Timeline

In A Nutshell
The world of Fallout takes place in an alternate history diverging from our own after World War 2. The microchip was never invented, atomic power became widespread powering everything from cities to the car you drove, and American culture retained the look and culture of the 1950s far into the 21st century.

In 2077, World War 3 began and ended with the launch of nuclear weapons that laid waste to the entire world. Some areas were worse off, Washington DC was hit with multiple nukes, while some were only subject to radiation storms brought on by near-by detonations. St. Louis, Missouri was one of these sites. The attackers chose to attack the near-by Scott Air Force Base in lieu of the city of St. Louis. While the bombs used were of lesser yield, their radioactive properties were enhanced, designed to bring about the worst possible nuclear fallout possible.

In the year 2192, our heroes emerge from their vault, unprepared for the life that awaits them.

1945

 * May 7: Germany surrenders to the Allied Powers, and World War II ends in Europe.
 * July 16: The first atomic bomb is detonated by the United States during the Trinity Test on the test site of Los *Alamos National Laboratories, New Mexico.
 * August 6: The Little Boy atomic bomb is deployed by the United States onto the Japanese city of Hiroshima.
 * August 9: The Fat Man atomic bomb is deployed by the United States onto the Japanese city of Nagasaki.
 * September 2: Japan officially surrenders to the Allied Powers, and World War II completely comes to an end.
 * October 24: The United Nations are established.

1948

 * July 21: A Boeing B-29-100-BW Superfortress crashes into Lake Mead, remaining mostly intact.

1949

 * October 1: The People's Republic of China is founded by the Chinese Communist Party and its leader Mao Zedong.

1951

 * Local Boston journalist William Schofield conceives the Freedom Trail that would connect important local historical landmarks. Boston mayor John Hynes decides to put Schofield's idea into action.

1950s

 * Mr. Pebbles becomes the first cat to be launched into space by USA.

1961

 * May 5: Captain Carl Bell of the United States Space Agency becomes the first human to enter space; this claim is disputed by both the Soviet Union and China. Captain Bell's flight in Space Capsule Defiance 7 lasts only twelve minutes and seven seconds, and makes a full revolution around Earth. Bell dies when the capsule crashes on its return to Earth.

1969

 * By this year, the United States is divided into thirteen commonwealths, each of which encompasses several states.
 * The national flag is changed to reflect the division and depicts fourteen stars - thirteen in a circle to represent the commonwealths and one in the middle to represent the federal government and the nation as a whole.
 * July 16: The Virgo II Lunar Lander Valiant 11 with U.S.S.A. astronauts Captain Richard Wade, Captain Mark Garris, and Captain Michael Hagen lands on the Moon. The astronauts become the first humans to walk on a celestial body other than Earth.
 * November 14: Virgo III Lander Valiant 12 lands on the Moon.

2002

 * The West Tek Research Facility is founded.

2016

 * Wonderglue is established this year.

2020

 * The Delta IX rocket is commissioned by the U.S.S.A. The Delta IX rocket is the last of the manned rockets to the Moon.

2021

 * Hubris Comics begins publishing comic books, one of their most popular is Grognak the Barbarian.

2034

 * The Delta IX rocket is converted for U.S. military purposes. Crew and instrument sections are replaced with a nuclear warhead.

2037

 * The Mister Handy series of robots is first brought to market as a general construction and maintenance unit by General Atomics International.

2042

 * A major earthquake takes place in Mexico City. The Mister Handy general construction robot becomes the leader in sales in Mexico.
 * Wilson Automatoys is established in Boston, Massachusetts.
 * Giddyup Buttercup, a product of Wilson Automatoys, is copyrighted.
 * June 25: Robert House founds RobCo Industries.

2044

 * Nuka-Cola is invented by John-Caleb Bradberton.
 * The Great Passion Fruit Famine hits America. People actually notice the taste difference in Nuka-Cola when the passion fruit flavor is removed.

2049

 * Mass Fusion Company is founded by Karl Oslow.

2051

 * Seeking to protect business interests and their oil supply, the United States begins to exert increasing pressure on Mexico, citing the political instability and pollution stemming from Mexico as a threat to the United States. Various economic sanctions serve to destabilize Mexico, and the United States military enters Mexico to keep the oil refineries running and making sure oil and fuel continue to make their way north across the border at Mexico's expense.
 * The N99 10mm pistol becomes standard issue military sidearm following the phase out of the N80.

2052

 * A television documentary revealing the withered husk of the Texas oil fields brings the oil shortage into American households and reveals how deep the energy crisis runs.
 * The last manned mission to the Moon occurs.
 * The widely known Nuka-Cola’s Dazzling Blue bottle color is adopted as standard after market research programs indicated that the blue color was the favorite in 86 people out of a hundred polled.
 * March 5: The socially transmitted "New Plague" arises, killing tens of thousands. The United States closes its borders and the first-ever national quarantine is declared. The source of the plague is unknown, but rumors persist that it is a genetically engineered weapon.
 * April: The Resource Wars begin. Many smaller nations go bankrupt, and Europe, dependent on oil imports from the Middle East, responds to the Middle East's rising oil prices with military action. The long drawn-out war between the European Commonwealth and the Middle East begins.
 * May - July: The United Nations, already suffering, begins to collapse. In a series of heated debates, many nations withdraw from the organization as the U.N. tries to keep the peace.
 * July 26: The United Nations is officially disbanded.

2054

 * REPCONN Aerospace is founded following the first launch of the Delta IX rocket.
 * January: Limited nuclear exchange in the Middle East raises fears throughout the world.
 * In light of the European-Middle Eastern War and the plague scare, the United States officially sets Project Safehouse in motion. The project, financed by junk bonds, is designed to create shelters, called Vaults, for the populace in the event of a nuclear war or deadly plague. Construction begins late in 2054 and proceeds rapidly due to advances in construction technology.

2055

 * West Tek starts working on a new virus to kill the New Plague. Their viral research and close ties to the federal government eventually lead to them being chosen for the Pan-Immunity Virion Project twenty years later as well as power infantry armor and laser research.

2057

 * February: United States government removes the Grand Canyon's protected status as a national park.
 * May: Uranium mining begins in the Grand Canyon. The Grand Canyon is closed indefinitely.

2059

 * The Anchorage Front Line is established, as the United States increases its military presence in Alaska to protect its oil interests. The Anchorage Front Line causes tensions between the United States and Canada, as the United States attempts to pressure Canada into allowing American military units to guard the Alaskan pipeline.
 * The first artificial intelligence is born. Limited by memory constraints, its expansion is rapidly halted. The discovery paves the way for future A.I. research in laboratories throughout the United States.

2060

 * Traffic on the streets of the world stops moving. Fuel becomes too precious to waste on automobiles, so alternatives are explored - electric and fusion cars begin to be manufactured, but factories can only make limited amounts while conserving fuel. The U.S. economy teeters on bankruptcy. Pressure on fusion research increases.
 * The European-Middle Eastern War ends as the oil fields in the Middle East run dry. There is no longer a goal in the conflict, and both sides are reduced almost to ruin.
 * The European Commonwealth dissolves into quarreling nation states, fighting over the remaining resources.
 * Late in the year, the U.S. military begins deploying cargobots in West Virginia.

2061

 * March: Construction of Vault 108 begins.

2062

 * May: Construction of Vault 92 begins.
 * Despite quarantine measures, the New Plague continues to spread, fueling national paranoia.

2063

 * August: The construction of most vaults are completed, except for Vault 13, whose construction finally gets off the ground heralding a development cycle that seems plagued with problems. Drills begin in the other cities with completed vaults, but the increasing frequency of the drills has a "cry wolf" effect, and the turnouts for drills trickle off as the years go on.
 * Grognak & the Ruby Ruins holotape game is released to the public by Hubris Comics Game Studio.

2064

 * March: Construction of Vault 106 begins.

2065

 * Robert House concludes that atomic war would devastate the Earth within 15 years after every projection he ran deemed it a mathematical certainty.
 * February: Construction of Vault 76 begins.
 * June: Due to enormous demands for electricity from a 17+ million population, a nuclear reactor in New York City goes supercritical, almost causing a meltdown. The near meltdown brings into effect power rationing, and the term "Hot Summer" is used to refer to this incident.
 * August: Increasing need for mobility in the United States mechanized cavalry leads the military to focus the efforts on creating a man-based tank - essentially, a two-legged walking armored unit: power armor. Research grows until 2067 and several prototypes are developed, many of which prove to be unworkable in the field. These prototypes pave the way for future advances in military, construction and fusion technology.

2066

 * Resource rationing in Denver causes riots. Midwest U.S.A. and Mexico start having food shortages and can't supply Denver with the food it needs. Food riots occur. National Guard called in.
 * With more important things to spend their money on, Poseidon Energy closes the inefficient and dangerous Eagle Rock mine complex and sells it to the U.S. government.
 * May: Construction of Vault 87 begins.
 * Spring: As the oil resources dry up across the globe, China's fossil fuel dependency causes an energy crisis in the nation. China, bordering on collapse, becomes more aggressive in its trade talks with the United States. The United States' unwillingness to export oil to China leads to a breakdown in talks between the two countries.
 * Summer: Adding further insult to the Sino-American relations, the first crude fusion cell is unveiled, one of the results of the power armor project. Devices designed for the fusion cell begin to be manufactured. Incorporating fusion power into the general U.S. infrastructure begins, but the process is too slow to supply power to the regions that need it. Nearly eleven years later, few sections of the United States are supplied with fusion power.
 * Winter: In the winter of 2066, China invades Alaska, and the U.S. Congress declares war upon China. The Anchorage Front Line becomes a true battleground.
 * The U.S. Navy missile cruiser USS Ebon Atoll is accidentally sunk by the U.S. Navy Submarine USS Interference during the Anchorage Campaign. The Interference mistook the Ebon Atoll for an enemy vessel and shot it with a nuclear torpedo killing all on board. It is one of the worst U.S. Navy disasters since World War II.
 * Winter: As a sign of increasing tension between the two countries, Canada proves reluctant to allow American troops on Canadian soil or allow American planes to fly over Canadian airspace. American and Canadian tensions rise, but Canada eventually backs down, and U.S. troops pass through Canada. This sets the stage for the Canadian annexation in 2076.

2067

 * The first suit of T-45d power armor is deployed in Alaska. While lacking the full mobility of future versions, this power armor is incredibly effective against Chinese tanks and infantry. Its ability to carry heavy ordnance becomes key in various localized conflicts, and it has the power to destroy entire towns without endangering the wearer. China rushes to create its own versions, but they are many years behind the United States.
 * By this year, a Nuka-Cola vending machine can be found on almost every street in America.

2068

 * May: Construction of Vault 92 ends.
 * November: Construction of Vault 112 begins.

2069

 * Canada begins to feel the pressure from the United States military as the U.S. draws upon Canadian resources for the war effort. Vast stretches of timberland are destroyed, and other resources in Canada are stretched to the breaking point. Many Americans refer to Canada as Little America, and Canadian protests are unheard.
 * February 11: By order of the U.S. government, all Patriot's Cookbook magazines are banned and incinerated. However, many magazines still remain in circulation.
 * March: Vault 13 is finally completed - it is the last of the vaults on the West Coast, and drills begin. Due to its late completion, the "cry wolf" effect that hurt the other vaults is not as pronounced.
 * October: Construction of Vault 76 ends.
 * December: Construction of Vault 106 and Vault 108 ends. Vault 108 was in construction for 8 years due to work stoppage.

2070

 * The first of the Chryslus Motors fusion-driven cars are developed. Reassuringly big and American, the limited models carry a hefty price tag but are sold out within days. Many Chryslus plants have long since been converted into making military ordnance.

2071

 * December: Construction of Vault 87 ends.

2072

 * June 3: Canada begins to be fully annexed by U.S.A. It is fully integrated by January 2076.
 * The United States' increasing demand for Canadian resources causes protests and riots in several Canadian cities. An attempted sabotage of the Alaskan pipeline is all the military needs as an excuse to finalize its annexation of Canada, which had already begun in 2067.

2073

 * September 15: As China becomes increasingly aggressive with their use of biological weapons, the United States government feels that a countermeasure was needed. The Pan-Immunity Virion Project is officially formed and plans are made to begin experiments at the West Tek Research Facility in Southern California.

2074

 * Contrary to their claims of seeking only to retake Alaska from the Reds, American power armor units, infantry and mechanized divisions are deployed to China, but they become bogged down on the mainland, putting a further drain on American resources and supply lines.
 * June: Construction of Vault 112 ends.
 * June 24: Negotiations between the U.S. and other world powers come to a dramatic end, with the president walking out of oil talks with the other world powers. After a much-heated debate, the president storms out of the meeting and declares that the last known supply of petroleum will be used exclusively by the U.S. and the U.S. will not sell or trade any oil to outside parties.

2075

 * RobCo Industries copyrights the Unified Operating System. This system is used for operating the RobCo terminals. The copyright is renewed for each of the next two years.
 * RobCo brings up plans to purchase REPCONN Aerospace, threatening a hostile takeover otherwise.
 * March 21: PVP experiments continue at West Tek with batch 10-011, in the wake of successful tests of the virus on single-celled organisms. Experiments on plant cells are postponed. The pan-immunity virion is renamed Forced Evolutionary Virus (FEV).
 * May 9: FEV experiments continue at West Tek with batch 10-011, in the wake of successful tests on flatworms; the flatworms exhibit increased size and heightened resistance to viral contagions. Experiments with insects have less success, and further experimentation on insects is postponed by Major Barnett.
 * May: Vault 112 seals two years early.
 * June 30: FEV experiments continue at West Tek with batch 10-011, with white mice as subjects. Increased size, muscle density and intelligence are noted.
 * August: The United States Space Administration awards contracts to ArcJet Systems to develop the XMB booster engine and deep range transmitter for their Mars Shot Project, a manned mission to Mars.
 * November: Unidentified submarine contacts, rumored to be stealth subs of the Chinese "Ghost Fleet" are spotted by U.S. monitoring stations A-31 and B-19, but no further sightings are reported.
 * November 9: FEV experimentation (batch 10-011) on rabbits is concluded. Increased size, intelligence and aggression is noted; it is difficult to determine whether the flatworms in the previous experiments were angrier and more violent than normal. Frankly, the researchers cannot be blamed for this.

2076

 * REPCONN Aerospace is bought out by RobCo Industries.
 * January 3: A military team under the command of Colonel Spindel is sent to the West Tek research facility to monitor the experiments in the interest of national security, due to fears of international espionage. Captain Roger Maxson (the grandfather of John Maxson, the High Elder of the Brotherhood of Steel in 2161) is among the team personnel.
 * January 12: Splicing in several new gene sequences into their test virus, dogs are injected with batch 11-101a at West Tek. Although increased strength is noted, increased intelligence is not. Using batch 11-011, experiments are conducted on raccoons. The same results are noted, but the attempted escape of several infected raccoons causes Major Barnett to terminate the experiment... and the test subjects.
 * January: The United States annexation of Canada is complete. Canadian protesters and rioters are shot on sight, and the Alaskan Pipeline swarms with American military units. Pictures of atrocities make their way to the United States, causing further unrest and protests.
 * April 15: Once all secondary tests and studies are done on the test subjects, all dogs from the batch 11-101a Forced Evolutionary Virus (FEV) tests at West Tek are terminated... from a safe distance.
 * June: Power armor prototype completed, resulting in the T-51b power armor. This is the pinnacle of power armor technology before the Great War. Many of these units are sent to China, and they begin to carve a swath through the Chinese forces. The Chinese resources are strained to the breaking point, and the supply lines from the nations China has annexed begin to break down.
 * July 4: The United States celebrates its Tricentennial. Vault-Tec opens Vault 76 in honor of the event.
 * August: Food and energy riots begin in major cities throughout the United States. Military units begin to be deployed in cities within the United States to contain rioters; many temporary prisons are constructed. A state of emergency is declared and martial law soon follows.
 * October 4: At West Tek, fifteen chimpanzees are infected with batch 11-111. The most successful test to date, growth and immunities in the chimpanzees surpass all other subjects. The military practically drools over the results. Plans are made in secret to begin testing in small quarantine towns in North America, and the Mariposa Military Base construction is sped up in anticipation of moving the West Tek project to a location under military supervision.
 * October 20: Nuka-Cola Quantum is created.

2077
Maxson orders all families stationed outside the Mariposa facility moved inside. The Sole Survivor and their family evacuate from their home to Vault 111. Once inside, they and the other vault residents are placed in indefinite cryogenic suspension by Vault-Tec personnel.
 * Automobile coolant prices sky rocket with the regular coolant price being $7450.99 per gallon and $8500.99 per gallon for premium.
 * Robert House puts himself in stasis.
 * A Chinese sabotage attempt takes place at Hoover Dam.
 * New Plague hits Denver. Rioters burn down large parts of the city in their fear of contamination and anger at their treatment. Many panic and flee the city by car, clogging the freeways when they run out of gas and trapping everyone behind them.
 * January 7: Major Barnett orders transfer of all Forced Evolutionary Virus (FEV) research to the newly constructed Mariposa Military Base, despite objections by the research team.
 * January 10: Alaska is reclaimed, and the Anchorage Front Line is again held by the Americans.
 * January 22: The first domestic use of power armor within the United States for crowd and quarantine control begins. Units originally serving in China and the Anchorage Front Line find themselves fighting Americans at home. Food riots increase and many civilians are killed. Several soldiers defect from the military, both in Canada and the United States. They are captured and sent to military prisons.
 * February: FEV Research is leaked to the world through an unknown source. Protests arise in many major cities and governments around the world, as well as accusations that the United States is responsible for the New Plague. F.E.V. is seen as the threat, and serves only to fuel tensions. The governments of the world fear what the U.S. is up to, speculating anything from trying to make a breed of super soldier to trying to make Hitler's master race, they begin to panic.
 * March: Prepared for a nuclear or biological attack from China, the President and the Enclave retreat to the Poseidon oil rig and make contingency plans for continuing the war.
 * March: Vault Dweller's Survival Guide is published by Vault-Tec.
 * October 10: The Army detachment at Mariposa discovers that the scientists have been using "military volunteers" (military prisoners who didn't have their brains scooped for use in brain bots) as test subjects in their experiments. Morale in the base breaks down, and in light of Colonel Robert Spindel's mental breakdown, the men turn to Captain Roger Maxson for leadership.
 * October 13: After an interrogation, Maxson executes Robert Anderson, the chief scientist at Mariposa.
 * October 15: Colonel Spindel commits suicide. All scientists are executed.
 * October 20: Captain Roger Maxson, now in control of Mariposa, declares himself to be in full desertion from the army via radio... and receives no reply.
 * October 21:
 * October 22: The platinum chip is processed in Sunnyvale, California. Mr. House expects the courier to arrive the following afternoon.
 * October 23: The Great War
 * Early morning: The Commander of the U.S. Pacific Fleet and the U.S. Air Force report sightings of possible Chinese submarines at 00:01 am EST and aircraft approaching U.S. territory at 03:37 am.
 * 09:13 am EST: The Integrated Operational Nuclear Detection System (IONDS) reports four probable launches of ballistic missiles. The U.S. Armed Forces go to DEFCON 2..
 * 09:17 am EST: NORAD confirms the IONDS report. The U.S. Armed Forces go to DEFCON 1. Bombers are scrambled for immediate takeoff.
 * 09:26 am EST: Response Scenario MX-CN91 is ordered by POTUS. Full nuclear retaliation is authorized. The bombs and missiles fly. Who struck first is unknown. Other countries, seeing the missiles on their way, launch their planes and fire their warheads as well. Air raid sirens sound, but very few people heed the warning, thinking it is a false alarm. The vaults are sealed. Two hours of nuclear bombardment ensues upon the earth's surface. The effects are far worse than most imagined. The Earth's faults shift violently, thrusting mountain ranges through the soil. Whole lands are submerged under floods of water.
 * 9:42 am: Nuclear strikes on New York City and Pennsylvania are confirmed.
 * 9:47 am: Washington D.C. and Boston are struck with nuclear weapons.
 * The Great Blackout: EMP produced by the bombing kills unshielded electronic devices such as vehicles and other machinery. It lasts for an unknown period of time.
 * The Sierra Madre Casino hermetically seals itself during the grand opening gala and the holographic security murders all of the guests except Dean Domino.
 * Vault 12 fails to close properly. Once it becomes known that the other vaults have sealed, people within Bakersfield attempt to force their way into Vault 12 to protect themselves and their families.
 * The West Tek research facility takes a direct hit, breaking open the FEV tanks on levels four and five and releasing it into the atmosphere. Mutated by radiation, it loses its mutagenic abilities, but it later complicates things for the Master.
 * The Mariposa Military Base survives, the soldiers within protected from the radiation and FEV flooding the wasteland.
 * Thirteen nuclear warheads obliterate Salt Lake City within seven minutes.
 * October 27: After burying the scientists in the wastes outside of Mariposa, the soldiers seal the military base, then head out into the desert, taking supplies and weapon schematics with them. Captain Maxson leads his men and families to the government bunker at Lost Hills.
 * October 30: A week after the initial blast, a black rain begins to fall, caused by the massive amounts of radioactive particle debris (mainly soot) from the nuclear firestorm a week earlier. Plants and animals both go rapidly into extinction.
 * November: Captain Maxson, his men and their families, arrive at the Lost Hills bunker a few weeks later, suffering many casualties along the way, including Maxson's wife (but not his teenage son). The surviving soldiers go on to become the Brotherhood of Steel.
 * November 2: Psychoactive drugs are released throughout Vault 106.

2078

 * January 28: Radiation levels on the surface become low enough for survivors to perform brief expeditions.
 * The dwellers of Vault 87 are locked in airtight chambers and exposed to the FEV by the vault's Overseer and his security, who are simply, though callously, following the "plan" laid out by Vault-Tec. The vault's population is transformed into hideous super mutants and centaurs.

2080

 * The first effects of radiation are seen in the survivors. Widespread mutations occur with animals and humans alike. Those that survive the effects of the mutations are permanently changed. New species are created almost overnight.

2083

 * Summer: The city of Necropolis is founded by the ghoul survivors of Vault 12 and the U.S. citizens that fled to Bakersfield when the bombs fell.

2084

 * Spring: Set takes control of Necropolis, wresting control from the original Overseer. The Vault 12 Overseer, not willing to take a dirt nap, is driven north and is lost to history.

2085

 * The planned date for the U.S. military to bring the Vertibird, a Vertical Take Off and Landing (VTOL) aircraft, into service. For obvious reasons, this never happens, but the Enclave resumes development after regaining its footing.

2090

 * Vault 29 opens. Harold sets out to make his fortune as a trader, making the circuit around the survivalist communities in the wasteland.

2091

 * Vault 8 opens, and they use their G.E.C.K. to create fertile ground for their city. This eventually becomes Vault City.

2092

 * LA Vault opens, the Boneyard is founded and attracts survivors.
 * Dr. Richard Moreau is exiled from Vault City for murder. The circumstances surrounding the murder are unknown, but he changes his last name to Grey and heads south.

2093

 * The Hub is founded by a man named Angus. He sets up camp around a filthy oasis in the desert and proceeds to begin trading with other settlements.

2096

 * Harold rises to the level of a caravan boss in the Hub. His caravans suffer occasional attacks in the wastes, but Harold's caravan outfit survives and prospers... until the mutant attacks begin to pick up a few years later.
 * February: The inhabitants of Vault 22 leave their vault due to an outbreak of mutated spores infecting most of the dwellers and overrunning the vault.

2097

 * A man named Jonathan Faust leads his group of about 200 people from the overcrowded Vault 15 into the wastes of the outside. Eventually, they become a raider band known as the Vipers.

2101

 * The Vault City Overseer retires and the Council of Citizens is established. The Council appoints the initial First Citizen.

2102

 * May 22: Increasing mutant attacks on Harold's caravans frustrate him to the point of financing and leading an expedition to find out where the mutants are coming from. Consulting with a scientist and doctor at the Hub, a man by the name of Grey, the two of them decide to join forces.
 * June 23: Richard Grey's expedition (including Harold) finds the Mariposa Military Base and is summarily scattered and defeated by the mutant inhabitants. Grey is knocked into one of the vats of Forced Evolutionary Virus (FEV) by a robotic arm, and Harold is knocked unconscious, only to awaken later out in the wasteland.
 * June 27: Harold, already mutating, is found by traders and taken back to the Hub. His former caravan partners and employees, horrified by his condition, abandon him.
 * July: Richard Grey, now horribly mutated by the virus, crawls from the vat, covered with FEV and in terrible pain. Barely able to think or perceive his surroundings, he crawls into the vat control room and begins his audio log. He fades in and out of consciousness, sometimes for days or weeks at a time.
 * July–November: Richard Grey begins to acclimate to his condition, and begins his first tests of animals by exposing them to FEV. These experiments and his growing awareness lay the foundation for his plans for the Unity and the master race. He takes the name "the Master".
 * October 23:Vault 76 opens its doors to the wasteland for Reclamation Day.
 * November: The first human victim wanders into Mariposa, and Grey consumes him.
 * December: Grey continues his experiments on wanderers that enter Mariposa with no success. The creations are flawed (due to the radiation counts in their bodies), making them big but incredibly stupid, and Grey consumes them rather than letting them live.

2103

 * January: The Master discovers the problem with the influence of radiation on his mutations, and he begins to choose his subjects more carefully. The first classic super mutants are born. He begins his plans to build an army.
 * 2103-2130: Throughout this period, the Master begins slowly gathering test subjects, willing or unwilling, from local human stock. The Great Winter of 2130 and the scarcity of human subjects make building his army difficult.

2110

 * The scientists and survivors in the subterranean levels of the Commonwealth Institute of Technology officially found The Institute.

2120

 * Angus rules over growing Hub and establishes himself as governor.

2125

 * Winter: Angus is murdered. The Hub is thrown into chaos.

2126

 * A band of merchants seizes the water tower in the Hub. They demand anyone wanting water must pay a toll. The Great Merchant Wars begin.
 * 2126-2128: The Great Merchant Wars are fought, the Water Merchants seal up the town, but are outnumbered.[65]

2127

 * Vault 101's original Overseer dies after grooming a subordinate to continue his work.

2128

 * A man named Roy Greene makes peace in the Hub and negotiates a settlement. The Hub's central council is formed, composed of two representatives from each of the Hub caravan companies. A long period of indecisiveness and meetings maintain the status quo in the Hub.

2131

 * 2131-2135: The Master begins ordering his super mutants to gather human stock from caravans. For many years, the caravan disappearances are blamed on monsters in the desert, and even when the abductions begin to occur on Hub caravans, the deathclaws are blamed. The super mutant army grows.

2134

 * A faction within the Brotherhood of Steel led by Sergeant Dennis Allen gains strength, and they urge the Elders to let them explore the southeast Glow for artifacts. The Elders refuse, so Allen and his separatist group splits away from the Brotherhood of Steel, taking some technology and weapons with them.
 * Led by Sergeant Dennis Allen, a small group of Brotherhood of Steel separatists make their way to the West Tek research facility in search of technological artifacts. They arrive there twenty days later, and are promptly chewed apart by the West Tek's unforgiving automated defense systems. Wounded, Allen begins to suffer radiation poisoning from a leak in his suit. Before he dies, he logs what happened to the expedition into a holodisk.

2135

 * Elder Roger Maxson dies of cancer. His son, already an accomplished soldier, takes up the role of "General" (Elder) within the Brotherhood of Steel. John Maxson becomes a member of the Paladins, showing tremendous promise as a soldier.

2137

 * The Master begins to mass-produce super mutants. Only about one in six or one in five attempts are successful, and of these successes, only half seem to last to go on to be part of his growing army, called the Unity.

2138

 * The cryogenically frozen Robert House regains consciousness.

2141

 * Spring: Vault 15 opens.
 * Winter: Raiders begin to organize in the region as food supplies run low. The Khans and the Vipers begin terrorizing local settlements.

2142

 * Spring: Shady Sands is founded and a wall is erected to protect the settlement from raiders.

2150

 * Around the early 2150s the Vipers recover from their defeat by Angus at the Hub, replenish their ranks from captured slaves and caravan drivers, and begin to establish a power base in the badlands to the north of the Hub (and south of the Lost Hills Bunker). Driven by a religious frenzy (and the need to provide for their much larger numbers of soldiers and disciples), they begin raiding more frequently than before, attracting the attention of the Brotherhood of Steel.

2152

 * As their influence slowly spreads throughout the wastes, the Master finds humans, doomsday cultists, and rather than dip them in the vats, he demands their obedience as spies - their leader is a man named Morpheus, an ex-member of the gang called the Rippers, and he pledges his followers to the Master. Morpheus and his cultists form the future core of the Children of the Cathedral.

2154

 * Vault 17 is raided and its inhabitants taken prisoner by the Master's Army. They are subsequently turned into super mutants.

2155

 * The Gun Runners begin their career as successful weapon manufacturers and merchants.
 * The Brotherhood sends out a few squads of scouts to track the Vipers down - it is more of a training exercise conducted by John Maxson's father, as the Brotherhood is convinced that a small detachment of troops in power armor would be sufficient to deal with a group of raiders, no matter how large. One Brotherhood squad, lead by Maxson, finds the Vipers. Expecting the raiders to break and run, Maxson doesn't take into account the religious ferocity of the Vipers (or their poisoned weapons), and when a single arrow nicks him with his helmet off, he dies within hours.
 * John Maxson takes up the role of Elder, and Rhombus becomes the new head of the Paladins.
 * The Paladins, now led by Rhombus, begin a full-scale campaign against the Vipers, tracking them down and wiping out almost all of their members within the span of a month. Some of the Vipers are able to flee north and east into the mountain range.
 * After capturing a caravan of vault dwellers, the Master learns the location of the Boneyard Vault, the future site of the Cathedral. He conquers the inhabitants and sets up operations there, and the human cultists begin to use the Vault as their powerbase. Within the Vault, the Master begins to send out patrols to Vault locations in search of these other Vaults. This move is finalized in the subsequent year, 2156.

2156

 * The Master sees advantages in establishing a benevolent "religion" (the Children of the Cathedral), and using them as spies in settlements throughout the wastes. Missionaries from the Children of the Cathedral spread slowly across the wasteland, acting as eyes and ears for Morpheus and the Master.

2157

 * The Master learns the location of the Bakersfield Vault, Vault 12, and sends a detachment of super mutants there to seize the vault. Many ghouls are snapped like twigs in the attack, and Set finally parleys with the super mutants, telling them that the ghouls are the vault survivors the super mutants are looking for. The super mutants, angered at failing to find an intact vault, set up a small garrison at the watershed to watch the inhabitants and ensure Set's...cooperation in the war to come.

2159

 * Jon Zimmerman hires a band of mercenaries known as the Regulators to help protect Adytum from the deathclaw and the odd random attack by raiders.

2161

 * Harold appears in the Hub's Old Town.
 * October: A Brotherhood of Steel patrol comes across a dead super mutant in the badlands. They take the corpse back to the Scribes, and Head Scribe Vree begins her examinations of the super mutant.
 * December 5, 07:21: (Fallout begins) Vault 13's Overseer, Jacoren, sends the Vault Dweller out into the wastes to find a replacement of the Vault 13 water chip.
 * December 15: The Vault Dweller discovers Shady Sands and meets Tandi, and Ian, who join the Vault Dweller in searching for the water chip.
 * December 30: The Vault Dweller recruits Dogmeat in Junktown.
 * December: Killian Darkwater takes firm control of Junktown, drives out the last of Gizmo's kind, and then enforces his own brand of frontier justice. Life is fair and safe under his law.
 * December: Thanks to the Vault Dweller's persistence, the Khans are completely destroyed, leaving only one survivor named Darion.

2162

 * January 17: The Vault Dweller reaches the Hub and negotiates with the Water Merchants to deliver water to Vault 13, buying the Vault some time.
 * January: With the Vault Dweller's assistance, Harold brings the new ghoul population of the Hub into equality with the humans. The two sides work together, and the Hub prospers.
 * February 13: The Vault Dweller recovers the water chip in Necropolis. Ian is killed by a super mutant and reduced to a cinder.
 * February 23: The Children of the Cathedral send their doctor to Junktown.
 * March 3: The Vault Dweller defeats the Master.
 * March 5: The Boneyard is invaded by the Master's Army.
 * March 24: The Master's Army attack Necropolis, killing all of the ghoulish inhabitants except Lenny, Cain and another ghoul hiding behind a library, leaving a truly dead city behind them.
 * April 4: The Master's Army invades the Hub.
 * April 20: The Vault Dweller destroys the Mariposa Military Base. Dogmeat, being colorblind, doesn't recognize a forcefield and charges into it, dying defending his master.
 * May 10: Fallout ends - The Vault Dweller returns to Vault 13, only to be told to leave by Jacoren. Some members of the vault (led by Theresa, the head of the "return to the surface" faction, and including her supporters, Pat and Lyle), follow soon afterwards. The Vault Dweller marches into the wasteland, leaving Vault 13 behind.
 * May 23: The Master's Army invades the Lost Hills bunker. The Brotherhood of Steel help the other human outposts drive the Master's Army away with minimal loss of life on both sides of the conflict. The advanced technology of the Brotherhood is slowly reintroduced into New California, with little disruption or chaos. The Brotherhood of Steel wisely remains out of the power structure, and becomes a major research and development house.

2165

 * May 12: Vault Dweller removes his Vault suit and from this day forward, never wears it again.[65]
 * July 10: The Vault Dweller heads north with a small group of fellow vault dwellers and wastelanders and founds the small village of Arroyo.

2167

 * August 18: Construction of Arroyo completed.

2178

 * August: The Institute begins research on samples of FEV.

2180

 * The Commonwealth Minutemen defend Diamond City against a super mutant attack.

2185

 * Summer: At high noon, super mutant Marcus and Brotherhood of Steel Paladin Jacob cross paths many, many miles southwest of Broken Hills and punch and shoot each other for a few days. Eventually, they give up, laughing, unable to get an advantage over the other. The two start traveling together, arguing over Unity and Brotherhood of Steel doctrine and whether or not the Master could truly neuro link his biology into the Cathedral computer network.
 * Fall: Marcus and Jacob, along with a collection of ghouls, humans, and super mutant followers, found the community of Broken Hills.

2186

 * In Shady Sands, Tandi helps her father Aradesh bring a new community and new life out of the broken remains of the world. They are responsible for the New California Republic, whose ideals spread across the land.
 * Spring: Jacob says goodbye to Marcus, then moves on for parts unknown.

2188

 * October 2: Vault Dweller has a daughter, who later becomes the Village Elder.

2189

 * The New California Republic is voted into existence as a sprawling federation of five states: Shady Sands, Los Angeles, Maxson, the Hub and Dayglow.
 * The Followers of the Apocalypse rise to become a major influence in New California. Thanks to the Vault Dweller's help, they gain control of the LA Boneyard.

2190

 * Vault 70 opens and its residents use their three G.E.C.K.s to found the city of New Jerusalem in the ruins of Salt Lake City.

2192

 * Fallout: St. Louis begins.