alternatehistory.com

Welcome to One Small Step for Man, also known as OSSM, for short. This will be a collaborative TL stretching from July 20, 1969 to July 20, 2119 (150 years later), beginning with the landing of Apollo 11 on the lunar surface and ending, well, wherever that ends up taking us. There aren't many restrictions on posting events for the TL, except that I ask you to limit yourself to five PODs per post, and to limit your posts to the decade that we are currently messing around with. You will be able to post events for one decade for one week, so anything you'll post for seven days will all occupy the same decade, giving us a schedule of something like this:

June 1 - June 8: 1969-1980
June 9 - June 16: 1980-1990
June 17 - June 24: 1990-2000
June 25 - July 2: 2000-2010
July 3 - July 10: 2010-2020
July 11 - July 18: 2020-2030
July 19 - July 26: 2030-2040
July 27 - August 3: 2040-2050
August 4 - August 11: 2050-2060
August 12 - August 19: 2060-2070
August 20 - August 27: 2070-2080
August 28 - September 4: 2080-2090
September 5 - September 12: 2090-2100
September 13 - September 20: 2100-2110
September 21 - September 28: 2110-2119

I also ask that about 65 years from the start of the timeline (2034, then) that real life people stop showing up, largely because by that time we'll probably have developed enough of a divergence in the preceding decades that those people wouldn't exist, anyway. Basically, anyone born after July 20, 1969, should be considered as not having been born ITTL because of the butterfly effect. Feel free to get as creative as you want with fictional characters. If you have trouble coming up with names, this site can be pretty helpful.

Anyway, without further aideu, I'm opening up the TL for entries, and starting with a few PODs myself.


1960s

July 20, 1969: Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin become the first humans to walk upon the surface of the Moon in the successful landing of Apollo 11. In spite of mangling what he had originally intended to say, Armstrong is nevertheless remembered for the words he did say on that historic day, noting that the moon landing was, "One small leap for man, one giant leap for mankind," words that would echo throughout the succeeding century and a half as mankind moved from the Earth and into the stars...

October 16, 1969: The heavily favored Baltimore Orioles defeat the New York Mets in the 1969 World Series.


1970s

January 11, 1970: The Minnesota Vikings defeat the Kansas City Chiefs in Super Bowl IV.

November 3, 1970: In a close vote, and perhaps because of the stagnant economy, California Governor Ronald Reagan is defeated by California House Speaker Jesse Unruh. Once thought of as a potential leader of a rising conservative movement, Reagan's future as a presidential or higher level candidate in California or the nation at large is put into doubt.

November 7, 1972: President Richard Nixon and Vice President Spiro Agnew are re-elected over the Democratic ticket of Senator George McGovern of South Dakota and his running-mate, United Autoworkers President Leonard Woodcock of Michigan. The Republican ticket wins 53.5% of the vote to the Democrats' 46.5% and 345 electoral votes to the Democrats' 193.
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