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Billy was born in Ilium New York
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Billy is captured after fight with Ronald Weary and sent to German Pow camp. This is when things really turn for the worst.
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Dresden was bombed by allied troops destroying the city and killing nearly all the inhabitants. Billy survived this by being in the basement of the slaughterhouse. This is the event that scars him the most and the main cause of his PTSD. O'Hare and Vonnegut were there in real life while Billy, Derby, and other workers were also there in the story.
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Billy is honorably discharged from the army. He is now faced with coming home to civilian life, a transition that will not prove easy.
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Billy suffers from a mild nervous collapse. He is treated in a veteran's hospital near Lake Placid. In the end this treatment is ineffective but he gains a love of science fiction by Rosewater's loaned books. This fascination with science fiction most likely creates the Tralfamadorian story.
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Billy marries his fiance, the daughter of the founder and the owner of the school. This proves useful in his career as he gains much wealth but he is very unhappy and calls her a symptom of his disease.
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Meets the author Kilgore Trout 2 days before his 18th wedding anniversary. He befriends him and it really is one of Billy's only friends throughout the book.
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Billy sends his mother away to live in a nursing home. This is an action that his own daughter will think about taking for Billy.
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Billy was disgracefully drunk at a new year’s party and unfaithful to his wife. This does not lead to many future problems for Billy but is shows he is very unhappy with his current relationship and uses alcohol in an attempt to escape.
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Billy is captured by a flying saucer that lands outside his home. They show him another way to look at time.
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Billy was in a plane crash that killed everyone but himself. He was on a business trip and suffered traumatic head injuries. It is after this crash that he starts to talk about his time travelling experiences.
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Billy sends a letter to a local paper describing his experiences on Tralfamadore. His daughter thinks that he is crazy and it is more or less a remark on how society treats veterans with mental problems.
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Billy is killed by an assassin sent by Lazaro after giving a speech in Chicago.