Mary Ann Brent

Mary Ann Brent

Female 1588 - 1655  (67 years)


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Eddystone Lighthouse (Henry Winstanley's) first lit; completed 10 days earlier
Most of the Palace of Whitehall in London destroyed by fire
Invention 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Duties (taxes) on entries in parish registers - repealed after five years
Invention of steam engine by Captain Thomas Savery
Census of Acadia
Englishmen, Thomas Savery invents a steam pump
Official opening of St Paul's Cathedral
Treaty of Ryswick
2nd December - Official opening of St Paul's Cathedral
William III
Act of Parliament establishes Workhouses
Freedom of Press in England granted
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Act of Parliament imposes a fine on all who fail to inform the parish minister of the birth of a child (repealed 1706)
Start of Dissenters' lists in parish registers - children born but not christened in the parish church - some were named 'Papist' and others 'Protestants'
Freedom of the Press
Census of Acadia
Bank of England founded by William Paterson (a Scot)
National Debt came into effect in England
Stamp Duties introduced into Britain from Holland
Mary II death leaves William III as sole ruler
Triennial Act, new Parliamentary elections every three years
Scotland: Poll Tax imposed on all over sixteen, except the destitute and insane (-1699)
National Deb came into effect in England
Scotland: Poll Tax imposed on all over sixteen, except the destitute and insane
Date traditionally ascribed to Dom Pierre P?rignon 's invention of Champagne
Census of Acadia
Newfoundland census
The massacre of Glencoe - Clan Campbell sides with King William and murders members of Clan McDonald
Land 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 Ta
French intention to invade England came to nothing
The Massacre of Glencoe
French intention to invade England came to naught
Earliest date in known German Lutheran registers
Newfoundland census
England passes Act of Grace, forgiving Roman Catholic followers of James II
William III and Mary II
The British capture Port-Royal
Great Synagogue founded
Port-Royal captured
The Presbyterian Church is permanently restored and becomes the Church of Scotland.
Bill of Rights passed by Parliament, ending King's divine right to raise taxes or wage war
Battle of Killiecrankie in Scotland - Jacobites defeated Government troops but at high cost
Toleration Act passed for Protestant non-conformists
Deposed James VII & II flees to Ireland - defeated at the Battle of the Boyne (1 Jul 1690)
William III and Mary II, daughter of James II, jointly take the throne (only William, however, has regal power)
Devonport naval dockyard established
King William III and Queen Mary II
Deposed James VII and II flees to Ireland
King William's War
French - Five Nations Indian war
Siege of Londonderry (began Dec 1688; ended 28 Jul 1689)
William of Orange lands at Torbay
The Glorious Revolution: James II abdicates
Edward Lloyd's Coffee House opens - later became Lloyd's of London
British Army raised to 40,000
Bill of Rights limits the powers of the monarchy over parliament
Hearth Tax abolished
Mutiny Act
February: Edward Lloyds Coffee House - later became Lloyd's of London
Newton published his Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica' - written in Latin
James II issues the Declaration of Indulgence, suspending laws against Catholics and non-conformists
St-Charles des Mines Church is built at Grand-Pré
Release of all prisoners held for their religious beliefs
Release of all prisoners held for their religious beliefs
Census of Acadia
James II
James the Second (1685-1689, died 1701) - Monmouth rebellion and battle of Sedgemoor - British Army raised to 20,000 men
Earl of Argyll's Invasion of Scotland
Judge Jeffreys and the Bloody Assizes - 320 executed, 800 transported
Earl of Argyll's invasion of Scotland
King James II
Presbyterian settlement in Stuart's Town in South Carolina
Ashmolean Museum opened at Oxford - first museum in Britain
Wild boar become extinct in Britain
6th June: Ashmolean Museum opened at Oxford - first museum on Britain
Founding of Grand-Pré
Pennsylvania founded by William Penn
Library of Advocates founded in Edinburgh - later National Library of Scotland
Halley observes the comet which bears his name
Pennsylvania founded by William Penn
Second Test Act (against non-conformists) passed by Westminster Parliament
Oil lighting first used in London streets
Second Test Act (against non-conformists) passed by Westminster Parliament
William Dockwra(y) begins his London Penny Post
Dodo becomes extinct in Mauritius through over-hunting
William Dockwra(y) begins his London Penny Post
Chinoiserie Period (Art and Antiques)
Habeas Corpus Act becomes law in England - (later repealed from time to time)
Tories first so named
27th May: Haveas Corpus Act became law in England
Denis Papin invents the pressure cooker
Extension of Test Act to peers
Extension of Test Act to peers
The first edition of the "Encyclopaedia Britiannica" published -
Census of Acadia
Lee's Collection of Names of Merchants in London' published
Lee's "Collection of Names of Merchants in London" published
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
Robert Hooke invents the universal joint
Building of Royal Greenwich Observatory started
King Philip's War
John Flamsteed appointed first Astronomer Royal of England
Beginning of Whig party under Shaftsbury
Rebuilding of St Paul's started by Wren (completed 1710)
Beginning of Whig Party under Shaftsbury
Christian Huygens patents the pocket watch
Treaty of Westminster - Netherlands cedes New Netherlands (on the eastern coast of North America) to Britain
First Test Act deprives British Catholics and Non-conformists of Public Office
First Test Act deprives British Catholics and Non-conformists of Public Office
First European settlement in Great Lakes Region
Founding of Beaubassin
High Court of Justiciary established in Scotland
War with Holland (to 1674) - British Army increased to 10,000 men
High Court of Justiciary established in Scotland
Comte de Frontenac governs New France
Thomas Blood caught stealing the Crown Jewels
First Acadian Census
Census of Acadia
Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz invents a calculating machine
King Charles II and King Louis XIV of France sign the Secret Treaty of Dover
Hudson's Bay Company formed
Treaty of Breda
Earliest Synagogue registers - Bevis Marks
Dom Pérignon invents Champagne
The first reference to a candy cane is made
Last entry in Pepys's diary
Earliest Lutheran registers survive from this year
British East India Company obtains control of Bombay
Newton constructs reflecting telescope
Isaac Newton invents a reflecting telescope
Treaty of Breda
Great Fire of London, after a drought beginning 27 June (2-6 Sep)
Use of semaphore signalling pioneered by Lord Worcester
Newton formulated Laws of Gravity
2nd to 6th September; Great Fire of London,
Considerable religious unrest on Scotland (The Covenanteers)
First New World Census
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
Great Plague of London (July-October) kills over 60,000
Five-mile Act restricts non-conformist ministers in Britain
Great Plague of London
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
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 Pray
Earliest Roman Cathilic registers
Great Québec earthquake
Québec becomes a crown colony (royal province) of France
James Gregory invents the first reflecting telescope
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 - E
'Hearth Tax' introduced - 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)
Tea introduced to Britain
Hearth Tax
Oliver Cromwell formally 'executed', having been dead for over two years!
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
Persectution of Non-Conformists in England
First actress plays in London (Margaret Hughes as Desdemona)
Twelve men, including Christopher Wren, Robert Boyle, John Wilkins, and Sir Robert Moray decide to found what is later known as the Royal Society
Ten Regicides are executed at Charing Cross or Tyburn
Restoration of British monarchy (Charles II) - 'Oak Apple Day' - theatres reopened
Charles II
Commonwealth registers ended, Parish Registers resumed
Provincial Probate Courts re-established
Clarendon code restricts Puritans' religious freedom
Composition of light discovered by Newton
Honourable East India Company founded by British
1st January - Samuel Pepys starts his diary
Quaker-Scottish colony was established in East New Jersey
King Charles II
Restoration Period
Cuckoo clocks made in Furtwangen, Germany, in the Black Forest region
Samuel Pepys starts his diary
Date of first known bank cheque to be drawn
Start of national meteorological Temperature records in the UK
6th February - date of first known cheque to be drawn
Lake Superior explored
Death of Oliver Cromwell
Richard Cromwell, Lord Protector
Richard Cromwell (son of Oliver) Lord Protector (-1660)
Death of Oliver Cromwell
Richard Cromwell (son of Oliver) Lord Protector
Post Office established by Act of Parliament [others say 1660]
A few Jews permitted to settle in England
Post Office established by Act of Parliament (others say 1660)
Christian Huygens invents a pendulum clock
Fort Port-Royal is captured by the British
Fort Port-Royal captured by the British
Oliver Cromwell becomes Lord Protector of the Commonwealth of England, Scotland and Ireland
Cromwell dissolves the Rump Parliament
Commonwealth registers start
Under the Act of Settlement Cromwell's opponents stripped of land
Provincial probate courts abolished - probates granted only in London
Provincial probate courts abolished - probates granted only in London
Commonwealther registers start
Battle of Worcester
The second English Civil War (1651-1652)
Scottish prisoners transported to the British settlements in America
The second English Civil War
Oliver Cromwell, Lord Protector
Coffee brought to England about this time
George Fox founds Society of Friends (Quakers)
Otto von Guericke invents a air pump
Theatres banned by Cromwell
Christmas banned by Cromwell
Commonwealth declared
King Charles I executed
'Rump' Parliament votes to put Charles I on trial
Cromwell's Irish campaign starts
King Charles II proclaimed King of Scots and England in Scotland
30th June: King Charles I executed
Commonwealth period - Oliver Cromwell
Society of Friends (Quakers) founded by George Fox
First practical thermometers made
Earliest Baptist registers survive from this year
Royalists sign articles of surrender at Oxford
Charles I surrenders to the Scottish Army at Newark
20th June: Royalists sign articles of surrender at Oxford
Battle of Naseby: Parliament's New Model Army crushes the Royalist forces
Battle of Philiphaugh in Scotland
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
Battle of Philipburgh in Scotland
Battle of Marston Moor, near York - Parliamentarian forces beat the Royalists
Battle of Cropredy Bridge - Royalists beat the Parliamentarian forces
Earlist Indepenent (Congregational) registers
Battle of Alton - victory for Parliamentarians - Sir Richard Bolle killed in St Lawrence's church
Solomn League and Covenrant signed in Scotland
Evangelista Torricelli invents the barometer
Abel Janszoon Tasman first European to set foot in New Zealand
Abel Janszoon Tasman discovers Van Diemen's Land (now Tasmania)
Battle of Turnham Green - Royalist forces withdraw in face of the Parliamentarian army and fail to take London
Charles I raises his standard at Nottingham - First Civil War in England (to 1649)
The Civil War interrupted the keeping of parish registers
English theatres closed by Puritans (till 1660)
22nd August - Charles I raises his standard at Nottinngham -
Frenchmen, Blaise Pascal invents an adding machine
50,000 Irish killed in an uprising in Ulster
Charles I's policies cause insurrection in Ulster and Civil War in England
Charles I and the English Parliament acknowledge the Prebyterian Church in Scotland
Charles I policies cause insurrection in Ulster and Civil War in England -
Charles I forced to recall Parliament (the 'Long Parliament') due to Scottish invasion
Act of Toleration in England established religious toleration
Act of Toleration in England established religious tolerance
King 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 hun
Charles regarded protests against the prayer book as treason
Scottish Prayer Book published
Pequot War
Arrival of the St. Jehan in Port-Royal
PRE-DEPORTATION PERIOD
Hackney Carriages in use by now in London
Hackney Carriages in use by now in London
W. Gascoigne invents the micrometer
Letter Office of England & Scotland started
Flintlock small arms invented around this time (replaces matchlock)
Letter Office of England and Scotland started
Galileo summoned by Inquisition for publishing in favour of Copernican theory
Isaac de Razilly arrives at Le Heve
Isaac de Razilly sails from LaRochelle
Treaty of St Germain-en-Laye
Québec returned to France by the 'Treaty of Saint-Germain-en-Laye'
Samuel de Champlain named the first Governor of New France
Renaissance Period - Art and Antiques
Baroque Period (Art and Antiques)
European diseases/epidemics kill indians
Parliament dissolved by King Charles I - did not meet for another 11 yea
Parliament desolved by King Charles I -
Québec captured by Britain
Giovanni Branca invents a steam turbine
Writs issued by Charles I that every county in England (not just seaport towns) pay ship tax by this date
Charles I
The Company of One Hundred Associates formed to colonize New France
Death of King James VI & I
The size of bricks standardised in England around this time
King Charles I
The size of bricks standardised in England around this time
Carolean Age
Frenchmen, Jean-Baptiste Denys invents a method for blood transfusion
Monopoly Act in England: patents protected
Edmund Gunter introduces the surveyor's chain (measurement of length)
Monopoly Act in England - patents protected
William Oughtred invents a slide ruler
First English newspaper appeared - Weekly News'
First Englaish Newspaper appears
Chimneys to be made of brick and to be four and a half feet above the roof
Chimneys to be made of brick and be four and half feet above roof
(Dec 16 old style): The Mayflower reaches America - founds Plymouth, New England (had initially set sail from Southampton on Aug 5)
Pilgrim Fathers land at Plymouth Rock
Manufacture of coke (the fuel, not the drink!) patented by Dud Dudley
The Mayflower reaches America
The earliest human-powered submarine invented
(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)
Sir Walter Raleigh beheaded for allegedly conspiring against James I
Register of Sasines (Land Leases) established in Scotland -
Tuesday Apr 23 (Julian calendar): Death of Shakespeare
Death of Shakespeare (23rd April)
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
James VI & I created the title of baronet
Authorised (King James) Version of Bible in Britain
Plantation of Ulster with English and Scottish colonists
James VI & I established the Episcopal Church in Scotland - Prebyterians persecuted and many of their records lost
James VI established the Episcopal Church in Scotland -
Henry Hudson explorations
First use of telescope by Galileo - he observed the moons of Jupiter two years later in Jan 1610
Québec founded
Hans Lippershey invents the first refracting telescope
Jamestown, Virginia settled - to become the first permanent British colony in North America
Jamestown is established
Flight of the Earls - leading Ulster families go into exile
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)
Guy Fawkes and co-conspirators executed
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)
12th April Adoption of Union Jack as the flag of "Great Britain"
Gunpowder plot at Westminster (Guy Fawkes, etc)
First Acadian settlement in Port-Royal
Gunpowder plot at Westminster (Guy Fawkes)
Settlement of New France
James I
Shakespeare: Othello' first presented
EXPLORATION PERIOD
First Acadian settlement on Saint-Croix Island
Settlement of New France
Coronation - James VI of Scotland is crowned first king of Great Britain
Death of Elizabeth I: union of Scottish and English crowns - under King James VI of Scots and I of England (d. 1625)
King James I
24th March - Death of Queen Elizabeth I
The crowns of England and Scotland unite.
Bodleian Library at Oxford University opened to the public
Dutch East India Company founded
Great English Poor Law Act passed
First use of fruit juice as a preventative for scurvy by James Lancaster
Great English Poor Law passed
British East India Company founded
Memoirs of Officers of the Royal Navy begin
The calendar changes from the Julian Calendar to the Gregorian Calendar.
Scotland adopts New Year beginning 1st January (previously 25th March)
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
Bishops transcript of English and Welsh parish registers start [some say 1597]
Poor Law Act for erection of parish workhouses for the Poor - Poor Rate collection allowed
Poor Law Act for erection of parish workhouses for the Poor -
Hugh O'Neill, Earl of Tyrone, leads Irish rebellion against English rule (-1603)
British statute mile established by law
British statute mile established by law
Galileo invents a water thermometer
A Congregational (or Independent) Church formed in London
Scotland: Presbyterian Church formally established - all ministers equal - no bishops - secular commissaries appointed by the Crown
A congregational (or Independant) Church formed in London.
The Presbyterian Church is formally established.
Trinity College, Dublin, founded
Dutchmen, Zacharias Janssen invents the compound microscope
Englishmen, William Lee invents the knitting machine
Defeat of Spanish Armada off Gravelines
Spanish Armada sighted off the Lizard (had set sail from Lisbon in late May)
Invention of shorthand by Dr Timothy Bright
29th July Defeat of the Spanish Armada
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)
Sir Francis Drake sinks the Spanish fleet in Cadiz harbour
Execution of Mary, Queen of Scots, at Fotheringay Castle, near Peterborough
Introduction of potatoes to England
Execution of Mary, Queen of Scots, by English at Fotheringay Castle near Peterborough
Foundation of Oxford University Press
Foundation of Oxford University Press
Sir Walter Raleigh establishes first English colony in the New World, on Roanoke Island, Virginia (now in North Carolina) - the so-called 'Lost Colony'
Sir Humphrey Gilbert attempts to establish English authority at St John's, Newfoundland
University of Edinburgh founded
Foundation of Cambridge University Press by Thomas Thomas
Foundation of Cambridge University Press by Thomas Thomas
Gregorian calendar introduced in some couontires:
Francis Drake knighted by Elizabeth I aboard the Golden Hind after circumnavigating the world
English Parliament outlaws Roman Catholicism
English Levant Company founded
Dover Straits earthquake, largest in the recorded history of England, mentioned by Shakespeare - dozens of ships sunk and a tsunami hit Calais
Congregational movement founded by Robert Browne about this time
Colonisation of Ireland
Colonisation of Ireland
Act of Uniformity in matters of religion enforced
Act of Uniformity in matters of religion enforced
Earliest Quaker registers begin
James Burbage opens first theatre in London
Colonial State Papers published
Opening of the Royal Exchange in London, founded by Sir Thomas Gresham - this building destroyed in Great Fire of London 1666
Presbyterianism introduced into England by Thomas Cartwright
Repeal of Act prohibiting lending of money on interest - gradual change from 'subsistence economy' to 'cash economy' resulted
Beginning of penal legislation against Catholics in England
Beginning of penal legislation against Catholics in England
Presbyterianism introduced into England by Thomas Cartwright
Pope Pius V issued the papal bull 'Regnans in Excelsis' to excommunicate Elizabeth I and her followers in the Church of England
Elizabeth I approved Sunday sports
Gerard Mercator invents Mercator map projection
Battle of Langside - Mary's flight to England and her imprisonment by Queen Elizabeth I
Battle of Langside
Bottled beer invented in London
Mary Queen of Scots deposed and replaced by her 1 year old son James VI
Marriage of Mary Queen of Scots to James Hepburn, 4th Earl of Bothwell
Murder of Darnley outside Holyrood House in an explosion
Murder of Darnley outside Holyrood House in an explosion
Murder of David Riccio (or Rizzio) in Holyrood House
Murder of Riccio in Holyrood House
Marriage of Mary, Queen of Scots to Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley, her first cousin
Marriage of Mary, Queen of Scots to Darley
Shakespeare baptised - he is said to have been born on Apr 23, St George's Day; he certainly died on Apr 23, 1616
The English surrender Le Havre to the French after a siege
Papal recusants heavily fined for non-attendance at Church
Earliest English slave-trading expedition, under John Hawkins - between Guinea and the West Indies
African slave trade starts
Spire of St Paul's, highest in England, destroyed by fire
The 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
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
Establishment of Protestantism in Scotland
Protestantism is established. Pope's authority is abolished. Celebrating mass becomes illegal.
Elizabeth I
Acts of Supremacy passed in Parliament, ending papal jurisdiction over England & Wales; established Church of England
Elizabeth crowned in Westminster Abbey by Owen Oglethorpe, the Bishop of Carlisle
Tobacco introduced to Europe
John Knox returns from Continent - strengthens case for Presbyterianism in Scotland
John Knox returns from Continent
Queen Mary Tudor of England dies and is succeeded by her half-sister Elizabeth - Protestantism restored in England
Marriage of Mary, Queen of Scots to Fran?ois the Dauphin of France in Paris
French take Calais, last English possession in France
System of Counties adopted
Scottish parish registers start
Reign of Elizabeth I - Policy of Plantation begins
Scottish parish registers start
Queen Elizabeth I
The First Covenant signed in Scotland
Archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas Cranmer burned at the stake in Oxford
Michel Nostradamus publishes his prophecies
Mary I
Lady Jane Grey beheaded
Brief Catholic restoration under Queen Mary Tudor - married priests forced to separate at least 30 miles from their wives
Brief Catholic restoration under Queen Mary Tudor
Mary Tudor ('Bloody Mary') comes to the throne
Edward VI dies; Lady Jane Grey queen for a few days only
Jane
Queen Mary I
An 'Act of Uniformity' imposes the Protestant prayerbook of 1552 in England
Parishes are ordered to keep a register of baptisms and banns of marriage.
Scotland: General Provincial Council orders each parish to keep a register of baptisms and banns of marriage
Scotland: General Provincial Council orders
Walloon Protestants arrive as refugees from the Low Countries
Walloon Protestants arrive as refuges from the Low Countries
First Book of Common Prayer sanctioned by English Parliament
Edward VI
English Parliament declares enclosures legal
First Act of Uniformity in England made Catholic Mass illegal
Wedding ring finger changed from right to left hand
9th June First Book of Prayer sanctioned by English Parliament
Priests in England allowed to marry (about a third then did so) - but see 1554
Battle of Pinkie Cleugh, said to be the first 'modern' battle to be fought in the British Isles
Coronation of Edward VI in Westminster Abbey
Death of Henry VIII (succeeded by Edward VI, aged 9, to 1553)
Ivan the Terrible takes title 'Tsar of all the Russias'
Vagrants Act passed (able-bodied tramps can be detained as slaves)
English replaced Latin in church services in England and Wales
King Edward VI
English replaced Latin in chruch services in England and Wales
Trinity College, Cambridge founded by Henry VIII
Mary Rose, flagship of Henry VIII, sinks in the Solent - raised in 1982
Henry's VIII's Rough Wooing' of the Scottish Borders
Mary of Guise, Regent of Scotland
Mary of Guise Regent of Scotland
Mary Stuart, at nine months old, is officially crowned Queen of Scots' in Stirling (spelling of the royal house changes from Stewart to Stuart)
Henry VIII marries Catherine Parr, wife #6, who survives him
Death of King James V of Scots; his baby daughter Mary ?Queen of Scots' succeeds him just 6 days old
Catherine Howard executed
Ther Rout of Solway Moss and the death of King James V of Scots
Henry VIII
King Henry VIII
Regular series of wills starts in Prerogative Court of Canterbury
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   Date  Event(s)
1383 
  • 1383—99 9999: Regular series of wills starts in Prerogative Court of Canterbury
1832 
  • 4 Jan 1832—1937: Immigrants quarantined at Grosse Isle
    Canada's immigrant quarantine station opens at Grosse Isle
1898 
  • 7 Jul 1898—20 Aug 1959: Territory of Hawaii was Oraganized
1909 
1910 
  • 5 Jun 1910—20 Jan 1936: George V
    House of Windsor (name adopted Jul 17, 1917): 2nd son of Edward VII, married Princess Mary of Teck. Accession, Jan 20, abdication, Dec 10.
1912 
  • 8 1912—2 Jan 1959: Alaska Territory Organized
1913 
  • 1913—1913: Geiger invents his counter to measure radioactivity
  • 1913—1913: Invention of stainless steel by Harry Brearley of Sheffield
  • 1913—1913: Trade Union Act in Britain establishes the right to use Union funds for political purposes
  • 1913—1913: Suffragette demonstrations in London - Mrs Pankhurst imprisoned
  • 1913—1913: Third Irish Home Rule Bill rejected by House of Lords - threat of civil war in Ireland - formation of Ulster Volunteers to oppose Home Rule
  • 1913—1913: The crossword puzzle invented by Arthur Wynne
  • 1913—1913: The Merck Chemical Company patented, what is now know as, ecstasy
  • 1913—1913: Mary Phelps Jacob invents the bra
  • 1913—1913: Gideon Sundback invents the modern zipper
  • 2 Mar 1913—3 Feb 1913: 16th Amendment ratified
  • 4 Mar 1913—4 Mar 1921: Woodrow Wilson
    Woodrow Wilson U.S. Presidency Woodrow Wilson U.S. Presidency
  • 3 Apr 1913—3 Mar 1921: Woodrow Wilson
  • 4 Jun 1913—4 Jun 1913: Emily Davison, a suffragette, runs out in front of the king's horse, Anmer, at the Epsom Derby and dies
  • 4 Aug 1913—8 Apr 1913: 17th Amendment ratified
1914 
  • 1914—1914: Chaplin and De Mille make their first films
  • 1914—1914: Irish Home Rule Act provides for a separate Parliament in Ireland; the position of Ulster to be decided after the War
  • 1914—1918: World War One
    Canadian forces fight in Europe during World War 1
  • 1914—1914: Garrett A. Morgan invents the Morgan gas mask
  • 6 Jan 1914—11 Nov 1918: World War I
    Triple Alliance: Germany, Italy, and Austria-Hungary vs. Triple Entente: Britain, France, and Russia. The United States joined on the side of the Triple Entente in 1917.
  • 28 Jun 1914—28 Jun 1914: Archduke Ferdinand assassinated in Sarajevo
  • 4 Aug 1914—4 Aug 1914: Britain declares war on Germany, citing Belgian neutrality as reason
  • 5 Aug 1914—5 Aug 1914: British cableship Telconia cut through all five of Germany's undersea telegraph links to the outside world
  • 15 Aug 1914—15 Aug 1914: 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 1914—Oct 1914: Battle of Ypres - beginning of trench warfare on western front
  • 27 Nov 1914—27 Nov 1914: First policewoman goes on duty in Britain
  • 16 Dec 1914—16 Dec 1914: German battleships bombard Hartlepool and Scarborough
  • 6 1914—19 Jun 1914: Alberta coal mine disaster
    The worst coal mining disaster in Canadian history claims 189 lives in Hillcrest
  • 5 1914—30 May 1914: Empress of Ireland sinks
    1,014 lives are lost when ship sinks in Gulf of St. Lawrence
1915 
  • 1915—1915: Junkers construct first fighter aeroplane
  • 1915—1915: First automatic telephone exchange in Britain
  • 1915—1915: A new constitution establishes a two-chamber parliament elected by universal suffrage
  • 1915—1915: Eugene Sullivan and William Taylor co-invented Pyrex in New York City
  • 19 Jan 1915—19 Jan 1915: First Zeppelin air raid on England, over East Anglia - four killed
  • Feb 1915—Feb 1915: Submarine blockade of Britain starts
  • Apr 1915—Apr 1915: Second Battle of Ypres - poison gas used for first time
  • 25 Apr 1915—25 Apr 1915: Gallipoli campaign starts (declared ANZAC Day in 1916)
  • 7 May 1915—7 May 1915: RMS Lusitania sunk by German submarine off coast of Ireland - 1,198 died
  • 16 May 1915—16 May 1915: First meeting of a British WI (Women's Institute) took place in Llanfairpwll (aka Llanfair PG), Anglesey
10 1916 
  • 1916—1916: Compulsory military service introduced in Britain
  • 1916—1916: Women get vote in Manitoba
    Manitoba is the first province to give women the right to vote
  • 1916—1916: Radios tuners invented, that received different stations
  • 1916—1916: Stainless steel invented by Henry Brearly
  • Feb 1916—Feb 1916: Battle of Verdun - appalling losses on both sides, stalemate continues
  • 24 Apr 1916—24 Apr 1916: Easter Rising in Ireland - after the leaders are executed, public opinion backs independence
  • 21 May 1916—21 May 1916: First use of Daylight Saving Time in UK
  • 31 May 1916—31 May 1916: Battle of Jutland - only major naval battle between the British and German fleets
  • 5 Jun 1916—5 Jun 1916: Sinking of HMS Hampshire and death of Kitchener
  • 3 Aug 1916—3 Aug 1916: Sir Roger Casement hanged at Pentonville Prison for treason
  • 15 Sep 1916—15 Sep 1916: First use of tanks in battle, but of limited effect (Battle of the Somme 1 July to 18 Nov: over 1 million casualties)
  • 7 Dec 1916—7 Dec 1916: Lloyd-George becomes British Prime Minister of the coalition government
  • 6 1916—29 Jun 1916: Ontario forest fire
    A forest fire in northern Ontario claims 233 lives
11 1917 
  • 1917—1917: Ministry of Labour is established in Britain
  • 1917—1917: Battle of Cambrai - first use of massed tanks, but effect more psychological than actual
  • 1917—1917: Income Tax introduced
  • 1917—1917: Gideon Sundback patented the modern zipper (not the first zipper)
  • Feb 1917—Feb 1917: February revolution in Russia; Tsar Nicholas abdicates
  • 6 Apr 1917—11 Nov 1918: World War I
    World War I World War I
  • 16 Apr 1917—16 Apr 1917: Lenin returns to Russia after exile
  • 17 Apr 1917—17 Apr 1917: USA declares war on Germany
  • 26 May 1917—26 May 1917: George V changes surname from Saxe-Coburg-Gotha to Windsor (Royal proclamation on 17 July)
  • 12 Jun 1917—6 Dec 1917: The Halifax Explosion
    Canada's worst single disaster, claims 1600 lives, injures 9000 and leaves 6000 homeless in Halifax, Nova Scotia
  • Jul 1917—Jul 1917: Battle of Passchendaele - little gained by either side (Jul-Nov)
  • 4 Sep 1917—12 Apr 1917: WW1 - Vimy Ridge
    Canadian Corps take Vimy Ridge in France but 3,600 die and another 5,000 wounded
  • 7 Nov 1917—7 Nov 1917: 'October' Revolution in Russia - Bolsheviks overthrow provisional government; Lenin becomes Chief Commissar
  • 6 Dec 1917—6 Dec 1917: 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 explosion
  • 9 Dec 1917—9 Dec 1917: British forces capture Jerusalem
  • 12 1917—17 Dec 1917: 18th Amendment passed by Congress
12 1918 
  • 1918—1918: War of Independence in Ireland
  • 1918—1918: Vote for women over 30, men over 21 (except peers, lunatics and felons)
  • 1918—1918: The superheterodyne radio circuit invented by Edwin Howard Armstrong
  • 1918—1918: Charles Jung invented fortune cookies
  • 18 Jan 1918—18 Jan 1918: Bentley Motors founded
  • 8 Mar 1918—8 Mar 1918: Start of world-wide 'flu pandemic
  • Jul 1918—Jul 1918: Second Battle of the Marne: last major German offensive in WW1 (Jul-Aug)
  • 1 Oct 1918—1 Oct 1918: Arab forces under Lawrence of Arabia capture Damascus
  • 11 Nov 1918—11 Nov 1918: Armistice signed
  • Dec 1918—Dec 1918: First woman elected to House of Commons, Countess Markiewicz as a Sinn Fein member refused to take her seat
13 1919 
  • 1919—1919: Sir Ernest Rutherford publishes account of splitting the atom
  • 1919—1919: Britain adopts a 48-hour working week
  • 1919—1919: Soldier Settlement Act
    Land grants awarded to 25,000 veteran soldiers
  • 1919—1919: The pop-up toaster invented by Charles Strite
  • 1919—1919: Short-wave radio invented
  • 1919—1919: The flip-flop circuit invented
  • 1919—1919: The arc welder invented
  • 6 Apr 1919—4 Jun 1919: 19th Amendment passed by Congress
  • 15 Jun 1919—15 Jun 1919: Alcock and Brown complete first nonstop flight across the Atlantic
  • 28 Jun 1919—28 Jun 1919: Treaty of Versailles signed
  • 1 1919—16 Jan 1919: 18th Amendment ratified
14 1920 
  • 1920—1920: Thompson patents his machine gun (Tommy gun)
  • 1920—1920: Marconi opens a radio broadcasting station in Britain
  • 1920—1920: Regular cross-channel air service starts
  • 1920—1920: After a referendum, northern Schleswig is returned to Denmark
  • 1920—1920: The tommy gun patented by John T Thompson
  • 1920—1920: The Band-Aid (pronounced 'ban-'dade) invented by Earle Dickson
  • Feb 1920—Feb 1920: First roadside petrol filling station in UK - opened by the Automobile Association at Aldermaston on the Bath Road
  • 8 1920—18 Aug 1920: 19th Amendment ratified
15 1921 
  • 1921—1921: First birth control clinic
  • 1921—1921: Insulin discovery announced
  • 1921—1921: Railway Act in Britain amalgamates companies - only four remained
  • 1921—1921: Newfoundland census
    Census taken in Newfoundland
  • 1921—1921: Artificial life begins -- the first robot built
  • 1921—1921: John Larson invented the lie detector
  • 6 Jan 1921—1 Jun 1921: Census of Canada
    counts 8,787,949 individuals
  • 4 Mar 1921—2 Aug 1923: Warren G. Harding
    Warren G. Harding U.S. Presidency Warren G. Harding U.S. Presidency
  • 3 Apr 1921—2 Aug 1921: Warren Harding
    Warren Harding dies of an embolism in San Francisco. He had taken ill on 31 Jul 1921
  • 19 Jun 1921—19 Jun 1921: Census: Population - England and Wales: 37.9 Million; Scotland: 4.9 Million; N Ireland: 1.25 Million
  • 6 Dec 1921—6 Dec 1921: Anglo-Irish Treaty signed in London, leading to the formation of the Irish Free State and Northern Ireland
  • 11 1921—21 Nov 1921: Canada's Coat of Arms proclaimed by George V
16 1922 
  • 1922—1922: Law of Property Act - the manorial system effectively ended
  • 1922—1922: Insulin invented by Sir Frederick Grant Banting
  • 1922—1922: The first 3-D movie (spectacles with one red and one green lens) is released
  • 1 Jun 1922—1 Jun 1922: Royal Ulster Constabulary founded
  • Oct 1922—Oct 1922: 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)
17 1923 
  • 1923—1923: First American broadcasts heard in Britain
  • 1923—1923: Hubble shows there are galaxies beyond the Milky Way
  • 1923—1923: Roads in Great Britain classified with A and B numbers
  • 1923—1923: Garrett A. Morgan invents a traffic signal
  • 1923—1923: The television or iconoscope (cathode-ray tube) invented by Vladimir Kosma Zworykin
  • 1923—1923: John Harwood invented the self-winding watch
  • 1923—1923: Clarence Birdseye invents frozen food
  • 1 Jan 1923—1 Jan 1923: 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 1948
  • 16 Feb 1923—16 Feb 1923: Howard Carter unsealed the burial chamber of Tutankhamun
  • 8 Mar 1923—4 Mar 1929: Calvin Coolidge
    Calvin Coolidge, vice president under Warren Harding, sworn in as president the day after Harding dies
  • 28 Apr 1923—28 Apr 1923: First Wembley cup final (West Ham 0, Bolton 2) - 'I'm Forever Blowing Bubbles ' popular song of the time became the West Ham anthem
  • 2 Aug 1923—4 Mar 1929: Calvin Coolidge
    Calvin Coolidge U.S. Presidency Calvin Coolidge U.S. Presidency
  • 28 Sep 1923—28 Sep 1923: First publication of Radio Times
18 1924 
  • 1924—1924: The dynamic loudspeaker invented by Rice and Kellogg
  • 1924—1924: Notebooks with spiral bindings invented
  • 4 Jan 1924—4 Jan 1924: First Labour government in Britain, headed by Ramsay MacDonald
  • 5 Feb 1924—5 Feb 1924: Hourly Greenwich Time Signals from the Royal Greenwich Observatory were first broadcast by the BBC
  • 31 Mar 1924—31 Mar 1924: British Imperial Airways begins operations (formed by merger of four British airline companies - became BOAC in 1940)
19 1925 
  • 1925—1925: Britain returns to gold standard
  • 1925—1925: The mechanical television a precursor to the modern television, invented by John Logie Baird
  • 18 Jul 1925—18 Jul 1925: Adolf Hitler publishes Mein Kampf
20 1926 
  • 1926—1926: Walt Disney arrives in Hollywood
  • 1926—1926: Kodak produces 16mm movie film
  • 1926—1926: Adoption of children is legalised in Britain
  • 1926—1926: First public demonstration of television (TV) by John Logie Baird
  • 1926—1926: Robert H. Goddard invents liquid-fueled rockets
  • 21 Apr 1926—21 Apr 1926: Princess Elizabeth born
  • 3 May 1926—3 May 1926: General Strike begins. Lasts until May 12 (mine workers for 6 months more)
  • 31 Oct 1926—31 Oct 1926: Death of Harry Houdini
21 1927 
  • 1927—1927: Release of the first 'talkie' film (The Jazz Singer)
  • 1927—1927: Eduard Haas III invents PEZ candy
  • 1927—1927: JWA Morrison invents the first quartz crystal watch
  • 1927—1927: Philo Taylor Farnsworth invents a complete electronic TV system
  • 1927—1927: Technicolor invented
  • 1927—1927: Erik Rotheim patents an aerosol can
  • 1927—1927: Warren Marrison developed the first quartz clock
  • 1927—1927: Philip Drinker invents the iron lung
  • 7 Jan 1927—7 Jan 1927: First transatlantic telephone call - New York City to London
  • 22 Jan 1927—22 Jan 1927: First football broadcast by BBC (Arsenal v Sheffield United at Highbury)
  • 1 May 1927—1 May 1927: First cooked meals on a scheduled flight introduced by Imperial Airways from London to Paris
  • 20 May 1927—20 May 1927: Lindbergh makes solo flight across the Atlantic, in 33? hours
  • 31 May 1927—31 May 1927: Last Ford Model T rolls off assembly line
  • 24 Jul 1927—24 Jul 1927: The Menin Gate war memorial unveiled at Ypres
22 1928 
  • 1928—1928: Women over 21 get vote in Britain - same qualification for both sexes
  • 1928—1928: Scottish biologist Alexander Fleming discovers penicillin
  • 1928—1928: Bubble gum invented by Walter E. Diemer
  • 1928—1928: Jacob Schick patented the electric shaver
  • 26 Apr 1928—26 Apr 1928: Madame Tussauds opens in London
  • 15 Sep 1928—15 Sep 1928: Sir Alexander Fleming accidentally discovers penicillin (results published 1929)
23 1929 
  • 1929—1929: BBC begins experimental TV transmissions
  • 1929—1929: 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
  • 1929—1929: Abolition of Poor Law system in Britain
  • 1929—1939: The Great Depression
    Canada hit hardest by the depression
  • 1929—1929: American, Paul Galvin invents the car radio
  • 1929—1929: Yo-Yo re-invented as an American fad
  • 4 Mar 1929—4 Mar 1933: Herbert Hoover
    Herbert Hoover U.S. Presidency Herbert Hoover U.S. Presidency
  • 3 Apr 1929—4 Mar 1933: Herbert Hoover
  • 10 1929—18 Oct 1929: The 'Persons' Case Decision
    Women are declared 'persons' by the British Privy Council
24 1930 
  • 1930—1930: Youth Hostel Association (YHA) founded in Britain
  • 1930—1930: First Nazis elected to the German Reichstag
  • 1930—1930: Scotch tape patented by 3M engineer, Richard G. Drew
  • 1930—1930: The frozen food process patented by Clarence Birdseye
  • 1930—1930: Wallace Carothers and DuPont Labs invents neoprene
  • 1930—1930: The "differential analyzer", or analog computer invented by Vannevar Bush at MIT in Boston
  • 1930—1930: Frank Whittle and Dr Hans von Ohain both invent a jet engine
  • 30 Jan 1930—30 Jan 1930: Hitler becomes chancellor of Germany
  • 31 Jan 1930—31 Jan 1930: 3M begins marketing Scotch Tape
  • 6 Mar 1930—6 Mar 1930: Clarence Birdseye first marketed frozen peas
  • 5 Oct 1930—5 Oct 1930: R101 airship disaster - British abandons airship construction
25 1931 
  • 1931—1931: Collapse of the German banking system; 3,000 banks there close
  • 1931—1931: Statute of Westminster: British Dominions become independent sovereign states
  • 1931—1931: Statute of Westminster
    The British Dominions are formally recognized by British Parliament
  • 1931—1931: Harold Edgerton invented stop-action photography
  • 1931—1931: Germans Max Knott and Ernst Ruska co-invent the electron microscope
  • 14 Apr 1931—14 Apr 1931: Highway Code first issued
  • 26 Apr 1931—26 Apr 1931: Census: Population - England and Wales; 40 Million; Scotland: 4.8 Million; N Ireland: 1.24 Million (Unfortunately, the census was destroyed by fire in WW2)
  • 21 Oct 1931—21 Oct 1931: National Government formed to deal with economic crisis - Britain comes off gold standard
26 1932 
  • 1932—1932: Sir Thomas Beecham established the London Philharmonic Orchestra
  • 1932—1932: Cockroft and Walton accelerate particles to disintegrate an atomic nucleus
  • 1932—1932: Moseley founds British Union of Fascists
  • 1932—1932: Great Hunger March of unemployed to London
  • 1932—1932: Polaroid photography invented by Edwin Herbert Land
  • 1932—1932: The zoom lens and the light meter invented
  • 1932—1932: Carl C. Magee invents the first parking meter
  • 1932—1932: Karl Jansky invents the radio telescope
  • 3 Feb 1932—2 Mar 1932: 20th Amendment passed by Congress
  • 21 May 1932—21 May 1932: Amelia Earhart first solo nonstop flight across Atlantic by a female pilot
  • 3 Oct 1932—3 Oct 1932: Iraq gains independence from Britain
  • 3 Oct 1932—3 Oct 1932: 'The Times' introduces 'Times New Roman' typeface
27 1933 
28 1934 
  • 1934—1934: Hitler becomes Fuehrer of Germany
  • 1934—1934: Englishmen, Percy Shaw invents cat eyes or roads reflectors
  • 1934—1934: Charles Darrow claims he invented the game Monopoly
  • 1934—1934: Joseph Begun invents the first tape recorder for broadcasting - first magnetic recording
  • 18 Jul 1934—18 Jul 1934: King George V opens Mersey Tunnel
  • 26 Sep 1934—26 Sep 1934: RMS Queen Mary launched
  • 30 Nov 1934—30 Nov 1934: First time a steam locomotive travels at 100 mph ('Flying Scotsman')
29 1935 
  • 1935—1935: Land speed record of 301.13 mph by Malcolm Campbell
  • 1935—1935: London adopts a 'Green Belt' scheme
  • 1935—1935: Newfoundland census
    Census taken in Newfoundland
  • 1935—1935: Wallace Carothers and DuPont Labs invents nylon ( polymer 6.6.)
  • 1935—1935: The first canned beer made
  • 1935—1935: Robert Watson-Watt patented radar
  • 28 Feb 1935—28 Feb 1935: 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)
  • 12 Mar 1935—12 Mar 1935: Hore-Belisha introduces pedestrian crossings and speed limits for built-up areas in Britain
  • 1 Jun 1935—1 Jun 1935: Voluntary driving tests introduced in UK
  • 30 Jul 1935—30 Jul 1935: Penguin paperbacks launched
30 1936 
  • 1936—1936: Jet engine first tested
  • 1936—1936: Bell Labs invents the voice recognition machine
  • 1936—1936: Samuel Colt patents the Colt revolver
  • 20 Jan 1936—20 Jan 1936: George V dies
  • 5 May 1936—5 May 1936: First flight of a Spitfire
  • 24 Jul 1936—24 Jul 1936: 'Speaking clock' service starts in UK
  • 2 Nov 1936—2 Nov 1936: British Broadcasting Corporation initiates the BBC Television Service, world's first public TV transmission
  • 12 Nov 1936—6 Feb 1952: George VI
    House of Windsor (name adopted Jul 17, 1917): 2nd son of George V, Duke of York; married Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon
  • 30 Nov 1936—30 Nov 1936: Crystal Palace destroyed by fire
  • 5 Dec 1936—5 Dec 1936: Edward VIII abdicates (announced Dec 10) - popular carol that Christmas: 'Hark the Herald Angels sing Mrs Simpson's got our King'
  • 1 1936—11 Dec 1936: Edward VIII
    House of Windsor (name adopted Jul 17, 1917): Eldest son of George V
31 1937 
  • 1937—1937: Billy Butlin opens his first holiday camp
  • 1937—1937: '999' emergency telephone call facility starts in London
  • 1937—1937: Chester F. Carlson invents the photocopier
  • 1937—1937: The first jet engine is built
  • 12 Apr 1937—12 Apr 1937: Frank Whittle ground-tests the first jet engine designed to power an aircraft
  • 12 May 1937—12 May 1937: Coronation of King George VI
  • 28 May 1937—28 May 1937: Neville Chamberlain becomes Prime Minister - policy of appeasement towards Hitler
  • 3 Jun 1937—3 Jun 1937: Duke of Windsor marries Wallis Simpson
  • 4 Dec 1937—4 Dec 1937: 'The Dandy' first published
32 1938 
  • 1938—1938: First practical ball-point pen produced by Hungarian journalist, Lajos Biro
  • 1938—1938: HMS Rodney first ship to be equipped with radar
  • 1938—1938: Principle of paid holidays established in Britain
  • 1938—1938: The ballpoint pen invented by Ladislo Biro
  • 1938—1938: Strobe lighting invented
  • 1938—1938: Roy J. Plunkett invented tetrafluoroethylene polymers or Teflon
  • 1938—1938: Nescafe or freeze-dried coffee invented
  • 1938—1938: The first working turboprop engine
  • 12 Mar 1938—12 Mar 1938: Germany invades and annexes Austria
  • 3 Jul 1938—3 Jul 1938: 'Mallard' reaches 126 mph (203 km/h); still world record for a steam locomotive
  • 27 Sep 1938—27 Sep 1938: Largest ocean liner ever built, Queen Elizabeth launched on Clydebank
  • 29 Sep 1938—29 Sep 1938: Chamberlain visits Hitler in Munich - promises 'peace in our time'
  • 30 Oct 1938—30 Oct 1938: Orson Welles broadcasts his radio play of HG Wells 'The War of the Worlds', causing panic in the USA
33 1939 
  • 1939—1939: Coldest winter in Britain since 1894, though this could not be publicised at the time
  • 1939—1939: Start of evacuation of women and children from London
  • 1939—1939: Germany annexes Czechoslovakia
  • 1939—1945: World War II
    huge involvement of Canadian supplies and troops
  • 1939—1939: Igor Sikorsky invents the first successful helicopter
  • 1939—1939: The electron microscope invented
  • 9 Jan 1939—2 Sep 1945: World War II
    Axis Powers: Germany, Italy, Japan vs. Major Allied Powers: United States, Great Britain, France, and Russia
  • 12 Jul 1939—7 Dec 1939: Troops leave Canada
    First group of Canadian troops sail to Britain -- 7,400 on 5 ships
  • 1 Sep 1939—1 Sep 1939: Germany invades Poland
  • 3 Sep 1939—3 Sep 1939: Britain and France declare war on Germany
  • 6 Sep 1939—6 Sep 1939: First air-raid on Britain
  • 11 Sep 1939—11 Sep 1939: British Expeditionary Force (BEF) sent to France
  • 9 Oct 1939—10 Sep 1939: Canada declares war on Germany
  • 14 Oct 1939—14 Oct 1939: HMS Royal Oak sunk in Scapa Flow with loss of 810 lives
  • 7 Dec 1939—7 Dec 1939: 'First flight' of Canadian troops sail for Britain - 7,400 men on 5 ships
  • 17 Dec 1939—17 Dec 1939: 'Admiral Graf Spee' scuttled outside Montevideo
34 1940 
  • 1940—1940: Québec permits women to vote
    The last province to give women the right to vote
  • 1940—1946: National Registration
    Compulsory registration of all persons 16 years of age or older
  • 1940—1945: German occupation of Denmark
  • 1940—1940: Dr William Reich invents the orgone accumulator
  • 1940—1940: Peter Goldmark invents modern color television system
  • 1940—1940: Karl Pabst invents the jeep
  • 1 Apr 1940—1 Apr 1940: BOAC starts operations, replacing Imperial and British Airways Ltd
  • 11 May 1940—11 May 1940: National Government formed under Churchill
  • 13 May 1940—13 May 1940: Germany invades France
  • 27 May 1940—27 May 1940: Start of the evacuation of the British Army at Dunkirk (27 May - 4 Jun)
  • 25 Jun 1940—25 Jun 1940: Fall of France to Germany
  • 7 Sep 1940—7 Sep 1940: Germany launches bombing blitz on Britain, the first of 57 consecutive nights of bombing
  • 15 Sep 1940—15 Sep 1940: Battle of Britain: massive waves of German air attacks decisively repulsed by the RAF - Hitler postpones invasion of Britain
  • 14 Nov 1940—14 Nov 1940: Coventry heavily bombed and the Cathedral almost completely destroyed
35 1941 
  • 1941—1941: First use of antibiotics
  • 1941—1941: Bailey invents his portable military bridge
  • 1941—1941: First British jet aircraft flies, based on work of Whittle
  • 1941—1941: Britain introduces severe rationing
  • 1941—1941: Konrad Zuse's Z3, the first computer controlled by software
  • 1941—1941: Aerosol spray cans invented by American inventors, Lyle David Goodloe and W.N. Sullivan
  • 1941—1941: Enrico Fermi invents the neutronic reactor
  • 12 1941—Dec 1941: Canadian forces defend south coast of England
  • 10 May 1941—10 May 1941: Rudolf Hess flies to Scotland
  • 27 May 1941—27 May 1941: 'Bismark' sunk
  • 22 Jun 1941—22 Jun 1941: Germany invades Russia (Operation Barbarossa)
  • 1 Jul 1941—1 Jul 1941: First Canadian armoured regiments arrive in Britain
  • 12 Jul 1941—7 Dec 1941: Canada declares war on Japan
    Attack on Pearl Harbour causes Canada to declare war on Japan
  • Dec 1941—Dec 1941: 'Manhattan Project' of nuclear research begins in America
  • Dec 1941—Dec 1941: Canadian forces given operation role in defending south coast of England
  • 7 Dec 1941—7 Dec 1941: Japan attackes US fleet at Pearl Harbour
  • 7 Dec 1941—2 Sep 1945: World War II
    World War II World War II
  • 8 Dec 1941—8 Dec 1941: USA enters WWII
  • 24 Dec 1941—24 Dec 1941: Hong Kong falls to the Japanese
  • 6 1941—14 Jun 1941: Census of Canada
    Census date changed to prevent clash with Victory Bond campaign. Sampling is initiated
36 1942 
  • 1942—1942: Gilbert Murray founds Oxfam
  • 1942—1942: Invention of world's first programmable computer by Alan Turing in co-operation with Max Neumann - used to crack German codes
  • 1942—1942: John Atanasoff and Clifford Berry built the first electronic digital computer
  • 1942—1942: Max Mueller designs a turboprop engine
  • 30 May 1942—30 May 1942: Over 1,000 allied bombers raid Cologne
  • 4 Jun 1942—4 Jun 1942: Battle of Midway
  • 19 Aug 1942—19 Aug 1942: Abortive raid on Dieppe, largely by Canadian troops
  • 6 Sep 1942—6 Sep 1942: Germans defeated at Stalingrad
  • 3 Oct 1942—3 Oct 1942: First successful launch of V2 rocket in Germany - first man-made object to reach space
  • 23 Oct 1942—23 Oct 1942: Battle of El Alamein - Montgomery defeats Rommel
  • 2 Dec 1942—2 Dec 1942: 'Manhattan Project' - a team led by Enrico Fermi initiates the first self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction
37 1943 
  • 1943—1943: Round-the-clock bombing of Germany begins
  • 1943—1943: Synthetic rubber invented
  • 1943—1943: Richard James invents the slinky
  • 1943—1943: James Wright invent silly putty
  • 1943—1943: Swiss chemist, Albert Hofmann discovered the hallucinogenic properties of LSD
  • 1943—1943: Emile Gagnan and Jacques Cousteau invent the aqualung
  • 16 May 1943—16 May 1943: 'Dam Buster' raids on Ruhr dams by RAF
  • 24 Jul 1943—24 Jul 1943: Allies invade Italy - Benito Mussolini resigns as Italian Dictator, 24 July
38 1944 
  • 1944—1944: The kidney dialysis machine invented by Willem Kolff
  • 1944—1944: Synthetic cortisone invented by Percy Lavon Julian
  • 6 Apr 1944—6 Apr 1944: PAYE income tax begins
  • 4 Jun 1944—4 Jun 1944: Allies enter Rome
  • 6 Jun 1944—6 Jun 1944: D-Day invasion of Normandy
  • 12 Jun 1944—12 Jun 1944: First V1 flying bombs hit London
  • 8 Sep 1944—8 Sep 1944: First V2 rocket bombs hit London
  • 11 Sep 1944—11 Sep 1944: Allies enter Germany
  • 16 Dec 1944—16 Dec 1944: Battle of the Bulge: German counter-offensive
39 1945 
  • 1945—1945: Newfoundland census
    Census taken in Newfoundland
  • 1945—1945: Vannevar Bush proposes hypertext
  • 1945—1945: The atomic bomb invented
  • 4 Feb 1945—4 Feb 1945: Yalta Conference between Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin
  • 29 Mar 1945—29 Mar 1945: Last V1 flying bomb attack
  • 12 Apr 1945—20 Jan 1953: Harry S. Truman
    Harry S. Truman U.S. Presidency Harry S. Truman U.S. Presidency
  • 25 Apr 1945—25 Apr 1945: Berlin surrounded by Russian troops
  • 30 Apr 1945—30 Apr 1945: Hitler commits suicide
  • 8 May 1945—8 May 1945: VE Day (Victory in Europe)
  • 9 May 1945—9 May 1945: Channel Islands liberated
  • 26 Jun 1945—26 Jun 1945: UN Charter signed in San Francisco
  • 16 Jul 1945—16 Jul 1945: 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)
  • 26 Jul 1945—26 Jul 1945: Labour win UK General Election - Churchill out of office
  • 29 Jul 1945—29 Jul 1945: BBC Light Programme starts
  • 6 Aug 1945—6 Aug 1945: Atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima
  • 9 Aug 1945—9 Aug 1945: Atomic bomb dropped on Nagasaki
  • 15 Aug 1945—15 Aug 1945: VJ Day (Victory in Japan)
  • 2 Sep 1945—2 Sep 1945: Japanese surrender signed aboard USS Missouri
  • 24 Oct 1945—24 Oct 1945: United Nations Organisation comes into existence
  • 4 Nov 1945—4 Nov 1945: UNESCO founded
  • 4 Dec 1945—20 Jan 1953: Harry Truman
  • 6 1945—26 Jun 1945: Canada joins the United Nations
40 1946 
  • 1946—1946: Alistair Cooke starts his regular 'Letter from America' on BBC radio - until 2004
  • 1946—1946: Transition to National Health Service starts in Britain (came into being 5th July 1948)
  • 1946—1946: The microwave oven invented by Percy Spencer
  • 1 Jan 1946—1 Jan 1946: First civillian flight from Heathrow Airport
  • 7 Jan 1946—1 Jul 1946: Canadian Citizenship Act
    Parliament proclaims an act providing for the creation of Canadian citizens to take effect 1 January 1947
  • 1 Mar 1946—1 Mar 1946: Bank of England nationalised
41 1947 
  • 1947—1947: First British nuclear reactor developed
  • 1947—1947: Most severe winter in Britain for 53 years at start of the year - heavy snow and much flooding later
  • 1947—1947: British/Hungarian scientist, Dennis Gabor, developed the theory of holography
  • 1947—1947: Mobile phones first invented
  • 1947—1947: Bardeen, Brattain, and Shockley invent the transistor
  • 1947—1947: Earl Silas Tupper patented the Tupperware seal
  • 1 Jan 1947—1 Jan 1947: Coal Mines nationalised
  • 23 Feb 1947—23 Feb 1947: International Organization for Standardization (ISO) founded
  • 1 Mar 1947—1 Mar 1947: International Monetary Fund begins financial operations
  • 1 Apr 1947—1 Apr 1947: School leaving age raised to 15 in Britain
  • 26 Oct 1947—26 Oct 1947: British military occupation ends in Iraq
  • 20 Nov 1947—20 Nov 1947: Marriage of Princess Elizabeth (later Elizabeth II) and Philip Mountbatten in Westminster Abbey
  • 3 1947—21 Mar 1947: 22nd Amendment passed by Congress
42 1948 
  • 1948—1948: Transistor radio invented
  • 1948—1948: Long-playing record (LP) invented by Goldmark
  • 1948—1948: British Citizenship Act : all Commonwealth citizens qualify for British passports
  • 1948—1948: The Frisbee® invented by Walter Frederick Morrison and Warren Franscioni
  • 1948—1948: Velcro ® invented by George de Mestral
  • 1948—1948: Robert Hope-Jones invented the Wurlitzer jukebox
  • 1 Jan 1948—1 Jan 1948: British Railways nationalised
  • 5 Jul 1948—5 Jul 1948: National Health Service (NHS) begins in Britain
  • 29 Jul 1948—29 Jul 1948: London Olympics begin
43 1949 
  • 1949—1949: De Haviland produces the Comet - first jet airliner
  • 1949—1949: Maiden flight of the Bristol Brabazon (broken up in 1953 for scrap)
  • 1949—1949: Cake mix invented
  • 15 Mar 1949—15 Mar 1949: Clothes rationing ends in Britain
  • 4 Apr 1949—4 Apr 1949: Twelve nations sign The North Atlantic Treaty creating NATO
  • 4 Apr 1949—4 Apr 1949: Canada joins NATO
  • 3 1949—31 Mar 1949: Newfoundland joins Canada
    Newfoundland becomes Canada's tenth province
44 1950 
  • 1950—1950: The first credit card (Diners) invented by Ralph Schneider
  • 4 1950—30 Jun 1950: Winnipeg flood
    More than 100,000 people forced from their homes in Winnipeg, Manitoba, by the Red River flooding
  • 19 May 1950—19 May 1950: Points rationing ends in Britain
  • 26 May 1950—26 May 1950: Petrol rationing ends in Britain
  • 25 Jun 1950—27 Jul 1953: Korean War
    Korean War Korean War
  • 11 Jul 1950—11 Jul 1950: 'Andy Pandy' first seen on BBC TV
  • 9 Sep 1950—9 Sep 1950: Soap rationing ends in Britain
  • 28 Dec 1950—28 Dec 1950: The Peak District becomes the Britain's first National Park
  • 6 1950—27 Jul 1953: Korean War
    As part of the United Nations, Canadian troops participate in the Korean War
  • 6 1950—27 Jul 1953: Korean War
    United States (as part of the United Nations) and South Korea vs. North Korea and Communist China
45 1951 
  • 1951—1951: Super glue invented
  • 1951—1951: Power steering invented by Francis W. Davis
  • 1951—1951: Charles Ginsburg invented the first videotape recorder (VTR)
  • 3 May 1951—3 May 1951: Festival of Britain and Royal Festival Hall open on South Bank, London
  • 28 May 1951—28 May 1951: First Goon Show broadcast
  • 20 Dec 1951—20 Dec 1951: Electricity first produced by nuclear power, from Experimental Breeder Reactor
  • 2 1951—27 Feb 1951: 22nd Amendment ratified
46 1952 
  • 1952—1952: Bonn Convention: Britain, France and USA end their occupation of West Germany
  • 1952—1952: Radioactive carbon used for dating prehistoric objects
  • 1952—1952: Contraceptive pill invented
  • 1952—1952: Britain explodes her first atomic bomb, in Australia
  • 1952—1952: Mr. Potato Head patented
  • 1952—1952: The first patent for bar code (US Patent #2,612,994) issued to inventors Joseph Woodland and Bernard Silver
  • 1952—1952: The first diet soft drink sold
  • 1952—1952: Edward Teller and team build the hydrogen bomb
  • 6 Feb 1952—6 Feb 1952: King George VI dies
  • 21 Feb 1952—21 Feb 1952: Identity Cards abolished in Britain
  • 2 May 1952—2 May 1952: First commercial jet airliner service launched, by BOACComet between London and Johannesburg
  • 2 Jun 1952—2004: Elizabeth II
    House of Windsor (name adopted Jul 17, 1917):Elder daughter of George VI, acceded Feb 6, 1952
  • 5 Jul 1952—5 Jul 1952: Last tram runs in London (Woolwich to New Cross)
  • 16 Aug 1952—16 Aug 1952: Lynmouth (North Devon) flood disaster
  • 6 Sep 1952—6 Sep 1952: DH110 crashes at Farnborough Air Show, 26 killed
  • 3 Oct 1952—3 Oct 1952: End of tea rationing in Britain
  • 1 Nov 1952—1 Nov 1952: 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.
  • 25 Nov 1952—25 Nov 1952: Agatha Christie's 'The Mousetrap' opens in London
  • 4 Dec 1952—4 Dec 1952: Great smog hits London
47 1953 
48 1954 
  • 1954—1954: First transistor radios sold
  • 1954—1954: Routemaster bus starts operating in London
  • 1954—1954: First comprehensive school opens in London
  • 1954—1954: Oral contraceptives invented
  • 1954—1954: The first nonstick pan produced
  • 1954—1954: The solar cell invented by Chaplin, Fuller and Pearson
  • 1954—1954: Ray Kroc started McDonalds
  • 6 May 1954—6 May 1954: First sub 4 minute mile (Roger Bannister, 3 mins 59.4 secs)
  • 3 Jul 1954—3 Jul 1954: Food rationing officially ends in Britain
  • 5 Jul 1954—5 Jul 1954: BBC broadcasts its first television news bulletin
  • 30 Sep 1954—30 Sep 1954: First atomic powered sumbmarine USS Nautilus commissioned
  • 10 1954—15 Oct 1954: Hurricane Hazel
    Southwestern Ontario, Toronto and area, hit by Hurricane Hazel -- 81 died, 4,000 homeless
49 1955 
  • 1955—1955: 'Mole' self-grip wrench patented by Thomas Coughtrie of Mole & Sons
  • 1955—1955: Tetracycline invented
  • 1955—1955: Optic fiber invented
  • 27 Jul 1955—27 Jul 1955: Jul 27: Allied occupation of Austria (after WW2) ends
  • 22 Sep 1955—22 Sep 1955: Commercial TV starts in Britain
50 1956 
  • 1956—1956: Britain constructs world's first large-scale nuclear power station in Cumberland
  • 1956—1956: The first computer hard disk used
  • 1956—1956: The hovercraft invented by Christopher Cockerell
  • 1956—1956: Bette Nesmith Graham invented "Mistake Out," later renamed Liquid Paper, to paint over mistakes made with a typewriter
  • 6 Jan 1956—1 Jun 1956: First nation-wide 5-year census
    Population-count censuses initiated
  • 11 Jan 1956—1 Nov 1956: Springhill Mine explosion
    39 miners killed from explosion in mine at Springhill, Nova Scotia
  • 1 Mar 1956—1 Mar 1956: Radiotelephony spelling alphabet introduced (Alpha, Bravo, etc)
  • 17 Apr 1956—17 Apr 1956: Premium Bonds first launched - first prizes drawn on 1 Jun 1957
  • 3 Jun 1956—3 Jun 1956: 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)
  • 31 Oct 1956—31 Oct 1956: Britain and France invade Suez
51 1957 
  • 1957—1957: Helvetica typeface developed (in Switzerland)
  • 1957—1957: Britain introduces parking meters
  • 1957—1957: Fortran (computer language) invented
  • 11 Jan 1957—11 Jan 1957: Harold Macmillan becomes Prime Minister
  • 14 May 1957—14 May 1957: Post-Suez petrol rationing ends
  • 15 May 1957—15 May 1957: Britain explodes her first hydrogen bomb, at Christmas Island
  • 25 May 1957—25 May 1957: Treaty of Rome to create European Economic Community (EEC) of six countries: France, West Germany, Italy, Belgium, Holland and Luxembourg - became operational Jan 1958
  • 4 Dec 1957—4 Dec 1957: Lewisham rail disaster - 90 killed as two trains collide in thick fog and a viaduct collapses on top of them
  • 25 Dec 1957—25 Dec 1957: Queen's first Christmas TV broadcast
52 1958 
  • 1958—1958: USA begins to produce Inter-Continental Ballistic Missiles (ICBMs)
  • 1958—1958: Computers begin to be used in research, industry and commerce
  • 1958—1958: Easter: First anti-nuclear protest march to Aldermaston (emergence of CND)
  • 1958—1958: The modem invented
  • 1958—1958: Gordon Gould invents the laser
  • 1958—1958: The Hula Hoop invented by Richard Knerr and Arthur "Spud" Melin
  • 1958—1958: The integrated circuit invented by Jack Kilby and Robert Noyce
  • 13 May 1958—13 May 1958: Velcro trade mark registered
  • 26 Jul 1958—26 Jul 1958: Prince Charles' Investiture as 'Prince of Wales'
  • 5 Dec 1958—5 Dec 1958: Preston by-pass opens - UK's first stretch of motorway
  • 5 Dec 1958—5 Dec 1958: Inauguration of Subscriber Trunk Dialling (STD) in Britain (completed in 1979)
  • 10 1958—23 Oct 1958: Springhill Mine disaster
    74 miners killed from third major explosion in mine at Springhill, Nova Scotia
53 1959 
  • 1959—1959: The internal pacemaker invented by Wilson Greatbatch
  • 1959—1959: Barbie Doll invented
  • 1959—1959: Jack Kilby and Robert Noyce both invent the microchip
  • 3 Feb 1959—3 Feb 1959: 'The Day The Music Died' - plane crash kills Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and The Big Bopper
  • 17 Feb 1959—17 Feb 1959: Vanguard 2 satellite launched - first to measure cloud-cover distribution
  • 1 Mar 1959—3 Jan 1959: Alaska
    49th State
  • 24 May 1959—24 May 1959: Empire Day becomes Commonwealth Day
  • Aug 1959—Aug 1959: BMC Mini car launched
  • 26 Sep 1959—30 Apr 1975: Vietnam War
    Vietnam War Vietnam War
  • 3 Oct 1959—3 Oct 1959: Postcodes introduced in Britain
  • 1 Nov 1959—1 Nov 1959: First section of M1 motorway opened
  • 8 1959—21 Aug 1959: Hawaii
    50th State
  • 6 1959—26 Jun 1959: St. Lawrence seaway opens
    Ocean vessels can now sail as far inland as Lakes Michigan and Superior
54 1960 
  • 1960—1975: Vietnam War
    United States and South Vietnam vs North Vietnam
  • 1960—1960: Canada's Bill of Rights
    Bans discrimination by federal agencies on grounds of race, national origin, colour, religion or sex -- permits Indians to vote
  • 1960—1960: The halogen lamp invented
  • 17 Mar 1960—17 Mar 1960: New ?1 notes issued by Bank of England
  • 18 Mar 1960—18 Mar 1960: Last steam locomotive of British Railways named
  • 21 Jul 1960—21 Jul 1960: 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
  • 12 Aug 1960—12 Aug 1960: Echo I, the first (passive) communications satellite, launched
  • 12 Sep 1960—12 Sep 1960: MoT tests on motor vehicles introduced
  • 1 Oct 1960—1 Oct 1960: HMS 'Dreadnought' nuclear submarine launched
  • 2 Nov 1960—2 Nov 1960: Penguin Books found not guilty of obscenity in the 'Lady Chatterley's Lover' case
  • 6 1960—16 Jun 1960: 23rd Amendment passed by Congress
55 1961 
  • 1961—1961: Valium invented
  • 1961—1961: The nondairy creamer invented
  • 1 Jan 1961—1 Jan 1961: Farthing ceases to be legal tender in UK
  • 20 Jan 1961—20 Nov 1963: John F. Kennedy
    John F. Kennedy U.S. Presidency John F. Kennedy U.S. Presidency
  • 13 Mar 1961—13 Mar 1961: Black & White ?5 notes cease to be legal tender
  • 14 Mar 1961—14 Mar 1961: New English Bible (New Testament) published
  • 1 May 1961—1 May 1961: Betting shops legal in Britain
  • 4 1961—19 Apr 1961: Bay of Pigs Invasion
    United States vs Cuba
  • 1 1961—22 Nov 1963: John F. Kennedy
    John F. Kennedy assassinated by Lee Harvey Oswald in Dallas, Texas
  • 3 1961—29 Mar 1961: 23rd Amendment ratified
56 1962 
  • 1962—1962: Britain and France agree to construct 'Concorde'
  • 1962—1962: Thalidomide withdrawn after it causes deformities in babies
  • 1962—1962: Britain passes Commonwealth Immigrants Act to control immigration
  • 1962—1962: The audio cassette invented
  • 1962—1962: The fiber-tip pen invented by Yukio Horie
  • 1962—1962: Spacewar, the first computer video game invented
  • 1962—1962: Dow Corp invents silicone breast implants
  • 7 Jan 1962—1 Jul 1962: Medicare introduced in Saskatchewan
    Saskatchewan sets medicare prototype for all provinces
  • 9 Mar 1962—3 Sep 1962: Trans-Canada Highway officially opens
  • 25 May 1962—25 May 1962: Consecration of new Coventry Cathedral (old destroyed in WW2 blitz)
  • 15 Jun 1962—15 Jun 1962: First nuclear generated electricity to supplied National Grid (from Berkeley Glos)
  • Jul 1962—Jul 1962: First passenger-carrying hovercraft enters service, along the North Wales Coast from Moreton to Rhyl
  • 10 Jul 1962—10 Jul 1962: First TV transmission between US and Europe (Telstar) - first live broadcast on 23 Jul
  • 24 Oct 1962—24 Oct 1962: Cuba missile crisis - brink of nuclear war
  • 8 1962—27 Aug 1962: 24th Amendment passed by Congress
57 1963 
  • 1963—1963: France vetoes Britain's entry into EEC
  • 1963—1963: The first videodisc invented
  • Jan 1963—Jan 1963: Cold weather forces cancellation of most football matches (only 4 English First Division matches in the month) - the first 'pools panel' created
  • 27 Mar 1963—27 Mar 1963: Beeching Report on British Railways (the 'Beeching Axe')
  • 1 Aug 1963—1 Aug 1963: Minimum prison age raised to 17
  • 8 Aug 1963—8 Aug 1963: 'Great Train Robbery' on Glasgow to London mail train
  • 17 Sep 1963—17 Sep 1963: Fylingdales (Yorks) early warning system operational
  • 18 Nov 1963—18 Nov 1963: Dartford Tunnel opens
  • 20 Nov 1963—20 Jan 1969: Lyndon B. Johnson
    Lyndon B. Johnson U.S. Presidency Lyndon B. Johnson U.S. Presidency
  • 23 Nov 1963—23 Nov 1963: First episode of 'Dr Who' on BBC TV
  • 11 1963—20 Jan 1969: Lyndon B. Johnson
    Lyndon B. Johnson, vice president under John F. Kennedy, sworn in as president aboard Air Force One upon death of Kennedy.
58 1964 
  • 1964—1964: Acrylic paint invented
  • 1964—1964: Permanent-press fabric invented
  • 1964—1964: BASIC (an early computer language) is invented by John George Kemeny and Tom Kurtz
  • 4 1964—Apr 1964: Social Insurance cards first issued
    Social Insurance cards issued to all Canadian adults -- privacy concerns limit their use for genealogy puposes
  • 1 Jan 1964—1 Jan 1964: First 'Top of the Pops' on BBC TV
  • 9 Apr 1964—9 Apr 1964: First Greater London Council (GLC) election
  • 21 Apr 1964—21 Apr 1964: BBC2 TV launched
  • 22 Aug 1964—22 Aug 1964: 'Match of the Day' starts on BBC2
  • 4 Sep 1964—4 Sep 1964: Forth road bridge opens
  • 3 1964—1993: Canadian troops in Cyprus
    Canadian troops serve in Cyprus as part of the UN peace-keeping force
  • 1 1964—23 Jan 1964: 24th Amendment ratified
59 1965 
  • 1965—1965: Britain enacts first Race Relations Act
  • 1965—1965: Astroturf invented
  • 1965—1965: Soft contact lenses invented
  • 1965—1965: NutraSweet invented
  • 1965—1965: The compact disk invented by James Russell
  • 1965—1965: Kevlar invented by Stephanie Louise Kwolek
  • 7 Feb 1965—7 Feb 1965: First US raids against North Vietnam
  • 7 Apr 1965—7 Apr 1965: Winston Churchill dies
  • 7 Jun 1965—6 Jul 1965: 25th Amendment passed by Congress
  • 1 Aug 1965—1 Aug 1965: TV cigarette advertising banned in Britain
  • 8 Oct 1965—8 Oct 1965: Post Office Tower operational in London
  • 28 Oct 1965—28 Oct 1965: Death penalty for murder suspended in Britain for five-year trial period, then abolished 18 Dec 1969
  • 22 Dec 1965—22 Dec 1965: 70mph speed limit introduced on British roads
  • 2 1965—15 Feb 1965: Canadian Flag changed
    Maple Leaf flag is adopted by Parliament as the official flag of Canada. It replaces the "Canadian" (modified) Red Ensign
60 1966 
  • 1966—1966: Electronic Fuel injection for cars invented
  • 14 Feb 1966—14 Feb 1966: Australia converts from ? to $
  • 3 May 1966—3 May 1966: 'The Times' begins to print news on its front page in place of classified Advertisements
  • 30 Jul 1966—30 Jul 1966: World Cup won by England at Wembley (4-2 in extra time v West Germany)
  • 8 Sep 1966—8 Sep 1966: First Severn road bridge opens
  • 21 Oct 1966—21 Oct 1966: Aberfan disaster - slag heap slip kills 144, incl. 116 children
  • 1 Dec 1966—1 Dec 1966: First Christmas stamps issued in Britain
61 1967 
  • 1967—1967: The first handheld calculator invented
  • 4 Jan 1967—4 Jan 1967: Donald Campbell dies attempting to break his world water speed record on Conniston Water - his body and Bluebird recovered in 2002
  • 18 Mar 1967—18 Mar 1967: 'Torrey Canyon' oil tanker runs aground off Lands End first major oil spill
  • 28 May 1967—28 May 1967: 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
  • 27 Jun 1967—27 Jun 1967: First withdrawal from a cash dispenser (ATM) in Britain - at Enfield branch of Barclays
  • 1 Jul 1967—1 Jul 1967: First colour TV in Britain
  • 14 Aug 1967—14 Aug 1967: Offshore pirate radio stations declared illegal by the UK
  • 20 Sep 1967—20 Sep 1967: 'QE2' launched on Clydebank
  • 27 Sep 1967—27 Sep 1967: 'Queen Mary' arrives Southampton at end of her last transatlantic voyage
  • 30 Sep 1967—30 Sep 1967: BBC Radios 1 2 3 & 4 open first record played on Radio 1 was the controversial 'Flowers in the Rain' by 'The Move'
  • 2 Oct 1967—10 Feb 1967: 25th Amendment ratified
  • 5 Oct 1967—5 Oct 1967: Introduction of majority verdicts in English courts
  • 4 1967—25 Apr 1967: Canadian Armed Forces established
    The Canadian Army, Navy and Air Force unite into one combined military force -- a world first
62 1968 
  • 1968—1968: The computer mouse invented by Douglas Engelbart
  • 1968—1968: The first computer with integrated circuits made
  • 1968—1968: Robert Dennard invented RAM (random access memory)
  • 18 Feb 1968—18 Feb 1968: British Standard Time introduced - Summer Time became permanent but arguments prevailed and Britain reverted to GMT in October 1971
  • 18 Apr 1968—18 Apr 1968: London Bridge sold (and eventually moved to Arizona) - modern London Bridge, built around it as it was demolished, was opened in Mar 1973
  • 20 Apr 1968—20 Apr 1968: Enoch Powell 'Rivers of Blood' speech on immigration
  • 23 Apr 1968—23 Apr 1968: Issue of 5p and 10p decimal coins in Britain
  • 29 May 1968—29 May 1968: Manchester United first English club to win the European Cup
  • 11 Aug 1968—11 Aug 1968: Last steam passenger train service ran in Britain (Carlisle- Liverpool)
  • 16 Sep 1968—16 Sep 1968: Two-tier postal rate starts in Britain
  • 5 Oct 1968—5 Oct 1968: Beginning of disturbances in N Ireland
63 1969 
  • 1969—1969: The arpanet (first internet) invented
  • 1969—1969: The artificial heart invented
  • 1969—1969: The ATM invented
  • 1969—1969: The bar-code scanner is invented
  • 20 Jan 1969—9 Aug 1974: Richard Nixon
    Richard Nixon U.S. Presidency Richard Nixon U.S. Presidency
  • 2 Mar 1969—2 Mar 1969: Maiden flight of 'Concorde', at Toulouse
  • 7 Mar 1969—7 Mar 1969: Victoria Line tube opens in London
  • 17 Apr 1969—17 Apr 1969: Voting age lowered from 21 to 18
  • 2 May 1969—2 May 1969: Maiden voyage of liner Queen Elizabeth 2 (QE2)
  • 31 Jul 1969—31 Jul 1969: Halfpenny ceases to be legal tender in Britain
  • 14 Aug 1969—14 Aug 1969: Civil disturbances in Ulster - Britain sends troops to support civil authorities
  • 7 Sep 1969—7 Sep 1969: First episode of 'Monty Python's Flying Circus' recorded
  • 14 Oct 1969—14 Oct 1969: 50p coin introduced in Britain (reduced in size 1998)
  • 1 1969—9 Aug 1974: Richard Nixon
    Richard M Nixon first president to resign from office. His decision was announced 8 Aug 1974
64 1970 
  • 1970—1970: Boeing 747 (Jumbo jet) goes into service
  • 1970—1970: The daisy-wheel printer invented
  • 1970—1970: The floppy disk invented by Alan Shugart
  • 17 Jun 1970—17 Jun 1970: Decimal postage stamps first issued for sale in Britain
  • 19 Jun 1970—19 Jun 1970: Edward Heath becomes Prime Minister
  • 30 Jul 1970—30 Jul 1970: Damages awarded to Thalidomide victims
  • 19 Sep 1970—19 Sep 1970: First Glastonbury Festival held
  • 20 Nov 1970—20 Nov 1970: Ten shilling note (50p after decimalisation) goes out of circulation in Britain
  • 10 1970—16 Oct 1970: War Measures Act Proclaimed in Quebec
    Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau invokes the War Measures Act to counteract FLQ terrorism
65 1971 
  • 1971—1971: Rolls-Royce declared bankrupt
  • 1971—1971: 'Greenpeace' founded
  • 1971—1971: Sunday becomes the seventh day in the week as UK adopts decision of the International Standardisation Organisation (ISO) to call Monday the first day
  • 1971—1971: Banking and Financial Dealings Act - replaced the Bank Holidays Act of 1871
  • 1971—1971: Census of Canada
    1971 census is the first completed by the householder
  • 1971—1971: Multiculturalism/Bilingualism Policy adopted
    Canada gives equal status to both english and french languages
  • 1971—1971: The dot-matrix printer invented
  • 1971—1971: The food processor invented
  • 1971—1971: The liquid-crystal display (LCD) invented by James Fergason
  • 1971—1971: The microprocessor invented by Faggin, Hoff and Mazor
  • 1971—1971: VCR or videocassette recorder invented
  • 3 Jan 1971—3 Jan 1971: Open University starts
  • 7 Jan 1971—1 Jul 1971: 26th Amendment ratified
  • 15 Feb 1971—15 Feb 1971: Decimalisation of coinage in UK and Republic of Ireland
  • 9 Aug 1971—9 Aug 1971: Internment without trial introduced in N Ireland
  • 28 Oct 1971—28 Oct 1971: UK launches its first (and only) satellite, Prospero
  • 28 Oct 1971—28 Oct 1971: Parliament votes to join Common Market (joined 1973)
  • 3 1971—23 Mar 1971: 26th Amendment passed by Congress
66 1972 
  • 1972—1972: Dutch Elm disease devastates trees across UK
  • 1972—1972: Domestic video cassette recorders introduced
  • 1972—1972: Strict anti-hijack measures introduced internationally, especially at airports
  • 1972—1972: Britain imposes direct rule in Northern Ireland
  • 1972—1972: The word processor invented
  • 1972—1972: Pong (first video game) invented by Nolan Bushnell
  • 1972—1972: Hacky Sack® invented by John Stalberger and Mike Marshall
  • 30 Jan 1972—30 Jan 1972: 'Bloody Sunday' in Derry, Northern Ireland
  • 28 May 1972—28 May 1972: Duke of Windsor (ex-King Edward VIII) dies in Paris
67 1973 
  • 1973—1973: Gene splicing invented
  • 1973—1973: The ethernet (local computer network) invented by Robert Metcalfe and Xerox
  • 1973—1973: Bic invents the disposable lighter
  • 1 Jan 1973—1 Jan 1973: Britain enters EEC Common Market (with Ireland and Denmark)
  • 17 Mar 1973—17 Mar 1973: Modern London Bridge opened by the Queen
  • 1 Apr 1973—1 Apr 1973: VAT introduced in Britain
  • 26 Sep 1973—26 Sep 1973: Concorde makes its first non-stop crossing of the Atlantic in record-breaking time
  • 14 Oct 1973—14 Oct 1973: Marriage of Princess Anne and Captain Mark Phillips in Westminster Abbey
  • 31 Dec 1973—31 Dec 1973: Miners strike and oil crisis precipitate 'three-day week' (till 9 Mar 1974) to conserve power
68 1974 
  • 1974—1974: New counties formed in Britain after re-organisation of some county boundaries
  • 1974—1974: Quebec makes french the official language
    French language priority causes hundreds of businesses and non-french-speaking families to move out of Quebec
  • 1974—1974: The post-it note invented by Arthur Fry
  • 1974—1974: Giorgio Fischer, a gynecologist from Rome, Italy, invents liposuction
  • 1 Jun 1974—1 Jun 1974: Flixborough disaster: explosion at chemical plant kills 28 people
  • 9 Aug 1974—20 Jan 1977: Gerald Ford
    Gerald Ford U.S. Presidency Gerald Ford U.S. Presidency
  • 8 Sep 1974—20 Jan 1977: Gerald Ford
  • 7 Nov 1974—7 Nov 1974: Lord Lucan disappears
  • 21 Nov 1974—21 Nov 1974: Birmingham pub bombings by the IRA
69 1975 
  • 1975—1975: Unemployment in Britain rises above 1M for first time since before WW2
  • 1975—1975: The laser printer invented
  • 1975—1975: The push-through tab on a drink can invented
  • 11 Feb 1975—11 Feb 1975: Margaret Thatcher becomes leader of Conservative party (in opposition)
  • 28 Feb 1975—28 Feb 1975: 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
  • 4 Mar 1975—4 Mar 1975: Charlie Chaplin knighted
  • 5 Jun 1975—5 Jun 1975: UK votes in a referendum to stay in the European Community
  • 29 Oct 1975—29 Oct 1975: 'Yorkshire Ripper' commits his first murder
  • 3 Nov 1975—3 Nov 1975: First North Sea oil comes ashore
  • 29 Nov 1975—29 Nov 1975: The name 'Micro-soft' coined by Bill Gates (Microsoft' became a Trademark the following year)
  • 27 Dec 1975—27 Dec 1975: Equal Pay Act and Sex Discrimination Act come into force
70 1976 
  • 1976—1976: National Theatre opens in London
  • 1976—1976: James Callaghan becomes Prime Minister
  • 1976—1976: Deaths exceeded live births in E&W for first time since records began in 1837
  • 1976—1976: 'Cod War' between Britain and Iceland
  • 1976—1976: The ink-jet printer invented
  • 21 Jan 1976—21 Jan 1976: Concorde enters supersonic passenger service
  • 1 Apr 1976—1 Apr 1976: Apple Computer formed by Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak
  • 6 Aug 1976—6 Aug 1976: Drought Act 1976 comes into force ? the long, hot summer
  • 7 1976—14 Jul 1976: Canada abolishes death penalty
71 1977 
  • 1977—1977: Magnetic resonance imaging invented by Raymond V. Damadian
  • 20 Jan 1977—20 Jan 1981: Jimmy Carter
    Jimmy Carter U.S. Presidency Jimmy Carter U.S. Presidency
  • 2 Mar 1977—2 Mar 1977: 'Red Rum' wins a third Grand National
  • 25 May 1977—25 May 1977: George Lucas' film Star Wars' released
  • 5 Jun 1977—5 Jun 1977: Apple II, the first practical personal computer, goes on sale
  • 7 Jun 1977—7 Jun 1977: Queen's Silver Jubilee celebrations in London
  • 22 Nov 1977—22 Nov 1977: Regular supersonic Concorde service between London and NY inaugurated
  • 1 1977—20 Jan 1981: Jimmy Carter
72 1978 
  • 1978—1978: Dan Bricklin and Bob Frankston invented the VisiCalc spreadsheet
  • 1978—1978: The artificial heart Jarvik-7 invented by Robert K. Jarvik
  • 8 Apr 1978—8 Apr 1978: Regular broadcast of proceedings in Parliament starts
  • 1 May 1978—1 May 1978: First May Day holiday in Britain
  • 25 Jul 1978—25 Jul 1978: World's first 'test tube' baby, Louise Browne born in Oldham
  • 30 Nov 1978—30 Nov 1978: Publication of The Times suspended - industrial relations problems (until 13 Nov 1979)
73 1979 
  • 1979—1979: Cellular phones invented
  • 1979—1979: Cray supercomputer invented by Seymour Cray
  • 1979—1979: Walkman invented
  • 1979—1979: Scott Olson invents roller blades
  • 1 Mar 1979—1 Mar 1979: 32.5% of Scots vote in favor of devolution (40% needed) - Welsh vote overwhelmingly against
  • 30 Mar 1979—30 Mar 1979: Airey Neave killed by a car bomb at Westminster
  • 31 Mar 1979—31 Mar 1979: Withdrawal of the Royal Navy from Malta
  • 4 May 1979—4 May 1979: Margaret Thatcher becomes first woman UK Prime Minister
  • 1 Jul 1979—1 Jul 1979: Sony introduces the Walkman
  • 27 Aug 1979—27 Aug 1979: Lord Mountbatten and 3 others killed in bomb blast off coast of Sligo, Ireland
  • 18 Sep 1979—18 Sep 1979: ILEA votes to abolish corporal punishment in its schools
74 1980 
  • 1980—1980: The hepatitis-B vaccine invented
  • 5 May 1980—5 May 1980: SAS storm Iranian Embassy in London to free hostages
  • 8 Dec 1980—8 Dec 1980: John Lennon assassinated in New York
75 1981 
  • 1981—1981: MS-DOS invented
  • 1981—1981: The first IBM-PC invented
  • 1981—1981: The scanning tunneling microscope invented by Gerd Karl Binnig and Heinrich Rohrer
  • 20 Jan 1981—20 Jan 1989: Ronald Reagan
    Ronald Reagan U.S. Presidency Ronald Reagan U.S. Presidency
  • 25 Jan 1981—25 Jan 1981: Launch of SDP by 'Gang of Four' in Britain
  • 29 Mar 1981—29 Mar 1981: First London marathon run
  • 11 Apr 1981—11 Apr 1981: Brixton riots in South London - 30 other British cities also experience riots
  • 25 Apr 1981—25 Apr 1981: Worst April blizzards this century in Britain
  • 27 Apr 1981—27 Apr 1981: First use of computer mouse (by Xerox PARC system)
  • 29 Jul 1981—29 Jul 1981: Wedding of Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer (divorced 28 Aug 1996)
  • 12 Aug 1981—12 Aug 1981: IBM launches its PC ? starts the general use of personal computers
  • 12 Aug 1981—12 Aug 1981: First IBM PC
    IBM launches the first PC
  • 1 1981—20 Jan 1989: Ronald Reagan
76 1982 
  • 1982—1982: Human growth hormone genetically engineered
  • 26 Jan 1982—26 Jan 1982: Unemployment reached 3 million in Britain (1 in 8 of working population)
  • 5 Feb 1982—5 Feb 1982: Laker Airways collapses
  • 19 Feb 1982—19 Feb 1982: DeLorean Car factory in Belfast goes into receivership
  • 18 Mar 1982—18 Mar 1982: Argentinians raised flag in South Georgia
  • 2 Apr 1982—2 Apr 1982: Argentina invades Falkland (Malvinas) Islands
  • 5 Apr 1982—5 Apr 1982: Royal Navy fleet sails from Portsmouth for Falklands
  • 2 May 1982—2 May 1982: British nuclear submarine HMS Conqueror sinks Argentine cruiser General Belgrano
  • 28 May 1982—28 May 1982: First land battle in Falklands (Goose Green)
  • 14 Jun 1982—14 Jun 1982: Ceasefire in Falklands
  • 21 Jun 1982—21 Jun 1982: Prince William is born
  • 20 Jul 1982—20 Jul 1982: IRA bombings in London (Hyde Park and Regents Park)
  • 19 Sep 1982—19 Sep 1982: Smiley emoticon :-) said to have been used for the first time
  • 11 Oct 1982—11 Oct 1982: Mary Rose' raised in the Solent (sank in 1545)
  • 31 Oct 1982—31 Oct 1982: Thames Barrier raised for first time (some say first public demonstration Nov 7)
  • 2 Nov 1982—2 Nov 1982: Channel 4 TV station launched - first programme 'Countdown'
  • 4 Nov 1982—4 Nov 1982: Lorries up to 38 tonnes allowed on Britain's roads
  • 12 Dec 1982—12 Dec 1982: Women's peace protest at Greenham Common (Cruise missiles arrived 14 Nov 1983)
  • 4 1982—17 Apr 1982: Canadian Constitution Act replaces British North America Act of 1867
    Royal assent given to 'patriate the Constitution' and to create the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms
77 1983 
  • 1983—1983: First female Lord Mayor of London elected (Dame Mary Donaldson)
  • 1983—1983: The Apple Lisa invented
  • 1983—1983: Soft bifocal contact lens invented
  • 1983—1983: First Cabbage Patch Kids sold
  • 1983—1983: Programmer Jaron Lanier first coins the term "virtual reality"
  • 17 Jan 1983—17 Jan 1983: Start of breakfast TV in Britain
  • 31 Jan 1983—31 Jan 1983: Seat belt law comes into force
  • 21 Apr 1983—21 Apr 1983: ?1 coin into circulation in Britain
  • 7 Oct 1983—7 Oct 1983: Plans to abolish GLC announced
  • 26 Nov 1983—26 Nov 1983: Brinks Mat robbery: 6,800 gold bars worth nearly ?26 million are stolen from a vault at Heathrow Airport
  • 10 1983—31 Oct 1983: Grenada
    United States Intervention
78 1984 
  • 1984—1984: The CD-ROM invented
  • 1984—1984: The Apple Macintosh invented
  • 6 Mar 1984—6 Mar 1984: Miners strike begins
  • 17 Apr 1984—17 Apr 1984: Police Constable Yvonne Fletcher killed by gunfire from the Libyan Embassy in London
  • 22 Jun 1984—22 Jun 1984: Inaugural flight of Virgin Atlantic
  • 9 Jul 1984—9 Jul 1984: York Minster struck by lightning - the resulting fire damaged much of the building but the Rose Window' not affected
  • 12 Oct 1984—12 Oct 1984: IRA bomb explodes at Tory conference hotel in Brighton - 4 killed
  • 24 Oct 1984—24 Oct 1984: Miners' strike ? High Court orders sequestration of NUM assets
  • 3 Dec 1984—3 Dec 1984: British Telecom privatised - shares make massive gains on first day's trading
79 1985 
  • 1985—1985: Windows program invented by Microsoft
  • 3 Mar 1985—3 Mar 1985: Miners agree to call off strike
  • 11 Mar 1985—11 Mar 1985: Al Fayed buys Harrods
  • 13 Jul 1985—13 Jul 1985: Live Aid' pop concert raises over ?50M for famine relief
  • 1 Sep 1985—1 Sep 1985: Wreck of Titanic' found (sank 1912)
  • 12 Dec 1985—12 Dec 1985: Plane crash in Gander, Newfoundland
    A DC-8 crashes just after take-off killing 256
80 1986 
  • 1986—1986: Census of Canada
    1986 census asks about activity limitations
  • 1986—1986: A high-temperature super-conductor invented by J. Georg Bednorz and Karl A. Muller
  • 1986—1986: Synthetic skin invented by G. Gregory Gallico, III
  • 1986—1986: Fuji introduced the disposable camera
  • 31 Mar 1986—31 Mar 1986: GLC and 6 metropolitan councils abolished
  • 26 Apr 1986—26 Apr 1986: Chernobyl nuclear accident - radiation reached Britain on 2 Ma
  • 26 May 1986—26 May 1986: The European Community adopts the European flag
  • 23 Jul 1986—23 Jul 1986: Prince Andrew, Duke of York marries Sarah Ferguson at Westminster Abbey
  • 27 Oct 1986—27 Oct 1986: 'Big Bang' (deregulation) of the London Stock Market
  • 29 Oct 1986—29 Oct 1986: M25 motorway ring around London completed
81 1987 
  • 1987—1987: World population crossed the 5 billion mark
  • 1987—1987: The first 3-D video game invented
  • 1987—1987: Disposable contact lenses invented
  • 2 Feb 1987—2 Feb 1987: Terry Waite kidnapped in Beirut (released 17 Nov 1991)
  • 6 Mar 1987—6 Mar 1987: Car ferry Herald of Free Enterprise' capsizes off Zeebrugge - 188 die
  • 1 Jul 1987—1 Jul 1987: Excavation begins on the Channel Tunnel
  • 19 Aug 1987—19 Aug 1987: Hungerford Massacre - Michael Ryan kills sixteen people with a rifle
  • 16 Oct 1987—16 Oct 1987: The 'Hurricane' sweeps southern England
  • 19 Oct 1987—19 Oct 1987: 'Black Monday' in the City of London - Stock Market crash
  • 8 Nov 1987—8 Nov 1987: Enniskillen bombing at a Remembrance Day ceremony
  • 18 Nov 1987—18 Nov 1987: King's Cross fire in London - 31 people die
82 1988 
  • 1988—1988: Digital cellular phones invented
  • 1988—1988: The RU-486 (abortion pill) invented
  • 1988—1988: Doppler radar invented by Christian Andreas Doppler
  • 1988—1988: Prozac® invented at the Eli Lilly Company by inventor Ray Fuller
  • 1988—1988: The first patent for a genetically engineered animal is issued to Harvard University researchers Philip Leder and Timothy Stewar
  • 1988—1988: Ralph Alessio and Fredrik Olsen received a patent for the Indiglo ® nightlight
  • 5 Feb 1988—5 Feb 1988: First 'Red Nose Day' in UK, raising money for charity
  • 6 Jul 1988—6 Jul 1988: Piper Alpha disaster - North Sea oil platform destroyed by explosion and fire killing 167 men
  • 15 Nov 1988—15 Nov 1988: Copyright, Designs and Patents Act - reformulated the statutory basis of copyright law (including performing rights) in the UK
  • 12 Dec 1988—12 Dec 1988: Clapham Junction rail crash kills 35 and injures hundreds after two collisions of three commuter trains
  • 21 Dec 1988—21 Dec 1988: Lockerbie disaster - Pan Am flight 103 explodes over Scotland
83 1989 
  • 1989—1989: Poll Tax implemented in Scotland
  • 1989—1989: High-definition television invented
  • 1 Jan 1989—1 Jan 1989: Free Trade Agreement with U.S.
  • 20 Jan 1989—20 Jan 1993: George H. W. Bush
    George H. W. Bush U.S. Presidency George H. W. Bush U.S. Presidency
  • 14 Feb 1989—14 Feb 1989: The first of 24 satellites of the Global Positioning System is placed into orbit
  • 2 Mar 1989—2 Mar 1989: EU decision to ban production of all chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) by the end of the century
  • 9 Nov 1989—9 Nov 1989: Berlin Wall torn down
  • 21 Nov 1989—21 Nov 1989: Proceedings of House of Commons first televised live
  • 1 1989—20 Jan 1993: George H.W. Bush
  • 12 1989—3 Jan 1990: US Invasion of Panama
    United States vs Panama
84 1990 
  • 1990—1990: The World Wide Web/Internet protocol (HTTP) and WWW language (HTML) created by Tim Berners-Lee
  • 8 Feb 1990—28 Feb 1991: Persian Gulf War
    United States and Coalition Forces vs Iraq
  • 11 Feb 1990—11 Feb 1990: Nelson Mandela released in South Africa
  • 31 Mar 1990—31 Mar 1990: Riots in London against Poll Tax which had been implemented in England & Wales
  • 25 Apr 1990—25 Apr 1990: Hubble space telescope launched
  • 2 Aug 1990—28 Feb 1991: Gulf War
    Gulf War Gulf War
  • 22 Nov 1990—22 Nov 1990: Margaret Thatcher resigns as Conservative party leader (and Prime Minister)
  • 1 Dec 1990—1 Dec 1990: Channel Tunnel excavation teams meet in the middle
85 1991 
  • 1991—1991: The 'Internet' comes into existence
  • 1991—1991: Poll Tax replaced (by Council Tax)
  • 1991—1991: Census of Canada
    1991 census asks about common-law status for the first time
  • 1991—1991: The digital answering machine invented
  • 18 May 1991—18 May 1991: Helen Sharman is first British Astronaut in Space
  • Aug 1991—Aug 1991: Collapse of the Soviet Union
  • 6 Sep 1991—6 Sep 1991: Leningrad renamed St Petersburg
  • 5 Nov 1991—5 Nov 1991: Robert Maxwell drowns at sea
86 1992 
  • 1992—1992: The smart pill invented
  • 7 Feb 1992—7 Feb 1992: European Union formed by The Maastricht Treaty
  • 22 Apr 1992—22 Apr 1992: Betty Boothroyd elected as first female Speaker of the House of Commons
  • 5 Jul 1992—7 May 1992: 27th Amendment ratified
  • 15 Aug 1992—15 Aug 1992: Football Premier League kicks off in England
  • 16 Sep 1992—16 Sep 1992: 'Black Wednesday' as Pound leaves the ERM
  • 20 Nov 1992—20 Nov 1992: Fire breaks out in Windsor Castle causing over ?50 million worth of damage
  • 24 Nov 1992—24 Nov 1992: The Queen describes this year as an 'Annus Horribilis'
87 1993 
  • 1993—1993: Elizabeth II becomes first British Monarch to pay Income Tax
  • 1993—1993: Betty Boothroyd first woman Speaker of the House of Commons (to 2000)
  • 1993—1993: The pentium processor invented
  • 20 Jan 1993—20 Jan 2001: Bill Clinton
    Bill Clinton U.S. Presidency Bill Clinton U.S. Presidency
  • Jul 1993—Jul 1993: Ratification of Maastricht Treaty, established the European Union (EU)
  • 1 1993—20 Jan 2001: William Jefferson Clinton
88 1994 
  • 1994—1994: 15 million people now connected to the Internet
  • 1994—1994: HIV protease inhibitor invented
  • 12 Mar 1994—12 Mar 1994: Church of England ordains its first female priests
  • 6 May 1994—6 May 1994: Channel Tunnel open to traffic
  • 19 Nov 1994—19 Nov 1994: National Lottery starts
89 1995 
  • 1995—1996: Intervention in Bosnia and Herzegovina
    United States as part of NATO acted peacekeepers in former Yugoslavia
  • 1995—1995: The Java computer language invented
  • 1995—1995: DVD (Digital Versatile Disc or Digital Video Disc) invented
  • 26 Feb 1995—26 Feb 1995: Nick Leeson brings down Barings Bank
  • 15 Jul 1995—15 Jul 1995: First item sold on Amazon.com
  • 16 Nov 1995—16 Nov 1995: The Queen Mother has a hip replacement operation at 95 years old
  • 22 Nov 1995—22 Nov 1995: Toy Story' released - first feature-length film created completely using computer-generated imagery
90 1996 
  • 1996—1996: Web TV invented
  • 9 Feb 1996—9 Feb 1996: IRA bomb explodes in London Docklands - ends 17 month ceasefire
  • 13 Mar 1996—13 Mar 1996: Dunblane massacre
  • 15 Jun 1996—15 Jun 1996: IRA bomb explodes in Manchester
  • 5 Jul 1996—5 Jul 1996: Scientists in Scotland clone a sheep (Dolly)
  • 28 Aug 1996—28 Aug 1996: Charles, Prince of Wales and Diana, Princess of Wales are divorced
  • 5 1996—15 May 1996: Census of Canada
    1996 census counts 28,846,761 individuals. Asks about unpaid housework and mode of transportation to work
91 1997 
  • 1997—1997: The gas-powered fuel cell invented
  • 30 Mar 1997—30 Mar 1997: Channel 5 TV begins in UK (launched by the Spice Girls)
  • 1 May 1997—1 May 1997: 'New' Labour landslide victory in Britain (Tony Blair replaces John Major as Prime Minister)
  • 6 May 1997—6 May 1997: Announcement that Bank of England to be made independent of Government control
  • 11 May 1997—11 May 1997: First time a computer beats a master at chess (IBM's Deep Blue v Garry Kasparov)
  • 1 Jul 1997—1 Jul 1997: Hong Kong returned to China
  • 19 Jul 1997—19 Jul 1997: IRA declares a ceasefire
  • 31 Aug 1997—31 Aug 1997: Diana, Princess of Wales killed in car crash in Paris
  • 25 Sep 1997—25 Sep 1997: Land speed record breaks sound barrier for first time
92 1998 
  • 1998—1998: Viagra® invented
  • 10 Apr 1998—10 Apr 1998: Good Friday peace agreement in Northern Ireland - effectively implemented in May 2007
  • 14 Aug 1998—14 Aug 1998: Car bomb explodes in Omagh killing 29 people
  • 27 Sep 1998—27 Sep 1998: 'Google' search engine founded
93 1999 
  • 1999—1999: World population reaches 6 billion
  • 1999—1999: Scientists measure the fastest wind speed ever recorded on earth, 509 km/h(318 mph)
  • 1999—1999: Tekno Bubbles patented
  • 1 Jan 1999—1 Jan 1999: European Monetary Union begins - UK opts out - by the end of the year the Euro has approximately the same value as the US Dollar
  • 4 Jan 1999—1 Apr 1999: Nunavut created in the Arctic
    Canada's third territory, Nunavut, formed from part of the Northwest Territories to give the Inuit people more autonomy
  • 1 Jul 1999—1 Jul 1999: 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
  • 11 Aug 1999—11 Aug 1999: Total eclipse of the sun visible in Devon and Cornwall
  • 11 Nov 1999—11 Nov 1999: Hereditary Peers no longer have right to sit in House of Lords
94 2000 
  • 1 Jan 2000—1 Jan 2000: The year in Britain started with a 'flu bug rather than a millennium bug
  • Mar 2000—Mar 2000: London Eye opens, late but popular
  • 22 Apr 2000—22 Apr 2000: The Big Number Change takes place in the UK - affected telephone dialling codes assigned to Cardiff, Coventry, London, Northern Ireland, Portsmouth and Southampton
  • 4 May 2000—4 May 2000: Ken Livingstone elected first Mayor of London (not to be confused with Lord Mayor of London!)
  • 10 Jun 2000—10 Jun 2000: Millennium footbridge over the Thames opens, but wobbles and is quickly declared dangerous and closed - finally reopened Feb 2002
  • 25 Jul 2000—25 Jul 2000: A chartered Air France Concorde crashes on take-off at Paris with the loss of all lives
  • Sep 2000—Sep 2000: '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 2000—Oct 2000: Heavy rains cause worst flooding since records began (1850s) in many parts of Britain (Oct-Dec)
  • 17 Oct 2000—17 Oct 2000: Derailment at speed on the main London-North eastern line at Hatfield caused by a broken rail
95 2001 
  • 20 Jan 2001—20 Jan 2009: George W. Bush
    George W. Bush U.S. Presidency George W. Bush U.S. Presidency
  • Feb 2001—Feb 2001: Outbreak of Foot & Mouth disease in UK - lasted until October - caused postponement of local and general elections from May to June
  • 12 May 2001—12 May 2001: FA Cup Final played at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff - first time away from Wembley since 1922
  • 7 Jun 2001—7 Jun 2001: General Election - Labour returned again with a large majority, the first time they had succeeded in gaining a second term
  • 1 Sep 2001—1 Sep 2001: New-style number plates on road vehicles in UK [eg. AB 51 ABC]
  • 7 Oct 2001—28 Dec 2014: War in Afghanistan
    War in Afghanistan War in Afghanistan
  • 7 Nov 2001—7 Nov 2001: Concorde flights resume after modifications to tyres and fuel tanks
  • Dec 2001—Dec 2001: UK Christmas stamps self-adhesive for the first time (self-adhesive 1st & 2nd class definitives already on sale)
  • 5 2001—15 May 2001: Census of Canada
    2001 census counts 30,007,094 individuals
  • 1 2001—20 Jan 2009: George W. Bush
96 2002 
  • 1 Jan 2002—1 Jan 2002: 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
  • 22 Feb 2002—22 Feb 2002: Millennium Bridge over the Thames in London finally opens
  • 30 Mar 2002—30 Mar 2002: The Queen Mother dies, aged 101 years
  • 2 Jul 2002—2 Jul 2002: Steve Fossett becomes the first person to fly solo around the world nonstop in a balloon
97 2003 
  • 2003—1 May 2003: Invasion of Iraq
    United States and Coalition Forces vs. Iraq
  • 17 Feb 2003—17 Feb 2003: Start of Congestion Charge for traffic entering central London
  • 20 Mar 2003—18 Dec 2011: Iraq War
    Iraq War Iraq War
  • 10 Aug 2003—10 Aug 2003: Temperatures reach record high of 101 F (38.3 C) in Kent
  • 24 Oct 2003—24 Oct 2003: Last commercial flight of Concorde
  • 22 Nov 2003—22 Nov 2003: England wins Rugby World Cup in nail-biting final in Australia - first northern hemisphere team to do this
  • 13 Dec 2003—13 Dec 2003: Saddam Hussein captured near his home town of Tikrit (executed 30 Dec 2006)
  • 26 Dec 2003—26 Dec 2003: Queen Mary 2 arrives in Southampton from the builder's yard in France 2004
98 2004 
  • 29 Mar 2004—29 Mar 2004: 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
  • 29 Mar 2004—29 Mar 2004: Ireland becomes first country in the world to ban smoking in public places
  • 1 May 2004—1 May 2004: 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
99 2005 
  • 16 Feb 2005—16 Feb 2005: Kyoto Protocol on climate change came into force
  • 18 Feb 2005—18 Feb 2005: Ban on hunting with dogs came into force in England & Wales (had already been a similar law for about two years in Scotland)
  • 6 Jul 2005—6 Jul 2005: London chosen as venue for the 2012 Olympic Games
  • 7 Jul 2005—7 Jul 2005: Suicide bombers attack London for the first time
  • 28 Jul 2005—28 Jul 2005: IRA declare an end to their 'armed struggle'
  • 12 Sep 2005—12 Sep 2005: England regain the 'Ashes' after a gripping Test series (but are whitewashed 5-0 in the return series in Australia 2007)
  • 9 Dec 2005—9 Dec 2005: Last Routemaster bus runs on regular service in London
  • 11 Dec 2005—11 Dec 2005: Explosions at the Buncefield Oil Depot in Hemel Hempstead
  • 21 Dec 2005—21 Dec 2005: Same-sex civil partnerships begin - famously, on this day, between Elton John and David Furnish
100 2006 
  • 1 Mar 2006—1 Mar 2006: Welsh Assembly Building opened by the Queen
  • 26 Mar 2006—26 Mar 2006: Prohibition of smoking in enclosed public places in Scotland
  • 21 Apr 2006—21 Apr 2006: 80th birthday of Queen Elizabeth II
  • 21 Aug 2006—21 Aug 2006: UK postage rates start to be measured by size as well as by weight
101 2007 
  • 1 Jan 2007—1 Jan 2007: Further enlargement of the European Union to include Bulgaria and Romania
  • 19 Feb 2007—19 Feb 2007: Extension of Congestion Charge zone for London, westwards
  • 8 May 2007—8 May 2007: A Northern Ireland Executive formed under the leadership of Ian Paisley (DUP) and Martin McGuinness (Sinn Fein)
  • 1 Jul 2007—1 Jul 2007: Prohibition of smoking in enclosed public places in England (thus completing cover of the entire UK)
  • 14 Nov 2007—14 Nov 2007: First rail service direct from St Pancras to France (replacing that from Waterloo)