Dark Earth Timeline Discussion

[Bernard Woolley]

Don't you DARE have England win the FIFA World Cup again

Can you imagine what they’d be like? There’d be no living with them!

[Simon Darkshade]

It is quite within the realms of possibility for them to win further World Cups, to go with 1966, at some stage from 1978 forward. It isn’t the same England team in terms of the media or supporter culture as was brought up by Jotun back in 2016 or so.

History of the DE World Cup to date:

1970: Brazil d Germany 4-3
1966: England d France 4-2
1962: England d Brazil 4-2
1958: Brazil d Sweden 5-4
1954: Germany d Austria-Hungary 4-3
1950: England d Brazil 3-2
1938: Austria-Hungary d Italy 3-1
1934: England d Italy 5-2
1930: Britain d Argentina 4-0 (Unified Home Nations due to Depression)

[Bernard Woolley]

If you want to include something that really shows that DE is a realm of magic, have Scotland qualify for the second round!

[Simon Darkshade]

Reading up on 1978, even if the same teams qualify, there is no guarantee that Scotland will get the same draw of Peru, Iran (still Persia in DE) and the Dutch, as there will likely be a different qualifying 16 (if for no other reason than the absence of separate Austria and Hungary). Looking at that performance, getting through to the second round isn’t that difficult to engineer.

[Simon Darkshade]

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.

[Simon Darkshade]

The 32 course meal outlined above on January 1st, as a preliminary to further notes incoming. Some of the wines/spirits are DE only varieties, but I’ve tried to put together a decent list of ones that go with the food. At even a single glass per course, along with the rather rich cooking (heavy on butter, cream, truffles etc), the acute attack of gout is not too much in the realm of the literary flourish. Recipes available on enquiry.

1st Amuse Bouche
Smoked Scottish Salmon and North Sea Whitebait
1912 Grand Muscat

2nd Hors d'oeuvre
Beluga Caviar
Oysters Ratcliffe
1899 Schloss Johannisberger Riesling

3rd Consommé
Beef Consommé Royale
1949 Chateau de Rene Beaujolais

4th Bisque
Scottish Lobster Bisque
1925 Grand Cru Chablis

5th Eggs
Eggs Drumkilbo
1954 Rubis d'Egypt Rosé

6th Rice
Imperial Rice Pudding
1950 Sancerre

7th Seafood
Cornish Dressed Crab and Welsh Mussels
1889 Krug Champagne

8th Fish
Dover Sole Meuniere with Potted Shrimps, Anchovy Butter and Potatoes Dauphinoise
1910 Pol Roger Brut

9th Lobster
Lobster a la Renaissance (Cream, Brandy, Bearnaise Sauce, English Mustard, Garlic, Lemon, Roasted Tomatoes, Parmesan and Cheddar)
1925 South African Chardonnay

10th Salad
English Salad
1930 Alsatian Gewürztraminer

11th Poultry Entrée
Pheasant Royale Buckingham
1925 Chateau Lafite‐Rothschild

12th Meat Entrée
Rack of Welsh Lamb with Mint Sauce
1952 Penfolds Grange Hermitage

13th Meat Entrée
Prime Scottish Beef Fillet with Béarnaise Sauce, Foie Gras and Silver Truffle
1932 Chateau Mouton Rothschild

14th Sorbet
Strawberry Champagne Sorbet and Persian Lemon Sherbet
1924 Moscato d'Asti

15th Game
Roast Saddle of Scottish Venison with Cumberland Sauce
1935 Chateau Petrus Merlot

16th First Releve
Roast Haunch of Lyonesse Wild Boar with Shireapple Sauce
1925 Brunello di Montalcino

17th Second Releve
Roast Sirloin of English Beef and Yorkshire Pudding with Bone Marrow Gravy
1936 Romanée Conti

18th Second Roast
Roast Chicken with Bread Sauce, Bacon, Redcurrant Jelly and Sauce William
1950 Côtes du Rhône Villages Sablet

19th First Roast
Roast Goose with Apple Sauce and Sage and Onion Stuffing
1954 Morey-Saint-Denis Premier Cru Burgundy

20th Vegetable
Lyonesse Silver Asparagus with Chantilly Sauce
1959 Prydainian Semillon Sauvignon Blanc

21st Punch
Punch Romaine

22nd Grand Salad
Salmagundi Royale
1952 Cerasuolo d'Abruzzo

23rd Aspic
Galantine of Irish Veal in Aspic
1950 Lyonesse Silvaner

24th Cold Buffet
Canadian Salmon Mayonnaise
1964 Verdigny Sancerre

25th Sweets
Kentish Apple, Pear and Cherry Tart
1950 Chateau d'Yquem Sauternes

26th Ices
Lyonesse Peaches with Iced Cream
1932 Imperial Tokay

27th Savouries
Canapes Ivanhoe in Bacon, Welsh Rarebit, Devilled Prawns
1956 New Zealand Carménère

28th Dessert
Macédoine of Fruits in Jelly
Mousse of Strawberry a la Reine
1928 Azure Islands Skywine

29th Pudding
Plum Pudding with English Custard, Clotted Cream and Brandy Sauce
1874 Ruby Port

30th Sweetmeats
Honeyed Marzipan and Turkish Delight
1850 Madeira

31st Friandice
Venusian Wilderberry Cakes
Chocolate liqueurs
1836 Tawny Port

32nd Cheese and Fruit
West Indian Tropical Fruit Salad
Stilton
1824 Glastonbury Abbey English Brandy

The event is based upon this historical dinner, held at Chez Denis in 1975 sponsored by American Express: https://www.nytimes.com/1975/11/14/arch ... -4000.html

"And so, we sat down to our $4,000 dinner. The hors d'oeuvre was presented: fresh Beluga caviar in crystal, enclosed in shaved ice, with toast. The wine was a superb 1966 Champagne Comtesse Marie de France.

Then came the first service, which started with three soups. There was consomme Denis an inordinately good, rich, full‐bodied, clear consomme of wild duck with shreds of fine crepes and herbs. It was clarified with raw duck and duck bones and then lightly thickened as many classic soups are, with fine tapioca. The second soup (still of the first service) was a creme Andalouse, an outstanding cream of tomato soup with shreds of sweet pimento and fines herbes, including fresh chives and chervil. The first two soups were superb but the third, cold germiny (a cream of sorrel), seemed bland and anticlimactic. One spoonful of that sufficed.

The only wine served at this point was a touch of champagne. The soups having been disposed of, we moved on to a spectacularly delicate parfait of sweetbreads, an equally compelling mousse of quail in a small tarte, and a somewhat salty, almost abrasive but highly complementary tarte of Italian ham, mushrooms and a border of truffles.

The wine was a 1918 Chateau Latour, and it was perhaps the best bordeaux we had ever known. It was very much alive, with the least trace of tannin.

The next segment of the first service included a fascinating dish that the proprietor said he had created. Belon oysters broiled quickly in the shell and served with a pure beurre blanc, the creamy, lightly thickened butter sauce.

Also in this segment were a lobster in a creamy, cardinal‐red sauce that was heavily laden with chopped truffles and, after that, another startling but excellent dish, a sort of Proveneale pie made with red mullet and baked with tomato, black olives and herbs, including fennel or anise seed, rosemary, sage and thyme.

The accompanying wine was 1969 Montrachet Baron Thenard. which was extraordinary (to our taste, all first‐rate Montrachet whites are extraordinary).

The final part of the first service consisted of what was termed filets et sots l'y laissent de poulard de Bresse, sauce supreme aux copes (the so‐called “fillet” strips of chicken plus the “oysters” found in the afterbackbone of chicken blended in cream sauce containing sliced wild mushrooms).

There followed another curious but oddly appealing dish, a classic chartreuse of partridge, the pieces of roasted game nested in a bed of cooked cabbage and baked in a mosaic pattern, intricately styled, of carrot and turnip cut into fancy shapes and a tender rare‐roasted fillet of Limousin beef with a rich truffle sauce. The wine with the meat and game was a 1928 Chateau Mouton Rothschild. It was ageless and beautiful.

The first service finally ended with sherbets in three flavors—raspberry, orange and lemon. The purpose of this was to revive the palate for the second service, and it did. We were two hours into the meal and going at the food, it seemed, at a devilish pace.

The second service included the ortolans en brochette, an element of the dinner to be anticipated with a relish almost equal to that of the caviar or the foie gras.

The small birds, which dine on berries through their brief lives, are cooked whole, with the head on, and without cleaning except for removing the feathers. They are as fat as butter and an absolute joy to bite into because of the succulence of the flesh. Even the bones, except for the tiny leg bones, are chewed and swallowed. There is one bird to bite.

The second service also included fillets of wild duck en salmis in a rich brown game sauce. The final dish in this segment was a rognonade de veau, or roasted boned loin of veal wrapped in puff pastry with fresh black truffles about the size of golf balls. The vegetables served were pommes Anna—the potatoes cut into small rounds and baked in butter—and a puree rachel, a purée of artichokes.

Then came the cold meat delicacies. There was butter‐rich fresh foie gras in clear aspic, breast meat of woodcocks that was cooked until rare and served with a natural chaudfroid, another aspic and cold pheasant With fresh hazelnuts. The wines for this segment consisted of a 1947 Chateau Lafite‐Rothschild, a 1961 Chateau Petrus and the most magnificent wine of the evening, a 1929 Romanée Conti. The dinner drew near an end with three sweets—a cold glazed charlotte with strawberries, an fle flottante and poires alma. The wine for the sweets was a beautiful unctuous 1928 Chateau d'Yquem, which was quite sweet yet “dry.”

The last service consisted of the pastry confections and fruits, served with an 1835 madeira. With coffee came a choice of a 100‐year‐old calvados or an hors d'age cognac.

And for the $4,000, logic asks if was a perfect meal in all respects? The answer is no.

The crystal was Baccarat and the silver was family sterling, but the presentation of the dishes, particularly the cold dishes such as the sweetbread parfait and .quail mousse tarte, was mundane. The foods were elegant to look at, but the over‐all display was undistinguished, if not to say shabby. The chartreuse of pheasant, which can he displayed stunningly, was presented on a most ordinary dish. The food itself was generally exemplary, although there were regrettable lapses there, too. The lobster in the gratin was chewy and even the sauce could not compensate for that. The oysters, of necessity,.. had to be cooked as briefly as possible to prevent toughening, but the beurre blanc should have been very hot. The dish was almost lukewarm when it reached the table, and so was the chartreuse of pheasant.

We've spent many hours reckoning the cost of the meal and find that we cannot break it down. We have decided this: We feel we could not have made a better choice, given the circumstance of time and place. Mr. Denis declined to apply a cost to each of the wines, explaining that they contributed greatly to the total cost of the meal because it was necessary to open three bottles. of the 1918 Latour in order to find one in proper condition.

Over all, it was an unforgettable evening and we have high praise for Claude Mornay, the 37‐year‐old genius behind the meal. We reminded ourselves of one thing during the course of that evening: If you were Henry VIII, Lucullus, Gargantua and Bacchus, all rolled into one, you cannot possibly sustain, start to finish, a state of ecstasy while dining on a series of 31 dishes. Wines, illusion or not, became increasingly interesting, although we were laudably sober at the end of the meal. "

[Simon Darkshade]

January 1974 Notes
- The Shuttle programme is a lot larger, reflecting the greater advances made in space. Ultimately, their role is going to be as very regular freight runs for the long term starship construction project; no one really gets the scale of what they are trying to do yet in its entirety. They are not the @ shuttles
- Singham is from a very Indian movie of that name
- Stopwatch, coming soon after Christmas and New Year, highlights the capacity of the RAuxAF, a slightly different reserve structure, and the type of aircraft in the second line of Britain’s air defences
- Something different is going on with the chimps
- The position regarding amateur and professional athletes in the USA is different
- Field Forces, similar to @, are independent (reinforced) brigades with their own organic logistical support. There is a goal to develop them as intermediate level formations for some theatres and circumstances
- France is trying very hard to keep up with the big boys
- Lord Lucan, Vampire Hunter
- Haile Selassie’s men are onto something rather interesting…
- Gridiron is going through a rough patch
- The H-S Hawk is quite the capable little plane, with trainer units based on Britain having some mobilisation roles as point defence fighters
- The Vinland Map isn’t a fraud here
- Surprisingly, there have never been any major motion pictures made about Charlemagne in the English speaking world in @. Having Christopher Lee in the title role is an Easter Egg some will understand
- Stealing the sword was a bad move
- Even Communist Poland still has witchers
- Slum clearance complete without tower blocks is another bit of difference, which some might view as better
- The FA’s spokesdwarves do not take kindly to rude journalists, and have taken to wearing their axes to conferences, as a purely ceremonial measure, of course
- There is something of a game of mirrors going on in the Argentine
- The War Game will join Threads as wholesome family entertainment with a happy moral for children and adults alike
- There is nothing to see in Llandrillo. Move on, please
- The Empire Games (@ British Commonwealth Games) are substantially larger
- Moscow is starting to catch up a bit, but they face defences that are about to experience a generational shift
- Rather than being the start of a notorious miscarriage of justice, events in Iceland are going to turn out differently
- An earlier manifestation of the Golden Child results in different rescuers
- Curious stuff in Bolivia. Gonzalez looks strangely familiar
- British private and state pensions start to shift in a different direction; as stated, this is distinct from the OAP
- The Rhodesian Army hits the jackpot
- As well as mining, the newly founded South Park Tourism Office declares that there are “Friendly faces everywhere, “ample parking, day or night” and “humble folks without temptation”

[Rocket J Squrriel]

<looks at the 32 course dinner>



I could do justice to this meal but it would be over the course of a week because I don't wish to 'sample' each item. It would be disrespectful to the chef and kitchen to waste their work.

[Simon Darkshade]

The 31 or 32 courses is very much a formal flourish never seen on practical menus; it also needs to be taken into account that the multiple fish, entrees and releves is very much a creature of this (and the @ Chez Denis) contrived dinners, where usually they would be grouped together in single entries

Looking back, there were a couple of 21 course menus at special events in the 19th century, but in general practice in America, Britain and France, this shrank down to ~ 12 (by way of some dalliances around 14 to 15) by the height of the Edwardian Indian Summer that was the only voyage of the Titanic.

By having 4 diners, I was able to (theoretically) do a bit more justice to the dishes than the @ pair of American journalists, allowing some dishes to be prepared on a more reasonable level with less potential wastage. Courses 10-12 and 15-20 naturally came with appropriate vegetables.

[bobbins66]

I imagine that in OTL it was more like a modern tasting menu? Whereas in DE with their greater appetite and metabolism it would be a true feast?

[Simon Darkshade]

It wasn’t quite a modern tasting menu, as this was before the tiny portions of horrid nouvelle cuisine, and was rather a properly sized meal of grande cuisine. It was originally designed for 4 diners, which influenced my DE number of participants, but had only 10 wines; I deduce from Clairborne’s writing that they didn’t have entire bottles per man, but between them.

[Simon Darkshade]

February 1974
February 1: New Zealand runner John Walker sets a new world record for the mile at the Empire Games, winning gold with a time of 3:44:29.
February 2: Orion 7 is launched from the orbit of Luna on a five year voyage to the outer reaches of the Solar System, with their targets being the mysterious planets Orcus and Pluto. She is to be followed by Orion 8 in December, which will explore the Asteroid Belt, Orion 9 in 1975, which will continue studies of the Jovian system; and Orion 10 in 1976, which is to return to the moons of Saturn.
February 3: University student Patricia Hearst, granddaughter of the newspaper tycoon William Randolph Hearst, is kidnapped from her apartment in Berkeley by a gang of suspected radicals, who fire shots at the neighbours and Hearst's fiancee. Her father, Randolph Hearst, immediately contacts a number of figures known for being able to help with problems where no-one else can.
February 4: French Premier d'Ambreville announces a plan for all electricity in France to be generated by nuclear power before the year 2000, with the fusion revolution promising to be the main means of this achievement.
February 5: Beginning of Exercise Starboard, with American, British and Canadian troops joining Israeli Army forces in war games in Galilee and the Golan. The heavy fortifications along the Israeli-Syrian border are usually held by the Israeli 1st and 4th Mechanised Divisions, opposing three Syrian corps, but Starboard sees them reach their wartime strength of a reinforced corps, with allied units simulating both enemy forces and projected reinforcements.
February 6: Sesame Street features a very special sequence explaining the importance of children learning how to duck and cover, with Big Bird, Grover and Kermit paying careful attention to the friendly Civil Defence officers. This is the latest television programme utilised by the United States Civil Defense Administration to reinforce educational measures.
February 7: Biblical scholars in Israel present conclusive findings on the exact measurements of the cubit, based on extensive research of the Dead Sea Scrolls.
February 8: A coup d'etat in Upper Volta sees the dismissal of the Prime Minister and Cabinet at the hands of his predecessor. The comparative lack of public violence or overt military action is seen by some foreign observers as a contributing reason behind the lack of French response in their former colony at this time.
February 9: A special joint squad of detectives from the Oxford City Police and the Norfolk County Constabulary uncover a human smuggling ring lead by a disguised dark elf, purportedly acting for a mysterious Eastern European aristocrat. DCIs George Gently and Frederick Thursday and DIs Endeavour Morse and William Frost are officially commended for their sterling efforts before the entire investigation is classified with an X-notice and handed over to SOE and the even more clandestine Group V.
February 10: The Ministry of Labour announces that discussions between the government, trade unions and employer bodies regarding an agreement on an increase of annual leave to 28 working days plus the 16 paid public holidays are to be finalised shortly.
February 11: A series of raids by the French Inquisition arrest 13 suspects across the country on suspicion of being involved in a clandestine ring of Satanic necromancers. In keeping with the close ties between the Catholic Church and the French State, the strike teams of inquisitors, paladins and clerics are closely supported by heavily armed detachments of the Gendarmerie Nationale and the Sûreté Générale. The suspects are taken under close guard to special magical insulated cold iron cells in the Paris Temple.
February 12: Nobel prize winning Soviet author and dissident Alexsandr Solzhenitsyn is seized by the KGB from his apartment in Moscow and placed on a sealed train bound directly for the Finnish border crossing at Vainikkala.
February 13: Illich Ramirez Sanchez is found guilty of attempted murder, terrorism, murder and treachery in the Old Bailey and sentenced to death by hanging.
February 14: Sales data indicates that global sales of Dungeons and Dragons rulebooks topped 20,000 in December 1973 and January, with the popularity of the game showing no sign of abating amid a general 'craze' for fantasy and science fiction works, the ongoing significant numbers of children and young people from the postwar 'baby boom' in Europe and North America and the post Vietnam taste for escapist media.
February 15: Debut of The Adventures of HMS Hood on the BBC, a British naval drama series depicting the battles and voyages of the famed Royal Navy battlecruiser over 30 years and multiple conflicts, chiefly the Second World War. It is based on the best selling series of books by retired Polish Field Marshal Count Jan Niemcyzk, the Conqueror of the Reichstag and noted military historian, with each episode followed by a short 2 minute mini-documentary on a particular aspect or area of Hood's record showcased immediately prior, presented by Niemcyzk. This particular format will be copied by a number of subsequent programmes, including one that will widely be considered as the greatest television show of all time.
February 16: A report by the US Departments of the Treasury and the Interior and the Atomic Energy Commission predicts that the United States will experience a glut of potential energy sources by 1990 with the scheduled rise of nuclear fusion plants and expansion of oil, natural gas and coal production.
February 17: The Times carries a report on the demographic future of the metropolis of London, projecting that by 1980, the ethnic or non-white population of the capital will reach 1%, based on trends over the last decade.
February 18: Colonel Thomas Gatch begins his attempt at the first transatlantic balloon voyage, setting off from Harrisburg, Pennsylvania in Light Heart and intending to land in France or Spain in three days. He is blown off course over the Sargasso Sea and lands five days later in Spanish Sahara, reporting the company of a huge wild platinum coloured dragon during the most perilous parts of the flight.
February 19: British forces assigned to the Imperial Strategic Reserve begin Exercise Corporate Lance, a test exercise of global surge deployment capacity, with 120 long range Shorts Belfasts, 84 Vickers VC10s and 72 Armstrong-Whitworth Atlases flying the 1st Brigade of the 1st Airborne Division, 3rd Commando Brigade and 64th Gurkha Brigade from Aldershot to the Falkland Islands via Ascension, with ten squadrons detached from Fighter Command and Strike Command beginning deployment to the Prydain and the Falklands and a squadron of Avro Vulcan strategic bombers flying non stop from Malta to Capetown.
February 20: Japanese holdout Hiroo Onoda is located by young Japanese adventurer Norio Suzuki on the Philippine island of Lubang, with the stubborn former soldier continuing to refuse to surrender, even though Japan had been defeated some 29 years ago. Suzuki agrees to attempt to locate Onoda's former commanding oficer in Japan.
February 21: Release of a new major motion picture adaption of Treasure Island, starring Mark Lester as Jim Hawkins, Charlton Heston as Long John Silver, Julian Glover as Doctor Livesey, Malcolm Stoddard as Captain Smollet, Christopher Lee as Blind Pew, Oliver Reed as Billy Bones and Brian Blessed as Ben Gunn.
February 22: HM Treasury is directed to begin transferring £6000 million in annual returns from the Imperial Sovereign Fund towards the Ministry of Pensions and National Insurance to augment increases to the aged pension. This sum is to increase annually over the next six years as part of the Barton Government's long term design for generational accounting and diversification of funding of certain government programmes in order to provide for their firmer future. The Imperial Sovereign Fund has swelled to over £156,000 million, partly due to burgeoning revenues and royalties from North Sea oil and gas in the 1950s, 60s and 70s, and is currently growing at over 8% per year.
February 23: A 149mm artillery shell fired during the Battle of Asiago in 1916, explodes some 57 years after the engagement, killing six scrap scavengers scouring the battlefield for souvenirs of the bloody Austrian-Hungarian victory.
February 24: Introduction into experimental U.S. Army service of the Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawk, the intended successor to the famed UH-1 Iroquois general purpose helicopter. With over 10,000 UH-1s in the inventories of the Regular Army, National Guard and Army Reserve, the Black Hawk promises to be Sikorsky’s most lucrative aircraft to date.
February 25: Opening of a new joint USAF/RAAF base in Barkly, Northern Australia, with four 24,000ft runways and considerable suspected underground support facilities and missiles defences supporting the deployment of Strategic Air Command B-52s and B-70s in Indochina and the South Pacific. It is thought that RAAF Barkly has a dual role in supporting planned USSF orbital bombers and NASA space planes.
February 26: A Soviet Antonov An-24 is forced to make an emergency landing Gambell Airport on St. Lawrence Island, in the Bering Strait, off the coast of Canadian Alaska, leading to a brief international incident and uneasy standoff as local Canadian Militia and Eskimo Rangers and RCAF Avro Arrows respond to the arrival. After a day's negotiations, an agreement is reached for the Soviet plane to be refueled and allowed to depart.
February 27: Illich Sanchez, sometimes known as Carlos the Jackal, is hanged outside Newgate Prison before a crowd of several thousands amid heavy security. Souvenir photographs and dolls are sold, much to the distaste of some newspaper commentators.
February 28: The Admiralty announces a new series of classifications for the Royal Navy’s escort fleet, which is to consist of the current destroyers, frigates, sloops and corvettes joined by a renewed submarine chaser type, with the Flower class light corvettes being reclassified to reflect their inshore and littoral role, particularly in the North Sea.

[Bernard Woolley]

Never been called a Count before. Something similar, however.

[Simon Darkshade]

Of course - Trekchu made you an Earl, which is similar to a Count.

[jemhouston]

Of course - Trekchu made you an Earl, which is similar to a Count.

Just remember, the best known Earl is the Earl of Sandwich.

If you need an escort, dragons are good.

[Simon Darkshade]

Historically, Colonel Gatch was lost without trace. The colour of the creature here has significance.

[Simon Darkshade]

February Notes

- The mile remains a major event at all international athletic competitions, including the Olympics and the Empire Games
- Whilst Orion 7 is still en route to Neptune, the next Orion mission is launched, taking advantage of the relative position of planets. The Orion Program is building up to Orion 11's Grand Tour of the Solar System, which will be a larger, manned spaceship compared to NASA's @ robotic probe plans. Following on from that, there are probes being sent out aimed at the Kuiper Belt and interstellar space, but sending an Orion drive ship to Alpha Centauri isn't seen as viable or economic at this point; when it comes to starship plans, there is interest in direct fusion drives and some more 'out there' ideas
- Patty Hearst is kidnapped, leading to missives being dispatched to the Los Angeles Underground, wherein reportedly dwells a crack commando unit who operate as soldiers of fortune...
- The French atomic plan, related to the @ Messmer Plan, calls for 32 new nuclear power plants on top of their current 14 and 10 under construction
- Starboard is largely a political exercise aimed at delivering indications of US and British Commonwealth direct support of Israel, both for the Arabs and for the Soviets. As mentioned previously, the lack of a major war in the region for some time makes some states a bit more ambitious in their thinking
- Duck and Cover on Sesame Street demonstrates not just the role and position of US Civil Defense, but that the somewhat ridiculed methods promoted in the early 1950s remain in place, both for morale purposes and to take any opportunity to minimise causalities and damage
​- Exact dimensions of the cubit have some interesting religious implications
- As previously telegraphed, the French (and the British) are starting to shift back a gear from intervening in the internal affairs of their former African colonies. Were a state to try and have a communist revolution, declare friendship with the Soviets, request Red arms and invite in Soviet air and nval forces, there would be something of a different reaction
- The combined efforts of Gently, Morse and Frost (and Thursday) solve a particularly vexsome and dark case; it is laid out in broad bones as a potential future story hook
- Increased annual leave to British workers is offset by some groups/demographics of workers who are interested in/capable of filling in during certain times, including older people (people living quite a bit longer has some interesting results), women and dwarves
- Raids by the French Inquisition highlight the very different relationship between Church and State in the Kingdom of France, with a lack of certain very strong tendencies from the 19th and early 20th centuries
- Solzhenitsyn is deported as in @
- Carlos doesn't get to be a free jackal flitting around as an international terrorist
- D&D sales are booming for the reasons discussed, as well as a bit of good fortune experienced by the founders
- The Adventures of HMS Hood is inspired by the great naval fiction piece of many years ago, albeit in the context of DE WW2 and the Korean War. The structure of Episode + Mini-Documentary is an homage to The Mysterious Cities of Gold

- The energy picture/outlook of the USA is quite different
- The Times' report on the possible future demography of London comes as a shock to some in universe, even though it is at a much, much lower level than 1980 (actually 1981 for census data) in @. More will play out here over a number of years
- Colonel Gatch survives his solo transatlantic balloon voyage. Note the colour of the dragon
- Exercise Corporate Lance, whose name is a coincidence, doesn't utilise the Falklands Islands because of any specific Argentine threat, but because they are so far away and what capacity they demonstrate.
- Treasure Island features a number of actors who appear in the 1990 Fraser Heston directed version from @, but at an earlier stage in their careers/powers, along with that renowned master of quiet restraint and subdued acting, Brian Blessed
- The ISF begins paying out towards British pensions a bit earlier than projected. In time, it is hoped that this will eventually free up a good 3-4% of GDP in budget spending; the mention of generational accounting and diversified funding won't be the last one
- The Black Hawk is a slightly different helicopter, being a bit closer to the S92 in 'class'
- The new joint base in Northern Australia is designed as a joint base for SAC bombers and USSR/NASA space planes/bombers. The runways are very long indeed
- RN ship reclassification is a bit of an echo of the @ 1975 USN reclassification, with the 'subchaser gap' not really being a major one and acting more as the distracting gestures with one hand whilst the other is busy engaging in sleight