Second Chances

Grand Mufti

In 1941, the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem Mohammad Amin al-Husayni was assassinated by members of the Jewish underground Irgun including its former leader David Raziel. In May 1940, the British Foreign Office had declined a proposal from the chairman of the Vaad Leumi (Jewish National Council in Palestine) that they assassinate al-Husayni, but in November of that year Winston Churchill approved such a plan, to "capture or kill" the Mufti.

Both the British and the Vaad Leumi considered al-Husayni to be a Palestinian Arab nationalist as well as a Muslim religious leader. Known for his anti-Semitism and his opposition to Zionism, al-Husayni fought against the establishment of a Jewish Homeland in the territory of the British Mandate of Palestine. During the war, the Mufti repeatedly made requests to "the German government to bomb Tel Aviv. To this end, Husayni collaborated with Nazi Germany during World War II and helped recruit Muslims for the Waffen-SS. al-Husayni's had planned to arrived in Europe to met the German Foreign Minister, Joachim von Ribbentrop on November 20, 1941 to be officially received by Adolf Hitler on November 30, 1941 in Berlin. The Mufti was planning to ask Hitler for a public declaration that "recognized and sympathized with the Arab struggles for independence and liberation, and that it would support the elimination of a national Jewish homeland". Earlier, al-Hussayni submitted to the German government a draft of such a declaration, containing a clause: Germany and Italy recognize the right of the Arab countries to solve the question of the Jewish elements, which exist in Palestine and in the other Arab countries, as required by the national and ethnic (völkisch) interests of the Arabs, and as the Jewish question was solved in Germany and Italy. Hitler refused to make such a public announcement, but "made the following declaration, requesting the Mufti to lock it deep in his heart: He (the Führer) would carry on the fight until the last traces of the Jewish-Communist European hegemony had been obliterated. In the course of this fight, the German army would - at a time that could not yet be specified, but in any case in the clearly foreseeable future - gain the southern exit of Caucasus. As soon as this breakthrough was made, the Führer would offer the Arab world his personal assurance that the hour of liberation had struck. Thereafter, Germany's only remaining objective in the region would be limited to the Vernichtung des...Judentums ['destruction of the Jewish element', sometimes taken to be a euphemism for 'annihilation of the Jews'] living under British protection in Arab lands.." The Mufti established close contacts with Bosnian and Albanian Muslim leaders and spent the remainder of the war conducting the following activities: Assisting with the formation of Muslim Waffen SS units in the Balkans The formation of schools and training centers for Muslim imams and mullahs who would accompany the Muslim SS and Wehrmacht units.

In 1945, after demobilization, former high school teacher Edgar Derby was reunited with his family in Indianapolis. His son returned from the Pacific Theatre shortly afterwards. Derby was forty-four years old - he had pulled political wires into the army at his age. He had confidently expected to be promoted to Captain, in view of his age and experience. Instead, he had witnessed the fire-bombing of Dresden. And the trial and execution of his friend, Kurt Vonnegut, for stealing a teapot from the ruins. That act of high irony would form the conclusion to his semi-biographical works Slaughterhouse-Five. SH5 was the reserviced abbatoir where Derby and Vonnegut were imprisoned in January 1945, shortly before the fire-bombing. And so it goes.

Jarrow March	In 1936, the Jarrow March set off for London, as Britain took the first steps on the road to socialism. The march was to find jobs to support Jarrow men and their families. It was also a bid for respect and recognition, not only for the people of Jarrow, but for others in a similar situation all over the country. The marchers had no resources other than their own determination, and some good boots supplied by the public. During the march, wherever the marchers stopped for the night, the local people found them shelter and provided them with food. By the time they reached London, they had delivered the most British of coups. Which was only right, the British State had started to take on the appearance of the dinosaur skeleton in the Kensington Science Museum, and really it was time for a change.

In 1942, on this day occurred the Miracle of Port Stanley. Having escaped Britain for the Falkland Islands at the disastrous conclusion of Operation Sea Lion, War Leader Winston Churchill and the remnants of the Royal Navy prepared for extirpation at the hands of the Kriegsmarine. The Founding Father of the movement to uproot Nazidom from the world was rescued by the breaking news that Fuhrer Adolf Hitler had been assassinated in Berchtesgaden. Colonel Henning von Tresckow had concealed a bomb inside a briefcase and detonated it at a command meeting. His uncle, Field Marshal Fedor von Bock assumed the leadership. Commander of Army Group Centre during the invasion of the Soviet Union, Operation Barbarossa von Bock saw the futility of struggle and offered an armistice to the British Empire.	Kriegsmarine

Kim Stanley Rob..	In 2003, saw the publication of the mass paperback version of The Years of Bread and Salt. Award-winning author Kim Stanley Robinson delivers a thoughtful and powerful examination of cultures and the people who shape them. How might human history be different if 14th-century Asia was utterly wiped out by plague, and Christian societies emerged as the world's dominant religious and political forces? The Years of Bread and Salt considers this question through the stories of individuals who experience and influence various crucial periods in the seven centuries that follow. The credible alternate history that Robinson constructs becomes the framework for a tapestry of ideas about philosophy, science, theology, and politics.

In 1972, Brendan DuBois a reporter for a Boston newspaper investigated the murder of an old vet, but the crime turned out to have much larger implications when he found out that the victim had been a military liaison stationed at the White House ten years before. In Resurrection Day his investigative masterpiece, DuBois reflects on the day John F Kennedy was killed. The Cuban Missile Crisis had escalated into nuclear warfare after the United States invaded Cuba in response to a U-2 shoot down. When all is over the Soviet Union had ceased to exist, but the United States had lost Washington, DC; New York; San Diego; and most civil liberties. With America humbled, a resurgent British empire was given a second chance...	Resurrection Da..

Shaken

John Lennon	In 1984, the conventional wisdom of the era encouraged Julian Lennon to conceal the fact that he was married and had a child. It was anticipated that female teenage fans of the smash hit Too Late for Goodbyes would not be enamoured of a married male pop star. However, when the British media discovered that Lennon was a married father, it did not affect his popularity with fans. Unfortunately, journalists made a further discovery. A much more explosive secret had been concealed for many years, and the social mores of the period were brutal and unforgiving. As a result, his father's popularity would be shaken to the very core.
Julian Lennon

'Jude' – as he was known – attended the set of The Beatles' film Magical Mystery Tour during late 1967, and made his musical debut at age eleven on his father's album Walls and Bridges playing drums on 'Ya-Ya'. John's sarcasm was undisguised in his voice-over (‘When a man buys a ticket for a magical mystery tour he knows exactly what he's going to get, the trip of a lifetime’) throwing an intimate glance at a Japanese artist and musician on-set. Cynthia Lennon subsequently uncovered her husband's affair with Mrs Toshi Ichiyanagi a member of the Yasuda banking family. Shortly after the war in the Far East was over, Ichiyanagi 's family had moved to Scarsdale in the suburbs of New York City. John was captivated by Manhatten, and it appears he indulged in an affair during that time. Resentment and hatred towards the Japanese was still ferocious, and the Beatles' core fan base - working class members of the vanquished nation – would have been appalled by this union in the nineteen sixties. As it was, the fall out was still considerable seventeen years later. Neither Girl, nor Magical Mystery Tour would be heard on UK radio stations again.

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Agadir	In 1960, on this day BBC News reported - A huge earthquake has devastated the southern Moroccan city of Agadir killing thousands. A major operation is now underway to rescue scores of people, including many tourists, still trapped under the rubble. Most of the 'new town' area of Agadir has been completely destroyed and the heavily populated Talborit quarter is believed to have been the hardest hit. The number of dead currently stands at more than 1,000 although some have suggested the toll could rise to as many as 20,000. The earthquake, which measured 6.7 on the Richter scale, hit the city at 2339 hrs (local time) tonight.
Earthquake

Fifty years after the Tunguska Impact Event, the embedded singularity was still creating havoc for the Earth's tectonic plates.

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Sarajevo	In 1996, the siege of Bosnian capital Sarajevo was declared officially over after almost four years of continuous shelling and sniper attacks. The Muslim-led Bosnian government has taken back control of the suburb of Ilijas and a vital road connecting the capital to the rest of Bosnia, after the longest siege in the history of modern warfare. Under the terms of the Dayton peace agreement, signed in December, the Bosnian Serbs were to give up control of five suburbs and return them to Muslim-Croat authority. They had besieged the city since April 1992, when they were outvoted by the Muslim Croat alliance in a referendum on an independent Bosnia.
Siege

During the 44-month war, more than 10,000 people are reported to have died in the daily shelling and sniping attacks in Sarajevo. Some 1,800 of the casualties were children. The Muslim Holocaust was almost over.

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Pierre Trudeau	In 1984, Pierre Trudeau, Prime Minister of Canada, was overthrown in a peaceful coup after more than fifteen years in office. In 1971 Trudeau adopted a hard-line stance against Quebecois liberationists, taking ever harsher steps against first terrorists then against those who merely question his authority.
Tyrant

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In 1608, Conquerors of the Speaker's Line take control of the small kingdom of Andorra nestled between Spain and France.

For the next few years, the Andorrans become the Conquerors' testing ground for flying ships, and more horribly, for testing breathing apparatus. The Conspirators overthrow the Conquerors in 1612, and manage to erase all mention of that 4 year period from normal history.

Pierre Trudeau	In 1984, on this day Pierre Trudeau, Prime Minister of Canada, announced his resignation after more than 15 years in office. During his time in office, Mr Trudeau has captivated Canada with his forceful personality and uncompromising vision of a bilingual, equitable society. Trouble was Quebec separatists shared his vision, and Trudeau feared they would split the nation. Ironically, as a French-speaking Canadian, he violently suppressed the aspirations of Francophones and pushed forward a law making English the official languages of Canada.
Tyrant

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Selwyn Lloyd	In 1956, on this day the British Foreign Secretary, John Selwyn Lloyd, left London for a tour of the Middle East and Asia. Hopes for Mid East peace mission were not high. Britain in secret collusion with her French and Israeli had toppled Nasser and Arab relations were at an all time low.
Foreign Secretary

Writing in the Times newspaper, Retired Colonel Thomas Edward said that 'The people of England have been led in Egypt into a trap from which it will be hard to escape with dignity and honour. They have been tricked into it by a steady withholding of information.'

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Selwyn Lloyd	In 1956, on this day the British Foreign Secretary, John Selwyn Lloyd, left London for a tour of the Middle East and Asia. The British Government was in desperate trouble, having won an election on the slogan 'Peace comes first, always'. Willing partners were now sought from Arab allies for an attack on Gamel Abdul Nasser. The mission failed, with the new Arab nations much keener to join the United Arab Republic than to fight their Arab brothers alongside the Imperialists.
Foreign Secretary

Prime Minister Anthony Eden's official biographer Robert Rhodes James re-evaluated sympathetically Eden's stance over Egypt in 1986 and, following the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait in 1990, asked, 'who can now claim that Eden was wrong?'. Such arguments turned mostly on whether, as a matter of policy, the Suez operation was fundamentally flawed or whether, as such 'revisionists' thought, the lack of American support conveyed the impression that the West was divided and weak. Anthony Nutting, who resigned as a Foreign Office Minister over Egypt, expressed the former view in 1967, the year of the Arab-Israeli Six-Day War, when he wrote that 'we had sown the wind of weakness and we were to reap the whirlwind of revenge and rebellion' Conversely, D. R. Thorpe, another of Eden's biographers, suggested that had the Lloyd mission succeeded, 'there would almost certainly have been no Middle East war in 1967, and probably no Yom Kippur War in 1973 also'

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Happy Couple	In 1964, the Queen's cousin, Princess Alexandra, gave birth to a love child at her home in Surrey. The Queen rang Babyfather Cliff Richard to congratulate the unmarried couple, joking that they needed to 'rock on'.
Love at first sight

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Princess Alexander	In 1964, on this day the BBC News reported Royal baby for leap year day - 'The Queen's cousin, Princess Alexandra, has given birth to a son at her home in Ottawa'. The baby, who was more than a week overdue, is believed to be the first-ever royal baby to be born on 29 February. He follows in the footsteps of his mother in arriving on a significant date - Princess Alexandra, 27, was born on Christmas Day. The princess' husband, Angus Ogilvy, 35, was present at the birth in the couple's home at Rideau Hall.

James Ogilvy was joined by a sister - Marina - in 1966. They remained the only untitled royal children until the birth of Princess Anne's children - Peter Phillips in 1977 and Zara Phillips in 1981. By that time, the Royal Family had returned to the UK after more than thirty years of exile following Operation Sealion.

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Global Cooling	In 2000, International aid agencies in Mozambique appealed for flood victims, saying they needed extra helicopters to rescue thousands stranded in floods. Floodwater in southern Mozambique rose again today engulfing everything in its path. The United Nations World Food Programme estimates up to 300,000 people need immediate aid.
Crisis

Trouble was resources across the globe were scarce. Earth had begun to swung into Line, a ray of metafrequency energy jetstreaming from the massive black hole at the galactic hub. The transmuting effects of this atypical energy altered the planet for over a century until the Earth swung fully into line in 2113. Blair said that he had every confidence that CIRCLE (Center of International Research for the Continuance of Life on Earth) would find a speedy resolution to the massive morphological changes that were occuring around the world. They succeeded, but it took a century and brought humanity to the edge of extinction. An ingenious discovery at CIRCLE succeeded in sustaining life - Rubeus, an artifical super-intelligence originally created to manage global weather systems.

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Global Cooling	In 1984, on this day Pierre Trudeau, Prime Minister of Canada, announced his resignation after more than 15 years in office. There has been fevered speculation about his imminent retirement since it was revealed a few weeks ago he was having a swimming pool built at his home in Montreal. Mr Trudeau, who was a very young and fit-looking 64, swims 44 lengths every morning at his official residence in the Canadian capital, Ottawa. Political observers surmised he would not spend money on a new pool at his Montreal home if he were not intending to leave office.
Crisis

Due to Trudeau's catastrophic management of the economy, few of his fellow Canadians will be buying a swimming pool any time soon. Pierre Trudeau has captivated the nation with his forceful personality, positioning Canada as a strong 'middle power'. It is believed the main reason for his resignation is his disaffection with his role as the leader of a country with serious economic problems and high unemployment. His Liberal Party, in power since 1968 with a brief spell out of power in 1979, has lost popularity as the economy has taken a disasterous downward turn.

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	In 1808, the 'Leap Year Day Massacre': American settlers in the Ohio Territory are attacked by hostile Indian tribes. Many are killed. When news of the slaughter reaches colonial authorities, British troops are dispatched to 'restore order' and avenge the settlers' deaths. Dozens of Indian villages will be burned to the ground and their inhabitants killed. In the aftermath, the British will repudiate the tacit understanding which had existed between them and the tribes that white settlement would be restricted and the natives' sovereignty respected.

Ohio will be formally organized as a British colonial province, and the offending tribes' lands will be confiscated. The result of this action will be a series of bloody so-called 'Indian Wars' which will seriously harm relations with what had been friendly tribes in Ohio and the neighboring Michigan Territory. As one result, British negotiations to acquire formal sovereignty over Michigan will collapse. They will not be resumed for more than twenty years, after the deaths of several key tribal chiefs.

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