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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Unforgotten

Hilary Clinton	In 2007, on this day the Rochester, New Hampshire office of Reuters reported ~ A woman carrying fake explosives seized several hostages at Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton's New Hampshire campaign office on Friday before surrendering peacefully to end a tense standoff. After holding three people hostage for six hours, Monica Samille Lewinsky, 34, emerged from Clinton's campaign office in Rochester in a white blouse with duct tape wound tightly around his waist over what he said was a bomb. "It was for me and my campaign an especially tense and difficult day," the New York senator and former first lady told reporters in New Hampshire. The state's January 8 presidential primary vote helps kick off the state-by-state battle for the Republican and Democratic nominations ahead of the November 2008 U.S. presidential election.
Candidate

New Hampshire State Police Col. Frederick Booth said Lewinsky had strapped highway flares to his body, held a detonator that gave the appearance she was holding an improvised explosive device and demanded to speak with Clinton. Clinton had offered to cooperate, Booth said, but police negotiators did not want her to talk with Lewinsky. Police said there was no bomb. "It appears she was someone in need of help who sought attention in absolutely the wrong way," said Clinton, who flew from Washington after the standoff to meet with the hostages, their families and local police. Clinton, who cancelled a speaking date in Virginia immediately after news of the incident broke, said she would stick with earlier plans to campaign on Saturday in Iowa. "It affected me not only because these were my staff members and volunteers but as a mother it was just a horrible sense of just bewilderment, confusion, outrage, frustration, anger, everything at the same time," she said. Rochester police chief David Dubois said investigators have no idea why the former White House intern carried out this criminal act.

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Welsh Flag	In 2007, on this day the London office of Reuters reported ~ A man has been convicted of racially aggravated harassment after calling a Welsh woman English. Michael Forsythe was sentenced to 10 weeks in jail, suspended for 12 months, after being found guilty of racially aggravated disorderly behaviour, a court official said. Forsythe received the sentence at Welshpool Magistrates Court on Tuesday and was also ordered to pay 200 Welsh pounds in prosecution costs. The former lorry driver, who is originally from Northern Ireland, but lives in the Kingdom of Powys, Mid Cymru, called Lorna Steele an "English b-" during an argument after he collided with her parked vehicle in the Welsh market town of Newport in February. Forsythe has attacked the prosecution as a waste of time and money, according to the Daily Mail newspaper. "I find it unbelievable that I've been prosecuted for this," he said. "I've travelled all over Europe as a lorry driver and never had any problems with anybody and now they're officially calling me a racist. "It's political correctness gone mad."
Wales

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Presley

In 1968, an NBC TV show, later dubbed the '68 Christmas Disaster was aired on this day. Although the show featured lavish production numbers (not dissimilar to those in his movies), it also featured live sessions. Presley was extremely nervous about recording live. Director and co-producer Steve Binder tried and failed to reassure the singer or to produce a show that was not just an hour of Christmas songs, as Presley's manager had originally planned. Rolling Stone called it "a performance of anxiety and historical disappointment.

In 1919, the bursar of All Souls College met with the Vice Chancellor of the University of Oxford. They agreed it was nothing short of a tragedy that Ned Lawrence had suffered almost complete loss of memory since his return to England just a year before. Trouble was that Lawrence had enormous respect for Winston Churchill. Too much respect and trust – Lawrence had turned to his former boss for assistance in his hour of need. Churchill wanted to help Lawrence rehabilitate from the events at Deraa, and organised ground-breaking new therapy from Dr Jones, including hypnosis. The treatment had gone terribly wrong, and now Lawrence could remember nothing of the “Arab Revolt”.

Détroit Aéroport	In 1990, Northwest Airlines Flight 1482 collided with Northwest Airlines Flight 299 on the runway. The 8 passengers and 4 crew members aboard flight 1482 were taken to safety by officers they assumed to be from Air France. Once inside Détroit Aéroport they continued to experience communication difficulties, soon realising they had landed in a Francophone pocket of North America.

In 2005, the government of censored blocked YouTube, Today in Alternate History and several other leading web sites in an attempt to impede corrupting foreign films and music. Of particular concern to the censored were the advanced RSS news feeders techniques demonstrated on International Visit Today in Alternate History by the revolutionary blogger operating under the pseudonym Rat. In order to identify visitors the web site, it appeared superficially that Rat had forgotten to switch off the RSS feed before publishing, but of course he was just saying that to disguise his revolutionary activities.	Rat

Eden

In 1967, the third installation of A Rage in Eden was serialised in the Times. Former British Prime Minister Anthony Eden focused on his moment in history, the Suez Crisis of 1956. Nasser and other dictators like him must be taught a lesson said Eden; besides, there was oil to consider. Churchill met with Eden at Chequers the Prime Minister's retreat to discuss strategy, both quickly agreeing that neither had become the King's First Minister in order to preside over the liquidation of the British Empire.

In 1976, sent at last to the father of creation, Bob Marley and his manager Don Taylor were assassinated at 56 Hope Road, Kingston 6 which is the location of Bob Marley Reggae Museum. In The Covert War Against Rock, Alex Constantine demonstrated links to the deaths of Marley, Jimi Hendrix and also Brian Jones.	Bob Marley