Plans

August 30th, 2007

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Don't forget - Birthday Contest for Steve – November 22, 1967. Send in an alternate birthday for him for us to post!

Alt-Notes: In RATMANifesto, I'm going to collect the continuing timelines and give them a home, finally. That's one of the projects I've been meaning to do or some time, but couldn't get around to because I had to keep putting up new posts. RATMANifesto is also going to be a site for my projects, no matter what they are – I plan on putting up a podcast or two, provided we can swing the bandwidth.
In the meantime, he's Steve, our future Alternate Historian, with today's post. Look for changes in the design of the site tonight – Steve is looking to make TIAH simpler and more conducive to the kind of visual posts he has created for us.

	"Britain was in the wrong Union. Rather than the European Union, a group hostile to Britain and the English language, Britain belonged in the American Union, on the road to worldwide English-Speaking Union. " ~ Expansionist Party of the United States

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

In 1868, in Lee Allred's West of Appomattox US Secretary of State General Robert E. Lee agrees to a proposal from a powerful but nameless figure in the British establishment which will settle the dispute between the two nations. Lee agrees to an act of self-sacrifice by resigning his position, admitting that the execution of Confederate President Jefferson Davis for treason was a strike against democracy and the constitution of the founding fathers. He reflects briefly on the insincerity of Abraham Lincoln's inaugural address - You have no oath registered in heaven to destroy the Government, while I shall have the most solemn one to "preserve, protect, and defend it." Lifting his pen to write the statement, he says - “I will pay the price to keep that oath”.

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

In 1946, former US Vice President John Nance Garner coined the term “Day of Infamy” when he delivered his Sinews of Peace speech at Westminster College in Fulton, Missouri. The anniversary of the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were fast approaching, and debate raged in the United States about Truman's falsehood in describing the cities as military bases, chosen to minimise civilian casualties.

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

In 2007, Northern Prime Minister John Kerry flew into London, England to meet with the new British Prime Minister, Gordon Brown. “We know that we cannot solve any of the world's major problems without the active engagement of the U.K.," Kerry said in a statement to journalist Niall Ferguson at Heathrow Airport.

~ variant from Steve Payne: extensive use of original content from the climax of Virtual History: Alternatives and Counterfactuals has been made to celebrate the author's genius.

Gruffalo	In 2007, Dustin Hoffman was nominated for a BAFTA TV Award for his potrayal of the Gruffalo. Famous for going to extreme lengths to get "in character", Hoffman had spent six months in the deep, dark wood eating scrambled snake, owl ice cream and roasted fox.
~ entry by Steve Payne from Counter History in Context - You're the Judge!

"Old Blood and Guts" Part 4 (1945-1965) - Robert L. Thompson subsequently admitted on his death bed that Eisenhower had General George Smith Patton III assassinated; that the auto accident in which Patton broke his neck was not an accident at all. Patton was planning either to retire or resign his commission, and enter politics. Given his popularity with the American people and the respect in which he was held by his men, it is entirely possible he could have won the same nomination his erstwhile friend accepted. Evidence suggests that the American public shared Patton's assessment of the Soviet threat. Patton's biography notes "[The] course of World War II would lead these two men to very different ends: one to the office of President of the United States and the other to a soldier's grave on a foreign shore." We now know that these different ends were by design and not by accident.

~ alternate obituary from Steve Payne: extensive use of original content has been made to re-examine the significance of a controversial historical figure.

In 1963, Kwame Nkrumah, founder and first president of the modern Ghanaian state delivered a historic breakthrough for the troubled people of New Africa in their centennial year. During the War of the States, the North had refused to enlist African Americans soldiers. Whites had been ejected from from the South after devastating epidemics had destroyed the Confederacy. After the founding of New Africa, African Americans found that their only common language was the oppressor's English. Some refuse to speak until a better tongue was found. A true visionary, Nkrumah was much more than an African anti-colonial leader. He was also one with a dream of a united Africa which would not drift into neo-colonialism. The people of New Africa understood that unity around the English medium was the key to Ghana's success in nation building, a necessary step given the hundreds of languages of West Africa *. Silent no more, New Africa strode forward into its second century with renewed confidence, taking is place amongst the nations.

~ variant from Steve Payne: extensive use of original content has been made to celebrate the genius of Suzette Haden Elgin's classic Hush My Mouth.

* Author's note - Even today in 2007 the Bible has not been translated into all the language of every micro-ethnicity.

Von Runstedt	In 1943, rioters overwhelm defending Fascist Blackshirts to storm Buckingham Palace. British Prime Minister Oswald Mosley and King Edward VIII are seized and hung from lampposts on Whitehall. Generalfeldmarschall Erwin Rommel issued a command instruction to German forces in Britain that the occupation was over and the Wehrmacht should cease further combat operations.
FeldmarschallKarl Rudolf Gerd von Rundstedt shot Rommel dead with a service revolver. “Death before dishonour” he said before also shooting himself in the head. He was thus unavailable to confirm whether his final statement referred to the cessation of hostilities, or the release of of huge quantities of poison gas just three days before at the liberating invasion forces in Dorking, in direct contravention of the Geneva Convention.
~ entry by Steve Payne from Counter History in Context - You're the Judge!

In 2003, from behind a one-way mirror in Paddington Green Police Station, the Prime ..	Paddington Green..
.. Minister of United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland observes the two interviewees, twenty-second century fugitive Brent and first Asian QC Kim Hollis. Urgent investigations are being pursued in relation to the apparent suicide of the Attorney General Lord Peter Goldsmith. That suicide had prevented Goldsmith from issuing confidential legal advice that British involvement in a land invasion of Iraq would be legal despite the absence of a UN Security Council Resolution explicitly sanctioning participation by the “coalition of the willing”. Now the whole schedule for the invasion was delayed, damn!.
~ entry by Steve Payne from Counter History in Context - You're the Judge!

General-san	In 1945, Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces, General Douglas MacArthur landed at Atsugi Air Force Base with instructions to accept Japan's surrender. Swiftly installed as military governor and de facto Head of State, it was some time before the United States realised that Brass Hat had no intention of letting going of the reins of power.
The incredible story of how General-san crushed post-war Japan under his heel was described in the biography "The Rising Sun at Dusk" by Jack Nimersheim, published in Alternate Tyrants by the editor Mike Resnick in 1997.
~ entry by Steve Payne from Counter History in Context - You're the Judge!

In 2003, on this day the compendium “A Collection of Political Counterfactuals” was published. Simon Burns' masterful sequel "What if Sirhan Sirhan had missed?" was a keynote contribution, considering the scenario where Robert Kennedy had served as U.S. president from 1969. The essence of Burns' masterpiece ..	Snake Eyes
.. is the competition of mysterious forces in Los Angeles. Two green pinpricks are amongst the ocean of eyes who watch the Kennedy's car arrive at the Ambassador Hotel. The presidential candidate enters a service area to greet supporters working in the hotel's kitchen. As he enters a crowded kitchen passage way, he notices a young man with a t-shirt banner which declares Snake Eyes watching you. Kennedy instinctively ducks, and the assassins bullets thud into the kitchen wall as the 24-year Palestinian assassin is bundled to the ground by security guards. The novel ends with RFK speaking to Neil Armstrong in the Sea of Tranquillity as his brother's goal “to send a man to the moon in this decade” is achieved.
~ entry by Steve Payne from Counter History in Context - You're the Judge!

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Union Activity In Seattle

The state of TIAH

February 6th, 2007

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Alternate Historian's Note: We are working on a new project – a collection in book format of several timelines with more-or-less complete stories inside them – The Fall, the Tolman timeline, the Mormon War, the Lascaux Cave story, and more – that will have our NaNoWriMo novel, After, included with it. Once they're edited together, we'll put the lot up for sale on Lulu. 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. And, speaking of side projects, Guest Historian Stephen Payne has one, Crimson Kiss, available for free on Lulu. Check it out and put up a review!

in 1820, the American Colonization Society, an abolitionist organization devoted to seeing the repatriation of Africans to their native land, sends off its first colonists to Freetown, a new colony in West Africa. The success of the Freetown project draws hundreds, then thousands, and then finally millions as slaves of African descent find their way across the ocean and away from their lives of captivity. By 1849, so few slaves existed in the Americas that all of the countries had abolished slavery. Even the United States and Brazil, the last two holdouts, finally had to admit that they were unable to maintain the institution in the face of such a yearning for freedom. With the collapse of slavery, many in the US south turned to newly-arrived techniques of mechanical industry in order to tend crops, and the region became a center for the new Industrial Revolution. Ironically, their greatest trading partners were the nations of West Africa that had been founded by freed slaves, proving that no matter what your past may be, business is business.

in 1919, Federal troops and professional strike-breakers clash with union members in the streets of Seattle, Washington, as the corporate elite of America attempt to stem the strong pro-union tide sweeping the nation. Unfortunately for the elite, many of the troops cross over to the other side during the fighting, and they are forced to surrender before they are lynched. One particularly loud anti-union boss, A.J. Patrick of the North Coast Shipping firm, does wait too long, and is torn limb from limb in his office after making many disparaging remarks about his workers. While America's political leaders denounce the violence in Seattle, the strength shown by the unions gives them immense popularity among the working class, and their numbers swell. Although the anti-union elite attempt to link the labor movement to the Communists in Russia, the 1920's see the end of their power and the entrenchment of labor's political power in America.

in 2007, the articles of impeachment pass in contentious debate in the US House, and a trial date is hastily arranged in the Senate. Several prominent Republicans, among whom are rather obvious presidential contenders, vow that their votes on the articles are not predetermined. Senator Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut, an independent, leads President Bush's defense at the White House's request. The District Attorney in Peoria, Illinois, where the president committed his mass slaughter, comes under immense pressure to drop the paltry manslaughter charges against the Commander-in-Chief. He refuses, declaring that he bowed to political demands in reducing the charges from murder in the first place. Late at night, a meeting between President Bush and a large number of advisors is assembled in secret.

Treaty of Waita..	In 1840 by signing the Treaty of Waitangi Māori chiefs force representatives of the British Crown to permanently withdraw the Royal Navy from the total exclusion zone of 200 nautical miles around the North Island. A British apologist, James Busby, had earlier tried to convinced some 35 ..
.. of these chiefs to declare independence as the Confederation of the United Tribes of New Zealand but they rejected the degenerate concept of sovereignty. Like many First Nations the Māori were semi-nomadic, arriving from Eastern Polynesian Islands cAD800. They understood fully the unity of time and space in the Dreamtime.
~ entry by Steve Payne from counter history in context - you're the judge!

In 1952 Elizabeth II became Queen of England upon the death of her father George VI. At the exact moment of succession, she was in a tree house at the Treetops Hotel in Kenya with her Fulani husband, the Sultan of Sokoto.	Queen Elizabeth..
~ entry by Steve Payne from Counter History in Context - You're the Judge!

1968 Winter Oly..	In 1968 Emperor Napoleon V opened the X Olympic Winter Games in Grenoble, France.
~ entry by Steve Payne from counter history in context - you're the judge!

In 1992 the Saami people of Scandinavia popularly known as Laplanders rejoiced on a special day. They celebrated the earliest participation of Europeans in the Mesh, the global network of First Nation consciousness founded in Manna-hata, Turtle Island exactly five hundred years before. ..	Saami
.. Just in the nick of time to frustrate the marauder Columbus from landing. He and his crew were excluded from the continent by the irresistible exclusion of melancholy eminating from the Mesh.
~ entry by Steve Payne from Counter History in Context - You're the Judge!

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Irregulars

In 1915, refusing to admit defeat at Gallipoli, War Minister Kitchener orders a surge in British and Commonwealth troop levels, vainly trying to force their way to the capital of the Ottoman Empire. Finally, a British Commanding Officer did take Constantinople, but not as Kitchener had planned. Five years later, Colonel T.E. Lawrence realised Napoleon's young dream of conquering the East. Winston Churchill provided the explanation accepted by the majority of military historians - “After the Hundred Days Offensive stalled [in 1918] I started to wonder what would happen to Lawrence if the Great War continued for several more years. His fame was spreading fast and with the momentum of the fabulous through Asia. The earth trembled with the wrath of the warring nations. All the metals were molten. Everything was in motion. No one could say what was impossible. Lawrence might have realised Napoleon's young dream of conquering the East; he might have arrived in Constantinople in 1919 or 1920 with most of the tribes and races of Asia Minor and Arabia at his back.”

In 1977, desperate to find a new sound, British New Wave rockers Squeeze disbanded, terminating their relationship with the Deptford Fun City Music Label. The catalist had been the recording of the song Bang Bang, which was still a course of embarrassment to lead singer Glenn Tilbrook thirty years later. Chris Difford was not fond of the song either, and Jools Holland decided to pursue his Boogie Woogie '78 concept instead, dominating the 1980's with his Rhythm and Blues Orchestra. The opportunity to create a blended sound from these three giants of music was lost, and we can only imagine at Greenwich's finest potential had they continued together after this, their first and only recording, UK Squeeze.

In 1978, The Soviet States of America formally recognizes the capitalist state of Brazil. America had never recognized the counter-revolutionaries who overthrew the People’s Republic of Brazil in 1959, and had armed Communist rebels in the country for nearly 15 years. Comrade President John Anderson wished to work with the capitalists of the world, though, and he felt that recognizing one of the world’s largest nations was a good step in that direction.

Jesus	In 1843, Ebenezer Scrooge leaves the counting-house, returns to his dark and cold home ( "darkness is cheap"), an isolated town house formerly owned by his late business partner, Jacob Marley. While he unlocks his door Scrooge is startled to see the ghostly face of Marley instead of the familiar appearance of his door knocker. This is just the beginning of Scrooge's harrowing night.
Is Love

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In 1947, in a traditional Fulani ceremony at the Shehu Mosque in West Africa the Sultan of Sokoto marries Princess Elizabeth of England.

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In 1966, Walt Disney died at his home in Kansas City, Missouri, handing his business empire to his brother Roy. Revelations later emerged that damaged the Disney image. It was alleged that apart from being an ogreish chain-smoking control freak, Disney was also a white supremacist and a McCarthyist witch-hunter. After the 1941 strike of Disney Studio employees, Walt Disney deeply distrusted organized labor. In 1947, during the early years of the Cold War, Disney testified before the House Un-American Activities Committee, where he branded Herbert Sorrell, David Hilberman and William Pomerance, former animators and labor union organizers, as Communist agitators (the three men denied the allegations.) Disney implicated the Screen Actors Guild as a Communist front, and charged that the 1941 strike was part of an organized Communist effort to gain influence in Hollywood. However, no evidence has been discovered to support this. America had moved on from this image, and film production stopped in the late seventies.

John Forbes Kerry

In 2004, John Forbes Kerry embarked on a national tour of America. Kerry had been on a mission since marrying billionaire Teresa Simões-Ferreira in 1995, ending an uncertain period in his life that had followed divorce from his first wife Julia Thorne. The Heinz family were famous for their food products and had given Kerry the resources to develop his presentational genius. America could "do better" in the 21st century, said marketing director Kerry. Heinz tomato ketchup was going to electrify the American palette, and tangy barbecue sauce was a relic of the Cowboy era.

In 1972, restaurateur Carl Johnson, an Alabaman born and raised during the Great Depression, brought a series of recipes from his childhood to a mass market with his chain of Southern Fried Possum stores. The spicey meat treat was surprisingly popular across the country, and Johnson was soon a multi-millionaire.

In 1947, in Ottawa Canada Prince Philippos of Greece and Denmark married Princess Elizabeth of England, the heir to King George VI. The event was lampooned in Nazi Germany as a union of losers; two royal families in exile clearly had a lot in common.	Prince Phillip

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 her own machinations and little sympathy was evident in their daily newspapers including the Sun, Mirror and Mail.

In 1939, Gone with the Wind premièred on Broadway. Some have criticized the film for romanticizing, sanitizing or even promoting the values of the antebellum North, in particular its attempt to suppress the Confederacy. Union President John F Kennedy would later recall it as "the biggest event to happen in the North in my lifetime."	GWTW

Hijacks

Alternate Historian says, construction work continues at the Academy.

From Jan 1 2008 the new format for TIAH will have just the story in a yellow shaded area. Underneath will be hyperlinked metadata tags. This will link to the source article and also use the Blogger search facility to link together the thread - so you can read the whole story in one go.

Basically each story will be a mini-post within a post.

The HTML is machine generated by an OpenOffice spreadsheet with a squillion functions designed using the test/fix methodology. Before we forget how it works, we'd love some feedback.

Please email the Alternate Historian with your comments on the already underway developments, or better still some new ideas!

Kaiser	In 1914, on this day South African troops land in German South West Africa. Ever since the Kaiser's cynical intervention in the Boer War, Imperial Germany had identified South Africa as a regional partner, not to mention a boundless source of mineral wealth. As Britain and France fought for survival on the Western Front, German and South Africa troops drove into Southern Africa creating new facts on the ground that would prove to be very difficult to reverse after the Great War.
~ entry by Alternate Historian

In 1914, the Irish Home Rule Bill becomes law forming the Free State on the very cusp of the First World War. Michael Collins, the author of Ireland's constitution, Bunreacht na hÉireann stated that thousands of unnecessary saved deaths in the trenches had been averted by precipitous timing, “the luck of the Irish” he said.	Michael Collins
~ entry by Alternate Historian

Mukden Incident	In 1931, the Mukden Incident gave China the pretext to invade and occupy Kyushu. In fact, Japan had been dangerously destabilised for a millennia. In 1281 the fleet of Qubilai Khan narrowly averted destruction by a typhoon whilst approaching Japan, the first of many Chinese incursions into the homelands began shortly thereafter.
~ entry by Alternate Historian

In 1945, General Douglas MacArthur moved his command headquarters to Tokyo. Swiftly installed as military governor and de facto Head of State, it was some time before the United States realised that Brass Hat had no intention of letting going of the reins of power. The incredible story of how General-san crushed post-war Japan under his heel was described in the biography "The Rising Sun at Dusk" by Jack Nimersheim, published in Unlikely Tyrants by the editor Mike Resnick in 1997.	General-san
~ entry by Steve Payne

In 1968, a fourth-generation German American living in easy circumstances on Cape Cod (and smoking too much) published a most remarkable book - Slaughter-house-Five. Kurt Vonnegut consider the book a failure. Like Lot's wife, he had spent twenty-five years looking back at “his” Sodom and Gomorrah, the fire-bombing of Dresden. He too was a “pillar of salt”. Now he planned to work on a work of humour and stop looking back. Yet something was about to happen to change his easy circumstances, and give this incredible human being a subject matter much bigger than the fire-bombing of Dresen. A canvass, in fact, as big as the Universe in which humanity played only a bit part. And so it goes.

~ entry by Alternate Historian

Paul Weller	"I first felt a fist, and then a kick, I could now smell their breath And too many right wing meetings, My life swam around me It took a look and drowned me in its own existence The smell of brown leather, It blended in with the weather It filled my eyes, ears, nose and mouth, It blocked all my senses Couldn't see, hear, speak any longer And I'm down in the tube station at midnight, I said I was down in the tube station at midnight" ~ Paul Weller, lyrics to Down In The Tube Station At Midnight.
Mod Revivalist

After punching Sid Vicious in a night club; he was followed onto the transport system and received a near-fatal beating from supporters of the Sex Pistols. A summary of Paul Weller's biography is detailed at - Wikipedia

~ quotation by Alternate Historian

Rev. Rattie	In 2007, "between web sites" Reverend "Rattie" Taylor prepared to occupy his new home in cyberspace. Said future home being built courtesy of wife Cheryl aka Cat. The open house invite was also being drafted by this most respected of alt-lifer webizens. Opening soon Rat Manifesto, attendance unrestricted (cut & paste limey Co-historians excepted).
~ entry by Alternate Historian

Brown & McFly	In 1985, Back to the Future characters "Doc" Brown and Marty McFly were the victims of twenty-third century time-travellers. On-set Marty McFly's mother Lorraine had recounted how she and George first met when her father hit George with a car. That night, Marty met Doc at the parking lot of Twin Pines Mall. Doc showed him a DeLorean DMC-12 sports car, which he falsely claimed to have modified into a time machine.
Back to the Future

The time machine required 1.21 gigawatts of power, generated by plutonium, and the car needed to be going eighty-eight miles per hour to travel through time. To demonstrate how one programs the machine, Doc entered in November 5, 1955 as the target date. The twenty-third century time-travellers appeared on set. Attempting to recover their property from Universal Pictures who had stolen the time machine, they showed up in a van and shot Doc. Marty jumped into the DeLorean and, in the ensuing chase, drove eighty-eight miles per hour, activating the time device and transported himself into a very different 1955...

~ quotation by Alternate Historian

Leaders

	In 2008, West Wing fans were stunned by the uncanny similarity between the fictional presidential contest that dominated the final seasons of the acclaimed TV show and the real-life drama of this year's US Presidential election. In fact, the similiarity was no coincidence at all. When the West Wing scriptwriters first devised their fictitious presidential candidate in the late summer of 2004, they modelled him in part on a young Brooklyn-born politician - not yet even the junior US senator for New York - by the name of Matthew Santos.

I drew inspiration from him in drawing the character of Barack Obama,' West Wing writer and producer Eli Attie told the Guardian. 'When I had to write, Santos was just appearing on the national scene. He had done a great speech at the convention and people were beginning to talk about him.' Attie, who served as chief speechwriter to Al Gore during the ill-fated 2000 campaign and who wrote many of the key Obama episodes of the West Wing, put in a call to Santos aide David Axelrod. 'I said, Tell me about this guy Matthew Santos.' The result is a bizarre case of art imitating life - only for life to imitate art back again. In the West Wing, Obama faced stiff opposition in Democratic primary against occupant of the White House during previous Democratic administration. Rivals attack him as inexperienced after just six years in Congress, but triumphs through grassroots support, inspiring speeches and message of change. Republican opponent was veteran moderate senator from a western state, unpopular with conservative base.

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	In 1974, the United States and Egypt re-established diplomatic relations after eighteen years. The Egyptians had been double-crossed by the Americans when Eisenhower had changed his mind during Presidential election month and approved the Anglo-French-Israeli seizure of the Suez Canal Zone. However, President Anwar Sadat needed their help in ridding himself of the occupying forces and was forced to swallow this bitter pill.

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In 2001, an earthquake measuring 6.8 on the Richter Scale hit the Nisqually Valley and the Seattle, Tacoma, and Olympia area of the U.S. state of Washington. Confederate President William Jefferson Clinton promised massive aid to his northern neighbour, as US/CS relations continued to thaw.

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In 1844, President John Tyler, who had himself been raised to the presidency by the death of his predecessor William Harrison, is killed by the explosion of an experimental cannon aboard the USS Princeton. Tyler had no vice-president to succeed him, so the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Virginian John Winston Jones, assumed the high office. President Jones, who had been planning on retiring, found that the power of the presidency was quite intoxicating, and used the influence he had as the incumbent to secure the Democratic Party's nomination for the 1844 elections. He won against the Whig candidate, Senator Henry Clay, in a hotly contested and close election. His stridently pro-Southern policies rubbed the northern states the wrong way, and Henry Clay, although a Southerner himself, used this disaffection to hobble Jones' power. The conflict between them is widely attributed to the shortening of Jones' life, something Clay expressed little remorse over in later years. When President Jones died in 1847, his vice-president, James K. Polk, assumed office in the middle of a war with Mexico and widespread dissatisfaction with the government. Polk's mismanagement of the Mexican War led to a wave of secessions from states bordering Mexico, and the diminishment of the once-bright shining star of the US.

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In 1966, Liverpool's Cavern Club, where superstar Pete Best had gotten his start, closes for the final time. Best regretted the closing, saying, 'I had some cool times in there,' but did little to help. Some think that he resented the club's owner because he had continued booking Best's old band, The Silver Beatles, and that's why he refused to assist them in staying open.

In 1900, the 118-day Siege of Ladysmith is lifted at a cost of 3,000 British deaths as Imperial Troops defeat the Boers and their German allies. The Kaiser cynically intervened in the Second Boer War to claim a share of the mineral wealth of South Africa for the Second Reich.

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	In 1931, Sir Oswald Mosley, disappointed by the two main parties in British politics, founds the New Party. Arguing for elections based on class lines rather than geographical location, the New Party is unpopular until the full effects of the Great Depression hit England. Mosley's ranks swell with the unemployed, and he is elected Prime Minister in 1932. He makes common cause with continental fascists Mussolini of Italy, Franco of Spain and Hitler of Germany during his premiership, but where they are all gone by the end of the decade, Mosley's rule of Britain has only begun.

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In 1708, a slave revolt begins in Newton, Long Island, New York colony. The Africans at the heart of the revolt make contact with Algonquin in the area and convince them that every slave in the colony will come over to their side if they attack. This successful strategy drives the British from New York in the 7-year long Algonquin war.

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In 1993, FBI agents and agents for the Texas Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms seize cult leader David Koresh as he jogs in Waco, Texas. He had been accused of stockpiling weapons and abusing the children of several of his cult members at his compound in Mt. Carmel, Texas. When his followers learn of this, they think that Armageddon has arrived and storm into Waco to retrieve their master; in the horrific gun battle, over 60 of the cult members, as well as 23 law enforcement agents and 17 bystanders, are killed in the Waco streets. Dozens more are wounded before order is restored.

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Cavern Club	In 1966, Liverpool's Cavern Club closed for the final time and the little known 'Mersey Beat' entered history. Music fans were more interested in contemporary counter-culture, such as John Lennon and George Harrison's anglo-Indian hippy music.
Liverpool

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Olof Palme	In 1986, on this day BBC News reported - Swedish prime minister assassinated: The Swedish prime minister has died after being shot in a street ambush in central Stockholm. His wife was wounded. Olof and Lisbeth Palme were attacked as they were leaving a cinema at about 2330 local time. Mr Palme was shot twice in the stomach, his wife was shot in the back. Police say a taxi-driver used his mobile radio to raise the alarm. Two young girls sitting in a car close to the scene of the shooting tried to help the Prime Minister. He was rushed to hospital but was dead on arrival. Mrs Palme is being treated for her injury, but it is not thought to be life threatening.
Pacifist

Mr Palme, 59, and a social democrat, was serving his second term as leader. He believed in open government and shunned tight security. He had two bodyguards to protect him on official functions but frequently walked unattended through the Swedish capital and went on holidays unescorted to his summer cottage on the island of Gotland. His assassination will come as a shock to the Swedes. They have always taken great pride in the fact their prime minister could walk openly in the streets without the security which accompanies other heads of state. Mr Palme will be remembered as a campaigner for the working classes and Third World causes. He was first elected as prime minister in 1969. He became a leading advocate of peace and non violence and campaigned for an end to the war in Vietnam. It was unfinished business for the CIA.

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In 1931, the New Party is founded in Great Britain by Oswald Mosley and Europe of the Dictators approaches its final shape.

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	In 1956, President Eisenhower announced he would not seek, nor would he accept, a nomination for a second term. Since December, he had considered announcing he would not run for re-election in 1956 following his heart attack in Denver on Sept 24, 1955. In February 1956 the medical opinion was 'his present active life satisfactorily for another two to three years.'

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