Timeline / Watchmen

Much of the information comes from this timeline here, which may be incomplete and subject to change.

Beware of unmarked spoilers

1901

• August 21: Rolf Müller is born.

1916

• Hollis Mason is born.

1917

• July 4: William Benjamin Brady is born in a farming town in Nebraska.

1920

• Sally Juspeczyk is born.
• Nelson Gardner is born.
• Little Jacob is kidnapped in the Hauptzelt Zircus by Rolf Müller.

1924

• Edward Morgan Blake is born.

1927

• Hollis Mason's father leaves his father's farm at Montana for New York.

1928

• Hollis Mason's father begins working at Vernon's Auto Repairs.
• The Canada Malting Company constructs the largest factory on the shores of the Hudson.

1929

• August 14: Jon Osterman is born.
• October 29: The Stock Market crashes. The malting factory remains unfinished.

1930

• John David Keene is born.

1931

• Beatrice Vernon starts dating Fred Motz.

1933

• February 14: Eddie Jacobi has his heart broken when he finds out that his crush, Marie, hates him.
• At the age of 17, Hollis Mason encounters a situation he calls "The Ride of the Valkyries": Beatrice and Fred leave Moe Vernon, who then commits suicide.
• Janey Slater is born.

1935

• Peter Joseph Kovacs and Sylvia Joanna Kovacs leave Ohio for New York.

1937

• Edgar Jacobi arrives to Chicago and begins his career as Moloch the Mystic.
• Wally Weaver is born
• The Kovacses divorce.

1938

• First issue of Action Comics is released.
• Hollis Mason graduates police college.
• August 14: Jon Osterman gets a clock as a birthday present from his father.
• October 13: Hooded Justice, the first masked vigilante, stops a supermarket robbery. This inspires Hollis Mason to become the first Nite Owl.
• Mason as Nite Owl fights at Gotham Opera House.
• In the final game of the season, Dartmouth plays against the Horned Frogs of Texas Christian University. Bill Brady is injured.

1939

• Müller disappears from Germany. It is assumed he was executed by Nazis.
• January:
  • Daily World has an article about Sally Jupiter.
  • Adrian Veidt is born. His parents reach America.
  • Comedian cleans up New York harbor and takes out bank robber.
  • Silk Spectre has a photograph taken with the Police Chief.
  • Silhouette exposes a child pornography ring.
  • Mothman is discovered by the media, described as "a man who can fly."
  • Hollis Mason begins work as a policeman at the age of 23.
  • The Nazis bomb Polish towns.
• Spring: Bill Brady graduates.
• Autumn: The Minutemen superhero group is formed. They turn the abandoned malting factory into their base of operations, renaming to the Tower of Freedom. Their first mission is to expose Italian weapon smugglers, who it turns out were actually fireworks smugglers. Nevertheless C.M. covers their blunder and the Minutemen are hailed as heroes.
• December 25: The Minutemen's first Christmas party is thrown.

1940

• Big Top Circus visits New York. Mothman suggests the Minutemen should go after Moloch.
• Silhouette, Nite Owl and Mothman team up and start looking for missing kids. A dead kid is found near the Circus.
• Moloch stops a military train using the Solar Mirror Weapon. The Minutemen show up and stop him.
• January: "Charlie" abandons Sylvia Kovacs after their semi-permanent relationship.
• March 21: Walter Kovacs is born to Sylvia, father unknown.
• October:
  • The papers of the day say that scientists have created plutonium.
  • After a group photo is taken of the Minutemen, the Comedian attempts to rape Silk Spectre, but is stopped by Hooded Justice.

1941

• December 7: Pearl Harbor is attacked. The United States enters World War II.
• Silhouette and Silk Spectre do pinup shots to inspire American soldiers. Tension arises between the two.
• Eddie Blake is stabbed by a small-time hoodlum, causing him to start wearing a more protective costume.

1942

• While fighting with Japanese smugglers, Blake is approached by Agent Kaufax who recruits him.
• Norman Rockwell paints Silk Spectre with Hitler.
• The Comedian is sent to South Pacific during the war to make himself of a hero.

1945

• Dan Dreiberg is born.
• Jon Osterman learns watch repair from his father.
• February 23: Comedian lands at Iwo Jima and plants the American flag
• August 2: King Taylor sends a letter to Laurence Schexnayder.
• August 6: An atomic bomb is dropped on Hiroshima by Miss Jupiter.
• August 7: Jon Osterman's father pushes his son towards becoming a physicist rather than a watchmaker, and throws his old pocketwatch out of a window in Brooklyn.
• August 9: A second atomic bomb is dropped on Nagasaki.
• August 14: V-J Day. Silhouette meets her companion, then a nurse in Times Square.
• September 2: World War II ends

1946

• October 1: Silhouette is reported to have a lesbian lover and is expelled from the Minutemen.
• November 12: Silhouette and her lover are murdered by the Liquidator.

1947

• Silk Spectre kills the Liquidator and retires from crimefighting. She marries her agent, Laurence Schexnayder.
• Dollar Bill is shot and killed while stopping a bank robbery.
• Wanting revenge for Nagasaki and Hiroshima, Japanese saboteurs steal a 16-pound ball of enriched uranium from Los Alamos.
• The Minutemen team up with Bluecoat and Scout and stop the Japanese at the Statue of Liberty.
• The Doomsday Clock is invented

1948

• Jon Osterman enrolls at Princeton University.
• Comedian has another encounter with Sally Jupiter. Initially hostile to him, she is unable to hold on to her anger, and the two of them conceive a child, Laurie Juspeczyk.

1949

• The Minutemen disband.
• Laurie Juspeczyk is born.
• The Doomsday Clock is set to 3.
• March 3: A girl attempts to persuade Jon Osterman to quit practicing with clocks and invites him to a hike. He declines the offer.

1950

• Walter sees a man pay his mother.

1951

• Amendment 22 is ratified following Roosevelt's four terms in office.
• July: At the age of 10, Walter Kovacs gets into a fight while picking up groceries, resulting in him being submitted to a home.

1952

• Walter writes the essay My Parents.
• The House Un-American Activities Committee hearings take place.
• Hooded Justice disappears.

1953

• May 27: At 13, Walter tells a counselor about his bizarre dream.

1954

• Laurie's first memory with coming downstairs and holding a snowglobe. She witnesses Schexnayder and Sally scolding each other.

1955

• Big Top Circus returns to New York.
• Nite Owl kills Hooded Justice.
• Captain Metropolis destroys the Tower of Freedom.

1956

• Sally and Schexnayder get divorced.
• Sylvia Kovacs is killed by her pimp, George Paterson. Walter, aged 16, starts working in a garment firm.
• Senate subcommittee meetings are held.
• Adrian Veidt begins his journey to northern Turkey and follows the path of Alexander the Great.

1958

• Jon Osterman graduates from Princeton University with a Ph.D. in Atomic Physics.
• Veidt rechristens himself as Ozymandias and makes his debut by busting an opium and heroin smuggling racket.
• Fall: Hank Meadows dies of cancer.

1959

• May 12: Jon arrives at Gila Flats test base in Arizona as a research scientist replacing Hank Meadows. He meets Milton Glass, Wally Weaver and Janey Slater for the first time.
• July: Jon and Janey Slater travel to New Jersey – Jon to visit university friends and Janey to visit her mother. At an amusement park, a photographer takes their picture. Janey's watch is broken when a fat man steps on it and Jon promises to fix it. At his hotel, they make love for the first time.
• August 20: Jon goes to retrieve his coat from the Intrinsic Field Test Chamber and is accidentally locked in before an experiment. He is disintegrated.
• September: A funeral service is held for Jon. There's nothing left of him to bury.
• October: Janey places the photograph of her and Jon behind glass at the Gila Flats Bestiary.
• November: Jon's nervous system appears for a moment in the men's bathroom while Milton Glass and a colleague are washing their hands.
• November 10: Jon's circulatory system is seen walking in the kitchen by Dexter Redback.
• November 14: Jon's partially muscled skeleton appears for thirty seconds to J. Sanderson outside the perimeter fence.
• November 22: Jon rematerializes in the cafeteria, having transformed into the being that will later be known as Dr. Manhattan.
• December 25: Jon and Janey spend Christmas together. He tells her that he will always want her, knowing that it is not true.

1960

• Because of the existence of Dr. Manhattan, eugenics, quantum physics, transports and other sciences, start to leap forward from that year on.
• February: Jon is named Dr. Manhattan by the government and marks his forehead with the symbol of a hydrogen atom.
• March: Dr. Manhattan is introduced to the world.
• May: National Comics publish Tales of the Black Freighter.
• June: Several costumed adventurers attend a Red Cross charity fundraiser for famine in India. The Comedian, Captain Metropolis, Dr. Manhattan, Ozymandias, Nite Owl and Mothman attend. Dr. Manhattan feels that only Ozymandias seems interesting. Hollis Mason first considers retiring from crime fighting.
• November: While fighting crime, Dr. Manhattan blows up a criminal's head in a vice-den owned by Moloch.

1961

• September: Dr. Manhattan meets with the current president, John F. Kennedy, at the White House.

1962

• Walter Kovacs receives an order for a dress in a Dr. Manhattan spin-off fabric intended for Kitty Genovese who refuses to buy it.
• Byron Lewis, aka Mothman, buys Mason an auto repair shop. Later, he is committed into a mental institution in Maine.
• February 16: 7,000 protesters, many from the Students for a Democratic Society protest against nuclears and Dr. Manhattan in Washington
• February 20: Scheduled launch of Friendship 7. John Glenn becomes the third American in space.
• March 10: Wally Weaver writes a testimony concerning Dr. Manhattan to Senators George Malloy, Colin Newberry and William Holmes.
• March 15: Wally Weaver writes the affidavit of his testimony and publishes it.
• May 12: Hollis Mason retires from crime fighting to open an automobile repair shop, reveals his true name to the public and starts to write his autobiography, Under the Hood. At a civic banquet, he is awarded with a golden statuette of him as the Nite Owl, with the engraving "In Gratitude". At the banquet, he speaks to Dr. Manhattan, who tells him about electric cars.
• October 16: Cuban Missile Crisis. President Kennedy forbids Russian ships from approaching Cuba.
• Dan Dreiberg contacts Hollis Mason and requests to become his successor; he debuts as Nite Owl II.
• Sally Jupiter hosts Hollis, Nelson Gardner, and Byron Lewis at her house; her daughter Laurie meets them.

1963

• November 17: 70-yard touchdown strike from Y.A. Tittle to Del Shofner puts the New York Giants up 33 to 14. The Giants win and Blake loses his bet with the Kennedys.
• November 22:
  • Blake prepares to leave for Dallas but he is stopped by Luxem.
  • President Kennedy is assassinated in Dallas.
  • While the Comedian is going to arrest Moloch, they learn about the President's death.
• November 24:
  • Projected rugby match between Cleveland Browns and Dallas Cowboys.
  • Jon admits to Janey that he knows about the future, but that he can't prevent it; to him, it's already happening. He proves this by correctly predicting that the two of them will make love after Wally arrive with the earrings Jon ordered for her.

1964

• Dr. Manhattan informs the Pentagon that he will no longer be wearing the whole of his costume.
• Robert McNamara asks the Comedian to go to Vietnam.
• February 25: Cassius Clay wins over Sonny Liston in the Miami Convention Center. Eddie Blake and Bob Kennedy watch the match.
• March: Kitty Genovese is attacked and murdered outside of her New York City home. Walter Kovacs decides to make his mask and becomes a vigilante.
• August 2: North Vietnam gunboats attack against USS Maddox but the Defense Department does not respond.
• August 4: Comedian and his soldiers stage a second attack against their own US destroyers. Lyndon B. Johnson orders retribution and the Vietnam War escalates.
• September:
  • Robert F. Kennedy quits his position as Attorney General and runs for Senator.
  • Moloch kidnaps the governor of New Jersey.

1965

• Nite Owl II and Rorschach team up to fight crime. Underboss is brought down and Big Figure is put in prison.
• August
  • The Comedian returns to America for a leave. He learns about the Watts riots and goes there to "help".
  • The Comedian spends some time in Hawaii and is scolded by Bob Kennedy.

1966

• April
  • French withdraw military commitment from NATO.
  • First heart transplant is performed.
  • Captain Metropolis attempts to bring the Costumed adventurers together and form a new group of heroes, the Crimebusters. The Comedian meets Laurie Juspeczyk, who flirts with Dr. Manhattan
• May: Dr. Manhattan and Silk Spectre II go out on patrol together and kiss for the first time. Janey subsequently leaves Jon in anger and throws her earrings.

1968

• Richard M. Nixon is elected President; he promises to send Dr. Manhattan to Vietnam.
• Nite Owl II arrests Twilight Lady.

1969

• Jon's father dies. He then reveals his true identity to the public, seeing little point in concealing it anymore.
• Blair Roche is born.

1970

• Gila Flats closes down.
• On Laurie's 20th birthday, she and Jon move into a Washington apartment.
• Veidt purchases his island.
• March 11: NBS Nightly News with Ted Philips features Dr. Manhattan.
• May 22: Nixon authorizes Operation Wrath of God.
• June 18: The Gazette publishes Nixon's response to the Soviets concerning Vietnam and Dr. Manhattan.

1971

• January: President Nixon asks Dr. Manhattan to intervene in Vietnam.
• March: Dr. Manhattan arrives in Vietnam and is reintroduced to Eddie Blake.
• May: Viet Cong surrender.
• June 15: Ton Duo Thang and Creighton Williams Abrams sign the act of military surrender. America wins the Vietnam War.
• June: V.V.N. Day, celebrating American victory in the Vietnam War. President Nixon arrives in Saigon by helicopter to great applause. A pregnant Vietnamese woman accosts the Comedian. When he refuses to take responsibility for their baby, she slashes him across the face with a broken bottle, leaving a permanent scar. In return, he shoots her dead. Dr. Manhattan watches, but does not interfere. The Comedian calls him out on this, saying he's drifting out of touch and doesn't really care about humans.
• November: Wally Weaver dies of cancer, aged 34.

1972

• Nixon is elected to a second term.
• Keene is elected as a Senator in New York.[6]
• Moloch hijacks Queen Elizabeth II.

1973

• Riot in Sing Sing prison, the Underboss escapes with the help of Jimmy the Gimmick. Nite Owl II and Rorschach look for Jimmy who is injured in the process. They go to the sewers and discover missing FBI associate director, Mark Felt.
• November 5: Two reporters, Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, are found dead in a garage while investigating the Watergate scandal.
• November 6: Wall Street Post reports the deaths. A Banquet is held in honor of the Comedian. Laurie, in a drunken rage, accuses him of attempting to rape her mother.

1974

• Nelson Gardener, aka Captain Metropolis, is decapitated in a car accident.

1975

• January 20:
  • Richard Nixon proposes a Constitutional amendment that will allow him to run for a third term as president.
  • Adrian Veidt retires from costumed crimefighting and sets up a commercial empire called Veidt Enterprises.
• July 12: Veidt's interview to Doug Roth is published in Nova Express.
• Summer: Gerald Anthony Grice, an unemployed man, kidnaps and murders six-year-old Blair Roche. Walter Kovacs intervenes and starts to become violent. This is seen as the birth of Rorschach.
• Fast and safe airships will soon be economically viable.

1976

• September
  • The Probe features an interview with Sally Jupiter.
• November: Nixon is elected to a third term.

1977

• January or February: Nite Owl and Rorschach investigate the disappearance of Violet Greene. They end up pursuing the Twilight Lady.
• March 2: The police go on strike. Riots spring up in New York and Washington. In New York, the Comedian, Nite Owl II and Rorschach attempt to keep the peace; Dr. Manhattan and Silk Spectre II settle the riots in Washington. Dr. Manhattan teleports the rioters home.
• July 1: Rorschach interrogates Dwayne Carter.
• July 6: After a thorough investigation down the sewers, he falls into a trap set up by Crime.
• July 7: Rorschach visits the Gunga Diner.
• August 3: The Keene Act, an emergency bill proposed by Senator Keene, is passed, outlawing costumed superheroes that are not government-sanctioned.

1978

• March 15: Alexander Haig writes his memorandum expressing concerns about the Comedian.
• July 14: A Top Secret paper concerning Dr. Manhattan's invasion of Afghanistan is authored.
• October 28:
  • Rorschach kills Franklin Smith and Daziel Amrand, suspects of Loomis murder.
  • Police Officers James Schwarz, Mark Pallazo and Grevin Adell come to apprehend Rorschach but are injured.
• November 27: Rorschach is wanted by the FBI.

1979

• The United States bombs Beirut.

1980

• Nixon is elected to a fourth term.
• The Comedian resolves the Iran hostage situation.

1981

• Dr. Manhattan and Laurie Juspeczyk move into the Special Talent Quarters at Rockefeller Military Research Center.

1982

• Laetril, a phony medication made of dried apricot pits, is outlawed.
• August 22: World Chess Association sends a congratulation letter to Veidt about his victories

1983

• Dominique Hirsch is born.

1984

• Flint Editions, New York, print the volume "Treasure Island Treasury of Comics".
• Nixon is elected to a fifth term.
• July 12: A gathering against famine is organized by Veidt at Yankee Stadium.
• October 14: Time Magazine runs an article about Dr. Manhattan and Ozymandias joining their power

1985

• Blake unintentionally runs across Veidt's island.
• October: Blake visits Moloch and tells him about the island.
• Friday, October 11:
  • The Soviet Union conducts a bomb test in the Bering Sea
  • Airing of an episode of late night UK current affairs review World in Focus with Jeremy Miller, in which photo-journalist Alain Guillon and author Hal Eisner discuss the emerging geopolitical crisis.
  • Edward Blake is ambushed in his high-rise apartment and thrown out of the window. He dies upon hitting the ground.
• Saturday, October 12
  • Steven Fine and Joe Bourquin investigate Blake's apartment. Dr. Manhattan and Laurie Juspeczyk are informed of Blake's death.
  • Hollis Mason meets his old foe, the Screaming Skull, at a supermarket; they trade addresses.
  • After nightfall, Rorschach investigates Blake's apartment and discovers Blake's Comedian costume and a photograph of the Minutemen. He takes Blake's blood-stained smiley-face badge.
  • Hollis Mason meets Dan Dreiberg for their customary Saturday beer night. Dreiberg leaves Mason's home shortly before midnight.
• Sunday, October 13
  • Dan Dreiberg arrives home to find Rorschach waiting for him. He is informed of the Comedian's death and takes the Comedian's smiley-face badge.
  • Rorschach sleeps through the day and wakes at 4:37, then continues his investigation at Happy Harry's, then visits Adrian Veidt at his office
  • At 8:30 he infiltrates Rockefeller Military Research Center and finds then Dr. Manhattan and Laurie Juspeczyk.
  • At 9:30, Laurie and Dan meet for dinner at Rafael's restaurant until 11:30.
• Wednesday, October 16
  • Laurie visits her mother, Sally, in a retirement home in California while Dr. Manhattan, Adrian Veidt, Dan Dreiberg and Edgar William Jacobi attend Blake's funeral.
  • Rorschach later accosts Jacobi at his home who in turn tells him about Blake's visit mentioning a "list", an "island" and the "blue guy";
  • Rorschach then visits the cemetery alone to pay his last respects to Blake.
  • Nova Express runs a story about Nixon's third heart operation.
• Saturday, October 19
  • After an argument, Laurie leaves Jon. She visits Dan, and they are accosted by Knot Tops on the way to visit Hollis Mason. Laurie decides to check in to a hotel.
  • Meanwhile, Dr. Manhattan gives a televised interview on the ABC network. Doug Roth, a reporter from Nova Express, accuses Osterman of causing cancer in people he worked with. While being harassed about it, Osterman teleports the crew and audience outside the studio. He briefly visits the abandoned Gila Flats, picks up an old photo of himself with Janey Slater, then teleports to Mars.
• Sunday, October 20
  • The main headline of the New York Gazette's morning edition is "Dr. Manhattan Leaves Earth". The day's New Frontiersman claims that Russians are responsible. Walter buys a copy of both papers before breaking into Dan Dreiberg's house again (now wearing his Rorschach mask) to inform him that another costumed hero has gone.
  • Laurie Juspeczyk returns to the Special Talent Quarters at Rockefeller Military Research Center to discover that Jon has gone, that officials are sweeping the rooms for radiation, and that she is to be given a cancer scan.
  • Russian forces invade Afghanistan.
• Monday, October 21
  • Rorschach pays a visit to Jacobi asking him about a scheme to discredit Dr. Manhattan.
  • In the morning, there is an apparent attempt on Adrian Veidt's life. Veidt fends off the attacker, who dies from ingesting a poison capsule. ** Laurie Juspeczyk and Dan Dreiberg meet at Gunga Diner. Rorschach arrives at the diner after they leave and waits for Jacobi's note.
  • In the evening, Jacobi is shot in the head, presumably by Veidt, and Rorschach is framed. Rorschach is lured to Jacobi's apartment, where he is cornered by the police and arrested.
• Friday, October 25
  • Rorschach, now incarcerated at Sing Sing prison, attends his first interview with psychoanalyst Dr. Malcolm Long.
  • Nite Owl II and Silk Spectre II rescue citizens from a building caught on fire.
• Sunday, October 27
  • Rorschach tells Dr. Long about the Crimebusters.
  • Russian tanks invade Pakistan.
  • Nite Owl II and Silk Spectre II decide to rescue Rorschach.
• Monday, October 28
  • Mal and Rorschach's fourth session. Rorschach relates the story of the Roche kidnapping.
  • Nova Express has an issue about the "Spirit of '77".
• Wednesday, October 30
  • Steve Fine visits Dreiberg.
  • William J. Franklin writes a Top Secret paper concerning Dr. Manhattan and Soviet aggression; planned to be sent on November 2.
• Thursday, October 31
  • Otis, the prisoner Rorschach scalded, dies. The prison erupts into chaos. Big Figure attempts to take his revenge on Rorschach.
  • Nite Owl II and Silk Spectre II rescue Rorschach, but not before he kills Big Figure.
  • Dr. Manhattan takes Laurie to Mars where he reveals to her that Edward Blake was her real father, and ultimately decides to return to Earth, his faith in humanity renewed given his theory that all humans are "Thermodynamic Miracles".
  • Tanks amass in East Germany.
• Friday, November 1
  • Nixon arrives at a secret military bunker.
  • 4:30: Veidt leaves for Karnak.
  • Derf and other citizens move against masked heroes; Hollis Mason is murdered by a clan of knot-tops, having been mistaken for Daniel Dreiberg.
  • Rorschach and Nite Owl II find the courier at Happy Harry's.
  • The participants in the alien monster project are taken from Veidt's island and killed by a bomb.
• Saturday, November 2
  • Rorschach and Nite Owl II break into Veidt's office, uncovering his crimes,and go to Karnak.
  • Veidt kills his servants, and is approached by Nite Owl II and Rorschach, telling them that he had activated the transmission, initiating the final stage of his sinister plot, "35 minutes ago."
  • The "alien" appears in New York, and most of the city is devastated, killing millions.
  • Laurie and Jon arrive at Karnak. Adrian attempts to kill Jon in the same way he was reborn as Dr. Manhattan, disintegrating him and Bubastis.
  • Laurie shoots at Adrian, who catches the bullet and knocks her to the ground.
  • Jon returns, lashing out and destroying much of Adrian's estate.
  • Having witnessed the media's response to the alleged alien invasion, Adrian convincing his fellow masks that revealing his atrocities would destroy the newly achieved atmosphere of peace between The United States and Russia. All agree to remain silent, exceeding Rorschach who storms out, refusing to cooperate.
  • Seeing the potential outcomes of Rorschach's assured upcoming actions, Jon kills Rorschach.
  • Afterward, seeing Laurie and Dan happy together, Jon meets with Adrian one last time. He asks Jon if his actions all worked out in the end, to which Jon responds, "nothing ends, Adrian. Nothing ever ends."
  • Jon leaves the Milky Way, his renewed interest in humanity inspiring him to create new human life in another galaxy.
• December 25
  • Laurie and Dan visit Sally under their new identities as Sam and Sandra Hollis.

1986

• Summer: Millennium, the new re-branding of Nostalgia, will circulate the news market according to Veidt's plans.

1988

• According to rumors, Robert Redford is running for president in this year.