| |
Date |
Event(s) |
| 1 | 1606 | - 5 Nov 1606: Gunpowder Plot
The Gunpowder Plot, aka the Gunpowder Treason Plot, or the Jesuit Treason, was a failed attempt to blow up Parliament and assassinate King James I by a group of Catholics led by Robert Catesby.
|
| 2 | 1620 | - 1620: Pilgrim Fathers
The Pilgrim Fathers set sail to the Americas on the Mayflower from Plymouth in Devon.
|
| 3 | 1642 | - Aug 1642—Sep 1651: English Civil War
The conflict was fought between the Royalists (supporters of King Charles I) and the Parliamentarians (supporters of Parliament).
|
| 4 | 1649 | - 1649: Charles I
Trial and execution of Charles I.
|
| 5 | 1658 | - 1658: Cromwell
Death of Cromwell. After a lavish funeral his embalmed body is buried in Westminster Abbey.
|
| 6 | 1660 | - 1660: The Monarchy
Restoration of the Monarchy. Two and half years after his death, Oliver Cromwell, Lord Protector of England, is disinterred and executed on 30 January 1661. His head is impaled on a 25 foot pole on the roof of Westminster Hall.
|
| 7 | 1665 | - 1665: Great Plague
Although the Black Death and had been known in England for centuries, over this particular summer 15% of the population would perish. King Charles II and his court left London and fled to Oxford.
|
| 8 | 1666 | - 2 Sep 1666—5 Sep 1666: Great Fire of London
The catastrophic blaze began in a bakery on Pudding Lane in the early hours of Sunday morning and quickly spread across the city, fanned by strong easterly winds. By the time the flames were extinguished four days later, the fire had destroyed approximately 80% of the walled medieval city, including over 13,000 homes, 87 parish churches, and Old St Paul's Cathedral.
|
| 9 | 1760 | - 1760—1840: Industrial Revolution
The Industrial Revolution took place with machinery being introduced on the land and in factories that affected millions of agricultural labourers and mill workers.
- 25 Oct 1760—1820: King George II
King George III was born in 1738 and died in 1820. He reigned as sovereign for 60 years from 1760 to 1820, with his son appointed as Prince Regent in 1811.
|
| 10 | 1794 | - 1794—1810: Kennet & Avon Canal Built
The Kennet and Avon Canal was built, covering 87 miles and stretching from Bristol to Reading, crossing the Pewsey Vale in Wiltshire.
|
| 11 | 1805 | - 21 Oct 1805: Battle of Trafalgar
Victory at the Battle of Trafalgar thwarted Napoleon Bonaparte’s plans to invade Britain; death of Admiral Lord Nelson.
|
| 12 | 1807 | - 1807: Abolition of Slave Trade
The Slave Trade was abolished in England due to the efforts and influence of William Wilberforce.
|
| 13 | 1815 | - 18 Jun 1815: Battle of Waterloo
Napoleon with his French Imperial Guard was defeated by Britain and her allies. The Duke of Wellington, Arthur Wellesley, inflicted an overwhelming defeat on Napoleon, but the victory cost a staggering number of lives.
|
| 14 | 1820 | - 29 Jan 1820—1830: King George IV
King George IV was born in 1762 and died in 1830. He reigned as sovereign for 10 years from 1820 to 1830. He previously served as Prince Regent for his father, King George III, from 1811 until 1820.
|
| 15 | 1827 | - 1827: Hammersmith Bridge built
The first bridge across the River Thames at Hammersmith opened in 1827. It was the first suspension bridge built across the river and was replaced by the current bridge in 1887.
|
| 16 | 1829 | - 29 Sep 1829: Metropolitan Police
The Metropolitan Police officially began its patrols on September 29, 1829, when around 1,000 uniformed officers took to the streets of London. Founded by Home Secretary Sir Robert Peel, it was the first professional, centrally organized police force in the world, pioneering the shift from reactionary punishment to crime prevention.
|
| 17 | 1830 | - 26 Jun 1830—1837: King William IV
King William IV was born in 1765 and died in 1837. He reigned as sovereign for seven years from 1830 to 1837.
|
| 18 | 1835 | - 25 Dec 1835: Christmas
Christmas became a national holiday.
|
| 19 | 1837 | - 20 Jun 1837—22 Jan 1901: Queen Victoria
Queen Victoria was born in 1819 and died in 1901. She reigned as sovereign for 64 years from 1837 to 1901.
|
| 20 | 1841 | - 6 Jun 1841: 1841 Census
The 1841 census was taken.
|
| 21 | 1845 | - 1845—1852: Great Famine
The Great Famine, also known as the Great Hunger, the Famine and the Irish Potato Famine, was a period of mass starvation and disease in Ireland from 1845 to 1852. It constituted a major historical social crisis and had a significant impact on Irish society and history. The most severely affected areas were in the western and southern parts of Ireland. Between 1845 and 1855, at least 2.1 million people left Ireland, making it one of the greatest exoduses from a single island in history.
|
| 22 | 1846 | - 27 Jul 1846: Mortlake Railway Station opened
A railway station was opened in Mortlake for the first time.
- 19 Dec 1846: Anaesthesia
General anaesthesia was first successfully used in London on December 19th 1846.
|
| 23 | 1851 | - 30 Mar 1851: 1851 Census
The 1851 census was taken.
- 1 May 1851—15 Oct 1851: Great Exhibition
Prince Albert's Great Exhibition took place in London.
|
| 24 | 1854 | - 1854—1856: Crimean War
Crimean War was fought by an alliance of Britain, France, Turkey and Sardinia against Russian expansion into the Danube region (modern day Romania).
|
| 25 | 1858 | - Jul 1858—Aug 1858: Great Stink
Soaring summer temperatures created a putrid stink in London causing disease and making life in the city intolerable.
|
| 26 | 1861 | - 7 Apr 1861: 1861 Census
The 1861 census was taken.
|
| 27 | 1863 | - 1863: Metropolitan Line
The world’s first underground railway, the Metropolitan Railway, opened between Paddington and Farringdon.
|
| 28 | 1868 | - 1868: Penal Transportation ends
Penal transportation to Australia officially ended in 1868. The last convict ship, the Hougoumont, departed from Britain and docked in Fremantle, Western Australia, on January 9th 1868, concluding a system that had sent approximately 165,000 convicts since 1788.
|
| 29 | 1871 | - 2 Apr 1871: 1871 Census
The 1871 census was taken.
|
| 30 | 1876 | - 1876: Telephone
The Scottish-born American scientist Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone.
|
| 31 | 1881 | - 3 Apr 1881: 1881 Census
The 1881 census was taken.
|
| 32 | 1884 | - 1884: GMT
Greenwich Mean Time (GMT), the world’s time standard, is internationally adopted at the International Meridian Conference.
|
| 33 | 1891 | - 5 Apr 1891: 1891 Census
The 1891 census was taken.
|
| 34 | 1899 | - 11 Oct 1899—31 May 1902: Boer War
The Boer War was fought by Britain and her Empire against the descendants of the Dutch settlers (Boers) in the Transvaal region of South Africa. The war highlighted the limitations of 19th century military methods, employing for the first time modern automatic weapons and high explosives to decimate the enemy.
|
| 35 | 1901 | - 22 Jan 1901—6 May 1910: King Edward VII
King Edward VII was born in 1841 and died in 1910. He reigned as sovereign for nine years from 1901 to 1910.
- 31 Mar 1901: 1901 Census
The 1901 census was taken.
|
| 36 | 1910 | - 6 May 1910—20 Jan 1936: King George V
King George V was born in 1865 and died in 1936. He reigned as sovereign for 26 years from 1910 to 1936.
|
| 37 | 1911 | - 2 Apr 1911: 1911 Census
The 1911 census was recorded.
|
| 38 | 1912 | - 1912: Titanic
Just 4 days into her maiden voyage from Southampton to New York, the British passenger liner RMS Titanic sinks after colliding with an iceberg. More than 1,500 people lose their lives in the sinking ship or freeze to death in the icy Atlantic waters.
|
| 39 | 1914 | - 28 Jul 1914—11 Nov 1918: WW1
World War 1, the ‘War to End All Wars’. By the time the Great War ended in 1918, sixteen million people had died. In Britain, barely a family was left untouched by this cataclysmic conflict.
|
| 40 | 1916 | - 9 Jun 1916—10 Nov 1916: Battle of the Somme
The 1916 Somme offensive was one of the largest and bloodiest battles of the First World War (1914-18). The opening day of the attack, 1 July 1916, saw the British Army sustain 57,000 casualties, the bloodiest day in its history. The campaign finally ended in mid-November after an agonising five-month struggle that failed to secure a breakthrough. Over 150,000 British soldiers are buried on the Somme.
|
| 41 | 1918 | - 1918: Education Act
The Fisher Education Act made education compulsory up until 14 years old.
- Feb 1918—Apr 1920: Spanish Flu
The 1918 influenza pandemic (often called the Spanish flu) killed an estimated 50 to 100 million people worldwide, making it one of the deadliest pandemics in recorded history. This devastated global populations, with an estimated one-third of the world's population becoming infected.
- 6 Feb 1918: Votes for Women
Women won the right to vote as a result of the Representation of the People Act 1918.
- 11 Nov 1918: Armistice Day
The armistice was signed at 5:45am in France between the Allies of World War 1 and Germany for the cessation of hostilities on the Western Front of WW1.
|
| 42 | 1919 | - 1919—1921: Irish War of Independence
The Irish War of Independence, also known as the Anglo-Irish War, was fought in Ireland from 1919 to 1921. It followed the Easter Rising of April 1916.
|
| 43 | 1921 | - 1921: Irish Free State
Irish Partition: formation of the Irish Free State
- 19 Jun 1921: 1921 Census
The 1921 census was taken.
|
| 44 | 1928 | - 1928: Penicillin
Penicillin was discovered.
|
| 45 | 1936 | - 11 Dec 1936—6 Feb 1952: King George VI
King George VI was born in 1895 and died in 1952. He reigned as sovereign for 16 years from 1936 to 1952.
|
| 46 | 1939 | - 1 Sep 1939—2 Sep 1945: WW2
WW2 - a truly world war, it was fought throughout Europe, Russia, North Africa, and across the Atlantic and Pacific seaboards. It is estimated that some 55 million lives were lost in total.
- 29 Sep 1939: 1939 Register
The 1939 Register was used to produce identity cards and, once rationing was introduced in January 1940, to issue ration books. Those recorded as engaged in 'heavy work' received additional rations.
|
| 47 | 1940 | - 7 Sep 1940—11 May 1941: London Blitz
The London Blitz was a sustained eight-month German bombing campaign against the UK during WW2. Running from September 1940 to May 1941, the relentless aerial raids killed roughly 20,000 to 43,000 civilians in the capital, destroyed two million homes, and fundamentally reshaped the city’s urban landscape.
|
| 48 | 1944 | - 6 Jun 1944: D-Day
The Normandy Landings. Codenamed 'Operation Neptune', D-Day was the largest seaborne invasion in history. The operation began the liberation of France and the rest of Western Europe.
|
| 49 | 1945 | - 8 May 1945: VE Day
VE Day (Victory in Europe Day) marked the formal unconditional surrender of Nazi Germany to the Allies on May 8, 1945, officially ending World War II in Europe.
- 15 Aug 1945: VJ Day
VJ Day (Victory over Japan Day) marks the anniversary of August 15th 1945, when Japan announced its surrender, bringing an end to the Second World War. In the UK, it is observed annually on August 15 to honor the British, Commonwealth, and Allied troops who fought in the Asia-Pacific.
|
| 50 | 1948 | - 5 Jul 1948: NHS
The NHS was created in the UK providing free healthcare for all at the point of use.
|
| 51 | 1949 | - 1949: Clothes & sweet rationing ended
Clothes and sweets were removed from ration books in the UK.
|
| 52 | 1951 | - 1951: Festival of Britain
A national exhibition and fair held throughout the UK. The intention was to give the British public a sense of recovery and progress after the devastation of WW2 and to promote British science, technology, industrial design, architecture and the arts.
|
| 53 | 1952 | - 1952: Tea rationing ended
Tea rationing ended in the UK.
|
| 54 | 1953 | - 1953: Sugar & chocolate rationing ended
Sugar and chocolate sweets were completely derationed in the UK.
- 2 Jun 1953: Queen Elizabeth II
The coronation of Queen Elizabeth II
|
| 55 | 1954 | - 4 Jul 1954: Rationing ended
In 1954 meat, bacon, and all remaining food restrictions officially ended on July 4
|
| 56 | 1960 | - 31 Dec 1960: Conscription ends
The last call-ups for peacetime National Service ended in December 1960 with the last conscripted men discharged from the Armed Forces in May 1963.
|
| 57 | 1962 | - Dec 1962—Mar 1963: Great Freeze
It began to snow on Boxing Day in December 1962 and didn't stop until the end of March 1963. The country froze.
|
| 58 | 1968 | - 1968—1968: Measles vaccine
The measles vaccine was introduced in the UK in 1968. Twenty years later, in October 1988, it was replaced by the combined Measles, Mumps, and Rubella (MMR) vaccine.
|
| 59 | 1970 | - 1970: Age of Majority
Age of majority, including the voting age, is reduced from 21 to 18. The term refers to when, in the eyes of the law, children assume the status of adulthood.
|
| 60 | 1973 | - 1973: EEC
Britain joined the European Economic Community (EEC).
|
| 61 | 1982 | - 1982: Falklands War
Argentina forces invaded the British-owned Falkland Islands, a mere 8,000 miles away in the South Atlantic. A task force was quickly mobilised to reclaim the islands and in the bitter ten week war that followed, 655 Argentine and 255 British servicemen lost their lives.
|
| 62 | 1989 | - 1989: Berlin Wall
Berlin Wall comes down; collapse of Communism in Eastern Europe.
|
| 63 | 1997 | - 1997: Hong Kong
Britain handed back Hong Kong to the People’s Republic of China. Ending more than 150 years of British control.
|
| 64 | 2023 | - 6 May 2023: King Charles III
The Coronation of King Charles III
|
Webmaster Message
We make every effort to document our research and sources. If you have something you would like to add, please contact us.
Dutton, Berrett & Hungerford Twigs
1805 - 
