timeline of the Old Guard’s involvement in world history
AKA: Every Bit of Text on Copley’s Sociogram That Was Ever In-Focus Enough for Me to Decipher (With Supplemental Googling to Confirm Some Dates), Arranged in Vaguely Chronological Order
1099 CE, First Crusade - the siege of Jerusalem ends when the Crusaders breach its walls, wresting control from the Fatimid Caliphate. Nicky and Joe, obviously, met here
1228, Sixth Crusade - an oil painting depicts a battle between two mounted knights, probably Nicky and Joe
at some point, Andy and Quynh become involved in the Crusades as well. Copley’s wall includes an image of the cover of a book titled Heroines of the Crusades
1667, France - first performance of Andromaque, a tragedy by famous French playwright Racine [note that this is, in fact, a real play], inspired by the Classical Greek version by Euripides (written 426 BCE) and by Virgil’s Aeneid (written in the 1st century CE, itself inspired by the Homeric epics composed circa 800 BCE)
1799-1812, Napoleonic era - Booker is active as a forger in this time, notably of gold coins
1853, Crimean War - Joe and Nicky are photographed as soldiers
1861-1865, American Civil War - a photograph shows Andy as the commander of a unit including the three other members of the Old Guard, as well as two mortals. they participated in the Battle of Gettysburg (1863)
1904, Haiti - the Old Guard prevents a coup d’état on the centennial of the Haitian Revolution
1916, Montenegro - Andy saves 200 refugee women and children. the daughter of one family would go on to develop a technique for the early detection of diabetes
Joe saves a little girl, Marie-Hélène Varte, who would go on to become the youngest Nobel Laureate in Medicine
1915 - Andy rescues a member of the ANZAC forces during the Gallipoli campaign
1918 - Andy saves a young French girl who would later be awarded the Legion of Honour for her actions as a pilot in WWII
1936, Spanish Civil War - Nicky is photographed during the battle of Irún
a photo shows a line of soldiers marching up an escarpment, Nicky among them, possibly in North Africa?
a boy that Nicky tends to as a medic would go on to receive the Institut Pasteur Medal for work with DNA profiling
1944 - Andy is involved with the French Resistance
1945 - the Old Guard prevents the production/deployment of a third atomic bomb in August of this year
1956-1959, Cuban Revolution - Booker, Nicky, and Joe show up in a photo
1955-1968, American Civil Rights Movement - two photos exist of Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. giving speeches; Nicky is in the crowd of one, Andy in the other (possibly MLK’s “I Have a Dream” speech)
1968 - Joe and Nicky rescue a man from a cave(?)
April 1975, Operation Babylift - this was an operation by the US government to evacuate orphaned children from South Vietnam. Andy is shown in a photo leaning over one such boy on an airplane. this boy would go on to invest in helping amputee children in Asia (2010)
1975-1979, Cambodia - the Old Guard and “her” grandson (either Andy’s, or that of a woman Andy had previously saved) rescue 317 people from a Khmer Rouge death camp. the Old Guard also shuts down a smuggling ring in the area
1978 - a man previously saved by Andy prevents a nuclear exchange
1989, Berlin - Andy helps people flee from East Germany
1992, Bosnian War - Booker is involved as a combat medic in the Siege of Sarajevo
1992-1993 - Nicky attends college under the alias N. Smith. his birth date is given as April 8 (or possibly August 4)
2000s, Democratic Republic of the Congo - the Old Guard (although only Joe is pictured) rescue a group of children, one of whom would go on to become an influential hip-hop activist in his teens (2018)
2001-present, War in Afghanistan - the Old Guard are linked to the US 10th Mountain Division
2013, Czech Republic - Andy is issued a passport under the alias Alexandra Black
2014, Germany - Joe is issued a passport under the alias Joseph Jones, born in Hamburg and residing in Frankfurt. his birth date is given as January 2
Other items without specific dates attached:
digital image of an aerial shot of a USAF F-22 airstrike in Syria
newspaper headline: Mystery of Death Cheat Woman
newspaper headline: Man Sacrifices His Life to Save Bus Full of Children
this one shows up twice, in both Italy and Poland
a copy of a painting depicting a black man and a white woman, evidently a romantic couple, is posted under the Australia section. the original painting is in Andy’s abandoned mine in Val d’Argent, France
newspaper headline: Case of the Death-Defying Couple Remains Unsolved
this one shows up a bunch, with lots of red string and lines, as Copley evidently traces Nicky and Joe’s exploits. the end of the sequence has a handwritten label that says, Couple’s Final Triumph
Regional labels where I couldn’t read any of the smaller text:
Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bhutan, Bulgaria, Greece, India, Italy, Mexico, Nepal, New Zealand, Norway, Pakistan, Poland, South Korea, Sudan
kaledo-art
prguitarman
romaincrisis
jbbartram-illu
ellievsbear
blakekathryn
janainaart
