In 1850, on this day the seventh President of the United States John Caldwell Calhoun died in Washington, D.C. He was sixty-eight years old.

Passing of President CalhounHe was serving as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives from South Carolina's 6th district when President James Madison signed a ceasefire with Great Britain that ended the disasterous War of 1812.

Feeling officially independent of Britain, the Americans settled about their affairs. Madison would pass his presidency to James Monroe, who would in turn pass it to John Quincy Adams, and then to the firebrand John C. Calhoun of South Carolina (who narrowly defeated Andrew Jackson of Indian-fighting fame in party conventions). Calhoun vetoed often, such as the Tariff of 1828 and the Tariff of 1832, keeping Southern ideals of states rights in place over the more Federal-thinking Whigs.

After Calhoun's presidency, the workable federation of the United States went to war with Mexico while he still served as senator. Polk's War ended favorably with large gains in the Southwest, but this sudden gain of territory stressed the question of slavery for the nation. After countless arguments and debates in Congress, the idea of secession finally came up. The North and the South would never agree, so perhaps they would best seek their fortunes as neighbors rather than housemates. The Constitution never addressed secession completely, so legal precedent allowed the peaceful separation of the United States with the consent of Congress, which had never happened before in the minor uprisings of territories decades before. Henry Clay and Stephen Douglas, under the guidance of an ancient Calhoun too weak to speak but able to write powerful pages, crafted the Act of Disunion of 1850, separating the United States of America in the North and the Confederated States of America in the South with a westward border compromised at 36 degrees, 30 minutes north.

With a stronger industrial base, the USA quickly outpaced its southern neighbor, who spent much of its political time and energy with expansionism toward Latin America, adding Cuba, Puerto Rico, and other Caribbean islands to its domain in the Spanish-American War in the 1880s. World War I would see the South enter on the side of the Allies early in 1916 while the USA sat out. In 1941, when the Confederate base at Pearl Harbor was bombed by Japan, CSA President "Cactus Jack" Garner asked USA President Franklin Roosevelt to acknowledge various treaties between the two brotherly countries and join them in battle. FDR agreed, and the two nations fought alongside one another for the first time since the Mexican War that had ended up driving them apart.

After WWII, many asked if the two nations would rejoin, but, despite its troubled economy, the South sought to maintain its independence. Racial subjugation rejected in the North under two-term president JFK was still accepted as legal in the South with gradual concessions such as the Civil Rights Act of 1968 signed by President George Wallace guaranteeing separate but equal segregation.

Despite their differences, the two American nations remain, for the most part, friendly. Their fiercest competition come in the Olympics, when the anthems of "My Country, "Tis of Thee" and "God Save the South" are often heard.

In 1958, on this day in the federal election, the Progressive Conservatives, led by John Diefenbaker, won the largest percentage of seats in Canadian history, with 208 seats of 265.

Election of Canadian PM John DieffenbakerBut his term of office would be shaped by the apocalyptic events of October 1962; the often unilateral judgments he took, and the heavy-handed way he communicated those decisions to his colleagues and allies. In his diaries, he rejected these charges, claiming that President Kennedy told him bluntly that, "When I tell Canada to do something, I expect her to do it!". What is undisputed is that on the 22nd, his Defense Minister Douglas Harkness advised him that Kennedy had approved an escalation of the NORAD measurement from two (peace) to three (enhanced awareness) on the way to five (war) without consulting Ottawa even though Canada was supposedly an equal partner to America in NORAD.

Two days later, World War Three broke out and the boot was on the other foot. American Cities were devastated by Soviet nuclear missiles. Under the Dieffenbaker Plan, the Canadian Government laid claim to territory possessed by the United States in order to rehabilitate that land "back to a standard of civilization". However that plan failed to gain the necessary Parliamentary support and Dief was thrown out of office.
This is an installemend from the Cuba 62 - Canada thread.

In 1492, the Alhambra Decree Begins Scheme to Send Jews West. The Reconquista of Spain completed with the Battle of Granada on January 2, 1492. Muslims had controlled the Iberian Peninsula after their invasion in 711, but gradually the Christian kingdoms of the north expanded southward. In-fighting slowed the Christian efforts, but the marriage of Ferdinand of Aragon and Isabella of Castile in 1469 united two of the largest kingdoms to a single force. In twenty years of warfare, they pushed back the Muslims to Granada, where they affirmed rule of the peninsula fully in the hands of Christian monarchs.

March 31, 1492 - Alhambra Decree Begins Scheme to Send Jews WestFollowing the battle, Ferdinand and Isabella settled on to new projects. With the conquest of Granada, the Catholic Monarchs had acquired vast lands but also now ruled a new population of Muslims and Jews. Jews, as fellow "e;People of the Book"e;, were initially treated with respect under early Muslim rule. Jews from all over the Mediterranean immigrated to what was then known as al-Andalus, creating banking and centers of education. Religious zeal increased on both sides of the peninsula as Christians called to retake lands lost by the Visigoths, and tolerance of Jews fell. The Spanish Inquisition began in 1480, giving religious authority to the crown rather than the Pope. Their agent, Dominican friar Tom´s de Torquemada, served as Grand Inquisitor as well as confessor for Isabella. Along with others, he encouraged the monarchs to expel non-Christians from the country to purify it. Those who did not leave would have to convert (and the Inquisition would make certain they did not secretly practice forbidden faith) or face torture and death.A new article by Jeff ProvineWhile religious fervor marked much of the reasoning behind expulsion, the matter was also economical. Torquemada stressed that much of the economy of Spain was held by influential Jews. With their power, they could subvert the authority of the Church or even the monarchs. He called for their expulsion long before the conquest of Granada, but Ferdinand and Isabella did not want to risk the crash of their economy during wartime. With the war over, they could restructure their economy as well as seize the valuable property of the Jews who chose to flee.

Meanwhile, Christopher Columbus, an Italian navigator campaigned at court for funding of an expedition that would reach the Orient by sailing west. He had attempted to win favor from John II of Portugal, but the king had turned him away after his advisers stated the calculations for the circumference of the Earth were far too short. Columbus had argued at court since 1486, noting the potential wealth from a new trade route. He was given no positive answer, but he was furnished with food, lodging, and a salary, keeping him on retainer rather than seeking support from any other monarch of Europe.

When it slipped that Columbus would eventually be turned down on the advice of Torquemada, Columbus decided to change his position. He took one item of Torquemada's agenda, the removal of the Jews, and tied it to his own. Managing an interview with Torquemada, he pointed out the danger of letting the Jews "escape" to build up power elsewhere. Instead, they should be sent to the East, where their wares would have to pass through Spain to market. Torquemada approved the plan, and the monarchs soon announced the "Alhambra Decree", stating that in four months Jews would be forced to live in Granada alone. That summer, hundreds of thousands of Jews moved to the city, allowed to keep their possessions but selling homes and businesses far under value.

In 1493, Columbus returned successfully from what was soon to be realized as the New World. His next expedition left that September, and along with it went a large fleet of forced Jewish immigrants. The Spanish established settlements on Hispaniola, using Jews and local natives as labor. Over the next decade, the Jews of Spain converted, sneaked out of the country, or were deported to the New World. During the rule of the Spanish Empire, several Jewish revolts began, but the might of the Conquistadors and the Spanish navy put down the rebellions. Many Jews settled into their work on plantations and were joined by African slaves, creating a lucrative economy exporting to Europe.

By the seventeenth century, new hope for the Jews arrived as other nations began to colonize the Caribbean. Piracy flourished, and, in the chaos, Jews escaped from Hispaniola by the thousands to neighboring islands. Many settled on the far coast of Hispaniola under French rule, helping to make Saint-Domingue the most prosperous colony in the region. The Caribbean became a popular destination for Jews fleeing oppression in other areas of Europe, particularly Germany and Italy, where corporations funded ships to transport colonists.

Antisemitism continued in the Caribbean, where for centuries the Jewish people were held as second-class citizens along with natives and Africans. As they gained economic clout by the early twentieth century, however, the Jews won their recognition, and the Caribbean today is well known for its banking, produce, and tourism. In modern times, many Jews hold to ideals of Zionism, wishing for a Jewish state in Palestine, where some Jews have established communities. However, with the large Jewish population of the Caribbean, there has not been fervent international action answering the call for a geographic "Israel".

In 1948, on this day the twenty-fifth President of the Confederate States Albert Arnold "Al" Gore, Jr. was born in the Federal District of Richmond.

Al Gore
25th Confederate President
March 4, 1999 - 2005A life-long and well groomed political career included service as CS Representative, Senator and Vice President. He was the son of former Tennessee Congressman and Senator Albert A. Gore, Sr., first winning election to is father's former House seat when it became vacant in 1976 with the unexpected retirement of Rep. Joe Evins. He would remain in that position for three terms until winning a Senate seat in 1984. He would leave the Senate in 1989 to serve as Vice President under Bill Clinton. As Vice President, he had a written agreement to be an active part of the administration and became as visible as the president in national and international affairs. His most impressive contribution was in the field of interactive media, being an advocate for new technology going all the way back to his first days in the House. As a result of this interest, he attracted a large following in the younger generation. This lead to a close race against fellow Tennessean, sitting Constitutionist Senator Lamar Alexander, Gore became the 25th President of the Confederate States.

From the two Americas thread on Alt WikiaIn his first nine months as president, Gore's history with the computer age (some had begun to call him "Geek-in-Chief") provided him with an unusual challenge. It had come to his attention as Vice President that early computer programmers, both American and Confederate, had made an error in a crucial component of many programs -- the date. Many experts as far back as 1984, in the dawn of the "world-wide web", had begun warning that computers that used the two last digits of the year as a date would malfunction as dates began to register "00". Fixes had been devised, and the Clinton administration had worked with American, Canadian, and European experts to assure that everything would make the transition without problems. However, as one of the most visible spokesmen for the technology, Gore was the one who was most "tested" as the calendar year (and digital counters) moved into 2000. With only a few glitches, the world survived.

Gore's number one issue as president, though, was to curb what he saw as the most dangerous problem the world faced in the twenty-first century -- the production of "green house gases" in the continued use of carbon-based fuels. The Confederate States was the second largest producer of oil in the world, making it also quite stable as an economic superpower. But the use of that product was seen by Gore and his compatriots as the number one producer of carbon dioxide, a major contributor to the heat-trapping effect of carbon by-products in the atmosphere. Having first learned of the theory of "global warming" in college, Gore had been an amateur scientist, learning everything he could to support the theory. The theory had support around the world, and Gore lobbied Congress throughout his term as president to support the Kyoto Protocol of 1997. However, even members of his own party had warned that riding this issue too far would result in a backlash. Gore would lose both the House and Senate by the end of 2004, and the Democrats would then lose the White House in 2006 with the election of Mike Huckabee - the second Arkansas governor in as many decades to sit at the President's desk.

In 1986, on this day the Grigory Romanov regime's last hope of retaining control of the Ukraine vanished as PLM forces supported by Ukrainian anti-Romanov partisans seized the Ukraine regional capital Kiev and the nuclear power plant in the nearby town of Chernobyl.

The Fall of KievThe capture of the Chernobyl reactor in particular would have a dramatic impact on the world; home movies shot by the rebels after the power plant fell and released to the West via a Finnish human rights group based in Helsinki showed the reactor was falling apart after years of poor maintentance.A new installment in Necessary Evil

A French nuclear physicist who studied the home movies said that had Chernobyl not been taken off-line by the PLM when it was overrun, it most likely would have eventually suffered a severe breakdown -- there was even evidence Chernobyl's number 2 reactor was dangerously close to suffering an explosion that would have spread radioactive fallout across hundreds, possibly thousands of square miles in Europe.

In 1982, British ambassador Peter Jay (pictured) speaks with U.S. Defense Secretary Alexander Haig regarding the escalating situation in the Falkland Islands, but proves unable to persuade him that the U.S. needs to involve itself directly.Falklands Emergency Part 4 - Failure of Diplomacy by Eric Lipps
It will prove to be a critical failure. Unconvinced by Henderson, Haig will counsel President Ronald Reagan to proceed cautiously when Reagan seeks his advice after receiving a telegram from British Prime Minister James Callaghan later that day. Reagan, therefore, will not provide the British with unrestricted access to U.S. intelligence resources, including spy satellites, which have been monitoring the Argentines.
Ideological antagonism plays a role in these events. Staunch Republican conservatives, neither Haig nor Reagan has ever particularly liked or trusted the 'socialist' Callaghan or his party. So when first Henderson and then the Prime Minister himself seeks U.S. aid, both men are predisposed to see it as Old World meddling in an area which under the Monroe Doctrine is the exclusive concern of the United States. While unwilling to commit to actually aiding Argentina militarily against NATO ally Britain, the Reagan administration is likewise unwilling to aid Callaghan's Labourites.
In his memoirs, ex-Prime Minister Callaghan will express his 'disappointment' at Reagan's lack of support. Without explicitly saying so, he will suggest that Reagan's dithering was responsible for Britain's, and his, humiliation in the Falklands affair, which nearly precipitated the fall of the Labour government and helped set the stage for its ouster the following year. In a contrafactual speculation, he will suggest that had a Tory government been in power instead - under, perhaps, the peppery anti-Communist Margaret Thatcher - Reagan would have acted on Britain's behalf, almost certainly altering the result.
To be continued..

In germinal 03 year 9, by the Revolutionary Calendar, First Consul Napoleon Bonaparte was shot dead in the city of Amiens where he was somewhat half-heartedly leading negotiations towards a "Definitive Peace" with the British Government.

The PittsHis assassin was the 2nd Baron of Camelford, or as he was more popularly known, the "Half-Mad English Lord" Thomas Pitt. Despite being the cousin of Prime Minister William Pitt the Younger he had acted independently. In which a Half-Mad English Lord secures the Peace of AmiensQuite out of impulse actually, he evaded British authorities, sneaking into France to shoot the unguarded Napolean dead with his early repeating pistol.

If Pitt could be said to have a motive, it was perhaps an aristocratic sense of outrage directed at the French Revolution, rather than a desire to strike a blow for the British Government per se. But in a sense, both motives merged into one because the prospect of the "Great French War" ending peacefully with Napoleon as the Head of State was an impossibility that the perhaps not so mad English Lord had quite correctly discerned.

In 1940, a puppet government led by Wang Jingwei was established in the Republic of China under the protection of the Empire of Japan and her strategic ally, the Soviet Union [1].

The Fall of Comrade Stalin Part 4: the Partition of ChinaPrior to the Munich Agreement, the "young marshal" of the Manchus Zhang Xueliang had forced Nationalists and Communists to work together to defend China. But Comrade Stalin had over-estimated the resolve of the Stresa Front and occupied Lithuania. He had become the aggressor, and the World united against Bolshevik expansionism.

Of course the effective partition of China was necessary for the "Heartland Powers" to establish a contiguous land mass, nevertheless it was an interesting development for the Western victory powers of WW1 and their new allies Nazi Germany. Because all of the European colonial possessions in AsiaPac had been under dire threat since the British crisis in the Far East of 1937-8 [2]. Now the increased ambition of the Japanese - the desire to create a Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere - threatened to draw the United States into the war. But of course US had signed a law of neutrality, and public opinion was firmly set against any form of American nevertheless. Nevertheless, the Reorganized National Government of China posed a threat to the broader periphery that drew the "Rimland Powers" ever closer to the United States. In London, First Lord of the Admiralty Churchill opened a bottle of champagne and made a toast: "GENTLEMEN, WE HAVE JUST WON THE WAR", he said [3]. This is a crossover teaser for Chris Oakley's Comrade Hitler thread.

In 1867, on this day Great Britain purchased Alaska from the Tsar. Long delayed by negotiating posturing, it was nevertheless a move that had been almost inevitable ever since the Russian-American Company entered into an agreement with the Hudson's Bay Company to grant British rights to sail through Russian territory.

Ice Crystal of the British EmpireThe name "Alaska" was already introduced in the Russian colonial period, when it was used only for the peninsula and is derived from the Aleut alaxsxaq, meaning "the mainland" or, more literally, "the object towards which the action of the sea is directed". It is also known as Alyeska, the "great land", an Aleut word derived from the same root.

An early European contact with Alaska occurred in 1741, when Vitus Bering led an expedition for the Russian Navy aboard the St. Peter. After his crew returned to Russia with sea otter pelts judged to be the finest fur in the world, small associations of fur traders began to sail from the shores of Siberia towards the Aleutian islands. The first permanent European settlement was founded in 1784. But the Russians never fully colonized Alaska, and the colony was never very profitable.

Although the Tsar believed Britain and France had "no business on this continent" he had offered the British first refusal. They declined, hoping to reduce the price. The territory was then offered to the United States but President Andrew Johnson believed it was foolhardy to spend so much money on the remote region. William H. Seward, the United States Secretary of State, felt otherwise, but he was just beaten to it by the British Government who belatedly decided that they didn't want the Colony of British Columbia to be surrounded by the United States. Of course within a few years, it was a moot point because British America above the the 49th parallel was confederated, and the short-lived Colony of New Orkney became a province of Canada.

In 598, on this day Bayan I ordered his Avaro-Slavic hordes to destroy the Byzantine stronghold of Tomis.

The City of Tomis of AvarsAfter the split of the Roman Empire, the city fell under the rule of the Byzantine Emperor Maurice. Had he succeeded in holding on to Tomis, then perhaps the order of Late Antiquity could have been preserved in the region.

But his twenty-year campaign failed to prevent the Slavic landfall on the Balkans. And it would be the final installment in a series of classical Roman campaigns against the Barbarians on the Rhine and Danube.

Of course with respect to the Slavs, these campaigns had the typical trait of Roman campaigns against unorganized tribes and of what we now call asymmetric warfare.

In 1867, Tsarist Russia found itself in a difficult position with the massive peninsula of Russian America (what would later become known as Alaska).

Alaska Purchase Excludes Kodiak It was a land rich in resources, but it was as inhospitable as Siberia and exceedingly distant from the capital at St. Petersburg. Colonization would take money and time, the former of which Russia lacked due to the costly Crimean War and the latter due to encroaching settlers from British Columbia. Another disastrous war could cost them the land without compensation, so the Tsar decided best to sell it now to a state so expansionist it could stymie the land-hungry British Empire: the United States.

A new story by Jeff ProvineInitial talks during the Buchanan presidency had ended in failure due to the distraction of the American Civil War. After the war ended, the Tsar ordered Eduard de Stoeckl, Russian minister to the US, to again approach America about buying. Secretary of State William H. Seward was an eager expansionist and quickly agreed, even though he would later have difficulty persuading the Senate to ratify the treaty. Before the two sat down to discuss details of the sale, a letter arrived from Russian Alaska asking that Kodiak Island be spared from the sale.

While much of Alaska remained populated only by the native Eskimo people, Russia had made attempts at colonizing their corner of America. In 1763, Stephan Glotov explored the island and found it suitable for the fur trade. In 1784, Grigory Shelikhov established the first permanent settlement there, which would later become a significant center of the fur trade. If Russia sold Alaska completely, the Tsar and his people would lose out on the business they had helped to build.

Stoeckl found himself in a difficult position. Seward still wanted to buy, but he seemed suspicious of the Russians holding their key island where the Russian tradesmen would have a leg-up on American settlers. Finally, after a hasty agreement that would have been voided without later Tsarist permission, Stoeckl offered Seward the Kuril Islands south of Kamchatka. They had been a point of contention between Russia and Japan, which formally established relations in 1855 with Treaty of Shimoda, part of which clarified the national border "between the islands of Etorofu and Uruppu. The whole of Etorofu shall belong to Japan; and the Kuril Islands, lying to the north of and including Uruppu, shall belong to Russia". Unlike the significant Sakhalin, these islands were primarily uninhabited, and an American buffer there would strengthen Russian standing in the North Pacific against Japanese expansion. Seward saw it as another chance for expansion and a closer diplomatic tie with the Japanese, who had opened their ports only a decade before during Admiral Perry's expedition.

Before and after the treaty being narrowly passed by the Senate, the national mood mocked the $7.2 million purchase as "Seward's Folly" or "Seward's Icebox" even with the price of about two cents per acre. More derision followed as Russia kept its dominance in the fur trade over the next years. However, with the gold rush of 1898, America secured its position in Alaska, and Kodiak lost out on much of its economic significance. Later, in 1905, many feared that holding the Kuril Islands would drag America into the Russo-Japanese War, but they proved key ground for President Theodore Roosevelt to begin peace talks. American defenses would be built on the cold, volcanic islands as Japan became more militaristic, and, after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, the American troops there would be wiped out during bitter winter fighting in the first prong of the Japanese assault on Alaska after the spring thaw in 1942.

The most significant fallout of the seemingly minor amendment to a land-purchase a century before came as the Cold War grew hotter between America and the USSR. Both Kodiak and the Kuril Islands became military strongholds, and both sides attempted to place missiles in their bases there secretly. When U-2 spy planes discovered silos being constructed on Soviet Kodiak, President John F. Kennedy gave his famous "Cuban Missile Crisis Address to the Nation" on October 22, 1962. He finished his enumeration of demands with, "Seventh and finally: I call upon Chairman Khrushchev to halt and eliminate this clandestine, reckless, and provocative threat to world peace and to stable relations between our two nations".

Khrushchev refused to budge, sparking the three-week-long Alaska War in late 1962. American Marines stormed Kodiak Island, fighting with Soviet troops for days in bitter cold. The Russians counterattacked in the Kuril Islands, and the world sat on edge with everyone panicking at the thought of nuclear exchange. After both operations became successful invasions, desperate diplomacy cleared the mess, and agreement was reached that the two nations would officially exchange the islands.

Many historians note that it required involvement in three wars to fix a seemingly advantageous treaty that proved inexpedient. Commentators routinely call upon it as evidence for diplomats to be mindful of future strife as well as modern business.

In 1806, a declaration of guaranteed freedom of navigation upon the Mississippi River removed the final obstacle to the United States' diplomatic recognition of the Republic of Gloriana.

Western MagicOnly the misdirection of no less than three Heads of States could have driven events down this odd fork in the road of American development.

Despite his lofty aspirations of western expansion, the overriding imperative of US President Thomas Jefferson was the removal of European Military Power from the continent:

"Whether we remain in one confederacy, or form Atlantic and Mississippi confederacies, I believe not very important to the happiness of either part".

Upon reflection Jefferson had decided that the formation of a Mississippi confederacy was a highly desirable outcome because it enabled his Republican Government to dismantle the US Navy, scrap foreign embassies and remove all other undesirable legacies of the Hamiltonian System.

Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte had been ceded huge tracts of land from Spain but had lost interest in the Americas after a twenty-five thousand man force of crack French troops led by his brother-in-law Charles Leclerc had failed to put down the Haiti Insurrection. Mischievelously planning to create a maritime rival to challenge Great Britain, L'Empereur offered to sell the Louisiana Territy for the incredible price of only fifteen million dollars.

"This accession of territory affirms forever the power of the United States, and I have given England a maritime rival who sooner or later will humble her pride".

Even so Gallic pride would force him to withdraw the offer after he calculated that the deal represented a fire sale of only three cents an acre, even less than the pittance paid to the Indians for the purchase of Manhattan Island. Jefferson refused to raise the increased price because it would have destroyed his legacy. His fifteen year plan to retire the national debt was driven by profound regret over his "greatest blunder" during his service as Secretary of State in Washington's first term, mistakenly assisting Alexander Hamilton to consolidate government.

Thus the opportunity of a life time presented itself to Aaron Burr. Destined to rule, he founded the breakaway Republic of Gloriana after intrigue prevented him from governing in the United States.

Of course in adhering to his own near-sacred character of republican principles, Jefferson was also mindful of the very real challenges presented by the governance of an extended territory with an ethnic diversity of the Creole population. And ultimately Jefferson was happy to shift the problem to another American authority led by Burr, a perverse consolation prize for his defeat in the 1800 Presidential election.

Nevertheless history marched on as Napoleon had predicted and Jefferson himself had feared because an American Empire would indeed require an Imperial President. By the time Andrew Jackson put down border uprisings in nearby Florida, American expansionism was once again on the agenda. But Jefferson's heirs would look South, dreaming of a Tropical Empire.

"[There will be] distant times, when our rapid multiplication will expand [the nation]... & cover the whole northern if not the southern continent" ~ Thomas Jefferson, on American expansion.

In 1870, rebels in Texas fight off efforts to rejoin the United States.

Texas becomes last confederate state readmitted to Union
By Robbie TaylorTexas had descended into anarchy for two months between the surrender of the Army of Northern Virginia and the assumption of authority by Union General Gordon Granger. Violence had marked the early months of Reconstruction. In 1866, the restoration of civilian government was prematurely declared.

But even with all of their Confederate allies back in the Union, the newly reformed Texas Republic remained independent and refused the amnesty offered by President Grant if they would just surrender and merge back with America. Nevertheless Texas eventually ran out of the ability to resist, and was conquered and absorbed back into the U.S. in 1886.

In 1981, U.S. President Edward M. Kennedy is shot and gravely wounded by a former mental patient named John Hinckley.

Scoop Jackson's Eight-hour PresidencyUnder the provisions of the Twenty-fifth Amendment, Vice-President Henry M. Jackson becomes acting President, until it is clear that Kennedy will recover. Afterward, comedians will have a field day with jokes about Jackson's 'eight-hour presidency.'

Following Hinckley's arrest, it will emerge that the would-be assassin has been stalking the President for months, and that his motive for attempting to kill Kennedy was not political but instead a desire to impress the actress Jodie Foster, with whom he has become obsessed since seeing her in the movie Taxi Driver.

An odd consequence of the shooting will be the cancellation of the TV superhero spoof The Greatest American Hero, whose lead character had been named Ralph Hinckley. Given Kennedy's near-assassination, on top of the successful assassination of his brothers President John F. Kennedy and Senator Robert F. Kennedy, the ABC television network will decide that retaining this series is bad for its public relations.
This post is an article from Eric Lipps's No Chappaquiddick thread.

In 1638, the first two Swedish ships, the "Fogel Grip" and the "Kalmar Nyckel" landed at the site of today's metropolis Kristinastad and established the first Swedish settlement in the New World. With 600 settlers following to strike roots soon after, the new colony was soon at loggerheads with the Dutch settlement of Nieuw Nederland.
This post was written by Dirk Puehl the highly recommended author of #onthisday #history Google+ posts.

New Sweden founded in AmericaEven though the Dutch did not take violent action while the Thirty Years' War raged in Europe and the mother country was threatened, matters changed after the Peace of Westphalia in 1648. Nya Sverige (New Sweden) would have been a short-lived episode if King Charles XI had pursued his policy of strength in the eastern Baltic regions.

With profits from fur trade coming in and the old Swedish chancellor Oxenstierna having a focus on consolidating the economy, the new course of the Swedish Empire became quite obvious. Following victories over Denmark and control of the Kattegat and Skagerrak passages into the North Sea and the Atlantic, as well as an agreement of more or less exporting people from Poland and Lithuania - instead of warring on them - to tackle the colony's main problem, the lack of manpower, soon established a busy traffic between the north eastern American seaboard and Scandinavia. The Dutch saw their position in the Americas almost indefensible when war after war followed with the English in the second half of the 17th century and decided to sell their possessions rather than have them fall into English hands and ally with the Swedes.

Nya Sverige meanwhile had expanded to the Stora Sjoarna (Great Lakes) region in the west and drove a wedge between existing French and English settlements in the North and South of the continent, and the great colonial conflicts of the early 18th century between the three European major powers were already foreshadowed, when Swedish settlers drove away the French explorers Jolliet, Marquette and La Salle from the Mississippi River valley and founded the local capital of Gustavia (after the governor Gustav Johansson Prinz). The War of Spanish Succession finally brought hostilities to the Americas in earnest, with the French and Spanish on one and the Swedes and the English on the other, with the excellent Swedish troops making all the difference in the North of Louisiana, leaving France with the area south of the Arkansas River after the Peace of Utrecht.

Growing ideas of absolutistic rule in the late 17th and early 18th century in the Swedish Empire under Charles XI and Charles XII, colonial taxation and the competition with the English in North America marked the uneasy situation of Nya Sverige until the 1750s when the Amerikanska Kriget or American War determined the new development the continent was about to take.

In 1790, on this day tenth President of the United States John Tyler was born in Charles City County, Virginia.

Birth of President TylerOnly three years after the death of William Henry Harrison due to illness, he was killed in an accidental explosion that caused many superstitious Americans to believe the office of President had become cursed.

During a party aboard the USS Princeton (the first screw stream ship in the Navy), some 400 guests were treated to displays of modern technology, including the 12-inch cannon known as the Peacemaker. It had been fired twice successfully over co-designer John Ericsson's warning that the gun was not ready. The third firing, a tribute as they passed Washington's home at Mount Vernon, caused the cannon to explode. Tyler, who was eager to impress young Julia Gardiner of his virility despite being a 54-year-old widower, had hopped up the ladder onto the deck, just in time to catch shrapnel to his head. Julia's father, New York businessman David Gardiner, and Secretary of State Abel P. Upshur were also among the casualties in the worst peacetime explosion to that point.

Mourning for the disaster included curiosity at another unprecedented occurrence: the ascension of a President pro tempore of the Senate to the office of President of the United States. After the death of Harrison, Tyler had been the first Vice-President to assume the office, though many such as John Quincy Adams and Henry Clay thought that he was meant to fulfill a role rather than be a wholly new president. Despite being nicknamed "His Accidency", Tyler went about resigning from the Whig political party and launching his own economic policy. He vetoed bills for a National Bank repeatedly, causing his cabinet to resign in disgust. While Tyler had a few supporters, such as Daniel Webster, he fought with the Whigs so much that they initiated the first impeachment hearings against him, though it would ultimately be voted down. Tyler's greatest separation from the Whigs, however, was the potential annexation of the Republic of Texas. The matter had been raised before in 1837 with a Texas proposal that was declined by President Martin van Buren. Tyler had Secretary of State Upshur begin work on a treaty, but it remained incomplete at the time of their deaths. What Tyler had planned to be the great issue of the election of 1844 was a political afterthought.

A new story by Jeff ProvineAs President pro tempore of the Senate, North Carolina Whig Willie Person Mangum became the eleventh president of the United States. Mangum was something of a reversal of Tyler, having left the Democratic Party in 1834 after declaring himself a Whig. He left politics and reinvented his career, working as part of a failed Whig plot to nominate four men for president to block out Martin van Buren in 1836 before returning triumphantly to the Senate in 1840. When New Jersey Senator Samuel L. Southard resigned from the Senate in 1842 due to his failing health, Mangum came onto the track that would accidentally make him president. Where Tyler had broken with the Whigs, Mangum worked alongside party leader Henry Clay to institute as much of his American System as possible with the Whig majority in the Senate, though the Democrats controlled the House and resisted several proposed tariffs. A new National Bank was established to capitalize on the rebounding economy after the Panic of 1837, and numerous transportation improvement projects began. These projects would be the main issue of the election of 1844 when Henry Clay narrowly defeated Martin van Buren with the promise of extending the National Road to Oregon and clarifying American control there rather than joint-rule with Britain.

The issue of annexation arose again after the California Republic won its independence from Mexico in 1846 under men such as Mexican general Mariano Guadalupe Vallejo and John C. Fremont. The republic proposed annexation by the United States, but Henry Clay politely declined. Such an annexation might have sparked war with Mexico, who was already upset over American soldiers unofficially participating in the rebellion, seemingly a mirror to Texas. The move is believed to have cost Clay and the Whigs the election of 1848 that gave the White House to Democrat Lewis Cass despite the efforts of the Free Soil Party under Martin van Buren to limit slavery in the territories.

Settlers poured westward on improved roads (including many government-funded rail projects), giving rebirth to the question of slavery in federal territories. Popular sovereignty became the strategy for Kansas and Nebraska Territories, which turned into guerilla warfare as men committed to both sides fought to protect interests. Alongside this issue came the discovery of gold in the newly founded California Republic, which spawned a renewed call for Manifest Destiny. With the approval of Britain, the United States annexed California, prompting Mexico to declare war. The Republic of Texas came as an ally, winning many victories and expanding its territory in the resulting treaty in 1854, which also brought the Republic of Sonora to the US. Some suggested annexing Texas as well, but no formal proposal was made as abolitionists saw it as an extension of slavery and the general attitude of Texas (which had been independent for over a generation) felt best to stay independent.

In 1860, the election of Republican Abraham Lincoln caused the South to declare its independence, inviting Texas to join in a confederation, which it considered before declining and remaining neutral. The war was finished by 1864, and the question of slavery was answered in the United States, though it remained legal in Texas until the 1880s. Texas and the US continued diplomatic relations despite being on opposing sides of the French intervention in Mexico. Suggestions for annexation arose again in the 1890s with a new wave of expansionism, but conservative Texans valued independence while local businesses hoped to hold onto the growing oil industry there. Over the next century, Texans would continue to be friendly with Americans, even joining the Allies in the Second World War, though its production-based economy was especially crippled by the Great Depression. Today it stands as a close trade-partner with the United States, but still fiercely independent.

In 1592, the celebrated Elizabethan poet William Shakespeare assigned the blame for his acrimonously departure from the Lord Chamberlain's Men on the well-known playwright Robert Greene.

Upstart CrowIn a pamphlet published by Henry Chettle, Greene had openly accused the Upstart Crow of copying from the "Richard, Duke of York" which was a collaborative piece of work he had written with Marlowe. And sure enough "The Third Part of Henry VI" included the travestied line "Oh tiger's heart wrapt in a woman's hide" which Green directly referred to in his stinging attack on the player.

In fact, Green was a bitter, dying man but the controversy was enough to force Shakespeare to leave the capital and rejoin his family in Stratford-upon-Avon. There was a star danced, and under that was I bornBut fate intervened, and through a connection at court with Walter Raleigh, the Shakespeares were invited to join settlers setting sail for Virginia.

His career as a player, and wannabe writer/manager was over, he turned his attention to sonnet writing on themes such as the passage of time, love, beauty and mortality. He emerged as one of the new world's most famous poets. And the inspiration for his gifted son, Hamnet, who in 1615 authored the celebrated play "The Lady and the Dragon".

In 1461, in the midst of a snowstorm in the North of England, the Wars of the Roses would come to an end as the House of Lancaster reaffirmed itself to its royal position gained by the overthrow of Richard II.

House of Lancaster Victorious at Towton The matter settled civil wars that had plagued England for years with the growing dissent over the weak king Henry VI. The House of York under Richard Plantagenet, Third Duke of York, rose up in opposition to the nobles who held Henry's interest and easily swayed his opinions. Initially, York was successful, establishing an act by Parliament to make him and his progeny to succeed Henry upon his death. Henry's consort, Margaret of Anjou, fought back with a quickly raised army, and York was slain at the Battle of Wakefield in 1460. His son Edward took up the fight to defend his right, which would soon be taken from him by the might of Lancaster.

A new story by Jeff ProvineThe war continued until the fateful day in late March of the next year. The army under John de Mowbray, Third Duke of Norfolk, was late, making the Yorkists seem grossly outnumbered, but he managed to arrive shortly before the battle began. Lord Fauconberg offered a strategy of arranging his archers to fire with the wind, thus outside of the range of the Lancasterian arrows, but a fierce north wind came up quickly, bringing snow with it. Some commanders on both sides considered postponing the battle, but the arrival of Norfolk's troops prompted a quick fight before the snow became worse.

The two armies drew up ranks on the plateau between Saxton and Towton, Lancaster using the marshes and valley as protection for its flanks. The narrow space meant that Lancaster would not be able to use its numerical advantage at once, seemingly a disadvantage that would actually hand them the battle. After the initial attack, fighting continued indecisively for hours, despite the charge of mounted spearmen from the Castle Hill Wood into the Yorkist flank. Edward had joined the battle himself to stop the charge, which bolstered his men's confidence. However, after some seven to ten hours, the exhausted Yorkists finally began to falter while Lancaster continued to bring up fresh troops who had been waiting behind the front line for space to attack.

When the Yorkists broke, the battle became a slaughter. Snow and weariness slowed their escape, and as many perished from the cold and wet terrain as did by the Lancaster sword. Edward himself was killed in battle, most likely mistakenly since his body was not discovered until two days later. With Henry VI firmly upon the throne again despite his bouts with insanity, Margaret of Anjou and her allies quickly began purifying the parliament of disloyal nobles. Lancaster would hold firmly for some time, but their harsh methods would eventually be their undoing.

The reign of Henry's son Edward IV had proven as weak as his father's with Edward being coddled or bullied by his mother and her council. Upon Margaret's death in 1482, Richard Plantagenet, who had been only nine at the time of his brother Edward's death, acted out after years of careful plotting and intrigue. He had played a fool during much of his youth, later writing of inspiration from Claudius, and maintained a hold on a little of his father's land through Margaret's purges. Gathering his own allies among the ambitious and disenfranchised of England, he made his greatest gain in power by taking in Henry Tudor, a distant relative of Lancaster who had no chance at royal power otherwise. The uprising became an overall revolution, and Richard swiftly defeated the forces of Edward IV by 1485. Tudor was rewarded with seized Lancasterian lands, and his daughter Margaret married Richard's son Edward of Middleham, Prince of Wales, who would become Edward V.

The House of York became dominant in England and swallowed up much of the latent power of the House of Lancaster. With its internal affairs in order, the country turned to warfare with other European powers, particularly Spain and Portugal, which grew wealthy on gold taken from the New World. England would find the Protestant movement favorable and joined with the Empire of Sweden, the Dutch Republic, and many of the northern German states. War tore apart the British Isles as Catholic Scotland and Ireland rebelled, though the advantaged English would eventually affirm their domination in war and intrigue that would have made proud the much applauded King Richard III, about whom the biographer Shakespeare wrote glowingly.

In 2009, on this day the embattled Prime Minister of Israel, Tzipora Livni¹ (pictured) requested that the Canadian Government withdraw support for the Annapolis Process which had been launched at a Middle East peace conference held on November 27, 2007. The conference at the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, United States established a framework for addressing the Israeli-Palestinian conflict which had been building up for forty years since the inception of a two-state solution.

Peace for LandA joint statement was issued by all parties. Subsequently, nine Canadians provided assistance for the Palestinian State to take greater responsibility for security matters, including the training of six thousand members of the national security force and the two-thousand strong presidential guard.

Trouble was roadblocks and security walls had made normal civilian and economic life extremely difficult for Israelis. An overwhelming majority considered it was an historic mistake for the founding fathers to accept the logic of the UN decision in 1947. And contrary to the Zionist doctrine propounded by radicals such as David Ben-Gurion, the partition signed by the Chairman of the Jewish National Council Golda Meir created not just one but two states in the old Ottoman and British Mandate. Meir argued persuasively that a forced exodus of Palestinians would have been "dreadful" likening a Zionist occupation to what had befallen the Jews in Nazi-occupied Europe². Yet the reality was that the threat of Arab invasion forced the Jewish National Council to accept partition. And truth be told, the threat of Arab invasion had never really gone away.

Even today Iran espouses a similiar view but from a radically different perspective. When its leaders talk of Israel's "occupation," they are not talking about what happened in 1947 and after, but of Israel's very existence and presence in the region. When they talk of "resisting the Zionist entity" and of their support for Hamas and Hezbollah, they are referring to a long-term vision of never-ending struggle.

Israel's challenge is that Hamas and Hezbollah do not feel bound by the same rules of war and engagement as Israel. Rocket launchers are placed on the rooftops of schools and apartment buildings; military headquarters are buried beneath hospitals. Hardliners in the Knesset assert that Stephen Harper's Government in Ottawa can no longer be "pro-Israel" and "pro-Arab".

And the extremist Likud Party led by the ultra-right wing maverick Binjamin Netanyahu have gone further, proposing military incursions into the West Bank and Gaza City. No stranger to controversy, Neyanyahu was recently interviewed by journalist Bob Rae of the Toronto Star in which he recounted a story about two Israelis meeting in the street.
"How are things?"
"In a word, 'good.'
In two words, 'not good.' "

It is 1334 BC, and Pharaoh Akhenaten has just died without a son.

Happy Endings Part 19
Pharoah MosesHe is succeeded by Prince Moses, his sister's adopted child. Since Moses enthusiastically shared Akhenaten's new religious views,which replaced the old polytheism with a belief in Aten the One Sun God, the late Pharaoh had chosen his nephew for the throne.

The new Pharaoh Moses-aten continued to worship Aten while requiring his countrymen to do the same. Since the Hebrew slaves also worshipped one God, Moses set them free, knowing that they would be his most enthusiastic supporters. To make things simpler for these simple folks, he condensed the hundreds of Egyptian commandments down to a list of Ten.

And that is why the Faith of Aten is still followed throughout all of Egypt, and indeed the entire Middle East.