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Fixed Points in Time
As I was watching Queen Elizabeth's funeral procession, my thoughts drifted to her "Silver Jubilee" celebration (February 6, 1977) as depicted in Captain Britain #39 (week ending July 6, 1977).
That got me thinking about contemporary events tied to specific dates as depicted in comic books. In long-running superhero "universes" time is often depicted on a sliding scale, but I'm thinking of events that cannot be changed without altering a significant point of the story. I'm not looking for flashbacks or "historical" stories written long-after the event; no "Pearl Harbor" in Invaders or "D-Day" in Sgt. Fury. Here are a few that occurred to me off the top of my head.
Nov. 9, 1965 - New York City Blackout - Strange Tales #160-161
July 20, 1969 - Moon Landing - Fantastic Four #98
July 4, 1976 - American Bicentennial - Captain America #200
Feb. 6, 1977 - Queen Elizabeth's Silver Jubilee - Captain Britain #39
July 28, 1984 - Opening Ceremonies, Olympic Games - Jon Sable, Freelance #18
Sep. 11, 2001 - World Trade Center - Amazing Spider-Man #36
Jan. 20, 2009 - President Obama's Inauguration - Amazing Spider-Man #583
Can you think of any others?
Most of the stories above were written after the fact. A notable exception is "Deadly Games" (Jon Sable #17-18) which was written to coincide with the opening ceremonies of the 1984 Olympic games. (#17 was released in June and #18 in July of that year.) It was tricky for Mike Grell to coordinate because the identity of the runner who lit the torch was concealed until the ceremony itself. (It was Rafer Johnson, BTW.)
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