Useful dates in British history for the local historian or genealogist . . . with a few others added in for good measure!

Send additions/corrections/comments please to John Owen Smith My thanks to major contributors , who are acknowledged

Please note disclaimer at end

Frith's postcard dating list – Historical value of money in UK – Imperial measures – Glossary of Terms – English monarchs and their dates – Special days

BC4004 Oct 23: The beginning of Creation, as calculated by James Ussher (1581 –1656), Archbishop of Armagh and believed until Victorian times

BC3952 Mar 18: The beginning of Creation, as calculated by the Venerable Bede (673– 735)

BC551 Birth of Confucius

BC490 Battle of Marathon

BC240 First recorded sighting of Halley's comet

BC55 Aug 27: Caesar's first British expedition (second in BC54)

BC49 Jan 10 (of the Roman calendar): Julius Caesar crosses the Rubicon, signaling the start of civil war

BC46 Caesar institutes the Julian calendar (came into force in BC45)

BC45 Jan 1: The Julian calendar takes effect for the first time

BC44Mar 15: Caesar assassinated in Rome

BC27Jan 16: The title Augustus bestowed upon Gaius Julius Caesar Octavian

AD43 Roman Conquest of Britain begun by Emperor Claudius – Camulodunum (Colchester) captured and becomes first Roman Base in England

AD47 Fosse Way built

AD60 Revolt of Boudicca (Boadicea)

AD64 Jun: Great fire of Rome, lasted 9 days (Nero fiddles, etc!)

AD69 Year of the four emperors in Rome: Galba, Otho, Vitellius and Vespasian

AD79 Aug 24: Mount Vesuvius erupts

– the cities of Pompeii, Herculaneum, and Stabiae are buried in volcanic ash c80-85

Campaign of Agricola in southern Scotland c85

Battle of Mons Graupius, massive defeat of Caledonians by Roman forces 115

Roman Empire reaches its greatest extent under Trajan 122

Sep: Building of Hadrian's Wall begins (completed AD126) c140

Antonine Wall built in central Scotland (completed circa AD143)c150

Around this time, the Christian churches decided to express their divergence from the Roman system by starting the year on a different date, 25th March (this being the 'date of conception' of Christ in order for his birth to have been on 25th December) – see also 1582

180 Beginning of the 'decline of the Roman Empire' (Gibbon) – Defeat of Romans in Caledonia – they retreat behind Hadrian's Wall

207-11 Campaign of Severus in southern Scotland

247 1,000th anniversary of founding of Rome

304 St Alban first Christian martyr in Britain [Bede implies some date between 303 and 313]

321 Emperor Constantine I decrees that Sunday is the day of rest in the Roman Empire

325 Council of Nicaea establishes basic Christian dogma

c350 St Ninian first to preach Christian religion in Scotland, arrives Solway Firth

367 Invasion of northern England by Picts and Scots

406/412 Probable end of Roman military occupation of Britain

418'The Romans gathered all the gold-hords there were in Britain; some they hid in the earth so that no man might find them, and some they took with them to Gaul' – Anglo-Saxon Chronicles

c400 – c600 Migration and settlement of Angles, Jutes and Saxons

432 St Patrick begins mission to Ireland

449 Beginning of invasions by Jutes, Angles and Saxons – Hengist and Horsa invade 'The Angles were invited here by king Vortigern, and they came to Britain in three longships, landing at Ebbesfleet. [He] gave them territory in the southeast of this land on the condition that they fight the Picts. This they did, and had victory wherever they went. Then they sent to Angel and commanded more aid … they soon sent hither a greater host to help the others. Then came the men of three Germanic tribes: Old Saxons, Angles and Jutes. Of the Jutes come the people of Kent and the Isle of Wight; of the Old Saxons come the East-Saxons, South-Saxons and West-Saxons; of the Angles come the East Anglians, Middle Anglians, Mercians and all Northumbrians. Their war-leaders were two brothers, Hengist and Horsa … first of all they killed and drove away the king's enemies, then later they turned on the king and the British [mid-450s], destroying through fire and the sword's edge.' – Anglo-Saxon Chronicles

467 Chinese observe Halley's comet

c490 British check Anglo-Saxon advance at siege of Mount Badon (site unknown) – date uncertain: other sources say 520 and/or c.495, or simply 'some time in the decade before or after 500'

c500 Irish "Scots" arrived in western Scotland

525 (some say in 526, 532 or 534)

'Dennis the Short' (Dionysius Exiguous) calculates the date of the birth of Christ – concept of AD and BC dates begins

537

Death of King Arthur (some say 542) [Note: He is not mentioned in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicles, and some think he never existed as a real person]

c541 Bubonic plague devastates Europe (some postulate a significant impact from space around this date)

c550 Anglian settlement in south-east, Scotland

563 Columba arrives in Iona and founds the Celtic Christian Church (c565)

570 Birth of Mohammed (Muhammad)

577 Anglo-Saxon victory at Deorham marks resumption of their advance in England

597 Death of Columba, later sanctified

597/8 St Augustine lands in Kent – converts King Ethelbert – introduces Roman Christian Church to England – later becomes first Archbishop of Canterbury

c.600 and for some centuries (some say from AD 500 to AD 850)The period of the 'Heptarchy': the seven kingdoms of Northumbria, Mercia, Wessex, Sussex, Essex, East Anglia and Kent – the 'top king' at any one time was referred to 'Bretwalda' (overlord of the Britons)

601 Pope Gregory calls Ethelbert of Kent 'rex Anglorum'

604 St Paul's Cathedral in London founded Death of St Augustine, and pope Gregory I

616 Feb 24: Death of Ethelbert of Kent – succeeded by his son Eadbald, who was not a Christian

617 Edwin becomes king of Northumbria (to 633) – possibly founds Edinburgh? – [He overcame all Britain save Kent alone – Anglo-Saxon Chronicles]

622 Muhammad's flight from Mecca marks the start of the Muslim calendar

642 Aug: Battle of Maserfield: Penda of Mercia defeats Oswald of Northumbria

c650 Sutton Hoo ship-burial

655

Nov: Battle of Winwaed (in present-day Yorkshire): Oswiu of Northumbria (brother of Oswald) defeats Penda of Mercia

664 Sep: Synod of Whitby: Divisions within the Northumbrian church led to the Synod of Whitby, where Oswiu agreed to settle the Easter controversy by adopting the Roman dating – Roman Christianity triumphs over Celtic

673 Birth of the Venerable Bede, first English historian (d. 735) First synod of clergy in England (at Hertford) – Roman and Celtic churches came to an agreement on the date to celebrate Easter

685-7 Cuthbert served as Bishop of Lindisfarne

c698 Lindisfarne Gospels

710 Roman Christianity established in Pictland

722 First written version of Anglo-Saxon epic poem Beowulf

731 Bede's Ecclesiastical History

757 Offa became ruler of Mercia (died Jul 796) and effectively ruled much of Britain south of the Humber during the latter part of his reign

c785 King Offa first divided a pound of silver into 240 silver pennies

789 First sighting of Viking ships off Dorset

793 First Viking raids (Lindisfarne and elsewhere)

800 Charlemagne crowned Emperor of the West by Pope Leo III

c800 Book of Kells

802 Norsemen plunder Iona

827 Egbert King of Wessex and Mercia effectively first king of England (d. 839), but see 937 – see also general list of dates for Monarchs of England

838 Norse establish permanent base at Dublin

844

Kenneth I MacAlpin, king of Scots, becomes King of Picts – start of Scottish kingdom

865-874 Danish army conquers north-eastern third of England

871 Jan 4: Battle of Reading – Ethelred of Wessex defeated by a Danish invasion armyApr: Alfred (the Great) succeeds Ethelred; crowned king of Wessex

872 Curfew (couvre feu) introduced at Oxford by King Alfred to reduce fire risks (why a French term this early in English history?)

878 Battle of Chippenham: Alfred defeated by Danes (shortly after Christmas 877) but escapes and 'burns the cakes'; Battle of Egbert's Stone (Eddington?) in May: Alfred (5–6,000 troops) defeats Danes, who retreat and are besieged in Chippenham – Danes/Vikings fail in attempt to conquer Wessex – leader Guthram baptised as Athelstan and accepted by Alfred as his Godson

880 Treaty of Wedmore: England divided between Alfred the Great of Wessex (the south and west) and the 'Danelaw' under Guthram (the north and east)Start of concept of 'Englishness' and growth of 'burghs' in England from this time

889 Donald II, first King of Picts & Scots (d. in battle 900)

891 Beginning of Anglo-Saxon Chronicle marks revival of learning in England

899 Oct 26: Death of King Alfred the Great (some say 901); succeeded by Edward (the Elder)

917-921 Edward of Wessex conquers southern half of Danelaw

937 Athelstan of Wessex defeats Scots, north Welsh and Norse at Brunanburgh – regarded by some as 'first king of all England' (but see 827)

  939

Oct 27: Edmund I succeeds Athelstan as King of Englandc960

Edinburgh held by King of Alba 971

Jul 15: St Swithun's body moved from his outdoor grave to an indoor shrine in the the Old Minster in Winchester against his expressed wishes – legend says this was accompanied by bad weather, from which the popular British weather lore proverb comes, that if it rains on Saint Swithun's day, 15 July, it will rain for 40 days and 40 nights

973Edgar introduces a new coinage – the royal portrait becomes a regular feature on coins

980 Vikings renew assault on England

987 Hugh Capet crowned King of France, first of the Capetian dynasty which ruled till the French Revolution

991 Aug 10: Battle of Maldon – English, led by Bryhtnoth, defeated by a band of raiding Vikings near Maldon, Essex – celebrated by a poem

1002 Nov 13: St Brice's Day massacre – King Aethelred (Ethelred II, the 'Unready') orders killing of all Danes in England

1003 Sveyn I (Sweyn, Swein) of Denmark devastates England: Ethelred pays him 24,000 pounds of silver to stop

1004 Vikings explore the North American coast

1006 Apr 30: The brightest supernova in recorded history appears in the constellation Lupus

1007 King Ethelred pays Sveyn another 36,000 pounds of silver

1010 London Bridge torn down by Vikings with grappling irons – (Olaf II Haraldsson, later St Olaf, took part) – possibly the origin of "London Bridge is falling Down"

1012 Apr 19: Murder by Danes of Alphege, Archbishop of Canterbury, in Greenwich after refusing to be ransomed (canonised 1078 to St Alphege)King Aethelred pays Sveyn another 48,000 pounds of silver; but next year Sveyn pushes him off the throne

1014 Brian Boru leads the Irish to victory over the Norse at Clontarf

1016

Canute (Knut, son of Sveyn) becomes king of Denmark, Norway and England (d. 1035)

1017 Canute divides England into four Earldoms: Wessex, Mercia, Northumbria and East Anglia

1018 Battle of Carham: Malcolm defeats the Northumbrians adding Lothian to Scotland

c1030Guido of Arezzo introduces first practical form of musical notation, enabling melodies to be sung on sight

1034 Strathclyde annexed by King of Scots becomes part of Scottish Kingdom

1035 Death of Canute: the Danish empire splits up

1040 Aug 15: Macbeth (Mac Bethad mac Findláich) murders Duncan (Donnchad Mac Crínáin) and takes the throne of Scotland (d. 1057) Lady Godiva, wife of earl of Mercia, rides naked through Coventry as a protest against taxes – [Now why couldn't Shakespeare have written about that instead?]

1042 Edward the Confessor King of England (d. 1066) First recorded use of moveable type, in China

1045–1050 Building of Westminster Abbey – consecrated 28 Dec 1065, only a week before Edward the Confessor's death and subsequent funeral (rebuilt 1245–1517)

1054 Jul: Supernova observed by Arabian and Chinese astronomers – becomes the Crab Nebula The Great Schism, when Christianity divided into Western (Latin) and Eastern (Greek) branches

1066 Jan 6: Edward the Confessor dies – Harold II (Godwinson) reigned for 9 months Sep 25: Battle of Stamford Bridge: Harold II defeats Norwegian invasion Sep 28: Invasion of England by Duke William of Normandy Oct 14: Battle of Hastings

– Harold II dies  

Dec 25: William crowned King of England at Westminster 1069

Northern earls and a Scandanavian army seize York – William replies with the 'Harrowing of the North' – "He made no effort to control his fury and he punished the innocent with the guilty. He ordered that crops and herds, tools and food should be burned to ashes. More than 100,000 people perished of hunger"

[Orderic Vitalis] King Malcolm Canmore of Scotland marries Margaret (later St Margaret)

1072 King Malcolm III of Scotland submitted to William the Conqueror

c1070 Reconstruction of Canterbury Cathedral begins: The Saxon cathedral burned in 1067. Lanfranc, first Norman Archbishop, restored and enlarged its buildings between 1067 and 1077. A new choir was consecrated in 1130 but burned in 1174, four years after Becket's murder. That was rebuilt by 1184, but the nave wasn't finished until 1405. [others say completed 1495]

1071 Norman conquest of England complete

1077 Possible completion of the Bayeux Tapestry

1079 Construction of Winchester Cathedral begins (consecrated in 1093 but not completed until 1404.)

1081 Building of Tower of London starts [others say 1067]

1086 Completion of Domesday Book

1092 May 9: Lincoln Cathedral consecrated

1095 Nov 27: Pope Urban II declares the First Crusade at the Council of Clermont

1096 First crusade begins (to 1099)

1098 Jun 3: Antioch falls to the CrusadersExpedition of Magnus Barelegs to Scottish coasts

1099 Jun 7: Siege of Jerusalem begins by the Crusaders

12th & 13th centuriesClimate: A medieval warm period called the 'Little Optimum'

1100 Aug 2: William II found dead in the New Forest with an arrow through his lungAug 5: Henry I crowned in Westminster Abbey

c1100 First record of football in England

1102Synod of Westminster under Anselm forbids clergy to marry

1106Sep 28: Battle of Tinchebray – Henry I defeats his older brother Robert Curthose, Duke of Normandy – England and Normandy remain under a single ruler until 1204

1110 Introduction in England of Pipe Rolls, recording exchequer payments

1119 Military order of the Knights Templar founded

1120 Nov 25: The White Ship sinks in the English Channel, drowning William Adelin, the only legitimate son of Henry I of England – his death caused a succession crisis, culminating in 'The Anarchy' or 'The Nineteen Year Winter' during the reign of Stephen (1135–1154)

1120s First references in Scotland to Burghs and Sheriffs

1124 Apr 27: David I becomes King of Scotland

c1130 Great age of abbey building in England: Tintern (1131), Rievaulx (1131), Fountains (1132)

1135 Dec 1: Death of Henry I; Stephen seizes the throne of England amid a confusion of Matildas

1138 Aug 22: 'Battle of The Standard' near Northallerton – English forces repelled a Scottish army

1139 Portugal becomes independent from Spain

c1140 Transition from Romanesque to Gothic architecture in Europe (freeing walls from load-bearing functions, thus allowing larger windows); Linguistically, also regarded as the start of the Middle English period (until c.1500)

1141

Only year in which Matilda (or Maude, daughter of Henry I) was the undisputed ruler of England

1143 Jul 1: Battle of Wilton in Wiltshire

1144 Normandy comes under Angevin control under Geoffrey of Anjou

1145 Pope Eugene III calls for the Second Crusade (1147–49)

1148 Jul: Seige of Damascus by the Crusaders fails

1150 First recorded Mersey Ferry

1151 Sep 7: Geoffrey of Anjou dies, succeeded by his son Henry Plantagenet, aged 18

1152 May 18: Henry Plantagenet (to become King Henry II) marries Eleanor of Aquitaine

1153 May 27: Malcolm IV becomes King of Scotland Treaty of Wallingford between Stephen and Matilda in which her son Henry Plantagenet would inherit the throne of England on Stephen's death

1154 Oct 25: Death of King Stephen; Henry II becomes King of England – he already has Normandy, Anjou and Aquitaine, and is now the most powerful man in EuropeDec 4: Nicholas Breakspear (Adrian IV) becomes only English pope (b. circa 1100 at St Albans, d. 1 Sep 1159 at Anagni and buried in the Vatican) Dec 19: Henry II crowned in Westminster Abbey

1155 Papal bull issued by Adrian IV, the only Englishman to serve as Pope, gives the King of England lordship over Ireland

1157 Jul: Henry II of England invades Wales and is defeated at the Battle of Ewloe by Owain Gwynedd

1158 A new coinage introduced by Henry II (known as the Tealby penny) was struck from 92.5% silver (Sterling)

1159

Sep 7: Cardinals given the right to elect the Pope (prior to this the pope was elected by the clergy and congregation of the church) – Pope Alexander III succeeds Pope Adrian IV as the 170th pope

1162 Jun 3: Thomas Becket consecrated as Archbishop of Canterbury – Henry II thought he would be 'his' man, but things turned out differently (see 1174)

1163 Danegeld tax abolished

1165 Letter of Prester John started spreading throughout Europe

1166 Establishment of trial by jury

1170 Dec 29: Murder of Thomas à Becket in Canterbury Cathedral

1172 Pope decrees that Henry II of England is feudal lord of Ireland

1173 Apr: Revolt begins against Henry II by his wife and sons

1174 Jul 12: Henry II did penance for the death of Thomas à Becket, murdered by his knights 3 years previously and already canonised; the following day in a 'seeming act of divine providence', the last supporters of the revolt against him were surprised and captured at Alnwick

1175 Treaty of Falaise signed – William the Lion surrenders Scottish crown to King Henry II of England

1176 London Bridge construction in stone started (from tax on wool) – completed 1209, replaced 1831Dec 25: First Eisteddfod, at Cardigan Castle

1178 The Leaning Tower of Pisa begins to lean as the third level is completed

1187 Oct: Saladin recaptures Jerusalem – served as the catalyst for the Third Crusade (1187–1192)

1188 The original Newgate Prison built in London'Saladin Tithe' levied in England – exemption for those who joined the Crusade

1189

Jul 6: Henry II dies at the castle of Chinon in Anjou; Richard I 'Lionheart' becomes king of England (d. 1199) – acknowledges the independence of Scotland Sep 1: Legal Memory dates from accession of Richard I – before that is 'Time Immemorial', see 1275

1190 Mar: Jews of York massacred (150 in number)Opening of the Third Crusade'Early English' Gothic period in English architecture (till about 1280)

1192 Dec 20: Richard I held for ransom on his way back from the Crusade by Leopold V of Austria

1199Apr 6: Richard I dies having spent most of his reign abroad – succeeded by his brother John (to 1216)

1202Pope Innocent III initiates the Fourth Crusade (1202–1204)

1204Angers and Normandy are captured by Philip II of France

1207 Jul 15: King John expels Canterbury monks for supporting Archbishop Stephen Langton

1208 Winchester Pipe Rolls begin – the financial accounts of the manors or estates belonging to the Bishopric of Winchester – written in medieval Latin until 1599, after that in English – see example of translated contents

1212 Jul: One of the early 'great fires of London'

1215 Jun 15: Magna Carta sealed at Runnymede by King John Oct 28: First Lord Mayor's Show in London Nov 11: Fourth Lateran Council defined the doctrine of transubstantiation

1217 Nov 6: 'Charter of the Forest' by Henry III established that all freemen owning land within the forest enjoyed the rights of agistment (grazing cattle) and pannage (grazing pigs) Fifth Crusade (1217–1221)

1220 Start of building current York Minster: Archbishop Walter de Gray started its construction (with the transept) in 1220, working from the design of the Norman cathedral of 1070. Its towers were finally completed in 1472.

Salisbury Cathedral: started (replacing the Norman cathedral at Old Sarum) by Bishop Poore in 1220, consecrated in 1258, and its great spire finished in 1334

1222 Introduction of a poll tax in England King Alexander II of Scotland conquers Argyll

1228 First recorded mention of the Royal Mint Sixth Crusade (1228–1229)

1231 Cambridge University organised and granted Royal Charter

1235Statute of Merton – authorised manorial lords to enclose portions of commons and wastes provided that sufficiant pasture remained for his tenants

1237 Treaty of York signed by Henry III of England and Alexander II of Scotland – set the border between England and Scotland, which remains to this day except round Berwick

1247 Foundation of Bedlam (Bethlehem Hospital), London, by Simon Fitzmary

1248 Charter granted to Oxford University by Henry III Aug 15: Foundation stone of Cologne cathedral laid – building not completed until 1880Seventh Crusade (1248–1254)

c1250 Royal Proclamations by Henry III are first government documents issued in English

1256 Decreed in England that in leap years, the leap day and the day before are to be reckoned as one day for the purpose of calculating when a full year has passed

1259 Dec 4: Treaty of Paris between Henry III and Louis IX of France – Henry agreed to renounce control of Normandy (except for the Channel Islands), Maine, Anjou and Poitou, which had been lost under the reign of King John. He was able to keep Gascony and parts of Aquitaine but only as a vassal to Louis. In exchange, Louis withdrew his support for English rebels. Said to be one of the indirect causes of the Hundred Years War

1260 Chartres cathedral dedicated

1263

Oct 2: Battle of Largs, Ayrshire – King Alexander III said to have defeated Norwegian invaders under King Haakon IV

1264 First recorded reference to Justice of the Peace in England (but see 1285)May 12-14: Battle of Lewes: Henry III captured by Simon de Montfort

1265 Jan 20: First elected English parliament (De Montfort's Parliament) conducts its first meeting, in the Palace of Westminster Aug 4: Battle of Evesham: Simon de Montfort killed (death of chivalry? – but this also claimed for Crécy, see 1346)

1266 Western Isles acquired by Scotland

1270 Eighth Crusade (1270)

1271 Ninth (and last) crusade (1271–72)

1272 Nov 20: Edward I (who was away on the Crusade) declared king of England following the death of his father Henry III on Nov 16

1274 Aug 19: Edward I crowned on his return from the Crusades

1275 Apr 22: First Statute of Westminster passed by the English parliament – fixed the reign of Richard I as the time limit for bringing certain types of action – see 'Time Immemorial' 1189 (others say there was also the concept of 'before the memory of man' being 113 years)Scottish rule established on the Isle of Man

1277 Edward I embarks on the conquest of Wales

1279A major re-coinage introduced new denominations. In addition to the penny, the halfpenny and farthing were minted, and also a fourpenny piece called a 'groat' (from the French 'gross')

1280 'Decorated' Gothic period in English architecture (till about 1370) Climate: 1280–1311 peak of the medieval warm period

1282Dec 10: Llewellyn, last native Prince of Wales, killed

1283 Annexation of Wales to England by Edward I – Statute of Rhuddlan, 3 March 1284, created early counties in Wales (see 1536)

1285Statute of Winchester and Second Statute of Westminster – first Justices of the Peace installed in England? (but some say they derive from 1361, in the reign of Edward III) – among other things, authorised manorial lords to enclose commons and wastes where the common rights belonged to tenants from other manors

1290 Oct: Death of the 'maid of Norway,' heiress to the Scottish crown – led to the Wars of Scottish Independence 1296–1328Jul 18: Jews expelled from England by Edward IDec: Death of Queen Eleanor, wife of Edward I – he had 12 'Eleanor crosses' erected between Lincolnshire (where she died) and London (where she was buried in Westminster Abbey)Statute of 'Quia Emptores' – prevented tenants from leasing their lands to others and allowed the sale of freehold Spectacles introduced in Italy

1291-2 Competition for the Scottish Crown between some eleven "Competitors" (including John Baliol, John Comyn and Robert Bruce the elder) all claiming the right to succeed

1292 Nov 17: King Edward I awards Scottish crown to John Baliol ('Toom Tabard', or 'empty coat')

1295 Oct 23: Signing of the "Auld Alliance" in Paris between Scotland and France – one of the world's oldest mutual defence treaties

1296 Annexation of Scotland by England – Scotland's Coronation Stone the "Stone of Destiny" or "Stone of Scone" was removed to Westminster Abbey by the English King Edward I, temporarily 'returned' to Scotland in 1950, and permanently returned in 1996 Mar 30: Berwick-upon-Tweed sacked by Edward I Apr 27: Battle of Dunbar: Scots defeatedJul 10: John Baliol dethroned by Edward I Beginning of uprising led by William Wallace (the Guardian of Scotland)

1297 Sep 11: Battle of Stirling Bridge, defeat of English Army

1298 Jul 22: Battle of Falkirk, Edward I defeats William Wallace – early use of the long bow by the English

c1300

Earliest western reference to manufacture of gunpowder1301

Feb 7: Son of Edward I created first Prince of Wales 1305

Trial of William Wallace in London, execution at Smithfield 1306

Mar 25: Robert the Bruce crowned King Robert I of Scots Jun 19: Battle of Methven – a 'fortunate defeat' for Bruce

1307 Jul 7: Edward I dies – succeeded by his son, Edward II Nov 18: According to legend, William Tell shoots an apple off of his son's head

1311 Ordinances laid on Edward II by the peerage and clergy of England to restrict his power – twenty-one signatories referred to as the Ordainers – Thomas of Lancaster their leader was executed in 1322

1312Knights Templars suppressed in France

1313–1321Climate: Sequence of cold and wet summers – harvests ruined

1314 Jun 24: Battle of Bannockburn – Scots under Robert the Bruce routed the English led by Edward II – resulted in Scottish independence Edward II banned football in London (possibly to encourage people to practice their archery instead)Great European famine

– population of Britain had peaked at around 5 million before declining c1320

Invention of escapement clocks, and first practical guns1320

Declaration of Arbroath; a statement of Scottish independence 1326

First Scottish Parliament (at Cambuskenneth) 1327

Deposition and regicide of King Edward II of England (in an apparently unfortunate manner): Edward III rules for 50 years till 1377

1328 Jan 24: Edward III marries Philippa of Hainault May 1: Treaty of Northampton, formalised peace between England and Scotland

1329 Jun 7: Death of Robert the Bruce; succeeded by infant David II of Scots

1332Climatic catastrophe in eastern Asia – 7 million people drowned – black rats driven west (one theory says that this caused the Black Death in Europe – but see note 1349)

1338Edward III asserts his claim to the French throne – 'Hundred Years War' begins (to 1453)

1340Jun 24: Edward III personally commands the English fleet in their victory over the French off Sluys (who were trying to blockade English export of wool to Flanders)

1346 Aug 26: Battle of Crecy (Crécy) – military supremacy of the English longbow established, and that of 'peasant' archers over knights on horsebackOct 17: Battle of Neville's Cross; English capture King David II (held until 1357)

1348 Jun 24: Order of the Garter founded by King Edward III of England – motto 'Honi soit qui mal y pense'

1349 Black Death ('The Pestilence') reaches England (entered Europe in 1346/7; lasted until 1351) – this was the first return of plague to Europe for almost 400 years, but it reappeared more than once during the next three centuries – some estimate that where it struck, up to a quarter of the population perished – theories that it was spread by rat fleas have been questioned, as it seems to have travelled too fast for that to have been the agent, and a bacterial disease possibly from Africa is now suspected – for an example of effect of the Black Death on architecture, see Winchester Cathedral

1350Black Death first appears in Scotland Aug 29: Battle of Winchelsea – English naval fleet under King Edward III defeats a Castilian fleet of 40 ships

1351 Statute of Labourers – attempt to regulate wages and prices at 1340 levels following labour shortages caused by the Black Death – it set a precedent that distinguished between labourers who were "able in body" to work and those who could not work for other reasons

1352 Corpus Christi College, Cambridge founded

1353Giovanni Boccaccio The Decameron

1355Feb 10: St Scholastica's Day riot, Oxford – armed clashes between locals and students (Town versus Gown)

1356Sep 19: Battle of Poitiers: Black Prince (son of Edward III) captures the French king, John II (the Good)

1357Oct: King David II of Scotland released by the English in return for a ransom

1360May 8: Treaty of Brétigny marked the end of the first phase of the Hundred Years' War (1337–1453) – ratified on Oct 24 at Calais – by this treaty Edward III and John II (still in captivity, though with many privileges) make peace, but it only lasted for 9 years The French franc introduced by John II

1361Edward, the Black Prince, marries his cousin Joan, the 'Fair Maid of Kent' Second severe outbreak of of the Black Death

1362 English becomes official language in English Parliament and Law Courts Quarter Sessions established by statute William Langland Vision of Piers Ploughman

1364Charles V (the Wise) becomes King of France

1366 Statues of Kilkenny belatedly forbid intermarriage of English and Irish – Gaelic culture unsuccessfully suppressed

1369Hundred Years War restarts

1370 'Perpendicular' Gothic period in English architecture (till about 1550) – great East Window in Gloucester first example

1371 Feb: Accession of Robert II, the first Stewart king of Scots

1372Naval battle off La Rochelle: Castilians defeat the English fleet – tide begins to turn against the English in Aquitaine

1375Truce in the Hundred Years War – England lost most of her possessions in France

1377Edward III dies, age 65: Richard II rules till deposed in 1399

May 22: Pope Gregory XI issues five papal bulls to denounce the doctrines of John Wycliffe

1378 Start of the Papal Schism (until 1417) when three men simultaneously claimed to be the true pope

1381 Jun 15: Wat Tyler killed at Smithfield, London, during Peasants' Revolt in protest against poll tax of 1380

1382 First translation of the Bible into English, by John Wycliffe Winchester College founded by William of Wykeham, Bishop of Winchester May 21: Great earthquake in Kent [? can't find confirmation of this one]

– see 1580 1383

Regular series of wills starts in Prerogative Court of Canterbury 1386

Treaty of Windsor between Britain and Portugal – "The British have an alliance with Portugal unbroken since the year 1384, and which produced fruitful results at a critical moment in the recent war." Iron Curtain Speech by Winston Churchill, 1946

1387 Chaucer (d. 1400) begins writing The Canterbury Tales

1388 Aug 5: Battle of Otterburn, Northumberland (Chevy Chase)

1389 June 15: Battle of Kosovo; The Ottoman Empire defeats Serbs and Bosnians

1392Wells Cathedral clock

1397 Apr: Geoffrey Chaucer tells the Canterbury Tales for the first time at the court of Richard II Dick Whittington (d. 1423) first becomes Lord Mayor of London

1399 Sep: Deposition of King Richard II; Henry IV establishes Lancastrian dynasty

1400Oct 25: Geoffrey Chaucer dies in LondonSep 16:

Owen Glendower declared Prince of Wales – start of rebellion of against Henry IV Average life expectancy had dropped to 38 years (had been 48 years in 1300)

c.1400

This is the date at which the 'great vowel shift' (shortening of vowel sounds) in the English language is regarded as starting

1403 Jul 21: Battle of Shrewsbury: Henry IV defeats rebels

1405 Jun 8: Execution of Richard le Scrope, Archbishop of York and Thomas Mowbray, Earl of Norfolk for insurrection against Henry IV

1412 Foundation of the University of St Andrews

1413 Mar 21: Henry V to the throne

1415 Oct 25 (St Crispin's Day): Battle of Agincourt

1417 Jun 24: First recorded meeting of theTynwald in the Isle of ManJul 27: Antipope Benedict XIII deposed, bringing to an end the Great Western SchismAug 12: Henry V starts using English (rather than French) in his correspondence

1419 Jan 19: Rouen surrenders to Henry V of England

1420 Dec 1: Henry V of England enters Paris

1422 Infant Henry VI (9 months old) on throne of England

1424 Winter: Much of Alnwick burnt by a Scottish raiding party (and again in later years)

1429 Feb 12: Battle of the Herrings just north of Orleans

1431 May 30: Death of Joan of Arc Dec 16: Henry VI of England crowned King of France at Notre Dame in Paris

1432–1438Climate: Britain snowbound for 6 of these 7 winters

1432 University of Caen founded by John of Lancaster, 1st Duke of Bedford

1435 Sep 21: Treaty of Arras between Charles VII of France and Philip III of Burgundy ends the English-Burgundy alliance

1437

Assassination of King James I of Scots at Perth 1440

Eton College founded by Henry VI1450

May 8: Jack Cade's Rebellion: Kentishmen revolt against Henry VI1451

University of Glasgow founded 1453

End of Hundred Years' War (Battle of Castillon, Jul 17) 1455

Feb 23: Johannes Gutenberg starts printing the bible, using movable type [some say 1450, 1453 or 1454] May 22: Battle of St Albans, first in Wars of the Roses (1455–87); Richard, Duke of York, defeats and captures Henry VIFall of the Black Douglases in Scotland

1456 Aug 24: Printing of Gutenberg Bible completed [some say 1454 or 1455]

1457 First recorded mention of golf in Scotland

1460 Aug 3: King James II of Scots killed by an exploding cannon at Kelso

1461 Mar 29 (Palm Sunday): Battle of Towton – probably the bloodiest battle ever fought on English soil: Henry VI flees to Scotland; Edward, Duke of York, crowned as Edward IV on 1st Aug – see website

1465 Irish living near English settlements made to take English surnames

1468/69 Orkney and Shetland Islands acquired from Norway by Scotland (but Wikepedia says 20th Feb 1472)

1470 Oct 30: Henry VI (Lancastrian) restored to the throne

1471 Apr 14: Yorkists defeat the Lancastrians at Barnet; Edward IV resumes the throne May 4: Battle of Tewkesbury – Edward IV defeats a Lancastrian Army and kills Edward, Prince of Wales May 21: Henry VI murdered in the Tower of London

1472 St Andrews made a bishopric

1475

Aug 29: Treaty of Picquigny ends a brief war between France and England1476

Caxton sets up a printing press in Westminster 1477

Edward IV bans cricket 1478

Feb 18: George Plantagenet, 1st Duke of Clarence executed in the Tower of London, by drowning in a butt of Malmsey wine?

1480 Spanish Inquisition begins (did nobody really expect it?)

1483 Murder of the princes (Edward V and his younger brother Richard of Shrewsbury) in the Tower; their uncle Richard, Duke of Gloucester becomes king (Richard III)

1484 Introduction of bail for defendants in legal courts English first used for parliamentary statutes

1485 Aug 22: Battle of Bosworth Field; Richard III killed – end of the War of the Roses and beginning of the Tudor dynasty (Henry VII) Formation of the Yeomen of the Guard

1486 Jan 18: Henry VII marries Elizabeth of York, daughter of Edward IV and sister of Edward VBoke of St Albans printed – includes collective nouns for animals and people

1487 May 24: Imposter Lambert Simnel crowned as "King Edward VI" at DublinJun 16: Battle of Stoke Field – Henry VII's final victory in War of the Roses

1489 A pound coin (the 'sovereign') minted for the first time. A shilling coin was minted for the first time a few years later

1492 Nov 9: Peace of Etaples between Henry VII and Charles VIII of France – improvement in relations continued until the end of Henry's reignDec 5: Christopher Columbus becomes the first European to set foot on the island of Hispaniola (West Indies)Papermaking introduced to Britain – John Tate opens a paper mill at Stevenage soon after thisMoors driven from Grenada

1494

June 7: Treaty of Tordesillas – Spain and Portugal divide the world between them (along the great diameter 51°W and 129°E longditude) – see 1529

1495 Foundation of the University of Aberdeen (as King's College)

1497 Jun 17: Battle of Deptford Bridge – end of the Cornish rebellion against Henry VIIJul 8: Vasco da Gama sets sail on first direct European voyage to India.Parish registers instituted in Spain by Cardinal Ximenes Cabot reaches North America

1499Nov 16: Perkin Warbeck, pretender to the throne, executed

1503 May 28: Marriage of King James IV of Scots and Margaret Tudor

1503-5 Leonardo da Vinci paints Mona Lisa

1505-6 Royal College of Surgeons founded in Edinburgh

1506 Jan 22: First contingent of 150 Swiss Guards arrives at the Vatican

1507 First printing press in Scotland set up in Edinburgh by Andrew Myllar Apr: Suggestion put forward that the New World be named America in honour of Amerigo Vespucci (on Martin Waldseemüller's world map)

1509 Naturalisation papers start in England Apr 22: Henry VIII becomes king of England (to 1547) at 17 years oldJun 11: Henry VIII marries Catherine of Aragon

1512 Admiralty founded in London The "Auld Alliance" treaty with France – all Scottish citizens became French and vice versa Nov 1: Ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, painted by Michelangelo, exhibited to the public for the first time

1513 Aug 16: Battle of the Spurs – English troops under Henry VIII defeat a French force at GuinegateSep 9: Battle of Flodden, defeat of Scottish Army – death of King James IV of Scots Machiavelli writes The Prince

1514

Recording of Testaments (wills) begins in Scotland 1515

Nov 15: Thomas Wolsley invested as Cardinal1516

Thomas More writes Utopia1517

Oct 31: Martin Luther fixes his 95 theses on church door at Wittenburg – regarded as start of the Reformation

1518 Treaty of London, a non-aggression pact between the major European nations: France, England, Holy Roman Empire, the Papacy, Spain, Burgundy and the Netherlands – sponsored by Cardinal Wolsey

1520 Cortes conquers Mexico Nov: Three ships under the command of Ferdinand Magellan negotiate the Strait of Magellan, becoming the first Europeans to sail from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific

1521 Apr 17: Martin Luther speaks to the assembly at the Diet of Worms, refusing to recant his teachingsMay 17: Edward Stafford, 3rd Duke of Buckingham, executed for treasonMay 25: Diet of Worms ends when Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor issues the Edict of Worms, declaring Martin Luther an outlaw

1522 Sep 6: The Victoria, one of the surviving ships of Ferdinand Magellan's expedition, becomes the first ship known to circumnavigate the world

1525 New Testament translated into English by William Tyndale

1527 Bishop Vesey's Grammar School founded in Sutton Coldfield

1528 St George's Chapel in Windsor Castle completed

1529 Apr 22: Treaty of Zaragoza specified the anti-meridian of the Treaty of Tordesillas (see 1494) which stated that everything west of 46° 37' was given to Spain whereas everything east of 46° 37' was given to Portugal Diet of Speyer: origin of the word Protestant

1531 Feb 11: Henry VIII recognised as Supreme Head of the Church of England

1532 Foundation of the Court of Session in Scotland

1533 Jan 25: Henry VIII marries Anne Boleyn secretly, wife #2 (she was crowned as Queen on 1st June)Mar 30: Thomas Cranmer becomes Archbishop of CanterburyMay 23: Henry VIII's marriage with Catherine of Aragon officially declared annulledJul 11: Henry VIII excommunicated by Pope Clement VIISep 17: Anne Boleyn gives birth to a daughter Elizabeth, to become Queen Elizabeth I

1534 Reformation of the Catholic Church in England church (Henry VIII)

1535 Sir Thomas More executed

1536 Dissolution of monasteries starts in England (to 1540) Wales and England legally united by the Laws in Wales Act of 1535 – further Welsh counties established (see 1284)May 19: Anne Boleyn executed May 30: Henry VIII marries Jane Seymour, wife #3 (she was crowned as Queen on 29th October) Jul 18: The authority of the Pope is declared void in England

1537 Oct 24: Jane Seymour dies from complications in giving birth to a son, the future Edward VI

1538 English and Welsh parish registers start Henry VIII issues English BibleDec 17: Henry VIII excommunicated by Pope Paul III

1540 Statute of Wills allows freehold land to be bequeathed Jan 6: Henry VIII marries Anne of Cleves, the 'Flanders Mare', wife #4Feb 9: First recorded horse racing event in Britain, at Chester Jul 9: Henry VIII divorces Anne of ClevesJul 28: Thomas Cromwell executed; Henry VIII marries Catherine Howard the same day, wife #5

1541 Henry VIII proclaimed king (rather than feudal lord) of Ireland

1542 Feb 13: Catherine Howard executedNov 24: The Rout of Solway Moss

Dec 14: Death of King James V of Scots; his baby daughter Mary "Queen of Scots" succeeds him, just 6 days old

1543 Jul 12: Henry VIII marries Catherine Parr, wife #6, who survives him Sep 9: Mary Stuart, at nine months old, is officially crowned "Queen of Scots" in Stirling (spelling of the royal house changes from Stewart to Stuart)

1544-5 Mary of Guise, Regent of Scotland Henry's VIII's "Rough Wooing" of the Scottish Borders

1545 Jul 20: Mary Rose, flagship of Henry VIII, sinks in the Solent – raised in 1982 Dec 13: Start of the Council of Trent (Trento, Italy) – convened by the Catholic Church three times, ending 4 Dec 1563, as a response to the Protestant Reformation

1546 Trinity College, Cambridge founded by Henry VIII

1547 Jan 16: Ivan the Terrible crowned Tsar of Russia at age 16Jan 28: Death of Henry VIII (succeeded by Edward VI, aged 9, to 1553) Feb 20: Coronation of Edward VI in Westminster AbbeyEnglish replaced Latin in church services in England and Wales Sep 10: Battle of Pinkie Cleugh, said to be the first 'modern' battle to be fought in the British IslesThe injunction to keep parish registers is reiterated Vagrants Act passed (able-bodied tramps can be detained as slaves)

1548 Priests in England allowed to marry (about a third then did so)

– but see 1554 1549

Jun 9: First Book of Common Prayer sanctioned by English Parliament Wedding ring finger changed from right to left hand First Act of Uniformity in England made Catholic Mass illegal English Parliament declares enclosures legal

1550–1700Climate: Referred to as the 'Little Ice Age' – severe gales became more frequent

1550 Walloon Protestants arrive as refugees from the Low Countries

1551 Scotland: General Provincial Council orders each parish to keep a register of baptisms and banns of marriage

1552

Mar: An 'Act of Uniformity' imposes the Protestant prayerbook of 1552 in England

1553 Jul 6: Edward VI dies; Lady Jane Grey queen for a few days onlyJul 19: Mary Tudor ('Bloody Mary') comes to the throne

1554-1558 Brief Catholic restoration under Queen Mary Tudor – married priests forced to separate at least 30 miles from their wives

1554 Feb 12: Lady Jane Grey beheaded

1555 Michel Nostradamus publishes his prophecies

1556 Mar 21: Archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas Cranmer burned at the stake in Oxford

1557 Dec: The First Covenant signed in Scotland (foundation of the Presbyterian Church) Index librorum prohibitum (index of prohibited books) instituted by the Vatican – repealed in 1966

1558 Scottish parish registers start Chancery Proceedings Indexes begin Jan 7: French take Calais, last English possession in FranceApr 24: Marriage of Mary, Queen of Scots to François the Dauphin of France in Paris Nov 17: Queen Mary Tudor of England dies and is succeeded by her half-sister Elizabeth – Protestantism restored in England

1558-1603 Policy of Plantation begins System of Counties adopted

1559 Jan 15: Elizabeth crowned in Westminster Abbey by Owen Oglethorpe, the Bishop of CarlisleApr 29: Acts of Supremacy passed in Parliament, ending papal jurisdiction over England & Wales; established Church of England John Knox returns from Continent – strengthens case for Presbyterianism in Scotland Tobacco introduced to Europe

1560

Feb 27: Treaty of Berwick between Duc du Chatelherault (as governor of Scotland) and the English, agreeing to act jointly to expel the French from Scotland Establishment of Protestantism in Scotland – commissary courts thrown into confusion – some records lost

1561 Spire of St Paul's, highest in England, destroyed by fireThe first coins produced by machinery (known as a 'mill') rather than by hand, but it was a slow process and did not replace hand struck coinage until new machinery was introduced in 1663

1562 Mar 1: Over 1,000 Huguenots massacred in Wassy-sur-Blaise – start of the First War of Religion in France (and see 1572)Earliest English slave-trading expedition, under John Hawkins – between Guinea and the West Indies

1563 Jul 28: The English surrender Le Havre to the French after a siegePapal recusants heavily fined for non-attendance at Church The Test Act excludes Roman Catholics from governmental office

1564 Apr 26: Shakespeare baptised – he is said to have been born on Apr 23, St George's Day; he certainly died on Apr 23, 1616

1565 Jul 29: Marriage of Mary, Queen of Scots to Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley, her first cousin

1566 Mar 9: Murder of David Riccio (or Rizzio) in Holyrood House

1567 Feb 10: Murder of Darnley outside Holyrood House in an explosion May 15: Marriage of Mary Queen of Scots to James Hepburn, 4th Earl of BothwellJul 24: Mary Queen of Scots deposed and replaced by her 1 year old son James VIEarliest date in the French Protestant and Walloon registers

1568 May 13: Battle of Langside – Mary's flight to England and her imprisonment by Queen Elizabeth I

1569Elizabeth I approved Sunday sports

1570

Feb 25: Pope Pius V issued the papal bull 'Regnans in Excelsis' to excommunicate Elizabeth I and her followers in the Church of England

1571 Beginning of penal legislation against Catholics in England Jan 23: Opening of the Royal Exchange in London, founded by Sir Thomas Gresham – this building destroyed in Great Fire of London 1666 Repeal of Act prohibiting lending of money on interest – gradual change from 'subsistence economy' to 'cash economy' resulted

1571-1572 Presbyterianism introduced into England by Thomas Cartwright

1572 Slaughter of Huguenots in Paris (massacre of St Bartholomew, started 24 Aug)

1574 Colonial State Papers published – continued to 1738

1577 James Burbage opens first theatre in London

1579 Act of Uniformity in matters of religion enforced

1580 Apr 6: The 'Easter earthquake' or Dover Straits earthquake, largest in the recorded history of England, mentioned by Shakespeare [Nurse: "’Tis since the earthquake now eleven years…” (Romeo and Juliet, I.iii, line 22)] – dozens of ships sunk and a tsunami hit Calais; several London churches also damaged Colonisation of Ireland Congregational movement founded by Robert Browne about this time

1581 Jan 16: English Parliament outlaws Roman Catholicism Apr 4: Francis Drake knighted by Elizabeth I aboard the Golden Hind after circumnavigating the world (see 1967)English Levant Company founded

1582 Gregorian calendar introduced to replace Julian calendar in some countries: Spain and Portugal, France, Low Countries, part of Italy, Denmark. Pope Gregory suppressed 10 days by altering 5 Oct to 15 Oct, thus making the Spring equinox fall on 21 March 1583. Dates relating to the Julian calendar were then referred to as 'Old Style', and those relating to the Gregorian calendar as 'New Style'. See 1600 and 1751 for its adoption in Britain.

1583 Aug: Sir Humphrey Gilbert attempts to establish English authority at St John's, NewfoundlandFoundation of Cambridge University Press by Thomas Thomas

University of Edinburgh founded 1584

Jun 4: Sir Walter Raleigh establishes first English colony in the New World, on Roanoke Island, Virginia (now in North Carolina) – the so-called 'Lost Colony' [but see 1583].

1585 Foundation of Oxford University Press Shakespeare started seriously to write about this time

1586 Camden Britannia, first topographical survey of England

1587 Feb 8: Execution of Mary, Queen of Scots, at Fotheringay Castle, near Peterborough Apr 19: Sir Francis Drake sinks the Spanish fleet in Cadiz harbour Aug 11: Raleigh's second expedition to New World lands in North Carolina – first child born in the New World of English parents was Virginia Dare (Aug 18) Introduction of potatoes to England

1588 Jul 19: Spanish Armada sighted off the Lizard (had set sail from Lisbon in late May) Jul 29: Defeat of Spanish Armada off Gravelines Invention of shorthand by Dr Timothy Bright

1591 Trinity College, Dublin, founded

1592 A Congregational (or Independent) Church formed in London Scotland: Presbyterian Church formally established – all ministers equal – no bishops – secular commissaries appointed by the Crown

1593 British statute mile established by law

1594–1603 Hugh O'Neill, Earl of Tyrone, leads Irish rebellion against English rule

1597 Poor Law Act for erection of parish workhouses for the Poor – Poor Rate collection allowed

1598 Bishop's transcripts of English and Welsh parish registers start – parish records were to be kept in 'great decent books of parchment' and copies or 'Bishop's Transcripts' of new entries were to be sent each month to the diocesan centre Edict of Nantes gives Huguenots toleration in France (but see 1685)

1600 The early 1600s often known as the period of the 'Rebuilding of England' Memoirs of Officers of the Royal Navy begin Jan 1: Scotland adopts New Year beginning 1st January (previously 25th March) - see 1752Dec 31: British East India Company founded

1601 Great English Poor Law Act passed First use of fruit juice as a preventative for scurvy by James Lancaster

1602 Mar 20: Dutch East India Company founded Nov 8: Bodleian Library at Oxford University opened to the public

1603 Mar 24: Death of Elizabeth I: union of Scottish and English crowns – under King James VI of Scots and I of England (d. 1625) Jul 25: Coronation – James VI of Scotland is crowned first king of Great Britain

1604 Robert Cawdrey A Table Alphabeticall – first English dictionary Nov 1: Shakespeare: Othello first presented

1605 Nov 5: Gunpowder plot at Westminster (Guy Fawkes, etc)

1606 Jan 31: Guy Fawkes and co-conspirators executed Apr 12: Adoption of Union Flag as the flag of "Great Britain" (the term Union Jack is used officially only when the Union Flag is flown from the Jack Mast of a Royal Naval vessel)The London Company chartered to colonise Virginia: the Susan Constant, Godspeed, and Discovery leave England on 19th De

c taking 144 days to reach America Episcopacy established in Scotland (against wishes of the Scots)

1607 May 14: Jamestown, Virginia settled – to become the first permanent British colony in North AmericaSep: Flight of the Earls from Ireland – leading Ulster families go into exile

1608 First use of telescope by Galileo – he observed the moons of Jupiter two years later in Jan 1610

1610 James VI & I established the Episcopal Church in Scotland – Prebyterians persecuted and many of their records lost

1611 Plantation of Ulster with English and Scottish colonists Authorised (King James) Version of Bible in Britain May 22: James VI & I created the title of baronet Nov 1: Shakespeare: The Tempest first presented

1613Jun 29: The Globe Theatre in London burns during a performance of Henry the Eighth

(finally pulled down in 1644) A copper farthing was produced, as a silver coin would be too small

1616 Saturday Apr 23 (Gregorian calendar): Death of Miguel de Cervantes (of Don Quixote fame) in MadridTuesday Apr 23 (Julian calendar): Death of Shakespeare Ben Jonson becomes first Poet Laureate

1617 Register of Sasines (land leases) established in Scotland – record of the transfer of land and property

1618 Sir Walter Raleigh beheaded for allegedly conspiring against James I

1619 Dec 4 (Nov 24 old style): Colonists from Berkeley Parish in England disembark in Virginia and give thanks to God (considered by many to be the first Thanksgiving in the Americas)

1620 Dec 21 (Dec 16 old style): The Mayflower reaches America – founds Plymouth, New England (had initially set sail from Southampton on Aug 5)Manufacture of coke (the fuel, not the drink!) patented by Dud Dudley

1621 Chimneys to be made of brick and to be four and a half feet above the roof Shakespeare's First Folio published

1622 First English newspaper appeared Weekly News

1624 Monopoly Act in England: patents protected Edmund Gunter introduces the surveyor's chain (measurement of length)

1625 The size of bricks standardised in England around this time Mar 27: Death of King James VI & I

1625-1649 Carolean Age

1628 Mar 1: Writs issued by Charles I that every county in England (not just seaport towns) pay ship tax by this date

1629 Mar 10: Parliament dissolved by King Charles I – did not meet for another 11 years

1630-1750 Baroque Period (Art & Antiques)

1630-1750 Renaissance Period (Art & Antiques)

1633 Jun: Galileo summoned by Inquisition for publishing in favour of Copernican theory

1635 Letter Office of England & Scotland started Flintlock small arms invented around this time (replaces matchlock)L'Academie Française founded in France by Richelieu

1636 Hackney Carriages in use by now in London

1637 Scottish Prayer Book published 'Tulipomania' in Holland, leads to classic market collapse

1638 Charles regarded protests against the prayerbook as treason – forced Scots to choose between their church and the King – a "Covenant", swearing to resist these changes to the death, was signed in Greyfriars Church, Edinburgh and was accepted by hundreds of thousands of Scots (revival of Presbyterian Church)

1639 Act of Toleration in England established religious toleration Dec 4 (Nov 24 old style): Jeremiah Horrocks makes the first observation of a transit of Venus

1640 Nov 3: Charles I forced to recall Parliament (the 'Long Parliament') due to Scottish invasion

1641 Charles I's policies cause insurrection in Ulster and Civil War in England Oct 23: 50,000 Irish killed in an uprising in UlsterCharles I and the English Parliament acknowledge the Prebyterian Church in Scotland

1642

The Civil War interrupted the keeping of parish registers English theatres closed by Puritans (till 1660) Aug 22: Charles I raises his standard at Nottingham – First Civil War in England (to 1649) – first engagement at Edgehill (23 Oct) – Scottish Covenanters side with the English rebels who take power – the Earl of Montrose sided with King Charles, strife spilled into Scotland Nov 13: Battle of Turnham Green – Royalist forces withdraw in face of the Parliamentarian army and fail to take LondonNov 24: Abel Janszoon Tasman discovers Van Diemen's Land (now Tasmania)Dec 18: Abel Janszoon Tasman first European to set foot in New Zealand

1643 Dec 13: Battle of Alton – victory for Parliamentarians – Sir Richard Bolle killed in St Lawrence's churchSolemn League and Covenant signed in Scotland

1644 Jun 29: Battle of Cropredy Bridge – Royalists beat the Parliamentarian forces Jul 2: Battle of Marston Moor, near York – Parliamentarian forces beat the Royalists Earliest Independent (Congregational) registers Earliest Presbyterian registers

1644-5 Montrose's Venture (Montrose executed in 1650)

1645 Jun 14: Battle of Naseby: Parliament's New Model Army crushes the Royalist forcesBattle of Philiphaugh in Scotland Inquisitions Post Mortem end Scotland: Each county and burgh ordered to raise and maintain a number of foot soldiers, according to population, to serve as militia – population of Scotland estimated at 420,000 Plague made its last appearance in Scotland

1646 May 5: Charles I surrenders to the Scottish Army at Newark Jun 20: Royalists sign articles of surrender at Oxford

1647 Earliest Baptist registers survive from this year

1648   Jan 30: Treaty of Münster and Osnabrück signed, ending the Eighty Years' War between the Netherlands and SpainSociety of Friends (Quakers) founded by George Fox

First practical thermometers made1649

Jan 6: 'Rump' Parliament votes to put Charles I on trialJan 30: King Charles I executed (see 1660 for Regicides)May 19: Commonwealth declared Dec 20: Theatres banned by CromwellChristmas banned by CromwellCromwell's Irish campaign starts King Charles II proclaimed King of Scots and England in Scotland

1649-1660 Commonwealth Period – Oliver Cromwell

1650 Term 'Quaker' first used for Society of FriendsCoffee brought to England about this time

1651-1652 The second English Civil WarSep 3: Battle of Worcester – see Oak-apple Day 1664Scottish prisoners transported to the British settlements in America

1653 Commonwealth registers start Apr 20: Cromwell dissolves the Rump ParliamentDec 16: Oliver Cromwell becomes Lord Protector of the Commonwealth of England, Scotland and Ireland Under the Act of Settlement Cromwell's opponents stripped of land (in Ireland?) Isaak Walton The Compleat Angler

1653-1660 Provincial probate courts abolished – probates granted only in London

1656 May 30: Formation of the Grenadier Guards, the most senior regiment of the Infantry in the British Army

1657 Post Office established by Act of Parliament [others say 1660] A few Jews permitted to settle in England

1658 Sep 3: Death of Oliver Cromwell Huygens pendulum clock

1658-1660 Richard Cromwell (son of Oliver) Lord Protector

1659 Feb 6: date of first known cheque to be drawn (some say 16th Feb)

Start of national meteorological Temperature records in the UK 1660s

Quaker-Scottish colony was established in East New Jersey 1660–

Restoration Period 1660

Jan 1: Samuel Pepys starts his diaryMay 29: Restoration of British monarchy (Charles II) – 'Oak Apple Day' – theatres reopened Commonwealth registers ended, Parish Registers resumed Provincial Probate Courts re-established Oct 17: Ten Regicides are executed at Charing Cross or Tyburn: Thomas Harrison, John Jones, Adrian Scrope, John Carew, Thomas Scot and Gregory Clement, who had signed the death warrant; the preacher Hugh Peters; Francis Hacker and Daniel Axter, who commanded the soldiers at the trial and the execution of the king; and John Cook the solicitor who directed the prosecution [Encyclopedia Britannica] Nov 28: Twelve men, including Christopher Wren, Robert Boyle, John Wilkins, and Sir Robert Moray decide to found what is later known as the Royal SocietyDec 8: First actress plays in London (Margaret Hughes as Desdemona) Clarendon code restricts Puritans' religious freedom Composition of light discovered by Newton Honourable East India Company founded by British First British in Japan Scotland adopts Gregorian calendar

1661 Jan 30: Oliver Cromwell ritually 'executed', having been dead for over two years!Persecution of Non-conformists in England Restoration of Episcopacy in Scotland Board of Trade founded in London Hand-struck postage stamps first used Corporation Act prevents non-Anglicans from holding municipal office

1662 Hearth Tax

– until 1689 (1690 in Scotland) Poor Relief Act or "Act of Settlement" – gave JPs the power to return any wandering poor to the parish of origin (repealed 1834)Aug 24: Act of Uniformity – Acceptance of Book of Common Prayer required – About 2,000 vicars and rectors driven from their parishes as nonconformists

(Presbyterians and Independents) – Persecution of all non-conformists – Presbyterianism dis-established – Episcopalian Church of England restored Tea introduced to Britain

1663 Earliest Roman Catholic registers

1664 May 29: Oak Apple Day – the birthday of Charles II and the day when he entered London at the Restoration; commanded by Act of Parliament in 1664 to be observed as a day of thanksgiving. A special service (expunged in 1859) was inserted in the Book of Common Prayer and people wore sprigs of oak with gilded oak-apples on that day. It commemorates Charles II's concealment with Major Careless in the 'Royal Oak' at Boscobel, near Shifnal, Shropshire, after his defeat at Worcester on 3 Sept 1651.Aug 27: Nieuw Amsterdam becomes New York as 300 English soldiers under Col. Mathias Nicolls take the town from the Dutch under orders from Charles II. The town is renamed after the King's brother James, Duke of York

1665 Great Plague of London (July-October) kills over 60,000Nov 7: The London Gazette first published – one of the official journals of record of the United Kingdom government, and the oldest continuously published newspaper in the United Kingdom Five-mile Act restricts non-conformist ministers in Britain

1666 Sep 2-6: Great Fire of London, after a drought beginning 27 June Use of semaphore signalling pioneered by Lord Worcester Act of Parliament – burials to be in woollen Newton formulated Laws of Gravity

1666-1689 Considerable religious unrest on Scotland (The Covenanters) – Covenanters Rising at St John's Town of Dalry

1667 John Milton Paradise Lost

1668 British East India Company obtains control of BombayNewton constructs reflecting telescope

1669 May 31: Last entry in Pepys's diary (see 1825 for publication)Earliest Lutheran registers survive from this year

1670 Earliest Synagogue registers – Bevis Marks Dryden appointed Poet Laureate

May 2: Start of Hudson's Bay Company in Canada May 26: King Charles II and King Louis XIV of France sign the Secret Treaty of Dover

1671May 9: Thomas Blood caught stealing the Crown Jewels

1672 High Court of Justiciary established in Scotland War with Holland (to 1674) – British Army increased to 10,000 men

1673 First Test Act deprives British Catholics and Non-conformists of Public Office

1674Nov 8: John Milton dies in LondonNov 10: Treaty of Westminster – Netherlands cedes New Netherlands (on the eastern coast of North America) to Britain

1675 Beginning of Whig party under Shaftsbury Mar 4: John Flamsteed appointed first Astronomer Royal of England Aug 10: Building of Royal Greenwich Observatory started Rebuilding of St Paul's started by Wren (completed 1710)

1676 Compton Census, named after its initiator Henry Compton, Bishop of London, was intended to discover the number of Anglican conformists, Roman Catholic recusants and Protestant dissenters in England and Wales from enquiries made in individual parishes

1677 Lee's "Collection of Names of Merchants in London" published

1678 Extension of Test Act to peers

1679 May 27: Habeas Corpus Act becomes law in England – (later repealed from time to time) Jun 22: Battle of Bothwell Brig in Scotland – Covenanter rebels routed Tories first so named Burial in Woollen more strictly enforced

1680 William Dockwra(y) begins his London Penny Post Dodo becomes extinct in Mauritius through over-hunting

1680-1770 Chinoiserie Period (Art & Antiques)

1681 Second Test Act (against non-conformists) passed by Westminster Parliament

Oil lighting first used in London streets 1682

Pennsylvania founded by William Penn Library of Advocates founded in Edinburgh – later National Library of Scotland Halley observes the comet which bears his name

1683 Jun 6: Ashmolean Museum opened at Oxford – first museum in Britain Climate: Coldest 'Frost fair' in LondonWild boar become extinct in Britain

1684 Presbyterian settlement in Stuart's Town in South Carolina Huguenot registers begin in London

1685 Earl of Argyll's Invasion of Scotland James the Second (1685-1689, died 1701) – Monmouth rebellion and battle of Sedgemoor – British Army raised to 20,000 men Judge Jeffreys and the Bloody Assizes – 320 executed, 800 transported Oct 18: Revocation of the Edict of Nantes – drove thousands of Protestants (Huguenots) from France – many settled in England

1686 Release of all prisoners held for their religious beliefs

1687 Apr 4: James II issues the Declaration of Indulgence, suspending laws against Catholics and non-conformistsJul 5: Newton published his Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica – written in LatinSep 26: The Parthenon in Athens, used as a gunpowder magazine by the Ottomans, exploded during an attack by the Venetians

1688 Feb: Edward Lloyd's Coffee House opens – later became Lloyd's of London Nov: The Glorious Revolution: James II abdicates – William of Orange lands at Torbay on 5 Nov – William III and Mary II, daughter of James II, jointly take the throne 13 Feb 1689 – (only William, however, has regal power) British Army raised to 40,000 Bill of Rights limits the powers of the monarchy over parliament Hearth Tax abolished Mutiny Act

1689 Mar 12: Deposed James VII & II flees to Ireland – defeated at the Battle of the Boyne (1 Jul 1690)

May 24: Toleration Act passed for Protestant non-conformists Jul 27: Battle of Killiecrankie in Scotland – Jacobites defeated Government troops but at high cost Siege of Londonderry (began Dec 1688; ended 28 Jul 1689)Dec 16: Bill of Rights passed by Parliament, ending King's divine right to raise taxes or wage war Earliest Royal Dutch Chapel registers Devonport naval dockyard established

1690 Great Synagogue founded Presbyterianism finally established in Scotland May 20: England passes Act of Grace, forgiving Roman Catholic followers of James IIJul 1 (New Style, 12 Jul): Battle of the Boyne – Jacobite forces defeated by William

1691 Earliest date in known German Lutheran registers

1692 Feb 13: The massacre of Glencoe – Clan Campbell sides with King William and murders members of Clan McDonaldLand Tax introduced – originally designed as an annual tax on personal estate, public offices and land. For practical purposes, however, assessors tended to avoid assessing items of wealth other than landed property so that it became known as the Land Tax. Counties were assessed at a fixed sum and the parish quotas were rarely altered. No systematic revaluation of properties was ever made after 1698 so that assessments tended to reflect the initial late-seventeenth century values. Its records in detail are usually available between 1780 and 1831. French intention to invade England came to naught

1693 Aug 4: Date traditionally ascribed to Dom Pierre Pérignon 's invention of Champagne Some Thoughts Concerning Education published by John Locke

1693–1700Climate: Oat harvest failed repeatedly in Scotland – widespread starvation

1694 National Debt came into effect in England Stamp Duties introduced into Britain from Holland Jul 27: Bank of England founded by William Paterson (a Scot) Mary II death leaves William III as sole rulerTriennial Act, new Parliamentary elections every three years

1694-1699 Scotland: Poll Tax imposed on all over sixteen, except the destitute and insane

1695 Freedom of Press in England Bank of Scotland founded Act of Parliament imposes a fine on all who fail to inform the parish minister of the birth of a child (repealed 1706, but see 1783) Start of "Dissenters" lists in parish registers – children born but not christened in the parish church – some were named "Papist" and others "Protestants"Dec 31: Window Tax (replaced Hearth Tax; increased in 1747; abolished 1851 when it was replaced by House Duty)

1696 Act of Parliament establishes Workhouses Education Act passed by Scottish Parliament

1697 Dec 2: Official opening of rebuilt St Paul's Cathedral

1698 Jan 4: Most of the Palace of Whitehall in London destroyed by fireInvention of steam engine by Capt Thomas Savery Darien Expedition: a disastrous attempt to establish a Scots settlement in Panama Duties (taxes) on entries in parish registers – repealed after five years Nov 14: Eddystone Lighthouse (Henry Winstanley's) first lit; completed 10 days earlier (but see 1703)

1700Population in England and Scotland approx 7.5 million

1701 Act of Settlement bars Catholics from the British throne May 23: After being convicted of piracy and murdering William Moore, Captain William Kidd hanged in London

1702-1714 Queen Anne Period (Art & Antiques)

1702 Mar 8: Anne Stuart becomes Queen Mar 11: First English daily newspaper The Daily Courant (till 1735) War of Spanish Succession (1702-1713)

1703 Repeal of Duties on entries in Parish Registers Nov 24–Dec 2: Climate: Most violent storms of the millennium cause vast damage across southern England – about a third of Britain's merchant fleet lost, and Eddystone lighthouse destroyed on 27 Nov (see 1755); it "produced so

deep an impression upon the people of the period that it was familiarly spoken of as 'The Storm' throughout the whole of the eighteenth century"—Grant Allen, in his notes to the 1900 edition of Gilbert White's 'Natural History of Selborne'

1704 Aug 4: British take Gibraltar Aug 13: Battle of Blenheim Penal Code enacted – Catholics barred from voting, education and the military Newton Optics, his theories of light and colour – written in English

1705 First workable steam pumping engine devised by Thomas Newcomen (some say c1710 or 1711)Isaac Newton knighted (for his work at the Royal Mint)

1706 May 23: Battle of Ramillies First evening newspaper The Evening Post issued in London

1707 Jan 16: Union with Scotland – Scots agree to send 16 peers and 45 MPs to English Parliament in return for full trading privileges – Scottish Parliament meets for the last time in March May 1: English and Scottish Parliaments united by an Act of the English Parliament – The Kingdom of Great Britain established – largest free-trade area in Europe at the timeLast use of veto by a British sovereign

1708 First Jacobite rising in Scotland Earliest Artillery Muster Rolls

1709 Feb 2: Alexander Selkirk rescued from shipwreck on a desert island, inspiring the book Robinson Crusoe (published in 1719) by Daniel DefoeSecond Eddystone lighthouse completed (see 1755)First Copyright Act passed Bad harvests throughout Europe – bread riots in Britain

1710 Tax on Apprentice Indentures

1711 Aug 11: First race meeting at AscotIncorporation of South Sea Company, in London

1712 Imposition of Soap Tax (abolished 1853) Last trial for witchcraft in England (Jane Wenham)

Toleration Act passed – first relief to non-Anglicans Patronage Act – patronage of ministers restored

1713 Treaty of Utrecht concludes the War of the Spanish Succession – Newfoundland and Gibraltar ceded to BritainBy this year there are some 3,000 coffee houses in London

1714 Aug 1: Queen Anne Stuart dies – George I Hanover becomes king (1714-1727). Chancery Proceedings filed under Six Clerks. Longitude Act: prize of £20,000 offered to the inventor of a workable method of determining a ship's longitude (won by John Harrison in 1773 for his chronometer). Schism Act, prevents Dissenters from being schoolmasters in England. Landholders forced to take the Oath of Allegiance and renounce Roman Catholicism. Quarter Sessions Records from this date often mention Protestant dissenters and Roman Catholic recusants. Handel Water Music

1715 Aug 1: Riot Act passed Second Jacobite rebellion in Scotland, under the Old Pretender ('The Fifteen')

1716 The Septennial Act of Britain leads to greater electoral corruption – general elections now to be held once every 7 years instead of every 3 (until 1911)Climate: Thames frozen so solid that a spring tide lifted the ice bodily 13ft without interrupting the frost fair

1717 First Masonic Lodge opens in London Value of the golden guinea fixed at 21 shillings

1719 Third abortive Jacobite rising Defoe Robinson Crusoe

1720 South Sea Bubble, a stock-market crash on Exchange Alley – government assumes control of National DebtManufacturing towns start to increase in population – rise of new wealth Wallpaper becomes fashionable in England

1721 Apr 2: Robert Walpole (Whig) becomes first Prime Minister (to 1742) Bailey's Northern Directory

1722 Last trial for witchcraft in Scotland [but Wikipedia gives 1727 as last execution for witchcraft in Scotland]Knatchbull's Act, poor laws

1723 Excise tax levied for coffee, tea, and chocolate The Waltham Black Acts add 50 capital offences to the penal code – people could be sentenced to death for theft and poaching – repealed in 1827The Workhouse Act or Test – to get relief, a poor person has to enter Workhouse

1724Rapid growth of gin drinking in EnglandLongman's founded (Britain's oldest publishing house)

1725-1726 Treaty of Hanover: France, Prussia, Britain v. Spain, Austria

1726 First circulating library opened in Edinburgh Invention of the chronometer by John Harrison Swift Gulliver's Travels

1727 Board of Manufacturers established in Scotland Jun 11: George I dies – George II Hanover becomes king

1729 Methodists begin at Oxford Nov 9: Treaty of Seville signed between Britain, France and Spain – Britain maintained control of Port Mahon and GibraltarBach St Matthew Passion

1730 Irish famine

1730-1750 Rococo Period (Art & Antiques)

1731 Invention of seed drill by Jethro Tull [others say 1701]Invention of sextant by John Hadley

1732 Jun 9: James Oglethorpe is granted a royal charter for the colony of GeorgiaDec 7: Covent Garden Opera House opensEarliest Cavalry and Infantry Muster Rolls

1733 Feb 12: James Oglethorpe founds Savannah, Georgia

Excise crisis: Sir Robert Walpole wanted to add excise tax to tobacco and wine – Pulteney and Bolingbroke oppose the excise tax Law forbidding the use of Latin in parish registers generally obeyed – some continued in Latin for a few years John Kay invents the flying shuttle, revolutionised the weaving industry

1734 Kent's Directory

1737Licensing Act restricts the number of London theatres and subjects plays to censorship of the Lord Chamberlain (till 1950s)

1738 Earliest Calvinistic Methodist registers May 24: John Wesley has his conversion experience

1739 Apr 7: Dick Turpin, highwayman, hanged at YorkOct 23: War of Jenkins' Ear starts: Robert Walpole reluctantly declares war on SpainWesley and Whitefield commence great Methodist revival

1741 Benjamin Ingham founded the Moravian Methodists or Inghamites – Earliest Moravian registers Earliest Scotch Church registers Handel The Messiah (first performed in Dublin 13 Apr 1742)

1742 England goes to war with Spain – incited by William Pitt the Elder (Earl of Chatham) for the sake of trade

1743 Jun 16 (June 27 in Gregorian calendar): Battle of Dettingen – last time a British sovereign (George II) led troops in battle

1744 Church of Scotland split over taking of Burgess' Oath – Burghers and Anti-Burghers First Methodist Conference Tune God Save the King makes its appearance

1745 Jacobite rebellion in Scotland ('The Forty-five') Aug 19: Bonnie Prince Charlie (The Young Pretender) lands in the western Highlands – raises support among Episcopalian and Catholic clans – The Pretender's army invades Perth, Edinburgh, and England as far as Derby

1746

Apr 16: Battle of Culloden – last battle fought in Britain – 5,000 Highlanders routed by the Duke of Cumberland and 9,000 loyalists Scots – Young Pretender Charles flees to Continent, ending Jacobite hopes forever – the wearing of the kilt prohibited

1747 Apr 9: Lord Lovat beheaded on Tower Hill aged 80, the last person to be executed in this mannerAbolition of Heritable Jurisdictions in Scotland Act for Pacification of the Highlands

1748-1756 Countess of Huntington's (Calvinistic) Methodist Connexion founded

1749 Apr 27: First performance of Handel's Music for the Royal Fireworks (in Green Park, London) – to celebrate the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle ending the War of the Austrian Succession

1750-1770 Gothic Revival Period (Art & Antiques)

1750-1805 Neo-Classical Period (Art & Antiques)

1750 Feb/Mar: Series of earthquakes in London and the Home Counties cause panic with predictions of an apocalypse Nov 16: Original Westminster Bridge opened (replaced in 1862 due to subsidence)

1751 March: Chesterfield's Calendar Act passed – royal assent to the bill was given on 22 May 1751 – decision to adopt Gregorian Calendar in 1752: "In and throughout all his Majesty's Dominions and Countries in Europe, Asia, Africa, and America, belonging or subject to the Crown of Great Britain, the said Supputation, according to which the Year of our Lord beginneth on the 25th Day of March, shall not be made use of from and after the last Day of December 1751; and that the first Day of January next following the said last Day of December shall be reckoned, taken, deemed and accounted to be the first Day of the Year of our Lord 1752" — i.e. 1752 started on 1 January, so that 1751 was a short year.Gin Act passed

1752 Jan 1: Beginning of the year 1752 [Scotland had adopted January as the start of the year in 1600, and some other countries in Europe had adopted the Gregorian calendar as early as 1582]

Sep 3: Julian Calendar dropped and Gregorian Calendar adopted in England and Scotland, making this Sep 14 – "Give us back our 11 days!" Benjamin Franklin invents a lightning conductor

1753 Earliest Inghamite registers May 1: Publication of Species Plantarum by Linnaeus, and the formal start date of plant taxonomyPrivate collection of Sir Hans Sloane forms the basis of the British Museum

1754 Hardwicke Act (1753): Banns to be called, and Printed Marriage Register forms to be used – Quakers & Jews exempt In the General Election, the Cow Inn at Haslemere, Surrey caused a national scandal by subdividing the freehold to create eight votes instead of one First British troops not belonging to the East India Company despatched to India First printed Annual Army Lists

1755 Apr 15: Publication of Dictionary of the English Language by Dr Samuel Johnson Period of canal construction began in Britain (till 1827) Nov 1: Earthquake and tsunami destroys Lisbon – up to 90,000 deadDec 2: Second Eddystone Lighthouse destroyed by fire (see 1759)

1756 May 15: The Seven Years War with France (Pitt's trade war) begins Jun: Black Hole of Calcutta – 146 Britons imprisoned, most die according to British sources

1757 Mar 14: Admiral Byng shot at Portsmouth for failing to relieve Minorca – or as the French put it: "Les anglais tuent de temps à temps un amiral pour encourager les autres"India: The Nawab of Bengal tries to expel the British, but is defeated at the battle of Plassey (Palashi, June 23) – the East India Company forces are led by Robert Clive The foundation laid for the Empire of India

1758 India stops being merely a commercial venture – England begins dominating it politically – The East India Company retains its monopoly although it ceased to trade

1759 Jan 15: British Museum opens to the public in London Mar: First predicted return of Halley's comet

Sep 13: Gen James Woolfe killed at Quebec (Battle of the Plains of Abraham)Oct 16: Third Eddystone Lighthouse (John Smeaton's) completed (see 1882)Wesley builds 356 Methodist chapelsDec 31: Guinness starts being brewed

1760 Oct 25: George II dies – George III Hanover, his grandson, becomes king The date conventionally marks the start of the so-called "first Industrial Revolution" Carron Iron Works in operation in Scotland May 5: First use of hangman's drop – last nobleman to be executed (Laurence, Earl Ferrers) at Tyburn Beginning of intense Inclosure Acts in England

1761 Jan 16: British capture Pondicherry, India from the French

1762 Earliest Unitarian registers France surrenders Canada and Florida Cigars introduced into Britain from Cuba Robert Lowth Short Introduction to English Grammar

1763 Treaty of Paris – gives back to France everything Pitt fought to obtain – (Newfoundland [fishing], Guadaloupe and Martininque [sugar], Dakar [gum]) – but English displaces French as the international language

1764 Lloyd's Register of shipping first prepared Practice of numbering houses introduced to LondonJames Hargeaves invents the Spinning Jenny (but destroyed 1768)Mozart produces his first symphony at age eight

1765 Mar 22: Stamp Act passed – imposed a tax on publications and legal documents in the American colonies (repealed the following year)The potato becomes the most popular food in Europe

1766Start of 'composite' national records on rainfall in the UKDec 5: Christie's auction house founded in London by

James Christie 1767

First iron railroads built for mines by John Wilkinson Newcomen's steam pumping engine perfected by James Watt

1768 Jan 9: Philip Astley starts his circus in London

Dec 6: The first edition of the "Encyclopaedia Britannica" published in Edinburgh by William Smellie

1769 Sep 6: David Garrick organises first Shakespeare festival at Stratford-upon-AvonArkwright invents water frame (textile production) Capt James Cook maps the coast of New Zealand

1770 Apr 28: Capt James Cook lands in Australia (Botany Bay) — Aug 21: formally claims Australia for BritainClyde Trust created to convert the River Clyde, then an insignificant river, into a major thoroughfare for maritime communications

1771 Right to report Parliamentary debates established in England

1772 May 14: Judge Mansfield rules that there is no legal basis for slavery in England First Navy Lists published First Travellers' Cheques issued by the London Credit Exchange CompanyMorning Post first published (until 1937)

1773-1858 The East India Company governs Hindustan

1773 Government prize for accurate determination of Longitude (first offered in 1714) won by John Harrison for his chronometer Dec 16: Boston Tea Party Waltz becomes fashionable in Vienna

1774 First recorded cricket match (some say 1719, Londoners v Kentish Men – Wikipedia disagrees with both!)Sep 13: Cook arrives on Easter Island

1775 Apr 19: Battle of Lexington: first action in American War of Independence (1775–1783)

1776 Jul 4: American Declaration of Independence Somerset House in London becomes the repository of records of population Watt and Boulton produce their first commercial steam engine (see 1782)Sep 7: First attack on a warship by a submarine – David Bushnell's "Turtle" attacked HMS Eagle in New York harbour. The attack was perhaps spectacular

(a charge did detonate beneath the ship), but was nevertheless unsuccessful. "Turtle" was a one man affair, man-powered [Les Moore] (see 1864)

1777 Samuel Miller of Southampton patents the circular saw.

1779 Feb 14: Capt James Cook killed on HawaiiCrompton's mule invented (textile production) Marc Isambard Brunel opens the first steamdriven sawmill at Chatham Dockyard in Kent First iron bridge built, over the Severn by John Wilkinson First Spinning Mills operational in Scotland Sep 23: Naval engagement between Britain and USA off Flamborough Head

1780 May 4: First Derby run at Epsom (some say 2nd June)Jun 2–8: The Gordon Riots – Parliament passes a Roman Catholic relief measure – for days, London is at the mercy of a mob and destruction is widespread Earliest Wesleyan registers Male Servants Tax The English Reform Movement – until now, only landowners and tenants (freeholders with 40 shillings per year or more) allowed to vote, and in open poll books Circular saw and Fountain pen invented About this time the word 'Quiz' entered the language, said to have been invented as a wager by Mr Daly, a Dublin theatre manager

1781 Mar 13: Sir William Herschel discovers Uranus Oct 19: Lord Cornwallis's army surrenders to George Washington; ends the American War of Independence

1782 Gilbert's Act establishes outdoor poor relief – the way of life of the poor beginning to alter due to industrialisation – New factories in rapidly expanding towns required a workforce that would adjust to new work patterns James Watt patents his steam engine

1783 Duty made payable on Parish Register entries (3d per entry) – led to a fall in entries!

– it was repealed 1794 Jun 4: Montgolfier brothers launch first hot-air balloon (unmanned), at Annonay, France

Jul: Climate: hottest month on record until 1983; Gilbert White in his 'Natural History of Selborne' says: "The summer of 1783 was an amazing and portenteous one, and full of horrible phenomena; for, besides the alarming meteors and tremendous thunder storms that affrighted and distressed the different counties of this kingdom, the peculiar haze or smoky fog that prevailed for many weeks in this island and in every part of Europe, and even beyond its limits, was a most extraordinary appearance unlike anything known within the memory of man"—he put it down to volcanic activity. Apparently it was caused by the eruption of Laki in Iceland which continued from 8th Jun 1783 to 7th February 1784Sep 3: Treaty of Versailles (Britain/US) Nov 3: Last public execution at Tyburn in London (John Austin, a highwayman)Nov 21: First untethered hot-air balloon flight with humans aboard, in ParisBlake Poetical Sketches

1784 Pitt's India Act – the Crown (as opposed to officers of the East India Company) has power to guide Indian politics Wesley breaks with the Church of England Aug 2: First mail coaches in England (4pm Bristol / 8am London) First golf club founded at St Andrews Invention of threshing machine by Andrew Meikle

1785 Jan 1: John Walter publishes first edition of The Times (called The Daily Universal Register for 3 years) Jan 7: Blanchard & Jeffries make first balloon crossing of the English Channel, taking about 2½ hours to travel from England to FranceSunday School Society founded to educate poor children (by 1851, enrols more than 2 million)

1786 Aug 8: Mont Blanc climbed for the first time Mozart Marriage of Figaro

1787 Earliest known Swedenborgian (Church of the New Jerusalem or Jerusalemite) registers MCC (Marylebone Cricket Club) established at Thomas Lord's ground in London

1788 Jan 26: First convicts (and free settlers) arrive in New South Wales (left Portsmouth 13 May 1787) — the 'First Fleet'; eleven ships commanded by Captain Arthur Phillip

First steamboat demonstrated in Scotland [but see 1802] Law passed requiring that chimney sweepers be a minimum of 8 years old (not enforced) First slave carrying act, the Dolben Act of 1788, regulates the slave trade – stipulates more humane conditions on slave ships King George III's mental illness occasions the Regency Crisis – Edmund Burke and Charles James Fox attack ministry of William Pitt – trying to obtain full regal powers for the Prince of Wales Gibbon completes Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire

1789 Apr 28: Mutiny on HMS Bounty – Captain William Bligh and 18 sailors are set adrift and the rebel crew ends up on Pitcairn IslandJul 14: The French Revolution begins – storming of the Bastille Publication of Gilbert White's 'Natural History of Selborne'

1790 Forth and Clyde Canal opened in Scotland

1791 Sugar prices rise steeply John Bell, printer, abandons the "long s" (the "s" that looks like an "f") Establishment of the Ordnance Survey of Great Britain Dec 4: First publication of The Observer – world's oldest Sunday newspaper

` Repression in Britain (restrictions on freedom of the press) – Fox gets Libel Act through Parliament, requiring a jury and not a judge to determine libel Boyle's Street Directory published Oct 1: Introduction of Money Orders in Britain Coal-gas lighting invented by William Murdock, an Ayrshire Scot Dec 1: King's Proclamation drawing out the British militia

1793 Feb 11: Britain declares war on France (1793-1802) Execution of Louis XVI – Reign of Terror starts in France Apr 15: £5 notes first issued by the Bank of England Jun 26: Gilbert White, naturalist, dies at Selborne, Hampshire

1794 Abolition of Parish Register duties Mar 14: Eli Whitney patents the cotton gin (in America)Jun 1: Battle of Glorious First of June Oct 6: The prosecutor for Britain, Lord Justice Eyre, charges reformers with High Treason – he argued that, since reform of parliament would lead to revolution and revolution to executing the King, the desire for reform endangered the King's life and was therefore treasonous

Lindley Murray English Grammar 1795

The Famine Year Foundation of the Orange Order Speenhamland Act proclaims that the Parish is responsible for bringing up the labourer's wage to subsistence level – towards the end of the eighteenth century, the number of poor and unemployed increased dramatically – price increases during the Napoleonic Wars (1793-1815) far outstripped wage rises – many small farmers were bankrupted by the move towards enclosures and became landless labourers – their wages were often pitifully low Pitt and Grenville introduce "The Gagging Acts" or "Two Bills" (the Seditious Meetings and Treasonable Practices Bills) – outlawed the mass meeting and the political lecture Consumption of lime juice made compulsory in Royal Navy France adopts the metric system

1796 May 14: Dr Edward Jenner gave first vaccination for smallpox in EnglandHolden's Triennial Directory published Pitt's "Reign of Terror": More treason trials – leading radicals emigrate Legacy Tax on sums over £20 excluding those to wives, children, parents and grandparents

1797 Feb 14: Battle of Cape St VincentFeb 22: French invade Fishguard, Wales; last time UK invaded; all captured 2 days later England in Crisis, Bank of England suspends cash payments Feb 26: First £1 (and £2) notes issued by Bank of England Apr-Jun: Mutinies in the British Navy at Spithead and Nore Oct 22: Possibly the first parachute jump (by André-Jacques Garnerin

above Paris) Tax on newspapers (including cheap, topical journals) increased to repress radical publications The first copper pennies were produced ('cartwheels') by application of steam power to the coining press

1798 Feb-Oct: The Irish Rebellion; 100,000 peasants revolt; approximately 25,000 die – Irish Parliament abolished Aug 1: Battle of the Nile (won by Nelson) First planned human experiment with vaccination, to test theories of Edward Jenner Malthus Essay on Population

1799 Jan 9: Pitt brings in 10% income tax, as a wartime financial measure Jul 12: 'Combination Laws' in Britain against political associations and combinations Foundation of Royal Military College Sandhurst by the Duke of York Foundation of the Royal Institution of Great Britain Post Office New Annual Directory Jul 15: Rosetta Stone discovered in Egypt, made possible the deciphering (in 1822) of Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics Perfect mammoth discovered preserved in ice in Siberia

1800 Jul 2: Parliamentary union of Great Britain and Ireland Malta became a British DominionElectric light first produced by Sir Humphrey Davy Use of high pressure steam pioneered by Richard Trevithick (1771-1833)Earliest Bible Christian registers Royal College of Surgeons founded Herschel discovers infra-red light Volta makes first electrical battery British trade accounts for about 27% of world trade

1801 Jan 1: Union Jack official British flag – The Kingdom of Ireland merged with the Kingdom of Great Britain, adding St. Patrick's saltire to the Union Flag Mar 10: First census puts the population of England and Wales at 9,168,000 – population of Britain nearly 11 million (75% rural) Grand Union Canal opens in England Surrey iron railway, on which horse-drawn trucks carry coal and farm produce Richard Trevithick built the first self-propelled passenger carrying road loco and ran it on Christmas Eve 1801Elgin Marbles brought from Athens to London

1802 Mar 25 ("4 Gerninal" on the French Revolutionary calendar): Treaty of Amiens signed by Britain, France, Spain, and the Netherlands – the "Peace of Amiens," as it was known, brought a temporary peace of 14 months during the Napoleonic Wars – one of its most important cultural effects was that travel and correspondence across the English Channel became possible again Charlotte Dundas on Clyde, first practical steamship, built by William Symington First British Factory Act William Cobbett begins his weekly Political Register Regular mail service started between England and India

1803 Invention of paper-making machine (Fourdrinier brothers) – others say invented by Robert (another Frenchman) in 1798, and developed by the FourdriniersApr 30: Louisiana Purchase: Napoleon sells French possessions in America to United StatesMay 12: Peace of Amiens ends – resumption of war with France – The Napoleonic Wars (1803-18l5) William Cobbett began unofficial publication of Parliamentary reports (taken over by Hansard report in 1811) First publication of Debrett's Peerage by John Debrett Poaching made a Capital offence in England if capture resisted Richard Trevithick built another steam carriage and ran it in London as the first self-propelled vehicle in the capital and the first London busJul 26: First public railway opens (Surrey Iron Railway, 9 miles from Wandsworth to Croydon, horse-drawn) Semaphore signalling perfected by Admiral Popham Commissioners for Highland Roads and Bridges created in Scotland; Thomas Telford begins construction

1804 Feb 21: Richard Trevithick runs his railway engine on the Penydarren Railway (9.5 miles from Pen-y-Darren to Abercynon in South Wales) – this hauled a train with 10 tons of iron and 70 passengers.  It was commemorated by the Royal Mint in 2004 in the form of a £2.00 coin. (See 1829

) Mar 3: John Wedgwood (eldest son of the potter Josiah Wedgwood) founds The Royal Horticultural Society Mar 21: Code Napoleon adopted in France Dec 2: Napoleon declares himself Emperor of the French Dec 12: Spain declares war on Britain Matthew Flinders recommends that the newly discovered country, New Holland, be renamed "Australia" Blake Jerusalem (later set to music by Parry)

1805 Oct 21: Admiral Nelson's victory at Trafalgar Nov 26: Official opening of Thomas Telford's Pontcysyllte Aqueduct Dec 2: Battle of Austerlitz; Napoleon defeats Austrians and Russians London docks opened

1806 Jan 9: Nelson buried in St Paul's cathedral, LondonEarliest Primitive Methodist registers

Napoleon attempts European economic blockade of Britain Dartmoor Prison opened (built by French prisoners) Carbon paper invented by Ralph Wedgwood

1807 Mar 25: Parliament passes Act prohibiting slavery and the importation of slaves from 1808 – but does not prohibit colonial slavery Jul 13: 'Hot Wednesday' – temperature of 101°F in the shade recorded in LondonGas lighting in London streets

1808 Peninsular War (1808-1814) Fourdrinier brothers set up first paper-making machine in England (at St Neots)Trevithick operated a 'Catch-me-who-Can' demonstration railway with carriages in London for which he charged fares of one shilling Beginning of 'Luddite' troubles in England (see 1811)Dec 22: Beethoven premieres his Fifth Symphony, Sixth Symphony, Fourth Piano Concerto and Choral Fantasy together in Vienna

1809Jan 16: Peninsular War – Battle of La Coruña – Sir John Moore killed: "Not a drum was heard, not a funeral note …"Feb 12: Birth of Charles Darwin Sep 18: Royal Opera House opens in LondonJohn Dickinson introduces the Cylinder Machine for making paper boards Gay-Lussac: Law of Volumes of Gases

1810 Bible Christians denomination formed by schism in Wesleyan Methodists John McAdam begins road construction in England, giving his name to the process of road metalling (see 1845)

1811 Feb 1: Light first lit on Robert Stephenson's Inchcape (Bell) Rock lighthouse off Scotland Feb 5: Prince of Wales (future George IV) made Regent after George III deemed insane May 27: Second census of England & WalesNov: Luddite uprisings (machine breaking) in the Midlands against weaving frames started – went on until 1815 – groups of workmen rebelled against the increased mechanisation of textile production by destroying the new machinery – government fears revolutionary conspiracy – damaging property or taking Luddite oaths become capital offences Jane Austen Sense and Sensibility

1812

May 11: Prime Minister, Spencer Perceval, assassinated – shot as he entered the House of Commons by a bankrupt Liverpool broker, John Bellingham, who was subsequently hangedJun 18: Start of American "War of 1812" (to 1814) against England and Canada Oct-Dec: Napoleon retreats from Moscow with catastrophic losses Comet steamship launched in Scotland, operated on the River Clyde

1813 'Policy for the Improvement of the Highlands' approved by British Parliament May: Lawson, Blaxland and Wentworth, lead an expedition westwards from SydneyIreland: First recorded "12th of July" sectarian riots in Belfast Rose's Act (1812) established a printed format for baptism & burial registers Jane Austen Pride and Prejudice

1814 "Year of the Burning" in Sutherland and Ross Act of Burial in Woollen repealed First Pigot's Commercial Directory printed Jan 1: Invasion of France by Allies Apr 6: Napoleon abdicates and is exiled to Elba Aug 13: Convention of London signed, a treaty between the UK and the Dutch Aug 24: The British burn the White HouseNov 29: The Times first printed by a 'mechanical apparatus' (at 1,100 sheets per hour) Dec 2: Death of the Marquis de Sade, in an asylumDec 24: Treaty of Ghent signed ending the 1812 war between Britain and the US Sugar prices reach record heights

1815 Mar 1: Napoleon escapes Elba; arrives in France Jun 18: The Battle of Waterloo: Napoleon defeated and exiled to St. Helena Corn Law passed with enormous benefit to landlords (see 1849)Trial by Jury established in Scotland Davy develops the safety lamp for miners Nash Brighton Pavilion

1816 Economic depression - rise in wheat prices Income tax abolished Excise tax payable on paper production (start of papermaking Mill numbers) – until 1861For the first time British silver coins were produced with an intrinsic value substantially below their face value – the first official 'token' coinage

Climate: the 'year without a summer' – followed a volcanic explosion of the mountain Tambora in Indonesia the previous year, the biggest volcanic explosion in 10,000 yearsCobbett's Register selling 40-60,000 copies per week Large scale emigration to North America Trans-Atlantic packet service begins

1817 Johnstone's London Directory printed March of the Manchester Blanketeers; Habeas Corpus suspended Constable Flatford Mill

1818 Manchester cotton spinners' strike Oct 20: 'Convention of 1818' signed between the United States and the United Kingdom which, among other things, settled the US-Canada border on the 49th parallel for most of its length Mary Shelley Frankenstein

1819 Feb 6: Stamford Raffles signs a treaty with Sultan Hussein Shah of Johor establishing Singapore as a new trading post for the British East India Company May/Jun: Savannah first steamship to cross Atlantic, reaching Liverpool 20 June 1819 (26 days, mostly under sail) Aug 16: Peterloo Massacre at Manchester – a large, orderly group of 60,000 meets at St. Peter's Fields, Manchester – demand Parliamentary Reform – mounted troops charge on the meeting, killing 11 people and and maiming many others Dec: Six Acts passed against radical political Unions – prohibits assemblies similar to St. Peter's Fields and imposes press censorship Primitive bicycle, the Dandy Horse, becomes popular (see 1839) Britain returns to gold standard Keats Ode on a Grecian Urn

1820 Jan 29: Accession of George IV, previously Prince Regent Cato Street Conspiracy – plot to assissinate British cabinet Aug 1: Regent's Canal in London opensAug 17: Trial of Queen Caroline to prove her infidelities so George IV can divorce her – George tries to secure a Bill of Pains and Penalties against her – Caroline is virtually acquitted because bill passed by such a small majority of Lords

Nov 20: Whaling ship Essex attacked and sunk by a sperm whale in the Pacific, leading to the story of Moby DickCobbett's Rural Rides begin to appear in his Political Register (to 1830) Abolition of the Spanish Inquisition

1821May 5: Napoleon Bonaparte dies on St HelenaMay 28: Third census of England & WalesFaraday Principles of electro-magnetic rotation Constable The Hay Wain Populations: France 30.4M, German States 26M, Britain 20.8M, Italian States 18M, Austria 12M, the USA 9.6M

1822 Jun 14: Charles Babbage proposes a difference engine in a paper to the Royal Astronomical SocietySep 27: Jean-François Champollion announces he has deciphered the Rosetta stoneCaledonian canal opened Augustin Fresnel perfects lenses for lighthouses Schubert Unfinished Symphony

1823 New laws concerning marriage by licence – 'very troublesome' according to some: "the Act was repealed, all in a hurry, at the beginning of the next session"Scottish testaments prior to 1823 transferred to S.R.O. Peel begins penal reforms – death penalty abolished for over 100 crimes Dec 2: US President James Monroe delivers a speech establishing American neutrality in future European conflicts (the 'Monroe Doctrine')Rugby Football 'invented' at Rugby School Rubberised waterproof material produced by MacIntosh Monroe Doctrine: President James Monroe warns European powers not to interfere in the American continent

1824 Pitt's Combination Acts repealed (Trades Unions allowed) Mar 4: Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) founded (called the "National Institution for the Preservation of Life from Shipwreck" until 1854)May 10: National Gallery in London opens to the publicRSPCA established Portland cement patentedCarnot Puissance motrice du feu Beethoven Ninth Symphony

1825

Horse-drawn buses in London (but see 1803 and 1829)Sep 27: Stockton to Darlington Railway opens – world's first service of locomotive-hauled passenger trainsHobhouse makes amendments to Acts to protect Child Labour in cotton factories Publication of Pepys Diary

1826 Jan 30: Telford's Menai Straits Bridge opened – considered the world's first modern suspension bridgeFeb 11: University College, London established under the name "London University", as a secular alternative to the religious universities of Oxford and CambridgeScotland's first commercial railway was opened, Edinburgh to Dalkeith White's first Commercial Directory – Hull Royal Zoological Society established in London Apr 1: Samuel Morey patents the internal combustion engine in America? Ampere Electrodynamics Mendelssohn Midsummer Night's Dream, overture

1827 Apr 7: First recorded sale of matches, from the store of John Walker of Stockton-on-Tees under the name 'Sulphurata Hyper-Oxygenata Frict' Hallam Constitutional History of England (one of the first historians to use original documents in his research) Ohm Ohm's Law (physics)

1828 Apr 28: Repeal of Test and Corporation Acts – had kept non-Anglicans (Catholics and Dissenters) from holding public office and deprived them of other rights Oct 25: St Katharine Docks in London opened (designed by Thomas Telford) O'Connell barred from the House of Commons as a Roman Catholic Noah Webster American Dictionary of the English Language

1829 Apr 4: Catholic Emancipation Act restores civil liberties to Roman Catholics Earliest Irvingite registers Jul 4: First London omnibuses (pulled by three horses) introduced by George Shillibeer (but see 1825) – route between Paddington and Bank of EnglandLondon Metropolitan police force formed, nicknamed Bobbies after Sir Robert Peel Jun 10: First Oxford/Cambridge Boat Race

Oct 6: George Stephenson's Rocket wins the Rainhill trials (it was the only one to complete the trial!) – was to haul the first 'commercial' passenger train (but see 1804) Lucifer matches first manufactured Louis Braille invents his sytem of finger-reading for the blind Rossini William Tell, opera

1830 Jun 26: George IV dies – his brother, William IV, accedes to the throne July: Revolution in France, fall of Charles X and the Bourbons – Louis Philippe (the Citizen King) on the throne Uprisings and agitation across Europe: the Netherlands are split into Holland and Belgium Sep 15: George Stephenson's Liverpool & Manchester Railway opened by the Duke of Wellington – first mail carried by rail, and first death on the railway as William Huskisson, a leading politician, is run over! Nov: Agricultural 'Swing' Riots in southern England, repressed with many transportations Nov 22: Charles Grey, 2nd Earl Grey, becomes Prime MinisterBeerhouse Act liberalized regulations on the brewing and sale of beer by individuals – By this act it was possible for any householder assessed to the poor rate to sell beer, ale and cider without a licence from local justices; in the six months following its enaction, nearly 25,000 such excise licenses were taken out – The 1869 Wine and Beerhouse Act re-introduced stricter controls Royal Geographical Society established in London Hector Berlioz: Symphonie Fantastique

1830-1880 Eclectic Period (Art & Antiques)

1831 First Reform Bill introduced by Lord George Russell A list of all parish registers dating prior to 1813 compiled May 30: Fourth census of England & WalesBritish Association for the Advancement of Science founded Jun 1: James Clark Ross discovers the North Magnetic Pole Aug 1: 'New' London Bridge opens (see 1968, replaced 1973) – old bridge (which had existed for over 600 years) then demolished Aug 29: Faraday demonstrates electro-magnetic induction (the dynamo) Dec 27: Darwin sails on HMS Beagle to survey coral formations

1832 Jun 7: Reform Bill passed – Representation of the People Act – dramatic effects for grossly underrepresented places like Scotland (the number of Scottish people allowed to vote increased from 4,000 to 65,000 out of 2.5

million people) – changed voting from an aristocratic privilege to a middle class right, but by later standards not much was accomplished – approximately doubled the electorate to about 800,000 voters out of a total population in Ireland, Scotland, England, and Wales of around 24 million (1831 census), and increasing by 1 million a year Electoral Registers introduced Electric telegraph invented by Morse Tennyson Lady of Shalott

1833 Jan: Britain invades the Falkland IslandsAug 29: Factory Act forbids employment of children below age of 9 Education Grant Act – grants to voluntary education societies in Britain Real Property Limitation Act

– ends the device of using ficticious people in the sale of freehold property 1834

Poor Law amendment, tightening up relief Mar 18: 'Tolpuddle Martyrs' transported (to Australia) for Trades Union activities May 1: Slavery abolished in British possessions Dec 17: Dublin and Kingstown Railway opens in Ireland Dec 23: Hansom Cab patented by Joseph Hansom Babbage invents forerunner of the computer

1835 Christmas becomes a national holiday Earliest Universalist registers Municipal Corporations Act – major changes in England and Wales Word 'socialism' first used First surviving photograph taken by William Fox Talbot First railway boom period starts in Britain – construction of Great Western Railway Jun 18: William Cobbett diesDec 1: Hans Christian Andersen publishes his first book of fairy talesMelbourne, Australia foundedDarwin studies the Galapagos Islands

1836 First Potato famine in Ireland Economic downturn that lasts until 1842 Tithe Commutation Act – tithe maps created as a by-product over the next 15 years or so Newspaper tax reduced from 4 pence to one penny Feb 25: Samuel Colt patented the 'revolver'

Mar 6: The Alamo falls to Mexican troops – death of Davy CrockettJul: Inauguration of the Arc de Triomphe in ParisDec 27: Avalanche in Lewes, Sussex buries 15 people, 8 died

1837 Mar 14: Wheatstone & Cooke send first British telegraph message (some say 25 Jul – the electric telegraph was patented in May)Jun 20: William IV dies – accession of Queen Victoria (to 1901) Jul 1: Compulsory registration of Births, Marriages & Deaths in England & Wales – Registration Districts were formed covering several parishes; initially they had the same boundaries as the Poor Law boundaries set up in 1834Jul 13: Queen Victoria moves into the first Buckingham PalaceJul 20: Euston Railway station opens – first in London Pitman introduces his shorthand system P&O Founded Dickens Pickwick Papers

1838 Jun 28: Coronation of Queen Victoria at Westminster AbbeyChartists in Britain publish People's Charter demanding popular involvement in politics – huge demonstrations (estimated 100.000 Glasgow, 200,000 Birmingham, 300,000 West Yorkshire) First ocean steamers to the U.S. – SS Great Western 14½ days; SS Sirius 18 days SS Archimedes launched – first successful screw-driven ship Daguerre produces photographs using silver salts

1838-1849 The Chartist Movement – a working-class movement for the extension of the franchise – 6-point charter: universal suffrage, secret ballot, annual elections, payment of Members, no property qualification for MPs, equal electoral districts

1839 Nov 4: The Newport Rising, to liberate Chartist prisoners – the last large-scale armed rebellion against authority in mainland BritainFirst Opium War between Britain and China (to 1842) – Britain captures Hong KongScottish blacksmith Kirkpatrick MacMillan refines the primitive bicycle, adding a mechanical crank drive to the rear wheel, thus creating the first true "bicycle" in the modern sense (see 1819)Samuel Cunard establishes his Cunard Steamship Co. John Herschel takes the first glass plate photograph Charles Goodyear invented vulcanized rubber

Daguerreotype photography process announced in France, developed by Louis DaguerreFirst: Grand National, Henley Regatta, Royal Agricultural Show

1840 Jan 10: Uniform Penny Postage introduced nationally Rowland Hill also introduces envelopes Feb 6: Treaty of Waitangi signed – Maori chiefs in New Zealand recognise British sovereignty in return for tribes being guaranteed possession of their lands Feb 10: Queen Victoria marries Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha Last convicts landed in NSW (some say 1842 or 1849, but these probably landed elsewhere) Chimney Sweeps Act in Britain Population Act relating to taking of censuses in Britain Britain has 24% of steam tonnage, and 24% of world trade 'Can-Can' becomes popular in France

1841 Feb 10: Penny Red replaces Penny Black postage stamp June 6: Fifth census of England & Wales – First full census in Britain in which all names were recorded Population: Britain 18.5M, USA 17M, Ireland 8M Whitworth standard screw threads proposed Thomas Cook starts package tours Jul 17: First issue of Punch

1842 Mail steamship to India Civil Registration in Channel Islands started Second Chartist Petition presented to Parliament Income Tax reintroduced in Britain Government report 'The Sanitary Condition of the Labouring Population' Depression: 60% of Bolton cotton mill workers and 36% of Bolton ironworkers out of work British Mines Act outlawing women and girls in the mines, and supervising boy labour Copyright Act Mar 30: Ether used as an anaesthetic for the first time (by Dr Crawford Long in America)British massacred in Khyber Pass Aug 29: Treaty of Nanking – End of First Opium War – Britain gains Hong KongIllustrated London News published

Start of Mudie's Lending Library, charging subscribers one guinea per year for the right to borrow one volume of a novel at a timeTennyson Poems establishes his fame Doppler Effect stated Turner Steamer in Snowstorm

1843 First Christmas card in England May 27: The Great Hall of Euston station opened in LondonJul 19: Brunel's 'Great Britain' launched Disruption of the Church of Scotland – 474 ministers signed the Deed of Demission and formed the Free Church of Scotland (the "Wee Free") Factory safety regulations enacted in Britain First public telegraph line, from Paddington to Slough Oct 1: News of the World first publishedOrdnance Survey maps Epoch 1 – date range 1843-1893 (see 1891)Skiing becomes a sport Joule defines mathematical equivalent of heat (ergs/calorie) Dickens A Christmas Carol Wagner Flying Dutchman Tennyson Morte d'Arthur

1844 Outdoor Relief Prohibition Order – parish relief received only in a workhouse Companies Act in Britain – companies must register Bank Charter Act, to regulate money supply in relation to gold in Britain Railways Act – Gladstone's concept of the 'Parliamentary Train' brought rail travel to the masses Factories Act 1844 – working hours of women and children restrictedMay 24: First Morse message transmitted in the USA (Baltimore to Washington) Jun 6: YMCA founded in London by Sir George WilliamsJun 15: Charles Goodyear receives a patent for the vulcanization of rubberKarl Marx and Engels begin their collaboration Dumas The Three Musketeers Polka introduced to Britain

1845 Excise tax on glass production repealed 'The Hungry Forties': Potato famine in Ireland (to 1848) – generally accepted that 1 million people died and a further 1 million people had to emigrate during this period, leading to a population decline of around 20 to 25% Temporary repeal of the Corn Laws Mar 17: The rubber band patented by Stephen Perry

May 20: Franklin sets sail from London trying to find the Northwest passageKelly's DirectoriesTarmac laid for first time (in Nottingham) First voyage of 'Great Britain' – to America Royal Naval Biographical Dictionary published

1846 May 17: The saxophone is patented by Adolphe SaxSep 10: The sewing machine is patented by

Elias Howe Edward Lear First Book of Nonsense

1847 Jan: An anaesthetic used for the first time in England (James Simpson used ether to numb the pain of labour)United Succession becomes the United Presbyterian Church Ten Hours Act shortens factory work day to ten hours for women and children European crop failure US Mormons make Salt Lake City their centre Charlotte Brontë Jane Eyre

1848 Jan 24: Gold found at Sutter's Mill, California – starts the California gold rush Jan 29: Greenwich Mean Time adopted in ScotlandJul 11: Waterloo railway station in London opensGeneral revolutionary movement throughout the European Continent ('Year of Revolution')Rotary press first introduced First Public Health Act, establishes the Board of Health Third Chartist Petition: mass arrests and failure of the movement Lord Kelvin determines the temperature of absolute zero First commercial production of chewing gumMarx and Engels The Communist Manifesto JS Mill Principles of Political Economy Macaulay History of England

1849 Jan 31: Corn Laws abolished in UK (introduced by the Importation Act 1815, amended at various times and repealed by the Importation Act 1846)Apr 10: Safety pin patented by American inventor Walter Hunt Civil Registration of Births in Isle of Man started Florin (2 shilling coin) introduced as the first step to decimalisation – which finally occurred in 1971! Dickens David Copperfield

1850

Mar 18: American Express founded by Henry Wells & William FargoSep 29: Catholic hierarchy restored on a regular pattern to England and WalesNov 19: Tennyson succeeds Wordsworth as Poet Laureate (and holds the position until his death in 1892) Dec 16: First immigrant ships arrived in New ZealandTelegraph cable Dover to Calais [others say 1851] Britain has 39.5% of world merchant shipping tonnage Bunsen burner designed

1851 Mar 30: Second full British Census – improvements in data compared with the first May 1: Great exhibition of the works of industry of all nations ("Crystal Palace" exhibition) opened in Hyde Park Aug 22: First "America's Cup" (round the Isle of Wight) won by the yacht America (after which the trophy was subsequently named)Window Tax replaced by House DutyPhotography is popularised by introduction of "wet collodion" process Singer produces first practical sewing machine (in USA) Gold discovered in Australia Verdi Rigoletto; Herman Melville Moby-Dick

1852 Feb 15: Great Ormond St Hospital for Sick Children, London, admits its first patientMay: Victoria and Albert Museum, first known as The Museum of Manufactures, opens at Marlborough House – transfers in September to Somerset House, then to South Kensington in 1857Manchester has its first Free Library Land Survey of Britain completed First voyage of 'Great Britain' to Australia Tasmania ceases to be a convict settlement US Express Co., Wells Fargo established in USA Roget's Thesaurus

1853 Gladstone's first budget: wide range of duties abolished, and death duties introduced Vaccination against smallpox made compulsory in Britain Reuters founded Potato chips first prepared?

1854 Mar 27: Britain declares war on Russia (Crimean War)

Jun: First Victoria Cross won during bombardment of Bomarsund in the Aland Islands Sep 14: Allied armies land in Crimea Sep 20: Battle of Alma: British and French troops defeat Russians in the Crimea Oct 25: Battle of Balaklava in Crimea (charge of the Light Brigade)Cigarettes introduced into Britain The Times offers £1,000 for the discovery of an alternative raw material for paper (other than cotton and linen rags) – wood not used in paper manufacture until 1880s

1855 Jan 1: Registration of births, marriages & deaths made compulsory in Scotland First London pillar boxes Stamp Duty abolished on newspapers ('tax on knowledge') – many regional newspapers founded from this year onwardsDaily Telegraph founded, price 2d London sewers modernised after fourth major outbreak of cholera Florence Nightingale introduces hygiene into military hospitals in Crimea Cellulose nitrate, first synthetic plastic material, invented by Alexander Parkes Nov 17: Livingstone finds the Victoria Falls Trollope The Warden Longfellow The Song of Hiawatha

1856 End of Crimean WarJan 29: Victoria Cross created by Royal Warrant, backdated to 1854 to recognise acts during the Crimean War (first award ceremony 26 June 1857)Start of Second Opium War

(to 1860) Discovery of Neanderthal skull Bessemer's converter revolutionises steel industry Hughes Tom Brown's Schooldays

1857 Transatlantic cable starts to be laid (see 1866) Oct 24: Sheffield FC founded – claim to be the world's first football team London postal districts introduced European financial crisisDec 31: Ottawa declared capital of Canada

1857–8

Indian Mutiny (unrest started March 1857 – peace treaty signed 8 July 1858)

1858 Jan: Legally proved Wills start to be entered into an index (Eng & W) – taken out of ecclesiastical jurisdiction Jan 31: 'Great Eastern' launched Feb 11: First of 18 apparitions of "a Lady" to Bernadette Soubirous in LourdesEast India Company dissolved Summer: 'The great stink' – smell of the River Thames forced Parliament to stop workRoyal Opera House opens in Covent Garden, London Offenbach Orpheus in the Underworld

1859 Peaceful picketing legalised in Britain Apr 25: Work started on building the Suez canal (opened 17 Nov 1869)May 4: Brunel's Royal Albert Bridge opened at Saltash giving rail link between Devon and CornwallJun 30: Blondin crosses Niagara Falls on a tightropeNov 24: Charles Darwin publishes The Origin of Species First American oil well drilled (in Titusville, Pennsylvania) Dickens A Tale of Two Cities

1860 Garibaldi's 'Red Shirts' conquer Sicily and Naples Second Maori War in New Zealand (to 1870) Aug 29: First tram service in Europe starts in BirkenheadSep: Prince of Wales (later Edward VII) visits United StatesOct 17: The Open Championship

(golf) begins Oct 18: Convention of Peking ends the Second Opium WarLinoleum patented in England by Frederick Walton (some say in Dec 1863)Royal Navy adopts ironclads

1861 May 25: American Civil War begins Apr 7: Third full British Census Dec 14: Prince Albert dies First horse-drawn trams in London Tax on newsprint abolished Emancipation of serfs in Russia Populations: Russia 76M, USA 32M, Italy 25M , Britain 23M Mrs Beeton Book of Household Management

1862 Jan 30: USS Monitor launched, first ironclad warship commissioned by the United States Navy

Mar 9: Battle of Hampton Roads, Virginia; first-ever naval battle between two ironclad warships – USS Monitor and CSS VirginiaApr 20: First pasteurisation test completed by Louis Pasteur and Claude Bernard Nov 4: Richard Gatling patents his machine gun Dec 31: USS Monitor, one of the first ironclad warships, sank under tow in a gale Lincoln issues first legal US paper money (Greenbacks) Bismark becomes first minister in Prussia Foucault measures the speed of light Victor Hugo Les Miserables

1863 Football Association founded Jan 10: First section of the London Underground Railway opens, between Paddington and Farringdon Street Opening of state institution for criminally insane at Broadmoor, England Jul 3: Battle of Gettysburg Manufacture (by Wilbrand) of TNT Kingsley The Water Babies

1864 Civil Registration in Ireland starts Civil Registration of marriages in Isle of Man starts Mar 11: The Great Sheffield Flood – over 250 died when a new dam broke while it was being filled for the first timeAug 22: Red Cross established – Twelve nations sign the First Geneva ConventionDec 8: Clifton Suspension Bridge over the River Avon officially openedA man-powered submarine "Hunley" and sank a Federal steam ship, USS Housatonic, at the entrance to Charleston harbour in 1864 – the first recorded successful attack by a submarine on a surface ship [Les Moore]

1865 Apr 14: End of American Civil War – slavery abolished in USA; Abraham Lincoln assassinated in Ford's Theatre by John Wilkes Booth [do these two events really come together on this day??]May 17: The International Telegraph Union establishedRockefeller forms Standard Oil (ESSO) in Ohio (some say 1870)Jul 5: William Booth (1829-1912) founds Salvation Army, in LondonJul 14: First ascent of the Matterhorn by Edward Whymper and party, four of whom died on the descent

Elizabeth Garrett Anderson (1836-1917) becomes first woman doctor in England [she later became the first woman mayor in England, in Aldeburgh 1908] First concrete roads built in Britain Locomotive Act (the 'Red Flag' Act) – required all road locomotives to travel at a maximum of 4 mph in the country and 2 mph in towns and have a crew of three, one of whom should carry a red flag walking 60 yards ahead of each vehicle (repealed 1896)Mendel states his law of heredity Lewis Carroll Alice in Wonderland Tolstoy War and Peace

1866 Jul 28: Atlantic cable first used – five attempts had been made over a nine year period (in 1857, two in 1858, 1865, and 1866) before lasting connections finally achieved by the SS Great Eastern with the 1866 cable and the repaired 1865 cableOct 16: Girton College foundedMarquis of Queensbury rules accepted for boxing Winchester repeating rifle comes into use in USA

1867 Mar 30: USA buys Alaska from Russia ("Seward's Folly") – formal transfer on 18 OctJuly 1: The British North America Act takes effect, creating the Canadian Confederation Aug 24: Fanny Adams murdered in Alton Nov 25: Alfred Nobel patents dynamite Dec 2: Charles Dickens gives his first public reading in the USA (in New York) The Second Reform Bill – vote given to town householders Typewriter invented (but not commercially successful until 1873) Lister uses carbolic antiseptic Ibsen Peer Gynt Strauss Blue Danube

1868 Last British election for which Poll Books available Last convicts landed in Australia (Western Australia) Impressionist movement begins to emerge in art

1869 Disestablishment of Irish Church Imprisonment for debt abolished in Britain May 10: Transcontinental railway completed in America Nov 17: Suez Canal opens

Nov 23: Cutty Sark launched in DumbartonHJ Heinz Company founded in USA, with its '57 Varieties'Ballbearings, celluloid, margarine, washing machine all invented

1870 GPO takes over the privately-owned Telegraph Companies (nationalised) Jun 1: Telegraph link to India first open for business Sep: Unification of Italy completedOct 1: First British postcard – halfpenny post Board Schools start attempting to impose consistent spelling (Forster's Act?) Dr Thomas Barnardo opens his first home for destitute children Water closets come into wide use Diamonds discovered in Kimberley, South Africa (some say 1866)Britain possesses 43% of world's merchant steam tonnage

1870-1900 Art & Crafts Period (Art & Antiques)

1871 Mar 27: First Rugby Football international, England v Scotland, played in EdinburghMar 29: Opening of Royal Albert Hall Apr 2: Fourth full British census Jun 16: University Tests Act allows students to enter Oxford, Cambridge and Durham universities without religious tests Jun 29: Trades Unions legalised in Britain, but picketing made illegal Bank Holidays Act

(see 1971) Commissions in British armed forces no longer to be purchased FA Cup introduced Nov 10: Henry Morton Stanley finds Dr David Livingstone in Africa (in Ujiji near Lake Tanganyika)Gilbert and Sullivan begin a 20 year collaboration Verdi Aida

1872 Mar 16: First FA Cup – Wanderers FC beat Royal Engineers AFC 1-0

at the Oval Jul 18: Secret Ballot introduced in Britain (no further Poll Books produced) Nov 30: First international football match, at Hamilton Crescent, Glasgow between Scotland and England – nil-all drawDec 4: American ship Mary Celeste is found abandoned by the British brig Dei Gratia in the Atlantic Ocean – the ship was unmanned but under full sail – she was recovered and used again for another 12 years or soLicensing hours introduced

Penalties introduced for failing to register births, marriages & deaths (Eng & Wales) Penny-farthing bicycles in general use Over 32,000 friendly societies in England

1873 Mar 1: Remington & Sons start to manufacture the new Scholes and Glidden typewriter (named Remington from 1876) Glidden invents barbed wire Jules Verne Around the World in 80 Days

1874 Disraeli and the Tories come to power in Britain – pass 11 major Acts of social reform in next 2 years First Trades Union MP is elected Factory Act introduces 56-hour week Apr 5: Birkenhead Park opened, said to be the first civic public park in the world – features of it later copied in Central Park, New York Hardy Far from the Madding Crowd Verdi Requiem

1875 Jan 1: Midland Railway abolishes Second Class passenger facilities, leaving First Class and Third Class. Other British railway companies followed during the rest of the year. (Third Class was renamed Second Class in 1956)London's main sewage system completed Aug 24: Captain Webb swims channel Artisan's Dwellings Act Climbing Boys Act passed Peaceful picketing permitted again Universal Postal Union established at Geneva Britain takes 42% share in Suez Canal Bizet Carmen

1876 Feb 14: Alexander Graham Bell and Elisha Gray each file a patent for the telephone – Bell awarded the rights Feb 18: Direct telegraph link established between UK and New ZealandAnnual centralised list of Scottish Wills from now (and most from 1823 also) Civil Registration of deaths in Isle of Man started Plimsoll Line established for loading of ships Dewey decimal classification for publishers introduced by Melvil Dewey May 1: Victoria proclaimed Empress of India Jun 25: Battle of Little Big Horn – Custer's last stand; last major North American Indian victory

Tchaikovsky Swan Lake 1877

Mar 15: First cricket Test Match begins (between Australia and England in Melbourne) – Australia won by 45 runsFirst tennis championships at Wimbledon Edison invents microphone and phonograph

– demonstrated first sound recording on 6th Dec Schiaperelli observes 'canals' on Mars

1878 Feb 11: First weekly weather forecast published by the Meteorological Office Edison & Swan invent electric lamp Red Flag Act in Britain limits mechanical road vehicles to 4mph (see 1896)CID established at New Scotland Yard Gilbert and Sullivan HMS Pinafore

1879 Jan 11: Start of Anglo-Zulu warJan 22: Battle of Rorke's Drift in the Anglo-Zulu WarrFeb 27: Discovery of Saccharin announced (Fahlberg and Remsen)Jun 1: First Tay Bridge completed (Thomas Bouch) Sep 18: Blackpool illuminations switched on for first timeDec 28 (Sunday): Tay Bridge Disaster – bridge collapsed in storm taking train with it – enquiry revealed corners had been cut during construction to reduce costs – replacement bridge constructed in 1887First telephone exchanges opened in London & Manchester Church of Christ Scientist established at Boston Ibsen Doll's House

1880 Education Act: schooling compulsory for 5-10 year oldsThe Burial Laws Amendment Act, 1880, Section 13 – To be buried under this Act normally means that the person buried was a non-conformist; the burial service was performed by a Non-Conformist minister, but in a Church of England church, as the burial was going to take place in the churchyard. Before that time, non-conformists could not be buried in parish churchyards.Aug 2: Greenwich Mean Time adopted throughout UK Britain possesses half world's merchant steam tonnage Mosquito found to be the carrier of malaria Rodin The Thinker

1881 Apr 3: Fifth full British Census Sep: Godalming in Surrey became the first town in England to have a public electricity supply installed (but in 1884 it reverted to gas lighting until 1904)

Postal Orders introduced First Boer War – Transvaal independence recognised Flogging abolished in Army and Royal Navy Oct 26: Gunfight at OK Corral

1882 May 6: Phoenix Park murders in Dublin Aug 29: Australia defeat England by seven runs in a Test match at The Oval – Institution of 'the Ashes' in cricket Standard Oil Co controls 95% of US oil refining capacity Fourth Eddystone Lighthouse completedTB bacillus discovered by Koch Conan Doyle A Study in Scarlet, first appearance of Sherlock Holmes Tchaikovsky 1812 Overture

1883 May 24: Brooklyn Bridge, New York opens (crosses East River) Aug 1: Parcel post starts in Britain Oct 4: Foundation of the Boys' Brigade in Glasgow by William Smith Foundation of the Primrose League, British Conservative organisation, by Lord Randolph Churchill Married Women's Property Act of 1882 becomes lawEkman opens a wood pulp mill in England, for manufacture of paper (he had opened one in Sweden in 1874)Aug 27: Eruption of Krakatoa near Java – 30,000 killed by tidal waveStatue of Liberty presented to USA by France Robert Louis Stevenson Treasure Island

1884 Jan 29: Appearance of the first 'fascicle' [from 'A' to 'ant'] ofOxford English Dictionary (full Dictionary not completed until 1928) The Third Reform Bill – vote given to agricultural workers May 31: John Harvey Kellogg patents corn flakes Sep 22: Herman Hollerith patents his mechanical tabulating machine Oct 13: Standard Meridian Conference – Greenwich made prime meridian of the world Oct 14: George Eastman patents the first film in roll form to prove practicable; in 1888 he perfected the Kodak camera Bateman's Great Landowners published (relates to land values in 1882)Fabergé produces the first of his jewelled Easter eggs for the Tsar

1884-1918 Art Noveau Period (Art & Antiques)

1885 Jan 26: Fall of Khartoum, General Gordon killed

Mar: First UK cremation in modern times took place at Woking (see 1902)Mar 14: First performance of The MikadoJun 17: The Statue of Liberty arrives in New York Harbour (in 350 pieces on board the French frigate Isère)Sep 5: The first train runs through the Severn TunnelSep 29: First electric tramcar used at Blackpool (some say first in Britain ran March 1882 in East London) Carl Benz builds the 'Motorwagen', a single-cylinder motor car Gottlieb Daimler patents the world's first motorcycle Secretary for Scotland appointed Canadian Pacific Railway completed Twain Huckleberry Finn

1886 Gladstone's first Irish Home Rule Bill rejected, despite his famous three-hour speechCrofters Holdings (Scotland) Act – created legal definitions of crofting parish and crofter, granted security of tenure to crofters and produced the first Crofters CommissionJan 9: Severn Rail Tunnel opened, but full service only started in December – longest mainline railway tunnel within the UK until 2007Jan 18: The Hockey Association formed in EnglandJan 20: Mersey railway (under Mersey) opened by Prince of Wales May: Pharmacist John Styth Pemberton invents a carbonated beverage later named "Coca-Cola" May 29: Putney Bridge opens in LondonSep 9: Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works finalisedHardy The Mayor of Casterbridge Millais Bubbles

1887 May 9: Buffalo Bill Cody's Wild West Show opens in London Jun 8: Herman Hollerith receives a patent for his punch card calculator Jun 21: Queen Victoria's Golden Jubilee Jul 13: Second Tay Bridge opened Jul 26: The Unua Libro (First Book) was published describing the international language Esperanto Daimler produces a four-wheeled motor car Kipling Plain Tales Haggard She

1888

Mar 2: Convention of Constantinople guarantees free maritime passage through Suez Canal in war and peaceMar 22: English Football League formedJack the Ripper active in east London

during the latter half of the year County Councils set up in Britain Dunlop invents pneumatic tyreFirst box camera – George Eastman registers the trademark Kodak, and receives a patent for his camera which uses roll film First successful adding machine patented by William Seward Burroughs in the USADec 23: Vincent van Gogh cuts off the lower part of his left ear First known recording of classical music – Handel's Israel in Egypt on wax cylinderRimsky-Korsakov Scheherezade Van Gogh Sunflowers

1889 Mar 31: Eiffel Tower completed (to mark centenary of French Revolution)May 14: Children's charity NSPCC launched in LondonJun 3: Canadian Pacific Railway completed from coast to coastJul 8: First issue of the Wall Street Journal publishedAug 14: London Dock Strike – docker's won their "Docker's Tanner", 6 old pennies Sep 28: Length of a metre definedOct 6: Moulin Rouge cabaret opens in ParisCelluloid film produced Gilbert & Sullivan Gondoliers; Jerome K Jerome Three Men in a Boat

1890 Jan 25: Nellie Bly returns to New York having gone round the world in 72 days using steamships and existing railroad systemsMar 4: Forth railway bridge opens – took six years to build Nov 4: City & South London Railway opens – London's first deep-level tube railway and first major railway in the world to use electric traction

1891 Mar 18: First telephone link between London & Paris Apr 5: Sixth full British Census Primary education made free and compulsory May 4: Fictional date when Sherlock Holmes throws Moriarty over Reichenbach Falls, then disappears for 3 years! (published in 1893)Ordnance Survey maps Epoch 2 – date range 1891-1912 (see 1904)Aug 24: Thomas Edison patents the motion picture camera

1892 Jan 1: Ellis Island immigration station opens in New York (closed in 1954)Electric oven invented Shop Hours Act – limit 74 hours per week for under-18s May 20: Last broad-gauge train leaves Paddington for Plymouth Oct 6: Alfred Lord Tennyson dies, aged 83, at his house Aldworth, near Haslemere Oct 31: Arthur Conan Doyle publishes the first Adventures of Sherlock HolmesDec 18: First performance of Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker ballet (in St Petersburg)

1893 Keir Hardy founds Independent Labour Party Henry Ford's first car Feb 4: Official opening of Liverpool Overhead Railway by Marquis of Salisbury Jun 7: Gandhi's first act of civil disobedience (in South Africa)Tchaikovsky 6th symphony (Pathétique), and suicide

1894 Jan 1: Manchester Ship Canal opens Local Government Act passed (start of civil parish councils, etc) Picture postcard introduced in Britain Mar 1: Blackpool Tower opens May 21: Queen Victoria opens Manchester Ship Canal Jun 23: International Olympic Committee founded at the initiative of Baron Pierre de Coubertin Jun 30: Tower Bridge first opens Aug 2: Death duties first introduced in BritainDec 22: Alfred Dreyfus convicted of treason in FranceBeatrice and Sidney Webb History of Trade Unionism Kipling Jungle Book Shaw Arms and the Man Debussy L'Apres-midi d'un Faune

1895 Jan 12: The National Trust founded in England London School of Economics (LSE) established Mar 22: First public showing of film on screen in Paris by Lumières Gugliemo Marconi invents wireless telegraphy – message over a mile Safety razor invented by King C Gillette Jul 12: First recorded motor journey of any length (56 miles) in Britain Oct 17: First people in Britain to be charged with motor offences – John Henry Knight and James Pullinger of Farnham, Surrey

May 24: Henry Irving becomes the first person from the theatre to be knighted May 28: Oscar Wilde sent to prisonNov: Röntgen discovers X-rays Sir Henry Wood starts Promenade Concerts in London HG Wells The Time Machine Chekov The Seagull

1896 Mar 31: Zip fastener patented by Whitcomb L JudsonApr 6–15: First modern Olympic Games held in AthensMay 4: Daily Mail first published Jun 2: Guglielmo Marconi receives a British patent (later disputed) for the radio Aug: Start of Klondyke Gold Rush in the Yukon Repeal of the 1878 Red Flag Act – removed the need for a crew of three, and increased the speed limit to 14 mph (first London to Brighton run on14 Nov in celebration, now an annual event)Dec 14: Opening of the Underground Railway (the "shooglie") in Glasgow – remains the only underground in Scotland Term psychoanalysis first comes into use Puccini La Boheme Richard Strauss Also Sprach Zarathustra

1897 Jun 22: Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee Flora Thompson leaves 'Candleford Green'Oct: Arthur Conan Doyle and family move into Undershaw at Hindhead – it had cost him just over £6,000 to build – they threw a big fancy-dress party at Christmas to celebrate, with 160 guests (including Jean Leckie who later became his second wife)Workmen's Compensation Act: employers liable for insurance of workforce Thomas Edison patents the Kinetoscope, the first movie projectorBram StokerDracula

1898 First photograph using artificial light Mar 17: USS Holland launched, the first practical submarine Jun 27: The first solo circumnavigation of the globe completed at Rhode island by Joshua Slocum in Spray (started from Boston, Mass on Apr 24, 1895) Zeppelin builds airship Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company foundedThe Curies discover Radium Oscar Wilde The Ballad of Reading Gaol Henry James The Turn of the Screw

1899-1902

Second Boer War 1899

Oct 11: Start of Second Boer War Nov 15: Winston Churchill captured by Boers Board of Education established in Britain Britain's first 'Garden City' laid out at Letchworth Valdemar Poulsen invents the tape recorder Johann Vaaler designs the paper clip Mar 6: Aspirin first marketed by BayerElgar Enigma Variations; Sibelius Finlandia Sigmund Freud The Interpretation of Dreams

1900 Jan 24: Spion Kop reached by British; massive losses by Lancashire Regiment Feb 9: Davis Cup tennis competition established Feb 27: Labour Party formed Feb 28: Relief of Ladysmith after a siege of 118 daysMay 17: Relief of Mafeking June/July: Boxer rising in Peking School leaving age in Britain raised to 14 years Central Line opens in London: underground is electrified Dec 10: Nobel prizes first awardedDec 14: Max Planck publishes his book on Quantum Mechanics Escalator shown at Paris exhibition

1901 Commonwealth of Australia founded Jan 22: Queen Victoria dies – Edward VII king Feb 2: Queen Victoria's funeral – interred beside Prince Albert in the Frogmore Mausoleum at Windsor Great Park.Mar 31: Seventh full British Census (available for inspection Jan 2002) June: Denunciation of use of concentration camps by British in Boer War Aug 30: Hubert Cecil Booth patents the vacuum cleaner Oct 2: Britain's first submarine launched Dec 12: First successful radio transmission across the Atlantic, by Marconi – Morse code from Cornwall to Newfoundland Ragtime introduced into American jazz Trans-Siberian Railway opens Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto No.2 Kipling Kim

1902 Balfour's Education Act provides for secondary education

Cremation Act – cremation can only take place at officially recognised establishments, and with two death certificates issuedMay 24: Empire Day (later Commonwealth Day) first celebrated May 31: Treaty of Vereeniging ends Second Boer War Aug 9: Coronation of Edward VII, following the end of the Boer WarOct 24: Arthur Conan Doyle reluctantly accepts a knighthoodMarie Curie discovers radioactivityUSA acquires perpetual control of Panama Canal (not yet completed, see 1913) Discovery by physicist Heaviside of atmospheric layer which aids conduction of radio waves Times Literary Supplement appears for first time

1903Workers' Education Association (WEA) formed in Britain Women's Social and Political Union formed in Britain by Emmeline Pankhurst Jul 19: First Tour de France cycle race finishesDec 14: First flight of Wilbur & Orville Wright (some say 17th Dec)Henry Ford sets up his motor company Bertrand Russell Principles of Mathematics Shaw Man and Superman Chekov The Cherry Orchard

1904 Leeds University established Apr 8: France and UK sign the Entente CordialeMay 4: America takes over construction of the Panama Canal from the French (completed 1914)Jul 16: 'Bloomsday' in Dublin – the day James Joyce uses for his novel UlyssesDec: Metropolitan Line in London goes electricFirst successful caterpillar track is madeOrdnance Survey maps Epoch 3 – date range 1904-1939 (see 1919)Barrie Peter Pan (legend says he invented the name Wendy for this, but the name exists in census records as early as 1880)Puccini Madame Butterfly

1905 The title 'Prime Minister' noted in a royal warrant for the first time – placed the Prime Minister in order of precedence in Britain immediately after the Archbishop of York Aliens Act in Britain: Home Office controls immigration Germany lays down the first Dreadnought battleship Apr 11: Einstein publishes Special Theory of Relativity (see 1916)Nov 28: Irish nationalist Arthur Griffith founds Sinn Féin

Dec 5: Part of the roof of Charing Cross station in London collapsed, killing 5 people – the station remained closed until 19 March 1906 Dec 9: French law on the Separation of the Churches and the State Picasso begins his 'Pink Period' in Paris Lehar The Merry Widow Debussy La Mer

1906 Free school meals for poor childrenFeb 10: Launching of HMS Dreadnought, first turbine-driven battleship Mar 15: Rolls-Royce Ltd registeredApr 18: San Francisco earthquake and fire: Contemporary accounts reported that 498 people lost their lives, though modern estimates put the number in the several thousands. More than half the city's population of 400,000 were left homelessMay 26: Vauxhall Bridge opened in LondonSep 12: Newport transporter bridge openedSep 20: Launching of Cunard's RMS Mauretania on the Tyne Dec 15: Opening of the Piccadilly Line in London Freud and Jung begin their association Amundsen traverses the north-west passage HW Fowler The King's English

1907 School medical system begins New Zealand becomes a Dominion Jan 7: Selborne Memorandum, reviewing the situation in favour of a Union in South Africa (see 1910)Imperial College, London, is established First airship flies over London Jul: Leo Hendrik Baekeland patents Bakelite, the first plastic invented that held its shape after being heatedAug 1-9: Baden-Powell leads the first Scout camp on Brownsea IslandNov 9: The Cullinan Diamond presented to Edward VII on his birthdayPavlov begins his studies on conditioned reflexes Lumiere develops a process for colour photography Diaghilev begins to popularise ballet First 'Cubist' exhibition in Paris Mahler Symphony No.8

1908 Coal Mines Regulation Act in Britain limits men to an eight hour day Separate courts for juveniles established in Britain Lord Baden-Powell starts the Boy Scout movement

Jun 30: The Tunguska event occurs near the Podkamennaya Tunguska River in Krasnoyarsk Krai, Siberia – most likely caused by the air burst of a large meteoroid or comet fragment Jul1: SOS became effective as an international signal of distress (see 1909)Aug 12: First 'Model T' Ford madeGrahame The Wind in the Willows

1909 Jan 1: Old Age Pensions Act came into force Jan 16: Ernest Shackleton's expedition finds the magnetic South Pole Mar 15: Selfridges department store opens in London Jul 25: Bleriot flies across the Channel (36 minutes, Calais to Dover)Aug 11: First SOS signal sent (some say June 10 by Cunard liner Slavonia)Beveridge Report prompts creation of labour Exchanges Peary reaches the north pole First commercial manufacture of Bakelite – start of the plastic age

1910 Constitutional crisis in Britain Railway strike and coal strikes in Britain May 6: Edward VII dies – George V king May 31: Union of South Africa formed – Botha first Prime Minister Dr Crippen caught by radio telegraphy; hanged 23 Nov at PentonvilleMadame Curie isolates radium Halley's comet reappears Tango becomes popular in North America and Europe Stravinsky The Fire Bird

1911 Parliament Act in Britain reduces the power of the House of Lords British MPs receive a salary Feb 18: First official flight with air mail takes place in Allahabad, British IndiaApr 2 Census: Pop. E&W 36M, Scot 4.6M, NI 1.25M May 15: Standard Oil in USA broken up into 33 companies Jun 22: Coronation of George VJul 19: Opening of Royal Liver Building in Liverpool Dec 12: Delhi replaces Calcutta as the capital of India Dec 14: National Insurance in Britain Dec 14: Amundsen reaches the south pole First British Official Secrets Act Rutherford: theory of atomic structures GK Chesterton The Innocence of Father Brown Irving Berlin Alexander's Rag-time Band

1911-1912

Strikes by seamen, dock and transport workers 1912

Irish Home Rule crisis grows in Britain Jan 18: Captain Scott's last expedition – he and his team reach the south pole on Jan 18th; all die on the way back, their bodies found in NovemberMar 1: Albert Berry makes the first parachute jump from a moving airplane (in USA)Apr 14: The 'unsinkable' Titanic sinks on maiden voyage – loss of 1,513 lives May 13: Royal Flying Corps (later the RAF) founded in Britain Britain nationalises the telephone system Daily Herald founded – lasts until 1964 Discovery of the 'Piltdown Man' – hoax, exposed in 1953

1913Jan 30: Third Irish Home Rule Bill rejected by House of Lords – threat of civil war in Ireland – formation of Ulster Volunteers to oppose Home Rule Suffragette demonstrations in London – Mrs Pankhurst imprisoned Jun 4: Emily Davison, a suffragette, runs out in front of the king's horse, Anmer, at the Epsom Derby and diesTrade Union Act in Britain establishes the right to use Union funds for political purposes Invention of stainless steel by Harry Brearley of SheffieldDec 21: Arthur Wynne's 'word-cross,' the first crossword puzzle, is published in the New York WorldGeiger invents his counter to measure radioactivity Stravinsky The Rite of Spring DH Lawrence Sons and Lovers Shaw Pygmalion

1914-1918 First World War (the "Great War")

1914 Jun 28: Archduke Ferdinand assassinated in Sarajevo Aug 4: Britain declares war on Germany, citing Belgian neutrality as reason Aug 5: British cableship Telconia cut through all five of Germany's undersea telegraph links to the outside worldAug 6: Germany's Atlantic U-boat Campaign beginsAug 15: Panama Canal opened, the Canal cement boat Ancon making the first official transit (plans for a grand opening were cancelled due to the start of WW1)Oct-Nov: Battle of Ypres – beginning of trench warfare on western front Nov 27: First policewoman goes on duty in BritainDec 16: German battleships bombard Hartlepool and Scarborough

Irish Home Rule Act provides for a separate Parliament in Ireland; the position of Ulster to be decided after the War James Joyce The Dubliners Chaplin and De Mille make their first films Burroughs Tarzan of the Apes Vaughan Williams London Symphony

1915 Jan 19: First Zeppelin air raid on England, over East Anglia – four killedFeb: Submarine blockade of Britain starts Apr-May: Second Battle of Ypres – poison gas used for first time Apr 25: Gallipoli campaign starts (declared ANZAC Day in 1916)May 7: RMS Lusitania sunk by German submarine off coast of Ireland – 1,198 died May 16: First meeting of a British WI (Women's Institute) took place in Llanfairpwll (aka Llanfair PG), AngleseyJunkers construct first fighter aeroplane Coalition Government formed in Britain under Asquith First automatic telephone exchange in Britain Buchan The Thirty-nine Steps

1916 Feb-Dec: Battle of Verdun – appalling losses on both sides, stalemate continues Apr 24: Easter Rising in Ireland – after the leaders are executed, public opinion backs independence May 21: First use of Daylight Saving Time in UK (although Sir Ernest Shackleton, on Endurance ice-bound in the Weddell Sea, advanced the expedition's time by one hour on Sunday 26th Sep 1915) May 31-Jun 1: Battle of Jutland – only major naval battle between the British and German fleets Jun 5: Sinking of HMS Hampshire and death of Kitchener Sep 15: First use of tanks in battle, but of limited effect (Battle of the Somme 1 July–18 Nov: over 1 million casualties) Aug 3: Sir Roger Casement hanged at Pentonville Prison for treason Dec 7: Lloyd-George becomes British Prime Minister of the coalition Compulsory military service introduced in Britain Einstein General Theory of Relativity Kafka Metamorphosis Holst The Planets Jazz sweeps through America

1917 February revolution in Russia; Tsar Nicholas abdicates USA declares war on Germany

Battle of Cambrai – first use of massed tanks, but effect more psychological than actual Apr 16: Lenin returns to Russia after exile Apr 17: USA declares war on Germany May 26: George V changes surname from Saxe-Coburg-Gotha to Windsor (Royal proclamation on 17 July)Jul-Nov: Battle of Passchendaele – little gained by either side Oct 17: Trans-Australian railway

line completed Nov 2: Balfour Declaration: Britain will support a Jewish state in Palestine Nov 7: 'October' Revolution in Russia – Bolsheviks overthrow provisional government; Lenin becomes Chief Commissar Dec 6: Halifax (Nova Scotia) Explosion, one of the world's largest artificial non-nuclear explosions to date: a ship loaded with wartime explosives blew up after a collision, obliterating buildings and structures within two square kilometres of the explosionDec 9: British forces capture Jerusalem Ministry of Labour is established in Britain Daniel Jones English Pronouncing Dictionary

1918 Mar 8: Start of world-wide 'flu pandemic Apr 1: Royal Air Force replaces The Royal Flying Corps Jul-Aug: Second Battle of the Marne: last major German offensive Oct 1: Arab forces under Lawrence of Arabia capture DamascusNov 11: Armistice signed Vote for women over 30, men over 21 (except peers, lunatics and felons) Dec: First woman elected to House of Commons, Countess Markiewicz as a Sinn Féin member refused to take her seat War of Independence in Ireland

1918-1939 Art Deco Period (Art & Antiques)

1919 Britain adopts a 48-hour working week Irish MPs meet as Dail Eirann Jan 18: Bentley Motors founded Jun 15: Alcock and Brown complete first nonstop flight across the Atlantic Jun 28: Treaty of Versailles signedNov 28: First woman to sit in House of Commons (Viscountess Astor) Sir Ernest Rutherford became the first person to transmute one element into another when he converted nitrogen into oxygen through nuclear reaction Ordnance Survey maps Epoch 4 – date range 1919-1943 (see 1945)

Keynes The Economic Consequencies of War Sassoon War Poems HL Mencken The American Language

1920 Jan 16: Prohibition starts in USA (lasts until Dec 1933) Feb: First roadside petrol filling station in UK – opened by the Automobile Association at Aldermaston on the Bath RoadNov 15: First General Assembly of the League of Nations (in Geneva)Regular cross-channel air service starts Oxford University admits women to degrees Marconi opens a radio broadcasting station in Britain Thompson patents his machine gun (Tommy gun) DH Lawrence Women in Love

1921 Jun 19 Census: Pop. E&W 37.9M, Scot 4.9M, NI 1.25M Dec 6: Anglo-Irish Treaty signed in London, leading to the formation of the Irish Free State and Northern IrelandIrish Regiments of British Army disbanded Railway Act in Britain amalgamates companies – only four remained Insulin discovery announcedFirst birth control clinicChaplin The Kid, first full-length film Prokofiev The Love for Three Oranges

1922 Fall of Lloyd-George coalition Law of Property Act – the manorial system effectively ended Jun 1: Royal Ulster Constabulary foundedOct: BBC established as a monopoly, and begins transmissions in November (2LO in London on 14 Nov; 5IT in Birmingham and 2ZY in Manchester on 15 Nov) Dec 6: Irish Free State comes into existenceEinstein General Theory of Relativity TS Eliot The Waste Land Joyce Ulysses published Feb 2 in Paris

1923 Jan 1: The majority of the railway companies in Great Britain grouped into four main companies, the Big Four: LNER, GWR, SR, LMSR – lasted until nationalisation in 1948Feb 16: Howard Carter unsealed the burial chamber of Tutankhamun Mussolini becomes dictator of Italy

Apr 28: First Wembley cup final (West Ham 0, Bolton 2) – "I'm Forever Blowing Bubbles," popular song of the time, became the West Ham anthem Jul 13: The Hollywood Sign is officially dedicated in the hills above Hollywood Sep 28: First publication of Radio Times Nov: Massive inflation in Germany leads to collapse of the currency Roads in Great Britain classified with A and B numbers Hubble shows there are galaxies beyond the Milky Way First American broadcasts heard in Britain Dec 31: Chimes of Big Ben broadcast on radio for the first timeFreud The Ego and the Id PG Wodehouse The Inimitable Jeeves Gershwin Rhapsody in Blue

1924 Jan 4–Nov 4: First Labour government in Britain, headed by Ramsay MacDonald Jan 21: Death of Lenin; succeeded by Stalin Jan 22: Ramsay MacDonald becomes the first Labour Prime Minister Feb 5: Hourly Greenwich Time Signals from the Royal Greenwich Observatory (the 'pips') were first broadcast by the BBC Mar 31: British Imperial Airways begins operations (formed by merger of four British airline companies – became BOAC in 1940) Forster A Passage to India

1925 Britain returns to gold standard Jul 18: Adolf Hitler publishes Mein Kampf Fitzgerald The Great Gatsby Noel Coward Hay Fever Charleston dance becomes fashionable

1926 Apr 21: Princess Elizabeth bornMay 3: General Strike begins, lasted until May 12 (mine workers for 6 months more)Oct 31: Death of Harry HoudiniFirst public demonstration of television (TV) by John Logie BairdElectricity (Supply) Act authorised the creation of the National Grid in the UK (Initial grid completed 1933, fully established in 1938)  Adoption of children is legalised in Britain May 9: Byrd claims to make a flight over north pole, later disputed (see 1929)

Dec 28: Highest recorded cricket innings (1,107 runs by Victoria v NSW at Melbourne)Kodak produces 16mm movie film Walt Disney arrives in Hollywood HW Fowler Dictionary of Modern English Usage

1927 Jan 7: First transatlantic telephone call – New York City to LondonJan 22: First live broadcast in the world on radio of a football match (by BBC – Arsenal v Sheffield United at Highbury)May 9: Canberra becomes Federal Capital of Australia (Government moved in on this date; construction had begun in 1913)May 1: First cooked meals on a scheduled flight introduced by Imperial Airways from London to ParisMay 20-21: Lindbergh makes solo flight across the Atlantic, in 33½ hoursMay 31: Last Ford Model T rolls off assembly lineJul 24: The Menin Gate war memorial unveiled at YpresParts of

the Diocese of Winchester split off to create the two new Diocese of Guildford and Portsmouth

Release of the first 'talkie' film (The Jazz Singer) 1928

Women over 21 get vote in Britain – same qualification for both sexes Apr 19: The 125th and final fascicle of the Oxford English Dictionary is published (see 1884)Apr 26: Madame Tussauds opens in LondonTeleprinters start to be used Jul 14: First pylon erected for the National GridSep 15: Sir Alexander Fleming accidentally discovers penicillin (results published 1929)Nov 1: Turkey adopts Roman alphabet Nov 18: Walt Disney's 'Mickey Mouse' pictures beginDec 20: First chip shop opened in Guiseley by Harry Ramsden

– Britain's longest established restaurant chain DH Lawrence Lady Chatterley's Lover Ravel Bolero Brecht and Weill The Threepenny Opera

1929 Abolition of Poor Law system in Britain Minimum age for a marriage in Britain (which had been 14 for a boy and 12 for a girl) now 16 for both sexes, with parental consent (or a licence) needed for anyone under 21

Feb 14: Screen debut of Mickey Mouse – same day as St Valentine's Day massacre! Oct 24: Wall Street crash on 'Black Thursday', followed on Oct 29 by 'Black Tuesday, regarded as the start of the Great Depression' – the Dow Jones Index didn't recover to its pre-crash level until 1954BBC begins experimental TV transmissions Nov 29: Byrd definitely makes a flight over south pole Einstein Unified Field Theory Hemingway A Farewell to Arms

1930 Jan 31: 3M begins marketing Scotch TapeFeb 1: The Times publishes its first crossword puzzle, compiled by Adrian Bell, aged 28Mar 6: Clarence Birdseye first marketed frozen peas

(Springfield, Mass) First Nazis elected to the German Reichstag Jul 30: Uruguay beats Argentina 4-2 to win the first Football World Cup Oct 5: R101 airship disaster – British abandons airship construction Youth Hostel Association (YHA) founded in Britain Nov 13: Discovery of dwarf planet Pluto by Tombaugh Film All Quiet on the Western Front

1931 Apr 14: Highway Code first issuedApr 26 Census: Pop. E&W 40M, Scot 4.8M, NI 1.24M (but details destroyed by fire during WW2)May 1: Empire State Building completed in New York Statute of Westminster: British Dominions become independent sovereign states Oct 21: National Government formed to deal with economic crisis – Britain comes off gold standard Collapse of the German banking system; 3,000 banks there close Unemployment in Germany reaches 5.66M

1932 Great Hunger March of unemployed to London Moseley founds British Union of Fascists Roosevelt elected President of USA Slump grows worse in USA; 5,000 banks close, unemployment rises Cockroft and Walton accelerate particles to disintegrate an atomic nucleus Mar 19: Sydney Harbour Bridge openedMay 20/21: Amelia Earhart first solo nonstop flight across Atlantic by a female pilot

Jul 12: Lambeth Bridge in London opensOct 3: Iraq gains independence from BritainOct 3: The Times introduces Times New Roman typeface Sir Thomas Beecham established the London Philharmonic Orchestra Huxley Brave New World (see 1963)

1933 Jan 30: Hitler becomes chancellor of Germany Roosevelt launches his 'New Deal' Oxford Union: "This House will in no circumstances fight for King and Country" Sep: Last pylon of the initial National Grid erectedNov 12: First known photos of the 'Loch Ness Monster' takenDec 5: Prohibition ends in USAICI scientists discover polythene Only 6 pennies minted in Britain this year

1934 Hitler becoms Fuehrer of Germany Mao Tse-tung's 'Long March' starts in China Mar 26: Driving tests introduced in UK? (but see 1935)Apr 4: 'Cats eyes' first used in the road

in UK May 28: The Glyndebourne festival inaugurated Jun 9: Cartoon character Donald Duck first appearsJul 18: King George V opens Mersey Tunnel Sep 26: RMS Queen Mary launched Nov 30: First time a steam locomotive goes at 100 mph ('Flying Scotsman') Graves I, Claudius Flying Down to Rio first Rogers/Astaire film

1935Feb 28: Nylon first produced by Gerard J. Berchet of Wallace Carothers' research group at DuPont (there is no evidence to the widely-supposed story that the name derives from New York-London)Mar 12: Hore-Belisha introduces pedestrian crossings and speed limits for built-up areas in Britain London adopts a 'Green Belt' scheme Jun 1: Voluntary driving tests introduced in UK (others say Mar 13, but see also 1934)Jul 30: Penguin paperbacks launchedSep 3: Land speed record of 301.13 mph by Malcolm Campbell on Bonneville Salt FlatsOct 3: Italy invades Abyssinia

Dec 17: First flight of the Douglas DC-3 'Dakota' aircraftTalking books started with the publication of Agatha Christie's The Murder of Roger Ackroyd and Joseph Conrad's Typhoon TS Eliot Murder in the Cathedral

1936 Jan 20: George V dies; Edward VIII king May 5: First flight of a Spitfire Jet engine first tested May 27: RMS Queen Mary makes maiden voyage Jesse Owens wins 4 gold medals at Berlin Olympic Games Jul 18: Spanish Civil War starts Jul 24: 'Speaking clock' service starts in UK Oct: Jarrow march to LondonNov 2: British Broadcasting Corporation initiates the BBC Television Service, world's first public TV transmission Nov 30: Crystal Palace destroyed by fireDec 5: Edward VIII abdicates (announced Dec 10) – popular carol that Christmas: "Hark the Herald Angels sing, Mrs Simpson's got our King" Duke of York becomes George VI Chaplin film Modern Times Prokofiev Peter and the Wolf

1937 Apr 12: Frank Whittle ground-tests the first jet engine designed to power an aircraftApr 26: German planes bomb Guernica in Spain Apr 27: Golden Gate Bridge opens in San Francisco May 6: Zeppelin Hindenburg destroyed by fire in USA after lightning struck it at the landing tower May 12: Coronation of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth May 28: The Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco officially opened May 28: Neville Chamberlain becomes Prime Minister – policy of appeasement towards Hitler Jun 3: Duke of Windsor marries Wallis Simpson Jul 5: Spam introduced into the market by Hormel Foods CorporationJul 7: Japanese forces invade China Dec 4: The Dandy first publishedDec 21: Walt Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs opens – first feature-length animated cartoonAlan Turing publishes outline of his 'Turing Machine''999' emergency telephone call facility starts in London Billy Butlin opens his first holiday camp

Steinbeck Of Mice and Men; JRR Tolkien The HobbitCarl Orff Carmina Burana Picasso Guernica

1938 Mar 12: Germany invades and annexes Austria Jul 3: 'Mallard' does 126 mph (203 km/h); still world record for a steam locomotive Sep 27: Largest ocean liner ever built Queen Elizabeth launched on Clydebank Sep 29: Chamberlain visits Hitler in Munich – promises 'peace in our time' Oct 30: Orson Welles broadcasts his radio play of HG Wells's The War of the Worlds, causing panic in the USAPrinciple of paid holidays established in Britain HMS Rodney first ship to be equipped with radar First practical ball-point pen produced by Hungarian journalist, Lajos Biro

1939-45 Second World War (the "Peoples War")

1939 Germany annexes Czechoslovakia Sep 1: Germany invades Poland Sep 3: Britain and France declare war on Germany at 5pm Sep 6: First air-raid on Britain Sep 11: British Expeditionary Force (BEF) sent to France Oct 14: HMS Royal Oak sunk in Scapa Flow with loss of 810 lives Dec 7: 'First flight' of Canadian troops sail for Britain – 7,400 men on 5 ships Dec 17: Admiral Graf Spee scuttled outside MontevideoStart of evacuation of women and children from London Coldest winter in Britain since 1894, though this could not be publicised at the time

1940Apr 1:BOAC starts operations, replacing Imperial and British Airways Ltd May 11: National Government formed under Churchill May 13: Germany invades France May 15: Nylon stockings go on sale for the first time in the United States May 27-Jun 4: Evacuation of British Army at Dunkirk Jun 25: Fall of France Aug 21: Trotsky assassinated in Mexico on Stalin's orders Sep 7: Germany launches bombing blitz on Britain, the first of 57 consecutive nights of bombingSep 12: Prehistoric wall paintings found at Lascaux Caves in France Sep 15: Battle of Britain: massive waves of German air attacks decisively repulsed by the RAF – Hitler postpones invasion of Britain

Nov 7: Tacoma Narrows suspension bridge collapses in USA four months after its completion (famously filmed) Nov 14: Coventry heavily bombed and the Cathedral almost completely destroyedFirst successful helicopter flight?? (probably earlier)Films: Fantasia, The Great Dictator Hemingway For Whom the Bell Tolls

1941 No census – total British population estimated at 48.2M May 10: Rudolf Hess flies to Scotland (to offer peace?) May 27: 'Bismark' sunk June 22: Germany invades Russia (Operation Barbarossa)July 1: First Canadian armoured regiments arrive in Britain Oct 31: Sculptures (George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt, and Abraham Lincoln) on Mount Rushmore completed – started in 1927Sunday Dec 7: Japan attackes US fleet at Pearl Harbour Dec 8: USA enters the War Dec: Canadian forces given operation role in defending south coast of England Dec 24: Hong Kong falls to the JapaneseManhattan Project of nuclear research begins in America Britain introduces severe rationing First British jet aircraft flies, based on work of Whittle Bailey invents his portable military bridge First use of antibioticsFilm Citizen Kane

1942 May 30: Over 1,000 bombers raid Cologne Jun 4: Battle of Midway Aug 19: Abortive raid on Dieppe, largely by Canadian troops Sep 6:

Germans defeated at Stalingrad Oct 3: First successful launch of V2 rocket in Germany – first man-made object to reach spaceOct 3: The world was blessed with me!

  Oct 23-Nov 4: Battle of El Alamein – Montgomery defeats Rommel Dec 2: Manhattan Project – a team led by Enrico Fermi initiates the first self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction Invention of world's first programmable computer by Alan Turing in co-operation with Max Neumann – used to crack German codes

Beveridge Report Social Security and National Insurance Gilbert Murray founds Oxfam Film Bambi

1943 May 16: 'Dam Buster' raids on Ruhr dams by RAF Allies invade Italy – Benito Mussolini resigns as Italian Dictator, 24 July Round-the-clock bombing of Germany begins Nov 30: Tehran Conference – Roosevelt, Churchill, and Stalin meet Antibiotic Streptomycin isolated by Waksman

1944 Apr 6: PAYE income tax begins Jun 4: Allies enter Rome Jun 6: D-Day invasion of Normandy Jun 12: First V1 flying bombs hit London Sep 8: First V2 rocket bombs hit London Sep 11: Allies enter Germany Dec 16: Battle of the Bulge: German counter-offensive Butler Education Act: Britain to provide secondary education for all children

1945 Feb 4: Yalta Conference between Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin Mar 29: Last V1 flying bomb attack Apr 25: Berlin surrounded by Russian troops Apr 30: Hitler commits suicide May 8: VE Day May 9: Channel Islands liberatedJun 26: UN Charter signed, in San FranciscoJul 16: First ever atomic bomb exploded in a test in New Mexico (although there were other forms of atomic device before that, such as the Pile at Stagg Field, first critical on 2nd Dec 1942)Jul 26: Labour win UK General Election – Churchill out of office Jul 29: BBC Light Programme startsAug 6: Atomic bomb dropped on HiroshimaAug 9: Atomic bomb dropped on NagasakiAug 15: VJ DaySep 2: Japanese surrender was signed aboard USS Missouri Oct 24: United Nations Organisation comes into existence (charter ratified by the five permanent members of the Security Council – Republic of China, France, Soviet Union, United Kingdom, and United States – and by a majority of the other 46 signatories) Nov 4: UNESCO founded

Dec 5: Loss of 'Flight 19' on a training exercise starts the Bermuda Triangle legend Dec 27: World Bank establishedOrdnance Survey maps Epoch 5 – dates range from 1945 Orwell Animal Farm Britten Peter Grimes opera Brecht The Caucasian Chalk Circle Flora Thompson Lark Rise to Candleford

1946Jan 1: First civil flight from Heathrow Airport Mar 1: Bank of England nationalised Mar 5: Churchill uses the term 'Iron Curtain' in a speech in Missouri Transition to National Health Service starts in Britain (came into being 5th July 1948)Jul 25: US starts nuclear tests at Bikini Atoll – hence the name adopted for the garment which 'reveals the most potent forces of nature'! Sep: First Cannes Film Festival held Oct 7: Start of Dick Barton, Special Agent on BBC radio

– until March 1951 Oct 23: First session of new United Nations Organisation held, in Flushing Meadow, New YorkAlistair Cooke starts his regularLetter from America on BBC radio

– until 2004   Russell History of Western Philosophy O'Neill The Iceman Cometh

1947 Most severe winter in Britain for 53 years at start of the year – heavy snow and much flooding later Jan 1: Coal Mines nationalised Feb 7: First Dead Sea Scrolls found (discovered between 1947 and 1956 in eleven caves)Feb 23: International Organization for Standardization (ISO) founded Mar 1: International Monetary Fund begins financial operations Apr 1: School leaving age raised to 15 in Britain Aug 14/15: India gains independence: sub-continent partitioned to form India (Secular, Hindu majority) and Pakistan (Islamic)First British nuclear reactor developed Oct 14: Chuck Yeager first to break the sound barrier Oct 26: British military occupation ends in Iraq

Nov 20: Marriage of Princess Elizabeth (later Elizabeth II) and Philip Mountbatten in Westminster AbbeyTennessee Williams A Streetcar Named Desire

1948 Jan 1: British Railways nationalised UN sanctions the creation of the State of Israel – first Israel/Arab war Jan 30: Gandhi assassinated in DelhiApr 3: Marshall Plan signed by President Truman for rebuilding the allied countries of Europe (aid had started in 1947 and ended in 1951)Policy of apartheid starts in South Africa Jul 1: Berlin airlift starts (to 30 Sep 1949) Jul 5: National Health Service (NHS) begins in Britain Jul 29: London Olympics beginOct 12: First Morris Minor producedBritish Citizenship Act : all Commonwealth citizens qualify for British passports Transistor radio inventedLong-playing record (LP) invented by Goldmark Kinsey Report in USA Sexual Behaviour in the Human Male World Health Organisation (WHO) established as part of UN 200 inch reflecting telescope completed at Mount Palomar, California (construction started in 1936)'Steady State' theory of the Universe proposed by Bondi and Gold Mailer The Naked and the Dead

1949 Mar 15: Clothes rationing ends in Britain Apr 4: Twelve nations sign The North Atlantic Treaty creating NATO Apr 20: First Badminton Horse Trials heldMay 12: Russians lift the Berlin blockade Aug 29: Russians explode their first atomic bomb Sep 30: Berlin airlift endsDe Haviland produces the Comet – first jet airliner (see 1952) Maiden flight of the Bristol Brabazon (broken up in 1953 for scrap)Orwell 1984, (written in 1948, for which the title in an anagram)Arthur Miller Death of a Salesman Film The Third Man

1950 Mar 8: McCarthy begins Inquiry into Un-American Activities (Tydings Committee)May 19: Points rationing ends in Britain May 26: Petrol rationing ends in Britain

Jun 25: Korean War starts (to 27 Jul 1953) Jun 28: England beaten 1-0 at soccer by the USA

in the World Cup Jul 11: Andy Pandy first seen on BBC TVSep 9: Soap rationing ends in Britain Oct 7: China invades Tibet Dec 28: The Peak District becomes the Britain's first National Park UN Building completed in New York (opened 9 Jan 1951)

1951 Census: Pop. E&W 43.7M, Scot 5M. NI 1.37M Jan 1: First episode of The Archers broadcastMay 3: Festival of Britain and Royal Festival Hall open on South Bank, London May 28: First Goon Show broadcastOct 31: Zebra crossings introduced into law in BritainDec 20: Electricity first produced by nuclear power, from Experimental Breeder Reactor I in Idaho (see 1962)Salinger Catcher in the Rye Britten Billy Budd

1952 Feb 1: First TV detector van commissioned in Britain Feb 6: George VI dies; Elizabeth II queen, returns from Kenya Feb 21: Identity Cards abolished in Britain Mar 17: Utility furniture and clothing scheme endsApr: Kingsway tram tunnel in London closesMay 2: First commercial jet airliner service launched, by BOACComet between London and JohannesburgJul 5: Last tram runs in London (Woolwich to New Cross) Aug 16: Lynmouth flood disaster Sep 6: DH110 crashes at Farnborough Air Show, 26 killed Sep 29: John Cobb killed in attempt on world water speed record on Loch Ness Oct 5: End of tea rationing in Britain Oct 3: Britain explodes her first atomic bomb, in Monte Bello Islands, AustraliaOct 8: Harrow & Wealdstone rail crash, 112 killed Nov 1: The first H-bomb ever ('Mike') was exploded by the USA – the mushroom cloud was 8 miles across and 27 miles high. The canopy was 100 miles wide. Radioactive mud fell out of the sky followed by heavy rain. 80 million tons of earth was vaporised.Nov 5: Eisenhower sweeps to power as US President Nov 14: First regular UK singles chart published by the New Musical Express Nov 25: Agatha Christie's The Mousetrap opens in London

Dec 4: Great smog hits LondonContraceptive pill invented (see 1961)Radioactive carbon used for dating prehistoric objects Bonn Convention: Britain, France and USA end their occupation of West Germany Becket Waiting for Godot Hemingway The Old Man and the Sea Steinbeck East of Eden

1953 Jan 31/Feb 2: Said to be the biggest civil catastrophe in Britain in the 20th century – severe storm and high tides caused the loss of hundreds of lives –- effects travelled from the west coast of Scotland round to the south-east coast of England [The Netherlands were even worse affected with over a thousand deaths] Feb 5: Sweet rationing ends in Britain Mar 5: Death of Stalin Mar 26: Jonas Salk announces his polio vaccine Apr 24: Winston Churchill knightedApr 25: Francis Crick and James D Watson publish the double helix structure of DNA (see 1962)May 29: Everest conquered by Hillary and Tensing Jun 2: Coronation of Elizabeth II Jul 27: End of the Korean War Aug 12: USSR explodes Hydrogen Bomb Sep 26: Sugar rationing ends in Britain (after nearly 14 years) Nov 21: Piltdown Man skull declared a hoax by the Natural History MuseumNov 25: Hungary becomes the first football team outside the British Isles to beat England at home, winning 6-3 at Wembley StadiumDec 1: Playboy magazine first published – Marilyn Monroe as centrefoldDec 10: Pilkington Brothers patent the float glass processArthur Miller The Crucible

1954 Apr 11: 'The most boring day in history'? – according to a survey by by True Knowledge, apparently nothing happened worthy of report! May 6: First sub 4 minute mile (Roger Bannister, 3 mins 59.4 secs) May 10: Bill Haley and the Comets release Rock Around the ClockJul 3: Food rationing officially ends in Britain Jul 5: BBC broadcasts its first television news bulletin Sep 30: First atomic powered sumbmarine USS Nautilus commissioned First comprehensive school opens in London (Kidbrooke School in the London Borough of Greenwich)

Routemaster bus starts operating in London [or was it 1956?] (see also 2005)Nov: First transistor radios sold Dylan Thomas Under Milk Wood Golding Lord of the Flies Tennessee Williams Cat on a Hot Tin Roof British Top 20 begins

– first No.1 was Hold My Hand by Don Cornell 1955

Royal Commission on Common Land started – led to 1965 Common Land Registration ActApr 7: Anthony Eden becomes Prime Minister Apr 12: Anti-polio vaccine developed by Jonas Salk declared safe and effective to use (available to public 1 May 1956)Jul 27: Allied occupation of Austria (after WW2) endsSep 22: Commercial TV starts in Britain – first advert was for Gibbs SR toothpaste – BBC Radio kills off Grace Archer in retaliationDec 12: Christopher Cockerell patents the hovercraft'Mole' self-grip wrench patented by Thomas Coughtrie of Mole & SonsNabokov Lolita Pop music: Bill Haley Rock Around the Clock

1956 Mar 1: Radiotelephony spelling alphabet introduced (Alpha, Bravo, etc)Apr 17: Premium Bonds first launched – first prizes drawn on 1 Jun 1957 (and mine still hasn't won!)May 24: The first Eurovision Song Contest is held in Lugano, Switzerland – won by the host nationJun 3: 3rd class travel abolished on British Railways (renamed 'Third Class' as 'Second Class', which had been abolished in 1875 leaving just First and Third Class)Sep 25: Submarine telephone cable under the Atlantic becomes operationalOct 23: Hungarians protest against Soviet occupation (protest crushed on 4 Nov)Oct 31: Britain and France invade Suez Nov 16: Suez canal blocked for a few months (see also 1957 & 1967)Britain constructs world's first large-scale nuclear power station in Cumberland Emergence of the Angry Young Men in English literature Pop music: Elvis Presley Heartbreak Hotel

1957 Jan 11: Harold Macmillan becomes Prime Minister Feb 16: BBC TV started to broadcast Six-Five Special, breaking the 'Toddlers' Truce' of no broadcasting 6-7pm

Mar 8: Suez canal reopened by the Egyptians (see 1956)Mar 25: Treaty of Rome to create European Economic Community (EEC) of six countries: France, West Germany, Italy, Belgium, Holland and Luxembourg – became operational Jan 1958 Apr 26: First Sky at Night broadcast by BBC – presented by Patrick MooreMay 14: Post-Suez petrol rationing endsMay 15: Britain explodes her first hydrogen bomb, at Christmas Island Jun 1: Premium Bonds first prizes drawn Sep 26: West Side Story opens in New York Oct 4: Sputnik I launched by Soviet Union – first artificial satellite Nov 3: Sputnik 2 launched by Soviet Union – carried a dog ('Laika')Dec 4: Lewisham rail disaster – 90 killed as two trains collide in thick fog and a viaduct collapses on top of themQueen's first Christmas TV broadcast   Helvetica typeface developed (in Switzerland)Pop music: Elvis Presley All Shook Up

1958 Jan 31: Launch of Explorer 1 – first American satelliteVan Allen radiation belt round the earth confirmed by Explorer 1Feb 6: Munich air disaster – Manchester United team members killed Feb 25: CND launched Mar 17: USA launches its first satellite (Vanguard 1) – space race with the USSR begins Easter: First anti-nuclear protest march to Aldermaston (emergence of CND) May 13: Velcro trade mark registeredJul 10: Britain's first parking meters installed, Mayfair, London Jul 26: Charles created Prince of WalesFirst life peerages awarded Race riots in Britain, at Notting Hill and in Nottingham Aug 3: USS Nautilus travels under the polar ice cap USA begins to produce Inter-Continental Ballistic Missiles (ICBMs) Electronic computers begin to be used in research, industry and commerce Stereophonic records come into use Oct 5: Charles de Gaulle establishes Fifth Republic in France – and is elected President on 21 DecOct 13: Michael Bond publishes the first Paddington Bear story Oct 26: First commercial flight of Boeing 707 (NY to Paris)Dec 5: Inauguration of Subscriber Trunk Dialling (STD) in Britain (completed in 1979)Dec 5: Preston by-pass opens – UK's first stretch of motorway

The Beatles pop group formed Radio: Beyond Our Ken starts Beckett Krapp's Last Tape Pasternak Dr ZhivagoPop music: Jerry Lee Lewis Great Balls of Fire; Everly Brothers All I Have to do is Dream

1959 Jan 3: Alaska became the 49th state of the USAFeb 3: 'The Day The Music Died' – plane crash kills Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and The Big Bopper Feb 17: Vanguard 2 satellite launched – first to measure cloud-cover distribution Apr 25: St Lawrence Seaway opensMay 24: Empire Day becomes Commonwealth Day Aug: BMC Mini car launched Aug 21: Hawaii becomes 50th State of the USA Sep 14: USSR crash-lands unmanned Lunik on the moon Oct 3: Postcodes introduced in Britain Nov 1: First section of M1 motorway openedCharles de Gaulle becomes French PresidentEuropean Free Trade Association (EFTA) established as an alternative to the EEC Leakey discovers 600,000 year-old human remains in Tanganyika Films Some Like it Hot and La Dolce Vita Anouilh Becket Pop music: Buddy Holly It Doesn't Matter Any More; Cliff Richard Living Doll; Adam Faith What Do You Want 'The Year that changed Jazz': Miles Davis Kind of Blue; Charles Mingus Mingus Ah Um; Dave Brubeck Time Out; Ornette Coleman The Shape of Jazz to Come

1960 Feb 3: Macmillan 'wind of change' speech in South Africa Seventeen African colonies become independent this year Sharpeville Massacre in South Africa Mar 17: New £1 notes issued by Bank of England Mar 18: Last steam locomotive of British Railways named Jul 21: Francis Chichester arrives in New York aboard Gypsy Moth II (took 40 days), winning the first single-handed transatlantic yacht race which he co-founded (see 1967)Aug 12: Echo I, the first (passive) communications satellite, launched

Aug: Russian Sputnik 5 orbits carrying two dogs, 40 mice, 2 rats and a variety of plants on board – all returned safelySep 12: MoT tests on motor vehicles introduced Sep 29: Nikita Khrushchev disrupts the United Nations General Assembly with a number of angry outbursts Oct 1: HMS Dreadnought nuclear submarine launched Nov 2: Penguin Books found not guilty of obscenity in the Lady Chatterley's Lover case Nov 19: First vertical flight of a Harrier jump-jet, at DunsfoldDec 9: First episode of Coronation Street broadcast – on 17 Sept 2010 became the world's longest-running TV soap opera currently in productionDec 31: National Service endedFirst lasers demonstratedInternational Agreement to reserve Antarctica for scientific research (came into force 23 June 1961)Pinter The Caretaker Film: Hitchcock Psycho Pop music: Eddie Cochran Three Steps to Heaven; Shadows Apache; Beatles first album Please Please Me

1961 Jan 1: Farthing ceases to be legal tender in UKJan 20: John F Kennedy becomes US President Mar 8: First US Polaris submarines arrive at Holy Loch Mar 13: Black & White £5 notes cease to be legal tender Mar 14: New English Bible (New Testament) published Apr 12: Yuri Gagarin first man in space – followed shortly afterwards by Alan Shepard on 5th MayApr 23: Census: Pop. E&W 46M, Scot 5.1M, NI 1.4M May 1: Betting shops legal in Britain May 25: John F Kennedy announces his goal to put a "man on the moon" before the end of the decade Aug 13: Berlin Wall construction starts (wall existed until Nov 1989) Oct 10: Volcanic eruption on Tristan da Cunha – whole population evacuated to Britain Oral contraceptive launched Joseph Heller Catch-22 Film West Side Story Pop music: Helen Shapiro Walking Back to Happiness

1962 Feb 20: John Glenn first American in orbit (3 circuits in Friendship 7)

Apr 26: US Ranger 4 crashes on the far side of the Moon without returning any scientific data May 25: Consecration of new Coventry Cathedral (old destroyed in WW2 blitz) – Britten War RequiemJun 15: First nuclear generated electricity to supplied National Grid (from Berkeley, Glos) Jul 10: First TV transmission between US and Europe (Telstar) – first live broadcast on 23 JulJul 20: First passenger-carrying hovercraft enters service, along the North Wales Coast from Moreton to Rhyl – but ends Sep 14. Aug 5: Marilyn Monroe found deadAug 5: Nelson Mandela jailedAug 6: Jamaica gains full independence from the United KingdomOct 24: Cuba missile crisis – brink of nuclear war Nov 28: Britain and France agree to construct Concorde (see 1969) Dec 22: No frost-free nights in Britain till 5 Mar 1963 Britain passes Commonwealth Immigrants Act to control immigration Nobel Prize awarded to Watson, Crick, and Wilkins for discovery of molecular structure of DNA (see 1953)Thalidomide withdrawn after it causes deformities in babies Film Jules et Jim Solzhenitsyn A Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich Pop music: Beatles Love Me Do

1963 Jan: Cold weather forces cancellation of most football matches (only 4 English First Division matches in the month) – the first 'pools panel' createdMar 27: Beeching Report on British Railways (the 'Beeching Axe') Jun 5: Secretary of State for War John Profumo resigns in a sex scandal Jun 16: Valentina Tereshkova first woman in space Jun 20: The "red telephone" link established between Soviet Union and United States following the Cuban Missile CrisisAug 1: Minimum prison age raised to 17 Aug 8: 'Great Train Robbery' on Glasgow to London mail train Aug 28: Martin Luther King gives his I have a dream speech Sep 17: Fylingdales (Yorks) early warning system operational Sep 25: Denning Report on Profumo affair Nov 18: Dartford Tunnel opens Nov 22: President Kennedy assassinated in Dallas, Texas; Aldous Huxley died the same dayNov 23: First episode of Dr Who on BBC TVFrance vetoes Britain's entry into EEC

Pop music: Beatles achieve international fame — release of Please Please Me, From Me to You, She Loves You, I Want to Hold Your HandRachel Carson Silent Spring, on the effects of chemical pesticides on the environment Film The Birds

1964 Jan 1: First 'Top of the Pops' on BBC TV Feb 7: The Beatles arrive on their first visit to the United States Feb 25: Cassius Clay (Muhammad Ali) beats Sonny ListonApr 9: First Greater London Council (GLC) election Apr 21: BBC2 TV starts Jul 31: US Ranger 7 sends back 4,000 photos from the moon before impact Aug 22: Match of the Day starts on BBC2Sep 4: Forth road bridge opens Sep 15: The Sun newspaper founded in Britain, replacing the Daily Herald Oct 16: Harold Wilson becomes Prime Minister Oct 16: China explodes an atomic bomb   McLuhan Understanding Media CP Snow Corridors of Power Films Dr Strangelove and A Fistful of Dollars Pop music: Beatles Can't Buy Me Love, A Hard Day's Night, I Feel Fine; Rolling Stones It's All Over Now, Little Red Rooster; Animals House of the Rising Sun; Chuck Berry No Particular Place to Go

1965 Jan 24: Winston Churchill dies age 90Feb 7: First US raids against North Vietnam Feb 25: I'll Never Find Another You by The Seekers No.1 in UKMar 18: Cosmonaut Aleksei Leonov becomes the first man to 'walk' in space Apr 6: Launch of Early Bird commercial communications satellite Jul 16: Mont Blanc road tunnel opens (begun in 1957)Aug 1: TV ban on cigarette advertising in Britain Aug 5: Common Land Registration Act – people who thought they still held common rights had to register themAug 15: The Beatles play at Shea Stadium in New York CitySep 21: Oil strike by BP in North Sea (or natural gas?) Oct 8: Post Office Tower operational in London Oct 28: Death penalty for murder suspended in Britain for five-year trial period, then abolished 18 Dec 1969 Nov 11: Declaration of UDI in Rhodesia Dec 22: 70mph speed limit on British roads

Britain enacts first Race Relations Act Pop music: Beatles Ticket to Ride, Help!, Day Tripper; Rolling Stones The Last Time; Kinks Tired of Waiting for You; Byrds Mr Tambourine Man; Bob Dylan Like a Rolling Stone

1966 Feb 3: Soft landing on moon by unmanned Luna 9 – followed by Surveyor 1Feb 14:

Australia converts from £ to $ Mar 23: Archbishop of Canterbury meets Pope in Rome May 3: The Times begins to print news on its front page in place of classified advertisements May 16: Seamen's strike begins (ended 1 Jul) Jul 30: World Cup won by England at Wembley (4-2 in extra time v West Germany) Sep 8: First Severn road bridge opens Oct 21: Aberfan disaster – slag heap slip kills 144, incl. 116 children Dec 1: First Christmas stamps issued in Britain Eighteen new universities were created in Britain between 1961–1966 Pop music: Sinatra Strangers in the Night; Beach Boys Good Vibrations

1967 Jan 4: Donald Campbell dies attempting to break his world water speed record on Conniston Water – his body and Bluebird recovered in 2002Jan 27: Three US astronauts killed in fire during Apollo launch pad test Mar 18: Torrey Canyon oil tanker runs aground off Lands End – first major oil spill May 25: Celtic become the first British team to win the European Cup May 28: Francis Chichester arrives in Plymouth after solo circumnavigation in Gipsy Moth IV (he was knighted 7th July at Greenwich by the queen using the sword with which Elizabeth I had knighted Sir Francis Drake four centuries earlier – see 1581) Jun 5-10: Six Day War in Middle East – closes Suez Canal for 8 years (until 1975) Jun 27: First withdrawal from a cash dispenser (ATM) in Britain – at Enfield branch of BarclaysJul 1: First colour TV in Britain Jul 13: Public Record Act – records now closed for only 30 years (but the census is still closed for 100 years) Jul 18: Withdrawal from East of Suez by mid-70s announced Aug 14: Offshore pirate radio stations declared illegal by the UKSep 3: Sweden changes rule of road to drive on right Sep 20: QE2 launched on Clydebank

Sep 27: Queen Mary arrives Southampton at end of her last transatlantic voyage Sep 30: BBC Radios 1, 2, 3 & 4 open – first record played on Radio 1 was the controversial Flowers in the Rain by 'The Move' Oct 5: Introduction of majority verdicts in English courts Oct 9: Che Guevara killed in Bolivia – becomes a cult hero Oct 18: Russian spacecraft Venus IV became first successful probe to perform in-place analysis of the environment of another planetDec 3: First human heart transplant (in South Africa by Christiaan Barnard) Richard Leakey discovers ancient human fossil remains in the Omo River valley in EthiopiaMcLuhan The Medium is the Message Film The Graduate Stoppard Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead Pop music: Monkees I'm a Believer; Beatles All You Need is Love, Sgt Pepper; Procul Harem A Whiter Shade of Pale

1968 Jan 30: Tet Offensive begins in Vietnam Feb 18: British Standard Time introduced – Summer Time became permanent [which I remember thinking was a great idea!], but contrary arguments prevailed and we reverted to GMT in October 1971 :–( Apr 18: London Bridge sold (and eventually moved to Arizona) – modern London Bridge, built around it as it was demolished, was opened in Mar 1973Apr 20: Enoch Powell 'Rivers of Blood' speech on immigration Apr 23: Issue of 5p and 10p decimal coins in Britain May 10: Student riots in Paris May 29: Manchester United first English club to win the European CupJun 5: Robert F Kennedy shot – dies next dayJul 29: Pope encyclical condemns all artificial forms of birth control Aug 11: Last steam passenger train service ran in Britain (Carlisle–Liverpool)Aug: Soviets crush freedom movement in Czechoslovakia Sep 15: Severe flooding in England Sep 16: Two-tier postal rate starts in Britain Sep 27: Hair opens in LondonOct 5: Beginning of disturbances in N Ireland Commenwealth Immigration Act further restricts immigrants Martin Luther King (Apr 4) and Robert Kennedy (Jun 6) both assassinated in USA Christmas: Apollo 8 orbits the moon with a crew of 3 and returns to Earth safely The term Pulsar first used for radio stars emitting regular pulses of energy

Film 2001 Pop music: Rolling Stones Jumping Jack Flash; Beatles Hey Jude; Status Quo Pictures of Matchstick Men

1969 Jan 30: The Beatles' last public performance, on the roof of Apple Records in LondonMar 2: Maiden flight of Concorde, at ToulouseMar 7: Victoria Line tube opens in London Apr 17: Voting age lowered from 21 to 18 May 2: Maiden voyage of liner Queen Elizabeth 2 (QE2) Jul 1: Investiture of Prince Charles as Prince of Wales at Caernarfon Castle Jul 20/21: Apollo 11 – First men land on the moon (Neil Armstrong & Buzz Aldrin)Jul 31: Halfpenny ceases to be legal tender in Britain Aug 8: Iconic photograph taken of The Beatles crossing the zebra crossing on Abbey Road, LondonAug 14: Civil disturbances in Ulster – Britain sends troops to support civil authorities Aug 15-18: Woodstock Music Festival in NY State attracts 300,000 fansSep 7: First episode of Monty Python's Flying Circus recorded Oct 14: 50p coin introduced in Britain (reduced in size 1998) Nov 19: Apollo 12 – second manned landing on the moon (Charles Conrad & Alan Bean) Dec 18: Death penalty for murder abolished in Britain (had already been suspended since Oct 1965) Open University established in Britain, teaching via radio and TV (first students started Jan 1971)Labour Government issues White Paper In Place of Strife – attempts to reform the Trades Union movement Roth Portnoy's Complaint Films Easy Rider and Midnight Cowboy Pop music: Marvin Gaye I Heard it on the Grapevine; Beatles Abbey Road

1970 Mar 16: Publication of complete New English Bible Apr 11: Apollo 13 launched – oxygen tank explosion aborted the moon landing mission two days later – successfully returned to Earth on 17 AprJun 17: Decimal postage stamps first issued for sale in Britain Jun 19: Edward Heath becomes Prime Minister Jul 30: Damages awarded to Thalidomide victims Sep 19: First Glastonbury Festival held

Nov 20: Ten shilling note (50p after decimalisation) goes out of circulation in Britain Boeing 747 (Jumbo jet) goes into service Film MASH Pop music: Simon & Garfunkel Bridge Over Troubled Water

1971 Jan 1: Divorce Reform Act (1969) comes into force Jan 3: Open University starts Feb 15: Decimalisation of coinage in UK and Republic of Ireland Aug 9: Internment without trial introduced in N Ireland Oct 28: Parliament votes to join Common Market (joined 1973) Oct 28: UK launches its first (and only) satellite, ProsperoNov 13: Mariner 9, becomes the first spacecraft to orbit another planet (Mars) Banking and Financial Dealings Act – replaced the Bank Holidays Act of 1871Sunday becomes the seventh day in the week as UK adopts decision of the International Standardisation Organisation (ISO) to call Monday the first day 'Greenpeace' foundedRolls-Royce declared bankrupt Film A Clockwork Orange Pop music: Led Zeppelin Stairway to Heaven recorded in Headley Grange

1972 Jan 30: 'Bloody Sunday' in Derry, Northern IrelandFeb 9: Power workers crisis May 22: Ceylon changes its name to Sri Lanka May 28: Duke of Windsor (ex-King Edward VIII) dies in Paris Oct 5: United Reformed Church founded out of Congregational and Presbyterian Churches in E&W Oct 10: John Betjeman becomes Poet LaureateDec 7: Last manned moon mission, Apollo 17, launched – crew take the 'Blue marble' photograph of earthBritain imposes direct rule in Northern Ireland Strict anti-hijack measures introduced internationally, especially at airports

1973 Jan 1: Britain enters EEC Common Market (with Ireland and Denmark) Jan 27: Vietnam ceasefire agreement signed Mar 17: Modern London Bridge opened by the QueenApr 1: VAT introduced in Britain Apr 3: First call made (in New York) on a portable cellular phone May 14: Skylab launchedSep 26: Concorde makes its first non-stop crossing of the Atlantic in record-breaking time

Oct 6: Yom Kippur War precipitates world oil crisis Oct 22: Sydney Opera House opensOct 14: Marriage of Princess Anne and Captain Mark Phillips in Westminster AbbeyDec 31: Miners strike and oil crisis precipitate 'three-day week' (till 9 Mar 1974) to conserve power Pop music: Pink Floyd Dark Side of the Moon

1974 Jun1: Flixborough disaster: explosion at chemical plant kills 28 people Jun 26: First scanning of a barcoded product (a 10-pack of Wrigley's Juicy Fruit gum at Marsh's Supermarket in Troy, Ohio)Aug 8: President Nixon resigns over Watergate scandal Nov 7: Lord Lucan disappearsNov 21: Birmingham pub bombings by the IRADec 5: Last episode of Monty Python's Flying Circus broadcast on BBC Several new 'counties' formed in Britain US Mariner satellite transmits detailed pictures of Venus and Mercury India becomes the sixth nation to explode a nuclear device

1975 Jan: First personal computer (Altair 8800) introduced (others say the Apple II in 1977) [see 1981]Feb 11: Margaret Thatcher becomes leader of Conservative party (in opposition) Feb 28: Moorgate tube crash in London – over 43 deaths, greatest loss of life on the Underground in peacetime. The cause of the incident was never conclusively determined Mar 4: Charlie Chaplin knightedApr 30: End of Vietnam war Jun 5: Suez canal reopens (after 8 years closure) Jun 5: UK votes in a referendum to stay in the European CommunityJul 5: Arthur Ashe wins Wimbledon singles titleJul 17: American Apollo and Soviet Soyuz spacecraft dock in orbitOct 29: 'Yorkshire Ripper' commits his first murderNov 3: First North Sea oil comes ashore Nov 20: General Franco dies in Spain; Juan Carlos declared KingNov 29: The name 'Micro-soft' coined by Bill Gates (Microsoft' became a Trademark the following year)Dec 27: Equal Pay Act and Sex Discrimination Act come into forceUnemployment in Britain rises above 1M for first time since before WW2 Dutch Elm disease devastates trees across UK Domestic video cassette recorders introduced

West Indies win the first cricket World Cup Film One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest Pop music: Pink Floyd Wish You Were Here; Queen Night at the Opera

1976 Jan 21: Concorde enters supersonic passenger service [see 2000]Jan 31: Mamma Mia by Abba No.1 in UKAug 6: Drought Act 1976 comes into force — the long, hot summer'Cod War' between Britain and Iceland Deaths exceeded live births in E&W for first time since records began in 1837James Callaghan becomes Prime Minister Death of Mao Tse-tung Apr 1: Apple Computer formed by Steve Jobs and Steve WozniakViking 1 & Viking 2 landed on MarsNational Theatre opens in London

1977 Mar 23: Lib-Lab pact Apr 2: Red Rum wins a third Grand National May 25: George Lucas' film Star Wars released Jun 1: Road speed limits: 70mph dual roads; 60mph single Jun 5: Apple II, the first practical personal computer, goes on saleJun 7: Queen's Silver Jubilee celebrations in LondonJun 30: Virginia Wade wins the Ladies Singles title at WimbledonAug 16: Elvis Presley dies Astronomers observe rings round Uranus Oct 26: Eradication of smallpox world-wide declared by WHO (certified in 1979)Nov 22: Regular supersonic Concorde service betweeen London and NY inauguratedPop music: Wings Mull of Kintyre; rise of Punk bands such as 'The Sex Pistols'

1978 Apr 8: Regular broadcast of proceedings in Parliament starts May 1: First May Day holiday in Britain Jul 25: World's first 'test tube' baby, Louise Browne born in Oldham Oct 15: Pope John Paul II elected – a Pole, and first non-Italian for 450 years – died 2 Apr 2005 Nov 30: Publication of The Times suspended – industrial relations problems (until 13 Nov 1979) Film The Deer Hunter Pop music: Fleetwood Mac Rumours

1979 Jan 6: YMCA by Village People reached No.1 in UK

Feb 1: Ayatollah Khomeini returns to Iran Mar 1: 32.5% of Scots vote in favour of devolution (40% needed) – Welsh vote overwhelmingly against Mar 30: Airey Neave killed by a car bomb at WestminsterMar 31: Withdrawal of Royal Navy from Malta Apr 30: Jubilee Line opens on London Underground systemMay 4: Margaret Thatcher becomes first woman UK Prime Minister Jul 1: Sony introduces the Walkman Aug 27: Lord Mountbatten and 3 others killed in bomb blast off coast of Sligo, IrelandSep 18: ILEA votes to abolish corporal punishment in its schools Oct: VisiCalc spreadsheet released

in USA Nov 13: The Times returns to circulation Dec 1: Lancaster House agreement to give Southern Rhodesia independence (became Zimbabwe on 18 Apr 1980)Dec 18: Sound barrier exceeded on land for first time

1980 May 4: Death of President Tito of Yugoslavia May 5: SAS storm Iranian Embassy in London to free hostages Dec 8: John Lennon assassinated in New York 'Solidarity' formed by unions in Poland 'Stealth' bomber developed by USA Film The Elephant Man

1981 Jan 10: Imagine by John Lennon No.1

in UK Jan 25: Launch of SDP by 'Gang of Four' in Britain Mar 29: First London marathon run Apr 5: Census day in Britain Apr 11: Brixton riots in South London – 30 other British cities also experience riots Apr 12: First US Space Shuttle (Columbia) launched Apr 25: Worst April blizzards this century in Britain Apr 27: First use of computer mouse (by Xerox PARC system)June: First cases of AIDS recognised in CaliforniaJul 17: Queen opens the Humber Estuary BridgeJul 29: Wedding of Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer (divorced 28 Aug 1996) Aug 12: IBM launches its PC

— starts the general use of personal computers

Film Chariots of Fire 1982

Jan 26: Unemployment reached 3 million in Britain (1 in 8 of working population) Feb 5: Laker Airways collapsesFeb 19: DeLorean Car factory in Belfast goes into receivershipMar 18: Argentinians raised flag in South Georgia Apr 2: Argentina invades Falkland (Malvinas) Islands Apr 5: Royal Navy fleet sails from Portsmouth for Falklands May 2: British nuclear submarine HMS Conqueror sinks Argentine cruiser General Belgrano May 28: First land battle in Falklands (Goose Green)May 29: Archbishop of Canterbury and the Pope pray together in Canterbury Cathedral Jun 14: Ceasefire in Falklands Jun 21: Birth of Prince William of Wales Jul 20: IRA bombings in London (Hyde Park and Regents Park)Sep 19: Smiley emoticon :-) said to have been used for the first timeOct 11: Mary Rose raised in the Solent (sank in 1545) Oct 31: Thames Barrier raised for first time (some say first public demonstration Nov 7)Nov 2: Channel 4 TV station launched – first programme 'Countdown'Nov 4: Lorries up to 38 tonnes allowed on Britain's roads Dec 12: Women's peace protest at Greenham Common (Cruise missiles arrived 14 Nov 1983) First permanent artificial heart fitted in Salt Lake City Film ET

1983 Jan 17: Start of breakfast TV in Britain Jan 25: Spreadsheet Lotus 1-2-3 released Jan 31: Seat belt law comes into force Apr 21: £1 coin into circulation in Britain Oct 7: Plans to abolish GLC announced Nov 26: Brinks Mat robbery: 6,800 gold bars worth nearly £26 million are stolen from a vault at Heathrow Airport First female Lord Mayor of London elected (Dame Mary Donaldson)Pop music: Michael Jackson Thriller

1984 Jan 9: FTSE index exceeded 800 Jan 24: Apple Macintosh computer introduced in USAMar 6: Miners strike begins

Apr 17: Police Constable Yvonne Fletcher killed by gunfire from the Libyan Embassy in LondonJun 22: Inaugural flight of Virgin Atlantic Jul 9: York Minster struck by lightning – the resulting fire damaged much of the building but the "Rose Window" not affected Oct 12: IRA bomb explodes at Tory conference hotel in Brighton – 4 killed Oct 24: Miners' strike — High Court orders sequestration of NUM assets Oct 31: Indira Gandhi assassinated Dec 3: British Telecom privatised – shares make massive gains on first day's trading Dec 3: Bhopal disaster in IndiaDec 15: Pop Music: Band Aid Do they know it's Christmas? reaches No.1Dec 20: Summit Tunnel Fire near TodmortonGeorge Orwell got it wrong? (in his book '1984', written in 1948)

1985 Mar 3: Miners agree to call off strike Mar 11: Al Fayed buys Harrods Mar 18: First episode of Neighbours in AustraliaMay 29: Heysel Stadium disaster in BrusselsJun 14: Schengen Agreement on abolition of border controls agreed between Belgium, France, West Germany, Luxembourg, and The Netherlands – not implemented until 26 Mar 1995 when it also included Spain & Portugal – by 2007 there are 30 states included Jul 13: Live Aid pop concert raises over £50M for famine relief Sep 1: Wreck of Titanic found (sank 1912)

1986 Mar 31: GLC and 6 metropolitan councils abolished Apr 26: Chernobyl nuclear accident – radiation reached Britain on 2 May May 7: Mannie Shinwell, veteran politician, dies aged 101 May 26: The European Community adopts the European flag Jul 23: Prince Andrew, Duke of York marries Sarah Ferguson at Westminster Abbey Oct 27: 'Big Bang' (deregulation) of the London Stock MarketOct 29: M25 ring round London completed Dec 23: Safe landing of first aircraft to fly around the world without stopping or refueling (took 9 days, 3 minutes and 44 seconds)

1987 Feb 2: Terry Waite kidnapped in Beirut (released 17 Nov 1991) Mar 6: Car ferry Herald of Free Enterprise capsizes off Zeebrugge – 188 die Jul 1: Excavation begins on the Channel Tunnel (see 1990 & 1994)Aug 19: Hungerford Massacre – Michael Ryan kills sixteen people with a rifle

Oct 16: The 'Hurricane' sweeps southern England Oct 19: 'Black Monday' in the City of London – Stock Market crash Nov 8: Enniskillen bombing at a Remembrance Day ceremonyNov 18: King's Cross fire in London – 31 people die World population crossed the 5 billion mark

1988 Feb 5: First 'Red Nose Day' in UK, raising money for charityMar 11: Bank of England £1 notes cease to be legal tender Jul 6: Piper Alpha disaster

– North Sea oil platform destroyed by explosion and fire killing 167 men Nov 15: Copyright, Designs and Patents Act – reformulated the statutory basis of copyright law (including performing rights) in the UKDec 12: Clapham Junction rail crash kills 35 and injures hundreds after two collisions of three commuter trains Dec 21: Lockerbie disaster – Pan Am flight 103 explodes over Scotland Order of the Garter opened to women

1989 Jan 8: Kegworth air disaster – a British Midland flight crashes into the M1 motorwayFeb 14: Fatwa issued against Salman Rushdie for The Satanic VersesFeb 14: The first of 24 satellites of the Global Positioning System is placed into orbitMar 2: EU decision to ban production of all chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) by the end of the centuryPoll Tax implemented in Scotland Jun 5: Tanks stopped in Tiananmen Square, Peking by unknown protesterNov 9: Berlin Wall torn downNov 21: Proceedings of House of Commons first televised liveSecond edition of Oxford English Dictionary published

1990 Feb 11: Nelson Mandela released in South AfricaMar 31: Riots in London against Poll Tax which had been implemented in England & Wales Apr 25: Hubble space telescope launchedAug 2: Iraq invades Kuwait Oct 3: German reunificationNov 22: Margaret Thatcher resigns as Conservative party leader (and Prime Minister) — John Major electedDec 1: Channel Tunnel excavation teams meet in the middle

1991 Poll Tax replaced (by Council Tax)

May 18: Helen Sharman is first British Astronaut in Space Aug: Collapse of the Soviet UnionSep 6: Leningrad renamed St PetersburgNov 5: Robert Maxwell drowns at sea Internet begins

1992 Feb 7: European Union formed by The Maastricht Treaty [see 1993]Apr 22: Betty Boothroyd elected as first female Speaker of the House of Commons Aug 15: Football Premier League kicks off in England Sep 16: 'Black Wednesday' as Pound leaves the ERM Nov 20: Fire breaks out in Windsor Castle causing over £50 million worth of damageNov 24: The Queen describes this year as an Annus Horribilis

1993 Jul: Ratification of Maastricht Treaty, established the European Union (EU)Betty Boothroyd first woman Speaker of the House of Commons (to 2000) Elizabeth II becomes first British Monarch to pay Income Tax

1994 Mar 12: Church of England ordains its first female priests May 6: Channel Tunnel open to trafficNov 19: National Lottery starts 15 million people connected to the Internet by now

1995 Feb 26: Nick Leeson brings down Barings Jul 15: First item sold on Amazon.comSep: First Grayshott Literary Festival Nov 16: The Queen Mother has a hip replacement operation at 95 years old Nov 22: Toy Story released – first feature-length film created completely using computer-generated imagery Dec 7: Galileo spacecraft arrives at Jupiter (launched from shuttle 18 Oct 1989)

1996 Feb 9: IRA bomb explodes in London Docklands – ends 17 month ceasefire Mar 13: Dunblane massacreJun 15: IRA bomb explodes in Manchester Jul 5: Scientists in Scotland clone a sheep (Dolly) Aug 28: Charles, Prince of Wales and Diana, Princess of Wales are divorced BSE beef scare in UK

1997 Mar 30: Channel 5 TV begins in UK (launched by the Spice Girls) Apr 1: Hale-Bopp comet at its brightest

May 1: 'New' Labour landslide victory in Britain (Tony Blair replaces John Major as Prime Minister) May 6: Announcement that Bank of England to be made independent of Government control May 11: First time a computer beats a master at chess (IBM's Deep Blue v Garry Kasparov)Jun 30: Publication of first Harry Potter novel Harry Potter and the Philosopher's StoneJul 1: Hong Kong returned to China Jul 4: Landing by American 'Pathfinder Rover' on Mars Jul 19: IRA declares a ceasefireAug 31: Diana, Princess of Wales killed in car crash in ParisSep 25: Land speed record breaks sound barrier for first time – Wing Commander Andy Green in Thrust SSC at Black Rock Desert, USA

1998 Apr 10: Good Friday peace agreement in Northern Ireland – effectively implemented in May 2007 Aug 14: Car bomb explodes in Omagh killing 29 people Sep 27: Google search engine foundedNov 20: First module of the International Space Station launchedDec 19: US President Bill Clinton is impeached over Monica Lewinsky scandal Film Titanic wins 11 Oscars

1999 Jan 1: European Monetary Union begins – UK opts out – by the end of the year the Euro has approximately the same value as the US DollarMar: First circumnavigation of the earth in a hot-air balloon (Bertrand Piccard and Brian Jones) Jul 1: The Scottish Parliament is officially opened by Queen Elizabeth – powers are officially transferred from the Scottish Office in London to the new devolved Scottish Executive in Edinburgh Aug 11: Total eclipse of the sun visible in Devon and CornwallNov 11: Hereditary Peers no longer have right to sit in House of LordsDec: Separate parliaments created for Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland (but not for England)World population reaches 6 billion (estimate)

2000 Jan 1: Millennium celebrations postponed due to widespread computer failures! – only joking!! – The year in Britain started with a 'flu bug rather than a millennium bug

Millennium Dome at Greenwich got off to a bad start when Press and celebratories were left queuing for tickets in the rain, and they never forgave it – the project was dogged by problems all year and became the butt of jokes Mar: London Eye opens, late but popular Apr 22: The Big Number Change takes place in the UK – new telephone dialling codes assigned to Cardiff, Coventry, London, Northern Ireland, Portsmouth and SouthamptonMay 4: Ken Livingstone elected first Mayor of London (not to be confused with Lord Mayor of London!) Jun 10: Millennium footbridge over the Thames opens, but wobbles and is quickly declared dangerous and closed – finally reopened Feb 2002Jul 25: A chartered Air France Concorde crashes on take-off at Paris with loss of all lives – debris on the runway blamed for causing fuel to escape and catch fire, and all Concordes grounded until 7 November 2001Sep: 'People Power' emerged suddenly as protestors against high Road Fuel Tax used mobile phones and the Internet to co-ordinate blockades on fuel depots – resulted in nationwide panic buying of fuel and service stations running out across the country Oct 17: Derailment at speed on the main London-North eastern line at Hatfield caused by a broken rail – Railtrack put restrictions on the rest of the network while all other suspect locations were checked Oct/Nov/Dec: Heavy rains cause worst flooding since records began (1850s) in many parts of Britain Nov 2: First crew arrive at the International Space Station. Nov 14: New Prayer Book introduced in Anglican Church – the way this year's going, we need it! Dec: US Presidential election goes to a penalty shoot out! World population crossed the 6 billion mark

2001 Jan 1: Real millennium celebrations begin!! ;-)Jan 15: Wikipedia goes on-lineFeb: Outbreak of Foot & Mouth disease in UK – lasted until October – caused postponement of local and general elections from May to JuneFeb 15: First draft of the complete human genome published in NatureMar 23: Mir space station successfully ditched in the PacificApr 29: UK Census Day May 12: FA Cup Final played at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff – first time away from Wembley since 1922 June 7: General Election – Labour returned again with a large majority, the first time they had succeeded in gaining a second term – but turnout lowest since 1918

Sep 1: New-style number plates on road vehicles in UK [eg. AB 51 ABC]Sep 11: Terrorist attack on the United States – commercial planes hi-jacked and crashed into the twin towers of the World Trade Centre (destroying it) and one section of the PentagonNov 7: Concorde flights resume after modifications to tyres and fuel tanks (see 2003)Nov: I publish my first book by 'Print on Demand' method - see tips on self-publishing Dec 15: The Leaning Tower of Pisa reopens after 11 years, still leaningUK Christmas stamps self-adhesive for the first time (self-adhesive 1st & 2nd class definitives already on sale)

2002 Jan 1: Twelve major countries in Europe (Austria, Belgium, Holland, Irish Republic, Italy, Luxembourg, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Spain, Portugal) and their dependents start using the Euro instead of their old national currencies; the UK stays out – the Euro worth 62½p at this time Jan 2: UK 1901 census details availableFeb 22: Millennium Bridge over the Thames in London finally opens Mar 30: The Queen Mother dies, aged 101 years Jun 3&4: Two Bank Holidays declared in UK to celebrate the Queen's Golden Jubilee Jul 2: Steve Fossett becomes the first person to fly solo around the world nonstop in a balloon

2003 Feb 1: Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrates during re-entry, killing all seven astronauts aboard Feb 17: Start of Congestion Charge for traffic entering central London Aug 10: Temperatures reach record high of 101 F (38.3 C) in Kent Oct 24: Last commercial flight of Concorde Nov 22: England wins Rugby World Cup in nail-biting final in Australia – first northern hemisphere team to do this Dec 13: Saddam Hussein captured near his home town of Tikrit (executed 30 Dec 2006)Dec 26: Queen Mary 2 arrives in Southampton from the builder's yard in France

2004 Mar 29: Alistair Cooke dies at the age of 95 – until four weeks previously, and since 1946, he had broadcast his regular 'Letter from America' on BBC radio Mar 29: Ireland becomes first country in the world to ban smoking in public places

May 1: Enlargement of the European Union to include 25 members by the entry of 10 new states: Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Slovenia, Malta, Cyprus.

2005 Feb 16: Kyoto Protocol on climate change came into force Feb 18: Ban on hunting with dogs came into force in England & Wales (had already been a similar law for about two years in Scotland)Apr 2: Death of Pope John Paul II, first non-Italian Pope for 450 years when elected in 1978 Apr 19: Pope Benedict XVI elected – first German Pope for about 1,000 years Jul 6: London chosen as venue for the 2012 Olympic Games Jul 7: Suicide bombers attack London for the first time Jul 28: IRA declare an end to their 'armed struggle' Sep 12: England regain the 'Ashes' after a gripping Test series (but are whitewashed 5-0 in the return series in Australia 2007)Nov 22: Angela Merkel becomes first female Chancellor of GermanyNov 30: John Sentamu becomes Archbishop of York; the first black archbishop in the Church of EnglandDec 9: Last Routemaster bus runs on regular service in London (see 1954)Dec 11: Explosions at the Buncefield Oil Depot in Hemel HempsteadDec 21: Same-sex civil partnerships begin

– famously, on this day, between Elton John and David Furnish 2006

Mar 1: Welsh Assembly Building opened by the Queen Mar 26: Prohibition of smoking in enclosed public places in ScotlandApr 21: 80th birthday of Queen Elizabeth II Aug 21: UK postage rates start to be measured by size as well as by weightAug 24: Redefinition of the word 'planet' excludes PlutoDec 30: Saddam Hussein executed

2007 Jan 1: Further enlargement of the European Union to include Bulgaria and RomaniaFeb 19: Extension of Congestion Charge zone for London, westwardsMay 8: A Northern Ireland Executive formed under the leadership of Ian Paisley (DUP) and Martin McGuinness (Sinn Fein)Jun 27: Tony Blair resigns as Prime Minister after 10 years – replaced by Gordon BrownJul 1: Prohibition of smoking in enclosed public places in England (thus completing cover of the entire UK) Jul 21: Seventh and final Harry Potter book releasedOct 25: First commercial flight of Airbus A380 (Singapore to Sydney)

Nov 14: First rail service direct from St Pancras to France (replacing that from Waterloo)

2008 Jan 21: Stock markets around the world plunge fueled by the 2007 subprime mortgage crisisFeb 22: Northern Rock the first bank in Europe to be taken into state controlApr 22: Surgeons at London's Moorfields Eye Hospital perform the first operations using bionic eyes, implanting them into two blind patientsSep 19: Large Hadron Collider operations halted after 8 days due to a serious fault between two superconducting bending magnets Nov 4: Barack Obama elected the 44th President of the United States Nov 11: RMS Queen Elizabeth 2 departs on her last voyage from Southampton to Dubai to become a floating hotelDec 10: Sark holds its first fully democratic electionsDec: Woolworths close all their UK stores

2009 Jan 12: UK 1911 census details released early with one column of information hidden from view. The full data is not due for release until 2012Feb 2: During this week the heaviest snowfall in 18 years disrupts air and road traffic and closes schools across much of the UKMar 5: Bank of England reduces interest rate to a record low of 0.5% Jul 21: England beat Australia in a cricket Test Match at Lord's for the first time in 75 yearsOct 1: Supreme Court replaces the Law Lords in Parliament as the last court of appeal in UK in all matters other than criminal cases in ScotlandDec 13: Circle Line on the London Underground system to include the spur to Hammersmith; regular 'Javelin' high speed train service starts between St Pancras and Ashford, KentDec 19: Eurostar rail service through the Channel tunnel disrupted for some days due to the wrong sort of snow in France!

2010 Apr 15: Eyjafjallajökull eruption in Iceland closes airspace over north-western Europe for 6 days – it was very peaceful!Oct 13: In a blaze of publicity 33 miners successfully rescued from a deep copper mine in Chile

2011 Jan 7: England win the Ashes in Australia

Special Days in the Year

'Old Style' and 'New Style' dates - see 1582 and 1751. By the time the Gregorian calendar was adopted in Britain, it was 11 days 'ahead' of the old Julian calendar it replaced. Julian dates are termed 'Old Style' and Gregorian dates 'New Style'

March 25 (Old Style) – Lady Day; first day of New Year from c150AD until 1751 – one of the Quarter Days in England when rents become due. Became April 6th (New Style), which is why our present Tax Year starts on this day! - Note method of remembering English Quarter days: last digit is the same as the number of letters in the month name [so March = 25, June = 24, September = 29] except for Christmas Day, which you just have to remember!

Fourth Sunday in Lent – Mothering Sunday – simnel cake eaten Easter Sunday – the first Sunday after the first Ecclesiastical Full Moon on or

after 21 March (the nominal Vernal Equinox) — thus earliest date for Easter is March 22 and latest is April 25.

Second Monday & Tuesday after Easter – Hocktide – money collected for charitable purposes by men binding with cord any woman they met and receiving payment for release – women bound men on the next day.

May 15

– Whitsunday as a Quarter Day in Scotland (legislatively fixed at May 15 for this purpose)

June 24 – Midsummer's Day or St John's Day – one of the Quarter Days in England

July 15 – St Swithun's Day August 1 [Aug 13 from 1753 onwards] – Lammas Day – Fences removed from

common land which had been cultivated during the summer, and livestock permitted to graze over it till re-seeded again. An old Quarter Day in Scotland.

Sept 29 – Michaelmas Day – one of the Quarter Days in England – termination date for men and women who had been hired as labourers and servants at the fairs the year before.

Nov 11 – Martinmas – once a Quarter Day in Scotland. Dec 13 – St Lucy's Day – the shortest day before the new calendar was

introduced. Dec 25 – Christmas Day – one of the Quarter Days in England – the old pagan

feast of Saturnalia. Jan 5 – Twelfth Night. Monday after Jan 6th – Plough Monday – marked return to work after

Christmas festivities. Feb 2 – Candlemas Day - one of the Quarter Days in Scotland.

John Owen Smith Home Page

Disclaimer . . .

I hope you find this list helpful and informative – even entertaining at times!

It represents the combined efforts of a number of contributors, but none of us would want you to think that it represents all the important events in British history, or have you believe that everything you read here is necessarily accurate or undisputed.

Nor, I might add, do we imply that all the inventions, etc, listed here are British ones – but it can be useful, for example, to know whether your ancestor (or the character in that historical novel which you're writing) could have been using a particular item at the time they were living. At least, I think so.

We have done our best, and hope that you will take the list in that spirit.If you have any better information which you feel should be added, please let me know.

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Major Contributors to this list

John Hitchcock – Victorian London Research Marina Alexander Iain Kerr – of Windsor, Berkshire Hilary Brookes – list as submitted to Yorksgen Bryan Wetton – Adelaide South Australia "A Southerner from the North" John Owen Smith – Home Page

... and many others — my thanks to you all!

This site has been included by Glossarist.com in their Linguistics Dictionary page – a source for many definitions of technical, professional or specialist terms.

If you've liked this site, try the following:—

Headley village (example of a one-place study) On-line Bookshop (local history books, etc) Flora Thompson of 'Lark Rise to Candleford' fame (information site) Swing Riots of 1830 (as they affected Selborne and Headley in Hampshire, and

beyond)