The Movie Timeline - it's like a timeline, but of movies
..............T H E M O V I E T I M E L I N E..............
Welcome. Yes, the coding is gleefully retro here - who knew that websites could look "so 1998". But here we focus our geekery elsewhere: on movies, and more specifically, on the chronology of all movies, pasted together in a big list. Keep your submissions coming in! You make this. The list runs on one simple premise: that everything you see in the movies is true - the real mixes with the fictitious, so long as it's reported in a movie somewhere. So do join in - the above left links should help you Submit the event from the film you'd like, although do a Search first - we may well have it already!
NEWS! We have a Twitter account. Follow @MovieTimeline. You'll then be treated to one 'event' a day from the world of movie history - some'll be real world stuff, some'll be the world of fiction.
I recently blogged about my personally handpicked journey through history in 100 movies. Do click and read. It's in 3 parts, so click on the links at the bottom after part 1.
Today in movie history...
1649: 30th January: King Charles I is beheaded for treason. (London, England - To Kill A King)
1933: Monday 30th January: Adolf Hitler is named chancellor of Germany. (Hitler: The Last Ten Days)
1945: Tuesday 30th January: After nearly three years in captivity, 511 allied POWs are rescued from the Cabanatuan Prison Camp by a joint effort of Filipino guerillas and Army Rangers led by Capt Robert Prince under the command of Lt Col Henry Mucci. (The Philippines - The Great Raid)
1948: Friday 30th January: Mahatma Gandhi assassinated at point blank range by a fanatic during a prayer meeting. (New Delhi, India - Gandhi)
1960: Saturday 30th January: Lily Potter born. (Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2)
1972: Sunday 30th January: Thirteen civil rights protesters are killed by British paratroopers during a non-violent protest march. (Derry, Northern Ireland - Bloody Sunday)
1973: Tuesday 30th January: Newspaper headline: "MUTANT SAVES PRESIDENT AND CABINET." Another article says, "Trask Arrested For Selling Military Secrets." Mystique, disguised as William Stryker, rescues Wolverine. (Potomac River - X-Men: Days of Future Past)
1977: Sunday 30th January: David Berkowitz kills Christina Freund. (Summer of Sam)
1985: Wednesday 30th January: Chance and Vukovich meet with Masters. One of Rick's men shoots Richard Chance in the head, killing him. Vukovich finds Rick Masters in a burning building, shoots him, and causes Masters to burn himself. (Los Angeles, California - To Live and Die in LA)
2002: Wednesday 30th January: Flight 180 explodes - due to a premonition, nine passengers disembark minutes before. (Final Destination)
2008: Wednesday 30th January: Ismael Cruz would have retired around this time. (Haddonfield, Illinois - Halloween)
Here are a few recent films we've put in their chronological place...
Bridesmaids
Tintin
Captain America
Hugo
Moneyball
The Woman In Black
Sherlock Holmes
The King's Speech
Friends With Benefits
...as well as many others.
You can explore the dates on the left-hand bar to see discover...
When Harry Met Sally - that'll be 1977.
The Day The Bubble Burst - it was a Tuesday.
The Day The Earth Stood Still - that was a Wednesday.
Employee of the Month - that month was November 2006.
Hogwarts was founded just 61 years after King Arthur sought the Holy Grail by storming a castle with a large wooden rabbit.
Plus the coincidences, for instance...
- Gangs of New York's Amsterdam Vallon was killing Butcher Bill, down the road Abraham Lincoln was being kidnapped by Bill & Ted...
- Lucky Al Capone - he was sent to Alcatraz by Eliot Ness just in time to miss King Kong rampaging around New York...
- Andy Dufresne was wrongly sentenced to Shawshank a few short months before someone else was framed - Roger Rabbit...
Submit your own historical event from a movie (not TV - yet) by clicking here. It can be a real event (eg. the sinking of the Titanic) or a far-from-real event (eg. Marty McFly attending his parents' school dance) - so long as it's found in a film. It must be a verifiable date - whether a year subtitled at the start ("1941, France..."), a visible clue in the film (character picks up a newspaper), or some historical backdrop (From Hell's Jack The Ripper). If you know what year a movie is set in, let me know.
Thanks for linking to us and please continue to plug us on your journeys round the net. For now please ignore the crappy straightforward appearance - explore the information and trivia, have some fun with it - it really is a very simple idea. But it needs your help!
In the beginning... God created the heavens and the earth (The Bible)
Shortly after the beginning... God subcontracts the fjords to Slartibartfast, a planetary construction engineer from Magrathea (The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy)
26,000,000,000BC Los Angeles (and everywhere else) - The Earth's crust begins to harden (Adaptation)
A long time ago... Luke Skywalker and Han Solo lead a rebellion against the evil empire(Star Wars)
1 zillion BC October 9: Cavemen discover fire, and the joys of eating dinosaur egg (Caveman, 1981)
From this point on the dates get more sensible - begin the timeline...
Some other sites you may like...
The Movie Timeline twitter feed. Do follow.
Movie Banter - our podcast 'n' blog
My site as a stand-up, with gig guides, cv, etc
Ruined Endings (plots and endings of all the best films. And some bad ones.)
And unaffiliated, but friendly sites...