History

2000: North and south Korea re-united.
2001: The pregeometry GUT of Pravin Varaiya unites quantum mechanics and relativity theory. The complex theory predicts antigravity and a whole host of new phenomena.
2003: Antigravity is first demonstrated at CERN. The Israeli shekel goes through the floor due to international currency speculations; this causes escalating unrest in Israel.
2004: The Israeli situation worsens, and different groups are pitted against each other by the economic crisis. The Israeli government declines international help despite the fact that it is loosing control over the situation. The fighting spills over into Jordan and Lebanon, and UN forces are sent in to prevent further spread. During the next decade the whole region remains a chaotic, low-level civil war with no clear divisions, causing a drain on UN resources and prestige. The surrounding nations strengthen their borders to prevent the unrest and refugees from spreading.
2005: The greenhouse effect is beginning to become obvious. French winemakers protest.
2009-10: The first manned expedition to Mars is undertaken by NASA. Widely regarded as a huge waste of money, but it produces important planetological data.
2010: Fusion is achieved using antigravity at Tsukuba University in Japan. China has become the world's largest industrial nation but is plagued by acute energy shortages and severe pollution.
2011: China and Japan initiates a program to build fusion reactors to solve their energy problems. Since the reactors need He3, they plan to mine the moon for it and begins to build an industrial space program.
2012: The year of the weather disasters: the Monsoon is disrupted, immense flooding in India and south-east Asia (causing refugee disasters in Bangladesh and India), severe hurricanes damage Florida and the Netherlands, drought in the Midwest and a general shift of climate.
2013: China and Japan opens their first joint space station and quickly moves on to build their moon base. The US and EU begin a competing project to achieve economical fusion power. The physicist Donald Guest at MIT postulates a way to achieve FTL using the GUT.
2015: The Asian moon base starts to deliver He3 to earth. Invasion of boat-refugees in northern Australia from Indonesia and India.
2016: The dustbowl spreads in the American Midwest. Microsoft markets the first AI program for personal use.
2017: The euro-american moon base is built. Saudi Arabia demonstrates the first antigravity propelled spacecraft, Staff of Raphael, and initiates a record breaking space program. The university of Riyadh becomes the world's leading center for antigravity engineering. Russia joins the EU through the treaty of Minsk.
2020: Several permanent space colonies, mostly involved in helium extraction and transport, biotechnological engineering (due to safety restrictions) and communication. Genetic engineering used more and more by Asian parents to have healthy and promising children.
2023: Manned expedition to the asteroid belt. Growing environmental problems mainly in the third world but also globally; the desertification of the Amazon basin appears impossible to stop despite international support, and the political instability in the region is growing. The DELTA-virus discovered in Indonesia.
2024: Biosphere III, the first ecologically self-sufficient habitat in space, built by EU-USA. Solar energy satellites are used more for space energy production and power distribution in some regions.
2025: Worldwide DELTA pandemic; modern communications makes the spread very fast. While the virus mainly kills in the third world, it hits the developed nations severely and strains the medical system. At least a hundred million people dies. The idea of space colonies as a way of limiting risks for similar disasters becomes fashionable, and many groups began to invest in space colonies. The start of the South American Anarchy; during the next decade most of the states in the region break down due to the ecological disasters, refugee problems and economic troubles.
2026: The Saudi probe Wave of Gabriel demonstrates FTL. The Guest-Asali drive is developed. Ecotechnology is becoming one of the larger fields of business on Earth.
2027: Hans Willmott produces the first macroscopic quantities of antimatter at the Dirac research laboratory at L5. A tactical nuclear weapon devastates Jerusalem.
2030: Antimatter propulsion developed independently by several research teams. The first working prototype is demonstrated in June 2030 by the Todai-group. Antimatter catalyzed fusion and fission becomes economically interesting. The habitat later renamed the Academy is built in geosynchronous orbit above Europe.
2031: The first antimatter accident: 10 persons killed when an antimatter production plant at L5 explodes.
2034: The first large scale antimatter manufacturing plant built in solar orbit by Look Outward Combine. It is soon followed by several others.
2035: Manned expeditions using antimatter-propelled ships to the various bodies of the solar system. Asteroid bases and habitats are being developed. The first experimental manned FTL flight Earth-Mars.
2036-2039: Autoevolving computer viruses emerge on the information networks, rendering most of the networks on Earth and around it unusable. This is the start of the Information Disaster; during the next 3 years over one billion people die due to hunger, accidents or epidemics on or around Earth as world economics and technology breaks down. The lunar bases, Lagrange habitats and asteroid bases are instrumental in the restoration.
2039: National boundaries practically irrelevant; cultural groupings and transnational organizations dominate. Most nations reduced to managing the local infrastructure except for some isolationist states outside the mainstream and regions in anarchy. Several space habitats de facto independent political entities. In a series of groundbreaking treaties the International Crisis Command is set up based on the global rescue organization evolved during the Disaster; it is intended to be activated during global crises which threaten the survival of humanity. The severe environmental problems after the Disaster causes large loss of arable land. Hydroponic or space farming becomes economical in many regions.
2040: The international probe SLIP (SuperLuminal Interstellar Probe) visits Alpha Centauri and returns after having found a terraformable planet, which is named Yi. The SLIP-series of probes are sent to the neighboring solar systems during the next 10 years. The central asian conflict, which began before the Information Disaster and has grown increasingly bitter, escalates as bioweapons are used against the Mongols. Strong international interventions occur, but the region remains unstable for the next 20 years, requiring international monitoring.
2041: Manned expedition to Alpha Centauri. A research station is set up on Yi and a soliton channel opened. A terrorist attack using antimatter against Beijing kills 230,000 people. Experimental terraforming of Mars initiated.
2042: After the Beijing-incident an international treaty of antimatter safety, control and supervision is developed and signed in New Pensylvania. Use of antimatter on planetary surfaces is forbidden, and the antimatter containment systems have to be approved by the International Antimatter Engineering Organisation (IAEO). Working nanotechnology demonstrated by Merkle Corporation (later re-named Nanotech Enterprises).
2043: Dauer-treatment against aging tested. The side effects makes it unpopular, but some individuals use it.
2045: Colonies moved to Yi and the terraforming begins; this marks the start of the expansion out from the solar system. The first wave consists of researchers, explorers and surveyors, later followed by colonists. Many people regard leaving Earth as desirable out of fear for disasters, epidemics and wars. The first projects are international projects supported by both Asia, the West and the Arab nations, but later efforts are more and more individual.
2046: Eden, Delta Pavonis II, discovered by the Arabian expedition Ibn Batuta and causes sensation. It is the first life-bearing planet discovered. A research base is quickly set up.
2047: The Raddison-treaty on non-contamination of alien biospheres is signed. All cross-contamination of existing biospheres is forbidden.
2049: The US begins the terraforming of New Frontier (Tau Ceti III) despite warnings from the International Planetographic Union.
2054: Inferno (Beta Hydri I) and Sierra (Zeta Tucanae III) are discovered by Arabian and American probes.
2055: Widespread riots in the old refugee camps in the American south (which has turned into a permanent slum). Senator Jonathan Hessligh initiates a program for re-localization of the refugees to New Frontier. The results are not very successful.
2057: Barnard's star emerges as a growing economical center for extraction of rare earth metals and antigravity engineering.
2058: The Australian government begins to subsidize space evacuation of citizens due to the environmental problems. A Mars base, New Canberra is set up.
2059: Ice (Alpha Mensae II) is discovered by an expedition from the International Planetographic Union. The colonization of Ishmael (DM+46 1797 V-III), a moon to the gas giant Abraham, begins. Advanced mining, habitat engineering and energy production makes Ishmael an important crossroad for colonization in the second and third octant.
2060: Colonies exist up to 20 light years away from the sun, and expeditions more than 30 light-years away. Methods for "quick-colonization" developed, millions of people move from the solar system to the colonies. The terraformed planets are starting to get livable. The neutron star RY-437 is discovered.
2064: Asian Co-Prosperity Sphere Foundation begins the terraforming of Sun Tzu (Sigma Draconis I).
2067: Storm (Beta Comae Berenices V) is discovered by arabians. A permanent research station named al-Chwarizimi is located to RY-437.
2068: An alien metric distortion detected at al-Chwarizimi. Signals are sent, but the alien ship leaves the system. Massive riots on New Frontier, the US Army is sent there to pacify the colony.
2069: Look Outwards Combine builds a helium-3 extraction facility on Beta Canum XIII. More than half of the Australian citizens live in space instead on Earth, mainly due to the severe environmental problems.
2070: The colony at Storm is attacked with antimatter weapons and destroyed, as well as al-Chwarizimi at RY-437. The start of the war against the Enemy. ICC, International Crisis Command is re-instated and begins to organize the defense of humanity.
2071: Counterattack towards the Xi Ursae Majoris-system, from which the Storm attack is believed to have emanated. The installations in the system are efficiently destroyed, but an ambush from hidden asteroid bases forces the fleet to retreat. At a new attack the Beta Canum XIII base is destroyed, while an attack on a mining project at 61 Ursae Majoris is repulsed with heavy civilian causalities.