Utterly Mad

China and Russia went very, very sour during the sino-soviet split. Nuclear war isn't fought Commies vs. Capitalists, but commie vs. commie over control of the red world. China wins and starts consolidating, but the west sees it's chance and nukes them. They get nuked back. Everyone nukes everyone. The war never actually ends, but people are just to dead to fight actual battles anymore.

As above, but the war does end, with communism coming out slightly on top. As part of peace deal, U.S. (only western nation not a glowing wreck, sorry "stuck in the middle" europe) is broken down into small republics, kinda like Russia right after the end of the real cold war.

Algae bloom renders most water undrinkable. No major nuclear war occures, but small scale wars are fought over remaining water rights between neighbours. Someone finds a way to clean water after most people are dead, humanity struggles to rebuild and not nuke eachother now that the water thing is out of the way.

Nukes are never developed. Without the threat of global annihlation, the West and East get into it about 10 years after the end of WWII. Gas, germs, and bullets kill millions. War never ends, but yet again, most people are too dead to care or keep fighting. Europe makes a better main setting here, because it seems realistic to me that that's really where this would be taking place, but a depopulated, slowly collapsing US could be interesting too.

Some third world party develops a super weapon (super nuke, biowarefare, whatever) and tries to end the cold war. No one takes them seriously. Third world tries to demonstrate just how serious they are, something goes wrong, everyone dies.

Turns out nukes do actually ignite the atmosphere and boil the oceans when you make them big enough. After years and years of "who's is bigger tests", this goes awry and everyone dies without an actual war taking place.

Nutty group starts a plague with specific, if absurd goals. Ends up killing everyone because plague weapons are a pretty bad idea.

Nothing identifiably bad really happens, but people go the way of the panda and just stop living and reproducing. The world crumbles slowly without anyone noticing untill it's too late.

1776 - The American Revolution begins. King George makes note of this in his diary, stating "Absolutely nothing of importance happened today." Due to a combination of European wars and trade concerns diverting their attentions, the British fail to quell the rebellion. The United States of America is born.

1848 - Karl Marx and Fredriech Engles lay down the tenents of socialism in The Communist Manifesto. Around the same time, the Spring of Nations occures, aboloshing whatever remains of feudalism in much of Europe. Nationalism is born amongst the new states, though Imperialism remains the norm for the next 60 years.

1914 - The First World War starts, obstinately due to the assasination of Austrian Archduke Ferdinand. It's generally agreed retrospectively that the war had no specific cause other than Europe needing another balance of power war, but politically, it does make clear the importance of Nationalism over the basic tenents of Imperialism. Some contemporary historians will assign this as the actual cause of the war, though this view changes over the next hundred years.

1918 - Russia's Czar is deposed. The world makes paltry attempts to halt the Russian Revolution in it's tracks (cross-ref: American Invasion of Russia), but nations on all sides
are generally too war weary to concern themselves. The Soviet Union is born.

1939 - The Second World War starts. Obstenantly, the cause is Germany's aggression towards the rest of Europe, though modern historians present a good case as to this war being caused by an unsatisfactory resolution to the First World War and simply because "they could".

1944 - Germany, hard pressed for some miracle weapon to insure victory, launches crude ballistic missiles at the United Kingdom. They are believed to be the first man-made objects in space.

1945 - The first man-made nuclear device is detonated in the United States, and is quickly followed by more tests, cumulating in the useage of the new weapon to bring a speedy end to the Second World War. While the Soviet Union and the United States are both still in jovial spirits, mistrust over the Western world's actions during the Soviet revolution, and the American unwillingness to share their new technology, amongst numerous other differences, cause clouds of mistrust to begin forming.

1946 - Joseph Stalin is deposed by his First Deputy Premier, Vyacheslav Molotov. The Western world mourns the loss of a stalwart ally in the recent war. Molotov inacts surprisingly effective agriculture and industry reforms, and the Soviet Union quickly elevates to world power status.

1947 - With the partition of Korea, Germany, and many other states following the Second World War, it becomes increasingly evident that the political and social views of the East and West cannot co-exist without strife. Russia obtains nuclear weapons through a combination of independant research and espionage. This year marks the generally accepted beginning of the Cold War.

1948 - In an election that surprises no one, Thomas E. Dewey defeats incumbent Harry S. Truman, becoming the 34th President of the United States. Dewey runs on a platform of internationalism, and promises to take the fight to communism, while embracing the New Deal economic policies brought in by Franklin D. Roosevelt, albiet under the new name of Internationlist Economics. At first, he is arguably one of the most wildly popular presidents in U.S. history.

1949 - As part of an attempt to strengthen the international community against communism, President Dewey orders the mobilization of troops into French Indochina, to assist against the Communist insurrection being led by Ho Chi Mien in Vietnam.

Late 1950 - While statistically and tactially successful, the Vietnamese War is quickly becoming a public relations disaster on a global scale. As the United Nations becomes involved, the International Assembly of Soviets pushes back, pouring aide, arms, and material into the beleagured country. China, fresh from it's own communist revolution but unaffiliated directly with the Soviet Union, commits nearly half a million troops to the campaign. The UN falters and begins to lose their nerve. Many wonder if a third world war is just over the horizon.

1951 - Despite numerous success in the Vietnamese War, the Dewey government grows increasingly unpopular on the home front. Protests erupt across the United States as harsher and harsher draft laws are inacted. Racial riots break out due to the percieved unfairness of the draft laws, but are quickly supressed through use of arms. While President Dewey debates authorizing the use of nuclear weapons, calmer minds amongst the American people take a firm opposition to this, and it is decided that Indochina is not worth a nuclear conflict. The American Expeditionary Force withdraws, and with the retreat of it's biggest component, the UN force in Vietnam is quickly swept away by Communist forces.

1952 - Without a wartime economic setting, the Dewey Government's Internationalist financial policies begin to falter, and the American economy begins to backslide. President Dewey is practically ejected from office in the election, losing soundly to Senator Robert A. Taft, running on a strict platform of non-interventionalism and abolishment of not only the Internationalist reforms, but many of the more successful Roosevelt era New Deal reforms. The United States withdraws into itself, becoming isolationist yet again.

1955 - The United States is shocked when the Soviet Union launches a satalite, Sputnik-1, into earth's orbit, at least two years before the commonly predicted timelines. Later this year, the Soviets launch a crude ballistic missile, sending the Western world into a panic.

1956 - The USSR fires a true ICBM, capable of intercontinental flight and against which no effective countermeasure has been developed. In light of these Soviet launches, the United States intervenes in the fledgling Cuban revolution despite Russian threats, attempting to stop the Soviets from gaining a launching point for nuclear weapons off the American coast. Tensions run high, but nuclear war is miraculously averted through diplomacy. America comes out from it's shell of isolationism to inact the Rockefeller Doctrine, a forgien policy similar to the Monore Doctrine, stating that no outside aggression will be allowed in the American hemisphere. America makes several failed attempts to maintain objects in Earth orbit, racing desperately to catch up to the Soviets.

1957 - Premier Molotov announces the success of a Russian manned space mission, the cosmonaught Yuri Gagrin making it successfully into orbit for seven and a half minutes. Unfortunately, inadequate shielding on the spacecraft causes it to explode on re-entry. America launches it's first ballistic missile. Despite lagging in the space race, a modicum of balance is restored to the world as the nuclear arms race begins to even out.

1958 - Three American companies perfect the integrated circuit almost simultaneously, leading to a small patent fight, and a large boost to American rocket research.

1960 - Premier Molotov is killed in a car accident, and control of the Soviet Union falls to former defense minister Nikolai Bulganin. Despite many diplomatic gains having been made in the last three years, Bulganin takes a hardline stance against the western world, and declares the beginning of the world-wide Socialist Revolution. The West dismisses this as posturing, safe in the knowledge that neither side of the Cold War is truely capable of achieving world dominance without horrible costs.

1961 - The Soviet Union launches an object into orbit. While unconfirmed, a great deal of evidences points to this object being a stellar weapon capable of intercontinental bombardment. This is confirmed when Premier Bulganin announces the Soviet annexation of Sweden, Norway, and Denmark, threatening strikes on Paris, London, and Washington should the west intervene. Much debate is raised in the U.S. to the proper course of action, but a test-firing of the orbital weapon sends the west reeling back. The Free World looks on in terror as the Russian Army marches unopposed into Stockholm. The Russians gain complete control of the North Sea, and fears abound that the rest of Europe will be overrun. President Hamilton J. Smithard annouces that America will stand by it's European allies despite all threats, and the Soviet Union appears to take this seriously, halting their advance after the capture of Denmark.

1962 - The United States intervenes directly in several more South American revolutions, and annexes Mexico directly to remove the left-leaning government there. The Soviet Union raises much international protest, but stops short of military threats, feeling comfortable in their stellar dominance. U.S. GDP rises back to a level that puts it in direct competition with Soviet economic power, and despite immense global tension, the world appears to quiet down again.

1963 - Much of Europe, concerned that the Americans will not be an effective force with which to stop Soviet aggression, bands together into the European Union. Despite predictions from economists in both the US and USSR, this does wonders for the collective European economy, and a third superpower begins to emerge. Near the same time, the differences in Soviet and Red Chinese policies begin to tax on the relationship between the two nations. Border skirmishes erupt, and the West looks on with glee as Russia is forced to halt any European plans to settle their borders.

1964 - The United States achieves manned spaceflight. While not publicly announced, the mission is more than just a publicity stunt - several orbital denial objects are placed in orbit, in an attempt to nullify Soviet orbital weapons. Private communiques between the Russian and American governments make it clear that the nuclear playing field has become more level, and in combination with a rapidly escalating Sino-Soviet conflict, the leadership of the west breathes easily for the first time in nearly a decade.

1966 - Despite the west's rapid gains on the USSR, both scientifically and militarily, the Soviets find that they are unable to resolve their issues with the People's Republic of China. What started as minor border disputes quickly escalates into a full scale war. In an attempt to thwart the Russians from achieving an easy win, the European Union takes a large risk and secretly shares nuclear technology with the PRC.

1967 - Several Chinese test detonations and a great amount of posturing on both sides force a ceasefire to the Sino-Soviet War. The Cold War resumes at full pace, albiet with the understanding that all significant parties have a realistic chance of assuring mutual destruction. Looking to achieve some small victory over their foes, they begin the true space race - to the moon.

1968 - After several aborted attempts, the Americans successfully place a man on the moon. This is understood to be a one-way trip due to technological limitations, but the public moral still soars as the stars and stripes are planted on it's cratered surface. Russia grumbles at the American claims, and Premier Bulganin declares that American space aggression will not be tolerated.

1970 - America revisits the moon, this time successfully bringing home samples and astronauts. Despite confirming the moon's obvious unsuitability for colonization, American President John F. Kennedy announces the United States' intention to establish colonies.

1972 - Russia sends six cosmonauts on a one way trip to the moon, claiming it is the start of colonization. The American government responds alternatively with claims of the unsuitability of the moon for colonization, and reaffirmations of their plans to colonize. Premier Bulganin dies of a heart attack, and is succeeded by a string of fairly unremarkable moderates. The Soviet Union continues to prosper.

1993 - The first graphene microchip is constructed by European scientists. The design is quickly stolen via espionage, and soon the chip is perfected across the globe. Computer design explodes, and new technologies are developed at an unbelieveable rate.

2001 - A crude, but functioning plasma drive is invented in the USSR, bringing cheap energy to an already flourishing socialist economy. Either feeling altruistic, or perhaps because of concerns of it's potential as a weapon, a pair of Soviet scientists leak the technology to American and European governments, and soon the first plasma weapon is detonated. Still, free energy abounds, quality of life soars around the globe, and despite the obvious threat of increased firepower in an already tense world, the Golden Age of Earth begins.