Which important human milestones 3 - 10 years out have a known date of occurance? I'd like to add them to my calendar.

June 10, 2012 2:58 PM

Intermediate Future Calendar: After adding the 2015 New Horizons flyby of Pluto to my Google Calendar [14 July 2015; 11:47 GMT], I was filled with a desire to populate the semi-distant future -- say, the next +3 to +10 years -- with important human achievements/milestones that have a known date. What are these important dates?

Space exploration/astronomy seems perfect for this, but I'm sure there are many other things that I can't think of. I'm interested in a wide range of human achievement/milestones, certainly not limited to these fields.

Not so much looking for annual/periodic events -- it's not likely that I'd miss, say, the Olympics... but if I did, I could wait 4 years and see it again -- I'm looking to populate my calendar with events of a known date and time that I can look forward to happening for their first and/or only time. Many thanks for your expertise.

posted by jjjjjjjijjjjjjj to Science & Nature (5 answers total)

You could start with Wikipedia's timeline of the near future, although it's a bit sparse in the next 3-10 years. Maybe things will be quiet.
posted by xil at 3:05 PM on June 10, 2012 [2 favorites]

There are a couple of older AskMe posts asking this: 1, 2.

On Wikipedia, you might have better luck looking at individual years (e.g. 2015). You could populate your calendar with anniversaries - there are a whole bunch of WWI 100-year memorials coming up.
posted by Paragon at 5:02 PM on June 10, 2012 [1 favorite]

The world's calendar systems are a rich source for you...

Chinese New Year - 10 Feb 2013, 31 Jan 2014, 19 Jan 2015, 8 Feb 2016, 28 Jan 2017, 16 Feb 2018, 5 Feb 2019, 25 Jan 2020.
Western Easter - 31 Mar 2013, 20 Feb 2014, 5 Apr 2015, 27 Mar 2016, 16 Apr 2017, 1 Apr 2018, 21 Apr 2019, 12 Apr 2020.
Orthodox Easter - 5 May 2013.
Shrove Tuesday - 12 Feb 2013, 4 Mar 2014, 17 Feb 2015, 9 Feb 2016, 28 Feb 2017, 13 Feb 2018, 5 Mar 2019, 25 Feb 2020.
Hanukkah - 27 Nov-5 Dec 2013, 16 Dec-24 Dec 2014, 6 Dec-14 Dec 2015, 24 Dec 2016-1 Jan 2017, 12 Dec-20 Dec 2017, 2 Dec-10 Dec 2018, 22 Dec-30 Dec 2019, 10 Dec-18 Dec 2020.
Holi - 27 Mar 2013, 17 Mar 2014, 6 Mar 2015, 23 Mar 2016, 13 Mar 2017, 2 Mar 2018, 21 Mar 2019, 10 Mar 2020.
Diwali - 3 Nov 2013, 23 Oct 2014, 11 Nov 2015, 30 Nov 2016, 19 Oct 2017, 7 Nov 2018, 27 Oct 2019, 14 Nov 2020.

There are many more lists and tables depending on how detailed you want to go - just consult Wikipedia pages on :-
Chinese calendar, Easter (and associated moveable feasts e.g. Shrove Tuesday), Hebrew calendar, Islamic calendar, Holi, Diwali, Vesak, Iranian calendars, Coptic new year, Ethiopian calendar, Japanese festivals.

You could also look up saints' days, national independence days etc...

The Wikipedia pages for the individual years also have lists of known events such as scheduled elections e.g. 2013.

The dates and exact times of solstices and equinoxes vary - there is a table at the Wikipedia site.

Seasky.org has tables of astronomical events e.g. full moons, new moons, planetary events, eclipses, meteor showers...
posted by plep at 1:46 AM on June 11, 2012 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: Thanks for the leads, plep, but perhaps worth restating... from question:

> Not so much looking for annual/periodic events... I'm looking to populate my calendar with events of a known date and time that I can look forward to happening for their first and/or only time.

posted by jjjjjjjijjjjjjj at 7:06 AM on June 11, 2012

Maybe not rare enough for your liking, but there'll be Transits of Mercury in 2016 and 2019; transits of Mercury happen irregularly, about 13–14 times per century. There'll also be a great conjunction on December 21, 2020; these happen roughly every 20 years.
posted by Johnny Assay at 7:36 AM on June 11, 2012