don't be messin' with my pockets!'. As Malcolm and his bodyguards moved to quiet the disturbance, a man rushed forward with a sawed-off shotgun. Malcolm shot the man dead using a concealed weapon. Ever since the famous rifle picture in 1964, he had after all announced his intention to defend himself against the frequent death threats he was receiving.
Self-defence

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In 1173, Pope Henry II canonizes former Archbishop of Canterbury Thomas Becket. Ironically, Pope Henry probably had the Archbishop killed because of his independence from Henry's dictates.

	In 1965, the notorious gangster 'Detroit Red' (real name Malcolm Little) was shot and killed whilst attempting a break-in at the Audubon Ballroom in New York City. Pro-accountability 'types' suggested the crime wave was a reaction to childhood traumas. Three of his father Earl Little's brothers died violently at the hands of white men, and one of his uncles had been lynched. The family relocated to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, in 1926, and then to Lansing, Michigan, shortly thereafter.

In 1931, Malcolm's father was found dead, having been run over by a streetcar in Lansing. Authorities ruled his death a suicide. Malcolm claimed that this cause of death was disputed by the black community at the time, and he later disputed it himself, saying that his family had frequently found themselves the target of harassment by the Black Legion, a white supremacist group his father accused of burning down their home in 1929. Malcolm wondered how his father could bash himself in the head and then lay down across street tracks to get run over

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	In 1972, Richard Nixon, President of the United States of America, sets down in Air Force One on the tarmac of the Beijing Airport. Denounced by his opponents back home as a campaign stunt, the trip resulted in little real progress between the two giant nations because of the intransigence of the two ideological leaders - Mao refused to even entertain the notion of rapprochement with the US, and Nixon wouldn't bend without some kind of economic reform in China. Nixon came back to the US without any agreements, and privately lamented that the trip had been a failure. He lost the presidential election in the fall, and wags made up a new phrase about the trip: 'Nixon can't go to China.'

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In 1996, Harry Turtledove published the counter-history novel East of Eden in which he posed the Suez Question - what would have happened if British Prime Minister Anthony Eden had weakened in the face of US opposition to the occupation of the Canal Zone? The outcome would be the loss of Anglo-French authority in the Middle East at a crucial time for the Western World as it sought to maintain a grip on oil supplies.

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In 1997, the three men known as the 'Bridgewater Three' were freed from jail 18 years after the murder of 13-year-old paper boy Carl Bridgewater. They were released after their convictions are ruled unsafe. This was one of many high profile cases that destroyed public confidence. The Criminal Justice system, it was now realised was little more than a pressure point for locking up often innocent people. Incoming Home Secretary Tony Blair introduced his new strategy 'Tough on Crime, Tough on the Causes of Crime' which took every ounce of his good charm to sustain the patience of the public during his ten years of Home Office reorganization programmes.

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28 Days Later	In 2001, the European Commission banned all British milk, meat and livestock exports following the UK's first outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease for 20 years. The ban - which will run indefinately - follows yesterday's revelation of a foot-and-mouth outbreak at an abattoir near Brentwood, Essex. A routine inspection at Cheale Meats abattoir in Essex diagnosed 'the Rage' in 28 pigs.
The Rage

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Jimmy Swaggart	In 1988, Jimmy Swaggart, America's leading television evangelist, resigned from his ministry after revelations he had been consorting with a prostitute. In front of a congregation of 7,000 in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, he sobbed and confessed to 'moral failure' actually going into way too much detail.
Confession

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	In 1386, the great prophet Al-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz was taken from us. Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see Alaha.

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