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Early 1800s- Zephaniah Mann purchases large tracts of land in frontier America, as convinced by his twin sons, Redmond and Blutarch.
1850- Zephaniah Mann passes away, leaving behind a last will and testament written on his own skin. His sons Blutarch and Redmond begin fighting over the land left to them.
1890- Radigan Conagher builds a life-extending machine for Blutarch and Redmond, extending their feud indefinitely.
1937- World War II breaks out in Asia
1939- World War II breaks out in Europe
1944- United States troops invade Europe, fighting German forces. (The events of Day of Defeat and Day of Defeat: Source occur.)
1945- World War II ends. Several German scientists are brought to the United States as part of Operation Paperclip. Perhaps a certain German Medic was amongst them.
1949- The Soldier ends his rampage.
1953- Cave Johnson founds Aperture Science as a manufacturer of shower curtains.
1956- Aperture is awarded a contract to provide shower curtains to all branches of the military except the Navy.
1968- By now, the feud between Blutarch and Redmond Mann has developed to the point that their companies Builders League United (BLU) and Reliable Excavation & Demolition (RED) each have control of roughly half the planet. The massive social and economic changes in the aftermath of World War II may have permitted such consolidation of power to happen.
The build-up of the military-industrial complex leads to massive amounts of funds being placed into Research & Development at various facilities across the world, perhaps influencing the gradual shift from manufacturing to research at Aperture. Despite this, BLU and RED remain in a protracted stalemate and still hire mercenaries to continue the fight. (The events of Team Fortress 2 occur. See the official Team Fortress 2 wiki for more details.)
1974- Cave Johnson becomes mentally unstable from mercury poisoning, though there is evidence that he was not entirely sane to begin with.
1976- While dying, Cave Johnson lays out a three-tier R&D program to ensure Aperture Science's future success.
1981- Senior company officials of Aperture Science are summoned before a Senate investigative committee. The committee is permanently recessed. Aperture Science is granted an open-ended contract to continue their research and development on the "Portal" and "Heimlich Counter-Maneuver."
1986- Aperture Science begins development on GLaDOS (Genetic Lifeform and Disk Operating System) in response to competition from the Black Mesa Research Facility.
1990s- Terrorism is on the rise. It is possible that RED and BLU have declined in the recessions of the 1980s, creating a power vacuum and social instability. Various nations around the world employ Counter-Terrorist forces to combat these growing threats. (The events of Counter-Strike, Counter-Strike: Condition Zero and Counter-Strike: Source occur.)
1998- Aperture Science activates GLaDOS.
Late 2000s- The Black Mesa Incident. (The events of Half-Life and Half-Life: Source occur. The events of Half-Life Deathmatch: Source, Half-Life: Opposing Force, and Half-Life: Blue Shift might have occurred. See the Half-Life Saga Story Guide for more details.)
2009- A zombie outbreak sweeps over the United States, perhaps just before or after the Black Mesa Incident. Conspiracy theorists believe the zombie virus may be related to the less than ethical research carried out in various research facilities across the nation and doubt the government's ability to contain the problem. Four survivors band together to try to survive in southern Pennsylvania. (The events of Left 4 Dead) Four other survivors try to cross over the American South from Savannah to New Orleans. (The events of Left 4 Dead 2 occur.)
The hat of one of the four from Pennsylvania, a Vietnam veteran named Bill, falls off a table into a portal and is transported back in time to around 1968. This may be one of the first signs of the coming portal storms.
Early 2010s- The zombie outbreak is contained, only for portal storms to sweep over an already exhausted populace. The Combine, or Universal Union, invade earth, resulting in the Seven Hour War. Dr. Wallace Breen, former Administrator of Black Mesa, negotiates a surrender.
It is possible that what remains of Aperture Science has isolated itself from the rest of the world, thus avoiding getting swept up in the chaos. (The events of Portal might have occured.) The remnants of BLU and RED continue fighting through all this, now using more advanced technology, though in some areas fighting has devolved into mindless deathmatches. (The events of Team Fortress Classic and Deathmatch Classic might have occurred.)
2020s- The Rebellion against Combine rule. (The events of Half-Life 2, Half-Life 2: Lost Coast, Half-Life 2: Deathmatch, Half-Life 2: Episode One, and Half-Life 2: Episode Two occur. See the Half-Life Saga Story Guide for more details)
2052- Humans explore space, establishing colonies and discovering dangerous alien lifeforms. (The events of Alien Swarm occur.)
2110s and beyond- (The events of Portal 2 occur.) Virtual reality becomes popular and result in a new bizarre deathmatch-like game. (The events of Ricochet occur)
References
http://www.valvesoftware.com/
http://store.steampowered.com/
http://www.members.shaw.ca/halflifestory/index.htm
http://www.aperturescience.com/
http://www.teamfortress.com/
http://www.l4d.com/home.html
