The next part...
Disasters:
- There have been 125 tropical cyclones, 73 hurricanes in the Atlantic, 52 typhoons in the Pacific.
- There have been over 20 death-toll producing tornado outbreaks in the United States.
- Over 50 major earthquakes have shaken the world, and have shortened the Earth day by 2.68 microseconds.
Economy:
- Adjusted to the inflation, the average price of gas in the United States has doubled.
- The Euro was introduced as a new European currency.
- Enron has filed for bankruptcy and folded. Kenneth Lay and Jeffrey Skilling have been arrested on fraud charges and subsequently indicted and convicted. In addition, they will most likely be sentenced before Forever is released.
Movies that were filmed, released in theatres, and have made it to DVD:
- All three Star Wars prequels.
- The entire Lord of the Rings trilogy, with extended editions.
- Every Pixar movie aside from Toy Story.
- Three (possibly four) James Bond films.
- Every movie, animation, and video game from The Matrix series.
- Every Marvel comics movie released.
- Each predictable twist ending of every movie by M. Night Shyamalan.
Pop Culture:
- Britney Spears' entire musical career as a pop star has taken place during Duke Nukem Forever's development.
- Theater box office totals since the announcement are over $2.62 billion.
- Colin Farrell's entire movie career has also taken place during the same development.
- The concept of Bullet Time has been developed, pioneered, and completely run in to the ground.
- Cellular Phones ownership has become commonplace, whereas in 1997 they were viewed as luxurious expenditures.
- The entire cult following the Family Guy! Family Guy has debuted on FOX, has been cancelled, entered syndication, has been released on DVD, redebuted on FOX, and seen the release of a feature film.
- Six Harry Potter Books have been released, and four films produced.
- Stephen King has written 16 novels.
- The first episode of South Park was first aired on August 13, 1997, the same year in which DNF was announced. The show is now in the second half of its tenth season, with 'Tsst' being the 146 episode shown.
- King of the Hill first aired on January 12 of the same year, around the same time prototype work was being done in the Quake Engine for DNF. It recently finished its tenth season, with 201 episodes.
- The episode count of 'The Simpsons' has more then doubled since DNFs announcement. Season 8, episode 23 was the 176th episode, and aired on May fourth, 1997. The 352nd episode aired on May 1st, 2005.
- Thirteenth seasons of Survivor.
- The ending of Star Trek shows Deep Space Nine, Voyager, and the beginning and ending of Enterprise, plus the films First Contact, Insurrection and Nemesis.
- Joss Whedon showed us that he truly is our master with every Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, and Firefly episode. (Oh, and the movie Serenity.)
Science & Technology:
- The Voyager 1 spacecraft has traveled 8.8 billion miles from Earth.
- The two Mars rovers, Spirit and Opportunity were proposed, authorized, announced, designed, launched and successfully landed upon Mars where they have been exploring the surface for over 2.5 years.
- NASA's Deep Impact program also went full circle.
- The International Space Station was assembled and has been orbiting Earth for over 8 years.
- NASA has launched 30 manned space shuttle missions, Russia has launched 17.
- The Airbus A380 "Super Jumbo" plane was designed, built, tested, and delivered to airlines.
- Tier One developed, built, tested, and launched SpaceShipOne, winning the Ansari X-Prize for being the first non-government organization to launch a reusable manned spacecraft into space twice within two weeks.
- In 1997, there were only 50 million US cell phone subscribers in the United States. Today there are more than 200 million, which amounts to over 60% of the population of the USA.
- The U.S.S. Ronald Reagan (the largest nuclear-powered aircraft carrier in the world) was in contract, built, launched, commissioned, and began active duty.
- Costa Concordia, the biggest Italian cruise liner was designed, built and delivered by the Fincantieri shipyards, in Italy.
- The Space Shuttle Columbia burnt up during re-entry, the entire Space Shuttle program went through a safety overhaul, and the Shuttle returned to flight.
Sports
- Since the announcement of Duke Nukem Forever, the single season home run record has been broken. Twice.
- The Red Sox broke their curse by finally winning the World Series.
- Two of the greatest NBA Dynasties in history have reigned and ended: The incredible 1990s Chicago Bulls dynasty were still unmatched in '97 and disbanded after the '98 finals. The Los Angeles Lakers acquired Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O'Neal in '97 and Phil Jackson in '99, effectively becoming the greatest team in the NBA at the time with another landmark dynasty that lasted from 2000 to 2002. The Lakers disbanded after losing the finals to the Pistons in 2004.
- There have been five Olympic Games (three winter, two summer).
- Lance Armstrong won the Tour de France 7 consecutive years.
- The World Wrestling Federation has changed its name to World Wrestling Entertainment and bought its two main competitors, WCW and ECW, relaunching ECW, and facing new competition from TNA.
- The Cubs have lost 798 games since April '97.
- St. Louis Cardinals moved from Busch Stadium to new Busch stadium.
- Philidelphia Phillies moved from Veterans Stadium to Citizens Bank Ballpark.
- The Houston Astros moved from the Astrodome to Enron Field (Now Minute-Maid Park).
- The Cincinnati Reds moved from Cinergy Field to Great American Ballpark.
- The Milwaukee Brewers moved from County Stadium to Miller Park.
- The San Diego Padres moved from Qualcomm stadium to Petco Park.
- The Pittsburgh Pirates moved from Three-River Stadium to PNC Park.
- The Detroit Tigers moved from Tiger Stadium to Comerica Park.
- The Seattle Mariners moved from The Kingdome to Safeco Field.
- The Montreal Expos are now the Washington Nationals.
- The Arizona Diamondbacks and Tampa Bay Devil Rays were formed.
- The Cleveland Browns turned into the Baltimore Ravens.
- A new Cleveland Browns team was formed and moved into a new stadium.
- The Cincinnati Bengals moved from Cinergy Field to Paul Brown Stadium.
- The New England Patriots moved from Foxboro Stadium to Gillete Stadium.
- The Tennessee Titans moved into The Coliseum after 3 years at a college football stadium.
- The Pittsburgh Steelers moved from Three-Rivers Stadium to Heinz Field.
- The Denver Broncos moved from Mile High Stadium to Invesco Field.
- The Washington Redskins moved from RFK Stadium to FedEx Field.
- The Phildelphia Eagles moved from Veterans Stadium to Lincoln Financial Field.
- The Tampa Bay Buccaneers moved from Houlihan Stadium to Raymond James Stadium.
- The Detroit Lions moved from the Silverdome to Ford Field.
- The Seattle Seahawks moved from the Kingdome to Qwest Field.
- Brette Farve has passed for 34,891 yards while the careers of Ryan Leaf and Cade McNown began, sucked, and ended.
United States Politics:
- The Identity of Deep Throat has been revealed.
- 40 new members have been elected to the Senate.
- The national debt has increased by over 3 trillion dollars.
- The national minimum wage remained $5.15.
- Bill Clinton finished his presidential term, George W. Bush was elected and re-elected.
World Events:
- 4 nations have acquired nuclear weapons technology.
- 19 wars have begun.
- 5 wars have ended.
- Approximately 509,373,306 people have died and 661,373,082 have been born.
- There have been 7 total solar eclipses and 8 total lunar eclipses.
- The United Kingdom handed sovereignty of Hong Kong to the People's Republic of China.
Things that have taken less time than Duke Nukem Forever's Development:
Pop Culture:
- The Beatles formed, released every single one of their albums and broke up. During this time they also toured the world several times.
- Led Zeppelin released 7 albums, 9 singles, and toured around the world, crossing international borders 27 times (not counting mainland Europe.)
Science & Technology:
- The Wright brothers designed and flew the first airplane.
- The theory of General Relativity.
- The United States' entire program to send a man on the moon, from Kennedy's challenge to the landing.
Wars:
- The American War for Independence
- The United States Civil War
- World War I
- World War II and the entire Manhattan Project.
- The United State's involvement in the Vietnam War.