In 2012, Mitt Romney, the veteran actor who played "Paw" Ingalls for almost three decades, set to leave the show.

Paw Ingalls QuitsHe joined "Little House on the Prairie" in 1983 ostensibly to fill the gaping void of talent left by the exit of lead star Michael Landon who played the central character Charles Ingalls.

But as America embraced polyglot diversity, he was increasingly seen as a throwback to a monochrome past. Ratings plummeted, and the show began to look forward to new formulas after a zooped up theme song failed to interest young people and the minorities. A radical option was to invite the king of cool Barry Obama however his acting partner and long-term sidekick Joe Biden had a reputation for foul language that ruled him out of joining the prime-time series.

In 1798, the Kentucky State Legislature passed a resolution stating that acts of the national government beyond the scope of its constitutional powers were "unauthoritative, void, and of no force". An article from the American Heroes thread

Thomas Jefferson ImpeachedThe originator of the resolution was none other than the duplicitous Thomas Jefferson who was serving as both Vice President and also the leader of the Republican Opposition Party. It was of course an impossible conflict of loyalties that the Founding Fathers had not anticipated at Philadelphia.

But inevitably, there was a leak and he was called out by the Adams administration for violating the Alien and Sedition Act. The Republic watched in horror as the author of the Declaration of Independence was charged with impeachment. In his defence, Jefferson and his chief lieutenant James Madison sincerely believed that the Federalists had betrayed the American Revolution.

At a personal level, Adams of course was vindicated by the exposure. Throughout his tenture, he had been betrayed by malicious gossip and slander spread by his former friend. Despite that fact that he had withdrawn to Monticello and refused to participate in Cabinet, Adams said it was like Jefferson was in the next room the whole time.

It is 1634, and Oliver Cromwell has left England to live in Connecticut.

Republican Grinch, ReduxThe notorious Puritan has long been appalled by the wild and lawless behavior he has already seen in England, celebrating that pagan holiday called Christmas. Indeed, it is all too similar to Halloween, complete with rowdy trick-or-treat raids led by the Lord of Misrule. Boston is already close to banning the Christmas holiday, which it will do in 1659.

This abandoned revelry is one reason why Cromwell rallies his fellow subjects to take control of all the colonies .. thus outlawing Christmas and other sinful practices, such as slavery. His rules became the basis of our American government and have lasted to this day ... despite the influence of all the immigrants who have tried to import the winter celebration.

I need hardly add that only Protestant immigrants are allowed to come here at all .. but even they have been known to ignore the Christmas Ban, so that the police are constantly on the alert for their forbidden celebrations.

In 1936, on this day Edward VIII invited British Prime Minister Arnold Hiller to Buckingham Palace and expressed his desire to marry Wallis Simpson when she became free to re-marry.

The Right Honourable Arnold Hiller, M.P
A teaser by Ed & Chris OakleyAlthough greatly sympathetic to the King's plight, Hiller was fully aware that his subjects would deem the marriage morally unacceptable. This expected public reaction was the case largely because remarriage after divorce was opposed by the Church of England, and the people would not tolerate Wallis as queen. Because as king, Edward held the role of Supreme Governor of the Church of England, and the clergy expected him to support the Church's teachings.

Of course the irony was that Henry VIII's desire to divorce had actually created the Church of England. Nevertheless the so-called abdication crisis was an unfortunate turn of events for Hiller. Having crushed all domestic foes before rising to power, he was now operating at a geostrategic level, locked in a deeper struggle on the world stage and ultimately this episode was a distraction from the fulfilment of his global ambitions. That was of course unless he could force the Royal Family out and merge the offices of Head of Government and Head of State.
You can read read the latest part of Chris Oakley's timeline at The Right Honourable Arnold Hiller MP at Changing the Times Magazine.

In 1804, on this day in Archangel, British merchant broker and export representative John Bellingham had his travelling pass withdrawn because of the debt arising from the alleged sabotage of the Russian ship Soleure which sank in the White Sea the previous autumn.

Spencer Perceval reigns in John Bellingham's terrorsBecause the vessel was insured at Lloyd's of London the owners (the house of R. Van Brienen) raised a claim but an anonymous letter informed Lloyd's that the ship had been sabotaged. Soloman Van Brienen suspected Bellingham was the author, and decided to retaliate by accusing him of a debt of 4,890 roubles to a bankrupt for which he was an assignee.

Bellingham, on the verge of leaving for Britain on 16 November 1804, had his travelling pass withdrawn because of the debt. And then Van Brienen persuaded the Governor-General of the area to imprison Bellingham. A year later, Bellingham secured his release and managed to get to Saint Petersburg, where he attempted to impeach the Governor-General. This provoked the Russian authorities and he was charged with leaving in a clandestine manner, and again imprisoned. He was in prison until October 1808 when he was put out onto the streets, but without permission to leave. In his desperation, he personally petitioned the Tsar. He was permitted to leave in 1809 and arrived back in England in December.

Fortunately for Bellingham, by this time, the United Kingdom had broken off diplomatic relations with Russia and he received a more sympathetic response from the Prime Minister, Spencer Perceval (pictured) who arranged for compensation. His suprising intervention was due to his personal familiarity with the case; he is the only Solicitor General ever to reach the Office of Prime Minister. The outcome was a relief for Bellingham's long suffering wife who had begged him to drop the matter. Fearing for his sanity, she was desperately worried that he might actually be driven by his terrors to actually kill someone in authority.

It is November 1991, and the 74-year-old Grand Duke Vladimir Kirillovich Romanov, Head of the Russian Imperial Family, is invited to visit St. Petersburg by Mayor Anatoly Sobchak. The Soviet Union is collapsing, and the Grand Duke goes there hoping to regain the Russian throne. Realizing that the Russian people are not about to oblige him, he returns home to Madrid.

A Czar is BornWhen he dies the following year, he leaves several claimants fighting for the title, including his own daughter Maria. Ignoring them all, his distant nephew Peter Petrovich, aged 28, leaves his own home in California to accompany the Grand Duke's body back to St. Petersburg for burial. The Russian people feel great affection for the handsome, charming, charismatic young man ... and very little fondness for the new president, Vladimir Putin.

Some Russians are accusing Putin of sending his political opponents into exile and prison, arousing fears that he is as great a tyrant as Stalin himself, and even worse than the Czars. In protest, they elect the Romanov youth to replace Putin.

Peter Petrovich had kept promising the crowds that, if elected, he would proclaim himself as Czar, giving him more power to import the democracy and freedom he had learned growing up in America as a history professor's son. And he keeps his vow. Now it is Putin's turn to go into exile, while the Czar Liberator moves into the Kremlin, and the national anthem is once again "God Save the Czar".

The new Czar's reputation shines even brighter, when he foils an assassination attempt by pulling out his own pistol and shooting the would-be killer. While no one can be sure who hired the hit man, the incident serves to tarnish Putin's reputation even further .. and the young Czar's star shines brighter than before.

It becomes positively dazzling in the year 2000, when he marries Chelsea Clinton, the American president's only daughter, and it is no surprise that they remain in office to this day. She returns to America to have her children, though, so that they might become both Czars AND presidents, thus unifying the two countries further.

In 636, on this day a Sassanid Victory at al-Qadisiyyah halted the Muslim Advance. Beginning in the 600s, the Middle East was a theater of war for three of history's greatest empires. Two of them, the Byzantine and the Sassanid Empires, had battled for centuries and were descendants of empires that had stood even longer ago, Rome and Parthia, respectively.

Sassanid Victory at al-Qadisiyyah halts Muslim Advance A new empire began to form, however, during the life of the Prophet Muhammad. As more and more converts joined his faith, the power of Islam grew out of the western part of Arabia and expanded quickly. When the Byzantines and Sassanids noticed this, they set aside their own differences and began an alliance for mutual protection.

Byzantium had begun its significance when the Roman emperor Constantine moved his capital there to promote stability in 330. Doing so strengthened the wealthy eastern frontier, but it also ultimately broke the Roman Empire apart with the West falling to the German hordes in 476. The Byzantines still stood, but toward the beginning of 600, the Sassanid Empire stormed Syria, Egypt, and Anatolia in vengeance of the Byzantine general assassinating and usurping the emperor Maurice, who had married a Sassanid princess. The next emperor, Heraclius, defeated the Sassanids at Nineveh in 627 and received back the captured territory and loot, including the True Cross.

A new story by Jeff ProvineThe Sassanid Empire faced its own turmoil. Khosrau II was assassinated by his son Kavadh II in 629, who died in a matter of months, leading to a string of usurpations. Seven-year-old Ardashir III reigned before being killed by General Farrokhan, who died in battle and was succeeded by Purandokht, daughter of Khosrau II. She would rule for a short time, repairing much of the damage done by the past years' intrigue before being replaced by her sister Azarmidokht, who would in turn be replaced by the nobleman Hormizd VI. Finally, Purandokht's son and Khosrau's grandson Yazdgerd III came of age and stabilized the Sassanid throne, supported by his general Rostam Farrokhzad.

Meanwhile, Muslim power continued to grow. Upon the death of the Prophet in 632, a council met and determined that Abu Bakr would be caliph. He set upon a series of wars uniting the Arabs of Arabia and then moving northward to add those in Syria and Palestine. With a new force the Middle East to counteract the tentative balance between Byzantium and Persia, wars quickly began with the caliphate invasion of Iraq, and the Muslim power was affirmed with the defeat of an army Sassanids, Byzantines, and Christian Arabs in 633. Sassanids finally stopped the Muslim advance in 634, and Sassanids and Byzantines made a formal alliance in 635. Knowing of the alliance, the Muslim forces decided to deal with their enemies one at a time, wiping out the Byzantine army at Yarmouk near the Sea of Galilee in August of 636 at the cost of abandoning Iraq to a massive Sassanid force of some 200,000 in camp. The Muslims camped at Qadisiyyah with 30,000 and waited as peace talks dragged on.

That November, the talks gave way to actual battle. The two sides had attempted to bend the other's will with the Muslims sending an emissary to convert Yazdgerd III while the Persians sent a Muslim ambassador home as a servant carrying a basket of dirt on his head (though the Muslim response was, "Congratulations! The enemy has voluntarily surrendered its territory to us"). Caliph Umar ordered the talks to end, which caused Sassanid General Rostam to prepare for battle despite his reservations. Although the Sassanid army was much larger, the vast majority of the force was conscripted spear infantry that Procopius of Caesarea described as "a crowd of pitiable peasants who come into battle for no other purpose than to dig through walls and to despoil the slain and in general to serve the [real] soldiers".

In the night, Rostam decided to use the infantry, what might have been his weakness, as a diversion. He dammed up the canal and moved over his entire army to face the Muslim force the next morning. Following secret orders, the infantry led the attack as a whole after the opening onslaught of the arrows, but were swiftly beaten back by the better trained Muslims. They feigned retreat, and the Muslims pursued. When they reached the canal, however, the infantry turned about and were ordered to hold position while the archers pounded the Muslims, who then began their own retreat. In the chaos (the battle would be known to Islam as Yaum-ul-Armah, "The Day of Disorder"), Rostam released his war elephants, backed by his heavy cavalry, which swept the Muslim cavalry from the field. The organized retreat turned to a rout with the unnerving elephants stomping, and the Muslim army was destroyed.

Yazdgerd III would manage to seal the victory with a treaty that would end his alliance with the now extremely weakened Byzantine Empire. The Zagros Mountains were strongly defended against further Muslim invasion, though the rich lands of Mesopotamia would routinely change hands between them, like Anatolia, which would be stripped from the Byzantines, who became a relic city-state with a naval empire. The Muslim caliphates, meanwhile, would turn westward, conquering across North Africa and into Europe, where Christians would begin counterattacks such as the Crusades with Persian allies.

While the political boundaries settled for the time, the wildly different religions of the Arab and Persian peoples would keep up a constant sense of distrust. Although conquered by the Mongols and later European colonialists, Persia would remain the center of Zoroastrianism, one of the world's largest religions.

In 1960, the two-week long rampage of the Loch Ness Monster was finally ended by heavily armed soldiers who trapped the creature in a landlocked peninsula just north of the Scottish Channel.

Scotland the BraveThe series of events which led to the destruction of much of the east coast of the Scottish Island began six months before. An aeronautical engineer called Tim Dinsdale had observed a large creature rolling and diving in the Loch while he was having breakfast. Amazed by what he saw, he grabbed his video camera and his sixty feet of film which depicted the rear body, the rear flippers, and 1-2 additional humps of a plesiosaur-like body. By the time Dinsdale got out there, though, he only saw the hump swimming across the water with a powerful wake unlike that of a surface vessel. For nearly two minutes, Dinsdale filmed the monster swimming across the loch.

A new story by Ed and Gordon DavieInevitably, the reports of the confirmed sighting drew attention to the Loch, enraging the creature who left a trail of carnage heading southwards. And two weeks into the rampage, Downing Street panicked and evacuated Edinborough, the small port on England's northern coast. Expecting the worst, soldiers blockaided Princes Street by the sea front and harbour. And artillery was set on the islands of Arthur's Seat and Corstorphine Hill. But due to the bravery of a regiment of highlanders, the monster was unable to cross the Scottish Channel which links the Firths of Forth and Clyde.

In 1967, on this day the leader of the British Conservative Party, Reginald Maudling stepped down in favour of his controversial colleague in the Shadow Cabinet, Defence Spokesman the Right Honourable Enoch Powell, or more precisely "that fuc*er Enoch" as he was known to indiscretely refer to him in private.

Howzat! Basil D'Oliveira takes the most important wicket of his careerFollowing the resignation of Sir Alec Douglas Home in 1965, Maudling had narrowly won a three-way leadership contest in which he received 150 votes, Edward Heath 133 and Enoch Powell just thirteen. Home had been selected by the so-called "Magic Circle", a group of Tory grandees who had chosen the Earl through the decidely undemocratic means known as the old boy network.

Unfortunately, and despite being elected in a free vote, Maudling himself was no more in touch than Douglas Home with the "swinging sixties", accused of various slurs such as "Reg had no edge", that "Maudling was dawdling". Of course the real issue was that the Tory Party itself was hopelessly out of touch with the times, and undecided as to how to respond to the British obligations to the Commonwealth, honourably, or perhaps not. Maudling's already extensive alcoholic intake increased markedly and colleagues noted he was "never the same again"; he would leave politics altogether in 1974.

"In full flight, with arms waving, body crouching, eyes burning, voice hissing, he is one of the great sights of contemporary Britain; his body and mind seem united in animal intensity". ~ Anthony SampsonTraditionally, November is a dangerous time for Conservative Party Leaders. And so as the 1967 Tory Party Conference arrived, a man with some real "edge" came to the fore. Because Enoch Powell (pictured above with Ted Heath) had convinced the Conservative Party (if not the Shadow Cabinet) that THE burning issue of the sixties was immigration, or rather repatriation, which he increasingly believed was necessary following a trip to the United States.

A Greek Professor by the age of just twenty-four, and a Brigadier in the British Army, Powell was an animated politician of logic and vigour that succeeded in making both Maudling, and Edward Heath look decidedly ordinary. In fact many people feared that popular support would enable Powell to overthrow the constitution and rule as a dictator. Riding this wave of hatred, in the run-up to the Party Conference, Powell introduced two questionable examples from his own constituency in the West Midlands, where immigration was indeed taking hold as a genuine issue of concern to white voters.

Allegedly, Powell fell into conversation with a "quite ordinary working-class man" who wanted his children to emigrate because "in fifteen or twenty years the black man will have the whip hand over the white man". Similarly, he claimed to receive a letter about a "little old lady" persecuted by West Indian neighbours, who went so far as to push excreta through her letterbox.

"As I look ahead, I am filled with foreboding. Like the Roman, I seem to see "the river Tiber foaming with much blood".However, during Powell's short spell as Leader of the Opposition, another, indisputable, example, arose that was to destroy his leadership. The background to the issue was that Powell had consistently refused to criticise South Africa for the racist policies of her apartheid government.

During the summer of 1968, the England Cricket Selectors picked Basil D'Oliveira (pictured right). Born and raised in Cape Town, South Africa, he was classified as "coloured" under the apartheid regime, and hence barred from first-class cricket. South African prime minister BJ Vorster had already made it clear that D'Oliveira's inclusion was not acceptable and despite many negotiations the tour of South Africa was cancelled. Wrongly believing that the defining moment had arrived in the great debate, Powell delivered his infamous "Rivers of Blood" speech.

In a suitable reposte to both Powell and Vorster, four white South African cricketers (Eddie Barlow, Mike Proctor, Graham Pollock and Barry Richards) joined the great West Indian batsman Gary Sobers in conducting a rebel "Rest of the World" tour of England, demonstrating that they had absolutely no issue in sharing a dressing room with a black man.

In 2012, on this day Vice President Xi Jinping was elected to the post of General Secretary of the Communist Party and Chairman of the CPC Central Military Commission by the Party Central Committee.

Launch Pad to the 21st CenturyAs leader, he committed to land a man on the Moon before the changeover to the sixth generation of leaders in 2022.

Of course the purpose of this bold announcement was to justify world leadership through maturity. Because the thousand of years of continuous civilization was surely a more representative context than the short-lived history of the communist nation since 1948.

Undoubtedly, there was a challenge implicit in his words. Because America had developed its own space program, but having beat the Russians into orbit, had called it quits while there were still ahead of their Coldwar Rival. And although China started much later, it was generally considered highly unlikely that America could restart their own programme and still win this new race.

In 1705, at a decisive moment in Rákóczi's War of Independence, the invading force of Austrian-Danish-Serbian Corps under the command of Field Marshal Ludwig Herbeville were defeated in Transylvania.

Glorious Kuruc Victory at ZsibóIn a struggle that would change the balance of power in central Europe, a group of noblemen, wealthy and high-ranking progressives under his leadership were bidding to topple the rule of Habsburg Austria over Hungary. Because relations between the court and the nobility had deteriorated so badly and the new Habsburg rulers treated the peasants so poorly that eventually some people wished for a return to Turkish rule.

The outcome of the battle secured Transylvania, marking the beginning of the end for the Hungarian nobility in their quest to defend the Hungarian interest.

In 1315, an army under the command of Duke Leopold I of Austria narrowly survived a Swiss ambush in the Morgarten Pass.

Ambush at the Morgarten PassThe architect of the clandestine attack was Werner Stauffacher. He had mobilized a a Swiss Confederation force of 1,500 infantry archers to regain their local autonomy within the Habsburg Empire.

The dispute had arisen despite the Swiss holding imperial letters of guarantee signed by former Emperors. And after a raid on the Habsburg-protected monastery of Einsiedeln, Duke Leopold I had set out to crush the rebellious Confederates. And his ultimate victory was the end of hopes to restore the Old Swiss Confederacy.

In 655, in an early engagement that firmly established Anglo-Saxon paganism in Britain, the forces of King Penda of Mercia triumphed at the Cock Beck in present-day Yorkshire.

Glorious Mercian Victory at the Battle of WinwaedFresh from his successful campaign in Northumbria, he had gathered allies from East Anglia and Wales marching south with a large force led by "thirty warlords". Their opponent was Oswiu of Bernicia, the brother of Oswald of Northumbria who had fallen to defeat at the hands of the Mercians in the early battle of Maserfield.

The battle was fought by the river in the midst of heavy rains, and many more were drowned in the flight than destroyed by the sword. The result consolidated Mercian ascendancy over the Northumbria.

In 1485, on this day John II, King of Portugal approved Christopher Columbus's plans to equip three sturdy ships, granting one year's time to sail out into the Atlantic and search for a western route to the Orient, and return.

Escape to the AmericasBut instead the Genoese Explorer discovered the Americas. And it was to this New World Continent that Christians began to flee to in huge numbers through out the course of the new century. Because the new Sultan Şehzade Mustafa [1] continued the great work of his father Suleiman the Magnificent in comprehensively beating the people of the book.

Within three centuries, Islam had engulfed Western Europe. America was a common Christian Home, with the notable exception of Orthodoxes and "Hidden Christians" [2]. Long before the Fall of Constantinople - in fact ever since the Fourth Crusade - they had consistently maintained "Better the Sultan's turban than the Cardinal's hat!".

In 1925, on this day the 41st President of the United States Howard Henry Baker, Jr. was born in Huntsville, Tennessee. Article from the Reagan wins in 1976 thread.

Birth of President BakerHe had previously served as a United States Senator from Tennessee (1967-1988), holding the position of Senate Minority Leader (1977-1988).

Born in Huntsville, Tennessee, Baker was the son of a member of the House of Representatives. During World War II he trained in the U.S Navy before discharge in 1946. After a defeat in his first run for Senate in 1964, Baker returned to politics, winning a seat in 1966.

Baker gained prominence during the 1970s where he co-chaired a committee investigating the Watergate hearings. After winning reelection continuously in 1972, 1978 and 1984 Baker once again took to the national stage, running for President in 1988 and winning the Republican Nomination, followed by the general election over Vice President Dale Bumpers.

Baker served at a time of change, taking office shortly after the fall of the Soviet Union. As President he oversaw the passage of education reform, as well the Environmental Continuity Act. A bi-partisan negotiator, Baker gained a reputation as a man of compromise in the White House. Despite his popularity he was defeated for re-election by Texas Governor Anne Richards.

Today, Baker ranks surprisingly highly amongst rankings of former presidents, and has acted as a spokesperson for a variety of personal causes.

It is 1895, Czar Nicholai the Second's child Olga Romanovna was born.

Czarina Olga RomanovnaThe oldest of his four daughters, she was known to be beautiful, bright and kind. What's more she was first in line for the Russian throne, until her brother Alexis was born ten years later.

It's true that Czar Paul I, had tried to enact the salic law, preventing females from ascending the throne, after four Czarina's had ruled .. most notably his mother, Catherine the Great.

However, his nobles argued successfully against the proposal, pointing out that Queen Victoria's reign had been a brilliant success.

The proposal's failure proved to be a good thing for the royal family, when Alexis was discovered to have hemophilia, inherited from his mother's grandmother Victoria .. although it never afflicted women.

Guilt-ridden and desperate, the family turned for help to Rasputin, the Mad Monk, who apparently used hypnosis to control the disease. Rumors grew that he was also the empress' lover, to the point where he had to be dismissed.

Just as the family had feared, Alexis died at age ten. It was not the end of the dynasty, however, because Olga took the throne. Her kindness, intelligence and beauty soon won her people's hearts, and those fine qualities have also appeared in her heirs.

In 1977, on this day an ethnic Korean Japanese (Zainichi) monster called Sin Gwang-su abducted thirteen year old Megumi Yokota (pictured) on her way home from school in Niigata, forcing her (and seventeen others) to help train North Korean spies to pass as Japanese citizens during the late seventies and early eighties.

Repeal of Article 9
By Ed and Eric OppenThe kidnapper was finally arrested and sentenced to life imprisonment in 1985. But by then the political fall-out had already happened. Long before this criminal resolution for Yokota's suffering parents, public opinion in Japan had demanded a different kind of justice.

Because the submarine that ferried the North Korean agents carrying the stolen identies of the abducted Japanese citizens had gone aground in the Yellow sea. Megumi Yokota was rescued by the South Korean Navy; now free, she had spoken openly of her plight in captivity which had led to several attempts at suicide. Enraged by its inability to protect its own citizens, the Government of Japan repealed Article 9 of the Constitution which renounced the right to declare war or use military force in international disputes.

In 1957, in a move that many who knew him considered shockingly uncharacteristic (and believed to have been caused by advisers warning against words antagonizing opponents as had caused massive uprising in Hungary), Russian First Secretary of the Communist Party Nikita Khrushchev said during an interview with an American reporter that he would be willing to share missile technology with the United States, who clearly did not have the same ICBM capabilities as the Soviets.

Khrushchev Offers to Share Technology "If she had, she would have launched her own Sputnik", Khrushchev noted, recalling the Russian success of being the first people to put an artificial satellite into orbit some six weeks before on October 4. Later in the interview, given as part of the commemoration of the fortieth anniversary of the October Revolution, he discussed East-West relations and noted that neither side wanted war, but that the Soviets would win if one began.

The interview came just days after the Soviets had hurriedly launched Sputnik 2, which brought the first living creature into orbit, a dog named Laika. She proved that living creatures could survive weightlessness and opened the door for human scientific exploration of space. It also came after the humbling Gaither Report was leaked to the press. Assembled by the Security Resources Panel of the President's Science Advisory Committee, the report showed that the United States was far behind the Soviets on missile technology. After a decade of not working toward that end, the US had as its only defense the system of bomb shelters that were hardly effective if a large-scale war erupted.

A new story by Jeff ProvineThe American populace continued to reel from the shocking news of Soviet superiority. Only a decade ago, the USA had been unquestionably the most powerful nation in the world with the A-bomb born out of the Manhattan Project. At the end of the war in 1945, Operation Paperclip sent OSS agents throughout Germany picking up Nazi scientists such as Werner von Braun and capturing what technology they could. Many of these scientists came to work for the Americans (some even illegally imprisoned at places such as P.O. Box 1142), and an inter-continental ballistic missile project was begun in 1946 by Consolidated-Vultee with its MX-774. The program was shut down a couple of years later as conservative feelings overtook post-war America, and it would not be until after the shocking launch of Sputnik that the Americans would reawaken.

Embarrassed and shocked by the Russians, Project Vanguard was quickly put into place by the Eisenhower administration to lift the Explorer Program, picking up proposals from the US Navy and Army that had been shelved due to lack of interest and funding. With the disastrous launch attempt of the Vanguard TV3 on December 6, 1957, where the three-stage rocket rose four feet before losing thrust, collapsing, and exploding, American public turned back to Khrushchev's offer. Many took it as if he were an older brother offering help with homework, while others thought he was twisting the diplomatic knife with a pandering, impossible offer. The world was in the midst of the International Geophysical Year sharing science on geomagnetism, oceanography, etc, and leaders internationally began to criticize the Americans for not taking up Khrushchev's offer to take up an American satellite on a Russian rocket. Much of the hooplah was settled with the launch of Explorer 1 on January 31, 1958, and then rocketry settled to a calmer scientific route with military espionage riding closely, secretly behind.

International relations improved somewhat between the USA and USSR, later resulting in the Nuclear Limitation Treaty in 1962 avoiding a massive stockpile of weapons beyond the point of Mutually Assured Destruction. Despite Khrushchev's constant assurances that communism would bury capitalism and colonialism, the Soviet Union would eventually fall in 1992, but not until after the success of the Buran shuttle system, launched in 1988 on the anniversary of Khrushchev's speech that began a time of peaceful coexistence in orbital space above the simmering Cold War. With an international space station being pieced together by Russian rockets with American engineered segments, long term space habitation is gradually being explored. Scientists hope to eventually put a man on the moon, where probes and flyby satellites have already taken a great deal of data, but cost and lack of public incentive have kept humans home.

In 1778, Britain's last hope for crushing the American Revolution was dashed when Lord Cornwallis, commander of the British expeditionary force in Virginia and the Carolinas, was killed by sniper fire during an assault on Continental Army regimental lines northwest of Charleston, South Carolina.

Double Jeopardy Part 12
Death of CornwallisCornwallis -- at that time the most experienced field general the British had in North America --had originally been sent to crush guerrilla activity behind the British lines but soon found himself facing Continental Army regulars. The precise details of Cornwallis' death are murky even to this day, but historians generally agree he was one of the last casualties in the fight for Charleston and fell at American hands.

Cornwallis' death broke the morale of the British troops under his command and drove them into headlong retreat; from that moment on until the Revolutionary War ended in August of 1779, the British Army in North America was almost totally on the defensive.

In 2001, on this day Lexington wrote in the Economist ~ THIS has been a truly remarkable week for President Al Gore. The Taliban is in full retreat in Afghanistan.

Al Gore discovers himselfVladimir Putin has agreed to scrap more than two-thirds of Russia's nuclear weapons, fulfilling a dream that Mr Gore has cherished since he first went into politics. And Congress stands poised to pass a giant stimulus package. No wonder the president's approval rate stands at a stratospheric 87 percent.

An article by LexingtonIt seems almost churlish at such a time to bring up the little matter of the 2000 vote. But after last November's disputed election a consortium of conservative newspapers, led by the Washington Times, decided to pay for a recount of all the Florida votes. A million dollars of Richard Mellon Scaife's money and thousands of man-hours later, these Republican geniuses have proved what we all knew already: that the election was damn close. If Mr Gore had followed the advice of some of his more cynical advisers and concentrated on counting the votes in just four Democrat-controlled counties, rather than doing the honest thing and calling for a recount of all the votes in the state, he would have lost to George Bush."After September 11th, Al Gore at last realised what God put him on earth to achieve"

Can you imagine it? Mr Bush has gone into semi-retirement in Austin, his limited abilities as Texas's governor taxed by a legislature that meets only every other year. But the mere thought that he might have been president sends shivers down the spine. This is a man whose idea of foreign travel was to visit a barrio or two when he wished to appear "compassionate", and who would have conducted foreign policy from behind a Maginot Line of missiles. There is every reason to believe that, after September 11th, a President Bush would have struck out blindly at Osama bin Laden, perhaps even using nuclear weapons.

Which all goes to show how sensible the American people were to choose a man with real experience. Mr Gore has brought a remarkable set of skills to the present crisis, honed by a lifetime in politics and eight years in the vice-presidency. His "golden Rolodex", as one commentator has called it, has been invaluable to his building of a grand alliance against terror. He used his close personal relationship with Mr Putin to bring a reluctant Russia into the war, fundamentally changing the whole pattern of geopolitics. He used his ideological ties to Tony Blair, forged at many a seminar on the Third Way, to turn Britain into a bedrock of support. It is fair to say that Mr Gore has not one secretary of state but two: the indomitable Richard Holbrooke and the ever-loyal British prime minister.

The mention of Mr Holbrooke points to another extraordinary fact about the Gore presidency: the quality of the people he can call on. It is no exaggeration to say that Mr Gore has the entire brainpower of the country, from Washington think-tanks to the Ivy League universities, at his disposal. And there are few brains as acute as the secretary of state's.

Mr Holbrooke is one of the most experienced diplomats in the business. Mr Gore credits him with getting Germany wholeheartedly to join the anti-terrorist campaign, thanks to his time as ambassador there. But in some ways Mr Holbrooke still has to come into his own. The very qualities that make the secretary of state so unpopular in polite circles-his abrasive self-importance, his absolute confidence that he is right on matters big and small-make him a giant when it comes to negotiating with primitive warlords. He knocked heads together with extraordinary success in Bosnia; he will do the same thing in Afghanistan.

Fiddle, fiddle, fiddle

Mr Gore's extraordinary knowledge of Washington has been more of a mixed blessing in two other areas. The first is military strategy. The president has been a military buff ever since he became a congressman back in 1977. But his encyclopedic knowledge of warfare-and his iron belief in his own abilities-have inevitably led to clashes with the Pentagon. The generals grumble that Mr Gore wanted to control where every bomb was dropped, and that the result was a much more hesitant start than necessary to the war.

On the home front, Mr Gore was furious at the way the anthrax outbreak threw his administration into confusion. He could not understand why the Centres for Disease Control did not know more about the illness. He was apoplectic when he discovered that the FBI did not even know which laboratories in the country were licensed to produce the stuff. Yet his decision to put himself in charge of a special task-force has failed to produce results. Even more unsatisfactory has been his handling of the question of airport security. His remarks that those Republicans who oppose federalising security workers are "Neanderthals with the blood of the American people on their hands" is hardly likely to produce compromise.

Mr Gore's habit of micromanaging events is clearly his biggest weakness: a weakness that has been made worse by the decision to put Vice-President Joseph Lieberman (who had aroused much wrath on the Arab street because of his Jewish background) into a permanent secret location. But all this pales into insignificance beside Mr Gore's secret weapon during these dark days: his discovery of his true self.

The strongest criticism of Mr Gore has always been that he does not know who he is. Throughout his career, he reinvented himself to suit the mood of the times. In his first run for the presidency, he presented himself as a champion of the business-minded New Democrats; in his second run, he campaigned for the people against the powerful. All this left the impression that he had no hard centre, but was simply playing at politics in order to appease his father's ghost.

All this changed on September 11th. The collapse of the twin towers gave this extraordinarily restless and energetic man the task he has been seeking all his life: the war against terrorism. Al Gore at last knows what God put him on earth to achieve.

In 1963, on this day President Adlai Stevenson asked Congress to revoke the honourary US citizenship of the recently disgraced former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill.

Bulldog's BiteThis totally unexpected and shocking outcome was caused by a chance discovery made in January by the CIA operative Miles Copeland. Based in Beirut, he had been investigating the British double agent Kim Philby. Transcripts dating from early 1945 were discovered which revealed that the British Government had ordered the assassination of US President Franklin D. Roosevelt.

By that time, London had a number of reasons to be dissatisfied. At the Yalta Conference, Churchill had told Foreign Secretary Anthony Eden that he was unable to insist Stalin honoured his promises because "I am no longer fully heard by him [Roosevelt]". From the lifting of the siege of Stalingrade, Roosevelt had begun to shrewdly re-evaluate his relationship with both allies, ultimately determining that the Soviets were a far more effective partner to fight a proxy war with Hitler. He sent far more resources to the Soviet Union than to Great Britain, and England was (according to a drunken slur from Churchill) "jilted".

A new story co-written by Ed & Scott PalterThese mispoken words were the equivalent of Henry VIII's unconsidered comment of "off with his head" that had doomed Thomas More. Apart from this soliloquy, the decision to eliminate Roosevelt was taken with Churchill's blessing, but in all probability, without his explicit approval as is the way of such things. As an amateur historian, with an American mother, Churchill might well have reflected upon the unexposed conspiracy to murder Abraham Lincoln. A well known actor called John Wilkes Booth had shot the President, jumped onto the stage where he had made his getaway from Washington on horseback (presumably, getting himself lost amongst the rebel soldiers flowing home after Lee's surrender).

But history would not repeat itself on this occasion. Because in the transcripts discovered by Copeland, Kim Philby had falsified intelligence reports that Roosevelt planned to use the strength of the dollar to hammer the pound sterling after the war. Already fearing that Roosevelt would use the United Nations to dismante European colonial empires, this new information forced the British Government's hand. Of course there was a typically British cover-up later on when it was discovered that not only was this information false, but worse Truman was "tight-fistedly" planning to reduce Britain's post-war aid. The result was counter-productive: a "deadly hiatus" between the two Presidencies, which could only profit the Soviet Union, and personally satisfy the traitorous intentions of Kim Philby.