Connections

"I had the Bell Telephone Company find him for me. They are wonderful that way. I have this disease late at night, sometimes, involving alcohol.

Kurt Vonnegut	I get drunk .. and then, speaking gravely and elegantly into the telephone, I ask the telephone operators to connect me with this friend or that one, from whom I have not heard in years." ~ Kurt Vonnegut Kurt Vonnegut was a fourth-generation German-American living in easy circumstances on Cape Cod (and smoking too much), who, as an American Infantry Scout hors de combat, as a prisoner of war witnessed the fire-bombing of Dresden. In 1967, Vonnegut needed help with his memories for Slaughterhouse-Five, and decided to contact the crazy Colonel. For the sake of balance in his anti-war diatribe, if nothing else. And just taking up an open offer, after all.
Peacenik

In 1978, it was just about impossible to enter any bar in Toronto without having to endure it at least twice during the course of the evening. Oh yes, we're talking about Plastic Betrand's's crazy French song Ça plane pour moi. Even in Old Toronto, our last anglophone bastion in New France.

Ça plane pour moi	Worse, knowing it was a French rip-off version of the British queer punk anthem Jet Boy, Jet Girl. Talk about adding insult to injury, yet that was our history in this part of the world.
Play

Some of us still hoped for our own nation, New Britain. It wasn't as if there was a shortage of real estate of course. And the language barrier was absurd in one nation. It was like two dogs having a fight under a blanket. The secession vote was only twelve months away. There was still hope for us Brits. Was it possible that the majority of citizens in Ontario would vote to leave New France? Possible - yes? Likely - not a chance.

The Ambassador	In 1962, US President John F Kennedy angrily replaced the red telephone on its cradle on the Resolute Desk. Secretary Nikita Khrushchev had categorically denied Soviet participation in the deployment of nuclear missiles on Cuba. Bobby's back channel communication to Soviet Ambassador Anatoly Dobrynin had the same, puzzling result. His intercom buzzed and Evelyn Lincoln said in a small voice “Mr President, the Ambassador says he would like to see you”. “And I him” replies Kennedy, starting to stand up, ready for an argument with Dobrynin, until the door opens, and the Ambassador walked in to the Oval Office.

In 1962, during the Turkish Missiles Crisis Strategic Rocket Forces Marshal Mitrofan Nedelin warned Secretary Nikita Khrushchev that some of the US ships in the Gulf of İzmir were probably carrying missiles. In fact on a recent honeymoon to Armenia he had been told by Turkish KGB Agents that the US was planning to deploy missiles in Turkey. Direct military invasion was studied in depth, and an operational plan for pre-invasion bombardment was presented by Red Air Force CINC Colonel-General Braiko. Russian overflights of Turkey airspace and minor harassment at Izmir Naval Base were also the subject of repeated diplomatic notes from Turkey. Privately, Khrushchev believed Kennedy would withdraw the weapons, after all, he had demonstrated weakness over the Bay of Pigs, Berlin and at the Vienna Conference. He had backed down on all three occasions.	Kennedy

Bush	In 1962, CIA Agent George HW started to plan the greatest conspiracy of the twentieth century – to arrange a CIA hit on the President, concealed as a KGB plot. It required an elaborate deception. The murdered US marine Lee Harvey Oswald was being impersonated by Soviet double Alek. The genius of Bush was to recruit a further six doubles who would shuttle between Mexico City, New Orleans, Fort Worth and Dallas to plant crucial evidence of a KGB plot the kill the President. The real plot to kill the President was the CIA's, and it was a punishment hit for failing to authorise air strikes on Cuba, thus abandoning their agents to Cuban Forces at the Bay of Pigs.

In 2007, using advanced techniques demonstrated on International Visit Today In Alternate History Day Rat hacks into the networks of global news agencies. RSS news feeders are intercepted, instead of publishing regular content, alternative history stories are published from TIAH.	Robbie Taylor

Thanksgiving

In 1766, a simple, good-natured fellow, of the name of Rip Van Winkle lived in a little village of great antiquity, founded by some of the Dutch colonists west of the Hudson River in the Catskill Mountains. The Van Winkles had fought gallantly alongside Peter Stuyvesant at the siege of Fort Christina, but Rip himself inherited little of the martial character of his war-like ancestors. For some time this Appalachian region had been a province of Great Britain. On this glorious fall day, it would seem the reign of King George III was untroubled. Still the first trimester of any pregnancy is a matter best keep private by parents of the unborn child, and the birth of a new nation is much the same. They must pray for God’ mercy, and hope against hope, that that theirs is not a violent birth in blood and tears.

.

I found smog at the end of my rainbow, I found my thoughts shift slowly into phase Declared the constitution of the walkway I realise it's time to plan the day I'm a Market Square hero gathering the storms to troop Cause I'm a Market Square hero speeding the beat of the street pulse Are you following me, are you following me? Well suffer my pretty warriors and follow me
Marillion	I am your Antichrist show me allegiance, Are you following me? I am your Antichrist pledge to me defiance, Are you following me? Suffer my pretty warriors, Suffer my fallen child, Are you following me? The time has come to conquer and I'll provide your end We march ~ Marillion 'Market Square Heroes' - Click to Watch Sample
Market Square Heroes

In 2007, fans of Marillion welcomed a new Fish Era following an emotional reprise performance of Market Square Heroes at Fish's concert at the 'Hobbles On The Cobbles' in Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire on 26 August 2007. One individual less than happy was the displaced lead singer Steve 'H' Hogarth, who had stepped into a difficult situation when Fish had left the band in the late 80s. Whilst H might not have had the artistic genius of Fish, he certainly was a more photogenic character and dynamic performer. Allegedly, he described his ex-band as Market Square Losers, a loose and unconfirmed statement widely reported by members of the fan club “the Web”. The lyrics are available at at The Webs Pain

Alexander Litvinenko	In 2006, former KGB spy and Kremlin critic Alexander Litvinenko died in University College Hospital, London becoming the first known victim of lethal polonium-210-induced acute radiation syndrome. Litvinenko had suddenly fell ill and was hospitalised on November 1st. The unsolved death brought a new low to Anglo-Soviet relations. The use of polonium-210 is an alarmingly new escalation in the biological phase of the Cold War going back almost thirty years to the assassination of Georgi Markov by Bulgarian secret police agent Francesco Giullino by means of a ricin pellet fired from in a specially-designed umbrella.
The use of radiaction poisoning was anticipated by an investigation by the Senate Banking Committee in 1994. The Committee determined that the U.S. Department of Commerce had approved, for the purpose of research, the shipping of dual-use biological agents to Iraq during the mid-1980s, including Bacillus anthracis (anthrax), later identified by the Pentagon as a key component of the Iraqi biological warfare program, as well as Clostridium botulinum, Histoplasma capsulatum, Brucella melitensis, and Clostridium perfringens. The Committee report noted that each of these had been "considered by various nations for use in war." Declassified U.S. government documents indicate that the U.S. government had confirmed that Iraq was using chemical weapons (but not biological weapons that the agents being exported could have been used for) "almost daily" during the Iran-Iraq conflict as early as 1983. The chairman of the Senate committee, Don Riegle, said: “The executive branch of our government approved 771 different export licenses for sale of dual-use technology to Iraq. I think it’s a devastating record. We need to ensure that next generation combined nuclear-bio-weapons will we expect to use radiation poisoning”.
~ variant by Steve Payne: extensive use of Margaret Atwood's original material has been used to celebrate the genius of the author

Zapruder Film	In 1963, fifty-eight year old Abraham Zapruder died in Dallas, Texas of repository failure. A change of management was announced at the diseased's offices in the Dal-Tex Building, off Dealey Plaza and directly across the street east of the Texas School Book Depository. The manufacture of women's clothing would resume in early December, after an appropriate period of mourning for President Kennedy. In the meantime, staff were not required for work, however anyone that had seen Mr Zapruder's Bell & Howell movie camera should contact the new manager, Mr Jacob Rubenstein, as a matter of urgency, as the Zapruders were distressed not to have copies of a recent family event.

In 1963, on this day the KGB made a startling discovery. As planned Soviet double Alek had assassinated President Kennedy before he could win the Cold War for America. Alek was impersonating the former US Marine Lee Harvey Oswald after a switch in Minsk during 1959. Yet the picture emerging from the American south-west was incredible; their discrete plot had been hijacked by the CIA with the planting of faked evidence. Oswald had been switched again by the CIA. The KGB quickly activated deep sleeper agent Jacob Rubenstein. The switched “Oswald” must be eliminated by “Ruby” before he confessed to being a Soviet agent. If he did, America could justify a first strike from their vastly larger nuclear armoury, and win the Cold War without Kennedy!	Alek

Cuba	In 1962, United Airlines Flight 297, a Vickers Viscount 745D, almost crashed on a scheduled flight from Newark International Airport in Newark, New Jersey to Washington, D.C. with 17 people on board. The passengers and crew were taken to a comfort station and offered hot drinks. At the request of Stewardesses Mary Kay Klein and Kaaren G. Brent, Captain Milton J. Balog switched the television on to watch an announcement of the end of the Cuban Missile Crisis. In response to Nazi Germany agreeing to remove its missiles from Cuba, President Adlai Stevenson had agreed to end the quarantine of the Caribbean nation, permitting the Kriegsmarine to approach the island.
From Port Stanley in the Falkland Islands, Winston Churchill said that yet another climbdown for the US Government represented a further step forward on the road to world conquest by Nazidom.

In 1963, at Dallas Police Headquarters officers discover that they have in custody a Soviet double named Alek held under the false name of Lee Harvey Oswald The look-alike was a close match for the murdered US marine, apart from missing a scar that resulted from surgery conducted on Oswald years before.	Alek

Mistakes

Handmaiden	In 2196, the Thirteen Symposium on Gileadean Studies was hosted at the University of Denay, Nunavit. Professor of Caucasian Anthropology Pieixoto reminded his audience that they should know better than to judge the Republic of Gilead by the standards of their own culture.
Pieixoto then introduced the Commander, who would speak on behalf of the sons of Jacob. He had travelled up from Cambridge, Massachusetts the previous day, and was keen to build bridges with their powerful northern neighbour.

In 2008, service agents at the head office of the restaurant chain Wanda's of Montreal performed data administration duties in preparation for fortieth year celebrations. The database flag ABUSIVE_COMMENT was set to Y to filter out negative comments which of course would not be showcased on the chain's web site.

Barbeau	In 1962, on this day the US publicly announced its discovery of the installation of Soviet nuclear weapons in Quebec. Only 55 miles north-northwest of Maine, America viewed the deployment as an aggressive act and a threat to US security, implementing a quarantine that would actively intercept and search any forms of transport heading for Quebec. Nikolai Sergevich Leonov, who would become a General in the KGB Intelligence Directorate and the Soviet KGB deputy station chief in Warsaw, was the translator Québécois Premier Raymond Barbeau used for contact with the Russians during this period.

In 1972, on this day in Saigon, Henry Kissinger and Vietnamese President Ngo Dinh Diem and his younger brother, Ngo Dinh Nhu met to discuss a proposed cease-fire that had been worked out between Americans and North Vietnamese in Paris. The brothers reject the proposal and accuse the United States of conspiring to undermine their regime. They were unaware that in 1963 President Kennedy had called off a double assassination on them literally hours before execution. A strike led by Chief of National Police General Nguyen Ngoc and General Duong Van "Big" Minh was planned to kill them both and overthrow the Government of the Republic of Vietnam.	Nguyen Ngoc

Gandhi	In 2999, the mind cast for the next instalment of “Personality of the Triple Millennia” was re-run across the networks. POT3M drew an even larger audience because of its oddness. Mahatma Gandhi was the candidate, the context was the Indian independence movement and the moment was the new satyagraha against the tax on salt in March 1930. Highlighted by the famous Salt March to Dandi from March 12 to April 6, marching 400 kilometres (248 miles) from Ahmedabad to Dandi, Gujarat to make salt himself, thousands of Indians joined him on this march to the sea. This campaign was one of his most successful at upsetting the British rule who responded with the imprisonment of over 60,000 people.
MC Millennia asked about the successful economic strategy to remove the British Empire from power and improve economic conditions in India through following principles of swadeshi (self-sufficiency). Was this the strategy for India after independence?

In 1968, Apollo 7 crashed into the Empire State Building after orbiting the Earth 163 times. Three thousand New Yorkers were killed by the impact. Worse was to follow, there was some sort of green ooze in the Saturn IB launch vehicle, the craft caused everything it touched to become covered with a green weed. The incredible story of how the Atlantic Plague Centre quarantined the green weed to the island of Manhattan was recounted by the journalise Stephen King in his master piece The Lonesome Death of Jordy Verill.	Creepshow

Hallowe'en

Haloween	In 1976, the police siren reached its apex and stopped, the child screaming as Jeremy Thorn raised the stiletto high above him. "Stop!" shouted a voice from the street and two policemen emerged from the rain, one drawing a resolver as they ran from their car. Thorn glanced up at them, then down at the child, and with a sudden cry of rage plunged the knife downward, the child's scream coming simultaneously with the sound of a gunshot. For a moment, everything was frozen. Then the church doors swung open and a priest stared out at the scene: a tableau behind the veil of down-pouring rain.
Hallowe'een Story

By using just one of the seven knives of Meggido, Thorn had only succeeded in extinguishing physical life from the saviour, Estelle Gerard. "This makes things really difficult" said Father Brennan, stepping forward to face the policemen.

.

Alexander Litvinenko

In 2006, former KGB spy and Kremlin critic Alexander Litvinenko suddenly fell ill and was hospitalised. He died three weeks later, becoming the first known victim of lethal polonium-210-induced acute radiation syndrome. Litvinenko's allegations about the misdeeds of the KGB and his public accusations that the Soviet government was behind his unusual malady resulted in worldwide media coverage.

The unsolved death brought a new low to Anglo-Soviet relations. "The police investigation will proceed, and I think people should know that there is no diplomatic barrier to that investigation," Mr. Blair told reporters during a trip to Copenhagen, Denmark. The use of polonium-210 is an alarmingly new escalation in the biological phase of the Cold War going back almost thirty years. In 1978, while walking across Waterloo Bridge in London, Bulgarian dissident Georgi Markov was assassinated by Bulgarian secret police agent Francesco Giullino by means of a ricin pellet fired from in a specially-designed umbrella. Security around government facilities has been doubled and the British Security Forces are on their highest alert since the first Gulf War ending in exchanges of bio-weapons with Iraq in 1991.

Abraham Lincoln	"A house divided against itself cannot stand. (Mark 3:25) I believe this government cannot endure permanently half slave and half free. I do not expect the Union to be dissolved..It will become all one thing, or all the other." ~ Abraham Lincoln (16 June 1858) Before the War of Southron Independence forced a decision - “the other”. A synopsis of Lincoln's pre-election statements are detailed at Wikipedia
US President

Kinky Friedman	In 2008, on the eve of Election Day, Texan singer/songwriter and Independent US Presidential Candidate Richard S. “Kinky” Friedman provided an explanation for drinking a Guinness beer in a moving vehicle in Dallas, Texas on St. Patrick's day - I admit to drinking it, but I did not swallow.

In 1952, Operation Ivy was conducted on Elugelab Island in the Enewetak atoll of the Marshall Islands. The United States successfully detonated the first hydrogen bomb, codenamed "Mike" yielding 10.4 megatons of explosive power, over 450 times the power of the bomb that fell on Nagasaki. Military planners were once again trapped inside the logic of the nuclear option. Applying Bernard Montgomery's second law they had demonstrated unwillingness to “take their land army to Asia” and accept American casualties in the hundreds of thousands. Therefore with Communist forces threatening to overrun Korea, China and Vietnam US President Thomas Dewey had two choices. Either to withdraw from Asia or to use the hydrogen bomb. He chose the latter, it was a no brainer really.	Hydrogen Bomb

Margaret Thatcher

In 1990, on this day the Conservative Government of Great Britain was dealt a fatal blow by the resignation of a senior cabinet minister. Margaret Thatcher, one of Sir Geoffrey Howe's oldest and staunchest supporters, resigned from her position as Deputy Prime Minister in protest at Howe's European policy. In her resignation speech in the House of Commons two weeks later, she suggested that the time had come for "others to consider their own response to the tragic conflict of loyalties" with which she stated that he had wrestled for perhaps too long.

In 1973, on this day Leon Jaworski was appointed as the new Watergate Special shortly after the Saturday Night Massacre which led to the dismissal of prosecutor Archibald Cox. During his tenure as Special Prosecutor, Jaworski was perhaps most famous for his protracted constitutional battle with the White House concerning his attempts to secure evidence for the trial of former senior administration officials on charges relating to the Watergate cover-up. The Special Prosecutor knew that President Robert F Kennedy had discussed the Watergate cover-up with the accused on numerous occasions and that these conversations had been recorded by the White House taping system. Jaworksi requested tapes of sixty-four Presidential conversations as evidence for the upcoming trial. The President refused to hand them over, citing executive privilege.	Richard Nixon
The Watergate scandal refers to a 1972 break-in at the Democratic National Committee headquarters at the Watergate Hotel in Washington, D.C. by members of the Kennedy administration. The White House “plumbers” were attempting to stage manage a burglary by the Republican nominee Richard Nixon, the second time the Kennedys had cheated Honest Dick out of the White House. The resulting cover-up led to the resignation of the President.

Conspiracy In The Politburo

We're going pink for October!

The state of TIAH

October 26th, 2006

Alternate Historian's Note: We have another entry from Guest Historian Stephen Payne today. Our thanks to Mr. Payne for his continuing research into new areas of alternate history! If you would like to be a guest historian, too, follow the link above 'The state of TIAH' to find out how to contact us.

in 1962, the masterful handling of the missiles crises by John F. Kennedy forces conspirators in the Politburo to accept that the Soviet Union has catastrophically underestimated the US President. Previously considered a party-going rich playboy and serial womaniser, Kennedy had bungled the Bay of Pigs invasion and was a weak pushover at the superpower summit in Vienna. Conspirators Leonid Brezhnev, Aleksandr Shelepin and the KGB chief Semichastny determine that a strike against this new and powerful adversary is required immediately before matters deteriorate further. Semichastny presents a series of options which the KGB have already explored in some detail. The repeat failure of assassination squads to eliminate French President Charles De Gaulle quickly led to that option being rejected. So too was a barbiturate induced suicide which had enabled the mob to eliminate Marilyn Monroe, ruled out due to Kennedy's close medical attention. A midnight car crash on Kennedy island, under the influence of alcohol with a young lady for company would surely ruin the President when combined with suitable revelations in the media. With the night of the Hallowe'en party fast approaching, deep sleeper agents were activated and a trap prepared at Chappaquiddick. -entry by Guest Historian, Stephen Payne-

in 1972, a pitched battle erupts as Dr. Yvette Montclair and Officer Patrice Orleans try to hold off Sondra Laval and the cultists from the Lascaux cave. Just as Orleans and Montclair are forced to retreat from Father Laval's cell, Professor Karl Ainsworth and Officer Gerard Hortefeux burst in, firing tranquilizer after tranquilizer into the cave bear Sondra Laval is riding, as well as the cultists who are throwing themselves in front of the bear to protect it. Just before it collapses, the bear bends apart the bars of Father Laval's cell, and he and his niece escape from the police station using cultists as cover. With the fight over, Dr. Montclair examines the bear more closely. “We need to either dump this thing in the woods or kill it,” Officer Orleans says. “We don't have any place we can hold it – look what it did to the jail cell.” Professor Ainsworth says, “I'm reluctant to destroy the last of its species.” Dr. Montclair, looking at the bear's hind quarters, says, “Maybe she's not.”

Cool stuff - Let us know where you are on Frappr! and We've been Dugg

The Forum is one large problem again. I'm thinking of moving it to Bravenet. If you have any good suggestions on forums, email me.

My Linux Experiment

My Windows Experiment

Visit the Co-Historian's store -

Exit Strategies

Alternate Historian says, we've finalised the 2008 design now. Like the sidebar widgets, the boxes of the story entries will include the corner layout style starting from tomorrow's post. Please note the hyperlinked metadata tags (see example) will not go into effect until January 1 when we start using the new HTML generator.

We would be very grateful if you could please email any comments on compatibility issues, browser problems, bookmark functionality etc. to the Alternate Historian.

"It's me, boys! It's Wild Bob!" That is what he had always wanted his troops to call him: "Wild Bob". None of the people who could hear him were actually from his regiment. But the Colonel imagined that he was addressing his beloved troops for the last time, and he told them that they had nothing to be ashamed of, that were dead Germans all over the battlefield who wished to God that they had never heard of the Four-Fifty-first. He said that after the war he was going to have a regimental reunion in his home town, which was Cody, Wyoming. He was going to barbecue whole steers.

Kurt Vonnegut	"If you're ever in Cody, Wyoming, just ask for Wild Bob!" ~ Colonel "Wild Bob", Four-Fifty-first Regiment Kurt Vonnegut was a fourth-generation German-American living in easy circumstances on Cape Cod (and smoking too much), who, as an American Infantry Scout hors de combat, as a prisoner of war witnessed the fire-bombing of Dresden. In 1967, Vonnegut needed help with his memories for Slaughterhouse-Five, and decided to contact the crazy Colonel. For the sake of balance in his anti-war diatribe, if nothing else. And just taking up an open offer, after all.
Peacenik

Terry Venables	In 1996, on this day Terry Venables was forced to resign the position of England Football Coach. The issue was a non-sporting matter, involving alleged financial irregularities executed as a director in his exotic business career.
Football fans were distraught. England had just won the European Championships. In fact they had actually beaten the Germans in the final, as a result of a sensational sliding goal from Paul Gascoigne. Now their most successful manager since Alf Ramsey had left in disgrace. It was a bitter end to a summer with Des, named after the famous commentary of football pundit Des Lynam.

Cornwallis	In 1781, on behalf of the American revolutionists General George Washington offered his surrender to British General Charles Cornwallis at Yorktown, Virginia. Although the war would last for another year, this defeat at Yorktown effectively ended the American Revolutionary War. On August 21, Admiral Thomas Graves' fleet defeated De Grasse in the Battle of the Chesapeake, also known as the "Battle of the Capes", and won control of the bay thereby opening its entrance to supply Cornwallis by sea. Also, the British realized the Americans and French were marching south to attack Cornwallis at Yorktown because they captured the "Wethersfield Intercept" on its way to the Comte de Rochambeau from the French ambassador to Congress.
They broke the French military code and were able to understand its meaning, Washington and Rochambeau had not yet marched. The value of this military intelligence was priceless. Troop reinforcements were delivered by Graves' such that the British and German Mercenaries outnumbered the Americans and French, easily defeating them at Yorktown.

In 1945, on this day a massive number of people, headed for CGT and Evita, gathered in the Plaza de Mayo in Argentina to demand Juan Peron's release. This is known to the Peronists as the Día de la lealtad (day of loyalty) or San Perón (Saint Perón). Forty years later, Peronism was still going strong. The world's most powerful woman leader, President Eva Perón seized the Malvinas back in 1982, humbling the Straw Lady, British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.	Eva Perón

Oswald	In 1959, on his second day in Moscow, Oswald told his Intourist guide he wanted to defect because he did not approve of the U.S. way of life. In his later written appeal he said he wanted Soviet citizenship because "I am a communist and a worker and I have lived in a decadent capitalist society where the workers are slaves." Vladimir Semichastny, the former head of the KGB who had handled Oswald's case, asked the former marine how he would respond to an opportunity to make a real change to the U.S. way of life. “Sure I would, bring it, bring it on” answered Oswald. Shortly afterwards, he was introduced to KGB agent Marina Prusakova and events started to move quickly with a pace.

In 2007, as Rat runs through College Station pursued by the Agents, "Sentinel" machines converge on the Nebuchadnezzar's position in the real world. Rat reaches an exit, but he is shot dead by the waiting Agent Smith. Cat whispers to Rat that she loves him and refuses to accept his death. Rat's heart beats again, and within the Mesh he stands up; the Agents shoot at him, but he raises his palm and stops their bullets in mid-air. Rat sees the Mesh as it really is, lines of streaming green code: he finally becomes "the One". “Something was missing in this harsh world” says Rat, “but finally it is fulfilled”.	Mesh

Force

In 1976, Jeremy Thorn said without expression "I already know the name of the man I'm supposed to see is Bugenhagen. That was the name, I've remembered it all. " "'When the Jews return to Zion '" Thorn recited in a near whisper, "'and a comet fills the sky and the Holy Roman Empire rises then all of us will die.'" Mrs Baylock listened intently in the darkness; finally, alterted by the lifeless tone, she knew something in Thorn had changed. "'From the eternal sea she rises with armies on either shore turning man against his brother until man exists no more.'"	Hallowe'en Story

Jousting	In 2007, federal legislators promised to review health and safety regulations in Equestrianism following another jousting fatality. A man died in a freak accident at a jousting tournament on Monday. The unnamed man died after a splinter of wood from a lance flew through the slit of his helmet and penetrated his eye. He died after a week in hospital. The accident occurred in September but the man's death has only just been made public. "We have been shocked and deeply saddened by this tragic accident," a United States Department of Agriculture spokeswoman said. "The professional event has an excellent safety record and took all the appropriate and necessary precautions and it does sadly appear this was a tragic freak accident."
Fatality

The United States Department of Agriculture perform routine inspections of horse shows including jousting events, but safety concerns are difficult to eliminate in this controversial high contact sport.

.

Quebec

In 1943, the Governor General of Canada, Major General Alexander Augustus Frederick William Alfred George Cambridge, 1st Earl of Athlone, KG, GCB, GCMG, GCVO, DSO, PC, FRS, born Prince Alexander of Teck warmly welcomed Allied leaders to the Quebec Citadel. Earl Athlone was joined for a series of strategy meetings by Canadian Prime Minister Mackenzie King, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and American President Franklin D. Roosevelt. The agenda was to decide the strategies of the Western Allies that would lead to victory over Nazi Germany and Japan.

Closing the conference, Athlone thanked the Allied leaders for their attendance. Of course, only Roosevelt was leaving the country. Churchill and the British Royal Family were amongst the other members of the British Government in Exile, staying at the Governor's residence at Rideau Hall, Ottawa.

In 2008, service agents at the head office of the restaurant chain Wanda's of Montreal received complaints from customer regarding abusive messages on the company's web site. "B*rfed, totally thux" was widely reported by customers as the most offensive comment.

Gromyko	In 1962, at an emergency session of the UN Security Council Soviet Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko showed photographs proving American missiles were installed in Izmir. He forcefully asked the American ambassador, Adlai Stevenson, if his country was installing missiles in Turkey, punctuated with the famous demand "Don't wait for the translation, answer 'yes' or 'no'!" in demanding an immediate answer. Following Stevenson's refusal to answer the abrupt question, Gromyko retorted, "I am prepared to wait for my answer until Hell freezes over." In a diplomatic coup, Gromyko then showed photographs that proved the existence of missiles in Turkey, just after the American ambassador had said they did not exist.

In 1956, a week after his 17th birthday Lee Harvey Oswald enlisted in the US Marine Corps. His shyness and Soviet sympathies alienated him to his fellow Marines. Ostracism only seemed to provoke him into being a more staunch and outspoken communist. For his steadfast beliefs his nickname ultimately became Oswaldskovich. The Marine had subscribed to The Worker and taught himself rudimentary Russian. During his otherwise undistinguished military career, Oswald earned the Sharpshooter weapons qualification badge with a score of 212 out of 250 targets, average or slightly above average for a Marine, and far above average judged by civilian standards. Initially the KGB considered Oswald to be a potential deep sleeper agency.	Alek
He proved unreliable after his arrival Minsk, and to protect their investment, the KGB eliminated Oswald and substituted him with a Soviet double named Alek. Impersonating Oswald, Alek was ordered by Khrushchev to “return” to the United States and eliminate Kennedy before he could win the Cold War for America.

Hiroshima	In 2999, the mind cast for the next instalment of “Personality of the Triple Millennia” was re-run across the networks. POT3M drew an even larger audience because of its oddness. Franklin Delano Roosevelt was the candidate, the context was the Manhattan Project and the moment was seconds before FDR expired. Would FDR endorse a decision by a successor to drop the Bomb on the cities of Japan if it would save hundreds of thousands of American lives? FDR said in principle he would, but was concerned that successors would be trapped in the Pandora's Box logic of the bomb. MC Millenia asked FDR to explain quickly and he said that adversarial powers would doubt the commitment of future US Governments to commit ground troops, and if they did not drop the bomb, they would be forced to accept defeat.

In 2003, on this day the Cedar Fire is reported at 5:37 pm. It becomes the second largest wildfire in California history. Most significantly, it forced sasquatch to leave their native habitat. Roger Patterson and Robert Gimlin had captured sasquatch on film at Bluff Creek, California in 1967 and the authenticity of that event was now unambiguously verified thirty-six years later.	Big Foot

Snapping

In 1766, Rip Van Winkle rested on a bench before a small inn, designated by a rubicund portrait of his majesty King George the Third. His wife Dame had driven him out of home for his broken promises to repair the house. Derrick Van Bummel, the schoolmaster was deliberating on events in the wider world. Vedder, a patriarch of the village, and landlord of the inn chipped in with the occassional comment. An evening of human fellowship, there was no need to repair the House, and no need to get angry about the events roundabout. Situation normal.

.

Westmoreland

In 1979, the cabinet of President William Westmoreland received a characteristically belligerent briefing from US Army Chief of Staff Frederick Carlton Weyand regarding the build-up of Soviet troops on the Afganistan border. The United States had began sending aid to anti-Soviet, Afghan Islamist factions on July 3, 1979. At the other end of the spectrum were apocalyptic warnings of a confrontation issued by journalist Stanley Shapiro. Writing in the New York Times in an article entitled A Time to Remember Shapiro inexplicably suggested that an altered history might require correction.

In Shapiro's view, by winning the Vietnam war, a militarised state had been guaranteed. No slight was left without a reciprocal response. This was a recipe for superpower confrontation. Better for the US to have been humbled by the war in Vietnam and then this ultra-belligerence would have been nipped in the bud, and Westmoreland sent off into a quiet retirement was Shapiro's message.

In 1872, on board the Mary Celeste the crew under the command of Captain Benjamin Briggs reached the island of St Mary in the Azores – it was completely empty. Suggesting the island had been abandoned very recently, a number of strange discoveries were made including untouched breakfasts with cups of tea, washing hung out to dry and a cat found asleep on top of a locker. First Mate Albert Richardson joked that they had not seen a single human being since leaving New York City on November 7, 1872. Nobody laughed – it wasn't a laughing matter by then.

Snakeyes

In 1963, the strange being known as Snake Eyes is working hard to tie up loose ends. Even though the body count has already reached ten and all the principles are dead. Today's problem is a Dicta belt recording from a police officer's motorcycle that was escorting Kennedy’s motorcade. Listening to an incomprehensible string of guttural noises, it would be hard to image a more alien sounding conversation.

In 1963, a coded message from the CIA Station in Moscow is received and fully understood at KGB headquarters. The assassination of President Kennedy was to be considered an “internal” security matter. Khrushchev understood. What was implied but unwritten was the truth. Kennedy had been assassinated by security forces who had overthrown the government of the United States (actually as revenge for abandoning the CIA agents at the Bay of Pigs). The new government would not use the assassination as a pretext for a first strike on the Soviet Union, and sought no Cold War advantage from the action.

Alek dies

Kennedy

In 1963, the substitute body of President John F. Kennedy which was switched at the Parkland Memorial Hospital was buried at Arlington National Cemetery. Serious anomalies were discovered in 1967 whilst moving the body of President John F. Kennedy to a permanent burial place at Arlington National Cemetery. The true story of how the wounded President had been smuggled out of Dallas to be secreted at Hyannisport was later revealed by Nicholas A. DiChario in his masterful work 'The Winterberry'.

In 1950, the People's Republic of China joined the Korean War, sending thousands of troops across the Yalu river border to fight United Nations forces. UN Commander in Chief (Korean Peninsula) MacArthur raised a request to end the conflict by launching the bio-weapons surrendered to him in 1945 by Japanese General Otozoo Yamada's Bacteriological weapons research in Unit 731. Denied, he was angered at what he perceived to be Harry Truman's “limited war” and subsequently relieved of his command by the President. General Omar Bradley later speculated that MacArthur's disappointment over his inability to wage war on China had "snapped his brilliant but brittle mind." With the United States detonating the world's first hydrogen bomb on November 1st 1952, and “Brass Hat” back in the saddle again just twenty-eight days later, the world wondered just how the conflict would end; and vice versa.

MacArthur