The 21st Century (Master of the Stars Map Game)

2001

 * Al-Qaeda strikes the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on September 11, 2001.
 * The US invades Afghanistan a month later as part of the so-called "War on Terror". Historians would later call this the Jihadist War.

2002

 * In response to rising terrorism concerns, the Americans form the Department of Homeland Security.
 * The International Criminal Court is born.

2003

 * The US and the so-called "Coalition of the Willing" invade Iraq and overthrow the Hussein regime, escalating the Jihadist War.
 * The Human Genome Project is completed.
 * The First Darfur War begins.

2004

 * NASA's Mars Rovers: Spirit and Opportunity land on Mars.
 * Facebook launches.
 * The Cassini-Hyugens probe arrives in orbit around Saturn.

2005

 * YouTube is launched.
 * The Hyugens probe lands on Titan.
 * The Kyoto Protocol goes into effect.
 * Hurricane Katrina makes landfall on the US, being a sign of early effects of climatic changes.

2006

 * Pluto is demoted to a dwarf planet.
 * North Korea claims to have produced its first-ever nuclear test.

2007

 * The first-generation iPhones are announced during this time period.

2008

 * Kosovo declares independence from Serbia.
 * The Great Recession of 2008 begins.
 * Barack H. Obama is elected as the 44th POTUS, becoming the first American president of African-American descent.
 * The Russo-Georgian War occurs during this time period, as well as Israel-Gaza War.

2009

 * Kepler is launched, and since then discovers a great deal of exoplanets.
 * North Korea claims that it has conducted a second successful nuclear test.
 * An outbreak of H1N1 occurs and turns into a global pandemic, although it is eventually contained.
 * James Cameron's Avatar is released, becoming the highest grossing film at the time.

2010

 * The Arab Spring begins.
 * The Deepwater Horizon incident occurs.

2011

 * Osama Bin Laden is killed during a US military operation in Pakistan.
 * The Syrian Civil War begins, as well as the First Libyan Civil War.
 * South Sudan becomes sovereign from Sudan.
 * The US officially withdrawls from Iraq.

2012

 * Azawad declares sovereignty from Mali, and would not be recognized as a sovereign state until 2034.
 * The LGBT Rights Movement begins to spread in the US, although the initial movement started in the previous century, and had already spread to other nations.

2013

 * Typhoon Haiyan hits Southeast Asia, particularly the Philippines and Vietnam.
 * Euromaidan begins.

2014

 * The Ukrainian government is overthrown in the Ukrainian Revolution.
 * The Crimean Crisis occurs, followed by the Ukrainian Civil War.
 * The Ebola epidemic of 2014 hits West Africa.
 * The Rosetta probe, Philae lands on Comet 67P.
 * The Jihadist War reaches its heigh as ISIL begins a major offensive in Northern Iraq.
 * Scotland votes "No" to leaving the UK.

2015

 * The Eurasian Economic Union, later known as the Eurasian Union comes into effect.
 * The Yemeni Civil War begins.
 * ISIL begins demolishing ancient cities, while becoming allies with Boko Haram, effectively annexing the group.

2017

 * ISIL's advance is grinded to a halt by joint Coalition forces, mainly Syrian, Iranian and Iraqi.
 * Russian troops officially invade Ukraine and quickly overrun Kiev. They establish a new puppet government there, putting Victor Yankunovich back in power.

2021

 * Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi is killed during a Syrian counteroffensive in Ar-Raqqah, along with nearly all of ISIL's leadership. As a result, without a leader to ensure victory, ISIL remains scattered across Syria and Northern Iraq.
 * During this span of time, with Syrian government forces weakened, the rebels take advantage of this to retake the territory lost during the 2013 - 2014 phase of the civil war.

2024

 * China surpasses the US as the largest economy on Earth.
 * Cuba begins to host the first ever presidential elections, the first true democratic elections since 1954.

2027

 * An 8.3 earthquake hits California, causing up to 1,800 dead, 50,000 injuries and 200 billion USD worth of property damage.
 * The First Darfur War ends with a government victory.
 * A UN report stipulates that climatic changes are becoming increasingly problematic, with global average temperature in 2027 being the hottest on record.
 * The Maldives begin to head underwater, along with certain Pacific Islands.
 * NASA establishes the first Lunar outpost on the Sea of Tranquility.

2030

 * Another UN report around this time span stipulates that global reserves of petroleum have reached the maximum point of production. However, while this has happened, the renewables industry sees a boom, particularly along the solar energy path.
 * Economic crisis hits the Middle East, as their reserves of oil begin to dwindle.
 * The Syrian Civil War ends with a final peace negotiation between the Syrian government and the rebels. Unfortunately, this means that the nation can also be divided, as Iraqi Kurdistan peacefully takes control of Syrian Kurdistan, and the rebel-controlled areas become the Islamic Republic of Syria, and the government controlled areas become the Independent State of Damascus.

2032

 * The Third Intifada breaks out between Israel and the Gaza Strip.
 * Iran and Saudi Arabia finally explode into all-out war over Iraq, Kuwait and Kurdistan for the remaining drops of oil in the Middle East. This becomes the first of a series of conflicts called the Resource Wars. This first conflict is known as the Saudi-Iranian War.
 * iOS devices, and other similar smartphones are rendered obsolete by integrated retinal chips.

2034

 * Azawad becomes recognized by most nations.

2036

 * For most nations, the 2030s global energy crisis does not last long, and as solar rises as a replacement to oil, the world recovers.
 * The Saudi-Iranian War comes to an end, with Kuwait being annexed by Saudi Arabia, and Iran eventually renaming itself back to Persia.

2039

 * The world's first quantum computers begin to take form.
 * The Second Darfur War explodes.
 * The David Müller from Germany becomes the first person to become a full-fledged cyborg. This sirs up controversy over the ethics of human enhancement technologies.

2043

 * Designer babies are coming into being, and thanks to quantum computers, AI as well.
 * The First Nile War (part of the Resource Wars) begin, as the Nile River begins to dry out.
 * The Aral Sea has almost completely dried. As a result, the Aral War begins in Central Asia.
 * Much of Bangladesh begins to flood. This causes the biggest refugee crisis in recorded human history up until that time.

2045

 * Economic growth in China begins to slow down, and eventually decline.
 * Civil unrest breaks out in China, in spite of the efforts of the PRC to prevent chaos.
 * The US military becomes almost 40% fully unmanned.

2046

 * The first Lunar colony is established in Tycho Crater, making it the first of the colonies of Luna.
 * The War of the Two Rivers explodes between Saudi Arabia and Persia for the remaining drops of water in the region.

2051

 * Dubai is abandoned as a result of rapidly depleting clean water supplies.
 * Calls for democracy begin to appear in China, with the government refusing to step down. As the Chinese government begins to crack down on protests, several violent groups appear in Tibet and Uyghurstan.
 * A joint US-Indo-Japanese mission becomes the first to land a human being on Mars.
 * The first designer babies are born. This again, sparks controversy over modification ethics.

2054

 * Unit 445102, nicknamed "Turing" becomes the first AI to pass the Turing Test. This results in extreme controversy, leading to a debate about what it means to be "human" as the definition of what it means is no longer clear.
 * Some nations begin to outlaw AI computers and all related research, while others begin encouraging this sort of research and creating more AI computers.
 * The first deuterium-tritium fusion reactor opens in the EU.

2057

 * The Second Chinese Civil War breaks out in China, as government forces, Tibetian independence movements, Uyghur independence movements and pro-democracy rebels begin fighting for control of China.
 * The Second Chinese Civil War has huge implications on the global economy as stock markets crash and the world economy, already in recession begins to plummet.

2061

 * The Second Chinese Civil War comes to an end, with a pro-democratic victory, while the nations of Uyghurstan and Tibet obtain sovereignty.
 * The First Nile War ends, as Egypt and Ethiopia begin investing on desalinization technologies, with help from Nigeria, South Africa, India, the EU and the US.
 * Kim Jong-Un dies of old age, and without him having selected a successor, the nation suffers from a succession crisis, followed by Civil War. The South Koreans are quick to take advantage of this, and with China beginning to recover from the Second Chinese Civil War, China does nothing.

2065

 * A small colony of 20 is established on the Martian North Pole by the EU, becoming the first nation to settle the Red Planet.
 * Complex life is discovered deep beneath the oceans of Europa, a moon of Jupiter.
 * South Korea completely overruns North Korea, establishing a new democratic state in the region, which would eventually serve as a further portion of Korea Reunification by the start of the 22nd century.

2068

 * The US becomes the first nation to mine a near-Earth asteroid.
 * Co2 emissions from previous decades begin to pile up in Earth's atmosphere, causing an increase in sea level rise and erratic weather. This begins the height of The Great Dying.
 * As a result, construction begins on massive walls to keep the rising sea levels at bay.

2074

 * India and Tibet begin a fight for fertile territory in the Indo-Tibetian War.
 * India, the EU and Indonesia become the largest economies on Earth.
 * Tensions once again rise in the Nile River, as rapidly depleting resources of clean water, mixed with a rising demand, begin to cause problems in the region.

2076

 * Russia begins to become a food superpower, replacing the US as the biggest producer of food on the planet.
 * The War of the Two Rivers comes to an end, with Persia and Saudi Arabia finally begin investing on desalinization, with Indian support.

2083

 * Quebec officially becomes independent of Canada.
 * The Aral War ends in a bloody stalemate, and thus to prevent conflicts of such magnitude in the region again, the Central Asian Economic Trade Block is born, one of the building blocks to the Central Asia Confederation.
 * Saudi Arabia and the nations of the Arabian Peninsula form a unified front against the potential of threats by foreign powers and Persia, which later becomes the Arabian Federation.

2085

 * Designer babies become commonplace, along with cybernetic modification and gene therapy.
 * The world's first ever space elevator begins construction, and would be completed around 2103.
 * In order to protect the remaining islands of the Pacific, the Pacific Confederation, the predecessor to the Commonwealth of Oceania is born.

2089

 * The Central American Economic Free Trade Agreement is born in Panama. This is made in order to secure common economic interests and protect their currencies from financial collapse and recession.
 * 50% of the Amazonian Jungle is gone, and is expected to be completely destroyed by 2157, despite increased regulations in the region by the Brazilian government.

2097

 * Some nations within the UN begin to push for geoengineering to repair the damages caused by increased climatic changes.
 * The Greenland Ice Sheet begins to suffer a period of erratic melting, more than normal, causing a sea level rise of about 4 to 5 meters over the course of a decade, about 3.5 meters higher than what it already is.