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The masked crimefighter Dr Arcane appears in the USA. He is the only American crimefighter of the period who has actual superhuman powers, although their origin is unknown.
After years of immigration by refugees from around the world, Minerva starts to become over-populated. Construction begins on the first of many arcologies which by 1990 house the vast majority of Minervas nearly 100 million people despite objections by the native Basques about the destruction of their traditional way of life.
France detonates its first Hydrogen bomb.
A planned coup by the Japanese army is only abandoned due to disagreement among the Generals involved.
After putting his fathers estate in order, Albert Zerstoiten goes to work with Albert Einstein in Berlin, but Einstein is repulsed by his whole attitude and personality, and their partnership dissolves within days. He instead goes to work under Der Gehirn, the only survivor of the Kaisers Guard, with whom, it appears he has much more in common.
Albert Zerstoiten gains his first Doctorate at the age of twenty.
Discontented Japanese Naval officers kill Prime Minister Inukai.
German biologists develop a drug which chemically induces abortion in pregnant women. However most world governments make its use illegal in cases other than where it is medically necessary.
Der Gehirn dies of a cancer contracted in the course of his own experimentation.
The scheme controlling Germany's war reparations is finally abandoned as unworkable.
The World Disarmament Conference in Geneva proves a disappointment when Britain fails to break a deadlock between France and Russia.
A well-coordinated National Socialist uprising, occuring simultaneously across all of Germany and led by Adolf Hitler, takes the occupying Soviets by surprise, and within days they have been expelled from the country. The other European powers support the German revolution, seeing it as a blow against the Communist threat, and threaten retaliation if it is crushed. For a while it appears that nuclear war in Europe may be immenant, but the Soviets, after much blustering, allow Germany to win its freedom.
Within days, other knock-on uprisings occur accross Eastern Europe, forcing the Soviets out of Austria, Czechoslovakia, Poland, and Romania. Again, these uprisings are supported by the nations of the West.
Mount Everest is climbed by Sir Hugh Throckmorton at the head of a British team.
Adolf Hitler is elected Chancellor of Germany by an overwhelming majority.
Una Peterson tours the US. While there she meets George Gershwin and they become friends, collaborating on several projects for the stage.
A mysterious fire in the Reichstag building, blamed on Soviet agents, gives Hitler the excuse he needs to take absolute power in Germany.
The Soviet government refuses to admit the existence of a disastrous drought and famine in the Ukraine and Volga areas and allows no disaster relief there. As a result millions die of starvation. This is partly why they make little attempt to retake their lost holdings in Eastern Europe.
The USA detonates it first Hydrogen bomb.
Germany joins the League of Nations to a rapturous welcome.
The World Economic Conference in London ends in total failure.
German Jews are dismissed from government service and the universities and disbared from entering the professions.
Einstein, ahving only recently returned to Germany from France, leaves there for the USA.
The Germans, with aid from magical sources, begin research into creating superhumans.
Minerva launches the first artificial Earth satellite, an unmanned space science laboratory, into orbit from a ship in the Atlantic Ocean.
The first German concentration camp is opened, and rapidly fills with opponents of the Nazis.
After the theft of valuable Chinese archeological artefacts from the UCLA an expedition from the university travels to Japanese-held China and recovers the artefacts from the hands of the thieves.
Sightings of a flying Overman calling himself the Angel of the Snows are reported from across northern China. After he is seen in the city of Tangshan another previously unknown Overman with electrical powers is seen fighting and defeating Japanese troops nearby. Shortly afterwards both Overmen disappear from the city and are not seen again.
The Amazon begins corresponding with Einstein on the Unified Field Theory.
Prohibition ends in the USA.
The first organ transplant on a human being is performed in the SAU.
Germany leaves the League of Nations after only a few months.
Germany, Britain and the USA all launch artificial satellites. The US team is headed by the scientist Robert Goddard.
Albert Zerstoiten joins the German anti-matter weapons program, and soon rises to become its head.
At Hitlers orders 'The Night of the Long Knives' in Germany kills all of his so-called Brownshirts, placing the SS in sole control of the Nazi Party. Also killed are many of the German of other political leanings who supported Hitler against the Soviets.
A new series of contraceptive implants for both men and women go on sale around the world. Unlike other contraceptive pills they merely need to be renewed once a year for contraception to continue, otherwise fertility resumes. As part of Minerva's continuing effort to make every child a wanted child, and also to control Minerva's population, it becomes mandatory for all Minervan citizens to have these implants.
The Indian Reorganisation Act gives American Indians the same rights as other citizens of the United States.
A socialist revolution in Spain is easily suppressed by the army, though the methods they use lay the first foundations of anti-facism in Spain.
Britains first female Prime Minister, the feminist Emmeline Pankhurst, is elected to power under the banner of the Labour Party.
The Great Purge in the Soviet Union eliminates most people who opposed the rule of Stalin, and those who had displeased him in some way. This includes most of the Red Army command structure.
Britain signs agreements with Germany to assist the Germans in rearm against the Soviet threat.
Defecting German scientists inform the British government of the Masterman Project. At the urging of Winston Churchill, the British government immediately sets up its own project under Dr Michael Peyne, aided by the German defectors, to produce superhumans to combat any successful creation of German superhumans.
Russia, France and Japan launch their first artificial satellites.
The Silver Jubilee of George V is celebrated across the British Empire.
The Nurnberg Laws forbid marriages between Jews and Germans. German Jews lose virtually all their civil rights.
A major earthquake strikes India.
Italy conquers Abyssinia, forcing their leader, the Emperor Haile Selassie into exile and using advanced weaponry against primitively equipped natives. The League of Nations condemns the Italian action but its protests are ignored by most major powers.
An army revolt kills several Japanese politicians and holds much of Tokyo for several days before it is crushed and the leaders executed.
The Anti-Comintern Pact, forming the Axis between Germany, the Chilean Empire and Japan is signed at the same time as celebrations of El Libertador's one hundredth birthday are held across the Chilean Empire.
In Berlin Hitler attempts to use the Olympic Games as a propaganda instrument for his racist beliefs, with little success. The Olympic Games also provide a background for several stories exposing the real facts about the German concentration camps, causing Germany, and the Nazis in particular, to being to lose its foreign support.
The first commercial 'hot' fusion reactor comes on line in Minerva. It uses technology derived, at least in part, from studies of Phoenix of Les Liberatrices, whose powers include the generation and control of fusion plasma.
Edward VIII comes to the throne on the death of George V. However, after the scandal when he marries the divorcee Mrs Simpson he abdicates and George VI takes his place.
The Spanish Civil War occurs. The Overman Francesca Velasquez, twin sister of the Duchess of Cordova, is killed in the fighting, and her sister wreaks a terrible vengeance among the forces of both sides, but eventually loses the whole of her family lands and is forced to flee to Minerva for political asylum. The course of the war goes much as it did in the real world, with the Nationalists under General Franco ending the war in control of the country.
Italy joins the Axis.
Southern Ireland becomes fully independent from Britain, although Britain retains control of the North.
The SAU launches its first artificial satellite.
The German superhuman project culminates with the creation of Masterman, the first person to have superhuman powers induced by technological means.
Minerva launches the first manned space flight, piloted by Claudine Taubes.
Japan uses nuclear weapons against an uprising in Northern China which is rumoured to include at least one Overman, to the condemnation of the world community and the League of Nations.
Austria is absorbed into the German Reich, with support from many Austrians who see this as increasing their protection against the threat of the USSR.
Germany introduces the first commercial supersonic transport aircraft.
After the Kristalnacht (Night of Breaking Glass) a pogrom by the SS confines German Jews to ghettos and confiscates the majority of their property.
Una Peterson tours the US for a second time to rave reviews.
Germany invades and takes control of Czechoslovakia. As in Austria, many Czechs support this action as giving them increased protection against the Soviets. Following this Britain gives guarantees of support to Poland, Romania and Greece, the Anglo-Polish Treaty guaranteeing Polish independence.
After the Nationalists victory Spain joins the Axis, although it remains neutral neutral during WWIII.
The Soviet Union is expelled from the League of Nations.
Spain mounts several attacks on Minerva in an attempt to regain the territory Minerva took from Spain in 1898. Unfortunately Minerva has strengthened its defences during the Spanish Civil War and the attacks are easily repelled with minimum casualties.
The German-Soviet Non-aggression Pact is signed, to the great surprise of the rest of the world.
A rabies epidemic sweeps across Poland.
Britain and Germany both launch manned satellites into orbit.
Germany invades Poland, and after an ultimatum from the British and French is ignored, war breaks out.
Una Peterson dies in a car crash aged 34.
War rages in the European, Far Eastern and South American theatres of operations, with the British, Free French, Soviets and South American Union fighting the Axis forces. Within days of the start of the war the Chilean Empire invades the Falkland Islands for the third time, to deny the British a staging post in the South Atlantic, and this event brings the SAU into the war on the side of the British. The United States join the war in 1941 after Japanese surprise raids on Pearl Harbour and the West Coast. This leads to the bombing of many American cities by Japanese, German and Chilean aircraft during the war. However, Americas newly-installed laser anti-aircraft defences prevent major damage to most large American cities. The Allied forces invade occupied Europe in 1943 with the superhuman Maximan at their head and advance rapidly. However the Russians in Eastern Europe and the Americans in the Far East also achieve great success. In China Communist and Kuomintang guerillas greatly aid the Allies against the Japanese. The Chileans and the forces of the SAU reach a near stalemate in South America, despite deep strikes by each side into the others territory and Chilean attempts to ferment a pro-Chilean coup within the SAU. Infantry, helicopters and hovertanks (on the rivers) are used in the Amazon rainforest and the foothills of the Andes and large scale tank combat occurs on the Pampas in the Uraguay area of the SAU. The war ends abruptly in 1944 when the Americans drop experimental anti-matter bombs on Berlin, Tokyo and Guaqui. Hitler dies in the bombing of Berlin, as do Maximan and Masterman who are last seen engaged in combat with each other. Allied forces occupy the Axis nations and return the Falkland Islands to the British.
Again, Minerva remains neutral throughout the war, although its military, including the Amazon, are forced to convince the Germans of this in a few border skirmishes.
This war was fought with technology more advanced than that of the present day including hovertanks, hypersonic warplanes and laser artillery. Satellite technology is confined purely to observation/spy satellites. Chemical and nuclear weapons were not used in the war, again due to memories of their effects in the two previous World Wars.
The first Nazi extermination camp is opened.
The British superhuman project succeeds, producing the superhuman Maximan (real name William Whitlock, a distant descendant of John Featherstone-Haugh, Excalibur of the Royal Elite Guard), who is immediately sent to join the British Army as a one-man strike force.
Italy actively joins the war on the side of the Axis.
As Chilean forces strike deep into the SAU, they destroy a small research facility, inadvertently releasing a strain of highly aggressive 'Africanised' bees into the wild, where they soon begin to take over from the less aggressive native bees.