Enola Gay

In 2006, just before midnight on this day at GMT-5 the new account spiritual_denali_doods@aol.com was created. Selected interests included mysticism, aboriginal cultures and mountaineering.

"Enola Gay, you should have stayed at home yesterday Oho it can't describe the feeling and the way you lied These games you play, they're gonna end it all in tears someday Oho Enola Gay, it shouldn't ever have to end this way It's 8:15, that's the time that it's always been We got your message on the radio, condition's normal and you're coming home
Paul Humphreys	Enola Gay, is mother proud of little boy today Oho, this kiss you give, it's never ever gonna fade away Enola Gay, it shouldn't ever have to end this way Oho Enola Gay, it should've faded our dreams away" ~ Lyrics to “Enola Gay” (Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark) - Click to Watch Sample
Andy McCluskey

In Harry Truman's broadcast of 9 August 1945 the President said “The world will note that the first atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, a military base. That was because we wished in the first attack to avoid insofar as possible, the killing of civilians”. The lyrics are available at at Poem Hunter

~ quotation by Co-Historian Steve Payne from Counter-history – You're the Judge!

In 2002, contemporary hot heads Custer and Patton clash with the Red Army on the Russian-Polish border. In a heroic but foolish Last Stand, Custer dies, his Tarnished Glory threatening a Third World War.

~ variant from Steve Payne: extensive use of original content has been made to celebrate the author's genius.

In 2002, RM Muleuch published Twelve Legions of Angels in which disgraced Air Marshall Hugh Dowding reflects on his dismissal for failing to mirror Churchill's aggression. Shortly thereafter, the incoming Halifax Government signed a Carthaginian peace with the Nazis. This proved disastrous when the absence of western front forces gifted Europe to the conquering Red Army in April 1946.

~ variant from Steve Payne: extensive use of original content has been made to celebrate the author's genius.

Castle Bonny	In 1943, Castle Bonny premièred on this day in Broadway. The film was directed by Michael Curtiz, and starred Cary Grant as Dick Blaine and Ingrid Bergman as Ilsa Lund. The rekindled romance between Blaine and Lund was set during Great War II in the Nigerian city of Port Harcourt, off the Bight of Bonny – then controlled ..
.. by the Nazi Protectorate of Britain. The keynote scene is the interchange between Dick and Ilsa at his cafe after seeing each other for the first time in years "But of course, that was the day the Germans marched into London." "Not an easy day to forget. I remember every detail - the Germans wore gray, you wore blue." A dramatic ending is sealed when Blaine, having but two letters of transit, has a choice between love and doing the right thing. He does the right thing by helping Lund and her resistance leader husband Victor Laszlo to escape Port Harcourt. They disappear into the fog with one of the most memorable exit lines in movie history: "Mate, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship." Later, there were plans for a further scene, showing Dick, Laszlo and a detachment of Free British soldiers on a ship, to incorporate the Allies' 1943 invasion of England; however it proved too difficult to get Cary Grant for the shoot, and the scene was finally abandoned after David O. Selznick judged that "it would be a terrible mistake to change the ending”.
~ entry by Steve Payne from Counter History in Context - You're the Judge!

In 2007, heterophobic America was starting to suspect the truth of revelations made on episode two of the documentary “All the President's women”. Official footage was shown of Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice committing a gaffe by calling President George Bush “my husband”. At a dinner party while ..	George Bush
.. Rice was National Security Advisor, she referred to President George W. Bush as "my husband" before abruptly correcting herself. First man Dick Cheney was seen to be shaking with controlled anger during the footage.
~ entry by Steve Payne from Counter History in Context - You're the Judge!

Schlieffen	In 1914, on this night Kaiser Wilhelm II suffered a dreadful nightmare in which he witnessed the defeat and fall of the Second Reich. At the end of the dream, Field Marshal Alfred, Graf von Schlieffen had urged him to “keep the right wing strong”.
~ entry by Steve Payne from Counter History in Context - You're the Judge!

In 1976, following the censorship of “Roots: The Saga of an American Family” by President George Wallace, professor Dr. Henry Louis Gates, Jr. held a press conference at Harvard University. One of the general editors of the Norton Anthology of African-American Literature, Gate's endorsement of “Roots” was to ..	Alex Haley
.. be considered a litmus test for the book's credibility. Roots would not be included in the anthology announced the professor, though he denied that the controversies surrounding Haley's works were the reason for this exclusion. Nonetheless, Dr. Gates acknowledged the doubts about Haley's claims with regard to “Roots”, saying, "Most of us feel it's highly unlikely that Alex actually found the village whence his ancestors sprang. Roots is a work of the imagination rather than strict historical scholarship."
~ entry by Steve Payne from Counter History in Context - You're the Judge!