Dark Earth Timeline

Okay, get the point.

I assume that China having been invaded by Japan in the past does not like Japan have the bomb only 20 so years after the end of World War II>

What about Korea, what is their reaction, ore other of Japanese neighbors.

Is that even possible in the Dark Earth verse.

July
- Capricorn is designed to test air defences against the developing Soviet threat of third generation jet aircraft. The RAF in particular faces Long Range Aviation heavy bombers coming in from the Norwegian Sea, both bombers and strike aircraft from the Baltic over Scandinavia and anything that can get through the contested airspace over Germany
- Warspite’s partial reentry over Spain is quite intimidating; many nations have ships and planes, but a space battlecruiser streaking overhead is something above and beyond Spain
- US cricket continues its high profile and they are climbing the unofficial rankings of the Test nations (South Africa, England, West Indies, Australia, USA, India, Canada, New Zealand, Rhodesia, New Avalon; Ceylon, Prydain, Israel, Argentina, Ireland, Scotland and Wales are non Test playing)
- Who might be the supposed emissaries of the Incas?
- Kosmos and Orion head straight for Earth, whereas Dreadnought has her Belt mission and the Chinese are still on their way
- New British military rations are designed to cater to evolving tastes and utilise modern technologies
- Fratellini’s predictions of global cooling come from a very oblique reference to John Christopher’s 1962 novel The World in Winter, a post apocalyptic treatment of the consequences of a new ice age
- Egypt continues to contort itself towards nationalist self assertion in a paradigm that is closer to the 1930s than 1969 in @
- The US airmen hanged in Washington historically had their sentences commuted and I think one is still around
- The US Mint continues issuing of high denomination bills, as there is less of a reason not to
- The notorious Football War is worth its own story one day
- Indonesia’s campaign in Borneo and general Konfrontasi continues
- Matthew Gore’s deeds are a reference to John Wyndham’s Chocky
- Increased cattle sizes are driven by a quest for more beef and a more efficient yield. It is notable that mass feedlots are yet to take over and that it will be unlikely that huge antibiotic use in cows will develop. The bigger challenge is working out reasoning for preventing destruction of the Amazon, but the larger world does have a lot of space
- Barton’s speech on the National Plan does seem to focus on traditional industries, but consider where it is made. The emphasis on heavy industry has several causes. Firstly, there is purely electoral or political angle, with a large part of Labour's heartlands coming from heavy industrial areas in Yorkshire, Tyneside and Scotland and their associated labour unions. Secondly, they are the sinews of more advanced secondary industries. Thirdly, steel production is needed for naval expansion plans, various rearmament schemes and major construction programmes. Fourthly, it is a bit of minor deception, setting achievable goals for traditional industries whilst hiding the more modern industrial goals (aerospace, nuclear power, electronics, robotics, computing, semiconductors and magitech) in obfuscatory prose. Finally, having a continuing capacity for steel production and domestic production of base industrial goods and materials is seen as a vital defence interest.
- The Royal engagement sparks a fair bit of interest and economic activities from souvenirs et al
- Advances in the treatment of sight issues and eye conditions will have an impact across the world; not needing glasses will occur firstly in the First World and then trickle down
- Arms talks with multiple parties will always be difficult
- Blösche was historically executed by East Germany, which didn’t have the same degree of coddling of Nazis as West Germany when it came to punishment. Here, Germany does not abolish capital punishment in 1949, which was driven in @ by a number of different factors, but continues to utilise it with widespread public support through the 1950s and 60s
- New ships and aircraft make the reinforcement of Europe/REFORGER in a short time truly viable. It is a fair amount of troops, but they are mostly going across by air to mate up with pre positioned supples/POMCUS sets in Germany (4 divisions), Scandinavia, the Low Countries and France. The equipment for the heavy divisions comes by sea, but the air bridge also carries a fair bit of cargo on the various heavy lifters and skyships. The Soviet conventional threat is countered for now, but is still very large and catching up in capability.
- The huge diamond found in South Africa makes the Cullinan look small in comparison
- Mention of the Cult of Cthulhu in Mexico is a worry
- JFK’s Manila Speech will later be known as the ‘Olive Branch Speech’

September
- The Libyan coup attempt is put down with extreme prejudice. The role of British forces is a key, which ultimately does King Idris no favours and furthers the idea that he is a foreign puppet. The Crown Prince managed to escape the fate put in place for him and, at 23, has a fairly hot youthful head. He considers that the 1956 plotters in Egypt who were publicly impaled in Ismailia Square got off rather lightly. He acts in the context of this coup attempt, the three of 1956 (Egypt, Syria and Iraq), another later one in Iraq, the Lebanon troubles of the late 1950s, Jordan asking for British support at one point, an uprising in Persia and a couple of regional regicides. In a lot of those cases, the Americans, British or both have come in to ‘help’, with subsequent problems flowing from that, ranging from battle damage to loss of sovereignty. From his perspective, Libya, like other Arab states, has gradually and painstakingly progressed on towards sovereignty and independence, setting up the potential for development and modernisation through increasing oil revenues. The radical nationalists who spout the rhetoric of Moscow would undo all this progress in favour of their own power and a bastardised form of socialism, not to mention deposing and brutally killing his family.

In such a circumstance, he is more than a little justified in getting brutal in his response pour encourager les autres. The nice guys end up dead. From a broader perspective, the British policy in particular is motivated by not wanting to end up blocked out of the Middle East and Africa by revolutionary governments. It is getting much less sustainable as time goes by, but if the local loyalist forces are well armed and well supported, they can do the job for them. If a government is seen to be reliant on British, American or French forces to stay in power, their legitimacy extends only as far as the reach of their defending arms. Ultimately, the Libyans and other governments need to be able to rely on their own forces and means to stay in power
- Sherlock Holmes is off on another adventure at the sprightly old age of 115
- The new IJA katanas are quite handy and their presence indicates that Japanese military practice still makes use of the sword
- Criticism of the starship program and space in general gets short shrift after the excitement of the exploration of Jupiter and Saturn and the interstellar signal. The chance of anything significant being Proxmired is nil
- Soviet involvement in air battle over Vietnam represents an escalation and also an indication that North Vietnam has been hit pretty badly
- The GI managed to find out how to get to Sesame Street, on a sunny day, no less
- Domestication of the giant deer will be followed by some other species; livestock species are being broadened
- Barnes Wallis gets to fly in his Swallow and isn't done with his designing days yet
- Project Rulison is a technical success, but there is limited demand for possibly radioactive natural gas
- Dracula actually was in Bolivia, pursuing his wicked goals wickedly
- Crash prevention enchantments at international airports will save quite a few lives, considering how many crashes occur just after take off or during landing
- Escape of the Soviet bacteriophage could have some very nasty consequences. The lab fire is suspicious as well as mysterious
- SS Manhattan's voyage is not only notable for the present, but gives a little hint on the past with the reference to the Franklin Expedition
- Something very, very strange happens after the Korean atomic research accident
- British Petroleum's supertanker orders are a huge bonus to industry in key areas, with each region/manufacturer getting 6 ships. The economic impact of the ship orders is such to provide a huge boost to shipbuilding employment and downstream industrial orders for a good 5 years in Tyneside, Clydeside, Belfast, Merseyside and Teeside, good profits and investment in larger facilities. The orders consist of 5 Batilus class sized ULCCs of 600,000t and 25 slightly smaller ships of only 300,000t capacity. This is in addition to the quite huge boon of warship orders, oil platform construction, new Floating Fortresses, spaceship components and ordinary shipbuilding. The decline of the 1970s, closures of the 1980s and the general decline of the industrial North and Scotland won’t be happening here. I’d be interested in any thoughts and opinions on the social, cultural economic and other consequences of this
- Friday and Gannon caught the mad scientist through the use of an effective dragnet
- The Knights in White Satin
- Jack Smith's swim across the Channel is 35 miles, making his achievement even greater
- The schoolboys being chased down a NYC street is a reference to The Neverending Story; they were rescued by Clark Kent, Bruce Wayne and a grouch named Oscar
- Project Knight will result in a section of heavy infantry/power armoured infantry per company, with all the capacity for heavy weapons and options that comes with that. A bit of influence from both Fallout and 40K
- The Vickers 'super jumbo jet' is at a very early stage of development, like its Boeing equivalent
- A modified lima bean from the Amazon will only be the first of a new series of staple crops
- Japanese facsimile newspapers are going to have some further development in a path not taken
- Canadian G-G Sir William Richardson brooks no nonsense from any quarter, let alone a griffon
- The Brady Bunch is seen as daring because of the blended family idea, not because of any cutting edge content
- Aussie Rules football knowledge might not be great in the reader base due to being overseas, but Fitzroy winning a premiership is a very sentimental flourish
- The L132 is a lightweight 105mm gun that is being trialed for use by certain forces. A comeback for anti-tank guns? Maybe. There is also a much lighter 75mm weapon under development (akin to ARES)
- Greg Chappell has an earlier debut
- China pulling out of the LTBT is a real spanner in the works and not expected at all

November
- The Rhodesian gold rush will have some interesting effects on its economy
- Continuation of the rum ration is a small measure as in its diluted measure would not have any real impact on blood alcohol
- Florida's rise, like that of the Sunbelt in general, follows on large trends and technological capacity
- The final stages of the Vietnam War are akin in some ways to the last stages of the Great War - the outcome is known, the general principles of negotiation points are known and only the last few details are being wrestled over
- Marighela lives on and the circumstances indicate a much larger KGB effort
- Cassius Clay isn't invulnerable, as he was not in @. Storm is a very big and strong fellow
- The Armstrong-Whitworth Argonaut is a genuine intruder, designed to fly into Soviet airspace and engage fighters, bombers and SAM sites. It bears some resemblance in role to the F-117, but doesn't have the same stealth characteristics; it has some other features that enable its missions. Think active stealth
- Reverend Presley going after the case of missing schoolgirls is a sign that there may be success. He has a good strike rate
- The Sydney Opera House looks very different to Jørn Utzon's @ design, with the Lutyens designed building looking more like his putative Liverpool Cathedral with a bit more of the Hagia Sophia thrown in
- The Ashanti Federation (@ Ghana + Ivory Coast, with Togo likely to join and Upper Volta being intensely courted) will change its name; it is just a matter of what
- The British Atomic Energy Plan, when completed, will revolutionise British energy, reduce costs and open up a lot of industrial opportunities in a period where there was @ contraction
- The skeleton found in the Valley of Elah could well be Goliath
- Pacifying Katanga was relatively easy; the difficult part follows on
- German Army personnel are getting quite substantial active combat experience, albeit in a different type of war than that which confronts them in Europe
- The Venusian ruined 'city' opens up a load of questions
- The commander of Odessa, General Martin Hessler, is Robert Shaw's character from The Battle of the Bulge
- Ceylon spaceport operations meet with approval from Arthur C. Clarke
- Entebbe Airport will likely not have a certain future event occur there
- Professor Tenma's robotic creation may well be known as Astro Boy
- New British television stations will result in some distinctly different developments
- The PFI is the Su-27 and the PLFI is the MiG-29
- José María Arguedas doesn't end up knocking himself off prior to his novel being published

January 1970
January 1: USN, USAF and USSF aircraft, skyships and satellites begin an immediate massive search for the missing Enterprise, with Pacific Command raised to DEFCON 3 and Department of Magic wizards flying to the Pacific to assist. Whilst no leaks have occurred to civilian press or the general international community, the operation is detected by a Royal Navy cruiser and Soviet satellites; General Secretary Alekseyev declines to make the loss of the carrier public at this time and sends a guarded late night message offering help over the Hotline.
January 2: USS Enterprise reappears 525nm south of Ascension Island, a little worse for wear, but with all aircraft and personnel unscathed, with the latter extremely disoriented and unclear as to what happened. Only a few pilots, the carrier’s captain and his senior officers have a different tale to tell upon making contact with USN top brass on Ascension that night, then latter having flown down to Ascension by hypersonic rocketplanes. The matter is immediately classified Top Secret/Majestic and the carrier is to proceed through Drake’s Passage to the South Pacific and then make for Hawaii.
January 3: A very large meteor breaks up whilst re-entering the atmosphere over Oklahoma, with several fragments reportedly having some curious properties.
January 4: Elements of North Vietnamese and Pathet Lao forces reach advance reaches their stopline 25 miles north of the Liberty Line in Laos, although the Royal Lao Army continues to fight fiercely around Vientiane and the Plain of Jars.
January 5: World release of The Return of the King in London. The 324 minute epic leaves audiences and critics astounded with its combination of epic battles, enthralling action, spectacular magic and fantastical landscapes.
January 6: Reports of a strange death cult in the depths of exotic Madagascar reach South Africa, with the adherents apparently casting themselves from cliffs and mountain tops.
January 7: Over 80 U.S. and North Vietnamese fighters clash in the largest air to air battle of the Vietnam War over the DMZ and Laos after substantive reinforcements from the Soviet Union, Mongolia and China are thrown into the fray in a last ditch attempt to gain advantage. 29 VPAF fighters are shot down for only 6 US losses, with 8 captured Red pilots revealed to be Soviet ‘volunteers’.
January 8: First test flight and five of the Avro Canada Mystic aerosub.
January 9: A Red Navy task force hunts and kills two megalodons in the North Pacific, the first found in almost four months. Both monstrous sharks seem to be young and on the small side.
January 10: Eruption of the 'First Quarter Storm' in the Philippines, a series of increasingly strident student protests against the Philippine dictator President Salvador Garcia, whose grip on power since the assassination of President Marcos the previous year has been built upon violent crackdowns against suspected communist insurgency.
January 11: Dockworkers in Albania report a ship being taken over by a rampaging mummy in the middle of the night and disappearing out of the main port of Durres. Church of Albania investigators conclude that it is most likely Ramesses the Great attempting to return to Egypt and appeal to King Zod for help.
January 12: Emergence of Samson Mulumba as the new strongman head of the ruling faction in the Congo, with his position as President to be confirmed in a later election. A British intelligence report indicates that there are suspicious holes in records of his past and that there might be a suggestion that he is not who he purports to be.
January 13: NASA places orders for the construction of 140 large rockets amid a large increase in its procurement budget.
January 14: The ocean liner SS Oronsay and the 2000 passengers and crew are put into quarantine in Vancouver after an outbreak of typhoid fever onboard.
January 15: Tokyo overtakes London to become the largest city in the world by population.
January 16: Socialist MP Will Owen is personally arrested for espionage by the Commander of Scotland Yard, Sir Spencer Blake.
January 17: Orion 5 reaches Mars on its journey back to Earth from the outer Solar System, not entering orbit due to the speed of their return home.
January 18: Noted American daredevil Evel Knievel successfully jumps across the Grand Canyon in his specially adapted rocket motorcycle, astounding the world not only with his achievement, but the cool style of his landing and reaction.
January 19: Royal Air Force aircraft use new ground penetrating radar systems over Southern Rhodesia to search for gold deposits during operational trials and testing, discovering an immense anomaly deep in the jungle.
January 20: The USAF, USN, RAF and RN begin a tactical symposium on the aerial lessons of the Vietnam War.
January 21: Retirement of the Iraqi Minister of Defence, with his replacement being the latest (relatively) young nationalist officer to achieve promotion to lofty ranks over the last three years.
January 22: Conclusion of submissions in Duran v Duran, a novel case of inheritance and defamation, with the younger nephew said to have sullied his uncle’s reputation by claiming that he was ‘hungry like the wolf’ for his deceased father’s estate, an oblique reference to a 19th century werewolf disgrace within the extended family.
January 23: A French Foreign Legion company successfully engages and destroys a threatening rebel force ten times their size in Upper Volta.
January 24: Wales defeats South Africa for the first time in a rugby test in front of a crowd of 175,000 spectators in Cardiff, winning the match 8-6 after a Gareth Edwards conversion kick in the final seconds.
January 25: Negotiators in Geneva reach an agreement in principle on an armistice in Vietnam, with the conditions now relayed to Moscow and Washington for discussion.
January 26: Greek tenor Artemios Ventouris-Roussos makes his debut at the Imperial Opera in Constantinople alongside Maria Callas in Alexander the Great.
January 27: British introduction of new series of tactical nuclear warhead for use in gravity bombs, submarine torpedoes, strike missiles, depth charges and battlefield rockets.
January 28: Bewildered miners discover an immense solid silver snake measuring quarter of a mile in length and four yards thick underground in Manitoba.
January 29: General elections in Persia result in a narrow majority for a nationalist coalition, who have been careful to avoid sparking a military response from the Shah or Western intervention with more extreme policy statements.
January 30: Imperial China tests a powerful new ballistic missile in the Gobi Desert, causing a frenzy of reaction by foreign intelligence observers regarding its characteristics.
January 31: President Kennedy gives a nationally televised speech reporting on the US space programme, discussing the potential opportunities and challenges of the interstellar signal and what can be revealed about the recent increased incidence of UFO incidents. He assures the American people that they are well defended and that the frontiers of knowledge are being constantly expanded.