This timeline covers the alternate history of For All Mankind. Beware of unmarked spoilers.
1910s
1912
- March 23: Wernher von Braun is born in the German Empire.
1917
- March 15: Tsar Nicolas II abdicates the throne following the February Revolution.
- November 7: The Bolshevik Revolution begins in Russia.
1920s
1922
- December 30: The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics is founded in the wake of the Russian Civil War.
1926
- March 16: Robert H. Goddard launches the first liquid-propellent rocket, marking the earliest beginning of the space age.
1930s
1931
- Edward Baldwin is born in Gary, Indiana.
1933
- Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party seize power in Germany.
1934
- July 27: Werner von Braun is awarded a doctorate in aerospace engineering from the University of Berlin.
1936
- March 25: Gordon Stevens is born.
1937
- Wernher von Braun joins the Nazi Party.
- Molly Cobb is born.
1939
- September 1: Nazi Germany invades Poland, marking the beginning of World War II.
1940s
1940
- May 10: Nazi Germany invades France, Belgium, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands.
- June 22: France surrenders, leaving the Nazis in control of Western Europe.
- July 10: The Luftwaffe starts an aerial campaign against the RAF, which will become known as the Battle of Britain.
1941
- June 22: Nazi Germany invades the Soviet Union in Operation Barbarossa.
- December 7: The Empire of Japan attacks the US Pacific Fleet based in Pearl Harbor, bringing the United States into World War II.
- A Soviet counterattack drives German troops away from Moscow, halting the Wehrmacht's advance on the Soviet capital.
1942
- January 20: Senior Nazi officials meet in Wannsee to organize the extermination of European Jews.
- October 3: Wernher von Braun's V-2 rocket has its first successful flight.
- November 11: German troops in North Africa suffer a major defeat at El Alamein.
- November 19: A Soviet counterattack surrounds German troops in the city of Stalingrad.
1943
- February 2: The Soviets capture the remanants of the German 6th Army at Stalingrad, marking the turning point of the war in Europe.
- May: Ellen Waverly is born.
- July 9: American and British troops land in Sicily.
- August: The Battle of Kursk concludes in a massive defeat of the German Army.
1944
- Danielle Poole is born.
- June 6: American, British, and Canadian troops land in Normandy to begin the liberation of Western Europe from Nazi occupation.
- June 22: The Soviets begin Operation Bagration, which shatters the German Army on the Eastern Front.
- September: V-2 rocket attacks against London begin. By the end of the war, more than 1,400 rockets will have hit the British capital.
1945
- January 27: Soviet troops liberate Auschwitz, with the world beginning to realize the scale of the Nazi murders.
- April 30: With Berlin under siege by the Soviets, Adolf Hitler commits suicide.
- May 7: World War II in Europe ends with the surrender of Nazi Germany. Wernher von Braun surrenders himself to the US Army and is later brought to the United States as part of Operation Paperclip.
- July 16: In the New Mexican desert, the United States detonates "Trinity," the first nuclear device.
- August 6: The United States drops an atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima. Following a second bomb dropped on Nagasaki three days later, Japan surrenders, bringing an end to World War II.
1947
- With the announcement of the Truman Doctrine, which seeks to contain the spread of communism, the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union begins.
1949
- Germany is officially split between East and West, with the capital Berlin similarly divided.
- August 29: The Soviet Union detonates RDS-1 "First Lightning," their first nuclear weapon.
1950s
1950
- June 25: The Democratic People's Republic of Korea invades the First Republic of Korea, starting the Korean War. Edward Baldwin serves as a fighter pilot during the conflict.
1955
- April 15: Wernher von Braun becomes a naturalized citizen of the United States.
1957
- October 4: The Soviet Union launches Sputnik, the world's first artificial satellite, into orbit.
1958
- February 1: The United States launches its first satellite, Explorer 1.
- July 29: The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is founded.
1960s
1960
- November 8: John F. Kennedy is elected the 35th President of the United States.
1961
- April 12: Cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin becomes the first human in space.
- May 5: Alan Shepherd becomes the first American in space.
1962
- February 20: John Glenn becomes the first American to orbit the Earth.
- September 12: In a speech at Houston's Rice University, President Kennedy sets a goal to put an American on the moon by the end of the decade.
1963
- Ed and Karen Baldwin give birth to a son, Shane.
- June 16: Valentina Tereshkova becomes the first woman in space.
- November 10: Gordon and Tracy Stevens give birth to a son, Danny.
- November 22: President Kennedy is assassinated while visiting Dallas, Texas. He is succeeded by Lyndon B. Johnson.
1964
- August: Following an incident in the Gulf of Tonkin, US involvement in Vietnam greatly escalates.
- October 14: Leonid Brezhnev becomes the leader of the Soviet Union.
- November 3: Lyndon Johnson is reelected President of the United States.
1965
- March 18: Alexei Leonov performs the first extravehicular activity.
- December 4: Ed Baldwin goes to space for the first time on Gemini 7.
1966
- January 14: In the likely point of divergence, Sergei Korolev survives his surgery, allowing the Soviets to solve technical problems with the N1 rocket.
- March 16: Gemini 8 conducts the first orbital docking between two vehicles. The mission nearly ends in disaster when a malfunctioning thruster spins the spacecraft out of control, but Neil Armstrong is able to stabilize it.
- July 14: Hanh Nguyen is born in Saigon, South Vietnam. She is later adopted by Ed and Karen Baldwin and given the name Kelly.
1967
- January 27: During a systems check on Apollo 1, a fire breaks out in the command module, killing Gus Grissom, Ed White, and Roger B. Chaffee.
1968
- November 5: Richard Nixon is elected the 37th President of the United States.
1969 (Season 1)
- January: The Soviets successfully launch an N1 rocket. The CIA reports the event to NASA, though with 95% confidence that the rocket is unmanned.
- May: Apollo 10, flown by Ed Baldwin and Gordo Stevens, conducts a "dress rehearsal" for Apollo 11, coming within a few miles of the lunar surface.
- June 20: The CIA records the second launch of an N1 rocket, this time with an 80% confidence that it is unmanned.
- June 26: Soviet cosmonaut Alexei Leonov is the first man to walk on the moon, just three weeks ahead of Apollo 11. This event sends shockwaves across America.
- July 20: Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin successfully land on the moon, proving that America is still in the space race.
- Wernher von Braun's Nazi past is publicly exposed at a congressional hearing that seeks to scapegoat him for the loss of the moon race, and he soon loses his position at NASA.
- The second Soviet lunar mission has a female cosmonaut, Anastasia Belikova. NASA responds by accepting women as astronaut candidates.
- October: Apollo 12 lands in Sinus Medii.
1970s
1970
- April: Apollo 13 lands in the Fra Mauro highlands.
- Astronaut candidate Patty Doyle is killed in a training accident.
- US involvement in Vietnam ends.
- October 27: NASA presents its first all-female Astronaut Group, consisting of Molly Cobb, Danielle Poole, Tracy Stevens, and Ellen Wilson.
1971
- Molly Cobb becomes the first American woman in space and on the moon with Apollo 15. The mission discovers ice on the lunar surface, making colonization possible.
1972
- April: Apollo 16 launches.
- Summer: Apollo 17 launches.
- November 7: Richard Nixon loses reelection to Ted Kennedy, following the attempted wiretapping of Democratic headquarters at the Watergate Hotel.
- Apollo 18 launches.
1973
- In his first State of the Union, President Kennedy promises that America will beat the Soviets to Mars.
- NASA approves the Space Shuttle and Sea Dragon programs.
- October 12: Jamestown Base, mankind's first permanent base on the moon, successfully lands at the Shackleton crater.
1974 (Season 1)
- The Soviet lunar base Zvezda goes online.
- The Equal Rights Amendment is ratified in the United States.
- Apollo 23 explodes on the launchpad, preventing the relief of Apollo 22 as Jamestown's crew. Gene Kranz and 11 other pad workers are killed. Wernher von Braun later reveals to Margo Madison that the cause was a faulty component produced in Illinois, where President Kennedy had awarded a NASA contract in exchange for support on the ERA.
- Apollo 24 is rushed to launch as the relief of Apollo 22, but a faulty computer prevents the trans-lunar injection orbit. Apollo 25 is repurposed to repair the computer, but 24's engine unexpectedly fires, killing one astronaut and fatally wounding Deke Slayton. Eventually, Ellen Wilson does make it to the moon and relieves Ed Baldwin.
- December 14: Shane Baldwin dies following a car accident.
1976
- November 2: Republican Governor Ronald Reagan of California is elected 39th President of the United States, beating incumbent Ted Kennedy when the Supreme Court orders that partially-marked ballots in Ohio be counted.
- The Outer Space Treaty is dissolved as both the US and Soviet Union withdraw from it.
- NASA successfully lands the first probe on Mars.
1977
- The first launch of Sea Dragon, a massive reusable rocket that helps accelerate the construction of Jamestown Base.
- June 16: Wernher von Braun presumably dies of pancreatic cancer at the age of 65.
1978
- At the 50th Academy Awards, Steven Spielberg's Close Encounters of the Third Kind wins a record-breaking 12 Oscars, including Best Picture, Best Actor for Richard Dreyfuss, Best Cinematography, and Best Score. Star Wars wins just two awards, while Annie Hall wins one.
- Roman Polański is arrested at the Canadian border while trying to flee sexual abuse charges in the US.
- September 18: The Camp David meeting between Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and Israeli PM Menachem Begin ends in a failure, with the two nations remaining enemies.
1979
- March 28: A nuclear meltdown at the Three Mile Island plant in Pennsylvania is averted thanks to new technology developed for Jamestown.
- December 25: The Soviet Union cancels a planned invasion of Afghanistan, withdrawing their forces to refocus on the space program.
1980s
1980
- February 4: Operation Eagle Claw, a special forces mission to rescue American hostages in Tehran, is a success, though six hostages and three American soldiers are killed.
- February 22: At the Winter Olympics in Lake Placid, the US Hockey Team loses to the Soviets by 3-10.
- August: Communist Poland cracks down on the Solidarity trade union, arresting its leaders.
- October 6: Egyptian President Anwar Sadat survives an assassination attempt.
- November 4: President Reagan is reelected.
- December 8: John Lennon survives an assassination attempt.
1981
- May 13: Pope John Paul II is assassinated in Vatican City.
- July 29: Princes Charles marries Camilla Parker Bowles.
- August: President Reagan fires striking air traffic controllers.
- September 12: President Reagan refuses to bail out the Chrysler Corporation.
1982
- An NVA tank fires on an East German couple as they flee to West Berlin.
- November 12: Former KGB chairman Yuri Andropov becomes the leader of the Soviet Union, two days after the death of Leonid Brezhnev.
1983 (Season 2)
- Tensions begin to mount on the moon when Soviet cosmonauts seize an American drilling site that was unoccupied. NASA responds by deploying a detatchment of marines to help secure their sites.
- September 1: Korean Airlines Flight 007 is shot down by a Soviet interceptor while inadvertently violating restricted airspace. NASA Administrator Thomas Paine is killed along with the other 268 people on board.
- NASA launches its next-generation space shuttle Pathfinder.
- The Jamestown Crisis occurs. Soviet Spetznaz operatives seize the base after the defection of one of their cosmonauts. Gordo and Tracy Stevens sacrifice themselves to prevent the meltdown of a secret nuclear reactor.
- The Soviet space shuttle Buran blockades Jamestown base under the belief that the next Sea Dragon rocket is delivering nuclear materials, which it actually is. Ed Baldwin solves the crisis by shooting down Sea Dragon.
- Apollo-Soyuz completes the first handshake in space as a symbol of peace and cooperation. Their mission helps avert nuclear war.
- The United States and the Soviet Union sign a treaty that divides the moon between the two superpowers.
- The Rogers Commission begins an investigation into the Jamestown incident.
1984
- The Rogers Commission releases its report to the Attorney General, finding that Soviet gunfire damaged the reactor at Jamestown. All knowledge of a second secret reactor producing weapons-grade plutonium is covered up.
- June 19: Michael Jordan is drafted by the Portland Trail Blazers.
- October 12: British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher is assassinated by the IRA when a bomb explodes at the Grand Hotel in Brighton.
- November 6: Democratic Senator Gary Hart of Colorado is elected 40th President of the United States.
1986
- April 16: Arnoldo Martinez Verdugo becomes the first Marxist president of Mexico, signaling further Soviet influence over Latin America.
- Mikhail Gorbachev becomes the Premier of the Soviet Union. His new policies revitalize the Soviet economy.
- June 29: England defeats Argentina in the World Cup Final, with Diego Maradona's score dubbed "the foul of the century."
- July 18: The James Cameron sci-fi film Aliens is released and is a huge hit.
- The space tourism company Polaris unveils their spaceplane, to begin operations in the next year.
- November 4: Former astronaut Ellen Wilson is elected Senator for Texas.
1987
- The Beatles begin a reunion tour in Chicago.
- Nuclear fusion technology is invented by Dev Ayesa and Richard Hilliard, who found the company Helios to mine helium-3 on the Moon.
- China opens its first lunar base.
- US intelligence analyst Jonathan Pollard is convicted of spying for Israel.
1988
- North Korea abandons its ballistic missile program to focus on its space program.
- November 8: President Hart is reelected in a landslide, beating evangelist Pat Robertson.
1989
- Dr. James Hansen testifies that global warming is slowing down thanks to the shift from fossil fuels to nuclear fusion.
1990s
1990
- March 15: Following a series of democratic reforms, Mikhail Gorbachev officially assumes the office of President of the Soviet Union.
- Love in the Skies, a biopic about Gordo and Tracy Stevens, is released, starring Dennis Quaid and Meg Ryan.
- Celebrations of the October Revolution are held in East Germany.
- Real estate mogul Donald Trump travels to Moscow to build luxury condominiums.
- NASA launches the Thomas Paine Space Telescope.
- President Hart declines to send American troops to Kuwait after it is invaded by Iraq.
- NASA unveiles its plans for the Mars mission, Sojourner-1.
1991
- Republican Senator Ellen Wilson of Texas announces a bid for the presidency.
1992 (Season 3)
- Space debris from a North Korean rocket strikes the Polaris space hotel, causing an uncontrollable rotation thruster firing. Disaster is averted when Danny Stevens fixes the thruster.
- Danielle Poole is selected as the commander of Sojourner-1 over Ed Baldwin, who leaves NASA to join Helios.
- Helios co-founder Dev Ayesa announces that they will launch a mission to Mars in 1994, with Ed Baldwin commanding the now-repurposed Polaris hotel. NASA and the Soviets scramble to ensure their respective craft will be ready in the 1994 launch window.
- November 3: Ellen Wilson is elected the 41st President of the United States, beating Governor Bill Clinton of Arkansas.
1993
- A Sea Dragon performs a slingshot manuever around Venus to deliver supplies for Sojourner-1 on Mars.
1994
- September: North Korea launches what they claim is a probe towards Mars, which is really carrying two cosmonauts.
- A three-way race to Mars begins between the NASA, Roscosmos, and Helios spacecraft Sojourner-1, Mars-94, and Phoenix.
- In a desperate attempt to win the race to Mars, the Soviet spacecraft Mars-94 pushes its engines into meltdown. The American spacecraft Sojourner-1 mounts a rescue, but two astronauts and one cosmonaut are killed.
1995
- February 8: Unknown to the world, Colonel Lee Jung-Gil becomes the first man to set foot on Mars.
- The American and Soviet astronauts land on Mars together, beating Helios.
- Will Tyler comes out as gay during a log entry on Mars. President Wilson responds by using an executive order to prohibit openly gay people from serving in the military.
- A joint Helios-Soviet drill operation to search for Martian water goes awry, resulting in an earthquake. Ed Baldwin is also heavily injured in the incident. The landslide claims the lives of Nick Corrado and Isabel Castillo, with Alexei Poletov later dying from related injuries.
- Kelly Baldwin becomes pregnant on Mars, carrying Alexei's child, and decides to carry the baby.
- President Wilson comes out as a lesbian, and repeals her prior order. She also grants Will Tyler a Presidential Medal of Freedom.
- Poole and Kuznetsov discover North Korean cosmonaut Lee Jung-Gil, who had actually arrived on Mars before the other three missions.
- The NASA, Soviet, and Helios crews successfully launch Kelly Baldwin into orbit and return her to Phoenix, where she delivers a healthy baby. The remaining crews on the surface stay to be retrieved by Sojourner-2.
- A group of domestic terrorists bomb the Johnson Space Center in Houston, killing an untold number of employees. Karen dies. Molly Cobb dies while trying to lead survivors out of the building. Margo Madison is presumed killed in the bombing.
- Sergei Nikulov and his family are extracted from the Soviet Union.
- October: Johnson Space Center is renamed for Molly Cobb.
1996
- November 5: Ellen Wilson, with a new VP of George H. W. Bush, wins re-election to the presidency, defeating Jerry Brown of California.
- The Mars-7 (M-7) Alliance is created, wherein the seven signatories (USA, USSR, North Korea, Japan, India, the European Space Agency, and the Coalition of Communist Countries for Spaceflight) agree to collaborate on Mars colonization, with Helios Aerospace being granted sole rights to expand Happy Valley. Canada and China notably do not join the alliance, however.
- An antitrust lawsuit is filed by Exxon, Shell, and Haliburton, overturning Helios’ monopoly on lunar resource exploitation.
- Jerry Maguire is released, starring Tom Cruise.
- IBM’s Deep Blue supercomputer beats Gary Kasparov at chess.
1997
- January 20: Ellen Wilson is sworn in to her second term as President.
- July 1: The United Kingdom returns Hong Kong to Chinese control.
- Mike Tyson and Evander Holyfield box, with Tyson disgracing himself during the course of the match.
- After nearly two years, the Mars astronauts return to Earth. Colonel Lee Jung-gil is celebrated as a hero in North Korea.
- September 23: The Seattle Mariners win the 1997 American League West division, a feat attributed to their pitcher Randy Johnson.
- Hilton Hotels opens its first lunar hotel.
1998
- After five months, the trial of the Johnson Space Center bombers comes to a close with Harold Goodman and Sunny Hall both being found guilty of 195 counts of first-degree murder, with both facing the death penalty. Jimmy Stevens strikes a plea bargain and testifies against the others; he is sentenced to 12 years in prison and a $200,000 fine.
- Ellen is renewed for a sixth season on ABC.
- September: Hillary Clinton files for divorce from Bill.
- President Wilson signs the Marriage Inclusion Act, legalizing gay marriage at the federal level.
- The film Race to Mars is released, starring Clint Eastwood as Ed Baldwin and Jada Pinkett as Danielle Poole.
- A tech boom drives significant expansion of the Happy Valley base.
1999
- July: The Woodstock ‘99 Festival is held and subsequently descends into chaos.
- October 1: The Federated Mine Workers of the Moon call a strike, which lasts for at least a week.
- October: JFK Jr., not having died in a plane crash, launches a bid for the Senate.
- October 28: Harvey Weinstein is charged with sexual assault.
- Helios Aerospace announces a plasma-propelled rocket engine, which is powerful enough to shorten the trip to Mars to one or two months.
- Concord announces an aircraft capable of reaching low Earth orbit.
- Stanley Kubrick dies at the age of 70; his last film, A.I.: Artificial Intelligence, is released the following month.
- Under the leadership of Eli Hobson, the Chrysler Corporation leans into the electric vehicle market, to great financial success.
2000s
2000
- January 1: The Y2K bug causes havoc, interfering with clocks onboard the International Space Port.
- Helios Aerospace makes a large recruitment push, seeking workers for Mars.
- Cast Away is released, starring Tom Hanks.
- Dev Ayesa founds a robotics company.
- March 7: Al Gore wins a landslide victory on Super Tuesday; George H.W. Bush consistently defeats his primary challenger, Senator John McCain of Arizona.
- November 7: Gore defeats Bush, being elected the 42nd president of the United States. Gore's victory in Florida is attributed to his involvement in the international custody battle surrounding Elián González.
2001
- June: Ellen Wilson marries Pam Horton; they move to a ranch in south Texas.
- Gorbachev’s economic policies lead to a booming Soviet economy; however, economic inequality increases, with some high-profile politicians believe that Gorbachev has betrayed the Soviet Union's socialist principles.
- A violent insurgency occurs in Saudi Arabia, with Riyadh being engulfed in flames.
2002
- February 3: John Lennon performs at Super Bowl XXXVI.
- In addition to The Osbournes and Survivor, a prominent reality TV series is Moon Miners.
- President Gore, reflecting the close alliance he has made with the USSR under Gorbachev, declares the Cold War over.
2003 (Season 4)
- At this point, Margo Mardison is living in the Soviet Union.
- An attempt to capture an asteroid near Mars results in the death of Commander Grigory Kuznetsov and Helios employee Tom Parker.
- Communist Party hardliners and the KGB oust President Gorbachev from office in a coup. Fyodor Korzhenko assumes leadership of the USSR and takes a more confrontational stance towards the United States.
- Asteroid 2003LC, nicknamed Goldilocks, is discovered coming close to Mars. The M-7 nations hatch a plan to bring it to Earth so that its mineral riches can be mined, but Dev Ayesa and Ed Baldwin secretly enact a plan to place it in Mars orbit. They do this to ensure the nations of Earth continue putting resources into the development of Mars as a human colony.
- Sergei Nikulov is assassinated by the KGB.
- Margo Madison claims responsibility for ensuring the completion of Ayesa's plan. Her diplomatic immunity is revoked by the Soviets and she is arrested by the FBI.
2010s
2012
- Asteroid 2003LC has a mining colony called Kuznetsov Station.
