Real dates in fiction
From EverybodyWiki Bios & Wiki
This list features real and concrete dates mentioned in all kinds of fictional work.
Criteria
- The date has to be a specific day or a specific period of days - neither year, month nor time of the year ("summer") suffice as "date"
- The date has to be explicitically mentioned in the fictional work
- Dates in parallel universes do not count
- The persons and/or events (or at least their outcome) have to be fictional, though real world events can be the setting
| Date | Event | Title/Franchise | Category | Publication | Author/Creator | Comment/Real events |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1888/10/08 | Leopold Bloom marries Marion Tweedy. | Ulysses | Novel | 1922 | James Joyce | |
| 1904/06/16 | Leopold Bloom attends his business in Dublin. | Ulysses | Novel | 1922 | James Joyce | The whole book captures one day |
| 1910/02/11 | Ursula Todd is born. | Life After Life | Novel | 2015 | Kate Atkinson | |
| 1931/06/29 | Frobisher writes his first letter so Sixsmith. | Cloud Atlas | Novel | 2004 | David Mitchell | |
| 1933/02/15 | Franklin Delano Roosevelt is assassinated by Giuseppe Zangara. | The Man in the High Castle | Novel | 1962 | Philipp K. Dick | The assassination took place, although with a different result |
| 1935/09/29 | Josef attempts his first daring escape at the Charles Bridge. | The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay | Novel | 2000 | Michael Chabon | |
| 1936/02/17 | Mary Foxe writes to St. John Fox to find out why his books don’t have author photos. | Mr Fox | Novel | 2011 | Helen Oyeyemi | |
| 1938/11/02 | A day in the life of British consul Geoffrey Lowry. | Under the Volcano | Novel | 1947 | Malcom Lowry | |
| 1940/11/05 | Charles Lindbergh is elected president, beating out Franklin Delano Roosevelt. | The Plot Against America | Novel | 2004 | Philipp Roth | On that day, US elections actually took place, with FDR winning a third term |
| 1947/08/15 | Saleem Sinai is born at the very moment India becomes independent. | Midnight's Children | Novel | 1981 | Salman Rushdie | |
| 1952/12/25 | Lolita dies giving birth to a stillborn child. | Lolita | Novel | 1955 | Vladimir Nabokov | |
| 1958/09/06 | Trouble is afoot for the entire Faehmel family of Cologne. | Billiards at Half-Past Nine | Novel | 1959 | Heinrich Böll | |
| 1958/09/09 | The day the time portal in Al's diner leads to. | 11/22/63 | Novel | 2011 | Stephen King | |
| 1960/01/08 | Calliope Stephanides is born and assigned female. | Middlesex | Novel | 2002 | Jeffrey Eugenides | |
| 1975/01/01 | Archie Jones decides not to kill himself. | White Teeth | Novel | 2000 | Zadie Smith | |
| 1979/12/31 | Winona George’s New Year’s Eve Party | Tuesday Nights in 1980 | Novel | 2016 | Molly Prentiss | |
| 1983/11/06 | Will Byers vanishes. | Stranger Things (S01/EP01) | TV series | 2016 | The Duffer Brothers | Date is shown in the opening scene |
| 1984/05/12 | The Terminator arrives from the year 2029. | The Terminator | Film | 1984 | James Cameron | A police officer mentions the date. In the movie it's a Thursday, while it actually is a Saturday. |
| 1985/02/28 | John Connor is born. | Terminator 2: Judgement Day | Film | 1991 | James Cameron | Date is shown on the display in the police car |
| 1985/10/19 | Dr. Manhattan quits Earth and heads to Mars | Watchmen | Comic-Book | 1986 | Alan Moore | |
| 1992/01/12 | The computer HAL becomes operational | 2001: A Space Odyssey | Film | 1968 | Stanley Kubrick | HAL's self describtion. In the novel based on the screenplay, the year is changed to 1997. |
| 1997/08/04 | Skynet system goes online. | Terminator 2: Judgement Day | Film | 1991 | James Cameron | As told by the Terminator |
| 1997/08/29 | After having become self-aware in 2:14 a.m. this day, Skynet kills 3 billion people in a nuclear fire. | Terminator 2: Judgement Day | Film | 1991 | James Cameron | Voice-over Sarah Connor |
| 1997/10/16 | The Jupiter 2 space ship takes off with the Robinson family to colonize a planet orbiting Alpha Centauri. | Lost in Space (S01/EP01) | TV series | 1965 | Irwin Allen | Date shown in the opening scene |
| 2004/06/30 | Leonard and Howard make their girlfriend pact. | The Big Bang Theory (S03/EP05) | TV series | 2009 | Chuck Lorre; Bill Prady | Sheldon mentions the date. |
| 2004/09/22 | Oceanic Flight 815 crashes on a deserted tropical island. | Lost (S01/EP01) | TV series | 2004 | J. J. Abrams; Jeffrey Lieber; Damon Lindelof | Also the date of the pilot episode. |
| 2009/11/16 | Penny hurt herself in the bath and Sheldon has to drive her to the hospital. | The Big Bang Theory (S03/EP08; S03/EP16) | TV series | 2009 | Chuck Lorre; Bill Prady | Sheldon mentions this date in S03/EP16 |
| 2024/08/30 | Cmd. Sisko, Dax and Dr. Bashir appear in San Francisco from the year 2371. | Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (S03/EP11) | TV series | 1995 | Date is shown on a public clock | |
| 2063/04/05 | Humanity's first warp flight and first contact with an alien race | Star Trek: First Contact | Film | 1996 | April 4th is mentioned as "day before first contact" |
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