1901 to 1965

Enrico Caruso
Tuesday 25th February, 1873 to Tuesday 2nd August, 1921
The EMH refers to his important early recordings of opera singing in VOY “The Swarm”.

1902
John Masefield’s poem Sea Fever is published in the collection “Salt-Water Ballads”. Captain Kirk quotes the poem in TOS “The Ultimate Computer”: “All I ask is a tall ship and a star to steer her by”. He repeats the quote in “Star Trek V: The Final Frontier”.

Eleven months around 1902

The anthracite coal strike in Pennsylvania. The strike is bitter, and ends in victory for the miners, but only after their leader Sean Aloysius O’Brien has been murdered. The strike is real, but ran from Monday 12th May to Thursday 23rd October, 1902. The murder of the union leader and the idea that he’s Miles O’Brien’s ancestor exists only in DS9 “Bar Association”, and the strike in “Star Trek” lasts for eleven months, rather than six. The real life strike was arbitrated by President Teddy Roosevelt personally and the miners’ leader who impressed him was called John Mitchell.
Comment: American industrial disputes in this era, especially in mining, were extremely violent. The West Virginia miners’ strike of 1912-13 saw one of the mine owners hiring an armoured train to machine-gun a miners’ camp.

Marie Curie
Thursday 7th November, 1867 to Wednesday 4th July, 1934
The EMH mentions her in VOY “Darkling”.

Константи́н Эдуа́рдович Циолко́вский, Konstantin Eduardovich Tsiolkovsky
Saturday 5th September, 1857 to Thursday 19th September, 1935
He wrote «Исследование мировых пространств реактивными приборами», “Exploration of Cosmic Space by Means of Reaction Devices” in 1903, the first serious work on the exploration of space, and the possibilities of manned rockets. The USS Tsiolkovsky is destroyed in TNG “The Naked Now”.

Jack London

Wednesday 12th January, 1876 to Wednesday 22 November, 1916
He’s the bellboy at Data’s hotel in TNG “Time’s Arrow” (Parts 1 & 2), but none of those events are likely to feature in biographies of him (well, obviously). In fact, it’s very unlikely he was working in a hotel in San Francisco at all at the time.

Thursday 17th December, 1903
The Wright brothers made the first heavier than air powered flight at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. The flight is mentioned in ENT “North Star”, and the pilot Orville Wright, is also mentioned in VOY “Threshold”. Both brothers are mentioned in DCY “The Butcher’s Knife Cares Not for the Lamb’s Cry”.

Albert Einstein
Friday 14th March, 1879 to Monday 18th April, 1955
Kirk mentions him as a genius in TOS “The Ultimate Computer”. He also appears as a holodeck character in TNG “The Nth Degree”.

Mary Mallon
Thursday 23rd September, 1869 to Friday 11th November, 1938
“Typhoid Mary.” Doctor McCoy mentions her in TOS “The Way to Eden”.

Amelita Galli-Curci
Saturday 18th November, 1882 to Tuesday 26th November, 1963
The EMH mentions her in VOY “The Swarm”.

Tuesday 30th (17th OS) June, 1908
Something explodes in the sky above Tunguska, Russia. Mister Sulu seems to specifically identify it as a huge meteor in TOS “That Which Survives”. Current opinion is that it could have been a rocky meteor, or an icy comet. Suggestions that it was an alien space ship aren’t really supported by the facts.

Ford Model T
In production from Sunday 27th September, 1908 to Thursday 26th May, 1927
Rasmussen compares Data to a Model T in TOS “A Matter of Time”.

Tuesday 6th April, 1909
Robert Peary leads the first expedition to officially reach the Earth’s North Pole.
Comment: More recently, doubt has been cast on the achievement. Frederick Cook’s claim to have reached the Pole on Tuesday 21st April, 1908 was never taken terribly seriously, but Peary’s account of his journey was accepted until the 1980s. A new investigation of the evidence then concluded that the expedition hadn’t reached the Pole. That means that the first expedition to have definitely reached the North Pole without any shadow of doubt is a Soviet air expedition, that landed at the Pole on Friday 23rd April, 1948.

Zapata
Friday 8th August, 1879 to Thursday 10th April 1919
Chang paraphrases Zapata Salazar’s statement: “It’s better to die upon your feet than to live upon your knees!” as “Better to die on our feet than live on our knees” in “Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country”.

Approximately 1910
The French word “sabotage” enters the English language, to describe acts designed to damage industrial production, initially in a rail dispute. In “Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country” Valeris is approximately correct in suggesting “about four centuries ago” for the term, at least in English-speaking use.
Comment: Her elaborate tale about workers and their wooden shoes I’m not convinced about. “Sabot” the shoe and “saboter” the French root of “sabotage” are not necessarily linguistically related.

Monday 24th July, 1911
Hiram Bingham reaches Machu Picchu, a “lost” Inca city. The people who lived nearby always knew the city was there, of course.

Tuesday 14th December, 1911
Roald Amundsen reaches the Earth’s South Pole.

Monday 15th April, 1912
The RMS Titanic hits an iceberg and sinks with huge loss of life. The disaster is mentioned in VOY “Year of Hell, Part I”.

Tris Speaker
Wednesday 4th April, 1888 to Monday 8th December, 1958
He’s one of the baseball players in Benjamin Sisko’s holoprogram. Jake is at Quark’s to play it in DS9 “If Wishes Were Horses”.

1913
The song “Danny Boy” reaches the form we know it today, although a version of the song was first written in 1910. It features in VOY “Fair Haven”.
Comment: I’d hoped it might be a dating clue for the time period of the holoprogram, but it’s obviously a total fantasy, as I realised once I started looking at the story in detail.

Sunday 28th June, 1914
Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria-Hungary is assassinated in Sarajevo.

July 1914
Eric Field writes the recruitment slogan “Your King and Country need you.” James Kirk paraphrases the slogan in “Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country”.

First World War
Tuesday 4th August, 1914 to Monday 11th November, 1918
In TOS “Bread and Circuses” Spock claims that this war had six million casualties. Evidently historians will be “interpreting” the data over the next few centuries, since present opinion is that there were around 15.6 million deaths due to this war, 9 million military, and 6.6 million civilian.

Tuesday 1st September, 1914
Martha, the last passenger pigeon in the world, dies. Her death is mentioned in TOS “The Man Trap”.

1915
The first publication of “Pack Up Your Troubles in Your Old Kit-Bag and Smile, Smile, Smile”. James Kirk suggests it as a campfire song in “Star Trek V: The Final Frontier”.

Monday 24th to Sunday 30th April, 1916
The Second International Socialist Conference is held at Keinthal, Switzerland.

I’m going to stick my neck out and suggest that Lenin is assassinated whilst attending this conference in the alternate timeline of ENT “Storm Front, Part II”.

Marc Chagall
Tuesday 7th July, 1887 to Thursday 28th March, 1985
Marc Chagall painted “Adam and Eve Expelled from Paradise”. It’s the picture Spock has in his quarters and makes a big deal of in “Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country”, although he calls it “The Expulsion from Paradise”.

Jascha Heifetz
Saturday 2nd February, 1901 to Thursday 10th December, 1987
Data bases his violin style partly on the work of this violinist, according to TNG “The Ensigns of Command”.

Wednesday 7th November (25th October OS), 1917
The Bolsheviks seize power in Russia.

In ENT “Storm Front, Part II” this doesn’t happen.

Approximately 1918

Alicia Travers from Bensonhurst is born, assuming she’s about 26 in ENT “Storm Front, Part II”.
Comment: I’ve made this an “alternate universe” event because it happens after Lenin is assassinated. Whether that would have affected events in Bensonhurst is probably unlikely, but the “real” Alicia obviously never met Archer.

Saturday 10th January, 1920
The League of Nations comes into being. Although hamstrung by America’s decision not to participate, it is the first serious attempt to create a world government.

Approximately 1920
Italian composer Vincenzo de Crescenzo writes “Rondine al Nido”. The EMH sings it in VOY “Virtuoso”, but describes it as an old Neapolitan ballad. I suppose by that time, it will be.

Gandhi
Saturday 2nd October 1869 to Friday 30th January 1948
Indian leader and pacifist. His birthday, 2nd October, is celebrated as a national holiday in India, Gandhi Jayanti. It’s also the International Day of Non-Violence. The EMH mentions him in VOY “Darkling”.

1922
The first publication of “Last Poems” by A. E. Housman.
Marta quotes from Poem XIX in TOS “Whom Gods Destroy”:
“In midnights of November,
When Dead Man’s Fair is nigh,
And danger in the valley,
And anger in the sky,”
although her version is:
“In the midnight of November,
When the Dead Man’s Fair is nigh,
And the danger in the valley,
And the anger in the sky.”

Thursday 2nd February, 1922
First book publication of James Joyce’s novel “Ulysses”. Captain Picard takes it to Risa and tries to read it in TNG “Captain’s Holiday”. Malcolm Reed also has a copy in ENT “Shuttlepod One”.

Emily Post
Sunday 27th October, 1872 to Sunday 25th September, 1960
Even by the time of “Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country” she’s still the last word in correct manners.

Albert Schweitzer
Thursday 4th January, 1875 to Saturday 4th September, 1965
He’s mentioned in VOY “Fury”.

Сталин, Stalin
Wednesday 18th December, 1878 to Thursday 5th March, 1953
His death is referred to in DS9 “Far Beyond the Stars”.

March, 1923
In answer to the question: “Why did you want to climb Mount Everest?” climber George Leigh Mallory replied: “Because it’s there.” James Kirk uses the quote in “Star Trek V; The Final Frontier”.

Hermann Oberth
Monday 25th June, 1894 to Thursday 28th December, 1989
His June 1923 publication “Die Rakete zu den Planetenräumen” established the basis of interplanetary space travel, and was expanded in 1929 as “Wege zur Raumschiffahrt”. The small scientific starships first seen in “Star Trek III: The Search for Spock” are described as Oberth-class vessels.
Comment: Herr Oberth played a major role in the German rocket programme, but his enthusiasm for Nazism and right-wing politics survived the end of the war and may well have contributed to his later obscurity, although he did work on the American space programme for a time.

J. Edgar Hoover
Tuesday 1st January, 1895 to Tuesday 2nd May, 1972
He became head of the Bureau of Investigation on Saturday 10th May, 1924. The organisation was renamed the Federal Bureau of Investigation on Friday 22nd March, 1935. J. Edgar Hoover remained in charge continuously until his death. He’s mentioned in VOY “The 37’s”.

“The 1920s”
Chicago of this era forms the template for the society of Sigma Iotia II in TOS “A Piece of the Action”.

It’s also around now that British airmen start to refer to “gremlins”, although they won’t really become widely known until the Second World War. Archer mentions gremlins, and their British origin in ENT “Dead Stop”. He also refers to them in ENT “Shuttlepod One”.

1925
Spock dates the discovery of the Folsom point to this year in the “old world calendar” in TOS “The Galileo Seven”.
Comment: I originally thought that this was a mistake, and the discovery was made in 1927. The truth is more interesting. The initial discovery was made in 1908, by George McJunkin (1851-1922), an African-American ranch manager and amateur archaeologist. The significance of the finds wasn’t recognised until much later, and the first publication about them (without any mention of McJunkin) was not until 1928. As several other people have pointed out before me, the resemblance between the Folsom stones and the ones on Taurus II is rather difficult to spot.

Lieutenant-Colonel Percy Fawcett, his son Jack and Raleigh Rimell enter an unexplored region of the Amazon rainforest in search of a fabulously rich “lost city”. They are never seen again. It’s been estimated that well over a hundred people have since lost their lives trying to find out definitively what happened to them.

George Jessel
Sunday 3rd April, 1898 to Saturday 23rd May, 1981
He’s mentioned in DS9 “His Way”.

Wednesday 17th June, 1925
The “Protocol for the Prohibition of the Use in War of Asphyxiating, Poisonous or other Gases, and of Bacteriological Methods of Warfare” is signed at Geneva, and came into force on Wednesday 8th February, 1928. The “Geneva Protocol, 1925” is mentioned in DCY “Context is for Kings”.

1926
Irving Berlin writes the song “Blue Skies”. You may recall it featuring in “Star Trek: Nemesis”.

Monday 8th November, 1926
The première of the musical “Oh, Kay!” at the Imperial Theater on Broadway. The show includes the song “Someone to Watch over Me”. The song features in VOY “Someone to Watch over Me”, strangely enough.

1927 to 1969
Production lifetime of the Colt Official Police revolver. Sulu finds a replica of one in TOS “Shore Leave”.

Tuesday 16th March, 1927
Robert Goddard launches the first liquid-fuelled rocket at Auburn, Massachusetts.

Friday 20th to Saturday 21st May, 1927
Charles Lindburgh makes the first solo crossing of the Atlantic in an aeroplane. Later, in 1930, he uses his fame to secure financial backing for Robert Goddard’s experiments in rocketry.
Comment: My sense of fairness insists that I also mention the highly-publicised and tragic kidnapping of his son; Mister Lindburgh’s unfortunate opinions about the superiority of the “White Race,” and his enthusiasm for Nazi Germany.

Ford Model A
In production from Thursday 20th October, 1927 to March 1932
After being compared to a Model T in TNG “A Matter of Time”, Data suggests that the Model A would be a better comparison.

Tuesday 29th October, 1929
“Black Tuesday” a run on banks in America sends the World economy into a huge slump, the formal beginning of the Great Depression.
Comment: It’s a bit of a stretch, but the Depression features in TOS “The City on the Edge of Forever”.

Tuesday 18th February, 1930
American astronomer Clyde Tombaugh discovers the dwarf planet Pluto, subsequently found to be one of the larger objects in the Kuiper Belt surrounding the Sun.
Comment: The search for a planet orbiting further from the Sun than Neptune began almost as soon as the existence of that planet was confirmed by direct observation, after being deduced by the behaviour of the planet Uranus. Wealthy astronomer Percival Lowell championed various sets of calculations over the years, and it was his legacy (and observatory) that enabled Clyde Tombaugh’s search. An earlier version of this page suggested that Tombaugh was searching a particular patch of the sky, based on calculations published in 1915. In fact, he’d just begun a systematic search of the plane of the zodiac, after failing to find anything in the predicted areas. The match-up to one of the many, many sets of calculations occurred after the discovery. This has caused several problems, since the planet was originally calculated to be much larger and more massive than the Earth. It was only later that it was discovered that the anomalies in Neptune’s orbit were caused by a faulty guess at that planet’s mass, not the influence of an unseen “Planet X.” Pluto is in fact very much smaller than was originally assumed, which is why astronomers have become increasingly dubious about calling it a “planet.” That doesn’t take anything away from the discovery, though. Clyde Tombaugh deserves all the credit for a remarkable achievement.

Thursday 31st July, 1930 to Sunday 26th December, 1954
Long-running radio show “The Shadow” is broadcast. Hoshi listens in to it in ENT “Storm Front, Part I”.

Wednesday 6th August, 1930
Judge Joseph Force Crater gets into a cab outside Billy Haas’ chophouse on West 45th Street, New York. He is never seen again. The mystery is one mentioned in ENT “Terra Nova”.

Approximately 8610 V.E.; about 1930

The Vulcans and Romulans end a century long war. VOY “Death Wish” says that the war was started as a result of Quinn’s interference. The time of the war is unspecified, so I’ve placed it here. I originally set it a bit later, but ENT “Carbon Creek” sort of rules out the Vulcans being at war in the second half of the twentieth century, and there also has to be a war with the Andorians that reaches a stalemate around 1950.

1931
The first recordings of the song “Goodnight Sweetheart” are released. It features in TOS “The City on the Edge of Forever”, even though it shouldn’t, if the story really is in the year 1930.

This was the year Bing Crosby recorded “Out of Nowhere” and had his first number one hit with it. The song’s playing in the holodeck in TNG “The Big Goodbye”.

Salvador Dalí
Wednesday 11th May, 1904 to Monday 23rd January, 1989
Fajo owns a painting by Dalí, according to TNG “The Most Toys”.

Saturday 21st November, 1931
The motion picture “Frankenstein” is released. It’s the movie night film on Enterprise in ENT “Horizon”.

1932

Seven women are murdered in Shanghai, China, according to TOS “Wolf in the Fold”.
Comment: It’s implied that the crime may have been committed by an evil energy being. Oddly enough, there was a military confrontation between China and Japan in 1932 in Shanghai, with thousands of deaths. Presumably the “Ripper-style” murders took place at another time during this year. That’s the explanation I’m plumping for, anyway. Doubtless for reasons of good taste and no legal complications, all of the murders referred to in TOS “Wolf in the Fold” apart from the original Ripper murders are entirely fictitious. Since Kirk specifies that the killings have to remain unsolved, a lot of serial killings would be automatically excluded anyway, but the “Cleveland Torso Murders” which baffled no less a figure than Eliot Ness in the 1930s are conspicuous by their absence.

Karl Jung develops an active imagination technique for use in psychoanalysis. It resembles the First Nations American technique of the animal spirit guide. Chakotay explains it in VOY “The Cloud”.

Gracie Allen and George Burns appear at the Roxy Theater, New York and tell a joke that Data uses at the end of TNG “The Outrageous Okona”. For all I know, maybe they really did. George and Gracie were definitely real, and also inspired the names for the two humpback whales in “Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home”.

The Old Palace Theater in Chicago is built. I’ve not been able to confirm its reality, but Tom Paris recreated it on the holodeck in VOY “Repression”.

Clark Gable
Friday 1st February, 1901 to Wednesday16th November, 1960
Slightly anachronistically, Jim and Edith are going to see a Clark Gable movie in TOS “City on the Edge of Forever”.

TOS “The City on the Edge of Forever”

Thursday 14th to Friday 22nd January, 1932

Sometime in the year 1930

Estimated duration: Nine days.
Chronology: McCoy arrives about a week after Kirk and Spock, placing the fatal trip to see Clark Gable on the evening of the ninth day. The other part of this story happens in 2265.
Continuity: A nightmare. I go into the gory details by asking: Was it 1930? Suffice to say, the story itself is adamant that it is the year 1930. A close look at the background details has convinced me that it’s 1932, and can’t be any earlier than that.
Comment: Where did those future newspaper articles come from? The Guardian didn’t show the past as a sequence of press reports. It’s bothered me for years.

1933
The first publication date of the poem “Whales weep not!” by D. H. Lawrence. The poem is quoted in “Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home”.

Monday 30th January, 1933
Adolf Hitler is appointed Chancellor of Germany. He’s mentioned in TOS “What Are Little Girls Made Of?” and is one of Spock’s list of tyrants in TOS “Patterns of Force”. Garth also lists Hitler as one of his predecessors in TOS “Whom Gods Destroy”. Picard uses him as an example of an evil leader in TNG “A Matter of Time”. Hitler’s vicious and thoroughly unpleasant gang of thugs are viewed by supposedly competent historian John Gill as the leaders of an “efficient state” in TOS “Patterns of Force”.
Comment: At the risk of yet more blatant editorialising, I have to say that I totally disagree with Gill. Nazi Germany was never terribly efficient economically, and it was a human rights disaster from its very inception. Only a complete fool would ever believe that there could be any such thing as “benign fascism.” Even though the regime is shown to rapidly conform to the basic evil of Nazi ideology, it doesn’t stop the whole idea being in really bad taste. Maybe there was a transporter accident and “mirror” John Gill arrived on Ekos.

Friday 6th October, 1933
The release date of the film “I’m No Angel”. It’s mentioned in VOY “The Killing Game, Part II”.

1934

Writer Tracy Tormé sees the first of his popular “Dixon Hill” detective stories published in “Amazing Detective Stories” magazine. It’s explained in TNG “The Big Goodbye”. Although it’s stating the blindingly obvious, Dixon Hill as a literary figure exists only in the “Star Trek” universe.

Friday 30th March, 1934
The release date of the film “Death Takes a Holiday”. It’s mentioned in VOY “The Killing Game, Part II”.

Wednesday 7th May, 1934
Release of “The Black Cat”. It’s the movie night film in ENT “Stigma”.

Friday 28th December, 1934
The release of the Shirley Temple film “Bright Eyes”. Centuries later, William Riker is familiar with the lyrics of the song “On the Good Ship Lollipop” that is sung in the film, according to TNG “The Arsenal of Freedom”.

1935 to 1952
William Boyd portrays Hopalong Cassidy in film, radio and television series. “Trip” Tucker experiences riding with the fictional character in ENT “The Crossing”.

Moe Howard
Saturday 19th June, 1897 to Sunday 4th May, 1975
Stron the Vulcan in ENT “Carbon Creek” is nicknamed “Moe” after covering his pointed ears with his hair.

Monday 22nd April, 1935
Release date of the film “Bride of Frankenstein”. Tucker is planning to show it in ENT “Horizon”.

Wednesday 2nd October, 1935
Asked his opinion of the baseball game he’d just watched, Joe Jacobs replied: “I should of stood in bed”. Doctor McCoy trumps Shakespeare with this quote in “Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country”.

Friday 15th November, 1935
The release date in the US for “A Night at the Opera”. It’s the movie night film in ENT “Similitude”.

Approximately 1935

A war between the six species of Xindi begins on their home world. In a little less than a century, the war will destroy the entire planet, according to ENT “The Shipment”. Enterprise discovers the remains of the planet in ENT “The Xindi” and dates the destruction of the planet to around 120 years earlier, or 2033.

1936

The first Dixon Hill novel, “The Long Dark Tunnel” is published, marking the detective’s second appearance, according to TNG “The Big Goodbye”.

A Ford manufactured in this year is found floating in deep space in VOY “The 37’s”.

Sunday 23rd February, 1936

In Doctor McCoy’s alternate timeline in TOS “The City on the Edge of Forever”, the date of a news report of Sister Edith Keeler meeting Franklin Delano Roosevelt. How she manages to do it is unclear, but her intervention keeps America out of the Second World War, with disastrous results.

12:17 p.m. on Saturday 29th August, 1936

In the holodeck program in VOY “The Killing Game, Part I”, the last time Tom Paris’ character saw his fictional girlfriend, as his train left the equally fictional French town of Sainte Claire.

Saturday 3rd October, 1936 to Tuesday 1st July, 1958
Service life of the aircraft carrier USS Enterprise.

The ship is sunk sometime before the summer of 1944 in the alternate timeline of ENT “Storm Front, Part I”.

Friday 27th November, 1936
Release date of the film “Born to Dance”, the debut of the song “Out of Nowhere”. Vic sings it at Odo and Kira’s first date in DS9 “His Way”.

Friday 7th May, 1937
The release date of the film “Shall We Dance?” It introduced the song “They Can’t Take That Away from Me”, which Sisko and Odo just can’t help singing in DS9 “His Way”.

Friday 2nd July, 1937

Aviatrix Amelia Earhart takes off from New Guinea whilst making a round the world flight. After a final radio message early the next day, she disappeared over the Pacific. In VOY “The 37’s”, it is discovered that Earhart and her navigator are two of the three hundred people abducted by the Briori and transported to the Delta Quadrant. She’s also mentioned by Travis as a famous historical mystery in ENT “Terra Nova”.
Comment: Recent discoveries in the Pacific suggest that Earhart’s plane made a forced landing on Nikumaroro island. Although there’s evidence the crash wasn’t fatal, the two fliers both appear to have died there, although remains of only one person have ever been found. The remains were sent to Fiji in the 1940s, and are long since lost, so modern analysis of them hasn’t been made, and any identification is purely a guess.

Wednesday 7th July, 1937
Japan launches a full-scale invasion of China.

Saturday 13th November, 1937
Publication of a “Li’l Abner” cartoon strip describing “Sadie Hawkins Day,” when the conventional roles of women and men in proposing marriage are reversed, named after one of the characters in the strip. It later became popular to hold a “Sadie Hawkins Dance” where girls invite boys. Starfleet Academy holds such an event every year, according to TNG “The Game”.

1938

Benny Russell begins writing whilst serving in the US Navy, around fifteen years before DS9 “Far Beyond the Stars”.
Comment: A scene in the novelization of this episode suggests as a teenager he is affected by an alien artefact at the World’s Fair in New York, giving him strange glimpses into the future. The 1939 World’s Fair was very definitely real, running from Sunday 30th April, 1939 to Sunday 27th November, 1940. Since Avery Brooks was in his late forties at the time he played the role, I’ve decided that it makes more sense to stick with the older Russell described in the show itself.

For some reason, Hitler’s concept of “lebensraum” is applied by Kirk to Gorkon’s reference to “breathing space” and dated to this year in “Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country”. I can see no particular reason why Hitler’s obsession with territorial conquest should be applied to just this year. His published references to it go back well into the nineteen-twenties.

It’s also the first publication of Delmore Schwarz’s poem “Calmly We Walk through This April’s Day”, quoted by Tolian Soran in “Star Trek: Generations”.

Wednesday 5th January, 1938
The Broadway musical “Right This Way”, opens and runs for fifteen performances. It features the song “I’ll Be Seeing You”. That’s the song that helps Nog through a bit of a sticky patch in DS9 “It’s Only a Paper Moon”.

Sunday 17th April, 1938
Release of the film “Romance in the Dark”; it includes the Hoagy Carmicheal and Ned Washington song called “The Nearness of You”. William Riker has a go at playing it on his trombone in TNG “11001001”.

Monday 18th April, 1938
The first appearance of Superman, in “Action Comics #1”. He’s mentioned as an example of American literature in ENT “Shuttlepod One”.

Friday 30th September, 1938
Neville Chamberlain rather unwisely describes his agreement with Hitler to partition Czechoslovakia as “I believe it is peace for our time”. Chang paraphrases it as “No peace in our time” in “Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country”.

Sunday 30th October, 1938
Orson Welles’ famous “War of the Worlds” radio broadcast. It was mentioned in a deleted scene in ENT “Storm Front, Part I”.

Friday 13th January, 1939
Original release of the film “Son of Frankenstein”. Tucker is planning to show it in ENT “Horizon”.

Joe DiMaggio
Wednesday 25th November, 1914 to Monday 8th March, 1999
He holds the record for a 56-game hitting streak, played Thursday 15th May to Wednesday 16th July, 1941. He’s mentioned in TNG “The Big Goodbye”, and according to VOY “One Small Step” the record stands until 2032.

Ted Williams
Friday 30th August, 1918 to Friday 5th July, 2002
He’s one of the baseball players in Benjamin Sisko’s holoprogram. Jake is at Quark’s to play it in DS9 “If Wishes Were Horses”.

Tuesday 22nd August, 1939
The release date of the first recording of “You Are My Sunshine”, sung by the Pine Ridge Boys. The song features in VOY “Someone to Watch over Me”.

Friday 25th August, 1939
Release date of the film “The Wizard of Oz”. In TNG “The Schizoid Man” Ira Graves discusses the film with Data, and the Tin Man’s song “If I Only had a Heart” is particularly emphasised.

Second World War
Friday 1st September, 1939 to Wednesday 15th August, 1945
In TOS “Bread and Circuses”, Mr Spock claims that this war had 11 million casualties. Once again, his numbers are massively out compared to other sources. Actual casualties are put at over 62.5 million, of which 24.5 million were military casualties, the other 38 million civilians.

Approximately 1939

Birth of Ralph Offenhouse. In TNG “The Neutral Zone”, Doctor Crusher estimates his age at 55, and he was frozen around 1994.
Comment: He could have been frozen in “my” 1994 N.C. (2050). That would place his birth around 1995. All this is complicated enough already, so I didn’t.

Raymond Chandler
Monday 23rd July, 1888 to Thursday 26th March, 1959
Author of several “hard-boiled” detective novels about Philip Marlowe. O’Brien lists him as a favourite author of twentieth-century detective fiction in DS9 “Field of Fire”, and it’s a fair bet that Odo has read his works, too.

“Operation Dynamo”
Sunday 26th May to Tuesday 4th June, 1940
338,226 Allied soldiers are successfully evacuated from Dunkirk in France to Britain. Picard compares this to the abandoned Romulan evacuation in PIC “Remembrance”.

Saturday 22nd June, 1940
France capitulates, following the German invasion.

Kurt Schmidt
Thursday 9th April, 1891 to Saturday 3rd March, 1945
A German general who’s mentioned in VOY “The Killing Game, Part I”.

Rommel
Sunday 15th November, 1891 to Saturday 14th October, 1944
German Field Marshal Erwin Johannes Eugen Rommel, famously called “The Desert Fox”. He was an honourable and talented military leader, who paid the price for loyalty to an evil dictatorship, since he committed suicide rather than place his family at risk of Nazi “justice.” He’s mentioned in VOY “The Killing Game, Part I”.

Betty Grable
Monday 18th December, 1916 to Monday 2nd July, 1973
She’s mentioned in VOY “The Killing Game, Part II”.

Rita Hayworth
Thursday 17th October, 1918 to Thursday 14th May, 1987
She’s mentioned in ENT “Storm Front, Part I”.

Veronica Lake
Tuesday 14th November, 1922 to Saturday 7th July, 1973
She’s mentioned in ENT “Storm Front, Part I”.

Isaac Asimov
Friday 2nd January, 1920 to Monday 6th April, 1992
Originated the concept of a “positronic brain” in his science fiction stories about robots, along with the famous “3 laws of robotics.” Data mentions Asimov, and the fact that he himself has a positronic brain in TNG “Datalore”. Picard owns a collected edition of Asimov’s “Robot” stories, and Agnes Jurati calls attention to it in PIC “Maps and Legends”.

Monday 6th January, 1941
American president Franklin Delano Roosevelt spells out the “Four Freedoms” in his State of the Union address to Congress.
Comment: For those who’ve forgotten, this is the relevant bit of the speech:

“In the future days which we seek to make secure, we look forward to a world founded upon four essential human freedoms.
“The first is freedom of speech and expression; everywhere in the world.
“The second is freedom of every person to worship God in his own way; everywhere in the world.
“The third is freedom from want, which, translated into world terms, means economic understandings which will secure to every nation a healthy peacetime life for its inhabitants; everywhere in the world.
“The fourth is freedom from fear, which, translated into world terms, means a world-wide reduction of armaments to such a point and in such a thorough fashion that no nation will be in a position to commit an act of physical aggression against any neighbour; anywhere in the world.
“That is no vision of a distant millennium. It is a definite basis for a kind of world attainable in our own time and generation. That kind of world is the very antithesis of the so-called ‘new order’ of tyranny which the dictators seek to create with the crash of a bomb.”

Frank Sinatra
Sunday 12th December, 1915 to Thursday 14th May, 1998
He’s mentioned in DS9 “His Way”, and on numerous other occasions, too.

Sunday 22nd June, 1941
German forces invade the Soviet Union.

Thursday 26th June, 1941

Based on the newspaper reference to Joe DiMaggio’s 37-game lucky hitting streak, reached on Wednesday 25th June, 1941, this is when Picard’s Dixon Hill holodeck adventure seen in TNG “The Big Goodbye” is set. By the end of the day, it would be a 38-game streak. Confusingly, the copy of Esquire magazine seen on sale seems to be the October 1941 issue. The issue of Life is for Monday 10th February, 1941. I am indebted to the industrious researchers on the Memory Alpha website for these chronological clues.

Willie Mosconi
Friday 27th June, 1913 to Sunday 12th September, 1993
“Mr Pocket Billiards.” “Gaunt” Gary in the Holodeck recreation of Sandrine’s, first seen in VOY “The Cloud”, is supposed to have hustled him.

Thursday 14th August, 1941
Britain and America issue the Atlantic Charter, a declaration of joint aims.

“Bugsy” Siegel
Wednesday 28th February, 1906 to Friday 20th June, 1947
He’s mentioned in DS9 “Badda-Bing, Badda-Bang”.

Sunday 7th December, 1941
A surprise attack on Pearl Harbor by the Japanese begins a war with the US. Within days, Germany also declares war on America. Picard mentions the attack in TNG “The Enemy”.
Comment: This makes it difficult to see how Edith Keeler in TOS “The City on the Edge of Forever” was able to stop America entering the war. Maybe Joan Collins is right, and Ms Keeler did go on to be Hitler’s girlfriend. She’s quoted to that effect in the fascinating introduction to Harlan Ellison’s original script for “The City on the Edge of Forever” published by White Wolf Publishing in 1996.

1942
The song “That Old Black Magic” is first published. The EMH sings it in VOY “Virtuoso”.

Saturday 21st March, 1942 to Wednesday 21st November, 1945
An internment camp was established at Manzanar, California, although it wasn’t known by that name until Monday 1st June, 1942. It’s mentioned in ENT “Detained”.

Sunday 3rd May, 1942
The United States orders everyone of Japanese ancestry into detention camps, even those who are American citizens and were born there.
Comment: “Star Trek” actor George Takei was one of the people detained, and has lent his support to efforts to make sure that this thoroughly disreputable piece of history isn’t forgotten.

Sometime in the summer of 1942

In the alternate timeline of the Temporal Cold War, Vosk and the evil space Nazis from the 49th century become trapped in the past. They provide technical assistance to Germany in return for the resources to build a time machine, as seen in ENT “Storm Front” (Parts 1 & 2).

Victor Borge
Sunday 3rd January, 1909 to Saturday 23rd December, 2000
He’s mentioned in DS9 “His Way”.

Tuesday 10th November, 1942
Release of the film “Road to Morocco”, which included the song “Moonlight Becomes You”. It’s the song Picard and Lily dance to in “Star Trek: First Contact”.

Thursday 19th November, 1942
The Red Army launches a massive counter-attack against the German forces in the Soviet Union, trapping an entire German Army in the ruins of Stalingrad, marking the beginning of the German defeat.

In the alternate timeline created by the assassination of Lenin and the Temporal Cold War in ENT “Storm Front” (Parts 1 & 2), Russia is in no position to defeat the Germans. They advance to the Urals, and conquer Britain too. They then launch invasions of most of Africa, and the eastern seaboard of North America.

Thursday 26th November, 1942
The première of “Casablanca”. The film is the source of the title and several references in TNG “We’ll Always Have Paris”.

Wednesday 2nd December, 1942
Enrico Fermi starts the first fission chain reaction, marking the beginning of the atomic age.

Wednesday 14th July, 1943
The motion picture “For Whom the Bell Tolls” is released. They watch this film on Enterprise in ENT “Dear Doctor”.

Yehudi Menuhin
Saturday 22nd April, 1916 to Friday 12th March, 1999
According to TNG “Sarek”, Data plays the violin like Menuhin.

Monday 6th September, 1943
Winston Churchill makes the speech which can be heard in ENT “Storm Front, Part I”. The circumstances of the speech are likely to have been different in the altered timeline.

1944

The vintage of Doctor McCoy’s fake Nazi uniform in TOS “Patterns of Force”.

The first publishing and recording of the song “You’re Nobody ’til Somebody Loves You”. It’s sung by Vic Fontaine in DS9 “His Way”.

Saturday 8th April, 1944
Release date of Billie Holliday’s song “My Old Flame”. It’s playing in the background in ENT “Storm Front, Part I”.

ENT “Storm Front” (Parts 1 & 2)

Summer 1944

Estimated duration: 3 days?
Chronology: From the Billie Holiday song, we know it’s after March 1944. The weather’s nice, so it must be sometime in summer. They then return to 2154.

Friday 22nd September, 1944

The fictional date in the fictional holodeck French town of Sainte Claire in VOY “The Killing Game, Part I”. Doubtless that’s why the show says it’s a Sunday.

Wednesday 22nd November, 1944
The release date of the film “Henry V”. Data’s been watching it as preparation for his own performance as Henry V in TNG “The Defector”.

1945

San Francisco in this year is the fictional setting for a Dixon Hill holoadventure Picard uses to hide in TNG “Manhunt”. Unfortunately, later dialogue makes it clear that it’s supposed to be before the Japanese and Germans have declared war on America.

Monday 16th July, 1945
The first atomic bomb is detonated at Los Alamos, New Mexico.

Monday 6th and Thursday 9th August, 1945
The United States launches a nuclear attack on Japan. Hiroshima is destroyed by the first bomb and Nagasaki by the second. Japan surrenders on Tuesday 14th.

Sunday 2nd September, 1945
Douglas MacArthur makes a speech that is quoted by Admiral Ross at the end of the Dominion War in DS9 “What You Leave Behind”.

Wednesday 24th October, 1945
The United Nations comes into being.

Thursday 18th April, 1946
The League of Nations is formally dissolved.

Monday 1st July, 1946 to Tuesday 22nd July, 1958
Bikini Atoll in the Pacific is used for a series of atomic tests. Archer mentions the atoll in ENT “Proving Ground”.

1947
Original publication of “I, the Jury” by Mickey Spillane. O’Brien gives an electronic copy of the novel to Odo, who’s reading it in DS9 “Profit and Loss”.

DS9 “Little Green Men”

Wednesday 2nd to Thursday 10th July, 1947

Estimated duration: 9 days.
Chronology: The press release was made on Tuesday 8th July, 1947. Quark doesn’t recover consciousness until then, and the escape is made at 05:00 on Thursday. The other part of the story is in “2372”, August-September 2372.
Continuity: A calendar for July 1947 is clearly visible. A press release by Roswell Army Air Force Base really did announce the recovery of a flying saucer, and was quickly replaced by another story, about a weather balloon. The reference to Nevada Proving Ground is anachronistic, since it wasn’t set up until Sunday 11th January, 1951.
Comment: The “facts” surrounding this whole incident have become obscured by a lot of wild speculations. I’ve flagged this story up as problematic because of the reference to the nuclear detonation. Not only was the Nevada Proving Ground still in the future, I was surprised to discover that the US didn’t detonate any atomic weapons at all in 1947.

Chuck Yeager
Born on Tuesday 13th February, 1923
He became the first man to break the sound barrier, on Tuesday 14th October, 1947. The “Yeager Loop” is presumably named for him, and mentioned in TNG “The First Duty”. The man himself is mentioned by Geordi in TNG “New Ground”. Sybok mentions breaking the sound barrier, but not Yeager, in “Star Trek V: The Final Frontier”. In ENT “Demons”, Travis claims that Chuck Yeager once said: “I never let myself be afraid. I just focus on the dials and concentrate on flying.” I’ve not been able to confirm the quote.

1948

Captain Picard spots a ’48 Packard in the holodeck adventure he doesn’t get very far with in TNG “Clues”, suggesting that this adventure is set quite a bit later than the others we see. Or is as inaccurate as the one referenced above set in 1945.

Harold Robbins
Sunday 21st May, 1916 to Tuesday 14th October, 1997
His works are regarded as one of the great achievements of twentieth-century literature by future generations, at least according to James Kirk in “Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home”.

Tuesday 15th June, 1948
“Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein” goes on release. Tucker mentions it in ENT “Horizon”.

Monday 4th April, 1949
The North Atlantic Treaty Organisation is formed.

Stella Adler
Sunday 10th February, 1901 to Monday 21st December, 1992
Data lists her as one of his acting “mentors” in TNG “Devil’s Due”.

Maria Callas
Monday 3rd December, 1923 to Friday 16th September, 1977
The EMH mentions her in VOY “The Swarm”.

Jerry Lewis
Tuesday 16th March, 1926 to Sunday 20th August, 2017
Data watches a stand-up comedian impersonate Jerry Lewis to learn about comedy in TNG “The Outrageous Okona”.

Korean War
Sunday 25th June, 1950 to Monday 27th July, 1953
Presumably, one of the “brushfire wars in Asia” referred to by Captain Kirk in TOS “A Private Little War”.

Friday 4th August, 1950
The motion picture “Sunset Boulevard” is released. The film is scheduled to be shown on Enterprise the week after ENT “Dear Doctor”.

L. Ron Hubbard
Monday 13th March, 1911 to Friday 24th January, 1986
Founder of the Church of Scientology.

Approximately 8630 V.E.; about 1950

The Vulcans and Andorians reach a stalemate based on the ability of both sides to retaliate massively to an invasion, two hundred years before ENT “Proving Ground”. Given the close proximity of the monastery to Andor, and the unlikelihood of monks being able to form a self-reproducing community, it might be safe to assume that the monastery of P’Jem is reoccupied around this time, too. It may also be the time when Surak’s katra is transported back to Vulcan in its ark, following the discovery of a cache of katric arks at the monastery as described in ENT “Awakening”.

1951

This was the year Willie Mays was the “Rookie of the Year” and began playing major league baseball for the New York Giants. A Willie Mays baseball card from this year survives in mint condition to be auctioned on Deep Space 9 in DS9 “In the Cards”.

September to November 1951
Robert A. Heinlein’s novel “The Puppet Masters” is serialised in “Galaxy Science Fiction”. It was also published as a book by Doubleday in the same year. The story is mentioned in DS9 “Far Beyond the Stars”.

Friday 28th September, 1951
Release of “The Day the Earth Stood Still”. This is the film “Trip” Tucker shows the cogenitor in ENT “Cogenitor”, rather than the 2008 remake. It’s obviously one of his favourites, because it’s also the scheduled movie night film in ENT “The Catwalk”, too.

Wednesday 3rd October, 1951
The New York Giants beat the Brooklyn Dodgers by a home run. It seems to be this game that Dr Paul Stubbs is recalling in TNG “Evolution”.

“I Love Lucy”
Monday 15th October, 1951 to Monday 6th May, 1957
The original run of the television show. It’s on in ENT “Carbon Creek”, but I’m guessing it must be a rerun.

1952
Mickey Spillane’s novel “Kiss Me, Deadly” is first published. In DS9 “Shadows and Symbols” Odo gives Kira a Bajoran translation of this story to read. As mentioned above, it seems that Miles O’Brien originally got Odo hooked on Mike Hammer novels, as seen in DS9 “Profit and Loss”.

Thursday 27th March, 1952
The initial premiere of “Singin’ in the Rain” at the Radio City Music Hall. The film went on general release in the United States on Friday 11th April, 1952. The musical features in DCY “Calypso”.

Saturday 1st November, 1952
The US detonates the first thermonuclear bomb, also known as the “H-Bomb,” or hydrogen bomb. Kirk compares the Doomsday Machine to an “H-Bomb” in TOS “The Doomsday Machine”.

1953

“Gaunt” Gary the pool player in Tom Paris’ holodeck program of Sandrine’s bar, first seen in VOY “The Cloud”, is supposed to have been playing in the Ames Pool Hall, New York in this year, and hustled Willie Mosconi.

It was in 1953 that the University of Manitoba started the first breeding programme in North America of triticale, a hybrid of wheat and rye. Mister Spock traces the development of quadrotriticale from the triticale breeding programmes in 20th century Canada in TOS “The Trouble With Tribbles”.

Samuel Beckett
Friday 13th April, 1906 to Friday 22nd December, 1989
He’s mentioned in DS9 “Second Sight”.

March 1953

Benny Russell’s story “This Island Mars” is published in “Incredible Tales”, according to DS9 “Far Beyond the Stars”.

Monday 25th May, 1953
The film “It Came From Outer Space” is released. The title is the subject of a humorous reference in DS9 “Far Beyond the Stars”.

Wednesday 5th August, 1953
“From Here to Eternity” is released. The film is mentioned in DS9 “Far Beyond the Stars”.

Wednesday 12th August, 1953
The Soviet Union detonates a thermonuclear bomb for the first time. DS9 “Far Beyond the Stars” happens not long after this, since it’s on the front page of a newspaper used as set dressing in the story.

Redstone Missile
Thursday 20th August, 1953 to Wednesday 29th November, 1967
America’s first “man-rated” rocket, since a modified one was used to launch the first manned suborbital flight by the US on Friday 5th May, 1961. They were retired from US service in October, 1964, but modified Redstones were used in Australia in 1966 and 1967 for scientific purposes. Rasmussen compares Data to a Redstone, amongst other things, in TNG “A Matter of Time”.

September 1953

Benny Russell’s story “Far Beyond the Stars” is published in this month’s “Incredible Tales”, according to DS9 “Far Beyond the Stars”.

DS9 “Far Beyond the Stars”

Monday 7th September, 1953 to mid-October 1953

Estimated duration: Five or six weeks?
Chronology: Benny Russell takes his completed story “Deep Space Nine” into the office, where it’s unceremoniously rejected on Monday 7th September, 1953. After three weeks, Benny Russell returns to the office with six follow-up stories about Benjamin Sisko’s adventures on Monday 28th September, 1953. A compromise is reached allowing one story to see print. That evening, Benny is badly beaten by the police. Benny Russell makes it back into the office in Mid-October 1953; only to discover that the publisher has had the entire run of the issue of “Incredible Tales” with his Captain Sisko story pulped. The editor informs him that he’s out of a job, too. The shock triggers a nervous breakdown. I’m assuming that Benny missed the deadline for the October 1953 issue, and the November 1953 issue is the one that never appears.
Continuity: I’m basing the starting date on the fact that Benny’s in the office, probably ruling out Saturdays and Sundays. Willie Hawkins played for the New York Giants against the Brooklyn Dodgers the day before yesterday, and will be playing again today. He’s not playing out of town, since he’s at home, and on Monday 7th the New York Giants played the Pittsburgh Pirates at the Polo Grounds. The only other possibility would be the 18th to the 20th August and that raises problems because three weeks later the New York Giants will be in St. Louis and Chicago. As for Monday 28th, it might seem coincidental that it’s exactly three weeks later, but Willie Hawkins will have played in the New York Giants’ last game of the season in Pittsburgh the day before. DS9 “Shadows and Symbols” suggests that Benny Russell ends up in a mental institution. This may just have been an illusion, or perhaps Benny Russell and everyone he knows aren’t real, even in the fictional setting of “Star Trek”. It’s my timeline, so I decided to treat it all as real. If it’s all just a fantasy, then it happens in “2374”, December 2374.
Comment: Subscribers to contemporary science-fiction magazines may be wondering about the issue dates. These days, the “June” issue of a magazine often comes out in the middle of April. From the examples I’ve been able to find, it’s not unreasonable to work on the assumption that the November 1953 issue would only hit the newsstands in October at the earliest.

Before 1954

Over two centuries before ENT “Borderland”, the Denobulans start using genetic engineering. On the whole, they find it beneficial.

1954
Erroll Garner writes “Misty”. Commander Riker has problems playing it on the trombone in TNG “Future Imperfect”.

Liberace
Friday 16th May, 1919 to Wednesday 4th February, 1987
He’s mentioned in DS9 “His Way”.

Shecky Greene
Born on Thursday 8th April, 1926
He’s mentioned in DS9 “His Way”.

Wednesday 16th February, 1955
The American release date for the French film “Le Salaire de la peur” (released in France on Wednesday 22nd April, 1953) under the English title “The Wages of Fear”. It’s the film that’s going to be shown in ENT “Vox Sola”, until there’s a technical hitch.

Wednesday 11th May, 1955
The release date for “Revenge of the Creature”. Tom Paris and B’Elanna watch it in the original 3-D in VOY “Repression”. How much of the film Tabor sees is unknown.

Friday 5th August, 1955
Release date of “To Catch a Thief”. Mentioned in passing in VOY “Year of Hell, Part I”. It was Cary Grant.

Vietnam War
Tuesday 1st November, 1955 to Wednesday 30th April, 1975
I’m guessing it’s another of the “brushfire wars in Asia” referenced by Captain Kirk in TOS “A Private Little War”.

Friday 27th January, 1956
Release date in America of the film “The Court Jester”. Doctor Phlox watches it with Porthos in ENT “Doctor’s Orders”.

April 1956
Original release of the song “Fever”. It’s holo-Kira’s song in DS9 “His Way”.

Approximately 1956

B’Elanna Torres constructs a television of this period for Tom in VOY “Memorial”.

1957

A Chevrolet Bel-Air from this year features in Tom Paris’ holoprogram in VOY “Lifesigns”.

1957 was the year the song “Come Fly With Me” was first published. It’s Odo’s debut as a pianist in DS9 “His Way”.

April 1957
The original release of the song “Louie, Louie”. It’s probably more than anyone needs to know, but O’Brien enjoys singing it when he’s kayaking, according to DS9 “Heart of Stone”.

Thursday 26th September, 1957
The original release of the film “The Joker is Wild”, which featured the Frank Sinatra song “All the Way”, later released as a record. It’s the song that singularly fails to soothe Worf’s savage breast in DS9 “Image in the Sand”, since it was Jadzia’s favourite.

Friday 4th October, 1957; 2nd re’T’Khutai, 8637 V.E.
Launch of Sputnik (Спутник) 1 into Earth orbit, the official beginning of the Space Age.

ENT “Carbon Creek”

Late October or early November 1957 to February 1958; re’T’Khutai to ta’Krat 8637 V.E.

Estimated duration: 15 or 16 weeks?
Chronology: A Vulcan survey ship sent to investigate the launch of Sputnik crashes near Carbon Creek, Pennsylvania, so it must be late October or early November 1957. The commander is killed on impact, and the three survivors stay with the crippled ship, avoiding contact with humanity. Less than a fortnight after the crash, in November 1957, the Vulcans run out of food and have to visit the town of Carbon Creek, Pennsylvania. In February 1958; ta’Krat 8637 V.E., a rescue mission eventually arrives. One of the Vulcans elects to stay behind, disguised as a human. The other two tell the rescue mission that he died in the crash.
Continuity: Since Sputnik 1 is still in orbit at the start of the story, then it can’t be later than Saturday 4th January, 1958 because that’s when the satellite burned up in the atmosphere. If Sputnik is still transmitting, then it can’t be later than Saturday 26th October, 1957. If the mission doesn’t start until after the launch and the crash is in the third week, I’d guess that it’s got to be the last week in October or the first week in November. Allegedly, the stranded Vulcans “invent” Velcro™. In practice, it was developed quite independently by humans, and patented in 1955. Again, as with DS9 “Little Green Men”, the tactical atomic test mentioned in the news doesn’t seem to be based on any real life event. There are references to observing Sputnik with the naked eye, which would place all the events up to that point definitely before January 4th (although the actual satellite was very difficult to spot and most observers seem to have seen part of the booster rocket that orbited near Sputnik from launch until it deorbited on Monday 2nd December, 1957), but it might be a reference to Sputnik 2, in orbit from Sunday 3rd November, 1957 to Monday 14th April, 1958. That mission isn’t mentioned in the story at all. Sputnik 2 carried Laika, the first animal in Earth orbit, a dog. There was no provision for her to survive the mission, and the Russians later confirmed that she died of heat and stress within hours of Sputnik 2 going into orbit. Of course, the whole thing might just be a tall tale told by T’Pol in 2152.
Comment: To recognise the fact that Velcro™ wasn’t invented by Vulcans, one of the stranded party is called “Mestral”, in tribute to George de Mestral (Wednesday 19th June, 1907 to Thursday 8th February, 1990) who was the real inventor.

1958

Singer Vic Fontaine played the Sands casino in Las Vegas, according to DS9 “His Way”. The Sands was a real casino, open between Monday 15th December, 1952 and Sunday 30th June, 1996. I’m assuming that Vic Fontaine is also real singer in “Star Trek”, and not just a holodeck character, based on his “mirror” version’s brief flesh and blood appearance in DS9 “The Emperor’s New Cloak”.

The year Shannon O’Donnell was born; based on her being 11 at the time of the Moon landing, according to VOY “11:59”.

Friday 31st January, 1958
The first American satellite, Explorer 1 goes into orbit and discovers the Van Allen radiation belts.

Friday 12th September, 1958
Jack S. Kilby makes the first integrated circuit, or “silicon chip”.

Wednesday 1st October, 1958
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration comes into existence.

Approximately 1958

Riker requests a Bourbon Street bar in New Orleans of this era on the holodeck in TNG “11001001”.

Friday 2nd January, 1959
The Soviet Union launches Luna (Луна) 1, Mechta (Мечта). It completely misses its intended target, the Moon, and accidentally becomes the first man-made object to be placed into an independent orbit around the Sun.

Sunday 1st February, 1959
A group of nine hikers led by Igor Dyatlov meet their deaths in the Ural Mountains. An experienced hiker at the scene and leading the recovery of the bodies, speculates that exceptionally bad weather is the reason for the tragedy. Over the years, armchair theorists have come up with a range of more elaborate possibilities.

“Che” Guevara
Thursday 14th June, 1928 to Monday 9th October, 1967
The EMH mentions him in VOY “Basics, Part II”.

Saturday 12th September, 1959
Luna (Луна) 2 becomes the first man-made object to hit the surface of the Moon.

“The Twilight Zone”
Friday 2nd October, 1959 to Friday 19th June, 1964
Tucker’s familiar with this TV show, according to ENT “Carbon Creek”.

Sunday 4th October, 1959
Luna (Луна) 3 returns the first ever images of the Far Side of the Moon.

Reginald Pollack
Tuesday 29 July, 1924 to Thursday 6th December, 2001
Flint owns five of his paintings in TOS “Requiem for Methuselah”.
Comment: The paintings used on the “Star Trek” set were genuine, according to his widow’s website.

Mirella Freni
Born on Wednesday 27th February, 1935
She’s mentioned by the EMH in VOY “The Swarm”.

1960 to 1961
NASA conducts secret tests and selects 13 women as potential astronauts. Actual training never takes place, and the first seven Americans selected to be astronauts are all men.

1960
“Project Ozma” the first attempt to detect radio signals from another civilisation.

Friday 1st April, 1960
The United States launches Tiros 1, the first weather satellite.

Wednesday 13th April, 1960
The United States launches the first experimental navigation satellite Transit 1B.

Friday 3rd June, 1960
Publication of “Search for Artificial Stellar Sources of Infrared Radiation” by Freeman J. Dyson in “Science” where he first suggests the idea of “Dyson Spheres”. A Dyson Sphere features in TNG “Relics” and a follow-up TNG novel, not to mention one of the old Bantam “Star Trek” novels. Although they’re a fascinating and recurring concept in science-fiction, it’s very difficult to do them justice. Even cutting the structure down into just a “ribbon” leaves something so enormous it’s almost impossible for either the writer or the reader to really get to grips with, as Larry Niven has pointed out in the introduction to his novel “Ringworld’s Children”.

Friday 12th August, 1960
Launch of Echo 1, a reflective balloon used to deflect radio transmissions, the first dedicated communications satellite.

Approximately 1960

The people on “Miri’s Earth” conduct experiments in prolonging their lives. The results are partially successful, but not what was planned, resulting in the horrible deaths of all the adults; and children who live for centuries. Mister Spock estimates that it all happened about three hundred years before TOS “Miri”.

John F. Kennedy
Tuesday 29th May, 1917 to Friday 22nd November, 1963
He’s mentioned in DS9 “His Way”.

1961
1961 is the year the Frank Sinatra song “Here’s to the Losers” is released. Vic Fontaine sings it in DS9 “Tears of the Prophets”.

The Year’s Yankees team is the one that plays the 1978 Red Sox in Jake’s holosuite program in DS9 “For the Cause”.

Wednesday 12th April, 1961
The Soviet Union places the first man into Earth orbit, Yuri Gagarin, Ю́рий Алексе́евич Гага́рин aboard Vostok (Восто́к) 1.

May 1961
The NERVA programme to develop atomic rocket propulsion is authorised by President John Kennedy.

Friday 5th May, 1961
Alan B. Shepard becomes the first American in space during the suborbital flight of Freedom 7.
Comment: Shepard later commanded the Apollo 14 mission to the Moon, and he is the Apollo astronaut in the title sequence of “Star Trek: Enterprise”.

Wednesday 15th November, 1961
“Space Prober” by Thomas G. Bergin is the first poem sent into space, inscribed on a panel of the Traac satellite.

Saturday 25th November, 1961
Commissioning date of the first nuclear aircraft carrier, USS Enterprise. The ship (albeit a stand-in) featured in “Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home”.

1962

Kivas Fajo owns a Roger Maris trading card from this year, complete with the smell of bubblegum in TNG “The Most Toys”. Roger Maris was a real person, incidentally. He lived from Monday 10th September, 1934 to Saturday 14th December, 1985.

This is apparently the year in the Vic Fontaine holoprogram, according to DS9 “What You Leave Behind”, and DS9 “Badda-Bing, Badda-Bang”.

Tom Paris replicates a Big Daddy-O Surf Special shirt from this year and wears it in VOY “Alter Ego”.

Tuesday 20th February, 1962
John Glenn becomes the first American in orbit aboard Friendship 7.

Thursday 12th April, 1962
The first Cosmonautics Day (День Космонавтики) is celebrated in the Soviet Union, commemorating the anniversary of Yuri Gagarin’s flight.
Comment: The holiday has never been celebrated much outside the former Soviet Union, but as society becomes more space-oriented that may not always be the case.

Tuesday 10th July, 1962
The first commercial communications satellite Telstar is launched, and operates until February 1963.

Tuesday 17th July, 1962
Under a ruling by the United States Air Force that any pilot reaching an altitude over fifty miles above the Earth will be considered an astronaut, Major Robert White becomes the seventh man in space, aboard the X-15 reusable rocket plane.

Thursday 1st November, 1962
Launch of Mars (Марс) 1, an unsuccessful Soviet unmanned mission to Mars.

Friday 14th December, 1962
Mariner 2 makes the first close flyby of the planet Venus, revealing a thick carbon dioxide atmosphere.

Gene Roddenberry
Friday 19th August, 1921 to Thursday 24th October, 1991
The Great Bird of the Galaxy gets a mention by Sulu in TOS “Return of the Archons”.

Stevie Wonder
Born on Saturday 13th May, 1950
Rasmussen uses him as an example of a “blind genius” in TNG “A Matter of Time”.

Sunday 16th to Wednesday 19th June, 1963
Valentina Tereshkova (Валенти́на Влади́мировна Терешко́ва) becomes the first woman in space in Vostok (Восто́к) 6.

Friday 19th July, 1963
Joseph Walker becomes the first pilot to take the X-15 rocket plane above the internationally-recognised boundary of space set at an altitude of 62 miles. On a later flight on Thursday 22nd August, he becomes the first person to take two trips into space.

Monday 5th August, 1963
The Soviet Union, United States and Britain sign a treaty banning the testing of nuclear weapons in the atmosphere or underwater. As a side note, no other signatories were necessary, because no other country had nuclear weapons at that time.

Tuesday 10th December, 1963
The United States abandons the X-20 “Dyna-Soar” project, to build a reusable space plane capable of reaching orbit.

1964

The date in Doctor Bashir’s spy adventure, as seen in DS9 “Our Man Bashir”.

Tuesday 28th July, 1964
American probe Ranger 7 crashes into the Moon, after returning pictures during its descent.

Wednesday 19th August, 1964
The United States launches Syncom 3, the first communications satellite in geosynchronous orbit. It is used to relay the opening ceremonies of the Tokyo Olympics to viewers in America.

Monday 12th October, 1964
The Soviet Union sends three men into space aboard Voskhod (Восход) 1. Although it is a space first, it has been achieved at the expense of safety.

Thursday 15th October, 1964
The St. Louis Cardinals beat the New York Yankees in game seven of the 1964 World Series. In DS9 “Distant Voices” Ben Sisko suggests it as a holosuite venue for Doctor Bashir’s birthday party. Sisko thinks it’s the greatest baseball game ever played, but Bashir decides to go with wood-nymphs instead. Sisko’s planning to take Kasidy Yates out on a date to this game, according to DS9 “The Adversary”.

1965
The Cryonics Society of New York is founded, to cryogenically preserve people after their deaths.

Thursday 18th March, 1965
Alexei Leonov (Алексе́й Архи́пович Лео́нов) makes the first spacewalk, leaving the capsule of Voskhod (Восход) 2.

Tuesday 23rd March, 1965
Launch of Gemini 3, the first American spacecraft to have a crew of two, and the first ever manned mission to conduct on-orbit manoeuvres.

Tuesday 6th April, 1965
Launch of the first commercial geosynchronous communications satellite, Intelsat 1, “Early Bird”.

Thursday 3rd to Saturday 7th June, 1965
Gemini 4 mission. Edward White becomes the first American to walk in space.

Wednesday 14th July, 1965
Mariner 4 returns the first close-up pictures of Mars. This finally proves that there is neither vegetation nor canals on Mars.

Wednesday 15th December, 1965
Gemini 6 rendezvous with Gemini 7 in Earth orbit.


The 18th and 19th Centuries
1966 to 2000

by StrauchiusStrauchius on 30 Nov 2010 11:55, last updated on 02 Feb 2022 14:18