I managed to miss a year, so in the interests of getting inspiration out well in advance so people can write games, here’s some historical inspiration from Wikipedia for next year. 2021’s list is here.
1997
- Dolly the clone-sheep
- Transfer of Hong Kong
- The Sandline Affair in PNG
- Kyoto Protocol adopted
- Film: Titanic, Event Horizon
- TV: Buffy the Vampire Slayer begins. Rainbow ends.
- Books: Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, The Subtle Knife, To Say Nothing of the Dog
- RPGs: DELTA GREEN, Legend of the Five Rings, Cthulhu Live
- Computer games: Fallout, Grand Theft Auto
1972
- The first even convention of Trekkies is held
- Libertarians found a microstate at Minerva Reef
- The Watergate burglary
- The Munich Massacre
- Film: The Godfather, The Poseidon Adventure, Cabaret
- TV: MASH, Emmerdale Farm
- Books: The Stepford Wives, Roadside Picnic, Watership Down, A Blueprint for Survival
- Computer games: Pong
1947
- The Roswell Incident
- McCarthyism and the blacklisting of the Hollywood Ten
- Partition of India
- The Doomsday Clock is introduced, and set at 7 minutes to midnight
- first paper on antibiotic reistance is published
- Births: Octavia E. Butler, Stephen King
- Deaths: Baroness Orczy, Arthur Machen
1922
- Howard Carter discovers Tutankhamun’s tomb
- Irish civil war begins
- Set in 1922: The Great Gatsby
- Film: Nosferatu, Dr. Mabuse the Gambler
1897
- Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee (if you want an excuse for a high Victorian steampunk game)
- Opening of the Grand Guignol theatre
- Books: The War of the Worlds, Dracula
- Births: Enid Blyton
1872
- The Mary Celeste is found abandoned at sea
- First translation of the Epic of Gilgamesh
- end of Te Kooti’s War
- Books: Around the World in Eighty Days, Middlemarch
1847
- Births: Bram Stoker
- Books: Vanity Fair, Wuthering Heights
1822
- Charles Babbage publishes a proposal for a Difference Engine
1722
- Books: Moll Flanders