Dark Earth Timeline Discussion

[jemhouston]

Thanks for the explanation. I have hopes for the Highlander reboot. Henry Cavill seems to care about the properties he works on.

[Simon Darkshade]

July 1976
July 1: Prime Minister Powell announces that a special interim budget will be prepared for the second half of the year to allow for the execution of manifesto plans, the direction of necessary funding for a number of established defence programmes and special expenditure on atomic power and infrastructure. He further indicates that, in line with manifesto undertakings, repatriation incentive payments for migrants are to be increased to encourage increased returns to their home countries; this is being seen as a more urgent priority due to projections that the unemployment rate could rise as high as 0.5% in 1977 due to anticipated frictional pressures. Current Home Office estimates are that there are approximately 290,000 New Commonwealth, 160,000 Europeans and 25,000 migrants from various other parts of the globe, with a significant portion of the European numbers being professionals and skilled occupations in London.

July 2: A special squad of German police headed by Kriminalhauptkommissar Horst Schimanski arrests 43 year old Joachim Kroll at his home in Duisburg on eight counts of murder. Kroll will confess to a further six slayings before his trial, where he is sentenced to death; he subsequently goes to the guillotine on January 16th 1977. The extent of his crimes shocks the German public and body politic, with his number of victims being the most of a human murderer in the empire since Carl Grossman in 1921.

July 3: Britain experiences her warmest day of the year, with a balmy 82 degrees relieved by the scheduled late afternoon cook breeze and overnight showers. The ambient weather sees crowds flocking to Wimbledon, the opening day of the West Indies tour match against Derbyshire in Chelmsford and the more popular films of the season, including Shout at the Devil, Trial by Combat, Operation Slapstick, King Kong and Flood!

July 4: The United States Bicentennial celebrations are held in spectacular style in New York City, Philadelphia and Washington, commencing in the morning with the International Naval Review in the Hudson River before President Reagan in the battleship Pennsylvania and followed by a grand Bicentennial Parade through the nation’s capital, consisting of dozens of pageant floats, marching bands and mobile displays, hundreds of riders (including all two dozen of the U.S. Cavalry’s mounted regiments), over 40,000 uniformed personnel from the U.S. Armed Forces, hundreds of the Army’s most advanced vehicles and tens of thousands of people from historical societies, community organisations, children’s groups and women’s associations. A massed flyover by over 2500 aircraft of the USAF and USN concludes the parade, held before a crowd of over two million attendants, as well as President and Mrs. Reagan and a host of other dignitaries. It is followed at night by one of the largest state banquets on record in the United States, prepared by a brigade of elite chefs headed by the esteemed James Beard, and then a tremendous fireworks exposition and a live cross to all five Orion spacecraft currently on missions across the Solar System shown on a series of massive outdoor screens around the celebratory hub, as well as all five networks.

July 5: Star young Swedish tennis champion Bjorn Borg wins the Wimbledon Gentleman's Singles title in convincing fashion, defeating Romanian Ilie Năstase 6-4, 6-2, 9-7, becoming the first man to win the tournament without losing a single set since Tony Trabert in 1955, and the first player to do so since Margaret Court's achievement a decade later.

July 6: Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II arrives in Philadelphia with Prince Phillip aboard the royal yacht Britannia for her special Bicentennial state visit of the United States, which is particularly focused upon the original Thirteen Colonies that became the United States of America. She delivers a well-received speech to the crowd of over 10,000 in Philadelphia, speaking on the salutary lesson of the Fourth of July, and how it did, in some ways, also represent a day of celebration for Britain. She is to subsequently visit Washington D.C., Baltimore, Richmond, Charleston and Providence before arriving in New York City for the opening ceremony of the 1976 Summer Olympic Games. Britannia's escort for the tour, the cruisers HMS Ulster and HMCS Alberta and the DLG HMS Newcastle, remain at Bermuda and Halifax for the duration of the visit.

July 7: A group of suspected Western backed mercenaries break out the former Congolese and Katanga politician Dr. Julius Limbani, who has been thought to be dead, from a secret prison in the depths of the Congo, eliminating his guards and flying him out to Rhodesia in their chartered Bristol Britannia. The Congolese government issues a number of loud and vociferous complaints about the violation of their sovereignty, but Salisbury indicates that they had no knowledge of the private operation, which had been launched from Portuguese East Africa, and were holding the group in custody pending investigations.

July 8: An alleged UFO incident occurs in the early hours of the morning over Fife and Forfarshire in Scotland, with the mysterious flying object being suddenly picked up by RAF and Army radars at a very high altitude over the North Sea before rapidly descending from 240,000ft to near sea level in a matter of seconds , making a number of bizarre manuevers and then heading down the Forth of Firth before making landfall near the Methil Power Station in Fife. It then proceeded at a speed approaching Mach 5 almost due north at an increasing altitude before apparently being engaged and bought down by a pair of Blue Sky short range anti-ballistic missiles over Craigowl Hill in Forfarshire. The incident, which lasted for a total of two minutes and thirty six seconds and involved the launch of twenty SAGWs from various Scottish missile sites and the ready flight of English Electric Super Lightnings from RAF Leuchars, is immediately classified as Top Secret Majestic, and the wreckage atop Craigowl Hill sealed off. A small story on Page 11 of The Courier the next day states that a missile readiness test resulted in the accidental launch of Blue Sky interceptors and their self destruction at a safe distance, with locals advised to stay well clear from the cleanup site due to the noxious gases emanating from what was left of their fuel.

July 9: Petty criminal Garry Gilmore is knocked out in a street brawl outside a bar in Provo, Utah and spends the next two weeks unconscious in hospital, before awaking on July 25th. It appears that the blow has caused some form of change in his character, with Gilmore eschewing drinking, theft and fighting, focusing on his nascent relationship, joining a church and subsequently appearing considerably chastened to the point of being 'scared straight', in the words of his pastor.

July 10: An extremely nasty industrial accident occurs at the ICMESA chemical manufacturing plant in Meda, 20 miles north of Milan, when an accidental release of heated steam exhaust caused a reaction in an adjacent partially full chemical tank, causing a reaction and the aerial venting of over six tons of sodium hydroxide, ethylene glycol, sodium trichlorophenate and 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzodioxin. The cloud of chemical residue primarily affects the comune of Seveso, with a number of other surrounding towns and villages also suffering deleterious effects. All 1000 inhabitants in the worst effected zone are evacuated within 24 hours on the advice of the King's personal wizard, and the area fenced off for protective cleansing, whilst pregnant women and children are evacuated from the two lesser effected zones and prohibitions on the consumption of locally grown food are put in place. The toxic waste from the cleanup is contained in a number of secure barrels and transported to the Italian nuclear test site in Libya for temporary storage pending potential disposal. A subsequent commission investigating the accident sets out a number of stringent recommendations for the safe management of sites with a large amount of potentially dangerous substances.

July 11: Diplomats from the Sudan and Egypt sign an agreement in Khartoum formalising their mutual commitment towards further strategic, military and political cooperation, with the undertaking being seen as a strong foreign policy victory for Crown Prince Nazeem, who has long pushed for the successful strategic redirection of Egyptian focus southwards as part of his grand Pharoanist vision for Egypt's unique identity and future, and for British pressure, which has long sought to encourage Egyptian focus towards Africa and away from the Levant and the Arab World.

July 12: Senator Robert F. Kennedy is nominated as the Democratic Party's candidate for the 1976 Presidential Election at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago wins nomination, with his 2564 delegates amounting to 64% of the total. As anticipated, Governor James Carter of Georgia secures the Vice Presidential nomination with 62% of the vote, with Senator Henry Jackson of Washington the runner-up. The news somewhat overshadows the other developments of the day, where a border clash between El Salvador and Honduras dramatically escalates into an exchange of artillery and an aerial clash between Salvadoran Mirage IIIs and Honduran HA-300s before a temporary cessation of hostilities under pressure from the United States defence attaches to both nations.

July 13: The West Indies complete a crushing victory over England in the Third Test at Old Trafford, winning by 602 runs early on the final morning. England had begun brightly, dismissing the visitors for 219, 135 of which came from the bat of Gordon Greenidge, with John Snow and Derek Underwood taking four wickets apiece, before being knocked over for 71, courtesy of Michael Holding's lethal 5/17. The West Indian second innings saw them score at a tremendous rate, with Fredericks quickfire 50 being followed by a game-changing partnership between Greenidge (101) and the intimidating Richards, who smote no fewer than 12 sixes on his way to 236, and supporting hands played by Lloyd (60), Kallicharran (32) and Headley (44*), and finishing the innings at 580/5 declared off just 132 overs. The home side were then dismissed for 126 in their second innings, with Roberts leading the way with 6/32 and Holding 4/24.

July 14: In a strange series of apparent geological coincidences, earthquakes are experienced on the same day in Bali, Indonesia, the Amazonas state of Brazil and the British protectorate of Loompaland near Lake Tanganyika, with all of the tremors occurring approximately along the 8th parallel south. The Indonesian quake is the most serious of the three, with over 500 people killed due to the epicentre's proximity to the populous city of Singaraja in Buleleng Regency; Indonesian armed forces move to provide emergency aid and support, and, in a sign of rapprochement between Canberra and Djakarta, the RAAF organises the delivery of supplies, foodstuffs and shelters by the Britannias of No. 34 Squadron in Australian Timor.

July 15: Three armed criminals kidnap a busload of 28 schoolchildren returning from an excursion to a swimming pool near Chowchilla in California, transferring the terrified youngsters and their driver to two vans and driving to the Cal Rock Quarry near Livermore in Alameda County. Unfortunately for the best laid plans of the kidnappers, who had planned to phone in a ransom demand for $5 million to the Chowchilla Police Department, they are met by a reception committee headed by SFPD Chief Harry Callahan, who had been in Livermore on business at the National Laboratory. Chief Callahan emerges out of the night with his trusty .44 Magnum outstretched, demanded that the miscreants halt and throw down their weapons, whilst possibly impugning their maternal heritage, and then subduing them without needing to fire a shot, such was his deserved and fearsome repute. Each of the three criminals pled guilty to escape the gas chamber and were sentenced to 48 years imprisonment.

July 16: A gang of French bank robbers headed by Albert Spaggiari break into the vault of the Société Generale Bank through sewer tunnels running beneath its floor, intending to empty it of its contents, suspected to be over 100 million francs. Instead of the expected contents, the gang encounters a pair of AA-52 general purpose machine guns levelled at their curious little faces, courtesy of a squad of Gendarmes headed by Chief Inspector Claude Lebel. The carefully planned tunnel operation had been foiled by a secret Interpol initiative put in place after a number of high profile bank robbery attempts earlier in the 1970s, whereby anomalous subterranean activity in the vicinity of bank vaults is automatically monitored and investigated by special dweomers.

July 17: The Opening Ceremony for the Games of the XXI Olympiad takes place in New York City before an audience of over 250,000 in the Olympic Stadium and an estimated worldwide television audience of over a billion people. Preceded by a spectacular aerial display by the United States Air Force Thunderbirds in their F-15 Eagles, the athletes of the 124 participating nations parade past the crowd and U.S. President Ronald Reagan, and are followed by a display of dancers, marching bands and the entry of the Olympic Flag and the performance of the Olympic Hymn by a thousand-strong choir. The Olympic Flame is carried into the stadium by runner Steve Prefontaine before a series of official speeches, formalities, oaths and declarations bring the event to a triumphant conclusion, with the cauldron being lit by American Olympic champion Jesse Owens.

July 18: 14 year old Romanian gymnast Nadia Comaneci becomes the first gymnast in the history of the modern Olympics to be awarded a perfect score of 10 for her performance on the uneven parallel bars, immediately capturing the fascinated attention of the sporting press and general public. Meanwhile, in the pentathlon, Soviet Boris Onischenko is disqualified and ejected from the Games, pending further sanctions, after officials discovered that his epee had been wired with a fake hit detector. He is subsequently ordered to return to the USSR, personally admonished by the General Secretary and sent to work on his sportsmanship in a Kamchatkan gulag.

July 19: Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Piper Wright, in South America whilst on the elusive trail of fugitive Nazi war criminals, uncovers conclusive evidence on the survival of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, and pieces together the story of their escape from their purported death in a shootout with the Bolivian Army in 1908. The pair apparently faked their deaths through obtaining a pair of bodies similar in size to their own and having the faces altered through a temporary glamour by a local hedgewizard, then set up the Aramayo lodging house shootout and escaped during a lull in the nighttime fighting through the privy. Following on from their successful presumed death, the outlaws returned to the United States after several years lying low in Australia, with the Sundance Kid settling down in the Wasatch Mountains until his death in 1942 from acute costiveness, and Cassidy settling down quietly in Goodsprings, Nevada before passing away in 1956 from male pattern baldness.

July 20: The first stage of scheduled reduction in size of United States Forces Vietnam from 4 US Army and 1 US Marine division to 2 Army divisions and two separate USMC Marine Amphibious Brigades is initiated, with the first formations of the 19th Infantry Division departing for Japan, and the 15th Airborne Division to follow in 1977, leaving the 4th Air Cavalry Division and 23rd Americal Division in place alongside their counterpart Commonwealth, French, European and Asian units. Meanwhile, US Army Vietnam authorises the formation of a special reconnaissance team for a clandestine investigation mission of rumours of alleged MIAs being purportedly held in North Vietnam and North Laos.

July 21: New British Home Secretary Sir William Whitelaw authorises the initiation of a study on implementation of the Conservative Party’s election manifesto commitment for the increase in numbers of British police from just under 330,000 to 500,000 in the next decade. A number of potential solutions that have already been canvased, such as lowering height requirements or decreasing the exacting standards of the entrance exam, look likely to be dismissed out of hand, whilst the increased recruitment of female officers is seen as a more viable solution at this time.

July 22: The marriage of Forrest Gump, former head of the Bubba-Gump Shrimping Company, and his childhood sweetheart Jenny Curran takes place in Greenbow, Alabama, after several years of being apart due to his absence on military service, his brief table tennis career and subsequent business success in Louisiana. On the same day, Kevin Arnold, 20, returns home from his Army service to his childhood home in the suburbs of Sacramento to wed his sweetheart Gwendolyn Cooper, in a charming ceremony attended by his parents, Mr. and Mrs. Jack Arnold.

July 23: A special team of US medical scientists report that a potential cure for Tourette syndrome has passed the final stages of clinical trials and testing, with a new drug seemingly succeeding in suppressing physical and verbal tics through remarkable new growth patterns in the frontal cortex of sufferers, leading to an end to tics and associated effects within two months. The precise details of the drug are naturally kept confidential, other than its ingredients include extracts of certain exotic plants from deep inside the Amazon jungle combined with refined dihexyltryptamine ; The Lancet subsequently comments that, if proved accurate, the development further demonstrates the importance of the protection of the Amazon and its natural treasures.

July 24: The British Ministry of Defence issues a fulsome press release on a number of significant new defence programmes, with the announcement of the choice of the BAC design for the Royal Air Force's future Multi-Role Fighter; the awarding of the contract for the development of the Type 24 General Purpose Frigate to Armstrong-Whitworth, with the indication that at least 60 ships are envisaged as being built during the 1980s; and the War Office's selection of the Vickers Silver Moon general support tactical battlefield missile and the de Havilland White Rider SRBM to augment the Army's current array of Lance, Blue Water and Black Prince. The accompanying announcement that British and Commonwealth troops deployed to Uganda since Operation Oblivion on September 12 1972 are to complete their full withdrawal by the end of August, with only residual advisors, technical experts, specialist training teams, the High Commission's security force and the regular brigade of King's African Rifles remaining to support the Ugandan Army's transition to regular operations.

July 25: In four separate prisons across France, convicted murderers Christian Ranucci, Jérôme Carrein, Patrick Henry and Hamida Djandoubi all go to the guillotine at 0440 in the morning as part of Premier d'Ambreville's continuing hardline approach on violent crime and outrages against public decency, bringing the total number of executions in France so far this year to seventy three; forty two being for murder, nineteen for rape, two for arson in a dwelling house, three for brigandage, five for kidnapping, one for espionage and two for witchcraft. Despite growing pressure from some socialist leaning lawyers, journalists intellectuals and Members of the National Assembly, la peine de mort remains fairly popular amongst the French general public, with recent media surveys finding just over 79% support its retention and continued application; some critics of the government charge that, whenever other controversies or scandals loom, d'Ambreville plays the law and order card, successfully to date.

July 26: An outbreak of a novel form of pneumonia at an American Legion convention at the Bellevue-Stratford Hotel in Philadelphia is swiftly tracked down due to the deductions of a young doctor from Princeton, NJ, based upon his UMS experiences in the U.S. Army in specialist biological defence services at Fort Detrick, that the nature of the illness was most likely linked to the hotel's air conditioning system. The attendees are subsequently contacted and taken into hospital care for precautionary screening by the National Center for Disease Control utilising their established protocols for potential outbreaks of new diseases. Although several of the attendees become seriously ill, there are no fatalities due to the swift reaction.

July 27: The West Indies win a nail-biting Fourth Test against England at Leeds by just 36 runs, ensuring that they will win the Wisden Trophy outright by taking an unassailable 4-0 lead in the six match series. Their rollicking first innings of 532 was based around a 202 run opening stand between Fredericks (109) and Greenidge (125), followed by strong contributions from Richards (69), Headley (74), Kallicharran (48) and Murray (36), whilst Snow and Willis proved the pick of the bowlers with four wickets apiece. England's doughty response of 417 was largely thanks to Tony Greig (120) and Alan Knott (116), who put on 185 together, with the West Indian pace quartet of Holding (2), Roberts (3), Garner (3) and Croft (2) sharing the spoils. Snow with 5 wickets, Willis, Greig and Botham helped to hold the tourists to a second innings of 258 on a difficult pitch, with only the dashing Headley's 102 preventing a boilover. Set an improbably 373 for victory, England started decently through Boycott (52) and Gooch (40) steadying the ship, after the early loss of Ratcliffe, before Steele and Brearley departed cheaply. Tony Greig and Randall (93) gave England hope of an upset with a brilliant three hour partnership before Holding and Garner ran through the tail, leaving Greig stranded on 89*.

July 28: Over a quarter of a million people are killed in a pair of significant earthquakes in Ho-pei Province in China, centred around the city of Tangshan. The first quake, measuring 7.9 on the Richter Scale, strikes at 0342 in the morning, is followed by significant aftershocks 15 and 20 hours later, with the timing of the initial incident in the middle of the night contributing to the larger death toll in residential areas, which more than offset the smaller number of impacted coal miners then working underground on the night shift. Some locals believed the disaster to be a Soviet or American nuclear attack, such was its ferocity and devastation, and on the orders of Imperial Chancellor Fu Manchu, over half a million troops of the Imperial Chinese Army are deployed on disaster relief operations.

July 29: David Berkowitz, a 23 year old US Postal Service employee, attempts to attack a pair of women sitting in a car in the Pelham Bay district of the Bronx, and gets as far as to produce his .44 Bulldog revolver before being shot down in preemptive community defence by vacationing former New York City resident Paul Kersey, who had just been going for a stroll to get some ice cream at 1 o'clock in the morning, with four quick rounds to the head and neck from his .475 Wildey Magnum Automatic. Kersey is congratulated on his quick thinking and commended for his good shooting by NYPD detectives, and released after filling in paperwork for the Safer Community Rewards Programme, a new endeavour sponsored by Mayor Russell Nash and his special advisor Robert McCall.

July 30: American athlete Bruce Jenner wins the gold medal in the decathlon, recording a world record total of 9182 points, with his exploits leading to the famous exclamation by commentator Jim McKay “Over 9000?! There’s no way that can be right!” Jenner comes first in the shot put, 400 metres, discus throw, pole vault and the 1500 metres, completing the most dominant display seen in recent Olympics over the last 40 years.

July 31: A minor disease outbreak in the village of Yambuku Ebola River valley of the far north of the Congo is resolved quickly by French and Belgian doctors working at the local mission station, mainly thanks to the swift reply of Tarzan to their urgent cables for advice. The ongoing role of the King of the Jungle in relaying the benefit of his extensive knowledge of African plants, animals and rare diseases is one that has not evaded foreign observers.

[Bernard Woolley]

July 5:

I guess resistance to him was futile.

I'll get me coat!

[jemhouston]

July 26

Nice House shout out. I wonder if he's still a jerk.

[Simon Darkshade]

July 5:

I guess resistance to him was futile.

I'll get me coat!

Is that some oblique Star Wars reference?

DE Borg doesn’t differ much, apart from slightly shorter hair due to fashions.

[Simon Darkshade]

July 26

Nice House shout out. I wonder if he's still a jerk.

He is young, and all young men not only know everything, but can be naturally obnoxious in the process.

Here, his self image and behaviour is somewhat mollified by his distinctly similar appearance to British Foreign Secretary Lord Wooster. That type of thing has an impact on a lad.

[Simon Darkshade]

July 1976 Notes
- Powell's mini-budget looks to provide some direct increases for defence, fusion power, space and a number of more secret programmes. The Conservative manifesto generally stated that repatriation incentive payments would be increased from £500 per person to £875, which is expected to get a greater uptake from both the West Indian and Indian migrant communities; the forecast economic pressures are down to an anticipated rise in unemployment due to the economy having the breaks put on it to avoid overheating and resultant inflation. The temporary cessation of immigration during the recent recession and its aftermath were seen as one reason that recovery was a bit more streamlined, and that is being used to craft different policy going forward
- Whilst both the raw numbers of immigrants (160,000 West Indian and African, 105,000 Indian and 32,000 Chinese for 297,000 in DE 1975 vs 304,000 Black, African and Caribbean, 494,000 Indian and 100,000 Chinese for 898,000 in Earth 1971) and their percentages of the population (0.14% vs 1.62%) are markedly smaller in DE, this level of comparison is not generally available to the vast, vast majority of decision makers and politicians, literally being limited to the PM of the day. What does motivate political and public opinion is the increase to 297,000 from a 1945 level of ~ 25,000, which does seem considerable to the man on the Clapham bus
- Schimanski and his men arrest Joachim Kroll who, due to the lack of the abolition of capital punishment in Germany in 1949 (in no small part to prevent the further executions of Nazis), gets his just desserts. Note the wording of the comparative number of victims and specifically the use of the term 'human murderer', which would seem to indicate that there was 'something of the night' about Fritz Haarmann
- Historically, July 3rd 1976 saw the hottest day of the heat wave/drought in England, with 96.6 degrees in Gloucestershire. In DE, due to substantially different water policies (consider the impact of the Grand Contour Canal on the water supply grid) and the impact of weather control, the drought does not occur, and the peak temperature is comparatively mild at 82 F/27-28 C, which even mad dogs and Englishmen can survive. Note the list of summer films, ranging from the historical first pair to the fictional third (an account of the much more substantial airborne landing at Taranto), King Kong and Flood!, which was historically a made for television film with a number of B grade stars and a young Leif Garrett
- The Bicentennial celebrations go off quite grandly, with the parade having a bit more scope, scale extravagance and pizazz compared to that which occurred in our past on that day; the footage of it can be found online, and it is decent quality for the 1970s. The tidbit about the mounted regiments of the U.S. Cavalry describes both ceremonial units and the few detachments used for patrol along the southern border with Mexico, rather than actual combat units of a late 20th century cavalry; that is a conundrum that I've been unable to solve despite substantive thought
- Bjorn Borg's victory is largely historical, which is reflected by the relative brevity of his entry
- Queen Elizabeth 2's American tour is broadly similar to the historical one, with the slight difference of Britannia having an escort group for the trip across the Atlantic, just in case the balloon goes up during the journey
- Julius Limbani being boosted from prison is sort of based on The Wild Geese, but there is a lot of difference to what is going on in Africa, British and French policy towards the nominally independent African states, the alignment and role of the Congo, the Portuguese still fighting in Mozambique and Angola and the differing positions of Rhodesia and South Africa
- The Fife and Forfarshire UFO incident has a lot of different elements, ranging from UFO performance, interceptors and missiles, and the differing nature of Methil
- Gary Gilmore gets knocked out and scared straight, with the implication that, during his coma, he saw some sort of vision of what might have been awaiting him if he didn't change his ways. This isn't to exculpate him of his former criminal career, but it had not yet crossed the criminal Rubicon, so that there is scope for him to yet take a different path
- Seveso goes off in a broadly similar fashion, but the response and evacuation is somewhat more accelerated, due to a stronger profile of civil defence preparation in Italy. Note where the barrels of toxic waste end up and what can be assumed might happen to them there...
- Egypt's gaze seems to be southwards and towards Africa, rather than eastwards towards the Middle East and the Arab Union. This is a function of the greater success of Pharaonism in the absence of the secular/socialist Pan Arabism popular under Nasser and Sadat from 1952; the practical barrier of the British in the Canal Zone and the Israelis in the Sinai; and some of the long term butterflies of the different paths taken since the 1956 War
- RFK gets the nomination, as expected and signposted, and Carter provides a bit more of a chance in the South, but the Democrats are up against a popular incumbent Reagan in good economic times, plus the Bicentennial + NYC Olympics bounce, plus a feeling that it might be a tad soon for another Kennedy after 1960-1972 from JFK. The Central American clash is a historical one, kicked up a notch by their greater levels of armament
- The Windies continue a very historical tour of England both in the Third and the Fourth Test, putting together a heck of a team. Post Sobers, the one feature that the world-beating West Indian teams of 1975-1995 did not feature is a world class bowling allrounder of the class of a Botham, Hadlee, Kapil Dev or Imran Khan, and the roots of some different careers are being sown here, such as Roy Headley. Joel Garner and Colin Croft have debuted a bit earlier, building up an extremely formidable attack, and Viv Richards is Viv Richards. For England, there are some distinct differences, such as Boycott playing this series; his fictional/AH opening partner, Peter Ratcliffe, being a real goer; the MCC not having to call up players who should be having a well earned retirement, such as Brian Close and John Edrich; Graham Gooch being persisted with and Ian Botham getting a 1975 debut; and Tony Greig having a bit of a longer career at the top for England, having been unable to crack the extremely strong South African Test team
- Strange coincidences from earthquakes occurring in seismically active areas can lead to all manner of assumptions regarding their connections...
- The Chowchilla kidnapping gets resolved a bit earlier, but without Harry Callahan shooting anyone, for once
- Similarly, the Nice bank robbery is foiled by law enforcement cottoning on to a frequent MO and being able to do something about it
- The Olympic Opening Ceremony has a few Easter eggs included, such as Steve Prefontaine and Jesse Owens having their moments. Nadia Comaneci and Boris Onischenko then follow up with their little bits of history
- Piper Wright finds out the fate of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, giving scope for a couple of jokes
- US forces in Vietnam begin to draw down, whilst a particular special investigative mission grows closer
- Current British police numbers of 330,000 he current DE police numbers are equivalent to 0.198% of the population, which in turn are broadly analogous to the 1970 figures of 91307 officers in England and Wales (0.188%), but smaller than the historical total UK police numbers of 120,000, or 0.2135%. An increase is on the cards, which will make for not only more investigative workers in stations etc, but more bobbies on the streets
- Some nicer fates for some characters come out of different social mores and patterns
- Tourettes is not the only condition which has a cure that can be found in the Amazon...
- Britain moves to field a new type of fighter, which is sort of similar to the Eurofighter prototypes in role; a 1980s GP frigate; and some missiles to fill gaps. That they are only now (nominally) pulling out of Uganda shows the different approach at play
- French law and order policies, when the DE elements are stripped back, show some all too recognisable trends and behaviours, such as politicians manipulating their use of pardoning powers or the lack thereof to cover for more mundane scandals and unpopularity. In every universe, it is a dirty business. The list of French murderers include the last three men historically guillotined, and Patrick Henry, a murderer of an 8 year old boy who was spared the death penalty due to the arguments of his extremely anti-DP lawyer Robert Badinter, who, by a jury margin of 7-5, managed to get them to vote against capital punishment not because of any merits of the case or circumstances of his client, but as a broader social reform issue; in a different millieu, that type of argument wouldn't even be a starter, hence Henry getting what a large part of the media and public had thought he was a shoe-in to get
- The outbreak of Legionnaire's Disease is identified and responded to very, very quickly, reflecting some of the 'positive' side effects of an ongoing bioweapons (almost entirely defensive) programme, whereby certain patterns of infections stick out to trained individuals. Young Gregory House, a distant relative of young Robert House, has had to grow a thick skin due to looking like a young Lord Wooster
- Chinese earthquakes always tend to be nasty stuff in this, or any, era, due to the sheer size of the population
- Berkowitz doesn't even get to get a criminal nickname, but is terminally ventilated before he can do any murderous damage. Insofar as society is concerned, it doesn't seem a remarkable loss. The Safer Community Rewards Programme is exactly what it seems to be - a process where citizens who stop crimes, including through the use of legal firearms, get a very small amount which amounts to a figurative handshake; it is less of the impact of the reward, but the policy which it represents
- Jenner's victory is even more marked here, and I managed to work in a viable 'over 9000' joke in 2026; it is the most dominant all-round display since Jesse Owens, given that Mark Spitz (who will be heard from in these games, unlike @) only confined himself to swimming
- Tarzan nips Ebola in the bud, which, by the time this was published, is unfortunately timely in a manner I didn't anticipate when drafting this year a few months back

[jemhouston]

One path for Gary Gilmore could be similar to Mark Wahlberg. In Wahlberg's youth he had a violent streak, including jail time. After jail, he turned it around. I'm not saying Gilmore goes into entertainment, but he could go into some field like working in a nursing home.


Like you said, horse cavalry is useful in areas where you need to patrol but not expecting heavy combat.

Does the US still maintain mule teams for mountain work?

[Belushi TD]

I was thinking that horse cavalry combat units would be useful in mountainous regions, such as the American Southwest, particularly where there's few roads as well as areas where there's lots of mountain valleys separated by high peaks. Also temperate jungle/forested areas. At the moment, I'm not certain where in DE there's a need for such, particularly in areas where the US maintains presence.

Regretfully, I don't know where the US is maintaining ahistorical presence. Maybe they feel a need to patrol the US/Canadian border in the Rockies? Are there any peacekeeping missions in Central America? Or in the Andes?

Belushi TD

[Simon Darkshade]

One path for Gary Gilmore could be similar to Mark Wahlberg. In Wahlberg's youth he had a violent streak, including jail time. After jail, he turned it around. I'm not saying Gilmore goes into entertainment, but he could go into some field like working in a nursing home.

Like you said, horse cavalry is useful in areas where you need to patrol but not expecting heavy combat.

Does the US still maintain mule teams for mountain work?

An interesting thought, but I think it more likely that he’ll start in small steps - trying to keep working as a mechanic and focusing on his girlfriend and soon to be fiancée; then add more roots/ties which bind, in the form of the church and kids of his own. There are plenty of people out there with a criminal past, and some even who made awful decisions such as armed robbery; relatively few of them, thankfully, make the jump he did historically and killing.

That is my thinking - mainly the border, and that is about it.

Like the historical circumstances, the last mule units left US Army service very shortly after Korea.

[Simon Darkshade]

I was thinking that horse cavalry combat units would be useful in mountainous regions, such as the American Southwest, particularly where there's few roads as well as areas where there's lots of mountain valleys separated by high peaks. Also temperate jungle/forested areas. At the moment, I'm not certain where in DE there's a need for such, particularly in areas where the US maintains presence.

Regretfully, I don't know where the US is maintaining ahistorical presence. Maybe they feel a need to patrol the US/Canadian border in the Rockies? Are there any peacekeeping missions in Central America? Or in the Andes?

Belushi TD

As a general rule, there isn’t a need to patrol the Canadian border. The US- Mexican border, despite having a wall, still goes for 2884 miles (taking into account the lack of a Mexican-Californian border as such), and that provides the last hurrah of US mounted cavalry. There aren’t any peacekeeping missions per se in Central and South America; there is a bit of symmetry to the USA basically following in the same pattern as Soviet cavalry - eking out the final years of service on a southern frontier.

[Simon Darkshade]

Coming up in August 1976:
- The triumphant conclusion to the Summer OIympics in NYC
- Bishop Oscar Romero is appointed as Archbishop of San Salvador
- The near abduction of Andy Puglisi in Massachusetts is prevented by a quick thinking lifeguard and Mr. T
- A collision at sea between a USN ocean escort and a Soviet SSN near Greece highlights ongoing Cold War tensions
- A technician at the Hanford Plutonium Finishing Plant is exposed to the highest dose of americium radiation ever recorded, and not only does not die, but has some interesting changes...
- An abortive hijacking in Egypt ends swiftly
- A drunk Soviet border guard shoots six Estonians
- A very Swiss spy scandal occurs
- Mass evacuations in Guadeloupe due to the threat of volcanic eruption
- Something eats a plane in Ecuador
- End of the trial of the San Quentin Six
- Two American tourists are attacked by a werewolf in Yorkshire, sparking a major response
- Niki Lauda escapes an accident, miraculously unharmed
- Some exchanges of captive agents across the Iron Wall along the Oder-Neisse

[jemhouston]

The mention of americium peaks my curiosity.

[Simon Darkshade]

The event is based on this historical case from 1976: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harold_McCluskey

- Literally too hot to handle
- Measured at 37 megabecquerels
- Kept in isolation for 5 months
- Shunned by fearful friends and family
- Lived another 11 years to die of heart disease nonetheless

The DE version will be...interesting...

[Simon Darkshade]

Notes on the Conservative Manifesto 1976
- Cut Taxation and Excise to below 25% of GDP; and reform tax brackets with the tax free threshold rising to £1000, £1001-2500 at 10%, £2500-5000 at 15%, £5001-20,000 at 20%, £20,001-£50,000 at 30%, £50,000-£100,000 at 35% and over £100,001 at 40%.
- Corporation tax will go from 25% to 20% for small businesses (threshold for them rising to £100,000), stay at 25% for £100,001-1,000,000 and fall from 40% to 45% for those over £1,000,000
- Shrink overall government spending and the relative size of the state to 25% of GDP by the end of the parliament
- Work towards a major increase in economic growth driven by private sector and new technology
- Utilise unique windfalls and national savings to ensure future programmes are not only solvent, but self-sustaining
- Improvement of national defences: Grow the Army; Global RN; Complete RAF Modernisation Plan; Civil Defence to be doubled
- The Army is to increase in capital equipment and modern weapons systems, allowing consolidation of manpower and organisation of new field units. Reorganisation of Imperial deployments and consolidation of British African Army to reflect new circumstances of Africa
- The Royal Navy is to develop a new generation of support ships to extend the operational flexibility of existing and projected force levels; fielding of next generation of guided missiles and aircraft;
- RAF to complete the process of fielding new generation of modern aircraft. A Conservative government will fully examine the needs and deployments of the Royal Air Force across Britain, the Empire and the wider world, with the improved capabilities of modern aircraft allowing for consolidation of some deployments and force structures
- Defence budgetary spending to gradually grow through GDP increases so that supplementary defence spending can be gradually reduced once consistent levels of £25 billion for each of the three terrestrial armed forces are reached. Royal Space Force operational funding to be separated from Other Defence Spending by 1980, and Ministry of Munitions within the decade
- Creation of an Imperial Defence Fund for supplementary and discretionary spending
- Full encouragement of superannuation system; in concert with Pensions funding from ISF, aim to shift entire sector off-budget by 1979
- Reform National Insurance, so that it initially covers entire Welfare budget, and remainder invested to grow, with augmentation from Imperial Sovereign Fund, with the goal of covering future Welfare expenditure in an extra-budgetary fashion
- Establishment of a Royal Commission on the National Health Service and a National Health Fund to build funds to augment future health budgetary funding in the long term
- Broaden healthcare options to provide for private health insurance for those who wish to purchase better and swifter care. Increase the number of hospitals across Britain from 4500 NHS and 700 private hospitals to 5000 NHS and 1500 private over the course of the decade, along with increase in current level of 1,265,248 NHS hospital beds and 185,327 private beds to 2,000,000 and 400,000 respectively (exclusive of the 200,000 beds in the monastic institutions). New generation of asylums and therapeutic hospitals for psychiatric patients, the mentally retarded and those with profound physical handicaps, whilst those patients suited to community based care are to be shifted to appropriate outpatient circumstances
- Civil Service to work more efficiently and productively
- Increase in number of police on the beat, ambulances and firemen; increase in police pay
- Further encouragement of the path to a property and share owning democracy
- Simplify small business operations through reducing red tape, excessive regulations, simplifying taxation, compliance and record keeping
- Complete fusion revolution through construction of remaining programme of power plants, allowing the phasing out of a large number of legacy coal plants, as well as some oil fired plants
- Full food self sufficiency and introduction of modern crops
- Fight against crime: Tougher sentencing guidelines and minimums for crimes involving children, the elderly, women, police, the clergy and animals; introduction of youth prisons as third tier above borstals and approved schools; age of criminal responsibility set at 8; 15, 30, Death; goal of halving crime rates in a decade
- Better deal for housewives: Cheaper food, savings measures, choice, encouragement of families
- A cap on migrants equivalent to 3.5% of the immigrant population, or 21,875 for 1976, is to be established, with regional and national quotas put in place as part of that figure, consisting of 20% West European, 20% Other European, 20% North and South American, 20% Indian and 20% Asian and African. Further allowance for defence, academic, industrial, scientific and commercial needs is to be made on top of the annual migrant programme, along with certain emergency capacity for contingencies
- Immigrant repatriation encouragement and British migration flow to be subject to overall strategy of national population management and Imperial development, with payments to be doubled and free transport provided. The rate of population growth of the metropole is to be managed
- Encourage home ownerships and allow purchase of council houses
- Increase in schools from 62400 (48,000 state primary and secondary schools, 6000 grammar schools, 5000 independent schools and 3400 technical schools) to 64000 in the next decade, and training of at least 80,000 new teachers
- Boosting of sporting investment ahead of the 1980 Olympics in London
- A commission to be formed in conjunction with the London County Council for consideration of a number of infrastructure projects and developments in the national and Imperial capital

Some Insane Ramblings on Tax by One of the Strange Few Who Like Tax Law

- For the Mr Average Briton on an annual income of £2987, that means an income tax bill of £323, NI of £120, and £50 of Land Value Tax; this compares to the £795 in Income Tax and £153 in NI he would pay out on Earth
- There are 6,247,985 under £1000, 48,321,549 in the £1000-2500 bracket, 27,532,679 in the £2500-5000 bracket, 2,560,058 in the £5000-20,000 bracket, 792,190 in the £20,000-50,000 range, 32,629 individuals in the £50,000-£100,000 bracket, 5936 in £100,000-£1,000,000 bracket and 254 earning over £1 million; this compares to just 4 in our 1975/76. Note that this refers to income, not the number of ‘millionaires’, which in terms of property, shares, goods and income, there are ~ 150,000, or close to the oft used figure of the “1%” ; this includes humans and non-humans engaged in the mainstream economy and excludes companies, trusts and other corporate entities
- Not included but operating behind the scenes are various offsets and tax deductions, but I’ll stop there before I get too enthusiastic
- Someone earning £1 million in 1975/76 - let’s call him John Smith to be original - would pay £390,025 and £60,000 NI for £450,000 and change. His counterpart from Earth would be paying upwards of £830,000 on income tax alone, plus extra with the 15% investment income surcharge rate

£1000-2500: £4.26 billion
£2500-5000: £7.25 billion
£5000-20,000: £6.72 billion
£20,000-50,000: £6.42 billion
£50,000-100,000: £5.29 billion
£100,000-1,000,000: £3.84 billion
£1,000,000+ : £2.19 billion
£ 35.97 billion

[Simon Darkshade]

An August '76 Sneak Preview

August 7: The 1976 VFL season continues to progress towards an exciting conclusion, with Round 19 seeing Carlton cementing its position on top of the ladder with a 20 goal victory over St. Kilda 171-51 at Princes Park, Melbourne defeating Port Melbourne at the MCG, Richmond pipping Sandringham by 1 point to keep their faint finals hopes alive, Collingwood going down to Frankston at Victoria Park in one of the year's boilovers, Fitzroy defeating Coburg by 87 points at the Junction Oval, North Melbourne beating Footscray by 25 points at Arden Street and Hawthorn thumping South Melbourne by 44 points at VFL Park. In the final game of the round, Geelong defeat Essendon by 52 points at Kardinia Park, with 14 year old Gary Ablett breaking a 76 year old record to become the youngest debutant in VFL history, and kicking three goals and gathering 29 possessions in the forward pocket for his troubles. A highlights package of the first seven games and a full replay of the last game is broadcast in the United States on cable television as part of eccentric multimillionaire Colonel X. Marmaduke Glossop-Portankington III's enamoured promotion of the sport, with discussions underway for broadcasting to follow in Britain for next season on the Colonel's planned British satellite television network. Despite his enthusiastic efforts, the reception for Australian football in the Northern hemisphere seems to be growing slower than his plans, although the spectacular nature of match highlights (and particularly the game's tough physicality and tackling) does seem to be attracting the attention of a few of those lost from the seeming cursed decline of American football.

August 8: An argument between drunken Soviet border guards and a picnicking party of Estonian gas workers escalates into horror, when, having seen their efforts to accost young women and procure more vodka rebuffed, Private Bagižev opened fire on the crowd with his AK-47. Private Povõšev attempted to intervene to halt the attack, but sustained fatal gunshot wounds in the process, with Bagižev firing over 80 rounds into the helpless civilians before turning the gun on himself. 8 people are killed in the attack, with the commander of the border guard unit later shooting himself in horror at the incident. The KGB promptly classifies the incident as an internal security matter, prohibiting news reports, investigation or any public funerals or memorials.

August 10: Beginning of Exercise Elder Forest, an test of integrated air defence of the British Isles by the Royal Air Force and the British Army's Anti-Aircraft Command, which sees over 3200 tactical aircraft of RAF Fighter Command and the RAuxAF mobilised and deployed to wartime dispersal bases and fields, as well as utilising a number of roads and sections of the Royal Highways for emergency landing and launch operations. 154 RAF Regiment and 96 RAuxAF Regiment squadrons are deployed on Elder Forest, providing triple layered security for operational bases and airfields in coordination with the RAF's missile defences and the Army's long ranged Broadsword and Super Thunderbird regiments. The OpFor is provided by strike aircraft, tactical fighter-bombers and bombers of the French Royal Service Aeronautique, German Luftwaffe and USAF flying from bases in France and the Low Countries, with interception rates running at over 96% ; an anonymous RAF spokesman stated that not all capabilities had been incorporated into the exercise, and declines to expand as to whether this included the new laser raygun defence systems.

August 22: The attempted abduction of 10 year old Lawrence, MA boy Angelo Puglisi is foiled through the careful observation of a swimming pool lifeguard and the intervention of passerby Captain Lawrence Tureaud, who was visiting relatives whilst on special detachment at nearby Miskatonic University. The lifeguard notices that Puglisi had been accosted by a man who was attempting to force the boy into his nearby van, and issued the hue and cry, answered by the passing Rhodes Scholar and Medal of Honour winner. Tureaud, also known by his Ecky Thump masterly name of Mr. T, remonstrated physically with the miscreant would-be abductor, and, after belabouring him severally around the head and neck, sent him crashing consecutively through an adjacent wrought iron fence and granite wall, whereupon he was confined in a state of unconsciousness until the arrival of officers of the Lawrence PD. Subsequent investigations of the van uncovered a number of concerning items, leading to the successful prosecution of Wayne Chapman for the assault of two local boys and a one way trip to the electric chair in Charlestown State Prison on November 3rd.

August 23: TSR sign an agreement for the creation of a new series of Dungeons & Dragons focused 'gamebooks' to take advantage of the burgeoning gamebooks craze, which saw a 460% increase in sales in the first quarter of 1976 alone. A special feature in Issue #2 of The Dragon magazine outlines sneak previews of the forthcoming animated television show and its accompanying comic, extensive plans for video and personal computer games and tantalising hints regarding a live action motion picture in the works, with an all star cast being put together for a great adventure in a brand new forgotten realm of eldritch monsters and ancient wizardry. Whilst such expansion plans are being revealed to match the ever-growing popularity of D&D, the most popular article in the issue is about the imminent release of 'Advanced Dungeons & Dragons', which will expand upon the current edition and rules and provide for a host of new features, character classes and systems. Gary Gygax explains in a short introduction that four hardcover rulebooks will be released, the Player's Handbook, the Dungeon Master's Guide, the Monster Manual, and Legends & Lore, with each being over 250 pages in length; that the number of player classes would expand from 4 to 16; that a clear skills and proficiency system had been developed; and that a simple streamlined combat mechanism called THAC0 (To Hit Armor Class 0) had been introduced.

August 24: A Home Office paper cautiously recommends against any substantive legislative measures aimed reform of divorce laws beyond the current equalised grounds of the Matrimonial Causes Act of 1857, citing the absence of what has been termed 'no-fault' divorces anywhere in any common law jurisdictions, or indeed in the Western world; possible negative impacts upon emerging women's rights; and the potential impact of a putative temporary increase in divorce rates on the labour market. The current divorce rate has not seen any significant increase since the peak year of 1970/71, where there were 5269 in total across Britain.

August 28: A collision between USN Garcia class guided missile ocean escort USS Voge and Soviet Echo II class atomic guided missile submarine K-22 in the Ionian Sea results in heavy damage to both vessels, but only minor injuries to both American and Soviet personnel. Voge had been trailing the Soviet submarine after it had been spotted shadowing the Knox class ocean escort USS Moinester during patrol operations, and the Soviet captain attempted to order an emergency dive which was too late to avoid collision. Voge heads towards the nearest major drydock in Haifa, shepherded by USN, RN and Greek destroyers and frigates, whilst the K-22 limps on the surface towards Alexandretta.

[Simon Darkshade]

Some reflection on British police and policing matters:

- Front and centre, the British bobby on the beat is routinely armed with a service pistol, with virtually all forces having changed over from revolvers in the early 1970s in response to the London Outrage
- In July 1973, the Metropolitan Police Force began issuing new L2A4 assault rifles in patrol cars, replacing the earlier mix of carbines to complement the Sterling automatic shotgun and the general service sidearm .455 Webley automatic pistol
- Scotland Yard followed this up with the deployment of new expandable truncheons and electrical stunguns to street patrols in the East End as part of the next phase of police armament modernisation in response to the London Outrage and Tower Bridge Incident of 1968
- This isn’t to say that the street bobby in woodentop strolls through Whitechapel with an assault rifle in hand like a patrolling soldier or French CRS man. The Met has approximately 2000 patrol cars (compared to well over 5000 cars of all sorts today) so that puts something of a perspective on the matter
- With routine firearms deployment, there won’t really be a place for a Specialist Firearms Command/SO19 analogue or specific ARVs, but rather something in between the @ Australian and American circumstance - all with sidearms, and patrol units with access to longarms
- Police stations don’t quite have the same load out as the ill fated LAPD one in The Terminator, but there are plans for the issuing of rifles to police stations both in general practice and a lot more of them if TTW is triggered; that would see a lot more armament, including traffic wardens with SLRs
- For all of this response, there hasn’t been a major increase in police shootings per se; this was an era where there was not uncommon deployment of armed detectives on ops on Earth
- The Mounted Division has 500 trained mounted officers and rather special horses
- As the next step up from everyday patrol car armament is the Special Patrol Group, which has 25 sections, each with a strength of 50 officers. Their role is to deal with heavy public order, riots or terrorism incidents
- An adjunct to them is the Metropolitan Police Special Wizardry and Tactics teams/SWAT, which are very capable
- For most police forces and constabularies outside of London and the largest cities, if they really get into a situation that is a bit sticky, the go-to option is the Royal Constabulary, which is a national, heavier armed gendarmerie with capabilities up to and including armoured cars and heavy machine guns
- Anything bigger than that, depending on the perpetrators/involved parties, gets the Army
​- The Riot Act has not been repealed, nor Sections 1, 4 and 5 modified by legislation in 1837, with the time limit being set at 15 minutes
- There hasn’t been the Public Order Act of 1936, or at least not one with the same provisions outlawing political uniforms; with the earlier death of Moseley, the BUF is rather more of a fizzle, and on a par with Sir Roderick Spode’s Blackshorts - treated with derision
- For all of the measures put in place for contingencies, there haven’t been any public order incidents in Britain to provoke their use. There haven’t been any of the historical race riots or Troubles, and we’d have to go back to Cable Street and thence to the 19th Century to find anything
- There have been moves towards the formation or rebadging of a sort of overarching national police force, akin to the Commonwealth Police in Australia, RCMP in Canada or FBI in the USA

[Simon Darkshade]

August 1976

August 1: The 1976 Summer Olympics come to a triumphant and thrilling conclusion in New York City, with defending marathon champion Frank Shorter holding off the fast-finishing German Waldemar Cierpinski to win back to back gold medals, whilst Lawrence Turreaud surprises many observers to win gold against the West Indian favourite Theophilus Stevenson Lawrence, and Germany defeated Brazil 2-1 in a thrilling gold medal game of the soccer tournament the previous evening. The closing ceremony and parade is followed by a spectacular fireworks display and open celebration by athletes, officials and members of the public, with the Games being another great success for the bicentennial year.

August 2: Kaiser-Franz-Josef-Brücke in Vienna is detected by Imperial wizards‘ regular predawn infrastructure scanning spells oasis being perilously close to collapse, having seen its internal stability disastrously deteriorate overnight. The bridge is immediate secured by structural engineering wizards and two emergency bridges erected by specialist bridging units of the k.u.k. Armee whilst repairs are underway. A special evening edition of the Kronen Zeitung notes approvingly that this was a crisis resolved by ordinary everyday men and dwarves, not superheroes as might be seen in America or Russia.

August 3: Bishop Oscar Romero is appointed as Archbishop of San Salvador in a move welcomed by the increasingly autocratic and repressive military dictatorship of President Molina, but met with cautious trepidation by a large number of the more progressive elements of the everyday clergy, particularly those who are dabbling with liberation theology. Romero is seen as a conservative, near stolid, choice of great concentration of faith and unlikely to provide any great deal of controversy.

August 4: Opening of a new large integrated steelworks in Penrith, Cumberland by the English Steel Corporation, with a designed capacity of upwards of 1.8 million tons per year, which would make it the fourth largest steelworks operated by the ESC conglomerate, behind Barrow, Irlam, the Don Works and Hadfields. The 'Steel Renaissance', as the Manchester Guardian has termed the considerable growth in the British iron and steel industry in the 1960s and 70s, continues at great pace, with merger of United Steel and National Steel to form UK Steel in 1975 allowing for considerable capital for investment in its operational areas in Scotland and Ireland; English Steel being concentrated in North West England, Imperial Steel in the North East and British Steel in Wales, the Midlands and the South of England. The recent opening of a number of 'mini-mills' operating electric arc furnaces across the industrial suburbs of large cities such as London, Edinburgh, Dublin and Nottingham have been driven by the great availability of increasingly cheap electricity as part of the Fusion Revolution, and are seen as part of the next frontier of British metallurgic development.

August 5: A series of seemingly unconnected attacks by leftist and revolutionary groups across South America takes place sequentially in the span of five minutes from 4:20 in the afternoon, with a raid on a bank in Argentina, an attempted courthouse bombing in Paraguay, an ambush of a police patrol in Brazil, a massive car bomb in Uruguay and derailing of a train in Bolivia uprising. In and of themselves, they are viewed by the national governments and their intelligence organs as comparatively minor happenstances, but this changes after a comminque purportedly from Che Guevara himself is delivered to major newspapers and television stations in Rio de Janeiro, Buenos Aires, Asuncion, Montevideo and La Paz. A meeting of defence attaches and U.S. military and intelligence officers takes place in Panama late in the evening to discuss developments.

August 6: A tense midnight exchange of captive agents occurs across the Iron Wall on the Bridge of Freedom over the Oder between Slubice and Frankfurt an der Oder, with CIA and KGB contingents swapping five Soviet agents captured in North America and Western Europe over the past year for three of their own agents taken by Moscow in the same period. All of the exchanged agents face lengthy periods of debriefing and interrogation to ensure that they have not been turned into double agents by the enemy. There has been a general move by both sides over the last ten years to move towards keeping captured enemy agents alive and imprisoned in order for their use in precisely this kind of exchange.

August 7: The 1976 VFL season continues to progress towards an exciting conclusion, with Round 19 seeing Carlton cementing its position on top of the ladder with a 20 goal victory over St. Kilda 171-51 at Princes Park, Melbourne defeating Port Melbourne at the MCG, Richmond pipping Sandringham by 1 point to keep their faint finals hopes alive, Collingwood going down to Frankston at Victoria Park in one of the year's boilovers, Fitzroy defeating Coburg by 87 points at the Junction Oval, North Melbourne beating Footscray by 25 points at Arden Street and Hawthorn thumping South Melbourne by 44 points at VFL Park. In the final game of the round, Geelong defeat Essendon by 52 points at Kardinia Park, with 14 year old Gary Ablett breaking a 76 year old record to become the youngest debutant in VFL history, and kicking three goals and gathering 29 possessions in the forward pocket for his troubles. A highlights package of the first seven games and a full replay of the last game is broadcast in the United States on cable television as part of eccentric multimillionaire Colonel X. Marmaduke Glossop-Portankington III's enamoured promotion of the sport, with discussions underway for broadcasting to follow in Britain for next season on the Colonel's planned British satellite television network. Despite his enthusiastic efforts, the reception for Australian football in the Northern hemisphere seems to be growing slower than his plans, although the spectacular nature of match highlights (and particularly the game's tough physicality and tackling) does seem to be attracting the attention of a few of those lost from the seeming cursed decline of American football.

August 8: An argument between drunken Soviet border guards and a picnicking party of Estonian gas workers escalates into horror, when, having seen their efforts to accost young women and procure more vodka rebuffed, Private Bagižev opened fire on the crowd with his AK-47. Private Povõšev attempted to intervene to halt the attack, but sustained fatal gunshot wounds in the process, with Bagižev firing over 80 rounds into the helpless civilians before turning the gun on himself. 8 people are killed in the attack, with the commander of the border guard unit later shooting himself in horror at the incident. The KGB promptly classifies the incident as an internal security matter, prohibiting news reports, investigation or any public funerals or memorials.

August 9: Release of Midway, an expansive Second World War epic motion picture telling the story of the pivotal victory of the United States Navy at the eponymous battle. It makes extensive use of remaining wartime ships, copious scale models and the latest in arcanely augmented special effects illusions to show not just the Battle of Midway, but the key moments leading up to it, including the daring Doolittle Raid. Directed by John Milius and with an unforgettable score by John Williams, it stars Henry Fonda as Admiral Nimitz, Glenn Ford as Admiral Spruance, Robert Mitchum as Admiral Halsey, John Wayne as Captain Rockwell Torrey, James Caan as Colonel Doolittle, Tom Selleck as Lt. Commander Wade McCluskey, Hal Holbrook as Commander Joseph Rochfort, Ernest Borgnine as Admiral Fletcher, Robert Redford as Lt. Commander Jimmy Thach, Charlton Heston as Captain Matt Garth, Toshiro Mifune as Admiral Yamamoto and Ralph Bellamy as President Roosevelt.

August 10: Beginning of Exercise Elder Forest, an test of integrated air defence of the British Isles by the Royal Air Force and the British Army's Anti-Aircraft Command, which sees over 3200 tactical aircraft of RAF Fighter Command and the RAuxAF mobilised and deployed to wartime dispersal bases and fields, as well as utilising a number of roads and sections of the Royal Highways for emergency landing and launch operations. 154 RAF Regiment and 96 RAuxAF Regiment squadrons are deployed on Elder Forest, providing triple layered security for operational bases and airfields in coordination with the RAF's missile defences and the Army's long ranged Broadsword and Super Thunderbird regiments. The OpFor is provided by strike aircraft, tactical fighter-bombers and bombers of the French Royal Service Aeronautique, German Luftwaffe and USAF flying from bases in France and the Low Countries, with interception rates running at over 96% ; an anonymous RAF spokesman stated that not all capabilities had been incorporated into the exercise, and declines to expand as to whether this included the new laser raygun defence systems.

August 11: A strange meteorite is observed in the mid-morning skies over the Mexican seaside resort city of Acapulco before being located to the north of the city in a glowing crater. Local police and the Imperial Mexican Army are promptly summoned, and cordon off the crash site before scientists in specialised MBCR suits are able to recover the five pound space rock. Subsequent investigations reveal it to be made up of new amalgam of rare minerals, including what appears to be two previously undetected elements; Mexican authorities later hand over the meterorite to NASA personnel for investigation at the personal order of the Emperor.

August 12: Six prisoners on trial for an escape attempt from San Quentin in 1971 that left a number of officers and prisoners badly injured are sentenced to additional terms of imprisonment ranging from 80 to 99 years, to be served concurrently with their current sentences. The success of the accused in avoiding the gas chamber is ascribed to the novel approach of their defence attorney, who at times came close to obscurantist obfuscation in his closing address, invoking a number of commonly known paradoxes from popular culture, including last year's box-office hit The Star Wars, in his drawing of parallels on the nature of reasonable doubt.

August 13: Austro-Hungarian Formula One driver Niki Lauda has a very narrow escaped from a terrible accident at the German Grand Prix, walking away miraculously unharmed from the wreck of his car, with the able assistance of Italian competitor Arturo Merzario, mere seconds before it explodes in flames. Officials credit new conflagration delay enchantments placed on all Formula One cars this season, with earlier criticism over the expense of the exercise now seeming somewhat empty in light of the narrowly avoided circumstance.

August 14: A SAETA Vickers Viceroy disappears while flying from Quito to Cuenca, with the pilots last garbled transmission regarding something streaking at them through the skies at 18000ft leading authorities to surmise that the plane had been eaten by an Andean dragon. 59 passengers and crew are presumed dead in the tragedy, with no sign of wreckage found in aerial searches conducted by the REAF. A commission is established in Quito to determine the best course of action to locate and neutralise the threat posed by the dragon, with an initial suggestion of the use of nuclear weapons debated but ultimately declined as not strategically, operationally or economically viable at this time.

August 15: The French Marine Royale, Royale Service Aeronautique and units of the Army and Foreign Legion complete evacuation of tens of thousands residents of the Caribbean island of Guadeloupe, with its active volcano, the dread La Grande Soufrière, showing signs of an imminent eruption. Helicopter, rotodyne and hovercraft have worked around the clock for the past three weeks to shepherd some 76,000 people from nine different communes, including the capital of Basse-Terre, to the relative safety of Pointe‐à‐Pitre to the north, whilst three aircraft carriers and five amphibious warships remain offshore to provide further assistance and support in the evacuation.

August 16: Brigadier General Jean-Louis Jeanmaire, the retired commander of Switzerland's civil defence forces, and his wife are arrested on suspicion of having passed Swiss military secrets to the Soviet Union over the course of 14 years. Initial investigations indicate that Jeanmaire was cultivated by Soviet agents utilising flattery and copious attention, which fed upon his feelings of frustration at failing to live up to expectations and not being promoted into more active arms of service. It appears that the sum total of financial reward made to Jeanmaire and his wife amounted to a television set, two bottles of vodka and a rather nice set of gold hammer and sickle cufflinks. The news of the arrest has shocked the Swiss public and lead to some calling for him to face the severest penalty under Swiss law, and face a firing squad of crossbowmen.

August 17: The West Indies record a comprehensive victory in the 5th Test played at The Oval, beating England by 367 runs. Having won the toss and batted, the West Indies kept England in the field for the first two days, making a formidable 802/8 declared, lead by the magnificent Richards with 329, Lloyd a swashbuckling 110, Fredericks with 72, Kallicharan with 70, Calypso with 69 and Murray with 48; every English player except for Amiss and Knott were called upon to bowl. England’s creditable reply of 432 was mainly built around Amiss with 203, whilst Michael Holding took 8/92. The result was put beyond doubt in a whirlwind 32 overs of the West Indies second innings, which saw (124*) and Fredericks (113*) both score centuries as the visitors declared at 0/250. Only Steele (52) and Knott (57) showed much resistance in England’s attempt to bat out the last day for a draw, with Holding again the destroyer with 6/57 as the home team was all out for 253, Richards and Holding fittingly the Man of the Match award.

August 18: In the worst earthquake experienced in the Philippines since 1918, an undersea quake measuring 8.1 on the Richter scale occurs 15 miles below the Moro Gulf between Mindanao and Sulu just after midnight, causing a tidal wave reaching up to 60ft tall to sweep across the Sulu Archipelago and Southern Mindanao, with the the quake being felt as far away as the Visayas. Over 10,000 people are feared to be dead or missing and tens of thousands of survivors are left homeless. Philippines and US armed forces move to provide immediate aid and support, with personnel of the newly reformed Philippine Scouts providing much assistance in engineering, construction of emergency housing and provision of food and medical supplies.

August 19: President Ronald Reagan is renominated as the Republican candidate for November’s presidential election at the Republican Party Convention in Kansas City. He currently leads in all polls obverse Democratic candidate Senator Robert F. Kennedy by an average of 48% to 44% amongst nominally decided voters, which makes it likely that election night will see the map turn blue once again on current trends.

August 20: Egyptian special forces commandos storm hijacked Egypt Air Flight 321 as it is refueled at Luxor, having infiltrated the plane disguised as flight engineers and maintenance workers. All 102 passengers and crew aboard the Hawker Siddeley Trident were liberated without harm, whilst the three would-be terrorists are returned to Cairo to face trial, where they are subsequently found guilty of hijacking, terrorism, treachery and parking offences and sentenced to 198 years imprisonment and a two pound fine.

August 21: Time Magazine's cover story 'Fly Me to the Moons' focuses upon the recent boom in lunar tourism and settlement, which has seen over 30,000 Americans in the first seven months of 1976 alone visit the new hotels and resorts around Luna City, and showcasing some of the planned attractions for future development, including Disneyland Luna and its exciting new Space Mutiny ride. For those whose horizons are distinctly more terrestrial, there is an accompanying story on the continued development of eccentric millionaire John Hammond's dinosaur theme park under development off the coast of Costa Rica, which is described as cheaper, closer to home and more suited to younger children less prone to space sickness.

August 22: The attempted abduction of 10 year old Lawrence, MA boy Angelo Puglisi is foiled through the careful observation of a swimming pool lifeguard and the intervention of passerby Captain Lawrence Tureaud, who was visiting relatives whilst on special detachment at nearby Miskatonic University. The lifeguard notices that Puglisi had been accosted by a man who was attempting to force the boy into his nearby van, and issued the hue and cry, answered by the passing Rhodes Scholar, Olympic gold medalist and Medal of Honour winner. Tureaud, also known by his Ecky Thump masterly name of Mr. T, remonstrated physically with the miscreant would-be abductor, and, after belabouring him severally around the head and neck, sent him crashing consecutively through an adjacent wrought iron fence and granite wall, whereupon he was confined in a state of unconsciousness until the arrival of officers of the Lawrence PD. Subsequent investigations of the van uncovered a number of concerning items, leading to the successful prosecution of Wayne Chapman for the assault of two local boys and a one way trip to the electric chair in Charlestown State Prison on November 3rd.

August 23: TSR sign an agreement for the creation of a new series of Dungeons & Dragons focused 'gamebooks' to take advantage of the burgeoning gamebooks craze, which saw a 460% increase in sales in the first quarter of 1976 alone. A special feature in Issue #2 of The Dragon magazine outlines sneak previews of the forthcoming animated television show and its accompanying comic, extensive plans for video and personal computer games and tantalising hints regarding a live action motion picture in the works, with an all star cast being put together for a great adventure in a brand new forgotten realm of eldritch monsters and ancient wizardry. Whilst such expansion plans are being revealed to match the ever-growing popularity of D&D, the most popular article in the issue is about the imminent release of 'Advanced Dungeons & Dragons', which will expand upon the current edition and rules and provide for a host of new features, character classes and systems. Gary Gygax explains in a short introduction that four hardcover rulebooks will be released, the Player's Handbook, the Dungeon Master's Guide, the Monster Manual, and Legends & Lore, with each being over 250 pages in length; that the number of player classes would expand from 4 to 16; that a clear skills and proficiency system had been developed; and that a simple streamlined combat mechanism called THAC0 (To Hit Armor Class 0) had been introduced.

August 24: A Home Office paper cautiously recommends against any substantive legislative measures aimed reform of divorce laws beyond the current equalised grounds of the Matrimonial Causes Act of 1857, citing the absence of what has been termed 'no-fault' divorces anywhere in any common law jurisdictions, or indeed in the Western world; possible negative impacts upon emerging women's rights; and the potential impact of a putative temporary increase in divorce rates on the labour market. The current divorce rate has not seen any significant increase since the peak year of 1970/71, where there were 5269 in total across Britain.

August 25: Debut of He-Man and the Masters of the Universe, Filmation's new fantasy adventure children's animated series commissioned by Mattel to promote their new line of action figures, which have already been a smash hit through the summer. It tells the story of Prince Adam, heir to the throne of the Kingdom of Eternia on a far-off planet, who, through the agency of his magical Sword of Power, can transform into He-Man, the most powerful man in the universe and champion of goodness, and adventure to protect the ancient fortress of Castle Greyskull and counter the evil forces of the dread lord Skeletor. Four series of sixty-four 30 minute episodes apiece of the cartoon have been initially commissioned, with strong reviews of the introductory episodes for their excellent animation, sensitive balancing of action and child-appropriate material and catchy soundtrack.

August 26: Maiden flight of the Hawker-Siddeley P.1256 AVSTOL experimental supersonic jet fighter, which is being developed as an expedited successor to the now famed Harrier jump jet in a joint RAF/RN/RFC programme. The P.1256, due in part to its larger wing, has a superior combat radius of 575nm compared to current VSTOL fighters and is being tested with a range of innovative new avionics and electronic warfare systems, and is projected as being armed with several new advanced multipurpose weapons systems. Whilst there is a general intent for it to potentially replace the fleet of Harriers and Sea Harriers currently in service, the projected expense of the aircraft has lead at least one Treasury official being invalided off to St Dympna's Hospital for the Elderly Deranged after having put his underpants on his head, stuck two pencils up his nose and saying the word 'wubble'.

August 27: Two American tourists are allegedly attacked by a werewolf whilst hiking on the moors near Aidensfield in North Yorkshire, sparking a major emergency response by North Riding Constabulary, the Royal Constabulary, Task Force Silver of the Imperial Police, the Office of the Witchfinder General, Knights Templar from the Hirst Preceptory, the Yorkshire Hussars, three Army Reserve and four Territorial battalions of the Green Howards and eighteen local Home Guard battalions. Despite the mobilisation of over 40,000 personnel, the beast is not located in the initial hunt; a concurrent investigation by Inspectors Villiers, Banks, Dalziel and Pascoe interrogates a number of locals present in The Slaughtered Lamb, including a self-styled ‘people’s poet’ and a pair of colourful businessmen locates a number of clues connecting the attack with an alleged beast who ran amuck in Kent. Further consultation with expert Professor Stefan Crosscoe of the University of Stamford leads to investigations being focused on a number of Chinese restaurants in Soho. The American youth allegedly bitten by the creature is flown to Rome for the urgent intercession of the Pope, and subsequent to the curing of lycanthropy, appears to make a full recovery.

August 28: A collision between USN Garcia class guided missile ocean escort USS Voge and Soviet Echo II class atomic guided missile submarine K-22 in the Ionian Sea results in heavy damage to both vessels, but only minor injuries to both American and Soviet personnel. Voge had been trailing the Soviet submarine after it had been spotted shadowing the Knox class ocean escort USS Moinester during patrol operations, and the Soviet captain attempted to order an emergency dive which was too late to avoid collision. Voge heads towards the nearest major drydock in Haifa, shepherded by USN, RN and Greek destroyers and frigates, whilst the K-22 limps on the surface towards Alexandretta.

August 29: A middle school newspaper article by 13 year old Stan Smith on the decommissioning of USS New Hampshire features a number of photographs which inadvertently disclose the involvement of the Muppets in the highly classified attempted hijacking incident. The Navy Department swiftly quashes the rumour through claiming that the pictures were from a new film under development by the popular theatrical ensemble involving direct cooperation with the Navy and Marine Corps. After some swift backroom negotiation between Navy officials, Muppets manager Jim Henson and Kermit the Frog, a joint statement is issued on how full filming of the exciting new picture will commence following The Muppets' maiden film, with the film provisionally to be about pilot training at the U.S. Navy's Fighter Weapon School.

August 30: England, facing an unprecedented 6-0 defeat, rally back to win 6th Test against the West Indies at Edgbaston by 117 runs. Their first innings was built around a breezy and cheerful 176 from Peter Ratcliffe and a doughty 84 from young Graham Gooch, supported by strong contributions from Boycott (67), Botham (78) and Greig (52), with the pick of the bowlers being Roberts with 5/91. The response from the West Indians began brightly with a run a ball 60 from Greenidge, before Botham was able to dismiss him, Kallicharan and Lloyd relatively cheaply and the rest of the innings crumble to be all out for 257; Richards was caught behind for a comparatively small score of 38 on the standards of his record-breaking summer. The England second innings saw Steele top-score with 61, but solid contributions from all other batsmen, with Botham being the best with 56, resulted in England making 322, setting the tourists 450 to win in one and a half days. Whilst Richards remained at the crease, anything seemed possible, but after his dismissal at the hands of Underwood for 84 after lunch on Day 5, the scale of the chase proved too significant for the West Indies, and Botham claimed a spectacular hat trick to finish the Test and claim Man of the Match honours. Man of the Series unsurprisingly went to Viv Richards, who rewrote the record books with a total of 1254 runs for the series at an average of 125.4.

August 31: A 65 year old technician at the Hanford Plutonium Finishing Plant is exposed to the highest dose of americium radiation ever recorded, over 500 times the ordinary safe level, in an explosion at the plant. Thanks to very swift decontamination treatment and specialist hospitalisation, Harold McCluskey not only does not die, but, upon his recovery, begins to exhibit certain new abilities which the Department of Energy regards with great interest. A subsequent settlement provides for an extremely generous pension, free medical treatment, regular sessions with unspecified scientists from an other government agency to examine his emerging capabilities and an agreement to not walk through walls at bank vaults.

[Bernard Woolley]

August 13:

I wonder if that means that Lauda will stay in F1 for longer than in @? Although, OTOH, he didn't actually retire in @ until 1985. Might he have a longer career in terms of years active, but without a break? So that he retires earlier, but spent more time driving. Will he still found Lauda Air and Niki?

August 16:

Well, that's not good! Does fit well into the MICE acronym. Sounds like it was Ego, rather than Money, Ideology, or Coercion.

August 17:

Congrats to the Windies!

August 20:

I like the £2 fine!

August 21:

I'm sure that John Hammond's theme park is perfectly safe. And that nothing can go wrong...can go wrong...can go wrong...

August 25:

The @ cartoon has a special place in my heart. I had some of the toys. I hope he will encounter his long-lost sister in time. My only hope for the DE version is that the cringe-worthy 'moral of the story' epilogues are not a thing. Children don't need the lessons of the story rammed down their throats!

August 27:

Only Inspectors Villiers, Banks, Dalziel and Pascoe? Inspector Calhoun might also take an interest, unless he's tied up with a highly unusual case revolving around Holborn tube station.
I guess the beast was eventually spotted with a a Chinese menu in his hand?

August 29:

The Muppets do Top Gun? Might be awkward if it also starred a young actor called Tom something or other. After all, Kermit would look much taller.

August 30:

And well done to England for preventing an even worse defeat.

[Simon Darkshade]

I shall have to answer properly tomorrow, but on He-Man:
The morals at the end remain, but they are virtually all done in wise, non-condescending and completely story-relevant manner.

I use the word “virtually” as I may wish to use this great sequence here, entitled “Don’t Put Mustard on the Cat” :

https://flyingmoose.org/heman/mustard.htm