21st century

2007 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: General history

Millennium:	2nd millennium - 3rd millennium - 4th millennium

Centuries:	20th century - 21st century - 22nd century
Decades:	2000s 2010s 2020s 2030s 2040s 2050s 2060s 2070s 2080s 2090s

The 21st century is the present century of the Gregorian calendar. It began on January 1, 2001 and will last to December 31, 2100, though common usage mistakenly believes January 1, 2000 to December 31, 2099 to hold this distinction. Technologically it is different from the 20th century mostly by changes brought about by the Digital Revolution of the 1980s, 1990s and 2000s.

Important developments, events, achievements

Politics

2002 East Timor gains independence from Indonesia.
2003 International Criminal Court opens
2003 - 2005 A series of nonviolent revolutions known as the colour revolutions overthrew authoritarian regimes in Georgia, Ukraine, Kyrgyzstan and Lebanon.
2004 EU Enlargement: 10 countries join, 8 of which are former Communist nations.
2005 UN Security Council decides war criminals in Darfur will be tried by the International Criminal Court (Resolution 1593)
2006 Montenegro gains independence and becomes the 192nd member of the UN.

Science and technology

2001 Dennis Tito becomes the first space tourist by paying $20 million to board the International Space Station.
2002 Mars Odyssey arrives in orbit around Mars.
2003 Space Shuttle Columbia disaster February 1.
2003 Dolly the sheep dies prematurely February 14.
2003 The Chinese space programme launches its first manned space flight, Shenzhou 5 on October 15.
2003 Severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) spreads around the globe.
2003 New discovery of a old dwarf human species, Homo floresiensis by modern humans (published in October, 2004).
2004 Mars Exploration Rovers land on Mars; Opportunity discovers proof that that area of Mars was once covered in water.
2004 Cassini-Huygens probe arrives at Saturn.
2004 SpaceShipOne makes first privately-funded human spaceflight, June 21
2005 Huygens probe lands on Titan, the largest of Saturn's moons, January 14.
2005 Deep Impact probe impacts Comet Tempel 1, July 4.
2006 New Horizons launches on a 10 year voyage to Pluto January 20.
2006 Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter arrives at Mars.

Conflicts and civil unrest

Sri Lanka civil war (1983-present)
September 11, 2001 attacks
12 October 2002 Bali bombing
Darfur conflict (2003-present)
11 March 2004 Madrid train bombings
September 2004 Beslan hostage crisis
7 July 2005 London bombings
2005 civil unrest in France
2006 East Timor crisis
11 July 2006 Mumbai train bombings
2006 Israel-Lebanon conflict

Worldwide deaths from war and terror attacks

Second Congo War, approximately 1.8 million deaths (3.8 million since 1998)
Darfur conflict, approximately 400,000 deaths
U.S. Invasion in Iraq, most estimates claim 40,000 – 50,000 Iraqi and 3,100 coalition deaths. In 2004, The Lancet estimated that about "98,000 more deaths than expected (8000–194,000) happened after the invasion."
Civil War in Côte d'Ivoire, 3,000 deaths
September 11, 2001 attacks, 2,993 deaths
December 13, 2001 attacks, Terrorist attack on Indian Parliament (2001), terrorists storm the Indian Parliament Builiding in New Delhi and kill six police officers.
October 12, 2002 Bali terrorist bombings kill 202 people.
March 11, 2004 suicide terrorist attacks shake several train stations on Spain's capital Madrid, killing 190 people and injuring 1,247.
July 7, 2005 suicide terrorist attacks shake London transport system killing 52 people and injuring 700.
29 October 2005 Delhi Bombings, terrorists attack various markets in New Delhi, killing 61 people and injuring 188 more, right before the start of the festival season in India.

Furthermore, there are several wars and dictatorships continuing from the 20th century. In most cases, the death toll is unclear. See also .

Natural disasters

Up to 50,000 people were killed in France, Italy, and other European countries in the summer of 2003 due to a prolonged heat wave coinciding with a shortage of medical and nursing staff.
Earthquake in Bam, Iran on December 27, 2003 killed more than 26,000 people.
2004 Indian Ocean earthquake. On December 26 an undersea earthquake in the Indian Ocean created a large tsunami, which impacted land across the region and caused approximately 310,000 deaths in Indonesia, Sri Lanka, India, Thailand and other countries in the region.
2004 hurricanes Charley, Frances, Ivan, and Jeanne batter Florida and the Caribbean in August and September, causing over 3,200 deaths, 3,000 of which resulted from Jeanne's torrential flooding rains in Haiti. The hurricanes caused a combined $50 billion in damage in the United States.
In 2005, Hurricane Katrina impacts the U.S. Gulf Coast as a strong Category 3 hurricane with top sustained winds before landfall near 125 mph, flooding New Orleans, and causing significant damage in Mississippi, Tennessee, and Alabama. The current number of fatalities stands at 1,836. Katrina surpassed Hurricane Andrew in cost of damage, approaching $75 billion and becoming the costliest natural disaster in U.S history.
Earthquake in Kashmir on October 8, 2005, which has so far claimed at least 87,350 lives in India and Pakistan.
Hurricane Stan hit Mexico along the Gulf of Campeche in October 2005 and moved into Guatemala. Hurricane Stan combined with powerful storms already occurring in the region and contributed to the deaths of 1,620 people. It is unclear how many deaths are due directly to Stan and how many from the already existing storms, or perhaps a combination of the two.

Sports

2001- NASCAR (American stock car) driver Dale Earnhardt dies after hitting the wall on the last lap of the Daytona 500. Earnhardt's son, Dale Earnhardt Jr., claimed a tearful victory in the next race held at Daytona, less than four months later.
2002- In the 2002 FIFA World Cup held in South Korea and Japan, Brazil won the Football World Cup becoming the first team to win the trophy 5 times.
2002- 2002 Winter Olympics held in Salt Lake City, Utah, United States.
2003- Australia wins the 2003 Cricket World Cup
2003- England wins the 2003 Rugby World Cup, becoming the first team from the northern hemisphere to win the cup.
2004- Greece wins the European Football Championship for the first time.
2004- 2004 Summer Olympics held in Athens, Greece.
2004- Michael Schumacher wins his 5th consecutive Formula One World Drivers Championship.
2005- American cyclist Lance Armstrong wins his 7th consecutive Tour de France and retires.
2006- 2006 Winter Olympics held in Torino, Italy.
2006- 2006 FIFA World Cup in Germany, won by Italy.
2006- Floyd Landis wins the Tour De France, but later, it would be known that he was indeed doped. Óscar Pereiro Sio is not yet, but will be crowned as Tour De France champion, later this year.

Issues and concerns

Some of the things that have dominated discussion and debate so far in this century include:

Globalization. Advances in telecommunications and transportation, the expansion of capitalism and democracy, and free trade agreements have resulted in unprecedented global economic and cultural integration. This has caused (and is continuing to cause) huge economic and cultural shifts which have been the subject of considerable controversy. Gladly, the gradual shift towards greener capitalism, aka ethicism, promises to make good the globalization movement, and bring more unity to an often too divided world. It is summised* that gradual ethical steps in three main areas (animals and the environment, employees, and consumers), are what will turn the tide in a favourable direction. The three stakeholders responsible for these changes are: governance, industry, and consumers.

Overpopulation. The United Nations estimates that world population will reach 9.1 billion by mid-century. Such growth raises questions of ecological sustainability and creates many economic and political disruptions. In response, many countries have adopted policies which either force or encourage their citizens to have fewer children, and others have limited immigration. Considerable debate exists over what the ultimate carrying capacity of the planet may be; whether or not population growth containment policies are necessary; to what degree growth can safely occur thanks to increased economic and ecological efficiency; and how markets should accommodate demographic shifts. Evidence forms that developed countries (such as Japan) suffer population implosion, and the population debate is strongly tied with poverty.

Poverty. Poverty remains the root cause of many of the world's other ills, including famine, disease, and insufficient education. Poverty contains many self-reinforcing elements (for instance, poverty can make education an unaffordable luxury, which tends to result in continuing poverty) that various aid groups hope to rectify in this century.

Moral issues, such as media content, gay rights, and abortion continue from 1990s and late 20th century.

Disease. AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria each kill over a million people annually. HIV remains without a cure or vaccine, and is growing rapidly in India and much of the African continent. Antibiotic resistance is a growing concern for organisms such as tuberculosis. Other diseases, such as SARS, ebola, and flu variations, are also causes for concern. The World Health Organization has warned of a possible coming flu pandemic resulting from bird flu mutations.

War and terrorism. Active conflicts continue around the world, including civil wars in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (the largest war since World War II), Chechnya, Côte d'Ivoire, Somalia, Senegal, Colombia, and Sudan (mainly in Darfur). The 9/11 terrorist attacks triggered invasions of Afghanistan and partially and controversially Iraq. The War on Terrorism has seen controversies over civil liberties, accusations of torture, continued terrorist attacks and ongoing instability, violence, and military occupation. Violence continues in the Arab-Israeli conflict. Considerable concern remains about nuclear proliferation, especially in Iran and North Korea, and the availability of weapons of mass destruction to rogue groups.

Global warming. The overwhelming majority of climate scientists think that the earth is currently undergoing significant anthropogenic (human-induced) global warming. The resulting economic and ecological costs are hard to predict, and by the end of the 21st century could be quite severe.

Other environmental changes. Trends such as increased pollution, deforestation and biodiversity loss occurring in the 20th century are likely to continue into the 21st century.

Resource depletion may be a significant issue, with economic and environmental implications. Resources that could be depleted soon include oil and natural gas.

Global power. Issues surrounding the cultural, economic, and military dominance of the United States and its role in the world community have become even more pointed given its recent military activities, problematic relations with the United Nations, disagreement over several international treaties, and its economic policies with regard to globalization. Integration of the European Union and the African Union have proceeded.

Intellectual property. The increasing popularity of digital formats for entertainment media such as movies and music, and the ease of copying and distributing it via the Internet and peer-to-peer networks, has raised concerns in the media industry about copyright infringement. Much debate is proceeding about the proper bounds between protection of copyright, trademark and patent rights versus fair use and the public domain, where some argue that such laws have shifted greatly towards intellectual property owners and away from the interests of the general public in recent years, while others say that such legal change is needed to deal with the threat of new technologies against the rights of authors and artists (or, as others put it, against the outmoded business models of the current entertainment industry). Domain name "cybersquatting" and access to patented drugs to combat epidemics in third-world countries are other IP concerns.

Technology developments show no sign of ending. Communications and control technology continues to augment the intelligence of individual humans, collections of humans, and machines. Cultures are forced into the position of sharply defining humanity and determining boundaries on desire, thought, communication, behaviour, and manufacturing. Some predict that by the middle of this century there will be a Technological Singularity if artificial intelligences are created that are smarter than humans. If these then create even smarter AI's technological change will accelerate in ways that are impossible for us to foresee.

Energy is becoming scarce and more expensive, due to the escalating demand for petroleum ("oil") and oil-based products such as gasoline and kerosene, unmatched by production. Discovery of new oil fields has not been sufficient to sustain current levels of production, and some fear that the earth may be running out of economically viable oil. While complete depletion will not happen in the near future, some fear that a peak in production will cause an end to the trend of economic expansion in modern society, perhaps resulting in a collapse of modern civilization itself. Most economists argue that alternative sources of energy will prevent this disaster.

The United Nations lists global issues on its agenda here and lists a set of Millennium Goals to attempt to address some of these issues.

However, it is important to note that the current year is only 2006, which means we are only at the start of the century. Therefore, it is impossible to make detailed predictions about the future of this century.

Significant people

Influential people in politics as of 2006

(in alphabetical order)

Mahmoud Abbas, Palestinian President
King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia
Rashad Alaiyan, President of Greece
Kofi Annan, Secretary General of the United Nations
José María Aznar, Former Prime Minister of Spain
Jan Peter Balkenende, Prime Minister of the Netherlands
José Manuel Durão Barroso, President of the European Commission
Silvio Berlusconi, former Italian Prime Minister and leader of the opposition House of Freedoms coalition
Peter McColocough, Formed and headed the IFTO (Ireland Food Trade Organization).
Tony Blair, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
Gordon Brown, Chancellor of the Exchequer (U.K.)
George W. Bush, President of the United States of America
Fidel Castro, President of Cuba
Jacques Chirac, President of France
Hugo Chávez, President of Venezuela
Jean Chrétien, former Prime Minister of Canada
Carlo Azeglio Ciampi, President of Italy
Helen Clark, Prime Minister of New Zealand
Bill Clinton, former President of the United States of America
Luigi R. Einaudi, Secretary-General of the Organization of American States
Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Turkish Prime Minister
Vicente Fox, President of Mexico
Lawrence Gonzi, Maltese Prime Minister
Stephen Harper, Prime Minister of Canada
John Howard, Prime Minister of Australia
Saddam Hussein, deposed President of Iraq, currently held by US forces
Hu Jintao, President of the People's Republic of China
Abdul Kalam, President of India
Moshe Katsav, President of Israel
Hamid Karzai, President of Afghanistan
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, President of Iran
Kim Jong-il, General Secretary of the Korean Workers' Party and chairman of the National Defense Commission of North Korea
Junichiro Koizumi, Prime Minister of Japan
Lech Kaczyński, President of Poland
Nestor Kirchner, President of Argentina
Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, President of the Philippines
Paul Martin, former Prime Minister of Canada
Thabo Mbeki, South African president and current leader of the African Union
Angela Merkel, German Bundeskanzler (chancellor)
Pervez Musharraf Pakistani President
Ehud Olmert, Prime Minister of Israel
Osama bin Laden, Al-Qaeda leader
Romano Prodi, Prime Minister of Italy
Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin, President of the Russian Federation
Anders Fogh Rasmussen, Prime Minister of Denmark
Muammar al-Qaddafi, Leader of Libya
Condoleezza Rice, United States Secretary of State
Karl Rove, President Bush's senior advisor, chief political strategist, and deputy chief of staff in charge of policy.
Gerhard Schröder, former German Bundeskanzler (chancellor)
Ariel Sharon, Prime Minister of Israel
Luis Inácio da Silva, President of Brazil
Dr. Manmohan Singh, Indian Prime Minister
Javier Solana, Foreign policy chief of the European Union
Vaira Vīķe-Freiberga, President of Latvia
Ong Keng Yong, Secretary-General of ASEAN
Viktor Yushchenko, President of Ukraine
José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, President of Spain

Influential people in religion as of 2006

Tenzin Gyatso, 14th Dalai Lama of Tibet
Ayatollah Khamenei
Stanley Hauerwas, proclaimed in 2001 "America's Best Theologian"
Gordon B. Hinckley, President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
Li Hongzhi, Founder of Falun Gong
Pope Benedict XVI
Pope John Paul II (now deceased)
Jaime Cardinal Sin (now deceased)
Rick Warren, Founder of Saddleback Church in California, United States and author of The Purpose-Driven Life
Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, the founder of the Transcendental Meditation movement.
Rowan Williams, Archbishop of Canterbury
The Dalai Lama

Influential people in technology as of 2006

Steve Ballmer, CEO of Microsoft Corporation
Bill Gates, co founder and chairman of Microsoft Corporation
Steve Jobs, founder of Apple Computer
Larry Page and Sergey Brin, founders of the Google search engine
Burt Rutan, founder of Scaled Composites and creator of SpaceShipOne
Richard Stallman, founder of the Free Software Foundation
Linus Torvalds, creator of the Linux kernel

Influential people in science as of 2006

Stephen Hawking
Richard Dawkins
Brian Greene

Influential people in mathematics as of 2006

Laurent Lafforgue
Grigori Perelman

Influential people in the arts as of 2006

JJ Abrams, creator of television shows Alias and Lost
Katie Couric, anchor of the CBS Evening News and former anchor of NBC's Today
David Lynch
Pedro Almodóvar
Peter Jackson, director of the Lord of the Rings film trilogy and the 2005 remake of King Kong
Madonna
Bon Jovi
Bono, lead singer of Irish rock band U2
Bob Geldof
J.K. Rowling, author of the Harry Potter book series
Wong Kar-Wai
Hou Hsiao-Hsien
Bill T. Jones
George Lucas, creator of the Star Wars film series and the Lucasfilm company
Steven Spielberg, director of Jaws, E.T. and Jurassic Park
John le Carré
Christopher Nolan
Lars von Trier
Hayao Miyazaki
Will Smith, actor and hip-hop artist
Tyra Banks, actress and daytime talk show host

Astronomical events

Tuesday, June 8, 2004: First transit of Venus for 122 years
November 8, 2006: Transit of Mercury
2009: Triple conjunction Jupiter- Neptune
2010/2011: Triple conjunction Jupiter- Uranus
Wednesday, June 6, 2012: Transit of Venus to occur a second time this century
May 9, 2016: Transit of Mercury
Monday, August 21, 2017: First total solar eclipse of the 21st century for the United States, and the first visible in the continental US since February 26, 1979.
November 11, 2019: Transit of Mercury
2024 (plus or minus 5 years): Next predicted return of Comet 12P/Pons-Brooks.
2025/2026: Triple conjunction Saturn-Neptune
Friday, April 13, 2029: The asteroid 99942 Apophis (previously better known by its provisional designation 2004 MN₄) will pass within 30,000 km (18,600 mi) of the Earth.
November 13, 2032: Transit of Mercury
2037/2038: Triple conjunction Jupiter-Uranus
November 7, 2039: Transit of Mercury
2041/2042: Triple conjunction Mars-Uranus
October 1, 2044: Occultation of Regulus by Venus. The last was on July 7, 1959. After 2044 the next occultation of Regulus by Venus will occur on October 21, 3187, although some sources claim it will occur again on October 6, 2271.
2047/2048: Triple conjunction Jupiter-Neptune
May 7, 2049: Transit of Mercury
November 9, 2052: Transit of Mercury
2061: Next return of Comet Halley.
2063: Triple conjunction Mars-Uranus
November 11, 2065: Transit of Mercury
November 22, 2065: At 12:45 UTC, Venus will occult Jupiter. This event will be the first occultation of a planet by another since January 3, 1818. This event will be very difficult to observe, because the elongation of Venus and Jupiter from the Sun on that date will be only 7 degrees.
2066: Triple conjunction Jupiter-Uranus
July 15, 2067: At 11:56 UTC, Mercury will occult Neptune. This rare event will be very difficult to observe.
2071/2072: Triple conjunction Mars-Neptune
November 14, 2078: Transit of Mercury
2079: Triple conjunction Saturn-Uranus
August 11, 2079: At 01:30 UTC, Mercury will occult Mars
Friday, November 10, 2084: Transit of Earth as seen from Mars
November 7, 2085: Transit of Mercury
2085/2086: Triple conjunction Jupiter-Neptune
October 27, 2088: At 13:43 UTC, Mercury will occult Jupiter
2088/2089: Triple conjunction Mars-Neptune
2093: Triple conjunction Jupiter-Uranus
April 7, 2094: At 10:48 UTC, Mercury will occult Jupiter
May 8, 2095: Transit of Mercury
November 10, 2098: Transit of Mercury

Science fiction set in the remaining years of the 21st century

Television and film

The new series of Doctor Who which began in 2005 has events that take place in the 21st century.
In the sequel to 2001: A Space Odyssey, a joint American-Soviet space expedition is sent to Jupiter in 2010: The Year We Make Contact.
The popular adult swim series Sealab 2021 takes place in the year 2021.
The events of Stargate SG-1 continue into the early 21st century.
Stargate Atlantis is set in the early 21st century.
Transformers: The Movie: is set in the year 2005. The subsequent third season of the Transformers series takes place after the events of the movie.
The Japanese anime show The Super Dimension Fortress Macross spans the years 1999 to 2012 (its final episode takes place in January of 2012, and a direct to video epilogue featurette takes place in September 2012). Its prequel and sequels take place in 2008 ( Macross Zero), 2040 ( Macross Plus) and 2045- 2046 ( Macross 7). A dramatized historical fiction movie about the First Space War, The Super Dimension Fortress Macross: Do You Remember Love?, premieres in 2031.
The American cartoon show Robotech, composed from the footage of three unrelated anime series (including Macross, above) spans the years 1999 to 2015, 2030- 2031 and 2044- 2045.
Part of Back to the Future Part II is set in 2015.
The Japanese anime series Neon Genesis Evangelion is also set in 2015.
The modern classic film Blade Runner takes place in November, 2019.
The film The Running Man starring Arnold Schwarzenegger is set in 2019.
Both parts of the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episode " Past Tense" take place in 2024.
The anime universe of Ghost in the Shell, its sequel Ghost in the Shell: Innocence, and anime television series based on the same premise ( Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex and Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex 2nd GiG), are centered somewhere around 2029.
The Terminator is set up during the early years of the 21st century in terms of the wars between humans & Skynet. Some of the intervening years are dealt with by the, at the moment 2, sequels, Terminator 2: Judgment Day & Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines with the whole franchise building to a conclusion of the War in 2029.
The 2002 version of The Time Machine has scenes that take place in the 2030s.
The Doctor Who story The Enemy of the World is set in Australia in 2030.
The anime OAV series Bubblegum Crisis (2032-33), its sequel Bubblegum Crash (2034), and its TV-series re-imagining Bubblegum Crisis 2040 (2040).
Demolition Man is set in 2032.
I, Robot was set in 2035.

Deep space vessel Event Horizon was sent to test an artificial wormhole (black hole) in deep space in the year 2040. The lost ship is found 7 years later by a rescue team on board the ship Lewis and Clark on low orbit around the planet Neptune.
The Outward Urge has a major nuclear war in 2044 and the first manned landing on Mars in 2094.
Minority Report was set in 2054.
The 1998 remake of Lost in Space was set in 2058.
Most of Star Trek: First Contact takes place in 2063. In Star Trek canon, the human Zefram Cochrane develops faster-than-light travel and makes first contact with an alien race during this year.
Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within is set in 2065.
The Doctor Who story The Moonbase is set in 2070.
The Japanese anime show Cowboy Bebop is set in 2071.
The Nickelodeon cartoon My Life as a Teenage Robot is set in 2072.
Equilibrium is set in 2072.
The Doctor Who story Day of the Daleks is set in 2073, albeit in an alternative timeline.
The film Total Recall, and the Doctor Who story Warriors of the Deep is set in 2084.
In Star Trek: Insurrection, it is discovered that the Ba'ku moved to the Briar Patch at some point in this century.
The Jetsons is supposed to take place in the late 21st century.
Zenon: Girl of the 21st Century (film) and its sequels takes place in the years 2049-2051.

The final episode of X-Files sets 2012 as the date for alien colonization.
The CGI animated series Cubix: Robots for Everyone takes place in 2040.
The Doctor Who story The Seeds of Death is set in 2090.
The Doctor Who story Nightmare of Eden is set in 2096.

Computer and video games

Duke Nukem 3D is set in the early 21st century and contains evidence (such as calendars) that suggest it is more specifically set in October or December 2007
Uplink is set on the internet of the year 2010.
Perfect Dark Zero is set in 2020 and Perfect Dark is set in 2023.
The races in San Francisco Rush 2049 take place in 2049.
The events of Deus Ex take place in 2052.
The levels "Breaking and Entering" and "You Genius, U-Genix" in TimeSplitters: Future Perfect take place in 2052.
System Shock is set in 2072.
Future Cop: LAPD takes place in the year 2098.
The discovery of the Zohar in Xenosaga takes place in 20XX.
The Great War of the Fallout universe starts on October 23, 2077; nuclear bombs are launched, nobody knows who the aggressor was.
The events of Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne occur in 20XX.
In Mercenaries: Playground of Destruction, the 2nd Korean War starts early in this century
The Mega Man Classic series takes place in the 21st century.
The arcade game Robotron: 2084 takes place in the year 2084.
One Must Fall: 2097 takes place in 2097.
The Mr. Driller series (and Dig Dug: Digging Strike, a game in its related timeline) takes place in 20XX.
The events of Half-Life 2 and its expansion packs takes place around 2013.
The video game and cartoon 20X6 of Homestar Runner supposedly takes place in the seventh year of an unspecified decade in the 21st century.

Novels

Arthur C Clarke's 2010: Odyssey Two and 2061: Odyssey Three.
Tad Williams' Otherland series is set at some undefined point in the 21st century
Neal Stephenson's The Diamond Age is also set in the 21st century, after some disaster befell the centralized telephone network. This led people to build a decentralized network, which they used to transfer money, thus destroying normal methods of taxation and bringing down most large governments.
Red Mars of Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars trilogy begins in 2027.
Some books by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky are set in 21st century
" Turnabout" by Margaret Peterson Haddix, is set in 2005-06, 2057, and mainly 2085.

Decades and years

1990s	1990	1991	1992	1993	1994	1995	1996	1997	1998	1999
2000s	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005	2006	2007	2008	2009
2010s	2010	2011	2012	2013	2014	2015	2016	2017	2018	2019
2020s	2020	2021	2022	2023	2024	2025	2026	2027	2028	2029
2030s	2030	2031	2032	2033	2034	2035	2036	2037	2038	2039
2040s	2040	2041	2042	2043	2044	2045	2046	2047	2048	2049
2050s	2050	2051	2052	2053	2054	2055	2056	2057	2058	2059
2060s	2060	2061	2062	2063	2064	2065	2066	2067	2068	2069
2070s	2070	2071	2072	2073	2074	2075	2076	2077	2078	2079
2080s	2080	2081	2082	2083	2084	2085	2086	2087	2088	2089
2090s	2090	2091	2092	2093	2094	2095	2096	2097	2098	2099
2100s	2100	2101	2102	2103	2104	2105	2106	2107	2108	2109

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