diff --git a/src/components/StateOptions.jsx b/src/components/StateOptions.jsx
index a3c2d28..826192e 100644
--- a/src/components/StateOptions.jsx
+++ b/src/components/StateOptions.jsx
@@ -5,7 +5,7 @@ export default ({ showing, onClickHandler, timelineDims }) => {
     return null
   }
 
-  const [checked, setChecked] = useState(true)
+  const [checked, setChecked] = useState(false)
   const handleCheck = () => setChecked(!checked)
   const onNarrativise = () => onClickHandler(checked)
 
diff --git a/src/reducers/validate/validators.js b/src/reducers/validate/validators.js
index d7db98d..109794c 100644
--- a/src/reducers/validate/validators.js
+++ b/src/reducers/validate/validators.js
@@ -156,12 +156,14 @@ export function validateDomain (domain) {
   sanitizedDomain.filters = domain.filters
 
   // append events with datetime and sort
-  sanitizedDomain.events.forEach((event, idx) => {
+  sanitizedDomain.events = sanitizedDomain.events.filter((event, idx) => {
     event.id = idx
     event.datetime = calcDatetime(event.date, event.time)
     if (!isValidDate(event.datetime)) {
-      discardedDomain['events'].push({ ...event, error: makeError('events', event.id, `Invalid date. This will break timemap! Please fix.`) })
+      discardedDomain['events'].push({ ...event, error: makeError('events', event.id, `Invalid date. It's been dropped, as otherwise timemap won't work as expected.`) })
+      return false
     }
+    return true
   })
 
   sanitizedDomain.events.sort((a, b) => a.datetime - b.datetime)