Timeline of Earth-1 (prehistory to 18th century)

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• July 11: As former U.S. Vice-President Aaron Burr meets with rival Alexander Hamilton for a duel, aliens beam up Burr and replace him with a cloned double who kills Hamilton and lives out the rest of his life. Aaron Burr survives for at least another 170 years until 1975, when he meets Green Lantern (Hal Jordan). [“The Man of Destiny,” The Flash #231 (January-February, 1975).]

• The British Parliament bans English participation in the transatlantic slave trade.

• April 19: The Daily Planet newspaper is founded. Note: This date conflicts with other founding dates. [Action Comics #526; Superman's Girl Friend Lois Lane #57]

• November 1: Jonah Hex born to Woodson and Ginny Hex. [Jonah Hex #8]

• Jonah Hex is abandoned by his mother. [per JONAH HEX #8]
• The Atom uses the Time Pool to go to Baltimore to help Edgar Allan Poe solve the mystery of a missing gold shipment. [THE ATOM #12]

• Alicia Huston becomes Lady Jane, a Swamp Thing of industrial England. [WWT: Willows & Hexes]
• Jonah Hex is sold by his father to the Apache tribe in the Black Hills. [per JONAH HEX #8]

• Jonah Hex saves the Indian chief from a puma, and becomes a tribal step-son. [per JONAH HEX #8]

• Jonah Hex is betrayed by the chief's son Non-Tante during a tribal horse theft and left for dead. Hex is saved by a mountain man, restored to health, and sets out to take his revenge on Non-Tante. [per JONAH HEX #8]
• Hex finds the Apache have been driven out of the Black Hills, forced to walk the “Trail of Tears”. [per JONAH HEX #8]

• Hex becomes a buffalo hunter and scouting ranger for the US Army. [per JONAH HEX #8]
• White Fawn marries Non-Tante on the Apache reservation in Arizona. [per JONAH HEX #8]

• Lady Jane begins to travel Europe after Johanna Constantine dies. [WWT: Willows & Hexes]

• Batman, while researching the secret of a Civil War campaign patch created by nurse Martha Jennings, teams up with Scalphunter during the Civil War years. [BRAVE & BOLD #171]
• Jonah Hex fights for the Confederacy during the Civil War. [JONAH HEX 8, 30, 35, 37]

• Lt. Jonah Hex surrenders to Union officials at Fort Charlotte. Hex is later blamed for the Fort Charlotte massacre. [WEIRD WESTERN TALES #29-30]
• January 1: President Lincoln signs the Emancipation Proclamation.
• May 2-10: “Stonewall” Jackson accidentally shot by several of his own men, including Jonah Hex. (May 2nd) Dies. (May 10th)
• November 19: Lincoln delivers the Gettysburg Address.

• April 15: Lincoln shot by John Wilkes Booth in Ford's Theatre. (April 15) Superboy tries to prevent the assassination but encounters an adult Lex Luthor who unwittingly prevents him from action. [SUPERBOY #85]

• Jonah Hex's face scarred and burned by the Apache chief after killing Non-Tante in Arizona. [JONAH HEX #8]

• Karl Marx publishes Das Kapital, founding Marxism, a brand of communism.

• Jason Blood becomes an advisor to Prince Otto Von Bismarck.
• Smallville, Kansas founded. [ADVENTURE #172]
• Jonah Hex meets and marries Mei Ling. [JONAH HEX #23, #45] They have a son Jason in early 1871 [JONAH HEX #51].

• Because he cannot leave his bounty hunting ways, Mei Ling leaves him and takes the child. [JONAH HEX #53]. Hex is kidnapped to China. [JONAH HEX #59]
• Lady Jane, on her first trip to the US, earns her money as a circus sideshow freak for PT Barnum. [WWT: Willows and Hexes]

• Jonah Hex returns from China. [JONAH HEX #65]
• Jonah Hex reunited with his mother.
• Hex returns to the Apache camp on a bounty to rescue Laura Vanden and is captured too. White Fawn helps them escape. The chief kills White Fawn. Hex kills the chief. [per JONAH HEX #8]

• Jonah Hex helps Lady Jane and Willow (recently orphaned Allie Olsen) safely reach Louisiana. [WWT: Willows & Hexes]
• Jonah Hex snatched with other history heroes to battle the JLA. [JLA #159-160]
• Jonah Hex flung into the 21st Century. [HEX #1]
• The original Daily Planet Building is built. Note: This date of the supposed founding of the Daily Planet conflicts with other supposed founding dates of the newspaper, so it's likely the founding of another aspect, such as the building the newspaper resides in. Though it is also possible that the original building was replaced sometime in the 20th century. [“Superboy's First Public Appearance,” Superman #144 (April, 1961).]

• The Atom takes a Time Pool trip to discover why a prototype telephone created by Alexander Graham bell appears to be a phony. [DC SPECIAL SERIES #1]
• Jonah Hex returns from the future to live out his days in the Wild West.

• The JLA meet heroes of the wild west due to the actions of the Lord of Time.[JLA #198-199]

• America's western heroes unite to fight the Crisis alongside of Green Lantern, Cyborg, Firebrand and Psimon. Nighthawk is killed. [CRISIS #3]

• Louis Pasteur creates a vaccine against anthrax.

• The story of a man with a killing problem. [The Devil's Right Hand]

• The Atom travels to France by the Time Pool to help science-fiction author Jules Verne recover the crystal ball of Nostradamus. [THE ATOM #17]

• Count Anton Arcane born to Count Josip Arcane and Anais Von Bismarck (married in 1894).

• After tracking down and killing half the Barrow Gang for the reward, 66-year-old Jonah Hex meets Michael Wheeler, history professor at Princeton University, who interviews Hex over the next few months in order to write his biography. George Barrow, seeking revenge for his gang's destruction, kidnaps Hex's wife Tall Bird in order to draw him out. Assisted by Wheeler, Hex kills the rest of the gang except for Barrow himself, who escapes. Delivering the dead gunmen to the police in Cheyenne, Wyoming, Hex is ambushed while cleaning his glasses during a card game, then shot by George Barrow, who is in turn killed by Police Chief Crawford. After Wheeler delivers Hex's body to his wife, they are both murdered by Lew Farnham, owner of L.B. Farnham's Spectacular Wild West Revue, who steals Hex's corpse, treats it at a taxidermist, and puts it on exhibit in a gaudy-looking costume for his revue. Farnham is later killed by robbers, who steal the stuffed corpse, which is sold to an antique shop in the Midwest, then moved to a warehouse in Detroit, before showing up in 1972 at the Westworld Amusement Park on the outskirts of New York City, where the corpse is believed to be only a dummy. [“The Last Bounty Hunter,” DC Special Series #16 (Fall, 1978)]
• July, 1904: Alex and Linda Olsen are married. [“Swamp Thing,” The House of Secrets #92 (June-July, 1971)]

• Douglas Parker, the future Police Chief of Smallville, is born.
• July, 1905: Jealous that his best friend married a beautiful woman named Linda, Damian Ridge arranges for chemist Alex Olsen to be caught in an explosion that is believed to have killed him. After Ridge discovers that Olsen has survived, he buries his injured body alive in the swamp, then woos Olsen's widow Linda until she agrees to marry him. Meanwhile, Olsen is transformed into a monstrous vegetation creature who becomes known as the Swamp Thing, and watches over Linda. [“Swamp Thing,” The House of Secrets #92 (June-July, 1971)]

• George Taylor, future editor-in-chief of the Daily Planet, is born in Star City.
• Six months after their marriage, Damian Ridge suspects that Linda Olsen Ridge is beginning to realize the truth about Alex Olsen's death, and attempts to kill her by poisoning her. The Swamp Thing (Alex Olsen), spotting the hypodermic needle in Ridge's hand, smashes through the window and grabs Ridge's hand before strangling him to death. Seeing that Linda is only terrified of him, the former Alex Olsen flees back into the swamp, where he resides for the next thirty years. [“Swamp Thing,” The House of Secrets #92 (June-July, 1971)]

• Count Gregori Arcane born.

• Jor-El (father of Jor-El and grandfather of Kal-El – Superman) travels from Krypton to Earth, where he saves a logger named Jeremy Bird from a tribe of angry Sioux warriors, then builds a canal to ensure the loggers don't anger the Sioux any longer. He then returns to his family on Krypton. [“The Superman of Yesterday,” Superman #103]

• September 6-10: First Battle of the Marne takes place, in which the French defend Paris from a German invasion along the Marne River. [“The Marne,” Star Spangled War Stories v2 #150 (April-May, 1970)]

• Anton Arcane expelled from Hamburg School of Medicine.

• March 12: Perry White, future editor-in-chief of the Daily Planet, is born in Chicago.

• Around this time the Titan named Thia, Goddess of the Sun, escapes from the pits of Tartarus after a 30,000 year imprisonment when she is somehow given power by the sun. Discovering that mankind now possesses great weapons that can destroy gods, she begins posing as a mortal woman and begins to cultivate a new kind of power for eventual world domination. Having several lovers over the next 70 years, she gives birth to many children all over the world who grow up to gain positions of power in politics and commerce, who are known collectively as the Children of the Sun. [“There Might Be Giants,” The New Teen Titans v2 #8 (May, 1985)]

• April 21: Rittmeister Baron Manfred von Richthofen, known as the Red Baron, is killed by English air ace Capt. Roy Brown over Northern France. Days later, a British flier drops a note to the Germans explaining that Richthofen was killed and buried with full military honors. [“The Fall of the Red Knight,” Star Spangled War Stories v2 #148 (December, 1969-January, 1970)]

• January 3: James W. Gordon born.

• May-June: The events of The Nine Unknown take place. [The Nine Unknown (1923 novel by Talbot Mundy); “Treasure of the Talking Head,” Hawkman #14 (June-July, 1966)]

• Travis Morgan born.

• Rick Flag is born.

• Kent Allard creates the masked identity of the Shadow and begins recruiting agents while also impersonating millionaire playboy Lamont Cranston. [The Shadow (DC) #1]

• Cory Renwald, future foster son of Jonathan and Martha Kent, is born. Growing up without parents, he becomes a juvenile delinquent by the time he reaches his teenage years. [“Zero Hour for the Kents,” The New Adventures of Superboy #19 (July, 1981)]

• Adam Blake, first man of the future, is born to John and Martha Blake on the day a new comet streaks through the sky. Adam is named after his grandfather, Adam Blake. [“The Origin of Captain Comet,” Strange Adventures #9 (June, 1951).]
• On the same day, another mutant whose name is unknown is born; 50 years later he will take the name of Starstriker and attempt to seize Adam Blake's powers. [“Plight of the Human Comet,” DC Comics Presents #22 (June, 1980)]
• Dr. Clark “Doc” Savage begins his adventures alongside his five assistants Ham Brooks, Monk Mayfair, Renny Renwick, Johnny Littlejohn, and Long Tom Roberts. [Doc Savage (DC) #1]
• Sick of police corruption, Nathaniel Dusk quits the New York City Police Department and sets himself up as a private investigator. [“Lovers Die at Dusk,” Nathaniel Dusk #1 (February, 1984)]

• Rip Hunter, future time master, is born.

• January 31-February 8: After his lover Joyce Gulino is murdered, Private investigator Nathaniel Dusk solves and avenges her murder. [“Lovers Die at Dusk,” Nathaniel Dusk #1 (February, 1984), “Lovers Die at Dusk, Part 2,” Nathaniel Dusk #2 (March, 1984), “Lovers Die at Dusk, Part 3,” Nathaniel Dusk #3 (April, 1984), “Lovers Die at Dusk, Part 4,” Nathaniel Dusk #4 (May, 1984)]
• March 27: On the planet Daxam, Lar Gand is born. Note: Lar Gand later becomes more famously known as Mon-El when he is mistaken as an older brother of Kal-El (Superboy) in 1963, when Lar Gand is physically 18 years old. But chronologically he was actually 29 years old, since he had spent 11 years in suspended animation as his rocket ship traveled from Krypton, where he visited Jor-El and Lara, to Earth.
• June 15-July 4: Private investigator Nathaniel Dusk is hired to bodyguard an apple cart vendor who lost his wealth in the 1929 stock market crash from men who want to kill him, but while he's unable to stop him from being killed in broad daylight, Dusk brings the true killers to justice. Note: The fate of Nathaniel Dusk after this case remains unknown. [“Apple Peddlers Die at Noon,” Nathaniel Dusk II #1 of 4 (October, 1985), “Apple Peddlers Die at Noon, Part 2,” Nathaniel Dusk II #2 of 4 (November, 1985), “Apple Peddlers Die at Noon, Part 2,” Nathaniel Dusk II #3 of 4 (December, 1985), “Apple Peddlers Die at Noon, Part 2,” Nathaniel Dusk II #4 of 4 (January, 1986)]

• At 4 years of age, young Adam Blake begins to show signs of psychic abilities when he locates his mother's wedding ring through sheer instinct. [“The Origin of Captain Comet,” Strange Adventures #9 (June, 1951).]
• The Shadow first battles his arch-enemy, Shiwan Khan.

• January: Gareth Gallowglass is born on the magical, multi-dimensional island of Tourmaline, his parents professors at the White School. A prodigy at birth, Gareth develops psychic abilities that allow him to affect reality around him. [“The Brave and the Bold: Mary Marvel and Atom Blake: Magic and Demons and Ghouls, Oh My!”]

• Superboy time travels from the year 1958 to help the 21-year-old Perry White get a job as a cub reporter at the Daily Planet, whose managing editor at this time is Mr. Hobb. Perry's saving a scientist from a kidnapper also helps him land the cub reporter job. Note: Although time travel is not mentioned in this story as it is published, time travel is the only explanation for Perry being 21 years old in this story despite being decades older than Clark Kent. [“Perry White, Cub Reporter,” Adventure Comics #120; “The Toughest Newsboy in Town,” Action Comics #461 (July, 1976)]
• A scientist named Dr. Harkovy departs Earth with his wife Joan and daughter Doriana in a rocket ship of his own design in an attempt to reach Mars. Instead, his ship crash-lands on the world of Thule in the asteroid belt, where he and his wife die, but his daughter Doriana survives and is raised by Afthors, the king of Thule. [“The World of Flying Men,” Strange Adventures #18 (March, 1952).]
• August: Swamp Thing (Alex Olsen) disappears to the Amazon jungles of South America. [Swamp Thing v2 #47]
• August: Doc Savage first battles his arch-enemy, John Sunlight.

• Lewis Padgett becomes Microwave Man, the world's first super-criminal. [Action Comics #487]
• Richard Benson becomes the Avenger and gathers agents to join his crime-fighting organization known as Justice, Inc. [Justice, Inc. #1]
• Gareth Gallowglass is orphaned at when his parents, professors at the White School, are murdered by fellow professor Henry Valdemir. The 2-year-old psychic Gareth is spirited away from the magical, multi-dimensional island of Tourmaline to mainland America for his own safety. Valdemir flees the island to avoid capture and uses his mystical abilities to become an influential member of the U.S. Army, eventually gaining the rank of major. [“The Brave and the Bold: Mary Marvel and Atom Blake: Magic and Demons and Ghouls, Oh My!”; “Showcase: The Sentinels of Magic: Times Past, 1948: Sacrifices Must Be Made”]
• December: Arch-criminal Shiwan Khan, descendant of Genghis Khan, mind-controls Margo Lane, agent of the Shadow, and Smitty, member of Justice Inc., using them to manipulate the Shadow and the Avenger into battling each other. At first believing each other to be responsible for amassing an underground army and stealing arms shipments in order to conquer the world, the Shadow and the Avenger finally see through the ruse and learn the truth from the brainwashed agents. The Shadow's agents and Justice Inc. join forces to defeat Khan's army, while the Shadow himself battles Shiwan Khan, who escapes after their confrontation using similar abilities as the Shadow himself. [“The Night of the Avenger,” The Shadow (DC) #11 (June-July, 1975)]
• December: The Shadow defeats Russian hypnotist Ivan Zarnovitch, who hypnotizes the colonial-themed town of New Gotham in Upstate New York into becoming his slaves, but blaming their actions on demon possession by Beelzebub. Planning to sell his method to the Germans, Zarnovitch is defeated and falls to his death from a church tower during his escape attempt. [“Night of the Damned,” The Shadow (DC) #12 (August-September, 1975)]

• At age 8, Adam Blake displays the uncanny ability to read and memorize an entire school textbook in minutes. [“The Origin of Captain Comet,” Strange Adventures #9 (June, 1951).]
• Germany and the Soviet Union invade Poland, beginning World War II.
• September 9: After his brother and sister are killed by the Nazi ace Von Tepp, the man known as Blackhawk vows vengeance. Over the next few months, he forms an international group of seven pilots – Andre, Chop-Chop, Chuck, Hendrickson, Olaf, and Stanislaus – called the Blackhawks. A few other members, such as Zeg, Baker, and Boris, die in these early months. [Military Comics #1; Blackhawk #198]

• January 2: Jim Corrigan is born as James Brendan Corrigan.

• The Blackhawks encounter the War Wheel. [Blackhawk #252]

• The man known as the Unknown Soldier has first case. [Unknown Soldier #249]
• Young reporter Wayne Clifford is sent by The New York Courier to London in order to report on the state of England during the Blitz, where he is mentored by seasoned reporter Ed Barnes and comes up against government news censorship. [“Dateline: Frontline,” Men of War #4 (January, 1978)]

• The Blackhawks meet the first villainous Killer Shark. [Blackhawk #269]

• An American correspondent for the London-based newspaper The Tribute, Richard “Buck” Dare dons aviator goggles along with a gaudy green, yellow, and red costume inspired by comic-book heroes to become Captain X of the R.A.F., flying a maneuverable, lightweight, uranium-powered blue plastic plane called Jenny. He is assisted by an English mechanic called Stuffy, who keeps his plane in good order. As Captain X, Dare uses a British accent as part of his cover identity as an English adventurer and is only an honorary member of the Royal Air Force. He is secretly funded by an espionage agency known only as the Group, originally formed to secretly provide Great Britain and the R.A.F. with assistance against the Germans during a time when the United States was still officially neutral. In his first recorded case, Captain X stops a plot by the Germans to dam the English Channel using a chemical called Viscid, which forms into a powerful metal upon contact with water. Note: Captain X is already publicly known by the time of this adventure, indicating he has had at least one previous case. Although Firestorm #50 uses the cover dates of Star Spangled Comics to date his adventures, the stories themselves indicate that Captain X first appears during the Battle of Britain, and all of his cases take place during the Blitz, placing his adventures sometime between July, 1940 and May, 1941. [Captain X, Star Spangled Comics #1 (October, 1941); “Vows,” The Fury of Firestorm #50 (August, 1986)]
• Wayne Clifford is transferred to North Africa, where he becomes a war correspondent alongside British soldiers fighting the Italian invaders. [“Bathtub Blues,” Men of War #9 (September-October, 1978)]

• Captain X steals a dangerous secret weapon – a ray that instantly dissolves metal – from the Germans that was invented by a scientist named Graff. [Captain X of the R.A.F., Star Spangled Comics #3 (December, 1941)]

• When the Germans invade Egypt using a fleet of experimental amphibious tank-boats in an attempt to capture the Suez Canal, Captain X acts as a one-man guerrilla army sabotaging and destroying the tanks. Note: It is likely that the Germans were under strict orders to ensure that the tank-boats were destroyed rather than captured intact by the Allies, explaining how a single man could be so successful in destroying all of them. [Captain X of the R.A.F., Star Spangled Comics #5 (February, 1942)]

• When the Germans bomb London with gas-bombs that cause victims to die quickly, with hideous grins on their faces, Captain X in his last known case travels to Germany to track down the inventor of the strychnine gas, an English chemist and novelist named Harold Calvert, whose experiments were stolen by German scientist Kurt Norbolt to create the gas. Rescuing Calvert from a concentration camp in Germany, Captain X also steals a tank of the gas from Norbolt and brings it back to England to be analyzed. Note: It is likely that the strychnine gas is similar in chemical composition to Joker-venom. [Captain X of the R.A.F., Star Spangled Comics #7 (April, 1942)]

• The adventures of Keen Arrow are first published by Kolossal Komics. Note: Keen Arrow is a fictional character who predated the real Earth-1 Green Arrow's first appearance by over 30 years, but whose adventures eerily paralleled those of the Earth-2 Green Arrow, who became active at this time on Earth-2 and whose first appearance was in More Fun Comics #73 (cover dated November, 1941). Kolossal Komics also published the adventures of the Sunburned Kid and Showerman, who may or may not have been based on Earth-2 characters the Vigilante and Aquaman, whose counterparts appeared years later on Earth-1. [“Who Rubbed Out the Editor?” Detective Comics #70 (December, 1942)]

• Wayne Clifford leaves North Africa for Russia to report on the Eastern Front, but the British supply ship he travels on is attacked by a German U-boat, and it nearly sinks until a Russian ship arrives to tow them to the nearest port. [“Mother Russia,” Men of War #21 (October, 1979)]

• December 7: The Japanese bomb Pearl Harbor, resulting in the United States entering World War II.
• Reporter Wayne Clifford is recalled home against his wishes by his newspaper publisher. With the attack on Pearl Harbor, Clifford hopes to become a war correspondent again by writing an accurate account of it, only to come up against U.S. government censorship on the attack. Reunited with fellow reporter Ed Barnes, he learns that Barnes' son was killed at Pearl Harbor. [“The Yanks Are Comin'!” Unknown Soldier #243 (September, 1980)]
• With the U.S. officially in the war, Richard “Buck” Dare officially retires as Captain X in order to act as a spy behind enemy lines, code named Aviator. [“Vows,” The Fury of Firestorm #50 (August, 1986)]

• Sgt. Rock and Easy Company start combat in World War II beginning in North Africa, followed by Italy (1943), France and Belgium (1944), and Germany (1945).
• Jeb Stuart commands the Haunted Tank.

• Reporter Wayne Clifford begins dating a young woman named Joy Winters, who wants to be an army nurse. [“Homefront,” Unknown Soldier #244 (October, 1980)]

• Wayne Clifford takes a new assignment as a combat reporter at Bataan in the Philippines, currently under attack by the Japanese, only to realize upon arrival how dire the situation is when he spots Gen. Douglas MacArthur secretly evacuated on the same ship he came in on. [“The Battle of Bataan,” Unknown Soldier #254 (August, 1981)]

• April 1: Commander Steel (Hank Heywood) crosses over from Earth-2 and establishes a new life for himself on Earth-1.
• The Boy Commandos have first public case. Note: This is the Earth-1 version of the Earth-2 team. [Detective Comics #64]
• Albert Hollerer of Germany becomes a wood elemental called the Heap. [Swamp Thing v2 #47]
• Microwave Man goes into retirement for 40 years. [Action Comics #487]
• Combat reporter Wayne Clifford is captured as a prisoner of war by the Japanese along with U.S. troops in Bataan, and is a witness to the atrocities of the Bataan death march, in which weaker soldiers are left to die, and others are used for bayonet practice, on the long march to inland prison camps. Clifford manages to escape captivity along with a couple of American soldiers, eventually reaching safe haven. Note: Wayne Clifford is only known to have escaped because he appears next in the Gravedigger story in Men of War #9, which takes place chronologically later in 1942. [“Battling Orphans,” Unknown Soldier #255 (September, 1981), “Death March,” Unknown Soldier #256 (October, 1981)]

• The Creature Commandos debut.

• The Losers – Johnny Cloud, Capt. Storm, Gunner and Sarge – are formed.
• A U.S. Army Air Force pilot is shot down in the Okinawa Islands, arising to become the wood elemental known only as Number 99. [“Showcase: The Sentinels of Magic: Times Past, 1948: Sacrifices Must Be Made”]
• The Sentinels of Magic – Mac Maine; Harry “Hutch” Hutchinson AKA the Black Star; Hal King; Johnny Constantine; Dr. Harvard “Doc” Yale; Roland diGrasso AKA the Stainless Steel Cat; Number 99 – is formed, operating under the auspices of FDR. Note: Johnny Constantine is the grandfather of John Constantine, born to his son Thomas in 1953. [“Showcase: The Sentinels of Magic: Times Past, 1948: Sacrifices Must Be Made”]
• Gareth Gallowglass, a psychic prodigy at 7 years of age, becomes the youngest student to ever attend the White School on the multi-dimensional island of Tourmaline. [“The Brave and the Bold: Mary Marvel and Atom Blake: Magic and Demons and Ghouls, Oh My!”]
• OSS agent Lucius Fox serves with Mademoiselle Marie in her French Resistance cell for a time. [“The Man Who Killed Mlle. Marie,” Detective Comics #501 (April, 1981)]

• Richard Benson retires as the Avenger.

• February 2: Harvey Dent born to a prominent family.

• Alfred Pennyworth, an officer in British Intelligence, serves with Mademoiselle Marie in her French Resistance cell for a time. The two quickly fall in love and have an affair, resulting in Marie becoming pregnant with Alfred's child. Unfortunately, soon after the two are separated by the war and never see each other again. [“The Man Who Killed Mlle. Marie,” Detective Comics #501 (April, 1981)]

• June 6:
  • On the eve of D-Day, the Blackhawks perform their most important mission of the war when they destroy a secret Nazi super-weapon capable of stopping the Allied invasion of Normandy. Note: This story incorrectly depicts the Blackhawks forming just before D-Day. In fact, they had been working as a team for over four years by this point. [Blackhawk #198]
  • Sgt. Rock and Easy Co. are among the Allied soldiers invading Normandy on D-Day.
  • Jimmy Olsen time-travels from the year 1977 to Europe after D-Day and masquerades as Private Von Olsen. He subsequently is promoted first to Captain and then to Adolf Hitler's Chief Military Adviser when he predicts the defeats of the Nazis. [Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen #86]
  • James W. Gordon graduates from law school and decides to become a policeman, entering police academy during the next intake.

• July 20: After an attempted assassination on Hitler's life by German officers (including the disguised Unknown Soldier), Jimmy Olsen is proven to be a spy and is returned to his own time of 1977 in a grenade explosion. [Star Spangled War Stories v2 #156; Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen #86]

• French Resistance leader Mademoiselle Marie is shot in the back by Roget, a member of her Resistance cell who is secretly a Nazi collaborator. Falling into the St. Joan River, she is rescued by sisters Giselle and Paulette, who discover she is pregnant. Although she physically recovers over the following months, Marie's mind never recovers from the shock, and she is unable to say anything except the name “Alfred,” whom Paulette wrongfully assumes to be Marie's attempted killer. [“Who Shot Mlle. Marie?” Detective Comics #502 (May, 1981)]

• At age 14, Adam Blake plays Mozart's Clarinet Concerto perfectly, amazing his high school teachers. [“The Origin of Captain Comet,” Strange Adventures #9 (June, 1951).]
• The Losers are killed in their final mission in Markovia. Note: Crisis #3 incorrectly places this story in June, 1944; in fact, it takes place in early spring, 1945. [“Oblivion Upon Us,” Crisis on Infinite Earths #3; “Losers Die Twice,” Losers Special #1]
• The White School on the multi-dimensional island of Tourmaline is attacked and bombed by a group of former students turned Nazi mystics from Earth-X, members of the Thule Society who seek to use the Clock Tower to conquer parallel universes and other dimensions. To defend itself, the island disappears into the mystical dimension of Darkworld, causing the Nazi mystics to drown in the ocean. Most of the professors and students are saved, each returning to his or her world of origin and given partial amnesia about the island and the school. Among those students is 9-year-old Gareth Gallowglass. Former professor Henry Valdemir, who assisted the Nazi mystics in the plot to take the island and lost much of his mystical powers in the failed attempt, settles into his role as a U.S. Army major while slowly regaining his powers. [“The Brave and the Bold: Mary Marvel and Atom Blake: Magic and Demons and Ghouls, Oh My!”; “Showcase: The Sentinels of Magic: Times Past, 1948: Sacrifices Must Be Made”]
• James W. Gordon graduates from police academy, a six-month program, and is hired as a patrolman for the Gotham City Police Department. On his first day on the job, his childhood friend jeweler Hank Weber is shot and killed during a robbery, and while Gordon pursues the killer Daryl Richmond into an unused subway tunnel and captures him, he fails to find the jewels that were stashed away. Note: This story is said to take place in 1945, or 35 years before the present. Although the present-day story takes place in 1983 according to the compressed timeline, the specified date of 1945 is firm and takes precedence. [“A Tale of Time Past,” Batman #328 (October, 1980)]

• Julia, daughter of Mademoiselle Marie and Alfred Pennyworth, is born in France. Given to Resistance fighter Jacques Remarque to raise, she is known only as Julia Remarque for most of her life. Two days after Julie's birth, Marie disappears. Three weeks after Julie's birth, the disfigured body of a young woman is discovered in the St. Joan River, who is incorrectly assumed to be the body of Marie. [“Who Shot Mlle. Marie?” Detective Comics #502 (May, 1981)]

• The Unknown Soldier supposedly dies after assassinating Adolf Hitler in his bunker.

• U.S. planes drop atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, ending World War II.

• Gareth Gallowglass, now 10 years old, becomes the mascot of the Sentinels of Magic and is known as Gary the Miracle Boy. [“Showcase: The Sentinels of Magic: Times Past, 1948: Sacrifices Must Be Made”]

• October 11: James W. Gordon and Thelma Barbara Kean are married in Gotham City.

• Adam Blake graduates high school at age 16 and enters university. [“The Origin of Captain Comet,” Strange Adventures #9 (June, 1951).]
• Jacques Remarque writes a letter to Alfred Pennyworth, now working under his father Jarvis Pennyworth as a servant for the Wayne family in Gotham City, informing him that Julia Remarque is his daughter. Afraid to disrupt the girl's life, Alfred asks Jacques to keep this a secret from Julia, and sends him money for the next thirty-five years to help raise Julia and ensure that she has a good education. [“Who Shot Mlle. Marie?” Detective Comics #502 (May, 1981)]

• July 7: Johnny Thunder is born in the Bronx. A few months later, Johnny is kidnapped by agents of the high priest of Aissor and taken to the small island nation of Badhnisia in Asia, where he is raised for the first seven years of his life before he's taken back to his family when it's evident that he has not attained the power to conquer the world, and is thus useless to them. Note: This is the Earth-1 Johnny Thunder, who first appears in Justice League of America #37 and #38.

• Jonathan and Martha Kent take in a 17-year-old juvenile delinquent named Cory Renwald as their foster son under a special foster guardian program at the Soames Reform School in Smallville. He remains with the couple for about a year, until he turns 18 years old. [“Zero Hour for the Kents,” The New Adventures of Superboy #19 (July, 1981)]

• December 9: Oliver Queen is born in Star City. Note: We know Oliver Queen graduated in 1965, since his 20-year high school reunion was in 1985. We also know that Oliver was not too much older than Clark Kent, since he went to high school with him in Smallville for a brief time.

• The modern nation of Israel is founded.
• Cory Renwald, now 18, “graduates” as a reformed youth from a special foster guardian program meant to reform juvenile delinquents, and he leaves the care of Jonathan and Martha Kent in Smallville. Sometime later, Cory is recruited into the fledgling CIA and eventually poses as a Soviet defector. [“Zero Hour for the Kents,” The New Adventures of Superboy #19 (July, 1981)]

• April 24: Grim Island (formerly the multi-dimensional island of Tourmaline) emerges into the physical realm from the Darkworld, appearing as a seemingly new island in the South Pacific simultaneously on Earth-1, Earth-2, Earth-S, Earth-X, and Earth-4. As much of its initial development is below the water, it takes weeks for the U.S. military to notice its presence. In each subsequent year on the anniversary of this date, the barrier keeping the demonic realm at bay is weakened, allowing for a smaller invasion from Hell to occur for approximately a week; this is known as Hell Week. [“Showcase: The Sentinels of Magic: Times Past, 1948: Sacrifices Must Be Made”]

• May 14: The Sentinels of Magic are sent in by the U.S. Army to investigate Grim Island, but they leave their mascot, 12-year-old Gary the Miracle Boy (Gareth Gallowglass) behind. Gary soon discovers that the commanding officer, Major Henry Valdemir, intends to not only let the Sentinels die on the island, but also have Gary killed according to his plan. Gary confronts Major Valdemir, who reveals that he killed Gary's parents before he uses his own mystical abilities to gouge out Gary's left eye, while Valdemir himself has every bone in his body broken and is crippled for life by Gary's power. Battling demons that emerge from a pit leading from Hell, the Sentinels are each killed in their ultimately successful efforts to close the gate and prevent a giant demonic menace from reaching Earth. Two Sentinels, Johnny Constantine and Doc Harvard Yale, deliberately sacrifice themselves in an occult rite that effectively purchases the island with their own blood, thus thwarting Valdemir's plans to use the blood of the Sentinels to ensure Hell's success. Gary reaches the island too late to help them. After informing the Sentinels' loved ones of their deaths, Gary relocates to Grim Island and builds a memorial park dedicated to the fallen Sentinels of Magic, eschewing his former nickname and from now on being known only as Gareth Gallowglass. Gareth uses his telekinetic abilities to keep everyone, including the U.S. military, off Grim Island for the next three years. [“Showcase: The Sentinels of Magic: Times Past, 1948: Sacrifices Must Be Made”; “Secret Origins: The Books of Magic: Times Past, 1951: Founding Fathers”]

• Adam Blake, now 18, tries out for sports at college and becomes a champion football player, knowing where his opponents will strike before they move. [“The Origin of Captain Comet,” Strange Adventures #9 (June, 1951).]
• Jonathan and Martha Kent take in a child named Tim Tates (Mighto of the planet Ulgar) as their foster son after his parents, Mrs. and Mrs. Hiram Tates (Yorth and Reena of Ulgar), appear to have drowned. They soon discover that little Tim has super-powers. [“The Kents' First Super-Son,” Superboy #108 (October, 1963).]
• The Shadow retires from crime-fighting.
• Doc Savage retires from adventuring.

• January 29: Arthur Curry is born to Tom and Atlanna Curry.

• February 5: Perry White is hired as a full-time reporter at the Daily Planet. Note: Previously, Perry was a cub reporter at the Chicago Journal in the mid-1930s, then a cub reporter at the Daily Planet as a cub reporter from 1937 to about 1938 or so, then as a full reporter at the Gotham Gazette until 1949, probably acting as a war correspondent from 1942-1945 for that paper. [“The Most Amazing Camera in the World,” Superman's Pal, Jimmy Olsen #34 (January, 1959); “Clark Kent, Man of Mystery,” Superman #117 (November, 1957).]
• February 20: Hal Jordan is born. Note: Hal Jordan appears to be about a year older than Clark Kent, according to The New Adventures of Superboy #13, which portrays Hal applying to Metropolis University during a time when Clark was only 16 years old.

• March 19: Barry Allen is born to Dr. Henry and Nora Allen in Fallville, Iowa.

• September 28: Alexis (Lex) Luthor is born. Note: Luthor turned 21 in 1970, according to Superman: The Secret Years #1.

• The Boy Commandos' last known case. [Boy Commandos #36]

Go to Timeline of Earth-1 (1950s to 1960s)

Timeline of Earth-1: prehistory to 18th century | 19th century to 1940s | 1950s to 1960s | 1970s | 1980 to mid-1985 | mid-1985 to late 1980s | 1990s to the future | Special timelines: Timeline of Earth-1 during the Crisis | alternate timelines