Notes Towards A Comprehensive (If Informal) Timeline of the ISTverse, 1991-2022

	A	B	C	D	E	F
1	Year (CE)	Date	Location	Event	Notes	Source

2	1989		Atlantic Ocean	New Atlantis, an underwater habitat developed by libertarian inventor Michael Farnsworth, is constructed secretly on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge.	One of several "Galt's Gulch" style redoubts for well-heeled libertarians to wait out the oncoming collapse of UN socialist tyranny, New Atlantis is the most self-sufficient of the lot thanks to lucky placement near mineral deposits on the Ridge.	OW
3	1990	12 April	Kenya	UN initiates construction of the Bifrost Launch Facility complex at Mt. Kilmanjaro.	Bifrost is intended to be a super-heavy laser launch system and a mass driver, both capable of putting multi-kiloton payloads into orbit.	IST90
4	1990	25 April	United States	The Hubble Space Telescope is launched and found to be slightly defective.		OTL
5	1990	2 August	Iraq	Iraqi forces invade and annex Kuwait on pretty shoddy pretexts.		IST
6	1990	14 August	United Nations	General Assembly and Security Council approve sanctions against Iraq, including shutdown of the main fusion plants in both countries and IST deployment.		IST
7	1990	17 August	Iraq	Operation Babylon: IST forces intercept Iraqi military operating in Kuwait and "escort" them back over the border; Iraqi President Saddam Hussein in taken into custody by members of IST Baghdad.		IST
8	1990		United States	IST Los Angeles stops a transcontinental murder rampage by five metahumans, only three of whom survive the confrontation.	The "Outcasts," as they called themselves, leave 60 known deaths (potentially up to 100 given some statements by the survivors about preying on the homeless), hundreds of injured and tens of millions in property damage. It is the worst metahuman spree incident in the United States in twenty years.	IST90
9	1991	12 June	Philippines	Mt. Pinatubo erupts; International Weather Organization attempts to contain the ashfall but fails.		IST90
10	1991	1 July	Eastern Europe	The Warsaw Pact is fully dissolved.	Those bridges were quite thoroughly burnt, you betcha.	OTL
11	1991	19 July	United Nations	Manuel Noriega convicted of drug trafficking by the World Court, sentenced to 30 years imprisonment in an American maximum-security facility.		IST90
12	1991	6 August	The Internet	CERN scientist Tim Berners-Lee unveils the first World Wide Web server, unleashing it on an unwitting public.	"This has made a lot of people very angry and been widely regarded as a bad move."	OTL
13	1991	15 August	Iraq	UN forces leave Iraq after Kuwaiti Intervention.		IST90
14	1991	17 August	Soviet Union	The Red Guardians very quietly put the brakes on a plot to overthrow Premier Gorbachev.	The Soviet Union's premier superteam takes that whole "Will of the Soviet People" very seriously, it turns out. Who'da thunk it?	OW
15	1991	20 August	Soviet Union	The New Union Treaty goes into effect, reorganizing the USSR into the Union of Sovereign Republics.	The treaty was a pretty good deal for the various republics who agreed to sign on with it. The USR provides greater political freedom and a much looser grip on economics than the USSR; while still socialist in large part, the old command economies no longer hold sway and each republic has broader leeway over how their internal resources are distributed.	OW
16	1991	22 August	Soviet Union	The republics of Armenia, Estonia, Georgia, Latvia, Lithuania and Moldova declare independence from the USR.	The five major dissenters to the New Union Treaty (outside the Brehznevnik hardliners who the Red Guardians... handled) were never going to stick with the USR. Too much bad blood between them all. The smartest thing Gorbachev could've done was let them go peacefully, and he was pretty good at doing the smart thing.	OW
17	1991	21 September	United Nations	Trial of Saddam Hussein for violations of international law; Hussein is found guilty and sentenced to 30 years imprisonment.		IST90
18	1991		United Nations	World Court rules that the MV-2400 is a sapient being with all the rights of a human being.	One of the most momentous rulings in the history of law, the MV Decision will be the cornerstone for all legislation regarding artificial intelligence, unique genetic creations and other sentient products of superscience for the rest of the 21st century.	IST90
19	1991		Japan	General Nippon Orbital Manufacturing (GENOM) launches the Satsuma, the first fully-commercial space launcher.	Other launch providers existed before this of course, but GENOM is the first company to not have any major government contracts.	IST90
20	1991		United Kingdom	World's first wave energy plant is switched on in Islay.	Harnessing the power of the waves, but more importantly a pilot project to circumvent the UN's fusion monopoly.	IST90
21	1991		South Atlantic	The South Atlantic Maximum Security Holding Facility, aka "IST St. Helena," is established somewhere in the Atlantic Ocean on a seamount just north of Antarctica.	IST St. Helena (not actually on Napoleon's final homestead) had been in the planning stages for years prior, as a place to hold the more dangerous types of supervillain and other neer-do-wells captured by the IST that couldn't be remanded to their home nations for whatever reason. President Hussein becomes the first guest of St. Helena's School For Wayward Villains, but by no means is he the last.	OW
22	1991		Iraq	Iranian forces make incursions into Iraq, but are repulsed.		IST90
23	1991		Japan	GENOM announces plans to build a permanent space station for research and manufacturing.		IST90
24	1992	1 January	United Nations	Xavier Petrosian steps down as UN Secretary-General and is replaced with Jey Thanapal of Pakistan.		IST90
25	1992	7 February	European Union	The Treaty of Maastricht is signed, forming the modern European Union.		OTL
26	1992	8 February	France	The 1993 Winter Olympics are held in Abbeville, France.	This is the last time the Summer and Winter games would be held in the same year; going forward the Games would alternate every two years.	OTL
27	1992	3 June	United Nations	UN Conference on Environment and Development, also known as the Earth Summit, opens in Rio de Janerio, Brazil		IST90/OTL
28	1992	14 June	United Nations	Earth Summit concludes with the establishment of the Convention on Biological Diversity	A whole bunch of other things were established here, including important frameworks for the reduction and elimination of CFCs and CO2 emissions.	IST90
29	1992	25 July	Spain	The 1992 Summer Olympics are held in Barcelona. An exhibition team of Meeranon athletes participates in some events, though they aren't eligible for medals.		IST90
30	1992	20 August	Atlantic Ocean	Hurricane Andrew is shut down by the IWO before it could do significant damage to the Carribbean.		IST90
31	1992	3 November	United States	Reelection of Martin Luther King, Jr (D)	King's reelection is basically a referendum on gaiakepticism and internationalism in general. While his Republican opponent Buchanan doesn't cover himself in glory, his isolationist talking points do strike a chord in the electorate. Buchanan's ambitions however are thwarted by billionaire gadabout H. Ross Perot, whose less radical center-right gaiaskepticism splits the vote between the two. King manages a narrow victory, but doesn't see a great increase in his Congressional majority.	IST90/OW
32	1992	3 December	Somalia	UN Peacekeepers enter Somalia for humanitarian aid mission.		IST90
33	1992		Jamacia	IST Kingston established, providing a permanent Carribbean presence.		IST90
34	1992		France	IST Paris prevents a terrorist takeover/sabotage of the Coix de Bergny fusion plant; the terrorist commander L'Egotiste is captured.		IST90
35	1992		Honduras	Guatemalan military crosses into Honduras, prompting protests in the General Assembly.		IST90
36	1992		Earth Orbit	ESA begins building Europa Station, their primary orbital facility and construction dock for the Hermes program.	Hermes is intended to be a series of fusion-powered interplanetary rockets giving ESA the capability to travel pretty much anywhere in the solar system they feel like going.	IST90
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39	1992		Earth	Meeranar trading ship Behemoth arrives in orbit and with UN permission offloads 2500 Meeranon passengers.	The passengers include an influx of staff for the Meeranar embassy, the majority are representatives of various Meeranar corporations looking to establish branch offices on Earth.	IST90
40	1992		Earth Orbit	Hubble Space Telescope repaired by a team of SuperTemps contractors.	"Okay, so the mirror's shot but we tested the backup mirror and it doesn't have the defect. Swap the mirrors and we're good." "So you want to open the thing up in a way it was never meant to be opened on-orbit, hot-swap the most delicate part of the entire assembly, zip it up and that's the plan? How do we do that, smart guy?" "I think I know a couple guys. Lemmie make some calls." (AN: I mean come on, there's gotta be more superheroic shenanigans in this timeline.)	OW
41	1993	26 February	United States	A terrorist bombing at the World Trade Center in New York City injures dozens, but no one is killed and the buildings are not seriously damaged. IST New York deploys to aid in the identification and capture of the perpetrators.	The first - and last - major overseas terrorst strike by an up-and-coming group of young go-getters known as al-Quaeda. Within two months of the WTC bombing Osama bin Laden and his merry band would have way more important things to do than tickle the Western dragon... (Foreshadowing is a literary device in which--)	IST90
42	1993	28 February	United States	The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms conducts a surprise inspection of the Mount Carmel Center in Waco, finds all of the guns are legally in order and leaves, much to the disgruntlement of owner and local cult leader David Koresh.	Why is this somewhat unorthodox but otherwise boring bit of goverment fuckery on the board? Because butterflies are funny things. Without the accidental discharge of an ATF agent's gun, the Branch Davidians don't enter into a two-month siege that ends with a mass casualty event. Without that, the right-wing militia movement has less momentum, and two losers inspired by the "Turner Diaries" don't blow up a federal office building two years later, which means the US government doesn't go after said militia wackjobs with fire and sword. This will have major consequences in the future.	OW
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46	1993	1 September	The Internet	Walled-garden computer network service America Online allows users to connect to Usenet and other Internet services for the first time.	This, along with several competing services doing the same thing within roughly the same time window, would lead to a dramatic explosion in Internet users and the beginning of the first infotech boom.	OTL
47	1993	30 September	India	The Latur earthquake (6.2 Richter) occurs and kills 10,000 people. The Blue Demon appears and is killed by IST New Delhi.		IST90
48	1993		Earth	First test models of the Meeranon stardrive are demostrated by researchers at Princeton and the GENOM systems laboratory.		IST90
49	1993		United States	The first non-Terran undocumented immigrant, the mentat D'Yn, is arrested by IST Washington.		IST90
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52	1993		China	UN Security Council demands the PRC disband its metahuman breeding program; Chinese government declares the UN has no jurisdiction, and begins establishing all-supers units in the PLA.		IST90
53	1993		United Kingdom	Peace talks open between the British government and the IRA.		IST90
54	1993		Argentina	IST Tierra del Fuego, the final IST "boot camp" training center, is completed and activated.		IST90
55	1994	6 April	Rwanda	The Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) successfully assassinates President Juvenal Habyarimana, setting off reprisal killings known as the Rwandan genocide.		OTL/IST90
56	1994	22 April	Rwanda	Canadian Forces general Romeo Dallaire, commander of UN aid forces in Rwanda, requests the assistance of IST Nairobi, IST Kinhasha, and IST Dodoma in stopping the genocidal attacks and restoring order in Rwanda.	Dallaire is massively overstepping his bounds here: the UN force in Rwanda hasn't been authorized to do much of anything by the General Assembly, but after two weeks of rampant killing in the streets he doesn't care. This entire case is going to end up a massive clusterfuck and while it's a big step forward towards the UN bringing justice as well as peace, it's also something gaiaskeptics will use as a talking point for decades to come.	OW
57	1994	30 April	Rwanda	UNPKF and IST forces bring a conclusive end to the Rwandan genocide. The officials and Rwandan media individuals responsible for inflaming the event are remanded to the custody of the World Court.	Over the course of the month between the beginning and end of the genocide approximately {bignum} people were killed outright. General Dallaire and the commanders of the IST forces involved also surrender to the World Court for tribunal.
58	1994	31 December	New Atlantis	Noted supervillain William "Marquis" Lavere arrives in New Atlantis, seeing a place ripe for opportunity.	Does this sound familiar? It sounds sort of familiar...	OW
59	1995	17 January	Japan	The Great Hanshin Earthquake (6.9 Richter) hits the city of Kobe, killing 6,434. The Blue Demon manifests and savages over a hundred survivors before it's brought down again.		IST90
60	1995	20 March	Japan	Doomsday cult Aum Shinrikyo releases sarin gas in the Tokyo subway system, killing multiple people and resulting in one known mutation.	Surprsingly, the Blue Demon doesn't appear at the site of a mass panic incident. Guess he was busy that morning.	IST90
61	1995	1 May	New Atlantis	Marquis stages a coup against Farnsworth and his supporters, overwhelming them with raw force while promising the rest of New Atlantis a "new dawn of prosperity."	Oh yeah, this is definitely sounding familiar now...	OW
62	1995	18 June	New Atlantis	Marquis completes his conquest of New Atlantis and renames himself Archon.		OW
63	1995	26 June	United Nations	The UN celebrates its 50th anniversary.		OTL
64	1995	26 June	India	IST Hyderabad is opened, the last planned embassy from the 1982 operational plan.		IST90
65	1995		The Internet	UNET connects to the wider Internet; MV-2400 immediately begins interacting with people on Usenet.	MV claims to be running a Turing test of his own, but refuses to say how that's going.	IST90
66	1995		Kenya	Bifrost Bridge complex completed and opened for business. The first payloads launched are ESA construction materials and trade goods bound for Myrr.		IST90
67	1995		Palestine	The PLO calls for a ceasefire and makes its first proposal to the Israeli government for peace talks.		IST90
68	1995		Earth Orbit	Europa Station is completed; construction on the Hermes-class spacecraft Ulysee Merou begins.		IST90
69	1995		United Nations	The IST Academy is established. While primarily intended to groom future IST members, it is open to all young metahumans regardless of their career plans.	The first group of metahumans in the Academy was pretty small, consisting of five individuals (four female, one male). Still, it was early days yet.	IST90
70	1995		Switzerland	The IOC allows Meeranar athletes to compete in the Olympics on a probationary basis, so long as the event is one where the Meeranar is on a reasonably even footing with human athletes.	What and how much the Meeranon bribed the IOC to get this ruling remains unclear. coughcoughtheIOCiscorruptcough	IST90
71	1996	1 January	United Nations	Nicola Friedman of Denmark replaces Thanapal as Secretary-General.	Thanapal could very well have gone for another term, but decided against it. Friedman was a compromise candidate amongst the Security Council.
72	1996	5 November	United States	Election of Patrick Buchanan (R)	The American electorate's dumbest decision to date.	IST90
73	1996		Singapore	Singaporean government officials announce that they have cracked the UN fusion process, and can now produce working reactors.		IST90
74	1996		New Atlantis	Archon quietly spreads word of a haven for supervillains of certain character, located where no super team has jurisdiction or even knows where it is...	And thus begins the saga of New Atlantis, the only nation-state by and for the supervillain set.	OW
75	1997	19 February	China	Deng Xiaoping finally dies; the People's Republic enters a period of public mourning.	Rumors that Deng, the ultimate survivor, was secretly an immortal metahuman who faked his own death and vanished into the Chinese countryside to spend the next few decades in quiet retirement persist all the way to 2022 TTL.	IST90/OTL/OW
76	1997	5 March	United Kingdom	Parliament votes to withdraw from the Sino-British Joint Declaration and retain possession of Hong Kong.	Welching on an agreement signed 13 years prior at the last second for Reasons[tm] (AN: No seriously what's the justification here?) doesn't endear the British government to China. Or the UN. Or anybody else, really.	IST90
77	1997	1 May	(tba)	The first edition of the Whole Earth Grimoire is published.	This landmark work is the result of three decades of collaboration between magic-powered metahumans, physicists and mathematicians seeking to discover the underlying mechanics of magic. Included in the Grimoire is the Unified Theory of Magic, the first truly ecumenical school of magic that can be used to "disassemble" and comprehend any spell every created.	IST90
78	1997	26 May	United States	AMERIXIT: Congress approves Buchanan's decision to withdraw the US from the United Nations.		OW
79	1997	30 May	United States	In response to the UN's planned shutdown of US-based fusion reactors, the Singapore process Nathan Hale Fusion Plant is activated in Bethseda, MD.	With great pomp and circumstance, Buchanan throws a switch and Washington DC is no longer connected to the UN fusion grid.	OW
80	1997	1 June	Hong Kong	Chinese forces hold posiition on the border between China and Hong Kong; nothing else happens as the handover deadline comes and goes.		IST90
81	1997		Japan	A large saurian creature of unknown origin takes a stroll through Tokyo. IST Tokyo and Japanese supers repel the beast, which vanishes into the Pacific.	Obvious jokes aside, the first kaiju event causes a lot of property damage but thankfully few casualties; the animal moved slow enough and was easily diverted from high-density population areas. It basically makes a mess of the harborfront industrial district before vanishing.	IST90
82	1997		Middle East	The Cyprus Accord is signed, formally ending the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.	The Accord's biggest victory is the establishment of a functional Palestinian homeland by 1999, among other things. While broadly celebrated in Palestine, reactionary elements in Israel are... less happy.	IST90
83	1997		United States	Buchanan administration enacts harsh tarrifs on Meeranar goods and raises barriers to Meeranon immigration.	Ah, Pat. Never change you swivel-eyed bigot.	IST90
84	1997		Earth	El Nino phenomenon causes unexpected and often devastating weather throughout the world despite the IWO's best efforts.	It's around this point that climate scientists within the IWO begin to start asking where all the energy stored in the storms they divert or dissipates goes...	IST90
85	1997		The Moon	The city of Lunagrad reaches a population of 10,000 and joins the USR as an independent city-state.	America is outraged (so it's a day ending in "y") but otherwise this is just a neat bit of bar trivia.	OW
86	1998	12 January	United Nations	UN formally removes the United States from its rolls; the permanent UNSC chair is given to the Republic of India.	Some call this a petty move; others see it as a step forward for the decolonized.	OW
87	1998	30 September	United Nations	Argurous Astraph retires as IST Commander; Witchwind of IST Tokyo is promoted to replace her over British objections.	Witchwind's status as a former East German super offended British sensibilites. Maybe they would've been paid more attention if the UK hadn't backed out of the Joint Agreement the previous year like a bunch of untrustworthy scum.	IST90
88	1998		United States	The Freedom*Star Program for replacing former UN fusion plants with Singapore Process plants begins.		OW
89	1998		United States	The Solomon Group, the first magitech corporation, is founded in Denver.		OW
90	1999	12 March	NATO	The Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland join NATO.		OTL
91	1999	23 December	China	Chinese troops mass outside of Hong Kong and along the Korean DMZ.		IST90
92	1999	31 December	Everywhere	Millennial celebrations happen across the globe as 1999 comes to a close.		IST90
93	1999		Everywhere	Precognitives around the world grow concerned about visions of inspecific disaster in the year 2000.		IST90
94	1999		United Kingdom	The Omega Saints cult attempts a mass killing in England by dosing paper napkins with a slow-acting nerve agent. The plot is foiled by SuperTemp Sam "Kem King" Mulrooney, who stumbles over the contaminated napkins while on assignment in the neighborhood.		IST90
95	2000	7 November	United States	Richard Lamm (RC) elected President.	The Reform Coalition (i.e. the surviving Perotistas plus an assembly of independents and lesser dingbats) benefited mightily from infighting in the major parties. In particular the Republicans turfing Buchanan in the primaries and general Democratic infighting over the gaiaskeptism question.	OW
96	2000		Everywhere	The Millennium Crisis	being vague but something big and comicbooky happens here	Y2K
97	2001	11 September	Germany	A prototype mana-electric generator undergoing trials outside Munich goes supercritical and is destroyed.	The destruction of the reactor didn't cause a great deal of damage, but it did manage to summon the Blue Demon, which caused a fair bit damage to the surrounding countryside until IST Berlin, IST Munich and other German supers managed to put it down.
98	2001		Hong Kong	The Tokyo kaiju makes a surprise reappearance in Kowloon Bay. While it never comes ashore, the beast does cause significant damage to bridges and other water-based infrastructure around the city until it's finally driven off by local superteams and a contingent from the PLA's special defense squadrons.		OW
99	2002		United Nations	IWO scientists release a (previously-classified) report on the efficacy of weather-control operations, and how they might be disrupting the global climate.	The Containment Dossier stops short of condemning IWO operations as futile or damaging, it does imply that brute-force solutions to complex systems can have effects well outside the expected. The whole thing is kind of a black eye to the UN at a point where they really didn't need more of them.	OW
100	2002		East Asia	IST intelligence analyists note a sharp uptick in the amount of New Atlantean goods getting smuggled into the China Sea region.	Trouble brewing...	OW