Significant Dates

I have posted (see here) about the long shadow cast in life and fiction by World War II.  For the rest of our lifetimes, certain dates will have a single significance, e.g.:

"London, 1944."
-Poul Anderson, "Time Patrol" IN Anderson, Time Patrol (Riverdale, NY, 2010), pp. 1-53.

Having set the scene with those two words, Anderson elaborates:

"Somewhere came the crump of an explosion, and a fire was burning, great red banners flapping above the roofs." (ibid.)

"... - nobody was out when the V-bombs were falling -..." (ibid.)

John Grisham usually writes "present day" thrillers but his The Reckoning begins:

"On a cold morning in early October of 1946, Pete Banning awoke before sunrise..."
-John Grisham, The Reckoning (London, 2019), CHAPTER 1, p. 3.

We understand when we are told that Pete dresses slowly because of "...his war-wounded legs..." (ibid.)

The dates transcend the genres, encapsulating a common history.