3rd millennium

In contemporary history, the third millennium is a period of time that began on January 1, 2001, and will end on December 31, 3000 of the Gregorian calendar. It is the third and current period of one thousand years in the Anno Domini or Common Era.^[1][2]

Events

The events in this section are organized according to the UN geoscheme.

Predicted events

As this millennium is currently in progress, its first two decades of 21st century (the past 2000s and the current 2010s), are the subject of the historian's attention. The remaining part of the 21st century (2020s to 2090s) and longer-term trends (22nd to 30th century) are researched in futures studies. Here are some possible events that will happen in those particular years:

Time capsules

• April 27, 2109 – A time capsule placed under the floor boards of the Old Queens Building at Rutgers University, in New Jersey, United States buried on April 27, 2009, is scheduled to be opened on April 27, 2109.^[6]
• 2968 – The Helium Centennial Time Columns Monument in Amarillo, Texas, contains four separate time capsules, the last of which is intended to be opened 1,000 years after the Time Columns Monument was locked in 1968.

Astronomical events

21st century

• August 12, 2045 – A total solar eclipse will take place in the United States, producing a path from California to Florida. Some parts of Florida are predicted to experience totality for six minutes, the longest in US history.
• Mid-2061 – Next appearance of Comet Halley.
• November 11, 2069 – Transit of Mercury
• October 27, 2088 – Mercury occults Jupiter, the first time since 1708, but very close to the Sun and impossible to view with the naked eye.
• September 23, 2090 – Total solar eclipse in the UK. The next total eclipse visible in the UK follows a track similar to that of August 11, 1999, but shifted slightly further north and occurring very near sunset. Maximum duration in Cornwall will be 2 minutes and 10 seconds. Same day and month as the eclipse of September 23, 1699.
• April 7, 2094 – Mercury occults Jupiter; it will be very close to the Sun and impossible to view with naked eye.

22nd century

• December 11, 2117 – Transit of Venus.^[7]
• September 14, 2123 – At 15:28 UTC, Venus will occult Jupiter.^[8]
• December 8, 2125 – Transit of Venus.^[9]
• July 29, 2126: At 16:08 UTC, Mercury will occult Mars.^[10]
• December 3, 2133 – At 14:14 UTC, Mercury will occult Venus.
• September 2, 2197 – Venus occults Spica.
  Last occultation of Spica by Venus was on November 10, 1783.
• December 24, 2197 – Earth's Moon will occult Neptune.

23rd century

• 2209 and 2284 – perihelion of Comet Halley.
• May 27, 2221 – near-Earth asteroid (285263) 1998 QE2 will pass Earth at a distance of 0.038 AU (5,700,000 km; 3,500,000 mi).^[11]
• 2221 – Triple conjunction of Mars and Saturn.
• December 2, 2223 – At 12:32 UTC, Mars will occult Jupiter.
• 2238/39 – Triple conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn (whose last triple conjunction was in 1981).
• August 12, 2243 – At 04:52 UTC, Venus will occult Saturn.
• June 11, 2247 – Transit of Venus.
• March 4, 2251 – At 10:52 UTC, Venus will occult Uranus.
• In 2252, the planetoid Orcus will have completed one orbit of the Sun since its discovery in 2004, based upon current orbital measurements which give it a period of 248 Earth years.
• August 1, 2253 – Mercury occults Regulus (last occultation of Regulus by Mercury was on August 13, 364 BC).
• June 9, 2255 – Transit of Venus.
• 2256 to 2258 – Eris will reach perihelion for the first time since discovery.
• October 6, 2271 – Close conjunction between Venus and Regulus, perhaps occultation of Regulus by Venus.
• 2279 – Triple conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn.
• 2281/82 – Grand Trine of Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto. This last occurred in 1769 and 1770.
• Sunday, August 28, 2287 – Closest approach between Mars and Earth since Wednesday, August 27, 2003.
• In 2288, the planetoid Quaoar will have completed one orbit of the Sun since its discovery in 2002, which, based upon current orbital measurements, gives it a period of 286 Earth years.

24th century

• September 11, 2307 – At 22:50 UTC, Venus will occult Uranus.
• 2313 – Triple conjunction Mars–Jupiter.
• 2319 – Triple conjunction Mars-Saturn.
• June 4, 2327 – At 00:54 UTC, Venus will occult Mars.
• October 8, 2335 – At 14:51 UTC, Venus will occult Jupiter.
• April 7, 2351 – At 17:22 UTC, Mercury will occult Uranus.
• December 13, 2360 – Transit of Venus.
• 2365 – Perihelion of Comet Halley.
• December 10, 2368 – Transit of Venus.
• 2388 – Triple conjunction Mars-Saturn.
• May 11, 2391 – Partial transit of Mercury.

25th century

• November 17, 2400 – Venus will occult Antares (last occultation of Antares by Venus was on September 17, 525 BC).
• December 30, 2419 – At 01:38 UTC, Venus will occult Uranus.
• 2426 – Pluto's second orbit, since its discovery.
• 2456 – Triple conjunction Mars–Jupiter.
• August 29, 2478 – At 23:11 UTC, Mars will occult Jupiter.
• June 12, 2490 – Transit of Venus.
• May 6, 2492 – Belgian astronomer Jean Meeus asserts that the orbits of all eight planets and Pluto will be within the same 90° arc of the Solar System. The last time this is believed to have occurred was on February 1, 949.^[12]
• June 10, 2498 – Transit of Venus.

26th century

• April 7, 2515 – At 10:37 UTC, Mars will occult Neptune.^[13]
• January 25, 2518 – At 22:41 UTC, Venus will occult Saturn.^[13]
• 2562 – The dwarf planet Eris will have completed one orbit of the Sun, since its discovery in 2005.
• 2599 – Triple conjunction Mars–Jupiter.
• May 5, 2600 – First total solar eclipse^[14] visible from London since 2151.^[15]
  The width of its path is predicted to be exceptionally wide at its maximum point.

27th century

• December 16, 2603 – Transit of Venus.
• May 13, 2608 – Grazing Transit of Mercury.
• December 13, 2611 – Partial transit of Venus.
• 2626/27 – Triple conjunction Mars–Saturn.
• 2629 – Triple conjunction Mars-Saturn.
• February 16, 2649 – At 11:17 UTC, Venus will occult Neptune.
• September 3, 2650 – The distance between Mars and the Earth will arrive at a new remarkable minimum, at 55,651,582.118 km.
  It will be the closer encounter of perihelitic opposition slightly shorter (by 37,000 km) than the previous one of the August 28, 2287.^[16]
  The following closer encounter will be on September 8, 2729.
• 2655/56 – Triple conjunction Jupiter-Saturn.
• 2663 – Triple conjunction Mars-Saturn.
• 2699/2700 – Triple conjunctions between Mars-Jupiter, Mars-Neptune and Jupiter-Neptune.

28th century

• October 24, 2714 – Transit of Jupiter from Uranus. First one since May 3, 1914.
• September 8, 2729 – The distance between Mars and the Earth will arrive at a new remarkable minimum, at 55,651,033.122 km.
  It will be the closer encounter of perihelitic opposition slightly shorter (just 549 km) than the previous one of the September 3, 2650.^[17]
• June 15, 2733 – Transit of Venus.
• June 13, 2741 – Transit of Venus.
• 2742 – Triple conjunction Mars–Jupiter.
• 2744 – Triple conjunction Mars–Jupiter.
• 2761 – Triple conjunction Mars–Saturn.
• December 3, 2781 – At 06:45 UTC, Venus will occult Neptune.
• 2791 – Triple conjunction Mars–Jupiter.
• 2794/95 – Triple conjunction Jupiter–Saturn.

29th century

• The remnants of Comet Ikeya-Seki are expected to return to the inner solar system.
  It was last seen from Earth in 1965–1966, and broke into three pieces as it approached the Sun.
• March 25, 2816 – At 15:47 UTC, Mercury will occult Jupiter.
• March 6, 2817 – At 9:36 UTC, Venus will occult Saturn.
• April 11, 2818 – At 20:41 UTC, Mercury will occult Mars.
• February 6, 2825 – At 10:50 UTC, Mars will occult Uranus.
• 2829/30 – Triple conjunction Mars-Saturn.
• December 15, 2830 – At 09:40 UTC, Venus will occult Mars.
• 2842/43 – Triple conjunction Mars-Jupiter.
• December 16, 2846 – Transit of Venus.
• December 14, 2854 – Partial transit of Venus.
• July 20, 2855 – At 05:15 UTC, Mercury will occult Jupiter.
• 2866 – Triple conjunction Mars-Saturn.
• March 16, 2880 – Predicted possible impact date for asteroid (29075) 1950 DA, the near-Earth object with the highest known probability of crashing into Earth.

Biological events

• 2099 – According to one study, 83% of the Amazon rainforest may have been destroyed.^[18]
• By 2100, 12% (about 1250) of the bird species existing at the beginning of the 21st century are expected to be extinct or threatened with extinction.^[19]
• By 2100, emperor penguins could be pushed to the brink of extinction due to global climate change, according to a Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution study from January 2009. The study applied mathematical models to predict how the loss of sea ice from climate warming would affect an Antarctica colony of emperor penguins, and they forecast a decline of 87% in the colony's population by the end of the century.^[20]

Calendric predictions

• January 19, 2038 – 32-bit computer clocks overflow to represent the date as December 31, 1969.
• 2096 is the last leap year before 2100, which will not be a leap year.
• On March 1, 2100 (which will be February 16, 2100 in the Julian calendar), the difference between the Julian calendar and the Gregorian calendar reaches 14 days. Since 14 is divisible by 7, this will be the first time in history since its inception that the Gregorian calendar will have the same day of the week for each day of the month for the whole year as the Julian calendar. This will last until February 28, 2200 of the Gregorian Calendar.
• 2100 will not be a leap year since it qualifies as a year that is divisible by 100, but not by 400.
• FAT file systems theoretically support dates up to December 31, 2107 (though officially only up to December 31, 2099).
• The Year type in MySQL supports dates up to December 31, 2155.
• March 17, 2160 – Unless changes are made as to when Easter can be observed, this particular March 17 will fall within Holy Week for the first time since 2008 and fall on the same day (Monday) as it did in that year, likely requiring the movement of the Feast of Saint Patrick's Day to another date.^[21]
• Unless changes are made in the religious calendar, in 2285, the Western Easter will fall on March 22 for the first time since 1818, the earliest possible date on which Easter can occur.^[22]

Technological predictions

• Expected completion of a space elevator by 2050.^[23]
• Predictions have been made for commercial hypersonic air travel by 2050.^[24]
• Denmark's energy supply is planned to be supplied only by renewable energies in 2050.^[25]
• Work on cleaning up the site of the Oldbury Nuclear Power Station near Thornbury, South Gloucestershire, England, which was decommissioned on 29 February 2012, is scheduled to be complete between 2092 and 2101.^[26]
• According to the Discovery Channel documentary, Extreme Engineering, the Japanese proposed Shimizu Mega-City Pyramid could be complete by 2110.^[27][28]
• The One Hundred Year Study on Artificial Intelligence (AI100) initiated by Stanford University will be concluded in 2115.^[29][30][31]
• 2162 or later: The satellite Envisat, declared "dead" in 2012, is expected to deorbit and burn up in the atmosphere no earlier than 2162.^[32]
• By 2200, it is predicted that Earth will become a Type I civilization on the Kardashev scale, according to Nikolai Kardashev's extrapolation of 1% energy usage growth per year.^[33]

Social predictions

• As of December 2009, the United States Census Bureau projects a world population of 8.4 billion by 2030.^[34]
• French demographist Emmanuel Todd predicts the level of literacy amongst the world population to reach near 100% by 2030.^[35]
• Gerontologist Aubrey De Grey predicts there is a "50/50 chance" of curing aging by around the year 2036.^[36]
• World population is predicted to reach 9.3 billion people by 2050, according to United Nations Population Division.^[37]
• French demographist Emmanuel Todd predicts worldwide zero population growth birth rates by 2050.^[35]
• The United Kingdom could have the largest population in Europe by 2050 and be the third biggest recipient of migrants in the world, UN projections suggest.^[38]
• 2050s – China, United States, India, Brazil and Mexico will be the largest economies in the world, according to a Goldman Sachs study.^[39]
• 2160 – Some scientists believe there are babies born in 2010 who may still be alive in 2160.^[40]
• According to the UN Population Bureau, life expectancy in 2200 is predicted to be around 100 for developed countries and the world population is estimated to be about 8.5 billion. The UN says that these projections could be invalidated by changes and progression in future life extension technology and discoveries, as well as changes in future birthrates.^[41]
• 22nd century – In his book The Next 100 Years, American political scientist George Friedman predicts that as the century begins, an ongoing confrontation between an increasingly powerful Mexico and the United States will be taking place. Mexico will be an economically and militarily powerful country capable of challenging the United States, while a Mexican majority in southern regions of the United States will have made them a de facto extension of Mexico, with increasing secessionist sentiment. Both countries will be competing for dominance over North America, which will remain the international centre of gravity throughout the next few centuries.^[42]
• 2250 – According to the theory of historian Max Ostrovsky,^[43] the latest probable emergence of the World State, following at least one more World War.

Significant people

The people in this section are organized according to the UN geoscheme.

Inventions and discoveries

Centuries and decades

Notes

References