Revision 86395666 of "Timeline of fictional future events" on enwiki

[[Science fiction]] and other related fields of [[fiction]] are often set in the future, or at least involve events in times that have not yet occurred. This list is a chronological collection of significant events from various works of such fiction. It includes some events that were set in the future when the fiction containing them was first written but which have now been overtaken by real [[history]], becoming a form of [[alternate history (fiction)|alternate history]] or [[failed prediction]] in the process.

It is rarely true that science fiction writers are seriously attempting prediction — the needs of the story are usually the primary concern, and science fiction stories are often more about the present in which they are written than the future in which they are supposedly set.

Nevertheless, below are some notable fictional visions of the-future-that-never-was-and-probably-won't-be. See also: [[Timeline of Star Trek]], [[Apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic science fiction]], [[Timeline of fictional historical events]], and [[Timeline of fictional contemporary events]].

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==[[19th century]]==
*[[1868]]
**A fantastic submarine boat, the [[Nautilus (Verne)|Nautilus]], commanded by [[Captain Nemo]], creates havoc amongst shipping in the South Seas - ''[[Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea]]'' by [[Jules Verne]], 1870
*[[1877]]
**A passing comet rips people, land & air off the earth. The small group takes refuge in a volcano on Comet Gallia. Calculating passing Saturn & a return to Earth in two years, the group begins to build a makeshift balloon and gondola - ''Off On a Comet'' by [[Jules Verne]]
*[[1880]]
**Prof Von Hardwigg & his party descend into an Icelandic mountain in search of missing explorer Arne Saknussem, & discover an unknown sea world with monsters - ''[[Journey to the Center of the Earth]]'' by Jules Verne, 1864 * (In the 1959 film, it's Prof Lindenbrook)
*[[1894]]
**The Time Traveller sets the levers on his machine in motion, for his journey to the future - HG Wells' novel, ''[[The Time Machine]]'', 1895 
*[[1900]]
**The ''Astronef'' stories by [[George Griffith]]

==[[20th century]]==
*[[1902]]
** In a gun-launched capsule, French astronomers take ''[[Le Voyage dans la Lune|A Trip to the Moon]]'' & escape from Selenites - [[Georges Melies]]' B&W fantasy, 1902
*[[1905]]
** Martian three-legged ' fighting machines ' invade southern England in ''[[The War of the Worlds (novel)|The War of the Worlds]]'' by [[H. G. Wells]] (written in [[1898]]).
*[[1910]]
** When the orbit of [[Comet Halley]] intersects with the [[Earth]], catastrophe ensues, but the comet gases cause an alteration of human psychology to a more rational thought-process - as revealed ''[[In the Days of the Comet]]'' by [[HG Wells]] (written in [[1906]]).
*[[1917]]
** [[March 5]] - British [[RFC]] Flt Lt Decker is lost over France - and flies through a white cloud - but returns unexpectedly, a changed man. [[The Twilight Zone]] episode ''The Last Flight''
** [[September 9]] - George, the Time Traveller, encounters his friend Filby, but it's actually Filby's now grown son James, who advises his father was lost in the [[Great War]] - George Pal's production ''[[The Time Machine]]'', 1960 
*[[1920]]
**Events of ''[[Pirates of 1920]]'', a film from [[1911]].
*[[1925]]
**The U.S. Postal Service faces air piracy from the Death Head Aerial Squadron. (''[[The Great Air Robbery]]'', a film from [[1920]])
*[[1932]]
**The Eternals change the course of human history to allow the creation of the [[Galactic Empire (Asimov)|Galactic Empire]]. (''[[The End of Eternity]]'' by [[Isaac Asimov]].)
*[[1939]]
**''Global Airlines 33'' leaves the [[Jurassic]] Age in its hope to return to 1961. Instead, the jet airliner is flying over the 1939 NY World's Fair. [[The Twilight Zone]] episode ''The Odyssey of Flight 33''
*[[1940]]
**At the home of Everytown resident John Cabal, his contemporaries discuss the prospect of war. But Cabal interjects ' If we don't end war, war will end us '. Then over the [[wireless]], reports announce that enemy bombers are approaching - HG Wells' ''[[Things to Come]]'' film, 1936
** [[June 10]] - Thinking he's having a problem with his machine, George halts his progress in time-travel & is stunned to witness ' flying machines ' battling above London - George Pal's production ''[[The Time Machine]]'', 1960
*[[1950]]
**Politicians & engineers battle themselves, deception, & nature in the quest to build an undersea tunnel from England to the US - ''[[Transatlantic Tunnel]]'', 1935
*[[1951]]
** An air force crew & scientists at Polar Expedition Six, the Arctic, discover a crashed saucer & fight for their lives against an 8-foot, plant-based, humanoid alien - ''[[The Thing From Another World]]''
** A saucer suddenly lands in a Wash DC field, and a humanoid visitor steps out, with a messsage for Humanity. He's preceded by a towering silver robot, whom the visitor calls Gort - ''[[The Day The Earth Stood Still]]'', based upon ''Harry Bates'' ' short story ''Farewell to the Master'', 1940

*[[1952]]
**The Battle of [[Trafalgar Square]] between the "[[police|civic bourgeois guard]]" and the workers triggers social reform in Great Britain (''[[News from Nowhere]]'', [[1890 in literature|1890]]).
**The US gov't adopts the designs of von Braun & Willy Ley, establishing the ''National Council of Astronautics'' & the ''US Space Force'' - ''[[Man Conquers Space]]'' 2006
*[[1955]]
**[[Nov 15]] - Doc Brown falls and hits his head on a toilet while trying to mount a wall clock; he then has a vision of the [[Flux Capacitor]], the device which makes time travel possible. - ''[[Back to the Future]]'' 1985
*[[1959]]
**British RFC flyer Decker emerges from a cloud to land his [[SPAD XIII]] at a modern USAF base in France, unprepared to encounter an old friend he'd deserted - [[The Twilight Zone]] episode ''The Last Flight''
*[[1960s]]
** [[Ingsoc]] comes to power and forms the state of Oceania ([[George Orwell]]'s ''[[Nineteen Eighty-Four]]'') (''approximate date'').
**Seeds of a semi-nuclear Little War begin to sprout; over decades, it will destroy Washington, DC and surrounding areas (novel version of ''[[Logan's Run]]'')
*[[1961]]
**Capt Farver & the NY-bound flight of ''Global Airlines 33'' find themselves drastically increasing speed in [[The Twilight Zone]] episode ''The Odyssey of Flight 33''
**The winged Saturn launch vehicle completes ''Wheel Space Station 1'', operational with a crew of 45. And, ''Eagle One'' lands on the moon July 1963, followed by ''Eagle Two'' and ''Eagle Three'' - ''[[Man Conquers Space]]'' 2006
*[[1964]]
**Trent, a man with a glass hand & no memories, is hunted by aliens from a thousand years in the future - Harlan Ellison's ''Demon with a Glass Hand'', episode of ''[[The Outer Limits]]''
*[[1966]]
**[[Aug 11]] - The Time Traveller encounters his old friend's son James again, now elderly, just prior to a [[nuclear explosion]] - [[George Pal]]'s production ''[[The Time Machine]]'', 1960.
**After three decades of global war, a great plague wipes out most of the people on Earth. (''[[Things to Come]]'')
*[[1967]]
**A computer malfunction sends a group of American nuclear bombers on an attack course toward Moscow. (The novel version of ''[[Fail-Safe]])''
*[[1969]]
**An extraterrestrial pathogen arrives as a sample in a scientific satellite, leading to a minor epidemic and nearly causing a massive epidemic ([[Michael Crichton|Michael Crichton's]] ''[[The Andromeda Strain]]'').
*[[1970s]]
**A possible setting of ''[[Doctor Who]]'''s "[[UNIT dating controversy|UNIT Era]]". It is also possible that it takes place during the 1980s.
*[[1970]]
**An older John Cabal, a member of the global 'Wings Over the World', lands his flying wing [[aeroplane]] in world-war torn Everytown. He advises that peace has arrived, but the town's head, 'The Boss', does not approve.  (''[[Things to Come]]'' film, 1936)
**Events of [[A for Andromeda]], British science fiction series broadcast in the early 1960s
*[[1972]]
**A crack commando unit serving in Vietnam is sent to prison for a crime they didn't commit. They promptly escaped from a maximum security stockade into the Los Angeles underground. During the height of their activities in the 1980's if you could find them you might be able to hire [[The A-Team]].
**February - Astronaut George Taylor and three other volunteers (John Landon, Dodge and Stewart) depart Earth from Cape Kennedy on a mission that will take them 2,000 years into the future. (''[[Planet of the Apes]]'')
**November - Some months after, another astronaut, John Christopher Brent, takes off from Earth in an attempt to find Taylor's ship. (''[[Beneath the Planet of the Apes]]'')
*[[1973]]
**Designed by Adm [[Harriman Nelson]] (USN-Ret), the nuclear supersub [[USOS Seaview]], with its transparent hull-plating 'window' nose section, undergoes radio silence & deep-diving trials in the [[Arctic Ocean]].
**April - Taylor's ship returns to Earth, carrying three sentient chimpanzees from the future: Zira, Cornelius and Milo. Zira is pregnant. After Zira delivers her baby, the president's science advisor, Dr. Otto Hasslein, kills them in an effort to prevent the apes from taking over the world and destroying it in the future. (''[[Escape from the Planet of the Apes]]'')
*[[1974]]
** ''[[Seven Days in May]]'': Attempted military coup against the President of the United States.
*[[1976]]
**August - Three NASA astronauts (Bill Hudson, Jeff Allen and Judy Franklin) disappear while on an interstellar mission. (according to the first ''[[Return to the Planet of the Apes]]'' animated series)
*[[1977]]
**Jess Hurch Society founded - ''[[The Muller-Fokker Effect]]''.
*[[1980s]]
**A possible setting of ''[[Doctor Who]]'''s "[[UNIT dating controversy|UNIT Era]]".
**A manmade superflu breaks out and kills 99.4 percent of the population of the planet (''[[The Stand]]'' by [[Stephen King]]).
*[[1980]]
**August - Three NASA astronauts (Alan Virdon, Peter Burke and Jonesy) disappear while on a long-range reconnaissance mission. (according to the first ''[[Planet of the Apes]]'' TV show)
*[[1981]]
**Kilgore Trout dies (''[[Breakfast of Champions]]'').
*[[1983]]
**A space virus reaches Earth and kills every dog and cat still living (''[[Conquest of the Planet of the Apes]]'').
*[[1984]]
**April - Winston Smith, a secretly rebellious file clerk in the Ministry of Truth, is arrested and tortured by [[Big Brother (1984)|Big Brother]] (''[[Nineteen Eighty-Four]]'' by [[George Orwell]] and its two film versions).
**The first T-800 series [[Terminator]] arrives, sent back in time by Skynet in an attempt to prevent the birth of resistance leader John Connor by killing his mother Sarah before he is even conceived. The John Connor of 2029 sends Kyle Reese back to defend Sarah from the Terminator. He knows that Reese, though doomed, will fall in love with his mother and is, in fact, his father (''[[The Terminator]]'').
**A mountain explodes, releasing [[The Transformers]] from a 4 million year sleep. The [[Autobots]] then wage their war to destroy the evil forces of the [[Decepticons]].
*[[1986]]
** [[March 25]] - An on-course NASA never embraces the shuttle program. Leaving from the orbiting Aries command module, the [[Challenger]] excursion module lands in Mangala Valley, Mars - ''[[Voyage]]'' by Stephen Baxter, 1997
**The planet [[Mondas (Doctor Who)|Mondas]] approaches Earth orbit with an invading force of [[Cyberman|Cybermen]], but they are stopped by the [[First Doctor|Doctor]] and his companions (''[[Doctor Who]]'': "[[The Tenth Planet]]").
*[[1987]]
**November: Civilization on Earth is devastated by a [[nuclear war]], cause unknown. (''[[Buck Rogers in the 25th Century (TV series)|Buck Rogers in the 25th Century]]'' television series)
**The events of [[Predator (film)|Predator]].
*[[1988]]
**A flying saucer carrying enslaved aliens ("Newcomers") crashlands in the Mojave desert. (''[[Alien Nation (film)|Alien Nation]]'' movie)
**A wall is built around Manhatten Island, creating the one maximum security penitentiary for the entire country. (''[[Escape From New York]]'')
**Britain is devastated by 210 megatons of [[nuclear weapons]]. (''[[Threads]]'') NOTE: year estimated from date tags used in the film.
*[[1990s]]
**Arrival of [[Tiberium]], rise of the [[Brotherhood of Nod]], formation of the [[Global Defense Initiative]], and the First Tiberium War. (''[[Command & Conquer: Tiberian Series]]'')
**199X: the events of the video game ''[[Earthbound]]''.
*[[1991]]
** Civil war between humans and enslaved apes on the West Coast of California (''[[Conquest of the Planet of the Apes]]'')
*[[1992]]
** [[January 12]] - [[HAL 9000]] becomes operational (''[[2001: A Space Odyssey (film)|2001: A Space Odyssey]] movie'')
**[[Khan Noonien Singh]] rises to power, assuming dictatorial control from South Asia to the Middle East. (''[[Star Trek]]'' episode "[[Space Seed]]")
**Events of ''[[Barnard's Planet]]''.
**Nuclear war ravages the West Coast of California (according to prologue of ''[[Battle for the Planet of the Apes]]'')
**The year in which the living energy structure called the Mandragora Helix will be in a position to attack [[Earth]] again, as predicted by the [[Fourth Doctor]] (''[[Doctor Who]]'': ''[[The Masque of Mandragora]]'').
*[[1993]]
** The [[Jurassic Park]] is constructed at [[Isla Nublar]].
** [[Rita Repulsa]] attacks Earth and a team known as the [[Power Rangers]] is formed to fight evil.
*[[1994]]
**The first British [[space station]], while under construction, narrowly avoids destruction by a [[Soviet Union|Soviet]] missile. (''[[The Outward Urge]]'')
**A runaway planet hurtles between the [[Earth]] and [[the Moon]], unleashing cosmic destruction. (''[[Thundarr the Barbarian]]'')
*[[1995]]
** Doctor Samuel Beckett steps into the [[Quantum Leap]] Accelerator and vanishes. (show ran from [[1987]] to [[1993]])
**[[Solid Snake]] disbands [[Outer Heaven]] and defeats his commander, [[Big Boss]]. (''[[Metal Gear (video game)|Metal Gear]]'')
**[[T-1000]] is sent by [[Skynet]] to kill [[John Connor]], and a reprogrammed [[T-800]] is also sent to protect him. John, [[Sarah Connor (fictional character)|Sarah Connor]] and T-800 blow up [[Cyberdyne Systems Corporation]] and destroy the remains of the "original" Terminator, supposedly preventing Judgment Day (''[[Terminator 2: Judgment Day]]''- supposed date, since John is 10 years old).
**[[October 13]]- The [[Harsh Realm]] military simulation program goes online
*[[1996]]
**The [[Eugenics Wars]] end. (''[[Star Trek]]'' episode [[Space Seed]])
**The ''New Order Nation'' take control of the U.S. and ban music. (''[[Revolution X]]'' video game)
**John Spartan and Simon Phoenix are frozen as Cryocons. ([[Demolition Man]])
**[[May 20]] - [[Pandemic]] kills 99.9% of all women. (''[[The White Plague]]'')
**[[June 6]] - Lucifer-Alpha, a biological weapon under development in the Chernoton Research Facility in [[Russia]], is released into the atmosphere, killing 80% of the Eurasian population. It takes ten years for the virus to mutate into a non-lethal form. (''[[Snatcher]]'')
**Todd, the main character of ''[[Soldier (film)|Soldier]]'', is born.
**A [[bioterrorism|bioterrorist]] releases a virus that kills six billion people; the few survivors are forced to live underground. ([[Twelve Monkeys]])
*[[1997]]
**Events of ''[[Escape from New York]]''.
**[[Los Angeles]] is terrorized by an alien hunter in [[Predator 2]].
**[[May]] - Under the guise of a school field trip, a group of Japanese junior-high school students are kidnapped and shipped to a deserted island.  The events of [[Battle Royale]] take place.
**[[August 4]] - [[Skynet]] goes online.
**[[August 29]] - Human civilization is destroyed by Skynet (''[[The Terminator]]''; ''[[Terminator 2: Judgment Day]]''. - ''[[Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines]]'', the first sequel released after 1997, claimed that the advent of Skynet had been delayed, but not prevented, by the events of the first two movies)
**[[October 1]] - The event setting in motion the storyline of the classic NES game ''[[Crystalis]]'' occurs: "The End Day. Savage war engulfs the world... civilization is destroyed. An evolution had taken place. The earth's axis shifted, and all creatures became mutated. Life would never be the same. Those surviving vowed not to repeat the mistakes of the past and erected a great tower in the sky to oppress evil forever..."
**[[October 16]] The Robinson family departs from earth aboard the ''Jupiter II'' space craft and becomes ''[[Lost In Space]]''.
**[[November 5]] - The first recorded appearance of the mysterious terrorist known as "Codename V" in Westminster, London. During the next year he launches a series of elaborate attacks against the [[fascism|fascist]] regime (which had ruled England since the [[nuclear war]] of [[1988]]), causing increasing confusion and instability, which ultimately brings the regime down (''[[V for Vendetta]]'' by [[Alan Moore]] and [[David Lloyd (comic artist)|David Lloyd]]).
**In the [[2001: A Space Odyssey (novel)|''2001'' book]] [[HAL 9000]] is activated.
*[[1998]]
** The Umbrella Corporation conducts experiments on the citizens of [[Raccoon City]] using the Tyrant Virus, or [[T-Virus]] for short, which is a mutagenic virus developed to create Bio-Organic Weapons, or BOWs for short. ([[Resident Evil]])
** Jedda Walker born (''[[Defenders of the Earth]]'')
*[[1999]]
** [[July 17]] - An alien spaceship falls through Earth's atmosphere, levelling part of [[Mount Everest]], destroying [[Moscow]] and [[Stockholm]] and causing much other damage before finally landing on South Ataria Island. (''[[The Super Dimension Fortress Macross]]'')
** [[September 13]] - [[Nuclear waste]] dumped on the [[Far side (Moon)|far side]] of the [[Moon]] explodes, sending the Moon hurtling into deep space carrying [[Moonbase Alpha]] along with it (''[[Space: 1999]]'')
**[[December 24]] - [[Solid Snake]] infiltrates [[Zanzibar Land]] and kills [[Big Boss]]. (''[[Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake]]'')
** [[Lavos]] awakens, destroying civilization and ushering in a new period of darkness and desperation for humanity. ([[Chrono Trigger]])
**[[December 31]] - The Earth is nearly pulled inside out when the renegade [[Time Lord]] known as [[Master (Doctor Who)|the Master]] opens the [[Eye of Harmony]] in the newly [[Doctor (Doctor Who)#Changing faces|regenerated]] [[Doctor (Doctor Who)|Doctor's]] [[TARDIS]] (''[[Doctor Who (1996)|Doctor Who]]'' television movie).
** The violent television [[game show]] [[Smash TV]] airs. (''[[Smash TV]]'')
** Astronauts discover an alien monolith on the moon (the prologue of the film ''[[2010: The Year We Make Contact]]).''
** Dr. Sam Beckett begins to [[time travel]] through his lifetime (''[[Quantum Leap]]'')
*199X
**All Year - The world is saved from the alien menace known as [[Giygas]] by 4 young children, led by [[Onett]] native, [[Ness]], with [[PSI]] powers and friendship. (''[[EarthBound]]'')
**Possible setting for [[