Timeline
June 3rd, 1601 - John Edwardshire is born to Milley and Thomas Edwardshire in London, England. John goes on to have a good education, & becomes a physicist at the University of Ediburgh.
January 28th, 1631 - In the wee hours of the morning, John Edwardshire has a dream of a machine that turns fire and water into mechanical energy: the steam engine. At first John dismisses his dream, but it continues to haunt him. Finally, he draws up some plans, & begins to build a prototype.
October 3rd, 1631 - John Edwardshire perfects his steam engine, & sets out to find a financial backer so that his idea can be mass-produced.
November 15th, 1631 - John demonstrates his device to King Charles I, who is amazed by the invention. Not long afterward, the steam engine is implemented across England.
April 16th, 1633 - French privateers raid the Brittish vessel The Recovery en route to the New England colonies. Among the ship's meager provisions, they find something astounding: a working steam engine. In short order, the French replicate the new technology.
July 21st, 1633 - King of France Louis XIII sells his plundered secrets of steam tech to the King of Spain, Philip IV. In exchange for this amazing technology, France's treasury swells with South American gold.
November 6th, 1635 - Inventor John Kay of Bury, England invents the flying shuttle for textile mills. Two months later, he devises a way to implement the steam engine in a textile loom. The powered loom is born.
May 10th, 1636 - Entreprenuer & inventor Charles Lambert, taking note of the success of powered looms, draws up designs for steam-powered sawmills and machine tools.
July 3rd, 1639 - Tension between King Charles I and his people finally erupt. Civil war breaks out in Scotland, followed closely by Ireland and England. These conflicts would later come to be called the Wars of the Three Kingdoms.
May 22nd, 1641 - Traders from France arrive in Japan. Francois de Pontcastel & Johan Delafure present the steam engine to Shogun Tokugawa Iemitsu. Five days later, the Tokugawa Shogunate institutes sakoku, & bars all trade & interaction with the West, turning Japan into an isolationist state.
June 13th, 1645 - Legendary ronin Miyamoto Musashi dies of natural causes in the Higo province of Japan. Though the state is under lockdown, rumors leak of the shogunate seizing the kensei's remains for unknown reasons.
September 1st, 1652 - Frenchman Pierre Mignot invents the steamship. Transportation and trade are revolutionized.
March 25th, 1653 - The Taj Mahal is completed in India.
December 8th, 1655 - The Great Plague of London breaks out, killing around 100,000 people. Later the next year, the Great Fire of London destroys tens of thousands of homes.
April 9th, 1682 - Rene-Robert Cavelier, better known as La Salle, claims Louisiana for France.
May 1st, 1707 - The Acts of Union are passed by the Parliaments of England and Scotland, establishing Great Britain.
May 7th, 1718 - A well-placed cannonball from the decks of the HMS Pearl, fired by Captain Robert Maynard, strikes the steamship Queen Anne's Revenge. The dread pirate Edward Teach, AKA Blackbeard, manages to cry out once before his ship's boilers explode in a cascade of fire and steam. Blackbeard and his crew are blasted into oblivion, & the Golden Age of Piracy comes screeching to a halt.
September 28th, 1730 - Mahmud I is crowned Sultan of the Ottoman Empire, & is girded with the legendary Sword of Osman during his coronation ceremony. After this day, the sword is never seen again.
April 28th, 1738 - Pope Clement XII issues a papal bull forbidding Catholics from taking membership in the Freemasons. The official name for this declaration is In Eminenti Apostolatus Specula. Tensions between Catholics & Freemasons mount.
July 30th, 1754 - The French & Indian war erupts in America and Canada. Native Americans fight on both sides of the war. Malcontents among the British colonists observe the tactics of British troops, and begin to devise countermeasures.
October 25th, 1760 - George III is crowned King of Great Britain.
November 1st, 1765 - The British parliament passes the Stamp Act, a measure designed to help Great Britain recover from the expenses of the Seven Years War. That same day, American colonist & inventor William Barnett acquires a collection of books stolen from the British Library in London. Amongst the tomes he finds a notebook known as the Arundel Codex, penned and illustrated by Leonardo da Vinci.
March 3rd, 1770 - By combining his expertise in steam engine technology with the concepts found in the Arundel Codex, William Barnett successfully creates the first horseless carriage, powered by steam. Barnett does little beyond filing a patent at first, wishing to keep his invention secret until he could perfect it.
April 19th, 1775 - The American Revolutionary War breaks out. Aided by their knowledge of British Napoleonic tactics and of the lay of the land, the Revolutionaries win as many battles as they lose, often pushing the British army to a stalemate.
June 12th, 1778 - William Barnett comes forward with his now-perfected horseless carriage designs, presenting them to the leaders of the Revolution. Barnett is comissioned to make his invention battle-ready. Fellow inventor Richard Arkwright is assigned to assist him.
March 1st, 1780 - Barnett and Arkwright, utilizing ideas found in the Arundel Codex, invent a war machine that will shake the world to its very core. They call it the BA-1 Armored Carriage. It will later come to be called the tank.
September 3rd, 1783 - Having routed British forces with the use of the tank, the 1st Continental Congress makes a monumental decision. Loading a battalion of BA-1s onto a fleet of captured British steamships, the American army sets sail for England.
April 3rd, 1784 - After a seven month seige of London, the monarchy is deposed & George III is put to the sword. All power is given to the Parliament, and Great Britain becomes The United Republic of Britain, member states being Ireland, Scotland, and England. The kindom of Whales is quickly subsumed into England.
September 17th, 1787 - The Constitutional Convention in America creates the Constitution of the United States. Barnett and Arkwright are given the honor of signing the document, in honor of their contributions to American Independance.
April 30th, 1789 - George Washington is elected first President of the United States of America.
April 30th, 1803 - Robert Livingston, James Monroe, & Barbe Marbois sign the Louisiana Purchase Treaty, turning over the French territory in America to the United States.
May 18th, 1804 - Napoleon Bonaparte crowns himself Emperor of France.
January 3rd, 1813 - Jane Austin, famed author of Sense and Sensibility, is found dead in her home, killed by a gunshot wound to the head. In her hand is a torn bit of paper with the words Pride and Prejudice typed upon it. Charred bits of paper are found in the hearth.
April 12th, 1815 - Mount Tambora, on the island of Sumbawa, explodes violently, blasting an enormous hole in the earth. Strange rumors begin to surface from the area concerning the Sumbawa Hole.
December 27th, 1831 - English naturalist Charles Darwin boards the HMS Beagle & sets off on his 5 year journey.
March 6th, 1837 - The zeppelin is invented in Germany by inventor Albrecht Ferdinand. Trade and travel are again revolutionized.
May 24th, 1844 - The first ever telegraph is sent from Baltimore to Washington. The message reads: "What hath God wrought?".
July 10th, 1856 - Nikola Tesla is born in the village of Smiljan.
November 24th, 1859 - Charles Darwin publishes his work, On the Origin of Species. Science begins to debate his theories.
April 12th, 1861 - President of the United States Abraham Lincoln abolishes slavery. The southern states grudgingly acknowledge the legislation, as steam-powered farm equipment had been phasing out slave labor for decades.
April 14th, 1865 - Abraham Lincoln is assassinated on the sidewalk in front of Ford's Theatre. The killer is an ex-slave owner by the name of Lemuel Henderson.
October 22nd, 1879 - Inventor Thomas Edison invents the world's first lightbulb.
June 6th, 1884 - Nikola Tesla begins work at Edison Machine Works. Soon after, Edison offers Tesla $50,000 to redisign his inefficient electric motor.
August 8th, 1885 - Tesla takes Edison to court, after his refusal to pay Tesla for the improved electric motor. The courts side with Tesla, who acquires most of Edison's assets. Edison later commits suicide.
October 3rd, 1887 - British detective Sherlock Holmes solves his first high-profile case, dubbed "The Study in Scarlet" by the newspapers.
April 3rd, 1888 - British serial killer known only as Jack the Ripper commits his first homicide. Detective Holmes is dispatched to track him down.
February 12th, 1891 - Tesla patents his wireless transfer of electricity, and sets about looking for investors.
July 30th, 1891 - Tesla marries Anne Morgan, daughter to wealthy American financier J.P. Morgan. Aside from his happiness, Tesla is insured a strong link to Morgan's funding.
August 4th, 1895 - Tesla formulates his theory of the luminiferous aether, & begins hypothesizing about the possibility of an aether drive.
January 1st, 1897 - Tesla invents the Teslascope, a type of radio tranceiver. Not long after, he begins picking up clicks coming from the direction of Mars. He immediately begins postulating the existance of life on the Red Planet.
June 7th, 1900 - Present Day.