Dark Earth Timeline

March
March 1: A large tsunami in Southern Mars causes widespread flooding on the continents of Qobal and Elysium and substantial disturbance of oceanic trade, resulting in a delay to the Martian Convoy.
March 2: Over 20,000 Uruguayan Army and police personnel launch a series of sweeps through Montevideo aimed at tracking down and eliminating various Tupamaros cells and investigating reports that Carlos Marighella and Che Guevara are in the metropolis.
March 3: Indian and Chinese fighters engage in a brief aerial skirmish over the Burmese border, with the RIAF claiming to have downed five Chinese planes, whilst Peking claims to have eliminated an entire enemy fighter squadron.
March 4: In what was later called the ‘Century's Snowstorm’, Southern Quebec is blanketed by an average 20 inches of snow over the day and night, leading to cars being abandoned on the streets of Montreal, thousands of people being stranded in bars, hotels, restaurants, train stations and churches and police forced to patrol on snowmobiles. Canadian Army wizards are called in to clear roads and rail lines with magic, including fireballs usually seen only in pitched combat.
March 5: Australia and Britain conducts an underground nuclear test at the Maralinga Test Site in South Australia, with Christmas Island being prepared for the potential return to atmospheric testing.
March 6: Beginning of Exercise Brave Defender, a large scale nation-wide home defence exercise involving every branch of the British Armed Forces. RAF Fighter Command and the Army’s Anti-Aircraft Command are to conduct a two week simulated campaign against bombers and cruise missiles under the auspices of Air Defence of Great Britain, whilst the Royal Navy are to engage in mining, countermining and ASW operations and over 600,000 personnel from the Regular Army, Army Reserve, Territorial Army and the Home Guard engage enemy commandos, airborne landings and sabotage operations along with other tasks of home defence.
March 7: Die Sendung mit der Maus debuts on German television, after a brief and unsuccessful attempt at a legal injunction by an American entertainment company heavily associated with mice.
March 8: Joe Frazier defeats Cassius Clay in the so-called ‘Fight of the Century’ at Madison Square Garden, knocking him out in the 15th round with a tremendous blow that sends Clay clear out of the ring and en route to hospital. After the bout, a beheaded man is found in the parking garage, sparking an investigation by the NYPD Special Division.
March 9: The American Safety Razor Company ends its novel advertising campaign of including sample of actual razor blades with Sunday newspapers across 59 American cities after a sharp public response and much cutting criticism beyond the intended market slice.
March 10: A full squadron of RAF Avro Vulcan bombers sets off for a round the world flight, to culminate in a live fire exercise in Western Australia testing new air launched cruise missiles and the newest Blue Steel variants.
March 11: After an initiative begun by two 11 year old boys in Tennessee, a national simultaneous morning prayer is held in more than 10,000 elementary and high schools across the United States for the safety and success of Orion 6 on its voyage to Neptune and Uranus.
March 12: Simultaneous coup attempts are launched in Ottoman Turkey, causing considerable confusion and their eventual failure due to mutual interference. Embarrassingly, both factions try to capture the central television broadcasting studios at the same time, entering through different sides of the building during the live broadcast of a comedy variety programme.
March 13: Wales defeats Ireland 25-10 to win the Home Nations Rugby Championship, cementing its position as the leading rugby nation in the British Isles.
March 14: American and Soviet diplomats fail to resolve intractable differences over a proposed treaty on the militarisation of the seabed and oceans, but ongoing strategic arms negotiations achieve something of a milestone, with the U.S. delegation signalling that it would be willing to consider capping its land based and sea based missiles at 3000 and 2000 respectively; given that the Soviet Union currently deploys 1426 LRBMs and 964 modern SLBMs on 32 Yankee, 20 India and 10 Hotel class atomic ballistic missile submarines and 12 battleships, this provides the beginning of an opportunity to catch up with the West.
March 15: A disaffected Chilean Army colonel is arrested for planning to assassinate Prime Minister Allende in the manner of the death of Julius Caesar, being identified by his toga and clumsily concealed dagger.
March 16: The Royal Israeli Air Force places an order for 250 Hawker-Siddeley P.1204 Hurricanes to replace its current fleet of Merlin fighter-bombers, with the British Hurricane being currently in production being the first of two decisive factors in its success over the Convair YF-16, with the other being its subsidised cost under Commonwealth defence agreements. Rigorous operational and simulated combat testing of the McDonnell-Douglas F-15 Eagle, Supermarine Spitfire and Dassault Super Mirage 2000 for the frontline air superiority role is ongoing, with the new aircraft planned to provide a long range compliment to the RIAFs English Electric Lightnings and the multi-role swing fighter force of F-4 Phantoms and de Havilland Tornadoes.
March 17: New York Senator and former Attorney-General Robert F. Kennedy gives a lengthy and noteworthy speech in Baltimore on urban renewal, which many political commentators see as the beginning of his campaign for the Democratic nomination for President in 1972; his brother, President John F. Kennedy, has already indicated he will not seek a fourth term in office.
March 18: A landslide in Peru causes a localised flood that destroys an entire mining camp, killing over 200 people. Some strange metallic artifacts are later found in exposed portions of Yanawayin Lake and taken to Lima for examination.
March 19: The US Army and the CIA begin development of a powerful new helicopter with a number of innovative attributes in Project Airwolf, with a goal of fielding the world's most versatile VTOL aircraft to equip various special operations groups.
March 20: A delegation of high ranking Byzantine Greek military officers arrives in London for talks on a broad and extensive plan of military modernisation of the Imperial Armed Forces, including possible large orders for modern aircraft, tanks and missile systems.
March 21: The federal general election in Austria-Hungary results in a hung lower house of the Imperial Diet, with a proliferation of regional and minor parties drawing support away from the previously dominant Conservatives and Social-Democrats. Talks commence for the formation of a grand coalition to prevent the necessity for an additional expensive election.
March 22: CBS renews a number of its popular and successful rural-themed situation comedies and variety shows for the next three seasons, including The Beverley Hillbillies, Have Gun - Will Travel, The Andy Griffith Show and Lassie, as well as acquiring the rights for US broadcast of the renewed Australian series Skippy the Bush Kangaroo, which had been on temporary hiatus due to the star marsupial's unfortunate opium issue.
March 23: The Soviet Union conducts nine Peaceful Nuclear Explosions as part of the construction of a canal between the Pechora and Kama Rivers, but elects to pause the process to fully consider the number needed for successful completion of the project.
March 24: The Jewish Legion is formally transferred to Israeli command, ending a 35 year old legal fiction that saw it formally operate under British Army control. The elite international volunteer formation, equivalent to a reinforced division in strength, won renown in the Second World War and Korea; Israeli Army High Command indicates to London that it will remain at its current basing in the Sinai for the foreseeable future.
March 25: Retirement of former Yugoslav Prime Minister Josip Broz, the Kingdom's dominant political figure since the last war and a bulwark of socialist opposition to Soviet communism.
March 26: The Fukushima Daichi Atomic Fusion Power Plant begins experimental operations, becoming the first operating fusion facility outside of the United States, USSR, Britain and Canada and signalling to some the re-emerging strategic significance of the Empire of Japan, which is rapidly growing to match its economic, industrial and technological clout.
March 27: Death of former Haitian dictator François Duvalier at a U.S. military prison in Panama; his son and erstwhile heir is held separately in a facility on Guam.
March 28: Expansion of the British air, naval and army base at Trincomalee, Ceylon is completed; the project is seen as a key in cementing British power East of Suez along with the so-called 'superbases' in Aden and Singapore and supporting island facilities.
March 29: South Africa tests its first indigenously developed space rocket from a range in the Kalahari Desert, with the launch apparently perturbing local Bushmen tribes to no end and leading to one elder being sent south as an emissary to find out what was the cause of the apparent cosmic disturbance; SADF patrols encounter the fellow who is revealed to be none other than the individual who handed an empty Coca-Cola bottle to King George VI and Queen Elizabeth during their 1947 tour of Southern Africa.
March 30: Establishment of the first 'Starbucks' coffee shop in Seattle, with the local chain increasing to some 17 Washington outlets before folding in 1975.
March 31: The BBC broadcasts the first episode of a new children's science-fiction programme, Doctor Who, showing the adventures through time and space of a mysterious yet kindly doctor and his companions. It is noted for its strange and innovative electronic theme music and outstandingly realistic special effects; a few viewers question the necessity of the brief legal disclaimer at the end of the closing credits that 'the story, all characters and events are purely fictitious and any resemblance with actual persons, places, events, buildings, planets and products is coincidental', but a BBC spokesgnome explains it as a diplomatic measure to alleviate ruffled feathers, both literal and figurative, in the Tharsisian Empire on Mars.

Steve,

1.) The fireballs are quite big, but their dimensions can be controlled and manipulated by a master mage operating in concert with others
2.) Hope for the best, prepare for the worst
3.) Litigious mice can be most pernicious
4.) It is a Highlander reference
5.) Yes, it was a real life event!
6.) The only things missing from the Turkish coup hijinks was the Benny Hill theme, a chase sequence and pies to the face
7.) Elves see it as beneath them, dwarves are largely limited by their size (and lack of speed as a result) and halflings prefer homely pleasures. Orcs or ogres would be regarded with horror and opprobrium
8.) You’ve picked out the big issues holding back any SALT style detente; the USA also hasn’t frozen its force levels since ~1965 as in @
9.) You managed to get the underlying allusion there quite quickly
10.) An aircraft in production today always beats one that won’t be until ~late 1972, especially when it is cheaper and further down the development cycle. Israel’s choice is an interesting one - commonality with the Commonwealth or the extra US expense. With their Arrows and F-111s, they already have very long range.
11.) It would be very difficult for any Democrat to win in 1972 after 12 years in power due to the cyclic nature of domestic politics in the USA
12.) The flood was historical; the artifacts obviously not
13.) A natural response to the Turks tooling up next doors
14.) Such elections and coalitions are far more common on the Continent than in the English speaking world
15.) Skippy is fully recovered and is back to chasing bad guys rather than the dragon
16.) They were underground; PNEs have a far greater role and acceptance in DE
17.) Absolutely different and a consequence of different battlefronts converging at different times; the Soviets getting held up a bit more in 1943 and 44 has wide reaching consequences
18.) Correct on both counts
19.) They won’t be; as for what comes after them…
20.) The primary factor in Doctor Who not going to air is that he is real and an ally of HMG. A fictionalised account was seen as too risky under Eden, then he was away for a few years on other adventures. The man responsible for nudging the project into reality, as it were, is Simon Bailey, himself a former companion of the Doctor. All of the classic stories will be made, through longer seasons, and filmed in colour to boot. The BBC has dragon talk show hosts, cats, dogs, dwarven darts commentators, halfling chefs and centaur weathermen, so gnomes are simply one of many types.

April
April 1: The BBC carries a story that the lions at the Royal Menagerie at the Tower of London are to be ceremonially washed, shampooed, given a permanent wave and blow dried at noon by a delegation of London's finest hairdressers.
April 2: The Australian Labour Party leadership contest is won conclusively by Bob Hawke, who becomes Leader of the Opposition and the first significant challenge to Prime Minister Sir Edward Rogers. Hawke, a Rhodes Scholar, noted teetotaler and the former head of the Australian Council of Trade Unions, has become the best known public figure in the nation through his role in industrial arbitration and the labour union movement through the 1960s and is expected to be knighted in the next honours list as befits his august new position.
April 3: Release of Conquistador, a three and a half hour historical epic directed by Carol Reed, depicting the Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire, starring Christopher Lee as Hernando Cortes, Robert Shaw as Pedro de Alvarado, Alec Guinness as Emperor Charles V and Emilio Delgado as Montezuma.
April 4: The Politburo of the Soviet Union is expanded from 11 to 15 members, a measure interpreted by Western observers as being a step by General Secretary Sergeyev as cementing his power base by promoting key supporters.
April 5: Mount Etna erupts with tremendous force, destroying several nearby villages and the Mount Etna Observatory, killing 146 and threatening nearby historical ruins and Second World War battlefields with the expansive lava flows.
April 6: Initial construction works begin on tunnels in Dover and Calais for the planned Channel Tunnel, with the British consortium lead by the East India Company seeking to expedite the process and complete the project within the ambitious timeline set by HM Government. The plan calls for two 50ft diameter tunnels separated by 125ft with a 20ft service tunnel between them across the 52 mile distance across the Strait of Dover, along with crossing caverns and security features to permit the disabling of the tunnel by the Royal Navy in an emergency.
April 7: Frances Phipps becomes the first woman in modern times to fly to the North Pole, where she is received by Father Christmas and given a tour of the open parts of his secretive facilities.
April 8: Completion of a new British contingency plan for the defence of Ireland, updating the most recent version formulated during the Korean War with new provisions for aid to the civil power in the event of disorder or disasters, utilisation of the expanding modern transport network of railways and smaller airports and support of the elven and dwarven states in the central forests and mountains.
April 9: First flight of the Embraer Vespa, Brazil's first supersonic jet fighter. The project has been quite controversial since its initiation in 1963, with the performance of the Vespa left behind somewhat by the rapid development of cutting edge foreign aircraft and the cost being decried as excessive by a number of political groups, but it represents a large step forward for Brazilian aviation and technology.
April 10: Completion of the twelfth and final turbine at the Krasnoyarsk Hydroelectric Dam, making it the largest such installation in the world.
April 11: A 600ft diameter asteroid is intercepted and neutralised by a volley of American, Soviet, British and Chinese missiles as it passes with 200,000km of Earth in the first major test of the multinational Earth defence measures of Project Spaceguard .
April 12: A 21 year old female college student climbs over a safety railing to have a picnic overlooking the Grand Canyon and falls in. She is rescued by a safety enchantment recently put in place by National Parks Service wizards and thoroughly chastised by the ranger bears.
April 13: A brief yet inexplicable rain of eels is reported over Northern Lancashire, causing widespread shock on an otherwise sunny spring day and disrupting a number of fairs and sporting events.
April 14: Multi-millionaire newspaper proprietor Sir Denzil Carey, owner of The News of the World, The Daily Herald and The Chronicle, begins talks on the purchase of a television channel license with the Ministry of Information.
April 15: The 43rd Academy Awards are held in Los Angeles, with 1914 winning Best Picture, whilst George C. Scott wins Best Actor for his portrayal of World War Two and Korean War hero, the late General Patton and Alice McGraw winning for her tragic role in Love Story
April 16: Introduction of the first artificial computerised intelligent entities onto the ARPANET, with several American and British 'super computing machines' holding an impromptu meeting.
April 17: Rhodesian special forces conduct a number of crossborder raids into the Congo and rebel held areas of Portuguese West Africa, destroying several base camps.
April 18: McDonald's introduces a number of new menu items in its restaurants across North America, including a breakfast menu and chicken and pork burgers, in an effort to broaden its scope prior to its putative expansion into the Commonwealth and European markets. A separate internal notion of serving its hamburger sandwiches well done instead of medium rare was decided against on the grounds of losing custom to its burgeoning competitors.
April 19: The Colonial Office issues a position paper on the progress of the Crown Colony of Sierra Leone towards self government, setting out a timetable for independent Dominion status by 1984.
April 20: National Public Radio begins broadcasting across the United States, with a notable programme on its first day featuring interviews with injured Vietnam War veterans on their return home to America and re-adjustment to civilian life, including a one-eyed captain from Arkansas, a New Jersey steel mill worker who can no longer jog or run, a New York property scion who lost both feet in a mine explosion and Lieutenant Daniel Taylor, who lost his legs. The special is widely praised for its unvarnished examination of the price of victory.
April 21: The USAF begins testing a special 'laser' ray gun suitable for use in fighter and bomber aircraft, with the advance of miniaturization technology now being sufficient to permit practical application of the principle first seen in the Martian heat rays of 1898 and later bought to service in the great skyships.
April 22: A Wolverhampton man convicted of beating his wife has his sentence of 9 years hard labour and 30 lashes with the cat o' nine tails upheld upon appeal. The case is seen by some observers as cementing the role of judicial corporal punishment in British law (delivered by the cat for adult offenders and the birch for juveniles) with the ratio decidendi set out by Lord Bullingham being quite clear and concise. The legal status of the stocks outside of ecclesiastical courts remains somewhat more nebulous.
April 23: New York City makes the introduction of readily legible and plain expiry dates and lists of ingredients on packaged foods compulsory.
April 24: Renowned martial artist Bruce Lee appears on The Dick Cavett Show, promoting his new film and book, The Hong Kong Book of Kung Fu, having just foiled an armed robbery on a liquor store by a gang of six men on his way to the studio, with the able assistance of a passing architect and a vacationing San Francisco police janitor.
April 25: The 1971 Census of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland is conducted, showing the total human population recorded as 138,124,236, with 91,521,382 from England, 17, 112,395 from Scotland, 16,008,143 from Ireland, 6,965,364 from Wales, 6,037,065 from Lyonesse; and 479,887 from the Channel Islands, Isle of Man and outlying islands. The coloured and total immigrant populations are recorded as 194,937 and 562,458 respectively, with the general rate of migration from the 'New Commonwealth' having slowed over the last 10 years with rising prosperity in their home countries, but their numbers rising through the birth of children. 67% live in privately owned houses, 16% in publicly owned housing and 17% in privately rented dwellings. 50% of households own one motor car and 12% own two or more. The participation rate of employment of people aged between 16 and 65 is a record 82.4%, whilst 98.5% of respondents are Christian, 0.8% Jewish, 0.1% Moslem, 0.1% Hindoo and smaller numbers of Sikhs, Buddhists, Zarathustrans and other faiths.
April 26: A USAF SR-71 Blackbird on a reconnaissance flight over Southern Laos issues a disjointed radio message of being overtaken by a much, much faster, much higher flying aircraft. Upon return to Kadena AFB, the pilots retract their claim after a quiet meeting with men in black suits and dark sunglasses.
April 27: The Ministry of Transport announces that London sixth international airport (after Heathrow, Gatwick, Stansted, Luton and Churchill Airport of the Isle of Grain) is to be built on Maplin Sands.
April 28: The Christian People's Party wins a strong majority in the Dutch general election, with Prime Minister Piet de Jong winning a second term in office.
April 29: An Anglo-Indian singer-lutenist successfully wins the heart of his long-lost love, who had left him behind for a life in the ‘jet set’, through a simple yet profound ballad played outside of her Mayfair hotel.
April 30: French Musketeers clash with Italian Legionaries along the Mediterranean border after a dispute over which force had the more striking uniform.

A quick note on population:

I’ve ever so slightly tweaked the population numbers, but it is still a marked difference compared to 82/9.4 or 78.9/8.9 with Southern Ireland included in @ 1971.

In 1960, the Dark Earth split was

England 84.5
Scotland: 14.6
Ireland 12.4
​Wales 7.2
Lyonesse 6.3

The historical percentages for 1971 England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales were thus 78.32%, 8.9%, 7.74% and 4.65%. On Dark Earth, in 1960, they were 67.33%, 11.63%, 9.88.% and 5.74%, with Lyonesse at 5%.

The revised 1971 figures are

England 65.32% 91.52
Scotland 12.4% 17.112
Ireland 11.6% 16.008
Wales 5% 6.9
Lyonesse 4.34% 6

In my initial calculations, I had mixed some figures on growth rates and Westminster seats; it was too hot.

The most significant change can be found in Ireland, with England and Wales seeing a bit more net emigration in the 1960s. However, over the next decade, English growth is likely to outstrip that of Scotland and Ireland.

Scotland’s population comes down to Glasgow being quite large with 4.5 million people, Edinburgh pushing 2 million and Aberdeen and Inverness having just over 1 million people each.

On race:

”In @ 1971, the figures were 494,000 Indian, 304,000 West Indian, ~100,000 Chinese and ~35,000 Africans. In the first two cases, the 1950s and 60s saw the big waves and subsequent increases came more from growth/births of the children of immigrants in Britain. The big drivers for filling the postwar labour shortage in London transport, the NHS and northern mills also were much reduced by this point. On top of that, the numbers represented ~ 1 million out of 56 million, or 1.79%.

The situation in Dark Earth Britain is ~0.14% of the population, due to the smaller numbers and larger population. This is comparatively smaller than the @ 191600 blacks in 1960 (0.4%) and ~ 80,000 Indians and Pakistanis (0.167%). The result is that outside of London and a smattering of other large cities, there isn’t a ‘New Commonwealth’ immigrant presence, to use the @ parlance. This means there has been no drivers for racial tensions, no race riots such as the Notting Hill Riots of 1958, or associated issues. The diseased children of the BUF such as Mosley’s 1950s Union Movement don’t exist beyond a literal handful of cranks; the BUF itself doesn’t rise to prominence in the 1930s after his early death. Large parts of London, particularly in the East End, will continue to have an overwhelming majority Cockney populace and culture for some time to come, at the very least.”

Thus, the 1960s wave, predominantly from the Indian subcontinent, is absent here and there has rather been steady natural growth in the West Indian and Indian minorities in England and a bit less of ‘family migration’ due to better economic conditions in India and the Caribbean.