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June 7. Janine Melnitz is hired as Ghostbusters Inc.'s secretary [GB1]
June 7. Jason Knetge is born [GBWC]
June 8. Ghostbusters Inc. opens it's doors for business for the first time. Egon Spengler and Janine Melnitz meet for the first time. Ray Stantz purchases the 1959 Cadillac Miller Meteor that is later dubbed "ECTO-1"
Dana Barrett becomes the Ghostbusters' first client. Peter Venkman immediately starts hitting on her. [GB1]
The Proton Pack Mark 1 and Ghost Trap Mark 1 enter service. [GB1]
In their first bust, Venkman, Ray, and Egon bust the Class 5 that would later be known as their pet and mascot, Slimer. In the following weeks, the Ghostbusters burst into public view as a spate of supernatural activity grips the New York area. They attract the attention of EPA hatchet man Walter Peck. [GB1]
Twelve year-old Fritz Baugh meets Nick Hogan at Camp Sherwood in Alabama [GBWC]
Winston Zeddemore joins as the fourth Ghostbuster. [GB1]
Dana Barrett and her neighbor, accountant Louis Tully, are posessed by Zuul and Vinz Clortho, and summon the Sumerian god Gozer the Gozarian, who materializes first as a woman then as the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man. The Ghostbusters defeat Gozer, and Venkman and Dana begin seeing each other romantically. Louis becomes famous for fifteen minutes as the spokesman for "Keymaster Cologne" [GB1, 88MPH]
Walter Peck is fired by the EPA. He later continues his vendetta against Venkman with Bureau of Unidentified Flying Organisms (BUFO). [RGB]
Despite saving the city, possibly the world, lawsuits are filed against the team for thier activities in levelling Central Park West [GB2]
A man matching the description of Archmage Zandrik Fallagar appears at a Hermetic Tribunal; the Tribunal is unable to prove or disprove his identity, even though Fallagar's appearance as youthful at the age of eight centuries is beyond the bounds of known Hermetic longevity potions. [GBOT]
The Ghostbusters rebuild the firehouse, and build a bigger containment unit.
Egon orders their old ecto-marshmallow-covered grey uniforms destroyed, but
Venkman neglects to do this. A leakage from the containment unit causes the
uniforms to come to life as spectral doppelgangers of the Ghostbusters, the "Anti-Ghostbusters". The
Sedgewick Class Five, having escaped the containment when Peck blew it up,
starts hanging around the firehouse.
Ray names the Sedgewick ghost Slimer, and the team adopts him as pet and
mascot over Venkman's objections. The Ghostbusters defeat the Anti-Ghostbusters. [RGB]
Egon begins using an extensively upgraded and redesigned version of the PKE Meter, the Model 2.0 [RGB,GBOT]
Comedian Dan Aykroyd, a veteran of Saturday Night Live and a paranormal enthusiast, convinces Columbia Pictures to turn his proposed ghost-hunter movie into an account of the Ghostbusters battle with Gozer. They option the rights to the story, and the money they wave in Venkman's face to do so comes in quite useful for the rebuilding of the firehouse and the new Containment Unit. Aykroyd and Harold Ramis write a script, and are tapped to play Ray and Egon in the finished movie. Bill Murray, whom Aykroyd and Ramis had both worked with, is hired to play Venkman. Ernie Hudson, Annie Potts, Sigourney Weaver, and Rick Moranis finish out the main cast as Winston, Janine, Dana Barrett, and Louis Tully. [HA,GB1,GBOT]
The marshmallow substance of the Destructor is collected and placed in the new containment unit. It recongeals into the Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man, but without Gozer's mind it is at first mindless, then develops a simple, almost benevolent personality. [RGB,GBOT]
Dana Barrett breaks up with Venkman shortly after the Ghostbusters deal with the Sandman and their former comrade Micheal Draverhaven. [88MPH,GB2]
Important encounters during this year: the Boogeyman, Samhaine, Jeremy Whittington [RGB]
Ghostbusters premiered on June 8, 1984, and is a top-grossing movie (indeed, considered the highest-grossing comedy ever for several years) The financial windfall from this movie allows the formation of the franchising body Ghostbusters International, and a few franchises take the start-up package. Only one, the Northern Virginia Ghostbusters (NOVAGB) led by Dr. Norman Gagnon, survives this period [HA, GBOT]
Janine Melnitz is contacted by a creature that passes itself off as her "Fairy Godmother", and convinces her to allow it to "improve" her. As a side effect of this process, Janine's thought processes become increasingly erratic, and she becomes abnormally succeptible to the effects of psychomagnetheric emanations [RGB]
The Ghostbusters travel to Boldavia, and meet the benevolent vampire Count Vostok, being hounded by Nicholas Van Helden, a crazed anti-vampire fanatic. At the time, Vostok claimed to be the "real" Dracula--a claim later disproven by Vincent Belmont of the Arcane Division [RGB,GBAD]
Peter Venkman is contacted by Dr. Norman Draverhaven, an eccentric ghost hunter who has developed an inferior weapon called a "photon pack." Draverhaven insists on joining the Ghostbusters--Venkman rudely ejects him and tags him with the insulting nickname "Professor Dweeb". Draverhaven then forms a partnership with an old college buddy and fellow spurned would-be Ghostbuster Dr. Harlan Herbert Loone; he even aquires an authentic enemy, a low-level Class Five named "The Sleaze" [GBOT,RGB]
Jacob Kong Jr and his partner, Eddie Spencer Jr. re-activate their father's "Ghost Buster" group. They never have the success of their more famous competitors. [GBWC]
June 6. Aidan Munroe is born in Utah. His father is a NASA engineer, and his mother is English. He spends much of his childhood in Huntsville, Alabama [GBWC]
Dana Barrett marries Andre Wallance, a violinist in the New York Symphony Orchestra. [GB2,GBOT]
The Grundle tries to corrupt Alec Meredith, intent on turning him into another Grundle, before being stopped by the Ghostbusters. [RGB]
All of the Grundle's previous victims return to normal when the creature is contained except Jack Ryan, a friend of six-year old Kylie Griffin. Realizing that the Ghostbusters were about to catch him, the Grundle had this victim go into suspended animation, emerging twelve years later fully transformed into a duplicate grundle [XGB]
Marcus Jackson is born in New York, the third of the seven children of Phil and Sharon Jackson [GBOT/XGB]
The Ghostbuster's old "pal" Walter Peck, ex-EPA hatchet man, shows up to cause more trouble. Except now he's a hatchet man for the Bureau of Unidentified Flying Organisms, and he tries to have Slimer destroyed. It doesn't work and he's fired once more. [RGB]
Other notable encounters: the Master of Shadows, second encounters with Samhaine and the Boogeyman [RGB]
October 5th. Molly Anne Hanes born to Elwood and Annie Hanes. [GBInd]
Democrat Lenny Clotch is reelected to his final term as Mayor of New York City [GBOT]
November 19. Kevin Kemarly is born in Onarga, near Chicago, Illinois. [OGB]
January 20. Ben King Jr. is born in Buckinghamshire, England, to nineteen year old Ben King and his wife, an unplanned teen pregnancy. The marriage ends up short lived, and after the divorce Ben Jr. is taken by his mother to the United States. [GBUK]
Janine is romanced by Paul Smart, president of Grossjuck Industries; his real purpose is to gain knowledge of confidential Ghostbuster technology to create Robobuster X-1,a ghostbusting robot that nearly drives the Ghostbusters out of business. In the end, Smart is disgraced and Grossjuck is sued and disbanded. [RGB]
Four Ghostbusters from the 2020's--hyperintelligent twins John and Eden, sorcerer Eric, and British detective TJ--appear to halt the plans of Dr. Harlan Herbert Loone, who has been brainwashed by criminals in the 24th century to murder the original Ghostbusters. With his collaborator Dr. Norman "Professor Dweeb" Draverhaven, they attempt to kill first Janine Melnitz then Peter Venkman, but are foiled. The Ghostbusters catch the Sleaze shortly afterward. [GBOT]
Herbert Loone and Norman Draverhaven are committed to Parkview Hospital [GBOT]
April 30. Andrew Ryan Harness is born in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. He is the nephew of Ryan Harness, who had studied briefly with Peter Venkman and Egon Spengler back in 1973 [GBWC,GBTN]
Tim Bondo graduates Waxhaw High School [GBDP]
In the wake of the disasterous events of the last few months, several protracted lawsuits against the Ghostbusters (some dating back to the Gozer incident of 1983) are brought to court. Rather than go to trial, the team is forced to accept a plea agreement wherein they are slapped with an injunction against acting as paranormal investigators. [GB2,GBOT]
Having had to give up thier lives as Ghostbusters, the team finds new ways to get by. Egon Spengler returns to research, specializing in new theories on psychomagnetheric resonance in human emotional states. Ironically enough, he's hired by Columbia University. Peter Venkman becomes host of a cheezy, low budget TV program called World of the Psychic. Ray Stantz keeps busy as the proprietor of an occult bookstore, and appearing with Winston Zeddemore in Ghostbuster costume at children's parties. Janine is hired by Columbia University as Egon's personal secretary [GB2,GBOT]
Ryan Jackson is born in New York, the fourth of the seven children of Phil and Sharon Jackson [GBOT]
Ironically enough, in the fall of 1986, an animated series based on the Ghostbusters' adventures (story edited by noted sci-fi writer J. Micheal Straczynski) is a groundbreaking ratings success.[HA]
Zachary Wrent, an amateur ghost hunter, goes to the Columbia House Hotel in search of his deceased aunt, Rachel Leavenworth. Instead of his aunt, he finds the Blue Girl, an amnesiac spirit. He is so certain the spirit is his aunt that she cannot find the heart to correct him. Unable to remember her true identity, the Blue Girl simply calls herself "Rachel Leavenworth" from that point onward. She also begins to claim her birthday is September 28, 1987-- the date Mr. Wrent made contact with her. Zachary gives up ghost hunting soon after and is ordained a Catholic priest.
Tim Bondo enlists in the United States Air Force. In his ten years of service, he recieves training in such fields as engineering, metallurgy, chemistry, weapondry, and judo. [GBDP]
November 21. On Egon's thirtieth birthday, he is visited by his half brother Ellis and his neice Jen. Ellis offers him a job with Spengler Labs; Egon refuses [GBOT]
Birth of Kevin Rivera to NYPD policeman Carlos "Carl" Rivera and his wife Beth. [XGB]
Casey Jackson is born in New York, the fifth of the seven children of Phil and Sharon Jackson [XGB]
Nick Hogan is murdered by a robber in front of his younger brother Leon. Seventeen year old Fritz Baugh attends the funeral. The murder is not solved until 2003. [GBWC]
Oscar Wallance is stalked by the undead Carpathian despot Vigo Von Hamburg Deutchendorf, and in the process the crisis leads to the reactivation of Ghostbusters Inc. Louis Tully is hired as accountant and legal advisor, and he and Janine date for a brief time. [GB2]
A second 1959 Miller Meteor is purchased by GBInc. It is registered as "ECTO-1A" and features a flashier design than it's predecessor. The original ECTO-1, it's engine unusable, is put into storage. [GB2,GBOT]
December. Doc Hazzard makes his annual check on the capsule containing his arch foe Fu Fang, and discovers that Fang is gone! He immediately alerts his old comrade, the Crimson Crimebuster, who later brings in Alan Weinberg, the son of the original Lunar Avenger. [Now]
After New Year's, the registration on the original ECTO-1 expires. The replacement, first registered as ECTO-1A, is reregistered ECTO-1. The team also returns to their original Ghostbuster logo. [GBOT,RGB]
Venkman and Louis sell Columbia and Dan Aykroyd the rights to do another Ghostbusters movie for quick cash to help rebuild the company; Aykroyd and Ramis decide to do an account of the battle with Vigo [GBOT,GB2,HA]
Contact with any surviving GBI franchises is instigated by Venkman and Louis; NOVAGB is fully reactivated. [GBOT]
Some time after New Year's, Dana Barrett recieves an offer from the Los Angeles Symphony Orchestra. After some soul searching, she and Peter decide she should take it, and continue their relationship long distance [GBOT]
The Ghostbusters meet werewolf Irena Cortez.[Now]
The Ghostbusters and the Crime Patrol team up to defeat the ghost of Fu Fang [Now]
Fritz Baugh graduates high school in the top 10% of his class. He attends Purdue University that fall, majoring in physics [GBWC]
Orla Wainwright (maiden name unrevealed) begins attending UCONN, planning to be a Business Major. She attends there four symesters before marrying John Wainwright. [GBDP]
The demon Astorath, with the assistance of necromancer Nathaniel Blaque, attempts to invade Earth using his son Shannon Phillips as a lever. The Ghostbusters free Shannon from Astorath, who is in turn betrayed and apparently destroyed by Blaque. Shannon becomes the ward of Irena Cortez [Now]
The Ghostbusters meet Phineus Eventide, the Prince of Warlocks [Now]
Ghostbusters 2, featuring the entire original cast of the first movie, is released. Due to a sloppy contract drafted by Louis Tully, the studio is able to take more liberties with what "really" happened, and some of the Ghostbusters (particullarly Janine) are not happy with the finished product. Ghostbusters 2 makes only about half of the original, but is still one of the top movies of 1989. [GBOT,HA,GB2]
The New York Ghostbusters journey to Ceratel to fight Nurtog, and have their third encounter with Samhaine. Janine officially ends her relationship with Louis Tully [Now]
Republican Arnie Lapinski is elected Mayor of New York City, succeeding Democrat Lenny Clotch [GBOT, iB]
Josiah Nodus arrives in 1990 from the year 2003 in an alternate timeline. After making a fortune in the stock market, he buys up the remaining assets of Grossjuck Industries, including Grossjuck Plaza. Nodus International begins building it's influence in the business community. [GBOT]
Dr. Albert Roberts founds another of GBI's most enduring franchises, the Middle Tennessee Ghostbusters (MTGB) [GBTN]
Amy ("A.J.") Jackson is born in New York, the sixth of the seven children of Phil and Sharon Jackson [GBOT]
July. Alberto Rivera, a member of the NYPD, originally from Mexico, is killed in the line of duty by small-time hood Sandy Drake. He is survived by his wife Carlota, sons Carlos and Eduardo, as well as a grandson, Kevin. [GBOT,XGB]
Dr. Norman "Professor Dweeb" Draverhaven escapes from the mental hospital, and forms an alliance with "The Glob" to free Norman's old enemy, The Sleaze, from the GBInc. Ecto Containment Unit. [RGB,GBOT]
Third encounter with the Boogeyman, fourth with Samhaine [Now]
The Ghostbusters are summoned to the Pentagon, and discover a lost device created by Egon's mentor Ian Epimetheus. Use of the device accidentally sets the Peoplebusters loose on Earth [Now]
The Ghostbusters are contacted by the mysterious businessman Josiah Nodus to undertake a lucrative errand in Transylavania. They are told that the man they are to help his aide contact, Baron Igor Vashnivski, may very well be a vampire. Upon meeting Vashnivski, his undead nature is soon verified, as he is attacked by a group nicknamed "The Inquisitors": Father Diego Portenza (a Catholic priest); Lady Enlightenment (Liz Hawthorne, a Hermetic mage of House Quaesitor); Bernard Lupin (a Werewolf of the Bone Gnawer Tribe); Lilly Peacecraft (a young psychic); and Sergei Kalashnikov, a brutal gunman. Kalashnikov is revealed as Vashnivski's descendant, Anatole Vashnivski, and in punishment the Baron embraces him. The Ghostbusters and Inquisitors are allowed to leave peacefully [GBOT]
Andre Wallance, Oscar's biological father, marries his second wife, Kate. [GBOT]
The "Spooktacular" show begins its fourteen year run at Universal Studios Florida. Newlywed Orla Wainwright moves to Orlando with her husband, John, and begins working on the show before the character is written out a couple of seasons later. After that, she serves as Coordination Manager. [HA, GBDP]
The Ghostbusters and Inquisitors stop the entities known as "The Zodiac Lords", but in the process Phineus Eventide sacrifices his life and Earth's PK matrix is seriously damaged; supernatural activity dries up almost completely, ruining GBInc's business. Vincent Belmont and Kylie Griffin are two of the people posessed by the entites; Photographer and paranormal investigator Ben King witnesses the first manifestation, capturing one of the creatures on film. [GBOT,GBAD,GBUK]
Lady Enlightenment, Barney Lupin, and Lilly Peacecraft end their association with the Father Portenza, and "The Inquisitors" dissolve. Their activities over the next few years are mostly unknown, though all three do attend the Spengler wedding in 1998.[GBOT]
Janine Melnitz is injured during a bust, and suffers a concussion clouding much of her memory over the last year and a half--most notably in regards to the development of her relationship with Egon. Faced with this heartbreak and the plummetting profits caused by the PK drought, Egon unilaterally acts (as a founding member) to deactivate GBInc. [GBOT]
After the demise of Ghostbusters, Ray Stantz accepts a position at Stanford. Egon Spengler elects to remain in New York, living in the firehouse to keep an eye on the containment unit. Janine beings a rebound romance with Louis Tully [GBOT,XGB]
What few GBI franchises that exist are once again left without a parent company, though Spengler does offer occassional advice or equipment maintenance services from New York. Due to the drought of PKE, all franchises struggle and most either shut down or become dormant. [GBOT,XGB]
The year 1991 AD is officially recognized as the First Year of the Age of Aquarius by the "Children of Zodiac" and the Tribunal of the Order of Hermes. A faction of the Order of Hermes blames the Ghostbusters for the paranormal drought and thus the wizards' loss of power. [GBOT]
December 21. Winston Zeddemore married longtime girlfriend Kaila MacMillan. Janine and Louis are the only former employees of Ghostbusters to attend. [GBOT]
Over the next few years the Zeddemores would move to Montana, near Winston's sister. Winston would get his pilot's license and make a living with a commuter airline. [XGB]
Peter Venkman begins working as an agent for Columbia Pictures; Catharine Bartholomew is his first "discovery". Venkman also befriends director Jon Dennison. By 1997 Venkman runs his own agency, and is shopping around concepts for Ghostbusters 3 (The project never gets off the ground because Bill Murray and Brad Pitt both decline to play Venkman) [XGB,GBOT,GBWC]
Egon Spengler begins serving as a parapsychology instructor at New York City Community College; he meets Dr. Edward Kirillian, another paranormal researcher with "unusual" ideas, and senior member of NYCCC's parapsychology department. In specific, he believes that three crystal Toltec skulls can be used to enslave supernatural entities. [XGB]
Navyman Jim Aberdeen and his wife Pauline divorce. Jim moves to Los Angeles, and remarries at some point prior to 1996; Pauline and her daughter move to Avon, Indiana, a small town west of Indianapolis. That fall, Chelsea Aberdeen meets Geoff Sheppard, a student in the same Advance Placement classes. Within two years, they start dating. [GBWC]
December. Birth of the first Ghostbuster offspring, Charlene Zeddemore, to Winston and his wife Kaila [GBOT]
Ben King Sr.'s friend Andy is murdered by a demonic entity in the London Underground [GBUK]
April 1. Jessica Margaret Venkman is born to Peter and Dana. Dana's son Oscar Wallance (the newborn's half-brother) suggests the name. [GBOT]
Janine Melnitz marries Louis Tully on June 6. She's convinced within a month that it was a mistake, but stubbornly tries to make it work for some three years--though by 1996 she is living seperately from him and in 1997 files for divorce. [GBOT]
At some point during this period, Janine temps with Rose Prevost. Rose is decidedly unimpressed by Louis. [GBWC]
June 8. On the tenth anniversary of the opening of Ghostbusters Inc. Egon Spengler is tested by Sarim-Lar, Lord of the Izumo, and Voice of Knowledge. He passes the tests, but declines the creature's offer of power and knowledge. Sarim-Lar is subsequently destroyed by Nodus, who had expected Spengler to take the offer. [GBOT]
At some point between 1993 and 1996, Egon decides that Kirillian is too unstable a researcher and ends his relationship with him. [XGB]
Edwin McShayne defeats Arnie Lapinski in the Republican primaries and is elected Mayor of New York. He had served as Attorney General under the previous mayor, Lenny Clotch [iB,XGB]
Joseph ("Joey") Jackson is born in New York, the last of the seven children of Phil and Sharon Jackson [GBOT]
Ben King Sr. meets Iain Bennett and Tommy Simpson, laying the groundwork for the formation of SPRIG (and later, the GBUK)[GBUK]
Janine Melnitz works in daycare. Around this time, the last of her pre-1991 memories resurface, including the full truth about her relationship with Egon. She moves out of Louis' apartment and files for separation. [GBOT]
Late February or Early March. Lars Richard Wallance, the second child of Andre and Kate Wallance (and thus Andre's third son) is born. His half-brother Oscar is the step son of former Ghostbuster Peter Venkman. [GBOT]
Vincent Belmont takes the Oath of Bonisagus, becoming an official magus of the Order of Hermes' House Bonisagus [GBAD]
July 26. Eric Stantz is born to Ray Stantz and his wife [GBOT]
The Hicks family, including Jeremy, moves to Truth Or Consequences, New Mexico. [GBWC]
On the expanding new technology known as "the Internet", fan sites devoted to the careers of the Ghostbusters start to open [HA]
Geoff Sheppard dies in a freak car accident the night of the prom he was supposed to attend with Chelsea Aberdeen.. At some point prior to 2004, Dorothy becomes aware that he, too, was murdered by Lucindra's curse. [GBWC]
Bill Malkin, Dave Mallozzi, and Tim Mabes encounter the Jersey Devil while on a camping trip in the Pine Barrens of South Jersey. They become interested in the paranormal, and form the Jersey Devil Paranormal Society Club. [GBNJ]
College student Mick Nielson, attending school in Tampa, FL, stumbles upon a werewolf hiding in the woods nearby. He aids agents of the Shadow Chasers in capturing the creature, and is inducted into their team afterward. [GBSC]
Maryland science student Will Ketcham forms his own paranormal investigation society; a fan of the now defunct Ghostbusters, he names his group "Maryland Ghostbusters" [GBInd,GBWC]
Scott Aberdeen is born. "Scotty" is the son of James Aberdeen and his second wife, Clara. [GBWC]
Joanie Wainwright is born, the daughter of John and Orla Wainwright. [GBDP]