Timeline

The following is a complete time-line including most key events from the main Metal Gear series of games: Snake Eater, Metal Gear, Solid Snake, The Twin Snakes and Sons Of Liberty. I will update it to include info from Guns of The Patriots when it's released, and am currently working on adding information from Portable Ops.

I, Fantômas, would like to thank Aero of MGS:TUS for providing an early version of the timeline. I then added missing bits and pieces.

If I'm missing something (I probably am) drop me a line on my talk page.

Early 20th Century
Beginning of the 20th Century:

Date unknown: Reunion of the "Wisemen's Committee". Foundation of a group called "The Philosophers".

1860's

Date Unknown: The End is born

1909:

August 12th: Major Zero born.

1914:

July 28th: Beginning of the First World War.

1918:

November 11th: End of the First World War.

1920's

Date unknown: The Boss is born.

The 1930's
1936:

May 15th: Tanya is born.

June 22nd: Para-medic is born.

1939:

August: Albert Einstein writes a letter to the 26th American President Franklin Delanore Roosevelt and requests the construction of the first atomic bomb.

September 1st: Beginning of the Second World War.

November 11th: Sigint is born.

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

The 1940's
1941:

June 22nd: The "Great Patriotic War" begins with surprise attacks from German panzer armies, as the German army begins invading the Soviet Union.

July: The SAS (Special Air Service) of the British army is formed ("Who Dares, Wins").

December 7th: The Imperial Japanese Navy attacks Pearl Harbour.

1942:

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

August 21st: The German besiege the city of Stalingrad.

December 2nd: Physicist Enrico Fermi splits an atom in a nuclear reactor for the very first time.

Date unknown: The Boss sets up the Cobra Unit.

1943:

February 2nd: The Battle of Stalingrad is over. The Soviet army defeats the Germans.

1944:

June 6th (D-Day): The Boss gives birth in Normandy. Ocelot is born. The Sorrow is the father. The baby is eventually taken by The Philosophers.

1945:

May 8th: End of the Second World War; beginning of the Cold War.

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

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

August 9th: Nagasaki is bombed.

September 2nd: Vietnam declares independence.

1946:

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

1947:

September: The CIA (Central Intelligence Agency) is created.

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

Date unknown: The Boss disbands the Cobra Unit.

1949:

April 4th: The NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organisation) is formed.

May: Germany is split up in East and West.

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

October 1st: The People's Republic of China is formed.

The 1950's
1950:

June 25th: Beginning of the Korean War.

Date unknown: Jack becomes a student of The Boss.

1951:

November 1st: The "Buster-Jangle Dog" nuclear test is conducted in Area 7 in Nevada, with army troops cooperating.

1952:

June: The NSA (National Security Agency) is formed.

Date unknown: Invention of the hydrogen bomb.

1953:

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

June 27th: End of the Korean War.

September 7th: Nikita Krushchev 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 hydrogen bomb is tested in Bikini Atoll.

March 13th: The KGB (Committee for State Security) is formed.

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

1955:

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

1957:

August: The Soviet Union successfully launches the first intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM).

October 4th: USSR launch Sputnik I.

1958:

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

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

1959:

January 1st: The Cuban Revolution.

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

Date unknown: The Boss abandons Jack (Big Boss) on a mission without any explanation.

The 1960's
1960:

May: The Southern Vietnamese NLF (National Liberation Front) is established.

May 1st: A Lockheed U-2 aircraft enters Soviet airspace. It is shot down and crashes near Sverdlovsk.

Date unknown: The Boss becomes the first unofficial person in space.

1961:

January 20th: John F. 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.

April 15th until April 19th: Bay of Pigs Invasion.

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

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

September 21st: The American 5th Special Forces Group, the "Green Berets", is activated.

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 travels in space.

October 14th until November 20th: Cuban Missile Crisis.

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

Date unknown: The Boss has a mission at Tselinoyarsk, being forced to kill The Sorrow, her former lover.

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

Date unknown: 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.

August 5th: The United Status, 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:

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

August 2nd: The Gulf of Tonkin incident.

August 24th: Virtuous Mission. Naked Snake (Big Boss) infiltrates Tselinoyarsk to rescue Nikolai Stephanovich Sokolov. Snake and Ocelot meet for the first time. The Boss takes Sokolov and defects to the Soviet Union. Colonel Volgin fires a Davy Crockett into the OKB-754 research facility, causing Naked Snake to become sterile. The Virtuous Mission is a failure.

August 30th: Operation Snake Eater. Naked Snake infiltrates Tselinoyarsk yet 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 offer's to help him out.

September 2nd: Operation Snake Eater is a success. The Shagohod has been destroyed; the members of the Cobra Unit are dead. Colonel Volgin is fried by a bolt of lightning, and Naked Snake kills The Boss. EVA then betrays Snake by stealing the Philosophers' Legacy, and taking it back to China who she had secretly been working for all along.

September: Naked Snake earns the title "Big Boss".

Date unknown: The Philosophers' Legacy that EVA had stolen turns out to be a fake. The real legacy was safely returned to the CIA in the hands of Ocelot, who was ADAM, the real agent who had infiltrated Volgin's ranks all along.

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

October 12th: Three cosmonauts are sent into space aboard the Voshod 1.

October 15th: Premier Krushchev leaves his position. Leonid Brezhnev becomes Party First Secretary.

October 16th: China successfully concludes its first tests of nuclear weaponry.

1965:

Date unknown: Sigint joins ARPA. He takes part in the development of ARPAnet, which would go online in 1969.

1966:

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

Date unknown: Big Boss encounters Frank Jaeger in Mozambique.

1968:

Date unknown: Agent EVA disappears in Hanoi.

1969:

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

The 1970's
1970:

Date unknown: Para-medic establishes the nation's first paramedic system in Seattle, Washington.

Date unknown: Major Zero disbands the FOX unit with Big Boss.

Date unknown:Members of the FOX unit, headed by Gene, have started a revolt and taken over a base in South America known as La Peninsula de los Muertos where a new type of weapon based on the Shagohod is being developed. Naked Snake(Big Boss) has been charged with leading the revolt, despite the fact he had defected from the unit several years before hand.

Snake, together with the sole survivor of the Green Berets, Roy Campbell, forms FOXHOUND, consisting of Big Boss, Campbell, and members of FOX that were convinced to switch sides from FOX to FOXHOUND. Together, the group sets out to take out the FOX unit and destroy the ultimate weapon, Metal Gear. Big Boss recruits old Vietnam comrade Python from FOX. Big Boss encounters Frank Jaeger (Big Boss), now a member of FOX, again in battle. Metal Gear RAXA is destroyed and FOXHOUND wipes out the FOX unit. Big Boss kills Gene.

Date unknown: The United States receives the missing half of The Philosopher's Legacy. The American branch of The Philosophers changes their name to The Patriots.

1971:

Date unknown: Big Boss establishes the FOXHOUND unit.

1972:

June 17th: Beginning of the Watergate Scandal.

Date unknown: The Les Enfants Terribles project. Solid Snake, Liquid Snake, and Solidus Snake are born.

1974:

August 9: President Richard Nixon resigns.

1975: Date unknown: Big Boss breaks Frank Jaeger out of a Vietnamese Prison Camp, and adopts him.

The 1980's
1980's:

Mid 80’s: Frank Jaeger adopts a young girl after murdering her parents (Naomi). Big Boss escorts them both to the US with the last name “Hunter.”

Date unknown: Big Boss battles in various African civil wars and becomes a hero.

Date unknown: (Late 80’s): Solidus Snake kills Raiden’s parents and recruits him for the Liberian Civil War. He becomes an outstanding child soldier, earning nick-names like “White Devil” and “Jack the Ripper”.

1986:

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

1988:

Date unknown: During the Winter Olympics, Frank Jaeger (under the alias “Frank Hunter”) failed in an attempt to elope with Czech figure skater Natasha Markova.

The 1990's
1990:

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

Date unknown: Liquid Snake, working for the SAS at the time, is sent into the Gulf War to destroy mobile SCUD missile launchers. During the mission he becomes a POW, and is declared MIA.

Date unknown: Big Boss’ adopted son, Frank Jaeger (now known as Gray Fox), joins FOXHOUND.

1991:

January 17th until February 27th: Gulf War. The American army injects their troops with a "Fight Gene", obtained when studying Big Boss. The side effects of these injections are disguised as "Gulf War Syndrome".

1992:

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

1994: 

Date unknown: Liquid Snake is freed by the US government, and returns to the USA.

1995: 

Date unknown: Solid Snake joins FOXHOUND.

Date unknown: Operation: Intrude N312. Gray Fox is sent into the fortress Outer Heaven in order to steal top secret information about a new nuclear weapon. He is captured by the enemy forces.

Date unknown: Operation Intrude N313 (Outer Heaven crisis): Solid Snake rescues Gray Fox, defeats Big Boss and destroys Metal Gear TX-55.

Date unknown: FOXHOUND second in command Roy Campbell is appointed commander-in-chief. Code name system is discarded.

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

1996:

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

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

1997:

Date unknown: An uprising takes place in Central Asia and the CIS army is sent in, but is defeated repeatedly by a band of mercenaries gathered from around the world. As a result, a democratic military regime, named Zanzibar Land, declares its independence.

1999:

Date unknown: Genius Czech bio-technologist Doctor Kio Marv creates "OILIX", a micro-bio-chemical that could refine high purity crude oil and petroleum.

December 24th: Zanzibar Land crisis: Solid Snake defeats Gray Fox, kills Big Boss and destroys Metal Gear D. He vanishes and decides to live in the solitude of Alaska. Gray Fox’s body is taken by Dr. Clark for gene therapy experiments.

The 2000's
2000:

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

Date unknown: Ocelot joins FOXHOUND, in order to learn from Liquid Snake.

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

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

2001:

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

2003:

Date unknown: Dr. Clark (FOXHOUND's medical chief) 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.

2005:

Late February: Shadow Moses incident. 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 and the President of ARMSTech Kenneth Baker are also killed by the FOXDIE Virus, aswell as the majority of the GENOME Army. Solid Snake and Hal Emmerich (Otacon) meet for the first time. Gray Fox, with his new exo-skeleton, 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.

March: George Sears (Solidus Snake) “resigns” as President. He is replaced by James Johnson.

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

Late 2005/Early 2006:

Date unknown: In Leyon, Ocelot has Liquid Snake's arm grafted in place of the one Gray Fox cut off at Shadow Moses

2006:

Date unknown: Nastasha Romanenko and Otacon found Philanthropy, in order to put a stop to the construction of Metal Gear derivatives. They recruit Solid Snake to their cause.

2007:

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

August 8th: U.S.S. Discovery incident. Solid Snake infiltrates the tanker in order to take photographs of Metal Gear RAY, to leak on the internet. Snake meets Olga Gurlukovich for the first time. Ocelot then hi-jacks RAY, and murders Scott Dolph and Sergei Gurlukovich, and sinks the tanker. Philanthropy, blamed for the incident, go underground and fake Snake's death.

2008:

Date unknown: 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 survived.

2009:

April 29th: Big Shell incident. Sons of Liberty uprising. Raiden and Solid Snake infiltrate the Big Shell. The deaths of Fatman, Fortune, Emma Emmerich, Olga Gurlukovich, Richard Ames and the 44th President of the USA, James Johnson.

April 30th: Arsenal Gear crashes into Manhattan, stopping at Federal Hall. Solidus Snakes's death. Otacon finds out that the original Wisemen’s Committee has been dead for almost 100 years.

Late 2009/Early 2010:

Date unknown: Rosemary has Raiden’s baby.