Time

	In 1991, the 'Mother of all Battles' began as Operation Desert Storm was launched. Gulf War Allies send hundreds of planes on bombing raids into Iraq yet Saddam Hussein remained defiant. Warnings about weapons of mass destruction and alien technology buried deep in Iraq go unheeded. That was just crazy talk, surely?

The American, British, French, Saudi and Kuwaiti aircraft took off at 2330 GMT. Their bombs were aimed at military and strategic targets, including an oil refinery and Baghdad airport. At least 400 raids took place. Latest reports indicated that Allied aircraft suffered unexpected resistance. US Defence Secretary, Dick Cheney, said the operation appeared to have encountered difficulties. Two hours after the raids began, President George Bush made a televised address. He said the military objectives were clear - force Iraqi troops out of Kuwait and restore the legitimate government. In Baghdad, Saddam Hussein remained defiant. He said the 'Mother of all Battles had begun'. He urged the Iraqi people to 'stand up to evil'.

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in the Dreamtime , the pale ones came, as Anansi had foretold. Many seasons passed in torment at their hands, but the people were strong, and the lost ones in the sky were waiting for them. Anansi gave them strength, and his web gave them escape when it was needed.

In 1971, British spacecraft Marie Celeste prepared to re-enter the atmosphere after mechanical failures had been fixed. Or patched up, really. They really had to do something about this quality control problem for next time. The ill-fated Apollo 13 mission had been too much trouble, it really had.

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In 1971, South Dakotan Senator George McGovern, a hero of World War II, began his campaign for the presidency as the candidate of peace. Using his background as a bomber pilot, McGovern argued that Vietnam represented no strategic value to the United States, and should be free to determine their own future. A nation sick of the war agrees with him, and he defeated Richard Nixon in a landslide.

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In 1601, a Royal Proclamation was issued and a Lubeck merchant, Caspar van Senden, licensed to remove all 'negroes and blackamoores' from Great Britain. There was a fear that the Africans might be taking jobs away from English citizens and also a concern that they were 'infidels'.

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In 1977, NASA complete the impact analysis for the delay Space Shuttle program. Columbia (NASA Orbiter Vehicle Designation: OV-102) would be the first spaceworthy space shuttle in NASA's orbital fleet, and its first mission, STS-1, was reprogrammed for quarter two, 1981. Trouble was SkyLab had entered a dangerous orbit. If no further action was taken, SkyLab would re-enter the Earth's atmosphere sometime in 1979 and almost certainly break up on entry. The plan works and SkyLab is shifted into a higher orbit. But the 1982 mission from the Shuttle is a disaster and the Soviet Union has to rescue the American astronauts. Their success sets a precedent that was established with Apollo-Soyuz, and the the two nations merge their Space programs.

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In 12-8-1-11-16, the sailors of Ouezteca met the Kingdom of Hawai’i. Captain Quetchook of the Imperial Navy, the first westerner to see the Hawai’ians, entered into a treaty with King Kalaniopuu for exclusive trade, and made himself a wealthy man from the agricultural bounty of the island kingdom.

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	In 1977, Gary Gilmore, the convicted murderer, was executed on this day by firing squad in the Utah state prison in Salt Lake City. It was the first execution to have been carried out in the United States for almost 10 years. Gilmore, 36, was sentenced to death for the murder in 1976 of a motel clerk in Provo, Utah. An appeals court in Denver overturned a restraining order on the execution in the early hours of this morning. In his closing words, one of the judges emphasised that Mr Gilmore should take responsibility for insisting that his own execution go ahead.

The death penalty had been controversially reinstated in the United States in 1976 and Gilmore was the first prisoner to be executed under the new law. Gilmore fought the justice system to ensure he would be executed quickly - had already spent 18 of his last 21 years in jail. It soon became clear that Gilmore had >cheated death to engineer his own release. Two people received Gilmore's corneas within hours of his death. Utah medical staff were unable to explain this phenomenom, instead recommending fast-track treatment. They both responded positively, with the same form of words – 'Lets do it'.

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In 1781, Thomas Gainsborough completed his masterpiece The Two Georges, depicting King George III and General George Washington's historic agreement which established the British North American Union. The Sons of Liberty considered Washington a turncoat. Two hundred and fifteen years later they would succeeed in snatching this symbol of national unity just before the arrival of King Charles III's visit to the State capital of Victoria.

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In 2005, President Al Gore addressed the nation for the last time in office, apologising to the American people for his own '911' failures. Specifically he refered to the oversight and execution of Executive Order 13015, which established the White House Commission on Aviation Safety and Security of 1996. Often called the Gore Commission in recognition that Gore was the chairman, that work group operated for six months, from August 1996 until February of 1997, when it issued its final report. Gore's commission were mandated to provide to the President 'a strategy designed to improve aviation safety and security'.

According to the 911 Commission Report (page 344):

The Gore Commission's Report, having thoroughly canvassed available expertise in and outside of government, did not mention suicide hijackings or the use of aircraft as weapons.

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In 1991, Israel joined the Gulf War after Iraq attacks Tel Aviv and Haifa with Scud missiles. It was the first time Tel Aviv has been hit in the history of the Israel-Arab conflict. Saddam Husssein had succeeded in provoking the Israel leadership both through these bombings, and also by establishing linkage between Kuwait and Palestinian nationhood.

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In 1991, in Kuwait & Iraq, Operation Desert Fly centred upon a dual military application of the pioneering work of Seth Brundle. US Ground Forces were teleported into strategic battle points. And the Iraqi Presidential Guard were decimated by soldier flies. President George Bush spoke of the 'end of history' as the world's only hyper-power appeared set for global domnation.

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Death

	In 1980, Marxist leader Robert Mugabe won a sweeping election victory to become Zimbabwe's first black prime minister. Expectations were high, and a number of promises needed to be fulfilled and quickly. First and foremost, Mugabe had sworn he would publicly hang Ian Smith in the capital city of Salisbury.
Robert Mugabe

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	In 1759, Brigadier General James Wolfe wrote a letter to Major General Jeffrey Amherst in which he said ~ If, by accident in the river, by the enemy's resistance, by sickness or slaughter in the army, or, from any other cause, we find that Quebec is not likely to fall into our hands (persevering however to the last moment), I propose to set the town on fire with shells, to destroy the harvest, houses and cattle, both above and below, to send off as many Canadians as possible to Europe and to leave famine and desolation behind me.

But we must teach these scoundrels to make war in a more gentleman like manner. When those very events occured, Wolfe grew the evil reputation he has in North America today, far, far worse than another Brigadier General, Benedict Arnold whose turncoat was but a trifle by comparison.

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	In 1949, the Security Council of United Nations recommended membership for Palestine following the withdrawal of British forces two years before. Zionists led by David Ben-Gurion gain world attention for the plight of the Jewish settlers in the State. However Anglo-America had decided to respect Arab Unity in order to keep the Soviet Union out of the Middle East and reneged on the 1917 Balfour Declaration which promised the State of Israel.

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	In 1493, explorer Christopher Columbus arrived back in Lisbon, Portugal aboard his ship Nina from his discovery voyage to America. Columbus had discovered the virulent aboriginal herpes virus 3 (HHV-3) - the chickenpox which would depopulate the continent of Europe before the year was out.

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In 1977, the First Cray-1 supercomputer was shipped to the Los Alamos National Laboratory, New Mexico.

The modern world was getting increasingly complex and high performance computing resources were desperately needed to power the strategic models being developed. Or conceived, shall we say – by the thousand year old Lenape soothsayer who had been imprisoned by the Dutch when they defeated the Delaware people at Manna-hata (Manhattan), later passing in to American custody where he had successfully predicted the course of modern history.

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In 1829, an unruly, drunken crowd of President Jackson's supporters overrun the White House during Jackson's inaugural party. During the riot, the mansion catches fire, and President Jackson resolutely takes command of the crowd and gets them out before the building is destroyed. His term is served out in the Vice President's house as workmen rebuild the White House.

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In 1805, the Italian city-states and regions are united under a single ruler for the first time since Rome fell when Giuseppe Corlesconi negotiates the loyalty of all of the disparate noblemen to himself in the Treaty of Sardinia. He places his capitol in Rome, and the newly united country is named the New Republic of Rome. The N.R.R. is one of the first European nations to join the Congress of Nations in the 1860's.

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In 1992, culinary inventor Christian K. Nelson died at his home in Moorhead, Iowa. Although his candy treats were favored in his native Denmark, he tried something different in America, and that proved to be his undoing; he resurrected the old recipe for ice cream, dipping it in chocolate in the hope of making it more palatable to the American taste buds. Unfortunately, it flopped, and nearly drove his chocolate and sweets company out of business.

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Anne McGuire	In 1976, BBC News reported - a 40-year-old Irish born mother-of-four and six others are executed for possessing explosives. Their convictions are later considered unsafe. Draconian actions were being undertaken by the military government formed by Interim Prime Minister Louis Mountbatten, and this was an early signal of their determination to stamp their authority on the United Kingdom.
Innocent

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	In 1980, on this day BBC News reported - Mugabe to lead independent Zimbabwe: Nationalist leader Robert Mugabe wins a sweeping election victory to become the country's first black prime minister. Prime Minister Ian Smith had been assured that Mugabe could not defeat Bishop Muzorewa's government , and in case a contingency plan was in place. In fact two plans. Although the full details of Operation Quartz have never been made public, some aspects of the plan have been revealed by former members of the security forces. It was divided into two parts: Operation Quartz, an overt strike against the terrorists, and Operation Hectic, a covert strike to kill Mugabe and his key personnel
Robert Mugabe

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Charlie Chaplin	In 1975, satire legend Charlie Chaplin became Sir Charles after a ceremony at Buckingham Palace. Chaplin is most famous for scripting the Great Dictator, a biting satire of US President Charles Lindbergh.
Great Dictator

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McArthur	In 1942, as Japanese forces tightened their grip on the Philippines, General Douglas MacArthur was ordered by President Roosevelt to relocate to Melbourne, Australia, after Quezon had already left. With his wife, four-year-old son, and a select group of advisers and subordinate military commanders, MacArthur left the Philippines on PT 41 commanded by Lieutenant John D. Bulkeley, and successfully evaded an intense Japanese search for him.
Return?

War Plan Orange (commonly known as Plan Orange or just Orange) was invoked. Predating the Rainbow plans, which presumed allies, Orange was predicated on the U.S. fighting Japan alone. It anticipated a withholding of supplies from the Philippines and other U.S. outposts in the Western Pacific (they were expected to hold out on their own), while the Pacific Fleet marshaled its strength at bases in California, and guarded against attacks on the Panama Canal. After mobilization (the ships maintained only half of their crews in peacetime), the fleet sailed to the Western Pacific to relieve American forces in Guam and the Philippines. Afterwards, the fleet sailed due north for a decisive battle against the Imperial Japanese Navy, and then blockade the Japanese home islands. The Imperial Japanese Navy developed a counter-plan to allow the Pacific Fleet to sail across the Pacific while using submarines and carrier attacks to weaken it. The Japanese fleet attempt to force a battle against the U.S. in a 'decisive battle area', near Japan, after inflicting such attrition. This is in keeping with the theory of Alfred Thayer Mahan, a doctrine to which every major navy subscribed before World War II, in which wars would be decided by engagements between opposing surface fleets[1] (as they had been for over 300 years). It was the basis for Japan's demand for a 70% ratio (10:10:7) at the Washington Naval Conference, which would give Japan superiority in the 'decisive battle area', and the U.S.'s insistence on a 60% ratio, as 70% superiority was believed to be necessary for a successful attack. Disasterously the American war planners failed to appreciate that technological advances in submarines and naval aviation had made Mahan's doctrine obsolete. In particular, the American planners did not understand that aircraft could sink battleships, nor that Japan might put the U.S. battleship force (the Battle Line) out of action at a stroke. American plans changed after the failure of War Plan Orange. Even after major Japanese defeats like Midway, the U.S. fleet favored a methodical 'island-hopping' advance, never going far beyond land-based air cover. Moreover, by their obsession with 'decisive battle', the Imperial Japanese Navy would ignore the vital role of antisubmarine warfare. Germany and the U.S. would demonstrate the need for this with their submarine campaigns against Allied and Japanese merchant shipping respectively. The American campaign ultimately choked Japan's industrial production. Japan also notably failed to institute an anti-commerce campaign themselves.

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In 1933, the Parliament of Austria was suspended because of a quibble over procedure. Chancellor Adolf Schicklegruber initiated authoritarian rule by decree

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