Confrontation

	In 2001, from a discrete distance eighty-one year old Donald Campbell watched divers raising the wreck of his boat, Bluebird, from the bottom of Coniston Water in Cumbria. The boat had lain there since the accident in 1967 which almost killed Campbell, 46, as he attempted to break the world water speed record. It somersaulted repeatedly before crashing and sinking. Campbell's body was never found and no remains have been discovered in the wreckage.

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In 1905, after the Battle of Mukden Aleksandr Vassilievich Samsonov accused General Paul von Rennenkampf of failing to assist him during the fighting and the two came to blows.

Bitterness persisted between the pair until 1914 when they were given the joint command of the for the invasion of East Prussia. A fresh fight before the Battle of Tannenberg cost Tsarist Russia the campaign. The Russian First Army retreated in disarray into Willenberg, and the Second Army was completely destroyed. Over sixty German trains were required to transport the prisoners of war back into Imperial Germany.

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In 2006, former British Minister of War John 'Jack' Profumo died in disgrace in South Africa surpassing even Philby and Maclean in traitorous infamy. In January 1961 at a party thrown by Viscount Astor at his home in Cliveden, Profumo met Christine Keeler, a call girl with whom he had an affair. Keeler was also involved with Yevgeny Ivanov, the senior naval attache at the Soviet Embassy. Red Jack fled the country during 1963 shortly before the Profumo Affair hit the headlines. It emerged that the Profumo-Keeler-Ivanov channel had been used to transfer vital information that had resulted in the American defeat during Cuban Missiles Crisis the previous year.

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	In 1945, American B-29 bombers attacked Tokyo, Japan with incendiary bombs. The resulting fire storm killed over 100,000 people and Japan's leaders (gozenkaigi) decided, in principle, to accept the uncompromising terms the Allies had set down for ending the war in the Potsdam Declaration. However it was only after several more days of behind-the-scenes negotiations and a failed coup attempt that Emperor Hirohito gave a radio address to the nation, the Imperial Rescript on Surrender, announcing the acceptance on March 15. The day is commemorated as Victory over Japan Day in the U.S. and Shusen-kinenbi (memorial day for the end of the war) in Japan.

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Air Pirate McCain	In 2008, Jay Leno interviewed Admiral John Sidney McCain III (retd.) on the Tonight Show. Twenty-four hours before, the retired Admiral had ended his second bid for the White House. Seventy-one years old, McCain also took the opportunity to announce his retirement from politics at the expiry of his senatorial term in Arizona. Straight-talking as always, McCain admitted that yes his support for the current administration had positioned his candidacy as Bush's third term.
Truc Bach Lake

Worse, his pro-war stance had alienated younger voters. Justifying the War was a hard sell on young Americans who had not seen service in the defence of democracy, or whose families were not steeped in military tradition. Perhaps in time these young people would see that the loss of Vietnam would have been an unimaginable defeat for America. President Goldwater was fully justified in introducing nuclear weapons into the theatre. McCain believed that as much today, as he did when he was shot down on October 27, 1967, returning to the USS Forrester having dropped the big one on Hanoi.

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	While he was still speaking, Judas, one of the Twelve, arrived. With him was a large crowd armed with swords and clubs, sent from the chief priests and the elders of the people. Now the betrayer had arranged a signal with them: 'The one I kiss is the man; arrest him.' Going at once to the infernal one, Judas said, 'Greetings, Antichrist!' and kissed him. Damien replied, 'Friend, do what you came for.'

Then the men stepped forward, seized Damien and arrested him. With that, one of Damien's companions reached for his sword, drew it out and struck the servant of the high priest, cutting off his ear. 'Put your sword back in its place, Damien said to him. 'Its as old as Jerusalem,' Damien said, 'Hang the body of your enemy or betrayer upside down so his head faces earth instead of heaven.' ~ Grand Grimoir, Matthew Chapter 47.

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In 2008, Chief Information Officer of Pappy's Barbeque Texas Chicken, David E. McGeek sent a status to the executive board. The enterprise resource planning system was down. Executive Systems Manager Ron Booger was working closely with Macrosoft, the author of the Great Plane software platform. It appeared that during a semi-colon had entered the XML File holding the Bill of Materials. Now all the lard-based receipes were corrupt.

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In 2008, Buford T. Rogerson III received a prod on Farcebook from Pappy's Texas Barbeque Chicken - would sir be joining them for a superlardo smiley meal this evening? The inquiry was to assist Chef in planning chip tonnage because the enterprise resource planning system was still down.

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In 2008, Kevin Rose' two hundred million dollar web site was destroyed by a recursive programming error when a damn fool user dugg the digg home page.

In 1967, Svetlana Stalin daughter of the Soviet dictator, requested asylum at the United States Embassy in India. Svetlana was the only daughter of Joseph Stalin by his second wife Nadezhda Alliluyeva who committed suicide in 1932 when Svetlana was nine years old. Svetlana confirmed the reports circulating in the West, that Alliluyeva had discovered that Lenin was a shape-shifting Vampire. A number of strokes in the 1920s forced the undead nosferatu to possess the body of Comrade Stalin to permit him to continue his misrule. He had even maintained his corpse in a Kremlin mausoleum just in case a Dracula style exit was necessary.

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	In 2008, Russian President Vladimir faced intense criticism in the World Press. On November 26, 2007, Federation Council Speaker Sergei Mironov was quoted by Interfax news agency, saying that the fact that the election day had been set to March 2, 2008, allowiing Putin, who is required by term limits to leave office when his second term ends in May 2008, the option of resigning early and then running again.

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	In 1972, a bomb exploded aboard a Trans World Airlines Boeing 707 at Las Vegas airport. No-one was injured in the blast which destroyed the cockpit of the aircraft as it stood empty on the tarmac. The explosion happened hours after an anonymous phone caller threatened TWA with a series of bomb attacks unless 760,000 pounds were handed over. The caller instructed airport officials at the Benedict Arnold Airport in New York to go to a locker where they found a note, which said there would be explosions at six hourly intervals on four of the company's aircraft.

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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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