# Timeline of science fiction

This is a timeline of science fiction as a literary tradition. While the date of the start of science fiction is debated, this list includes a range of ancient, medieval, and Renaissance-era precursors and proto-science fiction as well, as long as these examples include typical science fiction themes and topoi such as travel to outer space and encounter with alien life-forms.

## 2nd century

| Year | Event | Historical events |
| | A True Story was written by Lucian of Samosata, contains a number of SF elements, like travel in space, alien life forms, interplanetary colonization and war, artificial atmosphere, telescopes, and artificial life forms. | 106–117: Roman Empire at largest extent under Emperor Trajan after having conquered modern-day Romania, Iraq and Armenia. 126: Hadrian completes the Pantheon in Rome. 161: Marcus Aurelius becomes emperor of the Roman Empire. He is often ranked by historians as one of the greatest Roman emperors. 180–181: Commodus becomes Roman Emperor. |

## 10th century

| Year | Event | Historical events |
| | One Thousand and One Nights has several proto-science fiction stories. One example is "The Adventures of Bulukiya", where the protagonist Bulukiya travels across the cosmos to different worlds much larger than his own world. In "Abu al-Husn and His Slave-Girl Tawaddud", the heroine Tawaddud tells of the mansions of the Moon, and the benevolent and sinister aspects of the planets. | 962: Otto the Great crowned the Holy Roman Emperor; he was the first to be crowned Holy Roman Emperor in nearly 40 years. 987: Succession of Hugh Capet to the French Throne and the beginning of Capetian dynasty. 989: Peace and Truce of God formed, the first movement of the Catholic Church using spiritual means to limit private war, and the first movement in medieval Europe to control society through non-violent means. |
| | The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter is considered proto-science fiction. In the story, an old man finds a beautiful baby girl. When she grew to be a young woman, she told her adoptive parents she was not of this world and must return to her people on the Moon. | 907: Tang dynasty ends with Emperor Ai deposed and the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period in China commences. 936: Wang Geon unified Later Three Kingdoms of Korea. 938: Ngô Quyền won the battle of Bach Dang against Chinese Southern Han army; this event marked the independence of Vietnam after 1000 years under Chinese rule. |

## 13th century

| Year | Event | Historical events |
| c. 1270 | Ibn al-Nafis publishes Theologus Autodidactus. The story about an autodidactic adolescent feral child incorporates science fiction elements when it depicts an apocalypse. | 1204: Sack of Constantinople during the Fourth Crusade, which is considered to be the beginning of the decline of the Byzantine Empire. 1209: The University of Cambridge is founded. 1212: Spanish Christians succeed in defeating the Moors in the long Reconquista campaigns, after the Battle of Las Navas de Tolosa. 1215: Magna Carta is sealed by John of England, making it one of the first times a medieval ruler is forced to accept limits on his power. 1274: Thomas Aquinas' work, Summa Theologica is published, after his death. Is the main staple of theology during the Middle Ages. |

## 15th century

| Year | Event | Historical events |
| 1420 | An anonymous French account of the exploits of Alexander the Great, Vraye ystoire du bon roy Alixandre (The True History of the Good King Alexander) has fanciful stories about him going underwater in a submarine and being carried aloft in a cage, carried by huge Griffins. | Some 15th century writers imitated the 14th century author Geoffrey Chaucer (1340 -1400), such as John Lydgate and Thomas Hoccleve. Notable poets include Stephen Hawes, Alexander Barclay, William Dunbar, Robert Henryson, and Gawin Douglas. John Skelton wrote ironic and satirical works which blended Medieval and Renaissance styles. |

## 16th century

| Year | Event | Historical events |
| 1516 | Thomas More publishes Utopia. | |

## 17th century

| | Event | Historical events |
| 1619 | Johann Valentin Andreae publishes Christianopolis. | Dutch East India Company, English East India Company, and Sultanate of Banten all fighting over port city of Jayakarta, which ends up leveled. |
| 1623 | Tommaso Campanella publishes The City of the Sun. | 1620: The Brownist Pilgrims arrive in the Mayflower at Cape Cod. 1626: St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican completed. |
| 1627 | Francis Bacon publishes New Atlantis. | 1632: Taj Mahal building work started in Agra, India. 1633: Galileo Galilei arrives in Rome for his trial before the Inquisition. 1633–1639: Japan transforms into "locked country". |
| 1634 | Johannes Kepler publishes A Dream. | 1634: Battle of Nördlingen results in Catholic victory. 1636: Harvard University is founded in Cambridge, Massachusetts. |
| 1638 | Francis Godwin publishes The Man in the Moone. | 1643: Louis XIV is crowned King of France. He reigned over the Kingdom of France until his death in 1715, making his reign the longest of any monarch in history at 72 years and 110 days. 1649: King Charles I is executed for High treason, the first and only English king to be subjected to legal proceedings in a High Court of Justice and put to death. |
| 1656 | Athanasius Kircher publishes Itinerarium Exstaticum (Ecstatic Journey). |
| 1657 | Savinien de Cyrano de Bergerac's Histoire Comique par Monsieur de Cyrano Bergerac, Contenant les Estats et Empires de la Lune (Cyrano Bergerac's Comical History, containing the States & Empires of the Moon) is published posthumously. | 1658: After his father Shah Jahan completes the Taj Mahal, his son Aurangzeb deposes him as ruler of the Mughal Empire. |
| 1666 | Margaret Cavendish publishes The Blazing World. | 1663: Robert Hooke discovers cells using a microscope. |
| 1686 | Bernard de Fontenelle publishes Discussion of the Plurality of Worlds. | 1687: Isaac Newton publishes Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica. |

## 18th century

| Year | Event | Historical events |
| 1726 | Jonathan Swift publishes Gulliver's Travels or Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World. In Four Parts. By Lemuel Gulliver, First a Surgeon, and then a Captain of Several Ships |
| 1733 | Samuel Madden publishes Memoirs of the Twentieth Century | 1735–1739: Russo-Turkish War. 1738: Pope Clement XII issues In eminenti apostolatus, prohibiting Catholics from becoming Freemasons. 1739: Nader Shah defeats the Mughals at the Battle of Karnal and sacks Delhi. |
| 1741 | Ludvig Holberg publishes Niels Klim's Underground Travels. | 1740: Frederick the Great comes to power in Prussia. 1740–1741: Famine in Ireland kills ten percent of the population. 1744: The French attempt to restart the Jacobite rebellion fails. 1748: The Treaty of Aix-La-Chapelle ends the War of the Austrian Succession and First Carnatic War. |
| 1752 | Voltaire publishes Micromégas. | 1750: Peak of the Little Ice Age. 1754–1763: The French and Indian War, the North American chapter of the Seven Years' War, is fought in colonial North America, mostly by the French and their allies against the English and their allies. 1756–1763: The Seven Years' War is fought among European powers in various theaters around the world. 1759: French and Indian War: French commander Louis-Joseph de Montcalm and British commander James Wolfe die during the Battle of the Plains of Abraham. |
| 1759 | Voltaire publishes Candide. Samuel Johnson publishes The History of Rasselas, Prince of Abissinia. | |
| 1765 | Marie-Anne de Roumier-Robert publishes Voyage de Milord Céton dans les Sept Planètes (Journeys of Lord Seton in Seven Planets). | 1760: George III becomes King of Britain. 1761: Marine chronometer invented. 1762–1796: Reign of Catherine the Great of Russia. 1763: The Treaty of Paris ends the Seven Years' War and Third Carnatic War. 1765: The Stamp Act is introduced into the American colonies by the British Parliament. 1769–1770: James Cook explores and maps New Zealand and Australia. 1769–1773: The Bengal famine of 1770 kills one-third of the Bengal population. |
| 1771 | Louis-Sébastien Mercier publishes The Year 2440. | 1771: Richard Arkwright and his partners build the world's first water-powered mill at Cromford. 1775–1783: American Revolutionary War. 1776: The United States Declaration of Independence is adopted by the Continental Congress in Philadelphia. 1778: James Cook becomes the first European to land on the Hawaiian Islands. |
| 1780 | The Passage from the North to the South Pole is published anonymously in France. | 1783: Montgolfier brothers invent hot air balloon. 1785–1795: The Northwest Indian War is fought between the United States and Native Americans. 1787: The United States Constitution is written in Philadelphia and submitted to the states for ratification. 1789: George Washington is elected the first President of the United States; he serves until 1797. 1789: Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen 1789–1799: French Revolution. |

## 19th century

| Year | Event | Historical events |
| 1805 | Jean-Baptiste Cousin de Grainville publishes The Last Man. | Napoleon becomes First Consul of France in 1800 and then Emperor of France in 1804. 1801: Giuseppe Piazzi discovers the dwarf planet Ceres. – Italy 1801: Thomas Jefferson elected President of the United States by the House of Representatives, following a tie in the Electoral College – United States 1804: World population reaches 1 billion. 1804: First steam locomotive begins operation. 1805: The Battle of Trafalgar eliminates the French and Spanish naval fleets and allows for British dominance of the seas, a major factor for the success of the British Empire later in the century. |
| 1814 | E. T. A. Hoffmann publishes The Automata | |
| 1818 | Mary Shelley publishes Frankenstein. | Jane Austen dies in 1817. Napoleon is defeated at Waterloo in 1815. United States buys Florida from Spain in 1819. |
| 1826 | Mary Shelley publishes The Last Man. | Charles Babbage develops the concept of the difference engine, the world's first computer in 1822. |
| 1827 | Jane Webb Loudon publishes The Mummy!. | |
| 1835 | Edgar Allan Poe publishes The Unparalleled Adventure of One Hans Pfaall. | |
| 1839 | Edgar Allan Poe publishes the short story "The Conversation of Eiros and Charmion". | |
| 1844 | Nathaniel Hawthorne publishes Rappaccini's Daughter. | |
| 1848 | Edgar Allan Poe publishes Eureka: A Prose Poem. | The Revolutions of 1848 occur. |
| 1851 | Jules Verne publishes A Voyage in a Balloon. | Great Exhibition held in London. Louis-Napoleon comes to power in France. |
| 1855 | Herman Melville publishes The Bell-Tower. | |
| 1858 | Fitz James O'Brien publishes The Diamond Lens. | |
| 1859 | Fritz James O'Brien publishes What Was It? A Mystery. Hermann Lang publishes The Air Battle: a Vision of the Future. | |
| 1864 | Camille Flammarion publishes Real and Imaginary Worlds | |
| 1865 | Jules Verne publishes From the Earth to the Moon. | American Civil War is fought from 1861 to 1865. It introduces mechanized warfare and ironclad ships to battle. |
| 1868 | Edward S. Ellis publishes The Steam Man of the Prairies, the first SF dime novel. | |
| 1870 | Jules Verne publishes Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas. | |
| 1871 | George T. Chesney publishes the novella The Battle of Dorking. Edward Bulwer-Lytton publishes The Coming Race. | |
| 1872 | Samuel Butler publishes Erewhon | |
| 1874 | Jules Verne publishes The Mysterious Island in serial form from 1874 to 1875. | |
| 1886 | Robert Louis Stevenson publishes Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde | |
| 1887 | Camille Flammarion publishes Lumen. W. H. Hudson publishes A Crystal Age. | |
| 1888 | Edward Bellamy publishes Looking Backward, 2000-1887 in January. H.G. Wells publishes The Chronic Argonauts in serial form in April, May, and June. | |
| 1889 | Mark Twain publishes A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court. Camille Flammarion publishes Uranie. | |
| 1890 | William Morris publishes News from Nowhere. | |
| 1893 | Ambrose Bierce publishes The Damned Thing. | |
| 1894 | Camille Flammarion publishes Omega: The Last Days of the World. John Jacob Astor IV publishes A Journey in Other Worlds. | |
| 1895 | H. G. Wells publishes The Time Machine. J.-H. Rosny aîné publishes Un Autre Monde ("Another World"). | The Lumière Brothers show the first motion films in 1895. |
| 1896 | H. G. Wells publishes The Island of Doctor Moreau. | |
| 1897 | H.G. Wells publishes The Invisible Man. Kurd Lasswitz publishes On Two Planets. | |
| 1898 | H. G. Wells publishes The War of the Worlds. | |
| 1899 | H. G. Wells publishes When the Sleeper Wakes (Title changed to The Sleeper Awakes in 1910.) Ambrose Bierce publishes Moxon's Master. | |

## 1900s

| Year | Event | Historical events |
| 1900 | L. Frank Baum publishes The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. | The British Empire engages in the Boer War. The 16th World Exhibition takes place in Paris. Art Nouveau challenges Jugendstil. |
| 1901 | H. G. Wells publishes The First Men in the Moon. M. P. Shiel publishes The Purple Cloud. | |
| 1902 | Georges Méliès shows the film A Trip to the Moon (Le Voyage dans la Lune). | |
| 1903 | H.G. Wells publishes The Land Ironclads. | The Wright brothers usher in the era of heavier than air flight with their successful flight of Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. |
| 1905 | Rudyard Kipling publishes the short story "With the Night Mail". | Albert Einstein postulates the light quantum, proves that atoms exist, and publishes on the Special Theory of Relativity. |
| 1907 | Jack London publishes The Iron Heel. William James publishes Pragmatism. Robert Hugh Benson publishes Lord of the World, one of the first works of dystopian fiction. | The first helicopter, designed by Paul Cornu, flies for 20 seconds. Leo Baekeland invents Bakelite, the first commercially produced plastic. |
| 1909 | E. M. Forster publishes the novella The Machine Stops. Filippo Tommaso Marinetti founds the Futurist Movement with the publication of Il Manifesto del Futurismo (Futurist Manifesto). James William Barlow publishes the book The Immortals' Great Quest. Translated from an Unpublished Manuscript in the Library of a Continental University (i.e. written by) by James William Barlow. London: Smith, Elder & Co. Ezra Pound publishes Evolutions. | Henry Ford produces the Model T. |

## 1910s

| Year | Event | Historical events |
| 1910 | Thomas Edison's film company produces the first film adaptation of Frankenstein. | Marie Curie publishes Treatise on Radiography. Mark Twain dies. Florence Nightingale dies. Manet and the Post-Impressionists opens at the Grafton Galleries in London. |
| 1911 | Hugo Gernsback publishes Ralph 124C 41+ in serial form in Modern Electrics. F. W. Mader publishes Wunderwelten in which a crew of young astronauts travels to Alpha Centauri at faster-than-light speeds. | |
| 1912 | J. D. Beresford publishes The Hampdenshire Wonder. Garrett P. Serviss publishes The Second Deluge. Edgar Rice Burroughs publishes the novella Under the Moons of Mars. Arthur Conan Doyle publishes The Lost World, which gives the name to the Lost World subgenre of science fiction. Ironically, it is also one of the last Lost World novels to be published. Frederic Pujulà i Vallès publishes Homes Artificials (Artificial Men), considered the first science fiction novel in Catalan. | John Jacob Astor, Jacques Futrelle, and W. T. Stead, all early science fiction authors, die in the sinking of the Titanic. |
| 1913 | Bernhard Kellermann publishes Der Tunnel (The Tunnel) in which a transatlantic tunnel is built, tying North America and Europe together. Hugo Gernsback ceases publication of Modern Electrics. He then founds Electrical Experimenter. Paul Scheerbart publishes Lesabendio, ein Asteroidenroman (Lesabendio, An Asteroid Novel). | |
| 1914 | George Allan England publishes Darkness and Dawn. H. G. Wells publishes The World Set Free. | Archduke Franz Ferdinand is assassinated in Sarajevo. |
| 1915 | Charlotte Perkins Gilman publishes Herland. Jack London publishes The Scarlet Plague. Guy Thorne predicts armored tanks in his novel The Cruiser on Wheels. | The Lusitania is sunk. Albert Einstein publishes General Theory of Relativity. Germany develops poison gas weapons. Zeppelins begin flying. |
| 1916 | Gustav Meyrink publishes The Green Face in Austria. The film Homunculus depicts an artificial being devoid of a motivating spirit. Otto Witt launches Hugin, widely considered the first true science fiction magazine. | Tanks make their first appearance in World War I. |
| 1917 | Victor Rousseau Emanuel publishes The Messiah of the Cylinder. The movie Himmelskibet (The Airship) is produced during the middle of World War I. | T. S. Eliot publishes Prufrock and Other Observations. The United States enters World War I. Vladimir Lenin leads the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia. |
| 1918 | Abraham Merritt publishes the novella The Moon Pool. Alraune is produced as a film twice in 1918. One is made in Hungary by Michael Curtiz. William Hope Hodgson is killed in World War I. | Lytton Strachey publishes Eminent Victorians. British women get the vote. The United States Postal Service begins airmail service between Washington, D.C. and New York. |
| 1919 | City of Endless Night by Milo Hastings is serialized in True Story magazine. H.P. Lovecraft publishes Dagon, the first of Lovecraft's stories to introduce a Cthulhu Mythos element—the sea deity Dagon itself. | The atom is split for the first time by Ernest Rutherford. |

## 1920s

| Year | Event | Historical events |
| 1920 | Karel Čapek publishes R.U.R.: A Fantastic Melodrama. W. E. B. Du Bois publishes the short story "The Comet". David Lindsay publishes A Voyage to Arcturus. The film Der Golem is released. Argosy and All-Story Weekly combine and become Argosy All-Story Weekly. | |
| 1921 | Homer Eon Flint and Austin Hall publish "The Blind Spot" in Argosy All-Story Weekly. J. D. Beresford publishes Revolution. | |
| 1922 | Alexei Tolstoy publishes Aelita. | T. S. Eliot publishes The Waste Land. Sinclair Lewis publishes Babbitt. Mahatma Gandhi goes to jail. Benito Mussolini comes to power in Italy. |
| 1923 | E. V. Odle publishes The Clockwork Man. P. Anderson Graham publishes The Collapse of Homo Sapiens. Ronald Knox publishes Memories of the Future. H. G. Wells publishes Men Like Gods. Hugo Gernsback dedicates an entire issue of the journal Science and Invention to science fiction. This leads directly to the publication of Amazing Stories. | The United States continues its policy of isolationism. Inflation explodes in Germany. Mustafa Kemal is elected President of Turkey. |
| 1924 | Yevgeny Zamyatin publishes We. | |
| 1925 | Hugo Gernsback publishes Ralph 124C 41+ as a monograph. | The New Yorker begins publication. Electrical recordings become a reality. Kodak develops 16mm film stock. John Logie Baird develops the technology to transmit images by television. Adolf Hitler publishes Mein Kampf. Sergei Eisenstein releases the silent film Battleship Potemkin. The Irish Civil War ends. |
| 1926 | Hugo Gernsback launches Amazing Stories. Robert M. Coates publishes The Eater of Darkness. Guy Dent publishes Emperor of the If. Thea von Harbou serializes the screenplay of the silent film Metropolis directed by her husband, Fritz Lang. Edgar Rice Burroughs publishes The Moon Maid. Charlotte Haldane publishes Man's World. Reginald Glossup publishes The Orphan of Space. | A. A. Milne publishes Winnie-the-Pooh. Robert H. Goddard successfully launches a liquid-fuel rocket in the United States. Leon Trotsky is ejected from the Politburo. Rudolph Valentino dies. |
| 1927 | Fritz Lang releases his ground-breaking classic Metropolis. John Taine publishes Quayle's Invention and The Gold Tooth. | |
| 1928 | E. E. Smith publishes The Skylark of Space. Victor Gollancz founds Victor Gollancz Ltd, which publishes science fiction from its very first year onward. H. P. Lovecraft publishes The Call of Cthulhu in the pulp magazine Weird Tales. | Joseph Stalin comes to power in the Soviet Union. Walt Disney releases the first Mickey Mouse cartoon. |
| 1929 | Buck Rogers in the 25th Century begins publication as a comic strip. Hugo Gernsback coins the term science fiction. Kay Burdekin publishes The Rebel Passion. Jack Williamson publishes The Girl from Mars. S. Fowler Wright publishes The World Below. Fritz Lang releases the realistic-looking film The Woman in the Moon. | William Faulkner publishes The Sound and the Fury. The Wall Street Crash occurs. The Graf Zeppelin circumnavigates the globe. |

## 1930s

| Year | Event | Historical events |
| 1930 | Olaf Stapledon publishes Last and First Men. The F. E. Smith, 1st Earl of Birkenhead publishes The World in 2030. John Taine publishes The Iron Star. Astounding Science-Fiction begins publication. The film Just Imagine is released; it is badly received and slows the advance of science fiction as a film genre. Science Wonder Stories and Air Wonder Stories merge to become Wonder Stories magazine. Astounding Stories of Super Science begins publication. | The National Socialist Party comes to power in Germany. Mahatma Gandhi marches across India in protest against the Salt Tax. |
| 1931 | James Whale releases his classic film adaptation of Frankenstein. Science and Invention ceases publication. Astounding Stories of Super Science changes its title to Astounding Stories. | |
| 1932 | Aldous Huxley publishes Brave New World. Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is made into a film. | Adolf Hitler is defeated in presidential elections in Germany but holds onto a majority in the Reichstag. Unemployment riots break out in England. Franklin D. Roosevelt wins an overwhelming majority in the United States presidential elections. |
| 1933 | John Collier publishes the post-holocaust novel Tom's A-Cold (published as Full Circle in the United States). James Whale directs the film version of The Invisible Man by H. G. Wells. Street and Smith purchase Astounding Stories and retool its editorial policy which raises its prominence in the field of science fiction. | Adolf Hitler becomes Chancellor of Germany. The Hitler Youth is formed in Germany. Germany and Japan withdraw from the League of Nations. |
| 1934 | Murray Leinster publishes the short story "Sidewise in Time". Stanley G. Weinbaum publishes the short story "A Martian Odyssey". The Skylark series by E. E. Smith ends with the publication of Skylark of Valeron. E. E. Smith begins publication of his Lensman series with "Triplanetary" which is serialized in Amazing magazine. Jack Williamson begins publication of his Legion of Space series. Flash Gordon, a comic strip about a space opera adventure first published January 7, 1934. | |
| 1935 | Olaf Stapledon publishes Odd John. Joseph O'Neill publishes Land under England, a Lost World novel that provides the backdrop for a sharp political satire. Maurice Renard's Le mains d'Orlac (The Hands of Orlac) is made into the film Mad Love. | Porgy and Bess by Ira Gershwin opens. Germany strips its Jewish citizens of their citizenship. The Dust Bowl strikes the middle of North America. |
| 1936 | Things to Come, directed by William Cameron Menzies, is released. Paul Gurk publishes Tuzub 37. Karel Čapek publishes Valka s mloky (War with the Newts). Flash Gordon appears on film for the first time. Wonder Stories is sold off and is recast as Thrilling Wonder Stories taking a definite turn towards stories and images of monsters and adventures. | |
| 1937 | Flash Gordon appears in the first book version of the series in Flash Gordon in the Caverns of Mongo. John W. Campbell Jr. becomes editor of Astounding Stories; he promptly changes the title to Astounding Science Fiction. | George Orwell publishes The Road to Wigan Pier. The Spanish Civil War erupts. Germany aligns with Benito Mussolini. Germany occupies the Rhineland. |
| 1938 | John W. Campbell Jr., writing under the pseudonym "Don A. Stuart", writes the novella Who Goes There?. C. S. Lewis publishes Out of the Silent Planet. Orson Welles dramatises H.G. Wells' War of the Worlds on the radio and causes alleged widespread panic. | Germany annexes Austria. Germany occupies the Sudetenland. |
| 1939 | A. E. van Vogt publishes Black Destroyer. Stanley G. Weinbaum publishes The New Adam. Startling Stories is launched. | The Alice in Wonderland series by Lewis Carroll is parodied in Adolf in Blunderland. Hitler annexes the rest of Czechoslovakia. Hitler invades Poland. France and Britain declare war on Germany. |

## 1940s

| Year | Event | Historical events |
| 1940 | Robert A. Heinlein publishes the short story "The Roads Must Roll". Robert A. Heinlein publishes the short story "If This Goes On—". A. E. van Vogt publishes Slan as a serial; it is later published as a monographic volume in 1946. Fred Allhoff publishes Lightning in the Night, which served as a warning of what might happen if Hitler won World War II. | Paris falls to the German army. Leon Trotsky is assassinated in Mexico by Soviet agents. Walt Disney makes Fantasia. |
| 1941 | Isaac Asimov publishes the short story "Nightfall". L. Sprague de Camp publishes Lest Darkness Fall. Robert A. Heinlein publishes the short story "Universe". Theodore Sturgeon publishes the short story "Microcosmic God". Phil Stong publishes the first major anthology of science fiction short stories. Science fiction publishing nearly ceases in England due to severe shortages of paper. John W. Campbell Jr. shuts down Unknown to preserve paper so as to keep Astounding Science Fiction in print. | The United States enters World War II after Japan bombs Pearl Harbor. Russia enters World War II after Germany invades its Western border. |
| 1942 | Isaac Asimov begins publishing the short stories that later were compiled into his seminal work Foundation. Robert A. Heinlein writes Beyond This Horizon then ceases writing science fiction to focus on war-related work. L. Sprague de Camp and Fletcher Pratt publish Land of Unreason. Vita Sackville-West publishes Grand Canyon. Austin Tappan Wright publishes Islandia (novel). Peter Vansittart publishes I am the World. | The Holocaust accelerates with the opening of extermination camps at Belzec, Sobibor, and Treblinka. |
| 1943 | The Gremlins is written by Roald Dahl for Walt Disney Productions. Batman (serial) is released by Columbia Pictures as a 15 episode serial. | Heavily armed German forces occupy the Warsaw Ghetto. |
| 1944 | C. L. Moore publishes the short story "No Woman Born". Clifford Simak begins publishing City in serial format in Astounding Science Fiction. Aldous Huxley publishes Time Must Have a Stop. Olaf Stapledon publishes Sirius. Philip Wylie publishes Night Unto Night. | Adolf Hitler unleashes the V-2 rocket on London in September 1944. |
| 1945 | Murray Leinster publishes the novella First Contact. A. E. van Vogt publishes The World of Null-A as a serial in Astounding Science Fiction and later as a book in 1948. C. S. Lewis publishes That Hideous Strength. | George Orwell publishes Animal Farm (novel). The dropping of Atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki end World War II and usher in the Atomic Age. |
| 1946 | The Best of Science Fiction anthology, edited by Groff Conklin, is published. A. E. van Vogt publishes Slan in book format. E. E. Smith publishes The Skylark of Space in book format. McComas and Healy publish Adventures in Time and Space, an anthology of short stories considered seminal in the genre. Pat Frank publishes Mr. Adam. New Worlds begins publication in England. | ENIAC, the world's first electronic computer, is built. |
| 1947 | Robert A. Heinlein publishes Rocket Ship Galileo. Gnome Press becomes the most successful small press to publish science fiction content. J. O. Bailey publishes Pilgrims in Space and Time, the first academic analysis of science fiction. Fantasy Fiction, a short-lived science fiction magazine, begins publication. Despite its short run, it publishes the works of established writers Isaac Asimov, A. E. van Vogt, and Murray Leinster, as well as the first published story by Cordwainer Smith, "Scanners Live in Vain", who had not been able to get published in more established SF magazines. | Cold War begins with the proclamation of the Truman Doctrine. |
| 1948 | Judith Merril publishes the short story "That Only a Mother". Founded in 1947, Shasta Publishers is publishing works by major SF authors by 1948, including Robert A. Heinlein, L. Sprague de Camp, and Alfred Bester. Shasta rejects L. Ron Hubbard's first Dianetics volume. Astounding Science Fiction publishes Dianetics after it is rejected by Shasta Publishers. | The British exit from Palestine leads to the founding of modern state of Israel and the First Arab-Israeli War. |
| 1949 | Everett Bleiler and T. E. Dikty edit and publish The Best Science Fiction Stories. George Orwell publishes Nineteen Eighty-Four. H. Beam Piper publishes the short story "He Walked Around the Horses". George R. Stewart publishes Earth Abides. Jack Vance publishes the short story "The King of Thieves". The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction begins publication. | Mao Zedong seizes control of China. South Africa adopts apartheid. Albert Einstein publishes Generalized Theory of Gravitation. Carol Reed directs the British film noir movie The Third Man. |

## 1950s

| Year | Event | Historical events |
| 1950 | Isaac Asimov publishes I, Robot. Ray Bradbury publishes The Martian Chronicles. Judith Merril publishes Shadow on the Hearth. Galaxy Science Fiction begins publishing. Doubleday (publisher) begins publishing science fiction. The film Destination Moon, directed by Irving Pichel, is released. It is one of the first science fiction, as opposed to horror, films to be produced. Fifteen new science fiction magazines are established during 1950. | George Bernard Shaw dies. The Korean War breaks out. Thor Heyerdahl launches Kon-Tiki to sail across the Pacific Ocean. |
| 1951 | Robert A. Heinlein publishes The Puppet Masters. Ray Bradbury publishes The Illustrated Man. John Wyndham publishes The Day of the Triffids. Le Rayon Fantastique, a collection of French science fiction novels, is launched by Éditions Gallimard. Out There, a television anthology series debuts. Tales of Tomorrow, a television anthology series debuts. | The Festival of Britain exhibition celebrates innovative British architecture, scientific discoveries, technology, and industrial design. |
| 1952 | Philip José Farmer publishes the short story "The Lovers". Clifford D. Simak publishes City. Theodore Sturgeon publishes the short story "The World Well Lost". | Ballantine Books is founded. The United States explodes the first hydrogen bomb at Eniwetok Atoll in the South Pacific Ocean. |
| 1953 | Alfred Bester publishes The Demolished Man, which wins the first Hugo Award for Best Novel. Ray Bradbury publishes Fahrenheit 451. Arthur C. Clarke publishes Childhood's End. Hal Clement publishes Mission of Gravity. Ward Moore publishes Bring the Jubilee. Frederik Pohl and C. M. Kornbluth publish The Space Merchants. Frederik Pohl edits the anthology Star Science Fiction Stories. Theodore Sturgeon publishes E Pluribus Unicorn. Theodore Sturgeon publishes More Than Human. The 1953 World SF Convention awards the first Hugo Award; the award is named after Hugo Gernsback, the pioneering founder of Amazing Stories. Project Moonbase is released. It is widely considered a disaster and marks the last time that Robert A. Heinlein attempted to work with Hollywood to produce a movie. Galaxie (French science fiction magazine) begins publishing in France. | |
| 1954 | Poul Anderson publishes Brain Wave. Isaac Asimov publishes The Caves of Steel. Tom Godwin publishes the short story "The Cold Equations". Donald Tuck publishes Handbook of Science Fiction and Fantasy, which is still used as a reference resource for scholars of science fiction. The Présence du futur series is launched by Denoël. The movies Them! and Gōjira are released. Jack Finney publishes The Body Snatchers. | The Northwest Vietnamese city of Dien Bien Phu is seized by the Viet Minh in the Battle of Dien Bien Phu. U.S. Senator Joseph McCarthy begins the period of accusation and trials of supposed communists that came to be known as McCarthyism. Robert Oppenheimer is labeled a "security risk". |
| 1955 | James Blish publishes Earthman, Come Home. Leigh Brackett publishes The Long Tomorrow. Arthur C. Clarke publishes the short story "The Star". William Tenn publishes the collection of short stories Of All Possible Worlds. Greg Benford and his twin brother launch a fanzine. This Island Earth is released. Utopia Magazin is launched in Germany. Science Fiction Theatre, a television anthology series debuts. | |
| 1956 | Alfred Bester publishes Tiger! Tiger! which was published two years later in 1957 in the United States under the title The Stars My Destination. Arthur C. Clarke publishes The City and the Stars. Robert A. Heinlein publishes Double Star. Judith Merril edits the anthology SF: The Year's Greatest Science Fiction and Fantasy. Invasion of the Body Snatchers, directed by Don Siegel, is released. Forbidden Planet, directed by Fred M. Wilcox, is released; the robot in the film is bound by Asimov's Three Laws of Robotics. The Luna science fiction series is launched in Germany; it primarily reproduces existing titles. Astounding Science Fiction publishes Isaac Asimov's The Naked Sun in serial format. Galaxy publishes Alfred Bester's The Stars My Destination in serial format. Fantasy and Science Fiction magazine publishes Robert A. Heinlein's The Door into Summer as a serial. | |
| 1957 | Terra, a new series of science fiction publications, is launched in Germany. Galaxis is founded in Germany. | Anthony Eden's career ends as a result of the Suez Crisis. The Soviet Union launches Sputnik 1. A dog named Laika orbits the Earth in Sputnik 2. |
| 1958 | Brian W. Aldiss publishes Non-Stop in England, which is later released as Starship in the United States. James Blish publishes A Case of Conscience. Ivan Yefremov publishes Andromeda. C. M. Kornbluth dies. Walter Ernsting launches the Terra-Sonderband imprint. The Fly is released. Satellite Science Fiction is launched. | Wernher von Braun helps the United States launch the Explorer program. |
| 1959 | Philip K. Dick publishes Time Out of Joint. Robert A. Heinlein publishes Starship Troopers. Daniel Keyes publishes the novella Flowers for Algernon; the book of the same name is published in 1966. Kurt Vonnegut Jr. publishes The Sirens of Titan. The film The Giant Behemoth is released. The film On the Beach is released. Arkady and Boris Strugatsky publishes The Land of Crimson Clouds The Twilight Zone begins airing in the United States. | The Soviet Union launches Lunik 1. |

## 1960s

| Year | Event | Historical events |
| 1960 | Poul Anderson publishes The High Crusade. Philip José Farmer publishes Strange Relations. Walter M. Miller Jr. publishes A Canticle for Leibowitz. Theodore Sturgeon publishes Venus Plus X. Kingsley Amis publishes New Maps of Hell, a compilation of his lectures on science fiction given at Princeton University. George Pal adapts The Time Machine to the big screen. John W. Campbell begins the process of changing the title of Astounding Science Fiction to Analog Science Fact and Fiction. | Albert Camus dies. Boris Pasternak dies. The first weather satellite is launched. The Concorde begins to take shape on the drawing boards. |
| 1961 | Gordon R. Dickson publishes Naked to the Stars. Harry Harrison publishes The Stainless Steel Rat. Robert A. Heinlein publishes Stranger in a Strange Land. Zenna Henderson publishes the collection of short stories entitled Pilgrimage: The Book of the People. Stanisław Lem publishes Solaris in Poland. It is translated into English in 1970. Cordwainer Smith publishes the short story "Alpha Ralpha Boulevard". Frederik Pohl takes over as editor for Galaxy and If. Brian W. Aldiss publishes Hothouse in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction. | Yuri Gagarin becomes the first human to orbit the Earth. Rudolf Nureyev defects to the West. The Berlin Wall is constructed, separating West Berlin from East Berlin. IBM develop a computer capable of basic speech recognition |
| 1962 | J. G. Ballard publishes The Drowned World. Anthony Burgess publishes A Clockwork Orange. Philip K. Dick publishes The Man in the High Castle. Naomi Mitchison publishes Memoirs of a Spacewoman. Eric Frank Russell publishes The Great Explosion. The Manchurian Candidate is released to the big screen. Madeleine L'Engle publishes A Wrinkle in Time. | Telstar broadcasts the first live transatlantic pictures. |
| 1963 | Pierre Boulle publishes La planète des singes, which is translated as Planet of the Apes. Doctor Who begins airing in England. The literary journal Quarber Merkur is launched in Austria. | President John F. Kennedy is assassinated. British politician John Profumo is caught in a sex scandal. The Soviet Union launches the first woman into orbit. |
| 1964 | Philip K. Dick publishes Martian Time-Slip. Robert A. Heinlein publishes Farnham's Freehold. James Blish publishes The Issue at Hand under the pseudonym William Atheling. Michael Moorcock becomes editor of New Worlds in Great Britain. Arkady and Boris Strugatsky publish the novel Hard to Be a God in 1964. | Martin Luther King Jr. wins the Nobel Peace Prize. Nelson Mandela is imprisoned in South Africa. The Soviet Union launches Zond 2 to the Moon. The United States launches Mariner 4 to Mars. |
| 1965 | Philip K. Dick publishes Dr. Bloodmoney. Harry Harrison publishes The Streets of Ashkelon. Frank Herbert publishes Dune, which wins the Nebula Award for best novel. Jack Vance publishes Space Opera. World's Best Science Fiction: 1965, edited by Donald A. Wollheim and Terry Carr, is published. Cele Goldsmith Lalli steps down as editor of Amazing Stories and Fantastic Fiction when the two magazines are sold by Ziff Davis to Sol Cohen. Arkady and Boris Strugatsky publish Monday Starts on Saturday in 1965. Lost in Space begins airing. | The Selma to Montgomery march focuses the Civil Rights Movement on voting rights The United States enters the conflict in Vietnam. |
| 1966 | Samuel R. Delany publishes Babel-17. Harry Harrison publishes Make Room! Make Room!. Robert A. Heinlein publishes The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress. Damon Knight edits Orbit 1, the first in a series of anthologies. Keith Roberts publishes The Signaller. Star Trek begins being broadcast in the United States. The first Nebula Award is given out. | The Cultural Revolution begins in China. The Soviet Luna 9 and American Surveyor 1 space probes successfully land on the Moon. |
| 1967 | Samuel R. Delany publishes The Einstein Intersection. Harlan Ellison edits the anthology Dangerous Visions. Roger Zelazny publishes Lord of Light. Anne McCaffrey publishes Dragonflight. The Prisoner begins airing in Great Britain. Horizons du Fantastique is launched in France. | Israel goes to war with neighboring Arab states in the Six-Day War. The Concorde project is revealed to the world. |
| 1968 | John Brunner publishes Stand on Zanzibar. Philip K. Dick publishes Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?. Thomas M. Disch publishes Camp Concentration. Judith Merril edits the England Swings SF anthology. Alexei Panshin publishes Rite of Passage. Keith Roberts publishes Pavane. Robert Silverberg publishes Hawksbill Station. 2001: A Space Odyssey, directed by Stanley Kubrick, is released. The Molecular Café, an anthology of Russian science fiction, is published in the West. Nueva Dimension is founded in Spain. Arkady and Boris Strugatsky publish The Ugly Swans. | Martin Luther King Jr. is assassinated. The Soviet Union sends in military forces to crush the Prague Spring in Czechoslovakia. Paris is paralyzed by rioting students. Douglas Engelbart presents the Mother of All Demos which introduced many of the fundamental elements of modern personal computing. |
| 1969 | Michael Crichton publishes The Andromeda Strain. Ursula K. Le Guin publishes The Left Hand of Darkness. Kurt Vonnegut Jr. publishes Slaughterhouse-Five. Visions of Tomorrow, a short-lived science fiction journal, is founded. While it remains in publication for only one year, it is the first English-language periodical to publish one of Stanisław Lem's short stories. Star Trek: The Original Series concludes its original broadcast run. | Apollo 11 lands on the Moon. The Woodstock Music & Art Fair takes place. Charles Manson and his followers commit a series of grisly murders in Southern California. ARPANET lays the technical foundations for the Internet. |

## 1970s

| Year | Event | Historical events |
| 1970 | Larry Niven publishes Ringworld. Marge Piercy publishes Dance the Eagle to Sleep. George Lucas releases his film THX 1138. | Allen Lane, the mastermind behind mass market paperbacks, dies. The first Earth Day is observed. Kent State and Jackson State shootings occur during US student protests which grow violent. The Environmental Protection Agency is created. |
| 1971 | Editor Terry Carr releases Universe 1, the first volume of the Universe anthology. Robert Silverberg publishes The World Inside. Donald A. Wollheim, editor of Ace Books, leaves to establish DAW Books. He uses the opportunity to include topics that were forbidden at Ace, including sex. Arkady and Boris Strugatsky publish Prisoners of Power. | Stanley Kubrick releases A Clockwork Orange. Great Britain adopts the decimal system. The Soyuz spacecraft docks with the Salyut space station for the first time. The cosmonauts do not survive re-entry. In New York Times Co. v. United States, the U.S. Supreme Court rules that the Pentagon Papers may be published, rejecting government injunctions as unconstitutional prior restraint. |
| 1972 | Isaac Asimov publishes The Gods Themselves. Harlan Ellison edits Again, Dangerous Visions. Barry N. Malzberg publishes Beyond Apollo. Joanna Russ publishes When It Changed. Arkady and Boris Strugatsky publish Roadside Picnic. Gene Wolfe publishes The Fifth Head of Cerberus. The Science Fiction Foundation begins publishing the journal Foundation. Stanisław Lem's novel Solaris is made into a film. Ben Bova officially becomes the editor of Analog Science Fiction and Fact after running the magazine following John W. Campbell's death. | President Richard Nixon visits China, an important step in formally normalizing relations between the United States and China. Watergate scandal: Five men arrested for the burglary of the Democratic National Committee headquarters at the Watergate office complex in Washington, D.C. |
| 1973 | Arthur C. Clarke publishes Rendezvous with Rama. Thomas Pynchon publishes Gravity's Rainbow. Mack Reynolds publishes Looking Backward from the Year 2000. James Tiptree Jr. publishes the collection of short stories Ten Thousand Light-Years from Home. Ian Watson publishes The Embedding. The journal Science Fiction Studies begins publication. The John W. Campbell Memorial Award is established by Harry Harrison and Brian Aldiss. Brian Aldiss publishes Billion Year Spree. Moonbase 3 is released. Star Trek: The Animated Series begins its original broadcast run. | The Vietnam War ends. Skylab's first crew arrives at the station. Political tensions in the Middle East cause oil prices to skyrocket 70%. Roe v. Wade Supreme Court ruling overturns state laws against abortion. The United States is affected by the Arab Oil Embargo; gasoline prices skyrocket as supplies of gasoline and heating oil are in short supply. In response, daylight saving time is started in January (nearly four months earlier than usual), and the national speed limit is lowered to 55 mph. |
| 1974 | Suzy McKee Charnas publishes Walk to the End of the World. Joe Haldeman publishes The Forever War. Ursula K. Le Guin publishes The Dispossessed. SF Magazine begins publication in Japan; it primarily translates works found in Fantasy and Science Fiction magazine. Star Trek: The Animated Series concludes its original broadcast run. | Richard Nixon resigns as U.S. president. |
| 1975 | Samuel R. Delany publishes Dhalgren. Joanna Russ publishes The Female Man. Pamela Sargent edits Women of Wonder. Robert Shea and Robert Anton Wilson publish Illuminatus!. Gérard Klein edits the first Anthologies de la Science-Fiction in France. Univers begins publication in France. Space: 1999 begins airing in England. | The Soyuz (spacecraft) and Apollo (spacecraft) link up in Earth orbit. Bill Gates founds Microsoft, which will eventually dominate the home computer operating system market. The Apollo–Soyuz Test Project begins, where an American Apollo spacecraft and a Soviet Soyuz spacecraft dock in orbit, marking the first such link-up between spacecraft from the two nations. Sony's Betamax becomes the first commercially successful home video recording unit. |
| 1976 | Samuel R. Delany publishes Triton. Marge Piercy publishes Woman on the Edge of Time. James Tiptree Jr. publishes the novella Houston, Houston, Do You Read?. Odyssey Science Fiction magazine is founded and folds after only two issues. Galileo Magazine is founded and folds after a single issue. Arkady and Boris Strugatsky publish Definitely Maybe in 1976. | Mao Zedong dies in China. Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, and Ronald Wayne found Apple Inc., a computer company |
| 1977 | Philip K. Dick publishes A Scanner Darkly. Close Encounters of the Third Kind, directed by Steven Spielberg, is released. Star Wars, directed by George Lucas, is released. Collectif is published in France. Frederik Pohl publishes Gateway. Asimov's Science Fiction magazine is founded. | The first boat people refugees flee Vietnam. The first home personal computer, the Commodore PET, is released for retail sale. The Atari 2600 becomes the first successful home video game system, popularizing the use of microprocessor-based hardware and cartridges containing game code |
| 1978 | George H. White publishes his La saga de los Aznar in Spain. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams is aired on BBC Radio. Bob Guccione founds Omni magazine. Battlestar Galactica begins its original broadcast on ABC. | The Camp David Accords commence, where Prime Minister Menachem Begin (Israel) and President Anwar Sadat (Egypt) begin the peace process at Camp David, Maryland. |
| 1979 | Douglas Adams publishes The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Octavia Butler publishes Kindred. John Crowley publishes Engine Summer. Alien, directed by Ridley Scott, is released. Darko Suvin publishes the translation of his Pour une poetique de la science-fiction as Metamorphoses of Science Fiction. It later receives the Pilgrim Award. The first edition of The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction is published. Star Trek: The Motion Picture, directed by Robert Wise, is released. | Three Mile Island in the US releases radioactive gas into the surrounding countryside. Margaret Thatcher becomes the British Prime Minister. The Iran hostage crisis begins. In the aftermath, a second energy crisis develops, tripling the price of oil and sending U. S. gasoline prices over $1 per gallon for the first time. |

## 1980s

| Year | Event | Historical events |
| 1980 | Stephen King publishes The Mist as part of the Dark Forces anthology. Gregory Benford publishes Timescape. Gene Wolfe publishes The Shadow of the Torturer, the first volume of The Book of the New Sun series. Tor Books is founded by Tom Doherty after he leaves Ace Books. Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back, directed by Irvin Kershner, is released. SF et Quotidien is published in France. | Ronald Reagan becomes President of the United States. Solidarność trade union is founded in Poland. |
| 1981 | C. J. Cherryh publishes Downbelow Station. William Gibson publishes the short story "The Gernsback Continuum". Vernor Vinge publishes the short story "True Names". Serge Brussolo publishes Sommeil de sang (Blood Sleep) in France. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is translated to film. Interzone begins publication in Great Britain. | The Space Shuttle Columbia is launched. MTV signs on, becoming the first 24-hour cable network dedicated to airing music videos. |
| 1982 | Brian Aldiss publishes Helliconia Spring. Blade Runner, directed by Ridley Scott, is released. Steven Spielberg releases E.T.. John Carpenter releases a remade version of The Thing. Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, directed by Nicholas Meyer, is released. | Great Britain goes to war with Argentina in the Falklands. Israel goes to war with Lebanon. |
| 1983 | David Brin publishes Startide Rising. Bluejay Books is set up as an imprint of St. Martin's Press. Star Wars: Return of the Jedi, directed by Richard Marquand, is released. The mini-series V airs. Analog serializes Greg Bear's book Blood Music. | Ronald Reagan proposes the Star Wars Missile Defense System. |
| 1984 | Octavia Butler publishes the short story "Bloodchild". Samuel R. Delany publishes Stars in My Pocket Like Grains of Sand. Gardner Dozois edits The Year's Best Science Fiction: First Annual Collection. Suzette Haden Elgin publishes Native Tongue. William Gibson publishes Neuromancer, one of the earliest works of the Cyberpunk genre. Gwyneth Jones publishes Divine Endurance. Kim Stanley Robinson publishes the short story "The Lucky Strike", which was reprinted in the collection of short stories entitled The Planet on the Table in 1986, and the novel The Wild Shore. Frank Herbert's Dune is brought to the cinemas by David Lynch. The Terminator, directed by James Cameron is released in cinemas and becomes a massive blockbuster. Star Trek III: The Search for Spock, directed by Leonard Nimoy, is released. The Ewok Adventure - Caravan of Courage of the Star Wars franchise, directed by John Korty, is broadcast on ABC. | The Human Immunodeficiency Syndrome (HIV) is named. |
| 1985 | Margaret Atwood publishes The Handmaid's Tale, which wins the first Arthur C. Clarke Award for Best Novel in 1987. Greg Bear publishes Blood Music and Eon. Orson Scott Card publishes Ender's Game. Lewis Shiner and Bruce Sterling publish the short story "Mozart in Mirrorshades". Bruce Sterling publishes Schismatrix. Kurt Vonnegut publishes Galápagos. Iain Banks publishes Walking on Glass. Back to the Future is released in the movie theaters. | Mikhail Gorbachev becomes head of state of the Soviet Union. The Rainbow Warrior, a Greenpeace Ship, is sunk by French secret agents. |
| 1986 | Lois McMaster Bujold publishes Ethan of Athos. Orson Scott Card publishes Speaker for the Dead. Ken Grimwood publishes Replay. Pamela Sargent publishes The Shore of Women. Joan Slonczewski publishes A Door into Ocean. The Arthur C. Clarke Award is given out for the first time; The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood wins. Aliens, directed by James Cameron, is released. Charles C. Ryan founds and edits Aboriginal SF. Frank Miller publishes the graphic novel Batman: The Dark Knight Returns. Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, directed by Leonard Nimoy, is released. | The Space Shuttle Challenger explodes on take-off, killing all aboard. The Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant power plant goes critical in the Soviet Union. |
| 1987 | Iain M. Banks publishes Consider Phlebas. Octavia Butler publishes Dawn: Xenogenesis I. Pat Cadigan publishes Mindplayers. Judith Moffett publishes Pennterra. Lucius Shepard publishes Life During Wartime. Michael Swanwick publishes Vacuum Flowers. Arkady and Boris Strugatsky are allowed to leave Russia to attend their first WorldCon in Great Britain. Star Trek: The Next Generation launches on television in the United States. Alan Moore publishes his Watchmen in the U.S. comics market. | Seventy countries sign the Montreal Accord pledging to reduce Chlorofluorocarbon emissions. |
| 1988 | John Barnes publishes Sin of Origin. Sheri S. Tepper publishes The Gate to Women's Country. Robert A. Heinlein dies. Red Dwarf begins airing in Great Britain. | Ronald Reagan travels to the Soviet Union and signs a major agreement to reduce the nuclear arsenals of the United States and the Soviet Union. Discovery is launched as the first post-Challenger disaster Space Shuttle flight. The Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty goes into effect. |
| 1989 | Orson Scott Card publishes The Folk of the Fringe. Geoff Ryman publishes The Child Garden. Dan Simmons publishes Hyperion. Bruce Sterling publishes the short story "Dori Bangs". Sheri S. Tepper publishes Grass. Locus Magazine documents a 50% per year increase in the number of science fiction books being published. Doctor Who hiatus starts. Star Trek V: The Final Frontier, directed by William Shatner, is released. Back to the Future Part II is released in the movie theaters. | The Berlin Wall is torn down. The tanker ship Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska's Prince William Sound, dumping 10.8 million US gallons of oil into pristine wildlife habitat. |

## 1990s

| Year | Event | Historical events |
| 1990 | Colin Greenland publishes Take Back Plenty. Kim Stanley Robinson publishes Pacific Edge. Sheri S. Tepper publishes Raising the Stones. Brian Stableford publishes his first Werewolves of London series. Total Recall is released. Eidolon (Australian magazine) is launched in Australia. | Nelson Mandela is released from prison after 27 years of captivity. Boris Yeltsin is elected President of Russia. Iraq invades Kuwait. East and West Germany are reunited. The Channel Tunnel workers digging from both ends meet in the middle. The first World Wide Web-site comes online. Hubble Space Telescope launched during STS-31, a Space Shuttle Discovery mission. |
| 1991 | Stephen Baxter publishes Raft. Emma Bull publishes Bone Dance. Pat Cadigan publishes the short story "Dispatches from the Revolution". Michael Crichton publishes Jurassic Park. Gwyneth Jones publishes White Queen. Brian Stableford publishes Sexual Chemistry: Sardonic Tales of the Genetic Revolution. James Cameron releases Terminator 2: Judgment Day. Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, directed by Nicholas Meyer, is released. | Operation Desert Storm launches the beginning of the Gulf War. The Soviet Union dissolves, ending the Cold War. |
| 1992 | Greg Egan publishes Quarantine. Nancy Kress publishes the short story "Beggars in Spain". Maureen McHugh publishes China Mountain Zhang. Kim Stanley Robinson publishes Red Mars. Neal Stephenson publishes Snow Crash. Vernor Vinge publishes A Fire Upon the Deep. Connie Willis publishes Doomsday Book. Isaac Asimov dies. | Yugoslavia dissolves into a number of smaller states. Political reforms in South Africa unfold. Riots break out in Los Angeles after police are caught beating Black man Rodney King on film. U.S. presidential election: Bill Clinton elected president, Al Gore elected vice president. |
| 1993 | Eleanor Arnason publishes Ring of Swords. Nicola Griffith publishes Ammonite. Peter F. Hamilton publishes Mindstar Rising. Nancy Kress publishes Beggars in Spain. Paul J. McAuley publishes Red Dust. Paul Park publishes Coelestis. Star Trek: Deep Space Nine begins airing in the United States. | A truck bomb explodes in the parking garage under the World Trade Center in New York City, killing six people and injuring over a thousand. Branch Davidians standoff and fire near Waco, Texas, resulting in the deaths of 81 people including their leader, David Koresh. |
| 1994 | Kathleen Ann Goonan publishes Queen City Jazz. Elizabeth Hand publishes Waking the Moon. Mike Resnick publishes A Miracle of Rare Design. Melissa Scott publishes Trouble and Her Friends. Stargate, directed by Roland Emmerich, is released in cinemas. Star Trek: The Next Generation concludes its original broadcast run. Star Trek Generations, directed by David Carson, is released. Babylon 5 begins its original broadcast run on PTEN. | Multiracial elections are held for the first time in South Africa. Civil war breaks out in Rwanda. |
| 1995 | Greg Egan publishes Permutation City. Ken MacLeod publishes The Star Fraction. Melissa Scott publishes Shadow Man. Neal Stephenson publishes The Diamond Age. Star Trek: Voyager begins airing in the United States. | Oklahoma City bombing kills 168 and wounds 800. The bombing is the worst domestic terrorist incident in U.S. history, and the investigation results in the arrests of Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols. |
| 1996 | Orson Scott Card publishes Pastwatch: The Redemption of Christopher Columbus. Kathleen Ann Goonan publishes The Bones of Time. Mary Doria Russell publishes The Sparrow. Star Trek: First Contact, directed by Jonathan Frakes, is released. | |
| 1997 | Wil McCarthy publishes Bloom. Paul J. McAuley publishes Child of the River. Stargate SG-1 begins its original broadcast on Showtime. | |
| 1998 | Graham Joyce and Peter F. Hamilton publish the short story "Eat Reecebread". Keith Hartman publishes the short story "Sex, Guns, and Baptists". Nalo Hopkinson publishes Brown Girl in the Ring. Ian R. MacLeod publishes the short story "The Summer Isles". Brian Stableford publishes Inherit the Earth. Bruce Sterling publishes Distraction. Howard Waldrop publishes "US". Star Trek: Insurrection, directed by Jonathan Frakes, is released. | |
| 1999 | Greg Bear publishes Darwin's Radio. Neal Stephenson publishes Cryptonomicon. Vernor Vinge publishes A Deepness in the Sky. The Matrix, directed by The Wachowskis, is released. Star Trek: Deep Space Nine concludes its original broadcast run. Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace, directed by George Lucas, is released. Farscape begins its original broadcast run on SyFy. Galaxy Quest, a science fiction parody film directed by Dean Parisot, is released. Futurama, created by Matt Groening, begins its first original broadcast run on Fox. | Teenage students Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold murder 13 other students and teachers at Columbine High School, sparking an international debate on gun control and bullying. The world prepares for the possible effects of the Y2K bug in computers, which was feared to cause computers to become inoperable and wreak havoc. The problem isn't as large as theorized, preparations are successful, and disaster is averted. |

## 2000s

| Year | Event | Historical events |
| 2000 | Nalo Hopkinson publishes Midnight Robber, a coming-of-age story set in a Caribbean-settled colony world. Ursula K. Le Guin publishes The Telling. Ken MacLeod publishes Cosmonaut Keep. | |
| 2001 | Terry Bisson publishes the short story "The Old Rugged Cross". Ted Chiang publishes the short story "Hell is the Absence of God". John Clute publishes Appleseed. Mary Gentle publishes Ash: A Secret History. Maureen McHugh publishes Nekropolis. China Miéville publishes Perdido Street Station. Geoff Ryman releases the mundane science fiction manifesto, calling for hard science fiction that depicts plausible technologies. Joan Slonczewski publishes Brain Plague. Douglas Adams dies. Star Trek: Enterprise begins airing in the United States. | September 11: The United States is attacked by Al Qaeda using commandeered jet planes that were crashed into the World Trade Center. |
| 2002 | Greg Egan publishes Schild's Ladder. Jon Courtenay Grimwood publishes Effendi. Kim Stanley Robinson publishes The Years of Rice and Salt. Star Trek: Nemesis, directed by Stuart Baird, is released. Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones, directed by George Lucas, is released. Firefly, created by Joss Whedon, begins its original broadcast run on Fox. | |
| 2003 | Star Wars: Clone Wars is broadcast on Cartoon Network. Battlestar Galactica: The Miniseries is broadcast on SyFy. | Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrates upon re-entry to the Earth's atmosphere, killing all seven astronauts and resulting in a 29-month suspension of the Space Shuttle program. The United States, United Kingdom, Australia and Poland invades Iraq marking the start of Operation Iraqi Freedom. |
| 2004 | Battlestar Galactica begins its original broadcast on SyFy. Stargate Atlantis begins its original broadcast on SyFy. | |
| 2005 | Octavia Butler publishes Fledgling. Doctor Who returns as a weekly series. Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith, directed by George Lucas, is released. Serenity, based on Firefly, directed by Joss Whedon, is released. | Hurricane Katrina devastates the Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama coastlines killing at least 1,836 people and causing $81 billion in damage, making it the costliest natural disaster in U.S. history. Weeks later, Hurricane Rita causes $10 billion damage along the Louisiana and Texas coastlines. In October, Hurricane Wilma kills 35 and causes $20 billion in damage in Florida. |
| 2006 | Battlestar Galactica: The Resistance is broadcast on SyFy. | |
| 2007 | Oxford University Press publishes what is said to be "the first historical dictionary devoted to science fiction": Brave New Words. | A South Korean student shoots and kills 32 other students and professors in the Virginia Tech massacre before killing himself. It stands as the worst mass shooting in U.S. history until 2012 and spurs a series of debates on gun control and journalism ethics. |
| 2008 | Iron Man is released as the first film of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Arthur C. Clarke dies. Liu Cixin publishes The Three-Body Problem, the first novel of the Remembrance of Earth's Past trilogy. Star Wars: The Clone Wars, directed by Dave Filoni, is released. Star Wars: The Clone Wars (TV Series) is broadcast on Cartoon Network. Futurama begins its second original broadcast run on Comedy Central. | U.S. presidential election, 2008: Barack Obama is elected president, and Joe Biden vice president. |
| 2009 | Star Trek, directed by J. J. Abrams, is released. Stargate Universe begins its original broadcast run on SyFy. | |

## 2010s

| Year | Event | Historical events |
| 2010 | Inception, directed by Christopher Nolan, is released. | Social media website Instagram is founded. The Deepwater Horizon oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico explodes, becoming the worst oil spill in American history. |
| 2011 | Andy Weir publishes The Martian. | Osama bin Laden, leader of al-Qaeda and mastermind of the September 11 attacks, is killed in Abbottabad, Pakistan, by U.S. Navy SEALs. |
| 2012 | Cloud Atlas, directed by The Wachowskis, is released. Ray Bradbury dies. | |
| 2013 | Orphan Black is produced by Temple Street Productions, BBC America and Space. Star Trek Into Darkness, directed by J. J. Abrams, is released. | The Supreme Court strikes down the Defense of Marriage Act. Black Lives Matter emerges as a political movement, protesting against what it sees as widespread racial profiling, police brutality, and racial inequality in the United States criminal justice system. |
| 2014 | Interstellar, directed by Christopher Nolan, is released. Star Wars: Rebels is broadcast on Disney XD. | A grand jury decides not to charge Officer Darren Wilson in the shooting death of Michael Brown inciting protests and riots against racism and police brutality in the St. Louis area. |
| 2015 | N. K. Jemisin publishes The Fifth Season, the first novel of the Broken Earth series. Star Wars: The Force Awakens, directed by J. J. Abrams, is released. | Same-sex marriage is legalized in all 50 US states. |
| 2016 | Stranger Things is released on Netflix. Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, directed by Gareth Edwards, is released. Star Trek Beyond, directed by Justin Lin, is released. | U.S. presidential election, 2016: Donald Trump elected president, Mike Pence elected vice president |
| 2017 | Star Trek: Discovery is released on CBS All Access and Netflix. Star Wars: The Last Jedi, directed by Rian Johnson, is released. The Orville, created by Seth MacFarlane, starts its original broadcast run on Fox. | A gunman opens fire at a Las Vegas Strip concert, killing 58 people and injuring 546. This is the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history. Film producer Harvey Weinstein is accused of sexual harassment in a New York Times expose, marking the beginning of the Me Too movement against sexual harassment and sexual assault. |
| 2018 | Ursula K. Le Guin dies. Solo: A Star Wars Story, directed by Ron Howard, is released. | A gunman kills 17 people and injures 17 at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. Death of Stephen Hawking in Cambridge, United Kingdom. He left a legacy in theories of the universe and astrophysics. |
| 2019 | Alita: Battle Angel, produced by James Cameron and directed by Robert Rodriguez, is released. Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, directed by J. J. Abrams, is released. The Mandalorian is released on Disney+. | U.S. Vice President Mike Pence orders NASA to fly Americans to the Moon within the next five years, using either government or private carriers. |

## 2020s

| Year | Event | Historical Events |
| 2020 | Solar Opposites premiers on Hulu. Star Trek: Picard is released on Paramount+. | The COVID-19 pandemic is declared a Public Health Emergency of International Concern by the World Health Organization. US presidential election, 2020: Joe Biden is elected president, Kamala Harris is elected vice president. |
| 2021 | Denis Villeneuve's film adaptation of Dune is released to theaters and streaming simultaneously. Star Wars series The Bad Batch and The Book of Boba Fett are released on Disney+. | A mob of angry protesters storms the United States Capitol in protest of the 2020 presidential election. The Taliban overtake Afghanistan after the Fall of Kabul. Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, dies. |
| 2022 | Star Trek: Strange New Worlds is released on Paramount+. Star Wars series Tales of the Jedi, Obi-Wan Kenobi, and Andor are released on Disney+. | Russia begins an invasion into Ukraine. Boris Johnson resigns as Prime Minister. Queen Elizabeth II dies; Charles III becomes king of the United Kingdom and other countries. |
| 2023 | Rebel Moon is released on Netflix. Star Wars series Ahsoka is released on Disney+. | Writers and actors go on strike from May 2 to November 9. The 2023 United States banking crisis. |
| 2024 | The Last Dangerous Visions is published by J. Michael Straczynski. Dune: Part Two is released. Alien: Romulus a science fiction horror film is released. | Donald J. Trump is re-elected President of the United States. The Assad regime in Syria falls. |