Timeline

Events in History and Science

SF Literature

Major SF Films

Pre-History of SF

* 4thC BC Plato, The Republic; Atlantis

* 1627 Bacon, Sir Francis, The New Atlantis

* 1724 Swift,Gulliver's Travels

Nineteenth-Century

* 1898 -- Radium discovered

* Experiments in mixing science and romance

* Utopias

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1818 Mary Shelley, Frankenstein

* 1843 Nathaniel Hawthorn, "The Birthmark"

* 1862 Jules Verne, Five Weeks in a Balloon

* 1864 Jules Verne, Journey to the Center of the Earth, 2,000 Leagues Under the Sea, From Earth to Moon

* 1886 Robert Louis Stevenson Dr. Jekyl and Mr. Hyde

* 1887 H. Rider Haggard, She

* 1888 Bellamy, Edward, Looking Backward

* 1889 Morris, William, News From Nowhere

1900-1920

* 1900--Quantum Theory formulated by Max Plank

* 1903--Wright Bros-- 1 flight

* 1905-- Enistein, Special Theory of Relativity

* 1908 -- Model-T developed

* 1912 -- Titanic sinks

* WWI 1914-1916

* 1915 -- Einstein, General Theory of Relativity

From Wells toWonder (1895-1926):

Utopias, Lost Worlds, Scientification

* 1895 H.G. Wells, The Time Machine

* 1896 H.G. Wells,The Island of Dr. Moreau

* 1897 H.G. Wells,The Invisible Man

* 1898 H.G. Wells,The War of the Worlds

* 1899 H.G. Wells,When the Sleeper Wakes

* 1901 Butler, Samuel, Erewhon

* 1905 Wells, H.G. A Modern Utopia

* 1908 H.G. Wells,The War in the Air

* 1909 Forster. E. M. "The Machine Stops"

* 1911 Hugo Gernback, Ralph I24C 4I+

* 1912 E.R.R. Burroughs, A Princess of Mars, Tarzan

* 1912, Arthur Conan Doyle, THe Lost World

* 1914 E.R.R. Burroughs, At the Earth's Core

* 1915 Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Herland

* 1919 A.A. Merrit, The Moon Pool

* 1902 A Trip to the Moon

* 1910 Frankenstein (Edison)

* 19149 The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (Robert Wiene)

1920's

* 1920-- Women get the Vote in US

* 1921 -- first coast-to-coast airmail

* 1921 -- Hitler becomes leader of Nazi Party

* 1924 -- first use of insecticides

* 1926 -- first liquid fuel rocket launched

* 1926 -- first talking movies

* 1927 -- Lindberg flies Atlantic

* 1928 -- Penicillin discovered

* 1928 -- Bakelite: 1st commercial plastic

* 1929 Stock Market crash

Space Opera and Amazing

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* 1921 Carl Capek, R.U. R.

* 1923 Weird Tales founded

* 1926 Amazing Founded by Gernsback

* 1928 E. "Doc" Smith The Skylark of Space

* 1928 "Armageddon -- 2419 AD" (first Buck Rogers)

* 1929 Edmund Hamilton, Crashing Suns, Outside the Universe

* 1925 The Lost World

* 1926 Metropolis (Fritz Lang)

* 1929 Mysterious Island

1930's

* The Depression

* 1932 FDR elected; starts "New Deal"

* 1933 Hitler takes over in Germany

* 1933 --

* prohobotion repealed

* 1934 -- Jews begin to be seny to Concentration Camps

* 1935 -- Docial Security Act

* 1936 Spanish Civil War

* 1938 Orson Wells broadcast of War of the Worlds

* 1939 Germany invades Poland;

* England and France declare war

* 1939 World's Fair

* 1939: invention of ball point pen, FM radio, nylon stockings, helicopter

Age of Wonder (1926-1937)

magazines proliferating

increasing seriousness; return to utopian/dystopian

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* 1930 Olaf Stapeldon, Last and First Men

* 1930, Charles Williams, War in Heaven

* 1931 Charles Williams, Many Dimensions, The Greater Trumps

* 1932 Aldous Huxley, Brave New World

* 1933 H.G. Wells,The Shape of Things to Come

* 1934 Jack Williamson The Legion of Space"

* 1934 Stanley G. Weinbaum, "A Martian Odyssey"

* 1937 E.E "Doc Smith" Galactic Patrol

* 1937 C.S. Lewis, Out of the Silent Planet

* 1930 Just Imagine

* 1931 Frankenstein (James Whales)

* 1933 King Kong

* 1936 Things to Come (H.G. Wells)

* 1938, 1940 Flash Gordon

* 1939 Buck Rogers in the 25th Century

The 1940's

* 1940 Germans enter Paris

* 1941, Dec. 7 Pearl Harbor

* US enters WWII

* 1941 Manhattan Project begins

* 1942 Germans invade Russia

* 1942: Fermi splits atom; magnetic recording tape invented; first working computer built; first jet plane tested

* 1944-- D-Day

* 1945 US drops atom bomb

* 1946 -- ENIAC computer at Penn

* 1947 Roswell -- UFO scare

* 1947 HUAAC hearings: Hollywood Ten

* Jackie Robinson breaks color barrier

* Cold War begins

* 1948 -- transistor invented; LP albulm;

* 1949 Chinese Communist Revolution

The Golden Age (1938-1949)

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* March 1938 --John W.Campbell in full control of Astounding Science Fiction

* 1938 Campbell, John, "Who Goes There?"

* 1939 E.E "Doc Smith" Grey Lensman

* 1940 L. Sprague de Camp & Fletcher Pratt: "The Compleat Enchanter" [Fantasy]

* 1940 Robert Heinlein, "The Roads Must Roll"

1940 A. E. Van Vogt: "Slan" serialized in Astounding

1941 L. Sprague de Camp: "Lest Darkness Fall"; Heinlein: "Methuselah's Children"

* 1942 Asimov, Isaac, "Runaround"

* 1942. Asimov, Foundation

* 1942 Lester del Rey "Nerves"

* 1942 Austin Tappan Wright: Islandia

* 1944, Clifford Simak "City" serialized

* 1943 Fritz Leiber: "Conjure Wife" "Gather, Darkness!"

* 1943 C.S. Lewis: Perelandra

* 1943 A.E. Van Vogt: "The Book of Ptath"

"The Weapon Makers"

* 1944 Frederic Brown "Arena"

* 1944 Olaf Stapledon: Sirius

* 1945, George Orwell, Animal Farm

* 1947, New Worlds Mag appears in UK

* 1947 Pilgrims Through Space and Time

* 1944 Frederic Brown "Arena"

* 1945 C.S. Lewis: That Hideous Strength

* 1945 A.E. Van Vogt: The World of Null-A

* 1947 Ray Bradbury: "Dark Carnival"

* 1947 Robert A. Heinlein: Rocketship Galileo

* 1947 E. E. Smith: Children of the Lens

* 1948. Judith Merill, " That Only a Mother"

* 1948 Arthur C. Clarke: Against the Fall of Night

* 1948 Robert A. Heinlein: Space Cadet

* 1949 Campbell, Joseph. The Hero With a Thousand Faces

* 1949 George Orwell 1984

* 1949 George R. Stewart: Earth Abides

* 1949 Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction begins

* 1941 Dr. Cyclops

The 1950's

* 1950 Korean War begins

* 1951 15 million TV sets in USA; color TV introduced

* 1951 elctricity produced from atomic power

* 1952 US explodes hydrogen bomb

* 1954 Brown v. Board of Education begins to strike down legal segregation

* 1954 Polio vaccine begins to be used

* 1955 Rosa Parks begins Montgomery Bus boycott

* 1955 First nuclear power plant built

* 1957 Russians launch sputnik

* 1958 US launches Explorer; NASA founded

* 1959 Castro takes over in Cuba

* 1959 Russin Lunik program gets to moon and takes pictures

The Age of Acceptance (1950-1961)

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* 1950 --Doubleday begins publishing SF hardbacks

* 1950--15 new SF mags begin

* 1950 Ray Bradbury, "There Will Come Soft Rains"

* 1950 Isaac Asimov: "I, Robot"

* 1950 James Blish: "Earthman, Come Home"

* 1950 Ray Bradbury: The Martian Chronicles

* 1950 Judith Merrill: Shadow on the Heath

* 1950 Theodore Sturgeon: The Dreaming Jewels

* 1951 Ray Bradbury: Farenheit 451; The Illustrated Man

* 1951 Arthur C. Clarke: Prelude to Space

* 1951 Philip Jose Farmer: The Lovers

* 1951 Robert A. Heinlein: The Green Hills of Earth; The Puppet Masters

* 1951 John Wyndham: The Day of the Triffids

* 1952 Alfred Bester: The Demolished Man magazine

* 1952 Frederik Pohl & C.M. Kornbluth: Space Merchants

* 1952 Kurt Vonnegut Jr.: Player Piano

* 1952 Arthur C. Clarke, "The Sentinel"; "The Nine Billion Names of God";Bradbury, Ray, "The Sound of Thunder"

* 1953 Blish, James. "Common Time"

* 1953 -- Ballantine begins publishing SF paperbacks

* 1953 -- first Hugo award

* 1953 Isaac Asimov: The Caves of Steel

* 1953 James Blish: A Case of Conscience

* 1953 Arthur C. Clarke: Childhood's End