Ray Bradbury’s 1950 post-apocalyptic short story There Will Come Soft Rains takes place on August 4, 2026. Well, it’s August 5th… and we’re still here.
There Will Come Soft Rains is a 1950 short story by legendary science fiction writer Ray Bradbury. Although not explicitly about nuclear war, the clues are there: no humans around, a ruined city with a “radioactive glow,” and five silhouettes flash-burned onto the side of the only remaining house in the area. Although not perishing in a prophesized nuclear war should be commemorated, this story has and will continue to occupy an important place in early Cold War history. There Will Come Soft Rains is a great example of the dichotomy between the “atomic optimism” of the late 1940s and early 1950s and the fears over nuclear proliferation which permeated American life at the same time.
Dimension X radio show (June 17, 1950):