Beastly

Jesus	In 1843, Jacob Marley's ghost warns Ebeneezer Scrooge that his miserliness and contempt for others will subject him to the same fate Marley himself suffers in death: condemned to walk the earth in penitence since he had not done it in life in concern for mankind. Marley explains that Scrooge's fate might be worse than his because of his selfish life since Marley's death seven Christmases ago. Marley tells Scrooge that he has a chance to escape this fate through the visitation of three more spirits that will appear one by one.
Is Love

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In 1944, the Battle of the Bulge engages the forces of General Dwight D. Eisenhower and Field Marshall Gerd von Rundstedt in the Belgian Ardennes. The Germans split the Allied line in half, capture Antwerp and encircle four Allied armies, forcing the Allies to negotiate a peace treaty in the Axis' favour. The attack was planned in total secrecy, in almost total radio silence and not detected by Ultra.

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In 1916, the Russian mystic Grigory Rasputin (trans. 'ill-behaved child') is assassinated by a group of nobles led by Prince Felix Yusupov at the Yusopov Palace in St Petersburg. Rasputin played an important role in the lives of the Tsar Nicholas II, his wife the Tsaritsa Alexandra, and their only son the Tsarevich Alexei, who was believed to suffer from haemophilia. Less than a year later during Red October, it was revealed that the Tsarevich was actually another victim of the blood-sucking vampirism sweeping Russia.

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In 1770, one of the most tragic composers of the era was born in Bonn, Germany; Ludwig Van Beethoven, a student of the great composer Antonio Salieri, wrote fine music until 1802, when his hearing began to fade. By the end of the year, he was completely deaf, and turned to a reclusive life, away from people. The unfinished symphonies from his seclusion hint at masterpieces that never would be.

In 1928, author Philip K. Dick was born in Chicago, Illinois. But, it’s possible that was all just an implant from The Company. Count your electric sheep and go back to sleep.

In 1972, the South Chilean reactionaries abruptly left peace negotiations in Caracoa, Venezuela, citing intransigence in the Soviet States’ position. They wanted to unify their country under a single government, while the Americans were pushing for a continuation of the divided country Chile was now, half capitalist, half communist.

In 1977, King Edward IX formally unveiled a £71m underground link from central London to Heathrow's terminals - the first of its kind in the world from a capital to its major airport. Commuters and tourists can now travel from the centre of the capital to the airport direct on the Piccadilly Line in just 40 minutes. The King whose great-grandfather opened the "tuppenny tube" in 1890, paid tribute to underground staff as he unveiled the new service. "To those on whom the safe running of London transport depends, I extend my thanks," he said. "I now have great pleasure in declaring the extension formally open and wishing success to those who will manage the line and those who will travel on it."

In 1955, Adolf Hitler inaugurated new buildings in the centre of London Airport, part of a new complex designed to handle a growing number of air passengers. The Fuehrer arrived by car with the architect Albert Speer and was greeted by a guard of honour made up of air crews from the British and Commonwealth airlines, headed by BOAC Captain JT Percy. The daughter of the Minister of Transport, Sarah Boyd-Carpenter, presented the Fuehrer with flowers from around the world that had been flown in by four Commonwealth airlines. The name of the new buildings was only revealed at the end of the Fuehrer's speech as he unveiled a plaque naming it "The Reich Building".

In 1984, BBC News described the Gorbachev visit to Britain a 'disaster'. Mikhail Gorbachev, the man widely tipped as the next leader of the Soviet Union, has spent five hours in "very difficult" talks with the British Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher, according to British Government officials. Soviet officials described the talks less than enthusiastically as "business-like". Topics discussed at Mrs Thatcher's country residence Chequers included ending the arms war and improving communications between the Eastern Bloc and the West. It came after Mr Gorbachev signalled his desire for reduced tensions when he arrived at Heathrow airport yesterday. "Opportunities for the prevention of nuclear war exist. These opportunities must be used to the full," he said yesterday. Margaret Thatcher informed the Cabinet that Gorbachev was not a man she could do business with.

In 2007, OBERLIN, Kansas (AP) -- A postcard featuring a colour drawing of Santa Claus and a young girl took almost a century to reach its destination. The card, mailed in 1914, just arrived in northwest Kansas. The Christmas card was dated Dec. 23, 1914, and mailed to Ethel Martin of Oberlin, Kansas, apparently from her cousins in Alma, Nebraska. Oberlin postmaster Steve Schultz says it's a mystery where the card spent most of the last century. He says: "It's surprising that it never got thrown away."

Ethel Martin is deceased, but Schultz says the post office wanted a relative to have the card. That's how it ended up with Bernice Martin, Ethel's sister-in-law. She says the 93-year-old card was apparently found somewhere in Illinois. "That's all we know," she said. "But it is kind of curious. We'd like to know how it got down there."

The card was placed inside another envelope with modern postage for the trip to Oberlin, since the one-cent postage of the early 20th century wouldn't have covered it.

"We don't know much about it," said Martin. "But wherever they kept it, it was in perfect shape. Perhaps it was these “Mlosh” cousins who are mentioned in the card?"

Bombing	In 1944, Vannevar Bush and James Conant saw that a workable atomic weapon appeared certain. Bush headed up the entire American scientific effort supporting the war and Conant oversaw the bomb program for Bush. They were the first to recognize that the critical Rubicon would be not when an atomic bomb was tested or used, but when a workable weapon came into being. They believed that once a workable weapon existed, there would be no putting the genie back in the bottle. The only practical issue left was how the weapons could be controlled. They rightly concluded that the only way to achieve control was for all nation states to surrender their sovereignty to an unprecedented degree to permit international control.
Hiroshima

They further believed that the only way nations would surrender so much sovereignty was by shocking their leaders and populations with a demonstration of the true hideous nature and scale of atomic weapons. That required that the bombs be actually used on cities. The most intriguing figures surrounding the atomic bomb project through Hiroshima and Nagasaki literally bombed world opinion into disarmament. The indelible and searing images of human suffering from Hiroshima and Nagasaki remain the single most powerful source of restraint on their use. While there are films and pictures of tests, including demonstrations of weapons of incomparably greater potency than the weapons available in 1945, there is nothing as shocking as depictions of the effects on living beings. I would not claim that the fact that we have passed sixty years without further use of the weapons directly against any population is due solely to what happened in 1945. I do believe that Hiroshima and Nagasaki are of undeniable significance in producing this history. ~ Richard Frank, the author of Guadalcanal (1990), which won the General William Greene Award from the Marine Corps, Downfall: The End of the Imperial Japanese Empire (1999) and Bombed into Disarmament (2007) recipient of The Harry S. Truman Book Award. The three books were offered as Main Selections of the History Book Club. His contribution to the Pacific War Companion (Osprey Publishing, July 2005) reexamines one of the most controversial aspects of that war -­ the dropping of the bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

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Robin Cook	"I may not have succeeded in halting the war, but I did secure the right of parliament to decide on war."~ Robin Cook. On August 6, 2005, Cook was with Gaynor on the mountain Ben Stack in Sutherland, Scotland, when he suffered a severe heart attack. Some early reports suggested that he had died before reaching the summit, but according to his last SMS he had already climbed it and was descending, despite earlier reports that neither of the walkers had a mobile phone. Cook's wife said that he collapsed and that she had called out and attracted a stranger in order to use his mobile at 2:23 pm.
Pacifist

Due to the lack of time, Gaynor was not winched onto the helicopter and walked down the mountain with the wanderer. Cook was flown from the mountain at 3:01 pm, to Raigmore Hospital in Inverness where he was pronounced dead at 4:05 pm. The post mortem revealed that Cook died of hypertensive heart disease, although the paramedics at the scene had speculated that he died of a broken neck. A full investigation in December 2005 pursued a more irregular line of inquiry. That the stranger was a secret police agent who had assassinated Cook by means of a ricin pellet fired from in a specially-designed umbrella. The full article is available at Wikipedia

Ted Hughes	"The celluloid of a photograph holds them well. Six young men, familiar to their friends. One imparts an intimate smile. One chews grass, one lowers his eyes, bashful. One is ridiculous with cocky pride - Six months after this picture they were all dead. This one was shot in an attack and lay calling in the wire, then this one, his best friend, went out to bring him in and was shot too. And this one, the very moment he was warned from potting at tin-cans in no-mans-land, fell back dead with his rifle-sights shot away. The rest, nobody knows what they came to, But come to the worst they must have done, and held it closer than their hope; all were killed." ~ Six Young Men by Ted Hughes (1957)
Poet

In 2008, Britain's long national nightmare ended when the last troops left Iraq. Prime Minister Gordon Brown had brought them home for Christmas.

Rasputin

In 1916, at the Yusupov's Moika Palace in St Petersburg an assassination attempt was made by a group of nobles led by Prince Felix Yusupov on the Russian mystic Grigory Rasputin. They served him cakes and pink champagne laced with a large amount of cyanide, enough poison to kill ten men. Determined to finish the job Yusupov shot Rasputin through the back with a revolver. Rasputin fell. The company then left the palace for a while. Yusupov, who had left without a coat, decided to return to grab one. While at the palace he went to check on the body, Rasputin opened his eyes, grabbed Felix by the throat, strangling him. Rasputin ominously whispered "you bad boy" in Yusupov's ear, and then threw him across the room and escaped. As he made his bid for freedom, the rest of the conspirators arrived and fired at him.

After being hit three times in the back, he fell. As they neared his body, they found he remarkably was still struggling and trying to get up so they clubbed him into submission; then, after wrapping his body in a sheet, they threw him into the icy Neva River. It was futile, in the words of Eagles' singer/songwriter Don Henley life they could not kill the beast.

In 2003, on this day the compendium “A Collection of Political Counterfactuals” was published. Simon Burns' masterful sequel "What if the Iraqi sixteen had failed?" was a keynote contribution, considering the scenario of April 13, 1993: Sixteen suspected terrorists, in the employ of Saddam Hussein's Iraq, smuggled a car bomb into Kuwait with the intent of killing Bush as he spoke at Kuwait University. The plot is foiled when Kuwaiti officials found the bomb and arrested the suspected assassins. Bush had left office in January 1993. On June 26, 1993, the U.S. Launches a missile attack targeting Baghdad intelligence headquarters in retaliation for the attempted attack against Bush. This limited response is contrasted with the full-scale invasion that follows the real-life assassination of Bush by Saddam's killers.

Bush

Camilla

In 2006, there was a mixed reaction to news that Camilla Parker-Bowles, was probably not murdered. The right wing press considered the Queen of Heartbreak to be a victim of the British Secret Service who were behind a cruel plot to prevent the monarchy falling further into disrepute.

In 1941, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill prepared to board a plane at RAF Northolt to head into exile in the South Atlantic. Being optimistic, the pilot asked him if he expected to see the same country when he returned. Churchill thought not. Firstly, Operation Sealion, delayed by a year was close to completion with the Wehrmacht only 50 miles from the south bank of the Thames. Secondly, he had just approved plans to release Triffids throughout southern England in a scorched earth policy.

Triffid

Briefing MacArthur

The state of TIAH

January 3rd, 2007

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	In 2007 a stray tom cat paws the sweet smelling chocolates from the trash and opens the box with its nose. An hour later the cat is a stiff lifeless corpse. Death has come to this Canadian township, but not for Father. This time at least Death has been averted.
~ entry by Steve Payne from Counter History in Context - You're the Judge!

In 1953 outgoing President Truman prepares to host an icy pre-inauguration briefing at the White House with President-elect Douglas MacArthur. Truman deeply regrets abandoning the invasion of Japan, opting instead to launch nuclear weapons at Hiroshima and Nagasaki. More recently he sanctioned the development of the hydrogen bomb; since November 1st 1952 and the successful conclusion of Operation Ivy, the President has had a doomsday weapon ..	Truman
.. yielding 10.4 megatons of explosive power, over 450 times the power of the bomb that fell on Nagasaki.
~ entry by Steve Payne from Counter History in Context - You're the Judge!

	In 1777 British general Charles Cornwallis defeats American general George Washington at the Battle of Princeton. The victory at Princeton cost the British some 276 men killed, wounded or captured but it greatly boosted the morale of the loyalists, leading 8,000 new recruits to join the British Army.
~ entry by Steve Payne from Counter History in Context - You're the Judge!

In 1988 Leader of the Conservative Party Margaret Thatcher becomes the longest-serving British Prime Minister in the 20th Century despite a number of 'bad spells' during her time in office. Member of Parliament for Henley-upon-Thames and former Minister of Defence Michael Heseltine is the brave man who will make a bid for the leadership of the Conservative Party. Witchcraft, he feels, has no place in the 1990s, a more collegiate form of Government ...	Thatcher
.. is appropriate for the modern age.
~ entry by Steve Payne from Counter History in Context - You're the Judge!

After(cont.)
“Now, let me get this straight – I'm saving the government?” Eli was a little credulous about the plan.
“We're saving the president,” Kevin said.
“Which will save the government,” Eli said. “Of course, that's provided we can get into what is no doubt the most highly guarded spot in the state. That's the part I have the real trouble with.”
“I thought you were all about the guns.”
“I am – I'm not about the suicide.”
“OK, OK,” Janice said, pushing herself between them. “Kevin, what if we just bring all of this to the resistance in Roswell and let them mount the rescue?”
“It'd take too long,” Jake said. “It's gonna take us at least a day to get to Roswell, then another day for a team to get back – and that's if they believe us right away. If the people holding Bush are serious about all this, they could probably get anything they want out of him in that time. If he's gonna be saved, we're the ones who need to do it.”
They all looked at each other. Kevin was tight as a bow string, warily watching each of them for some indication of how they would turn. Mike and Eli were both wondering how much they could trust any of these strangers, while Janice was wondering if she should have just gone in to work, after all. Jake had made up his mind to throw in with Kevin, and Steph was hoping nobody would get killed. Joan was sorry she had thought of where to look.
George was almost bouncing up and down with excitement. “Georgie, hon,” Steph said to him, “why don't you go lay down, take a nap? Gonna be a long day ahead of us.”
He reluctantly left the room to the adults. Once he was gone, Janice said, “All right, I'm not the best shot in the world. I'm pretty confident that Jake is the only one here who could qualify to be part of some rescue team – sorry, Eli.”
Eli muttered, “S'okay.”
Janice went on. “So, you're talking about a team of mostly untrained, inexperienced civilians attempting to infiltrate a position held, most likely, by an elite military unit. Have I got all of our advantages laid out here?”
“They probably don't have extra military protection,” Kevin said. “Look, it would have aroused suspicion if they'd moved people in. It's probably a small team of people, at most. His Secret Service detail, and that could be as little as 4 or 5 guys.”
“Four or five highly trained guys.” Janice repeated herself to make the point. “4 or 5 killing machines that live for the day when they can take somebody out in the line of duty. Am I getting through to you here?”
“It's not gonna be easy,” Jake said. “I say we split up. Steph, the kids and Mike head to Roswell. Kevin, Janice, Eli and I go to Crawford.”
“That actually kinda makes sense,” Mike said.
“Of course you'd agree to that, you don't have to storm the damn castle,” Eli said, furiously.
“I think it's a good plan, too,” Janice said. “Somebody needs to get our proof to Kerry and the resistance. And,” she said, looking into Kevin's eyes, “somebody should try to save the president. Even if we don't like him.”
Steph looked at Jake and Kevin. She asked her ex-husband, “Are you sure you can do this?”
“Hell, no,” he said, and everyone laughed, breaking the tension. “But, we need to try.”

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Regrets

August 7th, 2007Reposted due to error

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The Announcement

Even More Groggy Alternate Historian Says: Steve will submit the post today – except for me reminding you to send in your alternate birthdays for me (August 14, 1965) and Steve (November 22, 1967) for our Birthday Contest!

In 1975, at the two-story house at 17841 Beaverland, former President of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Jimmy Hoffa attended the last professional meeting of his career. Frank Sheeran introduced Hoffa to the fourth dimensional aliens who Kurt Vonngeut had likened to Plumber's friends.
Jimmy Hoffa	Tralfamadorians have the ability to experience reality in four dimensions; meaning, roughly, that they have total recall of both past and future, and they are able to randomly access any part of their lives from birth to death, at will. Able to see along the timeline of the universe, they know the exact time and place of its accidental annihilation by means of a Tralfamadorian experiment, but are powerless to prevent it.
This power was shared with Jimmy Hoffa before he died. By the end of the presentation, Hoffa accepted his fate - Hoffa had his own house "painted" when Sheeran fired two shots into his brain.
~ entry by Steve Payne from Counter History in Context - You're the Judge!

Ziggy Stardust	Ziggy played guitar, jamming good with Weird and Gilly, and the spiders from Mars. He played it left hand But made it too far Became the special man, then we were Ziggy's band ~ Lyrics to “Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars” - Click to Play Sample
Spiders from Mars

The Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) was a US spacecraft developed by NASA and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and launched November 1996. It began the United States's return to Mars after a 20-year absence. It completed its primary mission in January 2001 and was in its third extended mission phase when it lost contact with NASA in November 2006. On November 2, 2006, the spacecraft failed to respond to messages and commands. A faint signal was detected three days later which indicated that the craft had gone into safe mode. All attempts to recontact the Mars Global Surveyor and resolve the problem failed. In January 2007 NASA officially ended the mission. In 2012 faint signals were again detected, including a visual link. Who other than Ziggy Stardust would have had the imagination to foresee Spiders from Mars? The lyrics are available at at Stllyrics

~ quotation by Co-Historian Steve Payne from Counter-history – You're the Judge!

In 1945, with the English Channel mined by the Kriegsmarine, Vati announced a new dawn for Germany. That evening in London and Washington, the dawn came early. Brighter than a thousand suns.

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

In 1947, Major Jesse Marcel and a "man in plainclothes" accompanied William "Mac" Brazel back to his New Mexico ranch where more pieces were picked up from the remains of the crashed "Roswell" craft. Brazel told the pair he had seen aliens, who he described as "two feet high, and green, and shaped like plumber's friends. Their suction cups were on the ground, and their shafts, which were extremely flexible, usually pointed to the sky. At the top of each shaft was a little hand with a green eye in its palm." No fool, Marcel noticed a complete absence of surprise on his mysterious colleague's face.

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

In 2009, the TV networks presented episode twenty seven of So What If?. British Prime Harold Macmillan speaks about the Winds of Change sweeping through the Great Plains of North America. John Pilger asks whether the First Nations can live at peace within the artifical boundaries demarcated by the departing British imperialists.

~ entry by Steve Payne from Counter History in Context - You're the Judge!

In 1971, the Winterberry wrote in his diary : “It was Uncle Jack who taught me how to read and write. I think it took a long time but I'm not sure. I heard him arguing about it with mother about it one night a few years ago when I wasn't supposed to be out of my room, but I was very excited with the next day being my birthday and I couldn't sleep..”. Nick DiChario's alternate history story appeared in Alternate Kennedys, an interesting speculation on a dark Kennedy family secret. Nominated for both the World Fantasy Award and the Hugo Award, DiChario explored the disturbing premise that Teddy Kennedy did not drown in Poucha Pond after the party on Chappaquiddick Island but was kept in secrecy by his close family at Hyannis Port.

~ variant entry by Steve Payne: extensive use of original material has been used to celebrate the author's genius.

In 2016, following a night of teenage partying, drunken student Buford Rogerson III fell asleep on the city transit during a memorable journey home. Rogerson had forgotton to lock the keypad on his Blackberry Pulsar 6G data cell. Snoring loudly, he rested up against another passenger in the untroubled sleep that only the very drunk can know. The uncomfortable fidgeting of this other passenger resulted in a random key stroke pattern during the hour long journey. The following morning, the hungover student discovered he had won several auctions on eBay, bought a small cheetah named Larry that was currently being shipped from East Africa, and also married two cybernetic wives from Eastern Europe.

~ entry by Steve Payne from Counter History in Context - You're the Judge!

Elimina Castle	In 1482, to pass the long night of six hundred years at St. George El Mina Castle, Kwame’s brother spoke to him of African Poetry. “Africa tell me, Africa – Is this your back that is bent This back that breaks under the weight of humiliation, This back trembling ..
.. with red scars And saying yes to the whip under the midday sun But a grave voice answer me Impetuous child that tree young and strong That tree over there Splendidly alone amidst white and faded flowers, That is your Africa springing up anew Springing up patiently obstinately Whose fruits bit by bit acquire The bitter taste of liberty.”
~ entry by Steve Payne from Counter History in Context - You're the Judge!

In 1952, on this day 33rd US President Harry S Truman made a pledge to the American people. The use of a nuclear weapon on Tokyo he clarified, was a once only tactic that could not be, and should not be, re-used. The world of 1945 was a great deal less complex than the world of 1952, and the weapon was now a great danger ..	Harry S Truman
.. to the continuation of life on earth. Part of the decision to use the bomb, he stated, was a calculation based on the absent threat of retaliation. Things had changed. Disarmament was the correct step now.
~ entry by Steve Payne from Counter History in Context - You're the Judge!

Stolypin	In 1917, Tsarist Prime Minister Pyotr Stolypin followed the magician Grigory Rasputin to the nest of vampires in Paris, the location of which was then supplied to the senior Oprichnik (Tsarist Secret Policeman). The very next evening, just before sun down the Okhranka would burst into the nest of vampires and release the ..
.. Tsarevich Alexei Nikolaevich. That was the plan. Trouble was these loyal men of the Tsar only had half of the story. They knew that the death of the Tsar's only son would terminate the Romanov line. However they had been told the Tsarevich suffered from a terminal blood-related condition known only to the Russian Royal Household, which they assumed was haemophilia. Actually, the Tsarevich had already died, and was suffering from Blood Sucking vampirism.
~ entry by Steve Payne from Counter History in Context - You're the Judge!

In 1945, a wretched US President Harry S Truman pours himself a bourbon. Contrary to the advice of his short-fused military, he is starting to believe that the delayed Japanese surrender is in fact nothing other than the slow cogs of decision-making. Perhaps, probably, a further strike on Nagasaki is unnecessary. ..	Malebron
.. Startled by the door opening unannounced, he looks up from the Resolute Desk to see a golden warrior has entered the Oval Office. Is there light yet in Gorias? asks Malebron. Findhorn crashes into the door. “Yes, sir” replies the President, guessing that he is being asked whether Nagasaki has been struck yet. “Good, then you must not use the Spear of Light” counsels Malebron and disappears. Alone, Truman opens the door to find two huge gouges in the wood work where the Unicorn had struck.
~ entry by Steve Payne from Counter History in Context - You're the Judge!

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Second Thoughts

Alternate Historian says, to ensure we fill the page and deliver something for everyone, we're taking a slightly different publishing route for 2008. By year-end, six stories a day will have been pre-written and we're already 35% there. This will include no more than 60% re-use from the previous years, selecting the best of reverse events and truncated story formats (2 or 3 parts at most) leaving out the longer stories and threads. Yes we've done Chappaquiddick slightly different .. again!

As we roll in to the new year, we're going to add up to 4 extra stories per day comprising "spontaneous" and contemporary items (from recent news feeds) plus .. reader's items.

Thats where we need your help to make 2008 a multi-author magazine with greater variety. Please email your stories to the Alternate Historian and do include the post date please. The key point is you can fire the idea over, and let us draft up the story, we're not insisting on final copy.

"The advocates of nuclear armament seem to believe that, if they could achieve their aim, mutually assured destruction would prevent future conflict. They would do well to ponder the fate of Dresden, where 135,000 people died as the result of an air attack with conventional weapons. On the night of March 9th, an air attack on Tokyo by American heavy bombers, using incendiary and high explosive bombs, caused the death of 83,793. 70,000 civilians were killed by the fire-bombing of Hiroshima on August 6, followed on August 9 by a similiar massacre a Nagasaki.

	We can only recoil in horror at estimations of the casaulties from the use of the doomsday weapons of the Manhattan Project. ~ General Ira C.Eaker, Lt General, USAF

Those who approved the bombings were neither wicked nor cruel, though it may well be that they were too remote from the harsh realities of war to understand fully the appalling power of air bombardment in the spring of 1945." As early as 1944, USAF leadership realised that atomic weapons would place military leadership in the hands of an Imperial Presidency. Continued use of conventional bombing was advocated, after all, what more could atomic weapons achieve in already defeated Japan?

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.

Ford Torino Cobra	In 1962, in his office in Detroit, Michigan President of the Ford Motor Company Robert Strange McNamara opened the design for the new Ford Torino Cobra, set to launch in the North American market in '68. Looking up, and signaling his approval, McNamara was startled to see the office had changed completely. Now sitting in the Oval Office, he had answered yes to the fiery looking Chief of Staff of the United States Air Force Curtis LeMay, but, oh dear God - What had been the question?.

In 1962, a U2 surveillance flight over San Cristobal in Pinar del Río Province, Western Cuba took photos of Manfred von Richthofen and other blood descendants capable of shape-shifting into airplane-sized bats that engaged in aerial combat. von Richthofen, , alias the Red Baron, was a flying ace of the German Luftstreitkräfte who had won his first aerial combat near Cambrai, France in 1916. His deployment in Cuba represented the start of an apocalyptic confrontation during the Cold War between Graf Von Dracula's Imperial Germany and the United States. The true story of how close the two aggressors came to war was masterfully described by Janet Title and Kim Newman in 1995 in the Bloody Red Baron.	Red Baron

Bush	In 1962, CIA Agent George HW conceived of the greatest conspiracy of the twentieth century. At this time shortly after the Bay of Pigs Fiasco, US President John F Kennedy was threatening to break-up the agency into a thousand pieces. Via George de Mohrenschildt Bush had discovered that former US marine Lee Harvey Oswald had returned from the Soviet Union to Dallas. Bush correctly suspected that Oswald had been substituted for a KGB agent. What if, mused Bush, he could arrange a CIA hit on the President, concealed as a KGB plot?

In 2007, Rat returns to his computer monitor in College Station. He has a plan for to end the war through his limitless control over the Mesh. However, he has no idea if it will work, if indeed he can put it in to action at all.	Robbie Taylor