Another 25 Years : Collaborative Timeline

Hey Everybody!! It's yet another collaborative TL. This time the POD is the Space Shuttle Challenger Disaster (January 28, 1986) never takes place. As with "100 Years", "50 Years", and the "TWC:25 Years" TLs, please feel free to add as many PODs as possible. :


January 28th, 1986: Christa McAuliffe becomes the first civilian in space, with the successful launch of the Space Shuttle Challenger from Cape Canaveral, Florida...

Januay 31st, 1986: President Ronald Reagan calls the crew of the Space Shuttle from Washington D.C., praising their efforts , saying," you have 'slipped the surly bonds of Earth' to 'touch the face of God.'..."

Febuary 1, 1986: In the Soviet Union, Gorbachev begins to purge the CPSU of it's hard-line members.

Febuary 3: 1986: Inspired by the Challenger, the Soviets want to put a civilian in space as well.

March 6th, 1986: Space Shuttle Columbia under Commander Jon McBride is launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida with little incident...

May 3rd, 1986: Space Shuttle Challender launches the Ulysses solar polar orbiter under Commander Frederick H. Hauck from Cape Canaveral, Florida...

May 20th, 1986: Space Shuttle Atlantis launches the Galileo probe under Commander David M. Walker at Cape Canaveral, Florida...

July 1st, 1986: Space Shuttle Columbia is launched carrying the first British astronaut, Lieutenant Nigel Wood (RAF), and first Indonesian astronaut, Taufik Akbar, under Commander Michael Coats (US) from Cape Canaveral, Florida...

Considering that I am giving Great Britain an excuse to pursue a space program, I am surprised that no one is biting!!

@Mr_Bondock: I can't help you with the space stuff, but I can give you a lot of foreign affairs stuff and US stuff too.

historybuff said:

@Mr_Bondock: I can't help you with the space stuff, but I can give you a lot of foreign affairs stuff and US stuff too.

Click to expand...

Groovy!! Just consider that not all of the PODs are supposed to be based on space. Anyone can add pop culture, politics, et al. to the ATL...

Here are some PODs to add to the strangeness of the ATL:

February 22nd-25th, 1986: General Juan Ponce Enrile and Gregorio Honasan overthrow the government in a military coup in Manila, Philippines...

September 7th, 1986: General Augusto Pinochet is assassinated by Marcelo Barrios Andres, Frente Patriótico Manuel Rodríguez (FPMR), in Montevideo, Chile, causing massive civil unrest and violence...

April 15th, 1987: Government of President Raúl Alfonsín is overthrown by military officers affiliated with the Carapintada movement under Aldo Rico in Buenos Aires, Argentina...

August 18th, 1987: Sri Lankan President Junius Richard Jayewardene and Prime Minister Ranasinghe Premadasa are killed in a grenade attack in Jayawardenepura by PLF guerillas...

June 18th, 1988: Turkish President Halil Turgut Özal is assassinated by Kartal Demirağ in Ankara, Turkey; Prime Minister Yıldırım Akbulut is selected as successor...

October 19th, 1988: Croatian nationalist Nikola Štedul is assassinated by Yugoslavian agents in Kirkcaldy, Scotland...

May 16th, 1989: Ethiopian President Mengistu Haile Mariam is overthrown in a military coup in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, by senior members of the military...

October 3rd, 1989: General Moises Giroldi overthrows the government of Manuel Noriega in Panama City Panama....

February 28th 1986: Swedish Prime Minister Olof Palme narrowly escapes an assassination attempt in Stockholm. A nationwide manhunt is started to apprehend the attacker.

April 26th 1986: A reactor test in a Soviet nuclear power station in Chernobyl very nearly leads to a catastrophic accident. The narrowly averted disaster is covered up and the details only become known after several years.

September 27th 1986: Nothing much happens to Metallica bass player Cliff Burton. On October 4th, the band's Damage Inc. tour continues in Helsinki, Finland.

October 16th 1986: The International Olympic Committee chooses Lillehammer, Norway to be the host city of the 1992 Winter Olympics and Birmingham, UK to be the host city of the 1992 Summer Olympics.

Here are some pop culture PODs:

May 16th, 1986: Top Gun starring Scott Baio and Brooke Shields makes its hit debut,...

September 19th, 1986: Blue Velvet directed by David Lynch, starring Rebecca De Mornay and Willem Dafoe makes its hit debut...

September 11th, 1987: Fatal Attraction directed by Brian De Palma, starring Kim Bassinger and Mel Gibson, makes its hit debut...

October 9th, 1987: The Princess Bride starring NFL player Bubba Smith and Carrie Fisher, makes its hit debut,...

June 23rd, 1989: Batman directed by Joe Dante, starring Mel Gibson as "Bruce Wayne", Sean Young as "Vicki Vale", Ray Liotta as "Harvey Dent", and Robin Williams as "Joker"...

April 5, 1986: At a speech to the Politburo, Gorbachev attacks Stalin's rule, telling them about what his family and his wife's family went through, and labels Stalin as a criminal.

April 10: 1986: Gorbachev begins to put younger men in the Politburo, and even taps Anatoly Dobrynin to become Deputy Foreign Minister of the Soviet Union, and Pyotor Lushev as Defence Minister.

May 9th, 1986: Riots in Tallinn between Estonians and Russians.

May 12th, 1986: In Lithuania people demand indepent to country.

May 20, 1986: After reviewing the German-Soviet pact of 1939, the Politburo diclairs it illegal, and excepts Lithoianan's demands.

May 22, 1986: In response to the recent demands for an independent country in Lithuania, and the riots in Estonia, a mass strike is held in Poland by the underground Solidarity trade union, calling for a non-communist Poland united with Lithuania.

June 3, 1986: Inspired by the Polish strike, several Czechoslovakian and Hungarian trade unions hold similiar actions in their respective nations, calling for non-communist government.

June 19, 1986: The strike in Poland finally ends, after the government finally accedes to negotiate with the government.

July 23, 1986: The Czechoslovakian and Hungarian strikes end after their respective governments are forced to negotiate as well.

July 26, 1986: The recent strikes in Poland, Hungary, and Czechoslovakia have sent a wave of fear throughout the Communist bloc nations, and inspired anti-Communist activists to fight harder.

August 9, 1986: Afraid for his position as General Secretary, due to hardliners within the Party, Hu Yaobang manages to convince Deng Xiaoping to keep him as GS with his new, radical "Great Days" plan, a plan to open up the Chinese government and guarantee survival as the Communist Bloc in Europe seems to be beginning to collapse. Deng approves of the plan, and massive social reforms begin to be put into place.

August 29th, 1986: Amidst the threat of secessionist fervor in the Baltic States, Mikhail Gorbachev warns of a military crackdown on the region, during a televised speech in Moscow....

October 3rd, 1986: Soviet K-219, Yankee-I class submarine sinks 480 miles east of Bermuda, under Captain Igor Britanov, killing 120 people, after an explosion in one of its nuclear missile tubes...

January 22nd, 1987: Soviet officials report a mutiny of cadets in Baku, Azerbaijan SSR, as an attack by "Islamic fundamentalists"...

March 4, 1987: KGB agent (insert name here) defects to North Korea, intending to pass along several security secrets to the isolated Kim Il Sung regime.

Here is a name for the POD:

historybuff said:

March 4, 1987: KGB agent Rudolf Abel defects to North Korea, intending to pass along several security secrets to the isolated Kim Il Sung regime.

Click to expand...

@mr_bondoc: nice idea, don't recognize the name though.

June 8, 1987: North Korean reformers take over in a military coup, installing a combination military/civilian transitional government with help from South Korea.

Kim Il Sung and many of his cabinet members are killed in a bombing.

Let's develop things in Eastern Europe more...

April 12, 1987: Massive riots erupt in East Germany after a man is shot and killed by Volkspolizei in East Berlin. The government begins to crack under the pressure from the people.

July 9, 1987: Riots begin in Czechoslovakia after the government refuses to meet workers' demands.

August 17, 1987: The East German government, to the shock of the world, collapses after the Berlin politburo is destroyed in a multiple-fatality bombing.

August 22,1987: The Czechoslovakian government is forced to hold elections to stop the riots in Prague.

September 3, 1987: Demonstrations in Kiev are violently crushed by Soviet troops, in response to the destabilization of the Warsaw Pact.

September 7, 1987: Xinjiang province in China explodes into revolution after Uyghur politician Nur Bekri calls for a "global jihad against communism" in Urumqi.

September 10, 1987: Soviet troops crush an attempted Islamist rebellion in Tajikistan.

Here's a twist.

September 13, 1987: Through reformers in the KGB and military, Gorbachev finds out about his signiture being forged in order for the uprisings to be crushed, to make it appear that he gave the orders.

November 6th, 1986: President Ronald Reagan is diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease at Bethesda Naval Hospital in Bethesda, Maryland; CBS Correspondent Lesley Stahl reports the story...

November 13th, 1986: President Ronald Reagan addresses the nation about his medical diagnosis in a televised address in Washington D.C.,...