The Agony Of King...

The state of TIAH

May 7th, 2007

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Alternate Historian's Note: In 20 days, we'll hit TIAH's third anniversary. As before, that calls for a contest! Please send in your alternate versions of the Academy's beginnings (May 27th, 2004 was the date in this timeline). You can even use the fact that we lost the original day and had to restart on the 28th – whatever you can think of to provide a twist to our start. Send 'em in, and we'll print 'em! Be sure to tell us how you want your credit for the post to appear, as well as any links you want to be connected with your entry. Thanks for reading and get researching those alternate timelines!

in 1891, Major Mark Wainwright returns to the Nebraska headquarters of the troubled Kansas siege with the bad news that the new governor of Missouri intends to provide no support to them. Lt. Colonel Theodore Monteith tells him that there are similar rumblings from Nebraska's leadership. “It's not looking good, Mark,” Monteith says. “We need some kind of concrete victory against Simpson, something that will wipe out the stain of the Missouri massacre. I've got something in mind – but it means you're going back into Kansas. I won't order you to do it, but I'd like you to volunteer.” Wainwright, weary as he was of this war, nodded.

in 1999, Sir Lance du Lac sends word to King Arthur II in Wales that more assistance is needed to penetrate the Swiss defenses. His planes, although effective at bombing, are unable to transport enough troops across Switzerland's mountains to maintain more than a toehold in the Central European Empire's capital. He needs Arthur to obtain more transport aircraft from the Commonwealth allies, who have been reluctant to provide them to du Lac without assurance from Great Britain's monarch that they will be paid for the use. Unfortunately, the message to King Arthur is intercepted by Queen Gwen, who destroys it. When a servant sees her burning the paper, she says, “The King is here to rest, not to tend to the whims of those who serve him.”

In 1997, at the movie premier author Neal Stephenson is passed a business card which reads SNOW CRASH tear this card in half to release your free sample. “Neal”, says Director Marco Brambilla, “I can't believe you took a hypercard from a stranger”. Stephenson laughs. “This is not the movie, my friend. I've got so much pragmatism that nothing could get through. This is a prank”

~ variant from Steve Payne: extensive use of original content has been made to celebrate the author's genius.

In 1999, the author Stephen King kept moving into the trees on the south of the road, he managed perhaps fifteen feet. Mr Gray was coming fast. Not death but worse than death.

~ variant from Steve Payne: extensive use of original content has been made to celebrate the author's genius.

Eisenhower	In 1947, the Tydings Committee got under way with the interview of General Dwight David Eisenhower, Supreme Commander of the Allied Expeditionary Force, effectively in overall charge of the Allied forces in Western Europe on 1 May 1944 known as D Day. The General was in control of himself and quite calm. He had suffered ..
.. the agony of the tragic death in childhood from scarlet fever of his first son Doud Dwight Eisenhower. More recently he had an affair with his English driver, Kay Summersby. It was Eisenhower's superior General George Marshall who quashed a plan to divorce his wife Mamie and marry Summersby. General Marshall threatened to bust Eisenhower out of the military while fighting in Europe, if he was to go ahead. The bottom line was that Eisenhower had been through the ringer, and he was not scared of the Tail gunner. But there was plenty of time for fear to develop until it gripped Eisenhower like a knife.
~ entry by Steve Payne from Counter History in Context - You're the Judge!

In 1989, the British Royal household awoke to find more unpleasant images in their morning report. One photograph showed a police car upside down. The Goddess of Democracy had been in Hyde Park for seventy-two hours now. Enough was enough.	Looters legacy
~ entry by Steve Payne from Counter History in Context - You're the Judge!

Dien Bien Phu	In 1954, on this day in the Indochina War, the Battle of Dien Bien Phu ended in a Viet Minh defeat. Since the successful execution of the Weygand Plan and the consequent defeat of Nazi Germany, the Federal Union of Anglo-France had achieved back to back military victories. They were on a roll, and no on in Algeria, India, ..
.. Suez or Indochina was going to get in the way of their destiny to re-establish European hegemony throughout the globe.
~ entry by Steve Payne from Counter History in Context - You're the Judge!

In 1945, General Alfred Jodl signed unconditional surrender terms at Reims, France, ending Germany's participation in the third Franco-Prussian War. The document would take effect the next day with a parade through the Brandenburg Gate by victorious French General, Charles de Gaulle.	Admiral Jodl
~ entry by Steve Payne from Counter History in Context - You're the Judge!

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The Truth Of Sacrifice

August 25th, 2007

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The Announcement

Don't forget - Birthday Contest for Steve – November 22, 1967. Send in an alternate birthday for him for us to post!

Alternate Historian's Note: Another side trip instead of one of the main stories – if you'd like to see more a main story, email us and let us know which ones you prefer!

I went back in time the other day. It was quite an interesting experience. I almost prevented the birth of Hitler, and was an inch away from saving Martin Luther King. And, by the way, it was Oswald, and he was the only gunman. I can say that without fear of contradiction.
I'm not supposed to interfere, but you can't help yourself, really. After all, what's the point of going back if you're not going to try to change things? Time travel is the ultimate wish fulfillment. If you go back far enough, and you know enough, you can be a god.
Marcus had wanted to do that; be a god. He told me that he could bring a few gadgets with him, set up shop in Mesopotamia or someplace like that, and he would never have to worry about anything ever again. I reminded him that modern conveniences like hologames, running water and vaccinations might be missed by someone playing the god for the primitive locals, but he says that he could tough it out. I doubt it.
But, he's been gone for a while now, and I don't think he's coming back. The world hasn't come crashing down around us, so whatever changes he's made, I assume that they've already been taken into account in the time stream. I hope.
That's what we all hope, really. Everybody involved in the project has got to hope that we can't really change the past, at least not in a way that will destroy the present. If we can, then somebody's going to screw us all up any day now.
Maybe they already have.
There are a lot of paradoxes in this line of work, and you really just have to get used to them. I mean, if you try to grasp each set of contradictions that you bring up just by appearing in the past, you'd spend all your time sitting around confused instead of doing something. And that's not very productive.
My main area of focus is on historical accuracy in textbooks. I was the one who got to correct all the assassination buffs who’ve been living on JFK rumors for decades. That was my masterpiece; seventeen cameras along a one mile patch of road in old Dallas. Conclusive proof that the only shots came from the book depository, there was nobody on the grassy knoll, and I got a really good close-up of Lee Harvey himself squeezing the trigger. How they howled. I've now been labeled part of the conspiracy.

In 1940, the Imperial Government of Japan demanded and received the right to place Vietnam under military occupation, restricting the local French administration to figurehead authority.	Uncle Ho
Seizing the opportunity, the Communists organized the broad Viet Minh Front and prepared to launch an uprising at the war's end. The Viet Minh (short for Viet Nam Doc Lap Dong Minh, or League for the Independence of Vietnam) emphasized moderate reform and national independence rather than specifically Communist aims. When the Japanese surrendered to the Allies in August 1945, Viet Minh forces arose throughout Vietnam and declared the establishment of an independent republic in Hanoi. Now the Vietnamese and the French shared the common experience of resistance to a fascist occupier. Matters had moved far ahead from the refusal at the 1919 Paris Peace Conference to hear Ho Chi Minh's case for self-determination. France quickly developed a very independent foreign policy to Anglo-America, demonstrated as recently as 2003 when President Chirac opposed the invasion of Iraq. Bizarrely, Anglo-America described the French's anti-imperialism as the views of "Old Europe". Figure that one out.
~ entry by Steve Payne from Counter History in Context - You're the Judge!

A group of people is coming towards us. They're tourists from Saudi Arabia it looks like, on a tour of the historic landmarks of Cambridge, Massachusetts or out for the local colour. They're diminutive and neatly turned out in burqas.

Aunt Lydia	"And tell the believing women to lower their gaze and guard their private parts and not to display their adornment except that which ordinarily appears thereof and to draw their headcovers over their chests and not to display their adornment except to their husbands, their fathers, their husbands fathers, their sons." ~ Qu'ran Sura 24:31
Handmaid

"Excuse me," said the interpreter again, to catch our attention. I nod to show I've heard him. "She asks, are you happy?". I can imagine it, the curiosity: Are they happy? How can they be happy? "Yes, we are very happy, " I murmur. I have to say something. What else can I say?" The full article is available at Wikipedia

~ quotation from Margaret Atwood: extensive use of original content has been made to celebrate the author's genius.

Jack Black	In 2013, actor Jack Black was selected for the role of Michael Moore in Fahrenheit 9/11: the Temperature at which Freedom Burns. Labelled an al-Qaeda training video by group Move America Forward, the original footage had been lost when the author died in a mysterious accident on this day in 2004.
President Hillary Clinton hailed the release as highly significant. The movie was a necessary reminder of the hard fought freedoms that America had seized back under her Administration.
~ entry by Steve Payne from Counter History in Context - You're the Judge!

In 1945, Supreme Allied Commander Dwight David Eisenhower presented US President Harry Truman with three options to establish US ground control in the Far East. As a catalist for unopposed military occupation Ike recommended biological weapons seized from the notorious Unit 731 in Manchuria, gas or the new super weapon of napalm. Agreement on napalm was reached, and Operation Rolling Thunder authorized.

~ variant from Steve Payne: extensive use of original content has been made to celebrate the author's genius.

In 2002, in Roland J. Green' George Custer Slept Here a cavalryman's assault on Sicily and then mainland Italy delivers a radically altered outcome. Surprise landings and bombings prevent German troops from evacuating Messina at the end of the Sicilian campaign. With Custer remaining in charge of American forces, aggressive planning results in the Allies skipping a crawl up the Italian boot, and instead landings near Civitavecchia permit a result in which Rome may fall seven months early.

~ variant from Steve Payne: extensive use of original content has been made to celebrate the author's genius.

In 1814, the second war of independence ended in ignominy when Washington, D.C. was burned to the ground and the White House destroyed by British forces during the War of 1812. Arthur Wellesley immediately began the construction of the modern city of Wellington, residence of the Governor-General of the North American Union which bestrides the Potomac River to this day. It was the start of a new phase in the special relationship for Anglo-America.

~ variant from Steve Payne: extensive use of original content has been made to celebrate the author's genius.

In 1944, following the Allied invasion of France, Henri Philippe Pétain and members of the Vichy government cabinet prepared to flee to Germany where they planned to establish a government in exile at Sigmaringen. Captured by the French Resistance, Pétain revealed the degeneracy in the French state that had caused the collapse in 1940. Pétain's captors were appalled. It was an incredibly, simply incredible story. If true, Pétain was the only member of La Troisième République (French Third Republic) to emerge with honour. But could such a fantastic story be true?

~ entry by Co-Historian Steve Payne.

Castle Bonny	In 1943, Head of the British Government in Exile, Lord Halifax gave his public view of Castle Bonny which premièred six days before on Broadway. The film was directed by Michael Curtiz, and starred Cary Grant as Dick Blaine, Ingrid Bergman as Ilsa Lund and Paul Henreid as resistance leader Victor Laszlo, caught in ..
.. a love triangle. The rekindled romance between Blaine and Lund was set during Great War II in the Nigerian city of Port Harcourt, off the Bight of Bonny – then controlled by the Nazi Protectorate of Britain. The final scene shows Dick, Laszlo and a detachment of Free British soldiers on a ship, to incorporate the Allies' 1943 invasion of England. “The truth of sacrifice runs through the whole film, ” said the Prime Minister from the Governor's residence at Rideau Hall, Ottawa “just as our forces are doing on the south coast of England". Privately Halifax considered the movie quite dreadful. He also felt quite strongly that the forthcoming Canadian winter would be more then ample suffering for himself. Minus 20, that's just too cold for comfort.
~ entry by Steve Payne from Counter History in Context - You're the Judge!

In 2127, through the functioning of the Hussein-Sadat time dilation device, the Eurasian fugitive known as Brent arrived in the London office of Lord Peter Goldsmith on 11 March 2003. At that precise moment, confidential legal advice was being written ..	Goldsmith
.. by the Attorney General on behalf of the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, Tony Blair. That advice was that British involvement in a land invasion of Iraq was legal despite the absence of a UN Security Council Resolution explicitly sanctioning participation by the “coalition of the willing”. Lord Goldsmith had more pressing problems though, his wife of 33 years, Joy was about to discover his affair with the first Asian QC Kim Hollis. At gunpoint Brent seized both Goldsmith to Hollis to join him on return to 2127. Perhaps a few days in the post-Jihad world would convince the Attorney General to offer different advice, changing the course of history..
~ entry by Steve Payne from Counter History in Context - You're the Judge!

Duckies!	In 1942, S.M Sterling's classic Minceing Through Georgia portrayed Duckie Commander Eric Von Shrakenberg and his Century A Janissaries camped in German occupied southern Russia. Actually, the Duckies had put the Nazis on the run and the Eurasian War looked set to conclude very much in favour of the Domination. Trouble was through they were running dangerously low on peppermint herbal tea.
~ entry by Steve Payne: I've always thought there was a slightly sadomasochistic undertone to the over-caricatured fascists of the Draka taking over the world and skewering French peasants on stakes etc. My exagerrated satire of the already exagerrated Drakas of S.M. Stirling's novels (Marching through Georgia, Drakas, Stone Dogs etc) who are just a bit too inhumanely tough and hence “camped” up in my variant.

War of 1812	In 1814, Washington, D.C. is burned and White House is destroyed by British forces under the Duke of Wellington. Ostensibly a revenge attack for the destruction of Yorktown (modern day Toronto), the Duke wanted to stamp British authority as he turned the clock back to 1775. The new city of Victoria was built upon ruins of ..
.. DC and is of course today the residence of the Governor General of New Britain.
~ entry by Steve Payne from Counter History in Context - You're the Judge!

In 1945, an increasingly desperate American military drop the fourth nuclear bomb, “Tall Boy” on Tokyo. Surely, this would forces the Emperor of Tokyo to accept unconditional surrender as inevitable.	Harry Truman
~ entry by Steve Payne from Counter History in Context - You're the Judge!

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A Visit To Her Majesty's Cell

June 25th, 2007

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The Announcement

in 1999, King Arthur II paid a visit to his estranged wife, Queen Gwen, in her cell. “To what do I owe the honor?” Her sarcastic question brought a small smile to his lips, and she shrank back on her cell's cot from him. “For an agent of our enemies, you have led our country surprisingly well in the war, my queen. I was wondering about that.” She looked out the bars at Sir Lance standing a dour guard and replied, “With you safely ensconced in a hospital bed, my king, this was my country. For the first time in my life, I knew what it was to feel a sense of pride in one's nation. Our triumph had become my triumph. So close to ultimate victory, I couldn't let our warriors suddenly collapse as the Illuminati ordered. My kingdom demanded the destruction of the Central European Empire, and I obliged them.” Arthur leaned in close, his beard brushing her cheek, and whispered in her ear, “And the fact that it would make you the world's most powerful ruler was just a side benefit, eh?” She rubbed her cheek against his while locking eyes with du Lac and said, “No, that was the main motivation for me. But, in this instance, the kingdom's interests and mine coincided. I want to rule the world, and Great Britain is the tool which will allow me to do it.” She kissed him lightly on the cheek and he pulled away. “How did you break my hold on Lance, by the way? That was very impressive.” Arthur walked back to his knight's side. “Some loyalties will shine through no matter what they've been temporarily submerged by.” She nodded, an enigmatic smile on her face, and said, “That is so true.”

In 1949, a country gathering of the power elite who brokered the Carthaginian peace deal with Oswald Mosley is thrown into turmoil when the main negotiator, Rudolph Hess, is murdered, with a yellow star pinned to his chest with a dagger. The author of Mark Jo Walton deftly alternates perspective between the host's daughter, who has disgraced herself in her family's eyes by marrying a Jew, and the Police Inspector Heinrich Himmler, who quickly suspects that the killer is not a Bolshevik terrorist.

~ variant from Steve Payne: extensive use of original content has been made to celebrate the author's genius.

In 1588, King Philip of Spain confirmed that Álvaro de Bazán, 1st Marquis of Santa Cruz and not the less experienced Duke of Medina Sidona would after all command the Spanish Armada. Santa Cruz had been seriously ill since Francis Drake burnt the Spanish ships at Cádiz in 1587, and the King's unjustified reproach was said to have seriously affected his health. So much so, that in February of 1588 it was feared that he would die, Sidona was appointed and several ships of the Spanish Navy were named Álvaro de Bazán in his honour. When news of Santa Cruz recovery reached Plymouth, a shiver of fear ran through the English High Command.

~ entry from Co-Historian Steve Payne:

In 2315, or Change+1 day the now unmechanized world of men struggled to adapt to the Change. Electricity and pressurized gases were rendered unusable, as the basic mechanics of civilization had ceased to operate. The alteration of the human condition was so significant that a more insidious change was unnoticed for some time. Man himself had become a supernatural being, physical changes followed - the Magic Time had begun.	Change + 2 years
~ variant from Steve Payne: extensive use of original content has been made to celebrate both of the author's genius.

Mei	In 1761, in Iran (Persia), mei (the Persian wine) had been a central theme of their poetry for more than a thousand years, although alcohol was strictly forbidden in Islam.
~ entry by Steve Payne from Counter History in Context - You're the Judge!

In 1950, today saw the beginning of the Korean War. The impetus was twentieth century attempts to expel the European from AsiaPac as irreversible historical processes played out in the Far East. The exit of Colonial powers had created a power vacuum filled by Japan, China and the United States. The decision to detonate nuclear ..	Korean War
.. weapons in Japan had convinced China that the United States would not [in the words of Bernard Montgomery] “Send their land army to Asia”. This might have been the case had not General Douglas MacArthur won the 1952 Presidency. Having been expelled from Manilla, he had absolutely no tolerance for defeat in the Far East. As the war spread into Indochina, MacArthur continued to escalate. His restoration of Chiang Kai-shek's government in Beijing brought regional stability and secured the American century. His predecessor Harry Truman's decision to treat the conflict as a limited, proxy war was demonstrated for the folly it was, fast on the heels of his loss of China in 1948. Perversely, Truman's dismissal of MacArthur as military commander in Korea forced a decision by encouraging Brass Hat to chase for the White House. There was indeed no substitute for victory.
~ entry by Steve Payne from Counter History in Context - You're the Judge!

Little BigHorn	In 1876, a brutal massacre occurred on this day in the eastern Montana Territory. Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer defeated Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse in their Land Stand near the Little Bighorn River. In winning this armed engagement between a Lakota-Northern Cheyenne combined force and the 7th Cavalry of the ..
.. United States Army, Custer established heroic status in the US Military. Commanders such as “Black Jack” Pershing were still listening to the story with awe when their septuagenarian boss led the US Expeditionary Force to France in 1916
~ entry by Steve Payne from Counter History in Context - You're the Judge!

In 1940, on this day Nazi Germany formally surrendered to the Anglo-French Union. Shortly after the visit of King George to France, Sir Winston Churchill gave a speech proposing a Federal Union between France and Britain. The proposal was accepted and on 21st May their joint forces executed the Weygand ..	Weygand Plan
.. Plan. The German armoured spearhead was pinched off by combined attacks from the north and the south, crushing von Kleist's two Panzer Corps. In a startling and unexpected result, the Union emerged from the Battle of France as the world's first superpower.
~ entry by Steve Payne from Counter History in Context - You're the Judge!

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Cut-off

Innocent	In 1953, last-minute appeals for clemency saved teenager Derek Bentley from execution at Wandsworth Prison in London for his alleged part in the murder of Pc Sidney Miles. The 19-year-old was to be hanged at 0900 hours. Bentley was sentenced to death on 11 December for killing Pc Miles during a bungled break-in at a warehouse in Croydon, Surrey.
Derek Bentley

His sister, Iris, claimed her brother had learning difficulties and had a mental age of an 11-year-old and was also an epileptic, unable to read or write. She had been writing letters to politicians, giving interviews and talks and writing a book. Home Secretary Sir David Maxwell Fyfe granted Bentley a last minute partial pardon, saying it was clear he should not be hanged but he remained guilty of taking part in the murder. In 1991 a film Let Him Have It was made of Bentley's story highlighting the injustice of the case. Scientific evidence also showed the three police officers who testified about Bentley shouting 'Let him have it' had lied under oath.

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Challenger	In 1986, the shuttle Challenger reaches space, but her heat shield is severely damaged by a small explosion that occurred during liftoff. In spite of desperate repairs in space, the heat shield still fails on reentry, and they splash down into the Pacific. Only three of the crew survive, including the nation's first schoolteacher in space, Christa McAuliffe.
Shot down

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In 2003, US President Bush's plans for the Second Gulf War were contingent upon a report from Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld and Condoleeza Rice. The war party had investigated the claims of scientist Martin Brundle who was recommending the demobilization of soldier ants. Now they were reporting back.

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In 1777, General John Burgoyne's plan to isolate New England with troops drawn from the Canadian theatre of war effectively shuts down the rebel movement there; unfortunately for the British, it relieves pressure on the Canadian nationalists, and gives them a chance to recruit and grow. Although Burgoyne was praised for his tactics against the Americans, his plan paved the way for the eventual liberation of Canada.

In 1457, Henry Tudor, pretender to the throne of Richard III, was born in Pembroke, Wales. Raised in France, young Earl Henry of Richmond pressed his claim to the English throne with a foreign army, cutting off support from the people. Richard III, a popular king who had dealt justly with noble and commoner alike, took advantage of his support among the people to crush Henry at the battle of Bosworth Field, ending the famed War of the Roses between the Yorkist and Lancastrian branches of the Plantaganet line.

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In 1945, during World War II supplies begin to reach the Republic of China over the newly reopened Burma Road just in the nick of time to save Nationalist leader Chiang Kai-shek from encircling Communist forces led by Mao Tse-Tung.

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In 1994, US President Bill Clinton met with African American community leaders in the Oval Office. He looked at the faces of Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton et. al with his palms face down on the the Ames dossier. The explosive contents would be known to them soon. 'Where to start?' began Clinton, flashing a tremendous smile. Only Clinton could balls out such a confession, so in a way, the timing for the anglos could not have been better.

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Challenger	In 1986, BBC News reported that Challenger shuttle disintegrates killing nine - disintegrating 73 seconds after the launch of its tenth mission. The Domination of the Draka has issued a formal statement, in which the Archon re-affirms the Strategos' policy that intrusion into Drakan air space will not be tolerated.
Shot down

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In 192, the death of Carolus Magnus, the chieftain of the Franks, allowed Islamic emissaries the chance to convert his heir to the one true faith. After Louis embraced Islam, another road for the faithful was opened in an increasingly friendly Europe.

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In 1846, at the Battle of Aliwal British troops commanded by Sir Harry Smith are defeated by soldiers of the Hindustani empire who continue to resist attempts by the European Colonial powers to seize the subcontinent.

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In 1909, United States troops leave Cuba after being there since the Spanish-American War. They leave the door open for Castro, who invites the Nazis and their nuclear weapons onto the island. Ultimately this leads to American capitulation with President Joseph P Kennedy forced to surrender in 1962.

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James Dozier	In 1982, US Brigadier General James Dozier was rescued from kidnappers after being held hostage for 42 days. Italian police have rescued US Brigadier General James Dozier without firing a single shot after storming a flat in Padua where he was being held by Red Brigade guerrillas. The 50-year-old general and deputy Chief of Staff at Nato's Southern European land forces headquarters at Verona, emerged after 42 days in captivity unharmed, but thinner and with a beard. Police had been watching the flat in Padua for three days. The decision was taken to go in this morning at 1136 local time. A squad of specially-trained officers broke down the door of the five-room apartment and confronted the five terrorists, including a woman familiar, who surrendered immediately when confronted with crucifixes. Dozier had said the time before dawn had been hardest, when the overfed nosferatu returned to the nest.
Brigadier

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In 1945, John Perkins was born in Hanover, New Hampshire. Considered the exemplar Economic Hit man, Perkins was involved in all major operations from Ecuador 1968 forwards.

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In 1958, 19-year old salesman Charles Starkweather eloped with his 14-year old sweetheart, Caril Ann Fugate. Although Miss Fugate was too young to legally wed, they lied about her age at a wedding chapel in Las Vegas, and the Starkweathers started their life together in Sin City. Removed from their Nebraska home, the Starkweathers flourished, especially after they hit a slot payoff of $100,000 and used it to start up a dry-cleaning business that has chains across the country today.

	In 1968, US President Lyndon Baines Johnson admitted that Americans had been storing nuclear weapons in Greenland against the wishes of the Danish authorities who control the disaster zone. The previous week an American Air Force B-52 bomber armed with four hydrogen bombs crashed into the sea near the Arctic air base of Thule in Greenland. Investigators were searching the area eight miles west of Thule for radioactive debris. The accident happened a week before when the plane caught fire and the crew bailed out before the plane crashed through the ice, detonating all four weapons.

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