In 1886, on this day 21st President of the United States Chester Alan Arthur died in New York City of apoplexy, a cerebral haemorrhage and stroke. He was only fifty-six years old.

Death of President Chester A. ArthurAccording to his own account, he was born on October 5, 1829 in Fairfield, Vermont, he was the son of an abolitionist preacher. His father was an Irish immigrant and his mother came from Canada.

He was the running mate for James A. Garfield. Tragically, he wife Nell died of pneumonia on January 12, 1880 at the age of 42. And only two hundred days after inauguration, he was sworn in after the President was assassinated by Charles J. Guiteau at the Sixth Street Station of the Baltimore and Potomac Railroad in Washington. Arthur never appointed a Vice President.

During his tenure, he created an impressive set of enemies that resisted his reform agenda. He was undone by the discovery [1] that he was born in Ireland and came to America aged fourteen. After his resignation, he was succeeded by the President Pro Tempore of the Senate, Solomon Foot who, in act of supreme of irony, was the Senator for Vermont.

In 1965, on this day 33rd President of the United States Henry Agard Wallace died in Danbury, Connecticut.

Death of President Henry A. WallaceBorn on October 7, 1888, at a farm near the village of Orient, Iowa, in Adair County, he was the son of Henry Cantwell Wallace, a farmer, journalist, and political activist. Like his father, he was appointed US Secretary of Agriculture serving until 1940 when he resigned, having been nominated for Vice President as Roosevelt's running mate in the presidential election. Three years later FDR died, and he rose to the Presidency.

Due to the Democrat party rule of allowing a sitting President to run uncontested, he gained re-election in 1944. In his second term, he made the critical decision to use the atomic bomb .. but only for demonstration purposes. As he expected Japan surrendered anyway, and he defended the decision from a moral perspective saying that he refused to usher in a "century of fear" [1]. After the war, he immediately threw all of his energies into achieving great power disarmament.

In 1946, having eliminated the Fellowship of the Ring scene where Saruman proposes to Gandalf that the Wizards take the Ring for themselves and challenge Sauron for the mastery of Middle Earth, J.R.R. Tolkien set about introducing a dramatically modified version of the same outcome into The Two Towers.

Wizard! Part 4
LOTR, the Kick Ass EditionIn the original text, Gandalf had failed to meet Frodo en route to Rivendell because he had been imprisoned at Isengard for refusing to reveal the location of Durin's Bane. Disappointed by the slow pace of the trilogy his son Christopher had suggested that the meeting was brought forward to the earlier location in Bree as planned. Because of this fork in the plot, Gandalf is not summoned to Isengard and is thus unaware that his fellow Istari was creating his own army of Orcs and wolves, "in rivalry of Sauron, and not in his service yet" and that the green valley below Orthanc "was now filled with pits and forges".

Based on an idea from Steven FisherIn the modified final chapter of FOTR a dramatic aerial battle ensues between the Nazgûl and Great Eagles during which Frodo recovers the Ring from the Balrog but in so doing is mortally wounded with the Morgul blade by the Witch-king of Angmar. In the confusion, the Fellowship is broken, and Frodo is taken to Isengard where the Ring is seized by Saruman, Gandalf's superior as the head of the White Council.

The context of War of the Ring has now changed dramatically, with open conflict breaking out between The Two Towers of Barad-dÊr and Orthanc. The breath-taking prospect of Uruk-hai versus Mordor Orcs hugely excited Tolkien. And yet this dramatic change in the plot presented a huge challenge of the imagination. Should he persist in the course of events where Gandalf et al. travel to Edoras to try to convince the Riders of Rohan to attack Isengard - but in this case, to rescue Frodo and seize the Ring by force, if that is even possible. Or should they press on to Minas Tirith and reform a great alliance of men and Elves that combats whichever of the masters of the Two Towers that prevails?
This article is part of the Wizard thread.

In 1307, in a legendary act that seemed almost Biblical in magnitude, Albrecht Gessler, the Austrian bailiff of the Alpine town of Altdorf, set his hat atop a pole in the center of town.

William Tell Misses He ordered the townspeople to bow before it in recognition of the Austrian emperor (although, as it was his own hat and thus "crown", they may have been bowing to him). The Alps had been under the influence of various foreign ruling houses such as Savoy and Kyburg who maintained key passes for military supremacy. In 1264, Kyburg toppled, and the Holy Roman Emperor Rudolph I claimed the Swiss territory as his own.

A new story by Jeff ProvineAfter decades of rule, local Swiss grumbled, and Gessler was dispatched to quell them. Many suspected that the emperor sent him there to provoke the Swiss so that an Austrian invasion would seem a peacekeeping force, but such secrets would remain behind closed doors. Gessler conducted government business with a heavy hand, staging rules to find naysayers and execute them before the rabble was roused.

While other townsfolk bowed to the hat, a hunter named William Tell walked through the square and refused to bow. Gessler had him arrested and gave him a choice: be executed outright or use his crossbow to knock an apple from his son Walter's head. Tell, an expert marksman, chose the apple. Surrounded by Austrian troops, Tell would trust his skills and play the overlord's game. If he missed, both he and his son would be executed. If he struck true, as he felt certain he would, they would be given freedom.

During the attempt, a man coughed behind Tell, breaking his concentration enough to have the arrow bury itself several inches below the apple. As Walter fell dead, Tell turned on Gessler and fired a second arrow, killing the Austrian instantly. Guards seized Tell and nearly beat him to death before their captain stopped them. Tell would be sent back to Austria and put on trial for murder.

The case at court would prove instrumental in establishing political jurisdiction over Switzerland for Austria. While the Swiss balked at their lack of freedom, the Austrian crown gradually began to assert control by giving sway in the competition for Holy Roman Emperor against the Luxembourgs. Rather than a crackdown militarily, the Austrians offered pacts to the various Alpine communities such as Uri and Berne, creating a confederation that would evolve into Austrian domination by the fifteenth century.

The uproar of the Reformation broke apart the Holy Roman Empire and spilled southward into the Alps, led before his death by Huldrych Zwingli. Seizing freedom of religion as an opportunity to seek political freedom as well, the confederation shattered and set about militarized valleys among the mountains. Guerrilla warfare pitted communities against one another and, especially, against Austrian influence. With such interruption in the south, the Swedish-backed northern Germans were able to free themselves from Roman authority early in the Twenty-five Years' War.

Switzerland would come under heavy sway in the Counter-Reformation following those violent years. Ideals of religious freedom were cast aside as heresy and disunity, and great significance was put into building up cathedrals and Catholic institutions, even to the cost of economic growth. Much of Europe would pass by Switzerland in this time, but the resilience would be recognized as the key to halting French invasion in 1798. Empowered by victories during the growth of Nationalism, Switzerland would seek independence in 1870 from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, gaining great military support from Giuseppe Garibaldi, whose unification of Italy also fought against Austrian imperialism. Finally standing as its own free republic, Switzerland would follow Italy and its neighbor Bavaria into Fascism in the early twentieth century. After the war defeated fascist thought, Switzerland would be occupied by French and American troops, eventually returned to its own elections. In 1997, Switzerland joined the European Union, hoping to gain much of the economic and technological improvement it had missed for so many years.

In 1183, on this day the Genpei War took an unexpected turn when a Minamoto force seized the Taira military base on Yashima, a small island off the coast of Shikoku.

Battle of MizushimaThe army that General Minamoto no Yoshinaka (pictured) had sent an army to cross the Inland Sea to Yashima engaged the Taira just offshore of Mizushima.

The Taira made a tactical error by tieing their ships together, and placed planks across them to form a flat fighting surface. The battle began with archers loosing a rain of arrows upon the Minamoto boats; when the boats were close enough, daggers and swords were drawn, and the two sides engaged in hand-to-hand combat. However the Taira were undone by the inflexibility of their static line of defence and the Minamoto warriors prevailed.

The victory almost certainly brought forward the establishment of the Kamakura shogunate under Minamoto Yoritomo.

In 1558, on this day Queen Mary I of England died and was succeeded by Elizabeth Tailboys, Henry VIII's illegitimate daughter born to his long-time lover Bessie Blount.

Elizabethan Era BeginsHer ascension triggered an immediate challenge from Mary's half-sister, who confusingly was also called Elizabeth (Tudor, pictured). And the resulting Civil War was therefore known as the Elizabethan Era, which of course drew to a sudden close when King Phillip of Spain's armada set sail.

The pretender's prospects of success were greatly enhanced by the clear landing zone [1] she organized. And when she finally seized the throne and threw Tailboys into the Tower of London, Elizabeth Tudor, that traitorous Spanish stool pidgeon was sarcastically labelled "Good Queen Bess".

In 1603, on this day Sir Walter Raleigh was acquitted. Upon the death of Queen Elizabeth in 1603, many Catholics saw the time of transition when Scottish James I took the English throne as the chance to overthrow the Protestant government.

Sir Walter Raleigh Acquitted England had officially separated from Rome in 1534 under Henry VIII, who repeatedly fought to keep his position as head of the Church of England. The wars continued, primarily with Spain, through the reign of his daughter Elizabeth, though she would take a fairly neutral stance on Catholicism compared to Henry. The Virgin Queen had no issue, and the crown passed to her relative James VI of Scotland, who was not uniformly welcomed to the throne.

In the midst of the uneasiness, many Catholics thought that a single push would overthrow the Protestant rule of the country, and conspiracies were born. Most famous would be the Gunpowder Plot in 1605 with its close-call to the destruction of Parliament, but there would also be Bye Plot (in which Catholic priests hoped to kidnap James I to force the repeal of anti-Catholic laws) and the Main Plot both in 1603. Funded by Spain and led by men such as Henry Brooke, his brother Sir George (who would be executed after trial in the Bye Plot), and military man Thomas Grey, the plot involved raising up an army to storm London and place James's cousin Arabella on the throne. Henry Brooke, the Lord Cobham, was in contact with the court of Spain and would collect money for the plot by travelling circuitously from London to Brussels to Spain and then back to London via Jersey, where Sir Walter Raleigh was governor. As the conspiracy came to trial, Raleigh would be dragged into it.

A new story by Jeff ProvineRaleigh was familiar with scandal. He had secretly married one of the Queen's ladies-in-waiting, Elizabeth Throckmorton, without permission in 1591, and the couple was imprisoned in the Tower of London. Shortly thereafter, however, Raleigh was released as he was one of the leading Englishmen with knowledge of the New World and worked to divide the spoils of the captured Spanish Madre de Dios. His fortunes would bounce back, just as they had after his failed experiment with Roanoke Colony. In 1593, he was made a burgess and later elected to Parliament (sitting for three counties in 1603). The next year, he came upon the story of "El Dorado", a golden city at the headwaters of the Caroni River, a tributary of the Orinoco, and traveled to explore the northern coast of South America. Upon his return, Raleigh wrote The Discovery of Guiana and made exciting, if exaggerated, claims about his voyage. He returned to favor with exploits in battles with Spain and was named Governor of Jersey, from which he would be recalled in 1603 under suspicion of conspiracy and treason.

Cobham had given a sworn confession involving Raleigh, attempting to name names as his brother George Brooke had done turning Cobham in during the Bye trials. Raleigh denounced the evidence as "hearsay", which was outright inadmissible in common law, though it could be heard in this civil law case of treason. General Attorney Edward Coke, who was new to his position and gaining great fame as he prosecuted numerous treasonous conspirators, refused to allow Cobham to testify in person as Cobham was described by contemporaries to say "one thing at one time, and another thing in another, and could be relied upon in nothing". Coke used personal attacks such as "notorious traitor", "vile viper" and "damnable atheist" in lieu of actual evidence, and finally Raleigh was able to point out that Coke was acting simply out of desperation in his duty to prosecute by order of the king. James I recognized this, and the charges were dismissed.

Raleigh returned to his positions and completing his improvements of the Jersey defenses before pressing on with his aspirations of discovering El Dorado. He gathered investors and equipment for not just an expedition, but a colony at the delta of the Orinoco to supply further expeditions up river. Raleigh's bravado worked to his advantage in keeping the Spanish farther west and establishing an effective new Jamestown. The colony would later be governed by his son Wat after Raleigh disappeared into the jungle on one of his many expeditions and never returned. Orinoco proved a key military position between coastal Spanish Venezuela and the Dutch colonies forming to the east, many of which would be conquered in the later Anglo-Dutch wars.

Orinoco proved a fairly profitable, if non-noteworthy, plantation colony for the British Empire in the next several centuries. By the early 1900s, its vast oil fields became a valuable commodity, and since then Orinoco has been one of the richest corners of the Commonwealth, looked upon with envy by other former colonies and routinely doing well in sporting matches from its state-of-the-art national stadium, El Dorado.

In 1938, on this day suspicions that the attempt on Prof. Richard Pearson's life was part of a larger Nazi conspiracy against the American scientific community were heightened when U.S. Army intelligence cryptologists decoded a series of cable intercepts originating from the Berlin headquarters of Germany's Abwehr foreign espionage agency.

Part Eight of Parley These cables, initially transmitted to the German embassy in Washington and then forwarded to German undercover agents throughout the United States, contained detailed instructions for assassinating prominent American scientists and attacking facilities known or suspected to be associated with the overall Western research and development efforts to master Martian technology.

Interestingly enough, these cables made no mention of the Manhattan Project, suggesting the German government wasn't yet aware of its existence.

In 1973, President Spiro T. Agnew, under investigation both for his possible role in offenses relating to the June 1972 break-in at Democratic National Committee headquarters in Washington, D.C.'s Watergate Hotel and for alleged bribery and kickbacks dating from his time as governor of Maryland, gave a rambling speech defending himself which was most memorable for his assurance that "I am not a crook. The President of the United States is not a crook".

Driven from Office by Eric LippsAgnew had succeeded to the presidency upon the unexpected death of President Richard M. Nixon from an aortic aneurysm on January 24, just days after Nixon had been sworn in for a second term after winning a landslide victory over Democrat George S. McGovern in the 1972 presidential election.

"I am not a crook. The President of the United States is not a crook".Later, some would argue Nixon had been the luckier one. The Watergate investigation would turn up extensive evidence of presidential misconduct, which would certainly have put him at risk of impeachment. His death in effect left Agnew holding the bag for those misdeeds. But it would be the revelations emerging from Maryland which would prove more damaging, ultimately not only forcing Agnew from office but making him the first U.S. President ever sentenced to prison. Although the prison sentence was suspended, ex-President Agnew would be fined $10,000 and would live out the remainder of his life as a political pariah, shunned even by Republican conservatives who had once looked to him to speak for them.

In 1972, speaking on Radio Kampala on this day the President of Uganda Idi Amin Dada (pictured) declared "economic warfare" by announcing a set of Africanisation policies that included the expropriation of properties owned by Asians, Jews and Europeans.

Idi Amin declares economic war on ethnic minoritiesNot only would Amin's repatriation plans for Africanization ravage the national economy, they would attempt to destroy the lives of two ethnic groups who had been born in the country, their ancestors having come to Uganda when the country was still a British colony. Yet the reactions of these persecuted minorities would be very different.

Uganda's 80,000 Asians were mostly from the Indian subcontinent, many owned businesses, including large-scale enterprises, that formed the backbone of the Ugandan economy. Amin issued a decree ordering the expulsion of the 60,000 Asians who were not Ugandan citizens and most of them held British passports. This was later amended to include all 80,000 Asians, with the exception of professionals, such as doctors, lawyers and teachers. A plurality of the Asians with British passports, around 30,000, emigrated to Britain. Others went to Australia, Canada, India, Pakistan, Sweden, and the U.S.

"In any country there must be people who have to die. They are the sacrifices any nation has to make to achieve law and order". ~ Idi AminSince 1903, 250,000 Zionists had settled the 5,000 square mile Mau Plateau after British Colonial Secretary Joseph Chamberlain gave a portion of British East Africa to the Jewish people as a homeland under the British Uganda Program. The offer was a response to pogroms against the Jews in Russia, and it was hoped the area could be a refuge from persecution for the Jewish people.

Recognising an unmistakeable threat to the future of the Jewish Homeland, and determined to prevent a repeat of the Russian pogroms, a special forces mission, "Operation Thunderball" was ordered by the Zionist leadership. Lieutenant Colonel Yonatan "Yoni" Netanyahu led a team of commandoes from the Israeli Defense Force who secretly landed in Entebbe Airport and drove an exact replica of Amin's Mercedes into the Presidential Compound where Yoni killed the Head of State with a burst from his Kalashnikov. Netanyahu was also shot in the raid, but survived due to the timely intervention of Dora Bloch, a 75-year-old hostage who had been seized at Mulago Hospital in Kampala with some of her doctors and nurses.

In 1989, what would later be known as the Velvet Rebellion began with the suppression if a peaceful demonstration in Prague, Czechoslovakia (pictured). Velvet Revolution Fails by Eric Lipps

That event would lead to an escalating cycle of protest and repression which would end in December with the direct intervention of Soviet military forces.

The Czech rebellion would prove to be the last straw for opponents of Mikhail Gorbachev within the Soviet military and government.

On January 2, 1990, Gorbachev would be forcibly deposed and a hard-line Stalinist government backed by the Red Army would take control in Moscow. Thereafter, the Soviet grip on Eastern Europe would be tightened once more, forestalling what might have been a peaceful end to the Cold War which could have averted the global holocaust of June 1999.

In 2008, on this day French police arrested Mikel Garikoitz Aspiazu Rubina (pictured).Txeroki arrested by Chris Oakley & Todayinah Ed.

"Txeroki" is the suspected military leader of the Basque Unity Militia, a group sponsored by Spain's neo-fascist government which sought to forcibly reunite the Basque Republic with the rest of Spain, from which the Republic had seceded in 1940. The Basque news agency, Vasco Press, said that Mr Garikoitz Aspiazu, whose nickname means Cherokee, had been detained along with another suspected terrorist group member in the town of Cauterets, and the arrest was a "severe blow" to the terrorist group.

The arrest of Mr Garikoitz Aspiazu, 35, which took place overnight in the Hautes-Pyrenees region of France, follows the detention of the terrorist group's alleged political commander, Javier Lopez Pena alias 'Thierry', in the French city of Bordeaux in May. The French interior ministry did not provide any other details about the arrest, but said he was "suspected of being the perpetrator" of the murder of two civil guard officers in Capbreton on 1 December 2007, shot during a surveillance operation on suspected terrorist group members.

"This arrest shows again the resolute commitment of the French police and gendarmerie in the fight against all forms of terrorism and illustrates once again the excellent co-operation between France and the Basque Republic in the fight against state sponsored terrorism. Today Basque Unity Militia is weaker and Basque autonomy is stronger". The French statement added.

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.