Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991)

In-fiction date: 8/29/1997

August 29, 1997 is the date Skynet — the U.S. military's artificial intelligence network — becomes self-aware and, upon being shut down by panicking operators, launches a nuclear strike against Russia to trigger a retaliatory attack that kills three billion people. John Connor calls it Judgment Day; the entire Terminator series turns on survivors' attempts to prevent or survive the war that begins on this date.