Day of Infamy

In 1941, a large Japanese strike force fell on the Singapore Naval Base, after British warnings to leave south-east Asia alone fail to persuade them. Singapore had been a cornerstone of British Defence policy in the Far East since 1918. After the Great War, the British government devoted significant resources into building a naval base in Singapore, as a deterrent to the increasingly ambitious Japanese Empire. Originally announced in 1923, the construction of the base proceeded slowly until the Japanese invasion of Manchuria in 1931. The blueprint for the new base was a dock covered 21 square miles - then the largest dry dock in the world, the third-largest floating dock, and enough fuel tanks to support the entire British navy for six months. It was to be defended by heavy 15-inch naval guns stationed at Fort Siloso, Fort Canning and Labrador, as well as a Royal Air Force airfield at Tengah Airbase. Winston Churchill touted it as the "Gibraltar of the East." The works had been completed in 1939, arrived at a staggering cost of GBP60 million. Less than two years later, the Base was completed destroyed on the “day of infamy”.

In 1941, the moment of truth arrived at Unit 731 after many years of hard work in manufacturing and employing bacteriological weapons. General Otozoo Yamada was about to find out which of his weapons was most effective - the million man Japanese army occupying Manchuria or Germ warfare. In less than twenty-four hours, the decision would be for Germ warfare. But only because Pearl Harbour Rear Admiral Husband E. Kimmel had not received an order from Washington. General George Marshall had cabled Hawaii to raise Mosquito Nets, but the warning arrived too late to prevent the Day of Infamy.

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In 1941, a large Japanese strike force falls on Thailand, after American warnings to leave southeast Asia alone fail to persuade them. Although President Roosevelt wanted to join in the war against the Japanese and Germans, the lack of any direct threat to the U.S. kept him out.

In 1941, Imperial Japanese forces invade the Aleutian Islands. Throughout the 30’s, they had gobbled up smaller nations in the Pacific Community of Trade, and they had finally decided the time was right to attack the Soviet States of America. This proved to be their undoing, as the remaining members of the Community of Trade threw themselves against the empire and its reactionary allies, defeating them in 1946.

In 1941, a combined force of naval and air power from the empire of Japan attacked Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. After seeing how unprepared the Americans were for attack, the Japanese invaded the western coast of the country at the end of the year, making America fight a defensive struggle on its own shores. The Axis powers of Germany and Italy conquered Europe and Africa, and Japan, although eventually repelled from North America, ruled the Pacific. The western hemisphere was economically and politically isolated from the east.

In 12-16-7-16-13, Nipponese forces strike out against the Incan capital in Teutehuanoco. For several years, the combined Inca-Oueztecan Empire had been making inroads across the ocean, and the Nipponese people felt that they could halt their disintegrating influence with military power. They were wrong; the war against them ended in their utter annihilation.

In 2694 AUC, the Roman Republic launched a sneak attack against the tiny island nation of Nippon in Asia. The heavily fortified island nation had been threatening the Chinese allies of Rome for a decade, and had recently invaded the province of Manchuria. The Republic couldn’t stand idly by anymore, and its forces attacked Kyoto; the war was over by the end of the next year, and Nippon was contained.

In 4637, Japan, which had been providing material and logistic support to nations attacked by the American Empire in South America, was attacked in the morning by a naval assault squadron. Unprepared for the attack, Japan lost thousands in Okinawa, and declared war against the American Empire the next day.

In 1941, Pearl Harbor, in the Hawaiian Protectorate, was attacked by heathen Shinto from the Japanese Empire. Pope George VI of the Holy British Empire declared a Crusade against them the next day, and all of Christendom attacked the island nation and its Buddhist allies in Asia. The Holy World War led to the establishment of Christian nations across Asia and the Pacific.

In 1941, Neville Chamberlain, fresh from negotiating peace in Europe, declared peace in Asia, as well. He successfully negotiated the Japanese pullout from China on this date. Chamberlain, Prime Minister of Great Britain from 1937 until his death in March of 1942, won the Nobel Peace Prize for his Herculean efforts to promote peace in office.

In 2006, animal rights activists broke into premises owned by Pappy's Texas Barbecue Chicken, Inc. Five thousand lard-fed battery chickens were released into the wild.

General Short	In 1941, General George Marshall sent the famous warning message to Hawaii that morning. It was actually delivered by a young Japanese-American cycle messenger, to General Walter Short, commanding general of the Army post at Pearl Harbour. Rear Admiral Husband E. Kimmel commander actioned the telegram in good time to save the U.S. Pacific Fleet from certain destruction by raising the torpedo nets.

In 1980/1941, the US aircraft carrier Nimitz collided with an unnatural storm and the crew were transported from 1980 to Pearl Harbour on December 6th, 1941. Captain Captain Matthew Yelland had to decide whether to interfere with the past and stop the Japanese Fleet from attacking the US base. The true story of the voyage was portrayed in the movie Final Countdown. Played by actor Kirk Douglas, Yelland made the decision to intercept the incoming Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour, but during the attempt, the freak storm returned and sends the ship back to 1980. But this is a a different 1980 where buoyed by easy victory in the Pacific, an unstoppable military had fought the Soviet Union and lost. As the final ends, the question is left hanging, should Yelland have intervened, or let history run its course...	Final Countdown

Kinky	In 2005, deep sleeper agents of the government of (censored) follow Richard S. “Kinky” Friedman for the day (which actually started around noon). Caught drinking a Lonestar beer in a moving vehicle in Dallas, Texas Kinky tells traffic cops that "I admit to drinking it, but I did not swallow." Later that evening, they follow Kinky to half a dozen bars and dance halls before the agents collapse with exhaustion around 4am. At no time did they see Kinky speaking to Rat.

In 1941, a young Japanese-American cycle messenger was given a telegram for General Walter Short, commanding general of the Army post at Pearl Harbour The telegram contained General George Marshall's famous warning message to Hawaii, but it was delayed that morning by vital hours. The messenger was sympathetic to the Empire of Japan's mission to bring about a new order in the Pacific. Rear Admiral Husband E. Kimmel commander was not provided with good time to raise the torpedo nets, and the U.S. Pacific Fleet was destroyed.	General Short

Blows

In 1905, the Great War ended in an irretrievable British débâcle, leading to occupation, reparations and the loss of several colonies. E. Phillips Oppenheim's A Maker of History records how thousands of German immigrants had been acting as pre-invasion intelligence-gatherers, ensuring that `the German Army knew almost to a bale of hay what provender lay between London and the coast'. As `Captain X', the head of German intelligence in London, explained to Oppenheim: 'There are in this country 290,000 young countrymen of yours and of mine who have served their time, and who can shoot ... Clerks, waiters and hairdressers ... each have their work assigned to them. The forts which guard this great city may be impregnable from without, but from within -- that is another matter'.

Thomas Edward Lawrence	"He [Aaronsohn] meant to make a new nation, to restore a lost influence, to give twenty millions of Semites the foundations on which to build an inspired dream-palace of their national thoughts.” ~ Colonel Thomas Edward Lawrence in Seven Pillars of Wisdom Justifying the actions of Sarah and Aaron Aaronsohn the individuals most directly responsible for the creation of the State of Israel in 1919. Both Aaronsohns had been leader organizers of NILI, a secret intelligence group pursuing unorthodox means to assist in the liberation of Palestine. NILI had provided military intelligence to the Turks that had been used to crush British forces under General Edmund H.H. Allenby. Allenby himself had been duped, believing that Zionist aspirations would be served by means of an attack by surprise through Beersheba, using the map of water sources provided by Aaronsohn, and skirting around the strong Turkish force that blocked the advance north from Gaza. The destruction of British forces created a post-war vacuum in Palestine that was very much in the Zionists favour. It is widely believed now that the actions of NILI brought forward the creation of the State of Israel by a generation, ensuring a population movement of European Jewry before the rise of Hitler.
Arabist

Kinky Friedman	In 2008, explaining that sometimes its okay to get a little kinky, Texan singer/songwriter Richard S. Friedman entered Election Day as the underdog candidate for US President. Kinky promised America that “Musicians can run this country better than politicians. We won't get a lot done in the mornings, but we'll work late and be honest."

In 1963, Vietnamese President Ngo Dinh Diem and his younger brother, Ngo Dinh Nhu are murdered, overthrowing the Government of the Republic of Vietnam. That evening at Saigon international airport, the assassins board a plane to the south-western United States. They've got a tight schedule; in just twenty days time they have an appointment with two more brothers, the Kennedys. The incredible story of this double-hit brought to the cinema in the 1981 movie Nighthawks	Nighthawks

Versailles	In 1917, British Foreign Secretary Arthur James Balfour proclaimed support for Palestinian self-rule in a letter to Emir Faisal, a son of Sherif Hussein of Mecca. The letter stated the position, agreed at a British Cabinet meeting on October 31, 1917, that the British government supported nationalist plans for an Arab "national home" in Palestine, with the condition that nothing should be done which might prejudice the rights of Jewish kibbutzim there. The "Balfour Declaration" was later incorporated into the Sèvres peace treaty with Turkey, Treaty of Versailles (pictured) and the Mandate for Palestine.

In 1948, in a dramatic political comeback, Harry S. Truman defeated Thomas E. Dewey for the US presidency. Truman had been nominated for the Vice Presidency in 1944, and briefed fully on the Bomb, principally to ensure the Bomb was not dropped. However, Roosevelt died unexpectedly in the fall, and it was Dewey who won the '44 election and decided to drop the Bomb to bring a speedy end to the Pacific War with minimal US casualties. The Tokyo strike was seen by Communists as a sign of weakness by the US Government, unable to stomach the casualty count necessary for Operation Downfall. No sooner had Japan capitulated, than China descended into civil war, and Dewey was trapped in the Pandora's box of his own logic.	Harry S Truman

Hallowe'en

Haloween	In 1976, the police siren reached its apex and stopped, the child screaming as Jeremy Thorn raised the stiletto high above him. "Stop!" shouted a voice from the street and two policemen emerged from the rain, one drawing a resolver as they ran from their car. Thorn glanced up at them, then down at the child, and with a sudden cry of rage plunged the knife downward, the child's scream coming simultaneously with the sound of a gunshot. For a moment, everything was frozen. Then the church doors swung open and a priest stared out at the scene: a tableau behind the veil of down-pouring rain.
Hallowe'een Story

By using just one of the seven knives of Meggido, Thorn had only succeeded in extinguishing physical life from the saviour, Estelle Gerard. "This makes things really difficult" said Father Brennan, stepping forward to face the policemen.

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Alexander Litvinenko

In 2006, former KGB spy and Kremlin critic Alexander Litvinenko suddenly fell ill and was hospitalised. He died three weeks later, becoming the first known victim of lethal polonium-210-induced acute radiation syndrome. Litvinenko's allegations about the misdeeds of the KGB and his public accusations that the Soviet government was behind his unusual malady resulted in worldwide media coverage.

The unsolved death brought a new low to Anglo-Soviet relations. "The police investigation will proceed, and I think people should know that there is no diplomatic barrier to that investigation," Mr. Blair told reporters during a trip to Copenhagen, Denmark. The use of polonium-210 is an alarmingly new escalation in the biological phase of the Cold War going back almost thirty years. In 1978, while walking across Waterloo Bridge in London, Bulgarian dissident Georgi Markov was assassinated by Bulgarian secret police agent Francesco Giullino by means of a ricin pellet fired from in a specially-designed umbrella. Security around government facilities has been doubled and the British Security Forces are on their highest alert since the first Gulf War ending in exchanges of bio-weapons with Iraq in 1991.

Abraham Lincoln	"A house divided against itself cannot stand. (Mark 3:25) I believe this government cannot endure permanently half slave and half free. I do not expect the Union to be dissolved..It will become all one thing, or all the other." ~ Abraham Lincoln (16 June 1858) Before the War of Southron Independence forced a decision - “the other”. A synopsis of Lincoln's pre-election statements are detailed at Wikipedia
US President

Kinky Friedman	In 2008, on the eve of Election Day, Texan singer/songwriter and Independent US Presidential Candidate Richard S. “Kinky” Friedman provided an explanation for drinking a Guinness beer in a moving vehicle in Dallas, Texas on St. Patrick's day - I admit to drinking it, but I did not swallow.

In 1952, Operation Ivy was conducted on Elugelab Island in the Enewetak atoll of the Marshall Islands. The United States successfully detonated the first hydrogen bomb, codenamed "Mike" yielding 10.4 megatons of explosive power, over 450 times the power of the bomb that fell on Nagasaki. Military planners were once again trapped inside the logic of the nuclear option. Applying Bernard Montgomery's second law they had demonstrated unwillingness to “take their land army to Asia” and accept American casualties in the hundreds of thousands. Therefore with Communist forces threatening to overrun Korea, China and Vietnam US President Thomas Dewey had two choices. Either to withdraw from Asia or to use the hydrogen bomb. He chose the latter, it was a no brainer really.	Hydrogen Bomb

Margaret Thatcher

In 1990, on this day the Conservative Government of Great Britain was dealt a fatal blow by the resignation of a senior cabinet minister. Margaret Thatcher, one of Sir Geoffrey Howe's oldest and staunchest supporters, resigned from her position as Deputy Prime Minister in protest at Howe's European policy. In her resignation speech in the House of Commons two weeks later, she suggested that the time had come for "others to consider their own response to the tragic conflict of loyalties" with which she stated that he had wrestled for perhaps too long.

In 1973, on this day Leon Jaworski was appointed as the new Watergate Special shortly after the Saturday Night Massacre which led to the dismissal of prosecutor Archibald Cox. During his tenure as Special Prosecutor, Jaworski was perhaps most famous for his protracted constitutional battle with the White House concerning his attempts to secure evidence for the trial of former senior administration officials on charges relating to the Watergate cover-up. The Special Prosecutor knew that President Robert F Kennedy had discussed the Watergate cover-up with the accused on numerous occasions and that these conversations had been recorded by the White House taping system. Jaworksi requested tapes of sixty-four Presidential conversations as evidence for the upcoming trial. The President refused to hand them over, citing executive privilege.	Richard Nixon
The Watergate scandal refers to a 1972 break-in at the Democratic National Committee headquarters at the Watergate Hotel in Washington, D.C. by members of the Kennedy administration. The White House “plumbers” were attempting to stage manage a burglary by the Republican nominee Richard Nixon, the second time the Kennedys had cheated Honest Dick out of the White House. The resulting cover-up led to the resignation of the President.

Wild

In 1976, the old man Bugenhagen explained "It must be done on hallowed ground. The grounds of a church. Her blood must be spilled on the altar of God. Each knife must be buried to the hilt. To the feet of the Christ figure on each handle planted this way, to form the sign of the cross. The first dagger is the most important. It extinguises physical life and forms the centre of the cross. The subsequent placements extingush spiritual life and radiate out. Like this." He paused, assessing Jeremy Thorn's expression. "You must be devoid of sympathy, " he instructed, "this is not a human child".

Hallowe'en Story

In 1915, renewed allegations of British provocations were released to the world media by Secretary of State of the Imperial Naval Office Alfred von Tirpitz. Churchill, a 33rd degree mason had allegedly hatched a plot in the naval Masonic lodge, with Admiralty H.Q., the bosses of Cunard and the War Department; to sacrifice Capt. William Turner, the Lusitania, its crew and passengers to ensure that America came alongside Britain in World War I. At the time, Winston Churchill was in charge at the Admiralty and the intelligence was received by him and shared with Lord Rothschild, his mentor and benefactor. Between them they decided that the many German émigrés in America had been responsible for keeping America out of the war. Even worse, there was the possibility that America would remain isolationist, or worse still, might even end up supporting Germany. The Lusitania, a passenger ship which under normal circumstances was barred from carrying any armaments, had been loaded with both heavy and light armaments and ammunition, within sight of many New York dock worker's of German origin. As planned the loading of weaponry was then reported back to Germany's US embassy, which then informed the German government, which in response placed advertisements in newspapers across the U.S.A. warning that any ships carrying weapons, would be classed as warships.

In 1953, head of UK coastal defence Admiral Sir Bertram Ramsay announced that due to rising water levels in the Thames Valley area, Barrier Command London had temporarily abandoned the capital, moving above sea-level to Harrogate. Ramsay called for calm amongst the civilian population. In fact, Ramsay had worried about nothing at all since January 2, 1945, when his plane crashed on take off at Toussus-le-Noble. He was en route to a conference with General Bernard Montgomery in Brussels, and was very lucky to enjoy a miraculous survival. The background to civilian panic was simply put. The invasion of earth had recently entered a third phase as aliens started melting the ice caps, causing sea levels to rise. Historian John Wyndham described the ultimate victory of humanity in the Kraken Awakes. The super-weapon was defeated the invasion, yet left the Earth was a significantly reduced landmass causing the historian to wonder if similar attempts had been made before in the distant past.

London

Myint Myint Aye	In 1965, on this day in Rangoon was born Myint Myint Aye to a Burmese father and an English mother. Meaning "high high cool" in Myanmar, the name was given to her by a Burmese priest. Throughout her early life, Myint suffered from delusional schizophrenia, alternately believing herself to be a Buddhist, and also the lead singer of an English Punk Band Bow Wow Wow. In 1980, Theravada Buddhist rituals enabled Myint to cross the river of time, and become the fourteen year old sensation Annabella Lwin. Her early classic “Go Wild in the Country” was a tribute to her subdued childhood in Rangoon, and her subsequent transcendental escape. She rocks our world to this day, after all, her destiny was high high cool.

In 2008, on the eve of Election Day, Texan singer/songwriter and Independent US Presidential Candidate Richard S. “Kinky” Friedman provided clarity on his religious beliefs. Noting that he's a Jew, "but not a practising Jew. There are those who say, 'If Kinky was a practising Jew, he needs to practice a little more.'"	Kinky Friedman

Curtis LeMay

In 1960, believing that American had just suffered the “greatest defeat in her history” US Air Force Chief Curtis LeMay dispatched a booby-trapped unmanned reconnaissance airplane to Cuba. Exploding mid-air close to the SS-4 site near San Cristobal in Pinar del Río Province in Western Cuba. Local Soviet commander, General Issa Pliyev, invoked his pre delegated authority to use nuclear weapons and launched two SS-4 missiles at Washington. A narrative summary of the classified Danforth Commission report of 2030 on the cause, course, and effect of the war was provided by Robert L O'Connell in The Cuban Missile Crisis: Second Holocaust". The book recounts how the institutional American response to an attack on Washington, DC resulted in the obliteration of the Soviet Union and the subsequent ostracization of the United States by the global community.

In 2000, on this day a Singapore Airlines Boeing 747-400 operating as Flight 006 collided with construction equipment upon take-off in Taipei, Taiwan almost killing 79 passengers and 4 crew members. At first the relieved survivors fail to notice subtle changes to the Taipei Airport – until they pass a huge picture of Chairman Mao of the Communist Republic of Formosa.	Boeing 747