Timeline/Pre-Invasion

1898: Spain reluctantly granted Cuba's independence. Thus war between Spain and America was avoided. (It is from this event/date that diverge from the real world's time-line)

September, 1908: An unknown object, possibly a meteor, landed in Tunguska, Siberia. Its impact cause an explosion that devastated the surrounding area for hundreds of miles, and the resulting changes to atmospheric pressure register on barographs as far away as Iceland. This become known as the Tunguska Event. (It is from this object that the Chimera are believed to have originated from.)

(exact date unknown): SRPA is created sometime later after the discovery of the Chimera.

August, 1914: The Great War begins when British and French forces invade the German colony of Togoland in West Africa.



March, 1917: Due to the German Navy's unrestricted submarine warfare, President Woodrow Wilson requests declaration of war against Germany but Congress, led by strong isolationist Henry Cabot Lodge, refuses making declaration of war impossible without an overt threat to the US.

October, 1917: Russian revolution: Vladmir Lenin and his Bolshevik followers were brutally defeated by Tsar Mikhail. The Socialist Bolshevik party is broken and its leader, Lenin, was sent to a labor camp in eastern Siberia.

1918: Spanish Influenza pandemic took place. Around 20 to 100 million people worldwide were killed as a result of the pandemic, Nathan Hale's parents among them.

October, 1918: Germany requests a ceasefire and the Great War ends. Germany abandons its military rule and becomes a parliamentary democracy in order to meet peace talk conditions.

June, 1919: The Treaty of Versailles is signed and the great war officially ends

July, 1919: A key point of the Treaty of Versailles calls for the formation of the ETO (European Trade Organization). The organization is formed to encourage all European nations to work together to establish peace.

November, 1920: The search for Leonid Kulik and his team, who left to investigate the Podkamennaya River region of Tunguska, is called off due to a harsh and early starting winter. The only items that are found are a page from Kulik's journal, and a camera.

August, 1921: 12 French agents in Russia are executed without trial for allegedly encouraging insurrection.

September, 1921: Russia seals its borders and cut off communications from the world for unknown reasons. But blames anti-imperialist propaganda from Europe and infiltration. The "Red Curtain" is formed along the Russian/European border which will one day be longer than the Great Wall of China.

June 1923: In the year known as "Nineteen hundred and fish", fishing in the Great Banks of Newfoundland is almost three times as productive as usual. Cheap, high-quality seafood is readily available in markets across America and Canada. Oceanographic studies show erratic shifts in the East Greenland Current contributing to abundant nutrients to the ocean's surface.

August, 1926: A slick flowing from the Volga River in Russia kills all marine life in the Sea of Azov as well as several villagers. Ukraine scientists from the University of Sevastopol discover quantities of radon 1,000 times than normal.

January, 1927: First commercial transatlantic phone call is made between New York City and London by the American Telephone and Telegraph Company (AT&T).

(exact date unknown) 1928: Nikola Tesla receives a patent for an aerial transportation system. It is the first instance of a Vertical Takeoff and Landing (VTOL) aircraft.

June, 1928: Amelia Earhart became the first woman to fly across the Atlantic Ocean.

October, 1929: President Herbert Hoover gives a radio address promising to veto the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act to spare global trade from crippling taxation. Hoover's act prevents a economic depression in America. By the end of the next trading day, the Dow Jones has recovered its losses.

August, 1930: Strange weather patterns from Russia cause storms and heavy rains to fall across the American plains.

September, 1930: Because of the ETO Germany continues to support the Weimar Republic government which triumphs over Adolf Hitlers' Nazi party.

(exact date unknown) 1935: VTOL program accelerated. The WPA (Work Progress Administration) demands for a nimble aircraft with high payloads leads to Tesla's VTOL concept. The result is the UH-17 Atlas VTOL.

August, 1936: Germany hosts the Olympic Games, bringing with it the largest number of participating countries ever. Russia does not take part. Track and Field star Jesse Owens becomes the first American to win four gold medals in a single Olympics.

April, 1937: Several tracts of land many hundreds of square miles wide in Alaska has been classed as classified by the U.S. Government.

May, 1937: VTOL problem resolved, and the UH-17 finally becomes reliable and safe. July, 1937: Amelia Earhart mysteriously disappeared over the Pacific Ocean during a circumnavigational flight.

February, 1938: Sweden suffers its coldest winter and 138 people freeze to death and many animals die.

June, 1938: Ghost towns appear in Russia across the Belarus border with no signs of violence. Only discoveries are of houses being boarded up and covered in folkloric demonic wards. UED officials suspects biological or chemical weapons are involved.

October, 1938: Orson Welles' infamous "War of the Worlds" radio broadcast touches widespread panic, provoking a harsh response from the White House. The public upbraiding proves devastating and Orson Welles' career is ruined.

Following Welles' broadcast, the head of the Domestic Security Agency (DSA), Raymond Tharp, briefs the US government on the potential repercussions of the public's panic reactions of an actual invasion. December, 1938: The U.S. Navy is spending more money in securing shipping lanes across the North Atlantic. This is in response to increased trade trade between the United States and the UED. However this also lead to President Roosevelt being challenged by Senator Taft, who is a staunch isolationist. He views the naval build-up as the first step to towards international political and military involvements. But being as a terrible public speaker, he is unable to inspire anyone for his support against Roosevelt; however, he manages to inspire a young Junior Senator from Montana by the name of Noah Grace.

May, 1939: The UED creates the MDC (Military Defense Commission) in Luxembourg to focus on weapons research and development.

August, 1940: Noah Grace calls President Roosevelt an Imperialist and a Warmonger, and later defeats him in the 1940 elections with Harvey McCullen as running mate.

January, 1941: A Subterranean Army complex is being built across the United Kingdom. As the public speculate after the Swifton Blade prints photograph showing a military base in London is entirely subterranean with concrete walls several yards thick, the press is put into a blackout.

February, 1942: Amateur plane spotters in Latvia reported strange flying objects in the sky.

June, 1944: First nuclear weapon tested in Alaska. President Grace gives a speech confirming the development of the nuclear bomb and refers to the tests as a clear message of national pride ("Let it be known that American isolationism is not cowardice, but restraint").

February, 1947: In the United States, the Democrats propose a new Constitution Amendment limiting a President to a maximum of two terms in office. The Republicans however, despite being quietly fearful of President Grace's growing power, did not join the proposal. President Grace publicly scoffs at the Congressional effort ("The people will choose their leader. They don't need Congress telling them how to go about it").

February 17th, 1947: A man, referred to as "The Runner", who is believed to be a Russian refugee appeared and died at the British Embassy in Estonia with his hands completely frozen around a leather satchel which contained a skull which had six eyes and was slightly larger than a human skull. Intelligence reports also find that entire cities in Russia have just suddenly been abandoned.

August, 1948: European intelligence agencies try to listen in to Russian radio broadcasts only to hear a single message repeated over and over again in Russian across a network of 12,000 stations. The message says "Brotherhood, strength and fortitude... in the face of the angry night". Two days later a British Intelligence MI6 listening station in the Ukraine intercepts electromagnetic radiation emanating from Russia. The powerful signal causes the receivers to overheat and electrocute five men.

November, 1948: President Grace is re-elected for a unprecedented third straight term, but with America's lowest turnout of votes ever in 70 years. The Grace Administration downplays this fact, focusing instead on their vast margin of victory. Viewing his re-election as a mandate, President Grace begins a series of radio broadcasts called "Evening Conversations", "In order to better communicate with the American people the manner in which their government works for them."