Then & Now: Science fiction

1898: H G Wells published 'War of the Worlds'. The narrator records the day of the heat-rays on Horsell Common:

'Suddenly there was a flash of light, and a quantity of luminous greenish smoke came out of the pit in three distinct puffs, which drove up, one after the other, straight into the still air . . .

'Forthwith flashes of actual flame, a bright glare leaping from one to another, sprang from the scattered group of men. It was as if some invisible jet impinged upon them and flashed into white flame. It was as if each man suddenly and momentarily turned to fire. Then by the light of their own destruction, I saw them staggering and falling, and their supporters turning to run.

'I stood staring, not as yet realising that this was death leaping from man to man in that little distant crowd. All I felt was that it was something strange . . .

'It was sweeping round swiftly and steadily, this invisible, inevitable sword of heat. I perceived it coming towards me by the flashing bushes it touched, and was too astounded and stupefied to stir . . . Then it was as if an invisible yet intensely heated finger was drawn through the heather between me and the Martians, and all along a curving line beyond the sand-pits the dark ground smoked and crackled.'

13 May 1993: Clinton administration kills off the 'Star Wars' project - Ronald Reagan's pounds 20bn Strategic Defence Initiative of a space-based protective shield of laser guns to protect America from Soviet missiles.