Dark Earth Timeline

January 1973 Notes

- The Treaty of Brussels is going to be followed by more incremental steps in the 1970s. In a dangerous world and disunited Europe, the Low Countries look to their own combination to deliver the economic, industrial, military and political weight to put them on the top rung
- The merged Imperial Eagle oil company is one of the largest in the world, just behind British Petroleum and Shell in the Empire
- Restarting a Chieftain production line for Reserve use and WERS (using the old Nuffield Mechanizations plant built in @ for the Crusader) is another sign of a different approach. The rotation of TA and Reserve divisions through active service is designed to increase their readiness and mobilised utility
- January 4’s eclipse features the surviving Andrea Doria, saved by a rather super man in 1956
- The C-10N is ‘the most badass nuclear rocket ever to grace God’s green Earth’
- Even as Portugal starts to waver a little, the Rhodesians and South Africans move to offer aid, as it is in their interests to shore up their flanks
- The Ugandan troop rotation showcases how the Commonwealth acts as a force multiplier
- Nuclear power is well ahead in the USA as well; Castle Rock may be a bit too spooky a place for a nuclear power plant, though…
- Argentina continues to arm
- The Vickers VC25 Victoria is one heck of a plane
- A Lemmings AND a Compare the Meerkat reference
- Middleton is Milton Keynes with a different, more traditional look. The other New Cities ‘fill up a few holes’
- Here, Mossad does not stop the missile launch before it happens, starting a snowballing event. Major David Kabakov is Robert Shake’s character from Black Sunday
- The French chip/frite on the shoulder regarding the use of English is nothing new
- RIAF F-111s makes a strike of a longer range than @‘s Operation Opera quite doable
- Icelandic volcanoes disrupting travel
- Reagan enters power earlier in a different USA
- Yugoslavia starts to replace its tank park
- As anticipated, a stock market crash and subsequent recession is slightly ameliorated a la 1907
- Threads even has a cheery theme song over its end credits
- Come on up to South Park and see our great big mine
- B-70s as part of Chrome Dome
- Strange slayings in Tokyo
- No one is panicking at the crash just yet
- Sen. John Stennis doesn’t survive his incident here
- The Arabs elect to take a circumspect approach

It was initially, then went entirely British during the German occupation of the Netherlands in World War One; it subsequently became a nominally dual listed company, but was dominated by the British side through the 20s and 30s until being effectively unified during WW2, this time for good.

The Dutch don’t have their own ‘national oil company’, but do have Groningen and their little bit of the North Sea. There has been no mention of nor any concept of Dutch disease yet.

March
March 1: The Jordanian Embassy in Khartoum is attacked by a group of extremist Arab terrorists, who seize 10 diplomats as hostages, including the outgoing US Ambassador. They issue a number of demands for the release of prisoners held by various states across the Arab Union and for the declaration of war upon the United States, Britain and Israel. President Reagan indicates that there will be no negotiation with terrorists and issues orders to various US military units to go on alert, whilst American air and land forces in Israel begin preparations.
March 2: King Hassan II of Morocco announces a policy of 'Morocconisation', whereby foreign owned agricultural lands and commercial and industrial enterprises are to be transferred to Moroccan ownership, specifically in the form of his own political and military loyalists. The French Ambassador expresses quiet concern to the Grand Vizier in a subsequent meeting, stating that the move has the potential to perhaps not be entirely wise with respect to its external ramifications.
March 3: Barnstoneworth United win the Football League Cup Final at Imperial Stadium, defeating Tottenham Hotspur 2-1 in a monumental upset. Barnstoneworth chairman Gordon Ottershaw and owner Sir William Foggen are said to be visibly ecstatic at the victory.
March 4: An Anglo-American special forces team storms the Jordanian Embassy in Khartoum, freeing the hostages and killing all eight of the terrorists, supported by the Sudanese Army and the USAF. A combined US Army-USMC task force lands at RAF Gordon along with a Sikh battalion of the British Army to engage in punitive operations against suspected rebel militants aligned with the terrorist groups, whilst the USN nuclear skyship USSS Manhattan and the USAF skyship aerodreadnought USAFSS Superior are detached from the Sixth Fleet and USAFE for aerial support. President Reagan addresses the nation on television, stating that a 'line in the sand had been drawn' and that the free world would not give an inch to terror.
March 5: The International Whaling Commission reports that the global population of the blue whale, gray whale and the humpback whale have increased since the effective end of commercial whaling in the early 1950s, raising them up out from the vulnerable category by the end of the 1980s.
March 6: Termination of the Sioux tribe under the federal policy of Indian termination, with an end to the special trust relationship with the Federal Government, conversion of reservations to state law, ending tribal sovereignty and dissolving internal tribal governance structures.
March 7: Parliamentary general elections in Chile result in a stinging rebuke to the government of Premier Salvador Allende, forcing his Socialist Popular Unity alliance into a minority government supported by independents, whilst in the Senate, the opposition now controls the majority of seats, with the potential to put pressure upon the Allende government's budget bills. The lack of a clear resolution to the mounting political imbroglio is increasing pressure upon King Manuel II to act.
March 8: Two Millwall supporters are sentenced to 100 lashes and five years hard labour for engaging in disorderly behaviour, with their underage co-offender is sentenced to be birched and confined for two years in borstal. The Manchester Guardian heartily concurs with the exemplary value of the punishment, stating that compared with some hooliganism in South America, ‘the staid age of English and indeed European soccer is worth protecting, by hook or by crook.’
March 9: Portuguese commandos carry out a successful raid in Northern Angola killing or capturing a number of members of the leadership of the Movimento Popular de Libertação de Angola who had crossed the border from the Congo for an emergency conference.
March 10: A deranged militant attempts to assassinate the Governor of Bermuda whilst on a post prandial walk, but is shot by his outraged aide de camps and mauled by Hengist and Horsa, his Great Danes. The would be murderer is arrested by the Governor’s bodyguards and put to the question by Imperial Police, subsequently giving up five associates. The Bermuda Six are swiftly arraigned to face trial for high treason.
March 11: French Premier d’Ambreville’s Mouvement Française and its allied coalition of conservative, monarchist and nationalist parties win a large majority of seats in the French general election, securing his government a second five year term in office and becoming the longest ruling Premier since Charles de Gaulle, now the Duc de Bretagne. He promises to govern for all Frenchmen and to revitalise the glory of France.
March 12: Chicago PD Vice Squad Detective Nico Toscani uncovers a large shipment of opium being smuggled in via Great Lakes freighters with the assistance of visiting McNairy County Sheriff Buford Pusser and a vacationing New York architect.
March 13: Dr. Clark Savage agree to take part in a special international archaeological expedition to the Olduvai Gorge in the Great Rift Valley in response to recent findings.
March 14: Completion of the latest expansion of links between the British Imperial Supercomputer Network and Western European universities and government computing networks under the auspices of the US ARPANET programme, including the first fibre optic connection between Britain and Europe.
March 15: Signing of an agreement for the acquisition of a specially modified variant of the Boeing F-111 by the Royal Air Force, after protracted discussions over the last decade. It is intended that the type be operated as a very long range ground attack/fighter-bomber and escort alongside the de Havilland Tornado and Hawker-Siddeley Phantom, particularly in the Mediterranean and Scandinavia, with a secondary role supporting the Vickers Thunderbolt in the strike mission. Some American observers draw a link between the British agreement and expanded U.S. orders of the Harrier.
March 16: Chinese authorities release five US airmen at the Hong Kong border, with the pilots having been shot down over Chinese airspace during the final year of the Vietnam War; substantial back channel negotiations have lead to this welcome event.
March 17: An intrepid group of children foil the efforts of the wicked Professor Melanie Powers to uncover the remains of the long dead necromancer Doctor Vogel at Green Knowe House in Huntingdonshire and ruin her ambitions of lichdom with the aid of a retired famous Rough Collie and local Templars.
March 18: Formal opening of the new London Bridge, a grand Gothic structure of wrought iron, steel and stone 125ft wide and with a longest span of 1525ft, allowing for the passage of ships and boats beneath. Both gatehouse towers retain the traditional settings for the display of the heads of traitors, even as there has been no such use since the 19th century, whilst the medieval heritage of the bridge houses is commemorated in covered shopping bazaars flanking the eastern approaches to the bridge on both banks.
March 19: The League of Nations reports an increased incidence of troll and orc attacks across parts of Scandinavia, Austria-Hungary and Germany over the previous several months, leading to increased calls for culling of the former and punitive action against the savagery of the latter from some groups, whilst others ascribe the incidence to the increasing encroachment of civilised man upon the remaining wilderness.
March 20: First broadcast of Our Mysterious World on ITV, a British series on unexplained mysterious phenomena, lost secrets and the wonders of the world, presented by Professor Bernard Quatermass and Arthur C. Clarke. It is seen as a complementary counterpart to the similar American series In Search Of… rather than a competitor.
March 21: Seven miners are trapped underground after a mineshaft is inadvertently flooded by an older Victorian era shaft at the Lofthouse Colliery in Yorkshire. They are rescued 23 hours later after use of new arcane boring worms, which are later mandated for employment across the coal industry. A joint Ministry of Mining and British Geological Survey review on mine mapping and safety is commissioned, with the increasing prevalence of deep level mines, both in Britain and the dwarven realms making it a necessity, lest delving ‘too greedily and too deep’ (in the words of Ministry consulting Professor Staffman Bladorthin) results in further accidents.
March 22: Commissioning of two Type 22 anti-aircraft warfare frigates into RN service, the first of sixty such vessels under construction, ordered or projected. They are broadly similar to the Type 21 ASW frigates, carrying the Hawker Siddeley Red Fox or 'Sea Dart' missile in place of some of the latter type’s anti-submarine weapons, and are to be followed in turn by the Type 23 general purpose/ASUW frigates.
March 23: The Australian Foreign Ministry issues a statement indicating Australia's full support of the prospective independent state of Western New Guinea amid the final stages of the withdrawal of residual Dutch forces and ahead of the full handover of sovereignty and announcing the forthcoming goodwill visit of an Australian Army infantry brigade, a squadron of F-111s and the HMAS Melbourne carrier group to help celebrate the independence ceremony on May 3rd.
March 24: Discussions begin between the United States Cricket Board and appointed representatives of Test and first class players for increased payment and improved conditions in the light of the recent broadcast rights deal with NBC. This process will have a number of wide reaching ramifications beyond American borders.
March 25: Guerrillas of the Ejército Revolucionario del Pueblo attempt to attack the Atucha Nuclear Power Plant, but are driven off by the Army guard detachment and the quick reaction force commanded by Colonel Horst Mohn, which was coincidentally on manoeuvres nearby.
March 26: Labour exchanges across Britain report some of the highest incidences of newly unemployed men seeking jobs since the aftermath of the Second World War, as the effects of recession begin to bite.
March 27: Mystery thriller Sleuth wins Best Picture at the 45th Academy Awards, with Robert Redford winning Best Actor for Jeremiah Johnson, Michael Caine winning Best Supporting Actor for Sleuth and Liv Ullmann winning Best Actress for her role in The Emigrants
March 28: The Orion spacecraft begins deceleration as it commences its approach to the Uranian system, with initial plans for detailed exploration of the moons and landings upon Titania, Oberon and Ariel and launch of an exploratory probe.
March 29: Inaugural meeting of the finance ministers of the United States, Britain, Germany, Japan, France, Canada, Italy, India, Austria-Hungary and the Benelux Union, a gathering that will later be referred to as the Group of Ten.
March 30: The Vought-Republic YF-18 is announced as the winner of the USN’s VFAX contest. The YF-18, based on the Vought Model 1800 and the supersonic variant of the A-7 Corsair II, is a twin engine fighter/attack plane with a substantive range, performance and payload that is to replace the now venerable F-4 Phantom II in the next decade.
March 31: Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II and His Royal Highness Prince Philip arrive in Egypt for a tour of the Holy Land and the Levant, with their presence, accompanied by high security being seen as an indicator that regional tensions have eased.

He does not, just as the Princes of Conde do not live there, nor is the Duke of Edinburgh confined to the Scottish capital.

April
April 1: The inhabitants of New York City awake to find the Statue of Liberty had seemingly vanished, with television, newspaper and radio reports working themselves into a frenzied paroxysm of rampant and wild speculation (as is their standard procedure) as to where Lady Liberty had gone and why the hitherto lost USS Constitution was now moored at Liberty Island. To their north, the good folk of Boston are astonished to see the Statue appear to have been transported to Castle Island. NYPD and US Navy wizards are first on the scene in the Big Apple, discovering that the statue had not been stolen, but rather been hidden by the use of a magical amplification artifact, which projected a modified invisibility field over the national landmark and the real image through a corresponding projector in Boston. A neatly written note is found attached to the Statue’s torch, with the author confessing that he wanted nothing more than to set Boston and New York at war with each other and bring about their destruction, allowing the true heart of the nation to come to the fore - Des Moines. The FBI and NCIS commence investigations as to how ‘Old Ironsides’ managed to be stolen and then turn up in New York, with the only clue being a smashed bottle.
April 2: Launch of 'Project Tiger' in India, a conservation effort aimed at increasing the population of tigers across the entire Union of India. This is to be done through the creation of protected tiger reserves and the taking of an accurate tiger population census, along with more direct means of protection, such as specialist anti-poaching units and the death penalty for illegal poaching; the latter steps have proved exceptionally successful in Rhodesia and East Africa. It is hoped that these measures will raise the tiger population of the subcontinent from its current nadir of approximately 80,000 to its previous glory.
April 3: Rumblings from deep beneath the earth are reported around Mount Shasta in Jefferson, bringing an earlier than expected end to the ski season. The United States Geological Survey dispatches two further teams to the area to monitor the situation, despite the misgivings of the Jeffersonian state government in Redding, which despite the misgivings of Lieutenant-Governor Thomas Stockman, is loathe to contemplate the damage to the tourist industry from any rumours of a putative eruption.
April 4: Formal opening of the World Trade Center in New York City in a gala event attended by numerous luminaries and national dignitaries, including former Secretary of the Air Force Bruce Wayne in his personal capacity as a major property investor, with the two new 1650ft Art Deco skyscrapers soaring above the rest of the Manhattan skyline.
April 5: The United States Navy begins test flights of the Boeing YP-10 Triton strategic very long range maritime patrol bomber and the Lockheed-Martin XP-12 Sea Lord ASW patrol seaplane. The former 250t four turbofan powered aircraft has a design range of over 5000 miles and an endurance of up to 24 hours, whilst deploying a full range of anti-submarine torpedoes, nuclear depth bombs and sea mines as well as defensive weapons; it is intended to replace a large part of the current USN fleet of P-3 Orions in conjunction with the smaller and more flexible twin jet North American-Convair XP-15 Catalina II.
April 6: Argentine communist terrorists assassinate General Leopoldo Galtieri, head of the Argentine Army's combat engineer corps, as he is driven through the streets of Buenos Aires. A state of martial law is declared and the Army, police and security forces launch a retaliatory crackdown on the suspected leftist supporters of the outrage, leading to near riots and hundreds of arrests.
April 7: The United States Department of Magic completes a new integrated defensive enchantment of the flood defences of New Orleans, with multiple contingency spells preparing arcane levy reinforcement and barriers in the event of catastrophic failure.
April 8: Formation of a new elite special forces unit of the Imperial German Army for counter terrorism and other special missions, with a a specific view towards action against the Baader Meinhof Gang and the International Revolutionary Army. The teams of the Geheime Sturmgruppe or Secret Assault Group are to be drawn from crack volunteers from the existing KSH, KSM and KSL, with ten such units to be established.
April 9: Opening of the first branch of Pizza Hut in London, utilising the British spelling of 'Pitza' and forgoing the novel shaped roofs that have proved so striking in North America due to the exacting restrictions of Britain's building planning code. Initial market reception is curious, with the recent renewed increase in interest in Italian cuisine driving a not insignificant number of customers.
April 10: Emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia arrives in London for a state visit of Britain, his first stop on a major European tour and coming after intensive talks regarding the increased provision of British Commonwealth financial, military, food and arcane aid to Ethiopia.
April 11: Three condemned criminals (two murderers and a rapist) are hanged outside Crumlin Road Gaol in Belfast, the first executions anywhere in Ireland since December; a local priest and community leader, Father Jack Hackett, was quoted as commenting that justice comes in the open in the British Empire, not skulking behind prison walls as in the Communist world, albeit in not so many words.
April 12: Beginning of pre-production on The Star Wars, an expansive science-fiction epic space opera directed by George Lucas, in Hammer Film Productions' Bray Studios.
April 13: Opening of a secret new RN submarine base and research facility in the isolated Chagos Archipelago in the Indian Ocean. The new base is the latest in a chain of significant bases and missile sites across the vastness of the Indian Ocean, with the above top secret research into the lost land of Lemuria around the Grand Chagos Bank being a particular focus of the undersea endeavours.
April 14: Unveiling of the Austin Regent small family car at the British International Motor Show at Earl's Court, with motoring journalists noting approvingly the four door fastback design, its highly efficient 1500cc engine and innovative quality of life improvements, describing it as 'a fine civic car for the 1970s' with interesting export potential.
April 15: Copper miners at five separate mines in Chile go out on strike, ostensibly in a demand for higher wages and better conditions. The ruling Socialist coalition of Premier Salvador Allende begins immediate emergency talks with the mining unions to assuage the situation, which comes at a time when any reduction in much needed copper revenues could prove severely damaging to Chile's balance of payments.
April 16: Korean archaeologists begin excavation of the 'Sky Horse Tomb' near the south eastern city of Seorabeol. They report disturbed dreams and a rash of strange respiratory illnesses following the disturbance of a strange ceremonially barred door that was found tied shut with a remarkably preserved silken cord.
April 17: Emperor Maximillian II of Mexico declares in a specially televised interview that his country should wage three wars - a War on Crime, a War on Waste and a War on Doubt - as part of its drive for modernity, respect and glory. His Imperial Majesty goes on to state in quite stark terms that Mexico looks to the south to aid the 'rise and rise' of Central and South America, to the west to engage with Europe and the Atlantic world, to the east to participate in the dawn of a new epoch for Asia and the Pacific, and to the north with hand extended in equal fellowship to the United States.
April 18: Opening of a special exposition of Byzantine Greek military equipment and prowess in Adrianople, displaying new indigenously designed armoured vehicles, body armour, automatic cannons and the new Hellenic Aircraft Chímaira ground attack aircraft and the Romaios Aerospace Sigma supersonic fighter jet.
April 19: The USCB signs a new pay deal with its Test and one day playing squad, significantly increasing the overall pay of American professional cricketers and setting a precedent for corresponding bodies in Australia, the West Indies, England and South Africa; the broader question of the commercialisation of cricket is known to be of concern to the ICC and MCC.
April 20: Signing of an agreement between Spain and Portugal agreement on scientific cooperation, particularly in regard to their space programmes; a secret protocol provides for mutual assistance in strategic arms development.
April 21: The East India Company finalises a takeover of British mineral exploration company Manson Consolidated, on the back of impressive projections of platinum reserves in the tiny West African self-governing state of Zangaro (formerly the southern part of British Equatorial Africa, which has now been amicably partitioned into Zangaro and Burunda) and recent American and French interest in the nation.
April 22: Steve McQueen wins the Singapore Grand Prix in a thrilling finish over Graham Hill, with favourites Jackie Stewart and Niki Lauda crashing out in the penultimate lap.
April 23: The Sudanese government reaches an agreement with Egypt for military cooperation against dissident terrorist forces in the Darfur area, in conjunction with the ongoing American and British punitive operation. The agreement is thought to be significant given the background of negotiations over confederation.
April 24: CIA assets in the Soviet Union report a rumoured terrible accident of some sort in a secret closed city in the depths of the Urals, with a large area cordoned off by the KGB, MVD and Red Army, with all three forces bringing in contingents of wizards and Russian Orthodox priests, whilst reports of a conversation by high ranking officials in the Kremlin, ascribed to phone taps of military facilities, indicates that there was serious initial consideration of the employment of a hydrogen bomb on Ust' Man'ya 57. American and British wizards independently indicate an intense reverberating disturbance in the arcane aether, as if a hole had almost been torn in the fabric of the world by something.
April 25: Completion of the Grand Boulevard Périphérique or the Paris ring road project, which circles the inner part of the French capital just beyond its great walls. Some critics of the extensive public works campaign championed by Premier d'Ambreville have argued that it will simply cement the separation between the 'insider' Parisians and 'outsider' residents of the metropolis's outer suburbs, whereas others, such as the famed writer Albert Camus, maintain that the network creates a new intersection of public and private space symbolic of a synthetic identity.
April 26: A British Cabinet meeting on the economic situation again narrowly declines to take what Prime Minister Stanley Barton describes as 'panicked steps that could turn a small trip into an uncontrolled tumble down the whole dashed hill into the Slough of Despond', such as greatly increased spending or radical reduction of interest rates. Use of contingency funds, flexibility within the budget and the existing surplus to fund useful public works, augment unemployment support payments, invest in defence projects and increase monthly conscription call ups to reduce pressure on the labour force continue to be the preferred means of addressing Labour's first recession; even so, the circumstances do see the first isolated notes of criticism of Barton from the Left of the party.
April 27: Release of a League of Nations study on the conditions of the world's glaciers. It finds that the noted 'mid-century retreat' that had caused considerable consternation in scientific journals in the early 1960s, has stopped and reversed. It states that recent data sets from RAF Mount Everest correspond in some ways to increased concerns on the prospect of global cooling.
April 28: A consortium of American millionaire investors and businessmen announce a proposal for a new high speed transcontinental nuclear railway line to be built linking the metropolises of the East Coast with California through Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Chicago, St Louis, Texas, New Mexico and Arizona. Their notion is criticised for being far too expensive to be workable, with an estimated cost of over $2 million per mile for the track alone, but a spokesman for the public face of the group, the fabulously wealth C. Montgomery Burns, states that true vision and a faith in America's atomic future can overcome any odds.
April 29: Arrival of a British reinforced armoured field force of two brigades in Haifa for Exercise Long Lankin in the Galilee, along with a staff mission to examine logistical infrastructure and proposed basing areas for British, Commonwealth and Imperial forces in the event of a major global war. Their secondary and rather more confidential purpose is to collate maps, photographs, film and other data on terrain, infrastructure and conditions for examination and simulation by the Imperial General Staff's new advanced intelligent supercomputing engine, as well as updating artillery fire plans for the new generation of the Army's guns.
April 30: Orion 7 enters the orbit of Titania, with initial observations of the thick atmosphere through spectroscopes detecting the presence of liquid water, and incredible pictures of the rings of Uranus being transmitted back to Mars.