1960s

196X

Dates	Events
Early 1960s	Yevgeny Borisovitch Volgin inherits the microfilm containing the Philosophers' Legacy after the death of his father.
	The United States Army and the West German Army jointly develop a new tank in response to the Soviet T-62. The projects are named the MBT-70 and the KPz 70 for the United States and West Germany, respectively.
	The West German military cancels the KPz 70 project due to over budgeting.
Late 1960s	Authenticité campaign was conducted by President Mobutu in Zaire (at the time known as the Republic of Congo-Léopoldville), with the Ngumba Industrial Zone being nationalized during this time.
Late 1960s	University protests broke out amongst various student groups in Japan, leading to various amounts of violence, including among the student groups themselves via factioning. It eventually collapsed on itself shortly.

1960

Dates	Events
January 19	The U.S.-Japan Security Treaty is signed in Washington, D.C.
February 13	France tests its first nuclear bomb, becoming the world's fourth nuclear power.
May 1	The 1960 U-2 incident. An American U-2 spy plane violates Soviet airspace and is shot down over the Ural Mountains. CIA pilot Francis Gary Powers is taken prisoner and his confession brings to light the organization's activities in the region.
May	Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev announces missile aid to Cuba.
May	The South Vietnamese National Liberation Front (NLF) forms.
May 15	Sputnik 4 is launched. A glitch in its system, which is actually the result of sabotage caused by U.S. agents infiltrating the Soviet Union, causes it to go into higher orbit.
May 19	The U.S.-Japan Security Treaty is made effective.
May 27-June 6	Three telephone relays in Utah exploded due to sabotage, which resulted in the entire defense communication network being paralyzed due to it being composed of ordinary telephone lines. This event likewise ultimately resulted in the development of ARPANET, in order to allow an improved communication system to withstand a nuclear attack.
June 30	The Congo Crisis begins. Constituting a series of civil wars, it is also a proxy conflict in the Cold War in which the Soviet Union and United States support opposing factions. Che Guevara is involved in the conflict.
July	A Soviet rocket explodes on the launch pad before it can achieve liftoff.
July 12	The Malayan Emergency ends.
August 21	Sputnik 5 is launched, containing two dogs, two lab rats, and several plants.
August 22	Sputnik 5 achieves reentry, and the animal test subjects are recovered easily.
September	Two NSA code breakers, ADAM and EVA, defect to the Soviet Union.
October 23	The movie The Magnificent Seven is released.
	Revisions towards the U.S.-Japan Security Treaty spark mass protests, especially in Okinawa.
	The Mafia sting operations begin in Chicago.

1961

Dates	Events
January 3	Cuban and American diplomatic relations end.
January 20	John F. Kennedy assumes office as the 35th President of the United States.
Late January	NASA successfully places a chimpanzee named Ham into orbit.
February	The U.S. conducts the first test of the Minutemen intercontinental ballistic missile.
February 4	The Angolan War of Independence begins.
April 12	The USSR launches Vostok 1, the first manned spacecraft in history, piloted by Yuri Gagarin. Russian scientist Nikolai Stepanovich Sokolov designed the multi-engine cluster for the Vostok Program.
April 12, 01:30	The Boss enters space, secretly achieving America's first manned space flight through the Mercury Project. The U.S. loses the space race to Gagarin by only a few minutes. The Boss returns to Earth, but is injured in the crash landing and enters a coma for six months.
	Sokolov begins development of the Shagohod.
April 15 — April 19	The CIA launch Operation Zapata. The Bay of Pigs Invasion. The U.S. Government uses the opportunity to cover up The Boss's failed space flight attempt by stating that she took part in the invasion. The Pentagon begins to feel threatened by the CIA's growing influence in the U.S. military's affairs.
	President Kennedy falls into disfavor with the Philosophers.
	A group of university students create the Sandinista National Liberation Front in Nicaragua. Their aim is to overthrow the Somoza regime and establish a Marxist state.
May 5	Alan Shepard officially becomes the first American in rocket flight aboard the Redstone Rocket.
May 28	The military considers developing and adopting ARPANET after the destruction of telephone relay stations paralyzes defense communication systems.
August	American movie The Guns of Navarone is released.
August 13	Construction begins on the Berlin Wall in Germany.
September 1	The Eritrean War of Independence begins.
September 21	The U.S. Army 5th Special Forces Group is activated by President Kennedy due to the need of special units with insurgency combat expertise.
September 25	President Kennedy delivers a speech to the UN General Assembly, citing that it is only though the UN that the world can find an alternate method from war.
October	The Soviet Union conducts its first atomic test in space above Russia.
October	Japanese movie Last War is released.
October 30	The Soviet Union tests the Tsar Bomba, the largest nuclear weapon in existence, over the Arctic.
December	President Kennedy announces increase in deployed troops to aid South Vietnam.
	The Boss infiltrates the Soviet Union's OKB-1 without CIA permission and discovers that Sputnik 5 features a pilot ejection system, reporting her findings to NASA. The CIA later lies to the recently inaugurated Kennedy, taking credit for the discovery and blaming The Boss for previous misinformation supplied by her sleeper agent.
	The Vz61 Scorpion is developed in Czechoslovokia.

Warning: The following information is from outside Hideo Kojima's core "Metal Gear Saga." Its canonicity within the continuity is disputed, therefore reader discretion is advised.[?]

Dates	Events
	Jack and Python undertake a secret mission in Vietnam, during which Python is severely wounded.

Non-"Metal Gear Saga" information ends here.

1962

Dates	Events
January	The Navy SEALs are formed.
February 20	The Mercury-Atlas 6 (Friendship 7) is launched, sending John Glenn into space. This is the first time an American orbits the Earth.
July 9	The Starfish Prime test is conducted at Johnston Island, detonating a nuclear weapon at a high altitude. This concept later allows for the potential of using Nuclear weapons as EMP devices.
Early September — October	Major Zero uses a mole to help Dr. Sokolov's family defect from the Soviet Union to the U.S. Shortly afterwards, Sokolov himself is evacuated. After two weeks and over 1,000km (600mi) of travel, Sokolov arrives in West Berlin, and is checked into a hospital due to exhaustion.
October	British spy James Bond makes his first movie appearance in Dr. No.
October 14 — November 20	A U.S. Lockheed U-2 surveillance craft discovers Soviet missiles in Cuba. The Cuban Missile Crisis. A Russian sub commander refuses to launch a nuclear-armed torpedo at an American destroyer. Sokolov is sent back to Russia as a result of the crisis.
December	The north of Borneo (Malaysia) secedes from Indonesia. The British SAS are sent to Malaysia to fight the Indonesians, utilizing the effectiveness of shotguns in jungle warfare. This prompts the Soviet Union to conduct research in Tselinoyarsk, regarding the use of shotguns in jungle guerrilla combat.
December 14	The Mariner 2 approaches Venus and begins scanning the planet, revealing that it has cool clouds and an extremely hot surface. The Mariner 2 later approaches Mars and sends back data relating to the planet.
	The Boss carries out a covert mission in Tselinoyarsk, where she is ordered to kill The Sorrow, her former lover.
	The Laotian Civil War begins.
	The United States begins production of the Davy Crockett nuclear missiles. Although it enters mass-production, it is never actually deployed in battle due to problems with the launcher's precision and range.
	Major Zero creates the FOX Unit, also known as Force Operation X, a special services division of the CIA. Jack is part of the organization.
	The SS-1C Scud-B missiles, designed by Aleksandr Leonovitch Granin, are deployed.
	Chico is born.

Warning: The following information is from outside Hideo Kojima's core "Metal Gear Saga." Its canonicity within the continuity is disputed, therefore reader discretion is advised.[?]

Dates	Events
	Boris Vyacheslavovich Popov is born.
	After failing to build a missile base in Cuba, the Soviet Union searches for an alternate location close to the U.S.

Non-"Metal Gear Saga" information ends here.

1963

Dates	Events
April 1	Ending a 114 day strike led by Bertram A. Powers, The New York Times publishes a 702 page Sunday edition.
May	An American agent working within GRU, Oleg Penkovsky, is arrested and executed by the KGB.
June 16	Valentina Tereshkova boards the Vostok 6 and becomes the first female cosmonaut.
June 19	The movie Jason and the Argonauts is released.
June 20	The United States and the Soviet Union sign the Hotline Agreement; a direct telephone connection is set up between the U.S. and Soviet leaders.
July 4	The movie The Great Escape is released.
August 5	The United States, the United Kingdom, and the Soviet Union sign the Partial Test Ban Treaty (PTBT) in the Kremlin. The PTBT bans atmospheric, space-based, and underwater testing of nuclear weapons.
October	The James Bond movie From Russia with Love is released.
November	John le Carré publishes The Spy Who Came in from the Cold.
November 22	President Kennedy is assassinated. Lyndon B. Johnson becomes the 36th President of the United States.
	The M63 is developed and released.
Late 1963	10,000 U.S. military advisors stationed in South Vietnam, with 100,000 South Vietnamese civilians serving the U.S. military.
	Vietnam War: The 1963 death toll is 78 American soldiers, 8,100 South Vietnamese soldiers, and 20,600 NIF soldiers.

1964

Dates	Events
	Anti-Vietnam War protests begin. Kazuhira Miller witnesses the rise of this movement as a college student in America.
January	The Simba Rebellion occurs within the Congo, which necessitates the hiring of the mercenary group 5 Commando.
January 11	The United States Department of Health announces that cigarettes can cause lung cancer.
January 24	The MACV-SOG is established. A highly classified, multi-service United States special operations unit, SOG conducts covert unconventional warfare operations prior to and during the Vietnam War. The CIA is heavily involved in the unit's activities and operations.
January 29	The movie Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb is released.
February	The Soviets begin testing the Shagohod's nuclear strike-capability at Semipalatinsk.
February 19	The Umbrellas of Cherbourg is released in France.
July 2	President Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act.
July 4	The Rhodesian Civil War begins, fought between the white minority ruling government of Rhodesia and the allied ZANU/ZAPU militant organizations.
July 24	The Boss, using a Philosopher spy network, discovers that Sokolov is sent back to the OKB-754 research facility to complete the Shagohod, and that the weapon itself is nearing completion.
August 2; August 4	Gulf of Tonkin incident. The USS Maddox gets into a crossfire with three North Vietnamese torpedo boats.
August 17—23	A female Chinese spy, under the alias of Tatyana, infiltrates Tselinoyarsk and convinces researcher Nikolai Stephanovich Sokolov that she is working for Khrushchev to obtain the Shagohod data.
August 24	Virtuous Mission. Naked Snake performs the world's first High Altitude Low Opening (HALO) jump and infiltrates Tselinoyarsk to rescue Nikolai Stepanovich Sokolov. The Boss defects to the Soviet Union, kidnapping Sokolov and severely injuring Snake. Colonel Volgin destroys OKB-754 with a Davy Crockett. Snake is extracted and placed in an Intensive Care Unit.
August 29	USSR-chairman Nikita Khrushchev calls US-President Lyndon B. Johnson, telling him that he is being pressured by higher ups in the Soviet military into demanding that the United States make-up for their supposed nuclear attack on Sokolov's research facility by „catching“ The Boss and recovering the nuclear warhead in Volgin's possession.
August 30	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 2	Operation Snake Eater is declared a success: The Shagohod is destroyed; The Boss and the Cobra Unit are eliminated; Colonel Volgin is rendered comatose; Snake recovers the fake Philosophers' Legacy microfilm. EVA, an agent for China, steals the fake microfilm and takes it to China.
September	Naked Snake is awarded the title of "Big Boss. He leaves FOX shortly thereafter.
Post-Operation Snake Eater	The Philosophers' Legacy that EVA stole is revealed to be fake. Half of the real Legacy is returned to the CIA by KGB double agent Ocelot.
	The comatose Volgin is transported to a research facility on the outskirts of Moscow.
	Code Talker begins research on The End's remains. This eventually lead to him replicating The End's unique parasites, successfully recreating and personally adopting the ability to photosynthesize in the process.
September 21	The first test flight of the XB-70, a heavy bomber airplane which can fly at Mach 3 speeds.
September 25	The Mozambican War of Independence begins. It is an armed conflict between the guerrilla forces of the Mozambique Liberation Front or FRELIMO (Frente de Libertação de Moçambique) and Portugal.
October	The Tokyo Olympics is held.
October 12	Three cosmonauts are sent into space aboard the Voskhod 1, becoming the first multi-man crew sent to space.
October 15	Premier Khrushchev resigns from his position. Leonid Brezhnev becomes Party First Secretary.
October 16	China successfully concludes its first tests of nuclear weaponry at the Lop Nur testing site in the Taika Makan desert, and becomes the world's fifth nuclear power.
December 11	The Three Non-Nuclear Principles are introduced in Japan, which means non-production, non-possession, and non-introduction of nuclear weapons.
	The tortilla chip brand Doritos is produced.
	The movie A Fistful of Dollars is released.
	The FARC begin an armed rebellion against the Colombian government with support from Cuba and the Soviet Union.

Warning: The following information is from outside Hideo Kojima's core "Metal Gear Saga." Its canonicity within the continuity is disputed, therefore reader discretion is advised.[?]

Dates	Events
Post-Operation Snake Eater	Nikolai Sokolov survives with the help of a Fake Death Pill and is imprisoned in a Gulag. He is later freed by FOX operative Gene, and reunites with his family in the United States.
	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 the missile silos.

Non-"Metal Gear Saga" information ends here.

1965

Dates	Events
January 30	The U.S. officially enters the Vietnam conflict.
March 2	The U.S. begins bombing North Vietnam.
	Sigint joins ARPA and takes part in the development of ARPAnet.
November 1	The First Chadian Civil War begins.
November 25	The Congo Crisis ends, with the revolution ending in failure.

1966

Dates	Events
	The U.S. government conducts a study on emergency medical treatment. The Department of Transportation lays the groundwork for the creation of the EMS system.
	AH56A attack helicopter prototype is developed, a product of the Advanced Aerial Fire Support System (AAFSS) concept.
	Student movement for reform begins at Strasbourg University.
	A Soviet engineer publishes an article on how to calculate the radar-reflecting surface area of an aircraft.
	The M870 shotgun is adopted by the United States Marine Corps.

Warning: The following information is from outside Hideo Kojima's core "Metal Gear Saga." Its canonicity within the continuity is disputed, therefore reader discretion is advised.[?]

Dates	Events
	Big Boss encounters the child soldier Frank Jaeger during the Mozambican War of Independence. Jaeger is rescued by Big Boss and placed in a care facility, where he is later taken by the CIA for the Perfect Soldier Project.
	Gene (Viper) rescues a girl with ESP and split personality disorder from an East German lab.

Non-"Metal Gear Saga" information ends here.

1967

Dates	Events
February 10	The 25th Amendment to the United States Constitution is adopted.
February 14	The Treaty of Tlatelolco is signed with the intention of making Latin America into a nuclear-free zone.
June 5	The Suez Canal is blocked by Egypt following the events of the Six-Day War.
October 7—9	Che Guevara is captured by the Bolivian Special Forces, with support from the CIA, and executed. French philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre later declares him to be "the most complete human being of our age."
	The United States starts launching Apollo Program missions, with the intention of sending a man on the moon.
	The United States begin deployment and launching of the Saturn V, the largest launch vehicle ever built.
	The CIA initiates the Phoenix Program, designed to identify and "neutralize" (via infiltration, capture, terrorism, torture, and assassination) the infrastructure of the Viet Cong.
	China conducts its first hydrogen bomb test.
	The Report from Iron Mountain is published.

1968

Dates	Events
	EVA disappears in Hanoi without a trace.
February 12	Bon Curry is released in Japan.
April 2nd-4	The movie 2001: A Space Odyssey is released.
April 22	The Treaty of Tlatelolco is made effective.
May	The May 1968 protest occurs in France, nearly collapsing French President Charles de Gaulle's government.
July 1	The Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty is opened for signatures.
	Kazuhira Miller joins the Japan Self-Defense Forces.

1969

Dates	Events
July 14—18	A war breaks out between Honduras and El Salvador because of political instability between the two nations as well as the results of a soccer match.
July 20	The Apollo Program puts the first man on the moon.
	A ceasefire between Honduras and El Salvador takes effect.
November 17	SALT-1 negotiations are initiated, in order to limit the number of deployed U.S. and Soviet ballistic missiles, provoking a détente era between the two countries.
December 5	The United States Department of Defense and ARPA establish ARPAnet, the basis for the Internet, and sends its first message.
	OPANAL is formed.

Warning: The following information is from outside Hideo Kojima's core "Metal Gear Saga." Its canonicity within the continuity is disputed, therefore reader discretion is advised.[?]

Dates	Events
	Construction of the secret Soviet missile base on the San Hieronymo Peninsula are abandoned, and many Russian soldiers are forced to remain stationed there.

Non-"Metal Gear Saga" information ends here.