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The Sumerian civilization forms in Mesopotamia. The Sumerians invent writing (cuneiform) and the pantheon worshiped by the Sumerians and their successors, the Babylonians and Hittites, include many colorful figures such as Marduk, god of the city; his nemesis, the great dragon Tiamat; the warlord Koza'Rai; Gozer the Gozarian, and its minions Zuul and Vinz Clortho; and the "concubine" Heel.

The rise of Sumeria is from Historical accounts. Marduk and Tiamat are authentic figures from Babylonian myth. Gozer, Zuul, and Vinz Clortho are, of course, from Ghostbusters. Heel is from Ghost Busted. Koza'Rai is from Displaced Aggression.

An "old god" named Dumazu the Destroyer dies (or is destroyed?), and is entombed in a temple. The temple is located in the land that would one day be known as New York. An artifact called the Relic of Nilhe, the only way to revive the dead god, is broken and scattered, though one shard is buried near Dumazu itself.

Ghostbusters: Sanctum of Slime

An Egyptian chronicle mentions a powerful Hyksos diety known as "Zuul, the Gatekeeper, minion of Gozer"

Ghostbusters, from the research Venkman quotes to Dana Barrett. Louis Tully, possessed by Vinz Clortho, relates colorful details of Gozer's career during such events as "the third rectification of the Meketrex supplicants" and "the last reconciliation of the Vuldronaii" but there are no dating contexts given

The historical events related to the legendary rise and fall of Camelot occur.

The placement of the historical basis of Camelot in the sixth century is Historical Theory. The Ghostbusters visit Camelot in Displaced Aggression #3

The cult of the Celtic night god Samhain ("Sowwen") reaches its zenith in Ireland. The Feast of Samhain continued to be celebrated on the night of October 31st--the origin of Halloween.

Folklore accounts. Magician Sanuel Henslowe later takes "Sam Hain" as his stage name.

The Irishman known only as "Stingy Jack" tricks an entity that is allegedly the Devil, ensuring that the Devil would never claim Jack himself. When Jack dies, however, because of his "scoundrel" ways, Heaven won't take him either. The Devil states that he's keeping his word, and condemns Jack to wander the Earth as a ghost, with only a turnip filled with an ember of hellfire as a light.

Folklore accounts and Ghostbusters Vol2#9

The epic Anglo-Saxon poem Beowulf is written. In the poem, Beowulf, a hero of the Geats in Scandinavia, comes to the aid of Hroogar, the king of the Danes, whose mead hall (in Heorot) has been under attack by a monster known as Grendel. Unbeknownst to the world at large, Grendel is a real creature. Members of a Viking clan are tested every ten years, as part of their deal with Hel. After a certain number of "tests" of their descendants, Grendel will judge their entire bloodline and thus determine whether the glowy Vikings will get into Valhalla. Twentieth century Ghostbuster Janine Melnitz would be a descendant of this family

Beowulf is from Historic Accounts. The tale of the Viking clan, and Janine's descent from them, is detailed in Ghostbusters V2#2 and V2#6.

A Renaissance painter--possibly Piero della Francesca or Raphael--paints an image of four angels and a cherub. The figures bear distinct resemblances to five people who would not be born for some five hundred years: the archangels are Peter Venkman, Ray Stantz, Egon Spengler, Winston Zeddemore, and the cherub is newborn Oscar Wallance. Speculation following this revelation in 1989 would include that the painter had a psychic premonition.

Conjecture from Ghostbusters 2. Egon, while not an art scholar (that we know of, anyway...), identifies it as "Late Renaissance" work, possible "Raphael or Piero della Francesca" Venkman helpfully offers "I think it was one of the Fettucinis..."

June 25. Birth of Vigo Von Homburg Deutschendorf, who later terrorizes Eastern Europe as a despot and necromancer known most famously as Vigo the Carpathian, but also as Vigo the Cruel, Vigo the Despised, Vigo the Torturer, Vigo the Unholy, the Scourge of Carpathia, and the Sorrow of Moldavia.

Ray's research in Ghostbusters 2 on Vigo's legends. His full name is seen briefly on Egon's computer record. I should note that Wilhelm Von Homburg was the name of the actor who played Vigo, and Will and Hank Deutschendorf the twins who portrayed Dana's son Oscar. The exact date is conjecture, and a tribute to "Lord Vego" of Ghostbusters.net

A Russian soldier encounters a beggar on the side of a road; upon offering the beggar his last ration, the beggar repays him with a magic sack that can "capture anything". During a later war, possibly during an invasion by Vigo the Carpathian, the soldier uses the bag to trap "Death itself". The trapping of the entity leads to the Carpathian forces' retreat. The soldier grows older and sicker, but never dies as long as he has the entity in his bag.

Folklore accounts, modified for the Ghostbuster universe (such as mention of Vigo) in the backup feature of Ghostbusters #8

Vigo the Carpathian paints his dynamic self portrait. Following a common practice of the time, he paints it over another, older work depicting four strange archangels and a cherub. Unbeknownst to the world until 1988, Vigo ensorcelled the painting to contain his essence after his death

Ghostbusters 2. Date is conjecture from the> Ghostbusters 2 adventure module for Ghostbusters International

Vigo the Carpathian is killed by his subjects, having lived 105 years. He is shot, hung, stabbed, and drawn and quartered. Before finally expiring, his severed head delivering the prophesy "Death is but a Doorway, Time is But a Window; I'll be back"

Ghostbusters 2

An Indian shaman places a curse on European settlers, summoning a Manitou, a spirit that possesses people and devours their souls. The shaman quickly regrets his decision, but the spirit proves too powerful for him to banish. He does manage to place the Manitou in a state of hibernation, where it "only" manifests approximately once a generation, eats a soul or two, then goes back to sleep.

Ghostbusters#6

Ancestors of Dana Barrett immigrate to the English colonies of North America, presumably on the Mayflower.

Conjecture from a line in the script for Ghostbusters 2; it doesn't actually mention the famous Mayflower, but it's a logical conclusion posited by Dr. Riddle of Ghostbusters.net

September 10. Marie Laveaux was believed to have been born free in the French Quarter of New Orleans, Louisiana, about 1794, the daughter of a white planter and a free Creole woman of color. On August 4, 1819, she married Jacques (or Santiago, in other records) Paris, a free person of color who had emigrated from Haiti; Jacques Paris died in 1820 under unexplained circumstances. He was part of a large Haitian immigration to New Orleans in 1809 after the Haitian Revolution of 1804.

After Paris's death Marie Laveau became a hairdresser who catered to wealthy white families. She took a lover, Christophe (Louis Christophe Dumesnil de Glapion), with whom she lived until his death in 1835. They were reported to have had 15 children including Marie Laveau II (1827 — c. 1895), who sometimes used the surname "Paris" after her mother's first husband.

Very little is known with any certainty about the life of Marie Laveau. Her surviving daughter had the same name and is called Marie Laveau II by some historians. Scholars believe that the mother was more powerful while the daughter arranged more elaborate public events (including inviting attendees to St. John's Eve rituals on Bayou St. John). They received varying amounts of financial support. It is not known which (if not both) had done more to establish the voodoo queen reputation.

Historical accounts, from Wikipedia

Laveaux attains a form of immortality through her mastery of voodoo, which allows her to transcend her recorded death in 1881. She comes out of hiding only once, in 1895, to stop and defeat her out of control daughter.

Ghostbusters #10

General Anthony Wayne, hero of the Revolutionary War, dies of complications from gout on December 15, during a return trip to Pennsylvania from a military post in Detroit, and was buried at Fort Presque Isle (now Erie, Pennsylvania) where the modern Wayne Blockhouse stands. His body was disinterred in 1809 and, after the body was boiled to remove the remaining flesh, as many of the bones as would fit in two saddlebags were relocated by his son Isaac Wayne to the family plot in St. David's Episcopal Church cemetery in Radnor, Pennsylvania. A legend says that many bones were lost along the roadway that encompasses much of modern U.S. Route 322, and that every January 1 (Wayne's birthday), his ghost wanders the highway searching for his lost bones.

Historical record. This entry is taken from Wikipedia. Wayne's ghost appears in Ghostbusters #9

February 20. The John Milton wrecks five miles west of the Montauk Lighthouse off of Long Island, New York. Built in 1854, the John Milton was captained by Ephraim Harding of Martha's Vineyard out of its home port of New Bedford. The 43-year-old Harding was born in New Bedford. On board was also the captain's teenage son, Francis

The frozen bodies of some twenty-four sailors washed ashore, and were buried at the South End Burying Ground in East Hampton, NY, where there is a marble monument today. Harding's body was identified, but his son's was never found. Capt. Harding's body was returned home and is buried in the Village Cemetery in Vineyard Haven, MA.

Historical accounts, some details copied from Wikipedia.org

Release of Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol. In the story, English businessman Ebeneezer Scrooge is visited by the ghosts of Christmas Past, Present, and Future, who convince him to renounce his greedy ways and embrace the ideals of Christmas. Unbeknownst to the world at large, the Ghosts are real. Their next recorded manifestation is to greedy scumbag Woodrow Wainwright Fraser III sometime in the 1970's.

Past, Present, and Future The date of A Christmas Carol is, of course, historical account. Unlike the classic animated episode "X-Mas Marks the Spot", there is nothing to say that Scrooge was a real person in this reality. Perhaps the Ghosts appeared before Dickens himself?

The New York Pneumatic Rail Road (NYPRR) is first built, the brainchild of Alfred Beach. As envisioned by Beach, it serves as a system of mass transit in Manhattan despite early opposition of corrupt politico Boss Tweed and others. It is later phased out in favor of the famous subway system; some parts of the pneumatic are abandoned; one juncture, Van Horne Station, becomes an important early part of the return of Vigo the Carpathian in 1988.

Ghostbusters 2, which took some liberty from the work of Alfred Beach from Historical Accounts. In real life the Pneumatic Transit only ran one line that was 312 feet long, and was closed down after Beach's store burned down in 1878. Van Horne station is fictional. Thanks to "ECTO-1" and Ben King (Kingpin) for some interesting research on the matter--for more details, go here

John Horace Tobin is born in London. The son of a well-to-do family (his father was a successful businessman) Tobin is educated at Oxford and Cambridge, where he ears two degrees -- one in Obscure Ancient Languages and one in Psychology. At some point, he also marries and sires a son, Jonathon Tobin.

Ghostbusters International: Tobin's Spirit Guide, a supplement for the West End Games RPG. Ghostbusters #8 establishes that at the very least the broad outlines of the game's depicition of Tobin will be followed; it mentions his Cambridge education, as opposed to Oxford--for now I'm saying he did stints at both. As I like this version of Tobin's backstory better than the one in the Now Comics run, the biographical details it gives Tobin will be considered canon by the New Timeline unless/until IDW contradicts them--such as the suggestion that Tobin does marry and procreate, which is not hinted at in the RPG book. Johnathon Tobin's existence is hinted at in What The Sam Hain Just Happened? and established in Ghostbusters #5

March 24. Samuel Henslowe is born. He becomes a world-renowned illusionist and magician, specializing in death-defying escapes. He takes on the stage name "Sam Hain" after the Celtic night-god.

Ghostbusters #5

Ellen Gold becomes Headmistress of the Wander Hills Orphanage. Gold is not a very pleasant person, and many children are abused and malnourished under her care

Ghostbusters #2

Ellen Gold is investigated by the New York Police Department for her management of the Wander Hills Orphanage after two children in her care die of nourishment. Dr. Obel Winters finds Gold to be exhibiting signs of dementia, and recommends her removal, but her lawyer brother, Martin Gold, pays her bail fee and has records of her affliction destroyed. Ellen Gold continues to serve as Headmistress for over twenty more years.

Ghostbusters #2

J.H. Tobin, working as a bookkeeper for a British trading company's Egypt office, first encounters both Shrewsbury Smith and the mummy of Pharaoh Ahagotsu. Ahagotsu escapes, but Tobin becomes dedicted to learning more about the paranormal. Tobin and Smith form a fateful partnership

Ghostbusters International: Tobin's Spirit Guide

J.H. Tobin and Shrewsbury Smith establish an office in London. By placing advertisements in newspapers and other periodicals in and around London, Tobin was more than moderately successful in getting people to come to him with their stories of contacts with the spirit world. He must have talked to an enormous number of crackpots, and his training in psychology helped him to separate the flakes from the people who were telling the truth. Tobin made some mistakes, but for the most part he was pretty good at reading people

Ghostbusters International: Tobin's Spirit Guide

Members of the Stantz family immigrate to the United States from Switzerland;

Conjecture from an unused scene in Ghostbusters 2

Tobin and Smith make a series of trips throughout France, Germany, and other countries. Shrewsbury Smith returns to London occasionally, presumably to clean out the mailbox and renew the lease on the office. By the time he finished his trip. Tobin could read and write at least four foreign languages (French, German, Dutch, and Russian.) and could speak a half-dozen others well enough to make himself understood on a simple level.

Ghostbusters International: Tobin's Spirit Guide,

Death of prominant attorney Ballard Wright. A few years before, he had fallen in love with "woman of ill repute" Hazel Mayfield and asked her to marry him; she refused. The affair had become fodder for the gossip columns, and Mayfield had become depressed and withdrawn prior to his death.

After his death, Wright's spirit lingers in Mayfield's apartment, manifesting jealousy when any female tenants come home with male company.

Tained Love

The Tunguska event, or Tunguska blast or Tunguska explosion, was an enormously powerful explosion that occurred near the Podkamennaya Tunguska River in what is now Krasnoyarsk Krai, Russia, at about 7:14 a.m. KRAT (0:14 UT) on June 30 [O.S. June 17], 1908. The explosion is believed to have been caused by the air burst of a large meteoroid or comet fragment at an altitude of 5–10 kilometers (3–6 mi) above the Earth's surface. Different studies have yielded varying estimates of the object's size, with general agreement that it was a few tens of meters across. It is the largest impact event in recorded history.

Historical accounts. Description lifted wholesale from Wikipedia. Ray misspeaks the date as "1909" in Ghostbusters, but this only furthers a pattern of "dysnumera" he has in the first movie

JH Tobin and Shrewsbury Smith begin a four year journey into Eastern Europe, and then southward through Turkey into Mesopotamia, concentrating on the extremely ancient civilizations of Egypt and the Middle East. Upon hearing rumors of "something terrible happening" in Siberia (the Tunguska Blast), Tobin meets with Vladimir Belascu and investigates the event.

Ghostbusters International: Tobin's Spirit Guide, also mentioned in Ghostbusters #8. The latter source even hints at the existance in the IDW universe of the Grundle, a creature seen in two animated episodes (RGB's "The Grundle" and EGB's "Grundlesque")

Ivo Shandor, an Albanian medical student, forms a cult dedicated to the worship of Gozer the Gozarian, an ancient Sumerian deity also known as The Destructor and The Traveller. Shandor believed that society was too sick to survive, and performed many "unnecessary" surgeries, experimenting with the pacification of humans. He also branched out into architecture, creating the design for 550 Central Park West, the 1984 residence of Dana Barrett and Louis Tully. His cult had over one thousand members at the time of his death.

Ghostbusters From Ray and Egon's research. The production notes included in the DVD release reveal that the name "Gozer" actually came from a documented haunting in New England (the notes unfortunately do not include a date, or you can bet I'd cite it), though the creature's history as a Sumerian god is fictional.

The Titanic sinks after hitting an iceberg, killing more than 1500 people.

Historical Accounts. The Titanic finally makes it to New York City on December 31, 1989, as seen in Ghostbusters 2 The depiction in GB2 does conflict with some historical facts; however, they were facts not known until the Titanic was actually found and explored in the late 1990's: there was no huge hole in the ship caused by the iceberg, and in fact no hole that size and shape is on the ship now as it sits under water. Also the letters 'RMS' were not on the name plate as shown on the ghost ship.

Tobin, during one of the rare times Smith is not at his side, travels to Lake Cheko in Russia. Meeting up with fellow paranormal researchers Mikhael Gallon and Jean-Marc Lucien, they discover the tomb of the soldier spoken of in folklore as "carrying Death in his sack".

Ghostbusters #8

Tobin and Smith return to Egypt. They range up and down the Nile, from Alexandria to Aswan. They go by ship from Suez to Aseb, at the southernmost edge of the Red Sea, and back again. This excursion ends with a foray north to Damascus and then fast to Beirut, where they catch a steamer headed for England.

Ghostbusters International: Tobin's Spirit Guide,

The New York Central City Albany derails, killing hundreds of people.

Historical accounts, embellished in Ghostbusters 2. Winston gets to see a spectral version of the train up close. Once again, as with the NYPRR, some liberties were taken: in real life, the train was running light and only two people were injured when the train jumped its tracks and crashed through a wall. The wreck caught fire, but there were no reports of fatalities. In a bit of irony, the train they show in the tunnel was a steam engine so wouldn't have been used in a subway tunnel, yet the actual 'Albany' was an above ground train and was indeed a steam engine.

Publication of J.H. Tobin's Spirit Guide: Being A Compendium of Ghosts, Gods, Spirits, and Manifestations from Outside the Normal Realms of Existence, With a Travelougue and Notes on Philosophy of the Occult Established by the Author, drawing together all that Tobin and his partner Shrewsbury Smith learned in their years of travels. More commonly known as "Tobin's Spirit Guide", it becomes one of the keystone works of parapsychology and occult study.

Ghostbusters International: Tobin's Spirit Guide,

The Wander Hills Orphanage burns down after being struck by lightning during a storm. The Headmistress, Ellen Gold, had locked the children in their rooms; all, including Gold, perish.

Ghostbusters #2

The first of six manifestations of the ghost of Ellen Gold, in the attic of a house built on the former grounds of the Wander Hills Orphanage. The house promptly burns down.

Ghostbusters #2

The grandparents of Egon Spengler, originally of Ostrov, Poland, immigrate to the United States.

Conjecture from the script of Ghostbusters 2. I theorize the Polish branch of the Spenglers are still nominally Jewish, in part because Harold Ramis is Jewish.

Gangsterism flourishes among the Prohibition. The most notorious crime boss is, of course, Al Capone, who runs the Chicago underworld with an iron fist.

Capone and other gangsters appear in The Other Side

Birth of Felix Ashton. Sometime before 1953, Ashton becomes a member of the Temple of the Divine Father, a splinter of Ivo Shandor's Gozer cult that came to worship Gozer's "father" Koza'Rai

Ghostbusters #6 Ashton was 27 in 1953

The Fred F. French Company builds it's "urban utopia" on the slums of Goat Hill. By 1990, the building is owned by Woodrow Wainwright Fraser III.

Past, Present, and Future

Birth of Hollywood producer Artie Lester

Ghostbusters #5: Artie is mentioned as twenty-three years old at the time of Samuel Hain's disappearance in 1952.

The publication of Quantum Futuristics by Dr. Slausow, where he predicts a futuristic society on Mars in 2060. The work is known to Ray Stantz, and later appears quite prescient when the Ghostbusters visit a Mars colony in 2060

Displaced Aggression #3.

Jaqueline Unglighter is born in Norway.

Ghostbusters #6 She was 21 in 1953.

Magician Sam Hain purchases the house of Jonathon Tobin, son of the late JH Tobin.

Displaced Aggression #3.

The Hotel Sedgewick is built in New York City, near the edge of the garment district

Conjecture, from the Richard Mueller novelization of Ghostbusters

The explosion of the comic form before and during World War 2, known by comic book historians as the "Golden Age", would see many artists coming to prominence. One of the most renowned is Frank Bancroft, who in collaboration with writer Karl Miller, would create "Super Gods" and other comic book heroes who would still be published at least five decades later.

Ghostbusters: Con-Volution. Frank Bancroft is clearly based on real Golden Age artist Jack Kirby, co-creator of Captain America, the New Gods, and most of Marvel's Silver Age heroes. The mention of his "feud" with Karl Miller is probably a satire of Kirby's collaborations with Joe Simon in the Golden Age, and Stan Lee in the Silver

At apartments built on the former grounds of the Wander Hills Orphanage, the children of three families see ghostly children before dying themselves under mysterious circumstances.

Ghostbusters #2

July. An incident occurs in Roswell, New Mexico that remains, to this day, the subject of much debate. An early press release states that an alien spacecraft crashed nearby; the Air Force later explains that the "spacecraft" was a top-secret weather balloon. Many conspiracy theorists are unconvinced by the explanation, thinking it part of a government cover-up.

Contemporary accounts

A group of soldiers stationed at Roswell, whatever the truth of the 1947 incident, become obsessed with the alien paranoia it provoked. This group of soldiers, who all die before 1992, become ghosts haunting the area, and take the form of the stereotypical "grey" aliens.

Ghostbusters #11

Criminals Tony and Nunzio Scoleri are electrocuted. They were sentenced to death after being successfully prosecuted by young lawyer Steven Wexler, in one of the first cases of his forty-plus year career. The Scoleris would be summoned back to try and take revenge on Wexler by the slime of Vigo the Carpathian in 1988.

Ghostbusters 2. The date is not actually given in the final film, and is conjecture from the movie's script. The names Tony and Nunzio are from production materials, and while they did not appear in the final movie they've been accepted by the fandom for decades.

Disappearance of daredevil Samuel Hain. He had a long and colorful career as a stage magician before retiring, and forming a partnership with slimebag TV producer Artie Lester. Lester eventually buys out Hain, and Hain dies in the basement of his house because of a failed escape attempt, though this fact is unknown until decades later.

What the Sam Hain Just Happened?. Date is established in Ghostbusters #5

May 2. Birth of Winston Ramsey Zeddemore, the son of construction worker Edward Zeddemore and his wife Lucille. By 1985 he has at least one nephew.

Conjecture. Fandom seems to have latched onto the idea that Winston is older than the other three original Ghostbusters, and may have served in Vietnam--note that if I kept to year derived from Ghostbusters International, he would've been born in 1962, and would instead be the youngest Ghostbuster. Ernie Hudson' birthday: Dec. 17, 1945. The date May 2, 1954 was provided by Dr. Riddle, from Tory Brown's fan site "Real Ghostbusters Out of Control". Mother's name is from Richard Mueller's novelization of the first movie. Edward Zeddemore is actually from an RGB episode written by Mueller, and his background as a construction worker is also referenced in the 2004 novel The Return; his appearance is established as identical to the RGB character in IDW continuity, however, by Vol.2 #13 Winston's middle name "Ramsey" is from his name in early drafts of the first movie, and was established in IDW continuity by Ghostbusters Vol. 2 #13 There is room for speculation that Winston has more siblings, as the GB1 novelization speculates he could be one of twelve children. The name "Zeddemore" is believed to be fictitious. Nephew was mentioned in Ghostbusters: Legion#1

October 13. Birth of Raymond Francis Stantz to Doctor David Stantz and his wife, the former Carolyn MacMillan.

1953 date derived from 1990 age of 37 in Ghostbusters International; the animation establishes a much later birthdate in 1959. Ray's Exact date is conjecture provided by Dr. Riddle, from Tory Brown's fan site "Real Ghostbusters Out of Control".(Dan Aykroyd was born July 1, 1952) Middle name is a fan conjecture derived from Ghostbusters ("Come here, Francine...") David and Carolyn's names are, again, from Shiela Paulson fiction. Ray's parents are deceased by 1984: the property he puts up for collateral in Ghostbusters was left to him by them.

The novelization of the first movie suggests that Ray has two siblings: an older brother, Carl, who is in the USAF and is married with two sons; and younger sister Jean, who is divorced with a daughter, and lives a bisexual lifestyle in California. It also suggests that Ray's father was a doctor and his mother was a housewife, and died in a plane crash about eighteen months before the Ghostbusters formed. Thanks to Miss Janine for this information.

Fan fictions by Shiela Paulson conjecture that Ray was about eleven at the time David and Carolyn died in an auto accident, and that afterwards he was raised primarily by rather uncaring foster parents. This is all fan conjecture, however. The Gb1 novelization suggests a more recent death of the Stantzes, about eighteen months before the movie (ie early 1983). To add Carl and Jean to the story, Dr. Riddle suggests that perhaps Ray was David and Carlolyn's clear favorite, which would explain why he got the house they were born in and, by the novel's accounts, neither of the three Stantz siblings talk to each other (I can also imagine Carl disapproves of Jean's life style) (It gets really wild in a "what if" story Paulson did, "Father to the Man", which speculates on a really shocking true identity of David Stantz...

Twenty-one year old Norwegian immigrant Jaqueline Unglighter immigrates to America. She is recruited by Felix Ashton into the Koza'Rai cult and eventually chosen to produce a child touched by Koza'Rai's essence, a daughter, Rachel.

Rachel appears in Displaced Aggression; her and her mother's back story is developed in Ghostbusters #6. This is purely a personal thing, but I'm a little leery of "half demon" children; as with Shannon Phillips in Classic Timeline continuity, I prefer to think of her as a "Daemonseed", a child created when it's biological father (one of the cultists, possibly even Ashton himself) is infused with the "demon father"s power.

Peter Charles Venkman is born on September 21, to James Charles "Charlie" Venkman and the former Margaret Abernathy.

Year derived from Ghostbusters International. Bill Murray was born Sept. 21, 1950. Venkman's hospital bracelet in Ghostbusters #7 suggests he was born on November 21; as this is already Egon and Harold Ramis's birthday, the Timeline is treating this as an error for the time being--but as a compromise, we've moved his birth to Murray's birthday to make the "21" part valid. Note that this does not line up with the October 25, 1954 birthday in the Classic Timeline. Venkman's middle name is conjecture from fan fictions, and is named after his Dad. Charlie's full name is a combination of one onscreen mention of "Jim" in "Treasure of the Sierra Tamale" and the popular fan name "Charlie" given to him by Shiela Paulson. Older versions of this document used a different name, but when the name "Jim" was confirmed, this entry was revised to take it into account. The name of Venkman's Mom also comes from fan fiction guru Shiela Paulson, so both are technically conjectural.

In his novelization of the first movie, writer Richard Mueller reportedly conjectures that Venkman was raised in a circus. Ironically enough, Mueller himself would void that idea by creating Charlie Venkman--though there is some sentiment that perhaps Charlie grew up in a circus.

Dr. Riddle believed the name "Venkman" fictitious until uncovering people who actually have that name, living in my own home state of Indiana. He believes it is probably derived from the same roots as the word "fink" (The word “Fink” means a contemptible person, someone who’s considered mean, low, a coward or a cheat.) Fits him.

Parkview Mental Hospital is built in New York City. Unbeknownst to anyone, it is built atop the tomb of Dumazu the Destroyer. Construction workers uncover the buried shard of the Relic of Nilhe; archaeologists are unable to identify it, and by 2011 it ends up in the American Museum of Natural History

Ghostbusters: Sanctum of Slime

December 5. Roger Baugh is born. By 1992, he serves as a literature professor at New York City Community College.

Birthdate is wholly conjectural. As Roger 's appearance was patterned off of the Extreme Ghostbusters version of Egon as an in-joke, I furthered the in-joke by giving him the birthdate of Egon as provided by Dr. Riddle, from Tory Brown's fan site "Real Ghostbusters Out of Control". As noted below, Egon's birthdate is still November 21, 1957 due to it matching the age given in Ghostbusters International. Roger's occupation is established in Ghostbusters #13; his working at NYCCC is another Extreme Ghostbusters in-joke, as that was the college Egon worked at when the series debuted. .

November 21. Egon Spengler is born to Dr. Edison Spengler and his wife Katharine. Egon is given a very strict upbringing stressing academic success, so much that he was allowed no toys. Egon eventually attends Columbia University for four years, Oxford for two, and spends an extended residency with Gnostic monks in Carpathia; as a grad student, he studies under preeminent condensed matter and particle physics scholar Dr. Harold Teplitz, who flunks him on the basis of his "wild" theories.

Year based on Egon's age as listed in Ghostbusters International (Readers of the Classic Timeline also know this was "confirmed", in animated continuity, by the EGB episode "Back In The Saddle") Harold Ramis was born on Nov.21, 1944. December 5, 1956 was a date provided by Dr. Riddle, from Tory Brown's fan site "Real Ghostbusters Out of Control" (See Roger Baugh's birth in 1956 for use of this detail). Shiela Paulson's name for Egon's father is Elliot, while I called him Newton in my old stories--I decided to split the difference and suggest the name Edison. Katharine is named again from fan fiction. Egon mentions that he wasn't allowed any toys (save a Slinky that he straightened) in Ghostbusters 2 Teplitz, and Egon's academic history, are from Ghost Busted, which is somewhat contradictory to the GB1 script assumption that Egon studied at MIT. Both Egon and Eugene Visitor sport shirts marked "Senn University" in "The Most Magical Place On Earth" (GBIDW#5-8).
The novelization of the first movie conjectures that Egon has a brother, but this is unsupported by the totality of canon, which paints him as an only child. Thanks to Miss Janine for the information.

April 18. Birth of Louis Bartholomew Tully. He has a cousin, Sherm, who is a podiatrist; his mother is either a widow or divorced from Louis's father by 1989, and moves to Ocala, Florida

Date is conjecture from Rick Moranis's birthdate of April 18, 1954; in Ghostbusters Louis throws a party to celebrate four years as an accountant; assuming he graduated from a four year program, he would be twenty-six in 1984. (Thanks to "born2bustheads" and "Princess Artemis" for pointing these facts out). Note that in the Classic Timeline, as GB1 is placed in 1983, Louis was born the same day in 1957. Name "Bartholomew" is conjectural--he has the middle initial "B" in the Ghostbusters International role playing books--the age in that book was disregarded, however, as it would imply Louis was born in 1960, which contradicts the movie whether it took place in 1983 or 1984. Louis mentions in Ghostbusters 2 that he "Had a roommate, but then my Mom moved out." His mother's location in Florida is established by Ghostbusters Vol.2#15. The script for Ghostbusters 2 introduces Louis's cousin Sherm, a dermatologist, but as he didn't appear in the final movie his existence is only conjectural until Ghostbusters Vol.2#15 (Sherm does appear in GB2#3)

October 28. Janine Melnitz is born to Fritz and Denise Melnitz, and raised in Brooklyn.

Exact date is Conjecture--Annie Potts' birthday is October 28,1952, which more or less matches the age they give her in Ghostbusters International; The 1958 date actually comes from The Real Ghostbusters episode "The Brooklyn Triangle", which establishes her as graduating high school in 1977; it is basically reestablished for New Timeline continuity by Ghostbusters Vol.2 #6, where she recalls attending her Senior Prom in 1977. I admit that I decided to keep that one solely because it makes her closer in age to Egon (Tory Brown's web site does not list a birthday for her). The names of her parents are conjectural. It is assumed, though not established, that the Melnitz family is Jewish--one more reason I posited the Ostrov Spenglers as being of Jewish descent (more common ground for Egon and Janine). "Melnitz" is a legitimate name, but Dr. Riddle is unsure as to the exact origin, probably Hebrew, Slavic, or Germanic.

Among the Miller Meteor Cadillac Hearse/Ambulances manufactured this year are two vehicles that, when acquired by the Ghostbusters in 1983 and 1988, would be the two incarnations of the famous ECTO-1

Ghostbusters and Ghostbusters 2. The exact model year of the ECTOs comes from a post by Zack on Ghostbusters.net.

November 15. Birth of Ilyssa Selwyn, birth name unknown. She is adopted by Jeremiah and Fabianne Selwyn of the Chicago Institute for Ancient Eastern Studies. She spends much of her childhood with her adopted parents as they travel throughout Asian and European archaeological sites, and on the lecture circuit.

Promotional pdf for Ghostbusters: The Video Game

Sighting of Ellen Gold, the former Headmistress of Wander Hills Orphanage, the third manifestation since the destruction of the Orphanage in 1920

Ghostbusters #2

Janine Melnitz attends the World's Fair at Flushing Meadows. She leaves with two souvenir coins that she keeps as good luck charms. She gives one of these to Egon Spengler in 1983, on the eve of the Ghostbuster's battle with Gozer

Conjecture; this was actually from a scene edited from Ghostbusters that showed up as an "extra" on the 1999 DVD release. As I thought it was a cute scene, and it doesn't violate continuity, I thought I'd add it to the timeline...

Winston Zeddemore, son of construction worker Edward Zeddemore, is drafted to fight in the Vietnam War. He is trained at the Paris Island boot camp by Staff Sergeant Adams.

Ghostbusters #9 and #16 confirm Winston's military service. Ghostbusters #3 makes an off-hand mention of a "Marine drill instructor" as a potential form of the Destructor, presumably from Winston's mind--we meet the ghost of Staff Sergeant Adams in #16, which also mentions Paris Island. It IS mentioned in the GB1 script that Winston has extensive military experience

The date is Conjecture. Winston's service in Vietnam is a popular fan assumption, though unsupported by any canonical evidence--though nothing I know of refutes it either; 1971 is eighteen years after his conjectured birth in 1953.

At some point in his youth, Winston is involved with a woman named Janelle. She drowns and dies; Winston mourns her for many years before he allows himself to love again.

"The Other Side, Part 3" Whether this would be before being drafted, in his teenage years, or after, is unknown. Arguably, this could have happened as late as the early 1980's, before Winston became a Ghostbuster; as the other Ghostbusters didn't recognize her, it's safe to assume that she died before he met them.

Laura Parr dies after being rammed by a spectral semi truck (henceforth referred to as "Death Truck")

Twenty years before Ghostbusters #12

Sept. 21. Roland Jackson is born in New York, the first of seven children of Phil and Sharon Jackson. Jackson is a relative of schoolteacher Tiyah Clarke.

Date is conjecture, derived from birthday of Alphonso Ribiero (Sept. 21, 1971) and assuming, like the Extreme Ghostbusters version of the character, he was roughly the same age as Kylie Griffin, below. Roland makes a cameo in Ghostbusters V2#14 at Winston and Tiyah Zeddemore's wedding; it's thus also possible he's actually one of Winston's relatives in IDW continuity, but I'm speculating he's one Tiyah's because it's more consistent with EGB--just assume that EGB is a universe where Winston and Tiyah never met, and thus Winston never met her nephew or cousin Roland until "Back In The Saddle". The names of Roland's parents are conjecture from EGBFan. While EGB is not part of New Timeline continuity, most details are assumed to be consistent with the Classic/EGB version of the character unless they are contradicted in-story.

Feb. 12. Birth of Kylie Griffin to Steve and Jill Griffin. Her parents divorce when she is very young, and she's raised by her grandmother Rose Lockyer. By the early 1990's, she's a follower of the Goth aesthetic, and interested in the paranormal. Her father has at least one brother, Carrol, who by 1993 is the manager of the Waltz-Partington Hotel in New York City.

Date conjectured from birthdate of Tara Charendoff Strong (Feb 12, 1973), who voiced Kylie in Extreme Ghostbusters. This means that New Timeline/IDW Kylie is born six years earlier than Classic Timeline/EGB Kylie, who was only 18 in 1997; New/IDW Kylie would have to be at least 16 by the time she starts working for Ray's Occult in 1991;, and by this conjecture she'd be 18. Grandmother is mentioned in EGB's"Darness at Noon". The names of her parents, and great grandmother's last name, are conjecture from EGBFan. While EGB is not part of New Timeline continuity, these details are assumed to be consistent with the Classic/EGB version of the character unless they are contradicted in-story. Uncle Carrol is from Ghostbusters Vol.2 #14

July 18. Birth of Eduardo Rivera, the second son of policeman Alberto Rivera and his wife Carlota. Eduardo has one older brother, Carlos, who follows in their father's footsteps in becoming a policeman.

Year is conjecture, and assumes that, just like in Extreme Ghostbusters, he's the same age as Kylie. For a long time, Rino Romano's birthdate wasn't listed on IMDB or Wikipedia, so we used a conjecture comes from Iain Bennett/Sinister. (Wikipedia now lists July 1, 1969, which means we weren't too far off day-wise) While EGB is not part of New Timeline continuity, most family details are assumed to be consistent with the Classic/EGB version of the character unless they are contradicted in-story. The name of Eduardo's parents are conjectural, and taken from fan fictions written by "EGB Fan". Carlos Rivera appears, unidentified, in Ghostbusters V2#10. Ghostbusters Vol.2#11 implies IDW Eduardo may be diabetic, but that is unconfirmed.

Eugene Visitor, a friend of college prodigy Egon Spengler, is hit by a car and completely vanishes. This incident is one of several that spark Egon's interest in the paranormal.

Ghostbusters #8; "Nearly twenty years ago". There is no impression created in the story that Venkman or Ray are aware of Visitor, which implies his "death" took place before Egon met them. This would be consistent with Venkman not even getting into college until the fall of 1973.

Instead of dying, though, Visitor encounters a "spirit of death". Drawing on Russian folklore, specifically the story of a Russian soldier who trapped Death in a sack--and orders the spirit into his duffel bag. It works. Visitor's life is spared, but he's disjointed in time

Peter Venkman enters college. He eventually attains doctorates in parapsychology and psychology.

Date is conjecture, assuming a graduation date of May 1973 (Venkman was born Oct. 1954). Venkman's doctorates are established in Ghostbusters, though there's always the sneaking suspicion that he earned them at one of those "Send us your money we send you a doctorate" Correspondence Schools--the script for Ghostbusters credits Egon for making Venkman finish grad school. The exact timing of Venkman's meeting with Egon Spengler is unknown.

Sighting of Ellen Gold, the former Headmistress of Wander Hills Orphanage, the fourth manifestation since the destruction of the Orphanage in 1920

Ghostbusters #2

Louis Tully graduates from high school, and attends college majoring in Accounting.

Assumes he attended college for four years before becoming an accountant; he celebrates four years in the field in Ghostbusters

Death of Jeremiah and Fabianne Selwyn during a cave in. Their adopted daughter, Ilyssa, at that time attending Kuwait's Seisemme Academy, later attends the University of Illinois, via scholarships from the Chicago Institute, the Trompe Corporation, and the Shandor Foundation. She earns a PhD in Anthropology from Columbia University, and one in Applied Archaeological Sciences from UC Berkeley.

Promotional pdf for Ghostbusters: The Video Game

Janine Melnitz graduates high school.

Ghostbusters Vol.2#6, which established that her Senior Prom was on June 16, 1977. This essentially "reestablishes" a fact from The Real Ghostbusters episode "The Brooklyn Triangle"

Democrat Lenny Clotch is elected Mayor of New York City.

Conjecture. In the Real World, Ed Koch was first elected in 1977. Lenny's party affiliation comes from the novelization of the first movie, his full name from the novelization of the second.

Serial killer Gareth DiBello terrorizes Central Park, kidnapping and murdering twelve victims before being stopped. DiBello is dead or executed prior to 1993.

Fifteen years before Ghostbusters V2#2

The Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present, and Future appear to twenty-two year old Woodrow Wainwright Fraser III, a greedy man who is aspiring to be even richer. As they did with Ebeneezer Scrooge in the Dickens story, they try to get him to mend his ways, but fail--Fraser instead tempts the Ghost of Christmas Present with his own hedonistic ways, and the ghost ends up possessing him to share the life style of privilege. The other two Ghosts appear to Fraser every Christmas Eve thereafter, but have no success in tempering Fraser's greed (he buys his own father out of the company in a hostile takeover ten years later) or convincing the Ghost of Christmas Present to release itself from Fraser.

Past, Present, and Future. Fraser's exact age, and the number of years the ghosts had been hassling him is unknown. The ghosts had been visiting him since he was 22, however, and he bought his father out of the company at age 32; thus, the first visit could have taken place no later than 1980, and that would be if Fraser was 32 in 1990. Despite his prematurely grey, thinning hair (which he insists was a side effect of the stress of the visits) he appears to be older than this, meaning the visits started earlier.

Art restorer Janosz Poha and his sister emigrate to the United States. The sister marries an American with the last name Crendall; by 1988, they have a young son, Alan, who is old enough to remember his Uncle Janosz, though the family has no contact with him from 1989 through 2011.

Ghostbusters: Sanctum of Slime and Ghostbusters #1. Alan Crendall, one of the Ghostbuster recruits in the game, is "somewhere in [his] twenties" in 2011, which obviously means he was born after 1981. On the other hand, he's old enough to remember Uncle Janosz before his mother breaks all contact with him after Ghostbusters 2. If more information comes to light letting us nail down Alan's age more clearly, it will be reflected in future revisions of this Timeline

Egon Spengler, Ray Stantz, Peter Venkman, and Micheal Draverhaven use a device of Spengler's design, Stantz's construction, and aided with knowledge of Polynesian runes provided by Draverhaven, that attempts to open a portal to the "spirit world". The device fails and explodes, and Draverhaven is driven insane and attacks Stantz. He is committed to Albany Psychological Corrections Facility. Unknown to the future Ghostbusters at the time, the cause of Draverhaven's insanity was the awakening of his psychic ability to talk to and control paranormal entities.

Ghostbusters: Legion#3 While the flashback supposedly takes place ten years before the story (six months after Gozer), the date has been arbitrarily moved five years before the story; as mention is made of the experiment being important in Venkman gaining his degree, 1980 actually works better in context with other parts of the Timeline.

Louis Tully becomes a Certified Public Accountant

Ghostbusters. Louis throws a party to celebrate four years as an accountant.

Dr.s Egon Spengler and Peter Venkman are employed by Columbia University to do parapsychological research. By 1984, they are under the department management of Dean Yaeger.

Conjecture. It is never established, but the impression is given that Egon and Venkman met in college, and worked together since. Dean Yaeger is from Ghostbusters

Democrat Lenny Clotch is re-elected Mayor of New York City

Conjecture. In the Real World, Ed Koch was reelected to another term in 1981. Lenny's party affiliation comes from the novelization of the first movie, his full name from the novelization of the second. It is presumed, but not stated, that like Koch Lenny was already incumbent in the position, and this was actually a reelection.

Dr. Ray Stantz is hired by the university, and he is assigned to work with Egon Spengler and Peter Venkman.

Conjecture. Ray worked in the private sector at some point (Ghostbusters), presumably running into Venkman and Egon later--he may have met them earlier than this, however; the Ghostbusters script suggests Venkman introduced Ray and Egon to each other.

A rock band is formed in Seattle led by Dante Barnes. Barnes and at least two other guys were in a band on the verge of stardom. Barnes had a song he was trying to write, one that was "in his head, like a dream he couldn't quite remember". Then Barnes met Shelly, and the band started to get more popular, then Barnes and Shelly had some problems and Barnes literally flamed out on stage, still moaning "Let me finish!"

The band's drummer, who by 1992 is a DJ at Seattle's KBIB station, suspects that Shelly was a witch and responsible for Barnes' death.

Ghostbusters#12 The time frame of the band's formation and Barnes' death is very vague, but it clearly happened long enough ago for the drummer to noticeably age, and for one of the clubs Barnes played in to be renovated "two or three times" since then.

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