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1213
The Children's Crusade
Kurt is told that two monks raised an army of children in Germany and France to sell as slaves in North Africa. Thirty thousand children volunteered thinking they were going to Palestine to take the holy land. He promises to name his book after this event. -
Billy is Born
Billy is born in Ilium, New York to a barber. He is said to have been funny looking and weak. -
Billy is Drafted
Billy is drafted into World War II after graduating from high school and just starting optometry school. -
Billy First Comes Unstuck in Time
While Billy is "fighting" in World War II, he leans against a tree and is sent through time to multiple other points in his life. This is the beginning of a pattern of hallucinations that Billy goes through regarding the affects that being in war have on him. -
Billy is Captured
In December, Billy and Roland, the only two remaining of their squad, are captured by Germans, stripped of their belongings, and sent off to prison on a train car. -
Billy is Discharged
Billy is honorably discharged from the military and goes back to school to become an optometrist. He eventually finishes the schooling and marries a girl, along with being in a veteran's mental hospital for a time. -
Bombing of Dresden
The city of Dresden is the location of the slaughterhouse that Billy was held prisoner in, and is destroyed by American/British bombings. This annihilation forces and allows Billy to escape the prison along with others. It is a significant cause of the severe post traumatic stress that Billy struggles with. -
Billy is Abducted by the Tralfamadorians
Billy is abducted from his home by the Tralfamadorians and spends some time with them. He learns things from them like the motion of time, their ideas on free will, and so on. He is put on display in a zoo for the Tralfamadorian people to look at. The Tralfamadorians might have been created by Billy's mind in place of the Germans that took him captive. Their imprisonment of Billy and their speech with him somewhat resembles that of his interactions with the Germans in real life. -
Billy's Plane Crashes
Billy knows that the plane he gets on will crash but there is nothing that he can do. He is the only one that survives and is put in the hospital. -
The Inspiration for Billy's Delusions
After the plane crash, Billy goes to a book store in New York City that contains four Kilgore Trout books. One of them is about a man and a woman abducted by aliens and kept in an alien zoo. He also notices a magazine and pornographic pictures of Montana Wildhack. Seeing these was a subliminal inspiration for the things Billy saw when he was abducted by the Tralfamadorians. -
Billy Dies
Billy is assassinated by Paul Lazzaro with a supposed laser gun. This delusion is correlated to the actual event of the bombing of Dresden.
