In 1996, defeated at the end of the Eugenics Wars, Khan Noonien Singh and his followers fled Earth in suspended animation aboard the SS Botany Bay.
Khan had ruled more than a quarter of Earth, from South Asia through the Middle East, as one of the genetically enhanced tyrants of the Eugenics Wars. When the Augments were overthrown, Khan and his people escaped aboard the DY-100-class sleeper ship Botany Bay, and history lost track of them.
The ship drifted for about two centuries until the Enterprise found it in 2267. Revived, Khan tried to seize the starship, and Kirk exiled him and his followers to Ceti Alpha V, setting the stage for their clash in 2285.