Timeline

The timeline lists all known events in the history of The Outer Worlds.

19th Century

March 4, 1897

• William McKinley is elected President of the United States of America.

20th Century

September 6, 1901

• William McKinley visits the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, New York.

1903

• French physicist Prosper-René Blondlot discovers N-Rays, an exotic type of radiation, creating the basis for future N-Ray based weaponry.

21st Century

• The skip drive is invented, allowing spaceships to approach and then "skip past" the speed of light, sparking another space race as corporations began exploring and claiming purchasing rights to known star systems.
• The Earth Directorate is formed. It begins cataloging stars and selling nominal ownership rights to them.

23rd Century

Early 23rd Century

• Ten corporations band together to establish the Halcyon Holdings Corporation, pooling their resources to purchase rights to the remote Halcyon system from the Earth Directorate.
• The first colony ship intended to settle Halcyon, Groundbreaker departs Earth. Upon arrival, the colonists first attempt to terraform the moon Terra 1, but the process causes its ecosystem to mutate and renders the planet extremely dangerous to inhabit. HHC abandons Terra 1 and shifts its attention to Terra 2, where it establishes a successful colony.
• Using a legal loophole, one corporation obtains exclusive rights to Terra 1. The moon is renamed Monarch, and the corporation re-brands itself as Monarch Stellar Industries. Infuriated by the move, HHC applies a Hazard Clause to Monarch, declaring it an illegal territory and making any corporate activity there a criminal offense.

2285

• The colony ship Hope, laden with hundreds of thousands of passengers, departs Earth and begins its journey to Halcyon. At some point during transit, its skip drive malfunctions and the ship is forced to continue on using only its slower sublight engines, extending its travel time by decades.

2295

• When the Hope fails to arrive in Halcyon on schedule, the Halcyon Holdings Corporate Board assumes it was lost.

24th Century

October 23, 2320

• The colony ship Hope is found drifting in space in Halcyon. Due to the colonists' unexpectedly long duration in cryosleep, they can no longer be safely revived.

December 5, 2320

• The Halcyon Holdings Corporate Board decides to cover up the Hope's existence. The vessel is moved to an orbit over the ice planet Typhon and placed under guard indefinitely.

January 12, 2343

• Hazard Clause made public.

July 12, 2343

• Hazard Clause goes into effect, with almost all Board corporations leaving Terra 1, renaming it Monarch; leaving Monarch Stellar Industries and various settlements to fend for themselves.

May 15, 2355

• Phineas Vernon Welles rescues the Stranger from the Hope. Using a chemical formula of his own invention, Welles revives the Stranger and tasks them with helping him obtain more chemicals for the remaining colonists.