Editor's Postbag Feed from Today In Alternate History - A Daily Updating Blog of Important Events In History That Never Occurred Today.

German Civil War

Eric Lipps

In 1917 workers in the Russian capital of St. Petersburg (Petrograd) staged a massive riot for increased food rations. Russia was in the throes of a famine exacerbated by World War I, and popular resentment was stirred by radicals of the Social Revolutionary Party.

Tsar Nicholas II responded to the riots with orders to the military to gun down the demonstrators. The result was a bloodbath far beyond what the Russian ruler could have expected, for many of the troops receiving the orders joined the demonstrators instead. On March 15, Nicholas, his wife Alexandra and their daughter Anastasia were forced to flee the city, carrying with them the coffin containing the body of Crown Prince Nicholas, who had died three weeks earlier. Nicholas, a hemophiliac, had sustained fatal internal hemorrhaging following a fall.

Ironically, the death of his beloved son had galvanized the Tsar, who persuaded himself that Nicholas's affliction and eventual demise had been a divine punishment for "weakness" on his part. When in April the Petrograd revolt was joined by radical leftists under the leadership of Vladimir Ulyanov, also known as Lenin, the Tsar demanded the immediate suppression of the revolt "by all means necessary" and rallied loyal forces under Gen. Lavr Kornilov for the purpose. An all-out offensive followed, culminating in the so-called "July Days" in which the provisional government established after the imperial family's flight from the capital was disbanded by force and most of its members, who by then included Lenin and other SRP leaders, arrested and shot.

The Tsar then turned his attention to the still ongoing war with Germany and its allies. The Germans had permitted Lenin and other radicals to cross territory under their control to enter Russia in the hopes of disrupting the Russian war effort; Nicholas II now returned the favor, smuggling German-speaking agents into Germany through divided Poland to carry out acts of sabotage and spread antiwar propaganda. their efforts would contribute to the collapse of the German war effort in October 1918 and to the subsequent revolution, which began with a sailors' mutiny and quickly spread throughout the German Empire, resulting in the establishment of a socialist republic under Karl Liebknicht.

The German civil war which followed was a nightmare for the country's citizens. When it finally ended, in October 1923, Germany was ruled by a military junta under Gen. Erich Ludendorff, who ordered the establishment of a new government agency, the Heimatsicherheitspolizei, or Homeland Security Police, to weed out "subversion". Civilian political activity was severely restricted except for a single party, the Deutschevreuheitspartei or German Freedom Party, a militantly right-wing group dominated by ex-soldiers, in which a former Austrian corporal by the name of Adolf Hitler would emerge as a rising star. The DVP would take full control of Germany, with the generals' assent, in 1930. Then, with the world distracted by the gathering global depression, Germany would quietly begin rearming in preparation for seeking revenge against the West and Russia.

Grand Duchy of Alsace-Lorraine

Todayinah Editor

In 1888 German Emperor Frederick III recovered from a throat infection and resumed his duties.

On June 15, Bismark resigned and the Emperor announced that henceforth, the German chancellor would be chairman of a formal cabinet and would be responsible to the members of the Reichstag. In 1900, over the strenuous objection of his crown prince, Frederick ordered a plebiscite be held in Alsace-Lorraine if the French government would accept the results.

Much to the surprise of both countries, the provinces voted for independence, and became a grand duchy the following year, depriving France and Germany of a common frontier.

Canada in Crisis

Todayinah Editor

In 1777 in a symbolic act of reconstruction, loyalist Thomas Hutchinson returned from Canada on this day to be reinstated as royal governor of the Massachussetts Colony.

Prior to his exile, Hutchinson believed that the Parliament should be controlling the thirteen colonies but he wasn't a supporter of the Stamp act. Even though he wasn't a supporter of the Stamp Act, he still enforced the tax. This caused a mob of angry patriots to go to Thomas Hutchison's house and burn it. His house had the most enriched library ever in the thirteen colonies. He was the symbol of loyalty during the pre-Revolutionary period, and he was also one of the most hated people in Boston.

Like Hutchinson, over fifty thousand American loyalists had fled north of the border, but they had neither accepted that their cause was lost, nor their society dismantled. And so it proved to be the case, quite contrary to the prediction from the rebel John Adams that the revolution took place in the hearts and minds of the American people before the fighting ever started. Because the "American Crisis" had abruptly ended when Commander-in-Chief William Howe's rampant British troops caught up with the bedraggled rebel army just outside Hackensack, New Jersey.

Trouble was the imperial government needed way more than fifty thousand loyalists to restore imperial rule in the reconstructed royal colonies. And in their unseemly haste, the British unwittingly depopulated Upper Canada. Because the communities in provinces such as Ontario that had begun to prosper over the previous four years were soon abandoned as no longer viable.

Freedom Summer

Todayinah Editor

In 1964 on this day White Citizens' Councils received copies of "Counterinsurgency Warfare: Theory and Practice" as the US Government braced the country for a fresh wave of negro insurgency code-named "Freedom Summer".

The author of the publication was French lieutenant colonel David Galula who as a research fellow at Harvard University's Center for International Affairs had set down the lessons of his experience in the Algerian War. His bold introduction "a Negro movement trying to exploit the Negro problem as the basis for a [violent] insurgency in the United States .. would be doomed from the start" had captured the attention of University professors that had contacted the US military leadership who were increasingly desperate for answers.

Unsurprisingly the man considered by the US military leadership to be the putative head of the negro insurgency, Robert F. Williams strongly disagreed with Galula's assessment that the armed struggle was doomed. Williams had been carrying a pistol ever since he revitalized a chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People in Marion, North Carolina. And in "Negroes With Guns" he had published an influential manifesto that rejected nonviolent tactics and argued for black self-defense. Several groups adopted this policy. The best known of these, the Deacons for Defense and Justice, consisted largely of veterans of World War II and the Korean War who were now at war with their former colleagues in the military.

Treaty of Rheims

Todayinah Editor

In 1945 on behalf of the Flensburg government, Reichsprësident Karl Doënitz signed the Treaty of Rheims at U.S. General Dwight D. Eisenhower's headquarters in France and over 100,000 surrendered German soldiers were transferred to the Allied forces preparing for Operation Unthinkable, the surprise attack on the Soviet Union.

The death of Franklin D. Roosevelt on the eve of the Yalta Conference had brought to office a new President that shared Winston's Churchill plan to "impose upon Russia the will of the United States and the British Empire". Not only had Stalin refused to honour the guarantees for Polish independence that had forced Britain into the war, it also became evident that his ambition extended to the whole of Eastern Europe.

The main obstacle to Operation Unthinkable was removed on April 30th when Adolf Hitler suicided with General Patton's Third Army only two blocks from the the Reich Chancellery. Because of treachery in the Nazi High Command, Hitler had been forced to nominate the German Commander-in-Chief and Grand Admiral as his successor.

Karl Doenitz was a German naval Commander who served in the Imperial German Navy during World War I, commanded the German submarine fleet during World War II, and eventually was given control of the entire Kriegsmarine. These impeccable credentials enabled Doenitz to emerge as the new Hindenburg, a rallying point for central authority who could nevertheless distance himself from the defeated regime. And the Allies needed a unified nation in order to strike the Soviet Union.

And quickly, too. Any quick success from Operation Unthinkable would be due to surprise alone. If a quick success could not be obtained before the onset of winter the assessment was that the Allies would be committed to a total war which would be protracted (in a report of 22 May 1945 an offensive operation was deemed "hazardous").

Revolution, Congrats!

Gerry Shannon

In 1979 Confederate President Jimmy Carter sends a letter of congratulations to Ayatollah Khomeini and his revolutionaries for securing control of their country following prolonged hostilities to bring about a new "Islamic Republic" in Iran. The letter also contains a note of hope that both the CSA and Iran can now begin a new era of friendliness and co-operation, and begin a new relationship that would be beneficial for them both.

The letter is read out on state media and printed in Iranian national newspapers, and it's chief theme is the similarities - however forced - that Carter demonstrates between the revolutionary roots of the Confederacy and this new Islamic Republic. Carter ends with a flourish by quoting the words of Robert E. Lee, the second President of the Confederate States of America, who once wrote: "You can be anything you want to be, have anything you desire, accomplish anything you set out to accomplish - if you hold to that desire with a singleness of purpose".

Though Carter's letter gets guarded praise from the Ayatollah, the reaction in the government of the United States is one of fury. US President Ted Kennedy (pictured, right) and his cabinet feel Carter is being too opportunistic after the collapse of the US-backed Iranian government, and that the Confederacy is clearly hoping to gain from the financial interests that it's neighbour has now lost and ultimately have a foothold in the troubled Middle East.

However, Kennedy's deeper concern - as he relates to his Chief of Staff Mary Kopechne - is that relations between the United States and Confederacy will be damaged enough to put his dream of reunification of the two countries indefinitely on hold. Though Kennedy himself could not have foreseen these fraught relations becoming even further strained when the United States embassy in Iran would be seized by Iranian forces nine months later in a prolonged hostage crisis.

Michael Foot obit

Todayinah Editor

In 2010 Michael Foot, the British Prime Minister that declared Unilateral Nuclear Disarment (UND) died in Hampstead, London on this day aged 96.

Born in Plymouth in 1913, he studied at Oxford University before taking a job as a shipping clerk in Liverpool; his experiences of poverty in that city transformed him into a life-long socialist.

Foot joined the Labour Party and first stood for parliament at the age of 22 in the 1935 general election, when he contested Monmouth. During this election Foot criticised the Prime Minister, Stanley Baldwin, for seeking rearmament. In his election address Foot contended that "the armaments race in Europe must be stopped now". He also supported unilateral disarmament, after multilateral disarmament talks at Geneva had broken down in 1933. He was thrown out of the Parliamentary Labour Party for two years because he opposed increases in defence spending.

"Michael Foot led Britain during the grimmest, darkest hour in its modern history" ~ Neil KinnockElected in 1945 he did not enter the front bench of the Labour Party until the Wilson and Callaghan Governments of the nineteen seventies. Upon assuming the leadership in 1980, he led the party into the successful campaign of 1983 in which he defeated Margaret Thatcher who was still reeling from Britain's military humiliation in the Falkland Islands. That event, coupled with Americas escalation of the Cold War created a new consensus for UND. And what began with mother's protests at Greenham Common, and Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) peace rallies led by Foot and Monsignor Bruce Kent flourished into a popular movement. Soon enough, Britain would play a very different role on the world stage, paving for the way for his successor Bryan Gould, and Princess Diane to achieve an international ban on land mines in 1999.

Colleague Tony Benn paid tribute to Foot's legacy saying that "he was what the Labour Party was all about"

Spiro Agnew resigns

Todayinah Editor

In 1973 Spiro T. Agnew resigned the presidency to contest criminal charges of extortion, tax fraud, bribery and conspiracy; on the same day he was formally charged with accepting bribes totaling more than $100,000 whilst holding office since 1962 as Baltimore County Executive, Governor of Maryland and Vice President.

The scandal quietly fizzled out over the next decade; Agnew was allowed to plead no contest to a single charge that he had failed to report $29,500 of income received in 1967. In January 1983, he paid the state of Maryland nearly $270,000 as a result of a civil suit that stemmed from the bribery allegations.

Whilst satirists published cartoon strips of Agnew and Nixon sharing a prison cell, leading journalists soundly condemned Nelson Rockefeller for failing to bring to bear the full force of law against either of his two predecessors.

Born Spiro Anagnostopoulos in 1918, he was the first Greek American to hold high political office, an achievement that would be repeated at the 1988 election which brought to power Michael Dukakis.

Gutzon Borglum Born

Todayinah Editor

In 1867 John Gutzon de la Mothe Borglum was born on this day in St. Charles, Idaho; as the creator of the famous carving on Stone Mountain near Atlanta, his depiction of President Jefferson Davis and Generals Robert E. Lee and Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson marked the towering achievements of the three individuals most directly responsible for the defeat of Republicanism, protection of States Rights and the ending of slavery in the United States.

The originator of the concept of the Confederate Memorial Carving was Mrs. C. Helen Plane, charter member of the United Daughters of the Confederacy (UDC). In 1912, she envisaged the largest bas relief sculpture in the world, commissioning Borglum to complete the Stone Mountain project; his work took twelve years to complete. During this period, the owners of the mountain, the Venable family deeded the north face to the UDC.

Lincoln Survives

Todayinah Editor

In 1865 at 10.30pm on this day a southern sympathiser by the name of John Wilkes Booth sneaked into the presidential box at Ford's theatre in Washington. Although Booth had a clear shot, he tripped up and missed his target Abraham Lincoln who took a bullet in the shoulder. The wound was attended to in a lodging house across the street. However, his devoted wife Mary was killed and playgoers witnessed the well-built, but small assassin being lifted up and thrown onto the stage real hard to be arrested.

The Good Friday assassination attempt marked a sharp reversal in Lincoln's fortunes. Indeed, historians would speculate whether his reputation might not have been improved had Booth been successful. Because just six months before, General Carl Schurz had made "a prophecy which may perhaps sound strange at this moment. In fifty years, perhaps much sooner, Lincoln's name will stand written upon the honor roll of the American Republic next to that of Washington, and there it will remain for all time. The children of those who now disparage him will bless him".

"I believe I have no lawful right to [abolish slavery], and I have no inclination to do so"Just five days after the conclusion of the Civil War, Lincoln had reached a high water mark in popularity, even if it wasn't recognised at the time. His challenge now was to come up with a plan that would resolve the unanswered questions from the Emancipation Proclamation. And it was a problem that was simply beyond his ability to solve.

"Send them to Liberia, to their own native land"Which isn't to say that the President didnt devise a plan, or attempt to implement it. Lincoln persisted with his plan of repatriating former slavers to Liberia in West Africa. It was a brutal proposal that would fatally undermine his claim to be the "great emancipator" One man would rise up in leadership to challenge the chilling indifference of this proposal; the radical Republican Thaddeus Stevens of Pennyslvania, the individual who would ultimately steal Lincoln's credit for "freeing the slaves". Because along with Charles Sumner of Massachussets, the pair would drive Reconstruction Legislation through Congress that would force the South into line.

"I have no purpose to introduce political and social equality between the white and the black races"After his death in 1868, Stevens' coffin lay in state inside the Capitol Rotunda, flanked by a Black Honor Guard from Massachusetts. Twenty thousand people, one-half of whom were African-American, attended his funeral in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. "I cannot make it better known than it already is, that I favor colonization"He chose to be buried in the Shreiner-Concord Cemetery because it was the only cemetery that would accept people without regard to race. Stevens wrote the inscription on his head stone that reads: "I repose in this quiet and secluded spot, not from any natural preference for solitude, but finding other cemeteries limited as to race, by charter rules, I have chosen this that I might illustrate in my death the principles which I advocated through a long life, equality of man before his Creator".

Ironically, the comedy that Lincoln was watching that Good Friday was called "Our American Cousin", a fateful reference to the African Americans he had sought to expel from the United States.

War in 1801

Todayinah Editor

In 1801 following the unexpected death of Toussaint L'Ouverture, Napoleon Bonaparte redirected his attention from the revolt in Haiti to his grander ambitions for the vast territory of Louisiana; L'Empereur sends his brother-in-law General Charles Leclerc with thousands of troops and numerous warships to establish French control of New Orleans.

Expecting the French to clamp down on the rights of Americans to use the Mississippi River to float their goods and produce to New Orleans for overseas shipment, US farmers and traders howl in protest. In principle, President Thomas Jefferson sides with the British, threatening "The day France takes possession of New Orleans, we must marry ourselves to the British fleet and nation". But he hides behind negotiations for two years, needing that time in order to reverse himself on disbanding the army and fleet his predecessor John Adams was constructing."The day France takes possession of New Orleans, we must marry ourselves to the British fleet and nation" Jefferson finally made the offer of a military alliance in 1803; sensing a unique opportunity to humiliate Napoleon, the Prime Minister of Great Britain, William Pitt the Younger, seizes the offer with both hands. As soon as the news reaches Washington DC, the US declares war on France.

Not for the first time, "Long Tom" demonstrated that his mind was a bundle of contradictions; a strict follower of the constitution who was prepared to bend the rules, a slave owner who hated slavery, a white supremacist who fathered dual heritage children, a balanced budget advocate who died $100,000 in debt. And now, a revolutionary founding founder who was prepared to ally with his bitter enemy, the British in order to prevent Napoleon from creating a vast new French empire on the North American continent.

Good Time Charlie

Todayinah Editor

In 2010 Charles Nesbitt Wilson died on this day in Lufkin, Texas aged seventy-five; the highly controversial phase of his fifty-year political career was explored in the non-fiction book "Good Time Charlie's War" by George Crile subsequently adaptated for the cinema in a film starring Tom Hanks.

From 1973 to 1996, Wilson served twelve terms as the Democratic United States Representative from the 2nd congressional district in Texas. His was a constant voice advocating Operation Cyclone; this largest-ever CIA covert operation provided critical support to the Mujahideen during the Soviet war in Afghanistan.

"The Soviet invasion of Afghanistan is the greatest threat to peace since the Second World War"Funding began with $20-$30 million per year in 1980 and rose to $630 million per year in 1987. Because what began as the supply of military equipment soon extended into the provision of anti-aircraft weapons such as Stinger antiaircraft missiles; paramilitary officers were dispatched from the Special Activities Division. And finally the US was organising raids from across the border in Pakistan.

The program relied heavily on using the Pakistani Inter-Services Intelligence as an intermediary for funds distribution, passing of weapons, military training and financial support to Afghan resistance groups. The ISI armed and trained over 100,000 insurgents between 1978 and 1992. They encouraged the volunteers from the Arab states to join the Afghan resistance in its struggle against the Soviet troops based in Afghanistan. The Soviet troops completely pulled out of Afghanistan on February 15, 1989.

In late 1992, Wilson emerged as the preferred candidate for the position of Secretary of Defence. Because of his own lack of military experience, Clinton had deliberately sought out another Democrat politician (and party animal) who had a military background and considerable experience with military and foreign policy matters. Fortunately for both Clinton and Wilson, his Senate hearings were unopposed despite rumous surrounding his notorious personal life, particularly drinking, cocaine use, and womanizing, which resulted in him picking up the nickname "Good Time Charlie". Wilson's checkered past was of no concern to the key decision-makers, because he was self-evidently a man whose positions were correctly aligned with top military brass and defense contractors.

In office, he soon discovered that "Good Time Charlie's War". had not ended with the Soviet departure, rather he had created conditions for a regional instability that would last for generations. But how to keep the party going, whilst avoiding the blame? Unprepared to be the villain of the piece, Wilson leaned upon his experience, grasping the old truism that the group unites behind a common enemy. And so he created a new villain straight out of a comic book - Osama Bin Laden, a fictional bogieman who could endlessly avoid capture and draw the fury of the American people. And even by the time of Wilsons death in 2010, numerous "right hand men" of Bin Laden's would continue to be paraded across the media.

Crazy Heads

Todayinah Editor

In 1939 approval for the fateful decision to bomb Azerbaijan's oil fields was granted by the Prime Minister and his Minister of Naval Forces on this day at British General Headquarters.

Intelligence reports unambiguously confirmed that Stalin's supply of Baku's oil had been transferred to the Nazis in a secret protocol of the Soviet German Pact (pictured). Twenty-five million barrels of oil per year would be sufficient for Hitler's Panzers Division to conquer Europe, and therefore the strike order was transmitted to French Air Forces in Syria without delay. Trouble was, the operation was bungled, and the oil wells and refineries in Baku and the northern Caucasus escaped with minimal damage. Allied military leaders were forced to revert to the inferior Plan B, in which British submarines would seek to prevent the transportation of oil in the Black Sea.

The "the possibilities of bombing and demolition of Baku" were first raised in Paris by the US Ambassador to France, W. Bullitt. The French Government ordered General Gamelen and Admiral Darlan to work out a "plan of possible intervention with the view of destroying Russian oil exploitation". Ambassador Bullit informed US President Franklin D. Roosevelt that Daladye considered that aircraft attacks against Baku would be "the most efficient way to weaken the Soviet Union".

It would prove a costly mistake. In postwar statements, Charles De Gaulle would later claim that "crazy heads that were thinking more of how to destroy Baku than of resisting Berlin". He was right. Forced into the conflict after Pearl Harbour, the US would find itself at war with the combined might of the German-Soviet-Japanese Axis powers.

The New Jerusalem

Todayinah Editor

In 1485 on this day three papal vessels, the Gallega, Pinta and Santa Clara (pictured) departed Palos de la Frontera, setting sail for the New World.

In order to "discover" the Americas, the commander of the fleet, the Templar Cristoforo Colombo was provided with a unique set of navigational aids - his biological father Pope Innocent VIII had granted him access to study ancient texts and maps in the Vatican Library. Because Colombo's mission was to seize the New World gold that was required to finance a fresh wave of Crusades.

Trouble was, Colombo didn't find any gold and duly returned to the Port of Lisbon empty-handed, his mission seemingly a failure.

Surprisingly, the Pope's own father was Jewish and his grandmother was Muslim, and his overarching goal was to reunite all three religions. But when the mission failed, Colombo began his second voyage, with orders to establish a New Jerusalem in the Americas. The sponsorship of the foundation of that city would be recorded for all time at Saint Peter's Basilica with a Latin inscription which simply records "the glory of the discovery of the New World" on the tomb of Pope Innocent VIII.

Ring of Truth

Todayinah Editor

In 2010 the revelation that Downing Street staff had called the National Bullying Helpline forced the Head of the British Civil Service Gus O'Donnell to take the unprecedented step of launching a formal investigation into the misbehaviour of Prime Minister Gordon Brown.

A notorious "shouter", Brown's habit of abusing junior staff by shouting and/or throwing his mobile phone at them had sufficiently concerned O'Donnell that he had issued a formal warning to the Prime Minister. But the scandal had fully emerged with the publication of Andrew Rawnsley's book "End of the Party". Based upon 24 carat sources, the author reveals that Gordon Brown:

Hit a senior aide who got in the way as he rushed to a reception at No10
Physically pulled a secretary out of her chair as he dictated a memo to her
Hurled foul-mouthed abuse at two aides in his hotel room in America in a state of semi-undress after reports that he had been snubbed by President Obama

Less than eight months before, the Speaker of the House of Commons was forced to resign following his handling of the expense claim scandal, becoming only the second person since 1695 to give up the post under pressure.

It was an bad omen for Gordon Brown, and his Labour Government that had been elected in 1997 pledging to uphold the "highest standards of honesty and propriety in public life".

Wizard of Oz

Todayinah Editor

In 1951 on this day Walt Disney Pictures finally released the combination animation / live action movie "Wonderful Wizard of Oz"; the project had suffered a seemingly endless set of delays because America and the other member states of the League of Nations had to deal with Adolf Hitler. And so the invasion of Czechoslovakia prevented the studios from ushering in 1939 as the Golden Year of Hollywood.

Upon Walt Disney's death fifteen years later, his brother Roy renamed Disney World as "Walt Disney World" and commissioned a new tornado-themed ride. This feature, and the later release of a long running video game in the 1980s, ensured that the Wonderful Wizard of Oz would continue to be embbeded in the imagination of young generations for years to come, as Roy and Walt surely intended.

Day of Reckoning

Todayinah Editor

In 1995 on this day the enduring image of "Buchanan's America" was unforgettably seared in the public consciousness when millions of viewers watched the incredible slow motion, nationally televised police chase which ended with the arrest of OJ Simpson by border patrol agents at the San Diego-Brownsville separation barrier.

During the 1988 election, the fortieth President had convinced America that it was necessary to install a hi-tec security fence to curb the flow of illegal immigrants from Mexico. And draconian measures to control illegal aliens had resulted in the largest reverse movement since 1954.

Due to waves of illegal immigration, it was of course a moot point as to whether or not the south-western region was effectively returning to Mexico. Or whether in fact the south-western regional rightfully belonged to Mexico. Contemporary historians were still arguing over the detail of whether Davy Crocket died in the defence of the Alamo, or having surrendered, was brutally executed on Santa Anna's orders.

Ironically, a border designed to prevent northern immigration had trapped a fugitive of justice heading south. And Buchanan's generalisations about brown-skinned individuals now hit a major snag because the alleged criminal was "The Juice" one of American's best-loved celebrities, accused of murdering his former wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend Ronald Goldman in their Los Angeles condominium.

Buchanan might have been forgiven for wishing that Simpson had escaped across the border into Mexico. Because his double murder charge meant no bail and a possible death penalty verdict if convicted because double homicide is a capital offense in California. With a seemingly overwhelming volume of evidence strongly suggesting his guilt, Simpson hired the best criminal defence team money could buy. The country now faced a perculiarly American soul-searching crisis as the vectors of race, justice, power, religion and money converged on a common point.

Touchdown

Todayinah Editor

In 2010 Alexander Meigs Haig, Jr. died in Baltimore on this day aged eight-five; both critics and supports generally agree that he cut the most controversial figure of the Cold War era.

A veteran of both the Korean and Vietnam Wars, he was decorated with the Distinguished Service Cross, the Silver Star with oak leaf cluster and the Purple Heart. Promoted to General, he rose to the number two position in the ranks, Vice Chief of Staff of the Army.

"There are contingency plans in the Nato doctrine to fire a nuclear weapon for demonstrative purposes, to demonstrate to the other side that they are exceeding the limits of toleration in the conventional area"In 1973, he was appointed White House Chief of Staff where he rescued the Administration from the chaos of Watergate, finally convincing Nixon to resign the Presidency. After serving under his successor Gerald Ford, he returned to the army serving as Supreme Allied Commander Europe, commanding all U.S. and NATO forces in Europe.

And in 1981, he was the natural choice for Secretary of State for Ronald Reagan who was keen to appoint a hawkish character of steel; indeed his glittering credentials qualified Haig as the ultimate cold warrier. The trouble was, he was right. Because when Reagan was assassinated just 69 days into his Presidency, Haig's reaction was based on unbending text book Cold War logic.

"The helm is right here. And that means right in this chair for now, constitutionally, until the vice president gets here. Get the football over here"With Reagan dieing on an operating table, and Vice President George Bush uncontactable in an aeroplane over Texas, Haig exceeded his constitutional authority by announcing "I'm in charge here" at a hastily organised press conference. And despite the fact that three Cabinet secretaries were ahead of him in the hierarchy, he also took possession of "the football", the briefcase that travels with the president and contains the codes for launching nuclear missiles.

"I think of him as a patriot's patriot. No matter how you sliced him it came out red, white and blue" ~ George SchultzDuring the succession crisis, the Soviet Union had sent a submarine on a closer approach to US interests than normal. And in the confusion surrounding the assassination, the Soviets unwisely chose to test American resolve. Haig ordered an underwater detonation of a nuclear weapon that would not destroy the submarines, but render its command and control systems unusable, thus forcing it to surface and enter US custody. It was an incredibly bold and infinitely dangerous move that Captain James T. Kirk would have hesitated to call.

Eric Oppen's Murdergate

Todayinah Editor

In 1993 on this day at 4pm government agents deposited the dead body of murdered Deputy White House Counsel Vincent Foster in a woodland area off the George Washington Parkway in Virginia, outside Washington, D.C. But Kenneth Starr's confidential witness Patrick Knowlton clocked their suspicious behaviour as they re-entered a blue-gray sedan motor vehicle before driving out of the small parking lot at Fort Marcy Park.

The Clinton's desperate efforts to cover-up the homicide of the most senior White House Officer since JFK would come to nought. Because Starr's investigations would later reveal a level of government malfeasance unparalled since the tragedy at Dallas almost thirty years before:

The grassy area around the corpse was heavily trampled and yet the victim's shoes were soil-free
Carpet fibres on the body matched those of Hillary Clinton's apartment where she and Foster had conducted an extra-marital affair
White House Staffers seized Fosters papers even before his body was discovered, and broke into his safe

It later emerged that Hillary Clinton had become involved with Foster in covering up the activities that would become famously known as Whitewater and Travelgate. But when the First Lady attempted to break off the affair, Foster went crazy and arrived at her apartment with a gun planning to shoot both lovers. In the fight that ensued, Foster was killed when the firearm accidentally discharged as they grappled on the carpet. It was a dramatic scene that would have enthralled fans of the early eighties soap opera "Dynasty" had it not been so tragic.

Iranian Hostage Crisis

Michael Knight

In 1981 on this day a Air Force VC-137 Stratoliner exploded in a ball of flame shortly after landing at the Rhein-Main Air Base in West Germany. But "Freedom One" was no ordinary commercial aircraft; onboard were the fifty-two American hostages who had been held at the Iranian Embassy for the last 444 days.

Also amongst the long list of fatalities was none other than the thirty-eighth President of the United States, Gerry Ford. Because incoming President Edward M. Kennedy had sent him as an emissary in order to welcome the hostages back into US custody.

Kennedy's predecessor was also a secondary victim of the crisis, albeit an electoral one. The right-wing of the Republican Party put Ford under acute pressure to take action. Protestors in Washington were calling for all Iranians to be expelled from the United States. And so Ford had unwisely authorised two ill-fated mission to rescue the hostages, Operation Eagle Claw and shortly before the election, Operation Credible Sport.

The first attempt, launched at the nadir of the crisis, ended in confusion and embarrassment in the desert due to mechanical problems with the helicopters. And the for the second, which used C130 Hercules transport planes modified with ricket assisted take-off and landing was an unmitigated disaster of the first magnititude. The personal bitterness caused by that second desperate attempt had been so acute, that the hostage-takers had decided to draw Ford into crisis at an even more personal level; in fact, they planned to kill him.
Click to watch documentary.

Back in Washigton, outgoing CIA Director George HW Bush (who sponsored both operations) was in the business of bringing to justice the criminals who had booby-trapped "Freedom One". And finding out precisely how the hostage-takers found out that Kennedy planned to send Ford to meet the hostages in Germany. High on the list of suspects was an Iranian student by the name of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Book of Eli

Todayinah Editor

In 2010 the Hughes' brother's post-apocalyptic movie "The Book of Eli" premiered in cinemas across North America. Set in the year 2043, Academy Award and Golden Globe winning actor Denzel Washington stars as the mysterious travelling crossing America with the last iPod and only copy of the Bible to have survived an apocalyptic event which took place some thirty years earlier.
Click to watch the trailer.

In the original screen play, Eli meets the archetypal "devil in the desert" who seeks the use the "Book of Eli" as a weapon to expand his power base out of the one horse town he runs as Mayor. Carnegie, played by Gary Oldman, succeeds in shooting Eli and seizing the Bible, only to discover it is written in brail and Eli is in fact blind. Nevertheless, Eli manages to reach his sanctuary, where he dictates the Bible to a printer played by Malcolm McDowell, thus enabling the scriptures to be recovered for another generation.

Trouble was that the final scene was leaked during post production and an alternative ending filmed, in which Eli actually dies, but McDowell finds the Bible stored as an audio book on his iPod.

Slick Willy gets his man

Todayinah Editor

In 2010 at a little after seven o'clock in the evening, a rather dejected looking cardiologist appeared on the steps outside the Columbia Campus of New York Presbyterian Hospital with his hands uncharacteristically buried in the pockets of his lab coat. Whilst his body language said it all, Dr Allan Schwartz proceeded to deliver a short, impromptu speech hurriedly prepared for the press, confirming the tragic news that sixty-three year old Bill Clinton had passed away during an emergency heart procedure.

Six years before, a quadruple-bypass operation had been performed, forcing Mr Clinton to resign from office during the final year of his third term¹. The catalist for Mr Clinton's recent ill-health had surely been overexertion resulting from his vigourous attempts to organise humanitarian relief efforts for the people of Haiti.

But it was widely suspected that the underlying cause of the blocked coronary arteries was years of stress and junk food eating during his eleven years in the White House. And surely the pressure of those health disorders had piled up very quickly in the final three years, despite the President's pursuit of leisure activities such as jogging and also horn-blowing.

Because after September 11th the Administration pursued the ultimately successful mission to capture and bring to justice the arch-terrorist Osama Bin Laden. It was a deeply personal goal for Clinton, who was widely seen as having ignored the threat from al-qaeda during his first two terms in office.

Ironically for a politician renowned for his pursuit of women, "Slick Willy" had finally got his man.

Newburgh Conspiracy

Eric Lipps

In 1783 500 officers of the Continental Army of the United States met at Newburgh, New York to decide whether to abandon the fight against the British, now nearly won, and either move out West and "mock" the Continental Congress for its refusal to provide back pay and pensions it had promised or to march on Philadelphia.

The meeting had been called for by two anonymous letters which had appeared on March 10. Originally intended for the following day, it had been delayed four days at the urging of George Washington, ostensibly to allow time for "mature deliberation" on the issues. It would later be suggested that Washington had intended to make a personal appeal to the officers not to go through with either option.

He never did so. On the morning of March 13, the fifty-one-year-old Washington was fund to have died in his sleep sometime during the night, from what is now believed to have been an aortic aneurysm.

The revered general's unexpected death was a body blow to military morale.

Gen. Horatio Gates (pictured) assumed supreme command pending confirmation by Congress, but the officers assembled at Newburgh proved unwilling to listen to his pleas for patience. On March 17, they voted to march against Congress and compel that body to pay at gunpoint what they considered themselves owed, "or take authority unto ourselves to better provide for the needs of the country."

It would prove to be a fateful decision. Although the war with Britain was all but over, offering the foreign foe little opportunity to use the rebellion to salvage victory from defeat, the march on Philadelphia would mark the infant nation from then on. Congress fled to Princeton, New Jersey in mid-April ahead of the advancing rebels, who by this time had gathered the support not only of their own troops but of the Pennsylvania militia. Arriving in the capital, the troops established a provisional government under General Gates's unwilling leadership. Gates had agreed to take the position only in hopes of restoring order and returning authority to Congress; however, he quickly found himself riding a whirlwind of military and civil unrest, to which he responded with steadily harsher measures.

No one, of course, was more pleased with these developments than the British, who exploited the turmoil to extract concessions at the peace negotiations in Paris. The eventual peace treaty would leave Britain with a military presence along the Mississippi River which it would use to promote trouble between frontier settlers and the Native American tribes, force the infant United States to pay crippling indemnities to the tens of thousands of Loyalists who presented claims for wartime property losses, and impose restrictions on U.S. trade and foreign relations "in the interests of maintaining the peace," a veiled threat of renewed military hostilities.

The bitterest legacy of the Newburgh insurrection, however, would be domestic. The revolt established the superiority of military authority over its civilian counterpart--ironically, one of the things listed as grievances against the Crown in the Declaration of Independence. That the military in question was American rather than British did little to soften the blow against the democratic ideals expressed in the Declaration of Independence and the Articles of Confederation. Indeed, the Articles would assist the military in retaining control, for the civilian r?gime created under their provisions was all but powerless. That powerlessness, in fact, had helped set the stage for Newburgh: Congress had had few means of raising the revenue it would have needed to pay the army, a fact the rebels discovered for themselves upon taking control.

By 1790, the once bright promise of American democracy was fading, never to be fully regained. Between domestic unrest, the continued threat of British attacks, and the depredations of pirates and privateers upon U.S. Shipping, the military government had plenty of excuses for crushing political dissent and for squeezing the populace for taxes to pay for national defense. Shortly before his death, Benjamin Franklin, who had been forced to flee to France after being charged with "sedition" for criticizing military rule, observed bitterly: "Better we had remained under a king who at least could claim the authority of tradition, than to submit to men whose power erupts from the muzzle of a gun."

Fork Tonge by Stan Brin

Stan Brin

In 2010 Baroness Tonge (pictured), the former opposition frontbencher and spokeswoman for health, has not responded to press reports that her two attackers have branded her face with Nazi swastikas.

Lady Tonge was removed from her position last week for suggesting that Israeli physicians working in Haiti following last months earthquake, used to opportunity to harvest organs for sale.

"She appears to require a face transplant," a hospital worker said. Lady Tonge is currently in hospital recovering from a massive beating, administered by at least two men. She described them as resembling the actors Quentin Tarantino and Brad Pitt, neither of whom is Jewish. According to the Mail, she may never walk again.

Straw breaks Camel's back

Chris Oakley

In 2015 on this day Conservative Party leader David Cameron, elected as prime minister of Great Britain five years earlier in response to popular disenchantment with the policies of Labour PM Gordon Brown, was forced to resign after a host of political and economic miscalculations that had pushed Britain to the verge of collapse.

On his watch Britain had seen its road and rail transport systems grind to a halt; its international standing plummet after a number of Tehran schoolchildren were killed when a missile went astray during a joint US-UK-Israeli air strike against Iranian nuclear weapons production complexes; five major British retail store chains go bankrupt; public services to Britain's less fortunate citizens slashed to the bone; the BBC, formerly the world's most respected broadcast network, reduced to a shadow of its former glorious self; unemployment pass the 4.5 million mark; the fascist British National Party make unprecedented inroads into Parliament; the House of Commons twice come within a cat's whisker of passing referendums that would have terminated Britain's membership in the European Union by 2016; and Scottish first minister Alex Salmond push for a vote on whether to declare Scotland's independence from the rest of the United Kingdom.

As if all that wasn't enough to undermine British voters' confidence in their prime minister, the British Army was stretched to the breaking point in Afghanistan and Yemen; the neo-Peronista regime in Argentina was actively working to acquire a nuclear bomb and was also rumored to be drafting plans for a new invasion of the Falkland Islands; the National Health Service was being steadily dismantled; and the royal family were virtual prisoners at Buckingham Palace thanks to the almost-daily rioting going on in London and other major cities in the UK as economic and racial tensions worsened.

But the straw that truly broke the camel's back for the Cameron administration came in March of 2015 when two of the UK's largest banks crashed within days of each other, plunging Britain into its worst internal financial crisis since the Great Depression. By early April former PM John Major, in one of his last major public statements before his death, was blasting Cameron for--in Major's words--"pouring petrol on the fires that threaten to burn Great Britain from the pages of history". Even Margaret Thatcher, who had campaigned extensively Cameron's behalf during the 2010 general elections, was going out of her way to distance herself from the incumbent PM.

Anglo-French War 1940-44

Todayinah Editor

In 1940 less than twenty-four hours after 1,297 French sailors perished when a British Royal Navy task force attacked and destroyed much of the French fleet moored at Mers El-Kèbir, the new Chief of State, Admiral François Darlan declared that a state of war existed between Vichy France and Great Britain.

Given that less than eight weeks before, Winston Churchill had proposed a union between the two nations in order to continue the war after the Fall of France, this was an incredible turn of events. But high rhetoric had soon turned to ruthless political expediency when the British began to fear that the French Fleet might fall into German hands. In fact then French Marine Minister Admiral Darlan had provided the British Government with firm guarantees that that this would not happen, ordering the French Fleet to sail for North Africa.

Demonstrating the ruthless brutality that absolutely nothing would stop him from winning the war, Winston Churchill judged that Darlan's guarantee were worthless. Accordingly, he dispatched a written order to the Commander of Force H in Gibraltar, James Somerville charging him "with one of the most disagreeable tasks that a British Admiral has ever been faced with, but we have complete confidence in you and rely on you to carry it out relentlessly". In an embittered response Somerville telegrammed the Admiralty advising that the mission had been acomplished, but the attack was "the biggest political blunder of modern times and will rouse the whole world against us .. we all feel thoroughly ashamed".

Darlan immediately realised that Marshal Petain would let the attack pass without a proportionate response, and swept to power on a fervour of nationalist anger. And for the next two years, he would lead a spirited defence of French Union colonies from British occupation. Such was the level of resolve shown that Churchill was brought to wonder out loud whether such fighting spirit might not have prevented the Fall of France itself. In a sense this was an established fact, because in late May, Maurice Gamelin had been replaced as Supreme Commander by Maurice Weygand who was serving in French Syria.

And yet Churchill's dismissal of Darlan as a turncoat was later to be proven as self-evidently true when the Chief of the French State switched sides and declared war on Nazi Germany in June 1944.

Philadelphia Convention II

Todayinah Editor

In 1866 the second Philadelphia Convention opened on this day under the Chairmanship of Walter Bagehot.

Less than a century before, another English journalist, Thomas Paine had stood at the apex of American political thought. But unlike Paine, Bagehot had never crossed the Atlantic, and perhaps this remoteness provided the broad perspective that enabled him to discern the constitutional issues that lay behind the outbreak of the American Civil War. "It is impossible", he wrote in 1861, "not to observe that the whole mischief has been, not caused but painfully exacerbated by the unfortunate mixture of flexibility and inflexibility in the United States Constitution".

America's stability had depended upon a voluntary union of the states. This was no longer true by the time Andrew Jackson left office. The result was a string of ineffectual Presidencies, because in the absence of broad agreement on issues of which the Constitution was largely silent, notably secession, the Chief Magistrate was simply unable to wield the kind of extra-legal authority envisaged by James Madison et al at the Philadelphia Convention. Quite simply, a sacred document and an unhereditary substitute for an uncrowned king was not a strong enough framework for the US Government.

That was the theory at least, a luxury Bagehot enjoyed whilst he wrote "The English Constitution" in 1865. And then he received the historic invitation from President Abraham Lincoln.

Final Peanuts Strip

Todayinah Editor

In 2000 on this day the American cartoonist Charles Monroe Schulz died in Santa Rosa, California; he was best known worldwide for his "Peanuts" comic strip which he had run for five decades without interruption, appearing in more than 2,600 newspapers in 75 countries.

It was originally planned that the strip would outlive him, but due to a stroke the previous December he had been unable to continue producing it. Nevertheless, the day after he died a final edition was published in which Charlie Brown finally got to kick that football after so many decades. "Good shot, Charlie Brown!" says Franklin in the final frame.

"I felt like Franklin from The Charlie Brown Show. You've seen Franklin for 25 years and not one line! Nothing. Twenty five years!" ~ Chris RockSchultz original response to the suggestion had been dismissive "Oh, no! Definitely not! I couldn't have Charlie Brown kick that football; that would be a terrible disservice to him after nearly half a century." Yet, in a December 1999 interview, holding back tears, he recounted the moment when he signed the panel of his final strip, saying, "All of a sudden I thought, You know, that poor, poor kid, he never even got to kick the football. What a dirty trick - he never had a chance to kick the football".

Dickens Lost Carol

Todayinah Editor

In 2009 on this day the recently discovered manuscript of "A Christmas Carol" was housed at the Morgan Library and Museum in Manhattan; for the first time members of the public could study the previously unpublished additions and subtractions made some time during 1843 by the author Charles Dickens.
Click to watch the 1970 Movie Scene

For over one hundred and fifty years, Dicken's novels have been if not enjoyed for their lengthy prose, then at least respected for their chilling insight into the poverty and moral bankcruptcy of the Victorian era. And yet the rewrite of "A Christmas Carol" reveals that at the very end of his life, Dickens, like his protagonist Scrooge experienced a religious awakening that enabled him to "begin again". Because the additions to the text reveal the thoughts of a Christian believer, rather than those of an angry and frustrated social reformer.

"I will make quite certain that the story ends on a note of hope, on a strong amen"For example page 37 describes a moment when Scrooge hears Bob Cratchit report that the sickly Tiny Tim (pictured) is "growing strong and hearty". Initially, Dickens had Scrooge demand: "Is that so, Spirit?" only to be disabused of that notion by the Ghost of Christmas Present. "The child will die" the spirit advises him. The published version is silent on whether Tiny Tim lives. But in the new manuscript, a line was curiously inserted on page 65 noting that "and to Tiny Tim, who did not die, he was a second father".

The manuscrupt was discovered at 225 Madison Avenue, confirming that Dickens authored the rewrite during his final visit to New York where he died of tuberculosis from visiting the City's slums. His description of the atrocities of slavery in the contemperaneous novel Martin Chuzzlewit perhaps give some insight into his moment of revelation, perhaps providing a broader view of the nature of human suffering into a distinctly Christian context.

Escalation Dominance

Todayinah Editor

In 2010 just twenty-four hours after Secretary of Defence Robert Gates resigned in protest at the political decision to bomb sixteen suspected nuclear sites in Iran, the US Air Force launched the first waves of airstrikes at Natanz, Arak and Bushehr. Over a thousand strike sorties would be flown during the next week, with precision guided bunker busting bombs dropped from aircraft launched from a number of military bases in the Middle East, including Israel.

The outcome was the inevitable result of four decades of confused American foreign policy, starting with the decision to promise the Shah of Iran nuclear technology in the nineteen seventies. After the revolution, diplomacy ceased. And a moment of opportunity to drive a "grand bargain" with Iran passed up after September 11th. US hopes of the Presidental election of the moderate Akbar Rafsanjani (who was promising to curb the powers of the mullahs) were swept away with the election of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Also missed was the historic opportunity of America choosing the sound judgement of a calm individual with a middle name of "Hussein".

"Could we do it? Sure. Could we manage the aftermath? I doubt it." ~ Anonymous Source, DoDAnd perhaps a skilled crisis manager such as Kennedy would have had the genius to avoid the impending confrontation with Iran. But in Bush, and his successor McCain, America had two "deciders" that were very easily baited by Ahmadinejad, who certainly held the stronger hand of cards. Because in policy-wonk terms, the Iranian leadership had "escalation dominance", and it was even suspected, were inviting an attack to focus domestic opinion on the external threat of the "Great Satan" rather than the deteriorating state of the economy.

Nonetheless McCain was correct in his judgement that the National Intelligence Estimate rightly acknowledged the possible existence of a Persian Bomb. But he was quite wrong to believe that the bombings had postponed the Iranian capability until 2015.

At 2.30pm EST, the threat level of the Homeland Security Advisory System was suddenly escalated to "severe threat". As the President and his advisors hurried to an underground basement, a huge explosion obliterated the White House. Silence was followed by the unmistakeable sound of screaming from below the rubble. Not so John McCain, an unbreakably tough individual that had seen it all. Instead, he yelled. And yelled. And yelled.

Death of John Murtha

Eric Lipps

In 2010 the New York Times ran the following obituary for Rep. John Murtha (D-PA): HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) -- Rep. John Murtha, the tall, gruff-mannered former Marine who became the de facto voice of veterans on Capitol Hill and later an outspoken and influential supporter of the Iraq War, died Monday following complications from gallbladder surgery. He was 77.

Rep. Bob Brady, a longtime friend, said the late congressman's large intestine was damaged during surgery and an infection led him to be hospitalized with a fever.

"There will never be another Jack Murtha," Brady said. "He went out on top of his game."

The Pennsylvania Democrat died at Virginia Hospital Center in Arlington, Va., where he was admitted on Jan. 31. The gallbladder surgery was performed days earlier at the National Naval Medical Center, in Bethesda, Md., which didn't immediately return messages seeking comment.

In 1974, Murtha, then an officer in the Marine Reserves, became the first Vietnam War combat veteran elected to Congress. Ethical questions often shadowed his congressional service, but he was best known for being among Congress' most hawkish Democrats. He wielded considerable clout for two decades as the ranking Democrat on the House subcommittee that oversees Pentagon spending.

Murtha voted in 2002 to authorize President George W. Bush to use military force in Iraq. His growing frustration with the Bush administration's handling of the war, however, prompted him in November 2005 to insist that the administration either "get serious' about the conflict or "bring our folks home."

"The war in Iraq is not going as advertised. It is a flawed policy wrapped in illusion," he said. "It's time for the President to decide whether he wants to win this fight or not. If he does, we need a new and more effective strategy; the administration should realize that we cannot win on the cheap, or with too few troops on the ground, and should commit himself to sending as many additional troops as may be needed." Murtha noted that Bush's military advisers had initially recommended sending in as many as 300,000 troops to successfully pacify Iraq, but that Bush had chosen to send in roughly half that number because he reportedly believed the Iraqi army would quickly fold and that there would be no significant resistance thereafter. "Clearly," he observed, "that was mistaken." Murtha's words were the first full articulation of the call for what came to be known as the "surge" in Iraq.

Murtha's call for an increase in troops for the Iraq war rattled Washington, where he enjoyed bipartisan respect for his work on military issues. His fellow Democrats, in particular, were upset at this break with the party's growing antiwar consensus on the part of a congressman widely seen as speaking for those in uniform when it came to military matters.

Murtha "was the first Vietnam veteran to serve in Congress, and he was incredibly effective in his service in the House," said Rep. David Obey, a Democrat and chairman of the House Appropriations Committee. "He understood the misery of war. Every person who serves in the military has lost an advocate and a good friend today."

Murtha was known in his home state for helping bring money and projects to areas depressed by the decline of the coal and steel industries, "a steadfast advocate for the people of Pennsylvania for nearly 40 years" with a "tough-as-nails" reputation.

Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, remembered Murtha as a tireless advocate for veterans and the military.

"From health care to weapons procurement, from shipbuilding to pay and benefits, no one understood the needs of our modern military better than he did," Mullen said in a statement.

"That we remain the greatest military in the history of world is testament in no small part to his vigilance and stewardship," he said.

Known for his seriousness, Murtha also had a lighter side. Gov. Ed Rendell recalled Monday that "he was a funny guy, he always enjoyed a good laugh and he was somebody who was a great and loyal friend."

Rendell said Monday that he has not decided when to schedule a special election to replace Murtha. He has 10 days by law; the political parties must come up with their own candidates. The governor said that it would save taxpayer money to hold the election on May 18, the state's planned primary date, but that he might set it sooner in the event of urgent congressional issues.

Murtha was born June 17, 1932. The former newspaper delivery boy left college in 1952 to join the Marines, where he rose through the ranks to become a drill instructor at Parris Island, S.C., and later served in the 2nd Marine Division. He settled in Johnstown, then volunteered for Vietnam, where he served as an intelligence officer and earned a Bronze Star and two Purple Hearts.

He was serving in the Pennsylvania House in Harrisburg when he was elected to Congress in a special election in 1974. In 1990, he retired from the Marine Reserves as a colonel. "Ever since I was a young boy, I had two goals in life -- I wanted to be a colonel in the Marine Corps and a member of Congress," Murtha wrote in his 2004 book, "From Vietnam to 9/11."

Murtha's defense of the Iraq war extended to the troops. When in 2006 Marines were accused of murdering Iraqi civilians "in cold blood" at Haditha after one Marine died and two were wounded by a roadside bomb, the Congressman was among their most vocal supporters, demanding that what he called "reckless charges' against the troops in question be dismissed. Critics said Murtha ignored evidence of misconduct in his zeal to protect fellow soldiers. He said that the accusations were unfair and helped fuel Iraqi hostility to U.S. forces.

"This is the kind of war you have to win the hearts and minds of the people," Murtha said. "And we're set back every time something like this happens."

As the Iraq war became increasingly unpopular within the Democratic Party, speculation mounted that Murtha might switch to the GOP. Whenever asked, however, he denied any intention to do so. "My constituents elected me as a Democrat, knowing my political views," he said in a January 2007 interview. "To cross the aisle now would be a slap in the face to those who voted for me in the primary." That statement were widely seen as a shot at Connecticut Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman, who in 2006 was defeated in his state's Democratic primary and who won re-election as an independent after receiving the open support of the national Republican Party, which essentially abandoned its own nominee in Lieberman's favor.

Murtha was a perennial target of critics of so-called pay-to-play politics. He routinely drew the attention of ethical watchdogs with off-the-floor activities, from his entanglement in the Abscam corruption probe three decades ago to the more recent scrutiny of the connection between special-interest spending known as earmarks and the raising of cash for campaigns.

Murtha defended the practice of earmarking. The money, he said, benefited his constituents.

He became chairman of the House Appropriations defense subcommittee in 1989.

Murtha's critics recall the Abscam corruption probe, in which the FBI caught him on videotape in a 1980 sting operation turning down a $50,000 bribe offer while holding out the possibility that he might take money in the future.

"We do business for a while, maybe I'll be interested and maybe I won't," Murtha said on the tape.

Six congressmen and one senator were convicted in that case. Murtha was not charged, but the government named him as an unindicted co-conspirator and he testified against two other congressmen.

Murtha's district encompasses all or part of nine counties in southwestern Pennsylvania and embodies the region's stereotypes of coal mines, steel mills and blue-collar values.

State Sen. Don White, an Army veteran and a Republican who represents a portion of Murtha's district, said he and Murtha were longtime friends, despite belonging to opposing parties and serving in different branches of the military.

"He made sure that Washington, D.C., knew where Johnstown, Indiana, Kittanning and a lot of other sites in western Pennsylvania were located," White said.

Survivors include his wife of nearly 55 years, Joyce, and three children.

The McCain Moment

Todayinah Editor

In 2010 on this day US President John S. McCain was presented with a 140-page National Intelligence Estimate (NIE). The report, which represented the consensual view of all sixteen American intelligence agencies, concluded with a "moderate level of confidence" that the Great Nation of Iran would be fully equipped with an operational "Persian Bomb" by the end of the year.

Despite his predecessor's State of the Union address stigmatising Iran within the "axis of evil", it was widely acknowledged that the nuclear technology had in fact originated from Pakistan, a putative ally in the "war on terror". But regardless of the fact that the late Prime Minister Benezir Bhutto had failed to prevent the Pakistani nuclear engineer A.Q. Khan shipping advanced weapons designs to Tehran, the reality was that the US now faced "the McCain moment". That phrase had been coined during the 2008 Presidential campaign when the then Senator said "There is only one thing worse than the United States exercising a military option. That is a nuclear-armed Iran".

"There is only one thing worse than the United States exercising a military option. That is a nuclear-armed Iran" ~ McCainThe possibility that a nuclear device, piggy-backed on a Shahab-4 missile would be used to "wipe the State of Israel off the map" was of course the worst case scenario. As far back as 2007, the option that Israel itself took pre-emptive action to destroy the Iranian nuclear technology had been taken off the table. In fact Washington analysts doubted that US, let alone Israel, could destroy all sixteen sites where research was being conducted. And then there was the "moderate" confidence level of the NIE itself, produced by the same agencies whose misintelligence had judged that Iraq had a WMD programme in 2003 based on the faulty logic that there was no contrary evidence to show the programme had stopped. And the decision to proceed with a pre-emptive strike was now in the hands of McCain. A faulty decision-maker who had unwisely decided to continue with his bombing run of Hanoi, disregarding a warning tone that an enemy SAM battery had locked onto him.

Ugly Rumours

Todayinah Editor

In 2010 the impossibly squeaky clean music icon Tony Blair appeared in court on this day to deny charges that his rock and roll band "Ugly Rumours" had falsely accounted for their recent world wide tour with country and western singer George W. Bush.

The allegations first surfaced over disputed ticket receipt sales following their "mother of all concerts" in Baghdad which had bombed. And yet Blair's background was anything but controversial. Much like Dubya, his choice of career was a source of immense disappointment to his well-healed parents.

After a private education at Durham's Chorister School, he had boarded at the exclusive Fettes College in Edinburgh where he modelled himself on Mick Jagger. After Fettes, Blair spent a year in London, where he attempted to find fame as a rock music promoter. He was then encouraged to read jurisprudence at St John's College, Oxford, but instead spent his undergraduate days playing guitar and singing with the rock band, Ugly Rumours.

No Substitute for Victory

Todayinah Editor

In 1951 under immense pressure with Communists smashing across much of the Korean front, President Douglas MacArthur announced his proposals for a major spring counter-offensive at the US Congress on this day.

Familiar with the characteristic belligerency of "Old Brass Hat", members of the House of Representatives were still shocked to hear the proposed reintroduction of Chiang Kai-shek's Formosan forces into the fighting. But the former General's plans went further then opening a second front on the Chinese mainland, much further. Because MacArthur was seeking authorisation to expand the war to China by bombing bases in Manchuria, if necessary, perhaps with nuclear weapons (thirty to fifty was the number he actually had in mind).

"[Korea has] snapped his brilliant but brittle mind" ~ TrumanCritics of the administration alleged that the architect of this escalation was of course none other that MacArthur himself. He had chosen to expand the war aims from the liberation of South Korean to unifying the peninsula. When US forces crossed the 38th parallel and advanced toward the Yalu River, the border with China, despite warnings from Beijing, MacArthur dismissed the danger of Chinese intervention and predicted quick victory. But China intervened massively in late November, pushing the US forces back to the 38th parallel and beyond.

Despite the fact that MacArthur was exaggerating the Communist Chinese threat to overrun South Korea, he replaced military logic with patriotic emotion - "there was no substitute for victory" he said. And now less than five years after the Pacific War had been ended with the use of nuclear weapons, US politicians realised there were staring down the thin end of the wedge. The United States Senator for Missouri Harry S. Truman called for impeachment, declared that the Korean Conflict had "snapped his brilliant but brittle mind".

Two Chinas

Todayinah Editor

In 1949 on this day in the north-eastern city of Changchun, the Chairman of the Communist Party Mao Tse-tung (pictured) proclaimed the People's Republic of China. Whilst the partition was a devastating setback for the Nationalist Government in Peking, responsibility for the reversal lay not with General Chiang Kai-shek himself but rather with his American allies who had struggled to grasp the full context of the conflict.

The Soviet Union had invaded Manchuria (and later Hokkaido) to defeat the Japanese, and this intervention provided a security buffer for the Chinese Communists. When the Soviets withdrew, Kai-shek's second "Northern Expedition" had been on the brink of victory. Having advanced into the outskirts of the city of Harbin, the Nationalists were on the verge of seizing the security key to the North.

Instead the "loss of north-eastern China" like so many setbacks for the country was entirely due to foreign meddling in the form of the unwelcome intervention of US Secretary of State George C. Marshall. Alarmed at the prospect of World War Three breaking out should the Soviet's intervene, he had convinced Chiang Kai-shek to agree to a ceasefire.

Marshall's actions might have headed off World World Three, but they created a conundrem for the United States. And the problem of "two Chinas" would vex American foreign policy until the mid nineteen seventies when both of the principles would die within a year of each other. By then Manchuria had been devastated by Mao's programmes which included the Great Leap Forward and also the Cultural Revolution. His successors would be forced to flee to Hokkaido, seeking refuge with the Communist Government of North Japan.

Kirishitani

Eric Lipps

In 1999 Hideko Cardinal Tokugawa of Kyoto presided over a Christmas celebration of nearly one million Japanese Catholics.

Christianity had been introduced into Japan in the sixteenth century. The shogun Oda Nobunaga (pictured), in particular, had embraced the new faith, both for the technologies its missionaries brought with them, which included firearms, and as a political tool against Buddhism. Although Nobunaga never converted to Christianity, he allowed Christians to proselytize and permitted the construction of the first Catholic church in Kyoto in 1576, on the site of the present Watanabe Cathedral.

After his death, some powerful Japanese came to view Christianity not as beneficial but as a threat to the state, and pressed for its restriction or even outright banning. Among them would be Toyotomi Hideyoshi, responsible for the Feb. 5, 1597 massacre of twenty-seven Christians at Nagasaki and a vocal proponent of laws restricting not only Christianity but all contact with the West. Support for such "seclusion laws" remained limited, however, and although some restrictions were imposed beginning in 1614, the Nobunaga Shogunate would lift them four decades later under Oda's great-grandson Toyo Nobunaga. By the end of the Nobunaga shogunate in the late nineteenth century, there would be twenty million Christians in the island nation. At the close of the twentieth, the number would have risen to forty million.

Going Ballistic

Todayinah Editor

In 1944 on this day Great Britain was strucked by the first V-1 bomb-laden rockets; over eighteen thousand would be launched by September 8th, only half of which would be intercepted. Because ever since the cancellation of the Normandy invasion, the war had unexpectedly developed in a new and frightening direction.

The pioneer of controlled, liquid-fueled rocketry, Robert H. Goddard had recently arrived in Britain. Despite being one of the foremost rocket experimenters of his day, his work had been largely derided in the United States. The US Army had incorrectly determined that it was of no military application at all.

But now an alarming capability gap had emerged through the successful delivery of the Nazi programme led by Wernher von Braun. In fact, the Nazis had benefitted from the actions of a German spy who had secretly reported Goddard's work back to von Braun. An accredited military attache to the US, Friedrich von Boetticher, sent a four-page report in 1936, and the spy Gustav Guellich sent a mixture of facts and made-up information, claiming to have witnessed a launch.

Worse still, the Soviet NKVD also had a spy in the U.S. Navy Bureau of Aeronautics. In 1935 she gave them a report Goddard had written for the Navy in 1933. It contained results of tests and flights and suggestions for military uses of his rockets. The NKVD considered this to be very valuable information. It provided few design details, but gave the Soviets the direction and progress of Goddard's work.

That his work had been stolen became crystal clear to Goddard when he first saw the remnants of the German V-2 ballistic missile. The terrifying possibility of a new scenario emerged, in which the climax of the Second World War would be fought not be conventional armies, but by an exchange of superweapons developed by the likes of Goddard and Von Braun.

Unity of Humanity

Todayinah Editor

In 1950 on this day the struggle for racial justice in South Africa escalated into a state of national emergency when the "Great Teacher" Mohandas K. Gandhi began a fast-unto-death to protest the passage of the Group Areas Act.

This Act of Parliament was the thin end of the wedge, just the first of a package of measures upon which the National Party had won the 1948 general elections, sweeping away the old order symbolised by Prime Minister Jan Smuts. Rigid separation would be enforced and those who worked in other areas would have to carry documentation at all times. The intention was that racial groups would be assigned to different residential and business sections in urban areas. Those four groups comprised whites, coloureds of mixed race, Asiatics and Bantus; the latter being the indigenous Africans who represented 70% of the native population who were themselves subdived into two groups.

Yet Gandhi had an altogether different vision, the unity of humanity under one God. Since his arrival in 1893 as a young man of twenty-four, Gandhi preached not only his own Hindu ethics, but also Christian and Muslim ideas throughout South Africa. His bold decision to fast-until-death would internationalise the actions of the South African Government. And inspire a twenty-two year old man from the Transkei; his name was Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela.

Abdication Crisis avoided

Todayinah Editor

In 1936 upon the death of George V his eldest son Edward ascended to the throne as Emperor of India and King of the United Kingdom and the British dominions.

Edward had held successively the titles of Prince Edward of York, Prince Edward of Cornwall and York, Duke of Cornwall and Rothesay, and Prince of Wales. As a young man, he served in World War I, undertook several foreign tours on behalf of his father, George V, and was associated with a succession of older, married women. The most recent example of the King's womanising was an affair with the American divorcée Wallis Simpson.

Members of the establishment and the royal house were horrified to discover that Edward was planning to break royal protocol by watching the proclamation of his own accession to the throne from a window in the company of the then still-married Mrs. Simpson. Fortunately for all concerned, he was disuaded from this course of action. Several months later the issue re-emerged when Edward declared that he intended to marry Wallis. However, due to her age it was improbable that such a union would bear children, and Edward was convinced to continue the relationship in semi-secrecy.

The significance of these events would only become apparent three years later. Because Edward VIII turned out to be just the right man for the hour, helping to lead the British people through the continental crisis with a calm fortitude that gained him their love and respect. Due in no small part to his excellent relationship with the German Government, the monarch had succeeded where elected politicians might fail, by ensuring that it would be "peace in our time".

US/UK Ties Cut

Eric Lipps

In 1917 President Woodrow Wilson severed diplomatic relations with Great Britain.

Following the outbreak of war in Europe in August 1914, pitting Britain, France, Italy, Russia and Japan against Germany, Austria-Hungary and Japan, Britain had instituted a policy of interdicting neutral shipping to the Continent to choke off trade with its foes. This had led to repeated seizures of U.S. merchant vessels on the high seas, actions denounced in steadily stronger terms by the President, Secretary of State William Jennings Bryan, and a number of influential Midwestern newspapers.

The President did have a strong pro-British adviser, Col. Edward M. House, who had declined a Cabinet position but remained so close to Wilson that he was provided White House living quarters. However, in April 1915 House died unexpectedly in a traffic accident. With his influence absent, Wilson gravitated toward an "a plague on both your houses" attitude regarding the European conflict, condemning Germany - especially after the May 7, 1915 sinking of the passenger liner Lusitania - for its policy of unrestricted submarine warfare while growing increasingly hostile to the British as well over their refusal to cease what he considered "piracy" against American shipping.

In his communication to the British ambassador, Sir Cecil Spring-Rice, informing him of the break in relations, Wilson insisted that he did not intend to join Germany's side in the war. "America," he informed Spring-Rice, "has no interest in becoming a combatant in the present conflict. She wishes only to maintain her neutrality unharassed by either side. Your nation's refusal to honor this desire is the cause of the present break." Challenged by the ambassador as to why he has not also severed relations with Germany, Wilson responded, "Be assured, sir, that your German counterpart shall be hearing from me as you have done".

Wilson proved as good as his word. A week later, on Feb. 10, 1917, Wilson severed relations with Imperial Germany as well, citing that country's submarine warfare practices as well as his desire to remain "a genuine neutral in a conflict to which the United States is not, and does not wish to become, a party".

The United States remained neutral until the European war ended in March 1919 in what came to be called the "peace of exhaustion." At that point, the idealistic Wilson saw an opportunity to guarantee a lasting peace through a set of proposals which included a policy of "self-determination" for small nations such as Serbia, whose nationalist aspirations had helped ignite the conflict, and the creation of a "league of nations" to arbitrate among countries. However, his determined non-involvement in the war, popular as it had proven at home, had left him with no leverage in Europe. As a result, his audacious "Fourteen Points" went nowhere. Europe at the dawn of the 1920s would be a darkened version of its 1914 self, with Britain and France enriched at Germany"s expense, Russia in the throes of civil war following its 1917 Bolshevik revolution and a bankrupt Italy teetering on the edge of anarchy, while from across the Atlantic the U.S. played spectator.

Franz Ferdinand abdicates

Scott Palter

In 1923 on this day in alternate history the Austrian Emperor Franz Ferdinand abdicated.

His attempt to bridge the divisions between the ruling Germans in Austria and the various Slavs and other nationalities resulted in first constitutional gridlock from 1917 onwards [Hungarian secession took place at the same time, followed by a nasty war of devolution as Croatia broke free with help from Austro-German Frei Korps under the patronage of the Papacy; this caused Franz Ferdinard to lose the title King of Hungary but keep that of Duke of Croatia] and finally reached civil war in the Kingdom of Bohemia over competing claims of Sudeten Germans and Czechs. Faced with civil war between competing ethnic militias in every major city of the realm the army intervened to restore order under the banner of his brother Charles. Franz Fredinand left for exile in Portugal leaving Charles to sort out the mess. Charles was negotiating with the Polish and Czech national committees but war with Italy threatened over Istria. In his last speech Franz Ferdinand morbidly commented that history would have thought better of him had the botched 1914 assassination attempt in Bosnia killed him.

Mount Rushmore gets the nod

Todayinah Editor

In 1925 the US Congress authorized the Mount Rushmore National Memorial Commission on this day. Three hundred and fifty local miners and quarrymen began work in 1927, taking a staggering fourteen years to complete this vast project.

The originator of the idea was the historian Doane Robinson whose simple purpose was to promote tourism in South Dakota. Robinson persuaded sculptor Gutzon Borglum (pictured) to travel to the Black Hills region to ensure that the carving could be accomplished. Borglum had been involved in sculpting the Confederate Memorial Carving, a massive bas-relief memorial to Confederate leaders on Stone Mountain in Georgia. He chose the grand location of Mount Rushmore because it faced southeast and enjoyed maximum exposure to the sun.

The result was a towering monument to the rich ethnicity of the United States. Because although Borglum owned the artistic vision, the choice of carvings was very much down to President Charles Curtis, himself of Native American heritage being part Kaw. He insisted that Washington, Douglass and Lincoln were juxtaposed by Samoset of the Permaquid tribe and Squanto of the Pawtuxet tribes. Which was only fitting because the Pilgrim fathers gave those two most famous of Americans credit for their very survival during the first two winters at Plymouth Colony, a historical fact recognised by the first deliverance day, first celebrated at Thanksgiving Colony in the brave year 1621.

Freedom from Fear and Want

Todayinah Editor

In 1945 the twenty-third "Sunrise" Infantry Division of the Imperial Japanese Army liberated the Gila River Internment Camp in Arizona on this day. One of the internees was thirteen year old Noriyuki "Pat" Morita (pictured), later to become one of the iconic Japanese American actors of the second half of the twentieth century.
Click to watch the Pat Morita Interview

Forced into a lengthy sentence behind barbed wire in crowded, primitive camps, Japanese Americans such as Morita had been deprived of the very liberties set out by the Atlantic Charter, namely "freedom from fear and want". Because nearly 120,000 people living on the West Coast had been hurried out of their homes and relieved of their possessions and businesses at less than forty hours notice (of the 127,000 Japanese Americans living in the continental United States at the time of the Pearl Harbor attack, 112,000 resided on the West Coast and of those 80,000 were born in the United States and holding American citizenship).

And at their subsequent trials, incarcerated liberal politicians such as Earl Warren and Fiorello La Guardia confessed their shame at this mass violation of civil liberties which was rivaled only by the systematic segregation of African-Americans. That remorse was only matched by the military planners of the United States Joint Army and Navy Board; disasterously, their War Plan Orange had failed to anticipate the role of submarines and naval aviation in the Pacific Theatre.

Letting off Steam

Todayinah Editor

In 2010 Hugo Chavez accused the United States of accidentally inducing a powerful earthquake off the shore of Haiti as part of its clandestine and increasingly desperate attempts to reduce the temperature of the Earth's core. The accusations gained further credence when less than a fortnight later, John S. McCain unveiled a $4tn federal budget under which the US deficit would spiral to a record $1.75tn.

Over $250bn of funds earmarked for sending US astronauts back to the Moon had already been diverted to the HAARP facility located in Gakuna, Alaska, a project being personally overseen by Vice President Sarah Palin.

After receiving the nomination from the Republican Party, McCain had been informed that neutrinos from a massive solar flare were acting as microwave radiation, causing the temperature of the Earth's core to increase rapidly. Demanding "straight talk" from American geologists, a bold plan was presented, to trigger earthquakes in an attempt to let off steam from the Earth's core. At the heart of the project was a HAARP, an ionospheric research facility jointly funded by the US Air Force, the US Navy, the University of Alaska, and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, capable of initiating anything, from earthquakes to rain, to draught.

Burning Bush

Todayinah Editor

In 2003 on this day US President Jeb Bush set a forty-eight hour deadline for Saddam Hussein and his two sons Uday and Qusay to surrender and leave Iraq. Instead, they invoke the Samson option, so-called from the biblical character who broke the pillars supporting the roof of the temple of Dagon to bring it crashing down upon the heads of his enemies as well as himself.

The long-running conflict between the two nations developed into a dynastic struggle ten years earlier. Because in April 1993, seventeen people triggered a car bomb that killed former President George H.W. Bush during a visit to Kuwait to commemorate the coalition's victory over Iraq in the Gulf War. Through interviews with the suspects and examinations of the bomb's circuitry and wiring, the FBI established that the plot had been directed by the Iraqi Intelligence Service. A Kuwaiti court later convicted all but one of the defendants.

"We need to get Saddam Hussein .. that Motherf***er that took out our Dad" ~ Jeb's brother DubyaThe prospect that America would soon elect Bush's vengeful son appeared remote in the extreme. Admittedly his 1994 election as Governor of Floria was due in part to his martyred father, a campaign boost which had neutralised a social security scandal threatening his candidacy. But more importantly, transformative historical processes were underway. After Clinton resigned in disgrace, Al Gore's ineffectual performance had discredited his own campaign platform. John McCain's 2000 campaign fell apart. And Bush Senior's team rallied around Jeb creating a credible government in waiting.

Three years later, and with coalition forces massed on the border poised to strike, the elite Republican Guard units were equipped with protection against chemical weapons. The only question now was whether Saddam would delay using his doomsday weapons until the coalition forces penetrated the sprawling outer suburbs of Baghdad. Committed to respond to a CBW attack with the use of nuclear weapons, such a dastardly approach would eliminate the use of battlefield missiles. Because then Bush would be called upon to authorise the nuclear bombing of Baghdad.

Avatar 2

Todayinah Editor

In 2012 on this day James Cameron's long anticipated, blockbuster movie Avatar 2 premiered in cinemas across North America.

Set in 2175, twenty five years have passed, and whilst many things have changed, some have not. Because stocks of the rare mineral unobtanium (valued at $20m per kilo) are running low back on Earth, an ultra republican US President (played by Will Ferrell) orders a re-establishment of the RDA Mining Operation on Pandora. The surprising application of unobtanium is also revealed at this time. However, on the return voyage, unobtanium is also discovered on the moons of Polyphemus and the Alpha Centauri A solar system. This peaceful outcome is of course a huge disappointment to Colonel Miles Quarich (reprised by Stephen Lang) who is out for revenge having been reanimated from DNA ("Its not over whilst I'm breathing!") after his untimely death from two poisoned Na'vi arrows to the chest.

Ironically, the Na'vi are now desirous of a such re-engagement because lacking advanced medical technology they are unable to defeat a slow-acting virus introduced during mankind's first visit. In desperation, Jake Sculley (pictured) travels to the interior of the planet to seek a cure. To add depth to the drama, flashbacks are shown - including the related events that led to Sculley's disabling injury, and the death of his brother Tommy (and by exploring the President's complicity we discover that Jake's arrival on Pandora was no accident at all).

In a dramatic final scene, Jake appeals to the mother goddess Eywa to re-animate his human body and find a cure for the Na'vi. The stage is thus set for the third movie expected before 2015.

Stop the War

Todayinah Editor

In 2001 on this day in Committee Room Fourteen at the Palace of Westminister, backbenchers learnt the results of the first round of the Tory Leadership ballot.

The grassroots of the party favoured Iain Duncan Smith, a retired British Army Captain of the Scots Guard Regiment. Trouble was the party members in the country only got to choose between two candidates in the final round. And due to the casting of a single ballot by just one member of parliament, Smith had been edged into third place by Michael Portillo, 54 votes to 53. Portillo himself would be defeated by Middle England's favourite jazz fan, Ken Clarke; it would be the first time a populist politician had occupied the Tory leadership in three decades.

Clarke officially became the leader of Her Majesty's Opposition on 18th September 2001, exactly one week after the attack on the World Trade Centre. And seeking to justify British participation in the war on terror across the chamber of the House of Commons, Prime Minister Tony Blair would have to face down a cigar-smoking, suede-shoe-wearing pacifist. The rather different figure cut by Smith, a bolt upright former soldier who had seen service from Rhodesia to Northern Ireland would be consigned to the backbenches, where his bipartisan support for the government would be drowned out by Clarke's bold, outspoken leadership. Because Clarke would soon appear in public with another outspoken critic of US-UK belligerency, French President Jacques Chirac as well as joining the "Stop the War" march in February 2003 (still finding time to sneak off with playwright Harold Pinter for a pint and a smoke).

The "Stop the War" party were unaware that Britain was under no obligation to pay a "blood price". Books written by the journalist Bob Woodward would later reveal that Blair was repeatedly told by Bush that he did not have to commit troops. And due to the public outcry fuelled by Clarke, Iraq would follow the model of Vietnam, were Britain supported the United States but took no active part in the hostilities.

Needless to say, Prime Ministerial credibility was utterly destroyed by the whole miserable affair, and "Bliar" would be roundly defeated in the general election on 5th May 2005. But two months later on 7th July, a series of coordinated suicide attack struck London's public transport system. Fifty-six people were killed, including the bombers, and around 700 were injured. And the British people discovered that democratic processes, even idiosyncratic ones, were one thing, but the hand of destiny was quite another. Votes could not stop the war. And as Blair had accurately predicted, the war on terror had come to Britain after all.

Salinger Obituary

Gerry Shannon

In 2010 J.D. Salinger, who created a lasting symbol of adolescent discontent in his 1951 novel The Catcher in the Rye, has died. He was 91. J.D. Salinger, who wrote The Catcher in the Rye, and it's sequel, Holden Meets Hollywood, along with four volumes of short stories, was published for the last time in 1995. "There is a marvelous peace in not publishing", he said in 1974, in the midst of a thirty year gap in publication.

"Publishing is a terrible invasion of my privacy". The famously reclusive writer died of natural causes Wednesday at his home in Cornish, N.H., his son, Matthew, said in a statement released by the author's literary representative.

Jerome David Salinger was born Jan. 1, 1919, in New York City. His father was a wealthy importer of cheeses and meat, and the family lived for years on Park Avenue.

Like Holden, Mr. Salinger was an indifferent student with a history of trouble in various schools. He was sent to Valley Forge Military Academy at age 15, where he wrote at night by flashlight beneath the covers and eventually earned his only diploma. In 1940, he published his first fiction, The Young Folks, in Story magazine.

He joined the Army in 1942 and carried a typewriter with him most of the time, writing "whenever I can find the time and an unoccupied foxhole," he told a friend. In 1944, he landed with the 4th Infantry Division at Normandy on D-Day and later took part in the Battle of the Bulge.

Returning to New York after the war, the lean, dark-haired writer pursued an intense study of Zen Buddhism but also cut a gregarious figure in the bars of Greenwich Village, where he astonished acquaintances with his proficiency in rounding up dates.

Then, in 1951, came The Catcher in the Rye. The world had come calling for Mr. Salinger, but Mr. Salinger was bolting the door. By 1952, he had migrated to Cornish. Three years later, he married Claire Douglas, with whom he had two children, Margaret and Matthew, before their 1967 divorce.

Mr. Salinger was also briefly married in the 1940s to a woman named Sylvia; little else is known about her. Little is also known about his third wife, Colleen O'Neill, whom he was believed to have married in the late 1980s, except that she had worked as a nurse and was about 50 years younger than Mr. Salinger.

Perhaps no other writer of so few works generated as much popular and critical interest as Mr. Salinger, who published two novels, four authorized collections of short stories and an additional 21 stories that appeared only in magazines in the 1940s. His final collection of short stories entitled, The Fall of the Glass Family, was published in 1995, which also collected his last story for The New Yorker magazine, "Hapworth 26, 1924".

His silence - relentless despite his final publications in the early 1990s - inspired a range of reactions from critics, some characterizing it as a form of cowardice and others as a cunning strategy that helped preserve his mythic status. Still others interpreted his withdrawal as the spiritual stance of a man who, shying from the glare of celebrity, immersed himself in Eastern religions.

His stories - heavily autobiographical, humorous and cynical - focused on highly idiosyncratic urban characters seeking meaning in a world transformed by the horrors of World War II.

His stellar fictional creation was Holden Caulfield, the anti-hero of The Catcher in the Rye, and later Holden Meets Hollywood. Enraged by all the "phonies" who make "me so depressed I go crazy," Caulfield became American literature's most famous anti-hero since Huckleberry Finn.

The sales of Catcher are astonishing - more than 60 million copies worldwide - and its impact incalculable. Decades after publication, the first Holden book remains a defining expression of that most American of dreams: to never grow up.

The book also apparently became a fixation for the criminally disturbed, including Mark David Chapman, who killed John Lennon, and John Hinckley Jr., who shot President Ronald Reagan. But Holden also cared about children and other innocents, exhibiting moral outrage and a compassion for underdogs that resonated with the generation that came of age in the 1960s.

In 1992, Mr. Salinger stunned the literary world after decades of refusing publication by releasing a Catcher sequel, Holden Meets Hollywood. Set nearly twenty years after Holden's previous literary appearance, Holden is now a jaded and directionless young man, but is suddenly given a new spark of motivation where he learns his screenwriter brother DB has secretly written a screenplay about Holden's mis-adventures as a teenager in New York one certain Christmas (i.e. the events of the original novel). Holden abandons a guest-speaking appearance at his old boarding school and sets off for Hollywood with his sister Phoebe and one-time girlfriend, Jane Gallagher.

Reaction to the novel was decidingly mixed, however it's yearly sales continue to rank as high as Salinger's original. It is seen by many reviewers as a savage criticism on the working of Hollywood and those who revel in celebrity culture, and features thinly-veiled parodies of those who featured in the making of the real-life The Catcher in the Rye film, such as director John Hughes and star John Cusask. Salinger also appears to comment on the infamy of his original novel, during a sequence in which Holden has a bizarre exchange with a man at a bus station who is contemplating assassinating a city mayor based on his experience reading a book that sounds eerily reminiscint of Catcher, and appears to talk the would-be assassin out of doing the deed.

Mr. Salinger also created the neurotic Glass family, who first appeared in stories published in the 1940s and '50s. Among the best-known are two long pieces published in The New Yorker in the 1950s and later combined in the book Franny and Zooey by Little, Brown in 1961. The Glasses also were featured in the collections Nine Stories (1953), Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters; and Seymour: An Introduction (1963) and The Fall of the Glass Family (1995).

Fans regularly traveled to the remote New England hamlet to find Mr. Salinger but rarely made contact. He lived on a hill behind high walls, where a sign warned trespassers to keep out. He steadfastly ignored almost all interview requests and aggressively discouraged biographers' efforts to examine his life.

Truman triumphs '52

Eric Lipps

In 1952 at 3:15 A.M., incumbent Harry S. Truman is declared the winner of the U.S. presidential election, embarrassing, among others, the Chicago Tribune newspaper, which incredibly had repeated its humiliating blunder of 1948 by once again prematurely calling the race for Truman's opponent in print.

Republican nominee Dwight D. Eisenhower, like Thomas E. Dewey four years earlier, is gracious in defeat, although the popular World War II general's running mate, Sen. Richard M. Nixon of California, is less so, hinting darkly of fraud to reporters.

Truman's victory is, if anything, an even more stunning surprise this time around than it had been in 1948. The President's popularity had improved somewhat since then, especially in the South, where his hints four years earlier that he favored desegregation of the armed forces had led to threats by Southerners to mount a third-party challenge. The President's decision to heed military advisers who had warned that desegregation would undermine "unit cohesion" at a time when it appeared the U.S. might, despite its nuclear monopoly, have to intervene militarily in several overseas trouble spots, had defused that threat, but his refusal to take a strong stand with segregationists against such civil-rights liberals as Minnesota Sen. Hubert H. Humphrey had left lingering suspicions among Southern whites. On the other hand, his apparent unwillingness to take on the Dixiecrats had undermined black support for the Democratic Party. And the rise of Sen. Joseph R. McCarthy, whose charge of "twenty years of treason" on the part of the Democrats, worked against him as well: McCarthy blamed Truman for the Soviets' development of their own atomic bomb in 1949 and the "loss" of mainland China to the Communists that same year. To stem the slide, the President had resorted to steadily harsher anti-Communist rhetoric and had supported hard-line measures such as the National Security Act of 1950, which had declared the Communist Party an illegal foreign conspiracy and authorized the reactivation of six of the internment camps used to hold Japanese-Americans during World War II, this time to hold "Communists and Communist sympathizers" should the order for a roundup be given during a national emergency.

Arguably, it was the Republicans themselves who rescued Truman. Backbiting within the GOP between isolationists led by Sen. Robert A. Taft and interventionists, who favored Eisenhower, weakened partisan unity when Eisenhower received the party's nomination in exchange for agreeing to take the Taft faction's man, Nixon, as his VP. The uncomfortable relationship between the two men was worsened when, following the Republican convention, Sen. McCarthy expressed the view that Nixon himself--a vigorous McCarthy backer--would have been a better pick for the top spot.

In the end, it had come down to turnout, with Southern whites going narrowly for Truman, a Missouri native, over Eisenhower despite their reservations about the Democrat, while many Republicans dissatisfied with Ike, Nixon or both simply stayed home.

Ironically, Truman had almost decided not to run in '52, considering that his partial term as FDR's replacement after the latter's death in April 1945 meant that his re-election in 1952 would violate the two-term tradition. After FDR's three and a fraction terms, Truman had believed the country needed to resume the two-term rule to avoid a slide toward a banana-republic-style lifetime presidency. He had been persuaded to seek re-election only when advisers warned that if he did not, the nomination would likely go to a liberal such as Illinois' Adlai Stevenson, which would guarantee a Republican win.

A further irony was that although under the Twenty-second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, pushed through Congress and the state legislatures by Republicans in 1951, no one could seek more than two terms as president, the amendment was not retroactive, so that Truman was free to seek additional terms in the White House while Eisenhower, had he won, would have been limited to no more eight years in office. Once conservatives realized this, furious accusations would fly within the GOP and an "Amend the Amendment" drive would be organized by the Republican National Committee.

The Gates of Hell

Todayinah Editor

In 2010 on this day senior executives of iRobot, Inc. joined US President John S. McCain on the White House Lawn to showcase the latest PackBot model which had finally brought Osama Bin Laden to justice. Having exhausted the supply of friendly Af-Pak allies on the border zone, it was both expedient and also fitting that American technological prowess had finally located the robe-wearing, cave-dwelling head of al-qaeda.

In fact unmanned vehicles had located Bin Laden on numerous occasions in 2000-2001 as he shuttled between training camps in Afghanistan. "I will look you in the eye and promise you that I will get Osama bin Laden and bring him to justice"Trouble was, that the predator drones were at that time unarmed and therefore the US military was unable to seize the opportunity to strike. Shortly after he fled to Bora-Bora, Afghan allies were used to scout down caves. And when America ran out of willing scouts, robotic technology took their place.

Bin Laden now faced an extended period of captivity in enemy hands. Which ironically was a fate that had befallen McCain himself when his A-4E Skyhawk was shot down by a missile over Hanoi on October 26th 1967.

The very few peace doves in the administration would now argue that it was time to close the book on Afghanistan, by offering the Taliban a power-share in government subject only to a moratorium on ground operations.

Spirit of Palestine

Todayinah Editor

In 2010 on this day, a flotilla of boats arrived in Israeli in waters off Israel in an attempt to break the "blockade" of Gaza.

The Israeli navy intercepted the boats, and, as expected, found Hugo Chavez, president of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela. After a violent confrontation, Chavez and several aids were and taken off the boat "Spirit of Palestine" to a naval brig in Haifa. The EU protested the move, calling the it quot;kidnapping on the high seas". In Jerusalem, the Justice Ministry announced that 1,500 kidnapping charges would be filed against Chavez and his aids over a day long raid on a Jewish primary school in Caracas in 2003.

The raid was ostensibly in search or weapons, but none were ever found. The children, some as young as six, were eventually released. "We intend to try Mr. Chavez on every count, one by one", a spokesman for the Justice Ministry said, adding that "it may take us twenty years". The government is rumored to be considering hundreds of additional charges over a pair of raids against a community center and an arson attack against a synagogue.A response from the EU was not immediately forthcoming, but diplomatic sources revealed that officials in Brussels were "flummoxed, aghast, and unable to respond coherently" to the charges against Chavez.

Vietnamese Recognized

Andrew Beane

In 1946 American President Harry S. Truman spoke to the citizens of the United States by radio address to announce his support for a free and independent Vietnam. The news came as a shock to many in his administration, who view the restoration of French rule in Indochina as key to gaining French President Georges Bidault's support against an increasingly belligerent Soviet Union.

Truman's address began with the words: "My fellow Americans, it is my decision, against the advice of many within my administration, that the United States of America will recognize the Democratic Republic of Vietnam as a free and independent nation among nations". He went on to say that before such recognition can take place, Vietnamese President Ho Chi Minh must give the US assurance that his government will not become a client state of the Soviet Union, and that the Soviet Military will not set foot in Vietnamese territory. President Ho has already denied that he has sought Soviet assistance, insisting that after the devastating war against Adolf Hitler, Moscow was in no position to extend support to a place as remote as Vietnam.

"United States of America recognize[s] the Democratic Republic of Vietnam as a free and independent nation among nations" ~ TrumanFrance is not likely to take this decision by Truman in a friendly manner. President Bidault has contended that the restoration of France's colonies that fell under foreign rule or were otherwise lost during the war was essential to rebuilding France. Upon hearing the address, the French Ambassador to the US, Henri Bonnet, accused the United State of coveting rubber reserves in "French territory". Vietnam has already appeared in Washington-Paris relations, with former President Franklin Delano Roosevelt insisting that the Vietnamese people, like all peoples of the world, deserved to live under the government of their choosing, though he died before being able to make a definitive decision to support Vietnamese independence.

Death of Churchill

Eric Lipps

In 1965 Winston S. Churchill, first prime minister of the United Dominions of America, dies in the UDA's capital of Georgetown, Virginia at the age of 90.

Churchill, son of Lord Randolph Churchill and the American-born Miranda Jacobson Churchill, had been born in England but had moved to America in 1909 following a bitter quarrel with his father. In the dominions, he had become involved with the sovereignty movement. Quarreling bitterly with the so-called "Separationist" faction, which sought complete independence for Britain's North American possessions, he rose to leadership of the rival "Dominionists".

By 1939, under his direction, the sovereignty movement had been poised for victory--but on Sept. 1 of that year, the Second World War broke out, pitting Britain, France, Italy and Japan against the Quadrilateral Alliance of imperial Germany, Ottoman Turkey, Spain and Austria-Hungary, leading Parliament to table the Dominion Act. Its passage after the war created the UDA, which, while remaining nominally subject to London, was in practical fact far larger, more prosperous and more militarily powerful than the mother country.

The story of America's rise to sovereignty and the parallel development in India was vividly chronicled in the 1975 BBC miniseries "The Jewels in the Crown".

Under the UDA's constitution, Churchill was eligible only for a single seven-year term as prime minister, subject to special elections prior to his term's end. No such elections occurred, and on April 30, 1953, Churchill stepped down. He would remain active in politics, becoming an outspoken advocate of "containment" of Tsar Nicholas III's expansionist Russia and of a "yellow peril" view of the Japanese Empire. Churchill's influence was crucial in securing American assistance for Delhi in the Indo-Japanese War, which was ongoing at the time of his death.

Protecting the Principal

Todayinah Editor

In 2008 on this day in her home city of Karachi, the Chairwoman of Pakistan Peoples Party Benazir Bhutto announced her withdrawal from the national elections. The decision had looked increasingly inevitable ever since her private security detail fired indiscriminantly into the crowd at Liaquat National Bagh in Rawalpindi on December 27th.

After eight years in exile in Dubai and London, Miss Bhutto returned to Karachi on 18 October 2007. Shortly after she left Jinnah International Airport en route to a political rally in Karachi, two explosions occurred. She was not injured but the explosions, later found to be a suicide-bomb attack, killed 136 people and injured at least 450.

"Our mission is to protect the principal at all costs" ~ Ann StarrThe CEO of Blackwater International, Eric Prince contacted Miss Bhutto to impress upon her the compelling piece of information that his private security company had not lost a single "principal" under diplomatic protection. But the price was not cheap, the bill for Paul Bremer's single year in Iraq was a staggering $27m.

"Blackwater provides a valuable service. They protect people's lives" ~ BushMiss Bhutto not alone in her desperation. Following the Nissour Square Massacre in Baghdad on 16th September, the Government of Iraq had expelled Blackwater International from the country. They had soon be replaced by other private security firms, including DynCorp and Triple Canopy, but right now Blackwater needed some new contracts, big time. And that business would soon follow with awards for the US-Mexican Border and the Beijing Olympics projects.

One Giant Leap

Andrew Beane

In 1963 Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz, nationalist leader and the primary proponent of abolitionism in the Caribbean, was proclaimed Prime Minister of the new Cuban Republic today. Castro's first official act as prime minister was to free all negro slaves on the island, which was largely ceremonial since the revolution had made slave-owning a very hazardous venture as a total of 158 slave-owners had been murdered by Castro's followers.

The Confederate States of America, who operated Cuba as a puppet state while maintaining the island's independence, condemned the proclamation and the precedent that the liberation of the island's slaves may set for slavery in Confederate territory as a whole.

"We choose to support freedom. We choose to make certain that every man, woman and child in North America is free in this decade" ~ JFKCastro's rise to power, following a six-year revolution, is being celebrated by both anti-Confederate Cuban nationalists and abolitionists alike. A general strike was called for the day by nationalist union leaders, and millions poured into the streets of Habana to cheer for the freedom of the nation and for that of its negro citizens. The sound of automobile horns played like a symphony in the cities. Pro-Confederate President-elect Manuel Urrutia Lleo, who took over for former-President Fulgencio Batista, was forced to flee to Florida as Castro's rebel army were marching on the capitol.

John F. Kennedy, the President of the United States, welcomed the news of Castro's official capture of power. He had already admitted at the beginning of the year that the CIA had been secretly funneling weapons to the nationalists. In 1962, Kennedy appeared at Rice Stadium and told the nation "We choose to support freedom. We choose to make certain that every man, woman and child in North America is free in this decade". On hearing of the news out of Cuba this morning, Kennedy was quoted as saying we are "One giant leap closer to that goal".

"We choose to support freedom. We choose to make certain that every man, woman and child in North America is free in this decade" ~ JFKConfederate President Strom Thurmond issued a sharp rebuke against the Cuban nationalists, promising an embargo on the island if Castro " .. did not step back from profaning the right and sacred institution of slavery". Thurmond's' words carry little weight. The CSA's economy is still struggling to pull out of a near-twenty year slump following the loss of the Second World War against the Allies. Wide-spread unemployment, the building of the new national capitol in Augusta, Georgia, and the occupation of Panama since the assassination of Cantera have left little finances to allow for an invasion of Cuba. An embargo would be difficult, as merchant vessels in the Caribbean usually enjoy an escort by Union Navy gunboats.

Samurai Subs

Todayinah Editor

In 1945 on this day USN Fleet Admiral Chester William Nimitz (pictured) delivered a top secret, presidential briefing on the latest super-weapon developed by the Imperial Japanese Navy: the I-201, a fast-attack sub with a sleek, cutting-edge design which was twice as fast its American equivalents and surpassing even the German Type XX.

In fact twenty-three units had been ordered from the Kure Navy Yard under the 1943 construction program. Because dire warnings from the Naval Marshal General and the commander-in-chief of the Combined Fleet, Isoroku Yamamoto had convinced the Imperial Government that the Navy would lose a Pacific War to the United States. The superior industrial might of the US would assuredly replace lost capital ships at a faster rate. At best, Japan would enjoy a year of glory, followed by defeat after defeat until the United States mustered overwhelming forces to impost their will upon the Pacific.

And so Japan needed to develop a strategic weapon which would redefine the military equation in the Pacific. Yamamoto planned to deploy the I-201 to patrol the sea lanes between Hawaii and the American west coast, placing Hawaii under siege and seriously hurting American operations in the Pacific.

Because the Japanese simply had to have maritime control of the Region. After the occupation of Manchuria and Korea, they had been locked in a bitter conflict with the Soviet Union. With Nazi Germany now on the verge of victory, the Japanese leadership needed to win the Soviet-Japanese Border War before the United States entered the war, exposing Japan to the larger threat of a "Grand Alliance".

Change We Can Believe In

Todayinah Editor

In 2016 in a ruthless attempt to alter the world energy equation, the Islamic Republic of Iran mined the Strait of Homuz. "Underwatch" submarines began patrolling the mine-fields And the leadership of the United States was forced to confront the first major act of regional aggression in over a quarter of a century.

This confrontation presented a unique challenge to Barack Obama in the final year of his Presidency. Shortly after taking office, he had received the Nobel Peace Prize for his bold decision to accelerate the withdrawal of US troops from both Iraq and Afghanistan. His remaining years had focused on reconciliation projects in those new nations, allowing the US leadership to concentrate more fully on domestic issues such as universal healthcare and the economy. Allowing Obama to be re-elected by a landslide; but now that legacy was in jeopardy.

The crisis had not been precipitated by the military chauvinism of the "Great Satan". Instead, the "reverse energy shock" of 2014 triggered the collapse of oil and gas prices, stagnating the Iranian economy. Strategists at the Pentagon now realised the last six and a half years had simply been a "strategic pause" in the long-running conflict that first began with the fall of the Shah in 1979. Pure and simply, it was a a fight for oil, and this time, the United States wasn't the aggressor.

"America has a secret plan to unblock the Strait of Homuz without risking the loss of a single American life" ~ ObamaSeeking to force a showdown whilst avoiding outright war, military planners were ordered to war-game the 1962 blockade the island of Cuba - but in reverse. The result was a devilishly cunning plan to dispatch mother-submarines containing tiny, unmanned, robotic mini-subs into the Persian Gulf. And the robotic submarines contained unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) that theoretically could sweep a grid the size of the Persian Gulf in a single day. These "whiskers" or "teeth" would serve in a dual purpose, by acting as force multipliers, whilst eliminating any possibility of human casualties. That was the untested theory, anyway and you have to admit, it did sound rather good on paper.

Return of Anastasia

Andrew Beane

In 1941 Anastasia Romanova, former Grand Duchess and daughter of deposed Tsar Nicholas II, was sworn in as Prime Minister of the Federated States of Russia. This comes five days after the FSR was invaded by German forces and their allies in what has become a continent-wide war.

Romanova, a member of the Constitutional Democratic Party, comes to power at a very dark time for Russia, a nation well accustomed to trouble. After a period of political upheaval and a long communist insurgency that ended in 1928, the fledgling republic was rocked by the effects of the Great Depression and further regional violence. To this day, the Russians are still technically in a state of war with the breakaway Caucasus Socialist Republic, under the leadership of communist warlord Josef Stalin. Stalin has hinted to an alliance with Hitler's Germany.

Russia's antiquated army is equipped mainly with World War I weapons, and is no match for the advanced and well-trained Wehrmacht. German "Panzer" tanks have met by antiquated self-propelled guns and the largest cavalry force still in existence, and Russia's wooden biplanes were no match for the Luftwaffe. By the time Romanova was sworn in, it was estimated that one million Russian soldiers, over a third of the entire Russian Army, had surrendered to the invaders or been destroyed. To complicate matters, Imperial Japan has amassed a significant army on Russia's Manchurian border.

Romanova faces the war with few allies or hopes for success. With Great Britain and France forced to surrender or face annihilation in 1940, and the United States refusing to enter the war, Russia stands alone against the German war machine. Turkey has opted to stay neutral. It is expected that the new Prime Minister will continue her predecessor Social Democrat Vyachislav Molotov's plan to pull the military east and dig in, in hopes of bogging down the invasion in time for the harsh Russian winter.

Beacon of Diversity

Todayinah Editor

In 1995 following the mysterious disappearance of Kevin Annett, the Lord Protector of the Commonwealth Bryan Gould flew into Western Canada on this day, setting the stage for a trilateral showdown meeting with the leaders of the Squamish nation and the Aboriginal Affairs Minister of the Provincial Government of British Columbia.

The issue that was threatening to destroy the reputation of the British Commonwealth began to emerge three years before in the tiny city of Port Alberni, population just seventeen thousand. Appointed as the new minister, Kevin Annett had vigourously sought to bring aboriginals into the congregration of the St. Andrew's United Church. In so doing, Annett had discovered a gruesome trail of aboriginal child deaths at the Church's residential schools. Later investigations indicated widespread murders across the whole of Canada. And now Annett himself had disappeared under mysterious circumstances.
Click to watch documentary.

Seeking a new viceregal representative to strike a new deal, leaders of the Squamish nation had appealed to Gould to exercise his powers of appointment "under the Officers and Ministers under them [the Lord Protector] for the good of the People ... without any King or House of Lords" as codified in the Instrument of Government. This legal authority (the first sovereign codified and written constitution in the English-speaking world) has defined the framework of the British Commonwealth since the installation of the very first Lord Protector, Oliver Cromwell on 15 December 1653.

June Fourth Incident

Todayinah Editor

In 1989 students and intellectuals launched a series of demonstrations on this day in Peking to protest the Nationalist Government's cynical decision to extend the British Government's lease on the island of Hong Kong. It would later emerge that the "Tiananmen Square protests" had been encouraged by agitators funded by the Chinese Democratic Republic Government in Changchun.

Whilst Hong Kong was the initial flashpoint for the subsequent "June Fourth Incident" (to avoid confusion with two prior Tiananmen Square protests), tensions were already at boiler point in the region. And the root cause was massive destabilisation resulting from the involvement of foreign governments in Chinese development.

At the death of World War Two, the Soviet Union declared war on Japan, occupying Manchuria and Hokkaido. When the Soviet Union began to withdraw troops, Chiang Kaishek launched a second "Northern Expedition" to reunite China, but the timely intervention of US Secretary of State George C. Marshall persuaded Nationalists to agree to a cease fire. Having advanced into the outskirts of the city of Harbin, Nationalists were on the verge of seizing the security key to the North. But at the risk of World War Three breaking out. And in a similiar fashion to Eastern Europe, the Soviet Client states of North Korea, North Japan and the Chinese Democratic Republic Government emerged in the buffer regions between the super-powers.

Trouble was by 1989 the Soviet Union was in its death throes, all the three Soviet Client States were facing a bleak future without sponsorship from Moscow. And Nationalist China was a corrupt, failed government sustained by Western Powers that were becoming increasingly concerned about the shape of the Far East in the post-war Era.

Ayatollah's Triumph

Andrew Beane

In 1984 Grand Ayatollah Khomeini accepted the unconditional surrender of Iraqi forces today, ending four years of bitter fighting that killed hundreds of thousands on both sides and saw the use of horrific chemical weapons.

The defeat for Iraqi President Saddam Hussein was especially damaging, as he faces instability at home given the failed invasion of its Shi'ite neighbor, a shattered economy and possible civil war.

The Iraqi Army crossed the border into Iran on September 22, 1980, with Hussein hoping to catch the Iranians off-guard as the Islamic Revolutionary government attempted to consolidate power in the aftermath of the dramatic overthrow of the Shah. Despite modest early progress on the part of Iraqi forces, which included massive air, artillery and rocket attacks, by June of 1982 the Iranians had regained virtually all of the territory taken by Baghdad.

Unable to bring the Islamic government to the negotiation table, the Iraqi's were forced to pull back deep into their own territory and form a static defense as Iran's army sought to punish Hussein's regime by removing it. Iraq failed to mount a strong enough resistance to the invasion, and was unable to organize new army divisions when the Soviets, France, and the United States all ignored Saddam's call for weapons.

Iran captured Basra in 1983, which prompted Iraq to launch dozens of short-range ballistic missiles, mainly Soviet-designed Scuds with chemical warheads at several Iranian cities. Iran countered with as many as sixty missiles fired upon Baghdad, effectively devastating the city. Iraqi morale never recovered and its command structure disintegrated. By the beginning of 1984, only the Republican Guard still loyal to the ruling Ba'athist Party. Saddam was forced to surrender in order to concentrate his remaining armed force on defeating Kurdish and Shi'ite rebellions.

Tonight Show Implodes

Todayinah Editor

In 2009 on this day David Letterman's contract was terminated by his employer the National Broadcasting Company (NBC) who simultaneously announced that the new host of the "Tonight Show" would be Conan O'Brien.
Click to watch

The original scandal had come to light when the alleged extortionist, Robert J. "Joe" Halderman was arrested trying to cash a phony $2m check after Letterman had contacted the Manhattan District Attorney's office. On September 9th, Halderman had allegedly broken into Letterman's car to place photographic evidence alongside the demand for the money. Requiring a grand jury to order the arrest, the photographs had been revealed, demonstrating that Letterman had pursued a string of affairs with the staff on his show. Because of his role as the manager, it later transpired that Letterman was liable to charges of sexually harrassment, forcing his dismissal from NBC.

Viewing ratings on the "Late Night with Jay Leno Show" on CBS received an immediate, huge surge which really meant that only Leno, and not O'Brien, was the main beneficiary from the scandal. Ironically, NBC had initially favoured Leno as the successor to Johnny Carson in 1992, but at the host's insistence, had instead offered the position to David Letterman. Leno had been one of a number of Talk Show Hosts who had sharply criticised Letterman's behaviour.
Click to watch

Final Solution in Palestine

Todayinah Editor

In 1941 with the Fall of the Greek Island of Crete, German mastery of the continent of Europe was complete. And equally significantly, Hitler's focus had shifted from East to South. Military planners now confronted the daunting task of invading Vichy Syria. Weakly garrisoned by only thirty-eight thousand French soldiers without modern equipment of air cover, the real challenge would prove to be assembling sufficient landing craft for transporting the Axis forces.

According to the original military schedule conceived throughout the spring, Operation Barbarossa was due to launch just three weeks later, on June 22nd. But instead, due to Mussolini's military fiascoes, considerable German forces had been committed to Southern Europe and Northern Africa to resue the Italians from certain defeat.

And at some point during Operation Marita, Hitler had decided against a full frontal attack on the Soviet Union, now favouring a pincer movement after a drive through the Middle East. With Arab Oil reserves in German hands the Wehrmacht would be threatening the Soviet Union's southern flank.

"A free hand to eradicate every last Jew from Palestine and the Arab world" ~ Grand MuftiSoon enough, Molotov would hurry back to Berlin with an urgent request to join the Tripartite Pact. And quietly dropped were the demands from the previous November which has so outraged Hitler that he had ordered Ribbentrop to make no reply. Because Stalin had decided to drop the pretense that the Soviet Union was the military equal of Nazi Germany.

Also in Berlin was the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, Mohammad Amin al-Husayni who had succeeded in convincing Hitler (pictured) that the Zionist Conspiracy was of more immediate threat to the Aryan Future than the Communist Doctrine. And whilst Hitler hated both in equal measure, he had quite suddenly grasped a new linkage. Accordingly, Hitler issued Adolf Eichmann with orders to dispatch an advanced group of Einsatz Commandoes to Greece. Because the Fuhrer had realised that for the Final Solution to be Final, Nazi Germany would have to expunge Jewish Civilization from the Holy Land. Jerusalem, and then on to Moscow.

Pat Robertson on Haiti

Todayinah Editor

In 2010 on this day former Confederate President Marion G. "Pat" Robertson ignited a diplomatic furor when he blamed that day's devastating Haitian earthquake, which had leveled Haiti's capital Port-au-Prince, on Haitians' having been "cursed" as a result of having made a deal with the Devil in order to secure their country's independence from France in 1804.

Incumbent CSA President Michael Huckabee found himself forced to issue a rare public rebuke of a predecessor in his office, stating, "President Robertson's words were ill-chosen and in no way reflect the views of the Confederate government toward the stricken people of Haiti. We emphatically reject any suggestion that this tragedy reflects either the work of the Devil or the punishment of God, and instead declare it a terrible accident of nature".

Robertson, the son of Virginia Senator A. Willis Robertson, was elected to a six-year term as president of the Confederate States in 1987 on the Confederate Party ticket, defeating Democrat Lloyd Doggett of Texas. A staunch Protestant fundamentalist who had been ordained as a minister, President Robertson had angered many CSA liberals and moderates by adopting a moralistic tone both at home and in foreign relations, going so far as to sponsor an amendment to the Confederate Constitution declaring the CSA a "Christian nation".

Avatar

Todayinah Editor

In 2009 on this day the movie "Avatar" premiered in cinema theatres across North America. Loosely based on the narrative of Joseph Conrad's novella "Heart of Darkness", the action/adventure of this blockbuster movie is relocated on the Earth-like planet of Pandora, set one hundred and fifty years in the future.
Click to watch the trailer.

Instead of genocidal Belgians murdering Africans for elephant tusks in the Congo, James Cameron's movie places "the haters" in conflict with the Na'vi, but these n-words are a blue-skinned species of sapient humanoids with feline characteristics. "Killing the indigenous population looks bad, but if there's one thing the shareholders hate more than bad press, it's a bad quarterly statement"And much like Conrad's novel, the underlying drivers are unchanged, predicated upon the pursuit of "unobtanium", a precious metal worth $20 million per kilogram. In a dramatic scene, the "Home Tree" of the Na'vi is destroyed to the music of Wagner - because it is located directly on top of a huge location of unobtanium. "Imagine all that chowder!" justifies Parker Selfridge, the insane corporate administrator for the RDA mining operation and a character clearly based on Conrad's rogue trader, Kurtz.

Selfridge is not the only character suspected of "getting lost in the woods". Reprising the tragic role of Conrad's hero Marlow, Jake Sulley is a US marine sent to Pandora to locate his renegade brother, Tommy. Suspected of "going native", the climax reveals that Tommy (pictured) has actually mutated into a Na'vi by transmigrating his human soul into an Avatar.

War Against Hitler

Todayinah Editor

In 1935 Polish forces crossed the German frontier in Poleranian and Silesia, and reached the Oder and Neisse rivers within a week. East Prussia was occupied within four days.

"This is a war against Hitler", Polish radio declared, "not against Germany. We will withdraw the moment that Hitler and his henchmen are in our hands" . Ten days after the outbreak of the war, Polish troops captured Frankfurt and spread across eastern Germany, virtually unopposed. Everywhere they went, they hanged captured nazi party members. French troops stationed in the Rhineland swept into Saxony and southern Germany. French and Polish forces met at the Elbe on March 1. Two days later, Hitler, Himmler, Goering, and the rest of the nazi leadership arrived at the Swiss border seeking asylem. After threats from the French, the Swiss returned Hitler and his party to German territory.

Op First Born Son

Eric Lipps

In 1955 on this day a stunned America learned that President Dwight D. Eisenhower had died following a heart attack suffered early that morning.

Following the first symptoms, the President had been rushed to Walter Reed Hospital for emergency treatment, but despite what a terse official press release described as "heroic measures," doctors had been unable to save the sixty-four-year-old Eisenhower. He was pronounced dead at 11:14 A.M., Eastern time.

Vice-President Richard M. Nixon took the presidential oath at noon, becoming the thirty-fifth President of the United States. Under the terms of the Twenty-second Amendment, because he would have less than two years of Eisenhower's unexpired term to serve, he would be eligible to run for the White House in his own name not only in 1956 but again in 1960.

Nixon assumed the presidency in the midst of a serious crisis in the Middle East. Egypt's president, Gamal Abdul Nasser, had been moving closer to the Soviets, arranging, among other things, to ship large quantities of Egyptian cotton to the USSR in exchange for arms, which it was assumed he planned eventually to use in an attack on Israel. In July 1956 the matter came to a head when Nasser nationalized the strategically vital Suez Canal.

Nixon's response was volcanic. Years later, transcripts of meetings in the Oval office would make public the President's fury at Nasser, whom he described as "that goddamn camel-jockey who thinks he can push around civilized white men."

"Tonight, my fellow Americans, this country is at war. We are at war with an enemy who strikes from those shadows to destroy what we have built and what we defend."Meeting with leaders from Britain, France and Israel, the President would commit American armed forces to an effort to retake the canal and depose Nasser by force. The assault, codenamed Operation Firstborn Sons, would be launched in mid-September; U.S., British, French and Israeli forces would quickly overwhelm the Egyptian military, reaching Cairo on Sept. 25. Nasser fled the city, and a temporary occupation government was installed under the leadership of U.S. Gen. Matthew Ridgway. In February 1957 a new, pro-Western Egyptian president would be installed.

But the seizure of the Suez Canal would prove to be the spark which ignited a greater conflict. In exile, Nasser became the rallying point for an increasingly radical Arab movement based around Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood--which, ironically, Nasser had harshly suppressed while in power. Terrorist attacks on Western facilities throughout the Middle East, and against the state of Israel, escalated. Finally, on Sept. 25, 1960--four years after the occupation of Cairo and only weeks before President Nixon was to face off against Democratic challenger John F. Kennedy in the U.S. presidential election - a massive terror bombing wrecked a key section of the Canal, closing it off.

That evening, a somber President Nixon faced the U.S. television audience to declare, "Tonight, my fellow Americans, this country is at war. We are at war with an enemy based not in Moscow or Peking, though both of these capitals support this foe, but in the shadows of the world; an enemy who strikes from those shadows to destroy what we have built and what we defend. We are at war with an enemy whose weapon is the creation of terror. We are at war with that terror, and we shall not flinch, we shall not yield. We shall prevail."

That speech would be widely credited with tipping the balance in one of the closest presidential elections in U.S. history, peeling away several states the Democratic candidate had expected to win and allowing Nixon a narrow re-election victory which would have made him the first man since FDR to serve more than two full terms . . . if not for the events of November 22, 1963, when President Nixon was assassinated while on a visit to his home state of California by a 19-year-old Arab immigrant, Sirhan Sirhan.

The Dark Gift

Todayinah Editor

In 1993 on this day actor Tom Cruise unexpectedly withdrew from the movie "Interview with the Vampire" following comments published in the "Los Angeles Times" newspaper by the author, Anne Rice. The decision would prove to be a massive personal setback for Cruise who had hoped to be taken more seriously in Hollywood by matching the acting skills of his co-star Brad Pitt; instead, he would be condemned to to a decade of "action" roles in popcorn movies.
Click to watch the trailer.

Cruise had entertained the idea of "doing something scary" with "creature features", apparently totally misunderstanding the deep subtextual undercurrents of the novel. And doubtless, this insensitivity played a key part in his withdrawal.

"I was particularly stunned by the casting of Cruise, who is no more my Vampire Lestat than Edward G. Robinson is Rhett Butler" ~ Ann Rice Because in the narrative, Lestat turns the child Claudia (pictured) into a vampire. "The Tom Criuse casting is just so bizarre, it's almost impossible to imagine how it's going to work" ~ Ann RiceOver time she begins to hate Lestat as she realizes she can never grow up; although her mind matures into that of an intelligent, assertive woman, her body remains that of a six-year-old girl. Of course the interaction between Lestat and Claudia mirrors Anne Rice's own personal tragedy because her daughter Michele died of leukemia aged six in August 1972. Rice only returned to the Catholic Church in 1998 after several years of describing herself as an atheist.

An Indirect Approach

Todayinah Editor

In 1941 on this day Adolf Hitler cancelled plans for Operation Barbarossa.

Fully attuned to Sun Tzu's maxim "the way to avoid what is strong is to strike what is weak", the German High Command had been opposed to a frontal attack on the strength of the Soviet Union. And the unexpected success of the Afrika Corps presented a new option, a drive through the Middle East into Iran, threatening the Soviet Union from the south.

"The way to avoid what is strong is to strike what is weak" ~ Sun Tzu, Art of WarfareSuch an indirect approach also had the benefit of providing Germany with unlimited supplies of oil. Unswayed by this self-evidential military logic, Hitler, insanely, had higher order priorities, namely Lebensraum ("Living Space for the German people") and the Final Solution. But that was until occultists convinced Hitler of the unlimited potential value of artifacts in the Middle East..

Last Throw of the Dice

Todayinah Editor

In 1940 in a desperate act of ruthless determination unmatched since the destruction of the French Fleet at Mers-el-Kébir, RAF Bomber Command launched a fercious, unprovoked attack on the city of Berlin. The appalling loss of citizen life ensured that Arthur "Bomber" Harris (pictured) would be provided with a front row seat at the Nuremberg Trials right next to his fellow "war criminal", Admiral James Somerville.

After the defeat of France, Winston Churchill advised the House of Commons that "the whole fury and might of the enemy must very soon be turned against us". And so events transpired, because by mid August, the RAF's communication system had been knocked out by waves of German bombers. It appeared inevitable that Britain would very soon be "fighting on the beaches".

"[Mers El-Kebir] will rouse the whole world against us - we all feel thoroughly ashamed" ~ SomervilleTo achieve this impressive feat of arms, the Luftwaffe had sent over a thousand planes per day, destroying many of the radar stations in Southern England. Then Hermann Göring directed the attacks to the second key to the RAF defence, sector stations. By mid August, they had all been destroyed and Britain no longer had an organized air defence.

"I do not personally regard the whole of the remaining cities of Germany as worth the bones of one British Grenadier" ~ HarrisChurchill needed a "game changer" big time, seizing upon an act of provocation that would cause Adolf Hitler to change the direction of the Battle of Britain out of anger rather than calculation. Accordingly, he instructed Bomb Command to launch a wave of attacks that would "eradicate" German Cities.

In so doing, Churchill was relying heavily on the "strategic bombing" doctrine of Giulio Douhet who argued that a nation could be brought to its knees by massive bombing attacks against the centers of population, government and industry. Undettered, and with air supremacy over the English Channel, the German High Command prepared to launch Operation Sea Lion...

Life of the King

Todayinah Editor

In 2010 Elvis Presley, the legendary "King of Rock 'n' Roll," celebrated his 75th birthday at his Graceland manor outside Memphis, Tennessee.

Presley had narrowly survived an overdose of prescription medication on August 16, 1977, during a period when he had been experiencing a number of health problems, including what would subsequently be diagnosed as the early stages of degenerative arthritis. After that incident, he finally yielded to the pleadings of intimates, withdrawing from performance for over two years. It would later be learned that during this time the pop icon underwent a rigorous detoxification program to wean him off the painkillers to which he had become addicted.

By the spring of 1980, a reinvigorated and slimmed-down Presley would be ready to re-enter the spotlight. His singing engagements, however, would slowly be overshadowed by the star's newly aggressive political involvement: Presley would be an outspoken supporter of Ronald Reagan both that year and in 1984, and would court right-wing televangelists Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson, who in turn would use their TV ministries to promote him.

Presley was no latter-day convert to conservatism. As early as 1970 he had met privately with then-President Richard Nixon, denouncing the hippie culture and asking to be given a Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs badge to add to similar souvenirs had been collecting. He had also been outspokenly hostile to the Beatles, though whether from political motives or out of resentment at their having displaced him in the 1960s limelight is difficult to say. By 1988, however, he had moved far enough rightward to endorse Pat Robertson in that year's GOP primaries. Cynics, noting the TV preacher's promotion of Presley on his "700 Club" talk show, suggested that Presley was merely paying off a debt, but the two men's friendship was apparently genuine.

By the 1990s, however, the onetime King was ready to abdicate, this time for good. Advancing age had brought a new round of health problems, and younger performers such as Michael Jackson were displacing Presley among all but a dwindling set of aging fans. In August of 1998, Elvis formally announced his retirement. Thereafter, he would make only occasional appearances, generally as a guest on late-night talk programs, though he did briefly appear (as himself) in the 2003 feature biopic Life of the King.

The Worst of the Worst

Todayinah Editor

In 2010 on this day President Barack Obama announced a massive overhaul of homeland security following an embarrassing series of breaches inside the continental United States. On Christmas Day, a Nigerian national, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab attempted to blow up a Detroit-bound Northwest Airlines flight. And just a week later, the remaining detainees from Guatanemo Bay escaped whilst en route to trial in New York City.

The ten Yemeni and Uighur terrorists were considered the "worst of the worse" with this stigmatization due in part to the US Government's failure to convince other friendly nations to accept the prisoners at any price. Under pressure to make a self-imposed deadline of emptying Gitmo by January 2010, the White House unwisely decided to ship the prisoners to a maximum security prison where they be taken to a criminal trial in New York City.

"I heard you were dead"Obama announced that the task of recapturing the terrorists had been assigned to S.D. "Snake" Plissken (pictured). A former U.S. Army Lieutenant who obtained two Purple Hearts whilst serving under Special Forces Unit Black Flight, Plissken had been reactivated from obscurity for this mission. At the press conference, Obama presented Plissken with the statement "I heard you were dead", to which he retorted "I heard you were taller".
Click to Watch Trailer of Escape from New York

Satyagraha

Todayinah Editor

In 1912 at the first meeting of the South African Native National Congress, Indian-born lawyer Mohandas K. Gandhi, who had been persuaded to attend by a South African friend, delivers a powerful speech in support of what he calls satyagraha, or passive resistance, as a weapon against racial oppression.

Gandhi's speech angers some of his hearers, who favor a more militant approach. However, it appeals to many, especially since armed resistance is certain to be met with unrestrained violence. Over the next several years, Gandhi's growing number of followers stage peaceful demonstrations throughout South Africa.

In 1915, Pretoria ordered Gandhi deported to his native country. It was a foolish mistake, he would later say. Had the authorities not acted as they did, I might have left for India on my own. Being ejected by force from the country, however, made me determined to continue the struggle there. In 1919, through the intercession of white South African citizens who opposed their government's high-handed actions, I was permitted to return.

And the rest, of course, is history: the long years of quiet struggle, the clashes with the pro-Nazi Afrikaner Nationalist Party, and at last, in 1949, the rise to power of the SANNC's electoral arm, the South African People's Party.

Tragically, Gandhi's birth country fared less well. There, the nationalist movement was tainted by association with violent elements including, after 1939, with the pro-Japanese 'Indian National Army.' Even weakened as it was at the close of World War II, Britain refused to yield to the Indian zealots, and years of bloody guerrilla war followed. Not until 1963 did India finally achieve its independence under Jawaharlal Nehru, who would die a year later, plunging his infant country into bloody communal strife in which an estimated three million would perish by the time peace was restored in 1967 with the partition of the country into Muslim, Hindu and Sikh homelands.

Brushed under red carpet

Todayinah Editor

In 2010 with the expiration of Michaëlle Jean's five year term of office as Governor General of Canada, the position of Her Majesty the Queen's viceregal representative ceased to exist in Canada. Jean (pictured), a career CBC journalist who mainly fulfilled ceremonial functions, had failed to act as a constitutional check on the powers of the prime minister, Stephen Harper. As a result, the Canadian Government determined that the $25m cost of re-appointment was wasteful, because this ineffective, costly office had become more of an embarrassment than a safeguard for democracy.

The creation of the role dates back to the formation of modern Canada in 1867. At that time, Great Britain required an official to perform duties such as the giving of royal assent to bills passed by Parliament, reading the speech from the throne and "summoning, closing and dissolving Parliament on the advice of the prime minister". The governor general also served as the commander-in-chief of the Canadian Forces.

"summoning, closing and dissolving Parliament on the advice of the prime minister"During Jean's term of office, Stephen Harper had twice prorogued Parliament to extend the longevity of his government. Due to the fundamentally weak base of her authority, the Governor General had been forced to accept this announcement without consultation, even though their official residences were across the street from each other in Ottawa. On the second occassion, Canadians held demonstrations in twenty cities to protest Harper's unchecked abuse of power. Because the Parliamentary dispute concerned the mistreatment of Afghan Prisoners of War, an issue that required immediate redress as a matter of national honour.

Jean, a refugee from Haiti in 1968, was raised in Quebec as a French citizen. The British Crown had hoped that her origins and media skills would translate into national popularity. Despite her charm, there was a greater desire for Canada to move forward independently as a middle-power nation on global issues such as the sovereignty of the North Pole, the military mission to Afghanistan etc.

As a result of the protests, it was decided that the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court would take over the legal and constitutional duties, such as swearing in cabinet ministers and dissolving Parliament. Going forward, the Speaker of the House would read the speech setting out the government agenda.

Act of War

Todayinah Editor

In 2001 this day marked the beginning of the first foreign policy crisis in the presidency of George W. Bush. A J-8D fighter jet owned by the People's Republic of China collided with a U.S. EP-3 reconnaissance aircraft flying over disputed waters. The news was bad, and it got worse in a hurry. Because the Chinese pilot Wang Wei was missing, presumed dead and the EP-3 crew of twenty-four Americans were forced to make an emergency landing on China's Hainan Island where they were held captive.

It was an early test of the new President's mettle. During the 2000 election, he had derided his predecessor's weak use of American military power, accusing Clinton of weak gestures such as "[lobbing] a $2 million missile at a $10 empty tent and hit[ting] a camel in the butt". And instead of seeking a "strategic partnership" with China, Bush had classified China as a "strategic competitor".

"We will encourage reform in other governments by making it clear that success in our relations will require the decent treatment of their own people"With all the cards in their hands, the PRC Government responded in a bellicose and robust manner. The National Security Team led by Condoleeza Rice was unable to fashion a decisive policy. Secretary of State Colin Powell suggested a diplomatic solution, starting with a letter of apology.

"Ending tyranny is the concentrated work of generations"Forced to act as the "decider" for the first time in office, Bush went with experience by chosing the muscular response proposed by his Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld.

That evening, Bush would address the American nation, describing the incarceration of the American pilots as an "Act of War".

Orsini Affair

Todayinah Editor

In 1858 on this day the Emperor of France and his wife were assassinated en route to a theatrical performance of Rossini's William Tell. Police investigations that began in Paris would subsequently unearth a trail of conspiracy that led all the way back to revolutionary London.

To murder the Royal couple, Italian revolutionaries Felice Orsini, Giuseppe Pieri, Antonio Gomez and Carlo di Rudio had thrown three hand-made bombs at the the Imperial Carriage in the Rue Le Peletier. It would later emerge that the bombs had been manufactured by the English gunsmith Joseph Taylor and tested in Sheffield and Devonshire. Because Orsini had been covertly assisted by London since the unsuccessful revolution of 1848.

Few in France were surprised that Great Britain should become a rogue state which exported terrorism. Because a thriving republican community had existed even before the execution of Charles Stuart. In the late eighteenth century, revolutions had broken out in England, France and the American colonies. Defeated overseas, extremists such as Thomas Paine had gathered in London and overthrown the British Royal Family. Standing alone against the Royal Houses of Europe, Britain existed in a state of undeclared war with the continent, being the only great power to have emerged into the eighteenth century as a republic. Desperately short of allies, the British Government had hoped to creating a sister state in Italy with men such as Orsini.

Death of President William King

Andrew Beane

In 1853 President William King died today after losing a battle with tuberculosis. This comes as a shock to the nation, which is still coming to terms with the death of President-elect Franklin Pierce (pictured), who was killed on January 6th of this year in a train derailment in Andover, Massachusetts.

King had been suffering with an incurable case of tuberculosis when he was sworn in on March 4th as the fourteenth President of the United States, a distinction that would have been given to Pierce. Too ill even to travel to Washington, D.C, he was sworn in during a limited ceremony at his plantation in Cahaba, Alabama, and remained there for the remainder of his life. He was the first president since John Adams to officially reside somewhere other than the White House.

Though the shortest presidency in American history, it was extremely controversial just the same. Favoring the Kansas-Nebraska act, King succeeded in pushing the Transcontinental Compromise through Congress. The compromise stated that Kansas and Nebraska would eventually be admitted into the Union as slave states, which favored the southern states; and the Transcontinental railroad would run from New York to Chicago before heading south to St. Louis and continue due west to the California coast, which superseded most of the southern states and favored northern interests.

With only forty-five days as President, King did not have time to select a vice president, though it was believed that King's longtime friend James Buchanan had been considered. In accordance with the Constitution, President Pro Tempore David Atchison will become acting President. Having such a prominent pro-slavery activist in the White House carries the danger of splitting the nation over the issue of states' rights.

Right of Return

Todayinah Editor

In 2010 on this day sixty years after the Slattery Report (the Problem of Alaskan Development), recommended the provision of land in Alaska for the temporary refugee settlement of European Jews who were being persecuted by the Nazis during World War II, the first citizens of the newly formed Federal District of Sitka exercised their newly obtained right of return to Palestine.

Because under the arrangements for the "Reversion", on the stroke of midnight 31st December 2009, the sixty year lease on the independent Jewish settlement created on the Alaskan coast had expired. The Acting Mayor of the Federal District of Sitka Sarah Palin had reached a broad settlement with both the Tlingit Alaska Natives and also the Governments of Palestine and Jordan.

"Jerusalem, a city of blood and slogans painted on the wall, severed heads on telephone poles"Unsatisfied by the American lease, at the climax of World War Two Zionists sought to create a Jewish Homeland in Palestine. Their expectations had been unfairly raised by the Balfour Declaration, in which the British Government stated that whole of Mandatory Palestine would become the Jewish National Home. But by the time the State of Israel was declared, Britain was committed to the Hashemite Kingdom of Transjordan. Five Arab armies immediately attacked the new nation including the Arab Legion headed by a British Officer, John Glubb.

After months of savage fighting, an Arab Palestine State was created. But the so-called "West Bank" of Jordan, comprising East Jerusalem, Samaria and Judea remained Jordian "occupied territories". Jewish institutions and houses of worship were destroyed, and inhabitants expelled. And it was the grand children of those Palestinian refugees that travelled to Sitka who were now offered a right of return negotiated by Sarah Palin.

During the sixty years since the failed attempt to create a Jewish homeland in Israel, Sitka had thrived. Undoubtedly the high point of Jewish Civilization was the "Safety Pin", a tall building erected for the 1977 World Fair held in Sitka and a source of pride for its inhabitants.

Britain Rejects Marshall Plan

Todayinah Editor

In 1948 on this day the House of Commons vetoed British participation in the European Recovery Programme (ERP) known as "The Marshall Plan". And the Labour Government fell within days of the rejection of this agreement the Prime Minister Clement Attlee had personally negotiated.

The left-wing majority of Members of Parliament (MPs) were united in their objection to "undertake" all policies that would ensure the efficient and practical use of its economic resources recognising that such a commitment would provide US policymakers with sufficient grounds to obstruct the Socialist Government's nationalization plans.

Labour MP Leslie Solley had captured the sense of unease and frustration in the House by describing the ERP as a "disaster of the first magnitude for this country to sell its grand heritage for a mess of pottage". Communist Walter Hannington added that the terms "fundamentally undermine British economic and political independence" as "final control of British financial ... policy is now in US hands" and that they "afford endless opportunity to US big business to dominate and decide policy for Britain".

Trouble was that ERP was a one-size-fits all plan that directly exported US goods and commodoties directly to recovering nations, and hence the mission statement "All Our Colours to the Mast". Because the plan did not supply dollars Britain's key problem would remain unchanged - the nearly exhausted national fund of foreign exchange. What US policy makers did not expect was the next step taken by the British Government. Havingly only recently argued over the provisions of the Atlantic Charter some five short years before, the incoming Socialist Government was on the verge of defaulting on pre-war debts, announcing the closure of all overseas military bases and a compressed schedule for withdrawing from her colonies before the end of the decade.

Alaskan Missiles Crisis

Eric Lipps

In 1959 the "Alaskan Missile Crisis" begins, as U.S. President Adlai Stevenson learns that surveillance flights over Russia's North American territory have found that launch sites for intermediate-range nuclear ballistic missiles are under construction.

Ironically, The U.S. had had the chance to buy Alaska in 1867, but then-Secretary of State William H. Seward had been thwarted in his efforts to complete its purchase by opposition in the House of Representatives, which refused to appropriate the necessary funds. The offer had been withdrawn in March 1868.

A U.S. expeditionary force had briefly invaded Alaska following the 1917 Russian revolution, but had withdrawn following the armistice of Nov. 11, 1918.

Tomorrow Just Another Day

Todayinah Editor

In 1939 with the Union and the Confederacy on the verge of entering World War Two on different sides, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer released the explosively controversial movie Tomorrow is just another day. Even the title was sufficiently provocative, igniting a furious debate about multi-racial aspirations for equal citizenship, despite African-American's conspicious absence from the film (white actors and actresses were "blacked up").

Based on Margaret Mitchell's romantic novel of the same name, the story presents an unabashedly positive image of the South during the War of the States Rights.

"Knights and their Ladies Fair, of Master and of Slave"Mitchell herself acknowledged her inspiration from Thomas Dixon's famous novel "The Clansman" which was the basis of the film "The Birth of a Nation". In a letter to Dixon, Mitchell wrote in 1937: "I was practically raised on your books, and love them very much".

Of course within five short years of the films release, events would overtake the Confederacy which was dissolved at the climax of World War Two. A sharply revisionist account of the same story was presented in 1991 by Alexandra Ripley in the novel "Scarlett" and adapted into a television mini-series in 1994. Fifty years later, tensions were still visible, and the mini-series ommited scenes of Atlanta being burnt down in 1945, and, so it was rumoured, a suggestion to re-title the program "Gone with the Wind".

Howe Lives

Barry Cooper

In 1815 on this day Brigadier General George Augustus Howe (3rd Viscount Howe) was seriously injured by a musket ball whilst trying to capture Fort Carillon. Fortunately for the success of the North American campaign, this uniquely talent individual survived; his significance is emphasised by the description from James Wolfe (pictured) that Howe was "the best officer in the British Army"

Its not hard to imagine that, given the inaccuracy of the firearms of the day, Howe is not shot through the heart at Trout Brook. His leadership and aggressive style catch the French unawares, preventing them from digging in and inflicting horrendous loses on the English at Ticonderoga, forcing them to retire in semi-confusion.

"the best officer in the British Army" ~ James WolfeWhere would the British go from here? Unless you ascribe a longer career for Pitt the Elder, then things would not unfold much different than they did in OTL. Britain still kicks the French about in India, the Caribbean and North America. Havana falls much more quickly and with significantly less loss of life under a promoted Major-General Howe. Britain still gives back those bits of the globe that it carved off the Spanish Empire when the peace is signed.

The real repercussion would best be felt in the American Revolution. Howe, as a young (33 during the Seven Years War) general, famous for his victories during the war, could very likely have found himself governor of one of the colonies. Add his peerage and the influence that it brought to the mix and you have a man of considerable pull in domestic politics at home in England.

So, we have Agustus Howe (as opposed to his brother) in situ in the colonies when tensions begin to rise. It is unlikely that he could have avoided the war, but it is likely that several of his reforms would have been adopted by regular regiments stationed in the colonies, perhaps stimulating the creation of significant light infantry formations long before their inception during the conflicts with revolutionary France.

Even if Howe had been recalled to England at some point, it would be highly probable that he would be given command at some early point in war. He would have had much more respect for the irregular colonial "rangers" that he had lead in the Seven Years War, not discounting their effectiveness as did the British leaders in OTL. After all, he did mimic a lot of their tactics and skills during the Seven Years War, it is hard to believe that he would forget all the lessons he so eagerly assimilated then.

So, we have a charismatic and effective general who knows the territory and the people in North America. Loyalist sentiment would have probably been slightly increased in whatever colony he governed/had governed. We cannot discount the effective generals like Cornwallis that were also assigned to the theatre; we can only assume that they would be even more effective under the overall command of a man like Lord Howe.

Given this command structure, it is very likely that the Continental Army is routed. Howe would not make mistakes like letting Washington escape in Brooklyn. It is likely that Washington would have been killed or captured as opposed to being allowed to create the havoc that he did. With Washington out of the picture, the revolution was dead in the water, and the crown keeps control of the colonies for a bit longer.

Would this result in permanent British domination and loyalty to the Crown? Unlikely, but it might alter aspects of whatever American nation emerged from British North America. Given loyalist sentiment, colonies like New York might have stayed loyal if another revolution broke out. A more centralized colonial attempt that succeeded may have resulted in a far closer union of the colonies than we see pre-American Civil War in OTL.

It is possible that no "American" nation appeared at all. Without a massive immigration influx from Europe, the thirteen colonies may have ended up as Dominions like Canada. Spanish/French loss of the area known as Louisiana was almost preordained in the future, leaving Britain with significant territories than may never have rebelled at all.

The biggest aftershock of a failed revolution in America has been explored and explained in depth. The likelihood of a French revolution is far less certain in this event, although it is probable. No Napolean. No War of 1812. These are important enough, but they are not the only results by far.

No United States means the cessation of slavery in 1833. There would be no Civil War as we know it, although the Southern States would almost certainly have risen up against the Crown at that point if they had not done so before.

No Civil War means a slow down of military technology; no field testing of Gatling guns, no wide-spread use of breech loading rifles, no repeating rifles, and no ironclads. Doubtless these things would eventually be incorporated into militaries everywhere, but I believe that we can reasonably place a twenty year or so delay.

There would also be a lot more Native Americans around without an aggressive and expansionistic United States fulfilling its "manifest destiny". If an American nation did emerge at a later date, it would have given the Indians that much longer to multiply in numbers, adopt European weapons, and perhaps gain a closer and fairer patronage from Britain.

So, it all hinges on a musket ball shot at Trout Brook in July of 1758. Viscount Howe represented an adaptability and effervescence seldom seen in British generals at the time. There are no guarantees that he would have fundamentally changed North America and the British Army, but if anyone could have at that point in time, it was him.

Keeper of the Flame

Todayinah Editor

In 1943 on this day Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer's release of the satirical movie Keeper of the Flame ignited the national debate on America's non-participation in the Second Great War.

Katherine Hepburn played the wife of a famous national figure who secretly launches a coup d'état to overthrow the government of the United States. The protagonist, played by Spencer Tracy, was unmistakeably based on US President Charles Lindburgh. The reaction from America's ruling classes was both immediate and sharp, making the raging controversy that followed Citizen Kane look like a storm in a teacup.

Because the 1940 election had been won by the America First Party who strongly advocated an isolationist platform. Shortly after the election, the Pacific Fleet left Pearl Harbour and sailed back to San Diego. But then the Axis Powers rampaged over the continent of Eurasia and public opinion started to shift. Because trouble was it was not altogether certain that the Axis Powers's megalomaniac ambitious plans excluded the United States. And by then, the list of potential allies would likely to be absolutely zero. In fact, the writers of KofF were suggesting that America would be not so much isolationist, as fatally isolated.

As a former President, Lindburgh would later recover his reputation in the nineteen sixties and seventies by championing environmental and social causes. But at the time of KotF, his advocacy of isolation and engagement with Nazi Germany enabled Hollywood to portray him as a budding Nazi himself.

Defeat at New Orleans

Andrew Beane

In 1815 on this day American forces, led by General Andrew Jackson (pictured), surrendered to the British Army on the west bank of the Mississippi River, near Chalmette Plantation. After sixteen days of fighting, and fifteen days after the signing of the Treaty of Ghent that formally ended the so-called War of 1812, the British Empire scored a decisive victory against the United States.

In the early hours of January 8, British Major-General Edward Pakenham ordered a two-pronged assault against the remainder of Jackson's force. The American soldiers, who had been pushed to the west bank of the river, had no time to prepare earthwork defenses or artillery before the British assault. Lt-Col Thomas Mullins, the commander of Britain?s 44th (East Essex) Regiment of Foot, lead the main attack against Jackson under the cover of fog. Despite heavy losses on the part of British forces, the Americans were only able to mount minimal resistance. Major General Mullins was able to capture General Jackson and secure the west bank in time to fend off the newly-arrived American 7th Infantry.

This was a stunning victory for the British, after over two years of bitter fighting. The fall of New Orleans, which serves as the gateway to the Louisiana territory, places America?s western holdings in jeopardy. The British victory was so strong that it could effectively nullify the Treaty of Ghent. As British veterans from the recently-ended war against Napoleon Bonaparte begin to arrive in Louisiana, America will be forced to organize a properly-mobilized counter attack or risk a prolonged struggle against the British Crown.

Crushed at Saratoga

Todayinah Editor

In 1777 on this day in upstate New York, loyalist forces under the command of General George Washington triumphed at the Battle of Saratoga. And the revolt against the bicameral American Parliament led by the turncoat Benedict Arnold effectively ended with the crushing of his republican army.

Along with many of his peers, Washington had fought in the Seven Years War. And at the climax, the cash-strapped British Government had wisely reinforced the "historic rights of Englishmen" by offering representation alongside the necessary taxation to refill her Majesty's Coffers.

Arnold however had fallen under the influence of Thomas Paine, an extremist who argued that nothing less than full independence was due to Americans. Bizarrely, Paine was an atheist who used religious metaphors to express his republican view that "Government by kings was first introduced into the world by the Heathens ... It was the most prosperous invention the Devil ever set foot for the promotion of idolatry".

Disaster at Lake Champlain

Todayinah Editor

In 1814 on this day the American troops of Brigadier General Alexander Macomb (pictured) abandoned Lake Champlain. It was a decisive victory for the newly arrived British Army of Lieutenant General Sir George Prévost who split the New England states from the rest of the Union.

Two years before, the US Congress had been falsely informed that America was fighting the War of 1812 to secure her boundaries, namely "freedom of the seas" and relief from the incitement of native americans on its western frontier. Of course both war aims were objectives that could only be achieved by a forceful expression of military authority.

In reality, President James Madison had launched America's first war of expansion with the unrealistic expectation of annexing Canada. Such a decisive move would likely end the triangular security struggles in the north-east by forcing the British to finally accept the United States as a sovereign nation. Ironically, Benedict Arnold had come within a whisker of conquering Canada in 1775 when he had almost defeated a bigger British fleet to a standstill at the same location, on Lake Champlain. But the war had taken longer than expected and Madison's window of opportunity had been firmly closed now that America's long-term allies the French had been utterly crushed at Waterloo. Not only were the British surging with victory, they were able to release fresh forces to secure British North America. In Washington, it was even rumoured that none other than the victor of Waterloo, Duke of Wellington himself would be appointed Supreme Commander of British Forces in North America.

Had the outcome of the Battle of Lake Champlain been reversed, it was very possible that Great Britain might have finally accepted the United States as a sovereign nation. The trouble for Madison was that the British negotiators at Ghent could leverage Macomb's defeat to demand territorial claims against the United States on the basis of Uti possidetis by retaining territory they held at the end of hostilities. The second War of Independence had left America isolated, and at the mercy of a resurgent British Empire.

Escaping History

Todayinah Editor

In 1860 on this "frigid and stormy evening" the Presidential candidacy of Abraham Lincoln of Illinois was ripped apart by the tough crowd at the Great Hall of New York's newest college, Cooper Union. Because Lincoln had set himself the ambitious goal of convincing a demanding audience that he meant no threat to slavery whilst insisting that the institution itself was unmistakably evil.

His track record gave some cause for optimism that he could pull off this duplicity. Because in the Senatorial race two years before, in argument, he had at least equalled, if not bested the winning candidate Stephen A. Douglas. "His clothes hung awkwardly on his gaunt and giant frame; his face was of a dark pallor, without the slightest tinge of color; his seamed and rugged features bore the furrows of hardship and struggle. His deep-set eyes looked sad and anxious". However, outdoor "town hall" format meetings in rural Illinous were hardly a preparation for delivering a key note speech to the elite intelligentsia of New York City. And therein lie the cause for Lincoln's over-confidence.

The two hour session began badly, and got worse in a hurry. Over a quarter of the seats were empty as Lincoln lurched towards the platform. And starting his address with the dysfluent "Mr. Cheerman ..." in a discordant frontier twang, his high-pitch tone jolted every listener in the Great Hall.

When an unfavourable photograph was taken by Mathew Brady, the rhetorical disaster was complete. "Brady and Cooper Union cost me the presidency" summarised Honest Abe. To paraphrase his own later words, he had "escaped history" altogether.

Stabbed in the Back

Todayinah Editor

In 1918 an armistice on this day marked the end of the Great War. Notwithstanding the fact that the German High Command had succeeding in playing their "last card" and won, the gathering right-wing republican forces would soon topple the Imperial Government. They did so by fostering the "stab in the back" legend, that the Kaiser had saved his throne by accepting a loser's peace settlement whilst the German Army was undefeated in the field.

The defeat of Russia enabled the Germans to field an army of 2.5 million men on the Western Front. However, 1.5 million Germans had already died and the reality of their troop strength disguised the inexperience of the soldiers chosen for a final offensive. And yet the Western Allies were seriously worried, because the 191 divisions of the German Army were up against their combined force of only 178 divisions. At this point of decision, Ludendorff proposed the administration of a knockout blow before the US Army could arrive in strength.

And so on March 21st, German Artillery fired 1.2m shells at the British Third and Fifth Armies guarding the Somme. Fortunately for the Germans, a thick fog had appeared, allowing the German soldiers to quickly overrun the British positions.

And so history would record that it was Ferdinand Foch, the Marshal of France and Allied Supreme Commander who was forced to confront his political masters, and urgently request that an immediate armistice must be organized. The peace settlement that followed effectively restored Western Europe to its 1914 borders, enabling right-wingers to claim that the opportunity to overrun France, and gain a victor's settlement had been thrown away by the Kaiser.

Greek Misadventure

Todayinah Editor

In 1941 on this day the British Government lost a vote of confidence by just three votes triggering the immediate resignation of the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, Anthony Eden.

Eden had embarked on a long tour of the Middle East in a futile attempt to save the Balkans from Axis Occupation. In fact the decision to overrule military advice and intervene in the Balkans was Churchill's alone. Nevertheless both Field Marshall Sir John Dill and Commander-in-Chief (Middle East) Sir Archibald Wavell were both forced from position after the failure of the mission, a savage outcome that soured relations between the political and military leadership. First Eden, and shortly afterwards Churchill were on their way too.

"The decision to go to Greece was a political one and from the point of view of a professional it was a military nonsense" ~ Lt-Col BelchamOn returning to London, Eden was required to provide the House of Commons with a "full and as clear an account as I could of the events of the last two or three months", but instead gave a disasterous performance that required Churchill's intervention. "Nothing can excuse a disaster. It was due to very woolly thinking before it was launched" ~ Gen FreybergAnd his claim that the coup in Belgrade was orchestrated by British intelligence was exposed as a desperate lie to extract some value from the whole dismal episode. Worse, a golden opportunity to end the North Africa Campaign had been thrown away by the transfer of Allies forces to Greece.

"[The Balkan nations] are such a poor lot that they would only add to our military commitments and we should gain nothing." ~ Maj-Gen KennedyChurchill claimed that "everything in human power was done by us and that our honour as a nation is clear". Shortly afterwards the House voted on the motion "That this House approves the policy of His Majesty's Government in sending help to Greece and declares its confidence that our operations in the Middle East and in all other theatres of war will be pursued by the Government with the utmost vigour".

Having warned that Balkan states faced the isolated defeat of Scandinavian nations a year before, it now appeared that another fall of Government might in the offing after the defeat in the House of Commons. Because the German propaganda image of the Luftwaffe bombing the unprotected Acropolis (pictured) struck at the heart of the confidence issue, that the future of civilization was imperilled by the accident-prone leadership of Winston Churchill. His successor, Lord Halifax would sign an armistice with Hitler that would permit the Germans to concentrate on a common enemy, the Soviet Union.

Fly the White Flag

Todayinah Editor

In 1759 this day marked the withdrawal of the substantial British-American forces which had besieged the City of Quebec for three months. With the onset of fall, British Commanders had grown sufficiently desperate enough to attempt a dangerous amphibious landing at L'Anse-au-Foulon, a cove situated southwest of the city. But whilst scaleing the fifty metre cliffs, French-Canadian-Native forces had been alerted by the double agents upon whose intelligence the British had chosen the site, and the assault was repelled.

As the British-American forces withdrew, Quebec's defenders celebrated a great victory by waiving white flags, the colour of the Bourbon Monarchy in France. Because the whole of the St Lawrence Region had been to mobilized in order to defend the future of Canada.

Conversely, the outcome was a bitter disappointment to Jeffrey Amherst, the Supreme Commander of British Forces in North America. Whilst the original aim of the Seven Years War had been to simply to occupy the Ohio Valley, by 1758 Amherst was charged with no less a task than the conquest of Canada.

"To the best of my knowledge and ability, I have fixed upon that spot where we can act with most force and are most likely to succeed. If I am mistaken I am sorry for it and must be answerable to His Majesty and the public for the consequences"The transfer of vast forces to North America, by both Great Britain resulted in an unprecedented clash of the two rival empires. By the time of the amphibious assault on the French Fortress of Louisbourg, the Royal Navy had committed seventy vessels, twenty-four ships of the line, nineteen frigates, sloops and fireships plus one hundred and thirty transports carrying thirteen thousand men and two thousand pieces of ordinance. "Who would not go to Hell, to hear such music for half an hour?" ~ British sergeantOf course the defeat at Louisbourg was a catastrophe for Amherst's plans. But in fact, three boats did make it to a rocky inlet unprotected by French fire and secured a beach head. But the one hundred and fifty marines led by Brigadier James Wolfe and Master James Cook were defeated by troops sent by French Governor Augustin Drucour, who correctly guessed the small size of the landing force. And so neither of these uniquely talented officers were alive for the final showdown at Quebec City one year later.

"[Quiberon Bay] is the graveyard of our navy, the ruin of all our hopes" ~ King George II of EnglandUnbeknown to Amherst, but suspected by the more astute members of the War Office in London, British Forces had been recklessly overcommitted to overseas engagements. And this imperial overstretch would have truly catastrophic consequences for the British Empire. Because on November 20th, the home fleet of British admiral Sir Edward Hawke was destroyed off the French coast at Quiberon Bay. Sealanes to the British Isles were undefended, and a force of just fourteen thousand regulars stood between the Pretender Charles and the restoration of the House of Stuart.

Northern Armageddon

Todayinah Editor

In 1727 on this day the ruthless British General James Peter Wolfe was born in Westerham, Kent.

A life-long military career began at the age of just thirteen when he volunteered for his father's first Marine regiment. But the moment when Wolfe exploded on the world stage was the summer of 1759. As a thirty-two year old General, Wolfe was responsible for the capture of Quebec, the pivotal military decision which ensured that the future of North America would be determined by the British.

"I propose to set the town on fire with shells, to destroy the harvest, houses and cattle, both above and below, to send off as many Canadians as possible to Europe and to leave famine and desolation behind me; but we must teach these scoundrels to make war in a more gentleman like manner" The Supreme Commander of French Forces in North America, the Marquis de Montcalm, believed that Quebec was an "impregnable Gibraltar of the New World". And so it seemed, after months of vicious fighting througout the St Lawrence River region. In desperation, Wolfe attempted a "back door" strategy of sneaking troops over the cliffs at the Plains of Abraham. And yet the information provided by "French turncoats" was in fact the work of double agents, and the amphibious assault failed in fifteen minutes of battle.

By now Wolfe fully understood the unique history of Quebec, realising the French would never give up the city. Because founder Champlain and only eight men survived the first Quebec winter, a sign of the enduring French commitment to the settlement. Accordingly, Wolfe carried out his threat to execute a "Northern Armaggedon". Because Quebec City was destroyed, and its population expelled.

Seventeen years later, Wolfe was appointed Supreme Commander of British Forces in North America. The ruthless prosecution of his orders to suppress "the troubles" on the East Coast would still provoke intense emotions two hundred and fifty years later.

United Columbia

Todayinah Editor

In 1797 on this day the proclaimation of a new state called United Columbia marked the end of a revolt against the British authorities in Lower Canada.

Unbeknown to the British, American ring-leader David McLane of Rhode Island had been masquerading as a Jewish-American horse trader, known in the Richelieu Valley under the false name of "Jacob Felt". Accompanied by his French translator Charles Frechette, McLane had not been trading horses, rather he had been hatching a sophisticated plot. Because a drink mixed with laudanum (opium syrup) was distributed to the troops in Quebec garrison, putting them to sleep, so that they could easily be overwhelmed by McLane's five hundred Canadian rebel volunteers.

But McLane's actions were only a small part of a larger plan formed by the new revolutionary governments of France and America. The previous year, the Olive Branch had sailed from France to America carrying twenty-thousand muskets and twenty-four pieces of artillery to arm Vermonters and French Canadians for the uprising. And fifteen thousand Vermonters had massed at the US border, led by the well-known radical and separatist Ira Allen (pictured). Known as the "Metternich of Vermont", Allen travelled to France in 1795, and obtained French army intervention for seizing Canada.

American Flagg

Todayinah Editor

In 1864 on this day Walt Whitman (pictured as a young man) formed a Centennial Recovery Committee, promising to get America "back on track for '76".

His candidacy for US President was declared in the city of Philadelphia, the poet's home for the past three years.

Because Whitman had been in Washington City on that dreadful day after the defeat at Mannassas Junction. "The defeated [Union] troops commenced pouring over the Long Bridge at daylight, returning to Washington baffled, humiliated, panic-struck." ~ Walt Whitman

Confederate forces had seized the old Capital, and in the ensuing chaos, as the US Government fled the City, Abraham Lincoln was assassinated by the deranged stage actor John Wilkes Booth.

And so Whitman had arrived in Philadelphia, the new capital of the Union. Very shortly, campaign posters would start to appear, making the bold announcement that "Somebody's go to put it all back together ... Walt Whitman just might be the man".

Crucifixion Day

Todayinah Editor

In 1861 amidst the chaotic evacuation of the US Government from Washington City on this day, US President Abraham Lincoln was shot dead by a deranged stage actor, John Wilkes Booth (pictured).

Chaos had ensued the moment that defeated Union forces returned from the Battle of Bull Run. Because in the first (and last) major land battle of the American Civil War, General Irvin McDowell's Union forces had been routed at Manassas Junction.

"We have whipped them! They ran like sheep! Give me 5,000 fresh men and I will be in Washington City tomorrow!" ~ "Stonewall" JacksonWorse was to come. Fast on the heels of the defeated Union Army of Northeastern Virginia was an advance force of five thousand Confederate troops led by "Stonewall" Jackson, considered by many to be the architect of the victory at Bull Run. By mid afternoon, a battery of rifled guns had been established on Arlington Heights, and the first elements of the Army of North Virginia were crossing the Long Bridge.

It was a far cry from the high hopes of US Congressmen who had taken up the cry of: "On to Richmond!". Because the only one of them who actually made it there, Alfred Ely of New York, did so as a prisoner.

Gorbachev Executed

Andrew Beane

In 1991 former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev was executed in front of a Soviet Army firing squad in Red Square this morning, according to the USSR's Interior Ministry. Gorbachev had been arrested on August 18th of this year for crimes against the Soviet Union, including undermining the Soviet economy and giving military secrets to the West. Soviet President Gennady Yanayev used the occasion to reassure the Soviet people that the Communist Party (CPSU) remained firmly in control, and the damage caused by Gorbachev's Glasnost and Perestroika programs would be swiftly rectified.

This ended a series of high-profile executions, starting on August 21st with the assassination of Boris Yeltsin, then the newly elected President of the Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic. Yeltsin had been arrested on August 17th after his return from a trip to Kazakhstan, though he had yet to be charged with a specific crime. Yeltsin's assassin was an unidentified man that shot himself before he could be subdued.

Efforts to remove Gorbachev from power and restore the nation to its once-mighty status began in December of 1990, when members of Gorbachev's government quietly conspired to create the need for the declaration of a state of emergency in the USSR. The State Committee of the State of Emergency, headed by Yanayev and seven other former members of Gorbachev's administration, seized upon the instability caused by the slow break-up of the union and ordered the arrest of Gorbachev and other "western conspirators". At the height of the crisis, the Soviet Army invaded and recaptured the Baltic States (Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania).

American President George Bush condemned the execution, saying that Gorbachev had been the greatest hope for peace between the USSR and the West, and that the dead leader would live on "the hearts and minds of the people who so long had to strive for their God-given rights." Deng Xiaoping, leader of the Peoples' Republic of China, applauded the "halt of the USSR's capitulation to the West," and expressed hope that Moscow would follow China's example of "market socialism."

Death of Chaplin

Eric Lipps

In 1977 legendary silent-film star Charlie Chaplin died at his home in Hollywood. He was 88.

In 1952, following a visit to his native country, the British-born actor had been barred from re-entering the U.S. due to his left-wing political associations. Popular outcry forced the U.S. government to relent, and Chaplin returned to Hollywood on December 6 of that year. Like other actors whose politics resulted in their blacklisting, he would eventually return to films; he would make a brief appearance as a mute servant in the movie version of A Funny Thing Happened on the Way To the Forum alongside the former blacklistee Zero Mostel. In his last years, however, he would become increasingly reclusive, avoiding contact even with family members.

Off with Catherine's Head

Todayinah Editor

In 1940 on this day in the British House of Commons the "Narvik Debate" closed with a vote of "no confidence" that the Government of Neville Chamberlain narrowly survived. The Prime Minister was forced to make a number of concessions. His keynote proposal to create a new position of "Chairman of the Military Co-ordinating Committee of the Cabinet" was scrapped. And the preferred candidate was dismissed from his post of First Lord of the Admiralty, although he would later accept the consolation prize of becoming the "Duke of London".

The Western Allies had taken the offensive after the appointment of incoming French Prime Minister Paul Reynaud, on a limited scale, at least. Because neutral nations had been appalled that Poland had been left to its fate. Deciding against sending an Expeditionary Force to Finland, and risk a declaration of war from the Soviet Union, the Western Allies had settled on Norway as the place to make a stand. Because vital supplies of Nazi iron passed through the port of Narvik, a decision was made to use their superior naval forces to launch a pre-emptive strike that would hurt the German War Effort and also score a miliary victory for the West.

"Churchill has allowed himself to be converted into an air-raid shelter to keep the splinters from hitting his colleagues" ~ David Lloyd GeorgeThe attack in February was a resounding success, achieving both an irreversible occupation of Norway, and also a damaging blow to German supplies. In contrast, the Baltic Sea offensive by the Royal Navy was a catastrophe of the highest magnitude. A substantial naval squadron had been lost, comprising three Revenge class battleships, an aircraft carrier, five cruisers, two destroyer flotillas, submarines and supporting auxiliaries. Worse, the battleships had required significant modification to resist air and submarine attack. Two 15-inch gun turrets had to be removed, and an additional two thousand tons of armour added that had to be stolen from other pressing military applications.

"Depart, I say, and let us have done with you. In the name of God, go!" ~ Leo AmoryThe architect of "Project Catherine" was of course the hot-headed warmonger, Winston S. Churchill who foolishly anticipated that a show of force would encourage the Scandinavian nations to join the war against Germany. The impact of air power had been under-estimated in the plan, and in fact this flaw had been identified by the First Sea Lord Admiral Sir Dudley Pound during the planning phase. And yet Churchill had ignored those concerns. Acting over-boldly as a result of the successful capture of Narvik, Churchill had even failed to realised that Project Catherine had become largely redundant because the iron ore shipments had already been stopped.

That Churchill could be capable of such a blunder was of little surprise to many. Throughout his long-career, he had held many of the high offices of state, leaving all of those positions in a frightful mess. As Home Secretary, he had personally taken charge of the Siege of Sidney Street, a notorious gunfight in London's East End in 1911. During his first spell as First Lord of the Admiralty, he had orchestrated the disasterous Gallipoli Campaign which had forced his exit from the Government (he spent the next few months seeing action on the Western Front). And later, as Chancellor of the Exchequer, he had placed Britain back on the Gold Standard in a misguided attempt to set the clock back to 1914.

Terminal illness would soon end the Premiership of Chamberlain. His successor Lord Halifax would be roundly criticised by Churchill from the backbenchers for concluding an armistice with Germany in 1941. In retrospect, it was an insightful decision, because not only did Britain stand undefeated with many of its war aims achieved, but such a settlement allowed the Nazis to focus on the extermination of Communism, an outcome which Churchill himself had advocated during the Russian Civil War.

Unrelenting War

Todayinah Editor

In 1861 the Army of North Virginia seized the armoury at Harper's Ferry, pausing only briefly to pay respects at the graveside of Robert E. Lee, the late Brevet Colonel of the 2nd U.S. Cavalry. Had murderous abolitionist John Brown not shot him dead during the infamous raid two years before, Lee himself might well have been in command the Confederate Forces, leading a conventional invasion of the North in his own audacious style.

Fortunately for the Southern States, Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson (pictured) was in charge, a uniquely gifted officer who did not believe that the heroic acceptance of battlefield casaulties would force a decision. Instead, Jackson's strategy of "Unrelenting War" was to bypass Union armies and strike at Northern weaknesses, its undefended factories, farms and railroads. His genius was to realise that the Confederacy, with only a third of the population, and eleventh percent of the national infrastructure, needed to fight an unconventional war if it was to prevail, by breaking the back of Northern morale.

"to [make the North] understand what it will cost them to hold the South in the Union at the bayonet's point"CSA President Jefferson Davis preferred a defensive approach, foolishly believing that Great Britain or France would intervene to guarantee the supply of cotton for their mills. However the European Nations were carrying heavy stocks of cotton, and he had been forced to reconsider Jackson's assertion that the North might be forced "to understand what it will cost them to hold the South in the Union at the bayonet's point". That difference of opinion had cost Davis the Southern leadership, and his successor, Albert Sidney Johnson authorised the new policy of "unrelenting war".

And so the Army of North Virginia headed north, intent on seizing the major rail-heads at Baltimore and Philadelphia. Such an assault was of great surprise to US President Abraham Lincoln, whose chief fear was that Jackson would seize Washington. By deploying his forces to protect the capitol, he unwillingly allowed Jackson to strike at the North's supply and communications.

That Coming Storm

Todayinah Editor

In 1886 the Government of Ireland (Home Rule) Bill 1886 narrowly passed through the House of Commons by a margin of 341 for with 311 voting against.

The passage of the act was a personal triumph for Liberal Prime Minister William Gladstone (pictured) who had beseeched parliament to grant Home Rule to Ireland in honour rather than being compelled to one day in humiliation. And yet the result was not due to his famous Irish Home Rule speech, rather the fruit of his decision to engage both Irish MPs and his own ministers for participation in the drafting of the text.

"Think, I beseech you, think well, think wisely, think, not for the moment, but for the years that are to come, before you reject this Bill"The reaction from Unionists and the Orange Order was even more fierce than expected; their belief that the Roman Catholic Church would gain political control over their interests led to the coining of the term "Rome Rule". Because as his carriage rumbled over the cobblestones of Palace Yard that evening, William Gladstone was shot dead by an unmarked gunman.

"Ireland! Ireland! That Coming Storm!"The Ulster Unionist Leader Colonel Saunderson scribbled a note to his wife saying "Rome Rule is dead, but not yet buried". And the day of humiliation that Gladstone had predicted was not long in coming, although utterly different to what he imagined. Because as party leaders paid tribute to his open coffin in Westminister Hall, a brisk trade in chamberpots displaying his image was reported in Belfast.

Bring it on Home

Todayinah Editor

In 1792 on this day at the Port of Dover in Kent, republican intellectual Thomas Paine was arrested on charges of seditious libel.

Paine had been charged with "inflammatory eloquence" at a gathering of the "Friends of Liberty" on September 12th. As he rose to leave, William Blake laid his hand on the orator's shoulder, saying, "You must not go home, or you are a dead man".

"Government by kings was first introduced into the world by the Heathens ... It was the most prosperous invention the Devil ever set foot for the promotion of idolatry"Paine planned to flee the country along with his companions Frost and Audibert. However, they never made it to France because the collector of customs had received general instructions to be vigilant, and searched the three men, even to their pockets. Whereupon sealed letters were discovered, given into Paine's charge by the American minister in London, Charles Cotesworth Pinckney. One letter was addressed to the American minister at Paris, the other to a private gentleman; a letter from the president of the United States, and a letter from the secretary of State in America. Whilst his friends attempted to intercede on his behalf, Paine's warrant arrived and he was put under arrest. Had he arrived just twenty minutes earlier, Paine would most likely have missed the order and made it to Revolutionary France.

"What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly"On 18th December Paine was charged at The Guildhall, London, that he "being a person of a wicked, malicious and seditious disposition" etc "did publish that the crown of this kingdom was contrary to the rights of the inhabitants" and so forth. The Attorney-General, who prosecuted, said that he would not read out the many "false, wicked and scandalous assertions" but would read only a few more, such as "to inherit a crown is to inherit the people, as if they were flocks and herds." The famous Thomas Erskine defended Paine but the carefully selected jury, which received two guineas each and a free dinner for a conviction and nothing otherwise, decided to return a verdict of guilty. Paine was hung, and laws were soon passed to restrict free speech and publication. Almost inevitably, martyrdom transformed Paine into a rallying point for English revolutionaries. And so after his death, his revolutionary agenda would overthrow the British monarchy.

During the 1960s, Socialist Prime Minister Tony Benn would often refer to Paine's punchy political language and his inspirational quest for accountable government, presenting copies of Common Sense, Rights of Man and The Age of Reason to the Heads of State from Developing Nations.

Vanderlip Concession

Todayinah Editor

In 1920 on this day a representative of the US Government, Washington D. Vanderlip signed a sixty-year lease of the Far Eastern Kamchatka Peninsula with the Russian Soviet regime. Officially, Vanderlip had been dispatched to Moscow by the State Department with instructions to secure important oil and mining concessions. But at the time, the decision was a matter of little significance for the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (RSFSR), who only occupied but a small fraction of the dissolved Russian Empire, and because the territory was nominally controlled by a a bourgeois-democratic state, the Far Eastern Republic.

The capitalist impressario Vanderlip had exceeded his authority, intending to gift the peninsula to President Harding in the manner of an Oriental Monarch. Even when the Moscow authorities insisted on a lease, rather than a purchase, he exclaimed gleeful "I have joined the frontiers of Russia and America!". And yet from a military perspective, it was a smart move for Bolshevist Premier Lenin (pictured) who wanted to stave off war with Japan. America also saw a cut-price opportunity for building a deep-water port at Petropavlovsk. This geopolitical reality was openly acknowledged at the Eighth All-Russia Congress of Soviets on December 7th, when Lenin declared that the United States required a base in Asia "in view of an eventual war with Japan".

"I have joined the frontiers of Russia and America!" ~ Washington D. VanderlipIn fact, Imperialists had recognised the military value of the peninsula for over seventy years. In 1854, the French and British, who were battling Russian forces on the Crimean Peninsula, attacked Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky. During the Siege of Petropavlovsk, 988 men with a mere 68 guns managed to defend the outpost against 6 ships with 206 guns and 2,540 French and British soldiers.

Trouble was, the lease did spark a four-year long Pacific War between Japan and America. Because in 1937, Admiral Isoroku Yamomoto designed a pre-emptive strike on Petropavlovsk, which the Imperial Japanese Government considered to be an unacceptable strategic threat, "a dagger to our throat". With the blessings of the Prime Minster Tojo, Yamomoto put the plan to attack Petropavlovsk into motion. Yamomoto selected Vice Admiral Chuich Nagumo to lead the fleet. The fleet consisted at its core of six aircraft carriers: Akagi, Hiryu, Kaga, Shokaku, Soryu and Zuikaku. The six carriers had 420 planes between them. Escorting the six carriers were eleven destroyers, two battleships, two heavy cruisers, one light cruiser, three submarines and eight tankers. Twenty other submarines joined the group before they arrived at their destination at Petropavlovsk.

Whilst America was fully engaged in the Far East, Nazi Germany was expanding unchecked. Having hardly advanced in twenty turbulent years, by 1941, the RSFSR was still a malformed state, not much bigger than one of its predecessor states, the Principality of Muscovy. Unable to resist the Wehrmacht, the RSFSR collapsed, and Western Russia was annexed by Hitler.

Damned Near Run Thing

Todayinah Editor

In 1812 on this day the forces of British North America suffered a catastrophic defeat in Beasleyville¹, Southern Ontario at the hands of the invading US Army led by turncoat general Arthur Wellesey.

Wellesley noted in his diary that the American victory was "a damn near run thing, the nearest run thing you ever saw in your life. By God! I don't think it would have done if I had not been there". In truth, the finely balanced battle only went in the American favour with the arrival of the French army, led by General Bonaparte, late in the day.

Nevertheless, defeat put an end to British rule over Upper Canada, the territory formerly known as New France, and Ontario itself was later admitted as a state of the Union.

Blackwater Help

Todayinah Editor

In 2009 on this day Mr Gordon R. England, the Under Secretary of Defence for Military Outsourcing signed a multi-billion dollar "No Bid" contract with the American security company Xe Services (formerly Blackwater International).

Since contracted guards had participated in CIA raids on suspected militants in both Iraq and Afghanistan, the contract award was considered a logical next step in the "small military footprint" objective laid down by former Secretary of Defence Donald Rumsfeld. This strategem had been validated by a review of military strategy conducted after President John S. McCain's inauguration, because Pentagon benchmarking exercises had determined that the raids revealed a need for a greater level of involvement between the agency and Xe Services than previously considered necessary.

Founder and sole owner of the company, Mr Erik D. Prince confirmed that Xe were "delighted to receive a new contract to participate in covert raids with CIA and Special Operations".

Dubya leaves Gitmo

Todayinah Editor

In 2009 President of the Islamic States of America Barack X ordered the federal government to buy a prison in Illinois to take a number of inmates from Guantanamo Bay.

The move is a key part of a federal plan to close the Cuba-based jail. Senior officials said security would be upgraded, making Thomson Correctional Center the most secure jail in the country. The number of inmates for transfer to the Thomson has not been given officially, but IS media report it could be between 35 and 90, expected to include a number of "war on terror" criminals from the former United States Government led by George W. Bush.

Tzipi Livni arrested

Todayinah Editor

In 2009 on this day former Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni was arrested in London, England for war crimes allegedly committed during the Gaza assault the previous winter. The warrant was granted at the request of Palestinian plaintiffs under the principle of universal jurisdiction, which holds that some alleged crimes are so grave that they can be tried anywhere, regardless of where the offences were committed.

The British Foreign Secretary Claire Short said Israel was a "rogue state" and stressed she was keen to ensure that "this [genocide] can never ever happen again. We are determined to protect and develop ties with the Palestinian Government. Israeli leaders must expect to face the consequences of violating international law".

"This is not a suit against Tzipi Livni, this is a lawsuit against Israel. This is a lawsuit against any state that exports terror" ~ British Government.Prime Minister Avigdor Lieberman said the situation was "an absurdity. We will not accept a situation in which [former Israeli Prime Minister] Ehud Olmert, [Defence Minister] Ehud Barak and Tzipi Livni will be summoned to the defendants' chair," Mr Lieberman said in a statement. "We will not agree to have Israel Defence Force soldiers, who defended the citizens of Israel bravely and ethically against a cruel and criminal enemy, be recognised as war criminals. We completely reject this absurdity taking place in Britain," he said.

Israel denies claims by human rights groups and the UN investigator Richard Goldstone that its forces committed war crimes during the operation, which it said was aimed at ending Palestinian rocket fire at its southern towns. Mr Goldstone is currently investigating allegations made by Mr Lieberman that Saddam Husseins' weapons of mass destruction were trans-shipped to Gaza City by way of Iran.

Invincible

Todayinah Editor

In 2009 on this day the controversial movie Invictus (Latin: Invincible) premiered in theatres across North America. Expecting a "larger than life" tribute, cinema goers were shocked to discover that director Clint Eastwood had abandoned form by portraying an alternate timeline in which Nelson Mandela's personal and political fortunes are dashed in a decade-long South African tragedy.
Click to watch the Movie Trailer on Youtube

Trouble begins early in the movie with the breakdown of his second marriage to wife Winnie. And in a scene intended to symbolize the frustation of white disempowerment, the national cricket captain Hansie Cronje spears an umpire's dressing room door with a wicket stump. As the country heads towards Civil War, Mandela seeks out a national symbol that will heal the wounds of apartheid by acting as a platform upon which he can build a new "Rainbow Nation".

Mandela appeals to iconic cricket captain Hansie Cronje to win the world cup for all forty-three million South Africans. But unbeknown to the President, the national cricket team is gripped by a match-fixing scandal, organised by none other than Cronje himself.

Alongside Cronje is the trusted figure of Bob Woolmer. A famous English batsman from the nineteen seventies, he was appointed coach of South Africa in 1994. Initially his team performed poorly, losing all six matches on his first outing in Pakistan. However, in the next five years, South Africa won most of their Test (10 out of 15 series) and One Day International matches (73%). Having the highest ODI success rate among international teams in that period, Woolmer assures Mandela that a South African victory is more than possible.

Shortly after Mandela travels to England for the tournament, the United Cricket Board of South Africa deny that any of their players were involved in match-fixing. Cronje then falsely claims that "the allegations are completely without substance". But just two days before the inaugural match, Cronje is sacked as captain after confessing to the Head of the UCBSA Ali Bacher that he has not been "entirely honest". He admits accepting between $10,000 and $15,000 from a London-based bookmaker for "forecasting" results, not match fixing, during the recent one day series. Three other players: Herschelle Gibbs, Nicky Boje and Pieter Strydom are also directly implicated.

The final scene of the movie is heavy with symbolism because Cronje's plane crashes into the Outeniqua mountains northeast of George airport, and the disgraced captain dies, aged just thirty-two.

The Day After

Todayinah Editor

In 1759 on this day the home fleet of British admiral Sir Edward Hawke was destroyed off the French coast at Quiberon Bay (portrayed in "The Day After" by the artist Richard Wright). It was a strategic masterstroke for the French Government whose forces were facing impending expulsion from North America, West Africa and India. Because Foreign minister Duc de Choiseul's options had narrowed to the one significant reprisal on offer - an attack on Britain itself.

Ironically, the tactical failures at St Nazaire were also the result of over-boldness. Because under full sail, Hawke had chased the French fleet through the rocks and shoals that stretch south from the end of the Quiberon peninsula into the confined waters of the Bay of Quiberon itself with night approaching in an onshore gale, despite having no charts, pilots or any foreknowledge of the waters.

"Where there was passage for the enemy, there was passage for me. We are so close, their pilots will be mine. If they go to pieces on the shore, they shall become our beacons" ~ Admiral HawkeAdmiral Conflans received fresh orders to transport a diversionary force of twenty thousand troops to Glasgow, luring English regiments north. Meanwhile, a further twenty thousand troops set sail for Maldon in Essex, whilst a third force descended upon Ireland. Had Duc de Choiseul received better military intelligence, he would have surely realised that a single assault upon Maldon would have sufficed.

"[Quiberon Bay] is the graveyard of our navy, the ruin of all our hopes" ~ King George II of EnglandPanic soon set in when news of the naval disaster arrived at the War Department in London. Due to the imperial overstretch placed on the one hundred twenty-five regiments of the British Army, only fourteen thousand regulars were immediately available for the defence of the realm. And the breathtaking news that Charles Stuart was aboard the French Flagship Soleil Royal prevented the War Office from raising militias for fear that a Jacobite Fifth Column would form.

We were made for this

Todayinah Editor

In 2010 on this day the Prime Minister of Canada became personally involved in the First Nations' demonstrations which were severely disrupting the Winter Olympics in Vancouver.

Ironically, many Canadians were displeased with the look of the new Olympic mascots because they represented a minority population of Vancouver, being inspired by traditional First Nations creatures such as the sasquatch. And surely the protests were in stark constrast to the official image (pictured) "We Were Made for This".
Watch the Youtube Video

The first sign that the smooth operation of Games would be imperilled appeared the previous December at the Assembly of First Nations special chiefs assembly. Because Indian Affairs Minister Chuck Strahl was presented with an ultimatum which warned the Olympics would face a prolonged campaign of disruptions unless the federal government immediately moved to resolve long-standing grievances. The chiefs had demanded the federal government commit to supporting major improvements to native education. Bill Erasums, AFN regional chief for the Northwest Territories, warning, "They have told the minister that he will have to work with the people ... [or] they will do it. There will be roadblocks, and other things".

Fortunately for the organizers, athletes were mostly unaffected because Security Forces had constructed a Baghdad-style Green Zone around the Olympic Village, but protestor's road-blocks largely prevented spectators from arriving in good time for the events. And worse, the Games were a media disaster, with televised coverage portraying a Government locked in a bitter dispute with "a country within a country". Because a terrible truth that had remained partially hidden for so long, was suddenly thrust into the public spotlight, and there was almost nothing the Canadian Government could do about it. That truth was the broad diversity celebrated by recent Canadian immigrants had never been extended to those that were here first, the First Nations. And the question was, did the Federal Government of Canada have the right to host the Olympics, because surely only an owner can invite guests to their property.

A wildcard emerged to break the long-standing deadlock. Because Head of Government Stephen Harper had been recently replaced by Raymond Chan, the first ethnic Chinese to be appointed into the cabinet, after winning the riding of Richmond in the 1993 federal election. Recognised that the history of the Chinese in Canada was every bit as horrific as their own tragedy, Special chiefs accepted Chan's good word to address the matters presented in the ultimatum.

Toast to Peace

Todayinah Editor

In 2009 on this day US President Barack Obama accepted the Nobel Peace Prize less than one month after Taliban insurgents finally overthrew the stooge Afghan Government installed by his predecessor, George W. Bush.

On October 9th the Norwegian Nobel Committee had announced that Obama had won the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize "for his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples". By that time, the President had refocused the Afghan mission on reconciliation projects, aimed at ending the war through diplomatic and political means. In so doing, Obama had abandoned the failed attempt to bring the leaders of the 9/11 attacks to justice. And by that stage, the objective of bringing "sustainable security to the people of Afghanistan" was almost universally considered unachievable.

In his acceptance speech, Obama openly acknowledged that he did not feel that he deserved to be in the company of so many transformative figures that have been honoured by this prize.

Republic with a Price

Gerry Shannon

In 1921 on this day both the Irish and British government delegates sign the Anglo-Irish Treaty at Downing Street; thereby bringing an end to a conflict between British forces and Irish militants across the island of Ireland since April 1916, not to mention seven centuries of occupation of the British government over it's island neighbour.

Days after the Truce that had ended the Anglo-Irish War, the President of the Irish Republic, Eamon De Valera met British Prime Minister Lloyd George in London four times in the week starting 14th July. Lloyd George sent his initial proposals on 20th July that were quite a departure from the Treaty that was eventually signed. This was followed by months of delay until October, when the Irish delegates set up headquarters in 22 Hand Pace, Knightsbridge.

The first two weeks of the negotiations were spent in formal sessions. Upon the request of De Valera and his Secretary of State for Finance (and Director of Intelligence in the Irish Republican Army), Michael Collins, the two delegations began informal negotiations, in which only two members of each negotiation team were allowed to attend (pictured). On the Irish side, these members were always Collins and De Valera, while on the British side, Neville Chamberlain always attended, though the second British negotiator would vary from day to day.

In late November, the Irish delegation returned to Dublin as per De Valera's promise to his cabinet colleagues to consult them, and again on 3rd December. Many points still had to be resolved, mainly surrounding the unionist allegiance to an Irish republic, but it was clear to all the politicians involved by this stage that it was not an option to partition the country into two states, north and south; thereby granting the unionist minority a majority in a six-county Northern Ireland state.

Collins, who would emerge in the new government as Commander of the Irish Republican Army, said later that at the last minute Lloyd George reminded his own delegation of a renewal of a "terrible and immediate war" from the Irish republicans if the Treaty was not signed at once. However, this was not mentioned as a fear in the Irish memorandum about the close of negotiations, merely a reflection of the reality; given the British forces having become increasingly overwhelmed by IRA activities across Ireland within the last few years.

Among noteworthy clauses of the Treaty were:

British forces would withdraw from Ireland.
The new country shall be known as the Republic of Ireland, and consist of the thirty-two counties of the island.
It's parlimament, known as Dáil Eireann, would be responsible for governance and public services.
Northern Ireland would not have the option of withdrawing from the Irish Republic once the Treaty came into effect. Instead, the elected representatives of the unionist minority were obliged to take their seats in the new Irish parliament.
The Treaty would have superior status in Irish law, i.e., in the event of a conflict between it and the new 1922 constitution of the Irish Republic, the treaty would take precedence.

In Dublin, Vice-President of the Irish Republic, Arthur Griffith called a cabinet meeting to discuss the treaty on 8th December, the Vice-President himself supporting the Treaty as signed. The cabinet decided unanimously to recommend the Treaty to the Dáil on 14th December.

The Dáil voted to approve the Treaty, but this vote was problematic given the unionist minority, led by Edward Carson, still refused to recognize the government of the Irish Republic and were listed as being absent. The brewing discontent between nationalists and unionists would soon lead to the Irish Civil War. The refusal of the Irish delegation to allow the creation of a Northern Ireland state for the unionist minority would be a serious point of consternation between both sides; reverberating in conflicts political, social and violent for decades to follow.

Nobel Peace Prize Winner

Eric Lipps

In 2009 former U.S. President Al Gore accepted the Nobel Peace Prize for his actions in support of measures to combat global climate change, which include persuading a bitterly divided U.S. Senate to ratify the Kyoto Protocols in 2003 and directing tens of billions of dollars in federal money toward the development of so-called "green" energy technologies.

Conservatives in the United States are outraged, asserting that Gore is being rewarded for promoting "harmful solutions to a nonexistent problem". Among the loudest critics is former Texas governor George W. Bush, whom Gore had defeated in the contested 2000 presidential election after Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy cast the deciding vote in Bush v. Gore which allowed manual recounting of disputed ballots in Florida to proceed. Mr. Bush had been a frequent critic of Gore Administration policies and had emerged as an outspoken skeptic on the subject of human-caused global warming.

Birth of a Fanatic

Todayinah Editor

In 1800 on this day the "the most controversial of all 19th-century Americans" John Brown was born in Torrington, Connecticut. Branded a "misguided fanatic" by Abraham Lincoln, he advocated and practiced armed insurrection as a means to end all slavery, leading the Pottawatomie Massacre in Bleeding Kansas and also the raid at Harpers Ferry.

In 1859, Brown conceived a master plan to end slavery. From a base in the Appalachian Mountains, raids would be launched into Virginia, Tennessee and Alabama, causing black uprisings to spread thoughout the South. But first the raiders had to seize the thousands of rifles and muskets in the stores of the the United States Arsenal at Harpers Ferry in Virginia.

On October 17th, a small force of sixteen whites and five blacks stormed the armoury. Stopping a Baltimore and Ohio Railroad train that passing was through, the raiders made good their escape, along with a huge cache of weapons. In pursuit was a company of US Marines, led by Brevet Colonel Robert E. Lee of the 2nd U.S. Cavalry. The clash of forces is considered by many to be the first blow of the Civil War.

Hero of Harper's Ferry

Todayinah Editor

In 1859 on this day a company of US Marines intercepted a hijacked Baltimore & Ohio train in West Virginia. Onboard was a stolen cache of weapons which had been seized from the United States Arsenal at Harpers Ferry by a band of murderous abolitionists. Their leader, "Captain" John Brown (pictured, left) advocated and practiced armed insurrection as a means to end slavery, having led the infamous Pottawatomie Massacre at "Bleeding Kansas".

During the fierce fire fight that ensued, Brown and his two sons Owen and Oliver were all killed.

Modern history would malign the anti-hero of Harper's Ferry as a demented dreamer, a special category of terrorists reserved for the likes of Timothy McVeigh and Osama Bin Laden. Because an African-American baggage handler on the train named Hayward Shepherd had confronted the raiders but was rescued by the timely intervention of Brevet Colonel Robert E. Lee of the 2nd U.S. Cavalry (pictured, right).

The brave rescue of a freed slave made Lee a national hero, and the award of a Badge of Military Merit doubtless influenced his later decision to accept the command of Union forces during the brief War of the States in 1861-2.

In his memoirs, President Abraham Lincoln acknowledged that Lee's style of audacious military leadership had saved the lives of a great many peace-loving Americans. Because at Bull Run, Lee forced an early, decisive battlefield victory over the Confederate Army in northern Virginia by appointing a like-minded subordinate who seized the armoury at Harper's Ferry.

Dollfuss Murdered

Todayinah Editor

In 1934 on this day in Vienna, Austrian Head of State Engelbert Dollfuss was murdered in the offices of the chancellor at Ballhausplatz.

In Germany less than a month before, Sturmabteilung Commander Ernst Röhm had expelled the leadership of the Nazi Party during the "Night of the Long Knives". Fleeing south to Bavaria, Adolf Hitler hatched a fresh plot to seize control of his native Austria. Fighting continued for almost a week. In fact the country had been so unstable since the Great War that crowds simply looked on as the city's Palace of Justice was set on fire by the Nazis (pictured).

Finally, Hitler and the Austrian Nazis surrendered. Dollfuss, who was shot through the chest in the first minutes of the rising, been allowed to drown in his own blood. And yet his programme to maintain the independence of the Austrian republic was secure.

End of the American Crisis

Todayinah Editor

In 1776 on this day the "American Crisis" ended when Commander-in-Chief William Howe's rampant British troops caught up with the bedraggled rebel army just outside Hackensack, New Jersey.

After fierce fighting that left New York City in flames (pictured), George Washington's men had fled their position at Fort Lee, but delays caused by the bleak winter prevented the Americans from making it to the comparative safety of their headquarters.

Before the crisis, Washington had fought as a soldier for Great Britain during the French and Indian War. "I was a very happy British subject, living in the royal colony of Virginia," he said. "I fought for my king and my country". "We had all the rights of Englishmen," he said of life in the mid-18th century. "But then, in 1764, the king of England opened his treasury and he was shocked - it was almost empty. ... For the next 11 years, our lordly masters in Great Britain started reaching into our purses and stripping us of our rights as Englishmen".

Among those in retreat was an English-born radical, the author of the powerful, widely-read pamphlet "Common Sense". Because it was Thomas Paine who issued the galvanising cry "Let it be told to the future world, that in the depth of winter, when nothing but hope and virtue could survive, that the city and the country, alarmed at one common danger, came forth to meet (it)". His plan was to flee to Philadelphia where he would publish a more substantive treatise. Instead, Paine was summarily executed for high treason when the redcoats discovered the draft first edition of "The American Crisis" amongst his few possessions.

"If there must be trouble, let it be in our day, that your child may have peace". ~ Thomas PaineMost tragic of all, during his flight, Paine might have begun to suffer intense doubts about the cause. Historian would speculate that perhaps had he made it to Philadelphia, he might have published a quite different volume. Because in his diary Paine recounted a meeting with a loyalist tavern owner "with as pretty a child in his hand ... as I ever saw". The taverner, complacent in the face of crisis, exclaimed "Well! give me peace in my day". Paine responded: "If there must be trouble, let it be in our day, that your child may have peace". Of course cynics have suggested on numerous occasions that the text of Paine's diary was modified by William Howe and his officers..

The Iron Lady

Todayinah Editor

In 1992 with the country focused to a man on the England team's successful bid for the European Football Championship, nine thousand kilometres away in the South Atlantic, the Malvinas celebrated ten years of re-unification with Argentina. Lacking the tactical nous of National Coach Graham Taylor, Her Majesty's Government had scored a spectacular own goal by upgrading the airport at Port Stanley following an invasion scare in 1977.

After Argentine forces seized the Falkland Islands, South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, Commander-in-Chief General Galtieri wasted no time installing Exocet missile-armed French Super Ètendards jet aircraft at Port Stanley. And when Margaret Thatcher ordered a Task Force to be sent to recapture the Islands, the Admiralty was forced to admit to the Prime Minister that such a mission objective was impossible to achieve. The Royal Navy simply had insufficient aircraft carriers to defend the fleet from devastating jet aircraft attacks launched out of Port Stanley. Unwilling to accept the constraints of British seapower, Thatcher appealed to Ronald Reagan, making a formal request to lease aircraft carriers from the US Navy. In fact the US Government was willing to loan the carriers, but the planes and pilots were the stumbling block.

Not for the first time, it was absolutely impossible for an American President to overtly support British Imperialism no matter their own personal sympathies. Not only would the United States have "lost" South America, but the Federal Government would have been split in half because Secretary of State Alexander Haig was attempting to prevent a war by engaging diplomatically with Buenes Aires.

Hailed as a triumph for the "Iron Lady", President of Argentina Isabelle Peron, Thatcher's authority was destroyed. The Sun newspaper ran the derisory headline "Gotcha". Losing the 1983 election over the "Falklands Factor", her successor Michael Foot treated the reversal as a sharp lesson for the role of Britain on the world stage. In fact, the Incoming Prime Minister's only decisive intervention was to agree a a right of return for islanders codified in the British Nationality (Falkland Islands) Act 1983, under which British dependents were granted full citizenship.

Reagan's refusal to provide the planes and pilots would have significant long-term consequences. Because Foot had made a manifesto pledge to pursue unilateral disarmament. With the "Special Relationship" exposed as a sham, the US Government was forced to withdraw cruise missiles from Greenham Common Airforce base. Unshackled from her militaristic past, Britain was better placed to launch meaningful peace initiatives in the world. And in 1999, British Prime Minister Bryan Gould and Princess Diana Spencer would be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for their determined efforts to achieve a global ban on Land Mines.

Death of Charlemagne

Eric Lipps

In 814 the European ruler known as Charlemagne, or "Charles the Great", died, leaving his only surviving son, Louis, known as Louis the Pious, Emperor of the reunited Roman Empire.

Charlemagne had secured control of the Western Empire through a series of wars with assorted tribal nations and with his brother Carloman, who had been granted the central part of the dominions of their father, Pepin the Short. His claim to the Eastern throne was gained through marriage to the Byzantine Empress Irene. This union was opposed by many Eastern patricians, and in 802 Irene's finance minister Nikephoros had led an unsuccessful attempt to overthrow Irene and take the throne of Constantinople for himself. The defeated Nikephoros was beheaded and his severed head prominently displayed on a pike before the imperial palace.

The reunion of the Empire would be maintained by Louis and his heirs, but only at the cost of tremendous turmoil. Roman Catholicism and Eastern Orthodox Christianity had diverged significantly in ritual and belief, and each, of course, had its own supreme pontiff. The Orthodox were not willing to abandon their patriarchate and swear allegiance to Pope Leo III and his successors, and their resistance to religious reunification led to a series of religious civil wars which lasted well into the tenth century.

The Christian wars might have been worse had it not been for the continuing threat from the "Saracens," as Muslims were then known. In Charlemagne's day, the Moors had controlled much of the Mediterranean, and although they had been driven from their holdings in Spain, they remained a potent adversary. It was fear of Muslim invaders which would finally lead to the Synod of Aachen in 944 at which the Eastern and Western forms of Christianity were officially reconciled. That reconciliation allowed the Orthodox to maintain their distinctive liturgy and recognized the Eastern patriarchate as legitimate, though subject to Rome: the patriarch was granted the title of "Archbishop-Cardinal of the East."

Thus unified, the Christian world turned its attention to its longtime common foe, launching a series of "crusades"--wars for the Cross--beginning in 1001. The result of the first of those wars was the seizure, in 1006, of Jerusalem, where a Christian kingdom would be established under John Prester. Other successes followed, and in 1116, the Caliphate of Baghdad would fall.

Islam would never recover. By the twenty-first century, it would be a remnant faith held largely in isolated regions such as the desolate Arabian Peninsula. But the fall of Islam would have unfortunate consequences for Christendom as well, and for the scattered Jewish people, who under the Caliphate had been recognized as "people of the Book" and, though relegated to inferior status as "dhimmi," protected from outright slaughter.

The Caliphate had ironically become a refuge for classical learning during Europe's religious wars, and its fall was accompanied by a wave of destruction directed against "pagan" books and scholars. Today, Persia, once the center of Islamic culture, is a Christian backwater to which the railroad has not yet come, let alone such innovations as electric lighting and the steam automobile, which have so transformed Europe and Columbia in the past thirty years.

As for the Jews, they were to endure centuries of persecution which would all but exterminate their faith in Europe. Large Jewish communities would remain only in Asia and Africa, to which some Jews managed to flee in the ninth and tenth centuries. Today, of course, growing numbers are to be found in Christendom, where well-meaning folk have pressed for them to be permitted such liberties as property ownership.

Turning the Page

Gerry Shannon

In 1976 on this day James "Jimmy" Earl Carter Carter, Jr. of the Democratic-Republican party, and former governor of Georgia, is sworn in as the President of the Confederate States of America.

In his inaugural speech, Carter repeats a sentiment from earlier speeches he made as governor in 1971: "The time of racial segregation is over, and racial discrimination has no place in the future of the Confederacy".

Many observers, both white and black, in both the Confederacy and neighbouring United States, hail Carter's remarks. Not only is Carter the first holder of the office to condemn racism in an inaugural speech, it is clear rebuke of the policies of his much-disliked predecessor, firm segregationist George Wallace.

Tragedy in Dallas

Eric Lipps

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.

President 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.

Walker Monument Unveiled

Eric Lipps

In 1956 the Republic of Nicaragua unveiled the Walker Monument, commemorating the one-hundredth anniversary of the inauguration of American-born Gen. William Walker as the country's president.

Walker, a so-called "filibuster," had led a small army of U.S. Volunteers into battle on the side of the "Democratico'" faction in Nicaragua's ongoing civil war. After seizing a steamer belonging to Cornelius Vanderbilt's Accessory Transit Company, part of a commercial transport operation involving the transfer of passengers and freight across the Central American isthmus through Nicaragua by rail and river, Walker was able to take and hold the capital, Granada. Walker accepted aid in the form of money, guns and free transport to Nicaragua for volunteers for his army from two ACT corporate officers in return for his promise to aid them in their plans to seize control of the company from Vanderbilt.

Unfortunately for the conspirators' plans, Walker double-crossed them. Fearing that Vanderbilt, who was known to have influence within the governments of several of Nicaragua's neighbors, would use that influence to undermine him, he secretly reached an accommodation with the businessman in which he would temporarily hinder the Transit Company, which at that time had passed from Vanderbilt's hands, to force its share price down in order to allow the industrialist to regain a controlling share of its stock cheaply. Thereafter, Vanderbilt would help finance a full-scale trans-isthmian canal across Nicaragua, a project which had been talked about for years by shipping interests from several nations.

It would prove to be a fateful choice on Walker's part. Led by Costa Rica, a coalition of Central American states attempted to force the "Yanqui invader" and his supporters from power, motivated by fears that Walker planned to annex Nicaragua to the United States as had happened to the former Mexican state of Texas a decade earlier. Lacking Vanderbilt's support--and with his agents in fact actively promoting dissension among them--the so-called "Allies" would prove unable to overthrow Walker, and when the incoming administration of U.S. President James Buchanan warned that continued efforts to do so would be answered with American military action, the effort fell apart.

Ironically, one reason for the strong U.S. support of Walker would prove to be less than it seemed. On Sept. 22, 1856, President Walker had promulgated the so-called "Slavery Decree" repealing Nicaragua's then 18-year-old prohibition of slavery. Many Southerners, including powerful congressmen and Buchanan's vice-president, Jefferson Davis, saw this as a sign that slavery would be fully reestablished there. Walker, however, who had been raised in a strongly anti-slavery household, had issued the decree simply to attract Southern political and economic support, and found a series of excuses not to follow up with the enabling act which would have actually established slavery. Foreigners were permitted to bring in slaves of their own, but Nicaraguan citizens could neither own slaves nor be owned. When the reality of this compromise was perceived, many Southerners who had been enthusiastic Walker backers turned on him.

Soon enough, however, such people would have other matters to occupy their attention. The outbreak of the U.S. Civil War in early 1861 would absorb American attention for the following four years, allowing Walker to consolidate his power. As the fortunes of the Confederacy waned after mid-1863, however, increasing numbers of slaveowners from the CSA and slave states of the Union began emigrating to Nicaragua. The emigration continued from the defeated South during reconstruction, despite the fact that these latter-day refugees were not permitted to acquire slaves in their new country: as a practical matter, black and native American Nicaraguans often lived in what amounted to slavery anyway.

In 1867, Vanderbilt would approach Walker with detailed plans for his proposed Nicaraguan canal. Unlike the passage through Colombia's Panama province favored by some engineers, a canal through Nicaragua could be built entirely at sea level, sharply reducing the need for pumps and locks and thereby the project's cost. (A limited system of such controls would still be necessary due to the fact that the Pacific sea level is approximately 20 centimeters higher than the corresponding level on the Atlantic side of the isthmus, due to differing wind and heating of the ocean.) Walker, sensing the potential for Nicaragua's--and his own--enrichment, agreed to the plan, and construction began early in 1868.

It would prove to be a formidable undertaking. The Nicaraguan Canal would not open until July 1888, after encountering tremendous problems including a devastating outbreak of yellow fever among the workers building it. Walker himself would contract malaria on a visit to the project in 1870.

William Walker would remain president of Nicaragua for the remainder of his life, and despite recurrent episodes of malaria would live until October 1, 1893. Shortly before his death, he finally bowed to mounting pressure from the U.S. and other nations and rescinded his infamous Slavery Decree.

Greatest President of our Time

Gerry Shannon

In 1977 on this day Edward Moore "Teddy" Kennedy of the Democratic party, and former senator of Massachusetts, is sworn in as President of the United States.

The possibility of a second Kennedy presidency was seen unlikely by many given the twin defeats of his older brothers John for re-election in 1964, and Robert for election in 1972. However, Teddy would gradually build an effective campaign platform of progressive policies of universal health-care, education reform and not least of which improved international and regional relations. (Most particularly his pursuit of reunification of the Union with the Confederacy, an aspiration sadly unrealised during Kennedy's two terms).

The success of implementing many of these policies during his eight-year Presidency, particularly with a Republican-majority Congress in 1979 and later in 1981, would give future US President Barack Obama the inspiration to eulogize Kennedy as "the greatest President of our time" following his passing in mid-2009.

From Nairobi to Xinjiang

Todayinah Editor

In 2009 on this day the President of the Islamic States of America arrived on the USS Osama Bin Laden in Beijing for diplomatic talks with the Han Chinese. Representations on behalf of fellow Muslims in Western China featured highly on the agenda for Barack X, specifically the secessionist demands of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, and the liberty of the Eastern Turkistan Islamic Movement freedom fighters incarcerated at the notorious Yuanjiang prison.

The strategic location of their homeland is the chief obstacle to the Uyghur's aspirations for autonomy. The regional capital of Xinjiang (meaning "new frontier") is located on the Silk Road, an extensive interconnected network of trade routes across the Asian continent connecting East, South, and Western Asia with the Mediterranean world, as well as North and Northeast Africa and Europe. The explorer Marco Polo marveled: "From this country, many merchants go forth about the world".

Originally founded by the Mongols, the Uyghur Empire was destroyed in 840 by the Kyrgyz invasion. Repeat attempts had been made to establish autonomy, most recently in 1944 when Uyghur enjoyed five years of independence whilst Chinese Nationalists and Communists were locked in a Civil War. And now the discovery of mineral and petroleum wealth threatened the very future of the Uyghur, who would soon be outnumbered by the arrival of millions of Han Chinese immigrants. By 2007 the Uygur population stood at 9.6 million, but the Han population had swelled to 8.2 million from a base of only 220,000 in 1947.

But just days before his arrival, the President was unexpectedly upstaged by his half-brother Mark Obama Ndesandjo. At a press conference in China the younger Obama showcased a new book, "From Nairobi to Xinjiang" in which he recounted his life story after the epoch-making event which had split the United States into four pieces. Because in 2001, nuclear suitcase bombs completely destroyed New York City and Washington D.C. and a dirty bomb irradiated Mecca. Losing his job in the economic meltdown that followed, he moved to Xinjiang where he married a native of the Henan Province, Liu Xuehua in 2008.

He told the media that it was long journey for him before he could say that he "proud to be an Obama". Introducing his book by saying that "My father beat me. He beat my mother. We simply cannot do that," Obama Junior raised inevitable question marks over the moral superiority of the American diplomatic mission.

The question was resolved two weeks later when the Eastern Turkistan Islamic Movement launched a terrorist attack on the nuclear testing ground at Lop Nur, in Xinjiang.

Montezuma's Revenge

Todayinah Editor

In 1520 on this day the semi-divine deity Motecuhzoma Xocoyotzin was murdered in the city of Tenochtitlan. This precipative action was recorded with great detail by Aztec pictograms in the Codex Mendoza, a hurriedly created contemporary account of the genicide that the Spanish Conquistadors were then visiting upon the ordered society of the Mexica Tenochca.

Acting in the name of his white god, Hernan Cortéz poured molten gold down the throat of the tlatoani, thus simultaneously drowning, suffocating, and burning him. This psychotic act of violence revealed Cortéz system of thinking, because he rightly feared Motecuhzoma's revenge, both in this world, and the next.

"I have spoken of the sorrow we all felt when we saw that Motecuhzoma was dead. We even blamed the Mercederian friar for not having persuaded him to become a Christian".In fact, soon after he arrived on the city-in-the-lake, Cortéz had been shocked to discover the frightening idols of the Aztecs. And this disquiet soon led to mortal terror when he first witnessed the human sacrifice practiced at the Great Temple.

Because Cortéz understood fully that the Aztec's form of worship celebrated a connection with the spirit world that was utterly alien to the Catholic mindset. To re-establish this proper connection between the temporal and spiritual worlds, the night jaguar Quetzalcoatl (pictured) reanimated Motecuhzoma - but with a new infusion. And so a deadly disease was unleashed upon the accused invaders, who fled Mexico both with the Codex, and also the "Spanish Influenza" that would ravage the civilization of Western Europe.

Not a Crook

Todayinah Editor

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

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

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

Economic Warfare

Todayinah Editor

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

Not only would Amin's repatriation plans for Africanization ravage the national economy, they would attempt to destroy the lives of two ethnic groups who had been born in the country, their ancestors having come to Uganda when the country was still a British colony. Yet the reactions of these persecuted minorities would be very different.

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

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

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

D'Oliveira's greatest wicket

Todayinah Editor

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Allies in Disarray

Todayinah Editor

In 1856 on this day the disasterous foreign and military policies of the British Government were savagely exposed by an opportunistic cross-Channel invasion from the new steam-powered French Navy.

Napoleon III's anglophobe ministers had encouraged the British to strike the Russian fortress at Kronstadt, a naval campaign that would guarantee victory in the Crimean War. And so an armada of 250 Royal Navy ships, many especially built under orders, asssembled in the Solent and sailed for Northern Russia. Meanwhile, Napoleon III (pictured) travelled in person to lead his troops besieging Sevastapol.

In his absence, a political convulsion in France brought to power military and naval commanders who had served under Bonaparte, and who recognised a once in a lifetime opportunity to reverse the injustice of his defeats at Trafalgar and Waterloo. Because many of those admirals and generals had participated as young men in those very battles and were burning to get even with "perfidious albion". Until his departure for Russia, these hotheads had only been held in check by the Emperor's presence in France.

Neither War Nor Peace

Todayinah Editor

In 1917 on this day the Left Socialist Revolutionaries triggered the "third Russian revolution" by purging Bolshevik elements from the government of soviets.

Lenin's authority in the Central Executive Committee had been broken by the damning proof of treason. To wit, that he had been infiltrated back into the country by the German Government in the hope of hampering the war effort. And so when Lenin insisted that the first priority of the government of soviets was to secure an armistace on any terms, Left Socialist Revolutionaries came to the shattering realisation that the German Government's tactic's would now pay off.

Differences were more a matter of strategy, than tactics. Because the Left Socialist Revolutionaries asserted that the best way of inspiring revolution in the West was to appeal to the Russian people to fight a guerrilla war against the German invaders.

"[Bolshevik plans were] destructive to the international proletarian movement, and deeply harmful to the interests of Russian workers, the revolution, and the Russian economy in general"Denouncing Lenin as a German Spy, the new Government rejected the Bolsheviks plans as "destructive to the international proletarian movement, and deeply harmful to the interests of Russian workers, the revolution, and the Russian economy in general".

Somewhat cynically though, the new strategy would be based on a catchy phrase from Trotsky who had proposed a declaration to the Central Powers that the Government of Soviets sought "neither war nor peace".

Not that Trotsky benefitted from this piece of imaginative thinking. The Left Socialist Revolutionaries had also discovered that Trotsky had been living stylishly in New York, staying rent-free at a luxury apartment with a chaffeured limousine provided ex gratia by the Standard Oil Company. Arrested by Canadian Immigration Authorities at Halifax Novia Scotia, Trotsky had been carrying $10,000 of funding from Wall Street Capitalists who planned to overthrow central authority in Russia to develop their own oligarchies.

Glorious Revolution of 1690

Todayinah Editor

In 1690 on this day at Drogheda on the east coast of Ireland, the future of Catholic supremacy in England was secured with victory at the Battle of the Boyne when Protestant King William was defeated by the rightful monarch, James Stuart (pictured) who the Williamites had unlawfully deposed some two years before.

The high point in the so-called "Glorious Revolution", this violent series of event is seen in retrospect as the springboard for Britain's eventual global dominance.

In late 1685 the King had crushed the rebellion of his nephew, the Protestant Duke of Monmouth, executing hundreds of traitors of the English West Country in the Bloody Assizes. Determined to improve the social and political status of his Catholic co-religionists, James rewrote English law. He insisted on his right to defy parliamentary statute and awarded Roman Catholics military and naval commissions. In 1687 he used his newly formed and illegal Ecclesiastical Commission to force England's Protestant universities to accept Roman Catholic fellows. When the fellows of Magdalen College, Oxford resisted their king's demands, he had the dons stripped of their fellowships and their institution turned into a Catholic seminary.

After the King had failed to persuade the House of Commons or the House of Lords to repeal England's laws against Roman Catholicism, he reduced the power of Parliament. He first asserted his right to nullify the Test Acts and Penal Laws. These parliamentary statutes -- requiring, in the case of the Test Acts, that all political or military office-holders take the sacrament according to the rites of the Church of England and, in the case of the Penal Laws, punishing those who officiated at or attended non-Church of England services--had successfully insulated the English from continental Catholic practices. Then James determined to have his royal fiat ratified by a Parliament packed with men whom he knew would do his bidding. In June 1688, seven bishops of the Church of England defied James by refusing to have his Declaration of Indulgence, emasculating the Penal Laws and Test Acts, read from England's pulpits on the grounds of its illegality. James had the seven men dragged into court for a show trial. That even a carefully picked English jury acquitted the bishops tested the limits to which the English were willing to go in support of their King.

Soon after the trial, the English invited the Dutchman William III, Prince of Orange, to England to restore their religious and political liberty.William rules for two short years until his defeat at the Battle of the Boyne.

Cursed Muzhik

Todayinah Editor

In 1916 on this day the heads of Grand Duke Dmitri Pavlovich, Prince Yusupov, Vladimir Purishkevich, Captain Suhotine and Stanislaus de Lazovert were placed on spikes outside the Yusopov's Moika Palace where the five nobleman had sought to "end the career of the blackest devil in Russian history", Grigori Yefimovich Rasputin.

It was not the first time that an attempt had been made on the master's life. Because On June 29, 1914, Rasputin was attacked suddenly by Khionia Guseva, a former prostitute who had become a disciple of the monk Iliodor. Iliodor, who once was a friend of Rasputin but had grown absolutely disgusted with his behaviour and disrespectful talk about the royal family, had appealed to women who had been harmed by Rasputin to form a mutual support group. Guseva thrust a knife into Rasputin's abdomen, and his entrails hung out of what seemed like a mortal wound. Convinced of her success, Guseva supposedly screamed, "I have killed the antichrist!". After intensive surgery, however, Rasputin recovered. It was said of his survival that "the soul of this cursed muzhik was sewn on his body".

"I have killed the antichrist!"On December 16, 1916, having decided that Rasputin's influence over the Tsaritsa (pictured) had made him a far-too-dangerous threat to the empire, a group of nobles led by Prince Felix Yusupov and the Grand Duke Dmitri Pavlovich and the right-wing politician Vladimir Purishkevich, lured Rasputin to the Yusupovs' Moika Palace. The group led him down to the cellar, where they served him cakes and red wine laced with a massive amount of cyanide. Rasputin was unaffected, although Vasily Maklakov had supplied enough poison to kill five men.

Determined to finish the job, Yusupov became anxious about the possibility that Rasputin might live until the morning, leaving the conspirators no time to conceal his body. Yusupov ran upstairs to consult the others and then came back down to shoot Rasputin through the back with a revolver. Rasputin fell, and the company left the palace for a while. Yusupov, who had left without a coat, decided to return to get one, and, while at the palace, he went to check up on the body. Suddenly, Rasputin opened his eyes and lunged at Prince Yusupov. When he grabbed Prince Yusupov he ominously whispered in Yusupov's ear "you bad boy" and strangled him. At that moment, however, the other conspirators arrived and fired at him. After being hit three times in the back, Rasputin fell once more. As they neared his body, the party found that, remarkably, he was still alive, struggling to get up. They clubbed him into submission and after binding his body and wrapping him in a carpet, they threw him into the icy Neva River. He broke out of the his bonds and the carpet wrapping him, to wreck his bloody vengeance on the conspirators.

Rasputin would finally meet his nemesis in the form of the Graf Von Dracula, the vampire who dominated the Imperial German Court in a similar manner, as described by the historian Kim Newman in "Anno Dracula".

Pursuit of Secret 6

Todayinah Editor

In 1859 on this day a team of "out of uniform" militiamen were dispatched from Richmond, VA, under secret orders from Governor Henry A. Wise to kidnap the half-dozen prominent northerners who had conspired to organize John Brown's attack on the federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry.

As the secessionist crisis reached a new level of intensity, wiser heads in Washington recognised that southern demands for justice could only be satisfied by swiftly bringing to justice the "Secret Six". Trouble was, the tiny US Marshall Service were totally inequipped for the task, because many of the abolitionists had bolted, some across the border into Canada. Worse the Federal Government had absolutely no legal authority to seize the men, and on paper at least, was no more able to extradite the men than the State of Virginia, which had issued the arrest warrants just the day before. Which was precisely why Governor Wise had resorted to decidely unorthodox means to seize the men who sent John Brown to Harper's Ferry. And thus the Union was trapped in its own Federalist logic, because the General Government could only act by stamping on State's Rights which were the very core of the issue threatening to tear America in two.

And yet all was not lost. Because, fortunately for the future of the Union, the new Attorney General Wade Keyes was an independent thinking southern lawmaker who anticipated Governor Wise's hotheaded actions, and had developed his own super-clever strategem for defusing the crisis. Realising that US President John Buchanan was not up to the task of resolving crisis, he demonstrated true leadership by taking matters into his own hands, instituting treason charges on his own and daring Buchanan to repudiate them.

And surely Keyes' predecessor, the divisive figure of Jeremiah Sullivan Black (pictured) would have excaberated the crisis, being not only the most influential of President Buchanan's official advisers, but also a stubborn theocrat who made matters worse by spending his time denying the constitutionality of secession.

Black consider his biggest achievement to be his success in contesting the validity of the California land claims to about 19,000 square miles of land, fraudulently alleged to have been granted to land-grabbers and others by the Mexican government prior to the close of the Mexican-American War. Hell bent on re-inforcing the authority of the Federal Government, Black would was incapable of the higher order understanding developed by Wade, that Washington had to intervene imaginatively to resolve the dispute. For the good forture of everyone apart from the Harper's Ferry Raiders and the Secret Six themselves, early in 1959, Black had been forced to resign for personal reason.

There was one force at work more powerful than either Governor Wise or Attorny General Wade Keyes: money. And before long, the first Secret Six member was in Southern hands, Franklin Sanborn, arrested by mercenaries at Concord, MA before the residents of the Town could rouse for his defence.

My Bad

Todayinah Editor

In 2008 Hillary Clinton's fading campaign for the White House received an unexpectedly suspicious burst of energy on this day when a close inspection of video footage revealed the presence of Barack and Michele Obama, both cheering enthusistically during the Reverend Jeremiah Wright's infamous "God Damn America " sermon in which he apportioned blame on the U.S. for 9/11.
Click to watch the ABC News Bulletin

Candidate Obama had previously dismissed voters concerns by telling a Jewish Group that "I don't think my church is actually particularly controversial. [Rev. Wright] is like an old uncle who says things I don't always agree with".

That position was now untenable with the fiery Reverend's sermons being broadcast back to back on the national media. "The government gives them the drugs, builds bigger prisons, passes a three-strike law and then wants us to sing 'God Bless America.' No, no, no, God damn America, that's in the Bible for killing innocent people," he said in a 2003 sermon. "God damn America for treating our citizens as less than human. God damn America for as long as she acts like she is God and she is supreme".

"God damn America for as long as she acts like she is God and she is supreme"In addition to damning America, he told his congregation on the Sunday after Sept. 11, 2001 that the United States had brought on al Qaeda's attacks because of its own terrorism. "We bombed Hiroshima, we bombed Nagasaki, and we nuked far more than the thousands in New York and the Pentagon, and we never batted an eye," Rev. Wright said in a sermon on Sept. 16, 2001.

After Clinton's inauguration, Obama was able to gradually rebuild his battered reputation through his appointment as Secretary of State. Because during four years of patient negotiation with Israelis and Palestinians, he succeeded in finding a two-state resolution in the Middle East amongst a troubled group of people that might perhaps have a degree of sympathy for the Reverend's opinions.

Blockbuster Cancelled

Todayinah Editor

In 2009 on this day the future of the super-violent billion-dollar video gaming industry was thrown into jeopardy when the US Government prohibited sales of Call of Duty (COD): Modern Warfare 2 (pictured), an appropriately timed decision that was intended to show a mark of respect to the victims of the Fort Hood Massacre.

The latest installment of COD was due to debut at selected retail outlets that same evening. To fans, the game sets the benchmark for stunning cinematography and striking realism, with troops of elite soldiers hunting down targets in South America, Russia, Kazakhstan and Afghanistan. Players typically plug into an online community, moving in teams to hunt down enemy snipers. But detractors last minute calls had finally convinced the President that COD represents everything that is wrong with the billion-dollar video gaming industry: blood-soaked images of warfare that poses a risk to the mental health of children and even some adults who may not be able to tear themselves away. The President was influenced by the release of COD, which came at a particularly awkward time, just days after thirteen people were killed and twenty-nine wounded in a mass shooting at Fort Hood, Texas.

Because COD was the most highly anticipated game of the year, the outcome was a financial catastrophe for the software author Activision Blizzard Inc who had confidently expected to break sales records. Amazon pre-orders had topped 1.6 million, and the e-tailer had officially named COD the biggest selling pre-order video game of all time. Robert Kotick, chief executive of Activision crowed that the shooter game is likely to be "one of the largest entertainment launches of any media of all time".

Across the Atlantic in the U.K., the British Prime Minister Bryan Gould had already denounced the portrayal of violence in the game and called for the US government to enact measures to prevent sales to minors. To assuage his critics, Barack Obama added a personal touch in announcing the controversial decision. Having just been informed that he would become a father for the third time, Obama said that the decision had finally come down to a personal judgement, would he permit his son to play COD at the White House?

Charleston Harbour Opens

Todayinah Editor

In 1832 in order to dissuade his hot-headed, rebellious comrades from prematurely seceding from the Union, John C. Calhoun (pictured) resigned the Vice Presidency and returned post-haste to his home State of South Carolina on this day. Of course his own position was a matter of timing rather than principle. Because from Washington he could clearly see that there was insufficient support from neighborough states to create the Southern Confederacy that he hoped to head as First President.
.. continued from Part 1

His arrival was none to soon. Because unbeknown to the Vice President, agents provocateurs of Her Majesty's Government had been stirring up some real trouble in South Carolina for the previous month. Because he was shocked to be presented with medals emblazened with "John C. Calhoun, First President of the Southern Confederacy".

Those medals had been manufactured in London under orders from the Prime Minister of Great Britain, Marquis Richard Wellesley. Worse, the Royal Navy vessels upon which the medals were transported had just forced upon Charleston Harbour. The USS Natchez would soon arrive upon the scene. Dispatched by US President Andrew Jackson for the purpose of seizing by force the federal tarrifs by South Carolinians, this vessel would soon become entangled in the first shots of the 1833 Anglo-American War. And the matter of South Carolina's nullification of those federal tarrifs became, rather rapidly, something of a non-issue.

Disunion by Force

Todayinah Editor

In 1832 over a month before John C. Calhoun resigned the Vice Presidency to join forces with his rebellious comrades in South Carolina, agents provocateurs of Her Majesty's Government secretly arrived in Charleston Harbour, triggering a sequence of events that would lead inexorably to a rematch with their nemesis from 1812, the "Old Hickory" Andrew Jackson (pictured).

Because the Prime Minister of Great Britain, Marquis Richard Wellesley - elder brother of the Duke of Wellington - was intent on "the dissolution of the American Confederacy, which I think would be a great benefit to the civilized world".

"The dissolution of the American Confederacy would be a great benefit to the civilized world" ~ WellesleyOf course the biggest driver for dissolution was purely economic. Because high federal tarrifs might be good for protecting Northern manufacturers from imports, but they were frankly disasterous for the cotton and rice planters in the South who depended on export trade. Worse still, secession was an unspeakable word in Washington, because the loss of the southern states would cost the Federal Government millions in lost revenue.

Invoking a strict interpretation of the Tenth Amendment, South Carolina nullified the tarrifs, infuriating President Jackson who believed that the State was about the destroy the Union. Soon enough Jackson would be dispatching a warship, the Natchez, to Charleston Harbour, to extract - if necessary by force - federal tarrifs from merchant's warehouses.

The War would soon be joined, and yet the conflict would take a shape few anticipated. Because the State of South Carolina overestimated its support in the south. "By the God of Heaven, I wil uphold the law!" ~ JacksonAnd Andrew Jackson was determined to fight, predicting that "I expect soon to hear that a civil war of extermination has commenced. When everything is ready, I shall join them myself". The President was also secretly pledging to arrest Southern leaders, and hang them.

Starting with the hero of the South. Because already medals were being issued, with the clandestine assistance of British agents provocateurs, emblazened with "John C. Calhoun, First President of the Southern Confederacy". In the words of Daniel Webster, America faced "Disunion by Force".
The Story Continues in Part 2

Frozen Chosen

Todayinah Editor

In 2009 on this day in Canada, the mortality rate from the zombie virus known as Solanum exceeded the pre-apocalypse unemployment count for the first time.

That the excesses of the credit crunch had been addressed by a population control measure foreseen by Thomas Malthus was of course of little cause for comfort to the Government. Because Stephen Harper and his senior ministers were desperately holed up behind a hastily erected maximum security cordon in Ottawa's "Green Zone".

According to now irrelevant Olympic schedules, the Cabinet's focus should have been on the twenty members of the post who call themselves "The Frozen Chosen". Because on this, Day 10 of the cross-Canada Olympic torch relay, the Olympic athletes were due to arrive in the polar bear capital of the world, Churchill, Manitoba.

Their plan was to run with the flame into the Arctic darkness, which lasts 24 hours-a-day this time of the year. But instead, on day one the first torchbearers Catriona Le May-Doan and Simon Whitfield had carried the Olympic flame through a crowd of thousands in Victoria. Infected with Solanum, they also carried with them the deadly zombie virus.

Which was not to say that people werent arriving in Churchill, and in large crowds. Because the latest advice from Health Canada was for the non-infected to travel to the far north of the country, where it was hoped that the living dead would be unable reach...

Wrong Turn 4

Todayinah Editor

In 2010 on this day the movie "Wrong Turn 4: No Escape" premiered in cinemas across North America.

Directed by Rob Schmidt, and written by Alan B. McElroy, the plot reprises the now familiar life-or-death struggle of an inbred, idiot-like family of rednecks living beyond the fringes of human civilization. These human animals are monstrous and frightening and remain that way through the length of the movie.

In the first reel, George W takes to the cockpit and when Air Force One crashes the entire Bush Family are stranded in the vast forests of West Virginia. And Three Finger, One Eye and Saw Tooth finally face their nemesis.

Those Who Sent Him

Todayinah Editor

In 1859 on this day the State of Virginia issued warrants for the half-dozen prominent northerners who conspired to organize John Brown's attack on the federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry.

Accordingly, the "Secret Six" would be obliged to "surrender to fugitive's justice [from Brown's raid]" , being collectively "charged with murder, and with inciting servile insurrection in the State of Virginia". Because widespread popular protests in the North on the day of John Brown's execution infuriated Southerners such as Virginia Governor Henry A. Wise who admired Brown's courage and forthrightness but condemned "those who sent him [John Brown]". The enduring image is captured in "The Last Moments of John Brown", by Thomas Hovenden (pictured).

Governor Wise admired Brown's courage and forthrightness but condemned "those who sent him" Despite appeals for clemency, Wise staunchly refused to commute Brown's sentence. And his insistence on pursuing the "Secret Six" was no less determined. Wise argued convincingly that Harpers Ferry wasn't Brown's first act of psychotic madness. Just days after the proslavery sack of Lawrence, his band of men had killed several proslavery settlers in "Bleeding Kansas", hacking to death five men along Pottawatomie Creek with short, heavy swords.

If abolitionists praised Brown's compassion for the "poor slave," to white Southerners he was anarchy incarnate. Yet easy as it was to dismiss John Brown as a madman, the "Secret Six" were neither hardscrabble ruffians nor ex-slaves but respectable, wealthy residents of Boston radiating culture, education, and fortune. As such, they presented an especial threat to the slave-holding plutocracy, by serving as the archetypical Northern mercantilists who had undermined the Founding Father's dreams for Confederacy.

Senator James Mason of Virginia formed a Senate committee to investigate the raid, to validate Wise's allegations of Northern abolitionist complicity. After much hard talk about a Northern abolitionist cabal his committee colleague Senator Jefferson Davis of Mississippi, the committee found proof of Northern complicity "It would be hard to conceive of a conclusion other than conspiracy that to which the whole affair has come," the New York Times observed in June 1860. The same paper suggested that it would be a miracle if the next President had a Union to preside over come the next inauguration.

Southern Rebellion of 1838

Eric Lipps

In 1838 at a hastily convened convention in Raleigh, North Carolina, six Southern colonies - Virginia, Maryland, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee and Georgia - pass a resolution declaring themselves "free and independent States". The Raleigh resolution borrows language from the Declaration of Philadelphia defeated by Southern veto exactly 62 years earlier.

The Southerners proclaim themselves the United Commonwealths of America and declare fiery pro-slavery speaker John Calhoun (pictured) provisional president. British troops move to quell "Southern rebellion".

Southerners, who have long feared that the Crown might someday abolish their cherished institution of Negro slavery, rise en masse. Northerners, remembering how Southern intransigence had doomed the earlier attempt to secure independence for all the colonies, watch from the sidelines, ignoring Southern appeals to "our fellow Americans".

In August, inspired by sensational reports of British atrocities, the colonies of East and West Florida, Burgoyne and Louisiana will join the rebellion. On the eighth of that month, however, Massachusetts becomes the first colony to formally offer its support to the Crown to suppress the rebellion. It will be followed in short order by all of the colonies north of Virginia and Maryland, sparking expectations that the conflict will be short-lived. It will not be; major military operations will not end until March 1841, and guerrilla activity will continue for years thereafter under the aegis of a shadowy organization known as the Cyclops Legion.

Operation Citadel

Todayinah Editor

In 2009 senior ministers of the cabinet of Prime Minister Stephen Harper arrived by helicopter in Ottawa's new "Green Zone".

This Baghdad-style maximum security cordoned area had been hastily constructed over the previous forty-eight hours by elements of Canadian Special Operations Forces Command utilising robot technology.

Operational plans had changed dramatically in the two weeks since the first Olympic torchbearers Catriona Le May-Doan and Simon Whitfield had carried the Olympic flame through a crowd of thousands in Victoria. The slow-acting variant of the zombie virus known as "Solanum" that they carried with them was now raging through Canada, unhindered by the 50.4 million doses ordered by Health Canada from GlaxoSmithKline factory in Ste-Foy, Quebec. That order was cancelled in dramatic fashion, because the factory was now a smoking ruin after Al-qaeda crashed a hijacked Air Canada Jet Liner crashed into the production facility.

Prior to that devastating terrorist attack, Stephen Harper's government had devised Operation Citadel in which the then tiny population of Canadian zombies would be securely held in the purpose built Vancouver 2010 Olympic Village. Events had moved on a piece, and instead of building a twenty-first century leper colony, Special Forces were recalled from British Columbia in order to execute an altogether more desperate Operation Citadel. Rather than keeping the zombies in, the future of Canada now depended on these troops fields training in the wilds of Kandahar province in order to keep the zombies out of the Green Zone.

Showcase of Democracy

Todayinah Editor

In 1945 wisely disregarding the howling protests of the French Union, US President John Nance Garner recognised the Sovereign Nation of Vietnam just one hour after the new Head of State Nguyen Ai Qoc (pictured) issued a declaration of independence in Saigon. Assisting imperialists to put down revolts in former colonies was not only un-American, said Garner, it was surely the quickest route to fast-tracking nations into the Communist World.

Determined to honour the "Atlantic Charter" commitments to indigenous peoples in the defeated British and French Empires, Garner recognised the sign of respect that President Qoc was signalling to the United States. Because the Declaration of Independence was broadly similiar to the infant American nation's own announcement to the Imperialists in 1776.

More than that, President Qoc, and his talened military commander Vo Nguyen Giap had been formidable foes in the recent struggle against the Japanese. So much so, that when Operation Deer Team parachuted into a jungle headquarters at Tan Trao north of Hanoi in July they found copies of the American Declaration of Independence and Constitution on the walls and a framed picture of George Washington on the desk. Because the 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 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".

By the time Qoc had made a full recovery, the Japanese had surrendered and - thanks to the American solidiers - he was fit and well enough to led a hundred thousand man demonstration of nationalism through the streets of Saigon.

In Washington, a new Cold War logic had set in. The philosophy was that any country that didn't join the United States and the Western World was a gain for the Soviets and communism. And Garner was wise enough to see the value of keeping onboard the determined Vietnamese who had a endured a two thousand year struggle for independence. Consequently his strategy of exporting democracy would win the day, the inherently negative policy of containment favoured by the State Department would be wisely disregarded.

Bear Any Burden

Todayinah Editor

In 1963 on this day US President John F. Kennedy signed Executive Order No. 11110 in the Oval Office. Accordingly the force of law was given to the planned withdrawal of all American personnel absolutely no later than the end of 1965. Because just four months after a Vietnamese Buddhist by the name of Thich Quang Duc set himself on fire in a Saigon street (pictured), the security situation in the country was rapidly deteriorating.

In so doing, the Kennedy brothers were backtracking big-time on a key inauguration pledge to "Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe, in order to assure the survival and the success of liberty. This much we pledge - and more".

Yet two other Catholic brothers had even more reason to regret listening to those warm words, the Vietnamese Dictator Ngo Dinh Diem and his younger brother Ngo Dinh Nhu. Because on the celebration of Buddha's 2,527 birthday on May 8th, the Diem Regime had ordered the Catholic deputy in Hue to prevent the Buddhists from flying their own flag. A wave of religious fervour swept the county. And just about the last thing South Vietnam needed right now was a religious feud, and so a group of generals led by Doung Van Minh and Tran Van Don acting unilaterally without US approval overthrew the Diem regime and executed the brothers and their sister-in-law, the anti-Buddhist "dragon lady" Madame Nhu. The US-financed Nationalist Chinese Armies who had sustained Diem in power since 1962 also evacuated the country. Those departing soldiers had been resettled by the French in 1950 in what was then Chochin China and expanded over time by local recruitment.

Commander R. Sargent Shriver was the last American out of Saigon. He told Embassy staff that it was a matter of deep regret that the Peace Corps had been unable to complete their mission in Vietnam.

Gettysburg Address

Todayinah Editor

In 1863 at the Soldiers' National Cemetery in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania on this day the Governor of Kentucky, Thomas Lincoln, Jr. (pictured) delivered one of the greatest speeches in American history.

In just over two minutes, Lincoln invoked the principles of human equality espoused by the Declaration of Independence, redefining the Civil War as a struggle not merely against the insidious forces of Federalism, but as "a new birth of freedom" that would bring true equality to all of its citizens by protecting the primacy of the states' rights. "We here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain - that this Confederation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom - and that the state's government: of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth".Because hundreds of thousands of conscripts and European mercenaries had given their lives in the bloodiest war in human history in order to defend the Jeffersonian, confederalist system of states' rights.

"Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal".The defeat of the United States had forced the dissolution of the bastard rump state which emerged from the failed Constitutional Convention in 1787. Now Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Maine, New Hampshire and Delware were liberated states which enjoyed in full measure the freedoms bequeathed them by the founding fathers.

Interview at Weehawken

Todayinah Editor

In 1804 foiled in their dastardly plans to betray the founding principles of the American revolution, the disgraced Colonel Alexander Hamilton and his fellow Federalist plotters were transported to Hudson County, New Jersey where they were summarily executed on this day at the township of Weehawken.

Prima facie evidence had emerged from a vitriolic letter originally sent from Dr. Charles D. Cooper to Philip Schuyler, Hamilton's father-in-law. Published in the Albany Register, the letter revealed the existence of a vast and insidious conspiracy of soldiers, bankers and lawyers who sought to implement an American version of British mercantilism. Shockingly, the plans for a "congressional-military-industrial complex" had begun almost as soon as the Revolution was over.

"States' rights must be crushed, in the eyes of Hamilton and his followers"Prior to the execution, a charge sheet was read by Colonel Aaron Burr, reminding citizens that the war of independence had removed an evil "system of statism which employed economic fallacy to build up a structure of imperial state power, as well as special subsidy and monopolistic privilege to individuals or groups favored by the state". In short, Hamilton, et all were traitors to the American Revolution, the worst kind of corrupt, power-seeking political scoundrels no better than King George III of England. Because these evil mercantilists sought to introduce numerous taxes and interferences with international trade that benefited American businesses and the Federal Government while treating the American citizens like tax serfs.

Rabin Survives

Eric Lipps

In 1995 on this day Israeli prime minister Yitzhak Rabin (pictured) was attacked and gravely wounded by a militant Jewish law student linked to far-right groups enraged at Rabin's attempts at negotiation with the Palestine Liberation Organization.

The failed assassination provoked a crisis within the Israeli government, weakening the right and strengthening both Rabin and peace factions within the Knesset. It played a significant role in Rabin's victory over hard-liner Benjamin Netanyahu in Israel's May 1996 elections.

Dead Letter

Todayinah Editor

In 2008 on this day the German Board of Film Censors prohibited the distribution of Quentin Tarantino's Jewish revenge movie "Inglorious Basterds", classifying both of the two "Bear Jew Execution Scenes" as gratuitously violent.
Watch Bear Jew Scene on Youtube

The final reel of the movie depicts "Operation Kino", a successful mission by a team of Jewish American OSS soldiers which barbeques the entire Nazi High Command in a Parisian cinema whilst they are watching the propaganda movie "Nation's Pride".

Recognising an unmissable opportunity to save his own skin, the anti-hero SS Colonel Hans Landa allows the plot to proceed, permitting the "Bear Jew" Sergeant Donny Donovitz (pictured, played by Eli Roth) to escape in exchange for his own amnesty from the Holocaust war-crimes he has committed throughout the movie. However, Donovitz double crosses Landa, and executes him in the forest just before reaching Allied Lines, realising that the deal is a dead letter now that the war is over.

No Lost Cause

Gerry Shannon

In 1968 on this day Martin Luther King, Jr., civil rights leader and third-party presidential candidate, is assassinated at Lorraine Hotel, Memphis. King was struck by a single bullet fired from a rifle. The bullet travelled through the right side of his neck, smashing his throat and then going down his spinal cord before lodging in his shoulder.

King had been nominated as the Reform Party candidate for the Presidency of the Confederate States, and had been in Memphis for a scheduled campaign appearance. Though he had been trailing far behind both the Conservative and Democratic-Republican candidates in the national polls, King had hoped to use his candidacy as a platform for his long-standing campaign of civil rights for African-Americans in the CSA.

Only coming five years after the assassination of CS President Lyndon Johnson, King's murder would have an even profounder effect on society. Riots ignited across the state capitals, not the least of which in Richmond, for several weeks. CS President John Connolly releases a statement, "Dr. King would often tell me our Confederacy was built on a Lost Cause, but I know he was content to die for what he regarded as a more noble one. A cause dedicated to love and peace towards his fellow man, black and white; and one that can only improve the lives of all of us living in these Confederate States".

On June 10, 1968, James Earl Ray, a fugitive from a Missouri prison, was arrested at London's Heathrow Airport, extradited to the Confederate States, and chared with the crime. On March 10th, 1969, Ray entered a plea of guilty and sentenced to 99 years in the Tennessee state penitentiary. Following his incarceration, Ray would suddenly deny all charges and claim a mysterious individual named "Raoul" set him up; he would put forward this version of events until his death in 1998.

Chilling Out

Todayinah Editor

In 2006 following the revelation that whilst his wife Elizabeth was undertaking chemotherapy he had fathered a child out of wedlock, the now disgraced former "Golden Boy" John Edwards tearfully resigned the Vice Presidency on this day, admitting in trademark syrup-laden southern drawl that given the opportunity, he committed sin "every day".
Watch the Youtube Clip

His boss John Kerry has entertained doubts about Edward's sincerity even before the VP selection process had ended. Because Kerry talked with several potential picks, including Gephardt and Edwards. He was comfortable after his conversations with Gephardt, but even queasier about Edwards after they met.

Edwards told ABC News that he met secretly with former lover Rielle Hunter as recently as last month in a California hotel room at her request because "she was having some trouble, she just wanted to talk".Because Edwards had told Kerry he was going to share a story with him that he'd never told anyone else - that after his son Wade had been killed, he climbed onto the slab at the funeral home, laid there and hugged his body, and promised that he'd do all he could to make life better for people, to live up to Wade's ideals of service. Kerry was stunned, not moved, because, Edwards had recounted the same exact story to him, almost in the exact same words, a year or two before - and with the same preface, that he'd never shared the memory with anyone else. Kerry said he found it chilling, and he decided he couldn't pick Edwards unless he met with him again.

When they did, Kerry tried to get a better personal feel for his potential number two; as rivals for national office since 2000, shortly after Edwards had entered the Senate, the two men hadn't spent a lot of time together. Kerry also wanted a specific reassurance. He asked Edwards for a commitment that if he was chosen and the ticket lost, Edwards wouldn't run against him in 2008.

Kerry, a divorcee himself, needed a dyed-in-the-wool family man to replace the philandering Edwards, and who could better fit the bill than "a skinny guy with a funny name"?.

Galaxy of States

Todayinah Editor

In 1899 with the United Kingdom unreasonably expecting the Dominion of Canada to contribute military support for the Second Boer War, a compromise request from Her Majesty's Government to send a battalion of volunteers to South Africa was refused on this day by the first francophone, Roman Catholic Canadian Prime Minister, Sir Wilfrid Laurier (pictured).

Because demands for support for military action from English Canada were threatening to tear the country apart, with strong opposition from French Canada which saw the Boer War as an "English" War. In fact, there was a deep appreciation that the Boers, like the French Canadians themselves, were being forced to remain in the British Empire against their will. This obvious paralell with the Seven Years War was a perception forthrightly expressed by the French Canadian political leader and publisher Henri Bourassa, who was a vocal opponent of the war.

"If there is anything to which I have given my political life, it is to try to promote unity, harmony, and amity between the diverse elements of this country".In truth the British request was itself without precedent, because Canadian soldiers had never before been sent overseas in great numbers, although individual Canadians had served in the Crimean War and a Canadian contingent was sent to the Nile Expedition. And Laurier's government had long resisted pressure from Joseph Chamberlain for Canada to join a common defence scheme covering the British Empire. A pivotal decision point had been reached. And so, at the outbreak of war in October, the Prime Minister flatly refused to send militia, prompting the British Government to request volunteers instead, in order to internationalize the struggle. Yet this compromise request was also flatly turned down, to the abject fury of the British Government.

Despite having his knighthood stripped by a furious British Government, Laurier would be well regarded in Canada for his success in establishing an autonomous country within the British Empire. Because the significance of those efforts to establish a "Galaxy of Free States" would be judged not simply by the sending of a thousand English Canadians to South Africa. Rather the dividend of this landmark decision would be measured by the bloodbath of the Great War, through the notable absence of tens of thousands of young men from the Empire.

Restoration of Queen Dick

Todayinah Editor

In 1672 on this day the House of Commons re-instated Richard Cromwell as Lord Protector just two weeks after the beheading of King Charles II. Until his death in 1712, aged 85 Cromwell remained Protector in name only, living under house arrest in the Whitehall Palace (across the way from the Banqueting House where Charles was executed) with the army in control of the country.

The demise of Charles Stuart was a self-inflicted wound caused by the Secret Treaty of Dover. To the shock of the English people, it was revealed that their King would receive a pension from Louis XIV of France in return for a secret undertaking to return England to the Catholic church.

"There is not a dog that wags his tongue, so great a calm are we in" - Secretary of State, John ThurloeIronically, Richard Cromwell himself was even less financially secure than Charles Stuart. And so now the House of Commons was saddled with the new Head of State's debts of £30,000 (equivalent to £4,000,000 in todays money) and forced to pay a full pension, pledges that had previously been made, but not honoured when Cromwell stood down on May 25th 1659. In fact creditors were now chasing Cromwell, and he had been forced to consider fleeing abroad to avoid payment.

Despite these rather unpalatable short-term costs, the restatement of "Tumbledown Dick" would provide the constancy that the Commonwealth needed to survive at its second attempt. Because the governing class had discovered that the stability of the nation relied upon politics without demi-god personalities, and after all, it was perhaps an advantage that "Queen Dick" was neither a military man, nor the dominating figure that his father (pictured) had been.

Infected Torchbearers

Todayinah Editor

In 2009 in Toronto on the production set of John Ringo's brilliant concept movie "The Last Centurion", filming was postponed indefinately on this day; the cause was a real life triple-apocalypse even more terrifying than the dual catastrophoes of the movie which portrayed a new mini-ice age and, nearly simultaneously, a plague to dwarf all previous experiences.
Click to watch the author's interview with Kelly Lockhart

The first Olympic torchbearers Catriona Le May-Doan and Simon Whitfield had carried the Olympic flame through a crowd of thousands in Victoria, but they also carried with them a slow-acting variant of the zombie virus known as "Solanum". Yet the prospects for quarantining the crisis had initially seemed favourable because the gestation period was over a fortnight, and patients injected early enough had a survival rate of over 95%.

And so Health Canada confidently informed all provinces and territories that volume shipments of vaccination shots would be sufficient to beat the pandemic. At a press conference in Ottawa, Chief Public Health Officer Dr. David Butler-Jones said the Public Health Agency had already shipped six million vaccinations before the last week of October, and confirmed that GlaxoSmithKline had opened additional production lines at its plant in Ste-Foy, Quebec to fulfil a Canadian order of 50.4 million doses.

Just twenty-fours later, a hijacked Air Canada Jet Liner crashed into the production facility, and a terrorist cell of Al-qaeda launched a devastating follow-up assault. Prime Minister Stephen Harper declared a national emergency, and the prospects for there even being a recognisable Canadian nation to host Vancouver 2010 sharply diminished.

Torn to Shreds

Todayinah Editor

In 1944 on this day Group Leader Fritz von Scholz (pictured) was decorated with the US Legion of Merit for his outstanding leadership of the Waffen-SS Latvian Legion in the performance of outstanding services and achievements against Soviet Forces in the Baltic theatre of operations.

Because in the months since the death of both Hitler and Roosevelt, Truman desperately needed to refocus the exhausted Western Allies, and especially the Wehrmacht - re-activated under a new, unified Allied Command Structure - on the titanic struggle with the Soviet Union. And he wisely determined that the ferocious conflict now underway inside Latvia was a "fight to the death" heavy with the appropriate heroic symbolism, continuing the struggle for self-determination as codified in the Atlantic Charter - after the Fall of the Third Reich.

Because the Second World War tore Latvia to shreds: annexed by the Soviet Union, occupied by Germany, then occupied again by the Red Army, brutalised, degraded and devastated, Latvia suffered dictatorship, colonisation and mass murder. One third of Latvia's prewar population, perhaps 630,000 people, was lost between 1940 and 1954. Almost the entire Jewish population of 80,000 was wiped out. Both Soviet and German occupiers conscripted Latvians into their armies. Brother fought brother.

Ironically, even as the Western allies finally made good on their security pledges to Poland, military expediency required a series of utterly ruthless decisions that would create controversy for decades to come. Because not longer after the Peace of Danzig was signed with the Soviet Union, the British Journalist George Orwell revealed that the mass murder of Latvian Jews in 1942 was ordered and directed by the Nazis, but Latvian extermination gangs - including members of the Latvian Legion - enthusiastically participated in the genocide.

Break-In at CS Embassy

Gerry Shannon

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.

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.

Dream Never Dies

Gerry Shannon

In 1980 on the final day of the Democratic convention in New York, US President Teddy Kennedy addresses the delegates in one of the finest instances of oratory in US history. It would be a speech that would be widely credited with ensuring Kennedy's re-election.

Drawing on quotes from Martin Luther King, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, and Alfred Lord Tennyson, Kennedy highlights his and the party's achievements over the last four years and his hopes for a second term; in the close of speech, he then criticizes the out-going administration of CS President Jimmy Carter for failure to bring the Union and Confederacy closer to reunification - a goal Kennedy would often refer to as "the cause of my life".

In a stirring finish to the speech, Kennedy looked to the countries' shared pasts and their future: "For many in the United States, over a century ago, the possibility of reunification came to an end. For all those in both the US and CS whose cares have been our concern, the work goes on, the cause endures, the hope still lives, and the dream shall never die".

Vast Union conspiracy

Gerry Shannon

In 1998 in an interview on NBC's Today Show, Confederate First Lady Hillary Clinton claims the existence of a "vast Union conspiracy" to destroy her husband's presidency of the Confederate States.

Mrs. Clinton was appearing in a satellite-link up to address the recent press rumours of CS President Bill Clinton's infidelity with a Confederate White House staffer, and that he had lied under oath an affair had ever happened. Her claim arose following a comment from host Matt Lauer: "You have said, I understand, to some close friends that this is the last great battle, and that one side or the other is going down here".

Clinton responded, "Well, I don't know if I've been that dramatic. That would sound like a good line from a movie. But I do believe that this is a battle. I mean, look at the very people who are involved in this - they have popped up in other settings. This is - the great story here for anybody willing to find it and write about it and explain it is this vast Union conspiracy that has been conspiring against my husband since the day he announced for presiden". The "people involved in this" referred chiefly to Monica Lewinsky, a graduate of Lewis & Clark college in Portland, Oregon; and of course, a citizen of the United States working as an intern in the Confederate White House.

"I mean, look at the very people who are involved in this - they have popped up in other settings".Journalist Bob Woodward previously wrote in his book "The Agenda" (1994) that Mrs. Clinton recalled that when her husband was making his decision to run for the president in 1992, he reported receiving "a direct threat from someone in the administration of US President Dick Cheney, warning that if he ran, the CIA would go after him. "Will will do everything we can to destroy you", she recalled that the Cheney White House man had sad". Why out-going US President Cheney would wish to stop a Clinton presidency, Woodward speculates that it was clear that Clinton would wish to work with Cheney's successor to cool tensions between the Confederacy and Union should he win.

In any case, Lewinsky is quietly deported back to the United States soon after Mrs. Clinton's comments - assisted by the administration of US President Al Gore - and the threat of impeachment for CS President Clinton in his last two years of office gradually passes.

LBJ Assassinated

Gerry Shannon

In 1963 on this day out-going Lyndon Baines Johnson, President of the Confederate States of America, (pictured, left) is assassinated in Dallas whilst travelling in a presidential limousine along a designated motorcade route.

Johnson had been doing a tour of his home state to drum up support for the policies of his Democratic-Republican party; and unite it's warring factions within the Texas state. The shooting occurred at approximately 12:30PM in the Dealey Plaza area of downtown Dallas. A chief suspect soon emerges: Lee Harvey Oswald, a US sympathizer who had previously defected to the Union after receiving a dishonourable discharge from the Confederate Army. Oswald would later claim at his trial - and right up to his execution - he was being set-up as the perfect "patsy" for Johnson's murder, because of his outspoken beliefs on civil rights and affirmative action.

However, Oswald's argument would prove ironic with hindsight. Since being sworn in six years before, Johnson had pursued several progressive policies in relation to civil rights for African-Americans during his administration. It would be his Vice-President and successor, John Connolly, who would succeed in convincing the Confederate Congress at Richmond to pass a historic Civil Rights bill in 1964.

A More Perfect Union

Todayinah Editor

In 1864 on this day the first (and last) CSA President Jefferson Davis (pictured) resigned his post immediately after a meeting of Southern State's representatives approved the dissolution of the Confederacy.

The attempt to build a "more perfect union" had begun shortly after the founding of the States back in 1798, when the father of Federalism himself, Thomas Jefferson co-authored a resolution for the legislatures of Virginia and Kentucky that affirmed the states' right to resist federal encroachments on their powers. The intention was that through the principle of "nullification" that would later be codified into the Tenth Amendment, the States could locally override unconstitutional federal laws.

But as is so often the case, good intention was over-taken by political expediency. Ten years later, the General Government was struggling with more practical problems such as the quasi-war on the high seas with the British in league with America's former allies, the French. Now in the White House, expediency required Jefferson to compromise his own principles. He imposed an embargo under which no American ship could depart for any foreign port anywhere in the world, hoping that this economic warfare would hurt British and French prosperity, forcing their governments to change tack. But the decision would have dire consequences for the trading economies on the eastern seaboard who were prevented from asserting nullification due to the "national interest".

In seceding from the Union in 1860, the Southern States sought to build the Confederacy that had been envisaged sixty years before. And with the British and French supporting the new state, the prospects of success had initially seemed good. Trouble was the secession happened very quickly, and the US Constitution - and many of the federal governments instruments and controls - were adopted at short notice through lack of any other choice in order to prepare for impending war with the Union. Almost immediately, the Capital at Richmond started to centralise powers and act in a high-handed manner indistinguisable from Washington. And now that the peace treaty had been signed at the Hampton Roads Conference, the southern states looked to a new model, the Republic of Texas which stood undefeated yet still enjoying the freedom and liberty promised by the Founding Fathers.

Shining Torch of Hope

Todayinah Editor

In 1974 the publication on this day of the novel "Natty Dread" marked the emergence of a new and powerful father of the Beat Generation, the celebrated Anglo-Jamaican author Nesta Robert ("Bob") Marley.

Marley's genius was to imbue the "Spontaneous Prose" of Jack Kerouac's "On the Road" with the raw vibrance of the Jamaican patois language, necessary to fully articulate a nostalgic remembrance of growing up in the ghetto in Kingston and the happiness brought by the company of friends.
Watch No Woman, No Cry

This breaktaking novel credits "Vincent Ford" (nicknamed "Tartar"), a close friend of the author's who ran a soup kitchen on the streets of Trenchtown; the royalty checks received by Ford ensured the survival and continual running of his soup kitchen. And this social activism highlighted something new for this literary genre, the replacement of hopelessness with Marley's spiritually charged political and social statement to "Lively Up Yourself". Because Marley claimed he would have starved to death on several occasions as a child if not for the aid of Tartar.

"Georgie would make the fire lights, as it was logwood burnin' through the nights. Then we would cook cornmeal porridge, of which I'll share with you"During the late twentieth century, Marley would become a key driving force in the African diaspora, seeking to usher in a golden age of peace, righteousness, and prosperity. As a member of a Commonwealth mediation effort, the Eminent Persons Group, Marley visited Nelson Mandela three times in Pollsmoor prison outside Cape Town in 1986.

"My feet is my only carriage, so I've got to push on through."On the final prison visit, Marley discovered that Mandela was dying from tuberculosis caused by the damp prison cells of Robben Island. Mandela ordered Marley to play a leading role in the transition to a new Rainbow nation in South Africa, a task he was uniquely well qualified for by being of dual heritage.

Because Marley had explained to Mandela that "I don't have prejudice against meself. My father was a white and my mother was black. Them call me half-caste or whatever. Me don't dip on nobody's side. Me don't dip on the black man's side nor the white man's side. Me dip on God's side, the one who create me and cause me to come from black and white".

Sikorski Mystery

Todayinah Editor

In 2009 on this day British Prime Minister Bryan Gould issued an official apology to the Republic of Poland.

The beginning of this controversial affair was a formal request to exhume the remains of General Wladyslaw Sikorski, the talismanic head of Poland's government in exile during the Second World War. On behalf of the people of Poland, President Lech Kaczynski sought the truth about the General's mysterious demise, telling the Tygodnik Powszechny weekly newspaper that "The tragic circumstances of the death of General Sikorski should be explained".

"The tragic circumstances of the death of General Sikorski should be explained"Because on July 4, 1943, while Sikorski was returning from an inspection of Polish forces deployed in the Middle East, he was killed, together with his daughter, his Chief of Staff, Tadeusz Klimecki, and seven others, when his plane, a Liberator II, serial AL523, crashed into the sea 16 seconds after takeoff from Gibraltar Airport at 23:07 hours. He was subsequently buried in a brick-lined grave at the Polish War Cemetery in Newark-on-Trent, England. On September 17, 1993, his remains were exhumed and transferred to the royal crypts at Wawel Castle in Krakow, Poland.

"This is the end of Poland. This is the end of Poland."Immediately after the crash, a Polish officer who had witnessed the event from the airstrip began sobbing quietly and repeating: "This is the end of Poland. This is the end of Poland." General Sikorski's death marked a turning point for Polish influence amongst the Anglo-American allies. No Pole after him would have much sway with the Allied politicians. Sikorski had been the most prestigious leader of the Polish exiles and his death was a severe setback for the Polish cause.

Conspiracy theories have surrounded the death, including a Soviet plot on Stalin's orders, and the exhumation of the statesman's remains from Wawel Cathedral, Krakow, proved this. But worse than the discovery of Russian ordinance in the cadaver, was the later revelation of British complicity - pre-alerting the Soviets to the timing departure of the Liberator II. The British Government was not only acting in combination with Stalin to crush Polish self-determination, but worse, trying to prevent Sikorski from revealing British code-breakers early discovery of the Katyn Forest Massacre of Polish Officers. In one of the most disgracefully episodes of the Second World War, the 1939 Security Guarantee from the British Government had in fact been betrayed - by the British themselves.

Final Tweat

Todayinah Editor

In 2009 understandeably frustrated whilst travelling on a greyhound bus in the southern United States on this day, God announced the end of the world by sounding the final trumpet call - via a global tweet. Predicably enough the picture of the Whale flips up on the 3G device, indicating that the Twitter System has overloaded. And consequently only a selection of humanity will receive good notice of the opportunity for final repentance.

Those priests, shamans, and clergy who have found God's blog find out about the tweet through His twitter widget (on the right hand widget bar), and plead for Him to give the world a proper chance at repentance. He agrees with them that this ought be so, and waits until Twitter is back up, when he will re-post his tweet. (Meanwhile, one of said clergy e-mails Christopher Hitchens and Richard Dawkins with links to God's blog, and they realize that they've been wrong their entire lives, start slitting their wrists, and then go ask Rick Warren how to go about joining his church).

However, Satan, wanting more time to get people who will end up in Hell on Judgement Day, conspires against the Lord's plans. In a flurry of demonic activity on a scope unfamiliar to post-biblical times, he posesses a Google committee and makes them purchase twitter for a couple of billion dollars. At the same time, he coordinates a Chinese cyber-terrorist strike against google, and the combined effort of a billion Chinese computers completely crashes Google and all of its subsidiaries, including the newly-acquired Twitter. The world is spared for a while. Hitchens takes the time to write the bestseller, "I'm sorry God, You are great, and Your blog is really funny, too", while God tries to figure out an alternate way to inform the world of the end of the world, since only a fraction of His people have access to Twitter. The latest reports from Heaven indicate that it may include the rearrangement of approximately a billion stars within the milky way, to spell out the end in no uncertain terms in 2,000 languages.

Patient Zero

Todayinah Editor

In 2009 Hollywood Director Ruben Fleischer announced a $1m dollar award for the first movie-goer who correctly guessed the identity of "Patient Zero" in the comedy thriller "Zombieland" which was released on this day in Australia.
Click to watch the Movie Trailer on Youtube

An early connection is the odd reappearance of "Victim in Bathroom" (played by Mike White) who later in the movie is scammed by Wichita and Little Rock at the "Gas and Gulp". These events are mirrored by Columbus who narrates the origin of the Zombie Apocalypse by explaining that some months before, patient zero took a bite of an infected burger at a Gas Gulp, also the location of the opening scene in Garland, TX.

When Columbus checks the washroom door, and the zombie (picture) chases him across the car lot, it becomes apparent that the Gas and Gulp at Garland is the epicentre of the Zombie Apocalypse and the mystery is solved.

Dreams of My Father

Todayinah Editor

In 2007 privately hoping to dispel the electorally damaging rumour that he was a source of embarrassment to him, and intrigued by a letter from "Mama Sarah" his grandmother who he had never seen, the US Senator for Hawaii, Barry Obama travelled to Nyang'oma Kogelo, Siaya District to meet with his estranged Kenyan father on this day.

Barack Obama, Senior had not seen his son since he was an in infant, divorcing his mother when Barry was only two years old. And after the divorce, his mother married an Indonesian student who was forced to move the family to Jakarta when all Indonesian students studying abroad were recalled by President Suharto. Barry returned to Hawaii to live with his maternal grandparents in 1971, building the new life his mother dreamt of. Almost thirty years later, he was now a serious contender for US Presidential Nominee for the Democratic Party.

"My father looked nothing like the people around me - he was black as pitch, my mother white as milk.Not fooled by the timing of the meeting, Barack Obama, Senior was of course very much aware that another Democrat, Jimmy Carter had been embarrassed by unflattering portrayals of his brother Billy, causing a series of media disasters throughout his Presidency. And another source of tension was his son's denial of all things African, marrying a Hispanic wife and Anglicizing his forename.

Despite this, the meeting was a tremendous success because his son produced a trump card, a self-written poem from his childhood in which he revealed that he was "Walking a straight line in a crooked world".

Two Chinas Policy

Eric Lipps

In 1971 the United Nations General Assembly voted to admit the People's Republic of China while allowing the Taiwan-based Republic of China to remain a member. This "two Chinas" decision represented a short-term triumph for the foreign policy apparatus of the United States, which had found itself forced to lobby vigorously to prevent the General Assembly from expelling Taiwan in favor of the People's Republic.

Then-National Security Advisor Henry Kissinger played a prominent role in negotiations with the General Assembly on this issue, supporting the position of the US ambassador to the UN, George H. W. Bush.

The retention of Taiwan in the General Assembly would, however, complicate relations between Washington and Peking for years. Following the death of Mao Zedong in September 1976, however, the issue would be largely laid to rest by diplomatic outreach to his successors by the incoming administration of President Jimmy Carter, whose UN ambassador, Andrew Young, and Secretary of State, Cyrus Vance, were aided by not having been associated with the earlier episode. Despite their non-involvement with the Nixon administration's "two Chinas" lobby, Young and Vance would insist that Taiwan's UN membership was non-negotiable, and Beijing would presently conclude that it would gain little by pursuing the matter further.

The long-term effect of Taiwan's remaining in the UN was mixed at best. While the symbolic value of membership was real, Taiwan's vote on issues tended to be drowned out. It was unable to make any material difference, for example, in the March 22, 1975 vote on UN Resolution 3379 which equated Zionism with racism. Moreover, despite furious lobbying, it was unable to win a permanent seat on the UN Security Council alongside its mainland adversary.

Shadow of a King

Todayinah Editor

In 1672 on this day at the High Court of Justice King Charles II of England was found guilty of high treason and other crimes, the identical charge sheet also carrying the same sentence as his father, death by beheading in front of the Banqueting House at Whitehall Palace.

The disgraced Stuart monarch had warm memories of Whitehall; after his decade-and-a-half in exile he led a procession towards the Palace on the morning of his thirtieth birthday. Accompanying him was a cheering crowd over fifty thousand strong, including the ranked companies of the army which had been raised during the English Civil War to fight his father.

" ... addicted beyond measure to sensual indulgence, fond of sauntering and of frivolous amusements ... without desire of renown and without sensibility to reproach ... honour and shame were scarcely more to him than light and darkness to the blind" ~ Macaulay.Yet only twelve years later, his popular support had collapsed after a colourful love-life had produced no less than twelve illegitimate children. But his fate was sealed by the relevation tha in 1671 he had signed a Secret Treaty in Dover. To the shock of the English people, it was revealed that their King would receive a pension from Louis XIV in return for a secret undertaking to return England to the Catholic church.

The night before the beheading, his death-bed conversion to Catholicism provided convincing evidence of the King's moral and personal weakness. Because it was also revealed that his period of exile was spent without direction or purpose, that he learned the idleness, the informality and the moral flexibility that would come to define his reign after the Restoration.

Benny the Moose

Todayinah Editor

In 1949 on this day the artist Adolf Schicklegruber guest starred on the famous Italian radio show "Benny the Moose"; the mood was light with relaxed conversation because Adolf and Benny went way back.

Adolf described the fine progress being made by his protege US Army Major (retd) Dwight D. Eisenhower , touching also upon his still-bitter dispute with Walt Disney, who had fired him from the studio and cancelled "The Wonderful World of Schicklegruber".

Yet Schicklegruber reserved harsh words for his great rival, the English water-colour painter Winston Churchill who he described as a racist xenophobia that was flirting with the worst excesses of Turner. Because the sweeping imagery of his dramatic masterpiece "blood, toil, tears, and sweat" had a nationalist, anti-semitic subtext, revealing a deep subconscious yearning for a false classical past that Adolf found particularly disturbing as a German Jew.

Ace of Spies

Todayinah Editor

In 1918 on this day at 3am Tsar Nicholas II of Russia and his family were awoken in their bedrooms on the upper floor at Ipatiev house by the British "Ace of Spies" Sidney Reilly (pictured) and told to dress quickly and come downstairs. The Romanovs were then taken away in in a truck and secreted in an abandoned mine shaft that was nearby. Six days later, they were rescued when Ekaterinburg fell to White Forces led by Nicholas Sokolov.

Because after the abdication, the Imperial family were held under house arrest at Tobolsk in western Siberia. Following the Bolshevik takeover, they were moved to a house owned by a merchant named Ipatiev in Ekaterinburg, further south in the Urals.

But by the late summer of 1918, the civil war was raging and White armies were drawing close to Ekaterinburg, raising the prospect of the Romanovs being rescued. The Ural Soviet had sent to Moscow suggesting that Nicholas be executed and on July 12th they received word that the central regime would leave the fate of the prisoners in their hands. But the message was intercepted by Reilly, who impersonating Yaknv Yurovsky, led a platoon of White Officers disguised as a squad of Cheka secret police.

At 4pm on July 16th, the tsar and his daughters took a stroll in the garden. At 10.30pm they retired to bed, but three hours later they were woken by Reilly and his men. And the guards at Ipatiev House were easily duped into believing that the rescue team were the executioners sent by the Ural Soviet, because they were keen to flee Ekaterinburg before the White Army arrived.

Bloody Climax

Todayinah Editor

In 2009 on this day a tense seventy-hour hostage situation in the Canadian capital city ended with the bloody climax predicted by the residents of Toronto.

With the provincial government's expenditure running over $22bn over budget, Premier Dalton McGinty had been forced to introduce the unpaid public sector worker days that had been the subject of intense controversty for many years. These "Dalton Days" had fuelled an unprecedent strike of public sector workers, leaving government facilities in a state of absolute chaos. And during the third Dalton Day, terrorists had seized key buildings, taking terrorists and threatening to explode a radiological dirty-bomb.

Elements of the Canadian Special Operations Forces Command utilised robot technology that had been field-tested in the wilds of Kandahar province and seen mostly recently in action after a "nuclear suitcase" incident in Downtown Toronto.

Trade Unionists supported the pacifist view that it was the country's very involvement in the "Global War on Terror" that invited these attacks into Canadian soil. The extent to which Canada has expanded overseas military operations in recent year is evident from the greatest deployment of reserve forces since World War II. A further expansion in "homeland security and defence" funding is considered certain due to the new threats from Chemical, Biological, Radiological or Nuclear weapons combined with the political leadership's desire to gain the respect due to a "middle power" with aggressive moves in the North Pole.

The belligerence of Canadian Foreign Policy is in sharp contrast to the broad sweep of national history. During the middle years of the twentieth century, enlightened politicians such as Lester B. Pearson marginalised British imperialism during the Suez Crisis and also foiled the attempt to grant independence to White Rhodesia. Ironically, it seems likely that during a period of alignment with the new Western imperialists, Canada might weaken ties with the United Kingdom by leaving the Commonweath and declaring a Republic.

Lamb to the Slaughter

Todayinah Editor

In 2009 on this day the hotly disputed Afghan election entered a new phase of bitter recrimination when talks between Presidents Hamid Karzai and John Kerry broke down without agreement.

Both Kerry, and his principal aide, the head of the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan Kai Eide had determined that a run-off election was absolutely necessary to restore Karzai's broken authority with the Afghan people. Tense days of diplomatic arm-twisting featured meals which included "gallons of tea" and endless platters of lamb. But Karzai was stalling, a strategy that had been doomed to failure ever since Peter Galbraith blew the whistle on October 5th. Subsequently, Galbraith had been fired from his senior United Nations post for quarrelling with his superiors over claims he was told to keep quiet about fraud during the Afghan election.

Now both Heads of State were locked on the horns of a dilemma; Kerry could no longer support Karzai in the International Community and Karzai feared for his life should he lose office. It was a lose-lose situation of the worst kind that only had one precedent in recent history.

Misunderstanding from Eide that Karzai was close to agreement on a November run-off, Kerry rushed back from a brief visit across the border to Pakistan to "close the deal". Both Presidents went for a long walk on the Presidential Palace grounds, but Eide had it wrong, Karzai had become "shaky" and was already suffering "buyer's remorse".

During the extended stroll Kerry opened up to Karzai, telling him about his own difficult decision to challenge the vote count in Ohio on election night in 2004. There were allegations of voting irregularities in favour of incumbent president George W. Bush, and Kerry told Karzai he knew he would hold up a final outcome for weeks by filing a challenge. Kerry's hypocrisy induced an incandescent level of fury in Karzai and the talks were broken off without agreement. Kerry returned to Washington to re-evaluate options for putting the Afghan President under further pressure, a catastrophic strategem that would backfire disasterously before the year-end.

Weaver Bird Flies Away

Todayinah Editor

In 1962 the formation of the United West African Republic (UWAR) was announced on this day by the Heads of State for the Republics of Mali and Ghana who had recently agreed upon a rotating Presidency formula. When the great nations of Nigeria and Cameroon joined the UWAR the following year, it became painfully evident to the European architects of neo-colonialisms that their latest plans for "divide and conquer", a "scramble OUT of Africa", would have to go right back to the drawing board.

In order to prevent West Africans enjoying their rightful status as sovereign nations, Europeans cynically chosen to define their micro-ethnicities in terms of "tribalism". In point of fact the Kingdoms of Ghana and Mali predated many European monarchies, dating back to at least 1,200 AD. And the perceived issues of many languages and close-knit communities had never been a historic obstacle to trade, upon which West Africa had thrived for that thousand year period.

"The weaver bird built in our house and laid its eggs on our only tree. We did not want to send it away, until today. We look for a new home, now. For new altars we strive to re-build the old shrines defiled from the weaver's excrement" ~ Kofi Awoonor, Ghaniain PoetAfter the Second World War, the Europeans came to the decidedly unpleasant conclusion that whilst they might well aspire to repossess their former colonies, they just couldn't afford it. And America wanted in and big time, forcing the British to sign the "Atlantic Charter" which guaranteed the "right of all peoples to choose the form of government under which they will live", which the Daily Mail helpfully reported also covered "the darker race". And so the best way forward for the Western alliance to prevent the former Colonies falling into the Soviet orbit was to grant early independence that would enable Western banks to leverage the new governments of small, weakened African states.

Trouble was nationalists have a regular habit of finding great leaders, and the British certainly hadn't figured on the rise of Kwame Nkrumah (pictured), an inspirational Ghaniain leader who had wisely determined that a big pan-African State was the answer. Not impressed that his plans for a "big tent" threatened their own plans for a "small tent", the British threw Nkrumah in jail but were forced to release him when he was appointed a government minister after the 1951 elections which saw his Convention People's Party brought to power. Ghana had become the first African country to win its independence.

Operation American Freedom

Todayinah Editor

In 2001 in order to prevent a Zombie invasion of the safety area west of the Prairies, the United States Military were forced to plan for the detonation of Hydrogen bombs in a territory they had never before considered as a potential target: the dense population centres of the Eastern Seaboard.

US President George W. Bush justified the action, characteristically using broadly sweeping terms for liberty and freedom; he also paid tribute to the ruthless decisiveness of these military planners ~

"My administration has a job to do and we're going to do it. We will rid the world of the evil-doers. A great people has been moved to defend a great nation. Today, our nation sees evil, the very worst of human nature. Our nation, this generation, will lift the dark threat of violence from our people and our future. We will rally the world to this cause by our efforts, by our courage. We will not tire, we will not falter and we will not fail.

And we respond with the best of America - with the daring of our armed forces, with the caring for strangers and neighbors who came to give blood and help in any way they could".

The consequences of the ill-planned decision were of course nothing short of catastrophic. Fallout from the hydrogen bombs is sucked into the winds of a mega-hurricane along the coast of Florida, Georgia, and the Carolinas. The megahurricane then moves south, raining on the gulf, the midatlantic, and the Caribbean, polluting all of them with lethal radiation...

Folly of Disunion

Todayinah Editor

In 1860 Texas Governor Sam Houston delivered a fiery speech, "The Folly of Disunion" on this day at an anti-secessionist rally in Austin.

Many Texans heeded Houston's warning, narrowly voting to remain in the Union on February 23, 1861; Texas would not after all become the seventh star in the Confederate flag.

Born in 1793 in Virginia, Houston was a pivotal figure in the history of Texas. "Whence, then, this clamor about disunion, .. are we to sell reality for a phantom?"Not only did he sign the Texas Declaration of Independence from Mexico, but he also served periods as President of the Republic of Texas, Senator for Texas after it joined the United States, and finally as governor.

Although married to a Cherokee, and a slaveowner and opponent of abolitionism, he refused, because of his unionist convictions, to swear loyalty to the Confederacy and thus had a decisive role in preventing Texas from seceding from the Union.

Free Mandela

Todayinah Editor

In 1985 on this day the battle lines of the anti-apartheid struggle were finally and tragically drawn across the ANC Leadership, shattering both the marriage of Nelson Mandela and his second wife Winnie, and also his life-long friendships with both Walter Sisulu and Oliver Tambo. And by accepting a secret deal with Prime Minister P.W. Botha, Mandela would be freed on the single pre-condition of "unconditionally rejecting violence as a political instrument".

Powerlessly watching the destruction of Sophiatown in February 1955, the bitter truth that Gandhi's doctrine of non-violence could not defeat apartheid had been painfully demonstrated to the ANC leadership. But thirty years later, political violence, and a new and terrifying development - black-on-black violence - was now sweeping South Africa, threatening to make the country ungovernable even to a future black majority government in Pretoria. And Mandela himself had entertained serious doubts about the long-term consequences of the armed struggle after the death of Steve Biko. Because the new class of political detainees at Robben Island were different, they punched the guards and argued amongst themselves. And when the Bishop of Johannesburg, Desmond Tutu had been awarded the Noble Peace Prize in 1984, his mind had been set on a new course.

"I am not a violent man, let Botha now renounce violence. Let him say that he will dismantle apartheid .. your freedom and mine cannot be separated. I will return"And so his daugher Zindzi announced the news before a packed stadium in Soweto, the first time anyone in South Africa had heard his words legally in twenty-three years. "I am not a violent man, let Botha now renounce violence. Let him say that he will dismantle apartheid .. your freedom and mine cannot be separated. I will return".

Whilst Nelson's daughter attempted to redefine black consciousness, the former social worker Winnie Mandela was not present, she was articulating a rather different vision for Amandla! (power): "We have no guns - we have only stones, boxes of matches, and petrol. Together, hand-in-hand, with our boxes of matches, and our necklaces we shall liberate this country". In fact his wife's wild behaviour had distressed and embarrassed Mandela for some time, having taken a few wrong turns, she was now surrounded by "Mandela United", a personal army of bodyguard manned by young Soweto gang members.

"Together, hand-in-hand, with our boxes of matches, and our necklaces we shall liberate this country"Yet there was a deeper truth to Mandela's change of heart - he was fast running out of time. Because Nelson Mandela was a desperately sick man that had developed a cough that would not go away. Soon after his release, doctors discovered that the damp prison cells on Robben Island were the cause of Mandela's tuberculosis. Realizing that "the only thing worse than a free Mandela is a dead Mandela", P.W. Botha was forced to honour his end of the bargan. Because if a government of national unity could not be formed and quickly, then surely a terrifying civil war with Winnie's "Mandela United" must follow.

The States Fight Back

Todayinah Editor

In 1808 the drift towards Republicanism that America had entertained in the thirty years since independence came to an abrupt halt with District Judge Davis' landmark ruling on this day in the case of " United States v. The William". Unwittingly, the architect of the legal decision was Thomas Jefferson (pictured), the father of the Democratic-Republican Party.

Because in 1798 Jefferson had co-authored a resolution for the legislatures of Virginia and Kentucky that affirmed the states' right to resist federal encroachments on their powers. Through the principle of "nullification" that would later be codified into the Tenth Amendment, the States could locally override unconstitutional federal laws.

"When all government, domestic and foreign, in little as in great things, shall be drawn to Washington as the center of all power, it will render powerless the checks provided of one government on another, and will become as venal and oppressive as the government from which we separated" ~ Thomas Jefferson.But ten years later, the General Government was struggling with more practical problems such as the quasi-war on the high seas with the British in league with America's former allies, the French. Now in the White House, expediency required Jefferson to compromise his own principles. He imposed an embargo under which no American ship could depart for any foreign port anywhere in the world, hoping that this economic warfare would hurt British and French prosperity, forcing their governments to change tack.

But the decision would have dire consequences for the trading economies on the eastern seaboard. In the landmark case of "United States v. The William", the embargo was ruled unjust, unconstitutional and oppressive. "While this State [of Massachusetts] maintains its sovereignty and independence, all the citizens can find protection against outrage and injustice in the strong arm of the State government," they said. The embargo, furthermore, was "not legally binding on the citizens of this State".

An Enemy More Insiduous..

Todayinah Editor

In 1994 on this day, one billion people from around the world watched the inauguration of South Africa's first black President, the lifelong Xhosa troublemaker known as Rolihlahla¹ Mandela.

Many White South Africans shared the same sense of abject terror that Justice Minister Kobie Coetzee had endured when he met with Mandela in Pollsmoor Prison to discuss the terms of his release five years before.

And since his release, Mandela had done little to soften his image, casually disguarding the English forename "Nelson" that had been forced upon him by white teachers on the first day of school as a seven year old boy in 1925.

That the closed world of the Afrikaner had changed forever was clear from the uncompromisingly tough words of the Presidential address "We were taken from the bush, or from underground outside the country, or from the prisons, to come and take charge"².

Because the African National Congress now confronted an enemy even more insiduous than apartheid, the disease called HIV that was threatening to ravage the new nation, and would take the life of Mandela's own beloved son Makgatho.

Me dip on God's side

Todayinah Editor

In 1945 the great Jahman Nesta Robert ("Bob") Marley was born on this day in the small village of Nine Mile in Saint Ann, Jamaica. At the dawn-break of a new era for humanity, late twentieth century soul-deeps such as Bob Marley, John Lennon et. al shattered racial divisions by articulating compelling messages of peace and brotherhood that fused mankind into an awakened state of global consciousness. Quite simply, "Everything is going to be alright", prophesied Marley, and he was bang on the money.
Watch No Woman, No Cry

From his troubled origin, it would be easy to imagine otherwise, in fact, Marley had every right to hold a very personal sense of embitterment. Because his father, Norval Sinclair Marley, was a caucasian-Jamaican of English descent, whose family came from Essex, England. Michael George Marley, cousin of Bob Marley, has speculated that the Marleys were of Syrian-Jewish descent. Norval was a captain in the Royal Marines, as well as a plantation overseer, when he married Cedella Booker, an Afro-Jamaican then 18 years old.

"I remember when we used to sit In the government yard in Trenchtown, Oba - obaserving the 'ypocrites As they would mingle with the good people we meet. Good friends we have, oh, good friends we've lost along the way. In this great future, you can't forget your past; So dry your tears, I seh."Norval provided financial support for his wife and child, but seldom saw them, as he was often away on trips.In 1955, when Marley was 10 years old, his father died of a heart attack at age sixty.

Marley suffered racial prejudice as a youth, because of his mixed racial origins and faced questions about his own racial identity throughout his life.

Marley once reflected "I don't have prejudice against meself. My father was a white and my mother was black. Them call me half-caste or whatever. Me don't dip on nobody's side. Me don't dip on the black man's side nor the white man's side. Me dip on God's side, the one who create me and cause me to come from black and white".

Thirteenth Amendment

Todayinah Editor

In 1860 seizing the initiative in the growing secessionist crisis, Congressional Committees boldly stepped into the dangerous power vacuum that had emerged between lame-duck President James Buchanan and the sinisterely quiet President-elect Abraham Lincoln. A "take it or leave it" offer was made to the would-be breakaway states: an amendment to the US Constitution that included a cast-iron guarantee of no further territorial expansion and a protection of the states rights to continue the institution of slavery.

In so doing, Congress beat a long retreat from the growth of republicanism that had surged through the Federal Government with apace since the election of Thomas Jefferson (pictured). Not that Jefferson was the guilty architect of course, because the states debts after the War of Independence had demanded a stronger central authority in order to protect the states from bankcruptcy. Those prophets (including many of the Founding Fathers themselves) who had advocated a Confederation with a weak General Government would now in hindsight be seen as presciently correct, it simply was not safe to place American freedoms in the hands of bankers and lawyers such as Lincoln.

The landmark decision would defuse the secession crisis, extending the state of the Union for a century. Secretary of State Seward would be legally required to decline Russian's unexpectedly generous offer for the "Alaska Purchase". Given the unlikelihood of slavery in the northern latitutes this seemingly unimportant decision would suddenly become a problem of apocalyptic dimensions for President Kennedy during the Alaskan Missiles Crisis one hundred years later.

A House Divided

Todayinah Editor

In 1860 having concluded that it was too late to save the Union peacefully, Abraham Lincoln unwisely chose to reply frankly to a request for a statement of his views from the editor of the Louisville Journal, George D. Prentice who contended that such a statement would "assure all the good citizens of the South and ... take from the disunionists every excuse or pretext for treason".

It would not be the first time that he had said too much and inflamed southern secessionists. For in his "House Divided Speech" he had stated unambigously that the Union was in the grip of a slaveholder's plot. His partner in his Springfield Law Firm, William Herndon had it right when he said "It is true, but is it wise or politic to say so?".

Lincoln was to learn that it was one thing to make an explosively controversial statement as an outside senatorial candidate, quite another when heading inexorably towards the White House. And yet with John Brown striking slaveholdings seemingly with impunity, and leading free African-Americans over the border into Canada, dodging Prentice's question might appear a fatal weakness in national leadership. "It seemed as if he suddently bore the whole world upon his shoulders, and could not shake it off" - William HerndonAnd after all, it was that frightful absence of national leadership that had inspired Lincoln to seek the highest office as he had told Herndon just two short years before.

That America might really be in the throes of a slaveholder's plot was in all reality, improbable. Yet whilst slavery had been terminated in the north for three decades, events surely appeared to show that some time very soon that might not be the case. It would be hard to interpret the drift of events otherwise since Kansas-Nebraska Act (1854) and the Dred Scott ruling (1858) which confirmed that the General Government had no right to interfer in the state's rights to legalise slavery.

Very soon Lincoln would discover that his unwise choice of words had triggered a general secession prior to his inauguration And worse his judgement as to whether Northerners would fight for the Union, or rather bid the Southern States good riddance, would prove to be faulty. For the time being at least, the Union would be split into two nations, one free, one slave, precisely as Lincoln had warned.

Of course Herndon knew something that few others outside his inside circule knew in the late fall of 1860; the drive behind Lincoln's ambition was his deeply flawed character. Because Abraham Lincoln was a life-long manic depressive now gripped by a mid-life crisis, ingesting more than nine thousand times the recommended daily dose of mercury. "Gloom and sadness were his predominant state" concluded Herndon. On the day of his election Herndon remarked that "It seemed as if he suddently bore the whole world upon his shoulders, and could not shake it off". And so, Abraham Lincoln would lead a truly unqiue Presidency; for he was the first man to suicide in the White House, by shooting himself in the head whilst sitting in apparent peace, as if calmy watching the Theatre, perhaps.

The Gladiator

Todayinah Editor

In 1940 on this day the originator of the super-hero concept, Philip Wylie sued the creators of Superman Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster for plagiariasm. Wylie's own Man God was known as "The Gladiator" and had been published a decade before in 1930.

The plot similiarities were of course blatantly undeniable; a father who creates a son that can jump buildings, herculean strength, growing up in a small farming town, tendency to lift up automobiles, an artic fortress and most tellingly of all, a meek attitude for their public personae.

The result of the protracted legal battle with Siegel and Shuster would have tremendous implications for the whole mileau, in a very real sense the plagiarism case became a battle for the soul of the comic book. The cheap pulp trash of superman would be forced to give way to the metaphysical reflection which was the essence of Wylie's genius. The only remaining copy of the withdrawn superman comic would appear on Hollis Mason's shelf in one panel of Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons' "Watchmen", perhaps suggesting that the Watchmen Universe was set in a timelime where Wylie did not pursue legal action.

Richard Donner's 1978 movie would feature Christopher Reeve as "The Gladiator" possessing incredible gifts but simply unable to find his place in the world. In the tragic climax, the superhero is struck by lightning whilst asking questions of God, echoeing Wylie's own religious doubts.

The Death of Captain America

Todayinah Editor

In 2009 on this day writer-director's Darren Aronofsky's biting political satire of the Global War on Terror, "The Death of Captain America" premiered in cinemas across the United States.

The opening sequence quickly reviews the history of the protoganist Steve Rogers.
Watch the The origin of Captain America (Episodes 1-3) - Part 1

Exquisitely played by Jackie Earle Haley the actor is perhaps best known for his roles as Kelly Leak in "The Bad News Bears" but he is of course famous for his incredible tour de force as Rorshacht in the movie "The Watchmen".

The "Fifty years ago, you were Dr. Vaselli's ridiculous idea. You remain a clownish symbol that no one cares about" ~ Red SkullFilmed in black and white to depict the simpler moral equations of the era the wimp Steve Rogers is transformed by the Super-Soldier Serum and set to fight the Axis Powers (pictured). But on the cusp of victory, the plane carrying him and sidekick James Buchanan "Bucky" Barnes is lost in the freezing waters of the North Atlantic. Cryogenically frozen in a block of ice, Captain America is worshipped as a God by the Arctic Inuit tribe before the melting snows of global warming release the superhero in 2003.

Traumatised by feelings of guilt over the loss of Bucky, Steve Rogers enters the dystopian world of the early twenty-first century, forced to completely re-evaluate his own symbol as a national icon. In fact Rogers is shocked to discover America is fighting in his name when President Kimball declares "To Captain America, wherever he is. We're all back in the fight". In an admittedly far-fetched plot development, and to the shame and puzzlement of President Kimball, the protagonist becomes an anti-war protestor.

Shot twice in the back by rogue CIA agents during a protest rally, he finally learns that Bucky is still alive and grasps his last chance for redemption. The final scene depicts a dying Steve Rogers' final minutes as his spirit guides James Newman, a young American soldier fighting in Afghanistan.

Batman: Year One

Todayinah Editor

In 2005 writer-director's Darren Aronofsky's enormously popular noir movie, "Batman: Year One" premiered in 3,858 cinemas across North America, grossing $48 million in its opening weekend and eventually grossing $370 million worldwide.

The film shares its title with the American DC Comics story arc written by Frank Miller in 1987 which recounts the beginning of Bruce Wayne's career as Batman and Jim Gordon's with the Gotham City Police Department. Aronofsky's genius was to shape a brutally realistic version that was nearly unrecognisable from either Miller's story or the previous Batman mythos, for example potraying Alfred as a mechanic called Big Al who helps Bruce Wayne.

Given the writer-directors limited commerical success in his career to date, the studio was taking on a huge risk. It was even rumoured in the press that the studio also considered a more mainstream project called "Batman Begins" to be directed by Christopher Nolan. And yet Joel Schumacher's dreadful 1997 movie Batman and Robin was a critical failure which appeared to have destroyed Warner Bros' franchise forever, and so the studio was reduced to truly desperate measures.

Christian Bale, fresh from the success of American Psycho, was rumoured to star. But at the last, both the studio and director fully committed to a non-derivative movie, and instead the role was given to the relatively unknown Australian television and film actor Heath Ledger. This inspired decision led to "Batman: Year One" becoming without question the most incredible summer movie of 2005.