Time

	In 1991, the 'Mother of all Battles' began as Operation Desert Storm was launched. Gulf War Allies send hundreds of planes on bombing raids into Iraq yet Saddam Hussein remained defiant. Warnings about weapons of mass destruction and alien technology buried deep in Iraq go unheeded. That was just crazy talk, surely?

The American, British, French, Saudi and Kuwaiti aircraft took off at 2330 GMT. Their bombs were aimed at military and strategic targets, including an oil refinery and Baghdad airport. At least 400 raids took place. Latest reports indicated that Allied aircraft suffered unexpected resistance. US Defence Secretary, Dick Cheney, said the operation appeared to have encountered difficulties. Two hours after the raids began, President George Bush made a televised address. He said the military objectives were clear - force Iraqi troops out of Kuwait and restore the legitimate government. In Baghdad, Saddam Hussein remained defiant. He said the 'Mother of all Battles had begun'. He urged the Iraqi people to 'stand up to evil'.

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in the Dreamtime , the pale ones came, as Anansi had foretold. Many seasons passed in torment at their hands, but the people were strong, and the lost ones in the sky were waiting for them. Anansi gave them strength, and his web gave them escape when it was needed.

In 1971, British spacecraft Marie Celeste prepared to re-enter the atmosphere after mechanical failures had been fixed. Or patched up, really. They really had to do something about this quality control problem for next time. The ill-fated Apollo 13 mission had been too much trouble, it really had.

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In 1971, South Dakotan Senator George McGovern, a hero of World War II, began his campaign for the presidency as the candidate of peace. Using his background as a bomber pilot, McGovern argued that Vietnam represented no strategic value to the United States, and should be free to determine their own future. A nation sick of the war agrees with him, and he defeated Richard Nixon in a landslide.

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In 1601, a Royal Proclamation was issued and a Lubeck merchant, Caspar van Senden, licensed to remove all 'negroes and blackamoores' from Great Britain. There was a fear that the Africans might be taking jobs away from English citizens and also a concern that they were 'infidels'.

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In 1977, NASA complete the impact analysis for the delay Space Shuttle program. Columbia (NASA Orbiter Vehicle Designation: OV-102) would be the first spaceworthy space shuttle in NASA's orbital fleet, and its first mission, STS-1, was reprogrammed for quarter two, 1981. Trouble was SkyLab had entered a dangerous orbit. If no further action was taken, SkyLab would re-enter the Earth's atmosphere sometime in 1979 and almost certainly break up on entry. The plan works and SkyLab is shifted into a higher orbit. But the 1982 mission from the Shuttle is a disaster and the Soviet Union has to rescue the American astronauts. Their success sets a precedent that was established with Apollo-Soyuz, and the the two nations merge their Space programs.

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In 12-8-1-11-16, the sailors of Ouezteca met the Kingdom of Hawai’i. Captain Quetchook of the Imperial Navy, the first westerner to see the Hawai’ians, entered into a treaty with King Kalaniopuu for exclusive trade, and made himself a wealthy man from the agricultural bounty of the island kingdom.

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	In 1977, Gary Gilmore, the convicted murderer, was executed on this day by firing squad in the Utah state prison in Salt Lake City. It was the first execution to have been carried out in the United States for almost 10 years. Gilmore, 36, was sentenced to death for the murder in 1976 of a motel clerk in Provo, Utah. An appeals court in Denver overturned a restraining order on the execution in the early hours of this morning. In his closing words, one of the judges emphasised that Mr Gilmore should take responsibility for insisting that his own execution go ahead.

The death penalty had been controversially reinstated in the United States in 1976 and Gilmore was the first prisoner to be executed under the new law. Gilmore fought the justice system to ensure he would be executed quickly - had already spent 18 of his last 21 years in jail. It soon became clear that Gilmore had >cheated death to engineer his own release. Two people received Gilmore's corneas within hours of his death. Utah medical staff were unable to explain this phenomenom, instead recommending fast-track treatment. They both responded positively, with the same form of words – 'Lets do it'.

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In 1781, Thomas Gainsborough completed his masterpiece The Two Georges, depicting King George III and General George Washington's historic agreement which established the British North American Union. The Sons of Liberty considered Washington a turncoat. Two hundred and fifteen years later they would succeeed in snatching this symbol of national unity just before the arrival of King Charles III's visit to the State capital of Victoria.

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In 2005, President Al Gore addressed the nation for the last time in office, apologising to the American people for his own '911' failures. Specifically he refered to the oversight and execution of Executive Order 13015, which established the White House Commission on Aviation Safety and Security of 1996. Often called the Gore Commission in recognition that Gore was the chairman, that work group operated for six months, from August 1996 until February of 1997, when it issued its final report. Gore's commission were mandated to provide to the President 'a strategy designed to improve aviation safety and security'.

According to the 911 Commission Report (page 344):

The Gore Commission's Report, having thoroughly canvassed available expertise in and outside of government, did not mention suicide hijackings or the use of aircraft as weapons.

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In 1991, Israel joined the Gulf War after Iraq attacks Tel Aviv and Haifa with Scud missiles. It was the first time Tel Aviv has been hit in the history of the Israel-Arab conflict. Saddam Husssein had succeeded in provoking the Israel leadership both through these bombings, and also by establishing linkage between Kuwait and Palestinian nationhood.

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In 1991, in Kuwait & Iraq, Operation Desert Fly centred upon a dual military application of the pioneering work of Seth Brundle. US Ground Forces were teleported into strategic battle points. And the Iraqi Presidential Guard were decimated by soldier flies. President George Bush spoke of the 'end of history' as the world's only hyper-power appeared set for global domnation.

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Attica

The state of TIAH

September 13th, 2006

in 1947, Doctor Phillipe de le Roscaux, who had been an assistant at the discovery of the Lascaux cave paintings 7 years before, returns to the cave to check on the seal of the secret passage. He has done this every few months for 7 years; like that old German professor, he was determined that what he had seen in that passage should never be seen by men again. When he sees that the seal is starting to deteriorate, he liberally applies some of the concrete that he has brought with him to cover up the patches that are opening. His visits have become more frequent because the last few times, his patches have begun breaking more quickly. In the back of his mind, he knows that he will eventually have to find some way to deal with what was on the other side of the wall; for now, though, he applies his patch and returns to Paris.

in 1971, Governor Nelson Rockefeller of New York orders the retaking of the Attica Prison in Buffalo. The prison had erupted in riots four days before, and several guards and prison employees had been taken hostage. Governor Rockefeller, who was considered something of a liberal in the Republican Party, felt that decisive action could bolster his chances of challenging President Nixon for the Republican presidential nomination the next year. When the bloody strike at the prison ends in dozens dead, Rockefeller tells the press, “We're not going to sit around and let criminals make the first move anymore. We're taking the fight to them.” His harsh attitudes do, indeed, sit very well with Republican voters, especially after President Nixon's election shenanigans are revealed early in the campaign in '72, forcing him to drop out of the running. Rockefeller then faces George McGovern in the general election, and loses by such a narrow margin that he challenges the results. Although count after count is upheld, he maintains, like Nixon did about the 1960 election, that the Democrats stole the election. Republicans across the country picked up the mantra, and President McGovern was dogged by it all 4 years he was in office. Rockefeller ran against him again in 1976, and won by less than 10,000 votes. Since President McGovern had been unable to end the war in Vietnam due to hard Republican opposition in Congress, President Rockefeller enters office determined to get America out of the quicksand it had found itself mired in. Before peace negotiations can accomplish anything, though, South Vietnam is overrun by North Vietnamese forces, and American troops are forced to flee the country or be decimated. America's first military defeat becomes a noose around President Rockefeller's neck, keeping him from accomplishing anything of substance in office. He reluctantly relinquishes the Republican nomination for the office in the 1980 elections to Representative John Anderson of Illinois, who tells the electorate, “The Republican Party has become too entwined with the interests of the rich and powerful, like our current president. It's time for some plain old Americans to run things again.” Although this sentiment does well, it doesn't do well enough to keep Senator Edward Kennedy from winning the election handily. The first brother of a president to win office in his own right proves that he was not coasting on reputation; his two terms leave America more prosperous and strong than it had been since Johnson left office.

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The state of TIAH

October 17th, 2006

in 1972, Professor Karl Ainsworth, Doctor Yvette Montclair and Officer Xavier Hely eavesdrop on a meeting of the mysterious cult of the Lascaux Cave, paying very special attention to the robed and hooded leader of the cult. As they conduct their ancient rites in a strange, guttural language, Professor Ainsworth finally places the language – it is spoken Sanskrit. He turns on his recorder again, hoping to get enough to translate later. The trio watches as a young woman is brought, struggling, to the center of the forbidden passageway and restrained. They all hear the great cave bear shuffling forward, then, and Officer Hely is unable to restrain himself. He bursts from their hiding spot and fires his tranquilizer rifle at the bear, hitting it twice. The cultists then overpower him, in spite of the supporting fire that Ainsworth and Montclair give him. Seeing the policeman go down, Ainsworth turns to Montclair and tells her, “Run – he's done for.” They retreat from the cave, firing at the cultists as they flee. When they reach their car, they are surrounded by the cultists and have to run over a couple before they are able to escape; Ainsworth has to roll down his window and stick his head out because the windscreen of the car is cracked by their attack. “I can't believe we just left Xavier,” Montclair says, her voice full of anger. “If we hadn't, we'd have been captured, as well,” Ainsworth says, bitterly. “I'm not happy about this, either. Trust me – we're going to make them pay for this. But we can't do that if we're their captives.” She turns away from him and he drives in silence back to the Dr. Roman Pelliot's house. When they get there, though, he sees that a couple of cultists have beaten them to the destination, and are waiting for them. Ainsworth points the car at the highway and leaves Montignac, telling Dr. Montclair, “We'll come back in the daylight.”

in 1973, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, better known as OPEC, announces an embargo against the western nations that supported Israel during the Yom Kippur War. Although the non-Arab nations of OPEC break the embargo, oil still becomes scarce in the west. Barely a year into his first term in office, President George McGovern of the US faces the challenge with all the courage he learned as a pilot in World War II. He tells the nation, and the world at large, that “America will not be blackmailed into abandoning its allies,” and begins an emergency program to develop alternative fuels for the nation. By the end of his second term, President McGovern's Alternate Fuels Initiative has replaced 15% of the nation's consumption with solar power, wind power, geothermal energy and biofuels. With the support of every congressman and president since then, the AFI now supplies 80% of America's energy needs.

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