Where it all began

Even though I will give a detailed timeline of science fiction predictions, I find it important to see when the first science fiction novel was published and what it predicted. Nowadays, with an overload of science fiction novels, television series and movies, it is hard to believe that the first work of science fiction was published in the 1630s, so 382 years ago. 'Somnium' (latin for 'The Dream') by Johannes Keppler has been referred to as the first work of science fiction. It presents a detailed imaginative description of how the earth may look like when viewed from the moon. This can be seen as the first reference to the idea of zero gravity or weigntlessness. To quote from his work: "..for, as magnetic forces on earth and moon both attract the body and hold it suspended, the effect is as if neither of them were attracting it.." In real life, the universal gravitation was not described by Isaac Newton by 1678, so almost 40 years later.