Timeline

Pre-1930s
1765:

American Patriots living in Boston form the Sons of Liberty.

1789:

April 30th: Inauguration ceremony for President Washington.

1860s:

The End is born.

1861-1865:The American Civil War.

1889:

April 20th: Adolf Hitler is born.

1900s:

Old Boy is born.

1909:

August 12th: David Oh (Zero) is born.

1914:

July 28th: Beginning of the First World War.

1917:

November 7th: October Revolution occurs in Russia. Bolsheviks seize power as the Russian Provisional Government is overthrown. The Russian Civil War begins.

1918:

November 11th: End of the First World War.

In the aftermath of World War I, powerful and well known figures from China, the USSR and the USA make a pact to work together as a secret government, gathering enormous funds to help achieve this. This clandestine group is called The Philosophers and guided by the world's greatest intellects, known as the Wisemen's Committee.

1922:

The Boss is born.

October 25th: Russian Civil War ends with a Bolshevik victory. The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics is born.

The 1930s
1930s

Date unknown: John (Big Boss) is born.

Date unknown: The last of the original members of the Wisemen's Commitee dies.

1933:

January 30th: Adolf Hitler is elected Chancellor of Germany. Nazi Germany is born.

1936:

May 15th: EVA is born.

June 22nd: Dr. Clark (Para-Medic) is born.

1939:

August: Albert Einstein writes a letter to the 32nd American President Franklin Delano Roosevelt and requests the construction of the first atomic bomb.

September 1st: Nazi Germany invades Poland. Britain and France declare war on Germany. World War II begins.

November 11th: Donald Anderson (Sigint) is born.

November 30th: The Soviet army tries to invade Finland, beginning the Winter War.

The 1940s
1940:

March: The Katyn Forest Massacre. Yevgeny Borisovitch Volgin takes part in the massacre.

1941:

June 22nd: Nazi Germany invades the Soviet Union.

July: The Special Air Service of the British army is formed. Their motto, "Who Dares, Wins", is a tribute to The Boss.

December 7th: The Imperial Japanese Navy attacks Pearl Harbor. The United States declares war on Japan.

December 9th: Adolf Hitler declares war on the United States of America.

1942:

June 13th: The Office of Strategic Services is opened.

August: The Manhattan Project begins. Otacon's grandfather is assigned to work on the project.

August 21st: The German army besiege the city of Stalingrad (now Volgograd).

December 2nd: Physicist Enrico Fermi splits an atom in a nuclear reactor, generating the first artificial nuclear fission chain reaction.

The Boss forms the Cobra Unit in Stalingrad, an elite unit that plays a pivotal role in key Allied victories during the darkest days of World War II.

1943:

February 2nd: The Battle of Stalingrad ends with a Soviet victory.

1944:

June 6th (D-Day): The Allied Forces dispatch the Cobra Unit into Normandy. The Boss gives birth to Ocelot; The Sorrow is the father. The baby is eventually taken by The Philosophers.

June 11th: USS Missouri commissioned.

1945:

April 30th: The Red Army advances on Berlin. Adolf Hitler commits suicide.

May 8th: Berlin falls to the Red Army. Germany surrenders; the Nazi party is abolished.

July 16th: The first nuclear test, code-named "Trinity", is conducted in Alamogordo.

August 6th: Hiroshima is bombed. Otacon's father is born.

August 9th: Nagasaki is bombed.

August 15th: Japan surrenders. World War II ends; the Cold War begins.

September 2nd: Vietnam declares independence.

1946:

February 14th: ENIAC, the world's first electronic computer, is unveiled.

1947:

September: The Central Intelligence Agency is created.

October 14th: Pilot Chuck Yeager breaks the sound barrier in the Bell X1.

The Boss disbands the Cobra Unit.

1948:

March 12th to April 24th: The Costa Rican Civil War. A rebel army under commander José Figueres leads an armed uprising against the Costa Rican government, which it quickly defeats.

December 1st: José Figueres's provisional junta abolishes the Costa Rican army, becoming a "nation without a military".

1949:

April 4th: NATO is formed.

May: Germany is split up into East and West Germany.

August: The USSR tests their first nuclear bomb in Semipalatinsk, Kazakhstan, and becomes the world's second nuclear power.

October 1st: The Chinese Civil War ends in a Communist victory. The People's Republic of China is formed.

December 13th: Israel forms the Mossad.

The 1950s
1950:

June 25th: Beginning of the Korean War.

John becomes a student of The Boss.

President Truman orders the development of various types of atomic bombs

1951:

November 1st: The "Operation: Buster-Jangle (Dog)" nuclear test is conducted in Area 7 in Nevada, with army troops cooperating. The Boss is exposed to high levels of radiation.

1952:

Werner von Braun proposes The Mars Project, his plan to send men to space.

June: The NSA is formed.

June 19th: The US Army Special Forces, the "Green Berets", is formed, modeled after the British SAS.

November 1st: The first hydrogen bomb is detonated in the Enewetak atoll.

1953:

April 25th: Watson and Crick discover the double helix structure of DNA.

June 27th: End of the Korean War.

September 7th: Nikita Khrushchev becomes the First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.

1954:

January: Secretary of State John Foster Dulles announces the New Look policy (the so-called "massive retaliation strategy").

January 21st: The USS Nautilus, the first nuclear-powered submarine, is launched.

March 1st: The first US test of a hydrogen bomb, detonated in Bikini Atoll. John is rendered sterile after involvement in the testing.

March 13th: The KGB (Committee for State Security) is formed in the Soviet Union.

March 13th until May 7th: The Battle of Dien Bien Phu.

1955:

February 26th: USS Missouri decommissioned and placed into the Pacific Reserve Fleet.

April 18th: Albert Einstein dies, begging for the end of nuclear weapons.

August: The First World Conference against atomic/hydrogen bombs in Hiroshima.

1957:

August: The USSR successfully launches the first intercontinental ballistic missile, the R-7.

September 29th: The Kyshtym Nuclear Disaster in the Ural Mountains. Elisa is caught in the nuclear fallout and is taken to a lab in East Germany, in which she was subjected to ESP experiments. There, she develops her alternate personality, Ursula.

October 4th: The USSR launches Sputnik I.

December 17th: The US launches its first successful ICBM, the Atlas A

1958:

February 1st: America launches its first satellite, the Explorer I.

July 29th: NACA is dissolved. NASA is established. Work doesn't begin until October 1st.

Paz Ortega Andrade is born.

1959:

January 1st: The Cuban Revolution: the 26th of July Movement overthrows Batista's government.

June 12th: The Boss abandons John on a mission without any explanation.

September 26th: The Vietnam War begins.

October 6th: The Luna 3 takes pictures of the dark side of the moon.

The 1960s
1960:

May: The National Front for the Liberation of South Vietnam is established.

May 1st: The 1960 U-2 incident. A US Lockheed U-2 spy plane enters Soviet airspace. It is shot down and crashes near Sverdlovsk, near the Ural mountains.

The Boss unofficially becomes the first person in space through the Mercury Project.

September: Two NSA codebreakers, ADAM and EVA, defect to the Soviet Union.

1961:

January 20th: John Fitzgerald Kennedy becomes the 35th President of the United States.

February: America conducts the first tests with the Minutemen ICBMs.

April 12th: The Vostok 1 is launched into space, making Yuri Gagarin the first human to officially travel into space. The Russian scientist, Nikolai Sokolov, designed the multi-motor cluster for the Vostok Program.

Cuban and American diplomatic relations end.

A group of university students create the FSLN in Nicaragua. Their aim is to overthrow the Somoza regime and establish a Marxist state.

April 15th until April 19th: The Bay of Pigs Invasion. The Boss takes part in the invasion. The Pentagon starts to feel threatened as to their military authority being challenged by the CIA, the ones who backed the mission.

May 5th: Alan Shepard becomes the first American astronaut.

August 13th: The construction of the Berlin Wall is started.

September 21st: The US Army 5th Special Forces Group is activated. Naked Snake and Solid Snake would later join the group.

October 30th: The Soviet Union test the Tsar Bomba, the largest nuclear weapon in existence, over the Arctic.

President Kennedy falls into disfavor with The Philosophers.

Sokolov begins designing the Shagohod.

1962:

January: SEAL team 1 is commissioned in the Pacific fleet and SEAL team 2 is commissioned in the Atlantic fleet.

February 20th: The Mercury Atlas 6 (Friendship 7) is launched, sending John Glenn into space. This is the first time an American orbits the Earth.

Major Zero helped Sokolov and his family defect from the Soviet Union to America.

October 14th until November 20th: A US Lockheed U-2 surveillence craft discovers Soviet missiles in Cuba. The Cuban Missile Crisis. The US government surrenders Sokolov over to the Soviet Union. After failing to build a Missile Base in Cuba, the Soviet Union looks somewhere else to build a Missile Base near the US.

December 14th: The Mariner 2 approaches Venus and starts scanning the planet, revealing it has cool clouds and an extremely hot surface.

The Boss has a covert mission at Tselinoyarsk, being ordered to kill The Sorrow, her former lover.

The United States begins production of the Davy Crockett nuclear missiles.

The SS-1C Scud-B missiles, designed by Aleksandr Leonovitch Granin, are deployed.

1963:

February: The United States and the Soviet Union sign the Hotline Agreement; a direct telephone connection is set up between the American and Soviet leaders.

April 1st: Ending a 114 day strike led by Bertram A. Powers against automated typesetting, the New York Times published a 702 page Sunday edition.

April 8th: The movie 007: From Russia With Love is released in the US.

June 16th: Valentina Tereshkova boards the Vostok 6 and becomes the first female cosmonaut.

July 4th: The movie The Great Escape is released.

August 5th: The United States, Great Britain and the Soviet Union sign the Partial Test Ban Treaty (PTBT) in the Kremlin.

November 22nd: President Kennedy’s assassination. Lyndon B. Johnson becomes the 36th President of the United States.

1964:

January 11th: The US Department of Health announces that cigarettes can cause lung cancer.

July 2nd: President Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act.

July: The Rhodesian Civil War begins. It was a war between the white minority ruled government of Rhodesia and the allied ZANU/ZAPU militant organizations.

August 2nd: The Gulf of Tonkin Incident occurs in Vietnam.

August 24th: Virtuous Mission. John is assigned the codename Naked Snake. Snake performs the world’s first ever HALO (High Altitude-Low Opening) jump and infiltrates Tselinoyarsk to rescue Nikolai Stephanovich Sokolov. Snake and Ocelot meet for the first time. Sokolov divulges the existence of the Shagohod, a nuclear-equipped super-tank, to Snake. The Boss defects to the Soviet Union, kidnapping Sokolov and severely injuring Snake. Colonel Volgin fires a Davy Crockett into the OKB-754 research facility. Snake is extracted and placed in an Intensive Care Unit. The Virtuous Mission is a failure.

August 30th: Operation Snake Eater. Naked Snake infiltrates Tselinoyarsk once again to rescue Sokolov, destroy the Shagohod, eliminate the Cobra Unit, Colonel Volgin and The Boss, and retrieve the Philosophers' Legacy. He meets up with EVA who has infiltrated Volgin's ranks, and she offers to help him out.

September 2nd: Operation Snake Eater is declared a success. The Shagohod has been destroyed; the members of the Cobra Unit are dead. Colonel Volgin is killed by a bolt of lightning, and Naked Snake assassinates The Boss, recovering the Philosopher's Legacy. EVA, who was in fact an agent for the People's Republic of China, steals the microfilm and takes it back to China. It is later found to be a fake.

September: Naked Snake earns the title "Big Boss", but would leave FOX shortly thereafter.

The Philosophers' Legacy that EVA had stolen turns out to be a fake. The real legacy was safely returned to the CIA, as revealed by Ocelot, who was ADAM, the real agent who had infiltrated Volgin's ranks all along.

The FARC begin an armed rebellion against the Colombian government with support from Cuba and the Soviet Union. During this time, the FARC hand over the San Hieronymo Peninsula to the Soviet Union in exchange for supplying the group with weapons. The Soviets establish an IRBM facility on the peninsula, and begin development of Metal Gear RAXA and a ballistic Metal Gear.

September 21st: The first test flight of the XB-70, a heavy bomber airplane which can fly at Mach 3 speeds.

September 25th: The Mozambican War of Independence begins. It was an armed conflict between the guerrilla forces of the Mozambique Liberation Front or FRELIMO (Frente de Libertação de Moçambique) and Portugal.

October 12th: Three cosmonauts are sent into space aboard the Voskhod 1, becoming the first multi-man crew sent to space.

October 15th: Premier Khrushchev resigns from his position. Leonid Brezhnev becomes Party First Secretary.

October 16th: China successfully concludes its first tests of nuclear weaponry at the Lop Nur testing site.

1965:

January 30th: The US officially enters the Vietnam conflict.

March 2nd: The US starts bombing North Vietnam.

SIGINT joins ARPA. He takes part in the development of ARPAnet.

The beginnings of the Les Enfants Terribles project are commissioned by Lyndon B. Johnson

1966:

The US government conducts a study on emergency medical treatment. The Department of Transportation lays the groundwork for the creation of the EMS system.

Big Boss encounters Frank Jaeger, a child soldier, during the Mozambican War of Independence. After rescuing him, he places him into a care facility, from where he is later taken by The Philosophers for their Perfect Soldier Project.

1968:

EVA disappears to Hanoi.

August 21st: The Soviet Union invades Czechoslovakia.

The movie 2001: A Space Odyssey is released.

1969:

January 20th: Richard Nixon begins his term of office as the 37th American President.

July 20th: The Apollo Program puts the first man on the moon.

November 17th: SALT-1 negotiations initiated: The talks’ objective was to limit the US and Soviet Ballistic Missile Supply, provoking a détente era between the US and the Soviet Union. Thus, eliminating the need for the San Hieronymo Missile Base and it’s construction plans were abandoned. However, the base was near completion, and many Russian soldiers were forced to remain stationed there.

December 5th: ARPAnet, the basis for the internet, goes online. It was established by the US Department of Defense and ARPA.

The 1970s
1970:

The FSLN, backed by the Cuban DGI, start launching military initiatives against the Somoza regime.

Para-Medic establishes the nation's first paramedic system in Seattle, Washington.

Major Zero disbands the FOX unit with Big Boss.

October: The Successor Project ends.

Beginning of the San Hieronymo Takeover which continues on to the end of the year. Members of the FOX unit, headed by Gene, start a revolt and take over the Soviet IRBM facility on the San Hieronymo Peninsula, where a new type of nuclear weapon is being developed. Big Boss has been charged with leading the revolt, despite the fact he had retired from the unit several years beforehand. Major Zero is arrested.

November 2nd: Big Boss is captured by members of FOX and meets Roy Campbell for the first time. Together, the pair set out to take down the FOX unit.

Big Boss recruits old Vietnam comrade Python from FOX. Big Boss encounters Frank Jaeger, now a member of FOX, again in battle and recruits him. Big Boss and Roy Campbell meet Elisa for the first time, and they discover the plans for the new weapon: Metal Gear

The San Hieronymo Takeover ends. Big Boss successfully destroys Metal Gear, with the help of Sokolov who came out of hiding. The FOX unit has been wiped out. Cunningham reveals that he is actually serving the United States Department of Defense to try and discredit the CIA, and is killed in a fight with Big Boss. Gene, leader of FOX, kills Elisa. Elisa sees that Big Boss's sons will "bring the world to ruin", and "save the world". Big Boss proceeds to kill Gene, who gives him the funds he had amassed for "Army's Heaven"

The United States receives the missing half of The Philosopher's Legacy thanks to Ocelot. Ocelot also executes the Director of Central Intelligence. Major Zero forms The Patriots, dedicated to reuniting the world in honor of The Boss's final wishes. Ocelot joins the unit, but stays with the Soviet Union as an informant. Sigint, Para-Medic and Big Boss make up the rest of the organization. Zero proceeds to turn Big Boss into an idol and hero, to lead the world as a messiah-like figure.

1971:

April 19th: The Soviet Union launches the Salyut-1, the world's first space station.

Big Boss rescues EVA from Hanoi and requests she join The Patriots, which she does.

Big Boss officially establishes the FOXHOUND unit.

Frank Jaeger joins FOXHOUND.

1972:

March 23rd: ARPA is renamed DARPA.

June 17th: Beginning of the Watergate Scandal.

Big Boss grows tired of Zero and his lust for power, and being nothing more than a puppet.

Big Boss is wounded in Vietnam and falls into a coma.

Using this opportunity to try and preserve their messiah in the event that Big Boss leaves, Zero initiates the Les Enfants Terribles project. Para-Medic, now going under her real name of Dr. Clark, injects Big Boss's DNA into eggs donated by her Japanese assistant. EVA agrees to carry the children.

Nine months later, after eight failed batches, the project produces the twins Solid Snake and Liquid Snake. Big Boss, infuriated, quits the Patriots and leaves America, leaving FOXHOUND behind. EVA and Ocelot start to lose faith in the Patriots and Zero.

December: Project Apollo ends with the Apollo-17.

1973:

January: The Paris Peace Accords: The US starts withdrawing troops from Vietnam.

May 14th: The US launches space station Skylab, the first US space station.

The Waseda University Department of Engineering, in Tokyo, develops the WABOT-1, the world's first bipedal walking robot.

A mysterious armed force invades Costa Rica, the nation without a military.

1974:

August 9: President Richard Nixon resigns.

NEST (Nuclear Emergency Search Team) is set up by President Gerald R. Ford to be "prepared to respond immediately to any type of radiological accident or incident anywhere in the world".

November 4th: 15:42 While training on the Barranquilla Coast of Colombia, the Militaires Sans Frontieres are contacted by Paz Ortega and Ramon Galvez of the Costa Rican University for Peace, asking for the aid of Militaires Sans Frontieres to repel a mysterious armed force that is invading Costa Rica.

November 10th: The Events of Peace Walker: The army without a government, Militaires Sans Frontieres, commanded by Big Boss, help Costa Rica defend themselves from an unknown force.

1975:

April 30th: The Vietnam War ends. North Vietnam occupies South Vietnam.

The Mozambican War of Independance ends with Mozambique attaining independence from Portugal. But the Mozambican Civil War begins. It's a war between the ruling party, the Front for Liberation of Mozambique (FRELIMO), and the Rhodesian/South African-funded Mozambique Resistance Movement (RENAMO).

Frank Jaeger returns to Mozambique and participated as a soldier for the RENAMO.

Big Boss rescues Frank Jaeger from a FRELIMO prison camp in Mozambique.

1976:

Richard Dawkins publishes The Selfish Gene.

Nastasha Romanenko is born in Prypiat, Ukraine

1977:

November 21st: The Delta Force is established.

1979:

July: The FSLN overthrow the Somoza regime and assume power in Nicaragua.

December 27th: A new Cold War begins with the Soviet Union's invasion of Afghanistan. Revolver Ocelot participates in the invasion whilst working as a GRU Spetsnaz operative. During the war, the Afghan rebels who feared him gave him the name "Shalashaska".

The 1980s
1980s:

Big Boss battles in various African civil wars.

Early to mid '80s: Raiden (Jack) is born.

Late '80s: Solidus Snake kills Raiden's parents and adopts him. Solidus trains Raiden as a child soldier.

1980:

September 22nd: Iraq launches a full-scale invasion of Iran, triggering the Iran-Iraq War.

Near the end of the Rhodesian Civil War, Frank Jaeger adopts a young girl (Naomi) after murdering her parents. Big Boss escorts them both to the US with the last name "Hunter."

1981:

April: The US launches the Columbia, the first space shuttle.

The movie Escape from New York is released.

The Contras are formed in Nicaragua. Their goal is to overthrow the FSLN government. They are backed by the US CIA and the Argentine intelligence.

1982:

March 19th until June 14th: The Falklands War.

1983:

March 23rd: US President Ronald Reagan announces the SDI.

Sniper Wolf is born.

October 25th-December 15th: The Invasion of Grenada.

1984:

The USS Missouri is modernized and placed back in action.

1985:

Mikhail Gorbachev's new administration ushers the Soviet Union into the Détente-2 era.

1986:

January 28th: The US space shuttle program stalls due to the Challenger explosion.

February 19th: The Soviet Union launches the space station Mir.

March: The US proposes the Human Genome Project, igniting a global research effort.

April: The Chernobyl accident. The fallout showers the Romanenko family with radiation. Nastasha Romanenko vows the world to be free from nuclear weapons.

1987:

January: The Lord's Resistance Army insurgency begins in Uganda. Sometime during this civil war, Drebin 893 was kidnapped by the guerrilla and forced to fight as a child soldier in this conflict.

Meryl Silverburgh is born.

1988:

February: During the Winter Olympics in Canada, Frank Jaeger (under the alias "Frank Hunter") failed in an attempt to elope with Czech figure skater Gustava Heffner.

February 23th until September 6th: During the Iran-Iraq War, Saddam Hussein launches the Al-Anfal Campaign, a genocidal military campaign against the Kurds in Northern Iraq. During the campaign, Sniper Wolf's family is gassed by Iraqi soldiers.

August 20th: Iraq and Iran sign a ceasefire, ending the Iran-Iraq War.

1989:

Big Boss covertly resumes command of FOXHOUND.

February 15th: The Soviet war in Afghanistan ends with the withdrawal of the Soviet forces from Afghanistan.

November 9th: The Berlin Wall falls.

December: The Liberian Civil War begins.

The 1990s
1990s:

Solidus Snake and Raiden participate in the Liberian Civil War. Raiden becomes an outstanding child soldier in Solidus's Small Boy Unit, earning nick-names such as “White Devil” and “Jack the Ripper”.

1990:

In Nicaragua, the Contras agree to negotiations with the FSLN, putting an end to the conflict.

August 2nd: Iraq invades Kuwait. This triggers the Persian Gulf War.

October 3rd: East and West Germany are reunited.

After losing her parents, Nastasha Romanenko moves to the USA.

Solid Snake joins the US Army and, as a member of the Green Berets, is sent on a mission to infiltrate western Iraq during the Gulf War.

Meanwhile, Liquid Snake joins the SAS and, as a member of the British SAS, is also sent into the Gulf War to destroy mobile SCUD missile launchers. During the mission he becomes a prisoner of war and is declared missing in action.

Frank Jaeger is awarded with the title of "Fox," the highest ranking in FOXHOUND.

1991:

January 17th - February 27th: UN-authorized coalition forces launch Operation Desert Storm against Iraq during the Gulf War. The American army injects their troops with "Soldier Genes", obtained when studying Big Boss. The side effects of these injections are disguised as the Gulf War Syndrome.

During the Gulf War, Sniper Wolf meets Big Boss, who saw great potential and talent within her. Big Boss brought the young Sniper Wolf to the US.

December 8th: The Soviet Union collapses and the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) rises in its place.

1992:

Nastasha Romanenko joins the DIA, where she meets Richard Ames, her future husband.

March 31st: The USS Missouri is decommissioned for the second time, where it is placed in a museum in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.

1993:

January 3rd: The US and Russia sign the START-2 to reduce the number of deployed strategic nuclear warheads to 3,000-3,500 by the end of 2007.

September 21st until October 4th: The 1993 Russian constitutional crisis. Vulcan Raven, along other members of Vympel, are demoted. Vulcan Raven decides to leave Russia and become a mercenary. He eventually joins Outer Heaven.

1994:

After years in captivity, Liquid Snake is freed by the US government, and returns to the United States.

1995:

Solid Snake joins FOXHOUND, unaware that he is a clone of the squadron's commander, Big Boss.

The Outer Heaven Uprising begins.

Operation Intrude N312. The United States brokers FOXHOUND to infiltrate Outer Heaven. Big Boss, the commander of both FOXHOUND and, secretly Outer Heaven, sends his most trusted soldier, Gray Fox, to infiltrate Outer Heaven as a military gesture. Gray Fox is captured by Outer Heaven forces, although not before sending a report of his reconnaissance duties back to FOXHOUND.

Operation Intrude N313. FOXHOUND is forced to send in Solid Snake, a rookie agent, in a follow-up mission to Outer Heaven. Snake rescues Gray Fox, defeats Big Boss, and destroys Metal Gear TX-55. Solid Snake ends up quitting the unit shortly thereafter.

The Outer Heaven Uprising ends. NATO commences an air raid that leaves many war orphans and refugees dead, regardless of their ties to Outer Heaven or not, and the surviving natives are saved by Big Boss.

Roy Campbell, FOXHOUND's second-in-command, is appointed commander-in-chief. The unit's code name system is discarded.

Nastasha Romanenko leaves the DIA to become a freelance analyst, and starts writing for assorted information and US Naval magazines.

Solid Snake begins suffering from nightmares relating to his experiences in the Outer Heaven Uprising.

1996:

July 5th: Scientists in Scotland successfully manage to clone the somatic cell of a sheep.

August: Nastasha Romanenko attends the Canberra Commission, the world's first nationally hosted nuclear weapon abolition proposal committee.

Nastasha Romanenko joins NEST (Nuclear Emergency Search Team) as a military and nuclear analysist.

August: The Liberian Civil War ends.

September 10th: The UN adopts the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty.

The movie Escape from L.A. is released.

1997:

An uprising takes place in Central Asia with various international forces, including the CIS, attempting to settle the unrest. They are repeatedly defeated by a band of mercenaries gathered from around the world, during a time known as the Mercenary War. As a result, a democratic military regime, named Zanzibar Land, declares its independence.

1999:

Czech biotechnologist Dr. Kio Marv creates "OILIX", a micro-organism that can produce high quality crude oil.

Zanzibar Land Disturbance: Zanzibar Land succeeds in becoming one of the only remaining nuclear powers in the world, and begins invading neighboring countries at will.

December 24th: Solid Snake infiltrates Zanzibar Land, defeats Gray Fox and Big Boss, and destroys Metal Gear D. Kio Marv is murdered by Dr. Drago Pettrovich Madnar, who then attempts to kill Snake, before Snake defeats him. Snake vanishes and decides to live in the solitude of Alaska. Gray Fox’s body is recovered by FOXHOUND medical chief Dr. Clark for gene therapy experiments. The immolated remains of Big Boss are retrieved by The Patriots who induce him into a coma using nanomachines.

EVA and Ocelot plot to destroy The Patriots and to revive Big Boss.

The 2000s
Early/Late 2000's:

Zero, after losing his faith in humanity, commissions the development of four neural AI's, and a head AI to inherit The Patriots from him. The four AI's are codenamed GW, TJ, AL and TR and the head AI known as JD.

2000:

January 1st: Millennium Bug: The Patriots spread a "data filter" worldwide, disguised as a software fix to impede the impact of the flaw in various computer systems.

January 24th: Emma Emmerich, leader of a cracker group, orchestrates a signal data hacking assault on the NSA facility in Fort Meade, suffering a total system shutdown for a 72-hour period, a feat which earned her invitations to join a host of intelligence agencies worldwide.

June: A joint team of Japanese, American, and European scientist map the human genome.

Liquid Snake joins FOXHOUND as the leader of the field combat team.

Ocelot joins FOXHOUND to serve under Liquid Snake.

The beginning of the Arsenal Gear project: The NSA signal hacking assault led to the decision to shift the NSA data-gathering operations to an isolated location that would be safe from physical attack as well as cyber-terrorism.

2001:

January 20th: George Sears (a.k.a. Solidus Snake) is appointed as the 43rd American President.

September 11th: Multiple terrorist attacks strike America.

2002:

Naomi Hunter joins the FOXHOUND medical staff, and begins DNA therapy research and experiments on soldiers.

2003:

March 20th: Several nations led by the US launch a multi-lateral strike on Iraq.

Dr. Clark (aka Para-Medic) dies in a lab explosion caused by a revived Gray Fox, who manages to escape. Naomi Hunter covers the incident and takes over Dr. Clark's job. This event was planned by EVA and Ocelot as part of their plan to eliminate the three remaining members of the Patriots (the other two being Sigint and Zero).

2004:

Peter Stillman attempts to disarm a bomb planted in a famous church. He fails, and everyone else in the church and in a nearby playground dies in the explosion. Unable to face the victims' families, he later claims that he lost his leg in the explosion.

2005:

Late February: Shadow Moses Revolt. The Sons of Big Boss uprising. FOXHOUND is "disbanded"; the remaining renegade members are all killed by Solid Snake, with the exception of Decoy Octopus who is killed by the FOXDIE virus created by Naomi Hunter, and Revolver Ocelot, who escapes. The DARPA Chief Donald Anderson dies from torture conducted by Ocelot, who claims it to be an accident, but in truth is because he is Sigint, a member of The Patriots. The President of ArmsTech Kenneth Baker is killed by the FOXDIE Virus, as well as the majority of the Genome Army. Solid Snake meets Hal Emmerich (Otacon) and Meryl Silverburgh for the first time. Gray Fox, with his new exoskeleton, battles Snake and is defeated. He is eventually killed by Liquid Snake. Solid Snake destroys Metal Gear REX. Liquid Snake is eventually killed by FOXDIE. Snake leaves with Meryl in an attempt to start a new life.

March: George Sears (Solidus Snake) "resigns" as President. He is succeded by James Johnson.

Naomi Hunter is placed into a high security prison. She is later broken out by Liquid Ocelot.

Emma Emmerich joins the NSA in exchange for information regarding her brother Hal Emmerich, who had been involved in the Shadow Moses Incident.

Ocelot and Sergei Gurlukovich spread the data for Metal Gear REX on the black market. Soon, every nation, military outfit & DotCom owns a pirated version of the weapon.

Late 2005/Early 2006:

In Lyon, Ocelot has Liquid Snake's arm grafted in place of the one Gray Fox cut off at Shadow Moses as part of a plot to rescue Big Boss's remains and free him.

Nastasha Romanenko publishes her book In the Darkness of Shadow Moses: The Unofficial Truth in order to expose the truth behind the incident. It becomes a best seller.

2006:

Solid Snake and Otacon found Philanthropy, in order to put a stop to the construction of Metal Gear derivatives. Nastasha Romanenko donates half her profits from her book to their cause.

2006/2007:

Jack (Raiden) undergoes VR training as part of the Force XXI trials.

2007:

April 30th: Jack (Raiden) and Rose meet each other for the first time.

August 8th : The Tanker Incident. Solid Snake infiltrates the USS Discovery in order to take photographs of Metal Gear RAY, to leak onto the internet. Snake meets Olga Gurlukovich for the first time. Ocelot then hijacks RAY, murders Scott Dolph and Sergei Gurlukovich, sinks the tanker and is then taken over for the first time by the personality of Liquid Snake, thus beginning his transformation into Liquid Ocelot. Philanthropy is blamed for the incident and goes underground, faking Snake's death.

Emma Emmerich leaves the NSA. She is recruited by The Patriots to begin work on GW.

2008:

Olga Gurlukovich gives birth to Sunny Gurlukovich, who is kidnapped by the Patriots.

October: Dead Cell is caught in a surprise attack, losing two of its key members (Chinaman and Old Boy). Only Fatman, Fortune and Vamp survive.

2009:

April 29th: The Manhattan Incident. The Sons of Liberty uprising. Raiden and Solid Snake infiltrate the Big Shell separately. Raiden is unknowingly used as a guineapig in the Patriots' S3 Plan in order to provide complex data for one of their AI's (GW). Raiden is variously assisted and opposed by both Snake and the new Cyborg Ninja (Olga Gurlukovich). The incident results in the deaths of Fatman, Emma Emmerich, Olga Gurlukovich, Richard Ames, Peter Stillman, every member of SEAL Team 10, and the 44th President of the USA, James Johnson. Vamp is also "killed" for the 2nd, 3rd and 4th time, all at the hands of Raiden.

April 30th: Arsenal Gear emerges. Fortune is murdered by Revolver Ocelot who becomes Liquid Ocelot once more, then proceeds to escape in Metal Gear RAY. Arsenal Gear crashes into Manhattan, stopping at Federal Hall. Solidus Snake dies after being defeated by Raiden. Otacon discovers that the original Wisemen’s Committee has been dead for almost 100 years, and that one member was also one of the top financial backers of Philanthropy.

Liquid Ocelot retrieves GW from Arsenal Gear.

Revolver Ocelot has Liquid Snake's arm removed from his body because the arm caused an imbalance to Ocelot's psyche in the presence of Solid Snake during the Tanker and Big Shell incidents. It is replaced with a cybernetic prosthetic.

The 2010s
Late 2009/Early 2010:

Rosemary has Raiden’s baby, but tells Raiden she had a miscarriage. After Raiden leaves her, she pretends to be married to Roy Campbell to keep herself and her baby safe.

2010:

With a distrust of state armies and restrictions on military intervention in foreign countries increasing, the need for Private Military Companies grows; as does the number of PMCs. The United States increasingly utilizes PMC Troops.

2011:

Raiden infiltrates Area 51 in order to rescue Sunny, who is then left to Solid Snake and Otacon.

Worldwide demands for PMCs increase, with disputes intensifying. The five largest PMCs are now run by a single mother company known as Outer Heaven, run by Liquid Ocelot.

ArmsTech Security (now known as AT Corp) implements the SOP system, which allows governments to keep check on all soldiers engaged in combat action. PMCs intensify even more.

2012:

Raiden is captured by the Patriots. They fit him with a cybernetic suit as part of their Exoskeletal Enhancement project.

Raiden is rescued by Big Mama and the Paradise Lost Army.

2014:

The Patriots release information on Big Boss, including the case file for Operation Snake Eater and CQC.

Solid Snake, now a recluse suffering from accelerated aging, is unofficially requested by Roy Campbell to assassinate Liquid Ocelot. He accepts.

Solid Snake infiltrates the Middle East, meeting Rat Patrol 01. The SOP system malfunctions. Snake fails in his mission.

Solid Snake infiltrates South America in order to rescue Naomi Hunter. Snake successfully rescues Naomi and escapes with her and injured Raiden.

Solid Snake infiltrates Eastern Europe with the help of Meryl and Rat Patrol 01. He meets up with Big Mama who reveals herself as his mother, and tells him of the beginnings of The Patriots. Liquid Ocelot destroys the body of Solidus Snake, believing it to be that of Big Boss, and locks down SOP, killing dozens of American soldiers. Big Mama, aka EVA, dies from exposure to the new FOXDIE virus.

Solid Snake infiltrates Shadow Moses once again in order to stop Liquid Ocelot from retrieving the railgun from Metal Gear REX. Vamp dies for the last time. Naomi Hunter dies of cancer after disabling her self-sustaining nanomachines.

Solid Snake makes it onto Outer Haven. He unknowingly uploads the FOXALIVE virus to JD, the Patriots' lead AI, destroying it.

Liquid Ocelot dies from the FOXDIE virus.

Meryl Silverburgh marries Johnny Sasaki.

Rose makes her peace with Raiden.

Solid Snake visits the grave of his father, Big Boss. He attempts to commit suicide but fails, only to encounter Big Boss one final time.

Big Boss suffocates a now near-dead Major Zero by cutting off his life support system, before making peace with his son and dying from the FOXDIE virus.

Solid Snake spends his final days living in solitude with Otacon and Sunny.