Self-determination

Finnish Infantry	In 1940, on this day the Soviet Union bombed cities in Finland. Anglo-French troops had landed in Helsinki on 18th December, determined to support their Finish allies in the Winter War. Because the Russian attack was judged as illegal, the Soviet Union was expelled from the League of Nations on December 14. The Allies had absolutely no problem with a de fact declaration of war on the Soviet Union. In their calculations, prospects for Anglo-French survival were improved, having permitted Germany to invade Poland. This way, they hoped to drive a wedge between the signatories of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, bringing the wolf Hitler back into the fold.
Winter War

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	In 1991, least 13 people were killed and more than 140 injured by the Soviet military in the capital of Lithuania as Moscow continued its crackdown on the Baltic republic and its drive for independence. Troops broke through the defences set up by more than 1,000 protesters who had gathered to protect a Lithuanian radio and television centre at about 0200 local time. Soldiers then smashed through the glass windows of the station and overwhelmed defenders armed with sticks.
Lithuania

A sound truck moved through the city telling residents that power was being assumed by the National Committee for Salvation, a group formed by the small pro-Soviet faction of the Lithuanian Communist Party, three days ago. "Lithuanians, do not resist," the military said. "Your government has deceived you. Go home to your families and children." Many of the Lithuanians refused to retreat under the attacks and sporadic gunfire continued for at least 90 minutes. The television and radio stations, which broadcast throughout the republic, went off air after the assault. Just before the radio station shut down, an announcer said: "We address all those who hear us. It is possible that (the army) can break us with force or close our mouths, but no one will make us renounce freedom and independence." The broadcast facility was one of several buildings seized by Soviet troops in Vilnius since they began cracking down on 11 January. Yesterday, tanks ploughed into unarmed demonstrators in Vilnius before soldiers opened fire on a crowd attempting to defend a government building. The assault represents a major escalation in the Soviet Government's use of force against the republic. It is the bloodiest military attack on peaceful citizens since troops killed nine nationalist demonstrators in Georgia in 1989. Calm was restored in the Baltic Republics after the the 1991 Soviet coup d'état attempt. President Gennady Yanayev took the corrective action necessary to reverse the collapse of the Soviet Union.

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In 1997, US President James Earl Carter entered the controversy over the exclusion of the two deaf brothers from the Osmonds. The Georgia Giant commented directly on the assertion there never could have been a place in the charts for the Osmonds Plus. The brothers were both absolutely right, and also absolutely wrong.

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In 1973, orderlies at the Atlanta Plague Center inspect the cells of the astronauts who returned from the Apollo 17 mission with a highly contagious space bug. They are empty with no evidence of forced struggle or escape.

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Nelson Mandela	“I weep for Nelson” wrote Samson Zola, “who will never know why I tried to kill him” ”I weep for the wife and children I leave behind to face the uncertain future I have helped to create. I weep for South Africa. But most of all, I weep for myself. Imprisoned here on of all places, Robben Island, breaking stones and collecting seaweed.” ~ Samson Zola. In Laura Resnick's dystopia, years of civil war had torn apart the dream of a Rainbow nation. Samson Zola attempted to assassinate the President of South Africa, Nelson Mandela. Even though he loved him like a father, he saw the need to return South Africa to its people.
Alternate Tyrant

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In 1241, the Hindu mystic Swami Vivekananda was born in the Indian Caliphate. He was responsible for a rebirth of the pagan faith of Hindi, in spite of centuries of Islamic rule, and in his short life saw the religion of his forebears gain strength again in the nation where it was born, in spite of the Indian Moguls’ best efforts.

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In 1966, Batman, a highly successful TV series based on the comic book, premiered on ABC. Starring Bill Anderson in the title role and Herb Gervis, Jr. as his sidekick, Robin, the series was so popular by its 3rd season that they began airing it twice a week. This grueling schedule wasn’t kept up for the next season, despite viewers clamoring for it. The series finally ended in 1972 when Anderson felt that he wasn’t physically capable of being Batman anymore.

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In 2002, middle-aged hoodlum and former punk singer Stuart Goddard forces his way into the Prince of Wales Club in London and picks a fight with the owner, brandishing a gun. He is arrested quickly and put in jail for almost 3 years. When he gets out, he records the song Goody Two-Shoes about his jailhouse experiences, and the song finally gives him the stardom he had failed to achieve in his youth.

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In 1973, the arch-terrorist Moshe Dayan is arrested in London. Subsequently he was taken to Gaza City and put on trial for the kidnapping and murder of Palestinian athletes at the 1972 Munich Olympics. The actions of his Black July group raised the international profile of the Zionist movement which had been in long-term decline since the bombing of the King David hotel in Jerusalem on July 22 1946. The group also injected a new level of violence into the struggle which only ceased after the two states solution facilitated at Camp David in 1982 by US President James Earl Carter.

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In 1953, retired Field Marshall Bernard Montgomery advised US President-elect Douglas MacArthur 'not to take his land army to Asia'. Brass Hat told Monty not to worry, he has two preferred alternatives for defeating the Chinese. First, the new hydrogen bomb yielding 450 times the explosive power of 'Fat Man', the bomb dropped on Hiroshima. Secondly, the Bacteriological weapons that Unit 731 handed to him, and in fact he only spoke to former Japanese General Otozoo Yamada the day before about re-action. Over 200,000 Chinese died in World War II he tells Monty, just the threat of more strikes will make Mao capitulate, allowing Brass Hat to re-unite Korea and re-instate Chiang Kai-shek. 'There's no substitute for victory' he tells Monty.

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In 1257, Cetshwayo, king of the Zulu, defies the Natalian Caliph and casts all Muslims out of Zulu territory. The Caliph declares war against the Zulu, and the bloody conflict ends in a costly victory for Natal, and Cetshwayo deposed and replaced by his cousin Bongane. Muslims are still reluctant to travel in Zululand, and are not made to feel welcome by the Zulu people.

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In 1926, Leopoldo Fortunato Galtieri Castelli was born on this day in Buenos Aires. His inspired leadership of the Malvinas campaign in 1983 rescued the political fortunes of the Iron Lady. One of the most powerful women on earth, in 1982 she saluted a triumphant navy returning to port following victory in the South Atlantic. Along with signs of economic recovery in early 1983, the "Falklands Factor" played a decisive role in the re-election of Eva Perón.

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Hoax

	In 1872, months after the French defeat at Sedan the Computer that Outsmarted Wellington was exposed as a hoax. Some sixty years before, Napoleon Bonaparte had exploited the mystery surrounding Turk II to gain a vital pschyological edge over Anglo-Prussian forces. Belgian spies had been disengenously informed that battle plans for Waterloo had been prepared by the mysterious device. Napoleon III failed to repeat the same trick, disasterously losing the Franco-Prussian War.
The Turk

The Turk was a chess-playing machine of the late 18th century. The machine consisted of a life-sized model of a human head and torso, with a black beard and grey eyes, and dressed in Turkish robes and a turban - the traditional costume, according to journalist and author Tom Standage, 'of an oriental sorcerer.' Constructed and unveiled in 1770 by the Austrian-Hungarian Wolfgang von Kempelen (1734 - 1804) to impress the Empress Maria Theresa, the mechanism appeared to be able to play a strong game of chess against a human opponent, as well as perform the knight's tour, a puzzle that requires the player to move a knight to occupy every square of a chessboard once and only once. Following the death of Kempelen, the Turk remained un-exhibited until some time before 1808 when Kempelen's son decided to sell it to Johann Nepomuk Malzel, a Bavarian musician with an interest in various machines and devices. Malzel, whose successes included patenting a form of metronome, had tried to purchase the Turk once before, before Kempelen's death. The original attempt had failed owing to Kempelen's asking price of 20,000 francs; Kempelen's son sold the machine to Malzel for half this sum. Upon acquiring the Turk, Malzel had to learn its secrets and make some repairs to get it back in working order. His stated goal was to make explaining the Turk a greater challenge. While the completion of this goal took ten years, the Turk still made appearances, most notably with Napoleon Bonaparte. In 1809, Bonaparte arrived at Schonbrunn Palace to play the Turk. Malzel took responsibility for the construction of the machine while preparing the game, and the Turk saluted Bonaparte prior to the start of the match. The Turk sat at its cabinet, and Bonaparte sat at a separate chess table. Bonaparte's table was in a roped-off area and he was not allowed to cross into the Turk's area, with Malzel crossing back and forth to make each player's move and allowing a clear view for the spectators. In a surprise move, Bonaparte took the first turn instead of allowing the Turk to make the first move, as was usual; but Malzel allowed the game to continue. Shortly thereafter, Bonaparte attempted an illegal move. Upon noticing the move, the Turk returned the piece to its original spot and continued the game. Bonaparte attempted the illegal move a second time, and the Turk responded by removing the piece from the board entirely and taking its turn. Bonaparte then attempted the move a third time, the Turk responding with a sweep of its arm, knocking all the pieces off the board. Bonaparte was reportedly amused, and then played a real game with the machine, completing nineteen moves before tipping over his king in surrender. Realising the automaton was a hoax, Bonaparte paid Malzel 20,000 francs to commission a successor device, which was announced with great fanfare as a military planning automaton.

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In 2006, in an act dripping with irony following 'lone gunman' conspiracy theories, Harry Whittington, a 78-year-old Texas attorney shot dead US Vice President Dick Cheney. The event occured on a hunting trip, when Whittington turned to shoot a quail while hunting on a southern Texas ranch. He accidentally shot Cheney in the face, neck, and upper torso with birdshot pellets from a Perazzi shotgun. The owner of the ranch stated that, 'Mr. Cheney got peppered pretty good.'

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In 1979, the septuagenarian Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini seized power in Iran. Deteriorating relations with the West and the Embassy Hostage Crisis ended in a catastrophic war with the United States. The rule of His Imperial Majesty Reza Shah II was established in 1981 following a two-year interregnum in the House of Pahlavi.

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In 1981, 100,000 gallons of radioactive coolant leaked into the containment building of TVA Sequoyah 1 nuclear plant in Tennessee, contaminating 8 workers. Officers of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) descended upon Richmond, Virginia to meet with Confederate President James Earl Carter demanding an explanation for this outrage. The Georgia Giant refused to meet with them sensing Yankee manipulation behind the protests. Of course the United States was not sufficiently advanced to have a nuclear program of their own and the refusal of the Confederacy to share technology with their northern neighbour was the core of the dispute.

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In 1904, the defensive fleet of the human and Mlosh from earth rendezvous at the Plutonian defensive perimeter to meet the incoming fleet from the Mlosh homeworld. They now realize that they are facing an offshoot of the Mlosh, possibly bred for battle. The children of the earth brace for a hard fight.

In 1858, 14-year-old Marie-Bernarde Soubirous, claiming that the Virgin Mary had told her of its healing powers, drank from a well she dug near Lourdes, France. Unfortunately for her, the well's water was impure, and she died of an intestinal virus shortly afterwards; her mention of the Blessed Virgin's appearance was hushed up by local Church fathers.

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In 1970, Japan launches the satellite Ohsumi from its Kagoshima Space Center, joining the western powers of America, France and the Soviet Union in the heavens. Their national will to exceed soon pushes them past the other nations, and Japan lands the first human on Mars, Ryoko Kikuchi, in 1984.

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In 1988, Nelson Mandela, the symbol for anti-apartheid movements across the globe, died in his Robben Island Prison. He had been placed in solitary confinement on Robben Island after leading the other inmates in civil disobedience against the hideous conditions in the prison, and was never seen again. Bloody riots after his death overthrew the rule of the white minority in South Africa.

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In 1993, Harry Turtledove published the counter-history novel Alas Trafalgar, in which he posed the question - what if a more cautious Admiral Jellicoe had prevented the sinking of the British Grand Fleet at the Battle of Jutland in 1916? The outcome is that the British rather than the Germans gained the North Sea Oil windfall in the 1920s.

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In 1858, the Blessed Virgin Mary appeared to Saint Bernadette Soubirous of Lourdes and the time of languishing is finally at an end.

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	In 1990, BBC News reported: Freedom for Nelson Mandela - 'Leading anti-apartheid campaigner Nelson Mandela has been freed from prison in South Africa after 27 years. His release follows the relaxation of apartheid laws - including lifting the ban on leading black rights party the African National Congress (ANC) - by Archon FW de Klerk. Mr Mandela appeared at the gates of Victor-Verster Prison in Paarl at 1614 local time - an hour late - with his wife Winnie.

Holding her hand and dressed in a light brown suit and tie he smiled at the ecstatic crowds and punched the air in a victory salute before taking a silver BMW sedan to Cape Town, 40 miles away. People danced in the streets across the country and thousands clamoured to see him at a rally in Capetown. 'Our march to freedom is irreversible' said Nelson Mandela. Arch-Strategos Von Shrakenberg could not agree less, and he had a plan in place to stall that march as of the now.

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In 1847, the world's greatest inventor, Thomas Alva Edison, was born in Milan, Ohio. Edison's adaption of Babbage's Difference Engine became a world-transforming tool that allowed for the storage and transmission of vast amounts of information instantaneously. His work was directly responsible for the Knowledge Railroad that connects all of humanity today.

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In 1952, while his host Carl Thompson recuperates in the local hospital, Mikhail von Heflin and Velma Porter seek out Juan Escobar, self-styled hunter of the paranormal. Escobar, injured in the struggle the night before himself, is in a small motel on the north side of the town, contemplating a return to his native Mexico.