5th millennium

Millennia:	4th millennium 5th millennium 6th millennium
Centuries:	41st century 42nd century 43rd century 44th century 45th century 46th century 47th century 48th century 49th century 50th century

The fifth millennium is a period of time that will begin on January 1, 4001, and will end on December 31, 5000.

Astronomical events

• 4285 (August 6): Venus occults Regulus.
• 4296 (November 22): Venus occults Antares.
• 4385 Comet Hale–Bopp is expected to return to the inner solar system. It last dominated the skies of Earth in 1996–1997.
• 4557 (November 10): Venus occults Regulus.
• 4747 (August 14): Venus occults Regulus.
• 4772
  • October 13: The Mayan Calendar will require a sixth digit.
  • October 21: The Mayan king Pacal of Palenque predicted that on this date the eightieth Calendar Round anniversary of his accession will be celebrated.
• 49th century: The Great Comet of 1811 is expected to return to the inner solar system. According to calculations made at the time, the comet should return around the year 4876.

Astrological events

In the first eight centuries of the 5th millennium (calculations vary among different astrologers), the 2,158 year long Age of Aquarius will end and the Age of Capricorn will begin.

Fictional events

• A majority of the events of David Weber's Honor Harrington novels and short stories take place during the early years of the fifth millennium.
• The PlayStation game series Colony Wars is set during the 5th millennium.
• In Dragon Flyz, 41st century is an era of disappearance in Earth's mankind caused by a series of nuclear attacks led to extinction of living organisms and leaving the surface uninhabitable.
• In the film A. I., which begins in the mid 22nd century, a sequence said to take place 2000 years later, features the extinction of mankind after the ocean freezes over, but the descendants of mankind's early intelligent robots, the Mechas, return to Earth and are seen excavating parts of frozen-over NYC to discover their origins and discover an ancient android, a boy named David.
• The novel series Fifth Millennium by Stirling, Wehrstein and Meier is set in this time, chronicling the lives and travels of several connected characters in a 'low magic' fantasy world that emerged after a nuclear war destroyed almost all former civilization on Earth.
• The Marvel Comics super-villain Kang the Conqueror rules the Earth in the 41st century according to the comics, claiming Earth was at war with weapons engineered centuries earlier when he landed in a thousand years earlier then his destination by mistake.
• 4010: In the episode of Justice League Unlimited, "This Little Piggy", Batman and Zatanna request an audience with Medusa in her magic prison, for information on the whereabouts of Circe, who has transformed Wonder Woman into a pig. Because of her help, Themis informs her she has earned 400 years off her sentence. Medusa's response is to sarcastically twirl her finger in the air while saying "Freedom in 4010, ring-a-ding-ding...".
• A scene in SB-129 from the animated television series, SpongeBob SquarePants takes place on March 6, 4017.
• The events of David Macaulay's Motel of the Mysteries take place in 4022.
• Iain M Banks' novel The Algebraist is set in 4034.
• The song Wykydtron by Canadian metal band 3 Inches of Blood is set in a dystopian year 4055.
• The Blasterman universe mainly takes place in the early 4060s.
• The events of the Doctor Who episode "42" take place in the 42nd century.
• The events of the Doctor Who episode "Planet of the Ood" take place in the 42nd century, in the year 4126. The Ood cease to be slaves to humans at this point in time, after the Doctor disconnects a force-field around the Oad-mind. Humanity spreads across three galaxies during the Second Great and Bountiful Human Empire.
• The Battle of Zaruthstra was depicted as taking place in 4037 in the 2011 Doctor Who episode "A Good Man Goes to War"
• In the Big Finish Productions Doctor Who spin-off miniseries Dalek Empire, the Daleks launch a full scale invasion of the Milky Way in the year 4162.
• 4338: The Year 4338: Petersburg Letters, an 1835 novel by Vladimir Odoevsky, is set in this year.
• 4444: Events of Neo Contra.
• 4600s: In Doctor Who the Aplan species becomes extinct on Alfava Metraxis, due to an influx of Weeping Angels (The Time of Angels)
• 4665: Events of The Caves of Steel.
• 4667: Events of The Naked Sun.
• 4670: Events of The Robots of Dawn.
• In 4846 (or, more accurately, the 12th day of Kalends, CY 9772), the Andromeda Ascendant will be commissioned by the Systems Commonwealth High Guard (for the television series Andromeda).
• 4870: Events of Robots and Empire.
• 4908: An New Caledonian expedition discovers the ruins of the lost city of Paris in Les Ruines de Paris en 4908 (1875) by Alfred Franklin (ISBN 978-2916-1413-50).
• The Japanese anime Battle Athletes takes place in 4999 at an athletic training school in Antarctica, which is located on the equator after a great catastrophe in 2015.
• In several stories written by H. P. Lovecraft, the beginning of "the cruel Tsan-Chan Empire" will take place in the year 5000.

Music

• According to the song "In the Year 2525" by Zager and Evans, by this time in human history, man will be blind and fed through tubes.

References

• Conjunctions of Regulus and the planets (in German)