2000 (TU)

Events

 * January
 * January 1: The Y2K bug hits many of the world's computer systems, causing moderate problems. Power production, airline traffic control, Internet traffic and financial institution computers are the most affected. Utopia-affiliated novas race around the globe to restore (or, in some cases, generate) emergency power and direct what few planes are in the air. Most people notice only that the airlines and banks are shut down for a couple of days, and that Web pages and e-mail have glitches for a few weeks. Y2K becomes Utopia's biggest public-relations windfall since the coming of the novas. (Project Proteus takes advantage of "coding glitches" and "irreparable data-loss" to disappear a few more files into the Babel Dossier.) (AB: Unknown book)
 * January 10: This week's Time Magazine has an article on "Utopia Bug Spray: Squashing the Y2K Bug". (AB: Unknown book)
 * January 23: On talk radio's Jordan McDevitt Show, the topic is "Project Utopia: threat or menace?" McDevitt's answer is yes. He cites Utopia's private status, its backing by Æon (which answers to no-one) and the UN (which answers more and more to Æon), and its high approval rating: "the only other things with a 95% worldwide approval rating are fattening foods and caffeine and neither of them are any good for you, either." (AB: Unknown book)
 * January 28: The Triton Foundation announces the first successful gene-therapy treatment for breast cancer. By 2006, this treatment, combined with childhood genetic screening, makes breast cancer a thing of the past. (AB: Unknown book)


 * February
 * February 1: Project Utopia announces, before the UN General Assembly, its intention to perform a worldwide environmental cleanup. The world press applauds the news, and various countries use "Operation Clean Sweep" as a core to create civil works programs to help alleviate the massive unemployment that has plagued them since 1999. (AB: Unknown book)


 * March
 * March 21: Having consolidated his hold on the Mafia in the wake of T2M's crime-busting, Luciano Camparelli phones his counterpart in the Russian Organizatsiya to propose a merger of their interests into what will become known as the Camparelli-Zukhov megasyndicate (C-Z for short). (AB: Unknown book)


 * April
 * April 8: Fidel Castro dies. Cuba spends the following weeks in political turmoil. When the dust clears, a democratically elected president and legislative body take control of the government. Cuba's relations with the rest of the world normalize by July. (AB: Unknown book)


 * May
 * May 31: The first movie to feature nova actors opens to rave reviews. Stephen Spielberg's Nova is the story of a young man who emerges as a nova, then dedicates his life to righting the wrongs of society. Various famous novas figure prominently in the cast. The movie breaks all previous sales records, staying in the top spot throughout the summer. Nova goes on to sweep the Academy Awards the next spring, winning a record 18 Oscars. (AB: Unknown book)


 * June?: Louis Freeman surfaces in Bangkok, where the first nova-level shootfighting competitions have begun. With his plasma powers and formidable non-powered fighting prowess, he makes a name for himself on the independent underground fighting circuit. His manager is Yai Lokampang, Thai-born innovator of nova-on-nova deathmatches. (AB: Unknown book)
 * June?: At about the same time, the McMahon family sell their shares in the World Wrestling Federation (WWF), declining like all baseline sports, to Houston investor William Blair "B.B." Bartlett, who starts making arrangements to take nova shootfighting mainstream (including contact with Lokampang), beginning the construction of the Xtreme Warfare Federation (XWF), the WWF's successor.


 * July
 * July 15: Second-quarter financial reports indicate worldwide economic improvement. The upswing marks the beginning of the largest sustained period of economic growth and prosperity in world history. The UN drops its freeze of the currency markets, and most nations of Western and Central Europe agree to the adoption of the euro currency, linking much of Europe into one economic entity. The United Kingdom declines entry into the European Union. (AB: Unknown book)


 * August
 * Vladimir Sierka erupts. (AB: Unknown book)
 * August 10: General Tobias Gahagan proudly reports unilateral success in Operation Desert Hawk, credited largely to successful use of the novas in the US Armed Forces. (AB: Unknown book)


 * September
 * Thor Gundolfsson and Brian "Belial" Petford meet at Burning Man. (AB: Unknown book)
 * September 6: Project Utopia announces that it has successfully closed the hole in the ozone layer and introduced CFC-eating bacteria into the atmosphere to prevent continued damage. Project Utopia requests that all UN member states begin transporting toxic and radioactive waste to a collection facility in Siberia for future disposal. (AB: Unknown book)


 * November
 * November 7: Robert Schroer, a moderate Republican representative from Colorado, is elected 43rd President of the United States. Schroer began the Republican nomination process as a virtual unknown; his platform calls for continued economic reform and a return to so-called "common-sense" values. He wins a narrow victory in the general election over Vice President Gore, in which the Reform and Libertarian candidates also take sizable proportions of the vote. Following Schroer's win in the primaries, and escalating with his election, many of the GOP's far-right elements (the ones who had backed ex-Presidential son George W. Bush's unsuccessful bid for the nomination) divorce themselves from the party to found one more appealing to their agendas, the American Eagle Party (perhaps on the ashes of the Buchanan-ized Reform Party). (AB: Unknown book)


 * December
 * December 31: With the Y2K problem and millennialist anxiety distant memories, the press realizes that 2001 is the actual beginning of the new millennium. This announcement inspires the largest New Year's celebrations in history. Festivities include nova-produced energy releases in orbit that are visible around the world. (AB: Unknown book)
 * December 31: Æon Society census reports approximately 1800 known novas in the world population. (AB: Unknown book)