Rise of Atlantis; the Atlanteans become masters of magic and knowledge. They formulate the theorem of the "Twelve Keys of Magic" and the religion of Xodiac the Keeper of those keys. The first prophesies of the Twelve Children of Xodiac are written. [GBOT]
Ancalimar Tesmihirus is named as the founder of Atlantis, having united the noble families, and defeated the Dark God Amot-Naphemus, binding the demon's power into the Eye of Aretpo and banishing it from Earth's dimension. House Tesmihirus becomes the ruling dynasty of the nation throughout its history. [GBOT]
Possible first account of the appearance of the "Xodiac Lords", who are persuaded to spare humanity by the "Forever Swimmer", alleged to be one of the Children of Xodiac. According to the precepts of Atlantean mythology, they might have reappeared c. 6000 BC, c. 4000 BC, and c. 2000 BC, but as yet no accounts of those returns have surfaced. [GBOT]
Atlantis is destroyed when a Gozer cult betrays the Royal Family and sparks a war with the followers of Hob Anagarak. [GBOT,GB1,RGB]
Driano-Noje, the demon known as The Undying One, master of the African nation of Tangalla, is challenged by
the wizard one day known as "The Collector". The Collector fails, and is
banished to the land of lost objects. The twin keys to the realm are held by the
Undying One until his own defeat, where they become heirlooms kept by the
descendants of Shima-Buku [RGB,GBOT]
c.7000 BC
Hob Anagarak, the demonic creature holding sway over the Arctic, is
imprisoned in a block of black ice. It is said in Inuit legend that after this,
the land grew cold [RGB]
c.4000 BC
Shima-Buku, chieftain of the Ibandi people of Tangalla, defeats the Undying
One and imprisons him in three stones that were scattered throughout the borders
of Tangalla.[RGB]
Anthal-Noje, the Lord of Gloom, the Undying One's brother and servant, is similarly bound to a giant crystal that is later cut into gems, the "gloom gems" or "hearts in eclipse"[GBOT]
c.3500 BC
The Sumerian civilization forms in Mesopotamia. The Sumerians invent writing
(cuneiform) and the pantheon worshiped by the Sumerians and their successors,
the Babylonians and Hittites, include many colorful figures such as Marduk, god
of the city; his nemesis, the great dragon Tiamat; Gozer the Gozarian, and it's
minions Zuul and Vinz Clortho; and the elemental spirits Anshar and Khishor. [GB1, RGB, HA]
c.2800-2075 BC
Construction of Stonehenge, marker of a powerful sight where "ley lines" of
psycho-kinetic energy cross in a nexus. The sight was an astronomical
observatory utilized by it's mysterious builders and later by the Druids. [GBOT, HA]
c.2600 BC
The Great Pyramid of Giza is constructed, first and greatest of the pyramids
of Egypt. A Necropolis of a deceased pharaoh, they also mark a very powerful
series of ley line nexi. [HA]
c.2000 BC
Height of the civilization of ancient Egypt. Among the main gods of the pantheon is Anpu, the jackal-headed god of death, who's name was translated by the Greeks as "Anubis", as well as the insect god Apshai. Among the more obscure of the pharaohs that rule the country are the "Clown Prince", Pharaoh Ahagotsu, and his thuggish, tone-deaf grandson Pharaoh Tohnloq [HA, RGB, GBI, GBWC]
c.1600 BC
An Egyptian chronicle mentions a powerful Hyksos diety known as "Zuul, the
Gatekeeper, minion of Gozer". This is around the time the Hyksos invade Egypt and rule it for a century before being overthrown. Louis Tully and Jeremy Hicks, however, are descendants of the Hyksos priesthood devoted to the cult of Gozer. [GB1,HA]
c.1500-500 BC
Rise of the classical Greek civilization, which included a colorful pantheon
of gods that were later co-opted by the Roman Empire. In 1984, one powerful
entity would claim to in fact be the Greek shapeshifting god Proteus. [HA, RGB]
Aretus, according to folklore a Trojan philosopher, writes his treatise about the "spiritual mist", also dubbed the "fifth essence" (ie the Quintessence), a shocking idea in that it would allow anyone with the will to reshape the universe without the help of the Gods. Lost when Troy is looted and destroyed, the scroll resurfaces centuries later and is dubbed by Arabic scribes the Kitab-Al-Alacir [WD1]
139 BC
The beginning of the Age of Pisces, as later ascribed by the astrological reckoning of the Order of Hermes. The Children of Zodiac and Council of Eight would use a different calendar, that would not synchronize with the Hermetics until 1991 CE, the first year of the Age of Aquarius. [ArM, GBOT]
4 BC
The appearance of the Zodiac Lords is foiled when the flow of PKE to their intended arrival spot is stunted by mystics of the Cult of Mercury. The Children of Zodiac would consider this the first year of the Age of Pisces. [GBOT]
1 AD
The Council of Eight, self-proclaimed "Guardians of the Universe", selected a thirty-five year old Alexandrian scribe named Carthio as the "Chronicler of the Spirits". [GBOT, Now]
c.60 or 61 AD
Death of Boudicca (alternative spellings: Boudica or Boadicea), queen of the Celtic Iceni tribe, who led an uprising against the occupying forces of the Roman Empire. After her death, she is buried beneath an oak tree. [HA]
First Century AD
A Roman soldier is granted land in an Alpine valley during the early Imperial period, and founds a secluded community there that escapes the fall of Rome. The descendants of the soldier and his family become known as the Ierbi, the "people of yesterday" [ArM]
c 500
Fall of the Roman Empire. The Cult of Mercury disbands and scatters throughout Europe, hiding for fear of being burned as witches by the rising new powers: barbarian chieftains and the Christian Church. Most of the scattered lineages would be represented by the Founders of the Order of Hermes centuries later [HA, AM, WD1]
SIXTH CENTURY AD
The historical events related to the legendary rise and fall of Camelot
occur. Lost among the rush of more colorful figures is thuggish lord Sir Bruce
Sans Pite', who is punished for his many crimes by being bound--reportedly by
none other than Merlin himself--into a tapestry. Merlin's final fate is subject to much debate, though in 2004 it is confirmed that his staff, a powerful mystic talisman, is located on Avalon.
King Arthur's sword Excalibur would later be given to GBUK member Iain Bennett [HA, RGB,GBUK, GBOT]
SEVENTH CENTURY AD
The cult of the Celtic night god Samhain ("Sowwen") reaches it's zenith in Ireland; through unknown means, possibly defeat by the Druid ancestors of House Diedne, Samhain is bound into a monolith. The Feast of Samhain continued to be celebrated on the night of October 31st--the origin of Halloween. [HA, RGB, GBOT]
729
June 9. Birth in the Ierbi valley of Flavius, son of the ruler of the valley and direct descendant of the Roman soldier who founded it. Flavius was a cheerful, pleasant child who loved horses—and possessed a potent, but Gentle, Gift. Through a member of the Ierbi who had traveled to the Eastern Empire, he is brought to the attention of the maga Bernice of Thessalonica, who takes him as her apprentice. She calls him Flavius Ierbitonis, which becomes shorted and modified to simply "Jerbiton".[HOHS, GBOT]
Emperor Leo III declares all images of Christ and the Saints should be destroyed as works of idolatry. The urban magi of Constantinople oppose this action, and form the League of Iconophiles; Bernice of Thessalonica is a member of this League. [HA?, ArM]
c.738
Death of Arab madman Abdul Al-Hazred, writer of a collection of dark spells and lore related to "Khadhulu"
and the "Great Old Ones" known as the Kitab Al-Azif. When translated by
Western scholars into Greek and Latin, centuries later, it would become known as
the Necronomicon, the source work that 20th century horror writer HP
Lovecraft would use to create his Cthulhu mythos. [RGB, GBOT]
767
Bonisagus (inventor of Hermetic theory and the Parma Magica), Bjornaer (a Germanic animal mage), Criamon (a wizard who studies esoteric mysteries), Diedne (of druid background), Flambeau (the master of fire magics), Guernicus (a sardonic earth mage), Jerbiton (an artistic aristocrat), Mercere (a master of transformation magics), Merinita (after Trianoma had spent a year searching for the elusive nature maga), Tremere (a young and combative wizard), Tytalus (a schemer and mystic "brother" of Tremere), and Verditius (a crafter of mystic items) form the Order of Hermes. Each becomes the Founder of a House trained in their particular philosophies of magic; House Guernicus takes it upon itself to be the record keepers and judges of the Order, and become known in all but the most official documents as House Quaesitor. [AM, WD1]
This order of mystics--the descendants of the Mercury cults of Roman times--would be the leading mystick order throughout the Middle Ages; though the Age of Reason would cause them to melt into the shadows, they are still the leaders of magic society at the dawn of the Third Millennium [AM, WD1, GBOT]
Jerbiton's familiar, a black cat, would be the progenitor of a lineage of magical cats sought for as familiars. One such cat would be Tarantula, the familiar of Phineus Eventide, Primus of Criamon in the Twentieth Century [ArM, GBOT]
843
February 21. Death of Founder Jerbiton; he is buried beside his wife under the Church of Saint Cyprian in Valnastium. [ArM, GBOT]
961
Leaders of House Tytalus, including Fourth Prima Tasgillia, are found guilty of diabolism. Promethea, Filia of Kaliste, having been asked to "sit out" the battle with Tasgilia, becomes the first to hold the position of House Tytalus's "Traitor", charged with staying above the schemes of the House to both ensure the survival of the House should its schemes immolate it, or conversely to instigate new conflicts should those of the House grow stale. The Traitors invariably also serve as either House Tytalus's Quaesitor, or a Hoplite. Between the Thirteenth and Twentieth Centuries, the position is renamed "Watcher", but remains essentially the same. By 2009, the position is held by Garland Garamonte [AM, GBOT]
987
A group of magi defeat the dragon who was terrorizing a small village in the northern Bavarian Forest, near Regensburg. With the assent of the grateful townspeople, the magi form the covenant of Dragonsfall in the spot where the dragon fell. [GBOT]
1006
Himinis the Mad starts crafting his magic items with a number of curses and traps. They still resurface centuries after his death in 1047 [ArM, GBOT]
TWELFTH CENTURY
The first Baron Igor Vashnivski builds Vashniv Castle in Transylvania. It is unclear, but presumed, that he is the same Baron Igor Vashnivski who is embraced by a vampire of the Tzimsce clan. [GBOT]
1118
Foundation of the Knights of the Temple [HA]
1177
February 11. Friedrich Askanier is born in Brandenburg, Germany; Friedrich is the great grandson of Albert The Bear. He is recruited by Delphia Caprica, of House Jerbiton of the Order of Hermes, as her apprentice. [GBOT]
1184
Delphia Caprica takes her young apprentice, Friedrich, to his first visit to Valnastium. He meets Andru, the new Primus of Jerbiton [GBOT, ArM]
1198
Zandrik Fallagar takes a mysterious gem off of a possessed man. It wouldn't be until 1998 that it would be identified as a "gloom gem" connected to the Ibandi entity Anthal-Noje, "Lord of Gloom". [GBOT]
THIRTEENTH CENTURY
Career of the Hermetic Archmage known as "Zandrik Fallagar". He would rise to prominence in the Order, even serving as Primus of Jerbiton in the Fourteenth Century before disappearing from view during the Renaissance. At some point early in his life, Fallagar is involved with a woman named Elsa Vashnivskia. [GBOT]
Reign of Thadarr Stalker. A former ally of Dragonsfall covenant, he is eventually defeated, but an infernal artifact in his possession sustains his life force in a dormant state. [GBOT]
1201
Maximianus of Bonisagus, a widely respected master of Corpus magic, founds the covenant of Nigrasaxa in Suffolk, conjuring the twin stone towers by magic. [ArM]
1211
Birth of Aine Dubh; the daughter of Caitlin Suil Uaine, Archmage of House Merinita and Praeco of the Loch Leglean Tribunal; and Oenghus Dubh, mortal shinty champion; at the covenant of Crun Clach. Between her mother's fae blood, and the strong faerie aura of the covenant, she inherits a longevity (1/10 aging after physical maturity) equal to her mother's. She is still alive as of the early Twenty First Century, and like her mother before her is a powerful Archmage. [ArM, GBOT]
1214
Birth of Roger Bacon in Ilchester. He is educated at Oxford, becomes a Franciscan friar, and is later inducted into the Order of Hermes as a member of House Ex Miscellanea. Bacon becomes one of the master alchemists of the age, founding the "mystery cult" known as the Solificati. Bacon is also one of the major trailblazers of the modern scientific method. As both a founder of the Solificati, and a scientific trailblazer, Bacon is later revered as the "first Son of Ether." Official history records his death in 1294, but a man answering to his name and description has been seen as recently as the 1920's.[HA, WD1, GBOT]
1217
February 11. Zandrik Fallagar's fortieth birthday includes a fireworks show put on by coventantmate Salamandros that allegedly nearly burns down half the Bavarian Forest. [GBOT]
1237
The wizard Sierra, filia of Micasa of House Criamon, marries. Her instructor gifts her a copy of her book, Worlds Within Worlds. By the late Twentieth Century, this copy is in the collection of Zandrik Fallagar of Jerbiton. [GBOT]
1277
Peasant-born magus David Cooper of Ex Miscellanea invents the "Druken wizard party game" known as Hobnanigans. It involves what could be called a "cockfight" with chickens ensorcelled to prevent permanent damage.[GBOT]
1284
The Pied Piper of Hamlin leads away the city's rats with his magical flute; when he is not paid for his service, he then leads the city's children away and has them throw themselves to their deaths in the Weser River. It is unknown if this was the work of the same entity seen in New York City in 1997, or the later incident was merely inspired by the original Piper. [HA, XGB]
1313
Templars betrayed and outlawed; survivors go underground, and work in secret. [HA,GBWC]
FIFTEENTH CENTURY
A Renaissance painter--possibly Piero della Francesca or Raphael--paints an
image of four angels and a cherub. The figures bear distinct resemblances to
five people who would not be born for some five hundred years: the archangels are Peter Venkman, Ray Stantz, Egon Spengler, Winston Zeddemore, and the cherub is newborn Oscar Wallance..
Speculation following this revelation in 1989 would include that the painter had
a psychic premonition. [GB2]
1431
Birth of Vlad Tepes in a small kingdom in the Carpathian mountains. He is the
son of the hated "Vlad the Dragon" ("Vlad Dracul" in the Transylvanian tongue),
but Vlad the younger far exceeds his father's cruelty. Tepes becomes known as
Vlad the Impaler, and even more famously as "The Son of the Dragon": Dracula.
According to folklore, he "dies" by being embraced by a vampire of the Tzimsce clan, going on to
become the Count Vladimir Dracula featured in Bram Stoker's 1897 novel. Count Vostok of Buldavia would claim, in 1985, to be the "true" Dracula, but that account is later disproven. Presumably Tepes' career is influential on another Carpathian
despot a century later, Vigo the Carpathian. [HA, RGB, GBOT, GBAD]
Two families would become notable in battling Dracula: The Van Hellsings and the Belmonts. At some point before the Twentieth Century, a spur of the Van Hellsing family renames itself "Van Helden" and pursues an even more fanatical agenda against vampires. [CV, RGB, GBAD, GBOT]
1459
The Twenty Fourth Grand Tribunal of the Order of Hermes. A new "Pax Hermetica" is declared, and within three generations, wizards are regarded as nothing more than a fairy tale. [GBOT]
Shortly after the Pax Hermetica is declared, the covenant of Nigrasaxa stages a fake battle (recorded as part of the Wars of the Roses) which results in the destruction of the west tower, the location of the magi's sancta and laboratories. The tower is not truly destroyed, but instead hidden in a regio. [GBOT]
1478
The wizard Damarcus and his wyvern familiar, Sennin, flee Spain to escape the Spanish Inquisition. The familiar--or it's ghost--would resurface in Los Angeles in 2009 [GBWC]
c.1484
As they do every five hundred years, representatives of good and evil vie for the soul of a single human in a contest determined by the surroundings; if evil wins the soul serves evil for the next five centuries. The outcome of this particular contest is unknown. The site is located in the land known to the modern age as New Jersey, and by the time of the next contest in 1984, the battle site is occupied by the stadium of the Jersey Jaguars baseball team. [RGB]
1504
Scotland. Lady Lucindra, of the Williams Clan, forms a cult dedicated to Dagon, the Deepest One. In return for mystic power and virtual immortality, she is to provide the Deepest One with one fertile human female, to be Dagon's "Consor". Lucindra intends this "honor" for her vassal, Danise MacDuff, but MacDuff is saved from this fate by Laird Fergus Aberdeen, a member of the Order of Hermes' House Jerbiton. Lucindra herself is forced to become the Consor of Dagon. [GBWC]
Fergus and Danise marry; with her power, though, Lucindra places a curse on their bloodline: no daughter firstborn carrying the Aberdeen name, and descended from them, will find happiness in love until one of them takes Lucindra's place. By mystic means including "chance' accidents and diseases, she enforces this curse from afar for five hundred years. [GBWC]
1505
June 24. Birth of Vigo Von Homburg Deutschendorf, who later terrorizes Eastern Europe
as a despot and necromancer known most famously as Vigo the Carpathian, but also
as Vigo the Cruel, Vigo the Despised, Vigo the Torturer, Vigo the Unholy, the
Scourge of Carpathia, and the Sorrow of Moldavia. [GB2, GBOT]
1532
In 1532 a Spanish orphan named Esteban joins Mendoza, a navigator, and his associates Sancho and Pedro, in their search for one of the Seven Cities of Gold in the New World, hoping to find his father. They are joined on their quest by Zia, an Incan girl; and Tao, the last descendant of the sunken empire of Hiva.
They are frequently pursued by the forces of Commander Gomez and Captain Gaspar, both working under the order of the former Conquistador Francisco Pizarro (now the Governor of New Castille). They also seek the Seven Cities [MCG/GBOT, HA]
1534 [1673 Pisces]
Gaspar, having broken with Pizarro and Gomez, marries the Mayan Itzel, who adopts the Christian name "Lucia Gaspar". They have at least one son, and the name "Lucia Gaspar" recurrs among their descendants. Among their descendants is turn of the millennium Ghostbuster Eduardo Rivera. [MCG/GBOT]
1564-1642
Life of Galileo Galilee, an Italian inventor and scientist regarded as one of the greatest of all time. He invented the telescope, discovered the four largest moons of Jupiter, and was censured and forced to recant his theories by the Catholic Church, which found Heliocentrism counter to the literal interpretation of the Bible.[HA]
Galileo also studied some aspects of paranormology; a book was written about his findings entitled "Galileo And His Studies Of Medieval Poltergeists" [XGB]
1598
Vigo the Carpathian paints one of at least two dynamic self portraits. Following a common
practice of the time, he paints it over another, older work depicting four
strange archangels and a cherub. Unbeknownst to the world until 1988, Vigo
ensorcelled the paintings to contain his essence after his death. [GB2, GBI, GBOT]
1606
First recorded account of Valek, the Viceroy of the Night, Heirophant of the Winged Harbingers; formerly known as a wealthy lord, this vampire (clan and generation unknown) burns down an entire village before disappearing. [GBSC]
1610
Vigo the Carpathian is killed by his subjects, having lived 105 years. He is
shot, hung, stabbed, and drawn and quartered. Before finally expiring, his
severed head delivering the prophesy "Death is but a Doorway, Time is But a
Window; I'll be back" [GB2]
1620
Ancestors of Dana Barrett immigrate to the English colonies of North America,
presumably on the Mayflower. [HA, GB2, GBOT]
c.1650
Some members of a family of German scholars, the Spenglers, immigrate to the
English colonies of North America, settling in the town now known as Lewistown,
Massachusetts, and converts from Judiasm to Christianity (possibly a Puritan
brand). At some point prior to the Twentieth Century, another faction would
settle in Ostrov, Poland. [RGB,GBOT]
1684
Bandits raid the monastery of St. Theophilus; among the items stolen is the
Codex of St. Theophilus, in which the Dark Riders are mystically contained. The
order would attempt to find the Codex, but fail until it resurfaces at a
Northby's auction in 1985 [RGB]
c.1689
Phineus Eventide is born. He would grow up to become one of the most powerful
wizards in the world, and before his death in 1991 is regarded as the Prince of Warlocks. He was a member, and ultimately the Primus, of the Order of Hermes' House Criamon.[Now, GBOT]
1689
Eli Spengler saves the colony town of Lewistown. Massachusetts from the
witch Kestrel, imprisoning her in a crystal containment unit. Elias's
descendants will include Zediciah, 18th century wizard, and 20th century
Ghostbuster Egon Spengler [RGB]
1690
Hieronymus, English court wizard, is drawn into the Netherworld of Arzun and
Tolay. [RGB]
1692-93
Possibly influenced by paranoia springing from Kestrel's rampage in Lewistown, the town of Salem, Massachusetts conducts it's infamous "Salem Witch Hunts", leading to the burning of many witches, accused both truely and falsely (though mostly falsely). [HA, RGB]
Some of the witches in Salem are under the control of the vampire lord Valek, and escape the burning. [GBSC]
1697
Italian inventor and scientist Antonio Garibaldi, creator of the Philbert Crest, the Silver Skidmore, and the Clopstock, is imprisoned for heresy. As he detailed in his "Principia Mathmatica", he became obsessed with reproducing the mathematical order of the universe--the "Music of the spheres". He was visited by an "angel", really the demon Luko, who tricked him into building a body for it. Garibaldi destroyed his "Infernal Machine", hoping to trap the entity. [XGB]
1742
Zediciah Spengler, a deranged dabbler in the occult, conjures a small dragon,
then imprisons him in a well. The scholarly Spengler family comes to regard him
as an embarrassment: one descendant would label him one of the "loons and
scoundrels of the family" [RGB]
1756
January 27. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart is born. [HA]
1761
A the age of 5, Amadeus begins composing. [HA]
1762
Birth of Eric Collins in Hertforshire, England. He is eventually discovered by the maga Gardenia of House Solificato, and trained as her apprentice, Zephyranthes [GBOT]
1773
Mozart writes his first piano concerto [HA]
1777
The Shadow Chasers are founded by a member of the Van Helsing family. This small society dedicates itself to protecting the innocent from supernatural monsters. One of their first successes is in destroying the surviving Salem witches, though their master, Valek, escapes. [GBSC]
1782
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart marries Constanze Weber [HA]
1784
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart becomes a Freemason. [HA]
1791
Mozart composes The Magic Flute. On December 5th of that same year, Mozart dies. [HA]
1797
The town of Hanover, New Jersey, is incorporated.[XGB, HA]
NINETEENTH CENTURY AD
Aram Marangoudakis becomes the Twenty Fourth Primus of Tytalus. [MTA,GBOT]
The oak tree that was the final resting place of Queen Boudicca is chopped down, and turned into a chess set. Unbeknownst until 2013, Boudicca's spirit was bound into the tree, and lies dormant inside the chess pieces. [GBOT]
c.1816-1820
An entity possesses a load of iron at the Hanover Iron Works, manifesting as a monster that becomes known as the "Jersey Devil." Commodore Steven Decatur shoots the Devil with a cannonball, knocking the creature's heart out, rendering it dormant. Decatur forges a sword out of the fragment of the Jersey Devil; by 1997, the sword is in the care of a history professor at New York City Community College [HA,XGB]
The Jersey Devil itself, or creatures that were mistaken for the same Jersey Devil, appear on occasion, most notably livestock mutilations in 1840 and a spate of sightings in 1909 [HA,XGB]
1818
Captain John Cleves Symmes becomes an early advocate of the "Hollow Earth
Theory". It wouldn't be until 1989 that the Ghostbusters would prove it by
visiting the inner-Earth realm of Ceratel. [RGB]
1820
Birth of Maraksha Kashaf. A scholar who goes on to have 14 children and speak 26 languages, she becomes a member of the Order Of Hermes' House Jerbiton and, by the Special Tribunal of 1983, the Prima. [MTA, GBOT]
1821
Date found in the Temple of Gozer in Summerville, presumably the date of a potential return of Gozer. [GBA]
1823
Date found in the Temple of Gozer in Summerville, presumably the date of a potential return of Gozer. [GBA]
1837
Christmas. English businessman Ebeneezer Scrooge is visited by the ghosts of
Christmas Past, Present, and Future. He regains the Christmas spirit, and his
story is chronicled by Charles Dickens and his 1843 book, A Christmas
Carol. The chronicle does not include the fact that four travellers from
1984 nearly foil the event. [HA, RGB]
1840
A witch spirit tries to invade the body of Ginevra Jacobs, intent on
murdering Ginevra's son Aaron to seal the possession. Two time travelers from
the year 1990--Ghostbusters Egon Spengler and Janine Melnitz, the latter a
cousin of one of Ginevra's descendants--prevent the posession. Only the two time
travelers know that this creates an alternate timeline, as originally Aaron
Jacobs did die and Ginevra's body was possessed until 1990. Aaron Jacobs would
grow up to become the first disabled Congressman from New York. [Now]
1842
Nicolas Camille Flammarion is born on February 26 in Montigny-le-Roi, Haute-Marne, France . Camille Flammarion grew to be an astronomer and author, writing more than fifty titles, including popular science works about astronomy, several notable early science fiction novels, and works on psychical research and related topics. He also published the magazine L'Astronomie, starting in 1882. He maintained a private observatory at Juvisy-sur-Orge, France, and was the first to suggest the names Triton and Amalthea for moons of Neptune and Jupiter, respectively, although these names were not officially adopted until many decades later. Flammarion also developed a scale of supernatural manifestation that would still be known in the late 20th Century; Flammarion died on June 3, 1925. [HA, RGB]
1853
On the last night of Mardi Gras, the boiler on the steam ship Lady M explodes, going down with everyone on board. Among the casualties is Elizabeth Metairie. Every year, the spectral ship rises from the bottom of the Mississippi, and tries again to reach the other side of the river. And year after year, it fails. [RGB/GBOT]
1855
Birth of Ivo Shandor in Albania. He later goes to medical school, and becomes a student of the controversial Serbian surgeon Dr. Micheal Zhorchev.[GBA, GBI]
1860's
A Russian family emigrates to the United States; unbeknownst to them, they are
accompanied by a small group of domovyen house spirits. Ghostbuster Ray
Stantz would be a descendant of this family. [RGB]
1870
The New York Pneumatic Rail Road (NYPRR)is first built, the brainchild of Alfred Beach. As envisioned by Beach, it serves as a system of mass transit
in Manhattan despite early opposition of corrupt politico Boss Tweed and others. It is later phased out in favor of the famous subway system; some
parts of the pneumatic are abandoned; one juncture, Van Horne Station, becomes
an important early part of the return of Vigo the Carpathian in 1988. [HA, GB2]
John Horace Tobin is born in London. The son of a well-to-do family (his father was a successful businessman) Tobin is educated at Oxford, where he ears two degrees -- one in Obscure Ancient Languages and one in Psychology. [GBI, GBOT]
1871
Hawthorne Bent founds Alnwick School in England. Bent is a member of the Gozarian cult. [GBI]
1878
A fire destroys the mining town of Columbia, California. Some of the miners who died in the fire come back to haunt the town a century later in bodies made of clay dust, and become known as "Dust Monsters" [GBWC]
The Gozarian cult of Hawthorne Bent attempts to summon Gozer at Alnwick School. The attempt is foiled when one of Bent's students, Alan Childress, imitates Bent and convinces Vinz Clortho (who had manifested in a Clydesdale horse) that Bent was Zuul. Neither Bent nor the horse are ever seen again. The school is closed soon after. [GBI]
1883
The Indonesian volcanic island of Krakatoa begins erupting on May 20th, and doesn't stop until August 27th, when over seventy percent of the island of Krakatoa and its surrounding archipelago were destroyed as it collapsed into a caldera. The year of the event is recorded in the Temple of Gozer in Summerville. [HA, GBA]
1888
Death of Captain Nemo. Just before his passing, he hides his famous
submarine, the Nautilus, in California, where by 1988 it's being
worshiped by a "Space Brother" cult. Nemo would be fictionalized in the famous
story 20000 Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne [Now, HA]
A series of murders attributed to "Jack the Ripper" terrorizes the populace of London. The murders are never solved, and the identity of the Ripper is a subject of much speculation over the next century plus. In 2009, it would come to light that at least some of the murders were in truth committed by Edward Hyde, the murderous alter ego of Templar researcher Dr. Henry Jeckyl. [HA, GBWC]
1889
The Eiffel Tower is debuted at the World's Fair in Paris. Unknown to the
world at large, it's creator, Gustav Eiffel, was a ghost hunter and the tower
his containment system. [RGB, HA]
Thomas Riley is born in Hackensack, NJ. Riley is the son of acrobats at a traveling circus, but does not follow his parents' occupation--he becomes more interested in the stage magicians, and upon reaching adulthood breaks out on his own; he adopts the stage name "Zoraldo", and isn't very successful, but is supported by his uncle. By the late 1920's, Riley is involved with a cult dedicated to an unknown dark god called "Amot-Naphemus" [GBOT]
1890
Birth of Howard Phillips Lovecraft, who in the early 20th century would write
many horror novels in what will be referred to by some as the "Cthulhu Mythos"
before his death in 1937. Unbeknownst to the world at large, Lovecraft did not
create the Cthulhu mythos: he drew it from the ancient mystic text known as the
Necronomicon. Ray Stantz would be a voracious reader of Lovecraft's
works, which inspired his own studies of the supernatural. [RGB, HA]
Detective Sherlock Holmes and his partner Watson are helped in the solving of several mysterious crimes--by four men from over a century in the future: Peter Venkman, Ray Stantz, Egon Spengler, and Winston Zeddemore [GBOT]
1897
Bram Stoker's novel Dracula is released, a story of the vampire Count
Vladimir Dracula and his battles with John Harker and the Van Helsing family.
The Dracula legend had it's roots in the 15th Century Carpathian despot Vlad
Tepes, The Impaler; almost a century later, Count Vostok of Buldavia claims that
the book is a fictionalized and slanted account of his battles with the
fanatical Van Helden family. However, GBI would later discover that Vostok's claims are untrue. [HA, RGB, GBOT]
1899
J.H. Tobin, working as a bookkeeper for a British trading company's Egypt office, first encounters both Shrewsbury Smith and the mummy of Pharaoh Ahagotsu. Ahagotsu escapes, but Tobin becomes dedicated to learning more about the paranormal. Tobin and Smith form a fateful partnership. [GBOT, GBWC]
Serbian surgeon Dr. Micheal Zorchev delivers a lecture wherein he claims that surgery could be used to pacify humans, and remove their angry, violent urges. A short time later, authorities discover that he's already performed non-consensual surgeries on a number of students, and he's hunted down and killed. Among his disciples are an Albanian who studied under Zorchev as a medical student, Ivo Shandor. [GBI/GBOT]
1901
January 3. Birth of Rose Nelson. Before her death in 1996 at the age of 95, she marries into the Lockyer family and has at least one child, a daughter. Rose is the great grandmother of future Ghostbuster Kylie Griffin. [EGB, GBOT]
1901-1902
J.H. Tobin and Shrewsbury Smith establish an office in London. By placing advertisements in newspapers and other periodicals in and around London, Tobin was more than moderately successful in getting people to come to him with their stories of contacts with the spirit world. He must have talked to an enormous number of crackpots, and his training in psychology helped him to separate the flakes from the people who were telling the truth. Tobin made some mistakes, but for the most part he was pretty good at reading people. [GBI]
1903-1905
Tobin and Smith make a series of trips throughout France, Germany, and other countries. Shrewsbury Smith returns to London occasionally, presumably to clean out the mailbox and renew the lease on the office. By the time he finished his trip. Tobin could read and write at least four foreign languages (French, German, Dutch, and Russian.) and could speak a half-dozen others well enough to make himself understood on a simple level. [GBI]
EARLY TWENTIETH CENTURY
Members of the Stantz family immigrate to the United States from Switzerland; They purchase a dairy farm in Islip, New York that had been worked for ten generations by the Peterson family. They have two sons--one would inherit the farm (which would one day be run by his granddaughter Samantha), while the other would move to the Bronx and marry a descendant of Russian immigrants--the second son would be the grandfather of Ray Stantz [RGB, GBOT]
1907
JH Tobin and Shrewsbury Smith begin a four year journey into Eastern Europe, and then southward through Turkey into Mesopotamia, concentrating on the extremely ancient civilizations of Egypt and the Middle East [GBI]
1908
The Tunguska event, or Tunguska blast or Tunguska explosion, was an enormously powerful explosion that occurred near the Podkamennaya Tunguska River in what is now Krasnoyarsk Krai, Russia, at about 7:14 a.m. KRAT (0:14 UT) on June 30 [O.S. June 17], 1908. The explosion is believed to have been caused by the air burst of a large meteoroid or comet fragment at an altitude of 5–10 kilometers (3–6 mi) above the Earth's surface. Different studies have yielded varying estimates of the object's size, with general agreement that it was a few tens of meters across. It is the largest impact event in recorded history. [HA]
The year of the event is recorded in the Temple of Gozer in Summerville. Ray Stantz later mistakedly places the Tunguska Blast in 1909. [GBA, GB1]
1910
Ivo Shandor, an Albanian doctor, forms a cult dedicated to the worship of Gozer the Gozarian, an ancient Sumerian deity also known as The Destructor and The Traveler. Shandor believed that society was too sick to survive, and performed many "unnecessary" surgeries, experimenting with the pacification of humans. He also branched out into architecture, creating the design for 550 Central Park West, the 1983 residence of Dana Barrett and Louis Tully. His cult had over one thousand members at the time of his death in 1945. [GB1, GBA]
1914-1916
Tobin and Smith return to Egypt. They range up and down the Nile, from Alexandria to Aswan. They go by ship from Suez to Aseb, at the southernmost edge of the Red Sea, and back again. This excursion ends with a foray north to Damascus and then fast to Beirut, where they catch a steamer headed for England. [GBI]
1915
Charles Faversham summons a demon in his attic. He hopes to bind and control the entity, but it proves too strong for him--instead, he seals it in the attic, and orders his daughter Agatha to never go up there. [RGB]
1918
Stage magician Thomas Riley is drafted by the United States Army, and fights in World War I. During the war, he pleads with the gods to survive the conflict; he is heard by the Dark God of Atlantis, Amot-Naphemus. Riley survives the War, and upon returning to Amherst, Massachusetts, founds a small cult in Amot-Naphemus's name. [GBOT]
1919
JH Tobin and Shrewsbury Smith journey to the United States, staying a few months but never venturing far from the Eastern Seaboard. [GBI]
1920
Publication of J.H. Tobin's Spirit Guide: Being A Compendium of Ghosts, Gods, Spirits, and Manifestations from Outside the Normal Realms of Existance, With a Travelougue and Notes on Philosophy of the Occult Established by the Author, drawing together all that Tobin and his partner Shrewsbury Smith learned in their years of travels. More commonly known as "Tobin's Spirit Guide", it becomes one of the keystone works of parapsychology and occult study. Among those it comes to the attention to are the Council of Eight. [GBI, GBOT, Now]
1920's
The parents of Edison and Cyrus Spengler, originally of Ostrov, Poland,
immigrate to the United States and settle in Cleveland, Ohio. Their two sons
would follow in the family tradition of scientific pursuits, becoming a
physicist and a biochemist respectively. [GB2,RGB,GBOT]
Birth in Arborshire, the town in Dragonsfall's shard realm, of a halfling named Lem Augusty. Lem grows up to be a musician, and is noticed by the Archmage (a musician himself). Lem spends a lot of time in the covenant; he later marries one of the covenant's "troubleshooters", Bree Tosscobble, and they have two children--daughter Orchid and son Rishot. [GBOT]
1923
Johnathan Stafford, a twenty-five year old quarry worker, uncovers the collection of stories and spells known as the Chronicles of Gozer in England's Tonnes Quarry . Over the next several years, it drives him mad and he is admitted to Southall Sanitarium in 1934; he remains there until his death on June 8, 1983, adding to the book with many prophesies of his own. [GBOT]
1924
Death of Shrewsbury Smith, the travel partner of JH Tobin. At some point after this, Tobin is recruited by the Council of Eight to become the new "Chronicler of Spirits". Tobin replaced Carthio, who had been destroyed by the entity known only as "Evil" Tobin's fate remains completely unknown until 1991. [GBI, GBOT, Now]
1927
Thomas Riley, a stage magician known as "Zoraldo", is arrested in Amherst, Massachusetts, as part of a bust of a cult which murdered a teenage girl as part of it's ritual to summon the power of "Amot-Naphemus, Dark Lord of Atlantis". The police cannot find enough evidence of the cult's involvement to make the charges stick, and the members are freed. The cult, however, dissolves after this. [GBOT]
Gozer cultist Ivo Shandor funds the creation of the Shandor Mining Company in Oklahoma, devoted to mining the selenium metal needed to build the Shandor Building in New York City. He secretly has a Gozarian temple built at the center of the mine, with a series of dates allegedly being past and future opportunities for Gozer's return. These dates include 1821, 1823, 1883, 1908, 1945, 1983, 2004, 2020, and 2134. [GBA,GBOT]
1928
Walt Fleishman releases the first cartoon starring Ricky Roach, leading to a
dynasty of animated characters like Conqueror Duck and Winchester Wolf [RGB, HA]
Founding of Summerville, Oklahoma. Ivo Shandor's money built Summerville, including the mine, the foundry, the school, and the library. As a result, his name was on everything. [GBA]
Dec. 3. Birth of Nathaniel Masterson to Billy-Joe Masterson and a hooker in Providence, Rhode Island [GBWC]
1929
The wagon of the stage magician Zoraldo is found burned and empty in Amherst, Massachusetts. The police do not find a body, but assume he died in the fire and was burned beyond recognition. In truth, Zoraldo is snared into the dimensional prison of Amot-Naphemus, the same demon his cult had once worshiped. Zoraldo spends the next nine decades or so learning the ways of Amot-Naphemus's magic, his aging stopped. [GBOT]
1930
James Charles ("Charlie") Venkman is born on October 31 to a circus ticket taker in Sedalia, Missouri; raised in the atmosphere of a sleazy circus he grows up with some very warped values. He has at least one brother, Alf, who would grow up to be the "white sheep" of the family, owner of a farm in Iowa [GBOT, RGB]
First memories of the ghost who later takes on the name "Rachel Leavenworth." The entity materializes in the abandoned Columbia House Hotel in Columbia, California, with no memory of her life. [GBWC]
1931
Nathaniel Masterson is abandoned, and becomes a ward of the state of Rhode Island [GBWC]
1930's
A son of the Stantz family that immigrated to the US in the Early 20th
Century marries a granddaughter of the Russian family that immigrated in the 1860's.
They would settle in the Bronx, and have at least three children: Gaylord, Lois, and David. Gaylord would settle in Queens and become proprietor of a joke shop; he apparently never marries. Lois would never marry either, and would inherit her parent's house (the house her mother's Russian ancestors built). David would become a doctor and one day move to Morrisville, in upstate New York.[GBOT, RGB]
Dr. Frederick Melton marries a descendant of the Lewistown Spenglers, and they have at least one child, a daughter, Katharine. Katharine is doted on by her maternal grandfather, Christopher Melton. [GBOT]
Charles Foster Hearse begins his publishing empire, featuring such eclectic
magazines as Spooks Illustrated, which would eventually be read by all
four of the future Ghostbusters (Venkman especially enjoying the swimsuit
issue). Hearse would be succeeded by his heirs, son Charles Foster Jr. and in
1984, grandson Charles Foster III [RGB]
Ian Epimethius, later a physics professor at MIT, meets and marries his wife Barbara, a "firecracker from Brooklyn" [GBOT]
The first Hotel Sedgewick is built in New York City, near the edge of the garment district. By 2003, there is at least one franchise hotel in Los Angeles, California, and another in Jones Beach, Long Island. [GB1, GBWC, GBOT]
1932
Katharine Melton is born; she is the daughter of Dr. Frederick Melton (an associate of Dr. Will Murray Hazzard) and granddaughter of Christopher Melton; she is a descendant of the Lewistown branch of the Spengler family. [RGB, GBOT]
1934
Tonnes Quarry in England shuts down. [GBOT]
1938
Superman debuts in the pages of Action Comics Vol.1 No.1, the first
superhero comic book. It would inspire scores of imitators and swipes, among
them the 1960's hero Captain Steel. Action Comics would run for seventy three years, before being canceled and restarted at No.1 in a cynical attempt to boost sales [HA, RGB]
The explosion of the comic form before and during World War 2, known by comic book historians as the "Golden Age", would see many artists coming to prominence. One of the most renowned is Frank Bancroft, who in collaboration with writer Karl Miller, would create "Super Gods" and other comic book heroes who would still be published at least five decades later. [HA, IDW]
The secretive Gegengeistgruppe (GGG), a team of artificially enhanced scientists and warriors backed by the Nazis, attempt to summon the demon Belial. Their attempt fails, and all of them perish.[GBWC]
December 2. Alberto Juan Rivera is born in Mexico; his mother's maiden name was Lucia Gaspar, a recurring name in that family, and both are descendants of the Sixteenth Century Conquistador Gaspar. Alberto would immigrate to the United States and settle in New York City, become a policeman, marry, and sire two sons: Carlos and Eduardo[XGB,GBOT]
1939
The World's Fair is held in New York. The Toad Island amusement park, founded
by descendants of Deep One/human hybrids, is at the peak of it's attendance. [HA, Now]
Carlota (maiden name unrevealed), the future wife of Alberto Rivera, and the mother of Ghostbuster Eduardo Rivera and his older brother Carlos, is born in Mexico. [GBOT]
A statue from the closed Tonnes Quarry is sold and shipped to Los Angeles, California. Unbeknownst to anyone at the time, a temple to Gozer had been constructed in the quarry, and the statue in question was the conduit of Vinz Clortho, the Keymaster. [GBOT]
1940's
Career of the Crime Patrol. Composed of the Crimson Crimebuster, the Lunar
Avenger (Robert Weinberg), Doc Hazzard (Will Murray Hazzard, a scientific genius
and minor telepath), and the Dark Dwarf. Their archnemesis is a sinister
sorcerer named Fu Fang. Hazzard is also a friend of Dr. Fredrick Melton. [Now, GBOT]
Airplanes on polar exploration missions begin to disappear into the
geomagnetic disturbance leading the inner Earth realm of Ceratel. Over the next
fourty-plus years, four of those pilots find each other, learn the dinosaur
languages, and discover ways of fermenting fuel from fruit trees. These humans
become known by the citizens of Ceratel as the "Legion of the Lost" [Now]
1941
Nathaniel Masterson runs away from the orphanage, and lives at the river with a tribe of otters. [GBWC]
1943
Nathaniel Masterson is adopted by "rednecks" who nickname him "Otter" because they "Can't pernounce his real name" [GBWC]
1945
Columbia is declared a State Park, the best preserved mining town in California. The town's buildings are gradually restored. A Class 3 ghost, drifting among the now-foggy images of her past, remains quiet enough to escape notice. [GBWC]
Ivo Shandor, age ninety, dies in Summerville, Oklahoma. By this time, the Shandor Mine had been closed down due to a spate of suicides by miners. Per Shandor's orders, his physical remains are placed in a glass sarcophagus in his underground Gozarian temple, in hopes that he will live again when Gozer returns. Possibly because of it being the year of Shandor's death, the year is recorded in the Temple of Gozer in Summerville. [GBA]
1946
Otter Masterson enters Virginia TECH. He later helps develop the ram jet. [GBWC]
1948
Criminals Tony and Nunzio Scoleri are electrocuted. They were sentenced to
death after being successfully prosecuted by young lawyer Steven Wexler, in one of the first cases of his forty-plus year career. The Scoleris would be summoned back to try and take revenge on Wexler by the slime of Vigo the Carpathian in 1988. [GB2]
Otter becomes an assembly line worker at Boeing [GBWC]
1949
December. The Crime Patrol disbands after their final battle with Fu Fang.
The Lunar Avenger, Robert Weinberg, would marry and have at least two sons, Alan
and Matthew. Hazzard would retire to research work, and annually check the
stasis capsule containing Fu Fang until the sorcerer's escape in late 1988 [Now]
1950
A paranormal incident in Santa Clara, apparently involving giant ants. [RGB]
1950's
Edison Spengler marries his college sweetheart; she gives birth to their son, Ellis, but dies during or shortly after their son's birth. Ellis is given to his mother's family to raise. A few years later, Dr. Edison Spengler serves an internship under Will Hazzard, and in the process
meets Hazzard's secretary, Katharine Melton, a distant relative who's mother descended from
the Lewistown Spenglers. In part because of his resemblance to her notable
ancestor Elias, Katharine pursues Edison and the two marry. [GBOT, GBNS]
Dockworker Fritz Melnitz, of Brooklyn, New York, meets office worker Denise Brandenburg. Melnitz pursues her almost from the first, but she heavily denies reciprocating the feelings until he is injured in a work accident and spends some time in the hospital. The two finally marry, and settle in the Canarsie area of Brooklyn. [GBOT]
Denise Melnitz's brother, Johnathan Brandenburg, dies during the Korean War. [GBOT]
Norman Draverhaven is born; he and his younger brother Micheal would become interested the paranormal--Norman more in the scientific study of it, and later develop a weapon he would dub the "photon pack". In 1985, Peter Venkman would give him the insulting nickname "Professor Dweeb" [RGB,88MPH]
1952
Dorothy Aberdeen born. She is a descendant of Fergus and Danise Aberdeen. [GBWC]
1953
May 2. Birth of Winston Ramsey Zeddemore, the son of construction worker Edward Lee "Big Ed" Zeddemore and his wife Lucille. Winston has at least one sister, Evangelean [GBOT, RGB, XGB, IDW]
1954
Peter Charles Venkman is born on October 25, in Brooklyn, New York, to Charlie Venkman and
the former Margaret Abernathy. Charlie is an itinerant salesman and con-man. Margaret dies
early, and young Peter spends much of his childhood moving around to avoid the
law and disgruntled marks. [RGB,GBOT,Now]
December. Bernard Lupin is born in Los Vegas, Nevada. In adolescence, he discovers that he is a Garou, a genetic werewolf, specifically of the somewhat downtrodden Bone Gnawer tribe. [GBOT]
Otter promoted to military engineer, where he developed and repaired new jets and spy planes during the Cold War. He also efficiently made a great debut with high ranking officers...and their daughters. [GBWC]
1955
Carl Stantz is born in the Bronx, the first child of Doctor David Stantz and his wife, the former Carolyn MacMillan of Scotland. [GBOT]
James Aberdeen born. He is the younger brother of Dorothy Aberdeen, and also a descenant of Fergus and Danise. [GBWC]
October 8. Dana Barrett is born to Gerald and Valerie Barrett, their second child.[GBOT]
Birth of Jake Kong Jr. to Jake Kong and his wife [GBWC]
Doris Melnitz born to Fritz and Denise Melnitz. [GBOT,RGB,EGB]
1956
Nathaniel Masterson was placed as a military tactics supervisor after he was beginning to "crack" under pressure of designing the next greatest thing. He worked in that position for 12 years, until his engineering talent was again required for competition against the Russians, this time by NASA.[GBWC]
September 5th. Birth of Kaila MacMillan [GBOT]
December 5th. Birth of Roger Baugh, youngest of five children including a sister and three brothers (two of which are named Roy and Bob). He eventually grows up to become a professor of literature at San Francisco Community College; by 2014 he is married to writer Claire Burnham. [GBWC/IDW]
1957
April 18. Birth of Louis Bartholomew Tully, the second son of Andrew and Florence Tully. His brother, Albert Robert Tully, would sire a son, Louis's nephew Lawrence [GBOT,GB2,RGB]
Birth of Micheal Draverhaven, the younger brother of Norman Draverhaven. Both Draverhaven children would be interested in the paranormal; Micheal would become especially interested in the power of Polynesian runes to summon etheric entities. [88MPH, GBOT, RGB]
November 21. Egon Spengler is born in Cleveland, Ohio, to Dr. Edison Spengler
and his wife Katharine. His uncle, Cyrus Spengler, will run his own research
firm, Spengler Labs. Egon is given a very strict upbringing stressing academic
success, so much that he was allowed no toys and reportedly an A- on a test
brought a harsh reaction from his parents. At some point in his childhood, Egon
is victimized by the entity called "The Boogeyman", who inspires the boy to
research the supernatural. [RGB,GBOT,GB2]
1958
October 28. Janine Melnitz is born to Fritz and Denise Melnitz. She has an older sister, Doris, an Aunt Bella, and a cousin named Michelle
Jacobs (who by 1990 has a son, Alec) [GBOT,RGB,Now,EGB]
1959
October 13. Birth, in the Bronx, of Raymond Francis Stantz to Dr. David Stantz and his wife Carolyn (their second child) . A steady diet of comic books and pulp adventure would
feed his interest in the supernatural. David Stantz would take him on visits to
the Toad Island park in Red Hook, Brooklyn. Ray grew up in the upstate New York
community of Morrisville, part of a large family with at least one cousin and a
wise maiden aunt. Apparently he had some weird pets and the people of Morrisville
didn't think he'd amount to much. His first crush would be a girl named Elaine
Fuhrman. Alan Favish was his childhood nemesis. He also had an interest in
stage magic. [GBOT,RGB,Now]
The Miller Meteor Cadillac Hearse/Ambulances manufactured this year are of the model that would become an icon of Ghostbusters International; cars of this model year would become both incarnations of GBNY's ECTO-1 (1983 and 1988), Nightsquad's ECTO-1X (1997), GBWC's ECTO-1N (2003), and GBSC's ECTO-2. [GB1,GB2,RGB,XGB,GBOT,GBAD,GBNS,GBWC,GBSC]
The firemen of the Hook and Ladder #8 repel a ghost invasion. They are aided by a team of time travelers from 1989, ironically enough the future inhabitants of their firehouse, the Ghostbusters [RGB]
1960
March 10. Rose Prevost is born in Baltimore, Maryland [GBWC]
The "haunted hotel" is purchased and opened for business by the Menenzes family: John, Carol, and their ten-year-old son, Garret. Several ghost hunters attempt to contact its resident spirit, but she evades them. Garret proves more sensitive than the adults surrounding him and befriends the spirit, who has lost all memories of her past life. Unable to identify her, he simply calls her "Blue Girl". [GBWC]
1961
February 11. Birth of Elizabeth Hawthorne in Nova Scotia, Canada, the daughter of Max and Patricia Hawthorne. She also has an older sister, Cheryl. [GBOT]
Birth in Hong Kong of Dao Jun, the first child of Dao Ran, the wife of Dao Yuan, the Primus of House Jin se Tian-lung [GBOT]
November 5. Birth of Carlos Rivera, the elder son of Mexican immigrants Alberto and Carlota Rivera. Carlos would follow in Alberto's footsteps and become a member of the NYPD. [XGB,GBOT]
November 15. Birth of Ilyssa Selwyn, birth name unknown. She is adopted by Jeremiah and Fabianne Selwyn of the Chicago Institute for Ancient Eastern Studies. She spends much of her childhood with her adopted parents as they travel throughout Asian and European archaeological sites, and on the lecture circuit.[GBVG]
1962
May 2. Birth of Elizabeth 'Beth' Masters. [GBOT, XGB]
1963
Birth of Jean Stantz, the daughter of Dr. David Stantz and his wife Carolyn. [GBOT]
1964
A monster appears at the 1964 World's Fair in Flushing Meadows from a time rift, and holds five year old Janine Melnitz hostage. A man from some twenty years in the future saves her and stops the creature before returning home. Unbeknownst to her at the time, the man was actually her future husband, Professor Egon Spengler. [GBOT]
She leaves with two souvenir coins that she keeps as good luck charms. She gives
one of these to Egon in 1983, on the eve of the Ghostbuster's battle
with Gozer [GB1]
The last Deadly Doctor Crowley movie is filmed, and the set where the character awakens his monster is boarded up and abandoned. At some point over the next twenty years, an entity seeking peace and quiet hibernates under the trapdoor flooring of the set. The entity is awakened in 1984, and contained by the Ghostbusters [RGB]
Ray Stantz, during a visit to Toad Island with his father, gets separated
from him and encounters a mermaid. The mermaid entertains him with stories until
David finds him. [Now]
Birth of Irena Cortez in El Centro, Arizona. Like her parents, Irena is born
a natural werewolf (believed to be the Children of Gaia tribe), and is trained by them in the use of her powers. She would
fondly remember running with them through the deserts and mountains during full
moons... [GBOT, Now]
A dimensional gateway appears in Southeast Asia, and supernatural creatures
begin to pour out of it, perhaps attracted by the death forces released by the
Vietnam conflict. Over the next four years, US military forces battle the
paranormal in a secret conflict dubbed "The Unearth War". An officer named
George Armstrong Badge rises to prominence and the rank of General during this
conflict. [Now]
November. Captain Steel #1 is released. The creation of young comic writer Len Wolfman, Steel is an inspired knock-off of Superman. Disguising
himself as mild mannered CPA Kirk Clint, he fights a neverending battle against
such villains as deranged scientist Doctor Destructo. The series would be a
favorite of young Ray Stantz. [GBOT/RGB]
1965
March 14. Ben King is born in Buckinghamshire, England [GBUK]
1966
Death of Jeremiah and Fabianne Selwyn during a cave in. Their adopted daughter, Ilyssa, at that time attending Kuwait's Seisemme Academy, later attends the University of Illinois, via scholarships from the Chicago Institute, the Trompe Corporation, and the Shandor Foundation. She earns a PhD in Anthropology from Columbia University, and one in Applied Archaeological Sciences from UC Berkely. [GBVG]
1968
The Unearth War is ended when the United States activates atomic bombs on the
other side of the dimensional gate. The gate is destroyed and the conflict ends.
Knowledge of the Unearth War is hidden in the most top-secret of files. [Now]
1969
The Woodstock music festival is held. Peter Venkman claims to have attended
and gotten high there (He would have been fourteen at the time). [HA, RGB]
July 28. Timothy Dexter Bondo born in Waynesville, North Carolina. Tim is one of four children, with brothers Derek and Phil, and sister Cammy. Their father is deceased before 1987. [GBDP]
Before 1970
Jim Aberdeen is tutored in school by college student Zach Norman; Norman, a Navy Reservist (who got a lucky draw in the draft lottery) eventually becomes involved with Jim's sister Dorothy. [GBWC]
1970
Child prodigy Egon Spengler gets his first degree at the age of 12. At some
point, he becomes a student of Professor Ian Epimethius, an early researcher
into dimensional physics. [RGB,Now]
Dr. David Stantz and his wife Carolyn die in an auto accident; their three children--Carl, Ray, and Jean--are separated and raised apart. The three seldom have contact with each other after this. [GBOT]
Zach Norman, boyfriend of Dorothy Aberdeen, is killed in a freak munitions accident. At some point prior to 2004, Dorothy becomes aware of the truth--he was killed in accordance with the curse Lucindra placed on their family in 1504. Jim Aberdeen later joins the Navy, in part out of respect for his friend. [GBWC]
December 3. Birth of Bo Holbrook, later known as "The Legend", to Arlington and Joyce Holbrook [GBNS]
1971
Winston Zeddemore, son of construction worker Edward Zeddemore, is drafted to
fight in the Vietnam War. He is trained at Parris Island by Staff Sergeant Adams [GBOT, IDW]
May 13. Fritz V. Baugh born in Evansville, Indiana [GBWC]
1972
To the disappointment of his physics mentor, Professor Ian Epimethius, Egon Spengler transfers to Columbia University from MIT, believing Columbia would better serve his interests in studying the paranormal [GBOT, Now]
Zandrik Fallagar visits the world of Kreen, taking with him the halfling herbalist Kyrie Wheatberry. During their stay, Kyrie becomes fond of the world, and aids a young kreen warrior who had become afflicted with sun sickness. That kreen would become the sorcerer-king known as Xorak some time before 1992.[GBOT]
The 1970's
Andrew Williams' father serves in Vietnam; his hand is shot off, and replaced with a prosthetic. [GBDP]
1973
Shortly after her twelfth birthday, Lizzy Hawthorne is tested for the Gift by her mother's cousin, Tegan Fielding. Fielding, finding a positive result, recruits her cousin's daughter for the ReinHagen Academy; Lizzy attends the Academy starting that fall. [GBOT]
Peter Venkman enters college, and due to an administrative mix-up is accidentally bunked with fifteen year old prodigy Egon Spengler. Despite a bumpy start, the two bond with each other and with classmate Ryan Harness, from Tennessee.
Egon makes a breakthrough by developing a way of tracking PK energy, but he and Venkman barely escape expulsion. Ryan Harness isn't so lucky. [GBOT, GBTN, GBWC]
Egon develops the first prototype PKE Meter, which he would later term the Model 0. The first "official" incarnation, the Model 1.0, would be devised at some point before 1983. [GBOT]
Ronald Daniels is born in Georgia [NOMAD]
1974
Rob Statler is born. By 2004 he has served a stint with the US military, and is a trained engineer with Specialist training with Special Ops weaponry and all-terrain vehicles [GBDP]
Birth in Japan of Mariko Fuyuno. [GBOT]
June 27. Jeffrey R. Nash, the son of Richard Nash Jr. and his wife Debra, is born in Pennsylvania. [GBWC,GBNS]
October 31. Vincent Abraham Belmont is born in Scotland to Professor Benjamin Belmont and the former Mirian Hellsing. He is the latest hier to the Belmont family line that has battled Dracula since the middle ages [GBAD]
1975
March 21. Two of Dragonsfall's halfling staffers, Kyrie Wheatberry and Haro Monkeyfang, meet. They become lovers six months later and, by the end of the year, are engaged to be married. [GBOT]
Jake Kong Sr. and his partner, Eddie Spencer Sr., fight paranormal evil as "Ghost Busters" [FGB, GBWC]
A young witch makes a deal with the demon Astorath. Astorath impregnates her
in hopes that the demon halfbreed will allow him access to Earth. [Now]
Louis Tully graduates from high school, and attends college majoring in Accounting. [GB1]
September 9. Patricia "Patty" Tolan is born, the daughter of Evangeline Zeddemore Tolan and her husband Bill, formerly one of the workers in her father's company. They live in Montana, but visit her family in New York often. By 1984, Patty has at least one brother [GBOT/GB2016, 88MPH]
1976
Death of Haro Monkeyfang, a halfling in service to Dragonsfall. Not long after Monkeyfang's death, his fiance Kyrie Wheatberry discovers she's pregnant. She conceals her pregnancy from the halfling community. [GBOT]
Ray Stantz takes one helicopter lesson, which he won free in a contest [RGB]
Ray Stantz attends Columbia University. He meets and befriends Peter Venkman, Egon Spengler, and Micheal Draverhaven. [GBOT, 88MPH]
March 9. Erin Cummins is born. By 2004, she is full-time film student at Temple University in Philadelphia. [GBDP]
Birth of Shannon Phillips. His mother is part of a coven dedicated to the
demon Astorath, led by the necromantic sorcerer Nathaniel Blaque, who poses as
Shannon's tutor. [Now]
Andrew Williams is born, the son of a Vietnam veteran. By 2004, he has some medical training, but specializes as a monster hunter [GBDP]
August 1. Birth in Dragonsfall of Coda Monkeyfang, the daughter of Kyrie Wheatberry and the late Haro Monkeyfang. At Wheatberry's request, Fallagar made sure her pregnancy and the birth of her daughter were concealed from the local hobbit community. Shortly after Coda's birth, Fallagar transports mother and daughter to the world of Kreen, where they eke out a sparse but happy existence in the wastelands near the Xorak's lands. [GBOT]
September 22. Birth in Arborshire of Terchi Bagwise, the son of Benny Bagwise and his wife, the former Orchid Augusty. [GBOT]
October 13. Birth in Arborshire of Lilly Augusty, the first child of Rishot Augusty and his wife Peaches. She and her cousin, Terchi Bagwise, are close as children. [GBOT]
1977
March 24. Salina Duran is born. Of mixed Hindu background, by 2004 she is a cryptozoologist with training in medicine, as well as being a gymnast and martial artist. [GBDP]
Janine Melnitz graduates high school [RGB]
After the death of his wife, Ian Epimethius retires from MIT. Egon Spengler and Ray Stantz attend his retirement party. Not long after this, Epimethius is hired by the Pentagon to study, in top secret, some of the information gathered during the Unearth War. [GBOT, Now]
A poltergeist torments a family in a North London suburb; at one point one of the family is posessed and calls out to "Gozer".[HA,GB1]
July 11. Mick Nielson born in Redbank, NJ [GBSC]
September 5. Birth of the unnamed individual who become the Soul Tracker in 2006 [GBWC]
Sept. 21. Roland Jackson is born in New York, the first of the seven children of Phil and Sharon Jackson [GBOT,XGB]
September 10. Birth of Kyle Stevens in Mt. Olive, Alabama [GBWC]
October 22. Chelsea Denise Aberdeen is born in Chicago, Illinois, to James and Pauline Aberdeen. [GBWC]
Democrat Lenny Clotch is first elected Mayor of New York City [GBOT, HA]
November 15. Birth of Iain Gerard Bennett in England [GBUK]
1978
Jan 3. Birth of Garrett Miller to Howard and Susan Miller. Due to a congenital birth defect, his legs are completely useless and Garrett is born paraplegic [GBOT,XGB]
Feb. 12. Birth of Kylie Griffin, the only child of Steven Griffin and the former Jill Davies. Her parents divorce when she is very young, and she's raised by her father's maternal grandmother, Rose Nelson Lockyer. [XGB,GBOT]
March 3. Lillian Peacecraft born. She is a natural psi-sensitive, and by 1991 has become known to either the Order of Hermes or the shadowy arm of the Catholic church that hired the "Inquisitors". [GBOT]
April 11. Richard Roy in Livingston, NJ.[GBNJ]
June 17. Birth of Tommy Simpson in England [GBUK]
July 18. Birth of Eduardo Rivera, the second son of policeman Alberto Rivera and his wife Carlota. Eduardo has one older brother, Carlos, who follows in their father's footsteps in becoming a cop; by 1988 Carl is married to Beth Masters. [XGB,GBOT]
Ian Epimethius disappears. The Pentagon finds his last invention, but are unable to understand anything about it's operation despite the next thirteen years of study. Unbeknownst to the world at large, the device is an experimental dimensional portal. [Now]
November 14. Mark Lucas born in Tampa, FL [GBSC]
Birth of Roger Kennedy in England [GBUK]
Brian Roig is born. Before 2004, he has served an apprenticeship in the non-Hermetic mystic society known as the "Order of Ra"; Jason Riddle is a fellow student [GBDP]
Birth of Jack Kong, the first son of Jake Kong Jr., and grandson of "Ghost Buster" Jake Kong Sr. [GBWC]
1979
March 12. Birth of Joey Williams in Chicago, Illinois [GBWC]
March 26. Victor Irwin is born to Joshua Irwin and his wife, the former Doris Melnitz. [RGB,GBOT,XGB]
A prototype dimensional transfer machine devised by Egon and built by Ray malfunctions, and in the aftermath their classmate Micheal Draverhaven is driven mad. [88MPH]
May 29. Bill Malkin born in Trenton, NJ [GBNJ]
Liz Hawthorne graduates ReinHagen Academy with high honors. By this time, she has ended her romance with Adric Blake. Her benefactor Tegan Fielding reveals herself as Lady Persuasion, a maga of the Order of Hermes' House Guernicus, and descendant of Melwen Fallagar's Hermetic line. Tegan reveals that Liz has been watched the entire time at the Academy, and found to possess both The Gift and an affinity for the law--Liz becomes Lady Persuasion's Hermetic apprentice. [GBOT]
Dao Jun graduates from ReinHagen Academy with high honors. Her mother, Dao Ran, a high-ranking member of House Jin se Tian-lung, takes Jun as an apprentice. [GBOT]
August 29. Mimi Nielson born in Redbank, NJ. She is the younger sister of Mick Neilson. [GBSC]
Sept. 28. Birth of Jennifer "Jen" Spengler, to Dr. Ellis Spengler and his wife [GBNS,GBOT]
Cedric "CJ" London born. By 2004, he is an accomplished parapsychologist, chemist, and plasmic analyst [GBDP]
Brandon Wesley Statler, the younger brother of Rob Statler, is born. [GBDP]
Louis Tully becomes a Certified Public Accountant [GB1]
October 2. Will Ketcham is born in New York; while Will is still an infant, his parents move to Maryland. [GBInd,GBWC]
October 23. Damon Lucas born in Tampa, FL; he is the younger brother of Mark Lucas. [GBSC]
December. Franklin Stantz is born in Florida to Air Force Lt. Carl Stantz and his wife, Danielle. They have a second son, Daniel, born after mid-1981 but before 1983. [GBOT]
Hunters murder Irena Cortez's parents. She escapes, and the hunters are
arrested the next day for parading around with their "trophies". Irena moves to
New York and has herself hypnotized to forget her werewolf nature. [Now]
1980
Jan 13. Kyle Peterson is born in North Carolina [WNCGB]
Dr.s Egon Spengler and Peter Venkman are employed by Columbia University to
do parapsychological research. Ray Stantz eventually joins them after a year in private industry. By 1983, they are under the department management
of Dean Vanevar Yaeger. [GBOT,GB1]
Gabriel Hideoto "Hide" Tanaka is born, the second son of Japanese immigrant Nobouo Tanaka. His older brother Kiyoshi had been born and raised on the family farm in Yamagata.[GBDP]
Birth of Grace Temple, the first child of Archibald and Adele Temple. [GBOT]
Birth in Arborshire of Uldane Augusty, the second child and only son of Rishot and Peaches Augusty [GBOT]
April 22nd Adam Bestler born to Kat and Stephen Bestler. [GBInd]
May 16th. Cliff Roswell born to Jeff and Hermione Roswell in Boston, MA. Growing up, he spends several summers with uncle Cliff Clavin. [GBInd]
June 11. Zac Crago born. [GBNS]
June 16. John Lipsyte is born in Los Angeles, California, to Evangeline Lipsyte. [GBWC]
June 19. Birth of Peter Kong. He is the son of Jake Kong Jr. [GBWC]
November 17. Birth of Robert John Griffiths in Morecambe in Lancastershire, England. [GBWC]
December 8. Birth of Leon Hogan in Newark, NJ. [GBWC]
December 22. Birth of Micheal Chad [GBWC]
Mount St. Helens erupts. Afterwards, a small dimensional gate similar to the
one found in Southeast Asia in the Sixties opens. General Badge, the hero of the
Unearth War, spearheads the creation of the Advanced Radical Military Occult
Railroad (ARMOR) charged with studying the phenomenon and preventing a second
Unearth War. [Now]
Garret Menenzes takes over the Columbia House Hotel from his retiree parents. Using a primitive ghost detection device --a pair of candles rigged with four electrodes and some stiff wire-- he re-establishes his rapport with the Blue Girl, the ghost haunting the inn. He agrees to let her stay in the hotel, provided she behaves herself. [GBWC]
December. Carl, Ray, and Jean Stantz have a reunion at their Aunt Lois's house. It ends in a bitter fight when they learn that Jean had had a one-night stand with Ray's friend Peter Venkman. [GBOT]
1981
Jan 1. Birth of Jeremy Hicks to Arvil and Sharon Hicks in Auburn, Indiana.[GBWC]
June 14. Julie Madison born in Belmont, MA [GBSC]
Jean Stantz becomes pregnant, and marries the father, classics scholar Reinhold (last name unrevealed). She gives birth to a daughter, Amanda, in late 1981 or early 1982 [GBOT]
Joanna Kendall is born to Robert and Sarah Kendall. The Kendalls would later have two more children, sons Alex and Scott; Jo would grow up to be a bit of a tomboyish daredevil. [GBOT]
Democrat Lenny Clotch is re-elected to a second term as Mayor of New York City. [GBOT, HA]
1982
Lawrence Tully is born to Albert Robert Tully and his wife. Lawrence is raised a very spoiled child, who gets just about everything he wants. Lawrence's uncle, accountant Louis Tully, tries very hard every year to come up with the "perfect" birthday present for him. [RGB,GBOT]
Tara Jackson is born in New York, the second of the seven children of Phil and Sharon Jackson [GBOT]
May. Birth of Miguel Jose Devicente Jr in El Paso, Texas.[GBWC]
May 25. Elizabeth Hawthorne takes the Oath of Bonisagus, and is inaugurated into the Order of Hermes as Lady Enlightenment, Filia of Lady Persuasion, Follower of Guernicus. She accepts assignment as an "At-large" Quaesitor, sent on varied assignments throughout the world on the order of the Prima of Guernicus. [GBOT]
Columbia University parapsychology researcher Egon Spengler submits Psychokinetic Energy and the Quantum Flux, the main theoretical framework upon which his later work would be based. Though it's a sensation in some circles, such as the mystic community and the fringe Etheric science movement, it received much disdain from the mainstream scientific community [GBOT]
Jean Stantz divorces her husband when her daughter is less than a year old; she moves to California with her daughter and joins a commune, taking lovers of both genders. [GBOT]