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The Russian Communist Party is purged of 'disloyal' elements.
The first supersonic aircraft, known as the X-1, flies in Japan. Its success ahead of similar projects by other nations is attributed to studies of the (now dead) Japanese Overman known as Kamikaze (Divine Wind), who was capable of supersonic flight.
Maggie Miller, the first successful white female jazz musician and singer, retires after a career coloured by the scandal surrounding her many lovers and general disregard of public mores.
Sponsored by the new Soviet Union, Mongolia secedes from its Japanese rulers and declares itself a Peoples Republic.
The Chilean Empire detonates its first nuclear weapon.
The Chinese Communist Party holds its first Congress in Shanghai.
The Mona Lisa is stolen from the Louvre by an unknown thief. One week later it is returned as mysteriously as it was taken, and despite suspicions of a substitution tests prove that it is indeed the original painting.
The tomb of the Egyptian King Tutankhamun is discovered. After the death of one of the discoverers rumours of a curse on the tomb circulate through the press.
Mussolini and his Fascists come to power in Italy. Shortly afterwards the Overman Legione is killed in his sleep by an assassin who is later (after WWIII) traced back to the Fascists themselves. This assassination is used by Mussolini as an excuse to purge the Italian armed forces of elements opposed to his rule.
The world's first elected female head of state, the Belgian Hilde van Rijn, comes to power.
France detonates its first nuclear weapon in the North African desert.
Hyper-inflation begins to become noticeable in Germany.
An uprising of National Socialists in Munich, led by Adolf Hitler, fails to inspire an anti-Soviet revolution in Germany, although it is hailed by the West as the first blow against Communist oppression . The ringleaders, including Hitler, are captured by the Soviets and deported to Siberia. However, en route Hitler and several of his closest allies manage to escape, and flee into hiding.
Japan detonates its first nuclear weapon on one of the Pescadores Islands.
A coup in Spain brings General Primo de Rivera to power.
France secretly attempts to blackmail Minerva into rejoining with it, under threat of nuclear bombardment. For some reason, shortly after the first approaches are made the French negotiators break off in disarray, and the threat is never repeated.
The exchange rate for the German Mark tops thirty million to the Pound.
Mount Etna erupts.
The first commercial television stations go on the air.
The Overman thief known as the Lynx finally drops from sight after more than thirty-five years of robbing banks and jewellers and evading the forces of law and order, including the Guardians of Democracy.
US President Warren G. Harding dies of a heart attack. In the months after his death it is learnt that many members of his government were involved in corruption.
The Great Kanto Earthquake strikes Tokyo, killing over one hundred thousand people.
Una Peterson makes her debut on the music hall stage in London. She quickly becomes a star of the British music hall and later of the budding British silent movie industry
The nation of Turkey is formed from the remains of the Ottoman Empire.
The Kuomintang holds its First National Congress in Canton.
Legislation greatly reduces the numbers of immigrants allowed into the US.
An abortive coup led by a clique of officers of the SAU army leads to widespread investigation of all levels of the army, especially after several leads point to the Chilean Empire as the force behind the coup attempt. A complete reorganisation of the army follows when it is discovered just how widespread the Chilean influence is.
Heavy gales and floods occur across Britain.
Hitler secretly publishes and distributes 'Mein Kampf', written while he has been in hiding. Shortly afterwards he forms the SS as a secret revolutionary organisation.
The last member of the Guardians of Democracy, Scalphunter, dies of old age.
The SS receives considerable covert foreign support from people, especially in the USA, who agree with its anti-Communist stance.
The first commercial jet airliners come into service, in the USA.
The USA explodes its first nuclear weapon at Los Alamos in New Mexico.
It is finally copnfirmed, using psionics, precisely when the foetus becomes aware within the womb. In the future this is to have a great effect on abortion legislation.
The Turkish Orders of Dervishes are dissolved.
Great floods occur across Europe.
The DEMON organisation is first recognised by the US Justice Department as a bogus satanic cult imported from Germany, of unknown origin. Occasional reports of a shadowy figure or figures behind the whole operation are never confirmed.
The General Strike paralyses Britain for twelve days.
Lightening triggers a massive explosion in the US Naval ammunition dump at Lake Denmark, New Jersey, where some of the US stockpile of nuclear weapons is stored. The casings of several nuclear weapons are ruptured and hundreds of square miles of countryside are contaminated. It takes years and hundreds of millions of dollars to clean up the contamination enough that people can return to their homes.
Following this incident an anti-nuclear weapons movement begins to grow in the USA and spread across the world, although it never gains any real power.
Thirty country mansions across Britain burn down under mysterious circumstances.
The League of Nations approves the International Slavery Convention, designed to prevent and suppress the slave trade in all its forms. It includes clauses condemning various practices which effectively enslave women around the world.
Communists are expelled from the Kuomintang after tensions between them and the Communists reach breaking point with each side attacking the other across China.
Black rain falls in Ireland.
Trotsky, formerly a prominent member of the Communist Party, is expelled from Russia.
The Soviet Union detonates its first Hydrogen bomb.
The town of Leinster, Missouri is burned to the ground by an unknown arsonist. The few residents able to flee tell stories of the Devil come to Missouri.
A unknown arsonist, assumed to be the same one who burned down Leinster, Missouri, burns neighbourhoods and towns across the USA. The arsonist becomes known as the Tennessee Torch after some spectacular arson attacks in that state. The arsonist is never identified and they are never photographed. The attacks end as WWIII starts, and it is assumed the arsonist has gone to become involved in the war effort in some capacity.
Albert Zerstoiten leaves for the University of Berlin, where he is the most successful student they have ever had, completing his degree in only eighteen months.
A great hurricane sweeps across the West Indies.
In Japan it becomes a capital crime to agitate against state policy.
Cocaine becomes illegal in the USA.
An earthquake in Greece destroys the city of Corinth.
Minervan scientists working under the Amazon discover the structure and function of DNA in the genetic code. It seems to be arranged into twenty-four pairs of chromosomes within the nucleus of each cell. Comparative studies with gorillas and chimpanzees show that they only possess twenty-three pairs of chromosomes, but those twenty-three genes are almost identical to twenty-three human genes. The reason humans have an 'extra' gene remains a mystery.
Mount Etna erupts.
Defecting Soviet scientists give the British government enough information to enable them to design and test their own Hydrogen bomb.
A superhuman known as the Affrighter appears working as a gangster leader in various parts of the USA. His operations are opposed by several of the costumed adventurers of the period, including Dr Arcane, and also on occasion by the Mafia.
Several non-superhuman masked crimefighters inspired by the Overmen of the past appear in various parts of the USA. They aid the police in many cases and occasionally operate outside the USA, primarily in Europe. They all disappear with the start of WWIII as the majority of them are called up.
Millions of Russian peasants who resist collectivization are deported en masse to Siberia. Many of them die either in the deportation process or in the labour camps they are sent to.
Peter Kurten, the 'Vampire of Dusseldorf' terrorises the city before his capture and execution.
A superhuman calling herself Nereid appears when she saves the crew of a fishing boat which capsizes in bad weather off the Greenland coast. She vanishes as suddenly as she appeared after flying the crew to safety. Despite her reported non-human appearance no clues appear as to her origin.
Mount Vesuvius erupts.
The British protectorate of Egypt becomes an independent kingdom, although Britain maintains full control of the Suez Canal.
The Soviet Communist Party is purged of 'disloyal' elements.
An undersea earthquake severs many trans-Atlantic telephone cables.
The great stock-market crash rocks the world.
The superhuman Nereid is seen occasionally in various parts of the world when she saves people in various maritime disasters. From the mid-1930's she attempts to stop whaling ships. At first she merely tries to persuade the whalers to stop, but after her attempts are ignored she begins to destroy whaling ships, killing or throwing overboard their crews, and by the early 1940's has driven them from the arctic to the antarctic, but she pursues them even there, and eventually drives many whalers from the seas. Since the late 1950's she is also seen attacking drift-net fishing boats and stopping ships which foul the ocean with pollutants from discharging their loads.
Despite being wanted by the authorities of most major nations Nereid is occasionally seen in the USA, Canada and Britain when she meets with artists and poets in sea-coast towns, giving them poems of hers for them to publish. Despite their origin most of these poems, mainly on the subjects of whales and the sea, receive great critical acclaim and have been printed many times.
After attending the Round Table Conference in London as the sole representative of the Indian National Congress, Gandhi meets with the Amazon for informal discussions.
The Overman thief known as the Lynx reappears and although obviously quite old once more begins robbing banks and jewellers.
The Chilean Empire detonates its first Hydrogen bomb.
Ivan Zerstoiten dies. After he is ignored and insulted in his fathers will for his lack of superhuman powers, Albert kills his siblings in an 'accident' and gains all of his fathers great wealth.
Ras Tafari, who becomes better known as the Emperor Haile Selassie, comes to power in Abyssinia. In Jamaica the Rastifarian religion in founded and worships him.
The French government begins construction of what becomes known as the Maginot Line, improving and upgrading border defences first placed during WWI.
Oswald Moseley founds the New Party, which later becomes the British Union of Fascists.
Japanese Prime Minister Hamaguchi is mortally wounded by an assassin.
The British government rejects a scheme for a Channel Tunnel as unworkable.
A localised earthquake centred on a small park devastates a square city block in Providence, Rhode Island. Police officers discover the body of a man near the epicentre of the quake, but the remains are too badly mangled to allow any form of identification.
After a disappointing outcome to the London Naval Conference the Japanese begin to expand their military capability. Within a few years this causes them to make enemies of most of the other major world powers.