In 1836, on this day the 26th President of the United States Arthur Sewall (pictured) was born in Small Point, Maine.

Silver BulletIn the 1896 general election, he was the running mate for William Jennings Bryan who had gained the nomination after electrifying the Democratic National Convention with his Cross of Gold speech (the left-wing Populist Party also endorsed Bryan for president, but found Sewall unacceptable, substituting Thomas E. Watson of Georgia who fully supported the principle of free silver).

But he only succeeded to the White House via an assassin bullet. Because in 1901, President Bryan was murdered by the anarchist Leon Czolgosz at the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, New York. It has long been suggested that Czolgosz was funded by interests in the free silver business which had once again dominated the general election and who felt betrayed by actions taken during his first term.

In 1963, on this day President John F. Kennedy, Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson and Governor John Connally attended the funeral of Senator Ralph Yarborough at the "Arlington of Texas" the State Cemetary located east of downtown Austin.

The Death of Smilin' RalphDespite the show of partisan unity, Kennedy had been visiting the Lone Star State at the invitation of Yarborough to attempt to resolve a bitter dispute going on in the Democratic Party in Texas. Johnson and Connally were seen as the leaders of the right-wing faction, whereas Ralph Yarborough led the liberal wing committed to civil rights (so much so that Connally and Johnson had accused him of being a communist). Of course the Governor and Vice-President were long-time political allies; Connally had ran all of Johnson's election campaigns. In 1948 Connally was accused of fraud when he discovered at the last moment the existence of 200 votes for Johnson from Jim Wells County. It was these votes that gave Johnson an eighty-seven-vote victory.

The acrimony was worse than Kennedy had feared, and he was forced to agree to change the seating arrangements in the Dallas motorcade. Johnson and Connally travelled together in the same convertible, whilst Yarborough sat in front of President Kennedy who leant forward a moment before Oswald fired the fateful shot.

In 1940, after nearly two months of dealing, Russia announced that it would be joining Hitler's Axis on this day. Stalin had ordered his minister Molotov to widen the scope of the discussions in Berlin to solve potential problems with spheres of influence.

Russia Joins Axis Simultaneously, Soviet ambassadors appeared in Sofia, promising the Bulgarian Prime Minister that Russia's objection to Bulgaria joining as well would be withdrawn as per the shared military rights among the Axis nations. The world was shocked by the news, especially Britain as it faced the horrors of the Blitz against an even stronger foe.

Hitler, too, was shocked. Months ago, he had ordered "Instruction Number 18" on November 13 to plan for an invasion of Russia to solidify control of oil reserves and begin the enslavement of the Slavs. Now, Stalin had agreed to Hitler's terms with a few added secret terms:

• German troops leaving Finland in exchange for guarantee of Soviet peace with Finland as well as supplies of nickel and wood.
• A mutual assistance treaty Bulgaria.
• The southern boundary of the Soviet Union guaranteed at Baku and Batumi with special consideration given to Germany to supply oil from Azerbaijan.
• Japanese handover of Sakhalin oil and coal in exchange for compensation and similar consideration.
• Soviet bases established in Bulgaria.

A new story by Jeff ProvineWhile the renewed pressure on the Bosporus irked Hitler, the guarantee of oil impressed him too much. He shelved his invasion plans, for the time, and met with Stalin in Sofia for the signing ceremony December 7, 1941. Though unknown at the time, Hitler had also been pressuring Japan into a sneak attack on the United States, but, seeing his war with Britain over soon, reneged on the plan, prompting Japanese command to call back the fleet hours after its launch on November 26. Franklin Roosevelt, wary of the significance of the diplomatic dealing, referred privately to the signing of the pact as "a date which will live in infamy".

Hitler realigned his troops into new position and re-activated the invasion of Britain through Operation Sea Lion for 1942. Though the Germans were unable to achieve full air superiority, the German Navy managed to hold off the Royal Navy long enough for the largest amphibious assault in human history behind a screen of mines. Initially, the Germans would overcome British defenses, pressing nearly to London, but Churchill kept his vow of continuing the fight from his bunker beside Parliament and held the Germans at the GHQ line. While the Royal family was evacuated to Scotland, thousands of Brits rose up in defiance with sabotage behind German lines. The Royal Navy and the RAF continually challenged German superiority at sea and in the air, leaving historians to claim that the defense of Britain counted as the longest siege of the modern day.

The Invasion of Britain would prove to be Hitler's quagmire. At last the American people would stand against German aggression as well as Japanese invasion of the Philippines, sending thousands of troops to the British lines. Nearly 3.9 million German troops would be involved in the effort, but the resilience of the British and her allies became unbreakable over the course of two years. After the introduction of the V-2 rocket, which struck targets after sub-orbital arches and beyond the speed of sound, the Germans gained the upper hand by devastating the defending fleets. With secure supply lines, German forces finally overwhelmed the island. In 1948, Hitler would tour conquered London while the Crown established a government-in-exile in Canada.

Meanwhile, Stalin began his "liberation" of the Turks from British influence. The invasion and occupation of Turkey would lead Soviet forces to further "peacekeeping", marching into the Middle East and securing Iraq and Iran's rich oil fields. The sites proved instantly rebellious, and millions would die as Stalin attempted to purge any anti-Soviet thought from the deeply rooted Muslims. The continual struggle against imperialism wore down the Russian people, prompting a revolution after the Stalin's death in 1953.

Russia turned on itself, and an aging Hitler finally saw his chance. He had been held at the Atlantic by Allied submarines, pushing southward into Africa in association with the Spanish and Italians. In 1955, under the pretext of defending German economic interests and the pledge of Russian oil, the Red Army marched on Moscow as it had meant to do 14 years before. While the various parties of Russia had fought one another, they all agreed upon the goal of ridding Russia of invaders, and the whole of the nations turned on Hitler.

Atomic bombs, which had been used by Americans to bring down the Japanese Empire, proved an ineffective strategy for Hitler's army as the peoples of the former Soviet Union were ubiquitous rather than isolated. It is said that the stress of the Russian occupation delivered the stroke that killed Adolph Hitler April 30, 1957, at age 68. Infighting among his potential heirs weakened the Nazi regime, which would fall apart as Stalin's had done.

With renewed opportunity, the stalemate across the Atlantic had broken, and the Allied forces charged into Europe through the rebellion of Britain. Conquered lands erupted in anti-Nazi revolution, and soldiers routinely deserted than fight for a colony whose mother country was in such peril. By 1964, the last Axis government in Bulgaria would surrender, and World War II would be declared over. Led by the United States, a new world order under democracy through the United Nations would be attempted with its founding in 1966.

In 2009, on this day Jesse Ventura and his cameramen from the new TruTV show "Conspiracy Theory" were smuggled into the notorious "Blue Room" by a rogue officer at the Wright-Patterson Air Force Base.
Watch the Jesse Ventura Show

Conspiracy Theory with Jesse VenturaNeedless to say, the holding room for UFO evidence has the highest security classification of any Federal Property in the United States. Even the Senatorial Intelligence Chairman, former Presidential Candidate and USAF Brigadier General Barry Goldwater was denied access.

I've been a mayor; I've been a governor. Now I get to be a detective and seek the truth.In a 1994 interview on the CNN television show hosted by Larry King, Goldwater stated ~ I think at Wright-Patterson, if you could get into certain places, you'd find out what the Air Force and the government does know about UFOs. Reportedly, a spaceship landed. It was all hushed up. I called [Professional Head of the USAF] Curtis LeMay and I said, "General, I know we have a room at Wright-Patterson where you put all this secret stuff. Could I go in there?" I've never heard General LeMay get mad, but he got madder than hell at me, cussed me out, and said, "You can't go in there and I can't go in there. Don't ever ask me that question again!"

Fifteen years later, Ventura succeeded where Goldwater had failed. An American politician, former governor of Minnesota, Navy UDT veteran, actor, and former radio and television talk show host, "the Body" used his unique network of connections and broad public sympathy to open a number of doors previously considered closed to even the most determined of conspiracy theory investigators.

Smuggled into the Hangar, Ventura was taken into the command deck of a recovered flying saucer. At the climax of the show, the rogue officer rotates an alien looking dial covered in hieroglyphics and the room is flooded with the ear-drum splitting sound of Aerosmith. "Decent" agreed Ventura in his gruff voice.

In 1921, on this day thirty-four year old pretender Karl von Habsburg-Lothringen was finally crowned King Károly of Hungary at the Sándor Palace in Budapest.

Karl von Habsburg, King of HungaryHe had in fact made several determined efforts at a restoration ever since his forced abdication from the dual monarchies of Austria-Hungary in 1918 (in his first reign he had adopted the Germanic moniker King Charles IV of Hungary). But the main obstacle was Hungary's regent, Miklós Horthy (the last admiral of the Austro-Hungarian Navy)who had refused to support him. During the autumn, had had intended to formally nullify the Pragmatic Sanction, an act that effectively dethroned the Habsburgs.

However when Horthy died in late October 1921 [1], Hungarians finally turned to him for a measure of stability. As events turned out, it was a good choice, because the Habsburg had the necessary gravitas to stand up to the rise of Hitler.

In 1227, on this day the Duke Swietopelk II of Pomerelia attempted to kill his arch rival, the High Duke of Poland and Prince of Sandomierz, Leszek the White (pictured).

Leszek the White SurvivesThe clumsy assassination attempt took place during a diet of the Polish Piast dukes at Gasawa. It was a direct result of Leszek having attempted to force the Pomeranian duke to submit to his authority.

Swietopelk had planned to declare himself independent from Polish vassalship. But instead of have to face his young son Bolesław, he would need to confront the fury of the surviving Leszek.

In 1784, on this day celebrated two-term President of the United States Zachary Taylor was born in Barboursville, Virginia.

Birth of President Zachary TaylorHis term of office was very nearly truncated by an unexpected event in 1850. Having smelled something funny in his dinner, he decided to throw it away rather than eat it. He complained to the White House kitchen, and the chef, upset that his cooking might be unacceptable, was somewhat surprised to find the dish he prepared still sitting on a counter.

The staff immediately searched the mansion and found Cletus Earl Hargrove, a Kentuckian like the president, who had slipped poison into the president's food in retaliation against Taylor's anti-slavery stance. Hargrove, terrified at being caught, named four co-conspirators, one of whom was a southern senator.

The resulting trial on assassination charges rocked the nation, and made Taylor a revered figure even in the south. Abolitionists used the trial to advance their agenda, and President Taylor introduced his Slow Freedom Initiative at the beginning of his second term in 1853. Under the terms of the initiative, all those born to slaves after the passage of the act would be free Americans; their parents would be freed once the free children reached the age of 18 years.

A new article by Robbie TaylorAlthough many Freedmen and abolitionists thought this was far too long a process, the south grudgingly accepted it as a way to hold onto a dying institution for a few more years. The last living American slave, Nathan Thomason of Cold Pork, Alabama, was given his freedom by presidential decree in 1937 at the age of 85 - he had been born the year before the SFI, and had never had children. He died shortly afterwards, but one of his cousins said, "At least he didn't have to die bound to that dastardly Thomason blackguard".

Following the passing of this dark chapter in American history, the country moved forward fairly united. Although racism against African-Americans was still quite strong in some pockets of the country, the long process of the SFI had made most Americans take a hard look at themselves and question why they had ever thought that one race of people should hold another captive. African-American Congressman Malcolm Little of Michigan proposed a national holiday to honor President Taylor in 1961, and the motion passed almost unanimously.

In 1963, on this day Dallas nightclub operator Jack Ruby shot dead forty-three year old Homicide Detective James R. Leavelle as he escorted Lee Harvey Oswald through the basement of Police Headquarters.

Poor Dump Cop #2 By Ed and Jackie SpeelJust like his fellow Officer J.D. Tippit, Jim was a Second World War Veteran - he was on-board the USS Whitney during the December 7, 1941 Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. This courage under fire was displayed on national television when, handcuffed to Lee Harvey Oswald, he stepped in front of the former U.S. Marine to take the bullet that would cost this honourable man his life.

The Warren Commission would establish two key facts, one a bizarre coincidence, and the other a profound truth that undeniably highlighted the extent to which America had changed since the war.

Oswald had asked the Dallas Police to fetch him a sweater before he entered the drafty basement. They had refused, and Ruby had been rushed into a distant shot that might have been on target had he been given but a few more minutes to get closer to Oswald. Instead, Leavelle pitied the shivering former serviceman, hardly failing to notice the fresh bruise above his eye, doubtless the result of a beating during the Police interrogation.

But Leavelle's sense of honour for a fellow serviceman was misplaced. The suspect he was protecting was not the man apprehended on East 10th Street in Oak Cliff, a fact made clear in the official report of the arresting officer Tippit. This man was Lee Oswald, the second of two double agents involved in the shooting of President Kennedy. And Ruby had been ordered by his Mafia bosses to shoot the rogue CIA agent (Lee Oswald) so that he could be re-substituted with the patsy Lee Oswald, restoring the credibility stolen by Tippit's report. But Leavelle had ruined the cover-up and now journalists were standing over his dying body calling him a "Poor Dumb Cop".

In 1947, on this day the Hollywood Ten were exonerated thanks to the intervention of Charlie Chaplin.

Hollywood Ten Exonerated thanks to Charlie ChaplinIn the days of the post-war conservatism, the House Un-American Activities Committee stepped up its investigations of the suspected Communist threat to the United States. Created in 1938, the committee served the same purpose as several before it, such as under Overman in 1918 and Fish in 1930. Special committees had worked to investigate fascist or socialist plots in the 1930s and early '40s, and Congress finally voted to create a standing committee for the HUAC at the close of WWII. They had considered investigating the actions of the Ku Klux Klan, but instead focused on communism as a more direct threat to the US Constitution.

A new story by Jeff ProvineAfter two years, hearings began to investigate communism in Hollywood. The West Coast city was a powerful player in American society, feeding media to the populace that may subvert the Constitutional government. Certain films such as Song of Russia and Mission to Moscow were obviously pro-Soviet, but they had been created in the time Russians were needed to combat Hitler. Now Congress readied to clean out the communists as the Cold War would turn former allies into potentially dangerous enemies.

Accusations of Hollywood had not been uncommon already. For years, J. Edgar Hoover and his FBI had kept files on actors, directors, and writers. Charles Chaplin, a native of London, was a particular target, especially in 1942 after Chaplin had pressed publically for opening a second front in Europe. While the front did open with the invasions of Italy and France in 1944, Chaplin was considered something of a warmonger despite his 1940 film The Great Dictator lampooning Hitler and his regime.

Hollywood weights such as Walt Disney and president of the Screen Actors Guild Ronald Reagan testified that there was in fact a communist threat in Hollywood. Other Hollywood leaders such as Humphrey Bogart and John Huston organized the Committee for the First Amendment to resist government crackdown. From a list of alleged members of the Communist Party was created, and ten screenwriters and directors refused to answer questions as to their membership in the Party (an illegal activity at the time), citing their rights under the First Amendment for assembly and free speech.

While the Screen Actors Guild voted to allow officers only if they took pledges against communism, the House of Representatives prepared to vote on a citation of the "Hollywood Ten" under contempt for Congress. In the speeches leading to the vote, Charlie Chaplin, who had flown to Washington specially, was asked to speak. Several congressmen groaned and the word "clown" was heard, but Chaplin firmly took his place and began his speech with, "I am not an American. But, I am not Un-American. I know what Americans stand for, and I have seen it make great victory in Europe against a terrible enemy. To let the outstretched hand of America tighten back into a fist at this time would create a land of fear and anger when what Americans truly want is peace and prosperity". Quoting the United States Constitution and Lincoln's Gettysburg Address, Chaplin railed the notion that judging a person by thought and not action went against Jeffersonian principles that had founded the nation. He concluded by reiterating, "I am not an American, but I support Americans. It is up to the vote of this House to decide whether their America is true to its name".

The vote for citation would fail only slightly, 180 to 183. December 3, MPAA president Eric Johnson and a collection of film makers would issue a press release from the Waldorf Hotel stating that Hollywood would not take collective business actions against the ten suspected men. While some might be fired or hired on the principles of free market employment, a "blacklist" would be unthinkable. The Red Scare of the '40s would die back, though the Communist Party would not make any great gains in the conservative Greatest Generation.

Some, such as J. Edgar Hoover, would continue to investigate anti-American activity, discovering the espionage of Alger Hiss. While Hoover would have great success, he would go too far in his bitterness against Chaplin. In 1952, while Chaplin was in London to attend the premiere of his film Limelight, Hoover would attempt to revoke Chaplin's re-entry permit. The Immigration and Naturalization Service would erupt in scandal that would end with Hoover's forced resignation in 1953. Chaplin would return to America and gain citizenship in 1961 at age 72.

In 1980, on this day the political unrest that had been simmering within the USSR for months finally exploded into outright civil war as a group calling itself the Patriotic Liberation Movement(PLM) launched a series of attacks on CPSU buildings in Kiev, Gorky, and Minsk.

Second Soviet Civil WarIn his initial public comments on the uprising, Soviet premier Konstantin Chernenko (pictured) denounced the PLM as "criminals" and "traitors" and vowed the insurrection would be swiftly crushed. He would be dead wrong on that score, however; the Russian civil war would go on to last over six and a half years, during which time the Warsaw Pact alliance would break up while Soviet-backed Marxist regimes and guerrilla factions in Africa and Latin America would tumble like bowling pins. In fact, by the time the last remnants of the Red Army surrendered to the rebels in June of 1987, there would only be five nations left in the entire world still under Communist rule-- and that number would drop to four with the breakup of Yugoslavia in 1989.

A new installment in the Necessary Evil threadWithout Soviet money and arms to prop them up, the Kremlin's allies found themselves either toppled by armed revolt or forced to abdicate in the face of widespread protests from non-Communist dissident movements. The most violent of these upheavals came in 1985, when Ethiopian dictator Haile Menigstu was assassinated just as his country faced the worst famine in its history; the most dramatic instance of non-violent change happened a year later when Nicaraguan Sandinista leader Daniel Ortega quietly resigned after negotiating a cease-fire with anti-Communist insurgents in his own country and arranging for free elections to choose a new government for Nicaragua.


During the same time that the Russian civil war was raging, Albanian dictator Enver Hoxha died suddenly of heart failure, plunging that country into a political crisis which would last into the early 1990s; in Romania, Marxist ruler Nicolae Ceaucescu would be overthrown and subsequently executed in one of the bloodiest coups eastern Europe had seen in a generation. Moscow's staunchest allies in the Middle East, Iraq and Syria, would turn to China for military and economic assistance as Soviet power gradually weakened and then collapsed.

In 1963, on this day nightclub owner Jack Ruby shot and killed Lee Harvey Oswald, accused assassin of President Richard M. Nixon, inside a Dallas police station.

Oswald murdered in Dallas
An article by Eric LippsPresident Nixon, who had won office in 1960 after successfully contesting the presidential election results in Illinois and Texas, had apparently been targeted in response to his having authorized the U.S. military to support anti-Communist Cuban exiles in an invasion of their home island aimed at overthrowing its left-wing president, Fidel Castro, who himself had seized power in 1959 after overthrowing the regime of Gen. Fulgencio Batista.

Investigators would subsequently identify Oswald as the head (and apparently sole member) of the "Fair Play for Cuba Committee," loudly opposed to the continuing U.S. occupation of the island in support of the returned Batista. Nixon had been in Dallas on a political tour aimed at strengthening his political support there in anticipation of the 1964 election, in which favorite son Lyndon Johnson was widely expected to be the Democratic nominee; Nixon had believed that Johnson would attempt to stoke resentment over the ballot challenge which had resulted in his home state's electors being awarded to the Republican candidate.

President Henry Cabot Lodge Jr., who had been sworn into office aboard Air Force One shortly after Nixon's assassination on November 22, responded to the news of Oswald's murder by vowing to "get to the bottom of this, no matter what it takes". Privately, the new president is furious with the Dallas police and the FBI for allowing Oswald to be shot in custody, foreclosing all chance of interrogating him and learning whether, as Lodge fears, Castro or the Soviets masterminded Nixon's murder.

In 1963, club owner Jack Ruby throws a celebratory bash at his club, The Carousel, for Lee Harvey Oswald - due to the ex-marine's successful efforts in saving the life of President John F. Kennedy from an attempted assasination in Dealey Plaza, Dallas, two days before. Local Hero by Gerry Shannon
Speaking to The Dallas Morning News, the clearly-bemused Oswald clearly did not know what to make of his newfound celebrity status, "I'm very flattered of the party Mr. Ruby is throwing.. but I don't know what my wife Marina would make of me being around all these strippers".

In 1963, an attempt is made on the life of alleged-Kennedy assassin, Lee Harvey Oswald, as he is transported from the Dallas police headquarters to the state prison.

Oswald Survives by Gerry ShannonAs Oswald is moved through the carpark basement and into the crowd of reports, club owner Jack Ruby steps forward with a Colt Cobra .38 and attempts to shoot him.

However, the intervention of several quick-thinking reporters and officers prevent this - and a mob pins Ruby to the ground and prevent him from firing a single shot while Oswald is rushed to the waiting car.

When in custody, Ruby would deny he was part of any plot to 'silence' Oswald, initally saying, "... that god-damned commie owned me his full tab at my club. I wasn't going to let Kennedy's killer get away with that". though he would later change his reasons to being he wanted to spare Jackie Kennedy the humiliation of attending Oswald's trial. That evening, and at his later trial, Oswald vehemenently denied he ever went near Ruby's club, The Carousel or that had ever encountered the onetime Mafia associate.

In 1971, would-be hijacker D.B. Cooper was arrested by FBI agents just minutes before he was scheduled to board a Northwest Airlines flight from Portland to Seattle. Pacific Northwest Hijack FoiledEarlier that day, the agency's Portland office had received an anonymous tip about the hijacking plot from a tourist who said he overheard Cooper talking on a payphone to someone identified only as 'Raoul'.

In 1936, Washington Press Release-Nov 24 1936 ~ Former Governor and Senator of Louisiana, Huey "Kingfisher" Long was officially confirmed elected as President of the United States today.

Kingfish Takes Charge
An article by Mr ZWith the public tired of the dying "New Deal" of former President Franklin D. Roosevelt, the exuberant Republican candidate took charge immidately, controversly naming Herbert Hoover Secretary of Commerce, promising a more successful way of getting out of the Depression. The Kingfish was reportedly heard to have offered FDR a job as Secretary of Navy, which FDR turned down with fury, stating he 'wasn't going to scrounge to take a handout from that "fish of a man".

President-Elect Long, who had dodged a assassination attack in September of 1935, longly suspected of foul play by rival democrats, promised to follow through with his promise of sharing the wealth. Some in congress were disturbed with his threats at congress that included dissolution, but the general public in a recent poll supported the "closing of congress" if they refused President Long's reforms, which include the taking of wealth from the rich.

"I'm hear because the people wanted me here. Not the corporations, not the trusts, certainly not the banks, but the people. If congress doesn't want to see what the people and me want, then by goodness I dont see the point of'm. I'm here to fight for what the people want: Equality, Happiness, and Freedom from Poverty. The wealthy have for far too long taken the big part of the pie that is America, and it's my aim to take that pie from thier fat faces and give it back to the farmers, the factory workers, and the average U.S. Man!"

President Long is said to be reportedly thinking of signing a "gentleman's agreement" between the U.S. and the German government, giving the U.S. a 'trading partner with a bright future and a strong leader...unlike our current trading partners, [the Germans] have remade themselves and are set for future success".

In 1804, on this day Franklin Pierce (pictured) was born in Hillsborough, New Hampshire.

Birth of Franklin PierceHe was a Democrat and a "doughface" (a Northerner with Southern sympathies)who served in the U.S. House of Representatives and the Senate. Pierce took part in the Mexican-American War and became a brigadier general in the Army. His private law practice in his home state, New Hampshire, was so successful that he was offered several important positions, which he turned down. Later, he was nominated as the party's candidate for president on the 49th ballot at the 1852 Democratic National Convention.

But tragedy struck on the 6th January, 1853 when the President-elect and his family were crushed to death when the train car that they had boarded in Boston was derailed and then rolled down an embankment near Andover, Massachusetts.

In his place, William Rufus King was sworn in as President on March 4th. Problem was, King was dying of tuberculosis and succumbed to the disease just six weeks later, so that the presidency fell to the President Pro Tempore of the Senate, David Rice Atchison.

Just four years before, he had served as President for a single day. Because on Saturday, March 3, 1849, outgoing President James Polk's term had expired, but incoming President Zachary Taylor refused to be sworn in on the Sabbath and put the ceremony off until Monday, March 5 -- which meant nobody was President on Sunday, at least officially.

He did not undertake any presidential duties, but claimed to have taken a nap whilst serving as 12th president of the United States. But unlike that temporary ceremonial fill-in function, the succession after the deaths of Pierce and King was fundamentally different. Because Atchison was a pro-slavery expansionist who was brought to power at a pivotal moment in the nation's history.

In 1963, in a televised national press conference on this day Dallas Police Chief Jesse Curry announced that the overnight interrogation of the "grassy knoll shooter" James Earl Files had provided a warm lead to the identity of the mysterious "Depository Man".

Depository Man
By Ed and Jackie SpeelOne of the first U.S. covert combat troops sent into Laos in 1959, he had been court-martialed at Ft. Meade, Maryland for killing two of his own men. He then became involved in private intelligence work after his release from the military.

In the late fall of 1961 he was offered an assignment to serve as a weapons aide to the mafia hitman Charles Nicoletti, an associate of Sam Giancana. Two years later, both men stayed at the Lamplighter Motel in Mesquite, Dallas where they met with a "controller" called David Atlee Phillips.

Phillips involvement signalled a change in the mob's plan to assassinate Kennedy, a task that would not be performed by Nicoletti as originally envisaged, but instead by two operatives under his supervision. Files and a former US marine Lee Harvey Oswald spent five days on an empty field test firing the weapons and calibrating the scopes that were to be used on President Kennedy.

Oswald had been employed as an order filler at the Texas Book Depository only weeks before, and of course the Dallas Police Department had very quickly made the connection when cross referencing the staff list with potential marksmen. However, further connections began to emerge, because both Oswald and Files were linked to the covert CIA headquarters in Miami. This might well have been an accidental cross over of previous engagements rather than evidence of a wider conspiracy involving the Mob and rogue elements of the Agency, and it was precisely this burning question that the Warren Committee was ordered to answer.

In 1789, fearing that the United States had abandoned all traces of its Republican values during his long absence in Revolutionary France, Thomas Jefferson returned to Virginia to find Alexander Hamilton the master of King George Washington's Government.

Rebuilding WorksAs the American Ambassador to France, Jefferson had witnessed the excesses of the last days of the Bourbon Kings. In a letter to his secretary William Short he noted that "Were there but an Adam and an Eve left in every country, and left free, it would be better than as it now is. I have expressed to you my sentiments, because they are really those of 99 in an hundred of our citizens". In the final months in Paris, Jefferson also witnessed those change unfolding as France entered a period of radical social and political upheaval.

Retiring to Charlottesville, Jefferson withdrew from public life in order to focus on the task of rebuilding Monticello. A delegation led by Benjamin Franklin and James Madison arrived, hoping to convince Jefferson that his architecture skills were required on a grander scale, to rebuild the nation in the image of the republican government that they had always imagined.

And Alexander Hamilton was forced to advise the King that the man who had penned the Declaration of Independence now posed a threat to the Federalist unity of the new nation. That Jefferson had gone native in Europe and become an American Oliver Cromwell.

In 534 BC, Thespis insulted the Gods. Since the dawn of language, and perhaps before with simple hand gestures, mankind had performed the art of storytelling. Great hunts, tragic tales of lovers, and, most importantly, the epics of the gods all served as material to be related to one another and the younger generations for entertainment and moral instruction.

Thespis Insults the Gods Storytelling among the ancient Greeks evolved out of the chanting of priests to become a more secular chorus, telling the tales of great men and gods, especially Dionysus, the patron of the art.

A new story by Jeff ProvineAccording to ancient manuscripts studied by modern historians, some 2500 years ago, a creative Greek by the name of Thespis of Icaria attempted to introduce "acting" to western civilization. Rather than singing from the chorus or as a solo storyteller, Thespis stepped alone in the amphitheater and sang from behind a mask as if he were Dionysus himself. The audience was struck, unsure quite what to think until an elder from the front stood and called, "Blasphemer!"

Thespis was obviously not Dionysus, and portraying himself to be an avatar of a god was a strict crime of sacrilege. He was taken before the Athenean court, given fair trial, and exiled from the city for fear that the gods would instigate a plague or bad fortune in a city allowing such arrogance. Thespis disappears from history, and acting would forever be a distasteful action among the European peoples.

Storytelling, however, flourished. During the republic and empire of Rome, satyr songs would give long, satirical descriptions of modern life in rich verse. Bards and monks relating the story of the Passion delighted audiences throughout the Middle Ages. As Europeans began to explore and colonize other peoples, they encountered new types of storytelling such as the shadow play of Japan and the body-language of dance among Southeast Asian and Polynesian peoples, many of which would find their places among European theater. Other arts, such as Japanese kabuki and African mask-dances would be frowned upon as barbaric and arrogant lies where "actors" portrayed themselves as true people or even spirits.

It would not be until the invention of the motion-picture camera that acting would return to the view of the western world. Originally, the camera was used to capture important events such as the funeral march of royalty or shocking images like staged train crashes. Through the work of French and later German "directors", a new style of voyeurism would be shown as people invisibly watched the lives of others. Reality films would gradually fade as "fakies", scripted and acted fictional accounts would be recorded and shown. Initially as scandalous as the acting of Thespis, counter-culture would embrace the stories, and its significance would eventually gain some recognition among the populace at large along the same lines of modern dance and lyric-less poetry.

Even in today's forward-thinking times, fakies are viewed as morally questionable, not necessarily evil, but not as genuine of an entertainment as a well told story.

In 1623, on this day Edward Blount and William and Isaac Jaggard published the collection of "Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies" which modern scholars commonly refer to as the "First Folio".

First FolioTo alert the reader to the real identity of the playwright, the cover artist Martin Droeshout had portrayed an incongruous-looking fellow with a mask-line down his face, wearing a back-to-front doublet with two right-eyes (pictured, below). Writing three centuries later, Sir George Greenwood would remark "I can never understand how any unprejudiced person, with a sense of humor, can look upon [the print] without being tempted to irreverent laughter".

Born in 1564, Gulielmus Shakspere was an illiterate son of a butcher who never attended school (his father simply placed an X on his birth certificate). Neither his wife Anne Hathaway, nor any of his three children could read or write either. In London, the only written records bearing the name "Willemus Shackspere" are unpaid debts dating from 1595. Two years later, he moved to Straford Upon Avon, four days of hard horse-riding from the capital, where he died in April 1616. Six versions of his signature remain in print, three of which appear on his will. No other diaries, letters or manuscripts have ever been found.

"Shakes-speare, we must be silent in our praise, cause our encomimums will but blast thy bays" ~ Wit's RecreationSimply ludicrous of course to imagine that such a man could pen forty plays, add three thousand words to the English vocabulary, or even demonstrate an insider's view of the English court from such a distance. That the greatest mystery surrounded the "soul of our age" (Doctor Jonson's term) was his real identity, was according to Charles Dickens, both "a fine comfort" and "a great mystery". "I tremble every day lest something should come out".

But come out it did, finally, exactly four hundred years later with the discovery of letters from John Clayton, the debtor from the 1595 bills. During the passage of those four centuries, over sixty individuals had been identified as the real Bard. But the mystery was finally revealed, because Clayton had left instructions for his letters to be opened in 1995.

That the Bard really was Hamlet, the Prince of Denmark was something of an anti-climax. His identify was an open secret in court, and yet his satirical potrayal of the ruling classes required some form of subterfuge in order for his playwriting to continue. And so the courtier John Clayton bought the identity of Shakespeare and then paid for his relocation to Stratford.

In 1814, by suffering a fatal heart attack on this day in Washington D.C., Elbridge Thomas Gerry becoming the first President of the United States to die in office.

Elbridge T. Gerry
5^th President of the United States
March 4, 1813 - November 23, 1814Elbridge Thomas Gerry (July 17, 1744 - November 23, 1814) was an American statesman and diplomat. As a Democratic-Republican he was elected as the fifth President of the United States, after the rather shocking decision by James Madison not to seek a second term. Defeating Dewitt Clinton by the narrow margin of 25 electoral votes, he served from March 4, 1813 until his death a year and a half later. He was also the oldest president elected until Ronald Reagan in 1980.

A new article from Althistory WikiaGerry was one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence and the Articles of Confederation. He was one of three men who refused to sign the Constitution because it did not then include a Bill of Rights. Gerry later became Governor of Massachusetts. He is most famous for being the namesake of gerrymandering, a process by which electoral districts are drawn with the aim of aiding the party in power.

Early life

Born in Marblehead, Massachusetts, the third of twelve children, he was a graduate of Harvard College, where he studied to be a doctor, attending there from age fourteen. He worked in his father's shipping business and came to prominence over his opposition to commerce taxes. He was elected to the General Court of the province of Massachusetts in May 1772 on an anti-British platform.

Career

Gerry was a Massachusetts delegate to the Continental Congress from February 1776 to 1780. He also served from 1783 to September 1785 and was married in 1786 to Ann Thompson, the daughter of a wealthy New York merchant, 21 years his junior. In 1787 he attended the United States Constitutional Convention and was one of the delegates voting against the new constitution (joining George Mason and Peyton Randolph in not signing it). He was elected to the U.S. House under the new national government, and served in Congress from 1789 to 1793.

He surprised his friends by becoming a strong supporter of the new government, and so vigorously supported Alexander Hamilton's reports on public credit, including the assumption of state debts, and supported Hamilton's new Bank of the United States, that he was considered a leading champion by the Federalists. He did not stand for reelection in 1792. He was a presidential elector for John Adams in the 1796 election, and was appointed by Adams to the critical delegation to France that was humiliated by the French in the XYZ Affair. He stayed in France after his two colleagues returned, and Federalists accused him of supporting the French. He returned in October 1798, and switched his affiliation to Democratic-Republican party in 1800.

He was the unsuccessful Democratic-Republican nominee for governor of Massachusetts in 1800, 1801, 1802 and 1803. In 1810 he was finally elected Governor of Massachusetts as a Democratic-Republican. He was re-elected in 1811 but defeated in 1812 over his support for the redistricting bill that created the word gerrymander. He ran for president against DeWitt Clinton, narrowly defeating him by 25 electoral votes. He died in office in Washington, D.C. and is buried there in the Congressional Cemetery.

In 2009, on this day American officials confirmed for the first time that the ruling Ba'ath Party had indeed detonated a nuclear device a week before, citing radioactive debris found in air samples collected in the Western desert of Iraq. Out of the Box

The office of the Director of National Intelligence said in a statement: "Analysis of air samples collected on Nov. 19, 2009, detected radioactive debris which confirms that the Government of Iraq conducted an underground nuclear explosion in the vicinity of Akashat on Nov. 16, 2009". The day after the blast, the Pentagon dispatched Air Force planes with special radiation detectors into international air space near the Syrian border.

The great nation of Iraq joined India, Israel, Pakistan and North Korea as the fifth sovereign state to posses their own nuclear weapons program outside the signatory list of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

In a televised stand-up address from the Oval Office, forty-fourth US President Joseph I. Lieberman confirmed to the American people that Saddam Hussein was "now out of the strategic box and able to threaten Iraq's neighbors".

The fifteen year policy pursued by three successive Democratic Presidential administrations had been most effectively articulated by U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright at Wingate University on March 25, 1997. In her keynote speech American Leadership for the 21st Century: Doing What's Right and Smart for America's Future, Albright stated "Today, as a result of American diplomatic and military leadership from Administrations of both parties, our citizens are safer than at any time in memory. Russian warheads no longer target our homes, and nuclear weapons have been removed from Ukraine, Belarus and Kazakstan. North Korea's nuclear weapons program has been frozen and will be dismantled.Iraq's Saddam Hussein remains trapped in a strategic box, unable to threaten Iraq's neighbors--or us".

Multilateral efforts would continue through diplomatix channels, said Lieberman, as America leveraged the prestige of her global leadership to find a peaceful solution to the crisis with friends and allies. Substantive dialogue would be pursued with the governments of France and Russia, who many Americans blamed - quiet wrongly in the President's view - for breaking the international consensus on Iraq in the late 1990s.

Lieberman expressed confidence that the UN Security Council could develop a common strategy that encouraged Iraq to dismantle her nuclear weapons program, easing tension in the Middle East.