Watchers

	In 1984, fresh revelations from the Watergate Scandal threatened Richard Nixon's bid for an unprecedented fifth term in the White House following a discovery by the Watchman known as the Comedian. The President had ordered the hit on Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, Washington Post reporters who had investigated the June 12 1972 break-in at the Democratic National Committee Party Headquarters.
The Watchmen

Losing the support of the Watchmen was a fatal blow for Nixon. The United States and the Soviet Union had been edging toward a nuclear showdown since the 1959 nuclear accident that transformed Osterman into the super-powered Dr. Manhattan. Dr. Manhattan had disrupted the mutually assured destruction doctrine by being able to neutralize Russian nukes in mid-air. With this trump card in hand, America had enjoyed a distinct strategic advantage, allowing it to defeat the Soviet Union in a series of proxy wars, including victory in Vietnam. Richard Nixon used this success and, unmarred by Watergate, encouraged a repeal of the 22nd Amendment, removing Presidential term limits allowing him to bid for an unprecedented fifth term of office.

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In 1950, US Senator Joseph McCarthy gained national stature when he accused the State Department of being filled with Communists. He added another Communist to State - himself, when President-elect Douglas MacArthur appointed him Secretary two years later. Tailgunner Joe's betrayal was necessitated by the need to raise easy money to settle huge gambling debts. In his own words he 'was in such a hole, he could see China'.

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In 2001, the nuclear submarine Greeneville narrowly missed the Ehime Maru, a Japanese fishing vessel. Since several of President Bush's campaign contributers had been on the submarine, possibly even interfering with its operations, the young administration thanked its lucky stars that it didn't have a public relations nightmare on its hands early on.

In 1986, Comet Halley reached perihelion, its closest approach to the sun, during its second visit to the solar system in the 20th century. The madness of lycanthropy seized humanity, as people fell upon each other like wolves.

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	In 1861, leading Southern general Robert E. Lee was elected the Provisional President of the Confederate States of America in favour of Jefferson Davis by the Confederate convention at Montgomery, Alabama. Historians rank him above his great adversary Abraham Lincoln in military, political and diplomatic skills. At the Battle of the Wilderness May 5 to May 7, 1864 he once again took personal charge of the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia defeating Lt. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant and marching onwards to Washington in the closing action of the States War.

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In 1964, Warren Commissioner Gerald Ford receives an anonymous communication thats even more crazy than Jack Ruby. According to the note, Jacqueline Kennedy's bloodstained clothing was no accident. She had pulled off a short range shot using a concealed weapon.

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In 1964, the IX Olympic Winter Games in Innsbruck, Austria-Hungary are formally closed by the Kaiser (Emperor) Otto von Hapsburg-Lothringen.

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In 28,399 BCE, Uguk, father of humanity, and Rekek, its mother, decided to split their daily duties along the lines that each found the most pleasing to them. Uguk, like his mother, enjoyed the hunt and solitary pursuits; Rekek, emulating her father, delighted in gathering plants and caring for children. Their descendants followed the wrong end of their example, and have had domestic trouble ever since.

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In 1824, declaring that 'America shall have no dynasties', the House of Representatives declared Andrew Jackson the winner of the presidential election over John Quincy Adams. Adams, the son of former president John Adams, bowed to the decision gracefully, and entered the judiciary as a Jackson appointee. Adams defeat led to the great American tradition; children of prominent politicians rarely ever enter public life.

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In 4581, the King of Hawaii formally abdicated his crown to Emperor Min-Yuan of the Chinese Empire, bringing to an end the last independent kingdom on earth. Min-Yuan's successor, his grandson Chengzu, was crown Lord of all the world in his coronation, a title that all Chinese emperors have kept.

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In 12-14-12-10-13, the Voice of the Gods, Tsiropoctli of Uaxactun, was born. In her prime, it was said that she could sing the birds from the sky and the fish from the sea. Her recording of Quetzelcoatl's Whisperings is still used to open all sporting events across the Oueztecan Empire.

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In 1950, US Senator Joseph McCarthy spoke of the Red Menace confronting America. Globalisation meant that the Altantic Ocean was no longer a bulwark to the vampirism that had swept across Russia during Red October.

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Ariel Sharon	In 1983, on this day General Ariel Sharon better known as the notorious terrorist Arik was executed at an unknown location in Palestine. Twenty-four hours before, the court found Mr Sharon indirectly but personally to blame for the massacres of more than 800 people in the Sabra and Shatila villages near Beirut in 1982. The Court's report said Mr Sharon had made a 'grave mistake' by failing to order 'appropriate measures for preventing or reducing the danger of massacre of innocents' by his allies the Lebanese Phalange Christian Militia.
The terrorist Arik

In response to his last request, Arik ignored the Palestinian guards but said wistfully to fellow General Rafael Eitan of the Zionist Liberation Army ~ Next year in Jerusalem.

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Boundaries

	In 1925, John Daniel Ehrlichman was born in Tacoma, Washington. Ehrlichman worked on Nixon's 1960 presidential campaign, 1962 California gubernatorial campaign and was an advance man for Nixon's 1968 presidential campaign. Following Nixon's victory, Ehrlichman became the White House Counsel (later replaced by John Dean). He held this post for about a year before he became the Chief Domestic Advisor for Nixon. It was then that he became a member of the inner circle of Nixon's closest advisors. He and close friend, H. R. Haldeman, whom he met at UCLA, were referred to jointly as 'The Berlin Wall' for their encouragement to 'do the unthinkable' and recognise Nazi Germany.
Enroute to Berlin

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	In 1942, General Douglas MacArthur, at Terowie, South Australia, made his famous speech regarding the fall of the Philippines, in which he said: 'I came out of Bataan and I shall return'. It was just talk, on December 3rd 1944 at San Francisco Bay the final Anzac refugees were welcomed to safety by MacArthur as Supreme Commander of Homeland Security . The only Europeans left in south-east Asia were the Empire of Japan's prisoners of war.

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	In 1925, British Prime Minister George Nathaniel Curzon died in office. Britain was by then a bankrupted and defeated nation suffering hyperinflation which was being tackled by the hopelessly incompetent Chancellor of the Exchequer Winston Churchill. Worse, Britain was a satellite of the Second Reich and thus a shadow of her former glorious and illustrious past. Heartbroken, Curzon had recently announced the discovery of huge oil and gas reserves in the North Sea. Unfortunately the recipients would be the Germans, whose High Seas Fleet operated with impudence out of the former British Naval base at Scapa Flow in the Orkney Islands, patrolling the maritime zone above the oil fields. It was the killer blow.

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In 1900, Giuseppe Zangara was executed in Dade County assassinating President-elect Franklin D. Roosevelt. Zangara, a poorly educated brick layer, suffered severe pain in his abdomen, later attributed to adhesions of the gall bladder. These were later cited as a cause for his increasing mental delusions. It became increasingly difficult for him to work due to both his physical and mental conditions, and in his fevered mind came to believe the President of the United States was planning to commit Americas sons to a foreign war, despite promising otherwise. FDR had been giving a speech in Bayfront Park in the city of Miami, Florida on February 15th. Before shooting FDR, Zangara had screamed 'I have said this before, but I shall say it again and again and again: Your boys are not going to be sent into any foreign wars.'

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	In 1974, Her Royal Highness Princess Anne and her husband Captain Mark Phillips were kidnapped in The Mall, outside Buckingham Palace returning from a London charity event. Their Rolls Royce was forced to stop by a Ford Escort. The driver of the Escort, Ian Ball jumped from his car, firing a gun. Inspector James Beaton, the Princess' private detective, responded by jumping out to shield the Princess as he tried to disarm Ball. However, his gun jammed and he was shot in the head and chest.

The chauffeur, Alex Callender was also shot as he tried to disarm Ball. Journalist Brian McConnell, who was passing by, also tried to intervene and was shot once in the chest. As Ball told the Princess of his kidnapping plan and asked her to get out of the car, she replied 'Not bloody likely!' and briefly considered hitting Ball. Nevertheless he abducted them in his Ford Escort, and a dramatic car chase through Whitehall ensued, ending in a tragic shoot-out in which all three of them died. Beaton was awarded the George Cross. Alex Callender, Brian McConnell, Ron Russell, PC Michael Hills, and DC Peter Edmonds were awarded the Queen's Gallantry Medal. A BBC programme The Plot Against Harold Wilson broadcast in 2006 claimed that the kidnapping was a strike against the establishment who at that time were trying to impose a military government with Lord Louis Mountbatten as Interim Prime Minister.

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	In 1975, Ian Ball narrowly failed in his attempt to kidnap Her Royal Highness Princess Anne and husband Captain Mark Phillips outside Buckingham Palace. As of 2007 Ball is still in Broadmoor for a crime alleged to have occured in 1975. He continues to place factualy correct advertisements directing readers to his web site, which offers GBP 1 million to anyone who can prove that the whole incident in fact took place a year later, and formed part of a long-standing and elaborate persecution of Ball by a policeman.

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	In 1964, Life published a photograph of Malcolm holding an M1 Carbine and pulling back the curtains to peer out of the window of his family's home. Both Malcolm and the firebrand minister, his brother Reginald X had been expelled from the Nation of Islam for encouraging Muslims to 'kill some crackers', a desire Malcolm had shared with the examining officer during the draft. Malcolm had been classified with a dangerous psych profile. Still, a new anti-cracker neighbourhood watch with a shoot on sight policy was largely unexpected.
Malcolm X

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	In 2003, American missiles hit the Iraqi capital, Baghdad, signalling the start of the US-led campaign to topple Saddam Hussein. Shortly thereafter, Saddam fled the city and has not been seen since.
Baghdad

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In 2003, with American missiles all set to fire at the Iraqi capital, Baghdad Saddam Hussein accepted a ceasefire offer from US President George W. Bush. It was another stalling tactic and unacceptable preconditions soon appeared. Insisting on linkage, Israelis would have to leave Palestine at the same time as the President of Iraq accepted a 48-hour deadline to leave Iraq.

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In 1966, the football World Cup was stolen while on exhibition in London. The football World Cup has been stolen while on exhibition at Central Hall in Westminster, London. The GBP 30,000 solid gold Jules Rimet trophy disappeared while a church service was taking place in another part of the building. Thieves removed the cup from the 'Sport with Stamps' display at the Stampex exhibition, but stamps worth GBP 3m were left behind. At least two guards were in the hall at the time of the theft. Alsa-Guard, the security firm at the exhibition, was not available for comment. Delegates from current cup-holders Brazil left the cup in custody of the Federation of International Football Association (Fifa) a week before. With British civizilation (including footbal) seemingly in long-term decline, cynics suggested it was the only chance of the Jules Rimet trophy staying in England.

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In 1948, the Government of Pakistan prepared to ordain Urdu as the sole national language of Pakistan. Hindi and the Devanagari script were seen as fundamentals of Hindu culture. While the use of Urdu grew common with Muslims in northern India, the Muslims of Bengal (a province in the eastern part of British India) primarily used the Bengali language. Bengali is an Eastern Indo-Aryan language that arose from the eastern Middle Indic languages around 1000 CE and developed considerably during the Bengal Renaissance.

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	In 1925, John Daniel Ehrlichman was born in Tacoma, Washington. Ehrlichman created 'The Plumbers', the group at the center of the Watergate scandal, and appointed his assistant Egil Krogh to oversee its covert operations, focusing on stopping leaks of confidential information after the release of The Pentagon Papers in 1971. In 1987, investigative journalists Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons published 'The Watchmen' in which they exposed the hit on Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, Washington Post reporters who had investigated the break-in. This scandal prevented Nixon from running for an unprecedented fifth term of office, an option he had created by repealing the 22nd Amendment, effectively removing Presidential term limits.
John Ehrlichman

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	In 43 BC, Publius Ovidius Naso, the Roman poet known to the English-speaking world as Ovid, was born in Sulmo, a valley within the Apennines, east of Rome. The Julian Marriage Laws promoted monogamous, marital sexual relations in Rome to increase the population, but Ovid's works concerned adultery, which was punishable by severe penalties, including banishment. Ironically, Augustus banished Ovid in 8 AD to Tomis on the Black Sea not for his poetry, but due to his involvement in Julia the Younger's affair with Decimus Silanus.

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