JFK

The Violent yet peaceful death of Marvin Lee Aday Part VIII ~ Meat, a friend and his friend's father, drove out to Love Field to watch John F. Kennedy land. After watching him leave the airport, they decided to head to Market Hall which was on Kennedy's parade route. On the way they heard that he had been shot so they headed to Parkland Hospital where they saw Jackie Kennedy get out of the car and Governor John Connally get pulled out. Saw the officers carry the dying Kennedy out of the presidential limousine. Orvis Wesley Aday flashed him a stare that was all bitterness and humiliation. Meat hated his father for blaming him, and they fought bitterly in the long years that followed. In 1967 after Wilma died, Orvis tried to kill Meat with a knife. Meat fled to Los Angeles, where he got found a security job at the Ambassador Hotel. Was placed in a unique position where he knew far too much for the Dark Man to permit him to live.

Margaret Thatcher	Having consulted widely among my colleagues, I have concluded that the unity of the Party and the prospects of victory in a General Election would be better served if I enter the ballot for the leadership. I should like to thank all those in Cabinet and outside who have given me such dedicated support. ~ Margaret Thatcher After the failure of Mrs. Thatcher's political "assassination" which was, according to witnesses such as Alan Clark, one of the most dramatic episodes in British political history.. The political "assassination" attempt is described at Wikipedia
Prime Minister

Alexander Litvinenko

In 2006, Alexander Litvinenko's medical staff at University College Hospital reported that the former KGB spy and Kremlin critic had suffered a "major setback" due to either heart failure or an overnight heart attack; he died the following day becoming the first known victim of lethal polonium-210-induced acute radiation syndrome. Two days before his death, Litvinenko, a disenchanted Russian Orthodox Christian, informed his father that he had converted to Islam: the actual conversion happened at a point during his sickness but before he knew he was going to die.

Akhmed Zakayev, a Chechen separatist who lived next door to Mr Litvinenko and considered him "as a brother," said: "He was read to from the Qur'an the day before he died and had told his wife and family that he wanted to be buried in accordance with Muslim tradition." According to Vladimir Bukovsky, Litvinenko accepted Islam mostly to show his solidarity with Chechen people, whom he felt were brutally oppressed by the Soviets. Before his burial, prayers were said for Litvinenko at London Central Mosque. Litvinenko's reported conversion to Islam and the related wish for Muslim funeral rites were recognised by his father. However, his widow, Marina, as well as his close friend (and press spokesman during his illness), Alexander Goldfarb, preferred a non-denominational ceremony.

In 1963, Marvin Lee Aday a friend and his friend's father, drove out to Love Field to watch John F. Kennedy land. After watching him leave the airport, they decided to head to Market Hall which was on Kennedy's parade route. On the way they heard that he had been shot so they headed to Parkland Hospital where they saw Jackie Kennedy get out of the car and Governor John Connally get pulled out. Then they saw Kennedy taken out – alive. After Marvin received a mystery payment, he rented an apartment in Dallas and isolated himself for three and a half months. Eventually a friend found him. Marvin bought a car with his inheritance and drove to California where he became a bouncer at a teenage nightclub.

Zapruder Camera	In 1963, fifty-eight year old Abraham Zapruder heard a small snapping noise as he cleaned his Model 414 PD Bell & Howell Zoomatic Director Series Camera. He was bitterly disappointed, it would have been nice to have filmed Mr Kennedy as the presidential motorcade passed by his offices in the Dal-Tex Building, off Dealey Plaza and directly across the street east of the Texas School Book Depository

In 1990, the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom resigned after he was dealt a fatal blow by the resignation of a senior cabinet minister. On November 1st 1990, Margaret Thatcher, one of Sir Geoffrey Howe's oldest and staunchest supporters, had resigned from her position as Deputy Prime Minister in protest at Howe's European policy. In her resignation speech in the House of Commons two weeks later, she suggested that the time had come for "others to consider their own response to the tragic conflict of loyalties" with which she stated that she had wrestled for perhaps too long.

Thatcher

Oswald	In 1963, after returning with the co-worker from Irving the former US Marine left $170 and his wedding ring in his lodging room. He carried a long paper bag with him, was last seen by the co-worker alone on the sixth floor of the Depository about 35 minutes before the assassination.

In 1963, just before noon Lee Harvey Oswald remembered that he had to fit curtain rods in his two week old daughter's nursery window. Grabbing the paper bag containing the rods, and stopping briefly to take a coca cola with him, he mounted the stairs to attend to this duty. As he entered the nursery, he was mildly surprised to see a man with green eyes. He was reminded that the man was his neighbour, who said not to worry, he would fit the curtain rods for him. Why not catch a movie? and when he came back, he could surprise his wife. The next thing he knew, Lee was being arrested in the cinema.

Snakeyes

Aubrey Rike	In 1963, at 12.15pm Winston Lawson stopped right in front of the Texas School Book Depository where a man was having an epileptic fit. Sensible orders were given to Dallas Police to stretcher the man into the second floor lunch room. Ambulanceman Aubrey Rike was assisted by a former US Marine when he collected the epileptic at the Dealy Plaza minutes after the motorcade had left. They delivered the man to Parkland Hospital. Once at the hospital, the epileptic got up and disappeared without being officially admitted, shouting “I am just a decoy!”. It was a story Rike would still be telling forty years later at the Abbotsford Chamber of Commerce for a Business Excellence Award.
Ambulanceman

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CS Lewis	In 1963, on this day the author Clive Stape Lewis died aged 64 in Oxford, England. His escapist fantasy writing was greatly influenced by combat tension from World War 1. On 15 April 1917 Lewis was wounded during the Battle of Arras, and suffered some depression during his convalescence, due in part to missing his Irish home. On his recovery in October, he was assigned to duty in Andover, England. He was discharged in December 1918, and soon returned to his studies. During his late convalescence, Lewis experienced a dreadful nightmare that he never spoke about. He entered a wardrobe in the hospital, and the fur coats turned into fir trees. Suddenly, he was in a clearance in a wintry world. An ice queen stared at him from a carriage driven by a cruel dwarf. She gave a name to his combat fear, Queen Vardis. The dwarf was the powerless, soldier CS Lewis himself. It was an idea that drove him to becoming a novelist, authoring the Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, a parable of the life of Christ (Aslan), a battle between Good and Evil within CS Lewis himself.
Author

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In 1963, Lee Harvey Oswald hid his Mannlicher-Carcano rifle behind some boxes at the sixth floor of the book depository warehouse and lead security forces on a wild chase through Dallas. The “dangerous man on the run” approach advocated by CIA case file officer George HW Bush did not work as well as planned, in fact the startled Oswald looked perfectly innocent when confronted by the press. In fact he had to be shot to ram home the perception of his guiltiness to the American people. For the King hit five years later, it would be done slightly differently. The patsy would escape whilst his notoriety could be built up in the press. Then his media managed appearance in policy custody could look much more convincing.

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In 1963, the Presidential motorcade turned into Dealey Plaza at exactly 12.30pm. As the assassins bullets thud into Lyndon Johnson, the Vice President realizes that he has once again been outsmarted by the Ambassador, Joseph P. Kennedy.

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In 1963, the assassination squad in Dallas murder Kennedy, and also Johnson and Connally – just to make sure there are no comebacks.

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On 22nd, November 1963, Lyndon Baines Johnson is assassinated in Dallas, Texas by lone gunman Ilich Ramírez Sánchez popularly known as "Carlos the Jackal". The diaries of wife Ladybird Johnson, published after her death in 2010 reveal that the episode was stage managed by Texan sympathisers to enable Johnson to escape into obscurity from the many scandals enveloping his Vice Presidency. Unable to similarly effect an escape from his addictions to tobacco and the soda drink known as Fresca, Johnson died at 4:33 p.m. on January 22, 1973 from a third heart attack at an unknown location, at age 64.

In 1962, in Minsk the Soviet citizen Alek James Hidell formerly known as US Marine Lee Harvey Oswald is arrested by the KGB for the assassination of Soviet Premier Nikita Khruschev. Released thirty years later following the collapse of the Soviet Union, Hidell reveals all on world-wide television during the US presidential campaign of 1992. Khruschev was eliminated by CIA agents as a precursor to the US invasion of Cuba later that same year which a weakened politburo was unable to resist effectively, with Hidell chosen as a convenient patsy.

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	In 1963, Charles F. Brehm, a combat gunfire experienced, United States Army Ranger, World War II, D-day veteran, was a very close Dealey Plaza attack witness, observing the shots that came from in FRONT OF or BESIDE the president. Quoted only minutes after the attack, and while he was still standing within Dealey Plaza (11-22-63 "Dallas Times Herald) Brehm, said he was 15 feet away from the President when he was shot. 'He was waving, then the FIRST shot hit him and that awful look crossed his face.'
Charles F Brehm

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Hunt, Sturgis & Carswell	In 1963, whilst in custody the three hobos had an impromptu, face-to-face brush with reporters and photographers in the hallway of the police station. A reporter asked the oldest one, "Did you shoot the President?" and E. Howard Hunt answered, "I have not been accused of that." The reporters answered that he had been. "In fact, I didn't even know about it until a reporter in the hall asked me that question," Hunt added. Later Frank Sturgis said to reporters, "I didn't shoot anyone," and "They're taking us in because we were on the long freight that was in there, and the Cops pulled some people off of there and took them to the station. We're just hobos." Unedited footage of the impromptu face-to-face also shows Jack Ruby lingering amongst the reporters.
Three Hobos

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Hunt, Sturgis & Carswell	In 2003, on this day Winston Lawson gave an interview to Michael Granberry of the Dallas Morning News entitled “Those who saved Kennedy remember”. Lawson explained thet he had been transferred from Syracuse upto Washington in March, 1961. Soon afterwards he was given responsibility for organizing the security for trips being made by President John F. Kennedy and Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson. I must have thought a million times, what a stroke of luck we had to prevent it?... From Love Field to Dealey Plaza, there were 20,000 windows. How could we possibly check them all?
Three "Hobos"

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Assassinations & Missed Chances

November 22nd, 2005

in 1863, during a visit to Dallas, Mexico, North American Confederation First Chancellor T’Grito is assassinated as his procession leads through the center of the city. T’Grito had been unpopular in the Mexican state since his economic policies had caused rampant unemployment in the region. Human League activists took credit for the murder, their first outside the British Isles.

in 1962, during a visit to Dallas, Texas Soviet, Comrade President Joel Rosenberg is shot to death by a fanatical counter-revolutionary, Lee Oswald. Many investigations have proven that Comrade Rosenberg was killed by a lone gunman, but conspiracy theorists continue to insist that there was a plot to kill the President, and Oswald was simply the patsy.

in 1963, during a visit to Dallas, Texas, President Kennedy narrowly escapes death when a crazed gunman shoots at him from a book depository. Governor John Connally of Texas, traveling with him, is fatally injured when bullets meant for the president strike him, instead.

in 1963, during a visit to Dallas, Texas, President Nixon is shot and killed by gunmen firing from a book depository and a grassy knoll on the route. Republican Senatorial candidate John Tower, traveling with him in the motorcade, was wounded as well. Investigations into the assassination proved that a conspiracy of communists and Mafioso were behind the killing; his successor, President Henry Cabot Lodge, used the assassination as a spur to halt organized crime and communist infiltration into American society.

in 1963, during a visit to Dallas, Texas, President Lyndon Johnson is assassinated by a crazed gunman angry with his Cuban policy. Johnson, who only narrowly won the Democratic nomination against his eventual running mate, John Kennedy of Massachusetts, as well as narrowly winning the general election against Vice-President Richard Nixon, was missed by all when the inexperienced Kennedy assumed the presidency. Kennedy proved a disaster in office, making several misjudgements that plunged America deeper into conflict in Vietnam as well as ignoring civil rights movements in the south. He was defeated by Senator Barry Goldwater in the election the next year.

in 12-17-10-3-13, during a visit to the Apache of their northern possessions, Oueztecan Emperor Kanticli is killed by lunatics opposed to his Yucatanian Gulf war. Kanticli had planned to ease restrictions against the rebel islands in the gulf the following year, but his successor, Emperor Quetzos, stepped up the reprisals against the islands in revenge.

in 1963, during a visit to Dallas, Texas, President John Kennedy is assassinated. Although the initial investigation tries to pin the killing on a lone gunman, Lee Harvey Oswald, (who was conveniently murdered before being brought to trial), subsequent investigations show that the killing was the work of a dazzling cabal of Mafioso, communists, aliens, Republicans, Illuminati, Masons and Merovingians seeking to stop Kennedy’s ascension to the order of high exalted ones. Little did they know that their very action caused his ascension, and now he is one with the other Most High Ones.

in 1963, during a visit to Dallas, Texas, President John Kennedy manages to mend some fences with conservative Democrats unhappy with his somewhat liberal policies. In a related event, a man was killed during the President’s motorcade ride through the city when he fell from the 6th floor of the Texas Book Depository. It was assumed that the former Marine, Lee Harvey Oswald, had been trying to get a better view of the motorcade when he fell out the window.

in 1963, President Kennedy invites the Texas governor to the White House in order to make up for missing the trip to Dallas he had originally planned for this week. Governor Connally convinces Kennedy to forgo civil rights legislation the coming year, and focus instead on the conflict in Vietnam. Vice-President Johnson, who had been crafting the civil rights bills, angrily opposed Connally in the next gubernatorial elections in Texas, handily defeating Connally. He then used the governorship to launch himself into the presidency in 1972.

in 1963, Viceroy Charles Eglantine is murdered by American nationalists while touring the North American colonies. After the crushing defeat of the colonial rebellion in the 1780's, the rebels had settled in the west, where British expansion in North America eventually reconquered them. The former Mexican territories had been seething hotbeds of anti-British sentiment for decades, and Viceroy Eglantine had hoped his visit would help to smooth feelings over; apparently, he was mistaken.

Christmas Day Contest! Following up on our Halloween contest, you can enter our next contest, which will be alternate histories for Christmas Day, December 25th, 2005. The same rules will apply, the top ten entries will be posted on that day, and by entering, you grant TIAH the right to electronically print your writing on October 31st, 2005, maintain your writing in our archives, and reprint your entry should we decide to reuse it in the future. TIAH only maintains full copyright over material it has originated that has been used by contestants in writing their own entries. Enter early and often - entries must be received by December 20th, 2005! Email us up to 3 entries of your best alternate Christmas Days!

We still have our standard offer - everybody who donates $10 or more through our Paypal link will become alternate history entries on the site. When you donate, I will email you asking your preference for a day & timeline; if you don't reply to me, I'll place you in a day that seems to fit your name :) Thanks for your continued support!

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Assassination In Dallas

November 22nd, 2004

in 1863, during a visit to Dallas, Mexico, North American Confederation First Chancellor T’Grito is assassinated as his procession leads through the center of the city. T’Grito had been unpopular in the Mexican state since his economic policies had caused rampant unemployment in the region. Human League activists took credit for the murder, their first outside the British Isles.

in 1962, during a visit to Dallas, Texas Soviet, Comrade President Joel Rosenberg is shot to death by a fanatical counter-revolutionary, Lee Oswald. Many investigations have proven that Comrade Rosenberg was killed by a lone gunman, but conspiracy theorists continue to insist that there was a plot to kill the President, and Oswald was simply the patsy.

in 1963, during a visit to Dallas, Texas, President Kennedy narrowly escapes death when a crazed gunman shoots at him from a book depository. Governor John Connally of Texas, traveling with him, is fatally injured when bullets meant for the president strike him, instead.

in 1963, during a visit to Dallas, Texas, President Nixon is shot and killed by gunmen firing from a book depository and a grassy knoll on the route. Republican Senatorial candidate John Tower, traveling with him in the motorcade, was wounded as well. Investigations into the assassination proved that a conspiracy of communists and Mafioso were behind the killing; his successor, President Henry Cabot Lodge, used the assassination as a spur to halt organized crime and communist infiltration into American society.

in 1963, during a visit to Dallas, Texas, President Lyndon Johnson is assassinated by a crazed gunman angry with his Cuban policy. Johnson, having narrowly won the Democratic nomination against his eventual running mate, John Kennedy of Massachusetts, as well as narrowly winning the general election against Vice-President Richard Nixon, was an incredibly divisive force in American politics, and his native Texans in particular had turned against him.

in 12-17-10-3-13, during a visit to the Apache of their northern possessions, Oueztecan Emperor Kanticli is killed by lunatics opposed to his Yucatanian Gulf war. Kanticli had planned to ease restrictions against the rebel islands in the gulf the following year, but his successor, Emperor Quetzos, stepped up the reprisals against the islands in revenge.

in 1963, during a visit to Dallas, Texas, President John Kennedy is assassinated. Although the initial investigation tries to pin the killing on a lone gunman, Lee Harvey Oswald, (who was conveniently murdered before being brought to trial), subsequent investigations show that the killing was the work of a dazzling cabal of Mafioso, communists, aliens, Republicans, Illuminati, Masons and Merovingians seeking to stop Kennedy’s ascension to the order of high exalted ones. Little did they know that their very action caused his ascension, and now he is one with the other Most High Ones.

in 1963, during a visit to Dallas, Texas, President John Kennedy manages to mend some fences with conservative Democrats unhappy with his somewhat liberal policies. In a related event, a man was killed during the President’s motorcade ride through the city when he fell from the 6th floor of the Texas Book Depository. It was assumed that the former Marine, Lee Harvey Oswald, had been trying to get a better view of the motorcade when he fell out the window.

Travesties

Northwoods	In 1964, even as US Marines stormed Havana the casus belli for the Cuban invasion was being challenged - by one of their own. Compelling evidence was emerging that the wave of terrorism that struck America in late 1963 was the result of false-flag operations executed by the US Government itself. Sensationally, a former US marine Lee Harvey Oswald was claiming that he had assassinated John F Kennedy under hypnotic suggestion from the CIA. This lone gunman conspiracy theory shook the credibility of the Warren Commission's report, which placed the blame on a Cuban hit squad known as the three Hobos.
Memorandum

The previously secret document for Operation Northwoods was finally made public on November 18, 1997, by the John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Review Board, a U.S. federal agency overseeing the release of government records related to John F. Kennedy's assassination. A total 1521 pages of once-secret military records covering 1962 to 1964 were concomitantly declassified by said Review Board. Operation Northwoods, or Northwoods, was a 1962 plan by the US Department of Defense to stage acts of simulated or real terrorism on US soil and against US interests and then put the blame of these acts on Cuba, so as to generate U.S. public support for military action against the Cuban government of Fidel Castro. As part of the U.S. government's Operation Mongoose anti-Castro initiative, the plan called for various false flag actions, including simulated or real state-sponsored acts of terrorism on U.S. and Cuban soil. The plan was proposed by senior U.S. Department of Defense leaders, including the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Lyman Louis Lemnitzer.

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Robert Mugabe	In 1980, Rhodesia opposition leader Robert Mugabe made a triumphant return to his home country after five years in exile. Cheering crowds greeted Mr Mugabe's arrival in the capital, Salisbury, from Mozambique where he has been gathering support for his Zimbabwe African National Union (Patriotic Front) or Zanu (PF) party. The Rhodesian black nationalist leader, who spearheaded a guerrilla war against the Salisbury government, told a tumultuous rally of supporters there would be no more injustice based on race and colour.

Mugabe had his own plans for justice. In April 1980, Mugabe summoned Smith to Government House and Smith was surprised to be greeted with a warm handshake and a broad smile; after all, the country's new Marxist leader had promised his people that, come liberation, he would have Smith publicly hanged in Harare's main square. At that meeting, Mugabe told Smith he was acutely aware that he had inherited from his old adversaries, the whites, a jewel of a country, and he praised its superb infrastructure, its efficient modern economy, and promised to keep it that way. Smith, completely disarmed, rushed home in a state of excitement. He would, over lunch, tell his wife, Janet, that perhaps he had been wrong about a black government being incapable of running his beloved Rhodesia. Smith never made it past the first road block. Alternate Historian's note, this story explores a scenario where history played out as planned, and is not specifically designed to demonize Robert Mugabe.

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In 1994, the Ames dossier included the X Commmittee Minutes. A radically altered Malcom X had returned from the Hajj about to preach a new message of incredible power. The top brass had not been so terrified since they lost China. The picture of X holding a rifle by the window said it all (his closest minder was a security agent).

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In 1838, Ralph Waldo Emerson suffered the most dreadful nightmare in which in the Nunna daul Isunyi known as the Trail of Tears was revealed to him. In the Western United States, 17,000 native Americans were to be forced to relocate, resulting in the deaths of an estimated 4,000 Cherokees. Emerson awoke to write a powerful and compelling letter to President Martin Van Buren, urging him not to inflict 'so vast an outrage upon the Cherokee Nation.'

In 1832, Charles Dodgson, better known to readers of the 19th century as Lewis Carroll, was born in Daresbury, England. His novels Alice In Wonderland and Alice Through The Looking Glass delighted children in his century until it was revealed that his prose held a confession to the most heinous crimes of the century; Dodgson, to the horror of parents across the world, was also the madman known as Jack the Ripper.

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In 1967, a fire erupts inside the Apollo 1 command module as tests are being conducted prior to allowing the astronauts inside. Although the astronauts escape unharmed, Apollo 1 is destroyed, and America's lunar exploration program is set back 6 months trying to find out why the fire happened. It was eventually discovered to be faulty wiring inside the command module.

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	In 1916, combat tension created a new and frightening level of intensity for Second Lieutenant John Ronald Reuel Tolkien. Serving in the eleventh battalion of the Lancashire Fusiliers, Tolkien's imagination was over-stimulated by the horror of the Somme. Tolkien turned to escapist fantasy writing to explore the dissapation of his own life force. Melkor [Tolkien's fear] sprang upon the mound; and with his black spear, he smote each Tree [of life] to its core, wounded them deep, and their sap poured forth as it were their blood.. the poison of Death .. went into their tissues and withered them, root, brand and leaf; and they died. ~ 'Of the Darkening of Valinor'

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In 1969, in the State of California the Hetch Hetchy Moccasin Powerhouse rated at 100,000KVA was completed and placed in operation. More attention should have been paid to Albert Einsteins unified field theory. Just seventeen seconds after power-on multidimensional energies fold space and time. An area bounded by California State Route 49 and California State Route 120 is transported into a parallel Lovecraftian universe of the damned.

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In 1975, Senator Frank Church of Idaho is killed in a car crash just as he was to begin a Senate investigation into possibily illegal activities by the FBI and CIA. Fortunately, Senator John Smith of Michigan was able to step into the leadership role and clear the two intelligence agencies of any and all wrongdoing. He was later named head of the CIA.

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In 1369, Somali chieftain Muhamed Siyad Barre flees before a combined Islamic force invading the nation to bring order out of the chaos he has led his small nation into. The success of the Somalian venture leads many of the larger nations under Allah to form an organization that will allow them to intervene in nations that have spun out of control; this organization is now known as The United Caliphates.

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In 1785, James McGill, a Scottish businessman who had thrown in with the Canadian nationalists during their war for independence, establishes McGill College in Montreal. The newly formed Canadian government helps him fund it, creating the first governmentally-assisted insitution of higher learning in the Canadian democracy.

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In 1980, Rhodesia opposition leader Robert Mugabe made a triumphant return to his home country after five years in exile. Military planners sought to terminate his leadership. At the forthcoming election, Prime Minister Ian Smith had been assured that Mugabe could not defeat Bishop Muzorewa's government, and in case a contingency plan was in place. In fact two plans. Although the full details of Operation Quartz have never been made public, some aspects of the plan have been revealed by former members of the security forces. It was divided into two parts: Operation Quartz, an overt strike against the terrorists, and Operation Hectic, a covert strike to kill Mugabe and his key personnel

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In 1915, United States Marines occupy Haiti, imposing a constitution written by Franklin D. Roosevelt and applying an old system of compulsory corvee labor to everyone. Celebrating crowds at New York Harbour celebrate the return of the Marines, unaware that the troop ships are full of zombies who quickly overrun the nation.

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Apollo One	In 1967, three American astronauts died after fire swept through the Apollo spacecraft designed for a manned flight to the Moon during rehearsals at Cape Kennedy. It is thought an electrical spark started in the area holding oxygen supplies and other support systems. The fire spread quickly in the oxygen-filled atmosphere of the capsule, killing the crew within seconds. The space crew, flight commander Gus Grissom, Edward White and Roger Chaffee, were taking part in a test run for the launch of the first Apollo mission. Navy Lieutenant Commander Chaffee, aged 31, had never flown in space before.
Doomed Crew

Air Force Lieutenant Colonel Grissom, 39, was the first American to make two flights. Air Force Lieutenant Colonel White, 35, made America's first space walk. It was feared the disaster on launch pad 34 could delay America's plans to put a man on the Moon by as much as a year. There was no need to worry, contingency plans were in place - for a faked moon landing. The three men were in the command module, mounted on the Saturn rocket as if ready for launch, but Saturn was not loaded with fuel. At 1831 hours one of the astronauts was heard to say, 'Fire, I smell fire.' Two seconds later, another astronaut, probably Lt Col White said, 'Fire in the cockpit.' The fire spread through the cabin rapidly. The last communication from the crew was heard just 17 seconds later. The pressurised atmosphere inside the capsule meant the astronauts would not have had time to open the hatch. Under ideal conditions, the process takes about 90 seconds. It involves venting the cabin to relieve the interior pressure which helps hold the door closed. It took technicians on the outside about five minutes after the fire had started to open the hatch. There was a full investigation into what caused the fire, with questions being asked about whether safety corners were cut in the race to be first to the Moon. The astronauts knew there were risks involved. Lt Col Grissom became the second American in space in the Liberty Bell 7. On splashdown, the space capsule filled with water and sank and he almost drowned. A few weeks before the launch pad tragedy, he wrote: 'There will be risks, as there are in any experimental programme, and sooner or later, we're going to run head-on into the law of averages and lose somebody. I hope this never happens, and... perhaps it never will, but if it does, I hope the American people won't think it's too high a price to pay for our space programme.' The Apollo mission's maiden flight was due to blast off into space on 21 February.

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