The 1960's saw many disasters and deaths of great men. America was involved in the Vietnam War and saw the deaths of John F. and Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King. Duckburg saw several disasters as well, as when the dike was blown up, and it saw the death of it's #1 citizen during more than six decades - $crooge McDuck.

Troubled Halloween


Illustration 8.1 - Chaotic Halloween in Duckburg.

In 1961 Duckburg suffered severe damages following a Halloween parade. It all begun when a committee made an attempt to change the way Halloween was celebrated in Duckburg by gathering the kids in the park in stead of have them go from door to door asking for candies. Unfortunately Donald Duck screwed it all up while searching for his nephews and all the other kids of Duckburg. By appear like a real flying witch using a Jet-broom recently invented by Gyro Gearloose, he scared the police horses. In order to catch the horses he dived towards the nearby zoo to get a rope, just ending up scaring all the animals in the zoo as well. In the following chaos Donald managed to escape before anyone could recognize him.

Hurricane at Cape Quack

Illustration 8.2 - Hurricane at Cape Quack.

Illustration 8.3 - Donald and the lights.

Illustration 8.4 - Record wave at Cape Quack.


Illustration 8.5 - The heroes of Duckburg.

Just before the Christmas of 1961 the worst hurricane in Duckburg's known history would have sunken the ship "Dauntless" that was bringing Duckburg's main Christmas tree from The Polar Gulf, if Donald Duck and his three nephews hadn't been at the old lighthouse at Cape Quack and lighted the old candles after a greedy bandit had broken its modern equipment in order to make it easier for him to buy ground at Cape Quack. After their brave efforts to save that ship Donald and HD&L became heroes in Duckburg.

The blown dike of Duckburg


Illustration 8.6 - Duckburg's dike being blown up!.

Dramatic incidents occurred during the Duckburg sea festival in 1964. Just before highlight of the very Dutch inspired festival, the "wooden shoe ball", Donald and Gladstone Gander both searched for Daisy in hope of being her dancing partner during the ball. While crossing the dike that protects Duckburg from the sea Donald discovered a little leak near the bottom of the dike. While Gladstone went for help Donald put a finger into the hole to plug it. Gladstone that still wanted to dance with Daisy however started to look for her instead and soon forgot about Donald. Donald soon learned that nobody seemed to care about him - even the mayor forgot to warn the dike watch about the threat towards the dike. Eventually Donald couldn't stand it anymore and looked for a substitute for his finger. Underneath a huge plastic sea monster, made for the festival, his eye for details discovered a suitable pin. While he grabbed it Donald saw that there was some kind of line connected to the pin that he had discovered. There was however no time for him to think more about that before putting the pin into the hole in the dike. Afterwards Donald ran to tell everybody about the leak. Unfortunately the pin Donald used to plug the hole was dynamite intended for blowing up the sea monster and when he finally reached the festival the mayor had already kindled the fuse. As a result a huge hole was blown in the dike and parts of Duckburg became flooded by sea water.

The machine that sent many duckburgians to the "Swamp of no return"


Illustration 8.7 - Duckburgians behaving odd after being hit by beams from the teaching machine.

In 1965 a local scientist in Duckburg, managed to create a machine that would give a person a skill just by hitting him/her by a beam. However when he gave a demonstration for Scrooge McDuck the machine still had a few problems like that any person hit by the beam would forget all about his/her old identity. Off course Scrooge saw the potentials of this machine and decided to finance then necessary improvements needed before the machine could be used. However the local Brutopian consul had listened to their conversation, and when the scientist returned home to himself he was robbed by the consul. Afterwards the consul used the machine to make many Duckburgians go to an area called "Swamp of no return". Other Duckburgians were hit by other beams and started to behave very odd. In the end Scrooge were hit by a beam that made him a master shooter. He then took aim and fired against the teaching machine in the consul's hand. After these incidents the scientist gave up his project because he believed that the world wasn't ready for it yet.

Trouble with giant robots


Illustration 8.8 - Robot Attack against McDuck's Money Bin.

In 1965 the Lackheed factory in Duckburg manufactured four man-driven giant robots, after instructions by the mayor of Duckburg and his staff. Even though the intentions were the best, the result became poor. The Beagle Boys managed to steal all the robots and used them to steal all of $crooge's money. Later on $crooge and his nephews managed to take over one robot by playing on 176-167s loving for prunes. At the end even the mayor had enough and the robots were finally destroyed. Eventually $crooge was asked to pay for all the damages because he was the only one with enough money to pay for it.

Other incidents with no known date




Illustration 8.9 - Thunderstorm against the Money Bin.
Illustration 8.10 - Meteorite fall against the Money Bin.

In the early and mid-sixties an Italian witch called Magica De Spell some times caused bad weather and other calamities in the area surrounding McDuck's Money Bin (the above incidents from 1963), in seek of his first dime. However her activities seldom harmed other Duckburgians.


Illustration 8.11 - The Billionaires Club in Duckburg, anno 1963.

Sometime after 1902 and before 1960 a local Billionaire's Club was founded in Duckburg. $crooge McDuck is one of it's members. This club is among other stories, known from The Status Seeker by Carl Barks.

Problems with continuity in "present-Duckburg" history:

While there are straight lines in the history of Duckburg until the 1940s, the situation is another for the period covered by chapters XI, XII and XIII. This is because this period is the "present" in most stories by creators as Carl Barks and Don Rosa. In most of these Duck-tales nobody actually remembers anything from one story to the next. What happens in one story does not necessarily have consequences for later stories. For instance Donald is often portrayed as a good for nothing, despite the fact that he has just as often been portrayed as being exceptionally good at unusual tasks (such as snake charming or rain making). Donald never has a penny even though he occasionally gets large sums of money (such as in the Barks classic "The Gilded Man" where he goes to British Guyana to seek a purple stamp). The reason for these "paradoxes" is what Don Rosa call the "limited continuity" (or Weisinger continuity after the famous editor of the Superman line of comic books for DC Comics Mort Weisinger) of the Duck Universe. He explain that term this way:

"With every story that I do, every story that is taking place in the present, the story takes place... then "time" winds back and that story is forgotten, as if it never occurred. I've had Donald discover at least one fabulous treasure ("The Crocodile Collector"), then be flat broke again in the next story. I have destroyed the Money Bin totally ("Cash Flow"), then referred to it afterwards as if it has stood untouched and intact for 50 years. I have done stories where Donald is the "world master" at some skill ("The Master Landscapist"), then a helpless boob again in the next tale. What I regard as "fixed" inviolate "history" is everything that has come before the "present". Everything that Barks ever said that $crooge did in Montana in 1882 or in Scotland in 1901. Naturally! Would I call those classic stories "lies"? Or "mistakes"? I grew up on that stuff."

According to this I have only referred to the most famous and most dramatic events in Duckburg during this period. The dating on these events is based on when those stories was created and first published.

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