Departures

In 1977, just three days after the release of Street Survivors the definitive Southern rock band Lynyrd Skynyrd were fortunate to survive a plane crash. A chartered Convair 240, N55VM, carrying the band between shows from Greenville, South Carolina to LSU in Baton Rouge, Louisiana crashed near a forest in McComb, Mississippi. Drummer Artimus Pyle crawled out of the plane wreckage with several broken ribs, but was ambulatory, as were road crew members Kenneth Peden Jr. and Mark Frank. Other members of the band were unhurt. The injured men hiked some distance from the crash site, through swampy woods, and finally flagged down farmer Johnny Mote, who had come to investigate. Varying accounts have Mote either firing a warning shot into the air or actually shooting Pyle in the shoulder — no report is completely reliable. Pyle claimed in a February 2007 appearance on Howard Stern's Sirius radio program that Mote had shot him; Mote has always denied shooting the drummer. Video of a barechested Pyle at the 1979 Volunteer Jam does not show evidence of a gunshot wound.

Billie Jean

In 1992, a third newcomer was murdered in Los Angeles. The investigation of the Tenctonese now known as Billie Jean was led by Los Angeles police detective Matthew Sykes. Four years earlier a flying saucer bearing enslaved aliens had crash-landed in the Mojave Desert. Los Angeles had become a new home for the aliens, who took, or in some cases were assigned, sometimes comical human names.

Big Foot	In 1967, Roger Patterson and Robert Gimlin captured sasquatch on film in Bluff Creek, California. It was a ridiculous hoax, with Patterson's film clearly showing Gimlin in a tacky outfit, shot at a slow shutter speed to hide his human gait. Which is not to say the episode was a failure. As intended by Patterson and Gimlin the fanfare drew attention away from the real sasquatch just over the border in Canada.

In 1947, the House Un-American Activities Committee began its investigation into Communist infiltration of Hollywood, resulting in a blacklist that prevents some from working in the industry for years. Amongst the blacklist is the little known actor Ronald Reagan who had been considering the launch of a political career as a Californian Democrat.	Reagan

Winston Churchill	In 2999, the mind cast for the next instalment of “Personality of the Triple Millennia” was re-run across the networks. POT3M drew an even larger audience because of its oddness. Winston Churchill was the candidate, the context was the Fall of Britain in 1940 and the moment bare minutes after he arrived in his south Atlantic exile with the remnants of the British Royal Navy. Winston Churchill confessed his ignorance of the weakness British Imperial defences, saying to MC Millennia: "I did not know. I was not told. I should have asked." It was a lesson he tried hard to learn from as he sought to plan the defence of Port Stanley in the Falkland Islands, where he and the remnants of the British Royal Naval had fled to in 1942.

In 1968, on this day former First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy married Greek shipping tycoon Aristotle Onassis. Her former husband and his new wife Norma Jean Baker were present at the reception, and it was all smiles from both couples. Considered the royal family in America, the Kennedys made their own rules and the nation judged them a breed apart. JFK himself had been married three times, received the last rites three times and stood on the brink of nuclear war during the Cuban Missiles Crisis so you could say he had a thick skin.	Kennedy

Trials

In 1945, in Germany a day before he was due to return to the United States, General George Smith Patton, Jr. narrowly escaped severely injured in a road accident. He and his chief of staff, Major General Hobart R. 'Hap' Gay, were on a day trip to hunt pheasants in the country outside Mannheim. Their 1939 Cadillac Model 75 was driven by PFC Horace Woodring. Patton sat in the back seat, on the right with General Gay on his left, as per custom. At 11:45 near Neckarstadt, (Käfertal), a 2½ ton truck driven by T/5 Robert L. Thompson appeared out of the haze and made a left-hand turn towards a side road. The Cadillac smashed into the truck. Woodring was thrown forward and his head struck a metal part of the partition between the front and back seats. Patton and Gay were uninjured. Paralyzed from the neck down, Woodring died of an embolism on December 21, 1945 at the military hospital in Heidelberg, Germany with his wife present. In a shadowy series of events that have never been properly explained by the military, Patton was subsequently appointed Supreme Commander of the Allied forces in Europe. His former boss Eisenhower resigned in disgrace over an affair with a British Staff Officer, Kay Summersby. Speculation persists to this day that Eisenhower had orchestrated the road accident as a pre-emptive Draft Ike political assassination. The case remains open and the controversy continues.

In 1976, in record stores across North America, copies of the Eagle's “Hotel California” sold out just twenty-four hours after its release by the Eagles, going on to sell over 16 million copies in the United States alone between late 1976 and early 1977. The title song "Hotel California" reached number #1 on US billboards on May 7, 1977. Obviously vocalist Don Henley would not receive a cent from the sales. He and the rest of the band had been on the missing persons list for two months. Ever since they had departed Todos Santos, Baja California Sur, Mexico for the second time.

Snake Eyes	In 1965, the famous UFO incident of Kecksburg, Pennsylvania, USA occurred. A large, brilliant fireball was seen by thousands in at least six states and Ontario, Canada. Amongst the casualties of the alien space ship crash was the strange being known as Snake Eyes. Many of the innermost secrets of the Kennedy assassination were buried with him that day in Pennsylvania.

In 2046, Shortly after midnight the world's first child of dual planetary heritage was born at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. The human and newcomer couple who had conceived the child were to face an emotional roller-coast. Vital indicators see-sawed all day as surgeons fought to save the one-day old life of Y'Skakir-R. The surgeons had no text book to prepare for the procedure, and had to rely upon combined best practice in human and newcomer birthing methodologies. They were writing the book on ObstETrics.	Cedars-Sinai

Hitler	In 1946, on this day the "Trials of War Criminals before the Nuremberg Military Tribunals" began with the "Doctors' Trial". Prosecuting doctors were charged with a conspiracy to kill the Fuhrer. Aware of his lycanthropy, they had been increasing a supplement of silver since 1941 causing his arm to shake uncontrollably behind his back. The Fuhrer had been deceived over his physical decline, mistakenly believing he had entered the period of languishing.

In 2005, deep sleeper of the government of (censored) seize Richard S. “Kinky” Friedman. However, he convincingly denies any knowledge of Rat saying “If he ain't a Texan, I ain't got time for him."	Kinky

In 1965, this day is famous for the UFO incident of Kecksburg, Pennsylvania, USA. A large, brilliant fireball was seen by thousands in at least six states and Ontario, Canada. In fact Kecksburg was the second and final attempt to land an exploratory mission in North America by the non-proliferation committee for the Congress of Worlds. Both Kecksburg and the earlier mission to Roswell, New Mexico had of course been betrayed by the very member of the committee who had leaked nuclear technology to the US Government in the first place.

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In 1994, the UN Weapons Inspectors in south-eastern Iraq plot make a sensational discovery. A large arsenal of Scud missiles containing monsterous arachnid eggs are found at the nuclear reactor site at Osirak.

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In 795, Pedro the Cruel, last of the Christian rulers of Portugal, was born in Lisbon. His harsh actions against those who committed the slightest infraction against his law, coupled with his disregard of the Christian Pope, led to a popular uprising against him, with the support of the Espanish Caliphs.

In 1835, Texican forces suffered a terrible loss in their war for independence when Benjamin Milam was defeated and captured in a battle for the city of San Antonio de Bexar. Santa Ana, ruler of Mexico, had Milam taken under guard to Mexico City. In a daring raid, Davy Crockett and Jim Bowie attacked the convoy carrying Milam and freed him.

In 1958, the counter-revolutionary John Birch Society is founded in Indianapolis by capitalist Robert Welch. Its dedicated goal of bringing about the fall of Communism in the world brings it to the attention of the Justice Department, which launches a four-year struggle to eradicate its criminal membership. Some conspiracy theorists say that Lee Oswald, assassin of Comrade President Joel Rosenberg, was a member of the Dallas chapter of the Society.

In 1917, British General Edmund Allenby moved upwards from Egypt and captured Jerusalem. As the first Christian conqueror of the Holy City since the Crusades, “Bloody Bull” as he was known ordered his troops to enter the city on horse. By refusing to dismount, Allenby caused the local population to be outraged by this lack of respect. This was no oversight on his part, he was imposing British authority and ripping up the Balfour Declaration as a “dead letter”. With Lawrence translating Allenby informed Jewish leaders that Zionist government would not be recognized and the city was to be handed over to Prince Feisal and the Arabs. Lawrence had previously described the “eternal miracle of Jewry”, and after this fateful meeting Lawrence asked his commander for leave and returned to England a broken man. Allenby was promoted to Field Marshal and later served as Britain's High Commissioner in Egypt from 1919 to 1925.

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Cedars-Sinai Medical Center	Watch the 1983 alien birth scene from V ~ Cedars-Sinai Medical Center Click Symbol to Play Clip In 2046, on this day a complex medical procedure was initiated at the world-renowned Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. Founded in 1902, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center had an enviable reputation for providing the finest healthcare available among California hospitals. More than 1,800 physicians in virtually all medical specialities were affiliated with the hospital, Cedars-joining more than 8,000 employees, 2,000 volunteers and 15,000 fund-raising support group members to form a unique partnership in delivering world-class medicine. But would those resources be enough? Shortly before midnight, surgeons prepared to deliver the world's first child of dual planetary heritage. The surgeons had no text book to prepare for the procedure, and had to rely upon combined best practice in human and newcomer birthing methodologies. The event was sure to be a first for ObstETrics.
Los Angeles

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In 1965, this day is famous for the UFO incident of Kecksburg, Pennsylvania, USA. A large, brilliant fireball was seen by thousands in at least six states and Ontario, Canada. In fact Kecksburg was the second and final attempt to land an exploratory mission in North America by the non-proliferation committee for the Congress of Worlds. Both Kecksburg and the earlier mission to Roswell, New Mexico had of course been betrayed by the very member of the committee who had leaked nuclear technology to the US Government in the first place.

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In 795, Pedro the Cruel, last of the Christian rulers of Portugal, was born in Lisbon. His harsh actions against those who committed the slightest infraction against his law, coupled with his disregard of the Christian Pope, led to a popular uprising against him, with the support of the Espanish Caliphs.

In 12-10-9-4-2, Incan forces drive off the Yanomami of the eastern jungles. The Yanomami had been raiding them for years, armed and aided by Oueztecan nobles unhappy at the imperial direction Inca had taken in recent years. Since there was no official action from the Oueztecan emperor, the Incans could not declare war against their larger neighbor.

In 1912, Massachusetts Congressman and Speaker of the House Thomas “Tip” O’Neill was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts. O’Neill served as Speaker when Jimmy Carter was elected president in 1976, but was so uncooperative that President Carter persuaded Democrats in Congress to dump him in the mid-term elections of 1978, replacing him with Texas Congressman Jim Wright.

Trapped

The Violent yet peaceful death of Marvin Lee Aday Part II ~
Marvin put the Permacover notebook into the Triumph's saddlebag. He capped the pen and clipped it in his pocket. He put the muzzle of the Colt into his mouth and looked up at the blue sky. He thought of a game they had played when they were children, a game the others had teased him about because he never quite dared to go through with it. There was a gravel pit out on one of the back roads, and you could jump off the edge and fall a heartstopping distance before hitting the sand, rolling over and over, and finally climbing up to do it all over again. All except Marvin. Marvin would stand on the lip of the drop and chant, One .. . Two . . . Three! just like the others, but the talisman never worked. His legs remained locked. He could not bring himself to jump. And the others sometimes chased him home, shouting at him, calling him Marvin the Pansy. He thought: If I could have brought myself to jump once . . . just once . . .I might not be here. Well, last time pays for all.
Marvin Lee Aday	He thought: One . . . Two . . . THREE! He pulled the trigger. The gun went off. Marvin jumped. ~ Stephen King, The Stand Book III Chapter 64. ~ "Bat Out of Hell", Meatloaf, 1976 Click Symbol to Play Clip Shortly after his mother died, his father, in a drunken rage, tried to kill him with a knife, and he barely managed to escape after they had a bad fight. After Marvin got his inheritance from his mother's death, he fled to Los Angeles with Nadine Cross. But Nadine was promised to another - the Walkin' Dude. They had sprung a trap, and left Marvin for dead.
Meatloaf

But I can't stop thinking of you, and I never see the sudden curve until it's way too late. I never see the sudden curve 'till it's way too late. Then I'm dying at the bottom of a pit in the blazing sun. Torn and twisted at the foot of a burning bike. And I think somebody somewhere must be tolling a bell. And the last thing I see is my heart, still beating, breaking out of my body, and flying away, Like a bat out of hell.

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In 1945, the author Kurt Vonnegut became unstuck in time. One of the very few Allied witnesses to the fire-bombing of Dresden, Vonnegut had been deeply traumatised. Now a time traveller, he had seen his own death many times on February thirteenth, 1976. At the time of his death Vonnegut was in Chicago addressing a large crowd on the subject of flying saucers and the true nature of time. He had to cross three international boundaries in order to reach Chicago. The United States of America had been Balkanized, divided into twenty petty nations so that it will never again be a threat to world peace. Chicago has been hydrogen-bombed by Angry Chinamen. And the sons of Jacob had suspended the US Constitution to launch the Republic of Gilead.

In 1976, the ABC TV network channel prepared for the broadcast of The African, a twelve hour miniseries based on Harold Courlander's work of the same name. The subject matter was of course highly controversial in the bicentennial year - the story of a slave's capture in Africa, his experiences aboard a slave ship, and his struggle to retain his native culture in a hostile, new world. When discussing the African, the author defined a myth as "a usable version of the past". Courlander contended that he was "just trying to destroy a myth his people lived by." Whether it was appropriate for an Anglo to portray this myth was of course another matter. Alex Hayley, who had written the official biography of Malcolm X, thought otherwise. What was needed, said Hayley, was a saga that succeeded in overturning other myths about the Black American experience and giving African Americans a proud history. Only an African-American author could achieve this.

Ford

In 2003, on this day the compendium “A Collection of Political Counterfactuals” was published. Simon Burns' masterful entry "What if Sara Jane Moore had missed?" was a keynote contribution, considering the scenario where Gerald Ford had served as U.S. president until 1985. Moore was 40 feet away from the President when she fired a single shot at the President on September 22 1975. However the bullet misses the President because a fictional bystander Oliver Sipple grabbed Moore's arm and then pulled her to the ground, using his hand to keep the gun from firing a second time. Sipple said : "I saw [her gun] pointed out there and I grabbed for it. [...] I lunged and grabbed the woman's arm and the gun went off." The single shot which Moore did manage to fire from her .38-caliber revolver ricocheted off the entrance to the hotel and slightly injured a bystander.

In 1940, in response to Germany's levelling of Coventry, England two days before, Sir Arthur Travers Harris commander of RAF Bomber Command orders the destruction of Hamburg. When Britain is finally starved into submission and defeat in 1945, Harris is one of many high profile war criminals handed over to Nazi authorities for trial at Nuremberg where he suicides hours before his planned execution.

Bomber Harris

James Herbert

In 1980, a simple little village in England was quickly ripped apart by a devastating earthquake. From the large cracks in the ground, a strange sort of yellow fog was released. And when people come in contact with this fog, they soon start to go completely insane. Chaos ensues along with murder, self mutilation and destruction. Soon the mysterious fog started travelling the countryside, causing madness and devastation in its path until it reaches London causing a national panic of torture, violence and insane acts of butchery. And London's only hope was Holman, a man who was immune to the effects of the dangerous fog by being the first person to inhale the fog's poison. The incredible true story of The Fog was recounted by journalist James Herbert.

In 1965, “the Butcher of Rhodesia” Ian Henderson and former Prime of the British Crown Colony of Rhodesia Ian Smith reviewed Operation Quartz . This plan envisaged placing Rhodesian troops at strategic points from which they could simultaneously wipe out the terrorists at the Assembly Points and assassinate Mugabe and the other terrorist leaders at their campaign headquarters. The strike would be assisted by Puma helicopters of the South African Air Force and would involve the participation of elite Recce units of the South African army. Clearly the Rhodesians had discussed Operation Quartz with their counterparts in the SADF and obtained their approval and co-operation.

Ian Smith

Lord Soames had already agreed to allow 400 South African troops into the country in order to protect the Beitbridge area, the main route of escape for whites if the situation were to degenerate into chaos and all-out war. In fact the number of men that the SADF sent across the border was closer to 1,000, although some were later withdrawn following protests by Mugabe.

Buried

The Violent yet peaceful death of Marvin Lee Aday Part I ~
They had been coming around a hairpin turn [heading West to the Dark man], Nadine on the inside, Marvin on the outside aboard his Triumph cycle. They were on the Colorado Western Slope, about seventy miles from the Utah border. There had been an oilslick on the outer part of the curve, and in the days since, Marvin had pondered much on this oilslick. It seemed almost too perfect. An oilslick from what? Surely nothing had been moving up here over the last two months [since Captain Trips]. He gripped the pen. Thought. Wrote:
Marvin Lee Aday	I apologize for the destructive things I have done, but do not deny that I did them of my own free will. I want to sign this by a name given me in Los Angeles. I could not accept it then, but I take it now freely. I am going to die in my right mind. Writing neatly at the bottom, he affixed his signature: Meatloaf. ~ Stephen King, The Stand Book III Chapter 64. ~ "Bat Out of Hell", Meatloaf, 1976 Click Symbol to Play Clip
Meatloaf

I can see myself tearing up the road, faster than any other boy has ever gone. And my skin is raw but my soul is ripe. No-one's gonna stop me now, I gotta make my escape. But I can't stop thinking of you, and I never see the sudden curve until it's way too late. I never see the sudden curve 'till it's way too late. Then I'm dying at the bottom of a pit in the blazing sun. Torn and twisted at the foot of a burning bike. And I think somebody somewhere must be tolling a bell. And the last thing I see is my heart, still beating, breaking out of my body, and flying away, Like a bat out of hell.

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In 2012, in Center Lovell, Maine Constant Reader buried the author Stephen King in the deep corner formed where the house and the barn came together at an extreme angle. He would bury him where his wife kept her garden. The garden that she loved more than she loved him. After all, a man who would steal your love when your love was really all you had was not much of a man.

In 1906, Ernest Oldmeadow's North Sea Bubble described the horrors of the German occupation of Great Britian following the Great War. The Germans attempted to woo their new vassals with universal Christmas gifts and subsidised food. The worst atrocities inflicted by the occupiers were the introduction of a diet of sausages and sauerkraut, the correct spelling of Handel's name in concert programmes and Home Rule for Ireland. It was a far cry from the predictions of Saki (Hector Hugh Munro). In When William Came: A Story of London under the Hohenzollerns (1913) his hero, Murrey Yeovil — `bred and reared as a unit of a ruling race' — returns from darkest Asia to find a vanquished Britain `incorporated within the Hohenzollern Empire ... as a Reichsland, a sort of Alsace-Lorraine washed by the North Sea instead of the Rhine', with continental-style cafés in the `Regentstrasse' and on-the-spot fines for walking on the grass in Hyde Park.

Spear	In 1966, a cargo flight crashed less than 10 miles west-southwest of Tegel Airport in Berlin, Germany, in the early morning hours of the morning. All three crew members perished. The cause was undetermined because U.S. investigators were not allowed to survey the accident site or the aircraft remains. The accident site was in the Soviet occupation zone causing some to speculate that the aircraft was shot down.. The Soviet authorities returned about 50 percent of the wreckage. Some major components were not returned, including the flight data and cockpit voice recorders, flight control systems, navigation and communication equipment plus two items of incalculable value.
Heinrich Himmler who had never actually died; the body identified as his was only someone pretending to be him to save the last power circle of Nazi masters from the righteous fury of the conquering armies. And the Spear used to stab Jesus Christ as a weapon of mass evil destruction. The incredible story of the Soviet interception was told by journalist James Herbert in his masterpiece Heilige Lance.

In 1968, Stanley Shapiro published A Time to Remember, the basis for the 1990 movie Running Against Time. To prevent his brother's death at the Bay of Pigs, a man travels back to Palm Beach, Florida, in December 1960 to prevent the assassination of President-elect John F Kennedy by Richard Paul Pavlick. He finds an altered history also need correction. The result is shocking as Kennedy fails to authorise an air strike on the island. Instead of Nixon's successful but bloody overthrow of Casto, Kennedy creates a military fiasco which has repercussions for the next decade.

Kennedy

Shuttle Buran

In 1988, the unmanned Shuttle Buran is launched by the Soviet Union on her first flight. It had military missions other than simply placing one or two men into space, involved with space defense missions against the United States Air Force's X-20 Dyna-Soar.

In 1965, “the Butcher of Rhodesia” Ian Henderson and former Prime of the British Crown Colony of Rhodesia Ian Smith make a momentous decision for the peoples of southern Africa. The two agree to proceed with a modified version of Operation Quartz . Instead of the resources of the British Government, a private army of mercenaries and white farmers would be used.

Ian Smith