Watchmen timeline: Here are the events of HBO’s Watchmen, in chronological order. – Slate

Posted By on December 16, 2019

Tick tock, tick tock.

HBO

Now that Watchmen has come to its conclusion, we can finally pry open the back of Damon Lindelofs newest show and study the intricate clockwork that powers it. Like the comic books its modeled after, Lindelofs Watchmen is built around a central mystery that takes about a month to unfold (September 2019 in the TV show, October 1985 in the comics). But in both cases, that month sits atop decades and decades of carefully plotted alternate history, conveyed through flashbacks, dialogue, and documents from the world of Watchmen, either shown on screen or provided as extra reading. Its a richly detailed world thats a blast to get lost in, but if you arent a superhuman who experiences all moments of time simultaneously, it can be difficult to figure out what happened when. So we did it for you. Here are the most important things that happen in Lindelofs Watchmen, dated as precisely as possible, in chronological order. (Since theres no shortage of timelines obsessively covering the events of the Watchmen comic books, they are mostly not included here.) Start your watches!

Obie Williams is born in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

Obie Williams reads a German propaganda flyer while serving in the U.S. Army.

May 25, 1921: Director Oscar Micheauxs Bass Reeves feature Trust in the Law! premieres at the Williams Dreamland Theater.

June 1, 1921: June Abar and Will Williamslater, Will Reevesare smuggled out of Tulsa during the Tulsa Massacre.

Jon Osterman and his father, Hans, flee Heidelberg for England, where they briefly stay in a manor whose owners are providing refugees a place to stay before traveling on to the United States.

Nelson Gardner is honorably discharged from the Marines after serving under Smedley Butler in the Banana Wars.

March 26, 1938: Graduation ceremonies for the NYPD Police Academy Class of 1938. Will Reeves is one of the cadets; so is Hollis Mason.

May 1938: Action Comics No. 1 hits newsstands.

Fall 1938: Will Reeves arrests a businessman named Fred T. for firebombing a Jewish deli.

Oct. 13, 1938: Will Reeves becomes Hooded Justice.

Oct. 20, 1938 (one week after Will puts on his mask): Hooded Justice raids Freds Original Market in Queens, discovering the first clues to Cyclops plan. Apropos of nothing in particular, Fred Trump founded and briefly ran a grocery store in Queens in the mid-1930s, though in our timeline he quickly sold it to King Kullen.

Captain Metropolis meets Will Reeves and convinces him to join the Minutemen.

Cyclops tests a curious new film projector at a screening of The Secret Life of Walter Mitty in Harlem. Will Reeves, investigating, sees a projector loaded into a truck labeled F.T. & Sons. W.Washington Market, New York, NY. Reeves follows the truck, kills F.T. and everyone in his warehouse, steals their technology, and burns it to the ground. Apropos of nothing in particular again, in our timeline, Fred Trump Jr. was born in 1938, Donald Trump in 1946.

Hooded Justice disappears.

June 1, 1955: Sheriff Dale Dixon Crawford, Judd Crawfords grandfather, is given a leadership position in Cyclops.

June 2, 1955: John David Keene, who will later become Senator Keene, gives Dale Dixon Crawford Martial Feats of Comanche Horsemanship, a painting by George Catlin.

Adrian Veidt exposes a plot by right-wing extremists in the U.S. military to test biological weapons on the unsuspecting citizens of Nairobi. (In our timeline, the military conducted its biological weapons tests on the unsuspecting citizens of New York City, among other places.)

Edward Blake, aka the Comedian (and Laurie Blakes father), burns down Bian Mys village in Vietnam.

May 31, 1971: Nelson Gardner changes his will, naming Will Reeves his sole beneficiary.

June 1971: VVN Day: The United States wins the Vietnam War.

Aug. 9, 1974: Nelson Gardner dies in a traffic accident in New York. He is decapitated after flying through the windshield, but his head is never found.

Angela Abar is born in Saigon.

Judd Crawford marries Jane Lestley Alexander.

Will Reeves buys the movie theater where he used to work.

The Keene Act makes masked vigilantism illegal.

June 1977: Sister Night is released in Vietnam.

Adrian Veidt builds the memory-erasing device. (Approximate date; in 2009, he says he built it 30 years ago.)

Judd Crawford joins the Oklahoma County Sheriffs Department. He officially meets Sen. Keene Sr. while assigned to his security detail. (His family history means this might not actually have been their first meeting.)

October to November: The main events of the Watchmen comic books.

Nov. 1, 1985: Adrian Veidt records his video message for President Robert Redford. Bian My steals semen sample 2346 and uses it to conceive Lady Trieu.

Nov. 2, 1985 (11:59 p.m. Eastern): The Dimensional Incursion Event.

November 1985: Dr. Manhattan creates life on Europa.

March 21, 1986: The New Frontiersman begins publishing excerpts from Rorschachs journal.

August 1986 (approx.): Lady Trieu is born.

June 1987: Angela Abars parents (and Will Reeves son and daughter-in-law) are killed.

Sometime later, June Abar briefly meets Angela.

Jan. 20, 1993: Robert Redford is inaugurated president, succeeding Gerald Ford.

Jan. 21, 1993: Redford views Adrian Veidts video message.

Redford signs the Campaign Finance Reform and Donor Disclosure Act, which stops Veidt from using his wealth to further influence the Democratic Party.

Redford also signs the Tech Recall and Reintroduction Act, which outlaws technologies thought to be responsible for the squid attack.

Matthew Wayne Crawford, Judds father, dies in the line of duty as an Oklahoma Highway Patrol officer.

Laurie Juspeczyk and Dan Dreiberg solve one last case together, killing Timothy McVeigh before he can bomb Oklahoma City.

April 25, 1995: Special Agent David Latimer, of the FBIs Vigilante Operations division, interrogates Laurie Juspeczyk about the killing of Timothy McVeigh. Juspeczyk cooperates, Dreiberg does not; he is sent to prison and is still there in 2019.

April 28, 1995: The FBI raids MerlinCorp, Dan Dreibergs company, and seizes the blueprints for Excalibur.

Adrian Veidt regains the wealth he lost in the aftermath of the Dimensional Incursion Event by licensing the technology to clone pets.

Lady Trieu graduates from MIT with four Ph.D.s. Not Massachusetts, though, per Peteypedia: Myanmar.

Jude and June Crawford move to Tulsa.

Dec. 13, 2004: The 10th Circuit decides Greenwood Survivors v. State of Oklahoma, laying the legal groundwork for reparations.

December 2005: Dale Petey publishes Fogdancing: My Summary in Nothing Ever Ends, a literary journal that publishes an annual issue dedicated to the novel by Max Shea.

Trieu Industries introduces Nostalgia to the market.

Adrian Veidt makes his last public appearance, to receive an award from Kenya for his actions in 1967.

Lady Trieu visits Veidt at Karnak and asks him to fund the Millennium Clock.

June 2009: Dr. Manhattan meets Angela Abar in a bar on VVN night.

June or July 2009 (two weeks after Abar meets Manhattan): Dr. Manhattan adopts the appearance of Calvin Jelani.

Dec. 14, 2009, approx. 1:15 p.m. (24 years, 41 days, and 13 hours since Veidt and Dr. Manhattan met at Karnak in the early hours of Nov. 3, 1985): Dr. Manhattan visits Adrian Veidt in Karnak and teleports Veidt to Europa. Later that afternoon, he visits Will Reeves at Nelson Gardners apartment and forms an alliance. Reeves begins investigating Sheriff Judd Crawford.

December 2009: Angela helps Dr. Manhattan try on some new jewelry.

Dec. 23, 2009: Angela Abar takes Calvin Jelani to Rampart Memorial Hospital in Saigon to seek treatment for his amnesia.

Trieu Industries begins launching space probes.

Dec. 14, 2010: Adrian Veidt begins writing his play The Watchmakers Son. That night, he celebrates his first year on Europa with champagne and cake.

Dec. 14, 2012: After a failed test of a spacesuit design, Adrian Veidt exchanges nasty letters with the game warden, then goes hunting at midnight in his full Ozymandias outfit.

Dec. 14, 2013: Adrian Veidt celebrates four years on Europa by murdering his entire staff, then stays up all night training their replacements.

Sometime before March 13, 2014 (5 years, 72 days, 9 hours, and 17 minutes after Lady Trieu and Veidt meet on an indeterminate date in 2008, but after Dec. 14, 2013): Adrian Veidt takes a walk, writes a message, and gets himself arrested.

Adrian Veidts yearlong trial ends. He is found guilty, despite a stunning closing argument.

Dec. 14, 2016: Veidt is given a horseshoe hidden inside his seventh anniversary cake.

Dec. 24, 2016: The White Night reveals Dr. Manhattans location to Cyclops. Judd Crawford gets promoted.

Dec. 27, 2016: Angela Abar wakes up in the hospital to find Judd Crawford there. A beautiful friendship begins.

Trieu Industries acquires Veidt Enterprises.

The Defense of Police Act, allowing police officers to wear masks, is passed. Sen. Joseph Keene Jr. is a sponsor.

Angela Abar becomes Sister Night.

Will Reeves begins showing Sister Night at the Harlem movie theater he bought with Gardners money. It plays at midnight every Sunday (right after Watchmen!).

Lady Trieu arrives in Tulsa, so at some point before this, Will Reeves met her at Manhattans suggestion and told her Cyclops plan.

Dec. 14, 2017: Lady Trieus rescue spaceship arrives on Europa, on the day Adrian Veidt is celebrating eight years there.

(Approx.) Lady Trieu purchases the Clark farm, shortly before Veidts spaceship lands there.

Aug. 29, 2019: The FBI starts using computers again.

Sept. 1, 2019: Special Agent Dale Petey writes a memo urging the FBI not to declare Veidt dead, for fear of angering right-wingers who want him found and punished for his role in Rorschachs disappearance.

Sept. 3, 2019: Dale Petey sends his second memo.

Sept. 8, 2019: President Redford nominates Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to replace the retiring Justice Grisham on the Supreme Court. Dale Petey writes another memo, this time about American Hero Story: Minutemen. Sheriff Crawford and his wife attend a production of Oklahoma. Officer Charlie Sutton of the Tulsa Police Department is shot by a Seventh Kavalry member during a routine traffic stop.

Sept. 9, 2019: Adrian Veidt is declared legally dead. Angela Abar attends Career Day at her sons school. A squidfall hits Tulsa (and Vancouver, Jakarta, and Leningrad). That afternoon, Angela Abar kidnaps a Seventh Kavalry member to interrogate about the shooting. The police raid the Seventh Kavalry facility at the cattle ranch.

Sept. 10, 2019: American Hero Story: Minutemen premieres. Sen. Joe Keene announces he is running for president.

Sept. 15, 2019: Petey writes another memo. The Crawfords have dinner at Cal and Angelas house. Later that night, Will Reeves and Crawford meet for the first and last time. Angela meets Will Reeves and shows him her restaurant.

Sept. 16, 2019: The Tulsa Police Department finds Crawfords body and rousts the local Nixonville. Angela visits the Greenwood Center for Cultural Heritage and drops off Wills DNA sample. Later, she visits June Crawford and is surprised to discover a wake is in progress, and even more surprised at what she finds in Crawfords closet. Back at the restaurant, Angela arrests Will, but he escapes in a flying car. Really!

Sept. 17, 2019: Laurie Blake captures The Revenger. Sen. Keene visits her that night and asks her to travel to Oklahoma the next morning to look into the murder of Sheriff Crawford.

Sept. 18, 2019: Agents Blake and Petey attend a briefing on the Seventh Kavalry, then fly to Tulsa. Blake visits the crime scene, the Crawford home, a Tulsa Police Department interrogation site, and a motel and then attends Judd Crawfords funeral, where she meets Angela and her family. They talk further while investigating the Seventh Kavalrys attack on the funeral. That night, agents Blake and Petey hook up. Afterward, Blake gives Dr. Manhattan a call, then sees Angelas car fall from the skies. Angela is there to hear it land, because shes been paying a late-night visit to the Greenwood Center for Cultural Heritage. A very busy day for everyone!

Sept. 19, 2019: Cal makes waffles. Angela gives Looking Glass the Klan robe and pills. Lube Man appears! Laurie Blake visits Cal at home. Angela and Blake visit Lady Trieu to ask about her drones. Bian has her nightmare.

Sept. 20, 2019: Looking Glass spends the morning consulting on a PR campaign for New York City. Laurie Blake takes over the investigation into the Seventh Kavalry and sends the Tulsa PD to canvas local churches to find the Kavalrys headquarters. That night, Looking Glass alarm system acts up.

Sept. 21, 2019: Looking Glass consults on a breakfast cereal campaign and visits his ex-wife to find out what Wills pills are. That night, he makes a new friend at a meeting of Extra-Dimensional Anxiety sufferers. She introduces him to Sen. Keene, who asks for a favor.

Sept. 22, 2019: Petey writes another memo. So does Blake. Then Petey writes another one. A big day for memos. Looking Glass consults on an ad campaign for a new perfume, then turns Abar over to Blake. Abar takes Wills Nostalgia. The Seventh Kavalry pays Looking Glass a visit at home.

Sept. 23, 2019: Angela spends most of the day recovering from Nostalgia. Petey visits Looking Glass, but he isnt home; Laurie visits June Crawford. That night, Angela leaves Lady Trieu to go wake her husband up. (Theyre expecting guests.) Lady Trieu, in turn, wakes Veidt. The Millennium Clock is activated, with surprising results for all.

Sept. 24, 2019: In the predawn hours, Angela goes for a swim, sort of.

Oct. 1, 2019: Dale Petey is officially fired from the FBI.

Only Adrian Veidt is arrogant enough to predict the future of the Watchmen universe. Im pretty sure Joe Keene isnt going to be president, though.

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Watchmen timeline: Here are the events of HBO's Watchmen, in chronological order. - Slate

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