Chimp	In 1961, the North American Space Agency (NASA) reported the good news 'Chimp returns safely after space flight - A chimpanzee sent into space in a United States rocket is recovered alive and well from the sea near Florida.'. Behind closed doors, NASA were desperately trying to understand how the chimp had developed the power of speech, and the location of this Ape City he was describing.
Planet of the Apes?

In 2000 emerging from a supernova, a 300 kilometre asteroid entered the solar system and into eratic orbit around the Earth. Scientists made a mysterious discovery - the 'Stone' had exactly the same external dimensions of an orbital of Jupiter, yet had infinite internal mass.

Worshippers of all faiths hoped that the arrival could prevent the near future apocalypse termed the 'Death' (America and the Soviet Union had been on a collision course since a limited nuclear exchange in 1994 known as 'the Little Death').

''Some of our gate openers think they can build a chirque, a ring gate, and seal off the lesion.'
'That would cut us off from the rest of the Way.' Olmy said.
'Worse. In a few days of weeks it would destroy the Way completely, seal us off in Thistledown forever. Until now, we've never been that desperate.'
~ The Way of All Ghosts, Collected Stories of Greg Bear page 535

Humanity was that desperate. The Jarts had their own plans for an altered history. By destroying the world before the Death, the Jarts could prevent the future rise of the Hexamon. Only by cutting off humanity from the Way could the Hexamon prevent this retroactive extinction-level event from occuring.

In 1945, in a televised address to the nation, US President Harry S. Truman announced that following a fanatic militarists' rebellion, irregular elements were now in control of the government of the Empire of Japan. It appeared that the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki had not forced a surrender as hoped, rather pushed the military up into a corner from which they had come out fighting.

The Magician Grigory Rasputin had other plans. Having established himself at the Tsar's court, he quickly became Healer to the Tsarevich and the Tsarina's lover. The Tsar referred to Rasputin as 'our friend' and a 'holy man', a sign of the trust that the family placed in him. Rasputin had a considerable personal and political influence on Alexandra, and the Tsar and Tsaritsa considered him a man of God and a religious prophet. Everyone desirous of an audience with the royal couple had to go through him, a situation which angered certain individuals. Alexandra came to believe that God spoke to her through Rasputin.

From this position of power, Rasputin manipulated the Tsar into declaring war on Germany. And ushered in an apocalypse that could only be stopped by Maestro and a great council of magicians.

In 2005 a Talsit unit led by Gary Lanier discovered one of many horrors in their reconstruction work. In Nicaragua, a soldier encased in a mud as a result of a tactical nuclear detonation during The Death. Lanier himself had suffered a heart attack on his first day back on Earth, confronted with the scale of the reconstruction.

In 1918, inside the Vatican, Maestro initiates a great council of magicians. A short and dour individual, his appearance is quite unremarkable except for a single detail. His eyes are almost fully rolled upward, with only a quarter moon of pupil revealed to his fellows. Together, they must confront Grigori Rasputin, the greatest magician of the era and the beast who ushered in the the present World Crisis.

In 1975, Operation Eagle Pull as the evacuation of Cambodia was dubbed, came under Khmer Rouge fire and more than 300 armed Marines guarding the field were killed. The US has admitted defeat in Cambodia and removed its remaining embassy personnel from the capital, Phnom Penh. Early that morning 276 people were airlifted from a football field near the embassy by a fleet of 30 helicopters.

In 1985, the new Republican majority in Congress allows President Reagan to abolish the income tax and replace it with a flat 17 percent tax on all goods and services. The loss of income sends the national deficit soaring to heights undreamt of, plunging American into a depression that takes the rest of the world with it. In the elections of the next year, 9 out of 10 incumbents are defeated, and a new leftist majority reinstates the income tax and impeaches Reagan.

In 1965, in an effort to prove that he believed in bolstering democracy rather than just shoring up anti-communist allies, President Lyndon Johnson sends over 20,000 US troops to aid the Dominican Republic's reformist leader, Juan Bosch. The action endeared Johnson to all of Latin America, and even provided cover for him when he withdrew American forces from Vietnam later that year.

In 2000 emerging from a supernova, a 300 kilometre asteroid entered the solar system and into eratic orbit around the Earth. Scientists made a mysterious discovery - the 'Stone' had exactly the same external dimensions of an orbital of Jupiter, yet had infinite internal mass.

Worshippers of all faiths hoped that the arrival could prevent the near future apocalypse termed the 'Death' (America and the Soviet Union had been on a collision course since a limited nuclear exchange in 1993 known as 'the Little Death').

The Stone had been hollowed out along its long axis, and subdivided into seven vast cylindrical chambers by humans from Earth's future. Trouble was the society of human descendents, called the Hexamon had also been locked in ongoing war with an alien race. The Jarts had come from further down the Way, beyond 2.0 ex 9 (2 billion kilometers) and conquered Axis City. These frightening beings were now the masters of the Thistledown and they had an altogether different form of 'Death' planned for humanity.

In 1983, a car stalled near the U.S. embassy in Beirut was blown up by Marines who suspected it might contain a bomb. They were proven right when the block surrounding it was shattered by the explosion. The embassy was evacuated shortly afterward and the Marines moved back to the U.S. ships sitting offshore.

In 12-14-3-12-8, the Oueztecan Navy engaged the mightiest sailors on the globe, the Polynesians, at Bohol, in one of the largest naval battles in the history of the Polynesian Ocean. Although the Oueztecans emerged victorious, it was at such a high cost that they never fought the Polynesians again.

In 1954, in spite of stiff political opposition, NATO allows the Soviet Union to join. Although their presence in the alliance creates tension for a few years, the tie to western Europe does open them up when reformers gain control of the Kremlin and Politburo in the late 50's. This gesture, hard-fought at first, is often given credit for avoiding a Cold War between the east and the west that might have lasted many years.

In 1994, the UK Lottery Foundation consortium won the contract to run Britain's first national lottery which starts in November. Richard Branson and former cabinet minister Lord Young guaranteed that the consortium would give all profits not used to run the lottery to the nominated charities and the arts.	Lottery
	Machine

In 1898, an explosion occurred on-board a 6682-ton second-class pre-dreadnought battleship in the Havana Harbour, Cuba. The USS Maine, an Armored Cruiser #1 had been sent from Key West, Florida, to Cuba, to protect American interests during a time of local insurrection and civil disturbances.

Casus Belli The explosion was a precipitating cause of the Spanish-American War that began in April 1898 and which used the rallying cry, Remember the Maine!, To hell with Spain! The episode focused national attention on the crisis in Cuba but was not cited by the William McKinley administration as a casus belli, though it was cited by some who were already inclined to go to war with Spain over their perceived atrocities and loss of control in Cuba.

The cause of the explosion that sank the ship remains an unsolved mystery. However, only one explanation fits the facts. The Assiti Shards event theory proposed by scientist Eric Flint has been accepted by the majority of contemporary historians. A spacial/cosmic disturbance caused the Spain of 1960 (with Portugal) to be swapped holus-bolus for Spain on the day of the Maine's explosion. The Spaniards rickety old ships were upgraded to the Spanish fleet of 1960 which was more than able to deal with the 1898-era US Navy. Teddy Roosevelt and the Rough Riders going up against T-26s, Me-109s and all the panoply of twentieth-century combat taught TR a healthy lesson in humility.

In 1898, US President William McKinley asked Congress for authority to send American troops to Cuba for the purpose of ending the civil war there. The casus belli was an explosion which occurred onboard a 6682-ton second-class pre-dreadnought battleship in the Havana Harbour, Cuba on February 15th. The USS Maine, an Armored Cruiser #1 had been sent from Key West, Florida, to Cuba, to protect American interests during a time of local insurrection and civil disturbances. The explosion was a precipitating cause of the Spanish-American War that began in April 1898 and which used the rallying cry, Remember the Maine!, To hell with Spain! The episode focused national attention on the crisis in Cuba but was not cited by the William McKinley administration as a casus belli, though it was cited by some who were already inclined to go to war with Spain over their perceived atrocities and loss of control in Cuba. TR takes a lesson in humility by Eric OppenThe cause of the explosion that sank the ship remains an unsolved mystery. However, only one explanation fits the facts. The Assiti Shards event theory proposed by scientist S.M. Stirling has been accepted by the majority of contemporary historians. A spacial/cosmic disturbance caused the Spain of 1960 (with Portugal) to be swapped holus-bolus for Spain on the day of the Maine's explosion. The Spaniards rickety old ships were upgraded to the Spanish fleet of 1960 which was more than able to deal with the 1898-era US Navy. Teddy Roosevelt and the Rough Riders going up against T-26s, Me-109s and all the panoply of twentieth-century combat taught TR a healthy lesson in humility.