Bleedin' liquid 'istory...

1913

Woodrow Wilson becomes the first joint President in both the U. and C.S.A. since Abraham Lincoln.

1917

Wilson re-elected on a unification bill.

1924

First mutant born in France (Destructeur).

1939

World War II starts in Europe.

1941

Stresses of military training reveal more metahumans: Kalibanos, the Stalker, Hunter, and other "Mystery Man" heroes. The first reliable psis appear as well: Minder and Mist.

Hitler's †bermenschen, the world's first superteam, make their first battlefield appearance. Unopposed the †bermenschen help cut a swath across France.

U.S. joins war in Europe and Pacific.

1942

Newsreel footage of †bermenschen prompts the "Los Angeles Project" to find and train metahumans for the war effort.

1943

The Los Angeles Project field its "Strike Force A" (nicknamed "The Psycho Squad"), consisting of Hunter, Lucifer, Sgt. Strike and the Gadgeteer. Shortly thereafter, the USSR's "Glorious People's Metahuman Defensive Collective" is unveiled: Star, Bolshoi, the first Red Knight and the mysterious Mikhail.

British superteam appears: John Bull, Union Jack, Silver and Mist. French underground is rumored to be aided by a quartet of metahumans.

1943 to 1945

All in all, nearly 50 metahumans appear publicly on all sides of the war. Their efforts mostly cancel out, as they spend much time battling each other and acting as cover for normal troops. Of these metahumans, 37 die in action. More effective (and having a higher survival rate) are those who remain under cover during the war, such as Hitler's personal metahuman bodyguard and the French Resistance heroes.

1945

Germany surrenders. German rocket scientists, metabiologists and metahumans are divided between the U.S. and USSR.

U.N. charter signed, June 26, San Francisco.

German powered infantry armor project discovered near Berlin, and genetic experiments designed to create more metahumans (and their results) found at Dachau and Auschwitz. They are confiscated and studies by the Allied governments.

U.S. "Manhattan Project" perfects atom bomb; Hiroshima and Nagasaki destroyed. WWII ends.

1946

French Resistance heroes form core of French national supergroup. Other lately Nazi-dominated countries encourage the formation of their own teams of metahumans.

Nuremberg trials convict 22 German leaders and five metahumans for war crimes. At least two other German metahumans are suspected to have escaped: Rote Rache and Totenkopf.

1948

Berlin Blockade and Airlift. First documented flying heroes aids U.S. efforts.

State of Israel founded, May 14. Arab League attacks Israel, but is defeated by an international team of Jewish metahumans. Arab League nations lack a sufficient counterforce, as Islamic populations have been killing metahumans as demons despite their governments' objections.

1949

NATO founded.

1952

U.S. explodes H-bomb.

"Mind Control Scandal" in England.

Watson and Crick discover the structure of DNA. Serious study into the genetic basis of powered humans begins.

1953

USSR explodes H-bomb.

1954

First corporate superteam.

France looses war for control of Indochina.

1955

Warsaw Pact signed.

U.S. military advisors first arrive in Vietnam.

1956

Martin Luther King, Jr. leads bus boycott in Montgomery, AL due to the arrest of Rosa Parks.

Hungarian revolution put down with troops, tanks and KGB metahumans.

First serious use of the word "super" in the news media to describe a civic-minded civilian metahuman.

1957

First widely knows "supers" appear in the U.S.: Windstorm, X. In Europe: le Chat, Pulsar.

U.S. Civil Rights Act is passed.

Metahumans aid Federal troops in Little Rock desegregation faceoff.

EEC/Common Market formed. In response to Soviet Bloc metahuman forces, EEC charter includes the pooling of metahuman resources.

First widely-known civilian meta-villain appears in the U.S.

1958

Sputnik and Explorer I launched.

As a response to the escalating Cold War, both U.S. and Soviets reactivate their national superteams.

First private super-team formed, U.S.

First public battle between super-powered hero and villain, West Germany.

1959

Several new private super-groups form after public relations success of the American team: Europe, Australia, Japan.

1960

U.S. government superteam (current incarnation) makes its first public appearance as such: Quasar I, Darkstorm, X, Blur, and Highball.

First "Powered Adventurers' Corporation" formed, Delaware.

1961

Gagarin orbits the Earth.

Bay of Pigs invasion succeeds due to exiled Cuban and American metahuman support, and a pro-U.S. government is seated. As justification, the U.S. points to Soviet nuclear missile sites on the island.

1962

U.N. resolution forces U.S. to withdraw from Cuba. Castro and his guerrillas topple the fragile government and re-establish power. The Soviets return and find their missile sites have been wrecked and/or booby-trapped.

1963

John F. Kennedy assassinated. X of the U.S. superteam is devastated by his failure to precog this event and commits suicide with his powers.

NAACP recruits a Supers arm in response to metahuman-aided KKK attack on a Civil Rights march which leaves 15 dead and 179 injured.

Attempted "mind control" smear campaign against the Beatles flounders.

Thunderbird causes a major public outcry when he agrees to appear in a series of Thunderbird automobile commercials. The formation of an independent Metahuman Ethics Committee (MEC) in the U.S. follows.

1964

The Jewish Defense League (JDL) establishes a metahuman branch including some former members of the Israeli superteam.

China explodes an A-bomb and reveals the largest single superteam yet assembled.

1965

Vietnam troop buildup includes the stationing of the U.S. superteam and the first active U.S. powered-armor squads.

Watts race riots reveal at least two new metahumans among the rioters.

First major anti war demonstration.

1966

Surveyor I soft-lands on the Moon.

Race riots in Chicago, Cleveland and other U.S. cities.

"Cultural Revolution" in China.

1967>

Increase of anti war, anti-draft and race demonstrations.

Six-Day War in Middle East. The presence of the Israeli superteam is credited with significantly shortening what might have become a long, drawn-out conflict.

Race riots in Newark, Detroit and other cities. Blackstar and Cassius of NAACP superteam die while trying to stop the riots.

Metahuman prankster skywrites "Surrender Dorothy" over L.A. The glowing letters remain in the sky for 36 hours.

1968

Martin Luther King, Jr. and Robert Kennedy are both targets of assassination attempts that fail due to their metahuman bodyguards. King is unharmed, but Kennedy suffers severe injury and retires from politics.

Vietnam peace talks.

Israel attacks Lebanese airport in retaliation for an Arab attack on an El Al jet in Athens; the U.N. Security Council censures Israel by forcing a temporary suspension of the Israeli superteam, which participated in the strike.

1969

Armstrong and Aldrin land on the Moon.

Rise of feminism as a political force: Glorai Steinem, Rebecca Ball, metahumans Dreamer and Nightbird.

Metahuman lobbying organization POWER founded in U.S. to counter Nixon administration attempts to require all metahumans to be inducted into the military, and failing that, registered so that the FBI and/or the CIA can keep track of them.

1970

U.S. and South Vietnamese troops enter Cambodia.

West Germany and USSR sign non-aggression pact.

Kent State, Ohio. As National Guard troops fire on student demonstrators, two heroes assigned to the Guard (Whipsaw and Slammer) jump in the path of the bullets. Two students are killed, 11 are wounded. Whipsaw in anger kills two of the guardsmen who fired, and is arrested for murder.

1971

First appearance of a spaceworthy metahuman.

1972

Whipsaw convicted of two counts of manslaughter and is sentenced to two concurrent 15-year terms in jail, to start in 1973. Meanwhile the Kent State National Guardsmen (those who survived Whipsaw) are convicted of second-degree murder.

Martin Luther King, Jr. elected to U.S. Senate on the Democratic ticket. Nixon administration takes a more antagonistic stand towards metahumans, especially those who publicly oppose the President. The U.S. Bonded Telepaths' Organization and POWER manage to defuse most attempts to restrict metahumans and their rights, but the FBI maintains surveillance on the more outspoken heroes.

Construction of the Vault, a prison specially designed to hold metahuman convicts, is started, near White Plains.

1973

Great Britain, Ireland and Denmark join the EEC. Britain and Ireland politely ignore the EEC metahuman pooling policy.

Watergate scandal in U.S.

Ceasefires signed with North Vietnamese by South Vietnamese and the U.S.

Drought-induced famine cripples much of West Africa, despite efforts by local metahuman weather manipulators.

Prompted by Bonded Telepaths' Organization branches, several European countries pass "Right to Privacy" laws.

1974

Nixon resigns and is succeeded by Gerald Ford, who pardons the ex-president.

United States' Personal Privacy Act signed into law. Telepathic invasion without cause (usually, parental permission, a search warrant or medical necessity) is prohibited.

1975

South Vietnam falls; the war in Vietnam ends.

Egypt and Israel sign disengagement pact.

1976

American Bicentennial and Exposition. The pavilion on American metahumans proves the most popular of the entire exposition, with guest appearances by the American superteam and foreign metahumans as well.

Jimmy Carter elected President of U.S.

1977

Extremist Moslem groups bomb theaters in Egypt and other Arab countries to protest secular values. They begin to display metahumans among their rank, of impressive power but with little training of skill.

Quadaffi's power grows in Libya.

Gandhi government in India ousted by devout Hindu/Moslem coalition.

The Dallas Legion is the first superteam to publish its own Collective Cards Series.

1978

Genetic research begins to show some progress into the "how" of metahuman powers.

The Vault is finished. Whipsaw first prisoner.

The Dallas Legion is allegedly involved in the Jonestown Massacre.

1979

Three Mile Island nuclear accident quickly and efficiently handled by the U.S. superteam.

Egypt and Israel sign the Camp David peace treaty.

In an effort to rise its falling popularity, the Dallas Legion release the block buster "Dallas Legion - the Movie". This is followed by a comics book, a cartoon TV-series and later the same year a live-action TV-series.

Soviet invasion in Afghanistan. Soviets ignore U.N. protests, which prompts new discussion (started by smaller and weaker countries in Africa and Scandinavia) on the need for a permanent U.N. metahuman "police force", even as such a force is secretly recruited for the Afghan campaign.

1980

Iranian militants take 55 U.S. Embassy staff hostage in Teheran. Fast action by the U.S. superteam rescues most hostages (five die, shot before team members can intervene).

The Dallas Legion is shutdown by the MEC. Most of its members disappear.

Anti-nuclear movement born in Western Europe. Included in the movement is a small anti-metahuman element.

Olympics boycotted by U.S. and other countries over invasion of Afghanistan.

In a landmark decision, the U.S. Supreme Court rules that the right of the individual to his privacy granted by the 1974 Personal Privacy Act does not outweigh the governments "need to know".

U.N. organizes and deploys covert superteam to fight Russian incursion into Afghanistan.

1981

Anwar Sadat assassinated by a bomb that also kills his metahuman bodyguards.

U.S. jets shoot down two Libyan metahumans after the two attack the jets over the Gulf, seriously damaging one aircraft.

Greece joins the EEC. Its national superteam joins the EEC metahuman team, making it second only to Red China's team in size.

1982

Leonid Brezhnev dies; he is replaced by Yuri Andropov.

U.S. President Carter embargoes Libyan oil due to their alleged support of terrorist activities.

First bionic limb, a leg, is constructed. It's little more than a motorized prosthesis with neural sensors.

U.N. bans both national superteams and strategic nuclear weaponry. It unveils its collected metahuman forces in order to make the ban stick.

U.N. International Super-Team (UNIST) forces make their debut, and five teams are emplaced. Complete deployment is expected by 1992.

1983

American Marine headquarters in Beirut destroyed by a bomb. 245 die, one Marine survives - a metahuman created in the conflagration.

1984

Ronald Reagan wins the U.S. presidential election.

Andropov dies; he is replaced by Constantin Chernenko.

Union Carbide plant in Bupal, India leaks deadly gas, killing over 2.500 persons and mutating at least a dozen.

1985

Chernenko dies; he is replaced by Mikhail Gorbachev.

Terrorist airport attacks, Rome and Vienna. The Vienna attack is performed by an energy-projecting super.

Attempted overthrow of South African government by an "impromptu" multinational black African superteam fails. >The slaughter of the black forces by the South African superteam shocks the world, and their subsequent bloody incursion into Angola almost plunges all of southern Africa into war. The U.N. intervenes, but its African IST are barely sufficient to stop the African team. Western European governments impose sanctions on South Africa.

Chernobyl accident, Soviet Union. USSR combines cleanup attempt with massive screening of exposed population for newly created "accidental" supers, but does not announce results of the search.

1986

Challenger disaster, Cape Kennedy, Florida, USA.

Announcement of positive identification of "power" genes in mutant metahumans. Also identified are the genes for human intelligence - and that they are mingled in the same portions of DNA as the "power" genes; in fact, they are inextricably mixed with them. The philosophical and religious implications of this discovery rock the globe.

South Africa begins genetic screening of all newborns.

1987

U.S. government secretly begins program to design and build a bomber that is undetectable by either psi or radar.

First anti-mutant demonstrations in West Germany, France and Belgium.

1988

In a move to firmly establish glasnost and goodwill, Mikhail Gorbachev offers to disband "unofficial" Soviet military superteams if the USA will do the same.

Senator Martin Luther King, Jr. and his running mate, Michael Dukasis, defeat Ronald Reagan in his bid for re-election. King appoints his right-hand man, the Rev. Jesse Jackson, to the post of Secretary of HEW.

1989

Attempted assassination of President King at his inauguration by the mutant White Wizard of the KKK. The White Wizard is immediately flamed by Secret Service metahumans and dies in seconds. 4 bystanders are injured. The first anti-mutant demonstrations in the U.S. follows.

Canadian IST forces, including former members of the infamous Dallas Legion, contain oil spilled into Alaskan waters by a crippled Texxon tanker.

1990

U.S. Government project to develop a psi- and radar-invisible warplane is allegedly scrapped with the end of the Cold War.

Rumanian civil war ends in March as rebels captures and/or kills the last supers and secret police loyal to the Ceaucescu government.

Alleged Libyan chemical weapons plant explodes; Quadaffi accuses Israeli agents in an impassioned speech, but stops short of declaring outright war.

Albanian and Iranian earthquakes; in both cases, metahumans appears shortly afterward, giving rise to several anti-mutant demonstrations across the U.S. and Europe.

Fidel Castro begins making increasingly apocalyptic speeches against the U.S. and U.N.

PLO tacnukes West Bank settlements in retaliation for the murder of eight Palestinians by a crazed Israeli gunman.

Roger Waters performs The Wall in Berlin. The all-star cast includes Songbird of IST Bonn and Doreen "The Seductress" Kano.

Iraq invades and annexes Kuwait. The U.N. votes sanctions against Iraq and shuts down power plants in both countries. When troops are not withdrawn, an international force is assembled and deployed, liberating Kuwait. Iraqi President Saddam Hussein is taken into custody by members of IST Baghdad.

Ivana Trump files for a divorce from Donald Trump. As grounds she claims he's a mutant. The divorce is approved.

1991

Soviet Union dissolved.

Civil War begins in former Yugoslavia.

White Los Angeles police officers videotaped while beating black construction worker Rodney King during a traffic stop.

25 dies as 79 spring tornadoes raced through seven central and southern states in a 24-hour period. Efforts by weather-controlling metahumans fail.

President King and the Soviet Union's Premier Gorbachev signed a treaty to reduce nuclear weapons inventories.

1992

War in Bosnia.

One of the world's most destructive hurricanes, Andrew, kills 37 people, totaled nearly 100,000 buildings, and caused an estimated $20,000,000,000 damage in Florida. Metahuman activity suspected.

Democrats Bill Clinton and Al Gore defeat incumbent Republicans George Bush and Dan Quayle for the presidency and vice presidency. Independent H. Ross Perot receives over 18,000,000 votes, but no electoral votes.

Riots, looting and burning brake out in Los Angeles after the acquittal of four white police officers on the major counts in the beating of Rodney King. King appealed to blacks and whites to "get along". The Purple Menace is killed by angry rioters.

1993

In the first major act of terrorism in the continental U.S., a bomb explosion at New York's World Trade Center kills five and injures 290.

1994

South Africa's white government votes itself out of existence and African National Congress leader Nelson Mandela assumes the presidency.

In Rwanda 100,000 dies in a bloody civil war. Several metahumans involved.

Actor and former football great O.J. Simpson fails to appear in court on charges of brutally murdering his wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend, Ron Goldman. Millions watches live TV coverage as Simpson's white Ford Bronco, driven by friend Al Cowlings, led police on a "slow speed chase" through Los Angeles County. Simpson is taken into custody at the journey's end - Simpson's Brentwood estate. Simpson vehemently denies committing the murders.

1995

In the worst terrorist attack in U.S. history, the front half of the federal building in Oklahoma City is literally blown to bits, killing over 170 and injuring hundreds more. Army buddies Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols are arrested in the case.

After a long, televised trial in which much physical evidence is determined to be tainted and not admissible, O.J. Simpson is found not guilty of murdering his estranged wife and her friend.

Seven dies when storm waters washed out a two-lane bridge on Interstate 5 near Coalinga, California. The state had been warned as early as 1969 that the structure was weak. The collapse is blamed on mutants. The Owl and Eagle-Eyes are arrested and found guilty of bringing the flood about. Mutant hysteria rises.

Air Force Captain Scott O'Grady becomes a national hero. After his F-16 is shot down over Bosnia, Captain O'Grady survives on rainwater and insects until rescued by the Marines six days later.

1996

Escaping from a local prison in Coalinga, CL, the Owl flees east. Subsequently 55 people perish as a result of a blizzard which drops record amounts of snow from Maine to South Carolina. A further 12 are killed and 39 injured when Amtrak and Maryland Rail Commuter trains collided during heavy snow outside Washington, D.C.

John Salvi III is convicted of murder in the 1994 attacks on two Massachusetts abortion clinics. He killed himself in his jail cell eight months later.

230 perish when TWA flight 800 explodes off Long Island, New York. MLF involvement suspected, but never proven.

1997

O.J. Simpson found liable for the deaths of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman in a civil trial. He is ordered to pay $33,500,000 in compensation.

Timothy McVeigh (Stargate) convicted in the Oklahoma City bombing.

39 members of the Heaven's Gate cult are found dead in their California headquarters. Detectives uncover a video tape by leader Marshall Applewhite, who said the cult planned to travel to new bodies in a space ship accompanying the Comet Hale-Bopp.

California and Nevada flooded under heavy winter rains and melting snowpacks. 53,000 are evacuated and visitors are trapped inside Yosemite National Park. 50,000 residents are forced to abandon Grand Forks, North Dakota due to flooding. The Ohio River goes over its banks at Louisville, Kentucky. Winter blizzards crippled portions of the midwest. A hard freeze in Florida destroys $298,000,000 worth of crops. Tornadoes and severe thunderstorms tore through portions of Arkansas, killing 20. The MLF claims responsibility. A further 156 are injured when an Amtrak train derails on a Kingman, Arizona bridge. Later in the year, President Clinton signs a $2,300,000,000 package intended to give the financially-strapped railway the ability to manage itself. Further $2,000,000 is promised for the apprehension of the MLF or their leader; the Owl.

Princess Diana and her fiancˇ dies in a fiery car crash in Paris while being persuaded by metahuman photographers. Four days later, the world is thrown into more grief with the passing of Mother Teresa, who is assassinated by an unknown Moslem Metahuman.

3 are killed and 5 injured when a 14-year-old fires shots into a prayer group at a West Paducah, Kentucky high school.

1998

President Clinton settles Paula Jones' sexual harassment suit with $850,000 and no apology nor admission of guilt. To the chagrin of the conservative Christian Republicans who paid her expenses during her long fight against Clinton, Jones used the money to start a psychic hotline.

At age 77, former astronaut John Glenn returns to space aboard the shuttle Discovery.

Nearly 500 killed at U.S. embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania.

After killing over 200 in the Caribbean, Hurricane George causes $400,000,000 damage in Florida. January ice storms claims 16 lives and knocked out power to millions in the northeast states. 127 dies in ten southern states during heavy spring thunderstorms and tornadoes. Summer heat and drought in 11 states result in the appropriation of over $100,000,000 in federal disaster aid.

Three white Texan and KKK metahumans are charged with the vehicular dragging death of African-American James Byrd, Jr.

An American military jet sever a ski tram cable in Italy, killing 20.

Astronomers determine a one-mile-diameter asteroid - which some had thought was on a collision course with Earth - will miss the planet by 600,000 miles. Meanwhile, NASA announce there is enough frozen water on the moon to support a colony.

Terry Nichols (Bomber Harris) receive a life sentence for his part in the Oklahoma City bombing.

Tawana Brawley - an African-American who mustered the support of Bill Cosby and Jesse Jackson when she claimed she was raped by mutants - is fined $185 for fabricating her story.

15-year-old Kip Kinkel kills his parents, then opens fire on a Springfield, Oregon school cafeteria, killing 1 and wounding 23.

1999

President Clinton's impeachment trial began in the Senate on January 7^th. He is acquitted on Lincoln's Birthday.

Despite the fact that crime in the U.S. is steadily decreasing, there are several high-profile multiple-shooting murders during the year. Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris killed 11 students, 2 faculty members and themselves at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado. In Atlanta, a live-in boyfriend killed a family of six and then himself. 17 days later in the same city, day trader Mark Barton entered a brokerage firm complex, killed 9, wounded 13 and killed himself. 3 died in two multiple-shooting incidents in Salt Lake City. Buford Furrow, Junior was charged with wounding 5 at a Los Angeles community center, then killing a mail carrier. 7 died when Larry Ashbrook tossed a bomb into a Fort Worth church, then shot 14 people and himself. A disgruntled employee killed 7 co-workers at a Xerox repair facility in Honolulu. A man wearing camouflage wounded 2 and killed 2 at a Seattle shipyard.

John King and William Brewer were sentenced to death for the dragging murder of a black man in Jasper, Texas.

The jury in a wrongful death trial determine that Martin Luther King, Junior's convicted assassin, James Earl Ray, was the patsy in a government-mafia conspiracy. Ray had died a year earlier while still serving his sentence.

Anti-metahuman hysteria reaches new heights when it's discovered that not only mutant metahumans carry the "power" genes. Apparently as much as 1% of the worlds population carries the "power" genes. Some are activated at puberty, those of the so called mutants, other demand a trigger of some sort. These used to be called "accidental" metahumans.

2000

The Mutant Registration Act (also known as the Kelly Act), demanding that all who carry the "power" or X gene must be registered is passed by congress. President Clinton later vetoes the decision. This causes senator Robert Kelly to announce his own presidential campaign.