Early Foundation Timeline
edit"The Portable Star" was accompanied in the Winter 1955 issue of Thrilling Wonder Stories with a timeline of the Foundation series which included the story, along with a number of others. A notable detail of the timeline is that it does not include any of the stories from I, Robot or The Caves of Steel, since at this time Asimov considered the Robot Series separate from the Foundation Series. The following timeline is a modified version of the Thrilling Wonder timeline, with dates adjusted to better reflect the story backgrounds, and with later stories added.
| Year | Story | Events |
|---|---|---|
| A. Exploration of the Solar System | ||
| 1965 | (Franchise) | Multivac constructed. |
| 1968 | (Franchise) | First use of Multivac to extrapolate election results. |
| 1973 to 1978 | Trends | First man-carrying flight to the Moon, against social resistance. |
| 1985 | (The Singing Bell) | Settlement of the Moon proceeds; mining operations set up. Luna City established in Tycho Crater. Lunar Dominion organized. First landings on Mars and Venus. |
| 1990 | Waterclap | Ocean-Deep established in the Puerto Rico Trench. |
| 1995 | (The Martian Way) | Mars and Venus settled. Continued opposition to settlement of other planets. |
| 2008 | Franchise | Norman Muller of Bloomington, Indiana chosen by Multivac as the year's Voter. |
| 2015 | All the Troubles of the World | Multivac becomes suicidal. |
| 2020 | Ring Around the Sun | First flight of the United Space Mail ship Helios from Earth to Venus. |
| 2025 | My Son, the Physicist | A missing expedition to Ganymede is discovered on Pluto. |
| 2028 | For the Birds | Space habitats constructed in Lunar orbit. |
| 2030 to 2032 | The Martian Way | Anti-Waster campaign on Earth. Martian colonists begin transportation of ice from Saturn's rings to the inner Solar System. |
| 2033 | (The Singing Bell) | Use of the psychoprobe on criminal suspects legalized. |
| 2035 | The Singing Bell, The Talking Stone | Albert Cornwell murdered on the Moon by Louis Peyton. H. Seton Davenport meets Dr. Wendell Urth. Freighter Robert Q. destroyed in Asteroid Belt. |
| 2036 | The Dying Night | Romano Villiers murdered after inventing mass transference. |
| 2037 | Time Pussy | Gold rush in Asteroid Belt. |
| 2039 | The Dust of Death | The head of Central Organic Laboratories is murdered by a disgruntled employee. |
| 2040 | The Key | Telepathic amplifier discovered on the Moon. |
| 2050 | (The Callistan Menace) | New Chicago settlement established on Ganymede. |
| 2055 | (The Callistan Menace) | First expedition to Callisto lost. |
| 2060 | (Christmas on Ganymede) | Ganymedan Products Corporation granted franchise to exploit natural resources on Ganymede. |
| 2070 | Key Item | Multivac continues to grow more complex and unpredictable. |
| 2075 | Christmas on Ganymede | Ganymedan natives demand visit from Santa Claus. |
| 2076 | To Tell at a Glance | Space habitats form political union. |
| 2080 | The Callistan Menace | Scoutship Ceres survives Callistan lifeforms, returns to Ganymede. |
| 2090 | The Billiard Ball | Discovery of anti-gravity. |
| 2100 | (Heredity) | Carter twins separated at birth. |
| 2125 | Heredity | Carter twins reunited on Mars. |
| 2130 | Marooned Off Vesta | Wreck of the Silver Queen in the Asteroid Belt. |
| 2150 | Anniversary | Survivors of the Silver Queen find the anoptikon. Multivac terminals in private homes. |
| 2157 | The Fun They Had | Education process is completely computerized. |
| 2500 | Exile to Hell | Exile to Earth becomes the most extreme punishment meted out to criminals on the Moon. |
| 2700 | Good Taste | Space habitats become culturally isolated. |
| 3000 | Dreaming Is a Private Thing | Recorded dreams become a form of popular entertainment. |
| 3500 | Someday | Extreme computerization of society. Disappearance of literacy. |
| 4500 | The Greatest Asset | Species diversity on Earth dwindles as the human population rises. |
| B. Exploration of the Galaxy | ||
| 5000 | The hyperspatial drive is discovered. | |
| 5200 | Green Patches, Each an Explorer | Organized space exploration begins. |
| 5400 | Founding Father | Terraforming of marginal planets takes place. |
| 5500 | The Portable Star | Flights to other stars become feasible in small space cruisers. Very little of the Galaxy explored. |
| 6500 | Strikebreaker | Mankind begins spreading outward. |
| 7000 | Take a Match | Exploration of the Galaxy continues. |
| 7500 | Profession, I'm in Marsport Without Hilda | Growing interstellar commerce. Earth maintains economic power by producing education tapes for other worlds. |
| 8500 | Sucker Bait | Population has increased to the point where the inner regions of the Galaxy are overcrowded. Government-sponsored emigration to the outer reaches are begun. Most of the Galaxy now mapped and well-known. The old political structure is now incapable of handling the vast number of worlds. |
| 10000 | Star Light | Earth’s last atomic wars render its crust largely radioactive and that is the last straw. The Galaxy breaks up into numerous political organizations. |
| C. Galactic Empire | ||
| 30000 | The Stars, Like Dust | The star-regions begin to agglomerate into larger groupings. The empire of Tyrann grows and declines. Trantor grows less spectacularly, but more solidly. |
| 34500 | The Currents of Space | Trantor has grown until half the Galaxy is under its sway. The Squires of Sark, with their control of the kyrt-rich Florina, are the last independent group to seriously contest Trantor’s hegemony. |
| 35000 | Trantor becomes the Galactic Empire officially. Earth is all but forgotten. | |
| 35827 | Pebble in the Sky | Galactic Empire is at its height. Earth completely forgotten as origin of humanity. Slowly the Empire grows static and decadent. |
| 35977 to 35978 | Blind Alley | Aliens escape from the Galactic Empire. |
| 46988 | (The Psychohistorians) | Hari Seldon born on Helicon. |
| 47067 | The Psychohistorians | Members of the Psychohistory Project are sentenced to exile on Terminus. |
| 47069 | (The Psychohistorians) | Death of Hari Seldon. Foundation established on Terminus. |
| 47119 | The Encyclopedists | Salvor Hardin seizes power on Terminus during the first Seldon Crisis. |
| 47149 | The Mayors | Salvor Hardin thwarts attempt by Anacreon to conquer Terminus during second Seldon Crisis. |
| 47204 | The Traders | Limmar Ponyets frees a Foundation agent on Askone, and blackmails the Grand Master of Askone into accepting Foundation missionaries. |
| 47223 to 47229 | The Merchant Princes | Hober Mallow becomes Mayor of the Foundation, wins Korellian War during third Seldon Crisis. |
| 47264 to 47265 | The General | War between the Foundation and the Galactic Empire during the fourth Seldon Crisis. |
| 47379 to 47380 | The Mule | The Mule conquers the Foundation during the fifth Seldon Crisis. |
| 47385 | Search by the Mule | The Mule is neutralized by the Second Foundation. |
| 47435 to 47436 | Search by the Foundation | War between the Foundation and Kalgan. Second Foundation apparently destroyed. |