Timeline
Events in italics refer to OC-centered events
1936
August 4: Birth of Steven Austin in Burbank,CA to James Austin and Geraldine (Barrett) Austin
September: King Edward VIII announces that he will not marry Wallis Simpson and that his brother Albert,the Duke of York,will be his heir
1941
February 19: Birth of Leslie Austin
1943
Austin,with his father James,attends an airshow in Sacramento. This convinces him that he’d like to fly as a job
May 22: Birth of Jaime Sommers to Tom Sommers and Elizabeth (Bryson) Sommers
1948
July 4: Birth of Claudia Austin
1950
December: End of the Korean War with the capture of Pyongyang. North Korea ceases to exist as an independent nation. Kim Il-Sung and family flee to Leningrad.
1951
Summer: Steve Austin goes out for the Burbank High track-and-field team.
October: Steve’s uncle Patrick returns from the occupation of North Korea.
1952
February 6: Death of Albert,Duke of York. King Edward confirms Albert’s daughter Elizabeth as his heir.
1953
Summer: Steve Austin interns as a records clerk at Edwards AFB. He meets Chuck Yeager.
November: Birth of Benjamina Hanson to Marcus Hanson and Sylvia (Doak) Hanson
1954
January; Steve Austin is accepted to the US Air Force Academy (founded in 1951 ITTL)
June: Austin graduates from Burbank High
August: Austin departs for the USAFA
1957
Summer: Steve Austin meets Jaime Sommers for the first time,when he babysits her while her parents are out of town
1958
May: Austin graduates with the fifth class of the USAFA
1959
June: Leslie Austin graduates from Burbank High
1960
April 12: Birth of April and Joanna Austin
1961
April 12: Vostok 1, first manned spaceflight
May 5: Freedom 7, first US manned spaceflight
June: Jaime Sommers graduates from North Hollywood High School
July 16: Death of King Edward VIII after a reign of 25 years. Steve Austin is in London for his funeral
1962
March 24: Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II
1965
November: Steve Austin applies to be selected as part of the fifth astronaut group.. He undergoes a medical examination in early December.
1966
Steve Austin and Jaime Sommers start dating
March: Steve Austin is selected as part of Astronaut Group 5, the “Original Nineteen”. He takes the place of OTL selectee John Bull.
May: Austin moves to Houston.
June: Claudia Austin graduates from Burbank High
August 8: James and Geraldine Austin are killed in a car accident. April and Joanna are sent to live with Steve in Houston.
September 12: On the same day as the Gemini 11 launch, Austin formally adopts April and Joanna.
1967
January 27: Apollo 1 fire
April 23: Soyuz 1 is launched
April 24: Soyuz 2 is launched and the crew conducts an emergency EVA (1h 52m) to free Soyuz 1’s stuck solar array. Due to the length of the EVA the planned crew transfer is scrubbed but the spacecraft dock for 15h 4m.
April 25: Soyuz 1 returns to Earth
April 27: Soyuz 2 returns to Earth
June 6: Steve Austin and fellow astronaut Ed Givens are involved in a car crash. Austin is instrumental in saving Givens’ life,and in the process is introduced to Dr Rudy Wells.
September: Austin is assigned to the Apollo D support crew in the CMP role
November 12-18: Soyuz 3 (Gherman Titov) and Soyuz 4 (Vladimir Komarov,Georgi Shonin,Vitali Zholobov) repeat the planned Soyuz 1/2 mission profile
1968
February 20: Tom Sommers Jr (older brother of Jaime, born 1938) meets Ann Dunham
April 4: Steve Austin is present at the Apollo 6 launch
July: Because Dave Scott wants to hold out for a lunar landing, Austin is assigned to the D-mission prime crew as CMP
1969
January: Congress votes to allocate funding for the Space Shuttle program.
1970
April 11-19: During Apollo 13’s translunar coast phase a problem with Aquarius’ supercritical helium supply renders the LM useless for lunar surface operations. On April 13 the lunar surface phase of the mission is aborted and Aquarius is jettisoned. On April 14 Odyssey enters lunar orbit and the crew spends three days photographing future lunar landing sites and doing a general photographic survey of the Moon before TEI on April 16. The mission is commonly termed a “successful failure” (1).
1971
Spring (haven’t worked out date yet): Tom Sommers Jr and Ann Dunham are married in a quiet at-home ceremony,
July 26: Just after the launch of Apollo 15,Steve Austin proposes to Jaime Sommers.
1972
November 7: In the 1972 presidential election, Republican incumbents Richard Nixon and Spiro Agnew are defeated by Democrat candidates George McGovern and Thomas Eagleton
1973
March 16: President George McGovern announces that his administration will not move to prosecute ex-President Nixon over the Watergate affair.
1975
January 5: Steve Austin and Jaime Sommers are married in Port Arthur,with all four of Austin’s sisters acting as bridesmaids.
March: Wedding of Benjamina Hanson and Jack Currie (b.1950), a friend of hers
1977
July 12: Death of Jack Currie in an automobile accident in Hollywood
1980
November 11: Birth of Darcy Austin, second child and first daughter of Steve Austin and Jaime Sommers Austin
1 - Basically this: https://spaceflighthistory.blogspot.com/2017/11/a-csm-only-back-up-plan-for-apollo-13.html
US presidents
Chapter Text
Before 1969:as OTL
37. 1969-1973: Richard Nixon (R-CA) / Spiro Agnew (R-MD)
38. 1973-1977: George McGovern (D-SD) / Thomas Eagleton (D-MO)
39. 1977-1981: Thomas Eagleton (D-MO) / Claiborne Pell (D-RI)
40. 1981-1989: John Glenn (D-OH) / Liz Holtzman (D-NY)
41. 1989-1997: Liz Holtzman (D-NY) / *Frank Delacorte (D-IL)
42. 1997-2001: Bob Dole (C-KS) / *Danny Johnston (C-CO)
43. 2001-2009: Mary Landrieu (D-LA) / Ellison Onizuka (D-HI)
44. 2009-2013: Ellison Onizuka (D-HI) / Barack ’Barry’ Sommers (D-CA)
45. 2013-2021: Barack ‘Barry’ Sommers (D-CA) / *Janine Castillon (D-WI)
46. 2021-2029: *Kevin Crawford (C-MT) / *Trina Delaney (C-VA)
47. 2029-2037: *Darcy Austin Kirkland (G-KY) / *Nick Whitman (D-MD)
Fates of OTL preznits:
Richard Nixon: Retiring to Yorba Linda after his defeat in 1972,Nixon wrote his political memoirs,The Man and His Hour,published in 1977. He was called back to Washington to give testimony in various Watergate-related court cases,but was never charged with anything himself. Despite rumors of a California gubernatorial run,especially after Ronald Reagan was forced to resign in 1982 after a near-fatal injury,Nixon was content to atone for his various sins by staying out of public life. He wrote a series of political thrillers under the pseudonym of Anthony Potter.
Gerald Ford: Made the leap from the HoR to the Senate in 1978 to fill the seat of Don Riegle after he was implicated in a sex scandal and resigned. He would serve until 1998 with moderate distinction,finishing out his career as the ranking Republican on the Environment and Public Works Committee.
Jimmy Carter: John Glenn’s Secretary of Agriculture,and subsequently Liz Holtzman’s until he tendered his resignation in February 1994 to return to private life.
Ronald Reagan: Reagan was elected to be the governor of California in 1979 (in TTL he did not hold the office in the early 1970s). Three years in,on July 3,1982,he was giving a Fourth of July speech in Modesto when shell-shocked Viet vet Ron Kovic shot him in the right leg. Reagan resigned in late July to recover from his injury,and spent the rest of his life in retirement with Nancy,living quietly in Beverly Hills. He would die on a warm spring evening in 1998 and Richard Nixon would speak at his funeral,dying himself four years later. At Reagan’s recommendation Kovic sought therapy,and he vanished from the public eye in the early 1990s.
George HW Bush: NASA Administrator from 1973 to 1995, the longest term of any Administrator. He retired from public life after his resignation,though he and Barbara still lived near Kennedy Space Center until his death in 2015.
Children of Steve Austin and Jaime Sommers Austin
Chapter Text
Biological children
James Austin (born June 20,1977)
Darcy Austin (born November 11,1980)
Melanie Austin (born March 4,1986)
Steve Austin Jr (born October 6,1989)
Elizabeth Austin (born May 22,1998)
Adopted children
April Austin (born April 12,1960, adopted September 12,1966)
Joanna Austin (see above)
Laura (Palmer) Austin (born December 25,1971, adopted January 6,1978)
