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Billy's Birth
Billy was born in Ilium, New York and was an only child. He was tall and shaped almost like a Coca-Cola bottle. -
Family Trip to the Grand Canyon
Billy was twelve years old and afraid of the drop to the bottom of the Canyon. As soon as his mother touched his shoulder, he wet his pants from being so afraid. -
Sent to Luxembourg
During the Battle of the Bulge, Billy was assigned as the chaplains assistant after the last one was killed. He never met the chaplain and was never issued a helmet or boots. He was left as a wanderer behind German lines and tagged along with another group. -
Billy becomes unstuck in time
Billy first became unstuck in time while leaning up against a tree during the war. His experience of time traveling is described as, "his attention began to swing grandly through the full arc of life, passing into death, which was violet death." -
The Americans arrive at the POW camp
The American POW's were taken out of the boxcars by the guards and given coats to wear. The coats were taken from dead prisoners and had all frozen together. Billy's coat was a very small civilian coat and was deformed because it had frozen in the wrong shape. The group walked through many gates and made it to a delousing station where they stripped of their clothes. -
The Bombing of Dresden
About 130,000 people died from the firebombing in Dresden as Billy, the Americans, and their guards hid in a meat locker. The bombing destroyed Dresden and Billy saw "stockyards with all the fenceposts gone, with roofs and windows gone... people who had been caught in the fire storm." The buildings had collapsed; all the wood had burnt up and the stones were in heaps. -
Billy left the Army
Billy was honorably discharged from the Army and then enrolled again into the Ilium School of Optometry. -
Billy goes to the veterans hospital
In Lake Placid, New York, Billy went to a mental hospital for veterans. He met Eliot Rosewater who introduced him to science fiction and Kilgore Trout. -
Billy meets Kilgore Trout
Billy meets Kilgore Trout and Trout was surprised to meet a fan. He was now managing the delivering of the Ilium Gazette as his writing never became famous. Billy offers to help Trout deliver newspapers as he just saw one of the deliverers quit and they befriend each other. He then invited Trout to his wedding anniversary party. -
Taken by Tralfamadorians
On his daughters wedding night, Billy was abducted by Tralfamadorians. He knew that they were coming for him, so he went out into his back yard waiting for the flying saucer to come and pick him up. He was then put on display in the Tralfamadore zoo where he explained life as a human and free will. The Tralfamadorians didn't understand the concept of free will as they believe everything is structured. -
Plane crash
On his way to a convention in Montreal with 28 other Optometrists, the plane crashed into the side of Sugarbush Mountain. The only people who lived were Billy and the Co-Pilot. When Valencia heard about the plane crash, she died when she arrived at the hospital from carbon monoxide poisoning after getting into a car crash. -
Billy's Death
Billy was in Chicago giving a speech to a crowd about the true nature of time and knew that he was going to die. He informed the crowd that he would die within the hour and told them not to worry, it was destined to be. After he left the stage, he told the guards to go home to their families and then he was shot by someone sent by Lazzaro to avenge Weary.
