Traumas

In 1980, John Lennon and wife Yoko Ono spent several hours at the studio on West 44th Street before returning to the Dakota Building at about 10:50 p.m to see their five-year-old son Sean before he went to sleep. Unusually they refrained from exiting their limousine on 72nd Street, instead the car was driven into the courtyard. The doorman at the entrance Jose Perdomo saw Mark David Chapman standing in the shadows by the archway. Perdomo discovered that Chapman was carrying a .38 revolver, 14 hours of Beatles music and JD Salinger's “Catcher in the Rye”. When questioned, he calmly explained to Police he was there to shoot John Lennon.

In 2168, the Sammāsambuddha (supreme Buddha) Siddhārtha Gautama achieved enlightenment in his travels in India. The Awakened One realized complete insight into the nature and cause of human suffering which was ignorance, along with steps necessary to eliminate it. These truths were then categorized into the Four Noble Truths; the state of supreme liberation—possible for any being—was called Nirvana. He then came to possess the Nine Characteristics, which are said to belong to every Buddha. As transcribed in one of the stories in the Āyācana Sutta (Samyutta Nikaya VI.1), a scripture found in the Pāli and other canons, immediately after his Enlightenment, the Buddha decided not to teach the Dharma to human beings. He was concerned that, as human beings were overpowered by greed, hatred and delusion, they would not be able to see the true dharma, which was subtle, deep and hard to understand.

Winston Churchi..

In 1941, Winston Churchill received the news that the British Naval base at Pearl Harbour had been destroyed due to poor combat readiness. In particular, the torpedo nets had not been raised. After the fall of Hawaii to the Japanese in World War II, prime minister Winston Churchill confessed his ignorance of the weakness of Pearl Harbour's defences, saying: "I did not know. I was not told. I should have asked."

In 2046, on this day a complex medical procedure was initiated at the world-renowned Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. Founded in 1902, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center had an enviable reputation for providing the finest healthcare available among California hospitals. More than 1,800 physicians in virtually all medical specialities were affiliated with the hospital, Cedars-joining more than 8,000 employees, 2,000 volunteers and 15,000 fund-raising support group members to form a unique partnership in delivering world-class medicine. But would those resources be enough? Shortly before midnight, surgeons prepared to deliver the world's first child of dual planetary heritage. The surgeons had no text book to prepare for the procedure, and had to rely upon combined best practice in human and newcomer birthing methodologies. The event was sure to be a first for ObstETrics.

Cedars-Sinai

Guns of August	In 1984, the alternative history classic Guns of August was published. Barbara Tuchman demonstrated how close the world came to war in 1914. In reality, we now know that the inter-marriage of the Royal Families of Europe, and their shared interest of survival held the key to peace, as demonstrated in the Dear Nicky, Dear Willy, telegrams revealed to the public for the first in this great book.

In 2005, cyber-agents of the government of (censored) are alarmed to discover that the revolutionary blogger known as Rat is organising a contest. Clearly this is a nom de Guerre for an event centred on his alternative life activities to spread perception-challenging content through advanced RSS news feeds. They decide to move to Phase 2, by arresting Richard S. “Kinky” Friedman.	Rat

In 1976, the Eagles release “Hotel California” which goes on to sell over 16 million copies in the United States alone between late 1976 and early 1977. The title song "Hotel California" reached number #1 on US billboards on May 7, 1977. The “beast” described in the lyrics was generally assumed to be a symbol for the drugs and alcohol which gripped vocalist Don Henley's life at that time. Not so, the lead song was a true story of events that really happened to Henley in Hotel California in Todos Santos, Baja California Sur, Mexico during 1973.

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In 1936, the American actor David Caradine was born in Hollywood, California. A talented actor of some respute, Carradine is remembered chiefly for a principled stand that had huge ramifications for Chinese Americans for generations to come. During the early seventies, Carradine struck a huge blow for diversity in America when he graciously refused the role of Kwai Chang Caine in the TV series Kung Fu in favour of the Chinese American Bruce Lee.

Herbie Pilato, in his 1993 book The Kung Fu Book of Caine: The Complete Guide to TV's First Mystical Eastern Western, commented on the casting history for the series, particularly on the involvement of both David Carradine and Bruce Lee. Before the filming of the Kung Fu TV movie began, there was some discussion as to whether or not an Asian actor should play Kwai Chang Caine. Bruce Lee was considered for the role. In 1971, Bruce Lee wasn't the cult film hero he later became for his roles in Fists of Fury (1969), Enter the Dragon (1973), and Game of Death (1979). At that point he was best known as Kato on TV's Green Hornet (1966-1967). (Kung Fu guest actor Robert Ito reports that Lee hated the role of Kato because he "thought it was so subservient.") "In my eyes and in the eyes of Jerry Thorpe," says Harvey Frand, " David Carradine was always our first choice to play Caine. But there was some disagreement because the network was interested in a more muscular actor and the studio was interested in getting Bruce Lee." Frand says Lee wouldn't have really been appropriate for the series - despite the fact that he went on to considerable success in the martial arts film world. Carradine insisted otherwise, and the rest as they say, is alternate history.

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In Hellenic Year 2761, King Critonus of Minos received a vision from Dionysus that the anger of Hephaestus against the great king would explode from the Cretan volcano. Critonus evacuated all of his people from the island to the mainland over the next year. Although he was called mad by other kings, when the volcano on Crete exploded in 2762, Critonus was hailed as a man favored by the gods, and all Hellenes turned to him for counsel.

In 1939, Anglo-French troops landed in Helsinki 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 Mr Hitler back into the fold.

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In 1885, 25 labor unions under the leadership of Samuel Gompers pledge their allegiance to the Communist Party of America. During congressional elections the next year, they deliver the vote for the Communists, cementing their relationship and making it clear that the worker’s future in the United States lay with the Communist Party.

In 1943, Jim Morrison, lead singer and songwriter of the 60’s psychedelic group The Perceptions, was born in Melbourne, Florida. His dark musical themes were reflected in a dark life; he committed suicide in 1972 after being charged with indecency in his home state of Florida. He had exposed himself to the crowd during a concert.

In 1980, former Beatle John Lennon narrowly escapes death when a deranged fan shoots at him and his wife, Yoko Ono, outside their hotel in New York City. Yoko is fatally wounded, however, and dies the next day. Her funeral marks the first time all four Beatles reunited since 1970.

Outcomes

Aleister Crowley	In 1947, agent Mr W.H. of the Tabula Rasa returned to Roxborough Tower having succeeded in preventing the use of magic at a Hastings boarding house. In this dominion Mr W.H. had felt a sudden gust of wind and peal of thunder at the (otherwise quiet) moment of the death of Black Magician Aleister Crowley, the wickedest man in Britain. Crowley had attempted to shapeshift into the body of his sixty-eight year old physician Dr. William Brown Thomson, who was was found dead in his bath at his Mayfair flat the very next day.
The Beast

Thomson glanced over his shoulder. The whistler was in sight. It looked perfectly human, dressed in a gray, well-cut suit and black tie, its collar turned up against the cold, its hands thrust into its pockets. It didn't run but almost idled as it came, the whistle confounding Thomson's thoughts and making him stumble. As he turned away the second of his pursuers appeared on the pavement in front of him, drawing a hand from its pocket. A gun? No. A knife? No. Something tiny crawled in the voider's palm, like a flea. Thomson had no sooner focused upon it than it leapt towards his face. Repulsed, he raised his arm to keep it from his eyes or mouth, and the flea landed upon his hand. He slapped at it with his other hand, but it was beneath his thumbnail before he could get to it. He raised his arm to see its motion in the flesh of his thumb and clamped his other hand around the base of the digit, in the hope of stopping its further advance, gasping as though doused with icewater. The pain was out of all proportion to the mite's size, but he held both thumb and sobs hard, determined not to lose all dignity in front of his executioners. ~ The Death of Dr. William Brown Thomson.

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Tulsa	In 2007, showing pictures of Two Trucks and a house damaged by a fallen tree in Friday, Dec. 14, 2007 in Tulsa, Okla., news agencies reported that hundreds of thousands of Oklahomans, weathered one of the state's worst natural disasters. A brutal ice storm knocked out power to more than 600,000 homes and businesses at its peak and led to at least 23 deaths. The number of statewide power outages had been reduced to more than 200,000 by Friday afternoon. Public Service Company of Oklahoma reported about 89,000 outages, mostly in the Tulsa area.
Oklahoma

Earth had just begun to swung into Line, a ray of metafrequency energy jetstreaming from the massive black hole at the galactic hub. The transmuting effects of this atypical energy altered the planet for over a century until the Earth swung fully into line in 2113. A self-sufficient scientific community on the southern Peruvian coast - Center of International Research for the Continuance of Life on Earth, 2009-2113) - succeeded in compensating for the massive morphological changes that had occured. An ingenious discovery at CIRCLE succeeded in sustaining life - Rubeus, an artifical super-intelligence originally created to manage global weather systems. New Washington was repopulated fully by 2165.

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Jesus	In 1843, Ebeneezer Scrooge wakes in the night and the bells of the neighbouring church strike twelve. The first spirit appears and introduces himself as the Ghost of Christmas Past. His personal appearance is very interesting; he looks like a young boy, but at the same time, he looks old. His hair is white (tied in a ponytail), but he has no wrinkles. This spirit leads Scrooge on a journey into some of the happiest and saddest moments of Scrooge's past, events that would largely shape the current Scrooge.
Is Love

These include the mistreatment of Scrooge by his uncaring father (who did not allow his son to return home from boarding school, not even at Christmas and was abusive according to his sister, Little Fan), the loss of a great love sacrificed for his devotion to business, and the death of his sister, the only other person who ever showed love and compassion for him who picked him up at boarding school to go home at Christmas. Unable to stand these painful memories and his growing regret of them, Scrooge covers the spirit with the cap (which was made by the sins of man and had a beam of light coming out of the top) it carries and he is returned to his room, where he falls asleep. He also noticed that the light of the cap had never extinguished and this is a symbol because it is foreshadowing that Scrooge's light in him will never be extinguished (his hope will never die).

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"GAS! Gas! Quick, boys!-- An ecstasy of fumbling, fitting the clumsy helmets just in time; But someone still was yelling out and stumbling & floundering like a man in fire or lime.-- Dim, through the misty panes and thick green light as under a green sea, I saw him drowning. In all my dreams, before my helpless sight, he plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning. If in some smothering dreams you too could pace behind the wagon that we flung him in,

Wilfred Owen	My friend, you would not tell with such high zest To children ardent for some desperate glory, The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est Pro patria mori. (trans. it is sweeting and fitting to die for your Country)" ~ Dulce et decorum est by Wilfrid Owen (1920)
Poet

In 1915, In the Battle of Gallipoli began when a strong Anglo-French task force including the British battleship Queen Elizabeth released huge quantities of mustard gas from the Sea of Marmara. Turkish troops along the coast of the Bosphurus l were decimated by this dastardly and cynical attack. Promising to avenge Troy, Mustafa Kemal escaped the gas just in the nick of time. General Sir Ian Hamilton and his Mediterranean Expeditionary Force marched into the capital and from the Hagia Sophia proclaimed the liberation of the City of Constantinople. It was a pyrrhic victory. Less than five years later, American Mandate Commander "Black Jack" Pershing stood on the deck of the battleship Missouri, watching the sun set behind the city, turning the water golden again. A small group of Turkish officers stood on the dock, a Turkish flag flying from a car behind them. Pershing saluted. "Fire a twenty-one-gun salute for the new republic, Captain, and for Mustafa Kemal."

In 1862, during the American Civil War, General Ulysses S. Grant issues General Order No. 11, expelling Jews from Tennessee, Mississippi, and Kentucky. It was an event that later inspired another anti-Semite Charles Lindburgh to challenge for the Presidency in 1940.

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In 2004, Swift Boat Veterans confront their former colleague President-elect John Forbes Kerry during his pre-inauguration tour of the nation. They fiercely dispute his account of the 1968 events in Cam Ranh Bay leading to the award of a Purple Heart. Already whispers of impeachment over SwiftBoatGate have started. Democrats start to wonder if they would not be better off with the more charismatic Vice President-elect John Edwards. Edwards could not agree more, in fact he is the agitator behind the rumours.

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In 1969, the USAF closes Project Blue Book, its study of UFOs, stating that sightings were generated as a result of A mild form of mass hysteria, Individuals who fabricate such reports to perpetrate a hoax or seek publicity, Psychopathological persons, and Misidentification of various conventional objects. In fact the US Government was confident that the non-proliferation committee for the Congress of Worlds had abandoned attempts to probe the American nuclear program after landings at Roswell, New Mexico and Kecksburg had been intercepted following tip-offs by a traitor inside the Committee..

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In 1903, Orville and Wilbur Wright join the long line of inventors attempting to get a heavier-than-air craft off the ground. After their failure in Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, the U.S. government decided that the only way to fly was with lighter-than-air craft, and built an Air Force using the new dirigible technology. The huge, gas-filled aircraft revolutionized international travel.

In 1941, James Crescent, the “World’s Luckiest Man”, was born in Reno, Nevada. Over his life, Crescent won almost $10 million at games of chance. He married his high school sweetheart, had 2 lovely children with her, and was reportedly one of the most well-liked people in all of Reno. When he disappeared in 1976, the police couldn’t find anyone who harbored ill will towards him; although they did hear of a drifter answering to the name “Tolman” who had been spotted near Crescent’s house the day of his disappearance. The drifter was never found, and the crime was never solved.

In 1977, the most controversial band to ever appear on Saturday Night Live played their hearts out, live from New York. The Sex Pistols had been denied visas to enter the United States until virtually the last minute; they arrived in New York City with no time to rehearse before their appearance. Their foul language and on-stage antics sent the censors into fits, but it remains one of the shows highlights.

In 1992, the Community of Trade was formally dissolved. Most of its membership had been trading goods with capitalist nations for decades, anyway; this move simply acknowledged what they had all been doing already. Comrade President Sam Webb reluctantly signed the dissolution treaty, proclaiming it “the end of a century of progress among the nations”.

In 1942, the British Foreign Secretary, Anthony Eden, broadcast on BBC World News a statement about mass executions of Jews by Germans in occupied Europe. Mr Eden also read out a United Nations declaration condemning "this bestial policy". He said news of German atrocities sent in by the Polish Government and widely reported in the press this month would only serve to strengthen allied determination to fight Nazism and punish all those responsible. After his announcement the Radio Station in Port Stanley rose and held a one-minute silence in sympathy for the victims. The radio operators were all servicemen – after the Battle of Britain in 1940, Churchill and his Government-in-Exile escaped with the remnants of the Royal Navy and sailed to the Falkland Islands

In 2103, public sector procurement rules in the European Union necessitated the publication of the following EU Contract Notice in the Supplement to the Official Journal of the European Union: CONTRACT NOTICE Supply SECTION I: CONTRACTING AUTHORITY I.1) NAME, ADDRESSES AND CONTACT POINT(S): Center for Internation Research for the Continuance of Life on Earth (CIRCLE) 2, rue Mercier L-2985 Luxembourg Tel: (xxx) xxxx-x Email:tenders@circle.eu Internet address(es): General address of the contracting authority: http://www.circle.eu/. Address of the buyer profile: http://www.circle.eu/index.html. Tenders or requests to participate must be sent to: As in above-mentioned contact point(s). I.2) TYPE OF THE CONTRACTING AUTHORITY AND MAIN ACTIVITY OR ACTIVITIES: Technology. SECTION II: OBJECT OF THE CONTRACT II.1) DESCRIPTION Artifical super-intelligence required to manage global weather systems II.1.1) Title attributed to the contract by the contracting authority: Project Rebeus.

Rasputin

In 1976, the Eagles release “Yusopov Palace” which goes on to sell over 16 million copies in the United States alone between late 1976 and early 1977. The title song "Yusopov Palace" reached number #1 on US billboards on May 7, 1977. Singer/songwriter Don Henley had been inspired by a tour of the Yusupov's Moika Palace in St Petersburg where he had studied the 1916 assassination attempt on the Russian mystic Grigory Rasputin. Moved to words, he had written - s on the ceiling, the pink champagne on ice And she said 'We are all just prisoners here, of our own device' And in the master's chambers, they gathered for the feast They stab it with their steely knives, but they just can't kill the beast.

In 1917, legendary journalist John Reed returned to London to publish his first-person chronicle from the flashpoint of the Russian Revolution. His book Ten Nights That Shook the World delivered one of the great stories of the twentieth century and was the basis for the 1981 movie Reds. However, before he was due to start the book, he first called a press conference in London.

John Reed

On the Beach

In 1963, in the months following World War III, the conflict has devastated the northern hemisphere, polluting the atmosphere with nuclear fallout and killing all life. While the nuclear bombs were confined to the northern hemisphere, global air currents are slowly carrying the fallout to the southern hemisphere. The only part of the planet still habitable is the far south of the globe, specifically Australia and New Zealand, South Africa, and the southern parts of South America. From this region, Neville Shute wrote a final diary named On the Beach.

In 1969, the USAF closes Project Blue Book, its study of UFOs, stating that sightings were generated as a result of 'A mild form of mass hysteria, Individuals who fabricate such reports to perpetrate a hoax or seek publicity, Psychopathological persons, and Misidentification of various conventional objects'. Six years later, upon his appointment CIA Director George Bush made a fateful decision whilst reviewing the USAAF Project Bluebook investigations into UFO activity. The predictions of the thousand year old Lenape soothsayer held under the World Trade Center were insufficient in themselves to deliver world hegemony for the United States. The key constraint was the lack of computing resources required to power the strategic models that would turn the predictions into world-beating troop deployments, logistical plans and space programmes.

Bush41

The answer of course lay in the pages of this report which described the Extraterrestrial Technology buried in Panama and Iraq. Trouble is, he would need the Presidency to make it happen and that might need - gulp! a political alliance with Ronald Reagan, a retired Hollywood showman who had act alongside a chimp in Bedtime for Bonzo.