April 16, 1900 – The Martian occupation of Pittsburgh is broken by a combined army of partisans and remnants of US and CS formations led by William ‘Butcher Bill’ Kernan. Refugees in the mountains around the city had been fighting a guerrilla campaign against the Martians for nearly a year after several failed attempts by the US Army to stop the Martian advance led to the city being evacuated in early 1899. Large swaths of the city were destroyed in the fighting, including the famous ‘Blight’ on the north bank of the Monongahela, poisoned so thoroughly by Martian weaponry that vegetation cannot take root to this day. The day remains an important holiday in the Pittsburgh region, and is commemorated throughout the United Commonwealths of America.
Kernan, though a famed Martian fighter, would go down in infamy as a petty despot and warlord. He and his junta were captured and executed by the Western Pennsylvania Vigilance Committee in 1905.