This is a timeline of science fiction. While the date of the start of science fiction is debated, this list includes events included in timelines published by expert sources.
16th century Year Event 1516Utopia by Thomas More is published.
17th century Year Event 1627New Atlantis by Francis Bacon is published. 1634Somnium by Johannes Kepler is published. 1638The Man in the Moone by Francis Godwin is published. 1686Conversations on the Plurality of Worlds by Bernard Le Bovier de Fontenelle is published.
18th century
Year Event 1726Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift is published. 1741Niels Klim's Underground Travels by Ludvig Holberg is published. 1752Micromégas by Voltaire is published. 1771The Year 2440 by Louis-Sébastien Mercier is published.
19th century
Year Event 1805The Last Man by Jean-Baptiste Cousin de Grainville is published. 1818Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus by Mary Shelley is published. 1826The Last Man by Mary Shelley is published.1838The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket by Edgar Allan Poe is published.1864Journey to the Center of the Earth by Jules Verne is published. 1865From the Earth to the Moon by Jules Verne is published. 1868The Steam Man of the Prairies by Edward S. Ellis, the first SF dime novel, is published. 1869–1870Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas by Jules Verne is published in serial form. 1871The Battle of Dorking by George Tomkyns Chesney is published.The Coming Race by Edward Bulwer-Lytton is published.1872Erewhon by Samuel Butler is published.Récits de l'infini by Camille Flammarion, a work of fiction expanding upon the concepts of extraterrestrial life previously covered in his 1864 non-fiction book Real and Imaginary Worlds, is published; these works are later compiled and published as Lumen in 1887.1876 onwardsThe Frank Reade dime novel series by Harry Enton, and later Luis Senarens, is published.1884Flatland by Edwin Abbott Abbott is published. 1886Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson is published.1887A Crystal Age by W. H. Hudson is published. 1888Looking Backward, 2000–1887 by Edward Bellamy is published. 1889A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court by Mark Twain is published. 1890News from Nowhere by William Morris is published. 1895The Time Machine by H. G. Wells is published. 1896The Island of Doctor Moreau by H. G. Wells is published. 1898The War of the Worlds by H. G. Wells is published.
1900s
Year Event 1901The First Men in the Moon by H. G. Wells is published.The Purple Cloud by M. P. Shiel is published. 1902Georges Méliès shows the film A Trip to the Moon (Le Voyage dans la Lune).1904"The Country of the Blind" by H. G. Wells is published.1905A Modern Utopia by H. G. Wells is published. 1907The Iron Heel by Jack London is published. 1909The Machine Stops by E. M. Forster is published.
1910s
Year Event 1910Thomas Edison's film company produces Frankenstein. 1911Ralph 124C 41+ by Hugo Gernsback is published in serial form in Modern Electrics; it is published in book form in 1925.The Hampdenshire Wonder by J. D. Beresford is published.1912Under the Moons of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs is published.The Lost World by Arthur Conan Doyle, which gives the name to the lost world subgenre of science fiction, is published.1912–1914Darkness and Dawn by George Allan England is published in three separate serializations across 1912 and 1913, and in book form in 1914. 1918The Moon Pool by A. Merritt is published.
1920s
Year Event 1920The play R.U.R. by Karel Čapek is published, introducing the word "robot". It is first performed in 1921. 1923The Clockwork Man by E. V. Odle is published.Men Like Gods by H. G. Wells is published.Weird Tales is launched.Hugo Gernsback dedicates the August issue of Science and Invention to "scientifiction". 1924We by Yevgeny Zamyatin is published.The film Aelita, based on the 1922 novel Aelita by Aleksey Konstantinovich Tolstoy, is released. 1926Hugo Gernsback launches Amazing Stories, the first specialized science fiction magazine. 1927Fritz Lang releases the film Metropolis based on von Harbou's 1925 novel. 1928The Skylark of Space by E. E. Smith is published, launching the Skylark series. 1929Buck Rogers in the 25th Century begins publication as a comic strip.Fritz Lang releases the film Woman in the Moon.Hugo Gernsback loses control of Amazing Stories alongside his other magazines as Experimenter Publishing goes bankrupt. He then launches the Wonder Stories family of magazines consisting of Science Wonder Stories, Air Wonder Stories, and Science Wonder Quarterly.
1930s
Year Event1930Last and First Men by Olaf Stapledon is published.The Iron Star by John Taine is published.Astounding Stories of Super-Science begins publication.The film Just Imagine is released.The Comet, the first science-fiction fanzine, is launched.1931Abel Gance's film End of the World is released.James Whale releases the film Frankenstein.Astounding Stories of Super-Science changes its title to Astounding Stories. 1932Brave New World by Aldous Huxley is published.1933"Shambleau" by C. L. Moore is published.The film The Invisible Man, directed by James Whale and based on the 1897 novel by H. G. Wells, is released.1934"Twilight" by John W. Campbell is published."Sidewise in Time" by Murray Leinster is published."A Martian Odyssey" by Stanley G. Weinbaum is published."Triplanetary" by E. E. Smith is published, launching the Lensman series.The Legion of Space by Jack Williamson is published, launching the Legion of Space series.The Flash Gordon comic strip begins publication.1935Odd John by Olaf Stapledon is published. 1936Things to Come, directed by William Cameron Menzies, is released.War with the Newts by Karel Čapek is published.The first Flash Gordon film serial is released.At the Mountains of Madness by H. P. Lovecraft is published.Hugo Gernsback sells Wonder Stories, which is retitled Thrilling Wonder Stories.1937John W. Campbell becomes editor of Astounding Stories, launching the so-called Golden Age of Science Fiction.Star Maker by Olaf Stapledon is published.1938"Helen O'Loy" by Lester del Rey is published.Orson Welles produces a radio adaptation of The War of the Worlds, resulting in panic when it is mistaken for a news broadcast.Superman first appears in the first issue of Action Comics."The Legion of Time" by Jack Williamson is published.1939"Lest Darkness Fall" by L. Sprague de Camp is published in Unknown. It is published in an expanded novel form in 1941.The first annual World Science Fiction Convention is held in conjunction with the 1939 New York World's Fair.
1940s
Year Event1940The Future History stories "If This Goes On—" and "The Roads Must Roll" by Robert A. Heinlein are published in Astounding Science Fiction. Slan by A. E. van Vogt is published as a serial; it is later published in book form in 1946. 1941"Nightfall" by Isaac Asimov is published. 1942"Foundation" by Isaac Asimov, the first story in what would become the 1951 fix-up novel Foundation and later the broader Foundation series, is published.Beyond This Horizon by Robert A. Heinlein is published.1944"City" by Clifford D. Simak, the first story in what would become the 1952 fix-up novel City, is published.Sirius by Olaf Stapledon is published. 1945"First Contact" by Murray Leinster is published.The World of Null-A by A. E. van Vogt is published as a serial; it is later published in book form in 1948. 1946The Best of Science Fiction anthology, edited by Groff Conklin, is published.Adventures in Time and Space, an anthology edited by Raymond J. Healy and J. Francis McComas, is published. 1947Rocket Ship Galileo by Robert A. Heinlein, the first of his juvenile novels, is published. 1949The Best Science Fiction Stories, an anthology edited by E. F. Bleiler and T. E. Dikty, is published.Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell is published.Earth Abides by George R. Stewart is published.The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction begins publication.
1950s
Year Event 1950I, Robot by Isaac Asimov, a fix-up of stories in his Robot series, is published.The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury is published.Galaxy Science Fiction begins publication.The film Destination Moon, directed by Irving Pichel, is released.1951The Day of the Triffids by John Wyndham is published.The film The Day the Earth Stood Still is released.The film When Worlds Collide is released.1952The Space Merchants by Frederik Pohl and Cyril M. Kornbluth is published in serial form as Gravy Planet; it is published in book form in 1953. 1953The Demolished Man by Alfred Bester is published and wins the first Hugo Award for Best Novel.Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury is published.Childhood's End by Arthur C. Clarke is published.Mission of Gravity by Hal Clement is published in serial form; it is published in book form in 1954.Bring the Jubilee by Ward Moore is published.More Than Human by Theodore Sturgeon is published.The 11th World Science Fiction Convention awards the first Hugo Awards (named after Hugo Gernsback).The film The War of the Worlds is released.1954The Caves of Steel by Isaac Asimov is published.I Am Legend by Richard Matheson is published."The Cold Equations" by Tom Godwin is published.The film Them! is released.1955Earthman, Come Home by James Blish is published."A Canticle for Leibowitz" by Walter M. Miller Jr., the first story in what would become the 1959 fix-up novel A Canticle for Leibowitz, is published.The End of Eternity by Isaac Asimov is published.The film This Island Earth is released. 1956The Stars My Destination ( Tiger! Tiger!) by Alfred Bester is published.Double Star by Robert A. Heinlein is published.The film Invasion of the Body Snatchers is released.The film Forbidden Planet is released.The first annual Milford Science Fiction Writers' Conference is organized by Damon Knight, James Blish, and Judith Merril.1957Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand is published. 1958Non-Stop ( Starship) by Brian Aldiss is published.Andromeda: A Space-Age Tale by Ivan Yefremov is published. 1959Time Out of Joint by Philip K. Dick is published.Starship Troopers by Robert A. Heinlein is published."Flowers for Algernon" by Daniel Keyes is published as a novella; it is published in expanded novel form in 1966.The Sirens of Titan by Kurt Vonnegut is published.Dorsai! by Gordon R. Dickson is published.The journal Extrapolation begins publication.
1960s