Ghostbusters International: The Official History; Before the Founding

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c.8000 BC
Rise of Atlantis; the Atlanteans become masters of magic and knowledge. They formulate the theorem of the "Twelve Keys of Magic" and the religion of Xodiac the Keeper of those keys. The first prophesies of the Twelve Children of Xodiac are written. [GBOT]

Possible first account of the appearance of the "Xodiac Lords", who are persuaded to spare humanity by the "Forever Swimmer", alleged to be one of the Children of Xodiac. According to the precepts of Atlantean mythology, they might have reappeared c. 6000 BC, c. 4000 BC, and c. 2000 BC, but as yet no accounts of those returns have surfaced. [GBOT]

Atlantis is destroyed when a Gozer cult betrays the Royal Family and sparks a war with the followers of Hob Anagarak. [GBOT,GB1,RGB]

Driano-Noge, the demon known as The Undying One, master of the African nation of Tangalla, is challenged by the wizard one day known as "The Collector". The Collector fails, and is banished to the land of lost objects. The twin keys to the realm are held by the Undying One until his own defeat, where they become heirlooms kept by the descendants of Shima-Buku [RGB,GBOT]

c.7000 BC
Hob Anagarak, the demonic creature holding sway over the Arctic, is imprisoned in a block of black ice. It is said in Inuit legend that after this, the land grew cold [RGB]
c.3500 BC
The Sumerian civilization forms in Mesopotamia. The Sumerians invent writing (cuniform) and the pantheon worshipped 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; Gozer the Gozarian, and it's minions Zuul and Vinz Clortho; and the elemental spirits Anshar and Khishor. [GB1, RGB, HA]
c.3000 BC
Shima-Buku, cheiftain of the Ibandi people of Tangalla, defeats the Undying One and imprisons him in three stones that were scattered throughout the borders of Tangalla.[RGB]

Anthal-Noge, the Lord of Gloom, the Undying One's brother and servant, is similarly bound to a giant crystal that is later cut into gems, the "gloom gems" or "hearts in eclipse"[GBOT]

c.2800-2075 BC
Construction of Stonehenge, marker of a powerful sight where "ley lines" of psycho-kinetic energy cross in a nexus. The sight was an astronomical observatory utilized by it's mysterious builders and later by the Druids. [GBOT, HA]
c.2600 BC
The Great Pyramid of Giza is constructed, first and greatest of the pyramids of Egypt. A Necropolis of a deceased pharoah, they also mark a very powerful series of ley line nexi. [HA]
c.2000 BC
Height of the civilization of ancient Egypt. Among the main gods of the pantheon is Anpu, the jackal-headed god of death, who's name was translated by the Greeks as "Anubis", as well as the insect god Abshi. Among the more obscure of the pharoahs that rule the country are the "Clown Prince", Pharoah Ahagotsu, and his thuggish, tone-deaf grandson Pharoah Tohnloq [HA, RGB, GBI, GBWC]
c.1600 BC
An Egyptian chronicle mentions a powerful Hyksos diety known as "Zuul, the Gatekeeper, minion of Gozer" [GB1]
c.500 BC
Rise of the classical Greek civilization, which included a colorful pantheon of gods that were later co-opted by the Roman Empire. In 1984, one powerful entity would claim to in fact be the Greek shapeshifting god Proteus. [HA, RGB]
4 BC
The first year of the Age of Pisces; the appearance of the Zodiac Lords is foiled when the flow of PKE to their intended arrival spot is stunted by mystics of the Cult of Mercury. [GBOT]
1 AD
The Council of Eight, self-proclaimed "Guardians of the Universe", selected a thirty-five year old Alexandrian scribe named Carthio as the "Chronicler of the Spirits". [GBOT, Now]
SIXTH CENTURY AD
The historical events related to the legendary rise and fall of Camelot occur. Lost among the rush of more colorful figures is thuggish lord Sir Bruce Sans Pite', who is punished for his many crimes by being bound--reportedly by none other than Merlin himself--into a tapestry. King Arthur's sword Excalibur would later be given to GBUK member Iain Bennett [HA, RGB,GBUK]
c.738
Death of Arab madman Abdul Al-Hazred (more accurately rendered as "Abd Al-Azrad"), writer of a collection of dark spells and lore related to "Khadhulu" and the "Great Old Ones" known as the Kitab Al-Azif. When translated by Western scholars into Greek and Latin, centuries later, it would become known as the Necronomicon, the source work that 20th century horror writer HP Lovecraft would use to create his Cthulhu mythos. [RGB, GBOT]
767
The Order of Hermes is formed. This order of mystics--the descendants of the Mercury cults of Roman times--would be the leading mystick order throughout the Middle Ages; though the Age of Reason would cause them to melt into the shadows, they are still the leaders of magic society at the dawn of the Third Millenium [GBOT]
TWELFTH CENTURY
Career of the Hermetic Archmage known as "Zandrik Fallagar". Born in Germany, and trained by House Jerbiton, he would become a notable member of the Order before disappearing from view during the Rennaissance. [GBOT]

The first Baron Igor Vashnivski builds Vashniv Castle in Transylvania. It is unclear, but presumed, that he is the same Baron Igor Vashnivski who is embraced by a vampire of the Tzimsce clan. [GBOT]

FIFTEENTH CENTURY
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. [GB2]
1431
Birth of Vlad Tepes in a small kingdom in the Carpathian mountains. He is the son of the hated "Vlad the Dragon" ("Vlad Dracul" in the Transylvanian tongue), but Vlad the younger far exceeds his father's cruelty. Tepes becomes known as Vlad the Impaler, and even more famously as "The Son of the Dragon": Dracula. According to folklore, he "dies" by being embraced by a vampire of the Tzimsce clan, going on to become the Count Vladimir Dracula featured in Bram Stoker's 1897 novel. Count Vostok of Buldavia would claim, in 1985, to be the "true" Dracula, but that account is later disproven. Presumably Tepes' career is influential on another Carpathian despot a century later, Vigo the Carpathian. [HA, RGB, GBOT, GBAD]

Two families would become notable in battling Dracula: The Van Hellsings and the Belmonts. [GBAD, GBOT]

1504
Scotland. Lady Lucindra, of the Williams Clan, forms a cult dedicated to Dagon, the Deepest One. In return for mystic power and virtual immortality, she is to provide the Deepest One with one fertile human female, to be Dagon's "Consor". Lucindra intends this "honor" for her vassal, Danise MacDuff, but MacDuff is saved from this fate by Laird Fergus Aberdeen, a member of the Order of Hermes' House Jerbiton. Lucindra herself is forced to become the Consor of Dagon. [GBWC]

Fergus and Danise marry; with her power, though, Lucindra places a curse on their bloodline: no daughter firstborn carrying the Aberdeen name, and descended from them, will find happiness in love until one of them takes Lucindra's place. By mystic means including "chance' accidents and diseases, she enforces this curse from afar for five hundred years. [GBWC]

1505
June 24. 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. [GB2, GBOT]
1598
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. Unbenownst to the world until 1988, Vigo ensorcelled the painting to contain his essence after his death [GB2]
1606
First recorded account of Valek, the Viceroy of the Night, Heirophant of the Winged Harbingers; formerly known as a wealthy lord, this vampire (clan and generation unknown) burns down an entire village before disappearing. [GBSC]
1610
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" [GB2]
1620
Ancestors of Dana Barrett emmigrate to the English colonies of North America, presumably on the Mayflower. [HA, GB2, GBOT]
c.1650
Some members of a family of German scholars, the Spenglers, emmigrate to the English colonies of North America, settling in the town now known as Lewistown, Massachussetts, and converts from Judiasm to Christianity (possibly a Puritan brand). At some point prior to the Twentieth Century, another faction would settle in Ostrov, Poland. [RGB,GBOT]
c.1689
Phineus Eventide is born. He would grow up to become one of the most powerful wizards in the world, and before his death in 1991 is regarded as the Prince of Warlocks. He was a member, and ultimately the Primus, of the Order of Hermes' House Criamon.[Now, GBOT]
1689
Eli Spengler saves the colony town of Lewistown. Massachussets from the witch Kestrel, imprisoning her in a crystal containment unit. Elias's descendants will include Zediciah, 18th century wizard, and 20th century Ghostbuster Egon Spengler [RGB]
1692-93
Possibly influenced by paranoia springing from Kestrel's rampage in Lewistown, the town of Salem, Massachussetts conducts it's infamous "Salem Witch Hunts", leading to the burning of many witches, accused both truely and falsely (though mostly falsely). [HA, RGB]

Some of the witches in Salem are under the control of the vampire lord Valek, and escape the burning. [GBSC]

1742
Zediciah Spengler, a deranged dabbler in the occult, conjures a small dragon, then imprisons him in a well. The scholarly Spengler family comes to regard him as an embarrassment: one descendant would label him one of the "loons and scoundrels of the family" [RGB]
1777
The Shadow Chasers are founded by a member of the Van Helsing family. This small society dedicates itself to protecting the innocent from supernatural monsters. One of their first successes is in destroying the surviving Salem witches, though their master, Valek, escapes. [GBSC]
1837
Christmas. English businessman Ebeneezer Scrooge is visited by the ghosts of Christmas Past, Present, and Future. He regains the Christmas spirit, and his story is chronicled by Charles Dickens and his 1843 book, A Christmas Carol. The chronicle does not include the fact that four travellers from 1984 nearly foil the event. [HA, RGB]
1840
A witch spirit tries to invade the body of Ginevra Jacobs, intent on murdering Ginevra's son Aaron to seal the posession. Two time travellers from the year 1990--Ghostbusters Egon Spengler and Janine Melnitz, the latter a cousin of one of Ginevra's descendants--prevent the posession. Only the two time travellers know that this creates an alternate timeline, as originally Aaron Jacobs did die and Ginevra's body was posessed until 1990. Aaron Jacobs would grow up to become the first disabled Congressman from New York. [Now]
1860's
A Russian family emigrates to the United States; unbenownst to them, they are accompanied by a small group of domovyen house spirits. Ghostbuster Ray Stantz would be a descendant of this family. [RGB]
1870
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 despiet early opposition of corrupt politco 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. [HA, GB2]

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, where he ears two degrees -- one in Obscure Ancient Languages and one in Psychology. [GBI, GBOT]

1878
A fire destroys the mining town of Columbia, California. Some of the miners who died in the fire come back to haunt the town a century later in bodies made of clay dust, and become known as "Dust Monsters" [GBWC]
1889
The Eiffel Tower is debuted at the World's Fair in Paris. Unknown to the world at large, it's creator, Gustav Eiffel, was a ghost hunter and the tower his containment system. [RGB, HA]
1890
Birth of Howard Phillips Lovecraft, who in the early 20th century would write many horror novels in what will be referred to by some as the "Cthulu Mythos" before his death in 1937. Unbenownst to the world at large, Lovecraft did not create the Cthulhu mythos: he drew it from the ancient mystic text known as the Necronomicon. Ray Stantz would be a voracious reader of Lovecraft's works, which inspired his own studies of the supernatural. [RGB, HA]

Detective Sherlock Holmes and his partner Watson are helped in the solving of several mysterious crimes--by four men from over a century in the future: Peter Venkman, Ray Stantz, Egon Spengler, and Winston Zeddemore [GBOT]

1897
Bram Stoker's novel Dracula is released, a story of the vampire Count Vladimir Dracula and his battles with John Harker and the Van Helsing family. The Dracula legend had it's roots in the 15th Century Carpathian despot Vlad Tepes, The Impaler; almost a century later, Count Vostok of Buldavia claims that the book is a fictionalized and slanted account of his battles with the fanatical Van Helden family. However, GBI would later discover that Vostok's claims are untrue. [HA, RGB, GBOT]
1899
J.H. Tobin, working as a bookkeeper for a British trading company's Egypt office, first encounters both Shrewsbury Smith and the mummy of Pharoah Ahagotsu. Ahagotsu escapes, but Tobin becomes dedicted to learning more about the paranormal. Tobin and Smith form a fateful partnership. [GBOT, GBWC]
1901-1902
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. [GBI]
1903-1905
Tobin and Smith make a series of trips throughout France, Germany, and other countries. Shrewsbury Smith returns to London occassionally, 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. [GBI]
EARLY TWENTIETH CENTURY
Members of the Stantz family immigrate to the United States from Switzerland; They purchase a dairy farm in Islip, New York that had been worked for ten generations by the Peterson family. They have two sons--one would inherit the farm (which would one day be run by his granddaughter Samantha), while the other would move to the Bronx and marry a descendant of Russian immigrants--the second son would be the grandfather of Ray Stantz [RGB, GBOT]
1907
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 [GBI]
1910
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 pacifiction of humans. He also branched out into architecture, creating the design for 550 Central Park West, the 1983 residence of Dana Barrett and Louis Tully. His cult had over one thousand members at the time of his death. [GB1]
1914-1916
Tobin and Smith return to Egypt. Thety 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. [GBI]
1919
JH Tobin and Shrewsbury Smith journey to the United States, staying a few months but never venturing far from the Eastern Seaboard. [GBI]
1920
Publication of J.H. Tobin's Spirit Guide: Being A Compendium of Ghosts, Gods, Spirits, and Manifestations from Outside the Normal Realms of Existance, 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. Among those it comes to the attention to are the Council of Eight. [GBI, GBOT, Now]
1920's
The parents of Edison and Cyrus Spengler, originally of Ostrov, Poland, emmigrate to the United States and settle in Cleveland, Ohio. Thier two sons would follow in the family tradition of scientific pursuits, becoming a physicist and a biochemist respectively. [GB2,RGB,GBOT]
1924
Death of Shrewsbury Smith, the travel partner of JH Tobin. At some point after this, Tobin is recruited by the Council of Eight to become the new "Chronicler of Spirits". Tobin replaced Carthio, who had been destroyed by the entity known only as "Evil" Tobin's fate remains completely unknown until 1991. [GBI, GBOT, Now]
1928
Dec. 3. Birth of Nathaniel Masterson to Billy-Joe Masterson and a hooker in Providence, Rhode Island [GBWC]
1930
Charles Conrad ("Charlie") Venkman is born on October 31 to a circus ticket taker in Sedalia, Missouri; raised in the atmosphere of the sleazy circus (circuses are not necessarily sleazy, but this one was) he grows up with some very warped values. He has at least one brother, Alf, who would grow up to be the "white sheep" of the family, owner of a farm in Iowa [GBOT, RGB]

First memories of the ghost who later takes on the name "Rachel Leavenworth." The entity materializes in the abandoned Columbia House Hotel in Columbia, California, with no memory of her life. [GBWC]

1931
Nathaniel Masterson is abandoned, and becomes a ward of the state of Rhode Island [GBWC]
1930's
A son of the Stantz family that immigrated to the US in the Early 20th Century marries a granddaughter of the Russian family that immigrated in the 1860's. They would settle in the Bronx, and have at least three children: Gaylord, Lois, and David. Gaylord would settle in Queens and become proprietor of a joke shop; he apparently never marries. Lois would never marry either, and would inherit her parent's house (the house her mother's Russian ancestors built). David would become a doctor and one day move to Morrisville, in upstate New York.[GBOT, RGB]

Dr. Frederick Melton marries a descendant of the Lewistown Spenglers, and they have at least one child, a daughter, Katharine. Katharine is doted on by her maternal grandfather, Christopher Melton. [GBOT]

Charles Foster Hearse begins his publishing empire, featuring such eclecic magazines as Spooks Illustrated, which would eventually be read by all four of the future Ghostbusters (Venkman especially enjoying the swimsuit issue). Hearse would be succeeded by his heirs, son Charles Foster Jr.and in 1984, grandson Charles Foster III [RGB]

Ian Epimetheus, later a physics professor at MIT, meets and marries his wife, a "firecracker from Brooklyn" [GBOT]

1938
Superman debuts in the pages of Action Comics No.1, the first superhero comic book. It would inspire scores of imitators and swipes, among them the 1960's hero Captain Steel [HA, RGB]

The secretive Gegengeistgruppe (GGG), a team of artificially enhanced scientists and warriors backed by the Nazis, attempt to summon the demon Belial. Their attempt fails, and all of them perish.[GBWC]

Alberto Juan Rivera is born in Mexico. He would immigrate to the United States and settle in New York City, become a policeman, marry, and sire two sons: Carlos and Eduardo[XGB,GBOT]

1939
The World's Fair is held in New York. The Toad Island amusement park, founded by descendants of Deep One/human hybrids, is at the peak of it's attendance. [HA, Now]
1940's
Career of the Crime Patrol. Composed of the Crimson Crimebuster, the Lunar Avenger (Robert Weinberg), Doc Hazzard (Will Murray Hazzard, a scientific genius and minor telepath), and the Dark Dwarf. Their archnemesis is a sinister sorcerer named Fu Fang. Hazzard is also a friend of Dr. Fredrick Melton. [Now, GBOT]

Airplanes on polar exploration missions begin to disappear into the geomagnetic disturbance leading the inner Earth realm of Ceratel. Over the next fourty-plus years, four of those pilots find each other, learn the dinosaur languages, and discover ways of fermenting fuel from fruit trees. These humans become known by the citizens of Ceratel as the "Legion of the Lost" [Now]

1941
Nathaniel Masterson runs away from the orphanage, and lives at the river with a tribe of otters. [GBWC]
1943
Nathaniel Masterson is adopted by "rednecks" who nickname him "Otter" because they "Can't pernounce his real name" [GBWC]
1945
Columbia is declared a State Park, the best preserved mining town in California. The town's buildings are gradually restored. A Class 3 ghost, drifting among the now-foggy images of her past, remains quiet enough to escape notice. [GBWC]
1946
Otter Masterson enters Virginia TECH. He later helps develop the ram jet. [GBWC]
1948
Criminals Tony and Nunzio Scoleri are electrocuted. They were sentenced to death after sucessfully being prosecuted by a young lawyer named Steven Wexler in one of the first cases of his forty-plus year career. They would be summoned back to try and take revenge on Wexler by the slime of Vigo the Carpathian in 1988. [GB2]

Otter becomes an assembly line worker at Boeing [GBWC]

1949
December. The Crime Patrol disbands after their final battle with Fu Fang. The Lunar Avenger, Robert Weinberg, would marry and have at least two sons, Alan and Matthew. Hazzard would retire to research work, and annually check the stasis capsule containing Fu Fang until the sorcerer's escape in late 1988 [Now]
1950's
Edison Spengler marries his college sweetheart; she gives birth to their son, Ellis, but dies during or shortly after their son's birth. Ellis is given to his mother's family to raise. A few years later, Dr. Edison Spengler serves an internship under Will Hazzard, and in the process meets Hazzard's secretary, Katharine Melton, a distant relative who's mother descended from the Lewistown Spenglers. In part because of his resemblance to her notable ancestor Elias, Katharine pursues Edison and the two marry. [GBOT, GBNS]

Dockworker Fritz Melnitz, of Brooklyn, New York, meets office worker Denise Brandenburg. Melnitz pursues her almost from the first, but she heavily denies reciprocating the feelings until he is injured in a work accident and spends some time in the hospital. The two finally marry, and settle in the Canarsie area of Brooklyn. [GBOT]

Denise Melnitz's brother, Johnathan Brandenburg, dies during the Korean War. [GBOT]

Norman Draverhaven is born; he and his younger brother Micheal would become interested the paranormal--Norman more in the scientific study of it, and later develop a weapon he would dub the "photon pack". In 1985, Peter Venkman would give him the insulting nickname "Professor Dweeb" [RGB,88MPH]

1952
Dorothy Aberdeen born. She is a descendant of Fergus and Danise Aberdeen. [GBWC]
1953
May 2. Birth of Winston Zeddemore, the son of construction worker Edward Zeddemore and his wife Lucille.
Winston has at least one sister, Evangelean, who marries one of the workers in her father's company and moves to Montana; and by 1984 a nephew. [GBOT, RGB, XGB, 88MPH, iB]
1954
Peter Charles Venkman is born on October 25, in Brooklyn, New York, to Charlie Venkman and the former Margaret Abernathy. Charlie is an intinerate salesman and con-man. Margaret dies early, and young Peter spends much of his childhood moving around to avoid the law and disgruntled marks. [RGB,GBOT,Now]

December. Bernard Lupin is born in New York City. In adolescence, he discovers that he is a Garou, a genetic werewolf, specifically of the somewhat downtrodden Bone Gnawer tribe. [GBOT]

Otter promoted to military engineer, where he developed and repaired new jets and spy planes dring the Cold War. He also efficiently made a great debute with high ranking officers...and their daughters. [GBWC]

1955
Carl Stantz is born in the Bronx, the first child of Doctor David Stantz and his wife, the former Carolyn MacMillan of Scotland. [GBOT]

James Aberdeen born. He is the younger brother of Dorothy Aberdeen, and also a descenant of Fergus and Danise. [GBWC]

October 8. Dana Barrett is born to Gerald and Valerie Barrett.[GBOT]

Birth of Jake Kong Jr. to Jake Kong and his wife [GBWC]

Deann Melnitz born to Fritz and Denise Melnitz. [GBOT,RGB]

1956
Nathaniel Masterson was placed as a military tactics supervisor after he was beginning to "crack" under pressure of designing the next greatest thing. He worked in that position for 12 years, until his engineering talent was again required for competition against the Russians, this time by NASA.[GBWC]
1957
April 18. Birth of Louis Bartholomew Tully, the second son of Andrew and Florence Tully. His brother, Albert Robert Tully, would sire a son, Louis's nephew Lawrence [GBOT,GB2,RGB]

Birth of Micheal Draverhaven, the younger brother of Norman Draverhaven. Both Draverhaven children would be interested in the paranormal; Micheal would become especially interested in the power of Polynesian runes to summon etheric entities. [88MPH, GBOT, RGB]

November 21. Egon Spengler is born in Cleveland, Ohio, to Dr. Edison Spengler and his wife Katharine. His uncle, Cyrus Spengler, will run his own research firm, Spengler Labs. Egon is given a very strict upbringing stressing academic success, so much that he was allowed no toys and reportedly an A- on a test brought a harsh reaction from his parents. At some point in his childhood, Egon is victimized by the entity called "The Boogeyman", who inspires the boy to research the supernatural. [RGB,GBOT,GB2]

1958
October 28. Janine Melnitz is born to Fritz and Denise Melnitz. She has an older sister, Deann, an Aunt Bella, and a cousin named Michelle Jacobs (who by 1990 has a son, Alec) [GBOT,RGB,Now]
1959
October 13. Birth, in the Bronx, of Raymond Francis Stantz to Dr. David Stantz and his wife Carolyn (their second child) . A steady diet of comic books and pulp adventure would feed his interest in the supernatural. David Stantz would take him on visits to the Toad Island park in Red Hook, Brooklyn. Ray grew up in the upstate New York community of Morrisville, part of a large family with at least one cousin and a wise maiden aunt. Apparently he had some wierd pets and the people of Morrisville didn't think he'd amount to much. His first crush would be a girl named Elaine Fuhrman. Alan Favish was his childhood nemesis. He also had an interest in stage magic. [GBOT,RGB,Now]

The Miller Meteor Cadillac Hearse/Ambulances manufactured this year are of the model that would become an icon of Ghostbusters International; cars of this model year would become both incarnations of GBNY's ECTO-1 (1983 and 1988), Nightsquad's ECTO-1X (1997), GBWC's ECTO-1N (2003), and GBSC's ECTO-2. [GB1,GB2,RGB,XGB,GBOT,GBAD,GBNS,GBWC,GBSC]

The firemen of the Hook and Ladder #8 repel a ghost invasion. They are aided by a team of time travellers from 1989, ironically enough the future inhabitants of their firehouse, the Ghostbusters [RGB]

1960
March 10. Rose Prevost is born in Baltimore, Maryland [GBWC]

The "haunted hotel" is purchased and opened for business by the Menenzes family: John, Carol, and their ten-year-old son, Garret. Several ghost hunters attempt to contact its resident spirit, but she evades them. Garret proves more sensitive than the adults surrounding him and befriends the spirit, who has lost all memories of her past life. Unable to identify her, he simply calls her "Blue Girl". [GBWC]

1961
February 11. Birth of Elizabeth Hawthorne in Nova Scotia, Canada. By 1991, she is an accomplished sorceress, and member of the Order of Hermes' House Quaesitor. She is known by the name "Lady Enlightenment." She also has an older sister, who has a son by 1991. [GBOT]
1962
Birth of Carlos Rivera, the elder son of Mexican immigrants Alberto and Carlota Rivera. Carlos would follow in Alberto's footsteps and become a member of the NYPD. [XGB,GBOT]
1963
Birth of Jean Stantz, the daughter of Dr. David Stantz and his wife Carolyn. [GBOT]
1964
A monster appears at the 1964 World's Fair in Flushing Meadows from a time rift, and holds five year old Janine Melnitz hostage. A man from some twenty years in the future saves her and stops the creature before returning home. Unbenownst to her at the time, the man was actually her future husband, Professor Egon Spengler. [GBOT]
She leaves with two souvenir coins that she keeps as good luck charms. She gives one of these to Egon in 1983, on the eve of the Ghostbuster's battle with Gozer [GB1]

Ray Stantz, during a visit to Toad Island with his father, gets seperated from him and encounters a mermaid. The mermaid entertains him with stories until David finds him. [Now]

Birth of Irena Cortez in El Centro, Arizona. Like her parents, Irena is born a natural werewolf (believed to be the Children of Gaia tribe), and is trained by them in the use of her powers. She would fondly remember running with them through the deserts and mountains during full moons... [GBOT, Now]

A dimensional gateway appears in Southeast Asia, and supernatural creatures begin to pour out of it, perhaps attracted by the death forces released by the Vietnam conflict. Over the next four years, US military forces battle the paranormal in a secret conflict dubbed "The Unearth War". An officer named George Armstrong Badge rises to prominance and the rank of General during this conflict. [Now]

1965
March 14. Ben King is born in Buckinghamshire, England [GBUK]
1968
The Unearth War is ended when the United States activates atomic bombs on the other side of the dimensional gate. The gate is destroyed and the conflict ends. Knowledge of the Unearth War is hidden in the most top-secret of files. [Now]
1969
The Woodstock music festival is held. Peter Venkman claims to have attended and gotten high there [HA, RGB]

July 28. Timothy Dexter Bondo born in Waynesville, North Carolina. Tim is one of four children, with brothers Derek and Phil, and sister Cammy. Their father is deceased before 1987. [GBDP]

Before 1970
Jim Aberdeen is tutored in school by college student Zach Norman; Norman, a Navy Reservist (who got a lucky draw in the draft lottery) eventually becomes involved with Jim's sister Dorothy. [GBWC]
1970
Child prodigy Egon Spengler gets his first degree at the age of 12. At some point, he becomes a student of Professor Ian Epimetheus, an early researcher into dimensional physics. [RGB,Now]

Dr. David Stantz and his wife Carolyn die in an auto accident; their three children--Carl, Ray, and Jean--are seperated and raised seperately. The three seldom have contact with each other after this; by 1983, Carl in the US Air Force and married with two sons, and has the rank of Major by 2004. Jean, meanwhile has been married and divorced, had a daughter, possibly had a fling with her brother Ray's friend Peter Venkman, and is living a bisexual life style in California. [GBOT]

Zach Norman, boyfriend of Dorothy Aberdeen, is killed in a freak munitions accident. At some point prior to 2004, Dorothy becomes aware of the truth--he was killed in accordance with the curse Lucindra placed on their family in 1504. Jim Aberdeen later joins the Navy, in part out of respect for his friend. [GBWC]

December 3. Birth of Bo Holbrook, later known as "The Legend", to Arlington and Joyce Holbrook [GBNS]

1971
Winston Zeddemore, son of construction worker Edward Zeddemore, is drafted to fight in the Vietnam War. [GBOT]

May 13. Fritz V. Baugh born in Evansville, Indiana [GBWC]

1972
To the disappointment of his physics mentor, Professor Ian Epimetheus, Egon Spengler transfers to Columbia University from MIT, believing Columbia would better serve his interests in studying the paranormal [GBOT, Now]
The 1970's
Andrew Williams' father serves in Vietnam; his hand is shot off, and replaced with a prosthetic. [GBDP]
1973
Peter Venkman enters college, and due to an administrative mix-up is accidentally bunked with fifteen year old prodigy Egon Spengler. Despite a bumpy start, the two bond with each other and with classmate Ryan Harness, from Tennessee.
Egon makes a breakthrough by developing a way of tracking PK energy, but he and Venkman barely escape expulsion. Ryan Harness isn't so lucky. [GBOT, GBTN, GBWC]

Egon develops the first prototype PKE Meter, which he would later term the Model 0. The first "official" incarnation, the Model 1.0, would be devised at some point before 1983. [GBOT]

1974
Rob Statler is born. By 2004 he has served a stint with the US military, and is a trained engineer with Specialist training with Special Ops weaponry and all-terrain vehicles [GBDP]

June 27. Jeffrey R. Nash, the son of Richard Nash Jr. and his wife Debra, is born in Pennsylvania. [GBWC,GBNS]

October 31. Vincent Abraham Belmont is born in Scotland to Professor Benjamin Belmont and the former Mirian Hellsing. He is the latest hier to the Belmont family line that has battled Dracula since the middle ages [GBAD]

1975
Jake Kong Sr. and his partner, Eddie Spencer Sr., fight paranormal evil as "Ghost Busters" [GBWC]

A young witch makes a deal with the demon Astorath. Astorath impregnates her in hopes that the demon halfbreed will allow him access to Earth. [Now]

Louis Tully graduates from high school, and attends college majoring in Accounting. [GB1]

Jim Aberdeen marries Pauline Heismann. [GBWC]

1976
Ray Stantz takes one helicopter lesson, which he won free in a contest [RGB]

Ray Stantz attends Columbia University. He meets and befriends Peter Venkman, Egon Spengler, and Micheal Draverhaven. [GBOT, 88MPH]

March 9. Erin Cummins is born. By 2004, she is full-time film student at Temple University in Philadelphia. [GBDP]

Birth of Shannon Phillips. His mother is part of a coven dedicated to the demon Astorath, led by the necromantic sorcerer Nathaniel Blaque, who poses as Shannon's tutor. [Now]

Andrew Williams is born, the son of a Vietnam veteran. By 2004, he has some medical training, but specializes as a monster hunter [GBDP]

1977
March 24. Salina Duran is born. Of mixed Hindu background, by 2004 she is a cryptozoologist with training in medicine, as well as being a gymnast and martial artist. [GBDP]

Janine Melnitz graduates high school [RGB]

After the death of his wife, Ian Epimetheus retires from MIT. Egon Spengler and Ray Stantz attend his retirement party. Not long after this, Epimetheus is hired by the Pentagon to study, in top secret, some of the information gathered during the Unearth War. [GBOT, Now]

July 11. Mick Nielson born in Redbank, NJ [GBSC]

September 5. Birth of the unnamed individual who become the Soul Tracker in 2006 [GBWC]

September 10. Birth of Kyle Stevens in Mt. Olive, Alabama [GBWC]

October 22. Chelsea Denise Aberdeen is born in Chicago, Ilinois, to James and Pauline Aberdeen. [GBWC]

November 15. Birth of Iain Gerard Bennett in England [GBUK]

1978
March 3. Lillian Peacecraft born. She is a natural psi-sensative, and by 1991 has become known to either the Order of Hermes or the shadowy arm of the Catholic church that hired the "Inquisitors". [GBOT]

April 11. Richard Roy in Livingston, NJ.[GBNJ]

June 17. Birth of Tommy Simpson in England [GBUK]

Ian Epimetheus disappears. The Pentagon finds his last invention, but are unable to understand anything about it's operation despite the next thirteen years of study. Unbenownst to the world at large, the device is an experimental dimensional portal. [Now]

Sept. 21. Roland Jackson is born in New York, the first of the seven children of Phil and Sharon Jackson [GBOT,XGB]

November 14. Mark Lucas born in Tampa, FL [GBSC]

Birth of Roger Kennedy in England [GBUK]

Brian Roig is born. Before 2004, he has served an apprenticeship in the non-Hermetic mystic society known as the "Order of Ra"; Jason Riddle is a fellow student [GBDP]

Birth of Jack Kong, the first son of Jake Kong Jr., and grandson of "Ghost Buster" Jake Kong Sr. [GBWC]

1979
Jan 3. Birth of Garrett Miller to Howard and Susan Miller. Due to a congenital birth defect, his legs are completely useless and Garrett is born paraplegic [GBOT,XGB]

Feb. 12. Birth of Kylie Griffin, the only child of Steven Griffin and the former Jill Davies. Her parents divorce when she is very young, and she's raised by her father's maternal grandmother, Rose Lockyer. [XGB,GBOT]

March 12. Birth of Joey Williams in Chicago, Illinois [GBWC]

March 26. Victor Irwin is born to Joshua Irwin and his wife, the former Deann Melnitz. [RGB,GBOT]

A prototype dimensional transfer machine devised by Egon and built by Ray malfunctions, and in the aftermath their classmate Micheal Draverhaven is driven mad. [88MPH]

May 29. Bill Malkin born in Trenton, NJ [GBNJ]

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 cop; by 1988 Carl is married to a woman named Beth. [XGB,GBOT]

August 29. Mimi Nielson born in Redbank, NJ. She is the younger sister of Mick Neilson. [GBSC]

Sept. 28. Birth of Jennifer "Jen" Spengler, to Dr. Ellis Spengler and his wife [GBNS,GBOT]

Cedric "CJ" London born. By 2004, he is an accomplished parapsychologist, chemist, and plasmic analyst [GBDP]

Brandon Wesley Statler, the younger brother of Rob Statler, is born. [GBDP]

Louis Tully becomes a Certified Public Accountant [GB1]

October 2. Will Ketcham is born in New York; while Will is still an infant, his parents move to Maryland. [GBInd,GBWC]

October 23. Damon Lucas born in Tampa, FL; he is the younger brother of Mark Lucas. [GBSC]

Hunters murder Irena Cortez's parents. She escapes, and the hunters are arrested the next day for parading around with their "trophies". Irena moves to New York and has herself hynpotized to forget her werewolf nature. [Now]

1980
Jan 13. Kyle Peterson is born in North Carolina [WNCGB]

Dr.s Egon Spengler and Peter Venkman are employed by Columbia University to do parapsychological research. Ray Stantz eventually joins them after a year in private industry. By 1983, they are under the department management of Dean Vanevar Yaeger. [GBOT,GB1]

Gabriel Hideoto "Hide" Tanaka is born, the second son of Japanese immigrant Nobouo Tanaka. His older brother Kiyoshi had been born and raised on the family farm in Yamagata.[GBDP]

April 22nd Adam Bestler born to Kat and Stephen Bestler. [GBInd]

May 16th. Cliff Roswell born to Jeff and Hermione Roswell in Boston, MA. Growing up, he spends several summers with uncle Cliff Clavin. [GBInd]

June 11. Zac Crago born. [GBNS]

June 16. John Lipsyte is born in Los Angeles, California, to Evangeline Lipsyte. [GBWC]

June 19. Birth of Peter Kong. He is the son of Jake Kong Jr. [GBWC]

November 17. Birth of Robert John Griffiths in Morecambe in Lancastershire, England. [GBWC]

December 8. Birth of Leon Hogan in Newark, NJ. [GBWC]

December 22. Birth of Micheal Chad [GBWC]

Lawrence Tully is born to Albert Robert Tully and his wife. Lawrence is raised a very spoiled child, who gets just about everything he wants. Lawrence's uncle, accountant Louis Tully, tries very hard every year to come up with the "perfect" birthday present for him. [RGB,GBOT]

Mount St. Helens erupts. Afterwards, a small dimensional gate similar to the one found in Southeast Asia in the Sixties opens. General Badge, the hero of the Unearth War, spearheads the creation of the Advanced Radical Military Occult Railroad (ARMOR) charged with studying the phenomenon and preventing a second Unearth War. [Now]

Garret Menenzes takes over the Columbia House Hotel from his retiree parents. Using a primitive ghost detection device --a pair of candles rigged with four electrodes and some stiff wire-- he re-establishes his rapport with the Blue Girl, the ghost haunting the inn. He agrees to let her stay in the hotel, provided she behaves herself. [GBWC]

1981
Jan 1. Birth of Jeremy Hicks to Arvil and Sharon Hicks in Auburn, Indiana.[GBWC]

June 14. Julie Madison born in Belmont, MA [GBSC]

Joanna Kendall is born to Robert and Sarah Kendall. The Kendalls would later have two more children, sons Alex and Scott; Jo would grow up to be a bit of a tomboyish daredevil. [GBOT]

Democrat Lenny Clotch is (re?)elected as Mayor of New York City. [GBOT]

1982
Tara Jackson is born in New York, the second of the seven children of Phil and Sharon Jackson [GBOT]

Columbia University parapsychology researcher Egon Spengler submits Psychokinetic Energy and the Quantum Flux, the main theoretical framework upon which his later work would be based. Though it's a sensation in some circles, such as the mystic community and the fringe Etheric science movement, it recieved much disdain from the mainstream scientific community [GBOT]

October 7. Jennifer Thompson born.

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