Timeline

Any events not associated with a country or place are assumed to be in North America. Consult the Dark Future novels for more information.

Timeline

1843

• The Josephite Church founded by Joseph Shatner.

1854

• Edgar Allan Poe dies from a brain tumour.
• Josephites and Indians massacre the inhabitants of New Canaan, Utah.

1908, June 30

• The Tunguska Event in Siberia.

1914-1918

• World War I.

1920

• Inhabitants of New Orleans disappear. The place becomes a ghost town for a few years and then slowly becomes repopulated when it is found that the town is actually safe. There is no evidence to support what happened, and none of the inhabitants are ever seen again.

1939-1945

• World War II.

1943, October 28

• The Philadelphia Experiment.

1945-1955

• Early atomic weapon testing.

1960

• Presidential candidate JF Kennedy disgraced and forced to quit politics when news of his affair with Hollywood star Marilyn Monroe becomes public knowledge. His marriage with Jackie ends in divorce.
• Richard Nixon quickly elected as the new President of the United States.
• Insurrections against Rock 'n' Roll across America, the music being blamed for the bad things in the world and being the music of the Devil.

1961

• The Soviet Union sends 'advisors' to Vietnam.
• The Rock 'n' Roll riots in Madison Square Gardens. The National Guard are called in to quell the three day riot that leads to a multitude of rock artists being killed. President Nixon calls the music a moral outrage and worse then Communism. There would be a ban on certain types of music, sounds and instruments that would not be overturned until the early 1970's. It is generally thought that America lost its sound to British and Soviet artists at this point.
• President Nixon promises to send men into space and be the first nation to land a man on the moon. Over the course of the next few years, NASA does its best to achieve this aim, but due to a lack of funds has to cut corners everywhere it can, leading to a non-safe space programme and a lot of fatalities over the years.

1962

• American intervention in Cuba overthrows Fidel Castro.

1963

• The Separate But Equal bill passed with the aim of promoting racial harmony in the South of America.
• Secretary of State Hoffa removes most of the restrictions that preside over industry allowing business to grow almost unabated without fear of reprisals for dumping, pollution and lack of environmental concerns.

1964

• President Nixon re-elected for a second term in office.
• Yuri Gagarin, the first Soviet cosmonaut, dies in space. The Soviets start to abandon their space program.

1965-1972

• The Soviet Union formally involved in the Vietnam war, helping to defend the South from the North. Ultimately they would lose the war with North Vietnam after concluding the Nine Minute War with China.

1965

• America puts the first man on the moon, nine months ahead of schedule. Camp Pournelle is built in the Sea of Tranquillity soon after.
• President Nixon promises to defend America from the mass of Soviet bombers and to redress the balance of power by building the Needlepoint System - a ring of satellite defences able to shoot down missiles and bombers.

1968

• Barry Goldwater elected as President of the United States of America.

1972

• Barry Goldwater re-elected for a second term in office.
• The Nine-Minute War between the Soviet Union and China (on the side of North Vietnam) ends with a small nuclear exchange rendering tracts of land uninhabitable and killing a million on each side of the conflict.
• Japan invades and occupies a small portion of the Soviet Union coast.
• The Pan-Islamic Congress "liberate" Albania and vast tracts of Central Asia.
• Turkey invades Greece.

1973

• America tries to intervene in the formation of the Central American Confederation. Whilst not officially a shooting war, American troops come under many attacks from socialist rebels.
• China breaks up into feudal warlord states.
• Yuri Andropov stages a coup in Russia and takes charge, making the country more open and less in fear from the KGB over the following years.

1974

• Central American Confederation (CAC) formed of Panama, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala.
• Belize is taken from the British and merged into the CAC soon after. North America would operate rebel forces in the CAC for many years to come.

1975

• Great Droughts in America. This is the time when most people agree that the water started leaving America, being replaced by the deserts. Water pipes project started. Some parts of America won't see rain again. Over the years, pipes will be built from the coast and Canada to ferry water, but most of these will be destroyed by gangcults and their effects will be minimal to non-existent in most places.

1976

• Spiro T Agnew elected as President of the United States of America.
• America puts the first man on Mars. Unfortunately, due a tragic accident, he is killed there.

1978

• Scientists discover trilobites living in the Florida Keys. Over the years, some other extinct creatures will be rediscovered.
• After a near fatal hit on the America moon base, the Needlepoint System is cancelled, with the laser and particle beam satellites simply being left in their long term decaying orbits.
• America quits its space program. Camp Pournelle is left operational but abandoned.

1980

• President Agnew re-elected for a second term in office.

1981

• Britain loses the Malvinas War with Argentina.

1984

• Charlton Heston elected as President of the United States of America.
• President Heston vows to clean up America and declares that he will take the State of Washington back from the Maniax. In the First Battle of Seattle, Navy SEALS lose to the better armed Maniax.
• President Heston starts the Moral Re-Armament Drive campaign across America.
• President Heston forms an ESP division of the government to look into psionic power and its uses.
• Gangcult violence is the biggest killer in the United States of America.

1985

• Enderby Amendment - Deregulation of Law Act of 1985 - is passed on June 23. Sanctioned Operatives are born.
• PZ and NoGo areas rapidly spring up across America.
• The term Renegade is given to sandside rebels, and rapidly spread to define nearly all gangs. President Heston authorises revival of the United States Calvary to start protecting and defending the highways outside of the major cities and the convoys that run through them.

1988

• President Heston re-elected for a second term in office.
• GenTech found guilty of illegal organ farming in the Third World. No real repercussions are taken against them.

1992

• Oliver North elected as President of the United States of America.
• Canada grants approval for cross border raids by Sanctioned Ops.
• Watts NoGo massacre - 1,954 demonstrators killed by police androids. The massacre was found to be defective programming but it spells the end of androids in day-to-day use by any organisation and public opinion sways against androids.

1993

• Rumours start spreading about fossil fuels, petrochemicals and gasoline running out before the end of the century. While this is untrue, supplies are running out. Other alternatives are becoming viable.
• Israel, last of the military users for Donovan brains, stops putting them into their combat vehicles.
• The state of Quebec declares independence against Canada. The uprising is put down when Canada leases combat troops from the USA and sends them into action against the rogue state.
• PICADGE (the Pan-Islamic Congress Air Defence Ground Environment) goes online as an effort to curb Israeli air superiority. A little bit later it goes haywire when an Israeli sleeper virus attacks and destroys the command and control computers.

1994

• President North launches 'The Big Bonus' financial scheme to see American through the depression as detailed to him by famous free market economist Dr. Ottokar Proctor.
• November 12th: Professor Norman Schultz publicly acknowledges the breakdown of the natural laws of nature - including temporal displacements - in a university lecture. He disappears two days later. He's not the first, and won't be the last.

1995

• The CIA carries out more operations within the USA than outside, the first time in its history. This trend will not change in future years.
• Territorial clashes between the Soviet Union and Japan with GenTech over krill farming. Senator Manson tries to get the Constitution amended so that anyone travelling outside of a PZ is obliged to be armed.
• It's official - violence is now the worlds biggest killer, beating starvation, disease and natural causes.
• May: The Josephite Church buy the state of Utah from the US government for a dollar. They rename it Deseret. Effectively it becomes a State of the USA in name only.
• June: Massacre at the town of Spanish Fork. No survivors known to exist, cause of the massacre unknown, presumed gangcult and US Cavalry battle.

1995, July

• The Turner-Harvest-Ramirez Agency becomes the first global agency, opening branches in London, Karachi, Tokyo, Moscow, Paris and the Antartic.

1995, August

• Start of violence between the Josephites and other religious orders.
• Violence between British and Argentine miners in Antarctica.
• Niel Gaiman, author of Tin-Tin in the land of the Ragheads sentenced to death by the Sword of Allah Jihad Committee.
• Wally the whale, the last known cretacean in the Atlantic Ocean, dies of natural causes on the Isle of Skye, Scotland.
• Medicine can make a person healthy and active well into their 100's, provided they don't get killed first.

1996

• President North re-elected for a second term in office.
• The International Courts give GenTech East permission to conduct survey missions along the Soviet Union border with Japan, against Soviet protests.

1996, April 3rd

• Redd Harvest brings in the Tasmanian Devil, a serial killer responsible for the deaths of over 642 over the past year. He is revealed to be Dr. Ottokar Proctor, economist and friend of President North.

1996, November

• The Tasmanian Devil, it is revealed, has 753 confirmed kills. He is declared insane by the state and thus irresponsible. It is believed that President North spoke on his behalf as no-one else understands the financial system of the government.
• Tensions between the Soviet Union and Japan rise to a higher point when a GenTech submarine is recovered from the depths after an undisclosed accident. While the Soviet Premier promises to co-operate with GenTech East to discover why the submarine sank, many officals in Japan believe it was a sneak attack.

1997, June

• The Tasmanian Devil escapes the maximum security prison where he is being held. He disappears and isn't really heard of again.
• The moon undergoes some sort of temporary transformation, while millions of people feel some form of disturbance. It lasts only minutes and leaves a lot of confused scientists.

1998

• Start of rationing of food and ammunition in the United Kingdom.

1998, October

• Rumours of strange disturbances and undisclosed ESP power coming from Deseret.
• A massive unknown event, centred on the monastery of Santa de Nogueira seems to engulf the planet for an instant. Epileptic fits effect millions, clocks stop, Soviet spy satellites burn out, unknown phenomena occur, natural disasters spring up - tidal waves on the coasts, small earthquakes - there is no one that doesn't feel something, no matter where they are. The world is on the brink of nuclear war before rational minds realise that the other side couldn't have done this. There is no explanation. For the next few weeks there is a surge in murders, crime and wars across the globe. Corporations and others all try to take advantage of the situation while the others backs are turned.

1999

• Rudolf Hess, mayor of Berlin, Greater Germany, wins a court case that means that he owns the copyright to all Nazi symbolism, and anyone using them officially has to pay for the right. Rumours of the South of America seceding start spreading, but nothing is actually done.

1999, January 10th

• The Josephite Church throw open Deseret to all settlers, not just those of the Church.
• The Maniax gangcult declare war on the US Cavalry and the THR Agency.
• Pope Georgi of the Vatican LXXXV give nuns equal stature to Priests and start to welcome family planning. Priests can now marry.

1999, January 12th

• Massive datanet problems in Arizona. Speculation is that some super virus has effected the general datanet.
• Corporations and others organisations physically disconnect from the datanet leaving the US Cavalry Fort Apache as the last major node between the super virus and El Paso and the CAC. Siege of Fort Apache by Maniax gangcult.

1999, January 14th

• Fort Apache siege lifted. There are 44 survivors of the two hundred strong force. No media interviews are ever given, but strange stories and rumours abound on the datanets about what really happened in the fort. No members of the Maniax were available for comment. The super virus disappears from the datanets.

1999, May

• Senator Enderby disgraced when news of his affairs with Filipino houseboys is brought to the attention of the media.
• Dr. Proctor - award winning economist and Tasmanian Devil serial Killer - is caught again and returned to a maximum security prison. He is vacant and unable to talk about what happened to him.
• The Maniax gangcult spread again and hold a radio station under siege for two and a half days until the authorities intervene. Due to a public tip-off to the police by a member of the public, the Maniax declare war on any non-affiliated citizen of the USA.
• The Josephite Church declare a second community at Cape Canaveral, which they have purchased from the US government.
• Fighting breaks out between local Sanctioned Ops agencies over the indenture laws in the South of America.
• Tension breaks out between the Soviet Union and Japan/GenTech East when the Soviet navy destroys a GenTech East mining submarine that was straying from its route. The Soviets refuse to pay reparations to GenTech East. In retaliation, a Japanese terrorist group holds Soviet musichip fans hostage for five hours.

1999, June

• Taabazimba, Greater Rhodesia, obliterated by a fireball. There was a mass rally commemorating the Battle of Blood River going on at the time. The incident is listed as natural phenomena, but some experts claim it to be the work of the Needlepoint System laser weapons. United Stated Government claim this is impossible due to the fact that Needlepoint was shut down in 1978.

July 1999

• Needlepoint System goes off-line, permanently, as the USA fire a ASAT missile into Keystone, the central satellite.

2000

• Dan Quayle elected as President of the United States of America.
• The US Cavalry opened up for private sponsorship.

External Links

• How did we get here? - Source for this timeline