History ApocalypseHow / Class1

* ''Lucifer's Hammer'' (1978) looks much worse at first, what with a comet's direct impact apparently destroying civilization, China nuking Russia (and getting nuked by both the Soviets and USA in retaliation), a cannibal army roaming through what's left of California, and the lack of any organization outside the local level. But by the end of the novel, we still have electricity (from a nuclear power plant, even), at least regional government, and contact with people that can put a plausible claim toward being the national government. Amusingly, the authors claim (and suitably demonstrate!) that it was the mailman doing his job that kept civilization afloat and the story out of the nastier categories below.

* In Greg Bear's ''Blood Music'' artificially enhanced lymphocytes gain a sort of intelligence and spread quickly across the entire North American continent, converting all biomass into more entities like themselves. (Although they are capable of encoding and converting intelligences into their cellular-level versions, so nobody strictly "dies" during the epidemic.) After the incident resolves itself, North America has been wiped clean and humanity in the rest of the world is trying to adjust [[spoiler: to new laws of physics. The intelligences in North America caused the laws of physics to fracture slightly due to the density of observation causing the laws of physics unable to follow their own rules. Surprisingly this is not HandWavium, there are real scientific theories behind such an event, as unlikely as it is to ever occur. Think of a well-regarded theory such as Heinsenberg's Uncertainty Principle which implies that, for any given particle, you can know its position or velocity, but never both, as an observation of one will affect, and therefore prevent observation of the other. Now imagine that someone develops the technology to accurately observe and record both. There is some uncertainty (no pun intended) as to what might actually happen to the observed particle at this point.]]

* [=~S. M. Stirling~=]'s ''ThePeshawarLancers'' centers on a set of comets hitting the North Atlantic and North America in 1878, creating tidal waves that ruin what is left of the U.S. and most of mainland Europe. Britain (having lucked out with Ireland as a waterbreak) is dealing with the nightmarish Winter that follows when a group of scientists point out to Prime Minister Disraeli that Spring will not come for another three years at best. So of course they evacuate the Army, the Royals, a chunk of the nobility and government, the contents of several Universities, as much factory gear/skilled workers they can get their hands on, and so forth over to India. The book itself starts in 2025, with the ''Angrezi Raj'' pitted against the plots of a Russian Empire run by a [[ReligionOfEvil Satanist Cannibal Cult]] and guided by an order of precognitive slaves.

** Also see ''SwanSong'' by Robert R. [=McCammon=], which deals with the aftermath of a nuclear war and bears certain ... similarities to ''TheStand''.

* ''DeusEx'' gives the player the option to instigate a non-lethal type 1: because [[spoiler: all global communication and technological infrastructure is being routed through Area 51 so TheConspiracy can control it, destroying the facility sets everybody back a few centuries]].

* ''{{Survivors}}'', created by Terry Nation (he of the Daleks and ''BlakesSeven''), featured the few remaining inhabitants of a virus-ravaged Earth. However, enough human knowledge survived in the form of books to prevent this going to Level 2.

** The night side during the flare would probably have electronics more or less okay, so even if one were to hit Earth (itself a very slim prospect but likely a reality some point in the future), there's a decent chance the bulk of the damage would be over the Pacific or Atlantic oceans. However such an event would damage satellites completely, and in the worst case scenarios, human progress would be stalled out for a few decades while infrastructure and industry recovered. Deaths would probably be limited to medical patients and people in situations requiring electronics at the time though.

* A Solar Flare would render most electronics (especially ones with computer chips) severly damaged and useless, which would knock humans back to the 1930's in terms of technology. However, it is temporary, so after the turmoil (caused by removing essential technology like radios, the computers in plane cockpits and the machines hooked up to hospital patients), we would be able to replace it eventually.

* A Solar Flare would render most electronics (especially ones with computer chips) severly damaged and useless, which would knock humans back to the 1930's in terms of technology. However, it is temperery, so after the termoil (caused by removing essential technology like radios, the computers in plane cockpits and the machines hooked up to hospital patients), we would be able to replace it eventually.

* ''[[BabylonFive Babylon 5]]'': ''The Deconstruction of Falling Stars'' depicts a future where after a war, technology has fallen back several centuries.

* ''DoctorWho'' manages a class 1 in the series 3 ending episodes. Human life on Earth is ordered decimated the old-fashioned way--10% of the population gets killed.

* TheBlackDeath halved Europe and China's populations, killing an estimated one hundred million people and setting civilizations back by centuries in the fourteenth century.

* And, for that matter, ''{{Mai-Otome}}'', which seems to have been partially the inspiration for the above. Unlike it, however, civilization has already pretty much got back on its feet -- it isn't even apparent at first that there ''was'' an apocalypse.

* ''AfterTheWarGundamX'' is a Class 1 disaster due to the Seventh Space War's conclusion. Nearly all the Colonies used a ColonyDrop on Earth, sending it into a seven year Nuclear Winter. However, 15 years after the War, everything is stabilized and despite taking place AfterTheEnd, it is upbeat and hopeful.