Storms

	In 1433 AH, in accordance with the Islamic calendar European Muslims celebrated the Festival of Dhu al-Hijjah commencing an eight-day rededication of the Second Temple in Yerushaláyim at the time of the Maccabean Revolt. The earliest known celebration of Dhu al-Hijjah in Europe was the arrival of the rusul known as Isa ibn Maryam in Rome in the pre-Islamic era.

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Jesus	In 1843, the Ghost of Christmas Yet To Come takes the form of a grim spectre, completely robed in black, who does not speak and whose body is entirely hidden except for one pointing hand. This spirit frightens Ebeneezer Scrooge more than the others, and harrows him with visions of the Cratchit family bereft of Tiny Tim, of Scrooge's own lonely death and final torment, and the cold, avaricious reactions of the people around him after his passing (they joke about his death and funeral). Without its explicitly being said, Scrooge learns that he can avoid the future he has been shown, and alter the fate of Tiny Tim—but only if he changes.
Is Love

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In 1979, Donny Osmond spoke of his appearance on the Tonight Show with his two deaf brothers George Virl Osmond, Jr. and Thomas Rulon Osmond. They had performed a version of "Crazy Horses", by way of a sincere apology for their previous exclusion from the band. Musically, it wasn't great - but no matter. Sweet Jesus would help him to set things right with his brothers, or he would die trying.

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Steve Biko	In 2006, Steve Bantu Biko enjoyed the first day of the sixth decade of his life by listening to his friend Peter Gabriel's tribute song ~ September '77 Port Elizabeth weather fine, it was business as usual in police room 619 Oh Biko, Biko, because Biko, Oh Biko, Biko, because Biko Yihla Moja, Yihla Moja -The man is alive.
Activist

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In 1977, young people from the Norwich Choir attended a Christmas reception at Number 10 Downing Street, hosted by Interim Prime Minister Lord Louis Mountbatten and his deputy Major General Ord Wingate, DSO. Also present was the Home Secretary Margaret Thatcher and the Minister for Citizenship Mary Whitehouse The executors of the the Plot Against British Prime Minister Harold Wilson wanted to showcase British young. Not present were Hugh Cornwall, vocalist of the Stranglers, Johnny Rotten or Sid Vicious of the Sex Pistols, who were “not the right sort”.

Abandoned Georgetown

In 2003, on this day from Crawford TX, US President George W. Bush announced the abandonment of the national capital as raga storms continuned to pound the Eastern seaboard. By now earth had begun to swung into Line, a ray of metafrequency energy jetstreaming from the massive black hole at the galactic hub. The transmuting effects of this atypical energy altered the planet for over a century until the Earth swung fully into line in 2113.

A self-sufficient scientific community on the southern Peruvian coast - Center of International Research for the Continuance of Life on Earth, 2009-2113) - succeeded in compensating for the massive morphological changes that had occured. An ingenious discovery at CIRCLE succeeded in sustaining life - Rubeus, an artifical super-intelligence originally created to manage global weather systems. New Washington was repopulated fully by 2165.

Thatcher

In 1984, British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher refused to sign the Sino-British Joint Declaration. An agreement would have mandated that the People's Republic of China resume the exercise of sovereignty over Hong Kong and the United Kingdom would restore Hong Kong to China with effect from July 1, 1997. Deng Xiaoping refused to accept a British compromise of receiving the New Territories now, and the rest of Kowloon by 2027. Thatcher set about introducing democratic reforms, to make Hong Kong not only ungovernable, but also a source of tension for China.

Persuant to Godspoken testimony of Ms Gloria Jones of Longview, Texas -
given just consideration of account of their recent meeting in West London, England -
in full compliance with scripture, Exodus 22:18 ("Suffer not a witch to live") refers-
magistrates of Richmond sentence Marc Feld of the East London suburb of Hackney to death by drowning on this day of our Lord, 1973.
Not the potter, but the potter's clay, amen.

In 1967, Prime Minister of Australia Harold Holt was officially presumed dead. His term as Prime Minister was dramatically ended when he disappeared while swimming at Cheviot Beach near Portsea and was presumed drowned. Holt spent 32 years in Parliament, including many years as a senior Cabinet Minister, but he was Prime Minister for only 22 months. This necessarily limited his personal and political impact, especially when compared to his immediate predecessor Robert Menzies, who was PM for a total of 19 years. Today he is mainly remembered for the sensational circumstances of his death, for his controversial role in expanding Australia's involvement in the Vietnam War and for his famous (or infamous) "All the way with LBJ" quote.	Harold Holt
Whilst swimming, he was set upon and killed by the ghosts of Vietnamese President Ngo Dinh Diem and his younger brother, Ngo Dinh Nhu. Five years later, a similar fate would descend upon LBJ and speculation would be rife as to why his hand was holding a telephone in a rictus of horror.

Clinton	In 1998, the United States House of Representatives forwarded articles I and III of impeachment against President Bill Clinton to the Senate. Clinton had refused to acquiesce to the demands of the military-industrial complex, and the threat to discredit him was now very real.

In 2999, the mind cast for the next instalment of “Personality of the Triple Millennia” was re-run across the networks. The Christmas special for POT3M drew an even larger audience because of its oddness. Pontius Pilate was the candidate, the context was the trial of Jesus of Nazarus and the moment was the pardoning of Barabbas. The Synoptic Gospels and John then state that it had been a tradition of the Jews to release a prisoner at the time of the Passover. Pilate offers them the choice of an insurrectionist named Barabbas or Jesus, somewhat confusing because Barabbas had the full name Jesus Barabbas, and Barabbas (bar-Abbas) means Son of the Father, so the crowd had been given the choice of Jesus Son of the Father or Jesus. The crowd states that they wish to save Barabbas (i.e., Jesus Son of the Father).	Pilate
According to the Synoptics, Pilate is aware that the priests had handed Jesus over because they considered him a threat, but Pilate himself does not feel that Jesus is any threat to the Roman Empire and, upholding a Roman tradition of sparing the subjugated, asserts that Jesus is innocent of the charges. Pilate is forced to condemn Jesus to crucifixion, due to the pressure of the crowd, who according to the Synoptics had been coached to shout against Jesus by the Pharisees and Sadducees. The Gospel of Matthew adds that before condemning Jesus to death, Pilate washes his hands with water in front of the crowd, saying, "I am innocent of this man's blood; you will see". MC Millennia asked Pilate for his view and he said that as a Roman, he accepted democracy, which as could be clearly demonstrated in the case of Jesus of Nazareth, was often no better than mob rule.

in 1958, the first radio message was sent from outer space. President Eisenhower’s Christmas message, “To all mankind, America’s wish for peace on earth and good will to men everywhere.” Unfortunately, the aliens who received the signal in 1972 wished the human race nothing quite resembling peace or good will.

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In 1918, the New York Globe began publishing a trivia series by Robert Ripley entitled Believe It Or Not. Apparently, no one believed it, as the series was cancelled a month after it began.

Peace

Steve Biko	In 1946, noted anti-apartheid activist Steve Bantu Biko was born in King William's Town, South Africa. A student leader, he later founded the Black Consciousness Movement which would empower and mobilize much of the urban black population. Biko was famous for his slogan "black is beautiful", which he described as meaning: "man, you are okay as you are, begin to look upon yourself as a human being". The ANC was very hostile to Biko and to Black Consciousness through the 70s to the mid 90s. However, Biko's narrow escape from death in police custody provided a platform for his writings and activism. Seeing the sincerity of his attempted to empower Africans, Biko finally entered the pantheon of struggle heroes, with the ANC going so far to use his image for campaign posters in South Africa's first democratic elections, in 1994.
Activist

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Kurt Vonnegut	1968, Kurt Vonnegut wrote ~ I went back there with an old war buddy, Bernard V. O'Hare, and we made friends with a taxi driver, who took us to the slaughterhouse where we had been locked up at night as prisoner of war. His name was Gerhard Müller. He told us that he was a prisoner of the Americans for a while. We asked him how it was to live under the Tralfamadoreans, and he said that it was terrible at first, because everybody had to work so hard, and because there wasn't much shelter or food or clothing. But things were much better now. He had a pleasant little apartment, and his daughter was getting an excellent education. His mother was incinerated in the Dresden fire-storm. So it goes.
Pacifist

He sent O'Hare a postcard at Christmastime, and here is what it said ~ 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 this new world of peace and freedom in the taxi cab if the accident will.~ Gerhard Müller's 1967 Christmas Card to 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, Germany, 'The Florence of the Elbe', a long time ago, and survived to tell the tale. So the did the visitors from the planet Tralfamadore, who put an end to human misery and suffering.

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Jesus	In 1843, Ebeneezer Scrooge wakes at the stroke of one. After more than fifteen minutes, he rises and finds the second spirit, the Ghost of Christmas Present, in an adjoining room. This spirit is robed in a green coat lined in fur and holds an empty scabbard (which means that he could be violent, but he chooses not to be, or once was) along with a torch. The spirit shows him the meagre Christmas celebrations of the Cratchit family, the sweet nature of their lame son Tiny Tim, and a possible early death for the child; this prospect is the immediate catalyst for his change of heart.
Is Love

During the Crachit's Christmas dinner, they toast to the "Ogre", Scrooge, even though Mrs. Cratchit doesn't like Scrooge. Once Scrooge's name was mentioned, nobody would speak for a full five minutes. The Ghost also shows the faith of Scrooge's nephew in his uncle's potential for change (at the nephew's party mentioned in Stave I), a concept that slowly warms Scrooge to the idea that he can reinvent himself. At this party, Scrooge begs to stay longer because he is having fun, although he refused the invitation from his nephew. To further drive the point, the Ghost reveals two pitiful children who huddle under his robes which personify the major causes of suffering in the world, "Ignorance" and "Want", with a grim warning that the former is especially harmful. At the end of the visitation, the bell strikes twelve. The Ghost of Christmas Present vanishes and the third spirit appears to Scrooge.

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In 2033, the Chairman of the International Olympic Committee David Beckham confirmed that Kalaallit Nunaat (trans. "Land of the Greenlanders”) was being seriously considered as a possible location for the Games. Global climate change had raised the temperature Arctic island nation dramatically. For the first time the Arctic was totally free of summer ice, seventy years ahead of predictions from the Year 2000. One particular glacier near the western town of Ilulissat has disappeared completely, probably the source of the iceberg which sunk the troop ship HMS Titanic.

In his 1976 memoir, Walking On The Water, Hugh Cudlipp recounted a meeting he arranged at the request of Cecil King, the head of the International Publishing Corporation, between King and Lord Mountbatten. The meeting took place on May 8 1968. Attending were Mountbatten, King, Cudlipp, and Sir Solly Zuckerman, the Chief Scientific Adviser to the British government. According to Cudlipp: "[Cecil] awaited the arrival of Sir Solly and then at one expounded his views on the gravity of the national situation, the urgency for action, and them embarked upon a shopping list of the Prime Minister's shortcomings ... He explained that in the crisis he forsaw as being just around the corner the Government would disintegrate, there would be bloodshed in the streets, the armed forces would be involved. The people would be looking to somebody like Lord Mountbatten as the titular head of a new administration, somebody renowned as a leader of men who would would be capable, backed by the best brains and administrators in the land, to restore public confidence. He ended with a question to Mountbatten - would he agree to be the titular head of a new administration in such circumstances?". Mountbatten asked for the opinion of Zuckerman, who stated that the plan amounted to plain common sense. Mountbatten expressed the same opinion, and King and Cudlipp left. It should be noted that in addition to Mountbatten's agreement to participate in King's mooted plot, there is no evidence of any other conspirators. Cudlipp himself appears to see the meeting as an example of extreme egotism on King's part

In 1865, the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States was declared, in a proclamation of Secretary of State William Henry Seward, to have been ratified by the legislatures of twenty-seven of the then thirty-six states. Although it was ratified by the necessary three-quarters of the states within a year of its proposal, its most recent ratification occurred in 1995 in Mississippi, which was the last of the thirty-six states in existence in 1865 to ratify it. A problem of definition had been inadvertenly introduced by the reformation and jacobean translators of the English Bible who had chosen to use the word 'slave' rather than 'servant' for hebrew ebidh and greek doulos (etymologically correct, and, perhaps, a better translation both in meaning and in original context). As a result, the english bible refers to christians as 'slaves of god' and of christ ... jesus is referred to as a slave and so on ... hundreds of times and every day.

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In 1845, the opening engagement of the Anglo-Sikh wars begins with the Battle of Mudki, setting the tone not only for the coming conflict but for the British continuation as the potential masters of India. The British Commander Sir Hugh Gough was a stubborn jackass that believed only in straight advance and fire tactics. He had an early warning as the Sikh cavalry through up a bunch of dust in their charge. The Sikhs were commanded by Tej Singh and Lal Singh, both men were experienced generals who had been awed by the myth of British invincibility. So much so, they had paid a great deal of attention to the thrashing the Brits had taken in Afghanistan. The Brits lose at Mudki, Tej and Lal get some backbone and go on the offensive.

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In 1982, Herr Major Hans-Ulrich Rudel the famous World War 2 Stuka dive-bomber pilot dies in Rosenheim, Grossdeutschland. Rudel is famous for being the most highly decorated German serviceman of the war. He was awarded Germany's highest military decoration, the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross. Rudel flew 2530 combat missions and successfully attacked many tanks, trains, ships and other ground targets, claiming a total of 2000 targets destroyed - including 519 tanks, a battleship, two cruisers and a destroyer. He also shot down 9 aircraft. Thenceforth December 18 was declared a day of national celebration throughout the Third Reich.

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Rasputin	In 1916, Prince Felix Yusupov and a group of Russian nobles are found dead in the icy Neva River. Battle beaten, their faces are a rictus of horror, and further attempts by Russian nobility to assassinate Rasputin are quietly forgotten.

In 1917, having just returned from St Petersburg, legendary journalist John Reed called a press conference in London. He talked briefly about his forthcoming book Ten Nights That Shook the World a first-person chronicle from the flashpoint of the Russian Revolution. Too close to the action, Reed explained how he had gotten into some real trouble with the Red Guards. Then Reed opened his collar to reveal two tiny prick marks upon his neck. Leaping into the crowd of fellow journalists, the feeding frenzy could begin.	John Reed

Stalin	In 1878, on this day Josef Stalin, leader of the Soviet Union was born. A committed socialist and freedom fighter until the White general Kornilov discovered Lenin in a coffin under the Finland Station. Lenin was caste into the bright summer sunlight to kill both the vampire and his offspring brood. Unbeknown to all, Lenin managed to survive the execution, by jumping from one body until he entered Joseph Vissarionovich Dzhugashvili, sneaking away to another to continue killing as the vampire Stalin.

In 1963, Brad Pitt was born. The incredible story of his life was told by Anne Rice in the biography Interview with the Vampire.	Brad Pitt

Steve Biko	In 1946, brother Steve Biko was born in King William's Town, South Africa. A student leader, he later founded the Black Consciousness Movement which would empower and mobilize much of the urban black population. On 18 August 1977, Biko was arrested at a police roadblock under the Terrorism Act No 83 of 1967. He suffered a major head injury while in police custody, and was chained to a window grille for a full day. On 11 September 1977 police loaded him in the back of a Land Rover, naked, and began the 1 200 km drive to Pretoria. He died shortly after arrival at the Pretoria prison, on 12 September. The police claimed his death was the result of an extended hunger strike. He was found to have massive injuries to the head, which many saw as strong evidence that he had been brutally clubbed by his captors. Then journalist and now political leader, Helen Zille, exposed the truth behind Biko's death. Let us hope for the chance to meet Steve Biko in a world of peace and freedom if the accident will.
Activist

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