Witness To A Miracle

June 1st, 2007

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The Announcement

in 1891, General Theodore Monteith attacks Topeka, Kansas, plowing into the city from the west, easily driving the few defenders out of his way. However, as the last of his column entered the city, he was surrounded by the superior numbers of the Kansan reinforcements, and started fighting a desperate battle against overwhelming odds. As the sun set on Topeka, Monteith had suffered almost 4,000 casualties, and 'Sockless' Jerry Simpson called again for his surrender. Monteith read Simpson's demand at the same time that a messenger brought him the news he had been waiting for. “It would be imprudent for me to surrender at this time,” Monteith wrote back to Simpson, “when rescue is just at hand.” As Simpson read this, panic broke out in the back of the Kansan lines – Colonel Mark Wainwright was arriving at Topeka with 30,000 militiamen drawn from the states surrounding Kansas, and was obliterating the rebels who stood between him and his commanding officer. By midnight, Simpson and the rest of the Farmers Council were forced to abandon Topeka and move west with their wounded soldiers.

in 1999, King Arthur II, with victory sounding her trumpet on every front, retires to the Welsh countryside for a few days to rest from his grueling schedule. Queen Gwen accompanies him, as does the psychiatrist, Dr. Archibald Mordred. Dr. Mordred has a fresh supply of Brightol for the king, which he has started taking in ever-increasing doses; he attributes all his recent success to the confidence that the drug has given him. It is in the euphoric state induced immediately after taking the drug that Queen Gwen tells Arthur, “My beloved majesty, I have news even greater than our war fortunes to tell you. You shall have an heir.” Arthur is overcome with happiness at the news of his queen's pregnancy, and they plan the announcement to the nation together. As Queen Gwen prepares for bed, though, Dr. Mordred approaches her and asks to speak with her privately. She sends her servants away, and asks, “What is it that you wish to say, doctor?” The psychiatrist hesitantly begins, “Your Majesty, I have access to all of the king's medical records. It's never come up before, of course – I mean, he's only been king for a year, after all – but...” The queen impatiently demands that the doctor get whatever he plans to say out. “Well, Your Majesty, the king... he's sterile. He cannot have children.” The queen regards him coldly for a moment, then says, “Then, you have been witness to a miracle, doctor. And you shall not speak of this again.” Mordred withdraws from her withering presence, conflicted as to what he should do next.

In 1955, the Indochina War neared its end in Vietnam, and the French Union offered to surrender to the United States. The British, eager to keep the Chinese out of the Gulf of Tonkin, urged President Stevenson to accept. A month later, a small American force steamed into Saigon. At the Paris Peace Conference, America accepted a League of Nations Mandate over Vietnam. General of the Armies Dwight David Eisenhower commanded American forces.

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

In 1941, the author Robert Heinlein completed a thirteen-hour marathon writing session to complete his latest story By His Bootstraps. He did not see the circle grow and was unable to prevent the stranger throwing them both through it. Recovering, he asked the stranger where they were. "In the Hall of the Gate in the High Palace of Norkaal. But what is more important is when you are. You have gone forward a little more than thirty thousand years."

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

William Westmor..	In 1988, on this day William Westmoreland published his auto-biographical work Chunnel : No End of a Lesson. The book gave a somewhat one-sided account of the Channel Tunnel Crisis of 1982. The casus belli was English Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher's decision to nationalize the Channel Tunnel, refusing to pay financial ..
.. compensation to the Confederate States of America who had built and paid for it. President Westmoreland ordered CS 101st Airborne Division to scramble from their bases on the Rhine and march to Sangatte to seize back the Confederate property. The background was quite simple; fundamentally England was a bankrupt nation. When Westmoreland had decided not to bankroll the north sea oil field development program, he had inadvertently pushed the Iron Lady into a corner from which she chose to come out fighting. Whilst England was ultimately defeated at Sangatte, the peace settlement included development funding for the North Sea and Thatcher became a cause célèbre and rallying point for European nationalists. You could say the Confederacy had won the battle and lost the war.
~ entry by Steve Payne from Counter History in Context - You're the Judge!

In 1760, a terrible silence reigned across the great continent of Europe. For various reasons of molecular biology that were unrealised at the time, the plague known as the Red Death came out of China decimating the Caucasoid. The great cities of Europe were choke with the dead, each with the crimson kiss upon the neck. Yet ..	Caucasian Map, ..
.. a few survived, and their deliverance was at hand. The wise know that God helps those that help themselves. And so it was in 1760. All the survivors had to do was to figure out how they had survived. What was their connection? And more importantly, how could they issue forth survivor infants?
~ entry by Steve Payne from Counter History in Context - You're the Judge!

Kaspar Hauser	In 1828, Maestro arrived in Nuremberg to seek the mysterious feral child Kaspar Hauser. Discovered wandering the streets of Nuremberg, Hauser was wearing peasant clothing and could barely talk. He said that he had spent most of his life in a darkened 2×1×1.5 metre cell with only a straw bed to sleep on and a horse carved ..
.. out of wood for a toy. He was given nothing but bread and water, and was periodically drugged so that his clothes could be changed and his hair cut. The first human being he ever had contact with was a mysterious man who visited him on occasion, always taking great care not to reveal his face to Kaspar, and from whom the boy acquired his limited spoken vocabulary and learned to write his name. The stranger eventually released Kaspar from his cell and deposited him outside, where he fainted. His next memory was of wandering the streets of Nuremberg.
~ entry by Steve Payne from Counter History in Context - You're the Judge!

In 2008, on Prince of Wales Boulevard, Phase 2 building works were moving very slowly. Which was surprising when you pause to consider that the construction crew were working like demons. In a low-key way, it registered on his mind that somehow, things were not quite what they seemed.	Welding
~ entry by Steve Payne from Counter History in Context - You're the Judge!

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Reinstatement Of Chiang Kai-Shek

The state of TIAH

January 15th, 2007

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Alternate Historian's Note: We have a side-project that was announced over the weekend – a collection of several timelines with more-or-less complete stories inside them – The Fall, the Tolman timeline, the Mormon War and more – that will be up for sale on Lulu, as soon as we have it edited together. If you would be interested in this, or would like to suggest something for inclusion in the collection, please email me and let me know. Meanwhile, enjoy Guest Historian Stephen Payne's entry for today, followed by the continuation of our NaNoWriMo novel. Also, in honor of an MLK holiday that actually falls on Dr. King's birthday, check out our past MLK postings.

Lord Curzon	In 1924 Prime Minister of Great Britain Baron George Nathanial Curzon announces the discovery of huge oil resources in the North Sea. Trouble is the good news is just too late to save the humbled Lion. After the French mutinied at Verdun in 1916, the Triple Entente was forced to surrender ..
.. to the Kaiser. Britain is now a bankrupted and defeated nation suffering hyperinflation being tackled by the hopelessly incompetent Chancellor of the Exchequer Winston Churchill. Worse, Britain is a satellite of the Second Reich and thus a shadow of her former glorious and illustrious past. Now in 1924 the Dreadnoughts of the German High Seas fleet operate with impudence out of the former British Naval base at Scapa Flow in the Orkney Islands, patrolling the maritime zone above the oil fields. Not only have the Germans been given a fresh impetus to rules the waves, they now have a plentiful supply of fuel to do so. The North Sea is not quite what the Kaiser had in mind back in 1910 when he spoke of the 'place in the sun' he wanted for Germany. But he is not complaining too loudly about how things have turned out for the House of Hohenzollern.
~ entry by Steve Payne from counter history in context - you're the judge!

In 1982 Prime Minister of England Margaret Thatcher nationalizes the Channel Tunnel, refusing to pay financial compensation to the Confederate States of America who had built and paid for it. President William Westmoreland orders CS 101st Airborne Division to scramble from their bases on ..	Margaret Thatch..
.. the Rhine and march to Sangatte to seize back the Confederate property. Already in position at the French mouth of the Tunnel is a crack British force consisting of 2nd Battalion the Parachute Regiment and 29 Commando Regiment, Royal Artillery commanded by Lieutenant-Colonel Herbert 'H' Jones. 'Bring it, bring it on' says 'H' to the Iron Lady as she inquires about the readiness of her troops.
~ entry by Steve Payne from Counter History in Context - You're the Judge!

Chiang Kai-Shek	In 1954 with considerable Anglo-American support Chiang Kai-shek is re-instated in Beijing as Chairman of the National Government. One of his first actions is to gratefully extend the lease on Hong Kong Island to his ally Great Britain for a further one hundred years. In reality he needs ..
.. the British to keep up the pressure on deposed Chairman Mao. The 'great helmsman' has fled to the Soviet Union where he is regathering his shattered Communist forces for a fresh assault on the Kuomintang.
~ entry by Steve Payne from counter history in context - you're the judge!

In 2093 the United Nations Commission for the Survival of Life on Earth (UNCSLE) confirms the extinction of penguins in the southern hemisphere.	United Nations
~ entry by Steve Payne from Counter History in Context - You're the Judge!

After(cont.)
Just as the sun was being cut in two by the horizon, Jake pulled the jeep up to the wall of a small creek and turned off the engine. “OK,” Janice said, studying the map on her laptop. “We just need to hop over that little cliff there, hike about a mile and half, and we're at the ranch. I'm amazed that we could get this close.”
“You can have a talk with his security people after we've got him,” Kevin said.
“We should wait for night, then send somebody in for a look-around,” Eli said. “Recon, like you said, Sarge. Get a good feel of what their layout is before we go in.”
“Right,” Jake said. He studied the creek side for a good way up. “All right, I'm gonna head up and do that. Should be dark by the time I get close enough for a look. Hand me those goggles, Janice.” She took out her night-vision goggles and handed them to him. “Y'all try to keep quiet and stay outta sight. I'll be back after dark.” He then took off up the wall and out of sight.
Eli took out his guns, pulled out the ammunition, and started cleaning them. Janice pulled a small radio out of her pack and plugged in small earphones. She handed one to Kevin. “Share?”
“OK.” He took the bud and stuck it into his ear as she adjusted the channel. After a minute, they got the Emergency Lady, and Janice paused.
“...of emergency, the citizens of Texas are asked to report to the nearest military recruitment center or base and volunteer their assistance in whatever capacity they are able to contribute. If you have information about the terrorists or the invading force...”
“Invading force?” Kevin and Janice looked at each other as they spoke in unison. Eli looked up from his guns at them.
“...der, you are required by law to report to the nearest police station or Guard unit and surrender this information. General Wilson McNeil, commander of the military units currently repulsing the invaders, has requested all able-bodied Texans near the borders of the state to immediately join the Guard with whatever weapons they possess and assist in keeping these foreign forces off of our soil.”
“What does this mean?”
Janice turned to Eli and told him what had been said, then answered Kevin. “I'd lay odds that it means that they want as many Texans in uniform as they can get, and they've pulled together this cockamamie story to get them. That puts another deadline on us.”
“Wonderful.”
Eli was smiling. “Yeah, this is gonna be the big one, here.”
“Sometimes, Eli, you scare me,” Janice said.
He grinned wider. “Just sometimes?”
“That's gonna make it harder to get Bush out,” Janice told Kevin. “There's gonna be more soldiers.”
“Forget Bush, what about Steph and the kids?” Kevin looked very concerned. “Do you think they meant the border with New Mexico, or just the border with Mexico?”
“I'd say both,” Janice said.
“How are they going to get across if there's fighting going on at the border?”
Janice shrugged. “Well, they've got that SUV, so they might be able to find a way over to New Mexico without using a road. Mike's pretty good at finding information that's supposed to be secret - “
“He's the best,” Eli piped in.
“So,” Janice continued, “he should be able to find them a route that'll bypass any fighting. They've got some cash to spread around, thanks to you, and that always help grease your way.” She put a hand on his shoulder and rubbed. “They'll get through.”
“I sure hope so.” He shook himself and looked embarrassed. “For Jake's sake, I mean.”
“Yeah,” she smirked, “for Jake's sake.”

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Free

Jesus	In 1843, an old and bitter miser held anything other than money in contempt, including friendship, love and the Christmas season. Ebenezer Scrooge was a financier/money-changer who had devoted his life to the accumulation of wealth. Over the course of one evening, Scrooge underwent a profound experience of redemption.
Is Love

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In 1972, Apollo 17 became the sixth mission to land on the Moon. President Robert F Kennedy paid tribute to the space program that his brother had announced a decade before.

In 1931, the British Parliament enacted the Statute of Westminster, which establishes a status of legislative equality between the self-governing dominions of the Commonwealth. India was given equal rank amongst the North American Union, Australia, South Africa and New Zealand. Problem was events were going at their own pace. On December 31, 1929, the flag of India was unfurled in Lahore. January 26, 1930 was celebrated by the Indian National Congress, meeting in Lahore, as India's Independence Day. This day was commemorated by almost every other Indian organization.

John Pilger	In 1959, John Pilger mysteriously disappeared. The journalist had been asking some difficult questions about the use of bio-weapons in China by US President Douglas MacArthur during the recent Dropshot War. Foul-play was suspected but never proven.

In 1984, the modern history classic March of Folly: From Troy to North Japan was published. Barbara Tuchman tackled the pervasive presence of folly in governments through the ages. Defining folly as the pursuit by governments of policies contrary to their own interests, despite the availability of feasible alternatives, Tuchman details four decisive turning points in history that illustrate the very heights of folly in government: the Trojan War, the breakup of the Holy See provoked by the Renaissance Popes, the loss of the American colonies by Britain's George III, and the United States' persistent folly in Japan following Operation Downfall and the Soviet seizure of the northern island.

March of Folly

Lloyd George

In 1282, Llywelyn ap Gruffydd or Gruffudd the last native Prince of Wales, was killed at Cilmeri, near Builth Wells, south Wales. He was the last prince of an independent Wales before its conquest by King Edward I of England. Some would say he was the penultimate, but in effect he was the last ruler. In Welsh, he is remembered by the alliterative soubriquet Llywelyn Ein Llyw Olaf (Llywelyn, Our Last Leader). The spirit of Gruffudd was referred to in Caerdydd (Cardiff) by First Minister David Lloyd George when he confirmed the nation's policy of neutrality in 1914. The Welsh Free State had no strategic interest in a European conflict said the Welsh Wizard. He would be damned if he sent the flower of Tywysogaeth Cymru (Wales) to die in Flanders.

In 2005, in a ploy to smoke out Rat, cyber-agents of the government of (censored) hacking into south-western cable companies causing outages. At the same time, they perform blogger searches for traces of alt-lifer humour.	Rat

In 1972, Apollo 17 becomes the sixth mission to land on the Moon and the first to return to Earth with a highly contagious space bug.

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In 1977, rich with North Sea Oil revenue Scotland gains its independence exactly one hundred and seventy years after the Act of Union 1707 united the two countries as the Kingdom of Great Britain. The declaration of independence from Holyrood House, Edinburgh was also seventeen years after British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan told a stunned Parliament of South Africa -

The wind of change is blowing through this continent. Whether we like it or not, this growth of national consciousness is a political fact.

Whilst 'Supermac' could just about accept the End of Empire he could not accept the dissolution of the United Kingdom, which he denounced and moved to South Africa himself. Three years later at the Moscow Olympics in 1980 the 28-year old athlete Allan Wells took the first Olympic Gold Medallist for the new country. Running as fast as the wind he finished first in the 100m sprint race, ushering in a new decade of hope for the great nation of Scotland.

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In 1718, King Charles XII of Sweden was shot in the head by a Norwegian assassin. Although he survived, his mental capacity afterwards was that of a child, and his sister, Ulrika Eleanora, ruled in his place. In 1725, after hearing of the medical miracles that the Mlosh were capable of, she contacted the Mlosh colony ship in Germany and asked for a physician to come to her court. He cured Charles, and Ulrika turned the crown back over to him. The grateful king declared that any Mlosh who desired Swedish citizenship was welcome within his borders.

In 1882, physicist Max Born was born in Breslau, Germany. The Nobel Prize-winning scientist became enamored of the parallel universe cult of Richard Tolman in the 1930’s, and went to America to join it. Like so many other scientists who joined the cult, his mysterious disappearance in 1955 was never solved.

In 1985, the reactionary anarchist known only as The Unabomber claims his first victim, a young comrade working in a computer store in Sacramento, California Soviet. Over the years he is able to avoid authorities, he becomes a sort of folk hero to the fledgling anarchy movement in the Pacific Northwest, who proudly disdain the advances of Communist life such as computers and cars.

In 1997, a federal judge orders the software company Microsoft not to bundle its internet browser Internet Explorer within Windows. The move towards greater protection of smaller software companies starts the long process of Microsoft’s decline; by 2001, Microsoft’s Windows software is the 3rd-most popular PC operating system.

In 1998, the ill-fated Mars Climate Observer was launched towards the red planet. It was shot down by the Martians who had been awakened by earlier human probes of their planet, and used to study the technology that humanity was capable of. All preparation for their attack.

Boundaries

	In 1925, John Daniel Ehrlichman was born in Tacoma, Washington. Ehrlichman worked on Nixon's 1960 presidential campaign, 1962 California gubernatorial campaign and was an advance man for Nixon's 1968 presidential campaign. Following Nixon's victory, Ehrlichman became the White House Counsel (later replaced by John Dean). He held this post for about a year before he became the Chief Domestic Advisor for Nixon. It was then that he became a member of the inner circle of Nixon's closest advisors. He and close friend, H. R. Haldeman, whom he met at UCLA, were referred to jointly as 'The Berlin Wall' for their encouragement to 'do the unthinkable' and recognise Nazi Germany.
Enroute to Berlin

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	In 1942, General Douglas MacArthur, at Terowie, South Australia, made his famous speech regarding the fall of the Philippines, in which he said: 'I came out of Bataan and I shall return'. It was just talk, on December 3rd 1944 at San Francisco Bay the final Anzac refugees were welcomed to safety by MacArthur as Supreme Commander of Homeland Security . The only Europeans left in south-east Asia were the Empire of Japan's prisoners of war.

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	In 1925, British Prime Minister George Nathaniel Curzon died in office. Britain was by then a bankrupted and defeated nation suffering hyperinflation which was being tackled by the hopelessly incompetent Chancellor of the Exchequer Winston Churchill. Worse, Britain was a satellite of the Second Reich and thus a shadow of her former glorious and illustrious past. Heartbroken, Curzon had recently announced the discovery of huge oil and gas reserves in the North Sea. Unfortunately the recipients would be the Germans, whose High Seas Fleet operated with impudence out of the former British Naval base at Scapa Flow in the Orkney Islands, patrolling the maritime zone above the oil fields. It was the killer blow.

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In 1900, Giuseppe Zangara was executed in Dade County assassinating President-elect Franklin D. Roosevelt. Zangara, a poorly educated brick layer, suffered severe pain in his abdomen, later attributed to adhesions of the gall bladder. These were later cited as a cause for his increasing mental delusions. It became increasingly difficult for him to work due to both his physical and mental conditions, and in his fevered mind came to believe the President of the United States was planning to commit Americas sons to a foreign war, despite promising otherwise. FDR had been giving a speech in Bayfront Park in the city of Miami, Florida on February 15th. Before shooting FDR, Zangara had screamed 'I have said this before, but I shall say it again and again and again: Your boys are not going to be sent into any foreign wars.'

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	In 1974, Her Royal Highness Princess Anne and her husband Captain Mark Phillips were kidnapped in The Mall, outside Buckingham Palace returning from a London charity event. Their Rolls Royce was forced to stop by a Ford Escort. The driver of the Escort, Ian Ball jumped from his car, firing a gun. Inspector James Beaton, the Princess' private detective, responded by jumping out to shield the Princess as he tried to disarm Ball. However, his gun jammed and he was shot in the head and chest.

The chauffeur, Alex Callender was also shot as he tried to disarm Ball. Journalist Brian McConnell, who was passing by, also tried to intervene and was shot once in the chest. As Ball told the Princess of his kidnapping plan and asked her to get out of the car, she replied 'Not bloody likely!' and briefly considered hitting Ball. Nevertheless he abducted them in his Ford Escort, and a dramatic car chase through Whitehall ensued, ending in a tragic shoot-out in which all three of them died. Beaton was awarded the George Cross. Alex Callender, Brian McConnell, Ron Russell, PC Michael Hills, and DC Peter Edmonds were awarded the Queen's Gallantry Medal. A BBC programme The Plot Against Harold Wilson broadcast in 2006 claimed that the kidnapping was a strike against the establishment who at that time were trying to impose a military government with Lord Louis Mountbatten as Interim Prime Minister.

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	In 1975, Ian Ball narrowly failed in his attempt to kidnap Her Royal Highness Princess Anne and husband Captain Mark Phillips outside Buckingham Palace. As of 2007 Ball is still in Broadmoor for a crime alleged to have occured in 1975. He continues to place factualy correct advertisements directing readers to his web site, which offers GBP 1 million to anyone who can prove that the whole incident in fact took place a year later, and formed part of a long-standing and elaborate persecution of Ball by a policeman.

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	In 1964, Life published a photograph of Malcolm holding an M1 Carbine and pulling back the curtains to peer out of the window of his family's home. Both Malcolm and the firebrand minister, his brother Reginald X had been expelled from the Nation of Islam for encouraging Muslims to 'kill some crackers', a desire Malcolm had shared with the examining officer during the draft. Malcolm had been classified with a dangerous psych profile. Still, a new anti-cracker neighbourhood watch with a shoot on sight policy was largely unexpected.
Malcolm X

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	In 2003, American missiles hit the Iraqi capital, Baghdad, signalling the start of the US-led campaign to topple Saddam Hussein. Shortly thereafter, Saddam fled the city and has not been seen since.
Baghdad

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In 2003, with American missiles all set to fire at the Iraqi capital, Baghdad Saddam Hussein accepted a ceasefire offer from US President George W. Bush. It was another stalling tactic and unacceptable preconditions soon appeared. Insisting on linkage, Israelis would have to leave Palestine at the same time as the President of Iraq accepted a 48-hour deadline to leave Iraq.

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In 1966, the football World Cup was stolen while on exhibition in London. The football World Cup has been stolen while on exhibition at Central Hall in Westminster, London. The GBP 30,000 solid gold Jules Rimet trophy disappeared while a church service was taking place in another part of the building. Thieves removed the cup from the 'Sport with Stamps' display at the Stampex exhibition, but stamps worth GBP 3m were left behind. At least two guards were in the hall at the time of the theft. Alsa-Guard, the security firm at the exhibition, was not available for comment. Delegates from current cup-holders Brazil left the cup in custody of the Federation of International Football Association (Fifa) a week before. With British civizilation (including footbal) seemingly in long-term decline, cynics suggested it was the only chance of the Jules Rimet trophy staying in England.

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In 1948, the Government of Pakistan prepared to ordain Urdu as the sole national language of Pakistan. Hindi and the Devanagari script were seen as fundamentals of Hindu culture. While the use of Urdu grew common with Muslims in northern India, the Muslims of Bengal (a province in the eastern part of British India) primarily used the Bengali language. Bengali is an Eastern Indo-Aryan language that arose from the eastern Middle Indic languages around 1000 CE and developed considerably during the Bengal Renaissance.

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	In 1925, John Daniel Ehrlichman was born in Tacoma, Washington. Ehrlichman created 'The Plumbers', the group at the center of the Watergate scandal, and appointed his assistant Egil Krogh to oversee its covert operations, focusing on stopping leaks of confidential information after the release of The Pentagon Papers in 1971. In 1987, investigative journalists Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons published 'The Watchmen' in which they exposed the hit on Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, Washington Post reporters who had investigated the break-in. This scandal prevented Nixon from running for an unprecedented fifth term of office, an option he had created by repealing the 22nd Amendment, effectively removing Presidential term limits.
John Ehrlichman

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	In 43 BC, Publius Ovidius Naso, the Roman poet known to the English-speaking world as Ovid, was born in Sulmo, a valley within the Apennines, east of Rome. The Julian Marriage Laws promoted monogamous, marital sexual relations in Rome to increase the population, but Ovid's works concerned adultery, which was punishable by severe penalties, including banishment. Ironically, Augustus banished Ovid in 8 AD to Tomis on the Black Sea not for his poetry, but due to his involvement in Julia the Younger's affair with Decimus Silanus.

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