In 1932, on this day the 40th President of the United States Richard Lewis "Dick" Thornburgh was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania the son of Alice (Sanborn) and Charles Garland Thornburgh, an engineer. Article from the Reagan wins in 1976 thread.

Birth of President ThornburghFollowing an unsuccessful bid for the U.S. House of Representatives against William S. Moorhead in 1966, Thornburgh served as an elected delegate to the 1967-1968 Pennsylvania Constitutional Convention where he spearheaded efforts at judicial and local government reform. In 1969 President of the United States Richard Nixon appointed Thornburgh as the U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Pennsylvania, where he earned a reputation as being tough on organized crime. In 1975, President Gerald Ford tapped him to serve as the Assistant Attorney General for the Justice Department's Criminal Division. After two years at that post, Thornburgh returned to law practice in Pittsburgh and initiated a campaign for Governor.

The following year, Ronald Reagan made a serious challenge for the Republican Party nomination for President of the United States. And although he did seize the nomination from Ford, he was decisively beaten by Jimmy Carter in the General election. He served a single, unspectacular term of office, facing a rejuvinated Republican Party united behind Governor Thornburgh.

In 1964, on this day thirty-fifth US President M. Michael "Duke" Morrison (pictured) delivered a barnstorming speech to close out the Republican National Convention at the Cow Palace in San Francisco.

The Duke's Crowning Moment at the Cow PalaceDespite frequent reminders that California was his home state, Morrison was actually born in Winterset, Iowa before moving to Los Angeles at the age of four. An excellent football player until a leg injury forced him to quit the team, he then considered a career in the movie business but finally ended up working in the office of Los Angeles Mayor George Cryer, a Republican who had considerable influence on him.

After beating Richard Nixon for the senatorial race of 1950, he was offered the Vice Presidency but out of respect for Californian voters he made Eisenhower wait until his re-election when his own six-year term of office was completed in the Senate. He then succeeded Eisenhower, becoming the first President from California.

Now, eight years later, the Conservatives were totally in the driving seat, and Morrison only had to sweep aside the Democratic Candidate Hubert Humphrey in order to win his own second term. Nelson Rockefeller and his fellow moderates were saving their gunpowder for the 1968 race, but they would be disappointed because Goldwater would triumph by promising a continuation of the Duke's policies.

In 1964, on this day the ugliest of Republican conventions in fifty years ended in division, acrimony and bitterness at the Cow Palace in Daly City, California.

Face-off at the Cow PalaceOf course the nomination of the Goldwater-Miller ticket was much more than a sign of the rising power of the Republican party in the west, it was a triumph for conservative insurgents over entrenched moderates. In his memoirs Bill Middendorf famously described the outcome as a Glorious Disaster and Pat Brown, California's liberal Democratic governor, told the press that "the stench of fascism is in the air". And sure enough the general election was an abject disaster for the Republican Party with Lyndon Johnson winning by a landslide. But long before Goldwater crashed to defeat in November, moderates began to detect hopeful early signs of a political re-alignment.

Because the Californian Actor Ronald Wilson Reagan had been invited to deliver the keynote address at the Cow Palace, but he had been forced to withdraw at short notice due to an influenza scare. Instead, the Mayor of New York City, John V. Lindsay (pictured) delivered an inspirational speech also entitled "A Time of Choosing" but setting out a vision of hope based upon his well-regarded leadership of the Jamaica Bay disaster. This late substitution was orchestrated by Republican National Committee Chairman Dean Burch. The nominee Barry Goldwater was a fellow Arizonan who was less than wildly enthusiastic about the choice of a Liberal Republican, but his weak poll ratings suggested that Lindsay's popularity might give the ticket a welcome electoral boost.

The New Yorker stole the show and a few hand-lettered signs "Lindsay '68" began to pop-up on the Convention floor. Goldwater was irritated but Miller (an obscure Congressman from Western New York) was absolutely furious; for many years he bore a grudge that Lindsay had failed to recognize his own contribution towards the leadership of the crisis.

And so only four years later at Miami Beach, the wheel turned full circle with the nomination being seized by a Liberal Republican from the East Coast. Yet this reversal was itself driven by another unexpected individual decision when Pat Nixon managed to dissuade her ambitious husband from making a second run for the Presidency. Ironically, in the years since his unsuccessful race for California Governor (when he was beaten by Pat Brown), Richard Nixon had moved to New York City, where he became a senior partner in the leading law firm Nixon, Mudge, Rose, Guthrie & Alexander. He had forged a surprisingly strong bond of friendship with Mayor Lindsay and although he chose not to stand as a candidate, his campaign support as a former Vice President made a significant impact upon the outcome of the general election in 1968.
This post is an article from the Jamaica Bay thread developed by Chris Oakley.

In 1212, on this day the Battle of Al-Uqab was won by an Almohad army led by the sultan Caliph al-Nasir.

Battle of Al-UqabBoth armies had known that the Islamic Conquest of Al-Andalus was hanging in the balance.

To ensure victory the Berber Muslim Almohad rulers of the southern half of the Iberian Peninsul had been forced to pull in troops from the whole Almohad empire, men from Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia and even as far away as Mauritania and Senegal. Their defeated opponents (pictured) had been equally desperate for success; an alliance of forces of King Alfonso VIII of Castile joined by the armies of his Christian rivals, Sancho VII of Navarre, Pedro II of Aragon and Afonso II of Portugal.

But despite these huge troop movements, the Christian cause was lost by the betrayal of a single man at the outset of the Battle. A Muslim spy informed the Almohad Khalifa, Muhammad an-Nasir that the Alliance was planning a surprise attack through the Despenaperros Pass. The assault was repulsed with huge casaulties, and the Christians broke into a rout.

In 1969, the Space Race held as the hottest direct contest between the USA and the USSR in the Cold War.

Apollo 11 Rocket Explodes after Launch After Russia had won the first two legs with the first artificial satellite Sputnik in 1957 and the first man in space Yuri Gagarin in 1961, America had finally gotten ahead with their 1968 flyby of the Moon. Russian leadership had begun to doubt their Luna program with its unmanned probes, but the political climate changed completely as tragedy struck over Florida.

A new story by Jeff ProvineJust after launch, the Apollo 11 exploded, instantly killing its crew of Commander Neil Armstrong, Command Module Pilot Michael Collins, and Lunar Module Pilot Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin, Jr. While none can be certain of the cause of the disaster, many theories have arisen after much of the wreckage was salvaged. Most agree that it was a hydrogen "hiccup", a less dense bubble that caused imbalance in the rocket, jarring it viciously and tearing the craft apart until the explosives fell out of control.

While the United States mourned, the Soviets threw their resources into making up lost time. Automated docking of capsules had already been successful in 1968, and the manned Soyuz 4 and 5 missions had tested successfully the human elements involved. The Soviets planned to launch its cosmonaut to the surface of the Moon by September. Bad luck and mechanical problems slowed the launch until mid-October.

Meanwhile, the United States refused to sit idly. While many began to call for an end to the apparently suicidal space program and memories of Apollo 1's fire still in the public mind, NASA had already secured its funding for the year and needed a success to guarantee that the program would not be shelved altogether. Apollo 12 would be their final chance. Hearing word of the Russian attempt, astronauts Charles Conrad, Jr, Richard Gordon, Jr, and Alan Bean would be put ahead of their November launch schedule to match the Russian deadline.

The rockets launched within hours of one another, and scientists on both ends worked frantically to streamline the process of travel in action, but mission clocks were ticking without much room to spare. On October 16, 1969, Russian cosmonaut Alexei Leonov touched down on the surface of the Moon. Only an hour later, Conrad and Bean would follow. Despite the potential dangers, NASA had adjusted the flight path to put them down near Leonov's capsule.

Conrad would venture out of the American module and be followed out fifteen minutes later by Bean, after which Leonov would greet them having "walked" (bounced in the low gravity) from his half-mile distant capsule. His decision had been applauded and rejected by Russian mission control, but the effect was incredible upon public sentiment. The image of a cosmonaut and an astronaut shaking hands on the surface of the moon would be recorded by probe cameras and transmitted to televisions and newspapers the world over.

President Nixon (who also made mention of the success of President Kennedy's promise to arrive on the moon before the end of the decade) would capitalize on the image and, in 1971, meet with Nikolai Podgorny of the Soviet Union in Moscow. The historic meeting would bring new balance to the Cold War, and gradually disarmament would begin. Without the terrors of foreign powers and even the invasion of Czechoslovakia recalled, the Russian people would have enough of their Stalinist past and recreate their government with the 1977 Constitution returning much of the power into the hands of people. While still economically planned, democracy grew in Russia. Meanwhile, trade with the USSR began to seduce the US into greater socialism, such as Carter's reversal of Nixon's privatized health insurance into a public, universal system.

Now something as half-breeds of one another, the two head of the world continue to dance around one another for power. Technology has torn down walls (much like the fall of Berlin's wall in 1989), while the growth of populations in developing countries such as China and India look to change the world balance altogether.

In 1972, on this day two men are apprehended following a break in and attempted bugging of the offices of the Confederate States of America embassy in Washington D.C. Confederate authorities reveal the two men, Howard E. Hunt and Frank Sturgis, are in fact CIA operatives and under interrogation have revealed other attempts to burgle the embassy offices. Given that they were illegally trespassing on property owned by the CSA - the former site of the Watergate hotel - the men are subsequently sent to the federal prison at Fort Monroe, Virginia.

Gerry Shannon's "Break-In at the CS Embassy"US President Barry Goldwater demands that CS President George Wallace order their immediate release, but privately is shocked to learn Hunt and Sturgis' activities were funded by the Richard Nixon presidential campaign. Not only that, but it was former Vice-President Nixon himself who ordered the burglary.

Aware of the out-going President's fury, Nixon quickly has his aides leak the details of his involvement in the break-in to Washington Post reporter, Bob Woodward; who subsequently reports it. The claim that the former Vice-President had ordered the burglary to investigate "Confederate plots against the Union" lead to an upsurge of support in the polls for Nixon for his apparent patriotic intentions. Though the incident sours relations between the governments of the Union and Confederacy for at least the next decade, it is deemed a considerable factor in Nixon's subsequent victory over Democratic candidate Robert Kennedy.

However, in the intervening decades, conspiracy theorists make allegations of a link between the embassy break-in and the assassination of CS President Johnson. Two men looking remarkably similar to Hunt and Sturgis were photographed several times in Dealey Plaza on 22nd, November 1963.

In 1945, on this day Operation Deer Team parachuted into a jungle headquarters at Tan Trao north of Hanoi where they found copies of the American Declaration of Independence and Constitution on the walls and a framed picture of George Washington on the desk.

All men are created equalThe seven OSS men led by Major Allison Kent Thomas were on a mission to help a band of two hundred eilte guerrillas fight the Japanese yet they soon discovered that their leader Nguyen Ai Qoc (pictured) was seriously ill from malaria, dysentary and other tropical diseases. After administering quinine and sulfa drugs, the team medic and an officer of the Chase Manhattan Bank Paul Hoagland soon exclaimed that "this man doesn't have long for this world".

Buried in the field with full military honours, Quoc's deputy eulogised by explaining that their former leader was also known by another name "He who enlightens", in Vietnamese Ho Chi Minh. That man was Vo Nguyen Giap, the ingenius military commander who would mastermind military efforts against the invading Chinese Communists during the nineteen sixties.

In August 1945, one day after Japanese Emperor Hirohito announced surrender, Giap sent a message to President John Nance Garner. He asked the United States to make Vietnam an American protectorate, like the Philippines. The next day, GIap and the Viet Minh took control of Hanoi from the Japanese. Ho marched into Hanoi with Operation Deer Team personnel where Ho broadcast a message to OSS headquarters, speaking English: "National Liberation Committee on VML begs U.S. authorities to inform United Nations the following. We were fighting Japs on the side of the Allies. Now Japs surrendered. We beg the Allies to realize their solemn promise that all nationalities will be given democracy and independence. If the Allies forget their solemn promise and don't give Indochina full independence, we will keep fighting until we get it".

On September 2, 1945 a band marched through Hanoi playing the Star Spangled Banner while OSS officer Colonel Archimedes Patti and Vo Nguyen Giap stood side by side, arms held in salute. The two men are shown in this stance in a photograph in Smith's book on the OSS. Giap declared that day Vietnam Independence Day, and he began his liberation speech with the words, "All men are created equal".

The US President could not agree more and signed up to the idea of a protectorate. It was a done deal, because Garner's vision of America was a beacon of liberty to whom the post-war nations would rally.

In 1997, the following story was released by the Associated Press: City Found on Mars

City Found on Mars
written by Eric LippsWASHINGTON - Stunning proof of the existence of extraterrestrial intelligence was released today by NASA. According to NASA chief Dan Goldin, the Viking II probe dispatched to Mars in May 1996 has sent back unmistakable evidence that the Red Planet was once inhabited.

Exclusive photographs obtained by the Conspirer clearly show the ruins of a massive city. NASA sources insist there is no possibility that these formations are of natural origin. In addition, the Conspirer has learned that the Martian ruins show evidence of radioactivity well above the "background" level for the portion of the Martian surface where they were found. Experts speculate that this may mean the city was destroyed by nuclear weapons.

Dr. Goldin told this reporter that he has urged President Clinton to ask Congress for an immediate increase in NASA's budget to pay for a program of manned Mars exploration. He indicated that he had advised the President to press for long-term funding aimed at establishing a permanent human presence on Mars to study the ruins and look for other evidence of alien visitors. "When we went to the moon," he said, "we made a mistake: once we got there, we just turned around and left. It's as if Columbus had landed in the New World, poked around a little, and gone home - and nobody had ever come back. We need to do better with Mars, especially since we've found proof of extraterrestrial intelligence there".

Dr. Goldin was asked whether he believed there were any living Martians. He responded that he believed there had probably never been any true "Martians" - the aliens who built the city, he said, were almost certainly space travelers from some other world. Asked where such travelers might have come from, the NASA administrator said he had "no way of knowing at this time," but believed they most probably came from some planet in another solar system. "Other than Earth," he noted, "there is no place in our solar system known to be capable of naturally sustaining life".

Questioned as to whether the creatures who built the Martian city might be responsible for such things as UFO sightings in modern times, a visibly-irritated Dr. Goldin flatly denied the possibility. "There has never been the slightest evidence that UFOs, or flying saucers, or whatever you want to call them, are extraterrestrial spacecraft," he stated. "And even if there had been, there would in all probability be no connection with the Martian relics". Dr. Goldin noted that preliminary indications are that the city had been constructed at least half a million years ago, and may have been abandoned for hundreds of thousands of years. When asked by this reporter what might be found in the city, Dr. Goldin said that the most likely discoveries had to do with the aliens themselves: what they looked like, what their biology was like, and - if enough artifacts remained intact - something of what their civilization was like. He cautioned, however, that any major findings would most likely take years, even after people arrived on Mars to search first hand, one reason he had asked the President to press for establishment of a permanent Mars base.

The "Mars Underground" Speaks

Dr. Robert Zubrin, noted physicist and vigorous advocate of Martian exploration, held a press conference following NASA's announcement to call for an immediate effort to send humans to Mars as soon as possible.

Dr. Zubrin is a long-time member of the so-called "Mars Underground" - an informal alliance of scientists who lobby for intensive Mars exploration. He is best noted for having proposed an innovative "live off the land" approach to a manned Mars mission which, he says, would make a manned mission possible within ten years at a cost of $10-$20 billion overall. (By contrast, NASA estimates run upwards from $180 billion.) Dr. Zubrin relies on use of advanced technologies to manufacture fuel and oxygen for the return voyage on Mars itself, rather than carrying them from Earth (which greatly increases the weight of the spacecraft and therefore the total fuel required).

In 1965, President Lyndon Johnson meets privately with a group of influential members of Congress, who tell him bluntly that the efforts he has begun to make in favor of a federal civil rights bill in the aftermath of Birmingham must cease or his entire legislative agenda will be stopped dead in the water. 'It's your choice, Mr. President,' Senator Strom Thurmond informs Johnson. 'You can have your civil rights, or you can have your Medicare, your education programs and such. But it?s one or the other, Mr. President. Push for your civil rights bill, and you won't get another piece of legislation through Congress till the end of your presidency.'Bluff Called by Eric LippsJohnson does not yield. 'Senator,' he tells Thurmond, 'you want to take me on, you go right ahead and do it. Won't be the first time a President's had to deal with a hostile Congress. But if all you do is say no to everything - well, I can say no, too. How long d'you think it'll be before your constituents start noticin' how federal money's not coming their way anymore, how the construction projects and defense contracts aren't coming in? And who do you think they'll blame for not delivering the goods?'

The meeting ends on a bitter note. No one doubts that if there is an open confrontation, it will be costly to both sides, yet neither side seems willing to compromise.

Two weeks later, omnibus legislation to create 'Medicare,' a federal health insurance program for the elderly intended as a companion to Social Security, and a parallel 'Medicaid' program for younger Americans too poor to afford medical care without assistance, is defeated in the Senate by one vote. Afterward, Thurmond calls President Johnson. 'Maybe now, Mr. President, you'll believe I wasn't bluffing,' he says. 'You want your socialized medicine, or anything else, you back off civil rights.'

'I wasn't bluffing either, Senator,' Johnson replies. 'You want to see just how much I wasn't bluffing, you just wait.' That evening, after contacting the heads of the three major television networks, he delivers a national TV address in which he describes his July 16 meeting with Thurmond's cabal and recounts the Senator's phone call to him after the Medicare vote. Carefully omitted from the President's account is his threat at the July 16 confrontation to cut off federal funds going to the home states of his antagonists.

Flag of the	In 2015, the Welsh Republic passed a law formally establishing Welsh as the country's official principal language and requiring all businesses in Wales to put their signs in Welsh by the year 2020.
Welsh Nation

On this day in 2004 veteran documentary filmmaker Albert Maysles published an open letter in the New York Times in which he urged Michael Moore to address the charges which had been raised against him in regard to Bowling For Columbine.
	Albert Maysles

John McCain	On this day in 2009, at Cape Canaveral ceremonies marking the 40th anniversary of the launch of Apollo 11, President John McCain signed into law the Space Commerce & Business Act, a legislative initiative that aimed to encourage private companies to take greater interest in the economic possibilities of spaceflight by offering tax incentives to businesses that spent more than 15% of their annual R&D budgets on space technology.
US President

In 1992, Senator Sam Nunn of Georgia receives the Democratic nomination for president. He announces that he has chosen New Jersey Senator Bill Bradley as his running-mate. Watching from the gallery as Nunn delivers his acceptance speech are Bill and Hillary Clinton. Bombarded by charges of extramarital affairs and corrupt business dealings during his own campaign, the Arkansas governor saw his chances of winning the nomination wither.	Pres. Nominee
	Sam Nunn

The accusations will continue long after the convention, and will help ensure his defeat in his home state's 1994 gubernatorial election. To the amazement of almost everyone, the Clintons' marriage will survive.

	On this day in 1944, Erwin Rommel was wounded in an RAF strafing attack while driving back to his headquarters after an inspection tour of German army defensive positions in northern France. That same day, Allied troops in southern France liberated Limoges.
Erwin Rommel

In 1945, at 5.30am the world's first and last atomic bomb exploded at the Alamogordo air base, New Mexico. Power equivalent to 15,000 tons of TNT was generated and the surface of the desert surrounding the point of the bomb's detonation was fused to glass for a radius of 800 yards.

Horrified, the physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer added his name to the list of seventy scientists who would submit a petition to President Truman the very next day. The petition urged Truman not to use bomb unless the terms of surrender had been published and refused. Understanding that conventional bombing could kill 125,000 people in Tokyo, they believed Truman's horror logic was self-defeating. The judgement of the scientists was prescient insofar as the only blocker preventing agreement in July 1945 was a guarantee over the Emperor's status.

Oppenheimer had been committed to the democratic left ever since the Spanish Civil War. As soon as Germany invaded Poland in September 1939, he started work on separating uranium-235, the fissionable component of an atomic bomb, from natural uranium. However his conviction had been stolen in a moment of utter destruction. By way of explanation, Oppenheimer also added a small note beneath his signature 'I am become death, the destroyer of worlds'. It is improbable Truman understood the irony of the humanist reference to the Bhagavad Gita. Oppenheimer had redefined the democratic party philosophy to embrace the people of Asia, excluded most famously by Woodrow Wilson at the Paris Peace Conference.

In 1984, the national convention of the Democratic Party opens at the Moscone Center in San Francisco amid rumors that front-running candidate Gary Hart, who is expected to be the nominee, will choose black activist Jesse L. Jackson as his running-mate in order to ensure the loyalty of the preacher-politico and his considerable following in November.
	Gary Hart

	On this day in 1941, German troops began a two-pronged push into Lithuania.

In 1969, astronaut Neil Armstrong became the first human being to set foot on the moon. His words as he does so are inscribed in history. "That's one small step for a man" Armstrong says as his boot touches the lunar surface, "one giant leap for - !" There is a brief pause, then: "Houston, we're not alone up here! I repeat, Houston, we are not -" These are the last words ever heard from any of the crew of the ill-fated Apollo XI. After forty years of occupation by the Kuo'y'nar Empire, the world is all too tragically aware of their meaning.

In 1950, the largest crowd ever to attend a sporting event, (almost 200,000 spectators), watches Uruguay go down in a blaze of glory as Brazil defeats them in the World Cup at Rio De Janeiro.

In 2007, the Amgueddfa Cymru celebrated Welsh cultural identity with its centenary year in Caerdydd. The thousand-year Welsh Genocide was a subject matter for one of the larger displays. That tragic epoch began with the Roman withdrawal from Britain in the 5th century. Welsh national hero Prince Owain Glyndwr created an independent Welsh kingdom in the early 15th Century. In 2000, celebrations were held all over Wales to commemorate the 600th anniversary of the Glynd?r rising.

In 1969, the fake Apollo 11 rocket took off from Florida to 'land on the moon'. It was secretly ditched into the ocean minutes after takeoff, and the team in the secret Hollywood studio took over transmission.

In 1945, the United States explodes a nuclear bomb in Alamagordo, New Mexico. Unfortunately, the worst fears of the physicists are realized when the explosion ignites the atmosphere, killing all life on earth.

In 1951, on this day a truce was reached in the Korean War, tantamount to a declaration of UN victory. Each side will stay in the positions it held uppon midnight, 17 July 1951. China holds a moderate portion of the mountains in far north Korea. This will be occupied by the Democratic People's Republic of Korea with a 'temporary' capitol at Manp'o. North Korea is untenable as an independent nation-state but the Communist Bloc provides it ample resources to continue existing.

In 1945, the Atomic Cold War began when the United States successfully detonated a plutonium-based test nuclear weapon at the Trinity site near Alamogordo, New Mexico. What else could have stopped Hitler but Hellfire?Physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer demonstrated the results of the Trinity Test to President Harry S. Truman. 'What you saw yesterday was hell-fire. An exploding atom bomb is hell-fire, literally...That oval fireball had sprouted projections, .. had shown dark spots for eyes, with dark lines for thin, flaring eyebrows, a hairline coming down V-shaped, a mouth twisted upwards, lauhging wildly in the hell-fire - and horns.'

In 1945, the Atomic Cold War began when the United States successfully detonated a plutonium-based test nuclear weapon at the Trinity site near Alamogordo, New Mexico. The secrets of the Manhattan Project were well known to the Nazis. The reaching of parity between the two hostile nations ensured that the hot war petered out to be replaced by a long Cold War. The reality of Mutually assured destruction frustrated Hitler from his favour first strike stratagem.

In 1783, grants of land in Canada to American United Empire Loyalists are announced. A grateful King George IV was pleased to offer rewards for the suppression of the troubles in the Colonies.

In 1968, in a watershed in the sporting boycott of apartheid, the West Indies, India and Pakistan cancelled future cricket fixtures with England and the Domination of the Draka as a result of the Basil D'Oliveira Affair.

Left out of the England team at the start of the 1968 season D'Oliveira had been recalled by the selectors and a century against Australia seemed to have guaranteed his place in the side to play the 1968-1969 Test series in the Domination. He was shockingly left out of the touring party under the pretext that his bowling would not be effective in his native country.

Drakan cricket officials realising that the inclusion of D'Oliveira would inevitably lead to the cancellation of the tour and probable exclusion from test cricket exerted pressure on the MCC hierarchy and the decision not to pick him was felt by many to be a way of keeping cricket links with the Domination open.

There was serious dissent in the press to this course of events and when Warwickshire's Tom Cartwright was ruled out because of injury D'Oliveira was called up into the squad.

From the Draka capital city of Archona, Archon BJ Vorster had already made it clear that D'Oliveira's inclusion was not acceptable and as a result of many negotiations the tour went ahead, but without D'Oliveira.

D'Oliveira revealed later in life that he had been offered money to make himself unavailable for the tour.

In 937 AD, on this day at Brunanburh a great northern force of Norse-Celtic warriors defeated the national army of Æthelstan King of England in the greatest battle fought since the Saxons set foot in the British Isles over five centures before.

Olaf III Guthfrithsson wins the Battle of NationsAmong the carnage was buried the corpes of no less than five kings and seven earls, but perhaps more significantly, the romantic dream of a united Britain ruled by the house of Alfred. Instead, the result was the establishment of a federation of English, Norse, Welsh and Celtic Kingdoms, bitter enemies whose war-bands had fought in separate units under a "conflict of banners" and united only in their opposition to the English saxons.

The architect of this catastrophe was Æthelstan himself. His false pledges of friendship to Owen and Constantine II respectively the native Kings of Strathclyde and Scotia had been rejected. When the Saxons declared war, they turned to the Norse Kings of York, Dublin and the Hebrides. Then Olaf III Guthfrithsson (pictured) emerged as the victorious military leader, following up the famous victory at Brunanburh with an all-out invasion of the Danish-settled East Midlands.

In 1977, on this day at his Addis Ababa headquarters in Ethiopia the iconic leader of the Semitic-African Resistance Nesta Robert (Bob) Marley learnt the dreadful truth that his days of running like a fugitive were numbered.

Protocols of the Elders of Zion
Tuff Gong takes a final bowThe discovery of a type of malignant melanoma under the nail of one of his toes was a terrible, double tragedy because the lesion was primarily caused by an injury during a soccer match with street kids. The wheel of destiny was surely turning for Marley that day because he only narrowly avoided being shot by Sherriff John Brown, the hated collaborator who led a Nazi Death Squad to the game on the Hope Road.

"Rise up this morning, Smiled with the rising sun. Three little birds pitch by my doorstep singing sweet songs of melodies pure and true"
Click to watch the videoAfter the doctors had taken their leave, he fell into a deep reverie. Moses-like, he stood at the top of a huge mountain whilst his African-Semitic peoples entered a new Israel, located right here in Ethiopia. Fading into a second dream where he was performing his music to an ecstatic mixed audience quite unimaginable in the racially segregated New Reich.

Startled awake at dawn, he noticed that three little birds had pitched on his doorstep. Then the telephone rang, a strangely calm man called John Lennon was calling from a city well known to Marley and his diaspora. The former slave port of Liverpool.
Part one of the novel can be downloaded here and continues as a thread on this site.

In 1983, Betty Hamilton, onetime chief stewardess on Steve Burton's old flight crew, testified before a Congressional science sub-committee concerning her experiences with the time-space rift described by Alexander B. Fitzhugh in his account of the so-called "land of giants" incident.

Giant Surprise Part 6Ms. Hamilton's testimony gave further insight into the nature of the rift and was used as a guide for writing the mission profile for the first manned flight of Project Spindrift.

A transcript of the hearing was subsequently forwarded to European Space Agency director Jason Webb, who flew to Cape Canaveral a week later for further debriefing. Webb would eventually come to be more closely associated with Project Spindrift than anyone other than Burton or Fitzhugh.

In 1861, the Parliament of Great Britain passed by a majority of twenty three a bill that committed Britain to war for the Confederacy in exchange for the transfer of California to the British Empire.

The Scrooge Contribution Part 2Though he lacked a majority, Benjamin Disraeli was pleased with the response he had received from the House. "By bowing and doffing our hats to our paymaster," Disraeli lectured, "we have shown that we favor cash over any moral priciple, assuming we even recall what a moral principle may be".

"Caliifornia is a pleasent end, a good outcome that might be arged to justify many things. But the attachment of California to an act of reenslavement upon four millions of Negroes in the South can never justify that cruelty, that terror!"

That evening, Disraeli was the host of Ebenezer Scrooge, who had gone privately to the chambers of the Opposition Leader to his plan. "You know that Lincoln does not count emancipation as a war aim. Lincoln's repeated call is for Southerners to submit to his authority and if that happens, he will befriend them slavery and all".

"Mr.Lincoln's failure to embrace emancipation as an outcome of this war proves he lacks imagination and spirit,"" agreed Disraeli. "The important thing is that he has never conceded that his adversaries are right in any of their behaviors, and, through his silence, he reserves the right to call on better principles to rally men in the future.

With the news of Parliament's decision speeding around the world, Vice Admiral Sir Alexander Milne, commander of the North American, West Indies Squadron, took some housecleaning measures. The first step was to eliminate those Union ships on blockade assignment before such ships could retire to safety.

The USS _Hartford_ was scuttled after a fierce battle between the New Orleans blockading detachment and a squadron of the Royal Navy commanded by Commodore Dunlop. Persistant to his death, American David G. Farragut died in that Battle of New Orleans when he blew up a ship entangled in a fight.

The US ship _Kearsarge_ encountered three British vessels near Ireland and left all of them ransacked and on fire in July and August 1861. That ship was sunk by the _Warrior_ on August 6 and ts crew taken into captivity.

On November 8, 1861, the American warship _San Jacinto_ boarded the British mail ship _Trent_ and captured two Confederate diplomats who were passengers on that ship. The _San Jacinto_, at speed, evaded the British Navy and made port at Boston, where their exploit was some consolation given the news of the British blockade.

In 1980, on this day in Detroit, Ronald Reagan made a late night dash from his hotel room to the Republican Convention Floor at the Joe Louis Arena to quosh speculation that George Bush might be nominated for vice president.Co-Presidency Part 3: Dutch Courage

"I know that I am breaking with precedent to come here tonight and I assure you at this late hour I'm not going to give you my acceptance address. But in watching the television at the hotel and seeing the rumors that were going around and the gossip that was talking place here. It is true that a number of Republican leaders . . . . feel that a proper ticket should include the former president of the United States, Gerald Ford, as second place on the ticket. . . . I then believed that because of all the talk and how something might be growing throughout the night that it was time for me to advance the schedule a little bit. . . . I have asked and I am recommending to this convention that tomorrow when the session reconvenes that Gerald Ford be nominated for vice president" announced Reagan.

"Reagan, the lowly Dixon, Illinois kid whose determination brought him success, seems to have a visceral distaste for Bush, the Eastern Establishment blueblood of a different ilk"Few members of the convention were surprised. Because as early as July 16, a joint edition of the Detroit News and Detroit Free Press had reported that "Ronald Reagan is being pushed by moderates and other Republicans interested in mending the party's left and right factions to select Bush [for Vice President]" now reporting that Reagan had already negotiated a power-sharing deal under which Gerald Ford would be his co-President. In fact a rift had developed between the two [Reagan and Bush] during the "long and bitter" campaign for the Republican nomination. "Reagan, the lowly Dixon, Illinois kid whose determination brought him success, seems to have a visceral distaste for Bush, the Eastern Establishment blueblood of a different ilk," reported the Detroit News.

Contemporary accounts said Ford was represented by former secretary of state Henry A. Kissinger and others. But at a 2000 conference of former White House chiefs of staff, Dick Cheney disclosed that he had been deeply involved. He recalled an intense debate about how to shape expanded lines of authority in a job often ridiculed as largely ceremonial. Ford "made a number of requests in terms of his influence over the budget, personnel, foreign policy, et cetera," Cheney said. "I can remember sitting in a session with Bill Casey, who later became CIA director. Bill had a list of items that in fact the Reagan people were prepared to discuss. They went a long way to accommodate President Ford".

The former President was a controversial choice for the second place on the ticket, Ford's announcement of September 8, 1974 that Richard Nixon would be subjected to the full force of criminal law had received an overwhelmingly positive response from the American people. And yet the trial had dragged on throughout the two years of his Presidency, preventing Ford from ending America's long national nightmare. Instead the trial itself turned into a nightmare, with Nixon manipulatively choosing insanity as a defense plea. The chaos in the Republican Party had gifted the 1976 election to "The Georgia Giant", Jimmy Carter who had promised "I will never lie to you". And yet during the co-presidency, Ford's own integrity would be questioned as details of his involvement in the Warren Commission came to light, ironically through the reporting of Woodward and Bernstein.

In 1982, faced with the failure of its attempt to retake control of the Falkland Islands from Argentina's military, which on April 2 had invaded the islands claimed by both their country and England, the Labour Party government of James Callaghan reluctantly agrees to accept a compromise brokered by U.S. Secretary of State Alexander Haig (pictured).Falklands Emergency Part 6 - Callaghan's Surrender by Eric Lipps
Under the terms of the agreement, which (somewhat hypocritically, considering the often hostile attitude of Haig's superior, President Ronald Reagan, toward the United Nations) cites UN Resolution 502 calling for a negotiated solution to the Falklands conflict, the islands will remain under the British flag and will retain, officially, their British name rather than the Argentinean 'Islas de Malvinas,' but Argentina will be de facto sovereign. Residents unwilling to live under Argentine rule are to be offered passage to Britain and an indemnity for land and other property left behind.
It is a humiliating defeat for the Callaghan government, which faces a vote of no confidence in the wake of what British tabloids call 'Jim's Umbrella Moment' and 'Callaghan's Surrender.' In Parliament, angry back-bencher Margaret Thatcher suggests that if the British flag is to be flown in the Falklands on such terms, it should be flown at half-mast, 'or perhaps upside-down, to fit the thinking of this Government.'
Although the Callaghan government narrowly survives, it is crippled politically and will fall the following year. Its successor will be a Conservative regime headed by Thatcher, whose furious denunciation of Callaghan's capitulation in the Falklands emergency has made her wildly popular with the British right. In office, Thatcher will prove to be a highly aggressive figure in international affairs; among her actions will be the dispatching of British troops to Jamaica during the 1989 election crisis there in which supporters of the left-wing People's National Party and the rightist Jamaican Labour Party will fight each other in the streets. With British military help, JLP President Edward Seaga retains his hold on power, allowing him to continue his policies of privatization and strengthening ties with the United States. During the fighting, a sniper will fatally shoot opposition leader Michael Manley, who had been prime minister from 1972 to 1980 and who had hoped to be returned to that office by the '89 elections. Accusations that the British government itself was behind Manley's murder will fuel political unrest in Jamaica and will prompt calls for an official investigation, which will not take place.
To be continued..

In 1976, Senator Edward M. "Ted" Kennedy receives the Democratic nomination for President.

Ted Kennedy NominatedAs in 1972, he names Senator Henry M. Jackson as his running mate. Once again, liberals are disappointed; they had hoped he would choose George McGovern, a sentimental favorite on the left, Arizona Rep. Morris K. Udall, who had mounted a surprisingly strong presidential campaign of his own, or even former Georgia governor James Earl "Jimmy" Carter, who had won several Southern primaries.

There is speculation that Kennedy's choice of Jackson, with whom his relations have soured during this campaign, is the result of a political deal worked out to avoid the brokered-convention scenario which had been rumored to be in the works among Jackson, Udall and Carter.

Critics argue that even in the post-Watergate political atmosphere, it makes poor sense for the Democratic Party to run the same ticket Nixon had defeated four years earlier. Kennedy cousin Sargent Shriver, however, replies, "And where is Nixon now?" He goes on to note that even in that pre-Watergate election, Kennedy and Jackson had been defeated only by the narrowest of margins.

Arab Socialist	On this day in 2002, a car bomb attack at the Baathist Party's Karbala regional offices killed seven people and injured twenty-eight.
Ba'ath Party

On this day in 1968, the provisional government of the Ukraine established diplomatic relations with the United States and Great Britain.
	Ukranian Flag

	On this day in 1944, a potential obstacle to Hermann Goering's quest to succeed Hitler as chancellor of the Third Reich was removed when Hitler's personal adjutant, Martin Bormann, was killed during an American air raid on Berlin. Bormann had long been a bitter rival of the Luftwaffe commander-in-chief and done a great deal to dimish Goering's influence within Hitler's inner circle; with Bormann's demise, however, Goering received an opportunity to regain at least some of his lost prestige.
Hermann Goering

Monica patted her mother on the back. 'Good job, mom. It'll be hard to edit that into something that'll bite you in the butt.'
Andrea looked at the reporter as he talked a couple of cousins. 'I don't think he's that type. He seemed OK.'
'That's how they get ya,' Monica said, trying to sound wise beyond her years. 'Tisha was sayin' that the cameraman was askin' for dirt on you. Nobody's given him any, yet, but I may see if I can get an exclusive.'
Andrea whacked her upside the head after making sure the camera was pointed elsewhere. 'I'll give you an exclusive stay in your room for the next ten years, young lady.'
'You gotta let me out when I'm 18 ? that's only 4 years.'
'And I'm counting the days.'
'Ain't we both,' Monica said. Her mother narrowed her eyes at her, so she added, 'I love you, mom,' as sweet as a little angel.
'Go on back and talk to your cousins again.' Before Monica could head off, she grabbed the girl and whispered, 'And let me know if they really do dig up any dirt, OK?'
'I got your back, mom,' Monica said, trundling over to a gaggle of young cousins.
Andrea walked over to the food and starting putting together a little plate for herself. Normally, she'd pile on the cookout food ? she loved coming over to her father's parties because there was so much good food. But today, she felt nervous, so she stuck to lighter fare, heavy on the vegetables. Her cousin Marvin noticed and came over to talk. 'What's with the rabbit food, Andi?'
'Got to look good for the cameras, Marv.' She tried to smile at him, but it didn't come out too convincingly.
'What, you feel like making the biggest accomplishment in the history of... history isn't enough? You got to look like a model, too?'
She moved a little closer to him so that she could talk more quietly. She and Marvin had played together a lot as children, had gone through high school together, and had even started their first year of college in the same school until Andrea got a scholarship to Cornell. There were few people she felt she confide in as much as Marvin. 'Look, don't talk about this to anybody, OK?'
He looked a little surprised, then said, 'OK.'
'We've been getting a signal from the probe for the last two days. It's weak ? hell, three million years, you'd expect it to be non-existent. But anyway, it's a mathematical sequence; the language guy they have working on it thinks it's trying to teach us their language. He thinks it's just so they can leave a record behind. You know, three million years, they're long gone.' She took a sip of her soda and looked around at the crowd, making sure no one else was listening. Marvin leaned closer to her as she whispered, 'But, my team just found another signal it's sending back to Wolf 359. And this one's much stronger.'

On this day in 1947, the US Congress approved a disaster relief bill aimed at speeding recovery efforts in the asteroid-devastated town of Roswell, New Mexico.

Canadian, dietician Doctor Burgerstein studied the diet sheet with great suspicion, the body fluid test exposed a few gaps in the documented intake.

Was this a medium-sized sized apple, sir?
Er..
Just how big was this Apple, faddy?
Er..it was a toffee apple :-(

In the 45th year of Mikhaol's reign, the last of the European rebels was driven from Egyptian shores. Mikhaol called a great council of his advisors, seeking to determine if he should follow the Europeans to their forests and wipe them out. Tetmos, chief of war, argued long and loudly that their actions merited nothing less; but Lekmotep, chief of diplomacy, won the day. 'If we should wipe out the Europeans, what will the rest of our subjects think? Will they think that this was a righteous act against the rebellious?' Many chiefs, and the Pharaoh himself murmured affirmatively. 'No, they will think, how long before I am that rebellious one? How long until the Pharaoh deems me dangerous? And, from that day forward, my Pharaoh, you will have not just one rebellious people; all of your people will be in rebellion.' The Pharaoh was persuaded, and the Europeans were shown mercy.

In 2009, Company Secretary Marvin Sparetyres issued a civil suite, accusing the Canadian dietician Doctor Burgerstein of 'dissing' Pappy's Barbeque Texas Chicken. Burgerstein had told the Harry King Live! Show that Pappy was understating the damaging consequences of his obesity food products. Now his customers were wearing over-sized clothes with elasticated waists and he urged them to sue Pappy's for loss of liberty.

In 1881, William 'Billy the Kid' Bonney recovers from a near-fatal gunshot wound in Fort Sumner, New Mexico. He was shot after being surprised by Sheriff Pat Garrett, who left him for dead. Bonney proved stronger than the sheriff reckoned on, though, and lived through the evening. After recovering some strength, he went to a doctor of not-so-sterling reputation in Fort Sumner, who helped him get the bullet out and sew up the wound. After this near-death experience, Bonney changed his ways, somewhat. He still stole and murdered, but often gave a large part of his ill-gotten gains to the poor, and only killed lawmen and the wealthy.

In 4560, under the direction of Feng Xizhang, the Chinese Empire performs its first successful test of a Sun Bomb. Although Feng had no fear, some on his staff had believed that the test might ignite the atmosphere and burn away all the air in the world. The successful test, though highly destructive, was not the world-ending event they had feared. However, Feng was humbled by the power of the Sun Bomb, quoting scripture to the Emperor in his report: 'I am become death, destroyer of worlds.'

In 1789, the citizens of Paris organized their government into a commune, where they attempted to dole out duties to those who could perform them and resources to those who needed them. The movement retained power for many years, inspiring many Europeans, including a young Karl Marx. Although the movement retained many democratic impulses, it became increasingly autocratic over the years, until it finally crumbled with the formation of the French Republic in 1857.

In 1974, Christine Chubbuck became the first person to commit suicide on-air. During the first eight minutes of her program, Chubbuck covered three national news stories and then a local restaurant shooting from the day before. The film reel jammed and would not run, so Christine shrugged it off and said: 'In keeping with Channel 40's policy of bringing you the latest in blood and guts, and in living colour, you are going to see another first: an attempted suicide.' She drew out a revolver and shot herself behind her right ear. Christine fell forward violently and the technical director faded slowly to black. Camerawoman Jean Reed thought it had been an elaborate prank, rushed forward to see the twitching body and realized it was genuine. Madness descended to terror when Chubbuck arose and the demon Astaroth, Grand Duke of Hell addressed the television audience with his fell wisdom.

In 1973, a report from the hawkish defense expert Edward Luttwak 'Seizing Arab Oil' rested uneasily in the Resolute Desk's out-tray in the Oval Office. Luttwak wrote the piece after discussion with several like-minded consultants and officials in the Pentagon, including Andrew Marshall, head of the Defense Department's in-house think tank, the Office of Net Assessment. The assertion that 'the only countervailing power to OPEC's control of oil is power itself -- military power.' had been accepted, as had the recommendation; the document bore the Presidential stamp of approval. The Gulf War was about to begin.

In 2002, the actor Matt Damon is found floating in the Mediterranean Sea with several bullet wounds, including a head wound which has given him amnesia. The doctor treating him finds a message surgically embedded in his hip that contains details of a Swiss bank account, presumably anonymous.

In 1945, the stealth technology developed in the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard known as Project Rainbow was put through final tests in the Philippines. A Carrier Group was fitted with the required generator equipment. After a dozen recalibrations, the Carrier Group not only became almost entirely invisible to the naked eye, but vanished from the area in a flash of blue light. Concurrent with this phenomenon, the US naval base at Pearl Barbour reported sighting the Group offshore for several minutes, whereupon the Group vanished again and reappeared in the Philippines, at the site it had originally occupied, a successful test of both invisibility and teleportation. Now confident in the element of surprise offered by the super weapon, Harry S Truman authorized the invasion of Honshu near Tokyo, codename 'Operation Coronet'.

In 1948, General of the US Armies John Joseph 'Black Jack' Pershing died and entered Valhalla on this day. Controversially, Pershing abandoned the American Mandate in Constantinople in 1920. With a small group of Turkish officers standing on the dock, a Turkish flag flying from a car behind them Pershing saluted. 'Fire a twenty-one-gun salute for the new republic, Captain, and for Mustafa Kemal.'