Union forces attack Atlanta, Ferdinand von Zeppelin patents his "navigable balloon," Russian and the UK carve up Persia, the U.S. asserts its neutrality, and German soldiers - dressed in Polish uniforms - attack a small town in Germany as a pretense to justify invading Poland and starting the Second World War. The birthday club includes Roger Dean, Van Morrison, and Itzhak Perlman - with a reading from Willa Cather's "Song of the Lark."