Armageddon 2419 A.D.
1928 novella by Philip Francis Nowlan
Armageddon 2419 A.D. is a science fiction novella by Philip Francis Nowlan that first appeared in the August 1928 issue of the pulp magazine Amazing Stories. It was the first appearance of the character Buck Rogers. A sequel called The Airlords of Han was published in the March 1929 issue of Amazing Stories. Both stories are now in the public domain in the United States and the European Union. In the 1960s, Nowlan's two novellas were combined by editor Donald A. Wollheim into one paperback novel, titled Armageddon 2419 A.D.
Overview
Nowlan's novella tells about the United States in the 25th century, conquered by the "Hans" (Han Chinese, referencing the Huns) in 2109 and only now beginning to rebel. Sometime after World War I, nearly all the European powers joined forces against the United States. Although the US won the war, both sides were devastated by the conflict. Taking advantage of the chaos that followed, the "Russian Soviets" (Soviet Union) joined forces with the "Mongolians" to take over Europe. The U.S. collapsed economically and stagnated while the Han turned against the Russians and defeated them as part of their campaign of world conquest.
American efforts to avoid war with the Han failed, and in 2109, the latter attacked the US using fleets of airships armed with disintegrator rays.
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The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 8, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q676538. The first chronological checks are 1928 and 1929.
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This entry incorporates text from “Armageddon 2419 A.D.” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.