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The dates are real, the events are not... well, except when fictional characters participate in real events, then the events ARE real, you know, kinda sorta, but not really, because they're different.
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  • 1988

      • February 7, 1988
        • Date of surveillance footage from Baltimore State Forensic Hospital, in which Hannibal Lecter attacks a nurse.

    • April

      • April 22, 1988
        • Henry Deaver finds a cache of "Verse of the Day" desk calendars in Martha Lacy's house, all showing a different date, but the same Bible verse from ACTS 16:33. "Even at that hour of the night, the jailer cared for them and washed their wounds. Then he and everyone in his household were immediately baptized." (Season 1 episode Habeas Corpus)

      • April 28, 1988
        • Police Squad Lieutenant Frank Drebin visits the office of Vincent Ludwig, the owner of the dock where Officer Nordberg was shot. He asks Ludwig's assistant Miss Spencer out to eat Viking food, but she needs to get her rest, with the next day being Arbor Day and all. Later though, he finds her cooking him dinner at his apartment when he gets home.

      • April 29, 1988
        • Arbor Day. Police Squad Lieutenant Frank and Vincent Ludwig's assistant Jane Spencer spend the day together - having fun at the beach, getting cotton candy, getting tattoos, having a condiment fight at a hot dog vendor stand, competing in a Rodeo, going sailing, and going to see Platoon. Afterward, Frank Drebin breaks into Ludwig's office, finding proof of his involvement in a plot to assassinate the Queen of England, but it is lost in the ensuing fire.

    • May

      • May 1, 1988
        • Police Squad Lieutenant Frank Drebin kicked off the force for ruining the Queen's reception the night before. Jane reveals Vincent Ludwig's plan to assassinate the Queen - during the seventh inning stretch at the baseball game. Frank saves the Queen and proposes to Jane.

      • May 3, 1988
        • In her letter to Sandra Jenks, Amelia Jenks writes, "...and your little neece is growin like a weed, awfull big for only 2. She has blue eyes like her daddy and my blond hair but that will porubly go dark. Still she is awfull pretty & I think sometimes when she is asleep how she looks like our momma."
        • Birthdate of Leslie J. Zeigler Warnus, tracked outside Soldier Field following the Unity Rally bombing by the police's implant recognition program.

      • May 13, 1988
        • M. Dernadski dies, age 44 years old - per headstone visible during The Tick's opening monologue. (Season 1 episode Tale from the Crypt)

    • July

      • July 14, 1988
        • Date of Birth listed for Noma Geibel during report on NBS News Network's news report on July 12, 2023: FUTURE WAR DRAFT: AUGUST NAMES RELEASED.

      • July 21, 1988
        • Kronish Laboratories employee Carl Watts born, according to his employee file that Josh researches. (Season 1 episode Justice Desserts)

      • July 23, 1988
        • Date of Birth listed for Samantha Sautner during report on NBS News Network's news report on July 12, 2023: FUTURE WAR DRAFT: AUGUST NAMES RELEASED.

    • August

      • August 12, 1988
        • Date of Birth on Joe Goldberg's "Will Bettelheim” passport. (Season 2 episode Fear and Loathing in Beverly Hills)

      • August 19, 1988
        • Kirsten Jane Darrow dies. Chris confesses his involvement in covering up Kirstie's murder, that his brother paid him to hide evidence when he was only ten years old. He tells her he thinks about her every day, reciting her date of birth and death. (Season 2 episode The Letter)

    • September

      • September 9, 1988
        • Birthdate of Marsha P. Vittles, tracked outside Soldier Field following the Unity Rally bombing by the police's implant recognition program.

      • September 11, 1988
        • Birthdate of Henry G. Studhoff, tracked outside Soldier Field following the Unity Rally bombing by the police's implant recognition program.

    • October

      • October 2, 1988
        • In one timeline, Frank the bunny tells Donnie that the world is going to end in 28 days, 6 hours, 42 minutes and 12 seconds. In another timeline, Donnie is killed when an airplane engine comes crashing through the ceiling onto his bed.
        • The information that Root used to convince Shaw to join her for a mission - the date that Shaw and her father took a road trip to watch the Houston Oilers play the Philadelphia Eagles. (Season 3 episode Mors Praematura)
        • Otis Driftwood and his half-brother Winslow Foxworth Coltrane, also known as The Midnight Wolfman, escape from a prison work truck: "The footage you are about to see was shot on the morning of October 2nd, 1988. The filmmakers who documented this did not survive the experience."

      • October 6, 1988
        • Twenty-four days remain until the end of the world. School is canceled because the school is flooded. Donnie walks Gretchen home and asks her to go with him.

      • October 10, 1988
        • Twenty days remain until the end of the world. Donnie asks his teacher, Professor Kenneth Monnitoff, about time travel.
        • Celebrity author and motivational speaker Jim Cunningham found dead on the fourteenth hole of the Sarasota Heights Country Club golf course. (Donnie Darko promotional website)
        • Date of Middlesex Times Dispatch newspaper article about celebrity author and motivational speaker Jim Cunningham being found dead the day before on the fourteenth hole of the Sarasota Heights Country Club golf course. (Donnie Darko promotional website)
        • Birthdate of Isaac J. Rapkin, tracked outside Soldier Field following the Unity Rally bombing by the police's implant recognition program.

      • October 13, 1988
        • Candlelight vigil for celebrity author and motivational speaker Jim Cunningham at Middlesex Pavilion Mall. (Donnie Darko promotional website)

      • October 18, 1988
        • Twelve days remain until the end of the world. Donnie and Gretchen take a stroll through the woods and almost kiss for the first time, but don't because of the weird creepy guy staring at them.

      • October 26, 1988
        • Four days remain until the end of the world. Donnie's teacher Karen Pomeroy's last day at the school. Middlesex Halloween Carnival takes place from October 26 through October 30.
        • Date of Birth for David Marks, one of the names on Vince Masuka's intern Louis Greene's list of male Tallahassee graduates living in the Miami area that could be working with Professor Gellar. (Season 6 episode Nebraska)

      • October 29, 1988
        • One day remains until the end of the world. Middlesex Halloween Carnival takes place from October 26 through October 30. Donnie and his sister plan a party for the following night when their parents are away.

      • October 30, 1988
        • Six hours remain until the end of the world. Middlesex Halloween Carnival takes place from October 26 through October 30. Donnie and his sister have a Halloween costume party. Gets run over by the real Frank - Donnie's sister's friend - in the street outside Grandma Death's house. Donnie shoots Frank in the eye.
        • Fourteen year-old John Myers is given a cochlear implant, at the time a highly experimental and rather controversial procedure. After the surgery, Myers experiences several side-effects of the surgery, including a buzzing noise, the left side of his face appearing sunken, and his left eye being unable to close on its own. (Season 8 episode The Silencer)

      • October 31, 1988
        • Penny Parker's 25th birthday, on which she inherits her Aunt Betty's estate because she is the nearest female relative. MacGyver and Penny spend the night in the apparently haunted house. (Season 4 episode Secret of Parker House)

    • November

      • November 4, 1988
        • Date of Birth listed for Palma Jenkinson during report on NBS News Network's news report on July 12, 2023: FUTURE WAR DRAFT: AUGUST NAMES RELEASED.
        • Original timeline: Jack the Ripper murders his 5th victim Mary Kelly. Revised timeline: Time Enforcement Commission officer Jack Logan travels the past to catch a suspect believed to have killed Jack the Ripper, arriving shortly after he kills Mary Kelly. (Episode A Rip in Time)

      • November 15, 1988
        • Danielle Rousseau and her team of French scientists sail from Tahiti. (Season 5 episode This Place is Death)

      • November 17, 1988
        • According to Bull, the last time that Harry called for a two-hour lunch break, the day they had oyster burritos. (Season 6 episode From Snoop to Nuts Part 1)

      • November 19, 1988
        • New record added 1/15/2023
        • Sam Sepiol born - Elliot's alias when he infiltrates Steel Mountain. (Season 1 episode eps1.4_3xpl0its.wmv)
        • During the restaurant scene, a close-up of Frank's wristwatch shows the date is November 23, even though it is supposed to be Christmas Eve.

      • November 24, 1988
        • Thanksgiving 1988. Monica accidentally cuts off Chandler's toe. (Season 5 episode The One With All the Thanksgivings)

      • December 23, 1988
        • Date of Electronic Media newspaper headline: "How crafty is Cross?" and Daily News headline: "IBC KILLS OLD WOMAN". Frank Cross is visited by the ghost of his mentor Lew Hayward, an unloved miser who died from a heart attack seven years prior. Lew warns him three more ghosts will appear to him over the next day to help Frank avoid the same fate.

      • December 24, 1988
        • Christmas Eve. Bull and Roz collect toy donations for the Canal Street Youth Center. (Season 6 episode The Night Court Before Christmas)
        • Frank Cross visited by three ghosts - the Ghost of Christmas Past, the Ghost of Christmas Present and the Ghost of Christmas Future.
        • Christmas Eve. NYPD detective John McClane battles ex-West German radical Hans Gruber and his team of terrorists when they seize control the Nakatomi Corporation Tower in Los Angeles, California.
        • According to the article about serial killer Charles Lee Ray being gunned down, he was spotted on footage from a store surveillance camera on Saturday, December 24th.

      • December 25, 1988
        • According to the article about serial killer Charles Lee Ray being gunned down, the much publicized manhunt in the suburbs in the outskirts of Chicago was a ruse meant to fool him into thinking he was safe.

      • December 26, 1988
        • According to the article about serial killer Charles Lee Ray being gunned down, the much publicized manhunt in the suburbs in the outskirts of Chicago was a ruse meant to fool him into thinking he was safe.

      • December 27, 1988
        • Date of newspaper headline: Serial Killer Gunned Down, about Charles Lee Ray. According to the article, he was killed early in the morning that same day, on Tuesday.

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