21st
century...
2010-2019
future timeline
2010
- Haiti
is struck by a devastating earthquake | The
longest solar eclipse of the 3rd millennium occurs | Apple
debuts the iPad | The Constellation Program is essentially cancelled | The worst marine
environmental disaster in US history | Scientists
create synthetic life | One-fifth
of Pakistan is flooded | Solar power is plunging in cost | Augmented
Reality is entering the mainstream | Macular
degeneration is curable | The first
demonstration of solar-sail technology | Scientists
trap antimatter | Speech-to-speech
translation is common in mobile phones | Major breakthrough in
robotics
2011-2015
- British forces withdraw from
Afghanistan
2011
- Japan is devastated
by a 9.0 magnitude earthquake and tsunami | The
death of Osama bin Laden | Worsening economic
crisis in Greece | The
world's first synthetic organ transplant | South
Sudan becomes an independent nation | The
Space Shuttle fleet is retired | Global population reaches
7bn | USB 3.0 is widely available | Multi-touch surface computing enters the
consumer market | The first open petaflop supercomputer
comes online | 22
nanometre chips enter mass production | Consumer-level
robotics are booming | World's first
commercial spaceport | China's
Three Gorges Dam is fully operational | The
largest desalination plant in Australia is operational
2012
- Economic turmoil continues | The Diamond Jubilee
of Queen Elizabeth II | Euro
2012 is held in Poland and Ukraine | London
hosts the Olympic Games | Mars
Science Lab explores the Red Planet | Windows
8 is released | Quad-core smartphones and tablets | Nintendo
launches the Wii U | The world's
first 1-Gigawatt offshore wind farm | The Abraj Al-Bait Towers are completed in Mecca | The Mayan calendar reaches the end of its
current cycle
2013-2060 – At some point during this period, the United States is struck by the most devastating earthquake in its history
2013-2037
- At some point during this period,
a major earthquake hits California
2013
– Food prices are triggering civil unrest | Birth of a royal baby | China
overtakes the USA in scientific research | Solar
flares are disrupting the Earth's magnetosphere | The
Gaia mission is launched | Comet ISON makes an appearance| The first gene therapy in the Western world | Highly flexible touch sensors are appearing in a range of gadgets | Launch of the PS4 and Xbox One | Direct
high-speed rail from London to Frankfurt and Amsterdam | The expansion of the Port of Rotterdam
is completed, tripling its capacity | 14nm
chips enter mass production | China's Tiangong-2 space station module is launched | China's first unmanned Moon landing | The first test launch of the Falcon
Heavy
2014
- The IPCC releases its Fifth Assessment Report | The European Single Supervisory Mechanism (SSM) is operational | Scotland votes "no" to independence | The Internet has a greater reach than television | Google Glass is launched to the public | The new World Trade Center is completed | The Shanghai Tower is completed | Brazil
hosts the FIFA World Cup | The
first solar aircraft to circumnavigate the globe | Completion
of the Panama Canal expansion project | Personalised
DNA sequencing for under $100 | Better protection against tooth decay | The first products to use memristor technology are becoming available | Terabyte
SD cards are available | Robotic
pack mules are entering military service | Laser guns are in naval use | The first test flight of NASA's Orion spacecraft | The MAVEN
probe arrives at Mars | India's first Mars mission | Launch of the Sunjammer solar sail | A comet is passing extremely close to Mars | The
Rosetta probe deploys its lander on comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko | Most telephone calls are made
via the Internet now | Increased
automation in retail environments
2015-2019
- Worsening economic crisis | Genome sequencing continues to improve exponentially | Five-year survival rates for thyroid cancer are approaching 100% | Virtual reality makes a comeback | Tigers
are going extinct
2015 - The deadline for the Millennium Development Goals | The Eurasian Union is formed | Expo 2015 is held in Milan, Italy | The
Large Hadron Collider reaches its maximum operating power | The world's first fully sustainable, zero-carbon, zero-waste city | The
world's first lunar tourist | A
new generation of hi-tech supercarriers | The United States and South Korea dissolve the Combined Forces Command | The first large-scale solar updraft towers are operational | Queen Elizabeth II becomes the longest reigning monarch in British history | Gay marriage is legal in the United Kingdom | Battery technology gets a boost | 3D
printing is a mainstream consumer product | LED lamps are dominating the commercial and domestic lighting markets | 10 nanometre chips enter mass production | Scientists
resurrect the woolly mammoth | Lifesaver bottles are in widespread use | The
Carteret Islands are abandoned | The New Horizons probe arrives at Pluto | The Dawn probe arrives at Ceres | Voyager
I enters the heliopause | Trucks with emergency braking systems are mandatory in Europe
2016
- China passes the US in PPP | Euro
2016 is held in France | Rio de Janeiro hosts
the Olympic Games | Apple Inc. achieves a market capitalisation of one trillion dollars | US
vehicles are becoming more fuel-efficient | Microchipping of all dogs in England | India's first manned space flight | India launches its second unmanned lunar probe | The
first hotel in space | InSight touches down on Mars | The Juno probe arrives at Jupiter | Agricultural robots are appearing on farms | High-definition CCTV cameras are ubiquitous | OLED displays are in widespread use | Holographic versatile
disc (HVD) supersedes Blu-ray | New drug delivery methods for brain-related conditions | A pill to prevent sunburn | Completion
of the i5K project | The Strait of Messina Bridge is
completed | China completes the largest environmental cleanup in its history | United States Presidential Election | The
Gotthard Base Tunnel is completed | Launch of the Titanic II
2017
- The European Union has been expanded | Worsening crisis in Yemen | China
establishes the largest megacity in the world | The world's first kilometre-high skyscraper | The world's first Floating Liquefied Natural Gas (FLNG) platform begins operations | The Nabucco gas pipeline is completed | India completes construction of the Dibang Dam | The M1A3 Abrams tank enters the battlefield | The remaining JFK files are released | Total
solar eclipse in the US | China launches an unmanned sample return mission to the Moon | The first test flight of NASA's Space Launch System | The Cheops satellite is deployed to study exoplanets | Sales of electric and hybrid trucks reach 100,000 annually | Electronic
paper is seeing widespread use | Traditional newspapers are becoming obsolete | Tooth regeneration is transforming dental care | Cosmetic surgery has doubled its market size | Wireless, implantable devices that monitor a range of health conditions in real time | The world's first HIV vaccine is commercially available | A new treatment for prostate cancer | Teleportation
of simple molecules
2018
- A missile defence shield is deployed in Europe | The African Central Bank is established | Oil drilling gets underway in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge | Russia hosts
the FIFA World Cup | The first manned flights from Russia's new spaceport | The
James Webb telescope is launched | Polio has been eradicated | A drug to prevent obesity | Crossrail
opens in London | The City Circle Line opens in Copenhagen | The Transbay Transit Center is completed in San Francisco | Many complex surgeries are performed by robots | Robot insect spies
are in military use | Ubiquitous internet nodes connect
appliances, vehicles, etc. | Consumer devices
with 100 Gbit/s transfer speeds | Portable, long-range 3D scanning | Scientists drill into Earth's mantle | The Mackenzie Valley Pipeline is completed in Canada | The market for biofuels is experiencing a period of rapid growth | The last
of Nigeria's rainforests have been felled
2019 - China's first high-tech stealth fighter enters service | A new generation of U.S. tanks | British troops leave Germany | The International Linear Collider is completed | The ExoMars rover touches down on Mars | The first manned outpost beyond the Moon begins assembly | The first mission to a gas giant using solar sail propulsion | Launch of the BIOMASS mission | Europe's Galileo satellite navigation system is fully operational | Computers
break the exaflop barrier | Bionic
eyes with high resolution are commercially available | Connected vehicle technology is being deployed in a number of countries | Automated
freight transport | Lunar-resonant streetlights are appearing in many cities | US copyright begins to expire, starting with all works from 1923 | Jordan opens its first nuclear power plant | The East Side Access subway extension opens in New York | The Aral Sea
disappears from the map | Oil prices are becoming dangerously high
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