אלעזר, Lazarus of Bethany
Approximately 1 to around 31, then around 31 to about 70?
Flint claims to have been Lazarus in TOS “Requiem for Methuselah”. If so, it certainly adds a new twist to the Bible story. Lazarus is traditionally supposed to have been the first Bishop of Kittim in Cyprus. See also Flint: Immortal Genius, or Completely Barking Mad?
86
Parmen and Philana are married, when Philana is 117. It’s from TOS “Plato’s Stepchildren”, always assuming that Philana is being completely accurate when she says she’s 2,300 years old in 2269. Otherwise, the dates could vary by quite a bit.
Before 120
Over 500 Ocampan generations ago, the Ocampans move underground. This guess takes into account the short Ocampan lifespan. I’ve used an average generation of 4.5 years, based on the information provided by Kes in “Star Trek: Voyager”. The specific reference to the move is from VOY “Caretaker”. The destruction of the ecosphere of an inhabited planet in the Delta Quadrant by the Nacene is also dated to “a thousand years ago,” so this estimate may be a bit on the high side.
Before 7200 V.E.; “More than two millennia” ago
Spock’s family acquires the ceremonial grounds seen in TOS “Amok Time”. The reference is specifically to it being more than 2,000 Earth years.
Mani
Approximately 216 to Monday 2nd March, 274
Prophet, founder of Manichaeism.
Before 258
More than 2,000 years before DCY “The Sound of Thunder”, the last Kelpian before Saru lost their fear ganglia.
Very roughly 266?
The civilisation on Beta Portolan is destroyed by the flying parasites. The event is mentioned in TOS “Operation: Annihilate!” with no clue as to when it happened. I’ve guessed at 2,000 years, because it seemed as good a progression as any.
4th to 9th Centuries
15 to 20 centuries before TNG “Half a Life”, the people of Kaelon II decide to kill anyone who’s lived to the age of 60.
Saint Ambrose
Approximately 337 to Saturday 5th (4th OS) April, 397
He coined the phrase “Si fueris Romae, Romano vivito more; Si fueris alibi, vivito sicut ibi.” “When in Rome, live as the Romans do; when elsewhere, live as they live elsewhere,” was his advice to Saint Augustine. The opening part of the English version was used in ENT “Babel One” and TNG “Justice”.
Approximately 7250 V.E.; around 350
The Great Awakening on Vulcan. The Stone of Gol is created in the terrible wars immediately before. TNG “Gambit, Part II” and TOS “The Forge” mention this time, and place it 1,800 years before “Star Trek: Enterprise” and 2,000 years before “Star Trek: The Next Generation”.
Following a final battle in which Surak suffers radiation poisoning and later dies on Mount Seleya, one faction of Vulcans abandons the planet altogether, eventually becoming the Romulans. At some stage, Surak’s katra is placed in a katric ark and transported to P’Jem. TOS “Balance of Terror” and ENT “Awakening”.
Shortly after this, the Vulcans abandon interstellar spaceflight for almost 15 centuries, according to ENT “The Forge”.
The Debrune settle on Barradas III, approximately 2,000 years before TNG “Gambit, Part I”. They are an offshoot of the Romulans.
The Dominion is firmly established as an interstellar empire in the Gamma Quadrant, with the Jem’Hadar defending it. DS9 “To the Death” says the Dominion has endured for 2,000 years, and DS9 “What You Leave Behind” says “for two millennia the Jem’Hadar have been the Dominion’s first line of defence.”
Approximately 370
20 centuries before DS9 “The Search, Part I”, a Yoruba craftsman carves a mask. Eventually it will be a prized possession of Benjamin Sisko.
Before 371
The Vidiians fall victim to a terrible disease, the phage. According to VOY “Phage”, their attempts to survive cause considerable problems for other races in the Delta quadrant for more than two thousand years.
Approximately 375
The civilisation on Golana V vanishes, 2,000 years before DS9 “Time’s Orphan”.
Wednesday 25th (24th OS) August, 410
The city of Rome is sacked by the Visigoths. Captain Picard refers to this event as the fall of the Roman Empire in TNG “The Best of Both Worlds, Part I”.
428
Traditional date for the arrival of the first Saxon war band to settle permanently in Britain. The Saxons really did settle in Britain, but the historicity of Vortigern, Hengist and Horsa is open to question.
458 to 499
Travels of Buddhist monk Hui Shen (慧深) in a land far to the east of China. Some aspects of the few details that survive of his report on his return to China suggest that he may have journeyed to North and Central America. On the other hand, the account of his journey to the land of Fusang, 扶桑 may refer to Japan, or be entirely a matter of legend.
King Arthur
Approximately 470 to Friday 1st June (30th May OS), 542
These are the traditional dates. His greatest victiory, the Battle of Badon, was in 521. Flint claims to have been the wizard Merlin in TOS “Requiem for Methuselah”. See also Flint: Immortal Genius, or Completely Barking Mad?
Saturday 9th (7th OS) April, 529
The first part of the “Codex Justinianus” is issued, with further instalments appearing up to 534. Samuel Cogley mentions it in TOS “Court Martial”.
536
Something happens. It’s been suggested that a natural disaster, perhaps a huge volcanic eruption, maybe a comet impact, caused a huge increase in the amount of dust in the upper atmosphere. There are a number of eye-witness accounts from the period describing how the Sun “lost its heat.” It has also been speculated that this event started the break in recorded history that’s known today as the “Dark Ages.”
Mid sixth century
The fantastical journeys of Saint Brendan the Navigator. Some people have detected an account of a trip to North America and the Caribbean in the saint’s travels.
558
The “Plague of Justinian” begins in Europe and kills many people throughout the Old World.
Muhammad
Yawm as-sabt 4 Rabi’ al-Awwal, -53 to Yawm al-‘ithnayn 13 Rabi’ al-Awwal, 13 A.H.; Saturday 28th April, 570 to Monday 11th June, 632
His exact date of birth is the subject of considerable debate, so I’ve just gone with one option. You’ll notice I’ve not been fancy with his name. The name of the Prophet in Arabic has to fulfil some stringent requirements in order to avoid insult.
Approximately 750
The Metron who speaks to Captain Kirk in TOS “Arena” says he’s approximately fifteen hundred Earth years old, so he’d be whatever the Metron equivalent of “born” is about now.
Charlemagne
Monday 6th (2nd OS) April, 742 to Saturday 1st February (28th January OS), 814
In TNG “Journey’s End” Jean-Luc Picard says that he can trace his ancestors in Western Europe back to this time.
Comment: What a show-off! Unless Picard starts a family after “Star Trek: Nemesis” it all ends when Picard dies, since the rest of his ancient and aristocratic family perish off-screen just before “Star Trek: Insurrection”. “Star Trek: Picard” does indeed strongly suggest he’s the “last of the Picards.”
774 to 775
A strong burst of gamma radiation hit the Earth. Ice cores and dendrochronology have preserved the event, but it’s not likely to have had any real impact on anyone living through it. The precise cause is unclear, with opinion divided between a collision between stars thousands of light years away, or a solar flare from our own sun.
Approximately 2 Q.B.N. (qeylIS bov nubwI’, “before the era of Kahless”); about 820
The Battle of Quam-Chee. Worf says it was fought “a thousand years ago” in DS9 “Looking for Par’Mach in All the Wrong Places”. This has led to a rather confusing contrast between the death of Kahless in “the ninth century” and the battle, in “1373.” I’ve assumed that it takes place about 1,000 Klingon years before. Although it can’t postdate the death of Kahless, it could be considerably earlier than I have it.
The start of qeylIS bov, “the era of Kahless” or Klingon Era
1 a’qeylIS, 1 Q.B.; Saturday 5th March, 822
The modern Klingon Calendar begins with a major event in the life of Kahless the Unforgettable. After a lot of thinking, I picked the death of Kahless, based on a line cut out of TNG “Rightful Heir”, which placed his death in 823. (Data says that he died 1,547 years before, and I place that story in 2370, “2369”; so I will further assume that Kahless dies sometime on or after 45th lo’bral, 1 Q.B.; after all, Christmas does fall in December. The main difficulty in creating a Klingon calendar comes in making sure the length of the Klingon day doesn’t become silly, so I’ve been content with something approximate.) It’s the only even vaguely accurate date we have for Kahless. Everything about Kahless is hidden under a layer of myth and exaggeration. A strict interpretation of the evidence might be taken to mean that Kahless achieves a pyrrhic victory. Yes, he slays Molor the Tyrant and becomes Emperor, but he’s challenged almost immediately by Molor the Younger and is killed himself. But Jan Michael Friedman’s novel Kahless gives him a reign lasting several decades. The time Kahless lived varies from “15 centuries” before in TNG “Rightful Heir”, 1,400 years in DS9 “The Sword of Kahless” and about 1,000 years in TNG “Rightful Heir” (according to Gowron) and DS9 “Looking for Par’Mach in All the Wrong Places”. Although the “era of Kahless” might be taken to begin with his accession, I’ve assumed that it was calculated long after the event by religious scholars, and reflects The Promise, possibly based on traditional accounts, and astronomical calculations about the visibility of Boreth from the surface of Chronos.
Comment: The Klingon name for the era of Kahless is semi-official, and comes from paq’batlh. It’s Marc Okrand’s work, so it’s more than good enough for me.
Sometime between mer’utlhIj and QuSten 1 Q.B.; January to September 823
The “Promise” and the death of Kahless, 1,547 years before TNG “Rightful Heir”, as explained in the previous entry.
Approximately 850
Two factions on the planet Solais V go to war, and continue fighting for another fifteen centuries. TNG “Loud as a Whisper”.
853-855
Alleged reign of Pope John VIII, who turned out to be an Englishwoman called Joan. Maybe. Although it’s probably just a story.
Approximately 923 to around 947
The best guess as to the reign of Topiltzin Cē Ācatl Quetzalcōatl “Our Prince One-Reed Feathered Serpent” in Mesoamerica. Chakotay has an ancestor called Cē Ācatl, or “One Reed”. It isn’t this one, since he lived long before the Spanish conquest, unlike Chakotay’s ancestor.
Approximately 950
The earliest date I could find for the introduction of firearms. Things like primitive shotguns were being used in China.
In TOS “A Private Little War”, Uhura suggests that there were 12 centuries between the forging of iron and the development of firearms. As far as I can see, it’s more like 20.
996
King Yeshe-Od of Ngari founds the Tholing Monastery, in present-day Tibet. Jonathan Archer visits, sometime before ENT “The Andorian Incident”. It’s the oldest monastery he’s visited before that story.
Approximately 1000
The epic poem “Beowulf” is written down in Anglo-Saxon, although it was probably composed earlier than this, and describes events which are meant to be set in sixth-century Scandinavia, about the year 510. The story is central to the plot of VOY “Heroes and Demons”.
A very large volcano on the present-day border between China and North Korea, called Baekdu, 백두산 in Korean and Changbai, 長白山 in Chinese, undergoes one of the biggest eruptions in modern times.
Leif Ericson
Approximately 970 to about 1020
Widely accepted as the first European to have visited North America, in the year 1000. He’s one of the heroic figures Marla McGivers paints in TOS “Space Seed”.
Brian Bóroimhe
Approximately 941 to 29th (23rd OS) April, 1014
Brian Bóruma mac Cennétig, an Irish King, who died at the Battle of Clontarf. Chief O’Brien claims descent from Brian Boru in DS9 “Bar Association”; along with everyone else whose last name is O’Brien.
Approximately 142 Q.B.; around 1042
It is around now that the Second Dynasty on Chronos ends in blood. There is a ten-year interregnum, known later as “The Dark Time” before the Third Dynasty is established. DS9 “You Are Cordially Invited…”, based on a precise date that appeared in the script, but not the final story.
152 Q.B.; 1057 or 1058
The marriage of Shenara (formerly known as Karana) and Keltar. A precise date from the script of DS9 “You Are Cordially Invited…” not used in the actual story. Shenara had been the daughter of the Klingon Emperor Reclaw, and hadn’t survived the fall of the Second Dynasty. Kenara was a concubine who assumed the identity of the princess. Dax helpfully explains it all.
1095 to 1291
The Crusades, a series of military campaigns by the European powers aimed at placing Jerusalem under Christian control. Trelane claims to have replicas of battle flags used in the Crusades in TOS “The Squire of Gothos”.
Not long after 1153
The sphere visited by Enterprise in ENT “The Xindi” was manufactured around now. It’s later determined that there are 59 spheres altogether, and they’re “almost a thousand years old” in ENT “Chosen Realm” and ENT “Anomaly”.
Around 1155
Almost a thousand years before ENT “Cogenitor”, the Vissians develop warp drive.
Richard I “the Lionheart” of England
Sunday 15th (8th OS) September, 1157 to Tuesday 13th (6th OS) April, 1199
He’s one of the heroic figures Marla McGivers paints in TOS “Space Seed”.
“The Twelfth Century”
Captain Picard’s guess as to the period Robin Hood lived. It’s very inaccurately recreated by Q in TNG “Qpid”. Many attempts have been made to identify a real, historical Robin Hood. So far, none of the candidates have anything more than small, partisan followings. The popular myth is very clear: Robin Hood operated in the Forest of Sherwood and the town of Nottingham during the reigns of Richard the Lionheart and Bad King John (reigned Tuesday 13th (6th OS) April, 1199 to Wednesday 26th (19th OS) October, 1216). Who can say it’s not real?
Genghis Khan
Approximately 1162 to Wednesday 25th (18th OS) August, 1227
He’s mentioned in TOS “What Are Little Girls Made Of?” and he’s one of the recreated baddies in TOS “The Savage Curtain”.
“The Thirteenth Century”
A statuette of a horse made in Sung Dynasty China at this time (1127-1279 are the dates for the 南宋or Southern Sung Dynasty) is presented to Lutan of Ligon II in TNG “Code of Honor”.
Comment: Captain Picard dates the piece to the 14th century, and it’s Data that provides the correct date.
1213
King John of England sends a deputation to the King of Morocco offering to become his ally and convert himself and his kingdom to Islam.
Monday 22nd (15th OS) June, 1215
King John signs the Magna Carta. Sam Cogley refers to it in TOS “Court Martial”.
Before 1256
The Crepusculans settle their planet, more than 1,000 years before DCY “The Vulcan Hello”.
Before 1268
Wu’s father is born on Omega IV, assuming their years are about the same length as ours. It’s over a thousand years before TOS “The Omega Glory”.
Comment: The idea that the planet Omega was colonised from Earth seems impractical based on this date. Either the eternal conflict between Yankee and Commie played out countless times on identical Earths, or there’s time travel involved. The decision is yours.
Marco Polo
Tuesday 22nd (15th OS) September, 1254 to Monday 17th (9th OS) January, 1324
Captain Picard mentions him in TNG “Contagion”, along with the rather implausible observation that China was just a myth in Europe before Polo’s journey there.
Approximately 1269
One hundred disembodied minds manage to escape the destruction of Zetar, a millennium before TOS “The Lights of Zetar”.
Comment: “Zetar” is sometimes used to refer to the star Zeta Reticuli, but the Zetars’ own story rules this out as their point of origin.
Before 1270
The Elysian Council is formed within the Delta Triangle, over 1,000 years before TAS “The Time Trap”.
Monday 3rd July (26th June OS), 1284
The date of the return of the Pied Piper to the German town of Hameln. His previous visit led to the deaths of an unspecified number of rats. This time 130 children disappear, presumed dead. It’s the traditional date, although sources can vary quite a lot. Richard Verstegan the antiquary gave Tuesday 30th (22nd OS) July, 1336. It appears to be a historical fact that a number of children vanished from the town in 1284, but the truth of what happened is completely obscured by the picturesque legend that has grown up.
1295
The approximate date when Dante Alighieri’s work “La Vita Nuova” was published. The EMH very freely translates the opening of the book in VOY “Latent Image”.
1322 to 1356
According to his own account, Sir John Mandeville travels widely in Asia and Africa. Depending on what authority you consult, Sir John Mandeville may or may not have existed at all, and may or may not have ever travelled outside Europe.
Summer 1334
Flint experiences an outbreak of bubonic plague in Constantinople. He gives the year in TOS “Requiem for Methuselah”.
Continuity: The Black Death devastated Europe from 1347-1353, with Constantinople being one of the first places affected in 1347. Cases of bubonic plague, not to mention other epidemics of fatal illness, happened regularly in Europe during summer for most of recorded history, so it is one of the “normal” and more localised epidemics that Flint is recalling, rather than one of the ones so severe as to be remembered as a “Great Pestilence.” Either that or I should flag the date as erroneous. See also Flint: Immortal Genius, or Completely Barking Mad?
Friday 4th May (26th April OS), 1336
Petrarch’s ascent of Mount Ventoux, described in a famous published letter. It’s mentioned in VOY “Concerning Flight”.
Approximately 1350
The “Reed” Organian begins observing other species, 800 years before ENT “Observer Effect”.
Approximately 1367
Exactly 1,000 Ventaxian years before TNG “Devil's Due”, the people of Ventax II sign a deal with Ardra. Assuming that a Ventaxian year is approximately the same as an Earth one, of course.
“A thousand years ago”
Since this is the point around one thousand years before “Star Trek: The Next Generation” it makes sense to group all the events that happened “a thousand years ago” together:
Sometime before this, the Promellians and Menthars fight a war so destructive it obliterates the entire planet Orelious IX, turning it into an asteroid field. TNG “Booby Trap”, based on Captain Picard's guess.
The planet Kataan is destroyed by a nova, but not before a probe is launched into interstellar space, containing a flute, and memory records. TNG “The Inner Light”.
A group of travellers is stranded on a planet on two intersecting dimensional planes in the Gamma Quadrant, which they name Meridian. DS9 “Meridian”.
The Klingon homeworld of Chronos is invaded by an unknown race, called the “Outsiders” or Hur’q in Klingon. The planet is pillaged, and a number of priceless artefacts, including the Sword of Kahless are taken. DS9 “The Sword of Kahless”. My guesses about Klingon chronology would make it the middle of the 4th century Q.B.
Perhaps as a result of this, the Klingons henceforth claim that they have killed their gods. DS9 “Homefront”.
Around this time, the Vaardwaur first encounter the Borg. They are confined to a small number of star systems, and are not seen as any kind of threat. VOY “Dragon’s Teeth”.
Sometime before this, the Vulcans stop celebrating Rumarie, which had involved feasting and orgies, according to VOY “Meld”. It is also perhaps linked to the decision to stigmatise the Vulcan mind-meld, making it virtually unknown for several centuries, as explained in ENT “Fusion”. My guesswork about the Vulcan calendar would place this before approximately 8100 V.E.
The Hirogen adopt their hunting lifestyle sometime before now, according to VOY “The Killing Game, Part I”.
Approximately 1380
According to account published in 1588, the Zeno brothers of Venice made an extensive trip around the North Atlantic, possibly visiting Newfoundland, amongst other places. On the other hand, they equally might not have done.
“The Fifteenth Century”
Activity of a poet, Singh el Bashir, an ancestor of Julian Bashir, according to DS9 “Statistical Probabilities”. He’s fictitious, as far as I’ve been able to discover.
1421 to 1424
The last great voyage of the Chinese “treasure ships.”
1454 or 1455
The Gutenberg Bible is first published. Flint owns a copy in TOS “Requiem for Methuselah”. Data is compared to a Gutenberg Bible by Rasmussen in TNG “A Matter of Time”.
Vlad the Impaler
Wednesday 23rd November (14th OS), 1431 to December, 1476
Prince of Wallachia and the real-life inspiration for the fictional Count Dracula.
Leonardo da Vinci
Saturday 24th (15th OS) April, 1452 to Monday 12th (2nd OS) May, 1519
TOS “Requiem for Methuselah” makes it pretty obvious that Da Vinci is really supposed to be Flint. If so, he’s recreated in the Voyager holodeck, featuring in several stories, most notably VOY “Concerning Flight”, where Captain Janeway is doubtful that James T. Kirk met the real Da Vinci. The EMH also mentions him in VOY “Darkling”. See also Flint: Immortal Genius, or Completely Barking Mad? In TNG “The Most Toys”, Kivas Fajo appears to be the owner of the Mona Lisa, painted by Da Vinci. Goodness knows how he acquired it.
1480 to 1820
The Holy Office or Spanish Inquisition is in existence. Similar religious organisations operate in France, Portugal and the Italian states, although for nowhere near as long. Although these religious bodies are intended to suppress heresy, they also extend their remit to scientific and philosophical breakthroughs.
1484
A few hundred Vaardwaur go into suspended animation, following the devastation of their planet. It’s 892 years before VOY “Dragon’s Teeth”(August 2376), assuming Voyager’s sensor readings are accurate.
Approximately 1485
The Earth at this time rated “B” on the Industrial Scale, with a Technological rating of 3, according to TOS “Spock’s Brain”.
Late 15th and 16th centuries
The surviving parts of the Great Wall of China, 長城, date from this time. Neelix identifies it as one of the few man-made structures visible to the naked eye from space constructed before the 22nd century in VOY “11:59”. It’s by no means the only human-built structure visible from space already, and people who’ve actually been up and taken a look say that the wall isn’t all that easy to spot at all.
Friday 21st (12th OS) October, 1492
Christopher Columbus makes landfall in the New World. Columbus is mentioned in ENT “Horizon”. Rather inaccurately, Sybok says that Columbus’ voyages proved the world was round in “Star Trek V: The Final Frontier”.
Comment: He certainly wasn't the first European to make the trip (see the entry for “Leif Ericson” above), but his landfall marks the beginning of European conquest and colonisation.
Saturday 16th (7th OS) June, 1494
The entire world outside Europe is partitioned between Spain and Portugal by the Treaty of Tordesillas.
Michelangelo
Monday 15th (6th OS) March, 1475 to Friday 28th (18th OS) February, 1564
Dr Noonien Soong compares himself to Michelangelo in TNG “Brothers”.
ਗੁਰੂ ਨਾਨਕ ਦੇਵ, Guru Nanak
Friday 29th (20th OS) October, 1469 to Monday 2nd October (22nd September OS), 1539
16th century
Approximately 800 years before DS9 “Sanctuary”, the T-Rogorans conquer the Skrreeans.
Sometime in the 16th to 18th centuries
Chakotay’s direct ancestor Cē Ācatl becomes a great leader of his people, according to VOY “Basics, Part I”.
Continuity: In fact, the name simply means “One Reed” in the Nahuatl language, and is the name of a year. He certainly can’t be identified with any historical figure. My best guess as to Chakotay and Kolopak’s mysterious tribe is that they live somewhere in the Mexican province of Tabasco, or perhaps the southern part of Veracruz. They would then be associated with the “Olmec” or “rubber” people, although no-one today knows what these people referred to themselves as. “Olmec” is just a convenient modern label for their society. I’ve calculated potential “One Reed” years for the relevant period, based on them repeating every 52 years, and 1519 being a year “One Reed.” One, more or none of these years may be associated with Chakotay’s ancestor: 1467, 1519, 1571, 1623, 1675, 1727, 1779, 1831.
Comment: VOY “Tattoo” establishes the Rubber Tree People, who turn out to be tree-hugging forehead aliens of the week.
Ferdinand Magellan
Approximately 1480 to Saturday 7th May (27 April OS), 1524
He’s mentioned in ENT “Horizon”.
Anne Boleyn
Approximately 1501 to Friday 29th (19th OS) May, 1536
The second wife of Henry VIII of England, she was the main excuse for the split between the Church of England and Rome; but Henry’s worries about the succession led him to have her executed. Their daughter became Queen Elizabeth. Data researches her as a “romantic historical figure” in TNG “In Theory”.
1538
The EMH has autopsy reports from duels dating back to this year, according to VOY “Parturition”.
Thursday 3rd June (24th May OS), 1543
The death of the astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus. The same year his book “De Revolutionibus Orbium Coelestium”, “On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres” is published. The book presents the mathematical arguments for placing the Sun at the centre of the Solar System. Following some debate, the book is placed on the Index Librorum Prohibitorum by the Roman Catholic Church from 1616 to 1835.
Giorgio Vasari
Wednesday 9th August (30th July OS), 1511 to Sunday 7th July (27th June OS), 1574
He’s mentioned in passing in VOY “Concerning Flight”.
Sunday 8th January, 1567 (29th December, 1566 OS)
Astronomer Tycho Brahe loses his nose in a duel. It’s mentioned in ENT “The Andorian Incident”. For the rest of his life, he wears a fake nose. According to contemporary accounts, it’s “silver and gold,” but modern analysis suggests the prosthesis was made of brass.
Approximately 8520 B.E.; around 1570
800 years before DS9 “Explorers”, the Bajorans explore their solar system using spacecraft propelled by solar sails. The unusual properties of space in the area make it possible that they might have been able to travel to the Cardassian star system. Jake Sisko suggests that this is the time “humans” began exploring their oceans. If he’d specified “Europeans,” then it would be closer to the mark, since this was the great age of discovery for European mariners.
Edmund Spenser
Approximately 1552 to Saturday 23rd (13th OS) January, 1599
His great but unfinished poem, “The Faerie Queen” was published in two instalments in the 1590s. The poem’s mentioned in VOY “Spirit Folk”.
Friday 15th October, 1582
The first day of the Gregorian calendar (promulgated by Pope Gregory XIII) correcting problems with the earlier Julian calendar, introduced by Julius Caesar. Gradually, this revised calendar has been adopted across most of the world. Britain and its possessions adopted a similar reform on Thursday 14th September, 1752 and that’s why there are still “OS” dates for events in the English-speaking world until then.
1587
Following an earlier failed attempt, an English settlement is made on Roanoke Island in North America. The governor of the small colony returned to England for supplies late in the year, but was unable to get back to Roanoke at all until 1590 because of the war with Spain. Except for a cryptic message carved on a tree and some debris, the colony had vanished, leaving no trace of more than 100 men, women and children.
Sunday 31st July to Monday 8th August (21st to 29th July OS), 1588
The Spanish Armada is defeated by the English. It’s the historical event Malcolm Reed would most like to see in ENT “Future Tense”.
William Shakespeare
Sunday 3rd May (23rd April OS), 1564 to Tuesday 3rd May (23rd April OS), 1616
Shakespeare’s work features heavily throughout “Star Trek”. ENT “Cogenitor” has the Vissian captain Drennik reading the whole of Shakepeare and quoting Hamlet, Act I, Scene 5: “There are more things in heaven and earth, [Horatio,] Than are dreamt of in your philosophy.” Christopher Pike makes the same quote in DCY “New Eden”. TOS “The Conscience of the King” includes excerpts from Macbeth and Hamlet. In TOS “By Any Other Name” Captain Kirk quotes Romeo and Juliet: “What's in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.” In TOS “Is There in Truth No Beauty?” Spock/Kollos paraphrases The Tempest: “O brave new world, That has such people in’t” as “O brave new world, that has such creatures in it.” The line’s Miranda’s in the play, and Miranda Jones replies with Prospero’s line; “’Tis new to thee.” In TOS “Plato’s Stepchildren” Kirk is forced to quote Sonnet 57: “Being your slave, what should I do but tend Upon the hours and times of your desire? I have no precious time at all to spend, Nor services to do, till you require.” Marta quotes Sonnet 18 in TOS “Whom Gods Destroy”: “Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day? Thou art more lovely and more temperate. Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May, And summer’s lease hath all too short (misquoted as “soon”) a date.” In TAS “How Sharper than a Serpent’s Tooth” Captain Kirk quotes the relevant part of King Lear: “How sharper than a serpent’s tooth it is, To have a thankless child!” In “Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home”, Doctor McCoy quotes Hamlet, Act I, Scene 4 (according to Spock, who is right) “Angels and ministers of grace, defend us!” “Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country” is littered with Shakespearean quotes, some in the original Klingon, and taken from Hamlet, The Tempest, Romeo and Juliet, Henry IV, Part 2, King Richard II, Henry V, Julius Caesar and The Merchant of Venice. In TNG “Encounter at Farpoint” Captain Picard quotes from Henry VI, Part 2: “The first thing we do, let’s kill all the lawyers.” In TNG “The Naked Now” Data paraphrases The Merchant of Venice: “If you prick us, do we not bleed?” as “If you prick me, do I not leak?” In TNG “Hide and Q”, Q adapts As You Like It: “All the world’s a stage” to “All the galaxy’s a stage.” He then quotes Macbeth: “Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player that struts and frets his hour upon the stage, and then is heard no more. It is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.” Picard responds with a quote from Hamlet: “What a piece of work is man! How noble in reason! How infinite in faculty. In form, in moving, how express and admirable. In action, how like an angel. In apprehension, how like a god,” Data also quotes Hamlet: “This above all: to thine own self be true.” TNG “The Schizoid Man” has Picard quoting Sonnet XVIII: “So long as men can breathe or eyes can see, so long lives this, and this gives life to thee.” Commander Maddox reads Data’s copy of Sonnet XXIX in TNG “The Measure of a Man”: “When in disgrace with fortune and men’s eyes, I all alone beweep my outcast state.” TNG “The Defector” has Data and Picard performing in quite a long (but edited) excerpt from Henry V Act IV, Scene 1. Picard quotes Hamlet Act I, Scene 2 as an epitaph for Data in TNG “The Most Toys”: “He was a man, take him for all in all, I shall not look upon his like again.” In TNG “Ménage à Troi”, Picard quotes Sonnet 147: “My love is a fever, longing still for that which longer nurseth the disease,” and Sonnet 141: “In faith, I do not love thee with mine eyes, for they in thee a thousand errors see. But ’tis my heart that loves what they despise, who in despite of view are pleas’d to dote.” He then starts the same quote from Sonnet 18 as Marta gave in TOS “Whom Gods Destroy”: “Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day? Thou art more lovely and more temperate.” In TNG “The Perfect Mate”, Kamala makes specific reference to Picard’s, and therefore her, interest in Shakespeare, and paraphrases some of the imagery of Sonnet 127, without using a direct quote. TNG “Time’s Arrow, Part II” features a heavily-edited extract from A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Act II, Scene I. TNG “Emergence” takes us back to The Tempest, Act V, Scene 1: “Graves at my command have wak’d their sleepers, op’d, and let ’em forth by my so potent art. But this rough magic I here abjure, and when I have required some heavenly music, which even now I do, to work mine end upon their senses, that this airy charm is for, I’ll break my staff, bury it certain fathoms in the earth, and deeper than did ever plummet…” is quoted by Data, playing Prospero. Captain Picard also quotes Miranda’s line: “O brave new world, that has such people in it.” That's a very popular quote in “Star Trek”, although it varies a bit. DS9 “Statistical Probabilities” includes the line “Methought I heard a voice cry ‘Sleep no more! Macbeth does murder sleep.’” from Macbeth, Act II, Scene II, although Macbeth’s name is replaced by Damar’s. DCY “Perpetual Infinity” quotes Hamlet Act I, Scene 5: “The time is out of joint. O cursed spite, That ever I was born to set it right!” near enough, anyway. The title DCY “Such Sweet Sorrow” is from Romeo and Juliet Act II, Scene 2. In PIC “Remembrance”, Picard says “There is no legacy as rich as honesty”, a paraphrase of All’s Well That Ends Well Act III Scene 5: “The honour of a maid is her name; and no legacy is so rich as honesty.” Picard eulogises Data in PIC “Et in Arcadia ego” with a quote from The Tempest, Act I, Scene 4: “We are such stuff as dreams are made on, and our little life is rounded with a sleep.”
Sunday 24th October, 1593
According to some very after-the-fact accounts, Spanish soldier Gil Pérez was instantaneously transported from Manila in the Philippines to Mexico City.
Comment: I think it’s just a tall story, but I’m certainly not able to prove it didn’t happen.
Seventeenth century
The possibly American lullaby “Rock a bye baby” is believed to date from this century. The EMH sings it in VOY “Human Error”.
It’s during this century that the major building work is completed on Glamis Castle. At some point Maturin visits the castle with his family, and it influences his decision to settle on the Caldos Colony, as he explains in TNG “Sub Rosa”.
Saturday 8th August (29th July OS), 1609
Thomas Harriott looks at the Moon through a telescope and makes a rough sketch of what he’s seen. It’s the first authenticated record of a telescopic observation of the Moon.
Friday 8th January, 1610
Astronomer Galileo Galilei discovers four of the moons of Jupiter, using one of a series of telescopes he has been constructing since the previous May. It is the first absolutely unequivocal evidence that all the objects in the heavens don’t circle the Earth. When Galileo tries to point this out in 1633, he runs into trouble with the Inquisition. He’s mentioned as a “martyr of science” in DS9 “In the Hands of the Prophets”. Sisko correctly says it was 7 centuries before. Flint claims to have known him, in TOS “Requiem for Methuselah”.
1611
Publication of the King James Version of the Bible. Dr Ozaba in TOS The Empath” quotes Psalm ninety five, verse four: “In his hand are the deep places of the earth.” Later in the same show Scotty refers to the Gospel of Matthew, 13:45-46: “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto a merchant man, seeking goodly pearls who, when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had, and bought it.” In TOS “The Trouble with Tribbles”, Mr Spock also quotes Matthew (6:28): “Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin.” Also, the First Epistle to the Corinthians, which includes the phrase rendered in the King James Version as: “For now we see through a glass, darkly.” Captain Picard quotes it in “Star Trek: Nemesis”.
1623
Shakepeare’s First Folio is published. Flint owns a copy in TOS “Requiem for Methuselah”.
Approximately 1630
First publication of “El burlador de Sevilla y convidado de piedra” by Tirso de Molina. It’s the first play about the life and adventures of the fictional Don Juan. Don Juan features in Yeoman Barrows’ daydreams in TOS “Shore Leave”.
The flintlock rifle is also invented around now. Flintlocks are a part of the plot in TOS “A Private Little War”. Incidentally, Uhura guesses that it took humans twelve centuries after the forging of iron to invent them, but that’s far too short, as far as I can tell, and have already mentioned earlier.
John Milton
Friday 19th (9th OS) December, 1608 to Sunday 18th (8th OS) November, 1674
Khan alludes to his work “Paradise Lost” in TOS “Space Seed”. The specific quote is: “Better to reign in Hell, then serve in Heav’n,” paraphrased as “It is better to reign in Hell than serve in Heaven.” Rasmussen lists him as a “blind genius” in TNG “A Matter of Time”. Deanna Troi quotes from “Paradise Lost” in TNG “Dark Page”.
1644
The Latin phrase “Cogito ergo sum” is published for the first time by René Descartes in Principles of Philosophy (although it had appeared earlier in French). It’s the phrase Moriarty uses in TNG “Elementary, Dear Data” to support his argument that he’s a living being.
1647
Birth of a man who eventually calls himself Ronin, in Glasgow. At some stage in his life he is linked to an anaphasic life form. This effectively gives him eternal life, just so long as he is able to recharge himself in the company of a woman with the right biochemistry. Fortunately, he makes the acquaintance of Jessel Howard, and then rather creepily spends the next eight centuries serially seducing her direct female descendants. All this is explained in TNG “Sub Rosa”.
1662
Although the original sentiment is from the King James Bible, the phrase in common use comes from Samuel Butler’s Hudibras: “Spare the rod and spoil the child.” It was published in this year as: “Love is a Boy, by Poets styl’d, Then Spare the Rod, and spill the Child.” Data uses it as parenting advice in TNG “The Offspring”.
December 1663
Founding of the Lucasian Professorship of Mathematics at Cambridge University. Sir Isaac Newton and Stephen Hawking have held the position, and Data gets the job in the alternate future of TNG “All Good Things…”
1665
Following his death, a note is discovered by Pierre de Fermat saying that he had discovered a “remarkable proof” to a mathematical problem. A thorough search failed to find any trace of Fermat’s solution, and it was not until 1993 that a proof was rediscovered, although it is very unlikely that this was what Fermat had in mind, if indeed he did solve his own last theorem. TNG “The Royale” suggests that a proof which might plausibly have been worked out by Fermat is still eluding mathematicians in the 24th century. In DS9 “Facets” Tobin Dax also says he worked on Fermat’s Last Theorem.
1666
Traditionally, the year in which Isaac Newton observed a falling apple, leading to the development of a theory of gravitation published in “Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica”, on Tuesday 15th (5th OS) July, 1687. VOY “Death Wish” says that is was Quinn who made the apple fall at the vital moment. In TNG “Descent, Part I”, Data plays poker with a holographic Newton. In “Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan”, David Marcus tells Carol she’ll be remembered with Newton.
Approximately 1670
In TNG “Rascals”, Captain Picard finds some wonderful 700 year old Marlonian cookware shards. He dates them to the second century of their calendar.
Guinan’s father is also born around this time, as Guinan points out when she’s shown the old pottery.
Approximately 8640 B.E.; around 1675
The Book of the Kosst Amojan hasn’t been removed from the archives for seven hundred years before DS9 “The Changing Face of Evil”.
Baruch Spinosa
Wednesday 24th November, 1632 to Sunday 21st February, 1677
Gary Mitchell reads his works very quickly in TOS “Where No Man Has Gone Before”.
Saturday 10th August, 1680 to Sunday 14th September, 1692
The Pueblo Revolt in New Mexico. One of the Spanish soldiers involved is Javier Maribona-Picard, an ancestor of Captain Picard. The revolt is a real event, and Picard’s fictional ancestor is mentioned in TNG “Journey’s End”.
Sometime between Tuesday 11th March (1st OS) and Wednesday 29th October (19th OS), 1692
The Magicks of Megas-Tu are forced to leave Earth after being discovered in Salem, Massachusetts; assuming that it occurred during the witch-hunt. (TAS “The Magicks of Megas-Tu”.)
by Strauchius on 30 Nov 2010 17:18, last updated on 02 Feb 2022 07:57
