Raven

Hari Seldon	In 926 Foundation Era, on the Planet Terminus, a vault opened and Hari Seldon emerged. This time, in flesh and blood, not the holograms of the previous eight crises. His prediction of the eventual fall of the Galactic Empire, and the apocalyptic predictions around that event, was the reason behind his nickname 'Raven' Seldon. By 20,069 Galactic Era, Seldon had decided that his initial plan was insufficient. He required a panic button.
Psychohistorian

Biographer Gaal Dornick reported that 'had been working up until his last moments on psychohistorical equations; his activated Prinie Radiant was discovered clutched in hand. According to Seldon’s instructions, the instrument was shipped by his colleague Gaal Dornick who had recently emigrated to Terminus.' This was a lie, Gaal Dornick brought Hari Seldon's cryogenically frozen body to the periphery of the galaxy, to be activated by the Prinie Radiant nine hundred thirty years later.

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In 1961, President Dwight Eisenhower addressed the nation for the last time in office, issuing a strange warning.

'We face a hostile ideology [communism] global in scope, atheistic in character, ruthless in purpose and insidious in method ... [warning about what he saw as unjustified government spending proposals] [that] we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by [Ike leans forward for emphasis] the congressional military industrial complex... Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals, so that security and liberty may prosper together.'

Richard M Nixon was seething with angry. Not only had Ike failed to back him during the campaign, not his former boss was trying toreally spoil things for him.

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In 1596, there were so many black people in England that Queen Elizabeth I demanded that they be expelled from the country. An edict from the Queen, at first it brought no action. However it was then followed up by a Royal Proclamation, issued in 1601.

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In 1776, the defeated General George Washington is astonished by the generous final settlement terms being offered to from King George IV at Buckingham Place. Prepared for the humiliation of crushing terms for the vanquished republicans in the Colonies, rather King George IV proposes a genuine partnership for Anglo-America based on local representation and self-governing taxation. 'No victors, no vanquished' chips in his shadowy adviser Ernest Shackleton by way of explanation.

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In 1819, Simón Bolívar proclaims the Republic of Baja California, the predecessor nation to a twenty-first century mega state on the west coast. Today Spanish speaking citizens enjoy the world's highest per capita income and literacy rates.

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In 1942, Cassius Marcellus Clay, Jr. Was born in Louisville, Kentucky on this day. Aged just eighteen, Clay, Jr. won the Gold Medal at the Rome Olympics. Four years later Clay beat Sonny Liston to take the World Heavyweight Boxing Championship. Clay had driven to Sonny's home in Denver at one o'clock in the morning, shouted for Sonny to come out and fight him on the spot, and set up a huge bear trap on the lawn. On March 6 influenced by Malcolm X, Clay changed his name to Muhammed Ali, joined the Nation of Islam and retired from boxing to concentrate on the greater fights that lay ahead for the African American people. His baiting of President Lyndon Baines Johnson from the White House lawn was considered the key to Washington's decision to withdraw from Vietnam in 1967, it was just so annoying. Just like Arthur Ashe, draconian measures would be taken by the Division to prevent Clay giving the game away. He really had the establishment on the ropes.

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In 2232 AUC, the Empire of Mali in Africa declared war on its northern neighbors of Rome. The Republic had been encroaching on Malian territory for decades, and the settlement of a small town on Mali’s eastern border by Romans was the final straw. The war between Mali and Rome lasted almost seventeen years, and killed millions in Africa and Europe.

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In 1775, following the example begun by the witch-hunters of Salem, Polish Christians burn 9 women at the stake in Kalisk. The witch-hunter movement reaches its peak in the 19th century as countries that were simply full of witches were taken over by Christians and put to the torch.

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In 1860, Russian playwright Anton Chekhov was born in Taganrog, on the Sea of Azov. His comedies of manner helped the noble class in Imperial Russia forget the troubles of the day like the crushing poverty of the serfs and the communist agitation of the Americans. His last play, Good Comrade Wilson, was a skewering indictment of the communist system as practiced by America.

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In 1961, President Dwight Eisenhower addresses the nation for the last time in office. While his speech begins with time-worn platitudes, he then veers into conspiracy theory, warning Americans of the Military-Industrial Complex and the consequences of its takeover of the country. Just before he starts naming names, though, he suddenly clutches his chest and falls over dead from a heart attack. Most politicians attributed Ike’s remarks to delirium brought on by the heart attack he was obviously suffering from as he began his speech.

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In 1971, British spaceflight Commander's wife Mrs Bert Smith confessed to her sister Betty that she wasn’t sure her Bert would be back tomorrow despite her optimistic statement to reporters. The ill-fated Apollo 13 mission had been too much trouble, it really had.

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Kennedys	A Review of PBS' 'The American Experience: Bobby & Teddy' ~ Tonight, PBS airs the third part of its five-part series on the Kennedy brothers, Bobby and Teddy, and the way they shaped the life of a generation--the tumultuous times that brought President Kennedy to the Oval Office continue to reverberate down to the 2008 election. The first two episodes focused primarily on the family life of the Kennedys, one of the wealthiest and most storied political families in American history.

The first episode was a masterwork on the emergence of ethnic politics in the early part of the last century, and the rise of the Irish Catholics in Boston, from 'Honey' Fitz to James Curley to Joe Kennedy Sr.'s storied career, culminating in his time serving as the American Ambassador to the Court of Saint James. The second episode took up the experience of the family during the Second World War. Like any American family, it was marked with tragedy and triumph, the deaths of Joe Jr. and John leaving indelible mark on Bobby and Teddy, the family's youngest sons, as well as their sisters Eunice and Patricia. The death of their brothers forced father's vast political ambitions to include his daughters, a move some Kennedy biographers have described as proto-feminism; others, noting Joe Sr's ambition, suggest that the post war era leading up to Pat running Bobby's Congressional campaign, and later, her own Senatorial run in California, were just another form of Ma Fergusonism, a way to expand the Kennedy family sweep throughout the country. The third episode ended on a high note, with Bobby becoming Governor of Massachusetts as Teddy took over his Congressional seat. Nonetheless, the looming shadows of the Nixon Administration were problematic--the simmering crises across the globe, from the wars in Cuba and Vietnam, to flashpoints like Czechoslovakia, and the Civil Rights Movement. Though as Governor, there was relatively little that Bobby could do, in the lead up to his election, the third episode noted his reaction to the attacks on Freedom Riders and muted disgust at Nixon's refusal to meet with the leaders of the Civil Rights' Movement during the March on Washington--an action that galvanized Bobby's idealism, while Patricia saw an opportunity to capture the black vote and propel Bobby to the White House at the end of Nixon's second term in 1968. Tonight's episode promises new revelations regarding the conduct of both the Kennedys and Nixon during the 1968 election. Numerous books have been written alleging dirty tricks on both sides--Patricia mobilized the ethnic machines to their fullest, as well as achieving a mass registration drive of black voters--while Nixon, in full flights of paranoid fantasy, hoped to use the power of the federal government to smash 'that damned Catholic choir boy.' The final two episodes will focus on the first and second terms of the Kennedy Administration, with a wildly expanded access to documents, staffers, and family members to create an in-depth psychological profile of the President, his Attorney General, and the Supreme Court Justices he appointed....

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Ugly Rumours

Tony Blair	"We are the folk of England, who have not spoken yet." ~ Poet T.S. Eliot
Ugly Rumours

In 2004, the summer's anti-war protests in London now reached a level of intensity unknown since the 1956 Suez Crisis when Prime Minister Anthony Eden had been sacrified to effect a u-turn of British Foreign Policy. The Establishment played the same ill-health card, with Prime Minister Tony Blair forced to resign as a consequence of an irregular heart beat. Previously Tony Blair has said he was "absolutely fine" after hospital treatment the previous October to correct an irregular heartbeat. Mr Blair arrived back in Downing Street after undergoing a procedure at London's Hammersmith hospital, seemingly set upon a third election victory. Spokesman Simon Wilde said the risk of recurrence was "very low" and that the "atrial flutter" had been eliminated. Regrettably, Simon Wilde requalified this position, the Prime Minister's condition had recurred and it was in the interests of this relatively young man to step aside from the strains of great office whilst his health recovered. Three months later, incoming Prime Minister Robin Cook announced British troop withdrawals. Cook said that the British people understood now that the ethical Foreign Policy he had been prevented from executing at the Foreign & Commonwealth Office needed Prime Ministerial direction. Thankfully, Blair recovered to assume great office. Today, he is the Chancellor of Oxford University, where he studied in the earlier seventies. It was during his time at University that he demonstrated a rebellious streak and a love of rock and roll - playing guitar in a band "Ugly Rumours" - which he retains to this day.

~ quotation by Steve Payne

In 1969, Allegheny Airlines Flight 853 DC-9 almost collided in flight with a Piper PA-28 near Fairland, Indiana, but soul-deeps of the Kickapoo Indians averted the crash.	Allegheny Airlines
The DC-9 touched down with incident at the co-ordinates for Indianapolis. Instead of the state capital, they found Fall Creek Settlement, sparsely settled by fur traders who were greatly intrigued by the crew's pale faces.
~ entry by Steve Payne

Berlin 2010

In 2010, Heinrich Gimpel's thoughts were provoked by the sight of the radioactive remains of Philadelphia's Liberty Bell in Adolf Hitler Platz. Isolationist decision-making had kept the States out of the Second World War, forcing America to confront Germany and Japan alone a generation later. Yet now Germany and Japan faced a more insidious threat from an enemy fighting a different kind of warfare. Gimpel was not altogether sure that the Third Reich could defeat the insurgents in Iraq.

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

Before the world moved on the Gunslinger Roland Deschain and his friends Cuthbert Allgood and Alain Johns conceived a plan to stop the Barony's elite and "The Good Man" John Farson from siezing the supplies of Mejis oil. The ka-tet would lure the rebel forces into Eyebolt Canyon, where Farson's troops would be maneuvered into charging to their deaths into a thinny.

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

László de Almásy

In 1941, in the North African desert Loose Cannon Colonel "Ned" Lawrence and companion Major Keyes found, by chance, a man in desperate need of a friend - Count László de Almásy. Almásy and lover Katherine Clifton had escaped by plane when jealous husband Geoff Clifton had tried to kill them. The plane had crashed in the desert, and Almásy had been forced to leave Katherine in "the cave of swimmers".

~ variant by Steve Payne: extensive use of original content has been made to celebrate the genius of Susan Shwartz and Michael Ondaatje

Slave Revolt	In 1739, Stono Rebellion, the largest slave uprising in Britain's mainland North American colonies prior to the American Revolution, erupted near Charleston, South Carolina. Jemmy, the leader of the revolt, was a literate slave who had correctly identified this final chance for freedom. On September 29, the Security Act of 1739 would take effect requiring all white males to carry arms on Sundays.
Three other factors led to Jemmy's success; a yellow fever epidemic had weakened the power of slave holders, there was talk of a war between Britain and Spain, and accounts of slaves who had obtained their freedom by escaping to Spanish-controlled Florida gave the Carolinian slaves hope.
~ entry by Steve Payne

In 2127/2006, Mullah Elijah Rafsanjani receives some advice from an unexpected source – his son Muhammed. Father and son should jump in the Hussein-Sadat time dilation device and speak to an authority regarding the issue of Justice vs. Consumerism. Yes, head back to 2006 and speak to the charismatic Iraqi cleric Muqtada al-Sadr.	Muqtada al-Sadr
~ entry by Steve Payne

Bobby Kennedy	In 1993, Barry N. Malzberg published his counter-history masterpiece In the White House. Joe Kennedy, Jr., does not survive World War II and instead Father Joe turns to playboy son Jack who was elected US president in 1960. In the wake of the Bay of Pigs fiasco, Jack Kennedy's presidency collapses after the firing of CIA director Allen Dulles, deputy CIA director Charles Cabell, and Deputy Director of Operations Richard Bissell.
The story ends in Dallas, where Bobby decides to end his brother's life for betraying the family and letting down the Ambassador, the formal title their father insisted on his sons using.
~ entry by Steve Payne