History is not to be searched for practical lessons, the applicability of which will always be doubtful in view of the inexhaustible novelty of circumstances and combinations of causes, but just this, that the mind acquire a sensitiveness an imaginative range.

• Pieter Geyl

History matters.  It provides context for the modern world and insight into the future, and it's fun to study.  It's filled with gossip and murder, war and intrigue, invention and discovery, and so provides an awesome resource for gaming of all types.  The mysteries today have their grounding in the stories of the past, and immortal beings had their beginning in some ancient era.  Unfortunately, the average gamer or writer seems to only know about a few eras: WWII, the Civil War, the Revolution, the Swashbuckling/Piracy era, the Middle Ages, the Roman Empire, and the biblical era.  You never see a vampire from the 1930s, or Napoleonic France, or Colonial Pennsylvania, which ignores how fascinating various periods in history really are.  I blame a general lack of history education, but also a tendency for history teachers to focus on dry dates rather than fascinating explorations of various periods.  The popular consciousness only remembers a few things, like vikings, knights, legionnaires, corsets, swashbucklers, Hitler and Jesus Christ, and misses out on good things like Charlie Chaplain, Attila, Neolin, the Dust Bowl, the Great Upheaval, the French and Indian wars, and so on.  Even if gamers studied history well (and many do), the fixation on big events and historical dates neglect context and culture.  The average gamer doesn't need to know the date of a particular battle nearly as much as what his character should be wearing, how his character is armed, what the nearby houses look like, what the taverns serve and so on.

Thus, I provide this web page as a resource.  Rather than pick out "big, important dates," I arbitrarily divide history into 50 year periods in an effort to show how history is fascinating in any time period.  This resource focuses on the history of the United States, as most of my modern or historical games focus on home, but I do touch on other locations. I discuss each era in sweeping terms, usually exploring the nearby 15 years to provide some context to that actual date.  I do miss major historical events, but where possible I'll try to note them, providing a starting point for your own research.  This resource focuses more on "gameable" material, noting cultural trends, character concepts and intriguing game hooks that might spawn from that era.  Please do not view this as definitive research, but rather, a digest meant to simplify history and present it in a context you can easily use.

Should you wish to expand on my work here, I should note that I use Wikipedia, and GURPS Timeline, both of which are invaluable.  The Arcana Wiki is also very handy.

For the sake of reference, those who are young adults in one era are typically grandparents in the next, assuming they survive that long (many didn't).  Where possible, I have noted the GURPS Tech level of the Era, and given references for Vampire players.

	1910 GURPS TL 6
	1860 GURPS TL 5
	1810 GURPS TL 5 The eldest Ancillae embraced during this era.
	1760 GURPS TL 5 Youngest Elder vampires embraced during this era
	1410 (Europe only) GURPS TL 3 (4 in Armor)
	760 (Europe only) GURPS TL 3