June 30: Something explodes 8 kilometers above the ground near the river Tunguska, destroying about 2150 square kilometers of Siberian taiga.  A wave of high-energy radiation catapults around the globe.

November 20: After a prolonged struggle to determine the leadership of the Order of the Golden Dawn, and the ethical direction the Order would take, Aleister Crowley is forced out of power.

October 31: Aleister Crowley founds the Order of the Black Flame, an order of sorcerers dedicated to the accumulation of wealth and power.

April 4: The Cobra begins his war against Don Carlo Grappandino, crime boss of Baltimore, Maryland.

September 23: The Masked Marine is first seen in Los Angeles.  The burgeoning crime rates in Southern California begin dropping.

March 12: The first news story to include the word "superhuman" appears in the New York Times.

October 24: Warcraft sent by the Daribi Confederation land near Grover's Mills, New Jersey and begin an invasion of the Earth.  The military might of the United States is useless against the Daribi's superior technology.  The invasion stalls after three days, however, when the invasion force begins dying from various Terran diseases, most of which humans are resistant to.  A week after the invasion begins, all landing forces are dead.  The United States government confiscates as much of the Daribi technology as they can.

October 31: Well-known writer/producer Orson Welles is hired by the US government to assist in the cover up of the Daribi invasion.

November 15: The Masked Marine disappears while investingating rumors of a new Los Angeles crime boss.   Within five months, the crime rate in Los Angeles has tripled.

December 2: A glowing meteorite crashes near Burke Falls, New York, and is recovered by auto mechanic Silas Tucker.

December 9: Silas Tucker uses the meteorite to help power his prototype rocketpack and flies for the first time as the superhero Barnstormer.

December 23: Discovering Barnstormer's secret identity, rich kid Archie Burke blackmails the man into building him his own rocketpack. They reconcile after Archie saves Barnstormer from the mad scientist Doctor X-Ray, christening himself as Barnstormer's sidekick Tailgunner.

February 12: Frenchman Marc Robitaille uses his ever-growing invulnerability and knowledge of Savate to foil a robbery at the Louvre, in Paris. Donning a mask, he becomes known as Resolu, the hero of France! The papers quickly dub him the "Gallant Warrior" of France for his bravery and joie-de-vivre.

May 3: A new hero calling himself Valor first appears in San Diego, stopping a group of Tommy Gun-toting thieves from stealing materials being used to build Miramar Naval Air Station at Camp Kearny near San Diego.

July 29: The teleporting American superhero Airdrop makes his debut, teleporting Franklin Delano Roosevelt out of the Oval Office just moments before a bomb disguised as FDR's Scottish terrier Fala explodes in the room.

September 1: German troops invade Poland, led by the Nazi superman called Sturmfurhrer.  He is the first superhuman to gain widespread notoriety.

September 14: The German submarine U39 attacks a British battlegroup and is sunk

September 18: David Danner is kidnapped for use as a guinea pig by Baron Ulysses Maltus, a Nazi scientist searching for a reliable means of manufacturing superhuman soldiers for Hitler's army.  The experiment goes awry when Danner manages to escape before the procedure is concluded. He presents himself to President Roosevelt and later is seen in the skies over America as Maximan.

September 18: Five crewmembers of the lost U39 submarine wash up on a German beach, claiming to have been rescued from their dying sub by mermaids. Their claims are not believed.

October 30: Several survivors from recently sunk British ships wash ashore on the coast of Britain after having been presumed lost. Their fantastic claims of rescue by water-breathing people are discounted as delusions.
 

January 14: Maximan and Sturmfuehrer meet each other for the first time in Krakow, Poland. Their battle manages to destroy half the city before Maximan drives Sturmfuhrer off.  However there is no clear cut victor.

June 2: Resolu opts to stay in France after the Nazis invade, rather than escape to England. His spirited determination becomes a backbone for the French Resistance.

July 1: Surfrider, a new superhero in Honolulu, beaks up an opium-smuggling ring trafficking from Southeast Asia through Hawaii to San Francisco.

July 15: A German submarine and a British destroyer do battle in the mid-Atlantic. Several depth charges fail to detonate at their preset depths and fall all the way to the bottom of the ocean. They explode when they hit bottom, in the middle of an Atlantean farm. Within half an hour of the explosion, the destroyer that launched the depth charges hits bottom as well, having been sunk by the submarine.

July 17: King Balam Thoth of Atlantis dispatches a scout to the surface to find out if the events of two days before was an isolated incident or if it could happen again, and if the latter, why.

March 23: Noting the success of German superhumans supplementing armed forces in the European conflict, the Imperial Japanese Navy begins the search for superhumans.  They task a sorcerer code-named Haiku to recruit superhumans.  Haiku sets up hidden bases throughout the Pacific.

March 30: Surfrider disappears while on a case.  He is presumed dead after a month.

December 5: Valor fights a Japanese spy ring hiding in the Koolau Mountains of Oahu.  During this fight, he rescues a captive Surfrider.

December 7: Valor and Surfrider aid in the rescuing of civilians and servicemen injured and trapped during the attack on Pearl Harbor.  Finding they work well together, the pair decide to become a permanent team.

February 8: A team of American superhumans gathered and sponsored by the US Military and calling themselves "The Liberty Legion", begins fighting Axis saboteurs and counterpart superhumans on behalf of Allied forces.

June 4: Admiral Chester Nimitz receives intelligence reports of superhumans supporting an approaching Japanese Fleet.  He makes several urgent requests for superhuman assistance, but is told that most of the Allied superhumans are in Europe fighting Nazi Germany.  Valor and Surfrider responded to the call and arrive in time to neutralize the Japanese superhumans, Oni and Kuei, allowing the US Navy to achieve a stunning victory at Midway that turned the tide of the war. One creative journalist on Midway Island described the duo as "Surf and Turf" and the moniker sticks.

November 22: The Chinese superhero and kung fu master Go battles Japanese forces alongside Chang Kai-shek in northwestern China. His duels with Japanese karate master Itazurakko become legendary.

March 17: With an amazing feat of foresight, a German SS officer in Africa realizes the fate of the Nazi party. He sends his entire unit into hiding in Belgian controlled Rwanda. They stay in hiding until well after Rwandan independence in 1962.

April 12: Maximan disappears during a battle in which he and the Liberty Legion fight Sturmfuhrer and several other Nazi superhumans in Stuttgart, Germany.  Maximan is believed to have been killed in the fighting.

April 16: Resolu faces Sturmfuhrer in colossal battle, his adaptive invulnerability making him nearly a match for the Nazi superman. The two battle for hours near Antipolis, as Resolu keeps Sturmfuhrer occupied and contained, allowing a large group of the French Resistance leaders to escape. The battle ends as Sturmfuhrer's beating takes its toll, and France's "Gallant Warrior" finally falls dead from his wounds.

October 9: The first commercial advertising featuring a metahuman is released over the radio.  Featuring well-known Boston superhero Lawdog, and running only in that city, the commercial hawked Bukowski's Tavern.  The Tavern's business increased 214% within the next year, all because of Lawdog's commercial.

March 3: Intelligence is received by U.S. that Japanese army has found a method for the successful production of super soldiers, to begin immediately in Nagasaki and Hiroshima.  President Truman orders immediate use of atomic bombs at these locations.  Japanese operation is destroyed, along with super solder secret.

August 8: Rumors emerge that the delivery of the Fat Man plutonium bomb to Nagasaki was accomplished not by the B-29 named "Boxcar", but by the American superhero Airdrop. A haggard Airdrop "drops" from public sight shortly afterward.

April 16: A statue of Resolu is erected in Paris, bearing a grin as it points down the block to the Arc de Triomphe.

October 4: The surviving members of the Liberty Legion announce that, with two exceptions, the surviving members of the Legion will continue protecting the people of the United States.  Of the two holdouts, Sergeant Victory retires because of wounds received in combat, and Liberty Belle announces her attention to settle down and start a family.

January 18: President Harry Truman presents the Congressional Medal of Honor to Army Sergeant Larry "Sergeant Victory" Floyd, citing the man's fearless actions against the Germans and Japanese.  The other members of the Legion are presented with the Medal of Freedom.

June 13: Valor and Surfrider move from Hawaii to San Diego, Valor's hometown, where they are needed more than in Hawaii.  They continue to fight crime in Southern California.

June 19: The United States launches Explorer 1, the first artificial satellite to orbit the Earth.

April 2: Liberty Legion member Terry "Mister America" Benedict announces that will be retiring from crimefighting in order to pursue an acting career.  He signs a ten-year contract with Universal Pictures.

May 14: A team of twelve metahumans assist the newly-founded nation of Israel when that nation is attacked by the Arab League.

August 22: South Africa forms a paramilitary organization to defend their nationalistic right to practice apartheid, dubbed Purity.  It consists of a small unit of super-soldiers called the White Legion and a small army of highly trained soldiers.

December 4: Castle in Visaria, the first film starring Terry Benedict, is released by Universal Studios.  A Grade-B horror film, the movie recoups its production costs only because of its low budget.

August 2: The People's Republic of China institutes a program of controlled breeding with the intent of producing government-controlled metahumans of massive power.

February 20: Senator Joseph McCarthy (R-WI) makes a six-hour long speech on the floor of the senate, decrying communist infiltration of "the so-called masked heroes".  He claims to have evidence that at least 31 well-known metahumans (some villains, some heroes, some neither) are communists.

March 15: Vakaki, the shark-man who would one day become known as The Master Shark, is born in Kacharias village in the Atlantean province of Vallus.

March 18: The House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), lead by Senator McCarthy issues subpoenas demanding the appearance of all members of the Liberty Legion, past and present, to answer to charges of "Unamerican political sentiments".

April 4: Appearing before the House Unamerican Activities Committee, a visibly shaken Larry "Sergeant Victory" Floyd calls Senators Joseph McCarthy and Richard Nixon "facist snakes" and challenges both men to fist-fights, despite his wheelchair-bound condition.  Floyd is later found to be in contempt of Congress and sent to prison for three years.

April 7: During his appearance before the HUAC hearing, Mister Mind (who refuses to give his real name) of the Liberty Legion announces that he's had enough of "simplistic questions coming from simplistic men".  He then mentally paralyzes everyone in the hearing room and walks out the door.  A warrant for his arrest is issued, but Mister Mind is never seen again.

April 9: When Airdrop fails to appear before the HUAC hearing, a warrant is issued for his arrest.  No arrest is ever made, and it is suspected that Airdrop simply took the costume off and blended into the general population.

April 10: At the urging of his bosses at Universal Studios, Terry "Mister America" Benedict testifies before the HUAC hearing as a friendly witness.  His testimony is especially damning of Airdrop and Liberty Belle (both of whom flirted with membership in the Communist Party during the Great Depression, but who left that organization shortly thereafter) and Mister Mind (who continued to hold membership in the ACP as of 1951).

April 12: Under a barrage of insulting and harassing questions from Senator McCarthy, a very-pregnant Janine "Liberty Belle" Warren suffers a miscarriage.  She dies of blood loss on the way to the hospital.

June 1: With few exceptions, by this date most publicly operating metahuman crime-fighters have faded into the public rather than face same same fate as the Liberty Legion.

August 14: Battle at Klondheim, a war film starry Terry Benedict, is released and bombs.

October 10: The French deploy the first operational suit of powered armor.  The suit resembles a one-man tank on legs, and is about as graceful.

January 2: Science vessels sent by the Loxor begin a survey of Earth.  Several of their probes are spotted by various humans, sparking a craze of "UFO sightings".

April 15: Windstorm, the first of the "second generation" of metahuman heroes, makes his first public appearance.

May 24: Whirlwind Horseman, starring Doug McClure is released.  Terry Benedict has twenty minutes of screen time as "Matt, the Blacksmith".

December 24: The crew of the Apollo 8 mission to orbit the moon spot a pressurized facility of alien construction on the far side of the moon.  Astronaut Gordon Cooper, navigator of Apollo 8, christens the alien lunar base "the Dark City".

April 17: The American invasion of Cuba at the Bay of Pigs succeeds, due in no small part to the assistance of a quartet of exiled Cuban metahumans.  A pro-American government is put into place within days.

September 1: Terry Benedict is cast as Tarzan in Tarzan of the Apes on CBS.  The show lasts eight years, finally being cancelled in January of 1968.

January 14: Under pressure from the United Nations, the United States withdraws its military forces from Cuba.  Castro and his guerillas topple the fragile government and re-establish control once American support is removed.

March 4: During an Ecumenical Council of the Holy Mother Church, reformers manage to push through the idea that intelligent apes and other sentient species have souls, bringing on harsh debate.  In the end, the Council decrees that artificially intelligent computers and other machines are held to be mechanical creations and thus obviously lacking in souls.

April 4: Osgrove Wellington the III found Z-Optima.

April 12: The United States establishes unlawful telepathic contact to be a form of Rape, combined with Criminal Invasion of Privacy, and make such unwanted contact a federal offense.

May 24: A meteor strike in the Appalachian mountains of Upstate New York, prompts scientist, Dr. Daniel Kirkland, to visit the impact site. There he discovers a strange metal alloy with mysterious properties. After bringing the alloy back to his home in Scarsdale, he discovers that as long as he stays in contact with the alloy, he is able to project various forms of energy as well as negate gravity and surround himself with a field of force. Dubbing the alloy "Stellaranium", Dr. Kirkland fashions a pair of forearm bands from the alloy and takes to the skies over New York state as the Stellar Sentinel, Major Adventure.

November 7: Nelson Mandela dies of "accidental" injuries acquired in a South African jail shortly after his arrest.

March 5: UN Secretary-General U Thant announces the formation of Checkmate, an international paramilitary force whose mission is to "fight terrorism and the international consequences of metahuman criminal activity".

March 28: U Thant meets with a eight heroes from around the world.  Those heroes (Excalibur of Great Britain, Lumina of Brazil, SteelWolf of the Soviet Union, Carnival of France, Rampart of the United States, Jabbar of Iran, Katla of Iceland, and Apollo of Greece) form the initial Global Guardians team.  The team initially operates out of UN Headquarters in New York City.

July 4: The word "mutant" is used for the first time in a news story, describing a person born with their powers.

November 13: The Defenders, the first privately funded and organized hero team, begin operation in Detroit, Michigan.

November 5: A team of Norwegian geologists unearth the frozen neanderthal who will come to be called Nordkapp Man in the glacial ice near Nordkapp, Norway.

February 16: The Blood Red King attacks the Papal Palace in Vatican City. He is driven away by a cadre of super-powered priests, monks, and nuns. Despite the best attempts of the press, little information is gained about these superhuman clergy.

August 11: The low level media speculation about meta powered clergy that has existed since the attack of the Blood Red King on the Vatican is ended as a team of superhumans calling themselves the Knights of Malta foil a kidnapping attempt on Italian starlet Maria Maderno after her wedding.  In Europe, the public's immediate reaction was one of overwhelming interest, with clips and websites appearing in hours.

December 1: Scientists in Cuba acquire a formula for a drug that temporarily enhances human beings into "super soldiers" from sources inside the USSR.  This formula becomes the basis of the Cuban super-soldier program.  The circumstances of this acquisition are mired in mystery, but the Soviet spokesman claims they have no knowledge of such a transaction.

May 9: SteelWolf is expelled from the Global Guardians after it is revealed that he has been passing intelligence information to the Soviet government since the team's inception.  He is replaced by Japanese strongman Fuji.

October 10: Aging heroes Valor and Surfrider nearly shut down the border operations of a drug cartel calling itself "Los Diablos Verde".

September 6: The words "Surrender Dorothy" appear in the sky over Los Angeles.  The letters, which glow a bright red during the day and a bright bluish white at night, remain in place for 36 hours.  The perpetrator never comes forward.

December 30: Valor and Surfrider are are lured into a trap and slain by a pair of super-powered assassins employed by the Syndicate Internationale.

January 12: In US vs. Takagi, the United States Supreme Court holds that a masked superhero can testify and retain his hidden identity if it can be confirmed that the man behind the mask is indeed the superhuman in question.  The court further holds that, if the hero can be approved through vois dire, he may testify as an expert witness.

February 29: Captain Courage, son of Valor, and Seabreeze, daughter of Surfrider, avenge their parents and shut down the activities of the Syndicate Internationale.  The team of Surf and Turf is reborn.

June 5: Robert "Bulletproof" Moldea steps between Senator Robert F. Kennedy and would-be-assassin Sirhan Sirhan.  Suffering from gunshot wounds to the abdomen, the Senator is rushed into emergency surgery.  A week later, he makes an announcement from his hospital room that he is retiring from politics.

September 1: Excalibur announces his retirement, and names Apollo as his replacement in command of the Global Guardians.

February 1: The "Klyx!ma Nix" enters a geostationary orbit around the Earth, parking directly above the equator in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean.  Two orbital shuttles are launched on an intercept with the alien craft.

May 3: The Nixon administration secretly orders "destruct-training" to begin at selected Marine Corps and Army basic training centers, in the hopes that the increased stress and possibly lethal nature of the environment will create metahuman soldiers.

February 27: The program of "destruct-training" at Army and Marine bases is ended and carefully covered up after nearly 300 recruits are killed without a single metahuman soldier produced.

April 28: The United States Congress passes the Non-Human Intelligence Law, recognizing intelligent apes and all alien species proven to possess at least human intelligence as "persons bearing rights that must be recognized by the government".

May 2: Scientists begin defrosting the Tautiq colonists and transporting them to Earth.  The basic facts about the Tautiq emigration are leaked to the general public.  Public response to the information is mixed.

November 30: Idi Amin personally purchases formula that uses engineered viruses to extend the normal human lifespan, as well as the "Cuban" super soldier formula, and begins his own super soldier program in Uganda.

December 10: Terry Benedict is spat upon by Danger Girl at an American Red Cross fundraiser.  The superheroine, a member of the California Angels, later explains to a reporter that she was surprised that "Judas dared show his face in public."

July 18: In Washington vs. "Knightblade", the United States Supreme Court holds that superheroes who are sanctioned and sponsored by police forces must abide by normal police procedures and standards.  The Court further states that a non-sanctioned vigilante, who is acting on his own as a private citizen, has no obligation to follow police procedure, and that evidence supplied by such vigilantes to police may be used in court, even if the methods used would be illegal if performed by the police. The non-sanctioned vigilante is still liable for any criminal activity he may have performed while accumulating the evidence.

August 12: Jabbar, Lumina, and Katla all announce their retirement from the Global Guardians.  They are replaced by Mindset, Stellarina, and Warhawk.

January 24: Carnival retires from crimefighting.  The Global Guardians replace her with Belgian superheroine Charisma.

June 4: In a small, private wedding, Captain Courage marries Seabreeze.

August 19: Rwanda experiences a bloody military coup. The Nazi's hidden here have fully integrated into Rwandan society and government. They take advantage of the political turmoil and seamlessly take control of the small country. The world does not find out for many years that Nazi's rule in Rwanda.

September 5: Arab terrorists take the Israeli Olympic team hostage at the 20th Olympic Games in Munich.  Despite all efforts by the German police and a local hero team, none of the Israeli athletes survive.

May 13: Astronaut Fred Haise becomes the first human to enter the "Dark City".  It is discovered that the alien station retains a breathable atmosphere, but minimal power.  Nothing living is found, though some alien skeletons (labeled "rather interestingly shaped" by Haise) are discovered.

May 23: The first components of the Subsurface Environmental Engineering Experiment Assist (SEEEA) Lab, comprising the living, power, medical, and hydroponics modules, are dropped onto Grant's Shelf in the Mariana Trench in the Pacific Ocean at a depth of approximately 8000 meters.  Assembly is handled by a team of meta-enhanced humans led by Dr. Yolanda Stefanias of Italy, designer of the SEEEA Lab.  Construction is completed in four days, and full-time habitation begins a week after that.

October 31: Annfrid Sigurdsdottir, the future Global Guardian Aurora, is born to Sigurd Leifursson and Inga Bjarnadottir in Laugarvatn, Iceland.

December 15: Jean "Warhawk" D'Alville is arrested for possession of six kilos of heroin.  He is immediately expelled from the Global Guardians, and eventually is sent to prison for fifteen years.  In his place, Apollo recruits Pendragon, the son of former Guardians leader Excalibur.

May 14: Annfrid Sigurdsdottir, the future Global Guardian Aurora, receives her PhD in physics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.  In March, she joins the staff at the Joint European Torus fusion project in Culham, England.

May 24: Knightblade announces his retirement from crimefighting.

October 4: The masked thief called Le Chat Noire begins his criminal career in Paris, France.

February 12: A federal appeals court rules in the case of US v. Leuten that because there are clear differences between metahuman criminals and normal criminals, legal standards granting rights to normals may have to be altered to account for superhuman powers.  Because of this, extraordinary measures that do not place the metahuman in risk to life or limb may be taken to incarcerate such persons once convicted of a crime.

October 8: Idi Amin declares war on Tanzania and invades with his newly created super soldier army. With the help of the mystical warriors of Z-Optima, Tanzania defeats the Ugandan forces, but makes no headway in their own counter-invasion.

January 1: Abyss appears over the Great Barrier Reef and releases a chemical into the ocean. The reef, on the point of destruction, is revitalized and begins regrowth in those areas in which it was destroyed.

March 21: Portia "Charisma" Bourne resigns from the Global Guardians in disgrace after a British tabloid newspaper reveals her short-lived career as an adult film star.  Within weeks of the story, sales of her three films skyrocket.  She is not replaced.

April 10: New Jersey issues the first "operators license" to a metahuman dockworker who "works as a heavy equipment operator without the need for heavy equipment".

May 27: A starship crewed by a species dubbed "the Monks" by the New York Times (based on the appearance of the alien's pressure suits) takes up position a kilometer above the Empire State Building.  They sell the United Nations the design for a working faster-than-light motor, the chemical formula for a room-temperature superconductor, and a design for a matter/anti-matter reactor in exchange for two hundred gigabytes of human knowledge, art, and music plus perpetual refueling rights at the Terran System's gas giants.  The Monks then leave in peace, vowing to come back "when they are in the neighborhood again".

November 4: Iranian militants take 55 US Embassy staff members hostage in Tehran.  Fast action by a team of American heroes, operating under orders from President Carter, rescues most of the hostages (five are murdered by the militants before the heroes can get there).  Despite this swift and decisive action, and despite the economic boost resulting from the accompanying swell in national confidence, Carter's re-election bid is defeated the next year by Ronald Reagan.

November 4: Evidence comes to light that an aid to UN Ambassador Than Ngyuen Soy of Viet Nam is an undercover mentalist who has been using his telepathic powers to influence the votes of several other Asian ambassadors.  The resultant uproar causes governments around the world to call for strict regulation of mentalists everywhere.

December 28: The United Nations announces the creation of the United Nations Psionics Organization.  This organization's declared mission is to propose regulations protecting non-psionics from unwanted telepathic influence.

December 31: California cybernetics corporation TL Prosthetic Devices Corporation makes a working bionic arm, that while not very sophisticated, is affordable although expensive.

September 2: British metagenius Dr. Fiona Richards patents working nano-technology.  She immediately forms the Diamond Technologies corporation to exploit and further develop the technology.

February 14: Apollo retires from the Guardians.  Pendragon is named commander of the team in his place.  His first act is to dismiss all currently active Guardians members.  In their place he recruits a fresh, new team made up of the Walrus, Stormsong, Carpathia, Force, the Shield, Arsenal, Massada, the Iron Knight, Olympian, Pellmell, and Looking Glass.  This team will become the standard by which all other Guardians teams are measured.

August 6: The Metahuman in Combat by "Knightblade, with Tim Conroy" is published.  It spends 27 weeks at the top of the New York Times nonfiction best seller list.

November 22: Battlecat begins his war with New Orleans crime lord Baron Samedi.

December 19: A week after the infamous "snow plow play", the New England Patriots players and coaches are all hunted down and killed by the Masters of Disaster, who leave a videotaped statement decrying that the football players and coaches deserve it for being "fucking cheaters". The owner of the New England Patriots announces that he does not feel morally just in trying to reconstitute his team after all team members were killed. The National Football League formally dissolves the team.

January 14: The Jupiter Space Probe 2 (JSP2) successfully lands on Europa, one of the gas giant's many satellites. Almost immediately, it begins sending data back regarding the ice coating of the moon.  JSP2 successfully drills beneath the ice coating, reaching the liquid water beneath the frigid surface. Two days later, JSP2 transmits data to Earth suggesting and then confirming the presence of carbon based microbial life forms in the Europan water.

May 2: South Africa invades Cuba controlled Angola, Botswana, Madagascar, Mozambique, Swaziland, and Zimbabwe simultaneously. The invaded countries band together and fend off South Africa with the help of the Z-Optima mystic warriors until the rest of the world can mobilize. The Treaty of Lesotho forces South Africa to not only give up land recently invaded, but to also allow West South Africa its independence as Namibia.

November 17: "Suicide Squad," an hour-long drama featuring five supers who travel the country helping people in trouble while dodging the agents and super-powered pawns of their former employer, the fictional criminal agency known as "The Dominion", debuts on NBC.  Within two months it begins its five year stay at #1 in the Nielsen Ratings.  It is cancelled in 1990.

September 25: The Federal Metahuman Registration Act enacted into law.  The act calls for the registration of a metahuman's known powers, address, and identity.  Very few metahumans actually comply with the law.

January 28: Bell Technologies cybernetics lab announced that they had succeeded in creating a functional humanoid robot.

January 14: More than 50 people are killed when the small town of Snyder, Oklahoma is destroyed by the sudden appearance of a thunderstorm and half a dozen tornados.

March 15: In Crouch v. California, the United States Supreme Court holds that the act of putting on a costume, calling oneself by an unusual name, and committing unusual crimes does not automatically mean that a person is insane.

March 21: Project Prometheus AMX-1, the android created by Bell Technologies, sues its creators to have his rights as a sentient being recognized.  Eventually, the case reached the United States Supreme Court, which ruled in the android's favor.

April 1: Earth is invaded by the Xorn, a predatory warrior species.  The aliens lay waste to several cities around the globe.  They are driven off by the combined force of the Earth's combined military might, along with the might of nearly every superhuman on earth (including such villains and criminal organizations as Lord Doom, Abyss, and Tarot).  The governments of earth immediately begin examining the technology and alien slaves left behind.

July 29: In US vs. Kwan (1984), the United States Supreme Court holds that sending a "supernormal", whose powers only come from intense training to a super-maximum security prison designed to hold metahumans is a violation of the "cruel and unusual" provisions of the 8th amendment to the constitution.

October 23: In a hyperwave broadcast made using Xorn equipment to whatever alien species are listening, Pendragon, leader of the Global Guardians, issues the Terran Ultimatum.

March 10th: A recently retired French Legionarre, and a minor hero the Xorn war for his leadership during the last ground action disappears skiing after an avalanche during a freak snowstorm in the Alps.  Pierre Mountblanc is assumed dead, and given a ceremonial funeral by the Legion.

November 27: An impromptu attempt to overthrow the South African government by an international team of black metahumans fails.  The slaughter of the black metahumans by South African forces (including Purity, South Africa's government-sponsored hero team) shock the world.

January 2: The South African government orders the genetic screening of all babies born in the country.  All non-white babies shown to be carrying the metagene are immediately euthanised.

March 31: Construction is begun on the Bifrost Bridge project.  The project, located near the peak of Mount Kilimanjaro, will eventually be the UNSA's primary launching facility, incorporating launching laser and mass driver technology.  Simultaneously, the UNSA announces the inception of the Barsoom Project, which will study the feasibility of a Beanstalk space elevator on Mars.

April 25: The worst nuclear power accident in the history of the world occurs at Chernobyl, when a nuclear reactor located 80 miles north of Kiev explodes.  More than 30 people die immediately, while nearly a hundred thousand more suffer radiation exposure.  The Soviet government combines cleanup of the accident with a massive screening effort looking for "accidental" metahumans created in the disaster.  The results of their screening never become public.

May 14: The British Parliament passes its own version of the American metahuman registration law.  Such registration is strictly voluntary and allows a masked hero to retain his secret identity if some other positive form of identification is possible.  In return for registration, the person in question gains access to police records and has more leniency to act as a "freelance, unofficial policeman" than a non-registered vigilante.

June 8: In US v. Kwan (1986), the United States Supreme Court holds that a supernormal can be incarcerated in a super-maximum security prison designed to hold metahumans when "that supernormal has proven himself to be so adept at escape that it is unlikely a normal prison facility could ever contain him for long."

February 14: An earthquake strikes Barcelona, Spain.  This quake kills 5000 and leaves 275,000 homeless. The Blood Red King savages over a hundred survivors before disappearing into thin air.

February 18: The small Libyan town of Al Jawf is the site of an unexpected low-yield nuclear explosion.  The Libyan government decries the incident as an attack by Israel and the United States, but takes no other action.  Both nations deny any involvement.  Checkmate Intelligence believes Al Jawf was the site of a hidden chemical weapons factory.

April 22: An earthquake measuring 8.2 on the Richter scale strikes western India.  8000 people are killed in Bombay alone, and the final death toll reaches close to 150,000.  The Blood Red King is spotted in the area shortly thereafter, but is not confronted.

May 8: An earthquake measuring 7.4 on the Richter scale strikes the greater Los Angeles area, killing 60 and injuring thousands more.  The Blood Red King is seen at the epicenter after the shockwaves die down.

May 11: Supermodel Catherine Cody dies suddenly when she abruptly bursts into flame during a showing of designer Peter LaRusso's latest creations.  Investigators can find no reason for the model's spontaneous combustion.  In addition, it takes great effort to collect the ashes left behind by the model's fiery demise, as the efficient air circulation system in the Ambion Hotel's Sargasso Room spreads her remains across the horrified onlookers.

May 21: France enacts its own version of the American metahuman registration law.  The penalties for noncompliance are much harsher than the American law, and a higher percentage of French metahumans comply than comply with the American law.

August 29: A hail of meteors pummels eastern Siberia.  Other impacts are in the northern Pacific Ocean and in Central Alaska.  The meteors leave craters between 20 to 400 meters across.  Most of the meteors are obliterated upon impact.  Luckily, no one is injured during the shower.

November 20: RCA announces that they have made a breakthrough in the field of three-dimensional, free-standing, holography.  One viewer who witnessed the demonstration of the new technology says that the images produced are projected into the air and, though a bit fuzzy, are still quite impressive.

March 18: Eightball, leader of the villain team HardCorps, publicly endorses Wolverine brand boots in an unsolicited letter sent to Outdoor Life magazine.  Sales of the brand skyrocket.

September 7: The Rothlyn/Dalburg test, which detects the presence of the metagene, is put into production.

September 18: A team of doctors at Crestwick Hospital in York, England perfects an AIDS vaccine that not only killed the virus an infected individual, but prevented uninfected individuals from ever being infected.

September 28: Construction on Gateway Station, a permanent space station built in Earth's trailing LeGrange Point, is completed.

October 2: The fact that Rwanda is controlled by remnants of the old German Nazi party becomes widely known.  Nothing is immediately done in reaction, at least publicly.

April 20: To the shock and amazement of the outside world, the armed forces of Gorilla City smash several company-sized united of Rwandan militia in response to attacks on small villages near the hidden ape city.

June 2: A thorough investigation on the part of the Knights of Norfolk reveals that the Parahuman Rights League is a front for Tarot.  Despite lightning raids on all Parahuman Rights League offices, no useful information is found, and the only arrests made are for minor charges.

June 13: A jury in Detroit, Michigan finds that a person's metagene expression was a "medical condition", and thus fell under the federal laws against discrimination.

February 18: The UN-sponsored Barsoom Project, a century-long effort to begin the slow terraforming of Mars, begins operations.  Construction begins on the Beanstalk, a surface to orbit elevator central to the terraforming plans.

April 11: The Darkside Radio Observatory is constructed on the Moon.

April 14: Joptha, Libya, is consumed in a hundred and fifty megaton fusion explosion.  The mushroom cloud is visible from the coast of Sicily.  The city's entire population of 30,000 people are killed, though there is no fallout or residual radiation in the wreckage.  Joptha has long been thought to be the center of Libya's nuclear weapons production industry.

May 22: "Meta" magazine publishes an interview with Lord Doom. This interview, conducted over the internet, reveals that Lord Doom's primary motivation for wanting to rule the world is to put an end to "the violence, hatred, and chaos that is so prevalent". It also reveals that he is a fan of Stephen King novels, James Bond films, the music of Queen, Tony's Circuit, and Garth Brooks, and that his favorite food is veal marsala.

June 19: President Vladimir Lazarenko of Ukraine is assassinated while visiting the city of Sevastopol in the Crimean Peninsula.  His killer is believed to have been working with the drug cartels that ship narcotics from Turkey through Ukraine into Russia.

July 11: The Federal Metahuman Registration Act is repealed.  Critics contend that it was never effective in the first place.

August 30: Petro Radenyk is elected the President of Ukraine following a turbulent special election.  Leonid Kuchma, widely considered to be corrupt and catering to a select few, was only narrowly defeated after his name was mentioned in connection with the assassination of former President Lazarenko.  It was believed by most that Kuchma had retired to a secret villa in the Crimean Peninsula after his second term in office ended in 1988, so his return to politics caught many off guard.

November 2: Members of Purity attack the annual conference of the Organization For African Unity in Kampala, Uganda.  They are driven off by a loose coalition of African superheroes.

May 1: The Heatwave virus strikes computer systems across Europe and North America.  The virus is concealed within a spam email offering .gif versions of the famous super-heroine's Playboy layout.  Millions of users world-wide are infected rapidly.  The virus, once it clones itself, starts off with a countdown that ends with a "Gotcha" and promptly shuts down the computer.

June 29: The Sagan Orbital Telescope is launched, replacing the aging Hubble.

June 29: An autographed copy of the Hero System Rules write-up for Lord Doom, including penciled in corrections, is auctioned on eBay for $2800.

November 12: Under intense international pressure, South Africa disbands Purity as a paramilitary force and ceases creation of super soldiers to restock its White Legion. Soon after, the few metahuman members of Purity gruesomely slaughter the mystic warriors of Z-Optima, in a mass execution.

April 12: Maximan re-appears in modern day Stuttgart, having been thrown 50 years in the future one of Ulysses Maltus' superweapons.  The hero makes his way to America and begins acclimating to the present.

March 23: A CIA intelligence report, uncovering information about the superhuman breeding program undertaken by the People's Republic of China is made public. The Chinese government denies the truth of the report but the evidence remains convincing.

August 9: Alabama State Senator Bill Hawkins is assassinated during a speech in Mobile, Alabama.  The assassin is never caught, but because of the ultimately foolproof nature of the crime it is suspected that a metahuman killed the Senator.

August 22: For fourty eight hours across the evening sky around the world a short manifesto written in blue/white light proclaims both laws of U'tua the Gardner and the arrival of Sol's Guardsmen who will be enforcing those laws.  The existance of the Guardsmen is confirmed by the Tautiq and the surviving Xorn slave species.  That the laws provide only for the survival of sentient species not their freedom, explains in part why the Xorn tried to turn Earth into a slave planet.

August 24: Sol's new Guardsman appears before the UN and in the General Assembly lays out Galatic Law as established by U'tua the Gardner and the consequences for defying those laws.  The Peoples Republic of China representative walks out decrying this as mererly another western trick, as Guardsman identified himself as the former French solider Pierre Mountblanc.

November 16: The Chinese government announces the existence of the People's Revolutionary Superhuman Collective.  The official superhero team of China, the PRSC is also the largest hero team in the world, having over 40 members.

March 15:  After India announces plans to launch a campaign to wipe out several hundred thousand acres of marsh land in the name of progress Guardsman makes a public announcement that this plan is in violation of Galatic Law and a three day interdiction of India from the rest of the world will take place.   A solid dome blocking all traffic from leaving or entering India seals that nation off from outside contact for three days, not even the most powerful humans are able to penetrate the shield.  The  Indian government barely manages to survive the crisis and backs off it plans for the marsh land.  Governments around the world take notice and even the most corrupt and tryrannical at least pretend to play by the rules.

May 3: In what at first appears to be a live enactment of a cheesy science fiction movie, Tokyo is attacked by a gigantic lizard-like beast which is quickly dubbed "Godzilla".  The city is defended by a team of Tokyo heroes, who manage to defeat the beast.  It is later revealed that "Godzilla" is a superhuman man whose possesses the ability to transform himself into the gigantic creature.

April 15: Ugandan and Tanzanian militias attempt to annex Gorilla City. Gorilla City responds with force, using it's first official super powered protector, Tachyon.
 

June 4: Leonid Kuchma is elected President of Ukraine.  Following another sabbatical to his villa in Crimea after the election loss in 1992, Kuchma made a triumphant return to politics, taking the presidency with an overwhelming majority.  In his acceptance speech, Kuchma makes a promise to rid Ukraine of the "meta-human menace", and to preserve the 'human' gene pool.

September 11: A small genetic research company in Vancouver, British Columbia makes vast purchases of waterfront property in the Vancouver and Seattle regions of the Pacific Northwest, including the purchase of the Vancouver Aquarium and marine research laboratories.  There are rumors that the company, TeraDyne Industries, has made a breakthrough in both human and animal DNA relating to the Metagene.

April 1: The supervillain group Play Time attempts to destroy a new superhero-themed ride at Disneyland called the White Event, claiming correctly that several of its animatronic and holographic characters are based loosely on them.

April 3: Jumping Jack invades the experimental Joint European Torus fusion reactor.  He teleports Dr. Annfrid Sigurdsdottir into the reactor's core, activating her latent metagene.  She defeats his henchman and rescues the project's staff with her new-found powers, but severely damages the reactor in the process.

April 10: Bright Star, leader of The Shield, a superhero team operating out of Taiwan, announces that his team stands ready to repulse any invasion of that island by "bandits from the mainland".  Though he refuses to specify, it is clear that he is talking about the People's Revolutionary Superhuman Collective.

May 7: India passes a metahuman registration law, but the bureaucracy in charge of such things is so under-funded and understaffed that the registration law is toothless and unenforceable.

August 12: Dr. Annfrid Sigurdsdottier becomes Iceland's national superhero, taking the name Nordurljosa (the Icelandic name for the Aurora Borealis).  The English press call her Aurora, and this is the name which "sticks" as her superhero identity.  She spends the next year and a half traveling the globe as a good-will ambassador for her country.

September 9: After several years of modern-day heroics, Maximan is invited to join the Global Guardians.

October 24: The United Nations recognizes Gorilla City as a separate and independant state within Africa. Gorilla City starts campaigning to have Tachyon join the Global Guardians.

March 1: Nicholas Kirkland, after being trained in the use of the "Stellaranium" bands by his father, Dr. Daniel Kirkland, follows in his footsteps and using the "Stellar Bands", becomes the hero Polaris.

January 14: Tachyon officially joins the Global Guardians.

February 17: Aurora joins the Global Guardians, proudly representing Iceland as one of the world's mightiest heroes.

March 2: New Orleans philanthropist Spencer Troy is thrown from his penthouse apartment's bedroom window by an unknown assailant.

September 14: The senior leadership of al-Queda is pulled from a cave in the mountains of Afghanistan by a team of Global Guardians under the auspices of the US Defense Department.  Osama bin-Ladin, the leader of al-Queda, commits suicide rather than being captured.  The remaining prisoners are transported to New York City for trial.

October 22: Members of Purity, now officially declared a terrorist group by most nations, assassinate the presidents of Zimbabwe and Zambia after talks of a military coalition between the two nations to depose South African apartheid near fruition. Both countries reintegrate back into Rhodesia and form a new independent democratic state despite the twin tragedies.

January 2:  The World Health Organization removes marijuana from the interdicted substance list.  Most member nations follow the WHO's lead, making marijuana legal.  There are several notable holdouts, including Russia, France, and the United States.  Several Central American countries applaud the WHO's decision, as it turns the previously illegal marijuana crops into cash commodities.

January 18: The "Alberta First" Party, lead by Keith Marlowe sweep the Progressive Conservatives from power in Alberta in a stunning upset victory following a dirty campaign that has seen over $100 million spent by Alberta First and their supporters.

November 12: After an in-depth investigation by Checkmate's Tarot Taskforce, it is discovered that the Alberta First Party is in fact a cover organization fronting for Tarot. New elections under tight supervision are called for by the Lieutenant Governor as the Alberta First MLA's are arrested and quickly tried. Checkmate analysts hypothesize that the aim of Tarot was to gain control over the now nearly 3 trillion dollars in the Alberta Heritage Trust Fund.

June 21: After several years of enforcing Galactic Law and stopping Earthly criminals Guardsman is invited to join the Global Guardians in a bid to bolster its abilities to handle extra solar threats.