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When Was the War of the Worlds?

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 The Wellsian: The Journal of the H. G. Wells Society
No. 29 (2006)

Copyright 2006 © The H. G. Wells Society, ISSN 0263 1176

Editorial Address
Dr John S. Partington, Editor, The Wellsian
13 Little Street, Reading RG 1 7PB, England
E-mail: <J_S_Partington@hotmail.com>
(Please send submissions as email
attachments in Word or RTF)

Referee Panel
Dr Philip Coupland, History, University of Glasgow
Dr John Hammond, English, Nottingham Trent University
Dr Sylvia Hardy, English, University College Northampton
Dr. Simon James, English, University of Durham
Dr Steven McLean, English, University of Derby
Dr Richard Nate, English, University of Eichstiitt
Prof. Patrick Parrinder, English, University of Reading
Dr John S. Partington, History, Waterstone's Booksellers
Prof. Elmar Schenkel, English, University of Leipzig

Printed by: Impress Print & Design 50-52 Station Hill, Reading RG1 1NF, UK

Contents:

Editorial, by John S. Partington 1

Notes on Contributors 1
Thomas Gangale and Marilyn Dudley-Rowley, 'When Was the War of the Worlds?' 2
Kimberley Jackson, 'Vivisected Language in H. G. Wells's The Island of Doctor Moreau' 20
Hiroshi So, 'The Wheels of Chance and the Discourse of lmprovement of Health' 37
Book Review: Anne Holden Rønning, Hidden and Visible Suffrage [John S. Partington] 47
Book Review: Glenn Yeffeth, ed., The War of the Worlds [John S. Partington] 51
Book Review: Gordon D. Feir, H. G. Wells at the End of His Tether [John S. Partington] 56
Letter to the Editor: Patrick Parrinder 62
New Books and Articles on H. G. Wells 63
 When Was the War of the Worlds?
Copyright  2006

Thomas Gangale and Marilyn Dudley-Rowley

And early in the twentieth century came the great disillusionment.

In H. G. Wells’ novella, The War of the Worlds, Victorian civilisation, with its exuberant

faith in progress and technology, was suddenly humbled in the dust by a technologically

more advanced, inhuman invader from another world. The story was first serialised in British

and American periodicals in 1897, and published as a book the following year. Probably in

order to imbue his tale with a timeless quality, Wells declined to specify the exact date of the

attack from Mars. However, given his penchant for detail, is it possible that Wells wrote his

terrifying vision of the future with just such a specific date in mind? There are a number of

subtle clues throughout his story that suggest such a date. In the course of the past century, a

number of works of fiction based on Wells’ original tale have assigned various years to the

war. Which of these, if any, are correct? Is it possible to gather together all of Wells’ clues

and determine definitively when the war occurred? Did Wells weave an elaborate puzzle into

his story that has gone unnoticed and unsolved for more than a century?

All but one of the works listed in Table 1 are contributions to the 1996 anthology, War of the

Worlds: Global Dispatches, edited by Kevin J. Anderson. The exception is the 1975

collection of related stories, Sherlock Holmes’s War of the Worlds, by the father and son team

of Manly Wade Wellman and Wade Wellman. Where the date of the war is not stated

explicitly in these tales, it can be derived from facts in the text (shown in parentheses).
Gangale & Dudley-Rowley When Was the War of the Worlds? 2

Table 1
Proposed Dates for the War of the Worlds

Author Title Date

Mike Resnick “The Roosevelt Dispatches” July 1898
Gregory Benford and “Afterword: Retrospective” 1898
David Brin
Gregory Benford and “Paris Conquers All” 1898 (28 years after the fall of Sedan)
David Brin
Don Webb “To Mars and Providence” 1898 (H. P. Lovecraft at age 8)
Dave Wolverton “After a Lean Winter” August 1899
Janet Berliner “The True Tale of the Final Battle of Umslopogaas the Zulu” 1899 (Winston Churchill in South Africa)
Daniel Keys Moran and “Roughing It During the Martian Invasion” 1899 (Mark Twain at age 64)
Jodi Moran
Robert Silverberg “The Martian Invasion Journals of Henry James” June 1900
Allen Steele “A Letter from St. Louis” July 1900
Doug Beason “Determinism and the Martian War, with Relativistic Corrections” 1900 (Albert Einstein at age 21)
M. Shayne Bell “To See the World End” 1900
Daniel Marcus “Blue Period” 1900 (Pablo Picasso at age 19)
Walter Jon Williams “Foreign Devils” 1900 (Boxer Rebellion)
Connie Willis “The Soul Selects Her Own Society: Invasion and Repulsion: A Chronological 1900
Reinterpretation of Two of Emily Dickinson’s Poems: A Wellsian
Perspective”
Mark W. Tiedemann “Resurrection” 1901 (after Josef Stalin left the Tiflis Physical
Observatory)
Manly Wade Wellman and Sherlock Holmes’s War of the Worlds June 1902
Wade Wellman
Gangale & Dudley-Rowley When Was the War of the Worlds? 3

In addition to the titles listed in Table 1, the 1998 CD ROM and Sony PlayStation computer

games based on Jeff Wayne’s Musical Version of the War of the Worlds begin the action in

September 1898. In this scenario, the Martians launch a second invasion, this time targeting

Scotland. Although these games do not specify a date for the Martians’ initial failed attempt to

conquer Earth, the inference is that this occurred earlier that same year. It certainly is no

accident that these computer games were released during the centennial of the publication of The

War of the Worlds as a book.

Three stories from War of the Worlds: Global Dispatches also place the action in 1898, whilst

three others place it in 1899. However, the famous first paragraph of Wells’ account ends with,

“And early in the twentieth century came the great disillusionment.” The first of Wells’ clues

immediately eliminates 1898 and 1899 as possible dates for the Martian invasion. Indeed, since

the 20th century actually began with 1901, the year 1900, having been the last year of the 19th

century, should also be eliminated from consideration. This would disqualify all but one of the

dates proposed in War of the Worlds: Global Dispatches.

Wells’ second and third clues are a few paragraphs later in Book I, Chapter 1, where he states:

As Mars approached opposition, Lavelle of Java set the wires of the astronomical
exchange palpitating with the amazing intelligence of a huge outbreak of
incandescent gas upon the planet. It had occurred towards midnight of the twelfth
(p. 53∗)....

Opposition is an alignment of the sun, Earth and Mars, so called because Mars and the sun are on

the opposite sides of the Earth. Another alignment of these three bodies, called conjunction,
Gangale & Dudley-Rowley When Was the War of the Worlds? 4

occurs when Mars and the sun are on the same side of the Earth. This terminology is a holdover

from a time when astronomers held a geocentric view of the solar system. In an age when we

know the sun to be at the centre of the solar system, it may seem strange that when Earth and

Mars are lined up on the same side of the sun, we call it opposition, and when they are on

opposite sides of the sun, we call it conjunction (see Figure 1).

The implications of “midnight of the twelfth” will be discussed later.

Still later in Book I, Chapter 1, Wells drops his fourth clue, that at the time the invasion was

launched from Mars, “forty millions of miles it was from us--more than forty millions of miles of

void” separated the two planets (p. 54). Mars only comes within 40 million miles (64 million

Figure 1
Opposition and Conjunction

∗
All page references are per David Y. Hughes and Harry M. Geduld, 1993, A Critical Edition of the War of the
Worlds, Bloomington, Illinois: Indiana University Press.
Gangale & Dudley-Rowley When Was the War of the Worlds? 5

kilometres) of Earth during the most favourable oppositions, known as perihelic oppositions, i.e.

when Mars is simultaneously near perihelion--its closest point to the sun--and is in opposition

with the sun as seen from Earth. It is true that Earth and Mars approach each other roughly every

780 days (25.6 months), but the distance between the two planets can vary greatly from one

opposition to the next because of Mars’ eccentric orbit. Earth’s orbit is nearly circular, and so its

distance from the sun varies by only three million miles (five million kilometres) in the course of

a year. Mars, on the other hand, has the most lopsided orbit of all the planets except Pluto, so that

its perihelion and aphelion (farthest point from the sun) differ by 26.5 million miles (42.6 million

kilometres). At very unfavourable oppositions, when Mars is at its aphelion, the two planets

come no closer than 63 million miles (101 million kilometres) to each other.

Perihelic oppositions only occur every fifteen or seventeen years. One such opposition occurred

in 1877. It was in this year that the American astronomer Asaph Hall discovered Mars’ two tiny

moons, Phobos and Deimos, and the Italian astronomer Giovanni Schiaparelli reported seeing

canali on Mars. The next perihelic opposition came in 1892, and the following opposition in

1894 was almost as favourable. The American astronomer Percival Lowell built his observatory

near Flagstaff, Arizona in time to view Mars during the 1894 opposition, and during the

remainder of his life the Lowell Observatory was primarily dedicated to the study of Mars. It is

quite likely that Wells’ own interest in Mars was stimulated by Lowell’s observations of the

1894 opposition, published in the first of his three books, Mars, in 1895. In this book, Lowell

laid out a very detailed and logical argument in favour not only of life on Mars, but of intelligent

life, as evidenced by magnificent engineering on a planetary scale--the canals. Wells began

Gangale & Dudley-Rowley When Was the War of the Worlds? 6

writing The War of the Worlds the same year that Lowell’s book was published, and Wells set

the stage for his tale by referring to the 1894 opposition in his first chapter:

During the opposition of 1894 a great light was seen on the illuminated part of the
disk, first at the Lick Observatory, then by Perrotin of Nice, and then by other
observers. English readers heard of it first in the issue of Nature dated August 2
(p. 53).

It is interesting to consider that the 1894 opposition also quite likely inspired the German writer

Kurd Lasswitz, who published his novel Two Planets in the same year that The War of the

Worlds was published as a serial feature (1897). In Lasswitz’s novel, Earth is visited by

humanoid Martians who are technologically advanced and benevolent; however, Britain

provokes a war that results in the Martian occupation of Earth.

In Sherlock Holmes’s War of the Worlds, the authors Manly Wade Wellman and Wade Wellman

place the invasion in June 1902. In fact, on that date, Mars was nowhere near Earth (see Figure

2). Mars had recently passed through conjunction in March 1902, i.e., had passed behind the sun

as seen from Earth, so that in June 1902 Mars was still on the far side of the solar system, 227

million miles (366 million kilometres) from Earth. Nor were the oppositions immediately before

and after this date at all favourable. At the opposition of March 1903, Mars came no closer than

59.3 million miles (95.4 million kilometres) to Earth (see Table 2 and Figure 3). The opposition

of February 1901 was even worse, for Mars was at that time very near aphelion, so the year

1901, which can be inferred in Mark W. Tiedemann’s “Resurrection,” must also be eliminated.
Gangale & Dudley-Rowley When Was the War of the Worlds? 7

Figure 2
The Positions of Earth and Mars on 15 June 1902

Table 2
Early 20th Century Oppositions of Mars

Opposition Closest Approach

Date Date Distance Distance
(km x 106) (mi x 106)
22 Feb 1901 23 Feb 1901 101.34 62.97
29 Mar 1903 2 Apr 1903 95.44 59.31
8 May 1905 16 May 1905 80.27 49.88
6 Jul 1907 13 Jul 1907 60.98 37.89
24 Sep 1909* 18 Sep 1909* 58.27 36.21
25 Nov 1911 17 Nov 1911 76.47 47.52
5 Jan 1914 1 Jan 1914 93.11 57.86
9 Feb 1916 9 Feb 1916 100.95 62.73
15 Mar 1918 18 Mar 1918 98.93 61.47
21 Apr 1920 28 Apr 1920 87.23 54.20
10 Jun 1922 18 Jun 1922 68.22 42.39
23 Aug 1924* 22 Aug 1924* 55.79 34.66
*Perihelic oppositions.
Gangale & Dudley-Rowley When Was the War of the Worlds? 8

Figure 3
Early 20th Century Oppositions of Mars

Both Robert Silverberg and Allen Steele give the summer of 1900 as the time of the Martian

invasion. Doug Beason, M. Shayne Bell, Daniel Marcus, and Walter Jon Williams also give

1900 as the year of the invasion without specifying the season. However, Mars was in

conjunction early that year, and by that summer it was still several hundreds of millions of miles

from Earth (see Figure 4). So, even if we granted special dispensation for the common mistake

of considering 1900 to be the first year of the 20th century, whereas it was properly the last year

of the 19th century, we would still have to eliminate 1900 on the basis of Wells’ statement that

Mars was about 40 million miles from Earth at the time of the invasion.
Gangale & Dudley-Rowley When Was the War of the Worlds? 9

Figure 4
The Positions of Earth and Mars on 1 July 1900

At this point, we have shot down every date that has been proposed for the Martian invasion.

We are still left with the question, “When was the War of the Worlds?” Let us continue with our

examination of Wells’ astronomical clues.

The first favourable opposition of the 20th century was in early July 1907, when Mars

approached to within 37.9 million miles (61 million kilometres) of Earth. The next opposition,

in late September 1909, being perihelic, was even more favourable, for at this time Mars came

within 36.2 million miles (58.3 million kilometres) of Earth. The next perihelic opposition did

not occur until late August 1924, when Mars approached to within 34.7 million miles (55.8

million kilometres). Any of these three favourable oppositions would satisfy Wells’ two
Gangale & Dudley-Rowley When Was the War of the Worlds? 10

conditions, that the invasion occurred early in the 20th century, when Earth and Mars were

separated by only 40 million miles. A fourth possibility that comes close to satisfying the “40

million miles” condition is the opposition of 1922, when Mars came within 42.4 million miles

(68.2 million kilometres). So, in which of these years did the Martian invasion take place? To

settle on one of these four possibilities, we must look at the other clues that Wells left for his

readers to discover.

In Book II, Chapter 3, the narrator refers to his fortnight of imprisonment in the ruined house in

Sheen as “that terrible June (p. 155).” In early June 1909, however, Mars was still three and a

half months from its closest approach to Earth on 24 September, and was more than 81 million

miles (130 million kilometres) distant. In early June 1924, the perihelic opposition was two and

a half months in the future (23 August), and the two worlds were separated by nearly 68 million

miles (110 million kilometres).

The 1922 and 1924 oppositions are unattractive choices because the terrestrial technology that

Wells describes in his account of the War of the Worlds is consistent with that of the 1890s,

when he wrote his story. Brilliant futurist that he was, he surely would have foreseen that in

three decades’ time the aeroplane would have been developed into a vehicle of considerable

military importance, for example. He could not have been ignorant of the fact that the problem

of powered heavier-than-air flight had been worked on since the 1840s and was on the verge of

solution. Samuel Langley in the USA and Hiram Maxim in the UK began work around 1889-

1890 and had working models by 1893-1894. Yet Wells makes no mention of aeroplanes in his

account of the War of the Worlds, commenting only in passing on Lilienthal soaring-machines
Gangale & Dudley-Rowley When Was the War of the Worlds? 11

(p. 152). This strongly suggests that he was describing a war nearer to his own time. Another

technological clue pointing to 1907 rather than to the 1920s is that in Wells’ story, nearly all

private transportation was by horse-drawn carriage. He mentions motorcars only briefly during

the exodus from London (p. 122). There were little more than 100,000 automobiles in the

United Kingdom in 1907, so they were still rather scarce on Britain’s roads, but by the 1920s the

horse had been all but driven from the streets.

The only remaining alternative for the year of the Martian invasion is 1907. In early June of that

year, Mars was only a month away from its closest approach, and at that time Mars was 48

million miles (77 million kilometres) from Earth (see Figure 5), although, as stated earlier, it

would approach to within 37.9 million miles (61 million kilometres) in the coming weeks. So,

even though the 1907 opposition was not quite as favourable as either the 1909 or 1924 perihelic

oppositions, it is far and away the best fit to Wells’ statements concerning the relative positions

of the two planets during the War of the Worlds. Additionally, the year 1907 is more consistent

with Wells’ description of Earth’s technology at the time of the war.

Now that we have deduced the year of the War of the Worlds, can we ascertain specific dates to

the events described by Wells?

To begin, let us refer again to the narrator’s characterisation of his fortnight of imprisonment as

“that terrible June.” Now, there are several possibilities to be examined. If one takes the

narrator’s phrase to mean that most of this period occurred in June, and bears in mind that the

landing of the fifth Martian cylinder in Sheen, the event which triggered the days of

imprisonment, occurred on Tuesday morning, that particular Tuesday could have been as early as
Gangale & Dudley-Rowley When Was the War of the Worlds? 12

Figure 5
The Positions of Earth and Mars on 6 July 1907

28 May 1907. If the imprisonment had begun on Tuesday, 18 June 1907, it would have ended on

Tuesday, 2 July 1907. These are the earliest and latest plausible dates. The two other possible

Tuesdays for the beginning of the “days of imprisonment” are 4 June and 11 June 1907.

Again we are face with four options. How do we choose between them? Wells gives us another

astronomical clue in Book I, Chapter 13, following the Battle of Weybridge, which occurred on a

Sunday:

High in the west the crescent moon hung faint and pale above the smoke of
Weybridge and Shepperton and the hot, still splendour of the sunset (p. 105).

This passage describes a moon that is three to six days old, i.e. the number of days since the dark

of the moon. At an age of less than three days, the moon would have been low in the west at
Gangale & Dudley-Rowley When Was the War of the Worlds? 13

sunset. A moon older than six days would have been more to the south than west at sunset. At

seven days, the moon is half illuminated, not a crescent, and at eight days or later it is a gibbous

moon. In June 1907, the dark of the moon occurred on the 10th, and the following Sunday was

the 16th, when the moon was six days old. We must conclude, therefore, that the Battle of

Weybridge took place on Sunday, 16 June, and that the narrator’s “days of imprisonment” began

on the following Tuesday, 18 June 1907. Book I, Chapter 8 (p. 74) mentions the day of the

landing of the first cylinder in Horsell Common as being the previous Friday, which was 14 June

1907.

Returning to Book I, Chapter 1, the launch of the first cylinder was observed “towards midnight

of the twelfth.” The question is, the twelfth of what? Another passage in this chapter tells us,

“Hundreds of observers saw the flame that night and the night after about midnight, and again

the night after; and so for ten nights, a flame each night (p. 54).” People on Earth observed all

ten launches before a single landing occurred, and thus at least ten nights must have elapsed

between the first launch and the first landing. Since the first landing occurred on Friday

morning, 14 June 1907, the latest date for the first launch would have been ten days earlier, or 4

June 1907. Since the Martians launched their first cylinder “towards midnight of the twelfth,”

this could have been no later than the night of 12 May 1907.

But why couldn’t the Martians have launched their invasion before 12 May? Why not on 12

April, for instance, 54 years (to the day) before the human race launched its first invasion of

outer space? If the launch of the first cylinder took place on the night of 12 May (actually the

midnight which began 13 May), from that night to the landing of that cylinder at midnight on 14
Gangale & Dudley-Rowley When Was the War of the Worlds? 14

June 1907 would have been a span of 32 days. In Sherlock Holmes’s War of the Worlds, Dr.

Watson pointed out a mathematical error in Wells’ first chapter, where he described the Martian

cylinders as “drawing nearer every minute by so many thousands of miles (p. 54).” If the

cylinders had travelled at, for instance, 9,000 miles per minute, they would have crossed the 40

million mile gulf in only three days (40 million mi. / 9,000 mi. per min. = 4,440 min.). To cross the

interplanetary void in 32 days, the cylinders must have had a relative velocity of only about 870

miles per minute (40 million mi. / 46,080 min.), not “many thousands.” If the invasion had been

launched on 12 April, 62 days before the landing of the first cylinder, the invasion fleet would have

travelled 55 million miles at a relative velocity of about 620 miles per minute (55 million mi. /

89,280 min.) (see Figure 6). Earlier launch dates would make Wells’ “many thousands” description

even more erroneous.

Figure 6
62-Day and 32-Day Flights From Mars to Earth
Gangale & Dudley-Rowley When Was the War of the Worlds? 15

A final set of astronomical clues deals with the time of the narrator’s writing of his account of

the War of the Worlds. In Book I, Chapter 1 he states, “The storm burst upon us six years ago

now (p. 53).” This would place the writing of his account in 1913. In the last chapter (Book II,

Chapter 10), he tells us, “At present the planet Mars is in conjunction (p. 192).” This must be

interpreted loosely, since a conjunction cannot take place exactly six years after an opposition.

Oppositions come at roughly 780-day intervals, and conjunctions follow oppositions by about

half that interval, or 390 days. The conjunction occurring closest to the six-year point after the 6

July 1907 opposition was on 31 October 1912, about 5.3 years later. We can infer that the

narrator completed the writing of his account of the war early in 1913, when Mars was still on

the far side of the solar system.

Also in the last chapter, as he reflects on the possibility that the Martians had landed on Venus in

preference to mounting a second invasion of Earth, the narrator tells us, “Seven months ago now,

Venus and Mars were in alignment with the sun; that is to say, Mars was in opposition from the

point of view of an observer on Venus (p. 192).” Such an alignment took place on 31 August

1912, which would put the narrator’s writing at the end of March or the beginning of April 1913,

nearly six years after the War of the Worlds.

Table 3 recaps the list of clues we have examined.

Did H. G. Wells really write The War of the Worlds with a definite year in mind? The evidence

in favour of this is certainly intriguing, if not conclusive. The facts that Wells sprinkled

throughout his tale are entirely consistent with the war having been fought in 1907. Could it be

merely a matter of coincidence that eight separate facts randomly point to a specific set of dates?
Gangale & Dudley-Rowley When Was the War of the Worlds? 16

Table 3
Recap of the Evidence

Source Text Quote

p. 51 “And early in the twentieth century came the great disillusionment.”
p. 53 “The storm burst upon us six years ago now.”
p. 53 “As Mars approached opposition”
p. 53 “a huge outbreak of incandescent gas... occurred towards midnight of the twelfth”
p. 54 “Forty millions of miles it was from us--more than forty millions of miles of void”
p. 54 “drawing nearer every minute by so many thousands of miles”
p. 54 “and so for ten nights, a flame each night”
p. 74 “all the strange and wonderful things that happened upon that Friday…”
p. 94 “the day would have seemed very like any other Sunday.”
p. 105 “High in the west the crescent moon hung faint and pale above the ... hot, still
splendour of the sunset.”
p. 132 “Of the falling of the fifth cylinder I have presently to tell…. On Tuesday….”
p. 155 “that terrible June”
p. 192 “At present the planet Mars is in conjunction.”
p. 192 “Seven months ago now... Mars was in opposition from the point of view of an
observer on Venus.”

It seems unlikely. On the contrary, it is more believable that Wells deliberately penned an

obscure mystery into his tale for his readers to solve. Now, more than half a century after his

death, we can only speculate, of course. Perhaps a future admirer of H. G. Wells will be able to

step into a Time Machine and fly back into the past to ask him. One cannot choose but wonder.

What will his answer be?

We express our thanks to Greg Brooks, who has been working on his own War of the Worlds

project, for the many thoughtful questions he posed to us.

Gangale & Dudley-Rowley When Was the War of the Worlds? 17

Table 4
Chronology of the War of the Worlds

Time and Date Event

Saturday Nice Observatory astronomer Stephane Javelle observes a luminous
28 July 1894 projection in the region of the southern terminator of Mars.
Monday Henri Joseph Anastase Perrotin, director of the Nice Observatory, sends
30 July 1894 the following telegram: “Projection lumineuse dans région australe du
terminateur de Mars observeé par Javelle 28 Juillet 16 heures Perrotin.”
Thursday Nature reports the observation of Stephane Javelle. “If we assume the
2 August 1894 light to be on the planet itself, then it must either have a physical or human
origin; so it is expected that the old idea that the Martians are signalling to
us will be revived.” Wells’ narrator later speculates, “I am inclined to
think that this blaze may have been the casting of the huge gun, in the vast
pit sunk into their planet, from which their shots were fired at us.”
Tuesday Opposition of Mars. Minimum distance 40.1 million miles (64.6 million
20 October 1894 km).
Thursday Opposition of Mars. Minimum distance 51.7 million miles (83.1 million
10 December 1896 km).
Friday Opposition of Mars. Minimum distance 60.5 million miles (97.3 million
20 January 1899 km).
Friday Opposition of Mars. Minimum distance 63.0 million miles (101.4 million
22 February 1901 km).
Sunday Opposition of Mars. Minimum distance 59.5 million miles (95.7 million
29 March 1903 km).
Monday Opposition of Mars. Minimum distance 50.5 million miles (81.2 million
8 May 1905 km).
00:00 Monday The Martians launch the first of ten cylinders toward Earth.
13 May 1907
00:00 Tuesday The Martians launch the second of ten cylinders toward Earth.
14 May 1907
00:00 Wednesday The Martians launch the third of ten cylinders toward Earth.
15 May 1907
00:00 Thursday The Martians launch the fourth of ten cylinders toward Earth.
16 May 1907
00:00 Friday The Martians launch the fifth of ten cylinders toward Earth.
17 May 1907
00:00 Saturday The Martians launch the sixth of ten cylinders toward Earth.
18 May 1907
00:00 Sunday The Martians launch the seventh of ten cylinders toward Earth.
19 May 1907
00:00 Monday The Martians launch the eighth of ten cylinders toward Earth.
20 May 1907
00:00 Tuesday The Martians launch the ninth of ten cylinders toward Earth.
21 May 1907
00:00 Wednesday The Martians launch the last of ten cylinders toward Earth.
22 May 1907
Gangale & Dudley-Rowley When Was the War of the Worlds? 18

00:00 Friday The first Martian cylinder lands on Horsell Common, east of Horsell.
14 June 1907
05:00 Friday Ogilvy the astronomer locates the Horsell cylinder.
14 June 1907
06:00 Friday Ogilvy informs the London journalist Henderson of his discovery, and
14 June 1907 together they return to the cylinder.
08:00 Friday A number of boys and unemployed men start for the common.
14 June 1907
09:00 Friday A crowd of approximately twenty people gather at the edge of the pit.
14 June 1907
(Afternoon) Friday Ogilvy, Henderson and Stent (the Astronomer Royal) direct workmen in
14 June 1907 the task of excavating the cylinder.
19:00 Friday Approximately 200-300 people are gathered at the pit when the cylinder
14 June 1907 opens. At the sight of the Martians the crowd disperse from the edge of the
pit.
19:45 Friday Their confidence somewhat restored by the lack of visible activity in the
14 June 1907 Pit, the crowd begin to slowly advance upon the Pit once more.
20:30 Friday The Deputation, comprised of Ogilvy, Henderson, Stent and a number of
14 June 1907 others, advance upon the pit, waving a white flag. There is a flash of light,
and an invisible ray of heat flashes from man to man, and each bursts into
flame, killing about 40 people. The crowd flees in panic.
23:00 Friday A company of soldiers passes through Horsell and deploys along the edge
14 June 1907 of the common to form a cordon. A squadron of hussars, two Maxims, and
about four hundred men of the Cardigan regiment start out from Aldershot.
23:30 Friday A second infantry company marches through Chobham to deploy on the
14 June 1907 north side of Horsell Common.
00:00 Saturday The second Martian cylinder lands on the Addlestone Golf Links.
15 June 1907
(Morning) Saturday Newspapers report: The Martians, alarmed by the approach of a crowd,
15 June 1907 have killed a number of people with a quick-firing gun. Formidable as they
seem to be, the Martians have not moved from the pit into which they have
fallen, and, indeed, seem incapable of doing so. Probably this is due to the
relative strength of the earth's gravitational energy.
15:00 Saturday Royal Army begins shelling the Addlestone cylinder.
15 June 1907
17:00 Saturday A field gun reaches Chobham for use against the first group of
15 June 1907 Martians.
18:00 Saturday A battle commences between the Martians and soldiers around the first pit
15 June 1907 on Horsell Common. The Oriental College is struck by the Heat-Ray. The
evacuation of Woking begins. Hussars enter Maybury Hill.
19:00 Saturday The 12th Horse Artillery Battery arrives in Horsell Common. The Horsell
15 June 1907 party of Martians moves toward the Addlestone cylinder in a crouched
fighting-machine, which then rises into an erect posture. The battery is
destroyed before it can be deployed. In the only infantry engagement of
the war, a battalion of the Cardigan Regiment rushes the pit in skirmish
order and is annihilated by the Heat-Ray. The hussars are out of range of
the Heat-Ray during the battle. The Maxims are silenced. The fighting-
machine then destroys Woking and also a train northeast of the town,
thereby cutting rain communication with Waterloo Station. The Martians
deploy a second fighting-machine, and the two depart for the Addlestone
cylinder.
Gangale & Dudley-Rowley When Was the War of the Worlds? 19

19:30 Saturday The narrator, his wife, and their servant depart Maybury Hill for
15 June 1907 Leatherhead.
20:00 Saturday London newspapers report the loss of telegraphic communication about
15 June 1907 the area of Horsell Common, believed to be due to burning trees falling
across the lines. One of the fighting-machines returns to Woking.
21:00 Saturday The narrator, his wife, and their servant reach Leatherhead.
15 June 1907
23:00 Saturday The narrator departs Leatherhead for Maybury Hill.
15 June 1907
00:00 Sunday The third Martian cylinder lands north of Pyrford, completing the Surrey
16 June 1907 Triangle. A hailstorm passes through Surrey, lasting a few hours.
00:15 Sunday The narrator returns to Maybury Hill. Two Martian fighting-machines
16 June 1907 from the Horsell cylinder link up with the Pyrford cylinder.
03:30 Sunday Three fighting-machines are observed at the Horsell Cylinder.
16 June 1907
04:30 Sunday Fires burn around Chobham.
16 June 1907
05:00 Sunday Six 12-pound guns are deployed in a meadow between Woking and
16 June 1907 Byfleet. Batteries are also positioned at Shepperton. The 8th Hussars are
detailed to clear civilians from the area between Woking and Byfleet.
(Morning) Sunday London newspapers report: About seven o’clock last night the Martians
16 June 1907 came out of the cylinder, and, moving about under an armour of metallic
shields, have completely wrecked Woking station with the adjacent houses,
and massacred an entire battalion of the Cardigan Regiment. No details
are known. Maxims have been absolutely useless against their armour; the
field guns have been disabled by them. Flying hussars have been galloping
into Chertsey. The Martians appear to be moving slowly towards Chertsey
or Windsor. Great anxiety prevails in West Surrey, and earthworks are
being thrown up to check the advance Londonward.
12:00 Sunday Five Martian fighting-machines advance down the Wey River to the
16 June 1907 confluence of the Thames. Royal Artillery batteries engage the Martians,
destroying one fighting-machine, but Weybridge and Chertsey are
destroyed by Heat-Ray. The Martians then withdraw to the Surrey triangle,
carrying the wreckage of the destroyed fighting-machine.
(Afternoon) Sunday The Martians transfer all of their equipment from the Addlestone Golf
16 June 1907 Links and Pyrford to the original pit on Horsell Common in preparation for
the assault on London. Meanwhile, artillery is assembled around Kingston
and Richmond, and scouts with heliographs carefully approach the pit on
Horsell Common to warn of any Martian activity. Guns are in rapid transit
from Windsor, Portsmouth, Aldershot, Woolwich, and from the north.
17:00 Sunday Carriage trucks bearing huge guns and carriages, and crammed with
16 June 1907 soldiers, pass through Waterloo Station from Woolwich and Chatham en-
route to Kingston.
(Evening) Sunday London newspapers give the first inkling of the power of the Martians:
16 June 1907 Fighting at Weybridge! Full description! Repulse of the Martians! London
in Danger! Descriptions are given of “vast spiderlike machines, nearly a
hundred feet high, capable of the speed of an express train, and able to
shoot out a beam of intense heat.”
One hundred sixteen guns are reported in position or being hastily placed.
20:00 Sunday Three fighting-machines advance from Horsell through Byfleet and
16 June 1907 Pyrford towards Ripley and Weybridge.
Gangale & Dudley-Rowley When Was the War of the Worlds? 20

20:30 Sunday Batteries deployed at Ripley and St. George’s Hill engage the enemy. The
16 June 1907 Ripley gunners fire one wild, premature, ineffectual volley, and abandon
their position. The battery at Painshill Park is destroyed. The St. George’s
Hill battery damages one fighting-machine, but is then destroyed.
21:05 Sunday The damaged fighting-machine is repaired. Four more machines carrying
16 June 1907 Black Smoke launchers are brought up, and launchers are also distributed
to the other three fighting-machines. All seven Martian fighting-machines
fan out along a curved line between St. George’s Hill, Weybridge, and the
village of Send. Four of the fighting-machines cross the Thames, two of
which position themselves to face Sunbury and Staines. Batteries are
deployed at Staines, Hounslow, Ditton, Esher, and Ockham.
21:30 Sunday The Martian discharge Black Smoke across the valley of the Thames,
16 June 1907 advancing through Street Cobham and Ditton.
23:00 Sunday The siege guns at Richmond Hill and Kingston Hill fire chance shots
16 June 1907 towards Hampton and Ditton. Fighting-machines incinerate these batteries
within fifteen minutes. Richmond, Kingston, and Wimbledon are
destroyed.
00:00 Monday The fourth Martian cylinder lands in Bushey Park, beginning the West End
17 June 1907 Triangle.
00:30 Monday The Martians advance in a line from Hanwell in the north to Coombe and
17 June 1907 Malden in the south. Organised resistance by the British forces collapses.
A lightning storm moves south of London.
04:00 Monday News begins to travel through London of approaching Martians. Extra
17 June 1907 editions of the newspapers report: The Martians are able to discharge
enormous clouds of a black and poisonous vapour by means of rockets.
They have smothered our batteries, destroyed Richmond, Kingston, and
Wimbledon, and are advancing slowly towards London, destroying
everything on the way. It is impossible to stop them. There is no safety
from the Black Smoke but in instant flight.
The Exodus from London begins. Approximately half of the members of
the government gather at Birmingham. Large quantities of high explosive
are prepared for use in automatic mines across the Midland Counties.
(Morning) Monday The Martians go to and fro over the North Downs between Guildford and
17 June 1907 Maidstone, using the Black Smoke to eliminate any artillery batteries
located there.
10:00 Monday Police organisation in London breaks down.
17 June 1907
12:00 Monday The railway system collapses. A Martian fighting-machine is seen at
17 June 1907 Barnes. Black Smoke drifts over Ealing and the flats of Lambeth.
13:00 Monday The remnants of a cloud of the Black Smoke appears between the arches
17 June 1907 of Blackfriars Bridge. The ships which had until then been gathered in the
Pool of London depart in a panic.
14:00 Monday A fighting-machine appears beyond the Clock Tower and wades down the
17 June 1907 river.
21:00 Monday A Martian fighting-machine is observed in Kew.
17 June 1907
00:00 Tuesday The fifth Martian cylinder lands in Sheen, and the sixth Martian cylinder
18 June 1907 lands in Wimbledon, completing the West End Triangle. The narrator and
curate are trapped in a house collapsed by the impact of the Sheen
cylinder.
05:00 Tuesday A Martian fighting-machine stands sentinel over the still-glowing Sheen
18 June 1907 cylinder.
Gangale & Dudley-Rowley When Was the War of the Worlds? 21

12:00 Tuesday The Martians gain complete possession of London. Fighting-machines are
18 June 1907 seen in Highgate and Neasden.
(Afternoon) Tuesday A fighting-machine stands deserted at the Sheen cylinder as a handling-
18 June 1907 machine extracts components from the wall of the cylinder. Later, a
second and third machine arrive. The narrator and curate observe an
aluminium extractor and the completion of a second handling-machine.
2100 Tuesday The narrator and curate observe the Martians draining humans of blood
19 June 1907 and injecting it into themselves.
00:00 Wednesday The seventh Martian cylinder lands in Primrose Hill, where the invaders
19 June 1907 establish their new headquarters.
09:00 Wednesday The Midland Railway Company replaces the desertions of the previous
19 June 1907 day, and resumes traffic, running northbound trains from St. Albans. There
are rumours of Martians at Epping, and news of the destruction of
Waltham Abbey Powder Mills in a vain attempt to blow up one of the
invaders.
17:00 Wednesday HMS Thunder Child makes a suicide run at three fighting-machines the
19 June 1907 mouth of the Blackwater to cover the escape of passenger vessels. Two
fighting-machines are destroyed. Thunder Child is also destroyed.
21:00 Wednesday A Martian aircraft is observed from a passenger ship steaming for Ostend,
19 June 1907 Belgium.
00:00 Thursday The eighth Martian cylinder lands (unreported).
20 June 1907
Thursday A fighting-machine destroys Leatherhead, with every soul in it.
20 June 1907
00:00 Friday The ninth Martian cylinder lands (unreported).
21 June 1907
Friday The Martians vacate the Sheen cylinder except for one fighting-machine
21 June 1907 and one handling-machine.
or
Saturday
22 June 1907
00:00 Saturday The last Martian cylinder lands (unreported).
22 June 1907
Sunday The narrator begins rationing food.
23 June 1907
Wednesday The narrator knocks the curate insensible, and a Martian handling machine
26 June 1907 drags his body from the ruined house.
Saturday The Martians abandon the Sheen pit. The entire cylinder has been
29 June 1907 dismantled.
(Evening) Monday The artilleryman observes a Martian aircraft from Putney Hill.
1 July 1907
Tuesday The narrator emerges from the ruined house.
2 July 1907
(Morning) Wednesday The narrator encounters the artilleryman on Putney Hill.
3 July 1907
(Morning) Thursday The narrator leaves the artilleryman and heads for the centre of London.
4 July 1907
20:30 Thursday The narrator observes a wailing, stationary fighting-machine in Regent’s
4 July 1907 Park.
21:00 Thursday The narrator discovers a wrecked handling-machine between Baker Street
4 July 1907 and St. John’s Wood, and a silent, stationary fighting-machine near the
Zoological Gardens.
 Gangale & Dudley-Rowley When Was the War of the Worlds? 22

04:00 Friday The narrator locates a third stationary fighting-machine on Primrose Hill.
5 July 1907 Upon climbing the rampart erected by the Martians, he discovers nearly
fifty dead Martians among a number of fighting-machines, handling-
machines, and a flying-machine.
Saturday Opposition of Mars. Minimum distance 38.2 million miles (61.5 million
6 July 1907 km).
Monday After wandering in a demented state since discovering the dead Martians,
8 July 1907 the narrator finds himself in a house of kindly people.
Friday The narrator takes a train to Byfleet, then travels by road to Maybury Hill
12 July 1907 to find that his wife and cousin have returned.
Friday Perihelic opposition of Mars. Minimum distance 36.4 million miles (58.6
24 Sep 1909 million km).
Friday Opposition of Mars. Minimum distance 48.1 million miles (77.3 million
25 Nov 1911 km).
Sunday The Martians land on Venus during its alignment with the sun and Mars.
31 August 1912
Thursday Mars in solar conjunction.
31 October 1912
April 1913 The narrator finishes writing his account of the War of the Worlds.

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