User:Opera hat/Bond chronology

http://commanderbond.net/article/4441

Birth date

 * Ch. 6 of You Only Live Twice states that Bond was born in the year of the rat, i.e. between 18 February 1912 and 5 February 1913, or between 5 February 1924 and 24 January 1925.
 * Ch. 5 of Casino Royale says that Bond bought his 1930 Bentley 4½ Litre coupé in 1933. If Bond was indeed born in 1924, he bought the Bentley at age nine.
 * Bond is described as being "somewhere in his middle thirties" in Ch. 11 of Thunderball.
 * It is implied that Bond is, or at least looks, under forty in Ch. 14 of The Spy Who Loved Me.

Early life

 * M's obituary of Bond in Ch. 21 of You Only Live Twice gives the following information:
 * His early education was abroad.
 * When he was eleven his parents were killed in a climbing accident and he went to live with his aunt in Kent.
 * At twelve he entered Eton College, but was obliged to leave after two terms. He then went to Fettes in Edinburgh.
 * In Octopussy, Bond states that, before the war when he was in his teens, he was taught to ski by Hannes Oberhauser, who "was something of a father to me at a time when I happened to need one".
 * In Ch. 12 of On Her Majesty's Secret Service, Bond remembers learning to ski as a teenager, at the Hannes Schneider school at St Anton in the Arlberg.
 * In From a View to a Kill, Bond remembers his first visit to Paris at age sixteen, when he lost his wallet and his virginity in the same night.
 * When flying past Mont Blanc in Ch. 13 of From Russia with Love, Bond remembers climbing the mountain at age seventeen with two companions from the University of Geneva.
 * Ch. 21 of You Only Live Twice says that Bond left school at seventeen and lied about his age (pretending to be nineteen) to enter "a branch of what was subsequently to become the Ministry of Defence". Winston Churchill had assumed the new post of Minister of Defence in May 1940. This event is given the date of 1941, which confirms Bond's birth in the year of the rat (1924), but contradicts several other dates.

Early service history

 * Bond's file at SMERSH in Ch. 6 of From Russia with Love states that he has worked for the British Secret Service since 1938.
 * Bond's early days as a courier for the Secret Service are mentioned in Diamonds are Forever, Ch. 3.
 * Bond was involved in a casino operation in Monte Carlo before the war (Casino Royale, Ch. 3; Moonraker, Ch. 3). M seems to have been in charge at the time, but claims in You Only Live Twice, Ch. 21, that he did not become involved with the work of the Service until after the war.
 * Bond remembers working behind enemy lines during the war in Ch. 5 of Live and Let Die.
 * In Ch. 5 of The Man with the Golden Gun, Bond indicates that he was present at the Fall of Berlin in 1945.
 * In From a View to a Kill, Bond muses on how he has not had a happy day in Paris since 1945, presumably meaning he was in the city at the end of the war.
 * Bond had once worked in Jamaica (Casino Royale, Ch. 1) on a long assignment just after the war (Live and Let Die, Ch. 17) and knows it well (Casino Royale, Ch. 4) but nevertheless is stated to know little of Section C and its problems (Live and Let Die, Ch. 2).
 * Bond mentions having been posted for a time by M to the British Embassy in Moscow in Ch. 5 of Moonraker.

The 00 Section

 * Bond's two requisite kills for joining the 00 section are described in Chapters 9 and 20 of Casino Royale. The first was a Japanese cipher expert at their consulate in New York. This must have taken place during the Second World War (and before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour on 7 December 1941), because in Ch. 1 of Live and Let Die Bond's journey to America is described as his first since the war. Live and Let Die, Ch. 2, confirms that Bond had worked for Station A during the war. The second kill was in Stockholm, a Norwegian who was "doubling against us for the Germans", but it is not stated whether the Germans in question were the Nazis (before 1945) or the East Germans (after 1945).
 * Bond's SMERSH file, when mentioning his status as a 00 agent, refers to a "Highsmith file" dated 1950 (From Russia with Love, Ch. 6).
 * Ch. 5 of Goldfinger states that Bond has been in the 00 section for six years.
 * By the time of Moonraker (Ch. 1) Bond is the senior of the three 00 agents.

Casino Royale
The novel begins in early June (Ch. 2).
 * Chapters 2 and 5 make reference to the Mahomet Ali Syndicate, a group of Egyptian émigrés "with, it is said, a call on certain royal funds" who have leased the baccarat bank at the Casino. The Egyptian Revolution of 1952 started when the Free Officers Movement seized power in a coup d'état on 23 July 1952. King Farouk abdicated in favour of his son and went into exile on 26 July. The monarchy was abolished entirely on 18 June 1953 and all the property of the royal family seized by the Republic, including substantial shares in the Mohammed Ali Club (Cercle Mohamet Ali) in Cairo, which lost its status as Cairo's most prestigious club as a result. This context suggests a date of June 1953.
 * In Ch. 2, SMERSH is described as ranking "above MWD (formerly NKVD)" and being "under the personal direction of Beria". NKVD was renamed MVD in 1946. MVD under Lavrenty Beria absorbed the MGB on 5 March 1953. Beria was dismissed on 26 June the same year and executed on 23 December. This means the date is no later than June 1953.
 * In Ch. 2 of Goldfinger, Mr du Pont tells Bond that they met in Royale-les-Eaux in 1951.
 * In Ch. 5 of Goldfinger it is stated that Bond has been a 00 Agent for six years. As various references in Goldfinger seem to put that mission at no earlier May 1958 (vide infra), this would mean that Casino Royale takes place no earlier than June 1952, contradicting Mr du Pont's 1951 date.
 * At the start of The Man with the Golden Gun (i.e. almost certainly November 1963, vide infra) Bill Tanner had been Number Two in the service for "ten years and more" (Ch. 2) and Miss Moneypenny known M for ten years (Ch. 3). The latter of these references implies a date of June 1953 for Casino Royale.
 * Ch. 2 mentions Nicolas Zographos and the Greek Syndicate. Zographos died in 1953.

Live and Let Die
The novel begins in early January (Ch. 1).
 * Ch. 2 states that this is Bond's first mission, and first meeting with M, since the events of Casino Royale at the end of the summer.
 * In Ch. 2 Bond wonders who controlled SMERSH "now that Beria was gone". As Beria was still heading SMERSH in early June (Casino Royale, Ch. 2) this means the date is January 1954 at the latest, because Beria was dead by December 1953.
 * Lieutenant Binswanger (Ch. 4) and Felix Leiter (Ch. 6) both mention "Commissioner Monahan". George P. Monaghan was New York City Police Commissioner from 9 July 1951 to 31 December 1953. This would mean that the date is either January 1952 or January 1953. A date of January 1954 would be possible if one assumed that given the recent date of Monaghan's departure (about a fortnight ago) these men were not yet aware of the change. This would be excusable in Felix, who as liaison with the FBI (Ch 1.) would presumably spend most of his time in Washington, but rather surprising in Binswanger, who would surely be expected to know the identity of his own chief.
 * In Dr No the events of Live and Let Die are described as having taken place "about five years ago" (Ch. 3), "five years before" (Ch. 4) and "four, five years ago" (Ch. 5). As Dr No took place in March 1958 or earlier (see below), Live and Let Die must take place at the latest in January 1953, or at a push January 1954.

Moonraker
The action takes place towards the end of May (Ch. 10).
 * In Ch. 2, Bond says that Drax "can't be much over forty". In Ch. 22 Drax says that he was 28 at the time of the Battle of France (May/June 1940), meaning that he turned forty in about 1952.
 * Ch. 2 implies that Drax's offer to build the Moonraker came after the Queen's coronation (2 June 1953) but it certainly followed her accession (6 February 1952). Then followed "months of delay" while Parliament deliberated before accepting. This was a year ago. If Drax's offer did follow the Coronation, the date must be May 1955 or later. If it didn't, the earliest date is May 1953.
 * In Ch. 4, Bond's full name is given as "Commander James Bond, CMG, RNVSR". The date given for Bond's appointment as a Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George varies: in his file at SMERSH (From Russia with Love, Ch. 6) it is 1953, and in his Times obituary written by M (You Only Live Twice, Ch. 21) it is 1954. The Royal Naval Volunteer (Supplementary) Reserve was re-founded in 1947 and disbanded in 1965.
 * In Ch. 8, mention is made of "the notorious Bar Mecca murder case". This took place in Tokyo in July 1953, which means the date must be May 1954 or later.
 * In Ch. 16, Bond observes American Thunderjets over Manston aerodrome. The US Strategic Air Command had F-84 Thunderjets stationed at RAF Manston from July 1951. They were replaced by F-86 Sabres beginning in August 1953. This implies that the date is May 1953 or earlier.
 * In Ch. 18, Bond notices Drax's Mercedes-Benz 300SL, white with red leather interior in the Mercedes-Benz racing colours. Mercedes returned to sports car racing in 1952 (see Mercedes-Benz in motorsport), and specific mention is made of Hermann Lang and Fritz Reiss's victory in the 1952 24 Hours of Le Mans (14/15 June). This means that the date is May 1953 or later.
 * In Ch. 25, M says "Malenkov's none too firmly in the saddle and this may mean another Kremlin revolt." Georgy Malenkov succeeded as Chairman of the Council of Ministers (Premier) of the Soviet Union on 6 March 1953 following the death of Stalin the preceding day. The Kremlin revolt mentioned probably refers to Nikita Khrushchev's successful coup against Malenkov's ally Lavrenty Beria in June 1953. Khrushchev became First Secretary of the Communist Party in September that year. Malenkov later came under attack for his previous closeness to Beria and was forced to resign on 8 February 1955. This means the date is either May 1953 or May 1954, and probably the latter.

Diamonds are Forever

 * The George Feyer record Tiffany listens to in Ch. 5 is "Echoes of Paris", released in 1953.
 * Ch. 10 mentions one of Shy Smile's competitors, "Mr William Woodward Jnr's Pray Action", who is described in Ch. 12 as wearing the colours of the Belair Stud. William Woodward, Jr. took over the Belair Stud on his father's death, 25 September 1953, and died himself on 30 October 1955. This puts the year as 1954 or 1955.
 * In Ch. 11 Bond observes the "34th Annual Saratoga Yearling Sales". The first of these sales by the Fasig-Tipton Company was in 1920, making this year 1954.
 * Several hotels on the Las Vegas Strip are mentioned in Ch. 15, including: The Sands ("built a couple of years ago"), which opened on 15 December 1952; the Desert Inn; the Sahara ("latest thing"), opened 7 October 1952; the Last Frontier, opened 1942 and renamed the New Frontier on 4 April 1955, and the Thunderbird. These references put the year as 1953 or 1954.

From Russia with Love

 * 1927: Donovan Grant is born in Aughnacloy
 * 1938: James Bond begins working for the British Secret Service
 * Grant's sixteenth year
 * October: Grant strangles a cat on the night of the full moon
 * November: Grant kills a sheepdog on the night of the full moon
 * Christmas: Grant cuts a cow's throat on the night of the full moon
 * end of Grant's seventeenth year: he leaves Auchnacloy to train as a boxer in Belfast
 * 1945
 * Grant wins the Northern Ireland light-heavyweight championship on his eighteenth birthday
 * Grant is conscripted to do his National Service with the Royal Corps of Signals
 * 1946: Bond is photographed in a café
 * 1949 and 1950: Grant is sent on missions outside the Soviet Union
 * 1950
 * Bond is photographed from a buttonhole camera while speaking to someone
 * December: the "Highsmith file" at SMERSH records Bond's appointment to the double 0 section
 * 1951
 * SMERSH, MGB and GRU Standing Orders require all personnel to report encounters with 007
 * Bond is photographed by a cameraman in a passing car
 * 1951 and 1952: Grant is awarded Soviet citizenship and increases in pay
 * 1952: Grubozaboyschikov's post as deputy to one of the Heads of the MGB is abolished; he begins plotting against Beria with Serov
 * 1953
 * Grant is given the rank of Major and his villa in the Crimea
 * James Bond is awarded the CMG
 * Bond's passport is photographed and sent to Moscow
 * 13 January 1954: Beria's portrait is removed from the head office at SMERSH


 * about fifty years ago: birth of General Grubozaboyschikov
 * "around the time of the corridor trouble with the Russians" : Grant's section is sent to Berlin
 * ten years ago
 * Grant is disqualified from the BAOR boxing championships
 * a few days later
 * Grant defects to the Russians in East Berlin
 * Grant murders Dr Baumgarten for the Russians and is flown to Moscow for a year of semi-prison
 * a year later (ten years ago ): Grant is given the name Krassno Granitski and sent to the Intelligence School for Foreigners outside Leningrad for a year
 * a year after that : Grant is sent to the School for Terror and Diversion at Kuchino for a year, during which he performs executions in Moscow jails
 * "nearly ten years" ago : Grant is tested with missions outside the Soviet Union
 * three years ago: a GRU operation involving Drax and his rocket is foiled by Bond
 * two years ago: the masseuse begins visiting Grant at his villa in the Crimea
 * last year: Bond is involved in a diamond-smuggling case between Africa and America


 * 1942
 * 24 October: full moon
 * 22 November: full moon
 * 22 December: full moon
 * 1943
 * 13 October: full moon
 * 12 November: full moon
 * 11 December: full moon
 * February 1944: Chechen and Ingush populations are deported from the Caucasus in Operation Lentil
 * 5 September 1945: defection of Igor Gouzenko, cipher clerk in the Ottawa embassy
 * 1947: rocket scientist Grigori Tokaev defects to Britain
 * June 1948 - May 1949: the Berlin Blockade
 * 1950
 * January: Klaus Fuchs confesses to being a Soviet spy
 * 23 May: arrest of Harry Gold
 * June: David Greenglass is arrested
 * 16 August: Morton Sobell is arrested
 * 1953
 * 5 March: the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MVD) absorbs the Ministry of State Security (MGB)
 * 26 June: Beria is dismissed as Head of the MVD
 * 15 August: Arthur W. Radford is appointed Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
 * 23 December: execution of Beria
 * 1954
 * February: Nikolai Khoklov is sent to assassinate Georgi Okolovich but defects to the West instead
 * 13 March: responsibility for State Security is removed from the MVD to the Committee of State Security (KGB) under General Ivan Serov
 * April: Vladimir Petrov, third secretary at the embassy in Canberra, defects with his wife
 * May-July: the Geneva Conference ends the First Indochina War
 * August: the People's Republic of China begins shelling Quemoy and Matsu (the First Taiwan Strait Crisis)
 * 1955
 * 22 November: testing of RDS-37
 * Nov-Dec: Bulganin and Khruschev visit India
 * April 1956: Bulganin and Khruschev visit London

The part of the action concerning James Bond takes place between 12th and 19th August.
 * 10 June
 * morning: meeting of the High Praesidium
 * afternoon
 * Grant is summoned to Moscow by telephone.
 * Grant leaves Simferopol by aeroplane for Moscow
 * after dusk: Grant's plane passes over Kharkov
 * the moon is "three-quarters full"
 * around midnight, 11.30 p.m. : Grant's plane arrives at Tushina Airport ; General Grubozaboyshikov meets with representatives from RUMID, GRU and MGB
 * 11 June
 * Ch. 2 says it is ten years since Grant's defection from Berlin. Chapter 1 says it is ten years since he has been given the name Granitsky. In Ch. 10 Klebb says he has been tested for "nearly ten years". Ch. 2 says that Grant's section was moved to Berlin "about the time of the corridor trouble with the Russians" - presumably a reference to the Berlin Blockade of 1948.
 * The events of Moonraker took place three years ago according to General G. in Ch. 6.
 * Ch. 13 says it is two years since Bond has come up against the Russians. If this is a reference to Moonraker, in which Bond's antagonists were Soviet-backed ex-Nazis, this contradicts Ch. 6. If it is a different mission the Russian intelligence chiefs are seemingly unaware of it, as it is not mentioned in their conference in Ch. 6.
 * Ch. 6 also describes Bond's involvement in a diamond-smuggling case (Diamonds are Forever), which was "last year".
 * Ch. 11 says that Tiffany Case left Bond in July after "many happy months" since she took up residence with him at the end of Diamonds are Forever.
 * In Ch. 11 it says that it is five years since M closed his own file on the Burgess and Maclean case. Burgess and Maclean defected on 7 June 1951.
 * In Ch. 19 Kerim shoots Krilencu with a gun made from the barrel of "the new 88 Winchester". The Winchester Model 88 was introduced in 1955.

Dr No
The action involving Bond begins on 1 March.
 * In Ch. 2, the Beretta that Bond had been using for fifteen years is replaced by the Walther PPK. This means that all stories in which Bond uses the latter weapon (for which see the list of James Bond firearms) come after Dr No. Of these, "For Your Eyes Only" is set in autumn 1958 at the latest (see below) so Dr No must be set in March 1958 or earlier.
 * Ch. 22 of You Only Live Twice says he joined "a branch of what was subsequently to become the Ministry of Defence" in 1941. As a schoolboy he would hardly have much use for a Beretta before that time, so this would mean the year is 1956 at the earliest. However, Ch. 3 of Casino Royale and Ch. 3 of Moonraker both refer to a mission before the war, and Ch. 6 of From Russia with Love says Bond has been working for the Secret Service since 1938.
 * Ch. 2 establishes that this is Bond's first mission since his poisoning at the end of From Russia with Love. Bond has been out of action since then (August) and has only just recovered. This means that the year cannot be 1957 (with From Russia with Love taking place in 1956) because Ch. 2 of Thunderball mentions an active mission at the time of the Hungarian Uprising (October/November 1956).
 * If From Russia with Love took place the year before, then based on references in that novel Diamonds are Forever took place two years ago (Ch. 6) and Moonraker four (Ch. 6) or possibly three (Ch. 13) years ago (see above).
 * Bond's previous visit to Jamaica in Live and Let Die is described as "about five years ago" (Ch. 3), "five years before" (Ch. 4), "four, five years ago" (Ch. 5)
 * In Ch. 5 the Acting Governor of Jamaica is described as "sixtyish", as being appointed "to take over at short notice when Sir Hugh Foot was promoted", and as having been "passed over for the Governor-Generalship of Rhodesia". Historically, Sir Hugh Foot left Jamaica in November 1957 to take up his new post as Governor of Cyprus in December. His successor, who was just turning fifty when he took up office in December 1957, was Sir Kenneth Blackburne (who is mentioned as Governor in "Octopussy"). The first Governor-General of the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland, the Lord Llewellin, was appointed in September 1953. He died in office in January 1957 and the Earl of Dalhousie eventually succeeded him in October that year.
 * In Ch. 11 Honey makes recalls reading about "a playboy called Jelke" about whom there was a case "about two years ago". The Oleomargarine heir Minot F. ("Mickey") Jelke III was arrested in August 1952 for pimping and convicted in March 1953. Because of the intense media interest the judge had barred the press and the public from the trial. On appeal this exclusion was later ruled to have made the trial invalid, and Jelke was re-tried (and re-convicted) in April 1955.
 * In Ch. 15 Dr No says he purchased Crab Key in 1942 (though Tanner in Ch. 3 says 1943) and has been there for fourteen years.
 * In Ch. 16 Dr No takes the credit for sabotaging the tests of a number of rockets including the Zuni, the MGM-1 Matador, the AQM-41 Petrel, the SSM-N-8 Regulus, the CIM-10 Bomarc, and most recently the SM-62 Snark.

Goldfinger
The action takes place around May (Ch. 8).
 * In Ch. 6 Colonel Smithers says that it took him five years to discover the extent of Goldfinger's smuggling following the detection of brown powder in the wreck of his trawler in summer 1954.
 * In Ch. 7 Bond comments on the new £5 notes, which now look "just like any other country's money". The Series B £5 note was first issued in 1957 (see Bank of England note issues).
 * Goldfinger arrived in England in 1937, aged twenty (Ch. 6). Since then he has made "a large sum of money in twenty years" (Ch. 17) and is now forty-two (Ch. 2).
 * Goldfinger is an agent of SMERSH (suggested by M in Ch. 7 and confirmed in Ch. 22), which was disbanded in 1958 (Thunderball, Ch. 5).
 * In Ch. 23 Bond recalls an aeroplane crash over Persia "back in '57".

"From a View to a Kill"
The story begins at "seven o'clock on a May morning".
 * The majority of the action takes place around the Forest of Saint-Germain-en-Laye, near the Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe from 1951 to 1967.
 * Mention is made of a man being killed in the minefield on the Austrian-Hungarian frontier. Mines were laid down on the border between the Austrian state of Burgenland and the Hungarian county of Győr-Moson in 1957. They were later cleared between 1965 and 1971.

"For Your Eyes Only"
Colonel and Mrs Havelock are murdered in September. Bond is given his mission a month later, in October. These dates mean that the story must take place in either autumn 1957 or autumn 1958, with the references to Castro's progress making the latter more likely.
 * When reading the paper, Colonel Havelock remarks that "it looks to me as if Batista will be on the run soon. Castro's keeping up the pressure pretty well." M also comments that "it looks as though Castro may get in this winter if he keeps the pressure up". The Cuban Revolution, led by Fidel Castro and others, began in November 1956. Initially confined to the mountains, Castro's forces went onto the offensive following the failure of the Cuban Army's Operation Verano in summer 1958. Fulgencio Batista fled the country on New Year's Day 1959 and Castro took power on 16 February.
 * Bond tells "Colonel Johns" of the RCMP that he is carrying a Walther PPK in a Berns-Martin holster. This gun replaced his old Beretta in Ch. 2 of Dr No.
 * When about to kill Hammerstein and his men, Bond justified the act by arguing to himself that these men were "as much enemies of his country as were the agents of SMERSH or of other enemy Secret Services". SMERSH was disbanded in 1958 (Thunderball, Ch. 5).

"Quantum of Solace"

 * Bond is in Nassau to stop arms-runners to the Castro rebels in Cuba. The Cuban Revolution lasted from November 1956 to January 1959. The US provided Batista's Cuban Army with arms and supplies up until March 1958.
 * It is mentioned that Bond has not been to a play in two years, and that was only because a man he had been tailing in Vienna had gone to it. Bond was returning from Vienna at the start of "From a View to a Kill", but of course these could have been two separate visits.
 * The Governor recounts an anecdote to Bond from his time when he was posted to Bermuda. The actual Governor of the Bahamas from 1957 to 1960, Sir Raynor Arthur, had indeed served in Bermuda, as Colonial Secretary in the early 'fifties. However, Bond's Governor was a bachelor and had later also served in Rhodesia, whereas Sir Raynor was married and had not.

"The Hildebrand Rarity"
It is April and Bond has been in the Seychelles for nearly a month.
 * M mentions the imprisonment of Makarios III in the Seychelles "a few years ago". The Cypriot Archbishop was exiled there on 9 March 1956 and stayed there a year.
 * The Admiralty's "new fleet base in the Maldives" is mentioned. A fleet base, "Port T", was established on Addu Atoll in 1941 and transferred to the RAF as RAF Gan in 1957. Presumably the reference is to a different base.
 * Milton Krest seems to Bond to have "exactly the voice of the late Humphrey Bogart". Bogart died on 14 January 1957.
 * The story is unlikely to take place in the April preceding On Her Majesty's Secret Service (i.e. probably 1961) because in Ch. 2 of that novel it is stated that for the last twelve months Bond has been engaged in "routine detective work" in the hunt for Blofeld. His mission in "The Hildebrand Rarity" is incompatible with this description. The following April (i.e. probably 1962) is also unlikely as Bond exhibits no signs of the emotional fallout described in Ch. 2 of You Only Live Twice, and his Seychelles mission does not seem to be one of his last two that he bungled so badly (loc. cit. and Ch. 3). The April after that (1963) is impossible because at that time Bond was either in Japan or Russia (You Only Live Twice, Ch. 22).

Thunderball

 * Sunday
 * M enthuses to Moneypenny about Shrublands
 * Bond spends the evening drinking too much and losing at bridge
 * Monday, May
 * Miss Moneypenny receives treacle and wheatgerm through the post from M
 * Bond is called into the office early and ordered to Shrublands
 * presumably still Monday
 * 5pm: Bond arrives at Shrublands
 * Bond meets Mr Wain, Patricia Fearing and Count Lippe and gets a massage
 * Bond discovers from Records that Lippe is a member of the Red Lightning Tong; Lippe overhears
 * Bond's third day at Shrublands (Thursday?)
 * Count Lippe tries to murder Bond on the Traction Table, Bond is brought round by Patricia Fearing
 * two days later (Bond's fifth day)
 * Bond has recovered and begins planning his revenge against Lippe
 * Bond's fourteenth and final day at Shrublands (Monday?)
 * 10 am: Bond meets with Wain for his final check-up
 * 12.30: Lippe arrives for his Turkish bath
 * about one: Bond takes advantage of the staff being at lunch to roast Lippe in his Turkish bath
 * Lippe is removed to Brighton Central Hospital
 * that evening?
 * Bond enjoys spaghetti and Chianti in Brighton and Patricia Fearing on the Downs
 * the following day?
 * Bond returns to London
 * the day after Bond's return to London
 * 7 pm Paris time: emergency meeting of the trustees of FIRCO
 * five days before the Vindicator is taken: full moon and (Felix suspects) the original date
 * three days from the emergency meeting: the original D+1 when Lippe was to have posted The Letter
 * 2 June
 * 8 pm London time: the Villiers Vindicator leaves Boscombe Down on its training flight
 * 9.30 pm London time: the Vindicator misses the third half-hourly call
 * approximately 10pm London time: the Vindicator is "overdue"
 * night of 2/3 June (full moon, five days after the full )
 * midnight London time: the Vindicator has been out four hours
 * 2 am London time: the Vindicator was due back at Boscombe Down at this time
 * 3 am GMT; 9 pm Nassau time: an hour to go until the Vindicator's rendezvous with the Disco Volante
 * 10.15 pm Nassau time: Largo reports Phase I complete to Blofeld
 * 3 June 1959
 * overnight: The Letter is posted
 * 1.15 am Nassau time, 7.15 am Paris time: Largo reports Phase III complete to Blofeld
 * 8.30 am London time: The Letter is postmarked at Brighton
 * early afternoon London time: The Letter is delivered to 10 Downing Street
 * 5 pm GMT: seven days to zero hour
 * 11 pm GMT: six and three-quarter days to zero hour
 * 4 June (3 June is yesterday; ten days since Bond left Shrublands)
 * 9 am London time: Bond reports to Headquarters
 * 7 June 1959
 * 7 pm GMT: seventy hours to zero hour
 * 9 June 1959
 * 1 am GMT: forty hours to zero hour
 * 11 am GMT: thirty hours to zero hour
 * 5 pm GMT: twenty-four hours to zero hour
 * 10 June 1959
 * 5 am GMT: twelve hours to zero hour
 * 5 pm GMT: zero hour

The Spy Who Loved Me
The action of the novel begins on Friday 13 October and ends the following day.
 * The events of Thunderball took place "less than a year ago" (Ch. 11).

You Only Live Twice
The main action of the novel takes place from 31 August to 9 October. The final chapter carries on through winter to the spring of the following year. At the end of his mission (9 October), Bond is missing presumed dead. He reappears in London a year later in Ch. 1 of The Man with the Golden Gun. As the date of Bond's resurrection is almost definitely November 1963 (see below) this means the events of You Only Live Twice take place in 1962. This matches with the 1962 date given for Bond's marriage and Tracy's death in Ch. 21. However, in Ch. 14, which takes place on the 5 October, full moon is stated to be two days away. Full moon in October 1962 was not until the 30th.
 * Ch. 2 establishes that it is eight months since the death of Tracy Bond (at the end of On Her Majesty's Secret Service). Ch. 21 says that Bond's marriage took place in 1962.
 * In Chapters 3 and 5 mention is made of the cooler relationship with the CIA under McCone. John McCone replaced Allen Dulles as Director of Central Intelligence on 29 November 1961.
 * In Ch. 1 Bond suggests that Rock, Paper, Scissors should be adopted for the Japanese Olympics. The 1964 Summer Olympics were awarded to Tokyo in 1958.
 * In Ch. 7 Tanaka refers to "the resurgence of the Black Shirts in England". Concerns over immigration from the Commonwealth had led to an increase in membership of Sir Oswald Mosley's Union Movement in the early 'sixties.
 * In Ch. 6 Tanaka says it is nearly a hundred years since the beginning of the reign of the Meiji Emperor, who acceded on 3 February 1867.
 * Ch. 6 also mentions President Kennedy making "the strongest speech of his career". John F. Kennedy was President of the United States from 20 January 1961 to 22 November 1963.

The Man with the Golden Gun
The first part of the novel (Chapters 1 to 3) takes place in November, a year after Bond's death in Japan was announced to the press in Ch. 21 of You Only Live Twice (Ch. 1). The rest of the novel (Chapters 4 to 17) takes place the following May and June. The newspaper advertisement in Ch. 4 gives a date of Wednesday 28 May. 28 May falls on a Wednesday in a common year starting on Wednesday and a leap year starting on Tuesday. These dates pretty much definitely establish the action of the novel in November 1963 (Chapters 1 to 3) and May/June 1964 (Chapters 4 to 17), despite the fact that 1964 was a leap year starting on Wednesday, meaning that 28 May fell on a Thursday. Apparently in many American editions the date in the Daily Gleaner in Ch. 4 is Wednesday 27 May, which would fit.
 * In Ch. 2, M mentions the death of Guy Burgess, which happened on 30 August 1963.
 * In Ch. 2, M comments that Bond's return will "give no joy to Comrade Semichastny and his troops". Vladimir Semichastny was head of the KGB from November 1961 to April 1967.
 * In Ch. 4, General Charles de Gaulle's recognition of the People's Republic of China, 27 January 1964, is described as having just happened.
 * In Ch. 4, Mary Goodnight mentions that the Cuban sugar crop will be severely reduced this year, because of Hurricane Flora, which hit Cuba between 4 and 8 October 1963.
 * In Ch. 11 Goodnight refers to Sir Alexander Bustamante's recent eightieth birthday, 24 February 1964.
 * While convalescing in Ch. 17, Bond reads Allen Dulles' 1963 book The Craft of Intelligence.

"Octopussy"

 * When Smythe hears Bond has come from Government House he asks after "Sir Kenneth". Sir Kenneth Blackburne was Governor of Jamaica from December 1957 to August 1962, and then the first Governor-General of independent Jamaica until November 1962.
 * Smythe muses that Bond could have sent over an officer of the Jamaica Regiment to arrest him. The Jamaica Regiment was formed in 1954. In 1958 it became the 1st Battalion West India Regiment, before becoming the Jamaica Regiment once again in July 1962, but it's possible Smythe could still have referred to it by its old name during the period of Federation.
 * The month is not one of the "torrid months" of August, September and October.
 * Smythe remembers reading about scorpion-fish stings in a book called Dangerous Marine Animals. A book of that name by Bruce Halstead was first published in 1959.
 * Bond says that he has been sent out to question Smythe about the death of Oberhauser, and that he had requested the task as he had some spare time on his hands. This would suggest that his visit to Jamaica does not coincide with any other mission (e.g. those in Live and Let Die, Dr No, and The Man with the Golden Gun). Ch. 2 of You Only Live Twice states that Bond had gone to Jamaica shortly after his wife's death, "and what hell that had been".

"The Living Daylights"

 * Bond surveys "the scene, a year later to become famous as 'Checkpoint Charlie'". This was the site of a high-profile diplomatic incident in October 1961.

"The Property of a Lady"
The story begins on "a hot day in early June".
 * Kenneth Snowman is described as "a good-looking, very well-dressed man of about forty". Mr Snowman was born in 1919 so turned forty in 1959.
 * Bond's ticket for the auction bears the date of Tuesday 20 June. 20 June falls on a Tuesday in a common year starting on Sunday (e.g. 1950, 1961, 1967) and a leap year starting on Saturday (e.g. 1944, 1972).
 * Maria Freudenstein was granted British citizenship in 1959 and was then recommended to the Secret Service by the Foreign Office. Before joining the Service she went on a year's leave (during which she underwent training in Leningrad). She has been working in the Communications Department of the Service for three years at the time of this story - which implies that the year is 1963.
 * Maria Freudenstadt (sic) is mentioned as being dead in Ch. 1 of The Man with the Golden Gun. In that novel Bond had just returned from a prolonged absence in Japan and Russia which began in You Only Live Twice. This means "The Property of a Lady" must take place before Bond's departure, which happened in September, probably 1962 (see above).

"007 in New York"
The story takes place at the end of September.
 * Mention is made of "Messrs Hoover and McCone". J. Edgar Hoover was Director of the FBI from its creation on 22 March 1935 until 2 May 1972. John McCone was Director of Central Intelligence from 29 November 1961 to 28 April 1965.
 * Bond's car drives onto the Van Wyck Expressway, "now being majestically torn to pieces and rebuilt for the 1964-1965 World's Fair". This probably refers to the roadworks that took place between 1961 and 1963, at a cost of $40 million.