A brief history...
1946, Spring - US Soldiers involved in Japanese reconstruction report encounters with a boy with amazing abilities, able to lift heavy debris and leap an entire city block. No one manages to procure any conclusive evidence that the boy exists.
1946, Winter - French landings in Indochina begin the First Indochina War. They are resisted by the Viet Minh communists. Some French soldiers report witnessing people of incredible abilities fighting for the communists; pictures of a man capable of stretching his arms to incredible lengths, whose body repelled bullets, surface. These are soon discredited.
1947, Fall - The Soviet Union begins researching the rumors of individuals with incredible, super-human abilities.
1949, Fall - The Soviet Union tests its first atomic bomb. Shortly thereafter, very brief reports of people with Parahuman abilities being to circulate in Eastern Europe. No such person is ever officially reported.
1949, Winter - According to some discredited historians, a series of covert battles occur between in divided Berlin between US and Soviet Paranormals. The Soviet group was supposedly named "Cерп" or "Cerp", while the US team was a combined group of military and private citizens known as the "Atom Rangers".
1952, Fall - Sensationalism surrounding The Atom Rangers leads two funny-book magazine companies, Amazing and AC Comics, to begin producing stories about Parahumans, calling them "Superheroes."
1956, Fall - Hungarians revolt against the Soviet dominated government. They are crushed by the Soviet military, with rumors surfacing once again of Parahuman agent involvement.
1964, Fall - China tests its first atomic bomb. China begins studying Parahuman ability in more detail based on stories from near their nuclear testing facilities.
1973 - According to a DARPA-commissioned study entitled "Paranormal Phenomena", the U.S. has failed to significantly advance our understanding of paranormal phenomena.
1982, Fall - Stories surface of a boy in Mexico City how can lift and throw automobiles. He's tested on camera, and while the stories prove to be exaggerated, the boy is able to lift several times his own body weight. The body disappears as the scientific community descends on the area for further testing.
1985, Spring - Chinese scientists produce video evidence of a man levitating and moving objects with his mind, but the video is declared a fake by authorities.
1987, Spring - At Illinois State University, a woman falls 17 stories from a dormitory building without significant injury.
1989 - Movies highlighting Superheroes once again gain popularity; this time, the moves have a more grim and dark outlook than in the past.
1999 - As Digital video recording becomes more prevailent, some evidence of real Parahuman activity begins to be traded on the internet. The news reports about these stories as a hoax.
2006 - As Youtube begins to gain in popularity, the phenomena of Parahuman "hoax" videos and discussion surrounding them, grows.
2010 - In New York, self-proclaimed Superhero Ajax is gunned down while seemingly launching clods of dirt with his mind and a group of streetgang youths. Outrage follows, as people and politicians blame irresponsible internet publication caused the young man's death. Youtube and other video-sharing sites begin self-policing supposed Parahuman content on their sites.
2017 - An active core of theorists (some would say "conspiracy theorists") continue to insist that Ajax truly had either telekinetic or earth manipulating powers, and that there must be dozens if not hundreds of similar people across the globe. For the most part though, society seems to have moved on, happy to watch their heroes on movie screens rather than look for them in the streets.
