25-26 April - Safety test takes place at Chernobyl nuclear power plant, Ukraine.

Nothing is wrong.

26 April (1.38 a.m.) - An explosion destroys the fourth reactor.

Nobody here is in pain.

27 April (2.00 p.m.) - Evacuation of Pripyat begins.

What you wrote didn't break her heart.

28 April - Tass announces the accident to the world.

What she said didn't take you apart.

29 April - First news item is published in the Soviet press.

You weren't fighting with somebody you love.

1 May - May Day celebrations take place as planned in Kiev, Minsk, and other cities.

You aren't crying with somebody you love.

2 May - Politburo members Ryzhkov and Ligachev visit Chernobyl. A 30 kilometer zone around the reactor is designated for evacuation.

Soon everything will blow over.

10 May - The fourth reactor is "capped" with sand and boron, and leakages of radiation end.

Soon it will all be forgotten.

May-June - Military reservists brought to Chernobyl to lead the clean-up operation.

Pretend nothing ever happened.

August - The Soviet report on the causes of the accident is presented to the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna.

Pretend it's not still happening.

December - A concrete roof ("sarcophagus") is completed over the fourth reactor.

Pretend it's all okay.


The Chernobyl timeline was stolen blatantly from http://www.unu.edu/unupress/unupbooks/uu21le/uu21le0j.htm#chronology and I saw this node's title in somebody's .sig a long time ago. All of the usage and the words on the right are, however, mine.