Dark Earth Timeline

As said, there is no trouble or in universe effect, with the decision being for primarily authorial purposes.

December 1973 Notes

- The Adelaide tank factory is built on the site of the Wingfield Rubbish Dump/Landfill and is quite well positioned for either sea or train transport of tanks with only a modicum of changes to some rail lines. It is built in Adelaide to take advantage of the available power generated by SA's nuclear plants, following on from a continued period of industrial growth under Sir Thomas Playford, as well as to distribute facilities away from Sydney and Melbourne. On a broader level, it shows a great degree of difference in Australia's defence industrial capacity, and in turn Commonwealth integration thereof; and some different diversification of the Australian economy
- Buckaroo Banzai is joined by Ramírez ("I'm not Spanish, I'm Egyptian!"), Tomasz Wiseau (who bears a purely coincidental resemblance in name and appearance to the director of The Room) and Dr. Insano, a character from the defunct YouTube comedy series The Spoony Experiment
- New Zealand, that great opponent of all things nuclear in other universes, has its electricity capacity significantly increased by a single plant. The consequences on what it is capable of will be interesting
- The BAOR is larger than @, consisting of 6 forward deployed divisions of I and II Corps, plus corps level troops in brigades and field forces and Army level assets; III and IV Corps in Britain; and the Canadian I Corps. There is some consideration being given to forward deploying a division from the British based corps to the Continent, or alternately to increasing the forward deployed 'POMCUS' divisional equipment sets in the Low Countries and Western Germany. Many of the infantry battalions and armoured regiments of the BAOR have been or are in the process of converting to 'tank heavy' or 'infantry heavy' Battle Groups, whilst others (usually in divisions used in reserve) maintain a different structure that suits their purpose; in each case, they are fielding attachments of the new weapons systems so that each Regiment or Battalion has substantially increased firepower and staying power
- Japan's curious KFC at Christmas tradition starts a year earlier, whilst the descendants of Asterix and Obelix continue to love wild boar
- An effective cure for paraplegia will have a few consequences down the line, as well as improving the lives of many ordinary people
- Dr. Emmett Brown got a little excited when the first experimental fusion reactor hit 1.21 gigawatts
- Bernard Giles gets caught and fried in short order
- JFK gets a Nobel Peace Prize for a variety of reasons, all of which are cumulatively a bit controversial
- The little snippet about the American cost of living is an indicator that things are on a different trajectory
- British firms start working on a secret speeder/hoverbike for some reason
- Canada has a very decent sovereign wealth fund, yielding quite the useful annual return for funding some budget areas. The other interesting tidbit is the Canadian currency...
- The Trafalgars are exceptionally powerful and expensive SSNs with a multi-faceted role in various warplans; alongside the R and S class boats, they represent quite the British edge against the Soviets
- Sea World gets some extra killer whales early on, being delivered by a very, very big flying boat: the successor to the Saro Queen, being about 1.5 times the size and capable of carrying 2500 passengers or a lot of cargo
- The reenactment of the Boston Tea Party is a historical event, just without the terrible waste of perfectly good tea
- Older trees are being found in some areas, with others having ice sheets at that time...
- The real substance of Barton's address can be found in the implications of 'help at home'
- A number of new US Army projects begin, ranging from the conventional (a new version of the M109) to the imposing (a 1980s MBT carrying on the M-70 that will bear some resemblance to the Abrams) and the very different indeed (double barreled SP howitzer). This 'hides' the significant news of 4 newly activated/reactivated divisions and the broader shape of the US Army, with some units being easily understood, some new (mechanised cavalry being equipped with some different weapons systems for potential deployment in the ME as well as Europe) and others being very different indeed (a Ranger division of multiple regiments, a Commando division separate from the Rangers and Green Berets and actual artilllery divisions as postulated by military journals in the 1960s and 70s)
- The Prime Minister of Spain is another emerging 'interesting' type; the idea of national leaders with their own weapons was inspired by an old picture of Lincoln shooting first, taking out Booth with an over the shoulder revolver snap shot
- Operation Fateful Lightning, whose name speaks volumes, was commanded by a General Joshua Chamberlain
- Pharoah Tutankhensetamun is from a children's animated show from ~ 2003 named Tutenstein
- The Soviets fiddling about with giant spiders, ants, radscorpions, mutated wasps and other nasties is one way they seek to redress the strategic balance, as well as showcasing the sheer nuttiness of Lysenko and Co
- The Father Christmas Letters are less of a fiction here
- Holding a Christmas feast in the Crystal Palace is a nice way of showing that it is not just still around, but frequently used (the size of the interior lends it towards some events), whilst the cost of decent Christmas hampers would be quite considerable, but not for the world's wealthiest monarchy
- Ultra is officially declassified earlier, along with an expedited completion of the Official History of the Second World War
- Comet Kohoutek ends up as less of a fizzle
- Japan tries to make its own ABM, whilst hedging its bets with the (earlier) Patriot, which in turn is based on its hotter earlier version
- Some sense of arms control is seen as in the interests of the superpowers and Great Powers, but the devil is in the detail
- Carlos gets captured, and not by a country that only has life imprisonment
- Dreadnought heads on out to Neptune, behind Orion 6 and with a little hat tip to Star Wars in the wording

January 1974
January 1: A party of four British food writers, as part of a promotion by Barclaycard, order a 32 course dinner costing £10,000 at Rules in London, with one remarking afterwards that they may have overdone things ever so slightly, before being felled by an immediate attack of gout.
January 2: Completion of the USSF orbital space station Independence, completing the network consisting of Liberty, United States and Columbia. Plans for the new NASA and USSF 'Space Shuttle', an atomic powered spaceplane designed to link the orbital stations with the moons, call for the construction of 50 Shuttles at $500 million apiece over the next 12 years.
January 3: Sub-Inspector Bajirao Singham of the Imperial Indian Police defeats a gang of thugs in a skirmish near the border with Goa, beating the miscreants with a lamp post he plucked from the ground.
January 4: Exercise Stopwatch, a surprise test of the emergency mobilisation and deployment of the Royal Auxiliary Air Force's fighter defences begins in the British Isles, with a total of 624 de Havilland Spectres, 972 Hawker-Siddeley Hunters, 528 Supermarine Sunstars, 432 English Electric Lightnings, 576 Gloster Javelins and 648 Fairey Deltas successfully taking part in the first day of the exercise.
January 5: Over eighty people are feared drowned in the capsizing of a ferry in a storm off the coast of Bagacay Point, Cebu in the Philippines.
January 6: The Global Television Network begins broadcasting in Canada as the fourth major national television network after CBC, the Canadian Television Network and the Imperial Broadcasting Company, with coast to coast coverage provided by the new Global Television System satellite.
January 7: Beginning of what will later be dubbed the 'Gombe Chimpanzee War' in Tanganyika, with primatologist Jane Goodall observing the first skirmish between two rival groups of Eastern chimpanzees following on from a meteor shower three days earlier, with both groups displaying some advanced use of tools, makeshift weapons and elementary tactics beyond their previously demonstrated capacity.
January 8: A meeting of the National Intercollegiate Athletic Association rejects a motion to delegates to alter the blanket ban on allowing any professional payments for athletes engaged in multiple sports, maintaining the strict amateur ethos that has governed the association since its establishment in 1904.
January 9: The British Army of the Rhine and RAF Germany begin a rolling series of winter exercises across Western Germany, the Low Countries and France, involving participation of the Army’s new Field Forces, testing of advanced missile systems and the fielding of new armoured vehicles by the attached Commonwealth Corps.
January 10: France conducts an underground nuclear test deep in the Sahara Desert in Algeria, with the new warhead for the S5 heavyweight LRBM yielding 4.2 megatons.
January 11: Lord Lucan, best known of late for his April 1972 Buenos Aires kidnapping and newly returned from the Argentine to London, takes up a new position with his longtime acquaintance Lord Godalming's secretive association dedicated to the protection of the night, the Carfax Circle.
January 12: Ethiopian adventurers report that they may have discovered the lost tomb of Prester John high in the Hindu Kush in the borderlands between Tibet, India and Shangri-La. Curiously, they identify the presence of what seem to be Khmer artifacts about the floor of the antechamber and what appear to be both Egyptian hieroglyphs and Mayan glyphs on the as-yet impenetrable door to the tomb itself.
January 13: In an upset at Rice Stadium in Texas, the Minnesota Vikings are defeated by the Wyoming Mustangs 10-7 at Super Bowl VIII, in a game noted for the increasing frustration of fans at the ongoing reforms and safety measures put in place by the National Football League.
January 14: The Hawker-Siddeley Hawk enters service with the Commonwealth air forces as part of the joint training units of the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan, with over 1000 jets to be procured by the RAF and RN alone. Powered by a Rolls-Royce Eden turbofan with 12500lbf of thrust (20000lbf reheat) to a top speed of Mach 1.6, the Hawk is described as having a combat radius of 500 miles when configured as a light fighter.
January 15: A panel of document historians, cartographers and experts from the Great Library of Alexandria confirm the authenticity of the Vinland Map, with certain features corresponding to several of the Piri Reis maps, creating quite the conundrum for historians.
January 16: Release of Charlemagne, an expansive 287 minute historical epic directed by Franco Zeffirelli on the life of the King of the Franks and the first Holy Roman Emperor, starring Christopher Lee in the title role, Frank Finlay as Alcuin of York, Robert Shaw as Pepin the Short, Omar Sharif as Harun al-Rashid, Harry Andrews as Einhard, Stanley Baker as Desiderius, Charlton Heston as Pope Leo III and Robert Redford as Roland.
January 17: Communist guerrillas from the M-19 group break into the Quinta de Bolivar in Bogotá and steal the magic sword of Simon Bolivar from its locked display case, leaving a cryptic note behind. The Grandmaster of the Bolivarian Knights in Caracas orders that a special circle of sworn brother knights be dispatched to recover the blade lest the Prophecy of Mandingas come to pass.
January 18: A special team of Polish industrial sorcerers and wiedźmin seconded to the Wyższy Urząd Górniczy report that they have successfully extinguished a hexed coal fire burning since 1933.
January 19: The British Ministry of Housing issues a report on the completion of slum clearance across the United Kingdom, with further New City and New Town construction to be coordinated to accommodate natural population growth and relocation from the largest metropolises of London, Birmingham, Manchester, Liverpool, Newcastle, Glasgow, Dublin and the Yorkshire conurbation of Leeds and Sheffield. It reaffirms the standing policy against the high rise blocks of flats seen in the USA, Soviet Union, Japan and parts of Europe, with the restrictions of (and statutory exceptions to) the London Building Act and National Building Height Act being seen as being fit for purpose.
January 20: A spokesdwarf for the Football Association indicates that the FA continues to absolutely refuses to consider a proposal for soccer matches on Sundays, in line with the strong public backing for the maintenance of the Sabbath and the lack of any apparent capacity for exceptions within current legislation.
January 21: Communist terrorists of the Argentine People's Revolutionary Army assault an Army barracks in Azul, Buenos Aires Province, killing the commanding colonel before being driven off by heavy counterattack. Argentine Premier Rodriguez declares in a televised address to the nation that the outrage represented "more than a crime, but the clearest of attacks against our people and our beloved motherland, requiring the strongest and most vigorous of responses."
January 22: Broadcast of the first episode of The War Game, a charming BBC children’s television drama about a mock battle between children of two neighbouring towns, using ‘artillery’ (ingenious homemade cannons firing paint-filled water balloons), toy tanks, cavalry charges, ambushes and several substantive trenches.
January 23: Villagers in Llandrillo, Denbighshire, report a strange series of flashing lights in the sky immediately before a small earthquake in the nearby Berwyn Mountains. A wizened local wag was heard to quip that 'Perhaps the Army has gone and captured one of them there newfangled UFO thingamadoobers!”
January 24: The 1974 Empire Games in Christchurch are opened by His Royal Highness Prince Phillip, the Duke of Edinburgh, with over 3200 athletes to compete in 204 events from 25 sports and disciplines.
January 25: The Soviet Union conducts a test launch of a new long range ballistic missile from a test facility deep within the USSR to a target range in the Northern Pacific Ocean. It is suspected that the new UR-500 is capable of carrying up to 20 multiple independent reentry vehicles.
January 26: Police in Reykjavik uncover a drained body whilst searching for missing labourer Guðmundur Einarsson and fear that this might be indicative of the first vampire attack in Iceland's history. A number of telegrams requesting assistance are sent out to the United States, Rome, London and Amsterdam.
January 27: A party of adventurers lead by Sir Charles Ratcliffe defeat an occultist named Sardo Numspa in High Tibet, thwarting the attempts of his cult to sacrifice a young boy hailed by monks as a 'Golden Child'.
January 28: Over 12,000 armed peasants block roads in Cochabamba Department, Bolivia, in protest against the rapidly rising cost of staple foods. The Bolivian Premier orders the deployment of the Army in response, suspecting that this is the latest manifestation of the long running communist insurgency of the Ejército de Liberación Nacional de Bolivia lead by the elusive Adolfo González.
January 29: Publication of a British Government White Paper on a raft of proposed reforms to pension schemes, with the chief measure proposed being a phased universal introduction of superannuation schemes with compulsory employer contributions; this would be underpinned by the universal old age pension, which would remain non-means tested.
January 30: Acting on intelligence from sources within the communist guerilla movements, aerospace imagery and arcane prediction, a Rhodesian SAS and Selous Scouts strike force supported by RRAF Hunters, Tornadoes and Warspites, stages a raid on a rebel camp in Angola, which was hosting a meeting of the various factions in the ongoing Bush War. Operation Taxman results in a complete success, killing or capturing all of the leadership targets present and acting to decapitate the enemy effort.
January 31: A report by the US Department of the Interior estimates the potential economic value of the prospective mineral deposits around South Park, Colorado as being over $32 billion, which could have a transformative impact on the Coloradan and national economies. The presence of an endangered group of duck like creatures in the heavily forested mountains nearby is described as not seriously impeding the prospects for the development of the cluster of mines.

For that number, they would be 500-750kt warheads.

All warheads are what the word says - warheads. Penaids are separate.

All of that detail has already been covered in previous years, with the West leading the way in MRVs and MIRVs. Further, they don’t need precisely the same missile types and mix due to different targets and enemies.