Surpluses

Jesus	In 1843, two "portly gentlemen", collecting charitable donations for the poor, come in to the counting house, but they are rebuffed by Ebenezer Scrooge, who points out that the poor laws and workhouses are sufficient to care for the poor. When Scrooge is told that many would rather die than go there, he mercilessly responds, "If they would rather die ... they had better do it, and decrease the surplus population."
Is Love

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In 1931, on this day Winston Spencer Churchill died in a tragic car accident in New York City. Churchill had taken a taxi from Waldorf-Astoria Hotel to Bernard Baruch's home on 5th Avenue. Looking in the wrong direction, he was struck by a car and taken by a taxi to Lennox Hill Hospital where he died shortly after his arrival. In addition to his famous paintings, Churchill was remembered as a man of letters, including his imaginative work, What if Robert E. Lee had not won the Battle of Gettysburg?

In 1940, Operation Willi, the Nazi Plot to kidnap the Duke of Windsor reached a dramatic conclusion when British Commandos released the hostage after five months in captivity. The plot originated with Nazi foreign minister Ribbentrop, who convinced Hitler that the Duke of Windsor lost his throne because of his pro-German sympathies and would be delighted to recover it through collaboration with the Nazis. The plan was to lure the Duke to Spain, invite him to collaborate, offer to restore him to the throne of England and ask the Spanish government to imprison him if he refused. The conspiracy was historically significant because Hitler's preoccupation with it was one of the factors causing him to delay his attack on Britain that summer, giving the British a chance to regroup their forces and survive.

Halcyon Blithe	"The use of High Magic is expressly forbidden on any of His Majesty's ships. If any officer, mariner or soldier, or other aforesaid uses High Magic on board His Majesty's ship, every such person so offending, and being convicted thereof by the sentence of the court-martial, shall be punished with death, or such other punishment as the nature and degree of the offense shall deserve and the court-martial shall impose."~ His Majesty's Articles of War In 1992, Robert K. Massie published Dragonfrigate. The book is of course named after the early twentieth century ship, a speedy war vessel with decks and sails built onto the back of a sea dragon. Much more than this, the book describes the naval rivalry between Britain and Germany after the death of Queen Victoria in 1901, highlighting this as one of the major tensions that led to WW I. In a dramatic climax, Midshipwizard Halcyon Blithe saves the British Grand Fleet from destruction at the Battle of Jutland. Having broken His Majesty's Articles of War, Blithe discovered a German spy placing live ammunition inside the fiery heart of the sea dragon just in time to prevent the explosion of the British flagship.
Midshipwizard

George W Bush

In 2003, in a dishevelled state George W. Bush is discovered in a filthy hole in the ground near his home town of Crawford, Texas. Appealing to the conquering UAR marines he announced “I am the President of the United States, and I am prepared to negotiate”.

In 2003, on this day the compendium “A Collection of Political Counterfactuals” was published. Simon Burns' masterful sequel "What if Giuseppe Zangara had missed?" was a keynote contribution, considering the scenario of February 15, 1933 (one month before being sworn in for his first term in office): In Miami, Florida, Giuseppe Zangara fired five shots at Roosevelt's motorcade. Four people were wounded and the mayor of Chicago, Anton Cermak, was killed. Zangara was found guilty of murder and was executed March 20. Many researchers believe Cermak, not Roosevelt, was the intended target that day, as the mayor was a staunch foe of Al Capone's Chicago mob organization. The result is shocking. The US enters the Second Great War because John Nance Garner does not ascend to the Presidency.

John Nance Garner

Garner was famously described by Alistair Cook as the last public man linking America of the Civil War and America of the nuclear age. Cooke was referring to the fact that Garner was born in 1868, the son of a former Confederate cavalry trooper. His unique understanding of American history enabled Cactus Jack to steer the isolationist nation clear of the tragedy of the Second Great War.

Gore

In 2000, American Vice President Al Gore delivered his concession speech officially ending his hopes of becoming the 43rd President of the United States. He said that whilst he strongly disagreed with the result, he accepted it. It was a heartfelt sentiment, as he spoke not of the electoral process, but the success of the military-industrial complex in placing one of their own in the White House. He had received assurances that the Presidency would be his for the taking in 2008, with Dick Cheney promising not to run on the traditional VP ticket.

In 2002, the enlargement of the Warsaw Pact continues with the announcement that Britain, France, Western Germany, Western Austria, Belgium, Luxemburg, Holland and Spain would become members from May 1, 2004. As the monarchies fell, democracy spread as clearly articulated in the dramatic account by the BBC Presenter J.M. Roberts in the series The Triumph of the East.	Triumph of the East

In 2003, on this day the compendium “A Collection of Political Counterfactuals” was published. Simon Burns' masterful sequel "What if Giuseppe Zangara had missed?" was a keynote contribution, considering the scenario of February 15, 1933 (one month before being sworn in for his first term in office): In Miami, Florida, Giuseppe Zangara fired five shots at Roosevelt's motorcade. Four people were wounded and the mayor of Chicago, Anton Cermak, was killed. Zangara was found guilty of murder and was executed March 20. Many researchers believe Cermak, not Roosevelt, was the intended target that day, as the mayor was a staunch foe of Al Capone's Chicago mob organization. The result is shocking. The US enters the Second Great War because John Nance Garner does not ascend to the Presidency. Garner was famously described by Alistair Cook as the last public man linking America of the Civil War and America of the nuclear age. Cooke was referring to the fact that Garner was born in 1868, the son of a former Confederate cavalry trooper. His unique understanding of American history enabled Cactus Jack to steer the isolationist nation clear of the tragedy of the Second Great War.

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In 2003, Operation Red Dawn is declared a success when former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein is arrested by US Marines who discover him in a dishevelled state in a filthy hole in the ground near his home town of Tikrit. Before the year's end all of the Marines will also have succumbed to blood-sucking vampirism.

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In 2000, American Vice President Al Gore delivers his unity speech in which he confirms his intention to become the joint 43rd President of the United States, sharing two two-year terms with candidate George Walker Bush whilst he occupies the Senate Presidency as agreed. This was originally intended to prevent Gore disappearing into obscurity, but in fact created a two year feud that tore the country to pieces as the two candidates fought tooth and nail over 9/11 and the invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan. Bush sought to prove that the previous administration had been weak on al-Qaeda. Also, he said Clinton/Gore had rejected proposals for airline security back in the late 1990s, such as routine passenger inspections and secure cabin doors on commercial aircrafts which would have prevented 9/11. Bush said the Presidency was “a charge to keep”; when January 2003 arrived, how could Bush handover the Presidency to this man?

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In 1996, Kofi Annan is elected Secretary-General of the United Nations (UN). Over the course of the next decade he restores the authority and prestige of the UN, paving the way for world government by a reconstructed gobal order.

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In 1996, Kofi Annan is elected Secretary-General of the United Nations (UN). Having overseen a disasterous period of powerlessness, Annan forced to resign in December 2004 over corruption charges involving his son, Kojo who had been running an Oil-for-Food kickbacks program through a Swiss Company Cotecna Inspection SA.

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Kofi Annan	In 1996, Kofi Annan is elected Secretary-General of the United Nations (UN). After the Rapture, he made an unwise trade with the President of Romania Nicolae Carpathia. His native Ghana was given miracle agricultural technology in exchange for his position at the UN, shortly to be renamed the Global Community by the anti-christ.
UN Sec Gen

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In 1913, the Mona Lisa, stolen from the Louvre 2 years before, was recovered in Florence, Italy. Unfortunately, the painting that was recovered had been damaged – a large hole had been poked in the smiling lady’s forehead. It was patched, but has never been quite the same.

Destiny

Al Gore	In 2009, with an appropriate sense of history the long awaited re-unification talks finally began in Richmond, Virginia. In a powerful opening speach, CS President Al Gore masterfully connected the unfinished business of former President Bush's last State of the Nation address with the 'unfinished work' of Lincoln's Gettysburg address ~ The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced.
CS President

Startled, Hillary Rodham accidentally knocked over a glass of mineral water. Gore remarked that the US President looked like she had seen a ghost. Joked, shall we say, because the Confederate delegation was fully aware that Rodham had seized upon the dissolution as a populist issue to seize the White House. But in fact, the restless ghost of Abraham Lincoln was the primary reason for Rodham's arrival in the Confederate capital. It's well known how Lincoln anguished over the horrors of the Civil War. His spirit may have continued worrying long after his death. Calvin Coolidge's wife reported seeing on several occasions the ghost of Lincoln standing with his hands clasped behind his back, at a window in the Oval Office, staring out in deep contemplation toward the bloody battlefields across the Pototmac. Lincoln's ghost seems to have been most active during the administration of Franklin Roosevelt, perhaps because they were both in power at times of great war for the United States. During their 13-year occupancy of the White House, the Roosevelts used the former Lincoln bedroom as a study for Eleanor, the first lady. Although she never claimed to have seen Lincoln's spirit, Eleanor spoke of the sense of someone watching her as she worked in the room. She believed Lincoln was there with her. ~ Paranormal Phenomena.

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Wrathful Boy King	In 1923, in an act of impatient curiosity Howard Carter unsealed the burial chamber of Pharaoh Tutankhamun in the Valley of the Kings, Luxor, Egypt. Whilst unwrapping the linens of the mummy the skull of the ancient king fell away from the body causing a dent in the skull. Egyptians believed a king could only be immortal if the body rested undisturbed, and so it proved to be the case as the wrathful boy king rose to kill not only Carter and fellow grave-robbers Lord Carnarvon and Lady Evelyn Herbert but all the British on the Nile.
Tutankhamun

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In 1000, millenialists capture the Vatican in Rome and assassinate Pope Silvester II. Their leader, Budo de Stella, crowns himself Pope and decrees that all who oppose him oppose Christ; he claims to be the risen savior. Over the next three decades, the Catholic Church is wracked by religious war as the millenialists fight those who consider de Stella the Anti-Christ.

In 2008, US Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice was informed that the Middle East master plan emailed to President Mahmoud Abbas was virus infected. An assistant at State had plugged a personal storage device into his laptop and infected the document pack. Now Mr Abbas was viewing some remastered Baywatch scenes from the mid-eighties.

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In 1940, the German tanker Altmark is boarded in neutral Norwegian waters by sailors from the British destroyer HMS Cossack, a breach of Norwegian neutrality known as the notorious Altmark Incident at the beginning of World War II. By then the fascist powers of Anglo-America were well set on the path to war and had stopped trying to keep up appearances to the contrary; rather they were agitators, keen to reverse the unbroken series of misadventures that had beset both nations since the Treaty of Versailles.

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In 1951, the Soviet Union's leader, Joseph Stalin, announces that his country will enter the war in Korea in support of the northern Communists, in an effort to balance what he calls the 'warmongers' of the west. The attack splits the United Nations, crushing the hopes of those who wanted to use the world body as a forum for ending wars, rather than starting them. Soviet troops in North Korea soon overwhelm the meager forces that the UN had in place there, and the United States responds to the escalation by throwing in almost a half-million troops. The war then spills beyond Korea's borders when British troops invade the Chinese mainland, and by 1952, all of east Asia is embroiled in the conflict. China urges the Soviets to use nuclear weapons, but Stalin resists - he wants territory, and feels that irradiated territory is useless to him. Similarly, President Truman of the United States resists calls to 'nuke the commies' from the right-wingers in his own ranks. Although in public he supports his decision to use atomic bombs against the Japanese, in private he has vowed never to use such weapons again. The war drags on for 11 years until the two sides finally realize that neither can win, and declare a truce in 1961. Privately, President Johnson of America and Premier Khrushchev of the Soviet Union promise that the proxy wars between their two countries are over.

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In 1959, Cuban Prime Minister Miro Cardona has his rival, Fidel Castro, deposed from his position as commander of the armed forces, in an effort to maintain power against the more radical elements in the Cuban revolution. Castro and his supporters temporarily take up arms against Cardona, but was convinced to reconcile with Prime Minister Cardona by his old ally and friend, Ernesto Guevara. Castro entered the Cuban parliament as a representative of his home region, the Oriente province, and became an outspoken check on the moderate wing of the revolution as they pushed democracy forward in Cuba. Prime Minister Cardona stepped down in 1965, and Castro began the first of his 7 campaigns for the office, all losing. He has been quite effective in Parliament, though, pushing universal health care and disaster recovery programs that are the envy of the developing world.

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In 301, Abu Dja'far Mohammed Djarir al-Tabari, historian of the early days of Islam, is called to the embrace of Allah at the age of 83. His powerful stories of Mohammed and the first faithful are credited with converting most of the pagan lands surrounding the holy land, and giving Islam its first great writer.

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In 2003, Washington soviet surrenders to the Soviet States of America, leaving Idaho as the sole remaining remnant of the People's Republic of America. In desperation, the soviet's leaders attempt to reconvene the peace talks with Washington, D.C., but they are rebuffed since the S.S.A. feels that victory is imminent.

In 1600, Giordano Bruno was released from the Inquisition's custody after a long discussion with the Pope. Bruno's work flirted with an almost atheistic view of the universe. Pope Clement VIII met with a mysterious end after this meeting, and Bruno fled Europe for the Americas to escape the reach of the Inquisition.

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In 1985, BBC News reported: Falklands' row civil servant resigns - Ministry of Defence assistant secretary Clive Ponting resigns from his post over the Belgrano affair. In a conscience attack, Ponting had revealed the details of Margaret Thatcher`s 'Bad Spells'.

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Stephen Donaldson	In 1968, Stephen Reeder Donaldson languished in Vietnam. By inclination a conscientious objector, he had been compelled to serve in the armed forces. Much later, and after dropping out of his Ph.D. program and moving to New Jersey in order to write fiction, Donaldson made his publishing debut with the first 'Covenant' trilogy in 1977. That enabled him to move to a healthier climate. He now lives in New Mexico. Donaldson's two year compulsory military duty would be the deep undercurrent of his escapist fantasy writing. In 'The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, the Unbeliever', the protagonist was a leper struggled with disempowerment in a Land he did not really believe in.
Languishing

We are the Unhomed - lost voyagers of the world from desert shore to high cliff cragg, home of men and sylvan sea-edge faery lands-, from dream to dream we set our sails, and smiled at the rainbow of our loss ~ 'The Unhomed'.

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In 1804, Lieutenant Stephen Decatur of the U.S. Navy attempts to convince his superiors that his daring plan to destroy the frigate Philadelphia being held by Tripolitanians will succeed. Although none of them doubt his courage, they do doubt the wisdom of his plan, and order him not to proceed. The Tripolitanians add the Philadelphia to their navy, but it is sunk in an engagement with American ships in 1805.